IAM561-Virtual Assistant Specializes in Social Media

Natalie Madeline is a Virtual Assistant with a specialization in social media management and copywriting. In between working on her bachelor's degree and growing her business, she enjoys travel, coffee dates with friends, and relaxing on the beaches of her hometown in Miami.

• CEO Hack: Hyperlapse
• CEO Nugget: Take the leap, don't feel intimidated
• CEO Defined: One who is unafraid, a risk-taker, and empowers people

Website: http://site-1936106-4441-5801.mystrikingly.com/

Instagram: Natalie.Madeline

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Natalie Madeline of the Natalie The VA. Natalie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Natalie Madeline 0:38

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do, which is read a little bit more about Natalie, so as to hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Natalie Madeline is a Virtual Assistant with a specialization in social media management and copywriting. In between working on her bachelor's degree and growing her business, she enjoys travel, coffee dates with friends, and relaxing on the beaches of her hometown in Miami. Natalie, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Natalie Madeline 1:06

Yes, I am. Let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 1:07

Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story, what led you to get started with your business?

Natalie Madeline 1:15

Okay, so in my bio, you got into it, where I'm still a college student. Now I have two more semesters to go and so I'm done. But yeah, I'm still in college, and I don't have a car and I live in Miami. I was working as a public adjusters assistant for a while in an office. I was like, there has to be something better. So I started to go on a job hunt and the thing is that my qualifications of what I wanted next were very, like picky and restricted. So I didn't want to commute because I didn't have a car. If I had to commute, I didn't want it to be very far away. But the best jobs in Miami at least are in downtown Miami, like in most cities, like in the city is where it's. But I still wanted to be paid well. But since I'm a college student, the schedule needed to be flexible, too. So I was like, Man, I'm kind of asking for a lot but I'm hoping and praying that something good comes out.

One day, I was already putting out resumes and sending them out to law offices to be an attorney's assistant or something. That same day, I was in a group chat with a friend and she was like, Hey, I have someone that's looking for a virtual assistant, just send your resume here. I had never heard of what a virtual assistant was. But since I was already sending my resume out super fast. I just sent it and didn't think about it. That person was actually the only one that gave me a callback. So I was like, All right, let's go for it. She emailed me like, this is what I'm looking for. I was like, I'm super honest, I'm never gonna lie on my resume. I'm never gonna act like I know something that I don't. So I was like, okay, Listen, I'm totally fired up for this opportunity because it's everything that works for me.

But I don't have experience as a virtual assistant. But what I can tell you is whatever I don't know, I promise that I'll learn it and you don't have to worry about it. I'll take it upon myself. So because of that attitude, she had hundreds of people that wanted to work for her. But she was like, I felt something from you because you had that ambition.

Another CEO when they see ambition and someone else like they love that. Like you love that too. I'm pretty sure you feel that same way too. Yeah, so it gets you fired up. I was like, yeah, like I promised whatever, I don't know, I'm gonna learn it. I dedicate myself to it. Let's do it. So she took me on. Then from there, I took it upon myself to take courses on what I didn't know, I know how to do emails, everyone knows how to send an email. But I even took a course on email etiquette. Because I was like, I want to be super good at everything. I want to be on my game with this. So from there, that's where I started my experience.

Gresham Harkless 3:53

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that and just as you said, I think that you can always teach people a lot of stuff, but it's hard, almost impossible to teach passion, and desire to want to get better. Even little small things like obviously you want to take care of the big things, but those little small things like email etiquette that you would gloss over if you're not super passionate about what it is that you do.

Natalie Madeline 4:14

I 100% agree. You can teach passion. You just have to have it for sure.

Gresham Harkless 4:18

Exactly. So I know you touched on it a little bit, but I want to drill down a little bit deeper. Could you tell us a little bit more about your virtual assistant business exactly what you do and how your clients work with you?

Natalie Madeline 4:29

Yeah, okay. So right now I still have the title of virtual assistant because I know how to do like inbox detox and I can do scheduling for you and all those things. But of course, I'm focusing more on social media management, content writing, copywriting, and everything. Surprisingly, like I know that there are a bunch of websites that you can find about virtual assistant positions and everything. But just off of my social media when I made my personal page, it's like my business page. I just started marketing myself as that. That's where I started getting all of my clients and they just liked the content that I have. It wasn't really like putting up graphics like, Oh, this is what a VA does. and I can do this for you. Like, I wasn't like that I was just being me.

People like it when you're just yourself. So that's how I got all of my clients. I've been doing well so far. Then even from there, I've seen a lot of vas, like, connect with me, message me, how are you doing that? Does this actually work for you? Even friends and I'm like, Yes. Like, it's as easy as just being yourself and being okay with it and allowing yourself to just be real and be a little funny. Like, it's not all serious. I think people are inclined to just be like, Oh, no, I can only talk about being a virtual assistant. No, like, you can talk about your dog that you love. Like, it's totally fine. So that's how it's been going. For me. That's why I've had success in it so far.

Gresham Harkless 5:45

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. I'm glad definitely to hear that you can talk about your dog on social media, because my daughter, so that always helps to be able to do that. Because you just as you said, it's hard to not be yourself. I think that's when people are hiring. That's who they want to connect with and who they want to know more about. So like when you are, even though it's a business transaction a lot of times, you are developing a relationship. So you want to know who exactly you're working with?

Natalie Madeline 6:12

Exactly. I think you can know, like, I know that your seat or I know that you do podcasting, but that's something that I think will set someone apart. Because from me what I've had experience with you, yourself, in your emails, it's very like, methodical, it's logical. It's like, this is step one, this is two. So I'm like, he's probably like that as a person with like, some humor too, because I can catch your humor and, and that stuff, too. So I was like, as long as you put your personality into everything that you do, people are gonna like that they're gonna be attracted to that because there's a bunch of really nice websites of virtual assistants. There's a bunch of great portfolios out there and resumes. But if you put your personality into everything that you do, that will always set you apart for sure.

Gresham Harkless 6:54

Yeah, absolutely, and speaking of setting apart, I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce and that could be for you or your business. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Natalie Madeline 7:06

For me, I would still go with that same answer where it's I'm putting my personality out there. So I'm like silly, and I'm not afraid to look a little silly and stuff and I'm very honest. So I put that like in my Instagram stories, and my Facebook captions, and everything that I do, I let that shine through. Like I'm not trying to look perfect all the time. Which is very hard for a girl to do, especially in business. But I'm not trying to look perfect all the time. It's okay if you see me stutter, or I dropped something while I'm talking to you, or stuff like that and it sounds really basic, but like your personality can't be duplicated, it can't be copied, no one can take it from you.

That is not just my secret sauce but anyone's because when someone was asking me when I was starting, a concerned friend was like, but how are you going to be different from all the other virtual systems out there? Like, there's so many people and I was like, I'm not afraid of that because I have my own audience, there's going to be people that, like relate to me, there's been a few people that relate to you. So everyone, like there's enough to go around, so I was like, it's fine. So I would say that.

Gresham Harkless 8:09

Yeah, I absolutely respect that. I love that just because I used to say it's hard to beat somebody. It's hard to lose, I should say if you are being yourself and being true to yourself, because nobody else can duplicate you.

Natalie Madeline 8:21

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 8:22

Exactly. Well, let me ask you this because I know that a lot of times people who might be listening might not be able to understand who they are, What happened just when you woke up and knew that or did it happen just over time that you were able to find out? This is probably who I am. This is how I want to have my social media and all my messages, I guess, showcase that.

Natalie Madeline 8:43

Yeah. For me. I was definitely thinking because, in the beginning, you don't know what content your followers want. You don't know what's going to work until you do it. I would like to get like I'm a straight-A student like I have to continue. So I like to succeed as much as possible. If there are some failures along the way, that's fine. But I like to start off on a good step. So I was like, Okay, you always have to look at people that are at the top already that I've already like gone through that stage, study them, look at their content, see their patterns, what do they do? How are they engaging with their audience? So I went from there.

Amy Porterfield, I don't know if you know her, but she's like a marketing giant, of course, you know her. So I was like, Look, Amy is very, like, she's organized. She knows her stuff. She gets to the point, but she has fun with you on the way there and she has so many followers. If you look at her followers, not all of them do that, they admire her for that, but they're scared to do it themselves. So I was like, no, I'm just gonna choose to be herself but also like bringing in structure because you can't be successful without structure. It's as simple as that.

Jasmine Star is another person that I follow specifically for social media management. So I looked at people that were already successful, seeing what they did, how they did everything and that's it and it's like, it's not like a secret if you just study people they tell you your secrets without even even meaning to? So that's why I did it.

Gresham Harkless 10:05

No, it makes perfect sense. I usually always say, success leaves clues. A lot of times we're always looking for the big huge pie in the sky answer for a lot of these things. A lot of times, it's the simple things that we just have to pay attention to and a lot of times pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone and not be perfect all the time that help us to be successful.

Natalie Madeline 10:24

Yeah, and that's a big one. So I understand when people are like, Oh, but I'm not the type to put my face, like in a video and stuff like that, and, or talk about my dog or anything like that. But it's like, you just have to be a person. It's really that easy, just be real and that's fine.

Gresham Harkless 10:39

Exactly. Being human is the key. So I definitely agree with that. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Natalie Madeline 10:55

Something that's fun, because you said that something that like not tuned, well known. So I was like, I'm not gonna talk about later because of your social media mentoring about later. But there's this app that I recently discovered, and I've been using it like crazy for myself, and it's called Hyperlapse. I don't know if you've heard of that.

Gresham Harkless 11:11

I've heard a Hyperlapse but not the app, I think.

Natalie Madeline 11:13

Okay, yeah. Well, I had no idea I figured it out. But yeah, so basically, if you were to do a tutorial like I, because I have a lot of female followers last, like, oh, how do you do here? How do you do these curls? So I did a little video, but obviously, like doing my hair, you could tell out a lot, it's gonna take a long time, it's gonna take like, two hours, I do my hair for two hours. So just fast forwards everything and so for myself as well, like on Instagram Stories, if I see someone that has like, 50 stories, I get overwhelmed, and I don't want to see any of them. If I do go through it, I'm just gonna go really fast and not pay attention anyway. So the less like, the more I can put in one story, the better. So that's what I've been using so far. A lot of people surprisingly, don't know about that app.

Gresham Harkless 11:54

So that makes sense. Yeah. Okay, good little hack, so I appreciate that. Now, I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget and that could be like a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what you tell your younger business self?

Natalie Madeline 12:07

I dealt a lot with it, I had to feel validation from someone else or I had to get a lot of affirmation for me to be like, okay good job, I did well. I would say, whether it be for your career, whether for business, whether it be personal growth, don't ever feel intimidated to take on a project for a lot of social media managers per se, they wouldn't want to work with like a really big agency if they've never done it before. But don't disqualify yourself, just like how I've done. I'm never gonna lie and say that I know how to do something, but I will be upfront, whatever I don't know, I will learn it. I'm not gonna let an opera opportunity pass me by.

Just because it looks like it's too big, or just because I don't really have the experience. There are so many great opportunities that I've seen people take because they're like, oh, no, but I'm not there yet. You have to take a leap to get there at one point. There's gonna be one point where you just have to go for it, or else, you're always gonna stay at the same place and complain about being at that same place.

I would just say that be unafraid. Go for it. You can do it. Don't ever lie. Have confidence in yourself. If you've come this far, like for me myself, I'm like, Listen, if I've come this far, I know that I can make it even farther, I know that I can take another leap. I'm not afraid of it anymore but at some point, you have to take a leap where I'm not qualified for this. I don't have the certification. I don't have the resume. It's not on my portfolio. But just make it happen, make it go on your portfolio. So I would say that.

Gresham Harkless 13:36

Nice. Yeah, I appreciate that because I think so many times people are waiting for the perfect time or the perfect opportunity, or for the star's outline so that you can actually go and do what you're able to do. But just as you said, I think if you're able to be transparent and say, hey, I haven't done this before, but I am willing to roll up my sleeves. Actually, put in the work to make that happen. I think that goes a long way toward how can you make sure you start to become the person you are.

Natalie Madeline 14:01

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 14:02

Nice. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So Natalie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Natalie Madeline 14:15

I think a CEO is someone that's unafraid of course. Someone who is a risk taker, but knows when to take the right risks, because obviously, you don't want to be reckless. I think the best CEOs are the ones that either can inspire someone else to be their own CEO or can multiply CEOs around them because, for me, a lot of my personal friends have asked me like, hey, how do I do this? I want to work from home too, as this can benefit so many people. I am not going to keep my secrets to myself. There's no point in making it to the top if you're going to be alone. So I think a great CEO, someone that can duplicate themselves and bring up other people from the ashes and bring up their lifestyle and stuff like that. That's the best view in my personal opinion.

Gresham Harkless 15:00

Absolutely, I would definitely echo that as well. I think so many times when you look I always say great leaders are those people who empower and create other leaders. Now that people say, Hey, you have to do this, you have to do that. What are people that help them to be able to make their own decisions to be their own CEOs to start their own companies and organizations as well?

Natalie Madeline 15:17

Thanks. Definitely. 100%

Gresham Harkless 15:19

Awesome. I appreciate that definition, I appreciate your time, even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you, and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Natalie Madeline 15:33

Okay, so any last notes, you can do more than what you think you can do? You can always handle more than you think nothing is too far for you. Any goal that you set for yourself. If it scares you, it's the right one. So just run with it. Plan it out. You can do it. 2020 is yours or whatever you're watching this it's good. You can find me on Instagram @Natalie, that's n a t a l i e, Madeline, m a d e l i n e.

Gresham Harkless 16:01

Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Natalie. We will definitely have the information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. But thank you again for the reminder. Yeah, your time is definitely now. So if you have something you want to work on, if it scares you, then do it twice as fast. Because that's that's a sign that you shouldn't be doing that. So I appreciate that reminder too, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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