Tune in to discover how Emilie left Amazon HQ and scaled to a multiple 6 figure business in less than 2 years.
In This Episode You'll Learn
- You don't need a business degree to build a successful agency. Education comes in many different ways.
- Tips on building your influence and positioning yourself as an expert in your field (and identifying what you are an expert at).
- When it's time to scale to agency vs freelancer.
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Transcript
Meg Brunson
Hey. Hey.Family premieres. Thank you so much for joining us on another episode. Today, I'm really excited to meet with Emilie Given. She left Amazon HQ and scaled her business to a multiple sixfigure business in less than a year and then to seven figures in less than three years. Emilie is a successful online entrepreneur and virtual assistant agency owner who has been featured in Business Insider, Scary Mommy, and the New York Post. And today she is going to share all of her juicy knowledge and wisdom with us. Emilie, thank you so much for being here today.
Emilie Given
Thank you so much for having me on today. Meg, I'm so happy to be able to chat with you.
Meg Brunson
Oh, me too. And I can't wait to hear a little bit more about your story. Many of my listeners kind of know my story about how I left Facebook to be a freelancer and then built that into an agency. So I can't wait to hear your unique perspective from a different angle, from a different big business Corporation and how that kind of played out. Can you give us that little like what made you decide to leave Amazon to do something risky and unpredictable?
Emilie Given
Yeah, we do have a lot in common there. I remember reading your story. So I was at Amazon for four and a half years and I had a traumatic birth experience actually. So trigger warning if anybody needs a trigger warning. My son and I almost died when I had him. So had a really awful experience. We actually were separated for seven days and got to meet when he was seven days old. So that was just Earth rocking for me. And I quickly learned that life is really short and I wanted to do something different and I didn't know what, but all I knew is that okay, I really like my job. I love the company I work for, but I can't be leaving my house at six in the morning, 6:20 in the morning. He's still sleeping and get home an hour before he goes to bed. Like I didn't have a kid to spend 1 hour a day with them. It just wasn't enough. So I started freelancing. One, because we had lots of medical bills to make more money and two, to kind of dip my toe in the freelancing world. And I quickly learned that I really liked freelancing.
Emilie Given
So I've been a crazy workaholic and I don't mind calling myself that because I really am that I'm trying to unlearn a lot of it. But I worked two full time job since I was 18 years and 16 years old, even like I have always been. So I built up my clientele to be working full time at Amazon and I was working full time freelancing as well. After a year, I kind of brought it to my husband and I said, Look, I can make the same amount of money freelancing so can I do this full time? And he's like, we thought about it. He's employed full time as well. So he was able to provide his benefits. And then he said, you know what? I think you should go for it. So I left Amazon July 2019 to full time freelance. And at that point, I wasn't an agency yet. It was just me. So I did that for only a few months, actually. And after I launched, created some buzz around what I was doing. I found myself turning people away because I was so busy. You can only do as much work as you have hours in the day.
Emilie Given
And so one, I was really excited to be able to create the opportunity for other people. Right. Look at this. What I'm doing, it's super flexible. I can do what I love and be at home and make money. And also I was really wanting to build the opportunity to create that agency model right where I'm making money by selling the people and overseeing the work that's being done and also creating that opportunity. So it's like a big circle. And I got really excited about it and launched the agency side in probably October 2019. And then Bam Covid hit six months later. So it just took off. Yeah. It accelerated in such a crazy pace. I could have never imagined that for myself for this business. And it's been wonderful. We now have people contracting for us that were laid off due to COVID or they just wanted to create an extra side hustle income. Or we have some people even doing this full time for us because they just want to be home with their family. So it has been just the most amazing journey over the past. Almost. We're not even at three years yet.
Emilie Given
We have a team of 30 assistants. My husband has joined me in the business since I started. So he's the one doing all my sales calls now, which is great because he has a 20 year background in sales. It's been such a fun ride
Meg Brunson
Turning it into a two family business.
Emilie Given
Absolutely. Yes. FamilyPreneur. And so we always talk to our kids about we're not born entrepreneurs. Right. I'm in my 30s. He's in his 40s. This is new to us, but we're really quickly learning that this is such a beautiful path. And I'm trying to teach our kids everybody's path looks different. And that's okay. And you can go to school, you can go to College, you can work in a Corporation. You could do something that's more blue collar. You can do whatever the heck you want. And just being able to really demonstrate that is really beautiful.
Meg Brunson
Yeah, for sure. Now I'm curious, what were you doing at Amazon and how did that relate to what you were offering as a freelancer? Was it similar or how did that.
Emilie Given
It's exactly the same, actually. I was an executive assistant at Amazon, so directly supporting executives of their calendar, their travel, their expense reporting, complex meetings, event planning, things like that. And so that's exactly what I was doing freelance, and that's exactly what we offer as an agency. And that took me a little while to dial in as well, too, because if you don't know, the term virtual assistant is not regulated in any way, shape or form. Anybody can do anything online and call themselves a virtual assistant. There are some web designers that I know that call themselves virtual assistants. There are social media managers. You can call yourself social media manager, but also you kind of fall under the umbrella virtual assistant. So it took me a while to really rein that in. We do executive support, so we are virtual executive assistants. And really our target market is tech startups because I come from tech and tech startups kind of fall into this bucket of not necessarily needing full time admin support. And we do month to month support. So we do anywhere from 5 hours a week all the way up to 40 hours a week.
Emilie Given
And we have clients who do all of that. And in between, so we kind of found our sweet spot. But I was doing executive assistant work at Amazon, so I've really translated it into what I'm doing now. And I also hire executive assistants. It's very easy for me to hire for the position because if you have the experience on your resume, that's what I'm looking for.
Meg Brunson
Sure. Now, when you left, I know you said that you started freelancing when you were still at Amazon, but how did you build your influence and really position yourself as the expert either while you were still there or right after? Because you may not be new to the field, but you are new, like in the scene of online virtual assistant. So how did that work?
Emilie Given
Yes, one. When I first joined the scene, I was so I guess overwhelmed by it was a whole new world that I didn't know existed. So online service providers, once you get into one social media account and start scrolling on a lot of them, they're everywhere online coaches, virtual assistants, OBMs. So what I did was I started small, and this is also what I tell my coaching clients. I also coach aspiring virtual assistant. I say start small. So, like in my little hometown of Lynnwood, Washington, not super little, but Lynnwood Washington, I reached out to the local newspaper and I said, hey, I'm starting this business. Here's what I'm doing. I also have this spin on my story. And the spin is like, I almost died in child's birth and I use that to my benefit. I realized life is short, so I pivoted to make this career change. So that was beneficial to me. And I say everybody really needs to find their thing, like, what makes them stand out in that sense of PR? So I reached out to my local newspaper. They were able to do a small feature on me. And then I used that feature to pitch bigger features.
Emilie Given
And somehow, I don't even know how, Business Insider was like, yes, write an article. I was like, what? So like, brand new to the scene. I wrote probably six months in, I wrote an article for Business Insider, which was beautiful and wonderful, and I loved it. And that was great. And it still gets traction now. So my big fish goal is to be in Forbes one day. I say start small, create your circle of influence, and start small. You're in Lynnwood, right. And then go county. My county is Snohomish County. And then my state is Washington state. And then do Pacific Northwest and then do the west side West Coast, and then create your influence bigger and bigger and use those little pieces as traction. And also I pitched hard. I did my research, my local news outlets, my big news outlets. I got my story dialed in. I actually have a PR person I work with now who gets me some features as well. But find your angle. Be really excited about what you're doing. So something I wrote in my Business Insider article was, when you're talking about starting your business, don't come at it like, I think I'm going to start this new business. No, I'm starting this business. I'm awesome. This is what I'm doing. Super excited about it. And it really makes the world of difference.
Meg Brunson
When I first started, another resource I used was my Chamber of commerce. Like the local Chamber of commerce. That's where I started locally. And I feel like it's similar. Right. Like, you start in your local area and then you build out and out and out.
Emilie Given
I always tell people to connect with their Chamber of commerce as well, too, because in our line of work, when you're first starting, that 500 and $600 initiation fee seems a little high. But I always tell people to offer services in exchange for membership, and it works every time.
Meg Brunson
That's brilliant.
Emilie Given
That's what I tell people. I tell people to do that as well.
Meg Brunson
That kind of leads into how did you find your first clients when you were leaving Amazon? I feel like that's another big hold up for people is where to get that first paying client.
Emilie Given
Absolutely. And that's like one creating this announcement. Like, people launch businesses and then just expect people to know about it. And once you realize someone has to hear about you, like nine times before they buy from you, you need to talk about your business all the time. And another thing in my Business Insider article I was talking about - we went to a wine shop wine tasting, and I made a toast. Like, Congrats to my new business. And the owner of the wine shop was there. She's like, what's your new business like? Oh, I started a virtual assistant business. She's like, oh, I need you. So talk about it wherever you are. Make a huge, exciting post on Facebook and tell people exactly what you need from them. Right. So create a clear call to action. Not just I'm starting a business. Yeah, I'm starting a business. Here's how you can support me. One, follow me on Facebook and Instagram. Two, tell your friends about me. Three, if you have a need for me, here's how to reach out and schedule calls me, give them directions. Because if you don't, they'll Yay for you. But Yay doesn't pay the bill.
Meg Brunson
If only it did.
Emilie Given
I always tell people, direct them to what they need to do for you.
Meg Brunson
Yeah. And I think you touched on something else great is that it's not always the person you expect who's going to end up being either your best client or your best referral partner. Sometimes those things come in super surprising places when you happen to mention something at the grocery store and the person behind you hears and knows something. Or I remember, like, one instance where I was approached by somebody and I was confident they were not a match for me, but they had a referral that ended up being one of my favorite clients. And so you really have to have an open mind. And like you said, just keep sharing that message every single chance you get.
Emilie Given
Absolutely. And you don't have to be annoying about it either. It's like once you ingrain the business into who you are, what you should do if you're an entrepreneur, it will come up naturally and it will feel authentic when you're talking about it. And you will be magnetic about it. Right. You'll bring in those opportunities that are right for you and creating your circle that is right for you. It took me a while to learn that. I used to try to shove it down everyone's throat. Or like, you have a business, you hire me, you need me. And it turns out sometimes they weren't a good match. And that's okay. So you just have to really be open to just like you said, open be open. Things that aren't for you will pass by you and then things that are won't.
Meg Brunson
Exactly. Now, I'd love to touch on your decision to go from freelancer to agency. I mean, you mentioned a little bit, right, that you realized you were starting to turn people away. Talk to me a little bit about that transition and maybe some of the feelings that feel like you can it's a really easy time to get impostor syndrome and start to feel like you're not the right person to start an agency. I'd love to hear that side of the story.
Emilie Given
So I will be honest with you. I still have crazy imposter syndrome and people look at me and they're like, you're insane. Why? But because this is the world we live in. There are so many brilliant, amazing people. And I'm trying to just realize I am also one of those people. And my talents and gifts are unique, and I have something to offer that other people don't. So what really motivated me to start the agency was then not turning people away faster. I wanted a place for everyone. So I started small. I just hired one assistant at first, and I just started delegating some of my internal stuff to them. And then I quickly realized that I really wanted a one to one method. So every time I onboard a client, I paired them with an assistant, which is what we do in my agency. Other agencies operate differently. Some people have a whole client as a project and then five different facets with the project and five different people are working on it. But I find it easier to oversee and manage if it's a one to one. And also the relationship is deeper and more connected and relationship in my experience.
Emilie Given
So hired one person quickly realized I wanted to do a one to one model and then just started hiring. And we hire sporadically now. So we'll put out a job post my HR coordinator does for screen interviews. We have them do some assessments, we have a second interview with them, and then they get on boarded and then kind of the matching process happens. But we hire probably once every three months, and we just have an open, huge thing. Like we get so many applicants and go through them, and then we'll hire like five or seven people, and then we'll be good for a few months. And then I can only grow in the agency as fast as I can hire. And that's the hardest part. That's the hardest part I will tell anybody, starting an agency is hiring and managing people. And you want someone really good to be doing that. If it's you, I recommend taking some courses and having difficult conversations and HR management courses. And creating culture, which is something that I'm super dead set on doing this year, is creating a really great culture in my company, which I haven't time to do yet.
Meg Brunson
Sure.
Emilie Given
So I'm Super excited to do that now. But yeah, it's not for the faint of heart, because freelancing or managing yourself. I have days recently where unfortunately, people have family members pass away. You have to fill out. You have to figure out with their client coverage for that. People have Covid and they're out sick. I've had people completely ghost me. Like the assistant is paired up with a client and then they just fall off the face of the Earth. What are your contingency plans? What do you say to your clients? It's never ending, honestly. I have some really awesome, amazing people on my team, but also with the freelance life, running an agency, they're subcontractors. So the reality of the matter is they can go find their own client and cut out the middleman, which is you. I always call myself like a broker. I'm like a broker. I just get the clients and I match them with the people. But the reality is that you could lose them anytime. And so the turnover is hard. Explaining the turnover to your clients is hard, especially if the client has been with you for a long time and they've had two different assistance.
Emilie Given
What can you do? So really getting sorry about the dog. Really getting part of the family, right? Really getting used to dealing with all the stuff that comes up and not letting it completely ruin your day. You don't wake up in the morning and three things are on my list of things I have to deal with related to people and you just roll with it because that's what you have to do.
Meg Brunson
Now, from a VA's perspective, if somebody's considering do I want to be a freelancer or would I want to join an agency like yours. What are some of the pros and cons? Because I'm sure that there's some people who are best fit to work under you and your brokerage situation. And then there are some people who may be best served to be a freelancer. How do you distinguish what those roles would be?
Emilie Given
Absolutely. So I mentioned earlier that I coach too, so I coach aspiring virtual assistant. I tend to only coach people that I would hire into my agency, and oftentimes I do, because that's a great segue.
Meg Brunson
Sure.
Emilie Given
For them too. So I'm coaching them on the skills to build their business. But I already know that they have the actual skills to work in my business. So I usually end up offering them some work. And then they learn how to if they're side hustling, they learn how to juggle a job with their corporate job, which is part of the battle. And they learn what it takes to manage a client as a freelancer because they have the autonomy there. But then they also have a buffer of me. So they have the buffer when they don't know how to do something. They ask me first because I find that I would rather people ask me and I try to figure it out than ask the client first. I have a rule, and I'm pretty sure it's from Amazon where it's like a self service oriented culture. So if you don't know something, try to figure it out first and come to a person with two things that you've tried rather than like, I don't know how to do this. Okay, sure. I'll be self sufficient in regards to me versus working as a freelancer.
Emilie Given
I'm the one that's putting the money into marketing. I'm doing all my social media accounts. I'm doing the sales calls, I'm billing again. I'm the first line of defense. And they have a question. I'm also the first line of defense if they have a problem in regards to, hey, my clients aren't respecting my boundaries. And so I'm able to have that conversation with them and say, hey, listen, Meg's actually only available to answer between hours of nine and five. She does have 24 business hours to get things done. I'm just here to level set with you. And without me, if you work directly with the client, you don't have that. You have to be that person. And I think it's important for people to learn how to boundary set. So I always have a coaching moment with that person after, hey, here's what I'm going to say. Here's how I'm going to go about this. Just let you know. But I think that is a valuable thing at first. And also the getting clients piece. Right. It took me a long time to be a known name in the industry. Like a lot of SEO work went into my website, a lot of speaking at some national shows, a lot of PR, a lot of things went into building my brand.
Emilie Given
I always tell people when they're potential clients. Yes. Sometimes it is more beneficial for you to work with a freelancer. If you have a higher skill set that you need that's super specific work with the freelancer directly because the budget matters there. Right. People realize that I'm an agency owner. I take a cut. That's how I make money. So if you only have a certain limited budget and you really need it to go to a specialized skill, I always say hire freelance is better. I was going to say, if that skills admin support, then sure, hire us. That's great. But if it's like a very specific like web designer or social media strategist, I would recommend hiring that person directly.
Meg Brunson
That makes sense. It does make a lot of sense. Now, what type of resources do you have available for listeners who want to learn more? Potentially maybe become a VA? Whether it's a freelancer VA or underneath your agency, what resources are available for them?
Emilie Given
Yeah. So She's A Given is always hiring. The requirements to work in my business are three years of administrative experience, emphasis on calendar management, and some level of College education. That doesn't mean that you have to have a degree because I don't even have a degree. Actually, I'm I think 36 credits away And I just never went back. I intend to one day because I just want to finish what I started. But anyway, that's a long winded way to say, like some level of post secondary education. That doesn't matter if you took a couple of classes at community college Or some online learning certificate. Awesome. That's great, really. We just want to prove that you have professionalism in your communication with clients and as of now, we are completely US based, so need to be located in the United States.
Emilie Given
If you're interested, ShesAGiven.com. There is a drop down that says want to work with us? Send me a note, have my email address on there and then also, if you're interested in becoming a virtual assistant, you don't have that experience or you want to work on your own as a VA. ShesAGivenAcademy.com is my coaching website and I will say I don't take coaching clients all the time. It's by request only, And I only work with people that this is going to sound- that have that experience. So I'm not going to teach you the soft skills. I can't teach you how to write a professional email. I'm not going to teach you how to do the calendar. But if you have those skills and you want to build a business, I will teach you how to build a business. So contact me at that website on Facebook. It's facebook.com/ShesAGiven on Instagram, it's instagram.com/ShesAGiven_ and my email is emilie@ShesAGiven.com, please feel free to reach out and say hello and I will direct you to the right place.
Meg Brunson
Awesome. And I will put all of those links in the show notes. Emilie, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be here with us today. Share your story, give us some tips and tricks and advice and thank you so much.
Emilie Given
Thank you so much for having me, Meg. It's been a pleasure and I look forward to talking with you again.
Meet Emilie Given
Emilie Given is a successful online entrepreneur and virtual assistant agency owner who has been featured in Business Insider, Scary Mommy, and The New York Post.
She founded She’s A Given, a Seattle-based virtual assistant company in 2018 to be able to spend more time with her family after a near-death experience. A year after leaving her 9-5 at Amazon Corporate HQ, she built a thriving six-figure business.
Through coaching and course creation, Emilie’s primary focus is to inspire other women to create a career that allows them to focus on passion over paperwork and family over familiarity.