Speaker 1: Episode threeh eight Frugal Side Hustle Virtual Assistant with Shatoria Smith.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today is a special episode
Speaker 1: for a few reasons.
Speaker 3: Super special.
Speaker 1: First, we have the wonderful Shatoria Smith on here to
Speaker 1: talk about virtual assisting, not like from somebody who's hawking
Speaker 1: a two thousand dollars course and says that this is
Speaker 1: the solution to all of your problems and you'll never
Speaker 1: be sad again.
Speaker 3: But we don't make those kinds of no, we don't.
Speaker 1: She has a full time job and she's successfully side
Speaker 1: hustling as a virtual assistant with three young kids, three
Speaker 1: kids under five, and planning a wedding, and she's amazing.
Speaker 1: So that is the first and main reason why this
Speaker 1: is a special episode. The second reason is that if
Speaker 1: you are listening to this on the day it airs,
Speaker 1: it is my birthday.
Speaker 3: Happy birthday.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, get that, get that out of here.
Speaker 1: The third is that this is actually my last episode,
Speaker 1: just for three weeks.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, there's so many like taking me to
Speaker 3: a peak just dropping.
Speaker 1: Jill was like, what this is your last episode? We
Speaker 1: didn't talk about this, So for the next three weeks,
Speaker 1: Jill's going to have surprise guest co.
Speaker 3: Hosts oh I did it before when Jen gave birth
Speaker 3: the first time around. Here we are again. It's old hat, folks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to stay, to stay through to my
Speaker 1: birthday episode. That was my goal, and here we are.
Speaker 3: Here we are.
Speaker 1: So there are many reasons that today's episode is special,
Speaker 1: and those are just some of them.
Speaker 3: The special too, because I'm still here. This is Jill.
Speaker 1: Jill tell you'll hear about.
Speaker 3: Our other sponsor, virtually impossible here to challenge that assumption.
Speaker 3: Virtually impossible is really just saying there's a chance. So
Speaker 3: whether you want that virtual assistant job or you want
Speaker 3: to become debt free, just know it is possible. And
Speaker 3: to prove it's possible to become debt free at least,
Speaker 3: check out season one of Debt Free Stories on YouTube.
Speaker 3: We've got ten interviews with listeners just like you who've
Speaker 3: taken the principles we talk about on the show and
Speaker 3: use them to pay off over eight hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 3: of debt combined, like collectively, between the ten interviews, it
Speaker 3: represents eight hundred thousand dollars of debt, which is amazing.
Speaker 3: So head to YouTube dot com slash frugal Friends to
Speaker 3: figure out how they did it. Be inspired, make the
Speaker 3: most of frugality and just do it. It's not virtually
Speaker 3: virtually possible. Virtually possible, which actually kind of seems like
Speaker 3: that implies impossible. Just adding virtually means like there's a chance.
Speaker 1: There's a chance, and there's a chance that you could
Speaker 1: make money as a virtual assistant or VA as we'll
Speaker 1: call it a lot for those of you who are
Speaker 1: unfamiliar with what a VA is. It is a assistant
Speaker 1: in some sort. It offers some kind of service virtually,
Speaker 1: So a lot of the time that's just like inbox
Speaker 1: management or data transfer or customer service. So like tasks
Speaker 1: that a business owner can do but doesn't want to do,
Speaker 1: they'll hire a virtual assistant and they'll start very general,
Speaker 1: and you can get more and more niche as you
Speaker 1: progress as a business, as you progress as an assistant,
Speaker 1: when you find what you like to do. So there
Speaker 1: are virtual assistants for everything, proofreading, editing, graphic design, which
Speaker 1: is a little different than a graphic designer like light
Speaker 1: graphic design. There's for podcasting. You could just work with podcasters,
Speaker 1: you could just work with YouTubers, you can just work
Speaker 1: with bloggers. You can just work with authors, like self
Speaker 1: published authors. So there are so many niches, and then
Speaker 1: so many niches within the niches that there are a
Speaker 1: lot of opportunities with virtual assisting and we're very excited
Speaker 1: to talk about those with Shatoria. But if you are
Speaker 1: looking for a side hustle and maybe you listen to
Speaker 1: this episode and it's not one hundred percent for you,
Speaker 1: we do this series every other month, so we have
Speaker 1: a lot of other options for you. So we've got
Speaker 1: episode two seventy eight where we talk about Salesforce. Two
Speaker 1: fifty seven, we talk about how to get into freelance writing.
Speaker 1: Episode two forty two we talk about selling dish products online. Obviously,
Speaker 1: so we do have quite a few options for you,
Speaker 1: and this is just another one on the list.
Speaker 3: I love this series that we're doing, and here we
Speaker 3: are with Shatoria, who's going to talk to us about
Speaker 3: being a virtual assistant. She is the creator of coin
Speaker 3: count and Mama a blog that focuses on family finance
Speaker 3: and her journey towards debt freedom. So she is just
Speaker 3: a fellow frugal shit. Shatoria has a bachelor's degree in
Speaker 3: accounting and an MBA in finance, just crushing it, and
Speaker 3: now she's teaching women how to become a virtual assistant
Speaker 3: so they can start making money from the comforts of
Speaker 3: their own home. And as you'll learn, as a side
Speaker 3: hustle too. It doesn't have to be your main hustle.
Speaker 3: So here's Shatoria.
Speaker 1: Shatoria, thank you so much for joining us on the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast. We are excited to talk about how
Speaker 1: people can make money as a virtual assistant.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for being here. We've been talking about
Speaker 3: side hustles and all different types of side hustles, and
Speaker 3: I think this one will be really interesting and accessible
Speaker 3: to a lot of our listeners. So thanks for being here. Shatria.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 4: I'm happy to be here and I want to be
Speaker 4: able to be a resource for a lot of women
Speaker 4: and some mental who are interested in learning about virtual assistant.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Well, let's dive in. So what are some of
Speaker 1: the services a virtual assistant can offer and which of
Speaker 1: those are really in demand today.
Speaker 4: So virtual assistants can offer a wide array of services
Speaker 4: from creating Google word documents, transcribing podcasts, virtual bookkeeping, light
Speaker 4: graphic design and CANVA copywriting, blog editing, swapping out just
Speaker 4: images on blogs, proofreading. There are so many avenues that
Speaker 4: you can go down, but I think people tend to like, oh,
Speaker 4: I don't have the experience, so I can't do it.
Speaker 4: And what I try to relate to people is you
Speaker 4: just have to be resourceful and use the skills that
Speaker 4: you acquired, whether it was in school or if you
Speaker 4: volunteer for any charitable organizations nonprofit or even at church,
Speaker 4: if you typed up meeting minutes, or if you typed
Speaker 4: emails like the sky's the limit. But a lot of
Speaker 4: VA tasks that I see that are in demand are
Speaker 4: administrative because you have business owners. They're like, I can
Speaker 4: do it, but I just don't have the time to
Speaker 4: do it, such as customer service, responding to emails, following
Speaker 4: up with leads, or even outreach reaching out to brands
Speaker 4: or podcasts that you want to work with. So that's
Speaker 4: one area that I see in high demand.
Speaker 3: It sounds like a wide array of skill set, but
Speaker 3: not super complicated skills something like you said you may
Speaker 3: have done in another role maybe peripherally, or was a
Speaker 3: part of it of the things that you listed off.
Speaker 3: Would you say it's usually kind of a massive combination
Speaker 3: of all of those things, or do you find like
Speaker 3: someone could really get into like a niche and only
Speaker 3: transcribe podcasts or is it usually a smattering?
Speaker 4: It could be both. I think it depends on like
Speaker 4: the niche, depending if you want to go that route
Speaker 4: or if you just want to be a general VA
Speaker 4: and say, well, I can do these five tasks and
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter if I work with content creators or
Speaker 4: attorneys or nutritionists, like I can offer those services to
Speaker 4: whomever I decide to reach out to or vice versa
Speaker 4: if they decide to reach out to me, So it
Speaker 4: can work both ways.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel so like that was what you just said,
Speaker 1: was like the first thing we hired out for the
Speaker 1: podcast is responding to emails customer service like our inbox
Speaker 1: just like got out of control. And then also some
Speaker 1: of the light graphic designs, so like pictures in blog
Speaker 1: posts or like Pinterest images. That was a while ago, right,
Speaker 1: But yeah, so that's exactly what. That was our first hire,
Speaker 1: and then we started hiring more specific roles. So like
Speaker 1: we have Goldie. Shout out to Goldie.
Speaker 3: She's great.
Speaker 1: She's like our podcast manager and she's like specific for podcasts.
Speaker 1: She works with podcasters just in podcasts, and so we
Speaker 1: obviously like pay her more because she knows exactly like
Speaker 1: what when I ask her to do something, she knows
Speaker 1: exactly why I'm asking her to do it. She doesn't
Speaker 1: need me to explain why it's important. So yeah, like
Speaker 1: we that's the experience that we've had as people people
Speaker 1: hiring vas.
Speaker 3: Are people when they do hire, are they generally is
Speaker 3: this like a subcontract or position or do you see
Speaker 3: many companies who are hiring virtual assistance as an employee?
Speaker 3: Like what what do you see in the space?
Speaker 4: So it's more of a subcontractor type of position. Now
Speaker 4: there are some like for instance, I work with an
Speaker 4: accountant doing virtual book keeping for her and she's her
Speaker 4: business has grown like at a rapid pace, and although
Speaker 4: I still have my full time job, she was looking
Speaker 4: for somebody who could come on board as a senior
Speaker 4: accountant in her business. So she did have an opportunity
Speaker 4: for someone to become full time in her business, but
Speaker 4: she still has those subcon tracting opportunities for those of
Speaker 4: us who just want to work an extra twenty or
Speaker 4: thirty hours a month.
Speaker 3: Man, I really love the flexibility and varying degrees of
Speaker 3: skill set and virtual assistant. And we're kind of assuming
Speaker 3: everyone knows what we mean by this, But like not
Speaker 3: going into an offense, being able to work from home,
Speaker 3: working primarily from the computer, how much could someone as
Speaker 3: a beginner virtual assistant expect to make? This sounds really great,
Speaker 3: but is there is there money in it especially for
Speaker 3: a beginner and then income trajectory from there? What are
Speaker 3: you what are you seeing?
Speaker 4: Absolutely so, I personally believe that an entry level virtual
Speaker 4: assistant should start at twenty or twenty five dollars an hour,
Speaker 4: no less than that. And it also depends on the
Speaker 4: skill set or that they're the service that they're offering
Speaker 4: to a potential client. So let's use the bookkeeping for
Speaker 4: an example. If you're going in and you're doing a
Speaker 4: lot of analyzing reports and pulling in data and interpreting
Speaker 4: what these reports mean, and you have that accounting background,
Speaker 4: I would assume or hope you would make a little
Speaker 4: more than twenty five dollars an hour, Whereas if it's
Speaker 4: somebody who says, well, you know, like I'll use myself. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I have the financial background, but I was often tasked
Speaker 4: at work to create a lot of SOPs and forums
Speaker 4: and emails and things of that nature. But I never
Speaker 4: looked at myself as a set secretary or someone with
Speaker 4: that administrative background, like that experience. So when I took
Speaker 4: on a task, they were like, oh, well, we can
Speaker 4: offer you twenty dollars an hour to meet Okay, you know,
Speaker 4: because I probably would have came in much lower than that,
Speaker 4: but looking at the amount of work that I had
Speaker 4: to do, and you also have to do like education,
Speaker 4: because there's some platforms you may not know how to use,
Speaker 4: and so some business owners will teach you how to
Speaker 4: use it, or they can say, hey, you know, there
Speaker 4: is a site you can go to to learn how
Speaker 4: to use this X, Y, and z. And once I
Speaker 4: ended up learning how to use a particular software and
Speaker 4: I felt that I mastered it, then at that point
Speaker 4: it's like, Okay, it doesn't take me as long to
Speaker 4: do this task as it initially did, so I'm going
Speaker 4: to increase my rate or you may find that the
Speaker 4: demand is starting to grow for clients, because I was
Speaker 4: telling someone yesterday that word of mouth referrals is huge,
Speaker 4: and so if you've worked with several clients and you've
Speaker 4: done except great job working with those clients, they're going
Speaker 4: to go ahead and refer you to someone else. And
Speaker 4: when you see that demand come in, it's like, hey,
Speaker 4: you know, let me bump my rate up, you know,
Speaker 4: to let people know, like, I'll provide this quality service
Speaker 4: and I want to get paid for this service as well.
Speaker 4: But there are a lot of entry level virtual assistants
Speaker 4: who have been able to quit their jobs, like within
Speaker 4: the first six months because of the demand and the
Speaker 4: services that they have provided. So there, I like to
Speaker 4: tell people the opportunity is there. You just have to
Speaker 4: in some cases be patient. Everything's not going to fall
Speaker 4: in your lab immediately, but you will be surprised how
Speaker 4: quickly you can find that entry level position if you
Speaker 4: just market yourself, network and just be confident in yourself
Speaker 4: and in your abilities.
Speaker 3: What is a good way for someone to be able
Speaker 3: to find some of these jobs, Like before the word
Speaker 3: of mouth gets out and you're just crushing it and
Speaker 3: everyone is reaching out and telling their friends about you,
Speaker 3: like how how do you find those those first few jobs?
Speaker 4: Social media? I found a lot of mine, I'm not
Speaker 4: a lot all of them on Instagram wow, And I
Speaker 4: was finding accounts that or in a sense, honestly, I
Speaker 4: just like stories and leave genuine comments, like I wasn't
Speaker 4: out there saying like oh hi, because I'm sure you
Speaker 4: guys get people cold pitching in the DMS, leaving these
Speaker 4: eight paragraphs about what they can do. And it's like,
Speaker 4: I don't want to do that because if there's somebody
Speaker 4: who's a business owner and they have they don't really
Speaker 4: have that much time to sit here and read this
Speaker 4: thesis statement or this this research paper. You know, it's
Speaker 4: like I just want to like something, so like Jen,
Speaker 4: if it was some I'm like, oh my gosh, what
Speaker 4: is the baby? Do you know? Things like that? Or
Speaker 4: oh I have a little boy, Like I find things
Speaker 4: in common and I'll just engage that way. And surprisingly
Speaker 4: I've received a lot of clients that way, just from
Speaker 4: genuine interaction, and I make sure it's somebody that has
Speaker 4: something in common with me or something that I can
Speaker 4: relate to. If there's something that I really can't relate to,
Speaker 4: I don't want to just put myself out there because
Speaker 4: that's going to be awkward for me to try to
Speaker 4: come up with a conversation that I really can't relate
Speaker 4: with that person, you.
Speaker 1: Know, amen, And as a business owner, that that is
Speaker 1: what I want to see. I want to see the
Speaker 1: short responses and the and the genuineness because you're going
Speaker 1: to be working with this person hopefully for years to come,
Speaker 1: so you want to be able to relate to them.
Speaker 1: You want to like them, and when you reach out,
Speaker 1: Like my favorite outreaches are when somebody like insults your
Speaker 1: work and says, oh, I can make it better. I
Speaker 1: love that. But like so I know when somebody, when
Speaker 1: I see somebody respond genuinely with with genuine insight, I
Speaker 1: know that's how they're going to reach out to other people.
Speaker 1: When I ask that to outreach to get us on
Speaker 1: other podcasts or for a business partnership, I already know
Speaker 1: how they're going to outreach. And I like that because
Speaker 1: they've already put that thought, Like I know what they're thinking,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I like the way you're thinking. I
Speaker 1: think that way, so exactly what you said, That's what
Speaker 1: I want to see in an outreach as a business owner, for.
Speaker 4: Sure, And I tell people like, excuse me, you don't
Speaker 4: necessarily have to wait until someone puts something in there
Speaker 4: on their stories or make create a post to say like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm hiring, because they may in the back of their
Speaker 4: mind know like, oh, I do know at some point
Speaker 4: in time I'm going to need to hire a copywriter
Speaker 4: or someone is to do the like graphic design. And
Speaker 4: if you've just been interacting, that genuine interaction with them,
Speaker 4: and then it's like, hey, let me go this Shatoria
Speaker 4: person and you know she says things on my post.
Speaker 4: Let me see where she's going, what's going on her page? Oh,
Speaker 4: she's a virtual assistant. Let me go through. Oh I
Speaker 4: like that, you know. And then I'll say, hey, how
Speaker 4: can I learn more about your service? It's always happened
Speaker 4: like that, And so I just encouraged like some of
Speaker 4: the newbies, like, hey, be genuine, leave genuine comments, like
Speaker 4: if there's a post that they like that you don't like,
Speaker 4: then don't like it?
Speaker 1: Like you don't, Yes, you don't want to work with
Speaker 1: people you don't.
Speaker 3: Like authentic, Yeah, engaging in the world in an authentic way.
Speaker 1: What are we saying I know.
Speaker 4: Right, you know, it's like, I'm sure the same thing.
Speaker 4: It's somebody will like fifty posts and then it's like
Speaker 4: they finally was like, yeah, I've been following you for years.
Speaker 4: No you have not, like you just like these fifty
Speaker 4: posts and now you're dropping this in my DM's like,
Speaker 4: come on, you're.
Speaker 1: Just emailing me with the most recent episode I just
Speaker 1: did and saying you liked it and trying to get
Speaker 1: me to give you money. I love that one too.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, I everything you're saying I love
Speaker 1: because and I want to find somebody to hire before
Speaker 1: I actually put out a post that says I'm hiring honestly,
Speaker 1: So yeah, don't wait for somebody, don't look for hiring
Speaker 1: now posts, be just pursuing the people you want to
Speaker 1: work with. Because even if they and then put like
Speaker 1: I know somebody's a VA, Like the VA is like
Speaker 1: at the end of the name or something or somewhere
Speaker 1: where I can see it in the DM before I
Speaker 1: go to the profile. And even if I don't need
Speaker 1: a VA at the second, I always know somebody else
Speaker 1: who's working for one. And if I get good vibes
Speaker 1: like I will, I'll say, oh, hey, I got good
Speaker 1: vibes from this person. I'm not sure about their work,
Speaker 1: but I got good vibes from them.
Speaker 4: That's so true. A friend of mine we had a
Speaker 4: live yesterday and she was saying that she did the
Speaker 4: genuine interaction with a potential lead and although she wasn't
Speaker 4: able to support her, they still kept they were still
Speaker 4: cordial between each other, and as a result of that,
Speaker 4: that potential lead was able to refer three clients to
Speaker 4: her because of that. So it's like, you still don't
Speaker 4: want to burn bridges because you never know where that
Speaker 4: next opportunity can come from. And I think that's something
Speaker 4: that's really big because so many new virtual assistants are
Speaker 4: ambitious about how can I find clients? Like my emails
Speaker 4: or my emails and my dms. I swear I get
Speaker 4: so many of those a day. I can't even keep
Speaker 4: up with them. But it's like, where can I find clients?
Speaker 4: And it's like, well, what service do you offer? You know,
Speaker 4: if I go look at your Instagram page and you
Speaker 4: call yourself a virtual assistant, and I see kittens and
Speaker 4: puppies and I don't see anything else that directs me
Speaker 4: to you being a virtual assistant. You know, it's kind
Speaker 4: of like, well, how can I learn more about you?
Speaker 4: When the first point of contact I have is this
Speaker 4: this page and there's either something on there that's not
Speaker 4: even relevant or it's just blank and you follow like
Speaker 4: two hundred people, it's like, how can I learn more
Speaker 4: about who you are? Or you know, if someone you have,
Speaker 4: somebody reach out to you potentially and they're looking for
Speaker 4: someone to write blog posts and that's not what you do,
Speaker 4: you can't get upset and be like, oh, I just
Speaker 4: want you can't do that because that opportunity wasn't for you.
Speaker 4: But if somebody reached out, that's a good sign that
Speaker 4: you're doing something for them to reach out, and like
Speaker 4: you said, they may be able to refer you to
Speaker 4: somebody later. So you know, just still be cordial, be yourself,
Speaker 4: and not stress over the small things, because there will
Speaker 4: be seasons when you don't have any leads or whatever,
Speaker 4: and then when that happens, just focus on what you
Speaker 4: can do on the back end of your business, you know,
Speaker 4: so that you don't have processes or things going on
Speaker 4: the back end that are just sitting there and they're stale.
Speaker 4: And then when you get a client then it's like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, oh you know things aren't working hard.
Speaker 4: You can still be working on your business.
Speaker 1: Mm hm, I love that. So how would somebody know
Speaker 1: if this would be a good fit for them? Because
Speaker 1: it sounds great, You're reaching out on social media, you're
Speaker 1: applying to emails like great, great, great. How is there
Speaker 1: anybody that this may not be like a good fit
Speaker 1: for How do you know if it's a fit for you?
Speaker 4: I feel like, if you don't like being on the computer,
Speaker 4: or I don't like social media, I don't, it's not
Speaker 4: for you. You know that's writing blogs, you know, or you
Speaker 4: know it's a virtual position, So how can you not
Speaker 4: I don't like going live or I don't like showing
Speaker 4: my face, then it's not for you because you're gonna
Speaker 4: have to at some point go live and go on Zoom, Google,
Speaker 4: Meet or whatever platform there is out there. If you're
Speaker 4: somebody who says like I don't want to learn something
Speaker 4: new it just seems like it's too much, then it's
Speaker 4: not for you because in this space there's so many
Speaker 4: learning opportunities available, Like that's the only way that you
Speaker 4: can grow and thrive in this position. So if you're
Speaker 4: reluctant or hesitant to that, then this isn't the space
Speaker 4: for you to be in, you know. Or if you
Speaker 4: want that typical nine to five structure and it's like, well,
Speaker 4: you know, my income isn't going to be consistent or this,
Speaker 4: then it's not for you, you know. But if you're
Speaker 4: okay with the inconsistencies, you know, then hey, by all means,
Speaker 4: go for it. If you're open to meeting new people,
Speaker 4: learning about new businesses, you're resourceful, you're eager, and you're ambitious,
Speaker 4: Like I say, go for it.
Speaker 3: What level of availability do you think someone would need
Speaker 3: to have in order to pursue us.
Speaker 4: Ooh, that's a good question. So I think it varies.
Speaker 4: Like for someone like me, anytime I work with someone,
Speaker 4: I let them know, hey, I'm still working a nine
Speaker 4: to five, so if you need me between these hours,
Speaker 4: I'm unavailable.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: There may be instances where I have a lot of
Speaker 4: downtime and I'm working from home that day and I
Speaker 4: don't really have much to do at work. I may
Speaker 4: do something, but I won't let the client know that
Speaker 4: because if I send them an email, it's like, oh,
Speaker 4: Shittori's available. So I may do something on the back end,
Speaker 4: and then the next day or that evening, I'll just
Speaker 4: go ahead and send things out saying, hey, I got
Speaker 4: this done that. So I think it varies upon your
Speaker 4: availability and the same thing, like I have the kids
Speaker 4: as well, and so I try, like, like on Mondays,
Speaker 4: I don't really do much client work coming off of
Speaker 4: the weekend because I'm drained. My kids wear me out,
Speaker 4: so it's like I don't want to take on, you
Speaker 4: know a lot of things that are due on Monday.
Speaker 4: So I'll have like my discovery calls maybe on Tuesday,
Speaker 4: or I'll have like a client call on a Thursday,
Speaker 4: and I try to do them, you know, like about
Speaker 4: seven o'clock for me, because that's a good time. Like
Speaker 4: my kids have ate and Eve, they've had a bath,
Speaker 4: and they're sitting in there watching you know, Bluey or
Speaker 4: whatever it is they're looking at on the TV. And
Speaker 4: I know I won't get interrupted, but I'll outline that
Speaker 4: with my clients who we're having a discovery call, saying hey,
Speaker 4: although I'm not full time yet, this is the time
Speaker 4: frame that I work in. This is when you can
Speaker 4: expect to hear back from me. And I haven't had
Speaker 4: any pushback from that because I was up front with
Speaker 4: the expectations or the boundaries that I set for myself.
Speaker 4: I found that when people aren't really forthcoming with that
Speaker 4: information and the client's like, hey, I haven't heard from
Speaker 4: the nets when you create, we've run into a problem,
Speaker 4: you know. So it's like you got to be upfront.
Speaker 4: And that's what really made virtual assisting appealing to me
Speaker 4: because I can still do this in addition to having
Speaker 4: my full time job, and I don't feel burnt out
Speaker 4: of overwork because I've set those boundaries in place.
Speaker 3: It does seem to be one of the benefits of
Speaker 3: being a virtual assistant is a lot of times. Of
Speaker 3: course it depends on what jobs and clients you choose,
Speaker 3: but they can be much more project base than needing
Speaker 3: to constantly be responsive or on the computer at any
Speaker 3: given time. For Jen and I with our business, you know,
Speaker 3: we're not in the same time zone as our VA,
Speaker 3: and it works because there's certain things that it's not
Speaker 3: time specific. It's a little bit more project based. So
Speaker 3: I think there can be flexibility and something as you're
Speaker 3: saying that you can find you're upfront about when you
Speaker 3: can be responding, what types of projects or tasks you
Speaker 3: can take on and you know, maybe you've got you
Speaker 3: set like a two day turnaround or a one week
Speaker 3: turnaround on the different things that are being asked of you.
Speaker 3: And that that level of flexibility does seem to be
Speaker 3: really nice for people with the full time jobs, for
Speaker 3: people with kids at home, not easy. You're still doing
Speaker 3: work at some level of flexibility, but it.
Speaker 1: Is encouraging to hear that you have a full time job,
Speaker 1: you have three kids, and you're still able to make
Speaker 1: money as a virtual assistant. It means that it's accessible
Speaker 1: for other people and it's not like one of these
Speaker 1: you know, oh, I have to be nine to five,
Speaker 1: full availability, put my kids in daycare if I want
Speaker 1: to succeed at this thing. No, as a beginner, you
Speaker 1: don't have to do that.
Speaker 3: And that's what I.
Speaker 1: Think makes your story in this you know side hustle
Speaker 1: like so accessible.
Speaker 4: And I think another point to consider is you you're
Speaker 4: doing things that you like to do, like I enjoy
Speaker 4: doing the bookkeeping, or other people might be like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, oh, but I enjoy doing it, so it's
Speaker 4: easy for me to be like, oh, let me go
Speaker 4: show up and do dad do whatever I need to
Speaker 4: do and be done with it, versus if there's something
Speaker 4: where it's like, yeah, i'll be a virtual bookkeeper. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm good at this. If you're good at it but
Speaker 4: you don't like it, then don't even offer that as
Speaker 4: a service because you'll find yourself dreading showing up for it.
Speaker 4: Which I always compare that to corporate. You know, sometimes
Speaker 4: there's task and responsibilities that they give you a corporate
Speaker 4: that you just don't like, but you can't say you're
Speaker 4: not going to do it. So it's like, if I'm
Speaker 4: going to do this virtual assistant thing and make money
Speaker 4: from it, I want to show up doing things that
Speaker 4: I like because that's going to spill over in the
Speaker 4: conversations that I have with people. It's going to spill
Speaker 4: over and the work that I produce for them, Versus
Speaker 4: showing up halfway and not doing something and you're not
Speaker 4: paying attention to the details and you're rushing to get
Speaker 4: it done, creating a lot of errors and mistakes, and
Speaker 4: it's just not it's not conducive, it's not healthy, and
Speaker 4: I just don't recommend it. So find something that you
Speaker 4: like to do, and I see that to say it's okay.
Speaker 4: In the virtual assistant space to try something first, like oh,
Speaker 4: I think I like it, Just try it out and
Speaker 4: when you realize you know what, this isn't for me,
Speaker 4: then you don't have to offer that as a service anymore.
Speaker 4: You could take it off of your service offerings and
Speaker 4: find something else that you like and then move from there.
Speaker 4: That's the beauty of it, like, try it, if you
Speaker 4: don't like it, then kick it to the curb and
Speaker 4: try something else.
Speaker 3: They so many good tips, and I think it's a
Speaker 3: helpful reminder that you are essentially running your own small
Speaker 3: business when you're working for yourself. That way, when you
Speaker 3: are a subcontractor, you don't have to say yes to
Speaker 3: everything you don't right, I have to keep going with
Speaker 3: one particular client or job that is not that is
Speaker 3: really just straining and depleting you.
Speaker 1: You get to decide, yeah, you don't have to be desperate,
Speaker 1: especially when you started as a side hustle. Then you
Speaker 1: can find and what you enjoy. And like you said
Speaker 1: at the beginning, it's the tasks are so versatile, the
Speaker 1: services are are plenty, and I also I know from
Speaker 1: experience of like working with so many people that everybody
Speaker 1: is looking for somebody to do something like that. You said,
Speaker 1: like everybody's looking for something, it is out there. The
Speaker 1: hardest part is finding those people. And I think the
Speaker 1: social media instagram like nurturing relationships, I think that is
Speaker 1: the best way to do it. There is you know,
Speaker 1: like if you're looking for some industries, you could get
Speaker 1: into LinkedIn, which is turning more into like business Instagram.
Speaker 1: But yes, I mean same concept, even if you're gonna
Speaker 1: go over there, this is those genuine relationships. So last question,
Speaker 1: how about like training, Is there any way like that
Speaker 1: you can find training or find kind of resources to
Speaker 1: figure out what are these services I like offering and
Speaker 1: what are these services? I don't want to offer stuff
Speaker 1: like that?
Speaker 4: So there are different trainings out there, Like there are
Speaker 4: some virtual assistants who have like oh they have courses
Speaker 4: or ebooks or even like I created an ebook because
Speaker 4: I found that there were people who just didn't know
Speaker 4: how to get started, like what's the first step? What
Speaker 4: should I do? And so I when I realized so
Speaker 4: many people were asking me that I created this ebook
Speaker 4: just to say, hey, these are the first steps you
Speaker 4: should take, this is what you should look at, X,
Speaker 4: Y and Z and I outlined it in a manner
Speaker 4: that wasn't confusing. I wanted it just to be straightforward
Speaker 4: and to the point, because I've been victim of buying
Speaker 4: things and it's just like this isn't even what I
Speaker 4: thought this was, Like what is this? You know? And
Speaker 4: I didn't want my followers or my community to purchase
Speaker 4: a product and walk away from it and be just
Speaker 4: as confused as they were before they bought it. I
Speaker 4: just wanted to be straightforward until the point, and that's
Speaker 4: what I did there. But there are a lot of
Speaker 4: of other like virtual assistant mentors out there who started
Speaker 4: as virtual assistance and they found that, you know, in
Speaker 4: that initial step of getting started, people tend to get
Speaker 4: overwhelmed with things that kind of are irrelevant, like the
Speaker 4: website and the logo, Like that doesn't matter. Like go
Speaker 4: ahead and put yourself out there, create a simple logo,
Speaker 4: use a template in canvas for a logo, and then
Speaker 4: when you're at the point of evolving to the next step,
Speaker 4: then make that investment on that logo. But don't sweat
Speaker 4: that because you have people who have a good who
Speaker 4: are able and capable of getting things done. And I
Speaker 4: would hate for somebody who's like brilliant if this one
Speaker 4: particular service offering, get hung up on the logo, because
Speaker 4: that person may be able to help a business owner
Speaker 4: grow and scale to get to where they desire to be.
Speaker 4: But if you get hung up on that logo, you
Speaker 4: won't be able to help that person get to that
Speaker 4: next step because you're worrying about something that's not really
Speaker 4: I don't think about the logo. I might say, oh,
Speaker 4: that's cute, but then I just move on, like it
Speaker 4: doesn't really hold any weight for me. It's like, okay,
Speaker 4: you know, but develop the confidence, which is something that
Speaker 4: a lot of people lack, and I think it's just
Speaker 4: how we are brought up overall. You know, you're always
Speaker 4: imposter syndrome. Oh her it just looks better than mine,
Speaker 4: or oh you got to stop doing that and just
Speaker 4: be confident in yourself. And if you feel that way,
Speaker 4: stop falling that person so you don't continue to feel
Speaker 4: that way. Like follow accounts that motivate you and encourage
Speaker 4: you to want to get out there and work harder
Speaker 4: and try harder.
Speaker 3: Such good advice, so helpful. I feel like we've got
Speaker 3: the blueprint for beginning here.
Speaker 1: Definitely linked to your ebook, and yeah, as you were talking,
Speaker 1: I was like, a testimony from a business owner holds
Speaker 1: way more weight from for someone than a logo does.
Speaker 1: So absolutely not for what. Yes, I don't look at
Speaker 1: I looked maybe once our vas like had like a resume,
Speaker 1: an accessible resume on the internet, but like no website
Speaker 1: or anything, but somewhere where I can see testimonies and
Speaker 1: see if we were gonna be a good fit. And
Speaker 1: that's what's more important.
Speaker 3: Do you know what's super straightforward, always relevant, Just plenty
Speaker 3: of testimonies on this one. Absolutely never need to question
Speaker 3: the bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, It's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 2: is William.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 2: Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 2: to pay that bill anymore. Buck bills, butffalo bills, Bill Clinton,
Speaker 2: This is the bill of the.
Speaker 1: Week, Shatoria. Every week we invite our guests our listeners
Speaker 1: to share with us their bill of the week, and
Speaker 1: we have pointed out to you how vague the parameters are,
Speaker 1: so we are excited to hear yours now.
Speaker 4: So this is exciting. I actually did this yesterday. So
Speaker 4: I'm getting married in July of this year, and I've
Speaker 4: been wedding dress shopping, trying to be very budget conscious,
Speaker 4: like how much I spent And I found my dress
Speaker 4: and I paid for it in cash yesterday, and so
Speaker 4: I'm so excited you guys, like it's I don't feel like,
Speaker 4: I just got chills thinking about it, Like, you know,
Speaker 4: being able to walk in there not have to use
Speaker 4: my credit card and pay in cash, Like what like
Speaker 4: who does that?
Speaker 1: You know? So, yeah, we both have really funny wedding
Speaker 1: dress stories, so we can totally get the wedding dress bill.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, congratulations.
Speaker 3: Was so exciting, Tori. I mean that just an upcoming
Speaker 3: wedding is very awesome, and I'm sure there's so so
Speaker 3: much around that, But then the thrill and accomplishment of
Speaker 3: being able to pay cash for what I estimate to
Speaker 3: be one of the most important things.
Speaker 1: Of the wedding day. I mean, who you're marrying, she thought.
Speaker 3: Now, she thinks almost anything else can go wrong as
Speaker 3: long as you feel beautiful in the and to know
Speaker 3: you bought that thing cold hard cash, that's the exciting.
Speaker 4: Yes, Like you know, normally in the past when you
Speaker 4: were making a big purchase like that. It's just like, okay,
Speaker 4: but I whipped my while out. Yeah I'm ready in it.
Speaker 4: You know, I had a a target price in my head,
Speaker 4: but I went to spin and so when I went
Speaker 4: drift shopping, I was just like on I got you know,
Speaker 4: I watched to say yes today dress like for years,
Speaker 4: so in my head it's like, oh if I got
Speaker 4: to see something that's not really and everything I found
Speaker 4: phill below my budget. So it was just like maybe
Speaker 4: I just sit like this high price and these dresses
Speaker 4: aren't as high as I thought they were. I don't know,
Speaker 4: but I'm just so glad that I found one that
Speaker 4: filled below my budget and I could pay in cash.
Speaker 4: Like I just want to like run around my house
Speaker 4: and jump up and down and do cartwheels because.
Speaker 3: Just not in the dress.
Speaker 1: Yeah I wait, wait, you can wait.
Speaker 3: It's so amazing if you all listening were able to
Speaker 3: buy your wedding dress or any other dress or just
Speaker 3: anything cold hard cash. You don't mind paying that bill,
Speaker 3: or you got a bill that you know really frustrated you,
Speaker 3: or you are a person named Bill just living your life.
Speaker 3: Visit Frigal friendspodcast dot com slash Bill, leave us your bill,
Speaker 3: talk about being Bill. You know the drill, and now
Speaker 3: it's time for.
Speaker 1: Around. All right, for this week's lightning Round. For this
Speaker 1: episode's Lightning Round, we will all answer this very vulnerable
Speaker 1: and this vulnerable question that really gives insight to like
Speaker 1: who you are as a person, and you listening can
Speaker 1: judge us for yourselves. Question today is if you could
Speaker 1: be anyone in the world's virtual assistant, who would you
Speaker 1: want to be A for story? We will let you
Speaker 1: go first. You time to think of this.
Speaker 4: So if I could be the virtual assistant for anyone,
Speaker 4: it will have to be Oprah Winfrey.
Speaker 3: Yes, say more.
Speaker 4: Yeah, It's just like she's like this boss girl mogul,
Speaker 4: like doing so much. It's like I just want to
Speaker 4: be a part of that, just to see how she's
Speaker 4: able to like just keep everything. Like everything she does
Speaker 4: just really intrigues me. So it's like, how can I
Speaker 4: just just sit on the sit in a chair next
Speaker 4: to you and just just be a witness of that
Speaker 4: whole movement, Like like she's like a true like girl boss.
Speaker 3: So it's like I would love to be her.
Speaker 1: VA. I think you'd have to call yourself a virtual Gail.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, I think that musicians should exist.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm sure you crush it.
Speaker 1: Gosh, I would.
Speaker 3: That's a good one, what about you, John?
Speaker 1: So for me, it's any of my favorite Disney bloggers,
Speaker 1: So I went really accessible on this one.
Speaker 3: So you did. You're even like putting them in that
Speaker 3: line if you want to call them out and like
Speaker 3: tell them, none of them listen.
Speaker 1: I'm sure because they're Disney bloggers, they do not listen
Speaker 1: to frugal friends and go to Disney. You can, you
Speaker 1: absolutely can't.
Speaker 3: You can.
Speaker 1: But I watch these people's videos and well maybe one
Speaker 1: of them Okay, So I love specifically like run Disney floggers,
Speaker 1: but also some just like regular Disney floggers. So I
Speaker 1: love running and makeup. She's one of my favorites. Michael
Speaker 1: does Diz and then Mammoth Club Michael.
Speaker 3: Does Diz with the Z.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I actually had to look that up. I was like,
Speaker 1: is it with a Z or an S? And it
Speaker 1: is a Z?
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: So I'm not cut out for being a virtual assistant.
Speaker 3: So I'd mean the only thing that would make it
Speaker 3: worth it.
Speaker 1: For you, Yes, if I could just like we could
Speaker 1: just like talk about Disney and and yeah, and hang
Speaker 1: out at Disney.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's a good one. I love Disney. This one's
Speaker 3: an easy one for me because it is the same
Speaker 3: answer to also the question of your celebrity crush or
Speaker 3: who would you want to have dinner with, or if
Speaker 3: you think you could be friends with someone who's a celebrity,
Speaker 3: Like it's all the same person and it's Jennifer Lawrence
Speaker 3: always and forever. I just think she'd be a blast.
Speaker 3: I would I would mostly want to be a va
Speaker 3: for her so I can watch how she moves through life.
Speaker 1: I think, doctor, you are very I didn't know who
Speaker 1: you were going to say, but it like makes total
Speaker 1: sense to me.
Speaker 3: Her or Paul Rudd or both of them. I think
Speaker 3: I could juggle them at the same time. Yeah, if
Speaker 3: you're a contractor mm hmm, be like I'm not available
Speaker 3: like at midnight because Jaylaw she needs me then in
Speaker 3: the middle.
Speaker 1: Of the night. Paul during the dead day, and Jaylaw
Speaker 1: at night.
Speaker 3: Yes, some of my guidands like that would be my
Speaker 3: virtual assistant role is just watching her and maybe sometimes
Speaker 3: weighing in and mostly laughing.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I think these are really really good ones.
Speaker 3: I will call them out though, for sure, because I
Speaker 3: will leave this job for that job.
Speaker 1: I don't under I believe you. You will leave me
Speaker 1: in a second for Jennifer Lawrence. And I'm not offended,
Speaker 1: but I believe you. But I will do everything in
Speaker 1: my power to make sure she never contacts me. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: that sounds crashing. Oh thank you so much for hanging
Speaker 1: out with us today. If people want to find more
Speaker 1: from you, we will link the e book. But where
Speaker 1: else can they find you in your wisdom?
Speaker 4: They can find me on Instagram. I hang out there
Speaker 4: all the time, morning, noon, sometimes at night, you know,
Speaker 4: but not nope, I'm sleepings from under the bed.
Speaker 1: But yes, yes, oh well, we will definitely link to
Speaker 1: those And thank you so much. This has been really
Speaker 1: really good.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: This was fun, that was super accessible. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: with how practical those tips were. I think if you
Speaker 1: wanted to be a VA, you could take what you
Speaker 1: have heard in this episode and have a really great
Speaker 1: starting off point.
Speaker 3: I feel like she answered all of my questions so robustly,
Speaker 3: unlike some of our other Side Hustle episodes where I've
Speaker 3: not had a total understanding of it. A virtual assistant
Speaker 3: is one of the ones that I feel as though
Speaker 3: I think I know what that is and what they
Speaker 3: would do, but I feel like she rounded it out
Speaker 3: so much more and answered all of the things that
Speaker 3: I would want to know if it was something I
Speaker 3: was considering. So I'm so thrilled about that. I love
Speaker 3: this series. Yeah, Shatoria.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so just know that you don't have to be
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur or have your own business or do whatever
Speaker 1: you don't want to do. You don't have to do.
Speaker 1: You can find what you are pasted about and what
Speaker 1: you enjoy doing it and dig into that and still
Speaker 1: be profitable. Obviously you you know, don't want to what
Speaker 1: is it underwater basket weaving? Hopefully that's not your passion.
Speaker 1: They use that reference a lot, just simply to say
Speaker 1: you kind of got to follow the money to an extent.
Speaker 3: If I do say niche down and that is niche,
Speaker 3: that is damched.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I won't say anything is too niche, but it
Speaker 1: does require having to breathe underwater, I think so.
Speaker 3: Or hold your breath.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but thank you so much for listening. We hope
Speaker 1: you took something away from this, and if this isn't
Speaker 1: for you, I hope you listen to one of our
Speaker 1: other side Hustle series episodes and maybe find something that
Speaker 1: is or don't focus on it at all. Don't focus
Speaker 1: on a side hustle, just do your main, main gig.
Speaker 1: But thank you for listening. Many of you know we
Speaker 1: have a membership for our listeners who are paying off
Speaker 1: to which is most of the people that are starting
Speaker 1: side hustles, and so if that's you, we do monthly
Speaker 1: money challenges, we have accountability groups, book club, and it's
Speaker 1: just a really fun place for people who may not
Speaker 1: have a lot of people in their physical life that
Speaker 1: get what they're trying to do or can help them
Speaker 1: in what they're trying to do. We bring everyone together virtually,
Speaker 1: and so we want to congratulate one of our members
Speaker 1: for a big win. List is from Corey. She says,
Speaker 1: since focusing on paying down my student loan in a year,
Speaker 1: which is about a five K balance, I was able
Speaker 1: to watch my balance dramatically decrease, which helped me really
Speaker 1: find out what was important to me. It takes time
Speaker 1: to narrow down the things that matter. With practice and patience,
Speaker 1: I now owe less than five hundred dollars and I
Speaker 1: have my final payment scheduled for March second. I have
Speaker 1: created momentum to keep moving towards my next goal, and
Speaker 1: I've never been goal oriented in the past. This process
Speaker 1: has really flipped a switch for me and helped in
Speaker 1: so many areas of my life. I am grateful for
Speaker 1: this opportunity because I thought I was going to have
Speaker 1: this step for ten plus years. I've also grateful to
Speaker 1: friends who supported me and my decisions during this process
Speaker 1: because they understand it's temporary and not permanent. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends Club for your support and encouragement during this process.
Speaker 1: You all are the best.
Speaker 3: This is amazing, Corey well Don. I love it when
Speaker 3: I hear stories of people who are thinking it's going
Speaker 3: to take me forever to pay off debt, and then
Speaker 3: they surprise themselves and they learn so much about themselves,
Speaker 3: and they develop habits and behaviors that they can take
Speaker 3: with them past the debt payoff experience, and this just
Speaker 3: encapsulates all of that. I'm so thrilled that you experienced
Speaker 3: what you've experienced.
Speaker 1: Yes, if this sounds like something you want to be saying,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to pay off debt or do a
Speaker 1: side hustle. Then check out the Frugal Friends Club at
Speaker 1: Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash clubs. We have courses, interviews,
Speaker 1: challenges friends, so definitely something to check out.
Speaker 3: See you Next Time.
Speaker 1: Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: Jill.
Speaker 1: I think we need to expound on the wedding dress
Speaker 1: stories that we kind of touched on. Go for it, Jen, Okay,
Speaker 1: yours is better than mine, so I'm going to start.
Speaker 1: I when I bought my wedding dress, I was not
Speaker 1: engaged yet. I was about right. I was about two
Speaker 1: months away from being engaged, and I had known Travis.
Speaker 1: Let's see, I had known Travis for four months.
Speaker 3: Did you buy it with him in mind? Well?
Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously, I don't know.
Speaker 5: It's like some day this is going to happen for me,
Speaker 5: and I hope that I went in with my mom,
Speaker 5: all my friends, and granted we got engaged after dating
Speaker 5: or knowing each other for six months, so I and
Speaker 5: I bought the dress before we were engaged.
Speaker 1: We got married with only knowing each other for eleven months,
Speaker 1: so we hadn't known each other for a full year
Speaker 1: when we got married. Wow, still going strong seven years later.
Speaker 3: You didn't know what October Travis was like until now
Speaker 3: married him.
Speaker 1: I met him in a November and I married him
Speaker 1: in October. Wow.
Speaker 3: Never spent Halloween, first Halloween.
Speaker 1: Married first Halloween together yet? Scary true? But okay. So
Speaker 1: the wedding dress, though, I was between two dresses. One
Speaker 1: was this beautiful mermaid covered in tiny, tiny pearls, and
Speaker 1: it was beautiful and it was, but I couldn't couldn't
Speaker 1: dance in it. The pearls real probably not. The dress
Speaker 1: was sixteen hundred dollars though, wow, which nobody would really
Speaker 1: bat an eye at now. But I didn't choose it
Speaker 1: because I couldn't dance well in it. But I found
Speaker 1: this other dress, flowy chiffon, had the kind of this
Speaker 1: Grecian top that was perfect for dancing in.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: And that one was one hundred and fifty dollars. Yes,
Speaker 1: And I had a fifty dollars cupon a one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars And so that's the dress I got, not even
Speaker 1: because of the price, it was truly because I could
Speaker 1: dance in it. Yeah, I found out when I was
Speaker 1: in my friend's wedding about six months later. I guess
Speaker 1: it had to have been four months later we got
Speaker 1: the dresses for the wedding. When we went into David's bridle,
Speaker 1: I saw my dress in the bridesmaid rack. So I
Speaker 1: realized when I was going to be a bridesmaid in
Speaker 1: my friend's wedding, that what I had done was I
Speaker 1: bought a bridesmaid's dress in white.
Speaker 3: Which is just a beautiful hat.
Speaker 1: And it's a hack. I give a lot of people now,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know what I was doing when I
Speaker 1: did it.
Speaker 3: That's what you did.
Speaker 1: So you're a frugal friend.
Speaker 3: Before you, I was even a flicker in your mind.
Speaker 1: So true. I mean this is before I started paying
Speaker 1: off debt too. We hadn't even talked about it.
Speaker 3: You were all you were using coupons. I was hacking.
Speaker 1: I knew value was not beauty. You already knew it
Speaker 1: was boogie. So that's where core values began for me.
Speaker 3: Wow, I don't even know if we've got time for
Speaker 3: my story. Your story's just gold.
Speaker 1: You can know, you can paraphrase, we got time.
Speaker 3: Okay. People have heard this if you listen to our
Speaker 3: wedding episodes. But if not, here you go. I was
Speaker 3: a young bride, I was of age, but I was
Speaker 3: young and I had no money, and I was looking
Speaker 3: for what type of style wedding dress do I want?
Speaker 3: When Eric and I were talking serious and I knew
Speaker 3: that the question was going to be coming soon, and
Speaker 3: I found this really beautiful dress online and I loved it,
Speaker 3: and so then I started to look up. Before you
Speaker 3: were even a flicker of a thought in my head, Jen,
Speaker 3: is there any way to get this style of dress
Speaker 3: less expensive? Does anyone make this kind of style? I
Speaker 3: don't know. I was googling all types of stuff, and
Speaker 3: sure enough, this one website promised to be able to
Speaker 3: make this very dress at a fraction of the cost.
Speaker 3: It was going to be one hundred dollars. And I
Speaker 3: thought to myself, that sounds perfect, and it sounds like
Speaker 3: me a one hundred dollars dress. Yeah, let's go. And
Speaker 3: of course, you know, there were some people around me
Speaker 3: who tried to sway me and say, that's a dress
Speaker 3: probably going to be made in China, and there's no
Speaker 3: guarantee for one hundred dollars it's going to be what
Speaker 3: you want. Then I lied to myself and everybody else
Speaker 3: and said, no, no, I'm going to try this thing.
Speaker 3: What's the worst that can happen. If it's not what
Speaker 3: I want, I will wear my sister's wedding dress like
Speaker 3: it fit me. I liked it enough. I was convinced
Speaker 3: they're going to make me exactly what I want. They're
Speaker 3: gonna ship it to me, and if not, I'll wear
Speaker 3: my sisters Well. It arrives weeks later. I mean, we're
Speaker 3: about a month out from the wedding and this dress
Speaker 3: arrives and it is nowhere near the picture, nowhere near it.
Speaker 1: I wish we had a picture. We do.
Speaker 3: It's in our show notes of that one episode where
Speaker 3: we did Weddings Part It would have been Weddings Part
Speaker 3: one or part two. Way back in the archives you
Speaker 3: can see. I think we have a picture of what
Speaker 3: I thought I was getting and a picture of what
Speaker 3: I actually got. And it was only then that I
Speaker 3: realized I don't want to wear my sister's wedding dress.
Speaker 3: I hate it, which then sent me on a last
Speaker 3: minute scurry to find the wedding dress that I really
Speaker 3: did love. I ended up loving my dress, but ended
Speaker 3: up dropping some cash on that she's finding it save
Speaker 3: money on reception and honeymoon. I think it would have
Speaker 3: been the first if you miss part one here, just
Speaker 3: cook that we're here for it. There it is.
Speaker 1: Okay. So this is episode six, episode so I guess.
Speaker 3: You probably probably have not heard this story before.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's different, and even your face and the
Speaker 1: picture is so yeah. You gotta go back into the
Speaker 1: archives episode six on our show notes.
Speaker 3: And you'll see the pictures.
Speaker 1: Wow. What what a good story. I always love hearing
Speaker 1: that one.
Speaker 3: Bye.