We were lucky to catch up with Darcy Warden recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Darcy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

As a virtual assistant and wedding planner, I do my own social media. I write all of the content, select photos, create reels, do routine stories, all the things. Doing it myself keeps me up to speed with what’s going on in my industries and social media in general so that when I do social media work for clients, I have already done a lot of research and work. This helps me be an expert and provide a high level of service to my clients.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m Darcy, I love Jesus and tacos. I also love road trips, Cleveland sports (for better or worse), laughing at the latest GIFs, meeting new people, and spending time with family, especially my niece and nephew.

I work as a virtual assistant and wedding planner in Columbus, Ohio. I graduated from Ohio University and spent several years in the corporate world before pursuing my passion of wedding planning full time. That led to a further passion in virtual assistance specializing in work with wedding industry pros. I love the combination of planning weddings and also working as a VA to make my client’s lives easier!

I started wedding planning while working for a company in Austin, Texas. I took the leap from the corporate world in my hometown outside of Cleveland to pursue my passion for wedding planning and haven’t looked back! I spent a year in Austin which I loved, but ultimately decided I wanted to be closer to home and moved back to Ohio, but to Columbus in January 2020, just before the pandemic. It wasn’t a great time to move to a new city or find a new job, but ultimately I worked hard at networking and found the wedding planning company I now work for in Columbus, StR Events. From there as I mentioned I started my own virtual assistant business which I own. I love weddings and that is still a big portion of my work, but I love the VA side as well and having diversified my income is amazing and I’m so grateful for it!

In my virtual assistant business I do a variety of work for clients. I focus on wedding industry professionals, specifically planners and photographers because that niche helps me really be a subject matter expert for them. I do mostly behind the scenes work – essentially anything that my clients don’t have time for or don’t love doing. This varies from social media, blog posts, CRM and process work, and more. It is a lot of behind the scenes work and keeping the businesses operating so my clients can keep getting their own new clients and building their businesses without worrying about the back-end day-to-day work.

The thing that sets me apart for my clients is that being in the same industry I really feel like a partner in their business and I treat it that way. They may be just looking for an assistant, but I feel so passionate about my work that I see myself as a team member, confidant, friend, and much more! I care about their businesses as much as they do and want to see them succeed and grow just as much. I’m not just on the sidelines doing some work on the back end. That is part of it, but it’s so much more. Seeing myself as a partner in their businesses instills their confidence in me and they know my work will be excellent since I feel like I have the same investment in their business that they do.

I am most proud of building my VA business from scratch. There was certainly much thought and research before starting this journey, but a lot of it was hard work with faith and prayers. I’m still growing and want to continue to grow, but looking at where I was even 6 months ago, let alone a year or more ago, is crazy in the best way! A year and a half ago I just started with my first two clients. Now I have 8 retainer clients and get more inquiries routinely. Most of my inquiries come from client referrals which is the best compliment. I love that my clients feel so confident in my work that not only do they keep working with me, but they refer others as well.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I don’t have the biggest social media presence, I certainly don’t identify as an influencer. However, being active and present on social media has given me legitimacy in both wedding planning and my virtual assistant work. I run two accounts for myself, one for wedding planning and one for my VA work that also combines some of my other passions of travel and home/DIY.

A few tips:
1. You don’t have to be on every social media platform at once. Start with what you can do consistently well. If that’s just Instagram and posting once a week and keeping that consistent, that’s awesome. Over time you can post more frequently and add in other social media platforms like Tiktok, LinkedIn, etc. Consistency is key and your followers are going to want to know what to expect from you. Going silent for weeks doesn’t create an environment of confidence in your work.

2. Niche down. Followers and new followers especially want to know what to expect from your account. What kind of content are they going to get? Why should they keep following you and engaging in your posts/stories? Your content may not be for everyone and that’s totally fine, but when you niche down, your followers will find you and be more engaged.

3. Follow other accounts that inspire you. Follow a variety of accounts in your industry and things outside of your industry. This way you can keep up to keep up with the current social media trends. You want to be authentic with your content and not regurgitating (or worse, plagiarizing), but it helps you keep a temperature of what’s going on so that you can have the research to help you come up with your own social media strategy.

4. Don’t complain about the algorithm. Everyone has feelings on needing to do reels or how Instagram (or any other platform) isn’t the same as it used to be. We all know this and a lot of people feel the same, but it’s boring to hear from someone you follow. People want to see original content, and yes be relatable, but constantly complaining isn’t fun and after all, social media is supposed to be a fun escape!

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

Client referrals! For sure the best source of new clients. I’m also in Facebook groups for my industry and networking groups which has connected me with clients as well. But the biggest source is client referrals and those are the best leads. Prospective clients already have confidence in me because they’ve heard it first hand from a current client.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beindarcy.com
• Instagram: @being_darcy; @strevents_darcy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darcywarden/

Image Credits
Hailey Merlo Media Instagram: @haileymerlomedia Website: https://www.haileymerlomedia.com/