Every now and then the annual NAR convention provides something so unique and innovational that it becomes the instant “buzz” of the entire conference. Here is why the “Meet The Virtual Assistant Of Your DREAMS!” roundtable session so powerfully turned heads and entire careers around.

Think about how long it takes to hire just one good assistant (most people say weeks or months). Now imagine attending a session where audience members were hiring multiple, highly talented Virtual Assistants literally within 30 minutes! That is exactly what happened at that special program that had nearly 30 Virtual Assistants from all over North America including Toronto Canada and Maine.

It all started with a short panel session I moderated featuring online superstar Judy McCutchin (http://www.dallashomes.com) and rookie Ann Weber. Judy spoke about how she reduced her onsite team of 8 to just 1 and now uses multiple VAs to handle the operation side of her business while saving in excess of $100,000 a year in overhead. She also shared how she has a VA that she never met or spoke to (one of her other VAs hired her) to handle all her online leads. Her job is to determine which leads Judy should handle and which should be referred out to other brokers. Judy said she earns about $75,000 per year just from referral fees this way while never even touching the leads herself! Ann Weber spoke about how she has a VA that helps her run her successful FSBO program.

As good as the panel was, the real magic happened when the roundtable discussions started. Each table was lead by a VA with a particular real estate specialty. The attendees were given a “map” that indicated the table location of each specialist. This allowed them to choose where they wanted to spend their time. Each session lasted 15 minutes and then they had 3 minutes to switch tables. This went on for four sessions.

The reaction to this unprecedented access to all the VA talent was breathtaking. During the “table switching” phases I had people coming up to me excitedly exclaiming how they just hired 3 Virtual Assistants and were looking to hire a couple more!!

Needless to say, it was a resounding success for all that attended (the VAs and the REALTORS®) and for NAR who took a chance on a session they never did before. The cool thing about this entire experience is that the VAs rolled up their sleeves and handled all the myriad of details to make this a tremendous success. Of course that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise - details is what they are best at!

This whole experience was so fun, productive, and interactive I can hardly wait for next year...