From a growing VA agency to a business that feels truly aligned
Mary came into 2025 already running a growing virtual assistant agency, but she was ready to move from a business owner going through the motions to someone actively shaping the direction of her company. She set three yearly intentions to guide her through the year: team, diversify and realign.
"Having it as part of an intention meant that it has actually happened, and it's actively made a difference in the business and the team," Mary says.
Team
Mary promoted an existing team member into a head of creative role and grew her wider team from six or seven people to twenty. Alongside the growth, she introduced feedback surveys, monthly training sessions, weekly co-working calls and an in-person team day, all aimed at strengthening culture and retention across a fully remote business.
Diversify
Mary stepped back from hands-on VA work to focus on running the agency, taking on public speaking and podcast appearances along the way. She also launched a brand new venture, Yations, offering co-working holidays abroad, turning a "wouldn't it be cool if" idea into a live business within the year.
Keeping the goal visible throughout the year pushed her to reach out and put herself forward, rather than waiting for opportunities to arrive on their own.
Realign
What started as a simple rebrand grew into a full overhaul of Mary's visual identity, website and messaging. The work took months to filter through the whole business, updating everything from client communication to team culture, but left her feeling, for the first time, that her brand truly reflected what she'd built.
"I now have the most beautiful visual brand ever," Mary says. "It's just better than I could have imagined."
The Role ON IT played
Mary is clear that none of this would have happened without the structure ON IT gave her. A genuinely unstable year, filled with travel and a house move, could easily have thrown her off track, but the monthly check-ins meant she couldn't let a chaotic season become an excuse to disengage.
"Without on it, genuinely, without those sessions and that accountability, I wouldn't be here having achieved half the things I would have done," she says.
For Mary, the biggest shift wasn't any single result. It was moving from letting the business tick along around her to actively deciding where she wanted it to go, with the accountability in place to keep making progress every month.
"I've very much switched from bimbling to intentional work," she says.
