John Abbas and his VAs for Podcasting: Mentor Nation Podcast

Interview with John Jonas. I was just, I was mind blown. He just talked about how he built this multimillion dollar company with virtual assistants. And I didn't know anything about virtual assistants, how you would find.

What's up, guys? John Jonas here. We have another great case study for you today about hiring online Filipino specialists. So today we have John Abbas, who is an entrepreneur and a podcaster. He runs the. He's the host of the Mentor Nation podcast, came from the Navy and used the discipline he learned to become his own boss. Really, really cool. He runs a brick and mortar business and started the podcast as a way to share knowledge that he's gained in his journey. So one of the things I really love in this case study is how he shares how he manages his time so that he can run the business by managing his web designer in the Philippines. So also with us is Shalane Tuttle, the amazing Shalane. So let's get into it.

Hey, it's Chelain from onlinejobs ph. And today we have John Abbas with us of Mentor Nation podcast. We're so happy to have him.

Awesome. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be on as a guest for once.

Absolutely. That's right. Tell us a little bit about how you came to be where you are.

I grew up super poor in Nashville and just knew that I didn't really know anything about money or business or anything like that. I just knew that I didn't want to have my parents paying for me. We didn't have, I didn't have any money for college. And so I was in the cafeteria one day and there was a Navy recruiter there and everything he said sounded great. I could travel the world at 18, I could make my own money. And, you know, it just was, what, 18 year old, 17, actually wouldn't be attracted to that. And so. And they would pay for all of my college when I got out. And it was just a six year commitment. So I signed and that's what happened. I didn't make a lot of money there either, but it was, I did that for six years. And although I really loved it, loved the experience, I just hated, you know, there being a glass ceiling on what I could make. You know, it didn't matter how much work ethic I put into anything. You learn work ethic, but you're paid as much as the next guy, even if he's lazy. And so I think growing up poor mixed with the discipline and what I learned in the military, I just knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Got out and we were looking for our first business. And me and my brother, I was 23, he was 19. We got really lucky. We started a small construction company after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Drove down there, didn't know anything, and built a great business. And you know, just once you get to a point where you have control of your future even. Obviously we've made a lot of mistakes along the way. It's just, it's hard to go back. It's like a rubber band, right? Like once you stretch it, you realize what you're capable of. So we've been entrepreneurs ever since. Everything from owning a restaurant to building big sales teams. Today I have three daughters. So a more low key way on some traditional businesses. I own a large preschool, we own a med spa. And my wife, she's, she's in real estate. And you know, I do the podcast. It's just a passion project.

So you said one day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted. Do it now. So can you tell us a little bit about the things you've mentioned your family, you've mentioned your businesses? Can you tell us a little bit about your life and how it's kind of been formed by the idea of that quote?

I'll tell like one story and this was probably a big breakthrough for me. So I was in the military. We just got word that we were going to go on deployment for six months. And I got just super depressed, like just, you know, just getting set, established and settled and having friends. And then you're just like, oh, you're going to the Middle east there, you know, September 11th is going on and just the idea of being away from all of those that you care about out of. Because back then, you know, cell phones weren't what they are today. Internet. And so I was just kind of complaining. And after like a week of just being kind of negative about it, just getting to the ship, whining and crying about it, I had a friend of mine, she called me out, she's like, listen, she's like, I want you to meet me on Saturday. I've got something that I want. You know, we're going to do it, we're going to volunteer. And I was like, okay. And long story short, we volunteered at a children's hospital for like terminal, terminally ill kids. And just a life changing experience seeing these kids so positive and happy and most of them are terminal. And you know, the point she was trying to make to me was she was tired of hearing me whine and cry over something stupid like going on deployment when you have people that have it far worse off and they're excited and happy and enthusiastic. And so, you know, years later, I read that quote, and it's just. It really hit me because a lot of people do that. They. They plan their life way out in the future, and they focus on just what they have to do now to get through the day, get through the week, to build money. And it's just like, you know, don't waste. Don't put your happiness and the things that you want to do in some district, because that may never come. You never know what's going to happen. And so, you know, start doing those things now. Because the journey is the most important part. And it's what you appreciate, it's what you enjoy. It's not the destination, it's not getting the money, or, you know, the end result is not what you even get excited about. It's the journey. And most people don't realize that until they get the thing that they were after, and they realize that the great part of it was the journey to get there.

How does that play into your business and how does that play into your life? And when did you adopt that mindset?

Man, I've always been an optimist because when you don't really have anything growing up, it's like the little things make you super excited. You know, we weren't spoiled growing up or. And we didn't have anything. So I've always been kind of. I mean, you know, I complained from that little period of time because I was going to go on deployment. But, you know, the world is beautiful. People are inherently kind. But I just. I fell in love a long time ago with the law of attraction. And I really believe. And I really believe that what you see is what you attract. You know, I use an example when I teach people, you know, you don't really notice a car until you buy that car. And then you see it everywhere. And the reason you see it everywhere is because if that's what you're focused on, you're always going to see it. And so if you're focused on positivity or people being like, you know, people that are good and they do good things, that's what you're going to see, that's what you're going to attract, and that is just overall gonna, you know, just build your mood and affect everything that you do. And I've seen a lot of negative people over the years. And, you know, they don't get anything, any joy, any benefit for being that way. So what's, what's the point?

Tell us about your podcast and how after doing business for so long, you decided to do that.

Yeah, so we're building a tech startup right now called Mentor, and, and it's something we've been working on for two, about three years actually. And it's like Airbnb, but for learning. You know, you want to learn how to start a podcast. You know, why watch a million YouTube videos when what if there is a platform where you could take a live masterclass or connect with somebody that's already running a podcast and learn directly from that person? And so we've had that idea. We've been building it for about three years now. But I, you know, the reason we started that company is because I wanted to learn how to start a podcast, and I couldn't figure out how to do it by watching a million YouTube videos. I was up all night watching videos. And they all said different things. Some were outdated, they were contradicting each other. But I really wanted to start a podcast because I'm a big fan of live events and I'm a big fan of podcasts, and I've been to a lot of Tony Robbins events or just entrepreneurs that I follow, you know, Sarah Blakely, Grant Cardone. I love listening, but there's just something powerful about listening to them speak on stage. And so that was the seed of the podcast, you know, is I came to, like, just discover that most entrepreneurs give their absolute best wisdom in a keynote speech because they don't have a lot of time, they're speaking to a lot of people, so they have to add a lot of value very quickly. And they're usually paid a lot of money for 45 minutes, and so they know they have to deliver. I just had the idea, I was like, man, how cool would it be if I could take the value of a keynote speech and deliver that to an audience in an interview style session? And so that was the Mentor Nation podcast. Like the seed of it is just, how can I interview people? Send them a questionnaire ahead of time? If you were giving a keynote to a thousand entrepreneurs, you had 45 minutes and you're paid $250,000 for that keynote. What would you talk about? And that's, that's what we do in our interviews, is that's what we base it on.

Have the podcasts themselves changed how you do business? All this information you're taking in from all of These mentors. Has it changed you as an entrepreneur?

Absolutely. Just when you interview somebody over and over and over, you start to see patterns. When you interview different people, different success people that have done. They built big businesses in completely different industries. I mean, you can't help but notice a pattern, right? Like, you start to see the things that they say that are similar. And, you know, I've started to realize after 60 plus interviews and, you know, some are more successful, they're all successful or doing incredible things where they've built great things. I think the most successful, you know, they're doing about 250 million a year in revenue. 100 million, 10 million, 50 million. And, you know, they all say similar things just in different ways. And that's the crazy thing is, you know, it was really easy to develop that pattern. But, you know, I've completely changed how I do things based on what I've learned in these interviews. Especially with being efficient, focusing on the like focus was like one. And you know, you hear it, you read it, but you see that all of them actually really do. They, they, they're not putting more things on their plate. Like, it's hard to remove things off of your plate. And that's what they all preach. They all like, you've got to focus on the thing. You know, you can have anything you want, but you can't have everything that you want. And so you have to focus on that thing that you can excel at. And you have to either delegate, become more efficient with your time and all of the other things. Which obviously brings us to what then?

That is our segue. There it is.

That's our segment.

We could have scripted that any better. I work with onlinejobs.ph we offer some incredible resources to entrepreneurs like yourself and have heard some really great stories. Tell us how you came across the concept of outsourcing.

It was super simple. So I'm listening. One of my favorite podcasts is Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas. And so in my early days of the podcast, the way that I was trying to get guests was I would take my favorite podcast, make a list of every guest that has ever been on their show, and I would reach out to each of them individually. Hey, I heard you on the EO Fire podcast. Loved your interview. Oh my God, it was one of my favorites. I would love to have you on my podcast to talk about that exact same thing, just to a different audience. And so one of the people that was on the interview was John Jonas with onlinejobs. Ph. And so I listened to him on Entrepreneurs on Fire. And I was just mind blown. He just talked about how he built this multimillion dollar company with virtual assistants. And I didn't know anything about virtual assistants, how you would find one. You know, with my traditional businesses, we're looking here in the US and you know, to do. To get somebody to do anything is like $15 an hour, even just grunt work, right? So I'm listening to this and I'm like, wait a minute. Like this? You have to be kidding. So I reached out to John right away. I'm like, dude, you have to be on my podcast. Like, I've got. You have got to share this. And so he came on, I made a list of all the questions because I wanted to know how it actually worked through his platform that he built. And so as soon as I got off, I went on to OnlineJobs ph, and I was, you know, I was just blown away because my big thing at the time was the podcast. The podcast is not something I started to make money. So it. But it's very time consuming. And I'm like, how great would it be if I could find someone to do all my podcast stuff? Editing and design the banners, everything for each episode? So I went on to onlinejobs pH, I don't know if I'm. If I'm. Am I getting ahead of myself? Right?

No, no, I love it. I'm following you.

Yeah. So I go on there and at first I thought the platform was going to be like one of those things where, you know, like, they'll take a percentage and they'll pay them the rest.

Like an agency, a traditional agent.

I was like, blown away. So I asked John. I was like, so wait a minute, you mean I. I pay this little bit of money for your platform, and when I find my va, I don't have to pay for it? He was like, yeah. I was like, this is. This is great. So I went on there, I put in the criteria of what I was looking for. Somebody that was great at design, somebody that could do editing, somebody that had SEO experience, and I just loved it. I mean, it was so easy. Like, it was. They rate them on the scale. I mean, it's been a couple years since I've used the platform because I've had my one VA through onlinejobs ph for this whole time. But it just was really cool. It's like, oh, wow. They rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 and all these million different things. And I found this one lady and I interviewed several of Them on Skype. Found one named Rogalyn. And Rogalyn was living in the Philippines. She had a great level of experience and all of the things we got on Skype interview. This is, wow, maybe a year and a half ago, I hired her on the spot. I mean, it wasn't very, like, way less than what I would pay anyone here in the United States. I got on there and I just was like, well, first thing I want to do is I need a website for my podcast, Mentor Nation, podcast.com. so if you go there, she built the entire thing. Everything, every page, every tab. So she built that, and then as soon as she was done, I was like, I need you forever. And so she does everything for me now. Everything. Design forms, banners, cards. She's even right now. She's building a Shopify store for my daughters who are 12 and 11, and they want to sell slime and, like, homemade, like, all kinds of, like, fun, cool things. She even built and designed their YouTube channel that we haven't launched yet. So, yeah, she's great. She's done everything for us, and so I love her to death. And I'll have her until she gets tired of working for me, I guess.

Okay, so anyone listening is going to want to know your secret. How you train Rogerlyn, you said? Yeah, Rogerlyn, yeah. How you train her to learn to do all of these different things, like, how do you communicate?

I wish I could take a lot of credit for that, but really, you just. When you work with anyone that, like, long enough. I mean, obviously if she didn't have the skill set, that relationship wouldn't have lasted long. So she brought a skill set to the tables. We just needed to get used to each other. And you do that through feedback, right? Like, you give them a project. So I gave her thementornation podcast.com and I gave her. Just dumped ideas onto her. And I was like, build me this website. And then, you know, I gave her feedback on every single page. Let's do this. Let's add this list. And that's how they learn who you are, right? Like what you're. Like what you, you know, enjoy what kind of design, you know. I started off by just saying, I want a modern, clean website. These are the tabs. This is what I want to do. And then over, you know, months and months, you know, she. Of giving, you know, she'll send me a banner like the first podcast guest. And I'm like, you know, I. I love what this podcast is doing with their banners. And so I'll Send her that picture. And like, I want something like this, but different. And so, you know, just like anything else, you, you know, it's like being in a relationship, right? You start to understand their tastes, their quirks, their needs, their wants and how they like things. And so it wasn't, you know, I wish I could say I had this great training system, but I didn't. She just started to pick up on what I liked, what I didn't like, what other websites and podcasts that I resonated with. And she started to do the things that I liked, like, based on that, but just with our own spin on it. So, you know, no secret, you just, you know, you commit to it is all you do. I just, when she submitted everything, once I saw that she had ability and talented, I was like, well, great, we'll get used to each other. It's just going to take time.

About how much time do you spend managing rogerlyn every week?

None. I literally send her files and she knows exactly what to do with every podcast episode. Like, zero. We communicate. All she does today is she sends me updates every single morning, same time. I mean, that's really it. She's like, you know, when I don't have a project for immediately, she just does SEO for my podcast and for the YouTube channel. So every day I'll get a report in the morning. This is the SEO. These are the keywords, these are the things that I did. And then when I have a project like a podcast, when I'm releasing a podcast episode, I literally just send her the title and the picture of that person and she builds all the banners, all of the YouTube banners, the Instagram banners, she does all of that. So the answer is zero. I mean, if I have a new project, like something. So obviously when I wanted her to start building the Shopify store for my daughters, we just did this, you know, same thing I did at first with the podcast. You spent a little bit of time, show her what you want, show her examples of other websites that have done a great job and, you know, she kind of picks up on it and then you just start that process all over again. But the only time I'll ever spend managing anything she does, in the very beginning of a brand new project, she picks up quick, she figures out what needs to be done and then she does it. And we just have an ongoing working relationship until something new arises or some other project comes up.

But that's because you worked so hard to get those systems in place, right? Like, it sounds like you have a whole List of she gets the information and can just kind of go down the bullet points and knows what to expect from you.

Absolutely. You know, it's no different than hiring a freelancer or anything like that. You know, once I realized that rogerlyn had talented, I, at this point it's just, okay, this is what we need to be done, this is how to do it. Some things obviously would require more training than others because me personally, I'm a user for design heavy things. It's not a lot of systems, not a lot of training. If I needed rogerlyn for like, maybe if I was running a real, my wife's real estate company and I needed her for all kinds of contracts and things, that'd be a lot different. But with what I did is just most of what she does is creative and not system systematic things. And so it works out great the way that we do it. But I would have probably a little bit of a different approach if I needed her for very detail oriented, systematic processes and things like that. But I just, you know, either way, I don't see it being difficult. I would just train her on the systems, processes. I can't remember what the philosophy is. It's like, I do, you watch or I do, I do, you watch, you do, I watch and then you do. Like that's the system that I use.

So is there anything over the last couple of years that you've done with rogerlyn that hasn't worked or something that you've learned from to go, oh, maybe we'll avoid that in the future.

Not in the lines of what her scope is. You know, every now and then I'll ask her if she can do something completely random and like totally out of her wheelhouse. And you know the great thing about her, she's like, I can't, but I'll learn if you want me to. And I'm like, ah, don't worry about it. If it was that important that I couldn't find somebody else, then maybe I will have you learn how to do it. I, I did ask her about the Shopify, but she already knew how to do it. And you know, over time I've asked her certain things with like building funnels and there, you know, there's other people on online jobs that were great at that. I just wondered if rogerlyn could build like different types of funnels for different things. And that wasn't like her strong suit. But the great thing is she was willing to learn it if I wanted her to. And you know, I think I really appreciate that. Like, my philosophy is, focus on what you're good at. Why would I have her do the opposite? You know, it's so totally.

So the whole idea behind delegating is to give yourself to create more time for yourself to do what you need to do or what you want to do. So what do you find yourself doing with the extra? I don't want to call it extra time because I know you're invested in so much. But with that time that you would have spent doing the things that Rodelyn's doing, what do you find yourself investing back into?

Just more creative stuff. I, like, I have. Have severe adhd, and so my time being spent on, like, busy work drives me, like, crazy up a wall. And my wife is incredible at that. She'll sit in front of a computer for nine hours a day and just do it. Like, I can't sit in front of a computer for 10 minutes unless it's, like, having a conversation or creating or building something. So, like, I love focusing on creative stuff, you know, like ideas and implementation of new ideas and scaling and solving problems. Not, you know, doing, like, repetition. Because, you know, once I love doing the podcast interview, but once the interview's over, then it's just repetition, right? It's editing, it's in. Like, I. I could do it, just don't like doing it. And so that extra time, it really allows me to focus on, like, well, what's next? You know, what's five steps down the road? What's 10 steps down the road? Also, spend time with family. I mean, you know, it all gets. That time obviously gets absorbed in other things, but family, travel, and creative endeavors.

I want to ask you the question that you ask your guests at the end of your podcast, because I thought. I bet he has a great answer to that. If you were to go back in time 20 years ago and you have 60 seconds to spend with yourself, what do you say?

Definitely don't get so caught up in the destination. Enjoy the journey. Like, I. You hear it and it sounds so cliche, but it's like, you. Like, I've set big goals, and then I stress out on the way to those goals, and then I achieve that thing, and it's great, and it lasts about 30 minutes, and then you're, like, on to the next thing. And so you realize that 95% of your time is always going to be in the journey and less than 5% in the destination. And so many people put all their happiness in the destination, and they're miserable, stressed out, worried all the time. In the journey. And then you get there and you look back and you realize that the time, the thing that you talk about to all of your friends when they're over for dinner is the journey. You realize the thing that you got excited about, the thing that was fun, was dealing with those problems and how you overcame them. And so I would say, like, stop worrying. Stop being stressed out. Enjoy that journey. Don't look at it as stress and as something bad. Look at it as growth and something great and just be grateful all the way through. It sounds, again, cliche, but I would really tell myself that because 95% of your life is in the journey, you better learn to appreciate that part, because that's the part that's important. It's not the goal or getting, you know, once you achieve it, because I promise you, like, once, me and my wife made a lot of money. It's like all we do now is like, well, comparing ourselves to people still higher, you know, and still further along. And so it's just like, okay, we're just set our goals. So, you know, you get to that point and there's no really ever feeling of, I have arrived. There's nothing left for me to do. So you better enjoy the journey. That's what I would tell myself, 100%.

Shawn, thank you for being with us today. Thank you for all the wisdom you're willing to share. We encourage everyone to reach out and check out Mentor Nation podcast. And is there any other way for our audience to reach out to you?

Yeah, man, they can reach out to me anywhere on Instagram. My personal Instagram is John Abbas82. My podcast Instagram is mentournation podcast. I'm, you know, active. Well, not very active on Instagram, very active on Facebook. John Abbas, A B, B, A s. But I'll respond right away on Instagram. So if anybody wanted to connect with me or say anything or ask me a question, then I'll respond very quickly on Instagram. But I'm on everywhere. LinkedIn. I mean, we have a podcast. You want to promote it everywhere, right? So it's not hard to find me by searching for the podcast or for my name.

Thank you. Thank you for your time.

Absolutely. Thank you.