The Virtual Assistant School | Start a Side-Hustle, Make Money From Home, & Grow Your Online Business

68: We Are SO Back & I Changed My Word of The Year Mid-January 🫣

• Kate Scholtes

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In this episode, I’m diving into the transformation that was 2024! 

From committing to mastering my sales skills (best decision ever!) to starting 2025 with a fresh mindset and a brand-new word of the year🫣, it’s been a ride. 

I’m all about dreaming bigger, changing paths when you’re not feeling it, and reminding you that you don’t have to pick just one thing in life. 

 Oh, and did I mention I finally started outsourcing more (yep, I actually listened to my own advice!)? 

Tune in for a fun chat about growth, family, and becoming the best version of ourselves so we can show up for the people we love! 🫶🏼

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to your behind the scenes BFF podcast. I'm your host, Kate, and I'm a teacher turned entrepreneur, mom of two. And on this podcast, we are pulling back the curtain on all things, business, motherhood, mental health, relationships, and everything in between. Here's the thing, building a business, being a mom, taking care of ourselves. It can all get super overwhelming at times, but here you don't have to do it alone. So grab your coffee or make another cup and let's dive into this week's episode. Hello and officially welcome back to the You're Behind the Scenes BFF podcast. Last week we had an episode that was like a re-listen. So we took an episode from 2023 and brought it to the forefront because it was an episode that a lot of people really appreciated when it came to myths that you might believe about becoming a virtual assistant or about being a virtual assistant in general. And so we shared that last week as like a slow... what is it called? A soft launch. Is that what the kids call it these days? Like a soft launch into coming back with the podcast. I took a unintentional holiday break that extended a little bit from the podcast. And really there's no other reason than I just could not get my feet under me the last couple months of the year. And in January, we've just had A lot of different things going on, which I'm going to talk about in this episode. But we are back. And the title of this is we are so back because I am so excited to be back on the mic and be chatting with you guys in this way. If you've been listening to the podcast for a long time, you know that the podcast is my favorite way to create content for you and to just have these more, I guess, intimate conversations around business. and relationships and mindset and all of these different things and so it feels good to be back and I'm really I'm really appreciative of you tuning in so I know that it's like the middle of February we are already halfway through February when this episode comes out but I did want to thank reflect a little bit with you on 2024 and then talk about 2025. I had such a year of transformation, I guess you could say, in 2024. So much of my life changed in so many different ways, in some really big ways and in some small and intentional ways. And I I just feel like 2024 was kind of the launching pad to 2025. And I'm going to start by sharing just kind of some things that happened in 2024 that I feel like has really set that foundation or that launching pad. And then I'm going to talk about 2025 and what 2025 looks like. With the with the understanding that I started 2025 in a different mindset that I have now. Um, I actually changed my word of the year, which I'm going to get into in the middle of January. Um, and And I think there's a lot of reasons behind that. And I will share kind of what I've reflected on since then. But I'm still kind of uncovering a lot of that myself. But let's first get into 2024. So In 2024, if you've been around, I really committed to 2024 being a different year than 2023. 2023 was one of the hardest years of my life. I really struggled with my mental health, with postpartum depression, with my ADHD that I had been diagnosed with in 2023 at 29 years old, and really figuring out what I could do to support myself in that season, especially with 202 at the time and just figuring out life and business and all of the things. If you want to know more about what 2023 looked like for me, we have an episode. If you want to scroll back a little bit, And you can kind of hear everything that went down and then what my intentions were going into 2024. And that was truly like, I want to be unrecognizable at the end of 2024. And I am really proud to say that I did that. And when I say unrecognizable, I meant like unrecognizable in my habits, in my routines, in... the way that I showed up for my life, whether it's for my family or for my business. And, um, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool to like set out to do something and become someone else and not in like a, Oh, I like changed everything about who I am at my core, but really like, I feel like it was this process of uncovering who I was really, um, meant to be. And so it was this transformation of going from a version of myself that I felt really uncomfortable in and was feeling really lost in 2023 to the person that I ended 2024 as the most authentic self that I have maybe ever been. And that feels really, really good. And so I'm really proud of myself for that. There's so many different things that I can attribute to that. that whole process. Um, a lot of, you know, that I decided to get ready every single day in 2024. And I also accomplished that except for four days. I think it was like four days in September, maybe that I was so sick. I had a like stomach infection. It was just horrible. Um, and I like could not get out of bed. I was in the And that was the only four days that I did not get ready in 2024. And so I'm not someone that really sets New Year's resolutions, but I do like to go into a new year committing to something that is going to be really intentional in my growth. And I knew that getting ready every single day was going to be something that put me outside my comfort zone. And I also knew that it was going to have... It was going to create a... I keep saying the word transformation. That's honestly the only word that I can think of that explains it, that I really wanted to accomplish. And so if you're curious about my Get Ready Everyday journey, I actually do have a highlight on my Instagram that says Get Ready With Me. And You can learn more about how getting ready really impacted my life in such a positive way. And I will likely do an updated podcast episode on it as well. I know we did a podcast episode last year about six months in. And so that's a good listen to. But in 2024, not only did I get ready every single day, but I invested a lot in my business and in my growth, both personal growth and my career. It was... actually the first year in seven years that I've been an entrepreneur, that I really pushed my chips in on some big investments when it came to coaching and developing and mastering skills that I was ready to step into. And it was scary. It is scary to make investments. It's scary to push your chips in. It's scary to commit to something that you... aren't really sure what the ROI is going to be because there's obviously never any guarantee, but I knew for certain that I was not going to see the results that I wanted to see and become the person that I wanted to become if I did not push my chips in, if I did not really commit to mastering specifically sales skills is what I really focused on last year in honing in and really Just uncovering maybe some beliefs that I had about sales in the past and learning new beliefs and adopting new beliefs. And it was probably one of the best things that I could have ever done for my business. It definitely was the the best investment I've ever made. professionally. Um, and like I said, I've been an entrepreneur for seven years and, um, besides like my OBM who might be listening to this episode. Um, and she literally helps me so much in the back end of my business and other contractors that I work with that are incredible. Um, I think that this was, it was the best investment that I made. Um, really, really diving into sales skills and getting this coaching. Um, that's very high level and, um, Really required me to get outside my comfort zone and get into rooms that I didn't know anyone. I was in rooms with people who make a lot more money than I do and challenge me in so many ways and have so many different experiences. And it was so, so good. I'm actually still getting coached and for the foreseeable future plan on continuing to do invest in my business in this way. And I've seen just incredible ROI from it, which kind of goes into what else happened in 2024, which was I did see a ton of business growth. And I think there's maybe a lot of different reasons about that or a lot of different reasons for that. And I think one of them was I really just really took myself seriously. I really took my business seriously. I, like I said, made those investments to hone in on my skills and really stopped feeling like I had to do it all myself or that I didn't need help. I think I had this mindset of like, oh, I've been doing this for so long. I don't know if I really need coaching. I don't really know if I need mentorship. I don't really know. All this stuff, things feel fine. But I knew that fine wasn't going to get me to the level that I wanted to get in my business. And it also wasn't going to allow me to reach the amount of people that I want to reach with your behind the scenes BFF. If you know me, you know that the business is, it means so much to me for so many different reasons. But the main reason is because I really believe that women have the skills that they can use to make money from home. Like they aren't, you already have them. And I also really believe that you don't have to stay doing something in your career or just in your life in general that you aren't happy doing and you don't want to do. And that it's always okay to change your mind. It's always okay to, to dream a little bit bigger, dream differently, and feel like there's something more out there for you. And with your Behind the Scenes BFF and helping women become virtual assistants, I really do believe that we are doing really incredible work together to help people realize that you don't have to choose. You don't have to just do one thing. You don't have to... go to a career that you don't necessarily love, but you don't hate it and you're just doing it for the money. Like you, you deserve to relentlessly pursue a life you love. And that is really the core message of your behind the scenes BFF and becoming a virtual assistant is, um, for a lot of people, a stepping stone to help them get to what that life looks like. It's the vehicle that helps them get there. Um, and it just, it means, um, it means the world to me, um, to be able to help women achieve their dreams, whatever their dream, you know, looks like. And so to see the business growth that we saw last year, and it was honestly really unexpected in a lot of ways, um, which has a obviously huge positive to it, but there was a downside to it, which I I'm going to talk about next. Um, But it was awesome. It was really cool to see what happens when you not only focus on your professional development, but when you do focus on your personal development as well and your personal growth. Because I was getting ready every day, I really started to refocus on my health and prioritizing my workouts and eating whole foods and drinking water and not skipping lunch and then wondering why I have no energy in the afternoon. or drinking coffee on an empty stomach, you know, these things were habits that I really tried hard at breaking last year. And I'm not perfect by any means. But I think that a lot of the growth that we saw last year had to do, yes, with the professional growth, but it also had to do with the personal growth that I went through. And then, you know, the confidence that I had with, you the business and really in our mission, the belief in our mission, along with surrounding myself with so much community. Last year, I met so many incredible women who challenge me and they push me and peers that are just so supportive. And like, I don't need to pretend to be someone else around them. That has been one of the greatest blessings of 2024. And I think all of that combined was a catalyst to the business growth. Um, I also will say that I did start to outsource a lot more, um, as someone who definitely doesn't take her own advice very well when it comes to delegating. Um, I did start to delegate a lot more last year and, um, that came because of necessity. And that's kind of what I'm going to talk about next is kind of this, um, this valley that I went through in the end of the year where the business had exploded and was doing really, really well. And I was totally unprepared for it, totally unprepared for it. And this is something where I talked to a lot of women in business and we talk a lot about like, you know, we want results so quickly. We want things to happen overnight. We want to like, you know, not have to be patient and we want things to happen faster. Um, but questions that I've had to ask, you know, clients or women that I'm mentoring is like, if you were going to, you know, achieve the thing tomorrow, or you were going to get the followers that you want tomorrow or the clients that you want tomorrow or the sales that you want tomorrow, like, would you be prepared for it? And oftentimes the answer is no, because you're like, I don't even know what I would do. What would I do? If all of a sudden I had all these new people and I'm like, okay, now what do I do with them? Or you don't have the systems in place to support the business as it grows. And that is something that I really struggled with towards the end of last year. We had this incredible growth and I did not have... systems and processes in place that supported that kind of growth. So I was really playing defense more than playing offense at the end of last year, which is just part of business. It really is. And being in business now for over seven years, there are just different things that happen. There's these valleys that happen and they are always, always, always, always turn into a a learning lesson. You always learn something from it. For me, I learned, number one, hiring before you feel like you really need to. Hiring in preparation is huge because like I said, I was kind of on defense of like, okay, like now I need someone to come in and like really help me on the OBM side. And now I need, like, I'm going to outsource my accounting and my bookkeeping and, um, doing stuff with like wealth management and, um, oh my gosh, like website rebrand. We did a rebrand at the end of last year. Like there were so many things happening that I, I was doing, um, in a defensive mode, trying to keep up and not fall behind in my work that it really kind of led to this like hamster wheel at the end of the year. Um, I won't say that I like fully hit like burnout, um, because I've been burnt out before and I don't think it was that, but it was this, like, I just felt like I couldn't catch up. Um, at the end of last year, I also still had my own OBM and virtual assistant clients. Um, and I was So I was, you know, helping a lot of other women build their businesses and supporting in the back end of their business while also trying to support my own and grow my own. And because of the growth of not only my clients, like my OBM and VA clients grew so much last year in their own businesses. But combined with your behind the scenes BFF and that growth, it was just it was amazing. too much for me to handle by myself. I needed more help. I needed to ask for help. I needed to delegate. I needed to do all these things. And so we made it through. We made it through. We made some hard decisions. I did make the decision to actually step away from client work myself. And that is kind of the biggest change coming into 2025 is I don't have my own OVM and VA clients anymore, which is very strange in a way. because I have had my own clients now for like three years at this point, almost three years and have been, you know, holding that side of the business and also the coaching side of the business and our programs and this podcast and all that good stuff. And I just knew going into 2025, like something had to give and I, my clients and I, like, I just, I love them so much. If you're listening to this podcast, I love you. Um, and I'm so proud of you and I'm so grateful that I got to work with the people I got to work with. Um, but we had to make the decision, like it wasn't fair to them and their business. Um, they really needed people who like were all in with them. Um, and And then I really needed to be all in with your behind the scenes BFF and figure out like how to balance that, especially with being a mom and having part-time childcare and, um, you know, just kind of reevaluating our priorities coming into this year. And so it's a really bittersweet thing because it's like, oh, um, you know, I would have loved to be able to stay with those clients. Um, And a lot of them, we had been working together the whole time that I had been a virtual assistant. But also, I think that it has allowed for me to have a lot more balance. That's kind of like, I don't really love that word, but a lot more, maybe like harmony in my life with work and motherhood and all of that stuff. So it's been exciting because this is actually the first year that I am solely focused on coaching and mentoring other women who want to become virtual assistants and who are virtual assistants. They're wanting to take their business to the next level. And so that's been really fun and really exciting so far, just a month and a half-ish into the year. But also we have exciting and fun things happening this year with our personal life. And one of those things is we are moving to Idaho. And if you missed it, there is like a highlight on my Instagram and some posts and stuff talking about the move. But we are actually moving to Idaho like next month, which is crazy. We don't have an exact date, but we are... are going to be moving from Arizona to Idaho by the end of March, first week of April, the latest, latest. And that's crazy. That's crazy. So right now, not only are we, you know, ramping up for this year in 2025 and refocusing stuff on the business, but we are also, you know, packing up our house and moving out of state. And my husband is transitioning careers. He is going back into law enforcement, which is what he was in when this way he went to college for. It's what he did before we became parents, all that stuff. And so Um, he's going back into that and, um, it's just a lot of transitions, you know, it's good. It's really good. It's really good for our family, but it's a transition nonetheless. And so the next couple of months are going to be wild. We are building our home. And so our actual home won't be finished until July ish. I'm kind of saying August because with building, you just never know. You June, July, August, September, October. You just don't know. Um, and so we will be in a rental for a couple of months and, um, just being able to enjoy the, the summer in Idaho is going to be so, so pleasant. It's just the growth that both my husband and I went through personally, we just started looking at like, what do we want our life to look like? What do we want our boy's childhood to look like? Where do we see us like raising our family? And my husband specifically was like looking at his career and what he wanted to do. And he started his master's degree and you know, this was just, something we landed on. Um, and we're really excited for the adventure because it is going to be that. Um, and, and that was kind of one of our, one of our things, like one of our solutions that we came up with when we started reevaluating kind of our priorities, um, and the things that we, you know, the life that we want to live and the things we want to accomplish. Um, it was not having to deal with a hundred and 17 degree summers, um, among other things. So we're just really, really looking forward to it. Um, but with that being said, 2025 is, it's looking like another year of, of really transformation, but, um, I think it's going to be, I don't know. I want to say like, I think it's going to be less dramatic because, um, like the jump from end of 2023 to end of 2024 was kind of like a jump scare. But at the same time, I'm like, I don't, I think this year is going to be like just as wild because there's just, you know, the move is happening and the career transition for my husband is happening. And the business is, is going really, really well. And there's a couple of things that I'm doing to, really focus and hone in um which i'm actually going to talk about here in a little bit but now that i'm thinking about it i'm like actually it might just be it might be as dramatic it might be just as much of a jump scare however however like i mentioned at the beginning of this episode i kind of went into this year thinking it wasn't going to be i went into this year thinking like oh i'm just going to like nurture what we built in 2024 and all of that. Um, and there's nothing wrong with that by any means. My word of the year, I actually had decided was going to be the word nurture because when you nurture something, you're like, you're taking care of something so that it can grow, you know, but about halfway through January, maybe sometime in January, I listened to a podcast episode, um, by, uh, It was the Sales Girl podcast. And I will link the episode for you in the show notes in the description. But Kat was talking about becoming a rich mom. And this episode is so, so, so good. There's also a YouTube version as well. We'll link both of them for you if you like to watch YouTube versus listen to a podcast. And something she said in there really struck me. And it was this idea of like, we have this idea of like maintenance, like maintaining maintenance. And that's kind of how I came into 2025 feeling like, oh, I'm just going to maintain what we have established in 2024. And as I listened to this podcast and I kind of started to uncover like why I felt like nurture or maintain was actually important. like the vibe that I wanted to go into the year with, I realized that it was not because that's actually what I wanted, but because that was what I felt like I had to want. And I think so often we go through life adopting what other people think we should want. and how we should feel and how we should act. And after such a great 2024, I figured, you know what, like, I'm just going to, I'm going to coast. I'm going to coast. I'm going to nurture. I'm going to maintain. I'm going to, you know, not, not make any waves kind of thing. Like we're just going to like cruise through 2024 because we have all this stuff going on. We have this move. We have, you know, my son, Both of my sons are going to start a new school for preschool. There's just so many things happening. And I almost let that be an excuse as to why I would not continue this process of becoming the person that I want to become. Because truthfully, you need more than a year oftentimes to become... really who you want to become. Like it's not a, it's not a short process by any means. Um, and I just felt like I, because we were going to be quote unquote so busy, um, and this, this year is going to be so full with all of these other things happening that I should, um, just maintain. And that's actually the worst thing that I could do right now. Um, especially with the momentum that we have coming into this year with everything. And so I started to really uncover this and unpack this. And I started to think of what I wanted, kind of my word for the year or the theme that I wanted for this year to be. And I landed on the word becoming, right? Okay, I actually asked ChatGPT what the definition of becoming is. And the definition is the process of coming into existence or changing into something else. The process of coming into existence or changing into something else. And when I think of the first part, like coming into existence, it's like I already exist, right? Like Kate is already here. Hello, it's me. But I don't think the version that I am today is going to be the version of who I'm going to be next year or the year after or in five years from now or 10 years from now. I think that's okay. I actually think that's good because there's the quote that says, if you're not growing, you're dying. And I really do believe that to an extent, that we are constantly growing. growing. We are constantly learning. We are constantly unlearning beliefs or releasing limited beliefs that we hold over ourselves or releasing expectations of others. And I'm just finding that as I get older, the more I am becoming who I really think God's created me to be because I am kind of releasing these expectations of what other people want me to be or who they want me to be. And I'm really figuring out who I want Kate to be and the version of myself that is the best version so that I can show up well for the people in my life. And I think that it just changes with our seasons. We are coming into... our, I would say like our raising babies season because we are done having babies. And I, it's this, it's this, you know, transition of no longer having like a newborn or little, little babies or being pregnant and, you know, newly postpartum. And now my kids are at the time of this recording four and two and a half. And so it's this like different season of life. And that calls for Kind of like becoming someone new in a lot of really cool ways. And I think it's really awesome. And then when I think of like the second half of that definition, which is changing into something else, I don't think of it as like becoming someone you're not or changing into something you're not. Actually, when I first read changing into something else, I thought of like a butterfly, you know, like a caterpillar, right? becomes a butterfly it changes into something else but it was always destined to be a butterfly right like it its destiny is to change and become what it's always meant to become and so I think of that so much with um ourselves and us as people and us as women and us as moms and us as entrepreneurs and just all of the things. I think sometimes we focus so much on the outcome, like so much on the goal or the thing we want to achieve, but it's actually the act of becoming that is truly transformational. It's the process of figuring out who you are, what you like, what your dreams are, what your goals are, trying something new, deciding you don't like it, letting go of something you thought you loved and don't anymore. And it's this whole process that is the whole point. The process is the point. And I think becoming the person that you want to become instead of achieving the thing that you want to achieve is Because truthfully, even if there is something that you want to achieve, like you have to become the person that is able to achieve that. And likely if you haven't achieved it yet, you haven't become the person that you need to be to achieve it. But I think this becoming of the person is actually more important than achieving of the thing. I hope you're tracking. I hope you're with me. Because I really believe that the only thing standing in all of our way from living the life that we have now and really getting to living the life that we want to live is the person that we have to become in the middle. And I think that it can get really messy. And as humans and with human nature, we don't want to be in the mess. You know, we want things to happen quickly. We want things to be perfect. We we don't want to have to go through discomfort. But that's the whole point, because that is how we become the person that we need to become. So there's a few things that I'm I'm personally focusing on in 2025. a couple of those things are really like simplifying a lot of things in my life, like simplifying my business, simplifying my routines, um, really like, you know, quote unquote, like trimming the fat on a lot of stuff so that I can actually turn up the heat and really like pour gasoline on the fire. Um, I think about that with this kind of concept of diluting, like if you have an iced coffee, right. And you have this like let's say a black ice coffee, right? As you start to add more to it, you dilute the strength of the coffee. So as it, you add, you know, ice and it melts, it's getting watery. You add some milk, you add, um, flavoring, like all that kind of stuff. It's really diluting the, uh, the strength of the drink. And, um, You know, I'm not a black coffee girl. Let's make that very, very clear. Those of you who are, are very adult. And I wish that I could be that person. But I also know that when I'm adding in all this other stuff, it's just, it's diluting the outcome. It's diluting the product. And so when I think of like my life and I think of my business, I'm like, okay, if I just have like all these things going on all the time, It's actually spreading me so thin that it's diluting the things that are actually really important. And so it's all about this intentionality to really keep the integrity of whatever the thing is, whether it's your offer suite, whether it's services you offer, whether it's your calendar, my goodness, over committing to things. It's just diluting the mission. I'm obviously also... really prioritizing whole foods still. I'm prioritizing sleep. My goodness. My kids are finally sleeping. Shout out to Lauren from sleepy beginnings on Instagram. She helped us so much with sleep and, um, it's been really, really good. It's been really good for our home. Um, and then I'm also really focusing on time management. I actually, I don't think I've mentioned this yet in this episode, but I'm actually about 40, 42 days into 75 hard. Um, which is, this is the third attempt, third, I think it's the third time that I've attempted 75 hard. And the last time or the longest time that I had done it, I had made it 33 days. So we're about almost 10 days over that. At this point, it feels just like kind of a part of my day. These tasks that you do for 75 hard have now become just habit, which is really great. But I have to be so intentional with my time management. so, so intentional in my time management. And so I'm having to get up with my alarm. I am having to make sure I'm not dilly-dallying, like scrolling on my phone or just like, I don't even know what I'm doing half the time. Like just not doing things that, I'm not doing things with intention. So just trying to use all of the time that I have to really be in this process of becoming. Like, The Kate and the version of myself that I want to be at the end of the year or whenever I want to achieve whatever goal it is, like what is she doing? And so I've been really just like making these decisions from that outlook. Like the Kate that I want to be, the version of myself that I want to become, what decision would she make in this situation? Like when I don't feel like working out, I don't feel like getting up in my alarm thinking like, okay– How would future Kate show up? What would future Kate want to do? You know, what, what, what would, um, how would she want to feel? How would she make this decision? And nine times out of 10, maybe even 10 out of 10 times, uh, I go work out anyway, or I get up my alarm anyway. And I think that like looking at it from that lens has been really helpful for me. Um, so, um, with all that being said, I know that this episode was really just kind of a, a brain dump of, and like a catch up, like catch up with your bestie vibes. Um, I also want to leave you with this kind of prompt that if you're, if this is landing with you, if you're like, okay, yes, like this is like, I want to also become the best version of myself. I also want to go through this process. Um, there's a couple of kind of questions that I think are really helpful to journal on and think about. Um, and so it's like, when you look at, you know, your goals that you set for 2025 or the life that you want to live, like whatever your dream is, um, when you look at like what you want to achieve or even the life you want to live, who do you have to become in order to achieve that thing? What does she need to do? How does she move through the world? What habits does she have? How does she prioritize her health and her important relationships and her business and, you know, her family, like everything? How does she show up? Because when you think about that, then you have the roadmap to becoming that version of yourself. And I think it's really, really cool to think about. I think it's really, it's hard. I think if you haven't done work like this before, you might feel stuck. You might feel like I don't actually know. Staring at a blank page in my notebook, wondering like, okay, well, what do I have to do? And I would just break it down. I'd break it down. Like what goals do you have? What kind of life do you want to live? Cool. Write all those down. And then in order to do that, Instead of focusing on the outcome or focusing on the things you have to do, focus on who you have to become in order to do the things that you have to do. Right? Because that's where the magic happens. That's where the transformation really comes to the forefront. And I'm so excited for you. I'm so excited for you to experience the... I was going to say act of becoming, but it's really, it's an art, the art of becoming because it's really rad. And I can't wait to go along the journey with you. So with that being said, this episode is now over. And I'm actually so excited. So curious to hear what you come up with. So if you've listened to this episode and you kind of work on this exercise, you think about it. Let me know. Send me a message on Instagram. Tag me in your Instagram stories that you listen to this podcast and what your takeaways were. I would love, love, love, love to hear it. And I'm rooting for you. I'll see you next week. Bye.