If you are looking to become a multi-entrepreneur or to work with one, this is the episode to listen to. Dr. Morissa Schwartz is a talented wordsmith and entrepreneur, and a best-selling author and speaker who built a successful business empire while completing her Masters’s in Communication and Doctorate in Literature.

Dr. Morissa Schwartz is the owner of DrRissysWriting.com – a marketing and writing company ranked in the top 2 social media experts in NY by Thumbtack, and GenZPublishing.org – a publishing company, which has produced six Amazon bestsellers. She holds a doctorate in literature from Drew University and has a Masters in Communication.

In this episode, she goes into how she built her businesses and also how she uses a team of VAs to manage it all.

02:04 - Freelancing during high school
04:45 - Self-publishing a book in high school
07:12 - Gen Z Publishing
12:19 - Dr. Rissy's Writing
13:54 - Dr. Schwartz's team
15:43 - Thumbtack (and how VAs can use it)
19:02 - Dr. Schwartz on interviewing VAs
22:46 - Room to grow
24:01 - Mistakes happen
27:22 - VAs at Gen Z
28:49 - Beta testing
32:23 - 3 tips for growing your business online
36:04 - Management tools

Find Dr. Rissy:
Gen Z Publishing -
Dr. Rissy's Writing

Follow Dr. Rissy:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn

Tools and platforms mentioned:
Twist
Thumbtack
Todoist
Asana
Trello

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Join the AVA when we open again! We’re at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media.

Love Pinterest? Want to work as a Pinterest VA? Listen to this episode with Claire Coleman! Claire Coleman is the owner and founder of CC Assist, a VA company that offers business support services and Pinterest management to wedding professionals and creative entrepreneurs so they can focus on the bigger picture.

02:14 - The ups and downs of working with pop stars
09:51 - From tour planner to VA
12:28 - Maternity leave as a VA
13:57 - An accidental niche
17:04 - Pinterest marketing
24:26 - Claire's schedule
26:20 - Secret leads for VAs
32:26 - Are Pinterest and weddings right for you?
34:24 - What is Tailwind?
41:28 - Kiri's Pinterest story
44:05 - The Four C's

You can connect with Claire at
https://ccvirtualassistance.com/
Instagram
Facebook

Tools Mentioned
Tailwind Scheduler
Canva
Honeybook

Rising Tide Society on Facebook

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Join the AVA when we open again! We’re at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media.

This has been one of Kiri's favorite interviews due to how open Kathy has been about her career and business. Kathy Goughenour is a force to be reckoned with, with her VA coaching business bringing in over a million dollars. Kathy is a longstanding VA who had the courage to say "bye-bye" to her corporate marketing career and built a 6-figure virtual assistant business from her tiny house in the middle of a forest. Today, she teaches professional women how to create their own work-at-home VA businesses so they can enjoy the freedom, flexibility, and financial security they desire and deserve. Kathy also offers VA Matchmaking sessions to business owners interested in working with Expert VAs®️ and Virtual Experts®️. Kathy and her Expert VA®️ and Virtual Expert®️ Training program have been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Good Housekeeping, All You, and The Wealthy Freelancer.

08:39 - The Three P's
16:22 - Becoming a VA in 2001
24:31 - $75 an hour
26:51 - Kathy on titles and specialization
31:52 - Attention Lucasfilm!
34:05 - What Kathy learned from taking her own training
36:20 - A 9-Year Overnight Success
40:27 - Mindset
48:52 - Kathy details her training programs
01:02:11 - Pricing
01:12:31 - Masterminds

Special link for our podcast listeners!
https://www.virtualexperttraining.com/no-frills

Kathy's Expert VA Training

Connect with Kathy:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Join the AVA when we open again! We’re at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media. If you’re a virtual assistant who wants to be featured, simply fill out the application on our page. Until next time, stay organized and professional!

Are you struggling to start your VA business or get it off the ground? Perhaps you should look into Sara Wiles' programs! Sara Wiles is an Online Business Mentor for done-for-you service providers. She helps Virtual Assistants, Online Business Managers and Social Media Managers build successful, profitable, balanced businesses in weeks instead of years. She's also a wife, mama, dog mama, exercise enthusiast, champagne connoisseur, four-letter word addict and the co-founder and co-host of The Happy Thoughts Show.

04:51 - From event planner to VA
09:04 - What does success look like?
13:40 - A Controlled Burn: Establishing Boundaries
20:04 - More than a mentor
22:20 - Sara's mentoring course syllabus
38:34 - Sara's VAs do everything
39:17 - How to Instagram like Sara
41:35 - Do it afraid, but do it anyway

You can find Sara at SaraWiles.co or Instagram


Sara's Podcast: The Happy Thoughts Show


Mentioned on the show: Unapologetically Ambitious

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Join the AVA when we open again! We’re at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media. If you’re a virtual assistant who wants to be featured, simply fill out the application on our page. Until next time, stay organized and professional!

Ellyse is a VA coach helping more established VAs and DFY (done for you) service providers create a sustainable business that allows them to take on ideal clients at ideal prices and create the business of their dreams. When she's not supporting her amazing students, she is spending time in Denver, CO with her kids and amazing husband.

01:05 - School Days
08:57 - From teacher to virtual assistant
14:10 - Ellyse's early VA days
17:21 - A bartering mistake
32:46 - VA coaching
34:19 - Establishing a sustainable VA business
41:54 - The things you hoped for

Ellyse on Instagram
Facebook Group
Ellyse on Facebook

Mentioned in the show: Free Mama Movement

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Join the AVA when we open again! We’re at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media. If you’re a virtual assistant who wants to be featured, simply fill out the application on our page. Until next time, stay organized and professional!

If you want to scale your VA business to a DBM/OBM, take a listen! Kiri interviews Claire who has been working online since 2018 when she accidentally became a virtual assistant for her brother’s economic consulting company! Now she’s up-leveled to the digital business manager role and is helping her clients expand their teams so they can continue to scale their businesses. Her superpowers include: implementing systems, organization, project management, and automation.

01:11 – The Accidental VA
07:31 – From VA to OBM
14:49 – Finding clients
15:35 – Claire’s favorite part of the job
16:14 – Is it possible to automate yourself out of a job?
19:00 – Working with life coaches
24:03 – How to take time off
27:46 – Claire’s VAs
30:19 – Project management tools
31:32 – Virtual misconceptions
34:12 – Is OBM right for you?
35:59 – Looking to the future


You can find Claire's webpage here and find her on Instagram as well.

Here are the tools  mentioned in today's episode!
ClickUp
Asana
Airtable
DBM Bootcamp

Elise Darma’s Instagram Tips

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Join the AVA when we open again! We’re at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media. If you’re a virtual assistant who wants to be featured, simply fill out the application on our page. Until next time, stay organized and professional!

Let's explore the common software used in a Virtual Assistant business! Kiri asks that AVA community what are some platforms or software that they love and can't do without in their business. Common answers included:

-Asana
-Toggl
-Slack

However, there were some less common ones that also popped up in conversation that you should think about! Kiri also talks about her favorites as an EA VA and the creepy, but highly useful, gmail plugin that she has used often.

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Find us at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media. If you’re a virtual assistant who wants to be featured in our guest interviews, simply fill out the application on our page. Until next time, stay organized and professional!

If you're looking to work in the financial industry as a VA, this is the episode for you. Kiri interviews Gabe Nelson who has worked with Virtual Assistants within his own company, Gabe Nelson Financial. In this episode, he explores VAs that would be good fits for financial advisors.

Gabe Nelson earned a BS in Economics from South Dakota State University in 1995, began working in financial services immediately following graduation, obtained his Certified Financial Planner® Designation in 2006, and founded Gabe Nelson Financial in 2008.

04:21 - What is a CFP?
08:16 - Avoiding the Big Mistake
18:28 - VAs for financial advisors
20:48 - Why Gabe chose virtual staffing
23:39 - The difference VAs make for their clients
26:00 - Management tools
30:01 - Gabe on the process of hiring VAs
34:13 - How to address mistakes
36:57 - What makes a rockstar VA

Books mentioned in this podcast...
The Seven Stages of Money Maturity
The Daily Stoic

To find out more about Gabe, you can find him here or listen to his podcast.

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Join the AVA when we open again! We’re at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media. If you’re a virtual assistant who wants to be featured, simply fill out the application on our page. Until next time, stay organized and professional!

Kiri poses a question to AVA's community about finding a business coach: What do you look for? And when do you make the leap from coaching into applying what you've learned? Kiri goes into stories from her own career which includes a dinner call that didn't go well and how she needed someone who was a foil to her personality.

Everyone had a lot to say on this topic! Common themes included:

-Doing appropriate research
-Finding a coach that aligns with your life or where you want to be
-Making sure you get very specific on what you want
-Coming away with making more money than you invested in the coach

If you are thinking about hiring a coach for your Virtual Assistant business, this is the episode to listen to! You'll get guidance from other VAs and learn how to zero in on what you want.

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Find us at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media. If you’re a virtual assistant who wants to be featured in our guest interviews, simply fill out the application on our page. Until next time, stay organized and professional!

In this episode, Kiri interviews Peggy Re James, a Marketing Coach for done for you service providers, rising coaches and course creators. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses by giving them both the foundation they need, as well as proven marketing strategies to help propel them quickly to a full-time income.

02:08 - Discovering VA work as a stay-at-home mom
06:06 - Building foundations for VAs
08:47 - What's wrong with calling yourself a VA?
16:37 - Peggy's marketing course
27:27 - When Peggy realized she needed VAs
29:18 - Peggy on hiring VAs
30:36 - THe ideal qualities of a VA
34:50 - Peggy's advice to past-Peggy
39:22 - Discipline

You can find Peggy's website here.
Instagram
Facebook Group

Like the podcast? Want more with me and your peers? Join the AVA when we open again! We’re at associationofvas.com. We’d also love for you to share! You can tag us at @associationofvas on social media. If you’re a virtual assistant who wants to be featured, simply fill out the application on our page. Until next time, stay organized and professional!