Episode breakdown
In this conversation, John Brink and Barbara Turley discuss the common challenges faced by business owners, particularly the need for hiring staff to overcome growth plateaus. They explore the role of support assistants in alleviating operational burdens, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on strategic growth. The discussion also emphasizes the importance of effective leadership and communication in scaling businesses, as well as personal journeys of overcoming challenges and finding purpose in entrepreneurship.
- Operational frameworks and delegation are crucial for growth
- How assistants can provide cost-effective support for businesses
- Effective leadership requires continuous skill development
- Why communication is key to successful leadership and team dynamics
- How feedback mechanisms can improve organizational culture
- The importance of personal experiences in shaping our understanding of business challenges
- Scaling requires a balance between delegation and involvement
- Why effective communication is crucial for personal and professional growth
- Cultural awareness is essential in global business interactions
- How hiring for potential and communication skills is more effective than experience alone
- Listening is a key component of effective speaking and leadership
A lot of companies are trying to hire for experience and I go, you know, what experience is fine. But actually if you hire for ability to communicate, understanding someone's learning style, then you can actually train and mentor that person to be the best version of themselves that you can find
In this episode
00:00 - Discovering the value of delegation
Barbara shares how her experience in business coaching revealed a common challenge: entrepreneurs plateau because they avoid hiring and delegating. She discovered the importance of operational frameworks, processes, and support teams to free up founders for strategy.
03:20 - Barbara’s background & corporate to startup transition
Barbara recounts her career in equity trading and asset management, and how involvement in a financial startup during the 2009 financial crisis sparked her entrepreneurial journey.
06:08 - Explaining managed funds and hedge funds
A simple explanation of managed funds, pensions, and hedge funds — clarifying that hedge funds aren’t always high-risk but are alternative strategies meant to balance portfolios.
08:32 - How The Virtual Hub was born
Barbara describes how her coaching clients’ need for cost-effective staffing led her to explore assistants in the Philippines, which quickly evolved into her business.
12:46 - Scaling a business: Lessons from experience
John and Barbara discuss scaling pains and leadership challenges, emphasizing the need to operationalize early and the danger of overburdening key staff without delegation.
14:56 - The leadership learning curve
They reflect on leadership lessons, including the importance of leveling up, when to delegate vs. stay involved, and the pitfalls of premature delegation of strategy roles.
20:23 - Communication as the core of leadership
Barbara highlights communication gaps at scale and her company’s approach to gathering feedback, stressing communication as fundamental in leadership and culture building.
22:37 - John’s early life & entrepreneurial grit
John shares his story of surviving WWII, immigrating to Canada, and starting a business from scratch with determination, positivity, and relentless work ethic.
29:33 - ADHD as a superpower & educational reform
John discusses his late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, calling it a superpower, and advocates for educational reform through micro-certification and flexible learning styles.
31:59 - Alternative learning methods & self-selection
Barbara suggests education systems could offer different teaching styles to match student preferences, allowing children to self-select what resonates with them.
33:56 - ADHD prevalence in entrepreneurs
John and Barbara discuss how ADHD might be far more prevalent among entrepreneurs and high achievers than reported — possibly up to 75%.
36:55 - Hiring for communication & learning style
Barbara shares how she adjusted her hiring philosophy to prioritize communication skills and learning adaptability over experience for Support Assistant roles.
40:45 - The art of listening & sales psychology
They discuss the importance of deep listening, especially to unspoken objections in sales, and how psychology trumps tactics in truly successful selling.
42:42 - Communication breakdown & leadership pressure
Barbara reflects on leadership pitfalls when assumptions about being understood go unchecked, leading to frustration and loss of patience.
46:14 - Inspiration, ideas & emotional control
A humorous exchange about late-night creative ideas, emotional self-perception under stress, and the discipline of staying articulate during difficult moments.
48:07 - Why the Philippines for assistants
Barbara explains her choice of the Philippines for assistant staffing, citing English fluency, cultural alignment with Western business norms, and hospitality as major factors.
52:16 - Culture and communication in business
Barbara emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural perspectives when leading international teams and tailoring communication to different worldviews.
54:03 - Final reflections & podcast wrap-up
They reflect on shared values around travel, cross-cultural understanding, leadership, and closing encouragement for listeners to embrace new media platforms.
Podcast Transcript:
Unlocking growth with global support
Barbara Turley: I decided I would do some business coaching. Some of that just fell into my lap from people I knew that needed help in their businesses. And really, from that experience of doing that for a couple of years, I noticed that all the businesses that I was coaching at the time had similar—the same sort of problem, regardless of the industry they were in. Whether they were online or offline, it didn’t actually matter.
And the problem went like this: if they didn’t hire staff, they weren’t really going to be able to get out of the plateau they were at. So usually, a business owner starts a business and then gets to a certain level, and then they plateau. Because in order to scale it further, you need to start getting into operational frameworks, systems, processes, getting support teams in, delegation—all the things that I accidentally found out I was quite good at, but a lot of business owners are not very good at.
And a lot of the problem is that sometimes the work that needs to get done doesn’t really warrant hiring a local person to do it. And you sort of think, “I’ll just do it myself.” This is what was happening, or the team says that they’ll just do it. But if we don’t free up the time and energy of key people in the business, the business struggles to grow. It struggles to scale.
John Brink: Hello, I’m John Brink, and I’m podcasting On the Brink from downtown Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.
And for all those people watching us from around the world, say, “Okay, we know where Canada is. And we’ve heard about British Columbia, and we know that big city in British Columbia called Vancouver. So where are you in British Columbia, John?”
Well, we are about 500 miles north of Vancouver, or for our friends in Europe, 800 kilometers. And that puts us physically in the center of British Columbia—north-south, east-west. Big province.
So all around us is forest, lots of trees. Within 50 miles, 100 lakes. We have black bears, grizzly bears, caribou, deer, wolf—you name it, we have it. Living in harmony with nature. An absolute, fabulous, beautiful spot.
You have to make me one commitment: don’t tell anybody about this, otherwise they’ll all want to come here. I’m just kidding.
So today, we’ve got a very, very special guest. Her name is Barbara Turley, and Barbara is particularly interested in VA—Virtual Assistants—and very involved in it. She set up a company, is an entrepreneur, and we’re going to have a very interesting discussion.
Barbara, tell us about you—where are you from, when did you start, your background, your education—and then take us forward.
Barbara Turley: Sure. Thank you so much for having me on the show. And British Columbia—gosh, where you live sounds wonderful to me. I am Irish background, so I hail from close to where you hail, John, in Europe. But I live at the other end of the world, in Sydney, Australia.
John Brink: Oh my goodness.
Barbara Turley: Yes, I’ve lived in Sydney for 20 years now. And I always say the same as what you do—if it was closer to Europe, everyone would be here because it’s such a wonderful place to live. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world to live.
So yes, I hail from Ireland. To cut a long story short, I didn’t always have the entrepreneurial blood. I didn’t grow up thinking I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was very much in corporate, and I spent the first 15 years of my career in the financial sector.
I was an equity trader for a long time—for eight years—on a trading floor. Then I moved into asset management sales. Through that journey, I got an opportunity to get involved in a startup of sorts in the financial industry back in 2009—the last big financial crash that the world had.
I learned a lot by getting involved in that company about how great companies get built. Now, I wasn’t a founder or anything close to that. I just happened to get an opportunity to hop on the coattails of some other great people. But it whetted my appetite for entrepreneurship.
And that was really where this sort of thing started for me. I was well into my thirties at that stage.
John Brink: So what kind of a company was that?
Barbara Turley: It’s an asset management company in Australia. I’m actually still involved a little bit in the company today. It started out very much as a fund management company in the wealth management space. Today, they do all sorts of other things, but it’s primarily in the wealth management space.
John Brink: So that means they are investing capital from others that they attract?
Barbara Turley: Actually, not really. It’s more equities- and bond-based. They also have relationships with different great fund managers all around the world.
John Brink: So it expanded substantially from Australia.
Barbara Turley: Yes, they find great fund managers around the world—for international equities, hedge funds, and so on—and bring them to Australia to distribute into that market.
John Brink: What are hedge funds?
Barbara Turley: Are we going to go down this rabbit hole? We can!
John Brink: No, just generally.
Barbara Turley: In the easiest way to explain it: most people have some sort of retirement portfolio. Usually, that money is invested in managed funds. Managed funds are a way of collecting money together and having a fund manager manage stocks, bonds, and companies so you don’t have to.
Hedge funds are slightly different. They’re considered alternative assets. They can range from conservative strategies to high-risk strategies. They’re just a different approach to investing.
John Brink: Okay, take us further.
Barbara Turley: After five years as an employee and shareholder, I decided it was time to do my own thing. I had this burning need to explore what I would do myself. I didn’t really know what that was.
So I started doing business coaching. Some of it fell into my lap. And after a couple of years, I noticed all my clients had the same problem—they couldn’t scale without hiring staff.
That’s when I discovered virtual assistants. I had never even been to the Philippines, but I had read about it. I thought, what if I find cost-effective staff there to help my clients?
Initially, it was just to free up their time so we could focus on strategy. But it worked really well. Soon, people weren’t asking for coaching—they were asking for VAs.
Before I knew it, I had about 10 VAs in the Philippines, and I realized—I’m in a business here.
John Brink: So the niche is really helping businesses scale.
Barbara Turley: Exactly. Many startups fail not because of product-market fit, but because they don’t operationalize properly. People are the most expensive asset, yet we waste their time on tasks that could be delegated.
John Brink: Leadership is critical.
Barbara Turley: Absolutely. And communication is key.
John Brink: You must become an effective communicator.
Barbara Turley: I agree. Communication is fundamental in every relationship—business, personal, everything. One thing I’ve learned is that people interpret messages differently based on their own experiences.
So we created feedback systems—surveys, polls—so employees can tell us how messages are being received. Sometimes it’s painful, but it helps build a better culture.
John Brink: That’s powerful.
Barbara Turley: And hiring—this is important—we don’t hire just for skills. Skills can be taught. We hire for communication ability, learning style, and coachability. That’s what drives success.
John Brink: Why the Philippines?
Barbara Turley:Three reasons:
- English proficiency – many speak it at a native level.
- Cultural alignment – strong understanding of Western culture.
- Workforce quality – highly capable, but you must understand their cultural lens.
If you understand how someone sees the world, everything becomes easier in business.
John Brink: We’re reaching the end. Any final thoughts?
Barbara Turley: What an incredible conversation. Your story is inspiring—truly.
John Brink: For everyone watching: subscribe, like, share, and comment. We read everything. This platform is just getting started.
Barbara Turley: Thank you so much for having me. I feel honored to be here.
John Brink: Thanks, Barb. Let’s stay in touch.
Barbara Turley: Definitely. Thanks so much, John.
John Brink: Thanks, Barb.
