Collaboration over Competition: a Discussion with Sam Browne 

When Sam Browne “fell” into being a Virtual Assistant (VA) nearly a decade ago, there were hardly any people doing it, and most New Zealand businesses had no idea what a VA could do for them.

Fast forward a few years, and she now helps thousands of VAs across New Zealand connect, collaborate, commiserate and celebrate through her community – Virtual Assistant Network of New Zealand (VANNZ).

In the first in a series highlighting some of our fabulous partners, our Partnership Manager, Vicki Campbell, caught up with Sam for a chat. Here’s what she learnt.

How the Collaboration began

Sam began working as a VA nearly a decade ago, when an old friend who had recently started her own consulting business asked if she could help with some admin. With a baby and a kindergartener, the opportunity to work flexible part-time hours from home appealed to Sam.

A little while later, Sam was considering adding other clients to her roster. But virtual assistance was a concept that few others seemed to have heard of.

“I did some research and discovered that what I was doing was called being a Virtual Assistant”. Sam says. “But, when the term was brought up in conversation it was either “what the heck is a virtual assistant I’ve never heard of it” or this misconception that a virtual assistant was going to be based in India or the Philippines or Sri Lanka and was going to do the work cheaply online”.

Since then, Sam has made it her mission to educate businesses about the value of using a VA, and the value of hiring local, and other people on the benefits that working as a VA can bring them.

“There are so many women in our industry who have come from toxic workplace relationships, like maybe their manager hasn’t been supportive or hasn’t valued them. Perhaps their home life has clashed and they’ve felt bullied or in the wrong when they’ve needed to stay at home with sick children”, Sam says.

“These women deserve more, but in the past, they’ve had no other way of earning that income. Now, with the rise of VAs, they do.”

Sam Browne, pictured with her 2025 VA Business Planner

Sam co-founded The VA Foundry, which provides a wealth of practical advice on topics like how to decide on which services to offer, how to set rates and where to market for clients – all things that Sam had to figure out on her own VA journey and which she now shares advice on to help others move along that path more smoothly.

“So many virtual assistants come into the space and go to their employee mindset, for example, they just set their hourly rate as what they would have earned as an employee without thinking about all the new overheads they have. For me, it’s about empowering them, giving them knowledge, and giving them a pathway in terms of fast-tracking their success and really understanding their value”.

She also developed the Virtual Assistant Network of New Zealand (VANNZ) as a way of bringing together VAs from across the country. The premise of VANNZ is simple – it’s a safe space where members can ask questions, get advice, learn and develop, share stories, and, when they need to, have a little rant about something hard.

Sam’s mindset of Collaboration over Competition

Some are surprised that Sam shares so much so readily, and often for free, but for her, it’s all part of her mindset of collaboration over competition.

“I’d seen a lot of gatekeeping in other communities I’d been part of – people saying I want to help you, but I’m not going to give you all the information, or I want to help you, let’s take this conversation offline”, Sam says. “I knew for this to work, people had to feel safe – that they felt as though they could open up and be vulnerable, because you can’t help people unless they’re sharing with you. You have to lead by example in all of the places in order for the trust, the credibility and that feeling of security”.

It’s something she encourages in all VANNZ members too – the idea that they can work together and lift each other up, either through recommending other VAs to clients, offering work through agencies or sub-contracting opportunities, or simply by offering support.

Welcome To The VA Foundry YouTube Channel

Connection is a key part of Collaboration

“It does take some work”, Sam says, “because it’s a mindset change to not view everyone as competition. But for VAs, there is so much work out there. What you specialise in might not be the same as someone else, or your ideal client might not be someone else’s ideal, or it might not take many clients until your hours are full. So you realise that not everyone is competing for the same clients and you have some space to connect”.

The community also helps reduce isolation among members, something that Sam noticed herself when she began her VA career.

“Half of my social life had been wrapped around whoever I was working for at the time. And so, working from home for myself, I wasn’t going to get that anymore. So I needed to do something about it.

“It’s that need for human connection and until you lose that, until you go from being able to have the banter with your desk buddy or in the coffee room just chatting as you pour your tea or whatever it is, you don’t actually realise it’s going to be something that that you’re going to miss.

“When I first started out, I knew around half a dozen other people working in this space. Now our community has over 5000 members – at all stages of their VA career”.

VANNZ and The VA Foundry also hold VA summits and an annual awards, of which Thankyou Payroll has been a proud sponsor.

The Awards, Sam says, are a way of recognising the amazing ways in which VAs contribute to their clients’ success, often in a behind-the-scenes capacity. It’s also a great opportunity to further develop the credibility of virtual assistants in New Zealand and to show businesses the benefits they bring.

But what she loves most are the smaller wins she sees on a regular basis from within the VANNZ community.

“One of the situations I love is when an agency owner and a VA partner have connected through VANNZ”, she says. “The community has not only benefitted the growth and success of the agency but also given that individual an opportunity. They are the kind of connections that just bring me the utmost joy”.

If you’re a VA, or an aspiring VA and you’d like to connect with Sam’s network, you can find out more at NZ Virtual Assistants.