The Time Hack Agent Podcast

Real Estate, Motherhood & Mastering Leverage — AJ’s Story

• Reid Schwartz

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In this inspiring episode of the TimeHack Agent Podcast, host Reid Schwartz sits down with AJ  — Army veteran, mom, and powerhouse real estate agent — to talk about how hiring a Virtual Assistant completely changed the way she runs her business and lives her life.

AJ opens up about the pain points of trying to do it all — from managing clients and listings to being a full-time mom — and how bringing on a VA allowed her to reclaim her time, focus on what matters most, and even grow her business faster than ever.

💡 You’ll learn:

  • Why burnout led AJ to finally hire a Virtual Assistant
  • The key tasks she delegated to free up her day
  • How a VA helped her close more listings and sales
  • Tips for realtors who want to scale their business without sacrificing family time

If you’re a real estate agent who feels stretched thin, this episode is your reminder that you don’t have to do it all alone.

🎯 Ready to work smarter, not harder? Visit www.timehackvas.com
 👉 Book your FREE discovery call today: www.timehackva.com

SPEAKER_01:

Hey everyone, welcome to the Time Hack Agent podcast, where we're gonna talk about saving time and building your business through the use of virtual assistants, artificial intelligence, and proven systems. So welcome to the podcast and let's get on with the show. And today I've got Alexandra DeBeduc here as a guest, and uh she is a real estate agent, and we're going to have a little chat and see how she has implemented some of these systems and virtual assistants into growing her business. Welcome to the podcast, Alexandra. So, AJ, tell me a little bit about your uh real estate business, where you're at, and how long you've been in the business.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. Um, so actually, I was in the army for 12 years and then I got pregnant with my daughter, and I was like, I need to switch to something where I'm not leaving my daughter with somebody else for the majority of her life, basically. And so I got into real estate. That was about almost eight years ago, and my entire kind of focus has been how do I make a living for us and still protect my daughter and have her with me like all the time. And so that's kind of the thing that everybody knows about me is that I'm a veteran and a mom, a homeschooling mom that does real estate full time.

SPEAKER_01:

What was the big point? So you have you have a virtual couple virtual assistants that work for you, right?

SPEAKER_00:

I do.

SPEAKER_01:

And and what was the big um pain point? The what was it was that made you say, hey, I need to look for somebody to help me take over some stuff off my plate.

SPEAKER_00:

So we do these masterminds on my real estate team. Um it's owned by Andrew. Uh, you met him, but uh he's always having us focus on our businesses and he'll have us write down everything. It's like an audit, it's a time audit to see what we're doing. And once you get to a certain level, you know, things that you shouldn't be doing because they don't move the needle, so to speak. So you can't expand and grow. You just wind up in this rat race if you don't find a way to expand and do more with less. And so when I was writing down everything, it was like I'm doing a ton of stuff for Sage, my daughter, which obviously that doesn't make me any money. Um, but then I was doing these other tasks too, and I didn't want to offload my time or my responsibilities with my daughter. And so I had to look at other things that were taking up my time. And so it forced me to think outside the box and say, okay, which of these things could be done by someone who doesn't make as much as me, basically.

SPEAKER_01:

And so what what were those specific what was like like the I mean, typically I think people come up with you know, first three or four things are like, okay, these just need to go away. Somebody else needs to do this stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. So a big one was social media in real estate, presence is so huge and communication. And I can create content, but I do create a ton of content all the time. But actually, you know, posting it, you know, when you batch record, um, you still have to go through and post it and come up with, you know, what are the current SEOs, the search engine optimization things? Um, you know, what about communicating back and forth in groups, things like that nature? Um, so social media was a huge thing for me. And then you've got all these different platforms, you've got Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, you know, I got to keep up with all of these. How am I gonna keep up talking to all of these people and talking to my active clients and talking to my daughter and still trying to live life, you know, and do the actual job. So social media was a huge one. And then actual um things within real estate were like scheduling showings and responding to other agents regarding things that were going on during my transactions, you know, that stuff doesn't push the needle either. And that can absolutely be handled by someone who doesn't need to, you know, be on this pay scale. And so uh those were the big things, communicating with agents, social media, and then scheduling showings, which it doesn't sound like a lot, but I think if any realtors are listening to this, they're like, oh yeah, you got to find it on the MLS, you got to see which way the agent wants you to actually schedule it, what time slots are available. You got to coordinate that with your clients. There's a lot that goes into it. And if they're wanting to see between five and seven houses, you also have to coordinate that drive and make sure it makes logistical sense and you have enough time in the property and between the properties and take into account traffic. What if they need a lunch break or a potty break, you know? So there's actually quite a bit. So just passing all of that stuff off opened me up so much. And it also allowed for those like ad hoc tasks that would come up while I was driving. I could just be like, hey, Axel, this just came up, handle it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's I had a lot of those similar situations that uh tasks that just kind of pile up on you and you go, where'd happened to my day? Yeah. And I I love that I use that same term that what rings a register. Because those that's the important thing. I mean, we're I don't know about you, but I am not doing this for the good times and the camaraderie. That's a benefit, but uh, I need a paycheck. What actually rings a registers? And so w which of those things do you think has had the biggest impact? I mean, okay, I gotta I get back in a when you hire a virtual assistant. I mean, people you go for both two things typically grow your business and buy back that time. So if you bought back some of that time where you can spend more time with your daughter and doing things that you want to have that we we work to have a life that you know is supposed to be the goal.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, 100%. And that's something that I wasn't doing at all. Like anyone that knew me was like, my AJ just doesn't stop. And I would get asked all the time, how do you do everything that you do? And I was always like, It's God, like nothing else makes sense because I have the same 24 hours as anybody else, but I'm homeschooling my daughter, doing real estate full time. My house like is not the greatest, but it's it's clean enough. And I cook all of our meals, you know. I'm still doing all the grocery shopping, I'm single, so like it all falls down on me. I don't have a chef, I don't have a cleaning lady, you know, so I have all the domestic stuff and homeschooling my daughter on top of real estate. Um, and so initially this is like God is how I do it. And then um through him, I found out about VAs, you know, um, it kind of landed in my lap um through Andrew, my team lead. And he was like, this is probably something that could really help your business. Um, whenever we did that time audit, and I was like, oh my gosh, this might be absolutely amazing. And not only is my social media VA putting time back into my time bank, but that takes all of this pressure and energy of, oh, there's one more thing I need to take care of. It's off of my shoulders, and I'm able to be present with my daughter. We even we've gone on vacations. That was that was like non-existent before. I just went to Cabo. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Cabo's nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Cabo's amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Well, you you live in a warmer state. I live in Washington State. We go to Cabo, it's uh it's a nice thermal uh temperature change.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah. I don't know how you do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's actually still nice here, it's not so bad, but come winter time. Um we do like to go somewhere south for a little bit of the time because uh not so much the cold the cold's one thing. The other part is that we get down to eight hours of daylight in uh winter solstice. It literally you have eight hours from sunrise to sunset. So I don't know how people handle it. They'd have like office jobs. They literally go in a building before the sun comes up and come out after the sun went down.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, that that would never work for me. I'm a Florida girl. I need I need the sun on the beach.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, I have the sun on the beach, it's just always not that warm. Okay, so uh so what so how many VAs do you have currently?

SPEAKER_00:

So right now I have two. I have my social media manager, and then I also have an executive assistant. So she has she, my social media manager, she has a kind of set routine. She knows everything that she needs to be doing, and she's um constantly doing research on how to do things better. And I give her bonuses when I get new clients based off of social media posts, which actually happens um a lot more frequently than I was anticipating. So, and that just motivates her even more. She's like, Oh, I'm gonna go knock this stuff out and make more money, right? And uh then I have my executive assistant, and I just uh I abuse him basically. Anytime something hits my plate, I'm like, I don't have time for this. I'm like, hey, Axel, and he's so happy to do it. He checks in with me every morning and he's like, these are the tasks that I have lined up. Uh, let me know if you have any ad hoc tasks. And um just throughout, you know, working with him and doing normal realtor life, um, every once in a while something will come up and I'll be like, this is something. If it was just completely off of my plate, that would be great because it doesn't make sense for me to be doing it, um, which is kind of how the showing things started. Um, and so uh now I just tell him, hey, I need you to book me these five showings on this date. And he knows exactly what to do. Like he does all the coordination, he does all the logistics, the travel time, he gets everything into my calendar, gets me all the access codes, everything like that. He knows which documents I'm gonna want at the showing. And I have this uh remarkable pad. Oh my gosh, that thing between like him and the remarkable, it's amazing because he just uploads everything to my remarkable in folders, the way I've trained him that I want them for that showing. And so when I get to the house, I just pull up my remarkable pad and I have all the documents there that I need. No more like shuffling papers, no more like my printer, you know, giving me drama and not wanting to print stuff out. I forgot to buy ink for it, who knows? No internet connection, whatever the case may be, and no like shuffling. Oh man, we saw this house already. I need to go to the next one. Which one are we at? No, it's all right there on my tablet. And if my clients, while we're there, they just happen to like be driving and looking at Zilla or something, like, oh, can we add this one? I'm like, we'll find out. Hey, Axel, find out. Can we add this one? And while we're on the road, he's like, Yep, hey, I got it for you. You're gonna go here at this time. Here's the access instructions. Connect your remarkable to your hotspot, and you'll have the documents there.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's fantastic. I did not know you could do that with a remarkable. That's uh I like that.

SPEAKER_00:

It has been a game changer for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, absolutely. So so what other tools do you use that uh have you found really helpful with working with your virtual assistants to be more productive and yeah, so I am a bit OCD about efficiency.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so I like things really organized. My life isn't very organized, but I try as hard as I can. And so I actually had my social media VA create her own spreadsheet and it's a task tracker because it's hard to know how long a task is taking them. Like, I don't have time to sit there and watch their screens and be like, what tasks are you doing? You know, so I had her create a spreadsheet. It's for every day, it's in 30-minute increments typically, and she just tracks everything that she's doing. And that's super beneficial because not only am I learning how long does the task take, but I can also show when, you know, because they're employees, right? So sometimes our employees slack off and you're gonna be like, hey, quit it. I'm paying you, you know. And so I can see on that spreadsheet, hey, this took way longer than it should have. This never happens again. Like, if you can't figure out a way to do this in less time, let me know. We'll conduct training, and then it will take less time and I can put more on your plate. Um, so the spreadsheet's been really helpful for me because it also shows me what their bandwidth is. Like, can I add more? Or is this it? And if I add more, I'm gonna have to take something off, and or maybe I need to hire a second person. So the spreadsheet's been very helpful there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's that's really good. So is that that's kind of your your KPIs keeping up with what they're accomplishing? Do you have anything you do, like an end-of-week re uh KPI for their different tasks, or just do that spreadsheet?

SPEAKER_00:

So we do the spreadsheet daily, and then at the end of the week, I get a recap which also incorporates the metrics for all the social media. So it'll say, like, has our reach increased or decreased? Has it um, you know, how many reach outs are we getting? She tracks all the people that she has spoken to, like, um, you know, if someone's reached out in some way and she's spoken to them, something like that.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Yeah. So it sounds like you are getting great use out of your virtual assistants. It's made a huge difference.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it's huge. Oh my gosh. Like the amount of time it's like I have, I wouldn't say it's like I have another me, but it it's getting there, which is nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's great. That's great. So uh one of the things I think I'd asked in an email I sent you is do you have a book you would recommend to people?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, actually, I love this book. I read it actually in Cancun when I was at a sphere rocket event, and I don't know if you can see it, but it's The Four Hour Work Week. I'm going backwards by Tim Ferris.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. Excellent, excellent book.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that book. I'll probably read it again.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I read it 15 years ago. I should I should read it again. But my stack of reading material is significant.

SPEAKER_00:

I typically have to do the audiobooks because I just drive so much. I'm like, let me, how can I make this work better?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I've gone to using uh I forgot where I got the idea, but is actually get the audio book and listen to it while reading the book. And so I just do about 20 minutes every morning as part of my morning routine. And it's better comprehension is what uh it's either that or they convince me to buy two copies of every book, one of the two. Probably but I do I do think it helps because we all have I think in this day and age with our you know smartphones and everything, that our attention spans are less. And I've uh I do a lot of podcasts when I'm driving, but I find uh with audio books, I think I my brain drifts in whatever direction sometimes. Or if I sit down in the morning, read the book, put the headphones in, I mark up my books with highlighters and pens and you know color coding. Um I can go back and find those tidbits of information, those golden nuggets. All right. Well, thanks for being on the podcast, AJ. Anything else you'd like to throw in there before we go?

SPEAKER_00:

Um yes, actually, um, because I know that there are folks out there that sometimes they hear that we're hiring these virtual assistants and they look at, you know, the monetary side of it, and they're like, oh my gosh, you're doing these people such a disservice just because they live somewhere else. And I have personally watched my VAs' lives be completely transformed by being able to work with us. So for anyone that is looking at this and they're like, you're taking advantage of somebody or something like that, you go talk to any of our VAs and they're gonna tell you how grateful they are. Because, yes, if we were to pay someone stateside what we pay someone elsewhere, that would be probably taking advantage. Like they can't live on this, but elsewhere they can thrive. I mean, they've got these multi-generational homes and everybody's living together and just trying to survive together, and then they they come work with us, and their life is just transformed for so much better. So it's almost like not only are they helping you and your business and helping you to enjoy your life a bit, but you're also enriching theirs. It's very symbiotic and it feels good. And when I give my VAs a bonus, they're so happy. Like if I would have given that same bonus to someone here in the States, they'd be like, all right, well, that's not even a tank of gas, you know. Um, so I I did want to touch on that because I'm very much a protective person. I told you I was in the army for 12 years and I'm the oldest of five kids, and I'm a mom, and I very much am all about taking care of people. Um, and in no way do I feel like I'm taking advantage of anybody. If anything, I feel like I'm helping God to bless them into a much better situation.

SPEAKER_01:

I love the way you put that. Excellent, excellent. All right. Well, let's wrap this up. And was thanks for having uh being on the show, AJ. And I look forward to uh meeting with you again in the future.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's another wrap on this episode of the Time Hack Agent Podcast. Here is the thing, though. You've just spent the last 20 or so minutes learning how to work smarter and not harder. But knowledge without action is just a form of entertainment. So my challenge to you is what one task are you going to automate or delegate in the next seven days? I want to hear about it. Let me know. Send me something and put a comment down there. Because here's the truth time is limited, it's your most valuable asset. You can't buy it back. When it's gone, it's gone. If you want to know what it feels like to grow and have time for strategy and friends and family, go ahead and take your browser right over to timehackva.com where you can schedule a discovery call with our partners, Spear Rocket Virtual Assistant. Spear Rocket has placed over 10,000 VAs with business owners across the country and around the world. And they will show you how they work and how they can find the right VA for you and your business. So go to TimeHackVA.com and schedule that appointment, and you will not be disappointed. Start buying back some of your time, see what you can do with an extra 10, 20, 30 hours a week with your life and your business and how that can make a difference. Alright, don't wait. Visit timehackva.com. So until next time, keep hacking your time, not your sanity.