June 27, 2022 • 50 mins
How do you earn 15 years worth of income in just three years? LaToya shares her journey of quitting corporate and how she's been able to do just that by getting clear on who she's serving.
LaToya Russell is a tech virtual assistant coach who's built and scaled her business around automation. After figuring this out for herself, she now teaches others to do the same through her courses, mentorship and podcast. It was a great conversation and really eye opening about the kind of money you can earn in this space!
In this episode, you'll learn:
1. What it's like to work in corporate vs. being self employed
2. What it's like to be an introvert in the social media age
3. How to find clients and grow a business without relying on platforms like Upwork
Go here for full show notes and links!
Resources: Want to know 7 things you can do today to make leaving corporate easier? Grab it here!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
LaToya Russell (00:00):
All in all I went I said I was leaving, and
(00:02):
they offered me 200 more dollarsto see $200 You're like, what?
200 more dollars? Like a month aweek? Just $200 on my 1000
Jamie Stephens (00:15):
You're like that. dollars a month or
something after tech. That's soridiculous. I'm behind my back.
The vice president would alwaystell my manager. She's really
the best we have in thedepartment. But she's too loud.
Her mom.
Yeah. I think we can relate withthat one because it's you were
(00:38):
going through that list as I'mlike, yep, check, check, check.
And people don't want to bechallenged that way. Like
especially like managers,they're like, You need to stay
in your place. Thanks for tuningin to another episode of
Breaking up with corporate eachweek I chat with everyday women
that ditch their nine to five tobet on themselves. We break down
(01:01):
their journey intoentrepreneurship, unpack the
lessons learned and create thevision of how this life gets to
be if you're willing to getuncomfortable and step into your
potential. I'm your host, JamieRenee, to time corporate escapee
and coach to burnout womenlooking to plan their escape.
Let's go. Okay, and welcome backto another episode of Breaking
(01:26):
up with corporate today. I haveLatoya Russell on the show. And
Latoya is a tech virtualassistant coach and a fellow
podcaster. And I am excited toget to know all of the things
about you, Latoya. So why don'tyou give us just a brief
introduction.
Thank you so much for having me,Jamie. So officially, I am
(01:47):
Latoya. As Jamie said, I live inBarbados. So that's the first
thing if you're listening to ustalking, I just want you to know
that you can do this fromanywhere or we can have this we
can work remotely from anywhere.
I have been in the online spacefor about eight years, climbed
up through corporate and allthat great stuff. And then I
knew it wasn't for me. So here Iam. To talk to Jamie about all
(02:07):
the wonderful things, the upsand downs, the ins and outs. I
am actually also a very, I don'tlike video, I don't like showing
up on the internet. So workingonline, is that a time known
battle where I'm trying to hide,but I'm still trying. But I do
it anyway. And that's that'skind of me in a nutshell.
(02:31):
Yeah, no, I totally get that Iam definitely an introvert by
nature. And this whole socialmedia thing over the last six
months has really just been atrip for me, because I'm like,
you know, I've had an Instagramaccount, but it's like my
personal one that has probably12 pictures over the last five
years. That's ridiculous,though. I'm learning and
growing. And I totally get it.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about what you were doing in
(02:54):
corporate and kind of what thatlooks like for you?
Well, I started my traditionaljob working journey as a
personal assistant. Well, beforehe got there, you know, we have
our teenage jobs and stuff. Solike many of us, I was in retail
as a teenager, when we gotholidays from school, I did a
(03:14):
couple of retail Christmasthings, and summer things. And
then as soon as I finishedschool, officially, I had a
personal assistant, I was apersonal assistant. And then I
moved from there intoadministration, and whatnot and
executive assistants and allthat stuff. Eventually I
branched off into becomingAssistant General Manager.
(03:36):
Shortly before that opportunityI had my daughter. So let me
incorporate was fun, there was ajob that I left that I really,
really wanted to stay becausethe community it was, it was the
best place I've ever worked. SoI can hands down, say the
treatment in terms of thebenefits and whatnot, the
environment, making sure thatthere was a safe space and
(03:59):
office equipment and all thatwas there. It was a great place
to work. But they weren't givingme the promotions or the raises
that I needed. And that causedme to go to another company. The
sad part about it is that when Itold my superiors day that I got
another job, and I was leaving,they offered me more money. I'm
like, Well, you know, this, thisisn't making any sense.
LaToya Russell (04:19):
Or a daily dollar store.
Jamie Stephens (04:22):
Yeah, but and leading up to that I was always
applying for jobs in differentdepartments. Because even if
some of them were lateral basedon where you went, you could get
double the money. There was thisdepartment I wanted to getting
so bad. They said it was a lotof work. But it was double what
I was making. So I was like Ineed to be able to get out
(04:43):
there. And every single time Iwas like, why am I not getting
these jobs when I have allskills and I can do all these
things. It doesn't make anysense. And I call them HR and
they said, Well, your managersays that they can't really see
right now it would it wouldcreate a disaster in the
department. You've got to bekidding me. You know, I went and
I had this tongue like, Why areyou blocking all of my chances
(05:04):
to leave? And they say, well,they can't afford to lose me
right now. And it was kind oflike hard. And again, one of
those unknown things because Iwas like, the loudest person in
the department and loud becauseI would always be the person to
say, this is crap doesn't makeany sense. Whenever they came to
say, Okay, this is what we'redoing. I'd be like, let me tell
you why this doesn't make anysense. Because I knew that
(05:26):
systems are handing hands out. Ieven created. I did some tech
databases or whatnot to makethis the streamline all the
systems that were so good thatthe company paid me, I think
$500 Bonus as we had theSpotlight Award thing. And
anytime you came up with a greatidea, they'd pay you for it, and
(05:46):
the company would get to use it.
So you had to talk to the lady Idid. They had an ad, my
department Sheltie. And I was somad because it was like we are
using these dinosaur things. Icreated an up to date version of
this 19 of these thing you'reusing. are you shouting? Yeah.
So all in all, I when I said itwas leaving, and they offered me
200 more dollars to state$200. You're like, what, 200
(06:09):
more dollars, like a month aweek? Just $200
LaToya Russell (06:18):
on my salary. I was like, you're like
Jamie Stephens (06:21):
that dollars a month or something after tax.
And that's so ridiculous.
I'm behind my back, then thevice president would always tell
my manager. She's really thebest we have in the department.
But she's too loud. Her mom?
Yeah,I think we can relate with that
(06:42):
one. Because it's Eva, goingthrough that list as I'm like,
yep, check, check, check. Andpeople don't want to be
challenged that way. Like,especially like managers,
they're like, You need to stayin your place.
So I'm like, you've got to bekidding. And everybody's doing
the work. And then they'recomplaining and whatnot. And
just just to nip this in thebud. Or to bring this down a
(07:05):
little more, I could do triplethe work anyone in department
was doing in the same time, tothe point where when I was
leaving, they brought two peoplein to fill my role to two full
time people and a half timeperson, which
probably was a lot more than$100.
All right, so I left that job.
And I went to this other job.
(07:25):
And it was a hot mess and adisaster. It was a small
company, but the office was verycliquey. So they already had
like this group going on, andyou had to pass whatever it was
like it was it was kind of likea high school fraternity, where
if you don't pass these checkmarks, you can't be in this
squad. And they had this groupchat going on. And they would
(07:47):
blatantly talk about this groupchat. I was the only one who's
well, myself and the senior whowas at the company for like, 40
years. So it used to be methere, we used to see the
pictures, and they would comeinto the office talking why they
did weekend. And I'm like, youknow, it's something to just
(08:08):
keep to yourself if you're notgoing to include everybody in
the office. So it sort of feeluncomfortable, you know, like
we're doing this day, I don'twant to come to your house. But
you don't have conversationslike that around people that
you're not going to invite,right. And then there was this
other girl that came in and shewanted to be in the clique. So
(08:29):
bad, she sucked up, likeregardless. So I always had
opportunities where I wouldn'tbe looking out for jobs because
I wanted to get oh, I didn'teven stay there nine months. And
I applied for this job, thisconsulting thing, because I was
still doing I still had mylittle thing went on the side, I
applied for this consultingthing, and I got it and the PERT
the company, I did not know thatthe company was helping this
(08:50):
company hired because it waslike a chamber. So it would help
companies find employees andwhatnot. I didn't know that the
company I was working with wastrying to help this company
hire. And the person at thecompany, I got the contract for
a call to say hey, thanks somuch for Latoya. And they were
like, We didn't stand Latoya.
And I got called into theoffice. And everybody was trying
(09:10):
to say that I poached. But whatwas happening is that the clique
was trying to get one of theclique members the job, and I
got it.
So and all their plans.
Yeah, I got called in and I gotfired. So I got fired for
(09:31):
applying for this thing y'allknow, before I came here that I
did consulting on the site, soended up that the company called
me back here like, Hey, we're soglad you got fired. Can you come
over here full time? Well, atleast there's that you know, I
mean, in less than two weeks, Iwas over there as an assistant
general manager. Part of it wasso awesome. And then part of it
(09:52):
was so ridiculous. There wasthis one person I had to deal
with. He was condescending,disrespectful. He didn't curable
staph and whatnot. And I likepeople on my side, I like to be
able to talk to my team and say,Hey, this is what we're doing. I
don't want that if I need afavor five minutes past closing
time, everybody's like, No,there's no way I'm staying here
(10:14):
to help you because I don't likethis place. I his culture was Do
as I say, insult people, thattype of stuff. And so in between
me trying to rally and take mydaughter to after school
activities, and come back towork and put back in time and
all that I was like, I can'tdeal with him. And I went to my
doctor. And it was the firsttime ever that I didn't have to
fit, being sick to get sickleave. Because anytime I wanted
(10:37):
to stay at home for a week atGoogle, like they get symptoms,
she was like, Oh, you probablyhave this thing. And I'd be home
for a week or two. But thistime, I walked in the office and
I said, Listen, I every singlenight, I think of who I can get
to kidnap him, because I knowthat I'm next in line. And this
woman went in a full panic.
She's like, Oh, my God, you'restressed out, you need two weeks
(11:00):
off immediately. And I got thetime and I went home, I was
like, This is it. I am going toput everything to get my virtual
assistant business up full time.
Because I was doing some stufflike just park claim on the
side, where it was like needyour money, money for fun money
for travel money for party, itwasn't that serious, because my
job was paying fine. And I tookthat time and did everything I
(11:24):
need to get my calendar set upall that stuff the right way.
And I went back to that job andI handed in my resignation.
Is it right that you just leftand in your you've been going at
it in your own business fulltime since then, right?
Yes, I give them three monthsbecause of my positions that I
could do a proper handover. Atevery single day I walked
(11:47):
through the door, it was like,please don't trust me enough.
Like, I wanted that when Iwalked in there, they were like,
Oh, we think you're gonnasabotage the company. So you can
just go home now. And then wait15 days before I was supposed to
leave to say, I don't think weneed you anymore. But obviously,
they had to pay at the end oftime because my resignation in
(12:08):
so I was fine. But it was it wasthat and I said you know what,
I'm gonna give myself six monthsat this thing. And if it doesn't
work, then I would go back andfind another traditional job.
Andso how old was your daughter at
that time?
She was three. That was Iactually I was doing everything
part time for eight years. Butit offish, I fully left my full
(12:30):
time job in August 2018.
Gotcha. Okay. You said that youhad started some stuff on the
side. And you had the virtualassistant business going on the
side? What did that look like?
How did you get started with theside business while you were
still in corporate? Like how didyou find clients, all that sort
of stuff.
Most of my I started on, Istarted on up work. And I had a
(12:55):
bunch of clients there, I gotsome great testimonials. I met
some great people. And for somesomeone hacked my account, and
then they suspended me so Icouldn't get back in. And I feel
like that was one of the bestthings that happened to me,
because I already knew thatbeing a virtual assistant was a
thing. I hated the fees thatwork took already. So I just
(13:18):
didn't know I just didn't havethe confidence at the time to go
about it on my own. But I wasforced off the platform. And I
told my clients becauseobviously we still have
communication outside of theplatform. They were like, Oh,
well, you were kind of like thebest person I've ever worked on
on there with can we pay you viaPayPal, it was obviously a risk
for them, because that isbreaching their side of the
agreement. But we have that typeof relationship that I knew it
(13:39):
probably would never get back towork, you know. So I was like,
wow, you want to pin by Pay Pal.
So I set it up, I went directlyinto it. And we continued
working together. So for me,that was a big eye opener to
see, you know what, you don'thave to rely on these platforms
that are gonna take a huge chunkof your money to find clients.
And I started researching howpeople find plants on their own.
And I started joining all thecommunities on Facebook and
(14:02):
whatnot to get there. But Irealized that the communities on
Facebook, especially the freeones, they are, it's like a
fight kind of, for lack of abetter word to fight to get
clients in them. Because themoment someone posts a job,
everyone is like, there's like100 comments, especially if they
were it was a virtual assistantthing. So I said, you know, I
(14:24):
need to find a way to kind ofhack this and go about how can I
get this client if I reallywanted to work with that. And I
started to put chunks of moneyin paid communities. So I
started to join communities thatwere like 40 million US dollars
a month or 20 US dollars a monthso that I could network
internally in a smallercommunity away from the masses
(14:47):
and also communities thatsourced virtual assistant jobs
for us and sent them so that Icould apply without like
hundreds and 1000s and 1000s ofpeople Even though I did not
have that for my knowledge atthe time, because my cards were
maxed all the way out, I said, Ihave to do this. And I paid kind
of like the last one to thepoint where it took my card a
(15:10):
little over the limit. And inless than two weeks, I had my
own like client that I found onmy own out 500 US dollars a
month. And I was like, Okay,this is really cool. And I
started applying for more. Andbefore then I passed my
corporate salary. And that wasin less than six weeks, I'm
never coming back. I've nevercoined that. So that was the
fast track. For me. I know, alot of times we want to spend
(15:32):
time on Google, we say it's toomuch we don't want to pay for
stuff. We don't have the moneyto pay for stuff because I
didn't have it. But I knew thatif I paid for this thing, when I
didn't have the money, I wouldtry to get it back faster. It's
kind of like when your parentssay to college, are you going to
do a bunch of crap and you don'tfinish your stuff? And then you
(15:53):
you drop out and you start towork? And then you're at 25 and
30? And it's like, oh, geez, nowI gotta go back and pay for this
thing myself. So you work hardnow. And you make sure you get
it this time, because you arethe one paying for it. Yeah. But
at 1617 1819, you didn't realizethe value of what they were
(16:14):
doing for you. So you blew itup?
Right? Yeah, my wins in the formof scholarships to where it was
like that first year, it was,Oh, yeah. College is great. And
then it's like my grades went.
Partying was great, too, youknow, it was just kind of that
balance, you don't have that? Itdoesn't hurt. So what does that
look like for one client $500 amonth? Like, what are you doing
(16:40):
for them?
For that I started doing admin.
So it was really like cleaningup their calendar, booking their
calls, new dual admin stuff,regular admin stuff, which is
scheduling calls, responding toclients dealing with their
emails, cleaning up their inbox.
I think I did a little tiny bitof graphic design, but not too
(17:01):
much, because we had a graphicdesigner on it. Yeah, but it was
all the admin stuff that I didwhen I first went into corporate
kind of just transferred online.
And because I'd already movedfrom that phase, incorporate
into management, I startedimmediately I was like, This is
(17:21):
not something I want to do longterm, I don't like it, I want to
go back to managing or somethingthat's behind the scenes where I
don't have to be so upfront,entry level. And then I started
researching how can I get out ofthe entry level virtual stuff
into something that is moreadvanced?
(17:42):
And so is that where you starteddoing the automated or
automations? And that sort ofthing? Or is that when you
started hiring your own virtualassistants, or I'm making
assumptions here, tell me aboutthat process. Like when you took
it from just yourself toexpanding,
I came across I was I waschecking out how to become a
manager online. And because itwas already in some of the
(18:02):
spaces, I found online businessmanagement. So I went looking at
that and doing that. So I didthat. As I was in there, it was
the same thing. It was the bighustle of okay, we're all all in
business managers now. But we'retrying to get clients and what
was it for me is, you can't begeneral and move swiftly in the
(18:26):
online space. Because if you'rea general anything, it takes
longer to grow it. It's like ageneral practitioner versus
someone specializing ingynecology or some sort of EMT,
all those things, you getreferrals based on those
specific skills that you have.
So everyone in the group wasGeneral and just encapsulating
(18:48):
everything on your portfolio.
And quickly I was like, No, Ineed something that is going to
cut this down so that I canstand out. And I started putting
together the pieces of what Iwas doing generally, that people
weren't able to do. And Irecognize that all of my clients
(19:09):
always came to be when it wassomething technical, nobody else
on the team could figure it out.
And then if I had to talk tosomebody or brainstorm with
somebody the setup of the thing,they didn't know what to do. I
said, Okay, automation has to bemust be taken automation. And I
started saying, You know what Itold my client I am I'm figuring
out this thing. I'm doing thisthing, where you have these type
(19:29):
of projects, just tell me I wantto do it and have this plan. Oh
my god, she's such a jam.
already. What's Kathy and shelet me experiment on everything
in her business. If I said toKathy, I am doing this course
she's like, sure. Do you want todo it for us? Like yeah, so we
(19:49):
had that good, good relationshipand worked together for like
four and a half years. Got agood relationship. And then I
was gonna say, Kathy, I'm doingthis thing. Can I try it here?
Go for it. All that stuff andShe trusted me with every single
thing to the point where anytimeI took a course, like I'm taking
this course, she's like, Okay,I'm gonna move you into that
role. And she moved me from $500to $1,000 and $1,000 to 1400,
(20:14):
and from 1400 to 2000. And she'slike, Okay, you're going into
this management thing, and I'llhold up to 4000. And then, you
know, it kept going up and up.
Because every time I said, thisis what I'm doing to like, cool,
like me that in my business, andwe just moved up the ranks
together. And then before long,I was hiring a team for her. I
was director, I was trainingeverybody. So that was awesome
to be able to express that withher. And then as she was going
(20:36):
on her business trips, andmastermind, I was her plus one.
So I got to experience all thetraveling with the business
masterminds and meeting people.
And clients also came out ofthat she told everyone last
night wasa great relationship. How did
you meet her,she was the first person that
hired me from that I was paying$49 a month for
(20:57):
it. So yeah, paid you backseveral times over
several times. So that wasamazing. So I took all I took
those trainings, and I got Yeah,experience with her business, I
always tested it all. Andeventually, I decided, You know
what, I'm going to cuteverything out and just do with
tech and automation, as well asthe marketing pieces that go
(21:19):
along with the tech andautomation because I believe
that if you're going to automatestuff, it needs to work in
tandem with your marketing. So Ishifted into that role in her
company, I was the director ofoperations and marketing. And
then I still, I kind of like,oversaw the team, because I was
the one there from the get go, Iknew everything started to build
all the SOPs to make sure thatthey could take over and her
(21:40):
company grew really, reallyquickly, really big, you know,
we got good things going. Soeventually, I started to hire
employees for her and train themuntil they could see itself. So
with that, I stopped to theautomation stuff and started
just building that and saying,This is all I do anyone that
wanted something other thanthat, I still had some of my
team members. So I had a coupleof people on my team that would
(22:00):
take like, regular virtualassistant thing, and I would
manage it. But eventually Irealized that I didn't even like
managing the general stuff, likecut it all the way out and just
focused on tech and automation.
And, you know, I went into amastermind with my, my coach, I
was there forever. And the firstthing she said to me was, what
do you want to teach? Because Isaid, I want to do a course what
(22:22):
would you feel good waking upevery single day teaching? And I
said tech and automation? Andshe was like, Okay, well, that's
what we're gonna do. And herthing to me was, it's gonna take
you about three to six months tobuild this course. She said that
to me, on August the 14th 2020.
And I have a course launching bySeptember 23. I thought like,
(22:45):
no, it's no, I just did all thisthing, put it together. And
she's like, you've got to bekidding me. You've done it,
you've finished the courseyou've done the thing. And I had
the entire outline, I did thebeta launch to build it live.
And that thing came about, buteven then, Kathy was still so
present, that she allowed me touse all the backend things in
her business and video record sothat I could have content for
(23:08):
my course. Oh, that's great. Imean, what a partnership. I
mean, that really came out ofthat. That's really exciting.
Okay, so now you've got multiplestreams of income, right? You've
got your course that you'redoing? And how are you drawing
people into that course likethat want to become virtual
assistants? Are you training thetech and automation virtual
(23:31):
assistants? Is that what you're?
You're doing? Yes. So thatcourse trains tech automation,
and tech automate teaches dumbtech and automation, it teaches
them to do what I do. And I kindof explain it to them in the
point where if you are a generalvirtual assistant, or you are
making $20 per hour, you have towork 25 hours per month to make
(23:51):
$500, you can set up anautomation in five hours or less
for $500. So people kind ofgravitate to that Whoa, instead
of working 25 hours for the fullmonth, I can make the same $500
in five hours or less. And itdepends on how fast you are. If
you are a beginner, that itcould take you the five hours to
(24:12):
set it up. If you know whatyou're doing. You go through the
course and you have mymentorship, then you could do it
in 20 minutes, 30 minutes,depending on how big of an
automation it is under an hoursometimes, and get that same
amount of money, less time morefreedom. And it's also not
general, the general things areclient facing. So you spend you
spend time interacting withcustomers, you have to kind of
(24:35):
be there during business hoursbecause people want their
customer service team to respondduring that time. You can set up
an automation at 3am if you waitso you can absolutely do it on
the site of a regular job untilyou're ready to transition and
still make more money than thatregular job if you're doing it
on the site. Because if you dothree automations a month, by
(24:56):
$600 You already have you knowyou have $1,500 And I always say
it's My students, if you realizethat you're making a quarter or
half of your salary, workingfive or six hours or less than
10 hours with this side gig,then you know that you can hand
in your resignation. Becausewhen you will full time, you
have time to look for me,consider the commute to your
(25:17):
job. All those things get upgetting ready. Oh, that it's
time that you can take toactually set up stuff. So the
income, it's more, and the timethat you put into it, it's less
you have more freedom. So mystudents are majority, nearly
women and moms who are cravingto quit corporate work, work,
who want to leave, who don'twant to work, 95% of them have
(25:39):
never heard of the online spacenever worked online. Some of
them have zero idea how to getinvolved in tech. Some of them
are 62 years old. So these arepeople who've never sat working
virtually all they've knowntheir entire lives, or their
traditional jobs had no ideawhat becoming a virtual
assistant is, or started toexplore, working remotely sensed
(26:03):
the pandemic and stumbled acrossthis, or maybe they saw my
Facebook ad or they weresearching for quitting corporate
and miraculous the couple yearsago, I purchased the quitting
corporate.com domain. And nowwhen people search quitting
corporate, it comes up. Yeah. Sothe students come from there.
And it's amazing. We have over250 students who have taken that
(26:26):
automation for so far. And over5000 have done my other general
stuff. But I try to encouragethem to always, you know, step
into a niche. Yeah, don't stickwith a general status, because
you're going to be chasing itforever.
So all of that it's reallyexciting. I used to automate a
bunch of stuff at my my lastcorporate job. And it's kind of
(26:49):
the same thing to where it'slike all of these things that
can eliminate the amount of timethat you're spending on
something and just crunch itdown into just minutes guy would
take my workflow and somethingthat used to take me eight hours
a week, I could do with the pushof a button. And but it was
never like received, you know,you know what I mean? Like the
(27:12):
same kind of thing where yousaid your your company just kind
of shelved it. It's like, well,yeah, oh, that just means that
Jamie can do more now. And thatjust means we can pile on her
plate, because now she's, youknow, got all this extra time
was like, No, that's not, that'snot what I was going for.
Especially working from home,because it's like, oh, wait, no,
I have this time. You know, Idon't I created this thing so
(27:37):
that I can carve out more timefor myself not to just add more
to my plate that nobody reallyappreciates. Anyway, so
and not stay here, way into thenight. Come on, we're not doing
that. And I can also give you anexample like for my podcast
recordings. As soon as I getoff, like we're on Zoom now
(27:58):
recording this, as soon as I getall my recordings on my pod my
recordings like this, itdownloads on its own, it uploads
to Google Drive on its own, andit sends my team a notification
to say, hey, there is a podcastepisode in the folder ready to
be edited. So I am like, I don'thave to I don't get off. I don't
Don't worry, I don't upload it,I don't send them a message, he
(28:18):
all fires automatically.
Now that's really exciting. Imaybe need to run through the
course with you. Because like Iknow, vapour and IFTT. Like
those kinds of apps and thatsort of thing. I just, it's one
of those things like I tend tojust kind of play with them
until I break them. And then I'mlike, Oh, I don't really know
how to troubleshoot thisanymore. kind of pass my skill
(28:40):
set here. But yeah, it's allit's all interesting to the
students. Do you help them findthe their clients? Or if it's
just they take the course. Andthen now they have the knowledge
to go do it on their own? Or howdoes that work?
Oh, I absolutely helped thembecause I do that because I
know, paid communities was a bigthing for me. So I needed to be
(29:01):
able to replicate that.
Remember, I said I joined thesecommunities and paid a monthly
membership to be able to getexclusive jobs. So I actually
also built a higher form websitewhere people go to hire doc
quitting corporate.com to hiremy students. So a lot of people
are it's taken off, people knowwhere to go when they want to
hire a tech virtual assistant,or Tech Support Specialist. Jobs
(29:22):
get pumped into the group everysingle day. So and I don't limit
it to tech and automation,because there are still some
people in the group or somemembers still want to appear
automation with other things.
And I respect that. So we havepeople who do copywriting and
tech and automation. So they'llset up your email campaigns and
(29:42):
still do your write your email,copy and website copy for you
and still set up theirautomation still set up the
automations I have people whowant to focus on social media
and social media automation,people who are still doing
funnel design and automation. Sothe jobs are not only
automation, I even have peoplewho still you know I'm I still
want to become be do generalstuff along with the automation.
(30:03):
So all types of remote jobs areposted in there for them. And a
lot of my students have gone onto get clients and they're even
clients, I have a couple peoplewho've made on their first job
over $2,000 For the first personthat hired them, and it started,
the client will have more thanmade their investment back. And
then there is also in terms ofweight when people are hiring
(30:26):
them. They're also they alsohave the opportunity to come to
me and say, Hey, this alwayssubmit this, can you look over
my proposal, if they feelanxious about it, if they feel
nervous about the call,sometimes we talk about what
that looks like when you get onthe call. So I don't ever leave
them out to see there's this SAScompany funnel gorgeous, a
(30:46):
software company for funnelbuilding and whatnot CRM. They
have since hired three of mystudents full time to manage
your SAS software, whatnot. So Iand it's not just tech and
automation in specific software,I teach them how to navigate any
system, even if they've neverseen it before. So Active
Campaign Click Funnels Kajabi,kartra, Ontraport, funnel gorge,
(31:09):
fg funnels, all the things sothat anytime someone comes to
them, they know and projectmanagement tools. clickup not
just automation for emails, butalso automation for personal
stuff, daily stuff, your life,not just business, how to look
at a situation and recognize,okay, you know what, this person
doesn't need to be doing thisthing, there is a way for you to
figure out how to automate it.
So we do challenges inside thegroup where I serve out. Last
(31:31):
one we did we had a challenge inDecember called Miss do it
manually. And I would put somethings in there like Okay, help
me to do it, man manually wasthe hardest Christmas party of
the year. And I would say thisis the scenario. This is what's
happening, let's do it manuallyhas these things where a bunch
of people have to audition forthis job or this play. But she
has to say and go through everysingle application to see if
(31:54):
they qualify, help us navigateor create a system where she can
automate this so that she canemcee at the party. So then they
have to brainstorm like, Oh myGod, how can I figure it out.
And it gives them the strategybehind our understanding of look
at your clients when you'reworking with them. And they you
will understand where or how youcan automate something or if it
(32:17):
can be automated, this is how Iwant you to be seeing it.
That's really cool. So tell mewhat your life looks like now,
compared to what it looked like,eight years ago, when you were
in corporate or however many, Iguess what was it? 2018 You went
full time. So since then,since then, what does my life
look like? Now I first of all, Ijust recently got back from my
(32:42):
longest trip ever. 33 days, Iyou know, as a parent, traveling
for 33 days as a mom withoutyour kid is a big deal. That was
a bunch of business as well aspleasure mixin. And I could
never stayed that long on mycorporate salary ever, ever,
ever. I would have been gone inthe blink of an eye and
(33:06):
panicking oh my god, how am Igoing to do this? But that was
there things that came up alongthe way. Like, you know, we had
I had my mastermind event, therewere 70 of us there in person,
the US but the others werevirtual, but then there was a
COVID over it. Um, so as I wasleaving, I was going to my best
friend's house and I started tosee everybody's like, okay,
(33:26):
positive, positive, positive,positive, positive. Like, you
know what it would beirresponsible of me to go to my
best friend's house now becauseshe has kids there. And if I had
positive that I've gone thereinfected her entire family. And
I was on the train heading overthere. And I said, You know
what, I messaged her, I said,I'm not coming because it seems
to be a thing of work going on.
(33:49):
So I am going to book a hotelfor a couple of days before it
comes to you just to make sure.
And that is something I lookedat the hotel prices, New York
went oh my god, I did not wantto do this. And then I had to
sit back and have my friendTalia sitting across from me.
And I said we're leaving themastermind together. And I said,
You know what, this isn't theway to look at this a couple
years ago, I would not haveknown what to do. Because I
(34:12):
wouldn't have had the money topay for this hotel at the last
minute to make sure that I cankeep everybody said so I booked
the hotel. I was like screw it.
I'm just going to do it. And Iwent I did that. So those things
come up and I like being able todo that with soap kind of came
with Don't worry. I've takenfamily vacations and I've taken
(34:34):
vacations where I've even takenmy mom so that if I wanted to go
out she could stay with mydaughter. He just got back from
like a seven day cruise. I tookher on Savin a cruise for Easter
and then I went oh we did thebig Miami trip and all that
stuff. And international travelis hard because remember, it's
them in Barbados. So it isn'tlike we're not buying $80 $90 or
(34:56):
$100 tickets across states. Sohaving that because we met Brace
out, I used to my work funds, Iused to kind of like save them
up for 689 months to be able togo on a trip, I don't have to do
that anymore. I also, like movedinto an area that I liked, I
couldn't afford to do it on myregular salary. There are things
(35:18):
that I enjoy now that in aregular position I wouldn't make
I wouldn't be able to do. I alsolike to make sure that I have
other streams of income. So themoney that I've made online, it
allowed me to open a couple ofother businesses. So I had I
opened up a transportationcompany here, I might open a bit
supply store. So I have otherthings actually going on locally
(35:41):
where income is money stillcoming. Because I need to make
sure you know if I wake uptomorrow, and I don't feel like
working online, which I don'tthink what happened. There are
other things happening there.
And I stepped away from done foryou services in automation. And
I do consulting now. So I teachmy students are my main focus, I
teach them Metra, they can gettheir jobs. And then if I need
(36:04):
to work with a client, it's moreso consulting. So I'd come in to
the consultation. And if theyneed to work with someone like
one of my students, I'd workalongside them to get the
implementation, then I justoversee that as a consultant
with that person. So that's it.
And then I do tech coaching inhigh ticket masterminds. So
(36:24):
that's where it is now insteadof down for you consulting, tech
coaching and just working withmy students traveling, doing all
the fun stuff, and having a tonof time at home to do what I
like talk to you on thispodcast. Working with clients
only, I probably wouldn't havebeen able to find a time to say
and do this. So it's a lot oftime back is even I get even
(36:48):
more fun creating my curriculumfor my students and creating a
new curriculum now for intake.
So there's that I've also what'schanged for me in a huge way is
showing up on video. I wasn'table to I didn't like get hit on
video but over the last year anda half was my that forced during
the year in Nova in September.
Over the last year and a half, Iwas able to show up more on
(37:11):
video because a lot of myteachings were audio Graham and
I would show my face a littlebit and my students started like
seeing you we want to work faceand I started going to Okay, I'm
gonna show like this. I did aredo of a I added in a piece of
the course in November lastyear, a new segment and it's
like full video, my face isthere. And it's brought up that
(37:32):
level of competence for me in onon this in the social world, I
try toget that it's just a constant
level of like up leveling andgrowing and stretching and being
uncomfortable and doing it allover again. Like as soon as you
kind of get find your comfortzone with one thing. It's like,
okay, what's the next? What'sthe next thing that I need to be
working on? You know, one of thethings that I like to say is
(37:55):
like clarity comes from action.
Because I think if you're likeanalytical or you're looking at
your your corporate life, andyou're just going well, I have
no idea how to get to here. I'mjust going to guess and go out
on a limb that whenever youfirst left your corporate job
that this was not anywhere onyour radar that what you've
(38:18):
accomplished in the last five orso years. To the level I mean,
like all of the different piecesand all of the different
businesses and the branches.
Like I'm guessing that that wasnot something that was just
planned out from the beginning.
Oh, no. And when I look back atthe how much I've made in
(38:41):
December last year, when I didthe calculation on how much I
made until the end, because youknow, you're getting your stuff
ready for tax season. I wouldhave at December last year, I
would have had to work 15 moreyears in corporate to my last
high paying salary to meet whathave already made in the last.
(39:01):
That was three years. 1820 Yeah,that was three years. Last
December, I would have had towork 15 more years in corporate
Okay, wait, does that matter?
Like your salary times 15 It'snot just like fighting years.
That is like 15 years worth ofsalary that you're talking about
15 years worth of salary, Iwould have to work to meet what
(39:25):
I mean in the last three yearsfrom a remote business alone
together as Yes. Like I want somany women to have that
experience I want so I mean thatis just that is admirable and I
like God that's got to make youfeel good. I mean of just like
knowing that you can provide,you know provide for your
(39:48):
daughter of having that like Iknow how to make money because
once you learn that that'sthat's not something that
anybody can take away from youlike even if everything else
goes away. I Know how to makemoney, I can start over and I'm
starting from a higher. I mean,that's just really incredible
job. I tell people that all thetime, we weren't taught that
(40:11):
when we don't have money or orreflects in our Rush is to Oh my
God, I need to send out theseapplication things to find
another job. But I always seewhat I've learned in the last
couple of years. Like you said,it can it can crash and burn
right now. I will figure it outin the next couple of hours.
Like, I need to get a couple of$1,000. And I need to do this
right now. Last week, as I wasleaving my best friend's house,
(40:34):
I was like, oh, man, we did anumber out here. I need all the
dollars by the end. I mean, like$1,000 By the end of the week,
and she's looking at me tonight.
Because I've been trying to gether to do it for whatever and
she hasn't, right. And she'slike, What do you mean, he's
like, as long as I need $5,000,by the end of the week, I'm
going back home to reality mail,and I did
(40:57):
a lot of money on that hotel.
Yeah, I need all this stuff backthat I just spent because I like
to call out this thing where I'mlike, somebody's going to pay
for this. And it's not going tobe me. So like, yeah, I work on
that on I am going on a trip inNovember, somebody has to be
limited. And I always tell mystudents as well keep that in
(41:18):
your mind, when you want to dosomething, you will continue to
go there. If it is somebody'sgonna pay for this, it's not
going to be me. Technically,you're paying for it, you get
what I mean. It's like you'renot sucking from a well and then
panicking like, oh my god, thewall is empty. So before I got
home, because I was on a plane,I was coming. And then I did a
(41:40):
flight with a stock, I couldcome direct, but I didn't
because I wanted the extra timeto have four hours in the
airport launch. That's anotherthing that I wouldn't have
access to before. It also itfeels feels good to be able to
walk into the airport, launchand have access and all that and
stay there nicely withoutworrying about staying on their
way to the airport knowledge.
And I had four hours of flightwhen I was about to get on my
(42:02):
next flight, I sent her amessage and said $2,500 More is
what I need. She's like you justI love it. I also like to be
able to do that. And my reflectsis not I need a job. And if Pete
if more people could look at itthat way, it would be so amazing
for them. We stressed out aboutstarting businesses, and we
(42:24):
don't have the money to investthat. I can't pay for this. But
what can you do? If you have toinvest in something that is
going to get you where you'regoing faster? What can you do to
make it work? And I tell peoplethere is the you know, there's
this thing that was always theinvisible work node and whatnot,
what are we doing? And one of myone of the ladies I worked with
(42:46):
called Susan, she always talksabout the invisible workload,
what are we doing that we're notgetting paid for? You have
family members dropping kids offat your house every single week
to babysit. But they're neversaying here is $50 Thank you. So
you need to pay for a course upcan they gift it to you since
you're always so good at goodwith them. If your birthday is
(43:07):
coming up, our Christmas iscoming up, hey, I was wondering
if you could help me get thisthing, something that I really
wanted to do. Because you knowthem not having to pay a sticker
for their kids is saving them alot of money. So if they're able
to contribute, or you can telleverybody, this, my birthday is
coming up, this is what I want,your family's probably going to
go out and try to get youperfume or whatever things you
(43:28):
like or jewelry and stuff, tellthem if you can reach out to
this company, and buy me a giftcard so that I can take these
courses for my birthday. That'sall I want. There are ways to go
around it, you know, you don'thave to save the money up. You
want to take me out to dinner,you know, reach out to this
(43:50):
company and see if we can get acoupon or a gift card for that
dinner money because I reallywant to do this thing. And if
people around you can appreciatethat this is what you would like
for your birthday or tocelebrate or for Mother's Day or
whatever. Or hey, I know that wego to date night every Tuesday.
But can we skip it becauseinstead of spending $200 Every
(44:12):
Tuesday for the next two monthson this thing, this course is
going to cost $500 And I reallywant to take it so and if you
get pushback from that, then Idon't I wouldn't want to have
those people who reject thataround me like don't show up at
my door and bring me $100 bottleof cologne or perfume. When I
told you I want this thingbecause you believe that gifts
(44:35):
are supposed to be what do wesay a tangible you believe that
actually something I should havein my hand because I'm trying to
better myself. And I wouldappreciate you so much. If you
could just you know change it upa little bit so that I can do
that. But then don't disappointthem actually do the thing.
Right, right. So tell me how thepodcast came in to All of this,
(45:01):
when did you start it? How areyou using it? Like as an
outreach? Are you doinginterviews? Or how what is your
podcast looklike the podcast, I dropped the
trailer for the podcast lastAugust and the first episode was
in September last year. So itcame about because of my fear
for video, I want it to be ableto show up more, and I was going
to be able to do that better onaudio. So I actually have a
(45:22):
bunch of these videos now that Iam want to tell my team now that
I feel a little more comfortablestepping out here, take them and
make a bunch of rules, and putup here until you know, spending
episodes. But that was it forme. I wanted to be able to talk
to my audience and talk topeople and get my message
across. But I am scared of goinglive all the time or going on
(45:42):
yet IG live Facebook Live, thosethings made me nervous. So it
was like, I don't have to showmy face on the podcast. And I
could still talk to people. Solet me start there. So the first
season was pretty much metalking about my journey,
everything went on went through.
And I thought that I would onlyget to Episode Five before I had
to bring on guests. But I madeit straight 12 solo. And then
(46:05):
the second season, I'm talkingto people about why they quit
corporate what they're doing.
It's it's a it's collectively,it's not just about tech and
automation. But it's so that theaudience can feel and get ideas
of all the different pockets ofareas and things that different
business owners are out heredoing that are making money. So
it's not just people who quitcorporate, but regardless of how
(46:26):
you left corporate you quit, yougot fired, you resign, your
position was redundant. Whateverit is, is as long as your
accident or you exit it. Theseare some ideas from some
phenomenal people that can helpyou grow your business. And if
you decide that automation iswhere you want to go instead of
those other paths. And this isthe way to do it. So I leave a
(46:48):
lot of resources and links andstuff from my guests. So that
you know if you want to be acopywriter, this is the person
if you want to do video editing,this is the person if you want
to do stuff with kids, this isthe person and I talked to them
that way a lot of students getmotivation from the podcast as
well. So there's that as well. Abig question on that podcast is
for most of the guests is wouldyou ever go back to corporate
(47:11):
and a lot of them are like hellno. So that came about No, no,
no, no, no, no, no. Like, figureit out. Yeah. No, that's
awesome. All right. Well, as wewrap up here is there Why don't
you go ahead and tell peoplewhere they can find you learn
more, learn more about yourcourse. Your podcasts, all of
(47:34):
the thingsyou can find me on all social by
Latoya RSB YL at all ya ourInstagram Facebook, tick tock we
hardly use because y'all heard Idon't like video. All the places
you can find me by Latoya ours,my handle if you go to quitting
corporate.com and check out thewebsite. And if you aren't
interested, or you want to knowmore about set an automation,
(47:55):
quitting corporate.com forwardslash register will give you
access to the info session sothat you can figure out okay, is
this something for me? And we'llfrom there would incorporate.com
Pretty easy to remember.
Yeah. Awesome. All right. Well,thank you so much, Latoya.
Thank you so much for having me,Jamie.
I want to say a big thank you toLatoya for coming on the show
(48:18):
today. I loved hearing herperspective. And really like the
part about somebody is going topay for this and it's not going
to be me. Let's all move towardsthat model. Right. Some of the
key takeaways from this episodeare number one, ask the
questions. If you're not seeingthe results from your
contributions at work, and it'sstalling out your career, be an
advocate for yourself and findout why a manager holding you
(48:41):
back from other opportunities iscompletely unacceptable. Number
two, take the opportunity. Ifyou see an opportunity or window
where you can go all in onsomething that works for you and
your life. strike when the ironis hot and make the move. Number
three invest in community. A lotof times Facebook groups can be
a great place to find your idealclients. However, when you're
(49:04):
only hanging out in the freegroups, things get saturated
very quickly. Go ahead andinvest in the communities where
your people are. Number four,get specific. When people know
what you do, it opens the doorfor easy referrals. Lots of
people go the general route andare faced with a lot of
competition as well as a lot ofcustomer facing activities in
(49:25):
the whole VA world. So gettingspecific allows you to move
swiftly. Number five, worksmarter. Make yourself aware of
the tools that can make yourlife easier. As an entrepreneur
there are tons of everyday tasksthat can be automated to reduce
the amount of time you'respending on projects. And number
six, don't forget to give back.
It's especially important aswomen that when we figure out
(49:48):
something and overcome astruggle that we turn around and
offer a hand to those comingalong behind us. Latoya does
this by helping her studentsfind paying opportunities but
there's waited for all of us todo that, just like in our own
way. So thanks again to Latoyafor being on the show. I've
linked everything in the shownotes. And that is it for this
week. I appreciate you tuning into another episode of Breaking
(50:12):
up with corporate and if youfound any value with this or any
other episode, please take amoment to leave a review to help
other women find this show.
There's a link in the show notesthat makes this really easy. I
think it's been made very clearthat women need more resources,
so stay strong. Until next time
All in all I went I said I was leaving, and
(00:02):
they offered me 200 more dollarsto see $200 You're like, what?
200 more dollars? Like a month aweek? Just $200 on my 1000
Jamie Stephens (00:15):
You're like that. dollars a month or
something after tech. That's soridiculous. I'm behind my back.
The vice president would alwaystell my manager. She's really
the best we have in thedepartment. But she's too loud.
Her mom.
Yeah. I think we can relate withthat one because it's you were
(00:38):
going through that list as I'mlike, yep, check, check, check.
And people don't want to bechallenged that way. Like
especially like managers,they're like, You need to stay
in your place. Thanks for tuningin to another episode of
Breaking up with corporate eachweek I chat with everyday women
that ditch their nine to five tobet on themselves. We break down
(01:01):
their journey intoentrepreneurship, unpack the
lessons learned and create thevision of how this life gets to
be if you're willing to getuncomfortable and step into your
potential. I'm your host, JamieRenee, to time corporate escapee
and coach to burnout womenlooking to plan their escape.
Let's go. Okay, and welcome backto another episode of Breaking
(01:26):
up with corporate today. I haveLatoya Russell on the show. And
Latoya is a tech virtualassistant coach and a fellow
podcaster. And I am excited toget to know all of the things
about you, Latoya. So why don'tyou give us just a brief
introduction.
Thank you so much for having me,Jamie. So officially, I am
(01:47):
Latoya. As Jamie said, I live inBarbados. So that's the first
thing if you're listening to ustalking, I just want you to know
that you can do this fromanywhere or we can have this we
can work remotely from anywhere.
I have been in the online spacefor about eight years, climbed
up through corporate and allthat great stuff. And then I
knew it wasn't for me. So here Iam. To talk to Jamie about all
(02:07):
the wonderful things, the upsand downs, the ins and outs. I
am actually also a very, I don'tlike video, I don't like showing
up on the internet. So workingonline, is that a time known
battle where I'm trying to hide,but I'm still trying. But I do
it anyway. And that's that'skind of me in a nutshell.
(02:31):
Yeah, no, I totally get that Iam definitely an introvert by
nature. And this whole socialmedia thing over the last six
months has really just been atrip for me, because I'm like,
you know, I've had an Instagramaccount, but it's like my
personal one that has probably12 pictures over the last five
years. That's ridiculous,though. I'm learning and
growing. And I totally get it.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about what you were doing in
(02:54):
corporate and kind of what thatlooks like for you?
Well, I started my traditionaljob working journey as a
personal assistant. Well, beforehe got there, you know, we have
our teenage jobs and stuff. Solike many of us, I was in retail
as a teenager, when we gotholidays from school, I did a
(03:14):
couple of retail Christmasthings, and summer things. And
then as soon as I finishedschool, officially, I had a
personal assistant, I was apersonal assistant. And then I
moved from there intoadministration, and whatnot and
executive assistants and allthat stuff. Eventually I
branched off into becomingAssistant General Manager.
(03:36):
Shortly before that opportunityI had my daughter. So let me
incorporate was fun, there was ajob that I left that I really,
really wanted to stay becausethe community it was, it was the
best place I've ever worked. SoI can hands down, say the
treatment in terms of thebenefits and whatnot, the
environment, making sure thatthere was a safe space and
(03:59):
office equipment and all thatwas there. It was a great place
to work. But they weren't givingme the promotions or the raises
that I needed. And that causedme to go to another company. The
sad part about it is that when Itold my superiors day that I got
another job, and I was leaving,they offered me more money. I'm
like, Well, you know, this, thisisn't making any sense.
LaToya Russell (04:19):
Or a daily dollar store.
Jamie Stephens (04:22):
Yeah, but and leading up to that I was always
applying for jobs in differentdepartments. Because even if
some of them were lateral basedon where you went, you could get
double the money. There was thisdepartment I wanted to getting
so bad. They said it was a lotof work. But it was double what
I was making. So I was like Ineed to be able to get out
(04:43):
there. And every single time Iwas like, why am I not getting
these jobs when I have allskills and I can do all these
things. It doesn't make anysense. And I call them HR and
they said, Well, your managersays that they can't really see
right now it would it wouldcreate a disaster in the
department. You've got to bekidding me. You know, I went and
I had this tongue like, Why areyou blocking all of my chances
(05:04):
to leave? And they say, well,they can't afford to lose me
right now. And it was kind oflike hard. And again, one of
those unknown things because Iwas like, the loudest person in
the department and loud becauseI would always be the person to
say, this is crap doesn't makeany sense. Whenever they came to
say, Okay, this is what we'redoing. I'd be like, let me tell
you why this doesn't make anysense. Because I knew that
(05:26):
systems are handing hands out. Ieven created. I did some tech
databases or whatnot to makethis the streamline all the
systems that were so good thatthe company paid me, I think
$500 Bonus as we had theSpotlight Award thing. And
anytime you came up with a greatidea, they'd pay you for it, and
(05:46):
the company would get to use it.
So you had to talk to the lady Idid. They had an ad, my
department Sheltie. And I was somad because it was like we are
using these dinosaur things. Icreated an up to date version of
this 19 of these thing you'reusing. are you shouting? Yeah.
So all in all, I when I said itwas leaving, and they offered me
200 more dollars to state$200. You're like, what, 200
(06:09):
more dollars, like a month aweek? Just $200
LaToya Russell (06:18):
on my salary. I was like, you're like
Jamie Stephens (06:21):
that dollars a month or something after tax.
And that's so ridiculous.
I'm behind my back, then thevice president would always tell
my manager. She's really thebest we have in the department.
But she's too loud. Her mom?
Yeah,I think we can relate with that
(06:42):
one. Because it's Eva, goingthrough that list as I'm like,
yep, check, check, check. Andpeople don't want to be
challenged that way. Like,especially like managers,
they're like, You need to stayin your place.
So I'm like, you've got to bekidding. And everybody's doing
the work. And then they'recomplaining and whatnot. And
just just to nip this in thebud. Or to bring this down a
(07:05):
little more, I could do triplethe work anyone in department
was doing in the same time, tothe point where when I was
leaving, they brought two peoplein to fill my role to two full
time people and a half timeperson, which
probably was a lot more than$100.
All right, so I left that job.
And I went to this other job.
(07:25):
And it was a hot mess and adisaster. It was a small
company, but the office was verycliquey. So they already had
like this group going on, andyou had to pass whatever it was
like it was it was kind of likea high school fraternity, where
if you don't pass these checkmarks, you can't be in this
squad. And they had this groupchat going on. And they would
(07:47):
blatantly talk about this groupchat. I was the only one who's
well, myself and the senior whowas at the company for like, 40
years. So it used to be methere, we used to see the
pictures, and they would comeinto the office talking why they
did weekend. And I'm like, youknow, it's something to just
(08:08):
keep to yourself if you're notgoing to include everybody in
the office. So it sort of feeluncomfortable, you know, like
we're doing this day, I don'twant to come to your house. But
you don't have conversationslike that around people that
you're not going to invite,right. And then there was this
other girl that came in and shewanted to be in the clique. So
(08:29):
bad, she sucked up, likeregardless. So I always had
opportunities where I wouldn'tbe looking out for jobs because
I wanted to get oh, I didn'teven stay there nine months. And
I applied for this job, thisconsulting thing, because I was
still doing I still had mylittle thing went on the side, I
applied for this consultingthing, and I got it and the PERT
the company, I did not know thatthe company was helping this
(08:50):
company hired because it waslike a chamber. So it would help
companies find employees andwhatnot. I didn't know that the
company I was working with wastrying to help this company
hire. And the person at thecompany, I got the contract for
a call to say hey, thanks somuch for Latoya. And they were
like, We didn't stand Latoya.
And I got called into theoffice. And everybody was trying
(09:10):
to say that I poached. But whatwas happening is that the clique
was trying to get one of theclique members the job, and I
got it.
So and all their plans.
Yeah, I got called in and I gotfired. So I got fired for
(09:31):
applying for this thing y'allknow, before I came here that I
did consulting on the site, soended up that the company called
me back here like, Hey, we're soglad you got fired. Can you come
over here full time? Well, atleast there's that you know, I
mean, in less than two weeks, Iwas over there as an assistant
general manager. Part of it wasso awesome. And then part of it
(09:52):
was so ridiculous. There wasthis one person I had to deal
with. He was condescending,disrespectful. He didn't curable
staph and whatnot. And I likepeople on my side, I like to be
able to talk to my team and say,Hey, this is what we're doing. I
don't want that if I need afavor five minutes past closing
time, everybody's like, No,there's no way I'm staying here
(10:14):
to help you because I don't likethis place. I his culture was Do
as I say, insult people, thattype of stuff. And so in between
me trying to rally and take mydaughter to after school
activities, and come back towork and put back in time and
all that I was like, I can'tdeal with him. And I went to my
doctor. And it was the firsttime ever that I didn't have to
fit, being sick to get sickleave. Because anytime I wanted
(10:37):
to stay at home for a week atGoogle, like they get symptoms,
she was like, Oh, you probablyhave this thing. And I'd be home
for a week or two. But thistime, I walked in the office and
I said, Listen, I every singlenight, I think of who I can get
to kidnap him, because I knowthat I'm next in line. And this
woman went in a full panic.
She's like, Oh, my God, you'restressed out, you need two weeks
(11:00):
off immediately. And I got thetime and I went home, I was
like, This is it. I am going toput everything to get my virtual
assistant business up full time.
Because I was doing some stufflike just park claim on the
side, where it was like needyour money, money for fun money
for travel money for party, itwasn't that serious, because my
job was paying fine. And I tookthat time and did everything I
(11:24):
need to get my calendar set upall that stuff the right way.
And I went back to that job andI handed in my resignation.
Is it right that you just leftand in your you've been going at
it in your own business fulltime since then, right?
Yes, I give them three monthsbecause of my positions that I
could do a proper handover. Atevery single day I walked
(11:47):
through the door, it was like,please don't trust me enough.
Like, I wanted that when Iwalked in there, they were like,
Oh, we think you're gonnasabotage the company. So you can
just go home now. And then wait15 days before I was supposed to
leave to say, I don't think weneed you anymore. But obviously,
they had to pay at the end oftime because my resignation in
(12:08):
so I was fine. But it was it wasthat and I said you know what,
I'm gonna give myself six monthsat this thing. And if it doesn't
work, then I would go back andfind another traditional job.
Andso how old was your daughter at
that time?
She was three. That was Iactually I was doing everything
part time for eight years. Butit offish, I fully left my full
(12:30):
time job in August 2018.
Gotcha. Okay. You said that youhad started some stuff on the
side. And you had the virtualassistant business going on the
side? What did that look like?
How did you get started with theside business while you were
still in corporate? Like how didyou find clients, all that sort
of stuff.
Most of my I started on, Istarted on up work. And I had a
(12:55):
bunch of clients there, I gotsome great testimonials. I met
some great people. And for somesomeone hacked my account, and
then they suspended me so Icouldn't get back in. And I feel
like that was one of the bestthings that happened to me,
because I already knew thatbeing a virtual assistant was a
thing. I hated the fees thatwork took already. So I just
(13:18):
didn't know I just didn't havethe confidence at the time to go
about it on my own. But I wasforced off the platform. And I
told my clients becauseobviously we still have
communication outside of theplatform. They were like, Oh,
well, you were kind of like thebest person I've ever worked on
on there with can we pay you viaPayPal, it was obviously a risk
for them, because that isbreaching their side of the
agreement. But we have that typeof relationship that I knew it
(13:39):
probably would never get back towork, you know. So I was like,
wow, you want to pin by Pay Pal.
So I set it up, I went directlyinto it. And we continued
working together. So for me,that was a big eye opener to
see, you know what, you don'thave to rely on these platforms
that are gonna take a huge chunkof your money to find clients.
And I started researching howpeople find plants on their own.
And I started joining all thecommunities on Facebook and
(14:02):
whatnot to get there. But Irealized that the communities on
Facebook, especially the freeones, they are, it's like a
fight kind of, for lack of abetter word to fight to get
clients in them. Because themoment someone posts a job,
everyone is like, there's like100 comments, especially if they
were it was a virtual assistantthing. So I said, you know, I
(14:24):
need to find a way to kind ofhack this and go about how can I
get this client if I reallywanted to work with that. And I
started to put chunks of moneyin paid communities. So I
started to join communities thatwere like 40 million US dollars
a month or 20 US dollars a monthso that I could network
internally in a smallercommunity away from the masses
(14:47):
and also communities thatsourced virtual assistant jobs
for us and sent them so that Icould apply without like
hundreds and 1000s and 1000s ofpeople Even though I did not
have that for my knowledge atthe time, because my cards were
maxed all the way out, I said, Ihave to do this. And I paid kind
of like the last one to thepoint where it took my card a
(15:10):
little over the limit. And inless than two weeks, I had my
own like client that I found onmy own out 500 US dollars a
month. And I was like, Okay,this is really cool. And I
started applying for more. Andbefore then I passed my
corporate salary. And that wasin less than six weeks, I'm
never coming back. I've nevercoined that. So that was the
fast track. For me. I know, alot of times we want to spend
(15:32):
time on Google, we say it's toomuch we don't want to pay for
stuff. We don't have the moneyto pay for stuff because I
didn't have it. But I knew thatif I paid for this thing, when I
didn't have the money, I wouldtry to get it back faster. It's
kind of like when your parentssay to college, are you going to
do a bunch of crap and you don'tfinish your stuff? And then you
(15:53):
you drop out and you start towork? And then you're at 25 and
30? And it's like, oh, geez, nowI gotta go back and pay for this
thing myself. So you work hardnow. And you make sure you get
it this time, because you arethe one paying for it. Yeah. But
at 1617 1819, you didn't realizethe value of what they were
(16:14):
doing for you. So you blew itup?
Right? Yeah, my wins in the formof scholarships to where it was
like that first year, it was,Oh, yeah. College is great. And
then it's like my grades went.
Partying was great, too, youknow, it was just kind of that
balance, you don't have that? Itdoesn't hurt. So what does that
look like for one client $500 amonth? Like, what are you doing
(16:40):
for them?
For that I started doing admin.
So it was really like cleaningup their calendar, booking their
calls, new dual admin stuff,regular admin stuff, which is
scheduling calls, responding toclients dealing with their
emails, cleaning up their inbox.
I think I did a little tiny bitof graphic design, but not too
(17:01):
much, because we had a graphicdesigner on it. Yeah, but it was
all the admin stuff that I didwhen I first went into corporate
kind of just transferred online.
And because I'd already movedfrom that phase, incorporate
into management, I startedimmediately I was like, This is
(17:21):
not something I want to do longterm, I don't like it, I want to
go back to managing or somethingthat's behind the scenes where I
don't have to be so upfront,entry level. And then I started
researching how can I get out ofthe entry level virtual stuff
into something that is moreadvanced?
(17:42):
And so is that where you starteddoing the automated or
automations? And that sort ofthing? Or is that when you
started hiring your own virtualassistants, or I'm making
assumptions here, tell me aboutthat process. Like when you took
it from just yourself toexpanding,
I came across I was I waschecking out how to become a
manager online. And because itwas already in some of the
(18:02):
spaces, I found online businessmanagement. So I went looking at
that and doing that. So I didthat. As I was in there, it was
the same thing. It was the bighustle of okay, we're all all in
business managers now. But we'retrying to get clients and what
was it for me is, you can't begeneral and move swiftly in the
(18:26):
online space. Because if you'rea general anything, it takes
longer to grow it. It's like ageneral practitioner versus
someone specializing ingynecology or some sort of EMT,
all those things, you getreferrals based on those
specific skills that you have.
So everyone in the group wasGeneral and just encapsulating
(18:48):
everything on your portfolio.
And quickly I was like, No, Ineed something that is going to
cut this down so that I canstand out. And I started putting
together the pieces of what Iwas doing generally, that people
weren't able to do. And Irecognize that all of my clients
(19:09):
always came to be when it wassomething technical, nobody else
on the team could figure it out.
And then if I had to talk tosomebody or brainstorm with
somebody the setup of the thing,they didn't know what to do. I
said, Okay, automation has to bemust be taken automation. And I
started saying, You know what Itold my client I am I'm figuring
out this thing. I'm doing thisthing, where you have these type
(19:29):
of projects, just tell me I wantto do it and have this plan. Oh
my god, she's such a jam.
already. What's Kathy and shelet me experiment on everything
in her business. If I said toKathy, I am doing this course
she's like, sure. Do you want todo it for us? Like yeah, so we
(19:49):
had that good, good relationshipand worked together for like
four and a half years. Got agood relationship. And then I
was gonna say, Kathy, I'm doingthis thing. Can I try it here?
Go for it. All that stuff andShe trusted me with every single
thing to the point where anytimeI took a course, like I'm taking
this course, she's like, Okay,I'm gonna move you into that
role. And she moved me from $500to $1,000 and $1,000 to 1400,
(20:14):
and from 1400 to 2000. And she'slike, Okay, you're going into
this management thing, and I'llhold up to 4000. And then, you
know, it kept going up and up.
Because every time I said, thisis what I'm doing to like, cool,
like me that in my business, andwe just moved up the ranks
together. And then before long,I was hiring a team for her. I
was director, I was trainingeverybody. So that was awesome
to be able to express that withher. And then as she was going
(20:36):
on her business trips, andmastermind, I was her plus one.
So I got to experience all thetraveling with the business
masterminds and meeting people.
And clients also came out ofthat she told everyone last
night wasa great relationship. How did
you meet her,she was the first person that
hired me from that I was paying$49 a month for
(20:57):
it. So yeah, paid you backseveral times over
several times. So that wasamazing. So I took all I took
those trainings, and I got Yeah,experience with her business, I
always tested it all. Andeventually, I decided, You know
what, I'm going to cuteverything out and just do with
tech and automation, as well asthe marketing pieces that go
(21:19):
along with the tech andautomation because I believe
that if you're going to automatestuff, it needs to work in
tandem with your marketing. So Ishifted into that role in her
company, I was the director ofoperations and marketing. And
then I still, I kind of like,oversaw the team, because I was
the one there from the get go, Iknew everything started to build
all the SOPs to make sure thatthey could take over and her
(21:40):
company grew really, reallyquickly, really big, you know,
we got good things going. Soeventually, I started to hire
employees for her and train themuntil they could see itself. So
with that, I stopped to theautomation stuff and started
just building that and saying,This is all I do anyone that
wanted something other thanthat, I still had some of my
team members. So I had a coupleof people on my team that would
(22:00):
take like, regular virtualassistant thing, and I would
manage it. But eventually Irealized that I didn't even like
managing the general stuff, likecut it all the way out and just
focused on tech and automation.
And, you know, I went into amastermind with my, my coach, I
was there forever. And the firstthing she said to me was, what
do you want to teach? Because Isaid, I want to do a course what
(22:22):
would you feel good waking upevery single day teaching? And I
said tech and automation? Andshe was like, Okay, well, that's
what we're gonna do. And herthing to me was, it's gonna take
you about three to six months tobuild this course. She said that
to me, on August the 14th 2020.
And I have a course launching bySeptember 23. I thought like,
(22:45):
no, it's no, I just did all thisthing, put it together. And
she's like, you've got to bekidding me. You've done it,
you've finished the courseyou've done the thing. And I had
the entire outline, I did thebeta launch to build it live.
And that thing came about, buteven then, Kathy was still so
present, that she allowed me touse all the backend things in
her business and video record sothat I could have content for
(23:08):
my course. Oh, that's great. Imean, what a partnership. I
mean, that really came out ofthat. That's really exciting.
Okay, so now you've got multiplestreams of income, right? You've
got your course that you'redoing? And how are you drawing
people into that course likethat want to become virtual
assistants? Are you training thetech and automation virtual
(23:31):
assistants? Is that what you're?
You're doing? Yes. So thatcourse trains tech automation,
and tech automate teaches dumbtech and automation, it teaches
them to do what I do. And I kindof explain it to them in the
point where if you are a generalvirtual assistant, or you are
making $20 per hour, you have towork 25 hours per month to make
(23:51):
$500, you can set up anautomation in five hours or less
for $500. So people kind ofgravitate to that Whoa, instead
of working 25 hours for the fullmonth, I can make the same $500
in five hours or less. And itdepends on how fast you are. If
you are a beginner, that itcould take you the five hours to
(24:12):
set it up. If you know whatyou're doing. You go through the
course and you have mymentorship, then you could do it
in 20 minutes, 30 minutes,depending on how big of an
automation it is under an hoursometimes, and get that same
amount of money, less time morefreedom. And it's also not
general, the general things areclient facing. So you spend you
spend time interacting withcustomers, you have to kind of
(24:35):
be there during business hoursbecause people want their
customer service team to respondduring that time. You can set up
an automation at 3am if you waitso you can absolutely do it on
the site of a regular job untilyou're ready to transition and
still make more money than thatregular job if you're doing it
on the site. Because if you dothree automations a month, by
(24:56):
$600 You already have you knowyou have $1,500 And I always say
it's My students, if you realizethat you're making a quarter or
half of your salary, workingfive or six hours or less than
10 hours with this side gig,then you know that you can hand
in your resignation. Becausewhen you will full time, you
have time to look for me,consider the commute to your
(25:17):
job. All those things get upgetting ready. Oh, that it's
time that you can take toactually set up stuff. So the
income, it's more, and the timethat you put into it, it's less
you have more freedom. So mystudents are majority, nearly
women and moms who are cravingto quit corporate work, work,
who want to leave, who don'twant to work, 95% of them have
(25:39):
never heard of the online spacenever worked online. Some of
them have zero idea how to getinvolved in tech. Some of them
are 62 years old. So these arepeople who've never sat working
virtually all they've knowntheir entire lives, or their
traditional jobs had no ideawhat becoming a virtual
assistant is, or started toexplore, working remotely sensed
(26:03):
the pandemic and stumbled acrossthis, or maybe they saw my
Facebook ad or they weresearching for quitting corporate
and miraculous the couple yearsago, I purchased the quitting
corporate.com domain. And nowwhen people search quitting
corporate, it comes up. Yeah. Sothe students come from there.
And it's amazing. We have over250 students who have taken that
(26:26):
automation for so far. And over5000 have done my other general
stuff. But I try to encouragethem to always, you know, step
into a niche. Yeah, don't stickwith a general status, because
you're going to be chasing itforever.
So all of that it's reallyexciting. I used to automate a
bunch of stuff at my my lastcorporate job. And it's kind of
(26:49):
the same thing to where it'slike all of these things that
can eliminate the amount of timethat you're spending on
something and just crunch itdown into just minutes guy would
take my workflow and somethingthat used to take me eight hours
a week, I could do with the pushof a button. And but it was
never like received, you know,you know what I mean? Like the
(27:12):
same kind of thing where yousaid your your company just kind
of shelved it. It's like, well,yeah, oh, that just means that
Jamie can do more now. And thatjust means we can pile on her
plate, because now she's, youknow, got all this extra time
was like, No, that's not, that'snot what I was going for.
Especially working from home,because it's like, oh, wait, no,
I have this time. You know, Idon't I created this thing so
(27:37):
that I can carve out more timefor myself not to just add more
to my plate that nobody reallyappreciates. Anyway, so
and not stay here, way into thenight. Come on, we're not doing
that. And I can also give you anexample like for my podcast
recordings. As soon as I getoff, like we're on Zoom now
(27:58):
recording this, as soon as I getall my recordings on my pod my
recordings like this, itdownloads on its own, it uploads
to Google Drive on its own, andit sends my team a notification
to say, hey, there is a podcastepisode in the folder ready to
be edited. So I am like, I don'thave to I don't get off. I don't
Don't worry, I don't upload it,I don't send them a message, he
(28:18):
all fires automatically.
Now that's really exciting. Imaybe need to run through the
course with you. Because like Iknow, vapour and IFTT. Like
those kinds of apps and thatsort of thing. I just, it's one
of those things like I tend tojust kind of play with them
until I break them. And then I'mlike, Oh, I don't really know
how to troubleshoot thisanymore. kind of pass my skill
(28:40):
set here. But yeah, it's allit's all interesting to the
students. Do you help them findthe their clients? Or if it's
just they take the course. Andthen now they have the knowledge
to go do it on their own? Or howdoes that work?
Oh, I absolutely helped thembecause I do that because I
know, paid communities was a bigthing for me. So I needed to be
(29:01):
able to replicate that.
Remember, I said I joined thesecommunities and paid a monthly
membership to be able to getexclusive jobs. So I actually
also built a higher form websitewhere people go to hire doc
quitting corporate.com to hiremy students. So a lot of people
are it's taken off, people knowwhere to go when they want to
hire a tech virtual assistant,or Tech Support Specialist. Jobs
(29:22):
get pumped into the group everysingle day. So and I don't limit
it to tech and automation,because there are still some
people in the group or somemembers still want to appear
automation with other things.
And I respect that. So we havepeople who do copywriting and
tech and automation. So they'llset up your email campaigns and
(29:42):
still do your write your email,copy and website copy for you
and still set up theirautomation still set up the
automations I have people whowant to focus on social media
and social media automation,people who are still doing
funnel design and automation. Sothe jobs are not only
automation, I even have peoplewho still you know I'm I still
want to become be do generalstuff along with the automation.
(30:03):
So all types of remote jobs areposted in there for them. And a
lot of my students have gone onto get clients and they're even
clients, I have a couple peoplewho've made on their first job
over $2,000 For the first personthat hired them, and it started,
the client will have more thanmade their investment back. And
then there is also in terms ofweight when people are hiring
(30:26):
them. They're also they alsohave the opportunity to come to
me and say, Hey, this alwayssubmit this, can you look over
my proposal, if they feelanxious about it, if they feel
nervous about the call,sometimes we talk about what
that looks like when you get onthe call. So I don't ever leave
them out to see there's this SAScompany funnel gorgeous, a
(30:46):
software company for funnelbuilding and whatnot CRM. They
have since hired three of mystudents full time to manage
your SAS software, whatnot. So Iand it's not just tech and
automation in specific software,I teach them how to navigate any
system, even if they've neverseen it before. So Active
Campaign Click Funnels Kajabi,kartra, Ontraport, funnel gorge,
(31:09):
fg funnels, all the things sothat anytime someone comes to
them, they know and projectmanagement tools. clickup not
just automation for emails, butalso automation for personal
stuff, daily stuff, your life,not just business, how to look
at a situation and recognize,okay, you know what, this person
doesn't need to be doing thisthing, there is a way for you to
figure out how to automate it.
So we do challenges inside thegroup where I serve out. Last
(31:31):
one we did we had a challenge inDecember called Miss do it
manually. And I would put somethings in there like Okay, help
me to do it, man manually wasthe hardest Christmas party of
the year. And I would say thisis the scenario. This is what's
happening, let's do it manuallyhas these things where a bunch
of people have to audition forthis job or this play. But she
has to say and go through everysingle application to see if
(31:54):
they qualify, help us navigateor create a system where she can
automate this so that she canemcee at the party. So then they
have to brainstorm like, Oh myGod, how can I figure it out.
And it gives them the strategybehind our understanding of look
at your clients when you'reworking with them. And they you
will understand where or how youcan automate something or if it
(32:17):
can be automated, this is how Iwant you to be seeing it.
That's really cool. So tell mewhat your life looks like now,
compared to what it looked like,eight years ago, when you were
in corporate or however many, Iguess what was it? 2018 You went
full time. So since then,since then, what does my life
look like? Now I first of all, Ijust recently got back from my
(32:42):
longest trip ever. 33 days, Iyou know, as a parent, traveling
for 33 days as a mom withoutyour kid is a big deal. That was
a bunch of business as well aspleasure mixin. And I could
never stayed that long on mycorporate salary ever, ever,
ever. I would have been gone inthe blink of an eye and
(33:06):
panicking oh my god, how am Igoing to do this? But that was
there things that came up alongthe way. Like, you know, we had
I had my mastermind event, therewere 70 of us there in person,
the US but the others werevirtual, but then there was a
COVID over it. Um, so as I wasleaving, I was going to my best
friend's house and I started tosee everybody's like, okay,
(33:26):
positive, positive, positive,positive, positive. Like, you
know what it would beirresponsible of me to go to my
best friend's house now becauseshe has kids there. And if I had
positive that I've gone thereinfected her entire family. And
I was on the train heading overthere. And I said, You know
what, I messaged her, I said,I'm not coming because it seems
to be a thing of work going on.
(33:49):
So I am going to book a hotelfor a couple of days before it
comes to you just to make sure.
And that is something I lookedat the hotel prices, New York
went oh my god, I did not wantto do this. And then I had to
sit back and have my friendTalia sitting across from me.
And I said we're leaving themastermind together. And I said,
You know what, this isn't theway to look at this a couple
years ago, I would not haveknown what to do. Because I
(34:12):
wouldn't have had the money topay for this hotel at the last
minute to make sure that I cankeep everybody said so I booked
the hotel. I was like screw it.
I'm just going to do it. And Iwent I did that. So those things
come up and I like being able todo that with soap kind of came
with Don't worry. I've takenfamily vacations and I've taken
(34:34):
vacations where I've even takenmy mom so that if I wanted to go
out she could stay with mydaughter. He just got back from
like a seven day cruise. I tookher on Savin a cruise for Easter
and then I went oh we did thebig Miami trip and all that
stuff. And international travelis hard because remember, it's
them in Barbados. So it isn'tlike we're not buying $80 $90 or
(34:56):
$100 tickets across states. Sohaving that because we met Brace
out, I used to my work funds, Iused to kind of like save them
up for 689 months to be able togo on a trip, I don't have to do
that anymore. I also, like movedinto an area that I liked, I
couldn't afford to do it on myregular salary. There are things
(35:18):
that I enjoy now that in aregular position I wouldn't make
I wouldn't be able to do. I alsolike to make sure that I have
other streams of income. So themoney that I've made online, it
allowed me to open a couple ofother businesses. So I had I
opened up a transportationcompany here, I might open a bit
supply store. So I have otherthings actually going on locally
(35:41):
where income is money stillcoming. Because I need to make
sure you know if I wake uptomorrow, and I don't feel like
working online, which I don'tthink what happened. There are
other things happening there.
And I stepped away from done foryou services in automation. And
I do consulting now. So I teachmy students are my main focus, I
teach them Metra, they can gettheir jobs. And then if I need
(36:04):
to work with a client, it's moreso consulting. So I'd come in to
the consultation. And if theyneed to work with someone like
one of my students, I'd workalongside them to get the
implementation, then I justoversee that as a consultant
with that person. So that's it.
And then I do tech coaching inhigh ticket masterminds. So
(36:24):
that's where it is now insteadof down for you consulting, tech
coaching and just working withmy students traveling, doing all
the fun stuff, and having a tonof time at home to do what I
like talk to you on thispodcast. Working with clients
only, I probably wouldn't havebeen able to find a time to say
and do this. So it's a lot oftime back is even I get even
(36:48):
more fun creating my curriculumfor my students and creating a
new curriculum now for intake.
So there's that I've also what'schanged for me in a huge way is
showing up on video. I wasn'table to I didn't like get hit on
video but over the last year anda half was my that forced during
the year in Nova in September.
Over the last year and a half, Iwas able to show up more on
(37:11):
video because a lot of myteachings were audio Graham and
I would show my face a littlebit and my students started like
seeing you we want to work faceand I started going to Okay, I'm
gonna show like this. I did aredo of a I added in a piece of
the course in November lastyear, a new segment and it's
like full video, my face isthere. And it's brought up that
(37:32):
level of competence for me in onon this in the social world, I
try toget that it's just a constant
level of like up leveling andgrowing and stretching and being
uncomfortable and doing it allover again. Like as soon as you
kind of get find your comfortzone with one thing. It's like,
okay, what's the next? What'sthe next thing that I need to be
working on? You know, one of thethings that I like to say is
(37:55):
like clarity comes from action.
Because I think if you're likeanalytical or you're looking at
your your corporate life, andyou're just going well, I have
no idea how to get to here. I'mjust going to guess and go out
on a limb that whenever youfirst left your corporate job
that this was not anywhere onyour radar that what you've
(38:18):
accomplished in the last five orso years. To the level I mean,
like all of the different piecesand all of the different
businesses and the branches.
Like I'm guessing that that wasnot something that was just
planned out from the beginning.
Oh, no. And when I look back atthe how much I've made in
(38:41):
December last year, when I didthe calculation on how much I
made until the end, because youknow, you're getting your stuff
ready for tax season. I wouldhave at December last year, I
would have had to work 15 moreyears in corporate to my last
high paying salary to meet whathave already made in the last.
(39:01):
That was three years. 1820 Yeah,that was three years. Last
December, I would have had towork 15 more years in corporate
Okay, wait, does that matter?
Like your salary times 15 It'snot just like fighting years.
That is like 15 years worth ofsalary that you're talking about
15 years worth of salary, Iwould have to work to meet what
(39:25):
I mean in the last three yearsfrom a remote business alone
together as Yes. Like I want somany women to have that
experience I want so I mean thatis just that is admirable and I
like God that's got to make youfeel good. I mean of just like
knowing that you can provide,you know provide for your
(39:48):
daughter of having that like Iknow how to make money because
once you learn that that'sthat's not something that
anybody can take away from youlike even if everything else
goes away. I Know how to makemoney, I can start over and I'm
starting from a higher. I mean,that's just really incredible
job. I tell people that all thetime, we weren't taught that
(40:11):
when we don't have money or orreflects in our Rush is to Oh my
God, I need to send out theseapplication things to find
another job. But I always seewhat I've learned in the last
couple of years. Like you said,it can it can crash and burn
right now. I will figure it outin the next couple of hours.
Like, I need to get a couple of$1,000. And I need to do this
right now. Last week, as I wasleaving my best friend's house,
(40:34):
I was like, oh, man, we did anumber out here. I need all the
dollars by the end. I mean, like$1,000 By the end of the week,
and she's looking at me tonight.
Because I've been trying to gether to do it for whatever and
she hasn't, right. And she'slike, What do you mean, he's
like, as long as I need $5,000,by the end of the week, I'm
going back home to reality mail,and I did
(40:57):
a lot of money on that hotel.
Yeah, I need all this stuff backthat I just spent because I like
to call out this thing where I'mlike, somebody's going to pay
for this. And it's not going tobe me. So like, yeah, I work on
that on I am going on a trip inNovember, somebody has to be
limited. And I always tell mystudents as well keep that in
(41:18):
your mind, when you want to dosomething, you will continue to
go there. If it is somebody'sgonna pay for this, it's not
going to be me. Technically,you're paying for it, you get
what I mean. It's like you'renot sucking from a well and then
panicking like, oh my god, thewall is empty. So before I got
home, because I was on a plane,I was coming. And then I did a
(41:40):
flight with a stock, I couldcome direct, but I didn't
because I wanted the extra timeto have four hours in the
airport launch. That's anotherthing that I wouldn't have
access to before. It also itfeels feels good to be able to
walk into the airport, launchand have access and all that and
stay there nicely withoutworrying about staying on their
way to the airport knowledge.
And I had four hours of flightwhen I was about to get on my
(42:02):
next flight, I sent her amessage and said $2,500 More is
what I need. She's like you justI love it. I also like to be
able to do that. And my reflectsis not I need a job. And if Pete
if more people could look at itthat way, it would be so amazing
for them. We stressed out aboutstarting businesses, and we
(42:24):
don't have the money to investthat. I can't pay for this. But
what can you do? If you have toinvest in something that is
going to get you where you'regoing faster? What can you do to
make it work? And I tell peoplethere is the you know, there's
this thing that was always theinvisible work node and whatnot,
what are we doing? And one of myone of the ladies I worked with
(42:46):
called Susan, she always talksabout the invisible workload,
what are we doing that we're notgetting paid for? You have
family members dropping kids offat your house every single week
to babysit. But they're neversaying here is $50 Thank you. So
you need to pay for a course upcan they gift it to you since
you're always so good at goodwith them. If your birthday is
(43:07):
coming up, our Christmas iscoming up, hey, I was wondering
if you could help me get thisthing, something that I really
wanted to do. Because you knowthem not having to pay a sticker
for their kids is saving them alot of money. So if they're able
to contribute, or you can telleverybody, this, my birthday is
coming up, this is what I want,your family's probably going to
go out and try to get youperfume or whatever things you
(43:28):
like or jewelry and stuff, tellthem if you can reach out to
this company, and buy me a giftcard so that I can take these
courses for my birthday. That'sall I want. There are ways to go
around it, you know, you don'thave to save the money up. You
want to take me out to dinner,you know, reach out to this
(43:50):
company and see if we can get acoupon or a gift card for that
dinner money because I reallywant to do this thing. And if
people around you can appreciatethat this is what you would like
for your birthday or tocelebrate or for Mother's Day or
whatever. Or hey, I know that wego to date night every Tuesday.
But can we skip it becauseinstead of spending $200 Every
(44:12):
Tuesday for the next two monthson this thing, this course is
going to cost $500 And I reallywant to take it so and if you
get pushback from that, then Idon't I wouldn't want to have
those people who reject thataround me like don't show up at
my door and bring me $100 bottleof cologne or perfume. When I
told you I want this thingbecause you believe that gifts
(44:35):
are supposed to be what do wesay a tangible you believe that
actually something I should havein my hand because I'm trying to
better myself. And I wouldappreciate you so much. If you
could just you know change it upa little bit so that I can do
that. But then don't disappointthem actually do the thing.
Right, right. So tell me how thepodcast came in to All of this,
(45:01):
when did you start it? How areyou using it? Like as an
outreach? Are you doinginterviews? Or how what is your
podcast looklike the podcast, I dropped the
trailer for the podcast lastAugust and the first episode was
in September last year. So itcame about because of my fear
for video, I want it to be ableto show up more, and I was going
to be able to do that better onaudio. So I actually have a
(45:22):
bunch of these videos now that Iam want to tell my team now that
I feel a little more comfortablestepping out here, take them and
make a bunch of rules, and putup here until you know, spending
episodes. But that was it forme. I wanted to be able to talk
to my audience and talk topeople and get my message
across. But I am scared of goinglive all the time or going on
(45:42):
yet IG live Facebook Live, thosethings made me nervous. So it
was like, I don't have to showmy face on the podcast. And I
could still talk to people. Solet me start there. So the first
season was pretty much metalking about my journey,
everything went on went through.
And I thought that I would onlyget to Episode Five before I had
to bring on guests. But I madeit straight 12 solo. And then
(46:05):
the second season, I'm talkingto people about why they quit
corporate what they're doing.
It's it's a it's collectively,it's not just about tech and
automation. But it's so that theaudience can feel and get ideas
of all the different pockets ofareas and things that different
business owners are out heredoing that are making money. So
it's not just people who quitcorporate, but regardless of how
(46:26):
you left corporate you quit, yougot fired, you resign, your
position was redundant. Whateverit is, is as long as your
accident or you exit it. Theseare some ideas from some
phenomenal people that can helpyou grow your business. And if
you decide that automation iswhere you want to go instead of
those other paths. And this isthe way to do it. So I leave a
(46:48):
lot of resources and links andstuff from my guests. So that
you know if you want to be acopywriter, this is the person
if you want to do video editing,this is the person if you want
to do stuff with kids, this isthe person and I talked to them
that way a lot of students getmotivation from the podcast as
well. So there's that as well. Abig question on that podcast is
for most of the guests is wouldyou ever go back to corporate
(47:11):
and a lot of them are like hellno. So that came about No, no,
no, no, no, no, no. Like, figureit out. Yeah. No, that's
awesome. All right. Well, as wewrap up here is there Why don't
you go ahead and tell peoplewhere they can find you learn
more, learn more about yourcourse. Your podcasts, all of
(47:34):
the thingsyou can find me on all social by
Latoya RSB YL at all ya ourInstagram Facebook, tick tock we
hardly use because y'all heard Idon't like video. All the places
you can find me by Latoya ours,my handle if you go to quitting
corporate.com and check out thewebsite. And if you aren't
interested, or you want to knowmore about set an automation,
(47:55):
quitting corporate.com forwardslash register will give you
access to the info session sothat you can figure out okay, is
this something for me? And we'llfrom there would incorporate.com
Pretty easy to remember.
Yeah. Awesome. All right. Well,thank you so much, Latoya.
Thank you so much for having me,Jamie.
I want to say a big thank you toLatoya for coming on the show
(48:18):
today. I loved hearing herperspective. And really like the
part about somebody is going topay for this and it's not going
to be me. Let's all move towardsthat model. Right. Some of the
key takeaways from this episodeare number one, ask the
questions. If you're not seeingthe results from your
contributions at work, and it'sstalling out your career, be an
advocate for yourself and findout why a manager holding you
(48:41):
back from other opportunities iscompletely unacceptable. Number
two, take the opportunity. Ifyou see an opportunity or window
where you can go all in onsomething that works for you and
your life. strike when the ironis hot and make the move. Number
three invest in community. A lotof times Facebook groups can be
a great place to find your idealclients. However, when you're
(49:04):
only hanging out in the freegroups, things get saturated
very quickly. Go ahead andinvest in the communities where
your people are. Number four,get specific. When people know
what you do, it opens the doorfor easy referrals. Lots of
people go the general route andare faced with a lot of
competition as well as a lot ofcustomer facing activities in
(49:25):
the whole VA world. So gettingspecific allows you to move
swiftly. Number five, worksmarter. Make yourself aware of
the tools that can make yourlife easier. As an entrepreneur
there are tons of everyday tasksthat can be automated to reduce
the amount of time you'respending on projects. And number
six, don't forget to give back.
It's especially important aswomen that when we figure out
(49:48):
something and overcome astruggle that we turn around and
offer a hand to those comingalong behind us. Latoya does
this by helping her studentsfind paying opportunities but
there's waited for all of us todo that, just like in our own
way. So thanks again to Latoyafor being on the show. I've
linked everything in the shownotes. And that is it for this
week. I appreciate you tuning into another episode of Breaking
(50:12):
up with corporate and if youfound any value with this or any
other episode, please take amoment to leave a review to help
other women find this show.
There's a link in the show notesthat makes this really easy. I
think it's been made very clearthat women need more resources,
so stay strong. Until next time
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