June 19, 2025 • 13 mins
In this episode, Laura Nicole breaks down how successful VAs land their first clients, and it’s not what you think! Forget chasing algorithms or endlessly applying to freelance job boards. Instead, Laura reveals how relationship-building, strategic networking, and leveraging your existing community can lead to high-quality, long-term clients.
If you’ve been hesitating to put yourself out there because your brand isn’t “perfect” yet, this episode will help you shift your mindset and take confident action even before you feel 100% ready.
In this episode, Laura Nicole will discuss:
- Finding clients through personal networks
- Social media networking strategies
- Leveraging referrals for client trust
Check out her Client Magnet Method mini-course that teaches you how to network intentionally with ideal clients, including my 15-minute networking method.
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-ep07-finding-your-first-va-client
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.
Probably the most frequentlyasked question that I get from
women when talking about virtualassistants is where do I find
clients?
Where do I find clients?
Where are they?
(00:45):
How do I actually go aboutfinding them, talking to them,
signing them and creating anincome for myself?
And I wanna make it very, veryclear that you do not need some
huge following you do not to beshowing up on social media every
day.
You don't need to be out thererunning ads or trying to go
viral on Instagram or spendinghours upon hours scrounging
(01:09):
freelancing sites just hoping tofind an actual posting.
That's not trying to offer you$5 an hour, because, in reality,
most often, your first clientis going to come from
intentional relationshipbuilding, not random DMs, cold
outreach, spam to somebody onInstagram or signing with some
VA agency that's going to take50% of your rate from you.
(01:32):
So where do you actually go tofind your clients?
I want to let you know thatthere is so much power in your
personal network your friends,your family, your co-workers,
all of your mom friends atschool, your PTA group when you
share with people that you knowthat are in your personal
network.
(01:53):
Just share from a place ofexcitement about what you're
doing.
Tell them about this newvirtual assistant venture that
you're starting up and howyou're so excited and the types
of clients you want to work withand how you're so pumped for
the time, freedom andflexibility this is going to
give you with your family, whilestill actually earning an
income to support your family.
You're not asking them to hireyou.
(02:15):
You're not asking them to buyanything from you.
You're literally just sharingabout something that you're
doing that you're so fuckingexcited about and asking them to
just connect you if they happento know someone who could
possibly use your services.
Now I have women tell me allthe time when I tell them this
tip.
I have so many women who kind oftry to rebut it a little bit
(02:37):
and kind of push back on me,right, and they'll say but Laura
, I don't have a personalnetwork, which you know people,
I know that you do.
You're not a recluse, you talkto other humans, so you do have
a personal network and it's notreally that likely that you're
actually going to work with theperson who's in your inner
circle.
So it's okay if your directpersonal network, the one step
(03:00):
out from you, if they're notsmall business owners, because
you don't need to be working forthem specifically, but they may
know someone who knows someone,who knows someone, and that is
the person that you getconnected with and ends up being
your client.
There's a massive ripple effectthat can happen there, but it
can only happen if it startswith you telling your friends,
(03:21):
telling your family, tellingyour book club about what you're
doing, you telling your friends, telling your family, telling
your book club about what you'redoing.
The other way that I reallyencourage you to focus on
finding your clients is throughactual proactive networking
using social media platforms,and I said at the top of this
episode that you do not have tobe showing up on Instagram and
selling and being forward facingand talking on camera all the
(03:43):
time and I mean that.
But that doesn't mean you'renot going to use the platforms.
You can use the platforms toseek out the accounts of your
ideal client, to interact withthem and connect with them.
So when I say social media, I'mreferring to Facebook,
instagram and threads OnFacebook.
We are going to be looking forgroups that are full of small
business owners andentrepreneurs, to be looking for
(04:06):
groups that are full of smallbusiness owners and
entrepreneurs, ideally ones whoare in the industry that you are
really wanting to support.
Maybe that's realtors orwedding photographers or
business coaches or moms in thehealth and wellness space, right
?
So you're going to look forgroups that align with those
actual industries.
And then, when you get in thosegroups, you want to do like an
intro post that's about you justkind of sharing some fun facts
(04:28):
about you and what you do andwhat you offer, with a picture
of yourself.
I always want you to put apicture of yourself on your
intro post because people willsee you and see your face and
they'll connect with you more.
One really important note inFacebook groups whenever you're
posting in there, you do need tobe really careful of the rules
of the group, because everygroup will have different rules
(04:49):
and a lot of them have veryspecific rules about, like, not
marketing or not selling yourstuff, and so that's why doing
an intro post is kind of alittle bit of a way around that
rule, because you're notexplicitly selling your services
or anything like that.
You're just letting people knowwho you are and that you're
happy to be there, and then youare also going to be in that
(05:09):
group, in the groups that youfind on a consistent basis,
seeking out posts from otherbusiness owners, that you can
get into the comments andprovide value to them, be
helpful, answer questions, makeconnection and then ideally
those conversations will go fromthe comments into the DMs.
And then we have Instagram,where you can absolutely use
(05:32):
your existing personal account.
But if you want to create abusiness account, you can also
do that.
I know a lot of women, even ifthey're not really wanting to
have like a full on businessInstagram, they'll still start a
new one and just post like ninethings on it to get the grit
like one grid screen full,because their personal account
has their kids and stuff allover it and they just don't want
(05:54):
that forward facing topotential clients.
But either way, whether you usea personal one or create a new
one, you're going to useInstagram to again be seeking
out those business owners whoare in the industry that you
want to be working with so thatyou can connect with them.
I want you to find theiraccounts, follow them, get on
(06:15):
their email list and theninteract with their content.
My favorite little tip for thisis that when you interact with
a person's Instagram stories,your reply is going to go
directly into their DMs, so youcan absolutely still post on
something on their feed you knowa carousel or a reel but you
definitely also want to beresponding to their stories so
(06:37):
that it goes directly to the DMsand they're more likely to see
it and engage.
Now, the whole point of creatingthese connections okay is not
to be pitching these clientsright off the bat.
We're not going to follow themand then go spam like 20 of
their posts and then pop intheir inbox and say hey, I'm a
virtual assistant, I'd love tohelp you, because I can promise
you 10 times out of 10, if youdo that, you're going to get
(07:00):
deleted, blocked, ghosted.
It is not going to work the wayyou might think it is.
We are focused on buildingconnection and building
relationships with thesepotential clients, so that we
can get to know, number one, ifwe'll even be a good fit
together and there's someoneyou'd actually want to work with
and support.
And number two, so you can getsome ideas for what they
(07:20):
actually need help with in theirbusiness, so that when you go
to pitch them, you can come tothem with a solution and with
ideas for how you can alreadyhelp them instead of just saying
, hey, can I help you?
What do you need help with?
And then I don't know if y'allare on Threads, but Threads is
the like sister app of Instagramand it's basically a new
(07:41):
Twitter, essentially Like it'sall just copy based.
There's really hardly anypictures or videos.
People sometimes will postthose, but it really is just
people are posting what theycall them threads and they
literally are just like whenpeople used to tweet, right Like
it's.
It's the same setup and if youhave an Instagram account, then
you automatically have a threadsaccount because they're linked.
(08:03):
So go check that.
Make sure you download theThreads app, because Threads is
absolutely busting at thefucking seams right now with
small business owners andThreads is a really cool space
to be in because it's a lot lesscurated Like it's very
conversational, it's very casualand it's cool when you're
following business owners andthe people who you are really
excited about as potentialclients, because on Instagram
(08:25):
you're gonna get like the morecurated side of them where
they're marketing and they'reselling, and then over on
Threads it's like you get anactual view into more of their
personality and into the behindthe scenes of their business.
So it's really kind of a cooljuxtaposition.
And the really cool thing on This that you can absolutely
engage with their content andget in the comments, just like
(08:46):
you do in a Facebook group, andoffer value and you know
positivity and congratulate themand be excited in their
comments.
But also there are so manybusiness owners who just
straight up post to theirthreads that they're looking to
hire a virtual assistant.
Like right now, with the way myalgorithm is on threads, I
cannot open the app and scrollmore than two or three scrolls
(09:09):
without seeing at least oneperson who's just straight up
posting a thread about the factthat they're ready to hire a
virtual assistant.
So the possibility over onthreads is really endless and I
just love it because it's a lotmore casual and like less
pressure and less curated.
So if you are not on there yet,you need to be on there, like
yesterday.
And then the fifth and finalplace that I want to share with
(09:31):
you, right now that you can beout there trying to find clients
, is by utilizing referrals,which is kind of like a separate
extension of your personalnetwork.
Right, go back to any pastemployers or co-workers.
Or if you are a virtualassistant who's had clients in
the past or actively has aclient now, ask them for a
referral, see if there's anyonethat they know who also could
(09:54):
use your help.
Because a really cool perk ofutilizing your personal network
whether it's just family andfriends or it is, you know, your
boss at your last job that youused to love or a client that
you had is that when they make aconnection for you to a new
potential client, there'salready this built in level of
credibility and trust, like youalready are entering that
(10:16):
interaction with a leg upcompared to when you're starting
from scratch networking withsomeone on social media.
So I definitely want you to beleaning in to those possible
referrals from people that youknow and also sharing with your
family and friends, because thatbuilt-in trust is just
something you can't really put avalue to.
And, as always, I have a littlemindset nugget for y'all,
(10:38):
because if you haven't caught onat this point, your mindset
when it comes to starting yourvirtual assistant business
matters so much.
And what I want to tell you isthat you cannot wait to start
networking until you feel quoteunquote ready.
Number one, because you'renever going to feel 100% ready,
if I'm being completely honestwith you.
And number two, because thisform of networking, in this way
(11:02):
of finding clients that I haveshared with you, it takes time
to build these connections.
It's worth it to take the timeto build those connections,
because building theseconnections with aligned clients
is how you're going to build asteady, stable income for
yourself, because you'll besigning clients that you can
grow with them in their business.
But the connections do taketime.
(11:23):
So once you know who your idealclient is, get out there and
start having conversations andstart making connections while
you're building the foundationof your business in terms of
your services and your rates andall of that.
I mean you are a woman, afterall, so I know that you can
multitask, so I know that youcould multitask here too, and be
connecting, while also buildingyour business in the backend.
(11:45):
Because, just to lay it outreally, really clearly, right,
you cannot land and sign aclient if they don't even know
that you exist.
So I want you to get out thereand start implementing
everything that I just taughtyou and start building those
connections.
We dive into all of this and somuch more and so freaking in
(12:06):
depth inside of my mini course,the client magnet method, which
was designed to teach you how tonetwork really intentionally
and strategically with yourideal clients in a way that
makes it an absolute fuckingno-brainer for them to hire you.
It is incredibly thorough andis going to teach you how to
network intentionally so thatyou're also not making
(12:27):
networking like a full-time job.
Right, I know that you are sobusy and so, inside of the
client magnet method, I teachyou my 15 minute networking
method that allows you to doyour networking with an actual
plan so that you can be superfricking productive for those 15
minutes and then go about yourday.
This mini course is perfect,whether you're trying to sign
(12:48):
your very first VA client oryou're wanting to expand your
roster and increase your income.
As always, I will drop thatlink for you in the show notes.
So go grab it and let's turnyou into a client magnet.
Thanks for hanging out with metoday on your virtual assistant
coach.
If you love this episode, besure to share it with your best
friend, your sister or even yourfavorite coworker, who you know
(13:10):
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.
Probably the most frequentlyasked question that I get from
women when talking about virtualassistants is where do I find
clients?
Where do I find clients?
Where are they?
(00:45):
How do I actually go aboutfinding them, talking to them,
signing them and creating anincome for myself?
And I wanna make it very, veryclear that you do not need some
huge following you do not to beshowing up on social media every
day.
You don't need to be out thererunning ads or trying to go
viral on Instagram or spendinghours upon hours scrounging
(01:09):
freelancing sites just hoping tofind an actual posting.
That's not trying to offer you$5 an hour, because, in reality,
most often, your first clientis going to come from
intentional relationshipbuilding, not random DMs, cold
outreach, spam to somebody onInstagram or signing with some
VA agency that's going to take50% of your rate from you.
(01:32):
So where do you actually go tofind your clients?
I want to let you know thatthere is so much power in your
personal network your friends,your family, your co-workers,
all of your mom friends atschool, your PTA group when you
share with people that you knowthat are in your personal
network.
(01:53):
Just share from a place ofexcitement about what you're
doing.
Tell them about this newvirtual assistant venture that
you're starting up and howyou're so excited and the types
of clients you want to work withand how you're so pumped for
the time, freedom andflexibility this is going to
give you with your family, whilestill actually earning an
income to support your family.
You're not asking them to hireyou.
(02:15):
You're not asking them to buyanything from you.
You're literally just sharingabout something that you're
doing that you're so fuckingexcited about and asking them to
just connect you if they happento know someone who could
possibly use your services.
Now I have women tell me allthe time when I tell them this
tip.
I have so many women who kind oftry to rebut it a little bit
(02:37):
and kind of push back on me,right, and they'll say but Laura
, I don't have a personalnetwork, which you know people,
I know that you do.
You're not a recluse, you talkto other humans, so you do have
a personal network and it's notreally that likely that you're
actually going to work with theperson who's in your inner
circle.
So it's okay if your directpersonal network, the one step
(03:00):
out from you, if they're notsmall business owners, because
you don't need to be working forthem specifically, but they may
know someone who knows someone,who knows someone, and that is
the person that you getconnected with and ends up being
your client.
There's a massive ripple effectthat can happen there, but it
can only happen if it startswith you telling your friends,
(03:21):
telling your family, tellingyour book club about what you're
doing, you telling your friends, telling your family, telling
your book club about what you'redoing.
The other way that I reallyencourage you to focus on
finding your clients is throughactual proactive networking
using social media platforms,and I said at the top of this
episode that you do not have tobe showing up on Instagram and
selling and being forward facingand talking on camera all the
(03:43):
time and I mean that.
But that doesn't mean you'renot going to use the platforms.
You can use the platforms toseek out the accounts of your
ideal client, to interact withthem and connect with them.
So when I say social media, I'mreferring to Facebook,
instagram and threads OnFacebook.
We are going to be looking forgroups that are full of small
business owners andentrepreneurs, to be looking for
(04:06):
groups that are full of smallbusiness owners and
entrepreneurs, ideally ones whoare in the industry that you are
really wanting to support.
Maybe that's realtors orwedding photographers or
business coaches or moms in thehealth and wellness space, right
?
So you're going to look forgroups that align with those
actual industries.
And then, when you get in thosegroups, you want to do like an
intro post that's about you justkind of sharing some fun facts
(04:28):
about you and what you do andwhat you offer, with a picture
of yourself.
I always want you to put apicture of yourself on your
intro post because people willsee you and see your face and
they'll connect with you more.
One really important note inFacebook groups whenever you're
posting in there, you do need tobe really careful of the rules
of the group, because everygroup will have different rules
(04:49):
and a lot of them have veryspecific rules about, like, not
marketing or not selling yourstuff, and so that's why doing
an intro post is kind of alittle bit of a way around that
rule, because you're notexplicitly selling your services
or anything like that.
You're just letting people knowwho you are and that you're
happy to be there, and then youare also going to be in that
(05:09):
group, in the groups that youfind on a consistent basis,
seeking out posts from otherbusiness owners, that you can
get into the comments andprovide value to them, be
helpful, answer questions, makeconnection and then ideally
those conversations will go fromthe comments into the DMs.
And then we have Instagram,where you can absolutely use
(05:32):
your existing personal account.
But if you want to create abusiness account, you can also
do that.
I know a lot of women, even ifthey're not really wanting to
have like a full on businessInstagram, they'll still start a
new one and just post like ninethings on it to get the grit
like one grid screen full,because their personal account
has their kids and stuff allover it and they just don't want
(05:54):
that forward facing topotential clients.
But either way, whether you usea personal one or create a new
one, you're going to useInstagram to again be seeking
out those business owners whoare in the industry that you
want to be working with so thatyou can connect with them.
I want you to find theiraccounts, follow them, get on
(06:15):
their email list and theninteract with their content.
My favorite little tip for thisis that when you interact with
a person's Instagram stories,your reply is going to go
directly into their DMs, so youcan absolutely still post on
something on their feed you knowa carousel or a reel but you
definitely also want to beresponding to their stories so
(06:37):
that it goes directly to the DMsand they're more likely to see
it and engage.
Now, the whole point of creatingthese connections okay is not
to be pitching these clientsright off the bat.
We're not going to follow themand then go spam like 20 of
their posts and then pop intheir inbox and say hey, I'm a
virtual assistant, I'd love tohelp you, because I can promise
you 10 times out of 10, if youdo that, you're going to get
(07:00):
deleted, blocked, ghosted.
It is not going to work the wayyou might think it is.
We are focused on buildingconnection and building
relationships with thesepotential clients, so that we
can get to know, number one, ifwe'll even be a good fit
together and there's someoneyou'd actually want to work with
and support.
And number two, so you can getsome ideas for what they
(07:20):
actually need help with in theirbusiness, so that when you go
to pitch them, you can come tothem with a solution and with
ideas for how you can alreadyhelp them instead of just saying
, hey, can I help you?
What do you need help with?
And then I don't know if y'allare on Threads, but Threads is
the like sister app of Instagramand it's basically a new
(07:41):
Twitter, essentially Like it'sall just copy based.
There's really hardly anypictures or videos.
People sometimes will postthose, but it really is just
people are posting what theycall them threads and they
literally are just like whenpeople used to tweet, right Like
it's.
It's the same setup and if youhave an Instagram account, then
you automatically have a threadsaccount because they're linked.
(08:03):
So go check that.
Make sure you download theThreads app, because Threads is
absolutely busting at thefucking seams right now with
small business owners andThreads is a really cool space
to be in because it's a lot lesscurated Like it's very
conversational, it's very casualand it's cool when you're
following business owners andthe people who you are really
excited about as potentialclients, because on Instagram
(08:25):
you're gonna get like the morecurated side of them where
they're marketing and they'reselling, and then over on
Threads it's like you get anactual view into more of their
personality and into the behindthe scenes of their business.
So it's really kind of a cooljuxtaposition.
And the really cool thing on This that you can absolutely
engage with their content andget in the comments, just like
(08:46):
you do in a Facebook group, andoffer value and you know
positivity and congratulate themand be excited in their
comments.
But also there are so manybusiness owners who just
straight up post to theirthreads that they're looking to
hire a virtual assistant.
Like right now, with the way myalgorithm is on threads, I
cannot open the app and scrollmore than two or three scrolls
(09:09):
without seeing at least oneperson who's just straight up
posting a thread about the factthat they're ready to hire a
virtual assistant.
So the possibility over onthreads is really endless and I
just love it because it's a lotmore casual and like less
pressure and less curated.
So if you are not on there yet,you need to be on there, like
yesterday.
And then the fifth and finalplace that I want to share with
(09:31):
you, right now that you can beout there trying to find clients
, is by utilizing referrals,which is kind of like a separate
extension of your personalnetwork.
Right, go back to any pastemployers or co-workers.
Or if you are a virtualassistant who's had clients in
the past or actively has aclient now, ask them for a
referral, see if there's anyonethat they know who also could
(09:54):
use your help.
Because a really cool perk ofutilizing your personal network
whether it's just family andfriends or it is, you know, your
boss at your last job that youused to love or a client that
you had is that when they make aconnection for you to a new
potential client, there'salready this built in level of
credibility and trust, like youalready are entering that
(10:16):
interaction with a leg upcompared to when you're starting
from scratch networking withsomeone on social media.
So I definitely want you to beleaning in to those possible
referrals from people that youknow and also sharing with your
family and friends, because thatbuilt-in trust is just
something you can't really put avalue to.
And, as always, I have a littlemindset nugget for y'all,
(10:38):
because if you haven't caught onat this point, your mindset
when it comes to starting yourvirtual assistant business
matters so much.
And what I want to tell you isthat you cannot wait to start
networking until you feel quoteunquote ready.
Number one, because you'renever going to feel 100% ready,
if I'm being completely honestwith you.
And number two, because thisform of networking, in this way
(11:02):
of finding clients that I haveshared with you, it takes time
to build these connections.
It's worth it to take the timeto build those connections,
because building theseconnections with aligned clients
is how you're going to build asteady, stable income for
yourself, because you'll besigning clients that you can
grow with them in their business.
But the connections do taketime.
(11:23):
So once you know who your idealclient is, get out there and
start having conversations andstart making connections while
you're building the foundationof your business in terms of
your services and your rates andall of that.
I mean you are a woman, afterall, so I know that you can
multitask, so I know that youcould multitask here too, and be
connecting, while also buildingyour business in the backend.
(11:45):
Because, just to lay it outreally, really clearly, right,
you cannot land and sign aclient if they don't even know
that you exist.
So I want you to get out thereand start implementing
everything that I just taughtyou and start building those
connections.
We dive into all of this and somuch more and so freaking in
(12:06):
depth inside of my mini course,the client magnet method, which
was designed to teach you how tonetwork really intentionally
and strategically with yourideal clients in a way that
makes it an absolute fuckingno-brainer for them to hire you.
It is incredibly thorough andis going to teach you how to
network intentionally so thatyou're also not making
(12:27):
networking like a full-time job.
Right, I know that you are sobusy and so, inside of the
client magnet method, I teachyou my 15 minute networking
method that allows you to doyour networking with an actual
plan so that you can be superfricking productive for those 15
minutes and then go about yourday.
This mini course is perfect,whether you're trying to sign
(12:48):
your very first VA client oryou're wanting to expand your
roster and increase your income.
As always, I will drop thatlink for you in the show notes.
So go grab it and let's turnyou into a client magnet.
Thanks for hanging out with metoday on your virtual assistant
coach.
If you love this episode, besure to share it with your best
friend, your sister or even yourfavorite coworker, who you know
(13:10):
wants to start making aflexible income.
I'll see you all next time.
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Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.