94) Lucy had the Perfect Job- But She Wanted More. Why She Quit for Digital Nomad Life

Lucy love her corporate job, but it wasn't giving her the freedom of travel or financial freedom she wanted. 

Today we are sitting down with Lucy who is a former corporate employee who took a leap of faith, quit her job, and built a remote business that allows her to live and work from anywhere in the world. Lucy quit her job and started her business as a VA and in this episode we are going to find out how Lucy managed a  quantum leap  in her first business and built three digital nomad businesses in the span of a year and ahalf. . If you’ve been wondering what life would look like outside your corporate job and how to start your own remote work journey, this episode is for you!

• Learn how Lucy transitioned from a corporate job to a fully booked virtual assistant business in just three months.
• Discover the power of leveraging your network to land your first remote client—without needing a massive social media following.
• Get insider tips on scaling your digital business from a side hustle into a full-time, soul-aligned career with unlimited earning potential.

Chapter Marks:

⏳ [00:00] Welcome & Introduction – Meet Lucy Cole, a corporate escapee turned digital nomad.
⏳ [03:00] The Digital Nomad Dream – What inspired Lucy to leave her 9-to-5 and pursue remote work.
⏳ [07:00] The Epiphany Moment – How a backpacking trip led to Lucy’s digital nomad transformation.
⏳ [10:00] Quitting the Corporate Life for the Digital Nomad Life – Handing in her notice while traveling in the Philippines.
⏳ [15:00] Getting Her First Client in Her Digital Nomad Business – How Lucy landed her first gig without using social media.
⏳ [20:00] Digital Nomad Success – From VA to brand strategist to business coach in 18 months.
⏳ [30:00] Scaling & Building a Sustainable Business – What’s next for Lucy and her coaching business.
⏳ [45:00] Advice for Aspiring Digital Nomads – Why starting now is the key to success.
⏳ [52:00] Where to Connect with Lucy – Follow Lucy’s journey on TikTok!

Listen to hear Lucy’s inspiring journey and actionable advice on becoming a digital nomad, quitting your job, and creating a life of freedom and flexibility!

Connect with Lucy:

Follow Lucy on TikTok: @LucyJasmineCole and @lucyjcole on Instagram  for daily inspiration and behind-the-scenes looks at her digital nomad journey.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Lucy Cole
• 3:12 Lucy's Journey from Corporate to Digital Nomad
• 12:26 The Power of Embodiment
• 17:16 Finding Her First Clients
• 24:25 The Business Bridge Concept
• 32:19 Social Media Strategy
• 39:22 From VA to Coach: Lucy's Evolution
• 47:27 Scaling a Business Beyond One-on-One
• 53:29 Episode Closing and Contact Information

Transcript

Christa: 0:00

Hey there and welcome to the Digital Nomad Life Podcast. I'm your host, Krista, also known as KristaBellaTravels on social media, and today I am recording this episode live in a studio in Bali, Indonesia. I am with one of my current clients who I have had the joy and pleasure of working with for the past year and a half. Her name is Lucy Cole and she is, just honestly, an all-star client. I am so excited for you to hear her story about how she started off working in corporate, having a good life. She'll tell you in the episode.

Christa: 0:34

Everything was good, Nothing to complain about per se, but now she is here living a truly extraordinary life, working on her business that she has scaled very rapidly over the past year since she got started as a digital nomad and honestly, just living her best life in the sun in Bali. I know you just got back from a really cool trip and you have a launch coming up soon, so can you just give a little introduction to the audience about who you are, where you come from, what you're doing now? Just give us a little intro.

Lucy: 1:10

Hey guys, so grateful to be here with Krista. This is a very magical moment for me, being able to live in Bali and, after joining so long ago, I'm just very grateful to be having this conversation. So my name is Lucy, I'm from the UK and I yeah, I've been living in Bali now since December and I've been a full-time digital nomad working on my business, and I'm honestly now living the dream that, when me and Chris start working together, this is the dream that I always pictured. I'm very, very grateful to be actually living it day to day. So, yeah, thanks for having me.

Christa: 1:44

Oh my gosh, you're so welcome. It's always so cool to get a client on a podcast because, you know, I remember the first few days of whenever I work with any of my clients. When someone first joins the Digital Nomad Life Academy, it's like I drop in, I learn all about where you're at and I kind of get this moment in time burned in my brain of like, okay, this is this person and we don't know what's about to happen next. So then, when it comes time for us to actually do a podcast, we get to go back to that first benchmark moment and really see how much has changed and how much has happened. And for you specifically, you just have committed so wholeheartedly to your remote business and your digital nomad life and you've gotten amazing results. Like you're just, your whole life is transformed.

Christa: 2:31

So for the listeners, let's actually just give them what that initial benchmark was. Where were you, what frame of mind were you in when you first joined the Digital Nomad Life Academy, which just also to put that into context for anybody who's new here my business is called the Digital Nomad Life Academy, where I help you go from nine to five to you decide and basically I just help you figure out how you can create the digital nomad life and business of your dreams. So yeah, when people first start working with me, usually they don't usually have a lot of direction, but you actually did, lucy. So, yeah, take us back and where were you at when you first joined?

Lucy: 3:12

Yeah, so when I first joined so for the context, I started working with Krista back in October 2022. And I had recently come back from a backpacking trip, which I was actually taking a sabbatical for my corporate job because, like I, my job wasn't awful. I actually quite enjoyed my work, it was creative, I had some great colleagues, but, like a lot of you listening, the nine-to-five just did not have the freedom that I needed and craved in life. Um, so I thought there must be more out there for me. I'm going to go backpacking, I'm going to go see the world, and that's exactly what I did.

Lucy: 3:46

And then when I came back, I'd obviously, you know, met digital nomads out in the wild and I was like, oh my God, this is, this is me, this is how I need to live my life. And obviously, this is exactly where I ended up finding you Krista on social media and I thought this girl is living the life I need to live. I need to work with her however I can. So that was when I joined in October and I actually already decided I was going to become a virtual assistant. And this is because when I was out you know, backpacking I'd met virtual assistants and I was like, amazing, this is, this is my ticket in. I have all the transferable skills. I'm going to use this business to get my foot in the door, a business, be able to have my income and travel, and then we'll see what happens.

Lucy: 4:30

From there, kind of utilize Krista's amazing knowledge and then, you know, grow this into something so much bigger, which is where we're at now. So this is the point where I've been, you know, scaling my business. I moved out of virtual assistant work and I ended up going into brand strategy for a short while and now I'm actually a coach, because I had people in my DM saying, lucy, how the hell are you living this life? And I was like, oh, I guess I can teach you how. And it feels very soul aligned for me and I'm very blessed to be able to do this and help other women become a virtual assistant as well, just like I did.

Christa: 5:01

Okay, there were so many little things in that story that I want to pull out of you, so one. I want to hear about these moments when you were backpacking and you had this epiphany moment of wait a minute. I want to do this too. This is what I want to do, so I want to hear all about that. I also want to hear about your journey of going from virtual assistant to brand designer to coach, because that's like a lot of change to happen in just a year and a half, and now I know that you do feel very soul aligned with what it is that you're doing You're utilizing social media.

Christa: 5:35

So we have a lot to talk about, and I really just want to yeah, deconstruct your success, basically because if there's one thing that I got out of your story, just listening to it now, is that the people that we meet will change the course of our lives. The people that we allow to influence us will influence us, will influence our decision making, will influence our worldview, and so it sounds like you met virtual assistants, so you're like I will become a virtual assistant. Take us to the backpacking trip and tell us about the epiphany.

Lucy: 6:10

Yeah, so I was. I actually remember this moment so, so vividly, and I even use this when I'm teaching people. Now I always come back to this moment because it was my pivoting point. This is when I had made the commitment to myself and the decision of mine that this is now going to be, you know, this new life, is how I'm going to, how I'm going to do this.

Lucy: 6:29

Um, so I was in a treetop cafe in Thailand, on Phuket, and it was the most honestly, the most Pinterest looking place. It was stunning and I saw these, this group of people. They look so cool and they were working from their laptops on these beanbags, overlooking like there was a sea view and we were up in the treetops and it was at that moment. I saw them and I just envisioned myself being them, like it was. I just got honestly encapsulated by just them and this whole life and I thought, god, if they can do it, I can, like there's nothing stopping me here.

Lucy: 7:05

I literally am seeing in my, with my own eyes, that someone is living this life that I am, and that was, honestly, the moment that I made that commitment, and then I honestly just everybody else I saw thereafter. It was like there's more proof for me. I'm seeing the social proof. I'm seeing it everywhere. People are living this life and any noise in the back of my mind from people back home that were saying, oh, come back to reality, like you know, which, oh, that struck Still to this day, that kind of is deep in me, that I'm like have a big resistance against people saying come back to reality, because this is our reality now.

Christa: 7:42

I mean, I've been living this reality for over a decade. So when people are, nobody says that to me anymore. Everybody's just like she's far gone, she's left the matrix over a decade ago, she ain't coming back. So you might still be getting messages like that for a little while, but I think the more that you dig your heels in, the less they'll say that and the more they'll be like okay, that's just Lucy doing her thing, that's what she does, yeah, but okay. So you mentioned that you were, yeah, love, the love, the treetop Phuket vision that you just gave us. But so that was a moment when you were like, oh, I could do this, oh, this is real. But why do you think you didn't think that before?

Lucy: 8:27

I think, because with social media, we get this picture which is is glamorized to a certain point. We see these people living this life online and we're thinking, oh my God, it's just, it almost feels too perfect. How can there be people out there doing this? And I'd seen so much beforehand and I was like God, like this is the dream, is it too good to be true? And then when you actually go out and a lot of you listening if you have been on a backpacking trip it just completely opens your perspective to life. You meet people who are doing things against the norm and that is when the cogs start turning. You're thinking oh, I don't have to live the life from all the same people in my hometown. There's other ways I can be living life, and seeing that in person was when I decided and realized yeah, of course this is for me. If they're doing it, I can Love it.

Christa: 9:10

So you left Thailand and then you went back to the UK and I guess you resumed your job because you had been on a sabbatical. So what was that like, returning after you just had your mind blown?

Lucy: 9:23

open. Well, this is a funny thing actually. So we were away for eight months. We did a lot of Southeast Asia and I was actually in the Philippines and I handed in my notice Whilst I was in the Philippines. I remember the moment so vividly.

Lucy: 9:38

Like I said earlier, I was actually really close to my colleagues. We were all great friends and I FaceTimed my old manager and I'd already sent the email through my resignation letter and, yeah, I was on that call. I was like, guys, I'm going to go do something crazy, I'm going to figure out how to build a business and become a digital nomad. And they were so happy for me and I feel like that's actually quite rare to get from people in the corporate space but, yeah, they really were so happy for me. It's who I am.

Lucy: 10:06

Everyone knows I'm very adventurous and I didn't have a plan. This was where I was like, okay, well, I know what a virtual assistant is. And that was when I decided, okay, well, this could be the path for me, but I still knew nothing about it. I almost didn't know how I was going to build a business, ultimately leading me to you. So I had had my notice in, resumed my travels for a month, went to Japan and then we came home and that summer, when I came home, I actually started working some hospitality jobs, just to, you know, get some income that I could survive off of. And that's when I was building the business as well as then starting to work with you. So I decided I was going to commit to the cause and just take some hospitality shifts and just make it happen. However, I was going to make it happen, I was going to do it Wow.

Christa: 10:52

I love that Just commitment and dedication and also the willingness to put yourself into an uncomfortable situation. I can imagine that was pretty uncomfortable to quit your job while in another country and not having a plan or just like some vague idea of what you were going to do. What did that feel like?

Lucy: 11:11

Honestly, it was, I'm not going to lie. It was terrifying. It's obviously a huge, huge, huge decision, and you know everything that we're told in life. I was going completely against it and you know I could have progressed in my corporate job. Of course I could have, but at the end of the day, I knew that I was just a number and I knew that my job wasn't going to give me the ultimate freedom that I needed. Um, so I feel like just with that alone, I did have this reassurance in me that this is all going to work out Like it was. Yes, it was terrifying, but I was very intuitive with my feelings and I and I knew, I, just I had this feeling that this was the right decision I was making. I didn't doubt myself too much because I backed myself. I knew this was going to work.

Christa: 11:52

Mm-hmm. So I just want to pause right there and say this is exactly why I include so much mindset work into my coaching and I think, also why you have excelled so rapidly Because when you came into the program, you already had a really, really strong mindset of I can do this. I trust myself, I will listen to my intuition, I'm going to block out all the naysayers. I'm just going to go to the beat of my own drum and by you having that conviction, that is what has enabled you, I believe, to. I mean, obviously also, you took action and you know you learned from, you learned lessons along the way. You invested in yourself, like you did all the things. But when I hear that, I'm like, of course, of course, you went so fast so far. So do you have any words of wisdom for anybody who is listening to this? And they're like, wow, I would love to become a digital nomad, but like I don't have that kind of belief in myself.

Lucy: 12:55

Oh, I, honestly, something I would say is always come back to your why. Because, if you have such a core, strong belief in you of why you even want to do this, and for me, my why is I want to live a life where I have complete, complete freedom over my time, my location, my income. I am a very independent person. I'm an Aquarius, just like Krista.

Lucy: 13:19

we're both Aquarius, yeah which is in our nature to be very independent and yeah, just me as a person. Freedom, fulfillment in life is is so, so important and, like I said, that was why the alternative life myself wasn't for me and why this one is just so for me is because I now get to live so much freedom myself. So that is so deep and strong in me that if I even have a wobble one day, if we all have days where you know the entrepreneurial landscape is pretty crazy and you, you need to be able to ground yourself and come back to you know, a level head, and this is how I do. It is just connecting back with that. Why making sure it's really a strong belief in myself.

Christa: 14:03

Beautiful, amazing, okay, so valuable for the listeners. So okay, so you're in the Philippines. You gave your notice, you decided that you were going to become a virtual assistant. You weren't quite sure how that was going to work out. What happened next?

Lucy: 14:17

Yeah. So I came back to the UK and, yeah, I was working in hospitality jobs and I was honestly looking around for a coach. And it's something where I'd never invested into a coach before. It was new to me the whole concept of being coached. So I I was looking around and I found a few other VA coaches, but no one was really resonating with me.

Lucy: 14:40

And that's the most important thing when you're looking to work with a coach is you know, you, you connect with them, you, you find them inspiring. That's, yeah, you have to be able to just completely be invested in them as well. And that's when I find you, krista, and, like I said earlier, it was I could see myself, you know, living a life like yours and I just found it so inspiring and it was for me. I actually needed community. That was I feel like I could have. At the time I was like you know what I can, I can figure out the VA stuff. It's I've got all the transferable skills. It's just going to be about learning how to run a business. How do I get clients, how do I, how do I do this, how do I do this entrepreneurial thing. And that's when yeah, it was, it was coming to you for that, and also the community of people who were like-minded and, like I said, I was.

Lucy: 15:32

I was back in the UK, I was living back with my parents and there's UK mentality is a funny one. This, you know, it's a great country. I'm not going to, you know, not going to be that person, but it's. It's very conformative and gray and corporate is king. So I needed to meet other entrepreneurs. I needed to have these conversations that were uplifting me and inspiring me and not having my environment around me drag me down. And a quote that you say and I hold this so close to my heart now is you are the sum of the people you spend the most time with. And that's exactly to summarize me finding my community. That was it 100%. Finding my people.

Christa: 16:13

Nice. I just got a little vision in my head as you were talking about, like, why it's so important to surround yourself by entrepreneurial people. But I think, in the case of wanting to become a digital nomad, and whether you want to travel around the world nonstop, or you want to just move abroad, or you want to just have a, a lifestyle that's more accommodating to you, I actually think that it's like, of the category of entrepreneurs, digital nomad entrepreneurs is a really niche category within that category, because there are so many entrepreneurs that they're starting a business to remain in the corporate culture. They want to start a business so that they can just be at the top of a corporation. They're like, okay, if I can't become a CEO, I'm just going to build a business where I'm the CEO. I'm pretty sure that Jeff Bezos, for example, is a totally different breed of entrepreneur than we are, or that anybody in the Digital Nomad Life Academy is. So, yeah, it's not just the energy of being around people that are building a business, but it's building a lifestyle business 100%.

Lucy: 17:24

yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself. And that's again all of us in the D&LA at our core, our why is this freedom, like we all want to be able to, you know, be location dependent to a certain extent. It doesn't have to be backpacking non-stop, it can be I mean, I've been living in Bali for four months now. That's a long time technically to base yourself somewhere, yeah, with, yeah, this digital nomad life. So, and especially here in Bali, there's this is why I feel like there's such a pull to this place is there's many, many people on this wavelength of exactly what you just said? There is, yeah, that freedom, entrepreneurial lifestyle and being a digital nomad is so strong here.

Christa: 18:03

Yeah, oh my gosh, I just got goosebumps when you said the thing about the wavelength. Like people just are. It's. I don't know whether you believe in law of attraction or not. It's just like you maybe see on Instagram or you hear in a podcast. You're like, oh, this place has people that embody similar values to me, that are living a similar lifestyle to me, and because they have these things in common, I probably would get along with them. And it just creates this snowball effect where somehow here there's it's like everybody that you meet has chosen a lifestyle of freedom, a lifestyle of fulfillment, is pursuing their passions, is doing work that they feel inspired by.

Lucy: 18:44

And it's just so good to be in that energy of other people because, yeah, it's just like a constant brainstorming session all the time, literally, and I honestly to not sound too woo-woo, woo, but I owe my recent business success to Bali and the Bali energy because it has. Honestly, the moment I stepped foot on this island, I transported into Lucy 2.0. I started embodying who I, who I always saw in my mind, and the inspired action was aligning and I was kind of. You know, chris is a little bit woo-woo too, so this is a safe space. I would just be getting these downloads and I was like where the hell is this coming from? And I honestly think it is. It's. It's Bali, yeah, yeah, it's. Just being here has done so much good for me, my personal development, my business and in all aspects Can you explain what you mean about this concept of embodiment?

Lucy: 19:39

Oh gosh, this is a lovely topic, so I guess, in a nutshell, really is. You know, when we say embodiment, the way that I perceive this is just, honestly, all through my being is just envisioning, acting in physical form, mental form, the someone I want to be, the Lucy that I see, who is thriving, who is a six-figure business owner, who is just so fulfilled in life. Every day. I create such a mental image of her in my mind that I can tap in, I see her straight away and then I then start acting. My physical form, maybe I start walking a little bit differently, maybe I make decisions in my day to day that are more aligned with Lucy 2.0. And it's just honestly being delusional. I feel like there's, you know, everyone's saying at the moment be Delulu, delulu is a Selulu. I embody that every single day.

Christa: 20:33

Literally my second favorite quote you are the son of the people you spend the most time with, and being DeLulu is the Salulu.

Lucy: 20:39

Absolutely yeah and honestly, the moment I wake up in the morning I am being DeLulu Love it. Same same girl, same same same.

Christa: 20:48

I think that's why we're here. Yeah, Just, oh my gosh, little wormhole moment, Like is this not so wild that we're sitting here right now? And like the way that the internet connected us, and just like my whole life story bringing me here and then yours, and just the chances that we would meet and that we would actually meet in person and it just it's, it's so. I just love, I like love the internet.

Lucy: 21:13

Oh my God, it's so good.

Christa: 21:15

When you utilize it the right way.

Lucy: 21:16

It's just it's so life-changing. It really is, and you know there's so much, I guess, negativity surrounded with social media and the internet, but it can do so much good. It can really. You can use it as a platform to just inspire. Just inspire as many people with your, with your story and your message.

Christa: 21:33

Yes, okay, I want to talk about social media, because I think that I don't know if you have a natural tendency towards it or whatever, but, like you just decided what you wanted to do and then you started showing up and it's really worked for you and it sounds like you know well, you and I connected on social media, so of course, there's you received from that way too. Yeah, okay, I'm just going to let you talk about your relationship to social media and how, what's your perspective and what's your response to someone that's like social media is the devil.

Lucy: 22:05

Honestly.

Lucy: 22:05

So this is the thing with. I guess, with my social media journey I'll I'll run it back to the beginning. So I actually love TikTok and TikTok has been obviously in the news a lot recently and it's you know, in a lot of conversations. I'm a huge advocate for TikTok. I think the algorithm is really great to pushing the content out to the right people and that's what I've been utilizing for my business.

Lucy: 22:28

But at the beginning of me, you know, showing up on TikTok, I was just sharing my journey with my backpacking trip. I was it was just for fun. It honestly it started off as just a fun little hobby because before my backpacking trip I was searching on their you know, tips and tricks. It's kind of like the new Google. It's a really great search engine and I was like you know what, if I'm searching for this content, why don't I create some and just help somebody else as well? So it all started as a very low pressure. You know, just me having a bit of fun. And then, after my backpacking trip, I then started documenting me building my business and again, that was very natural and I was like you know what? There's many people out there that want to start a business. So I'll just, you know, I'll just share it's. There's been a constant theme of like you know what, I'll just put some content out there, and it's always been very, very natural for me very candid, nothing too, nothing too polished. And then this has got to the point now where I have a following and I'm able to now educate people and actually share you know how they can be building a virtual assistant business and using that as a platform to inspire and find people just like me when I first started. And so, yeah, I'm very, very grateful that TikTok is a place where it is, you know, a bit more relaxed. It's not like Instagram nowadays where, you know it has to feel a little bit more like a portfolio. I show up there with no makeup on, looking like, you know, just rolled out of bed, but that's exactly what I want to be putting out. There is just this more candid sort of content.

Lucy: 23:59

So, yeah, in response to your question about kind of what would I say to people who are negative about social media? I would say be careful on what content you're consuming. It's so, so easy to get sucked into the black hole of social media and especially, you know to be a conspiracy theorist here, but we get pushed certain content in the algorithm and especially, you know to be a conspiracy theorist here, but we get pushed certain content in the algorithm and they you know, they quote unquote want us to see certain content. But you just have to be very conscious of you know what is coming up on your feed. What are you consuming? Is it low vibration? Is it kind of pulling you your energy down and then just stay well clear of it? That's why I've just curated my feeds at the moment and that is very inspiring for me.

Lucy: 24:39

Um, so I actually enjoy going on social media because I've decided I'm going to choose the content I'm consuming. So I feel like it is such a power and we're only stepping into, you know, even more beautiful age with social media. I feel to be an optimistic. So, yeah, that would be my, my response to anybody who's like oh, social media, blah, blah, blah is just watch yourself first, focus from the inside out and then try to make an impact from there Beautiful.

Christa: 25:05

Yeah, I think, contributing to the algorithm as well, it's like okay, we know that there's a lot of crap content out there, we know that there's a lot of low vibe stuff, but your post here and there, your stories here and there, you know, contribute to raising the vibration of the whole thing overall. So that feels really good and I'm sure you've connected with some people that have made an impact on your life or you've been able to make an impact on their life via your social media.

Lucy: 25:34

Yes, definitely. So. Yeah, at the moment, with the content I'm sharing on my TikTok, it is always born from a place of inspiration and just trying to connect with the people who are like me, because even when I started working with Krista, when I went backpacking the people I help now is me two, three years ago and I get to speak directly to younger Lucy and honestly, I've been outstounded, I sound, I have been astounded by just the amount of people out there that can relate to my story especially, and if there's anybody listening who maybe is sharing on social media is my number one piece of advice would be just share the most authentic story that you can from yourself. Your story is your superpower. It's what makes you so so unique. Don't fall into the trap of being a copycat and, you know, trying to replicate all these different trends and, you know, just stick to you, because that is what makes you so beautiful and unique.

Christa: 26:32

Beautiful, okay, so love that. So you've been using social media to just connect with people. And I want to go back to the journey of your business, because it kind of sounds like the social media track was on its own path and then your business was on a different path, but somehow along the way they have converged and now they're very much one in the same. I also had that experience actually Like, yeah, really similar. I was just sharing about my digital nomad life and people were like, wow, this is so interesting and how do you do that? And now, long story short, my social media and my lifestyle online has somehow become my business. But yeah, so for you, were you using social media at the beginning of your journey to get clients? Like, tell me about that.

Lucy: 27:22

So, honestly, I'm going to say I used social media but it was not my priority place. Where I was marketing my business. I leveraged my network and that is saying I would suggest to you know it's very dependent on the business you're building, but if you can leverage your network, do that. Do that because I feel like it is the most you know more effortless and quickest way that you can maybe sign your first client, second, third, um, so yeah, I actually have a very funny story about how I signed my first client as a, as a VA. So, like I said earlier, I had decided the VA path was for me. That's how I was going to, you know, create this lifestyle for myself.

Lucy: 28:02

So, on the timeline, I started working with Krista and then, one month later, I signed my first client. I signed my first client by walking in from the UK and I was in the Cotswolds in the UK, walked into a gin shop because me and my partner were out for a day trip. We just wanted to go try out some gins, started talking to the owner, was there for about two hours and he was like just chit-chatting about his business and then my partner goes oh, lucy has a virtual assistant business and he was like oh my God.

Christa: 28:40

I need to start outsourcing, like let's start working together. And I was like, oh my God, wait, I just had my first client. What the hell? Two days later, all paperwork signed, first day working with them. I remember this. I think that is such a great anecdote of the embodiment concept that we spoke about earlier. It's like you had just started your business. You had just decided that this is what you want to do. You actually hadn't even had a client yet, but luckily you had your super supportive boyfriend being like, let me just, I'm just going to throw you one Exactly yeah, she is this, slipped it in there into the conversation.

Lucy: 29:04

I was like I was also quite shy at that point, like I hadn't thought of a business name. I hadn't really like I said I just signed out with Krista. So it's very much in that infant stage. So it was very much a throw yourself into the deep end sort of vibe. And yeah, luckily you know Elliot, my partner. He was like oh yeah, cool, lisa's the virtual assistant, she'll help you. And I was like I need to show up now. I need to show up as a business owner, I need to have my own back here. And then, yeah, that's exactly what happened. So good.

Christa: 29:31

Okay. So I think one of the biggest questions that I get asked all the time from people well, it's kind of like two questions. They're like hey, I want to become a digital nomad, but how would I get a client? And then they think, do I need to be on social media to get a client? But actually your story proves that you don't need to be on social media to get a client and you could get a client literally within one month of just making the decision that this is the business that you're going to create. So if you were to kind of deconstruct that whole process and guide someone else through the process of getting their first client, what lessons learned can we take from your story?

Lucy: 30:09

Yeah. So I feel like the first client, like just that statement alone feels a little bit scary, a little bit intimidating. But just like we talked about, I had fully embodied the fact that I was going to become a business owner and to not go too much into the woo-woo. Once you made that commitment and that decision, it's bound to happen. Like I said, if you are embodying that business owner self, it's going to happen. But when we're looking at it from a strategic point of view because they go hand in hand, mindset and strategy, you know it goes hand in hand with each other.

Lucy: 30:38

From the strategy perspective, um, I would say honestly, you don't need social media to even get fully booked. You could get fully booked through your network alone, through referrals as well. Like it's, there's so many places that you can be looking for a client. So what I found with with myself is I signed my first client through word of mouth. I put myself out there, I was, you know, showing up, I didn't even know I was showing up in the right places, but it just happened. And then one week later I got my second client from a referral from this first client.

Lucy: 31:10

Well, so that in itself alone, referrals is honestly, I would say the second priority, um, because you're, if you think about you as a person, how many people you know just from your network, your personal life, maybe your your work life as well? You know hundreds and thousands of people and you can just start these conversations, ask the question, put it out there, say you know, in the context of virtual assistant. I have a VA business and I work with small businesses who are starting to outsource. Like I know, you run a business. Are you wanting to grow? Um, if it's not the right time for them? That's when you ask the question of oh so um, have you got any other business owner friends that you can refer me to? And just that snowball effect alone, if you think of one person, they could refer you to five different people and you've grown your network tenfold in the matter of weeks.

Christa: 32:00

So true, okay, yeah. So I really believe that investing in your network is the number one thing that you can do at the beginning of your business, especially if you don't want to be an influencer or like a big content creator. I mean I always encourage people to go on social media. I do have an episode creator. I mean I always encourage people to go on social media. I do have an episode I forget what number it is, but the episode is called Do you Need to Be on Social Media to Become a Digital Nomad? And if you're wondering about that, please listen to that episode.

Christa: 32:27

But the short answer is no, you don't need to, but it sure does help. So, yeah, exactly that. Yeah, but at the beginning of your business, just like Deciding what it is that you do, how you help people, who you want to help, and then putting yourself freaking out there and then doing a good job. Naturally, people are going to talk, and that is I mean. Over the years, I've just been so curious about how people become digital nomads. That's what inspired my business as like learning about other people's careers, and I just found that 70 to 90% of all the people that I spoke to got their first clients through their word of mouth network.

Lucy: 33:08

Oh my gosh, and honestly, that is yeah. That's a testament to you. Don't have to put the pressure on yourself for social media. My perspective on the social media side of things is, if you are that sort of person where you want to share, absolutely go for it. Like me and Krista are, we naturally are sharers. We like putting our story out there in the world.

Lucy: 33:27

Some people don't want to do that and that's absolutely fine. I would say that you know. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a social media presence, because, especially becoming a business owner, you need to have a digital footprint somewhere. Yes, and kind of having that through the perspective of okay, that's gonna be my portfolio, that's gonna be where someone if they, if I do meet someone in person and I'm I found this client through word of mouth and then they want to go check me out on Instagram, they can find me, they can find my business page, they can find my services. They can just find something. Something about me doesn't mean you have been influencer as long as you have got that. That there, that's honestly, I feel like is enough, and you could get fully booked through referrals and your network alone. So true.

Christa: 34:11

So I'm assuming that's what happened to you at the beginning of your journey of being an online entrepreneur. Yeah, so sounds like you decided this is what I'm doing. Within a month, you got your first client. A week later you got your second client. You started obviously making money from anywhere, and so tell me about, like, how you transitioned from being a virtual assistant. Then I think you said earlier then you went into brand design and now you're a coach. So, like, what happened? What happened there?

Lucy: 34:39

It's been a. It's been a wild journey, I'm not going to lie, and it's been very quick, but I'm very, very grateful for the journey I've had. Yeah, it's all felt very, you know, step by step, it's felt aligned and, yeah, it's actually very interesting to kind of go back and reverse engineer it to kind of to the point we are now. So, from the point where I'm my second client, I actually got fully booked in three months. So I was a full-time digital nomad. I was fully booked, my VA business and I started traveling. I went to Europe. I was in Lisbon, amsterdam, belgium, like I was in Portugal, and I was just living the dream. Everything I'd worked so hard towards I was. I was there living. So, yeah, I was fully booked as a VA, and Sink me and Chris spoke about earlier is the fact that I viewed my VA business as a business bridge. It was Sink where I had decided okay, this is my ticket in, I'm going to be able to learn how to run a business, I'm going to be able to become a digital nomad. This is my first step.

Lucy: 35:43

The intention was always, always, always to grow bigger, to move out of VA work to niche, to scale. That was always the plan and this is why I'm personally such an advocate for VA work is because you get to have your fingers in a few different pies with the different services you can offer. To have your fingers in a few different pies with the different services you can offer. And you know for me, I thought okay, I've got a lot of services I can offer. Let me just work with clients, see what resonates with me. And this is where I was actually working with um, my dream client. My dream clients were interior designers. That's what I decided who I was going to target with my business. And I was working with an interior designer client and I was helping her with her branding and her brand strategy and her brand design. And I was like, oh my God, I love this. This is very aligned for me, it's quite related to my background as well my corporate job. So I was like you know what? This is going to be my next step? I'm going to move into brand strategy and brand design work. So I changed the business around, I changed the model of it, I changed my offering and my services and I started signing on my brand strategy clients. I did that through social media as well, so I signed some brand strategy clients through there Simultaneously.

Lucy: 36:52

This is where I was starting to post online of me being a digital nomad and I, like I said, I was sharing my story and I started getting people in my dms that were saying, oh my god, lucy, what the hell, how are you living this life like? This looks like a dream. Please teach me. Very, very similar to your story as well, krista. Um, so I had people that were messaging me and I was like you know what I think I can teach you. Let me, let me teach you how to become a VA. I'll teach you exactly how I did it and ultimately, this has led me to now being a VA coach.

Lucy: 37:23

Um, to be honest with you, it was never my intention to become a coach. It was. I just never kind of saw that being. Now I actually reflect back, it makes a lot of sense for the person I am like I'm. I'm very much, have that in my nature, but in terms of a business, it was going to be I'm going to build out a brand agency. I'm going to grow this and scale to be. I'm going to build out a brand agency. I'm going to grow this and scale it, and I'm going to take a step back eventually.

Lucy: 37:45

And once I had people that I was working with and coaching them, I was like, wow, this is this is what having a solo line business is. This feels so right for me. Um, honestly, it kind of gives me goosebumps. I'm like I never, I never, envisioned this happening. I'm just I never, I never envisioned this happening. I'm just so glad I listened to my intuition there and I I even had people around me, like I said earlier, other business owner friends. They were saying Lucy, this is, this is, this is for you, like, this makes sense. Um, and I ended up getting my one-on-one clients on the side whilst I was still running the, the branding, and I had to make the decision in January. I have to go full-time with this coaching business. It's completely taking off the momentum's there. I feel so aligned to it. I have to fully throw all my energy into this and that's ultimately where I am now.

Christa: 38:33

So good, so, so, so good. Okay, so you threw the term in there business bridge but I think this is such an important topic to discuss on this episode because, yeah, I love celebrating the huge journey that you've been on in such a short period of time, like you're literally building or building. You've built and now you're scaling. You haven't just built, but you're scaling your third business in one year and a half. Yeah, so that's just amazing, so impressive. And you had mentioned earlier that you were like I never would have saw myself in this position. I didn't. This wasn't the plan, but what was the plan was to do something else other than being a VA. Yeah, so you said it was your business bridge, and can you just indulge a little bit more about what you mean by that concept?

Lucy: 39:25

Yeah. So with the business bridge, this is something which I'm very, very passionate about, and Krista also. So the concept of a business bridge is exactly the analogy. It's allowing you to see it as a stepping stone for yourself. It doesn't have to be the ultimate be all and end all and especially, oh my gosh, when you are transitioning from corporate to being a business owner, we tend to put this huge pressure on ourselves. We're like, okay, well, I have to make this work, I have to know what the business is going to be, and there's this kind of looming sense of this has to be the right decision, has to be the right business oh my gosh, yes but ultimately, just you starting and starting with saying that does feel like it is, you know, the right, you know the right step, the fact the the first step which is right for you.

Lucy: 40:13

This is where you know, get experience being a business owner and be able to work with clients, understand what you enjoy as well. Like those three pillars, there are the, honestly, the foundations of you being happy with your business, long-term success for it, and then what you can allow yourself to do is you get that experience, you get the confidence being a business owner, and then the intention is to then, you know, pivot elsewhere. The map of entrepreneurship is a huge squiggly line, like it takes you in twists and turns. It's not linear at all. Um, so you have to always have this vulnerability about you that you're like, okay, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let this, you know, I'm gonna let the wind blow me see, see where I end up with it. Um, so, yeah, that's exactly. My VA business was my business bridge, which ultimately led me to my, to my branding agency and then now to coaching.

Christa: 41:05

So, yeah, that has been a huge squiggle, but it's felt right along the way, love, that I was just thinking about like, oh, what was my business bridge? Because I, like I sometimes I feel like, oh yeah, my first, this is my like first business, but it really isn't. I actually tried so many different kinds of businesses and I think in my I'm going to try to explain what I'm literally seeing in my mind. So, like I'm on the shore and then there's like bridges going in a bunch of different directions and so I like stepped on one and I was like, okay, wait, this isn't it. And then I actually just literally hopped over onto another one and then that one was going in a different direction and I was like, okay, wait, this isn't it. And then I actually just literally hopped over onto another one and then that one was going in a different direction and I was like, okay, this isn't it. And then I hopped onto another one, but every time that I hopped onto a different bridge I still was a step further ahead, but by the end I was going in a completely different direction than the first bridge that I stepped on.

Christa: 41:56

And I think that, yeah, what you were saying about like how people put so much pressure on their first business needing to be the thing that works. It's like, okay, I'm quitting my corporate life, I'm going to pursue entrepreneurship now and I better make the right decision, because if I don't make the right decision I'm going to fall into the water. I'm going to fall off the corporate ladder and then have to get back on in the bottom rung. But that is in entrepreneurship. It's like that's. It's the opposite. Every single step that you take, you are doing something totally different now coaching path of being a VA, everything that you did and experienced in that first business is actually, in a way, directly contributing to what you're doing now, which does feel soul aligned, and you didn't know that what was soul aligned for you was to be a coach. But how could you have known if you hadn't taken those first few steps in your first business?

Lucy: 43:01

Oh my gosh, I honestly that is, please rewind that and just re-listen to it, because I couldn't have said it any better myself. I, honestly, the one piece of advice I just want to give you is just start, just start, just start the damn business, start the journey, commit to it. You don't have to have everything figured out. The entrepreneurial mindset is completely different to anything you know, and especially if you have come from a corporate background like me, we view it as so linear, we see it as the ladder, the corporate ladder.

Lucy: 43:35

It's nothing like that over here in this world. It is completely different. So you almost need to kind of scrap that old mentality and just be open. Just be open to this new journey you're going to be starting because it's so fun. It is so fun, so every day is so different, trust me, and is yeah, so so fulfilling. But honestly, I just please start and just start somewhere and allow yourself to have trust in the process that, as long as you are listening to your intuition, that is saying, which has proven to be part of my success is just listening to my intuition, going on that path and just allowing it to take me where it needs to take me, for sure.

Christa: 44:14

Amen, amen. Okay, I'm going to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about the Digital Nomad Life Academy and how it actually can support you if you want to start, but you don't know where to start. So for me, that actually is my specialty. Lucy, like you know, when you well, you came into the DNLA actually having a direction. Most people don't have a direction when they come into the DNLA. They're just like I want to be a digital nomad, but I don't know how my online work translates into remote work. I don't know what skills I could possibly learn. I don't know anything about digital marketing, anything that people people don't know anything. You don't actually have to know anything because when you join the DNLA, the Digital In my Life Academy, you get access to a full year.

Christa: 44:58

So the very first step that we do in the DNLA is the career assessment process, if you need it, lucy, I don't think you actually did one and you don't have to do one. That's why it's an optional extra thing. But if you don't know what career you want to do to become a digital nomad, I'm going to have you fill out this huge, huge, huge I mean it incredibly in-depth inventory of your personality, your skill set, your relationship with different forms of social media, your major life stories. We leave no stone unturned. But once you fill out all that information, I can look over it and I can say, oh, you might actually be really great at being a podcast editor or a graphic designer or what. There's a million. There are so, so, so many things that you can do. So I help point you in the direction of a skill that you could learn. Or I can say, oh, wait, this skill that you have actually translates really well to this. You just need to fill in these little knowledge gaps and then I teach you how to build the business.

Christa: 45:55

And, in the concept of the business bridge that Lucy and I were just talking about, that first initial business that you might start in the DNLA doesn't have to be the business that you end in the program with, or you could stay in the program for multiple years. Actually, most of the clients that I work with now have been around for multiple years, and that's because you can really grow and evolve in the program. This is like a lifestyle and entrepreneurship program. It's not just we're teaching you how to do one thing, it's like you're becoming the digital nomad entrepreneur that you were always meant to be, and I take you from the very beginning all the way through scaling your business, just like Lucy. So, lucy, let's talk about scaling.

Lucy: 46:42

Oh my gosh. This is saying which, honestly, has it's been a dream of mine since the very beginning. Like I said, I had always envisioned myself growing a business bigger, like it's in my nature, like I know this is for me and I know I'm going to, you know, be hitting these huge milestones in my business. So, yes, at this point I I am. I've been historically working with one-on-one clients building their VA business, getting them their first clients, and now I'm stepping into the world of group coaching, which is a whole other ball game, and I'm very, very excited to be able to support women with, you know, providing a community and giving them the extra accountability, because, full circle moment that's exactly why I joined the DLA with Krista is I needed people who were like-minded around me, and now I get to provide that for women as well.

Lucy: 47:29

so yeah, I feel very blessed to be able to do that.

Christa: 47:31

It is so cool that you are scaling the business. Also it's like so fun for me as a business coach because, you know, I love working with the newbies and that's so fun. But also like, ah, damn, I know so much about marketing and I'm like, wait, but there's so much cool stuff that you can do. Like once you I'm saying this to you, lucy, and also to the listener like once you get your business to a point where it's just like you've evolved from infant business to like a baby business and then a baby business to a toddler business, now I can teach you how to run. And when you learn how to run in your business, oh my gosh, that's when you quantum leap.

Christa: 48:11

Like that's when you start getting like the multiple six-figure years, and I just really believe that any, the way that I teach people, it's the small service provider model, which at the beginning it is a walk or even a crawl, and that's okay because you don't stay in that phase for very long if you commit to the specific crawl. So, yeah, lucy, you were like, okay, oh my gosh, coaching is my thing. And so you went quickly from crawling to walking and now it's time to run, and I know these six-figure years is also going to be a short-lived thing, because you're going to move on to multiple six-figure years. Because when you do feel soul aligned then you have the motivation, you have the energy to just go, go, go, go go, and I've seen you do that. I know you're going through a launch right now and it's a whole big learning experience.

Lucy: 49:02

So much learning. Oh my gosh. This is, like I said, a completely different ballgame to anything I'm used to. And yeah, I'm very grateful, obviously, to have Krista along that journey with me, because, yeah, there's that's when you have to definitely lean on mentorship, especially with this part of you know, business building and just learning from the best of people that have done it. And that's even from the beginning stage learn from people who have done it before, and that then progresses at every stage of your business.

Lucy: 49:27

Um, so, yeah, I'm learning how you, how you pull off a launch and how you then take that into the phase of business where I can facilitate and hold space for even more people, and then in the future, more and more and more like I would love to just help as many people as possible. So that is my ultimate goal. But obviously, that's the thing with you know, with business even to the point where I'm at right now with scaling is, allow it to take a little bit of owners. They want to jump steps and they want to cheat, but learning along the process is what's going to make your business so solid and your foundation so, so strong. For example, with me, I got to talk to so many different people in my one-on-one calls and I learned so much about my ICA, and my ICA is my ideal client avatar, so the person that I want to support the most. I got to learn so much about them. I got to learn how people need to receive information, as well as me being a coach, and how can I be the best coach possible. And then I can take all of this, all of these learnings and all this knowledge now into the next phase of group coaching as well.

Lucy: 50:34

So, yeah, I'm I'm very grateful that it all happened so organically for me and how I was able to learn step by step along the way. But, just like Chris said a second ago, I'm now at the point where I am basically quantum leaping, like I am stepping into this. I'm, yeah, I'm just completely transforming my business and myself. And, yeah, what we said about earlier is I have to be aligned personally with where my business is as well, like they both have to be in synergy with each other. So I've done a lot of mental work as well to get to get me to that point where I am honestly feeling worthy of this success, because I have had huge success and there's been a lot of mental game along along with that journey as well.

Christa: 51:13

Oh my gosh, I think we're going to need to do an episode two about like the worthiness and mindset work around entrepreneurship. Receiving it's like it's a whole other thing. I mean, every single step of the way as you build your business, there are new challenges that you need to overcome, there are new things that you need to learn, new parts of yourself that you need to embody, and the reason why I love entrepreneurship is because it's such a personal development journey. You will be forced to grow and, side note, there's another episode, if you are curious, called why Creating a Remote Business Will Awaken you or why Creating a Digital Online Business Will Awaken you. It's just, you're just going to transcend, as you've said, lucy, so we're out of time, but if anybody is curious about your journey or they want to follow you on tiktok, where can they find you?

Lucy: 52:06

yeah. So I would love to have you over my tiktok and my handle is at lucy jasmine cole, um, and you can go over there and just kind of see my journey from day dot. To be honest, I'd love for you to go back and actually see where I started and then to the point I am now because, honestly, if I can do it, so can you 100. Yeah, come follow me over on TikTok, I would love to see you over there.

Christa: 52:27

Yes, lucy has such an inspiring TikTok so can 10 out of 10 recommend. And it's also just so cool. It's like watching a movie of someone's life on social media. Just love that. And you've done such a good job documenting every step of the way.

Christa: 52:40

So definitely go check out Lucy, and if you are curious about the Digital Nomad Life Academy how you could go from wherever you are now, you don't need to have a bad life, you don't need to have a life that you're unhappy with. You don't need to have a miserable commute or whatever to join the DLNA. You could have a life that's pretty good, like comfortable, good salary, nice coworkers. Like you can have a good life and still want to have an extraordinary life where you can have total freedom, like the uncapped earning potential I mean. When I say the multiple six-figure thing, I mean it Like learn how to walk before you can run, but you can run when you take the entrepreneurship route and I would love to guide you through that process. So if you're curious about how the DNLA works, you can slide into my DMs on Instagram at ChristabellaTravels and just send the word roadmap, because if you send that word roadmap, I will just send you a free training that kind of talks about the overall philosophy of the DNLA, how it works. You'll also hear a little bit more of the details and then I'll know that you sent me that keyword. I can follow up with a voice message and then we can actually talk, answer all your questions and if it's right for you, I will tell you, and if it's wrong for you, I also will definitely tell you.

Christa: 53:56

As Lucy mentioned several times, alignment is so important. I only want to work with people that are aligned with me as well. Like, god forbid, someone comes into my program and they're really turned off by my woo-woo weirdo-ness. I'd be like I don't want to feel bad inside of my own business. So I will bet you in a nice way, of course. But yeah, it's really important that the right people are in the program so that everybody feels safe and comfortable being their vulnerable selves because, again, entrepreneurship can be so vulnerable, but the most valuable, worthy journey of your life, potentially could change everything.

Christa: 54:32

Lucy, thank you so much for being here. It's been such a pleasure. I can't wait to do this again. I actually feel like we should.

Lucy: 54:39

Yeah, there's so much to talk about. Yeah, there's so much to talk about.

Christa: 54:43

Also, I just want to say congratulations on pursuing your dreams and making it happen. You're such an inspiration and I'm just so, so proud of you and can't wait to be with you on the rest of the journey and just see how far you'll take this thing. I mean we could Thank you so much. We could be looking at seven figures. Girl People have done it so why can't you Exactly Amen?

Lucy: 55:06

Yeah, just like you, right now.

Christa: 55:07

Hey, hell, yeah, love it All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for listening and we'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the Digital MI Life Podcast. Bye.