Emily Arevalo

I attribute my success to never giving up and not waiting for the perfect time. I realized that it's never going to be the right time to start something. A lot of people wait and say they're not ready, they don't have enough, or they want to wait for a promotion, and they just keep waiting and waiting. But if you wait, you're never going to do it. You have to trust yourself and just jump in to see what happens. I didn't sleep for three months when I started. I was anxious, depressed, and missing my family and friends. But I pushed through, and two years later I can say I did it. The best career advice I ever received was that I just have a Plan A and it has to work. There's no Plan B. You try to get rich or die trying. I never give up.

The best career advice I ever received was from someone who told me to just have a Plan A, and it has to work. There's no Plan B. It's like that famous phrase, try to get rich or die trying. That mindset has kept me going because I never give up. When you only have one plan and you're committed to making it work, you push through no matter what challenges come your way.

My advice to young women is that it's never going to be the right time to start. So many people wait and say they're not ready, they need to prepare more, or they want to wait for something else to happen first. But if you keep waiting, you're never going to do it. You have to trust yourself and just jump in. Don't wait for the perfect moment because it will never come. Later there's just going to be another reason not to start. You need to do something hard, do something you don't want to do, because that's how you grow. If I did it, you can do it too.

I think AI is both a threat and an opportunity right now. AI is taking over everything, and since I do virtual assistant work, it could be seen as a threat. But I'm choosing to take this threat as an opportunity because I believe people need people. At the end of the day, it's never going to be the same to talk with an AI or a robot as it is to talk with someone who can understand more than AI can. I really hate when I call a company and it's a recorded voice telling you to press 1 or press 2. It's the most horrible thing in the world. So even though everyone is talking about hiring AI assistants or virtual assistants with AI, people still need real people. AI is just a tool, it's really helpful, but it's not a person. That's why I see this as an opportunity for me because people want to talk with people.

The most important values to me are having a good attitude, being positive, and being willing to learn. In my experience, I've hired people with a lot of experience, but they don't want to work or learn new things. I prefer to take someone with less experience who is willing to learn and who has passion. That willingness to grow and that positive attitude matter more to me than just having experience. I've also learned how important it is to help other people. When my employees tell me things like 'you saved my life, I didn't have a job, I have kids, I'm a single mom,' that changed my perspective. I didn't notice how big of an impact I was making until I heard them say things like that, and it made me realize I want to do something more meaningful and help other people achieve their goals.