From Haiti to Global Entrepreneurship: Julbert Abraham Builds Task Maven Services to Help Businesses Scale
The entrepreneur known as “The LinkedIn Guy” discusses immigration, failure, sales, artificial intelligence, global talent and why business owners must learn to delegate.
By TheVibeStream.com Staff
ORLANDO, Fla. — When Julbert Abraham arrived in the United States from Haiti, he did not speak English, have a professional network or possess the financial resources typically associated with launching a successful business career.
What he did have was the willingness to learn.
During an interview with Jose Candelario at The Jose Candelario Show’s Orlando studio, Abraham described a journey that took him from learning English by watching cartoons to building and eventually exiting an international digital marketing agency.
His newest venture, Task Maven Services, is designed to help other entrepreneurs build the teams and infrastructure they need to grow.
“I didn’t speak English, didn’t know anybody, didn’t have any money and had no network,” Abraham said while recounting his arrival in the United States.
Today, Abraham is publicly recognized as an entrepreneur, speaker, marketing strategist and business educator. He became widely known as “The LinkedIn Guy” through Abraham Global Marketing, a LinkedIn-focused digital marketing agency that served hundreds of small and midsize businesses.
His professional biography says he earned an MBA from Northeastern University, taught at Baruch College and worked with companies in more than a dozen countries.
Learning English and Developing Sales Skills
Abraham said he remained focused on school after arriving in the United States and gradually learned English. At approximately 16 years old, he secured a cold-calling job with a marketing company.
The experience became the foundation of his sales career.
“I think that is by far the most important skill set for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur,” Abraham said. “You’ve got to talk to people.”
Although digital advertising, social media, artificial intelligence and automation have transformed how businesses reach customers, Abraham said entrepreneurs still need the ability to communicate, ask questions and directly present their services.
“A lot of entrepreneurs nowadays say, ‘I don’t want to sell,’” he said. “Well, you’re going to be broke.”
For Abraham, selling is not simply about convincing someone to make a purchase. It is about understanding a customer’s needs, receiving honest feedback and determining whether an offer solves a real problem.
His First Business Began in College
Abraham’s first entrepreneurial venture was an event photography company he started with friends while attending college.
He joked that the original goal was to meet women and avoid being broke. He and his partners used money from their college refund checks to purchase equipment and begin offering photography services.
However, the original business model quickly encountered a problem: Many of the students they hoped to photograph could not afford the service.
Instead of abandoning the business, Abraham and his partners adjusted their target market. They began working with the school and other organizations that had the budgets to hire them.
That experience provided an early lesson in product-market fit.
Abraham said entrepreneurs must evaluate both data and time before deciding whether to continue, modify or abandon a business idea.
Some entrepreneurs pivot too quickly without giving their concept a legitimate opportunity to succeed. Others remain attached to an unsuccessful idea even after the market has clearly rejected it.
“You have to gather the right data to be able to make the right decision,” Abraham said.
A product may fail because of its pricing, messaging, audience or delivery—not necessarily because the underlying idea is bad.
The challenge, he said, is determining whether the entrepreneur should change the offer, pursue a different market or discontinue the product entirely.
Entrepreneurship Became a Way Forward
After graduating from college, Abraham entered the corporate world. He was eventually laid off and found himself facing eviction, the repossession of his vehicle and serious financial uncertainty.
“I had to find a way out of no way,” he said. “Entrepreneurship became that path for me.”
Abraham started a consulting business from his apartment and secured enough clients to begin paying his bills. At the same time, he enrolled in an MBA program to strengthen his business knowledge.
After earning his degree, he received another corporate opportunity in New York City. When that position also ended in a layoff, he decided to commit fully to entrepreneurship.
Around 2012 or 2013, Abraham began building what would become a major digital marketing and LinkedIn consulting agency.
During the interview, Abraham said the company eventually served more than 700 clients, employed a team of 22 people and worked with businesses around the world. He later exited the agency after operating it for approximately 10 years.
His publicly available Udemy biography similarly describes Abraham Global Marketing as a full-service LinkedIn agency that worked with more than 560 small and midsize companies in 13 countries.
The Creation of Task Maven Services
Following the sale of his marketing agency and a period away from operating a company, Abraham launched Task Maven Services.
Task Maven Services is a virtual-assistant staffing and recruiting company that helps businesses locate remote professionals for administrative, marketing, sales, technology and operational roles.
During the interview, Abraham said the broader Task Maven network includes approximately 2,500 professionals across more than 10 countries.
Abraham said the company works with professionals in countries including South Africa, Kenya, Colombia and Venezuela.
The goal is to help growing businesses access experienced professionals without immediately assuming the cost of hiring a full-time U.S.-based employee.
Task Maven’s current public offer says the company can match clients with a virtual assistant within three to seven business days. The company offers both a placement model and a managed-service model that can include recruiting, payroll, training, performance management and replacement support.
Helping Small Businesses Access Talent
Many small businesses reach a stage where the founder has more work than time but does not yet have the revenue or infrastructure to build a large internal team.
The owner may be responsible for sales, customer service, marketing, bookkeeping, scheduling, content creation and daily operations.
That arrangement may work during the early stages of a company. However, it eventually prevents growth.
Abraham said Task Maven is designed for businesses that need capable talent but may not be ready to hire a domestic employee earning $80,000 annually.
Because of international currency and labor-market differences, businesses may be able to hire professionals with significant experience at a more manageable rate.
The company currently advertises virtual-assistant rates ranging from approximately $4 to $10 per hour under its placement plan, depending on the worker’s skills and experience. Its managed plans include additional recruiting, payroll, training and performance-management services.
International hiring, however, should not be viewed simply as finding the lowest-cost worker.
Abraham emphasized the importance of matching the right person with the right role, expectations and stage of business development.
Three Levels of Virtual Talent
Abraham described three general tiers of virtual-assistant talent.
The first tier consists of task-oriented workers. These professionals follow directions and complete clearly defined assignments.
The second tier includes critical thinkers who can complete tasks while also identifying opportunities, problems or more efficient ways of working.
The third tier includes leadership-level professionals who can oversee other team members, communicate with clients and become involved in the company’s operations.
“If you just want more of a task person, you can get that,” Abraham said. “But if you want a critical thinker in addition to that, we can provide it.”
Understanding the difference is important because a business may need more than someone who simply follows a checklist.
A growing company may need an operations manager, project coordinator or executive assistant who can make decisions, communicate with customers and help construct systems.
Saving Entrepreneurs From the Cost of Hiring
Abraham said business owners frequently underestimate how much time is required to recruit a team member.
A founder may post a position and receive dozens of résumés. The founder must then review applications, select candidates, schedule interviews, evaluate skills and negotiate the working arrangement.
That process can consume several hours per day for weeks.
“How much is your time actually worth?” Abraham asked.
A business owner who values their time at $100 or $200 per hour may lose thousands of dollars in productive capacity while attempting to complete the hiring process alone.
Abraham said Task Maven can reduce that time by handling recruiting, screening and candidate selection before presenting the strongest applicants to the client.
The business owner still makes the final hiring decision, but the company performs much of the preliminary work.
The Difference Between Activity and Infrastructure
One of Abraham’s central messages was that business owners must build infrastructure—not simply accumulate tasks, customers or social media followers.
A company may appear successful from the outside while still depending entirely on its founder.
If the owner must approve every decision, answer every email and personally deliver every service, the company may have created a demanding job rather than a scalable asset.
“Having the right infrastructure in place is critical,” Abraham said.
That infrastructure can include written procedures, trained team members, customer-management systems, communication standards, sales processes and clearly defined responsibilities.
Task Maven’s positioning reflects that emphasis. The company does not only promote administrative assistance. It also markets support with customer care, onboarding, CRM management, appointment setting, social media, sales and operational coordination.
Artificial Intelligence Still Needs Human Judgment
The conversation also addressed the growing role of artificial intelligence in business.
Abraham said he supports AI and works with professionals who build AI agents and business automations. However, he warned against believing that the technology can replace experience, judgment and critical thinking.
“The AI is as powerful as the human behind it,” Abraham said.
A business owner must know how to provide the right context, instructions and prompts. Without that knowledge, an AI system may produce an answer that sounds encouraging but does not reflect the realities of the market.
Abraham said a strong adviser must sometimes tell a client that an idea is unlikely to work.
The goal should not be to provide constant agreement. It should be to provide honest guidance.
“To be more of an adviser than just a yes man,” he said.
Abraham said some Task Maven clients hire prompt engineers and automation professionals to develop AI systems instead of spending months attempting to master the technology themselves.
He does not believe every entrepreneur needs to become an AI expert.
Some business owners should understand how to sell or apply AI-based services, while technical professionals handle development and implementation.
The larger lesson is that entrepreneurs should focus on their strongest abilities and recruit people who can fill the gaps.
A Business Begins With a Customer
Entrepreneurs frequently spend months selecting logos, building websites and creating social media pages before confirming that anyone will purchase their product.
Abraham recommends reversing that order.
“I like the concept of getting your customers first because then they validate the idea,” he said.
A logo does not validate a business. A social media page does not validate a business. Even a detailed business plan does not prove that a company has a viable offer.
“The idea is not validated until somebody is willing to take money out of their wallet and pay for it,” Abraham said.
He encouraged entrepreneurs to speak directly with prospective customers, test their offers and collect marketplace feedback before investing heavily in branding or infrastructure.
Once customers have confirmed demand, the company can build the systems needed to deliver the service consistently.
Building a Business That Can Be Sold
Abraham also encouraged owners to think of their businesses as assets.
In the beginning, a business may exist primarily to support the owner and their family. Over time, however, it should become something that can operate independently and potentially be sold.
“A lot of people talk about creating wealth,” Abraham said. “Sometimes the best way to create wealth is to sell the asset that you have.”
Many owners view their companies as personal creations that can never be separated from them. That emotional attachment may prevent them from building documented systems, transferring responsibilities or planning for succession.
A business that cannot function without its founder may be difficult to sell.
Abraham said the retirement of baby boomer business owners could create significant opportunities for younger entrepreneurs. Many longtime owners have children who do not want to inherit or operate the family company.
That leaves the owner with a choice: sell the business, transfer it to someone else or shut it down.
For entrepreneurs willing to learn an existing operation, acquiring a functioning business may offer a stronger path than starting one from the beginning.
His Advice to Young Entrepreneurs
When asked what advice he would give to a college student or young entrepreneur, Abraham recommended finding a local business owner and volunteering to work with that person for three to six months.
The goal is to learn how a real company operates.
That experience can provide exposure to sales, customer service, financial management, hiring, operations and problem-solving.
Abraham said the practical experience could be more valuable than a graduate business degree.
“It’s more valuable than the MBA that I have,” he said.
The relationship may also lead to an opportunity to purchase or eventually take over the business.
A young entrepreneur who spends months helping an older owner has already built trust, learned the operation and demonstrated commitment.
Instead of creating a new company from nothing, that person may be able to acquire an existing business with customers, revenue, equipment and a recognized name.
A Story of Reinvention
Abraham’s career has included immigration, cold calling, photography, corporate employment, layoffs, consulting, graduate school, digital marketing and international staffing.
Each chapter contributed to the next.
His early cold-calling experience helped him become a salesperson. His photography company taught him how to change markets. His layoffs pushed him toward entrepreneurship. His marketing agency showed him how difficult it can be to recruit and manage a global team.
Task Maven Services emerged from those accumulated lessons.
The company’s central promise is straightforward: Business owners should not have to do everything themselves.
Growth requires more than ideas and ambition. It requires people, systems, honest feedback and the willingness to release control.
For Abraham, the path forward begins when an entrepreneur recognizes that their time should be spent where it creates the greatest value.
“Focus on your strength,” he said. “Let the talent take over the rest.”
More information about Task Maven Services is available through the company’s official website.
Sponsored By: The Vibe — Internet Radio
