I am Jessica Riesenbeck

I am a mom of two, a wife, a Virtual Assistant and a Life Coach. I could probably call myself a professional juggler with all of the balls I’ve always got in the air.

I’ve owned my own Virtual Assistant business since July 2004. I started my business at that time so that I could make my family my top priority, but still work-doing something I enjoyed, while adding to our household income. At the time I never imagined how much I would love being a VA and also grow to become a Life Coach.

Over the years, as a VA I’ve worked with many different types of people in different types of professions. I’ve worked with a Celebrity Speakers Agent, a Special Events Marketer, several rock star Life Coaches, and a best selling Author, Speaker, Columnist for O, the Oprah Magazine. Not only have I worked with these people, I’ve also become great friends with them. I’ve learned so much from each and every one of them. Because of all that I’ve learned and continue to learn I decided to also become a Life Coach, so that I could share my love of wanting to help people.

As a Life Coach I work with moms who feel as though they’ve lost themselves in the busy-ness of normal life. I help you to find or remember what it is that makes you smile, laugh and feel excited again. When you’re happy that reflects on everything you do and on everyone around you.

In my spare time I love hanging out with my family (my husband, two kids and our two dogs) and friends. My family is my heart! I like a good book and a good comedy-where I can just enjoy and no thinking is required. I love music & will dance until my feet will dance no more. And, I am told that I’m funny, fun to be around, spirited and passionate. I give my all to everything I do and I try to find the humor and have fun in everything, as well.

I also have another business that I created on Monday mornings at my kitchen table with my sister-in-law and my best friend, Gretchen. To work with my best friend on a project that is so much fun and so special to both our hearts is awesome-a dream come true!

Being able to do all these things I enjoy and to work with amazing people makes my heart smile. I am here to support you and help you to enjoy your life a bit more-and have a smiling heart, too.

Email Me: jessica@jessicariesenbeck.com

My Story

My entrepreneurial story begins in the Fall of 2003. For over eight years, I had been working as an Office Manager. It was a small town business, we were all friends and I would have been comfortable there for a long time. The small town business was sold to a large corporation. The new, big company required the former employees be hired as new employees. With the stroke of a pen, my seniority and vacation time was gone.

I was pregnant with my second baby and the new company offered no maternity leave. Before the sale of the new company, I had worked for four days a week, under the new policies, I would have to work five days a week. I was devastated. My life and my family’s life changed radically. This reality was of little to no concern to the people who had made these decisions.

Every morning I went to work crying. Every night I came home crying. I felt betrayed, powerless and lost. Then, I got mad. I realized that it was up to me to make the decisions. I would work for myself, start some sort of business that I could do from home. I would decide how many days a week I would work, I would decide on my hours, and I would decide on the amount of my paycheck.

I searched the web for home based business ideas. I kept coming up with scams. One day I was reading Time Magazine at work (yeah, I stopped “working” when not necessary), I found an article on Virtual Assistance and AssistU. I instantly knew in my heart that Virtual Assistance was what I had been looking for. I copied the article, brought it home and read it to my husband. Then I read it, and read it, over and over.

I applied for the program with AssistU, I was accepted after a lengthy process (I was glad for this process  because it eased my mind that the program was legit).  I began studying in February of 2004. I quit my job in March, had my son in April and launched my VA business in July. It was a whirlwind. It was one of the most difficult and most rewarding years of my life, and in the life of my family. It was challenging on my marriage.

To quit my job. I cashed in my retirement, about $6,000. We had a three year old and a newborn.  The VA clients didn’t fall from the sky as they did in my sleep deprived fantasy. I had to get out there and find clients, once again, it was up to me to make things happen. It took a while for me to find my confidence and courage. I cried much of the time, most of the time, but knew that what I was doing what right for me. It was right for our family.

I asked my cousin, who owned a national airplane cleaning and maintenance company to hire me. As a part-time employee working from home, I was able to make money and grow my VA business at the same time. I trolled CraigsList and found an ad from a woman in Boston looking to hire an in-office employee. Everything about this woman I loved. So I reached out to her about working with me as a VA. We connected, and I did some project work every once in awhile (eventually turning into a VA client relationship). I went to networking events where I ate a lot of food, hung out with my sister-in-law and got a lot of dead leads.

In the Spring of 2005, my husband’s employer cut his hours and things there were very shakey. We were tight on money and patience. I went to my parents’ house, jokingly (but seriously) asking if I could grocery shop there because we didn’t have enough money to buy groceries. For me to ask this was heart breaking, it was as if I were admitting that I failed, I was going to have to get a “real” job, not be there when I needed to be there for my kids and not do what I truly felt was possible. My parents insisted on helping us out and gave us a check for $500 (after sending us home with bags of groceries). I promised to pay them back. And, that’s what I needed, I needed to make that promise. I wasn’t going to take money from parents and not pay them back, especially since I had helped to create our situation.

Not only was I making a stand when it came to my business, I was taking a stand with my husband. The job he had wasn’t a job he loved and it didn’t pay well, plus it was a sinking ship. So, the next day I reworked his resume and sent it to the highest paying jobs in our area in his field. Jobs we’d been wishing he would get for years. When he came home from work I told him what I did and that I knew this was a turning point for us. The very next day, I kid you not, he got a call from the #1 place he wanted to work-they wanted an interview. And, throughout the next week or so he got calls from the other places. It was a process, it took two months with lots of interviews and tests, but Benji got the job. And, I was adding new clients to my VA business.

Things started to look up and turn toward the good for my business. Throughout the next couple of years, I spent a lot of time working in my little office in the second living room of our home, and being a mom. I got caught up in succeeding and having a good business and lost focus on me, I lost myself as an individual— as a woman, a wife and a friend. If I wasn’t working I was doing the mom stuff, or the wife stuff. I slowly lost myself and didn’t even know it

Then, I got a new client-her name was Martha Beck. She’s a life coach and New York Times best selling author. Working with her is amazing!! I met and connected with the life coaches who had been through her life coach training program and I loved them. They were so appreciative, thankful, gracious and happy. I wanted some of that, I wanted to be happy. So, I signed up for the Life Coach Training program.

Wow, was that an eye opener! I had a lot of work to do on myself before I could coach anyone I had to get out of my own way, stop blocking myself, learn to love me again, stand strong for who I am— what is important to me— all that good stuff!!

And, while I was going through the Life Coach training program, one day my client from Boston (we still worked together) asked me to find a photo of myself, from high school so she could put it on her website. I looked through my high school books, my senior book and reading the comments, the notes on backs of photos-every one of them said how fun and funny I was. Really?? Where was this fun and funny girl? All I knew was me as an over-stressed, highly anxious, caught in fear, grouchy, irritable wife and mom. I sat there looking at my photos of me cheering, and hanging with friends and cried. I wanted to be fun and funny again.

So, that was something I worked on in my Life Coach Training program. And, I started taking small steps (I continue to take small steps) to find her again. I reached out and connected with people who I found interesting. I reached out to a new mom I met from my daughter’s soccer team, even though I was scared she wouldn’t like me. I started to speak my mind. I got a tattoo— one that I had been saying I wanted for years. And, I LOVE it!! I live my life for me.

I still have a long way to go— I’m still anxious, I’m still caught in fear, I’m still irritable and grouchy some days. But, I’m also laughing more, enjoying myself more, feeling confident, letting my kids do things even though I just want to hold them close to me. I color my hair red, even though my husband is not a fan. To me it is fun and natural. I’m traveling to grow my business and to learn more about myself. I’m wearing mini skirts because I think they’re cute and I no longer care if someone else thinks I have fat knees. I bought a hot pink bra and I smile every time I put it on.

I cry more and laugh more. I feel my emotions rather than stuffing them down, and I know that we are all learning, changing and growing every day. Change is normal and it’s OK to have bad days because there are also good days.

Now I am transitioning away from my work as a VA. Though I like the stability and comfort of being a Virtual Assistant, Life Coaching is what makes my heart smile. With my sister-in-law, I work with women who have or want to create a VA business. We help women create a business that is authentic to them. And, I work with moms who have lost themselves and are ready to start living their lives for them— and love that life.

When we loose ourselves, everyone is impacted. When we lose the fun in our lives, everyone else around us loses, too. I wanted to be a mom so that I could love my kids with all my heart, but they weren’t seeing that love. They were seeing the mom that was resenting them and her life. Not any more. I still get mad and frustrated and upset, but there is no resentment because I am the one in charge. I need to make time for me so that I can feel re-charged and focused. I need to do things that I love so I can smile and it makes the other stuff just a little more tolerable.

I’m living life for me-and I’m loving this life more everyday. I’m an example to my husband and my kids. I encourage them to stop living for everyone else, to do what makes them happy, to have the courage to stand for themselves (though my husband has always done this) and to take time to be by themselves, take time to do things they love, so they can re-charge and give the love and happiness back to the world.