YouTube video (vlog) by John Jonas documenting a visit from his long-term virtual assistant (VA) Kale (Ezekiel) and Kale's family. They travel together (to the snow) and discuss Kale’s background: he has worked remotely for John for nine years, began with data entry/SEO/niche marketing, used WordPress and Google Analytics, later moved to backend work and has been a TSR for about a year. Kale and family describe first-time experiences in the U.S. and sightseeing; family members mention prior visits for medical education (first U.S. visit 2014 to Harvard). The video highlights communication practices with Filipino VAs: workers often re-watch instructional videos multiple times and find it easier to understand when the speaker’s face (lip movements) is visible in screencasts.
Questions this video answers
Nine years.
Ezekiel (goes by Kale).
Data entry, SEO, niche marketing; used Google Analytics and built WordPress sites.
ECPA (payroll online) and hiring templates / HR documents.
Seeing the speaker’s face (lip movements) in the corner of the video and re-watching videos multiple times (3–5 times).
Chapters
Meaning the boss.
Hey, what's up, guys? This is John Jonas, and I am here with Cal, who is here visiting the United States and came and stayed at my house last night. He has worked for me for nine years since we're.
Me and my family are planning to go to us to visit my wife's s. And I thought I need to visit my boss.
And as you can see, I'm driving, which we just talked about is interesting for him because his boss is driving him. Yeah. And that's not normal, but here in the United States, it's totally fine. So. So we're actually headed to the snow, and we'll. We'll make a. We'll make a video there. But we're gonna talk about some things that. That we're learning. Right.
Y.
For me, I learned today that his name is Kale. Not Kiel.
Right.
It's Ezekiel, but I always thought it was Kiel. And so it's cool to meet you and see that your name is. You say it. Kale. Right? That's cool. Okay, so we're gonna ask Kale's family, what have been your thoughts about the United States? Have you been here before? Yes.
No.
Yes. No. So what are your thoughts? What have you gu. Experience?
Okay, so I've been going back and forth the United States for five years already. So I would usually visit, like, twice or three times in a year just for medical education. So the first time I visited here was year 2014, and that was plainly for education. So I went to Harvard School just for study. And it was so cold right there and then. But I thought, I'm not gonna. I'm not going back anymore. So it was me and my bro who went here first, and then my sister right there who will say another thing. You know, things about music, her experience here. Well, it's really nice to see my brother's boss because he keeps on telling me about his boss who lives far away from our country. So the moment he told me that he want. He really wanted to visit his boss, I immediately said, yes. Let's go. Let's have a road trip. That's why we're here to say hi. What's your name? What can you say about the scenery?
Grade four.
You can't see me. Oh, sorry.
Four.
She's grade four. I'm grade nine. She's great. And then we're going to the mountains, to Mount Everest. Mount Everest. We're going to. I enjoyed my vacation here in the US this is my first visit in the United States, and I really enjoyed this girl's wife. This is my first time here in America and it was really such a great experience. I didn't expect you to be here. It's really a dream come true, especially with my family. And it's nice meeting the boss. Driving for us. That should be the title. Yeah. The boss.
What's the. When you started working online, that was nine years ago.
Yeah.
It was not common.
Yeah, right. Yeah.
Is it. Is it more common today?
Nine years ago, it's not common, but right now it is, because you see a lot of people posting on social media that they work online.
Okay, so what do you do?
At first, my first job was actually helping my colleague or my friend Jovan doing data entries, SEO stuff, and niche marketing. That's what I do. It's Google Analytics. And creating WebPress. No, no. WordPress website. Yeah. And right now I do back end. I've been TSR for about a year and.
Yeah, but you do more than that, right?
Yeah, I do.
If I have special projects that I need help with.
Yeah.
I ask you to do it.
I can do homework.
Yeah.
Homework online job homework.
Online jobs homework.
Or.
I mean, recently you built. You created multiple products for us.
Yeah.
You did.
I did. So we once. We once created the ecpa. Yeah. That is the payroll online. Right. And it's still going on right now.
And the other one is you created hiring templates.
Yeah, hiring templates.
Creating an HR document for us.
HR documents.
Right. So those are. These are all products that you've been working on. And the only reason you do that is because you've worked hard and been loyal for a long time.
Yeah.
Now, there's been some rough times in there.
Yeah.
But that's okay, right?
Yeah, it's okay. That's. Only remain loyal to your boss. It's okay.
You caught it. So they wanted to see snow, so we brought them to the snow.
And.
Now they're complaining that it's cold.
And.
They have snow in their shoes. Yeah. Hey, guys, this is John and I am here with Kale. Kale Kayl works for me. And so I learned something today that I didn't know and I have actually probably gotten this wrong for a lot of years. So one of the things that I always talk about is that you won't have a communication issue with the Philippines. And I still stand by that. There's my doorbell.
Yeah.
And here goes my kids to go answer it. So you're. Here's what I learned today is I often speak in videos. Right.
A lot of times.
A lot of the time. Like, I make a screencast video. I use snagit. A lot of people use lube, whatever. Right. So what happens when I send you a video?
Yeah, if you send me a video, I can understand everything that you're talking about. Yeah, it can clearly, or I can understand by just watching it.
Okay, but often you watch those videos three, four, five times.
Yeah, I often watch it three or four or five times.
So I can get what you wanted to tell me. And sometimes that's dependent on who's speaking. Yeah. And sometimes it's. Sometimes it's like. It's hard subject matter. It's just difficult. And so you. You'll watch it multiple times. But you were telling me that a lot of people do this. A lot of people will watch things multiple times. Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So that's good to know. Like, as you create videos, as you create communication with people. Here we go. Ready? Here's what we're dealing with. That's just my house. That's how things work here. So as you create videos, as you create content for your workers, it's important that you recognize that they may not understand every single thing, but they're going to work really hard to understand it. And then you told me one other thing that makes it easier to understand.
It makes me easier to understand when I saw you talking about in a video rather than receiving an audio.
Okay. So, like, I can do a screencast, but it's easier if my face is, like, in the bottom corner of it. Yeah. So that you can see my lips moving. Because then you understand better if my lips are moving.
Yeah.
Okay. That's good to know. That's great advice. Yeah. Thank.
