Ep.30 How to Quit Corporate and Work from Anywhere

How do you earn 15 years worth of income in just three years?   LaToya shares her journey of quitting corporate and how she's been able to do just that by getting clear on who she's serving.

LaToya Russell  is a tech virtual assistant coach who's built and scaled her business around automation.  After figuring this out for herself, she now teaches others to do the same through her courses, mentorship and podcast.  It was a great conversation and really eye opening about the kind of money you can earn in this space!

In this episode, you'll learn:
1. What it's like to work in corporate vs. being self employed
2. What it's like to be an introvert in the social media age
3. How to find clients and grow a business without relying on platforms like Upwork

Go here for full show notes and links!

Resources:  Want to know 7 things you can do today to make leaving corporate easier?  Grab it here!

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Transcript

LaToya Russell: 0:00

All in all I went I said I was leaving, and they offered me 200 more dollars to see $200 You're like, what? 200 more dollars? Like a month a week? Just $200 on my 1000

Jamie Stephens: 0:15

You're like that. dollars a month or something after tech. That's so ridiculous. I'm behind my back. The vice president would always tell my manager. She's really the best we have in the department. But she's too loud. Her mom. Yeah. I think we can relate with that one because it's you were going through that list as I'm like, yep, check, check, check. And people don't want to be challenged that way. Like especially like managers, they're like, You need to stay in your place. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Breaking up with corporate each week I chat with everyday women that ditch their nine to five to bet on themselves. We break down their journey into entrepreneurship, unpack the lessons learned and create the vision of how this life gets to be if you're willing to get uncomfortable and step into your potential. I'm your host, Jamie Renee, to time corporate escapee and coach to burnout women looking to plan their escape. Let's go. Okay, and welcome back to another episode of Breaking up with corporate today. I have Latoya Russell on the show. And Latoya is a tech virtual assistant coach and a fellow podcaster. And I am excited to get to know all of the things about you, Latoya. So why don't you give us just a brief introduction. Thank you so much for having me, Jamie. So officially, I am Latoya. As Jamie said, I live in Barbados. So that's the first thing if you're listening to us talking, I just want you to know that you can do this from anywhere or we can have this we can work remotely from anywhere. I have been in the online space for about eight years, climbed up through corporate and all that great stuff. And then I knew it wasn't for me. So here I am. To talk to Jamie about all the wonderful things, the ups and downs, the ins and outs. I am actually also a very, I don't like video, I don't like showing up on the internet. So working online, is that a time known battle where I'm trying to hide, but I'm still trying. But I do it anyway. And that's that's kind of me in a nutshell. Yeah, no, I totally get that I am definitely an introvert by nature. And this whole social media thing over the last six months has really just been a trip for me, because I'm like, you know, I've had an Instagram account, but it's like my personal one that has probably 12 pictures over the last five years. That's ridiculous, though. I'm learning and growing. And I totally get it. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you were doing in corporate and kind of what that looks like for you? Well, I started my traditional job working journey as a personal assistant. Well, before he got there, you know, we have our teenage jobs and stuff. So like many of us, I was in retail as a teenager, when we got holidays from school, I did a couple of retail Christmas things, and summer things. And then as soon as I finished school, officially, I had a personal assistant, I was a personal assistant. And then I moved from there into administration, and whatnot and executive assistants and all that stuff. Eventually I branched off into becoming Assistant General Manager. Shortly before that opportunity I had my daughter. So let me incorporate was fun, there was a job that I left that I really, really wanted to stay because the community it was, it was the best place I've ever worked. So I can hands down, say the treatment in terms of the benefits and whatnot, the environment, making sure that there was a safe space and office equipment and all that was there. It was a great place to work. But they weren't giving me the promotions or the raises that I needed. And that caused me to go to another company. The sad part about it is that when I told my superiors day that I got another job, and I was leaving, they offered me more money. I'm like, Well, you know, this, this isn't making any sense.

LaToya Russell: 4:19

Or a daily dollar store.

Jamie Stephens: 4:22

Yeah, but and leading up to that I was always applying for jobs in different departments. Because even if some of them were lateral based on where you went, you could get double the money. There was this department I wanted to getting so bad. They said it was a lot of work. But it was double what I was making. So I was like I need to be able to get out there. And every single time I was like, why am I not getting these jobs when I have all skills and I can do all these things. It doesn't make any sense. And I call them HR and they said, Well, your manager says that they can't really see right now it would it would create a disaster in the department. You've got to be kidding me. You know, I went and I had this tongue like, Why are you blocking all of my chances to leave? And they say, well, they can't afford to lose me right now. And it was kind of like hard. And again, one of those unknown things because I was like, the loudest person in the department and loud because I would always be the person to say, this is crap doesn't make any sense. Whenever they came to say, Okay, this is what we're doing. I'd be like, let me tell you why this doesn't make any sense. Because I knew that systems are handing hands out. I even created. I did some tech databases or whatnot to make this the streamline all the systems that were so good that the company paid me, I think$500 Bonus as we had the Spotlight Award thing. And anytime you came up with a great idea, they'd pay you for it, and the company would get to use it. So you had to talk to the lady I did. They had an ad, my department Sheltie. And I was so mad because it was like we are using these dinosaur things. I created an up to date version of this 19 of these thing you're using. are you shouting? Yeah. So all in all, I when I said it was leaving, and they offered me 200 more dollars to state$200. You're like, what, 200 more dollars, like a month a week? Just $200

LaToya Russell: 6:18

on my salary. I was like, you're like

Jamie Stephens: 6:21

that dollars a month or something after tax. And that's so ridiculous. I'm behind my back, then the vice president would always tell my manager. She's really the best we have in the department. But she's too loud. Her mom? Yeah, I think we can relate with that one. Because it's Eva, going through that list as I'm like, yep, check, check, check. And people don't want to be challenged that way. Like, especially like managers, they're like, You need to stay in your place. So I'm like, you've got to be kidding. And everybody's doing the work. And then they're complaining and whatnot. And just just to nip this in the bud. Or to bring this down a little more, I could do triple the work anyone in department was doing in the same time, to the point where when I was leaving, they brought two people in to fill my role to two full time people and a half time person, which probably was a lot more than$100. All right, so I left that job. And I went to this other job. And it was a hot mess and a disaster. It was a small company, but the office was very cliquey. So they already had like this group going on, and you had to pass whatever it was like it was it was kind of like a high school fraternity, where if you don't pass these check marks, you can't be in this squad. And they had this group chat going on. And they would blatantly talk about this group chat. I was the only one who's well, myself and the senior who was at the company for like, 40 years. So it used to be me there, we used to see the pictures, and they would come into the office talking why they did weekend. And I'm like, you know, it's something to just keep to yourself if you're not going to include everybody in the office. So it sort of feel uncomfortable, you know, like we're doing this day, I don't want to come to your house. But you don't have conversations like that around people that you're not going to invite, right. And then there was this other girl that came in and she wanted to be in the clique. So bad, she sucked up, like regardless. So I always had opportunities where I wouldn't be looking out for jobs because I wanted to get oh, I didn't even stay there nine months. And I applied for this job, this consulting thing, because I was still doing I still had my little thing went on the side, I applied for this consulting thing, and I got it and the PERT the company, I did not know that the company was helping this company hired because it was like a chamber. So it would help companies find employees and whatnot. I didn't know that the company I was working with was trying to help this company hire. And the person at the company, I got the contract for a call to say hey, thanks so much for Latoya. And they were like, We didn't stand Latoya. And I got called into the office. And everybody was trying to say that I poached. But what was happening is that the clique was trying to get one of the clique members the job, and I got it. So and all their plans. Yeah, I got called in and I got fired. So I got fired for applying for this thing y'all know, before I came here that I did consulting on the site, so ended up that the company called me back here like, Hey, we're so glad you got fired. Can you come over here full time? Well, at least there's that you know, I mean, in less than two weeks, I was over there as an assistant general manager. Part of it was so awesome. And then part of it was so ridiculous. There was this one person I had to deal with. He was condescending, disrespectful. He didn't curable staph and whatnot. And I like people on my side, I like to be able to talk to my team and say, Hey, this is what we're doing. I don't want that if I need a favor five minutes past closing time, everybody's like, No, there's no way I'm staying here to help you because I don't like this place. I his culture was Do as I say, insult people, that type of stuff. And so in between me trying to rally and take my daughter to after school activities, and come back to work and put back in time and all that I was like, I can't deal with him. And I went to my doctor. And it was the first time ever that I didn't have to fit, being sick to get sick leave. Because anytime I wanted to stay at home for a week at Google, like they get symptoms, she was like, Oh, you probably have this thing. And I'd be home for a week or two. But this time, I walked in the office and I said, Listen, I every single night, I think of who I can get to kidnap him, because I know that I'm next in line. And this woman went in a full panic. She's like, Oh, my God, you're stressed out, you need two weeks off immediately. And I got the time and I went home, I was like, This is it. I am going to put everything to get my virtual assistant business up full time. Because I was doing some stuff like just park claim on the side, where it was like need your money, money for fun money for travel money for party, it wasn't that serious, because my job was paying fine. And I took that time and did everything I need to get my calendar set up all that stuff the right way. And I went back to that job and I handed in my resignation. Is it right that you just left and in your you've been going at it in your own business full time since then, right? Yes, I give them three months because of my positions that I could do a proper handover. At every single day I walked through the door, it was like, please don't trust me enough. Like, I wanted that when I walked in there, they were like, Oh, we think you're gonna sabotage the company. So you can just go home now. And then wait 15 days before I was supposed to leave to say, I don't think we need you anymore. But obviously, they had to pay at the end of time because my resignation in so I was fine. But it was it was that and I said you know what, I'm gonna give myself six months at this thing. And if it doesn't work, then I would go back and find another traditional job. And so how old was your daughter at that time? She was three. That was I actually I was doing everything part time for eight years. But it offish, I fully left my full time job in August 2018. Gotcha. Okay. You said that you had started some stuff on the side. And you had the virtual assistant business going on the side? What did that look like? How did you get started with the side business while you were still in corporate? Like how did you find clients, all that sort of stuff. Most of my I started on, I started on up work. And I had a bunch of clients there, I got some great testimonials. I met some great people. And for some someone hacked my account, and then they suspended me so I couldn't get back in. And I feel like that was one of the best things that happened to me, because I already knew that being a virtual assistant was a thing. I hated the fees that work took already. So I just didn't know I just didn't have the confidence at the time to go about it on my own. But I was forced off the platform. And I told my clients because obviously we still have communication outside of the platform. They were like, Oh, well, you were kind of like the best person I've ever worked on on there with can we pay you via PayPal, it was obviously a risk for them, because that is breaching their side of the agreement. But we have that type of relationship that I knew it probably would never get back to work, you know. So I was like, wow, you want to pin by Pay Pal. So I set it up, I went directly into it. And we continued working together. So for me, that was a big eye opener to see, you know what, you don't have to rely on these platforms that are gonna take a huge chunk of your money to find clients. And I started researching how people find plants on their own. And I started joining all the communities on Facebook and whatnot to get there. But I realized that the communities on Facebook, especially the free ones, they are, it's like a fight kind of, for lack of a better word to fight to get clients in them. Because the moment someone posts a job, everyone is like, there's like 100 comments, especially if they were it was a virtual assistant thing. So I said, you know, I need to find a way to kind of hack this and go about how can I get this client if I really wanted to work with that. And I started to put chunks of money in paid communities. So I started to join communities that were like 40 million US dollars a month or 20 US dollars a month so that I could network internally in a smaller community away from the masses and also communities that sourced virtual assistant jobs for us and sent them so that I could apply without like hundreds and 1000s and 1000s of people Even though I did not have that for my knowledge at the time, because my cards were maxed all the way out, I said, I have to do this. And I paid kind of like the last one to the point where it took my card a little over the limit. And in less than two weeks, I had my own like client that I found on my own out 500 US dollars a month. And I was like, Okay, this is really cool. And I started applying for more. And before then I passed my corporate salary. And that was in less than six weeks, I'm never coming back. I've never coined that. So that was the fast track. For me. I know, a lot of times we want to spend time on Google, we say it's too much we don't want to pay for stuff. We don't have the money to pay for stuff because I didn't have it. But I knew that if I paid for this thing, when I didn't have the money, I would try to get it back faster. It's kind of like when your parents say to college, are you going to do a bunch of crap and you don't finish your stuff? And then you you drop out and you start to work? And then you're at 25 and 30? And it's like, oh, geez, now I gotta go back and pay for this thing myself. So you work hard now. And you make sure you get it this time, because you are the one paying for it. Yeah. But at 1617 1819, you didn't realize the value of what they were doing for you. So you blew it up? Right? Yeah, my wins in the form of scholarships to where it was like that first year, it was, Oh, yeah. College is great. And then it's like my grades went. Partying was great, too, you know, it was just kind of that balance, you don't have that? It doesn't hurt. So what does that look like for one client $500 a month? Like, what are you doing for them? For that I started doing admin. So it was really like cleaning up their calendar, booking their calls, new dual admin stuff, regular admin stuff, which is scheduling calls, responding to clients dealing with their emails, cleaning up their inbox. I think I did a little tiny bit of graphic design, but not too much, because we had a graphic designer on it. Yeah, but it was all the admin stuff that I did when I first went into corporate kind of just transferred online. And because I'd already moved from that phase, incorporate into management, I started immediately I was like, This is not something I want to do long term, I don't like it, I want to go back to managing or something that's behind the scenes where I don't have to be so upfront, entry level. And then I started researching how can I get out of the entry level virtual stuff into something that is more advanced? And so is that where you started doing the automated or automations? And that sort of thing? Or is that when you started hiring your own virtual assistants, or I'm making assumptions here, tell me about that process. Like when you took it from just yourself to expanding, I came across I was I was checking out how to become a manager online. And because it was already in some of the spaces, I found online business management. So I went looking at that and doing that. So I did that. As I was in there, it was the same thing. It was the big hustle of okay, we're all all in business managers now. But we're trying to get clients and what was it for me is, you can't be general and move swiftly in the online space. Because if you're a general anything, it takes longer to grow it. It's like a general practitioner versus someone specializing in gynecology or some sort of EMT, all those things, you get referrals based on those specific skills that you have. So everyone in the group was General and just encapsulating everything on your portfolio. And quickly I was like, No, I need something that is going to cut this down so that I can stand out. And I started putting together the pieces of what I was doing generally, that people weren't able to do. And I recognize that all of my clients always came to be when it was something technical, nobody else on the team could figure it out. And then if I had to talk to somebody or brainstorm with somebody the setup of the thing, they didn't know what to do. I said, Okay, automation has to be must be taken automation. And I started saying, You know what I told my client I am I'm figuring out this thing. I'm doing this thing, where you have these type of projects, just tell me I want to do it and have this plan. Oh my god, she's such a jam. already. What's Kathy and she let me experiment on everything in her business. If I said to Kathy, I am doing this course she's like, sure. Do you want to do it for us? Like yeah, so we had that good, good relationship and worked together for like four and a half years. Got a good relationship. And then I was gonna say, Kathy, I'm doing this thing. Can I try it here? Go for it. All that stuff and She trusted me with every single thing to the point where anytime I took a course, like I'm taking this course, she's like, Okay, I'm gonna move you into that role. And she moved me from $500 to $1,000 and $1,000 to 1400, and from 1400 to 2000. And she's like, Okay, you're going into this management thing, and I'll hold up to 4000. And then, you know, it kept going up and up. Because every time I said, this is what I'm doing to like, cool, like me that in my business, and we just moved up the ranks together. And then before long, I was hiring a team for her. I was director, I was training everybody. So that was awesome to be able to express that with her. And then as she was going on her business trips, and mastermind, I was her plus one. So I got to experience all the traveling with the business masterminds and meeting people. And clients also came out of that she told everyone last night was a great relationship. How did you meet her, she was the first person that hired me from that I was paying$49 a month for it. So yeah, paid you back several times over several times. So that was amazing. So I took all I took those trainings, and I got Yeah, experience with her business, I always tested it all. And eventually, I decided, You know what, I'm going to cut everything out and just do with tech and automation, as well as the marketing pieces that go along with the tech and automation because I believe that if you're going to automate stuff, it needs to work in tandem with your marketing. So I shifted into that role in her company, I was the director of operations and marketing. And then I still, I kind of like, oversaw the team, because I was the one there from the get go, I knew everything started to build all the SOPs to make sure that they could take over and her company grew really, really quickly, really big, you know, we got good things going. So eventually, I started to hire employees for her and train them until they could see itself. So with that, I stopped to the automation stuff and started just building that and saying, This is all I do anyone that wanted something other than that, I still had some of my team members. So I had a couple of people on my team that would take like, regular virtual assistant thing, and I would manage it. But eventually I realized that I didn't even like managing the general stuff, like cut it all the way out and just focused on tech and automation. And, you know, I went into a mastermind with my, my coach, I was there forever. And the first thing she said to me was, what do you want to teach? Because I said, I want to do a course what would you feel good waking up every single day teaching? And I said tech and automation? And she was like, Okay, well, that's what we're gonna do. And her thing to me was, it's gonna take you about three to six months to build this course. She said that to me, on August the 14th 2020. And I have a course launching by September 23. I thought like, no, it's no, I just did all this thing, put it together. And she's like, you've got to be kidding me. You've done it, you've finished the course you've done the thing. And I had the entire outline, I did the beta launch to build it live. And that thing came about, but even then, Kathy was still so present, that she allowed me to use all the backend things in her business and video record so that I could have content for my course. Oh, that's great. I mean, what a partnership. I mean, that really came out of that. That's really exciting. Okay, so now you've got multiple streams of income, right? You've got your course that you're doing? And how are you drawing people into that course like that want to become virtual assistants? Are you training the tech and automation virtual assistants? Is that what you're? You're doing? Yes. So that course trains tech automation, and tech automate teaches dumb tech and automation, it teaches them to do what I do. And I kind of explain it to them in the point where if you are a general virtual assistant, or you are making $20 per hour, you have to work 25 hours per month to make$500, you can set up an automation in five hours or less for $500. So people kind of gravitate to that Whoa, instead of working 25 hours for the full month, I can make the same $500 in five hours or less. And it depends on how fast you are. If you are a beginner, that it could take you the five hours to set it up. If you know what you're doing. You go through the course and you have my mentorship, then you could do it in 20 minutes, 30 minutes, depending on how big of an automation it is under an hour sometimes, and get that same amount of money, less time more freedom. And it's also not general, the general things are client facing. So you spend you spend time interacting with customers, you have to kind of be there during business hours because people want their customer service team to respond during that time. You can set up an automation at 3am if you wait so you can absolutely do it on the site of a regular job until you're ready to transition and still make more money than that regular job if you're doing it on the site. Because if you do three automations a month, by$600 You already have you know you have $1,500 And I always say it's My students, if you realize that you're making a quarter or half of your salary, working five or six hours or less than 10 hours with this side gig, then you know that you can hand in your resignation. Because when you will full time, you have time to look for me, consider the commute to your job. All those things get up getting ready. Oh, that it's time that you can take to actually set up stuff. So the income, it's more, and the time that you put into it, it's less you have more freedom. So my students are majority, nearly women and moms who are craving to quit corporate work, work, who want to leave, who don't want to work, 95% of them have never heard of the online space never worked online. Some of them have zero idea how to get involved in tech. Some of them are 62 years old. So these are people who've never sat working virtually all they've known their entire lives, or their traditional jobs had no idea what becoming a virtual assistant is, or started to explore, working remotely sensed the pandemic and stumbled across this, or maybe they saw my Facebook ad or they were searching for quitting corporate and miraculous the couple years ago, I purchased the quitting corporate.com domain. And now when people search quitting corporate, it comes up. Yeah. So the students come from there. And it's amazing. We have over 250 students who have taken that automation for so far. And over 5000 have done my other general stuff. But I try to encourage them to always, you know, step into a niche. Yeah, don't stick with a general status, because you're going to be chasing it forever. So all of that it's really exciting. I used to automate a bunch of stuff at my my last corporate job. And it's kind of the same thing to where it's like all of these things that can eliminate the amount of time that you're spending on something and just crunch it down into just minutes guy would take my workflow and something that used to take me eight hours a week, I could do with the push of a button. And but it was never like received, you know, you know what I mean? Like the same kind of thing where you said your your company just kind of shelved it. It's like, well, yeah, oh, that just means that Jamie can do more now. And that just means we can pile on her plate, because now she's, you know, got all this extra time was like, No, that's not, that's not what I was going for. Especially working from home, because it's like, oh, wait, no, I have this time. You know, I don't I created this thing so that I can carve out more time for myself not to just add more to my plate that nobody really appreciates. Anyway, so and not stay here, way into the night. Come on, we're not doing that. And I can also give you an example like for my podcast recordings. As soon as I get off, like we're on Zoom now recording this, as soon as I get all my recordings on my pod my recordings like this, it downloads on its own, it uploads to Google Drive on its own, and it sends my team a notification to say, hey, there is a podcast episode in the folder ready to be edited. So I am like, I don't have to I don't get off. I don't Don't worry, I don't upload it, I don't send them a message, he all fires automatically. Now that's really exciting. I maybe need to run through the course with you. Because like I know, vapour and IFTT. Like those kinds of apps and that sort of thing. I just, it's one of those things like I tend to just kind of play with them until I break them. And then I'm like, Oh, I don't really know how to troubleshoot this anymore. kind of pass my skill set here. But yeah, it's all it's all interesting to the students. Do you help them find the their clients? Or if it's just they take the course. And then now they have the knowledge to go do it on their own? Or how does that work? Oh, I absolutely helped them because I do that because I know, paid communities was a big thing for me. So I needed to be able to replicate that. Remember, I said I joined these communities and paid a monthly membership to be able to get exclusive jobs. So I actually also built a higher form website where people go to hire doc quitting corporate.com to hire my students. So a lot of people are it's taken off, people know where to go when they want to hire a tech virtual assistant, or Tech Support Specialist. Jobs get pumped into the group every single day. So and I don't limit it to tech and automation, because there are still some people in the group or some members still want to appear automation with other things. And I respect that. So we have people who do copywriting and tech and automation. So they'll set up your email campaigns and still do your write your email, copy and website copy for you and still set up their automation still set up the automations I have people who want to focus on social media and social media automation, people who are still doing funnel design and automation. So the jobs are not only automation, I even have people who still you know I'm I still want to become be do general stuff along with the automation. So all types of remote jobs are posted in there for them. And a lot of my students have gone on to get clients and they're even clients, I have a couple people who've made on their first job over $2,000 For the first person that hired them, and it started, the client will have more than made their investment back. And then there is also in terms of weight when people are hiring them. They're also they also have the opportunity to come to me and say, Hey, this always submit this, can you look over my proposal, if they feel anxious about it, if they feel nervous about the call, sometimes we talk about what that looks like when you get on the call. So I don't ever leave them out to see there's this SAS company funnel gorgeous, a software company for funnel building and whatnot CRM. They have since hired three of my students full time to manage your SAS software, whatnot. So I and it's not just tech and automation in specific software, I teach them how to navigate any system, even if they've never seen it before. So Active Campaign Click Funnels Kajabi, kartra, Ontraport, funnel gorge, fg funnels, all the things so that anytime someone comes to them, they know and project management tools. clickup not just automation for emails, but also automation for personal stuff, daily stuff, your life, not just business, how to look at a situation and recognize, okay, you know what, this person doesn't need to be doing this thing, there is a way for you to figure out how to automate it. So we do challenges inside the group where I serve out. Last one we did we had a challenge in December called Miss do it manually. And I would put some things in there like Okay, help me to do it, man manually was the hardest Christmas party of the year. And I would say this is the scenario. This is what's happening, let's do it manually has these things where a bunch of people have to audition for this job or this play. But she has to say and go through every single application to see if they qualify, help us navigate or create a system where she can automate this so that she can emcee at the party. So then they have to brainstorm like, Oh my God, how can I figure it out. And it gives them the strategy behind our understanding of look at your clients when you're working with them. And they you will understand where or how you can automate something or if it can be automated, this is how I want you to be seeing it. That's really cool. So tell me what your life looks like now, compared to what it looked like, eight years ago, when you were in corporate or however many, I guess what was it? 2018 You went full time. So since then, since then, what does my life look like? Now I first of all, I just recently got back from my longest trip ever. 33 days, I you know, as a parent, traveling for 33 days as a mom without your kid is a big deal. That was a bunch of business as well as pleasure mixin. And I could never stayed that long on my corporate salary ever, ever, ever. I would have been gone in the blink of an eye and panicking oh my god, how am I going to do this? But that was there things that came up along the way. Like, you know, we had I had my mastermind event, there were 70 of us there in person, the US but the others were virtual, but then there was a COVID over it. Um, so as I was leaving, I was going to my best friend's house and I started to see everybody's like, okay, positive, positive, positive, positive, positive. Like, you know what it would be irresponsible of me to go to my best friend's house now because she has kids there. And if I had positive that I've gone there infected her entire family. And I was on the train heading over there. And I said, You know what, I messaged her, I said, I'm not coming because it seems to be a thing of work going on. So I am going to book a hotel for a couple of days before it comes to you just to make sure. And that is something I looked at the hotel prices, New York went oh my god, I did not want to do this. And then I had to sit back and have my friend Talia sitting across from me. And I said we're leaving the mastermind together. And I said, You know what, this isn't the way to look at this a couple years ago, I would not have known what to do. Because I wouldn't have had the money to pay for this hotel at the last minute to make sure that I can keep everybody said so I booked the hotel. I was like screw it. I'm just going to do it. And I went I did that. So those things come up and I like being able to do that with soap kind of came with Don't worry. I've taken family vacations and I've taken vacations where I've even taken my mom so that if I wanted to go out she could stay with my daughter. He just got back from like a seven day cruise. I took her on Savin a cruise for Easter and then I went oh we did the big Miami trip and all that stuff. And international travel is hard because remember, it's them in Barbados. So it isn't like we're not buying $80 $90 or$100 tickets across states. So having that because we met Brace out, I used to my work funds, I used to kind of like save them up for 689 months to be able to go on a trip, I don't have to do that anymore. I also, like moved into an area that I liked, I couldn't afford to do it on my regular salary. There are things that I enjoy now that in a regular position I wouldn't make I wouldn't be able to do. I also like to make sure that I have other streams of income. So the money that I've made online, it allowed me to open a couple of other businesses. So I had I opened up a transportation company here, I might open a bit supply store. So I have other things actually going on locally where income is money still coming. Because I need to make sure you know if I wake up tomorrow, and I don't feel like working online, which I don't think what happened. There are other things happening there. And I stepped away from done for you services in automation. And I do consulting now. So I teach my students are my main focus, I teach them Metra, they can get their jobs. And then if I need to work with a client, it's more so consulting. So I'd come in to the consultation. And if they need to work with someone like one of my students, I'd work alongside them to get the implementation, then I just oversee that as a consultant with that person. So that's it. And then I do tech coaching in high ticket masterminds. So that's where it is now instead of down for you consulting, tech coaching and just working with my students traveling, doing all the fun stuff, and having a ton of time at home to do what I like talk to you on this podcast. Working with clients only, I probably wouldn't have been able to find a time to say and do this. So it's a lot of time back is even I get even more fun creating my curriculum for my students and creating a new curriculum now for intake. So there's that I've also what's changed for me in a huge way is showing up on video. I wasn't able to I didn't like get hit on video but over the last year and a half was my that forced during the year in Nova in September. Over the last year and a half, I was able to show up more on video because a lot of my teachings were audio Graham and I would show my face a little bit and my students started like seeing you we want to work face and I started going to Okay, I'm gonna show like this. I did a redo of a I added in a piece of the course in November last year, a new segment and it's like full video, my face is there. And it's brought up that level of competence for me in on on this in the social world, I try to get that it's just a constant level of like up leveling and growing and stretching and being uncomfortable and doing it all over again. Like as soon as you kind of get find your comfort zone with one thing. It's like, okay, what's the next? What's the next thing that I need to be working on? You know, one of the things that I like to say is like clarity comes from action. Because I think if you're like analytical or you're looking at your your corporate life, and you're just going well, I have no idea how to get to here. I'm just going to guess and go out on a limb that whenever you first left your corporate job that this was not anywhere on your radar that what you've accomplished in the last five or so years. To the level I mean, like all of the different pieces and all of the different businesses and the branches. Like I'm guessing that that was not something that was just planned out from the beginning. Oh, no. And when I look back at the how much I've made in December last year, when I did the calculation on how much I made until the end, because you know, you're getting your stuff ready for tax season. I would have at December last year, I would have had to work 15 more years in corporate to my last high paying salary to meet what have already made in the last. That was three years. 1820 Yeah, that was three years. Last December, I would have had to work 15 more years in corporate Okay, wait, does that matter? Like your salary times 15 It's not just like fighting years. That is like 15 years worth of salary that you're talking about 15 years worth of salary, I would have to work to meet what I mean in the last three years from a remote business alone together as Yes. Like I want so many women to have that experience I want so I mean that is just that is admirable and I like God that's got to make you feel good. I mean of just like knowing that you can provide, you know provide for your daughter of having that like I know how to make money because once you learn that that's that's not something that anybody can take away from you like even if everything else goes away. I Know how to make money, I can start over and I'm starting from a higher. I mean, that's just really incredible job. I tell people that all the time, we weren't taught that when we don't have money or or reflects in our Rush is to Oh my God, I need to send out these application things to find another job. But I always see what I've learned in the last couple of years. Like you said, it can it can crash and burn right now. I will figure it out in the next couple of hours. Like, I need to get a couple of$1,000. And I need to do this right now. Last week, as I was leaving my best friend's house, I was like, oh, man, we did a number out here. I need all the dollars by the end. I mean, like$1,000 By the end of the week, and she's looking at me tonight. Because I've been trying to get her to do it for whatever and she hasn't, right. And she's like, What do you mean, he's like, as long as I need $5,000, by the end of the week, I'm going back home to reality mail, and I did a lot of money on that hotel. Yeah, I need all this stuff back that I just spent because I like to call out this thing where I'm like, somebody's going to pay for this. And it's not going to be me. So like, yeah, I work on that on I am going on a trip in November, somebody has to be limited. And I always tell my students as well keep that in your mind, when you want to do something, you will continue to go there. If it is somebody's gonna pay for this, it's not going to be me. Technically, you're paying for it, you get what I mean. It's like you're not sucking from a well and then panicking like, oh my god, the wall is empty. So before I got home, because I was on a plane, I was coming. And then I did a flight with a stock, I could come direct, but I didn't because I wanted the extra time to have four hours in the airport launch. That's another thing that I wouldn't have access to before. It also it feels feels good to be able to walk into the airport, launch and have access and all that and stay there nicely without worrying about staying on their way to the airport knowledge. And I had four hours of flight when I was about to get on my next flight, I sent her a message and said $2,500 More is what I need. She's like you just I love it. I also like to be able to do that. And my reflects is not I need a job. And if Pete if more people could look at it that way, it would be so amazing for them. We stressed out about starting businesses, and we don't have the money to invest that. I can't pay for this. But what can you do? If you have to invest in something that is going to get you where you're going faster? What can you do to make it work? And I tell people there is the you know, there's this thing that was always the invisible work node and whatnot, what are we doing? And one of my one of the ladies I worked with called Susan, she always talks about the invisible workload, what are we doing that we're not getting paid for? You have family members dropping kids off at your house every single week to babysit. But they're never saying here is $50 Thank you. So you need to pay for a course up can they gift it to you since you're always so good at good with them. If your birthday is coming up, our Christmas is coming up, hey, I was wondering if you could help me get this thing, something that I really wanted to do. Because you know them not having to pay a sticker for their kids is saving them a lot of money. So if they're able to contribute, or you can tell everybody, this, my birthday is coming up, this is what I want, your family's probably going to go out and try to get you perfume or whatever things you like or jewelry and stuff, tell them if you can reach out to this company, and buy me a gift card so that I can take these courses for my birthday. That's all I want. There are ways to go around it, you know, you don't have to save the money up. You want to take me out to dinner, you know, reach out to this company and see if we can get a coupon or a gift card for that dinner money because I really want to do this thing. And if people around you can appreciate that this is what you would like for your birthday or to celebrate or for Mother's Day or whatever. Or hey, I know that we go to date night every Tuesday. But can we skip it because instead of spending $200 Every Tuesday for the next two months on this thing, this course is going to cost $500 And I really want to take it so and if you get pushback from that, then I don't I wouldn't want to have those people who reject that around me like don't show up at my door and bring me $100 bottle of cologne or perfume. When I told you I want this thing because you believe that gifts are supposed to be what do we say a tangible you believe that actually something I should have in my hand because I'm trying to better myself. And I would appreciate you so much. If you could just you know change it up a little bit so that I can do that. But then don't disappoint them actually do the thing. Right, right. So tell me how the podcast came in to All of this, when did you start it? How are you using it? Like as an outreach? Are you doing interviews? Or how what is your podcast look like the podcast, I dropped the trailer for the podcast last August and the first episode was in September last year. So it came about because of my fear for video, I want it to be able to show up more, and I was going to be able to do that better on audio. So I actually have a bunch of these videos now that I am want to tell my team now that I feel a little more comfortable stepping out here, take them and make a bunch of rules, and put up here until you know, spending episodes. But that was it for me. I wanted to be able to talk to my audience and talk to people and get my message across. But I am scared of going live all the time or going on yet IG live Facebook Live, those things made me nervous. So it was like, I don't have to show my face on the podcast. And I could still talk to people. So let me start there. So the first season was pretty much me talking about my journey, everything went on went through. And I thought that I would only get to Episode Five before I had to bring on guests. But I made it straight 12 solo. And then the second season, I'm talking to people about why they quit corporate what they're doing. It's it's a it's collectively, it's not just about tech and automation. But it's so that the audience can feel and get ideas of all the different pockets of areas and things that different business owners are out here doing that are making money. So it's not just people who quit corporate, but regardless of how you left corporate you quit, you got fired, you resign, your position was redundant. Whatever it is, is as long as your accident or you exit it. These are some ideas from some phenomenal people that can help you grow your business. And if you decide that automation is where you want to go instead of those other paths. And this is the way to do it. So I leave a lot of resources and links and stuff from my guests. So that you know if you want to be a copywriter, this is the person if you want to do video editing, this is the person if you want to do stuff with kids, this is the person and I talked to them that way a lot of students get motivation from the podcast as well. So there's that as well. A big question on that podcast is for most of the guests is would you ever go back to corporate and a lot of them are like hell no. So that came about No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like, figure it out. Yeah. No, that's awesome. All right. Well, as we wrap up here is there Why don't you go ahead and tell people where they can find you learn more, learn more about your course. Your podcasts, all of the things you can find me on all social by Latoya RSB YL at all ya our Instagram Facebook, tick tock we hardly use because y'all heard I don't like video. All the places you can find me by Latoya ours, my handle if you go to quitting corporate.com and check out the website. And if you aren't interested, or you want to know more about set an automation, quitting corporate.com forward slash register will give you access to the info session so that you can figure out okay, is this something for me? And we'll from there would incorporate.com Pretty easy to remember. Yeah. Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much, Latoya. Thank you so much for having me, Jamie. I want to say a big thank you to Latoya for coming on the show today. I loved hearing her perspective. And really like the part about somebody is going to pay for this and it's not going to be me. Let's all move towards that model. Right. Some of the key takeaways from this episode are number one, ask the questions. If you're not seeing the results from your contributions at work, and it's stalling out your career, be an advocate for yourself and find out why a manager holding you back from other opportunities is completely unacceptable. Number two, take the opportunity. If you see an opportunity or window where you can go all in on something that works for you and your life. strike when the iron is hot and make the move. Number three invest in community. A lot of times Facebook groups can be a great place to find your ideal clients. However, when you're only hanging out in the free groups, things get saturated very quickly. Go ahead and invest in the communities where your people are. Number four, get specific. When people know what you do, it opens the door for easy referrals. Lots of people go the general route and are faced with a lot of competition as well as a lot of customer facing activities in the whole VA world. So getting specific allows you to move swiftly. Number five, work smarter. Make yourself aware of the tools that can make your life easier. As an entrepreneur there are tons of everyday tasks that can be automated to reduce the amount of time you're spending on projects. And number six, don't forget to give back. It's especially important as women that when we figure out something and overcome a struggle that we turn around and offer a hand to those coming along behind us. Latoya does this by helping her students find paying opportunities but there's waited for all of us to do that, just like in our own way. So thanks again to Latoya for being on the show. I've linked everything in the show notes. And that is it for this week. I appreciate you tuning in to another episode of Breaking up with corporate and if you found any value with this or any other episode, please take a moment to leave a review to help other women find this show. There's a link in the show notes that makes this really easy. I think it's been made very clear that women need more resources, so stay strong. Until next time