In this episode of the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast, the host explains why he prefers to call Filipino remote workers "online Filipino specialists" rather than virtual assistants and walks listeners through the full spectrum of talent available on the platform onlinejobs.ph. He shares three personal case studies that illustrate low‑, mid‑, and high‑skill workers: Jimboy, a former impoverished missionary who learned QuickBooks and now works as a basic virtual assistant; Mark Jem, a modestly skilled video editor who improved dramatically after being placed with a client; and Kate, a master’s‑qualified English educator who now does professional content writing. The stories highlight how the platform connects employers directly with workers, bypassing agencies, and how this direct model has transformed lives in the Philippines. The host then enumerates the virtually unlimited range of online‑compatible skills—from customer service and bookkeeping to programming, CAD design, and high‑level executive roles—available among the 4 million+ Filipino profiles on the site. He emphasizes that any skill level can be sourced, and that the socioeconomic impact of remote work is profound, lifting individuals and families out of poverty while providing businesses with reliable talent.
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Welcome to the Secret Sauce of outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing to the Philippines. This is episode 468, the types of virtual assistants you can find in the Philippines. So just so you know, I actually really don't like the word virtual assistants because the people I'm going to show you here are not VAs. These guys are specialists, at least some of them. So I really prefer to call them ofs online Filipino specialists. So I had a couple emails sent to me this past week that I thought was indicative of the kinds of people you can find in the Philippines. I had some, some really interesting experiences with these. So before I show you those people, I need to take a step back and talk about how this all started. So this is Mark Gem and four years ago my son, this white boy received a mission call to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Philippines. Which to me when that happened was like completely mind blowing. He could have been asked to serve anywhere in the world. The church had no idea my ties to the Philippines and they sent the Philippines. So in one of his first areas he gets sent to this island, Marin Duque, which is actually kind of a big island that you've never heard of because the population is really small and it's quite remote and there's just nothing on this island economic wise. Like there's no enterprise, there's. There's just no opportunity on this island. Here's Austin with Mark Jem, who he meets while he's on this island. And Mark Jem has no opportunity. He's actually really intelligent and is pretty good at video editing. He's learned it in school and he's done it some on his own, but there's no opportunity. He's days away from leaving his family, his wife and his two kids, getting on a boat, going to Manila where he'll spend the next six months to a year working and sending money home to his family in Marinduque. So he's still in the Philippines, not making that much, but at least he's making something and can send the money home. So I would say Mark Gem is a moderately, was a moderately talented, a video editor. He wasn't great. Lucky for him, he meets Austin, who is my son. And Austin happens to be the son of the guy who owns onlinejobs.ph right. I mean this is completely life changing for Mark Jim to meet Austin. And Austin says, hey dad, can you find this guy a job? And so I sent an email to my Mailing list. And Mark Jem gets a job working with Jason. Jason later emails me, this is maybe six months later, and says, hey, look, Mark Jem has been amazing for me, us. He wasn't the best. He wasn't the most talented video editor, but his improvement has been so much. He's so open to feedback and so willing to learn and so good at it. We have him working on other projects that we never thought of before, and it's been really, really great. Okay, so that's, that's the backstory of this. Here's what happens next. My son gets moved off of Marin Duque. He gets another missionary companion to work with. This guy's name is Jim Boy. And if you think the name Jim Boy is any indication of the type of person, then you'd be right. Because Jim Boy grew up in a super, super poor family with almost no education. And his dad was an alcoholic and was very abusive and his mom couldn't handle it. Ends up leaving him, finding another man and moving away. When Jim Boy is 15, his dad has also abandoned the family because he's an alcoholic. And Jimboy is left alone, abandoned in a shed at 15, and he has nothing. He didn't want to move with his mom to another island. He didn't like her new husband. He also had a group of friends at the church that he had kind of latched onto. There was some stability for him there. So at 15, Jim boy is alone, he has a dog. That's it. And he goes into the forest every day and forages to find roots or vegetables that he might be able to sell that so that he might be able to eat a single meal. And he says his, he says his low point is he came home one day and his dog was dead from starvation. And Jimboy has a 10th grade education. He's not that great. And we find him a job working with rj. And after he gets this job with rj, Jimboy sends me this email. No subject. Because he doesn't really understand. He doesn't know. This is all new to him. Good day, John. I was able to work with RJ and he is very kind employer. He is teaching me little by little and apply them into myself so I can better understand and know what to do for my work. Look, Jimboy's really resourceful and he wants to work really hard. He just was given a crappy lot in life and he ends up learning QuickBooks with RJ. And RJ's teaching him. And look, this is. You can see this has been, this has Been a while, right? Jimboy has done a really good job for rj. So I'll tell you a little bit more of the backstory of Jimboy. Jimboy decides to serve as a missionary, like Austin. That's how they meet. Because Jim Boy decides to serve as a missionary, Austin also decides to serve as a missionary. They end up getting put together. Well, in order for Jimboy to become a missionary, they said, look, you have to pay for like part of your clothes to go. You need $60, US$60, which is unfathomable to him at this point. He's 18, he's been on his own for two years and just foraging like eating one meal a day. How is he going to do this? Well, he gets together with one of the church leaders and Jim Boy decides we could go into the forest and find these rare orchid flowers which are kind of valuable and we could bring them back and sell them. So the leader goes with him. He says they travel days into the forest and they spend three days with Jim Boy climbing trees. When I say climbing trees, Austin describes this to me and I've seen Jim Boy's description of this. Austin describes this to me as these are hundred foot tall trees and he's climbing near the top. And Jimboy says he was so scared his hands wouldn't hold on anymore because he was so scared, he was shaking and he just sat there gripping whatever he could and praying, don't let me die, don't let me die, don't let me die. He's so scared. He spends multiple days gathering these flowers. He would, he would get to the top, to the end where the branches are bending and he drops a flower down. I mean the whole story seems impossible to me, but I've seen it multiple times now. Drops a flower down and his, his church friend picks it up. And after a couple days they gather their flowers and they head back into civilization and he sells the flowers and he gets $60. So he's been risking his life for days. He gets $60 US but that was sufficient for him to be able to, yes, we'll, we'll send you out on a mission. And he meets Austin, who is the son of the ownerofonlinejobs. Ph. Again, completely life changing event for Jim Boy where he gets this job which he never even knew existed, this kind of thing, and it has changed his life. Now Jimboy is not a specialist. He's a barely a virtual assistant, right? He's a virtual assistant. He's on the low, low end of things. His English Isn't great. He doesn't understand. He has a 10th grade education. Right now he's in high school. He's finishing high school. He's 22 or 23 and he's 40, finishing high school now because he wants the education, he wants to do this. His drive is there. He just didn't have the opportunity in life. And you can find some people like jimboy on onlinejobs.ph he's on the really low, low end. And this all leads me to another thing that happened this week. So the Jimboy thing was a year and a half ago, but I had some communication with him this week and then I also had communication with Kate this week. So a couple weeks ago I had an employer, Tracy, reach out to me and say, hey, my business has changed in a way that I can't use Kate anymore. But she's amazing. Can you find her a job? And I was like, well yeah, I probably can find her a job if she's amazing, right? And a couple weeks go by and I hadn't. It was Christmas and the holidays and I wasn't doing much and I didn't have a job for her. But then after the holidays, things start changing in our business and we're like, oh, we need to hire this many more people and we're doing this. And I reached out to Kate and and was like, hey, how's your English? How's your writing? Not really knowing anything about her other than Tracy had vetted her. Here's what Kate says. So I've been actively applying and continuing to improve my skills in terms of my English and writing skills. I hold a master's degree in English education and my background includes academic and research writing, particularly in the field of language and education. Alongside this, I've had the opportunity to write creative and marketing content, including social media posts and email campaigns for Tracy's art business. You have a master's degree and in English writing, like I had no idea, right? This is actually perfect for what I want. And the whole point of this video was Jimboy is like way, way, way down here on the scale. And Kate is like, she has a master's degree and she's way up here. And Mark Gem started kind of in between those two where he had some video editing experience, but he wasn't particularly great at it. So then let me just add a little bit more to this. So I offer Kate a job. It's not like an exceptionally high paying job, but it's pretty good. She sends to me what has happened. I offer her a job here. And then she forwards this job offer to Tracy, who had referred it to me and says I feel like I'm dreaming. He asked me about my English and writing and I honestly told him about my background. And then I offered her this job and Tracy says wow. And then she sends me this quick note of thanks. I've been listening to your podcast and watching your YouTube videos. It's been great. Learning more about the mission behind online jobs. Before that and even before meeting Tracy, I had already been using and applying through the platform since the start of the pandemic. So she's been on the platform since 2020 and was grateful for it. Even then. It doesn't just help business owners grow, it creates real life changing opportunities for Filipinos like me through trust and meaningful work. And look at this. Jimboy's story is a real life changing story where he was in poverty and would be in poverty probably for most of his life and it lifted him out of poverty. And Mark Gem was about to leave his family, his wife and his two little kids so that he could try and lift them out of poverty. But it rarely works when you move away and now you're supporting two different households with one income and Mark Jem now stays at home and is doing really really well. And then you on the high end of things you have Kate and Kate is saying this is a real life changing opportunity for her. So what kinds of people can you find on onlinejobs? Ph well within any skill you can find super low end, you can find middle end and you can find really high end. Now what skills? Well really any skill that could be done online. Any job that could be done online from like COO to hr, like the Vice President of HR to operations to social media management or content writing or graphic design or video editing or podcast editing or CAD design or programming or webmaster. Build a website. I mean like bookkeeping OR Xero or QuickBooks or accounting or investment banking. Literally any skill that you could imagine online, you can find it in the Philippines. Can you find someone to build your go high level funnel? Yes you can. Can you find someone to do product research for your Shopify store? Yes you can. Can you find someone to manage your Shopify store? Yes. Can you find someone to do the customer support for your shop? Yes. Yes. The answer is yes. And in these can you find a low end customer service person? Yes. A middle end customer service person? Yes. A high end customer service person? Yes. You can find all of those things. Any skill, any level. You can find it at onlinejobs ph. At onlinejobs, we have over 4 million Filipino profiles where they come in and they put in their own information, they create their own profile, they put in their own resume. Basically say, hey, look, I might be looking for work. And you can get in direct contact with them without a middleman, without someone else looking over your shoulder or pretending to manage them, or without someone else marking up their salary three times, which is what an agency does. And it's all right there, super instantly available to you at onlinejobs Physical.
