Brenda Albano and hiring Filipino Virtual Assistants for Ecommerce

So they told me about online jobs. Ph. And it exploded from there. I fell in love with it.

Hello and welcome to this case study today where we're going to talk about using virtual assistants for e commerce and for coaching. So today we have Brenda Albano on who's the creator of WholeFamilyProducts.com and beyond Fertility.com where she runs e commerce businesses and coaches people. She's been in business since 1998, which is right at the front of e commerce. And she has a team of 11 people in the Philippines who she calls family. She also has five kids who she has homeschooled during that time. Brenda has some fantastic ideas for hiring for personality as well as for skill. So along with Brenda today we have Chelaine. So let's jump into it.

Hey, it's Chelaine with onlinejobs.

Ph.

And today we are here with Brenda Albano. Brenda is the owner of beyond fertility and whole family products. And it is a pleasure to have you here today, Brenda.

It is nice to meet you, Chelain. Thank you. I am really honored and humbled to be here. Fantastic.

Brenda, tell us about your businesses and how you got started.

So our business started with a mission to help others overcome primary and secondary infertility. My sister and my partner in crime went into early menopause at 40 and I had issues with miscarriages and had several of them amongst my five living children. This led me to the wonders of natural progesterone cream and I set out to save the fertile and infertile world, which is kind of what I do. So somewhere along the way I've gotten to meet some of these babies and had long term friendships and really have been so blessed. But basically I'm just an entrepreneur that someone called God lifted me out of the out of the muck and mire and set me on my feet and gave me a passion in my heart to help people. And I get choked up every time. I'm really blessed. So anyway, somewhere along the way, the people that I had helped so suggested that I get my own products and start my own website. And so I started with my own product called fertility tracker and then went on to fertile balance progesterone cream. And as my people actually grew up in age, then we moved into menopause, andropause, still pregnancy, even into, if I'm allowed to say, erectile dysfunction, all natural bioidentical product, it just grew little by little into what it is today. Over 100 products.

And you began in 1998 right, yes.

When the Internet was a toddler.

So what was that like to grow with the.

Well, I think it's underestimated to say how many hats you had to wear at that time, because I had to learn. You had to read everything. You had to go to the library to read anything on any topic, of course, because you were creating the Internet and blogging was a big thing. Yahoo Groups was huge. I had almost 1,000 people in my infertility group, my support group, and really we were just learning as we went. I learned how to build websites, I learned how to blog. All of this while I raised five children and homeschooled. So it was interesting. Well, I started actually hiring a lot of homeschool dads at the time to work for me, and they really wanted to be home with their children and their families and all of that. So that was pretty interesting. That was fun. And it was an environment. The kids learned so much. I mean, they have a programmer out of it and a couple of kids that love managing and one who is an absolute entrepreneur, like myself. So I got one of those as well. So I started when I was 14 years old. I quit school. I did key punching for a major insurance company in Boston. Lied about my age. And so I had been with computers since, you know, since that age, so since I could type. Wow.

Can you tell us what makes your products and your business different from your competition?

So this I had to write down because I wanted to make sure that I got it right. Because it's the absolute truth, and that is that our products are outstanding, but you can pay enough or a little for good products. That's not the problem on the Internet. There's so many choices. Our customer service is what sets us apart. And again, I get choked up because I really, I humbly thank my sister, Sharon Elizabeth, for most of the reviews on Google that are about us. She brings the heart that we share to the customer service end of it. And every customer feels special.

Do you have any business philosophies that have really helped pull you through or inspired you or things that you would want to pass on to fellow entrepreneurs?

So I guess I'd say my biggest philosophy is to always leave someone better than you find him. And to God's glory, not mine. So we have a scripture that is for my husband's business as well as mine. It has been for over 30 years. And it's Proverbs 16:18. And it says, better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice. And that's what we believe. That you just follow that and God will decide how fat your wallet needs to be.

Is that something that you've followed in your life in general up to this point and just kind of adopted as a business, or is that something that the Bism kind of grow and develop in your.

I think it's something that our family has always believed. And quite honestly, I. I feel like people are ashamed to say that they are capitalists, but I am a capitalist, but I'm a generous capitalist. And I think that's the meshing of both worlds. And I think it's really important that you give back. There's a wonderful. It's called the Richest man in Babylon. I give it to everyone who graduates. I give it to everyone I can. I have it on all of my. My phone, my tablet, all of them to call up. And I really believe it has the best business principles, you know, and a lot of really great life principles. And everyone should read it.

Is there any way that you would advise the struggling mompreneur right now? Those who are doing everything they can during late spending countless hours on the computer and googling?

I would say there are some things that I did not do that I wish I did. I wish that I had not nursed my last while I typed. And just because you can doesn't mean you should. And I think that there are so many can do women out there. We need the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. And we need strong cradle rockers, not just, you know, using our skills out there. And I guess I would also say is the need is not the call. And just because something seems like a need at the moment, that's not the real call in your life. So I had to put my business away. I got very, very. I had to put my business away. And at that time I was blessed to have children that were willing to take care of them. Hopefully that means I put something into them when they were younger, but I think I might have given into too many, too many selfish calls as well as struggling wanting to give them a better life, but wanting to remember that I'm at home with them. That's a better life than most get any. So I think it's. It's quite a tearing. I do feel there's for mothers who you have four children and you're doing it and you. It's only so much time that you're able to pick them, not just say that they're the most important thing in the world, but to stop everything that you're doing.

When did you come across the idea of outsourcing.

Okay, so going back a few years, about four years. Finally, I had burned the candle at both ends, and it was just too much. And I came down with something called ligament insufficiency in adrenal exhaustion. So basically, I was in. It was like chronic fatigue syndrome. I was in bed for 18 months. I spent. And I. I ran my business through phone calls and having a few other people do it. And I just. I had to do therapy and nothing else. And so I was able to put my business aside for a little bit. When I came back, I realized I had to do things differently. And a friend of mine told me about another company that I do not recommend. And I was really unhappy with the results that I got there, but it introduced me to the idea of outsourcing. Then I found another company through that where I found my first three Filipinos and shout out to Jackie, Gigi, and Hazel, who I call my originals I wouldn't be able to do without. So they told me about online jobs. Ph. And it exploded from there. I fell in love with it. Then little by little, I've just. I've hired more and more. We have 11 people working for us regular and a few others who do kind of contract work for me or blogging that they're paid by the page.

Tell me about your 11 Filipino workers and what they do for you.

Specifically, I have who we call our queen, Jackie. Our queen. She does all the SEO. She tells us every page in the world that we need to write. She's a mother of four. I'm really just so incredibly blessed to have her. And we have wonderful times of talking about anything. Then there's Gigi. He's my. He's my va. I call him. He's Gigi Guapo, my Superman, My Just get anything done. And he's my son from another mother, and he oversees everything. He helps me. I hire, but then he helps me to vet. Then we have Hazel, who is for social marketing. Jen for product label design. I have a personal assistant now for my business. That's Jen. Then we Jonna, who does all the inventory and all of that. And Kim, who is helping us to open a retail store now that we use Shopee and Lazada for. I don't know if you flip that out, but we've opened a retail hub now in. So now she's handling. Then we have Rose and Ty and video people. We have Sherilyn, who just started. I. I want to tell you this. What I really, really love I love spotting what they really want to do, not what they were hired to do. So I hire them according to their skills, what they say they have, and what. What we discuss. But as time goes on, you find that oftentimes they did what they needed to do to get a job, what they needed to learn. And so Hazel started off doing some small SEO stuff and helping to fix some blogging, but her passion was to do design. So now she has learned how to do. So I paid her a certain amount of time to learn how to do some design work, and now she's teaching herself video and infographics. And so she does our social media infographics now. And Gigi, he's wonderful. He's such a wonderful quality assurance guy. Va. But his heart is for design also. So he's been learning how to do websites for us, and it's great. He really loves it. And so I really like helping them, like I said, to leave better than they came so that they really can find their own passions and build a little bit of history and then be able to take that if it doesn't work out for us down there. What is the.

What's that? What's your process?

Well, I like to ask them, is there anything that they like to do that isn't part of this job or one of the jobs that they would like to do that isn't part of what they've been hired to do? And like I said, Hazel presented first, and she told me that she really loved designing, that she was looking into it. And she. When I took her away from doing SEO stuff, then she basically thanked me up and down and said she never wanted to. To do another keyword search term in for in her life, which she never.

Would have said, right?

Would have said, they're so polite, they're so thankful. They never would have said it, you know, and. And so I encourage them, if they want to, on their own time, to try something and then show me. So. And then if it seems as though they have a talent for it, then I, then I'm willing to pay them a certain amount of hours for them to learn it. I will be honest and say that, you know, my company is still small enough. It's. I've really had to battle with, you know, competing with Amazon. Like, they took a really. They took a bite out of my business for a while, out of everyone's business, you know, so I've had to learn to get distributors on there and, and all of that. There wasn't the money that I would have liked to be able to. To, you know, put into them to hire someone who, you know, that. That showed on paper that they were worth more. And so I've taken a chance with people who maybe had a lower hourly rate, but I teach them how to do more, and then I pay them more. I never leave them at that. But oftentimes I have to hire at that just because I need to fill another space and it needs to pay for itself.

How do you recruit your. What is your process of recruiting Filipino vas from onlinejobs?

So I sign up for another month. Actually, to tell you the truth, it's worth $69 to hire someone, you know, to find a good person to have a month to do it. It's worth $69. So I'm just having. So basically what I do is I look for something in general, but I also, I also add another word. If I'm looking for someone for video, then I also look for after effects, because that's the one thing that I want. And I look for people who write about themselves. If you're just counting on online jobs and those stars to help, it doesn't set you apart. So I look for things that they. That they've really learned a lot in this or that they started doing this, and then now they do this or just writing something positive. Even if they say I love dogs, which is not my thing. But. But, you know, even if just anything they tell about themselves, I. I feel like they get it that we're hiring a person, you know, not just the talent. I love the disc. I think that's wonderful. I really, really love it. So I don't usually ask them as much about their talents. I actually ask about. About their hobbies, about their likes, their dislikes, their family life, because I like to see how they communicate. We do everything through Skype. That's how I manage my team. We Skype with each other, you know, all the time.

So your philosophy is this going to be a. And then we'll kind of figure out where they'll fit and then just kind of watching where they blossom and training them accordingly. But, you know, because you have done research on who they are, you know that they're going to fit even with your IQ test.

I love when, when someone takes the iq, I do not mind if I see that they have a nine. I honestly don't. I love if I see they have 125. That's great. But even if they have, Even if they've taken. If they've taken a chance and that's something very difficult to do in your own native tongue, let alone do it in a second language. To take an IQ test if you're a Filipino in English, I imagine they have to take some of these tests in English. I don't know. Then I think it's remarkable that they would even try. That shows a lot of initiative to me.

What are your favorite ways to connect with your va with that? Is there anything as far as communication and connecting with them that hasn't a.

Two dollar, a five dollar gift in the United States is a is $25 gift for them to go out with a friend to get lunch. It takes so little to motivate someone with a little extra that says that you care about them on a Saturday as well as a Monday through Friday. And so I like giving them their birthday off with pay. I like, of course, a bonus for Christmas. I can't pay a month's bonus for everyone. I know that's a Filipino thing. But I try to give them a week's bonus for Christmas and I like to treat them to surprises or lunch meetups. When I hire, I try to hire first around the Cebu area because that's where my originals are. That's where my main core is. But I also then like to now I have a Manila group and now I'm creating a Davio group. And so they can get together and go out and have a meetup, have a. So I can treat them. I can send them $50 in their paycheck and they can all go out together, have lunch together and get to know each other and feel connected. So I think that's really important to them. I love sending just little gifts, you know, along with the products that we send there or even some of our products. They. They need them. But my favorite way was just before COVID I flew out to the Philippines. I wanted to meet them all and like I said, they've become family to me. So I have. My oldest ones have are I've had for over a little over two years. So I flew out to the Philippines. Okay, So I took them swimming with the sardines. You should look M O a B M O a L B O a L There's a billion sardines and you can snorkel with them. So most of the group had not even been swimming and let alone snorkeling. And it was like watching children open up a Christmas present. It was so delightful. So we went for a long weekend to the city and to mobile and snorkeled and Swam and stayed at a little, just a little simple resort and it connected us for a lifetime. It was, it was wonderful to be able to see how they live, you know, for, for them to, you know, for us to meet in person and to invest in each other's lives like that. So that's the big way of investing. That's the small ways. I think, like I said, I think you send someone, you send your group $50 every so often to go out and have lunch together and connect. I think that's, I think that should be doable for about anyone. So I think, I think what has not worked is that I have a hard time personally saying goodbye to someone who isn't working out. I am, I think maybe I, I have to be careful. I don't get a savior complex that they're, they are here to give a job, do a job. And, and so I think part of it is that I can't be over responsible. I know the situation there. I know especially now during COVID how important it is to keep it, you know, and they have friends and family who are always asking if we have any work and I would like to hire them for, but I have to hire with skills. And that's, you know, that's hard because it becomes so I think my biggest tip is the first time that you hire someone, I think you have to kind of buffer your wallet a little bit that you're not going to be able to. I think most people, I'm not talking about big corporations, they've been doing this a long time. But I think you have to recognize that it takes a lot of work at first to keep your first VA busy. You were already exhausted by the time you decided to do this type of thing. You already needed so much help. But then it takes a lot of thought to figure out what is it that you can pass over? What can you trust somebody with right away? How do you go about, do you let them into all your passwords right away? Just, you know, how, how to make that happen? So I think I would say that you might, you might actually get 20 hours of work out of somebody at first. But, but be willing to pay them for 40 because it's your learning curve. It was, it was hard for me to come up with a lot of work at first. You're used to doing everything yourself. You're not used to delegating like that. I put a lot of work into, I didn't have to put a lot of work into, into Jackie, but, but Gigi was my va. So I had to spend a lot of time with him. And now he does everything for me and. And it trickles down. And now he can help me with the hiring and the vetting and the. And even the firing. I hate putting it on him. But sometimes, you know, I say he has to.

Is, you know, what should those first tasks be? You talk. Do you remember kind of like a list of the first few things that you taught?

I think probably the most important early on task was I had him catalog everything in my. In my sites. And I think, honestly, like I said, I think part of it was busy work. I had to. I needed him to be busy with something that was useful. Maybe it wasn't as financially useful to me as other things, you know, but. But it was useful for me to be able to see how he worked for me then, to see what. Next thing I could hand to him. Had him clean up a bunch of my spreadsheets. And I'm a little ocd. I don't like a whole lot of colors. And that was one thing I had to get used to because they really love bright colors. And so for me, for me, bold is enough or different size font. So he went in and cleaned up a lot of my spreadsheets, kind of. And I asked him, I continually asked him, you know, give me some ideas. What kinds of things have you done for other people? I think that's a key. What have they done for other people? What have you seen other people do for other people that you think you could bring to my business? You know, please help me. And letting them know like, that you're not just looking for them to just follow you step by step, but you're looking for initial time.

Is there anything else that you would want to share?

I think it can't be overstated that Filipinos are so polite and we are so direct. So I'm saying, I'll say most of the industrialized world, I think even if different countries have different personalities and all that, it took a lot of mental energy for me to learn that I needed to chat more and reassure more and time well. And so I feel like my team also has learned that just because I'm telling that I'm frustrated that something took a wrong turn or hasn't been followed up on. I'm not disappointed or unhappy with them. I'm just frustrated. And I think they've learned that about me, that I can just say something directly now. Even still, I throw in a lot of I love yous. I don't get off. I Don't get off work without about 18 I Love yous every day. You know, they really. They are my. About a year and a half ago, one of them, a new VA had to leave, and they took up an offering for that. For that woman they had. She had to move to. To another. Another island. And on their own, they took up an offering. Now, I offered to give her a little bit, but I had no idea they were doing that. But, you know, behind the scenes and all of that. And so their kindness and, you know, is really wonderful. And something happened, a terrible accident happened to Gigi's brother, and I put it out on Facebook and we raised a chunk of money to send to them. But no matter how kind you are, they're still so grateful, so thankful that you would actually, like, show them that kindness. I just, I. I think it's. It's worth it for people to. To just show them that kind and take a little more time because they really, you know, as people and as.

Workers, what's the best way for our base to get in touch with you and. And find your products and your services?

Well, wholefamilyproducts.com and whole family Products Asia is our newest. As I said, we're now. We've launched on Shopee and Lazada in the Philippines. We're also doing COD orders directly ourselves. And Beyond Fertility is definitely the place to go if you're looking for my original and still passion, which is to help people overcome infertility naturally.

Thank you, Brenda.

Thank you so much. What a blessing. It's been so lovely to meet Sam.