We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gel Raquel . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gel below.

Gel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

On February 5, 2021, my life changed forever.

My husband proposed to me, and with that proposal, came the promise not only would I vow to be his wife for the rest of my life, but I’d also pack up in six months and head to a new state with him while he attends seminary. This meant leaving my friends, family, and life as I knew it for the last 25 years.

I have only known my husband at this point for about nine months, and we were only dating for 2 1/2. I guess you could say it was a risk that I said yes, but then again, love is always risky business, no matter what the timeline is, right?

At this point, I was college educated and had a degree in Public Relations, but I chose to work at a non-profit organization that paid me very little. I knew saying yes also would mean that I would be the sole provider while he was in school., and I also knew that my current salary at the time would barely cover rent. I was ready to change career paths for the sake of our marriage.

A lot of people already thought I was crazy for marrying a guy I just met – little did they know over the past nine months we’ve spent almost 3-4 days together a week, built a solid friendship, and got to know each other in our church community (who by the way, knew the whole time we would end up together).

But now they thought I was even crazier when I said I also wanted to start my own business when we moved.

I decided this about two months into our engagement. The plan was in the summer we would get married, go on a honeymoon, move immediately after, I would start a business and my husband would start school. We had money saved up and we figured we were young, and if I wanted to be an entrepreneur, now was the time to start.

Now, this was an actual risk, and I fully consent to that, but my husband wasn’t only on board, he fully encouraged me to do this. At the end of the day, while I highly value the opinions of people close to me, my husband was now my priority and it was OUR life together now, and we got to make decisions together that worked for us.

I took a course about being a virtual assistant during our engagement and thought “okay, I can do this!” I got an LLC, received my first low-paying gig right before my honeymoon (that’s a whole other story), and worked my butt off once we settled down in August. Oh, I also went without health insurance for a couple of months and that is a whole other story.

Anyways.

I wanted to take this risk because I wanted the freedom to someday work and be a mom. Also, with my husband’s work in ministry, I had no idea where we would be in a few years and I wanted the flexibility to be able to move without having to constantly change jobs. It was for me, but it was more important for our family.

After two months of applying to every job I saw on Facebook, LinkedIn, and trying to make connections on Instagram, I got my first real virtual assistant clients in October/November, and then I got a few more, and then boom, I was booked out. I started doing some video work and knew that this was my passion/skillset and wanted to focus just on video creation. But how?

So I invested in ANOTHER course that was thousands of dollars that would teach me how to get the foundations in a small business, niche down, and make 5k months. I decided to drop most of my virtual assistant clients and put all my energy into figuring out how to implement all the things I was learning in this course.

From the outside, I probably really seemed insane. But it was a great decision.

After I finished the course and officially niched down into Instagram Reel creation, my business really took off, and for the first time, felt like a real business. I now have over ten clients and two different offers. My social media presence is growing rapidly, and I am making money I couldn’t even dream about when he initially proposed.

In no way am I saying it was easy, or that it’s currently easy. It was a lot of late nights (still is), and long walks with my husband telling him I just want to get a “real job” like all the other wives here at the seminary (I sometimes still do this).

But he saw potential in me and this business that I couldn’t see in myself. When our families and friends would encourage us to go down a more “traditional” route, especially because my husband was in school, we decided to push through and now we are very blessed to see the fruit of our labor, prayers, and perseverance.

People always talk about wanting to have freedom, and certain things out of life, but rarely actually take the risk to go out and pursue it. We decided…. we didn’t want to be the people that just talked about these things. We stopped dreaming and with God’s blessing and guidance, made it a reality.

Gel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Angelica, but I go by Gel. About 9 months ago I started as a virtual assistant. Someone prior sent me a course about it, and I had no idea it was possible to make money online like this. I began doing some video projects for clients and quickly realized this is what I wanted to do full time. I took a course that helped me level up my business and niche down, and now I help online business owners with Instagram Reels!

Instagram is the best platform for an online business to market and build connections, and it is quickly changing. They are no longer a photo-sharing app (the head of IG’s words, not mine), and I decided to use my skillset to help business owners adapt to these changes.

I have a done-for-you package, where I provide the ideas, and strategy, and edit the videos for the business owner. It’s done for them from start to finish. I also offer a done with you package, where I provide the ideas and strategy, but they edit themselves.

I think this offer alone is what sets me apart from other business owners, but I’ve also heard from dream clients that they love my authentic approach to marketing and feel like they know me through my Instagram.

How did you build your audience on social media?

When I first started my business, I had NO idea what to do on Instagram. It felt so odd. I was 25 years old, already was using Instagram for 10+ years personally, but felt frozen when it came time to post for my business.

After months of just posting, and figuring out what content felt right for me, I began to see an uptick in followers pretty quickly. I am not an overnight sensation or anything, but I am booked out in my business and I know Instagram is the reason for that.

My best advice is to be as authentic as possible and to make reels. I heard someone recently say, show up for your audience and eventually, you will see that they start to show up for you.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

“A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it for them rather than for yourself. And so our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests.

Thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person.”

― Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Plan for the World

My faith is the driving force behind my business. I am using the gifts God has placed in me to serve a gap in my industry, and also to serve my family. I believe Jesus called me to serve this particular online community in this way particular way, and because of that, I work incredibly hard in every little thing I do.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/gelraquel

Image Credits
Tess Schilke