The Importance of Virtual Assistants For Real Estate Entrepreneurs With Lisa Piatt

All right, we are live. Welcome to the remarketing podcast. My name is Jerome Lewis. I am your host for today. The remarketing podcast is a podcast where we talk marketing tech, business and leadership for real estate agents, investors and entrepreneurs. The remarketing podcast has two purposes. Purpose number one to spotlight you, Lisa, your business, your service, or your product in a way that provides value to you, including market exposure and content creation.

Purpose number two, to educate and inform our audience and listeners. Lisa, welcome. Welcome to the show you have been here before and we do, you have a lovely bio lovely introduction. So this is round two, and we're gonna interview you and ask you some questions and help people understand the importance of hiring a.

Thank you. That being said, right. I would like to, I have a few questions for you. The first question that I have for you is how can a virtual assistant, first of all, let's talk about what a VA is, right? So a lot of times we say, VA, we hear that term a lot and we're in the industry. What does that even mean?

What's a VA in your words, a VA is a virtual assistant. So, uh, basically a secretary with extra skills. . okay. Okay. And so I, I know it's a, I know it's a R uh, elementary question, but could you talk about virtual in the process, what that means? Um, that means doing it remotely. That way I can handle clients on every post so I can take clients from anywhere in the world.

Really. So I do it from remotely, from my house, and I can juggle a lot of clients at different. okay. Awesome. Awesome. So we have a list of questions from you. Mm-hmm , uh, you've been in multiple industries. I know you're like in the, you've come from the music industry, but you also work with like real estate professionals.

So I posed a question to you. Like, what is your experience like in the real estate industry? Could you talk about that please? Yeah. You know, mainly I've been sticking to, um, looking business cards, building websites for people in real estate, doing a little bit of the secretarial work. So I try to take all the non-core tasks from you guys and do that.

So you guys can focus on growing your business better. Mm-hmm . okay. And so you mentioned non-core task. Could you tell me, uh, can you gimme like some non-core task, some task that we should not be doing as business owners and real estate entrepreneurs answering simple emails, um, making phone calls. Mm-hmm setting up appointments.

That type of thing. All right. So you have like, some people say, oh no, I wanna do it by myself. If I hire somebody, they're not going to be able to represent me personally and stuff like that. What is your comment to that? You know, I try to get to know my clients well enough to know how they would talk to their clients.

That way I can handle our business. And it's a waste of time. For my clients to be spending time on emails and up that type of thing instead where they could be focusing on the bigger picture. So I, I can definitely actually answer for a lot of the people I work for. I, I make sure to get to know how they would answer and what they wanna say and just get to the point across.

Okay. When you say you get to know them, could you tell us a little bit about that process, how that works for you? How do you get to know. Um, you know what I look through, like their information, read their bios, find out what they do, and I'll look at some of their emails and how they respond to people. So that way I can, I know their tone and how they would deal with things.

Awesome. So again, you have like varying, I know you work with, but you have like two, um, like main clients. You have real. And then you also have music. Could you talk about like, are there any similarities between the two? Is it the same? Is it different? What's your experience? Mm, I think people in real estate are nicer.

really, um, it's been like, honestly, I would rather just stay in real estate and with real estate people, because I look, I work in music. and I work with comedians, you know, I work with different people, but I, my favorite so far is real estate. You guys are just nicer. it's, you know, it's a different job though.

Like you guys don't have me booking, travel and doing sound checks and and all of that. So. So it's different. It's better. that? That's a little bit surprising because I guess between us, like the real estate professionals, we kind of like, we're like always fighting and bickering and hitting each other and fighting good deal.

Really? Yeah. Like going after this customer, this client, it's like really crazy. And, um, so I'm surprised to hear that we're actually a little bit nicer, but again, I don't have the experience in the music industry. You do? Yeah. A lot nicer. okay. I'm, I'm happy to hear that. So, um, we, we mentioned like some of the non-essential tasks, could you mention some essential tasks that we should be focused on?

Like in your experience, like what are some things that we should be working on as opposed to not working on. Finding new clients for one. And then once you find the clients, I'm really good at building helping you guys build personal relationships with them, because ultimately you need to have that. Um, so I would say that's really, the main focus is just bringing in more clients and finding ways to grow your company, that type of thing.

And on the side, I like to do research. What can help your business grow? You know, what's the newest thing you can use to advance your career. So it's, it's an, it's a nice balance. okay. So next question I pulled for you, uh, is, is, and I'm gonna try to quantify, right? So, uh, the question is what are your key strengths and to quantify that I would like to know if you could pick like three things that you, that you're really, really good at, what would they be?

Um, managing people underneath my client. Say, if you, um, needed me to kind of look over what your other employees are doing, I'm really good at actually managing people. So I have a lot of experience in that. Um, I'm great at developing customer relations. Um, let's see. Third I'm pretty good. I think just mainly dealing with people for you guys, you know, like, um, I'm able to just develop a good personal relationship with people.

I like, I'm really good at social media. Okay. So social media, that's an aspect of marketing. I really appreciate. I would love, I love, I would love to talk about that in some of the, some of your best projects, cuz you know, we have a history and I know some of the people that you've worked with before, so mm.

Um, let me see, uh, what kind of like, what's your day to day? Like, what is a day like for you? Um, very sporadic actually, because. I have clients all over the United States. So I could be up at 3:00 AM trying to fix a problem that happened at midnight in California. so my days can be where I am busy from minute to minute.

And then other days there's just nothing. So you just have to be very flexible when you're a virtual assistant and know that you have to be careful of time zones and diff diff people need different things at different. Especially in entertainment because those guys have different hours than like maybe a real estate agent.

Okay. And so the next question I have is I wanna reframe it, but I have it here. Can you, it says, can you handle more than basic admin tests, but I wanna reframe it. And I want to say what are like, if there were, if you could say there were tiers of like task, like basic intermediate and then advance, um, What, what, what would that look like?

Um, okay, so the basic would be maybe answering emails. intermediate basic. So basic is answering emails. What else? Mm-hmm like, what are some, I'm gonna phone calls, phone calls. Maybe posting on their Facebook, something they already created, you know, something like that. And what's something like in between, like what's something a little more advanced.

That would be like something like, like we talked about before, like something project piece, like a website, maybe building someone on a website. Okay. A website, any other projects, websites, um, intermediate, um, research, doing research. If they need me to look up something and then sending them all of that.

okay. And then if we were to go advance, like high level stuff is like, Lisa, I need this done. Like, what's an example of a project like that. Um, okay. and I would say micromanaging things. okay. Managing people, like I was saying earlier, managing people, other employees, people that are underneath you, um, and just kind of watching, because a virtual assistant is kind of trained a little bit in everything so we can manage the different things that you guys are doing.

So I would say helping with management is top of the line and very important. What, so Lisa, you know, I always press on you. I'm like, you're famous, you're famous, you know, like a lot of, uh, celebrities and you're very humble in my opinion. I don't think you, uh, showcase your talents, your skills, and yeah.

The people that, you know, enough, that being said, what are, let me see, who are some of the most famous people you have worked for? If you could give me like a top. top three Carmen, Carmen singer. Could you, okay. So can you tell us who Carmen is? Cause I never, I never knew about Carmen until you mention . He was really big in the Christian music scene in the eighties and nineties.

Um, and I worked with him maybe the last 15 years of his life before he died about a year and a half ago. Um, so he was big. He was really well known in Christian music. He broke boundaries and records. So he was a pretty big deal. So I worked with him for a long time. Okay. Who, who else? Number two, Jack VA.

He's a comedian and a producer. Okay. And he's got like 3.3 million followers on Facebook alone. So I help kind of watch over that page with him. Okay. And one more, Wendy Alec. She's the creator of God TV. And I have run her social media during a campaign when she was doing some things with Harper Collins.

So I also worked with Harper Collins. Awesome. And O of the three, what would you say? Who, what would you say was your favorite? Well, , um, that's a hard one because I love Carmen. Like him and I go back for so many years, so I would have to say, Carmen, With a Jack right up behind that because Jack working for a comedian is insane.

I makes him laugh and I'm like, I made a comedian laugh but Carmen's always gonna be my number one, always. . Okay. Awesome. Awesome. So, um, what are like of the people that you kind of like name for us? Let's let's let's do let's focus on the ones that you mentioned since they're very close Carmen, right?

Like what is the biggest project you've worked on for him? And how did that. Oh Lord. . He had me do everything. So, uh, mainly getting him from point a to point B without having him end up in China was a miracle

So like scheduling, is it tours or what is scheduling? It was minute by minute. Um, keeping a calendar. Hey Carmen, you have to do this right now. If you don't get on this plane at this time, you're not gonna make this show. Like I had, he was relying on me to keep him on schedule. Not only him. All of his employees were relying on me and all of the churches in the tours, everything kind of relied on me to make sure he was here to there.

Okay. And I posed the same question for Jack. Like what's the biggest project you've worked on with him. Um, I would say we've been talking about moving me into, he, he developed a toy called the putter, like 10 years ago. So we're talking about actually moving me into doing that full time and taking over the putter business.

So that's gonna be our, really our big project. We are working on a movie for Carmen because Jack is a producer. So, so we're actually kind of, I guess those are the two big projects is the Carmen movie upcoming, which we'll start shooting here in New Jersey. This summer. So that's gonna be the biggest project.

I got to read the script and everything, so. Okay, awesome. I just wanted to talk about that because you're famous. Uh, let's go back. Let's go back to real estate, right? So what, let me, I'll pose this question this way. What are, what are some of the biggest challenges that you have faced when working with real estate agents and investors?

Right. And what, how do you overcome those challenge? Okay. My biggest challenge is because I'm not a real estate agent. I don't, um, understand some of the lingo. So I ask a lot of questions to make sure I'm very clear. So that's how I fix that problem. So that's really, the only problem I have is like, if you were to say something, I need to look it up.

I need a YouTube tutorial and I need you to explain it to me. So, and then, and then, so that's my biggest challenge, but I think I got it handled okay. And when you meet, cuz people are coming on and, and trust me, I know I've been dealing with like real estate people for a long time and some of, some of them can be very unorganized and that's why we come to you, right.

To get some organization. So. And your experience. what, what is that like? Is it like, is it frustrating? Like, can you just talk about like how unorganized or what's the process? It's not frustrating. It's confusing because like, you guys are the smartest people in the world, but you can't even log down to Facebook.

So I'm like, let me create a business Facebook page, and then, you know, I I'll, I'll add you and I'll give you the ownership. let me walk you through, I'll send you article, you know, I'll send them articles like this would be really neat to post and really informing for a buyer or a seller or an investor.

So I don't find it frustrating. I think it's, it's interesting.

okay. All right. So, um, if you could. When, when somebody's like coming to work with you at like for virtual assistant, if you could give them like, Hey, these are the top three things that you should do to optimize your, like yourself and your business. What would those three things be? um, social media, social media, social media, 1, 2, 3 social media.

Oh man. So, um, I I'm, I'm a huge advocate of social media. Like I teach a, I teach a class every Thursday and we go around over like different subjects around social media. And one of the things that we get in there is like some people they come in and they say, I don't like social media. It's scary. I don't wanna do it.

And I always. Hit 'em back with like it, it's not really about you. Like when you jump, when you came into this business, you came to serve others. So it doesn't really matter if you like social media or not, you kind of have to be there. And I don't think it's as important as a website, but social media, it, it, I don't think it's social media is vital.

Right? People are very distrusting and what they do, what they do. They, they go research you on social media. Yeah. That's one of the first places that they go research, research. You. Research do research on you. So yeah, that would be, I think social media is important if you could. So you do have some marketing experience too.

And I just, uh, you know, without getting into like any numbers or anything like that, but you've been on our podcast before, right. And of all of the guests, your podcast had the most views and the, the best marketing. Right. Really? yes, because you actually market it. People are afraid to share and post and do stuff.

And you're, that's one thing I really appreciate about you is that you do you take action. So if you could, uh, give people, like you said, social media, social media, social media, if you could give us like some specifics around social media, like marketing and social media, what would they be? Give me three tips.

Gosh. Okay. Market yourself on your own page. Don't. Don't talk. Okay. If you have a Facebook page, a business Facebook page, don't talk about your kid's baseball game on there. You do that with your private page. Facebook needs to recognize your content as yours, and they will push it out to a hi, a bigger audience.

So I think that's really the number. One thing that I see is people be posting about other things and Facebook is not reaching out. So I would say, be careful about that. Um, how you upload things matters. So I think a lot of people I say before you even post you come talk to me first mm-hmm and I'll let you know if you're doing it right.

and number three post consistently at the same time of the day. Um, yeah, I guess that's, it really is like, just be consistent, be consistent and get people, sharing things out. Like you get all your family, friends, be like, share my page, please show share, share. So. Got it. Do you have? So I find, like, I think we, we encounter a lot of the, a lot of similar issues.

Uh, you, you posted about being consistent and people always ask, like, how can I be more consistent? So I pose the question to you. What input do you have for people that want to be more consistent on social media? Do you have any tips or strategies on how they can be more consistent? You know what? I think this is worth scheduling your post coming handy.

Then you can plan out a whole week. You can sit down for an hour. Once a week and schedule out, um, a post, what day you wanna post and exactly what you wanna post. So that's something I actually do for them, but if I had to give any advice, be consistent, um, I feel like more famous people with more audience need to post more than say someone that only has like four or five people on their page.

Okay. I could be wrong though. I'm still learning a lot too. So. Just be consistent, so no, you're not wrong. Uh, so, and you know me, don't say that , I'm gonna get you. I'm like, I'm not sure, but yeah, you're not wrong. We definitely need like, Jack be needs to posts every day, but then someone like me, ah, maybe a few times a week.

right. I agree. And I was gonna ask you, I was gonna say, isn't there something that you do specifically, like don't you post? So yeah. Yeah. I post for, um, Jack, mostly people, they, they wanna create their own content. So I'll, but I'll post it for them. Sometimes I'll just send me stuff and sometimes I'll create content.

All right. So we have, uh, someone ask, is there a specific platform that works best for scheduling? And I'm, I'm glad that question came up because I was gonna ask you the same first. I wanna ask you my question, then we're gonna answer that question that you see there. So the first question that I have for you, um, or not the first question, but the question I have for you.

what platform would you recommend that people start with? Right, because it's, uh, go do Instagram, go do Facebook, go do TikTok, YouTube, go do Pinterest. It's all this stuff. And people can get that's another part of it. Like people get overwhelmed. Like what do I do? Which one? So from your expertise, where should we start?

Wherever you're already biggest at if you are more known on Instagram, I say, continue growing that audience. Um, but me I'm a boomer. So gimme Facebook any day. like, um, you know, so cuz you can schedule on Facebook and it can go on to other. Platforms as well. So it's not just one or the other. You can just grow it all.

okay. And you make, so you make a point and you're like, I'm a boomer. And, and you know, that's a phrase that people use these days to say somebody's a little bit older, or they're not caught up in technology. It's not really like an offensive thing for no, not for me. It's a joke between friends anyway so my, uh, cause you mentioned that and I always talk about that, like this during my presentations, people get so.

They get caught up in like the trends and the, oh my God. I go here and I'm gonna do some goofy dances on TikTok. And it's like, are you gonna get business? So you mentioned boomers, right. And boomers, where do they exist at? They exist more on. Facebook than they do on the newer platforms. So that's just a point that I wanna make to people understand that, um, like Lisa is saying, if you ever have an audience on a certain platform and you're familiar with that platform, stick to that platform.

But sometimes when people are coming on, they're trying to get business and more specifically for our industry, people want to, uh, sell houses, right. And who owns houses? The older people and those older people are boomers. And guess where they happen to be on the platforms that everybody doesn't like or don't think is cool, which is Facebook.

So keep that in mind where you're out there marketing, you're trying to get some business. Uh, Facebook might not be a trendy platform, but that's where most of the business is. On Facebook. So, and I see some great content on TikTok actually. Um, I'll see a lot of real estate agents on TikTok doing their thing.

And I'm like, I cheering that on like any platform where you can, you know, where you can advertise and market yourself, just do it, just do it all there. Exactly. So the, we have a question you see here, somebody X, is there a specific platform that works best for scheduling posts? Um, I would say Facebook

Okay. Facebook. Just my opinion. Okay. Um, just my opinion. So you utilize Facebook and you use, so I think what the person is asking, cuz there's, again, like it can be very overwhelming what we need to do. And it is like you got certain, you got standalone softwares and processes that will do everything for you that you can go get.

At something like a, a hoot suite or zapier.com where you enter your, your content and your information and they'll post it to your social media platform for you. Yes. Uh, you also have like something that people don't realize is that just about each of these platforms they have is scheduling mechanism built directly in it too.

And you can just use that platform. So mm-hmm, , mm-hmm, just wanted to bring that up. So somebody, we got another question. Okay. Somebody mentioned came from TSU. So social media, both good. Both good. Okay. Is there, okay. All right, cool. That those are all of the questions from our audience. Um, let me see. So my question to you is, again, we talked about it a little bit, but how can a V a virtual assistant benefit a, a real estate professional?

Like what are some key things that. Benefit us from hiring virtual assistance. Um, well, we're cheaper than having an in-house employee for one . So, you know, you can have, you can hire me for a couple hours. I can answer all your emails, make calls, set appointments, and by BBA, boom, it's done. So, you know, anything non poor, I can just do it.

Any virtual assistant is trying to do those things. Okay. So now I'm gonna put some pressure on. No. Yes, yes, I am. This, this is, this is like my favorite section, cuz you know me right. Um, so this is like specific to your business as well as the audience and just to keep in case people wanna work with you.

Right? So mm-hmm how can someone bring you immediate or short term value to your business? How can they bring me value to my business? Yes. Yes. Um, by referring me to others, if they're happy with my work, they refer me to a friend or a family, you know, anyone that they know that might need a virtual assistant that's really, I help them to help me.

So that's nice. Yeah. Awesome. So how about, what if they've yet to do business with you? How can they bring you value if they've yet to bring business to me? Um, Just checking out my work really, you know, You know, and just asking me questions that brings me volume because then, you know, I can talk about what I love to do.

okay. Yeah. So have, so have a conversation with you. Yeah. Just have a conversation with me and go from there. All right. Awesome. Um, mm-hmm how can we, how can someone bring long term value to your business? Mm, it goes back to referring me to your friends and family that could bring me long term business, you know, because eventually someone might just wanna keep me full time.

Okay. Awesome. Because some people do. Yeah. Some people will keep me hired on and play me at like a flat rate every month. Okay, awesome. So we are, I really appreciate you, Lisa, and this is a real estate podcast. So we have this section that we call the closing table. Okay. And closing questions is a real estate term, right.

That you hear a lot. Yes. I'm gonna ask you so. I'm gonna pick three questions, right. And the first question is, and you gotta answer. I'm nervous. okay. What are three books you recommend to the audience? Well, you guys asked me this last time.

Okay. Well, we got Jerome Lewis's book. OK. I think that's gonna bring, because like I always say Jerome, you know, your business and your young cutting edge, you know, it works now here and now. So, um, read that. Always and the other books I read are again, serial killer books. So

I'm sorry. That's all I read when I have that's. All right. So tell us what they are and how, how they could add value to army. The encyclopedia of serial killers. Oh my God. all. Let's you watch the last one or listen to the last one. Okay. Let's let's switch the question to, yes. movie. Do you have any movies that you would recommend how they could benefit the audience?

Um, how they can benefit the audience? mm-hmm, all, you know, I love horror movies, so I dunno if that would benefit the audience, just teach you some survival skills in the . All right. So we, we have a question from Marvin on LinkedIn. Marvin said, I have a question for tasks like prospecting or set appointments with potential new clients.

Is that the kind of thing a virtual assistant would use a script to deliver? What would be the best, best payment arrangement for that kind of task? Can you tell me, uh, yeah, like, um, like say if you needed help looking for potential new like clients, I am good with that. Um, I have done that before you, you kind of find out who your audience is and you start talking to different people.

So I'm pretty good at finding potential new. So, okay. Is that big question? Hold on. I don't have my glasses. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I think that it would probably, it probably makes sense for you and Marvin to just connect and like have like a, maybe a one-on-one connect, uh, conversation or something like that.

So, uh, PO that being said, what's a good way for Marvin to kind of reach out to you and initiate the conversation. Yeah. You can go to my website, Lisa pya.com. I'm sure there will be a link. When this is posted, I don't know. How could you spell it for us? L I S a P I a.com. Okay. Thank you. Awesome. So yeah, I'm on Facebook and on Facebook.

How do we find you on Facebook? It's just Lisa PA and. Um, you know, at Dawn virtual services as well. Okay. At Dawn virtual assistant services. Mm-hmm you have a Facebook page, right? Awesome. Yes. With some awesome reviews and whatnot on there. Yeah. But I can help you. I can help you, uh, find some new clients if that's what you need.

There you go, Marvin. So just reach out to Lisa. Uh, her website is Lisa pt.com. She'll she'll be happy to help you. Yeah. Cold calls. I do cold calls as well. okay. Um, next question. And then we're gonna like close, close up. Right. So, okay. What is one question you wish I had asked you and how would you have answered?

I feel like

you asked everything notable's.

Oh my gosh. Um, it could be anything. It doesn't have to be business related really. One time I had a, yeah, one time I had a guess and this is like, I'll always remember. She said, she's like, uh, I wish you asked me about my mental health. You know what? Yes, no, you can't still me about my all right. How's how are you doing mentally?

Tell us about it. I'm good. I'm really good. Um, Uh, you know, because I juggle different clients, different time zones. I work weird hours. I am every now and then I get a little anxious, but I do pretty good. And I get a little sweaty sometimes. okay. But mental health is pretty solid ish. Okay. Awesome. Lisa, I really appreciate you.

So I have one more question and that question is where can listeners find out more about you. Lisa p.com. Check me out. Okay. Lisa p.com and what you got another website and another business coming. So we need to talk about that. Yes. Stay tuned. There will be more what's the name of can at least tell us the name at Don virtual assistant services.

Okay. Awesome. Lisa, this has been fun. I really appreciate you so much. I appreciate you. I always tell people you're gonna have to come back cuz there's a ton of questions and a ton of benefit that people get from our guests. So thank you so much, Lisa. Yeah, I love it. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you.

Thank you. Bye Jerome. Bye guys.