Struggling With Burnout as a Freelancer or VA? You're Not Alone

In our Pilot Episode, we go behind-the-scenes on our journey from customer service and hospitality to busting out emails and building website for clients. When 2020 hit and the world became virtual, we took it as the cue to finally make the leap into freelance life!

TLDR:
☕ How to start out with social media services
☕ Being open to trying new services and skills as a bright-eyed newbie freelancer
☕ It’s okay to Google A LOT
☕ The difference between being called a VA (aka slave to the inbox), freelancer (fancy pants for I work in PJs), or service provider (aka I bring the magic) and how your title can transform how clients view (and pay) you!
☕ Avoiding burnout so you don't end up sobbing under your desk   
☕ Being honest about the real work-from-home freelance life

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Latara Dunn: welcome to The Burnt Out Freelancer podcast. My name is LaTara and I have the fabulous Molly with me and we are starting a podcast is something we've joked about for quite a while now and it's kind of, just funny how it unfolded, how we met each other, what we do together day to day, and we're going to dive more into that as we go along, but we wanted this first episode to just kind of talk about who we are, what it is that we do, and why we I really want to create this space for people to come and listen and just feel understood and heard and find something more relatable because In the social media world, we just feel like the world of being a service provider or a freelancer has its ups and downs and can feel pretty overwhelming, especially with the hustle culture, and so we want to show others [00:01:00] that it doesn't have to be that way.

[00:01:02] Latara Dunn: So, I'm gonna go ahead, let Molly introduce herself first, 

[00:01:05] Molly Block: Hi, everyone. My name is Molly Block. I'm the founder of Molly Muse Creations. I have been a freelancer and virtual assistant for almost four years now, full time.

[00:01:19] Molly Block: I live in the great state of Maryland. And before this, I left the corporate world when COVID 19 happened. I had dabbled in, virtual assistant tasks, I had helped some 

[00:01:34] Latara Dunn: friends, 

[00:01:35] Molly Block: I had just done some small stuff. And was really scared about taking the chance to the leap, I would say, from a 9 to 5 job to...

[00:01:48] Molly Block: being remote and I'm so happy I did and I want to welcome all of you guys and I know you're gonna get such wonderful insight and information and laugh with [00:02:00] us and We hope you love everything that we offer. 

[00:02:06] Latara Dunn: So my name is LaTara and I live in Maine, so Molly and I are both on the East Coast.

[00:02:12] Latara Dunn: And we actually have never met each other in real life. So, it is a dream of mine to meet Molly in real life someday. We will do it. 

[00:02:21] Molly Block: We will 

[00:02:22] Latara Dunn: I'll go deeper into how we met when we talked more about, like what it is that we're doing and all that jazz. But for now, that's just the goal of mine. So I am a, Kajabi designer and launch expert, and I provide done for you services.

[00:02:38] Latara Dunn: For female coaches and other service providers. And I typically work with people in the holistic space. And I help put together their websites, their courses, and their funnels. Basically so the female coaches or founders that I work with can stay in the visionary space. And not have to worry about [00:03:00] all the tech jazz and shit like that.

[00:03:02] Latara Dunn: I am also a mom. I have. I have three children and a stepchild. My stepchild is 14. I have a daughter who is 9, and then I also have twin identical boys. So, my life is very chaotic. They are almost 5. At the time of this recording, and it is definitely very stressful here, and I have to say being a freelancer has made it not so chaotic.

[00:03:30] Latara Dunn: Because if I worked in a regular corporate job, which is what I used to have, there's no way in hell I would be able to provide for my family in the way that I do in the capacity along the lines of being home for them when they need me to be home. So, we'll talk more about that. as well and why that's so important to us to work from home and the other advantages.

[00:03:52] Latara Dunn: I come from a background in hospitality and I worked in hospitality management for literally [00:04:00] my entire existence from 15 on, from 15 until I decided to become a stay at home mom. So that was about five years ago now. And I worked for high end, high volume restaurants, hotels, and inns. And I was. It's typically the food and beverage director or the general manager or the assistant general manager that type of capacity.

[00:04:24] Latara Dunn: And so I had to deal with people a lot. My job was literally just making people happy. And that's a whole nother way of like burnout that I dealt with because hospitality is definitely crazy. And then after I had my twins, I decided to become a stay at home mom so I could be home for my twins because I had a pretty high risk pregnancy and it just wasn't doable to be in that type of environment any longer.

[00:04:51] Latara Dunn: so after about a few years of being home with them, I decided that I wanted to venture out in the free world space and I started as just like [00:05:00] a general VA and then I kind of found, my Space that I really liked being in and playing in and whatnot. So, yeah, that's just like a little bit about me.

[00:05:11] Molly Block: I just kind of wanted to piggyback on that and give maybe a little bit more background on my work history. Because we did different things, but the customer service is, We both share that I've done customer service for 18 years.

[00:05:30] Molly Block: I started in a flower shop. I transitioned. I've done multiple jobs. I was a vet tech for a long time. I then found... My long term career, which was at a five star spa and although I loved it because I wore many hats and was able to interact with people, the burnout is real. Yeah. The burnout is real.

[00:05:54] Molly Block: Absolutely. And once I started getting more responsibility in that [00:06:00] company and was actually managing, you know, an entire team I would be in charge of the customer service. Ordering all these different things, it just burnt me out. It burnt me out and I was so scared to leave it because 

[00:06:19] Molly Block: change is so scary and I had thought it was one of those things where I went to my job all the time and I'm like, oh, I don't want to be here. I don't like it. But I didn't do anything about it, and I just ended up being miserable and, you know, not enjoying what I was spending 40 hours a week doing and Managing people is tough, and the customer service at spas is, oh my gosh, is on another level.

[00:06:54] Latara Dunn: I mean, they want quality maintenance and service, Molly. Oh my gosh, 

[00:06:59] Molly Block: yes. [00:07:00] 

[00:07:00] Latara Dunn: Yeah. As a mom, I do have to admit, like, going to the spa is so enjoyable because I give so much of my energy to my children, and I'm so tapped out. And so when I go to a spa, it does feel good, just like that hour in time. 

[00:07:20] Latara Dunn: Where 

[00:07:22] Latara Dunn: someone's taking care of me, but I do get the point along the lines of the high maintenance clientele. Yes, 

[00:07:31] Molly Block: yes. I mean, for an example, like, people would complain if their brownie after their service wasn't warm. I mean, Oh, and everyone thinks when you work at a spa, you get all these services.

[00:07:49] Molly Block: I never really had time to do that. So like I was taking care of everyone else. Wasn't taking care of myself and COVID 19 happened. And like I [00:08:00] said, one of my really close friends had a pretty big business. I would say about 10, 15 years ago. And she would have me do small tasks, and she kept telling me, You have to be a virtual assistant.

[00:08:14] Molly Block: You have to be a virtual assistant. You would be so great at it. And I would always do the, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. And when COVID 19, it just, I'm one of those who believe everything happens for a reason. Even though COVID 19 was absolutely terrible, traumatic, and sad for hundreds and thousands of people it was my opportunity to make the shift.

[00:08:44] Molly Block: Yeah. It wasn't as scary because I couldn't go back there for a month and the longer I sat and my thoughts, I'm like, let me. Let me give it a try and here we are almost four years later and now we're [00:09:00] talking about our VA experiences on a podcast. and I can't wait for, us to get into all the different topics that we have planned and just casual conversations and to hear from you guys and how we can help you.

[00:09:13] Molly Block: That's what this show's really about. 

[00:09:16] Latara Dunn: Yeah, exactly. I love it. And I think it's so great that you talked about how, because of COVID 19, that was like a pivotal moment on where you were able to like, okay, maybe I'm gonna take this seriously where she's saying just try this VA thing out or whatever.

[00:09:30] Latara Dunn: And it's true. A lot of people during COVID became... virtual assistants and service providers because here's the thing, it's so funny how it happened for me too. And definitely COVID is what pushed it for me. So I actually secretly had wanted to become a 

[00:09:49] Latara Dunn: virtual assistant before I had my nine year old. So. I've wanted to be a virtual assistant for over 10 years and I never did it. So back when [00:10:00] Pinterest was like massive, right, that's how we like, that was our social media, right? Just scrolling, 

[00:10:06] Molly Block: right, 

[00:10:07] Latara Dunn: right, of course.

[00:10:07] Latara Dunn: So I would be on there and I would be searching like work from home, how to be a virtual assistant, you know, how to make money from home, side gigs, like all that jazz. But I constantly kept coming into the space of be a transcriber. Review products from Amazon, or, you know. 20 cents per word. 

[00:10:29] Latara Dunn: Right? That's like what it was back then. Not a lot of people could understand the concept of a virtual assistant, right? 10 years ago, technology is not where it is now. And oh my God, so I just constantly talked myself down, right? And would be like, there's no way I can do this.

[00:10:45] Latara Dunn: I don't even know how to go about connecting with people. How would I even do this? Internet wasn't that reliable, and so I just said, fuck it, I'm just gonna continue staying in hospitality, I'm not gonna do it, and this is [00:11:00] a pipe dream that's never gonna fucking come to life, and here we are, and it has.

[00:11:04] Latara Dunn: And so when COVID hit, everything became virtual, right? And obviously, marketing online was not new 10 years ago, it was happening. But it just wasn't common knowledge for the average person, right? When it just wasn't normal. And so, when everything became virtual, the idea of everyone having meetings in Zoom or spending more time in your email and all these project platforms and Expanding your social media because that's now how you're gonna be marketing your business because you're not gonna be out at these events Marketing yourself at conferences, right?

[00:11:48] Latara Dunn: Exactly, and so it was just like okay lots of having the idea of having a virtual assistant doesn't seem so far fetched And [00:12:00] so, I took advantage of that moment in time and was like, oh my god, I finally need to actually follow through with this, I'm no longer working outside of the house, I think this is the universe telling me, freaking just do it, just see what happens.

[00:12:14] Latara Dunn: And so, I had been working for direct sales, so I was in an MLM company and I am not going to be talking about, the pros and cons in being in an MLM company because that's not what we're here for, but maybe we can touch on it at some point, but I do see the benefits in trying it out andI realized that With these companies, people that work from home, they want to make extra money.

[00:12:39] Latara Dunn: They don't know jack shit about marketing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? You don't. Right, 

[00:12:47] Molly Block: they don't. You don't. You 

[00:12:48] Latara Dunn: don't. And it's really sad, actually, and I didn't like that, and that was the one thing I didn't like about these companies, because these companies wouldn't provide these work from home moms, or [00:13:00] these, work from home individuals.

[00:13:01] Latara Dunn: To be able to, get their businesses out there. They're like, I don't know how to go live on Instagram and talk about my product without sounding like a spammy sammy,you know? And I started providing, information because I knew so much about marketing from hospitality And I was like, look, this is how you should be marketing, this is, these are the types of graphics that you should be making, blah, blah, blah.

[00:13:22] Latara Dunn: And people started to pay me to make their graphics for them. Oh my god, and I'm like, wait a minute, so here I am thinking like, maybe this is the time to become a VA, all of a sudden people are paying me to make their graphics, and I'm like, okay, I think I can do something with this, and so I literally created a business out of nothing, right, andthen I started getting clients and I was managing their social medias, and that's how most VAs start out, they start out either managing calendars or managing social 

[00:13:52] Molly Block: media, right?

[00:13:53] Molly Block: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. 

[00:13:55] Latara Dunn: And so I started, managing social [00:14:00] media accounts,But I was just working with other women in the MLM space. And I was starting to not enjoy it. at all because, unfortunately, they are limited with income and they're very limited with what they're actually allowed to say and do on their social medias.

[00:14:22] Latara Dunn: And I didn't like that because they have to follow the rules to stay in the company, right? And I don't like playing by the rules. And that's one of my things when it comes to being a generalized VA. Why I'm not good at that because I don't like following the rules and I like kind of taking control of the projects and doing my own thing as you know, Molly.

[00:14:43] Molly Block: Exactly. I totally understand. Yeah! And 

[00:14:48] Latara Dunn: so I quickly realized, this is a great starting point, this is a good way to, improve my skills in the graphics department, right, and learn more about marketing on the side, but I [00:15:00] know this isn't where I want to stay. And so I started out, like most VAs do, right, in social media.

[00:15:05] Latara Dunn: And Molly, you too, right? you were doing a lot of social media. so, tell me more about that. tell me more about how you started doing social media, what you were doing, and how you were able to gain more skills through managing people's social media accounts. Yeah.

[00:15:28] Molly Block: my journey, I feel like it went fromzero to a hundred.

[00:15:32] Molly Block: I went on a Facebook group that my friend told me about and she helped me build a really simple website and a little portfolio. I didn't expect to get anything right away. I'm like, I don't have, as many skills in this realm as these other people do.

[00:15:50] Molly Block: And I remember posting and then I received two Facebook messages and I was like, holy shit. Well, yeah, this is actually [00:16:00] happening and when I first started it was mainly social media And I still do some social media, although it is not my favorite But at first like what LaTara said, that's really how you start with calendar management email management social media and social media I will say gave me a really great avenue In so many ways, because it helped me build my skills with graphics with creating reels, with doing hashtag research and, you know, SEO and engagement and it's just, it's so fulfilling to me, especially when I first started, to see my clients pages grow or to have, a certain amount of, Likes or comments, I felt so, like, yes, I did this, I definitely can keep doing this, where can this journey take me from here?

[00:16:57] Molly Block: And, I [00:17:00] probably managed four different social medias, which is a lot. Which

[00:17:11] Molly Block: we now 

[00:17:12] Latara Dunn: know and would not recommend. Right, 

[00:17:14] Molly Block: right, cause I'm like. I'm doing, like a food blog, and then I'm doing a sexuality one, and then I'm having to learn these different businesses, because when I started working with, The holistic spirituality sexuality clients.

[00:17:29] Molly Block: I didn't know anything about that when I first started I'm like, what the hell am I gonna be posting for you, right? Why it was a great way to learn the type of business that I actually the LaTara but in the similar realm of I help Female entrepreneurs in the sacred space of, holistic spirituality, sexuality, and [00:18:00] it's just taught me so much.

[00:18:01] Molly Block: And that's what I really gravitated to. And I did a few, I'm going to say odd jobs. I helped like a hair clienta food blogger client. And although I liked it, those weren't things that really resonated with me. And I'm someone, which I'm sure a lot of you can agree, if something doesn't fully resonate with me, especially working from home, I don't want to do it.

[00:18:26] Molly Block: Right. Like, I don't, I'm not going to put, my ADD focus into it, so...

[00:18:34] Molly Block: I just, I started, making reels, and then I started making videos, and here I am now, for two of my clients, I help edit their podcasts, and I'm their podcast manager, and,I have just learned so much, and although I still do a lot of the generic, I don't really have a narrow down niche, but which I think I [00:19:00] have found it, as I told LaTara recently, which she's been telling me 

[00:19:06] Latara Dunn: forever.

[00:19:07] Latara Dunn: Yes, I have! About 

[00:19:10] Molly Block: Kajabi, but I just had to do a project with a client. She was a new client, and I was so nervous. And I knew some stuff because LaTara had showed me. She's a great teacher, and... So much patience and it showed me so much and once I got in there and just started working with it I was like, oh my gosh, I don't want to So my journey has been a lot ofthe customer service aspect of the VA world Because that's what I'm really good at.

[00:19:43] Molly Block: That's what I've always done. And over these three and a half years I Have done so much different stuff. And that's one of the amazing benefits of being a freelancer You know, like I said dabbled with hair clients, food clients, sexuality clients, [00:20:00] how to build websites, videos, social media, Email, calendar.

[00:20:04] Molly Block: I mean you name it. I've tried it and That's the thing is in this business. You're gonna try things and then you're gonna be like, okay That's 

[00:20:14] Latara Dunn: not really for me. 

[00:20:15] Latara Dunn: Yeah, oh my god, I love that you're saying that. Do you mind if I just like touch on that for a moment? No, 

[00:20:21] Molly Block: please, please do

[00:20:22] Latara Dunn: this is so important and this is one of the biggest things of why Molly and I want to have this podcast and want to get this out there is because being a freelancer sounds scary, right? Like, I avoided it for ten freaking years, because I let that imposter syndrome just die out. Take over, and, Molly and I, we both are ADHD and we obsess over things and we get impulsive over things and we hyper focus and then we're like, if we don't really want to do that anymore, right?

[00:20:50] Latara Dunn: And so that was like part of it, right? You know, as younger and I wasn't diagnosed then, so I didn't really know what I was going through, 

[00:20:57] Molly Block: but now I know what's happening to 

[00:20:59] Latara Dunn: [00:21:00] me. Yeah, right? Like, why am I so obsessed with this idea? And that's the cool thing about also being a freelancer and being ADHD, we can be good at a lot of friggin things, right?

[00:21:09] Latara Dunn: Yes. We're so good at, quickly learning and then, being really good at it, right? And we can focus pretty well on certain things that, as we're, like, teaching ourselves about new things. But being a freelancer is great because it is an opportunity Okay, hear me out for a minute, everyone. This is an opportunity to get paid to learn new skills.

[00:21:35] Latara Dunn: Right. 

[00:21:36] Molly Block: No brainer. No 

[00:21:38] Latara Dunn: brainer. To get paid to learn new skills. I wish I realized that forever ago because I would be so much further ahead than I am now, which is fine. It's okay. That's why this is called the burnout freelancer. we don't need to rush the process. We need to let it take its course.

[00:21:54] Latara Dunn: But... I learn something new every single day that I [00:22:00] work and I'm getting paid to do it and when you find something that you enjoy doing, then you can,capitalize on that, right? So, Molly has starting to figure out Oh, maybe I don't want to work with people that use WordPress websites because it, Sucks balls, and LaTara has been saying I want to use Kajabi because it's user friendly for the client and the freelancer.

[00:22:26] Latara Dunn: A lot of clients have a really hard time working with WordPress because, yes, it's great if you're a blogger, it makes sense. That's why WordPress was invented, right? For bloggers. But it was not created for just websites, right? And it's because it has so many plugins. It's really hard to design. you can buy certain plugins that are drag and drop but functionality wise, not great for being efficient, right?

[00:22:51] Latara Dunn: And in this world, you need to be efficient because you have more than one client, right? So you can't be spending all day working [00:23:00] on a WordPress website when you actually havefour other websites that you need to be working on, And that's why I like Kajabi. Because it's a great tool for someone that's starting out a business and it's a great tool for someone that's very well developed in their business, years into it.

[00:23:18] Latara Dunn: Because it's a nice all in one platform, it has every, all the tools that you need and when you have a team, it's easy for the team to understand and grasp. And so...along my way of being the freelancer, I've been able to learn that, and I got paid to learn it.

[00:23:34] Molly Block: And that's something I want to highlight that you just said, is like, the learning something new every single day.

[00:23:42] Molly Block: Yeah. Every single day, and getting fucking paid to do it. I mean, I always say this, I don't care how far along you are in your freelance, virtual assistant business, no one can know it all. Right, you can't, [00:24:00] because clients all use different platforms, you know, CRMs you name it, and you get to expand your knowledge every single day, and it feels so great that you know, can grow your reach and that, in turn, grows your offerings, Because you're able to offer more high end services.

[00:24:31] Molly Block: You're able to offer more platforms that you work with. I mean, I love it. And LaTara is my savior. She's my go to. I ask her questions all the time. I think that's the main thing that I got out of being a VA initially and I still get out of being a VA is my willingness to learn from a fellow VA, [00:25:00] whether it's from your client, whether it's from YouTube videos just always knowing that.

[00:25:07] Molly Block: Your business is going to keep growing and growing if it's not at the place where you want it to be right now It will be 

[00:25:14] Latara Dunn: exactly and Don't be afraid to Google stuff like how to do this how to do that like Molly and I Google things all the time 

[00:25:22] Molly Block: Oh my god, chat GPT? I ask it questions Me and Google like all day.

[00:25:29] Latara Dunn: totally and oh, yeah technology is a wild So Let's talk, let's pause on that for a minute. So basically you guys get the point, like don't be afraid to be a freelancer or service provider, VA, whatever it is you want to title yourself and explore new avenues. Everybody starts from ground zero.

[00:25:49] Latara Dunn: Everybody's going to be learning as they go. the goal is to gain the skill to learn it, get really good at it. So then you can learn new things. So then when you get your new 

[00:25:58] Molly Block: client, your new 

[00:25:59] Latara Dunn: [00:26:00] client needs those new skills that you learned. And that's how you can just keep continuously up leveling your education and your skill in your business.

[00:26:10] Latara Dunn: And that's how you will start getting those higher end... clients that, pay you more money because you don't want to have a million hourly clients. And that's how you get burnout. You have too many hourly clients. And there was a point where I hit, a lot of money every month. I was hitting a lot of money, but I also was very burnt out because I was taking on too many clients that required too many different types of needs.

[00:26:39] Latara Dunn: And I started to realize, okay, I want to focus on these three things. Funnels, marketing, building your course or your website, right? And then, therefore, my brain wasn't being, scattered in so many directions. And so that's why I no longer offer social media services, right? Because I just mentally, I can't take it.

[00:26:56] Latara Dunn: I fucking hate social media services. It's not for me. It might be [00:27:00] for you, but it's definitely... Not for me.

[00:27:02] Molly Block: Okay So that's where I wanted to pivot a little bit Molly and I we're gonna throw out a lot of terms in this podcast and you might not necessarily understand what they are or you might you know, you might be more advanced than us.

[00:27:13] Latara Dunn: You never know So, we'll try our best to make sure we're, explaining what we're talking about as well, but we're going to use the terms VA freelancer and service provider a lot, right? basically, a service provider is somebody that provides. services for somebody.

[00:27:30] Latara Dunn: so I like to call myself a service provider or a freelancer and that's what I've termed myself. I don't want anybody to call me a VA, okay? And I'll tell you why in just a minute. So, I provide a service for somebody and I create something that they turn around and sell. So, I don't sell a product, I provide my service, which is creating their website that they turn around and sell a product on, or they [00:28:00] provide a coaching service or something like that.

[00:28:03] Latara Dunn: And so, a freelancer, what it means is you work for yourself. You're not an employee. You decide. The way things are going to be and that's something that Molly and I definitely are going to touch more on when we talk about the red flags in your clients and you know why you need to have those boundaries and why contracts are so important and setting the boundaries from that onboarding call and we can do a whole episode about why onboarding calls are so incredibly important and contracts.

[00:28:36] Latara Dunn: And so, as a freelancer, you need to set that boundary, this is who I am, you are not my boss, I am not your employee, I make the decisions, we agree upon due dates, you do not tell me when things are due, right? 

[00:28:50] Latara Dunn: So we have these clients that, we work with together and we have learned a lot about ourselves and how we want to run our freelance business [00:29:00] Because we're able to come together and talk about things like, hey, how do you feel about this?

[00:29:04] Latara Dunn: Or does this work with you? Or does this feel good in freelancing world? And usually we're like, no, not at all because we're a freelancer, not an employee. 

[00:29:12] Latara Dunn: And calling yourself a freelancer... Is a clear term that pretty much every person understands that you are a 1099, you're an independent contractor, and you make the rules. So when a client comes to you and says, okay, I need this done by this, you are able to respond with, actually, that doesn't work with my...

[00:29:35] Latara Dunn: calendar, I will not be able to provide my best service or my best skills for you to create this task. However, I could have this project done by X date, right? So you can offer a date and then you guys need to agree upon it, okay? So that's freelancer and service provider. Now V. A. is where that gray area comes in.

[00:29:58] Latara Dunn: So, a lot of people that [00:30:00] have a VA, and they only say my VA, they think of them as an employee. And also, typically, VAs can't charge as much because they call themselves an assistant. But when you call yourself a freelancer or a service provider, you Already have that labeling that allows you to charge more.

[00:30:24] Latara Dunn: It sounds super weird, but it's really the way it is. I have totally tested it out and it works. And so when someone says, are you a va? I say, no I'm not a va, I'm a freelancer and these are the services that I provide for my clients. And so, a virtual assistant is usually 

[00:30:43] Latara Dunn: your starting point, right? you do more generalized work. building calendars, responding to emails, customer service, helping a couple glitches on the website, posting on social media, and engaging on your Instagram account, right?

[00:30:57] Latara Dunn: Like, generalized work [00:31:00] that... Everybody needs to learn. I almost think of it as a step up and it's how you can gain more authority in your business by changing your 

[00:31:11] Molly Block: title. Yes. Yes. And I love that. I know for myself, I have been, I would say in the last six months to a year, been exploring more of, The VA versus freelancer and really finding more empowerment in my business and really feeling, you know, as LaTara mentioned, all the things she mentioned, standing tall and yes, wanting to give my client, the top tier service, but also making sure I'm not burning myself out right now.

[00:31:52] Molly Block: Just being a yes man, because. What I first started, that's what I was. I was a yes man. I, [00:32:00] too, said yes to everything and It just,burnt me out so bad. So, yeah, 

[00:32:07] Latara Dunn: which affects everything in your life. It 

[00:32:10] Molly Block: does. It really does. And so I feel like I'm finding more of my truth and I'm a freelancer and I'd be happy to help you with this.

[00:32:20] Molly Block: But, like LaTara said, if they give me a deadline and I look at things before I just say yes. I feel more confident in saying no in things. Right. Which can be scary in any business you're in. It can be scary, but knowing that ultimately this is your business. And you just work alongside this client, you're not an employee.

[00:32:44] Latara Dunn: Right. And if they start talking to you like, an employer would talk to an employee, like I've been the employer who speaks to employees, for years. And so I I hear it coming through clients and, you just have to [00:33:00] remind them No, this is not the way it is and, there's certain ways that you can go about it 

[00:33:05] Latara Dunn: And, you know, and our biggest thing is we fear we're getting fired, right? As a freelancer, all we constantly are thinking about is... When are we gonna lose this job and where's my next job coming? Yes, that 

[00:33:16] Molly Block: is and that's where I haven't I've I lost my confidence for a little bit because I was struggling with other Things and the scare of losing those clients If, God forbid, I said no to something, and their response, like, I've tried, I've gotten myself, I think, pretty well out of the mindset of, like, expecting the worst, because a lot of my clients I've worked with for a long time and most of them understand, sometimes they get caught up in, we've been working so close together for so long, they do think of you as an employee, But once [00:34:00] I remind them with gentle reminders set some, reset boundaries or when I started setting boundaries, it was just a healthier balance all around.

[00:34:10] Molly Block: Yeah. 

[00:34:11] Latara Dunn: Yup. I totally agree with that. 

[00:34:14] Molly Block: And I think my clients, I have a better relationship with my clients now because I have set boundaries because when you just say yes to things. You're ultimately, probably gonna let one of the clients down if you're saying yes to everything and you have multiple clients and, you deal with ADHD like LaTara and I do.

[00:34:36] Molly Block: You're going to end up letting someone down, so it's just so much better to be honest. You're 

[00:34:41] Latara Dunn: not going to be able to focus on the right thing. Exactly. 

[00:34:45] Molly Block: So just setting boundaries, being upfront and honest, and, having those conversations, although they might be tough sometimes, having them, I'm telling you, every one of my clients that I've [00:35:00] had those conversations with have totally respected me.

[00:35:03] Molly Block: And totally understood where I was coming from, and again, our relationship is just so much better, and I'm not as stressed because they're not, sending me messages at 10 p. m. and Sending me stuff on the weekends, they understand my hours, my boundaries, and it makes for a smoother workday, a smoother work week.

[00:35:24] Molly Block: Smooth, smoother work life. 

[00:35:26] Latara Dunn: Yeah, exactly. I love it. You're absolutely right. All right, so we got. One more thing we wanna share with you and then we'll wrap this up. So Molly and I, the final thing we wanna touch on in this first introduction episode is, what do we wanna provide?

[00:35:41] Latara Dunn: To you as someone who wants to become a freelancer or someone who's already a freelancer, someone's in the service provider space thinking about maybe I want to start as a general VA, like what do we want to give to you in this podcast and So, we want to talk about a variety of things.

[00:35:55] Latara Dunn: One, obviously, burnout. how does it happen? How does it creep [00:36:00] up? You don't even know what's happening until it's too late. So, we're

[00:36:07] Latara Dunn: going to stop it before it comes out of control because we both have been there and we're still We still are working with certain clients where we're like, they're sucking our soul dry. And we use them as an example to remind ourselves of clients that we will no longer take on. Right? Exactly.

[00:36:25] Latara Dunn: And so we want to share that with you. We also want to talk about something that Molly and I both face, is we both have a chronic disease that we're both dealing with. Both of them are two completely different things, but similar. Symptoms at times and we want to talk about how that is a benefit to our freelance life and how the negative side of it,what sucks about it when it comes to being a freelancer.

[00:36:50] Latara Dunn: We also want to talk tech stuff, like, I love, love, love tech, and I absolutely enjoy learning about, new things that are out. I'm [00:37:00] always sharing links and I'm like, check out this new, cool, AI tip I just found out, or check out this new platform. And I just love consuming anything along those lines, and...

[00:37:10] Latara Dunn: I've taught myself how to code and I love 

[00:37:13] Molly Block: doing this. Yes, I love when I see stuff come up, and you tell me and you're like, check this out. Because literally every time you share it with me, I'm like, this is life changing. Right? 

[00:37:23] Molly Block: It's so amazing. Yeah, and so we want to share that with you because sometimes you can go down these rabbit holes and just consume, consume, consume, consume, consume, but then you don't actually ever get anything done and consuming is very burnt out as well.

[00:37:39] Molly Block: it's going to totally make you tired. And so we want to share that. We also want to talk more about like just life working from home. And then, some heavy things like should you do retainers or hourlies and. The stuff that drives us nuts about working from home when people say things like, How's that side biz going?

[00:37:59] Molly Block: [00:38:00] Or, Are you in an MLM? Or, So what do you do to manage inboxes all day? Like, these are conversations people have as my family still has no idea what I even do all day. I don't think 

[00:38:12] Molly Block: mine understands either, half the time. Yeah, 

[00:38:14] Latara Dunn: they don't want it. They just don't get it.

[00:38:16] Latara Dunn: And so, Molly and I, we're constantly, venting to ourselves because sometimes it can feel lonely. And you don't have anybody to talk to about your business unless if someone's in it. Because they are the only ones that seem to totally understand what you're going through. And so, we just want to be able to provide that.

[00:38:34] Latara Dunn: And, dive into those topics. So, we really hope that you enjoy the conversations that we're having. If, you can find us on Instagram, so you can, ask us questions. We would love to, turn this into something really big, because all we want to do is just provide. just provide, that's where we are, we're service providers, and we want this also to be a creative outlet for ourselves, selfishly 

[00:38:59] Molly Block: as well.[00:39:00] 

[00:39:00] Molly Block: You know what? He's welcome you to, to reach out to us. We would love to hear your feedback, questions insights.We just want to hear from you, and we want it to be a space, like LaTara said, where, we want it to be an outlet for you.

[00:39:18] Molly Block: Right. And, Another thing I just want to throw in there that, we're gonna discuss is, like, how to start, right? How to start, what do you need to start? All those different things what you don't need to start. Right, that's the biggest one. Because, 

[00:39:36] Latara Dunn: ah, yes, so many people think they need all of these things, like a website or whatever to start, and you don't need anything.

[00:39:43] Latara Dunn: You literally just need the internet. 

[00:39:46] Molly Block: Exactly. So we're going to be going over all of those things. Yeah. And more in our lives and the craziness that it is. And, we hope to inspire. Whoever [00:40:00] hasn't started their business to go out and take the leap of faith and do it and those who Understand what we're going through and, want to communicate, we're looking to grow that 

[00:40:11] Latara Dunn: community too.

[00:40:12] Latara Dunn: Yeah, and we just want to make you laugh. being a freelancer sometimes can be very defeating and we want to be completely transparent about that. We do not want this to look glorified in any way because it's hard ass work to be this. But we also want to encourage you to do it because the benefits so outweigh the struggles because and I think it's really important to understand that wherever you work, whatever you do, you're going to have struggles, right?

[00:40:40] Latara Dunn: You're gonna, there's so many challenges. So you might as well do, face those challenges doing something that you can actually control yourself. For example, you can decide, When you're going to take a break, you can decide when you want to go for a walk. You don't have to clock in at a certain time.

[00:40:57] Latara Dunn: It's right now at this recording, it's 1053 in [00:41:00] the morning. And I still have not checked my Slack messages, right? I don't want to, Like I have a million notifications. I know they're there and I'll get to them once I'm done doing this. Creative space that Molly and I have created.

[00:41:12] Latara Dunn: 'cause I don't want, my client's needs to clutter my brain right now because I can't take that. Right? And so that's like a boundary I've set for myself. I don't need to check my Slack notifications the second my day starts. I have a nice slow morning. And I love it. And maybe come the end of the day at four o'clock when my day's coming to an end, I might be a little stressed out because I'm like, oh my god, where did time go?

[00:41:34] Latara Dunn: But that's just because I'm ADHD. I can't keep track of time. 

[00:41:37] Molly Block: Oh my god, me neither. Me neither. But yeah, so 

[00:41:42] Latara Dunn: we just want a place like where we can show you that. This type of work is super important and it's not going anywhere. This is not going anywhere. Some people might be like, Oh, it's so true. And no, it's not.

[00:41:57] Latara Dunn: It's because most are just trying to be [00:42:00] social media managers. not actually doing the other things that are out there. And so we want to show you how you can grow from that because it's incredible how much is out there and because of the virtual world 

[00:42:11] Latara Dunn: Now is the time to learn all of these skills and learn how, AI, for example, could totally grow your business. So we'll talk more about that and we just want to laugh. We just want a place to laugh. So if you haven't figured it out right by now, at the end of this episode,

[00:42:27] Latara Dunn: so if you're down with this, and if you're liking how it feels, we invite you to join us on our next episode.

[00:42:35] Molly Block: Yes, I can't wait, and everyone can't wait to see you next 

[00:42:39] Latara Dunn: week. Alright, bye!