Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Hi, this is Wendy Hill. And welcome back to another episode of Confessions from the Home Office. I've been working out of my house, running my marketing business for the past 20 years. And each week I talk about what it's like working from home. We talk about marketing sometimes we have some great guests on here. But today I want to take everything back 20 years and, and talk about how things were when I started. And I've talked about kind of my first year and how I launched. But I get the same questions over and over again, which is good. I mean, I have an answer for all of them. So I've been writing down questions that people have been asking me over time, but especially over the past couple months as people knew that I was reaching that 20 year milestone. And so I have six questions that I get asked pretty regularly and I wanted to answer those here because there's a lot of people out there that thinking about maybe on Empty nester, should I go into real estate? Should I go into multi level marketing? Should I go back to school? And maybe you have or haven't thought about being a marketing va? The demand is high for the skills that I have and the skills that I teach other people when they're wanting to learn to be a marketing va and you know, maybe your company's downsizing or there's a fear of downsizing and this is definitely something you could consider. So if you watch or listen to the episode, let me know, send me a comment and let me know what you think. But I've got six questions that I get asked. And here we go.
[00:01:35] So number one is what specific skills or experiences did you have before becoming a marketing VA that you feel gave you an edge when you were just starting out? I will say I had a marketing degree, but my marketing degree was more of like a general marketing degree. It wasn't anything that was technical, it wasn't heavy on services, it wasn't heavy on selling.
[00:01:54] It was just general. I got a minor in accounting, so I didn't have time to specialize really.
[00:02:01] I did have experience working with clients. I worked in several agencies and worked in healthcare marketing. So I knew how to talk to clients and knew how to ask questions. But I feel like the bigger thing is knowing how to get things done and knowing how to figure out what resources you need, what skills you need to help the client get things done. Is this something that you can do? Do you need to pull somebody else in? Is it something you need to learn? And you have to be good at research too because the Answer to most. Most things are already out there on the Internet. Just depends on how much time you want to spend. So I feel like if you have good research skills, listening, planning, not procrastinating, and can work well with people, this is definitely something you can do.
[00:02:43] So Looking back to 20 years ago, the next question is, what was the biggest challenge you faced in those days and how did you overcome it?
[00:02:52] So I would say that the biggest challenge was virtual assistants were becoming popular overseas. You would hear a lot about VAs in India and VAs in the Philippines. But as I talked to people and they said, well, I'm only paying $2 an hour, I thought, well, what are you getting? And so I started hearing from people, well, when I'm ready to work, they're off the clock, or I'm getting things with spelling errors, or they're not understanding what I'm saying, or I'm sending work back in and I don't think the same person is doing it again. I never see anybody. I'm just chatting with people online. So I think that's what made it different was that I did have the marketing background. And marketing is something a lot of business owners put off or they just can't get to even if they know how to do it. And being able to find somebody who could get it all done and be on the same or similar time zone was a big help.
[00:03:49] So I would say another big challenge was just learning how to be a business owner. I was used to coming into an agency, sitting down at my desk and just knocking things out. And I'll be honest, I do that a lot of days here too. But running a business and doing the work in your business, two totally different things. And I feel like back then there was not a lot of education on how to be a business owner or templates that would help or things to do. It was more me talking to a CPA or talking to somebody who'd been a freelance writer for a while, or talking to someone else who had started a small business. So I was kind of piecing things together everywhere. Now I feel like you can go out and find a resource to help you do everything with just a couple of Google searches.
[00:04:36] So the third question is, how has the role of a marketing VA evolved since I first started and what changes have required the most significant adaptation on my part?
[00:04:46] I would say when I started, it seemed like it was more admin work with a little bit of marketing knowledge. Just people needing to get a PowerPoint done or getting some emails written or to help them with an event. And then I felt like over time, people knew I had the skills and they were starting to use me. Instead of using an agency of record, they were starting to give more things to me. Well, can you get this designed? Can you help us with this branding? Can you help us with these email campaigns? And so it required more and more skills. I knew how to do a lot of that. But back in the agency days, I had multiple people to help me. And now I could either go out and find freelance talent or I could learn how to do some of it myself. And today I still do a mixture of both.
[00:05:32] So they kept turning things over to me. So I feel like it's changed where now a marketing VA gets more and more responsibility. It's not just one small task or one thing.
[00:05:43] And I would say you have to adapt. Unless you just really have really tight boundaries with things. When someone asks you to do something, you just say yes and you figure out how to get it done, Whether that's something you have to learn or you have to go hire somebody, or you have to go back and figure out another way maybe to present it to them, something that's a little more realistic. So I'm always about saying yes, unless it's just something that's just completely crazy or something that's not going to be profitable. So number four is what was the moment like when you decided to take the leap and become a marketing VA or go out on. Go out on your own? Was there a specific trigger or was it something you've been planning for a while? So I talked about this, I think on my first episode back sometime last year, is I already had a kind of a hybrid role at the agency where I worked, but the staff just kind of. They just kind of didn't get on board with it. For the most part, some did, but it was, oh, I couldn't call you because that was the day you're not in the office. Well, I'm working. I just. At home, my son was sick a lot. Back and forth to the doctor with him, in and out of daycare with him, it was just kind of crazy. So I finally decided this isn't really working with the team. Maybe in a couple years or more, people are doing hybrid or remote work, maybe it would have worked out. But I think just being sleep deprived and just wanting things to work, I just woke up one day and said, when I get back after Christmas vacation, I'm gonna resign. And if in six months I don't have any clients or I Don't have enough to even pay a light bill around here. I'll go find another job. So that was really it. I don't feel like there was one like blow up at work or, you know, a really bad night. It was just kind of everything just kind of came to a head and I thought, he's only a little once and I'm just going to go out and try it. Why not? I'm young, I can get it done. So there was that. Number five is what marketing tools or platforms that were essential to your work 20 years ago have become obsolete and what new ones have had the biggest impact on your business.
[00:07:54] I would say back 20 years ago I lived in email and I lived in Microsoft Office and that was pretty much it. And now it's everything. It's AI tools, it's graphics programs, it's email. It's like zapier that where you do integrations. It's. You can do website builds, website builds. You don't have to hard code everything now.
[00:08:15] So I would say there's not really anything that's obsolete. It's just Maybe there are 20 more tools that I can and do use on a daily basis. So number six is what keeps you in this field rather than going back to corporate life. People always say, well, your kids are grown now and they're gone. Why haven't you gone back and gotten a job? Just to get out of the house and have a change of pace. So I've interviewed over the years, people have asked me or I've seen something that's intriguing and I've put in my resume for it. But when I get there, I'm sorry, I can't do it. So I go through the resume, go through the interview process just to kind of stay sharp on that. And you know, it's good to be in practice and do that type of thing and kind of see what's going on in places. But when you get to the point where you're making your own schedule, when you're looking at a week, you're looking at a month, you can block off days, you can block off half days, you can block off a week to go on vacation with your family. And you work your work around that, and you work your meetings around that and you're planning your life first and not planning clients first and then life.
[00:09:20] That's the reason why I can't go back. I don't want to have to take PTO to go to the dentist. I don't want to have to take PTO to go take my kids out for lunch. They live like 40 minutes from here. I, my, my husband teaches at two different school, two different schools, has two different spring breaks. So I've planned the next two weeks around his schedule when he's going to be off. And I can't imagine going through life and working this long and having to watch the clock and watch where I am and that type of thing. So I'm all about the freedom. I work really hard and I put in more than enough hours to things and I just can't imagine going back to that. I think it would just dull my sparkle. So I think that's it.
[00:10:03] So if you've heard anything here that's intrigued you and you want to know more, I have a marketing VA starter kit that's going online this week and it'll be on the Market Momentum site and it'll be on social media and all that. And it's a, it's a starter kit that you can buy and go through and it shows you everything that you need to learn to become a marketing va. And then there's also an invitation to join my membership. So definitely know that if you're thinking about this, there's somebody out there who can help you every step of the way with all the skills, the skills with, you know, computers with proposals with the soft skills, how to deal with the clients, that type of thing. So that's my sales pitch for all this. But it's been a good 20 years. Not every day has been easy. Not every year has been easy. But I'm happy doing this and I hope that a lot of you will consider it. There is enough work out there for all of us. So get in touch, send me an email, let me know what you think, and I'll see you next week.
