Virtual Excellence Academy Review (2024): HONEST Thoughts

Looking for an honest Virtual Excellence Academy review from someone who’s actually been inside the course?

If so, you’ve landed in the right place. 

Virtual Excellence Academy claims to teach you exactly how to build a “future-proof” career as an in-demand DNK-certified virtual assistant.

But is it actually any good? And can it really help you earn a full-time income as a virtual assistant and join the remote work revolution?

Our research team spent hours dissecting Hannah Dixon’s Virtual Excellence Academy course to determine if it’s legit. 

Nobody likes throwing away money on a sucky course (been there, done that). So in this VEA review, we’ll give it to you straight so you can decide for yourself if it’s right for you.

Let’s dive in.

👀 This is a Level 2 review. Read more about our in-depth course review process.

Virtual Excellence Academy review: What you need to know

Virtual Excellence Academy is a popular virtual assistant course and community. The program covers everything you need to become an in-demand VA. Best of all, she breaks the process into easy-to-follow daily action steps that, if followed, make it nearly impossible to fail.

This isn’t a course that’s going to tell you to go to Upwork and Fiverr to find jobs. It’s a course that teaches how to build a REAL and SUSTAINABLE virtual career.

That said, if I’m being honest, the course isn’t perfect. And it’s certainly not right for everyone.

Before making any rash decisions, there are some things you should know.

Note: Before spending any money, you may want to check out Hannah’s free VA guide and sign up for her free live 5-day virtual assistant challenge (highly recommended).

Let’s start by investigating who actually created the course.

Hannah Dixon review: Who even is this lady?

Hannah Dixon is a Virtual Assistance Coach, VA Recruiter, and co-founder of Digital Nomad Kit. 

She’s trained a whopping 25,000+ VAs while nomading around the world for 14 years and counting. 

Hannah’s goal is not just to train remote virtual assistants, but to train AWESOME virtual assistants — VAs who blow their client’s pants off, charge higher rates, never run out of job opportunities, and know how to set boundaries to create the perfect work-life balance.

Thanks to her high standards, entrepreneurs around the globe seek out Hannah to find top-notch VAs (like you). 

What’s included in Hannah Dixon’s Virtual Excellence Academy course?

Virtual Excellence Academy is broken down into three parts:

1. Virtual Excellence Academy
2. The bonus courses
3. The Inner Circle Facebook group 

#1.) Virtual Excellence Academy

Virtual Excellence Academy is the main course that you can take in A to Z fashion or in the order of your choosing based on your needs. 

Each module is broken down into lessons. Some include videos, others include worksheets and action assignments that move your business forward. 

Here’s an example of a lesson: 

Here’s a quick summary of the modules below:

• Workspace Setup. Keep your workspace tidy and integrate Google apps into your VA life.
• Business Foundations. Giving your business an epic name and identifying existing VA skills you can offer clients (even if you think you don’t have any).
• Set Yourself Up For Success. How to create a slick portfolio and set up a Facebook Business page that will impress potential clients. 
• Get Visible. Clever “relationship marketing” tips to attract long-term, high-paying clients.
• Land Clients. The art and science of discovery calls to nab your first few clients. 
• Onboard clients Step-by-step onboarding process that’ll make clients think, “Wow, this VA is legit. I need to keep them around.”
• Money Matters. Setting prices (without leaving money on the table), sending invoices, and getting paid.
• Networking & Job Applications. How to effectively network (even if you’re shy), vet job applications that aren’t worth your time, and create a digital business card so potential clients never forget you.
• Content Creation & Marketing for Online Service Providers.  Learn to attract new clients by publishing different types of content online that add value to your audience. 
• Tools and Resources. Loads of resources covering copywriting, graphic design, and audio/video editing making you a quadruple-threat VA.
• Graphic Design for VAs. Graphic design deep-dive that shows you how to use tools like Adobe Photoshop and Canva to create impressive graphics for your clients.
• Uplevel Your Career. Powerful ways to add extra income streams to your business with affiliate marketing, consultation, and automation. 

While testing the course, I found Hannah teaches by making you take action. 

As early as the introduction module, you’re already using Canva and signing an online contract (great practice for future client work). 

This “learning by doing” approach helps solidify info in your brain compared to some other courses that focus mainly on theoretical knowledge. 

In VEA you get a balanced mix of theoretical knowledge, tutorials on essential VA tools, handy templates, real-life examples, and action steps. 

In other words, it’s not a course where you consume all the information and then have to go out and apply it. Rather, you’re actually building your business step-by-step as you take each lesson. By the time you’re finished, you’re essentially up and running.

Hannah has a knack for motivation, and I felt myself getting more and more pumped up with every lesson I checked off.

#2.) The Bonus Courses

The bonuses you get depend on the package you buy. With Virtual Excellence Academy Legacy Edition — the most popular option — you get these bonuses (at the time of writing):

Unlike some other courses that tack on random fluffy bonuses just to make it look like you’re getting a lot, many of the bonuses in VEA are absolute gold. 

For example, The Podcast Kit teaches you how to launch and manage a podcast for clients — an in-demand skill that will set you apart from the competition and allow you to charge higher rates. 

Other bonuses, like the Niching Your Business workshop, laser in on helping you determine the best niche for you. This is also covered in the VEA program, but since choosing a niche trips a lot of new VAs up, the extra guidance is warmly welcome. 

If you buy the standard Virtual Excellence Academy, you get two bonus courses:

• Get Clients Now Course
• Rapid Breakthrough Therapy 21-Day Program

But if you opt for VEA Legacy Edition, you receive seven additional bonus courses including:

• WordPress Beginners Kit
• The Podcast Kit
• Contracts + Bundle
• Twitter Mastery
• Sales and Marketing Mastery Workshop
• Niching Your Business Workshop
• Facebook Network Bundle

#3.) The Inner Circle Facebook Group

The Inner Circle group is not your average Facebook group.

This group has 1,012 tight-knit members at the time of writing, and it’s a buzzing community.

If you ever get stuck on anything in your business, you can post in the group and quickly get advice from other VAs who have “been there done that” — including Hannah herself.

They also host weekly co-working sessions, which is a really cool way to stay accountable, crank out work, meet VA friends, and basically not be a lonely hermit working by yourself all day.

In addition to co-working, they also host other goal-focused meetings where you can work on your business with friends. For example, here’s one where a group got together to all declutter their laptops and organize things for max productivity.

And if you’re craving real human interaction, you can even arrange in-person meetups!

After stalking the crap out of this group, I was super impressed at what a fun, supportive community Hannah created.

If you’re worried about getting lonely as a VA or not knowing how to solve business problems, this is the perfect solution.

Virtual Excellence Academy pros ✅

✅ Inner Circle Facebook group. The Inner Circle group is a place where you can get help whenever you’re struggling with something in your business (which is bound to happen). You can also join accountability groups and co-working sessions, which is clutch. As a VA, nothing is stopping you from closing your laptop early and flipping on Netflix. But when you know your accountability partners are gonna ask about your progress, you won’t want to let them down.

✅ Emphasis on taking action. By the time you finish the course, you will have your virtual assistant business set up.

✅ Emphasis on FUN. What’s the point of building a successful VA biz if the work itself is miserable? The VEA community makes work fun and helps you make friends in a lively community.

✅ Lifetime access & updates. No time-limited access BS. Once you buy the course, you have this material for life — including any updates and additions made to the course. You also have lifetime access to the Inner Circle community, which is huge. Most other VA courses only give temporary community access, then make you pay a subscription fee to maintain your access.

✅ Templates galore. The sheer amount of templates you’re given access to is unreal. You’d be hard-pressed to think of a document you need to be a VA that isn’t included in this program. This is super helpful because you won’t have to write up a contract or onboarding agreement from scratch.  

✅ Ample job support. Joining the program grants you access to exclusive job opportunities for students of the course. This makes it easier to land your first client, which otherwise would be the hardest to find. Hannah literally helps entrepreneurs match with VAs, so if you take her course and prove yourself, you shouldn’t have a problem finding work.

✅ Anti-burnout strategies. VEA is all about setting boundaries with clients, self-care practices, valuing your services with ethical pay, and basically making sure you end up loving your career. These strategies are vital if you don’t want to end up feeling stuck in jobs that suck.

✅ Uber inclusive. Hannah’s community stands out for its diversity and inclusion. No matter your race, gender, pronouns, etc, you will be welcome and accepted in the community with open arms. 

✅ Taught by a VA-training wizard. Hannah isn’t just some internet rando. She’s trained over 25 THOUSAND virtual assistants. She knows what works and what doesn’t.

Virtual Excellence Academy cons ❌

❌ Course isn’t always open, so you may have to join the waiting list. That said, she does this so that she can give more attention to each student (unlike some other courses where students pile in and receive less individual help). While you wait, you can sign up for her free starter guide, which also adds you to her email newsletter where she sends a bunch of goodies.

❌ Doesn’t cover the tax and business structure side of things in as much detail as some other VA courses I’ve taken. But this is stuff you can Google or ask in the community. It’s also very country-specific, so it’s wise to research anyway.

❌ Some videos are just of her face talking. Don’t get me wrong, she has a beautiful face. But visual learners may learn better if there were some sort of PowerPoint slides that went along with what she was teaching.

❌ There is a healthy mix of videos and text, but I found that some of the text-based lessons could easily be made into videos for people who don’t like reading. That said, text is easier to review than video.

❌ Need to purchase the Legacy Edition to learn how to set up your WordPress website. I feel like this should probably be included in the main course. That said, the extra value you get with the other Legacy bonuses makes it a bit of a no brainer. 

❌ No refunds except under exceptional circumstances. When you sign up, you’re committing to becoming a rockstar VA.

TL;DR: Is Virtual Excellence Academy worth it?

As you can see, VEA isn’t a perfect course. But it does fulfill what it promises to do. 

If you follow the strategies in this course, complete all the action steps, and put in the work, you WILL become a virtual assistant. 

It’s hard for me to imagine a scenario where this doesn’t happen. 

VEA gives you all the knowledge, tools, and community support that you need to succeed. 

And it’s not just that. You’ll also have FUN doing it. And this is what separates VEA from most other programs. 

The community is truly awesome, and there are plenty of opportunities to make friends with other VAs through activities like virtual coworking sessions. 

That means you don’t have to worry about becoming a crotchity old hermit VA. 

If you’re still unsure, I recommend signing up for Hannah’s free guide and her 5-day VA challenge. 

The 5-day VA challenge is completely free and helps you jumpstart your business. Unlike other “freebies” out there which are mostly automated emails/video recordings, this is a chance to actually get live feedback.

Is there a Virtual Excellence Academy discount code?

There aren’t any Virtual Excellence Academy discount codes. 

That said, the Legacy Edition is currently $600 off (at the time of writing), but there is no information about how long the offer will be available. If the course is closed, your best bet is to join the waitlist, where she will surely announce any promotions. 

Where can I sign up?

I hope you found my write-up insightful. It took a good chunk of time to put together, so if you found it helpful, decide it’s for you, and want to say, “Thanks, Mitch!”— I’d be thrilled if you purchased using my affiliate link button below (at no extra charge to you).

I’ll even send you an extra bonus (see below).

Either way, I highly recommend VEA. If your goal is to make a good living as a virtual assistant, you will not be disappointed.

(If the course is currently closed, I recommend grabbing her free guide and getting on the waitlist.)

Virtual Excellence Academy alternatives

We’ve reviewed many of the best virtual assistant courses on the market, and two popular VEA alternatives are Abbey Ashley’s SavvySystem and Esther Inman’s 90 Day VA.

Here’s how they compare to VEA in a nutshell.

Virtual Excellence Academy vs. SavvySystem vs 90 Day VA

SavvySystem felt like the most comprehensive course, but it’s also the most expensive (see my full Savvy System review to see what I mean).

The Savvy System takes a really broad approach to teaching aspiring VAs how to start their business. They offer video training, live calls, templates, and even a special Facebook group with job listings.

Here is what former student Angela Caliver had to say about the program: 

“The SavvySystem has been an amazing resource for all of my questions and support!”

While the SavvySystem is extremely comprehensive, its price also reflects that. The Savvy System Ultimate is currently priced at $3,397, which can be too expensive for some. 

90 Day VA is less expensive than VEA and great for anyone on a tight budget, but it doesn’t include lifetime community access. It also has a strong “girly girl” vibe, which may or may not be your thing. (see my full 90 Day VA review for an insider look).

The content itself is all you need to get started, but certain people (like men or non-girly girl women) might feel a bit out of place. 

VEA feels way more inclusive compared to to 90 Day VA and “fits” better with a wider range of people. (That said, if you do resonate with girly vibes, then maybe 90 Day VA is better for you!). 

Virtual Excellence Academy is the “Goldilocks” of VA training programs. It’s not the cheapest, not the most expensive, but packs in the best overall bang for your buck. It’s also the only option that truly limits the number of students, which means more personal attention for you (if you want it).

Here’s what some former students had to say:

“My contract as an employee didn’t get extended due to the pandemic so it gave me the kick up the butt I needed to take my business full-time and I’m already matching my income a few months down the line!” – Elise Velkeneers, Virtual Assistant

“Working as a freelancer for over a decade I was searching for how to take my career to the next level. Taking the 5 Day VA Challenge, and joining the Virtual Excellence Academy was an absolute game-changer for me. During a pandemic, I was earning more than ever and the clients keep coming. Without a doubt, this course was an incredible investment! Hannah is a spectacular mentor, the Inner Circle is the best community I’ve ever been a part of and the Virtual Excellence Academy itself is extremely thorough in offering all the information you need to keep started in a fast and effective way. There’s no better VA course out there!” – Alicia R Thomas, Artist & Virtual Assistant

All three of these courses have active communities where you can get help, network with others, and find exclusive VA opportunities. But in my opinion, the VEA Inner Circle is just on another level with all the co-working sessions and activities.

Because of the small group sizes, you have a higher chance of getting the 1 on 1 attention and help that you need. 

VEA is also by far the most inclusive program in terms of diversity. You’re guaranteed to meet awesome VAs from a wide range of backgrounds, beliefs, and lifestyles. And the more diverse your connections, the more diverse your opportunities.

Alrighty, I hope this was helpful. I’ll shut up now. Over and out.