012 - The VA Life: Rebecca Gill on Supporting Businesses with Heart

In this episode of Life with Purpose, I sit down with Rebecca Gill, founder of RG Virtual, to explore her journey from the corporate world of recruitment to launching her own virtual assistant business. 

Rebecca shares how her career took her from Ireland to Australia and Bali, the challenges she overcame, and the life-changing experiences that inspired her to embrace entrepreneurship.

We discuss what it means to be a virtual assistant, the importance of showing your authentic self in business, and how life’s ups and downs can fuel personal and professional growth. Rebecca’s story is one of resilience, reflection, and finding gratitude even in tough times, offering valuable insights for anyone looking to take control of their career and embrace new opportunities.

Tune in to hear Rebecca’s refreshing take on work-life balance, building genuine connections, and living with purpose. If you're curious about virtual assistance or need inspiration to follow your own dreams, this episode is for you!

Where to find Rebecca:

• LinkedIn: Rebecca Gill
• Instagram: @rg_virtual
• Email: Rebecca@rgvirtual.com

For more insights, tips, and guidance on living a meaningful life, visit Mel Harrowsmith Coaching. Ready to dive deeper? Reach out to book a session and start your journey towards purpose today.

Edited with finesse, transcribed and produced by Mike Roberts at Making Digital Real

Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to the Life with Purpose podcast. Today I'm speaking to the wonderful Rebecca Gill, who is founder of RG Virtual. So this is a virtual assistant service that she's going to tell us about during the course of the podcast, but she is also a thoroughly wonderful human being and she has a very, very interesting story and journey that has brought her to being a virtual assistant. And when I first met her, which wasn't that long ago, and we'll get into how we met, I was so inspired by what she's been doing up to this point in her journey that I just thought she would make a wonderful guest. And here she is, Rebecca, welcome. Wow, thank you so much. What an intro. Oh, you're welcome. It is absolutely lovely to have you here. What I thought it might be helpful to start with is just to explain to people who might not know what virtual assistance is, because I was talking to you about my partner and he looked at me as if I was mad because he works in the IT side of things. He works in DevOps and he thought, well, a virtual assistant, that's AI. How on earth have you had a conversation with a bot? So he thought I'd lost my mind and had made friends with a robot. So perhaps you could start by explaining what virtual assistance is. Yes, of course. First of all, definitely not a robot. I also had no idea what it was up until about two and a half years ago. Essentially what it is, it's business support virtually. It's for people who maybe are self-employed themselves. They maybe have a small business to offload tasks to someone, tasks that require a lot of their time, a lot of their attention and that take away from the actual running of their business. So as a solo entrepreneur, solo business owner, you're wearing all of the hats. So it's outsourcing tasks to someone else, like admin, social media, lead generation and those sort of tasks to someone else. Okay. So business admin can be quite a broad spectrum. Are you focusing on particular tasks? Are you specialising in particular tasks? Yes, I specialise in social media management, administration and lead generation. So they're sort of my refined services. But I mean, broadly speaking, in the world of virtual assistance, there's so many people that specialise in other aspects of business too. And so you'll find that, you know, me personally, I've come from a recruitment background. So I have a lot of experience in areas like social media, marketing and administration. I've got a lot of experience with LinkedIn. So I am playing to my strengths. So you'll find that a lot of other virtual assistants will do the same. So there might be people that specialise in podcast management services, or, you know, legal services, there could be like legal VAs or, you know, they just sort of play to their strengths or whatever their background, their corporate background might have been as well. Yeah. So you mentioned there that you're playing to your strengths. And you suggested that quite a lot of those have been developed through your past experience and your past work as working in recruitment. So how has recruitment led to virtual assistance? Yes, I sort of fell into recruitment. And after I graduated university, desperately needed a job, I had this car that I couldn't pay for. And I was like, I need a job. And I ended up ringing a local recruitment agency who ended up taking me on in their office, which was great, great experience. And I was doing admin marketing for them. Well, some marketing. And then, yeah, that just sort of led me to have this recruitment career that I wore a few different hats in. So I've done a lot of the admin side of recruitment, I've done a lot of the resourcing side of recruitment, which is sourcing candidates for four roles. And then I've also been a consultant myself. So I have had a like really luckily and been able to sort of have that experience, that 360 experience, where I did get to, you know, learn a lot of different skills, a lot of different nuances to business, obviously, it was more recruitment focused. But how it sort of led me to virtual assistance, I, like I mentioned to you, had never heard of it until about two and a half years ago. I wasn't loving recruitment. It did not fulfill me. And I always, always, always thought that I would be someone who would be their own boss and have their own business one day. I didn't think I would do it as early as I have done. But I've just always, always been that way inclined. And yeah, wasn't loving recruitment. So I was in Australia for five years, which so that sort of is an important thing to know. And having a recruitment background was like really, really worked in my favor, because it meant that I was able to get sponsored in Australia. I got sponsored in Australia. Yes, I was working in a recruitment agency doing consulting. And I wasn't loving it. I wasn't loving it. And I was on a so in Australia, I was in the process of being sponsored. So I had to go on to what is called a bridging visa. And there's different types of bridging visas. And I was put on a bridging visa C, while we waited for my sponsorship to come through. And one of the requirements of a bridging visa C is that you cannot leave the country. And so this will eventually answer your question, by the way, it's just a long, long winded way of getting there. And I wasn't allowed to leave the country, which was fine, because I had no plans to do so. And then unfortunately, a couple of months into that job and a couple of months into applying for that sponsorship and being on this visa, and my dad passed away in Ireland. So I was, I had to leave the country. I was like, there's I have no other choice here, but to leave the country. And my only option was to go back to Ireland and set out and wait until the visa came through, which was fine. I was happy to do that. There was no other place I wanted to be but home. So yeah, so I just I just went to Ireland and I waited. And after about three months in Ireland, and, you know, we had laid my dad to rest, and I'd spent a lot of time with my family and, you know, quality time with them, and it was really needed. There was a time where I was like, I just want to be back in Australia now. Like, I just want my life to sort of resume. But I was still waiting for this visa. And very luckily, I was, the company I worked for in work from Ireland, and which wasn't easy, especially when I sort of was still not really enjoying recruitment, it was really hard to, to do that to work on the other side of the world. And but I did it. And then eventually, yeah, like I say, about three months after being in Ireland, I was like, maybe I should go to Bali, maybe I should go and be somewhere closer to Australia and wait for the visa to come through, which, again, I understand is a very privileged sort of decision to be able to make. So, so I did, I spoke to my manager about it. And he was like, absolutely, the closer, the closer you are to our time zone, the better. So I did went to Bali, and waited for this visa to come through in Bali. And then to answer your question, that is where I, I met girls who were virtual assistants, they were doing this whole virtual assistance thing, they were working with clients, and they had been living in Bali for some of the months, some of them weeks, and some of them years, like, not specifically in Bali, but you know, traveling the world. And I was like, is this a thing? I was like, what is the catch? Like, this can't be real. And then I realized it was, it was real. And I eventually then when I did get back to Australia, the visa came through. And I got back to Oz, I just couldn't really get out of my head then. And I just knew it was something I would 100% be able to do. And yeah, I just did a bit more research, looked at sort of what it would take to sort of learn the ropes, because obviously I knew I could do it, but didn't really know how to do it. I was like, how do I do this? And so invested in some coaching. And here we are. Yeah, very, very long answer to your question. Amazing. It's great to understand the background. And I think there's a number of things that I find really interesting about that one is that you were on a career path, or you, you know, you had a job in recruitment that wasn't filling your cup wasn't floating your boat, but some incredible opportunities with that job. You know, you were in Australia, and then you were in Bali. And it's possible that that may not have happened without the recruitment job. No, no, I'm definitely so grateful for it. Yeah, so that's quite extraordinary. So you've moved around quite a lot. So is travel quite an important thing for you? Huge. Yeah. Yeah, huge. And yeah, it is. I don't know if it always has been like, even whenever I first got to whenever we decided we were going to Australia, I was just sort of like, okay, but I think it was more like once I was there, I realized how much I loved to travel. We did Southeast Asia on the way to Australia, I did a lot of traveling in Australia. And then it just made me realize how much I loved it. And I think a really important thing to sort of add to what you're saying about my recruitment career as well was, yes, obviously, being able to work in Australia was amazing. And Australia really opened my eyes to work life balance. And, you know, working to live, as opposed to living to work, you know, so again, got a little bit of a taster there. I worked from home and pretty much 100% of the time as well. So I had all of these little tasters for what it was like to, you know, obviously, I was still sort of working that nine to five, but you know, working from home, working in Australia, being able to like still take my laptop to like a coffee shop or something, you know, it was still, I just had all these tasters. And yeah, I was just like, as soon as I thought as soon as you know, I met people who are virtual assistant and realized that it was a real thing. I was like, I have to do this. If I'm able to work and travel at the same time. Like that's just the dream to me. Amazing. So you talked about how Australia taught you more about work life balance. And you mentioned that it sounded like flexibility, the flexibility to work where, where you want helps you get that work life balance. But were there other work life balance lessons that came from your experiences in Australia? I would say, yeah, yeah. And I think like it comes just with the culture of Australia to like, there's a lot of, I guess, everyone's always up early, like living their lives, like sort of having a whole life before they even go to work and making sure that they like fill up their cup before work even starts, you know? So I think that was like a huge thing. I think on the flip side of that, I probably had a few negative experiences and that made me go, Oh God, like, I'd never want to work that way again. You know, I think for whenever I first was in recruitment, like I say, I was sort of doing the admin resourcing side of things. And I really did want to be a consultant. I sort of had this thing where I was like, I know I can be a recruitment consultant. And whenever I did finally get my first job in that, I was like sitting in the office until 7pm and, you know, really putting a lot of pressure on myself to perform. And that's whenever like, I didn't have any work-life balance whenever I was doing that. And, you know, it took me to sort of leave that job and go into another job to be like, Okay, don't do that again. You know, but I don't know if that's really Australia. I think that was just more of a me thing than anything. But yeah, I think like Australia as a whole, and I think, you know, there's so much more to the world than just Australia. My personal experience has been in Australia. So that's just sort of what I'm focused on. But I did learn a lot in terms of, you know, putting yourself first, I think as well. And knowing that there's more out there for you than the norm. Yeah. So that's an interesting one to pick up on. Because when we first spoke, and I was so inspired by the fact you've been to Australia, you'd worked in Bali, and you seemed so sort of casual and confident about it. At any point, did you have, did you have doubts? Did the inner voice say, Oh, my goodness, what are you doing thinking about going to Australia or Bali? Yeah, Daph, I think Australia, no, I was like, I went to Australia with friends. So that obviously lessened the blow. We were so excited. We couldn't wait, like, but we were also so bright eyed and we had no idea what we were going to. And I think our ignorance was bliss in that way, because it is hard. It's not easy moving to the other side of the world, like a lot of like social media makes it out to me. But yeah, whenever first going to Australia, I don't think I had any of those moments until I was there that I was like, Oh God, this is actually really hard. I need to be a big girl, I need to get a job, I need to find a house to rent. Like, it was a lot of adulting decisions at once. And I was like, I think I was 22 or 23. And I thought I knew it all. And that was just another reminder that you don't still got so much to learn. But we always pushed through. And I think having my friends there as well was helpful too, because, you know, you weren't the only one going through it. And then with Bali, I knew I wanted to, I knew I didn't want to be in Ireland anymore. I knew I wanted to, I knew I just needed to go somewhere. And I think, you know, it was the perfect time for me to do it as well. You know, just with, you know, daddy passing away. And then going back to life in Australia, it was the perfect sort of time to just be on by myself and be alone and just sort of decompress and reflect on, you know, what's just happened, really. And I went to Bali, no one knew me. And I was able to sort of just, you know, have a bit of a normal life and live a bit of normality without, you know, and just taking my time to decompress and reflect on everything. So, but I definitely had times, I think it was more like airport stress that I was having in Bali, that I was like, why have I done this? And like, it's hard leaving family, it's hard leaving home, but I don't know, when you want something and you're getting it and it's there, there's just, I don't know, it's just more exciting for me, I think, than anything. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. I had a recent guest on, Adam Dorsey, and he's a specialist in connection. And he talks a lot about four types of connections. So it's really interesting to hear you talking about the connection with the friends that took you to Australia, the connection to family, which took you back to Ireland, and then connecting with yourself out in Bali. I mean, you don't get more stereotypical, do you, than the story of going out to Bali and finding yourself? Finding yourself, I know. But honestly, it's so true. So true. I mean, it's not like I was, you know, there getting blessed or anything like that. But it's, I think that trip, that decision to go to Bali was so pivotal in my decision makings, and I didn't even know it at the time. And until I started to reflect, like, understand why I was making certain decisions, like why I wanted to be the VA and, and even like, and I think I said to this to you, maybe the last time we spoke as well, because people find it, it weird for me to say, but I've always, I'm like, I find gratitude for my daddy passing away as well. Because I'm like, if that didn't happen, I would never have went to Bali, I would never have realized that there's more to life out there than than what I was sort of currently doing. And, and, you know, I found this business opportunity. And, you know, I was, it was, it was the first time I traveled, like somewhere in, you know, Indonesia by myself, and or did a big travel trip like that. And I realized I could do it on my own. And, you know, I think that was a huge thing for me as well, was, you know, finding that gratitude and that, and during that sort of really difficult time, you know, and but it was, yeah, being about going to Bali, I think was this huge, and I didn't even realize it. It's such a powerful insight, I think, to see these life challenges and, and of course, bereavement and death of loved ones that, you know, it's an awful time for, you know, for all sorts of reasons. But if you can get to a stage where you can be grateful for some of that experience and recognize what it's led on to, I personally think that's incredibly positive and healthy. So, so God bless you, Mr. Gill. And thank you for the journey you've allowed Rebecca to take. Yeah, 100%. You'd probably be like, oh my gosh, I wish we were doing all this. But yeah, like it's just, and I mean, it didn't come with it. You know, I'm not saying that, like, it's, you know, it wasn't hard because it was, but I think it's just, you know, again, that reflection piece of looking back and going, okay, it was shit and it was horrible and it was sad and, you know, I wish it didn't happen, but what good, like what good came from it as well, you know, and that's definitely one of the big ones for me was this whole big life change journey that I'm on at the moment. So this, obviously the family experience in Ireland, coming to Bali, having the, the Bali epiphany about VA that brings us back into your world of virtual assistance. So this might be a good time to talk about how me and you met. So, so Rebecca sent me a message on LinkedIn. So it was, it was the modern cold call. So I got a message, got a message on LinkedIn and anybody who uses LinkedIn, you'll, you'll get these. And a lot of them are very similar. Some people just ask for a connection request and there's no message. No, Rebecca was straight in there with a message. And it made me laugh. It was one of the few messages that came in right off the bat and it made me laugh. And right at that moment, I thought this woman is interesting. I knew that at this point I couldn't take you up on your services, but we agreed to have a coffee because you made me laugh. I thought you were really interesting. And this is where, where we are now. But part of the reason why I wanted to explain the background is because also watching your presence on social media, one of the things that comes across loud and clear is your personality. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. But you're also incredibly clear in the messages that you're putting, encouraging other people to present their genuine selves and bring their personality into the work. So is that a key part of your work as a VA when you're working on social media? Oh my gosh, huge. Yeah. And I think like, that's why I'm so thankful for you just saying that, because I think it's something I've been thinking about a lot more in the past, probably like three, four weeks. It's great that I've got this skill set. It's great that I can help businesses in a particular way. And I know I can do that. And I know I can showcase that, but I started sort of was like, social media was just giving me the ick. And I was like, I don't want to post on here because it doesn't feel authentic. It doesn't feel like me. It feels like I'm being like, oh, like, like robotic, like what, you know, you know, your partner said, like, it felt like I was being AI or like some sort of robot. And I didn't like it. I was like, okay, this is great. I can do these things. But who are these people actually connecting with? Who are these people actually working with? You know, because I thought about it myself, I'm someone who has invested in the likes of life coaching and personal training and, you know, fitness coaching, all that, like I've done, you know, my fair share of those things. And the only reason why I, you know, invest in the people that I've worked with is, yes, they can do their job. And that comes across in their, you know, in their posts or whatever. But it's their person, it's who they are. It's their personality. Like, if they're funny, if they, you know, they're just, you know, they're not afraid to show their values or their opinions or, you know, like, and that was really, you know, something that I realized. And I was like, okay, well, if that's how I feel about, you know, working with someone, then that's going to be how a lot of people feel as well. So yeah, definitely a shift I have been making recently. And I think, you know, I've always tried for my personality to come across even from the very, very start, but more so now, definitely. And it works. You know, it's, it's, it's not like it's a, it's not like I'm doing it to, I'm not pretending to be anyone else, you know, I'm, I'm just me. And, you know, that's actually generating more conversations than, than ever. Brilliant. So, so being more open and honest and showing your true self, you're actually generating more business. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've realized that. And I think it's funny, like it's, I'm woo-woo. So, you know, it's more of like a, a sign for me. Like, I think, yeah, a couple of weeks ago, whenever I started posting a bit more, like differently, you know, within a week, I had people in my inbox and, and I was just like, okay, right, this is a sign because it was aligned people as well. It's, you know, people I'd love to work with. And I'm like, okay, right, I'm doing this right. And you can leave me a message at speakpipe.com forward slash Mel Harrowsmith coaching, and you never know, I might even include your message in a future episode. Now, let's get back to the conversation. Martha Beck talks a lot about living in, in your integrity or living to integrity. And she talks about when you're doing that, hey, you can feel it in your body. So, you know, you feel happier and more content and confident and all of that, but also things start happening. Things that you just think, oh, where's that come about? So it's almost like that positivity that you generate within yourself starts drawing in positivity and more, in this case, more business. Brilliant. For sure. And like, even like just conversations in general, like I, you know, I'm in a place now where I feel way more confident about like, talking about my business as well, which helps too. So just even having, you know, for at the start there, I actually used to heave whenever I told people that I own my own business, it was like, I felt like I wasn't worthy enough of it or something or that I wasn't, I don't know, like it was stupid or a silly thing, or it wasn't serious. But now I'm like, no, this is serious. I have a business. I'm a businesswoman and I'm confident about it. So like I, you know, I think as soon as you step into that, that like sort of higher self as well, like where you do have that, that confidence around what you're doing, everything else just flows a bit naturally. Yeah. Was there a key moment going from the heaving, feeling unconfident to the confident or did it gradually come as you did more and more? It was more of a gradual thing. And I think with anything, especially when you're starting your own business, and you'll know this yourself, like you're constantly learning and you know, the services that I sort of, you know, offered at the start, I'm like, you know, I've refined them so clearly, like I mentioned earlier about playing to my strengths, you know, and it's just the more you do, the more you work with people, the more you talk to people as well. Like I just gained a bit more confidence, I think about, you know, what I was, what I'm doing. And yeah, so less heaving now. That's good to know. That's good to know. So if people want to know more about you and the services that you offer, where can they find you? Well, LinkedIn, like you mentioned, and Rebecca Gill is my name. And then I'm also on Instagram as well. So my Instagram handle is rg underscore virtual. And so that's my Instagram handle. And then if you want to email me as well, it's Rebecca at rg virtual.com. And yeah, I can just send you a link to all my prices and packaging or if you have any questions, happy to chat. Or yeah, if you just want to reach out about anything VA wise or life wise, please do feel free to do so. Wonderful. Well, I hope that your positivity is drawing in more and more business over the coming weeks and months. It's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. Again, I thoroughly recommend Rebecca if you need somebody to support your business, drop her a line, have a chat. If nothing else, you'll definitely have a laugh. And let's face it, we could all do with more laughter in the world. I welcome the laughter. Yeah. Yeah. So just take this opportunity to say thank you very much, Rebecca. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. And like I said, it's my first podcast. So I'm just yeah, buzzing to be here. I'm so glad that you've asked me to do this. Thank you. If you're listening to this message, you've listened to the entire episode. Thank you so much. And thank you to Mike from Making Digital Real for continuing to produce these episodes. If you'd like to know more about Life With Purpose and coaching sessions with me, then head over to melharrowsmithcoaching.com and get in touch. You can also subscribe to my newsletter for updates, advice, guidance, and all things relating to Life With Purpose. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, then you might like to send me a review or share this episode with others who may be interested in this topic. Thank you so much again for listening. And I'll see you next time for a new episode.