Blaze Your Own Trail - From Least Likely to Graduate to Association Founder with Melissa Smith

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

About Melissa: Melissa Smith is the CEO and Founder of The PVA, a firm that matches clients with the right virtual assistants, and the Association of Virtual Assistants. She is also the best-selling author of two books, Hire The Right Virtual Assistant and Become a Successful Virtual Assistant which is an integral part of the College of Western Idaho Administrative Specialist Program curriculum in 2019. Additionally, Melissa also mentors for Remote-how Academy, the first global, online education and individual certification program. Drawing from her experience while working on five different continents Melissa truly understands how to operate a successful virtual business. In this episode we discuss: Melissa's upbringing Some context into her family Early adversity Exceeding expectations Her work experience How she pivoted And more! Connect with Melissa: https://thepva.com/ Connect with Jordan: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/therealjordanjmendoza/⁠ Clapper: ⁠https://clapper.vip/jordanjmendoza⁠ Join my Facebook Group: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/linkedintrailblazers⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.blazeyourowntrailconsulting.com Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are you ready to find out how to blaze your own trail? Welcome to the Blaze Her Own Trail podcast with your host, Jordan Mendoza. In this podcast, Jordan interviews people from around the world to find out about their journey to success. If you are looking for valuable content with actionable advice, you've come to the right place. And now your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza and I'm your host and I've got a very special guest today. Her name is Melissa Smith and I'm going to give her just a minute to tell everyone who she is,

what she does today. Hi, Jordan. Thank you. So yes, my name is Melissa Smith. I am the founder and CEO of the Association of Virtual Assistance and also the PVA, which is a boutique matchmaking for my match clients to the right virtual assistant. And then through my travels, I've also sought out for remote workers. consulting. So I specialize in consulting in the remote hiring process, whether that be those who are trying to get their first remote job and teach them how to interview and how to present themselves

or companies that are now trying to figure out how to hire online and hire remote employees. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. And that's a ton of ventures. And we'll definitely get into the ends and outs of that a little bit later. But on my show, my favorite part is taking the rewind, right? Learning about Melissa and where you grew up and where you spent kind of the adolescent years through, we'll just say through high school. Okay. So I was born and raised in Northern California. I was born in Santa Cruz, based in the South Bay, eventually moved out to the valley. And that was, it was an exciting and experience, but I didn't realize it at the time. Californians are kind of like New Yorkers in a sense.

We live in our own world. We live in these really large states and these states that are, have massive incomes and economic development and just a wide variety. So I didn't understand how different it was growing up in California until I left and I would talk to other people. And one of my favorite stories is so I was going to school in Santa Cruz and you could see beach or not the beach but the ocean from where our school was and my kindergarten teacher her son was a student at uc santa cruz and he was in marine biology so it wasn't just commonplace for us

she would take our class down to the beach and we would watch her son surf for a little bit and then he would come up and he would tell us all about muscles and starfish and algae and the marine ecosystem and i just thought doesn't everybody do this And then I learned that there are people who have actually never been to a beach or never seen the Pacific Ocean. They have no idea how freezing cold it is. And so that was one of the eye-opening. And then from there, as I grew up, I was a middle child or I am a middle child.

And I was a typical middle child. I was always trying to figure out where my place was. I wasn't as exciting as my older sister and I wasn't like my younger brother. And as we grew up, I just felt like an outsider in our family even because everyone excelled at math and science. So when I was growing up, it never occurred to me that women were labeled not good at math or science because both my mother and my sister excelled. And it's nothing that we learned in our science.

home yet I was the one in the family who was just awful at it so what I did excel in didn't really get me far in school so writing and being creative writer or wanting to do those things not not so popular and I actually grew up thinking I was not smart at all and it led to being a horrible horrible student like a horrible student because my idea was like if I can't win if I can't be the best because I'm super competitive I'm not even going to try so I was like it was not I don't know if it was like official official but I was voted least likely to graduate from my school no one thought I would graduate it didn't have enough credits and I got pregnant when I was 16 and I was a junior

in high school and I thought, oh my gosh, like I can't, I can't do this if I don't even have a high school diploma. And I didn't want a GED. I wanted my actual high school diploma in order to do that, I had to do a lot of things. So I actually graduated a year early. I graduated my junior year. I have three high school diplomas. One is from my actual high school. One is a GED because I needed that for some of the other credits. And the third one is actually the California State High School exam. So that's a little interesting fact about me that most people don't know. Wow. Wow. So that's that was a lot. Thank you for sharing all of that. It's it's cool to kind of see the perspective and the journey. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I grew up in Portland. So very familiar

with the cold Pacific. Doesn't matter if it's February or June. It's cold. You know, but when you grow up there, it's like, you don't, you don't wear hoodies on the beach, you know? Like, the first time I went to the East Coast and I was on the beach and I was like, no one's wearing a hoodie? Like, this is weird. But then when I first stepped foot into the Atlantic and the water was warm, I thought it was, I thought something was wrong, you know, because I grew up in the Pacific. So I definitely can relate to you in that aspect. Yeah, learning about marine biology and that. I learned about that type of stuff too. So I can definitely connect there. And Santa Cruz is such a beautiful, town. It's such a beautiful area. I remember that first time I saw the Lost Boys, the movie.

Oh, yes. That was filmed in Santa Cruz. And I just told myself, I was like, I need to visit that place one day. And so the first time I got to go there and walk along the boardwalk and see some of those areas that were in that movie, it was, it was such a cool thing. So what a great place to grow up, it sounds like. So middle child syndrome, so I'm a father of five. So I've got five, believe it or not. My oldest is 15 and my youngest is three months. Oh, wow. Congratulations. Yeah, so three boys, two girls. I, in hearing your story about being the middle child, it definitely makes sense because I think about the one that was the middle child for a while. And I think about, you know, the way some of her tendencies and wanting to prove herself and things

like that. So I can I can really get that as well. And so you saw yourself as not having the same abilities as people. It's interesting that you just said, you know, because I'm not going to be the best, I'm just not going to try. You know, I was actually similar to that in high school because I'm one of those, I am very creative and I daydream a lot. And I'm just trying, I'm always thinking about what's going to happen. Like, what am I going to do next when I'm in the present moment? moment like this is how I was in school, right? And so I didn't apply myself. Like I literally, if it was a class I didn't like, I was just like, I wouldn't do my homework and I wouldn't apply myself. Now if it was PE or drama or, you know, something that I enjoyed, guess what? I got

really good grades. So I was, I was a little bit different in that sense. Like I just, I don't know what it was. I think it was because I didn't enjoy it and I just like, if I don't like it, I'm not going to do it, you know? I think a lot of it is I really misunderstood my parents. as well. So my parents, they taught us like, we're not going to be average. And they all, you know, they told us like, we're not average and that we're going to be really hard workers. And whatever we do, we're going to do the best to our ability. They never said I had to be the best. They never said, these are all the things that you have to do in order to count or matter or be good or just even make, show people that you care. So I just took it to the.

extreme like I've been known to do and I took it well if I can't be the best and I'm not going to try and that's not at all what they meant but that's just how I took it and everyone was just a hard worker that's what we did and we always were working hard and my dad that was just one thing that he instilled at us was a strong work ethic my mom was the same way but they both came from very poor families and so they were they were trying to instill this quality in me to be that and I just took it too far you just like tried to 10x oh yeah it's like let me level it up yeah you know it's so interesting right because you said that you were voted as a least likely person to graduate and here you go tripling up on high school

diplomas and state certifications right you took it up a couple levels and this is all well like having a child at 16 right which is not an for having a child at any age is not easy i know because because my wife has gone through five labors, and I see how painful it is. So the fact that you had a child at 16 and you had the world projecting on you that you weren't smart, or maybe you were telling the story to yourself

a little bit as well, and then trying to push hard to make sure you could prove everybody wrong. And then you like tripled them up. You tripled them up on the thing that they said you couldn't do. Yeah, I've been, this is something I'm actually working on now because I learned this,

the last years is I actually excel on like haters and negative energy. Like the moment someone tells me I can't do it, this like rebellious person inside me. It was like, whatever. And it's like off the direction. But you know, the loving family that I had who was like so unconditional and so supportive and always telling me positive things, I didn't use that encouragement or to try harder or do anything. So I'm now at a point where I'm like, okay, how can I take the positive energy and the positive things I already know about myself and not always feed off of other people's, you know, negative energy?

Because it's not like I ever go back to anyone and say, I did it. I showed you. I did it. It's all for me. I wouldn't do it for someone else. But yet, yeah. Well, I don't know. though because I do use I still use it and I think it's a good thing to use use it as rocket fuel

to propel you to where you need to go right it's like right because it's either positive or next so I'm negatively motivated someone says hey you can't do this I'm like all right well challenge accepted let's do that you know I want to go you know if and when people give me kudos I don't enjoy it as much you know I don't I don't enjoy that side I would rather somebody doubt me because you know I've got got that chip on my shoulder you know I and I think that came from growing up really, really poor and not having a whole lot. So like I'm always felt like I've had to, you know, prove everybody wrong that I can succeed as well. So no, I relate to that. And listen, my advice would be, don't, if that's what's been helping you thrive and succeed,

like, don't turn that off. I keep killing you, right? Because it's done some very positive things. I mean, we're involved in three different businesses and, you know, and all the things. I mean, even the things you're able to do at such a young age, have a child in the same. and get three high school diplomas slash certifications, like that takes tenacity, that takes grit. And if that negativity helped it, let it keep helping you. Right? Yeah, you're right.

You're 100% right. So what happened next? So you're 16. You get three certifications slash diplomas. And now you got a baby, right? You've got another human that you're going to be responsible for bringing up into this world. So what was your next step? What did you plan to do or what did you do with this?

new situation. So my plan was always to be a secretary because my mom was a secretary. So that's what we used to be called. So I went to secretary school. And it was there that I found out that I don't know that I identified at smart yet, as smart yet, but I definitely excelled in the work. So I graduated top of my class. I finally felt like this is my place. This is what I was meant to do. This is what I was born to do. And I just attributed that. to it being practical rather than theory work. We actually were typing, we were doing memos, we were scheduling, we were doing all these things

that I would actually do in my work, so therefore I counted them as a worthy use of my time versus things that I thought, oh, I'm never gonna use that or I'm not interested in it. So I went to secretary of school, I graduated at the top of my class and I started working in medical office administration. And I quickly did not like that because it was really,

it was really negative. And at that time, to make the best salary, you had to be in billing. And billing is like, I mean, you think health insurance, you know, is bad now. Like it was awful back then too. It was really negative to have to go to people and ask for bills for medical things.

I just can't do this every day. This is just awful. I don't want to do this. So fortunately, the skills that I learned were transferable to any, any business, any company. And so I just kept on transferring those skills. And what I still tell people this day, that the true mark of an assistant, whether human or AI, is the ability to anticipate neat. And so I honed in on that very quickly because I didn't not have a degree. I had an assistant. I had an assistant. a degree in applied science, but I didn't have a bachelor's that most companies were looking for. So long before millennials were changing jobs every two years, I was changing jobs every two years because either I had tapped out on pay and I wasn't eligible for a raise because I didn't hold at least the bachelor's or it no longer fit my schedule as a mom. And so I would change jobs about every two years. And in that doing so, I would give myself a raise. And in the very beginning, it was a lot of different industries.

So I had to say how I fit in. I had to tell my career story in a way that made sense of how I could come from a different industry and then... Add value to there, yeah. And then ironically, I found my real niche in education. So my kids at that time were in private school. and I was on the parent-teacher board, and I was a big-time volunteer, and I was doing a lot of things.

And the principal came to me, and she said, you know, would you ever consider working here? And at that time, I was commuting. I was in California, so, you know, I was commuting. It was awful. And I said, I absolutely would. And she said, well, how much you make me now?

And I told her, and she said, never mind. We won't be able to pay you that at all. And I said, well, Can you give me benefits? Because if you can give me benefits and what does that look like, then, you know, we'd have a whole new situation here because now I'd be working at my children's school. I'd not be working a commute anymore. You know, my life would change. And so we worked it out and so I worked at their school and then from there we moved to Georgia eventually and I started working at UGA and I was working in personal professional development on remote courses that now

have played a big part in what I do in my life. And then I worked at the law school. I worked in the dean's office and academic affairs. Went to that school in academic affairs. And then in 2012, my husband passed away. And a year later, we moved back to California. Sorry to hear that. Thank you. And I got a job at a private independent school in the Bay Area working again for the assistant head of school. And it, I, I don't. took my, I don't know if it was like a fear of school or learning or what that was, but I took my disdain for it, certainly. And that really made my career. And I just became an insatiable learner of many different things. But I always say it's so funny because here you have this

person who was the worst student. And now I'm working in dean's offices and department heads offices on academic programs and creating academic programs. Yeah, you know, it's, it is so funny. And it's funny to see just the whole 360 there, right, everything to kind of come full circle from worse to best situation. And so I didn't enjoy school. I knew after high school I wasn't going to go to college. I didn't want to. I knew I wanted to work. I knew I could do sales and I knew it was going to be a harder road, but that I could be successful. And now for the last eight years, I've been a training and development manager, designing content, facilitating content, public speaking, educating corporate associates. So it's so funny, right?

Like both of us didn't enjoy it and didn't really apply, but then we end up having that be a big part of your career. You know, it's funny how the world works sometimes. Yeah. You know, you just, you look back and it's easy to connect the dots when you're looking back. But, you know, if someone had told you this in the beginning, you'd have been like, I don't think so. I think we might have the wrong person. Yeah, believe me. If somebody would have told me that I'd be doing what I'm doing for the last eight years, like 20 years ago, I'd been like, there's no way. There's no way. I would be involved in that. So that is really awesome. So where did that put you? I know you had mentioned, did you say you also went to UGA? You decided to study there?

No. No. No. Okay. So you did. Okay. So you just worked. You just worked there. Right. Worked in all the different departments. Okay. So that's awesome. So when, What was the next transition, right? So you end up working there, you're doing your thing. You know, you're involved with the dean's office. And I mean, what an amazing place to work, right? So what did you do next? Did you decide to go out on your own?

Had you already started building this infrastructure while you were there? How did this whole, the business side happen? Yeah, so I left EGA in 2013. And I moved back to California and I was working on private independent school and I was there for a year and I absolutely loved that job I loved the people it was the perfect job for the the space I was in at that time as well I was a second it was in my second year of of being a widow and it was kind of it was almost like storybook right it's like the woman goes back to

her hometown she has a job that she loves you know but it's really about like re-centered myself and I had to get recentered and that job was very instrumental in me being able to do that. However, my daughter at the time was a junior in high school and she was moving into her senior year and she said, you know, I just, this is not my home. I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go back to Georgia. That's my home. That's where I want to graduate from high school. And I knew that I needed to give her that. So I went to my boss and I said, I'm sorry, I got to go. And he said, we don't want to lose you. How can we keep you? And he said, we don't want to lose you. And I told them, I said, I can do most of what I do virtually.

I don't have to be here in the office. And he said, okay, let's do that. So I started working remotely. I was their first and only until recently, a remote employee. And it just opened my eyes to a whole new world, a whole new world. And a few months later, contracts came out for the next year because we had to sign a contract each year. And I thought, you know, if I could do this for them, like, could I do it for myself? And I mean, when I say that I walked into it naive and blindly and without a clue in the world,

I mean it. That is zero exaggeration. And so I sent the contract back unsigned. I finished out my year and they were so supportive. They said, we want to support you. Whatever is best for you. You always have a place here if you ever want to come back. but let's make this work for you. And so I started my business. I didn't have a business plan. I didn't know how I was going to make money because somehow I thought that work was going to produce the same kind of income for me.

I had an employee mentality when I needed to have a business owner and entrepreneurial mentality. I had no idea how to get clients or who my clients were. I had no idea my real value. I was getting frustrated over and over again by people telling me to sell the sizzle, not the steak. I was like, what the hell does that mean? I mean, everything was just like, oh my gosh. So that first year was a joke I can only laugh about now. And but. Lots of learning. Oh, my gosh. It was,

I think that was my frustration because I didn't feel like I was learning. I just felt like I was just tanking every single day. And I'd always said I would never own my own business because we had family in the restaurant business and I used to spend my summers waiting on tables. And, My husband was self-employed and I knew like you're just you just like it ties you down. You can't go places. You can't do anything. You're just like always there. There's just there's no freedom and flexibility in those things for a lot of people that

own them. There's some people who get it right. A lot of people get it wrong. I was around people who who were not conducted the way I wanted it. So it was very frustrating to me. And so then I found a business coach because I. I was committed. I was like, I can't go back.

It's not an option for me. This is what I need to be with my family. I need to be with my friends. I have family on both coast. My son was off in the Midwest in college. My brother's in Southern California. Like, it's just not an option for me not to be able to work remotely anymore. I needed that.

And I was bound and determined to make it work. And I thought, you know, I couldn't afford a business. coach because I wasn't making enough money to hire one. But I thought if I'm going to fail, if I'm going to fail, which was like the ultimate F word for me, if I'm going to fail, like at least I'm going to fail knowing that I did everything in my power to have succeeded. But clearly, I don't know enough to make this successful. I need the help of somebody else because I've already given myself a shot and this is what's happening. I'm not pleased with the results. And that one decision was hands down the best decision I ever made because without her, I would not have a business today.

I love that. Yeah, I love that. And I mean, that right there just explains the importance of having a coach, right? You know, I have two coaches, you know, one coaches for business and one is not really a coach, more of a mentor. It's just someone that can get me out of a funk that can hold me accountable. that can, you know, tell me to go left when I'm trying to go right, you know, those types of things. And man, like, it makes such a big difference. And I think anytime you're going to go to bat for yourself, you've got to be willing to invest, especially when it's, when it's not easy,

when it's hard, when you're stretching yourself, right? Because if you can do that then, when those hard moments come later, you're already going to have walked out in faith and said, all right, I'm all in, regardless, you know? Absolutely. And, you know, when we think about coaches, oftentimes we think like, oh, well, you have so much talent, you have so much grit, you have so much this. And it's about none of those things. But if the best athletes in the world and the most intelligent people in business have coaches and advisors and mentors, then who am I not to be with someone? Because it's not about me not being good enough. It's about someone. always making sure that I'm getting to the next level. I mean, I mean, I don't even follow basketball, but you'd have to be, I don't know who, to not know who Michael Jordan is,

and he's never without a coach, never without a trainer. He's one of the most dedicated athletes ever, yet he even, he didn't have a, he just had, he had a coach, and he had a personal trainer. Like, who needed to tell him to go train? Nobody, but yet he has one. So, you know, if the most successful, people in the world have them like certainly i need one yeah i think the you know the unlock often

happens when we get out of our own way you know because we're usually the person that is is holding us back and again it's you know those decisions aren't easy because you know in a sense you're kind of you're saying that you need help right which i think is humans it's not the easiest thing to do is is reach out and ask for somebody but i think if you look at it from the context that uh i need to if i want to grow, I need to invest in me. I need to invest in my development, you know, because there are oftentimes what I found is it's like this one little tiny tweak. And if we just knew that, which we don't know, right? That's why we're paying for the coach is to get that knowledge. But one little tweak makes a big, big difference, right? You know, messaging and your strategy,

like all of it, you know? Yeah, it's not the big things. The big things, I mean, that would be much easier. It's much that would be so much harder for a coach to come in and have to teach you to do something from scratch. They're really coming in and just really tweaking the things that you do, that you say that you're putting out your thought process. They're challenging your thinking. They're challenging your perception. And those one, two, three percent increments of change have massive, massive impact. And the ripple effect is so, is so amazing that I just can't speak enough about coaches. I have the most respect for them because it really takes a special person. Like, there are people who will come to me and they'll say, I need to coach,

and I'll be honest with them, I say. I have the most respect for coaches. I do not consider myself a coach. I consider myself a consultant. And you need to know that. to work with me because they have, coaches have a real ability to just ask the right questions and really know what's underlying, but they do it to a place where you are saying it and you are believing it. And that's the important part because, like, as a consultant, I tell people what to do. They don't want to listen to me. Great. Whatever. A coach is there and they know their job is not to tell you what to do, although they could. They're there to make sure that you've invested in that mindset, in that thought, in that reality, because only your change of mind is

going to make the difference. 100%. Absolutely. So let's talk about the coach's impact, right? So here you are. You've got a year of trial and error and falling and getting back up again and getting to the point where you're like, I need a coach, right? So I would love for you to share with the audience. So what was that next year like? You know, what, what was the impact on you and the business and, and even like, did they help you systemize things so that maybe you save some more time? You know, what was the value in that for you? And then, and then has that just continued to happen year over year?

The value is something that I continue to get to this day. And so I was really organized. I had excellent follow-through skills. I had a lot of things, but there was two main things that I was doing wrong. And one was not understanding why clients pay me. I thought I knew I was wrong. The other thing was pricing myself out of business. And I remember, because I came from an executive assistant background, so you're kind of like all the things.

And so she was like, no, no, no, no, no, we got to, we got to, we got to do less here. And I was like, are you crazy? Like, you must be crazy because I can't ask for more money and do less. I would get fired. And she's like, who's going to fire you? Like, are you going to fire herself? Like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, you just don't understand, you know?

And I'm like, you're right. I don't understand what you're saying. Like, if you tell me to keep crossing all these things off the list, like, who, who am I selling to? Like, who's going to pay me? And why are you doing this to me? And I mean, bless her heart, she had a workout cut out with me. And she said, you know what?

I want you to take off everyone the list who's not willing to throw money at you. And it was just this huge revelation. Now, we still had to find, I still had to find the people who were willing to do that. But when we did, the shifts and the, the, the, the, the value add and the money, the literal money coming in was leaps and bounds over what I had before. And I was like, wow, you mean it takes me the same effort in time to close a $5,700, $25,000 contract as a $35,000 an hour contract? Like, that's a no-brainer. That was that was it for me.

And in fact, the first contract that I signed after I started working with her was for $7,500. And it, I mean, it paid for my coaching. And it, you know, did a lot of other things. But I'll just never forget because I said, oh, my gosh, like, I'm about to do it. Like, I need this. And I was just emailing her. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. Like, I'm afraid to send it out.

Just send it. And I needed my coach to tell me that. I needed someone to say, send it. And, you know, looking back, if I had sent, if I had done that contract for what I really wanted to send the invoice for, it probably would have been half. But the work would have been the same. I deserved every bit of that $7,500 for that work. And from there, it just, it just snowballed.

And we started to really understand where my value came in and what that looked like. And then the pricing, the coaching on pricing that she gave me is something that I am still known for for this day. So I'm like the pricing queen. I'm more likely to be quoted on pricing than anything else. And when I work with VAs on their pricing, they'll often ask me like, oh my gosh, like, how did you get so good at this? And I tell them, I said, when you're as awful as I was in the beginning and you learn

something, you can't unlearn it. Like you can't unlearn it. So I said sometimes it takes the biggest loser to become the authority on the subject for sure. Yeah. And it also takes someone to see something in us and our value that we maybe just overlooked, right? We didn't see it in ourselves, right? And that happens so often someone's like, man, like, why? This should be double.

What are you doing? Yeah. I would have never charged. What do you mean double? Like, you know, and then you start to think about it. And you're like, okay, well, might as well give it a shot. I mean, what's the worst they're going to say? Right? Well, you're still giving them the same work that you were going to give them before.

Yeah. And in my mind, I was ready. I'm like, okay, well, if I don't get this contract, you know, like, we're not re-uping here. Because clearly, like, I mean, this is like my thought process. I'm like, okay, well, I'm just like going to, I'm going to blame me if this doesn't work because you're telling me to do it. But I just can't imagine if I didn't, I mean, first off, I would have never had, you know, the real idea of how to approach that client and really understand and say what I would be able to do for them and the value with confident. But two, like I just would have never sent that email unless

she just said, send it. It's like when your coach tells you, go run that lap. Yeah. Fine. Like I wasn't happy, you know, throw up my hands, but I did it. And I'm, I'm glad I did. It was a huge difference. Yeah, because that that showed you right there. That's like that should meet now. your bottom level, right? Like that's that's the bottom. Now, okay, now what if it would, what if it could be 10K? What if it could be 20K, right? That's right.

So now the possibility, especially with somebody like you that's already creative, now you're going back to the drawing board and you're trying to build out, you know, different offers, right? Trying to increase those offers. So I love that. And so what are some things that you think have helped your business grow? And when I ask that, I mean from like a strategy perspective. You know, we connected, I think, I think on LinkedIn, right?

So that's where we met. So I do see that you're active on that platform. Are there other platforms that you have, you know, systems in place for where you're creating content to build your brand and your network? And how important is that to you and your business? So I tell people content is not just king. Content is your legacy. And so when I first started on LinkedIn, I remember. when I published my first blog and I was so nervous.

I was so nervous. I was just shaking. I thought for sure I was gonna get people saying, you don't know what you're talking about, this, that, the other thing and the blogs just started taking off. And I started getting a lot more responses. I started getting more clients. It was just incredible.

And from there, I decided to write my own book. And so I wrote a book. hire the right virtual assistant and it took off and then that launched my career of working with VA's. The book is written entirely for clients. It's not written for virtual assistance yet I had virtual assistants reaching out to me constantly and saying this book is on my shelf. I use it in my business all the time. How are you doing this? I mean, I just had all these questions and when people are asking you the same questions over and over and over again, you're like, okay, well, maybe this is maybe I should take note of this because in the beginning I was taking all these calls

and I just thought wow I thought I was the only one who struggled I thought I was the only one everything I read everyone was making six figures and like six months and here I was just struggling to death and then after I realized that I wasn't the only one going through it or had gone through it then I realized okay I'm I'm answering the same question over and over again and anytime you're answering the same question over over again you need to systemize it you need to create content around it you need to be helpful find you know give your audience value have a way to distribute it to the masses and so that's what i did uh i formalized it i created an online course i created a virtual summit and then i wrote my second book to become a successful virtual

assistant based on all the formal feedback and the actual consultation in the talks that I was having where I was keeping track of all the questions, the most asked questions, the most common rebuttals, things like that. And when, and through all this, I'd always known in the beginning, because I had asked them and then I started meeting clients, the number one question that VA's have is where do I find my clients? And yet the number one question clients have is where do I find the right VA? And I'm like, how can two people, two entities who wanted to meet each other so badly not come together? And while there's other sites out there, they weren't doing it. There weren't sites that I was going to be on. They weren't sites that I thought were a win-win for both parties.

So I had it in my mind that, okay, I am going to create my own, I'm going to create my own place. I'm going to create my own platform. But I had no idea how to do that. So it just was just this. just this wish on my wall and I wrote I read a damn pink book and he said you know send a failure letter to yourself a rejection letter to yourself and explain some details out and that and I still have it on my wall dated 31416 and um I just kept on going so in 2015 my book was released in 2017 my second book was released I was traveling the world at that time and then in 2018 I

came back to the States. My book had just officially launched and then I started working for a startup. And I got sidetracked a little bit, but I still very grateful for that time because I needed that. I was purposely wanting to work at a startup to learn all the things that I didn't know.

And when I left there, I still have really great contacts with them. But I was frustrated because I felt like now is the time. Now is the time to start this marketplace, do this thing, but I don't have any technical background. I don't know what I'm doing. And so I reached out to my network and I just asked for help, really, and express my frustration because I felt the timing was right.

And one of the women in the group came and she said, let's chat. So we spoke and she said, what's stopping you from creating association? And I thought, huh, nothing. And so I said, okay, let's do that. So that was November 2018, December 2018, I sent out this really, really, one sentence email to my following. I said, who wants to change the virtual assistant industry with me? I had some responses and the ABA was formed in officially January 2019 and we launched for founding membership in March 2019. And yeah, now we're going with that. And it just seems so,

it seems so crazy. And my partners, a lot of people think it's crazy. I've never met my partners. I've known them for years online. We form relationships. But, you know, that's what business is really all about. And sometimes one of my partners, she'll say something, and I'll have a follow-up question about how her day's going or how she's feeling. And she said, how can you tell that? Just the way, by the way, I said, hello.

And I said, because it's my job. We're remote. Like, I have to know the nuances. of everything that you all do and look for the patterns and notice when things are off because it's my job to make sure that I'm leading you properly, that I'm giving you the space that you need, that I am providing a place for you to thrive and not overwhelm you or burn you out or anything else because it's not always, it's not always easy, but it's the challenge that we love. Wow. So I'm going to remind the audience again. So for one, this is why you're on the show,

you are a trailblazer. You have blazed your own trail many times over. But I'm going to remind the audience that she was voted least likely to graduate, now has three high school diploma certifications, a GED. She ends up going and working at the University of Georgia for the dean's office and education, decides to start a business that wasn't successful, hires a coach. and then as that business starts to scale she wants to go learn about other businesses to join the startup to learn information she didn't have and then somebody planted a seed for her to start an association so now you have founded an association i mean what what an incredible journey and i think a lot of this comes back to you know how that middle child thing right and you know wanting to always be your best and fight and then your parents putting that positivity in you to be your best and challenging you. All of those things, I think, of course, and you've done a lot of this work with, I'm going to say, the help of some great partners and along the way.

But I mean, kudos to you for not giving up and for being, I'm going to give you, you're the queen of pivot, right? I don't know if anyone's ever said that to you, but like, I mean, you start this virtual assistant association a year before a pandemic. hits where the world needs you. Like, I mean, how incredible is that? That, you know, but people, that was absolutely planned. So one of the best books I've ever read is the CEO next door. And this is not a book. And I forgot to say she's a two-time author. Like, you know, during, during all this two-time author as well. So that's not a book I would have picked out for myself, because I, when I think

of CEO, I think of corporate America and things like that. And nothing against corporate. America, but that's not a place where I chose to work because I never wanted to be anonymous. And I thought, what am I going to have in common with anyone in this book? But it was part of a book club that I was in. So I read it. And it is one of the most powerful books that I have ever read. And in it, they clearly listed the two jobs of a CEO, no matter what company you have, no matter how big your company is if you are a company of one. And that is to hire the right people and future proof your business. That's it. Those are your two jobs as the CEO. And so I take my own medicine. I've always had a virtual assistant. I hire them all the time. I'm constantly hiring

people. You'll never find me wasting time trying to figure out how to do something that I don't know how to do unless that has to do with leadership or culture or something like that. But watching a YouTube video to learn some technical problem, no way. zero chance. And the future proof in your business. So when I was traveling the world, one of the things that I learned from the coach is you've got to follow the money trail. And when I was traveling the world and everyone was saying, wow, you mean you really never go into an office? And I said, no, I really never go into an office. And then people started seeking me out for remote work consulting. Well, you just have to start looking for things and, you know, have the time to do

that, which I did have the time to do that. And I realized that remote working, whether people wanted it, didn't want it, against it, favorite it, whatever their feelings were, it was the way of the future because real estate is so expensive. Forget talent. Real estate is so incredibly massive. So I thought, I have to start now starting to write content, starting to show up in the remote working industry so that people know who to call on when they need assistance. And I can't let other people just assume that virtual assistant hiring, matchmaking association, that that goes together with remote working. I have to create a separate entity for that.

So I did. And again, started writing articles, started being in magazines and podcasts and other things for it. And you better believe me when the pandemic. kit like my inbox was full and there was a lot of things going on but that was how another way that I was going to make sure I was going to future proof my business and then now here we are could have never planned this in fact many assistants in the industry didn't want to hear for me so I stopped being on panels and I stopped doing things with executive assistants because they didn't want to hear what I had to say they took like not being in office as something against them and something

could never happen. And I'm like, absolutely not. It has nothing to do with your value. But, you know, if Pinterest is going to sell their or break out of their San Francisco lease for like 90 something million dollars and they're still saving money, this is, that's the money trail. We don't even know how people really feel about it, but we know where the money saving is. And that's something that a board, a company, the CFO, no one can deny it. So that's where I put my foothold. Oh, 100%. I mean, just, just think about the travel savings for organizations in 2020 alone, right? Like that cost savings. And you think about the money that's been literally thrown into the fire of this last seven months of leases that people have been paying

when nobody's been there. I mean, yeah, the writing is definitely on the wall. And, and I mean, to have the business for such a time as this and to be essentially the marketplace, for it. I mean, what a, what a tremendous situation that you created. Like, you've been working on this for your entire life, essentially. You know, this is, this is your life's work, really. Yeah. And again, it goes back to, you know, there was plenty of people who said that it will never work. There was plenty of people who told me that it could never happen in their industry, that it didn't apply to them, that this is, you know, I mean, I've heard it all. And in fact, One of the strongest things that I heard from someone was like really a personal attack.

He told me I was the most forgettable person he's ever met. And, you know, you just have to say, you know, those aren't just my people then. Those aren't my people. Let me go and find, let me go and find my own people. And, you know, listen to what they're saying sometimes. I take the good and the bad. I filter. I'm like, okay, I don't need that.

I don't need that. I don't need that. That's a good question. I don't have an answer to that. Let me find the answer. I don't need this. I don't need this. I don't need this. That's possibly a good. I should probably address that. But everything, all the garbage, all the junk, all the, like, whatever, that stuff just gets thrown in the trash. And I just focus on what is actually a good question for someone who is my person.

How would I answer that question if they were my person? And that's how I know if it's a good question or not. Love it. Love it. Well, this has been amazing learning about your story and your tenacity and your journey and you're pivoting. And, you know, I know, like we said, we connected on LinkedIn. So I know that you're active there. Are there other platforms that you would like to share with the audience for them to reach out? If they've got any questions about, you know, virtual assistant, remote working, I know that you are well-versed in both of those areas. So, yeah, if you want to chat with me on LinkedIn, feel free.

You'll see that I'm on Twitter and Facebook, Instagram as well. I'll respond there, but not as quickly. You can reach out to me via email. or you can visit Melissa Smith.io. You can visit association ofeats.com. The pVA.com. Part of what I do is make sure that I have enough time and space to respond to every email that I receive,

but that's part of my value. So if you reach out to me, you can 100% be sure that I'll be responding. And it really goes back to, you know, how are you so comfortable if you want to reach out to me directly or on a platform that you desire, it's all good. Awesome.

Well, hey, again, I appreciate you sharing how you have blazed your own trail, and I know you're not stopping here. I know we're probably going to hear another two or three books from you and maybe another couple associations that you end up starting. So thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you, Jordan.