1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 Tell me about your vision. 2 00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:07,560 Thank you so much. So really my vision is all about supporting women 3 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:11,920 to ditch the nine-to-five and live life on their terms. 4 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:18,120 So really more about breaking free from societal norms and society tells us that we go to school, 5 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:24,360 we go to university, we get a good job, and then you retire. So really what I've seen is 6 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:29,960 that we don't need to wait until we retire to enjoy our life and to live life how we choose to. 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:36,040 So it's really about sharing the vision with women to know that they can have a flexible life, 8 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:42,840 that they can still have a career, they can still run a successful business and still be present for 9 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:47,200 their family. And I think that's really the most important thing is presence for your family and 10 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,920 also the flexibility to go wherever, whenever, and on your own terms as well. 11 00:00:51,920 --> 00:01:00,960 Tell me more about that. It's a pretty broad term that can apply to a lot of people. Why did you 12 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:07,760 specifically choose women and why and how you got along this journey? I'd love to hear more thoughts. 13 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:15,360 Yeah so organically it happened that I drew in women. I do have some men as clients and it was 14 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:20,080 just because of the way that I showed up and the way that I spoke about my own experience that 15 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:28,880 attracted women. So I actually have my daughter on my own. I went and by the time I was 32 I hadn't 16 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:33,920 met the one that I wanted to be with so I decided to go and have my daughter on on my own. And what 17 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:41,520 that presented for me was the, I guess the need but also the desire to not not provide her with 18 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:49,040 a life that she deserves and being a one-income household. It's certainly more apparent to be 19 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:54,000 able to provide for her and give her the experiences that maybe a two-income family could provide. 20 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:59,600 And it's something that kind of happened organically over time and something I fell into 21 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:06,800 because of COVID. So I had had a very long 25 year career in hospitality and events and working in 22 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:12,320 hotels all over Australia and overseas and when COVID happened the entire industry shut down. 23 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:16,480 The hotel that I was working in at the time was the very first hotel in the country to 24 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:21,600 enter their quarantine program because in Australia we all were bound to hotel quarantine when we came 25 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:28,240 back in from overseas. So very early on actually only just after I went back from maternity leave 26 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:37,600 was there no industry and no job. So through random ins and outs of trying to stay in other jobs 27 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:43,440 because everywhere kept on closing and things like that I found this beautiful space in the 28 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:49,200 online industry and essentially all I did was use all of the skills and experience that I had 29 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:54,720 and I created my own virtual assistant business and that really just took off really quickly. 30 00:02:55,280 --> 00:03:00,560 And because of the flexibility that I created I was just like I really felt like I tapped into 31 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:05,840 something and I really wanted to share that vision with women all over the country and now I've got 32 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:11,440 some clients worldwide that this is another option to the nine to five and you can earn more money 33 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:16,560 than your nine to five. So that's really where the whole vision started and really where I get to do 34 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:24,320 what I love now. It's interesting that you mentioned virtual assistants because 35 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:32,400 we have three teams and I think fourth and fifth coming up soon throughout the world. Predominantly 36 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:40,400 our team is based out of Latin America and we have a team based out of Philippines and we have 37 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:48,240 I think two people we hired from Pakistan and one coming very soon which I'm in charge of. We're 38 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:52,880 opening up in India and I think hopefully some part of Europe as well in the future. 39 00:03:55,280 --> 00:04:01,040 So the way I understand virtual assistant and the way I think you've explained to me I think a very 40 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:10,880 different understanding. How does that virtual assistant business relate to being free from a 41 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:15,920 nine to five in your terms and what do you mean by that? I would love to hear what exactly it is 42 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:22,480 that you do. Yeah great so what I've discovered there is lots of different definitions and lots 43 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:26,480 of different ways that you can hire a virtual assistant whether that be a full-time virtual 44 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:32,000 assistant from an agency similar in Australia. We have a lot of offshore agencies and predominantly 45 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:39,200 from the Philippines and that's really at a low cost I guess a lot less skill level and 46 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:45,280 a lot of times they hire them full-time to come in sort of replace the need for a full-time employee. 47 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:50,080 What we do and the clients that I have in the virtual assistant business and the clients that 48 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:57,600 I teach in Australia is really about that let's say higher level executive that has predominantly 49 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:02,960 worked in a typical nine to five maybe they're an executive assistant or a personal assistant 50 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:08,720 and they're using their existing skills and mapping across to being a CEO of their own business 51 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:14,480 and offering those skills to business owners and specifically because of their experience and a 52 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:18,720 lot of them have gone to university. A lot of them similar to me have got you know 25 years experience 53 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:24,880 in their their industry is actually providing them at the top end of the market so not competing with 54 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:28,720 say the five ten dollars down at the Philippines we sort of work within the hundred to one hundred 55 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:35,440 and fifty dollars per hour and being niche on experience niche on service to allow that business 56 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,760 that business owners to actually really grow and really scale their business because you're having 57 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:45,680 all those expertise that come in as a collaboration. So it's very different in terms of the level of 58 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:51,120 support the level of initiative and the level of work that is done but for the business owner going 59 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:57,440 into this space it's not binding their time by the business owner it is that flexible arrangement so 60 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:02,240 you might work with three or four businesses and you would commit to say a minimum amount of hours 61 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:07,760 per week or a minimum hours per month and you would actually do those hours on your own terms. 62 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:13,120 So just say it was a 10 hour a week for one client the hours that you do that 10 hours is actually 63 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:17,840 all down to us as the VA business owner it's not down to the person that's essentially hiring our 64 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:23,520 services so it's more like hiring if you want to use a term to compare it you know like a marketing 65 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:28,240 agency or an ad agency or something like that you wouldn't you wouldn't dictate the hours 66 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:32,640 and specifically what they work so it's a little bit more of a partnership type of business to 67 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,800 business arrangement than more of a business to a subcontractor type of arrangement. 68 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:42,960 I kind of understand it but I really don't understand most of it but I think I've had more 69 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:49,680 conversation about it that maybe I'll get to the bottom of it so let's get to let's let's move away 70 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:58,720 from the what and the how and then go to do the who and the why. So why did you get into this 71 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:02,160 building and why what gets you out of bed every morning to keep doing this? 72 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:07,520 Yeah so I guess when I started my business it was actually because I met with an old colleague from 73 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:12,480 the hotel industry outside of a coffee shop when we went out inside the coffee shop and we just had 74 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:18,400 a coffee and I was just picking her brain what are you doing now you seem to not really be doing that 75 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:22,800 much at all and she said that she was working as a virtual assistant and she got paid more than she 76 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:27,520 did in three days than she did in her five-day hotel job so that really spiked my interest. 77 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:33,040 So it was really because of her that I jumped into it and she all she had really done was planted 78 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:38,560 the seed of the opportunity and added me to a couple of Facebook groups. Now I kind of watched 79 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:42,720 the space for six months and then when there was one week in my job that wasn't really having much 80 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:47,360 fun extremely micro-managed and I noticed that there was quite a lot of people looking for support 81 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:54,480 so I just dove in head first secured my first client in 24 hours and then I was able to get 82 00:07:54,480 --> 00:08:00,880 my first client in 24 hours resigned from my full-time job in a week and I was fully booked in 83 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:05,520 three weeks so it kind of snowballed really quickly and then within about four months and this was 84 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:10,480 before I knew that there was such thing as a business coach because I didn't know that you 85 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:14,640 could get a business coach then but about month four in my virtual assistant business I realized 86 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:19,200 that this was an opportunity that I wanted to share with other women so that they could also create 87 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:24,240 their own businesses and have that freedom and flexibility to choose when they work and who they 88 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:30,000 work with as well so I started coaching at four months into my business and just essentially 89 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:35,680 showing other women on how to set up their own business and then you know fast forward probably 90 00:08:35,680 --> 00:08:40,800 two or three it was probably two years later than that I really decided that coaching and helping women 91 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:45,760 was what drove me that really got me out of bed seeing them quit their nine to five seeing them 92 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:50,480 create their own business seeing them make way more money than they did in their nine to five 93 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:58,400 that was that was enough for me to be like coaching is all in for me and a lot of the clients that we 94 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:02,240 had in the virtual assistant business I gave them to the team to go and actually run them within 95 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:10,000 their own business and now 99% of what I do is about supporting women to not only build their 96 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:15,920 business but also once they built it is how to actually scale it so that it's a long-standing 97 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:21,840 long-standing thriving business that's not just a side hustle essentially thank you for sharing that 98 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:29,920 let's go to one more leap a layer deep in this I would love to hear some of those stories that 99 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:35,040 pertain to your why or maybe some of the experience you've had those women I'd love to hear those 100 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:41,200 yeah so very early on I realized the impact that it had on their family life and the fact that 101 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:44,960 they didn't have to go back to the office that they could stay home with their their little 102 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:52,800 ones that much more and that was pretty cool because I had to go back to work I had to go back 103 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:58,080 to work full-time with it it was six months six months of the day I had to go back after having 104 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:03,760 my daughter and there was no flexibility given to me I was in a sales role and I still couldn't even 105 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:10,160 do a day from home doing sales calls it was very you want your job you come back in the same 106 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:15,520 capacity and I know that there's there's so many other women out there that they're forced to put 107 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:21,040 their kids in child care or they're forced to just have to go back to work whereas this opportunity 108 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:25,760 can actually provide them with you know still a couple of days of work in the beginning 109 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:29,120 whilst their kids are young and they can always increase and build that thriving business when 110 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:35,600 the time came and then the story started to come out even money-wise I had clients saying I just 111 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:40,800 I just cannot fathom the amount of money that I'm making and I'm paying off credit cards I'm now 112 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:46,480 being able to provide my kids more presents for Christmas like all of that I was just like this is 113 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:52,000 this is the work this is the work because if they've come from a family that's struggled for money 114 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:57,040 or if they've taken time off to have kids they're always on the back burner in terms of money so 115 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:03,680 those stories are really what got me to to where I was and because of the experience that I had when 116 00:11:03,680 --> 00:11:11,920 I went back to work no flexibility no allowances for school pick up or score drop-offs it's here's 117 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:16,720 your job that take it or leave it and I think that's a very much a one track minded I know a lot of 118 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:21,360 that has now changed since COVID and a lot of those companies now have you can pick a day and 119 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:27,520 you can work anywhere you like or they're very much tailoring the work hours suit women but I think 120 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:32,400 why did it take a global pandemic for us to get there and I think that the nine to five industry 121 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:39,280 still has a long way to go in terms of providing flexibility to families yeah yeah you're right 122 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:47,840 because a lot of times people they want to they really want to share that they want to chase that 123 00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:53,360 freedom that most times people can't get so how many times that people don't enjoy times with 124 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:58,800 their families because some things that come up or there there's not enough boundaries in a workplace 125 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:04,240 or there's not flexibility and people struggle through it and they have to choose between 126 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:11,200 providing for their family putting food on the table or or quality time which it's a hard choice 127 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:15,600 for most people to do so that's awesome that's great that your work can do that so thank you 128 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:22,640 for sharing that with us you're welcome when it comes to your vision Sasha where do you think 129 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:29,440 that you're going with your vision if you could see it going in the future somewhere or imagining 130 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:33,760 getting a bigger maybe five years ten years down the road if you haven't thought about that 131 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:41,200 that's fine too but if you have we'd love to hear your thoughts on on where you where you're going 132 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:46,800 and exploring with your vision now yeah I've definitely thought about it this is this is my 133 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:53,600 this is my life now so it's always about how can we impact more people and I really see myself 134 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:59,040 talking on really big stages to room full of people to really just help them to know that 135 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:04,240 there's actually more to life and they can actually choose how they live their life and I think 136 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:08,480 that's really where the change is is once they realize that they don't have to live the way that 137 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:13,600 society tells us or they can believe in themselves to go and reinvent themselves or to go and change 138 00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:18,080 the trajectory of their life I think that's really where the work is and the way to do that 139 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:25,200 is by speaking on stages motivating you know it's even women men and women to really honor 140 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:31,440 themselves and actually give themselves and their family actually this amazing life because one 141 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:35,840 everybody deserves to have it everybody's also worthy enough to have it and they just have to 142 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:41,440 decide to go and get it and the problem is because a lot of generational trauma and what society tells 143 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:47,280 us everyone's playing small because they don't know that they can do anything else so it's more 144 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:52,560 about just sharing with them the vision that they can break free from the nine to five and they can 145 00:13:52,560 --> 00:13:58,240 go and create whatever they want to create and live life essentially on their terms not by somebody 146 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:02,720 else's thank you for being here today I'm really happy that you tuned in to vision pros live I'm 147 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:07,760 looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward this is going 148 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:11,920 to get more and more fun we'll have more and more engagement as well we'll invite people to 149 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:16,880 participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention have an excellent time 150 00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:38,400 building out your vision and becoming a vision for yourself you