Clint Muhlenberg: Reinventing Partnerships With Real Estate Virtual Assistants
LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE ON:
Clint Muhlenberg is the Founder and CEO of Level, a company that provides professional virtual assistants to people in all areas of real estate. Level is on a mission to completely flip the idea of a Virtual Assistant from a robotic task-doer to an essential team player. They hire real people specifically chosen to fill a role in your organization, and arm all partners with a passionate support team that’s dedicated to everyone’s mutual success. Clint's heart is in helping others, treating his staff with the utmost respect, and being an advocate for them in all the companies he partners with. Grasping the way Virtual Assistants can take your business to the next level can radically change the trajectory of your business. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to learn.
In this episode, hosted by Mike Swenson, we discussed:
- Clint is the founder and CEO of Level, a company that specializes in hiring virtual assistants in the Philipines, and provides them with a different approach than most virtual assistant companies
- He started in real estate in 2015, having previously worked for a bus company and helping with operations
- Clint found out the importance of leverage and the importance of hiring
- A big reason for him starting Level was he saw an issue that agents were having, which was finding the right hire
- While many companies don't do a great job supporting virtual assistants, he wants to make sure that his virtual assistants are treated very well
- Clint’s company takes away many of the the risks of hiring an assistant, because they have a great relationship with so many employees in the Philipines
- Clint has also been an investor in real estate, having bought his first house at 24 and continued his interested in investing after that
- With his company, he wants to build long term partnership and relationships with talented people so grow his company and the companies his virtual assistants support
Timestamps: If You Want To Jump Ahead To Your Favorite Part
0:00 - Intro and overview on Clint’s career
11:33 – What freedom looks like for Clint
15:20 – The types of services Clint’s company provide
31:00 – How COVID affected Clint’s business
35:30 – Some of Clint’s investments
45:00 – What Clint’s company looks like
Links In This Episode:
Clint's virtual assistant website: https://asklevel.com/
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Full transcript here:
Mike Swenson
Welcome, everybody. We've got another episode of real freedom stories. And today we've got Clint Muhlenberg on. And Clint works with a company called Level and Level provides virtual assistance for folks in real estate. And he's got a great operation going. And so we just want to talk more about that talk about his past in real estate, how he got where he's at today, and where he wants to go in the future. So welcome, Clint. We're so happy to have you. Why don't you just take a minute and introduce yourself?
Clint Muhlenberg
Hey, appreciate it. My thanks for having me. So I am Clinton Hillenburg. I'm the founder of level we are a virtual assistant recruiting a staffing agency that helps realtors agents for people and really anybody in any industry help with a given an administrative marketing or operations hire, but a true hire that's on your team, not just somebody that's attached to you or that you pass things off to do. So. We've been around for a few years now and have so far built up a team of over 100 people in that short time.
Mike Swenson
Wow, that's, that's fantastic. And we'll we'll dig a lot deeper into that and how you were able to grow so fast. But why don't you just talk about first how you got into real estate? How did that first opportunity come up? And maybe some of those early years for you?
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, so I got into real estate probably about 20. I think it's 2015 with one of the largest actually one of the largest top 10. Worldwide, Keller Williams teams. Prior to that I was actually in the school bus transportation industry, working operations, basically, going to any location they sent me across the US from anywhere from one day to one year, and just fixing issues, fixing whatever issue they happen to have financial operational with employees HR, it didn't matter what it was, there was something that they sent me across the across the world or across the US to just to fix. But look like, you know, when I was leaving there, I really wanted to challenge I wanted to change, I didn't want the same I felt like I was stuck in what I would grow personally and professionally. I wasn't getting challenged enough. And that's when I actually got connected with another Keller Williams team, whether the entire, you know, five week long process that they did for recruiting and eventually turned down the offer with them just didn't seem like the right fit for me. So they actually connected me with with another team that said, Hey, this, this might be a good opportunity for you. I met up with them. And I put the owner there just kind of sat around and chatted, he explained everything going on in his world ever. They want to do everything that wasn't getting done everything that was kind of chaotic. And that spoke to be the chaos, the uncertainty, the Hey, go figure this stuff out and just bring us the results really spoke to me. And we basically shook hands right then and there with the with an offer and it kept going forward.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, I think it's interesting to hear hear you talk about, you know, what appealed to you is the opportunity and being able to kind of calm the chaos a little bit. You know, I was in similar shoes. I know other people who've been in those operations roles are kind of in that similar vein where, you know, they, they may have been bored because they weren't challenged enough previously, or they maybe have been there long enough and just wanted a different challenge. But they like the idea of there's enough stuff here where I feel like I can stay busy, I can stay challenge. I can work on stuff. And so I know I that your message resonates with me because I was in that same boat where I feel like okay, there's enough here that I can can stay busy with.
Clint Muhlenberg
The chaos absolutely was by far what I wanted. You know, I love dealing with chaos with this order with with the unknowns, I've never actually had a job that had a job description. That wasn't one that I came in and had to create, like, I came into every job with kind of an idea and understanding or, or maybe a target, but nothing defined. And that's what I've loved because it was so moldable and I wanted to mould and grow grow as fast as possible. So that was perfect for me.
Mike Swenson
So why don't you share a little bit about your time on the team and then maybe talk about how that transition happened to where you moved on from the team?
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, so I you know, I'd worked I started off as the the operations manager was in that role for about a year switch over to the Chief of Staff role for another year, and then eventually left as the the Vice President of Finance and Administration. So I was really I had my hands and everything on the back end everything that didn't involve actually being an agent. I touched at some point during my time there. And I love that I mean, I grew a tonne. I learned a lot. But ultimately I wanted to stick more operationally, that's where I've been for all my life. That's where my skills lie. That's where my passions are, and ultimately determine, hey, look, the business is having this need for more finance stuff. And less operational because operation is kind of the pathway is already paid and taken. And I said well, my finance level is is great, but it's not going to be perfect. It's not gonna be what's needed. It's not CFO level of a massive business like this.
Clint Muhlenberg
Nor do I intend it to be. So how about we make a transition. So I actually created a transition plan over a couple of months that would say, Hey, here's how we can transition myself to other people, remove delegate, you know, eliminate whatever. And so we started following that plan and actually took over five months to do so. Which was awesome, because it allowed me to go and start level during that. Meantime, as we transitioned out of that business, I was able to start transitioning up to what level is now become.
Clint Muhlenberg
But really, what I wanted to do was I was consulting with people. I went out there and I was consulting with a lot of people in the real estate industry and some outside. And basically my thought was, hey, how can I go into a business and help them versus just give an outside perspective, but really do the work with them? What I found was most businesses I chatted with their biggest ultimate need would always be solved with a higher, their biggest and every need they had was not putting a system a process in place was putting a person in place. And so I always chatted with them about their opportunities to hire, what their challenges might be, where they should go, what they should hire, how they should hire everything like that.
Clint Muhlenberg
A lot of the times I've talked to people they would recommend, you know, I'd recommend hiring somebody overseas, specifically from the Philippines. I've worked with dozens of people in the Philippines at the time, I recommended, hey, hire somebody from over there. But here one of two major things. One, we've tried it and it didn't work out. And two, I don't know how to. Well, number one laugh makes me laugh every single time imagine an agent or a team owner saying what we've hired a buyer's agent before and that didn't work out. So we're never hiring a buyer's agent again. You hired a person that didn't work out. And they you know, you'll never hire that person again, but not not to say that the whole culture a whole group of people's be discounted because it didn't work out the first time. So I wasn't aware that there was any turnover in real estate. So that's news news. We had a buyer's agent that didn't work out. So you'll never hire a buyer's agent. Again. I'm guessing
Mike Swenson
No, the roles broken because the first person that we hired, it didn't work out. So that means something's wrong. Yeah, the role itself.
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah. But you never you never go back and actually investigate what happened, you just automatically assume it was the wrong thing versus going, did I set them up for failure with no training? No guidance. No job description, it's a very easy way to set somebody up for failure. If you don't, if you're not clear, and they're not clear on what the role and duties actually entail.
Clint Muhlenberg
That's what really started doing we started, I started basically saying, hey, look, I've done this before, I have a little bit different way than than the other companies. I've, I've used almost every major company out there, I've actually worked with every other major company out there. And I said, I do things a little differently. Let me help you. I've got some great people, you know, I know, let me help you do this. And so I had a lot of people just start saying, okay, help us. So I started just putting systems and processes in place that kind of help people. And I said, you know, what, I really get a lot of, I'm very passionate, I get a lot of joy and gratitude from, from helping people because I know that when I help somebody, it's not that I'm helping the client, it's I'm helping the person in the Philippines, with somebody that actually now sees them as, as a real person that sees him as a member of their team that sees him as a long term job opportunity prospect, that's not getting coached or taught by somebody that you go pay $2 an hour, and they do whatever you want.
Clint Muhlenberg
But you pay them fairly, you pay them competitively, and you actually have a role, like I said, a job description written up for them that says, This is what you're going to do, which is really what you want with leverage, you want to be able to say, this is now yours, you don't know how to say, Hey, Mike, I got a bunch of stuff on my plate, you can have this come back to me when you're done, then you can have this, it's never going to be a roll, it's never going to be a strong suit of somebody. So really just started doing that treating people like people treating like any other team member you ever hire, and just really focusing on the actual employee versus on the client for long term success. And I think the model is so simple, but it's worked for us.
Mike Swenson
And for those folks that maybe haven't used a virtual assistant in the past. When you're on their side, and you see how they've been treated. You know, I've been in some cases when we attempted to hire virtual assistants, you know, we were in the job boards, where jobs are posted, and you'd hear virtual assistants talking about like, yeah, don't use that company. Because all sudden, like, they just stopped paying me and they never told me, you know, like, why would somebody in the US do that to an employee? And just like stop paying them and not tell him like, Oh, yeah, your job's done. Or like, you know, all sudden they would they wake up the day and their access is gone.
Mike Swenson
And nobody's communicated to them about, you know, hey, we decided to change the role or even like, we close the role, like they never even tell them, they don't pay them for anything. Like, that's just not how people should be treated. And so to know that there's this whole population of people out there that are helping real estate agents that get treated like with that, treated like that. That's, that's that's not the way we treat people here. So it shouldn't be the way that we treat people. They're just because they live a few miles away from us. There's still a virtual phone call. It's the same that, you know, if Clint, you and I were sitting side by side, it's the same as if I was talking with my virtual assistant. So why should we treat people differently?
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, it's it's honestly sad, Mike that that has to has to be one of our benefits that says guaranteed pay, you know, the fact that if you do work, you're going to get into get paid. Like Mike, if you didn't work for me, and it was good, it wasn't great. I'm not going to withhold pay from you, you and I agreed to something and you work those hours, I'm going to pay you right. If that relationship stops, then that's different, but not paying somebody for the work they've done or stuff that you committed to. It broke my heart that that was one of the kind of things is, hey, here's the benefit, regardless of our client pays, we're gonna make sure you get paid like that was that was kind of a big thing for people.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, the bar, the bar is pretty low. And so you're certainly raising raising the bar.
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, I think having that sort of guarantee was was big for a lot of people. I mean, we offer quite a bit of really, really powerful ones. The big one, obviously, is kind of what you said is like, Hey, you could come in one day and your, your job could be eliminated without you even knowing about it, through no fault of your own, you know, it could be that people just haven't been seeing you, you know, talking to you, they don't even imagine you they're doing work. So they just let you go cut off your access, forget whatever, which unfortunately does happen with us, every person that we hire, one gets job security, if they, if their client terminates, for any reason that is not performance related, that has to do nothing to do with what they've done, then we go ahead and help them find their next job right then and there.
Mike Swenson
So talk a little bit more about freedom for you in you know, aligning yourself with great people building a company where you have great people, you have great clients, what is this going to do for you with your long term goals as the result of building it out? And then we'll talk a little bit later about you know, your your employees and and the freedom that they can see by by aligning with you but but talk about what does this mean for Clint long term?
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, so like, back in the day, even before this whole thing, I've always been a workaholic. I just I love working. It's, it's something I'm really passionate about, you know, going in college and go to school, I never enjoyed homework, but I love working, I had a lot of jobs during college just to keep myself working, I really always enjoyed doing that. So when I was on this real estate team, there was a time or I was working, you know, 10 hours below 12, 14, 16 hours a day, you know, I'd be picking up my phone, on the weekends, evenings, whatever. And I think a lot of people do that. I think that real estate, realtors and admin do that to themselves, they work themselves to death, because they don't set the boundaries up, they want to work, they know that work is productive, or they feel that that working is productive, that busy equals productive, which it doesn't. But they work themselves too much.
Clint Muhlenberg
And that's what happened to me. I remember waking up one morning during that real estate career probably about four or five years ago now. And I was able to grow and we have a little Chihuahua at that time. And I open up the back door and let the Chihuahua to go outside and I go and start making breakfast. And I come back and open the back door. And I've actually lost it. I've lost I've lost my girlfriend's dog. And it's not because like I left the gate open anything else, it's that the weeds in my yard had grown up to be about this tall, which was double the height of this little dog. So eventually I see this little thing hopping through it and I realised, Wow, I've completely neglected something as simple as getting my yard done. I wasn't even doing my own yard, I'd call somebody to come do it, I'd neglected that type of work.
Clint Muhlenberg
And it was just weeds that point I go, Wow, something something needs to change. Something really needs to change inside what I'm doing, and how I operate and how I'm treating all my other relationships, which must be going down the drain if I'm focused solely on work. And that's when I started getting really obsessive about learning about leverage and leverage of all types. You know, not just hiring but but technology and delegating and just really trimming the fat off your plate. I mean, how often have you ever had like a grocery list a to do list or something you've just been keeping paper tabs on and then you lose that list. You never ever really care. You remember, like one or two things on it was never a big deal. Like Mike you and I just talking about tabs and computer.
Clint Muhlenberg
If you close all the tabs right now and you couldn't reopen them? Would it really change? What happens? Will it really change or impact the most productive priority things in your world? Right? Likely What? And so that's why I got really obsessed about Okay, how can I How can I work less? How can I delegate How can I do this and that's kind of when I started looking into to making hires and virtual assistants and, and learning as much as I could about that and why people were doing it wrong and and how just a simple relationship changed, changed everything. So I got obsessed about that. And so when I when I came and started helping other people, that's kind of the mentality I use is how can I help these people do more of what they want to do. Hopefully it's not working more but it's gaining their time, gaining their freedom back to do what they want to do when they want to do it with who they want to do it.
Mike Swenson
Now, that's great. I mean, it's such a valuable lesson that now you've, you had to learn about freedom, you had to learn about leverage, personally, and now you've got a company that does that for others. So yeah, so talk a little bit about, you know, just the the types of services that you provide for real estate agent, and then how that helps the agent or how it helps the team and then talk to about your the virtual assistants that you employ. What does that mean for them now working with you versus working with, you know, directly with a real estate agent or through some other company.
Clint Muhlenberg
So the number one aspect or categorization of person that we hire for any type of real estate or real estate related company is administrative hire, like could be administrative assistant, executive assistant, transaction coordinator, assistant transaction corridor, Jr, TC, whatever you call them, there's there's a lot of different administrative roles. Those are the ones we hire for all day, every single day, we constantly have a list of at least a dozen people, we're hiring for those types of roles. What that really does is it helps get all the backend work off of people. So regardless, if you are in real estate as a, an agent, or on the back end, as an admin, there's a lot of back end work that needs to be done, but doesn't need to be done by you. I find those are probably the quickest and easiest roles to start leveraging and to start getting some help with their the you know, they're the $10 an hour roles, not the not the one that you were hired for, or that you work for, when you're 2550 $100 an hour person, you shouldn't be doing the $10 an hour jobs. So this certainly allows them to start leveraging off the back end stuff. A lot of people you know, when they first hire somebody, maybe uncomfortable, who will this person do it as good as me? Well, they speak on my behalf. Well, they talk like I talk, you know, things like that nothing I'm really concerned about this is just a great way for them to ease into the to the delegating, but the best thing you can do is actually create a role, not just say, Hey, here's stuff on my plate that I don't want to do, that I'm not doing that needs to be done. Don't do that. But actually take those things and create a role based on them.
Mike Swenson
The job description at a task list. So together a long term job description of what this person is going to do not that I need these five things off my plate in the next two weeks.
Clint Muhlenberg
Yes, stuff on your plate is not a title, you put on your business card, rail, Chief of stuff on, on on lights play, that's not something I would do. It helps to kind of know what's going there. But as I said, Mike, if you just started handing me things, you handed me something that takes 10 minutes, that takes 20 minutes, 30 minutes, eventually, you're gonna hand me something, you're gonna look at it and go, this is gonna take me time to train him, I'm busy. Okay, what else can I pass off, you're gonna be looking around for stuff to give me when I'm like, I'm ready.
Clint Muhlenberg
But actually having a role. So it's not just taking stuff off your plate, but I'm owning things in a role leads to long term success with leverage. So what that really does burn their shoes, like, yeah, I'm gonna want to be a part of this long term. Because I feel important, I feel included, I feel like I've got a path for where I'm going in the future. That's a whole lot different than this person gives me this task list. And then I just do it. For those of us that are in support type roles, like we love when the people we support have success, like our success is through their success.
Mike Swenson
Because some people don't want their name and bright lights, they don't want to be the attention getter. And yet in a support role you love when that person succeeds. So if you cast the vision of like, Hey, we're, we're side by side, we're accomplishing the vision of this company, or the vision of this, this role, or whatever it is, together, now they've got vision they've got, there's a lot more buy in there, they're going to show up as a better version of themselves, because they feel included in what it is you're trying to accomplish.
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, the more you can cast your vision for somebody, regardless of the higher especially when you hire somebody remotely, to to see what they're really getting into what is it's not, here's the work you're gonna do, it's here's the impact you're gonna make. Like if you keep if you keep talking to me about your vision and what you want for the company, what you want from me and my goals and how those kind of lines together, you're just building dedication between us. And that's, that's true for any role. So if you're hiring a virtual assistant, it's not what stuff do I need off my plate right now? It's, it's what vision Can I cast that somebody wants to join me? Because now that's long term benefit for you of somebody, you know, the stability of somebody staying with you. And it's long term growth opportunities for them. How many people love having somewhere they know, hey, in five years, we're gonna have a great relationships go.
Mike Swenson
We're gonna take a brief pause from our episode for a second. Hi, this is Mike Swenson. In addition to running this podcast, I also run a real estate team. And as you may know, there's lots of great agents across the United States. And there's also some agents that aren't so great. So what I want to do for you is to put you in touch with a top notch agent no matter where you live. So whether you're looking to buy, sell or invest in a home anywhere in the United States, we're here for you fill out our form at elite agent referral com We'll put you in touch with a top notch professional agent, no matter which state you live in. And if you happen to live in the state of Minnesota, we'll be happy to serve your real estate needs. So make sure that you reach out to me at elite Agent referral.com. Thanks. Now back to our episode.
Mike Swenson
So talk a little bit then about the success that you've seen when your virtual assistants work for a team, or an individual agent, like what are some of those, those wins some of those success stories that you've heard.
Clint Muhlenberg
We've had people come up and say how much their business has grown, we've had people say that their their revenue or the income is gone up, we don't use numbers, because we don't track that we don't care. What we really care about is the impacts their life, hey, I've helped get my life back. I've helped you know, what this has done for me is I'm spending more time with my family, I'm spending more time on the things that matter most to me, maybe that's growing a business, maybe that's their family knew their sick kids, whatever it is, that's what we love to hear is that they're happy that the person they're working with is happy as well.
Clint Muhlenberg
You know, hey, before this, and that's one of the probably the biggest thing is we have is, is our actual virtual system success stories, the people that said, Look, you guys, you know, we pay competitively, we offer benefits nobody else can offer. We really do care about people. And the fact is, we've seen people move from, you know, apartments with five of their family members to their own house, we've seen people upgrade from a desk this day with a laptop on to it to a full rig, you know, full computer monitor, keyboard, everything and they love that, you know, that's, that's productive to them. We've seen people go on vacation. Like how amazing is that somebody like, I haven't had been able to go on vacation one because of funds. And too because I don't get time off. Like, if I don't work, I don't get paid with us. They get paid time off, you know, they're able to take that and actually go on a vacation. How amazing is that? That somebody like I took my first vacation. It's like, I can't tell you how long it's been. those are those are some of the biggest wins is when people come and tell us how their life was impacted, versus how much money or how much business they're getting.
Mike Swenson
Yeah. Right. And it's one of those things we're coming back to, you know, treating people just like you would if they were sitting side by side, like you would want your employee to take a vacation. And so so that should be the same thing, just because they may be you know, miles and miles away from you. You still want that person to take a vacation because they're going to show up better for you when they're on when they're on because they've had time off. So why why would we expect the virtual assistant industry to be different than the the non virtual assistant because right now in COVID, guess what we're all virtual, right? So so we're all assisting other people in other ways. We're all virtual assistant, so we should just treat them that same way.
Clint Muhlenberg
I'm working from my home. Like, that's what virtual assistants do. So I am a remote worker, virtual assistant remote worker, I don't see myself as any different than anybody else. In fact, I see every single one of our people, as they're walking down the street from me, they work from home, a couple doors down. That's it, there's no different from them working across the world to them working two doors down for me, I can still call myself text email, hop on a zoom like this. There's really no difference.
Mike Swenson
just a different time zone, which I like. And you guys work through that. So what would be what would be one of the things so if you know if I said hey, Clint, I I'm totally bought in on having virtual assistants. I think I'm just going to try to do it myself and, and cut out, cut out the middle person, right? So what what would be the benefit that you provide that level? That takes stuff off of people's plates versus me trying to find somebody myself?
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah. And I think that's been trained and coached and talked about a lot. I mean, there's even companies out there that says, hey, we'll just do the recruiting for you. And then you just hire that person directly. Nobody has ever talked about this. And I'd like to bring it up. The only person that talks about this is actually my lawyer. When you hire somebody here in the United States, if they're in a different state than you, you have to comply with that state's employment laws.
Clint Muhlenberg
So for example, I'm here in Texas, I hire somebody out in California, which has a lot of employment laws on the behalf of the employee, I have to comply with those. There is no difference when you hire somebody in another country, you actually have to comply with that country's employment laws, which is why I think a lot of people don't so there's a lot of risk people take on with hiring directly. You don't know who you're hiring, you don't really have a way of background checking them, or any other way to say this person is really truly honestly who they say they are with the work that they say they've done. A lot of people will get a friend of a friend type thing, which is I mean, I've never ever once gone and said hey, do you have any friends that want to come work with us? Bring them in.
Mike Swenson
I think it's easier on the front end, but you're gonna pay for it on the back end.
Clint Muhlenberg
Always, always pay for it on the back end. But really, they I think that's one of the biggest overload things. Otherwise, how often do people actually make hires once a year, twice a year, maybe as high as three, four times a year, if that for administrative or other types of roles on agent roles. It's not very frequent. And so when you have that, one, you have to have a process, it's probably a process, maybe you got trained on from a company or you've learned and you've heard or you've kind of just think through it, okay, I need to call, I need to do reference checks need to, you know, screen, that type of stuff. But they don't have a fully defined process that they do all day, every day, we have a team of recruiters, that's all they do. You know, I think on average, when I see people hire direct, they end up going through 234 people that they hire on, they don't work out and have to continue re going through that process.
Clint Muhlenberg
So it takes probably about somewhere between 20 and 80 hours of their time upfront. To find the long term fit. We take that on. Next is, you know, when you hire somebody overseas, a lot of people were like, well, I send them an agreement that has private and privacy confidentiality, says the term says everything. Goodness, are you gonna fly them over here? Where are you gonna fly over there, if something goes wrong, you have no protection against it, it's not worth the piece of paper you're signing, we actually have companies in both countries to able to protect everybody. And that's what we really care about is we care about somebody being protected on both ends, we want that person to get paid, we want this person to get the work done. So when it comes down to, you know, risk, we take all that on for you.
Clint Muhlenberg
A lot of people look at it as Hey, I can save a couple bucks, well, we're actually getting more transparent with our pricing, we want people to know, hey, we're not there's a reason why we're one of the lowest costs out there. Because we're one of the lowest overheads out there, we're on a mission for people to really see the Filipinos that they hire as true team members as true pointees of their business, not as you know, not as just task doers. So we've made our prices so competitively low, to pass on all the benefits we get to them, we offer super competitive wages, they're not the $2 an hour that you get told to go hire for, we offer something you can't offer, which is company paid medical insurance, we offer really good company, it's the same as here, Mike, if you were going to go get private insurance on your own, it'd be more expensive and works. When nobody pays for it. It's better and cheaper.
Clint Muhlenberg
We provide it we pay for it, we do everything, we offer them benefits, we offer them a better exchange rate that anybody can get, because as I said, we've got over 100 people, we can negotiate exchange rates, you know, from country to country. Man we can, the list is really endless with how much we can actually offer both parties, you know, job security for the one side, the security that, hey, we're going to help you both parties, make sure things work out, you know, we have a very low low low ratio of somebody ghosting, meaning that they just don't show up for work one day, we have very low because we have multiple ways to actually reach out, contact them find out if something's going on.
Clint Muhlenberg
If something's happened, if there was a you know, a medical emergency, a family emergency something, we're able to find that information out and actually help them and support them. Versus Oh, man, this person just left me and is never coming back. I guess I just won't pay them for the work they did mentality. So there's a lot of really good things. And ultimately, the the benefit of hiring somebody, regardless of whether you do it through level or another agency, far far outweighs the risk, the time the the energy, the commitment you make anywhere else. By doing things on your own. It's just in my opinion, even if you don't go with us go with somebody else's 100% worth it.
Mike Swenson
Right. I mean, it's leverage, at the highest level, because you've got you've got that leverage, you know, you don't have to learn how to do all these different things, you just align with people that do things better than you, you know, and you don't have to learn it all yourself. Yeah, you pay a little bit for that. But at the same time, you're you've increased your odds, right? Like the fact that you have great relationships with hundreds of people in the Philippines, the likelihood of finding somebody that's going to be a better fit is so much stronger than if I tried to, to just hire one person myself, they're doing my own way. And even if I've got a good system figured out, like you mentioned things like the exchange rate, things like the employment laws. Now, I don't have to worry about that, because you've taken care of that. And so we can accomplish more by using each other and helping each other out and going through you versus me trying to do it on my own.
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah. And I'll say even as far as a tax perspective goes, I'd say a lot of the CPAs you talk to if you tell them you have somebody that you're hiring overseas, they're not going to know exactly what's necessary to to make Okay, let me ask the IRS doesn't like to see your money, just go overseas with no trace or trail of it. You know, they're very curious as to why your money is leaving. So when we first started, I knew about those types of things and I went through see EPA and CPA and CPA of chatting with a bunch of people until I found one that says, Oh, yes, I do know here's exactly and start mimicking and talk to me about the things I already knew were to be true. It's a, I'd say probably 90% of the people I chatted with did not know about that. And if you are sending money overseas already through PayPal, transferwise, another company where you're not protected. And you know, they're gonna ask you Okay, well, how do we send a tiny nine? Can't? So there are things on there. So if you don't have a CPA, if you currently have somebody hired overseas, and you have a CPA that knows what to do there, you need to find one that does.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, and I love what, you know, we were talking about COVID. And how, you know, obviously, that that changed the face of employment, and change the face of a lot of jobs. So for you, you stepped up, and you know, it kind of comes back to, you know, what, what you really believe in, which is, you know, treating people well. And when when you look out for their best interest, they're going to be rewarded, based on you know, how you treat them. And so talk a little bit about what, what COVID did for your company, and how you adapted through that.
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, so back in March of 2020, there was a message spread across to the real estate industry that basically said, Hey, this is the time to start slashing your your expenses to really focus. The message was was heard as people included, you know, really look at every person and not protect them, but really just slash whatever you don't absolutely 100% need. And we felt that pretty hard, especially when it comes to virtual assistants. So we had, goodness, between March and April, we had I think, about 30 people loser. And this was not when we're at 100 people, we had about 30, people lose their their jobs, blink of an eye. And so what we did was, the first thing we did was we actually have an employee hardship fund for everything, you know, medical emergency, or some sort of natural disasters, and we always have a hardship fund that we spread out. We poured into that we over quadrupled what was in there, and then just gave it all away, we gave it to every single person saying, Hey, we know your family is not able to work right now.
Clint Muhlenberg
Because there's a quarantine in the Philippines, here's extra money to support you and your family during this time. So we drain that. And then for those 30 people, we said, Hey, we are going to stop bringing on new clients. It's stop recruiting, the only clients will bring on are ones that are looking for your role. So we actually stopped bringing on new clients. And we stopped recruiting new people, until we actually flipped in went out and started finding jobs for each of those people. Turned out that over I think we took 12 or 15 those people, I actually reached out to some competitors, and said, Hey, we have these people. Let me show you their skills. Let me show you their their resume. Let me show you what they've been working on. Let me show you there. Everything about them. You're getting welcome. And they said yes. And so we started actually helping our people get other jobs, because we told him, he said, We want you here, you know, it's great to have you as part of our family. And ultimately, we know what's important to you is that you have a livelihood, but you are the provider for your family right now. So we unfortunately, you know, had to help 15 people go find jobs elsewhere. But we didn't actually start bringing on anybody new any new people or new clients until we did that.
Mike Swenson
And I think that's so great. Because it's it's you're practising what you're preaching, and, you know, we don't often have times, you know, our values aren't tested until they're tested, you know, and you got a chance to live that out and to show people that you cared for them. And if for some reason you weren't able to provide them a job through you, you found them a place, you know, and so I think that's great. So, so kudos to you. That's, that's awesome. And I think it just shows the the culture that you're creating with leverage and supportive people moving forward. And I think the reason why, you know, I wanted to have you on is, you know, when we talk about financial and time, freedom through opportunities in real estate, people are such a key part of that.
Mike Swenson
And you play such an important role in providing great quality people at a very competitive rate that can truly take their business to the next level, you know, we always talk about if you've, if you're doing all that you can do and you can't do anymore, you're probably missing a person to really take your business to the next level. And for a lot of those people, it's, it's partnering with companies like you that can can really help provide the support because like you talked about, not only are you providing a great opportunity for the virtual assistants, but you're helping people get their lives back to because, you know, if they hire a virtual assistant for 40 hours a week, they've just opened up what what was on their calendar, you know, to where they could, they couldn't truthfully eliminate 40 hours of work on their plate, because you've provided this great opportunity. So it's just a perfect match of need and meeting the need.
Clint Muhlenberg
Right. Yeah, we Never I love the the you could open up 40 hours, you could clap when you're going to that's up to you, you know you and how you manage and delegate and how you you let go things in your business and how you grow and everything. There's there's companies out there that offer her that say, double your business with a virtual assistant will never claim something like that. Because I think that's unfair to say you're going to hire somebody and they're going to double your business. No, I think that's a two way street.
Mike Swenson
So, because we're also talking about, you know, Clint, the person, you know, when we're talking about building wealth, Tell, tell us a little bit about I know you've, you've done some investments in real estate as well. So so let's just take a take a couple minutes and touch on that. Tell us more about that.
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, so I actually bought my first house, I must have been 2324, I was pretty young, I bought my first house, it was great. I just wanted a house, I thought it'd be cool to Own One. Basically, my brother, my older brother took me aside one day, when I was you know, I had my first you know, grown up job type thing at 22, or something like that. And he said, you know, what's gonna happen is a lot of your friends, they're gonna make more money, you know, they're going to be earning money, it's going to be the most money you've ever earned, because you've been a student and everything else before this. So it's gonna be a lot more than you've ever earned. Most of your friends are going to go out there are going to buy a car, they're gonna buy their spend their money, they're going to go out and do fancy stuff. He goes, That's fun.
Clint Muhlenberg
But I'm guessing he goes, that's not really going to, like, it's not gonna make you happy. It's going to be temporary. It's going to lose you money. And so he said, you know, it's really cool, though, owning your own house and being the first year friendzone. So I was like, that does make sense. He said, he told me about being an asset and how it could, you know, appreciate and everything. So I was like, that sounds cool. So at 24, I bought my own house. And a couple years later, when I moved out of Dallas, I sold it. And I think after like two years, maybe just over two years, it was 100. And I think $40,000 or something like that, when I bought it, I sold it for like 170. And now I've got 30 extra $1,000. And I bought it for about 3000. So I was like, wait a minute. How do I how do I have $30,000 right now, like this is cool. It's like okay, let me think about this.
Clint Muhlenberg
So I started reading a lot of books, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, things like that, you know, since starting with in real estate middlemen, a real estate investor, hold Shift, things like that. And so I started going to strategy, so I bought my next house just outside of Austin, a few, probably, actually, right when I moved out to Austin back here in 2014 or so. And then I decided my next house, I'm going to move into and make that my primary one and turn this one into investment. So that's my current strategy right now is, is buying properties that I'm gonna enjoy living in that are gonna make really good rental properties in the future. And so I just slowly trade up trade up trade up to two, you know, when I get some cash to go and take the cash, get a you know, get a loan and get a new property. And that way, I'm getting the primary interest rate on my house I live in I'm getting a great rate on my my investment because it's not an investment property, it was a primary property to turn into investment. And so that's my current current Shai, just kind of this the the trade up.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, and I love the beauty of that where, you know, you don't have to, you know, you don't have to go buy 50 rental properties and flip them because your focus is on running your business. And yet at the same time, you can still be smart with other parts of your how you spend your time and, and other investments that you haven't. So it's it's simple, it's repeatable. And it's helping you to grow wealth in addition to what you're growing with your company.
Clint Muhlenberg
Absolutely. And yeah, I think that the people, oftentimes I even looked at, you know, I'm always getting people sending me investment opportunities across the US. If I had gone back to when I was 20. For the first thing I would have only been probably buy a duplex or quad Plex, I think it would have been a smarter move. For me as a younger person. I think that's a such a smart move, especially for people in college if they can to try to get that loan, otherwise looking, you know, because you live in part of it and rent out the rest and have them cover your mortgage and rent. Otherwise, I think it's really good to look in other areas and things are moving.
Clint Muhlenberg
San Antonio is just down the street. For me. It's an area I know, the price points, much less, it's easier to kind of get in there if you're looking for that, to try to buy an investment property in Austin right now. You're gonna have to come in, you know, with 100,000 over asking with cash, I think so it's rough. But if you want the investment if you want the properties, I mean, there's houses on either side of me that never went on the market because somebody had the tenacity to go and door knock, and basically say, it looks like you, you know, your house is a little rundown. Like are you considering selling would you consider to sell it to me? And people have done that. And I think one of the houses around me was wholesale, you know, somebody's just signing over the contract. Other ones have been bought by investors and you can see exactly they look all the exact same the exact same word for every house, but they flipped them quickly and easily. So there's an opportunity just kind of got to determine what's the right path for you. And for me, it's Hey, let's let's learn a little bit and move up or a little bit move up. Yeah. more important to me is the freedom I currently get. Right?
Mike Swenson
Yeah. So talk a little bit about the future, then, you know, how do you see your life and your company here growing over the next 510 20 years?
Clint Muhlenberg
Yeah, so I know I mentioned before, I've been an operations, I'm a systems guy. So everything we've done from day one has been putting in scalable systems, really things that allow us to go from 10 people to 100 people to 1000 people without breaking everything. So that's what we've been doing, you know, we've always put in systems that continually grow with us. So the fact is, yeah, we came in at a very low price point, we're playing the long game that's beneficial for you Do you want to hire somebody and then have to hire somebody in three months and hire somebody for three months.
Clint Muhlenberg
And you know, we take the bank on that, because you're paying us up front, you know, 3000 4000 $5,000, and we just do that work, we can go for the quick dollar every day, there's a lot of companies out there, they'll do that, and promise you a lot of stuff. But they will show you that, hey, over the long term, they don't have long term hires, they can't show you that. We're not going to long term gain. So we don't make a lot though we are in it to help support people from the long term. That's really how we we scale is by doing a lot of things, a lot of people. So that's what we're going for here. But really, for us, it's more about how can we make that long term better. So as I mentioned, we instituted medical insurance for all of our people, we actually decided based on feedback from them, that medical insurance is great medical insurance for for them, plus a spouse or a child is better, and is needed.
Clint Muhlenberg
And so we said, You're right, when you get it. So what that's what we did on January 1, we said, Hey, we're gonna give everybody medical insurance plus a defendant, you know, we're constantly looking at ways to do things we've gone through, we've changed just how we pay people for different times, because we got fraction of fractions of fractions of exchange rates higher. And now the one that we use allows them to use their own bank, they don't have to use PayPal, PayPal, by the way, charges you to get money. If you're overseas, you get the lowest exchange rates, you charge to send it, they charge to receive it, they get, you know, screwed on the exchange rate. You know, we've been constantly looking at how can we do things faster, better, and more beneficial to them?
Clint Muhlenberg
So everything we're doing right now is literally how can we make this the best place for them? Because we even have people now coming and bringing us people saying, hey, my friend wants to work here. How do we how do we help them? We got friends, we got this person? That business went out there. They're amazing. TC, can you interview them? Like people are bringing those people all the time. And that's what we want. We want to have somebody love working here so much that they want their friends to work here.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, it's simple, not easy. Like when you provide a great opportunity to treat people, well, it's going to naturally blossom, people are going to want their friends to work with you. When you provide great service for the agents, they're going to need more assistance, because they see the benefit of that. And so it's just going to be this this cascade of impact that you get to leave because you do the right thing the right way. So, so we're excited to see where that goes. For those people that are interested in in reaching out to you either your story has resonated, or they're interested in what level has to provide, how can they get ahold of you? Yeah, so
Clint Muhlenberg
first and foremost, everything we put out is on our website. Literally, we're transparent about everything. So our website is ask level.com. And of course, reach out to me Clint at ask level calm.
Mike Swenson
Awesome. Well, thanks so much for sharing your story. We really appreciate it and really appreciate all that you're doing for the virtual assistant world.
Clint Muhlenberg
I appreciate. Thanks, Mike.
