The No Frills VA Podcast

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares her love of networking and how to consistently network in order to build your business.  In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 1:02 - Why she started networking; 1:50 - How Melissa discovered the value of having even a small network; 2:50 - The kind of networking Melissa does not enjoy; 3:35 - Specific purpose networking; 7:57 - Why it...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares the struggle, pain, persistence, lessons learned, and the ultimate joy if you have a business that is growing slowly. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 2:07 - What drives Melissa; 3:03 - Why growing your business slowly affects all business owners; 4:05 - Coping with slow growth; 6:40 - The great thing about slow growth; 9:44 - How...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares her thoughts on vacationing as a VA. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 1:35 - The importance of knowing yourself; 2:44 - Where to start in vacationing planning; 5:40 - What VAs usually leave out of vacation planning; 8:50 - The most important part of a vacation; 9:42 - The best vacation plan; How do you set yourself up for vacation...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares the great thing about making mistakes and how all mistakes are not created equal. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:55 - Why Melissa wants you to make mistakes; 2:15 - The place Melissa leads from; 3:15 - Flipping the script on the mistake warnings; 4:57 - Why someone else’s mistake is not yours; 6:08 - The type of people Melissa...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares how to recognize when your ceiling becomes your floor and how to frame your mindset to take your business to the next level. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 1:07 - What it means to have your ceiling become your floor; 3:53 - The danger of not recognizing when your ceiling dropped; 4:25 - Rethinking and starting over; 5:15 - What...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares how turning your soft skills into power skills will transform your business, making you more powerful and confident. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:50 - The purpose of turning soft skills into power skills; 2:10 - What happens when we feel powerless; 4:15 - Smiling as a power skill; 6:05 - Keeping a compliment journal to find...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares not only the problems but the dangers of trying to convince clients and potential clients that you are their VA. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 1:10 - How to really define a client; 1:30 - The real problem with convincing; 3:30 - The secret dangers in trying to convince a potential client; 5:20 - The red flag you need to watch o...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares the different types of confidence and how to use them to your advantage. What kind of confidence do you have? In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 1:26 - Why we need to understand more about confidence itself; 1:45 - The different types of confidence; 7:25 - What confidence really is; 9:15 - Having confidence in what you don’t enjoy;...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith wants to know if you’re navigating your VA business based on assumptions or with the spirit of curiosity. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:45 - What Melissa offers to VAs in order for them to navigate their businesses; 1:11 - Why we need roadmaps; 1:55 - The problem with basing your business on assumptions; 3:43 - What to do instead of...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith is flipping the script on Disasters, Disappointments & Defeats. She will challenge your mindset, as well as your response.  In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 1:09 - What all these things have in common; 1:54 - The opportunity you may not see at first glance; 2:45 - What Melissa encourages you to do; 4:55 - Melissa’s response to pick h...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith is asking how you are Making Your Requests Known. Plus, she’ll share how to know if it’s working or not. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:44 - Why this profound question should be answered with a yes or no; 1:40 - The importance of making your requests known; 5:08 - How making your requests known applies to your VA business; 6:23 - Wha...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith wants to know if you are talking or listening. More importantly, what you are talking and listening to when it comes to yourself. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 1:15 - Why talking to yourself is sometimes more necessary than listening; 2:05 - Taking an inventory of what you’re listening to; 2:30 - The importance of calling yourself by...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares her word for 2023 and what it means.   In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:43 - A reminder of her word from 2022; 2:08 - Why she gives herself a year to live to out her word; 3:35 - How Melissa picked her word for 2023; 4:55 - Melissa’s word for 2023 and what it means; 6:56 - What she encourages you to do with your word; What is yo...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares why she’s already overwhelmed this year and what she’s doing about it. It can work for you too!  In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:45 - Why she is overwhelmed; 1:02 - Where the overwhelm is coming from; 2:55 - Why goals are goals, not deadlines; 3:15 - What to do when you’re overwhelmed; 5:25 - Why you don’t need to overwhelm you...

This month we’ve been bringing you the best of the best episodes of the year from the No Frills VA Podcast. Coming in at #3 is: Natural Born Leader with Latrice Prater.  Latrice Prater is the CEO of The Digital Solutions Team, an agency providing tech solutions to female business owners. In this episode, Latrice shares her journey of solo VA to creating a team of 14 in just two years! If you want...

This month we’re bringing you the best of the best episodes of the year from the No Frills VA Podcast. Coming in at #2 is: Transforming Your Life & Mind with Sherry Parks.  Sherry is a CPA, a money mindset coach, and a certified Life Coach who helps clients escape feeling trapped by their finances.  She is passionate about helping them change their mindset, emotions, and actions regarding mone...

This month we’re bringing you the best of the best episodes of the year from the No Frills VA Podcast. Coming in at #1 is: How to Find What Your Clients Truly Value. This is a very popular topic among VAs so it’s no surprise this episode received the most downloads of the year.  Listen (or listen again) as AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares how she unexpectedly found out how to find what...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares why the practice of gratitude is not enough unless you return kindness to yourself.  In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:43 - How returning kindness to yourself is part of the gratitude process; 1:37 - How VAs return kindness to others but not themselves; 2:25 - Areas where VAs can but usually don’t return kindness to themselves; 3...

Dorie Clark is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Long Game and teaches for Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. In this episode Dorie shares: 3:29 - What it means to be a short-term thinker; 6:41 - Why we should be excited about exponential growth; 10:45 - The trade-off of being bad in order to be great; 16:55 - How we can think in decades; 22:09 - Learning to deal with obst...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith dares you to be brave enough to create a 20-year plan for your life. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 1:52 - Why this isn’t your normal VA plan; 2:42 - Why knowing full plan details isn’t brave; 4:57 - What your 20 year plan represents; 6:20 - Melissa shares her very first 20 year plan; 9:16 - The next 20 years; Are you brave enough? Pre...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares why this time of year is the perfect time to say a good goodbye. In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:58 - Why it’s always a good time to ask yourself if you need a good goodbye; 1:20 - What a good goodbye is; 2:24 - Melissa shares one of her most profound good goodbyes; 4:44 - Why good goodbyes can be challenging; 5:45 - The import...

Diana Aitchison is a VA specializing in Remote Operations for transformational tech organizations. Diana, being an "All the Things" VA is also nomadic and enjoys being a global foodie.   In this week’s episode, Diana shares: 2:14 - What it means to be a first generation Canadian; 5:11 - The bravery it takes to go out into the world; 5:49 - How Dee became a digital nomad; 9:45 - Getting h...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith congratulates you for asking (or even thinking) that There’s Gotta Be A Better Way! In this week’s episode, Melissa shares: 0:54 - What to do when things don’t feel right in your VA business; 1:20 - Why it’s okay not to have all the answers; 2:08 - A point of frustration many VAs face; 2:30 - Your answer for the best way to do something in your...

In this episode, AVA Founder & CEO, Melissa Smith shares how she's gone from having a very urgent, productive lifestyle to a non-urgent, yet still productive lifestyle.  In this week’s episode, Melissa shares:   1:25 - Three things that helped Melissa create a non-urgent, productive lifestyle; 1:43 - How Melissa unexpectedly let go of perfectionism; 2:39 - Creating deadlines to get things...

TaVona Denise is a Master Certified Coach who helps entrepreneurs not be miserable during their launches. In this week’s episode, TaVona shares: 1:49 - What is not talked about enough when it comes to launches; 2:38 - What launch trauma is; 3:02 - What happens when there is too much, too soon, too fast; 6:00 - How experiencing launch trauma is more than a mindset; 9:18 - Overcoming launch pre PTSD...