The Team Leader's Guide to Making Your First Operations Hire

Camila Rivera

A common question among real estate team leaders: How do I find my first operations person?

Every visionary needs an integrator. Every people person needs a process person. Every team leader, at some point, needs an assistant or operations manager to continue growing their business efficiently and sustainably.

When is that point?
Where do I look?
What should I look for in terms of skills or characteristics?
How should I pay them?
Can’t I just use an overseas VA instead?

For answers to these questions and more, you’ve got Camila Rivera, COO of Laurie Finkelstein Reader Real Estate. She has a decade of tenure there and started as a part-time, do-anything assistant. She also coaches operations for teams across North America.

When you find the right person and invest in them properly, they could be the Chief Operating Officer you'll need!

Watch or listen for Camila’s insights into:

• The practical value of positivity and optimism
• How someone studying to become a special education teacher joined the real estate team
• Why stuffing backpacks is the best day of the year for an 80-agent team pacing to close 700 transactions
• The most important factor in finding your first operations person
• Other steps to take to be ready when the right person emerges
• Tips to train up an operations person even though you’re not an operations person (“I can’t teach you what I don’t know”)
• Places to look for your operations person (with this caution: “don’t hire who you can’t fire”)
• Ways to think about fixed and variable compensation for your operations hire
• Hiring an on-site, in-person role vs bringing on a VA
• Why titles like executive assistant, operations manager, and director of operations matter
• Ways to retain that great operations leader you’ve invested in and helped develop

At the end, learn the value of five siblings, five-star hotels, movement as medicine, and mental endurance.

Watch this episode about your first operations hire:

Listen to this episode about your first operations hire:

Connect with Camila Rivera:

→ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/camila_rivera/
→ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/camila.rivera.967
→ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/camila-rivera-817903113/

Meet us at Unlock:

→ Unlock https://www.unlockconference.com/
→ Use promo code TEAMOS for 20% off the current price

Related episodes:

→ Camila Rivera and Julia O’Buckley https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/agent-success-tech-crm-camila-rivera-and-julia-obuckley 
→ Laurie Finkelstein Reader https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/laurie-finkelstein-reader-people-over-profits 
→ COO Emily Smith https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/emily-smith-intrapreneur-entrepreneur-teamerage
→ Christy Belt Grossman https://www.realestateteamos.com/episode/operations-leadership-real-estate-assistant-coo-christy-belt-grossman-ops-boss

Connect with Real Estate Team OS:

→ https://www.realestateteamos.com
→ https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos
→ https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/