About me
Hi, I’m Linh Podetti, a Vietnamese Social Entrepreneur living in Sydney, Australia. I’m the Founder of Outsourcing Angel, a wife to my husband Phillip Podetti (that’s who I got the Italian surname from 😉) and a mother to three kids!
About me
Hi, I’m Linh Podetti, a Vietnamese Social Entrepreneur living in Sydney, Australia. I’m the Founder of Outsourcing Angel, a wife to my husband Phillip Podetti (that’s who I got the Italian surname from ;-)) and a mother to three kids!
I was born and raised in Vietnam with very little, so my family migrated to Australia in search of a better life. Upon arriving in Australia, my parents forced me into child labour helping them in their sewing home-based business from the age of 10 and through to my teenage years. I ran away from home multiple times and eventually became pregnant at the age of 19. I was disowned by my family with no financial or emotional support which forced me to a life on the streets as a single mum.
Despite the challenge as a young single mum, I managed to complete university and got myself a corporate job. After a few years of working in my corporate job, I realized that it didn’t give me the flexibility and lifestyle I wanted for me and my son.
That was when I decided to make a choice, take the leap to start my own business, and change my life.
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The journey from Single Mum to Business Owner
When I was disowned by my family, it was really tough supporting my son financially as well as emotionally as a single mum.
Most of my time was spent in the office and by the end of the workday, I felt mentally drained and I didn’t feel like I could be there for my son when he needed me most. I felt like I had nothing to lose and in order to live a different life, I had to make a change.
At the age of 26, I started an E-Commerce business selling nail polish online. I didn’t know anything about starting my own business, but I was determined and I studied everything there was under the broad umbrella of “entrepreneurship” – from marketing, sales, finance, web development, and outsourcing.
While I enjoyed the process of entrepreneurship, I didn’t really enjoy the nail polish business. I spent a lot of time packing and sending products and I wasn’t passionate about my business, so I sold my nail polish business for $5,000 and used that money to start a Marketing Agency, Red & Black Solutions.
Beginning of Outsourcing Angel
Since I didn’t have all the technical skills to serve my clients, I started outsourcing to Virtual Assistants (VAs) and it eventually evolved into a team of VAs. That’s right, I built an entire Marketing Agency with a Virtual Team without needing physical office space and my VAs were more affordable than traditional local staff.
The more I worked with my Virtual Team, the more I recognised the talented, dedicated, and hard-working VAs and I saw a gap in the market that I could fill. I could provide highly educated and dedicated VAs to businesses to help them scale and grow too! This became my strength.
In 2015, I expanded my Marketing Agency into an Offshore Virtual Assistant Company and that was when Outsourcing Angel was born. It has since grown into a 7 figure business that has served hundreds of clients from Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, and more with VAs from all over the world.
My company can now operate on its own, which allows me to focus on doing what I really love, all from the comfort of my home. This is exactly what I want to inspire others to do too.
My life’s mission now is to help business owners to do what they love and live life in their own terms.
We help business owners to free up time by automating, systemising and offloading their work to virtual staff so they could spend more time doing what they truly love in business and life.
My Family
Although this journey started with me trying to start a business and survive as a single mum. I’m now happily married to my husband Philip Podetti, who – funnily enough – found me on YouTube!
I was living in Melbourne and sharing YouTube videos about how to start an online business when Phil came across one of my videos. He got in touch and I flew from Melbourne to Sydney to meet him to discuss business… 8 months later, we were married!
We’re now a happy family and our three kids Dylan, Monica and Jordan are the loves of our lives. My family has been and always will be my drive for life.
With 3 kids under my belt, I understand the challenges for working women. We are constantly juggling between the hats of a mother, career woman, wife, daughter, a friend. If it wasn’t for my business and being able to design it to serve my lifestyle, I wouldn’t be able to do a good job wearing any of those hats.
Global Impact
On top of providing more job opportunities through Outsourcing Angel, since 2013 we have donated our company profits to fund two key charity initiatives in the Philippines:
Tribu Ni Bro (TNB)
TNB is a non-profit group operated by volunteers that run livelihood programs such as feeding programs, clean water projects, solar panel installations, and medical assistance to communities living in remote and poverty-stricken areas in the Philippines.
These projects allow us to help over 250 children and their families every month to improve their quality of life.
Virlanie Foundation
The Virlanie Foundation is a private non-profit organisation that provides assistance to underprivileged youth.
Our Internship Program with the foundation provides workshops, software, and learning equipment to give these kids the skills and confidence to build themselves a brighter future.
Each month, my incredible staff members (I call them my angels) donate their time and sometimes even money to help the kids at the Virlanie Foundation.
Our wonderful clients and supporters also contribute to these programs and I hope that I can inspire more people around the world to do more good too.
When we share love, when we open our hearts, when we enable people with opportunities, the positive rippling effect is infinitely experienced and the world responds. Join me on my journey, let’s extend our hands, support one another, and lead our best lives together!
