Exploring Life & Business with Aleah Vassell of Stay Creative, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aleah Vassell

Aleah, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m Aleah Vassell (they/she), a Canadian born, Jamaican rooted, American based multi-passionate creative (actor, creator, and online business owner) living in Dayton, Ohio.

My life and career were focused on the arts growing up. I had the performer bug ever since I was a baby. There are many stories from my parents of Baby Aleah creating songs and performing them for anyone who would listen, dancing wherever I could whenever music was playing, and frequently monologuing my thoughts for all to hear. They nurtured that little artist, putting me into dance classes, theatre club at school, skits and plays at church, and then two magnet arts schools during grade school where I got to major in Dance and Musical Theatre. When I told my parents I wanted to pursue musical theatre as a professional career, they fully supported me. I got my first professional acting gig at 18 when I was studying to get my BFA in Musical Theatre at Samford University and knew I was on the right path.

I continued to do professional theatre gigs throughout my studies, getting a taste of the full time artist life. Two theatre degrees later (I received my BFA and then went on to get my MFA in Acting from University of Tennessee, Knoxville), I became an Equity theatre actor. I’ve had the privilege of performing theatre professionally up and down the east coast and the midwest. Now you’ll usually find me doing professional theatre in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas.

However, there was a time when I wasn’t able to perform during the beginning of the pandemic. This is when both my creator and entrepreneur journeys truly started. In May of 2020, I received my MFA and then was thrust into a world where what I studied for three years was no longer an active option to pursue. Theatre was completely shut down and I was unemployed and broke. I knew I had to get creative with money if I wanted to survive.

After two years of trying various things to make money, such as virtual freelance work, a 9-to-5, and a self care business, virtual assistance is what stuck, as I was good at it and enjoyed it. I also fell in love with personal finance and did the work to break the starving artist mindset, make more money, and become financially stable. I ended up quadrupling my income in one year making $27,000 at the end of 2021, to $116,000 at the end of 2022! And close to half of that income was made through virtual assistance.

It was in the fall of 2022 that my virtual assistant business, R3 Creative Co, and my anonymous personal finance Instagram account, Creative With Money, were born. In three months of launching my VA business, I was bringing in consistent $5,000+ months gaining financial stability as an artist. I started Creative With Money to talk about this as well as my whole personal finance journey because I wanted to inspire other creatives to get out of the starving artist mindset and build wealth. After two years (including an identity reveal in September 2024), Creative With Money has grown organically to a community of 20,000+ across all platforms.

Flash forward to now, I am an Actor, Content Creator, 6-figure Virtual Assistant and VA Coach. I teach folks how to get creative with money through free personal finance content, resources, and helping people starting their own virtual assistant business. I perform in professional theatre shows at night, and work as a VA and VA Coach during the day, helping entrepreneurs get their time back and coaching aspiring VAs in my program called the Virtual Assistant Accelerate, where I take people from 0 to an extra 4-figures as a VA in seven weeks.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Besides the obvious pandemic, there was a huge learning curve. I went from being a broke artist to a 6-figure creative in twelve months and with that came its own complications. I now had an influx of money when I was used to only making around $20,000 per year and a fully running virtual assistant business with a team to support me, yet I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. As this major life shift from starving artist to financially stable was happening, the biggest obstacle of my entire life also happened: My dad passed unexpectedly in November 2022.

Before I lost my dad, I worked to figure out what to do with more money and how to make my business sustainable and less overwhelming. First thing I did was learn to make good decisions with my new high income. I paid off $37,000 of debt while learning to save, invest, and budget. Then I invested in a group coaching program to help support my business growth and got clear on who I wanted to serve. Three months after the start of my virtual assistant business, my dad passed suddenly and unexpectedly.

I wanted to quit everything. My business, my theatre career. I wanted to lay in a ball and cry for the rest of my life. I told all of my virtual assistant clients what happened and eventually let them go because I couldn’t focus on work. I had also just got cast in a theatre show but turned down the role. I had to figure out how to go on when my biggest cheerleader was no longer there to support me.

The biggest shift that helped me get back into everything after losing my dad was changing my mindset. I chose to live the life he was no longer able to do. I chose to keep going in my business because my dad would be disappointed if I stopped after such major momentum. I chose moving forward instead of staying stuck in my grief. Now that grief fuels me to do my best everyday because it’s what dad would’ve wanted.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Stay Creative, LLC?
Outside of being a theatre performer, my online business, Stay Creative, LLC, has two branches: Creative With Money, my personal brand and R3 Creative Co, my virtual assistant agency.

Creative With Money is a personal finance Instagram account where I document different ways to stay creative with money as a professional performer, virtual assistant, and online business owner. I talk about what I’m working on in my personal finances and help others learn to build wealth through sharing side hustle ideas, budgeting, saving and investing tips, financial self care, and money mindset work. I also offer virtual assistant coaching. For aspiring virtual assistants, I coach through my program, the Virtual Assistant Accelerate, where folks can go from 0 to an extra $1,000 – $5,000 per month as a virtual assistant in seven weeks. For established virtual assistants making $1,000 or more in their business, I offer 1:1 coaching to help you scale your business to $5,000 – $10,000+ months and truly gain time freedom!

R3 Creative Co is a creative assistance agency that helps clients Refocus, Reenergize, and Reclaim their time through virtual assistance, mentorship, social media, and website design. We offer both project-based work for those looking for websites or content creation, and monthly retainers for those needing virtual support or business consulting. If you’re craving deep support to help your business get to the next level, it’s time to R3!

I believe what sets me apart from others in all areas of business is that I’m openly sharing my journey (both personal finance and business) for all to see. I talk about how much I make, my income streams, the mistakes I’ve made and how to do things better than me. I share to both keep myself accountable and inspire others to show them they can do the same. Gatekeeping is not my vibe so I’m constantly sharing how to get VA clients, how to make more money in your business as an entrepreneur, and more. And when it comes to being a virtual assistant, I bring 14 years of experience to the table and know how to give my clients a luxury experience instead of giving them more work to do in training me.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
First and foremost, my parents. They have always been extremely supportive of anything I put my mind to. I know my dad is still cheering me on from the other side.

Secondly, my spouse, Emme! With every new and random idea I present, Emme helps me go deeper in imagining what that would look like, helping me dream bigger and feel more confident in all of my business endeavors.

And lastly, I’ve had a plethora of support through coaches. My first online business mentor was Katie Denniston – shoutout Katie for helping me get my business off the ground! My current online business mentor is Shannon Speir – thank you for helping me continue to make leaps and bounds toward all of my endeavors, both personal and professional.

Contact Info:

• Website: For my personal finance work: www.creativewithmoney.com
  For my virtual assistant & coaching work: www.r3creative.co
  For my actor / artist work: www.aleahvassell.com
• Instagram: Main: @creativewithmoney | V.A. Coaching: @thrivingva.co | Personal Finance for Creatives: @financiallystableartist
• Other: Threads: @creativewithmoney