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Hello, welcome to the Mamas Making More podcasts specifically,
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this is a bonus episode bonus number three of the Mama Minisodes.
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And if you haven't heard the other ones, the first two are also fabulous.
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My vision in having these bonus episodes is to introduce you to
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moms who are out there working the work, doing the business.
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And, they're a little bit further in their journey maybe than you are,
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but I really wanted to show you that there are mamas out there around
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the entire world who are virtual assistants or have their own online
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businesses and they are making it work.
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They're making it work for themselves and for their families.
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So I wanted to highlight them and to share these real life examples.
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I think sharing real life experiences gives you a little bit more
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support and a little bit more.
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Hopefully some excitement that you could actually do this work and make
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it happen for you and your family.
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Today's guest is actually someone I had not met before.
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I did meet her in an online Facebook group.
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And I had put out a call to say, I'm looking for guests on my
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podcast for these bonus episodes.
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And she said she would love to be on here.
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And I thought she would be a great fit.
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Her name is Gemma Hare.
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Her business is Office Gems.
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How freaking adorable is that name for her business?
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I love it.
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She is a virtual assistant, she's a mama of two.
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She lives in the UK and she has some really great advice.
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The questions that I asked her are the same that I asked the other.
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Other moms and the other episodes, basically, I just asked what has having
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your own online business, having your VA business meant to you and your family.
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And what advice do you have for other moms who are just starting out in the industry?
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She has some really great advice in here.
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You'll hear that she really loves working in Canva, that's kind of her specialty.
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And again, that's what I've told you is that there are so many
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things that you could specialize in and you don't have to do it all.
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So let's hear from Gemma.
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Hi there, I'm Gemma from Office Gems.
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I'm a virtual assistant who supports busy entrepreneurs, aiming to take them
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from feeling overwhelmed to overjoyed.
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And I'm also a mum of two boys, who are currently 15 and 10.
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But when I first started, my online business as a virtual assistant, they
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were quite a bit younger than that.
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They were the reason that I started the business really, to give me the
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flexibility to work, be able to work from home in a way that suits me and
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brings me joy and gives me that time and freedom to spend time with my boys.
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And it was really beneficial, particularly as when I started my business
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shortly after we had the pandemic.
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So we were thrown into homeschooling and all those crazy things
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that happened during that time.
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So I was very grateful to be able to work in a relaxed way.
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But also having said that, the other flexibility it's given me is that I don't
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have to leave my corporate job and rush home to either do the school run or get
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in before the boys get home from school.
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I'm there, and I think the boys really benefit and appreciate,
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that side of things for me, running my business as well.
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So it makes it a lot happier household for us, by me having the
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opportunity, to work from home.
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So in terms of advice, if you're a mom like me, and you're, but
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you're at the beginning of your virtual assistant journey or online
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business journey, there's two areas I think I would focus on.
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I would think about What you wanted to bring you and your family in terms of
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maybe that's flexibility, like me, maybe it's, you know, having financial freedom.
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There's, you know, lots of different areas and benefits to, an online business.
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But equally you don't want to be, well, I know I didn't want
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to be tied to my business.
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I wanted to get my business to a point where it's working harder for me.
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So the whole work smarter, not harder, attitude, really, I'm still on that
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journey and still trying to get there, but that is definitely, important to me.
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So I think you've got to really think about how you, the different ways
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that you want your business, if you're working from home or running an online
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business to benefit you and your family.
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But equally you also want to really think about your business itself, who
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you want to, offer your services to and what services you want to offer.
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So you can clearly figure out your ideal audience.
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More important than that, do work, complete tasks as work that bring you joy.
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If you're working for clients that you either don't like, or they are sending
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you work that isn't really for you, and you weren't clear about that from the
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beginning, because you didn't know what it was that you wanted to offer, it's
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going to create stress for you, which is going to impact on family life as well.
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And nobody wants that.
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That's not what you started the business about.
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Um, so I think that's really important.
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So I can give an example of that for me.
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Um, I started off making that very mistake and offering all services available.
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Didn't really know who I was talking to, but I've now narrowed it down to, busy
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entrepreneurs because they, uh, kind of, you know, usually doing things, running
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themselves, things for themselves, and they do rely on VAs for support.
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But equally, I want, I didn't want to just to do anything and everything,
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because that's not what I'm about.
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I would rather do the work that brings me joy.
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For example, Canva.
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There's other things that bring me joy as well, but Canva's a great example of that.
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I, basically learned Canva, got really good at it.
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And then I said to my clients, you know, all the different ways that
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I can help support them with Canva.
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And you know, nine times out of 10, I get sent an awful lot of Canva work,
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which is great for me because I enjoy it.
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And then equally, um, that has led to other things.
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So it's led to me feeling confident enough to put a package out for Canva
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Confidence Course for beginners.
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So it's led on further.
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And then I've also, Because with your online business, the opportunities
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are endless for creativity.
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And it's also allowed me to delve into creating digital products.
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And so I've now got a kind of confidence workbook that, people can purchase.
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So just from that one idea of what brings me joy in the work that I want
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to do has led on to all of those things.
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But not only that, the other thing that obviously brings me joy and
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is amazing is that my children are seeing all of this and, they're seeing
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all the ways I'm getting creative.
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My youngest son, he's quite artistic . And I've had to set
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him up a Canva account because he wants to get creative in Canva.
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And my oldest son is revising for his GCSE.
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So he's now using Canva to create my maps all because
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they're watching what I'm doing.
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And my oldest son is talking about being an entrepreneur himself.
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And it's, really, good for them to be a role model like this for them.
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So they can see how hard I'm working, which will then hopefully, inspire
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them, to, realize that if you want something in life, you've got, you've
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got to go out and get it and it's not all going to be handed to you on a plate.
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So there's lots of different ways that it's, benefiting us as a family.
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It is hard work, especially to get things off the ground.
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But if you're really clear from the beginning, which directions you want to
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go and what you're passionate about and equally align that with how you want it to
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benefit your family in your home life and get that work life balance right, then,
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that's kind of the advice I wished I'd heard about, when I first started out.
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Thank you so much to Gemma.
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She had such great advice there for you mamas, and I hope that she
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inspired you with some of her responses to what having her own business
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is like for her and her family.
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I have her information linked in the show notes and on the website.
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So, if you would like to reach out to her or check out her
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website, see what offers she has.
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Go ahead and do that.
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Say hi to her on socials.
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And I will catch you in the next episode.
