Regina Evangelista – Inception of Mr. Outsource

Derek: Hi and welcome to another episode of the Outsource Accelerator podcast my name is Derek Gallimore and this is episode number 145.  So today I’m joined again by Regina Evangelista of Mr.Outsource, she was first joined us in episode number 142. If you want anymore about the backstory and her involvements but today we talk about Mr.Outsource but again we speak fairly broadly about the outsourcing and virtual assistant opportunities and the world of outsourcing in the Philippines so really interesting chat I really enjoyed my time with Regina.  If you want any of the show notes if you want to get in touch with Regina or Mr.Outsource then just check out our show notes that is at outsourceaccelerator.com145 enjoy.

_____________________________________________________________________

Derek: Hi and welcome back everybody again today I’m super excited to be joined by Regina Evangelista of Mr.Outsource hi Regina how are you?

Regina: Hey I’m good how are you?

Derek: Fantastic thank you and you have joined us previously and I’m really grateful to have you back and today I want to deep dive into Mr.Outsource which is the dedicated virtual assistant but also educational kind of site for outsourcing and yeah super happy to have you aboard I suppose initially you just get people up to speed introduce yourself and how you came here today

Regina: Yeah so again I’m Regina I’m the CEO of Mr.Outsource we are an outsourcing company providing management and supervised virtual assistant services to clients globally.  I say I am an advocate a very passionate advocate for improving the overall standard of the online workforce in the Philippines. I basically want to create more online professionals in the Philippines as much as they want to and then I’m also the author of the outsourcing mastery book 17 secrets to outsourcing to the Philippines and yeah I mean that’s basically the gist of my career

Derek: That’s huge amount of involvement and just to recap again you started your journey with Mr.Outsource because you were a virtual assistant yourself you’re producing content and then you were offered a partnership by your client earned and he said let’s go into partnership and build a virtual assistant agency which you’ve now done and 7 years later you have this agency and you know your a strong component of outsourcing and promoting into the provinces which I certainly salute you for but the Mr. Outsource you know people go there and we’ll provide the link in the show notes but it is almost more than just an agency you have a strong kind of educational piece don’t you for both the VA side but also the client side can you speak a little bit on them.

Regina: So basically the overview of Mr. Outsource is to make sure that the client and the virtual assistant match in when it comes to personality, attitude, and skill set so with that with 1 side taking care and making sure that they are also being coached and being trained and how to take care of the Filipino virtual assistant like they need to pay 13th month pay, they need to at least you know all those sick leave, those family fiesta that they need to go to all those Filipino cultures that they need to be aware of we make sure that they also know that side of the Philippines but in the other side the Filipinos also know what the clients expectations are so really an education a journey for both I call it a T thing period so both of them are trying to adjust how they work with each other and then with that kind of process you know we establish a long term relationship and not waste each other’s time.

Derek: Yeah and you find that obviously there are better retention rates it’s kind of a partnership of long journey suppose to people getting frustrated and then kind of canceling the whole thing

Regina: Yeah again when we started with a recruitment business model where we just match a business over virtual assistant but at the end of the day we can see that the clients really don’t have the time to manage a virtual assistant so that’s why they request at Mr.Outsourcing to manage their virtual assistant and there’s that saturation pointer there’s that habit you know where we can see after a year or 2 months are a year, there’s that friction between the client and the virtual assistant probably the client the virtual assistant felt comfortable and complacent and just worked their way around stuff or the client gets really really busy and couldn’t really manage their virtual assistant but you know they still have to pay their virtual assistant so there is that challenge between the 2 and where we come in again so we just say hey why don’t we just you know bring them in the office make sure that you know everything is done well, everything is being taken care off and what we offer differently is no matter who sits there that have to get done if they hire a Regina it doesn’t matter if a girl or boy sits there that’s standard of work is still going to be followed because we have them annual procedure for all the task.

Derek: Yeah to so sort of enable and to perform well in the expectations of your clients we you know outsource accelerator we have an activation consultation and a lot of it is about actually training the client and a lot of clients they might be very successful, they might be business people obviously but very commonly it’s actually those people that need a little bit of training they need to get up to speed with the managing people remotely with having an outsourced team and you know a lot of it you don’t want be little this person but it is people I think to underestimate the kind of initial growth curve to managing outsourced teams or remote teams or Va’s.

Regina: Yes so it’s always 2 sides I thought it was just ok we just had to train the Filipino on Western culture, western work ethics but we just it’s also important that Filipino culture is also being recognized especially for example 13 month pay they don’t really have they’re not necessarily obliged to pay but if they offer it’s a huge difference you know the celebration of Christmas and the holidays for these Filipino families.

Derek: And again it moves then to sort of properly acknowledge team member and employee instead of just this kind of part-time contract which isn’t really valued there’s a really sort of significant difference in terms of the kind of emotional investment I supposed.

Regina: Yeah and although this is like very petty or trivial but having your face on the website of your client and you part of a team is an Ecoboost top it makes you proud of oh I belong to the company in the west and my face is there and the Philippine flag is there and I don’t have to go to another country so there’s also that proud and even just a picture on the website

Derek: Yeah it’s interesting isn’t it and it is a small to things and what i find about outsourcing in certainly historically you know people have tried to push it like the western businesses they try and push it under the rug and pretend things aren’t being outsourced and I sort of hope for a day when actually people are celebrating and the fact they are outsourcing and people promote the fact they’re using a Filipino workforce you know we have a little kind of logo saying outsourcing powered by experts and hopefully one day companies across the world are kind of promoting the fact that they’re outsourcing using the Filipino workforce to power their company.

Regina: Yeah we’re the go-to place for anything outsourcing.

Derek: Yeah and again I don’t want to blow our own trumpet but we’re trying to promote the Philippines is being the Swiss banking of outsourcing because I really do feel because of the cultural alignment the language alignment the fact that the Philippines has been outsourcing for the longest you know so from India but there’s all this aspect that really make it the kind of boutique high delivery high skill delivery high-quality outsourcing destination and I think it’s like the catching on now.

Regina: Yeah and I think we Filipinos are also western consumers in a way so having to work with westerners is something also very natural to us like western products and western tv shows so it comes naturally to talk to and deal with these people western clients

Derek: Yeah and again i think this is the boom of internet because you know the kids like the whatever the Gen z or the young ones they’re actually growing up on a diet of Youtube and Tv and western program and both good and bad I suppose but it certainly means like there’s kind of complete cultural loan isn’t it in terms of you know there’s pizzas and basketball and just everything is so aligned isn’t it?

Regina: Yeah we’re the perfect fit really it’s just you know ironing the kinks, just ironing some stuff that work ethics versus you know what’s different the difference between being busy and productive but sometimes like we go for hours rather than being productive there’s also that education and mentorship all the time that you know I know more money more hours means more money but you know just to make sure that we provide what we have to provide rather than going in for money, it’s always learning session reminder of every now and then to at least our students.

Derek: Yeah and there’s not just the Filipino thing is there? I think you know kind of there’s a naivety to look for short-term gains or to look for the kind of shortcut with everyone and you know takes us sort of more mature view and sophisticated view you should be in things for the long run and you know kind of investing in the future and offer fantastic quality and it will come back to you but that is a kind of more sophisticated view isn’t it that I think as the industry develops it will happen more and more

Regina: Yes again another experience or story we have employees or virtual assistants that are already in Dubai and those places but they still looking for clients to do online jobs after their done with their work and you know it makes them question why are these still there there still that stigma was OK if I leave Qatar or if I leave Dubai and i go back home like is it sustainable what about getting clients so there’s still stuck there although we encourage them to just go back home and do this seriously and make sure that you have good profile and make sure you have a good skill set there’s still that ok it’s just really a stable job and with Mr.Outsource of an agency we promise that they will always have a job with us are job is to find clients their job is to make sure that you know it’s working they’re working they’re doing the tasks.

Derek:  And i think that it is an education for the Filipino workforce because you know even my elderly relatives if something isn’t tangible like you’re not making clothing for example they don’t kind of understand the industry see you can understand that people in the Philippines that if you’re not kind of producing some intangible and you’re just working online and you can arguably question is this real but the opportunities are unlimited aren’t they because I kind of preach that it’s not just that you can earn a Filipino salary now but if you are delivering and producing as good as anyone else you can earn a Silicon Valley salary or a wall street salary from sitting in the provinces because it is that should be based on a meritocracy which is super exciting isn’t it?

Regina: Yes that’s where the government came in when they found a story being broadcast in the news about a son of a farmer in the rural area whose house looks like a fancy outside, like a very typical bahay kubo house when you go inside there’s like a 20 computers in there you know and it’s a farmer like a son of a farmer now they were able to buy their own land for farming he was able to buy a tricycle for his dad and if that can happen in the province in the rural areas you know it can happen all other rural areas in the Philippines so of course there’s we have to make sure there’s infrastructure we have to make sure that there’s internet at least in there so yeah so hopefully we will really push this by the end of this year.

Derek: Yeah it’s huge isn’t it and there are stories all over the world like this Youtube millionaire of this kids literally children unboxing things and those opportunities aren’t now just for Americans sitting in America like you know this can happen to people in the Philippines and it is with that story that you highlighted  and again I think it’s up to us like your functions and Outsource Accelerator to promote it and make people aware of this in the Philippines and the opportunities they have.

Regina: Yeah and this industries very fast too when it comes to growth so like what we have learned last year is no longer applicable so it’s also that continuing learning was the new technology learning was the new software it’s not just we can’t call ourselves experts on something for so long not until we have to make sure that we know other things we learn it.

Derek: Yeah and that makes it harder doesn’t it makes it harder for governments to build institution that teach people how to outsource because really as you say like this it’s such high redundancy of knowledge actually people just need to be showing how to educate themselves they need to be showing how to access the resources they need and then they kind of unfortunately need to hunger themselves and they just need to go out there and do it that both enabling but also potentially a bit of a hurdle.

Regina: Yeah I mean culturally Filipinos are used being told what to do this is where you need to go to school this is the company you need to go work for because your dad works there so we’re told what to do growing up and being here in the online industry you have to self-study you have to self-tutor you have to self-grow.

Derek: And problem solved as well isn’t it you have to find the avenue so I don’t want to interrupt you I also I was talking at a conference the other day as well and i said that 20 30 years ago the Philippines had so many hurdles and roadblocks or certainly Filipinos that with border control sort of corruption and so many restrictions but now none of that is there expect for 2 hurdles one of them is your competitors because everyone will be competing against you to get that contract or that job and then the other one is yourself because you know it’s important no one is going to give you the job you’ve got to educate yourself you’ve got to go out and look for them you got to do your cv’s so there are still 2 very big hurdles but at least it’s 2 instead of all of these external agencies stopping you and providing friction and things like that.

Regina: I always advise at least my students to always find a complementary service to your service at least you can start from there you don’t really have to compete with the next person just find a person where you’re complimentary with.  So if you’re a website designer developer you would need content in there so look for a writer looking for writing gigs start from there but yeah you’re right those 2 you have to really make sure that you’re in the competition you stay up and you make sure that you stay sharp like we said you don’t have to work hard you have to work smart in this industry so yeah

Derek: And we haven’t as you spoken much about Mr. Outsource or certainly not as much as I would like to just mind of your time but can you just give us a how do people what is the common pathway to people to engage with you what is the common pricing structure this isn’t an infomercial you know but I’m sort of intrigued by all of the different business models out there so how does your one specifically work?

Regina: Yeah so you go to the website www.mroutsource.com and you have from there where you get a free 30 minutes business consultation, now we have to make sure that you are also aligned or matched with our services cause there are clients they think they need and agency but really they just need a per hours by someone in upwork and we would recommend them to upwork or onlinejobs.ph but if the client needs a VA agency like us then we go through a matching we go on the phone or skype then talk about their outsourcing needs and of the pricing point of our very minimum virtual assistant hours is 4 hours a day that’s 80 hours per month for $650 every month it’s a subscription business model so you pay every month and we make sure that your virtual assistant is there.  Now if you need more people we’ll add more people so we have clients that have more than 10 people with us we also have clients that only have 1 but a very dedicated virtual assistant so our clients are we started 7 years ago and we still have clients from 6, 5 years now we’re still serving them so yeah we’re looking for that long-term. We advise you and consult in a way where do you really need a virtual assistant agency or do you just need someone by the hour.

Derek: And all of those terms are flexible then people can scale up and people can scale down as they need?

Regina: Yes definitely, so for VA agency like us even though you want a graphic design done we have a team where someone knows graphic design or you want email marketing done you’re basically hiring a team and not just 1 virtual assistant, your virtual assistant will, however, make sure that she doesn’t necessarily have to do them but she makes sure that they’re done.

Derek: That’s exactly what i was going to ask you just gonna say Regina it people need to realize when they buy services from you they’re getting a maybe a small slice of you they’re getting all of the oversight of the infrastructure they getting the infrastructure support so that’s where the true value comes in isn’t you know it’s not just a sort of loan VA work somewhere but it’s all of this over support and privilege.

Regina: Yeah I talk to your clients every month even though there’s nothing to talk about i just talk to them it’s just that  over communication is so important especially you are not physically in 1 room so when i over communicate with our client even just asking how their day was or how their business is going today it makes a huge difference like oh sure you’re asking me about my day like ok it’s doing great and things like that we make sure every month  we talk about each individual virtual assistant their gapses, their lapses, their strengths their week for that month and it’s just so processed and so easily passed on to another person so yeah

Derek: That’s fantastic and incredible value there for both sides so thank you so much and again if people want to know more about you or your offerings how can they do that?

Regina: Just go to the website www.mroutsource.com and fill in that form and we’ll definitely book you for a Skype business consulting call.

Derek: Thank you so much Regina

Regina:  Thank you.

____________________________________________________________

That was Regina Evangelista of Mr.Outsource if you want any of the show notes then get those at outsourceaccelerator.com/145 and of course, if you want to ask us anything then please just drop us an email to [email protected]. See you next time.