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Jeryl Massini Podcast
David:Hi everybody. This is David Ledoux fromwww.BigMoneyFreeTime.com.I’m very excited to have you with us today for this podcast. I have a very,very, very special guest.Usually on these podcasts, we go and try to find authors and speakers andwriters and trainers. But today we’re doing something completely different,and it’s extra special because behind every entrepreneur, there’s always ateam. And lately with technology, there’s a very high probability that thatteam or those team leaders are not in the same city, state, or necessarily eventhe same country as that business owner.Today, it’s my very special privilege to introduce a lady who’s been the secretweapon behind one of the world’s most influential internet marketers for the past four years. She runs the day-to-day support for a seven figure per year virtual niche marketing company. The owner of that company is on the westcoast, she is east coast. So she really illustrates the example we’re talkingabout. She played a key role recently, a little over 30 days ago, behind thescenes for the launch of a distance learning virtual product in January that wasa seven figure day for the creator of that product, so there’s a lot to learn and alot of information to get from this lady.So, without any further adieu, Jeryl Massini, are you on the line?Jeryl:Yes I am, David.David:Jeryl, wonderful to have you here today with all our listeners.Jeryl:It’s great to be here. Thanks.David:Wonderful. Well, how about we start because a lot of people who are on thecall today, they’ve never worked with a Virtual Assistant; they’ve never outsourced anything in their life. A lot of the people listening to this call, theyare chronic addicts to being entrepreneurs. They love working eighty, ninety,a hundred hours a week and the thought of having someone to help them withtheir heavy lifting and take some of the pressure off of their life has themintrigued and that’s why they’re on the call today.Tell me a little bit about how you first found about the whole concept of beinga Virtual Assistant. Did you take a course? Did you read a book? Did it justfall in your lap? What’s your story?Jeryl:Is there such a thing as purposely falling into something? I don’t know. I wasvery fortunate when I decided that I wanted to do this. I was pregnant with mychild and I didn’t want to put her in daycare. So I went on the internet back when I first got a computer, my first computer ever, and I started searching tosee if I could find work from home opportunities and started sifting through
 
all the scams out there and you know, “give us $100 and we’ll never find youa job kind of thing.” I was fortunate enough to find something local to kind of get my feet wet. A medical transcriptionist was looking for overflow help andeven though I had no experience with medical transcription, she trained me.So got my feet wet with that and having that experience under my belt, Ifound a conference call transcription company that was looking for transcriptionists. I hooked up with them and I started transcribing conferencecalls of business meetings, and product development meetings, and things likethat.Then I hooked up with a wonderful woman who had an outsourcing businessand together we pretty much built it from the ground up. I had the opportunityto learn and do all kinds of different things from transcription to customer support to web site editing to pretty much anything that anyone would needdone. So, I was very, very fortunate, not like some other people who bangtheir head against the wall for years – I want to work from home, I want towork from home… It just all fell together!David:Well, good stuff. Now we were just talking before the call a little bit aboutwhat it’s like commuting in your part of the world. You’re in Connecticut,right?Jeryl:Yes.David:And, you’re getting ready to go fly to San Diego in a couple of weeks for aconference. Share with the listeners: what time you have to get up in that partof the world to make a flight in New York City.Jeryl:To make an 8:00 AM flight, I’ve got to get up at least by 4:30 AM becauseyou have to be on the road by 5:00 – 5:15 to make it to JFK in time for an8:00 flight. And if you choose a flight that’s even an hour later than that,you’re going to be on the road for hours trying to get there.David:So there are people in New York City that commute an hour and a half – twohours each way every single day, right?Jeryl:Oh, absolutely.David: Which is hard to fathom because, what’s your life style like? Where do youwork from? What’s your commute like? What are your hours like?Jeryl:I have an office in my home, so I don’t have to leave my home. I’m a singlemom, so I need to be here for my daughter, so it works out very well. Myhours are very flexible. It’s not a typical ‘9 to 5’ thing. Typically I’ll get intomy home office at 7:30 while my daughter is having breakfast, getting readyto go to school, and I’ll check emails and map out my day pretty much. And2
 
then when she goes off to school, I bang away at it and if I have errands to runor something to do at school, I leave.David:Nice.Jeryl:And I come back and I can take a couple of hours off during the day to dothings I need to do because after my daughter goes to bed at 7:00 at night, I’mworking again. So, it may seem I’m working continuously from 7:30 AM tillmidnight, but I’m really not. I know Frank always says, “Oh my God, whatare you still doing working? That’s crazy the hours you put in!” Well, I dohave that flexibility.David:Right, right. I mean, you don’t have to beg a boss at ten minutes to five toleave five minutes early.Jeryl:Exactly, exactly! And it works out great for us too because since he is on thewest coast, you know my 7:00 PM is his 4:00 PM and he’s still got somehours that he’s putting in, and he likes the fact that he can call me and it can be 9:00 – 10:00 here and I don’t have an issue with doing whatever needs to be done because I’m still on my computer working anyway.David:Cool, cool. A lot of the entrepreneurs listening to this call, they’re thinkingseriously about hiring a Virtual Assistant, and you’ve known a lot of entrepreneurs that have done the virtual assistant thing, both the right andwrong. So, let’s start with some of the problems and misconceptions andstumbles. What would you say is the single biggest mistake entrepreneurs and business owners make when they hire Virtual Assistants?Jeryl:That would probably be not clearly outlining expectations from the get go and by that, I mean everything from what hours they’re expected to work. Like Isaid, I’m very flexible with mine and it works out well for us. There are plentyof entrepreneurs and business owners when they need someone certain hours,and I think the big mistake that they make is just assuming that the person isgoing to be available those hours.Also you have to take into consideration time zones. I mean, if you needsomeone from 8:00 – 5:00 and you’re on the west coast and that person, surethey’re going to work 8:00 – 5:00, but east coast time – that’s not going towork out for them. I think that’s a huge, huge thing that you need to outlinethe expectations of when you need them and if you have things that need to bedone on Saturdays, well that has to be, “Hey, can you work Saturdays andmaybe not work Tuesday?” or something like that.Also outlining expectations for what their responsibilities are going to be.That’s a big one. Because if the assistant is expecting, “Well, this is what I’mgoing to be doing – this, this, and this,” and then all of a sudden you’re like,3
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