April 22, 2022 • 32 mins
In this Episode I share the conversation I had with Eric and Tyler from Coconut VA. They recently sold their first business, and have immediately transitioned to their new business. Great conversation that gives a great glimpse into what it's like to build a start up. These guys both have an amazing perspective on growth and entrepreneurship - Enjoy!
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Episode Transcript
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Dale Majors (00:00):
In today's podcast I share with you the
conversation I had with EricEspinosa and Tyler Leber from
Coconut VA. These guys actuallyjust sold another startup and
are kicking off another virtualassistant company where they
source they help us companiessource VAs from the Philippines.
(00:22):
And Eric actually recorded thisfrom the Philippines, where he
is spending a month in the shoesof his virtual assistants, and
working US hours, you know, thegraveyard shift and it's really
cool. He actually just had aTikTok go viral. He shares a bit
about that in the episode. Andthese guys are sharp. I'm really
(00:43):
excited to share with you, theepisode and I hope that you find
some great learnings from it. Sowithout further ado, here is the
episode
VA Intro (00:52):
Welcome to the venture anyway, build your podcasts.
Insights from the trenches bythose who are busy building.
When I finally embraced what Iwas really good at, it kind of
felt like an adventure. Yeah, Ireally would have done a lot
differently.
Dale Majors (01:14):
Hello, hello Dale majors here and welcome to the
Venture Anyway Builder Podcast.
On today's episode, we haveTyler Leber and Eric Espinosa
that are currently working onCoconut VA and had a company
that they just sold. And I willlet them tell us more about it.
But welcome to both of you. Andlet's let's just get rolling.
And tell us kind of where you'vebeen. And tell us a bit about
(01:35):
you.
Eric Espinosa (01:37):
Oh, I guess I'll go first. So, Tyler and I met at
BYU, we were running, I wasrunning a startup called Venture
Validator. It was a marketresearch firm that would search
for product market fit throughsystematized surveys. So finding
out price point, ideal customerprofile, all that jazz. Tyler
(02:00):
and I met via a - an internshipapplication that I had out
there. He actually started outas an unpaid intern, very
quickly became a paid employee,I eventually became a
co-founder, minority co-founderthat business and then when we
sold Venture Validator, webecame equal partners in Voconut
(02:22):
VA. So that's kind of our storyin a nutshell.
Dale Majors (02:26):
Love it. And you you're both young, I pulled out
your age early. I don't thinkyou can talk about age too much
when people are past 30. Butwe're - you're 25 and 27. Yeah,
you're 27. Tyler, you're 25. Youguys are super young. And as a
as an old guy, 39. Who is, It'skind of fun getting old in that
(02:47):
way. Right. But that's reallyimpressive that you've had the
experience. So early in yourjourney that you've been able to
have that? What, uh, what aresome of the key lessons that
you've learned? Doing this overthe last couple of years?
Eric Espinosa (03:02):
It will go for Tyler.
Tyler Leber (03:04):
Um, yeah, so I'd say one of the biggest things
that I've learned is just likeunderstanding your strengths,
but also just your personality.
So for example, like I, asyou'll probably see, in a
podcast, like I am more of theintrovert, I am more of the
conservative person. And Ididn't really realize that about
(03:24):
myself too much when it came tolike the business side of
things. Like I always thought,oh, I can, you know, I can be an
entrepreneur, I can come up withbig ideas and all that. And so
that's what my plan always was.
But I never really had theconfidence or, or drive I guess
to like, push forward my ownbusiness and like, start
something from scratch, push itout into the world and get
(03:47):
people to buy my whatever. Andlike, that's just not who I am.
And I think I can do thateventually, but definitely not,
you know, my first business. Andso I think what I realized is
like, okay, I'm good at all theoperations side of things,
though, I just can't be the faceof the business, I can't drive
this business out into the wildand be charismatic enough to
sell it. And so that's what Irealized about myself is I need
(04:09):
to attach myself to somebodythat can drive the business
forward. And so that's, I'd say,the biggest lesson I learned is
you have to surround yourselfwith the right people, you are
you like as an individual aren'tgoing to be the best person that
you know, every function in yourbusiness. And I knew that I was
not going to be the marketingguy the face of the business.
And so that's when I found Ericand realize, okay, this is
(04:32):
perfect. He can do everythingthat I don't like doing. I can
do the taxes and all this stuffthat he doesn't like doing. So
it's perfect. So I'd say like,oh, to say one lesson that I
learned, I'd say that was thebiggest one.
Dale Majors (04:45):
Yeah. And how has that played together? Eric is
you're on the other side of thatkind of the Yin Yang. You know,
what have you seen?
Eric Espinosa (04:53):
Oh, I mean, I was able to go out to Thailand and
live on the beach last monthbecause Tyler has operations
taken care of, and I can dostrategy. So that's played out
pretty well. I really, just,it's the whole, very typical,
you know, visionary, and theoperator, the integrator,
(05:15):
whatever you want to call it,there are things that we have to
have in common. And there arethings that we have to have
different. The things that wehave in common that I think
really helped us is that we havea lot of shared experiences,
shared background, so we see theworld in a similar light. And
then we also in personalitytests score very high for logic,
(05:39):
which means that I think we canbe convinced of the same
evidence to come to the sameconclusions. And then besides
that, we're very different. He'sextremely conscientious,
extremely, you know, quick torespond to emails and just loves
being in, you know, fivedifferent areas doing this doing
that. I am so slow at all ofthat I can see things that he
(06:02):
can't see. And I can do veryminut, nitty gritty things, but
I'm much more slow at it.
Because I'm a visionary. I takeeverything in so yeah, just you
know, playing to your strengths,and then building your team out.
Staying in your lane.
Dale Majors (06:17):
I love it. So Tyler. I think culturally we
celebrate the Eric's more thanthe Tyler's unfortunately, I
agree. Yeah. So and I think Ilove Eric, your perspective
around that, because I was kindof in your place, I'm more of a
visionary more than out andabout the one who's like, Hey,
look at me, I did all thisstuff, you know, not that you do
(06:39):
that. But I think I did. And I,in my first business Bike Wagon,
we sold bike parts online, I gotmy dad involved within a couple
years of doing it. And he wasreally strong, he was the Tyler
in our, in our kind of businessmarriage. And I took so much of
the credit. And but after aftereverything, especially 10 years
(06:59):
down the road, I see how much Ineed that. And how much it how
much. I'm so much more grateful.
I didn't know what I had at thetime. But now that I've done a
couple other businesses, Irealized how much more powerful
and impactful I can be, if Ihave someone doing that part. So
(07:20):
I think it's so important forwell, it's just really rad that
you guys have learned that soearly, and that you're defining
that. And that it's okay to notbe like, you know, to be able to
feel 100% about yourself and belike, this is just my skill. And
I own it. I'm great at doing thetaxes and doing these things
operations. And that you'resaying, Look, I couldn't be in
(07:41):
Thailand for a month? Because Ihave a guy like that. Because
you if not, you know, you couldsay you could not give him the
credit that's due. And I thinkunfortunately, that happens a
lot.
Eric Espinosa (07:56):
Well, I like it's not one plus one equals two,
it's, I am half as productive asa normal person. And Tyler's as
productive as normal person, butyou put us together. And now I
can lead him to Hey, this iswhere we got to start focusing
our energies in and all of asudden we make five. And so I
(08:19):
think very, very early on, as westarted having more
conversations finding out, youknow, strengths, weaknesses. And
I think above all, I mean, thethe typical high energy, you
know, entrepreneur, the you inthe eyes of the world, we're
terrible business partners,we're terrible leaders, we're
terrible, just like at a lot ofthings, because we can't focus
(08:43):
on more than what's on our plateat one time. And we drop a lot
of things in being a co founder,like Tyler, where you're never
late to things, you always youknow, are you have all your
paperwork done on time you'reresponding to emails, like
everything that they do. It'sjust not who we are. And so it
(09:05):
can very much be an abrasiverelationship, if there's not
that conversation. And I think,because Thailand, I had so many
of those conversations early onsaying, hey, this, like I have a
lot of dyslexia, actually,that's why I can do some of the
things that I can do as avisionary. It's because I see
the world differently and canmake connections that comes with
(09:26):
some downsides. And so, becausewe've had conversations on that,
and I think that I've been vocaland helping Tyler understand
that, hey, these are justweaknesses. We need to outsource
these things. I feel like we'veboth grown to the point where he
doesn't feel frustrated with mewhen I've seen other operators
(09:49):
dealing with their crazyentrepreneurs are extremely
frustrated because they don'tunderstand that that's just part
of the mixed bag that goes withthose skills.
Dale Majors (09:58):
Yeah, that's awesome. I Yeah, I wish I was
that self aware when I was, youknow, starting my first
business. Luckily, my, mybusiness partner loved me
because he was my dad and like,relationship. So it worked and
he couldn't, you know, disown meor it was so good. I love that.
Well, let's let's segue a bitinto, you know, thinking about
(10:19):
superpowers, Tyler, you know,what do you what are you
realizing that you do reallywell?
Tyler Leber (10:27):
Yeah, I mean, like, we've kind of alluded to so far,
just the execution on things, orjust even like the, the follow
up, or the other nitty gritty, Iguess, like, Eric is fantastic
at outlining a framework, andjust that super high level
vision that like, sometimes Ican't even see or can't really
comprehend. And I definitely,like, can't come up with my, you
(10:50):
know, on my own. Like, it justdoesn't come to me as naturally,
like, Okay, we need to make aplan for the next six months,
like, I have, I struggle withthat. But as soon as Eric's
outlined that, or, you know, thevisionary in the relationship
has outlined that and says, Hey,this is who we are, this is
where we need to be all of that.
And, you know, as long as I buyinto it, of course, then, like,
that's when I, I shine, I feellike it's like, get excited
(11:14):
about, you know, because I wantto fulfill that vision, like,
you know, he believes in itstrongly enough to pitch it to
the team to pitch it to theworld. I buy into it, as long as
he keeps, you know, believing inthat and pitching that. I'm
going to do everything I can tobe the execution or you know,
and, you know, fulfill thatvision build up that vision to
its full potential.
Dale Majors (11:38):
Yeah.
Eric Espinosa (11:39):
But like, it's all the project management that
goes with team training people,just making sure we hit
deadlines. And then a lot of it,you know, software automations,
understanding purchase, beingable to be extremely aware of
all the different pm tools thatare out there, all the zapier
integrations are going to happenand say, Okay, this is the
(12:01):
vision. Well, here's all thesteps that need to happen for
that. So let's go and dive intothe software's and plug it
actually make this vision areality.
Dale Majors (12:10):
I love that. What was your degree in School title?
Tyler?
Tyler Leber (12:13):
Economics.
Dale Majors (12:14):
Economics? Awesome.
Cool. Great. Um, Eric, what?
What would you say, you know, isyour superpower?
Eric Espinosa (12:22):
Um, like I said, it's definitely the visionary
portion. So I do have some, somedyslexia, what, from my
understanding what does yoursons and neurons are a bit
further apart in your brain,which allow you to see
(12:42):
connections, from disparatethings that don't make sense to
other people? And if you reallythink about it, that's kind of
what innovation is you're takingto things that don't look like
they're connected, make themconnected, and all of a sudden
realize something new. It'sreally not something new,
though. So yeah, I think I'mreally good at seeing what
(13:03):
something can be. And that'sbridled by checking in
validating, is your visionactually reality? Or is it just
a mirage? I think it's thebiggest problem that we have as
entrepreneurs is we're alwaysdreaming big. But we can be
quite diluted and deranged inour dreams if we allow reality
(13:24):
checks. So yeah, I would say andthen I can do every single
position that anyone has in anyof our organizations, I can
learn very quickly. And I can doa very large variety of things.
But I just realized I'm theslowest data, so I will do it
(13:46):
once. And then Tyler will helpsystematize it. So that's been
done multiple times, but I'mnever in the operations or else
we'd have very slow company.
Dale Majors (13:55):
Yeah. I love that.
Well, as you're saying that, itthat a lot of what you said
rings, pretty true. And I coulddo a lot of those things. But
I'm really lousy at it. Youknow, like it is it is nice when
you realize that other peoplecan be greater a lot better than
you at things. I don't know, Ithink that's a good lesson for
(14:15):
every entrepreneur to learn islike, you can do it. But in most
things, you could find somebodythat's way better than you just
to be open to that idea. So youcan be searching in other people
to say, well, what are youamazing at? Like, what are you
reaching out that you couldbring to the team? And I want to
do these two things, because I'mreally great at them. Yeah. So
(14:36):
every platform -
Eric Espinosa (14:41):
We're actually really I mean, so we have a
staffing agency for virtualassistants. So we're quite good
at hiring. It's all we do is wehire and we look for people's
Dale Majors (14:48):
Yeah. Well, that's amazing. I love that. As you're
potential. But then also, youknow, internally we do quite a
bit of hiring and for us, it'sit's looking at their their
personality trait It's in theirstrengths and those talents. And
I don't really care so muchabout their resume and their
experience, as much do they havethese core talents, they're
(15:09):
needed to succeed and excel, Iguess, in this area. And that
served us very, very well. Infact, we just sold a venture
validator. And we aren't havingany employees transfer with the
business, which is kind ofcrazy. But because everything's
all systematize. And we know thetype of person that has to fit
in that role. So when we werehiring an operator for the new
(15:32):
owner, we had these are thepersonality markers, they have
to have, they have to score thismuch on conscientiousness, this
question extraversion, this muchon agreeableness, this much on
neuroticism. And we literallygot our whole hiring process to
the point where we had 60 peopleapplied, only 20 of them
actually fit the box of who weneeded. And then from there,
(15:54):
we're now saying, Okay, let's dosome skills checks. And let's
see how well can you actuallyperform the job by doing a
little bit of a test, but wedon't really care about your
background, we just care aboutwhat your potential is.
saying that I'm like, wow, Iwish we did a better job at
those things as we hire, whichwhich personality test framework
(16:17):
do you recommend people use?
Like if I'm, if I'm running asmall business, and I've got a
few employees, like, which oneare you turning to?
Eric Espinosa (16:25):
Big Five.
Dale Majors (16:27):
Big Five.
Eric Espinosa (16:27):
Big Five personality, if you're if you're
running a small business, andespecially if you have co
founders, you're going to wantto make sure that they are
scoring very high on theopenness to change, really, any
employee needs to have high andopenness to change. Because as a
startup, you're constantlytaking on more responsibilities
(16:47):
as a as a team member. And ifyou are stuck in the mud, and
you think that, hey, my jobdescription that I signed on to
the team with isn't going tochange, you're not going to do
well in a startup. And then, youknow, the next thing is just
going to be conscientiousness,you need people who have high
attention to detail. In mostaspects of your teen, there are
(17:08):
a couple of maybe some creativethings that you can get away
with. But most people, those thetwo traits that I would look
for, you know, being over 70% onthe scale, then neuroticism or
their how emotional they are.
It's difficult to deal with highstress situations that happen in
startup, if people aren't asadept to controlling their
(17:33):
emotions. So having theiragreeableness be high is quite
useful. But if it's too high,they're maybe not going to be a
leader that's maybe taking aposition. So there's a lot of
things that you can use
Dale Majors (17:47):
Yeah, awesome. I've used this Clifton Strengths
depending on what you're hiringfor. But I think Big Five has
served us really well.
Finder a lot. And disc.
Secondly, but mostly CliftonStrengths Finder, so I'll have
to check out the big five
Eric Espinosa (18:01):
Strength finder's great though, it's just I think
they charge you so.
Dale Majors (18:05):
Yeah, the Big Five doesn't it's free.
Tyler Leber (18:07):
Yeah.
Dale Majors (18:08):
Wow. Okay, I'll have to check that out. Okay, so
where you've, you've alreadyyou've you've done your first
business, you sold it now you'renow you're launching your second
one? What is it? What will itlook like for the two of you to
arrive? Like, when will you havearrived?
Eric Espinosa (18:29):
We have some really cool announcements that
we can't announce when thispodcast when you airing this?
Dale Majors (18:34):
In to next Friday.
Eric Espinosa (18:37):
Oh, that's too soon. We can't announce that.
Really cool pictures.
Dale Majors (18:41):
I can put it off.
When do you want it to? When doyou want it to air?
Eric Espinosa (18:45):
I will announce this when we announced this. But
yeah, we have some very specificpictures of what we want Coconut
VA look like. But high level,it's very much giving back to
our virtual assistants. So forus, the principles that we
follow is that you need to takecare of your employees, your
(19:08):
VAs. First, you always put yourteam first and the founders,
they're not getting any type ofincome at all until they're
taken care of. Then oncenonprofit comes in, founders are
getting market rate salaries.
But during this time, they'vevery much sacrificed and
struggled. And that's what youdo as an entrepreneur, you take
on that risk. But then once youstart getting Margaret's salary,
(19:29):
you're now able to have profitsand get an ROI. And for us, we
have very specific measurementson what that ROI is. And after
you hit and exceed that point,then it's giving back to the
community giving back to thevirtual assistants or your
employees that are on your team.
(19:51):
And then after that it's kind ofseeding the community that was
seeded by you from otherentrepreneurs that have been in
that fourth stage that reallymade it past So for you to start
in the beginning, so yeah, wehave a lot of cool things down
the pipeline for what we want todo. Just on improving the upward
mobility of our coconut VAfamily. And yeah, we're excited.
Dale Majors (20:15):
Yeah. So as far as like that arriving when you can
be in the fourth stage, is thatit for you? Or?
Eric Espinosa (20:22):
Yep.
Dale Majors (20:23):
Awesome. Great.
What about you, Tyler?
Tyler Leber (20:26):
Yeah, I mean, I'd agree with that. Like,
obviously, we went over thatframework together. But
something that we've definitelytalked about previously is like
Eric and I are both happy withwhere we're at, like, obviously,
we are ambitious, and like, wewant more and like we're looking
to get to that fourth stage. Butlike, you know, my wife and I
always talked about, like, we'reso happy with, like, where we're
(20:47):
at, like, you know, venturevalidator, and even coconut at
times, like, we have to behonest, ramen wages, you know,
like college student type wages.
And like, you know, we haven'tmade that much money compared
to, you know, tons of otherpeople. But like, we're still so
happy, like, because we're,we're enjoying what we're doing.
And we're enjoying where we'reat in life. And so I think
that's important, like, notalways seeking something always
(21:08):
reaching for the next step, likejust taking a step back, and
like, wow, like, we have areally good life. And like, I
enjoy what I what I do, andlike, I enjoy who I work with,
and we enjoy each other as afamily. So I'd say that's,
that's definitely part of it.
Like, yes, we have thisframework of these ambitions of
where we want to go. But at thesame time, we're happy with
(21:30):
where we are, where we're atnow.
Dale Majors (21:32):
Yeah, I love that.
Eric Espinosa (21:34):
There's, there's no delay in our inner happiness,
I, we had a pretty rough go atVenture Validator, there were
some dark times we came outvictorious, but not without some
battle wounds. And I remember, aday when it was the third time
in a row that we didn't haveenough in the bank account for
(21:56):
payroll for all of ouremployees. And that was coming
out of my bank account everysingle time there was a time
when there wasn't any more forthat to come out of. And I
pretty much accepted that. Allright, this is it. Like we're
not making it from this one,payrolls. Tomorrow, we don't
have enough in the bank account.
And I had finally accepted thefact that we had failed, and
(22:17):
there was no coming back fromthis. And not only that, there
was still 30k of debt that I waspersonally on the hook for. So
it's not like you can just walkaway from it. Yeah, very dark
and desperate times. But I justwent on a bike ride, sat down by
a river and just kind ofcontemplated things. And I
thought, you know, I'm stillhappy. Like, even even though
(22:39):
I'm stressed out of my mind,right now, there's not one ounce
of me, that would be happier.
Even if I had the money in thesuccess of an entrepreneur who's
exited. And that was so freeing.
It's like, you know, someonewho, like a man who's not afraid
to die has so much liberty willa founder who's not afraid to
(23:04):
fail, all of a sudden becomesfree to take the risks they need
to do to succeed. And thatmoment really changed, at least
for me, in Venture Validator itallowed us to do some extremely
risky things that, you know,were able to get a six figure
exit for when it very, verylikely should have ended up in a
(23:25):
failure. Yeah. So I think, youknow, it's kind of been at the
point where now we haveambitions for growth, but it
really is not like we're goingto be happy when we at this
point.
Dale Majors (23:38):
Yeah. I love I love that. I think it's one of the
least happy times I had wasright after I'd sold my company
and didn't have a thing that Iloved working on anymore. I
didn't have a project. Like,it's like I, you know, I lost my
playground. Like, I used to likethis playground doing it, and
(24:00):
had all sorts of things to dohere. Even if it was building it
was like a construction projectin process, and I don't have it
anymore. And that's why I'msleeping in and I'm trying to
figure out what to do next.
Luckily, that only lasted acouple weeks. But my wife did.
She turned over to me in bedlike at 7am. She's like Dale,
actually, why are you like stillin bed? In our whole marriage.
You've never just hung out andjust been here in the morning.
(24:24):
You know, you're gone before Iwake up, what's going on? I'm
like, I don't know. Like, Idon't have anything to do. And I
had to come up with something todo. So I think it's really cool
that you guys found something soquickly after exit.
Eric Espinosa (24:39):
So it was actually that's why we exited is
because we actually startedCoconut while we had to venture
to Venture Validator going andit started going to the point
where like, geez, we kind ofwant to take some personnel from
the one and build the other.
Let's go ahead and sell thisnow. Now's the best time we
actually was on a Friday withsaid, Hey, we should sell this.
(24:59):
And within four weeks, we hadcash in, in the accounts from a
sale. It was really quick, whichis great. But yeah, we didn't
have that. Built in relaxed timethat I think most people have
where they kind of have this,who am I? What am I doing? I
actually had to force him avacation by just saying, Hey, I
bought a one way ticket toThailand for making it happen
(25:21):
regardless, even though we'rekind of still doing two
businesses, the wind down of oneand now the ramp up of the
other. But yeah, I think that wewould feel quite lost if we
didn't have that.
Dale Majors (25:33):
Yeah, that's awesome. One of my favorite, I
like that. I think you guys passthat I love I love your answers.
And I think when I when I put mycoach hat on, because I really
tried to convince everybody,it's like, look, you know what,
there's no, you need to enjoywhat you're doing. And maybe
there's going to be weeks oreven months that aren't
(25:54):
enjoyable. And that's maybe justokay, that's that's part of it.
But you need to love what you'rebuilding and doing. Because it
is what it is like there'sreally no end. You were engaged
by building and creating Well,at least you know, if you're
wired that way. So I liked thatone of the Josh Little who
founded volley his answer waskind of similar to your guys's
(26:15):
he said, You know, I justrealized that I am. My calling
is to create beautiful things.
And I need to be engaged increating beautiful things. It
doesn't have to be do it doesn'thave to do with like, selling
beautiful things, or likebuilding beautiful things and
selling them or getting gettingpraise because of the beautiful
things I built. But I need tobuild beautiful, beautiful
(26:37):
things. And if I do that, thenthen I'm arrived. And then I've
arrived. So he basically said,I've already arrived, because I
get to build beautiful things.
Eric Espinosa (26:48):
And the best base live in.
Tyler Leber (26:52):
Yeah.
Dale Majors (26:53):
That's cool. I love that. Well, awesome. So um, I
want to wrap up because Tyler'sgot a camping trip to get to.
And I'm sure that by the timepeople are listening, that I'm
sure you will enjoy that. Andit's awesome. But how? How can
we like, a lot of times, I'verealized one of the most
important things, as anentrepreneur is coming up with
(27:16):
the right questions to ask andlike coming up with the right
asks, you know, an importantthing, just knowing people can't
help you, if they don't knowwhere you're going, for example,
so the more clear you can be onI'm trying to get this done,
here's what I'm doing. Is thereanything that you're currently
struggling with or need helpwith in your business? Or are
there ways that other peoplecould step in? Or is there like
(27:37):
a perfect hire, that you couldhire next that would help you
solve a current issue.
Eric Espinosa (27:42):
We've had three meetings about this, this, this
is our biggest problem rightnow. So we have a virtual
assistant agency. So we have USbusiness owners, and then we
have virtual assistants, sosupply and demand. And we really
didn't get in this but I'mactually in the Philippines
right now living a month in ourvirtual assistants shoes, on
(28:03):
their budget, working US hoursto really empathize with them.
Because we want to build themost. We really want to build
the best agency that we would,right we would be okay being on
either side, either the businessowner or the Personal System. So
with that, we just came outhere, I just came out here, and
(28:23):
we started doing some Tik Toks.
And it just exploded here in thePhilippines. And we have now in
the last three days. And we alsogot featured by a YouTuber, we
in the last like three days,we've had like four or 500
applicants of virtual assistantswho have all US accents US
business backgrounds, amazingworkers, that could be for
(28:44):
business owners. But we're onlygetting like a handful of
business owners a week and weneed to really increase the
supply side or the demand side.
So we're just you know, ifthere's PR people out there,
there's growth marketers, youknow, anybody that can help us
really share our story. That'swhere, like, gosh, there's so
(29:07):
much good that we can do and somany people that we can help on
both sides of the equation.
We're ready to scale and ifpeople have some type of
solution, we'd love to hear it.
Dale Majors (29:17):
Yeah. I love that.
Awesome. Congrats. That'samazing. I love that experiment
that you're doing. With family,Do you have family or?
Eric Espinosa (29:27):
My wife's here, bless bless her for being here.
Dale Majors (29:30):
Yeah. That's amazing. Okay, well, let us I
would love to when I when Iannounced this on LinkedIn. I
can make a note to also postabout that, that that would be
Yeah, I think I sent you oneperson. I think Joe Algoryn. Joe
Eric Espinosa (29:50):
Awesome. Thank you so much. For us, it's like
May.
if people just just sit down andthey understand What a virtual
assistant can do. And it's notjust a, you know, automated
assistant that can do you knowsand scheduling it's, it's a
remote worker that's as brightas a college intern, but they're
(30:10):
not going to revolve everysemester. You can compensate
them now with dental vision, allthe full benefits package, and
it's still costing less than USminimum wage employee. When you
have, you know, the greatresignation going on, you have
inflation going on. There'sliterally no better option to
bless more people's lives thanthis. And I've just seen that
(30:32):
firsthand being on the ground, Imean, people out here and making
like a buck 75 an hour. And, youknow, given a virtual assistant
job, they're making three tofive times that amount before
they get benefits. And it'slike, it is so cool. But then,
you know, going back to yourlife coaching and having a good
work life balance, you're nowfinally able to offload these
(30:53):
tasks so that you can go live ina month in Thailand, or you can
go, you know, hiking with yourkids. And you don't have to be
saying I can't afford a USemployee, I'm going to just do
it all myself. So I'll probablyget off my soapbox here. But
there's there's so much I'mbeing out here, I realized what
why I wanted to come out here itwas. I wanted to know what it
(31:16):
was like to be a virtualassistant. And so that this
vision is path that we're goingon in the next five years, when
we get to the stage four, weactually know what we're going
to do with the money along theway so that that purpose is
actually executed upon and Ithink that you know, what brings
you more happiness than bringingother people happiness. And
(31:37):
that's kind of like Tyler and Iare full of the room with our
happiness. And the next step ishow can we help Go bless
business owners to have the samesuccess that we've had in
virtual assistants that have thesame stability that you and I
enjoying the state's
Dale Majors (31:52):
Amazing, I love it.
Well, guys, Tyler, Eric, it wasawesome to have you. We will get
this rolling and yeah, we'll seewhat we can do to increase your
pipeline with business.
Eric Espinosa (32:05):
Awesome. Thanks, Dale.
Dale Majors (32:06):
Okay. Awesome.
Thanks, guys. Hey, thanks againfor listening. If there's
anything I can do to be helpfulto you, then you can email me at
Dale@ventureanyway.com. Also, ifyou know someone I should
interview or if you have anysuggestions on how I should
change the podcast than I wouldlove to hear them. If you want
to learn more about my coachinggroup. You can learn more at
(32:27):
venture anyway.com And if you'dlike to hear baby screaming in
the background, then this is thepodcast for you.
In today's podcast I share with you the
conversation I had with EricEspinosa and Tyler Leber from
Coconut VA. These guys actuallyjust sold another startup and
are kicking off another virtualassistant company where they
source they help us companiessource VAs from the Philippines.
(00:22):
And Eric actually recorded thisfrom the Philippines, where he
is spending a month in the shoesof his virtual assistants, and
working US hours, you know, thegraveyard shift and it's really
cool. He actually just had aTikTok go viral. He shares a bit
about that in the episode. Andthese guys are sharp. I'm really
(00:43):
excited to share with you, theepisode and I hope that you find
some great learnings from it. Sowithout further ado, here is the
episode
VA Intro (00:52):
Welcome to the venture anyway, build your podcasts.
Insights from the trenches bythose who are busy building.
When I finally embraced what Iwas really good at, it kind of
felt like an adventure. Yeah, Ireally would have done a lot
differently.
Dale Majors (01:14):
Hello, hello Dale majors here and welcome to the
Venture Anyway Builder Podcast.
On today's episode, we haveTyler Leber and Eric Espinosa
that are currently working onCoconut VA and had a company
that they just sold. And I willlet them tell us more about it.
But welcome to both of you. Andlet's let's just get rolling.
And tell us kind of where you'vebeen. And tell us a bit about
(01:35):
you.
Eric Espinosa (01:37):
Oh, I guess I'll go first. So, Tyler and I met at
BYU, we were running, I wasrunning a startup called Venture
Validator. It was a marketresearch firm that would search
for product market fit throughsystematized surveys. So finding
out price point, ideal customerprofile, all that jazz. Tyler
(02:00):
and I met via a - an internshipapplication that I had out
there. He actually started outas an unpaid intern, very
quickly became a paid employee,I eventually became a
co-founder, minority co-founderthat business and then when we
sold Venture Validator, webecame equal partners in Voconut
(02:22):
VA. So that's kind of our storyin a nutshell.
Dale Majors (02:26):
Love it. And you you're both young, I pulled out
your age early. I don't thinkyou can talk about age too much
when people are past 30. Butwe're - you're 25 and 27. Yeah,
you're 27. Tyler, you're 25. Youguys are super young. And as a
as an old guy, 39. Who is, It'skind of fun getting old in that
(02:47):
way. Right. But that's reallyimpressive that you've had the
experience. So early in yourjourney that you've been able to
have that? What, uh, what aresome of the key lessons that
you've learned? Doing this overthe last couple of years?
Eric Espinosa (03:02):
It will go for Tyler.
Tyler Leber (03:04):
Um, yeah, so I'd say one of the biggest things
that I've learned is just likeunderstanding your strengths,
but also just your personality.
So for example, like I, asyou'll probably see, in a
podcast, like I am more of theintrovert, I am more of the
conservative person. And Ididn't really realize that about
(03:24):
myself too much when it came tolike the business side of
things. Like I always thought,oh, I can, you know, I can be an
entrepreneur, I can come up withbig ideas and all that. And so
that's what my plan always was.
But I never really had theconfidence or, or drive I guess
to like, push forward my ownbusiness and like, start
something from scratch, push itout into the world and get
(03:47):
people to buy my whatever. Andlike, that's just not who I am.
And I think I can do thateventually, but definitely not,
you know, my first business. Andso I think what I realized is
like, okay, I'm good at all theoperations side of things,
though, I just can't be the faceof the business, I can't drive
this business out into the wildand be charismatic enough to
sell it. And so that's what Irealized about myself is I need
(04:09):
to attach myself to somebodythat can drive the business
forward. And so that's, I'd say,the biggest lesson I learned is
you have to surround yourselfwith the right people, you are
you like as an individual aren'tgoing to be the best person that
you know, every function in yourbusiness. And I knew that I was
not going to be the marketingguy the face of the business.
And so that's when I found Ericand realize, okay, this is
(04:32):
perfect. He can do everythingthat I don't like doing. I can
do the taxes and all this stuffthat he doesn't like doing. So
it's perfect. So I'd say like,oh, to say one lesson that I
learned, I'd say that was thebiggest one.
Dale Majors (04:45):
Yeah. And how has that played together? Eric is
you're on the other side of thatkind of the Yin Yang. You know,
what have you seen?
Eric Espinosa (04:53):
Oh, I mean, I was able to go out to Thailand and
live on the beach last monthbecause Tyler has operations
taken care of, and I can dostrategy. So that's played out
pretty well. I really, just,it's the whole, very typical,
you know, visionary, and theoperator, the integrator,
(05:15):
whatever you want to call it,there are things that we have to
have in common. And there arethings that we have to have
different. The things that wehave in common that I think
really helped us is that we havea lot of shared experiences,
shared background, so we see theworld in a similar light. And
then we also in personalitytests score very high for logic,
(05:39):
which means that I think we canbe convinced of the same
evidence to come to the sameconclusions. And then besides
that, we're very different. He'sextremely conscientious,
extremely, you know, quick torespond to emails and just loves
being in, you know, fivedifferent areas doing this doing
that. I am so slow at all ofthat I can see things that he
(06:02):
can't see. And I can do veryminut, nitty gritty things, but
I'm much more slow at it.
Because I'm a visionary. I takeeverything in so yeah, just you
know, playing to your strengths,and then building your team out.
Staying in your lane.
Dale Majors (06:17):
I love it. So Tyler. I think culturally we
celebrate the Eric's more thanthe Tyler's unfortunately, I
agree. Yeah. So and I think Ilove Eric, your perspective
around that, because I was kindof in your place, I'm more of a
visionary more than out andabout the one who's like, Hey,
look at me, I did all thisstuff, you know, not that you do
(06:39):
that. But I think I did. And I,in my first business Bike Wagon,
we sold bike parts online, I gotmy dad involved within a couple
years of doing it. And he wasreally strong, he was the Tyler
in our, in our kind of businessmarriage. And I took so much of
the credit. And but after aftereverything, especially 10 years
(06:59):
down the road, I see how much Ineed that. And how much it how
much. I'm so much more grateful.
I didn't know what I had at thetime. But now that I've done a
couple other businesses, Irealized how much more powerful
and impactful I can be, if Ihave someone doing that part. So
(07:20):
I think it's so important forwell, it's just really rad that
you guys have learned that soearly, and that you're defining
that. And that it's okay to notbe like, you know, to be able to
feel 100% about yourself and belike, this is just my skill. And
I own it. I'm great at doing thetaxes and doing these things
operations. And that you'resaying, Look, I couldn't be in
(07:41):
Thailand for a month? Because Ihave a guy like that. Because
you if not, you know, you couldsay you could not give him the
credit that's due. And I thinkunfortunately, that happens a
lot.
Eric Espinosa (07:56):
Well, I like it's not one plus one equals two,
it's, I am half as productive asa normal person. And Tyler's as
productive as normal person, butyou put us together. And now I
can lead him to Hey, this iswhere we got to start focusing
our energies in and all of asudden we make five. And so I
(08:19):
think very, very early on, as westarted having more
conversations finding out, youknow, strengths, weaknesses. And
I think above all, I mean, thethe typical high energy, you
know, entrepreneur, the you inthe eyes of the world, we're
terrible business partners,we're terrible leaders, we're
terrible, just like at a lot ofthings, because we can't focus
(08:43):
on more than what's on our plateat one time. And we drop a lot
of things in being a co founder,like Tyler, where you're never
late to things, you always youknow, are you have all your
paperwork done on time you'reresponding to emails, like
everything that they do. It'sjust not who we are. And so it
(09:05):
can very much be an abrasiverelationship, if there's not
that conversation. And I think,because Thailand, I had so many
of those conversations early onsaying, hey, this, like I have a
lot of dyslexia, actually,that's why I can do some of the
things that I can do as avisionary. It's because I see
the world differently and canmake connections that comes with
(09:26):
some downsides. And so, becausewe've had conversations on that,
and I think that I've been vocaland helping Tyler understand
that, hey, these are justweaknesses. We need to outsource
these things. I feel like we'veboth grown to the point where he
doesn't feel frustrated with mewhen I've seen other operators
(09:49):
dealing with their crazyentrepreneurs are extremely
frustrated because they don'tunderstand that that's just part
of the mixed bag that goes withthose skills.
Dale Majors (09:58):
Yeah, that's awesome. I Yeah, I wish I was
that self aware when I was, youknow, starting my first
business. Luckily, my, mybusiness partner loved me
because he was my dad and like,relationship. So it worked and
he couldn't, you know, disown meor it was so good. I love that.
Well, let's let's segue a bitinto, you know, thinking about
(10:19):
superpowers, Tyler, you know,what do you what are you
realizing that you do reallywell?
Tyler Leber (10:27):
Yeah, I mean, like, we've kind of alluded to so far,
just the execution on things, orjust even like the, the follow
up, or the other nitty gritty, Iguess, like, Eric is fantastic
at outlining a framework, andjust that super high level
vision that like, sometimes Ican't even see or can't really
comprehend. And I definitely,like, can't come up with my, you
(10:50):
know, on my own. Like, it justdoesn't come to me as naturally,
like, Okay, we need to make aplan for the next six months,
like, I have, I struggle withthat. But as soon as Eric's
outlined that, or, you know, thevisionary in the relationship
has outlined that and says, Hey,this is who we are, this is
where we need to be all of that.
And, you know, as long as I buyinto it, of course, then, like,
that's when I, I shine, I feellike it's like, get excited
(11:14):
about, you know, because I wantto fulfill that vision, like,
you know, he believes in itstrongly enough to pitch it to
the team to pitch it to theworld. I buy into it, as long as
he keeps, you know, believing inthat and pitching that. I'm
going to do everything I can tobe the execution or you know,
and, you know, fulfill thatvision build up that vision to
its full potential.
Dale Majors (11:38):
Yeah.
Eric Espinosa (11:39):
But like, it's all the project management that
goes with team training people,just making sure we hit
deadlines. And then a lot of it,you know, software automations,
understanding purchase, beingable to be extremely aware of
all the different pm tools thatare out there, all the zapier
integrations are going to happenand say, Okay, this is the
(12:01):
vision. Well, here's all thesteps that need to happen for
that. So let's go and dive intothe software's and plug it
actually make this vision areality.
Dale Majors (12:10):
I love that. What was your degree in School title?
Tyler?
Tyler Leber (12:13):
Economics.
Dale Majors (12:14):
Economics? Awesome.
Cool. Great. Um, Eric, what?
What would you say, you know, isyour superpower?
Eric Espinosa (12:22):
Um, like I said, it's definitely the visionary
portion. So I do have some, somedyslexia, what, from my
understanding what does yoursons and neurons are a bit
further apart in your brain,which allow you to see
(12:42):
connections, from disparatethings that don't make sense to
other people? And if you reallythink about it, that's kind of
what innovation is you're takingto things that don't look like
they're connected, make themconnected, and all of a sudden
realize something new. It'sreally not something new,
though. So yeah, I think I'mreally good at seeing what
(13:03):
something can be. And that'sbridled by checking in
validating, is your visionactually reality? Or is it just
a mirage? I think it's thebiggest problem that we have as
entrepreneurs is we're alwaysdreaming big. But we can be
quite diluted and deranged inour dreams if we allow reality
(13:24):
checks. So yeah, I would say andthen I can do every single
position that anyone has in anyof our organizations, I can
learn very quickly. And I can doa very large variety of things.
But I just realized I'm theslowest data, so I will do it
(13:46):
once. And then Tyler will helpsystematize it. So that's been
done multiple times, but I'mnever in the operations or else
we'd have very slow company.
Dale Majors (13:55):
Yeah. I love that.
Well, as you're saying that, itthat a lot of what you said
rings, pretty true. And I coulddo a lot of those things. But
I'm really lousy at it. Youknow, like it is it is nice when
you realize that other peoplecan be greater a lot better than
you at things. I don't know, Ithink that's a good lesson for
(14:15):
every entrepreneur to learn islike, you can do it. But in most
things, you could find somebodythat's way better than you just
to be open to that idea. So youcan be searching in other people
to say, well, what are youamazing at? Like, what are you
reaching out that you couldbring to the team? And I want to
do these two things, because I'mreally great at them. Yeah. So
(14:36):
every platform -
Eric Espinosa (14:41):
We're actually really I mean, so we have a
staffing agency for virtualassistants. So we're quite good
at hiring. It's all we do is wehire and we look for people's
Dale Majors (14:48):
Yeah. Well, that's amazing. I love that. As you're
potential. But then also, youknow, internally we do quite a
bit of hiring and for us, it'sit's looking at their their
personality trait It's in theirstrengths and those talents. And
I don't really care so muchabout their resume and their
experience, as much do they havethese core talents, they're
(15:09):
needed to succeed and excel, Iguess, in this area. And that
served us very, very well. Infact, we just sold a venture
validator. And we aren't havingany employees transfer with the
business, which is kind ofcrazy. But because everything's
all systematize. And we know thetype of person that has to fit
in that role. So when we werehiring an operator for the new
(15:32):
owner, we had these are thepersonality markers, they have
to have, they have to score thismuch on conscientiousness, this
question extraversion, this muchon agreeableness, this much on
neuroticism. And we literallygot our whole hiring process to
the point where we had 60 peopleapplied, only 20 of them
actually fit the box of who weneeded. And then from there,
(15:54):
we're now saying, Okay, let's dosome skills checks. And let's
see how well can you actuallyperform the job by doing a
little bit of a test, but wedon't really care about your
background, we just care aboutwhat your potential is.
saying that I'm like, wow, Iwish we did a better job at
those things as we hire, whichwhich personality test framework
(16:17):
do you recommend people use?
Like if I'm, if I'm running asmall business, and I've got a
few employees, like, which oneare you turning to?
Eric Espinosa (16:25):
Big Five.
Dale Majors (16:27):
Big Five.
Eric Espinosa (16:27):
Big Five personality, if you're if you're
running a small business, andespecially if you have co
founders, you're going to wantto make sure that they are
scoring very high on theopenness to change, really, any
employee needs to have high andopenness to change. Because as a
startup, you're constantlytaking on more responsibilities
(16:47):
as a as a team member. And ifyou are stuck in the mud, and
you think that, hey, my jobdescription that I signed on to
the team with isn't going tochange, you're not going to do
well in a startup. And then, youknow, the next thing is just
going to be conscientiousness,you need people who have high
attention to detail. In mostaspects of your teen, there are
(17:08):
a couple of maybe some creativethings that you can get away
with. But most people, those thetwo traits that I would look
for, you know, being over 70% onthe scale, then neuroticism or
their how emotional they are.
It's difficult to deal with highstress situations that happen in
startup, if people aren't asadept to controlling their
(17:33):
emotions. So having theiragreeableness be high is quite
useful. But if it's too high,they're maybe not going to be a
leader that's maybe taking aposition. So there's a lot of
things that you can use
Dale Majors (17:47):
Yeah, awesome. I've used this Clifton Strengths
depending on what you're hiringfor. But I think Big Five has
served us really well.
Finder a lot. And disc.
Secondly, but mostly CliftonStrengths Finder, so I'll have
to check out the big five
Eric Espinosa (18:01):
Strength finder's great though, it's just I think
they charge you so.
Dale Majors (18:05):
Yeah, the Big Five doesn't it's free.
Tyler Leber (18:07):
Yeah.
Dale Majors (18:08):
Wow. Okay, I'll have to check that out. Okay, so
where you've, you've alreadyyou've you've done your first
business, you sold it now you'renow you're launching your second
one? What is it? What will itlook like for the two of you to
arrive? Like, when will you havearrived?
Eric Espinosa (18:29):
We have some really cool announcements that
we can't announce when thispodcast when you airing this?
Dale Majors (18:34):
In to next Friday.
Eric Espinosa (18:37):
Oh, that's too soon. We can't announce that.
Really cool pictures.
Dale Majors (18:41):
I can put it off.
When do you want it to? When doyou want it to air?
Eric Espinosa (18:45):
I will announce this when we announced this. But
yeah, we have some very specificpictures of what we want Coconut
VA look like. But high level,it's very much giving back to
our virtual assistants. So forus, the principles that we
follow is that you need to takecare of your employees, your
(19:08):
VAs. First, you always put yourteam first and the founders,
they're not getting any type ofincome at all until they're
taken care of. Then oncenonprofit comes in, founders are
getting market rate salaries.
But during this time, they'vevery much sacrificed and
struggled. And that's what youdo as an entrepreneur, you take
on that risk. But then once youstart getting Margaret's salary,
(19:29):
you're now able to have profitsand get an ROI. And for us, we
have very specific measurementson what that ROI is. And after
you hit and exceed that point,then it's giving back to the
community giving back to thevirtual assistants or your
employees that are on your team.
(19:51):
And then after that it's kind ofseeding the community that was
seeded by you from otherentrepreneurs that have been in
that fourth stage that reallymade it past So for you to start
in the beginning, so yeah, wehave a lot of cool things down
the pipeline for what we want todo. Just on improving the upward
mobility of our coconut VAfamily. And yeah, we're excited.
Dale Majors (20:15):
Yeah. So as far as like that arriving when you can
be in the fourth stage, is thatit for you? Or?
Eric Espinosa (20:22):
Yep.
Dale Majors (20:23):
Awesome. Great.
What about you, Tyler?
Tyler Leber (20:26):
Yeah, I mean, I'd agree with that. Like,
obviously, we went over thatframework together. But
something that we've definitelytalked about previously is like
Eric and I are both happy withwhere we're at, like, obviously,
we are ambitious, and like, wewant more and like we're looking
to get to that fourth stage. Butlike, you know, my wife and I
always talked about, like, we'reso happy with, like, where we're
(20:47):
at, like, you know, venturevalidator, and even coconut at
times, like, we have to behonest, ramen wages, you know,
like college student type wages.
And like, you know, we haven'tmade that much money compared
to, you know, tons of otherpeople. But like, we're still so
happy, like, because we're,we're enjoying what we're doing.
And we're enjoying where we'reat in life. And so I think
that's important, like, notalways seeking something always
(21:08):
reaching for the next step, likejust taking a step back, and
like, wow, like, we have areally good life. And like, I
enjoy what I what I do, andlike, I enjoy who I work with,
and we enjoy each other as afamily. So I'd say that's,
that's definitely part of it.
Like, yes, we have thisframework of these ambitions of
where we want to go. But at thesame time, we're happy with
(21:30):
where we are, where we're atnow.
Dale Majors (21:32):
Yeah, I love that.
Eric Espinosa (21:34):
There's, there's no delay in our inner happiness,
I, we had a pretty rough go atVenture Validator, there were
some dark times we came outvictorious, but not without some
battle wounds. And I remember, aday when it was the third time
in a row that we didn't haveenough in the bank account for
(21:56):
payroll for all of ouremployees. And that was coming
out of my bank account everysingle time there was a time
when there wasn't any more forthat to come out of. And I
pretty much accepted that. Allright, this is it. Like we're
not making it from this one,payrolls. Tomorrow, we don't
have enough in the bank account.
And I had finally accepted thefact that we had failed, and
(22:17):
there was no coming back fromthis. And not only that, there
was still 30k of debt that I waspersonally on the hook for. So
it's not like you can just walkaway from it. Yeah, very dark
and desperate times. But I justwent on a bike ride, sat down by
a river and just kind ofcontemplated things. And I
thought, you know, I'm stillhappy. Like, even even though
(22:39):
I'm stressed out of my mind,right now, there's not one ounce
of me, that would be happier.
Even if I had the money in thesuccess of an entrepreneur who's
exited. And that was so freeing.
It's like, you know, someonewho, like a man who's not afraid
to die has so much liberty willa founder who's not afraid to
(23:04):
fail, all of a sudden becomesfree to take the risks they need
to do to succeed. And thatmoment really changed, at least
for me, in Venture Validator itallowed us to do some extremely
risky things that, you know,were able to get a six figure
exit for when it very, verylikely should have ended up in a
(23:25):
failure. Yeah. So I think, youknow, it's kind of been at the
point where now we haveambitions for growth, but it
really is not like we're goingto be happy when we at this
point.
Dale Majors (23:38):
Yeah. I love I love that. I think it's one of the
least happy times I had wasright after I'd sold my company
and didn't have a thing that Iloved working on anymore. I
didn't have a project. Like,it's like I, you know, I lost my
playground. Like, I used to likethis playground doing it, and
(24:00):
had all sorts of things to dohere. Even if it was building it
was like a construction projectin process, and I don't have it
anymore. And that's why I'msleeping in and I'm trying to
figure out what to do next.
Luckily, that only lasted acouple weeks. But my wife did.
She turned over to me in bedlike at 7am. She's like Dale,
actually, why are you like stillin bed? In our whole marriage.
You've never just hung out andjust been here in the morning.
(24:24):
You know, you're gone before Iwake up, what's going on? I'm
like, I don't know. Like, Idon't have anything to do. And I
had to come up with something todo. So I think it's really cool
that you guys found something soquickly after exit.
Eric Espinosa (24:39):
So it was actually that's why we exited is
because we actually startedCoconut while we had to venture
to Venture Validator going andit started going to the point
where like, geez, we kind ofwant to take some personnel from
the one and build the other.
Let's go ahead and sell thisnow. Now's the best time we
actually was on a Friday withsaid, Hey, we should sell this.
(24:59):
And within four weeks, we hadcash in, in the accounts from a
sale. It was really quick, whichis great. But yeah, we didn't
have that. Built in relaxed timethat I think most people have
where they kind of have this,who am I? What am I doing? I
actually had to force him avacation by just saying, Hey, I
bought a one way ticket toThailand for making it happen
(25:21):
regardless, even though we'rekind of still doing two
businesses, the wind down of oneand now the ramp up of the
other. But yeah, I think that wewould feel quite lost if we
didn't have that.
Dale Majors (25:33):
Yeah, that's awesome. One of my favorite, I
like that. I think you guys passthat I love I love your answers.
And I think when I when I put mycoach hat on, because I really
tried to convince everybody,it's like, look, you know what,
there's no, you need to enjoywhat you're doing. And maybe
there's going to be weeks oreven months that aren't
(25:54):
enjoyable. And that's maybe justokay, that's that's part of it.
But you need to love what you'rebuilding and doing. Because it
is what it is like there'sreally no end. You were engaged
by building and creating Well,at least you know, if you're
wired that way. So I liked thatone of the Josh Little who
founded volley his answer waskind of similar to your guys's
(26:15):
he said, You know, I justrealized that I am. My calling
is to create beautiful things.
And I need to be engaged increating beautiful things. It
doesn't have to be do it doesn'thave to do with like, selling
beautiful things, or likebuilding beautiful things and
selling them or getting gettingpraise because of the beautiful
things I built. But I need tobuild beautiful, beautiful
(26:37):
things. And if I do that, thenthen I'm arrived. And then I've
arrived. So he basically said,I've already arrived, because I
get to build beautiful things.
Eric Espinosa (26:48):
And the best base live in.
Tyler Leber (26:52):
Yeah.
Dale Majors (26:53):
That's cool. I love that. Well, awesome. So um, I
want to wrap up because Tyler'sgot a camping trip to get to.
And I'm sure that by the timepeople are listening, that I'm
sure you will enjoy that. Andit's awesome. But how? How can
we like, a lot of times, I'verealized one of the most
important things, as anentrepreneur is coming up with
(27:16):
the right questions to ask andlike coming up with the right
asks, you know, an importantthing, just knowing people can't
help you, if they don't knowwhere you're going, for example,
so the more clear you can be onI'm trying to get this done,
here's what I'm doing. Is thereanything that you're currently
struggling with or need helpwith in your business? Or are
there ways that other peoplecould step in? Or is there like
(27:37):
a perfect hire, that you couldhire next that would help you
solve a current issue.
Eric Espinosa (27:42):
We've had three meetings about this, this, this
is our biggest problem rightnow. So we have a virtual
assistant agency. So we have USbusiness owners, and then we
have virtual assistants, sosupply and demand. And we really
didn't get in this but I'mactually in the Philippines
right now living a month in ourvirtual assistants shoes, on
(28:03):
their budget, working US hoursto really empathize with them.
Because we want to build themost. We really want to build
the best agency that we would,right we would be okay being on
either side, either the businessowner or the Personal System. So
with that, we just came outhere, I just came out here, and
(28:23):
we started doing some Tik Toks.
And it just exploded here in thePhilippines. And we have now in
the last three days. And we alsogot featured by a YouTuber, we
in the last like three days,we've had like four or 500
applicants of virtual assistantswho have all US accents US
business backgrounds, amazingworkers, that could be for
(28:44):
business owners. But we're onlygetting like a handful of
business owners a week and weneed to really increase the
supply side or the demand side.
So we're just you know, ifthere's PR people out there,
there's growth marketers, youknow, anybody that can help us
really share our story. That'swhere, like, gosh, there's so
(29:07):
much good that we can do and somany people that we can help on
both sides of the equation.
We're ready to scale and ifpeople have some type of
solution, we'd love to hear it.
Dale Majors (29:17):
Yeah. I love that.
Awesome. Congrats. That'samazing. I love that experiment
that you're doing. With family,Do you have family or?
Eric Espinosa (29:27):
My wife's here, bless bless her for being here.
Dale Majors (29:30):
Yeah. That's amazing. Okay, well, let us I
would love to when I when Iannounced this on LinkedIn. I
can make a note to also postabout that, that that would be
Yeah, I think I sent you oneperson. I think Joe Algoryn. Joe
Eric Espinosa (29:50):
Awesome. Thank you so much. For us, it's like
May.
if people just just sit down andthey understand What a virtual
assistant can do. And it's notjust a, you know, automated
assistant that can do you knowsand scheduling it's, it's a
remote worker that's as brightas a college intern, but they're
(30:10):
not going to revolve everysemester. You can compensate
them now with dental vision, allthe full benefits package, and
it's still costing less than USminimum wage employee. When you
have, you know, the greatresignation going on, you have
inflation going on. There'sliterally no better option to
bless more people's lives thanthis. And I've just seen that
(30:32):
firsthand being on the ground, Imean, people out here and making
like a buck 75 an hour. And, youknow, given a virtual assistant
job, they're making three tofive times that amount before
they get benefits. And it'slike, it is so cool. But then,
you know, going back to yourlife coaching and having a good
work life balance, you're nowfinally able to offload these
(30:53):
tasks so that you can go live ina month in Thailand, or you can
go, you know, hiking with yourkids. And you don't have to be
saying I can't afford a USemployee, I'm going to just do
it all myself. So I'll probablyget off my soapbox here. But
there's there's so much I'mbeing out here, I realized what
why I wanted to come out here itwas. I wanted to know what it
(31:16):
was like to be a virtualassistant. And so that this
vision is path that we're goingon in the next five years, when
we get to the stage four, weactually know what we're going
to do with the money along theway so that that purpose is
actually executed upon and Ithink that you know, what brings
you more happiness than bringingother people happiness. And
(31:37):
that's kind of like Tyler and Iare full of the room with our
happiness. And the next step ishow can we help Go bless
business owners to have the samesuccess that we've had in
virtual assistants that have thesame stability that you and I
enjoying the state's
Dale Majors (31:52):
Amazing, I love it.
Well, guys, Tyler, Eric, it wasawesome to have you. We will get
this rolling and yeah, we'll seewhat we can do to increase your
pipeline with business.
Eric Espinosa (32:05):
Awesome. Thanks, Dale.
Dale Majors (32:06):
Okay. Awesome.
Thanks, guys. Hey, thanks againfor listening. If there's
anything I can do to be helpfulto you, then you can email me at
Dale@ventureanyway.com. Also, ifyou know someone I should
interview or if you have anysuggestions on how I should
change the podcast than I wouldlove to hear them. If you want
to learn more about my coachinggroup. You can learn more at
(32:27):
venture anyway.com And if you'dlike to hear baby screaming in
the background, then this is thepodcast for you.
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