Why Filipino VAs Stand Out | Virtual Dream Team

Our goal is to really help a lot of virtual assistants to be able to work from home. It has changed my life and I just can't speak it enough. The reason why I really do like Filipino virtual assistants is their accent is much more acceptable.

We would go above and beyond for you.

Filipino is everywhere in United States. Say, don't worry about it, boss, we will take care of this whole thing and everything will be fine. Shyness does not make you money. Filipino just wasn't set up in the best position. They're being raised to not Speak up. If you have the right community, you have the right support, you can have whatever you want to.

I am living the life that I want right now, and I want that for everyone.

Hello everyone, welcome, welcome to our channel. Uh, today what I wanted to share with you is that, you know, why do you use Filipino virtual assistant instead of every other country? What is the best thing about a Filipino virtual assistant? What's the worst thing about the Filipino virtual assistant, and what are some of our messages to aspire Filipino virtual assistants. Why do we initiate this call? Because we have been an agency for the past 5 years. Me and Monique have worked with each other for the last 13 years, and we know that our goal is to really help a lot of virtual assistants to be able to work from home, make great money, and still be able to spend time with their own family. But There's a lot of information that a lot of virtual assistants does not know, especially if you decided to move from a BPO industry to become a new virtual assistant, or if you are an OFW, which is, you know, Overseas Foreign Worker, and decided to become a virtual assistant. You have some, like, questions, you know, desire, you're maybe a little bit nervous, and we just want to become the bridge for you. We'll be, you know, posting, you know, a video every single week to let you know detail insights of what we have learned so far so that it's easier for you to find a job, it's easier for you to have the right mindset, it's easier for you to figure out, okay, should I do a VA position, which is virtual assistant, or should I just go back to BPO industry or OFW? Some people do that, some people don't. It just really depending on the personality, and that's what we're going to be nailing into it. So if what I talked to you about just now makes sense to you, then stay tuned. And that's what we're going to be covering for you, and it's definitely well worth your time. So once again, my name is Phyllis Song. I have been around with the virtual assistant, you know, for about the last 5 years as an official virtual assistant agency. But I've been utilizing virtual assistants for the past 15 years. It has changed my life, and I just can't speak it enough. And at the same time, because I grew up without a parent at home, And I know how it feels when you grow up by yourself or you grow up with your grandparents or you grow up with your aunt. And my goal is to keep as many of you working from home, make good money, and, you know, be able to raise your children so that it doesn't have another, you know, another Phyllis Song that is growing up without their parents. And because of that reason, we started it and we're going to share with you more story about it later on. And now we want to introduce you to Monique. Who is my COO. She has been working with me for 13 years. So we decided to create a podcast so that we can have conversation and let you know, hey, this is the client perspective, that is the virtual assistant perspective. How have we been making it happen? And how are— am I living the dream life? And how is she living the dream life? So Monique, do you want to introduce yourself?

Yes, yes. Hi everyone, my name is Monique and I've been a virtual assistant for 15 years. But just like everyone else here, I've also worked in a BPO industry for years as well, so as a technical support, customer service, you know, things like that. But just like you, I started not as a virtual assistant but also someone who worked in a corporate, which is the BPO or the call centers here in the Philippines. Also, I love that boss, by the way, Phyllis Song, we call her boss because she's the boss here. So I love that she mentioned a while ago that there's a lot of myth on, you know, being in a virtual assistant world, right? So I love that you mentioned that because that's something that we will also tackle with you guys on the next episode. Why Filipinos? Why did you pick the Filipinos more than anyone else? So just a brief background, we know that you're from Asia as well, which is in Malaysia. You grew up in Singapore, and then you've been in the United States for a while as well. But you've been working with the Asians, you've been with Western countries as well. But why did you hire and why did you create an agency here in the Philippines?

The reason why I really do like Filipino virtual assistants, number one, is Filipino is well used in United States. Their accent is much more acceptable in United States. And at the same time, you know, you guys are everywhere. You know, like when I go to Philippines, I literally see the lane, right? Like OFW, like majority of people actually go overseas to work. So in United States, you will see them as a nurse, you will see them as a customer service at cruise ship, you'll see them at casino, hotels, you pretty much see them everywhere. So to us, to me, it's like they live around us already. I've tried the Indian, Pakistani, even Malaysia, some of them because there's accent issue, some of them is culture issue. So by far, I still feel like Filipino is the best. And again, for all of you guys here that's watching this, Filipino also have a great customer service standard. They're usually very patient too. So that is also very helpful for me to decide to work with Filipino. And again, Monique, you know, you are Filipino, so brag about yourself. Why do you think you, you are the best one instead of working with, you know, people from potentially from India, from Thailand? Or even a virtual assistant from United States?

Well, you already said it right. The first is there's a lot of companies already that has been hiring Filipino— sorry, Filipinos, not as a virtual assistant before, but in the BPO call centers. It's because we have neutral accent, but I think more than that is also we care. So most, we used to have like technical supervisors or things like that that are in in India or, you know, other, other countries. But most of them, you know, they would just, uh, just give you something without information. But usually when you talk to a Filipino, you know that they care. They would stay with you on the phone for, you know, troubleshooting with you. They would stay with you for 3 hours. I, I did have a call that lasted for 4 hours. It's just because we've been trying to troubleshoot the printer because I've worked in a concept call center, you know, handling printers. So that's how Filipinos really care, and that's why I think it is really working when it comes to, you know, virtual assistants. Because not only the bigger companies need help, but also the business owners, you know, entrepreneurs that just are starting out, or maybe they just need one help, you know, just, just, just one VA, two VAs, three VAs, but not the whole call center type. Right, but also I think another thing that a Filipino has is we love our work. Well, at least I do. So when I do something, I put my effort, my love into it, and I think you would also notice a lot of Filipinos also. Yes, I love that. So I, you know, you would notice we would go above and beyond for you. I would stay 3, 4 hours more overtime just to finish my task. I would ask questions when needed. I mean, not everyone would be like that at first, but it's something that everyone could definitely learn. It will be a journey, it's something that everyone could learn. But yeah, I think that's that.

All right, so now let's talk about what is the best thing about a Filipino virtual assistant. I personally think that the best thing about the Filipino virtual assistant is number one, they do speak speak very good English, American English accent. Number 2 is they are very knowledgeable and understanding about the culture in America, and they actually understand a lot of the slang too. Because if you really notice, Filipino is everywhere in United States. They are your nurses, they are your customer service rep, they work at the cruise ship. They're literally everywhere without us knowing about it. So they are technically part of us already. And the number 3 is, you know, culturally, majority of Filipinos are either Christian or Catholic. And in America, we have very similar cultural background too. And, you know, you know that we love God the same way. And that's, you know, we're much more aligned on that. And if we really want to talk about story, again, I'm from Malaysia. I am Chinese. And that was the part that wasn't really congruent because, like, hey, in the United States, people have Christmas holiday. But in Malaysia, we don't really care about Christmas that much. You get what I'm talking about? And sometimes it's just really hard to be more congruent between the two. And if you wanted to really talk about what, you know, a couple of the best things that I really enjoyed about, you know, virtual assistant, if we talk about Monique specifically herself, you know, she had been one of the best, if not the best virtual assistant I worked with. I used to not really good at numbers, and sometimes I will be very careless. I will pay her double because I don't have a structured system and I don't have an accounting VA at that moment. And she will always tell me, hey boss, I think you pay me too much, or hey boss, you know, you pay me double actually. And she will always consistently telling me and comfort me and tell me that, hey boss, you know, you can really trust me. I would never do anything wrong to you. I will only work more and charge you less than, you know, work less and charge you more. And again, with her, again, I'm just talking about her, right? She's very innovative. She's always learning and Whenever I give her a task, she's also very responsible to get things done. And that's why I feel so safe and so comfortable to work with her. And if you want to talk about another example too, is that about 2, 3 years ago, my husband actually almost died, right? He fell from 40 feet down from indoor rock climbing. I felt like my whole life is over, right? Just so much thing that I need to deal with about the health, about the life. And, you know, when I talk to Monique, that's what Monique say. Monique say, don't worry about it, boss. We, we will take care of this whole thing and everything will be fine. And that is the number one thing that made me feel safe over and over again. And I don't know whether I can get it from anybody else, but so far I can find that in Filipino virtual assistant. And so far, because of that, I have not really seek out to other countries because I feel like it is enough. And that's what I love. Monique, what do you think about that?

I really, I mean, first is I really, really love that. Thank you so much. It always warms my heart when I hear that story. And like, doing it, you're doing it again right now. This is one thing I love about my boss. Actually, this is one thing I love about Western clients as well. So I think one of the reasons why Filipino VAs also wanted to work with other clients like in the US, because Western clients also are— I mean, clients that are from United States mostly, or in the Western countries, they usually really acknowledge you, you know, they really usually appreciate you, and they really show you how they love their work and how they love working with you. So one thing about, you know, working in a BPO industry, it's not like that. So, and I don't want to go further, but because usually you work with your co-Filipinos and there's really, you know, I think there's a difference with how, you know, your co-Filipinos treat you rather than, you know, working with a US client. So, but thank you so much, boss. I definitely appreciate that. But I do want to ask, so you already mentioned, you know, what are the good things about Filipinos, but let me ask you this, this time. What are the things that, what are your challenges or what are the things that you do not like, you know, with working with Filipinos? This is interesting, by the way.

Yeah, I mean, I would love to say Filipino is perfect, but it is not always the case. When you first started, when you first started working with Filipinos, they actually embrace that you need to, they need to, you need to give, they need to trust you first before they give you the trust back. I don't know about that because I'm always a trust-giving person. I always give trust first, so it doesn't make me feel any different until I work into it. Then I realize, oh, they're usually a lot more passive when you first started working with them. And then afterwards, after they feel like they can trust you, they know that you are not going to do anything to harm them, and then they will be more aggressive. They will be more aggressive, they will be more into helping you out. That is one. Another one that I actually personally created is, "Shyness does not make you money." In our coaching program, we actually coach virtual assistants for 90 days. Actually, for the entire time that they are with us, but the first 30 days we really grow them into more quote unquote Americanized. Because again, like I said, shyness does not make you money. A lot of Filipinos always say, I'm so sorry, boss, I'm kind of shy. I don't want to share with you. Or sometimes even worse, it's like they said, I don't feel like my questions or my words matters, right? And thus I don't ask. I remember this one time I run a call about shyness doesn't make you money. And this person literally raised their hand and say, Man, I did not know that I can ask my boss questions. I have been quitting, getting hired, quit, getting hired, quit for 5 times, for 5 times, because every time I have a question, I don't know how to ask them. And I don't think they— I thought I'm bothering them, right? So I quit and I just go look for the next one. And just today, I have the aha moment that, wow, I can ask questions. And that's— this virtual assistant is still working with us, working with our client for a long, long, long time. What about you, Monique? You've been training all these VAs. What do you think are some of the challenges that you have?

Oh my gosh, I have a lot. The worst thing about Filipinos, I didn't mention about their love for work, but also I can also relate to sometimes they're also MIAs when when let's say something happened and they'll just MIA, they're just gone. Let's say you told them about this, hey, let's say a client told them, I think you should not be doing this, that's not how you should do that. The next day they're gone, like, oh my God, why? So I think those are one of the challenges that I think we really need to figure out Why is that happening and how can you reach out to a virtual assistant when it's like that? So we're definitely doing a lot of trainings on how to communicate better, you know, not just with your clients but with us as your agency. But I think that's the worst thing that I have experienced. It's because you don't have the chance to talk to them. You don't even have the chance to at least coach them a little bit, maybe tap them on the back and say, hey, it's not like that. That's not— maybe, you know, maybe your client said this and You know, you hear different things, but again, you're not given a chance just because they're MIA already. So yeah, that's, I think, one of the worst, um, experiences that I have.

And I think, uh, one of the, uh, maybe one of the episodes we can kind of talk about why, you know, Filipinos choose to just go MIA. I know for a fact why it is. and we will deep dive into another episode to let you know exactly what it is. It's part of our training program to teach people, but I think this will be really helpful if you want to be a virtual assistant and you might or might not want to work with us, at least you can get something so that you're comfortable. Because I mean, how amazing it is right now, right, Monique, that you have worked with me for 13 years, you know that no matter rain or pour, right, or sunny, right, if you have a good mood, bad mood, if you run into family issue or challenges, if you need to take day off, you know that you always have your job. You don't have to worry about, oh man, you know, what if my boss fires me, which is also a common thing that is happening in the virtual assistant industry, right?

I totally agree. This is actually one of the good examples that already happened to me. Right now I definitely feel I have a stable job. I definitely have a stable company that I'm working with because, you know, You're not at your best every day. You're definitely not gonna be always in a good mood. You're not always wanted, or you're not always motivated to go to work. Also, I had one experience where I'm going through some, you know, personal challenges. I was gone for 7 days, like one week. Boss has been calling me, boss's husband has been calling me, the whole team calling me, but at that time I just want to be alone. I even rented an Airbnb at the time. That's pandemic days, guys. I even rented an Airbnb at the time. I'm just alone there. I just wanted to drink. I just want to sleep, drown myself, you know, things like that. You know, but it's just nice to know that I can still come back after those days, after those moments where I just want to be alone. Can I just be gone for one week and I can still come back to to my boss, and boss Phyllis at the time was like, you can talk to me, you know, let's talk. Like, that was— I think I left Monday, and then Sunday she's like messaging me, we can talk, you know, tell me about it, what happened. It's nice to have a client like that, that someone who would still accept you at your worst, even at your worst days. Right, but also it goes both ways. Of course, it's not just them accepting us always as a virtual assistant. It's also us sometimes when, hey, they tell us something, you know, you also have to accept it. They also have days where, let's say for Boss Phyllis, because, you know, sometimes she's really traveling a lot. So if they're not answering our messages, of course there's reasons. So we have to be resourceful as a virtual assistant, not just waiting for them, right? So it goes both ways. So what they give to them, you also have to give it back. But for me, mostly it's, um, I receive and that's why I want to give more. I want to give it, uh, I want to triple what I'm receiving from Boss Phyllis. Of course, not, not— this is not just relating to Boss Phyllis, but, you know, with, um, every clients that we have.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that, you know, one thing that, you know, you really have to point out to it, the worst thing is And if I'm okay to being very honest, feel free to type it down below that you're okay with me being very honest. I really, I really think that culturally, um, Filipino just— I wasn't set up in the best position. They, when they were younger, they're being raised, uh, they're being raised to, you know, not speak up, don't have— you know, you're not good enough, right? You're not important, right? Uh, you are only deserve like the worst thing in your life. I feel like I see a of that. And because of that, even though they're amazing, it will come across as if they're not good. If you look at American children, the parents literally like, oh my gosh, you are the best, you're the best, you're the best, you're the best, I love you, I love you, I love you. You can never do anything wrong. But in Filipino culture, it's more like, oh my gosh, I did something wrong. Oh my God, this is going to get worse. Oh my goodness, this is going to be the worst thing. Oh my goodness, I don't want to bother them. Oh my goodness, I don't want to ask them more questions than maybe you know, it will look dumb on me. Like, there's just a lot of very, very negative self-talk. And because of those self-talk, that's why, you know, the job cannot stay longer and they cannot hold a long-term relationship. And that's the reason why I wanted to fix that. I mean, if you look at Monique now today, right, talking to you on YouTube, my gosh, at the very beginning, she's not like that, okay? She's totally not like that. But who she, who she is Right now, it's inside of her, okay, who she is right now, it's inside her. She's a very confident person now. She's very resourceful. She's very direct at this moment. But it didn't come like this at the very beginning. She also had a very hard upbringing before, so she doubted herself a lot before. But it took us, maybe not 13 years, but it took us quite a few years for us to peel off the onions, right, to become who she is today. And what I'm really trying to tell you is that Each and every single one of you are talented. You might be the diamond in the rough, right? We might just see the rock, the rough rock from the outside, but every single one of you guys are diamond. If you're willing to work towards yourself and face the truth and work, you know, on becoming that diamond, every one of you guys are amazing and are perfect. It's just whether or not you are willing to give yourself that chance and keep fighting and keep learning and keep getting better and better every single day.

I like that. Thank you so much for sharing that, boss, because I just want to share as well that we do have a program that really, you know, help us as Filipinos, you know, really help us with our personalities, be confident, being able to speak up, being able to communicate already, do not overthink, because Filipinos are definitely overthinkers. We overthink almost everything. Oh, maybe she's like this, that's why. Maybe she's thinking this way because I did this, you know, things like that. But we do have a program which would help us with, you know, better communication. You know, it would definitely help you on a personal level. So thank you so much, boss, for bringing that up and also for creating a program for Filipino— not just for Filipino VAs, but especially for Filipino VAs.

Yeah, absolutely, because I mean, the truth is, even though I'm not Filipino, right, but I used to have all those challenges myself. I have a hard time speaking up, I never value myself, I don't think people are going to think that I'm important, and I continuously growing, and that's how I become who I am today. Well, what are some of the messages that, you know, that you can give to motivate, to inspire, right? The virtual assistant who wants to be a good, you know, looking for a full-time position, you know, what are some of the messages that we can give to them? I know Monique will have a lot because Monique loves you, and Monique always, always, always trying her very best to give all of you guys a better life because she now has a really, really good life that she's very satisfied with. But as for me, I just want you to know that we all start from somewhere. We all start from the same point. I wasn't grow up like this at the very beginning. I wasn't born to be a business owner. I wasn't born to be confident, but I built it up. If you have the right community, you have the right support, you can have whatever you want to. Okay, you can have whatever you want to. And the next episode, we're going to talk about, you know, virtual assistant being romanticized. But here I am, I'm not trying to romanticize the thing because it is real. Me and my Me and Tony have been together for 13 years. She is closer to me than any one of my family members, any one of my partners. I know that we have a relationship for life. So imagine, right, that you have a permanent partnership with someone across the globe, right, that trusts you so much. And right now she is 35. She's 10 years younger than me. But just imagine when she is 55, 65, right, when I'm 65, 75. How amazing is a life that we are going to have because of how many years we have worked with each other? How amazing would that be that at 50 you don't have to look for another job, right? You already have a permanent position that you have, right? We have a permanent, you know, locked up relationship that you don't have to worry about. You can literally enjoy life and not looking for a job over and over again, rebuild a relationship over and over again, relearn the industry over and over again. And I know that if Monique can do it, you can do it too, right? And with the right support with the right group, you know, you can really live your dream life the way that you design it. What about you, Mel? What do you want to tell all your amazing brothers and sisters?

I love that you mentioned about the relationship because our relationship already had me, had me have her number as my emergency contact on my watch and on my phone. So if I can put her on my driver's license license, I would, but it's a US number, so they may not be able to call her. But on my phone and on my watch, she's my emergency contact. I don't know why I did that when I was putting it in. Um, who should people call when something happens to me? Okay, let me just put Boss Phyllis here. So that's the relationship that we have right now. And then I just want to tell you this for all the aspiring virtual assistants it is possible. You do not have a VA experience, that's totally okay. I started somewhere as well. I started not having, you know, a virtual assistant experience. I also started working as a personal assistant for Boss Phyllis, like just posting Craigslist ads, guys. Like, that's the easiest job that I had in my whole life. And then imagine me right now, I am currently running the operations of the company. Yes, for an agency located in United States, which is based in United States. It is possible, but of course it would take a lot of work, it would take a lot of effort, it would take a lot of, you know, crying days, crying moments, hard days. But you do it hard, you do it anyway, okay? So don't stop where it's hard. I'll stop, okay, let me find another client. Oh, it's hard again, okay, let me get another client. It is not like that. There's always way to upscale, there's always way to You know, always learn something, always try to grow, and again, it is possible to be where I am right now. So I want everyone to be a CEO of a company one day, or maybe not, maybe just, maybe just a regular virtual assistant, an executive assistant, but living the life that you want. I am living the life that I want right now, and I want that for every one of you. So Yes, so welcome, welcome to our podcast, and for the next episodes, we'll be discussing a lot of interesting topics about the virtual assistant.

Absolutely, absolutely. So we're gonna see you at the next episode about virtual assistant and romanticizing, and that was a new topic for me, but it really, really, really is a very very useful topic, especially if you are new in the virtual assistant world, because Monique wanted to really protect you from what is real and what is myth, what, you know, and how you're walking on the street or you're trying to think about that you can fly, but you cannot necessarily fly. And that's what we have for you. I hope you really enjoyed this. Please type it down below and let us know what is your, some of your breakthroughs, some of your aha moments, or do you agree or disagree with what we talk about? Because if you disagree, please let us know. If you do agree, please let us know too, because I know, again, just like what I said, Filipino at the very beginning have a very low trust level. So if you agree or disagree with me, that will help with the trust level of this episode and let other virtual assistants know that they are also being supported and they are also important. Okay. And again, last but not least, I want to share with you that You are important, you are loved, you are seen, and we are here to support you, whether it's through YouTube channel or through our community. And talk to you soon.