RWL001 How Michelle Dale Left Corporate Life to Build a Fulfilling Remote Assistant Business in Egypt

Speaker 1:
0:00

But then I got to 23 and I just like I had this sort of moment when I realized I was not happy and would I be OK doing this until the age of 65 and then retiring, and then looking back on my life and thinking, yeah, you know, I did something really meaningful and I enjoyed myself. No, I wouldn't feel like that, so I went through a massive life change. I wouldn't feel like that, so I went through a massive life change. Um, I mean, I had all sorts of other things going on in my life as well that contributed to my decision of quitting my job, which I did. I literally went quit my job.

Speaker 1:
0:35

Um, I booked a one-way ticket to Egypt. Um, because I just kind of had to get away from it all. I had to think I needed time to sort of be on my own and figure out what it was I really wanted to do. Um, and you know, at that point I had all kinds of people thinking I was crazy, why are you quitting the job? It's so good, it's so well paid, you get great bonuses. You know, this is like I don't want to do this anymore. And and I sold the house I was living in at a time um paid off a huge mortgage which felt great to me, you know, to get rid of that and I, I just left. I just left the country.

Speaker 2:
1:10

That was the voice of Michelle Dale, who is the CEO and founder of Virtual Miss Friday, and to me, michelle is a legend. She's somebody who has really me and she inspired me at a time when I was at a point where I was trying to really figure out my direction with my career, what to do, where to go. I just made a transition and made a career change from recruitment to marketing and, like I said, I was trying to find my direction. And I was trying to find my direction and I was actually this particular interview. I was actually thinking to myself shall I release the whole interview, because it's quite a long interview and it's an interview that I am going to also be releasing as part of the remote work life summit, but the video version? The reason I decided that I should release the interview is because, like I said, it had a very important impact and effect on my career. So I hope that by releasing it to you now, that it has the similar impact with you to help you to see what's possible. And I say that because, like I said, said I was listening to, or I first interviewed Michelle after listening to a podcast by Yaro Starak, who is one of the original, I suppose, lifestyle business creators and this particular interview. It really helped me to understand what is possible with my life and with my business, with my career.

Speaker 2:
2:50

Because, you know, you see lots of so-called gurus online. You see lots of adverts on youtube of people who are supposedly making seven figures. They, you know, they roll up in their ferrari or they have this background where they're sort of panning around and looking at a beach view and a sunny horizon, all that sort of thing, and you wonder to yourself how, how real is this? Is this legitimate? And that was why Michelle was, at that particular time, so important to me, because she's an example of somebody who has achieved that. She's achieved that through hard work, through dedication and through understanding herself and the direction that she needed to go in. So, like I said, if you want, really want to listen to somebody who, like I said, has been there, has done that, has, you know, started and sort of really forged a seven-figure business, then Michelle is the person to listen to. So I hope you enjoy the interview and I'll see you on the other side.

Speaker 1:
3:55

I was living a very, very average life and from the UK, um, I was living in England and I left school at 16. So I've been working, you know, from the age of 16. I was working before that. You know I was really a grafter. You know, I wanted to work, I wanted to earn some money. I was never really a fan of school and traditional education and I thought to myself, well, the best thing for me is to try out jobs and see what resonated with me, see what I was good at.

Speaker 1:
4:23

So I literally went through job after job after job, I mean from the age of 16 to the age of probably about 18, 19. You know, I was, you know, waitressing, bar work, office work. I had a job in a hospital, I was cleaning, I was even one of my favorite jobs actually was cleaning surgical instruments in a hospital. That was really, you know, it felt like, you know, being in a real life episode of ER. So yeah. So it was just like job after job after job.

Speaker 1:
4:55

And then I got into a job in which was in an office in banking and it was to do around mortgages and things like that. To do around mortgages and things like that. And the moment for me, I think, when I discovered that maybe I could do something a little bit more than just work a job, you know, and take a paycheck, was when I was working in this mortgage unit. These houses would come in that had been repossessed by the bank and, you know the prices that they were going and selling for was, you know, ridiculous, because all the bank wanted was their money back or whatever was left on the mortgage. So I started to look at properties and then I continued with my banking role. I moved around the country, so I basically stayed in banking for probably about four years or something, and then I bought about five properties in total, did them up, but then I got to 23 and I just like I had this sort of moment when I realized I was not happy and would I be okay doing this until the age of 65 and then retiring, and then looking back on my life and thinking, yeah, you know, I did something really meaningful and I enjoyed myself. No, I wouldn't feel like that.

Speaker 1:
6:03

So I went through a massive life change. Um, I mean, I had all sorts of other things going on in my life as well that contributed to my decision of quitting my job, which I did. I literally went, quit my job, um, I booked a one-way ticket to Egypt, um, because I just kind of had to get away from it all. I had to think, I needed time to sort of be on my own and figure out what it was I really wanted to do. And, you know, at that point I had all kinds of people thinking I was crazy why are you quitting the job? It's so good, it's so well paid, you get great bonuses. You know, this is like I don't want to do this anymore.

Speaker 1:
6:43

And I sold the house I was living in at the time, paid off a huge mortgage which felt great to me, you know, to get rid of that and I just left. I just left the country, and at that point I was in a position then where I had no job, no income. I couldn't just, you know, walk into a bank in Egypt and ask for a job, and I didn't want to anyway because I was trying to get away from all that. So that was the moment where I was like what am I going to do now? You know what is next for me? And it basically came to a head there, and that's when my second journey started in my career.

Speaker 2:
7:21

And was it banking itself that you hated, or was it the corporate world that you hated? Was it just being managed that you hated? What was it that you didn't like?

Speaker 1:
7:32

That's such a good question because a lot of people assume that it's just like oh, you don't like your job, I didn't like being told what to do. I didn't like being told you you can't have a Friday afternoon off to go to the dentist because so-and-so is already off that day. I just didn't like the dynamic of the nine to five. I was good at it, I conformed, I, you know, I was always there, I was always working hard, I was always, you know, trying to do the best I could, and that's why I ended up, I think, going through the ranks. But to me it just felt like going through the motions, it was like obeying, it was obedience, and I realized that what I was doing was I was obeying people who were out for themselves as opposed to out what was best for me. So I thought to myself at that point you know, you really have to kind of think about what you want in your life, what's best for you.

Speaker 1:
8:24

I have absolutely no problem with people going to work, doing the nine-to-five working shift, work, doing whatever, as long as they're happy doing it and they're happy with the people who are employing them, that they're being treated fair, that they're being treated well that. You know they feel that, you know they're part, know being employed is like being part of a big family. But if you don't feel that people have got your best interests at heart, that they're human, you know that they're not following this kind of corporate rule, you know where everyone has to do the same thing and if you change that, you know somebody is going to get upset. I really, really wanted to have a lot more freedom and it wasn't necessarily banking.

Speaker 1:
9:06

That I didn't like, although I didn't find it boring, it didn't fill my cup, it wasn't like oh yay, you know I'm gonna go and sell some mortgages today or something like that. You know it. Just it was. It was emotion. It was getting up, go to work, take a paycheck. Get up, go to work, take a paycheck. It didn't fill my cup, it didn't make me happy and I needed something that was going to do that and it was kind of like the whole package.

Speaker 2:
9:28

Yeah, and what you're saying there. I spoke to so many people and who you know not being happy at work, and there are certain employers out there who you know how you described it, where it's basically a carrot and stick sort of regime. Described it where it's basically a carrot and stick sort of regime, where they they don't necessarily have the best interests of of their employees at heart, and you're a great example, as as I said, of somebody who's sort of taken upon themselves to then take themselves out of that situation. Um, and you said as well, michelle, that you that you wanted to be alone. Essentially, I guess you were reflecting on what you'd done, what you wanted to do. Am I right in saying that? When you just took off, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1:
10:14

I took off to be alone because I thought to myself the whole time I mean I hadn't lived my life for other people or through other people, or anything like that. I mean, when I quit school at 16, everyone said, don't do it, that's a big mistake. But I knew instinctually it was the right decision for me to do that and I don't regret any of it, even the jobs. I hated the jobs. I loved the jobs that I spent sometimes one day in a job and I was like, no, this is gone. So it taught me a lot about what I wanted out of a job, what made me happy, what I liked, what I didn't like.

Speaker 1:
10:46

Because the problem is, when someone chooses a career path and that's all they ever do is that they never know that anything could be any different. They think that that's work, that's what life is. And for me, I knew that I was much happier in some places than other, in some jobs than other jobs, with some people than other people. So for me, that was a great experience. But you know, at the end of the day, the most important thing in life which we forget is that you have to be happy and, considering that we spend a majority of our day working to earn an income.

Speaker 1:
11:24

The most important thing is that you're happy in your work and for me, I realized that by following people's advice and outside perspectives, oh, you should go into this. This is a great job, you know you should go up this ladder, you should. You should apply for this job. You know, and I'm like you know well, maybe I should. You know it's a good prospect, but life isn't about prospects, it about happiness, and I really had to get away from the prospects and the opportunities and you know all the things that you know coming my way to just think about what do I want? What's going to make me happy?

Speaker 2:
12:00

Yeah, and I again I interviewed an expert in happiness I think he's a doctor or a PhD, I think he is Andy Cope for the Curious Purpose Summit, and he said he's been doing research for years on people in the workplace, people in terms of their happiness. In terms of their happiness, and he um the statistics out there say that 20 people, 20% of people, are engaged, but he reckons um only two percent of that, um 20%, are truly happy at work. So, yeah, it's so important that that you really have seek that happiness in work, because you spend so much time doing it. You know um, and if you're not happy, it can, it can really uh sort of uh have a knock-on effect to the people around you. But I mean, and there's a certain amount of um, I suppose, uh, you have to look after yourself in in many ways when it comes to that sort of thing.

Speaker 2:
12:59

Obviously, you've got to pay bills, um, but I think one thing that michelle has done is that she's she's crafted a business and a lifestyle that suits herself and her family. But if you look at the testimonials on michelle's website and look at some of the video testimonials there are, there are testimonials of people whose lives she has changed. You know who, who've moved from being unhappy to being happy. So you know, it just goes to show how much happiness or can have a sort of a knock-on effect to people around you as well. So, michelle, that's, that's a great story. But then when you, when you were sort of um out in egypt thinking about what to do next, um, what steps did you take to actually find your strength, to find what it was that you wanted to do?

Speaker 1:
13:49

Well, this is the thing when you're out in Egypt and you're like you know, what do I do now? There's one thing I did know, and this is how my mindset shifted. Immediately when I got there, I thought to myself I have to find a career that's going to fit around my life, not my life fit around my career. So that was the most very. That was the most important thing to me at that time. You know, I am going to decide first of all how I want my life to be before I even think about how I'm going to earn any money or what I'm going to do. So, and I and I think a lot of people switch it the other way around. So I was like what's going to make me happy? How do I want to live my life? I want to be able to travel. I want the flexibility of being location independent, where I can work from anywhere that I choose.

Speaker 1:
14:32

Because I already knew when I was in Egypt I was living a much better life than I was in England. It was sunny all the time. I had great food around me, you know, fresh fruits and vegetables. It was so cheap. I was living in a flat for 50 pound a month um yeah, I know like a really nice two-edged and flat.

Speaker 1:
14:52

You could, if you sort of like bent your head a little bit, you could see the Nile from it as well. Um, it was just, it was just nice and I was just like I feel totally free and I wanted to continue feeling that way. You know, it's important to do basic lifestyle choices on the way you feel, and that made me feel good and I thought I want to see other places in the world, I want to do other things. So it was really important to me to have this criteria. I wanted not to have to be in a nine to five position where I had to be in a workplace at a certain time, and I also wanted to have the freedom to be able to, like, like you say, work from anywhere, just kind of be myself and not feel tied down to a time zone, to a place, to an office, to any person as well. So that was my criteria and then from there, I basically started researching online what potential avenues were out there, what potential career choices were out there for me that would allow me to do those things, and they're very few. They were back then this was 2005,. You know I'm pretty old now.

Speaker 1:
16:01

I was 23 back then and 35 now, so it was 2005 and I was basically thinking to myself you know, what can I do online? I was searching online. You know, location, independent working online, working from anywhere, traveling, and all these things came up. You know, you could do volunteer work out in Africa and you know, go online reserves and all sorts of things are coming up Blogging. That's how I first found Yaris Tarek and his information. I became acquainted with him. You know, selling products online, selling this, and I just sat down and thought to myself at that point what are my skills and what are my passions and how can I marry these two together and make them into a business? Passions, and how can I marry these two together and make them into a business, because that is, that is the ultimate.

Speaker 1:
16:48

That is the ultimate success absolutely it's, it's to take what skills you've got. What have I learned over these?

Speaker 1:
16:54

you know, x number of years where I've been working in all these different jobs. What did I enjoy out of those and what can I be passionate about? Because I know that once I start this, you know I don't want to have to just kind of keep chopping and changing. And you know, especially when you start a business, I knew I had to start a business because there was no other choice for me at that time to be able to have that kind of freedom. So there was only one solution for me. It was to start a business.

Speaker 1:
17:21

I wasn't particularly entrepreneurial, but what I cared about most was the lifestyle that I could make for myself. So it came out that I started the business and then I thought to myself right, what could I potentially do? So I started thinking about all my jobs, my past jobs. What was I really good at and what did I enjoy? You know I was good at organization. I really enjoyed working with other people and organizing other people and getting things done for them. I was very good at, you know, taking a mess and turning it into something that you know was tangible and manageable, and you know. So I just kind of listed all these things out. What are my skills, what am I good at and what did I really really enjoy?

Speaker 1:
18:01

And then, after doing this kind of research, virtual assistants just seemed like a really obvious option for me. Not many people were doing it back then at the time, so it was a case of just getting my head down, figuring out how I was going to do this, what I needed to do to set it all up. You know, and I was completely alone A lot of people say you've got to go and learn from other people, but really all I learned from is entrepreneurs who were working in online businesses. There was no, nobody out there teaching virtual assistants the way I wanted it, the way I wanted it to be.

Speaker 1:
18:33

So you kind of also have to kind of step outside your comfort zone sometimes with this and say, well, if, just because nobody's done it before, it doesn't mean to say that it's a bad idea. It just means you know you have to be the first one. So that's what I did and, um, I just got my head down. I actually went out and did you know, as part of my research, I guess, for for doing this online, I actually went out and got myself a PA job, um, in a five-star hotel with, uh, with the manager, and it was more like a holiday for me because it was. You know, it was a little bit like you know I was. I was there to kind of look pretty I guess, not that I am, but you know to kind of be like oh, we've got the English, um, we've got the English secretary you know so.

Speaker 1:
19:20

I thought I went to a lot of meetings and I had went to a lot of dinners and you know I was you learn the ropes?

Speaker 1:
19:28

yeah, I went to a lot of different hotels with, you know, with my manager, and you know I was. I was able to live a really good life because I was traveling around and I was just there to kind of help and support him and for me the work was a real doddle. But you know, to the previous people that have been in the position, it wasn't so I just knew. Then I just thought, right, this is this, is it. This comes so naturally to me and you know, it's something I'm really good at and I really really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1:
19:53

So I basically studied for like two years, self-taught myself, a whole bunch of things like photoshop, dreamweaver you know, this was back in the days before wordpress and things like Photoshop, dreamweaver this was back in the days before WordPress and things like that.

Speaker 1:
20:05

So I was teaching myself HTML code, how to design, I built my website. I mean, it was a lot, a lot of learning and this is why I say to people consistently you have to be passionate about this, because you're going to need to sit there sometimes for 14 hours a day just trying to figure something out and you've got to be okay with that. You know you can't resent it If I was sat there in the bank for 14 hours. I'd really resent it when I was sat in my home or whatever you know, trying to figure something out for 14 hours, knowing that once I crack this, I'm on the next step, I'm on the next level. You know you've got to be okay with it. You know you got to be okay with it you know, get that takeaway get a bottle of wine, whatever, and just get on with it.

Speaker 1:
20:49

Um, so, so that's basically what I did and that's how virtual Miss Friday um was born, as which was a solo VA business, it was just myself, um, and whatever I could muster up.

Speaker 2:
21:01

And again sounds of it, you, um, you were building a business really in the background, while you were working for the, for the hotel. You're doing that in sort of tandem then to sort of yeah, I was.

Speaker 1:
21:14

I was. I mean, I went to work for the hotel because it, like I say, it was a good experience for me to kind of think well, if I'm going to do this, I want to put myself in this position of you know a personal assistant in order to be a virtual. Well, if I'm going to do this, I want to put myself in this position of you know, a personal assistant in order to be a virtual assistant, figure out how I'm going to do it there, and then I would just basically start translating everything that I was doing into online, like how I'm going to do this online. How could I do this if he wasn't present with me in the room? How can I do this? If I was in another country, could I still service this person? And that's basically. I just kept chipping away, chipping away. Um, so yeah, for me, I was running it in tandem with the job, but the job wasn't a job.

Speaker 2:
21:51

It was like daily research into how I was going to grow my business yeah, and I again, I think as much as uh people say for looking for a job is is hard work, work, and it is hard work especially. Well, you did more than that. You were, you were looking for a job that suited you, but you were also looking to actually build a business in the background and you're basically building a business. That probably was, was probably not that well known at the time, the sorts of work that you were doing. What could you tell us the sorts of work that you were doing? What could you tell us the sorts of um things that you were doing as a virtual assistant, michelle?

Speaker 1:
22:28

yeah sure. Well, it was actually about six months I I got. I got through about six months of, like you know, just doing stuff on my own, doing stuff my own, trying to figure this all out to the point where I was like I need, I need a real scenario. And that's when I went out and got the job. So, um, in terms of what I was doing as a virtual assistant, it started off just PA stuff. I mean, it was personal assistant stuff. You know, calendar management, diary management, email hand email management, handling. You know it was all the kind of things that you would consider like an average personal assistant or an average secretary to do. And that's where I started.

Speaker 1:
23:04

And then eventually I kind of went into a few years down the line when social media came out, because that didn't exist when I started. Then I sort of got on the bandwagon there and thought, right, this is something I can also introduce into my business. So I started doing marketing and then I started doing um, a lot of people, you know, I built my own website. So a lot of people were saying your website's really nice, could you do something like that for me? So then I just started offering website services and design services. And it was just this little me running you know running around trying to do everything and um.

Speaker 1:
23:42

So for me, once, once I started expanding my services that's when I started, you know, really getting into it in terms of building a team and, you know, sort of developing it into what it is today. It didn't happen overnight. Nothing ever does um. Because you have to go through this learning curve, particularly if you, if you can't go into something off the bat and say, right now, I know exactly what I'm doing here, you know, don't be afraid of that, don't be afraid that you don't know what you're doing because you know. Okay, so it may take you five years instead of one. It may take you, you know, a little bit longer. You may have more frustrations and challenges, but that will only make you better at it, because once you, once you have those skills, you just go straight into it. There's's no satisfaction in like, oh my God, I grasped at this, I'm doing it. There's no momentum building, you know, and really for me, the journey was just as important as the end result.

Speaker 2:
24:34

Definitely, and it sounds like I mean you had your own, and a lot of what I recommend is a lot of what you've done in terms of your career change. Are there any things that perhaps that you did um or well, is there anything that you would recommend to people as steps to change their career in, I suppose, in today's climate at all?

Speaker 1:
25:00

well it's. It's very difficult because everybody is in very different situations. You know, for example, I was single. I had responsibilities. It was easy for me to just quit everything and take off. But now I have three children. Would I feel like I could do the same thing? Had three children? It would scare me to go off and do what I did, you know. But now I would do it, no problem, because I have a lot of I guess, a lot of faith in the universe. It's been very good to me over the years. So, you know, I think it depends on people's situation.

Speaker 1:
25:34

First of all, I don't think there is a one size fits all as an exit strategy for a career or even an entry strategy. But what I would say is don't be afraid to take risks, because I've come to the conclusion no matter what risks I take, you know, no matter where I go, no matter how I change my business or evolve my business or decide to try new things, whether they work or whether they don't work, it still works out. So you know, don't be afraid. If something goes wrong, you can fix it. If you take the wrong path, you reverse back and you go on a different one. So for me, it's all about thinking about what you're comfortable with in your situation and then just going that little bit further, um, and then seeing where that takes you. Um, but doing it with a very positive attitude.

Speaker 1:
26:25

If you go, if you decide that you're going to start a new career or whatever, and then you go down and you say like I'm really not sure about this, but I'm going to try it anyway. I don't think this is going to work, but I'm going to try it anyway, you should probably listen to that first thing and not try it anyway. Um, but if you think to yourself, even though this makes no logical sense, even though everyone's saying it's crazy, I actually think this could work, I actually think I could do this, then that's the instinct that you need to follow. That's very authentic. I feel this is the right decision for me. So I am just going to go for it and if it doesn't work out, at least I know that that's done and I can move on to something else.

Speaker 1:
27:10

But I would say I would say 10 times out of 10, if you're going through it and you know that it's the right path for you, despite the fact that you may have to quit your job and you may not have an income for a couple of months. Or you may have to start a business and you may have to put a lot of effort into that and you may not be able to see your kids as much as you'd like to on the weekends. Or you may not be able to go out as much as you want to because you have to kind of save your money a bit more. Or you may have to cancel your satellite TV subscription God forbid. Yeah, I know you may have to do these things, you know. Or you know, maybe change your car to get a little bit of money in while you're building this. But you know, at the end this is something that's right for me and no matter how many challenges I face along the way, as long as you stay true to that, it will work out. It has to.

Speaker 2:
27:59

Yeah, there's a certain amount of sacrifice, isn't there, that you have to take, to get where you want to be. There's a certain amount of sacrifice, isn't there, that you have to take, to get where you want to be, and were there any sort of indicators or milestones for you? That said, yes, things are starting to really sort of take shape now, and I'm ready to sort of dive into this now full steam.

Speaker 1:
28:16

Yeah, well, the first thing for me was when I got to a point where people were asking me for stuff and I was just too overcapacitated, you know. I mean, I was like I can't do anymore. So that's when I started hiring people. At the moment you start hiring people, you're like actually I have a proper business here. Um, so I would say, for me that was that point, the point where you're like get to the point where you're so busy you can't possibly do anymore. And then you're like what do I do now?

Speaker 1:
28:41

you know, where shall I take this now? I think for me that was the moment where I knew that this could be a lot bigger than me. This could be, this could potentially go into, you know, from just a five-figure business into a six-figure. You know, I'm aiming for seven figures now yeah, yeah, and, and it was.

Speaker 1:
29:00

It wasn't like a decision that I made either. It wasn't like I said right, I'm gonna sit down. I never had any business plan. I didn't make any business plan. It wasn't like a decision that I made either. It wasn't like I said right, I'm going to sit down. I never had any business plan. I didn't make any business plan. I wasn't saying, right, my projections for this year are going to be this and by the end of next year I'll be making this amount of money.

Speaker 1:
29:13

No, I was just like do what you can, don't have any kind of crazy expectations. You know what your goal is. You want to to travel. You want to not work the nine to five. You want to do this and the other just aim for that. And I did. And then, when I got that and I was like, okay, I'm bringing in an income now. Okay, I'm not rich, but I'm bringing in income. I'm getting to live and work wherever I want to be, what's next? You know, I became pregnant, um, a couple of years into it as well. So then I was like, okay, I've got another mouth to feed here what am?

Speaker 1:
29:43

I going to do. You know, my husband now works in the business with me and yeah, so it just naturally evolved. I never had a business plan, but I've always set very clear intentions and very clear goals and that has been enough to see me through year after year and gradually build and build and build. Now I have like 20 staff. But the interesting thing is is with my, with my team, I set the same principles for my team that I do for myself. So you know, principle one is that they're independent, they're freelancers, it's down to them what they choose to do with me and things like that. The second one is I treat them really really well, you know, the third one is that I don't ever say to them what they choose to do with me and things like that. The second one is I treat them really really well. The third one is that I don't ever say to them you have to be here between this hour and this hour or I need you available at this hour. I've built my business also around the principles that I have in my life. So my business doesn't require anyone to be there between the hours of 9 to 5. It doesn't require even the staff to kind of say to me, oh, can I take this time off? They just say, michelle, I'm going to go away for a couple of weeks at the end of September or something like that. And I say, fine, no problem, because I've worked my business around this model that you can make a decent income, you can have a career and you can even have a team of staff as well that are part of it, that live on those same principles, those same life principles and and you know, everybody's happy. Everybody is just, you know, happy.

Speaker 1:
31:12

A lot of people, uh, that work for me on my team are also location dependents, digital nomads. You know. Sometimes, you know, I can be like talking to somebody in haiti and then the next week they're saying, oh, I'm in germany, now, you know. Or you know another person, somebody in Haiti, and then the next week they're saying, oh, I'm in Germany now, you know. Or you know another person's in China, and then they end up in Canada and I'm like, oh, it's really cool. So I think it's really important as well that you know when you get to the point where you say, right, I'm starting to make it now, whatever principles you hold for yourself, you know, make sure that you carry that through when you expand and start working with other people, because it makes me feel good that I'm also giving people the opportunity to live a life that they want to live, um, with the same freedom and the same principles I'm living my life on, and that's the real beautiful thing about this business and this industry as well.

Speaker 2:
32:00

I think that story is just wonderful and, like I said to you before, the happiness that you've created for others is something that is probably the the envy of managing. You know corporate managers, you know business owners who might be listening to this, and that's based around the fact that you've got your solid set of principles, your values that are embedded within the business, and you know the values that you hold are also, and the principles that you have are also, aligned with the people that you work with. It's just like so many people are raving about that, michelle these days, so it's just, it's just wonderful, it's just so.

Speaker 2:
32:33

Oh, anyway, um, let me not go off tack. Uh, I've got my next question here. Um, because you talked about family as well. You've got got three children and there's always this question and I've had this myself, I've got three children myself. It's about balancing how do you balance having a productive, sustainable career with family? How do you do it?

Speaker 1:
32:58

Well, it goes back to that same principle of working your career around your lifestyle choices. Back to that same principle of working your career around your lifestyle choices. And as soon as I had kids, you know, I was like what adjustments do I need to make in my business in order to accommodate my children? Because my business still has to work around my core principles of how I want to live my life and what makes me happy. So I started then thinking about, you know, what could I do to have more time with my kids. Then I started like listing out the things that I was doing that didn't require me to physically do them myself, and then I started looking at strategies for outsourcing, strategies for bringing in more profit so I can have, you know, make more profit on my hourly rate or more profit on my packages that would allow me to hire other people, and then basically slowly remove myself a little bit more from the business without compromising on any of my business principles as well, you know, in terms of the standards that I set for the service for the clients, for my team and that type of thing. So it's really, again, it's about backtracking. It's saying right, I've got these three kids. Now what needs to happen in my life for me to feel okay about, you know, raising these three children? Right, I don't want to work at night anymore, okay. So what do you? What do you do at night and how can you remove yourself from that? You know, you've got to really kind of remove yourself from that. You know, you've got to really kind of be strategic about this and think, right, what needs to happen now, at this stage in my life? And then what needs to, what do I need to do to make these new things happen? And that's basically what I did.

Speaker 1:
34:36

I, you know, I went through a really radical change in my business this last kind of year where I decided that I wanted to do a lot more traveling with my kids. Traveling with five people, you know is is not cheap, so, and you also, you know, once you're there traveling and in these different countries, you want to be able to spend time exploring them and going through them. But I also didn't want to compromise everything I built in the business. So I I just switched immediately to only working with late six to seven figure clients, because I knew that whatever I was offering, I knew I had the team in place. I set up a new kind of model in terms of outsourcing, which I call one sourcing, which makes you know which is good for the team. It's good for me, it removes me a little bit more from business and it's also much better for the clients as well.

Speaker 1:
35:27

So there is a solution out there. You just haven't thought of it yet. You know and I think that's really important to grasp that you think well, I've got six kids, I'm never going to be able to continue with what I'm doing. Of course you're not. However, you change. You change and adapt what you're doing to accommodate this lifestyle change, and there is no challenge, there is nothing. I don't care whether you have 10 kids, I don't care whether you only want to work a couple of hours a day, you know, or whatever you want to do. There is a way, there is a strategy that will get you to where you need to be. It may not be overnight, but there are you. You just gotta think what do I need to do now to make this happen? Right, this, this has to change. What can I do to make that change? I have to do this and the other. Where can I find these people? Where can I get these resources, do I need to earn more money? Okay, how am I going to do that?

Speaker 2:
36:15

so it's simply a case of adapting and you will adapt and I want to ask you as well in a moment about the Academy and how people can get involved with Virtual Miss Friday. But before I get into that, there's this thing about you're working. Obviously you're working remotely and you know I work remotely from time to time and work from the house, I work from the library. There's times when it you know, there's times when it you know there's a certain kind, I suppose a certain kind of person who works remotely. I don't know if you've experienced that, but what attributes do you think are needed to to do that, to work remotely?

Speaker 1:
36:54

first of all, you have to completely ditch the employee mindset, because you're going to be out there, you know, sitting on a beach or in a cafe, you know, looking at the ocean, you're going to think, oh my god. You know, sitting on a beach or in a cafe, you know, looking at the ocean, you're going to think, oh my God, you know this, I'm being lazy, this isn't work, I'm going to get in trouble for this. And you have to completely ditch that. No matter where you are, no matter where you're working remotely, my opinion is, the more remote you can work, the more creative you'll be. The more creative you are, the more income you'll make.

Speaker 1:
37:22

Okay, so that's, that's a principle I have. I hate it. You know I, when I start to sit in my office too long, I start to feel myself slipping back, you know, like I've been here ages. I'll do another hour, you know. And then I'm like what the hell are you doing? You know, I feel my creativity just kind of dwindling and I'm starting to feel like, you know, I'm in work mode again.

Speaker 2:
37:43

I hear you.

Speaker 1:
37:43

Yeah. So the best thing that you can do at that point is, if you're starting to feel like I don't want to be stuck in this office anymore, get out of the office. It doesn't mean to say you have to stop work, and that's the beauty of working online, you know. It's one of the things I find. You know, I say to my kids so we're right, by the ocean. I can see the ocean from my house. It's lovely. So my office isn't really a trial. Being in here, you can see the ocean in the mountains. But sometimes I do want to stop being in my office. So I say, let's go down. There's Wi-Fi down at the beach and things like that. So we just get out. Yeah, we go to a swimming pool. We go to a swimming pool, we go to a lake, you know. Go and sit at a restaurant. My kids play in the playground. I sit there and do some work, you know, and I've got my eye on them. You know I'm not just completely gross, but I tend to.

Speaker 1:
38:32

What I tend to do and this is a really good tip for people is to to organize your tasks based around what you want to do in that day and what you want to do, you know, in that week, whatever. So, like I, for example, only I sit to myself and sit with myself in the office and I only do tasks in the office which I absolutely have to do on my desktop computer. You know, things like I find like video editing is a little bit tedious if I'm doing on a laptop and things like that. So I think, right, what do I need to do today that I have to do in my office? I get those things done first thing in the morning and then I'm like, what can I do now that can be done on my laptop? Well, I can check email from anywhere, I can respond to email from anywhere, I can write a blog post from anywhere, you know. So start thinking to yourself these different things about what can I do that doesn't require me to be sat in my office, what could I do? So?

Speaker 2:
39:22

and then you just make a list of these things and then you take your laptop and you go out and you just work through them it's listening to you, just, it's just making me so happy because, uh, like I said, there's so many people who, uh, who are going through the the process of changing and not really feeling trapped almost, but you are just uh, totally invigorated by what you're doing. You're just sound free and it's not, and it just shows that the possibilities are there, that you built a, a successful business around it. So it's just, it's just wonderful. It's just it's great, and you're just putting your skills to the best, using your skills to the best of your ability or more than your best ability to build, to build a business. In the talk about talking about skills, michelle, what skills, from from your perspective, are in demand at the moment?

Speaker 1:
40:11

yeah, a lot of a lot of people think that businesses have to be built around things that are in demand, and and it's true there are. There are things I get asked for more than others, but I think what happens is is is you eventually kind of specialize in something that you're really really good at? So whether you know there's a big demand for one thing, there's going to be a big demand for another thing. You know it's all a case of about. You know what you're really good at, you will attract the people into your business that need what you're really really good at and what you know what you excel at, because, at the end of the day, there are skills that are in demand like, for example, social media and marketing.

Speaker 1:
40:46

Everyone's getting into that now, particularly with the Google thing and the SEO just kind of like all crashing around us a few years back, you know. I would say that you know. Personal assistance is another one. You know people want to stay organized. They want to have their flights booked, they want you know their calendar organized for them, they want their interviews organized. But again, you know there's another thing where digital products are a big thing right now. You know more and more people are moving into the kind of self-development space, the teaching, training, coaching space, and what they're doing is that they're actually saying to themselves right, I don't want to do this one-on-one anymore. Why help one person when I can help, you know, multiple people with a course or a program? So digital programs and digital courses are really big at the moment, and along with that comes website development and things like that. So there's pretty much everything there. You know it's like there's no one thing that is really more in demand than the other.

Speaker 1:
41:45

When it comes to providing services online, the most important thing when you're thinking about it is don't think about what can I provide to get to make the money. Because if you go into this industry or, I think, any business, you know, if you go into it thinking to yourself what's going to make me the money, you will never succeed at that because you're just doing it for the money, you know. But if you go, go at it it's like how can I make money from this, from this thing that I really want to do? Um, you know, I mean I've. I mean people have come to me and said I want to be a VA, but I've got no skills, I can't do anything. You know this.

Speaker 1:
42:21

And the other, oh, my gosh. And I said yeah, said yeah. So I'm like okay. I said, well, could you learn something? Yeah, but you know it's going to take me too long and things like that, you know. And so I've got a friend who does transcription and she has a little course in how to you know transcribe and it. You know you go for so many months you learn how to transcribe and I say, okay, so now go out and find every single YouTube video blogger that you can find and ask everyone if they want their videos transcribed. Okay, you've got a business. That's it that could keep you going for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2:
42:55

Definitely, and it's a big thing now, isn't it? Transcribing videos into words and audio as well?

Speaker 1:
43:01

Yeah, and then you build on that so you say, right, I've done the transcription, maybe I can turn it into an e-book, maybe I can start editing it, maybe I can do this. And it's about learning skill after skill after skill. I have way more skills now than I had 10 years ago. I have way less skills than I'm going to have in 10 years, so it's just a case of building on that and just trying to start from somewhere. It's not about thinking about it and overthinking it. It's about what can I do right now, what can I do to start? And where are those people that need? What I can do Wonderful, and that's the most rapid way to get going.

Speaker 2:
43:41

And, as I said, I wanted to ask you about Virtual Miss Friday, because I think there's probably a I don't know, there's probably some misguided ideas out there of VAs and they're all women and they all do a certain type of thing, and what can the VAs who work with Virtual Miss Friday expect?

Speaker 1:
44:02

The VAs who want to learn how to become VAs with me.

Speaker 2:
44:05

Yes, yes.

Speaker 1:
44:06

Okay. Well, the first thing that they can expect is that I don't teach traditional business.

Speaker 1:
44:11

I thought you might say that I'm not into. You know, old school business strategies, you know, I mean where I have this membership site where people can have a monthly call with me if they want to, if they've got any questions that they want to ask, and I had this call the other day actually, where this woman was going right, you know, I've crafted out all these different markets that could potentially use my services, and I could go into this and this and this and I said, ok, well, which one would you prefer to work with? Well, actually really none of them. Why are you making this next question? Oh, no, well, this could bring me the most money. This is something I've worked in before. Okay, did you like it? Not really.

Speaker 2:
44:54

Why.

Speaker 1:
44:57

So for me, it's not about traditional business plans. It's not about, you know, looking for niche markets. It's not about looking for this, that and the other. It's about it's very much heart-centered, it's very much around what's going to make you happy in your life here and how are we going to build this business around it. So I teach people the skills I mean. I teach people step-by-step, all the things that they need in order to create a virtual assistant business, to develop it, to start developing a team, to start expanding on their services. I teach people okay, if you want to offer admin, if you want to offer a complete admin package, this is how you do it. This is the systems you need, these are the tools, and this is step-by-step. You click this, you go here, you do this and that's just the knowledge. That's 20% of it.

Speaker 1:
45:40

Okay, so teaching people how to do the business is 20 of it. Teaching people about self-development and how to create the business that they want to in order for it to be sustainable, in order for it to grow, in order for it to be profitable. You know, this is this is a lot of a lot of the work that I do as well, so people can expect a combination of both. They can expect the real, practical, tangible, tangible strategies. This is what you need to do, step by step, based on what I do, you know. I mean I say to people don't just listen to me, you've got to take these ideas, you've got to take these principles, you've got to take these strategies and these skills and then you go out and do whatever you want with them. You know. You go out and find systems that are going to work for you. You go out and find, you know what you enjoy working with, because I have a very specific set of skills. I have a very specific set of systems that I use within those. But then I encourage people to build in them, to adapt them.

Speaker 1:
46:34

You know, if they find something in one of my courses that they really, really enjoy, you know, take that and then start thinking about how you can grow it as well.

Speaker 1:
46:49

So I'm very much about, you know, not everything is my way or the highway, but it's like how can I, how can I share these with you, introduce you to a concept, introduce you to a skill, introduce you to a way of doing business which you probably have not been or considered before, not been introduced to before or considered before. And then how can I help you make that your own? How can I help you flower and bloom with whatever it is that you're learning right now? Um, because that that's where the success comes, that's where the profit comes, and and I really the most important thing that I think people need to do whenever they consider, you know, changing a career, doing whatever you know, whatever they need to do, how I'm going need to do, how I'm going to earn more money, how I'm going to do this is just to simply really understand why you are doing it, why you are making that, oh yes exactly, yeah, to go into that career.

Speaker 1:
47:36

You know I want to be a VA because, oh, michelle Dale's made, you know, six, seven figures with it. And you know six, seven figures with it. And you know that's fantastic, okay, great. But why do you want to do it?

Speaker 2:
47:46

well, because michelle let no no, that's not a good reason yeah, it has to be.

Speaker 1:
47:52

Why? Because I want something different for myself. I want a better life for myself, for my kids. I want to do something that involves serving people and helping people, and that's what this is about. It's not.

Speaker 1:
48:05

I mean, I teach people how to create service businesses, not because it's all about serving other people and never having everything for yourself. It's about you know, having that self-worth to want to then share it and give it to other people and say, right, I've got a skill. You obviously need it. How am I going to help improve your life with this? And I will say it all the time you've got to do things that make you feel good, because your self-worth is directly linked to your net worth. So you have to find something that's going to make you feel good about yourself, not just doing it because you think you could make some money from it, just because somebody else has done it.

Speaker 1:
48:40

I mean there's loads of people that have been very, very successful in my programs because they've come in with that approach and the attitude. There are a lot of people who haven't, who have taken the program, watched the videos and then just not done anything else with it because their heart's not been in it, they've not been interested in this. They're like well, I, you know, and a lot of people go through my programs, you know, take it, start their businesses businesses, develop their businesses, and then realize that they want to do something completely different. So it's really, really you've got to be true to yourself in terms of anything, in terms of learning, in terms of who you learn from as well.

Speaker 1:
49:12

You know I tell people, unless my story resonates with you, unless my lifestyle resonates with you, you know you're not going to be able to learn from me. The same way, if you want somebody who has fixed rigid business strategies, who is, you know, out for career, money you know how big can I build my business then I'm not the right person to learn from. But if you're coming to me because you care about your life, you care about what happens in it and you want to be happy and you don't want to spend your life waiting for 65 and there's a lot more to you know, a lot more to what you want to do than just simply make money, and you know, and then I'm all for it and I and I'm really happy to help people drill down and like, figure out how they can build this business around their life, you know, to have more fulfillment and joy. I mean, that's what it's all about.

Speaker 2:
50:02

That's why we're here if anybody's well for everybody listening to this, if anybody's listening to this for everybody listening to this, that segment there that is, it's just, it just encapsulates everything that this entire summit is about. It's that question of why, which is is really sort of affecting people, people's happiness. So, michelle, michelle, that's wonderful. And my penultimate question is basically obviously, you know, we talked about money and obviously there are going to be people who have probably excelled in your cohort and those who have perhaps, as you said, drifted away, who have perhaps, as you said, drifted away. What can the average Joe or average Jane expect to earn from being a virtual assistant? Or is there not an average really?

Speaker 1:
50:54

Well, they can earn anything from zero to hero. Basically. I mean, I've been earning six figures for a while now, into multiple six figures, and it all really depends on how. It depends on your self-worth and how much you value yourself. The more you value yourself, the more you can charge. The more you can charge, the more money you make and that, basically, is self-worth net worth. So I would say that if you are somebody who lacks a lot in confidence, who has a lot of fears associated with your business like, am I going to find any clients? Am I going to be able to do this? Is this person going to hire me? You know, if you've got a lot of fear associated with your business, if you are not somebody who's confident, then you might have a slow start, basically, and you might not be able to make as much money as you're hoping for or as much money as you see in the success stories. You only get out of this what you put into it.

Speaker 1:
51:51

And I don't mean that in terms of hours and I don't mean that in terms of how many courses you take, and I don't mean that in terms of you know how much you invest in you know financially in, you know different things, systems and programs and things like that. People can start a VA business for 50 bucks or something like that. But it's about how much you invest in yourself, how much you say to yourself this is important to me. I have to move forward and do this despite my fears, despite my lack of courage, despite everything. There is only one way for me and it's this way. And once you get on that path, you just keep walking and then your income will gradually increase. So, yeah, people can learn nothing from this business if they have the mindset that leads them down the path of nothing. But people can earn a hell of a lot of money. You can earn.

Speaker 1:
52:39

I would say the potential is there to earn six figures as a solo VA or near to that. And then, if you want to move into hiring a team or going into sort of more entrepreneurial endeavors in virtual assistants, you know, then you could easily be looking at multi-six figures. And then, and then, if you go into training and passing on your knowledge, everyone says why are you creating competition? And I'm like because it's good for other people. You know, if you want to actually pass on what you've learned and share your knowledge and share you have the possibility then, you know, to make it into some, some figures, because everybody's looking to to learn how to change their lives and do something good with it. And if you find a solution to that, no matter how small or how large you can, you can then create into a product and sell it, and then that's again where you're going to have additional income streams coming in. So the potential is there. You just have to be able to believe in it and see it, the well.

Speaker 2:
53:34

What you put in is what you get out essentially from. From that, definitely and for every, you know, if I want to, if I want to sign up, if anybody wants to sign up to become a VA, where where's the best place to go to look for for you and your academy, michelle?

Speaker 1:
53:50

okay. So if you go to virtualmissfridaycom, in the top menu there is a little place where you can join my Academy free, and the inside, the free account, is a three part series of how to get started as a VA from scratch. If you've got no money, no resources, nothing, you know you can take the information from there. Take that three part training and then there's an interview I do at the end with one of my members or my students, whatever you want to call them who's gone on to actually, you know, become very, very successful herself, taken it the whole way from zero to hero, and is selling her own products and things, and she's taken all my programs. So I do an interview with her. It's very inspiring. So so join at virtualmissfridaycom, go in the top right and you'll see where you can join free. Take that course, look at the information that's available.

Speaker 1:
54:37

I do free classes every month. Um, you know, read my blog, that type of thing. Just kind of immerse yourself in this and see if you know you and I are right for each other. Um, in terms of if you like my style, you like where I'm going with this and things, and you know. From there you can move on. You can either start taking some of my paid programs which basically walk you through start to finish, how to go from nothing to something, how to go from not knowing anything about virtual assistants to then moving on and hiring teams and building the business and things like that.

Speaker 1:
55:09

So I would, I would say to anybody, if you know, if this does resonate with you, start with the free stuff and then consider moving on to more paid programs where I can take you through in much more detail. I have a lot more information. It drills down into specifics. I have a lot of mindset things in there as well which I help people with. So the paid programs which I I update. I update them annually, I look through them annually and updates are free for life and I would say this industry is changing super fast.

Speaker 1:
55:43

So if you're going to invest in anything in virtual assistants, try to invest in something or a program from somebody who does do regular updates, because this is a fast-paced industry and you need to kind of keep up with those, yeah, and just see how it goes for you. But there is a support out there. There is people out there like you know myself and like me, um who are doing this and doing it very successfully, and that you, like you say there is a stereotype of we're all kind of sitting at home or you know filipinos or something like that. Um, but you know, the industry is vast. There is a very wide array of people working in it, from online business managers to consultants, to virtual assistants, to people who only focus on one task or one skill, to people who focus and build teams on multiple skills. So you have a huge choice out there of what direction you want to take your business from this very humble term of virtual assistant.

Speaker 2:
56:38

Wonderful and it's always reassuring to to cause you know. When you you get to websites or online, you thought you think to yourself who's behind this website, what you know, who are these people? It's reassuring to know. You've seen Michelle now. You've heard what she's had to say. You've heard about the success. I just recommend that you go over there and go for it and see if it suits you, michelle. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Speaker 2:
57:02

As I said, you've made me really happy. I'm sure you've done the same for many other people. We'll watch out for what you're doing as well, and all the best with Virtual Miss Friday.

Speaker 1:
57:12

Thank you so much, Alex. It's been an absolute pleasure and I hope this helped everybody.

Speaker 2:
57:18

I really hope you enjoyed that interview with Michelle Dale and I'd recommend having a look at her website at virtualmissfridaycom, because I think if you're looking to build a lifestyle business or a lifestyle career because you don't necessarily need to start a business in order to live that kind of lifestyle If you're looking to actually start that lifestyle business or career, then, like I said, michelle is somebody who you should really begin to follow so you can understand how she's done that. But not only that. I'm also hosting how she's done that, but not only that. I'm also hosting a summit from the 1st of April to the 8th of April, where I will be sharing a number of other interviews from successful remote CEOs and people who have built successful businesses themselves, successful careers themselves, as well as coaches as well, who can help you to understand what it takes to make a transition from where you are now to where you want to be.

Speaker 2:
58:25

So if you go to remoteworklifeio, you can register for a free ticket for an event which is 100% remote you won't need to leave the comfort of your desk to attend and you'll be able to hear from people like Michelle, people like Nick Francis, who's the CEO of Help Scout, steli Efti, who's the CEO of Closeio, elaine Pofeld, aaron Hurst, who is a master when it comes to purpose in work. So all these people I've put together, there's around about 20, well, almost 30 interviews there for you for free between the 1st of April and the 8th of April, all designed to help you to make that transition that you want to make to becoming a remote career professional or remote business professional. So register at remoteworklifeio and I look forward to seeing you at the summit and look out for the next episode of the Remote Work Life podcast. See you soon.