Meet Roy: From Daily Commuter to Content Creator

Roy has been a freelancer and content creator for the past five to six years, but his story starts somewhere a lot of Filipino VAs will recognize: stuck in traffic. Before freelancing, he worked at a corporate SEO agency, commuting every day from the San Pedro, Laguna area all the way to Makati and Cabuyao. During the GCQ and ECQ months of the pandemic, a single day of jeeps could cost him ₱50 to ₱80 — and that's if the rides were even available. Some days he needed more than one just to get to work.

The commute was only half of it. The workplace had turned toxic. A boss who kept borrowing money from the team. A "cloud chaser" culture where everyone spent their breaks at Starbucks — even during COVID, when you'd get called into the office for a meeting and end up on a coffee run instead. On a ₱15,000 to ₱17,000 monthly salary, every commute and every coffee was eating into what little was left.

So around 2020, Roy made a decision: if this is what work looks like, I'd rather be at home doing something better. He watched YouTube videos, read articles, and eventually landed his very first freelancing client. His portfolio at the time? Just a plain Google Doc with all his work pasted in — nothing fancy, nothing polished. But it was enough to get trusted. Within his first few months, he was earning an extra ₱15,000 to ₱18,000 a month on top of his salary, just from spending two to three hours every night on client work.

You Don't Need to Know Everything to Start

Here's the honest truth Roy wants beginners to hear: he did not know what he was doing at first. When he landed a social media marketing role with a home inspection company, managing their digital marketing was completely new to him. Canva had only just become widely used around 2019–2020, and he wasn't even a premium user yet — so he was working with a limited set of free templates. Social media schedulers? Also his first time. Everything felt overwhelming.

Before that first client, the only real experience he had was growing a single social media page. Copywriting and graphic design were things he picked up along the way. And his early graphics were rough — in his own words, sobrang bantot talaga tingnan. But clients still accepted the work, because progress matters more than perfection when you're starting out.

His approach has a name a lot of freelancers know: best foot forward. When a client asks, "Do you know how to do SEO and social media marketing?" a first-timer doesn't say no — you show up as your best self, take the project, and then figure it out and grow with the client. It's not about faking expertise you'll never build; it's about giving yourself the chance to learn on real work.

"In order to get a client, you go with your best foot forward. You take the project, and then you learn and grow with them. Your early work won't be perfect — mine definitely wasn't." — Roy, From Kayod to Keyboard

The Tools You Actually Need (Hint: AI Is Your Sidekick)

One of the biggest questions beginners ask is, "Anong tools ba talaga ang kailangan ko?" According to Roy, in 2026 the answer starts with being genuinely comfortable using AI — and knowing which tool is best for which job. If you don't, you'll have a hard time keeping up in a freelancing world that now runs on AI.

Roy's real workflow is a great example. When he hits a creative or mental block making content, he links an AI tool directly to Canva, tells it the kind of social media post he needs — including his preferred color palette and fonts — and lets it generate mockups and suggestions to build from. He's found Claude gives more direct design mockups and color direction, while ChatGPT stays his comfort tool for ideas and copy (even if it's weaker on the visual side). The point isn't which brand you pick — it's learning the use cases.

What's remarkable is how far the free and affordable tools have come. Canva and CapCut can now produce work that used to require Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or Premiere Pro. But Roy is clear about the boundary — the tools speed you up and unblock you, they don't replace the thinking.

"AI is a kasangkapan — a tool. It's not a replacement for your brain. It's there to inspire you and help you brainstorm, never to do the thinking for you." — Tata & Roxy, From Kayod to Keyboard

How to Charge What You're Worth as a Digital Marketing VA

For a long time, Roy told himself that $5 an hour — or even below — was okay, as long as he had clients. Then he experienced something higher. The moment he started earning $6, $7, then $8 an hour, his whole mindset shifted: he realized he could earn more in less time. Once you've felt a better rate, it becomes almost impossible to go back to underpricing yourself.

"When I started experiencing much higher rates — $6, $7, $8 an hour — that's when I told myself: I can charge higher. You should never devalue yourself or belittle what you can do." — Roy, From Kayod to Keyboard

His strategy for stability is smart, too: instead of one full-time client, he takes multiple part-time clients. That way he keeps flexibility — if one client drops off, he still has income from the others, and he can replace the lost slot anytime. Some part-time premium clients even pay ₱50,000 to ₱55,000 a month for flexible work. Roy's takeaway is that ₱40,000+ per month is genuinely doable for a digital marketing VA who has the skills, a portfolio, and the right mindset to grow a client's brand.

Red Flags: How to Spot (and Escape) Toxic Clients

Not every client is worth the rate. Roy shared a story about a "notorious" client — a boss behind a dating-app brand who cursed at his freelancers, called people slow, and even referred to a teammate as an idiot right in front of others during the interview. Roy walked away. His reasoning was simple: no rate is worth your sanity.

The good news is that as a freelancer, you have an advantage employees don't — you can decline or resign anytime. If a client's personality feels overly dominating during the interview, that's a red flag worth trusting. Backing out mid-engagement can feel awkward, but protecting your peace of mind always wins. That said, Roy is balanced about it: he happily takes clients who are kind and respectful, even at lower rates, because part of the job is growing a brand "from nothing into something" — and doing that with good people is where the real satisfaction is.

He also reframes rejection completely. Getting turned down isn't a verdict on your worth — it's feedback. It tells you what a client needed that you didn't yet address. Once you get used to it, rejection stops being scary and starts being useful. As he puts it, focus on what you have, not on what you lack. That's positioning.

💬 Questions & Answers from the Episode

✅ Your 7-Day Action Plan

Roy and the hosts closed the episode with a simple week-long challenge. If you do nothing else after reading this, do this:

"We're not just meant to stay here — we're wired for bigger things. When you believe you can do more and be more, you can reach places you never imagined." — Roy, From Kayod to Keyboard

📻 More Episodes You'll Love:

• Episode 9: Anthony Quit His 10-Year Corporate Job & Built a VA Empire (Website Academy PH)
• Episode 13: Sheena Santos — From VA to Marketing Automation Specialist & Fiverr Pro
• Episode 8: How This New VA Handles Finance, Creatives & Operations