The Virtual Wire

First Friday Pep

Petra — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:48:58 -0500

This month's inspirational First Friday pep is all about giving thanks.

I am not American but I intend to get into the thanksgiving spirit this month and have committed to join the 30daysofthanks and give thanks each day.

So I start today, and share with you a couple of quotes that hope would at least encourage you to start this month by giving thanks for who you are.

Here is a recent “Message from the Universe!” (and of course I encourage you wholeheartedly to sign up for your own messages) Yes, I am thankful for being me, for being as great as I am, and having the skills that I do, and what I bring into my life. Yes, I am truly thankful.

If you don't give yourself credit for all that's good in your life, [insert your name here], how can you expect yourself to create more?
Because you are flippin' amazing.
Tallyho,
The Universe

And I am also thankful for those special people life who help me to move forward to my dreams. Those who nurtured me as I grew up, and those who have encouraged me as an adult and only bring positive thoughts into my life.

“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.”
Albert Schweitzer

Oh by the way, my daily thanks continue on my facebook page - www.facebook.com/petraboucher. Join in, why don't you?

I don't have time ...

Gloria — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:42:04 -0500

Truly, I didn't think I needed to read yet another post about using Twitter, nor did I feel I wanted to take the time. I'm pleased I took a moment to review this blog post today by Drew McLellan: How to make time for social media: Twitter, and wanted to share it with you, too.

Drew gives practical reviews of several time-saving Twitter tools, and offers smart tips about how to implement them (which is a great benefit).

A couple of the tools he mentions, I've been using for a while, and they have been great time savers indeed: HootSuite and Saved Searches.

I think I'll check out a couple others he mentions ... (ahem) when I have time.

Change is in the air

Sharon Broughton — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500

The past couple of weeks have been tumultuous for me with so many things happening in my personal life. Last week my youngest daughter, E, was on a school field trip and gone for 5 straight days—boy did I miss her. During that same week my middle child, L, was invited to go to Disneyland for three days with a friend—boy did I miss her. Then Sunday night, my son, C, was assaulted at the local skate park because someone wanted to steal his bike—boy was I scared. That necessitated several hours in the emergency room, police reports to fill out and general worrying. Tonight my son asked if his friend could move into my house—and my son wanted to move in as well (he lives with his Dad). The caveat was that he wanted his younger sister to swap places and live with Dad. Oddly enough E (the little sister) agreed to the change (she secretly wants to be an only child and this almost simulates that situation—she gets her dad all to herself). Nobody asked me what I thought or wanted.

I felt so many emotions in such a short time--happy that L got to go to Disneyland, excited that E got to go to Santa Cruz, sad and worried because C was hurt, scared because I was getting another mouth to feed (as if I didn’t have enough already). Tonight on the way to the grocery I wondered why I was crying. Nothing had happened right then, I just needed to stock up on food. After all I was losing an 11 year old girl and gaining two teen boys and I needed food (those boys eat a lot). It suddenly dawned on me that no one really asked me if I was okay with all these changes. As the always agreeable mom I just went along with everything and didn’t really think about how all these changes and events would affect me. It reminded me of how much I don’t like change, but at the same time I know that change brings new situations and experiences. I am just ready for a “normal” week when not much happens. Maybe that will happen next week—but probably not.

I think the thing that helped me keep my sanity this week was that I had my clients to keep me grounded. There were still ezines that needed sending, teleseminars to set up, and sales pages to tweak. Oh yeah, I also needed to market my class that starts next week. Phew, I am tired just writing about all that. But all that busyness keeps me sane and moving along. What keeps you grounded and helps you navigate the ups and downs of life?

No distance

Rob Neilly — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500

For a few days between last week and yesterday, I was away on an annual trek (something like a mini-vacation). I was able to hold court with great, loving friends. You know the type: brilliant minds, compassionate, supportive. Like sisters and brothers. And very much like what I've always experienced in the virtual assistance field.

The idea for this post came from that trip, and the reason has to do with distance ... or lack of it.

While the formal, corporate business model has been somewhat successful in adapting to what is truly a wave of many magnitudes in terms of how we now communicate with everyone else, that world is still in many ways entrenched in distance and geography (oh yeah, and in no small amount of angst).

On the plane on the way down, two gentlemen came by where I was sitting. One asked me if I wouldn't mind switching seats, as he was with his business partner, and, of course, no more explanation was needed. Nothing wrong with that; at least not on the surface. And nothing wrong with having to travel a couple of thousand miles in order to 'do business'. Plus, there can't be anything wrong with spending gobs of money to travel on business. OK, sorry, I'll drop the sarcasm and get down to my point.

Our industry, and our dynamic minds, and the ways in which we've embraced technology in very passionate, user-friendly ways has done much to destroy distance. And when you destroy distance, you are 'this much' closer to truly understanding what a person--say a client of a virtual assistant, or another VA--is really all about. We know how to do this very well, whether or not we ever get on a plane and go somewhere else to have our business meetings.

So geography is an interesting metaphor to pick on (one of many) when describing the impact that VA's have had in turning the traditional business model upside down. And boy, did it need it!

It's not that we don't travel--just this year, in terms of AssistU (and other) VA's, a lot of traveling has gone on. There was FoVA 2009, and the AssistU Community Recognition Awards (and associated events prior to and right after the CRA's). And that doesn't even touch on the many personal trips various VA's took to be with their friends and colleagues.

Our brand of distance destroying has everything to do with relationships, and little to do with geography, company expense accounts, or the stress that goes along with typical business travel. The beauty of our industry is this: in every form of communication we employ, we never loose sense of the commune part of communication. And our industry is ... us.

Business Growing Pains

Petra — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:09:00 -0400

Growing pains is a fact of life!! I mean a butterfly has to go through a 4 stage growth process that is complex and leaves them vulnerable, but oh boy when they reach maturity the end result is truly spectacular. Maybe this is not a good analogy, after all the butterfly might not think this growing process is painful, but it surely looks challenging to poor old me.

What I am alluding to is that in all areas of our lives we experience the pains of growth. And it is up to us to decide whether we accept it, even welcome it as a natural part of our development or whether we struggle, worry and allow stress to consume us. Now you know me, I never say that it is a simple thing to accept when things don’t go to plan, but I am learning over the years (41 of them so far) that planning well, but accepting that there will always be small or large incidents that are not prepared for just helps life to move along easily. I am no way advocating a “don’t care attitude” – yes if things don’t go well, sort it out as soon as possible, and learn from that mistake, and I do advocate having a moan, groan or even full out scream when you need to, but honestly you also need to have systems in place that allow you to recover, rejoice in the experience and move on.

So lets look at your business, and what I am trying to convey is a desire to control the outcome of our growth is just plain crazy – seriously crazy!!! I think for as long as we have that mentality then we will either procrastinate too much – in the pursuit of getting it right, or limp forward rather than charge, or be an absolute horror to work with, as some past relationships I have experienced! Growing pains are going to happen, don’t you agree? Maybe if you do your best to prepare, but are truly okay with the true nature of growth, that there will be the unexpected, then maybe what results will also be spectacular and, guess what, fun!