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Women on the Rise! Interview Series - Normel Smith


Please introduce yourself and tell us about your career or business. What services or products do you offer?

Hi there! My name is Normel Smith and I am blogger at Normel Talks and a freelance virtual assistant. I am also a wife, mom and homeschooler to a 2.5 year old. As a work-at-home mom, I thrive off of having the flexibility to be instrumental in my son’s development and doing what I love. It’s challenging, but also a rewarding experience.

As a blogger, I write about parenting, my homeschooling journey and everyday dialogue to inspire and motivate people to discover who they are, love it and live it out loud.

As a virtual assistant, I strive to help other business owners manage the administrative work that would take too much time away from the planning, growth strategizing and bigger tasks that need their attention. If you find yourself saying, “I’m too busy to do this,” more than likely you will need a virtual assistant.

Some of the services I provide include but are not limited to writing, creating and organizing calendars, web research, proof reading, email management, client database management, data entry, Microsoft excel, website and domain setup, summarizing, notarizing documents, writing minutes and business document creation.

What motivated you to start a new business or to make significant change in an existing business/career? Was this career or business always your dream?

My dream business and career is one that would reveal my heart to inspire change in people’s lives. Since that is so broad, I believe that I am on my way through my blog, which is going to breed some amazing projects. I believe that I am well on my way with my virtual assistance business as well because I believe that I can give hope to the business owners who feel overwhelmed. I do not just bring product, but also relationship to everything I do. I don’t believe that I could do this well with a 9-5 I didn’t care much about. I started my business and I started blogging so that I could have as much flexibility as possible to give all of myself to the things I cared about the most.

What kind of qualities should a person have to be successful in their career or as a successful business owner?

Based on personal experience, I would say consistency and the ability to delegate. Business owners should find ways to make room in their lives to be consistent in their business management behavior. Building a team to me is essential. I only just started to freelance, but I constantly see that those who excel in their goals have trusted teams and are consistent.

What is your greatest fear and how do you manage fear? Share your advice with our readers.

I’m stumped on this one to be honest not because there are no fears, but rather they are hard to pinpoint. I have however faced negative thoughts such as: there’s too much competition and you can’t handle this business or they won’t like your work etc. What I find is that we are our worst critics because we want so much to impress our potential clients. The fact is that you already have what it takes. The drive and passion is there for a reason. That should never be taken for granted.

I chose to use post-its of positive reminders and encouragement in the form of popular quotes and scriptures in places I visit the most (i.e. the bathroom) and recite them to myself very boldly. If you don’t want your home to look like post-it land, print out the words and frame them. I have that as well. Then take those things and recite them to yourself everyday. It makes a world of a difference. Choose an optimistic attitude always and know what you choose to speak and what you choose to believe will become your reality.

What three pieces of advice would you give to our readers that are changing careers, starting or thinking of expanding a business?

I would encourage those changing careers or starting a business to financially prepare. I didn’t have much of a savings when I decided to stay home with my son. It was a bold move of faith and we have done well. However, having a cushion to hold you up and pour into your new career and/or business will help a lot and alleviate much stress. I would suggest about 3-6 months worth of expenses.

I would also encourage you to have a day-to-day action plan/vision board and an optimistic mindset. Be ready to take risks, which often times many successful entrepreneurs take before they reach the place they desire.

How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?

Being new to this, I rely on word of mouth right now and networking. Soon, I will be expanding to social media because it is the cheapest form of advertisement. So far, word of mouth and networking has been working well for me.

How has networking helped you in your career or business?

Networking is essential to any business. I have gained a wealth of knowledge from others in my niche and industry. I have also gained great sources of encouragement and even new clients by networking.

Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 years?

I see myself traveling the world on mission trips that bring social impact to the places I visit. There will also be forthcoming books and business expansion in setting up a team to reach more clients.

How has being an entrepreneur or career woman affected your family life? How do you achieve work life balance?

This is an everyday challenge, but I believe that I am getting better at it. Many times, keeping up with the house chores and cooking beautiful healthy meals are what suffers the most. I thank God for my husband who I have recruited to cook once per week enough for two days. I follow suit and cook twice more enough for two days at a time so that we eat out once per week. If we are really lazy, we eat out 2x per week or pop prepared meals in the oven. This reduces the amount of time I spend cooking tremendously. We are all about the left over life. I arise early for personal devotional time, the little one goes to bed by 9:30pm and that leaves my husband and I 1-2 hours a night with each other. It doesn’t look perfect everyday, but many days it can work out pretty well.

What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?

I love bikram yoga and I love to dance and sing. Yoga used to be a weekly routine, but has fallen off the routine in recent months. I’m looking to get back into it soon. For dancing and singing, youtube and spotify have become my best friends. I’m looking to take on running early in the morning until I can once again satisfy my bikram yoga cravings. In my non-work time, you will occasionally find me at a coffee shop with a good friend or sitting alone catching up on my favorite shows.

How to find Normel Smith?

Twitter and Instagram: @Normeltalks

Virtual Assistant Email: cloud9vaservices@gmail.com

Thank you Normel for sharing your story and advice with our readers.

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