I started off in a residential children's home when I was twenty two, looking after teenagers who were in the care system and couldn't live at home anymore. After a couple of years I became a team leader in that role, so had the extra responsibility of looking after a team. In total I was in that job for six to seven years. I had the highest highs in this job, but also some of the lowest lows.

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When I decided it was time to leave and try something new, I went on to be a targeted support worker, which is a little bit like a social worker. In my head it was a step away from the responsibility, because it wasn't such an intense environment, these children were still living at home. But after a couple of years working there, I realised the responsibility was just as big.

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So then I moved and started working with schools, giving advice and signposting for children and families who were struggling.

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About six months into that job, I had a realisation. I'd gone in at twenty two, and I'd never received the amount of support that was needed to help you deal with and process the things you're hearing every day, the things you were experiencing, and what the children and families I was working with were going through. It just didn't exist. Or if it did, I wasn't receiving it.

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I knew I needed to leave this type of career, but I wasn't ready to stop helping people. It was all I ever wanted to do, work with children or help families.

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My mum tells me that when I was a toddler, old enough to talk and understand life, I always said I wanted to be a social worker. And to this day she doesn't know where I heard it or where it came from.

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It also made me realise I wanted a more flexible life. I started searching the internet for remote jobs, thinking maybe I could be a mindset coach, but the responsibility aspect was still there, and by this point I knew I was so severely burnt out that I needed a break. Then one day, a virtual assistant came up. I started reading the description, and something clicked inside of me. I'd been doing this type of work throughout my whole career, the part everybody else avoided, and I never understood why.

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That part always became my regulation. Sitting down and getting everything out of my head onto paper, the organising. And now I come to think of it, it's something I've done my whole life. I'm not afraid to admit I have ADHD traits, but I've always been able to manage it, because I've always been organised.

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I started this business at the end of 2024, under the name Petal and Pine. Within seven or eight months I realised this was going to be my future, that I was making it work, and that I would make it work. In March 2026 I handed my notice in and took it full time. I changed the name to Tiffany Cherry VA because Petal and Pine felt like a mask, something to hide behind in case it didn't work out. But this is who I am.