Marin Wealth

If you can provide me a bit of background about your company, for example, your company's purpose and vision, your role within the company, how long you've been operating, and the number of employees, and VAs that you have.

Yes. So, I started Marin Wealth, almost two years ago. I've been in the financial services profession for around twelve years, give or take. Our vision started just basically catering for more Spanish speakers here in Brisbane. There was big need for it, and there was just nobody who can provide that advice really or that cultural background. So that's where Marin Wealth started. We started with just myself. I started the business from zero - no clients, no farm, nothing. We didn't purchase anything. So it was a very organic growth, and therefore, the need for support staff came as I left my previous firm. So I was a business within a business, so I had support staff that we shared. Back then, it was physical staff, so they were in the office. So when I left, it was on myself, so I took all the clients. I just basically removed myself from the brand and established my new brand. So, basically, I started myself, then I hire an associate, then we had a paraplanner, and then that's when, the need for a support staff came, on board. The biggest issue was spacing. So we deal, out of, WeWorks. So it's very flexible, but at the same time, it isn't. Because when we need some sort of space, and that's technically what happened, they were they offered me a space where I can get a physical, support staff, and that deal fell through. Some-apparently, I signed the deal and everything, but they just apparently offered it to someone else at first, and whatever the reason was. I was like, you know what? That's when the idea came, from a a friend, that basically said you should think about a VA. And that's when you guys were introduced to me, and, obviously, the rest is history.

And how did you hear about VA Platinum?

It was one of the referral partners we have. So Daniel Ward, he is a mortgage broker who's also very similar to myself, started his own firm. And he basically mentioned, look, I have these two staff that work for me, and they're amazing. And, obviously, that kinda went, okay, I'll based on my trust in his word, I went through and we established a connection there.

And, obviously, you mentioned the reason why you needed outsourcing. Have you, were there any specific problems, that you were hoping to solve when it came to outsourcing?

Yeah. So, I guess it wasn't even just the problem itself. It was, the fact that our firm operates everything in virtual. We don't have physical papers. We don't have anything. So for example, Carlos worked, my associate worked in Japan and Korea in December because of the system we have. So we were suggesting you pass. So, technically, VA for us, there's no difference. So it kind of - it was very seamlessly, integrated with us because everything is online. We don't deal with paper. We don't scan anything. So that's, it was not trying to solve the problem. It was more like it was just easier to integrate because of the spacing requirement we don't have. I was struggling to try and find a desk and a physical thing. So the VA kinda solved that problem technically with spacing really, with the physical desk.

Okay. And can you just wrap the experience that you've had working with VA platinum, but also your VA?

Yeah. That's - it's been amazing. This is day one. Obviously, meeting Alana was, amazing. And I, just the whole process has been fantastic. We, obviously, to an extent, you have to have a certain amount of luck even though luck is preparation and opportunity. Literally, that's the equation. You get more luck with preparation - opportunity, and that's where you guys came in. You were prepared, and the opportunity presented that Fernando, who happened to be at the same time that we were looking, were matched with us. So we did interview a couple, and, obviously, Fernando was a standout immediately, due to his background, due to himself and his, I guess, his work ethic. And it's been it's been an absolute game changer for us because we did have at least Carlos had experience with VA before, and it was not, favourable. I was just more open-minded because I never had an experience with a VA before. So I was just more like, it's just another person. It just happens to be not in our office, but it's the same because that, from the flexibility I wanted in our firm that you can work from anywhere in the world as long as you have internet, that's when I was more open-minded, and clearly paid off because it's been a game changer for us. It's - he can be in front of, especially from the, I guess, the same timeline. So if we have the same it's only an hour difference. For us, it's perfect. It's absolutely perfect.

And the ongoing support that VA Platinum provides you in terms of your success manager, has that helped overcome, any hurdles that you feel that you've had, or has it been a nice transition in giving you great support?

Yes. That, it's incredibly important because the HR component of a small firm, it all relies on me. So having someone that basically deals with that part because, yes, Fernando is not with us physically, but he is with us. So he also needs someone to help them. That onboarding piece, everything that's, like, the all - because I've done it myself in another firm that I needed to get onboarded, and I needed to get trained, and I needed all that time absorbed by someone else. That was the best part of you guys where I just didn't do anything. I just - you guys told me this is the metrics. This is what he needs done, and these are all the trainings. Like, sick. And that's all I needed. He really helped me do what I need to do, which is my job, and just deal with Fernando on a more business capacity rather than HR.

So when it comes to results, so obviously, when you started with our services, we always talked about what are your long-term goals and plans for your VA? Do you think we're on track to reach those or have we reached them? And, what are the impacts that your VA has had on your business?

Yeah. I think it's been the - it's an absolute game changer. We have massively blow it out of the water with with Fernando coming in. Again, I'm gonna quote a lot of luck because it was preparation and opportunity. We were both prepared. So us - we were very prepared. We knew what we needed. We had clear goals. We’re at the front of - and we knew exactly what we needed from Fernando, so that made the integration of him much easier. But also on your side, you also were prepared and the opportunity happened that it's just - he was there at the right time. I was here at the right time. So I think from both sides, luck would play a big part in regards to how we prepare the opportunity to present itself. We have basically, I cannot explain. I've actually spoken about it this morning around how I think we're peaking at efficiency. Like, we have never been this efficient before. We wanted to be here in regards to the amount of scalability that we can do with everything. So with the VA or with Fernando was, this is what I need, and basically, this is how you can do it. Or even himself did it himself, and he just needed some feedback around. Is this the right thing? I can give you a thousand, I guess, real-life scenarios where I went, look, we needed an Excel spreadsheet so we can track all the onboarding of everyone. And from point one to point zed, we had something, but not on steroids. So he created that for us. So that was the vision. Like, I needed to overview every single human who was coming, why, where, what part of the stage that we're at and that all of us get access to that file because, obviously we use, we use a share, a SharePoint, which is, it's all online, so you can use it anywhere. So that he was able to create it, he branded it, I gave him the branding guidelines and he's been able to just, yeah, just save us time and those small, I guess, tasks that we - they all get down the bottom line because you still have time. I guess that's - if I gather them all, it's been a huge change for us. So that's why we've been very efficient at the moment.

So what advice would you give to anyone that is thinking of outsourcing? And what advice would you give them? Elaborate on that. What advice would you give to someone who's into outsourcing?

I think, where I've seen some others versus us, fail is having unrealistic expectations where it usually starts with yourself. If you're, if you're organised enough, if you have clear goals, if you have a robust process, you are most likely to succeed in the integration of a VA because then they can just seemingly just integrate into your process. Whereas if you don't have a process, if you don't have three goals, if you don't know what you want from them, even though you may, but it's not clear enough, I think that's the biggest, hurdle I've seen other, others have with VAs where they think a VA is coming to save the day and we could. Obviously, I'm not saying it won't. But if you don't, obviously, you guys are pretty good as well at, you know, kinda the line in what are the KPIs? What are these needs? What are - that's amazing, but also because we were just able to “Fernando, this is what we need. This is how, and this is the time frame,” and you and, also, again, luck is a part of it. Fernando is just amazing. Like, it's just an absolute game changer. So, I guess my advice is be very organised, be very clear on what you want, and the likeliness of success is just much higher.

And what are your future plans for your business? And do you see your virtual assistant team growing?

Yes. So as part of the integration with Fernando, we have changed a little bit of our outlook in HR in the growth component of our business. So the organisational chart that we had in mind may have tilted a little bit too towards VA because of, again, because of our - how we integrate our technology and how seamless it was for Fernando to come in. So the idea at the beginning of this journey was to have parts of advisers with support staff behind them. One support staff being administration, the other one being a junior adviser that will grow into a more senior role. And that was basically the deal, and then probably one support staff to help either two parts, etc. Now that support staff was supposedly in person. Okay? That was the idea. Whereas now the growth that we're going - so we are going to hire another adviser this year, and, therefore, the idea is to get a VA first, get our current VA to train that person. So less time-consuming for me. They're most likely in the same place, so they're probably already gonna take very little time from us, let alone the continuing, I guess, training that that person will require. So that's probably our journey, getting a VA for probably a couple of months in, and then an adviser will join, and that person can just basically start raising revenue from day one because they had - their support starts already trained in our systems.

That's all my questions for you. That was super easy. Do you have anything else you'd like to add in terms of your experience or the process or something that really stands out to you?

Oh, I think it's good that, I guess our concern with a VA was that we didn't want them to feel alone. That was our main because - we're very pro your mind and yourself comes first, then the business goes second. Like, we always like, you know, you and yourself and a person, whether you're here, whether you're in the field, wherever you are. So now our approach was like, man, let's make sure that Fernando doesn't feel alone, that we can try and meet as much as we can with him. So I think that was mitigated by the fact that he had someone over there too. So he was with a team, that he felt like there's there's always someone around him. That was - that made our life easier. So that - even if we weren't able to talk to him twice a day, we're like, okay. Great. He at least gets someone around him so he doesn't feel like he's on his own, so he's part of a bigger team. I think that's my 2¢ on making sure that, you know, he's attended, that he's got everyone, even not just from a mental point of view, but, like, physical, like, his safety, and that he gets a, I guess, a great life. It's it's what we we wanted. So I feel personally that that's that was very well taken care of, with what you guys offer. So, yeah, that's that's my 2¢.

Well, thank you so much for your time, Pedro. It was so nice to see you. I'll stop recording.

Oh, that's sweet. Back at you, man.