Not everyone is content to live off of service member’s pay alone. Military spouses want to make money and many service members want to make additional income. People want a better quality of life and are willing to do the work to make more money but how do you do it? A growing path to earn money anywhere, anytime is by becoming a virtual assistant or a VA. Mary Elaine Baker knows how to make lots of money as a VA. Mary Elaine is the Co-Founder of VAUSA with her husband, Brett. Mary Elaine is a former military spouse that previously worked full-time as an elementary school teacher while her husband was deployed. After struggling for so many years to balance competing demands, Mary Elaine longed for a better work-life balance and a way to be more present for her children. She discovered the ability to work remotely helped her to succeed in other areas of life. Mary Elaine and I talk about how she got started, how VAUSA can help military spouses become VAs, and what you need to know about the work before you jump it. The show notes can be found here.
– The Military Money Show
Transcription
Lacey:
Where you want to work, when you want to work. We’re talking about another kind of VA.
Lacey:
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Lacey:
Hey, welcome to The Military Money Show, where I help the military community make safe and invest money wisely. I’m your host, Lacey Langford, The Military Money Expert. Not everyone is content to live off of a service member’s pay alone. Military spouses want to make money, and many service members want to make additional income. People want a better quality of life and are willing to do the work to make more money. But how do you do it? What are some ways? Well, one of them a growing path to earn money anywhere, anytime is by becoming a virtual assistant or a VA.
Lacey:
Mary Elaine Baker knows how to make lots of money as a VA. Mary Elaine is the co-founder of VAUSA with her husband, Brett. Mary Elaine is a former military spouse that previously worked full-time as an elementary school teacher while her husband was deployed. After struggling for so many years to balance competing demands, Mary Elaine longed for a better work-life balance and a way to be more present with her children. She discovered the ability to work remotely helped her succeed in other areas of life.
Lacey:
It didn’t take long for her and her husband to realize how this new career was ideal for military families, and the idea of VAUSA was born. Mary Elaine and I talk about how she got started, how VAUSA can help military spouses become VAs, and what you need to know about the work before you dive in. As a veteran and mil spouse business owner, a VA has been most helpful in my business. In this show, I give you a little behind the scenes on how my VA, Sarah, who is also a veteran and a military spouse, helps me in my business.
Lacey:
It’s going to be a really interesting show. Here it is, my chat with Mary Elaine. Hey, Mary Elaine, welcome to the show. I appreciate you being here.
Mary Elaine:
Hi. Thank you for having me.
Lacey:
I think this is going to be fun. I have lots to talk about when it comes to Vas and things that I had to work out as a business owner. So I think this is going to be a really interesting discussion. As a military spouse, I know the struggles of trying to get a job and do something you like, something you can make money at, something you’re not volunteering at. This is I think some pretty amazing stuff that you’re doing. Can you tell everybody a little bit about you and what kind of has brought you to the point where you have this company?
Mary Elaine:
Okay. The quick and dirty version is I was a military spouse myself, and I grew up in a military family, so very familiar with the military lifestyle. My husband and I have two children, and I became an educator. I pursued a master’s in education. For the first five years of our marriage, I was a teacher. I decided I needed to pivot because our lifestyle is just so crazy with frequent deployments. Both children were in daycare at one point and my entire little teacher’s paycheck was going to pay for daycare.
Mary Elaine:
I just needed something that was going to give us a little more balance in our lives and still contribute financially to our family. I learned about the world of virtual assisting. I tried it one summer after my last year of teaching and I never looked back. That seed that was planted of, “Wow! I have time freedom. I’m also able to make a paycheck,” quickly spread throughout my friend group of, what are you doing and how are you doing that?
Mary Elaine:
I realized there’s a huge need there in the military community and for military spouses to have that flexibility. And then I also realized what a huge need it was for business owners to have a high quality person with all of those soft skills that military spouses possess and they can trust that person. The business was built around my success as a virtual assistant, and the company itself is that bridge between the client and the virtual assistant so that they can work flawlessly together.
Lacey:
In preparing for the show, I was really thinking about some questions that I wanted to ask you. I have my idea of what a virtual assistant is. I have an idea of why I hired a virtual assistant. But for people that have never done that, that seems very wide open. What is a virtual assistant? What are maybe some tasks they do? Who would they be working for? What are some examples of that?
Mary Elaine:
Absolutely. Our clients primarily use their virtual assistants to support them in their business in all areas of administration. Think about communication management, that you have email, social media communication going on, and private messages, LinkedIn management. Then we have basic tasks, and then project management. All of those to do’s are organized and that assistant is there to help either cross them off for you or hold you accountable and making sure you get it done by those due dates.
Mary Elaine:
And then beyond that, we have assistants that can have more specialized skills in the areas of marketing. It can be SEO, website building, graphic design. I mean, really so much of what we in business is done through the internet, through the computer. The need to have someone physically in the office to do those tasks is very small, very, very slim, that you actually need someone physically in the office to do all of those tasks for you. And then a lot of our clients like to use them for personal reasons.
Mary Elaine:
We have a lot of working mothers as clients and they have a booming business, and then they also have children that have doctor’s appointments and assignments that they need help. So making sure they actually get it done or just managing that day-to-day lifestyle.
Lacey:
Yes. On the VA side, so the virtual assistant side, and then there’s the employer, the person hiring them. On the VA side, how do you know if you’re qualified? How does that work? I’m going to get to in a second how as a business owner I decided to hire a VA.
Lacey:
But for somebody that’s listening to this thinking, “I would love to work from home when my kids are napping or in daycare or in school,” and works around deployment schedules, all those things, but how do they know, especially if they’ve never really had a career, because that’s sometimes the case for military spouses and they maybe want to start this career, how do they know if they’ve got what it takes?
Mary Elaine:
Yes, absolutely. I can only speak for my business and what we are looking for. Because virtual assistant can mean… I just rambled off a whole bunch of things that a virtual assistant could do. You could have someone that is ultra specialized in a certain skillset and that’s completely fine. And we look for those. We look for people who have experience in grant writing or building websites. Those tend to be a little bit more specialized. But what we really want from people is… We target recruiting military spouses for a reason.
Mary Elaine:
We’re really looking for those soft skills. For us, it’s a matter of what have you been doing with your time as a military spouse? If it’s volunteering, we want to see that, because there are so much that goes on administrative wise with organizational skills that goes on with volunteering. I mean, truly even people who worked in the service industry, that is extremely valuable.
Mary Elaine:
I worked in the service industry for years and that taught me so many skills with dealing with people, with dealing with difficult customers, and how to have that professionalism out there in front of everyone all day long. Really what we want to see is at least a couple of years of transferable administrative skills. It doesn’t mean that you have to have been an assistant before, but we do look for all of those soft skills. Are you organized? Are you detail oriented? And do you have the people skills needed?
Mary Elaine:
Because the virtual assistants are the people who are going to be communicating with our client’s clientele base. Those people skills, those interpersonal skills are extremely important.
Lacey:
Yes. I would think military spouses are running a lot of stuff behind the scenes, like family readiness groups, committees, parent meetings. They are also doing family functions for the units, things like that. All that coordination I would think would add up to being able to help somebody run a business. You’re already helping run something for the military.
Mary Elaine:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I just speak for myself, I don’t have a background in business. When I became a virtual assistant, I was teaching fourth graders, and before that kindergartners. If you’ve looked at that on paper, you wouldn’t necessarily think that I was qualified to run someone’s business. But I had all of the soft skills and I had a growth mindset, and that’s all you really need. If you have the soft skills and you have a growth mindset, you can learn pretty much how to do anything.
Lacey:
Yes. When I hired my VA, I sat down and I thought about it. I need a babysitter. I don’t need to be babysitting anybody. Kindergarten, fourth grade, great for babysitting me. That’s what I need. I sat down and thought, my business is I have a military audience, so I needed somebody in the military. I needed somebody that has similar things to me, understands being a veteran, understands being a military spouse.
Lacey:
I think that when people are thinking about becoming a VA, really writing down, there is a lot of things that you do that could help another person that may not be obvious to you in the beginning, but to a business owner, that’s a very valuable skill that you can have, especially communication skills. Let me tell you something I want communicated in email. Let me give you the rough dirty version, and then you make it look really pretty and professional email, that’s wonderful.
Mary Elaine:
One of the top things that I hear from clients when I have my discovery calls is that they say, “I really just want someone that’s going to be able to anticipate my needs.” How can you translate that into a previous job that you’ve had on a resume? I mean, that’s an art. The ability to do that takes that soft skill that you can’t necessarily see on paper.
Mary Elaine:
So that’s what we try to do is we try to seek out the people who have that it factor, that can anticipate needs, that are excellent communicators, that are not afraid to bring their creativity and ideas and see that train coming from a mile away and help their client with that.
Lacey:
I had this thing, I always knew that I was going to have a business, and I did a lot of volunteering, a lot of work with the military, and I also worked under contracts. There were two people that I thought, if I ever really like get my business up and running, I’m going to hire that person. And one of them I did actually hire, but it was because I saw how they interacted. I saw the results that they had, how they treated other people. That’s really important to me and my business because I have a brand. The way that you act outside of me is important to me.
Lacey:
I think that all of those things. Writing a list I think as an employer or the business owner is really important. I wrote out a list of things I want to do, things I don’t want to do, or things only I can do versus things that it’s not necessary for me to be involved in. I think that is really important to… I’m not expecting people to read my mind, so me giving a list of things that I would like to remove. But I could see that anticipating needs is really important and giving ideas. My VA observes. She sees what’s going on.
Lacey:
I make sure I try to loop her on most of my emails that maybe are things that only I can do, but so she’s aware. I think her having a clear picture of what’s going on helps her anticipate. I think that’s got to be on both parts.
Mary Elaine:
Absolutely.
Lacey:
I’m not expecting her to be a magician. VAUSA, do people come to you? Do they sign up at your website? How does it work? If somebody is listening and they want to be a VA, they want to start making some money at home, how do they do it?
Mary Elaine:
Yes. Our website is hire, H-I-R-E, vausa.com. There’s a careers page, and it’s a simple form application that you fill out online. It’s all automatic process. As soon as you hit submit, all of it starts to go for you. Very simple.
Lacey:
And then you reach out to them and they get somebody. How can they put boundaries? Because I am aware of this as a business owner to say, “Tasks, I can just start listing them off. Things that I need done.” I’m trying to be mindful of not like dumping a bunch of stuff on my VA, because I do want to have boundaries. I don’t want to overload her. Not that she has said, Don’t overload me,” because I could see some people being demanding. How as a VA can you say, “That wasn’t part of the deal?’
Mary Elaine:
You hit the nail on the head right there. We essentially have two types of clients. You have the rapid delegators, who as soon as they get a new assistant, they want to dump their entire life on them at one time, and we have the other client who is very reluctant and there’s some fear behind there and some trust issues of being able to delegate. It’s like pulling teeth trying to get tasks from them.
Mary Elaine:
But for our assistants, we tell them right off the bat, “You have to establish your boundaries, your personal boundaries, right there at day one.” And that takes a very effective communicator of saying, “Hey, these are my working hours. These are my windows of when I will be responsive. And if you catch me after or before this time, then it would have to wait until that next window of time.” Letting them know what are your preferred methods of communication.
Mary Elaine:
Sometimes text messages can be a dangerous zone. I know for me, if you send me a text, may not get a reply for a while. But if you send it in an email, I will for sure get back to you in that method. it takes both really, really good communicators on establishing what’s your preferred methods of communication, what are your working hours, and what is your capacity. We implement a lot of EOS into our business and that’s basically a series of tools that you can use to structure your business.
Mary Elaine:
One of those tools is understanding that each person that works for you and yourself need to have three things to be able to do their job effectively and well, and that is GWC. They have to get it, want it, and have the capacity to do it. So if either one of those three things are out of whack, you have to evaluate it and either fix it or pivot, right? Capacity is something that we harp on all the time. Be honest about how much you can take on. If you’re overwhelmed and your client adds another project on your plate, they are not looking for you to be a yes man.
Mary Elaine:
They’re looking for you to be honest and clear with them. Because the worst thing you can say is, “Yes, absolutely,” and then you miss that deadline, and then detail starts slipping through, things start slipping through the cracks. That’s why we look for those soft skills. We’re looking for very honest, open communicators who are not afraid to say what they need and have that high level of self-awareness of what’s going on with their life and balancing that workload.
Lacey:
Are there some tools that VAs need to help them do their business? Because I could see that… I have my whole system. I’m a systems person, and I’m very particular about that. That’s been shown to my VA right away like, “This is how it works.” A lot of it too is getting it out of my head. It’s been in my head for so long that I actually have to write the instruction manual. But how does that work with VAs that have maybe more than one client and they have different systems?
Lacey:
Are there some things that are just standard for VAs? I don’t know. I use Slack to communicate with mine.
Mary Elaine:
Right. One of the tools that we really encourage all of our assistants to use, we use it and I use it internally with my own team, I have virtual assistants, and that is ClickUp, which is similar to Asana or Trello. It’s just a project management tool. You can manage different clients. I mean, you can kind of cut and dice and morph it to whatever the purpose is, personal use and professional use as well. Also, LastPass is a password tool that we use. Every assistant we tell them, “Hey, you need to have your own account.
Mary Elaine:
Encourage your client to create their own account and you can share passwords. And that way you can manage your own passwords and multiple client’s passwords as well, and keep everything safe, secure, encrypted, and organized at all times.” Those are two tools that have been very helpful for me personally, but also for my clients and assistants.
Lacey:
Yes. I really like Airtable. That’s a system I use. I could see that VAs have the hard road. That if you have somebody that’s using Trello and somebody is using Airtable and ClickUp, like that’s… I get what you’re saying, but for them to have their own to manage their clients, to say maybe double check their tasks or things like that.
Mary Elaine:
I’m going to be honest, Lacey. You are a very special person to say that you thrive on systems and you have everything already in place for your assistant to come in. 99.9% of my clients that I get, it’s all in their head and they don’t really have anything organized system wise or tools that they use. They’re still very much wearing all the hats and not learning how to automate yet, or create those systems, or even really get that process out on paper or in a video. Our assistants come in and have to create all of that structure for our clients normally.
Lacey:
Well, I appreciate you saying that, but I will be honest, hiring a VA has helped see where I am the kink in the chain, where I’m slow in the process, where it’s either I have to complete something, or I have to hand it off. I had pretty good systems for running my business, but I needed to write it all out. I actually got a sheet of paper out, because I have multiple components of my business, one of them being the podcast.
Lacey:
On the podcast, I sat down and said, “Okay, how does this initiate? Either it starts with me asking a guest to come on, or somebody asking to come on. It’s I approve or disapprove.” That’s the first decision that I have to make. Then I mapped it all out to say, “Where is Lacey here,” and looking at the points where I could be removed from the situation and that my VA could take over so that it would be a smoother process for her, so she’s not waiting around on me and stuff like that. Plus, I’m also working with an editor.
Lacey:
There’s a couple other people involved. Hiring a VA really helped me notice where I was the bottleneck.
Mary Elaine:
Well, even the fact that you sat down and you did that, that’s huge. I rarely hear that, so that’s amazing.
Lacey:
Yes. I try to be aware because it makes me more efficient. I don’t have to hire more people, is it that I can have a clear plan. I also have what to expect like for the podcast guests that come on, for people that work with me, so they understand. When people have questions, then I go back and I fine tune that, because then that wasn’t clear with… It makes more people more comfortable and understand what it’s going to be like, because I love that you pointed out boundary for people.
Lacey:
If you know this is what you’re getting into and you don’t like it now, then we could just decide, okay, we’re not a good fit for each other. It helps everyone. But I like being organized too, because I have a family that… I’m taking care of my kids, juggling them from camps and schools and things like that. If I could just be more efficient, I think that’s helpful. I have one question about multiple clients. If you’re a VA, what is the average hours that people are working?
Lacey:
Are they only doing five hours a week for one person, and then they have five people?
Mary Elaine:
It can vary. This is part of what we do at VAUSA in our matching process is ensuring that the virtual assistant is getting the hours that they want and they need and that they can handle and our clients are getting the attention that they need. That’s what we look at very, very carefully in the beginning and the first 90 days when our assistant gets their first client.
Mary Elaine:
Typically, we don’t let our assistants interview with an additional client until they have hit that milestone, because no client truly knows what they actually need right there in the beginning, unless they’ve worked with a virtual assistant before. Most of our clients have not. We like to see what their normal trendline is going to be and make sure our assistant is comfortable with that before adding another client to their plate. Every single virtual assistant coming in comes in with a very different need.
Mary Elaine:
I may have an assistant that says, “I just want one client and average five to 10 hours a week max,” and we may have another assistant that comes in and says, “I can do two. I could do maybe three clients.” We typically don’t go over three clients. That is usually really approaching that dangerous the zone of over-saturating our assistant and our clients normally come with a pretty decent workload of what they need.
Mary Elaine:
We have found anything over that, that two to three client ratio for our assistants and for our clients, really start to damage the relationship between the client and the assistant. And that’s really what we’re looking for. We want that close, trusting accountability to be there. I mean, when you have a lot of plates in the air, it’s really hard to get that undivided attention and care and be able to anticipate needs when you have to do it for a lot of people at one time.
Lacey:
Yes. I think that’s scary for me as the business owner. What if you can’t do something for me? And I know that’s completely selfish
Mary Elaine:
No, it’s not. That’s part of the process as well is we try and figure out, what do our clients really need? Do they need only one assistant that’s solely devoted to them? And if so, then we look for an assistant who only wants one client. It is important. It’s not selfish. It’s just a personal preference.
Lacey:
Yes. And I would think as business owners, they’re also vetting and testing people. I do that with writers and stuff like that. I test people out to see long-term. It’s maybe a trial basis or write a few articles for me, do a few tasks for me, to see how it works, and then maybe I actually have a bigger role for you. But if we’re not a good fit, your communication isn’t strong, because I am definitely a hustler. I’m highly motivated. I’m definitely a talker. Let people know what I’m thinking and what I’m doing.
Lacey:
But if that isn’t a good fit, then I can kind of decide that early. I would think that some of these VAs move on to bigger positions.
Mary Elaine:
They do. What have found is that if we have an assistant who has a very strong role with their client and their client has realized, “Wow! This person has amazing gifts and talents in this specific area. I want them to do more of that. I want them to laser focus on this aspect of the business only because they love it. The GWC is there and their gifts are in that area, but I still have all these other administrative tasks that need to be done.”
Mary Elaine:
What will happen is they’ll hire another virtual assistant to come in, and that original virtual assistant will kind of, like you said, move up into that higher level role for that client. And that new assistant from our team will come in and essentially the original person will mentor them on, “Here. Now here’s all the things that I used to do.” It really makes life a lot easier on the client because the client really isn’t having to educate that assistant. They already have someone that’s been there, done that and to pass that baton down.
Mary Elaine:
So yes, that’s pretty normal. Our clients that have been with us, especially since the beginning, some of them have three assistants, four assistants, and their business just keeps continuing to grow every year.
Lacey:
Because if you’re a serious business owner, that’s the idea. You want to make more money. You want to grow. How does this work with a PCS, with deployments? Is there anything that people should be tracking? They want to become a virtual assistant. That is going to be something that we all know is a big disruptor. We all have a system too for that probably to handle it, but how can you maintain the work? Is that possible?
Mary Elaine:
Well, one, it depends on how big of a move it is and how quick it is. I mean, recently I had someone on my team that was given weeks to move. That was kind of abrupt and fast. But what we have in place is, and what you’re describing earlier, standard operating procedures, and we have an SOP. If someone is going to have a big move, we have someone else come in in place if they need to take any extended amount of time off that can come in and continue serving their client. And because that assistant and client already have their SOPs documented, it’s a very smooth transition.
Mary Elaine:
It’s not just the PCS. I mean, someone could have a baby. Someone can have an emergency happen. Life happens. We’re all human. We’d like to be prepared for that. We work very closely as a team. We’re very close with our clients. It’s really just a matter of helping each other out. Do you need some time off? That’s fine. So-and-so can come in and take on your workload until you’re ready to come back. Does that answer your question?
Lacey:
Yes, it does. I can see too that like in my situation… By the way, shout out to my VA, Sarah, hey, Sarah, since she’ll be listening to this. We can get ahead. We know that’s in the pipeline. My VA probably will be moving in months and that’s something we can get ahead on. She could do the work ahead in order to have that break or whatever. I think that each business probably has some room to wiggle there.
Mary Elaine:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). It just depends on if it’s planned or unplanned, how quick that is, and in the comfort level of the clients. Some clients say, “I can handle a few days. It’s okay.” But if it’s longer than a week or so, then most of our clients start to sweat a little of, okay, I think we need to figure something out.
Lacey:
Yes. I’ve said this before on the show, we have 10 days to get out. I was like, is that possible? When they tell people like, “Oh, it’s too quick of a move,” I’m like, that’s not true. If they want you gone, they’ll get you gone. You don’t have to go to your new base, but you can’t stay here. Just kidding. You do have to go to your new base. What about active duty? I’m big harper on everybody just start preparing to get out. This could be something that maybe even a side hustle.
Lacey:
If somebody is trying to get out of debt, maybe save up money for them getting out of the military, maybe they could be a VA while they’re on active duty. I think that’s possible. Do you think that’s possible, or do you see some hiccups with that?
Mary Elaine:
It just depends on the clients and what they need and what kind of service does that person want to provide. Most of our clients want someone who’s available during normal business hours that they can call and get communication with throughout the day. But we have some clients who, “Hey, it really doesn’t matter. As long as I wake up in the morning and things are checked off, great.” It’s very client dependent, but also what kind of services you want to provide.
Mary Elaine:
Are you trying to be essentially that virtual front desk person for a business, or are you wanting to be a quiet, behind the scenes, project-based person that can just do things in the nooks and crannies of the day?
Lacey:
Yeah, that’s a good distinction. You’re right, because that’s what I’m thinking. Behind the scenes, if there’s a project, I totally could hire somebody active duty that get it done when you can get it done, versus if I did need somebody that’s getting back during normal business hours with emails, things like that.
Mary Elaine:
My assistant is very involved in taking care of all of my leads and my clients, and so that requires a pretty prompt response time, quick responses and taking care of that sales process. So for me, I really need someone available during those normal business hours when my clients would be available.
Lacey:
Yes. I try to be more mindful of, if I do work on the weekends, that I don’t want to just serve other people. I love scheduling emails. Sometimes my poor VA is like Monday is like all these emails.
Mary Elaine:
8:00 AM. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Lacey:
I give her a heads up at Slack. By the way, I do 9:00 AM. I’m like 9:00 AM on Monday you’re going to get a bunch of emails, but I do think that’s helpful. If I have emails, you can get them done whenever you want. You can do them at 2:00 in the morning. Just maybe send them at 8:00 AM. Well, that’s good to know. There’s a ton. We’ll definitely put links to everything in the show notes for everybody. I want to ask you a couple of quick random questions. I ask everyone, first off, what is one resource or tool that makes your life easier or business?
Mary Elaine:
Can I say [inaudible]
Lacey:
Yes. Yes, you can.
Mary Elaine:
I would be drowning without my virtual assistance.
Lacey:
Yes.
Mary Elaine:
Shout us to Ivy.
Lacey:
Shout out to all of our VAs. What is your favorite book right now or your favorite book of all time?
Mary Elaine:
Okay. A recent book that I read that I love is called Clockwork by Mike and I always butcher his last name.
Lacey:
He has a short last name to pronounce. Yes. He wrote…
Mary Elaine:
Profit First.
Lacey:
Yes. I was like, I’m just going to turn around and like Profit First.
Mary Elaine:
Yes. I mean, a lot of what we talked about today is really in that book. It’s helped me to be able to… I’m taking the whole month of July off of work, and this has really kind of helped make it to that point of being able to do that, have all my systems not need me. I’m no longer a bottleneck. I’ll let you know how that goes. I’m excited.
Lacey:
Please do. Please do. And I think that’s wonderful. I haven’t read that book, but I’m actually going to get that when we are done. I really love Profit First. I think it’s huge for business owners in the management of their money and very important to be focused on. I coach people that are trying to start their own financial coaching business. And that’s something we really talk about is, “Hey, if you’re starting this, know that you’re in sales. You’re here to make money. If not, you’re a volunteer, or it’s pro bono.”
Lacey:
Understanding that you’ve got to have that focus. I’m going to be sure to check that out. I think that’s really important for a business.
Mary Elaine:
Absolutely.
Lacey:
All right. Now it’s time for my favorite part of the podcast, which is game time.
Audio:
It’s game time. It’s game time. It’s game time.
Lacey:
Today, we are going to be playing would you rather. Are you ready?
Mary Elaine:
I think so.
Lacey:
Okay. Well, I’m just going to give you a series of situations and you just have to tell me which one you would rather. Okay? Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. All right. First one, would you rather never be able to use a touch screen or never be able to use a keyboard and mouse?
Mary Elaine:
Keyboard and mouse.
Lacey:
So you’d rather the touch screen?
Mary Elaine:
Yes.
Lacey:
Okay.
Mary Elaine:
I use the touch screen way more.
Lacey:
Okay. My kids are really used to a touch screen. My MacBook, they’ll like try to touch it, I’m like, “Don’t touch the screen. This is not a touch screen. Don’t touch the screen.” Would you rather never lose your phone again or never lose your keys again?
Mary Elaine:
That’s a hard one. I would say never lose my keys again, because I can always go and get a new phone pretty easily.
Lacey:
Yes.
Mary Elaine:
There’s nothing more frustrating trying to leave my house and I can’t find my eyes and I’m running late for meetings.
Lacey:
That is so true. I’m definitely on the keys side.
Mary Elaine:
I can leave my phone, but I can’t go anywhere without my keys.
Lacey:
Yes. We’re so used to now always having the phone. I do think about that sometimes. Oh, I forgot my phone. What if there’s an emergency? And I’m like, who are we kidding? Everyone has a phone. I’d be like, can I borrow your phone?
Mary Elaine:
Absolutely.
Lacey:
But ask like the nine-year-old, they’ll have a phone. Would you rather have all traffic lights you approach be green or never have to stand in line again? This one’s a tough one.
Mary Elaine:
Never have to stand in line again.
Lacey:
At least just sitting in the car.
Mary Elaine:
Yes. I can listen to music, whatever, but no. When you think about it, amusement parks, I mean.
Lacey:
Oh yeah. DMV.
Mary Elaine:
DMV.
Lacey:
How about the ID card facility? That’s one that’s like an intense line. I don’t know what it is. Everyone’s angry. Everyone’s angry about getting a new ID card.
Mary Elaine:
Or when you’re hungry and you’re waiting in line.
Lacey:
Yes. All right. Would you rather have amazingly fast typing or texting speed or be able to read ridiculously fast?
Mary Elaine:
Oh, read really fast.
Lacey:
Yeah. I would rule the world if I could really fast. My sister is the fastest reader, and I love that she has that super power. It makes me very angry though, because she’s like, “Oh, I’m already done with that book.” I’m like, “Don’t tell me. Don’t spoil the book. Don’t spoil the book.”
Mary Elaine:
I’m jealous of people that can do that.
Lacey:
Yes. Well, I appreciate you playing game time and coming on the show. It’s been wonderful to chat with you. Can you tell everybody listening where they can learn more about you and VAUSA?
Mary Elaine:
Of course. We are all over social media, @HireVAUSA, and our website is hirevausa.com.
Lacey:
Wonderful! We’ll be sure to put links to all of that in the show notes. Thank you again.
Mary Elaine:
Great. Thank you.
Lacey:
Thanks to Mary Elaine for coming on the show to talk about how you can make money as a virtual assistant. Thank you to Navy Federal for providing support to The Military Money Show. To learn more about Navy Federal Credit Union and their fast and easy auto loan process, check them out online at navyfederal.org and they’ll guide you through the full process. You can head over to laceylangford.com to get the show notes and resources.
If you like to watch the recording of the show, you can find it on YouTube under The Military Money Expert and the link for that will also be in the show notes. I appreciate you listening, and I will talk to you next week.
All right. Now it’s time for What’s On Lacey’s Mind? Today, there are three things that are on my mind. First off is more of an update. Randy the raccoon is continuing to steal the hummingbird food feeder that I put out. He tips it back like it’s his own personal keg and just drinks it all. If I put stuff in his way to stop him, he uses my flower pots as stepping stones to then knock it off my back deck. And then I have to go retrieve it from the ground where he has drank all the sugar water. He is super annoying.
I don’t want to have to trap him, but I also don’t want him to think he’s my personal pet that I’m feeding sugar water to every night. I had to start bringing in my feet or at night. I also put out a trail camera and caught images of Randy being super annoying. I’ll be sure to add Randy to the show notes if you like to check him out and what he’s up to at night. Every day it’s, do I need to refill the feeder? Has Randy gotten into it? Did I forget to bring it in? Did I forget to put it out? You can see why it’s on my mind.
It’s all Randy’s fault. The other thing that’s been on my mind is summer camps. We’ve been very busy this summer entertaining the boys. We are finding things that we want to do together as a family. We’ve done golf camps. We have done lacrosse camp that’s getting ready to come up. We’ve done lake time. We have done beach time. What else have we done? Bike riding time. Next, we’re going to do boxing time. We’re going to take a boxing class together as a family. Super excited about that. Hopefully, no one will be injured.
And the third thing that is on my mind is social media. I’ve been working on a social media plan for a little while. I need to implement it. But I thought I would ask you guys what you would like to see on social media for The Military Money Show. I want it to be entertaining. I don’t want it to be boring. I also want it to be helpful and useful to you. I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on social media, things you want to see. Do you want to see more behind the scenes of me recording? Maybe more behind the scenes with guests.
More snippets of audio. Do you want to see what I’m just generally up to in the day? Is it more memes? I’m really interested to hear what you guys want. I do want it to be entertaining and valuable, so keeping that in mind. If you think of something, email me info@laceylangford.com, or you can message me on Twitter @financelacey, or on Instagram under @militarymoneyshow. That’s what’s on my mind.
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