Elaine is a Filipino online specialist who ran a clinic for eight years before losing it in the pandemic. She rebuilt as a freelancer on onlinejobs.ph, managing type 1 diabetes while working remote, and brought her daughter and sister onto her team.
Questions this episode answers
February 9, 2024 (as indicated in episode metadata).
19 years old.
Eight years.
Diabetic ketoacidosis (required two weeks in hospital).
Based in Florida; a health and fitness coach.
Chapters
Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at working with OFS online. Filipino specialists. This is episode 154. Are OFS so different from you? Lane isn't. So over the last couple years, I've gotten better and better and better work done from some of the people on my team. And, like, it's gotten to the point where I have someone else running managing onlinejobs. Ph. For me, this is Joven, and he's really, really good at it. And then the more he progresses, the more I see that he and I just aren't all that different. He's now riding the bike pretty regularly. He runs consistently. His family has a garden, and they grow their own vegetables because they want to be organic. There's a lot of stuff that Joven does similar to me, and the more and more that I see, the more I see people on my team doing similar things. Jessica just opened up a yoga studio at her house. I do a lot of yoga. So does she. No, Obviously not everybody is the same. Not everybody is super similar to me, but more and more, I see that we're not that different from each other. So now let's talk about medical issues. I'm not a stranger to medical issues. When I turned 30, a pain in my stomach started, and it took me 10 years and lots and lots of doctors to figure out what it was that I was allergic to dairy. None of the doctors ever suggested, oh, maybe you're allergic to dairy. When I figured it out, well, it all went away. And when I turned 40, I realized my brain wasn't working right. I had early onset dementia, and it took me a number of years to figure out what was causing it and or the myriad of things that was causing it and to fix it and to get back to where I am now. And now I'm pretty dang good. Made dementia go away in my life. But with a chronic thing like type 1 diabetes, which I do not have, I can't imagine what you would deal with, like what Elaine deals with. So we recently filmed a story of an OFS who has a job working online from onlinejobs.ph. her name is Elaine, and she has diabetes. And it makes life difficult. It makes commuting difficult. There's all kinds of things where diabetes just makes life hard, not to mention it's dangerous. So before the pandemic, Elaine had a really great business. Diabetes made that a challenge, but she made it work. Then the pandemic hit, and she basically lost everything and had to Start over again now. We often think of people on the other side of the world as being so different from us, but Elaine's story is similar to a lot of people's stories. If you're watching this on YouTube, you're gonna see the video. Otherwise, we're just gonna play the audio for you on this podcast of what Elaine says. It's pretty interesting to hear her change and what happened in her life and how well she was doing running her own business and how that kind of disappeared with the pandemic. And then she built her life again and did a really great job with it all while dealing with diabetes I.
Was 19 years old when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was studying speech pathology in college when one day I felt very sick. I really was thirsty. It's a kind of thirst where even though you drink a lot of water, you're not quenched. I was vomiting. I can't hold onto any solid food. I was rushed to an emergency room. We found out I suffered from diabetic ketoacidosis and that I am type 1 diabetic. I had to spend two weeks in the hospital to recover. My life was changed forever. I need to inject insulin, check my blood sugar regularly and I have to really be very careful with my health. The worst is that I need to pee frequently and then you experience heavy traffic. I really need to pee. It's really, really hard holding your pee or sometimes whenever you experience hypoglycemia during a commute. I co own the clinic. We cater to kids with special needs if they need occupational therapy, speech therapy or sped tutorials. We owned a clinic for eight years and then the pandemic hit. We decided to close the clinic to avoid bankruptcy. And then I just remembered I made an account at onlinejobs PH because I was trying to change careers back then because it was hard to manage my diabetes with my traditional setup of work. But I didn't push through come pandemic. I just realized that I really need to pursue being an online freelancer. My employer is a health and fitness coach based in Florida. What he provides is a personalized workout and nutrition plan. His job post at onlinejobs PH was for Facebook Engager only at the time and I applied for that but he saw my potential and then he asked me to do other things. Task from a Facebook Engager I become a social media marketer and appointment setter and now I'm an accounts executive. After two months of working for him, the business was growing and he needed another person in the team, my first thought was my 18 year old daughter Lena. It's easier to teach my daughter because we just live in the same house. After a year, I also referred my younger sister Faye. Nika was just recently hired. When she turned 18, she was hired to be our video editor and graphics designer.
All right.
Great job, team Faye. Awesome work.
Nika, Laina and Elaine, you guys did a great job this month.
Thank you so much, sir. Thank you, sir. Working together with my daughters and with my sister, I'm very happy because we are able to work and have family time as well. And also I'm able to check my blood sugar and inject my insulin at the right time and manage my food intake. Since my boss is a health and fitness coach, he gave me my own workout plan. I'm so joyful right now. Joyful, happy. Because I feel so fulfilled and content. My boss asked me this, what do I want to be five years from now, ten years from now? And I told him I want to work for you, with you until my retirement. I really see myself. Even though I'm 60 years old, I will still be in this platform, in this niche. I will still be an online Filipino specialist.
So I love that Elaine has now involved her daughter and her sister who are now both working as ofs. It really is good for people when they start working online in the Philippines. So want to know how you can find people like Elaine? There's two things to do. Number one, go to onlinejobs ph and search for the skills you're looking for. Then my 1vaoa.com process will guide you through finding someone just like her. Someone you can trust. Someone who's going to stick with you and be loyal. Someone who will show up every day and be hardworking and they want to contribute to your business. These are the kinds of people that I find using my super simple steps@1vaaway.com.
