Find The Perfect Virtual Assistant For Your Business! with Rica Merano

Rica Merano Podcast Interview

[00:00:00] Kris Ward: Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Win The Hour, Win The Day. And I am your host, Kris Ward for today. You know me. I’m always excited about everything, but I really am excited about today’s guest. I wanna welcome to the show. This is a very unique show. I wanna welcome Rica Moreno. Welcome to the show, Rica.

[00:00:17] Rica Merano: Thank you. Hi, Kris.

[00:00:20] Kris Ward: Okay. This is… a really I’m really behind the scenes and it’s gonna really be enlightening for you, for me, and even for Rica. So Rica is one of the virtual assistants that I found, hired, onboarded for one of my clients and in the Winners Circle. And what we do as part of working with us is we will find you a virtual assistant, whatever you need for your team.

[00:00:43] Now, that’s a very small part. We’re not a hiring agency. We don’t do that solely in any capacity, but what we wanna do is eliminate that era and that growing pain and that learning curve for you so that we can get to the real work in your business. So as my clients all say you, they get 25 hours back a week within the first month of working with us and solely really that’s dependent on some of the infrastructure we set up that really just makes you let you play in your business, fall back in love with your business and not working crazy hours, all that stuff.

[00:01:12] And in order to execute some of those things we put in play, you definitely need help. Cause otherwise you’re just a sufferpreneur. So Rica works with one of our clients, Christine and you can listen to another, I should know the episode, but she also was on our show talking about how her income, like I think triple or quadrupled and she works like one quarter of the time.

[00:01:33] And through that conversation, we were talking about the hiring process and how Rica had said to Christine I didn’t even know if I was passing it. It was the most crazy hiring process I’d ever been through. So I thought, let’s talk about how I, in my 12 step W.I.N process for hiring VAs and so you guys can learn.

[00:01:53] And then as well, cause we’ve got like a 95% retention rate. We do really well with this. So I, this will be fun for me cuz I’m gonna hear the other side from Rica. I’ve never discussed this with any of the applicants before. Rica, let’s start from the beginning. How long have you been a virtual assistant?

[00:02:09] Rica Merano: Four or five years now. Okay.

[00:02:11] Kris Ward: For five years. And you found my hiring process to be different than the others. Is that true?

[00:02:18] Rica Merano: Yes, it’s very unique. And it only lasted for less than a minute, I think.

[00:02:24] Kris Ward: Okay. So I do, I have a 12 step hiring process. So the first step, I hop on screen and what I do is I will have a Zoom meeting and I’ll have I could have 20 or 30 people waiting to meet with me.

[00:02:37] Now let me back up for a second, just so you understand. How these are selected is we don’t even look at your resume. We look at your cover letter and how you communicate. Cuz our virtual assistant is somebody that’s going to be hopefully freeing me, making me not the choking point in business. Give me back time.

[00:02:54] And so you’re looking for somebody that can clearly communicate. So on the cover letter, I’m looking for things like really well laid out, lots of white space like I’m capable of doing boom. Not big, clunky paragraphs. So first off, you got to this part of the process because of your cover letter.

[00:03:09] Not cuz your resume. I never looked at your resume. Never open it. We go by the cover letter. Do you find that interesting?

[00:03:15] Rica Merano: Yes.

[00:03:17] Kris Ward: So there you go. You wrote that big resume and you still need to have it. I’m not telling people you should never have a resume, but we never look at them. Okay. Then what happens is, so in the Zoom meeting I will have, I could have 15 or 20 people waiting for me.

[00:03:29] And I do tell you guys that. I say, listen, we’ve inviting you to an interview and then here’s the link. You might have to wait up to 20 minutes, so it’ll be other people being interviewed. So I do warn you of that. Correct. Perfect. Now, The other thing I do is when we invite you to the interview, we are also looking on how you reply, when you reply to that email actually.

[00:03:50] So on the platform, we don’t stay, there’s different platforms, everyone for different opportunities. So people say where do you get these people? It really depends what kind of person you’re looking for. What kind of, is it a VA? Is it a graphic designer? That’s a whole conversation on its own, but within this platform that I’m on and some platforms don’t allow you to give an email address and take it off the platform.

[00:04:11] This one does. And so then I say to you, “Hey, welcome. We would love to invite you to an interview. Can you reply to this email? Let me know if you’re coming.” I’m looking to see if you reply to the email instead of inside the platform. Cuz I’d give you your first directive. Are you paying attention to detail?

[00:04:28] . So then you go over there and you say, yes, I’ll be coming. And then I’m looking at how you respond, like how you talk to me. Is it over formal? Is it like, oh great, do I do, I hear the personality in the email. “Hey Chris, I’m excited about the interview. See you then.” So I’m looking for that.

[00:04:42] So there you’ve already had too many tests. And then what happens, Rica is you show up and this probably sounds familiar to you. I open up the screen or I accept you into the room. . And I say, Rica, this is a quick interview to see if you make it to the main interview. Rica, can you tell me why you think you’d be a good fit for this job? Does that sound familiar?

[00:05:03] Rica Merano: Yeah.

[00:05:04] Kris Ward: Okay. Now something I do that here’s really it’s so small, but it really matters. I say your name once, twice, sometimes three, not three times. I will say your name. I wanna hear if you’re listening to me, because sadly a lot of people have been trained to then do like a speech.

[00:05:26] Hi, I wanna first introduce myself. My name is Rica and I’ve been a VA. Okay. First of all, I asked you a question, you’re not answering me, and secondly, you didn’t listen cuz I said your name sometimes within a second, I know that person is dumb.. You are not listening to me.

[00:05:42] So I say, Hi Rica, this is a quick interview to see if you make it to the main interview, I’m letting you know this is gonna be super quick. Can you tell me why you think you’d be a good fit for this job? And then you jumped in and was like Kris And even just you calling me Kris, which by the way, the name is on the Zoom.

[00:05:58] It’s not a big thing. But you dove right in and started to answer you. You got to it. So that’s what I was looking for in that first minute. I’m like, how quickly can she get to it? Can she answer questions? Also, I’m looking, how professional are you? Are you showing up looking for an interview? You are a VA.

[00:06:16] Do you have a virtual background? Are you set up? I’m looking for, do you look professional? Do you act professional? Do you know what professional means? I’m telling all that everyone. I’m looking at that literally within five seconds, I can tell you five things about you in that interview.

[00:06:33] So within five seconds, I know if we’re gonna talk for 30 seconds or three minutes. Crazy. So tell me what it was like when you’re like, I, you got that super crazy quick interview from me. You’re like, like what did you feel like, did you feel disappointed? Did you think, that was crazy. Tell me your side of it.

[00:06:50] Rica Merano: It’s very neutral for me. I feel nervous at the same time. I don’t know if it shows, but I am really nervous. During not only your interview, but during interviews. I really feel that. And then it’s so fast. I don’t, it’s so crazy fast, really. It’s not exaggerating, but that’s the real thing.

[00:07:08] It’s crazy fast and I don’t know curiosity hits me. I don’t know what you are looking for really. I really don’t know. While I’m done with the interview, if I’m still on the background. I’m observing the interview, so I saw the other…

[00:07:25] Kris Ward: Oh, okay. Okay. Let me explain. Let me explain. So hold on one second.

[00:07:27] Okay. So what she’s saying right here, okay, let me, that takes us to the next step. Okay. So first of all, yeah, interviews can be nerve-wracking. I get it. And I try to be as warm and friendly as I can, but I can see where it’ll be shocking when the interview’s over so quickly. So what happens is, I looked at you, you were bright, you were awake, you were articulate, you answered my question.

[00:07:49] You looked professional, you had a lot of ticks. Boom boom. So then I say, Rica, I’m going to give you an email. It’s different than the email address you currently have. I want you to follow up with me and say, Kris, you told me to follow up with you after this I interview, so here’s what happens.

[00:08:08] I’m now giving you yet another email and I wanna see, are you gonna follow a direction? You would be surprised how many people then just go and email me in their email, in the old email they had and they’ll say, okay, he told me to follow up with you. And I just say, wrong email and they’re done. They’re out.

[00:08:24] That’s it. Because a VA is supposed to be somebody that has an eye for detail that takes care of important tasks, does all this stuff. So if you can’t, and especially when I tell you it’s a different email address, right? So I say this is a different email address cuz I can get where you go to type in your email and it pops up and you think, oh, that’s the one I have go.

[00:08:43] So I say to you, Rica, this is a different email address than you currently have. I want you to follow up with me. And let me know. Say, Kris, you told me to follow up with me. So a – I’m gonna look at how quickly you reply. If you reply like a day later, we’re done. I wanna see you right off when you get off the call right away.

[00:09:02] And then two, I say to you, because it’s really weird, I don’t know why a zoom won’t let you copy and paste, but I say you can stay on the call. As long as you would like as long as you need to get that email address, just take your video off. So what happens, what you’re talking about is I said, okay, I’m gonna move on to the next person.

[00:09:20] And I put the email in the chat and I ask you to take their video, your video off. So when that new person comes on, they don’t think that you’re interviewing them. But so what you’re saying is, you turned the video off to get the email address. I moved on to next person. And you stayed on to say, “Hey, what’s she gonna do with that person?” is that what you’re telling me?

[00:09:39] Rica Meranoo: Yeah.

[00:09:40] Kris Ward: Okay. So what did you learn from that?

[00:09:42] Rica Merano: I think you interviewed a lot like 20. 20 applicants and

[00:09:46] Kris Ward: Oh, you stayed on oh, a bunch of times.

[00:09:47] Rica Merano: Yeah.

[00:09:48] Kris Ward: Okay. So this is really interesting. This is really, I’m learning something. Because a couple of times I’ve seen people do that and I think, do they not have the email address?

[00:09:58] Are they not following, like what are they doing? Are they stuck? How do they not know how to get the email address? No, they’re listening to see what I’m saying to the other applicants. Why not? Oh, okay. Okay. That’s very helpful for me to know. Okay, that’s smart. I would do that. I’d be like, oh, I’ll just sit here and see what she says.

[00:10:14] Okay, so what did you, what kind of information did you get from when I was interviewing other people?

[00:10:19] Rica Merano: I’m observing the applicants that would pass your taste or your qualifications. So firstly, I noticed that you really need a good physical appearance in a background, like something professional or presentable, that’s what you’re looking for. We see how you first look at it and then how they answer your questions. I think I don’t know if some other applicants passed that time, but I’m not sure. I think few .

[00:10:51] Kris Ward: Yeah. Some days, I would say sometimes if I interview two people, if I’m lucky, I’ll get three.

[00:10:57] But here’s the thing, I, as I do it really fast so I can interview 20 people in 15 minutes, right? Is really great because I see people online teaching people how to hire like I do, and they’ll, they’re videos and they’ll show somebody how they comb stuff for three, four hours.

[00:11:11] Who the heck is time for that? And I also think too, this is really interesting, everyone, because back in the day before, I mean I started outsourcing long before anybody else had been doing this for oh, a long time, 12, 14 years. I was one of the didn’t know anybody outsourcing when I started, but when I had to hire my first person in office like that was gonna work with me and I met with them.

[00:11:31] What was really horrible is I would have interviews the first time I didn’t know, I would think, oh, I’ll give, let’s say I have four people coming for an interview. Four people. Oh my gosh, which is so small compared to now and then. I would meet them and within five minutes I’d know they’re not the right fit at all.

[00:11:47] And then they’re sitting there and you’re stuck with them for 15 minutes because how can you say within five minutes you can get up and leave now? Cause we’re both sitting in the same room. But it’s wasting their time. And I think giving people a false hope and it’s wasting my time. And it’s not a judgment, it’s just sometimes people say stuff like two minutes into the interview that, there’s nothing there.

[00:12:08] Like with virtual people, I think the big thing is when I say to them, “Can you tell me why you think you’d be a good fit for this job?” You probably said something like I’ve been doing this for five years and here’s some of the things I’ve done. And then you start dropping keywords like, I’ve been really good at executing, my, on the, my client’s ambitions.

[00:12:26] And I do this by working on these different platforms. I’m looking for substance. Some people will show up and say I really care about people and I really wanna help you with your business, and I want you to be happy. And I am, and it’s like just weak stuff. So it’s you know what? You don’t really have anything.

[00:12:39] You’re just trying to we gotta move on, right? So that’s back in the day, you’d be held prisoner. So now you’re right. I can interview 15, 20 people and sometimes I’ll only get two people out of that. But at least I’m moving through them really quickly so you’re right. I don’t think I got anybody else that day.

[00:12:56] So you stayed on you’re really good at observations, so you’re right. I was looking for professional. Anything else you noticed? I didn’t, this is fascinating. I didn’t know you did that.

[00:13:06] Rica Merano: I think how would they answer your questions? If they are smart. They

[00:13:11] Kris Ward: Does it sound intelligent kind of deal? Yeah.

[00:13:14] Rica Merano: Just try to answer straightforward and I, I remember you told me not to call you, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. And then someone’s saying ma’am, so I think…

[00:13:25] Kris Ward: I told you not to call me ma’am. Yeah. Okay. That now there, this is what I’ll do. I will give people tips, a – to help them because I care and b – because I wanna see if you’re listening, right? So that sometimes is a cultural thing in different cultures or so in your culture, often you’ll say, ma’am, and it’s supposed to be a sign of respect, like you’re the lowly employee and I’m the important boss. We don’t operate under that formula at all with me or my clients in the Winners Circle.

[00:13:56] We’re all about a team. We don’t want you to be some obedient task. Like I’m the teacher, you’re the student, I’m the parent, you’re the child and you do work, and I check on it. No, we want you to be an equal team member that really helps us move our business forward and we wanna collaborate with you.

[00:14:12] So we want you to have a voice and to be confident. So that calling me ma’am so I corrected you right away. I said, don’t call me ma’am cuz we were, we’re looking for people that are equals that we can really work together with, right? We don’t want you to be your boss kind of deal. And so then you and other people that you heard call me Ma’am if I didn’t correct.

[00:14:32] They probably did so many other things wrong in the interview that I couldn’t help them. But I will help people. So I helped you because I wanted you to do well with the interview when I moved you to the next stage, if you met our client. And I also wanted to give you tips and there’s sometimes I’ll stop and give people tips.

[00:14:46] Say, you know what, you sound really smart. Here’s some things you can do better in your interview. I’ll ask them. I’ll say, are you looking for feedback? And then I’ll give them some tips. Even if I don’t hire them, I see that they’re trying and I’ll give them some tips, but you’re right. The ma’am thing also makes you look like what I would call an outsourcer.

[00:15:03] So if you were working, for me, and then you’re emailing some, one of my clients and you’re calling them “ma’am”, it just really shows that you’re not modern, deal. So you’re right. I corrected you on, ma’am. Okay. What else? You’re giving me all the goods.

[00:15:16] All the good.

[00:15:17] Rica Merano: The interview is straightforward. You asked me and then I answered you, and I think I answered correctly. That’s why I was chosen. And then with the interview, I think that’s it, because that’s super short.

[00:15:29] Kris Ward: Yeah. So your interview would’ve been longer, and I think we talked maybe about three minutes, right?

[00:15:35] Maybe three, four minutes. . Then what I do, what I what you didn’t hear me say or maybe I said it to you, but I say to people who I definitely know that I’m not going to hire, and I say to them, “We will let you know within the next 24 hours if you make it to the main interview.” Okay. And I tell that to people because I want them to know they’re I think it’s mean to have somebody wait and wait oh, maybe I’ll hear by Friday.

[00:16:03] Oh, it’s close to the weekend, maybe next Monday. And they’re sitting there hoping. So I think it’s a kind thing to do to let people know when to stop waiting. So I always say “listen, you, we’ll let you know within 24 hours if you make it to the main interview.” Boom. So that’s my nice thing. So I do that. Then when you email me at the correct email address like you did, then I give you a mini assignment. So how did you feel about that mini assignment?

[00:16:32] Rica Merano: If I remember it correctly it’s like I’m, I will research podcasts, hosts, shows and I’ll, I forgot, but that’s how you asked me to do that mini assignment and I think I did great on that one because I love to research so. Yeah, I did it.

[00:16:52] Kris Ward: Great , you did do it great, and I love your confidence. So first of all, we have to remind, we, I don’t think we told anybody, you’ve now been working with Christine for a year. So some of this stuff you may have forgotten. So what I do is I always test people – a mini test before you hire them.

[00:17:08] Really super important. Many years ago, like I said, when I was hiring for my office inside, and they’re gonna come work with me, my first assistant, I had narrowed it down to two candidates and it was a guy and a girl, and I was really leaning towards the guy. I thought he just seemed like a go-getter, whatever.

[00:17:25] And at the time, this is like almost 14 years ago, at the time we were where I was, we were having a local. We were having a local election and we at the time did business with politicians. So I said to them both, could you show up with the interview and let me know who the candidates are for our local election?

[00:17:44] Cuz we often work with politicians. We helped them with their marketing cuz I was a marketing messaging type person back then. And the guy who I thought was gonna hire her, he said, oh, I asked my mom and she thought they weren’t out. The list wasn’t out until Tuesday. The girl showed up and said, the list isn’t out until Tuesday, but here’s the eve, here’s the website where you can get the list.

[00:18:07] And I called the office and the list will be released at 10:00 AM Tuesday morning. And you’re like. Oh, okay. So it was a mini test, but it told me a lot. So what I said to you is, “Hey, I, even though it’s like I’m hiring you for one of my clients in the Winners Circle, I say, listen, I do a lot of podcasts. I would like you to find three podcasts that you think would be a good fit for me.

[00:18:32] What I’m looking for is you’re probably gonna do research online to see who I am and what kind of podcasts I do. . Then what I’m really looking for is A – are these three podcasts at all realistic? One person gave me like a podcast at Oprah. It’s yeah, I’m sure Oprah has a podcast.

[00:18:49] A – I’m not gonna get on it. B – we’re not gonna talk about business. That’s not what Oprah talks about. So that’s she said, this is my favorite podcast. I didn’t ask you for your favorite podcast or ones that you like to listen to. I said, what would, where should I go? So I’m looking to see are they realistic?

[00:19:04] But what I was really looking for is I’m looking for how you show me that information. Here’s the title, here’s the link, and here’s why I chose it. That’s huge. Sometimes somebody will give me, here’s three podcasts, no links. And am I supposed to, if you’re my VA, you’re supposed to tell me stuff and I’m now supposed to go find the links.

[00:19:23] That’s ridiculous. So what I was really looking for is how you show me that information and yes, you did spectacular. So did you and I tell people, when I’m telling other people, I’m not looking, I’m just giving you something little. I’m not looking to get free work from you. I’m not looking to exploit anyone.

[00:19:40] I just wanna give you something that should really take you like 15 minutes, half hour if you’re doing, if you’re really trying to make sure you get it right. But I just wanna see you, people can talk about all kinds of things, but the details are really transparent when you get somebody to just do the smallest test. So you were okay with doing the test?

[00:19:59] Rica Merano: Yeah, of course.

[00:20:02] Kris Ward: Excellent. Okay. All right. So that was the big thing, and then I invite you to the main interview. And by that point, you’ve already, whether you realize it or not, you’ve been through about 10. About 10 little mini tests. Then I’m really getting to know you, but by the time I do the main interview, I am like 85% sure you’re gonna be hired. I’m now just getting more information, making sure that you’re consistent on that second interview before I introduce you to the client. , I wanna make sure you’re like, is good. And also if I gave you some tips, like maybe you didn’t have a virtual background or maybe your camera like, sometimes their camera setup’s really bad, like they’ve got a second screen, so they’re looking at the second screen, and now in the video you’re looking at the side of their face and I say, I know what you’re doing.

[00:20:48] You’re looking at me on your second screen, but it looks ridiculous. If you’re gonna be in interview, you have to look into the camera, right? So if I give you tips and then you show up at that main interview and you’re not following my tips. You’re not listening, right? But most of the time if you make it to that main interview, we’re good to go.

[00:21:04] And then I’m just prepping you and telling you a little bit more about how we operate and this whole setup, cuz you’re not actually working for me. And at that point you may not know that. At that point you may think, oh, she’s the one that’s interviewing me, I’m gonna work for her. And now I’m explaining to you no, we have other people you’re gonna work with.

[00:21:21] You’re like, whoa, okay. Whatever. There’s no point explaining that to you in the beginning if you don’t make it this far. It would just be a waste of my time telling this to a whole bunch of people that I didn’t hire. Make sense?

[00:21:30] Rica Merano: Yes.

[00:21:30] Kris Ward: So were you surprised or you totally okay. When I’m like, okay, so here’s the deal. You’d be working with one of my clients?

[00:21:36] Rica Merano: Yeah, I’m surprised. I actually thought that I’m going to work for you because of the mini task, and then I remember you sending me like little videos. Congratulations. I like those videos a lot because it’s short and it’s very straightforward.

[00:21:51] You like sending me. And congratulating me. So yeah, I love that part where you’re sending me those videos.

[00:22:00] Kris Ward: Okay, that’s a good point. So when we hire you, we do the onboarding for our clients in the Winners Circle. So when we hire you, we send you a little video, congratulations, and then we start preparing you and we have these little videos to tell you like, when you’ll get paid, when this will happen, when that will happen.

[00:22:16] All those questions you have that are awkward when you’re new at a job. Do I get paid every week? Do I get paid every two weeks? You don’t wanna ask, but we all need to get paid. So we onboard what we call, we onboard you for our client, we do all the paperwork, we get you to sign different forms, and then we have what we call “The Win Team Learning Center.” So then you can go into the learning center and it can tell you a whole bunch of different little things to get you ready for that job. No we don’t. You won’t have to use a time tracker. Yes, you have to be set up with a VPN and blah, blah, blah. All these little things that would come up that first week. You get to watch those videos and you show up for that job prepared, wouldn’t you think?

[00:22:56] Rica Merano: Yeah.

[00:22:57] Kris Ward: Yeah. Yeah. That’s really good because I always remember what it’s like when you’re new, and especially when I was back in the day working in, let’s say a new job or an office, it was of awkward.

[00:23:07] Who do you ask questions to? That person sitting beside you, whatever. But when you’re virtual, you’re like, you’re you’ve got no one to ask a question to. . So think what makes it really successful for you and all our clients in the Winners Circle is how prepared we have you when you start working for the client.

[00:23:25] And then at the same time, we’re preparing our clients how to have little meetings with you. Don’t just dump work on them. Don’t meet with them once a week. Meet with them every day, build a team, do all these things. Teach them how to use their voice. You don’t want them to be obedient, you want them to be inclusive.

[00:23:42] You want them to share their ideas. So we’re working behind the scenes with, with our client, which is your team leader, and we’re working with you. So I would, I would hazard a guess that this has been a very successful and different experience as a VA because of all that stuff we do. Have you noticed the difference?

[00:24:00] Rica Merano: Yeah, of course. .

[00:24:01] Kris Ward: Like the, what I mean by that is Christine just doesn’t throw work at you and then checks on you once a week. You’ll have a, you have a much bigger role, I would think, in her business than you probably had in other businesses.

[00:24:11] Rica Merano: Yes.

[00:24:12] Kris Ward: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:24:13] Rica Merano: I actually can run the social media task even though she’s not working. Yeah. I think I have a big impact on her business right now?

[00:24:23] Kris Ward: Yeah. Especially right now because she is away for a month, I think like in Costa Rica or somewhere, like somewhere crazy far away where she has no phone access.

[00:24:32] You’re running the show for the month. And that’s the thing, she said to me that, Kris, I couldn’t even take a Sunday afternoon off before and now she’s going away for a month. The business is totally fine and you are in charge. And that’s because we have all these systems set up. It’s very easy.

[00:24:48] You’re a team player, you know what to do. It’s because of the work you’ve been doing with her last year, it really gives her a lot of freedom and gives you a lot of independence and I think a lot of enjoyment in your job when you’re not just sitting there doing basic repetitive admin stuff like you, you have to use your brain, you have to contribute, you have to think.

[00:25:07] So I’m sure it makes your job much more interesting than many of the other jobs you probably had.

[00:25:13] Rica Merano: Yes. Interesting because she even calls me a client project manager. So it’s not a virtual assistant, that sounds good to me. .

[00:25:23] Kris Ward: Yeah, and I do call it virtual assistant when I’m talking to you on this show because I want people to understand what we’re talking about, but you’re right, like I have a team and I have a project manager and I have a content manager, and I don’t call any of them my VA. And if I did have a VA, I still wouldn’t call it my virtual assistant. I would just call it my assistant, like why do we have to label it’s virtual somehow to me that waters it down. But yeah, I think it’s really super important and I think that title does matter because when you have a VA or virtual assistant, one of the mistakes that people make is they start dumping more and more work on that VA oh, you’re here to do this, and then we ask you to do this, and then we have social media, and then we have you working in Canva.

[00:26:04] And then we all of a sudden, then a year later, they’re like, oh, she used to be really good. Yeah, now you have a running in 15, him or her in 15 different directions and you’re asking her to have too many skill sets, him or her, right? So I think it’s really helpful. You’re right. She called you the client project manager, and her tasks for you are super important.

[00:26:25] She, as you’re helping with LinkedIn, leveraging appointments. I know the first week you worked for her, she said Kris, in one week because of the work you were doing at LinkedIn that she set you up with, she said, I got business outta that. That paid for Rica for the year. She goes in one week, she paid for herself for the year.

[00:26:41] That was, she was ecstatic. So yeah. So there’s so much behind the scenes. All right. We just have a couple minutes left Rica just any other thoughts you wanna share about what it was like being hired, just or compared to other clients that you’ve worked for? Anything you wanna share with us?

[00:26:58] Rica Merano: It’s scary when you say 12 steps of hiring process, but I really don’t think it’s 12 when you’re applying for a job all you wanna do is follow instructions. You wanna do what they ask you. So I don’t think that it’s literally 12

[00:27:12] Kris Ward: So it was 12. I did put you through 12 steps, but they were so small and micro. You didn’t notice it.

[00:27:19] Rica Merano: Yes

[00:27:19] Kris Ward: Because they were so small and micro, I could do it really fast, which saves me a ton of time. Actually saved you time, but as you said, it can be scary when all of a sudden you just had an interview that was three minutes long. To you, it was incredibly short, but you had one of the longer interviews because it’s oh, she got through this. Let’s see if she can do the next thing, right? So it’s really strategic but a little bit confusing when you’ve ne… because I see people, their face looks shocked when they say, okay, we’ll let you know within the next 24 hours and

[00:27:48] wait, what? Like I’ve been talking for 40 seconds, lady. What happened? They’re just in shock, but I know what I’m doing and again, we’ve got like a really high successful success rate, like 95% retention rate, so pretty cool. Rica, we so appreciate you very much. I learned lots today.

[00:28:05] It’s really funny. I love your ninja trick of staying on to hear how I was talking to other people and now I get it. I’m like, oh, I didn’t know why they’re staying. That makes sense. I can, I wish you nothing but success with Christine. Can’t wait for her to come back for her trip and hear all about it.

[00:28:19] And thank you again so much for your time and everyone else. We so appreciate your reviews. We love it if you just stop. I read every single one of them. They’re my favorite thing to read in the whole world. We love reviews and we would also love if you just shared this podcast with one other person.

[00:28:36] Really, we’re here to create a movement where your business supports your life instead of consuming it. And we’re always bringing you high-quality guests. So share it with one other person and we will see you in the next episode. Thank you so much.

[00:28:49] Rica Merano: Thank you, Kris.