My Journey From Employee To Full-Time Business Owner

UDMA School Review From an Experienced VA Who Leveled Up to Become a Sought-After Digital Marketing Assistant

Meet Gina Havranek: Her journey from employee to successful online business owner is a testament to her perseverance, dedication, and drive to create a business she loves. Like many of my Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School students, Gina started out in traditional roles and worked her way up before realizing that she wanted something better.

In this post, Gina shares how she transitioned from the corporate world to becoming a thriving but over-worked virtual assistant, and eventually, a highly sought-after digital marketing assistant. Her story is both inspiring and relatable, especially for those of you looking to make a similar leap.

“Investing in UDMA was a game-changer for my business and my confidence.”

I have worked in different industries in my career; retail, public relations and trade shows & events. Each time I entered a new field I started in a support role and moved up as I gained experience: 

• Sales Associate to Store Manager
  
• Executive Assistant to the President to Account Executive
  
• Trade Show Coordinator to Show Manager

In 2008 my trade show company was bought out during a tough economy and my job ended. I really enjoyed working closely with my exhibitors, helping them to have a successful show and working with my internal departments giving them the deliverables they needed to produce and promote the show.

But I didn’t love being front-facing as the Manager. I much preferred working behind the scenes. So when economic factors prohibited finding new work in trade shows, I pivoted back to admin work, landing an office manager position for a small consulting company.

Eventually, I learned all I could learn and hit an earnings ceiling. I needed to make a change and working for a different company wasn’t the answer. What I needed:

• Professional growth
• Income growth
• Time flexibility 

I began learning about online business. What kind of business could I start? I joined a membership for affiliate marketing. I learned how to build a WordPress website, do keyword research and email marketing. I was fascinated by digital marketing. Affiliate marketing didn’t feel authentic to me. However, I noticed that the affiliate marketers talked about how their virtual assistants supported them, handled the tech and were crucial to their growth.

That was my “ah ha” moment. THAT is the “online business” I could start. I wanted to be the person, genuinely helping others, behind the scenes pulling it all together. Being a virtual assistant exactly fulfilled my superpower of supporting others.

Developing the skills

In 2017 I bought a couple online courses to learn VA skills like putting blogs onto a WordPress website, using Mailchimp and email inbox management. These courses taught basic skills without any community support.

In fact the women who ran the courses were hands off. It was off-putting, to be honest. The courses were fine for that part of my journey as I was slowly moving toward being a virtual assistant, but not fully committed to jumping in.

In 2019, my full-time job put me on part-time and it was time to start my business for real. I registered my business name, Elevate Virtual Solutions, bought the domain name and built my website.

I told friends that I was starting a virtual assistant business. One friend, a business owner herself, told me about a speaker presenting at the local library about being a virtual assistant. 

“I wasn’t brand new. I wanted to uplevel the skills I already had.”

Saying yes to myself

Between Nov 2019 and January 2020, I did 3 scary things. 

• I met that speaker, a VA coach, and said yes to joining her small group coaching program, even though I didn’t have a single client. 
  
• I said yes to the photographer who took my headshot when she invited me as her guest to her networking group
  
• I went to that networking group and stood up in front of 30 strangers and told them about my virtual assistant business (and got my first client).

That VA coach gave me the support and tools I needed to get my business off the ground and find clients. It was a great experience and I am grateful for it. 

Between March 2020 and December 2021, I worked my part-time job and ran my VA business from my dining room. The part-time job started to get busier and it was harder to find the time to grow my business. Fall of 2021 I made the decision that it was time to trust myself to go all in on my VA business. 

Giving my notice on January 3^rd 2022 felt empowering. I wrote down what I was going to say: “Hello M, I am resigning from (company). My last day will be on January 21^st.” And then I stopped talking. I finally felt in control. I could work with who I wanted, doing the things that I loved to do, on my own terms.

“Emily’s knowledge of what successful business owners need is gold. She knows first-hand what they need because she has worked with some of the best in the online business world.”

Doing all of the things was stressful

I had 14 great clients and I was doing a little bit of everything from client onboarding and offboarding, CRM management, social media posting, email newsletters, opt-ins, email sequences, website edits, writing, research, document formatting and more. All day I was context shifting. I loved what I was doing, but I was feeling burned out. 

I charged by the hour for my services, offering my time in 5 and 10 hour increments paid for in advance. I raised my rates every 6 months to a year for new clients but I was starting to feel like I was hitting a ceiling for what I could charge especially for the general VA type tasks. 

I had gained experience over four years and it was time once again to move up:
Virtual Assistant to Digital Marketing Assistant.

Time for another Yes

I found Emily Reagan on social media. I was drawn to her message that she could teach VAs to uplevel their skills to earn more money as sought-after digital marketing assistants. Of all the tasks I handled for my clients, digital marketing and marketing strategy were the most exciting and I wanted to do more of it. 

• Landing Pages
• Opt-in Forms
• Email Sequences
• Email Automations
• Email Newsletters
• Social Media Posting and Scheduling
• Repurposing Content

I enjoyed learning the tech and pulling it all together in the backend of my clients’ businesses and my own, too! 

I also wanted to move away from hourly work toward retainer and project pricing.

When Emily opened the doors to UDMA, I reached out to her. I wasn’t sure if the program was right for me. I wasn’t brand new. I wanted to uplevel the skills I already had. She replied right away in a voice memo, addressing my concerns and confirming that UDMA could help me position myself as a Unicorn digital marketing assistant with the ability to earn more money and attract new clients. 

Investing in UDMA was a game-changer for my business and my confidence. Each module of the self-led course taught me something new. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Emily’s knowledge of what successful business owners need is gold. She knows first-hand what they need because she has worked with some of the best in the online business world. She knows the extra steps to take to be a unicorn digital marketing assistant and go above and beyond for clients. 

When one of my clients or a new client comes to me with a project, I can now offer more value than what they are asking for, all because of what I learned in UDMA. 

There is so much to know in the world of digital marketing and UDMA covers nearly all of it. Just recently, I went back to the Email Marketing Module and watched the lesson on Active Campaign because I have a new client who is using it. I was able to assure her that I can successfully work in the platform because I have the information at my fingertips. 

I know that my investment in the Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School is the gift that will keep on giving. I continue to revisit key lessons as needed so I can better support my clients. 

⚡️Related Podcast: Ashley Sun’s Freelancer Story: Setting Boundaries with Digital Marketing Clients #218

Listen to this Unicorns Unite Podcast episode if you’re balancing a traditional job with a freelance side gig and want more flexibility. You’ll learn how to make this transition to full-time freelancing a reality.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Amazon

Ongoing Supporting and Professional Growth

Unlike the first two programs that I bought early on, Emily is ever present in her business, providing ongoing support and value to her students. It’s not a one and done program, Emily continues to add lessons she feels are valuable to her students’ professional development and ability to serve their clients better. 

Her Digital Marketer’s Workgroup is a supportive community always willing to provide guidance. And the learning is ongoing as she invites experts to speak on a variety of topics relevant to supporting online business owners. 

I recommend investing in Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School to anyone starting out or looking to uplevel their skills. And if you aren’t sure, reach out to Emily, she will be happy to talk with you about it.

Grab Gina’s ‘7 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Virtual Assistant’

This free guide is a roadmap for where to start and how to successfully hire a virtual assistant to support your business. Visit: www.elevatevs.com/7-mistakes-guide/ to grab the download.

Connect with Gina:

• Instagram: @yournewva
• Linkedin: @ginahavranek

Read Other UDMA School Student Stories:

>> How I Transitioned from a 9-5 Job to a Booked-Out Freelance Marketing Specialist

>> Upleveling Digital Marketing Skills to Provide Premium Services to Premium Clients

>> From Classroom Teacher to Copywriter

>> From Corporate Finance to Small Business Consultant

Not a course. A collective for marketers already doing the work.

Our Digital Marketer’s Workgroup is a vetted peer community where marketing specialists get real business support and talk shop with people who actually get it. Applications are open now ⬇️

The Takeaway: UDMA School gave Gina the skills to uplevel her freelance business so she could make more money and get out of the hourly VA scramble

Gina’s journey from a traditional employee to a successful online business owner is so inspiring! She went from feeling stuck and burned out to building her own thriving business, and now she’s rocking it as a digital marketing assistant with higher-paying clients and more fulfilling work. She realized that in order to grow, she needed to uplevel her skills – just like you might! That’s when she found UDMA School and took the leap.

Want to follow in Gina’s footsteps? Enroll in UDMA School so you can level up your VA skills and build a successful marketing business that you love! It’s time to say goodbye to low-paying hourly virtual assistant work and hello to building a business as a high-paid digital marketing assistant.

Let’s turn your dreams into your reality! 💖