The Modern VA was founded by Lara Smith — a tech-forward Virtual Assistant and Fractional Operations Partner with over 10 years’ experience supporting founders and scaling businesses.

Lara didn’t begin her career in AI or automation. She built her experience the traditional way: supporting busy founders, organising messy operations, managing inboxes, building SOPs, coordinating projects and helping businesses grow behind the scenes.

When AI started gaining serious momentum, her first reaction wasn’t excitement — it was concern. Like many assistants, she wondered whether this technology would eventually replace roles like hers.

Instead of avoiding it, she decided to understand it properly.

She immersed herself in AI tools, automation platforms and modern tech systems. The more she learned, the clearer it became that the opportunity was far bigger than the threat. Assistants who understood technology weren’t becoming less relevant — they were becoming more strategic, more efficient and more valuable to the businesses they supported.

At the same time, she saw how overwhelming the tech space was for many Virtual Assistants. Information was scattered. Much of it wasn’t designed for assistants. It often focused on developers or founders, not the people actually implementing and managing systems day-to-day.

Lara found herself spending hours sifting through content to extract practical insights that could be applied inside real client work. She knew there had to be a better way.

So she created The Modern VA — a space designed specifically for Virtual Assistants who want to understand AI, automation and modern tech in a way that is practical, grounded and operationally focused.

In under a year, The Modern VA has trained hundreds of assistants through webinars, structured courses and the Academy — helping them build confidence with technology, strengthen their operational thinking and increase the value they bring to clients.

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