Second Desk Consulting evolved out of our internal need for social media marketing and promotional support. As an author I was publishing on four platforms, managing nearly twenty social media platforms, producing audio and video content, managing my active website, and hosting a podcast for authors.
All of that was outside of my “job;” authoring amazing novels. For many years I have been through the recruiting and hiring process as a business owner and consultant; I understand that trying to hire a local employee for this work is a serious endeavor and I did not have the time for that. Not only is it expensive, but the skills deficit is a reality, and consistent attendance is another challenge unless you are paying huge salaries.
I tried to engage outside resources, usually foreign agencies who are constantly pinging me, as I imagine they do you. After several frustrating experiences it became obvious that was not a solution to my needs. I turned to key people who I had worked with in building international teams, and some family members in Asia. At the time I was only looking to satisfy my needs. What I experienced greatly exceeded my expectations. Almost immediately our social media performance was in the top ten on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and we were getting hundreds of clicks on the videos and promotional posts we were creating. More on that can be found on our Case Studies page.
As I shared this experience with friends and business associates, some started asking if we could help them manage their administrative workload to reduce their burden. On the other hand, people heard from our team members how much fun they were having, and we began receiving requests to join our staff. These people are mostly under employed or displaced college graduates with degrees in psychology, information technology, and teaching. Two of our associates hold MBA degrees.
Our Team
Val Campbell
Val has been a business owner, consultant, and team builder for more than forty years. He started in the construction industry right out of college as an estimator and project manager, and was chosen to lead the United States division of an international construction group at the age of thirty. Not long after, the foreign parent company closed its doors following the energy industry collapse in Canada. He pivoted and opened his own company, joined by six of his key reports. In the years that followed, because of the success of his venture, he was asked to help other companies restructure. After taking three other firms through successful revitalizations, he was invited to join a premier consulting group out of Bellevue, Washington. Much of that success is shared in the Case Study Page. He has served on directing and advisory boards to companies in more than 50 industries, was a consultant to an attorney general investigating corruption, and performed more than 20 turn around projects, helping companies improve their performance.
In 2020 he began authoring novels and to date has published nine with eight more nearing completion. He has three adult children, all of whom are entrepreneurs, and is married to Emerlinda, who he met in the Philippines while team building for a global company. They have six fostered and adopted daughters.
Val has particular expertise in live video production, blogging, podcasting, and strategic social media management. He is an instructor at Udemy.com teaching a course titled Becoming An Author, The Master Class Series. His experience extends to a range of online reading platforms, Patreon, and Spotify.
Emerlinda Campbell
Ems has a degree in Information Technology and a background in Real Estate, Customer Service, and Manufacturing. At Second Desk, she provides all levels of administrative support, including video production, and website design and management. She is our specialist in Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Her passions are dogs, video production, and her family. She is the youngest of ten children and is often on video calls with her family. Ems is on the management team of Second Desk Consulting
Shuja Haidari
Shuja and Val met ten years ago in the process of building out a global sales and marketing team and have been working together ever since. He has an MBA and has extensive experience in social media management, and team building. One of his areas of subject matter expertise is in blockchain applications and crypto currencies.
He has worked as an English teacher, for a large Middle Eastern construction company as a project coordinator, and is proficient in using technology for investing and finance. Shuja is our specialist in a number of social media platforms, including Hive, Medium, and Pinterest.
He currently lives in Kabul, Afghanistan but is in the process of relocating to Uzbekistan. His location, Middle Eastern business experience, and integrity are tremendous benefits to our clients. Shuja is on our management team.
Pamela Malijan
Pam has a nursing background and is one of our social media managers. Being part of our Asian team, she has access and proficiency in social media platforms from a different perspective than people from the United States. This can be very beneficial as she provides our clients with all levels of administrative support. She is our specialist in TikTok, Discord, and Telegram social media platforms.
Kathleen Gallarde
Kathleen has a background in customer service, working for a bank in the UK as a support contact for their customers. She provides our clients with all levels of administrative support and has specific experience with Discord and Telegram group management.
Andrea Malijan
Andrea provides administrative support to our clients and with particular focus on Microsoft applications and Google Workspace, email management, CRM support, online research, and social media management. Her specific platform specialties are TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
Marilyn Saturinas
Mylene has a degree in Business Administration with a major in Financial Management. She provides our clients with administrative support, customer relationship management, and variety of other business support services. In addition to being a valued part of this team, she has two children and manages our business affairs in the Philippines.
Wendel Salido
Wendel has a degree in Business Administration with a major in Financial Management. He provides our clients with a variety of services including business management consulting. He is a member of an emergency medical response team, and was formerly in Bravo 6th Infantry. He and Mylene met while in college and recently celebrated the birth of a little girl.
Kristel Malijan
Kristel has a degree in psychology and graduated with honors. She specializes in team building and peer leadership development. Administratively, she excels in all of the administrative support functions we provide our clients. Her specific platform specialties are TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
All of the members of our team excel at:
– Administrative & Virtual Assistance
– Data entry and management
– Microsoft Excel and spreadsheet management
– Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
– Google Docs and Google Sheets
– Google Drive and file organization
– Documentation and record keeping
– Information organization and database maintenance
– High-volume and repetitive data processing
– Booking Calendar Support