Dave Braun
00:00:01
All right, everybody. Welcome to the HireMyVA Team and Business Building Podcast, where we help you to reclaim your freedom through hiring and thriving with virtual assistants without breaking the bank and it’s without breaking your bank. That’s the most important bank. And I’m Dave Braun and I’m here with my partner and co-host friend mentor, coach, awesome, good, all-around good guy, Larry Broughton.
Larry Broughton
00:00:24
Hello David.
Dave Braun
00:00:26
Hey Larry, guess what? We have a special guest today. Joe DeChiara. Joe, how are you doing today?
Joe DeChiara
00:00:35
I’m doing good. I was taking a break right now from doing tax returns. So it came at the perfect time.
Dave Braun
00:00:44
So tell us what’s more fun? I was gonna say, what’s more fun? Doing this or tax returns?
Joe DeChiara
00:00:49
I don’t know. I’ve been in the zone, you know, but Larry taught me that you gotta take a break since this is fun. This is a good break.
Larry Broughton
00:00:59
Yeah. A little mental health break. Yeah. Hey, the subtitle folks of the show today is men and black. This was not planned but Dave, it is good to see you, my friend. I love you, I’m glad we’re doing this together. Joe, Love you, man. It’s been great working so closely with you over the last few months. And folks, what we wanted to do today is bring in Joe, sorry to step on you here a little bit, Dave — is just kind of introduce one of the folks who’s going through the program and to share with you some of the successes and challenges that he’s had in the entrepreneurial journey. We’ve all been there, right? We’ve had some great successes in the entrepreneurial journey and many of us have had massive failures as well. And we can learn as much from those failures as we do from those successes. But Joe is one of those guys that I’ve known for; I can never remember Joe, maybe nine years or something. Along with that, I met Joe, I was a trainer at another mastermind group and Joe and I met there. We’ve stayed in touch over the years. And Joe has been part of the HireMyVA community; for how long now, Joe?
Dave Braun
00:02:11
October, I think.
Larry Broughton
00:02:16
So what’s that about five months, maybe? November, December. We are now recording this in February of 2021. So it’s about five months, I guess, ish.
Joe DeChiara
00:02:25
Has it been? Wow.
Larry Broughton
00:02:27
So Joe, tell us about what you do and what was life like, for the couple of years, a few years leading up to joining the HireMyVA community.
Joe DeChiara
00:02:40
Well, I’m a CPA, I’m an entrepreneur first. That’s the first thing, you know. I wind up in the tax business. But you know, I’ve trials and tribulations, just like you said, from the beginning. Mostly, failures, massive failures, a lot of education but you know, I was always a student of business, and I wanted to scale my business and I just couldn’t for years. I was profitable, very profitable but I stayed small and I tried to grow through hiring people only to find out that I wasn’t hiring the right people.
Larry Broughton
00:03:35
Yeah. And so what was it finally that you said, darn it? Here’s the epiphany that a lot of entrepreneurs have is that my best efforts got me here and they’re not good enough. So something has to change. Right? So, what was that moment that you said—
Joe DeChiara
00:03:59
I’m a scientist, okay? I looked at results and then I try to work it back. So for years, I said, well, maybe I’m not growing because of my mark. So that’s how we met. When I joined Ryan’s mastermind verse. I spent a long time to learn marketing. And after eight years, it still wasn’t working. So I said, something is not working. And that’s when I reached out to you actually since something’s not working and I’ve got to figure out what it is and it was this, I was hiring the wrong people. I wasn’t training them and that was it.
Larry Broughton
00:04:44
Well, it’s interesting. And Dave obviously jumped in here whenever you want. I don’t want to monopolize this thing but it is interesting as a common mistake that people mistake sales and marketing, number one, but they do all kinds of marketing stuff. But if they don’t have the systems in place to follow up on those leads to actually scale the business, it’s waste of time and energy. Right? And this is one of the things I love about what Dave has done here. In all transparency. Dave is the one who got into the VA game, at least the business VA game before I did. I’ve hired VA’s or had VA’s for years, long before Dave and I were sort of working with each other, but he developed this program and then came to me and said “Hey, let’s add this under our umbrella and let’s work on this thing together.” So Dave, why don’t you take over from here?
Dave Braun
00:05:35
Yeah, absolutely. Sure. It’s not absolutely sure, whatever that is. I got to have some fun. Yeah, it’s been great and my business, Larry, and then of course in yours, and the different VA’s and what we’ve learned through hiring VA’s and making a ton of mistakes. Right? We talked about that in our podcast. How many times we’ve done that? But the thing though is that we’ve learned from ’em and the whole idea is we’ve developed a great system for that. Right? And really, the only way, you know if you’ve got a really good system for something is, I mean, it’s one thing for you to execute it because you know it, but then it’s another thing to have somebody else come in and do it. And Joe, you and I had some Facebook messenger conversations and all that. Right? But one of the things that I appreciate about you is that you just kind of said “all right, I’m going to go through everything, I’m going to do what they say, I’m going to go through the videos and work on the steps, post the stuff in the community.” And you did that. So many people come in and want to shortcut things or they want to skip around. And you said, “you know, I’m just going to start from the beginning.” So tell us what that was like a little bit.
Joe DeChiara
00:06:53
You know, my style of hiring people before; I would hire the first person that walked in. I don’t want to put any time and effort into it. And I realized and said, that didn’t work. If I’m going to do this, right, I’m going to go through—I’m going to become the best student that I can. And part of it Larry, you know, I turned 60 in June and I’m like, I don’t have time to mess around anymore. I’m not getting any younger. I’m like, you know, I gotta go, I’m all in with this. And I did it and I realized, I gotta put — I must have easily put 80 hours into the course.
Dave Braun
00:07:49
So what was it through all of that? I mean, what were a couple of things that — I think you had talked about in the community. What was it that you were missing? Because you’ve been experienced in business and you worked with people for a long time. And I think there’s probably a few key things along the way that was like, oh, I needed to make sure I did do that. Do you recall what some of those things were?
Joe DeChiara
00:08:12
Yeah, it was so clear. It was like, this is what I teach people. Why didn’t I see this? You know, you had a whole system. First, you had to make them qualify themselves. And it was a simple — got a very simple way to eliminate a lot of people that were just not really; they were like spammers. They were just looking for any job. And especially in my business, I need detail-oriented people. So that saved a tremendous amount of time. And then to have the, you know, the response is all laid out. You know, it took a while in the beginning to get it, but now I got to tell you I’m doing it and it’s so easy. It’s copy and paste. I’m still getting applicants.
Larry Broughton
00:09:02
Yeah. Isn’t that funny? One of the ways you described it I think at one point, I was like, now you’re just following the recipe basically. Right? Isn’t it funny how sometimes we discount people who put blood, sweat, and tears on the journey before us, but we don’t listen to them. Right? Well, thank goodness though. Before you got too old, you had the VA moment, right? I can do this a little bit better—
Joe DeChiara
00:09:29
And you know, the time is when it is but you know, but the truth is — the proof is in the putter.
Larry Broughton
00:09:39
Well, tell us about that. Tell us about that proof. What has happened since October, from then till now? How has your life? How is your business? Have you seen growth? Has it been worth it? Give us kind of a rundown.
Joe DeChiara
00:09:54
Oh, God, it’s become like the VA’s have become essential in me scaling my business. There’s no way—
Larry Broughton
01:10:08
VA’s, plural?
Joe DeChiara
01:10:09
VA’s. I have —
Larry Broughton
01:10:11
You had zero VA’s before this?
Joe DeChiara
01:10:14
I had zero. I had a few, like, part-time. Now I have four full-time superstars, right now. And we’ve become like a family. We have team meetings every week. It’s like a picnic. I told you that one. We get so much done. And I was going to tell you this on our coaching call that I’ve already done more tax returns now. And I think they did all less taxes.
Larry Broughton
01:10:53
And we’re in February, we’re halfway through February.
Joe DeChiara
01:10:56
And it’s not even started. A lot of people haven’t gotten it. And the only reason is because I have two bookkeeping VA’s, and I had this kid helping me prepare the tax returns. And I’m like all the grunt work while I’m sleeping. And I’m looking at this, I said, okay, for me to do the amount of returns and it becomes math and said, okay, now I know how many bookkeepers I need to get the work done. And the quality of the people are—
Larry Broughton
01:11:32
Yes, it does. That’s one of the things I think that’s important for folks to understand. Talk to us about that because there is a fear, Dave, Joe, that I’m hiring someone who might be across the country, or they might be overseas. They might be in Ukraine. They might be in the Philippines. You had the same fear. Tell us about that?
Joe DeChiara
01:11:54
Well, you know1
Larry Broughton
01:11:55
You’re like family now, what—
Joe DeChiara
01:11:57
It wasn’t so much a fear. You know, I’ve hired people in other countries. I’ve hired people in the US and had bad experiences. And I would gladly hire a VA in the US if it was the right situation. And I actually do have a couple of VA’s and the US but— And so the Filipino people are; they’re just very warm, they’re very honest, they’re hard-working, but I think what really attracted them, the kind of the people that we got is that how you and Dave had us put in who we are, who we stand for, our core values, that impressed them. And then we made them do a video to introduce themselves. And I did a video to introduce me. We were upfront, we were transparent. And a couple of people we hired didn’t work out. It just wasn’t a good fit for whatever reason, but the ones that we have, I believe we’re going to have a long, long time.
Larry Broughton
01:13:13
And even if they don’t, you now have the tools to find someone to replace them. Right? So tell us this. You were here before, what kind of growth have you seen since, and what are you projecting over the next 12 months, as far as growth in the business? You don’t have to tell us real dollars but on a percentage basis with your business. You can tell real dollars if you want.
Joe DeChiara
01:13:35
I’m going to double, at least double in revenue this year or maybe triple. I think triple, but you know, you got to remember 2020 wasn’t —for sure. And, you know, I changed my business model around, but it’s just going to get better and the only thing that’s gonna stop me is me, you know, I told you that. My ability to manage my team, keep them motivated, and it’s—
Dave Braun
01:14:12
Let’s talk about that a little bit. So one of the things you just said is you said you’ve become like a family. Tell us more about that. What does that mean?
Joe DeChiara
01:14:21
You know, part of our core values is family. Fun, faith, and family and friends, you know? So I said, if we’re not having fun, I don’t care how much money we make. So we got to have fun. We want to know your family. So one of my VA’s, her family is her three dogs. She’s got three — and we talked, how many dogs, you know. We talked about Janine’s brother having COVID and he was in the hospital. You know, two of my VA’s— No, three of them have young children and they’re always jumping around. We got a time where it’s like, after 40 minutes, the kids start wanting mommy
Larry Broughton
01:15:18
It’s like my dog.
Dave Braun
01:15:18
That’s really cool. You guys are like family. What do you think that the jobs that you’re giving them, the stability and the pay and all that, what do you think that that’s making as far as a difference in their lives? What have they mentioned to you?
Joe DeChiara
01:15:42
Well, we have a new girl coming on, Corinne, and you know, she was working at a job, I think for like 10 years, very stable, but she wants to start a family. So she wants to be able to work from home. And this is going to give her the opportunity. And so she quit a job that she had for a long time and it was a good paying job. So that makes me feel pretty good because if she had the confidence to let that job go. You know, Janine, they’re struggling, we’re spoiled here. They appreciate having a job and getting paid. And this one kid, I mean, he’s 24, he’s working seven days a week. Now, he just wants to keep learning and growing. And that gets me energized. It works both ways.
Larry Broughton
01:16:49
It’s funny, Dave, one of the perceptions, and I shared this with you earlier in the week via a text or an email or something, that boy we’re paying somebody overseas. So we’re used to people making $15 an hour, $18 an hour, $25 an hour here in the US in some cases, you know, $75 or $300 an hour. But in many countries, those numbers are monthly or annual wages, right? So the cost of living is lower. So they’re not paying orange county, California or New Jersey, New York, real estate, or living expenses. Right? And so I would just encourage people that are listening to this, or watching this to put yourself in the setting where is it you’re hiring people. We do not encourage, and I know that you’re not doing this Joe, we’re not encouraging people to be paying the $3 a day wages.
Larry Broughton
01:17:50
You know, what we’re doing is encouraging people to pay near the top middle, the top of the pay scale in that country. So in some countries paying somebody $5 an hour is like somebody who’s making a PhD level or middle management and up-level wages. Right? That’s just a fact, right? And so it’s very important. And Dave’s got a great story about one of the VA’s that helps us where he was able to help his grandmother buy, or his mother —a home. Right? His grandma. It was his grandma. A home. Right? So I appreciate that Joe, you’ve got this sense of family that you’re building with your team members. So the growth that you’ve seen, how much of that is attributable to change in your business model? And how much of it is attributable to; now you’ve got someone that you can count on? Now, you’ve got team members that you can hand projects over to, to free you up, to do what you do best, or the combination of both?
Joe DeChiara
01:18:58
You know, I never had a problem getting business. My problem is never getting those, is getting the right business and then being able to handle it. And when I changed my business model, I got a ton of new business and too much business for me to handle on my own. A lot of it was just, you know, regular bookkeeping and stuff. So I spent all year just getting clients and I would have been dead right now.
Larry Broughton
01:19:29
Because you couldn’t service them?
Joe DeChiara
01:19:31
I could never have gotten all the tax. I’d still be doing back racks and bookkeeper. My team got them all up to date. Well, not all of them, but that’s how —because if the clients weren’t up to date, I can’t do their tax returns. If I’m not doing tax returns now I’m in the wrong business.
Larry Broughton
01:19:54
Yeah.
Joe DeChiara
01:19:55
And the good thing is I’m looking at it and said, would they get a lot more clients during tax season? I needed at least another one more bookkeeper.
Larry Broughton
02:20:04
Yeah. As you’re hiring these folks or now that you’ve got them on your team, are there tools that you have found in the HireMyVA program that have been particularly powerful or helpful for you? Did that come to mind?
Joe DeChiara
02:20:18
That come to mind, I mean, the templates, all the stuff on your site, oh my God. There’s still stuff on there that I haven’t used yet.
Larry Broughton
02:20:30
Oh there’s a lot —
Joe DeChiara
02:20:35
The sample contracts, those were— You know, another thing that you said Larry and you’re right, it is a different way of life over there and most of these people don’t even have health insurance. So we’re actually looking into seeing how we can do that for that.
Dave Braun
02:20:59
Yeah. That’s definitely a potential benefit for sure. And what we have found is we let them, you know, we ask them about it. We kind of let them choose because some may not need it or want it, or get it through some other means. Right? So yeah, it all depends.
Joe DeChiara
02:21:17
We’ve taken the approach that we want to be a great employer there. And even if it’s, listen, we’re asking them, do you have health insurance because you have a family? And they don’t. So, you know, we’re going to see how we can help them do that.
Dave Braun
02:21:35
You know, I was going to say, it’s so surprising though. You know, you think about being a great employer. You’re thinking, oh my gosh, it’s the Philippines. They’re so far away. There are so many people, nobody’s going to know about me, but the word travels. It’s unbelievable how word travels, especially when you’re talking about like a specialty that you have. Let me give you an example, kind of on the reverse side of things is for my web development business, we hired this one person and I had to let that person go after less than two weeks because the person didn’t communicate. Well then, a year later, when I was looking for another person, that person applied for the job again, and I remembered the name. So, I mean, you would think that with millions of people, you wouldn’t run into somebody again, but you do. And the same thing’s gonna happen with your business if you start having a bad word of mouth, then you’d be surprised who you may be missing out on. So you’re definitely taking the right approach.
Larry Broughton
02:22:43
Yeah. Hey Joe, now that you’ve got a handful of VA’s you’re working with, as you and Dave were talking about the kind of being an employer with these folks, let’s go a little bit granular if you don’t mind. Specifically, how are you managing these folks that are thousands of miles away? What do you do on a daily basis? What do you do on a weekly basis? What are you doing on a monthly basis to make sure that folks are accomplishing the task for which they’ve been hired and that you’re able to hold them accountable and inspire them or motivate them, whatever the term you want to use towards a continual improvement? Talk me through that.
Joe DeChiara
02:23:22
You know, you’re talking about tools and when you’re talking about tools, I’m thinking about things like Slack. We were using Facebook messenger because when it was just me and one VA, it was easy. But now having, you know, eight different conversations. So we use Slack, but —it was always our resource that I can go back to. And what you guys put together was the checking in and checking out. That’s the first, that’s something that I never did. I thought I’d just hire somebody, tell them what to do because that’s what —just tell me what to do and I’ll get it done.
Larry Broughton
02:24:11
All right. So for those who don’t know what you’re talking about, what do you mean by checking in and checking out?
Joe DeChiara
02:24:14
So, they’re checking in now and they say, this is what we’re working on today. I should get the — there’s like three things. When they checked out, they say, this is what we worked on, these are the problems that we had, this is what I’m going to work on tomorrow. And these are my suggestions to improve this. So there’s constant communication, constant. And then we have weekly team meetings and also I have them all communicating with each other. Yeah. Okay. Because like the bookkeepers, they got to know each other’s jobs. Just want to let everybody know we’re a team. It’s not, don’t come to me with every question because that doesn’t work either.
Dave Braun
02:25:17
Yeah. All right. Have you found that you’ve been putting together more standard operating procedures to help with things as time goes? How’s that working out?
Joe DeChiara
02:25:29
So I Loom, Loom. That’s the term.
Larry Broughton
02:25:34
Your new friends?
Joe DeChiara
02:25:36
I love this because when Lewis does a tax return, he just picked it up, but I’m like, this it’s complicated. So every time you have a question, you put it on the spreadsheet. What’s the question? And I do a Loom video and we save that because the next time somebody has that question, it’s there. We did that with the way how to do with bank rack. And I got a new VA. She never did Wave apps. And I go in there, she did all the back racks. And I said, how did you do that? And she watched my two-minute video.
Larry Broughton
02:26:16
So Loom, for those who don’t know is basically a screen capture recording software. And we highly recommend that you use some kind of tool like that when you’re teaching a new VA how to do something, or you want to communicate with them. And then you can just build a video library so that when someone comes on board, they can go back and look at this in the video library. Or if someone forgets how to do something then go back and look at it. So I’m glad you’re using it. That’s great.
Joe DeChiara
02:26:42
It’s becoming huge because every time we —not just for the VA’s, for the clients, anytime we onboard somebody now, we’re like, okay, this is how you save a file and this is why. We don’t have to like spend the time, they teach themselves. It’s awesome.
Larry Broughton
02:27:00
Joe, it seems to me like one of the things that bumps up against my noggin, whenever I think about taxes or finances is the confidentiality issue and the trust issue. How have you dealt with that with VA’s you’ve never even had a face-to-face or not face-to-face, but an in-person meeting you want? Has that popped up as the trust issue or the confidentiality issue been an issue at all? So, or maybe it hasn’t been an issue. I don’t know.
Joe DeChiara
02:27:31
Well, it’s always an issue as an accountant. I mean, I’m held to a higher standard. I have to have a technology program after the designated technology officer. But when you say trust, are you talking about with me in the VAs? Or—
Joe DeChiara
02:27:55
You know, you have who you trust. First of all, I know where they live. It’s not like, I don’t know where they live. Also, you know, the Philippines, they have laws, we’re becoming familiar with that. Okay? You know, I have to run a tight ship and we do like, with our Google files, we have tax documents in there. And so I have to trust these people. That’s part of the budding process. You know, that’s why I want to know about their family, where they live, who they work for.
Larry Broughton
02:28:37
What do you do to vet these folks then? Cause let’s be honest, anytime I hear this often with folks, like, I love the Balinese culture, they’re such a loving people but there are nefarious, bad people in that culture. Just like there are bad people here in the states and bad people in the Philippines. I don’t know a country in the world that does not have a prison system. So they’re not all perfect. What did you do during the vetting process to find this out? Or were you able to?
Joe DeChiara
02:29:07
You know, the site that you introduced me to the Onlinejobs.ph they have like a couple of ways to vet people. Like they find out if they have government IDs, they also have another thing to check their social media to see if it all matches up. So that’s one way, but then there’s the actual eye-to-eye conversations with these people and you just— I just had another graphic designer. Just check that.
Larry Broughton
02:29:47
Okay. As we were speaking? That’s funny,
Joe DeChiara
02:29:50
We, look for people that have the same core values as us. Transparency, honesty. These are people that have families. Do we take a chance? We always take a chance. I’m an accounting firm, we’re an accounting firm. Anybody could just hack into my computer from anywhere.
Larry Broughton
03:30:14
Well, how helpful was this preparation? The first part of the module here, Dave and I were kind of really conflicted about this in the beginning, because when we were looking at VA programs that other folks are doing is, you know, get that VA. But then when we started talking about what’s the problem here? Why is there a lot of turnover in the VA community? We thought, well, maybe it’s because we’re not hiring the right folks. Did you find that module then? Important one, like identifying your core values, making sure that they understand your vision. Talk to us about that for a second.
Joe DeChiara
03:30:48
Absolutely. The fact that—and this is part of it because we have a clear vision. We have a mission statement. We have our written—I had my core values right up there, they’re out there. We bring them up all the time in our team meetings. You know, one thing I want to tell you about the trust factor, we don’t hide the fact that we have offshore VA that we hire. My clients know it and we’re transparent. So, there has to be that trust.
Larry Broughton
03:31:28
Yeah. There’s nothing to be ashamed of about it.
Joe DeChiara
03:31:31
You know, those are the things that I didn’t have because I never scaled a business, Larry I’ve helped other people scale businesses.
Larry Broughton
03:31:42
Well, you were basically a solopreneur before. You’re not now.
Joe DeChiara
03:31:46
No. I love it. I’m like, oh my God, this is what running a business is like.
Larry Broughton
03:31:55
Well, knowing you all the years, I’ve known you. It’s been very interesting, just the amount of energy that’s in your voice these days, the level of excitement. If I can be really direct with you, there was a level of pessimism and skepticism that you used to have, that seems to be diminished or gone completely now. Is that a fair assessment?
Joe DeChiara
03:32:24
So there’s documented proof of it if you go back to the meeting, you and Dave and I had. What do you call that? I have it. I have to look at it.
Dave Braun
03:32:37
Was it Search call?
Joe DeChiara
03:32:40
Search call. And you know what you said, Larry? You said you’re not ready yet. Just keep Sarah.
Larry Broughton
03:32:46
Yeah. Sarah.
Joe DeChiara
03:32:49
That was last year. That wasn’t that long ago.
Larry Broughton
03:32:52
Yeah. But do you feel the difference yourself because I was watching you show up, watching you online? It’s almost like a different person. Do you feel that?
Joe DeChiara
03:33:03
Absolutely.
Larry Broughton
03:33:04
How’s that showing up in your life? How has that positively impacting or negatively impacting your life? Has it been a negative impact?
Joe DeChiara
03:33:11
I’m back in the black again.
Larry Broughton
03:33:14
Obviously in the business black.
Joe DeChiara
03:33:17
My relationships with my family, my girlfriend, personal finance, everything, you know, my health. My health, you know, I’m healthier than two of my children. It’s pretty fine. Well, not funny but you know, I’m in pretty good shape for where I was.
Dave Braun
03:33:42
And Larry isn’t that one of the things that we talk about? That as we introduce our podcast and our program, it’s like, reclaim your freedom. Right? Your freedom means so many things, your freedom to have energy, your freedom to take care of yourself, physically your freedom to have great relationships with your family. I mean, that’s what we’re all about. Right? And that’s why most people I think, get into owning a business because you do want some of that freedom. And Larry, we’ve seen that in order to get that, you’ve got to build a team. Right? But unfortunately, it’s hard for most people because there is no certificate or degree in team-building out there. And so many people try to go it alone and learn by experimentation. Right?
Joe DeChiara
03:34:40
Yeah. I think that that’s a core problem for solopreneurs because I never put that much, you know, I knew, okay, I need a team to do this. But you know, Larry, when you said to me, if you want to get to seven figures, you’re going to be able to do it, like you’re doing it now. And the answer is no, no way! I couldn’t do it. So I had to just make that slight shift. And then I realized, you know, one of the problems was that I was hiring myself all the time.
Larry Broughton
03:35:21
Right. We talked about that a lot. Stop hiring the mini me’s.
Joe DeChiara
03:35:24
All right.
Larry Broughton
03:35:28
Well, that’s a good segue into something else I’ve had on my mind here since you’ve seen some great short-term success already with VA’s. Do you piece of advice that you might offer someone who’s considering hiring a VA?
Joe DeChiara
03:35:37
Put the time in to vet them, know exactly what the job is going to be. Because if you can’t explain what their job is going to be, how are they going to tow it? That was another—you know, I would say, just do this tax return and not show them how to do it. So you gotta prepare yourself. You gotta prepare them and then you gotta have constant communication.
Dave Braun
03:36:14
Hey, Joe. There was somebody who I listened to that talked about, when you hire a VA, you can’t expect anything out of them for three months. Right? I thought that was a little bit crazy, but tell us, when was it? I mean after you decided to really start going through the program and hiring somebody, when do you think you felt like you were getting dividends from the program?
Joe DeChiara
03:36:40
Yeah, in the beginning, it was a little rough because I wasn’t getting dividends, but I realized I had to learn that it was because of me. I wasn’t giving them enough direct instructions. So I would say, like, with Janine, Janine was doing graphics. Honestly, we stopped getting dividends with her right away. I mean, she just, you know —Larry, I think you said, what did you do with your social media? I said I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s working. She had a specific job. Just get the graphics then I gave her my YouTube. I wake up one day and I’m like, oh my God, what did they do? They fixed everybody. Now the bookkeepers were a little bit harder because that was more technical. And I had to teach them. But after I taught the first one, the second one got easier.
Joe DeChiara
03:37:45
And the third one, I didn’t even teach. Like I said, she watched my video, and then I had the first bookkeeper teach her the rest. So I’m letting you know, I think I’m at the point, Larry, where I’m looking for generals now. I need people that can, you know, lead these departments. And I see, like one of the bookkeepers, she’s got the experience and we’ll see. Yeah, at one point, you’re gonna need like an operations manager that you’re going to— Yeah, and I think, this one woman that’s starting March 1st, she might be the first. You know, that’s part of what’s exciting for all of us because we all know this is a work in progress. We’re all in uncharted territory and it’s exciting and they’re excited. I’m excited about it.
Dave Braun
03:38:39
Fantastic. Well, Joe, do you have any parting advice before we say goodbye? And while you’re doing that, after your parting advice, make sure you give yourself a plug as to how people can contact you and do business with you.
Joe DeChiara
03:39:00
Don’t be like me. You can’t run a business yourself, no matter how smart you think you are. Get people that are smarter than you, that can do stuff better than you can do it. And that’s the only way you can run a business today. If you want to get in touch with me, you can visit my website. It’s Bedrockbusinessbuilders.com. If you want to really connect with me, I have this mastermind group, it’s Mastermindwithjoedichiara.com and that’s free. We have a lot of fun. My VA’s show up sometimes. That’s my story and I’m sticking with you guys.
Dave Braun
03:39:44
Are there any parting questions or comments for Joe?
Larry Broughton
03:39:48
It’s good. I’m really glad Joe, that you’ve been part of the program. You inspire me. I know you’re inspiring other folks in the program. And I’ve said it to a bunch of people; be like Joe, follow the recipe.
Joe DeChiara
04:40:04
The new job, the new job.
Larry Broughton
04:40:05
The new job. Yes.
Dave Braun
04:40:06
You better get that domain, Joe. Belikejoe.com
Joe DeChiara
04:40:12
Yeah. I’ll add another domain. Thank you, guys.
Dave Braun
04:40:17
All right. Well, thanks again, Joe. I appreciate you being on. And thank you all for being with us today and for joining us. And remember, building a team is the way to reclaim your freedom and we’re here to help you. You know, just like we’ve helped Joe here. You’ve heard about the freedom he’s getting in his life in so many facets by building a team and doing it the right way. So follow Joe, as we said, follow the recipe, do that. And we’ve got that for you. But in the meantime, if you’re not yet ready, that’s cool. But right now we want you to do three things for us. Number one, subscribe to the Podcast. So you get more information from us. You get us answering questions. You can listen to those great interviews with folks like Joe. So subscribe. Number two, give us a rating, preferably five star.
Dave Braun
04:41:06
And then number three, go to Hiremyva.com for more information on our course and community. As you know, we talked a little bit about the community. Joe was in there asking questions, we answered them. That really, really helped. So go to Hiremyva.com for more information because remember, even without experience, you’ll learn how to prepare for hire and thrive with virtual assistants. Larry and I have helped a lot of folks. We’ve helped Joe, still helping Joe. It’s great to see the success that he’s got and we want to help you guys too. So just go to Hiremyva.com for more information.
Larry Broughton
04:41:41
Yeah, folks do yourself a favor. Do the world a favor. Go do something significant today. God bless you. God keep you. God hold you. Go get them, folks. Bye. See ya.
