Meet ARVIN ABACA

We recently connected with ARVIN ABACA and have shared our conversation below.

ARVIN, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

Looking back, me and my brothers had a extremely comfortable life. I know this was a result of the arduous work my parents put in but how do you teach the value of having a magnificent work ethic to young boys that haven’t experienced struggle? How do you pass that on? I’m not sure what my parents were thinking. I wasn’t sure if they a had plan or if it was by accident due to necessity on how we learned.
To give you a little backstory, during my elementary years, I would accompany my mom to visit her clients in their homes. She was selling encyclopedias. These massive 12-14 set of books. There was a set for adults and there was another set for kids. Obviously, I wasn’t paying attention to the words she was saying but I did observe how she presented, her body language, her intonations when she did her demos. I was with her on every appointment every weekend riding in her mitsubishi minica visiting clients and prospects. I never understood it at that time but when she qualified for a Hawaii trip with my dad, she came back bearing gifts. That was when I realized all that demanding work she put in paid off.

The other half of the story is my dad. He was a finance guy, he was a banker. I witnessed during his early years he would come home late from the office or we would visit him at the bank and he would still be working. When he was was assigned to another state, he would pick me up during the summer and I would accompany him to his office and sometimes sit in his meetings. As he moved up and eventually became the President, I was already a teenager, he left home late and came back from the office early. By the time I entered my first year in college, he was on his way to retiring from the bank at the age of fifty-five. At that time I saw it as a nuisance because he was on me and my brothers all the time. we couldn’t hang out in school long enough because we knew we had to be home early, do our homework because dad was going to be home. It did not dawn on me till I turned 35, what my dad did. He bought back time. He worked late hours, travelled for business a lot and by the time me and my brothers were teenagers, he was at home. He was present when we needed him the most. He sacrificed when we were young and was present during our turbulent teenage years thru our twenties.

The way my parents taught me and my brothers the value of having a great work ethic, wasn’t by lecturing, it was really by observation. They didn’t explain much but they created an environment wherein we observed what they did day to day. This has left an indelible mark on me. When I started on the path of entrepreneurship, I became a father to a lovely daughter. Unknowingly and initially due to necessity, I brought my daughter with me on my appointments and meetings. While I was infront of my clients having a discussion, the stroller was right beside my chair. Occasionally, I must excuse myself to change her diaper then get back to the discussion. I realized I was following the example set by my parents. Now, I intentionally bring my daughter with me to the office and have her observe me working. I take immense pride in this because the clients I served didn’t only see the dedication I put in but more importantly I see how this is impacting my daughter. Recently in one of our conversations, she shared with me that she earned 10 bucks selling stickers in school and she is only in the first grade. I am on a quest to buy back time, the same way my parents did for me.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Family and daughter aside, there only two things that I am focused and passionate about. First is the business, I am focused on scaling MVP Team Provider, along with my business partner Lea Lopez, to be the number one remote staffing solution company in Southern California. We help elevate businesses with even more success by providing specialized staffing solutions remotely. Our mission is to serve a thousand clients. To achieve this, we are focused on building long lasting business relationships. We are not after a quick transaction. We spend time getting to know our clients, instead of us pitching our business, we always ask what can we do to help them. We provide a lot of value upfront without any expectation in return. What I mean by this, is we are not only in the remote staffing industry, we are also licensed financial professionals, a business legal immigration specialist, an accountant and real estate investor for almost two decades. We speak different business languages that allows us to better understand the needs of the client. This is what separates us from other remote staffing companies.
It has been almost two years since we revamped the company, during this time we have seen consistent growth. We now have 20 to 25 remote staff servicing clients in various industries. This is not including the Healthcare division that we launched eight months ago.
Why are we focused on scaling? because we want to provide jobs in our local community. This is what excites me the most about the business. To be able to impact someone’s financial life and future is something we do not take lightly. We do not view this as a burden but we view this as our calling. We do not look at our staff as mere employees or contractors, we treat them as teammates. In a team, we encourage, we praise, and we recognize people. Although this company is still in its infancy, we are dedicated to reinvesting back into the people by providing avenues for professional and personal development. We plan team training events every quarter. Even though it is only July, we are already looking into the Holiday party for the company. We work tirelessly to provide an environment for our people to grow with us.

Second, is our MVP Mastermind Community. MVP is an acronym for Making Visions Possible. Recently we did an official business launch for MVP Team Provider last June 2024. It was an exclusive gala event. We only invited business owners and members of our MVP Community. When we envisioned this event, it was not only to launch our business but also to bring our community and other entrepreneurs on the stage to highlight their business. We opened our network to our community because we are grateful to all of them because they have inspired us, helped us, and motivated us to do more. The event was well received, over a hundred guests gathered at the Hilton Pasadena. Not only that it was a success but people at the event were able to network, exchange ideas and eventually collaborate. Now we are hearing partnerships have been built, businesses have exchanged hands, connections were made and all of them point to our launch that started it all. This is what brings us immense joy and happiness, to be able to positively impact other entrepreneurs. The MVP Mastermind Community was a platform we built for entrepreneurs to have an environment to collaborate freely, build even more credibility for start-ups, re-energize experienced entrepreneurs, be a resource for ideas, solutions, and encouragement for every member. Outside of the holidays and a few off weeks, we have been running the calls via zoom every Tuesday, @6:30pm to 7:30pm pacific time since April 2022.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three qualities that were most impactful in my journey?
Let’s start with being Grateful. I remember when we were still growing up, our house was robbed while all of us were asleep. Everything that was in the garage, back yard were stolen which included our BMX bikes. When we woke up and found out, everyone was hysterical and I was pissed off because my bike was stolen. All my dad did was calm us down and said it is ok. He was grateful and thankful that none of us were harmed. That stuck with me because amid an unfortunate event he still found a positive aspect to be grateful and turn something negative into a positive. This was one of the few examples that laid the foundation for me to develop an attitude of gratitude.

Second, the quest to constantly Learn. I am a firm believer in the traditional college and higher education system. However, I also believe it shouldn’t end there. I’ve enrolled in numerous classes and certificate courses to improve my skillset. I’ve attended and paid numerous seminars, events to improve my mindset. I continue to listen to audio books, and take an hour a day to read one book chapter. I am always looking for ways to improve. Education doesn’t end in college. Educating, learning shouldn’t end.

Lastly, Resilience. Being resilient got me thru the worst times in my career and personal life. In my professional life, I have experience getting laid off twice, being discriminated at work due to my ethnicity and language I spoke, humiliated infront of other professionals, lost investments, wrongfully accused infront of peers. Despite all that negativity and the naysayers, there were great lessons learned. One thing that really stood out, was my toughness to not back down. This allowed me to stand-up and break the perceived status quo in my past practice company. If I just had to choose one important quality that was impactful, I choose resilience every time.

All these three qualities that I mentioned has helped me in my journey was a result of the environment I was in. My family was my first environment that always supported me. My parents instilled in me the value of a quality education. In our family’s darkest hour, I was barely sixteen years old, I witnessed my dad stand up and fight to protect our family. They showed unwavering support. My parents are in their eighties and yet they were in attendance with my brothers on my business launch.

My advice to someone who is starting their journey and the best way to develop is to look at their current environment. How do they feel about it? If it is not supporting them or lifting them, then they should change their environment. If it’s a family issue then move to another state, continue to love their family but just put distance between them and the environment that is pulling them down. I passionately believe in Jim Rohn’s quote, you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

ohh man… this couldn’t be just one thing. Who I am today is because of them. If it has to be one thing, I would say they gave me the opportunity to migrate to the United States 23 years ago. My dad brought me to LA, made sure I got settled in, then told me to never go back to the Philippines. Two years after that he did the same thing to my brother. Three years after that they sent my other brother to San Diego for flight school. Looking back now, my parents worked hard, ran their business, so that they would have the ability to put their sons at the doorstep of the Global Market, the United States. To this day, this is not lost on me or on my brothers. Their work ethic is what gave me the opportunity to flourish.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mvpteamprovider.com
• Instagram: arvinabaca
• Facebook: arvinabaca
• Linkedin: arvinabaca

Image Credits

Dante Abaca
Maria Abaca
Dennis Abaca
Arnel Abaca
Allen Abaca
Adaline Abaca
Julie Abaca
Lea Lopez
Glenn Hawkins
Belina Calderon-Nernberg
Bill Walsh
Jean Santiago
Eric Chen
Ria Manlutac
AJ Santiago
Karen Gatdula
Alexe Raguindin
Mac Raguindin
Nikki Raguindin
Leticia Raguindin
Julienne Lintag
Liz Behrens
Dyan Tarepe
James Tagorda
Tre Gilliard
Elee Joven
Cielo Lamento
Phoenix Dator
Josephine Basilio
Noel Vinzon
Charith Yapa
Luigi Dizon
Ian Andres
Rueby Reyes
Brandon Melder
David Mierswa
Jeannette Mussett
Sean Gigremosa
MVP Mastermind Community
MVP Team Provider social media staff