Episode Transcript
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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.
I have been a virtual assistantnow for the past five years the
last half of a decade of mylife, which sounds totally crazy
to say, but my story aboutbecoming a VA actually didn't
(00:45):
start five years ago.
It started back in my mid-20s.
I had finished my courseworkfor grad school and moved
halfway across the country tolive with a boy who, spoiler
alert, did end up becoming myhusband, but I hadn't actually
finished my master's program,and so I continued working in
restaurants, which is what I haddone all through college and
(01:06):
grad school to make some money.
I spent all of my mid-20sworking in the restaurant
industry as a manager, and I wasreally really freaking good at
my job, but I actually didn'tget any fulfillment out of my
work.
I didn't find joy in makingpeople sandwiches, didn't find
joy in making people sandwiches,and while I was good at the
work that I was doing, I knew inthe long term that it was not
(01:33):
what I was going to be doing,especially because once we got
engaged and then married, myhusband and I knew that we
wanted to have children and Iknew there was zero chance I was
going to have kids on arestaurant manager's schedule.
After we got married, weactually ended up moving back to
the Midwest and my husband gota job at the very school that we
had met at, and so I wasfinally able to focus and finish
(01:54):
my master's degree.
As soon as I had that bad boydefended, I said see ya to the
restaurant industry and I wentback to teaching.
I had been a grad assistantwhile I was in school and I knew
that I enjoyed teaching, and soas soon as I had that degree in
hand, I went back at both ourlocal community college and the
(02:14):
four-year university and startedteaching communication courses,
and I did find more enjoymentin this work, certainly, than
the restaurant industry, but itstill didn't feel super
fulfilling.
In a way, I felt like I wasdoing what I should be doing
rather than what really lit meup.
And after we had been marriedfor a couple of years and I had
(02:37):
been back in the classroom for ayear or so, my husband and I
decided to try to start a family, but unfortunately.
My husband and I decided to tryto start a family, but
unfortunately, life had otherplans and decided that it wasn't
going to be super easy for us.
We ended up struggling withinfertility for a couple of
years before finally taking abreak, and then, about six
(02:57):
months later, I discovered on arandom Wednesday after class
that I was indeed pregnant.
And before getting pregnant andbefore having our daughter, my
husband and I had still beenliving pretty much paycheck to
paycheck, despite the fact thatwe both had master's degrees and
we both had what society woulddeem as quote-unquote good jobs.
Hell, I was even waiting tablesuntil I was like seven months
(03:21):
pregnant, in addition toteaching double course loads in
my college professor position,just to create some extra income
to buy all the fun baby thingsthat we wanted.
We were in a place where wecould barely keep a thousand
dollars in an emergency fund,and even if we did siphon some
away for savings, we still hadmountains of credit card debt
(03:41):
from our 20s, and then we hadour daughter.
She arrived Little miss is whatyou will hear me refer to her as
here on this podcast and on mysocial media and when she was
born, I was able to teach onlineso that I could be home with
her.
She was due smack dab in themiddle of a semester, and so I
wasn't taking the whole thingoff, but I taught online and I
(04:01):
was able to be home with her forthe first four months of her
life.
When she was about five monthsold, a new semester started and
I had to go back on campus,which meant returning to a set
schedule.
I now had class times andoffice hours and meetings with
other administration, whichmeant that I had to leave Little
Miss to go to work, regardlessof what was going on at home,
(04:23):
and that literally crushed me.
She was always in great hands,she was with daddy or grandma,
but it hurt my freaking heart tohave to walk out the door and
go teach a class just because myjob said that I had to.
Now, an important piece to thistoo, y'all, is that I never
wanted to or thought I would bea stay-at-home mom.
(04:44):
I have always loved working.
It fuels something in me and Iknew that I both wanted and
needed to keep working for mymental health and sanity, but
also for our family's budget.
Me becoming a stay-at-home momwasn't an option, but me
continuing to be on a setschedule that required me to
(05:05):
leave our home and leave mydaughter also wasn't an option.
So I started looking for whatmy options could be.
I was talking to my sister, justcompletely frustrated and
crying and just so over thesituation and feeling helpless
and like I didn't have a plan,and she brought up the idea to
(05:27):
me of virtual assistants.
I was 33 years old and I hadnever in my life heard of a VA
before.
She told me all about what itlooks like.
She had moved into the onlinebusiness space and had tons of
friends who utilized VAs, and soshe was really familiar with
them.
And I kind of pushed back alittle bit, saying I've never
been an admin, I've never beenan office manager, I don't have
(05:49):
that job experience that willtransfer here.
But she reassured me that Ididn't have to have that and
that my personality and my skillsets from the work that I had
done previously would be aperfect fit for this, and I
trusted her because you know youtend to trust your big sister
and I decided to give it a go.
Right, like what could it hurtto try?
(06:09):
And so I did just that.
I dipped my toes into the VAindustry and I signed two
part-time clients in the firstmonth and when I say part-time
clients, these were verypart-time clients.
The two of them combined.
I was working maybe five hoursa week and then about four
months in.
Also, mind y'all, I was stillteaching full-time and I signed
(06:30):
a $4,000 per month client.
And just for a littleperspective here, as a college
professor, the best year I hadhad was making $46,000.
So this one singular new clientat $4,000 a month would
generate $48,000 of income forme in the next year, and that
(06:53):
was the moment that it truly hitme of like.
This is it?
This is the answer, this is thesolution.
This is not going to just besome small side hustle.
This is something that canactually replace my college
professor salary and allow me tobe home with Little Miss.
Now, that doesn't mean that Ileft teaching right then, and
(07:13):
there I definitely didn't.
I am a very logical-brainedperson and I wanted to make sure
that this income wassustainable before walking away
from my full-time job, and thereally cool thing about VA work
being as flexible as it is isthat you absolutely can do that.
I was able to build up andsustain a comfortable income as
a VA before walking away fromteaching.
(07:35):
I would do my VA work whilehome with little miss right?
She was still a teeny, tinylittle nugget and I would work
with her sleeping on me.
I'd have my computer on my lapand her on my chest, or working
from my phone while she wasnursing, or I would steal 10 or
15 minutes here and there whenshe was spending time with my
husband or spending time withher grandma or her aunts and her
(07:55):
cousins.
I worked in the nooks andpockets of my day to create this
amazing new income for myfamily.
And then, when my daughter was10 months old, the lease on the
townhouse we were living incurrently was up for renewal and
my husband and I decided youknow what we're actually not
going to renew that because wewant to take the steps to become
(08:15):
homeowners.
But if you recall, I mentionedpreviously that we barely even
had $1,000 in an emergency fund,so we damn sure did not have
the money for a down payment ona house.
So we decided to move out ofour townhouse and into my mom's
basement in order to save the$1,900 a month that had been
(08:37):
going toward rent and be able tosave it toward a down payment
instead.
So we moved myself, my husband,our 10-month-old baby and our
80-pound bulldog 20 minutesacross town into my mom's
half-finished basement.
One side of it was our livingbasement, one side of it was our
living room, one side of it wasour bedroom and my office and
then, of course, little miss gotthe nice finished second
(08:58):
bedroom upstairs.
When we first moved into mymom's house, my husband and I
had talked it through and saidwe are okay with being here for
max two years, because we trulythought it would take close to
that full amount of time to beable to save enough money to buy
a house.
But it did not take us a fulltwo years.
We had moved into my mom'shouse in August and then on
(09:20):
Christmas Eve of that year wesigned contract on a new build
home and then that home wasfinished and we closed on it in
April and moved into it in May,and the only way that we were
able to save that extra moneyfor a down payment was from my
new virtual assistant income.
We used my husband's income tocover our life and our bills and
(09:41):
our expenses, and then we usedmy virtual assistant income to
save for the down payment.
So we were able to move ourlittle family from a
half-finished basement in mymom's two-bedroom condo to a
brand new four-bedroom2,500-square-foot house with a
huge backyard for Little Missand our dog, ralphie.
So if you ever hear me say thatvirtual assistant income can be
(10:04):
life-changing, that's what Imean.
I know it sounds cliche, butour lives would not look the way
they do right now if I had notmade this step in my life to
become a virtual assistant.
Within a year and a half ofbecoming a VA, I had doubled my
college professor salary, andthat number alone was an income
(10:25):
I literally never thought Iwould make.
I mean, I didn't even think Iwould ever make above $50,000 a
year, let alone almost hitting$100,000 a year.
And in two and a half years Ihad tripled my college professor
salary.
And not only was I able totriple my income because
obviously, yes, the money isfreaking great but the best part
(10:46):
of that is that I was able tocreate that income while also
getting to be home with my baby.
My daughter stayed home with meuntil she turned three and
started going to 3K.
She never went to daycare ordid anything else in the interim
, so I was home with herbuilding this income and
building this business, whilealso being home for every nap
(11:08):
time and every meal and everybedtime and every milestone.
I mean there's literallynothing better.
Since I became a virtualassistant five years ago, a lot
of things have changed for myfamily.
We were able to buy a home andlandscape the backyard which if
you've ever landscaped abackyard, you know that it's not
(11:28):
cheap and we actually then hadto do it all over again when we
moved to Arizona.
We had to sell a home, buy anew home, re-landscape a new
backyard, and we even put a poolin this one.
We've been able to pay downtens of thousands of dollars in
credit card debt that we hadaccrued in our 20s.
We've been able to travel moreand go spend time with family.
We now live in Arizona and ourfamily is in Colorado and back
(11:51):
in the Midwest in Michigan andOhio, but because of what I do
to earn an income, I'm able totake my daughter and go back to
Colorado for a week or two weeksat a time and then fly out to
the Midwest and spend two weeksat a time with family there.
Those are the kinds of thingsthat make this so amazing,
besides the money, because if Ihad a traditional job still, or
(12:13):
I was still in the classroom andhad those classes and office
hours and things to hold, wewould never be able to take
those trips.
Now I do not share my story as alook at me or a way to brag.
That is absolutely the farthestthing from the purpose of
sharing my story.
The purpose of showing y'allhow this has panned out is to
(12:34):
show you that it's possible foryou too.
I am not a unicorn.
I am just a mom who was lookingfor a solution and worked hard
to make it happen.
So if you are listening to thispodcast with a baby on your hip
, or driving home from a jobthat you are so freaking drained
by, or you have this dream tomake money while also being
(12:57):
present with your family thatyou've been ignoring, I need you
to hear me when I say that thisis not out of reach for you.
I didn't have a perfect plan.
I didn't have tons of time, Ididn't have a bunch of special
connections.
A perfect plan.
I didn't have tons of time, Ididn't have a bunch of special
connections.
I didn't get lucky.
I started and I got intentional.
You don't have to have it allfigured out, you just have to
(13:19):
take the first step.
Hopefully, hearing my story andthe way that it has changed our
lives completely is inspiringand motivating to you, because
that is my goal.
I want you to know that you canhave your cake and eat it too.
You can create a paycheck whilebeing present with your family.
If you're curious about whatthis could look like for you and
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how you can actually getstarted taking the steps to make
this your reality, I have afree class.
That is the perfect place tostart.
I will drop the link so you cangrab the recording down in the
show notes.
Thanks for hanging out with metoday on your Virtual Assistant
Coach.
If you loved this episode, besure to share it with your best
friend, your sister or even yourfavorite coworker, who you know
(14:03):
wants to start making aflexible income.
I'll see you all next time.