Virtual Assistant Hiring Secrets: Leadership that Drives Success! with Wally Malaque

#KrisWard
#VirtualAssistantSuccess
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Wally Malaque Podcast Transcription

[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 and today in the house We have Wally Malaque.

[00:00:07] Wally. I hope I said your last name, right? Wally is one.. Perfect, he’s one of our Win Team Members and Wally had a lot of interesting comments going through what we call our 12 point hiring process.

[00:00:22] And I just thought it’d be really interesting to hear from Wally’s perspective, what that looks like, because it does allow us 90 percent retention for our clients. We find, hire and onboard virtual systems and turn them in to win team members, win team is what is next. So you can get to what is next.

[00:00:40] And they go through our Leadership Program. Now, again, I always want to preface this because we’re not an agency. It’s just one thing we do for our clients so that we can get to the real work. Cause most people, the first problem is they need help to, to set things up, but we’re not an agency because the agency takes a cut off their pay and does all these things that don’t benefit.

[00:01:00] The virtual, the virtual assistant. So I just want to clear that up. So Wally, welcome to the show.

[00:01:07] Wally Malaque: Yep. Thanks, Kris.

[00:01:09] Kris Ward: Okay. So Wally. You went through our hiring process and I do know it’s unique. So what’s one of the first things you noticed about our hiring process?

[00:01:19] Wally Malaque: Yeah. So when it comes to the hiring process of the WIN team, it’s totally different compared to the other job interview.

[00:01:29] Especially when you, Kris correcting me immediately when it comes to the things that I need to say, or I don’t need to say and really feel different for me and also feel to me that you’re doing that for me to do even better when it comes to the interview.

[00:01:52] Kris Ward: Yeah. So let me unpack that for a second.

[00:01:54] So first thing is, we’ll talk about this in a second. We have a very quick interview and I’ll get your comments on that. And then when you get through that interview and you get to the second one, if I see something special in you, which I clearly did, I am going to give you some feedback and teach you like, Oh, you know what?

[00:02:11] You’re talking about this. Like in your case, Wally, forgive me. When I asked you about your job history, you gave like too much of a story too many. I’m like, no, they just want the highlights. Let’s just get to it. We’re going to lose their attention. So I didn’t change the information. I just showed you how to present it better.

[00:02:25] When I did that, I think it’s just a kind thing to do when someone like you has potential, even if you didn’t get the job, you know that for the next job. But more importantly, I’m seeing also if you’re coachable and if you can learn on your feet can you implement that? So I’m a little bit testing you.

[00:02:42] So I was giving you some feedback. Okay, let’s go over this again. When we got to the point where you’re going to meet Peter, I am testing you to see if can you think on your feet? Can you react? Can you learn? Are you coachable? All that stuff. Let’s back up for a minute because most people find it very shocking.

[00:02:59] The first interview they get, I tell people, I say it’s a pre interview. I say really quickly, Hey Wally, this is a quick interview to see if you make it to the main interview. Wally, can you tell me why you think you’re a good fit for this job? So that one’s pretty short and that probably surprised you.

[00:03:15] Wally Malaque: Yeah. Yeah. definitely really surprised me to the point that I don’t know what’s that interview is all about because only take five minutes

[00:03:26] Kris Ward: and you got a long one. Most people get like at the most two minutes because what I would tell you the second you show up, I’m also evaluating. Do you have a professional setup?

[00:03:35] Do you look awake, alert? Are you dressed for the interview? So probably I have about eight points before you even open your mouth that I’m checking. And if you don’t make those points, I politely listen to you for about 30 seconds and I say thank you so much. We will let you know within the next 24 hours if you made it to the main interview, because I don’t want to have anybody on the hook, right?

[00:03:54] I don’t want them waiting or feeling bad about themselves. So the first interview is incredibly quick. And then I give you like a little mini test. I say, Hey, this is an email that’s different than the one you currently have. Can you follow up with me? And you did because a lot of people they use the old email that they had and then they’re disqualified.

[00:04:15] So that’s a little bit of a mini test. So you made it through frankly, about five or six tests in, Less than five minutes that you didn’t even know. And then when we got to the main interview, we started having really serious conversations about you coming on board for one of my clients. We also talked to you about the Leadership Program.

[00:04:32] So let’s dive into that a little bit. Cause that’s something very unique that we do. What were you thinking about? Like when you heard about the Leadership Program?

[00:04:40] Wally Malaque: Yeah. First of all, when I heard about you mentioned about the Leadership Program during that point, I was confused because I thought I was just applying for a typical virtual assistant position and then you mentioned about Leadership Program.

[00:04:56] So the first thing, the first thing that comes into my mind is growth. So I believe that this person is not, it’s not just offering me a job, offering me a career path, they’re offering me growth. So I took the opportunity without second guessing. Yeah.

[00:05:17] Kris Ward: That is a really good point because I really, I love working with entrepreneurs.

[00:05:21] I love seeing them get their life back and have their business scale and make more money in less time and get to the projects that they really want to do. And they have to have a team. And to me, a team is a philosophy, not a number. So you can have a team of one. So now we’re building a team and that’s a big part of.

[00:05:38] What I was talking to you about we’re not looking for someone just to have their head down and do admin stuff. And that’s what I want you to understand with the Leadership Program is like, look, we’re here for you to be a leader. And so often people confuse entrepreneurs think to be a leader that if I’m leading, then I have this power to make you do what I want you to do.

[00:05:58] But really, if you’re really lucky, you’re surrounded by leaders. And no one can really tell, like when I see the videos of you and Peter meeting for your daily scrums or mini meetings, you guys are talking back and forth, it’d be hard pressed to know who’s in charge.

[00:06:12] Wally Malaque: Yeah. That’s something that I learned in our Leadership Program, I think it’s part of like Filipino culture when you’re an employee, you should be, or most of the time you’re just submissive. You just agree what your employer told you. But as part of Leadership Program, you need to voice out. You need to be heard. You need to, think on your own. And also it’s going to be for the benefit of your team leader.

[00:06:42] Kris Ward: You’re so right. And I’m sure there’s a big part of that in the Philippine culture.

[00:06:46] However, I’d like to say too that the, even the American, North American culture, Canada, U S it’s very parentified. So your manager, your supervisors, like your boss, like they’re like your parent or your school teacher. And so when they tell you do something, they’re not often a jobs I’ve had, they weren’t looking for a discussion.

[00:07:04] They were telling me to do it. Do it. So I think you, the Filipinos take that on a little bit more, but I think it’s really just, we’ve all had bad employers that say they want good ideas and then they don’t like your idea. You feel stupid or they get, sometimes I’ve had a job where they said, they wanted ideas and then my idea was better than yours and they got cranky.

[00:07:25] I’m like, all right, this is not a healthy place for me. But so I think what your understanding is you, we want we want you to be a part of the team. We want you to have input on the company. We want you to voice your opinion. What. And you’ve done a really good job of adapting to that. Cause that is very different.

[00:07:46] And I really see how you work with Peter and taking initiative and doing things like that. So what does that feel like for you? What, how is this different than your other jobs?

[00:07:55] Wally Malaque: Yeah. I feel like the main difference is especially not only what I learned, what I’ve learned in our Leadership Program, but.

[00:08:08] With Peter I feel like we’re just on the same level like I’m running his business too, right? Because of how he listened and also on how I articulate things, sharing my ideas to him and how he accepted my ideas. So it’s feel like, we’re business partners, something like that.

[00:08:31] Kris Ward: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s a good, Oh, it was beautiful. That was really well said. I got a business partners. Okay. You know what? The beauty of that people will say to me sometimes, Oh, if you hire somebody and they’re really good, what did they leave you? First of all, we have our super tool kit. So people can leave and the next person can take over the super tool kits.

[00:08:50] No problem. But secondly I would argue they don’t leave when it’s set up correctly. Like, why would you leave working with Peter? You feel like you’re being valued. Your ideas matter. You have input. You’re a human. So if you feel like you go to work and at the end of the day, you have accomplished something and things taking light in this business and he appreciates you. Where would you go? Like, why would you leave that?

[00:09:13] Wally Malaque: That’s right.

[00:09:14] Kris Ward: Yeah. Okay. Business partners. That is awesome. Yeah. You are running his business too. And that’s what we want. And I also, I saw in one of the videos too, cause sometimes they, they will send me videos. The team leaders is what we call them.

[00:09:27] So my client, the team leaders, will send me videos of their little scrum meetings. And what happens is it’s allowing me to coach and give the team leaders feedback, like I said to Peter about you, I said, you’re giving him things to do in the scrum, but you’re not, you remember, I trained you to say, Hey, I’ll take a note of that Peter.

[00:09:48] That means he has to stop talking and then you have to put it right in the super toolkit or write in your notes. So I’m training them how to be effective leaders. And then I’m training you also had to be really good leaders as well. So it comes at both sides. And I remember seeing in one of the meetings scrums, it was really cool how you took the initiative because Peter’s very British and you engineered chat GPT to talk in a British tone for his emails, and he was so excited about that and I think, and you haven’t been with him very long, you’re very new here.

[00:10:21] If you had a regular job, I’m not so sure. Like you would have taken that initiative, but you spread your wings and got in there because you knew everything else you told them had worked out and he valued your input. So he was so excited about that. And I think because of getting, because he does treat you as a collaborative, it allows you to take risks, even if the risks don’t work out.

[00:10:42] Wally Malaque: That’s right. That’s right. So with that being said the reason why I took that initiative was because I feel that time that Peter really need, needs me to get things moved forward faster because, you’ve been a lot there is a lot of work or pending tasks that need to be done and one of them are responding to email and you know that’s one of the burden Peter had that time.

[00:11:11] Yeah, I feel like Peter won’t be affect won’t be offended if I choose, software AI to, to be sound more British and yeah, he liked the idea. So that’s good.

[00:11:23] Kris Ward: Yeah. And of course, in that case, he approved the copy. So that’s another thing. Sometimes people say what if they’re in my email answering for me?

[00:11:29] They don’t have to in Peter’s case, email. He’s always swamped in the email and he set up templates so that you can communicate and he made drafts of responses that you could say, but you just made them sound more British. So that was really good. So what are some other things that you’ve noticed?

[00:11:44] We have the monthly win team leadership. You’ve sat in on some of the meetings with my own team learning stuff. I see a lot of aha moments, a lot of light bulbs going off. What are some of the other things that you notice as far as our culture and how we hire, train, and onboard virtual assistants?

[00:12:02] Wally Malaque: So when it comes to hiring and boarding virtual assistant, what I’ve noticed is you’re not looking for someone very skilled. You are looking for someone with the right attitude, willingness to learn, coachable. And that is something that I’m very proud of being part of this team because I know you guys will going to give a lot of opportunities to, Filipino or, someone that don’t have that kind of skill, but have the right attitude.

[00:12:34] Kris Ward: I think you’re right on one point and half right on the other. What I would say is we, it’s part of our PASS formula, P A S S. I do hire personality over skillset. So if two people are equal in the skillset or even one skillset slightly less, you can always train a skillset and you can’t train a personality.

[00:12:52] So someone like yourself, you’re bright eyed, bushy tailed, you’re always enthusiastic, hungry to learn, excited about being a Peter’s business partner. That is fantastic. And that’s what we’re looking for. However, be really clear. I don’t think you’re lacking a lot of skills. I think you’ve got a lot of skills.

[00:13:11] So I think the skills don’t matter. Let’s say, I don’t know, let’s just pick some software. Let’s say Peter worked with ABC software and I interviewed you and somebody else and you had some experience at it and they had more experience, but with your attitude and hunger and enthusiasm for being coachable, wanting to be in the Leadership Program.

[00:13:30] Those skills, if you were slightly behind with that other person, you would out, you’d outwork them. You would outlearn them in a few weeks. So you definitely don’t minimize it. You have lots of skills. You had lots of experience. You ran a team of your own and your other job. So don’t minimize that.

[00:13:46] But I do agree with you. You can have a lot of skill set. And if you don’t have that personality type, that enthusiasm, that potential, you’re just not going to be a good fit for our Leadership Program because we’re looking to make, good people great people, excellent. So I agree with you that, but don’t, let’s be careful.

[00:14:03] Let’s not minimize your skill set. Okay. You notice that we’re coachable. What was it like when you’re sitting in on some of my team meetings? What are some of the things you notice about how I interact with my team?

[00:14:14] Wally Malaque: Yeah. So when it comes to the scrum, it’s very interesting to attend your scrum meetings.

[00:14:24] I noticed that all of the team member from the WIN team, is very they’re very open, sharing their ideas. They’re also very open minded when it comes to your feedback. And I feel the I always feel the teamwork between you and the team. And it’s really hard to identify who’s the boss or not when it comes to the scrum. Because of that, I think you guys are very comfortable with each other. Yeah.

[00:14:56] Kris Ward: Yeah. So I never use the word boss. I always absolutely say people I work with, but I do know it’s okay for people listening the term, the boss. I get it. That’s a term everybody knows. So I think I keep telling people that if you sat in on a meeting, you shouldn’t really, if it’s a good team, really be able to tell who’s in charge because what the beauty is, with through all this Leadership Program and the work we’ve done is that I have peers.

[00:15:24] And one of the problem with being an entrepreneur is you like, you feel like you’re on your own and your ideas, you have to figure things out and you can’t talk to another entrepreneur because even if their business is similar, maybe they haven’t been in business as long as you, or they have a slightly different business.

[00:15:38] So you feel like you’re never comparing apples to apples. It’s like apples to pineapple or apples to steak, so with my team, what you’ve noticed is I come and I have ideas and they might say, ah, that’s not going to work. Or this will work really well. Or how about we try this?

[00:15:52] Or I piggyback on their ideas. So not only is it collaborative, but it’s a safety net for me because you’ve seen it. They will tell me when my, no, Kris, we’re not doing that. I will tell people sometimes that. They think that they need to be more organized and I say being organized, you can make yourself just more organized and not get anything done.

[00:16:11] Sometimes I do over complicate things and they’re like, no, how about we just do it this way? I’m like Oh, okay. That’s simple. Spreadsheet works. I was going to do this whole thing over here. So you’ll see them shoot down my ideas and you’re right. You don’t know who’s in charge because we’re, it’s, we’re all paddling in the same direction.

[00:16:28] Wally Malaque: That’s right.

[00:16:29] Kris Ward: Oh my gosh. Okay. Cause I did notice, I remember the and you do see me though, no one’s perfect. They call me out. I call them out cause I noticed your space the other day when you looked really surprised when I asked more of something. And then she said, yes. And then a few minutes later, she didn’t understand something and I was like why’d you say yes for?

[00:16:48] And that was a learning point for you of how, what Maura did and what I did. Do you want to talk to us about that? ,Yeah. So when it comes to that scenario it’s sometimes happened to me as well. When my team leader said something, I just tend to say, yes. I understand, but on the back of my mind, I believe that I slipped something on that.

[00:17:15] Wally Malaque: So the way you position how Maura will going to, how will Maura will going to understand it better before moving to the next thing or moving to the next topics is pretty amazing.

[00:17:30] Kris Ward: Because she said yes, but she and she doesn’t do that very often. She said yes. And then I said something else and she didn’t understand it.

[00:17:38] And then to me, it’s cause I asked a follow up question, which didn’t make sense to her response. I’m like, okay, you said you understood it. And she’s okay, I really don’t. And it’s then why did you say yes? Because if you, I don’t care what you say, but if you say yes, then I don’t I’m just, I don’t know, right?

[00:17:53] I don’t know where I lost you. So that whole idea too is something we’re always teaching you all about, not to be agreeable, not to be agreeable, not to be submissive. And I always say to act as if you get paid extra for asking questions, right? Cause we’re so used to figuring out like, I hear just horror stories all the time about all of you virtual assistants who work for agencies and you’re on your own and you have to figure things out and you have no support.

[00:18:20] And what we’re always trying to teach you is not only do you have support of your team leader, but you have support of me and my team and the Leadership Program and then monthly sessions where we can Q and A’s and like I’ll give you all the support in the world, but I can’t read your mind.

[00:18:35] Wally Malaque: That’s right.

[00:18:37] Kris Ward: So has this taking you some getting used to like, cause I would sure in the other jobs you didn’t, I remember you telling a story in the other job where I think they just promoted you and all of a sudden you had a team and you’re like, I don’t know how to run this team. So what does it feel like when you’ve got all these resources at your fingertips? Like you’re just learning so fast.

[00:18:56] Wally Malaque: Yeah, it’s very different because I get the WIN team, I get Peter, I get you on my back every time that I’m having some difficulties with specific tasks, because you’re right I think there’s a misconception with the word virtual assistant. So I think most of the let’s say most of the business owner in North America think that when you hire the virtual assistant, they can do everything that they don’t realize that if they don’t give the virtual assistant the right support,

[00:19:35] they might quit or they might not function the way they expect the virtual assistant to be. So yeah having this kind of support, having this kind of resources, especially the super toolkit really helped me a lot to simplify my task.

[00:19:50] Kris Ward: Yeah. Pete, that is, you brought up such a great point. People think that all the time Oh, I will hire a virtual assistant and then they’re going to take care of me and manage me, but they have no systems in place. And I always explain to them, they can’t parent up. You can’t come in and then boss the boss. It doesn’t work like that. How are you going to make them listen?

[00:20:08] And then they sometimes think my, my business is simple or the systems are simple, but it an idea just came to my mind. And I remember a relative who had been in the hospital and then they came home. And so they needed help getting groceries. So I’m like, Oh, I’ll do that for you. Groceries are simple. They gave me a list. You need bread. You need milk. You need some fruit. Fine. But suddenly, so think of this as me, new virtual assistant to the job. I get to the grocery store. I don’t know. What kind of, what milk do they like? What brand do they get bags? Do they get the carton?

[00:20:40] Fruit. Do you want apples? Do you want oranges? What kind of bread? White bread, hoey bread. What’s your favorite brand? Oh, yes. You got white bread, but I wanted this brand. I don’t like that. I like the small one. My toaster’s too. It does, the big bread doesn’t work in my toaster. There’s all these little silly ways that your business is different. Just like your groceries are different, right? And then people get disappointed. They’re like, Oh, he’s Wally seemed great in the interview. And then because he showed up in my business and I gave him no direction and no systems, and I was running around with my hair on fire and Wally couldn’t keep up.

[00:21:12] And it’s and you guys see this, you, because then I’ve had people like, Oh, they, Wally just quit. I’d be like, he saw that you’re going to turn on him because you’re running around like a crazy person. And every day you have new ideas and you don’t finish them. Do you think they’re stupid? Do you think they don’t realize by this time next week, you’re going to be blaming it on them? So I’m sure you’ve seen that.

[00:21:33] Wally Malaque: Yeah, definitely. I’ve been, I just remember when I started as an appointment setter from my previous job, we don’t have anything in place. They just hired me, told me to call 200 numbers a day. There’s no SOP in place. And I tell you what, that I call this the sales team that doing the appointment setting or cold calling just lasted for about four months or three months because there’s no system in place. So yeah, it’s very..

[00:22:03] Kris Ward: I think I might rather go to prison than have to get up every day and know that I have to call 200 people and try to set appointments. I cannot think of a harder way to get up and try to put your shoes on your feet and go to the office and say, I have to call 200 people that are not going to be excited to hear from me.

[00:22:23] And then my workday isn’t even that’s the thing. That’s another thing. You get all these virtual assistants, just doing these horrible jobs that nobody could succeed at. Cause they’re just depressing with no systems and no script. Even if they said, okay, if you call 200 people, we’ve got this script that we’ve been working on for years and you’ll get good at it.

[00:22:43] And at first you only get 50 people, but I promise you it’s still, it would sound like a boring, hateful job to me, but at least you’re right. They’re just like, here’s here, call people. Good luck to you. Oh my Lord. Oh my God. There’s no surprise why most of my team member that time just quit.

[00:23:02] Wally Malaque: After two weeks, after three weeks, there’s no system in place. So it’s.

[00:23:06] Kris Ward: And it would suck the soul out of your life. It would just be, it would my Oh my gosh. Okay. I had a friend many years ago and she had to do the, now it’s all around the world, but she had to go work in a call center right after university.

[00:23:21] I think she landed, lasted three months and like that, she just had to call people. And she said she cried every day, all the way to work and all the way home. Oh my gosh, it was awful.

[00:23:32] Okay, we just have a couple minutes left. Wally, what’s one final thing that you just like people to know about what we do differently here and why it’s working for you and our clients?

[00:23:43] Wally Malaque: So one thing that I find it very different is the system in place, especially when it comes to our Leadership Program. Yeah. Yeah, there’s always a monthly due date or deadline for you to submit your video. And that is something for me, very important. And it’s not only a due date or it’s not only a deadline, someone from the team.

[00:24:08] Yeah. Giving you always giving you a notice or always giving you or sending an email feedback. And especially that’s where the learning came from. When you watch or hear the feedback, that’s something that will go into make you better and better as a leader.

[00:24:27] Kris Ward: Yeah, so we have different aspects of Leadership Program while he’s talking about how they have to submit videos.

[00:24:32] They just have to answer questions. Questions can be personal, generic, whatever. It’s really teaching you leadership language in how you present your information, storytelling, all kinds of stuff. And so they’re submitted to us and we’re always giving them feedback because to be impactful, you need people to listen to you and you have to know how to tell information, concise, informative, use certain words, not sound permissive, even little things.

[00:24:59] I think you’ve seen me correct people where somebody say, Oh, excuse me, Kris, I have a question. And I’m like, why are we doing that? Just get to the question. Do you look like a leader? If you say, excuse me, I have a question. May I ask a question? No, you sound like a child in school. So if you say Kris.

[00:25:15] What about the other thing we’re working on? Are we going to finish that? That’s the question. I’ll figure it out. It’s a question. I’m smart. I’ll know it’s a question. So even things like that, not softening your language or minimizing what you’re about to say, we all at times do that and empowering you.

[00:25:31] It’s not about not being nice or friendly. It’s not about making you aggressive. It’s just about making you heard. And so people will, your ideas will resonate with them, right? Fantastic. Wally, I should have started this with the top of the hour. Wally came here reluctantly. He was a little nervous.

[00:25:47] He was like, what are we going to talk about? I’m like, no, we’re just going to have a conversation. As great as Wally is, he’s very new to our Leadership Program and he got lassoed into this, but I think we can all agree he did a wonderful job. And so thank you for trusting us, Wally, and sharing you know, your journey so far, cause it’s only been a short one and you’ve gotten so much out of it in such a short period of time, like you’ve only been with us a couple of months and look how much you’ve grown.

[00:26:10] It’s been exciting. That’s right. That’s right. Oh my gosh. Okay. Everyone else share this episode with the business, buddy. Don’t let them suffer on their own. They don’t need to be doing this by themselves. Coaches, consultants, small business owners, entrepreneurs. Boy oh boy, they need to have their evenings and weekends back.

[00:26:26] So share this episode. We love your reviews. We read each and every one of them and we will see you in the next episode. Thank you.