Latest / Port City Profiles / Why Your Virtual Assistant Isn't Working w/ Danny Reynolds | Ep 5

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Why Your Virtual Assistant Isn't Working w/ Danny Reynolds | Ep 5 · Port City Profiles

• 0:00
  We realized about a year ago that AI was going to continue to grow and it was only going to get better.
• 0:05
  But the biggest problem that we were finding, even in ourselves, was how can we implement AI into a business and how can it run the right way?
• 0:13
  How can we make efficiencies happen?
• 0:15
  We had the pleasure of being really, really close to probably one of the most highest achievers in the AI space in the US right now.
• 0:22
  And he lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
• 0:24
  One of the biggest conversations that we had when we met together was everybody loves AI.
• 0:29
  Everybody loves the thought of it, but they don't know how to implement it.
• 0:33
  And they also don't know how to refine and manage it.
• 0:35
  So Wilmington's full of so many cool businesses doing great work, and most of them never get to tell you how they're helping and more importantly, why they're helping here in the community.
• 0:44
  So I decided I'm going to ask them.
• 0:46
  I'm your host, Rich Cardona, and this is Port City Profiles.
• 0:49
  Today, my guest is Danny Reynolds.
• 0:51
  And Danny, we work together in a capacity, but we're not talking about how we work together podcasting-wise.
• 0:57
  We're actually going to be talking about your company that you're the chief strategy officer for, and that company is called Valor Pro.
• 1:04
  And obviously, this is for people in Wilmington to discover you or for people who want to come to Wilmington, which it feels like a lot of people...
• 1:11
  have their eyeball on this place right now, to know some of the businesses that exist here and how they're serving the community, what the industry is about, where you see it in a few years.
• 1:20
  But please tell us, I hate saying this, but a little bit about yourself.
• 1:24
  And then we can talk about Valor Pro.
• 1:26
  Awesome.
• 1:26
  Awesome.
• 1:26
  I appreciate you having me on.
• 1:28
  Danny Reynolds, obviously, originally from Oxford, England.
• 1:32
  So did not realize that my life would end up in Wilmington, North Carolina, but I'm very glad that it did.
• 1:38
  Yeah, it's crazy kind of seeing some of the steps that got me here.
• 1:42
  It's it's really, really interesting.
• 1:44
  But.
• 1:45
  My life before Valor Pro was very much soccer oriented.
• 1:50
  I come from a soccer family.
• 1:52
  My dad played when I was younger.
• 1:54
  My sister played for Arsenal.
• 1:56
  My brother played for Chelsea.
• 1:58
  So they're in the America now.
• 1:59
  But yeah, soccer was predominantly the thing that brought me over here.
• 2:03
  Obviously, my brother and my sister being older, they kind of went through the collegiate process and the recruitment process and that.
• 2:10
  it opened my eyes to the possibilities and the capabilities of college soccer and really being able to continue kind of grinding and continue developing as a player, but also being able to get a degree alongside that.
• 2:24
  So- What'd you study?
• 2:25
  I studied psychology and then I got my master's in business after school.
• 2:29
  And I have to thank my mom for that because honestly, if you'd have met me as an undergrad, you probably would have said that he was definitely never going to get a master's.
• 2:38
  But definitely realized kind of through injuries as well.
• 2:43
  You know, along those four years, I realized that soccer was an avenue for the rest of my life.
• 2:48
  It kind of wasn't going to be my life.
• 2:50
  And that kind of pushed me into education.
• 2:53
  It pushed me into understanding more of business.
• 2:56
  And that's kind of how we got here.
• 2:58
  It sounds like you had to adjust early.
• 3:00
  How did you know what you were going to be interested in?
• 3:02
  Because that's the whole key.
• 3:04
  Yeah, I think knowing what I was interested in was very hard.
• 3:09
  And it's difficult.
• 3:11
  My only, and this sounds really nerdy in a way, but...
• 3:15
  my only passion when I was growing up was soccer.
• 3:19
  Um, it was the only thing I immersed myself in.
• 3:22
  I was really, I was always really interested in the business side because my dad owned a very successful construction business in England.
• 3:29
  And my mom was director of administration for a lot of different companies in Europe.
• 3:35
  Um, so it was definitely of interest to me, to me.
• 3:38
  And I,
• 3:40
  the way that we've all been raised in my family is very much being entrepreneurs, um, running as hard as we can and trying to strive for, for the best, to be honest with you.
• 3:51
  So I always knew that I was a little bit more outspoken as well.
• 3:56
  Um, and from there, it's, it's one of those where I always knew that I wanted to create, kind of create my own path and, and,
• 4:04
  and be able to navigate it on my own in a lot of ways.
• 4:07
  So I've always relied on myself from an early age.
• 4:10
  I mean, I left home when I was 15.
• 4:13
  I always had to kind of be independent in that way, just from soccer.
• 4:18
  So fast forward now, being able to look at where Valor is now, and I know that we haven't got into that yet, but looking at where Valor is now, if you'd have said four years ago that this was going to be the company that it is, I'd have...
• 4:34
  I'd have probably believed it because I was cocksure and I also knew the people that were around me to help me grow it.
• 4:40
  Sure.
• 4:40
  Benny, people like that have always been successful.
• 4:44
  But it takes a tough person to be able to kind of build something from the jump.
• 4:50
  You kind of have to have a little bit of an ego in order to be able to do that.
• 4:54
  And unfortunately, I've always had one.
• 4:57
  Yeah.
• 4:57
  And just hate or love pain somehow.
• 5:00
  Yeah.
• 5:01
  but sleepless nights, things like that.
• 5:03
  So your education, you, you got your master's in business.
• 5:07
  So the education portion of business was fulfilled, but then the practical experience of business came through a conversation over adult beverages.
• 5:15
  It sounds like you will before that, um, when I was playing professionally, I was incredibly bored and I, that sounds crazy to, to say, right.
• 5:25
  But as a, as a professional, when you're not on game day,
• 5:29
  you get treated like you get treated like a king.
• 5:32
  You walk in, you get your breakfast done, you train for two hours, you have lunch afterwards.
• 5:37
  And then they say at 1 p.m. most of the days, like, go and enjoy yourself.
• 5:41
  And I hated that because I was like, this is a job.
• 5:44
  Like, in a way, I want to be there from nine to five, like normal jobs.
• 5:48
  But you look back now and I'm like, I was so blessed.
• 5:51
  But I was so bored during the weekend, like the afternoon and the weekends, if we didn't have games, that I'd actually created a college recruitment sector where I was helping players in college in conjunction to being a pro.
• 6:07
  I was helping players get into college.
• 6:10
  I knew so much about the process anyway, and I had so many connections in that space that
• 6:15
  I also knew that there was so many people out there that were talking about college soccer and didn't really know enough about it.
• 6:22
  Yeah.
• 6:22
  So I just wanted to be that resource.
• 6:24
  So I started that when I was 21.
• 6:28
  A business?
• 6:29
  Yeah.
• 6:29
  Okay.
• 6:29
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:31
  Yeah, multiple clients on a yearly basis and helping them through that.
• 6:36
  So that was actually the first time I ever looked into virtual assistants.
• 6:41
  Perfect segue.
• 6:42
  I know.
• 6:44
  I was helping players, and I realized that I needed help in different roles.
• 6:49
  I needed help in administration roles.
• 6:51
  I needed helping...
• 6:52
  honestly, graphic design and video editing that I'm absolutely useless at.
• 6:56
  Right.
• 6:57
  And that was kind of where it opened my eyes to virtual assistants.
• 7:01
  And then the, yeah, the conversation over a beer started happening.
• 7:05
  And, um, obviously I was, I was heading out of the college, the, the, the game of soccer.
• 7:13
  I'd had a few injuries and, you know, a couple of multiple surgeries.
• 7:17
  And I knew that it was, it was time to kind of hang up, hang up my boots and,
• 7:22
  a really good friend that we've had in the show, Sean Utterson.
• 7:26
  He was like, I really want you to meet this guy.
• 7:28
  Like he's, he's a super cool guy.
• 7:30
  He's really switched on.
• 7:31
  He's, he's somebody that I definitely think you can learn from.
• 7:35
  Yeah.
• 7:35
  And, and that was Benny Sheely.
• 7:37
  Right.
• 7:38
  So,
• 7:39
  got to thank Sean for that, just being able to put me in the right positions.
• 7:42
  You and Benny ended up in a partnership, of course, but what are some of the problems that you both kind of endured or were experiencing that you're like, we need to solve this?
• 7:52
  And how that led to the idea?
• 7:54
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:55
  So when I was working in
• 7:57
  you know, the recruitment side, I was dealing with like virtual assistants and virtual assistants is absolutely brilliant.
• 8:04
  If it's done the right way, if it's not done the right way, you're going to have a bunch of people that are calling or a bunch of people that are saying that it's, it's useless because it's,
• 8:13
  They just never were never on the same page or there's so many issues.
• 8:17
  I actually love to lean into what the wrong way is.
• 8:20
  So tell me, how can an entrepreneur, you know, not leverage it correctly?
• 8:24
  And then like also, what if the talent isn't there?
• 8:27
  How do you even spot that?
• 8:28
  It's not actually the talent you need.
• 8:29
  First and foremost, I think if you look back from where we started to where our
• 8:34
  our processes are now for just hiring.
• 8:37
  I think it's completely different.
• 8:39
  But when I was first starting, normally when you like the idea of virtual assistants is when you're drinking from a fire hose yourself and you're doing too many things.
• 8:49
  So I think the biggest problem that entrepreneurs or businesses have when they do hire VAs is they don't have set processes for them.
• 9:00
  And
• 9:01
  this is, you know, for virtual assistance is a very process based industry in a lot of ways, because you're at the end of the day, you're giving your keys away.
• 9:09
  You're giving your keys to the castle.
• 9:10
  Yes.
• 9:11
  Right.
• 9:11
  And if there's no processes in, you know, in their role,
• 9:17
  They don't know what they're doing on a day-to-day, and they're also going to be doing the same task differently in different ways.
• 9:24
  So I think when I first started, I think the main problem was I was the issue, right?
• 9:29
  And I think most entrepreneurs are when they do hire VAs, if I'm being honest.
• 9:33
  When I hired my first VA, I was like, this is not working out.
• 9:37
  I gave it a month.
• 9:37
  I was like, this isn't working out.
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  This is...
• 9:40
  This is ridiculous, right?
• 9:42
  It's not working.
• 9:44
  And I remember I had a mentor.
• 9:46
  I still have this mentor, but I had a mentor at the time.
• 9:49
  And they were like, well, let's look at what they're doing on a day-to-day and let's see how we can solve for it.
• 9:56
  And I was like, well, these are the tasks that they're doing.
• 9:58
  And they're like, okay, well...
• 10:00
  have you got any written procedures down for any of these tasks?
• 10:04
  I'm like, no, I've been on video calls and I've recorded these video calls and we've got hour-long trainings.
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  And they're like...
• 10:13
  they're probably retaining 10% of that knowledge.
• 10:15
  And then they have nothing to look back on unless it's an hour long video call, which you're not really going to retain anyway.
• 10:21
  So you have to kind of have different ways of learning, right?
• 10:25
  You can have a video, a show, and you can then have a tell, which is the document processing side.
• 10:30
  So I remember kind of having that conversation and being told that I was the problem.
• 10:37
  Right.
• 10:38
  And that kind of changed my whole thought process on how do I structure things for people to be successful?
• 10:46
  And how can I make them successful in their role and know what they're doing on a day to day?
• 10:51
  So every task has a process to it.
• 10:54
  And that's really how I solved it.
• 10:56
  Yep.
• 10:57
  Fast forward, you know, on Benny's side, what Benny was experiencing was, you know, when you hire virtual assistants and you're hiring from a vendor or you're hiring independently,
• 11:08
  The main problem that people face, especially in an industry like Benny's, Benny obviously started Chile Insurance, sold to private equity about four years ago.
• 11:18
  During the sale process, Benny was utilizing virtual assistants to increase his EBITDA, but also to help the account managers that were in their day-to-day with a lot of the service-related items that bog account managers down.
• 11:34
  And that's kind of how he structured it.
• 11:38
  But data security and data integrity is absolutely huge in the space.
• 11:43
  Like I said, you're giving your keys away.
• 11:46
  So I think that was a big problem that we were facing is we couldn't, you know, on Benny's side, he couldn't track what the virtual assistants were doing on a day-to-day basis because the vendor that we were using didn't really have any protocols to show us.
• 12:01
  There's maybe a sign-in email, a sign-out email.
• 12:04
  And this was before we created Valor.
• 12:05
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:06
  So I got to give, I got to give so much credit to, um, to Benny and Danny Pittman.
• 12:11
  I have to give Danny Pittman's the, the, the operator in this group, in this trio, right?
• 12:17
  Um, me and Benny have the ideas.
• 12:18
  Danny makes them happen.
• 12:20
  And, um,
• 12:21
  Dani was really the sole trainer of those virtual assistants that came in.
• 12:27
  And the biggest thing was, we need to understand what you're doing on a day-to-day.
• 12:31
  There needs to be a checklist on everything that you have been doing.
• 12:34
  And we need to have a KPI tracker to measure your success.
• 12:38
  And she really standardized it.
• 12:39
  And there's no pushback on that kind of stuff.
• 12:41
  Let's put it back to soccer.
• 12:43
  A striker that goes and stands on a field and doesn't score any goals, is he going to have a job anymore?
• 12:47
  Sure.
• 12:48
  No, he's not because there's the measurable is score goals.
• 12:52
  So for us, if we need to set KPIs to show that you're successful in your role, it's the same as any other job in the world.
• 12:59
  There are measures, there's measurements.
• 13:01
  So I think, but I also think people appreciate it because so many people walk into a role and they don't understand what success looks like in that role because it's not defined.
• 13:11
  Mm hmm.
• 13:11
  So for us, if we have KPIs and we have measurements to show success, well, there's some, it makes everything more objective instead of subjective.
• 13:21
  And I think being able to be objective in business is really, really important.
• 13:25
  Sure.
• 13:26
  So...
• 13:27
  Tell us the niche you kind of carved out.
• 13:30
  And obviously it's evolved.
• 13:32
  But like the niche you guys carved out, because I think when we met, things were very different.
• 13:36
  And that was maybe a year ago.
• 13:38
  But you guys were rolling then.
• 13:40
  What was I looking at when we first met?
• 13:41
  Yeah, when you first met.
• 13:43
  We essentially created a sole virtual assistants business.
• 13:47
  So think about placing a virtual assistant into different operations and being able to build processes based on what the company needs.
• 13:55
  So a lot of companies around here use our VAs for that.
• 13:58
  And people hire a virtual assistant so they don't have to live in the business.
• 14:02
  They can work on the business.
• 14:04
  And our VAs are the ones that are managing the processes in the business.
• 14:07
  Yeah.
• 14:08
  For short-term rental, for example, our virtual assistants will be 24-7 handling guest communications.
• 14:15
  They'll be handling the maintenance coordination, the cleaning coordination, everything that really bogs the owners down and the operators down from them really being able to grow their business.
• 14:24
  Someone put it so well to me.
• 14:25
  It's like, I'm economical.
• 14:27
  So some of my VAs are overseas.
• 14:29
  No problem.
• 14:29
  Like you can have them anywhere, right?
• 14:31
  You go on Upwork and find them.
• 14:32
  You can go here, here, here.
• 14:33
  but you guys chose a specific place.
• 14:35
  Yeah, we chose El Salvador.
• 14:37
  When we were looking at, we did a lot of country analysis.
• 14:40
  And when we were looking at the countries, every country has their strengths and weaknesses for virtual assistants, right?
• 14:46
  For me, it depends on the industries that you're trying to head into.
• 14:49
  When we were looking at the industries that we wanted to head into, which was insurance, which was the...
• 14:56
  home services, so trade companies, and also, you know, obviously property management companies, we knew that a lot of the work was going to be correspondence with guests, clients, whatever that may look like.
• 15:09
  And we also knew that other than insurance, which is very black and white, stay in the box.
• 15:15
  Yeah.
• 15:16
  Property management and the trades aren't.
• 15:18
  There's always scenarios and there's situations that have to be dealt with.
• 15:22
  So when we were looking at the industries, we realized that El Salvador was a near shore option, which we were really, really interested in because we didn't want to...
• 15:33
  Sheely was created from creating a work-life balance and being able to work hard and then play harder.
• 15:39
  And I think from us, why would we create a company that kind of mitigates that from having our employees working overnight, not being able to sit down at a dinner table with their family and not being able to really pick their kids up from school because they're having to...
• 15:56
  They're having to wake up and they're having to sleep through the morning.
• 15:58
  People might be really happy with what they're getting paid.
• 16:02
  And like for us, we make sure that they're paid incredibly well comparatively to the company, to the country that they're in.
• 16:08
  We want to make sure that they're living a fantastic life because they're working really hard for us.
• 16:13
  But,
• 16:15
  Money is one thing and the experiences that you have in life and the moments that you might miss because of that is way more important.
• 16:24
  And for us, when we're having those conversations, we're asking them, we go down there every six months.
• 16:31
  This is not something where we're not connected.
• 16:34
  We are incredibly connected with them.
• 16:36
  And we're asking them questions about, hey, what makes your life better?
• 16:40
  And I think the one thing that they said was being able to have a work-life balance.
• 16:45
  and not being...
• 16:47
  They work really, really hard in the timeframe that we want them to work hard.
• 16:50
  But then when they're off, they're off.
• 16:53
  And we want to make sure that they're off.
• 16:54
  And we're not overworking them to the point where the biggest, one of the biggest problems in virtual assistants is attrition.
• 17:01
  And people are leaving and they're trying to find the right fit for themselves as well.
• 17:06
  And that causes disruption in the industry.
• 17:08
  Why do you think there's attrition on the VA side then?
• 17:10
  I mean, obviously part of it could be the work-life balance that you're talking about.
• 17:14
  But is there anything you think?
• 17:16
  This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think it's one of those where your expectations for a virtual assistant is different than the expectation for Sally in the office.
• 17:27
  Right.
• 17:27
  And I think the reason for that is, well, you know, we're providing them opportunity.
• 17:33
  We're doing this.
• 17:34
  We're doing that.
• 17:34
  You know, they should be grateful and they need to work as hard as they possibly can.
• 17:40
  Well, from what I can tell, our productivity in our virtual assistants is a whole lot different than what a US-based productivity looks like for an employee.
• 17:49
  And they are working incredibly hard.
• 17:52
  And then they feel, at times, they feel that they're getting...
• 17:57
  overworked at times.
• 17:59
  And we didn't want that to happen to them.
• 18:01
  So we're, we're all, we're so big on productivity tracking.
• 18:04
  We're so big on the fact that, okay, let's look at your hours.
• 18:07
  Let's look at what you're meant to, uh, meant to be working and let's make sure that you're productive for those hours, but you're not overworking.
• 18:14
  As time has gone on, things have evolved.
• 18:17
  There's this thing out there called AI.
• 18:20
  Crazy.
• 18:20
  Not Allen Iverson, actually.
• 18:21
  I don't think anybody's heard of it, yeah.
• 18:23
  It's artificial intelligence.
• 18:24
  I just learned that.
• 18:25
  So that has become undeniable as an asset.
• 18:31
  There's agents.
• 18:32
  There's different language, LLMs.
• 18:35
  There's different everything.
• 18:38
  me knowing you and Benny as well, like I think you guys see opportunity and act on it.
• 18:46
  Tell me about a little bit of a shift that you guys had recently.
• 18:48
  We realized about a year ago, the AI was going to continue to grow and it was only going to get better.
• 18:55
  But the biggest problem that we were finding, even in ourselves was,
• 18:59
  was how can we implement AI into a business and how can it run the right way?
• 19:03
  How can we make efficiencies happen?
• 19:06
  And we had the pleasure of being really, really close to probably one of the most highest achievers in the AI space in the US right now.
• 19:16
  And he lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
• 19:18
  So we're very, very fortunate for that.
• 19:21
  And one of the biggest conversations that we had when we kind of spoke together and met together was...
• 19:28
  Everybody loves AI.
• 19:30
  Everybody loves the thought of it, but they don't know how to implement it.
• 19:33
  And they also don't know how to refine and manage it.
• 19:36
  As a company for Valor, we had a managed services component already with virtual assistants and with client success coordinators that manage our virtual assistants.
• 19:45
  So we have a we have an engine already.
• 19:48
  But we realized very, very quickly that we didn't have the intellectual property, the way to be able to create AI in the right way.
• 19:58
  Basically, what we've been able to do is we've been able to look at all of the processes that our virtual assistants have been doing for the last four years.
• 20:05
  And we're looking at it and we're saying, okay, how do we optimize this where we can still have a human in the loop for a review period?
• 20:13
  But how can we create agentic agents that are going to be able to map into people's systems and run the same process the same way, but 24 seven and efficiently.
• 20:25
  So I think what's really, really cool is the differentiating factor that we feel like we've been able to find in this space.
• 20:32
  And this is the reason that we've had this merge is everybody loves the thought of AI.
• 20:39
  they are really, really scared to implement it because it might go wrong if they don't have the capability and the know-how.
• 20:46
  And they don't really know how to manage it and refine the processes acutely.
• 20:52
  So what we've been able to do is we've been able to kind of hire the intellectual property where we're able to create those agents
• 20:59
  And really the industries that we're really targeting, they're very niche industries in terms of you have to have HIPAA compliance.
• 21:07
  You're going to have to be secure in your data.
• 21:09
  You're going to have to have the insurance side of it, which we already have.
• 21:12
  Yeah, totally.
• 21:13
  So it was a very easy way to kind of get into those industries.
• 21:17
  And then we're trying to figure out efficiencies inside of those industries.
• 21:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 21:22
  Everybody loves AI, but a lot of the companies right now that are implementing AI, they're also implementing a platform alongside their AI.
• 21:30
  So now you've got business owners, which we found, which was a gap in the market.
• 21:34
  You've got business owners that want AI, but now they've got their team living out of five different systems because every AI has its own platform and it doesn't talk to each other.
• 21:45
  So I think the biggest difference that we've been able to create is...
• 21:50
  we have an ability to create API integrations into most platforms already.
• 21:54
  So we're not creating our own platform.
• 21:56
  We're just making your platform more efficient inside of it.
• 22:00
  Let's give an example.
• 22:00
  Yeah.
• 22:01
  Right.
• 22:02
  We're really, really heavy into dental right now.
• 22:04
  Mm-hmm.
• 22:05
  That dental, we found that we had a couple of ambassadors in the space that give us a really good insight into what dental, how dental companies are run right now.
• 22:13
  That's right.
• 22:14
  Yeah.
• 22:14
  And I think that's a huge part of it as well as understanding the industry before we try and solve for it.
• 22:20
  Sure.
• 22:20
  Um,
• 22:21
  But what we basically found was a lot of information is being held and a lot of information kind of comes through different platforms and different sources.
• 22:33
  You're getting referrals from general dentists.
• 22:35
  You're getting inbound calls.
• 22:37
  You're getting referrals from your website, from all of these things.
• 22:42
  And then you've got front desk staff that are trying to manage that whilst also trying to create an experience for the people walking in the door
• 22:50
  when then probably walking in a little bit nerve-wracking because I don't think any of us like going to the dentist, truthfully.
• 22:58
  But really what we found was...
• 23:00
  we've created an AI voice agent to be able to solve for that.
• 23:04
  So now when the front desk, we're not trying to take away their jobs, but now when the front desk staff have somebody in front of them and the phone rings, there's almost that instead of having to go, Ooh, the push and the pull of which one I choose, they can let that one go.
• 23:18
  And then now our voice agent is the one that's solving for it.
• 23:22
  I think the differentiating factor is there's so many platforms out there that say, Hey, we can take your call.
• 23:27
  We can transcribe it all.
• 23:28
  We can leave it here.
• 23:29
  And, yeah,
• 23:30
  And you can manage it after that.
• 23:32
  We'll just give you all the information.
• 23:34
  That still adds work to the front desk staff.
• 23:37
  So what we've basically been able to create is, hey, we're going to have that call.
• 23:42
  Every single dental office, different dental office, are going to have different qualifying questions for their patients, whether it's new or existing.
• 23:50
  we're going to make sure that we format it so that voice agent is asking the exact same question as your rock star in the office.
• 23:57
  And then from there, once we've got all of that information, we're either going to book that appointment for you in your systems, or we're going to leave it to your office manager for them to be able to do it.
• 24:08
  But at least that person is getting their phone answered and they're not going to the next highest Google review.
• 24:14
  The one thing that will happen in three years' time when everybody's using AI is,
• 24:18
  the one differentiator is still going to be the people in your business.
• 24:22
  Yeah.
• 24:22
  In my opinion.
• 24:23
  As we wrap, can you talk about, again, so who you serve, but maybe some of the things some of the clients are telling you right now, you know, like this is dramatically different than it was whenever.
• 24:35
  Any use cases that you could tell us about?
• 24:36
  Yeah, yeah, no, I think the people that we're serving, we're very much small to medium business based.
• 24:43
  The industries that we are heavily in is legal.
• 24:48
  We're in dental as well.
• 24:50
  Obviously, property management, we're heavily in insurance and the trades.
• 24:54
  So those are the five main industries right now.
• 24:58
  On the AI front, we're solving heavily in the dental and the legal space.
• 25:02
  But
• 25:03
  I feel like in terms of are we talking about success stories?
• 25:07
  Are we talking about case studies?
• 25:09
  I would say maybe something.
• 25:12
  I like to look at it like this.
• 25:13
  Like, here's how it was and here's how it is.
• 25:16
  And here's here's one of the key differences.
• 25:18
  So like, yeah, yeah.
• 25:20
  We've got a I'm not going to say and I'm not going to say the client.
• 25:23
  Sure.
• 25:23
  It hasn't gone through yet, but one of my first ever clients, which was absolutely amazing because I get to kind of think about when we first had that conversation at Drift and Mayfair.
• 25:33
  I was begging him for his business, like genuinely begging him.
• 25:36
  I was ridiculous.
• 25:38
  But I was like, look, you're going to be the ambassador of this of this vertical.
• 25:43
  we need to learn from you and let's place virtual assistants into your business.
• 25:47
  Let's place, like this was ages ago, let's place virtual assistants into your business and see how we can optimize it.
• 25:53
  Well, that person went from, I think, I believe that they started with 17 units, 17 co-host units.
• 25:59
  They are now at 60 plus co-host units and selling their business.
• 26:03
  Oh, dang.
• 26:04
  Yeah.
• 26:05
  And being able to do that, what they were able to do while also having a child at the same time.
• 26:11
  And that was their first.
• 26:12
  So amazing.
• 26:15
  But what is really, really cool about that is when we first met them, they were very much in the business.
• 26:20
  Yeah.
• 26:20
  And then what happened was they were so good and we kind of worked really hand in hand together to be able to create efficiencies in their business that took them out of certain situations, took them out of the...
• 26:33
  time consuming situations that were bogging them down and not allowing them to grow and focus on growth, uh, growth opportunities.
• 26:42
  So fast forward three years, they were able to kind of solve for that.
• 26:46
  And in three years, they now tripled their business.
• 26:50
  They're selling off and now they're going to go do some crazy trip.
• 26:54
  I got two more questions.
• 26:56
  One is tell me two types of people you would not recommend your services for.
• 27:02
  And then two people who you'd say you probably need to get on the phone with us or...
• 27:07
  Text my agent.
• 27:08
  Yeah, yeah, text my agent.
• 27:10
  I think the one person that I wouldn't want to call us, to be honest, that sounds horrible, but the person that is really rushed off their feet, but they don't understand where they need help.
• 27:20
  Yeah, they're in panic mode.
• 27:21
  They're in panic mode.
• 27:22
  And I think that it's really, really hard because you have to kind of sit with yourself first to understand, okay, why?
• 27:30
  where is the problem?
• 27:31
  And it's normally themselves.
• 27:33
  And where do I need help?
• 27:35
  And what roles do I need supported for me instead of me doing them?
• 27:38
  And I would love to have the conversation and I've done this multiple times.
• 27:44
  Those are qualifying questions for us.
• 27:46
  I'd love to have the conversation about how to help them and,
• 27:50
  But it would never be, let's help you through a VA.
• 27:53
  It would be, hey, you need to create these processes first.
• 27:56
  Then let's have a conversation after you've figured out what you need.
• 27:59
  The other no-go I would say is somebody that is impatient in a way.
• 28:06
  Virtual assistants is always a ramp-up period.
• 28:08
  And that first month is very, very heavy.
• 28:10
  And if you don't have time to be able to put into that virtual assistant in that first month alongside us, it's not going to be successful.
• 28:18
  So I think people that are trying to have a solve, but they don't want to do the work to solve it,
• 28:24
  that's not going to work for us.
• 28:26
  The people that we do want, complete opposite of what the people I just said.
• 28:30
  They have processes in place.
• 28:32
  They know what they need.
• 28:33
  They're attentive to the people that are working and they have a business that has a direct point of contact for that virtual assistant.
• 28:40
  It's huge.
• 28:42
  You need to have people that are at least there to answer questions on their behalf.
• 28:47
  Totally.
• 28:48
  My biggest thing is virtual assistants can be very, very successful if the virtual assistant understands the why behind the process.
• 28:57
  And that's super important for us.
• 28:59
  The other person I'd love, you know, that I'd love to speak to anybody that is getting bogged down.
• 29:05
  And I always think about the trade, like the home services industry for this.
• 29:10
  But anybody that is getting bogged down that are that they know what they need, but they're that one man, that one man band that is trying to solve for everything.
• 29:20
  They're the technician that's on the roof and they're also answering the first first call for a new inquiry.
• 29:26
  You know, those are the people that we want to solve for because I know that we can create efficiencies very quickly in their day to be able to solve for things like that.
• 29:34
  Well, let's end with this.
• 29:35
  Where can people find you and follow you guys?
• 29:38
  And just if they want to look into potentially using your services, wherever they go.
• 29:42
  Yeah.
• 29:42
  So our website is www.valoproassist.com.
• 29:45
  Okay.
• 29:46
  Our Instagram handle is Valoproassist as well.
• 29:50
  We have a fantastic podcast as well.
• 29:52
  That's Margin Makers Podcast.
• 29:54
  It's a really, really cool.
• 29:55
  Just getting to talk to some amazing people that have done way more than myself.
• 29:59
  I don't know about Benny, but myself, I get to learn a lot.
• 30:02
  Well, thank you.
• 30:02
  This has been Port City Profiles with Danny Reynolds and Valor Pro Assist.
• 30:06
  Check them out.