From Construction Sites to Remote Teams with Timmy vanVonno

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Tim Melanson: Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of the Work At Home Rockstar podcast. Excited for today’s episode. We have two Tims, two Timmies on, on the call today. This is gonna be really, really cool. We’re talking to the VP of growth at 247VA, and what he does is he helps businesses grow remote teams for their company.

So very excited to be rocking out today with Timmy Van Vonno. Hey, Timmy. You ready to rock?

Timmy Van Vonno: Yes, sir. Appreciate you having me. I’m, uh, really excited to tie together, you know, all my past experiences with what I’m currently doing, uh, with remote staffing

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Yeah, me too. So we always start off here on a good note. So tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by

Timmy Van Vonno: Yeah, so I, I would say my story of success is how I’ve continually, um, you know, evolved and reinvented myself over my career. Uh, I started as a civil engineering graduate from the University of Maryland and went straight into doing foundation engineering, uh, for multiple commercial construction firms.

Um, didn’t really love the engineering side of it ’cause I was in an office all day. So I got out in the field, and [00:01:00] I moved to the residential sector, uh, where I did, you know, large scale custom home developments and construction. Um, at any given time, um, me and my partner were managing 10 or more, uh, large scale residential construction projects.

So as you can imagine, I learned a lot about financial pressure, operational pressure, um, and really everything that comes along with day-to-day construction. Um, and it’s the type of industry as, you know, many people know, where when you wake up in the morning, you don’t really know what’s gonna be coming that day.

So it’s a very unpredict-unpredictable environment. Um, you know, not great for, you know, uh, mental health and those sorts of things. But it taught me a lot, um, about, you know, business and aptitude and, you know, being able to be effective and being able to be a leader, um, on and off the field, um, per se. Um, then, uh, uh, after COVID, you know, the company I was working with went through some tribulations just, uh, based off [00:02:00] material costs skyrocketing and, you know, a lot of different issues that stemmed from not being able to get in people’s houses that stemmed from the COVID pandemic.

Uh, so I decided to, uh, part ways with them and start my own entities, uh, where I did fix and flip, um, projects all over the northern, uh, beltway portion of Maryland. Um, so I have kind of the working for other companies side of me, and also I’ve owned my own companies. So I’ve seen both sides of it, you know, where the pressures lie.

And the pressures are different, uh, you know, depending on if you’re working for someone or owning your own business. But regardless, um, through all those years of all the trials and tribulations and trying to make money in a lot of different ways, um, you know, I-I’ve really learned how to have an operational mindset, um, you know, what’s needed to have a successful business, why businesses fail.

Um, and those are the things that I really wanted to bring to the table when I got into the consulting space a couple years ago Um, uniquely, 247VA gave [00:03:00] me a really good opportunity to take my operational mindset, take all my skillsets, and, you know, background that I, you know, had accumulated over the prior decade, um, and really apply it towards their business.

Um, so what I did was I went into their company, I audited every department and found where the workflow inefficiencies really lied. Um, and there were numerous, as you can imagine, um, areas in the company where I felt, you know, the company could use some leaning and, uh, you know, certain workflows could be improved vastly using AI, um, and just a little more thought put into how they were done.

Um, so that was the first place I started with 247VA. Um, and then furthermore, a- as I’ve gotten into the company, uh, you know, now I handle all of their client consultation calls, which has been a really unique experience for me, um, because I told you about my operations background and everything I learned through my 20s.

Um, but now doing a lot of sales-heavy work and [00:04:00] consultation work and working with business owners every day, um, I’ve really evolved into someone that can now sell a company, um, which is something that, you know, I always had partners that could help me with, um, because I was always in the thick of the operations.

Um, and naturally, over all my different experiences, I’ve always been kind of a fixer, so any company I ever was a part of or my own entities, that was always kind of my role, was, you know, "Hey, Timmy, we have this big problem. Figure out how to fix it." Um, and that’s how, you know, the, the management of the companies and my executive partners, you know, really relied on me, was to come in and fix problems and make sure that, you know, the outcome of all of it, um, was the least, uh, the least chaotic for the company overall.

Um, so, you know, going back to my original point, that’s really where I feel, you know, my success story is, is continuing to build my career year on year. I wouldn’t have imagined, uh, 10 years ago I’d be sitting [00:05:00] in my own condo, um, working from home. Um, you know, I spent many years, you know, working 10 to 15 hours a day in construction, where I spent seven to eight of those in my truck going project to project and doing all the job tracking and all the client meetings, um, and all the things, you know, all the vendor coordination, all the subcontractor coordination.

Um, so, you know, and that’ll lead me into kind of my, uh, uh, my bad segment, uh, where I talk about, uh, where I talk about how, uh, I’ve always been someone who felt like I needed, needed to do everything myself, and, you know, that worked for many years for me. But when I started my own businesses, that really is what became the crux and the bottleneck, um, you know, the, as I ramped down those businesses just because- I couldn’t do it all myself and, you know, I, I scaled very quickly.

Um, I was able to lock in, you know, many millions of dollars in loans and get tons of projects started. Um, but in the end of it, um, you know, I think [00:06:00] I would’ve… It would’ve been much more effective, um, with the volume I had going on had I structured it in such a way where I had support systems built around me, um, so I could really focus on, you know, where I was most valuable.

Um, you know, ’cause there’s only 24 hours in a day. Uh, so

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah, well, there you go. The f- the good note and the bad note all wrapped into one, right?

Timmy Van Vonno: Yeah, a-a-and just, you know, furthermore on the bad note, um, you know, th-that’s something that really 24/7 h- VA has really helped me evolve into someone who’s less of a sole doer and more of a team, team builder and, you know, figuring out how to delegate different processes, and that’s something that I’ve really aspired to learn with them, um, because when I first came into the company, I saw how many businesses…

Many, many businesses you don’t even really understand how they, you know, make the money they do, but were rocking and rolling using VAs with different teams, [00:07:00] and outsourcing out pods of their company like marketing or operational pods, um, you know, to VAs, and how successful they were. Um, so that really, you know, rang a bell in my ear that, you know, I really need to learn how companies are doing this, and how to effectively pitch that to them.

Um, so now two years later, um, you know, what I do, a big part of my role is getting on these consultation calls, and we have many every day with incoming leads and clients, and really spelling out to businesses how they can use VAs to delegate certain parts of their business and make sense of it to them.

Um, because, you know, virtual assistance is such a… Still even to this day, when we first started in the game, you know, 13 years ago, we were one of the dinosaurs in the space and no one was really using VAs. But now even 10 years later, even with AI and everything, it’s still a tough thing, tough bridge to gap, um, you know, to work with someone fully virtually and remotely, and learn how to rely on them, um, for different [00:08:00] aspects of your business.

So, you know, when I get on those discovery and consultation calls with clients, it’s all about learning about their business, helping spell out to them where the VA need lies. Um, because many people are like, "Oh yeah, I want a virtual assistant to run my business." Um, that’s not really the, the way it works, so you gotta get down to the micro level with the, you know, potential clients and really spell out to them, "Well, where are the time-consuming tasks happening?

Where are the, you know, operational needs of your business? Where are you spending your time as a business owner, um, doing stuff where, you know, it could be spent, you know, selling the company or going to conferences or really getting yourself out there?" Um, so a big part of my role with 24/7 now is really pitching that concept to businesses and working with them until they find the exact match they need.

Um, and then, you know, it… Furthermore, you know, which I’ll get into later on the podcast, but furthermore helping them set up the systems once they get started with the person so it’s fully [00:09:00] operational, um, and they’re seeing the value add as quickly as possible. Um, because patience is a, a virtue and most busine- busy business owners don’t wanna have patience.

When they’re bringing someone new on, they wanna see the instant impact. Um, so, so that’s somewhere really where, you know, I, I’ve been able to bring that- operational and institutional mindset into 24/7 VA and spread that through the whole company that, you know, "Hey, you know, you really need to understand that these business owners are busy and, you know, they may seem, uh, they, they may seem like they, you know, are gonna require a lot of attention or don’t have a lot of patience, but we gotta be able to work with them and really set these systems up for them with VAs that, that work and are fruitful long term

Tim Melanson: Yeah. You know, so I mean, this is… We could probably do an entire episode or two on, on just the VA strategy, right? And it’s, it’s so interesting because, uh, you know, if, out of [00:10:00] all the interviews that I’ve had, it’s, uh… I, I’ve had a lot of VAs on. I’ve had a lot of people w- who hire VAs on. I’ve had people in organizations like yours that bring VAs.

So VAs are part of a lot of the episodes. However, there’s also been a really common thread in that many people, if they were look ba- look… If they were able to look back and go, "Okay, what would I do differently?" They would say that they would hire quicker. So it’s just so interesting to me that an entrepreneur gets involved in, in a business and then doesn’t hire anybody forever, or for a long time, or, or waits too long.

I get it, though, because, you know, as an, uh… You know, w- when, when you start your business, I mean, a lot of us are sort of self-starters. We’re, um, we’re, we’re jack of all trades. We’re wearing all these different hats, you know? But then there’s the, the, the group of people that maybe are really good at one thing, and they start the business thinking, "I’m [00:11:00] just gonna cut out the middleman, and I’ll, and I’ll just do my own thing," right?

But then, then they end up getting into a situation where now they don’t wanna give that work up, because that’s what they love anyway, and now they have to go run the business. And then, you know, so it’s, it’s all… It’s, it’s so conflicting with, with, uh, with getting in and, and getting something like that started.

But I think that what you said earlier about scaling, I think that that’s kinda, like, the key to it, is if you get into your business and you just want to i- in, you know, buy a job, I guess. You, you know, you just wanna, you know, kinda coast along and, and support yourself. That’s probably fine. You could probably do that on your own, and for a very long time, right?

However, if you want to start to really grow, uh, you’re not gonna be able to do that on your own. You’re gonna run out of time, right? And that’s where you’re gonna need some help. And I think that y- what you’re doing, uh, like helping people to figure out what to do, ’cause hiring somebody… I, I know I had a couple of false starts hiring a VA, because I [00:12:00] just…

I didn’t, I didn’t know what to give them. I wasn’t getting anything out of them because I didn’t have anything systemized in my own business. It was almost like I was going, "Man, I’m, I’m running out of time. I need to hire somebody." So you hire somebody, and go, "Okay, now do something." I’m, like, poking them with a stick.

Like,

Timmy Van Vonno: Yep.

Tim Melanson: but they don’t know what to do if I don’t know what to do, right?

Timmy Van Vonno: Yeah, yeah. And, and, you know, to be honest, you know, we’re a very reputable, uh, virtual assistant agency. Like I said, we have been in business for 13 years. Uh, we actually just got news we’re in the Inc. 5000 for the fifth straight year. Um, we’ve achieved Better Business Bureau T- Torch Award for Ethics, so that really shows how we treat our virtual assistants and how we treat our clients and how our, you know, culture is inside of our company.

Really, we have two sets of clients. The virtual assistants we have to keep happy, give fair wages, um, you know, make sure the process for them is as seamless as possible to get in our ecosystem. And then likewise, the clients, obviously, you know, we need to support the relationships and make sure that they’re long-term, [00:13:00] um, and that the whole structure’s there and supported, you know, by our company.

So a, a, a lot of the consultations I get on, people come to us because we are a more reputable firm, and they tell me, "Well, I went to Fiverr or freelancer.com or

Tim Melanson: Oh, yeah.

Timmy Van Vonno: uh, uh, hi- hired a VA and, you know, it sucked, so how are you different?" And I’m like, you know, that’s where I start. "Well, you know, it, it’s really about the infrastructure of the support system with- contained within the company you’re using."

So there are a few players in the space that do a really good job of that, admittedly. Um, but there now are, you know, hundreds of VA firms that claim to have that infrastructure and support the relationships in the way we do, um, but that, that just don’t. So, you know, the big- the biggest thing I’d, I’d say is if you are interested in learning more about VAs and potentially using them within your business is just really be careful where you put your time.

Because what you don’t wanna do is go out, [00:14:00] spend a month or two with some firm trying to figure out a VA, they get you set with someone, and then, you know, you never hear from them again, and then you’re two months into it. You expect, you know, two months of progress in your business that, you know, you have to go back now to the drawing board.

And those are a lot of, I’d say, you know, probably 20 to 30% of the consultations I get on are people like that, that had a bad, had a bad experience and reluctantly are like, "You know, we’re reaching out to a couple more companies to see what you can provide." And, you know, a lot of them come to us, you know, because, uh, because of our tenure.

And we’ve s- you know, the company 24/7 VA particularly has really scaled linearly. Um, and what I mean by that is year on year, you know, our head count internally grows, our VA count that’s, you know, outsourced to customers grows, and w- w- the internal head count matters so much because we’re building out these teams to support every relationship.

Um, so it… you know, if the internal head count doesn’t grow and you’re scaling, you know, [00:15:00] exponentially, that’s where I’ve seen a lot of VA companies where, like, they’ll be on the Inc. 5000 in their first year, and then, you know, their growth is like this or, you know, even going down after that because they just weren’t set up properly to support the relationships.

And And these sorts of, uh, you know, in, in our, in our particular niche, you have to support your enterprise clients exactly the same as a solopreneur, um, you know, with one 20-hour VA. And, you know, that’s the only way the model really works on both ends

Tim Melanson: Wow. Okay. Well, and s- so now with AI, I mean, you mentioned AI. I, I mean, it, I will admit that AI has reduced the need for any help in, in my business for, like personally. I use AI as an assistant for, in a lot of ways. Can you tell me what the difference would be between using AI heavily as an assistant versus actually hiring a person?

Timmy Van Vonno: So I, of, of course, you know, I, I have a, you know, very strong [00:16:00] background over the last couple years, you know, with AI. Uh, when I first decided to kind of make the career transition back towards the end of 2023, I started studying it, um, you know, every day and figuring out mostly, you know, related to business application, how it can help business.

Um, so, you know, what I tell people is, you know, administrative data entry, you know, type positions, um, you know, doing research, those sorts of things, a lot of times AI can help with. Um, but, uh, my pitch always is that it’s always important to have a human in the loop. So since we’re on a podcast, I can talk about, you know, one of our podcast products.

So something I’ve introduced to the company are AI plus VA training programs, and what that means is teaching a VA how to utilize certain AIs to enhance their workflow. So one of our, one of our biggest niches is podcast VAs. So we attend PodFest in Orlando every January And how I’ve [00:17:00] structured the training programs for the podcast VAs is here’s a workflow of how to use Descript, um, to take, you know, take a video and, you know, make it into, you know, what, what you want it to be.

Here’s a workflow on how to use Opus Clip to make a podcast like this into 50 different segments. So what, how I’ve, how I’ve approached the AI, you know, w- because AI has obviously taken over many portions of the market. There’s a lot of businesses, you know, not ours, but many businesses that are hurting because of it.

Um, but I’ve more gone from an approach as AI is not gonna replace virtual assistants, but they need to be further trained on how to use different AIs so that one VA, one podcast VA now can do the equivalent to what three or four could do a couple years ago, um, you know, utilizing these different VAs.

And there’s generally a lot of commonality between the AIs used in the different niches. So for podcasting, CapCut, Opus Clip, Descript, Riverside FM, um, you know, those are some of the bigger ones [00:18:00] that we train VAs on how to use. Um, and other industries that may be teaching for marketing, let’s say, really teaching the VA how to utilize ChatGPT or Claude to really build out these marketing campaigns and help accelerate that.

Um, and then there’s some clients that don’t wanna use AI at all and are completely scared of it. And, you know, I try to tell them, "You know, you should go into it with open eyes." Um, but, you know, uh, we’ve done our best as a company to pivot from AI replacing VAs because, in my opinion, having a human in the loop is always important.

Um, a lot of the AI systems I’ve built out inside our company, yeah, the AI can do all the lead enrichment going into a consultation call now, but there still needs to be someone to review that, make sure all the data’s correct, brief the salespeople based off the correct data. So it gets it to a point, um, you know, where it does the SEO research, does the, you know, uh, social media handles and those sorts of things.

It finds all the information they can on that [00:19:00] particular company, the website, LinkedIn. Um, but then it’s the responsibility of, you know, one of the sales managers to come in and really evaluate that and make sure the information’s accurate, so that way the sales team goes in with, uh, you know, a proper assessment of the client, can really custom tailor those conversations.

And that’s just one example, um, or a couple, you know, with the podcasting. But that’s been our approach as a company. Um, I think AI still has a long way to go before it’s, you know, w- running businesses for people. But the, the, the thought acceleration is really where I see the value. If I have an idea or if I’m in a meeting and I’m like, "God, I wish there was a better way to do this," you know, I go straight to Chat or Claude and, you know, work with it for 20 minutes versus 20 hours, uh, it would be five to 10 years ago, um, doing it yourself.

And- You know, I, and the more you work with these sorts of GPTs or LLMs, they learn you. So, uh, uh, after working with an LLM, uh, being, you [00:20:00] know, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, uh, Grok, you work with these for, you know, six months or more, and they really understand you. So you ask it a question, and it almost can get inside your brain and at least get you 80 to 90% there

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I, I, and I see it kind of similar to, to what you see. I, I, I don’t think it’s gonna replace people, but it… Well, sorry. It is going to replace people because it’s gonna reduce the number of people that it’s gonna take to complete a p- specific job. Like, like you said, I mean, uh, instead of having a VA, maybe, maybe you’ve got an organization where there’s a hierarchy and, you know, there’s someone that reports directly to you as, like, a executive VA.

Well, they might have had several people working underneath them to, to do some of this, this work, and now that particular executive VA can handle probably a lot of that on their own using, using, um, AI to do some of these things. And for me, I, I, you know, I feel like, I feel like it’s not going anywhere. I mean, it’s, it, it’s there, and for the people that are using it, they love it, [00:21:00] and it’s really improving the way that they do work.

So it’s not gonna go, it, you know, and we’re not gonna be able to get mad at it and it disappear. It’s, it’s

Timmy Van Vonno: Sure. Yeah. A-a-a-and, you know, there’s still some sentiment, you know, a, a lot of clients come to me asking about, like, you know, the AI voice calling, and people still know if it’s a human or, or an AI bot. I, I, I imagine over the next, you know, three to five years, that may get to the point where it’s scarily close

Tim Melanson: Yep

Timmy Van Vonno: to a normal person.

So, you know, the, the acceleration of AI was also a big thing that got me out of construction, um, because I just saw the way that was gonna take over the world, and I wanted to s- you know, start working with a company where I could apply my skillsets I was learning almost day by day, um, and, and, and really have an effect there.

Um, from a, from an executive or, you know, managerial perspective, I think the, you know, the downside of AI is there’s no one really to hold accountable. So that’s, you know, th- that’s why the human in the loop is always important. Like, hey, you know, [00:22:00] we may accelerate 70 to 80% of this workflow, but that 20% of QC’ing, you know, what’s coming out of it needs to be on you, and you’re the one responsible for it.

Um, so that’s, that, that, that’s how I think when I’m setting up a lot of the workflow automation and different new A-AI things I’m introducing into 24/7. Um, you know, I, I always view it as there’s gonna be a human in the loop at the end of it, um, to make sure the output matches, you know, what we expect

Tim Melanson: Right. And, and as the business owner, I mean, if, if I’m… Let’s just say I don’t have any VA or any type of assistant. Well, I’m still responsible for everything in the business, even though I’ve got different GPTs maybe handling different parts of things, but I’m still the, I’m still the bottleneck, right?

And as you grow your organization, y- you know, maybe, you know, in the past you could get to a certain level and then you needed to hire. Now maybe that level is a little bit more. But still, it’s the same [00:23:00] principle applies where, you know, you’ve got too much on your plate even though you’re handling a lot more, right?

Timmy Van Vonno: Yeah. Uh, uh, I mean, if I could go back to college now, and obviously that, that, that ship has sailed, uh, we, uh, you know, as, at least as far as I know. Um, but prompt engineering really is where I see, uh, uh, you know, what’s, what’s gonna take over the whole market and where the most value’s gonna be, you know, on a position basis.

‘Cause I know a lot of software engineers that were making, you know, hundreds of thousands out of college that I went to school with that, you know, are having a much harder time, um, you know, uh, you know, uh, finding, you know, those sorts of lucrative positions now. Um, because if, if you know how to prompt AI properly, that’s really the key to getting, um, you know, what you want.

And OpenAI, Claude, they have all these free resources, um, you know, uh, uh, on their websites where you can really learn about this stuff,

Tim Melanson: Yeah,

Timmy Van Vonno: um, a- and learn, and learn how to structure, you know, using the AIs properly. But yeah, I mean, [00:24:00] I, I, I think for now, uh, uh, I still see a lot of value in having humans in the loop, and there are data security issues that come with it.

Um, so, you know, those are a lot of the things, you know… But str- strategically as a business owner, I mean, you know, getting the opinions of, uh, you know, AI consultants and understanding where AI fits into your business, um, definitely, uh, is a good idea, um, depending on the size of your company

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. And, uh, you know, let’s keep in mind too that there’s, there are times when, I mean, uh, just think of, of yourself as a consumer and you’re, you know, you’re talking to a company. Well, there are times when you probably don’t care whether you’re talking to a person or not, you just got some, a couple, couple questions that you want answered, and the AI is getting pretty good at answering.

Hey, you know, 5, 10 years ago, it was impossible to get a question from one of those, right? The question answer. You’re like, "Agent, agent, agent," right? But now they’re pretty good. I mean, uh, I can contact a [00:25:00] company’s bot and get quite a bit of information, but then there’s also times when I really need to talk to a person.

And so there’s always gonna be a value to have a person attached to that entire infrastructure, even though you are utilizing AI for a, for a lot of it, and I think that’s where it comes into play, right?

Timmy Van Vonno: uh, uh, and I feel like a lot of the voice agents are more for much bigger box companies where client sentiment really doesn’t matter for them. I mean, Go- like, like when you call Google, I mean, they don’t care if you’re pissed off, you know? I, uh, Facebook, you know, Meta, like, uh, that’s where to me, like, oh my God, it makes so much sense for them because, uh, it, it, there’s really nothing bad that’s gonna come out of it for them.

But for definitely for smaller to medium sized businesses, I, uh, I’ll always be a believer that the human connection is, you know, important, you know, which is why I’m on all of our sales calls, and I do as much client facing stuff as I can just to make sure that our clients know that there’s a, you know, th- there’s a higher up in the company that, you [00:26:00] know, you know, is supporting the relationship.

And, you know, then, you know, most of the line level staff and managers, they do a great job, at least with us, um, of handling the whole process. But having, you know, the, the human in the loop, I, I, I’m still a strong believer that that’s far from being something that’s gonna be evaporated out of society

Tim Melanson: I, I agree totally. And I mean, I keep on coming back to this on this podcast ’cause, I mean, I want to inspire more people to start their own businesses. And I, I really do think that this is giving a massive opportunity to just about anybody to start a small business and use these tools to get a leg up on some of these large, large, uh, companies.

‘Cause these large companies are also reducing their workforce in the same way that we are, right? Uh, only the, you know, the difference is that if I’m a small business and I have just a few people on staff or maybe it’s just me, well, someone can talk to me, and that’s gonna be rare, I think, in a lot of these big [00:27:00] businesses.

It’s gonna be a chatbot mostly for, for some of these companies, and it’s gonna be very difficult to talk to an actual person. So, uh, I think that that’s gonna be something that’s going to kinda like, uh, level the playing field a, a lot, right?

Timmy Van Vonno: Absolutely. Yeah, I, I, and like I said, my opinion always, you know, with, with the, with the AI is it, it’s in your best interest to learn how to use it, where it fits into your business. Um, but you know, always being careful to trust it too much and, uh, still, you know, natural thought and, you know, the origi- original ideas, I, I still feel like, you know, hu- you gotta drive that, you know.

You gotta put your expertise into the AI or, you know, what you’re doing. You can’t just rely on it to build out solutions for you or your business, um, per se. But the acceleration of thought is where I see the most value. Um, a- [00:28:00] a- and as long as you keep that organized on the back end, you know, and don’t just have a million different chats of where you were thinking one moment, and then you go on to the next thing, and it gets lost.

But if you’re able to really, like, when you have an idea, input it into chat, take the result, file that, you know, and then revisit it maybe, you know, next, next meeting or next time, you know, you’re looking at it. Um, also with AI, you know, we’re a Microsoft tenant, so Microsoft Copilot has been, you know, life-changing for us in how it summarizes meetings and is really able to follow along with the context of your company because it’s built into Microsoft.

Um, so you know, Copilot’s definitely something. Microsoft’s a more expensive tenant, um, you know, especially on the enterprise level, but Microsoft Copilot has done a lot for, for us as well, and I would recommend it, um, you know, to, to any company looking to l- looking to get… you know, maximize the value out of AI.

And Google has a similar setup, so if you’re a [00:29:00] Google tenant, you know, with Gemini, same kind of thing. Um, but the meeting transcription and everything being contained in one ecosystem versus having, like, Fireflies join your meeting and using chat for one thing and using Claude for something else. So, uh, you know, the, the organization of how you’re using AI is also something that’s pivotal

Tim Melanson: Oh, I love it, yeah. Well, it’s, it’s cool to have this conversation ’cause I mean, we’re talking about people, right, with the VAs and AI at the same time, ’cause I find that some people are… It’s like one or the other. It’s like I’m angry at the, you know, at the AI for taking these jobs away a- and I wanna hire people instead, and then other people are going, "No, no, no, no, you’re losing out on a big opportunity."

But there is a way to make it work together, right?

Timmy Van Vonno: Yes, sir. Yeah, I mean, I, and that’s why I went into the podcast VA, you know, trainings that we do now with the AI plus VA workflows, and that’s something that, you know, is, is very universal. But not only, you know, podcasting, like I said, lead generation, a lot of these other niches, um, you know, [00:30:00] where AIs make sense.

And slowly but surely, you know, AI’s finding its way into every different niche. Um, so, you know, credit repair is another industry that we know we work with heavily, and just in the last few years, you know, their CRMs have been, you know, widely, become widely AI driven. So now, you know, to, to create dispute reports, a lot of it’s just clicking a button, you know, through their CRM.

And then at the end of that all is, you know, someone needs to check it and make sure it’s accurate. Um, but, you know, the, that’s where, you know… So AI, you know, AI has products, yes, but AI’s also being integrated into pretty traditional CRMs like Dispute Fox, um, and, you know, put together in such a way where it’s automating almost everything through their CRM now.

Um, so it, uh, so, uh, that’s a big thing that I’ve really focused on, is just making sure that our VAs are AI adept and have a, you know, at least a surface level [00:31:00] knowledge of how it can be utilized, you know, in whatever certain niche or field, um, that we’re pairing them with a client in

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I, I really like… So, I, I mean, my experience, like I said earlier, especially with my first VI, the VA that I tried to hire, is that I had… Th- they didn’t have any real training on the things that I needed them to do, right? It was more or less, it was more or less, "Hey, I know how to do accounting, I know how to do, you know, customer support," but they didn’t have any ideas on what my systems were, and I, I needed to get those SOPs all sorted out.

But the second level of that is that what I’m hearing from your organization, and we can talk about this in your solo, is that you do actually provide some training on what many entrepreneurs will need so that it kinda like bridges that gap where i- in a way, sometimes many of us entrepreneurs need to know how to hire a VA because it isn’t just straightforward where you’re like, "Okay, you’re hired," and then off they go.

You, you, you can probably train [00:32:00] me on what I need to do and what I need to get ready when I’m hiring a VA. Is that what, kinda what you do?

Timmy Van Vonno: Absolutely. Yeah. And, and that was, you know, a big thing I was going back to earlier about the infrastructure of our company. So this might be a good time to explain kind of what the process looks like with us and what we can provide. So our process is, you know, a four-step process. You get on a discovery call with us.

The discovery call’s gonna have your account manager on it, a sales representative, and usually me. Um, and what we do is we try to dissect your company first. So who are you? What do you do? Where do your pain points lie? Whether they come to us with a, a- an obvious need that they spell out on their submission, or if they come to us saying, "I don’t know, you know, what we’re gonna use a VA for, but it sounds like a, you know, novel concept and we wanna explore it."

So we, we learn about their whole company on that call, and these are like 30 to 45-minute calls. Um, dissect, dissect, you know, where the needs [00:33:00] lie, build out a whole job profile. So we really ask the per- you know, the, the client, "Okay, you want lead generation, but what does that mean?" You know, lead generation has a million different avenues, you know.

Um, so, you know, a client may say to us, "Well, we want them to do, do lead research. We want them to make the outbound calls. We want them to nurture them, and eventually set, set appointments with us." You know, that’s an example of a lead generation workflow for one VA. Um, so that’s how we try to build out the positions.

Once we get off those calls, we draft that job profile, email it over to the client. Once they approve the job description over email, it goes to our internal endorsement department. Our endorsement department are the ones that evaluate the candidates applying to the position. Um, every candidate with us is gonna have gone through our seven-step vetting, so that includes two rounds of interviews, two rounds of assessments.

All of our VAs are fully remote, so we have minimum device standards, ’cause they’re working in their personal, uh, workspaces. Workspace checks, primary and [00:34:00] backup internet checks, uh, multiple rounds of interviews, like I said. One of my favorite things we do during our vetting on the initial interview is we get the VA on with our recruitment team, um, and ask them to pull up their personal social media, ’cause that’s normally the first, the first place you find a red flag if they have, you know… And, and, you know, uh, to be, not be explicit, you know, we, we’ve, we’ve seen a lot of different things on those. Um, you know, like, you know, maybe they have a gun on there. You know, s- just weird things. That’s what… That’s normally the first place we go. Um, but our vetting is one of the most extensive on the market.

It takes the VAs about three to four weeks. When they go through that, they fall into our bench pool. So, like I mentioned, when that job description’s approved and it goes to our endorsement department, that’s the first place we go to try to find the VAs. We promote it out to anyone we think would be a fit for the position.

They actually apply and give their letter of intent for the position. Um, and at that point, our endorsement team selects four, [00:35:00] the four to six best ones that they feel are really custom fit for the job profile. Um, those are sent over to the client with their resume, work experience, a big paragraph, you know, bullet list of why they were endorsed by our endorsement team member, and a video of them talking, which is probably my favorite thing.

So we actually include a video link on each of the candidate profiles that we endorse over, um, of them explaining why they’re fit for the position. Which I think is so cool, ’cause you can assess the communication and you’re not just looking at a sheet of paper or, you know, a web link and saying, "Oh, you know, this looks great," but then getting to the interviews and being like, "There’s not a personality fit."

Tim Melanson: Hmm.

Timmy Van Vonno: Um, so that’s, so the, the goal out of that is out of that four to six, the person wants to move forward and interview one to three, let’s say, of the candidates. So we’ll set those up back to back to back o- on their own time Um, and the interviews, uh, uh, that’s something we’ve gone back and forth with over the years, is the [00:36:00] necessity of really pushing people to do that if they’re sure they wanna pick someone from the original endorsement.

But I’ll be the first to tell you that VA 1 may work perfectly with me, and VA 3 may work perfectly with you, Tom. Um, so, you know, th- that’s really… You know, you gotta assess the personality fit ’cause this is someone you’re bringing into your company, just as you would during a job interview. Um, the nice part about our company is that whole process is free.

Um, so we don’t sign… We don’t lock you into any contract, we don’t lock you into any, any monies that you owe to us. Um, we’ll find the people for you, present them, let you interview them, then you select someone. Um, once you s- once you select the VA, then you get your guided onboarding scheduled. So this is looping back to what you were just talking about with the training.

So we do have an internal training team in our company. One of our expert SMEs for your particular niche or type of service will be assigned to the combo. Their job is to set the VA up for success with [00:37:00] you. So you mentioned SOPs and getting them set up in a good daily workflow, all the things that business owners kind of…

Their heads kind of spin thinking about how to do this with someone virtually. Um, that’s the trainer’s job. So any SOPs that need to be created, all those initial meetings between the client and the VA, we always ask, let the trainer sit in on them to make sure that everything’s hammered home, documented correctly.

Um, so that describes the training leg. There’s also an IT representative assigned to every combo. They get the email set up, the company email, um, all their account management set up. So we use a platform called LastPass, and what that allows is the business owner or our IT team to add passwords in there, and then the VA’s access is click access, so they don’t have the, you know, the actual password.

Um, so IT gets them set up with all that, and then ongoing, you have an account manager that lives on with you through your tenure with our company should you ever need to raise or decrease [00:38:00] hours, add additional VAs, stop the service, pause the service. Your account manager’s the one, you know, your source of truth for that and the one you communicate with.

They also check in periodically with the client and the VA, so they’re a really good bridge of the communication. You know, a, a, a, a, a VA wouldn’t wanna go to his boss and say, "You know, I’m really unhappy with this," but they’ll tell the account manager that and then they can translate that in an eloquent way, you know, back to the business owner.

Um, so that really, you know, goes through our process. You know, other things about us, you know, we work on a week-to-week subscription model. So when you s- do select a VA, we collect a week deposit equivalent to their rate. So if the VA’s $10 an hour working 20 hours a week, your deposit would be 200, only ever used for the last week of service.

So that’s how we’re able to offer the seven-day window for cancellation, and then you’re billed weekly. Um, so it’s, you know, very low commitment. That’s why we’re so attractive to especially startups and smaller [00:39:00] businesses, ’cause I just tell them, you know, uh, see the candidates we’ll put in front of you.

If you do decide to go with us, it’s very low commitment, very low cost. Um, and, you know, it’s a really good starting point for this startup or sca- you know, s- scaling businesses who need support but can’t afford to bring someone in-house. Um, you know, because the in-house employee costs are i- in the US obviously very significant.

Um, so all the relationships are on an independent contractor basis, so the tax forms are simple, the accounting’s simple, and the, the monies paid out, you know, to have this resource are very minimal, um, you know, compared to an employee. And I apologize if I went on a tangent there, you know, just about the, the, the training, but I, I figured I’d, you know, tie it all together.

Um, and separately on the training aspect, we do, like I said, have internal training programs very specified to different niches. So, you know, construction training programs, real estate, [00:40:00] credit repair, advanced training programs, lead generation advanced training programs. So we do everything we can while you’re going through the sales process and after you select someone en route to them starting to really do as much training as possible, so that way on day one, they’re really locked in and ready to go.

Um, and, you know, and, and these are VAs that, like I said, have gone through our vetting. They want the positions very bad. Um, you know, they’ve applied to them, they’ve expressed, you know, considerable interest. So, you know, that’s always a hard part of VAs is since they’re all over the world, you know, really finding out what type of person they are.

Do they wanna work? Um, so that’s where the vetting and support and monitoring that we provide really comes into play. Um, you know, whether it’s the, the time tracking we do of them or the supplemental training, um, or the account management and check-ins. Um, but, you know, we support these relationships through and through and, you know, we’re an accessible, not sales-driven company.

Um, you know, [00:41:00] our focus is our VAs and our clients, and most of our, you know, o- our traffic is organic that comes to our company just because of the tenure and what the AIs say about us and what Google and our reviews do.

Tim Melanson: Wow. So how do we find out more?

Timmy Van Vonno: Um, uh, the, our website’s, uh, 247va.com. So that’s the number 2, the number 0, F-O-U-R, the number 7, V as in virtual, A as in assistant .com. Uh, uh, as you can see, I’ve said that before on webinars and stuff, so I’m pretty well versed there.

Tim Melanson: That’s

Timmy Van Vonno: but that’s the easiest way to find more info. Um, I’ll also, you know, provide you, Tim, our, our pre-consultation link.

So if anyone, you know, listening right now is interested in VAs, there’s no pressure. Um, you know, uh, get on a call with us, and we’ll explain to you how they can fit into your business, um, you know, once we kind of get into the nitty-gritty of the conversation. And, you know, a lot of people get on a consultation with us.

We’ll figure out a [00:42:00] structure, a job description, give that over to them, and then they’ll say, you know, "We probably need two to three months while we’re refining the startup of our business or really figuring out where, how this transition’s gonna happen into the VA space." And then they come back, and they’re ready to go.

So, uh, what, what… We’re not g- we don’t get on those sales calls and say, you know, "Okay, sign the contract, give us a deposit, and, you know, we’ll start finding people." It’s very low pressure, and, you know, uh, and I really love that about, uh, about our sales process because a lot of companies will look really polished on their sales calls and have this presentation and make all these promises, whereas I’ll be the first to tell you, or any of our sales team will be the first to tell you what your expectations should be.

You know, a VA is not gonna come in and run your whole business, but they can come in and operate different siloed parts of it, um, you know, under your direction and, you know, with the help of our training and, you know, account support

Tim Melanson: So, uh, just one more question. Like, uh, when it [00:43:00] comes to, uh, the type of person that would be the best fit for working with you, like how, how do I know whether I need to hire a VA or, or when whether you’re gonna be a good fit? Like, what, what size of business do I need to be? Like, what, what would be the indicator?

Timmy Van Vonno: Well, a- any size. Um, you know, I, I… obviously, you know, I think enterprise level companies, many of them are the simplest fits because they’re bigger companies. They’ve been doing the same process that they’re looking to outsource for many years. Um, but we work with everyone from startup, solopreneur, entrepreneur, small business, medium, large, all the way to enterprise.

So the, the easiest way to tell is really just to, you know, sit down with a pen and paper and think about, you know, write down everything you’re doing on a daily or weekly basis. And then the second step is look at that paper and say, "What can be done remotely that doesn’t require

Tim Melanson: Your specific expertise, yeah,

Timmy Van Vonno: yeah, your specific expertise or you specifically to do?"

Um, and, and that… [00:44:00] and then from that, you know, that’s normally a good point. You’ll see, you know, and then you put the number of hours you’re doing each one of these things. So maybe checking emails is five hours a week for you, and, you know, managing calendars and your podcast bookings maybe is a few hours for you.

On- once you get those listed out, then that’s when the VA profiles start to make, you know, more sense. Are you spending many hours doing your editing? You know, I’m, I’m assuming you’re using a plethora of AIs, you know, to help you with your production and stuff. If you had a VA come in that could operate, you know, some of those workflows for you, would that save you 10 to 20 hours a week?

Um, and our minimums for hours is only 10 hours a week all the way up to 40 or more. So, you know, there’s a low barrier of entry. You know, my recommendation always, if it’s your first VA, get them for 10 to 20 hours a week. Fill out that block of, you know, time, which would be two to four hours a day, Monday through Friday.

Um, you know, and they work to US business hours. [00:45:00] Um, and then once those are filled out, you go to your account manager, "Hey, you know, let’s put them up to 30 hours. I have a whole new set of tasks." Trainer gets roped in, SOPs are created, they continue work.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and I think that’s a good, uh, uh, th- right there, that’s a good answer to the question ’cause, uh, once you get to 10 hours that you think you can de- you can delegate, th- there you go, right? ‘Cause,

uh… And, and then, um, and then it just grows from there because I imagine what you probably see all the time is someone starts with those 10 hours and then goes, "Oh, okay.

Well, I think I can, I can grow that up, I can grow that up. There’s more things that I can delegate." And, and I, I imagine, like, once you start to s- free up some of that brain space that you freed up with the 10 hours, now you can start to think a little bit differently, you can position yourself, you’re focusing more on the direction of the company.

You know, now some of these other tasks can get thrown into that as well, right?

Timmy Van Vonno: Yeah. A- and that’s one of the things I always pitch is, uh, you know, just the openness to getting those first 10 hours filled out, and [00:46:00] it’s not always, it’s not always a quick thing w- with VAs. Uh, you know, because we’ll match the skillsets with the people we’re endorsing damn near exactly to, um, you know, what, what, what the job description says and what you need at that juncture.

But the longer you work with someone, you learn they have additional skillsets and they’ve done different things. Um, so it’s really an evolution. So if it’s a very clear workflow driven position that’s, you know, very linear, bring them in at 20 to 40 hours a week and get them started if, you know, you know that time can be filled out.

For more variable entrepreneurs and sorts of businesses, which there are many, um, my recommendation is always, you know, grow with the person. So start them at 10, fill out that time, learn more about them, figure out more areas they can help you in your business, up them to 20 or 30 or 40. Um, but th- that natural progression is also where you feel the least amount of financial pressure.

You’re not looking at, you know, [00:47:00] 350 to $500 a week, but for a full-time VA you’re looking at, you know, 100 to 150 for, you know, a part-time person doing 10 hours a week where… You know, so the, the dollar amounts are in such a way where it’s not super high pressure. I know when you bring on an employee and you’re instantly looking at, you know, many, many thousands per week, you know, b- between them and the taxes and, you know, all the different 401s and yada, yada, um, it’s a much higher pressure to make sure, like, they’re coming in and 100% operational day one.

Uh, whereas the VAs, I’ll always say, you know, two to four weeks to really get them in a good flow is, is reasonable

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Right on. Okay, well, one more question before we go here. Let’s get into music. So tell me, who’s your favorite rock star or band?

Timmy Van Vonno: Uh, I, I just saw Kanye a couple weeks ago, but he’s definitely not my favorite. Um, but I, I, I, I’m a big ’80s band guy. Um, you know, that, that, that’s a re- reflection of my dad’s music taste growing [00:48:00] up. Um, so, you know, Billy Idol, AC/DC. I lo- I love, you know, all the rock stuff, but I also love kind of the ’80s, ’90s, uh, more pop love songs, you know, like the Toni Braxton, the Lionel Richies.

Um, so I, I, as you can imagine, I have a, I have a big mix of, uh, music I like. So I, I don’t know if I can narrow down one, one favorite, but I’d say, you know, Journey is probably one of my favorites of all time. Um, yeah, so I, I, I have a wide spectrum of music. Probably if I said some of the artists I like, you know, I already mentioned Kanye, um, reluctantly, but, uh, if I, if I, if I mentioned some of the other ones, you’d be like, "Whoa, really, Timmy?"

But, um, yeah, I, I, I’m kind of all over the place with music and I, you know, I, I enjoy that because I don’t like keeping myself secular to one genre. You know, if you’re at a, at a bar on the beach, you probably wanna be listening to like, you know, house [00:49:00] or some sort of like, you know, uh, you know, Jimmy Buffett, Margaritaville type music.

And i- if you’re, you know, if you’re in a different setting, you know, another se- you know, genre of music may work. So I, I don’t hold too much credence on the type of music, you know, but I, I’m a big music lover for sure

Tim Melanson: Wow. That’s awesome. Well, this has been a really awesome episode. So much information here. It’s probably overwhelming actually for someone listening to it, so hopefully they can listen to it on slow.

Timmy Van Vonno: Yeah, and it, it, it might be. And, you know, I know I’m a talker, so, um, it might… All I would say to your audience and anyone interested in having a discussion with me, whether it’s about VAs, um, or not, if you just wanna have a, you know, more professional discussion on, you know, talking about some of the things I’ve mentioned on the podcast, I’d be more than happy to get on a call, um, with anyone and everyone, um, from your audience.

So I- I’ll make sure all that information’s shared with you, Tim, so you can have it, you know, in the, in the bio of the video I’m, I’m [00:50:00] assuming is what you do or, you know, what- whatever you, whatever you tell me to do.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. Well, thank you so much, Jimmy, for rocking out with me today. This has been a lot of fun

Timmy Van Vonno: Yes, sir. Yeah, Tim, thank you very much

Tim Melanson: Awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you go to workathomerockstar.com for more information, and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast