John Jonas (speaker) describes why hiring virtual assistants (VAs) from the Philippines worked well for him. He recounts hiring his first Filipino VA in 2005, praises Filipino traits—widespread English use, honesty/trustworthiness, strong loyalty, hard work and deference to foreign employers—and notes they’re unlikely to appropriate clients’ businesses. He warns that employers must earn the assistants’ trust. Jonas credits his Philippine team with allowing him to work about 17 hours per week since ~2008–2009 and says he currently employs ~37 people; he directs viewers to his website for a step-by-step hiring process.
Questions this video answers
2005
Approximately 37
Since about 2008 or 2009
1vaaway.com (also mentioned verbally as 1vaoa.com in one instance)
Chapters
Why you should hire a virtual assistant from the Philippines. Hey, my name is John Jonas, and I hired my first virtual assistant in the Philippines in 2005. I had no idea what I was getting into. I didn't realize I had just stumbled into this amazing talent pool of people who wanted to work hard and who were super loyal and honest, and they would help me build my business and they cared about how things went in my business. I had no idea what I was getting into. In the end, I've seen thousands and thousands of people hire virtual assistants in the Philippines, and it has been amazing for them, too. So let me give you some reasons why hire in the Philippines versus other places for a virtual assistant. So when I got started with this, I was talking with the owner of backcountry.com he told me, you know, when you're ready to start outsourcing some of this stuff, make sure you go to the Philippines with it. And I was like, huh, that's interesting. Why? He said, well, in India, when you tell them something and they say yes, that means yes. I heard something come out of your mouth. It doesn't mean yes. I understood what you said. And when I heard that, I was like, I mean, that's. That's super different. And it kind of gave me hope that maybe I would find something different than what I had experienced in the past. I never thought that a different country would make a difference for how my experience was. And yet, as soon as I did it, I realized, oh, my gosh, this is completely different. So in the Philippines, first of all, English is the primary language. The government mandates that business be done in English. And it's so prevalent that often billboards are in English. Almost all street signs are in English. Elementary school is often taught in English. Like they teach science and math and teaching it in English. So you'll never have a communication problem with the Philippines. Second, the Filipino people are super honest when they work for a foreign employer. Honest to the point where my guys in the Philippines have access to my credit cards, my personal email account. They've had access to my bank account. It's amazing what you can get done when you give access to things. Now, I'm not saying that you should give that up front, that you should go and give access to something and get yourself ripped off where you're not comfortable. But it shouldn't take you nearly as long as it took me to realize, oh, my gosh, this person is super, super trustworthy, and I can give them things that I would never have thought that I Could. Next. The Filipino people are super loyal, almost to a fault, to where the first person I ever hired in 2005 still works for me today. And this is a common, common experience. I have 37 people that work for me today and they've worked for me. They 2006 and 2007 and 2008, the whole process. I've hired people just about every year. So loyalty for most people is a big, big deal, especially when that loyalty doesn't exist in the US anymore. So culturally, the Filipino people are very hardworking and they're very pleasing people. They want to make you happy, which means as long as you treat them well and that's a big deal, they will go above and beyond what you've asked them to do to make sure that their boss, you is happy. Now that's a big deal compared to other cultures, including the U.S. where often people look down upon their boss. Oh, my boss is so stupid. Oh, he does this. Oh, I don't care about him. In the Philippines, it is different. Which brings me to the next point is they actually look up to foreigners there and that's a big deal. So like on Friday night, they'll brag about their foreign boss rather than saying, oh, my boss is so stupid. In the Philippines, they don't have a cultural issue with a male boss versus a female boss. They'll work just as well for a female boss as it will for a male. Last, the Philippines is not entrepreneurial. So they don't want to steal your business, they don't want to steal your idea, they don't want to take your software project and go do it on their own. They really just want a job. And that's what makes the Philippines so amazing. If you add these things together, the fact that they're loyal and they're honest and they're hard working, they don't want to steal your business. They look up to foreigners. They want to go above and beyond to make you happy. It's really creates a different situation than anywhere else in the world. So should you hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines? Yes. You will have such a good experience if. Here's the one caveat. You have to gain their trust. They don't trust you. And so you have to gain their trust in you in order to make this work really well. Once you gain their trust, it becomes amazing. It'll change your life. My name is John Jonas. Been working about 17 hours a week since 2008 or 2009 based directly on the work that my people in the Philippines do. In fact, they do just about everything for me. Can you hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines? Yes. I detail my process@1vaoa.com where I will walk you through start to finish. Like where do you start? How do you find people? How do you. How do you get someone good? How do you know if they're going to be good? How do you trust them? How do you weed people out? How do you onboard people? I cover the whole process at 1vaaway.com.
