Episode 276: A Week in the Life of a Digital Marketing and Launch Strategist with Nivia Lopez

Full Episode Transcription:

[00:00:00] Arianna Vernier: Hey, y’all. Welcome back to the Virtual Assistant Mama Podcast. I’m super excited because today we are starting a brand new series that I titled a week in the life. So in these episodes, I’m bringing on different guests who offer different services in the virtual assistant entrepreneurial world. And they’re just going to break down like what they do, how many hours a week they work, what their week looks like outside of work and in work and just all the things. So I think that’s going to be really helpful for y’all to see what it’s like when you offer these different services. So today’s special guest is Nivea Lopez. She’s a digital marketer and launch strategist for online course creators who’s been in this role for three years. Welcome, Nivea. We’re so excited to have you.

[00:00:44] Nivia Lopez: Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.

[00:00:47] Arianna Vernier: Yeah, I would just love if you could just kind of introduce yourself to my listeners before we jump into the questions. Tell us a little bit about you and maybe a little bit about your family, what you did maybe before you started working in this space and just all the things.

[00:01:02] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, as you mentioned, I do digital marketing and launch strategy. That is the main thing I do, but I did start. Online in this space as a virtual assistant. So I’ve done lots of different things. This is really just the role where I have found that I’m the happiest working in. So that is the main thing that I offer, but I do have a family. I have two daughters. They are four and 13 months old. And we also have a dog. She was our first baby, the oldest, but. She acts like a little teenager in the house. It’s fun. So they all keep me really busy outside of my business as well.

[00:01:42] Arianna Vernier: We have kiddos about the same age. So my daughter’s four and a half, and then my son will be two in February. So they’re really close together. That’s awesome. I love how you mentioned that you used to just work in more of the broad virtual assistant category, but now you’ve niched down and you did it because you found that this is what makes you happy. And I talk about this all the time on the podcast. I don’t want. The listeners to pick a service just because that’s what they’re comfortable with. I want you to actually pick something that lights you up that you’re excited to do for your clients every day. So I absolutely love that you mentioned that.

[00:02:17] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, absolutely. It was really hard for me to niche down because I really do enjoy doing so many different things, but I also found that with marketing and launch strategy and all of that comes a lot of different pieces that you get to do and put together, you know, sometimes I’m coming up with a podcast strategy, for example, because that’s how they’re going to market or a social media strategy. And it keeps my brain still doing a bunch of different things and that’s super fun to me, but it’s not like the most broad thing ever, which is virtual assistant. You can do that.

[00:02:54] Arianna Vernier: Yeah. So I think for those listening who are more of that, they just love the multitasking, like you said, doing a lot of things at once. You can still niche into more advanced and more profitable services to offer and still find something that allows you to have a variety of things you’re doing. So you don’t get bored just doing 1 thing. So, like, I’m a website designer, for example. And that doesn’t just involve designing the pages. I have to do all the tech set up and the launch strategy and the branding. And so it’s a lot of different components. So you can definitely find services that allow you to, you know, kind of bounce around and do different things that interest you

[00:03:37] Nivia Lopez: For sure. For sure.

[00:03:40] Arianna Vernier: So what kinds of tasks do you do throughout the week for your business and then also for your clients businesses?

[00:03:47] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, typically, the main task that I start with is a strategy session to really decide on how to move forward. So I do that with strategy reports, launch calendars, that really fit that person’s schedule, what their goals are. Researching for upcoming launches, whether that is researching the audience or what other competitors are doing, types of things, and what’s working in the market, that kind of stuff. I do a lot of list building, because that’s a big Part of marketing organic social media marketing analytics and reporting, which that part sounds boring, but it’s super important also writing sales copy, designing landing pages, sales pages, repurposing content for, you know, marketing purposes, whether it’s for repurposing into social media or blogs or whatever. There are so many different ways to market things and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you create a piece of content. So that’s a big thing that I do. I have add ons and things that I enjoy doing because of course I came in doing all these different things as a virtual assistant. So I have other skills that I still enjoy like video editing that isn’t a main thing that I do but it’s like a fun thing to still keep me doing you know fun projects kind of thing.

[00:05:01] Arianna Vernier: Yeah, that’s awesome. So a lot of different just like strategy planning, helping businesses reach more of their ideal clients and like building their lists, like you said, before their launches actually happened. So they have more people to launch to. I love that. And did it take you a long time to learn those skills? Are you mostly self taught? Did you take courses?

[00:05:25] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, I did take courses and a lot of it is self taught to when it comes to strategy and things. I did get a certified master certification and master marketing and that was through FG society and that was really to up level my skills and understand strategy before that I wouldn’t have felt comfortable doing strategy sessions because it’s a it’s a really big, you know, thing to take on and that was probably one of the priciest courses that I decided to take because it is a certification course. Aside from that, I have taken a bunch of, you know, random courses here and there for like copywriting, for example, video editing, stuff like that. And a lot of it, you can really just look up and find YouTube videos and find podcasts or other. And just learn a lot of these skills, which is how I mostly started is like, Oh, okay. I’m going to do this for this client. I can figure out how to do it and just finding resources and then learning it.

[00:06:27] Arianna Vernier: Yeah. That’s something I speak to a lot as well, as I think a lot of people think they have to invest a ton upfront into learning these services and a lot of it, you can just DIY at first. And like you said, once you get. Deeper and just like more sophisticated sales. That is a good idea to invest in a course, but you can offer things, just teaching yourself skills off YouTube. Like that’s how I started learning website design. I watched a tutorial on YouTube for how to build my own website and then was like, Oh, this is so fun. And started doing it for clients with no previous experience, no course, no nothing. So I always like to mention like you don’t have to invest a ton like get a couple clients under your belt And then set aside like a small percentage from what you’ve earned from them and then use that To start investing into up leveling your skills

[00:07:20] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, absolutely before I actually decided to start an online business. I was trying to figure out how people work online I had seen things about like oh these people that travel around the world and they just like Writing blogs or something and I’m like, oh, that’s cool and I invested into a course that was super expensive and did not help me at all because I had no idea what I was doing or what that online world really was about and I was like, oh, so this guy says that he did this and he could teach me and it was a terrible course, but I really didn’t do enough research up front before doing that and that was like one of those You know, mistakes that you have to kind of go through, I guess, to like, just keep moving forward. And, you know, it really Kind of painful in the moment to, to just go through that. Cause I really wanted to figure out how to work from home, but I really needed to do more research just on my own and figure out how people were doing this before investing into more things.

[00:08:22] Arianna Vernier: It’s really easy to get sucked into the shiny object syndrome of like, oh, I’m going to invest in this course and this course and this course. And then if you’re not taking action, that’s not going to help you. And if you don’t do the research to make sure it’s a good fit for you beforehand, then you might just be wasting money. So I like that you mentioned that too, because I think a lot of people get really distracted with like, oh, I should do this. I should do this. And you just want to focus on one thing skilled in that. And then move on to the next thing. How many hours would you say that you kind of roughly work in a week and how much of that is spent on your clients, businesses, and then how much are you spending, like working on growing your own business?

[00:09:04] Nivia Lopez: It honestly does vary, but I’d say roughly about 25 hours. And for the most part, it’s like 20 hours on client work and then five on my own business. But that can change depending on the season. Sometimes I’m like trying to work on things for my business. And just adding more time for that and sometimes there’s just slower seasons with client work. So then I can do that. And then, yeah, sometimes there’s big launches coming up and I want to dedicate some more time to working on client stuff. And that’s going to just be a week that I’m working a lot more hours. And I just say that roughly, I keep it at around 25 because that’s more manageable with just my work and home life balance kind of thing.

[00:09:48] Arianna Vernier: Awesome. Yeah, I think it’s cool for people to see, like, you can absolutely do this in less than 40 hours a week and you can still be there with your kids. So I love that.

[00:09:58] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, yeah. In the beginning, it was like, for sure, I was working so many more hours to try to build up the business and it was, I will say that, but it was a season of hard to be able to Have more restful and more smooth seasons in life, and that still happens sometimes sometimes there’s just seasons that are a little bit more hectic and crazier that I have to have like a like end date of when it’s going to stop being hard so that I can actually have a normal and, you know, happy life with me and not just let work take over everything. Yeah, it’s, it’s hard at first for sure, though, but.

[00:10:39] Arianna Vernier: It gets yeah, and it’s hard being in the entrepreneurial world. You don’t have like a certain time You’re clocking in and clocking out. So it’s easy to let it consume you and that’s why you have to set The boundaries, those really hard, solid boundaries so that you don’t find yourself focusing more on work than when you’re supposed to be with your kids or whatever. So, yeah, that’s definitely important.

[00:11:03] Nivia Lopez: You have to be super organized, but you also have to be okay with. Plans not going exactly the way they’re gonna go because there’s kids around and they’re just not always gonna go that way So I have to give myself a lot of grace which is something that I had to teach myself to do It wasn’t like a natural to me because you know It’s easy to see what other people are doing especially in social media and be like Well, she has like four kids and she was able to do all of this. I have One at the time when I was like really in that headspace and I should be able to do this and you know But sometimes you just have to slow down and say this will have to wait until tomorrow or until yeah This one this season is over or whatever. It might be and yeah, give yourself grace for sure.

[00:11:49] Arianna Vernier: Definitely. So, what does your life look like outside of business? Like, what do you, what do you do throughout the week? How do you kind of structure your week? Tell us a little bit about that.

[00:12:00] Nivia Lopez: A little bit about our weekends, because I do try to keep work within the week as much as possible, unless it was just, it just didn’t happen during the week kind of thing. So, weekends, we usually try to get out of the house as much as possible, because my husband and I both work from home. Well, he does like a, Hybrid model, but that just means that we just want to get out of the house on the weekend so that we’re doing fun things and we’re just not always cooped up at home and, you know, thankfully, we live in a city where there’s a lot of fun things to do. But even if we get out of the city, doing things in nature is really important to us too. So literally after breakfast on the weekends, we usually leave the house and don’t come back until the evening. And I do go to church on Sundays. So that’s like important for my family to to do that in the mornings and then afternoons are usually special. And if we don’t have plans with friends, then it might just be a time of rest at home with the kids. But that’s just big for us. During the week, our week can get pretty crazy, but like mornings are still pretty intentional of, you know, making sure we’re having a little bit of that family time in the morning too with just breakfast and getting the kids ready. Actually having some playtime with the kids before my preschooler goes to preschool and then after work, my heart stopped on weekdays is usually 4 p. m. because then, you know, I have my preschooler back home and then we’re doing activities with the kids. We’re doing dinner time and all of that stuff. And then bedtime routine is always crazy with kids. I feel like so I just cannot it. Do anything with work with that. And if there’s like a big launch happening or something, then I will occasionally work after the kids go to bed, but it’s I cannot do that consistently, that would be really hard. So it’s usually more of time for me to unwind or spend time with my husband. And I try to keep that the main focus. But there’s, there’s definitely seasons where I’ve worked when the kids go to bed. And that’s just how it’s had to work out sometimes. Because maybe the kids needed more attention during the day or whatever it may have been. So, yeah, that’s about what it looks like. I do take Days like off, I guess where I plan like a zoo trip or a museum day, or if there’s some like really fun festive event where I think it’s going to be less crazy during the week, then I’ll take my kids during the week because I can have that flexibility and maybe I’ll have to work a little bit on a Saturday morning to trade that off, but it’s going to be better for us. So that’s the really nice thing about When you have your own business, you can have that flexibility to decide, hey, this week is actually going to look completely different. We’re going to go do this instead today. And then I’m actually just going to work on a Saturday and switch that out for like a Tuesday or whatever it might be. But yeah, I’m always finding family friendly activities to do with the kids because that’s really my main role and my priority right now.

[00:14:51] Arianna Vernier: Yeah, same. I love how you mentioned that sometimes it’s a little bit of a trade off and you want to have a plan so you know, like, I know what’s going to happen, but be flexible with that plan. Because like you said, kids never do what you think they’re going to do. So something that worked really well has worked really well for my husband and I is if, well, at the beginning of my journey into the virtual assistant world, there was one night a week where from like, Probably dinnertime till 9pm. My husband had the baby and I was up in our office working and so that gave me a dedicated, consistent chunk of time where I knew I could get a shit ton done. So. That worked really well for a while. And then we still sometimes do that. Like if things get crazy and a kiddos home sick, then he’ll take over again for the evening and let me go up and work while he’s got the kids. So having that flexibility is really important. And like you said, you want to have those hard boundaries so that you’re present for your kiddos, but then also let them fluctuate a little bit if needed, depending on what’s going on each week. As a virtual assistant or as any service provider, your week’s not always going to look the same. So we don’t want the listeners to get stressed out. Like, if they find things aren’t going according to plan, you just kind of got to adjust and have a backup plan in your pocket in case that happens.

[00:16:16] Nivia Lopez: Absolutely. I think I’m in a really nice situation with my husband because he works a like a W2 job, but it’s like this hybrid job where he can work remotely and then sometimes have to go and go to events and do things in person. I mean, sometimes he has meetings where he can have the baby the whole time. They don’t care. And I’m like, okay, I really need to focus on this project if you can have her during your meeting. That’s amazing, and that’s kind of how we work it out, and some days, if there’s just a lot going on in my business, or I just really couldn’t get anything done because, you know, kids, life happens. He’s like, I can take a day off. It’s not like. He has to work every single day either and not use his days off, and he still has vacation days and stuff. We do make that a priority, but like every once in a while, he can do that and take the baby the whole day. And I’m like, yeah, and then we can do fun things during the week then and like take the kids somewhere. So it’s nice to, it’s to have that team player and just be able to adapt. Both of our schedules to work around things. Sometimes he cannot help at all. And that’s fine. You know, we know that, like, he has to make sure that he’s still doing his job too and making it. So we just both try to support each other and whatever we’re doing for either of our jobs. Mine would be my own business, of course, and then his, his regular job, but yeah, it’s really about figuring out what’s going to work best for your family, though, and what that looks like, you know, sometimes my mom can step in and help, but that’s not very often because she works too. So it’s, you know, we don’t rely on that very much, but for some people, they might have a grandparent and like, Hey, can I actually have you babysit so that I can do work, which might sound a little bit. Weird to others, but like, it’s good to ask for help when you need it too. The other thing that we do is share our Google calendars. So we know when we have everything that’s coming up, that’s important. And like, for example, I’m on here with you right now and he has the baby and he knows that I scheduled this time. So he’s like, Oh yeah, I can have her in the morning. I don’t have any meetings. So I’m like, great, I can do this.

[00:18:34] Arianna Vernier: Yeah, I love how you guys are both supporting each other and you mentioning the Google calendar. We do the exact same thing. So my kids are actually in daycare Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so I’ve got a pretty decent solid chunk of time. I can work those three days. But then Thursdays and Fridays, they’re home with me, and there’s sometimes tasks that I have to sneak in. So, like, maybe during nap time, if one of the kids wakes up, if my husband doesn’t have a meeting going on, my daughter will go play in his room, and he’ll just keep his headphones in, so she’s not bothering him while he’s working. He works from home, too. So it’s good to, like, have each other’s back and to be able to work around what each other has going on. And again, like you said, even if it’s not a spouse, maybe it’s like a neighbor that you trade off maybe one day a week. You watch their kids so they can get a shit ton done. And then maybe another day of the week they watch your kids so you can get a bunch of stuff done. You just have to, like you said, ask for help and sometimes that’s the hardest thing to do. We, we want to be super moms and think we have it all handled and figured out and a lot of times we just end up drowning when we try to do that. So asking for help is really important.

[00:19:46] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, absolutely. There’s definitely seasons where I’ve done better in my business and I’m like, well, I can pay for a babysitter to come, you know, for a few hours so that I can get a little bit more done too. And that’s really nice. But initially, you know, I didn’t have money to be able to do that. I had to ask for help wherever I could, whether it was like my sister in law, Hey, just like two hours. I need two hours. Can you do two? I’ve heard of obligate gym memberships just for their child care. I haven’t done that because I feel like around me, most of the gyms are pretty expensive, but I have heard that work for some people. I would look into that. I’m still kind of keeping my eyes out to see if I see a good deal.

[00:20:26] Arianna Vernier: Yeah, if you have a, we actually have a membership to a YMCA that’s near us. I don’t know if you have any around you, but they, it’s, I think it’s like 60 bucks a month for all of us, all four of us. And the kids can be in the childcare for up to two hours. So a lot of times on those days where the kids are home with me, we’ll go to the gym in the morning. They get to play, I’ll work out, sit in the hot tub for a bit, take a shower, and then I’ll maybe bust out a couple just like email tasks or small tasks before I have to go grab them when those two hours are up. So that’s a really good option as well. I mean, 60 bucks a month is for two hours a day is way cheaper than what daycare costs. So that’s a really good option too. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So this has been so great. I would just kind of like to wrap it up by asking you a question that I ask every single person that comes on this show. And it’s if someone wanted to start their journey out of their nine to five, but they just felt too overwhelmed. What would you tell them?

[00:21:27] Nivia Lopez: I would tell them to take a little bit of time each day to remember your goal and work towards that goal, because it absolutely is possible. I did start with my business with my nine to five and just started little by little, you know, after my daughter at the time, just, I’d had one at the time after she would go to bed, I would work on my business for at least an hour a night. And that was how I started building things up. It does take a lot of time. It does take a lot of work and it’s hard, but. I mentioned before, sometimes you have this hard season so that you can see the reward later, and that is definitely true. You know, you just have to make those goals, set realistic goals and timelines, and try to get organized with it, and it can work out for you.

[00:22:14] Arianna Vernier: There’s that quote, and I’m probably going to butcher it, but it’s like, how do you eat an entire elephant? It’s just one bite at a time. You’re not going to eat the whole elephant at once. So when you have a big goal that you’re working towards, like you said, breaking it down into bite sized tasks that you can do and just bust out in an hour a night, you don’t need to have a ton of time to dedicate to this to really get it going. You just have to be consistent. I think that’s the most important thing.

[00:22:41] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:22:43] Arianna Vernier: Well, this has been so great having you on today with us, Nivea. Where can people come and connect with you?

[00:22:50] Nivia Lopez: Yeah, I have a website at NiveaLopez.com. I’m also on Instagram. It’s just instagram.com/nivealopezco. I’m also on Facebook at Nivia Lopez Co. I usually am on Instagram a lot more often though, so you can actually communicate with me better on there. But yeah, and then I do have some resources if you are just getting into launching a service or a course. If you go to nivealopez.com/resources, there’s some resources for free on there too. So if that’s the stage that you’re in, then that’s great. But you can always reach out and ask me questions. I’m happy to answer questions about my journey too, if you’re trying to niche down, things like that. I love making entrepreneur mom friends, because I feel like it’s a community where we support each other. And I think all of us wants each other to thrive and be able to be there for our kids and make business life work.

[00:23:45] Arianna Vernier: Yeah, definitely. And I, for those of you listening, I will have all those resources linked in the show notes so you can easily go and get connected with Nivea there. All right. Well, it has been such a pleasure having you on. Thank you so much again for taking time to do this. And I hope that the listeners will really learn a lot from you. I know that they will.

[00:24:06] Nivia Lopez: Thank you so much for having me. This is super fun.

[00:24:09] Arianna Vernier: Awesome. Well, thank you guys again for listening. Make sure you go and check out Nivea, get connected with her, follow along on her journey. Reach out and ask her questions if you have any. And as always, thank you so much for listening to today’s episode, and we will see you next time.