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Lemonade Leaders
Real stories of turning life’s toughest lemons into something good. Each week, host Riannon Palmer chats with founders and changemakers about resilience, purpose, and building impact from adversity.
Lemonade Leaders
Two Burnouts and One Health Scare That Sparked Change
Two burnouts. One health scare. And a decision that changed everything.
In this episode of Lemonade Leaders, I speak with the founder of The Lifestyle VA, Mel Maw, who shares how her career in the music industry and later as PA to a global CEO pushed her to the edge - twice. After her spleen was removed following a major health scare, she knew she couldn’t keep working the same way.
What started as a sabbatical in Bali became the catalyst for discovering the virtual assistant world, landing her first client, and eventually building a thriving business that helps busy entrepreneurs and families reclaim their time and reduce their mental load.
We talk about the warning signs of burnout, the importance of boundaries, the invisible “mental load” so many women carry, and the grit it takes to go from sofa-surfing to building a business that creates freedom for both clients and team members.
If you’ve ever pushed your body too far in the name of work, this conversation is a reminder that change is possible - and sometimes, it’s the hard moments that spark the brightest new paths.
Find more about Mel here:
https://www.thelifestyleva.net/blog-1/mel-the-lifestyle-va
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/melaniemaw-virtualassistant
Welcome to Lemonade Leaders, the podcast about conversations that do good and feel good. I'm your host, Riannon Palmer, founder of Lem-uhn, A Feel Good PR agency for brands that care. Each episode, I'll be chatting to brilliant people who've turned life's lemons into something meaningful. Today I'm chatting with Mel Maw the founder of the Lifestyle va, the business that helps busy entrepreneurs and leaders reclaim their time in sanity. Mel's journey started in a very relatable place, burnout. She was PA to the CEO of a global brand and hit her second bout of burnout in 2018. Just a few years after undergoing major surgery and realizing she needed to prioritize her health, she took this huge load as inspiration to build a better life. Hi, Mel. Thanks for coming on the podcast today.
Mel:It's a pleasure.
Riannon Palmer:You've had not just one bout of burnout, which quite a lot of people might have, but two. So tell us about that and how your journey started.
Mel:the initial burnout came from working in the music industry for over a decade behind the scenes looking after artists and producers. it's 90 miles an hour, it's 24 hours a day, and there just feels like there's always someone nipping at your heels if you slow down. So naturally, that led to burnout It turned out that my health was not okay. my spleen was enlarged and spleen is part of your immune system. It filters your blood, it takes the bacteria away. And they were like, it's so big, we have to take it out. And I was like, uhoh. So they were like, it's fine. You can live a whole life without it. You just have a slightly compromised immune system. But I live a normal life now, so, it turns out. It was fine. and so it just reset everything. I think that was when I decided I've got to leave the music industry. I'm now in my early thirties. It doesn't feel rewarding for the effort to the financial gain of that industry. So I thought, I've always done PA work, pays well, it's secure. And I ended up, looking after really, really lovely chairman and CEO, of a British global brand I loved my time there and I was there for five years, but. Brexit happened and to a business that's based in retail, it all started getting squashed and squashed. Our admin team just got squashed, which I was managing, and we were dealing with more work than we had the hours to do. I ended up supporting the entire board. You don't really have the ability in those employed jobs to say, no, I will not be able to give you the best of me if I take on one more person. So it just kept being pushed further the team went from five to two and I was like, I'm struggling to live a life and I'm burnt out. My body's angry with me and I don't wanna do that again to my system. So I was like, I'll take a sabbatical. And that's when I went off and disappeared across the world. Oh yeah. All the cliches. Ah, no, I was gonna come back to that job. I had no intention of quitting, and yet that's what I did.
Riannon Palmer:we need those moments where we just go away and explore what else could be out there. Because when you are in
Mel:Mm.
Riannon Palmer:of it and you're feeling stressed and everything, you think, I need my nine to five and I need my paycheck. but taking that step out sometime can be really good.
Mel:Absolutely. I saved and saved to be able to take three months off. It wasn't something where I was like, I've just got all the money in the bank. I ended up working a couple of different jobs to do it. I have a background in events. I was doing events at nights and weekends to save the cash to do the sabbatical and I actually ended up, selling a property privately for, one of my clients. 'cause I was doing a little bit of the private VA work and support for high net worth individuals behind the scenes. Hence I've always had more than one job. and that cash from the house sale, because we actually sold it to a developer who was buying up flats in a building, that commission ended up being the thing I started the business with. that came in while I'd gone to Bali and I was like, oh, I have a choice now.
Riannon Palmer:Amazing. And what was it like when you first had that burnout and that health concern? Because I'm guessing if you hadn't been stressed, then probably you would still have your spleen, or would it have always been that way anyway?
Mel:think the spleen thing was separate, but it came to a head because of the stress. your body can only handle so much, and I think the two coincided where my body just couldn't handle it. I will never know what caused the spleen to be so enlarged. it ended up just being a benign cyst, but it took over my spleen. add stress to that, and it heightens the fact that something's wrong in your body. if you've ever experienced burnout, it's the feeling of constantly living with a fizzing, anxiety in your body. It's like a quiet panic every day And you feel jangly. You are always on edge, and you're exhausted and you just feel like if someone asks you one more question, you are going to explode and you can't tell people off You just feel almost suffocated by how exhausted you are, how anxious you are, how you can't make decisions at the end of the day to do with anything to do with your life. So I stopped having a social life as well because the idea of planning, 'cause I'm the planner in the friend group, was just exhausting. So it affects every facet of your life especially from your body to your mental health. It's full on and it's like quietly happens to you as well. It's almost like it builds up without you realizing
Riannon Palmer:if I've had a busy week or not been sleeping well I will, get a cold. a couple of weeks ago I pulled something in my back because I've been really busy at work. it's really interesting that your body really tells you exactly how you're feeling and it does. Tell you to slow down. And I guess now because you have that compromised immune system, you have to think about looking after yourself and balancing it, which is quite hard when you're a founder 'cause it's always on and you need to be doing a lot. how do you find that balance between looking after yourself and running a startup?
Mel:Yeah, it's not easy. I won't lie. I'm 43 now, I've been in perimenopause for a couple of years, so that's taking a massive toll on my body. I'm now working with a lovely nutritionist and doctor to figure that out it's been a step change to figure out that I need to support my body because. if you have your own business, it lives in your head 24 7. And I think that off switch doesn't exist, but we need to create it. We need to find ways. And I think for me, the simplest way is just get outside, walk, play, do things that make you laugh. It's almost like you need to pattern interrupt your emotions and have off time. for me, that looks like I have to plan things into the diary that aren't work. Otherwise, I could just fill all the hours Working and tweaking, actually, do you know what, today I'm not saving lives. It's not urgent. Can I put this on my schedule for tomorrow? if I'm getting a migraine or feel really exhausted. It's just practicing catching yourself, being like, is this really important to do today? Especially as a woman, we go through cycles in the month and have a depletion of energy at certain points In that stage of the month, I've learned it's the worst thing you can do, I'm not fully cycle syncing my work, but I'm trying to understand where my energy lies and to be really graceful with myself when it's a little bit more depleted and not push when I'm in that phase, whether it's tiredness or my menstrual cycle, it's like a habit. You have to keep creating for yourself 'cause no one else is gonna do it for you. When you work for yourself, you have to be the one in charge of boundaries. For myself, switch off. Get outta the house. Do something different.
Riannon Palmer:all about practice. I think the longer you have a company, the more you are thinking I need to actually put these breaks in and make sure I'm looking after myself. Lots of people on LinkedIn always talk about taking a proper holiday off and i've been getting progressively better at it, but I still usually bring my laptop and will probably still check my emails occasionally. I think it gets progressively easier and hopefully we'll all become, whereas is that balancing work and life at some point.
Mel:Absolutely. Yeah.
Riannon Palmer:when you were in Bali that really inspired you to start the business I've been to Bali, I've done the digital nomad thing there it's quite inspirational place 'cause there's everyone with laptops starting businesses. was there one moment that you thought, yeah, this is something I wanna get involved with?
Mel:you know what? Having been back in the PA world for five years with that job, what surprised the crap out of me is that I didn't know the virtual assistant world existed. I had just never had anyone say it to me, never looked online about it. it's wild to me that I had no idea it existed until someone said, why are you thinking you're going back to work? you could do this to multiple clients you choose on your own terms. it was all the digital nomads. Around me who told me about it, and then I started looking into it and I was like. Oh, I can definitely do this. this is not the first business I've had in my early twenties. I had a branding and marketing business and we dealt with celebrities and did endorsement deals running my own business isn't new and I thought, now's a good time to try. because I had that leeway with the sabbatical, I thought, try while I'm away and see. And I ended up getting my first client from, digital Nomad. Facebook group for a coworking place in Bali, and then it went from there. massively undercharged in the beginning. that's how I was like, 15 pounds an hour. Sure, I'll take 15 pounds an hour. now I'm like, that's wild to me. but yeah, it all started from there and it just kept going enough that the scale started tipping. When the commission from the house sale came in, I was like, What do I do? it felt like this big risk to take, but it was so exciting at the same time. I remember just calling my, very posh boss, from a rice field and he was going, well, I didn't think you'd actually come back. And I was like, why did nobody think I'd come back? I was so sure that I would, and he was so generous about it. He said, we should all be doing more of this. Living your life. Figuring out what you want. he said, best of luck we will miss you. But I think it's absolutely the right thing to do. And I was like, I've definitely just quit my job. then it was like panic stations. I needed to find somewhere to live. I decided I wasn't coming home, for as long as possible. the overhead is so low in Bali, rent and bills and everything, it's not like coming back to London having to pay London rent. So it's like, if I'm gonna make it work, I'm gonna need to start it here. So yeah, I stayed for a year.
Riannon Palmer:living in Bali for that long?
Mel:Oh, it was incredible. I became a proper little hippie. I was seeing yoga every day, watching the sunsets, the sunrises, going to women's circles, I just loved it, and it was such a healthy, lovely way of life. It was really just what my nervous system needed as well. At the same time as doing something stressful, starting your business, there was everything in that little island to support my soul
Riannon Palmer:And what brought you back to the uk?
Mel:my best friend was pregnant. She had a baby. While I was away, we've been best friends for such a long time. I started to get a little bit homesick because it's a very transient island I thought, I need a dose of my friends and family. I haven't seen anyone in a year, so I think it was just this little heart calling to come back home. think it put this degree of grip backing 'cause I was like, I really need to make this work. I've gotta figure out where I'm gonna live. I had this massive struggle. I couldn't find a place to live because on paper what I'd done in Bali was not a lot, It was enough to live quite a luxurious life out there, but in London terms it wasn't. I remember getting turned down by landlords and trying to rent a room. It wasn't massive. I remember thinking, what the hell am I gonna do? I was living. On people's sofas out of a suitcase for about six months after I came home because I had to somehow translate that income into something larger for London. So that was quite full on, and I'm going, I'm a professional. I've got all this skills I'm offering. Meanwhile, I'm sleeping on sofas. So it was definitely a little bit scary.
Riannon Palmer:That thing that you don't realize We are employed by the company, but we are also employed by ourselves. I bought a place last year and you have to Go through different hoops and have all your business finances as well when you're going to get a mortgage, which. You don't really think about. Luckily, I knew someone who had done it recently who owned a business, so I had to think about that. It was gonna be a little bit more difficult, but those are things that you think in your personal life that aren't gonna really be affected by the business. But it all comes into play.
Mel:Well, this is my first year having a mortgage. Me and my partner bought a house together this year, I'm looking back at someone who was living on sofas seven years ago trying to start a business, and now it's giving me my dream home with the love of my life. sometimes we just don't take stock of what we've achieved and what we've actually done for ourselves and by ourselves. sometimes you just have to go. It might not feel like a lot, but it's actually a hell of a lot more than you think it is that you've done.
Riannon Palmer:we all measure profit and revenue, but actually, are you way more happier in this life than you were in your previous life? And from the sounds of it, you are.
Mel:Oh, a hundred percent. I think about sometimes I'm like, would I ever go back to working for somebody? And I'm like, big fat. No.
Riannon Palmer:It's.
Mel:I wouldn't want it. And I think that's why there's so much grit and resilience from people who own their own businesses. this is my game plan, my legacy, my whole business, my whole life is this thing and I will make it work no matter what. A huge bunch of resilience is built up through experience, but I love it so much as well. if I didn't love it, it'd be a different conversation, but I do absolutely love what we do
Riannon Palmer:You had this first business, back when you were a little bit younger, and what were the learnings that you took from that business into this new one?
Mel:that first business I remember thinking, I don't understand tax, I don't understand numbers. I had this panic tax return moment with an accountant who didn't wanna teach me anything. I remember thinking, I can't get the numbers wrong this time I have to be more mindful. I have to be financially literate What if there's no one else I can ask to figure it out. I have to learn. I'm really passionate about, women having financial literacy in their businesses now because of that. when you get it wrong, it's suffocating and awful. making sure I knew my numbers, making sure that the business is profitable. 'cause at some stage I decided to start building out a team, which meant I just didn't have time to do the hands-on work myself. there's this hands-on level of. Income that you get from working direct with clients that suddenly drops when you make the switch over to having team to do all the work and the hands-on, day-to-day stuff for you while you're building out the sales, the marketing that you know, all of the rest of the facets of the business. So I think that was one of the biggest learning curves that I made sure I got as right as I could. and then I think just hiring team and knowing when it was, time when, overloaded and there's more leads coming in than I can hand. I've got to make a decision. I've got to make a call as to do I take it all on and burn out, or do I be sensible and start to hire Associate VAs and build this into something where it can expand and I won't burn out, and everybody's happy.
Riannon Palmer:it's always that scary thing of knowing the time. I often speak to people who haven't hired employees yet, and they're running startups, they ask me, what was that moment that you felt safe enough to hire an employee? Because I'm doing all these things and I am starting to burn out, but how can I. make sure that we can manage and pay bills and everything, it's hard to predict the economy. a couple of years ago you knew what was coming in. You knew the busy times and the quiet times, these days it's, all up in the air.
Mel:So much has changed I'm seeing a lot of VAs leave the industry for full-time jobs we had that 2020 boom, everybody went online and it turned into a great hiring period for VAs to get clients. now that has continued. there's no saturation in the market and when you don't differentiate yourself and stand out as a va, someone else will go block that client if you've got a family, you're struggling with that lack of reliability. So I do understand that there are some people that are like, I'm not cut out to have that level of instability at this stage in my life. So there's a lot of change happening because, the economic climate has changed so much. And the seasons in our business where we could say, you know, January was a busy intake month and July is dead. Like for me this year, they've completely reversed. So it's just being able to be a bit more agile and. Planning for quiet season. 'cause you know, none of us really have a plan for that, but it happens.
Riannon Palmer:And what do
Mel:Yeah.
Riannon Palmer:is the biggest differentiator of you, compared to other virtual assistant companies?
Mel:One, I think there's two sides. I think one of the services that we provide, the lifestyle VA service, is private lifestyle management and support for really busy, modern, ambitious families, it's not a huge amount of pounds per hour, where you see this massive concierge luxury companies and, on all their advertising. It's like people swanning out of private jets and, your average probably combined six figure income, for a family they don't identify with walking private jets and limos, but they need someone to be on top of utilities, gifts, things kids need for school, the holidays, the homes, everything to do with the life admin As a woman, traditionally, you come home at the end of the day, close your work laptop, and then you're like, I've gotta sort the bills out. I've gotta get the travel insurance, I've gotta plan the holiday, sort the car. Oh, and the gas and utility provider. That's the stuff that we do, and we do it for those ambitious, modern families. I don't see a lot of other people doing the same thing at this affordable price point. As an agency, I'm not just there to match and watch you walk into the sunset with your VA and go, let me know if there's any problems. See you later. it's more about the fact that you actually get my strategy brain, because I've been inside and run so many businesses and seen a lot of high level businesses operate through the years and with the clients, it's like I'm this. fairy godmother with a laptop who can do that audit on your business and then figure out what we need to do with the VA for that client in that first three months. And there's this strategic phased approach to how we do things. I'm gonna promise you a lot of results, but we're gonna be realistic about when and where we actually tune and turn things on I don't want the business owner to be overwhelmed when they hire us. I'm the one that starts the plan and then delegates that to the VA so they don't have to. I'm watching the whole process from a project management perspective. And then we see that first quarter go really well because I'm handholding the process and the strategy to making it work. And I don't see a lot of other people doing that. It's like, here's your BA off you go. that leaves a very busy and overwhelmed client who needs that VA even more busy and overwhelmed. that's what we try to not have as a part of our process. It's more smooth and handholding.
Riannon Palmer:about as well, their mental load. there's lots of women who are luckily in the workforce, and I think there's still that behavior of back in the 1950s when women would be the ones taking on the mental load and thinking about the kids in the household, but now they are probably working just as many or potentially more hours in employed work as. Their partner, if they're in a straight relationship, their male partner, they're still having to take on the load.
Mel:Yeah.
Riannon Palmer:that has not really elevated or changed, since back in the day?
Mel:I think there's still this massive lack of flexibility for working mothers, and even in a household where you've got the most amazing, caring, helpful partner who pitches in 50 50 with everything. I think naturally the way that women's brains are wired is we carry what needs to be done in the house One of our clients came to us. It was actually a husband who hired us, And he just said, I'm traveling so much for work and I feel like a bad husband. There's so much that I leave my wife to do just purely because I'm not there and I don't think that's right. I wanna contribute more. And that's by putting you in play for her. I thought that was just such a sign of, the times. he's very aware. he wants to contribute to the household, but because his physical presence isn't there, it is left to her. one of the things that came back from her after a couple of months is, she said it was amazing 'cause we were putting all their tasks in Asana and both husband and wife are on the Asana board with the va. she said the conversation I'm having with him now, he can see, he's noticing and he's saying I had no idea. Of all of the thousand tiny things that you were carrying in your brain that our VA is now sorting. So it's improved the communication between them as well, because it's a woman's invisible mental load that's so often talked about. But in reality, when you show that to the other side, you add a different level to your relationship. But I'm not saying we're like marriage counselors or anything,
Riannon Palmer:sometimes we are, Sometimes we have calls with clients and they've had a bad week, so you end up being a counselor as well, and you have to wear all the hats.
Mel:absolutely. Women traditionally need more help because there is a lack of flexibility. there needs to be more forgiving and flexibility around working times, pickups and it's just not built into employed roles. that's why we carry it and why something like what we give is so magical
Riannon Palmer:You have lots of working parents that you employ and are able to offer a more flexible solution that lots of parents dream of. how did that come about, and was that because of your own journey and you saw the need for it?
Mel:I think it's interesting because when I look back at who came to work with me straight away, I have, quite a different hiring, process The VAs that work for me traditionally have at least five years of PA or EA experience because of the level of clients who on the business side are running six and seven figure businesses. They need that confidence and that experience, not someone who's using a transferrable skill and becoming a va. There are definitely clients for those kinds of VAs, but the VAs we need have a really experienced background also when you're dealing with families. they need to have done that kind of work before. on the business side, they need the experience on the family side, they need those qualities and a little bit of that experience. naturally the VA's coming that way. a little bit older, sort of in their thirties and forties, and they'd had kids. I have never met a more productive woman than a woman with kids who works between school pickups, drop offs or nap times. They are productivity ninjas the majority of the women that work for me have children and it works around that flexibility with the client contracts we have. They have the freedom to do the school runs and the pickups and then not worry about, oh my gosh, I'm not online for the client. We don't have clients that need that level of high touch all day, every day. So it really works for them and it gives 'em that flexibility. And for me, that's just an extra, I'm making a difference. I'm really helping someone who needs that flexibility in a world where it's not designed for women to work around children and childcare. So I love that side of it.
Riannon Palmer:more women into employment and fixing the gender pay gap, but without flexible employment. women are still doing most of the mental load and care. Responsibilities, whether for children or for elderly relatives. without flexibility, we aren't gonna be able to provide that, equal workplace experience. So it's really key that there are employees like you who are giving people that option.
Mel:Absolutely, it's one of the things I love the most. It's like a happy byproduct of the work that we do anyway. You get happy clients, happy team, and they're matched really well for personality as well. I think as much as it's skills. It's that personality fit I love seeing the match come together and, two months down the line they're like, oh, we couldn't live without her. Now we love her. the VA's really happy as well. it's about getting it right for both sides. I want happiness on both sides.
Riannon Palmer:we have new clients coming on, we look at the skillset and the experience, but also the personality fit. if you think someone's gonna go better with someone, then it just makes sense and everyone's gonna be happier at the end of the day. Have you had any big challenges since you started the company?
Mel:I think. managing people is the biggest and sometimes the most challenging side of things. I don't necessarily always get it right. People have things that happen in their lives, which means suddenly that client's without, or we've gotta make a switch. it teaches you what's my contingency plan? What happens if somebody doesn't work out or something happens in someone's life? How do I make this work? And also. I think one of the challenges in the beginning was having team and then feeling like they were needing, something from me every two seconds in Slack was just like, ding, ding, ding. And I'm trying to write content and emails and I was like, this is exhausting, i'm frazzled. they need to not ask me these questions. I need to put them in SOPs. systemizing and creating processes for the business and they have. Beautiful library now that if they're coming to ask a question, I know it's not covered and I need to write a new SOP. dumping my brain into processes has been one of the best things to counteract that feeling of I'm getting in the way, I'm becoming the silo, and that's not productive for anybody. So let me step back, have everything you need, and if you still have a question, I haven't answered it properly, and I need a new SOP. doing things like that has really saved my sanity.
Riannon Palmer:same as well a few years ago. I thought when you run a company like ours, your people are your biggest assets, so making it as easy as possible for them makes sense. I think it is one of those things that you learn. When I started the business and it sounds maybe like you, you fall into it and all these little lessons and learnings along the way come into place. which makes it easier. But I always try and these days drop these bits of advice to startup founders. 'cause I know I wish someone would've told me at the time
Mel:Oh, absolutely. I think everything that has gone wrong in the business has taught me to put an extra clause in a contract to protect myself from it happening again. How many times do we go that's not covered in the contract? Immediately add something, find someone to add it, and then you have to learn by the failures, and I don't think they are failures. I think they're the things that make you better Through the journey. the failures lead to more successes, but they feel a bit rough at the time. it's part of the business. It's part of building resilience. Things will go wrong and it's how you figure them out, rectify it, and then next time it's not so stressful you think I'm good at this, I can handle problems. not too often, but I'm good at these things.
Riannon Palmer:I always like is that if you're not gonna worry about something in a month, then you shouldn't be worrying about it now. which is easier said than done in the moment.
Mel:I love that.
Riannon Palmer:but I always try to think, actually it's not gonna matter too much in the future,
Mel:No, I love that. I'm gonna steal that.
Riannon Palmer:And if you were gonna take yourself back to, that person in Bali that was enjoying their sabbatical, and then someone suggested you start your own agency, what piece of advice would you give to them?
Mel:I would say do it, get good contracts, that was one of the first things where I got a bit screwed over taking on any old client. we forget that we have experience. when we start a business, it's like we're brand new, but we are not. we need to be more confident in ourselves and our abilities so that we set boundaries with ourselves. But most importantly, with clients and getting good contracts is a really good way to reiterate your boundaries in the business. don't respond at eight o'clock at night. If your hours are nine to five. Have those boundaries. people skim contracts, right? So I started to do like a welcome guide where I pulled out the key, like these are our working hours, these are our return times for tasks, messages, all that stuff. So it's in the contract and also in your welcoming sequence of emails so that we can reiterate that don't be afraid to reiterate. Boundaries. Clients don't actually tend to go, what do you mean you can't send me this project as deck at eight o'clock at night? They actually go, oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I should be more like you. I should stop working now.
Riannon Palmer:why don't you send me this deck right now? That's your reason to get rid of a client usually.
Mel:A hundred percent. you almost have to have a few bad clients. It's a rite of passage. it teaches you what you do and don't want, and it teaches you how to spot the red flags sooner. Look for all the green flags instead.
Riannon Palmer:become better at spotting those, red flags. Even just when you see briefs and stuff coming in from clients. if it's not a detailed brief, they probably aren't gonna value your time and your input. And there's all these little things, but yeah, I wish sometimes I would've had a watch out earlier.
Mel:Mm-hmm.
Riannon Palmer:then we learn all these lessons and we become, better people.
Mel:Yeah, and I think a good question to ask yourself is, if the money didn't matter to me, would I take this client on? Would this be a yes decision or a no decision? And that's not always easy to say because as we know, cashflow fluctuates when you work for yourself. But that's a really good question, just to ask yourself as a sanity check is it really vital that I take this client on? if I were in a financial position where it didn't matter, what decision would I actually be making?
Riannon Palmer:a very big global company wanted to pay us all the money to do their pr, but the person would've been a nightmare for the team I'm less day-to-day these days, so it would've been the team that was on it, I knew it wasn't worth their stress and their mental health to be working with this person, even if they were gonna pay us ridiculous amounts of money. and actually they had a bit of a PR mishap not too long after whoever they did take on. So it was very good that we didn't start working with them.
Mel:Oh, well done. Absolutely. It's the only thing you have really.
Riannon Palmer:can people find you if they wanna hear more about the business or about you?
Mel:you can find me on LinkedIn. it's Melanie Maw, MAW on LinkedIn, and on Instagram at the Llifestyle VA Agency, same on threads. Threads for the rambles and the funny stuff. I also have a podcast called Delegate, like a CEO
Riannon Palmer:It's been so interesting to hear your story today.
Mel:Absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Riannon Palmer:Thanks to Mel for sharing her story. If you enjoyed today's episode of Lemonade Leaders, hit Follow and like for weekly episodes. Until next time, keep making your own lemonade.