#138: How To Work With a Virtual Assistant in 2021

Norman Ferrar  0:02  

Hey everyone, it’s Norman Farrar, aka the beard guy here and welcome to another lunch with norm. Wait for it. The Amazon FBA and E comm podcast. Yep, we switched to that. Okay, I’m gonna bring in Kelsey, where are you Kelsey? You notice that huh? Yeah, Amazon ecom podcast? Yeah. Very good. Don’t you want to tell the secrets? Alright, so today I guess our guest Bail. 

Kelsey  0:46  

We don’t know for sure. We think it’s just running late.

Norman Ferrar    0:50  

Yeah, I haven’t heard from him.Anyways, if he comes, he comes. If he doesn’t, we’ll talk about something different. I was thinking about maybe touching on maybe Amazon posts if you like to do that. We could talk about a subject we talked about last night in my group mentoring community. The century Centurion League, we talked about VA’s and how we work with VA . I know I see T is on so we could talk a little bit about that. That’s fresh in my mind. And if you wanted to touch base on that, you know, just let us know. Do you want to know how I work with my VA? And if so, if our guest doesn’t show up, I’ll ask Vandana to come on and maybe we could just talk a little bit about it live. So how’s that?

Kelsey  1:37  

Okay, not bad. So yeah, if you guys have any topics that you guys are interested in right now, just put them over into the comment section, and we’d be happy to dive into them. Before we get started.

Norman Ferrar  1:49  

Yep. Just one sec, just what I’m just gonna contact Vandana and get her to come on.

Kelsey 1:57  

Alright, so I’m just gonna remove you. Alright, so it’s the Kelsey lunch with Kelsey today. So just hold on with us for a second. We’ll we’re just fixing through some technical glitches but let’s see. So let’s smash those like buttons. If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask away. Norm is just arranging I guess right now. We’re not sure what happened today. Probably a miscommunication on my end. I’m not sure but if you guys have any interesting topics, put them in the comment section. What do you guys interested in the in Amazon and E comm right now? Welcome DK. Risha co welcome Manny. Hello, Mark. Okay, for tea. Can we touch on press releases aiming at Christmas in mind how to proceed for that time? Okay. Fantastic. So I’ll let norm know about that. So just bear with us. It’ll be just a couple minutes.

Norman Ferrar  2:55  

Yep. So Kelsey, can you send Vandana link to get her on she is there ready to go? Just let if the other guest comes on, just let them know that we’re coming on with a different topic today. And we’ll have to reschedule. So while we’re getting Wait, while we’re waiting for Vandana man, you guys want to see me go in the fetal position. I knew this would happen one day, it kind of happened. But our guests always come on maybe a maybe a bit late, like a minute late. This has never happened before. So let’s see if I can, if you start to see me slowly start to crunch down. That’s because I’m going into the fetal position. But let’s see if I can work myself out of it. For Tina, you wanted to talk about press releases, aiming at Christmas in mind? Well, let’s talk about that for a second. So you know, Shane comes on once a while he talks about press releases and content marketing. There’s different types of press releases. In fact, there’s three different types of press releases. And when you’re looking at a press release, you can go to a simple online press release. Those are typically very inexpensive. They go out to it depends on the distribution network. But they’ll either go to small town USA, or they’ll go to some content providers like oh, it might go to market watch, it might go to Yahoo, Yahoo News, or Yahoo, Yahoo Finance, it might go to a bunch of other, it really depends on the price. If you see something for free, I would probably run it’s gonna do you no good. It’s just a bunch of junk links that’ll end up happening. But there are some definitely good social media, or sorry, some online providers out there that you probably look at around the 49 like, like $50 range. The next step up is what we call the social media press release. And those are the ones that touch on social signals. So you’ll have a higher distribution of quality, the quality of link the authority links will be could be from Reuters, it could be from the AP press That’s a content marketing, that’s a content distributor. But you’ll you’ll see that there’s a bunch of other links, usually higher quality. And you’ll see that there’s influencers or journalists or bloggers that will also be sent the information about your press release. And they can either pick to pick it up and blast out the information through their network. Those typically go from about 100 to around $300. Now, the best press release, the absolute best press release, for me anyways, would be the traditional press release. I know at our company, we, we we wanted to work with Amazon sellers. And we didn’t think Amazon sellers would go for this one. These press releases go for about 750 to about 15 $100. And they go to all the it’s the biggest blast, it’s to the major networks that you’ve got the AP press, hey, Kelsey, how are you? What are you going to interrupt,

Kelsey  6:02  

I’m just letting you know that Vandana is here. So Kate start, give me two seconds

Norman Ferrar  6:05  

to finish this up. And then we’ll bring Vandana in and tell her she’s awesome for coming in at short notice. But anyways, going back to the traditional press release, so that traditional press release can go out sometimes to 5500 outlets, usually going out to Yahoo Finance, market, watch, the Associated Press, these are all content providers or content distributors that will blast it out to even more outlets. Reuters is another one. But these type also target more niche magazines or periodicals. So you get a lot more exposure. But you also pay a lot more. What I would do for this fatigue is I would go and probably in November, create a a better quality, the traditional press release, it’ll cost you 750 Plus, but it gets the nod. It’ll give you some knowledge and education. Google loves it. Because it’s news, it’ll pick it up and it’ll promote it better than any other form of content. So that’s one that I I get going during the month of November. So Google can start ranking my product. If I’ve got something you can you can talk about launch, but you could talk about features you could talk about an incredible promotion, just depends on how you word it. So the only time you can talk about a promotion or a discount or anything like that, is during the quote you can there, there’s an area in press releases where you can quote, and then you can say that that XYZ CEO, XYZ says that he is incredibly or she is incredibly excited about this new promotion, that’s going to provide this, this and this over the next two months. So that’s one way of working with a press release. Now just a little added bonus, if you want a bit more juice, when you’re working with press releases, write a really good piece of content and make sure it’s associated. So I’ve talked about the the trick working with like, let’s say dogs. So you write a really great piece of an article about the five ways elderly dogs benefit from natural pet treats or bully sticks. And it’s 1500 words or 2500 words, and you get right into it. It’s not some cheap, crappy, you know, 200 word, blog article. The next step is writing that press release talking about how grass fed organic bully sticks provide healthy benefits to elderly dogs. Now within that press release, so the blog article gets published first, maybe a week later, you publish the press release. But within the press release, there’s a link over to the blog, and both the press release and the blog, go back to Amazon. And that’s going back to your listing or it’s going back to your store wherever you want it to go. So that’s what I would do. The other thing before and you have to do this month before I would try to get into the editorial recommendations that can take months to get approval for editorial recommendations that could give you 10 to 30% extra sales. And I would also be looking into gift guides so something that other people aren’t doing so if you and we’ve talked about it on the podcast before, but gift guides are an incredible way of getting a lot more exposure through different types of external adding more sternal contact or content, I’m just so excited that Vandana is going to be here. I can’t talk. So if anybody else has any other questions about press releases, post them in there and I will definitely answer them. But where is the lady? Hello Hi How are you? I’m good how are you you’re gonna be a master at this also so Vandana was Vandana is a Senior Project Manager, she’s my radar when it comes to the AMC, the AMC club, and she was on our group training yesterday, she had no idea she was coming on. But But anyway, yeah, we’re gonna we’re gonna wing it, how’s that?

Norman Ferrar  10:51  

I know, a lot of people that are listening, probably were involved with the mentoring call last night. But if you do have any, any questions, just put it into the right hand column, and we will definitely answer them so Vandana your VA? What’s it like? Well, I don’t like saying a VA, because that’s really quite General, you’re you you have specific talents, and you take care of you, you basically run the one business for me, you do all the delegating and write all the tasks. Let’s talk about that. So what is a day in the life? You know, what is the day in your life look like?

Vandana 11:33  

Yeah, so generally, my days, it starts from organizing all my tasks, creating a priority list, organizing things together. So you know, every day we have areas, because every time when you work with Amazon, it is a never ending job. So every day you have repetitive tasks, checking on the same things, arranging things. And as we talked about yesterday, because of this whole difference in the time zone that we have, I get that extra spare time wherein I can do the arrangements, every do everything before you know the day starts in us or the day starts for you there. So that’s how my starting two, three hours look like every day.

Norman Ferrar  12:16  

Right. And one of the things you were talking about last night, which I think is important, is you before I get up, you’re already sorting the tasks. So you’re you’re AB seeing the tasks, how important is that?

Vandana  12:33  

Yeah, so first, it looks like what is a very prioritize thing like if you know, you’re you get a weird notification from Amazon, that your account is at risk of ad activations. Obviously, that is the first point. But if there’s something smaller or minor, you know, a small changes that you have to be done that goes second in the list, then there are things that we want to change, but can be done tomorrow as well or can be done later. Or, or you don’t need any assistance from Amazon, or have to contact support. So that comes to the third priority list. So accordingly, I arrange my day, because yes, Amazon does not fix up call, like 24 seven, so they have a time limit that from this time to this they’ll be they’ll be you know, responding to your calls or emails. So then I tried to finish the extra work that I can do before getting on call or before trying to reach out to Amazon. Now you

Norman Ferrar 13:26  

have a really cool technique. And I think everybody listening, can can use this. So one of the things you found you were always on the phone trying to solve issues with Amazon and getting 10 different answers. And now I love what you do. So you wait until you get somebody that has a brain. Right. And and I don’t mean to be mean, but there’s just a lot of poorly trained Amazon, customer service reps. But when you find that person, that diamond in the rough, you store up all our questions. So you might have from all of our clients, you might end up having 10 questions. And you’re not going to call it if you call for each question 10 times and get nine out of 10 answers. I mean, it’s just a waste of time. So you actually wait unless it’s urgent, and this different story, but you compile all these questions. And then when you find the right person, you’ve told me that you find that they’re just they really want to help. And so now you’ve got the answer. Now you’ve got a person that can actually do something, and it saves a ton of time. So I mean, that’s that’s a really great

Vandana  14:38  

what they do, usually what I do when we when I have such a task or such type of questions, or things that are coming and I’m not getting a proper response, or a right answer from an executive I create I usually create a document and keep like a file with all the questions or all the topics that I want to talk about or I want answers on. Then every time when I call For the day to day activity, when I reach out to a representative who is, you know, giving accurate and proper answers and getting the things done for me, then I have like I take the half an hour, one hour sometimes. This is also my question. This is also my question, how should I do this? How should I do that? So every once in a while, like once in 10 times I get a representative that can answer all my questions. Yeah,

Norman Ferrar 15:23  

right. I know, I saw a question here. And we can go back to this hiring the whole hiring process. For TSA, how do we meet, we found, we actually meet met in a very unusual way, it was actually through an email that, that I answered about an experienced Amazon Rep. We ended up kind of going through a process, a hiring process, which we could talk about, that’s typically not my way of hiring a person, I will go through a very I want to say an arduous process to find people because I want to make it really hard for people to respond to my ads. And there’s a reason for it. But with with, with you Vandana, we ended up going through a couple of conversations, and then really, the final conversation was quite lengthy. And, you know, I wanted to know what you knew, and it was specifically about Amazon, it wasn’t just as a general VA, it was, I wanted to make sure that you could work with my clients. And what I was trying to do at the time, was I was trying to wean myself off of a lot of the business, so I could grow other businesses and for somebody to take over and help me out. So I just I, like we talked about last night, but what was it like being on the firing line?

Vandana  16:53  

Okay, so basically, first thing about interview Yeah, it was a long two hour call. And he was asking me so many questions related to everything on Amazon, right, from keyword research to PPC, everything, everything. And I remember that so much like I was I didn’t knew that. It was it was going to be that simple. So I was myself preparing, you know, getting prepared with all the answers and all the things that I do generally, there are different strategies Everyone follow like, they cannot be seen strategy related to anything or, you know, same plan, or POS. So I was trying to, you know, make you understand that, no, I do it like this, or I don’t like this, it was very lendy call. But yeah, we did it.

Norman Ferrar 17:37  

And there was things that you didn’t know. And you didn’t have to be an expert in everything. And that’s just an unrealistic expectation. So one of the one of the things I think that’s very important is that when we’re hiring a VA or a contractor is that the person’s willing to learn and expand, we want people to become experts. And right from the get go. I mean, I was talking back years ago with Manny coats, and I said, I don’t take training. I don’t go to training. I have people go and do that. I pay people to do it for me and summarize. And that was one of the tasks, you still do that for me.

Vandana  18:21  

Every day. That’s my everyday tasks. So every day, I have some other thing to look at, to take the training, summarize it and send it to you.

Norman Ferrar  18:29  

Yeah, yeah. So what we then we put it into, you know, what’s going to work, what’s not gonna work. One of the other areas that is very important when hiring a person overseas, not really usually in North North America, at least for internet speed wise. But there’s a few things that we we required, and one was, you know, your internet, what was your internet speed? The second and that was a screenshot, and then the screenshot of your computer, which actually sucked. That was that was bad. But then we had, what was the other thing out your cell phone? So the three things, everything worked, except your computer was like, you know, I think Bill Gates actually probably designed that first one for you himself. I came up, it came out of his garage. But what we wanted you to do is make sure that you were able to the speed was there. So if the internet speed is not there, you might be paying $10 an hour, but you’re really spending $20 an hour or $30 an hour because the internet speeds not there and I had to let go of a really great what could have been a really great executive assistant recently, because her internet speed was nothing I couldn’t like we communicate a lot with a video. And one a one minute video almost took a half hour it was 15 or 20 minutes to download and we just could and operate that way. And then I know with your computer, that sucked, we got your new computer, and the agreement was basically that over the year that the computer would be paid off. But we paid for it under with the understanding that one year, it’s just yours, you go for it. And it made a huge difference immediately. Because you could work and you can keep up. And you know. And I think that’s really important. The other thing I think is very important, from the get go, is that you can’t abuse wage. You’re not getting, you know, we’re not going to talk about what you make, but you’re not making what somebody in North America living in Toronto or New York would be making. But you are making a very good salary for where you’re living, and you were living in Poland, then you you move back home for a while, you’re in India right now, but you’re making a very good salary, I think for where you are. And the reason for that is stability. I didn’t want I don’t want my key employees, or contractors, I say employees, I mean, it’s part of the family, but to go and look to go in, you know, find something for 10 cents more. And all of a sudden, you know, they’re over there, there’s no loyalty. And I wanted to make sure that you and your family, you know, Mary’s family, you know, Nina’s family, all these people, have us have security. And if you don’t have security, it’s, I mean, how do you work, you’re always worrying about paycheck to paycheck, and I never want that to happen, you know, to anybody that’s working with me, if if I’m stable, and I’m making money, I want you to make money. And you know, I think that’s so key, because because a lot of people are shown or taught at these events, that you can get people at such a low wage, and all you’re doing is really taking advantage of the person for where they’re living, you’re not really giving them a chance to live, you know. So that’s just me. I think that paying more gets you more in the long run one way or the

Vandana  22:23  

other all all, everybody who’s working under norm. So it’s not only about me, but everybody and I’m quite sure about it.

Norman Ferrar  22:30  

Well, you know, you don’t know that I usually I pay you too much. I can’t pay anybody else.

Norman Ferrar  22:39  

But no, it is very important. And you know, wages important. security’s important, making sure you have the right equipment support. And the next step to this is our communication. So you’re in India, you’re 13 hours difference than I am. So how do you know what about communication?

Vandana  23:01  

Yes. So regarding communication, I think that is the most vital part because till the time, you know, you’re doing something you’re working, but if you’re not communicating properly, there’s a gap. And when you work in a team, or you know, with an organization, you have to communicate things very properly. So we do have different platforms for communicating, but especially, we make sure that we are doing our best and everything that is done or has to be done or it’s going on is properly communicated. with whatever Skype we do follow a teamwork software and, you know, everything possible, but we do maintain that communication properly.

Norman Ferrar  23:42  

Yeah, when Maria that was the other lady that was that was here, we were trying to streamline Slack, everything on slack. A couple of my companies are on slack. But for us, for you and me, there, we don’t want 10 different channels to communicate. When I want to get a hold of Vandana. We’re going to be on slack. But we have for the last year and a half been one channel, and that is Skype. And so if I need to search anything, I go to Skype. We do have our zoom meetings. But Skype is where everything is for now. Eventually, everybody will be over on slack. And the the project management tool is so key. So we have all like everybody, everybody who’s involved with the company’s on, on teamwork. And teamwork also acts as a technical support or like a support desk. But you like for me. I’m the old guy so I don’t use teamwork. But what what I will do is I will use loom so it’s a video app. I do. Everything I share my screen, I show you exactly what needs to happen. Or I’ll just give you an audio of, Hey, could you send Alex, this information, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you coordinate everything for me going over to any of our other contractors. And so it’s so important because when you have one tasks, that’s easy to handle, but when you have literally hundreds of tasks, you can mess up end data at events. We do have a lot of data at events, don’t we?

Vandana  25:34  

Yes. And it’s more like, you know, while assigning tasks as well, it’s like, norm sends me information. If there’s some access i’d need then yes, we do use LastPass, as well. So to get the access to share the credentials, and from there, I take it forward, I’ll distribute the work or divide the work or, you know, share it on the team work with the proper information and all the data in there. And then from there, it’s my task. It’s my duty to get that done. And send them the final, you know, thing before the deadline or make sure that it is happening and give him the update if it is taking time.

Norman Ferrar  26:17  

Right now, Kelsey, I just saw Kyle. Do we have anything that we have for we’ll have cat what’s what the hairdo today?

Kelsey  26:25  

Oh, yes. I? So lockdowns are still here in Toronto. So my roommate and I took the pair of scissors and we did a little work on it. So it’s easy right now. But anyways, we do have a price today. It’s fantastic. It’s our grand prize from rad. So Kyle is right hashtag we’ll have Kelsey, this is only going to be for North America only, unfortunately. But it is Brad’s grand prize of his solar spotlight. So he actually he sent it to me before, and I’ve used it and it’s fantastic. Perfect for anyone camping.

Norman Ferrar  27:00  

Yeah, you came down that I was. I was blown away by how powerful that spotlight is. And it’s all solar, all. So it’s really cool. But rad. Man, if you’re on I’m not sure if you’re here today. But he really appreciate all these gifts that you’ve given away. I mean, it’s fantastic. It just sums it up for our community, our communities. Just absolutely great. They’re sharing men. Anyways. It’s great. Thank you read. So if you’re looking to add an entry, hashtag, we’ll have Kelsey, if you’re looking for two entries, it’s hashtag, we’ll have Kelsey and take two people. And we’ll get you in for the grand prize today. And it’s an awesome, it really is an awesome prize. Am I eligible for this? Do you live in North America?

Vandana  27:56  

No, but I that’s so that’s my question. Am I eligible for it? Can I apply for it? Do I have no consideration?

Norman Ferrar  28:03  

You don’t because if you were in North America move over here. I won’t increase your salary, but move over here. And so one of the other things is very important. And and tie, it’s not time consuming at the very beginning. It’s time consuming. And that’s creating templates. We didn’t even talk about this last night. But templates, they take time to do if whether you’re on Mondays, Trello clickup, we’re on teamwork. And we take time. And we create what’s called a task list, which is a series of tasks underneath it. And each task might have other sub tasks underneath that as well, it gets quite in depth. But let’s say that we have a product launch. So we have a product launch task lists. Right now I know it’s 279 tasks that we can pick. So if there’s an influencer Task Group subtasks, we can use that if it’s going to search, find buy, or if it’s doing rebates or it’s doing whatever, there’s the group, and all we have to do is click on the group, click on the project, transfer over the the project or the template, and we’re off and running. And it works fantastic. It really does work fantastic.

Vandana 29:25  

And it ensures you’re not missing anything, or there’s nothing which is left or you forgot about doing it. So that’s the best way I also completely defend so every time we are doing anything or we are you know, studying a particular thing, we make sure that the template is up to date, or we create a template for that particular task. And we do follow that and the team to ensure that it’s happening

Norman Ferrar  29:49  

in the first grouping or wherever you are going down. There is the ability to have their their dependencies. So if you’re working with a data event, you know, boom, okay, this has to be done, I have to send the copy over to a press release writer. And once that’s done, it opens up. Now it goes over to the editor. Now, when that’s done, it goes over to the client to get approved once, oh, it’s got revisions. All right, then the process starts all over again. But it helps us save so much time and energy. And within the task. There’s usually links that explain it. So everybody knows what’s going on. And links to the ESOP that’s involved with all these tasks. So every task that we have, for the most part, has some form of SRP. SRP, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, is a standard operating procedure. And that’s tied in to a policy and procedure. So the policy kind of outlines is the buy in Why do I need to do this? How do I do it? So you know, links to how I do it? The the prerequisites? So if you have to log into Seller Central, it’ll show you how to do it, there’s a link back to that SRP. Any words that need to be defined? Then it goes into the standard operating procedure that describes each aspect of what we’re doing? And it is, I mean, when I told you, I think at the beginning, how many steps there were, I mean, you were rolling your eyes. But it has to be that way. Because it’s got to be clear and concise. A small task might have 45 steps, but every click of the mouse, you see it, and then there’s a review. And then they’re like reporting. And then there’s quantification. Like, we want to make sure that this policy is working, who’s who like who you’re reporting to? And how often does it get reviewed. So I think this is all very important. And we can do a whole podcast on standard operating procedures. If you’re interested. There’s a great book out there from Michael Gerber, called the E myth. And that actually, was the way I started with my slps. Now, the other thing we have to we didn’t talk about this last night on the call either, but I think you think I’m probably a little nuts when it comes to labeling files. Oh, yeah.

Vandana  32:24  

That’s, that’s really a thing. And it’s very important. So we do maintain Google Drive for keeping all the files and there is a standard operating procedure on that as well. It has a naming convention, it has everything. So you just cannot mess it. If you have if you are uploading a file and you have not named that properly, be ready, it’s gonna come on, you know, I’m just gonna from your two minutes audio thing that why you did not do it, and how difficult was it? It was for him to find it and how he went and checked his email and you know, found that file, and it’s gonna be you know,

Norman Ferrar  32:59  

that you know, it, that is the whole reason behind this. Kelsey, please listen, you know, when you name the files properly, then like, you can go into Google Drive. And with us, we have lots of companies are working with, so we’ve created tons of logos for people. So I type in logo, well, in Google Drive, I’ll get 1000 files, like just different mock ups. And let’s say I have XYZ company. Well, our naming protocol is basically you have the two letters of the word, so x, y, space, hyphen, space, and then logos. Now, even more, so we have default folders. So the second we bring on a client, we have for at least with the managed services 40, there’s there is 40. And sub folders that get copied and set up immediately, it takes two minutes to do. But then when you go in, I know Oh, if I have packaging, I can go into this client x, y, x, y space hyphen space, I just have to put packaging, boom, it’s up. If I can, if I want to see x, y space hyphen, space logo, guess what? It’s up. It’s so easy. If you spend five minutes or 15 minutes searching for a file, that’s 15 minutes you could be doing something else with. So we so yes, that’s one thing that I’m pretty. Yeah, we have to have a

Vandana  34:31  

serious about Yeah, I’m serious about that. I’m gonna make sure like, every time we are working, for example, if I’m getting some projects done by a graphic designer, or some image has to be changed and designers working on it, and if I don’t upload it, obviously it’s going to be in my device forever. But if somebody goes in and tries to find it, they will not be able to find it. And there are instances that we do face problems sometimes when I do upload it so yeah. Never know when

Norman Ferrar  35:00  

you need it. So it might be a packaging file, it might need. Let’s say it’s just the word doc or say we’re doing some keyword research. So let’s Vandana might have it on her Google Drive. But unless she shares it within the Google Drive, that the company’s Google Drive, then there’s a problem I might want to do some keyword research and I might be doing like, I might be writing invoices or some whatever it is, boom, I’m, I can’t find it. Vandana is out partying, you know, she always does. But I can’t get ahold of Vandana. So now I’m stuck for until she answers or the next day. And I can’t do what I want to do this way. It’s a no brainer, anybody. Anybody who has the right permissions can go to any Google file in our system, either through teamwork, or just when we give them permissions on Google Drive. So that makes things so much easier. And the other thing I like trying to teach people is working with shortcuts, you know, so with Google Drive, I mean, it’s so simple. If you have to change a name, you press n, within Gmail, if you want to forward something F, I mean, there’s, it’s just, it’s so much better, those wasted times hovering and trying to bring like even a trackball, just bringing your mouse to a certain area takes time. And over a period of a year, it could take days or weeks of time that you could have committed to something else. So we try to get people to learn shortcuts and and work the most efficient ways we possibly can.

Vandana  36:46  

And we know spend months in a while like we do, you can say weekly or something. But that’s one of my tasks, actually, once in a week or something. So I look at everything, all my download folders, or even though that could be screenshots that could be copy of emails that I have to file. And once in a while, it’s like an hour or something, you filter everything, you put everything together, you name it properly. And then you know that this week’s all the files, or all the data has been transferred to Google Drive. transferring ownership also is very important. Because if I delete my account someday, and I’ve transferred something, it’s gonna, you know, get lost, or we might miss it. So we always have to make sure that the ownership is under the norms ID or the main account so that it never gets lost no matter what.

Norman Ferrar  37:32  

Yeah, and the other thing is training to train to train. So we we try to train. I don’t, I don’t want to have to answer questions. Everybody on our team is trained to come back with solutions. So if there’s a problem, and we have a policy in the company, that, look, it’s okay to make mistakes. And really, I don’t care how big of a mistake is made. People are going to make a mistake, and nobody’s going to get screamed at it doesn’t solve anything. It just puts fear into people. So first mistakes, go for it. What is it, but come back to me with a solution? Did you make a mistake? Did you not look at the SLP? What step in the SLP? Did you did you find that there was a problem? Oh, it was step 19. Oh, okay, that’s probably me or somebody else who originally wrote the SLP that made a mistake, or there was something that got away and there’s a new step in there. Okay, so how do you fix it? All right, boom, it’s fixed, not me, Vandana or whoever’s writing them. And by the way, we train everybody to write slps for their department. Vandana can’t do it all the time. Plus, if people don’t know how to do them, they can’t approve their departments. So the first time it’s Yeah, look, look, let’s just go over, let’s just find it. Very seldom Is there a second mistake, but if there is, alright, what happened? You know, where are you come back with a solution. vendetta never wants to come back to me and say, you know, what’s the answer? Oh, you know, it’s, I put it on, you

Vandana  39:24  

know, all of it. Like, I just tried to sort out things. So if there’s anything like, give me five minutes and solve it, I’ll do it right now.

Norman Ferrar  39:31  

Yeah. And it’s, it’s important, because if you don’t do that, first of all, you’re micromanaging. And second of all, the person doesn’t learn and how do you grow your business? So on the second attempt, we go through the exact same thing and same thing happens, no screaming, no yelling. There’s very, very seldom I don’t even think I know of anybody in the last year or so. That got a third strike. So the third strike is look, you just don’t get it, you don’t belong in this either task or job. And then we we move along. And it’s usually mutual, because either the person’s stressed out. And that’s the other thing, we work only on strengths, not weaknesses, will improve weaknesses. If somebody wants to take accounting, but they think accounting sucks, we can do that. But why have somebody stressed out, I want them focusing on their strengths. And that’s pretty much how we do it. And the other thing, for anybody who’s training, training is training. It’s not Oh, here’s the task, go and figure it out. person has to understand it. And that’s where a lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake, because they’re so busy, that they can’t train properly, they don’t have time to train. And by not spending that extra time, they have a really good person that they get rid of, that could have been an excellent employee or contractor at the end of the day, but they never had a chance they were doomed to fail because of the training. So we try, we really do try to train people properly. And then the trainer learns to train people properly. So I don’t have to get into it. Vandana doesn’t really want to get into it, we get the department’s doing it themselves. But again, I think,

Vandana  41:23  

yeah, follow that. And we do follow that because I’m quite sure we I think we have training videos as up or even, you know, the paid subscription of those training, everything you say, we have it, we have all the trainings, like, from basic to a pro level to everything. And that’s how that’s what we do. And as appeases Well, it’s not just, you know, step 1234. Finance done. It’s never that it explains you, it saves you the purpose, it saves you why you are doing it, what you will get out of everything. So it’s not just for the purpose of doing something, finishing the work and going back to your you know, place, it’s about even learning it using it, it shows you all the formulas, all the strategies that you follow the chosen examples as well. So yeah, that’s very one of the important thing that we follow, we do have to, you know, bring up new things, keep praying about it. And, you know, keep writing about it. For me also, I, every now and then I’m getting new things that you have to look at it. And my main duty is to not only look at it, learn it, but also summarize it and send it to the team or whosoever would need it or to norm that, you know, this is what I’ve learned, or this is what we can implement, or we can use it. So we do keep it as a priority.

Norman Ferrar 42:43  

Yeah. And we try to create a performance based culture where, again, not asking coming back with a solution rather than having one person, you know, being that bottleneck. No suggestion is a bad suggestion. You know, we will come back, we’ll talk about it. It’s open discussion. And one thing I hate Well, first of all, you’ll never the one thing that will irked me and will get anybody out of the company is gossip. No gossip, this is a non gossip. We don’t talk about anybody. You know, that’s one rule that that I’ve learned over the years is gossip kills, and won’t take part in it and don’t want anything to do with it. And none of my team does either. So but and we also provide the room for everybody to grow. We provide free training, if anybody wants to take any any course at all. The company pays for it. We want to bring out excellence. And that’s one way we can do it. And I think you’ll agree that I let you run your depart. I don’t micromanage at all, you do not ever want, right?

Vandana  43:55  

Yeah. Yes. from my house, because, yes. Because you know, you are told what has to be done. And it’s your duty to do that, no matter how you’re doing it when you’re doing it. But you have a task and you have a deadline. Go ahead, do it. And that’s the first thing. And if you find out something, or if you have a difficulty in between you reach out you talk about it, you get it sorted. But I don’t think we do that at all. Because we have everything arranged we have, you know, everything in place properly done properly saved, and there you go, just do the task.

Norman Ferrar  44:38  

And one of the things that just to build trust and loyalty, are we stuck. We did it briefly where we were taking screenshots. And I know that there’s some recruiting or placement companies that do this, but I don’t want my team using like Time Doctor or stuff like that. I completely trust my team. And I don’t want to have to watch every minute. There is we do ask for time studies. Because we want to know, if somebody’s not efficient, how do we get them better training, but apps? I hate? I don’t know, I just think if I had to do this time doctor in Time Doctor might be a great product. But I don’t, I don’t want you having to think that I’m looking over your shoulder. You know, if you’re telling me you’re working two and a half hours, and it took this time, great. If if there’s a lot more money being spent, or it’s not being efficient, then Okay, let’s go through it. Let’s figure this out. But you have to have trust. So and we had that question yesterday on the call was, you know, how much? How much can how much trust? Well, there’s a lot of trust LA, we’re completely transparent, aren’t we? Yeah, we are actually. So I mean, you know, basically, everything is going on in the business, you, you know, what I make, like, within the business, you know, like, what, what I make on each project, I share the invoices, I don’t hide. And I think I think that’s probably the best way. Somebody said, Oh, but this was privately What about, you know, worrying about starting your own business? Go for it. You know, I’ll help you. But I think that, you know, having a really good crew, having a good team. That’s it. That’s all about it, you know, if I can build them up to to be successful in other ways, then all know, all the power to them. So, Kelsey, any other questions? I know, I haven’t been looking at all.

Kelsey  46:51  

Yeah, there’s lots of questions. Oh, yeah. People are eager to learn. Good. Okay. So from Tony, how often do you meet with Vandana?

Norman Ferrar 47:01  

The true, Molly? Oh, Dawn that what we’re supposed to meet and how often we do meet she. Okay, go ahead.

Vandana  47:12  

Oh, it’s like you have to ping him every day. Do you have time to talk? I need 30 minutes. Do you have time to I have to send him a document like 20 questions. 20 things 20 topics. We need to approve this. Please talk about this. I want to know this. And you just wait for him to reply. I’ll get back to you. Oh, no, no, no. I have to reply. You get his message. I am in a meeting. I’ll get back shortly. Yeah, that’s that’s a reply to an urgent email.

Norman Ferrar  47:51  

But no, we we try to meet sings things come up. But I do know when Vandana says I need to talk now. I will, you know, if there is a time difference, but then Dan is awesome. Like right now. Last night, when we were talking, it was what one in the morning, two in the morning,

Vandana  48:15  

I was off at 145 1:45am. So almost two.

Norman Ferrar 48:19  

And so it’s kind of I don’t, again, I don’t make Vandana work into the night. We just kind of adjust the hours to work. You know that that time, Kelsey is a different story. But it’s all seven for me. I think like for us, if we had I know with PR reach and with honu. With tcaa it’s once a week we meet and same thing. We I’d like to meet Vandana once a week.

Vandana  48:51  

Hope so. I think I might contact Kelsey when it doesn’t happen. Yeah, same point. We also do organize weekly meeting with all the staff like all the teams together to you know, talk about things that are going on if it is interconnected or we do have a similar company. Yeah. intercompany not just with this. Yeah. So we do have it so we do keep you know, a time for it and discuss what is going on what are the new strategies that we have to follow or if there’s any going to be any new communication tool that we would like to you know, introduced to get the things go more properly or smoothly. So we do the beginning. It doesn’t happens often. At the beginning lady.

Norman Ferrar  49:39  

We had a lot because Vandana had to learn kind of the culture of the company, she had to learn. She knew a lot about Amazon, but there was different ways that we may have done things differently. And she was learning that she was bringing in training. So we met probably Every day, maybe twice a day at the very beginning. So it’s a longer process but look at right now. I could go

Vandana 50:09  

on and a half year ago. What’s that? Big thing is like one and a half year ago. And now it’s like once in a week or not even that up to keep countries. I sometimes I can talk to you on at least Saturday. I’m going to be available on Saturday, but please do go 15 minutes, 30 minutes something.

Norman Ferrar  50:27  

But we always do when we need to be. Yeah, yes. Okay, next question. She’s coming.

Kelsey 50:34  

Also, from Tony, how do you handle it when Vandana needs time off or not able to work? Is it hourly, or salary

Norman Ferrar  50:41  

compensation? It’s salary and Vandana ever needs time off? She just has to ask.

Vandana  50:46  

Yeah, I just have to inform him or most probably doesn’t happens, because it’s not, you know, fixed hour that you have to be available from this to this time. So if there is an hour’s difference, we just manage it early or later at the date.

Unknown Speaker  51:00  

She just gets her job done. And then I mean, even if she has to go away or if she’s going on a holiday, like when you went Poland over to India, you know, hey, I’m gonna be off for a couple of days. Okay, we got you covered. Yeah,

Vandana  51:14  

he’s very generous about it. I get paid.

Kelsey  51:21  

All right for him, Simon is Vandana only working with norm, what motivates Vandana to stay loyal to norm? Answer this carefully.

Vandana  51:33  

I don’t work for him. I am actually, it’s, again, as we just said, it’s like a salary based thing. So it’s a full time job for me. And trust me, I don’t get even a spare hour from out of this to you know, look into something else. There. There’s no time for it. But if I have to say about why do I have to stay loyal? Because, again, as we talked about things, it’s not only that I’m coming here working, taking my salary and going away, it’s like, we are working together, getting things done. I’m growing. I’m learning from both perspectives. So it’s, you know, both waiting. And we do actually maintain that. So I think that is important thing. Why do I have to be properly is all about it.

Norman Ferrar  52:20  

I lost. I’ve lost people in the past. I’ve lost lots of people in the past, and you have to constantly grow. Why did they leave the E? I know it’s hard. But sometimes you just have to do an exit interview. And like, why did you leave? What happened? What What motivated you to do this? And, you know, oh, you know, wow, I was a jerk. I did this, though. It’s over the years. It just, I have what what I think right now, if I take a look, Alex has been with me 15 years, married has been with me three or four year you’ve been with a year and people don’t leave once we get them into our system? Yes.

Vandana  52:59  

And they are just what? Now? Obviously, it is. And the people are very trustworthy. I’m just not talking about myself here. But other people also on the team, like Mary or Alex or everybody. manner. Yeah, all of them. So you just don’t have to think like twice. Also, if you want something or you want to talk about it, or you want to get things done, it says you have to reach out Hi, man, I need your help. And

Norman Ferrar  53:22  

you know, when something I know, it might come up, but there’s days that are bad days, that, you know, I’m not always happy and cheerful. And I want to point that out, because this is a working relationship. There’s day, Kelsey knows this. You know, there’s days that I’m not a happy camper, that and usually it’s because of my own stress, I’ve got too much going on, I shouldn’t have done it. or something’s happened that was either out of my control, or for the most part, it’s usually because I caused the stress. And then I get I event knows, like screaming and yelling, but people know, I’m on edge. And you know, I’ll either want answers or you know, just vent, but it happens. And it happens in any relationship. Right kills Kelsey. Yeah,

Kelsey  54:15  

sometimes you just need to get it out and just

Unknown Speaker  54:21  

sit there for 10 minutes and listen, everything is and see what you are going to do to just do it. Finish it. That’s do it. I just, every time is mad at something. I’m like, I know this is not my thing. Give me five minutes. I’ll get it done. Yeah, and then I go, Why don’t you say at the beginning, then. And there are some times you know, planners, like if he’s, for example, this is every time that happens if he’s finding something in Google Drive and he doesn’t find it or it’s not filed properly. It’s like 10 messages, audio loom, everything on Skype at 4am my time when I’m not even seeing him and I wake up in the morning Like, oh boy 10 messages What happened? And you listen to each and every Two Minute audios and like, oh god, you miss to file this. Never yelling. No drastic. Okay, next question.

Kelsey  55:17  

All right, this is kind of fun. This is a little. I’m liking this episode. from Simon, I have 20 years of folders, it’s a plate of spaghetti. What is the process for cleaning up files and folders? I use Do you have an SRP for naming files? Yeah, I do.

Vandana  55:35  

Yeah, I have an, I have an SLP for making coffee. So literally, I have slps for everything. But I will give you a an app or a website that is timesavers, called G Suite tips.com. And they’ve got tools there that will help copy. So what I’ve done is I’ve created a master list of files for the managed services, there’s 20 files, it’ll ask you, do you want to put a prefix in front of it? So you go, you select your master group, or wherever that folder is? says Do you want to prefix Yes, and I’ll put x y space hyphen space, and then all of the files will be copied over under my client files. And it’ll be copied within seconds. Plus, I spent the time to put all the sub files in there too. So if we’re talking about social media, it’s all social media banners, Facebook level, blah, blah, blah. So and all we do is it takes two minutes. And a client is just part of the onboarding process. That’s the start of it, Simon, is just to try to figure that out. And once you, it might be much harder if you have just a melting pot of folders. But once you get it set up, it’s very easy. Like our our files are really incredible. They’re very organized when Kelsey uses them. doesn’t usually though.

Kelsey  57:06  

Yeah, never. Okay, let’s see from Brad is building out a new website with a shopping cart function be a good experience for a VA and the brand owner orders and the shopping cart would be fulfilled by Amazon multi channel fulfillment.

Norman Ferrar 57:23  

You can do it as long as the the trainings there. So if you’re a new if you’re new to Shopify, and you don’t know what you’re looking for, or how it works, and you’re trying to get a new VA that it can that doesn’t know Shopify, then you’re going to mess up. If you this is where I’d probably get a really high quality Shopify designer or programmer who knows. You know how it works, who can explain it, who can document it, who can write the ESOP. So if you do want to do it next time, you already have it. But yeah, this would be your you’re probably looking for a part time person. So you can go to companies like free up online jobs I I work or VA, multi, what’s Yannis company? Excellent company. But anyway, you you can find part time workers. And those are the people that you probably hire just on a part time basis. We have tons, we have tons of part timers that are just excellent at what they do. Because Vandana you can’t be excellent at everything. Right? If I asked you to go and do a Shopify site right now, you know, that’s not going to be your strength. Not at all. So hopefully that that can answer but Brad, you can actually you ask in the description, in what you’re looking for. What the prerequisites are maybe that they have to have some some Amazon knowledge, maybe they have to know the apps within Shopify. So you can do the multi channel fulfillment, you know, that’s probably where I’d start.

Kelsey  59:13  

Okay, great. We just have a few more questions from Cynthia, if she is on salary, does she get paid holidays vacation? Are those unpaid? It’s Oh, now you’re gonna get your mind thinking. It’s a straight salary. Yeah. And then Simon, could you say in SRP is the same as a recipe that has all the ingredients and steps to make the cake you got it and I like cake. Alright, and last comment from Simon if staff work together in an open plan office or remotely around the world, you have to touch base regularly communication is crucial to keep the wheels turning. I definitely agree with that.

Norman Ferrar  59:57  

I agree with that, but I’m not the I might be in the middle of it but Vandana is the one that’s coordinating all that I hardly talked to any of the other people we’ve got like tons of people that we weren’t we were working with. It’s not me it’s Vandana is coordinating it, man as coordinating it, like all the writers and all the moving components over in the content side. You’ve got to, if you’re putting that all on you, you’ll never be able to automate or scale your business. If especially like for stuff that I’m doing, I’m kind of the face to the business. But if I’m the only person that could do this sort of stuff, I’ll never be able to grow it. So how do I sell the business later on? So anyways, so I leave it all the Vandana.

Kelsey 1:00:56  

All right, well, I think that’s it for questions.

Norman Ferrar  1:00:59  

Okay, perfect. Well, that was a interesting, we got to talk a little bit about press releases, Vandana came on and helped us out with this. Yeah, yeah. Oh, by the way, I’m gonna be sending you over the helium 10 Elite training. So you can go through that. Okay, that’s a task for me, that’s a task. Alright, so before we, you know, go to the wheel of Kelsey. Just quick, 30 seconds. If you haven’t entered its hashtag, we’ll have Kelsey, tag two people, and you’ll get an extra entry. Are there any other questions that we have here from the audience to shoot it over? What is rad have to say

Kelsey 1:01:44  

I can’t read it. Since I’ve received lots of honest suggestions from you and your guests. What I’m giving us just a small token of appreciation.

Norman Ferrar  1:01:52  

I mean, you are really, really awesome. And one of the things I could probably say, just while we’re waiting here is that, hey, look, if you like what you heard, if you like this type of, there’s no pitching, there’s no nothing in this, this podcast. You know, please feel free to join our community. hit those like buttons match whatever Kelsey tells you to do that social media stuff. I’m too old for. But anyways, please do. So we’d love to have you in our community. Oh, by the way, I got to touch base on this. If anybody is listening, who is coming into our community to pitch, don’t bother. I got rid of a guy yesterday that came in and all he did was pitch. He’s out. And he won’t be coming back in. It’s a no pitch. It’s for content. It’s to build, it’s to share. If you’re a person that wants to share information, join. If you’re a person trying to pitch Forget it, you’ll be out and it’s not just me that will toss you out. We got about four or five other people that just don’t tolerate it their monitors. Mr. Kells is the meanest though them all. But yeah, we just don’t like that. We’re not here to be pitching services. You can go do that somewhere else. But yeah, I just hate when I see I saw that last night and I just went oh my god. my rant. Alright, it’s my rant

Kelsey  1:03:17  

for that. And it’s time for the real Kelsey. So here we go. Alright, so thank you. Everyone who has entered for today’s draw. is more Brad’s spotlight. It’s a solar powered as well. So that’s awesome. So here we go. 321. Wash.

Norman Ferrar 1:03:55  

Oh, all right, Marsha Reese. Very good. You’re gonna love this one, Marsha. Yes, definitely. So how do they get the information T accounts.

Kelsey 1:04:11  

Alright, so Marsha is one before but just Caitlin’s with norm calm and she can get in touch with me. And that’s about it. Thank you everyone. Vandana.

Norman Ferrar  1:04:21  

Keep being awesome. Sure. Your mind? Keep in mind. All right. Hey, thank you for the short notice. I really appreciate you coming on and kind of sharing, you know, what a day in the life of a Senior Project Manager is like,

Vandana  1:04:39  

Yes, that was a pleasure. Thank you. Alright,

Norman Ferrar  1:04:43  

so you’ll see, we’re going to, you’ll probably see that the podcast ends and then you can just click off of it. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, we’ll see Vandana later and hope you enjoyed this kind of a unique I was going into the fetal position, but she pulled it off. She’s awesome. What about you, Kelsey?

Kelsey  1:05:07  

Doing great, man. Fantastic. So if you guys haven’t watched it already, or guys haven’t subscribed and liked already do that now, especially as buttons can head over to our YouTube channel, Norman Farrar for updates and full episodes. And I hope you guys have a great weekend. Let us know what you’re doing. Enjoy it. I know it’s Mother’s Day. So Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there this weekend. And thank you to Vandana for doing this, we really appreciate it. And it was a great episode. I think everyone’s learned a lot. We had lots of engagements. So that’s awesome. So yeah.

Norman Ferrar  1:05:43  

And nobody target her to recruit away from me either. All right. So please join us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at noon, Eastern Standard Time. Look, I love you guys. Being in part of our community. It’s awesome. Tons of engagement. You ask questions, we will answer it in the community. So anyways, as Kelsey said, Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and we will talk to you soon. mantra

Transcribed by https://otter.ai