Briefing In: And Everything In Between

In the season finale of Briefing In, get ready to meet our talented podcast editor, Dani. You sent in questions about everything you wanted to know regarding the podcast, and we answered them! Well, at least we tried to. We talked about how we found our way to the fundamental question every podcaster faces: "What are we doing this for?" Then we stumbled upon topics such as the concept of being an "expensive person" and guilty pleasures.

In this episode, we reflect on our journey this season, and we couldn't have done it without you, our listeners. Thank you for all your support!

The Briefing In team is briefing out for the season xx

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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) - Opening Theme
(00:49) - Introducing Dani
(03:34) - Chapter 1: Finding Wedding Workflows
(14:02) - Chapter 2: I Volunteer for Tribute
(18:54) - Chapter 3: Q&A
(21:27) - Chapter 4: Guests and Topics
(28:21) - Chapter 5: Best Moments & Edits
(33:26) - Chapter 6: How It All Started
(37:30) - Chapter 7: Motivation, Difficult Clients, and Work Ethic
(50:54) - Chapter 8: Our Guests & the VA Life
(57:20) - Chapter 9: Desktop Jams and R&D

START YOUR VA JOURNEY:
As part of “The VA’s Playbook: Productivity Series”, you can now get a FREE copy of The 5 Essentials Guide for Virtual Assistants! Head over to our Instagram and click the link in our bio to access this guide!

Read the full transcript of Episode 10 here.

Music in episode from TELL YOUR STORY music by ikson™

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Transcript

Intro
Hi everyone, welcome back to a new episode of the Briefing In podcast. To wrap up an incredible first season, we wanted to take the time to sit down and give you guys, our listeners, the chance to get to know Briefing In, the process, the team, and everything in between. I'm your host Chelsea, and this is Briefing In.

Welcome to today's extra special episode, as it is the final one for this season. We let you guys send in questions over on Instagram on what you'd like to know about the podcast and what goes on behind the scenes, and we will be answering them for you today. And who better to join me for this special episode than our own amazing and wonderful editor.

0:49 Dani's real name is Danielle, but her friends call her Dan, and her workmates call her Dani, and she's one of the sweetest people I know. She's in her early 20s, but she feels 60, and she's from the province of Isabela, which is a 10 to 15 hour bus ride from manila aka far from everything.

She's been working as a va for about nine months now with Wedding Workflows and it's her first ever official job. Dani has a bachelor's in accountancy which she did not pursue because she was sick of looking at numbers all day.

She shared that she's definitely more of a creative person, thus went on a different route with her profession.

Dani likes anything and everything K-pop, is reaching a K-drama watch score of 300 – that's incredibly impressive, and has pre watched The Vampire Diaries for four times now, and still counting.

Dani also loves music, always falling for the bassist in a band and drinking, but not alcohol. She always seems to have at least three different beverages on her desk while working.

She's also a big snacker and even if she gets full quite fast, she will reach over the table and taste your dish because she believes that sharing is caring. Dani, I'm so excited to be having you on today.  How does it feel?  To be on the other side?

Oh my gosh. Hi, Chelsea. Hi, everyone. I'm Dan or Dani. I'm so excited that we finally get to, I don't know, I finally get to be on this side of the podcast, I guess. 

I'm actually really, really glad that you agreed to doing this because, I know it's a huge favor, and I know you're not used to being, you know, on the other side of the camera, so – but this is a really, truly special episode, like I said earlier, and can you believe it?

We've reached our final episode of this season.

Woohoo!

Only took us like five months, but yeah, but okay. So Dani, you have a bachelor's in accountancy, and this is your first ever official job. Was there a break in between, or did you kind of start working as a VA fresh off graduation?

There definitely was. I was definitely lounging at home for about four or five months after graduation because I needed a break.

Accountancy was tough. Thank God I finished it successfully, I guess, without too much heartbreak. But I lounged at home for a while.

Yeah, and then I guess I just told myself, gotta start working. You're spending too much money now. So I just went ahead and started applying.

Chapter 1: Finding Wedding Workflows
3:34 How did you find, like, wedding workflows, by the way? Or, how did you learn about being a VA in the first place?

So the word VA or virtual assistant wasn't that common for us because I didn't know a lot of people in the industry. And then my cousin, during the pandemic, she started working from home, which was like, Oh, that's such an interesting concept, first of all. And then my aunt started. her job as a VA too, like for online work, I guess, since it was a pandemic.

And then during our last months as students, me and my friends just looked up jobs online. So we went through Onlinejobs.ph or Indeed, and just started uploading our resumes and filling out stuff.

But I actually found Wedding Workflows. So again, I was lounging at home looking for jobs to apply to, and funny enough, when I started applying for jobs, I searched – general assistant or something.

Something I could do online because I wasn't ready yet to start an office job, it wasn't really a goal of mine to be like, “Oh, I'm working a nine to five in an office” and, you know, living that office life. So I decided maybe I should start looking for jobs that I can do from home online with my laptop.

And while scrolling through job listings on Indeed, I found this company called Wedding Workflows and I read what they needed, what was their job listings, and it got me very interested.

Because I've never heard – well, of course the wedding industry is everywhere, but I've never heard of actually working for people in the wedding industry from home, like as a virtual assistant, because I don't think that's –

Yeah, because the wedding industry is kind of like very client facing, right? Like, you need to be talking to clients or your couples and you need to be there on the wedding day and you need to set up everything for the wedding.

So, like, everyone, you know, the vendors, everyone involved in a wedding is actually there on the day. So yeah, very interesting concept, like doing it from home. But yes, please continue.

It was very interesting, very eye-catching and I said, why not? Let's apply. And actually, a fun fact is that's the only job I ever applied for. Like I only applied for Wedding Workflows. Yeah, it's so – cause I don't know, I guess I really wanted it.

I really wanted to get into the company because I don't know. It's the only one that really made my heart pound, I guess someone somewhat. 

So, yeah, I applied for Wedding Workflows at like August, August 9th to be specific, 2023. And. After a while, I thought, oh, there isn't an answer from the company yet, but never mind, I'll let it be. 

A month passed, and I got an answer, and that's how it all started.

And the rest is history – And the rest is history.

Oh, that's so cute. But I can totally imagine, like, that headspace and how you must have felt at that moment. Right? Kind of, I mean, honestly, even just waiting for a Shopee delivery gives me so much anxiety that I check, I want to say almost every two hours, every single day.

So I'm guilty of that. But yeah, like waiting for – and the fact that it was the only one you applied for. So you really kind of –

Manifested, I guess.

Didn't have anything else. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The dedication also, you know, and how you were like, this is the one for me, and I'm not gonna entertain anything else, even if it takes them a month to write back.

But, I think it's also very, I don't know, like, brave, I wanna say. It's very brave of you to kind of pursue something that you're passionate about – or set your heart to something that, you know.

I'm sure as a fresh grad, you're bombarded by all these different opinions or advice or suggestions on all the different career paths you can take, but you really shut them out and followed what your heart told you to do, you know, where your heart led you. So I think that's really, really brave Dan, and such an inspiring thing.

That's so true. Especially like as a student taking a course with a board exam, people expect you to, right after, take the board and then go into the profession you took in college, but that's not always what happens.

People go through different paths, people have different passions, and me, I just took accountancy for fun, I guess.  Because I didn't really know what I wanted to do in life.

And here you are. And I feel like knowing what you want in life and figuring things out in your early 20s is overrated because who does, you know?  But it's so interesting that you brought up that part, like being a fresh grad, having to take the boards and then, you know, following the traditional kind of trajectory of your career.

Because likewise, I actually have a degree in nursing and I have a license in nursing because I took the boards and so, you know, I still get a lot of questions about why this and two years in –

Why not?

Yeah, two years in, you know, it's like, whenever someone asks, it's like, not the first time and certainly not the last.

But anyways,  what were your first impressions? You know, you got in, did training, maybe – I mean, of course, we undergo training for a couple of weeks, but yeah, what were your first impressions of Wedding Workflows or just the job in general?

So I would say first impressions came during my final interview and it was with Ate Tin, so Christine, our HR head. And I was so shocked, like, am I speaking to a foreigner or is she Filipino? Because the accent would just put me off. But it was so fun.

And then training started and I don't know, I just  felt excitement coming into training, starting training every day, briefing in, briefing out was so much fun.

This is easier than studying, this is easier than going to school, yeah, just definitely having fun and definitely new opportunities open because you get to learn so much stuff from training that I never knew existed, I didn't even know what a CRM was. I loved the training part and then just getting introduced to everyone.

So as a trainee, I definitely cherished those moments and I would say to those who are wanting to apply and are scared of the training time, don't be because that's when you really get to see what your capabilities are as a VA or as someone who's starting out.

I could not agree more. And now nine months in Dan, like what's been the most rewarding part for you?

I guess – ‘cause I love helping people. I like seeing people – I love seeing the lives of people get easier with my help. So definitely a big payoff for me, for the most part was seeing my clients get so much of their time back, especially one of my clients having to go on a vacation for a couple of weeks without having to worry.

And definitely my clients reminding me how thankful they are for me, which is like a really, a big pat in the back getting validation for the work you do. And also, we're not gonna skip over this because this is the truth. Just putting it out there. The money, you get money for doing stuff that you like, having fun.

So that's just always a bonus. It's a plus 'cause people out there work their asses off and don't get paid enough to do so, or like they don't have fun doing their work. And they do get paid, they do get compensation. But are you gonna sacrifice all your time and effort –

And happiness – And happiness for work that doesn't do anything for you.

Honestly, I've had this conversation before as well, and it really is something that we kind of collectively experience as, I suppose young adults, as people who are adulting.

Exactly. It's what you just said. It's like finding and defining our own metrics of success and joy and what we look for in our jobs, because it is what we put a lot of time and effort into. And it's – you know, we're working eight hours a day, five days a week, 40 hours a week.

Like that's almost, I want to say 80 to 160, almost 200 hours a month and to look back on those hours and think that you just spent them all miserable. That's a lot of time in your life that you're kind of sitting and wallowing and time you're never going to take back as well.

So true. 

But yeah, thank you, Dan, for sharing that and for being so open about your whole experience on that as well. And before we get into all the questions, because people submitted a bunch of questions over on Instagram, and I'm so excited to get into them with you.

Chapter 2: I Volunteer for Tribute
14:02 How did you get involved in the podcast? So that our listeners know as well.

So I think it was a couple of months into being a VA. I think it was like a month or two. I got notified that I was going to join the Research and Development Team of Wedding Workflows. And the podcast, as mentioned in our very first episode, has like been in the works for a couple of months now, even before I joined Wedding Workflows and we've decided to finally work on it.

And during one of our meetings on the podcast, Chelsea, our beautiful, amazing R&D lead, has asked, like, we were brainstorming on who's gonna edit the podcast, who's gonna actually do the work. And me, with my love of editing, I decided to volunteer. And that's how it started.

Volunteer and save the day, just like Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games.

I volunteer for tribute!

And that's how all, you know, great heroes are born or come to be. Ao thanks Dan for taking on for the team and for doing such an amazing, amazing job as well. And like, I say this all the time because it's true that you make us on the podcast look good. So. If only –

I love the flattery.

If only people knew how much you go through with editing, like, the raw recordings and all the chaos of 

I know, guys, it's so bad, so horrible. No, I'm just joking.

We're ignoring all of Dani's complaints, just having her, like, work non stop, so. But, okay, so. You became part of an internal team. You became part of the Research and Development Team, which is the team behind the Briefing In Podcast project, because that's what it is.

It's one of our very many projects as a team. What do you think would surprise people most to learn about what it's like to be part of an internal team?

One of the things that you get to do, well, the main thing really is how much you actually contribute to the well being of the company, I would say.

Because, like mentioned in our past episodes, being in a team is totally different than working alone and being part of an internal team of a company just backs you up even more knowing how much you get to do for the company and the people in the company, and just everything like the events we do, the projects we have and just raising awareness, I guess, as the Research and Development Team.

But, yeah, just being able to be part of a big thing that helps people out in their everyday lives. Not just as R&D, but as individuals who, I guess, give their all every day of the week, even on weekends, because that's how, I guess, we love, that's how much we love –

That's how dedicated we are. Dedicated and committed.

So true, so true.

How about doing a podcast? What do you think is the most surprising about, you know, doing the podcast?

Definitely the amount of work we do in the background, because people think, “Oh, it's just like sitting down and talking about” – well, it is just sitting down. But of course, wanting to spread the word out, like our amazing content creators in the team, shout out to Wei, Jhea and everyone and Josh, everyone who does everything for the podcast.

Just bringing it all together is not – I wouldn't say like too much work, but it is a lot of work and doing it with passion too is what I really appreciate about our team. We do it with a lot of passion and we do it with, we do it while having fun.

And I love that saying that goes, it takes a city. It takes a village, not a city. Where did “city” come from? It takes a village to pursue something or to be successful in such a big project, and that's really what this is.

Chapter 3: Q&A
18:54 So we can talk on and on about our team but I think, but yeah, so let's just jump into the Q&A session for today. And I've had the chance to go over the questions for a bit.

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted over on our Instagram account because we posted a little story and then we received a lot of questions. So are you ready Dan?

Yes, let's go.

Okay. So how did you come up with the name Briefing In?

Well, starting the day, we do brief ins. So we tell our clients, Hi, blah, blah, blah. I'm briefing in. And that's the origin, I guess, just briefing in, making people know that you're here and you're ready to work.

And it's kind of an insider language. I want to say it's something we use a lot in our company, but not a lot of people do, so it really kind of represented us in a way as well.

And I actually remember the moment Briefing In for the podcast title came about because I had a couple of members in the Research and Development Team brainstorm and propose a brand strategy or just a brand identity for the podcast.

So this was like, very early on, you know, like you said earlier, we kind of started working on it in August of 2023. So between August to December of that year, we were all still kind of brainstorming and planning and figuring out what to do.

But yeah, it was actually our creative director who just messaged me and was like, “I have the perfect name for the podcast”, and it was just like ‘Briefing In’ and it was so, so cute. And I think a lot of us really liked it as well, but we did sit with it for months.

Like we didn't decide on a name because everyone also had so many different ideas, but it was what really stuck and it has a nice ring to it. And again, it represented us. So it had that kind of attachment to it. So yeah.

Yeah, definitely like a perfect name for a podcast. I don't know. It's like an inside joke sort of feeling.

Yeah. Especially because in the beginning, the podcast was really meant for us, so it really mattered that it represented us as well. So that's how we came up with the name Briefing In. 

Chapter 4: Guests and Topics
21:27 All right, next question. Okay. Someone asked, “Hi, just curious. How do you choose your podcast topics and guests? Always amazing.”  Thank you so much.

Pretty early on, we did have, I think from episode one to episode six, we already had a good idea of who we wanted to be the guests.

And then we planned that out and we also wanted to reach out to other VAs that we've connected with so that one was a bit more spontaneous as I would say.

Because we have had people sort of not accept our invitation to be on the podcast of course because, yeah, it's a daunting thing to sit down and just talk about your life experience and have something to say about a very, very big industry.

Not everyone is comfortable with that, but yeah. So that one came about like, the VAs and other people we connected with came about just organically. Like people who we knew who had very interesting experiences and also worked in very different industries that's not just in the wedding industry, and so we connected with them through mutuals as well.

I guess we choose our podcast guests through a referral system. And,  as for the topics, we also kind of –we brainstormed pretty early on, when we selected the guests, we wanted them to have, again, very unique experiences to share and had different industries that they could talk about. That's pretty much how we choose the podcast topics and the guests.

I would say the guest comes before the topics. So we have people we want to reach out to. And honestly, sometimes the topics come about during the interview, sort of the main themes or the things that really stand out. So it's a bit of both. It's a bit of pre planning and organic connections and networking for that.

Thankfully, our guests so far have been really amazing. So, it’s such a pleasure listening to the podcast, I guess.

I know, and they're so excited to be on board as well. So it's really amazing to kind of see that. I guess, as people who have been working on it for months, almost a year now, actually, once we reach August this year, we've kind of technically been working on the podcast for a year to, yeah, to kind of get that outsider perspective

And we have a really helpful team in the company itself who send us their referrals and be like, “Oh, we know this VA. They might be a good fit for the podcast.” So, it's really a huge team effort. But yeah, our listeners, if you want to be on the podcast, or if you know of any VAs or freelancers who have a very interesting story to share.

Please send them our way. We will always appreciate just getting to sit down and talk to more people about different things.

So I wanted to ask you, Chels, you're like the face of the podcast, I would say. How do you actually prepare for each podcast episode?

That's a pretty tough question. I guess it's – well in the beginning it was a lot of just figuring things out still. I think it wasn't until episode three, I want to say, or even episode four did I feel like we kind of got into the swing of things a bit more and had more of a workflow or a process?

And I guess it's, there's, like I said earlier, the guest comes before the topic, and I try to research on the guest as much as I can. The tricky thing with that, though, is, you know, our guests aren't public figures.

You know, we're not interviewing celebrities or, or social media influencers, you know, I'm not about to stalk their Facebook accounts and like, dig into two to three years ago on their posts and like, find out more about them.

So, I don't do that. But, knowing what industry they're in and asking a bit about their background experience as well. I form, I guess, questions that – I have talking points and I try to establish a flow for the episode in that way.

But it is still pretty much free flowing and whatever happens in the episode or in the interviews, I bounce off of that as well. A bit of research goes into it. And I go on Reddit, I try to see what people want to know.

Especially in like different industries, because, you know, we just know about the wedding industry and about being a general VA, but there's so many different kinds of VA's and so many different roles and responsibilities that freelancers fill, and I have very limited knowledge on those roles.

So I read up on Reddit, see what people are saying. We've joined a bunch of like work from home VA freelancer communities there and reading up on people's experiences. And I guess preparing for each episode also means what am I really curious to know about with the guests that we will be interviewing?

So there's that and of course the technical things such as scheduling. We have a meeting with our guests just before the actual recording of the interview, and we send them things we need for content and then we of course have our technical team consisting of Dani, who helps us out with the technical stuff and then yeah, that's like pre production and then post production.

It's a lot of editing and just polishing in preparation for the episode release. I say –

You see guys, that's a lot of preparation for an episode.

It's funny how I kind of opened it as if like, we don't have a process or a flow, and then I proceed to discuss an entire flow. 

Of how we do things. Yeah.

And that's why Dani said earlier as well, that, you know, so many parts come into play and so many people play a role in the whole production, pre production, post production and the marketing of it as well.

Chapter 5: Best Moments & Edits
28:21 I think you have a lot of this to share, but can you share a memorable moment or a funny story from a past episode that you know, you've edited Dani.

Of course, as the editor, I usually see most of the off record stuff from the recordings. So just like outtakes and maybe funny moments here and there. But I guess I would say one of the most fun and funny episodes was the fourth episode with Chad, which was like the Reddit stories. They were so juicy.

And both of your comments were like really nice takes. Really good, really good opinions. And I guess just the sheer amount of times Chad made me laugh, because I don't know he would do like sorts of funny actions during the recording.

Like I remember creating one of our like blooper reels and just the funny stuff he does. And I added that to the blooper reel, which thankfully, hopefully people really liked and another one I guess was Lawrence's episode.

The second episode really made me laugh a lot. And yeah, it was also really fun to edit and watch too. I just want to add that it's so sad to not let the viewers watch or like the listeners watch the whole episode, because we do just mostly publish our audios, but get onto those reels, guys, you can see most of our funny content and really good content there too.

It's actually kind of an interesting story as well how you and Chad met because, like in person, because you knew of Chad through the podcast and you know you've edited his episode. And so when you met him in real life. You knew who he was, and you said hello, but he had no idea who you were, cause, so it was kind of a funny moment.

I know, it was so funny. I was like, “oh my gosh, Chad.”  And I was like, and he was like, “what? Who's this?” And I was like, “oh, I'm Dan.” He was like, oh, okay. And then – I know that's the magic of being the editor behind the screen. Nobody knows I'm here. 

But yeah, I love that story. Actually, for me, uh, it's Den's episode. The funniest one that I got to record because the power went out at like, once we reached kind of like the 80 percent mark of our interview.

Den's power went out. So like, she got disconnected, but our platform, our recording platform continued to record her end.

It's funny how it's still recording. 

So you could see just me confused on what to do. And I think I was like talking to you, Dan, while that was happening, while I was waiting for Den to get back on the recording platform and like, you could see Den kind of stressing out about the power going out and trying to reconnect.

So, that was a solid, like, 15 minutes, I think, of just me and Den doing our own thing, completely unaware that we're still being recorded.

Imagine, guys, if we would, like, upload the episode without editing it, and you would, 15 minutes of silence, guys, that's all you would hear, and 15 minutes of Chelsea talking to herself, like, so confused. That's the magic of editing. 

But kudos to our recording platform, to be honest, for rain or sun, or online or offline, it doesn't stop working.

Okay, this is another editing question. Hardest episode to edit?

I guess the first episode was a bit of a challenge, as it was the first episode I ever edited for the podcast, but I would say my longest edit, which took like four days, I guess, was the fourth episode with Chad because it was so long. It was like I think almost two hours but it was definitely a fun edit, so.

Do you have a favorite episode that you got to edit maybe or is this gonna be that one? Your episode?

Ooh. No, I'm dreading, I'm already dreading editing the episode because – don't you guys like, when you listen to yourself in a recording, you're like, “what? This is my voice. This is so weird.” So, I don't know. We'll see how long it takes to edit this episode. But I would say –

Me constantly.

No. We love your voice, Chelsea. Don't let others put you down for that. No. But I guess an episode I loved editing was definitely, Ande's episode was such an easy edit. I think I edited it in two days, because, you know, Ande, the number one editor in Wedding Workflows, but we love you, Ande. Come back. Come back!

We would love to have Andy back. If he would like. 

Ande, please. Okay.

Chapter 6: How It All Started
33:26 So we have another question that I'm gonna ask Chelsea. Someone's curious as to how we decided on the color palette for the podcast.

Okay, as with a lot of things we kind of just figured it out. To be fair, we did have a podcast meeting and we really – I had several meetings with several members.

Like I said, brainstorming sessions and yeah, pretty early on, I worked with a couple of members to really kind of establish a look because that was one of the first things I focused on, I guess, because yeah, the mission and the vision for the podcast, answering the, what are we doing this for? And who are we doing this for?

That came on pretty early because we actually got the chance to have a meeting with a couple of podcasters, Australian podcasters, who were so kind and gracious enough with their time to let us know how they did it, like how they got started. And they gave such great advice. That was sort of the biggest takeaway from that meeting with them.

Shout out to Tim and Matt – Shout out to Tim and Matt.

Who has rebranded to the Ambience Wedding Podcast, actually. So. Oh, I guess that's also something I do to prepare for each podcast episode. I actually wasn't a podcast listener before we started doing this project. 

But yeah, kind of during the planning brainstorming session, and then in preparation for each podcast episode, I've been tuning into a lot of podcasts.

And I've always been a big fan of interviews, those interviews that they post online and TED Talks, of course, I can watch like a two hour interview over and over again, if it's really fun. But yeah, I get a lot of confidence from listening to how others kind of do their podcast.

But, I still haven't answered the color palette question. Anyways. Yes, we had a podcast meeting presentation. We had a bunch of color schemes and color palettes that we played around with.

The creative direction we really wanted to go with the podcast was – because it's, you know, it's very relaxed and unscripted. It's really just a sit down conversation. We always kind of pitch it to our guests that it's like having a coffee or tea with a friend.

So we really just want it to be relaxed but still fun. So like spring-summer was part of our mood board. I think green has been on the mood board since the beginning. So it's only, I don't know, I guess it's by chance that it became the main color of our color palette.

During our meetings for the podcast. I just love green. So when I saw green, it was an immediate yes. I'm wearing green right now, guys. So.

You have green walls.

That's how much I love green. I have green walls, guys. If you, you’ll see in the reels, my green wall.

So yeah, and even just selecting the logo. That was also a huge process and like took us a while we had so many ideas. We ended up having to kind of vote to really narrow it down.

Yeah, I guess the color palette is a product of a bunch of different things that we tried out and then we just went with what we thought worked best. And even for the Instagram account, for the content, not to speak on our creative director's behalf, but we also did have a lot of meetings on how we wanted the content to look like and we still experimented as well pretty early on, even the reels we experimented with.

So yeah, a lot of it was just trial and error, seeing what worked and then finding what worked with us. I hope that answered that question in a very long winded way. I'm so sorry. 

Chapter 7: Motivation, Difficult Clients, and Work Ethic
37:30 Oh, I really like this next question. What keeps you going?

Well, I guess for work. Well, like I've mentioned before. Having fun doing work and just the people around me and of course my clients and the pay because money's life, but yeah, because I like spending like I really relate to Lawrence and the way that he mentions that he loves spending because same, but –

When Lawrence said that I'm an expensive person. Yes.

I- yeah, me too. But yeah, just kidding aside. The fact that I get to enjoy my job and get paid for it is so much of a privilege because like I've mentioned before, people work hard and don't get the pay they deserve.

So, yeah. Definitely having fun is such an important thing or like just enjoying your job is such an important thing to keep going. How about you, Chels? 

I think, yeah, I completely agree with what you just said and just finding the joy, again, in what you do, because I don't know, I think personally, what keeps me going is the fear of unemployment, but –

Also, I think I just, like, you mentioned this earlier that, you know, like, we put so much time and effort into our work, into our profession, and, I've always kind of had this –

I'm not consistent with this at all, but I've always had this principle, I guess, or philosophy, if you could call it that, that I am going to dedicate so much of my time and energy and effort into this one thing that I just want to make sure that all my time and effort is worthwhile.

So, I don't want to look back on whatever it is I'm doing and think that that was just a waste of time that I didn't like, learn anything or I didn't grow as a person or something like that. So that's what keeps me going just wanting to make the most of things. I think.   

But like, it really does help that so much of what we do is tied to the values of the company and that the values of the company also kind of really resonate with us as members of the company.

True, so if you don't get into Wedding Workflows, then… I don't know. It's not the company. It's the people, guys.

True. And not even just the people we work with, but also the clients. We really care about the clients as well.

Oh, actually that's a good segue to our next question. Actually, Chels. Talking about clients. Have you ever had a difficult client and how do you actually handle a difficult client?

I've never had a difficult client.

Oh my god, same.

I’m very lucky. Very fortunate. And I think, you know, that also ties back to like the what keeps you going kind of question is that I'm exposed to my clients, I'm exposed to mentors who have really great work ethic and really inspire me as well.

Because, you know, our clients have been working for decades and as someone who has just entered the workforce and like is still pretty naive, so pretty much fresh to all of this. It's such an invaluable thing to have a great mentor to look up to. And I have two of those, so I'm really grateful for that. 

But having worked with my team though, I know what it's like to handle difficult clients because we have had difficult clients and the biggest thing for me is to really kind of speak up about it, not necessarily to your client, but in our case, we work with an agency and we have people, our HR, human resources, our team leads.

We have, you know, a group of people, a team of people who can provide us that support. And is there to help us with our issues and our concerns. So just approaching them and being open about it is already a huge step to handling or kind of managing a difficult client, because it's really not on the VA if the client is difficult.

Sometimes there's just mismanagement of expectations or miscommunication, or I guess the personalities of the client and the VA not aligning because it's a working relationship. It's a two way street. So both parties have to put in the effort in order for it to be a fruitful relationship and sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Yeah, it's the reality of things and I think just opening up about how difficult the client is being or how difficult of a time you're having, which is very hard to do, actually. It's actually hard to kind of, you know, say that I'm having a hard time, or I think everyone kind of feels afraid or intimidated to say that their client is being difficult, but I don't know.

Yeah, we try to do the best we can, but unless, you know, a VA speaks up about it, then we won't really know what's actually going on. 

For me, like during my time in Wedding Workflows and just having been given such angels of clients, both of my clients are literal, like kindest people I know. It's just that I learned everyone has that perfect person you can work with and you can't satisfy everyone.

So if you just don't match with a person or like even with your co-workers or definitely with a client, definitely speak up and – especially in an agency, if you're in an agency speak up, everyone is there to back you up, especially if you're not in the wrong and you're just having a hard time adjusting to your client.

Isn't it also kind of funny, Dani, how when you get the angel clients and you feel so lucky and so fortunate to have them, I don't know, you kind of assume that, oh, everyone's clients are as amazing as mine.

And then you learn that that's actually not the case. There are VAs who end up with quite difficult clients and you're like, ooh.

We've definitely heard some horror stories.

But yeah, I think we also have a really, again, we have a really great agency who looks out for us as well, and make sure that the clients that we do get to work with share again, the same values that the company has, you know, they really set us up for success in that way. So we're very, very lucky in that sense.

Okay. So another kind of VA related question. How do you prioritize tasks in a shift?

So, of course, we do have like our daily tasks and like our big projects. So if I know I can do a certain task in a short amount of time, like it's an easy task, I do it first. And it also depends when the client needs the task done.

So, It goes in this order, like what the client needs first, and then the easiest tasks to do, miscellaneous tasks, like tasks that, oh, you can do this in like a quick second, and then big or long term projects.

Did you kind of figure that out early on or was there an adjustment period as well?

I guess, yes. And at first, your client is still finding stuff to give you, like tasks that you need to do and they're also adjusting if they haven't had a VA before. And just building out those tasks for the both of you is gonna be a bit of a hassle at first, but that's with everything.

You start slow, you build up experience and then you can do stuff with your eyes closed. So definitely having that task list built out, like your daily tasks, your weekly tasks, and your long term projects, having those listed out is definitely going to help you in the long run, not only you as a VA, but your client as well.

So they won't have to think every day what they want you to do and just like assigning – it's just like school, you're going to school, you have tasks to do, and you just say, “oh, this task is so easy. I can get that done in like a couple of minutes.”

So you do that first and then you have goals as a student or goals as a person. And then we can work on this slowly, like day by day adding more tasks to this long term project and hopefully finish it when we can since it isn't as big of a priority to the client.

I like that take on that, how you compared it to being in school as well, because same thing with studying, I guess, for a subject or for various subjects, you know, you get a good idea of what you find as easy and what you find hard.

So with your tasks as well, you're gonna have that same thing. You're gonna find some tasks easy and some tasks hard, or like, some tasks just take you so much longer to do compared to other tasks. So it's familiarizing yourself with those things and then, yeah, kind of establishing that, okay, maybe in the first hour of my shift, I'm going to do the easy tasks.

And then, the second hour, I can dedicate a whole hour to just doing this one task that I know is hard for me, and that takes the most time. So you make good progress with it.

So we have another fun question. What's your guilty pleasure? 

I really like celebrity tea. I'm just, I don't know. It's so interesting to know about what's going on in celebrities' lives. And mind you, I don't necessarily – it's like I don't necessarily know everything about a controversy or like a rumor, but I like watching other people's comments and takes and kind of –

There's so many YouTube videos, so like they do video essays where they do a deep dive into like a controversy and then they you know, they talk about all of that and they share their opinions as well and they talk about comments. So that's my guilty pleasure.

I like watching those videos and just knowing all about celebrity tea.

There's nothing wrong with a little bit of tea. Yeah. As Chad mentioned, gossip can be good.

 Yeah. Gossip can be a pro.

Yeah, true. I guess for me, my guilty pleasure, this is hard. One of my guilty pleasures is like going through, yeah, just like tea too. Going through Reddit, seeing what's trending and I don't know, seeing people's opinions and stuff.

Oh, okay. I know what, so like on TikTok, cause as Chels has mentioned in the intro, I'm a big K-pop fan and watching people's unpopular opinions, like on TikTok, people make those videos. That's so much fun because like, “oh my gosh, we have the same” – like, great minds think alike. But sometimes they have those unpopular opinions that like… that's, I don't know

You disagree with.

Yeah. And then I'm just like, “no, that's stupid.” But yeah, I guess those unpopular opinions are really.

I guess that's why they're unpopular. 

Probably, but there's some, like, good ones out there.

I like how our answers are collectively about tea. But, actually, yeah, I've also recently just gotten into, like, Reddit stories. So I really enjoy those as well. And just, I think tea from a distance is what I like.

I don't want to be in the center of the tea. I don't want anything to do around the tea. Just being an observer.

Just something that doesn't ruin someone's life, you know? Definitely not rumors. Tea is tea. Rumors are rumors. And ruining people's lives are totally different. 

Very true. Okay.

Chapter 8: Our Guests & the VA Life
50:54 So another question that we received was, have you learned anything important from our guests?

So many. So, so many. I think that was, that's what I enjoy the most actually about doing this because, first of all, it was very, very scary to do the podcast and even just the thought of being the host, but like, we're not gonna get into that.

So, I find that I have actually enjoyed it a lot. And it's because I'm learning so much from the guests. And like, the art of conversation and being able to connect with a stranger is very eye opening and fulfilling to me in a way.

So I've learned so, so much from them and like I said before, it's not easy to just sit down and open up and talk about your experiences. But they have all willingly done that and they've been so amazing so it makes my job easier as well because when I'm interviewing them, I'm literally just like asking all the questions that I want to ask them.

And yeah, so like a couple of things that I've learned, a really big one for me actually was Ande’s episode and Ande's mindset because as someone who has had the chance to work with Ande, although not closely, you know, I, of course, know about Ande and his role in the company, but to hear him explain his work ethic and his perspective on things and just how he, you know, continues to push himself to be his best. 

It was very inspiring to hear. – Very refreshing.

Yeah. And I also really loved the episode with Cess. That episode just left me feeling so hopeful for the future of this industry. But yeah, she was one of the very first people that we got to connect with who was outside of Wedding Workflows.

So technically someone who was like a complete stranger to us, it got me even more excited to interview more people outside in various industries, because I just got so much from her episode, and I really, really enjoyed that.

And then, of course, I really enjoyed the Reddit episode. I think it's a lot of people's kind of favorite episode, which is really nice. So again, learning about how as VAs, as you know, people who work in the freelancing industry, we're all not alone, and we all have – none of our experiences are isolated.

Even though we have just, you know, our work and our life and our existence virtually and digitally, you know, there really are kind of human stories and experiences behind these VAs. So just learning about that has been so fun for me.

Yeah, I guess I'm learning a lot because it's – I've been in the industry for like, almost nine months now, and I'm pretty new. I have a lot of things that I don't know yet. And it's really interesting to get those insights from VAs, from freelancers who've done it for such a long time now.

Taking note that Cess has been doing it for almost 10 years now and Mike for 10 years now and just getting those insights. It's like you're talking to a mentor basically. You're learning from them through their experiences and just the tea too.

There's a lot of tea, which I truly do enjoy, which is also like a nice – a bonus basically to each episode, so.

And I think just that celebrating the accomplishments that they've made in their careers, because I think that's kind of what we wanted for the podcast as well, like, we want it to be a platform really for, you know, to give people the chance to share their voices and experiences and just shed more light on the freelancing and VA industry as a whole.

I think it's so appropriate how the idea of the podcast was kind of born out of our other project, which was the Show Your Strength series. That project is actually dedicated to showcasing the Wedding Workflows VAs’ strengths.

So, this time around, we're kind of providing a platform for more people. And that's kind of exciting. Scary – And I think it's definitely gotten bigger than we anticipated, but.

It's just nice that we get to share the stories of these people who are behind the screens and remembering, letting people know that we're still people we have experiences and having a different set of  job locations.

Like working from home it doesn't differ much from people who have regular office jobs because there is a bit of discrimination, just people not knowing what we do generally. And people just saying, “Oh, you're working from home. What kind of job is it? Like, are you even working?”

I do get that a lot. Like, “what do you do as a VA? You're just sitting behind a screen.”

So true. And there's, of course, that lack of respect sometimes with our time, because, you know, it's just flexible,  quote-unquote, and also, yeah, just what you said about how people think, or people just don't take our work seriously, because we're just – why would it be hard if we're just sitting down and like moving our mouse and typing all day?

Chapter 9: Desktop Jams and R&D
57:20 Oh, I think we're on to our final question from instagram. 

Yes This is the last question. The question is why do you guys post desktop jams? 

I'm so glad you asked, well honestly, it's just to kind of you know, I think music is such a big part of our company, or of our team, I think the most common icebreaker that we give is like, what's your current favorite song?

What's on your playlist? Who's your favorite artist? And we love to karaoke. I think everyone has that playlist that they play while they're working. So yeah, we just know that working from home and these VAs, they also have their own desktop playlists or like their own work from home jams.

So, we wanted to showcase and share that as well because it's so much fun to learn about other people's playlists and you know, knowing what people like in music says a lot about them. It's like another way to get to know them. 

Yeah, shout out to Rick and Lawrence, our Karaoke Kings.

It's actually one of the requirements of the company. 

You have to be decent at Karaoke.

And to have a karaoke song, yeah, for sure. It's our favorite thing to do. That actually, is the last question for our Q&A segment, Dani, but you know, before we kind of wrap up and again, thank you so much for spending your afternoon going through these questions with me, it was so much, so much fun and I'm glad that you really said yes.

Oh my gosh, I should have said no guys. No, I'm just joking. I loved it. I enjoyed it so much. It was such a different experience being the one who edits and being the one interviewed. Like, Mike was right. Getting interviewed is fun. Shout out to Mike. 

The biggest takeaway we got from Mike's episode is that you should enjoy getting interviewed. 

Yeah, I guess as a closing question, Dani, we've worked closely together for like nine months almost now, I think, and I know that you wear different hats as a member of the podcast team and even the Research and Development Team, but do you have a favorite one? 

Ooh, that's a really good question. I guess being the podcast editor already comes with the job of being a member of the R&D. So definitely being the member of the R&D because I don't know, we get to play a lot of roles. 

Being a member of R&D, we get to do different tasks, definitely creative ones. And that's where I just get to shed all of my stress and work as freely as I can. That's the privilege of being an R&D member and help in every aspect that I can. 

And just give everything that I can to every project that we have, which is always so much fun. It can be stressful at times. It's definitely stressful for Chels, because she's our lead. But she does everything to keep everyone sane.

And, I don't know, it does get crazy, it does get hectic. But that's the fun of being having those projects, that's the fun of being the center, the organizers, especially during our team building that we just had for Wedding Workflows. 

Just being a part of this amazing team is already such a privilege, already something that I look forward to every day during work. And, I don't know. I'm just grateful that I got to be a part of R&D and yeah.

I actually just earlier, Dani, remember I was like, I asked you about a meeting that we had prior to you being on board the team. And I was like, huh, why does it feel like I don't even remember when you weren't part of the team.

You've been a part of it ever since. That's how it feels like at least. 

I've been here in spirit.

Long before you got hired you were already part of it. Okay, follow up. So, surprise, not the last question. Okay, but this is actually the last question. The opposite of that. So which role have you found the most challenging so far? 

In R&D? I don't know. I guess. Okay, I do have one. So as people, we do run out of ideas. At times, we do get like that blocked mind. So there have been times. I'm trying not to get too hard on myself, but definitely when I lose or when I get a creative block and I can't seem to contribute anything, that's when it gets hard being a part of R&D.

Well, we're not expected to always be creative. We're not expected to always have that idea or contribute to an idea, which I really appreciate because we aren't too hard on ourselves. We give time to each project. We give time to everything, but it does – 

As a person, you can't help, but think that, “oh, I can't think of anything and I can't contribute to anything during our meetings,” but I'm always encouraged by everyone that it's fine and we're just people, so.

I cannot agree more and I think. The biggest reason behind that I think also is because we're very lucky to have various projects of different sorts. 

And I think I know that it's not just me because I also seen in the other members, because we are so passionate about what we do almost everything we do, whether creative or admin related or whichever part of the process in whichever project we kind of have a little bit of ourselves in there.

And I think, like what you said that you always try to do your best or just give your all into something, I think that's something all of us do, which of course we can't do all the time, 100 percent of the time. 

So I think sometimes I can relate to what you said, cause I'm not creative. But when we do have those kind of ruts, or when we're experiencing that kind of block. I think it's because we're also trying to find something that we can contribute that is really like a part of ourselves, so.

I guess it's definitely some insight to what we feel as R&D members because we do like a lot of things. We do a lot of things. But at least we do it with, I don't know, with personality in the process.

Yes, and I can honestly say that all the members, they always do their best to never give 50 percent or just 75 percent.  And that's why I think it also inspires me to like, do the same. So, that's how it is. 

Well, that brings us to the end of this episode and the end of season one, Dani. 

Oh, no. 

What an incredible journey it's been the past five months, I believe, or even honestly, the past year of putting this whole podcast together has been so much fun. And like I said earlier, just getting to connect with so many different people and learn about various sides of the industry. 

It really, really means the world, not just to me, but also to the team when we get those reviews and those really kind, sweet words from people who have  talked about how much they enjoy the podcast and how much value they get from listening and it really, really means the world to us.

So thank you once again, Dani. And I also just want to extend a massive, massive thank you to all of our guests in season one for their time and their insights and their wisdom and their courage to talk about their experiences.

And of course, the beloved members of the Research and Development Team who truly made this project come together and become a massive success. And I just hope that everyone is as proud of it as I am. 

Yes!

Yeah. So, ee hope to see you guys again in season two. We won't be gone for too long and we'll continue to explore and learn more about the virtual assistant and freelancing industry, and also discuss some more of those spicy topics for everyone's entertainment. 

Thank you once again, Dani. 

So this has been your host Chelsea. 

And I'm Dan. 

And we're briefing out for the season.