IAM2648 – Business Partners Help Businesses Scale by Providing Top-notch Virtual Employees

In this throwback episode, we have Anne and Mark Lackey. Entrepreneurs that has a series of ventures that each emerged from a real‑world problem they faced themselves.

When a valued employee abruptly quit, they recognized the hidden cost of staff churn and the difficulty of finding reliable “drudgery” workers—people willing to handle repetitive, phone‑based tasks. Their answer was to create HireSmart Virtual Assistants.

HireSmart’s model combines two core services: rigorous recruiting that matches the right talent to the right role, and a one‑week certification boot‑camp that trains virtual assistants in both technical skills and cultural communication.

They also act as an ongoing HR partner, handling issues that arise after placement. The result is a seamless experience for clients—calls sound as if they’re coming from the U.S., tasks are completed efficiently, and companies enjoy significant cost savings.

The founders also note the broader social impact: they now provide health care to thousands of Filipino families, a benefit many Fortune 500 call centers don’t offer.

Facebook: HireSmartVAs
Anne – www.facebook.com/AnneLackey
Mark – www.facebook.com/markslackey
LinkedIn: Anne – www.linkedin.com/in/annelackey
Mark – www.linkedin.com/in/markslackey

Previous Episode: iam390-business-partners-help-businesses-scale-by-providing-top-notch-virtual-employees

Anne & Mark Lackey Teaser 00:00
And one thing that's really come out of this has been positive. You know, we've got a very low unemployment rate right now. So finding people is challenging. It's always been challenging, even when there was a high employment rate, that you've had trouble finding people that really wanted to work, do repetitive tasks, mundane, we call them the drudgery jobs, that answer the phone and repeating questions and so forth.

So what we've done is we've found people to do those types of jobs. so that the Americans that are working in that office can elevate and work at a higher level and be actually at their highest efficient level.

Intro 00:37
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 01:03
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I have two very special guests on the show today. I have Ann and Mark Lackey of HireSmart Virtual Assistants.

Ann and Mark, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Anne & Mark Lackey 01:14
Thanks for having us, Gresh. We appreciate it.

Gresham Harkless 01:16
Great to be here. Thank you. Yeah, definitely. Super excited to have you both on and what I wanted to do, which is read a little bit more about Ann and Mark so you can hear about all the awesome things that they've been doing.

And together, Ann and Mark Lackey own and operate several businesses. In 2015, they determined they were working harder and not smarter, so they embarked on their newest business, Hire Smart Virtual Assistants, which helps business owners scale by providing top-notch virtual employees.

Anne and Mark wrote seven books, three became bestsellers in hours, and developed multiple training modules in the area of real estate investing, property management, and business ownership to help other entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Anne and Mark, are you ready to speak to the IAM CEO community?

Anne & Mark Lackey 01:57
We are thrilled to be here.

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Gresham Harkless 01:59
Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO stories and what led you guys to start your business.

Anne & Mark Lackey 02:06
All right, so we have had kind of a convoluted journey like most people, right? It's never a straight and narrow shot. Back in 2001, one of our really dear friends got ill and we watched him over a year decline before he unfortunately died. And he was a high commission sales rep much like we were at the time.

And so that really had an impact on us thinking, oh my goodness, What are we going to do? We keep working for every dollar. And so we started thinking, what can we do? And we came up with three options.

And I'll let Mark take it from there. online marketing and internet network marketing. And we weren't great at that. We can start a business, which was a big thing.

We wanted to try to do something concurrent with our corporate jobs at that time period. And the other was doing real real estate. So we started out getting into real real estate because Anne's family and mine had both had that in our past history. So we kind of had it in our genes, so to say.

And so we started buying homes, we got good at buying the homes, putting tenants in them and keeping them there. And then our friends came to us and said, oh, you're good at doing this. I've got investors that want a property management company. I can sell them homes.

Would you manage their property? So by their request, we opened up a property management business. And then fast forward, kind of like most of our businesses started, we had a problem in one of our businesses and we fixed that through using full-time dedicated virtual staff and our friends go, hey, you're good at that, can you help us?

So we started that business a little over four and a half years ago and literally have not looked back and that's one of our favorites. The key is listening to what people need to start the business rather than you have the idea and you go and create something, right?

Gresham Harkless 03:54
Yeah, absolutely. It's awesome to hear, you know, how people, you know, start businesses and their businesses sometimes even blossom into other businesses just because they saw another need for themselves. And then next thing you know, there's all these people knocking down the board say, hey, help me too.

Anne & Mark Lackey 04:08
It's a wonderful thing. Matter of fact, I think most all of our businesses have started that way.

You know, we kind of did it for ourselves and thought this is a problem that needs to be fixed. And other people go, well, that's a problem, but I don't want to learn how to fix it. I'll just use you and your expertise to fix it. And it's worked out really, really well.

It has, although we have started some other ideas and concepts that we thought were great and they didn't go anywhere, right? Yeah. We've got the failures as well as the successes.

Gresham Harkless 04:37
Exactly. You guys, it sounds like when you're starting these ventures, it sounds like you have that market fit and that market kind of validation. So you can understand that if you, of course, can use it and somebody else can use it, then it works perfectly. So I know you touched on it a little bit, wanted to hear a little bit more about HireSmart and everything that you guys are doing with that.

Anne & Mark Lackey 04:55
Sure, so the reason Hire Smart started was again a business problem and that issue was we had an employee very valuable employee Quit via text on my first vacation in seven years. And yes, i'm still a little bitter about that.

Gresham Harkless 05:09
I would be too

Anne & Mark Lackey 05:11
However, what I what always typically happens right is out of tragedy becomes, you know success and triumph and so Morgan and I just started thinking, we're like, there's got to be a different way for this staff to keep this churn down.

Because churn in any business, whether it be your customer base, your employee base, it doesn't really matter. Churn can cost you a lot of time, energy, effort, which translates to physical dollars.

And so we started looking at all the different options. You've got call centers. You've got outsource providers.

You've got all of these other things that you can choose from. But Mark and I are very conservative people. We like to build relationships that's very important to us. And we wanted somebody that was fully invested in our business as much as we were, but wasn't physically located here with us.

And so, we then started looking across the globe, like who has the best blend for culture, service, hearts, all of that. And so, we picked the Philippines. Because we really felt like there's a reason that all the Fortune 500 companies have relocated their call centers over there, right? And are training them how to deal with Americans and customer service.

We're also people that don't like to reinvent the wheel totally either. So, we said if they're smart enough to know that that's the place, maybe that's the place. Let's just figure out what do we need to do to get the best talent. And that position we had was work on the phone and work on the computer.

So it could be done anywhere. There wasn't a limitation. And that decision we made to go to the Philippines turned out very positive for us. So then the business problem that we solve for our clients is, OK, I understand that I want a dedicated person, and I want them from offshore.

I want them on the Philippines. but I don't know how to find them, I don't know how to vet them, I don't know how to make sure that they're good, I don't know how to manage them.

And the seamless exchange, because our clients call in, they don't realize they're calling halfway around the world, and then the phone gets transferred back to me, and it goes all the way back around the world, you know, in a matter of a millisecond, I'm on the phone and they don't know. So how do you get that transparency? That's one thing Anna has been perfect at helping.

So what we did is we started the two parts of our business, which is one is the recruiting, finding the right person for the right seat in the right bus, right? That's enough itself as a recruiter role. Very, very important. Then you have what we call the certification or training role.

How do you train these people? And again, training isn't just in your job. It's how to communicate, right? Because there are some cultural differences there that need to be addressed.

So we solve both of those problems through the recruiting and what we call our certification one week boot camp. that we provide to our clients where literally we're making sure that the candidates that our clients get placed with are amazing. They're good communicators. And then we support our clients as the HR function after the placement too.

Just a few minutes ago, one of my clients says, hey, I'm having a little bit of a challenge with this issue. Can you help? That's what we are here for, to help kind of bridge that gap so they're not alone in this process. Because we've heard a lot of times, you know, I like the idea of VAs, but they go dark, or I can't communicate with them, or, you know, I just can't get them to show up.

Because we have a community, because we have the resources, because we have the methodology and the process, we fix a lot of those ails. Now, again, people are people. They still get sick. They still have issues with family.

Those things, I cannot solve that world problem, unfortunately. But I can at least get the bar a lot higher and get better results. And one thing that's really come out of this has been positive. You know, we've got a very low unemployment rate right now.

So finding people is challenging. It's always been challenging. was a high employment rate, that you had trouble finding people that really wanted to work, do repetitive tasks, mundane, we call them the drudgery jobs, that answer the phone and repeated questions and so forth. So what we've done is we found people to do those types of jobs so that the Americans that are working in that office can elevate and work at a higher level and be actually at their highest efficient level.

So when our clients bring a VA and the VA supporting, the virtual assistant supports that individual, they can do so much more and so much better and it excels them. So that's been a very positive thing for our clients. Well, and two, because we are such a cost savings in addition to all the other great stuff that we just talked about, right? You know, that allowed us to bonus our in-house people a little bit more based on performance.

So now we have a longevity there with our in-house team, and so it works out really great. We're taking those tasks that our in-house staff didn't really want to do, elevating them, as Mark said, able to do more with less. And most of my clients report that, you know, normally they would have employees in the office at 6, 7 o'clock at night trying to get everything done. Now at 530, it's like cricket.

Like their people can go home. Everything's taken care of. All of that work is done and they're saving a significant amount of money.

Gresham Harkless 10:32
Yeah, absolutely. Who can put a cost on a peace of mind and just knowing that things are being taken care of. Everybody gets to work in their zones of geniuses, so to speak. So I think it's awesome that you guys are doing that and being able to implement that.

So I wanted to ask you, and this could be for both of you, or it could be for the organization. You might have already touched on this, but I usually ask for what I call a secret sauce. And this could be what you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you apart.

Anne & Mark Lackey 10:55
I actually think our secret sauce is passion. I really care about every placement I do. I care for our clients. I want them to be better and I think that that passion of really wanting everybody to excel is what you would call the secret sauce because you know it's not just a job.

We're changing the world. We are impacting probably at this point a thousand families here in the Philippines. Nice. That's gonna have a very big ripple effect and it's something that we like this year we were able we came to a profitability where we could provide health care to our virtual assistants at no cost to our clients.

And even Fortune 500 firms over there where the call centers don't provide that to them. So we've got sticking with our clients because of those types of things that we do.

Gresham Harkless 11:45
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And whenever you're able to leverage that expertise and to be in something you're truly passionate about and love to do, I think that's when that secret sauce usually takes it to an entirely different level.

So it's great to hear you guys have been able to implement it yourself, but also for everybody that you've been able to have on that tide, so to speak. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you guys for what I call a CEO hack.

And this could be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Anne & Mark Lackey 12:15
So I'll start with a hack. One of the biggest things I implemented in my business this year, which I think has been transformational, is weekly one-on-ones with my team, my team leads. You know, the reality is I talk to the people all the time, but having that 15, 20 minutes where literally they know that I'm just settled and listening to what they have to say, asking their opinion, asking how I can help them, how can I serve them, has been transformational.

Gresham Harkless 12:43
I love that, Hack, just because a lot of times, especially in the virtual world, you want to have some type of connection. So consistency is everything. So to have and know that you're having that weekly meeting for your teammate, but also for the team member itself, it probably helps being on that same page, helps everything flow a lot smoother, and just get everybody on the same page. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget.

And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Anne & Mark Lackey 13:11
I'd like to answer that because I'm a perfectionist like many of our business owners are, right? And you got to do everything yourself to make it right. What I learned, and it was very instrumental in me being able to get over into the next level was everything doesn't have to be perfect. It can be done at a high level.

I can still do some checking. Sometimes things not being done correctly were my fault too. So it's not like things can be done wrong and it doesn't end the world. So getting something going is better than just leaving it there.

Gresham Harkless 13:49
Yeah, I always say don't let the perfect get in the way of the possible. So I think that echoes the exact same thing that you got to get things done. You got to get it moving and get the ball rolling. And a lot of times you can always say it's 1.0 version and just say you're moving up to 2.0 as you start to evolve.

So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So I want to ask the both of you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Anne & Mark Lackey 14:14
Well, I think being a CEO for me is the responsibility of my team and being able to lead in a way that, again, is congruent with who I am, which is in that servant mindset. Like, certainly I want to be profitable and I want to make money and I want to do all that stuff. But for me, the responsibility of being a CEO is planning and implementing a plan that's not perfect, but protects others as best we can. That's kind of.

Yeah, because you know, you think about it on a day-to-day basis, we make a lot of decisions.

Gresham Harkless 14:51
Yeah, I love that perspective and that those definitions we just because a lot of times we sometimes we think it's either or, but a lot of times you can hit both where you can remember that a lot of times we forget that when you peel back the onion of a business or organization, it's made up of people, people have different things that are worries and things that they want to take care of.

Like health insurance, as you guys mentioned. So being able to take care of that and get the ball rolling and get things done and build a profitable business is hitting all of those aspects. So I appreciate that holistic definition.

And I appreciate your time even more. And what I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then, of course, how best they can get ahold of you and hear about all the awesome things you guys are doing.

Anne & Mark Lackey 15:33
Well, we certainly would like to make an offer to anyone who's listening that we would like to give them our best-selling book, Multiply Yourself. All you have to do is go to our website, which is www.hiresmart, V as in Victor, A as in Apple, AS.com, so hiresmartvas.com, slash podcast.

And they should be able just to put in their email and it'll get delivered to them. It's a great way to get kind of the comparison between employees and virtual staff and costs and things like that.

And then if you have any other questions, you can go to HiresmartVAs.com appointment and you can get on the calendar and look at a 30 minute block that works for you, that'll work for us so we can further answer questions.

Gresham Harkless 16:12
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Appreciate all the things you guys are doing. We will have both of those links in the show notes as well.
And I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Anne & Mark Lackey 16:23
It's our pleasure. Thanks so much for having us.

Outro 16:26
Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business as ceohacks.co.

This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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