0:00

Marketing first, sales after that. At that point, you're ready to

0:03

hire a sales development rep who can support your sales closers

0:07

and have their calendars, like, really looking booked up with

0:11

meeting after meeting after meeting. Welcome back to Digital Dominance. You know, we cover a lot of

0:24

marketing related topics on this show, Probably more than you can implement on

0:28

your own in any reasonable amount of time, and that leaves you with 2 main

0:31

options. You either hire a company like Fro Bro to help you out, Or

0:35

you can hire an employee. But there's actually a third option that combines some of

0:39

the benefits of each choice, which can be a great fit for some companies,

0:43

It's called talent as a service. You can actually hire a full time team

0:47

member through a vendor. This team member will already be trained in marketing or

0:50

sales, And this way, you don't have to deal with payroll. It's just another monthly

0:54

expense. My favorite company for this option is called RepStack, and

0:58

today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Azar Siddiqui, the CEO and

1:01

cofounder of RepStack. Azar knows a lot about

1:05

hiring, and he even wrote a book about hiring for digital marketing agencies.

1:09

He's helping to level the playing field when it comes to bringing experienced

1:12

virtual assistants into your business. And I can say from experience that he and his

1:16

company go the extra mile To make sure their clients are successful.

1:20

So welcome to the show, Azar. Thanks, Jeffro. Thanks for having me. I really

1:24

appreciate it. For everyone who's listen out there. It's a changing world. You

1:27

know, we don't do everything for everyone, but we really plug in the

1:31

gap when, you know, like, all of us, even in the services

1:35

businesses, we're seeing so many opportunities of saving

1:38

some money. Times are tight, and we wanna do things better. We wanna do

1:42

it in more control. And this number 1 solution

1:46

is hire a person to do it. And a lot of us do see

1:49

this, like, you know, in agencies I know, Jeffro, the biggest

1:53

expense on the p and l is always going to be your employees.

1:57

And for most businesses, even if you're a service business, like, a

2:00

service business. If if you're a plumber, if you are a

2:04

HVAC company, it's always going to be the people that you,

2:07

hire because you're always your business is depending on

2:11

the service that you're providing, which is going to be through other people. So your

2:15

employee cost is always going to be high. And, you know, some of some

2:19

businesses that you have to be physically there, you you can't let everything

2:22

go. I'm just gonna keep it remote because, you know, remote could mean

2:26

that you can hire somebody in Tampa, Austin, Texas,

2:30

or Islamabad, Manila, you know, somewhere

2:33

in Mumbai and India, you know. So so that makes, like, it

2:37

kinda I feel that it levels the playing field for the entire world. Now, you

2:41

know, you can hire somebody air. You can but everything's are going

2:44

remote, especially since COVID. And even service businesses that are

2:48

reliant on local employees, they got to experiment

2:52

with some of these things during COVID when everyone's were was operating out of

2:56

their homes that they were able to run these companies that rely on

2:59

face to face through, you know, like, phone calls

3:03

more, maybe Zoom, and, you know, a lot of technology started coming into

3:06

play. So that's kinda what where we bridge the gap, like, not

3:10

only in terms of helping companies go remote with

3:14

their workforces, but also global because that's where the

3:17

biggest bang for your buck is because, all of a sudden,

3:21

if you're open to not just people in your local market of Tampa, for

3:25

example, now if you can hire from across like, for

3:28

example, you wanna hire for a service based business, a common hire from

3:32

us, Jeffro could be an executive assistant or, you

3:36

know, front desk coordinator, for example. That job, like, that person does not need

3:40

to sit in that office that nobody's visiting anymore. A person can do that job

3:44

from anywhere in the world now. So, you know, so, like, if if you can

3:47

bring in those type of key resources and still have a great

3:51

impact, then why not? Right? So going remote, first of all,

3:55

and then also going global, I think that's where the biggest opportunity

3:58

is. And, you know, it's a huge opportunity to cut cost on your p

4:02

and l's, make more profit, and do more of the stuff that you love.

4:06

Yeah. And and thanks for that background. That was, you know, a ton of stuff

4:09

right up front, and that kind of sets the stage for our conversation, I think.

4:12

If people go to your website, they'll see that your target audience is really digital

4:16

marketing agencies. But like you alluded to, any business owner can hire a

4:20

team member through RepStack. And one of the things I love about

4:23

RepStack that you guys do As you're constantly training your talent pool on

4:27

the latest marketing strategies and tools, you know, whether that talent's already been

4:31

placed or not, you're providing resources to make sure they are constantly learning

4:34

and growing. You still meet with them and give them trainings, and that's great.

4:38

So when we're talking about outsourcing, we're gonna focus right now on, you

4:42

know, marketing and sales roles Because that's the goal of this podcast is to really

4:45

help people dial into that. So can you tell us a little bit more about

4:48

how that works as you're training those assistants and associates?

4:52

Yeah. So I think and, again, like, you know, when you're ready to

4:56

when you identify a few roles that can be, you know,

4:59

outsourced either within the US or

5:03

even especially if you're thinking of outsourcing outside of the US,

5:07

most people end up going for the options that

5:10

are available out there. And those options are usually to

5:14

hire freelancers, Jeffro, and through platforms like

5:18

Upwork, Fiverr. If you wanna spend more on,

5:21

then Toptal is also a freelancer platform.

5:25

But that's what it is, a freelancer. So you're basically going and working with

5:29

a person, and, you know, I have nothing against them. I've hired hired many

5:32

talented people from these, platforms myself. So I

5:36

understand these platforms, inside and out. But these people inherently

5:40

are going to be people who are in a business for they're

5:44

basically a small business owner, and they're they're gonna be a

5:48

contractor. So you know? And to me, like, I think the biggest

5:52

difference when when we came to this field, what we wanted to fill out

5:55

was we wanted to fill out team members. We wanted to, you know,

5:59

not just place a VA, but we wanted to place a

6:03

team member who's just globally located, who can fully

6:07

integrate, with your service based business or your

6:10

marketing agency or or your coaching business or whatever you're doing right

6:14

now. You know? And that's and those because I know that those are the people

6:18

that can only help to grow a business to critical mass. Like, you

6:21

need mission driven people on your team for you to grow. You know? You can't

6:25

you can do a lot of stuff, by taking stuff off your plate with

6:29

contractors. But after a point, you know, you're gonna have a core

6:33

team of mission driven people around you who understand your vision,

6:37

and you they make their your vision your mission. So that

6:40

requires a type of person, which unfortunately is usually not

6:44

available on this platform because their their mindset is obviously

6:48

their small business owner. They're gonna find as many contracts as they

6:52

can. They're gonna do the work. So that's what differentiates us.

6:55

You know? So in order to fulfill on our promise of placing a mission

6:59

driven team member for our clients. We preemptively

7:03

hire people every single month where we do a bunch of

7:07

hiring activities. And then we take them through trainings,

7:11

like, really cutting edge trainings. And we're really not only

7:14

obviously improving their skill set, but really we're,

7:18

looking for, first of all, 3 nonnegotiables, which are

7:22

integrity, work ethic, and a coachable mindset.

7:26

So, you know, after if if I get a no or even

7:29

a maybe on any 3 of these things, it's a no go for us.

7:33

Because, you know, with integrity with no integrity or, you

7:37

know, even if maybe they sometimes have good integrity, it

7:40

doesn't work. Right? You have to be integrity all the time. Same goes for

7:44

work ethic, especially, you know, a lot of challenge, especially

7:48

if people are gonna go outside and look, globally.

7:52

Challenge is going to be that the American work ethic is very different

7:56

than the rest of the world. You guys are some of the you're actually the

7:59

the top country who takes the least amount of personal time off. So compared

8:03

to some other countries who may be taking you know, they're used to, you know,

8:07

taking 3 weeks off for just a regular wedding. Right? And that's not even a

8:10

big wedding. So now, you know, if you're hiring in that culture, you're

8:14

expecting that person to come in and on your terms. So, you know, it's

8:18

a lot of stuff that you would have to address when you're hiring globally

8:22

and you're not working with a company like RepStack. So, you know, so when

8:26

we come in, we make sure that we address those concerns with our

8:29

people. So that's not a concern for our client, and our clients can continue

8:33

to expect what they expect locally. And I think that's the

8:37

biggest thing, when you're looking at, hiring people. You

8:40

wanna look at building a team whether they're in the same

8:44

city all their global. And in order for you to do that,

8:48

you'll have to look at there are some great options on these freelancing

8:51

platforms as well, either hiring yourself locally or using

8:55

a service like RepStack where these things are already taken care of so

8:59

you don't have to worry about it. Because if you make a mistake on

9:02

the hiring side, Jeffro Ro. You know, like, just think of hiring I don't

9:06

know what, you know, grade level HVAC technician would

9:10

be. But just, you know, like, just say that entry level or a

9:13

medium certified HVAC technician, you know, is that guy is probably

9:17

costing you 70, 80, $90,000 a year. You

9:21

know, if you hired the wrong person who's, like, absolutely, you know,

9:24

maybe batshit crazy. I don't know. Like, you know, like, going to clients and

9:28

doing something things off. And by the time you get that person off

9:31

board and hired train, and you realize that these guys have got this problem

9:35

and then off board it again, your in, like, you know, like, 100,

9:39

$150,000 in lost opportunities, salaries,

9:43

wages, taxes, all of that stuff. So the global side is gonna

9:46

cut that down for you a little bit, but, it's still going to be

9:50

there. Right. Well, I mean, basically sorry. Let me jump in real quick. What

9:54

you're doing is reducing the risk For a business owner hiring a freelancer or

9:58

a contractor. Because, yes, there is, you know, there are good

10:01

people on Upwork, But you don't know which one is which. You know, all the

10:05

profiles are gonna look pretty good. The problem is you don't know until you

10:08

hire them and find out that, oh, okay. They aren't actually that good or they

10:12

don't respond quickly or whatever it is. So you guys are going

10:15

ahead hiring people, interviewing people, and, you know, getting

10:19

them up to speed making sure they are going to be an a player before

10:23

they get placed into someone's business. And that's a huge value add that, like

10:27

you said, saves a ton of time and money and stress. And by the time

10:30

some our clients come through our process, it becomes really

10:33

easily. At that point, once we've gotten all the requirements, it

10:37

becomes just a intro call. 90% of our clients

10:41

hire the person we recommend them on that 1st call that we book with them.

10:44

So, you know, it becomes really, really easy. You know, you're your

10:48

not worried. You got somebody like us to take care of that. But,

10:52

but, yeah, if you were doing it yourself, I do have a course, Jeff,

10:56

I'm gonna be sharing the link with you, and that can go out, in the

10:59

post production as well where, you know, there's just some

11:02

prerequisites that I talk about that you should be doing. You know? Like, having, for

11:06

example, your value based systems, your mission statement, things like that

11:10

already predefined. You having some systems in place before you

11:14

bring in new people. Just so that we can avoid making those

11:17

mistakes, especially as you start hiring globally. And, even

11:21

remotely, I feel that, you know, some of these processes are really, really important

11:25

to have. It's definitely there's a lot of opportunity to go remote and go

11:28

global, but there's definitely you have to tread carefully. Yeah.

11:32

Alright. So let me let's back up a little bit. So you only

11:36

offer full time positions, which means, you know, this is kind of a commitment if

11:39

you're gonna bring somebody on your team. So the question becomes, how do you know

11:43

if a company is ready to bring on that team member, or when do you

11:46

recommend that they look into that? Yeah. So I think that's a great

11:50

question. I don't know if, you guys have read the book called

11:54

buy back your time by Dan Martell. And and in

11:58

that book, you know, one of the first roles that Dan talks about that every

12:01

entrepreneur should be hiring for is, not the

12:05

marketing assistant, then not the sales assistant, not your

12:08

operations manager, none of that stuff. He says that you should be

12:12

hiring an executive assistant for yourself. You know we get

12:16

stuck doing these $10 an hour tasks, like taking care of our

12:19

emails, doing the scheduling, posting stuff on our

12:23

socials. And, you know, the real value generating

12:26

activities, the $100, $500, $1,000 activities, we

12:30

tend to neglect that. So having that thing, that's the 1st starting point.

12:34

In my opinion, I completely agree with Dan on that. I've had an

12:37

executive assistant for the last 2 years, and I'm kinda

12:41

hooked. So, you know, like, when my assistant is off on

12:45

some time off, it's tough for me. And, usually, we're now at a point where,

12:48

you know, we have a team of executive assistants because there's 3

12:52

cofounders that we're working together. So we have a team of 3 people

12:55

managing each one of us individually, but the other person can now

12:59

pitch in when my EA is away. So I I feel,

13:03

hands down, the 1st person you need to hire is help

13:06

yourself and get your emails, your calendar, and your socials.

13:10

You're gonna be able to offload a lot more than this, but these are just

13:14

the first few things that you can offload. So start there, and then

13:17

now it gives you the bandwidth to now start strategizing

13:21

about what's the next role I need to hire, what's the next thing I need

13:24

to be doing, what do I do with this extra time and so on and

13:27

on. So once you've hired that virtual assistant, you know, what's the

13:31

best way to manage them? Give feedback, Lead them effectively, make sure that things

13:35

are done the way you want. Because I think for a lot of business owners,

13:38

they've never hired someone for that type of role or even, you know, articulated how

13:42

they want those things done. Yeah. So that's that's a very good

13:45

question because, you know, if you do not have a proper

13:49

onboarding system and if you don't have SOPs and

13:53

things like that in place, Jeffro, what's gonna happen is that it's

13:56

gonna create a bad experience for this associate. You're gonna think it's

14:00

not working out. They're thinking that, hey. Where the hell am I?

14:04

And it's just not gonna end well. So what I recommend

14:08

is that before even you hire your 1st associate, you should go

14:12

through the 7 prerequisites, now that I put together in

14:15

my course. One of them is making sure that you have

14:19

systems and processes in in place before you do your 1st official

14:23

onboarding. The second 1 is having a effective

14:26

vision statement and a mission statement and a set

14:30

of values ready to go. Because you're expecting this person to come

14:34

and understand you, but you haven't even written out your vision

14:37

statement right now. So what are they supposed to follow? Like, they can't read our

14:41

heads. What's in our minds. Right? So sorry. I was just gonna

14:44

jump in there. What about when someone says you can hire that assistant and have

14:48

them help you write your SOPs? Does that work? That's that's a little too

14:52

much to ask, Jeffro, because, you know, this person, like unless

14:55

you're hiring somebody who's, like, a $90,000, you know, like, these executive

14:59

assistants, that's how much they go for if you're hiring someone in the US.

15:03

Like, 70, 80, $90,000, a good executive assistant

15:07

is gonna run you. And at that level, yeah, maybe I would

15:10

expect that this person would be able to come in and just take

15:14

charge. But for most, on the global side, you're gonna

15:17

need some kinda system and processes in place. Good thing

15:21

with, you know, like, because I'm gonna be sharing my course.

15:25

Most of these SOPs that we've built out are going to be there. So if

15:28

you're hiring yourself, you can just put those systems and processes in

15:32

place before you hire. And by and large, you'll have a good

15:36

working system and process ready for this person to onboard with

15:40

you from day 1. But, yeah, I think that would be a little too much

15:43

to ask for, but it's also not rocket science. It's pretty

15:47

straightforward, you know, just doing a cook. I actually if you just

15:51

do Dan Martell's formula, he's got this email management system

15:55

that he uses that you can just tell your executive assistant to just follow

15:58

and start using from, day 1. With a company like RevStack,

16:02

we'll take care of most of those things for you. We'll bring in our own

16:06

SOPs and systems and processes. We'll make sure this person is

16:09

being effective and doing everything that they're also be doing. But if you're gonna be

16:13

doing it yourself, definitely check out hiring an EA,

16:17

what Dan Martell is talking about, and then the stuff that we put

16:20

together in our course. That's awesome. And I love that you provide those SOPs to

16:24

your clients when they hire someone through you as well because that's that's super helpful.

16:28

I I did wanna ask, even after the executive assistant role, let's say we've got

16:31

that in place, you guys also have specialized hires that you offer.

16:35

Right? So marketing associates and sales development reps. Can you tell some of the

16:39

differences between those? Because I think the line there is blurry for a lot of

16:42

people. Yeah. So your marketing associate is, you know, your

16:45

traditional some media buyer, like your Google Ads, Facebook Ad person, like, if

16:49

you guys wanna start doing some of those things internally, your social

16:53

media, traffic designer, video editor, like a podcast

16:57

that we're doing these days. These are also marketing tools that should

17:00

be chopped up and published on social media, has turned into blog

17:04

articles, your content writer in SEO. So any of these things,

17:08

if you wanna effectively bring them internal, then that's our

17:12

bread and butter. About 70% of our people are placed in,

17:15

marketing assistant roles. Doing one of these 4 things,

17:19

either media buying, either automations inside of

17:22

CRM, SEO and content, and graphics and video.

17:26

That role so if you have a marketing team already set up. Or if

17:30

you're working with a marketing agency, you're just looking to add more

17:33

power to that, relationship, an our person can, like,

17:37

really, really be your eyes and ear on your side and

17:41

can even take over that relationship because our people are, like we call them

17:44

future leaders. A lot of people are in leadership roles,

17:48

managing entire teams under them right now. So so that can

17:51

also be taken care of. Like, this person can grow into director

17:55

of marketing for you and things like that, even if you continue

17:59

to outsource your marketing, or you can bring this internal.

18:03

So that's one of them. The other one is a sales development rep. I feel

18:06

that everyone can use this SDR, Jeffro right now. You

18:10

know, I have a friend who runs a carpet business, a

18:14

carpet store who's got a couple of stores. And they got so many leads, man,

18:17

like we've been doing over the last 10 years. But they, you know,

18:21

the sales process is that, you know, they have this these

18:25

showrooms where people would come in. They hardly call anyone

18:28

back. You know, if they close their deal there, that's finally got lots

18:32

of clients coming in already. So they don't need to worry about any of that

18:35

stuff, but it is a missed opportunity. So imagine

18:39

having a flooring store, a local flooring store, having an SDR

18:43

who's just calling back your, maybe, past clients you

18:47

haven't called. I can guarantee you that my buddy, Moe, he hasn't called any

18:51

of his past clients for the last 10 years he's been in business. Just

18:54

calling those people up and say, hey. How are you doing? How's your floor? We

18:58

did your floor and so and so. Like, you know, like, there's, like, you

19:01

know, 500 estimates, ready to happen right there. So

19:05

so imagine having this person, and I know my buddy Moe is running

19:09

like a chicken with a head cut off, just do an estimates

19:12

throughout his day. He's, like, running an $11,000,000 company between

19:16

the 2 stores, but he's still doing all those estimates running from

19:20

estimate to estimate. So and he's somebody at a store or himself

19:24

is booking those on his Google Calendar, then he's going, things like that.

19:27

So imagine having that SDR, having us, you know,

19:31

shared calendar. All these appointments and meetings are prebooked

19:35

for you. You know, that's what a sales development rep does. A sales

19:38

development rep at rep stack, what it's not, I will tell

19:42

you, is, they're not a cold caller. They're not a

19:46

called outreach person. That usually does not work really well. I myself

19:50

tried it a number of times, and I failed miserably. But,

19:54

an SDR works really, really well when you have a system

19:57

of producing your own leads, like, through a marketing company like

20:01

yours. And when those leads are coming in, that's the perfect time when

20:05

now so marketing first, sales after that. And at

20:08

that point, you're ready to hire a sales development rep who can support

20:12

your sales closures and have their calendars, like,

20:16

it really looking booked up with meeting after meeting after meeting. That's

20:20

what support salesperson does. And that's that can be done anywhere

20:24

in the world. Refstack people do a great job in that too. Yeah. But I

20:27

love that example of your friend because I think a lot of people listening probably

20:31

relate to that. Either Maybe they know somebody like that running a 10,000,000,

20:35

$11,000,000 company, and yet they're still doing the menial task

20:38

or running around crazy, which is not the goal of running a company

20:42

for most people. Right? You wanna kinda get beyond that. So if that's you,

20:46

this might be a sign that you need to look into hiring somebody to help

20:49

you Either with the executive assistant or the marketing type roles.

20:53

But that's all we've got time for today. Azar, thank you for joining us.

20:57

I love hearing your perspective. Hope our listeners have learned something from you.

21:01

Guys, make sure you go to repstack.co to learn more about the options that they

21:04

provide. You can connect with Azar on LinkedIn as well. Look at his course. And

21:07

if you're an agency or even just someone with marketing help or wanting a specialized

21:11

virtual assistant, get in touch with him and see how easy they make it.

21:15

Azar, do you have any final thoughts before we wrap up? No. I I don't

21:18

think so. I think the easiest thing that, to keep in mind when

21:22

you're especially building out a remote team is that everyone

21:26

you bring on board, even if it's a VA, even if they're based outside

21:29

of the US, if you can treat them the same that you

21:33

would your local team in your office, that's when you're gonna have the

21:37

biggest success because now you're giving them access to the

21:40

same bonuses commission. Yeah. Paying space might be different,

21:44

but commissions could be similar, and we've seen that happen. So

21:48

now this person is, like, really, really, really vested

21:52

in, the success of your business. You know? So if we can treat

21:55

them the same, if you think that this person is a VA and, you know,

21:59

like, you treat them like that, that's how they're gonna behave. You treat them like

22:02

your internal team member. Even if they're somewhere else on the globe,

22:06

they're gonna be a very effective part of your team. So that's the only,

22:10

take away the biggest thing, I think, that's the biggest mistake we make

22:14

when we hire globally is that, we create these

22:18

differences between teams or silos. Treat them the same for

22:22

the best results. That's awesome. And that's a great reminder. So thanks again for

22:25

being here, Azar, and thanks to all of you for listening. Just remember, building your

22:29

team doesn't happen overnight, but it's a great way to dominate your niche. I'll see

22:32

you guys in the next episode.