Episode 66: Student Success Story – How She Quit Teaching and Works Full Time as a Virtual Assistant

Full Episode Transcription:

Arianna (00:07):
Hey sister-friends. I am bringing you such a special interview today. I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing one of our very own Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy students, Andrea McIver. I hope I’m saying your last name right? She has just like kicked butt in her business. She’s had so much dedication and just drive to make this work for her family. And I really wanted to bring her on and just kind of pick her brain a little bit about how she’s been able to do this and how the Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy has helped her, because I really want you guys to see, I know how much this can work for you, how much being a virtual assistant can change your life. But I wanted you to hear it from someone who’s actually done it. And so, I brought Andrea on and we just really dissected how she’s been able to do this and what has helped her be able to be home with her daughter full time, just working during nap time and being able to spend as much time with her husband as she wants.

Arianna (01:56):
So I know that this can help you so much, and I’m so excited for you to hear this interview. Make sure if you are interested in TTFA – guys, cart closes this Friday, January 21st at 11:59 PM Eastern time. And y’all know I’m about to have this baby. So I don’t know when this program’s gonna be open again, ’cause life’s about to get crazy. So, but I’m so excited for you guys to be in here and change your life, quit teaching, replace your teaching income and do it at home with your babies. So if you’re ready, which I know you are, especially after you hear this interview, go to teacherturnedfreelancer.com. All right. I cannot wait for you to hear this episode. I know you’re gonna love it.

Arianna (03:01):
Welcome, Andrea. How are you today? Thank you for coming on.

Andrea McIver (03:05):
Thank you. I’m good. How are you?

Arianna (03:08):
Great! So I’d love if you could just kind of start us out with telling us a little bit about you, about your family life and a little bit about teaching journey.

Andrea McIver (03:20):
Awesome. So my name’s Andrea and I taught art for 11 years in middle school and then in high school and I loved it. But we recently had, my husband and I, had a daughter about almost 16 months ago. And as soon as she was born, I knew that the only thing I wanted to do was stay home. So every time I had to leave for school, it was just, oh, it was awful. So my life is everything for her and my family! We have three awesome dogs. So that’s our family and that’s a little bit about me.

Arianna (03:58):
Awesome! I was the same way once I had my daughter, it was like, “bye” Like, “I’m done teaching”. Yeah. I just wanna be able to pour into her. So I totally get that.

Andrea McIver (04:09):
Yeah.

Arianna (04:10):
So what services do you offer as a virtual assistant now?

Andrea McIver (04:15):
So I do website design and graphic design and I do social media management, blog management, and email marketing. Those are my major offerings.

Arianna (04:27):
So you’re kind of like, almost like a marketing virtual assistant, ’cause you’re kind of in all the different buckets of marketing. That’s awesome.

Andrea McIver (04:35):
Yeah. It’s really nice. Like I have a client right now that I’m working for and we’re doing kind of everything. I can do her website, her course creation and then work on her social media management. So she’s not having to go and find a bunch of different VAs.

Arianna (04:49):
Yeah!

Andrea McIver (04:49):
So that was one thing she really liked.

Arianna (04:52):
Yeah. That’s perfect. I just want the listeners to understand, like once you get a client for one thing, if they need more, they’re gonna come to you. And even if you don’t know how to do it, you can learn on your feet, you can learn as you go. So I absolutely love that you have, you just have that drive and that willingness to figure it out.

Andrea McIver (05:11):
Yeah. It’s, it’s really awesome. I was concerned at first about finding like so many clients and I pretty much have three main clients right now. And, like one of them, I started out doing blog management for her and then she wasn’t really happy with her social media management company she was working with. So as soon as her contract ended with them, she jumped on with me. She has me do one-off tasks too, that she needs, ’cause she knows that I know her writing style, I know about her business and it’s just easier than trying to outsource something else to someone else.

Arianna (05:42):
Yeah, totally. So I wanna kind of walk through and talk through some of your experiences before you joined the Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy and then what your life is kind of like now. So let’s start out, can you tell us a little bit about some of the struggles that you were facing before you joined TTFA, and even some of the fears that really held you back beforehand?

Andrea McIver (06:13):
Yeah, so I knew that I wanted to stay home and I knew that we needed some more income to replace my teaching income, so I was just looking online at remote work, something I could do. And I looked at teaching first, but I wanted to just work while she was sleeping so that I could really be a hundred percent engaged with her. And I almost got into like writing a blog, I almost got into doing some like YouTube stuff, trying to get into affiliate market, all this stuff. And it just – it didn’t seem like I was gonna make money quickly, as quick as I needed to. So I found you and it was just like a whole different story.

Arianna (06:59):
That’s awesome. I think a lot of people who are interested in the virtual assistant world, they’ve kind of dipped their toes into other areas. But the problem with, like you said, blogging, I did the same thing. I thought I was gonna have a DIY blog and make, make a bunch of affiliate income. And then I’m like, wait, this takes a while to monetize. Whereas, with virtual assistance, I mean, if you’re willing to dig in and put the work in, you can land your first client within a month and you’re already making significant income. So that’s awesome. So what really made you say “yes” to joining the Teacher Turned Freelancer Academy?

Andrea McIver (07:39):
Well I joined your challenge when you had the first group and that was amazing. Like I remember I was in, it was more of an intimate setting, like so many things I looked into there were like thousands of people in the group and you got on and talked to us individually. You you’re not intimidating, and really were there for us and just real. And then I looked at everything that was offered. I was like, “I could do this and get started right away” and it was just, you walked us through the whole thing. So I was like, I need to do this so that I can get started right away.

Arianna (08:14):
Aw. I love that. That just warms my heart. It’s just my passion to help mamas’ like you and teachers like you, you know, just create the life you wanna live. And so I really just, I absolutely love pouring into y’all so that makes me so happy.

Andrea McIver (08:31):
Well, we can tell ’cause it shows.

Arianna (08:33):
So what are some of your favorite parts about being in TTFA?

Andrea McIver (08:39):
I love that you do office hours, where we can ask questions and then you go over it in, you know, your live video on Wednesdays, which is really awesome. And you spend a lot of time with us. Like I know I asked a question about Pinterest and you know, you did a screen share and showed us – completely showed me what to do and how to do it. I love that if I have a question I get stuck with, especially sometimes proposals when I was first starting and I would like, “Hey, I need a proposal for this.” And you would answer so quickly and I would have that answer. You’re my go-to. And I love that you post job offers so we can look at those, ’cause sometimes, you know, you’re scrolling through so many, but you pick out the really good ones and share them in the group. So that’s nice. And I love that you referred us, like I have one client because you referred me.

Arianna (09:26):
Oh, I didn’t know that!

Andrea McIver (09:27):
Yeah. So, I got her from your referral.

Arianna (09:30):
That’s awesome. I try, when I know what y’all are offering, and I see something come up, I’m like, I know how helpful those referrals are. ‘Cause I landed a ton of clients with referrals. So yeah, I try to do that when I know what y’all are really looking for. So that’s awesome.

Andrea McIver (09:47):
Yeah.

Arianna (09:49):
So cool. So, how has TTFA changed your life for the better?

Andrea McIver (09:56):
Well, I’m able to be home full-time with my daughter, which is everything I’ve wanted and I just work during her naps. So it’s perfect. I don’t have to be away from her. I can be here with her, and a hundred percent engaged with her while she’s awake. So right now she’s sleeping. I work during her naps before she gets up in the morning and you know, a couple hours after she goes to bed, depending on what day of the week and kind of what’s going on. And it’s just, it’s amazing. And I get to be here with my husband. You know, he has weird days off, like not always weekends. So now his days off are like weekends for us, no matter what days off they are.

Arianna (10:35):
That’s perfect. And I love that you’ve really put the time and energy into creating a business that allows you to work on your own timeframe so that you can really pour into your family, ’cause that’s what’s most important. And so many people get stuck with having to work their life around their job or their business. And what I’m so passionate about is helping you create a business that works around your life, ’cause your life is the most important piece.

Andrea McIver (11:04):
Yes, exactly.

Arianna (11:06):
So, can you tell us a little bit about, I mean you kind of already, you work during nap times. Is there anything else you’d like to share about what your days look like now?

Andrea McIver (11:17):
Well, I think one of the main differences is I wake up every morning kind of like it’s Saturday when I was teaching. I wake up every morning just so thankful because I don’t have to go anywhere. I just go make some coffee, like open my laptop and I get to work. I watch her on the monitor, you know, until she starts stirring. And then I get to go wake her up and it’s not rushed like it used to be before I had to go to school, where I would be feeding her, we try to like hurry up and get up and get some breakfast. And now it’s just like, we relax and enjoy every single day together. And it’s really like when I was teaching, I only had – that was really only Saturday ’cause you know, Sunday you started worrying about Monday.

Arianna (11:55):
Sunday Scaries.

Andrea McIver (11:57):
Yeah. So it was, it’s almost like every day is Saturday. It’s awesome.

Arianna (12:04):
That’s awesome, I love hearing that. Well this I’m just – I’m so proud of you and how much, much dedication you have for this and just making your dreams a reality. People can – there’s people who, you know, have that desire, but, but they’re not willing to put in the time and effort to really, really pursue it. And from the get-go, I’ve seen you just have that drive and motivation to do this for your family. So I’m so proud of you and I just want you to know that.

Andrea McIver (12:35):
Well thank you so much. And I just wanna thank you. And I try to, to recommend you to everyone that I can because you have changed my life. I’m able to be here with my daughter, which is just a dream come true. When we were – when I got pregnant, we were trying to figure out like I had every bill down to the dollar of, “can we make this and we stay home? And it just wasn’t, it wasn’t a possibility, but you know, and it is overwhelming kind of starting this new venture. Is it gonna work? But you were just there every step of the way with me. And when I first joined, you did that challenge where you had us post, like how many minutes of engagement we were doing, how many jobs we applied for. And I was dragging my feet applying for my first job. And I was like, “okay, I’m just gonna do it because I wanna be accountable for Arianna here”. So I applied and I know this is kind of crazy, but the first job I applied for, I got that one. So it was an amazing, and I’ve been working with her ever since, but you know, I started, I signed up for TTFA in, it was like mid-May I think. And like June 1st I landed my first client.

Arianna (13:46):
Oh my gosh, you landed your first client faster than I landed mine, that’s awesome.

Andrea McIver (13:52):
Well, it was quick, but I’m so glad that. It’s just been amazing.

Arianna (13:58):
Aw, that just makes my heart so happy. I would love to ask you this question. It’s a question I ask on every episode, if someone wanted to start their Ditch the Classroom journey, but they just felt too overwhelmed, what would you tell them?

Andrea McIver (14:13):
I would tell them to do it because you’re gonna be there every step of the way. And your program is laid out step-by-step, you know, do this first, do this next. I know, like when I was struggling of like, how do I apply for my business license? How do I apply for my EIN, you found on the state that I live in North Carolina, the form that I needed to fill out for me, because it was just, I was just very anxious about it. You found it for me and the program is so amazing because you literally are there. And there’s a lot of other programs that when I’ve been applying for other, you know, jobs and seeing in different groups, but their prices are outrageous and I wouldn’t have paid something like that, but yours are so affordable and you know, you’re able to get started so quickly. And I think the best thing, which I always tell people when I’m referring them to you is you. You’re real. You are there. Like I said, sometimes I will post a question and within, you know, 15 minutes, sometimes sooner I have an answer that I can go right back to my client with. So you wanna think about that like every day being Saturday. But life is too short to not be doing what you wanna do. And this is a way that you can do it. And I was thinking about this question the other day about, you know, what if you’re having that imposter syndrome, which I’ve had many times, and you think about like any new job that you start, you have some idea of, you know what you’re gonna do, you know, you have some kind of thing, but it’s really on the job training. So think about teaching the first time you stepped into the classroom, they were like, you know, here’s 30 kids, good luck. And you learned on the job and you know, that’s what we do. And we’re super versatile as teachers and we can learn anything and you’re there to show us so much. So if someone one’s considering, do it. Like do it today, start today so that you can make your life better.

Arianna (16:20):
Amen. Just think there’s a quote that I love, “What would your life be like a year from now if you started today?” And so that’s something I always keep in my mind, like what can I do today that will impact life a year from now in a positive way. So thank you so much for that.

Andrea McIver (16:37):
Yes, of course.

Arianna (16:39):
Where can the listeners come connect with you, learn more about you and become your best friend?

Andrea McIver (16:47):
So Facebook is a really good, I love Facebook. So I’m on there a lot. So just Andrea McIver on Facebook, you can message me there. I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have and help you kind of on your journey along the way. I do a little bit of Instagram, but Facebook’s mostly where you’ll find me.

Arianna (17:06):
Perfect! And I’ll have those links in the show notes for everybody listening, you can go connect with Andrea. Well, this has been such a blessing to have you on I’m so, so, so grateful that you took the time to come on and just share your experience being in this program. ‘Cause I know, I know how successful everyone can be if they have that determination. And I just wanted them to see like somebody’s true perspective on it. So thank you so much.

Andrea McIver (17:30):
Of course. Thank you so much for everything you’ve truly changed my life.

Arianna (17:36):
Wow. Well thank you guys so much for listening. As you know, TTFA is open for enrollment right now through the end of this week. So make sure you get in, check the link in the show notes or you can go to teacherturnedfreelancer.com and check out everything that’s included and get registered. I love you guys so much. I cannot wait to give you virtual hugs inside TTFA and I will see you soon.