Virtual Assistance and You

I’ve been working administratively since 1973. Through nearly all of that time, the ideal of the multi-tasker was held up as the highest achievement. If administration is carrying out the dictates of the planners, multi-tasking is the best way to serve their lofty ideals, because it makes several employees out of one, and gets the job done no matter what.

And anyway, it’s a high. When you’re responding to demands from many quarters at once, you’re dancing. Flit here, pause there, do a pirouette and end up on top.

Multi-tasking is endlessly entertaining, while you accomplish the oft-labeled-impossible task of serving many masters all at the same time.

But it never lasts. Have you noticed? The one constant in multi-tasking is burn-out. The nerves fray, the attention eventually wanders.

So how can we benefit from multi-tasking without fizzling like firecrackers?

By applying it consciously, rather than compulsively.

The business person who is always tracking several threads at once and therefore never available for focused,  eyeball-to-eyeball experiences is useless 99% of the time.  You know who you are.

This is not to dispense with multi-tasking altogether. Using it to take care of mundane responsibilities can be tremendously helpful. But continuing to multi-task when your activities lead you into realms of personal contact, decision-making, or any higher-level thought can be detrimental to growth.

Note that multi-tasking can be addictive. It’s also admired, in a general sense, so the addict is encouraged in  his/ her affliction every day, in a vicious cycle that few people understand or even realize. I’m thinking of one friend who is actually successful in business.  But she won’t become any more successful than she is; she will stay at her current level, because she’s addicted to multi-tasking.

To multi-task in a conscious way means that you can turn it on and off at will. It means whenever you are with another person, you turn it off, because when you multi-task while communicating in person, you give the other less than their due respect. We owe one another more than that, no matter who the other is. In person (or in direct one-on-one conversation of any kind), focus is key and without it you risk being offensive.

As in my friend’s case, multi-tasking leads to negligence in other areas of life, often the personal needs that are ignored while you Accomplish with phenomenal speed and acumen.  It’s these suppressed urges that eventually demand your surrender. Just because you can juggle like a wiz doesn’t mean you’re entitled to sainthood.

Though you may think it hard to believe, life is even more multi than multi-tasking.

Recently, I parted ways with a contractor because we couldn’t agree on price. Though it was a cordial disagreement, it still hurts. I had hoped the partnership would be mutually beneficial, but her policies and mine differed to such an extent that an ongoing exchange was obviously not going to be possible.

In another case, a favorite client asked me to do some payroll prep work. It took a full meeting between us and an hour of reviewing the info on my part before I screwed up the resolve to tell him he should find someone else for the job because accounting is just not my bag.

I’ve gotten better at detecting such misalignments in my almost-three-years as a virtual assistant. Awhile back, I might have overlooked small or even not-so-small discrepancies and miscommunications in the interest of getting and completing the work.

Over time, though, I learned that it’s not worth the heartache. If you can’t trust your virtual relationships, or if you are not providing surefooted trustworthiness from your end, the partnership will not work. Period.

If you detect a glimmer of mismatch, which is not resolved speedily, you may as well say farewell. Virtual relationships depend on a few points of intersection that must be infallible. Your faith in the other is what makes it work and you can do nothing of value without that faith.

For anyone who has made a profession of helping others, for people who work as administrators, helping others to realize their plans, it’s just plain difficult to turn anyone down. The whole point is to be of assistance; it goes against the grain to say no. Virtual Assistants are ‘can do’ people, after all.

So VAs in particular suffer from can’t say no syndrome, but it’s common as well amongst people of all kinds who are in the start-up phase of business.

Come to think of it, it’s a phenomenon that appears in youth, whatever the context. Adolescents, for example, are famous for not saying no. An adolescent is usually far more in love with love than with the particular ‘other.’ Was your first teenage romance a solid investment, founded in well-placed trust? Or was it a crazy fling with no basis in reality? As you matured, you learned to say no to some of the many possibilities in the world of romance, right?

Similarly, when you enter the work force for the first time, you are anxious to take whatever job you are offered. It’s only later that you get picky.

So it’s no surprise that as a business owner, building your own clientèle entails the same discernment and selection.

I’d like to avoid having to be selective in person, in the moment, though. That is, I’d like to be organized sufficiently and communicate appropriately,  so that the people I interact with are entirely self-selecting, and already in full awareness of my policies.

Yes, that’s most likely the real challenge before me. The next step in the continuing saga; the rational growth of my enterprise. I must better ensure that my message attracts the right prospects for me. That way, no one’s time will be wasted and everyone’s potential will be maximized.

In life, in business, in relationships, we refine the definition and thus mature to reach a golden age of understanding, I do believe, don’t you?

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Did you miss me? We’ve just returned from a full two-week holiday. Not that I can afford such things, but my dear partner is a generous soul. He treated me to all the delights of Culebra, a small island off the northeast coast of Puerto Rico. We slept and swam and snorkeled; we ate and drank and read novels and lounged like proper spoiled Americans on vacation.

I left my computer at home. The hardest work I did was sweeping out our sweet little bay side room.

Such a hiatus is certainly healthy. Yet I must admit to a certain unease that hung about the edges of my days there. A certain haunting sense that I don’t care all that much for such indulgences, that I should be back at my desk. A longing, actually, to return to the grind.

Yet no such sensations accompanied me on any holiday I have ever enjoyed in the past. Previously, I’ve always dreaded returning to work, clinging passionately to the vacation and detesting its end.

There are clear reasons for the difference this time. Primarily, I’m working for myself and I love my involvements and clients. My thirst for learning through the internet appears insatiable. For the first time in my old life, the creative possibilities seem endless.

It’s a strange sensation. Could it be that work can be so satisfying, so meaningful that Caribbean holidays pale in comparison? Well, perhaps that’s extreme.

But shouldn’t we all generally tend to such a state: one in which the value of a normal day ranks right up there with our sweetest enjoyments?

I’m not wealthy, or materially successful, but this feeling makes me think I’ve at last achieved a lofty pinnacle of accomplishment. At long last, everyday life is as rich as a holiday, a holy day, a day in which to rejoice and be glad.

What about you? I’d like to hear about it if you’ve also experienced this new sensation.

Today, I am happy to present you with the ultimate lesson in business success. There is one reality, one angle you can take, one thing you can do that can absolutely be depended upon to deliver success every time.

Yes, folks, you may have thought that complicated knowledge and amazing feats of cleverness and derring-do are what it takes to enable the victories of successful entrepreneurs. But these qualities are mere icing on the cake. Winners possess something that underlies all their remarkable achievements; something that’s the foundation without which they’d be run-of-the-mill losers like the rest of us.

Okay, you ready to learn the one true key to success? It’s perseverance, good old commitment, refusing to quit no matter what.

New businesses especially need to adopt this truth. The cold shoulder that the world will give to a newcomer, the skepticism with which your bright enthusiasm is received, the assumption everyone makes that you can’t possibly know what you’re talking about – these reactions can be hard to take. And since your enterprise is new, you are indeed likely to make mistakes and endure the ensuing dreadful self-doubt.

But the fact is, if you hang in there and refuse to give up, you will eventually succeed. You may not be especially talented, but people will still buy from you. Why? You represent something familiar, and therefore more trustworthy than any unknown.

Few will dispute this observation. How often do you select the known product over a new unknown? Do you continue going to your familiar doctor, hairdresser, mechanic, or whatever even though they cost more than others? With these old friends, you know what you’re getting and the stress factor is eliminated.

People’s fear of the unknown is a major guarantee of business success. If you maintain a steady presence in the world of your market, you will gain customers even if your product or service is inferior. Not that I am advocating for inferior work; but, though it may seem counter-intuitive, perseverance trumps superior work when it comes to sales.

If you doubt the truth of this, consider the fact that the world has become flat, with every American town looking like all the others, sporting the same restaurants and stores. Familiarity sells, even though the locally produced goods may be vastly superior to those provided by the chains.

Bottom line: don’t give up if you’re working at growing your own business, if you love your work and believe it’s right for you. Do whatever it takes to stay in the ball game. Success comes for those who wait, and who, while waiting, do not complain but devote their energy to keeping the faith.

Need someone who can help you keep the faith by providing consistent support for your business? A virtual assistant may well be your answer.

What’s that thing they say, “The money’s in the list” – ?  Been thinking about that lately. About how your list is the core vitality and meaning of your business. Your profits, your time, your products and services, and all aspects  of your company’s wellbeing are centered in your list of contacts.

Those who purchase lists wholesale are depraved, of course, but building your list is something that can be done many perfectly legitimate ways. Most people use a combination of tactics, including personal encounters, networking meetings, rosters from organizations to which they belong, fellow alumni, friends, peers, and the like.  As social networks always suggest, a good place to start is with your email address book.

So the techniques of list building are many and varied, but the necessity of creating and caring for your list is standard across all commerce.  You start up your biz by kindling a list; you maintain it by nurturing your list; you grow it by growing your list.

Funny thing is, while list building has always been a concern for businesses and perhaps socialites, the rest of us never paid it all that much attention. But the marvel of the internet has made list-building central to the life of the individual as well as the corporation.  Just as branding is now a concept individuals must take into account, right along with mega-corporations, list building is a practice any of us do well to make habitual.

Your list is your tribe, as Seth Godin would have it; your team, your friends and fans, your connections in our 6-pixel universe. Your list may be wide, or deep, or both. It may be small and select or large and liberal. However it’s characterized, your list is you: your vitality and meaning and practical worth.

It’s important to remember that it’s not necessarily a question of quantity, when list-building. Quantity may be a crucial factor, but it equally well may not matter at all. On the other hand, quality may or may not be a requisite in your list-building. The requirements for attaining membership on your list are utterly unique to you.

Our education systems should begin teaching about list building in the late years of elementary school, and build on that foundation throughout a young person’s formative years. Defining adult responsibility as responsiveness to your list, your tribe, is a profitable way to live, work, and be in society. It’s the culture fostered by the internet and global awareness. It’s thinking globally and acting locally.

Entrepreneurs, give devoted care to your lists. Don’t buy them or spam them or abuse them in even the slightest way. They are your lifeblood, your reason for being. They are not an aspect of business: they are your business. Your company doesn’t exist without its lists.

I’m curious about your thoughts on this. How do you treat your lists? How do you create them in the first place?

As a virtual assistant dedicated to the success of my small business clients, I often need to consider branding in my daily work. Having immersed almost all my time in the web for the past two years, I’m aware that branding is what happens whenever you establish an internet presence. The combination of distance communications with the casual intimacy that social networks encourage has created a new kind of knowing about ourselves and other people. It has become increasingly important for an individual or business to take responsibility for their brand.

It may be helpful to understand branding as an ever enlarging spiral. The cycle begins with Discovery: what is my brand in the first place? Then it moves on to Description: how can I put this brand into words/pictures/symbols? Once the descriptions are ready, you can Distribute your brand universally, thus creating Dialog. Dialog instigates discovery, and you’re back around at the start of the cycle again, ready to lift the spiral.

Before I started up my business, I was an administrator for many years in non-profit arts organizations. I was definitely an administrator, and not an artist, but one thing did rub off on me in spades. I learned about creativity and its ability to teach about the self. Now, as I work with the nuances of branding, I see the close relation between personal creativity and reputation management.

It’s not news that creativity comes in handy when describing and projecting your brand. What many people don’t know, however, is that creative practices can help uncover your native branding. Your brand starts with who you are, your basic personality. Many adults don’t know and/or can’t confidently express what their personality is, what their innate skills are. The mini e-book I’ve just published is about focusing on your natural gifts, applying them in creative practices, and in the process discovering your brand.

The idea of branding has been applied mainly to big corporations in the past. For an individual to take seriously the need to nurture a brand is such a new concept that many of us have no idea where to start. How do you identify your brand in the first place? It’s not what you want to be; a brand is what you are, how you are perceived by others. It’s something you can’t really control, but you can work to affect it, to steer your reputation towards excellence.  The best way to do this is to discover and capitalize on your natural strengths. A brand discovered in this way is authentic and sustainable.

The e-book is free, of course. It’s a quick read, with a few amusing images and even one video. I hope you’ll check it out, and send me your thoughts.