Episode #15: When To Hire An Assistant

[00:00:00] How many years was it before you hired your first assistant? Probably about three. Okay. Three and a half. Yeah.

[00:00:09] It was first hire. It was someone to come in and lend support for back office issues,

[00:00:21] servicing, billing, updating contact information and that sort of thing.

[00:00:26] And that was, you know, too far along. I waited until the need was there

[00:00:35] and then you bring them in and they're coming into a blizzard.

[00:00:45] Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance and everything in between.

[00:00:50] Join us as we take you along our own brokerage building journeys with additional wisdom from

[00:00:56] our network of business experts. Welcome to Bricks and Risk.

[00:01:06] Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of Bricks and Risk. I am Tim Garrity. And I'm Sean Mooney.

[00:01:14] And today, Sean, we're going to be talking about a pretty cool topic in business.

[00:01:20] It's when to hire an assistant. What are your thoughts on that initially?

[00:01:28] Assistants. I'll give you my background and then we'll kind of parse it out from there.

[00:01:35] That's a good plan. I waited way too long.

[00:01:39] I, it wasn't that I was, I guess I was hesitant a little bit for a variety of reasons.

[00:01:49] But I waited too long. And if I were to talk, I've actually talked to other insurance agents who

[00:01:55] were getting started or were kind of debating the topic and

[00:01:59] they're asking me when or how this and that. I say,

[00:02:06] one of the keys is you want to always hire before the need exists.

[00:02:13] I would agree with that. 100%. Right now, just, just so we're clear,

[00:02:17] so everyone understands you've been in business 11 years. Yep.

[00:02:21] How many years was it before you hired your first assistant?

[00:02:26] Probably about three. Okay.

[00:02:28] Three and a half. Yeah.

[00:02:31] It was first hire. It was someone to come in and lend support for back office issues,

[00:02:42] servicing, billing, updating contact information and that sort of thing.

[00:02:49] And that was, you know, too far along.

[00:02:53] I waited until the need was there and then you bring them in and it's, they're coming into a

[00:02:59] blizzard. Yeah.

[00:03:01] And it's like, they don't have any chance to get their feet wet. They don't have

[00:03:06] the time to acclimate. And it's just, you're worse off.

[00:03:13] Yes. How about you guys? What's,

[00:03:16] give me the timeline. Was it right for you? What was the first hire? What were they doing?

[00:03:20] Yeah, for Copper Hill. So we've been around for nine years, as we've mentioned before.

[00:03:26] And for us, I would say it was probably maybe just before three years. Not much sooner than

[00:03:34] you. And what kind of prompted us was really the one thing I like to say is you're hesitant

[00:03:42] to let go. Yeah.

[00:03:43] And I feel like that's most people's problems in business, as well as, you know, I'm

[00:03:49] in real estate, you're in insurance and we're relationship focused. So when you're

[00:03:54] relationship focused, you're so concerned about the customer service end of taking

[00:04:01] care of the client that you're very hesitant to let someone else do that for you.

[00:04:07] And there's a, I'm big Shark Tank guy, which you know, I love the show.

[00:04:12] I watch it five days a week. Who's your favorite on the show?

[00:04:16] Who's my fave? Yeah, it's Kevin O'Leary. It's Mr. Wonderful.

[00:04:20] Hands down. And not because he's Irish. I can see that.

[00:04:22] I mean, it helps, you know, Dylan's Irish, you're Irish, I'm Irish and so is Kev.

[00:04:26] But is it because he's a jerk?

[00:04:28] No, I like his honesty and I like that he always has a lot of respect for protecting

[00:04:38] his money. So he has a lot of self-discipline. But so we're getting off topic here. But

[00:04:45] anyway, back, back to Shark Tank. So Barbara Corcoran once said on Shark Tank

[00:04:52] when it came to the subject of letting go and letting someone else do the work,

[00:04:56] she said 80% is good enough. And that always stuck with me because I think everyone thinks

[00:05:03] it's always going to be around 95 to 100% is what you're going to get out of someone

[00:05:08] to assist you with the work that needs to be done to service the client. Not only that,

[00:05:12] but to scale. And that's probably the number one reason why someone chooses to hire an assistant

[00:05:20] is you're working too much in the business instead of on the business. And if you're

[00:05:26] too involved with the clients, you're doing every single thing yourself, it's hard. I mean,

[00:05:32] was that kind of one of the first things for you? Is that why you decided to hire

[00:05:35] an assistant? Like what was the main thing besides knowing you needed help at some point?

[00:05:40] Was there any one thing in particular that made you do it after three years?

[00:05:44] Yeah. So the need was there. It was just an overwhelming need for an extra set of hands.

[00:05:53] So the work, the volume, the amount of clients you're dealing with on our side,

[00:06:00] it's the new business aspect of it, but it's also the servicing of existing clients.

[00:06:07] So after a few years, it just becomes a point where there's only so many hours to return

[00:06:14] so many phone calls, to handle so many emails that it was just, you couldn't go, I couldn't

[00:06:23] go any more. There were only so many hours in a day. So having to do that. But I think that

[00:06:30] looking at it now, an 80%, I think I would agree with is like you get someone in and if they're

[00:06:37] able to do 80% of what you're doing, something that's awesome. Cause I think you're given 110.

[00:06:46] Exactly. So it evens out.

[00:06:50] Maybe they're not as good as you, but I also liked the idea that maybe that person

[00:06:57] can become better at some things than you were.

[00:07:02] 100%. I definitely think that's one thing that people, they discount, they look at it as like,

[00:07:08] okay, I need to hire someone who's just like me, who can do the things the way I want them

[00:07:14] done. And that is, I don't want to say it's ego, but it's just, you're so used to

[00:07:22] controlling. I mean, the business is your baby. Let's call it like it is. It really is. You're

[00:07:26] trying to protect that baby. You're just doing everything you can to make sure you're involved

[00:07:31] as much as possible so that nothing goes wrong. But what happens is, and this happened

[00:07:37] to us, so we went through a couple of assistance and this also brings me to my

[00:07:41] next point, how long did it take to find the right fit? So for us, we had about three,

[00:07:51] so it wasn't until we landed on our third, which is Marcy McBride. And she was more or less like

[00:07:58] our office admin to start. So she was doing transactional work in the real estate deals.

[00:08:02] She was doing some administrative work for the company. She was looking after some of

[00:08:06] the bills, like office supplies, just eyes and ears. What was her background prior to Copper

[00:08:11] Hill? Believe it or not, she was an attorney. So her husband is in the Navy or he's not

[00:08:19] anymore. She'd be okay for talking about her. Yeah, I think she'd be cool with it.

[00:08:23] So they were moving around for the military and they landed on Philadelphia because he was going

[00:08:31] to Penn for grad school. So prior to Philadelphia, they were out in Seattle where she actually

[00:08:39] started her own law practice, family law. And what also I think really helped when we started

[00:08:47] working together, again, we just met through friends of friends, was that she was super

[00:08:51] entrepreneurial. So she was running her own practice in Seattle, even though she was an

[00:08:55] attorney, she started a business. And when she came here to Philadelphia and she saw what we

[00:09:00] were doing, we were just doing it something different. Now law, family law doesn't pertain,

[00:09:04] but law in general is a good segue into real estate because there's so many legalities.

[00:09:11] So she came in based off of that. And honestly, she was just doing everything

[00:09:19] to the point where we looked at it as like, Marcy, we want you to be more on the operation

[00:09:26] side. So you're a little bit more high level than admin and let's bring in a part-time admin

[00:09:34] to take care of all the small things like the dotting and I's crossing of T's,

[00:09:38] checking mail, supplies, basic things that just need to be done. And that's how we found our

[00:09:45] next assistant. But Marcy was our third. So we had a couple of trials where they weren't at 80

[00:09:55] and Marcy came in and was well above that. But back to your original question is some of

[00:10:00] the things she did that were better than let's say, than I could do were really in

[00:10:06] like finding efficiencies, spending the time with our tech system, with our CRM platform,

[00:10:13] which is called HubSpot where she was able to use that to make the transaction smoother,

[00:10:20] to make everyone's lives easier. Like people were sharing more, collaborating more.

[00:10:25] Did she have to learn that system?

[00:10:26] She did. She was self-taught. So she...

[00:10:29] No prior experience on...

[00:10:31] No. She kind of has a little bit of a tech mind, just like in general, like her skill set.

[00:10:39] And yeah, she figured that out. But let's jump back to you. So three years in,

[00:10:46] is the assistant that you had then the assistant that you have now?

[00:10:50] No.

[00:10:51] Okay. How many assistants have you had since that first one? All right. Let's be honest, man.

[00:10:58] Is it in the teens?

[00:11:00] No.

[00:11:02] Five?

[00:11:03] It's not bad.

[00:11:04] Five. Yeah.

[00:11:05] Five in 11 years is not...

[00:11:07] No, no.

[00:11:08] Is it anything above and beyond like traditional administrative work or is it more like

[00:11:14] administrative a little bit operations or sales component? Is there anything client facing?

[00:11:19] Yeah, ton of client facing.

[00:11:20] Okay. So that's good.

[00:11:21] Yeah.

[00:11:22] So that's different.

[00:11:22] Yep. I think the first few that I had in was...

[00:11:30] Just couldn't get the expectations right. And it was kind of like

[00:11:36] a juggling act of me allowing to let go and that person not delivering on what I wanted

[00:11:46] and just me being comfortable enough with the work they were doing. So a variety of reasons

[00:11:53] why some didn't work out.

[00:11:56] Yeah.

[00:11:57] But the woman I have now who basically runs the office...

[00:12:03] What's her name, by the way?

[00:12:04] Trudy.

[00:12:04] Okay. How long has Trudy been in her role?

[00:12:07] Almost three years with me right now.

[00:12:10] That's good.

[00:12:10] Yeah. And she does a fabulous job of

[00:12:20] dealing with clients on the phone, dealing with new prospects who are calling in,

[00:12:27] dealing with carriers, dealing with... You name it, fill in the blank.

[00:12:33] Yep.

[00:12:34] I think a lot of the attributes that you kind of talked about with Marcy

[00:12:39] are probably the same with Trudy in that a little bit of entrepreneurial

[00:12:47] because family businesses previously.

[00:12:51] Okay.

[00:12:52] And I think that helps because I think that allows them to understand what we're doing

[00:12:57] and why we're doing it this way and that kind of thing.

[00:13:02] Having a building rapport with all of our vendors and clients and prospects

[00:13:08] does a great job with them and is an efficient worker, like worker.

[00:13:17] Hard worker.

[00:13:18] Hard worker.

[00:13:19] I think all of those kind of work with my working style.

[00:13:26] Yep.

[00:13:27] And so I think that's one of the reasons, a lot of the main reasons why

[00:13:33] she's been with me the longest and has been the best so far.

[00:13:41] Gotcha.

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[00:14:11] Now, back to the show.

[00:14:18] It's funny you mentioned that last part regarding being a hard worker.

[00:14:22] I think, I'll give a good example from my perspective at Copper Hill.

[00:14:29] When you build this company, as you know, you put your heart and soul into it.

[00:14:33] And then when you put your heart and soul into it, you are willing to work

[00:14:37] first thing in the morning till the last minute at night, Monday through Sunday.

[00:14:43] Let's be honest.

[00:14:45] Sometimes our wives and families have to pull us away from what we're doing

[00:14:50] because we are so dedicated.

[00:14:52] Let's go back to that baby analogy.

[00:14:53] You just want to see that baby do well.

[00:14:55] You want to make sure it's fed, it's rested, has everything it needs.

[00:15:01] I think it's fear of failure.

[00:15:02] I think it's like you are deathly afraid that if I don't call this person back,

[00:15:11] if I don't get this, if I don't do that, then I'm going to lose out or that someone else.

[00:15:19] Yeah, it's a fear.

[00:15:20] Constant nagging.

[00:15:23] And it's almost like a fear of if you lose someone,

[00:15:26] you feel like they're never coming back, which is not true.

[00:15:30] But back to my thought was that with that assistant,

[00:15:36] it's almost like you want them to think the way you think.

[00:15:39] You're like, if something comes through at seven o'clock at night

[00:15:43] and it needs to be addressed and it's in your...

[00:15:47] You know, it's what you're supposed to...

[00:15:50] It's your domain.

[00:15:51] It's your lane, let's call it.

[00:15:52] If it's your lane and seven o'clock on a Tuesday

[00:15:57] and it needs to get done, I kind of want you to do it.

[00:16:01] The clock doesn't stop at five.

[00:16:03] Now again, we got to be reasonable.

[00:16:05] Just because you're saying that is like today or that's when you first...

[00:16:10] Saying it's like at any time during this, it was like,

[00:16:13] I want these people to work as hard and care as much as I want.

[00:16:17] But I will say once I got to someone like Marcy,

[00:16:20] here's where I'm going with this.

[00:16:23] She doesn't necessarily do it at seven o'clock at night on a Tuesday,

[00:16:26] but she's always got her eye on the ball

[00:16:29] that if it is something on like a Saturday and it's urgent,

[00:16:33] like she'll jump on it.

[00:16:34] Or if I see it and I just text her or I give her a quick call,

[00:16:38] I was like, hey, this is like, can we get this done before Monday

[00:16:43] or something like that?

[00:16:44] Like she's on it.

[00:16:45] Whereas I've had other assistants prior to Marcy

[00:16:49] where they really wanted to clock in and clock out.

[00:16:52] And they only looked at it as a job.

[00:16:55] Whereas I feel like once you have like a Trudy,

[00:16:58] I'm assuming just like with Marcy,

[00:17:01] they have a little bit of that.

[00:17:02] There's that level of like, you know what?

[00:17:04] I'm willing to go a little bit above and beyond

[00:17:06] because I really love what I'm doing.

[00:17:08] And I believe in the growth and success of this baby

[00:17:14] that you and I have built as individuals.

[00:17:17] Like, have you gotten that sense from Trudy

[00:17:19] and or any of your other admins?

[00:17:20] So I think this could be a whole another topic

[00:17:22] for a whole nother segment.

[00:17:24] It could.

[00:17:24] Right.

[00:17:24] And the duty as a business owner is

[00:17:29] A, to develop a culture, to have them buy in.

[00:17:34] Yep.

[00:17:34] Right.

[00:17:36] And it's hard to do.

[00:17:40] And I would say the vast majority of people,

[00:17:44] employees out there don't view it as such.

[00:17:49] But I think it's like a willingness on the employee side

[00:17:52] to think like, all right, if I do this,

[00:17:56] if I'm willing to do this,

[00:17:57] is this going to help the company?

[00:17:58] This helped me grow within the company,

[00:18:01] add more responsibility and, you know,

[00:18:04] and rising tides.

[00:18:06] Yeah.

[00:18:07] Float all ships.

[00:18:08] Yeah.

[00:18:09] And so there's a big responsibility that I take

[00:18:13] that I need to build a culture

[00:18:21] that makes an employee think that.

[00:18:24] Yeah, that's huge.

[00:18:25] I mean, culture is huge because at the end of the day,

[00:18:27] that's what makes people comfortable

[00:18:29] and that's what makes people stay.

[00:18:31] All right.

[00:18:33] Here's one last thing I think we can kind of dive into

[00:18:35] a little bit on this topic.

[00:18:38] Did it make a difference in your business?

[00:18:40] So when you hired that first admin,

[00:18:42] and then I'll make a quick point,

[00:18:44] I'll let you answer like when we hired our first admin,

[00:18:47] do you know what it felt like?

[00:18:49] It felt like we were doing double work.

[00:18:51] It felt like it's like I'm doing every single thing

[00:18:53] that I have to do.

[00:18:55] Now I have to put in all this work

[00:18:57] to show someone else how to do it.

[00:19:00] And then on top of that,

[00:19:01] then I have to check it to make sure

[00:19:05] the baby is healthy again.

[00:19:06] I'll go back to that.

[00:19:07] So did it make a difference for you?

[00:19:10] So it absolutely makes a difference, right?

[00:19:14] You can't go forward.

[00:19:16] You can't grow.

[00:19:17] You can't.

[00:19:18] There's a lot of things you can't do

[00:19:20] unless that seat is filled by having an executive,

[00:19:26] admin, assistant, whatever.

[00:19:30] Because there's only so much you can do.

[00:19:32] So I will say that from having a requirement to grow,

[00:19:41] you need that.

[00:19:42] So I will say that it absolutely did make a difference.

[00:19:48] Now, a lot more of a difference

[00:19:50] than some of my earlier employees

[00:19:55] because now I'm literally just having...

[00:20:01] Part of our day, I feel like it's just rerouting emails.

[00:20:04] Who's responsible for this?

[00:20:06] Who's responsible for this?

[00:20:07] This goes back in here.

[00:20:10] This goes...

[00:20:10] We have a whole...

[00:20:11] Warm handoffs, things like that.

[00:20:13] Hey, Trudy, on that email to that customer,

[00:20:18] can you please handle this or can you do ABCD,

[00:20:21] whatever it is,

[00:20:22] and you're almost communicating through the email to say...

[00:20:25] It is.

[00:20:25] It's an email back with a CC with Trudy on there.

[00:20:30] And it's, hey, we'll jump on this.

[00:20:31] We'll get this done for you.

[00:20:34] Trudy, take a look.

[00:20:35] If there's anything else you need, let me know

[00:20:38] and try to just push it.

[00:20:40] Then you're like, Trudy,

[00:20:41] how long is it going to take you to respond?

[00:20:43] Is this done?

[00:20:44] I mean, come on.

[00:20:46] We talked about the 80%, but seriously,

[00:20:48] how long is it going to take?

[00:20:50] Yeah.

[00:20:51] So does it make a difference?

[00:20:54] When you have the ability to hand something off

[00:21:00] and not think about it again,

[00:21:03] it's a big load off of your shoulders.

[00:21:06] It's absolutely huge.

[00:21:07] Now I will say that in the beginning,

[00:21:09] it doesn't work like that.

[00:21:11] It's training and checking

[00:21:15] and making sure that eyes are dotted.

[00:21:19] And so there is a period of time early on

[00:21:22] when it's a little bit harder.

[00:21:27] You're slogging through.

[00:21:29] You are doing double work.

[00:21:30] You are doing more, but the hope is

[00:21:34] in the end that you're alleviating

[00:21:38] a lot of that work.

[00:21:40] Agreed.

[00:21:41] I mean, for you guys, I mean, that,

[00:21:43] I mean with Marcy now, I mean,

[00:21:44] you take Marcy out.

[00:21:46] What's

[00:21:46] Oh, that'd be awful.

[00:21:48] Be absolutely awful.

[00:21:50] Yeah.

[00:21:50] And then you think about the time it would take

[00:21:52] to just find someone else to hopefully be

[00:21:55] 50% of Marcy.

[00:21:56] A percentage of what she is

[00:21:58] and then work it up, which is insane.

[00:22:02] So I'd rather not have that thought,

[00:22:04] but thanks for bringing it up.

[00:22:06] That's a nightmare.

[00:22:08] Well, that's all we have for this one, guys.

[00:22:10] So thank you for tuning into another episode

[00:22:12] of Bricks and Risk.

[00:22:13] Take care.

[00:22:14] Thank you for joining us on another episode

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