Inside Marketing with MarketSurge

Speaker 2: Welcome to Inside
Marketing With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hello
and welcome back to Inside

Marketing with Market Surge.

Joining us today is someone who
is changing the game in remote

staffing and business scaling.

Please welcome Blendy Maki.

He's the founder and CEO of delegate.co

helping businesses tap into top
tier virtual overseas talent and

build efficiency first systems that
empower teams to scale smarter.

With over a decade of experience in
streamlining operations and freeing up

time for founders and executives, blendy
on a mission to show that the right global

talent can transform the way we work.

Today, we'll dive into entrepreneurship,
remote first leadership, and

making virtual teams thrive.

Blendy, welcome to the show.

Well, and, uh, you know, blendy, I, um,
you want, would also like to mention

you have a great podcast that, uh,
you know, I was able to join you for.

Um, and you would love to, to, I'll
include that in the show notes.

Uh, you, you're very
accomplished podcaster.

So, um, I wanted to add
that to the intro now.

Can you walk us through your
journey, how you got here?

You know, you founded, uh, delegate.co

and you have.

Um, had other great, uh, ventures.

What got you here and
what shaped your path?

Hmm.

Wow.

Fantastic.

So do you focus.

Exclusively on the Philippines
or uh, do you have other

regions that you recruit from?

Fantastic.

Well, so if we zoom out a little bit
and talk about the strategy around

this, um, a lot of businesses, um,
you know, are, are, are engaged in

this, but many others are wary, uh,
you know, for a variety of reasons.

Um, you know, maybe cultural differences
or time zone differences or, um, just,

just kind of the fear of the unknown.

Now, when a business considers
outsourcing or offshoring.

What, what are the questions they
should ask themselves and what are

the kinds of tasks, uh, that they
may prioritize for, uh, offshoring

versus, uh, keeping in house?

Now that's a great question.

Um, I, uh, you know, I, I've had offshore,
uh, staff, which I've, I've really liked.

Um.

And obviously it, it helps a, a small
growing business to, you know, be able

to scale quickly and, um, you know,
I think it's generally a win-win all

around, uh, for, for both parties.

Um, but you brought up something
interesting now, the, the leadership.

Now when you start, you know, you've,
maybe you've hit the level where you've.

Outsourced a lot of the
administrative tasks.

How do you go on then to the
next level and, and start hiring

managers, uh, from these teams?

Like, are, do you typically promote
from those that have already

worked with you or are you able
to accurately assess that kind of

talent from, from, uh, the distance?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

That's, that's, uh, really helpful and.

I think, uh, I mean I think a lot of
this is applicable to any human capital

decision offshoring or, or domestic,
you know, it's, um, so these are,

these are good universal principles.

Um.

Now can we talk maybe a
little bit about delegate.co

and, uh, and your business model?

You know, there's a lot
of offshoring agencies.

I, I'm contacted by, by many and,
and, um, you know, enough that,

um, you know, it helps to have
a relationship with somebody.

And, uh, but what, tell me a little bit
about what you do and, and what, what

people would find if they worked with you.

Hmm.

Okay.

Um, I mean that's, that's a
very comprehensive service.

Um, you know, and, and I think it would
be a great way to, you know, for somebody

that's never done it, you know, to, to
partner with, with a company like yours.

Um, now, so talking a little bit more
about strategic offshore resourcing, um.

Now, how, if, if people are, you know,
starting to, to work with a, a virtual

assistant, um, in a, in a different
country, what, what are some things

that they can do to more effectively
manage, uh, these, these people?

Understanding that sometimes that
maybe English isn't the first

language, though the skills are strong.

Uh, and then, uh.

You know, there are some
cultural differences,

stylistic differences perhaps.

And then, um, you know, the being aware
of often, uh, time zone differences,

how, you know, I mean, that's a lot,
but what, what are, what would you

coach these, uh, these first time
outsourcers to, uh, to be mindful of?

Yeah.

Yeah, that, that is good advice.

And, um, you know, I've, I've.

I've worked with a, a handful of, uh,
Filipino, uh, staff and, um, yeah,

I would, I would totally share that.

And, and I'd say this mostly as, um,
like a full endorsement of, of working

with, with Filipinos in terms of how
friendly they are, um, you know, their

intelligence and their language skills.

So it's, um, yeah, it, it
has been a great experience.

Um, so.

Oh sure.

Mm-hmm.

So now we, um, when we were talking
on your podcast, uh, we talked a lot

about AI and I, I think this is an
interesting overlap with, with AI usage,

AI agents, uh, increasing in usage.

Do you think that outsourcing will
shrink or do you think it will,

uh, you know, like recalibrate?

What do you think that, you know,
the, the scales will, will shift

to in, in terms of that balance?

I.

Yeah.

Well, that's good to know.

You know, I.

I, I, I think if anything, this
is a time of, of transition.

Uh, we don't know what is transitioning
to, um, but, uh, it's nice to know

that there are some, some great
resources, um, you know, whether

it's, you know, the, the great human
talent you can recruit, um, overseas

or the, um, you know, the potential.

Of the AI agents.

Um, you know, I think, I think it's a,
a time that we can be optimistic in,

in general and, and also just keep our
eyes open for, uh, for any pitfalls.

Well, no, I.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, well, blendy, you have great
expertise and you have a, a great

business with, with delegate.co.

If people would like to work with
you, uh, with your agency or.

Or even have you come speak
on a podcast or an other

platform, how can they find you?

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much for
coming on and it's been great

to have these conversations and
I feel like I'm learning a lot.

Speaker 3: Want to stay ahead of what's
actually working in marketing right now.

Head over to Market surge.io

and see how we're helping businesses
grow smarter, faster, and louder.

That's market surge.io

because your next breakthrough
shouldn't be a guess.