Australian entrepreneur Linh Podetti is the founder and CEO of Outsourcing Angel, which helps other companies become more efficient by sending work overseas.
It took just three years for Linh to turn her company into a 7-figure enterprise, but getting to that point was anything but easy.
As a teenager, Linh ran away from home to escape forced labor. Her family disowned her after she got pregnant at 19, but Linh was determined to succeed.
She graduated from university, started two businesses, and eventually became an expert on outsourcing, which Linh says can take your business to the next level and free you up to do what you really want to do in life.
Helping others find that same freedom is what Linh is most passionate about today.
Resources from the episode:
- Connect with Linh on LinkedIn.
- Learn more about Outsourcing Angel and how it can help your business here.
- Follow Linh on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Mark Wright: [00:00:00] Linh Podetti. Welcome to the BEATS WORKING podcast It’s great to have you on the show.
So good to see you
Linh Podetti: Thank you so much for having me, Mark. So
Mark Wright: Linh, I’ve been looking forward to having you on the show because you really are redeeming work. And that’s what we’re all about here at the BEATS WORKING Podcast. In the questionnaire we send to our guests, one of the questions is, how are you redeeming work?
And I want to read what you wrote because I was really struck by this. And you said, I’m redeeming work by transforming it into an experience that’s empowering, fulfilling, and balanced. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a freelancer, or part of a global virtual team, it’s about creating a world where work is a positive part of our lives, not something we need to escape.
And I just thought, what a beautiful statement on what work is. What do you think, when people ask you about the value of work, what’s your answer today?
Linh Podetti: Let me tell you by sharing a story. You know, I remember having my first job when I was at uni and it was an in, [00:01:00] it kind of like an intern experience. And it was one of my most horrible experience ever.
I ended up quitting halfway through, it was supposed to be like a one year. Experience, but I only lasted six months and it was because, you know, the manager there didn’t really care about the people she’s working with. If anything, there was a, there was bullying there. It was all about like, I’m more superior than you.
You’re lower than me. You do what I told you. And I vouched to myself that one day, if I ever was a manager or a business owner, I am going to treat people with dignity, with, you know, and make work so much fun. And another experience is when I end up getting a job out after I finished uni, it was a corporate job.
And, you know, I remember just feeling like, you know, Every day seems like the same old day, you know, no one seems to care about anyone’s professional growth. There’s people there that’s 20 something years and they’re complaining. They’re like, Oh, this place sucks. And yet they’re still there. And so I was able to [00:02:00] kind of see what’s bad about work where work is just the place you make money and you kind of suck it up and hate it.
You know, you do what you do and me wanting to go, no, I want work to be a place where it’s fun. It’s like, I want it to be where you feel like you’re actually. Hanging out with your friends, doing a school assignment and you know, whatever freedom that I can create for myself as a business owner, I also want my team to have some sort of free freedom or flexibility as well and enjoy their time.
Mark Wright: Well, we’ll talk about your business ventures in just a sec, which are just. Fantastic. I want to go back, though. You had a challenging upbringing as a kid. You ran away as a teenager. You became a single mom. You were disowned by your family. I mean, most of us probably would have folded at that point, but you didn’t.
I’d love to know how those challenges early in life, Linh, shaped who you are today.
Linh Podetti: Yeah, looking back, it’s just, you know, one of those very traumatic experience that sometimes I still wake up with a [00:03:00] nightmare, like, Oh my God, I’m, I, I saw myself sewing for my mom and my mom’s yelling at me. And then I actually wake up like freaking out, like, you know, is this still my reality?
So, but basically, you know, growing up, my parents came to Australia in 1992, uh, they felt like they had to kind of build everything from scratch. So. In their mind, they were just going to work really hard and they’re going to buy a house and they’re going to give us our future. But what happened was that, you know, they needed any help they could.
And they got me to help them work, sewed for them every day after school. And it became like child labor. I remember crying and I knew whatever they were doing were wrong because. My friends didn’t have to do that, but I think that experience taught me the importance of freedom. I really just wanted to be free to do what I love.
And I also felt sorry for them. They were self employed. It meant that they could work as long as they want and make as much money as they can. in that 24 hours that they have. And I saw them working seven days [00:04:00] a week. And so it really taught me, yes, the power of work ethics and hard working, but also questioning, this is not life.
You know, this is not what God made us to do in this world, just work all day. And the very one thing that you wanted for us was, you know, building a great future for our family, but you’re, you don’t have any time for your kids and your kids are feeling neglected. And so there is really no family bonding.
And I ended up. Running away from home, our family was just dysfunctional and it took us years and years till I was maybe, you know, 28 when I got married was when we kind of, you know, reunited again or kind of re healed our relationship. And so I think my. Childhood really exposed me to, you know, what does it mean to balance work and life and what does it mean to not, you know, have freedom and it really can be damaging to, to our future.
Mark Wright: So I’d love to hop right into the story of your. First major [00:05:00] business that you did, you spent your last 5, 000 on a nail polish e commerce, uh, business, but nail polish, wasn’t your passion. So I’d love to know why you started that business when you really didn’t have a passion for the product.
Linh Podetti: Yeah. So, um, in search for freedom, I really needed to start a business.
because I, after running away from home, being rebellious, I ended up having a child at the age of 20. And when I got a job, I worked nine to five and I realized how inflexible it was. So, you know, number one is yes, the job is inflexible. Number two is I didn’t really enjoy or knew that, or felt that I was growing because I didn’t have a really good manager.
And so the only thing I could think of is. I’m just starting my own business because I also didn’t want to be this disgruntled people like, like those other people who’s been there for 20 something years and complaining. And I felt like it was kind of up to someone else’s hand to control my future. You know, there was times where they promised a promotion as well and then it didn’t happen.
And so that’s why I wanted to start a business. What [00:06:00] kind of business? I have zero idea. I came from a family of non entrepreneurs. I wouldn’t call my parents entrepreneurs. They were just hard workers who happened to work for themselves. That’s about it. And so I have no. idea. No, you know, opportunities, no mentors, nothing.
And so the, but one thing that was interesting about me is I’m the type that kind of take something and go straight in and I’m kind of oblivious to anything, including when I had a child, my parents were like, you know, you’re having a kid. I don’t care. It’s fine. I can do this. You know, I just, So I, uh, went in without really caring about the, you know, the, the disadvantage of the situation or the consequences.
And so the first opportunity came to me when a friend of mine had a nail supply business and, you know, nail polish, and then he gave me a polish to try. and then I found out it was only a dollar to buy and it’s Australian made and I Hey, I can be a millionaire if I only made 1 from a million girls. And there’s like 7 [00:07:00] billion people in this world, as you know, I’m a very optimistic person, which is what you need to be an entrepreneur.
And so that’s how I ventured into it. And I had no idea how hard it was. It was a hazardous material. You know, you put it in your apartment. It’s actually not, you know, it’s dangerous. Second of all, it’s not very the freedom business I was after either. I had to go and label the product, create my own little color chart, go to the post office, ship it out.
And yeah, I quickly realized this is not what I want. And I ended up, um, actually I sold it for 5, 000, got rid of the, you know, sold it for the website, the inventory and moved on from that. And I, I wish someone asked me like. What’s your passion? And I guess if you had a mentor, you would also know, like, here are the pros and cons about e commerce business and, and whatever else, whereas I just went straight in.
Mark Wright: What was the biggest lesson, Linh, that you learned from that business?
Linh Podetti: Well, the biggest lesson I learned was how to [00:08:00] outsource and that led me to the next business. So, uh, The only thing I really had was that ambition and eagerness to do something. And yes, maybe I was good at people’s skills, but I didn’t have any particular skillset, no design skill, no website development skills, you know, it’s not like I even knew how to draw or create anything or write anything.
And so straight away I had to outsource everything. I didn’t, I didn’t know about outsourcing overseas yet. I outsourced to a company in Australia. I got ripped off. Uh, you know, just because you pay a good price thinking that you’ve got quality work doesn’t mean that you actually will get the result you’re after.
And so with limited funding, I had to outsource other ways. And that’s when I discovered overseas outsourcing. I also learned about marketing. I learned that just because you have a product and you have a website, it doesn’t mean people Come to you. And so then I learned a lot about marketing and outsourcing, which led me to starting my next business, which was a marketing agency.
And so I guess the core lesson through it is [00:09:00] that you never know where life takes you take that first step. And that first business might be the business that teaches you a skill set that will help you to launch a, you know, the, the next successful business.
Mark Wright: So the marketing company, correct me if I’m wrong, but it was called red and black.
You founded that in 2011. As you started to work more and more with outsourcing, uh, folks, what was that like scaling up that business with outsourcing? It seems to me a hard decision would be to figure out what do we keep in house? What do we outsource? Yeah.
Linh Podetti: So the whole model is outsourced, meaning like I would use people from overseas, but I started off with using contractors for first, you know, project base, you do this, I get it done and I charge the client that when I get a project in, you know, you do the work, but with that, it meant that.
You know, they might be working with other clients. They’re not always there on time. And so then you quickly have to increase the hours to maybe part time and then full time. And so that [00:10:00] is kind of the model that I worked with. And, you know, basically we provided website development, SEO, all that kind of work.
But the model that I had at that time was a lot of fixed price projects. It’s like, I’ll build your website or I’ll go and quote you and do this And so it was very, um, unstable, it was stressful because, you know, I was young, I was new in business. I didn’t know how to turn it into a recurring business.
And when you wear multiple hats as a business owner, just because you have even seven people team, they were just busy doing the execution of the projects. Like I’m a website developer. I’m going to give you a website. I’m the designer. I do design. When you’re wearing the hat of a marketing person, project manager.
You know, doing handling your kind of invoices and stuff. That’s when I felt quite overwhelmed. And I knew that next thing I needed to do is at least change my business model where I can expect and recurring income so that I can fund and hire [00:11:00] people and keep them in house to support the clients. And that’s when.
I launched the model Outsourcing Angel, which is rather than me doing project based with you, I will match you with your own marketing person or admin person. And you pay a monthly recurring, but you have your own dedicated staff to work with you. And that became, uh, you know, a million dollar business in three years, I think.
Uh, and well, when you look at it like that, it looked like a short time, but it’s, you know, all the years at red and black solutions as well that added to, to that and the nail polish business that added to the skillset that I got.
Mark Wright: So as you’re coordinating work done, uh, through outsourcing, what’s the key to getting that to work?
Is it the personal relationships that you have with the people actually doing the work or what’s, what’s the key, Linh? Yeah,
Linh Podetti: Yeah, I think whatever you outsource, whether you’re outsourcing to someone local or overseas, you kind of need to know what you need done and how to do it. It’s like when you go and buy a car and you have no idea about a car, you could easily [00:12:00] get ripped off or don’t even know whatever they present to you is actually good.
And so it is quite important to kind of know what you need done. So you’re after and the quality. And so in a way we bridge that gap as well. We try to, because we have the marketing background, when we work with clients, we kind of proactively, you know, help them and go, Okay, what are you trying to do with your marketing?
Okay, well, have you considered this? Have you considered that? And then when we’re hiring people, we also have that standard and benchmark to know that You This, when they say they’re good, we know they’re good because we understand that kind of work. We can’t get into engineering or architecture because if we outsourced and we have recruited an architecture person and they said, blah, blah, blah.
I’m really good at this. And I can do this. We wouldn’t know if it’s really true. And so I think it’s about, you know, knowing that the, the expertise in the area is, is number one. And obviously interviewing. Like you’re doing HR or recruitment locally, you need to interview the right person with the right values, [00:13:00] matching it.
You know, this is a challenging thing about this kind of business. It’s a people business. People are complicated. People change. People evolve. It’s not a product where you can just put the ingredients in, produce it, and that’s it, you know, it’s more predictable. It’s a people game. And so we play, yeah, we have to deal with a lot of fires and people problems.
And probably that’s why clients also know that they rather outsource to someone like us and try to recruit themselves and go back and forth. You know, into recruitment because they can just leave it for us to deal with that.
Mark Wright: Managing people can be messy sometimes. So outsourcing angel, you turned it into a seven figure business in three years.
That’s amazing. When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, Linh, you said a turning point in that business came when you realized you didn’t have to do it all. So you hired a daily ops person, you hired some marketing help. When did you come to that realization? And was that, was that really a game changer for you?
Linh Podetti: Yeah. [00:14:00] Very interesting. I kind of didn’t know what was the next step in business. I just thought I had a team. I’m working online. It seems pretty cool compared to other people who’s, you know, having to travel to work and work X amount of time. And you know, my work is flexible. I did work over time. I did work at odd times and all that, but I didn’t really know any better, but I did know that in order to take myself to the next level.
I probably will need to hire people eventually, but the thing is I’ve been fortunate to attract, and this is where I became a lot more spiritual. And I believe in the divine because God just places people into my life unexpectedly. And so my ops manager came in unexpectedly. It wasn’t someone introduced me to him.
And he had all the, you know, everything in the resume that I would love to have. And I said, no matter what, even if I don’t have the money, I’m going to hire him. Because imagine this, someone who’s ex KPMG management consultant, who’s ran a similar business in [00:15:00] outsourcing, who understands virtual assistants, who loves operations and tools and technology, which I didn’t know, and is available for work.
And then we also kind of got along and, you know, he’s another Vietnamese guy as well. And so. When someone presents you kind of like your soulmate, you know, you can’t help to take it. And I remember him going, what do you want me to help you with? I’m like, I don’t know. You tell me, you know, like you seem to know, uh, have all the things that are so desirable, but I don’t know what to do in the next step.
And so I kind of allowed him. And that’s why I said, I felt so lucky. He came in to my life and then he said, My goal is to make you obsolete, you know, and imagine having someone that instead of seeing themselves as like, you know, like an employee, he sees himself as a partner or he sees himself as my job is to help you achieve your goal of freedom.
I know you’re, you, you’ve risked your life and money. To have freedom while I’m going to give you that. And it’s like, Oh my God, like, what have I scored here? It’s like a jackpot. And so that’s what he [00:16:00] did. He basically taught me how to empower the team as well, other than systemizing and putting a lot of tools and integrating, it was funny, I even had a CRM.
Um, but because my, when you outsource, you can have a cheaper resources. I just thought that I just have to get them to copy and paste my email into the CRM system, right? Cause I wanted the CRM to be updated. I didn’t know that you can kind of zap it and integrate it so that then the information goes straight there and.
A person doesn’t even need to do that. When a person has to go and copy and paste, there’s a lot of error as well. And so I feel like sometimes business owners, we’re very blindsided. We don’t know what’s better for us. Sometimes now that I look back, it’s about being really open minded and go, what else can you do for me?
If someone ever says, you know, can I, you know, help you and maybe I’ll do an audit of your marketing or your operations, I would say go for it because it’s when someone else with the expertise [00:17:00] review. And, you know, have a different look into your business. You’ll be able to see things and they’ll be able to see things and give you advice and it will take your business to the next level.
And so likewise, I ended up hiring the next marketing manager who happened to be a friend who was. Looking for a flexible job. And I knew how good she was because she works for big companies before. And she’s now at that stage where she just wants to have more flexibility. And did I have the money for it?
Not really, but I knew I needed to hire her. And when I took her on, she ended up. Taking over the marketing side of the business. So in a business, you have the upside, you have the kind of the marketing side to bring in leads and the fulfillment. And so now I have the back person. And then when she came on board, she, we built the marketing team.
She led, led it. And then I no longer had to be in the business. And that was when I kind of. You know, realize that, okay, I created an ATM machine. And this is another term that my ops person, Richard said, I want you to have an ATM business machine where, you know, [00:18:00] money just comes out without you having to work, it’s like, yay.
Mark Wright: That’s awesome. And you know, the title of. The show, the podcast that we’re going to label this episode anyway, Linh is how to build a business that can run without you, because that’s really what you’ve specialized in. Um, I have a couple of friends who do some outsourcing in the Philippines. Um, and it seems like the Philippines is a very popular source of this type of work.
Um, can you explain that and, and also what the value is to, if somebody’s never outsourced before, how much of a savings can you, can you capture by going overseas?
Linh Podetti: Yeah. So when it comes to outsourcing overseas, like places like the Philippines, I would say you could get at least a third of the savings. So you’re paying a third of the price of when you pay locally.
Um, obviously when you work with an agency, um, like us, we would, you know, have a margin on top because we become your recruitment manager. We become your HR department, uh, you know, and then we also. Become almost like a [00:19:00] coach for both the virtual staff and the client. So that’s when you pay a bit more, but you will still end up saving half of the cost.
And not only that, I find that the culture over there, people don’t mind working repetitive. You know, on repetitive work, as long as they have a stable job, they’re grateful for what they have. Um, they less desire to kind of continuously grow and become C suite or whatever else. And so it, it’s very complimentary to, to yourself.
When you have a company, you have local staff, it’s not about taking away the jobs from the local staff. It’s about freeing up the tasks within their role. not impactful. That is low value. That is mundane. That becomes boring. And this is where people start to quit their work or they become unproductive because they feel like everything’s on their shoulder.
Just because you can see someone next to you and you’re like, here’s all the work, you know, do it. You got to also be mindful that they also become overwhelmed. So how do they become happy is when they [00:20:00] get to do the really thing that they love and then leave it to the, to the Philippines people. And the Philippines is great because In terms of the English is number one, like literally everyone speaks English.
Whereas, you know, I’m Vietnamese. People think I’m Filipino because I help Philippines, but they said, why don’t you help Vietnamese? And I said, well, in Vietnam, there’s still a large population of people that don’t speak English. And they’re not accustomed to working with overseas clients. Whereas the Philippines has been quite.
Long term established and, um, yeah, they’re very customer service centric. If you go to the Philippines, the way they greet the customers through the shopping door, through any, even at the, at the airport, it’s kind of in them, um, throughout the whole country where they provide really, really great customer service as well.
And so I find them. really easy to work with. So not that I ever, not ever want to help other countries. This is where I have my own YouTube channel. I talk about outsourcing. I talk [00:21:00] about how to build your own outsourcing business, because my goal is that if I could create more entrepreneurs that believe in the same mission as I did, they go and create their own outsourcing type business with different niches, helping different countries, helping different types of businesses.
We’re all going to have a better world. And I don’t have to be the one, you know, helping everybody, but we can all do our part in helping, you know, matching busy businesses with, you know, people in developing countries who need a job opportunity.
Mark Wright: What does a typical client have outsourced? Like what are some good things to outsource?
Linh Podetti: Yeah. Uh, so the typical things that we’re quite strong at, at our company and people come to us is social media marketing, handling email marketing, as well as admin type work. So when a client comes through it, booking appointments, it’s, you know, updating CRM system, it’s sending out invoices is really everything to do with.
Operational admin that can be [00:22:00] done virtually. And then when it comes to marketing, I mean, people also have hired people to edit videos, design brochures, design PowerPoint. Um, so yeah, pretty much anything that you feel like. It can be done virtually and, you know, nothing like a personal assistant where you need someone to go physically to, you know, the, the shops to go and buy you something or install something in person or go and file in cabinets.
Other than that, everything else can be outsourced.
Mark Wright: I think Linh, some people have A view of outsourcing and they some people think that it’s taking advantage of people in third world countries But you have so much experience and you have a very different view and i’d love and i’ve heard you through various videos Speak to this but paint a typical picture of a an outsourcing worker and and the impact that having steady reliable work provides them
Linh Podetti: Yeah.
Well, we have to remember that every country has different living standards, right? You go to the [00:23:00] Philippines, you go to Vietnam, you know, to buy a bowl of food, it’s like 2 or 3 and, and you know, the people there, their salary is a lot different to us. Yeah. When you work with overseas people, if they are getting paid, you know, more or in the same as what they should be getting over there, then there is no way that you’re taking advantage.
What you’re actually doing is actually giving people an opportunity to stay in their country and make a living. I’ve seen a lot of modern slavery. So a lot of Filipino having To leave their kids at home, travel to places like Dubai and Singapore and, you know, be a housekeeper and, and work from there, you know, and not that they don’t get paid well, they then have to leave their family for years on end just to make a living.
So people are willing to do that kind of thing, right? And but here, what you’re doing is they get to stay with their family. They get to be, and in my case, we don’t even have an office. We don’t have a BPO. Because when I, when I [00:24:00] was a single mom, the very one thing that I wanted was being home with my, with my son more and have that flexibility.
And so my mission was to just be able to create more of those opportunities. And instead of just like, you know, as I scale, I’m going to put you all in an office so that I can control what you’re doing. I didn’t want to do that. And so. All of our outsourced staff, you’ll find that a lot of them have worked in corporate before.
They’ve had lots of years of experience, but they too crave for that lifestyle. And so they decided to find a way to work from home. And this is kind of their self self employed job opportunity. And then they work from home. So we create jobs for them while they get to work. And they feel really privileged to be able to do that.
You know, have that flexibility and, and get paid a really great income as well.
Mark Wright: So as you stepped out of the daily ops at Outsourcing Angel, you really realized that creating a, uh, uh, an entire balance in life was a passion. You’re starting to teach others now how to create a better balance between work and life.
And you have a model that you [00:25:00] teach called the S3Cs. And I’d love for you to break that down. When we talked a couple of weeks ago, it really made sense. So break that down.
Linh Podetti: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, before I share that, I also just wanted to share that I’ve, I feel like what I wanted to do is take people on my journey of whatever has helped me, whatever’s worked for me, I’m going to share that.
And so at the beginning it was virtual assistant. They were the ones helping me. So now we offer virtual assistant, but with the part when, remember when Richard, my ops guy came in and helped me free up and created automations and technology that made, uh, Us all worked better. We now offer that as well, because that’s something that creates more freedom for business owners.
And when the, the marketing team started to generate leads without me having to be involved and you know, whether or not I work, it was just a bonus, I, we realized that we need to also offer that, offer that to businesses. Otherwise they can’t succeed with, or otherwise they can’t get to the next step of freedom.
As I, yeah, just wanted to clarify that that’s where we got to, um, in terms of the business side. [00:26:00] But then the next step I questioned myself was like. What did I do to actually free myself completely from business? Because what happened was that there was a few years when I had all that free time, I came up with more business ideas.
I partnered with new people and launched new brands. And then I even like kind of didn’t know what I was doing. And I thought maybe I want to be an actor. And I started doing acting class. I kind of just got stuck in being busy again, busy, busy, busy. And the very one thing that I cared more about was kind of Freedom, enjoying holidays and being with my family.
I didn’t prioritize that. And so it wasn’t until I felt stressed, overwhelmed, and no matter how much efficiency I created, how much more effective my team were, I realized that all we were doing was increasing our revenue goals. Getting more team members and then creating more work for ourself. And then we’re just in this constant rut.
And I also witnessed my own husband who every single year says to me, [00:27:00] when I do this, we will have more time. When I moved to a new factory. We will have more time, wait until I finish hiring these three people and that will free me up time. And then it’s been 20 something years and I see the same pattern and he never broke free from it.
And despite being a co founder with two other co founders, so that means you, you’re not on your own in this business. And with over a hundred staff, I saw that if this is happening to him, I think this is happening to many, many people as well. And so I went on a journey of. self discovery of like, what does it mean to have a successful life?
It’s not financial because every time I reach a financial goal, I want it more. So it can’t be just financial. You know, I’m, I’m also a mom. I’m also a wife. So what does that all mean? And by working with my coach, we went on a journey together. We, he, she basically go, okay, well, then what does success mean for you as a mom?
What does success mean for you as a wife? And when I was clear, I said, it means I have a passionate relationship that is, [00:28:00] that is long lasting. Well, what do you need to do? to get there. It’s like, okay, I want to, I need to go on date nights every week. I need to, you know, go on holidays with my husband alone without the kids for X amount of time.
So there were actually actions that I need to do. And when you action those things, your calendar will get full doing other important things in your life, right? When you don’t fill it up with the priorities, you’ll end up just doing some other work, important work that you think you need to do. And so let me take you back to the S3C model.
Uh, S stands for self worth. And the three C’s stands for Clarity, Consistency and Calm. So self worth, this is really important because the reason why I was hustling and working so hard was due to my childhood trauma. My parents, you know, not only gave me a really hard time, they also didn’t believe in me.
You know, they were kind of like even cursing me, said, if you ever get rich, I’ll, I’ll and kill myself. That’s what my dad said. He was so angry at my dreams and passion [00:29:00] that he was like, you know, almost like threatening like that. And so I was driven to prove them wrong. I said, I can’t wait to rub the success on their face and just, you know, basically I want to be so successful.
So it’s just so I could revenge on them. And then also I had this fear of feeling like, you know, I don’t want my husband to think that I’m just with him because he, he makes more money than me. And there’s all these kind of trauma of. like needing to prove myself. And so when I worked on that and realized I needed to forgive the past, forgive the people that has hurt me because they’re no longer doing anything.
I’m actually just doing it to myself. And I was able to let go of that. And I started to love myself, to knew that I was already worthy and I was already enough. Everything I’ve done to this point is good enough. And whatever I’m going to do now, I’m It’s based on what I just want to do for myself. And when you do that, there’s a lot more peace, a lot more calm.
You’re not trying to beat anybody. And for me now, you know, yes, I [00:30:00] do have revenue goals, but it’s more like a game. It’s more like fun. It’s like, while I have a balanced life, whatever I can get higher in business is a bonus. It’s not really a, yeah, a must do. And so I think entrepreneurs, sometimes we don’t question ourselves, why are we working so hard?
Why do we need 50 million? Why do we need now a hundred million? You know, like what’s all that number going to do? And so that’s the self worth thing. And then clarity is when I mentioned about like, what does it mean to be successful then? Do you know, you know, have you even asked yourself about all those areas and, um, you know, clarity because.
We often have business plans, financial plans, and we have a lot of types of plans in life, but we actually don’t have a life plan. Like what does a good life look like for you? What does your ideal day look like? What is your future ideal? You know, we can, you look like, and so it’s really about a framework of having the clarity of, you know, health, finance, career, giving back, fun, all those areas, what does that success look like in terms of [00:31:00] relationship with people and all those areas of life?
And then when you know what you want, you’ll also be able to have an audit and see where the gap is, where you are now and where you are, you need to be. And that is where you will end up creating a lot of people. actionables of, okay, I need to do this by when, how I need to do this in the frequency of this amount.
And that gives you clarity. And then the consistency is about doing it every day. How do you actually do it every day? You need a morning routine. You need. To carve out time, hold that space and then, and actually do it. A consistency also means like, you know, atomic reading atomic habit and understanding how to, you know, hack your habits so that you can create this.
It’s about scheduling, putting in your calendar so you don’t forget. So it’s like, how do you actually keep that consistency of, um, the actions that you said you’re going to do? And calm is really important because unless we can learn to. Stay calm, not get stressed out over things we can’t control.
Understanding where we are in life and that everything kind of works itself out. And that, [00:32:00] and knowing to access the things that makes us calm, like taking baths, going for walks, doing the things that, Keep our head level, no matter what we think we know, we know what to do. We know how to do it, but we just can’t do it in a way that keeps us, um, calm.
So, uh, yeah, so those other four things and it kind of works into a one page. Lifestyle plan that I’ve created for people, it will help them every three months to really see where I’m at, where do I need to go and what I’ll, what I notice is that you no longer care about how much money you make, you actually care about the continuous improvement of all the areas in your life and your relationship will get better and your business can’t help to grow because if you’re happier at home, you’ll also be happy at work.
If you’re feeling good about yourself because you have more time for your health. You will have more time for your work as well.
Mark Wright: That really makes sense. And starting out with self worth sounds like [00:33:00] true wisdom because if we’re going to prioritize things outside of work, that takes a little bit of guts.
That’s a little bit scary to say, No, this part of my life is more important than work in this instance. So it seems like that, that self worth is such a great place to start so that we have the courage to be able to make the decisions to honor these other areas. of our lives. That’s really cool. And you know, we’re on a mission to redeem work here at BEATS WORKING.
And I’d love to go through a little bit of, uh, some of your responses that you sent in on the questionnaire about redeeming work. We talk about redeeming work, the word, the place and the way. And I love to just drill down a little bit. On some of the responses that, that you gave to us. So in redeeming work, the word you told us that you preach in practice, that work should be something you’re excited to wake up for because it aligns with your bigger purpose in life.
When did that realization hit you? It seems [00:34:00] like it’s kind of part of your DNA now, but was that an epiphany or was that a gradual thing?
Linh Podetti: Yeah. I don’t think anyone wakes up with a purpose and a mission and no use is my life. Um, I didn’t even know that my marketing agency was, you know, doing something good.
You know, even when I was outsourcing to the Philippines, like many people, I saw it as yeah, pretty much like I, um, I can do it cheaper. They seem really good. And yeah, I did know that I’m creating jobs for them, but when I went to the country in the Philippines, I saw how hard it was to travel to work, to come back to work.
It took them. you know, two hours there, two hours back and depriving these people of their time with their family. And that made me realize that, Hey, I’m on a mission to actually create freedom for these people. And no matter what, I’m going to help them to have that time with their family, that freedom.
And then over time, I also felt and understood the struggle of a business owner. I became more like, Oh my God, I am one of those, you know, being [00:35:00] stuck in there, overwhelmed, and even though you think you have a business, it’s supposed to give you freedom. It doesn’t. And so having experienced that myself made me become more mission driven.
You’re right. And so I think it’s about going through the journey of life and then learning along the way. And. Once again, it wasn’t until I was asked to present to a group of entrepreneurs a few weeks ago about how I’m living my life. Did I realize, Oh my God, I found my calling, you know, that it wasn’t just about outsourcing, you know, once upon it was about outsourcing, but no, it’s actually about this lifestyle planning and so that everyone could be happy and fulfilled.
That is my calling. So I feel like, you know, it kind of evolves along the way.
Mark Wright: That’s great. So, redeeming the place, you touched on this, the place of work you said can be anywhere you find inspiration and connectivity, which really does break down the traditional office walls. I was listening to a business presentation in Seattle a couple of weeks ago, and post pandemic only 50 to 60 percent of [00:36:00] workers have returned to the office in downtown Seattle.
So we have skyscrapers that are basically half empty at this point. And this is a Huge turning point in, in our economy. Like, what are we going to do with all this commercial real estate space? It sounds like the beauty of your business model is that you recognized early on that allowing people that freedom to work where they wanted to work was, was really a game changer.
Linh Podetti: Yeah. So when pandemic hit. I was panicking because I didn’t know what was going on. But then in hindsight, I like that was the best thing for us because it made everyone realize that yes, you can work from home and we can still be productive. Because I think prior to that, people kind of go, how does that even work?
You know, even my own husband, he’s never hired a virtual assistant from me because he’s, he’s, he’s. traditional mindset still thinks he needs to see that person. But I think for the first time, even he was like, Oh, okay, now I get it. You know, like you can all work from home and yeah, I think this will be the future.
It’s, you know, unless we can give our [00:37:00] people a chance to also live their life, they’re never going to be fully happy. You know, that’s why it’s not just also about working from home. It’s also about, you know, giving them permission to know that. You can step out and take your kid to school, come back, but finish your work.
It’s not about the number of hours that they work. It’s about the output that they give. And so you can’t also go work from home, but I make, I want to make sure that you’re working that straight eight hours that you said you’re going to work because that also defeats the whole purpose why they liked working at home in the first place.
And, you know, we’re all moms and dads with kids at the age of 30, 40, you know, and that’s where, you know, that, um, we’re more experienced and skilled. But that also comes with the fact that we have responsibilities. And so if you allow people to just control their own time and work when they can work during the day, as long as you give them all the work that they need to do and their KPIs and their performance output that you want from them.
And as long as they do that, it doesn’t matter if they can do it in two, two hours versus eight hours. [00:38:00] Um, and so I think that’s the difference. It’s not about working from home. It’s also about, you know, I guess, output Focus rather than the time as well.
Mark Wright: And finally, the way redeeming work, the way you really have dialed in systematizing, automating, delegating, and especially in this age of developed, you know, as, as AI is coming on the scene, these really great AI engines.
Talk about that Linh, as a way to redeem work by. Improving efficiency so that we can do other things instead of that.
Linh Podetti: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just love technology. It just gets better and better every day. So one example tool that I love, and I think I told you last time was, uh, this Fathom recording tool, you know, once upon a time I I download it just because, yeah, it’s, it’s a tool that actually records the conversation.
It has the transcript, but the moment AI came into the picture, they added it into the system. And now after I have a meeting with someone on zoom within 30 [00:39:00] seconds, it creates this full transcript, digest information way better than my own note taking, you know, categorizing to titles and action steps and, and so detailed.
And so I think that is, Where the future is, it’s like wherever there are mundane work is reputable machines like AI and other automation tools can do that for you now. And so we need to get on top of that and working with experts who’ve seen it, done it. And that’s the thing. There’s so much things out there and that’s just something I discovered, but yeah, maybe there’s something else.
And tomorrow there’ll be more things and it’s really hard to kind of know where to navigate, but it’s also not about trying to install everything. You know, when we work with clients, we always. Look at where they’re at. It’s like, okay, you’re kind of new in business right now. The priority is getting sales or whatever else, you know, even just having a simple CRM right now to do with this small features, that’s enough, you know, and then as they scale and they’re bigger, then you would go, [00:40:00] okay, consider doing this and doing the paid version of this or that.
And I, so I think. We don’t want to be killing our own business just because there’s all these millions of tools that we can use. Uh, it can be overwhelming to the workflow process as well as costly. And, um, but in short, yes, there are faster way to work. And here is why I thought Lifestyle is so important as a, as a something to think about is that C when we first got emails, we thought, okay, cool.
It’s going to save us time. And guess what? We just spent all day emailing and doing more work. Anyway, AI is going to make us super fast and we no longer have to type up notes, but then we’re going to fill ourselves with more other work. And so when are we going to live our life? You know, life will just get passed by us.
And, you know, when I did the presentation not long ago, I mentioned some notable names of people like Steve Jobs, 56 years old. That’s not, that’s not old at all. Right. I’m already 40 and that’s like 15 years left. And, you know, Tony say from [00:41:00] Zappos, 46 years old. And so we think that we have. to live. We don’t know.
It could be next year. It could be 10 years from now, and so it’s time to start living now. Not wait until, you know, we make more And
Mark Wright: as we figure out those efficiencies and we can do more work, that way, um, it’s awesome that in your own life, you recognize that just being busy was not the solution. The solution to having that extra time, it’s, it’s to define what is success.
And then keep your eye on that. That’s, that’s so inspiring. Then if you’re comfortable, I’d love to ask about your faith because it seems to be a very important part of your life. Did, did your face start to evolve around the same time as your new outlook on business and life? Was that all sort of part of the same time?
Linh Podetti: Yeah, my spiritual journey has been interesting because I was an atheist before my parents weren’t very religious. I actually didn’t believe there was a God until I was about 28 [00:42:00] years old when for the first time I surrendered, I had, I had a very bad breakup with a boyfriend and for the first time I kind of went, Oh my God, help me.
And whereas before it was always like, All right, you know, next time I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to do that. It’s always about me in control of my life. And I remember just feeling hopeless for the first time. And that was when I witnessed God’s miracle. Like in that year, I saw opportunities. I was, I met people, I got married within that year, you know, like everything just kind of started happening to me because I no longer kind of acted cocky about life.
Like, yep, this is up to me. Life is all about what I want to do. It’s actually about surrendering and knowing that you need. help from God. And that was my journey. And I, it definitely helps me to, you know, achieve the kind of success I had, whether it’s financial success or my, my fam, I built a family and all that.
Three or four years ago, I still felt something was missing. I still felt [00:43:00] like, Cause we’re deep down, we’re spiritual beings just in a physical body. We’re, we’re, we’re quick as we get older, we question what is the meaning of life? Like, what does all this mean? Why, why do things work this way? And there was no books that actually gave me the answer.
There was a lot of just law of attraction, write down your goals as if it’s already happened and you get it. And I just felt like it was a bit empty. And that was when I. stumbled across a, um, a video from a pastor who spoke things that I understood, but then referenced the Bible. And then when I got curious and went to a church and then read the Bible a little bit, I was like, Oh my God, this is what, you know, the whole world means to me.
And I kind of understood life better. And it was very important because I think when I became a Christian, It was kind of the early day with the pandemic as well. I remember my approach to the stress was very different back then. I probably would have been like, Oh my God, like, what do I need to do? So like, I kind of prayed a lot [00:44:00] more.
I kind of was just like, dear God, you know, just kind of like giving that worries to him. So it was very liberating. It was very at peace. And when things take a turn and became better and every time I worried, Things just resolve itself. I feel like my tolerance to stress is just so high. Like I don’t stress anymore because whatever happens, I know that God has a better plan and so I really hope that more people discover their spirituality, you know, even if they don’t become a Christian or whatever, but they realize that we are not alone in this universe.
You know, we have a father out up there and. Sometimes when we get too cocky, um, that’s when life happens, you know, to us, we feel like, oh my God, why is this? It’s meant to break us. It’s meant to make us feel like we’re not better than anyone. We actually need help. And whether you, so what I find is that you will eventually hit crisis, whether you hit early or you hit it later, whether you find your own crisis and create the [00:45:00] crisis yourself or naturally, you’ll hit it.
I, I’ve seen people who avoid crisis all their life. They’re very careful. They never get in trouble. They never do anything wrong, but eventually life happens to you because what I’ve learned about God is that in this world, he wants us to develop our character, to become a great version of ourselves, you know, to make an impact in the world.
That’s all he cares more about than, you know, all of our, our actual material achievement.
Mark Wright: Does your faith change how you show up in business?
Linh Podetti: 100%. I feel like I give a lot more without caring about getting. I feel like I love people to the next level. I’ve always enjoyed people and I have great people skills, but I can come into you know, in a community like EO, entrepreneur organization, and just give my help and, and have so much time for people because I already know my mission in life.
God explained that we are all children, his children, and we all need each other. You know, you [00:46:00] help your own family, your own siblings, right? And whenever you do good things, good things come back to you. You’re just not afraid. You don’t have kind of a lack mentality. Whereas sometimes without that spiritual power, you Uh, understanding you feel like, you know, I’m only going to give, I’m going to get like, you know, here’s the lead magnet so that you could come to me, you know, whereas it’s a lot more, um, you feel like, yeah, I feel like I can give more, I can accept challenges more whenever there is a problem in business, I know everything will be okay.
I just know it. Because it will always be, God doesn’t give you anything that you can’t solve. You can’t outgive him as well. When you give, he’ll give you tenfold, you know, unexpected ways. And so, yeah, it’s definitely made me a better person and a better entrepreneur. And I’m way better as a leader to my team as well.
When I can be calm, at peace, you know, not stressing out because I have a God, my team also learn from that and become more at peace for themselves as well.
Mark Wright: [00:47:00] So Linh, this has been such a great time. Uh, spent with you as we wrap things up, Linh, I’d love for you to talk to that business leader who may be thinking, how can I redeem work, uh, in my business?
Well, what advice would you give?
Linh Podetti: Yeah. The advice I would give you is depending on where you’re at, it’s really about. Delegating, letting go of the things that you shouldn’t be doing. That’s not giving you much value. And then looking at how do you systemize it? Once you have a team, how do you actually do it more efficiently so that your team doesn’t get bored doing mundane work?
Then how do you actually scale and, and be able to generate leads and, um, so that you don’t have to worry about when the next lead comes. So, and then with all that free time that you have, how do you actually. Dedicate that time, um, to other areas of your life, to your health, to your family, and at the end of the day, we’re here for happiness and freedom and fulfillment, and don’t just focus only on revenue goals or [00:48:00] financial goals and trying to accumulate assets.
Best fulfillment is actually in giving, in becoming a better person. And so, yeah, I encourage you to kind of see where you’re at, but aim to get to that point where you have a great lifestyle.
Mark Wright: Well, Linh Pedetti, this has been such an honor. Thank you for spending so much time with us and for what you’re doing to redeem work, super inspiring.
And, uh, it’ll be interesting to follow you as you’re teaching and your, you know, good that you’re doing in the world grows because it’s clearly you’re on your way. So, and we’ll put show notes to all of your content and, and all your social media links as well. So thank you so much Linh for your time.
Linh Podetti: Thank you so much, Mark. Great questions, by the way. And yeah, privileged to be on here today.