Chelsi: That’s such a great story. I’m writing all these notes over here. I’m so glad you were bold enough to say you needed to earn extra money and make $1,000 a month and were doing it in three months. That’s such a huge point that I hope everyone can take away from this. That’s legitimate money women could be making to help supplement their family or just earn their own play money. This can totally work for you, you can have that freedom and it’s not blood sucking. Let’s talk about what this freedom has been like for you.

Aubree: When I talk about how easy this is people think it’s a scam. I don’t want to take away from the fact that it is a lot of hard work, especially in the beginning. But, out of all the other things that I had tried it felt the most in line with me. I was still serving and helping people and business owners get time back for themselves, and their families.

I’ve been able to raise my kids how I want and be there for them. In my father-in-laws last month of life I was able to take him to all of his appointments. All those little moments matter. The big thing too is the flexibility of it. I still have a job and I’m working but I get to build it around my life instead of the other way around.

CHELSI: What are some VA jobs people can do? What does being a virtual assistant actually look like?

AUBREE: It’s such a hard thing to describe because it’s all encompassing. I didn’t really realize all you could do as a freelancer. You can do a variety of things to earn extra money as a freelancer but it usually falls under a variety of three things such as: admin, technical, and creative.

This was something I was really blown away by. I have always loved creative writing and I found someone would pay me to write a blog post for them. Business owners need that content to help drive traffic to their website but a lot of times they don’t have time to do that.  If you enjoy figuring out new tech that’s something lots of business owners don’t have the skills for.

If you are a mom you have so many skills to support a business owner. A lot of business owners are not super organized and can’t juggle all the things. As moms that’s what we are known for. Women specifically downplay our skills.

If you love listening to podcasts you can edit those and write show notes. There is website design, emails, copy for websites, blogs, and sales pages. It’s just finding where you fit into all these things, get started, and grow from there.

Chelsi: How sustainable do you think being a virtual assistant is for the people who really want to earn some extra money or an income?

Aubree: You’re not just relying on one thing. At one point I could have lost my teaching job and had nothing. With being a virtual assistant you can have multiple clients and if someone decides to not work with you, you are not on ground zero. The online world is growing so much. More businesses are moving online and more people are starting online businesses especially with the pandemic. Business owners are looking for that online support. It’s way more cost effective for them to hire an independent contractor to come on and help them for a couple hours a week instead of hiring an employee. So there is plenty of work out there for people to get started.

Chelsi: In lieu of getting started, let’s talk about it. If you are super interested in this and it is speaking to you, go check out Aubree’s resources. If you really are serious about something, invest your time and money so you can stop wasting your time and money. Aubree is someone you can learn so much from. But Aubree, can you tell us some ways women can get started with this?

Aubree: Yes, people either choose the DIY route which is really great, I am the DIY queen, and then there are times when we have to hire stuff out because it’s too complicated to figure out.

If you are on the fence, you think it sounds great but not sure if you would be good at it, I would tell you to get out a pen and paper. Then write down some of the skills that you have. There are two kinds of skills that we have. There are the hard skills, the things we do in our day to day life, and then our soft skills which are our personality, things that are innately us.

So write out the things you think you are naturally gifted at. Sometimes this can be hard for us to do because we see our strengths as things everyone is good at. Ask some other people what they think you are good at. Think of times when people came to you and said “Wow you’re so good at that, how did you do that?” Write down some things you are passionate about too.

If you can figure out your skills then you can offer that to a business owner who needs support and then you are going to be golden. I can teach you the rest of this. Just start with that exercise to get your mind to start working in that direction.

Chelsi: Tell us where we can find you.

Aubree: My podcast is called Freelancer to CEO. Online I’m at Aubreemalick.com and @aubreemalick. On my website I have a free training which is also a great place to get started, and even watch with your spouse if your are thinking more about this.

Chelsi: Whatever kind of work you are doing at home, if you are looking for more income, being a virtual assistant is a great option. All the moms that I have worked with that are virtual assistants have had and incredible quality of life. This is something that is so easy to do. Thank you so much Aubree for being here with me!