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This has to be one of the best “laptop lifestyle” case studies I have ever heard.
Let me introduce you to Michelle Dale. She is the founder of Virtual Miss Friday, a virtual assistant service and training company.
Michelle has been traveling all around Europe since 2005. She has three children (or should by the time you listen to this – she was pregnant with her third when we did the interview), and her kids have lived in a different city in Europe for each year of their lives so far.
Michelle makes $30,000 a month in service billings for her virtual assistant company, and makes as much as $30,000 on top of this each time she does a launch of one of her training programs. She also has a consistent stream of income coming from ongoing sales of her information products when she is not doing launches.
Michelle is a graduate of my Blog Mastermind and Membership Site Mastermind programs, and I have to say one of the best members who came out of my programs in terms of results.
Today she has a blog and sells SEVEN different training programs – one for each type of information product format I taught in Membership Site Mastermind – from courses to subscription programs.
Amazingly enough, she built all of this while traveling and raising a family.
Michelle Literally Started With Nothing
Michelle is a high school drop out. She worked jobs, got into buying and renovating properties and then decided she wanted to travel.
She sold everything she had, paid off all her debts and left the UK with £10,000, which she promptly lost on a property investment deal gone bad in Egypt.
Michelle was “trapped” in Egypt due to not having enough money to leave, so began researching internet business options. This is when she came across my blog EJ, as well as many other different ways to make money.
She decided to try virtual assisting as her first path to an income stream. She hacked together a website using Dreamweaver and Frontpage software, slowly built up her clientele and also met her future husband and became pregnant, all while living in Egypt for two years.
From there Michelle capitalised on her success, growing the services business to well over six figures a year.
Due to being asked so many questions about what she does, she decided to create a training program to teach others how to become virtual assistants.
Following the plan I outline in Blog Mastermind and Membership Site Mastermind, Michelle had a great first result. She launched a blog, built an email list of 500 people and then announced her first training program.
She decided to offer seven trial spots for free to test her program out. She sent out an invite to her list and 34 people applied. She selected the seven free trial members and offered the rest of the people who applied the option to take the program for $1,000. She promptly made $19,000, a great first result!
Since then Michelle has gone on to build a true lifestyle business empire, and lives what you might say is an ideal life. She runs her business with her husband, she has a blog, an email list of people who love her products, a services business, and gets to live in a different city in Europe each year, all while raising her kids.
This is a truly inspiring story, which I know will motivate you to work towards your own success.
If like Michelle you want to shortcut the process to create your blog, build an email list and launch your own digital products, my Blog Mastermind (how to start your blog) and Membership Site Mastermind (how to create and sell digital products) programs are available.
Please share this interview with anyone you think will benefit.
Talk to you soon,
Yaro Starak
EJ Podcast
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Great Mentor Yaro!!! I also prove of the internet lifestyle. I can say it over and over again that anyone applying Yaro’s blogging strategies will certainly get an incredible and consistent earning. I’ve grown my blog http://www.victoryakpomedaye.com using some his wisdom and strategies. Thanks and enjoy Michelle.
Great interview and many useful tips for wannabe lifestyle entrepreneur.
Hi Yaro,
We are of course carefully following the likes of you and I know it will pay off at the end.
While it is a truly inspiring story, I can’t help but wonder how moving so much is going to effect her children when they are older?
It’s not that fast, one new city each year. I suspect things will change once the children start attending school, unless Michelle and her husband intend to do home schooling.
Hi Dean, this is a really great question. We’re currently in Greece where we’ve been for around 18 months, (although for 4 months earlier this year we went back to Egypt to spend some time) and my 5 and 6 year old have also been enrolled in a local all Greek School for a year, where they now speak fluent Greek essentially making them bilingual, in fact they choose that language to speak to each other at home instead of English.
My next baby is due any day now, so we’ll be here for a while longer and we tend not to plan to far ahead and live in the present taking the decisions we feel are best for us as a family at the time. We don’t know what will happen from here, and we’re okay with that, our kids have had a very full life, they are confident, make friends easily and do all the things other kids do, just in a different language 🙂 They have been living like this since they were born, so don’t know any different and this is the norm for them, I think maybe if they had been in one place for a while and we suddenly sprung a life change on them the case would be different, but I can only speculate on that.
We monitor them carefully, and so far they are enjoying life, which is what matters the most to us as a family right now, I have no personal experience other than what I have up until now, so we don’t know what will happen as they grow older, whatever happens is unknown, if we need to adapt as we go, we will 🙂
Oh my goodness, loved listening to all the details in this story. Thanks Yaro for asking such great questions and being so curious about all the ins and outs of it. Very cool. One of the things that really stuck with me is how Michelle talked about gathering testimonials and using proof to basically be the foundation of her sales process and conversions. Reflecting on when I first stumbled on Michelle’s site through a Google search 18 months ago, I realize now what a super quick process it was between reading a few of her posts and then feeling compelled to buy the first one of her programs. I wasn’t sitting on her email list for months gradually building trust, it was almost instantaneous – a week or less. It’s occurred to me now just how powerful this is. When you do really good work, that genuinely helps people, that they rave about, and you structure it and explain it clearly, there is your sales copy write there!
I’m glad you liked it Danielle! I agree, you don’t need lengthy sales copy when you can engage people with your blog content, podcasts and/or videos. I also find it easier writing blog posts than long sales pages, as I think most bloggers do!
Listening to the interview with Michelle is on my ‘to do’ list for this week.
I also like the comment (and your reply Yaro) made by Danielle about long sales copy versus proof/verification via testimonials posted on the blog.
As a copywriter who defends ‘long copy’ Danielle makes a good point too solid to ignore.
PS About the new beta version of your blog layout Taro – like it! Using ALL the page with lots of white space looks super impressive.
Oh Danielle! Great comment thank you so much, loved the insight 🙂
Hi Yaro,
Absolutely tremendous. Love it too, how you share Michelle’s situation in Egypt. Oftentimes we find ourselves when we feel most desperate. In a split second, that desperation changes to clarity.
I’ve been traveling the world for 3 years straight now. Writing these words from an ocean front home in Savusavu, Fiji, with a million dollar view of the Pacific, nestled some 30 to 40 meters above the ocean. Crazy. Down the road we have maybe the top resort on earth, Jean Michel Cousteau’s wonder, and our island has been rated the 2nd most peaceful on earth (what’s #1 I wonder lol).
The point is, Michelle rocked it out because you followed a smart strategy. We went to Bali 3 years ago with some savings, but lost it all along the way. We found ourselves in Laos, with virtually no cash in pocket – and I do mean NO CASH or money whatsoever – and that’s when the light bulb clicked.
After that, we woke up, got clear on the audience we wanted to reach, and the money started flowing in when we opened our minds up and attracted a target audience who resonated with our products and services.
Michelle’s case is all the more amazing in that she’s raised a family, and she’s pulling in some $30K a month. I love her lifestyle, because I’ve been traveling through SE Asia, Peru, Costa Rica, and now Fiji, for a few less years….but it’s what I do, the internet lifestyle bit. No other way to live.
The fantastic point is dead on too; sales flow to the passionate person who builds connections, targets their audience, and creates truly awesome things which flow from their passion. Another thing I’ve learned while island-hopping.
Awesome Yaro. Must tweet material, and I’ll certainly get in touch with Michelle too.
Thanks for the inspiring share.
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
It sounds like you’re leading a pretty great lifestyle yourself! Michelle’s story is really amazing. Her kids are certainly not having the typical upbringing.
Keep up the good work!
Yaro
Wow Ryan, you have an awesome story, totally understand what you mean by the moment of clarity 🙂
Mr. Yaro, Continues to be such an inspiring story. Certainly validates your material in a powerful way!
Fantastic interview again Yaro, good to see you are still delivering quality!
I’m really happy to hear your story Michelle. I can also relate to the kind of freedom you’re enjoying- the freedom to work on your own hours which really makes it flexible to plan your day for other activities as well. I don’t get tired, I often take long breaks and holiday whenever I want. And of course, since its your own business you are more motivated to work. Also, outsourcing is a goldmine, I love it!
Hi Yaro,
First time commenter.
What an amazing post – she has done so well considering she was stuck in Egypt!
Get advertisement for your BlogMasterMind too!
Happy to find your website and Michelle’s too
Thanks Naomi
Great to see you here Naomi, and yes Michelle’s story is inspiring!
Yaro
Is she providing virtual assistant service or she just blog about virtual assistant service? Can I have her email address?
Hi Mike,
I do both. My email is support[at]virtualmissfriday[dot]com or you can contact me through my website http://www.virtualmissfriday.com/contact
I hope this helps,
Michelle
Hi, Yaro
My Name David Nguyen, I live in Asia country, where English is my 2nd language, for me, Enghlish not so good, I can listen, reading, speaking, but my writting suck. with this situation, can I become a blogger and live with laptop lifestype. I keen on make money online but i’m not sure which kind suit for me
I need your advise
David Nguyen
Great interview and many useful tips, Thank you for your post.
These are stories that motivate me to persist in digital marketing despite the difficulties and barriers that present themselves every day to someone who is a beginner like me, Yaro.
It was very good for me to read this case study this Thursday morning here in Brazil. Today he had left the bed extremely unmotivated and ready to abandon everything.
Thank you very much for the excellent article!
Fantastic interview again Yaro, good to see you are still delivering quality!
I’m really happy to hear your story Michelle. I can also relate to the kind of freedom you’re enjoying- the freedom to work on your own hours which really makes it flexible to plan your day for other activities as well. I don’t get tired, I often take long breaks and holiday whenever I want. And of course, since its your own business you are more motivated to work. Also, outsourcing is a goldmine, I love it! Really inspiring! Thanks a lot for this wonderful interview!
Michelle your story is love I am glad that you achieved this success and I am hoping you will motivate others to follow this path too! Thanks