Redefining Efficiency: Le-an Lai Lacaba's Approach to Virtual Assistance

In this episode sponsored by Freedom Federal Credit Union, Rich Bennett and Le-an Lai Lacaba explore the transformative role of virtual assistants in today's business landscape. They delve into Le-an's personal journey, highlighting how virtual assistance can revolutionize work efficiency and business growth, providing valuable insights for entrepreneurs looking to leverage remote work for success.

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Transcript

Rich Bennett 0:00
Thanks for joining the conversation. So today I have Liane Lyla Kaba. She's a visionary co-founder of Two Times U, an acclaimed Outsource firm that transforms how entrepreneurs run their businesses. Starting her remote work journey at 15. You heard me right. 15. And becoming a CEO by 20. That's 20 years old. LeAnn has always been ahead of the curve. She co-founded two times a year with an ambitious goal to boost 10,000 businesses remotely and usher 1 million Filipinas into the work from home era. Beyond her corporate achievements, she's a dedicated coach on YouTube, training virtual assistants and is a recognized international speaker and content creator. So join us as we delve into Leann's profound insights on the world of virtual assistants. And for all of you running a business, especially you entrepreneurs and solopreneur. You can see how important or find out how important it is to hire a virtual assistant. So how are you doing, LeAnn? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 1:08
How good Rich? It's funny because here in the Philippines, it's actually already 11 p.m.. So like, but I had coffee at 6:00 so I can be here. So I'm wide awake still. I was strategic on my coffee. 

Rich Bennett 1:22
Yeah. 

Geez. All right. So I want to start from the beginning at 

1515. Really? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 1:32
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 1:33
How did that come about? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 1:35
Well, 

I got. I felt like I was kind of part of my intro. I've always been kind of a very much an early adopter. Like, I'm very, very curious about almost everything that I can come across with and I came across this blog spot, which is now Blogger, and I came across it when I was bored out of my mind on a summer as teenagers usually are, and I got a laptop as a graduation gift because here in the Philippines it used to be that we graduated high school around 15 or 16 and I got a laptop as a high school graduation gift. I was online. It was the Internet, it was cool. And I started blogging. And then I found this Facebook group that did the comment for comment kind of thing. 

One of the people who we did the comment for comment things said, Hey, look, I really like the way that you write. Can you do ghostwriting for me for my blog? And I was like, What the heck is that? But yeah, sure. So that's actually how it and like PayPal wasn't even really a thing in the Philippines. Work from home wasn't really a thing in the Philippines. I used to borrow basically a PayPal account from a relative in the US so I can receive money. So that's kind of logically how I started. And then I started getting local gigs, which was of course easier for payment, but that's actually how I got started, was like one of the people who saw my blog post said, Can you write for me? And I'm like, Sure, I have no idea how to do that, but I'll figure it out. So yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:59
All right. So that was at 15, and yet it's one of you being you became a CEO of your own company. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 3:06
So it wasn't my own company. So like basically, Oh. 

Rich Bennett 3:10
Wait a minute, it wasn't your own company. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 3:12
That the at 20 it wasn't really my own company. So the 15 years old did the writing, did graphic work, video editing, did anything that I could any gig I could land on basically, mostly just for fun. And I landed this book editing gig, which is I'm a huge bookworm. So that was my dream job, was to be paid. 

Rich Bennett 3:30
Okay. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 3:30
At books. And the founders of the company flew to the Philippines because they wanted to start a war Companies basic in the Philippines. And I was 19 years old and I was working with them for over a year and they said, okay, we're starting this software development company. The current person who's running the publishing company, they're going to spearhead that. So I need to train someone to be a CEO who wants to do it. 19 year old me, you know, I had enough, literally nothing to lose. I raised my head. I'm like, I love books. Sure. So I basically went through CEO training for a year. And then at right after I turned 20, was named CEO for the company. So it was a startup company. It was like two years old. I when I entered it. So it was like going on three and then, yeah, that's basically how I got the gig. I just literally raised my hand, have the courage to do it. And then when I was a part of AI stories, of course when I was 23, I got to the point of like, Hey, I want to have my own company partnered up with my boss. And then that's how I started to you. 

Rich Bennett 4:39
Wow. Okay, so with Oh, yeah, that's amazing. First of all, I don't know many 20 years, 20 year actually, I don't know of any 20 year old CEOs that were CEO for another company, not their own company. That's amazing. So, all right. Did you go to school for any, like, business management or anything? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 5:02
No, not at all. I was taking communication arts major in theater 

when my. 

Rich Bennett 5:10
Wife. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 5:12
And I technically. Well, not exactly. I dropped out of college for another story. Speaking of typhoons, I almost died in one of the typhoons. Got really bad. PTSD, left my hometown, didn't want to go back to college, hence why I got the gig doing the book editing gig. So that's kind of like part of that story was speaking of typhoons, I did almost die on ten years ago, hence where brought me to the life that I 

have. 

Rich Bennett 5:42
You ever thought about writing a book about your life story? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 5:45
It's like if I write what it's going to be so interesting, but I am writing. I'm writing two books at the same time right now. One for people who want to hire a virtual assistant, one for people who do want to become virtual assistant. So a balancing both. And then I'll probably write my own book about my life, but that will come soon because I keep making it interesting. 

Rich Bennett 6:04
Wow. Okay, I am. Yeah. God, you're amazing. Okay, so with the virtual assistants, first of all, explain to everybody what a virtual assistant is. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 6:18
So a virtual assistant, the easiest way I always explain it to people is imagine like just an in-person secretary. But then, of course, they're far away from you. So the example I love using is the movie The Devil Wears Prada with like Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, where she has a few different assistants. You know, she had Emily Blunt character, basically, and then Anne Hathaway. And you are mostly looking for someone who is your Emily Blunt tool group filters people through you who managed just kind of almost operations for your business. Meanwhile, if you do need like a like a a Anne Hathaway character who runs around and that's a different need, basically, if you need basic is someone who's more of an in-person assistant, but an executive assistant or virtual assistant who's far away from you takes care of everything else remotely. And because of technology nowadays can manage deliveries, can manage like getting food to you and or finding you a gym. But that's primarily like how I explain Virtual assistant is someone who can handle a lot of your own focus and focus where you are versus like when you hire an operations manager, they're focused on their operations. But as my always perfect example, as well as my own assistant, if I'm focusing on the sales side of the business, she's focused on the sales side of the business. If I'm focused on marketing, she's focused on marketing. So it's kind of like it's why we're called to see you because we get you a second brain. So that's kind of the main way that I think of our virtual assistants versus like how people would describe it. 

Rich Bennett 7:47
Okay. And one of the things that I mentioned in the beginning was that you were into Usher, 1 million Filipinos into the work. From whom ever have you going there? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 7:58
I've I've it's. 

Rich Bennett 8:00
Okay. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 8:01
It's a one where I that's why we have boxes that way because my I grew up with my mom mostly in a government job. So like, there was even time where she was assigned to an office. Where would we only see her twice a week on the weekends? And then my dad worked overseas for most of my life is for Filipinos. It used to be that one of the fastest ways you can provide for your family for a really good life was to work overseas. Of course, like the dollar amount converted, Philippine peso was really big, so I would only see my dad once or twice a year. So when I was 15 years old and I found out that, you know, you can work from home, that has become kind of a click in my head. And then it became more prevalent when my sisters turned 15 and I was like 20, 23 and they wanted to get started and now my sisters are also like virtual assistants or graphic artist. So like, they have so many options for them because I've been able to lead them through that path. So it became stronger advocacy for me because in the Philippines, if you teach one old elder sister or you teach one mom how to do it, they're going to teach everyone else. So even though, like on my agent, I have like 18,000 subscribers on there ticked off is like 44. I'm still looking at the the every single person in two weeks. You I now know that everyone else that in their family their friends they're recruiting into like working from home same thing that every every single person watches like my YouTube videos they're telling other people like hey, it's possible to work from home. So that's where that love and advocacy comes from me. And of course, then when I started to see why I wanted to teach other people how to hire people remotely, hence how the company got started. 

Rich Bennett 9:38
Wow. Okay. So because I've always been when the virtual assistants started coming about and this is something I've told my daughter, she I'll look into becoming because you're seeing the field growing and growing. It used to be back in the day when I was in the i.t field, 

they didn't, they didn't want anybody working from home. They wanted you in the office. But this work from home thing, especially since COVID, you're seeing it grow more and more. And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you seeing the rise of virtual assistants more and more? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 10:21
Oh yeah. And it's, it's become more obvious to everyone else that it can be done work from home and like for two weeks we've been purely remote. Like we started the company with the intention of being fully remote. I but, but I made it to a point where we were still kind of hiring. So kind of locally, like we can fly people within an hour in the Philippines. So it's a small enough country. If we wanted to like two days ago, we had our company Christmas party, you know, all 20 plus people were all the same place. It was fun. There was like one of our games was we put like a red solo cup on our heads and everyone else else had to knock everyone. It was like, Bitches and like fun and everything else because it's like we're from home can be hard and lonely. So like, we add a little bit of that, but it is with the intention that a lot of our employees are moms, so they're able to spend time with their kids. A lot of them, we have a few people who are more night owls, so it's perfect for our American clients. So people are able to choose a lifestyle that they want to instead of being forced into something that they didn't really want to do in the first place. 

Rich Bennett 11:26
Right? Yeah. You scare me for a minute when you said something about the red Solo cup on the on the head, it was again I was thinking, Oh, I know. But at first when you first said, I'm thinking, don't even try it. Don't even tell me you guys played beer pong and put the cups on your head, Although that could be interesting. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 11:45
No, no, it was. It was an empty cup. Everyone had to be creative in order to make sure that it stayed on their head or else they were out of the game. So yeah. 

Rich Bennett 11:53
Oh, I would have won that easily with the with virtual assistants. Can you explain especially to the listeners that are owned their own businesses, what the biggest benefit of hiring a virtual assistant is, let's say, because, you know, virtual assistants do all types of different jobs. Let's go marketing. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 12:18
At a 

always that question. I'm always excited to answer that question. So the biggest benefit for a virtual assistant and I always use just myself as a really good example, is that I am able to do the things that I love that I can focus on because she's taking care of everything else. So I in the last like two days, literally, I have been in a conference. I had a talk yesterday that I'm actually in a different island and I've only worked a total of probably 4 hours in the last two days. And it's mostly because I mostly been working through her. Like any time that I need something, I could just chat things to her. Like, it's a perfect thing. We had to solve the off board one of our clients, and I'm like, Hey, this is happening. Can you coordinate this? And she's like, Yep, I got it. I like. She then talked to our clients success managers talk to the pod, the the manager for the virtual assistant taking care of the virtual assistant along the way. She already knows the systems because that's what we focused on for a time. So that's kind of for me is you get to have the freedom like for me to be able to travel and actually speak in different stages or me to choose what meetings I wanted to go through just because she's taking care of everything else for me behind the scenes. Another perfect example. But this is, of course, if you had an in-person assistant, if she took care of almost everything for the Christmas party, she booked the place she asked me for money on like how much to pay for, like the, the the venue, the food and everything else. She did all that virtually everything else I had to do physically once we actually arrived in the venue. But everything else was taken care of. I hosted just because I love hosting those things, but she gave me the script of what to talk about, to give me the list of games of what we were going to do. And she just took care of all of that for me because she has learned enough about me and what I like to see, what I like to do, focus on that. I get that freedom. So of getting the biggest benefit and like the question, like on the marketing side, she started out as kind of a marketing assistant for me because I produced like a ton of content and a lot of what she she started first to do was just posting content, posting the graphic, and then she started actually creating the graphic. She started loving doing that. Now she's actually writing actual blog posts of like transcribing one of my YouTube videos into a blog post. She posts at me. So now she's she's become the ghostwriter, basically, for me for content to be able to put that just everywhere on medium, LinkedIn, everywhere else. So that's kind of the evolution of where a virtual system can start of just, just maybe posting or things. But then as they get to know you, your voice, what your priorities are, they get to the point where they can be posting on social media or as a blog. 

Rich Bennett 14:59
As you explain to a business. Howard's more cost effective for them to hire a virtual assistant and say a full time employee for that position. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 15:07
So the biggest part of the cost effective ways and I'm not even going to touch to the part where like here in the Philippines is a different minimum wage versus like in the US or different places. The biggest cost effective of it is one, you don't have to get an office, you don't have to pay for rent, you don't have to pay for utilities for them. You don't have to pay for like your transportation or anything else for them, like allowances and things. The other one is depending on which country they're at, they usually will start taking care of their own taxes. There's all taking care of their bills and Social Security and all of that good stuff for us to actually we take care of all of that for for our clients so they don't have to worry about it, but for other costs so that you basically save on most of the time. Virtual assistants are self trained. They've kind of researched and hopefully looked up even my own videos on YouTube on how to get started so you don't have to put in a lot of effort on that. You just have to train them on your systems, of course. And I guess the biggest one is that you don't have to kind of stress having to take care of someone in person, which is always like a different thing when they're like always coming into the office. They might get sick, everyone else might get sick or you might get sick also. So there's different like things that people don't see when it comes to having just a purely virtual system versus like having an in-person employee who comes in the office every single day. 

Rich Bennett 16:25
The other thing is to a I mean, my personal belief is, you know, with the personal office, you're working 9 to 5, a virtual assistant, you're me. If I'm your own business owner, I could be home sleeping and my virtual assistant could be working while I'm sleeping, handling the other things. 

And I think a lot of people don't realize that they miss it. And the other thing now, if your company jerks, you, 

you provide services everywhere throughout the world, right? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 17:03
Oh, yeah. We have we have clients, not surprisingly, primarily in Australia, just because there's a three hour, two hour time difference. So it works for them and of course for our is that means that by two or three of our time they're off work. We have clients from Dubai, applies from the UK. So it is really like everywhere else that we can kind of find a really good match. And to what you were saying about like while you speak, your VA works, like that's kind of one of the things that we tell our clients is like, Hey, your business is kind of 24 hours because your E can respond to emails very, very quickly before like you wake up and take care of things. Before you even wake up. When you wake up, you get like this docket of like, hey, this conversation happened, this email come in. I called up this person. This is what they said. And that basically happened while receiving. That's for a lot of our clients. They wake up like that for especially us clients where when they wake up, they just get this docket from their EHR. They know what to focus on the next day. So even though they might have like an hour just to have a meeting with their E as their days ending and the client stays learning, they're able to keep working async basically with their V.A.. 

Rich Bennett 18:10
And if you can please clarify that. Well, that clarified explained everybody 

hiring a virtual system because a lot of business owners will think of security and they'll think it's not secure to hire or hire a virtual assistant. Explain everybody why it is. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 18:31
Well, there's now a ton of things just because of the pandemic of everything else, of everyone else going remote. There's now a ton of ways that you can keep things secure. One is using tools like auditing or one pass to be able to share passwords with them. They don't really see the passwords. There's tools like for the US called privacy. Com where because you basically you connect to your bank, you create like a virtual card for your VA where they have a limit basically so they can overspend things so only for what you need or that you have to approve of transactions as they come in so you can see them. There's a lot of ways where you can even have we have a couple of clients where their E basically has a remote control to their computers so nothing gets saved to the to the E. A's computer. So everything is just on their computer. With the ease working, they can literally see what they're doing. So depending on, I guess, the level of security that you need for your business, you can customize it with your virtual assistant because then they will feel like, okay, they trust me, but then they know that there's I know I'm touching book. If the various bookkeeping work or handling the different passwords or high level things, you can customize the tools basically they can use, especially now with AI and everything else in between. You can make it secure with your assistant. 

Rich Bennett 19:55
Okay, now another question, because when it comes to content creation, you are the queen of content creation, I believe. Do you? Is that something your V's also offer? Is the content creation, social media, marketing everything for businesses? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 20:10
Yeah. So first thing is we need basically a person to talk about it. So usually I'll lean to the client. I'm like, Hey, do you have any content that the EAA can create things out of? But very that's kind of our one of our main bread and butter. So typically we have clients who look for three, three kind of ideas. First one is that's a very typical just needs a personal E just needs someone to like take care of like booking calendar their life, basically. The second one is what we call a project manager operations. So they take care of they're kind of a little bit more client facing. Most of the time they'll be on call. So follow up them, email the client clients basically. And the third one is a content slash social media assistant where a lot of what they do is based off again, if the client already has their own piece of content, it's repurposing, it's making it pretty, it's putting it in all the platforms. It's creating like a database of content. So you don't post the same thing twice, basically, and maintaining that like I could possibly probably go on and not create content for about a month. And our, our team basically will have more things to keep milking out of. And we've created that, as we call it, our content machine, where there's always going to be pieces of content where even if I do create something new, they'll take care of everything else. 

Rich Bennett 21:31
Okay, so when a company contacts you, what's the steps that you go through? You know, when they're looking for a virtual assistant? Because I'm sure you've come across some companies where it's not a good fit, but what are the steps that you actually go through when when the company calls you for hiring a virtual assistant? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 21:52
So first, the very first thing is I try to see if there's a match on like the kind of aid that they need. So most of the time when people think they need a virtual assistant, they actually need a whole other person in their business. They actually just need a virtual editor on a remote editor. I mean, I sent a graphic artist person, a copywriter. So we're not going to be we're not going to be a match at all because we focus on virtual assistants. The second is we do only hire four full time assistants. And the biggest reason is that when you have a part time assistant, they're never going to be that true. Second brain for you because they're always going to be worried about their next job or their other client. So when you have a more full time, they're only focused on you and your business and what you need. And then we go through this whole process where I try to identify if I usually I describe it is like when you fall from a tree, you start looking at the bleeding arm, but you don't look at the broken bone that might be inside that you don't see. So I try to see what is that broken bone, because some of the time they'll say like, Oh, I just need someone to do for Ivan. I'm like, okay, you need someone to do for Ivan. How would this part of your business or this part of your business and like, Oh yeah, no. Yep, I actually really need a content assistant. So it's, it's, it's kind of diagnosing and seeing which part I really is a problem versus just the surface because in the earlier days of two weeks see what I was just looking at the surface after a few months ones that kind of healed up, the client said, Oh, no worries, I don't need the anymore or the VA anymore. But then they still had underlying things. So I want to catch that as early as I can. And then we go through the whole process of like I interview them, I get to know them and their business. We onboard them into it. We then match them with either an assistant that we might already have or are they what we call our backup, or we actually set up and actually hire someone fresh because they need a certain type of personality. They some of our clients really need someone who's very like talkative, very extroverted and gets them online. And some of them just need a really straightforward person and just that's just it. So we try to match them not just skills wise, but also characteristic. We're wise and personality wise because someone would have like five, ten, 15 years experience, but they're not a match. Like personality wise, that's going to end like a month, not even like a few months within a month. So we try to see that because a lot of people, like I said, just end up just hiring someone with the most experience, but isn't really the kind of person that they needed in the first place. So we try to investigate and navigate through that and actually get them to where they need to be. 

Rich Bennett 24:21
I love that. So you're well, you're interviewing just as if they're coming in to 

work for you, you know, which is good because a lot of businesses don't do that. I should say. Well, a lot of yeah, a lot of businesses that are going to work for other businesses don't do that. They won't. There's they're just thinking of the money's like, oh yeah, we'll work with you know, not everybody's a good fit. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 24:48
We want that long term because we need every single person who gets into to fix you. It takes us like four or six weeks to find that person. So if we find them, we don't want to lose them the next month because he wasn't the right fit for the client. We want to take care of them. I guess part of my own advocacy is making sure that people find I'll work from home long term, not just like, Oh, I work from home for a month. And then I had to go back to the office because it wasn't a match for me, right? We want it to be a lifestyle for them. So it doesn't make sense for me to just like, Oh yeah, we can get that assistant for you. When knowing that we can't really find that good match. They'll be long term now. 

Rich Bennett 25:25
Actually, because with the rise of virtual assistants, you have some that don't work for companies and then of course you have some that work for companies. Can you explain to everybody what's the benefit of hiring a VA that works for a company like yours as opposed to one that doesn't. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 25:48
Versus like just hiring basically a freelancer directly? 

Rich Bennett 25:53
Yeah. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 25:55
So the biggest one is when you're hiring an assistant, especially if you've never done it before. One of the biggest mistakes is they have no idea how to manage. They have no idea how to delegate. They have no idea what they're E or VA needs in the first place. And for us, we've kind of mastered that of like assessing the assistant right in the application stage of, okay, they need the skill, they need this course, they need this book basically, or actually they need to work on this soft skill. They need to work on their communication or their confidence skills. So we're able to assess that ahead. And of course, aside from having to go through hundreds, if not thousands of resumes or people who are just mass sending their resumes as well to people, we filter those people out. We make sure that we assess them, to make sure that the right fit And in the other end is the work doesn't start. When you hired us, when you just start hiring, it's when you actually have this is in for 3 to 6 months and the business starts changing. This business starts growing because you have that other person. We help navigate through that for our clients. So any time that appliances like, Hey, I really want the assistant to start taking over this project, how do I go through that? So then we break it down, we make it easier for them and we have amazing high success managers who we've trained on how to be able to ask really good questions to get the client to get to where they're idea is at. So then once they start talking to the assistant, it's a little bit clearer basically on what the assistant really needs to focus on and do versus like just kind of throwing things and look into the one and see what sticks. We basically support both not just the EHR but the client as well to provide that clarity for the. Yeah. So then of course it makes everything else go round. 

Rich Bennett 27:40
I'm sure that, you know, with all the businesses you've dealt with, have you heard any horror stories from any of them because they used a different VA company than yours or even just a independent virtual assistant that you can share? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 28:02
Oh yeah. I first started doing Sue. There was a kind of pitfalls that I went through even as a Filipino. So there was I didn't know this was a thing at all because of course I was on the good side of the Internet. But when I started the hiring, I didn't know there's a term called the Disappearing Filipino Trick Home. So it was a thing that happened to me where basically so culturally and I'm speaking as a Filipino is we have a little bit our shame culture is a little bit strong. So the moment that we don't know something, rather than asking for help, we we just run away and hide because of how strong our schooling system here is. As well of like if you this the the funny Asian culture of what if you feel like you're you're not welcome at home anymore basically kind of thing like you're you're a woman blah blah blah that kind of thing is very strong within that. So for a lot of Filipinos who don't have that confidence and they go into working from home the moment they don't know something, they will actually disappear. I had that weird experience I wasn't even doing to you yet. I was just helping friends hire a virtual assistant. I was literally on an interview with someone I already interviewed before they were now in an interview with the potential client was who was my friend at the time, and we asked her kind of a semi difficult question. Forget what it was now, and all of a sudden the line was dead and then the person disappeared from the call and was not responding to any of my emails and in my chats. And this was something I already had a conversation with before. So it's actually one. So for us, it tweaks you. We make sure that that doesn't happen because we know what you double check, basically their references and everything else. So that is one that's the biggest one that has happened. It's happened less, especially since people now know that there are resources and things that they can do. But that was one that surprised me when I started, like doing the not even doing Sue yet, but just helping other people hire from the Philippines. 

And there's been so many others of like assistants actually outright stealing the client's business and stealing their clients hearts, the usual kind of business. It will. This happens with like co-founders so often, so access to everything else. So there's a lot so it is kind of a life kind of lost business. 

So but the disappearing Filipino one was the one that surprised me the most. The rest were like, Oh good, that's just business. But that one was like, I understand the culture, but like, wow, that happened to me as a Filipino with another Filipino. That one was the one that surprised me the most. 

Rich Bennett 30:41
And what's it called? The disappearing. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 30:43
What disappearing Filipino trick. I didn't know it was a thing until someone else called it in. I think I read it in a Reddit post because I was trying to like, find like, pitfalls for people, for foreigners who are hiring basically, because for me, I at that point I was hiring Filipinos to work for the publishing company for four years at that point, and I never had that happen. But it was only because they were talking to a foreigner and the foreigner asked like a difficult question. But then they disappeared and I was like, That is so weird. So yeah. 

Rich Bennett 31:15
I cannot wait to talk to my friends that are Filipino. I am like, You shouldn't have told me that because I'm especially my one buddy. I'm going to be dragging 

when it comes to businesses because I want to talk also just about people that want to become a virtual assistant. But when it comes to businesses, is there anything you like to add, especially for a business that wants to hire Visa from you? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 31:41
The biggest thing is like people usually fall into three pitfalls when they're hiring an assistant. First is thinking of their uniform that they're going to do everything in their business. But the reality is they're probably going to focus on just two or three main things in your business, and that's where they're most effective. Just because, of course, as an entrepreneur we were. But Julian Hats doesn't mean that we have to pass all of those bajillion hats to your assistant. That's how you drown them. That's the first pitfall to avoid. The second one is the part where they don't document things in their business or they think that they can just give something the assistant. Then they'll understand it. There's also there's always the importance of taking the time because it is important to teach your assistant how things are done in the business and not just expecting them to know how to do it. Just because they do have experience, because it's always going to look different. So basically first one is tasks. The second one is building systems, the third one is 

the relationship that only grow if you actually put a little bit of effort and feedback into it. Are are the most amazing assistance we've ever had are because their clients give them really good feedback, their clients give them praise or give them redirects if they've done something wrong and they're able to have a good back and forth with their assistant because they put in the effort of instead of thinking like, Oh, this is another employee of mine from like far away that I have never really seen. They put in the effort like, no, I want this person to be my second brain. I want to give in the effort of training them, of becoming their mentor, basic in a way, and putting in a lot of the effort. So then it's easy to go back and forth and be able to build that relationship moving forward, especially if you want it long term. So it's it's that kind of thinking of they're not just another employee you're hiring for hiring an assistant that becomes your second brain. You have to kind of treat them nicely just a little bit nicely because they'll appreciate it for the long term for sure. 

Rich Bennett 33:39
So now when it comes to visas, and correct me if I'm wrong, but all your visas are based in the Philippines, right? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 33:45
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 33:46
Okay. 

What should somebody consider, especially if they want to become a virtual assistant? Because it's not for everybody. Mm. So, so if somebody wants to become a virtual assistant, what are some of the biggest things that you should consider before even applying to become one? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 34:08
I always recommend whenever people are starting to, they say, like Kalia, I really want to start working from home. What kind of job should I start taking? I always recommend doing a virtual assistant role because if you're not sure if you want to be a writer, graphic artist, a marketer salesperson, a virtual assistant role usually opens you up to knowing what it is that you prefer, because most of the time the client basically that you get will have you testing out different parts of the business and then you find something, one of them that you actually love doing. But the things to consider is that if you don't, if you're not the kind of person who likes to study, if you're not the kind of person who likes to grow, if you're not the kind of person who you struggle with doing things on your own, being a virtual assistant just won't be a fit for you. Because when you're a virtual assistant, you have to learn how to figure things out on your own. You have to be willing to grow your own skills day in and day out. It never really stops. And the third one is you need to also learn to deal with not so nice clients because there are out there and like being able to grow a little bit of that confidence and growing of like being the person. Because the funny thing when you're a virtual assistant is instead of your client managing you, you end up managing your client. My guess is that managers me and I never mind it, but she says, okay, 

Liam, stand here. I will stand there if she tells me to do this. I'm like, You know me. You understand me a lot in this way. Like, I will trust you. So that's kind of the role that you are stepping into is like instead of your your client managing you, your client, you're managing that. So you have to grow that confidence. And if it's and I understand a lot of people, that's not something that they want to do, then maybe, maybe trying out virtual assistant find the thing that the role you actually want to do and then pursue that because it is it is demanding, it is uncomfortable because you are becoming a second brain for a person who had to go through that thing, that own growth to be to have them in the first place. So I've seen a lot of people in the last, what, almost five years of like helping other people hire virtual assistants before two weeks. You 

were they quit after like a week or two or a month because they couldn't handle all of that pressure, basically, of being in charge of a person versus being just in charge of another outcome when you're working not as a virtual assistant. So that's the biggest one to keep in mind. 

Rich Bennett 36:37
Actually. What are some of the biggest misconception options about a virtual assistant. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 36:45
Of being one or hiring one? 

Rich Bennett 36:47
Both, actually, both. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 36:50
Well, what I already mentioned was the unicorn thing of like, Oh, I can do everything or I can hire someone to do it. That's the biggest one that I see so many people fall into. The second one, probably on the misconceptions is that the assistant needs to be with you 24 over seven. That's how you bring someone out and that's how you burn yourself out. If you're that virtual assistant, I will do everything for you at any time. You can call me. I always tell our assistants you have to set the boundaries because you could never perform an empty cup. So never expect that. Like they're always going to be around you. 24 seven. Same thing with the assistant and reading. The third one is not thinking long term. Like I'm surprised still of some of our clients where we do talk about the assistant, like working for them like for two years, three years, four years, like for a long term. But then because they didn't put in the work of learning themselves, like how to manage someone, how to delegate someone, that it becomes this fizzled out within within like six months. And same thing with the assistant side is they're thinking, Oh, I'm just doing this for another gig. And then because they've already put in that mindset of like, Oh, this is just another job for me, then they don't go into that growth mode or their growth stage because they've just locked themselves into that. So that that would be a good third. One of like not looking at this is like, Hey, this is something that I can actually keep doing and give me the life that I want because I have this person who has my back as I have their back. 

Rich Bennett 38:22
Now with the growth of podcast, have you been seeing a lot of more, more Vas getting into the field as far as when it comes to podcasts and for like editing? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 38:37
Oh yeah. 

Rich Bennett 38:37
And even, well, definitely the content creation. I know that, but like editing and producing, Oh yeah. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 38:44
There are at least two other in my off the top of my head. Virtual assistant groups are focused on just podcasters too, that I've interviewed. Yeah, two of the interviewed when I first started my YouTube channel when I was interviewing like different virtual assistants, two of them were like, Can I help our clients find the people to interview, schedule them out, make sure that they actually show up, sending off the the video to either video it or I edit the myself. I have this really good friend who for for a good two years that was actually all he did for his client even though because again when a virtual assistant you're focused on what your clients focus on his client on growing his podcast. So that's what all of that he did was like creating watching the content together, making Sure, it gets published. He actually learned now when I probably saw my own podcast this year, I'll go to him. He now knows how to actually publish and start a podcast just because that was his focus for a while. So it is a big niche in focus for a lot of virtual assistants, but I love listening to podcasts in the first place. It's easier them to go into it. 

Rich Bennett 39:52
Yeah, I think I if I ever quit podcast and that'll be what I do is get into editing and produce in part. Yeah, yeah it's I find I find part fun, you know. Liane Is there any before I get into my last question and of course ask you, how do people can contact you, is there anything you would like to add? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 40:14
I guess kind of the, the main thing I always try to have people think about both on again, either hiring an assistant or becoming one is focusing on I've kind of been calling it different things, but it's ultimately what we call the tweaks to formula, which is when you're when you're thinking about hiring or becoming a virtual assistant, you think about tasks, systems, and we call it people, but it's basically the characteristics of it. So you focus on making sure you're working on the right things and not just throwing or delegating something because you don't want to do it. People usually do this with sales, so like, I hate doing sales calls, I'm delegating an assistant. That's how you lose your business. Oh, so that's the first thing, is making sure you're delegating the right things. And as an assistant that you assess their what your client is giving you isn't just something that they're throwing you because they hate doing it. The second one is, is the importance of building a system a lot of the time. The reason why slippers face openers is they don't know how to document or make their service or business into a product. So like creating static approve procedures, it sounds so boring, like saying certain procedures already like more is a lot of people, but for a lot of our clients, whenever their assistant starts creating that, that's when they see the growth in their business because not everything is in their head anymore. So as an assistant, I often gives us advice of like focus on that with your client, because then you are actually able to help them grow their business because they have this asset that they can now draw out if they want to sell it. If they want to do things with their business, they can easily do. And the third thing is that characteristic matches that personality match like I've seen it again pitfall so many times where someone who has 1520 years experience losing to someone who had been was been a VA for like a year or two. But they have the tenacity, they have that confidence, they have that self growth mindset that the assistant, the client automatically says, Yep, I want to work with that person. So for our clients I also give that I'm like, Keep it in mind that it doesn't mean that a person has like ten years experience doing this, knows exactly what you want to do. They've just probably been just good at doing it for the other person. Probably not good match for you. So it's thinking about that match of the the, the funny thought of like have to kiss a few frogs. You verify your prints. It's usually that it takes a while to find a really good assistant for you because you also change as a person. Like my first assistant for two weeks, she left because she wanted to start her own business, which I was like, amazing. But I had a different mindset hiring my current assistant who is super freaking amazing as well. She was also super freaking amazing for who I needed when I started to excel. But as I'm now going to see what I need, I didn't realize. So I'm still also learning that I needed a different assistant because as you grow your business, your mindset changes. You need someone else. That person, if my if that all this is a mistake, I would have probably made her operations person and I should have hired like an assistant before she left. Maybe she would have enjoyed her stay longer. I'm not sure anymore this one right. But it is that shift. So that's why the personality and characteristics is so important in finding that good match. 

Rich Bennett 43:25
So something very important. Tell everybody how they can get in touch with you. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 43:29
So I am freaking and if you contact me, you're probably contacting my assistant. So of course I have a YouTube channel where I post videos twice a week on how to be an assistant and how to grow a business online. I am on Instagram, Tok, Facebook, LinkedIn. Again, when you're messaging these probably means is that you're getting. But she's super nice too. She's super sweet. Her name is Literally Honey, so she's super sweet. Oh. 

Rich Bennett 43:55
Are you serious? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 43:57
So it's a perfect name. So that's probably where you find me. And of course, if you guys are thinking of either hiring assistant or becoming, we do have a scorecard on two exist website of like if you are ready for to be one or two, have one. We kind of made it super simple and easy, so then people can kind of assess themselves through it. 

Rich Bennett 44:16
And that's to x, y, o, u home, right? The number two x. Yeah. Actually. How did you come up with that name. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 44:26
That honestly, that was what was available on GoDaddy when we were forming the company and we've just been lucky. We were looking at ten X, you were looking at five, a few, two X you came up. I'm like, That's that sounds perfect. And I came from a copywriting marketing background. So I was like, that I can run with that. 

Rich Bennett 44:47
Okay. My last question for you, because you've been interviewed by actually do you even know how many people have interviewed, you. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 44:55
Know, I have a tracker somewhere probably to my assistant, and I haven't looked at forever. 

Rich Bennett 45:04
A ton. So out of all the interviews that you've been on, is there anything that a host has never asked you that you wish they would have asked you? And if so, what would be that question and what would be your answer? Oh, my. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 45:20
God, that's I love that question. And if I've ever been asked that question before, it's just funny. So I now have to like, change the answer they gave to that. 

Rich Bennett 45:29
Women know what. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 45:32
That question of, like what's the question you ever been asked before 

to be funny? I'll say that they've never really asked me what my favorite color is, which is red, I guess. 

But I think that's the only thing that I've I've been at my favorite book asked like favorite TV shows and things like that. I think the only thing all like the getting to know you stage is my favorite color. 

Rich Bennett 45:57
Why red? 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 46:02
I forgot. Honestly, it became kind of a thing as I was. I was I was in my early twenties because what I was a teenager, it was yellow. But then when I think it was right around the time that I did, almost after the typhoon incident, I'm like almost dying my brain saying, I'm going to live a life that's worth living. And that kind of changed my brain. So I'm like, oh, yellow, dainty, pretty of like, red, let's do this. Let's live this life. So that is why it is red. So that's the question no one has ever asked me. Why Red? So there you go. 

Rich Bennett 46:36
Okay. I like that. I'm just shocked that somebody else says, use my question. 

LeAnn, I want to thank you so much and continued success and all of you listening. If you need a virtual assistant, you know who to contact. And for all those podcasters out there saying, because I know a lot of you guys have been and girls have been looking for somebody to do some alleged side work for you. So, LeAnn, thank you so much. 

Le-an Lai Lacaba 47:04
So what she was a fun.