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Sam Hogwood

Events, Conference and Awards
How the UK VA Conference 2023 helped to cement my resilience for the future
- 23rd November 2023
- 0 comments
- by Amanda Johnson
Sam Hogwood shares her experience of the UK VA Conference 2023 and UK VA Awards 2023 in this guest blog: “How the UKVA Conference 2023 helped to cement my resilience for the future”.
A lot can happen in a year!
I recently wrote a blog about how a very special event pretty much helped me turn my business around in 2022.
– and how a community of people can help you completely revolutionise your life.
When I attended the UK VA Conference last year, I had no idea what to expect. It was an incredibly positive event and place to be, and the people there made you feel like you were part of something very special. This year’s follow-up – the #UKVAConference23 was no exception.
On Friday 13^th October Bournemouth came alive with VAs from up and down the country, sharing what can only be described as the best VA event of the year! I drove down from Kent a day early and met with a good VA pal I’ve known for longer than the community we’re both a part of – and for another VA client meeting on Thursday. It gave me a well-earned day of respite after a bout of covid and a very busy year. The sea air was just what I needed.
The building blocks of success are within us
Thursday evening saw a group of us get together over dinner and drinks so we could rekindle old contacts face to face, get a big hug from our cohorts, and generally pick up conversations from where we last left them. I swear when you get a room full of VAs together, you can hear them for miles!
Friday 13^th was the lucky day of the actual conference, and it didn’t disappoint. We were welcomed with packed pink VACT goodie bags and got to settle in with teas, coffees and all our favourite sweeties to hear Jane Thomas of Premier Life Skills – https://premierlifeskills.co.uk/ get the conference theme of ‘Resilience’ off with a bang. A lot of us needed to tap into raising our resilience after another rollercoaster year as business owners so I know we were looking forward to it. Jane spoke about resilience being a fundamental trait by focusing on creating a healthier work environment, made possible through effective teamwork, keeping our strength up and tapping into our own drive and ambition while always looking after our wellbeing. She took us through a brilliant Resilience Core Questionnaire and tapped into our ©motivational maps which was a real eye opener for me!
Alan and Emily Braithwaite from Yellow Tuxedo https://www.yellowtuxedo.co.uk/ brought us back from our post lunch slump with a fantastic and fun talk about how to be visible in the noise of the internet. Not your average marketing company, they told us their story and how they learned how to effectively stand out from the crowd. They had enlightening tips with a whole approach of your chosen macro content (your core message), and a sensible and honest approach to how to be YOU in the noise of the ether that surrounds us. Some of us aren’t natural shouters in the realm of being a business owner in the digital age, and they reassured me you don’t have to be in order to be seen in the right way. Focus on simple tactics, the right content and connection was the key message of the day.
Then we got to meet Lauren Malone https://www.laurenmalone.co.uk/ – a business mindset coach, mentor and resident BBC expert. Her talk was about money mindset and building a resilient and abundant attitude towards wealth. Lauren is extremely passionate about challenging business owners to look at their money stories to create an abundant and wealthy world. Lauren believes that whoever you are, whatever your upbringing or circumstances, you deserve to be fucking rich – and I’m inclined to agree with that sentiment 100%! Her talk was funny, deeply connecting, and she’s a master of her craft. I loved this one and know this is something aIot of us want to focus more on.
Then one of the final highlights was an incredible and gripping talk by Ryan Ramsey – a servant leader and a veteran; a man who is also passionate about what he does and helping others to do the same. He was a commander in the Royal Navy Submarine Service and his story about a “sweaty Sunday”, where he and his team got into very turbulent waters on a long deployment, was utterly compelling. When he told how he used his skills as a leader to stay calm and be there for his team, especially when they had a dangerous situation on board with people dropping like flies around him, you could hear a pin drop. The room was silent, save for Ryan speaking, while we all listened with bated breath … and when there was a twist in the story you could hear us all gasp. It was an incredible true story, and it was a real-life example of how to overcome the unexpected and stay resilient even when you’re put to the test.

Everyone’s a winner

After all that, we quickly turned our day attire to glad rags for a night of celebration for the VA awards, with cocktails, dinner and dancing our posh shoes off if our feet could take it. And what a celebration it was! The nerves were palpable, the air was electric and each one of those finalists deserved to be there, winner or not. I share the winners here and I look forward to what 2024 brings everyone – a number of these amazing VAs are good friends, and I genuinely can’t wait to see what the future holds for them.
The dates for the #UKVAConference24 have already been announced and I wonder what it will have in store for us. I think this value packed, warm, friendly and fun VA event will be a regular date for the annual diary and I’m looking forward to it already.
My business as a copywriter and researcher has seen growth in the last year and although slow and steady wins the race is all part of my business adventure, I wouldn’t have had the spur of confidence I’ve had in the last year if I hadn’t been a part of the 2022 event.
Thank you to Amanda Johnson ofor such an awesome VA event for all of us in 2023 and to Laura Taylor https://thecollaborativeva.com/ who supported her throughout the organisation and delivery of the event itself.
If anyone is thinking about coming along to the Conference in 2024, come and join us! You can be a VA – woman or man – from all walks of life, and community, offering different services – services that people are crying out for! You’ll be very welcome when you join us. And you can take in the beachfront sea? air as part of the experience. Perhaps you could turn it into a mini break like I did.
#UKVAConference2023
#UKVAConference2024
Events, Conference and Awards, Success Stories and Behind the Scenes
How the UK VA Conference turned my business around
- 14th December 2022
- 0 comments
- by Amanda Johnson
Sam Hogwood

Sam Hogwood
Sam is the founder of Escape from the City Copywriting and Research, she is an ex corporate Executive Assistant who launched a Virtual Assistant business in 2018. Over the years, Sam has honed the services she offers to clients and today she helps business owners untangle the ideas in their head so they say what they mean and sell what they do in a language their ideal clients understand.

In this guest blog, Sam Hogwood shares her story on “How the UKVA Conference 2022 turned her business around and why she feels every VA should attend the UKVA Conference 2023.”
I was at a turning point when I attended the VA Conference in September 2022. I’d been a reasonably successful VA just before covid took hold in early 2020. The pandemic started to open up the online business world, and I had several clients I enjoyed supporting and the challenge of a couple I didn’t — everyday life as a self-employed VA.
I loved being a VA, but I realised I enjoyed the more creative work than the admin and tech support side over time. By early 2021, I’d invested in some copywriting training and was starting to transform my business to that of copywriter and creative. I wrote for a few clients while keeping my hand in as a VA.
Behind the scenes, though, everything was starting to unravel. My husband Ben and I were feeling the pinch with finances, thanks to a run of bad luck on our property, financial challenges coming out of the blue and the actions of a few disingenuous characters. My clients were starting to vanish because they couldn’t afford to keep me or were changing their business like I was.
Fast forward to 2022, and Ben and I had to regain control of our lives and finances or go under – simple as that. As a result, I couldn’t focus on my business properly, as the threat of losing everything was very real. It was a very tough and stressful time.
The start of new beginnings
I had been pestering Amanda for ages about whether there might be an event to bring us like-minded VAs and business owners together. When I graduated from the VACT course in 2018 (what was then called The VA Mastery Course – now The VA Momentum Course TM), one of the best parts about the training was getting together with peers – collaborating and supporting each other as we started our VA businesses. I’m still in contact with many of those women – people I now call friends.
Collaboration and mutual support is one thing VAs are incredibly good at. It’s in their DNA. It’s a unique depth I think we have, and even though I am a business owner and have met many others face-to-face and online, the VA community has been consistently friendly, warm, and genuinely supportive.
So, when Amanda announced the 2022 UKVA Conference, great excitement unfolded! I bought a ticket on a payment plan for the Conference and was determined to make it because, apart from anything else, I wanted to meet the fabulous women I’d met online over the years. Little did I know just how much of an impact that Conference would have on my life and what I do now.
At the time, I didn’t feel like I fitted in anywhere anymore. Being a copywriter, I thought the VA community was no longer my tribe in terms of what I did – after all, I wasn’t a ‘traditional VA’ anymore. But I had been looking forward to the Conference for months, so with my best face on, I travelled to Bournemouth, checked into my hotel, and met some of the other VAs the night before. We met for dinner and pre-conference drinks – and you could have lit the whole of Bournemouth with the energy in that room alone!
And that’s when it started. The lights inside started to come back on again.
The great and the good came together
Amanda Johnson, our awesome and esteemed coach, and her team, headed by the incredible Laura Taylor, organised evening drinks so everyone could meet, put faces to names and get to know each other the night before the Conference. It was such a fun packed, and high vibe evening, a huge success, and it made us all even more excited for the Conference the next day. For any new people, there was the perfect chance to talk to people they might know online and learn more about each other.
The day of the Conference arrived, and what a day it was. As we assembled for registration at The Hilton Bournemouth on Friday morning, there was a flurry of noise and excitement, and the day itself was packed so full of information, laughs, high-value learning and positive energy. It was the perfect opportunity for people to mingle, getting to know each other and their businesses even more.
The speakers were inspired – Lucy Whittington (Brilliant Business Things), Alison Rothwell (Fiddly Bits WordPress design and support), Sarah Clay (LinkedIn Training), Clare Turner (Huunuu – wellbeing training) and a round of fantastic table talks packed the day with lots of new stuff to learn, and think about – with insights, informative, innovative and actionable things I still tap into to this day. I made a ton of notes and came away with a brain full of ideas!

A room full of stars
Then came the gala dinner and VA awards in the evening – the event’s highlight because this was the climax of the Conference. We celebrated those VAs who were winners for their incredible achievements (new and more established) and their contribution to the world of Virtual Assistants. Dinner was delicious; the drinks were flowing, chatter echoed around the room, and the awards took over the evening – with all the runners-up and winners being celebrated by everyone there.
Amanda was a fantastic compere, and the evening was a pure and joyous celebration of those winners and runners-up.
Apart from celebrating the award-winning VAs’ incredible achievements, the best part for me was meeting all the fantastic women (and the odd gent!) there – as many as you could meet and speak to throughout the day and evening. It was like we were long-lost friends. The chatter in the room throughout the day between speakers was loud and exciting! For the first time in over a year, I felt part of that community again – truly part of something special.
They say collaboration over competition in the VA world makes our community great – and it’s true. It’s genuine, and at the heart, it’s about integrity and connection. It’s a community that cares about its members, celebrating the highs and lows we go through as business owners, let alone highly skilled VAs. I’ve rarely encountered anyone in the VA community who isn’t supportive, warm, kind, incredibly hard-working and happy to share what they know with others.
Each of us has a unique skill, talent, and personality to bring to the table. I remembered that day that we all had something to offer and we’re all enough. It instilled a self-belief I hadn’t felt in a very long time – and I still feel that to this day.

The future is bright
Running a business is not easy, and don’t let anyone fool you into thinking it is. Yet it is a chance to make a difference in other business owners’ lives. To be confidants during their challenges. To be advisors when they’re stuck in that never-ending loop of admin and tech hell (we’ve all been there!). And to be peers and friends in business.
I’d say that the UKVA Conference – and meeting everyone there – brought me back to life and gave me back my purpose. The online connections and friendships blossomed into deeper ones at the Conference, and since then, true friendships have grown. I know there have been quite a few collaborations, and several of us want to work together in the future.
The UKVA Conference 2023 promises to be equally – if not more – of an impactful and inspiring space for VAs to come together to learn and grow, those of you who are new and those of us with a few years under our belts! This year’s theme is Resilience, which has come at a critical time for many of us – in businesses and our lives. Post-pandemic, it has been a roller coaster of uncertainty. Many of us feel like we need an extra dose and injection of grit, determination, and stamina as Virtual Assistants for the rest of 2023 and embarking on a fresh new 2024.
So, if you’re sitting on the fence about coming to the VA Conference 2023 for any reason (be it money, nervous about being on your own in a room full of others, or just unsure about the path of a VA) – I urge you to come and join us if you can. It’s not a costly event (with goody bags, lunch, dinner and refreshments thrown in, fantastic speakers and a chance to learn and be inspired by so many people). Although there are hotel costs, there are options for all pockets. And there is always a friendly face in the room, a warm welcome at the door – you will not be alone.
The most important thing is that you will be part of one of the most incredibly inclusive and diverse community of women and men who have built and grown their businesses with the dream of being a business owner. And like me, if you’re at a point where you feel your business is diversifying – come and speak to any number of us who have been where you are now.

Top Tips for Success as a VA

From Virtual Assistants who understand what it takes to build and grow a successful business learn 14 top tips for success that will help you build a consistent, relevant and successful VA business.

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Empowering ambitious virtual assistants like you to reach your full potential, through a combination of servant leadership, coaching, mentoring and training since 2014.

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