Susannah Taylor – Wonder Woman Wednesday

Welcome back babes! This months Wonder Woman Wednesday is probably my favorite ever. Susannah and I met on Facebook through some mutual friends and have been incredibly close since then. Not only is she now one of my best friends but she is also the aunt to my kiddo. I have likewise claimed her three adorable littles as my own! I got to a point in my business last year where I was incredibly overwhelmed and burnt out. I knew I needed help managing all the things that I do. So I did what most modern people do these days…and went to Facebook! Susannah commented saying she was available and I got to work showing her how to keep my inbox empty (trust me that is a chore), scheduling clients and any other odds and ends that needed done to help keep my universe running in a semi orderly fashion. When I started planning my next round of WWWs I knew she had to be first on my list. Susannah is one of the most incredible women I have ever met. She keeps me sane. Let’s kick off her interview shall we, I promise – it is a good one!

Who the hell are you? 😉

That’s the hardest question you could ask me!  I feel like I’m changing every single day and to describe myself with only a few words makes me feel like I need another cup of coffee and a good episode or two of “Murder, She Wrote” to get started. 

At a glance I married my husband 6 ½ years ago and in our cross-cultural marriage we have three incredible kids. I married an incredible Black man. This has taught me to be patient, ask a LOT of questions, and recognize each other’s opinions first when the world seems racially at-odds. I am happily exhausted at the end of each day from raising our children, homeschooling our oldest, and running a part time Virtual Assistant Business which gives me something for me. 

I recently learned that I have ADHD which has revolutionized my self-awareness and how I can excel at the things I love. I believe you can love people and disagree in a healthy way. I believe political debates should be watched with a pizza (or maybe that’s just our tradition?). I think light  sage green is the most wonderful color to ever grace the earth and any number of blues come in at a close second. My current hobbies are renovating a 75 year old house (learning all the renovation skills I can!) and playing video games with my husband, playing guitar, bonfire cooking, knitting, writing children’s books, and about a dozen other things. 

At a soul-level, I’m a follower of Christ- and before that makes you run for the hills- we don’t all live the same way or treat people the same way. I’m a big believer that the most important conversations shouldn’t be had over social media or through loud, hate speeches but over a fresh pot of coffee and some of my great-grandpa Smith’s famous chocolate chip cookies. 

What made you start what it is that you are doing?

One day, a new friend put on Facebook that she was looking for some help scheduling clients…and now I’m being featured in her blog 😉  I LOVED being Lex’s virtual assistant and spent a year researching it before taking on other clients so I could serve them well. I love being a right-hand woman. The backbone, your support. This is a job where I don’t have to make the decisions, I just carry out the orders to take a load off of my clients. It’s basically the job of being a best friend. Who ya gonna call? This girl!! Any success I achieve I will attribute back to Lex for taking a chance on someone with no previous experience as a virtual assistant. 

What are your long term goals and what are things you are doing now to get there?

I recently settled into my niche as a VA in writing. I love blogging and copyright. It’s a form of art I’m passionate about and, quite frankly, one of the only ones I’m decent at! I would love to add a few clients in these areas but I’m hoping my main form of income in the future will come from an online course I’m building to help others get started as a VA and also from children’s books I’m writing inspired by my children, my childhood, and life as a mom. Right now I’m focused on the course and hope that it will be successful enough to fund getting some of these children’s books published. 

In your opinion, what is the best thing about life?

The best thing about life? Is that the frustrating unpredictability of it eventually leads to the best things you ever do. Your purpose, your favorite memories, your favorite people. If you had told me 10 years ago that in two months I would meet the man I would marry, he would be black (which I just hadn’t thought about growing up in a white community), we would have our first child and rainbow baby the day after our first anniversary and she would be smart, funny, and beautiful, or that I would end up deciding to homeschool or that I would find the confidence to start my own VA business someday that I could do from home and LOVE and a host of other experiences- I wouldn’t have believed you. I would’ve laughed and thought about where my life was at the time. If you had told me that that girl from ten years ago could find healing and answers from childhood trauma I might’ve been a bit kinder to myself in those next few years.  

Yes, I think the best thing about life is that we can choose to be excited about going around that next unknown corner instead of being afraid of it. 

If you could give one piece of advice to other women – what would it be?

Just one? I suppose it would be the hardest lesson I’ve learned in my adult life. 

There may come a day where you find yourself in a room full of people you love…and you feel lonely. That’s okay. It doesn’t mean they don’t love you, it just means you aren’t a priority for them. It hurts so much. But that just means there is another room somewhere full of people who are meant to be in your life right now, supporting you and prioritizing you. Put your headphones in and take a walk. I’ve yet to find a heartbreak that a cry-it-out playlist and country road, downtown sidewalk, or beachfront can’t solve. Once you accept that it’s okay to love them from a distance,  you can start looking for the other room (cue iTunes confidence playlist). And when you find it, you stop hurting so much. Don’t fight for the room that forgets you. There are healthier relationships out there, love, and they are worth finding. 

Where can people follow you?

You can find me on Insta and TikTok @builtfromthegroundup

I appreciate each and every one of you!