By Laura Martin, who rebuilt her own income after a corporate layoff. Read her story →

The first time a client asked me to organize their company’s insurance policies, I said yes before I knew what I was saying yes to.

I’d spent more than twenty years in corporate life. I knew how to work hard. But insurance binders? Vehicle registrations? Figuring out which policy covered which truck? I had never done any of it.

Then came the spreadsheets. A client needed a messy weekly schedule turned into something clean, one row per person per day, with split shifts and times that weren’t even written the same way. After that, it was a QuickBooks account that wouldn’t sync.

Every one of those moments started the same way: a quiet panic, and the thought, they’re going to find out I don’t know how to do this.

Here’s what changed everything

I started treating AI like a patient coworker. Not someone to do my job for me, but someone I could ask the questions I was too embarrassed to ask anyone else.

I would describe the task, tell it I’d never done it before, and ask it to walk me through one step at a time. I’d do the step, say “done,” and get the next one.

That’s how a woman who was let go at 59 ended up building spreadsheet automations and cleaning up accounting software. Not because I suddenly became techy, but because I learned how to ask.

Why this matters if you’re thinking about VA work

One of the biggest fears I hear from women considering this path is, “What if a client asks me to do something I don’t know how to do?”

I’ll be honest. They will. It happens all the time.

The good VAs aren’t the ones who already know everything. They’re the ones who know how to figure it out. AI makes figuring it out so much easier than it used to be.

The 5 prompts I keep coming back to

I put the prompts I use most into a free guide. They cover:

• What to type when a client asks for something you’ve never done
• How to write tricky client messages that sound professional but warm
• How to turn a messy meeting recording into clean notes
• How to get help when a spreadsheet is fighting you
• How to turn what you just learned into a checklist you’ll use again

Just copy them, paste them into Claude or ChatGPT, and fill in the blanks. No tech skills needed.

And if you’re wondering whether it’s too late for you, I promise it’s not. I’m living proof. 💜