What I learned from hiring 100 Overseas Virtual Assistants

Today I looked at my CRM and saw that I have hired 100 people over the last 10 years. My reaction at first was shock, I mean, I knew I have been through some people; but good lord, I never imagined it was that many. Today I have 20 people on my team, leaving 80 people either moved on or didn't work out, is this good or bad? Either way, the experience has changed the way I hire for the better. Here are the most valuable lessons I derived from this experience.‍

I hired 80 people who either moved on or didn't work out, is this good or bad? 

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Hire for work ethic not experience

Most people look at me weird when I tell them that I prefer to hire virtual assistants with no real estate experience. They're perplexed as to why this is until I explain that I do real estate much differently than most other real estate companies. When a new hire from another real estate team joins mine, I have to work twice as hard to get them to unlearn past habits, so someone with no experience is a clean slate from which I can teach my way of doing things. First, I look for the personality type to match the role i'm hiring for. For example, when I'm hiring for an administrative role, I look for someone who is analytical with high follow through. For acquisition roles, I look for a likable people, who make friends fast, but not so much to where they can't close a seller. Starting with the job description, down to the phone interview, I'm trying to weed out opposing personality types. if I am really want to be careful, I'll have them taken personality test , such as the one at Kolbe.com. 

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Create an environment where winners can win over and over again

It was a sad day in South Florida when basketball star Lebron James announced that he was leaving the Miami Heat to go to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Despite what many believed as to why he made this decision, one statement stuck out to me. "He had 2 rings at the time and James felt that the Heat organization had become stagnant and he wanted a fresh start with a new team" Its my belief that James wants to beat Jordans record of 6 rings and he came to a conclusion that Heat success had been stalled for one reason or another. As a winner, James wants to keep winning over and over again. When we hire someone to join our team, we should he asking them what winning looks like - for them! And when we get the answer, we must discipline ourselves not hire them unless we feel you can create an environment for them to get what they truly want.

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Establish realistic quotas and targets

It's my belief that as the owner/manager, you should spend some time doing a task first whenever possible before you hand it off to someone else. To not do this leaves you open for all kinds of issues when you attempt to manage. Your lack of first hand experience will leave you insecure when coaching to get the best results. Also each job should have a quota (a bare minimum acceptable outcome), this is required to keep their job. Then you should establish a target ( a goal that requires the person to stretch themselves). Both your quota and target are metrics you must develop over time as you learn the highs and lows of the role. When someone screws up, always try to learn something from the experience. I once had a closer on my team that closed 10% of the warm leads we send him. I thought that was fantastic until I hired another closer who closed 20% with the same amount of leads. Now that we have quotas and targets in place, low performers fire themselves.

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Keep your sanity & build a hiring funnel

‍Today my team looks nothing like it did when I started to grow, and that's a good thing. Five years ago when I made the decision that I wanted to double my business, i quickly realized that I needed more people to make that happen. At that time I had no idea how much I would need to change mentally. Yes, I needed to change me, because the person I was then was ill prepared to lead. I had done an excellent job of following through on my own ideas up until that point, by being ambitious and hungry for success. But I had no clue that getting others to latch on to my vision was a different muscle that I'd yet to flex. I liken it to writing with your right hand all your life then all of a sudden being told you must use your left hand. Expect it to be sloppy in the beginning, then gradually get better. At some point you start to forget that you did it any other way.

As for the hiring funnel, it's nothing more than a process that makes hiring easier and simplified. Imagine how much you could get done if you could hire new people without sucking up a ton of your time reading resumes and doing interviews. I have such a system in place in my wholesaling business, made to attract and select who I want to work with without it being painful. Because, I learned that if it's painful, I won't do it. We all know that if we want to grow a business, we must learn to hire. This double edged sword is the reason why most wholesale companies stay small, but it doesn't have to be that way.
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If hiring is kicking your ass - Let’s talk - Book a call. Let me show you hiring system that you can copy.

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