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Melissa Smith – ThePVA – Association of Virtual Assistants
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You have found Authentic
Business Adventures the business program
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that brings you the struggles, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the country.
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Today we’re welcoming/preparing to learn from Melissa Smith,
the CEO and founder of the Association
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of Virtual Assistants, as well as the PVA.
So, Melissa, how are you doing today?
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I’m doing great.
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Thanks for having me.
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I am excited to talk with you because this
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seems like the type of business
that people either.
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I feel like they should have flocked
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to now as clients, even as
entrepreneurs themselves.
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You seem like you’re ahead
of the curve by a few years, I guess
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as far as that goes. I am, I’m fortunate.
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I started my career in virtual assisting
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back in 2013 and started
my business in 2014.
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And back then, it was a lot of education.
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I mean, certainly there were tons of VA’s
in the industry already that had really
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pioneered it long before
Zoom and things like that.
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But when I started, there was still so
much education that had to be done.
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And fortunately, I enjoy that.
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I enjoy sharing with people how it works
and how virtual assistants can help
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clients and companies and just
a variety of different ways.
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And certainly with the pandemic
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and the world going online,
it really ramped up the industry.
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And now there’s currently a shortage
of qualified VA’s in the industry.
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It will probably take,
I was saying a year and a half six months
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ago, but I still think it’s probably
another year and a half two years
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for the market to catch up with the demand
because there’s a difference between
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a virtual assistant and a
qualified virtual assistant.
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But yeah, I feel very fortunate
to have already been in this space.
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While my personal lifestyle of being
location, independent and nomadic
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and traveling all the time,
that drastically changed my work lifestyle
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and how I got to do things and how I
centered myself, fortunately,
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did not change like many had to and
talking about company culture and how you
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communicate and strategy and all that some
companies are still figuring through.
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I didn’t have to go through that.
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I feel very fortunate that I didn’t have to go through that part.
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The company culture thing is interesting.
You talk about that.
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I was just having a conversation
with my employees about that.
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Like we have to steer the culture where we
want it to go, because you’re going
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to have a culture of some kind,
whether it’s the one that you want or not,
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if you just let it happen,
it may not be the one that you want.
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You have to pursue it.
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Yeah, that’s just one more
thing you got to pursue.
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As far as that goes, let’s don’t
shift to when you first started.
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What made you decide to start your own
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business? Rather than just being
a virtual assistant for somebody else.
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So I had always said I would
never own my own company.
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Really?
Oh, yes.
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I never wanted to own my own company
because I grew up in the restaurant
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industry and in family members who had
their own construction businesses.
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And it was very much you
were married to that work.
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I can’t tell you the number of holidays
that actually spent at the restaurant
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working, and that’s where
my family was as well.
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And I thought, this is awful.
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I don’t want to do this.
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I’d rather be an employee.
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I’d rather get paid to be off.
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I’d rather close and do all those things.
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And it just seemed like just not fun.
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And I didn’t want any part of it.
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Well, I didn’t always
want to be an assistant.
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So my mom was an assistant.
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I grew up knowing that I was
going to be an assistant.
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I went to Secretary school back
when that’s what we were called.
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I was an executive assistant
for over 15 years.
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Very happy.
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Loved it.
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And then in 2012,
my husband committed suicide.
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I was three days into a brand new job.
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Wow.
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So as you can imagine,
life changed drastically.
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Yeah.
And I was in Georgia at the time.
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I’m originally from California.
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I stayed another year in Georgia and then
decided with the help of my family that it
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was probably best that I
moved back to California.
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So I moved back to my hometown
and moved back to where my sister was.
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My son was in college at the time.
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I had a daughter who was going
into her junior year in high school.
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She had friends and even relatives
that went to the high school.
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So we were there for a year.
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I had a job that I loved.
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I never wanted to leave.
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I thought I would be there forever.
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Most of the employees that were
there had been there over 20 years.
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So I really did see myself
being there forever.
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And then my daughter
came to me after a year.
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And actually, it was
a little less than a year.
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And she said, I want to move back home.
This is not my home.
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I don’t want to graduate from school here.
I want to go.
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I want to be back with my friends.
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And during that time, I had felt
like I had become myself again.
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And she had not.
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So I knew I needed to give that to her.
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So without hesitation,
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I moved her back to Georgia so
she could start the school year.
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I went in to my boss.
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I went to get my two weeks notice,
and he said, we don’t want to lose you.
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How can we keep you?
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All right. You would work
there for two weeks?
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No.
I went to get my two weeks notice.
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I had sorry.
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So this is a year and two weeks in.
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Yes, it was ten months.
Ten months.
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Okay.
Still relatively new.
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All right.
And he said, we don’t want to lose you.
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How can we keep you?
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And I said, I could do most
of what I do virtually.
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I don’t have to be here in the office.
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And he said, okay, let’s do that.
Wow.
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So I became their first
remote employee ever,
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and it really does speak to
providing value.
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And I was providing value to that company,
and they knew it, and they realized it.
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And I was smart enough also to only work
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for a company who would value me back,
which is a key factor.
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I was never a person to take
a job because I needed money.
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My philosophy is that there’s always
work to be done in a recession.
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I had three jobs when people were
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complaining there was
no jobs in a recession.
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I had three jobs, so it was never
a fear of loss type of reality to me.
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I’ve never had a job that I didn’t love
because I always valued my work too much.
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And so when I would go into interview,
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yes, they were interviewing me,
but I was 100% interviewing them as well.
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You were advanced there, right?
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I was because my mom, who I wanted
to be like, she was an assistant.
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So I wanted to be like her.
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I didn’t know that she didn’t love her
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work all the time because
my mom is like a Saint.
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So she never once complained about
a boss about a situation about a person.
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Nothing.
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I was probably three or four
years into my business.
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Now, when I found out that there were jobs
that she had that she didn’t like, wow.
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She never says anything bad
about anyone or anything.
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Now, on the other side, there was my dad.
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He was a single dad raising three kids.
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He had one full time job and then two part
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time jobs, and he hated
his work, hated it.
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And he didn’t see a way out.
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He just head down, paying the bills,
had to take care of three kids,
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and he couldn’t wait for us to get out
of the house so he could quit his job.
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And when my brother left home to go
to College, my dad quit his job.
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Wow.
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And so I was like, Well,
life is too short for that.
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I’m not going to be that person.
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So I was very much like I’m
going to be like my mom.
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And it was just kind of I didn’t ever know
that things would be ever differently.
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So if you go into it, having
that expectation, that’s what you get.
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Yeah.
I feel like a lot of people
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employees that I’ve had in the past,
arguably even some.
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Now, despite my attempts, just feel
like you’re supposed to hate work.
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You’re supposed to hate Mondays.
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You’re supposed to jump up and down
on Fridays because that’s when you leave
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work, we seem to be
taught that work is evil.
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It’s bad.
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And whatever you do
outside of work is better.
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And I feel like maybe it should be.
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But a lot of times what people do outside
of work isn’t that entertaining either?
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Yeah.
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And there’s this paradigm,
and there’s this paradox as well of, well,
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my work has to be my total
and complete passion.
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It has to be my life,
school and my fulfillment, right?
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That’s the other side of it.
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And I don’t believe that either.
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I do believe that life is too short to get
up every day, dreading what you do.
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And I also believe because I could see it
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from the other side because I had so many
business owners in my family that it’s not
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fair to someone else to bring your bad
attitude to work
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for someone else out there who would
give anything to have your job.
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There’s someone out there who would
give anything to have your job.
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Your job is their dream job.
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And if you’re in it and you’re not in it
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because you don’t love it,
you’re doing yourself a disservice.
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You’re doing your employer a disservice,
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and you’re keeping someone
else from their dream job.
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So when I left, I always left on good
terms, but always left knowing
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that someone else was going to come
in and love this job and be as excited as
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about this job as I was
when I first started.
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That is cool.
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How could somebody not hire you?
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That’s awesome.
So you decide.
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Hey, I got to shift gears here,
start my own gig.
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Yeah.
So I start working remotely,
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and we had contracts every year,
and I was already under contract,
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and I got this new contract,
and suddenly my mind just shifted.
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I had felt this little taste of freedom
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and flexibility that was unlike
anything I had ever experienced.
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I had never known work
where I didn’t commute.
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I’d never really known work where I wasn’t
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tied to a desk where someone didn’t expect
me to be there, even though phones don’t
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ring like they used to, that’s not
the way people communicate anymore.
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My presence was still needed.
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So even just to get up and use
the restroom, which was totally fine.
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It wasn’t like I was under
orders to stay there.
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But if I was going to leave to use
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the restroom, I needed to let someone
know, watch the front door, watch this.
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Watch that someone’s coming in,
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even just as a professional
courtesy, right.
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So not having that anymore was just like,
wow, what a difference.
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This is just incredible.
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And so I got this idea that, wow,
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if I could do it for them,
could I do it for myself?
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And that just was a really crazy question
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that I’d never asked myself,
never asked myself.
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And ultimately, it was because I was
also tired of asking for time off.
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I was an extremely loyal employee,
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and I didn’t want to ever feel like
someone was not taken care of.
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And although everyone was always taken
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care of, even if I was
on vacation or taking a day off.
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I didn’t enjoy asking for time off,
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and I didn’t see the need to because
I can still do what I do.
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So how does this make sense?
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And I thought if I just never had to ask
for time off and I could go visit
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my family, which I was
visiting in California.
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I was sitting my son in Iowa.
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I wanted to be home with my daughter.
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I mean, we’re all still going through
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a lot of changes if I didn’t have to do
that and I could just do my work
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from wherever I was,
which is what I was doing anyways.
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Wouldn’t that be awesome?
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Yeah.
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I set my contract back unsigned without
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a plan or knowledge on how to run
a business with no clients.
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No, nothing.
I finished out my contract.
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I said, I have to start my own business.
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I think this is the time to do this.
I’m going to try this.
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I feel like this is my time,
and they were so supportive.
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They said, Great, we support you.
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Thank you for fitting out your contract.
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We really appreciate it.
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You always have a job with us.
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If you ever want to come back for any
reason, we’d be happy to have you.
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And so that’s what I did.
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Nice. And what year is this?
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That was December 2014.
All right.
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It’s been a little while.
Yeah.
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All right.
So you hang your shingle out there.
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You’re like.
All right.
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I got a laptop.
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I have Internet.
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I can be anywhere,
do anything secure business.
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All I need now are customers.
Yeah.
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How do you get the customers?
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Oh, I had no idea.
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Oh, I had no idea.
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I tell everyone like,
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that first year in business is
a joke I can only laugh about now.
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All right, fair.
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I just didn’t know.
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And in a way for me, that was good.
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In a way for me, it was good because I
had known what I was getting myself into.
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I probably wouldn’t have done it,
but I knew how to be an employee.
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I didn’t know how to run a business.
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So looking back now,
I can see so many things like I would
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constantly tell people I
could never find clients.
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I could never find clients.
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Well, that wasn’t true.
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I was meeting and finding clients every
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single day because I was constantly
networking and meeting people,
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and I was not afraid to tell
people what I was doing.
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However, they weren’t my client.
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So I didn’t know how to monetize
that service that I was providing.
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So what happened is a year later,
I have a light bulb moment,
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and I realized I have a client in front
of me who much like all my other clients
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that I had turned away
and just kind of given away.
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He had needed a service.
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I told him about virtual assistants.
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I educated him or her on all
the reasons why you would hire one.
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All the benefits, how great it is.
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At the end of the conversation,
they would say, Great, can I hire you?
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And I would say, no,
and they would look at me.
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I was crazy, and I would tell them,
I’m just not that type of VA.
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And they would say, Well,
where does one client touch a person?
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And I thought, Gosh,
I know tons of people.
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So I began making introductions like that.
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And I was doing that for a year,
which is what I do now.
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And I get paid to do it now only because
I tell people I charge them for it.
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But I was doing that for a year
without ever getting paid.
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And then one day I had this light bulb
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moment because I was talking
to a person who was my person.
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They did need my services.
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I could tell he needed my services.
[00:15:01]
He told me he needed my services.
[00:15:03]
But in that part of the conversation where
you know that you’re losing someone.
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I could tell that I was losing
him while he needed me.
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He didn’t necessarily want me.
[00:15:13]
Okay, so I flipped the conversation
on him, and I said,
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What’s the one thing in your business that
you wanted to implement, but you haven’t.
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And he got really excited, right?
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The excitement came back now, and he said,
oh, if I could hire a VA to clean up
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my CRM system, send me out
a newsletter four times a year.
[00:15:34]
I just need two new clients a year.
[00:15:36]
He had a very niche business,
made a lot of money.
[00:15:38]
He said, that would be awesome.
[00:15:41]
So I said, Well, if I found that person
for you, would you pay me for that?
[00:15:45]
And he was like, oh, yeah.
[00:15:47]
How much do you charge?
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So I threw out some ridiculous number.
[00:15:50]
I still to this day, I don’t know
where this number came from.
[00:15:52]
I threw out 599.
I don’t know, the most ridiculous number.
[00:15:55]
599.
And he said, okay, sounds good.
[00:15:59]
What do you need from me?
[00:16:01]
He was my very first client.
[00:16:03]
Nice.
[00:16:05]
But for that first year,
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I understood how to do things.
[00:16:11]
I had people telling me all the time
sell the sizzle, not the steak.
[00:16:15]
I’m like, what does that mean?
[00:16:19]
It was just so frustrating to know all
the things and yet know nothing to know
[00:16:26]
how to be a good employee but not
know how to run a business.
[00:16:29]
Everything just felt so daunting.
[00:16:34]
And had I not hired a coach,
I actually don’t know where I would be
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right now, but I was so
committed that this had to work.
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Like I was failing.
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I knew I was failing.
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I could hire a coach.
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And then I would know if I failed.
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I went down swinging.
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But the idea of failing and not even
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not even knowing why I failed
was not an option for me.
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If someone could just tell
me why I was sailing.
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Then I would have the opportunity.
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But I would never have
the opportunity on my own.
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And I knew that.
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So when I hired that coach, it really
turned just everything around for me.
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And there were some hard moments.
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I mean, bless her because
I was not the easiest.
[00:17:23]
It’s like, why?
[00:17:24]
Why are you telling me to do this?
[00:17:25]
Why are you saying this like
none of this makes sense.
[00:17:28]
And she just kept on pressing me to really
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break the mindset habits that I had in
moving from employee to business owner.
[00:17:39]
I only saw it from how an employee
could help a business owner.
[00:17:43]
I never saw it as how to be that business
owner that helps themselves.
[00:17:49]
So when you that first year in business,
were you trying to get
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to refer out or were you trying
to be the virtual assistant?
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I was trying to be the virtual assistant.
Okay.
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I was.
I did pick up clients.
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I made enough to get by and doing
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everything, but I didn’t have
the right pricing structure.
[00:18:08]
I didn’t know how to have
the right pricing structure.
[00:18:10]
I didn’t know how to get
business consistently.
[00:18:13]
When you’re an EA and you’re working
[00:18:16]
by the hour, it can be extremely
difficult because you only get faster.
[00:18:22]
So I’m only getting faster at my work.
[00:18:24]
And I pride myself on being
fast and efficient.
[00:18:27]
So I’m actually penalizing
myself for being better as a VA.
[00:18:32]
Sure.
So how is this working like this isn’t
[00:18:34]
a good long term model. What’s
wrong with this picture?
[00:18:37]
Yeah.
[00:18:37]
So we run into a similar situation
with calls on call,
[00:18:40]
because as you get better with calls
and stuff like that, you say, hey,
[00:18:43]
this typical client is going to be
whatever, 510 hours a month, whatever.
[00:18:47]
Let’s just say ten for easy math as you
get better at it faster, more efficient.
[00:18:52]
Now they’re 8 hours.
[00:18:52]
And I imagine with VA stuff,
probably even cut more than that.
[00:18:56]
Your ten hour client turns into a five
hour client when you’re paid by the hour,
[00:19:00]
and not necessarily by the project,
because you’re more efficient.
[00:19:04]
You essentially just cut your pay in half.
[00:19:08]
Not ideal.
[00:19:10]
No ideal.
[00:19:11]
That means you charge by the project,
[00:19:13]
then to reward your efficiency
rather than punish it.
[00:19:17]
Correct.
[00:19:17]
I quickly switched to value based
pricing and still use that to this day.
[00:19:24]
And that’s what I also
teach other VAS to do.
[00:19:28]
And it’s something that was
[00:19:32]
extremely hard for me to adopt.
[00:19:35]
And it was also doing less work.
All right.
[00:19:40]
And I just had such a hard time
wrapping my head around that.
[00:19:44]
So I was used to doing, you know,
[00:19:46]
the core elements of my job, you know,
but every now and then you need to do some
[00:19:53]
other things and you just
want a team player, right?
[00:19:55]
Like you’re not going to say no,
you’re going to figure it out.
[00:19:57]
You’re going to do what someone asked you
[00:19:59]
to do, and it’s very different as
a business owner, and you have to be very
[00:20:05]
careful because
it shifts you outside of your operating
[00:20:11]
systems and what you’re good at and what
you know, you can be successful at.
[00:20:14]
And then how you know
that you’re making money.
[00:20:17]
It’s fine if you want to test it out
[00:20:19]
and you go into it with a
testing out frame of mind.
[00:20:22]
But if this is going to become
the norm now, how does this fit in?
[00:20:26]
So the idea that I was actually going
[00:20:28]
to do less, charge more
just boggled my mind.
[00:20:34]
I mean, I couldn’t.
[00:20:35]
And I remember asking my coach,
like, Are you crazy?
[00:20:40]
Are you crazy?
[00:20:41]
I would get fired
[00:20:43]
if I was working in an office and I told
someone, no, I’m not going to do that.
[00:20:47]
It’s not a good use of my time.
[00:20:49]
And, oh, by the way, I’m going
to start charging you more now.
[00:20:53]
And she said, Well, that’s your problem.
[00:20:55]
You’re not an employee, right?
[00:20:58]
You’re not an employee.
[00:20:59]
You’re not going to your
boss to tell them anything.
[00:21:03]
You’re sharing your information because
it’s a matter of fact with your clients.
[00:21:09]
And I remember thinking, Well, how many
people do you want me to alienate before?
[00:21:14]
Like someone says yes to the small set
[00:21:18]
of services and what I thought
was a large chunk of money.
[00:21:23]
And she said, I want you to alienate
[00:21:25]
anyone who’s not willing
to pay those prices.
[00:21:28]
Smart coach.
[00:21:30]
And I thought, oh, well, that makes sense.
[00:21:36]
All of a sudden, my eyes were open.
[00:21:38]
The scales fell off.
[00:21:40]
It was just like, okay,
[00:21:41]
I get it now because I didn’t see
the opposite side of that was
[00:21:46]
my frustration wasn’t coming
from doing less and making more.
[00:21:51]
It was coming from rejection,
[00:21:54]
from not having the right clients
to pitch in the first place.
[00:21:58]
Oh, so it didn’t necessarily
come from I didn’t earn that.
[00:22:02]
It came from you’re trying
to please everyone.
[00:22:04]
Essentially.
That’s right.
[00:22:05]
All right.
Interesting.
[00:22:09]
I can tell you when I first started
my business, similar situation.
[00:22:13]
I just feel like you have to constantly be
[00:22:15]
working in exchange
trading time for money.
[00:22:18]
It took me a long time to realize
that is not a very smart way.
[00:22:22]
Certainly not a healthy
way to own a business.
[00:22:25]
It’s a great way to own a job.
[00:22:27]
Yeah, it’s not ideal.
[00:22:30]
And I adapted it permanently when I
started making travel a permanent way
[00:22:35]
of my life, because now I knew it was
going to cut into my travel time.
[00:22:43]
That was a no go for me.
[00:22:45]
That was like my sacred cow.
[00:22:47]
No, this wasn’t happening because I
had previously had a fear of flying.
[00:22:53]
But when I signed a few contracts and I
was doing some work,
[00:22:57]
I was actually doing in person events
as well, I was flying more often.
[00:23:02]
Well, I wasn’t flying across the States
[00:23:05]
like I was before,
so I couldn’t take the same amount
[00:23:09]
of drama mean that I had
to I was taking fewer drama.
[00:23:13]
I was also not flying just like once
[00:23:15]
a year there once a year back,
I was flying at least once a month.
[00:23:19]
So having these
more frequent flights shorter,
[00:23:22]
closer together add to limit
my dosage of dominance.
[00:23:26]
So as soon as I hit the ground,
I wasn’t trying to go to sleep.
[00:23:30]
I was actually going to work.
[00:23:32]
And then one day I just realized that I
[00:23:34]
forgot to take my drama mean,
I landed in Florida, and I thought
[00:23:40]
I didn’t take my drama mean, I would get
my phone out of my purse.
[00:23:44]
And there my drawing was.
[00:23:45]
And I thought I didn’t take it.
[00:23:47]
And so I thought, oh, does that mean
I’m over my fear of flying?
[00:23:50]
So I had a long flight to La, coming up
Atlanta to La, and I didn’t take it.
[00:23:56]
And I thought, oh, I’m cured.
[00:23:58]
So I went out and got my passport.
[00:24:00]
And then from there,
I started traveling internationally.
[00:24:04]
And so it was to take on the wrong clients
or just trade time or all that kind.
[00:24:09]
It was just know that it definitely
does not fit into my lifestyle.
[00:24:14]
And again, I went back to the thing.
[00:24:17]
You’re just not a good client for me.
[00:24:19]
I’m not a good person for you either.
[00:24:21]
You’re going to try to get a hold of me.
[00:24:23]
You’re not going to be
able to get a hold of me.
[00:24:25]
That’s awesome.
[00:24:26]
So to be liberating.
[00:24:28]
Yeah, absolutely.
[00:24:30]
Bringing the freedom back to owning your
[00:24:32]
own business, which is when people often
entrepreneurs will say that they want
[00:24:36]
that and then they build
their own little prison.
[00:24:39]
Oh, absolutely.
[00:24:40]
Freedom and flexibility is the number
one reason that people become VAS.
[00:24:46]
We did our last survey and
[00:24:50]
98% that they were actually achieving
that freedom and flexibility.
[00:24:57]
Now I will say that it’s funny because as
they became more successful,
[00:25:04]
their freedom and flexibility went away
because in the beginning,
[00:25:08]
you’re like chasing that dollar,
you’re paying your bills.
[00:25:12]
Well, then when you’re not chasing it
[00:25:14]
and it’s coming at you instead,
how much harder is it to turn it away
[00:25:21]
and say, oh, well, if I take that,
this is going to take some of my freedom
[00:25:25]
and flexibility unless I hire someone else
or unless I empower someone else,
[00:25:29]
unless I hire a manager to do these
things, like, who’s going to oversee this?
[00:25:33]
Is this fit within my personality,
even to be able to mentally disconnect
[00:25:38]
even though I’m not physically,
even remotely doing the work
[00:25:43]
for me.
I think I was also very much
[00:25:47]
guarded and protected because many of
my clients are famous or online famous.
[00:25:52]
So I see what they’re posting.
[00:25:54]
But I know the reality I’ve seen behind
[00:25:56]
the great Curtain of Oz,
and I’m like, that is not true.
[00:26:03]
Oh, man, I cannot believe you’re
selling that trash because it’s a lie.
[00:26:11]
I know your line.
[00:26:12]
I just was on a call with you.
[00:26:14]
I know what’s going on.
[00:26:16]
I know what you’re posting is not true.
[00:26:18]
So
[00:26:20]
I became very guarded knowing
that the people and even my competitors
[00:26:25]
who were hiring me were not living
the lifestyle that they were selling.
[00:26:30]
And I was like,
that will not be me, right.
[00:26:35]
Actually, live the dream
that you’re proposing to people.
[00:26:38]
Yes.
[00:26:40]
And for me, it really
did come down to this
[00:26:45]
crazy thing that many
people can’t understand.
[00:26:50]
Like, for me, I have different types
[00:26:51]
of boundaries and work boundaries
and work schedule than other people do.
[00:26:56]
My kids are grown.
[00:26:57]
I don’t have a partner,
so I don’t need to or have a desire
[00:27:02]
to conform to a nine to five
lifestyle, which I find.
[00:27:06]
So I want it because so many people,
I’m ditching the nine to five.
[00:27:08]
I’m ditching the nine to five,
but they’re not really.
[00:27:11]
They’re just ditching their employer.
[00:27:15]
They’re just ditching the employer.
[00:27:17]
They’re keeping those same hours.
[00:27:18]
And I was like, I have a bit
of a rebellious spirit.
[00:27:22]
So I was like, I’m absolutely not working
those hours just for spite alone.
[00:27:27]
I will not do it.
[00:27:29]
So I’d rather wake up early
[00:27:31]
in the morning, do my stuff, take off
my afternoons and work at night again.
[00:27:34]
Sometimes
if I want to take off on a Tuesday
[00:27:38]
and treat my Tuesday like a Saturday,
I want to be able to do that.
[00:27:42]
I don’t keep long term clients.
[00:27:44]
I don’t always keep clients anyways,
at this point in my career.
[00:27:47]
But when I do, I don’t
keep clients for more than
[00:27:51]
three months.
[00:27:52]
I don’t keep clients
for more than three months.
[00:27:54]
Wow.
Because it doesn’t fit into my lifestyle.
[00:27:58]
It doesn’t fit into anything like that.
[00:28:00]
So I’m very particular.
[00:28:03]
And there’s some people who would say,
Well, that sounds awful.
[00:28:07]
Oh, gosh, it was a good
thing I didn’t ask you.
[00:28:12]
I’ve never been a VA.
Yeah.
[00:28:15]
It’S completely redefined what that means
and what that looks like for me.
[00:28:21]
And I have been intentional that my work
[00:28:25]
week will not be centered around Monday
through Friday, that my work day will not
[00:28:30]
be centered around nine to five and that I
will work when it’s not only convenient
[00:28:36]
for me, but it’s when it’s
convenient for my clients.
[00:28:39]
All right.
I do call at 06:00 at 07:00.
[00:28:43]
I don’t mind.
[00:28:45]
All right.
[00:28:48]
Do I take calls at 08:00 in the morning?
[00:28:51]
Absolutely not.
[00:28:52]
You will not be able to get a hold
of me at 08:00 in the morning.
[00:28:55]
I don’t take Monday meetings before 12:00,
[00:28:59]
and I don’t take Friday
meetings after 12:00.
[00:29:03]
All right.
[00:29:04]
I have just completely redefined it.
[00:29:06]
I refuse to be blocked into that time.
[00:29:08]
And for me, that’s
freedom and flexibility.
[00:29:10]
Now, if I had small children or I had
[00:29:13]
a partner who had a traditional job,
that would be much harder.
[00:29:18]
Freedom and flexibility might just be like
[00:29:21]
choosing that I only
work 20 hours in a week.
[00:29:24]
Well, that’s not freedom
and flexibility to me.
[00:29:26]
If I only work 20 hours in a week,
I would go crazy.
[00:29:32]
I would be eating junk food.
[00:29:34]
I would be sitting around doing nothing.
[00:29:36]
I need to be, like, at zero
or 100 miles an hour, right?
[00:29:40]
That in between space.
[00:29:41]
That just doesn’t work for me.
[00:29:43]
And so a lot of people get thrown off,
[00:29:44]
because when I’m saying I’m working,
they think I’m doing client work.
[00:29:48]
And when I say I’m working for myself,
I’m my first client.
[00:29:54]
So for every 1 hour of client work that I
[00:29:57]
do, I’m probably doing three or
four 5 hours of my own work.
[00:30:02]
I’m my first client.
[00:30:03]
I have writing to do.
[00:30:04]
I have people to meet that’s networking,
[00:30:07]
that’s professional development that’s
reading all that stuff gets put in there.
[00:30:13]
And so people are often amazed that I can
set up a meeting like,
[00:30:18]
the same day I speak to somebody like,
wow, like, your calendar is available.
[00:30:22]
And I said, yes, I have sacred time on my
calendar that no one is allowed to book.
[00:30:27]
I have my time.
[00:30:28]
And then if someone needs me,
which my clients because of the nature
[00:30:31]
of what I do,
if they’re free right now,
[00:30:34]
this might be the only time they’re
free for the next week or two weeks.
[00:30:39]
If I can see them right now,
[00:30:40]
I can speak to them right now, and they
become a client of mine right now.
[00:30:43]
Versus, like, who knows what
could happen in two weeks,
[00:30:48]
then?
Great.
[00:30:49]
That’s my business model.
That’s awesome.
[00:30:51]
Sacred time.
I love that phrase.
[00:30:53]
That’s cool.
[00:30:54]
That is very cool.
[00:30:56]
So it’s very clear that you set
boundaries and there’s no bend in there.
[00:31:02]
That’s really cool.
Yeah.
[00:31:04]
Now the flip side of that is because
I’m not perfect.
[00:31:10]
The flip side of that is that I am more
[00:31:13]
likely to overwork than not sure
when you first start out.
[00:31:20]
And I and I believe this, and I am not
a fan of, like, oh, don’t work hard.
[00:31:24]
Working hard is bad.
[00:31:26]
Money should come too easily.
[00:31:27]
It should be easy to build a business
all that’s out there.
[00:31:31]
I don’t believe in that we’re not
fundamentally even wired to be that way.
[00:31:37]
And there have been studies upon studies
[00:31:38]
that show, like, if you just have people
out there digging a ditch and you pay them
[00:31:42]
more and more each day to do it,
they won’t continue to do it.
[00:31:48]
Not because they don’t want
the money, but because it’s.
[00:31:51]
There’s no challenge,
and that’s what really hard work is.
[00:31:55]
My fingers aren’t getting blistered
because I’m typing 10,000 words a day.
[00:32:00]
That’s kind of what’s
happening here, right?
[00:32:02]
But there’s a healthy amount
of challenge that we have.
[00:32:05]
And that’s really what the hard work comes
[00:32:06]
in, because the challenge we love,
the discipline to meet.
[00:32:12]
The challenge is what we don’t love.
[00:32:15]
And that’s hard.
[00:32:16]
The discipline is hard work.
[00:32:18]
Well, I had, like, over discipline myself
for fear of failure.
[00:32:24]
So I’m more likely to overwork than not.
[00:32:27]
That’s also a danger.
[00:32:30]
And it was hard for people to imagine
before because I was traveling and I was
[00:32:35]
doing all these things and people
didn’t understand that.
[00:32:38]
But now that people have been remote
for a few years now, they can see it,
[00:32:45]
because wherever you are,
they’re wherever your work is.
[00:32:49]
And it’s hard to make those mental shifts.
[00:32:51]
So now, whereas I used to take my laptop
[00:32:54]
everywhere, I was,
even throughout the house or the apartment
[00:32:57]
I was living in,
now my laptop stays in one location,
[00:33:03]
and that’s the location I
deemed to be in my office.
[00:33:05]
It does not come with me other
places as a mental disconnect.
[00:33:10]
All right, shut it down for the day.
[00:33:12]
I say, okay, I’m done now.
[00:33:15]
I physically say, I’m done now.
[00:33:16]
I close the door with my work shirt.
[00:33:19]
I wear the same thing every day.
Nice.
[00:33:21]
So as soon as I’m done working,
[00:33:23]
I change my shirt and I am
immediately out of work mode.
[00:33:28]
Shift gears.
Absolutely.
[00:33:29]
Shift gears.
Very nice.
[00:33:31]
It’s really important because
you can set these boundaries.
[00:33:36]
But if you don’t set boundaries
on yourself, of when you’re not working.
[00:33:42]
It could be all the time.
[00:33:43]
You can be all the time,
because there’s always something to do.
[00:33:47]
If you’re running your own business,
there’s always something to do.
[00:33:51]
And so now I’ve learned know what you’re
going to get done the night before.
[00:33:57]
So the night before, I write down my list
of what I’m going to get done tomorrow.
[00:34:01]
This is like my non negotiable.
[00:34:03]
So no matter what happens during the day,
I’m going to get this done.
[00:34:06]
And all the little stuff that comes up,
[00:34:08]
everyone else’s little emergency,
like none of us are doctors.
[00:34:12]
At least I’m not a doctor.
[00:34:13]
None of my clients are
like no one’s dying.
[00:34:15]
So that is not going to weigh on me.
[00:34:20]
If I have to do something,
I’m going to get my stuff done first,
[00:34:24]
I’m going to figure out what
I can do for somebody else.
[00:34:27]
If it can’t be done today, then I’m
going to tell them when it will be done.
[00:34:32]
But then it takes out that necessity
[00:34:34]
to wake up and have other
people dictate my day.
[00:34:39]
All right. You’re not
constantly putting out fires?
[00:34:42]
No.
And even when I set my out of office
[00:34:44]
emails, I’ll set my office emails,
and I’m like, and because there are no
[00:34:49]
emergencies because it
used to be this thing.
[00:34:51]
People set their out of office emails and
they would write in case of emergency.
[00:34:55]
And I specifically write in my out
[00:34:56]
of office emails because
there are no emergencies
[00:35:00]
because I’ve already
anticipated your needs.
[00:35:03]
Right.
Like here’s all the stuff that you might
[00:35:06]
possibly need,
none of which is an emergency.
[00:35:08]
Now, however, if you don’t need anything
[00:35:10]
on this list like Congratulations,
you stumped me.
[00:35:14]
And for you, you can contact my assistant.
[00:35:17]
Alright, nice.
[00:35:20]
That is cool.
[00:35:21]
I love it.
[00:35:22]
So when did or I guess,
tell me how Ava came around.
[00:35:26]
Association of virtual assistants
that came around, I imagine after it did.
[00:35:31]
So when I started my business,
[00:35:33]
as you can imagine, I was completely lost
and I was looking for resources and I was
[00:35:40]
looking for people like me and always been
very connected to other assistance,
[00:35:45]
which is why networking seems
like first nature to me.
[00:35:48]
It was like, well, that’s what you do.
[00:35:50]
That’s how you get new jobs.
[00:35:51]
That’s how you find new people.
[00:35:52]
That’s how you get introductions.
[00:35:54]
And so I was looking for these places
and there were some out there,
[00:36:00]
but I didn’t feel like they
were all the right places.
[00:36:04]
So just like any other entrepreneur or
business owner, what do you create?
[00:36:08]
You create the thing
that you feel is lacking.
[00:36:10]
And so I didn’t know how or
when I was going to create it.
[00:36:13]
It boggled my mind to think about it.
[00:36:16]
It was so out of my area
of expertise, my comfort zone.
[00:36:19]
You name it.
[00:36:21]
And I actually read a book.
Dan Pink.
[00:36:23]
I think it was his drive book or it might
[00:36:25]
have been to sell as humans
forget I read Drive.
[00:36:29]
It’s a good book.
Yes.
[00:36:31]
And he had said write a rejection letter
[00:36:33]
to yourself for that thing
that you want to do.
[00:36:35]
You don’t know how to do that thing
[00:36:36]
that is not maybe not going
to accomplish it this year.
[00:36:39]
Just go ahead and write
a rejection letter to yourself.
[00:36:42]
So I did.
[00:36:43]
And I still have it
on my wallet dated 314 16.
[00:36:47]
Wow.
[00:36:48]
And so I said the rejection
letter was here.
[00:36:52]
I wanted to create the space for VAS.
And I don’t know how.
[00:36:56]
And the rejection letter was basically
[00:36:58]
from some I don’t know, generic company
saying it’s just not the right timing.
[00:37:04]
And the purpose of the rejection letter is
to understand
[00:37:07]
the gap that you need to close of why
you’re being rejected instead of saying
[00:37:13]
it’s ready now,
because if you do that and you realize
[00:37:17]
there’s not a gap, then there’s
an action that you’re missing.
[00:37:22]
But if you write it and you realize the
gap now you know how to close the gap.
[00:37:25]
And when I realized it was just timing,
there was so many things.
[00:37:28]
But ultimately,
all these things needed to take place
[00:37:32]
within me and my work
and everything that I was doing.
[00:37:36]
But it was so grand that I couldn’t
even name it bigger than timing, right?
[00:37:41]
Because it was 1000 things.
I didn’t know.
[00:37:43]
I didn’t know.
Sure.
[00:37:46]
But it was just always there.
[00:37:47]
And fortunately, it was like,
[00:37:49]
so out there that I could just continue
to build my business into what I do
[00:37:53]
and just kind of look over it every now
and then and say, one day, one day.
[00:37:58]
All right.
[00:37:59]
And then in 2018, I felt
like the timing was right.
[00:38:06]
But now I was super frustrated because I
[00:38:07]
thought it was going to be
more like a marketplace.
[00:38:10]
But yet I’d have no tech background.
[00:38:12]
I didn’t feel comfortable hiring a tech
person because I know so little that I
[00:38:17]
wouldn’t even know what a good
person would look like.
[00:38:20]
I mean, I just felt super
frustrated and I felt blocked.
[00:38:24]
And I was talking to a girlfriend of mine
who was in the same group that I’m in.
[00:38:29]
And she said, Well, what’s stopping
you from creating an Association?
[00:38:35]
And I thought, Good question.
[00:38:38]
Nothing.
[00:38:39]
And she said, well,
[00:38:42]
would that solve any of the problems
and just simply take out the tech piece?
[00:38:47]
And I thought, yes, it would.
[00:38:51]
So then in December 2018,
[00:38:53]
I sent out this super cryptic email
and it’s cryptic because it was one line
[00:38:58]
and none of my emails are one line,
at least not my newsletters.
[00:39:01]
I’m a long form writer,
so I’m just sending out one sentence email
[00:39:05]
that says, who wants to change the VA
industry with me was quite cryptic.
[00:39:11]
And I had a few takers.
[00:39:12]
And so we launched the Ava in March 2019.
[00:39:17]
So you sent that email to VA’s that you
[00:39:19]
knew or just every VA
email you could find?
[00:39:22]
No, everyone.
I was on my email list.
[00:39:24]
Alright.
[00:39:27]
How many we talking.
We talking hundreds, thousands.
[00:39:29]
Whatever.
[00:39:30]
We’re talking hundreds, just under 1000.
Okay.
[00:39:35]
So then how many people said,
yeah, let’s do this.
[00:39:38]
Or responded, like at four people respond
and three people pick me up on the offer.
[00:39:44]
Not bad.
[00:39:45]
Run with it.
[00:39:46]
Changing the world here
wants to change the world.
[00:39:49]
Essentially.
That’s cool.
[00:39:51]
Yeah.
[00:39:51]
Then from there, how did you take it? Did
they become partners or they just refer?
[00:39:56]
They did.
They became partners.
[00:39:58]
And I have one partner still with me.
[00:40:00]
So one partner left
at the end of that year.
[00:40:02]
She actually left the VA industry.
[00:40:05]
We had another partner and she was
with us just until this last October.
[00:40:11]
And then now it’s just
me and another partner.
[00:40:14]
And
[00:40:18]
there’s lots of change.
[00:40:19]
And how I prepared myself was by watching
[00:40:24]
a lot of business movies
and documentaries.
[00:40:31]
It really does.
Yes.
[00:40:34]
The founder, the founder is a great movie.
Yes.
[00:40:38]
I mean, I probably watched that.
[00:40:42]
I’ve watched it maybe ten times.
Sure.
[00:40:44]
You’re talking persistence systems.
[00:40:47]
Yes.
[00:40:49]
When you think about
[00:40:51]
how there was a time because
it wasn’t in my lifetime.
[00:40:54]
Right.
[00:40:54]
But there was a time when you had to train
people to order food at the window
[00:41:00]
and then throw out trash, just that
concept alone was mind boggling for me.
[00:41:10]
And when you see where all these founders
[00:41:13]
end up, whether it’s like
Steve Madden, Steve Jobs,
[00:41:17]
Wall Street, like all these things,
where did they go wrong?
[00:41:20]
Because I wasn’t actually looking for what
[00:41:22]
they did right, I have
to find my own right path.
[00:41:25]
But the one thing they have in common was
[00:41:28]
all the places they went wrong,
where they all go wrong.
[00:41:32]
They all messed up in their personal
relationships, and it all tied to money.
[00:41:38]
So my mission was that
[00:41:41]
we’re going to do this and we’re
going to talk about money a lot.
[00:41:45]
And we’re going to talk about
money before we have it that way.
[00:41:49]
When it’s done,
we already have in writing.
[00:41:51]
We already have contracts because
we may all go our own separate ways.
[00:41:55]
This may not work out.
[00:41:56]
All these things may happen,
[00:41:58]
but at the end of the day,
if we’re not still friends,
[00:42:02]
then I will not have I will not
have succeeded at anything.
[00:42:06]
Right. What’s the point?
[00:42:08]
What’s the point?
[00:42:09]
And so that was one
of my biggest takeaways.
[00:42:12]
So I can honestly say that when I had
these partners leave, it was great.
[00:42:17]
We wished each other.
[00:42:17]
Well, we have great
respect for one another.
[00:42:21]
I can’t possibly do anything,
[00:42:22]
but thank them for their time
and service that they gave.
[00:42:26]
And still, yeah, we have contracts
in place, so we never have to go back.
[00:42:31]
What do we do about money now
or like money in the future?
[00:42:34]
Because it’s easy to do that when
you have nothing right.
[00:42:38]
For some reason, it’s the opposite.
[00:42:41]
It’s great to talk about money
when you don’t have any.
[00:42:43]
It’s very hard to talk
about money when you do.
[00:42:47]
Well, people get militant, then they do
[00:42:50]
something they can take
before it’s just a dream.
[00:42:52]
Yeah.
[00:42:53]
So I mean, when it’s all just
a dream and it’s all out there.
[00:42:55]
I mean, that’s the perfect time.
[00:42:57]
So we did that very prematurely,
but it also saves us.
[00:43:01]
And I think it’s a great business
[00:43:02]
principle, because then it also
helps center you as an owner.
[00:43:07]
How much is too much?
[00:43:08]
How much is enough?
[00:43:09]
When is it going to go to charity?
[00:43:11]
When are you going to give back?
[00:43:13]
Are those things important to you?
Are they not?
[00:43:16]
Are you aligning yourself with other
people who feel the same way as you do?
[00:43:21]
Because there’s a lot of things
that we can’t see eye to eye on.
[00:43:24]
I don’t even want to see eye to eye.
[00:43:25]
I want you to challenge me.
[00:43:26]
I want you to poke holes in my plan.
[00:43:28]
I want you to do all those things.
[00:43:30]
But money is the one area
where we have to see eye to eye.
[00:43:35]
We have to do that.
[00:43:36]
Everything else can be up in the air.
[00:43:39]
We can battle it out.
[00:43:40]
We can hash it out.
[00:43:41]
We can come to terms, not the same.
Not the same.
[00:43:44]
With money.
Yeah.
[00:43:45]
Fair.
Totally fair.
[00:43:47]
I wouldn’t say premature at all.
[00:43:48]
That’s the perfect time to get
that stuff laid out in writing.
[00:43:52]
So essentially, I always think
of it like a game of Monopoly.
[00:43:56]
You wouldn’t play a game,
Monopoly or otherwise without rules,
[00:44:00]
because then you feel like you’re
playing with a five year old.
[00:44:02]
It’s just changing the rules on the fly.
[00:44:05]
It’s tough to play with them, especially
in business, when money gets involved.
[00:44:08]
So you just lay out the ground rules.
[00:44:10]
These are the rules of the game.
We’re going to play the game.
[00:44:12]
We’re going to have fun playing the game.
[00:44:14]
But these are the rules.
We all agree.
[00:44:16]
We’re cool.
[00:44:17]
Let’s go make some money
and have some fun.
[00:44:19]
So very cool.
I love it.
[00:44:21]
Was it challenging to start something
from scratch like that with partners?
[00:44:26]
In a way it was challenging.
[00:44:28]
And in a way it wasn’t because
[00:44:30]
thinking about starting my own business,
even though I had a coach and I have
[00:44:33]
a super loving family, it’s daunting
that everything is your responsibility.
[00:44:40]
So it was so nice to have other people
to have areas of responsibility that are
[00:44:45]
not my strong suit and be able
to collaborate with one another.
[00:44:50]
You just don’t feel like
you’re alone in business.
[00:44:53]
And so that part was really great.
[00:44:56]
Now it was challenging to have an idea.
[00:44:58]
And someone said, no,
I don’t think that’s good
[00:45:05]
as much as I wanted it right
as much as I wanted it.
[00:45:09]
And I actually had to tell my team.
[00:45:11]
Here’s the thing about me.
[00:45:13]
I say things with total,
incomplete conviction.
[00:45:16]
It’s my personality that I won’t even say
[00:45:18]
something if I think there’s
a tiny chance that I can be wrong.
[00:45:22]
So it means that I only say
things with 100% conviction.
[00:45:26]
It does not mean that I’m right.
[00:45:28]
It only means that I’m convicted to myself
[00:45:31]
that I think I’m right
at that moment in time.
[00:45:33]
You believe that?
Yes.
[00:45:34]
So I said, I need you
to show up and say, no.
[00:45:40]
I want you to imagine something different.
[00:45:42]
I think that he could be wrong.
[00:45:44]
I said, don’t take the tone of my voice.
[00:45:46]
That’s just how it’s going to come out.
[00:45:48]
But I am always willing to take
that advice because, believe me,
[00:45:52]
I have been wrong more times
than I have been right.
[00:45:58]
I’m going to own that.
[00:45:59]
I’m going to own it 100%,
and I’m more likely to own it when it’s
[00:46:03]
coming from you all, because now I
have you all to answer for as well.
[00:46:07]
If something goes bad and I have to say,
[00:46:10]
wow, we could have totally avoided
this if I had only listened.
[00:46:15]
I don’t want to be that person, right.
[00:46:17]
I don’t want to be that person.
[00:46:18]
I’d rather be the person.
[00:46:19]
And this is still true.
One of my partners said,
[00:46:22]
we need to shut down membership
after we open, then raise prices.
[00:46:24]
We’ll shut down for a month,
and we were like, what?
[00:46:27]
What are you talking about?
That’s crazy talk?
[00:46:30]
No.
Like, oh, no, that’s not happening.
[00:46:33]
And she just kept on persisting.
[00:46:36]
And she is my silent giant.
[00:46:38]
And I thought, all right,
this is what I hired her for.
[00:46:42]
This is what we wanted to partner for.
[00:46:43]
This is what she knows better than I do.
I’m going to listen to her.
[00:46:46]
And to this day,
instead of saying, I should have listened
[00:46:49]
to you, I get to say,
I still think that’s one of the best
[00:46:54]
decisions I ever made
was to listen to you.
[00:46:56]
Nice.
[00:46:58]
We had a strategy session a few weeks ago,
and we were going through everything.
[00:47:02]
And because of that one decision, it’s
completely changed our entire trajectory.
[00:47:08]
And every time I look at it,
I can’t possibly forget.
[00:47:11]
And I tell her if I did anything right.
[00:47:14]
I listened to you when you told me that.
[00:47:17]
That’s cool.
[00:47:19]
So I guess how do you market this?
[00:47:23]
It surprising me that an Association
for VA’s didn’t exist before.
[00:47:27]
Oh, they did.
They did.
[00:47:28]
Okay.
Yeah.
[00:47:30]
There are several.
[00:47:32]
They didn’t speak to me and they
didn’t meet the needs that I had.
[00:47:35]
So I wanted to create a different one.
[00:47:38]
You got the Association of
Virtual Assistance as your Association.
[00:47:42]
And there were associations before
that didn’t have that name.
[00:47:46]
Correct.
[00:47:47]
That seems like the most
obvious name in the world.
[00:47:51]
Well, some of them got more
like niche in their names.
[00:47:56]
All right.
So maybe like, there’s one in Canada,
[00:47:58]
there’s international one
there’s like other ones.
[00:48:01]
But yeah, just blanket statement.
[00:48:03]
No one had it interesting. And is
yours nonprofit or for profit?
[00:48:07]
It’s for profit.
Okay.
[00:48:08]
Nothing wrong with that.
Cool.
[00:48:11]
So how do you market
to existing virtual assistants?
[00:48:15]
Because I don’t want to throw this
little dangler.
[00:48:19]
I guess out there the people that I’ve met
[00:48:23]
that are virtual assistants, and it’s
a small pool, but decent sized pool.
[00:48:27]
A lot of them are just kind
of hanging out on their own.
[00:48:30]
They’re one, maybe two person shows.
[00:48:33]
And their big thing is,
I don’t want a boss,
[00:48:36]
but from my point of view,
a lot of times, they still own their job.
[00:48:42]
A lot of them, despite what I recommend to
them, have very little desire for growth.
[00:48:49]
They have more desire for comfort.
[00:48:52]
Or I think of it as complacency,
but they probably don’t.
[00:48:57]
But you know what I mean?
[00:48:58]
Like, they’re not necessarily looking
to reach for the stars kind of thing.
[00:49:01]
Not necessarily good or bad.
[00:49:02]
Yeah.
[00:49:04]
So we have gone through several ideas
[00:49:08]
for marketing, and you think, well,
you’ve been doing this for years.
[00:49:12]
You should start this.
[00:49:13]
You should know exactly
who your person is.
[00:49:15]
And that’s just not the case.
[00:49:16]
We’ve had to test a lot.
[00:49:19]
We’re still testing.
[00:49:21]
We’re still trying to figure out who our
[00:49:23]
person is and what stage
that is in their business.
[00:49:27]
So we have some members who have joined
[00:49:30]
because they have always lived a life
where they are part of their
[00:49:36]
industry Association because of what we do
to help promote and protect the industry.
[00:49:42]
So we have industry report.
[00:49:44]
We have industry standard pricing,
we have free resources.
[00:49:47]
We have free training.
[00:49:48]
You have some people who feel like they
[00:49:51]
want to join because
they want to give back.
[00:49:53]
So in our Association,
much like Association rather than a group,
[00:49:57]
everyone has free rein
to speak within a group.
[00:49:59]
No one’s going to be going against
[00:50:01]
my business model that I
think is the right one.
[00:50:04]
So if someone asked a question in slack,
[00:50:08]
there can be five different responses,
five different types of responses,
[00:50:14]
and then it’s up to the person
to determine which one suits them best.
[00:50:18]
They don’t believe in blanket responses.
All right.
[00:50:21]
We have a very core set of individuals
[00:50:24]
who just don’t believe
in doing business alone.
[00:50:28]
They don’t know when they’re
going to have a question.
[00:50:30]
They don’t know what their next question
[00:50:31]
is going to be,
but they want a trusted resource
[00:50:36]
of individuals who’s going to provide them
with some kind of help and information
[00:50:42]
in real time.
[00:50:45]
Ask questions.
All right.
[00:50:47]
And then certainly we have
those who want to become VA’s.
[00:50:51]
They have lots of questions.
[00:50:55]
And so really, our premise
is when a lot of VAS don’t feel valued.
[00:51:00]
This is a place where you can feel valued.
[00:51:02]
The other side of that is the question
[00:51:05]
that you have now in business is not
the question that you’re going to have
[00:51:09]
a month from now, a year from now,
five years from now.
[00:51:13]
But we’re still going to be here
to help you answer those questions.
[00:51:17]
So there’s plenty of VAS in our
[00:51:19]
Association that they’re out
to build their next Empire.
[00:51:23]
They’re going big.
[00:51:24]
And there’s other VA’s
that say, you know what?
[00:51:26]
I want to work 20 hours a week
and that’s it.
[00:51:32]
And there’s no right or wrong.
[00:51:34]
It’s whatever suits your business.
[00:51:37]
But whatever question you have in order
[00:51:39]
to do that, whatever question you have
in order to maintain that,
[00:51:43]
that’s what we’re here to help you
with and give you resources and provide
[00:51:47]
options and then also just serve
as a point of contact, right.
[00:51:54]
It can get lonely sometimes
[00:51:57]
you’re like, when is anybody out there?
[00:51:58]
Is anyone going through
what I’m going through?
[00:52:00]
We have events twice a year,
so they’re both online.
[00:52:04]
We celebrate Admin Week.
[00:52:06]
We just finished up our holiday party
where we give away amazing prices.
[00:52:12]
We don’t compete with other groups.
[00:52:15]
So every VA leader in the industry
loves to work with us and collaborate
[00:52:21]
with us because we’re not saying, oh, no,
we don’t want to be with them.
[00:52:26]
We don’t want to be associated with them
because they might take our money.
[00:52:29]
This is a great person in the industry.
[00:52:31]
Have you heard of them?
[00:52:32]
They’re awesome.
[00:52:33]
What another great resource for you.
Nice.
[00:52:36]
All right.
[00:52:37]
And then this year we’ve decided that it’s
time we’re going to do some pop up events,
[00:52:41]
so we’re going to have some pop
up events coming 50 people.
[00:52:46]
We’re going to cap it.
[00:52:47]
We’re going to meet live and in person.
[00:52:49]
It’s what our members
have been asking for.
[00:52:51]
It’s what members of the VA community have
[00:52:53]
wanted as well, and just being able to
get what they need in real time.
[00:53:01]
Vas are notorious for being
behind the scenes.
[00:53:05]
And so a place where you
can kind of be in front
[00:53:11]
without feeling like you’re losing your
[00:53:13]
security blanket behind and meeting other
people and other individuals and giving
[00:53:19]
them something for that is something
that we’re super excited about this year.
[00:53:24]
Nice.
That’s cool.
[00:53:25]
The pop up events are they
happening all over the country?
[00:53:29]
They will.
[00:53:30]
Our first one is going
to be in Atlanta in March.
[00:53:34]
I’m keeping it close to home for me.
[00:53:36]
Since this will be our first one,
[00:53:37]
we want to make sure that I can
have plenty of boots on the ground.
[00:53:42]
But when we pulled our members and even
[00:53:44]
our non members, we want to see
where they would want us to go.
[00:53:47]
We were quite shocked that single
[00:53:50]
individuals would say,
I’d be willing to travel to these States.
[00:53:53]
These States all surround me.
[00:53:55]
I’d be willing to travel to these States,
[00:53:56]
and we thought, Gosh, are people willing
to travel more than just in their city?
[00:54:00]
Okay.
[00:54:01]
We’ll probably do it in States that are
certainly more open and flexible.
[00:54:07]
So we won’t be going to New York
or California anytime soon.
[00:54:10]
Probably likely to go to Texas or Florida
[00:54:14]
next, just because planning is
hard and they have easier access.
[00:54:20]
They’Re building a wall
around New York now.
[00:54:22]
Yeah,
[00:54:24]
but yeah, Atlanta will be our first one.
[00:54:26]
This coming in March 2022.
Nice.
[00:54:30]
That is so cool.
[00:54:32]
So when you look back at all that you’ve
been through as far as you’ve come
[00:54:36]
with your business,
how does that make you feel?
[00:54:42]
I have really mixed feelings
because I’m a recovering perfectionist.
[00:54:48]
So I think it’s hard for me not
[00:54:51]
to remember all the things that I’ve done
or that I could have done differently.
[00:54:56]
I’ve certainly failed more
times than I’ve succeeded.
[00:55:00]
But this past December,
[00:55:02]
we’re in December right now,
but it feels like a forever go now.
[00:55:06]
I was named top virtual assistant
consultant of the year,
[00:55:10]
and I went to New York and we were
at the Plaza, and it had actually been
[00:55:15]
a dream of mine to stay at the Plaza
and to have this whole experience.
[00:55:21]
And I was there three years ago attending
Hustle Con East,
[00:55:25]
and I walked around the Plaza, and I
thought, Gosh, I should be staying here.
[00:55:29]
This should be my life.
[00:55:31]
And so to be able to have that and to be
able to share it with my mom and have
[00:55:34]
that dream literally come true was quite
extraordinary, because while people would
[00:55:39]
tell me, oh, you’re living the dream,
you’re living the dream.
[00:55:41]
Well, it was never my dream
to be a business owner.
[00:55:44]
It was never my dream to travel the world.
[00:55:45]
I was afraid to fly like it was never
my dream to do a lot of these things.
[00:55:49]
I just one day said,
I’m going to do that, and I did it.
[00:55:54]
So it was really kind of hard
to separate those things.
[00:55:58]
And then the other side of that is when I
[00:56:01]
look back and I see the things
I’m like, oh, gosh, I wish.
[00:56:05]
Just imagine what you could have done if
[00:56:07]
you did this instead or if
you made this decision.
[00:56:09]
But it’s not fair,
because I didn’t know that I know that now
[00:56:14]
to make a foolish decision
now would be foolish.
[00:56:17]
Then it was the only
information that I had.
[00:56:19]
It was not foolish.
[00:56:21]
I took a calculated risk.
I failed.
[00:56:23]
Right?
That was it.
[00:56:25]
And so
[00:56:27]
in times, it’s challenging
to think like, oh, wow.
[00:56:31]
You’ve come a long way,
[00:56:34]
and at times it’s like, wow,
you still have so far to go.
[00:56:39]
So
[00:56:42]
one of my words for 2022
is actually endurance.
[00:56:45]
Endurance.
[00:56:46]
Okay, because there is
no real finish line.
[00:56:51]
This is like the ultra marathon
[00:56:55]
you have to endure every day.
[00:56:58]
And we can often see endurance as
something that’s bad and hard or painful
[00:57:05]
when, in fact, the ability to endure is
actually changing your tolerance for pain
[00:57:11]
and discomfort to make it
seem like not a big deal.
[00:57:16]
So when there were studies done
on the difference between an athlete
[00:57:19]
at the state, local and National Olympic
level,
[00:57:23]
it had nothing to do with the talent that
would predict how well they would do.
[00:57:28]
In fact, it had to do with how long they
[00:57:30]
were able to endure a painful
or uncomfortable situation.
[00:57:36]
All right.
[00:57:38]
And those who are at the top or
at the Olympic level, and it’s
[00:57:44]
miles apart from those even
[00:57:45]
at the national level,
and then at the state level.
[00:57:48]
Right.
[00:57:49]
But the amazing thing is that the athletes
don’t actually have a higher.
[00:57:57]
They didn’t know that they were enduring
more pain or more discomfort.
[00:58:01]
And we’re talking about, like,
[00:58:02]
having your hand in ice and things that
weren’t like sticking people with it.
[00:58:06]
But
[00:58:08]
they had just let their
mind go to another place
[00:58:13]
that it didn’t occur to them.
[00:58:15]
And so for them, endurance was just, well,
[00:58:19]
this is what you have to do
if you want to compete.
[00:58:22]
And so really changing my mind around
that and seeing like, okay, yes.
[00:58:28]
Put all those things on.
[00:58:30]
You take what you know,
move on and get ready for the next thing,
[00:58:35]
because if you continue to take
the failures and the mistakes and all
[00:58:41]
that you could have done into the future,
you’re bringing all those things with you.
[00:58:45]
You don’t actually learn from them.
[00:58:47]
You’re not actually learning from them.
[00:58:49]
It’s the lie that we
like to tell ourselves.
[00:58:51]
Well, I’m learning from that.
[00:58:53]
I’m shaping it.
[00:58:54]
But the fact is, you already learned it.
[00:58:59]
You’ve already learned.
It time to move on.
[00:59:01]
It’s time to learn something new.
[00:59:03]
And the flip side of that is to learn
to ultimately succeed in your plan,
[00:59:09]
succeed in your goal,
and hopefully even be surprised that what
[00:59:14]
you didn’t think was going to happen could
because some of my best experiences
[00:59:18]
in business have been the things
that I had no idea were possible.
[00:59:24]
Nice.
[00:59:25]
I love it. Melissa,
[00:59:27]
we went a little over on time here,
but that’s all right.
[00:59:30]
I feel like I could talk
to you for another 3 hours.
[00:59:34]
That’s just how it goes. Really quick
here for all the VA’s out there.
[00:59:39]
What are a couple pointers that you
would give them as far as either starting
[00:59:42]
their business or what you have learned
as far as growing the business.
[00:59:48]
Sure…Start,
[00:59:51]
don’t wait till everything’s perfect.
[00:59:52]
I know that we love to make
a plan and stick to the plan.
[00:59:56]
That’s great.
It’s a great framework.
[00:59:59]
It’s not how business happens.
[01:00:00]
Business does not happen in a linear
[01:00:03]
shape, and I know that we
try to plan for a B and C.
[01:00:06]
I’ve done it.
It still doesn’t work that way.
[01:00:10]
And if you want to look at the positive
[01:00:12]
side, the flip side to that is that you
don’t have to take every step in business.
[01:00:17]
You can actually skip steps.
[01:00:19]
So if you’re not so tied
[01:00:20]
to that framework, you can actually
make leaps and bounds over your plan.
[01:00:25]
Right.
But you do have to start.
[01:00:28]
And I would say the one thing that VA’s
[01:00:32]
really struggles with is where
to get clients, how to find clients.
[01:00:36]
And you know what?
[01:00:37]
You just have to start talking to people
[01:00:39]
when someone asks you,
hey, what are you doing?
[01:00:42]
How are you doing these days?
[01:00:43]
Don’t say I’m fine.
[01:00:45]
I’m great.
[01:00:46]
I’m starting a VA business.
[01:00:47]
I’m looking for these types of clients
so I can do this type of work.
[01:00:50]
Do you know anybody that’s awesome.
[01:00:53]
That alone.
That alone.
[01:00:55]
Instead of just saying I’m fine, I’m good
[01:00:59]
for the common.
I say, How’s it going?
[01:01:01]
They’re like it’s going,
[01:01:04]
what’s wrong with you?
[01:01:09]
At any rate, Melissa,
how can people find you?
[01:01:12]
Sure.
[01:01:14]
If you’re on LinkedIn, I live on LinkedIn
so you can find me at Melissa Smith The PVA.
[01:01:18]
You can email me melissa@thepva.com.
[01:01:21]
That’s also my website, thepva.com.
[01:01:23]
If you’re interested in the Association
of VA’s it’s associationofvas.com
[01:01:27]
or melissa@associationofvas.com.
[01:01:30]
I love email, so I answer
email and LinkedIn.
[01:01:32]
You can find me on other social media
[01:01:34]
platforms, but you can expect
a delay in a response.
[01:01:37]
I don’t live there.
Linkedin.
[01:01:39]
That’s the be to be world.
[01:01:41]
Just how it rolls.
Yes.
[01:01:43]
Awesome.
[01:01:43]
Well, thank you so much
for being on the show.
[01:01:45]
Melissa, thanks for having me, James.
[01:01:47]
This has been Authentic Business
Adventures,
[01:01:49]
the business program that brings you
the struggle,
[01:01:51]
stories, and triumphiant successes
of business owners across the land.
[01:01:55]
We are underwritten
locally by the Bank of Sun Prairie.
[01:01:57]
If you can do us a huge favor,
share this with your VA friends.
[01:02:01]
Your entrepreneurs, give us a thumbs up
and of course, comment and let us know
[01:02:06]
anything that you want to share
with Melissa or ask her questions.
[01:02:09]
She’s got a lot to share,
so much to share.
[01:02:12]
I normally don’t go over time.
This is cool.
[01:02:14]
My name is James Kademan.
Excuse me.
[01:02:16]
And Authentic Business Adventures is
[01:02:18]
brought to you by Calls on Call, offering
call answering and receptionist services
[01:02:23]
for service businesses across
the country, on the web, callsoncall.com
[01:02:28]
as well as Draw In Customers Business
Coaching, offering business coaching services
[01:02:32]
for entrepreneurs looking for growth
on the web at drawincustomers.com
[01:02:36]
and of course,
The Bold Business Book, a book
[01:02:39]
for the entrepreneur in all of us
available wherever fine books are sold.
[01:02:42]
We’d like to thank you our wonderful
listeners as well as our guests.
[01:02:44]
Melissa Smith,
[01:02:45]
the CEO and founder of the Association
of Virtual Assistants as well as the PVA.
[01:02:50]
Melissa, we were talking so
much and had so much going on.
[01:02:54]
I forgot to ask you about
your books. So really quick
[01:02:57]
can you tell us just the title of the
books and where people can find them?
[01:03:01]
Sure.
[01:03:01]
If you’re looking to hire a VA, Hire
the Right Virtual Assistant is on Amazon.
[01:03:06]
And if you’re looking to become a virtual
[01:03:08]
assistant, Become a Successful
Virtual Assistant.
[01:03:11]
Also on Amazon.
Awesome.
[01:03:13]
We’re going to have to chat again because
[01:03:15]
I feel like you got a lot to share and we
just have to squeeze it in time here.
[01:03:18]
So thank you so much
for being on the show Melissa. My pleasure, James.
[01:03:22]
Past episodes can be found
morning, noon, and night.
[01:03:24]
The podcast link found
at drawincustomer.com
[01:03:27]
Thank you for listening.
[01:03:28]
We’ll see you next week.
I want you to stay awesome.
[01:03:30]
And if you do nothing else,
enjoy your business.