How Kathie Bentley Replaced Her Income With Freelancing: A Student Success Story

Today, Kathie Bentley, an LFA student who replaced her income with freelancing is sharing her story with us! Kathie is close to retirement age, but not ready for retirement now that she has become a freelancer. Working as a virtual assistant has given Kathie a flexible work from home job that allows her to work when she wants, where she wants, and throughout the medical surgery and recovery periods she’s had all while making a stable income.

I’ve been chatting with a lot of people recently who are in a similar spot to Kathie. They are closer to retirement age, at retirement, or have been out of the workforce for 20-30 years and are nearing that retirement age.

These women are looking for something more flexible that still allows them to make an income and are not quite ready to be done working.

If you are one of these people who want to work, find flexible work so that you can travel or be there for your grandkids, or whatever the reason is, you will love hearing from Kathie about how she replaced her full-time income freelancing (and now makes more working fewer hours)!

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Kathie Bentley Story

Family life

I’m from Southern Kentucky. I have been married to my husband for 14 years. We moved out of Louisville, Kentucky, to a smaller area to get away from the traffic, hustle, and bustle of Louisville.

Between the two of us, we have 5 adult children and 13 grandchildren.

Work life

Many years ago, I worked for years as an x-ray technician until becoming pregnant with my first child. I then became a stay-at-home mom for the next 8-10 years, taking care of my 2 kids who are 24 months apart.

When I went back to work part-time, I didn’t want to go back to doing X-rays because they were long days that were pretty strenuous. I didn’t want to do that with 2 little ones.

When they got into school, I began looking for something a little easier and part-time.

I found various secretarial positions, one for a lawyer until he retired and a few others.

Then I ended up getting back into the medical field, but this time doing administrative work for an audiologist, and became the office manager for that practice.

When we moved out to the country, I wanted to have summers off with my grandchildren to swim with them in the pool in the summers. So, I applied to the school system.

I got a position as an English as a second language teacher for children in the school system, and I loved the job! I would have stayed there for years, but I needed to have hip surgery that prevented me from doing that job.

Finding freelancing

In the spring of 2021, I found out about needing surgery and that I would need to eventually have the other hip done as well down the road.

Then it turned out that my husband lost his job right at that exact same time due to a corporate buyout.

While looking for a new job, my daughter began freelancing as a virtual assistant and told me I needed to start freelancing. Explaining that with freelancing, I could have the surgeries and any other issues that come down the road while working because it’s flexible and I could sit and work.

I said immediately no, that I could not do it because I was too old and wouldn’t be able to. But my daughter kept at it, and eventually, I opened up to the idea of freelancing!

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Overcoming Her Fear Based on Age

My daughter kept encouraging me she would say, “Mom, you can do this!”

So I started to think about how well she knows my skills, and if she believes in me, then maybe I’ll look at it.

She kept encouraging me, and eventually, I realized for my age I was fairly computer savvy. But not compared to her age, and that’s where the big gap was.

Live workshop

But she was very forthcoming, and encouraging, telling me how she had had to learn a lot too. That she had taken this course, and there were a lot of women who felt the same way. So, I went to one of the Live Workshops and decided to give it a try.

Finishing the course

Once I signed up for the course, I dived into it. I think I completed it in 3 weeks and did every single thing it told me to do. I didn’t skip any sections, skip ahead, or fudge on any sections. I loved it, and every time I did another module, I felt like I could do this!

Then I started listening to the Live Free Podcasts and listened to every single one! I even shared them!

First client

After signing up and finishing the course, I landed my first client just a couple of weeks after finishing it. And I am still working with her. She is my longest and best client!

For her, I do invoicing, scheduling, and managing her email.

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Replaced Her Income With Freelancing

I have 1 other client and work a total of 15 hours a week. That’s all I want to do.

The interesting thing is that I made more income in those 15 hours than I did working 35 hours a week at the school.

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Using Age as a Strength

When I was applying and filling out applications for positions or forms, it occurred to me to use my age in my favor. So I would start at the bottom of the form, and in the “anything else you would like us to know about you” section, I started focusing on the strength of my age.

I would say, “I have so many years of experience, and I believe in an old-school work ethic that I learned from my dad.” I started playing on the strengths of my experience, and it seemed to work in my favor.

“My fear of being too old to do this work in my favor in a lot of cases.”

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The Live Free Academy

If you have read Kathie’s story and feel inspired to learn more about freelancing and how it can help you make a flexible, stable income from home. Please reach out, and ask me any questions about getting started or what it could look like for you to become a freelancer!

Send me a message on Instagram @micala.quinn, I’m happy to chat through that with you! As always, if you want to become a freelancer and are ready to get started, the most hands-on way I can help you is through my program, The Live Free Academy!

LFA will walk you through the exact steps to build your business and land clients. There are templates and tools to help you implement every step of the process. Plus, it comes with my trifecta of support–weekly coaching calls with me, monthly challenges to help you land clients, and the student community to connect with and build relationships with other women building their businesses!

There are job leads and skills training in the top freelance services businesses are hiring for as well.?Sign up for The Live Free Academy course here!