James Dooley Podcast

James Dooley and Adam O’Hearn explain how virtual assistants transform operations because systemised delegation removes daily bottlenecks. Their discussion shows why managed VA services improve consistency because cultural alignment and structured oversight prevent common failures. Their insight highlights how founders scale faster because time freed from tasks increases strategic thinking.

Creators and Guests

Host
James Dooley
James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.

What is James Dooley Podcast?

James Dooley is a Manchester-based entrepreneur, investor, and SEO strategist. James Dooley founded FatRank and PromoSEO, two UK performance marketing agencies that deliver no-win-no-fee lead generation and digital growth systems for ambitious businesses. James Dooley positions himself as an Investorpreneur who invests in UK companies with high growth potential because he believes lead generation is the root of all business success.

The James Dooley Podcast explores the mindset, methods, and mechanics of modern entrepreneurship. James Dooley interviews leading marketers, founders, and innovators to reveal the strategies driving online dominance and business scalability. Each episode unpacks the reality of building a business without mentorship, showing how systems, data, and lead flow replace luck and guesswork.

James Dooley shares hard-earned lessons from scaling digital assets and managing SEO teams across more than 650 industries. James Dooley teaches how to convert leads into long-term revenue through brand positioning, technical SEO, and automation. James Dooley built his career on rank and rent, digital real estate, and performance-based marketing because these models align incentive with outcome.

After turning down dozens of podcast invitations, James Dooley now embraces the platform to share his insights on investorpreneurship, lead generation, AI-driven marketing, and reputation management. James Dooley frequently collaborates with elite entrepreneurs to discuss frameworks for scaling businesses, building authority, and mastering search.

James Dooley is also an expert in online reputation management (ORM), having built and rehabilitated corporate brands across the UK. His approach combines SEO precision, brand engineering, and social proof loops to influence both Google’s Knowledge Graph and public perception.

To feature James Dooley on your podcast or event, connect via social media. James Dooley regularly joins business panels and networking sessions to discuss entrepreneurship, brand growth, and the evolving future of SEO.

James Dooley: hi today so I'm joined with Adam O'Hearn the co-founder of Remote Staff Seeker What going on with the wife day is it yeah so today's video is about virtual assistants and trying to hire a virtual assistant to try to make certain that they're doing not just the lowlevel tasks but if you've got systems and processes set up and you're able to use a virtual assistant obviously Remote Staff Seeker is based with Filipino vas and obviously for anyone anyone that knows you is like I want to be an Adam O because like you have managed to reduce a lot of your workload you play a lot of golf you do a lot of traveling you've have a lot of time for family and friends and there's certain people out there which could be more successful financially let's say than yourself but they're digging their own grave they're working 14 hours a day seven days a week and actually you need to have this kind of work life balance of making certain you enjoying the journey so for anyone that doesn't know what a virtual assistant is or a VA is can you briefly explain basically what is a VA

Adam O'Hearn: yeah it's just someone that works remotely from their house or where if maybe they have like a Starbucks they go to or something but it could be anyone from anywhere around the world our uh the people that we um employ happen to be in the Philippines but um yeah it's just pretty much anybody that works remotely

James Dooley: yeah I mean it's quite a good story from yourself where you initially needed some people you needed some help yourself on video rankings and where was it initially you went on that you found daer so a long time ago I think it was probably about 14 15 years ago I used a website called onlinejobs.ph which is a pretty big uh VA you know place where you can find virtual assistants in the Philippines um found Daisy on that website I was actually looking for someone who um knew how to use a specific software um and I got two people that replied and the first person didn't end up working out um they kind of said they were good at everything but that didn't end up being the case and then the second person was Daisy um who's worked with me now for yeah over 14 years yeah yeah so if anyone that doesn't know Adam right Adam's got a very very very successful business over in the states he does a lot of lead generation and SEO you know and a broad spectrum of different Industries the family's got an amazing concrete reserving company and Adams managed to build that up and generate a lot of leads but it's pretty fair to say I might be overstepping the market here pretty much know the daytoday running of your SEO and leag generation is run by Daisy Daisy pretty much runs the The Establishment and the organization she's the one that hires the staff and puts the systems and processes in place but for a lot of business owners they're like wow this is out this world You' managed to reduce your workload and have someone run this completely but and at times I wind up and say oh he's he's really lazy and stuff like that and stuff and he's just out on the golf course and I'm grinding away in the office and I'm like I that's what I want to be an Adam but the truth of the matter is when it just reduces your workload it allows you to think and innovate and maybe integrate things like artificial intelligence and stuff like that but also you do a lot of the networking events like you always come over to chamai you'll come over to a lot of other SEO conferences and you're obviously the one that's coming in here doing the private masterminds and then I know dayy if you're watching this sometimes get will get frustrated because you'll come away from The Mastermind with ideas and then you're like right Daisy I want us to test this this and this so for anyone with regards to reducing the workload it doesn't mean now you're not working and they're not in the Kno how what's your thoughts then it's a little bit off subjects away from virtual assistance um and hiring vas of the attending of let's say SEO conferences do you get much from it yourself

Adam O'Hearn: yeah definitely so um although I don't do a lot of the physical day-to-day operations I would say I'm more of like the ideas person in the business um so I do a lot of learning you know I watch a lot of read a lot of content watch a lot of content um and come up with ideas like if it's for lead generation I might be looking at a new Niche that we want to go into and build a lead generation site or something like that um Daisy's the one that you know I send over my plan or we'll sit down and have a chat hey let's target this Niche I want to start generating some leads or you know whatever it may be we might start a YouTube channel or you know something like that um so we'll sit down I'll come up with kind of the rough idea of what we do and then you know we'll have a discussion and then Daisy will we'll put a plan together and then Daisy will make sure that it's delegated out to our team so that we can get everything implemented and start generating the leads or start whatever it is that we're trying to do because we do a few different things yeah yeah yeah

James Dooley: so with regards to a virtual system I think it's very important to make certain you've got the systems and processes put in place but also I don't know if anyone's ever read the book Think and Grow Rich and if you've ever read that book you'll understand that thinking is actually the hardest work you can do daisy will completely disagree with me saying this but the it's the thoughts of you being able to pull something together or looking at a niche which is the which is the hardest part to to set up once you've got anop whether it's for search engine optimization or Facebook ads or for PPC or for lead generation or whatever it is that that system is a rinse and repeat process like you can get a lowlevel like minimum wage type of va to do that work if it is just follow these steps the thinking part can't be outsourced to somebody like a VA but why do you think is it that I always get asked a lot and I wanted to get you on because one of the most common questions is for me obviously I run a lot of different websites and a lot of different businesses is what makes a good what the difference between a good SEO and a great SEO and I always say it's not really the knowledge and any knowledge bombs or hacks that people are doing to manipulate to they get to the top of Google you need to make certain you've got good quality content topical Authority good quality links and a tech technically wellb built site they can all be systemized once you know what good quality looks like and stuff like that so I always talk about the free PS I always talk about priorization procrastination and a perfectionist and I think they're the main three reasons of why people don't hire a VA if I'm being honest with you like do you do you seem to when someone first is inquiring about hiring a VA do you feel you can see this sometimes like the it's taking ages to get the SOP from them because they're just trying to perfect it as opposed to getting a job done like I always say to you and you always say the same like a job 70% done is better than the job not being completed right do you know what I mean like and people are perfec and want to get it 100% right and it's like 70% is good enough like Kyle Ruth talks about you don't need to be faster than the bear you need to be faster than everybody else that's running away from the Bear right and you just need to do enough to beat your competition definitely is there any kind of re reasons you feel are when someone first comes on hiring a VA can you see those free PS in certain people and do you think over a longer period of time they start to realize wow I'm getting so much more done now by hiring vs right

Adam O'Hearn: yeah absolutely I mean I know for myself I personally struggled when I when I first hired Daisy my first VA I wanted to do I was a perfectionist I I would take get analysis paralysis and want to make sure everything was perfect and you know it it you know it slowed me down and it was hard to release the reins and just let go and let someone else take that control cuz you feel like you can do it better than everyone else and you feel like you can do it better than everyone else and you want to protect all your work and make sure it's done perfect so I definitely struggled with that myself and then I remember I can't remember I think I saw some sort of content somewhere and it was talking about like letting go and just like taking that step to let a little bit go and you know so you could you know grow faster and scale and I took that step and you know uh it it worked out really well like Daisy stepped up she you know took responsibility of a lot of stuff you know I still would check her work and make sure that everything was good initially until there came a point where I was like she's probably doing it better than I could do it you know what I mean and imp and then we you know grew more uh staff members and stuff and you have to have some checks and balances but yeah I mean I think there's a lot of people that don't want to give up that control and and you know it I guess you just have to choose cuz you know if you don't want to give up the control you're probably going to work longer you're not going to have as much time to spend with your friends and family and that was a big priority in my life I wanted to be able to spend time with my friends and family and I had the um I had the positive thoughts that like I could make this work if I put enough time into it like eventually I could get to the point where a lot of my workload was off my shoulders and I could have a system in place that could implement the work and you know I'd have more time to golf hang out with you in different countries you know spend time with friends and family and stuff like that but um yeah I think that's a big thing for a lot of people um I think the people that are the most successful with the vas obviously are the people that have the Sops the standard operating procedures and they take the time to train the person it's a bit more work on the front end than if you probably didn't hire a VA but quickly after that it can be a huge Advantage because you've got a lot of weight lifted off your shoulders and once you feel confident with that person you know it allows you to have more free time and you can scale faster yeah yeah

James Dooley: for sure so obviously there's lots of benefits of hiring a VA a virtual assistant and I want to now talk a little bit about the it's not as easy as what it sometimes people just going higher five years because obviously you just been talking there about the training and development and the setting up the Sops and especially when they're not in the same office as you and you don't know what they're doing it can have its disadvantages by not being there at the side G can you just do this or you're not doing this quite right right no and I don't want it to be that I'm just there promoting Adam's um business but Remote Staff Seeker in my opinion is an absolute must because you want to be trying to make certain that the virtual assistant that there are being tracked so you're knowing when they are logging in and they are logging out for work and no disrespects to the Philippines it's the same in South Africa and it's the same in Bangladesh and Venezuela or wherever else you're looking to get a virtual assistant in India and in Pakistan like we've got and in Vietnam and stuff like that in Thailand we've got vas all over the world right but when we previously used to have vas and we used to go to places like onlinejobs.ph or upw work or freelancer or people per hour and a many other places that do kind of Outsourcing kind of jobs and works and then hiring a VA my issue was I had a VA where the M had died four times and she kept forgetting her excuses and like next door neighbors dogs died so they're off for a week and electricity is cut out and stuff like that so I'm not doing it to for you just to promote let's say Remote Staff Seeker but I'm I'm genuinely saying you need to have a managed VA system but like talk through a little bit about that like with regards to what why is important for you right obviously you've got Remote Staff Seeker which is the best VA business I think in the world right B on but why someone who's watching this if they are looking to potentially hire a VA why they should be looking to a Remote St Seekers have it managed all right it might cost a couple of hundred dollars more than if you went direct and found someone one the on boarding is difficult and the interviews is difficult but two it's the it's the management like you you're hiring a VA to reduce your workload you then don't want to then just put all your workload into managing them and checking the times and doing everything so what name like just give like a 30 second brief of been maybe I'm not saying some excuses but just certain reasons of why you feel I managed VA system is better than physically trying to go direct and get someone even though it might be slightly cheaper right

Adam O'Hearn: I think if you're hiring a VA a lot of times those vas are probably going to be from a different country I mean it could be from the same country that you live in but a lot of people get vas from different countries and I think a lot of times there's a cultural barrier there where both cultures don't fully understand the other person's culture um so that can be a gap that can I believe cause some issues um that's one thing for us why um it's helped out is like Daisy is from the Philippines where I hired her so she understands the Philippine culture she's worked for me for over 14 years so she has a very good knowledge and understanding of like the Western culture the US culture um but aside from that um as well one of the things that um that I think is probably a a problem you know like you said there's a lot of EXC uses that come up and not all but I think a lot of times what we found and what I had talked to Daisy about because she knew a lot of other people that were vas for other people and a lot of times they might work they might be a full-time VA for two three four companies at one time you know what I mean so sometimes those excuses might come up because they they're working on their other you know uh uh business yeah other business that they work for or whatnot um so you know that or um one of the other things I think in the Philippines they their culture from my understanding they don't like a lot of Confrontation so I've heard a lot of stories from people who had uh a a a VA from the Philippines things were going very well and then all of a sudden one day they never heard from that VA ever again that's a very common thing I've heard and I think a lot of times it might have to do with you know that culture they don't like if maybe they felt like they screwed up on something and instead of coming in and just saying hey I screwed up or whatnot I don't know this is just my guess yeah they just go missing because they don't want to tell them that yeah they don't want that confrontation you know they're embarrassed or something like that and I think Daisy's kind of confirmed some of that stuff I think also with regards to like Filipinos like you said is that there certain things that I've had to learn like Daisy might say oh they're off next Monday I'm like why and it's a certain like in the UK it calls it like bank holidays where there certain holidays put in place in the Philippines that's not the same as being in the UK If I didn't know that I could be causing a bit of Confrontation something no you're not next Monday off which is the norm for people in the Philippines to have that day off or just like C the certain bits of like certain like they very like in the UK If you like a day lateer or two days later on payments right they kind of like oh I'm going to get it I'm no I'm going to get it where in the Philippines like you you pay on time like you've got to make certain you pay on time um like you literally a day later and then they start freaking out thinking they're not going to get paid right and overthinking things and stuff like that also certain things like health insurance kind of the importance of that of you as an employer paying health insurance for in the Philippines where in the UK we've got the NHS you don't really need to be paying for health insurance so when I was like no not paying health insurance that could be different between you're Landing a quality MH like VA versus if you're not paying health insurance and everybody every other employ is right between and it's like less than100 $100 a month do you know what I mean so like you just pay it to get the better quality VA like like you've said there like Daisy is Filipino so she knows that culture and that makes a big big difference so if anyone is now watching this and they're going do you know what I am working hard and I do need to get a virtual assistant how do they is it remote what's the what's the website for remote remote staff seeker.com but and they just go through there and they inquire and fill in and then Daisy will get back in touch with them for sure usually uh the way it works yeah they would fill out a form or whatever on the site Daisy would set up a discovery call with them uh get to know their business a little bit more what kind of skills they're looking for and then we would you know go into into our database we'd also you know try to vet the top like three people let's say uh sometimes it might even be more than that and then um we would have a uh like a zoom call where we introduce the customer to a bunch of different vas to see if one of them would fit um what they were looking for and then they could choose who they would like to work with and um you know um but yeah like you said one of the things that I think there's pros and cons to everything you know you can go direct and hire a VA and you know have a great VA and you'll probably save a bit more money over hiring one with an agency um but you know you might not have that um like one of the benefits of an agency I would say would be that they're employed through a Philippine company so that gives a lot of safety like to the employee they feel like oh this person can't just like bend me off in two seconds or whatever you know what I mean cuz there's labor laws and stuff like that so it provides them more protection so a lot of the people there I feel uh they feel more comfortable with that versus you know going someone direct or whatever not to say that it wouldn't work but it's just you know there's pros and cons to everything you might pay a little bit more for the manage like agency but it might provide them more security and stuff you know what I mean and you know we monitor them too at remote SAR Seeker they've got customer support So at any point they can pick up the phone they've got like if they've got any issues that they want they might want to vent but they don't want to vent it to a us or a UK company because they don't want confrontation to another Filipino they might be able to pick up I've made this mistake and days might like just be honest and say it like and they and da might even help constru like put put together an email of just say this it's fine like human error is normal it's okay so then they don't just go missing so they're there Daisy is there obviously to support him plus you've got two or three people fulltime consistent stly looking at universities and colleges to find the best people like the difference of us trying to find a VA ourself in the Philippines compared to you going out there like there's been times you've come back and on I've got 20 vas here which perfectly fit the job rooll that you want and I couldn't even find two or three and the two or three that I found none of them was as highly qualified as the ones that you'd found for me so it just made sense for me from a business standpoint and reducing my workload and it's a fraction of of the price of paying a full-time wage obviously in the United Kingdom or if you've got the US i' still to try to get like salese in the UK or sales people like yourself you do still do a lot of the calls for your us clients it's just the Fulfillment now is able to be done and you're spending that time working on the business not in the business it also gives you free time to innovate I kind of always say on my videos if you don't innovate you're going evaporate but you can't innovate if you don't have time and you're just in the trenches doing the work right so for anyone who's watching this and you're thinking of hiring a virtual assistant head on over to remote staff seeker.com Daisy will get back in touch if you're uncertain go and look at Adam's profile he's on the golf course every other day I'm going to call him out he's lazy no but he's got a great lifestyle because he's managed to then get the vas in place to run the business he's got a very very successful business over in the US Remote Staff Seeker now has grown massively and that's a very successful business as well I strongly recommend anyone looking for a VA to head on over to remote remote staff seeker.com so it's been a pleasure mate good speaking to you definitely Cheers Cheers