07/24/2022
True Confessions Time:
Work has always been my happy place—the place where I felt most confident and capable. In 2019, I retired from a 30+ year career on the support staff, finishing as a Financial Officer at Utah State University. I loved my job at USU but had reached the magical milestone of 30 years, where I could retire and have access to a pension regardless of my age, so I decided to Be Brave. I landed what looked like a fantastic job as a Financial Manager for a city municipality in Colorado. I packed up my belongings and moved to the Front Range, having never lived more than 170 miles from my birthplace.
I’ll be honest—the new fantastic job was not all that amazing. I failed to mention earlier that some mega red flags during the interview let me know this position was probably not the right one for me. I was so intent on pushing out and going for that big goal that I overlooked those gut feelings and took the job anyway. After all—work was my happy place. What could go wrong?
Well—a lot. I struggled to communicate with my supervisor and his boss. It was like they were speaking a different language, and I didn’t even know what questions to ask. There was zero training—which was not a big deal on the financial end, but there were so many nuances that were a part of the culture in this organization that everyone working there seemed to take as “normal” that just were not. I had difficulty navigating their “norm” and had zero insight from those training me—no matter how many ways I approached trying to assimilate that information.
Fast forward to February 2020. My boss and I had some discussions about how things were going. In hindsight, I can see that in his way, he was trying to get me to double down and figure things out (on my own, of course) and was disappointed when I told him it was probably not the best fit and that I would begin looking for another position. So, it was no surprise that my job was eliminated in June when COVID hit, and a reduction in staff was required.
I was relieved. But I didn’t want to find another job. While at my new job, I started freelancing, some bookkeeping, and some other support staff skills to help out friends and causes I supported. I began to wonder if there was some way to utilize my 30+ years of experience to allow me the freedom only to do work that I found exciting or for causes for which I had a passion. I could see the potential, but I knew nothing about establishing a business. How would I set myself up correctly for taxes? How would I establish boundaries and expectations with my clients? How would I track my time or set up reasonably priced packages for my skills? How would I market my services? Where would I find others who do the same thing so that I could network and learn? What if I needed to develop additional skills. It all seemed overwhelming.
And then I found The Virtual Savvy! This course helped me answer all those questions, and I was able to launch my own virtual assistant business shortly after that. And—I went ALL IN, purchasing The SAVVY Vault so that when I felt like I needed training, I didn’t have to rely on my “boss” or the dysfunctional organization to help me learn—I could initiate my education.
Now—I work with amazing clients whom I admire. I can work as much or as little as I want because I am in charge of negotiating those boundaries. I utilize those skills that fill me up and that I love to do.
If you have thought about starting your side hustle, you can use many of your current skills in the Virtual Assistant role. This course makes it so easy. You will join thousands of others and have a great support system within The Virtual Savvy.
Check it out: https://tinyurl.com/TPVS-TVS-Affiliate
If you have any questions, please let me know.
