I've always loved inspiring people. I think it's in my blood. My family is full of teachers in some capacity or another. But I never really wanted to be in the spotlight. It always feels amazing for my hard work to be acknowledged and I love some good praise, but I get the biggest feel-good feeling when I teach, or inspire somebody to the point of them being successful with the help of my influence.

Then on top of that, I like to take a set of information and organize it in a way that flows naturally and just intuitively feels good. For years, that was expressed through the creative feminine energy of choreographing dances for students. Then I discovered it could also be used in the more masculine energy setting of business administration while working for a pizza restaurant.

The Early Days

I decided to go to school for an office administration degree and loved almost every class. At that time, I really didn't have any drive to run my own business at all. I loved the backend work too much to want to be on the front end of the business.

I started in a church after college. I got to take all the pieces of information that people gave me throughout the week and turn it into a bulletin for their service on Sunday morning. And I got to do the same thing for monthly newsletters; having even more control of the creative design side of that as well. I was able to coordinate information between various leaders of the church and became the person that people went to with admin questions. Deadlines were manageable, and the push of last-minute changes fed my ADHD need for newness.

Seeking New Challenges

But eventually, I started getting restless. I had established all of the systems I needed and had them running smoothly and efficiently. Even last-minute changes were built into my routine. I had too much down time and wasn't earning enough income to support my life goals which led to finding a full-time job at a lumber company in the next town over.

It was extremely exciting and challenging for several months. It was a very small business, but we sold lumber across the USA from coast to coast. Not only was I learning about lumber and using skills that I had gotten in college but hadn't previously been able to use, I was also put in the position of learning many new skills like bookkeeping and HR management.

The business owner, the manager, and myself, with the help of an assistant, did all of the office administration for almost every aspect of the business outside of the sales team. The learning curve was huge and thrilling. Their filing system needed a complete overhaul, as did their inventory system and bookkeeping. I was in my element designing systems and workflows.

The Transition to Virtual Assistance

Eventually, one by one, I got those systems established. The updates were done, and I was transitioning into maintenance rather than creation. I started to feel that same restlessness. My efficiency had increased to the point where a full-time job could be done in a couple of hours a day. The challenge was over, and I started looking at personal finance issues again.

I started looking into online jobs that I could do from home in my spare time. Lo and behold, the world of virtual assistance opened up before me. I was down that rabbit hole so fast my head spun. It took everything that I had learned in school and from my brick-and-mortar job experiences and turned it on its head. Not that my previous experiences were now obsolete, but it was a huge perspective change. Switching to all digital services and becoming a contractor instead of an employee is a pretty significant shift.

After taking a virtual assistant training course that I could barely afford, I started off on the ground level, offering proofreading for people's websites and blogs. I was blessed with my first big client being a website designer, blogger, and previous business and life coach. I learned so much from her, including everything that went into managing a blog, which introduced me to the basics of editing websites.

Growing My Business

I quit the lumber company job to turn my focus towards growing my business, took another course about business growth and marketing basics, and continued my self-education journey from there. Many mistakes, successes, years, and client experiences later, I've grown from a first-time virtual assistant proofreader to a business manager with virtual assistants on my support team.

I'm happy to say that being my own boss has allowed me to continually look for the next challenge when a system has been learned and implemented. I have the freedom to continually seek out and learn new exciting things and, for several years now, I've had “the itch” to begin teaching others everything I'm learning.

The Next Chapter

I'm entering a new chapter of my life and business that is asking me to step out from behind the curtain into the spotlight of my own business. Until this point, I have spent all of my time and effort on my clients' businesses. I've managed their content and marketing, but I've never had to create and manage my own content and marketing other than a simple website and enough outreach to get clients by word of mouth.

As a highly sensitive person with ADHD and an introvert to boot, I have found that many of the traditional tips for writing just do not work for me. I also have all kinds of uneasy feelings about marketing my own business. This opens a new and exciting, though utterly terrifying, era of learning to intuitively write, create heart-centered marketing, explore deep parts of my inner self, and change my lifestyle to incorporate the time it requires to do these things.

As you can imagine, as a recently divorced mother of a 3½-year-old, there's quite a lot of change happening in my life right now. But I'm excited for this new journey and the opportunities it brings to grow both personally and professionally.

A Look Ahead

So what does this mean for you as my reader?

As the flow of life provides the capacity for me to create, I am happily preparing for our future and providing opportunities for us to engage. I have so much to share with you, that it’s overwhelming at times!

Here’s what’s in play right now:

Access my truly free resources:

On various pages of my website you will find Google document links to resources I’ve created for you with no expectation of receiving anything from you in return. That’s right, you don’t have to sign up for marketing emails. 

Here’s a workbook for creating your first business plan or pivot.

Library and Community:

If you’d like to join the brand new (at this time) community I’ve created for us, plus access the resource library that will house all of my freebies in one place, you can sign up here. As a bonus I’ll also be housing other people’s free resources (maybe yours?) in the library and doing live Q&A calls within the community. Social media gets overwhelming sometimes. This community is a smaller space for us to connect without the distractions and if my capacity for work is low, I will be prioritizing this group over the larger social media communities.

Online Business Administration Training Program:

I’m opening a brand new membership program for those of you who are ready to learn everything that goes into starting and running the back end of a small online business. This is my passion project and I’m SO excited to welcome in the founding members. They will be on the journey alongside me as we build this program together. I have a curriculum lineup, but will be asking members for topic requests and tailoring educational materials to their needs. I’m also focusing on making it as accessible as possible. If you’d like in on the fun, check it out here.

Book an Intensive Consultation Package:

For those of you who need to sit down and work through creating a simple start up or growth business plan, I provide a guided experience that takes the pressure off of organizing your thoughts alone. We brainstorm and I plug everything into a document for you to continue using moving forward. You can book that with me any time here. 

I will note that my capacity for these packages change with the season. I’ll have a waitlist available if I’m fully booked.

Business Management and Support Team Services:

We offer exclusive management and support services to 1-2 clients at a time, only having openings as our work with a client comes to its completion. My team and I offer a wide variety of services and if we can’t provide something we usually just bring another team member on board so you don’t have to search for anyone. 

We are currently focusing on content management: taking your long form content (blog posts, podcast, videos) and breaking it down into smaller form content to post on various platforms/social media. That’s an oversimplification but this is a simplified list!

If you feel like we might be a good fit or you’re curious to know more, let’s get you on the waitlist here, so we can start a conversation.