I was super excited to chat with Aubree for this episode as her story felt so similar to mine, just in a different industry. We had our kids at the same time and decided to make the leap after our second, so I resonated with so many of the thoughts, doubts and challenges she brought up. Hear Aubree discuss how she transitioned from teaching to becoming a Virtual Assistant and now coaching other virtual assistants. She explains how she tried a lot of different things, but nothing stuck, which seems to be a commonality amongst so many of my guests! We talk about how her support system allowed her to have flexibility and how she shifts her mindset from losing time with her kids to allowing her husband to foster his bond with them (TOTALLY STEALING THIS)! She tells me about the growth she has made in the last 2.5 years and how she has gained so much power from it! Aubree then tells me what a VA does and how she has learned from her lessons ((which you KNOW I am a huge fan of!)), what her schedule looks like now, and how it’s shifted from her time as a teacher, and even the first few months of her new role.
I know you will find lots of relatable moments and feelings in this episode and for those that are currently VAs or looking to become one, this is your episode!! Make sure to follow Aubree on Instagram, Facebook and check out their website — which includes her own podcast!
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Full Transcript:
Dana: Are you dying at the thought of missing a single one of your baby’s first would have no idea how you’d give up the security that your nine to five job brings. My name is Dana Graham and I had no clue how to escape that vicious 40 Hour Workweek cycle either until I did, as the wife of a traveling husband and mom of two tiny humans, I made the terrifying and totally bizarre leap from health insurance broker to successful newborn and family photographer, all with the amazing craziness of a two year old and the newborn in total, but I’m not the only one. I’m so glad you’re joining me as I chat with other moms who took the leap into entrepreneurship and created the ultimate best of both worlds life doing it all amidst the chaos.
Alright, Aubree well thank you so much for being here guys, we had some ridiculous technical difficulties so everyone give a round of applause for her patience in dealing with me today. But thank you so much for being here, Aubree.
Aubree: Oh, I’m so excited to record with you today. Thank you so much for having me.
Dana: Yeah, so just so everybody has a little bit more background, Aubrey kind of has not classic story at all, but what it is is very similar to what I’ve done so I’m excited to hear from a different industry perspective what she has going on, so Aubrey give us kind of an idea of where you were before you started your business what did you have going on in your life, what is your day to day look like?
Aubree: Yeah, so I was an elementary teacher if that’s what my, you know, I went to college for that was kind of what I pictured I’d be doing for the rest of my life, and a lot of that changed when I had my first son, he was born at the end of 2016, and he had some health things going on at four weeks he had an eye surgery, and that was kind of, you know, I always thought wow would be really nice to be a stay at home mom, but I just never I literally never thought that that would be a possibility I just thought, you know, do the normal route, go to your job, get the paycheck, and just rinse and repeat that for the rest of your life, but I always felt this like tug on my heart that maybe I could do something that I could replace my income or even just like supplement it so maybe I could maybe go part time with my teaching job I didn’t really know what that looked like but I always felt that pull that maybe there’s something a little bit more out there for me and I also think that that ties in with my personality. I’m just a risk taker, I’m always willing to try something once, whether that’s, you know, an exotic food or something like I just, I always like to push myself so that was kind of the place that I was in before I started my business, and just kind of leaning into that and always looking for opportunities like, is this the thing that could replace my income is this a business that I could pursue is this something that really could be substantial for our family, so that’s a little bit of that background,
Dana: and so you were working your teaching job and were you working, did you end up going back after maternity leave.
Aubree: Yep, so I did and at that point I was commuting about an hour to my job. So my first thing that I needed to do was like okay, I need to not spend two hours, just on the road, away from my son so I did do the job that following year and a cold it was closer to my home but it had different hours, and so what I found, then, is I was leaving my house to be at work before my son was even awake, he was such a great sleeper which was a really great thing too, but I would go from eight o’clock, the previous night, when you know we put him to bed, all the way usually until for the next day without even seeing him and that was really hard for me, so I’m like okay I solved one problem but I’m still not seeing my son and that was kind of at that point I was like okay I’m really really ready to find something I started pursuing things I tried teaching children online English online I tried network marketing and none of them really stuck, none of them really were the thing that was like oh this is really going to be transformational for my life, you know I was making a little bit here and there but my husband and I were both, we knew we were in a position where we couldn’t just go down to one income we needed to be bringing in something. And fast forward to really when this kind of was at a tipping point was, I was, I got pregnant again with my second time, and my oldest was almost two and we went back to his eye doctor and they said you know he’s going to have to undergo a second surgery and that whole car ride home from that appointment I’m like okay, what am I going to do for work, can they do his surgery on a Friday so I only have to take off one day can, you know, and then I can have the weekend and it was kind of at that moment where I just kind of stopped and it was almost like a come to Jesus moment I’m like, Whoa, I should not be thinking like this I should be thinking you know I could I could drop everything and be with him, and it wasn’t that my job, wouldn’t allow that for me but I just I knew, like, okay this is the time where I really need to find something that just would allow me to have flexibility and allow me to make a schedule that works around my family because my family is my top priority, they are, you know, the reason why I get up every morning and so I just wanted something where I had flexibility I had a little bit of freedom, and could be there for my son and then my second son when he was born and just not have to ask anybody for time off or to ask anybody is it okay if I take my son to the doctor’s and then feeling guilt and stress about leaving my students at school with a sub and feeling like, oh I shouldn’t be, I shouldn’t be going to take my son to the doctor and it was just that constant guilt and I didn’t want to feel that way anymore.
Dana: Yeah, so funny because you have touched on, literally every single subject that I think so many moms feel all the time and, you know, yes of course you felt as soon as you know you’re figuring out the days to take off for your son surgery, and you don’t want to feel that way. Absolutely, but at the same time that’s your reality and a lot of people feel that way, but don’t take the next step or don’t think that it’s possible for them to take the next step to find something that could fulfill their needs, financially and you know your story obviously you, you tried out a bunch of different things and so you weren’t necessarily like in your own zone in terms of career path right you didn’t know exactly what you wanted to do when you went ahead and build this business you tried other things, but your motivation was to get out of that nine to five and be able to control your own schedule, which I think so many people want to do and you know you have to remember and I’ve talked about on the podcast before, too, is that there are some people that know their career path and know what they want to do and they’ve pivoted it to become their own, you know, business and their own company and they can be their own boss, but some people have no clue and I think what’s really cool about what you do is that, you know, not anyone can do it but it is something that can be learned. So what was the next thing after you realized hey you know you had that come to Jesus moment which I think so many people have I had it too, when that happened, what got you into your current field, how did you make that jump.
Aubree: So yeah, I did a lot of moms I’m sure had done at some point where they’re thinking okay, I want to work from home or maybe just even make money from home so I went to the Google search, I went to my mom Facebook groups and I typed in, you know I really I want to stay at home with my son, but I also want to be able to make an income, what can I do and of course I was inundated with a lot of different options and options that I hadn’t seen before, like I said network marketing mlm teaching kids online which, you know, really, again, it works for some people but for me it really wasn’t going to work. And, finally someone posted on there. Have you ever looked into being a virtual assistant and that kind of piqued my attention because I had never like that was never even anything that came up in my searches at all like I had seen things like complete surveys online for money and you know all this stuff and so I was like, Okay, this sounds interesting, how is this different from a personal assistant like what do you have to do and, and really from that moment it was just deep dive searches and listening to podcasts and reading blogs and just finding out as much as I could and when I started researching it, I’m like, Wow, this actually looks like it could be something worth pursuing. And really, from that day on, it was non stop at that point I was seven months pregnant, so I had about two months left in my pregnancy. And I kind of made it a lofty goal that hey for the next two months, I’m going to put my head down and I’m really going to pursue this virtual assistant business I’m gonna get super serious about it and market myself and put myself out there, and in two months, I want to be able to leave my teaching job I want to be able to say you know what, I’m going to take my maternity leave and extend that on and not have to go back into the classroom and that’s really what I did, I mean it was early mornings and late nights and kind of just working around the clock and in that hustle phase and I think that that’s hard for some people because a lot of people are looking to start a business, it is a lot of extra time and you’re thinking, oh my gosh I’m missing out on time with my kids and all this stuff, and it feels like a lot and it’s hard to see that light at the end of the tunnel. But in doing that kind of hustle phase and just keeping my head down and focused. I was able to accomplish a lot. And the last day that I was in the classroom was the day before my second son was born, which was almost two and a half years ago and I’ve been full time with my business ever since and it was really kind of that motivation and that focused work that helped me reach that.
Dana: Yeah and I do think it’s, you know obviously super stressful that you kind of had a timeline you know you had hey this is where I want to end and I want to have a clean break and be done at this point, and some people don’t have that naturally but I do think if you are planning to leave your job setting a timeline for yourself is so important because otherwise there’s no urgency, there’s no sense of urgency and that sense of hustle that you obviously had, I mean you were working a full time job, you were seven months pregnant, you had an almost two year old like that is a lot, right, That is a lot going on and you talked about the guilt that you had, you know, missing out with your first son and being super pregnant. What kind of got you through that was it knowing that there was a light at the end of the tunnel because for me, I didn’t know for sure that there was like, in hindsight I know that but at the time, I didn’t know that all that time, you know, putting in those extra hours and losing sleep was going to pay off. So what got you through that.
Aubree: Yeah, it’s kind of that leap of faith right like we kind of are kind of just shooting our shot into the dark and hoping. And I think, you know you’re gonna feel that guilt and I actually, I had someone on my podcast we talked about the difference between mom guilt and shame and how guilt is actually a healthy emotion.
But one thing that kind of helped me through that was at first I went to my husband and I said you know what, look I really want to pursue this and I want in two months to be done with my teaching job do you think that this is something I can pursue and of course he’s super supportive and he believes in me, he you know if I said told him I was gonna sell so one side of the road, he, you know, be there, building my stand for me. But I talked to him I said look, you know this is going to take some extra time for me and, which means I’m going to need some help from you. And that might mean you know, a couple nights a week you do bathtime so I can get in front of my computer and get some work or, you know we’re prepping meals ahead of time and kind of just talking to him about that too and I think what was helpful in that moment was knowing that I might be missing out on maybe doing backpacking or maybe doing something but it was allowing my husband an opportunity to do things that maybe I didn’t allow him to do because I’m a little bit of a control freak, and I you know I like the way I did that time and I liked the way I you know did bedtime and it gave him an opportunity to step in and do those things. So that was one piece of it where I was like okay, I’m not necessarily giving something up but I’m allowing my husband to play this role that usually would be me so that was, that was really helpful for me because I was fostering that relationship. And then yeah, too. It’s kind of just, you know, I knew that every day I was doing something that was moving the needle forward for me, and I knew that I wasn’t going to give up so in that sense, I knew success was going to be inevitable for me, whether or not that would have happened in two months or not, wasn’t, you know, I was okay with that but just knowing that as long as I’m moving forward if I’m putting one foot in front of the next, it’s going to happen for me, it might happen in this timeline, it might not, but that’s kind of what got me through it it’s just knowing that I’m continuously doing something I think it’s sometimes it’s hard for people because they’ll get into those moments of like well maybe it’s not happening as fast as I want it to or nothing happened today or maybe you know in in my industry with virtual assistants, you know, maybe they reached out to a potential client, and they said no, or they didn’t respond to them and they get feeling disheartened and that is what stops a lot of people and I just kind of was like okay I’m gonna move on I’m gonna move through this and it paid off so that was kind of what helped me like I said, allowing my husband to step in and play that role and and knowing that I was fostering that relationship and then just knowing that every single day I was doing something that was going to move the needle forward for my business. Yeah.
Dana: That is so awesome about your husband I haven’t heard anybody put it that way and I think that is such a great way to look at it and it does like my, my husband’s been a lot of time with my daughter when she was first born during the day he had kind of weird hours that most dads don’t get to have and so he built this whole relationship with her that, you know, a lot of dads really don’t have especially if they’re working, you know, nine to five jobs and are commuting and all the things so I think that’s a fantastic way to look at it and I’m sure you see you know your your husband and your sons bond now and I love that for you and I think that’s a really awesome mindset shift for a lot of mom entrepreneurs out there, because a lot of that burden does lay with us, you know, even if you don’t want it to use like the control freak type with the parenting ideas, it falls on us whether we intended to or not.
Aubree: Yeah, Absolutely, and it’s just it that’s what business is just a lot of mindset shifts, it’s a lot of looking at things through a different lens and viewing yourself and viewing what you’re doing and viewing your skills through a different lens in a way that you probably were never asked to, because a lot of the traditional route that a lot of moms take, and I don’t want to say it doesn’t require us but when you step into entrepreneurship and thinking about running your own business, you not only grow professionally, but personally I mean the growth that I’ve had in the last two and a half years, it’s, I don’t I look back and I, I mean I felt like I was a pretty confident person and I was outgoing and like to try new things, but I mean, the things that I do now and even people in my life, they’re like, oh my gosh I could never do what you do and how you get on camera and you do all these things and it’s just that growth in itself is really, really powerful. So it does it does take a way of looking at things differently and trying things that you haven’t tried before, because there’s that same that’s like if you want something different but you keep doing the same thing, you can expect different results. And so that’s kind of that’s entrepreneurship in a nutshell right there, you have to try new things you have to be willing to find that comfort zone and do some new things, if you want those different results. Yeah, and you know what, it’s so funny your story, your timeline is almost exactly the same as mine. My, my daughter was born at the end of 2016, and then with my second I didn’t go back after maternity leave that was the end. That was where I cut off. Um, and so it’s funny because we have almost the exact same timeline, and I feel the same way in the past two and a half years, I am a completely different person and I think, in a good way, I mean I’m the same but my confidence levels higher, the things I, you know, want to do and my people skills, I mean I, again, I was a friendly person before I had friends and did all the same things that I do now but I think just my outward confidence is so much higher and I didn’t intend for that to happen, there was nothing that I set out to do, to say hey I’m going to I’m going to start a business, so I can grow as a person, like I did not say that or even think that would be a result of this at all, but I agree, I think the benefits that have come from it personally are something that you need to really, you know look at and appreciate for yourself and take some time to do that.
Dana: So, are you started as a VA so what did your work look like when you first started out, how did you start to get clients, what did you do for them what did that look like.
Aubree: Yeah, so I kind of, I feel like I did it all wrong in the beginning, in a good way. I think you can learn from, from your lessons but when I first got started, I was like I said I had a tight timeline and I’m like, I’m gonna do something every single day so I mean I was, I was working myself to the bone I was networking I was reaching out to friends and family. Hey I’m starting this you know, here’s the kind of things that I can do for business owners and at first it was really just general VA work it was, you can buy a package of hours from me, and I can do whatever is on your to do list like if you have things that are falling low on your to do list things you don’t like doing, hand them off to me I can do that and that was actually a good way of doing it at first because I kind of figured out what I enjoyed doing what I didn’t enjoy doing. I learned a lot. I learned, you know, things now that I, I know how to do I explain it to my husband and he’s, he’s just like, Okay, keep doing what you’re doing, you know, but it really, it was a lot at first, and so that’s kind of what the you know the day to day is when I was working my full time job was get up two hours before I had to leave the house, do work, whether that was networking responding to emails or when, when I had clients getting clients I was doing actual client work, and then usually two to three hours at night doing putting in that work to, and then like I said, you know, my second son was born, I took a very tiny maternity leaves I think I was even working when I was in the hospital, but once he was born I could change what my hours was like I didn’t have to get up super early I can work when he was napping and that was really what that ideal schedule looked like to me. I wanted to work when my kids were napping and I wanted to be mom when my kids were awake, and it’s evolved, you know, in the past two and a half years because my kids have gotten older, some kids are napping some kids are not napping. Some kids are in school y’all this past that I mean you know gosh this past year things have totally changed. But now, that’s really what the schedule looks like it’s working when my kids are at school or when they’re napping, and it’s usually around four hours a day, now that I work. Yeah, that’s great that I think, for me, you know, when I made that jump and I was done with maternity leave, I wasn’t established enough that I was ready to be paying for it you know my kids were two and a newborn, so I would have to pay somebody to come over. It’s not like they were going, you know to preschool yet at that point and so for me it was really hard because I did exactly what you did, I worked when they were asleep and I played and wasn’t total mom when they were awake but then it’s hard because you have to do all the things still that you needed to do while they’re asleep that you can’t do while they’re awake just to run your house, and to do the everyday things that the motherhood requires and so that was a hard balance for me to find, and I agree with you totally and that things already look a little bit different right it’s two years down the line I have a two year old a four year old in a normal world they would be both in at least a couple of days of preschool week with the pandemic, we have a kind of a different situation and I have a nanny three days a week to help, so that’s great but I think getting through those first few months where you know that the income isn’t there to really afford to pay somebody to watch them and you just kind of have to hustle naptime and realize that some days the dishes aren’t going to get done and some days house is going to be a disaster and you know that’s just kind of your reality, and you have to accept some of that and a little bit of a way and if you know that that’s going to really bother you, you have to figure out a way to mitigate that and again ask your husband for help, or find some way to get that work done so that you can have a sane head to because I feel like that’s that’s a really difficult part about starting if you’re, you know, factoring in the cost of daycare, and removing that cost in your financial status is starting your business.
Dana: Yeah 1,000% Okay, so you were running your VA business just, you know, sort of, like you said pretty standard normal VA business from there what did you do to have your growth take off — What did you do next?
Aubree: So the next thing that I did and this is we and we can talk about this as we get into it too but what I realized is that by trying to be a little bit of everything to every kind of entrepreneur I was actually cutting myself short, as far as what I could charge, and also just positioning myself as an expert. And so what I decided to do, which was kind of counterintuitive to what a lot of people think that you need to do is I actually said, you know I’m gonna stop being just a general VA like I said that was good in the beginning to get my feet wet to learn my systems and to learn what I liked and didn’t like, but I quickly realized, okay, I need to become seen as the expert so I started to narrow down on just offering one service to a particular type of client I got really super clear on who I wanted to work with, again, having had experiences with a bunch of different industries and different business owners and knowing what I liked and didn’t like and getting clear on that, and that’s what really allowed my business to take off, because, number one, I felt super comfortable and confident with the service was offering. And number two, people were able to recommend me to other people because they knew specifically how I could help business owners so my business started to take off even more with just referrals, like I had to, I didn’t have to do as much networking and marketing myself because other people were doing it for me. And that really happened at like the four to six month mark, and that’s when things just took off for me I mean, replace my income. And I was like you know I was fully booked out, and even exceeding those initial income goals that I had. And that was a really exciting place to be, and felt really comfortable with where I was at and where I was what I was working, but I also felt again this tug, which was a little, to me, I was like, Well, are you did everything you wanted to do you left your teaching job you replaced your income like you’re at home with your kids you’re working around their schedule. And what I realized was that teaching was still a really big part of who I was and that it wasn’t that I didn’t love teaching when I wanted to leave my job, it was that I just wanted a flexible schedule and so I started to think, okay, how can I incorporate the teacher side of me into my business because I missed that I miss interacting with people and helping them reach goals and see having those lightbulb moments. And so about a year into my business is when I made the shift of like okay I’m not just going to be this service provider Freelancer I’m going to start to help other moms, and it looked a little cloudy in the beginning because I really didn’t know what I was doing again and that took me investing in a business coach and really getting clear on what I wanted to do but this past year has just been really getting clear on how I can help other moms who were in a similar situation as me, they have a virtual assistant business freelancing business because they want to be able to grow and scale it maybe they’re still at their nine to five, it hasn’t taken off for them yet. And so I kind of helped them with that and that’s how my business has evolved to where it is today.
Dana: Gosh to go back a little so that first big jump that you had right where you really saw everything take off was when you, you basically found your ideal client, right you found exactly what you wanted to be doing and then you found the perfect niche down clientele. That was exactly right for what you were good at, and I think so many people think, you know, especially as a photographer, I mean as a VA it’s very similar in that that can be a hugely, hugely broad topic right you can do so many things in there, but once you figure out okay for me I figured out I want to serve moms, I want to work, and I knew that from the beginning, sort of, but I figured you know all families and, you know, indoor outdoor in studio wanted to do all the things, and then I slowly began to niche down and see what I saw what worked for me and what was working for my business. What I enjoyed the most, what was the most profitable fortunately for me, it was the same thing. And then once I found the type of person that appreciated and wanted that exact service, it spread like wildfire and is the exact same way with referrals because they know exactly what you’re set to do if you’re making sure that your mission for your business and for the things that clients that you want to serve is very clear. It’s so much easier for your clients to refer you, it is so much easier for them and allowing them that opportunity to do that is going to help you so much. In the end, and in the long run, but it also helps them because you are so focused on exactly what you want to do for that specific ideal client. So I love that you brought that up and that that was a huge catalyst for you and then you know moving into the teaching. I mean, you obviously knew you wanted to teach and to help people do what you have done but what helped you make that jump right what, what made you realize okay this is the next level in my business, this is how I can do it, did you come up with a course module from the beginning where you said okay this is how I’m going to run this or did you kind of take on one client at a time and saw what worked for each How did that look.
Aubree: So it actually started out with a podcast, I just realized okay you know I have something to share, I have experiences that I’ve been through and I’m just going to start a podcast like after listening to my first podcast I always throw that out to my husband. Wow, it would be really cool to have a podcast I could totally have a podcast. So it started with that and actually at the time my podcast was completely different. It was called mom with purpose and it was just showing other moms and talking about how we can be a mom with purpose in both our mom life but also in our career whatever that looks like it just kind of, it was a lot of personal development and mindset stuff and just a lot of what I learned along the way and as I got into that I realized, okay, people are liking this stuff but the episodes that are doing really well are the episodes where I talk about freelancing and my business, how I grew that and different little tips and tricks that I would do. And in my DMs people were like Aubrey I want to know how you did this, how did this take off for you and so it really, from there it was okay, you need to listen to what people are asking you for too. Sometimes we go into our business ideas and we think we know what we want it to be especially if you’re stepping into maybe the online coaching or course creator space you think you know what people want, but that often can derail you from really getting clear on that messaging that you have for your audience, your ideal audience. And so once I really started looking at the numbers and listening to what people were saying, I realized, okay, they want to know how I did what I did so I kind of just started jotting down, you know, pen and paper, what did that look like, and from there, my framework was kind of built and that took a while to it really wasn’t. I wish it would have happened faster you know as that piece is unfolding, you’re like, I just want to get this out to people but I really wanted to make sure that I had a clear roadmap to get people from where they were in their business struggling, not super confident, not knowing what services to offer feeling a little all over a place to get them across that bridge to the end where they’re, you know, hitting those consistent 234 K months, you know my program now is really we’re going to get you to the 5k mark and beyond, but really helping them get through that and having that clear step by step path. So, it took a little while I launched that course, back in September of 2020. And that’s really what 2020 was for me was just, again, getting super close to spending the time doing that market research, a lot of the things that aren’t super exciting for a business owner right we want it, we want to get products and, and things out into people’s hands so that we can start earning money, but I think taking that time to really dig deep into what they’re struggling with and how I could provide something that would really help them, has been a huge success marker for me because now I know specifically, you know. What my program does for them and how I can help them. So that’s really how it started with, with that course, and it’s kind of just grown from there and doing one on one coaching and again just diving into my audience and really saying like, what are you struggling with, what can I help you with, you know, if you were looking for something to get you to this next step, what would you want to see it include and just doing taking the time to do that I think that that’s an important step when you’re transitioning from okay maybe I’m providing a service, you know, whether that’s photography or VA work, and now I want to transition into this more expert course creator role.
Dana: Yeah, that is fantastic advice and I think, you know, a lot of people don’t realize that they have a skill, they realize they’re good at their job and the service they provide as a business owner but they realize that they might not have that innate ability to teach, and so I love that you did and you transitioned it to us, you know the things the skills that you have prior to starting this business, but I think that if you’re just listening to the people that are asking you about how you’ve done something and you’re actually listening to what’s going to help them and what they want their end goal to be and how they want to get there, and you can turn that around and, you know, backwards engineer what reverse engineer, there it is reverse engineer what, what you did. I think that’s so fantastic to be able to share with everyone and, you know, it’s a great kind of spoke in your business, and the wheel of your business as well. So with that being said, you know you’ve launched this program and you have everything going. I love love love the aspect of your business and this is something when I, when I first found you I was like, This is awesome because, you know, 5k months, you see so many people posting about, you know how they’ve had 80k months and 90k months and all these like really big podcasters and big entrepreneurs and all these you know social media experts that are, you know, throwing numbers out there to get you to buy their course. That seems great and yeah of course I would love to make $80,000 a month, but I love that this $5,000 is something that is so substantial and such a game changer for your family, but it feels realistic, right, like, it doesn’t feel like 80k a month, that just feels ridiculous to me, I, when I first found you on Instagram, I’m like, oh my gosh this is perfect. That is a substantial life changing amount of money for a, you know, spouse for sure if you have a dual income household, but it’s not unattainable, and I love that you’ve made it so relatable I think that is just fantastic and such a breath of fresh air for sure in the marketplace where I don’t see that very often.
Aubree: Right, because it’s like an even like the 5k, you know month two and we work up to that to you know it’s a lot of people who come to me either. There may be scratching that 1k surface, and they’re looking to to consist consistently make their monthly income that they’re getting at their job to be able to say like, Okay, this is I’m bringing this in every month I know this is gonna work for me I can maybe put a timeline in place like you we talked about the beginning to step away, and 5k is usually I mean, for some families that a little bit more than they’re making, like the mom is making in their job, but that’s a really good place to be like wow, I’m definitely replacing my income and now I know that I can hit 5k And I think to like you talked about once you hit 5k, some of those other bigger numbers don’t seem as far often scary it’s like yeah if I hit 5k and I did that with these many clients, and I want to stretch it to 10k this is what it’s going to look like and it’s kind of that on that rinse and repeat cycle. But yeah, that 5k, that 5k mark to me was like okay this is, this is totally obtainable and it’s what it really is going to be is me showing you those steps and that’s what I find, you know the difference between someone who’s not hitting that and someone that is is that they have that roadmap of knowing okay this is exactly what I need to do I need to stop offering all the services I really need to get systems in place so that my business runs smoothly and I don’t have to feel like I’m on this constant hamster wheel of doing all this admin work and all this stuff that could be set up on on automation and then really getting clear on how do I market effectively because a lot of times we try to be everywhere, there’s so many new shiny objects popping up all the time clubhouse and Instagram and all this stuff that they can be doing but what is really going to be effective for you what’s going to be consistent for you and once I show them that, and they get really clear on that, hitting those five key months, it’s not as hard as they thought it was going to be and then like I said going on from there, they can hit those other months easily. They have a proven system in place.
Dana: Yeah, and that is that is so awesome and I know your, your clients just rave about you, not your VA clients but your students I guess we’ll call them just rave about you and the way you’ve impacted their life so I am, you know, in all of everything you’ve done and I just think it’s such a great thing you’ve done for so many women so thank you so much for being on will you tell everybody where we can find you in all the places, even though we just talked about maybe being in just one or two places that you know best.
Aubree: I’ll make it super super easy for you, the place that I like to hang out the most and connect with people one on one, I would love it if you, if you’re listening to this episode and you want to just say like hey I love this episode or if you want to say like oh my gosh, I totally relate to what you’re going through Aubrey, please come connect with me on Instagram, it’s just my name, our email like that’s where I liked it, like I said connect one on one, you can learn about me and what I have to offer on my website which is Aubrey Malik, calm, and then my podcast which is another place to come, connect with me, you know audio version of Opera, it’s called the freelancer to CEO podcast, so if you’re thinking about, you want to start a VA business or maybe you’ve been doing a little bit of freelance here and there you’ve offered VA services and it’s just not really taken off and you want to learn a little bit more about the tips and tricks that I’ve used or the strategy that I have in place, please come hang out with me on my podcast it’s called the freelancer to CEO podcast, you can come listen over there weekly for the episodes that drop and I would love to have you over there.
Dana: Well awesome thank you so much and guys seriously go do it is going to, if you are even remotely near that field is going to be so helpful for you and your business so if you’re not near that field and you haven’t ever done any VA work and you’re somebody that’s listening and you’re just a mom out there thinking about what they could do to quit their job, stop googling just started listening to binge listening to all these episodes because this is a perfect example of someone that’s done exactly what you may be looking to do. So thank you so much Aubrey and I can’t wait to talk to you again sometime soon.
Aubree: Thank you so much for having me today.
Dana: I am so honored you spent any minutes of your day listening to me babble about living this entrepreneurial life amidst the chaos and any mom’s normal day to day. If you love what you’ve heard, and even more snippets of knowledge about this mob boss life, head over to our website at amidstthepodcast.com for show notes and links to anything mentioned in today’s episode. If you’re really feeling inspired, it would mean the world to me and my family if you take the time to read it. Thanks for joining me, amidst the chaos.
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