May 29, 2025 • 13 mins
Laura Nicole has been a successful virtual assistant since 2020 and has spent the past two and a half years coaching hundreds of women to become VAs themselves. She started her own VA journey after having her daughter and realizing she needed to create a flexible income from home, so that she could contribute financially and still be fully present for her family. Now, she’s passionate about helping other women create the same kind of freedom and flexibility in their lives.
Join her for her first-ever podcast episode where she’ll explain what a virtual assistant is and does, as well as bust some myths you may have heard about VAs.After listening to this episode you will have a big picture understanding of virtual assistance and an idea if it is a fit for your personality, lifestyle, and income goals!
In this episode, Laura Nicole will discuss:
- What a virtual assistant is, plus examples of services VAs can offer
- The types of small businesses that hire virtual assistants
- How to take your first steps toward becoming a VA
Whether you're curious about becoming a VA or just starting your journey, this episode is the perfect place to begin!
Check out her free "Could I Be A VA?" quiz to explore if VA work might be right for you! Click here to take the quiz!
What can you expect from this podcast and future episodes?
- Bite-sized episodes that give you quick, actionable insights into the Virtual Assistant industry
- Learn how to build skills, boost your confidence, and create a profitable VA business
Get the show notes and transcription here: https://www.laurajtraining.com/podcast-ep01-va101-lets-talk-about-what-a-va-actually-is
Find Laura on social media:
Instagram: @hey.lauranicole
TikTok: @hey.lauranicole
Facebook: Superstar Assistant Academy
Interested in earning sustainable income on YOUR terms, working as a Virtual Assistant? Register for FREE and Click Here to Get Started
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Laura Nicole (00:02):
Welcome to your Virtual Assistant Coach, the
podcast for moms who want tomake money from home on their
own terms.
I'm your host, laura Nicole, asuccessful six-figure earning VA
and coach, who replaced mycollege professor salary in just
five months back in 2020, aftermy daughter was born, and I
have never looked back.
I'm here to help you build aprofitable, flexible VA business
(00:24):
that fits into your family'slives, so you no longer feel
like you're living just to work.
Let's dive in.
This is the very first episodeof this podcast and I am just so
freaking excited that you arehere with me, and I think it's
really important that, becauseit's episode one, we start at
(00:46):
the very foundation.
One of the main questions that Iget asked from women who I chat
with about how I earn an incomeand support my family is what
even is a virtual assistant?
So often I talk to women andthey have never even heard of a
virtual assistant, which is abig part of why I started
(01:08):
coaching, because thisopportunity truly changed my
life and my family's life.
No matter how cheesy and clichethat might sound, it is
completely true.
So, if you are one of thosewomen who have never really
heard of virtual assistants, oryou've heard of it, but you
still feel pretty unclear aboutwhat a VA actually is and does,
(01:31):
or if this is something thatcould be a good option for you
to earn an income from home,then you are absolutely in the
right place.
A virtual assistant, in thesimplest of terms, is someone
who provides services to smallbusiness owners and
entrepreneurs remotely.
You help business owners withthe behind the scenes tasks that
keep their businesses runningefficiently so that they can
(01:54):
focus on their zone of geniusand creativity, because there
are so many pieces that go intorunning a small business
efficiently, but a lot of thosethings don't actually have to be
done by the business ownerthemselves, and so they love to
hire a VA, bring them in and beable to delegate and outsource
(02:15):
those behind-the-scenes tasks,which then frees that business
owner up to pour into the partsof their business that they do
have to be the one executing.
Pour into the parts of theirbusiness that they do have to be
the one executing.
Now, there are a ton ofdifferent services that you can
be offering to clients when youwork as a virtual assistant, but
I am not going to sit here andattempt to list them all out,
(02:35):
because that would be incrediblyboring, and I can almost
guarantee that you would nevercome back to hang out with me on
this podcast ever again.
What I can do, though, are giveyou some basic examples of the
types of services that virtualassistants offer to clients,
especially when they're firstentering the industry.
Some of those services includethings like helping to manage
(02:57):
their email inbox or theircalendar, handling customer
support for their existingclients or customers or people
who are interested in purchasingtheir product or service.
One thing I always like to knowabout customer support is that,
in the virtual assistant space,that never means being on the
phone, because you work withsmall businesses.
They don't have a phone numberthey're giving out.
(03:18):
They'll have an email addressthat people can reach out to,
and customer support is one ofthe biggest categories of
service that's needed by smallbusiness owners, and it's one
that you can offer even if youhave your kiddo's home and it's
pure chaos and a literal tornadohappening behind you.
You can create and organizespreadsheets for your clients
(03:40):
and actually handle the dataentry or the reporting and
tracking of the numbers on theback end of their business for
them.
In an overarching sense, youcan absolutely offer project
management, helping them to keepall of their projects and
deadlines on track, whether it'sjust with them or with other
team members.
Another really common serviceto offer is client relations,
(04:01):
where you are helping theircustomers and clients through
their customer journey orhelping to do things like
moderate Facebook groups orother communities that they have
for their customers.
And another cool thing that youcan offer to support them is
social media assistance.
Now make sure you hear me rightwhen I say that I said social
media assistance, not socialmedia management, because a
(04:24):
social media manager is a wholedifferent job.
But you can help your clientswith the admin side of social
media, doing things likeactually scheduling out or
posting their content, replyingto comments, adding story slides
to highlight reels or evenanswering common FAQs inside of
(04:44):
their DMs and social media is avery one way or the other
service topic.
So if you heard that and yougot excited and thought, oh my
gosh, that sounds so fun, that'sawesome.
But also know that if you heardthat and you thought, oh my God
, I do not want to do anythingrelated to social media at all,
that you can absolutely be anincredibly successful virtual
(05:05):
assistant and never related tosocial media at all, that you
can absolutely be an incrediblysuccessful virtual assistant and
never touch anything socialmedia related with a 10-foot
pole.
Depending on the type of clientthat you work with, you might
even help them with podcastsupport or travel planning or
doing some basic graphic designin Canva, like creating their
weekly or monthly newsletter orcreating the graphics for a
carousel to post to theirInstagram.
(05:25):
And the really great thingabout all of these services and,
like I said, there are so manyothers, but these are just
really great entry points isthat you can offer almost all of
these without having to golearn anything new and just
capitalizing on the everydayskills you already have from the
combination of your workexperience and simply managing
(05:49):
your home.
So what kinds of smallbusinesses even hire virtual
assistants?
I would say that the vastmajority of small businesses who
utilize VAs are going to bebusinesses in the online space.
So online entrepreneurs,coaches, course creators,
podcasters, influencers, etsyshop owners, network marketers,
(06:11):
but then also therapists,realtors, photographers, wedding
planners basically any smallbusiness owner who simply has
too much on their plate.
It is really common to workwith people who operate their
business online, because whenyou are a virtual assistant, you
don't have to be in the sameplace as your client.
(06:32):
Now, that doesn't mean that youcan't work with local small
businesses, because you 100% can, but it also means that you
have the literal whole world atyour fingertips, because you can
work with clients who live inany time zone in any country on
any continent, and there arehundreds of thousands of online
(06:52):
small business owners out therewho need the support of a VA.
The other really cool aspect ofthat is because these small
businesses span such a widearray of industries.
You will absolutely be able tofind clients that you align with
, not only with them on apersonal level, but also just
believing in their business andloving who their business
(07:14):
impacts, so that you feelfulfillment by supporting their
business with your time andenergy.
The demand and the market forvirtual assistants is already
massive, and it is only going tocontinue to increase as new
businesses are started everysingle day.
I am so thankful that you arehere and I am so excited to go
(07:35):
on this podcasting journey andto be able to have another
avenue to help you and otherwomen and moms just like you be
able to create this flexibleincome on your own terms as a
virtual assistant.
Which leads me to an importantpoint, which is that to be a
virtual assistant, you do notneed any kind of certification
(07:56):
or degree.
There's no going back to schoolto obtain a new degree or going
through a four-week crashcourse certification in order to
have some special certificateor diploma that is suddenly
going to help you be wildlysuccessful at this.
You simply do not need them.
And while we're at it, thereare a couple other myths out
(08:19):
there that I would like to bustreal quick.
Number one you do not have tobe a tech expert.
You do not have to be techie.
As long as you are proficienton the computer right as long as
you can send emails and putthings into a Google sheet and
type and maneuver Google andsearch things, and you're a
(08:41):
quick learner so that you canlearn the softwares and programs
that your clients use becausethey will teach you those then
that's truly all you need interms of tech skills.
You also don't have to have anydirect admin support experience
in order to become a virtualassistant.
I talk to so many women all thetime who literally tell me
(09:03):
Laura, I don't have anyexperience, how could I do this?
And what they're meaning isthat they don't have experience
either directly as a virtualassistant, or they don't have
experience in an admin type role, which is what this is right
Just virtually.
And when I tell you that, Ipromise the skills that you have
(09:24):
from any type of job that youhave held in the last five to
seven years.
We will be able to pull thoseskills out and transfer them
into services.
In the VA industry.
You do not have to have directadmin experience.
I never had direct adminexperience and I have been able
to build a six-figure incomeconsistently for the last half a
(09:46):
decade.
And the last myth that I want tobust is that you do not have to
have a big social mediafollowing or presence to be able
to find and sign clients.
I mentioned earlier that, whenit comes to services, if you
have zero interest in doingsocial media, you don't ever
have to, and the same thingapplies for how you market and
(10:07):
network with potential clients.
If social media is your jam andcontent creation is fun for you
, then absolutely that's anetworking tool that you can
utilize, but you can also fillyour client roster without ever
posting a single reel, and a keypiece of info here that I want
to make sure is very, very clearis that when you work as a
(10:30):
virtual assistant, you are notan employee, you are not a W-2.
You are a 1099 independentcontractor, aka a freelancer.
So these business owners thatyou're working with, they are
your clients, not your boss, andbeing a freelancer honestly is
actually very empowering, Ithink.
(10:51):
A lot of times in our society a1099 or an independent
contractor can sometimes gettheir reputation of being
unsteady or unstable when itcomes to earning.
But personally, I love the factthat as a VA, you have so much
control.
You have control over theclients that you work with and
(11:12):
the businesses that you support.
You have control over theservices that you offer and the
rates that you charge for thoseservices, and you have control
over how much or how little youwork and when you actually work.
There's no set schedule in theworld of VA, which means that
you can work when it works foryou.
(11:33):
You actually get to live yourlife first and then fit your
work in around it.
I don't know about you, but tome that sounds like the most
empowering, freaking way to beable to help support my family
financially, because I don'thave to sacrifice time with them
in order to do so.
(11:53):
If this episode has gotten yourwheels turning and you're
nodding along, thinking toyourself I could probably do
that.
You absolutely can.
When I tell you, in the lasttwo and a half years of coaching
literally hundreds of women howto get started in this industry
, I cannot think of a singleconversation that I have had
(12:14):
with someone, as they'redeciding if they want to pursue
this, where I've concluded theconversation with saying, oh no,
sorry, not going to work foryou.
Every single one of you haveskills that we could be
monetizing as virtual assistantservices and you can absolutely
(12:34):
make this your reality.
If you're wanting to get moreinsight about whether virtual
assistant work will be a goodfit for your personality and
your lifestyle and your incomegoals, then I want you to check
out my free Could I Be a VA?
Quiz?
I'm going to drop the link inthe show notes for you below.
It kind of takes me back to ourteenage days taking those
(12:56):
little quizzes in Cozumel,except this is like the grown-up
version.
Please be sure to follow andsubscribe to the show, because
next episode you'll be hearingabout how I went from grading
papers and living paycheck topaycheck as a college professor
to running a six-figure VAbusiness that actually gave me
time with my daughter and myfamily and a true sense of time,
(13:20):
freedom and flexibility.
I would also love for you tosend this to a mom friend who
came to mind as you werelistening to this episode, so
that she can learn about thisoption too, because there's a
chance that she doesn't evenknow virtual assistance is an
option.
Thanks for hanging out with metoday on your Virtual Assistant
Coach.
If you loved this episode, besure to share it with your best
(13:44):
friend, your sister or even yourfavorite coworker, who you know
wants to start making aflexible income.
I'll see you all next time.
Welcome to your Virtual Assistant Coach, the
podcast for moms who want tomake money from home on their
own terms.
I'm your host, laura Nicole, asuccessful six-figure earning VA
and coach, who replaced mycollege professor salary in just
five months back in 2020, aftermy daughter was born, and I
have never looked back.
I'm here to help you build aprofitable, flexible VA business
(00:24):
that fits into your family'slives, so you no longer feel
like you're living just to work.
Let's dive in.
This is the very first episodeof this podcast and I am just so
freaking excited that you arehere with me, and I think it's
really important that, becauseit's episode one, we start at
(00:46):
the very foundation.
One of the main questions that Iget asked from women who I chat
with about how I earn an incomeand support my family is what
even is a virtual assistant?
So often I talk to women andthey have never even heard of a
virtual assistant, which is abig part of why I started
(01:08):
coaching, because thisopportunity truly changed my
life and my family's life.
No matter how cheesy and clichethat might sound, it is
completely true.
So, if you are one of thosewomen who have never really
heard of virtual assistants, oryou've heard of it, but you
still feel pretty unclear aboutwhat a VA actually is and does,
(01:31):
or if this is something thatcould be a good option for you
to earn an income from home,then you are absolutely in the
right place.
A virtual assistant, in thesimplest of terms, is someone
who provides services to smallbusiness owners and
entrepreneurs remotely.
You help business owners withthe behind the scenes tasks that
keep their businesses runningefficiently so that they can
(01:54):
focus on their zone of geniusand creativity, because there
are so many pieces that go intorunning a small business
efficiently, but a lot of thosethings don't actually have to be
done by the business ownerthemselves, and so they love to
hire a VA, bring them in and beable to delegate and outsource
(02:15):
those behind-the-scenes tasks,which then frees that business
owner up to pour into the partsof their business that they do
have to be the one executing.
Pour into the parts of theirbusiness that they do have to be
the one executing.
Now, there are a ton ofdifferent services that you can
be offering to clients when youwork as a virtual assistant, but
I am not going to sit here andattempt to list them all out,
(02:35):
because that would be incrediblyboring, and I can almost
guarantee that you would nevercome back to hang out with me on
this podcast ever again.
What I can do, though, are giveyou some basic examples of the
types of services that virtualassistants offer to clients,
especially when they're firstentering the industry.
Some of those services includethings like helping to manage
(02:57):
their email inbox or theircalendar, handling customer
support for their existingclients or customers or people
who are interested in purchasingtheir product or service.
One thing I always like to knowabout customer support is that,
in the virtual assistant space,that never means being on the
phone, because you work withsmall businesses.
They don't have a phone numberthey're giving out.
(03:18):
They'll have an email addressthat people can reach out to,
and customer support is one ofthe biggest categories of
service that's needed by smallbusiness owners, and it's one
that you can offer even if youhave your kiddo's home and it's
pure chaos and a literal tornadohappening behind you.
You can create and organizespreadsheets for your clients
(03:40):
and actually handle the dataentry or the reporting and
tracking of the numbers on theback end of their business for
them.
In an overarching sense, youcan absolutely offer project
management, helping them to keepall of their projects and
deadlines on track, whether it'sjust with them or with other
team members.
Another really common serviceto offer is client relations,
(04:01):
where you are helping theircustomers and clients through
their customer journey orhelping to do things like
moderate Facebook groups orother communities that they have
for their customers.
And another cool thing that youcan offer to support them is
social media assistance.
Now make sure you hear me rightwhen I say that I said social
media assistance, not socialmedia management, because a
(04:24):
social media manager is a wholedifferent job.
But you can help your clientswith the admin side of social
media, doing things likeactually scheduling out or
posting their content, replyingto comments, adding story slides
to highlight reels or evenanswering common FAQs inside of
(04:44):
their DMs and social media is avery one way or the other
service topic.
So if you heard that and yougot excited and thought, oh my
gosh, that sounds so fun, that'sawesome.
But also know that if you heardthat and you thought, oh my God
, I do not want to do anythingrelated to social media at all,
that you can absolutely be anincredibly successful virtual
(05:05):
assistant and never related tosocial media at all, that you
can absolutely be an incrediblysuccessful virtual assistant and
never touch anything socialmedia related with a 10-foot
pole.
Depending on the type of clientthat you work with, you might
even help them with podcastsupport or travel planning or
doing some basic graphic designin Canva, like creating their
weekly or monthly newsletter orcreating the graphics for a
carousel to post to theirInstagram.
(05:25):
And the really great thingabout all of these services and,
like I said, there are so manyothers, but these are just
really great entry points isthat you can offer almost all of
these without having to golearn anything new and just
capitalizing on the everydayskills you already have from the
combination of your workexperience and simply managing
(05:49):
your home.
So what kinds of smallbusinesses even hire virtual
assistants?
I would say that the vastmajority of small businesses who
utilize VAs are going to bebusinesses in the online space.
So online entrepreneurs,coaches, course creators,
podcasters, influencers, etsyshop owners, network marketers,
(06:11):
but then also therapists,realtors, photographers, wedding
planners basically any smallbusiness owner who simply has
too much on their plate.
It is really common to workwith people who operate their
business online, because whenyou are a virtual assistant, you
don't have to be in the sameplace as your client.
(06:32):
Now, that doesn't mean that youcan't work with local small
businesses, because you 100% can, but it also means that you
have the literal whole world atyour fingertips, because you can
work with clients who live inany time zone in any country on
any continent, and there arehundreds of thousands of online
(06:52):
small business owners out therewho need the support of a VA.
The other really cool aspect ofthat is because these small
businesses span such a widearray of industries.
You will absolutely be able tofind clients that you align with
, not only with them on apersonal level, but also just
believing in their business andloving who their business
(07:14):
impacts, so that you feelfulfillment by supporting their
business with your time andenergy.
The demand and the market forvirtual assistants is already
massive, and it is only going tocontinue to increase as new
businesses are started everysingle day.
I am so thankful that you arehere and I am so excited to go
(07:35):
on this podcasting journey andto be able to have another
avenue to help you and otherwomen and moms just like you be
able to create this flexibleincome on your own terms as a
virtual assistant.
Which leads me to an importantpoint, which is that to be a
virtual assistant, you do notneed any kind of certification
(07:56):
or degree.
There's no going back to schoolto obtain a new degree or going
through a four-week crashcourse certification in order to
have some special certificateor diploma that is suddenly
going to help you be wildlysuccessful at this.
You simply do not need them.
And while we're at it, thereare a couple other myths out
(08:19):
there that I would like to bustreal quick.
Number one you do not have tobe a tech expert.
You do not have to be techie.
As long as you are proficienton the computer right as long as
you can send emails and putthings into a Google sheet and
type and maneuver Google andsearch things, and you're a
(08:41):
quick learner so that you canlearn the softwares and programs
that your clients use becausethey will teach you those then
that's truly all you need interms of tech skills.
You also don't have to have anydirect admin support experience
in order to become a virtualassistant.
I talk to so many women all thetime who literally tell me
(09:03):
Laura, I don't have anyexperience, how could I do this?
And what they're meaning isthat they don't have experience
either directly as a virtualassistant, or they don't have
experience in an admin type role, which is what this is right
Just virtually.
And when I tell you that, Ipromise the skills that you have
(09:24):
from any type of job that youhave held in the last five to
seven years.
We will be able to pull thoseskills out and transfer them
into services.
In the VA industry.
You do not have to have directadmin experience.
I never had direct adminexperience and I have been able
to build a six-figure incomeconsistently for the last half a
(09:46):
decade.
And the last myth that I want tobust is that you do not have to
have a big social mediafollowing or presence to be able
to find and sign clients.
I mentioned earlier that, whenit comes to services, if you
have zero interest in doingsocial media, you don't ever
have to, and the same thingapplies for how you market and
(10:07):
network with potential clients.
If social media is your jam andcontent creation is fun for you
, then absolutely that's anetworking tool that you can
utilize, but you can also fillyour client roster without ever
posting a single reel, and a keypiece of info here that I want
to make sure is very, very clearis that when you work as a
(10:30):
virtual assistant, you are notan employee, you are not a W-2.
You are a 1099 independentcontractor, aka a freelancer.
So these business owners thatyou're working with, they are
your clients, not your boss, andbeing a freelancer honestly is
actually very empowering, Ithink.
(10:51):
A lot of times in our society a1099 or an independent
contractor can sometimes gettheir reputation of being
unsteady or unstable when itcomes to earning.
But personally, I love the factthat as a VA, you have so much
control.
You have control over theclients that you work with and
(11:12):
the businesses that you support.
You have control over theservices that you offer and the
rates that you charge for thoseservices, and you have control
over how much or how little youwork and when you actually work.
There's no set schedule in theworld of VA, which means that
you can work when it works foryou.
(11:33):
You actually get to live yourlife first and then fit your
work in around it.
I don't know about you, but tome that sounds like the most
empowering, freaking way to beable to help support my family
financially, because I don'thave to sacrifice time with them
in order to do so.
(11:53):
If this episode has gotten yourwheels turning and you're
nodding along, thinking toyourself I could probably do
that.
You absolutely can.
When I tell you, in the lasttwo and a half years of coaching
literally hundreds of women howto get started in this industry
, I cannot think of a singleconversation that I have had
(12:14):
with someone, as they'redeciding if they want to pursue
this, where I've concluded theconversation with saying, oh no,
sorry, not going to work foryou.
Every single one of you haveskills that we could be
monetizing as virtual assistantservices and you can absolutely
(12:34):
make this your reality.
If you're wanting to get moreinsight about whether virtual
assistant work will be a goodfit for your personality and
your lifestyle and your incomegoals, then I want you to check
out my free Could I Be a VA?
Quiz?
I'm going to drop the link inthe show notes for you below.
It kind of takes me back to ourteenage days taking those
(12:56):
little quizzes in Cozumel,except this is like the grown-up
version.
Please be sure to follow andsubscribe to the show, because
next episode you'll be hearingabout how I went from grading
papers and living paycheck topaycheck as a college professor
to running a six-figure VAbusiness that actually gave me
time with my daughter and myfamily and a true sense of time,
(13:20):
freedom and flexibility.
I would also love for you tosend this to a mom friend who
came to mind as you werelistening to this episode, so
that she can learn about thisoption too, because there's a
chance that she doesn't evenknow virtual assistance is an
option.
Thanks for hanging out with metoday on your Virtual Assistant
Coach.
If you loved this episode, besure to share it with your best
(13:44):
friend, your sister or even yourfavorite coworker, who you know
wants to start making aflexible income.
I'll see you all next time.
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.