Will Power
Being a physical therapy entrepreneur can be unbelievably challenging at times. From patient care, to running the businesses, to balancing a family, it’s no wonder many entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed and burned out. Each Tuesday, join Will Humphreys, a retired private practice owner and medical entrepreneur, as he introduces game-changing leadership concepts and interviews other successful leaders in healthcare. If you want to start, scale, or sell your outpatient physical therapy business, this is for you. Together not only can we increase our income, impact and freedom, we can build the largest network of healthcare leaders in the world at the Will Power Podcast.
Will Power
Secrets to Scaling Smart & Saving Big in Multi-Location Healthcare with Kayla and Tone
In this episode of Will Power, host Will dives deep into virtual assistants (VAs) and how they can support multi-location private healthcare practices. Kayla Pollack and Tone Williams from Virtual Rockstar, a company specializing in placing VAs, share their invaluable insights and experiences, revealing the key differences between successful VA implementation in large vs. small practices.
Key Discussion Points:
- The Power of Teamwork: Discover why multi-location practices that embrace a team approach to VAs, rather than individual hires, experience greater success and smoother integration. Learn how a support system and shared learning environment contribute to better outcomes.
- Setting Your VA Up for Success: Understand the critical role of training and onboarding.
- Who Isn't Ready for a VA: Tone provides clear indicators of individuals who might not be a good fit for a virtual assistant, emphasizing the need for some level of organization and established processes before bringing on remote support.
- Hiring for Specific Skills: Learn why the "jack of all trades" VA is a myth.
- The Top 5 Most Successful VA Roles in Healthcare: Get a breakdown of the most impactful VA roles for multi-location practices.
- Hiring for Culture: Discover why cultural fit is paramount when hiring VAs. Learn how one successful multi-location practice prioritized personality and alignment with their team and patients during the interview process.
- Two Models for Multi-Location Practices: Explore two distinct approaches to integrating VAs: the "all-in" approach for established practices and a more gradual "scaling as you grow" model. Understand the pros and cons of each.
- Saving Money & Improving Lives: Hear a real-world example of a multi-location practice saving over $250,000 annually while experiencing improved results and fostering a strong connection with their VA team in the Philippines.
- The Importance of Onboarding & Ongoing Support: Understand the crucial role of structured onboarding and ongoing communication in building successful long-term relationships with your virtual assistants. Learn about Virtual Rockstar's hands-on approach to support.
- The Impact Beyond Business: Discover the profound impact that hiring VAs at a fair wage can have on families and communities in the Philippines, going beyond mere cost savings.
- Advice for 20+ Location Practices: Get tailored recommendations on which VA integration model might be best suited for large, established healthcare organizations.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your colleagues who could also benefit from the power of virtual assistants. We love hearing from you and appreciate your support in making healthcare a little less stressful and a lot more impactful.
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Welcome back to the Willpower Podcast, guys. Today's episode is an awesome one. We have Caleb Pollack and Tony Williams, both from Virtual Rockstar, talking about virtual assistants. So if you're a multi-location private practice owner, this is your primary episode, because we're going to talk about models that work and the differences of owners of private practices that implement virtual assistants well that scale the dozens or those who just have a couple, or those who don't really fit the model at all. It's a very entertaining discussion and it was so cool listening to Kayla and Tony just talk about all that they've learned over the last two years to help people do it right. Enjoy the show. Well, welcome to Willpower Podcast. I'm so excited to have Tony Williams, who's our VP of Growth, over at Virtual Rockstar, as well as Kayla, our VP of Operations at Virtual Rockstar. Guys, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Thank you Will. We're super stoked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. Thank you, will. We're super stoked, yeah, and we're super excited about today's episode because this is going to be all about virtual assistance in multi-location private practices in healthcare. We've been doing this now for quite a bit. How many people have we hired over the last year and a half, two years? Oh my gosh, we have a hundred.
Speaker 3:Total VAs.
Speaker 1:Current active.
Speaker 3:We're at 160 virtual assistants within our company right now. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We're at 160 virtual assistants within our company right now, yeah, and we have well over 100 physical therapy, occupational therapy, all medical private practices in our industry. How many do we have?
Speaker 2:Yeah, partners, we have 110. I think so Right around 110.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been great, and I think one of the things that we were talking about, that we wanted to focus on in this episode, is the difference that we've seen when we're working with a large multi-location you know, private practice versus a small individual one. So what are like right when I say differences, what would be some of the glaring differences that you see from a virtual assistant perspective, from a large company to a small company?
Speaker 2:Team like working with a team, rather than than shouldering everything themselves, coming in and trying to figure it out Like you're. You're doing it with a team and you have a support system and you're all learning the same systems and software and things like that. That's what I would. The first thing that would glare out at me.
Speaker 1:Cause instead of hiring one person you're hiring.
Speaker 2:You're hiring a team.
Speaker 1:I see. Very cool, kayla, what can you do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I just think with larger scale partners of ours, they just have more capacity and bandwidth to put into training, onboarding their VA, making sure that they set themselves and the VA up for success. So it's hard when you're a single practice owner to have that bandwidth to invest in your VA and that's where we kind of see things go a little awry. Oftentimes they can figure it out and work through those growing pains, but there's definitely some growing pains initially when you are trying to invest in your VA and it's just everything's kind of on your shoulders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. Tony. What would you describe as like someone who shouldn't hire a virtual assistant, regardless of size? Like who's the person that you're like? No, they're just not a fit. If they come across a call, you know it's not a fit.
Speaker 2:When they just have you know it's not a fit.
Speaker 2:Um, when they just had you know they're, they feel very scatterbrained, they don't know, um, how they they're like, I can figure it out, I'll figure out how to train somebody, but they don't even have anything like written out or any processes in place. Like whenever you don't have anything organized or you're not quite sure how you would be even training someone in person, you're, I would say that you're not ready. I usually will sit and have a conversation with that person and help them kind of gather their thoughts on what they're looking for and where they do need to be freed up, and it's like, okay, let's start here and start making lists of things that need to be taken off your plate and then go step by step on what you need to do so that you can start hitting that one by one rather than trying to do it all at once, because that's when you'll make. That's when you'll make strides is whenever you do things one at a time, one thing at a time yeah, these are smaller practices, maybe not people who've never really hired and trained before.
Speaker 1:Is what you're referring? To, because there is a difference between someone who's never worked with a virtual assistant, not knowing how to bring them on, versus someone who just doesn't know how to hire and train at all, and and I think that's the delineation, because everyone who's who's starting with virtual assistants have to start somewhere, and that's where we support them.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely. And I and I want to be clear because I want to go back to what Kayla said there are some private practice owners that come and get one VA with us and they start out. They are, they might be a little bit scattered, but they're like like, I need to do it because I don't have any other help. Right, I'm going to figure this out, but they are the person that will fit.
Speaker 2:They figure it out right there are a few of those people that come in. They're like, tell me what to do and I'm going to do like I'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:They're trainable, they're coachable because, absolutely, absolutely. But if you're coming in and, um, it's something that you, maybe you, you don't have your hands on and you're not quite sure if you want to adjust or be able to be, to learn new processes, to be able to bring someone in, usually you're not quite ready and you just need to step back and start organizing it. You might need a little bit of coaching, like a little coaching to get your work with a coach, so that you can get things organized to be able to take that step, to get the help that you need.
Speaker 1:I love that. So yeah, as we're focusing on this episode more of multi-location private practices, I think it was good just to highlight, hey, who's not a fit for virtual assistants in general. And then you have this delineation of the differences between small private practices that are doing well with their one to three virtual assistants versus your like seven to 20 or larger private practices that have multiple locations and how they implement that.
Speaker 1:So I like that. Tony, you were talking about team being one of the main things that has delineated that, so let's talk a little bit about what that looks like. If someone's listening to this episode and they have multiple locations, what do we, what do you guys tell them Like when they're just kind of exploring the space, what do you tell them that helps them understand and give an idea of what that could even look like Like. What does it look like with some of your clients that have dozens of virtual assistants? Like how, how does that look for them?
Speaker 3:I don't know if this will necessarily answer your question, but I think where we've seen larger private practice teams be successful is they really hone in on specific skills for their VAs and kind of build a team around that. So instead of hiring somebody to handle a broad range of tasks that they may or may not be proficient in, I think where we've seen a lot of success with these larger teams is that they've kind of put their teammates in silos and kind of given them specific responsibilities to handle and like that's where they want them to be proficient, and not trying to be kind of a jack of all trades.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny because I think a lot of times you know people forget that it's just like hiring another human being just like hiring another human being, Like if I hired an American to come in my clinic and to be a little bit front desk and a little social media and a little bit of that, they are going to not succeed nearly as well as hiring specifically for one hat. What were you gonna say?
Speaker 2:Ty. Well, these VAs come in and they have expertise in a specific area. Like we have whenever we talk to clients and potential clients on our calls or on my discovery calls. It's like these are the five areas that you know we go and find these expertise in Right. Um, I would say I'm going to go back a little bit and talk a little bit about one other thing that's important to come in, like cause it's going to touch on what Kayla just said um, that won't work. Like, people come in and they want someone that can do all of the things right, they want someone that can not only verify insurance but they can do social media content creation.
Speaker 1:Answer the phones and do a little bit of billing.
Speaker 2:Yes, and billing full-cycle billing that typically doesn't work because we don't find those unicorns often. Can you find someone that's really good at medical billing, has a knowledge of verification, that's trainable, that might be younger and want to help out and learn those things? Yeah, it's rare, but they would. They have to be like oh yes, I want to learn this, or I can help you out with posting social media, too, as well. That's one other thing that we do have an issue with. Is people coming in expecting this unicorn to be found?
Speaker 2:when we can't find that even here in the States, right? So I have to be able to explain that to people that we are going to find experienced VAs in the main daily tasks that you're looking for. So again, going back to those teams, so you may need help with your social media growing and your marketing to get your brand out there and get your private practice out there more. That's a VA, that's one VA right, and then having someone come in and work the front desk that's doing phones and verifications and you're training them up on authorization.
Speaker 1:That's another VA. Yeah, what are the main VAs? Let's get that over, because maybe someone who has 10 locations has never hired a single VA, so they might not even know what VAs can do. So what are the teams you talked about? Hiring in silos? Better said is like that specific role, you guys hire for specific roles.
Speaker 2:What are the?
Speaker 1:most successful roles that you've hired VAs for, especially in multi-location practices.
Speaker 2:So one would be front desk and we kind of group that together with just answering phones, verifications, authorizations, usually patient intake things like that.
Speaker 1:All things I mean we patient facing and non-patient facing both, it sounds like for that one front desk role Correct.
Speaker 2:And then there's the full cycle medical billing. So that person comes in with experience being able to, you know, do all things full cycle medical billing. They typically aren't ones that want to be patient-facing.
Speaker 3:I was just going to say those are two separate. They are Because a lot of these medical billers are so used to just kind of being on the back end. They don't want to be patient-facing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and isn't it true that the front desk roles are more of a sales position? You want that higher personality.
Speaker 2:It is For sure. How do?
Speaker 1:you scan for that Because you're over ops, so you're the one who's overseeing all of the details of finding the peeps, and you've got an incredible background of helping multi-location practices directly before you join Virtual Rockstar. So how do you find that ideal front desk role?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I think it comes down to somebody that maybe does have some sales background in them or customer service.
Speaker 3:Oftentimes we'll look for people who have been a CSR with other BPO companies Client relations specialist. Is that what that is? Customer service rep? So yeah, so they're coming in and they already have that ability to you know kind of diffuse, you know situations to handle, you know things with grace. Um, so oftentimes like that's like the big thing that we're after, if it's a patient facing position, is somebody who has great customer service, somebody who's got a great personality, very bubbly, very passionate about what they're doing.
Speaker 2:So that kind of fits that mold. The other three areas that we hire virtual assistants in, so we said front desk medical billing. We do bookkeeping. We actually have a few bookkeepers on staff that, just that, are phenomenal with their clients. We do social media and marketing. So we've got a lot of VAs that have come in and worked with some of our partners that literally run and grow their social media.
Speaker 1:That's been big for me, if I can jump in, like for me having this podcast. For example, we're posting four short videos every day across every channel, in addition to email marketing and all the things, because that, to me, is one of the least tapped in the private practice space. It's one of the least tapped opportunities that virtual assistants can just explode. They've been so big for us, haven't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then the final one is a personal or executive assistant, which I think and challenge me here if I'm wrong in this I think that that executive and personal assistant can bleed into those other roles, whereas the other ones can't bleed into certain roles. So you can't do social media marketing with a front desk person because they're not going to be able to verify insurance and do social media at the same time because they're two completely different roles, but the executive and personal assistant can bleed into those other roles.
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. Oftentimes it's like administrative tasks, kind of back-end things, and just talking to them and seeing their willingness to step in and kind of take on other responsibilities just to help streamline operations, and someone that's truly an executive assistant and has experienced it being an executive assistant.
Speaker 2:They're used to coming in and flexing and doing whatever it is that the person that they are are working for needs right.
Speaker 1:That's probably the most significant like personal hire that I've had over cause we worked. You know, I hired over 50 medical billers for my old medical billing company directly overseas, um, which is what started the foundation of virtual rockstar. But it wasn't until Kim came along and started managing my emails and my calendar.
Speaker 1:That was such a personal thing because and by the way, it elevates the brand when someone's reaching out to an owner and they have somebody as an intermediary. It takes some training there that we provide, but it's one of those things that like having that in place is like the best secret that no one even knows that they need is a personal assistant who controls your calendar and your email.
Speaker 2:That's actually one of the fastest growing calls that I've been dealing with lately is people coming to me wanting to be freed up, and I've actually heard yesterday. I don't ever want to touch or look at an email again.
Speaker 1:I haven't gotten to that point, but it's gone from three hours to 30 minutes. That's what I said.
Speaker 2:That's what I said. I was like well, what if I could get you down to maybe 30 minutes? They were like I'll take it, I'll absolutely take it.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's actually one of the fastest growing discovery and I'll challenge that executive assistant is one of the harder ones for us to be really successful with. Yes, because they're so involved in, you know, the, the partner's daily lives and communication and it's it's. It's a tough one to get right and I think just our, our listeners, our potential partners, just have to be understanding that like it may take a couple of times to get it right, but once you find your person, like once you find your Kim um, I mean it will change, change your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it reminds me of Avatar, where you have that person riding the horse and their hair connects to the yes. It's like you have to have that right match, yeah, otherwise it doesn't fit. And that's where it's so funny. When people are looking at virtual assistant companies and they're trying to save money, they make the mistake of trying to go with the company that's paying the charges the least. You know, the company that's paying the charges the least. You know, that company that's charging anywhere between eight and $11, they're high. That means they're paying people between one and three, maybe $5, an hour, whereas you guys are paying your people anywhere between six and 10, actually seven to seven, seven to nine or 10.
Speaker 1:So you, guys are in that position, so tell me, what does it? So what's? Let's look. Let's look at the end in mind. You have a multi-location practice that you're working with and you have a number that you work with currently. Let's start with how do you start working with those owners on helping understand what that looks like, what the vision is of hiring?
Speaker 2:Truly, it honestly starts with that call, the discovery call with me and I sit down and I find out what they're looking for and what their needs are, and then that's where we collaborate with them. We find out, um, you know what, how they're set up right now, like, how are you currently set up? Um, for instance, we have a current partner that has the largest number of VAs with us. They have six locations. Uh, hired 15 virtual assistants with us all at once.
Speaker 1:So they hired 15 virtual assistants in one pop.
Speaker 2:One go.
Speaker 1:How long did it take for you guys to hire for that?
Speaker 3:It was a few round of group interviews, but I think, when all was said and done, it took us two to three weeks to Two to three weeks to hire 15 people?
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:And this is where the success came in this partner. Already they had their how they wanted to train these people. They already knew how they were going to bring this team on right and they're fully virtual. They don't have any front desk team members, nobody in person.
Speaker 1:So they were already using kiosks. They were already using kiosks and those types of things for people to run with it.
Speaker 2:Correct, so they did have that aligned no-transcript in going.
Speaker 1:Okay, we know how to hire for these roles.
Speaker 2:And with us going back to the avatar, where we want to find the right fit right. That's where this team was different, during their hiring process as well. They wanted to make sure that each and every virtual assistant they brought on was going to be a culture fit for their team to make a difference with their, with their patients at their clinics.
Speaker 3:So it was a completely different interview process than anything I'd ever done before, because they asked a couple questions about their technical skills, but they really honed in on like is is this person going to be a good culture fit for our team? Are they going to mesh well with our providers?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:And I just was like blown away by the way that they structured like their questions and how they engaged with the candidates. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because normally we help provide that gap right. You know, at Virtual Rockstar, you guys are in that process of filling in that gap culturally speaking. Virtual Rockstar, you guys are in that process of filling in that gap culturally speaking. So this is something I think is a lesson for anyone who's listening is that Rockstars, if you're hiring a virtual assistant, you have to treat them like you'd hire any American. I think that's a big gap in people's understanding. Is they're just people, they're just on a screen, versus physically there. There's very little difference otherwise. And when we hire for culture, we hire for success, we hire for mindset, we train on skill set. What you guys do is so amazing because you find the best skill set, align people and even some cultural. But that's where the owners I think in this group, obviously from what you're saying, kayla did so well is that they hired based on culture and screened them in that way.
Speaker 2:When you hire that way and you hire based on culture and you are focusing on finding a fit that matches with your team, that you currently have longevity, that you're going to have longevity there and those VAs that are on the other side of the world, you know, it helps them feel like they are a part of your team. So that I personally feel like is such a huge thing, especially working with us at Virtual Rockstar, because we're so value orientedoriented and we live by our values and these VAs represent us. We want them to be placed with partners that we're working with that feel the same way. That's what's a good fit for us. That's amazing.
Speaker 3:I think the other really neat thing that this particular partner did was they kind of grouped their teams together, their teams of VAs. They grouped them together based on, like their personality. They took into consideration the personality of the providers at the particular clinic that they were working with, the patients that they would be engaging with. So they really went the extra mile to make sure that they were placing each of their VAs in a position to be successful and to really feel like they were a part of that team and feel like they fit in.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:And they also did pods. So they had the team that was front desk patient facing basically, so they were on the kiosks. They were the ones that are the teams in each location because they had four different pods. I believe it is for the six locations that they had that would be answering the check-ins for all the patients and having fun getting to know their patients coming in. And then they had that would be answering the check-ins for all the patients and having fun getting to know their patients coming in.
Speaker 1:And then they had the teams that are verifications and authorizations, and then they had a team lead from the Philippines as well, which is a different angle, I'm guessing, because obviously, when someone's hiring two or three, they're not looking at hiring a leader of a team.
Speaker 2:So they didn't just hire teams, tony, they hired a leader for the team, absolutely yeah, so they do have a leader, which is also through us, and she helps manage the whole team just to make sure the efficiency things are flowing. If issues pop up or if someone's out sick, that team member steps in and helps out.
Speaker 1:That must have been the biggest game changer from my perspective, because that leader is in the position of like helping bridge the gap of this company. Learning how to it's not a hard muscle, but it is a different muscle to develop. Learning to work with VAs.
Speaker 1:So, this, when they're hiring that many especially because this company had worked with VAs before having a leader I'm sure was wonderful, because not only were they hiring this person to oversee that team, but they were also kind of that like gap in that train onboarding process of helping bridge for both sides. Hey, this is what we need in this slightly different scenario of being virtual. Yeah absolutely, how did you guys?
Speaker 2:find the leader. They were actually already on our team, so they were a part of another client and they were in a position where they wanted to grow and wanted to be a leader, and she was phenomenal. She was one of our top VAs within the company.
Speaker 1:So that was neat because you already had a proven leader of leaders that was vetted through the company, so you weren't finding an unknown entity, which makes a lot of sense. I love that idea because it provides, obviously, that virtual assistant growth paths within virtual rockstar. So they're not just like but. But the only concern I have is like, how did that handle for the person who was?
Speaker 2:you know, I'm guessing that it was a smaller practice that had that VA.
Speaker 1:Did that feel like a kick to them, Like what was that like for them?
Speaker 2:You know what? Um, probably, initially they were a little bit bummed, but at the same time we found them a kick butt replacement.
Speaker 3:And she's fully happy. The replacement that we hired was a referral from the VA she was losing.
Speaker 1:Oh so the person you had promoted found her own replacement. So is that relationship still active? It is, and it's great, oh my gosh. It is, and that's great, oh my gosh. So what? So what a wonderful thing that there's this opportunity for growth and um allowing the VAs to scale without causing any problems for this smaller client that is one thing that we that I feel like we do a little bit differently at Virtual Rockstar Our team is our family, like they are our VAs.
Speaker 2:We love each and every one of them and they know that if they wanted, you know, bigger opportunities and to be able to grow and become a leader that, as we bring on other partners and that have these larger, have multiple clinics that are going to be hiring multiple VAs at once, then they have the opportunity to interview for something like that If the, if the partners agree to it, so Okay.
Speaker 1:This is awesome. Before we, before we go into more implementation cause, I think multi-location practices are listening, really taking a lot out of this. Let's cut right to the end. That client how long have they been in the? How are things going with that client? Like a current status update? How is that client doing now that they've been with the company for months and months? The larger client right, yes, okay, the one we're using is kind of a case study.
Speaker 2:Really, really well. You know, there's, there are always. Nothing's ever perfect, Nothing is ever like. This is a people business.
Speaker 1:So every single person who was hired initially is still on team the majority.
Speaker 2:Yes, like all of their patient patient facing team members are there and they've done a wonderful job with them. Um, we had to um replace a few.
Speaker 3:we've had to replace a few on the verifications team, but it was all for the better and yeah sometimes it was due to, like, performance issues but and sometimes it was just personal things where the VA had to step out. So yeah, I mean that's gonna happen regardless if you're working with a VA or if you're working with somebody on-site. It's just kind of part of part of the deal and so. But it's never like deterred them and like thought that they made a mistake and kind of going this direction.
Speaker 3:They understood and they're like all right, let's just, let's find our next VA and just move forward.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is we've spent so much time in the beginning getting to know the partners. We knew exactly what they were looking for, so the process to find a different VA for one that doesn't work out is much quicker at that point because we know what they're looking for. We know what they want. We go out, we source and find a couple of rock stars that are amazing and schedule one-on-ones with the partners and that's also efficient as well and they're not having to spend as much time. They trust us because they know we know what they're looking for at that point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's neat. You have such a broader or deeper relationship with these larger clients, so it makes it easier for you to pivot. It's interesting that you I would thought it would have been harder to hire that many VAs, but it was actually easier, because it's about 80% of the lifting to get to one person that it does to get to 10. And, you know, not everyone starts this way, of course, and we'll talk about that. But let's continue to talk about, like, how things are going. Obviously, I'm interviewing both of you because you're, you guys are are running, you know, virtual rockstar, but from his perspective, the owner of the company, do you have an idea of how much money he's saving?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I do. That's the part of the business that I know.
Speaker 1:So he is saving over a quarter of a million dollars a year. He's saving a quarter of a million and how are his results? Are they the same as having Americans worse or better?
Speaker 2:Oh better. They absolutely love their VAs. All of their patients get to know each one of them. Something cool that they do they put bios up of all of their VAs for each one of the locations, so their patients are involved.
Speaker 1:This company was such a great company to do this with because they understand culture. They really brought these VAs in, yeah Like introduced them as equals and family members.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very cool. And I think the great thing that you did is so, tony, and even Will, I think, initially did like weekly meetings with this team just to make sure that they were comfortable, you know, with this new system and just making sure, yeah, that they had our support and like we were there to jump in if they needed to pivot in any way, and so I think that was huge as well, just to kind of build that relationship and that trust between the partner and virtual rockstar, our leadership team.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about that. What was the onboarding differential between this multi-location business compared to like a single location? What additional things did you do or consider?
Speaker 2:So we did weekly meetings with them. For how long Leading? And we're still doing meetings, but they're not weekly anymore, they're monthly, just because we have such a wonderful relationship with them.
Speaker 1:It's more to say hi. It's a lot more of this like personalized relationship, and that's me with them yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, but initially we did weekly meetings all the way up until two months ago and, um, it was check-ins and some of them were just high and we would. We would all giggle on the phone and just like catch up because things were going going great. And then other weeks, like this little issue came up with our VoIP system or this issue came up with, um, one of our team members and we would all collaborate. That's where we are. Different is where we're like, we're we. We may not do all of the training for you, right, but we are there to support and guide and help you talk through how to do it and what's the best way to do it with your VA.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like you guide in strategy, you guide in customer service on steroids. It's really a big difference, I think, and you can provide that with those multi-location businesses because you're effectively influencing dozens of virtual assistants through those discussions, so that half hour it provides a lot of personal hands-on that you just can't do otherwise.
Speaker 2:Right, and one other thing that we did that was different is we actually had someone fly out and help out with implementation.
Speaker 1:Well, that's something, and that's something I'm happy to do. So, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:The day that they launched this, they were they were concerned about messaging with their team and so I had the great privilege of going to New Hampshire and, oops, I can say that I can say that one part that's not too bad. But I flew out there and went clinic to clinic and introduced the company and the VAs and I did it in a really fun, connecting way and I think that's again, that's the kind of impact I know that virtual rock stars always wanted to make, is that deep impact and it's, by the way, it's still there with smaller practices. But today's episode is just talking to differential between small, one to three locations versus six to 60, is that you get to a scalability where the impact can be big. So, yeah, I love, I love that experience and it personalized it and, to be honest, it allows me to have a more personal connection as well. I can text the individual and check on dozens of VAs versus you know having to reach out to dozens of partners for a dozen VAs.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So not only though these partners do they love you know their VAs and are they saving a quarter of a million dollars a year going this way, but they have such huge hearts will like they are. They adore and love their team and they are pulling so many families out of poverty and they know that and they're able to help all these families in the Philippines and these team members of theirs. They are a part of the family, of that that partner I want to keep saying that to myself, but yes, they are.
Speaker 2:They feel like they're a part of that. That family and um. These partners literally like open. They have their arms wide open to them so they don't make them feel like they're on the other side of the world yeah, one thing that they've just started doing is doing like, uh, monthly recognitions for their vas.
Speaker 3:so if a va in the last month has gone above and beyond, they're now doing like public recognition of them and we're sharing that with the rest of our team, our 160 virtual assistants, and so it's just nice for them to feel like they're appreciated and they are. They're just one of the team. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it. You know, almost a year ago I was in Africa with my family and I learned about the different types of poverty, because there's financial poverty that we're all aware of, but there's social poverty, there's leadership neglect, there's all these elements, and so I love that this has become a vehicle for private practice owners to impact people financially. I don't think they realize that. Well, I mean a lot of companies that are paying their people $3 to $5 an hour they're helping, but they're not really bringing them out of poverty. When that are paying their people $3 to $5 an hour, they're helping, but they're not really bringing them out of poverty.
Speaker 1:When we're two to three times that these people cry when they get hired, it is such a big deal that this company they saved a quarter of a million dollars of profit, by the way that's profit in the owner's pocket per year for better results. But when you ask this individual, that's not what they care about. No, I mean from a business perspective, they're like, yeah, that's logical, but what they love is the fact that the VAs that they're hiring they're changing those lives in a dramatic way. And then the thing that I've heard from multiple people as well, is they love how people show up to work like it is life-changing money and it rises the tide of commitment and work ethic across the company, with Americans and Filipinos.
Speaker 1:And so I love that you're creating this movement mission and, just to be clear, there's multiple companies that you guys work with that have 10, 20 more locations. We're just using this as an example for one case of someone who just went all in from the beginning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would love to use this as a segue to go into, like another model that we look at because there are. That was that was one example. Right, they had multiple locations and they hired them all at once. We have another partner, that um. They started with two um and now they have seven. Seven, and and this was more of a model where they had two openings and then, as they naturally had other positions become open is how they brought more VAs on with us. Their company has grown, so they have a new location.
Speaker 3:I think they have another one that's kind of in the works and so their company is growing and they're excited about bringing additional VAs on. This is another team that kind of goes above and beyond for their VAs and has tried to look into ways that they could provide health insurance for their VAs. They offer PTO, which not all of our partners do.
Speaker 3:So these VAs, they're accumulating PTO as they, you know as they spend more time with the company and so they're all in and I love working with them because they're so bought in, they're so invested in their VAs and their VAs are doing incredible yeah they're happy.
Speaker 2:Talk about retention. You're saving money and you're creating an amazing work environment. You're getting great support for your in-person team because these larger companies have managers that are over these VAs. That are the direct reports for these VAs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:So, taking a lot of these admin tasks and things off of the plates of your managers, your managers are happier you know and um, and they, they had everything lined up on how they were, how they would be, um, training these VAs in Right, so they were prepared ahead of time. Um, but they, they took their time like working on it, and I would say, within see how long has that partner been with us.
Speaker 3:Probably close to a year.
Speaker 2:Okay, I mean they started with two and they have seven Within a year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so there's different. The two models I'm hearing are all in and or scaling as you grow. Yeah, you know, what would you recommend to a company that has 20 locations? What would you recommend between those two models If they had their systems in place, a strong culture, and they had an opportunity? Because here's the thing is. I know one of the barriers is that you have a mix of people. There's people that you like, there's people that you would replace as an owner, right, but let's just say that there's an opening there to do a. You know they would be flexible either way on that. What would you recommend?
Speaker 2:Honestly, I would say all in at this point, Because if you have like 20 locations, um, you already have your systems in place. You know how you're going to be training. Get the teams on at the same time, train them at the same time. You find who's your strength and you're go into it with a mindset of knowing that you're going to replace a few right, because not everybody's perfect right. So you're going to go into it, you, you're training them at the same time and then if you have a couple stragglers over here, it's like okay, here we are, we're going to replace and find and find some people to to top grade and bring in the ones that will help with the, the productivity better.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, yeah, there's benefit in both um I think that there's benefit in kind of bringing an entire team together and, like you said, I mean just efficiency with training. I mean there's absolutely benefit with that um, but some are a little bit more, you know kind of want to dip their toes in first and kind of get just get a feel for it and see how they would manage you know a virtual assistant, and so I think that there's there's benefits and there's pros and cons to both. Oftentimes we'll go into group interviews and you know they're looking for one VA and they visit with a group of candidates.
Speaker 1:That happens a lot.
Speaker 3:They're like well, I think I'm going to hire all three. I'm like, okay, you know, and they find a way, because they're so culture aligned with these VAs that they're like I could see every single one of these like being part of our team, and so they end up hiring three when they thought they were hiring one. So that's kind of cool to see, too, where they're like oh well, they're more strong in this area, so they could come in and be successful here, and I see this one operating on this team, and so that's yeah.
Speaker 2:We have a large number too, of of partners that have started with one and then they've come back and said, oh, this is so great, like we want to grow and bring on another VA. Like we had someone naturally leave right, someone put their notice in and um, we want to replace them with a VA, like we will have a savings and we're going to have a great team member. So that's something that has grown heavily too and, honestly, we see that a lot often where we have partners coming to us being like oh, tony, we want to bring another person on and we get super excited. That's like the number one way of being, like we are making a difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And they love what we do and they love these VAs, right. So that, like just, is such a feel good. I love waking up and getting an email from a partner saying they're ready for another one.
Speaker 1:They're like yeah point I do want to make and I appreciate you guys saying that, because I think you're right. I think, based on the size of the company and their culture and their need, there might be an opportunity to do massive hiring. I think what's cool is that you guys know how to do that. Like if you had a 20 location company, you'd probably pilot first in a couple of locations, but you would also make sure that there's all these white gloving elements of like flying out to the team to help them understand and culturally buy in, because that is a big shift. And I remember, by the way, as a side note on that, I remember telling the owner hey, everything we're doing is a pilot. This is one of our selling techniques at virtual rockstart is that we say try before you buy, sign up, there's no long contracts, you can literally exit any time. So let's pilot it and tell the team we're piloting it and sell it from a place of like. Listen, guys, this isn't us outsourcing to someone who doesn't speak good English and our customers are feeling a lesser experience. We're doing this to bring people out of poverty, to increase our impact and, yes, our revenue, because greater revenue means greater opportunities for raises. There's a whole messaging thing that goes with this when we're talking about larger scale companies to help that adapt into their culture. But it's the second fastest growing trend in healthcare next to AI, for a reason. So people are going to pivot or they won't.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to today's episode. As a thank you, I have a gift. In today's show notes there's a link for you to join the Stress-Free PT newsletter. This is a comedy newsletter for anyone who works in healthcare and of course, we're going to have comedy bits. We're going to have inspirational stories, leadership tidbits. It's going to be a weekly newsletter just to lighten your week, to help you do what you love with more passion. So click that link below and join that newsletter and we'll see you in our next episode.
