Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Adrienna McDermott. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Adrienna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I started Ava And The Bee with a $200, a 9-year-old laptop, and a business named after my cat. Fast forward five years later, and we are the boutique wedding marketing agency for wedding professionals, with a team of five and a months-long waitlist to work with us. And our education hub, The Creative VA Academy, has helped over 250 students start and grow their own creative virtual assistant businesses.

But that success didn’t happen overnight, and I almost burned it down a few times in the process.

It all started in 2017, when I co-owned a wedding planning, florist, and bridal boutique company in Savannah, Georgia. And it looked like I had it all. A successful, award-winning business. Constant press coverage and features. Who doesn’t dream of owning a bridal boutique?

But it wasn’t all glitter and gold – deep inside, I was miserable. I was working 18-hour days, going weeks without a day off, and I was in a terrible business partnership. My OCD and anxiety were at an all-time high, and I was getting kidney stones every other month.

I still remember that exact moment.. the one where I said, “I need to leave this business.”

It was early 2017, and I was leaving Ulta, and my car wasn’t working. And instead of just being frustrated about my car (that I could barely afford because we were paying ourselves pennies each month), everything crashed down. I called one of my friends to come pick me up, and as she sat with me waiting for the tow truck, I just fell apart. I told her everything – all the pain, the struggles, everything. She already knew I was struggling, but this was the first time I had opened up to someone about the reality of it all.

At that point, driving to the boutique gave me such anxiety. Where I had to just pray and cry after every wedding, feeling exhausted and empty. It was in that moment, in an Ulta parking lot, that I realized I had to let go.

I was terrified. Terrified of being called a failure. A sell-out. Terrified that no one in the wedding industry would want to work with me. Terrified I would lose the respect I had spent years earning. But instead, my community supported me!

After I decided to leave the shop, I had no backup plan and no job lined up. I ended up getting a job at a law firm, doing social media and community events. In the meantime, I started working from a coffee shop on Wednesdays with some friends, many of whom were wedding pros.

Two of the girls there were photographer friends of mine, and kept talking about how they needed a virtual assistant but couldn’t find anyone with a wedding background. So I started Googling “What is a virtual assistant?” and quickly realized that I could do all of this. I could help people market their business – just like I had done with mine for many years.

And the business took off from there. Within 6 months, I quit my full-time job and became booked with clients. Within 8 months, I had doubled my salary.

Turning Ava And The Bee from an hourly virtual assistant company, to a successful agency was challenging. I made many mistakes, spent countless hours up past midnight doing client work, and have definitely undercharged. And I quickly found that there wasn’t education for creative virtual assistants. I had so many questions and no one to answer them!

That is why I created The Creative VA Academy, a hub for creatives looking to hone their natural skills and establish a profitable creative virtual assistant business that earns them a full-time income doing what they love. I wanted not just to help wedding pros every day, but also help others create the businesses of their dreams.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Ava And The Bee is the in-house marketing studio for wedding professionals ready for inclusive, results-driven marketing that creates freedom in their business and cultivates a client experience before couples ever start the conversation.

We build a holistic digital marketing strategy for our clients from the foundation up. From website audits, to SEO, to blogging, Pinterest, funnels, emails, to graphic design – we can do it all!

With us, our clients don’t have to worry about if their content will perform — we know how to speak to the audience that they want to speak to, and not just through the decades of experience we have. We dive into the analytics and strategize every move we make. We’ve helped over 100 clients create a client experience before couples even reach out, all through the power of inclusive, results-driven marketing.

I always tell my clients that the day I stop learning is the day I stop serving. I’m always doing something for professional development to stay up to date on all the latest in both marketing and the wedding industry, so our clients can rest confidently knowing that we know both what’s trending and what’s timeless.

I am also passionate about educating and teaching wedding vendors to understand their marketing and feel empowered to make data-based decisions. Through our courses and workshops, wedding professionals can learn everything from blogging with SEO to creating their own content strategies to how to get started with outsourcing!

And through our courses inside The Creative VA Academy, students can learn in-demand skills and the step-by-step process to start their own freelance or creative virtual assistant business.

I see a lot of so-called “coaches” and educators out there who have little experience and give fleeting advice. So many coaches who haven’t run a business for more than five years, or worked with over 90 clients, or have grown a team.

I don’t just teach students – I run my own multiple six-figure agency. I don’t just teach ideas- I teach real solutions that I have exceeded myself in my own business.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of clients is referrals. Nothing means more to me than when a client, or former client, sends an inquiry to us! We work hard to create incredible client relationships. I believe that you should deliver what you promise, help when asked, and support those around you. This reliability also allows me to be a hard worker, and set up our business for success. I am always looking for ways to help our clients, while also being a reliable member of their outsourcing team. I will never suggest a service just for the paycheck – I only offer services I know will grow their business!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

While we may not have 10,ooo+ followers on Instagram, our audience is engaged, and we book clients through it monthly. I used to get so nervous about what to post or if I would have to make 100 videos. But what I have found that works the best for us to simply serve. We don’t just post a caption but create carousel posts that dive into a topic. Even our freebies are valuable, and have dozens of pages to really go into a topic in-depth. I believe that you can’t really give away too much, even when it comes to sharing your strategies. There will always be people who want to pay an expert to take over their marketing! So even if we give and serve every day, we will always have clients ready to pay us to be their marketing team.

We have also focused a lot on great funnels. Our Pinterest continuously grows our email list, and we make sure to repurpose every blog we write into dozens of pieces of content.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://avaandthebee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avaandthebee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avaandthebee/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ava-and-the-bee/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/avaandthebee/_created/

Image Credits
Styled Stock House, Verb House Creative, Amy Lynn Creative