In this episode of Max Value, host Ben Towne interviews Tessa Beracasa, owner of Berte Consulting in Bogotá, Colombia, a company that provides virtual assistants and IT professionals for American businesses. Tessa explains how Colombia’s talent pool, time zone alignment, and cultural familiarity make it an ideal nearshoring destination. The conversation covers what a VA really is, how to find the right talent, which industries succeed most with this model, and how to handle common concerns like communication barriers, confidential information, and labor exploitation. Ben, himself a client of Berte Consulting, shares his firsthand experience delegating tasks to his VA Geraldine — from email management and calendar scheduling to CRM and time entry — and reflects on the mindset shift required to delegate effectively and build trust from a distance. The episode closes with Tessa highlighting the unexpected personal rewards of running a people-first staffing business.
Chapter 1. Welcome to Max Value
Ben Towne introduces the show and its guest, Tessa Beracasa, owner of Berte Consulting based in Bogotá, Colombia. He sets the stage by explaining that Tessa’s company provides virtual assistants, IT service professionals, and other support staff for American companies. The central topic of the episode is how hiring a VA can transform the life of a business owner and operator.
Chapter 2. Starting the Journey to Colombia
Tessa shares how she ended up in Colombia — a natural fit given her Colombian husband — and how Berte
Consulting was founded in February 2022, initially to service IT companies and MSPs in the United States. She highlights the key factors that made Colombia the right choice: time zone congruence, cultural alignment, and an abundance of skilled, English-speaking professionals looking for good opportunities.
Chapter 3. What is a Virtual Assistant?
Tessa defines a virtual assistant as someone hired to help professionals offload busy tasks that don’t necessarily need to be done by the professional themselves — things that can be done remotely, in the background. The goal is to free up the professional’s schedule and workload so they can dedicate more time to higher-value tasks. Ben confirms that his VA has been particularly helpful in managing his calendar and email inbox.
Chapter 4. Why Colombia Stands Out
Tessa explains that Colombia offers an abundance of skilled talent with high levels of English and strong cultural familiarity with the United States. The time zone is a critical advantage — Colombia operates in central time, making it perfectly aligned with most of the U.S. Ben adds that he found no cultural or communication gap, describing the experience as very western in terms of how people talk and interact.
Chapter 5. Finding the Right Talent
Berte Consulting primarily uses a local recruiter who sets a search based on the client’s profile and parameters, handling the first filtering process. Additionally, some of their top people have come through referrals from friends and family of current employees. The recruiter-led search remains the main channel for most placements.
Chapter 6. Industries Succeeding with VAs
Professional services and IT companies have found the most success with this model, largely because they already understand remote work and how it operates. The key differentiator is full integration — treating the VA as part of the team rather than an external resource. Clients who adopt an “it’s just us” approach, regardless of geography, have seen immense success with the model.
Chapter 7. Overcoming Communication Challenges
Tessa argues that communication barriers can be largely eliminated by truly integrating the VA into the team — adding them to Teams or Slack channels and maintaining steady, daily, open communication. On the language side, high English proficiency is a non-negotiable part of Berte’s filtering process. The most important thing is to make sure the VA feels included in whatever the team is doing.
Chapter 8. Handling Confidential Information Safely
Tessa frames information security as a shared responsibility: clients control access through their own IT systems, just as they would with any local employee, while Berte requires all staff to sign a confidentiality agreement. The key component is aligning with the client’s information security posture and working together to ensure data is protected. Both sides play a role in making confidentiality a non-issue.
Chapter 9. Addressing Labor Concerns in Outsourcing
Tessa acknowledges the valid concern about whether outsourcing exploits local labor, and explains that Birdie was built from the start to be a different kind of business — one that prioritizes employee well-being through regular check-ins, workload monitoring, and strict hour limits. Her Colombian husband plays a key role in staying close to employees culturally. Clients also share responsibility in not overloading their VA beyond agreed hours.
Chapter 10. A Client’s Perspective on VAs
Ben shares how he justified the decision to bring on a full-time VA by thinking about it in smaller chunks — asking what tasks he could fill 20 to 40 hours a week with, rather than committing to a full-time hire upfront. He reflects that the real ROI isn’t just about converting freed time directly into billable hours, but about being less of a bottleneck, improving turnaround on projects, and gaining more time for clients, the team, and personal life. He also emphasizes that the VA belongs to the whole team, not just to him.
Chapter 11. Core Tasks Handled by VAs
Ben details the specific tasks his VA Geraldine handles: email filtering and sorting, calendar management for all external meetings, time entry based on his calendar, CRM maintenance, travel arrangements, presentation support, and research. He credits “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss as an early influence in his thinking about leveraging a VA, and notes that using technology — like Outlook and Calendly — alongside the VA multiplies her effectiveness. His main takeaway: anything a smart, motivated person can do remotely, a VA can handle.
Chapter 12. Knowing What to Delegate
Ben stresses the importance of clearly defining the role before hiring — understanding the must-haves versus nice-to-haves, and how deep the required skill set needs to go. He warns against the common mistake of expecting a cut-rate superhero, and notes that the term “VA” is broadly overused and can be misapplied to very different roles. Once the VA is in place, hidden skill sets often emerge over time, as was the case with Geraldine becoming the show’s producer.
Chapter 13. Learning to Delegate Effectively
Ben acknowledges that delegation is the real challenge — especially for professionals like CPAs and attorneys where mistakes carry big consequences. His advice: start with lower-risk tasks to build trust and vet skill level before moving to higher-stakes work. He uses the analogy of a surgical team to illustrate that even the most qualified professional needs a support team to perform at the highest level, with clear roles, established procedures, and open communication.
Chapter 14. Building Trust from a Distance
Ben explains that building trust remotely works the same way as any relationship — it starts with a transfer of trust, setting expectations, and allowing the other person to meet them or not. Key signals include how someone responds to feedback (defensive vs. constructive) and whether they consistently keep their promises. Trust is built slowly, and once enough goodwill is accumulated, occasional slip-ups no longer threaten the relationship.
Chapter 15. Final Thoughts on VAs and Colombia
Tessa closes by challenging the stereotypes many Americans hold about Colombia, describing it as a wonderful country with incredible people and culture. On virtual assistants, she encourages business owners to open their minds to the different ways VAs can be used — not just professionally, but as a way to unlock a happier personal life. She also shares the unexpected personal reward of running Berte Consulting: genuinely getting to know employees, hosting them for pizza, and expanding her own family network in Colombia.
