Virtual Moxie - The Cure For The Common Virtual Assistance Practice

First impressions do count

2010-03-16T16:03:00-04:00

I had an awesome idea for a post for today, but it'll wait till next week. Instead, I wanted to talk about first impressions.

I've been witness to more than 300 in the last week--that's how many people have been in touch with us at AssistU following our being mentioned on TODAY.

And truly? Only a handful of the people represented themselves well in any context of that word. In email, I've seen people writing in all caps and in all lower case; with typos and misspellings, punctuation, structure and grammatical mistakes; missing words; strange paragraph construction--you name it, I've probably seen it. By phone, ums, ahs, a clear lack of understanding of sentence structure...it's been disheartening, truly, that so many more people are making a poor impression than a good one.

I have to think they'd do better if they knew better, but that brings to mind this question: how do any of us know what we don't know? How do we know how to present ourselves well, and whether we are, or aren't?

I'm betting that at least some percentage of the people who contacted us believed they were looking pretty snappy And I, looking at them through my professional lens, know that the reality was anything but.

So I was thinking about how you, dear reader, come across to your prospective clients--both those you've identified as such and those you haven't. The world really is your proverbial oyster, and all you have to do to start mining those pearls is show up looking like you have brains and the skill to use them well--the actual version of "looking pretty snappy."

Bit O’Moxie: Think about your presence--it really is more than the "look" of your site, or the "design" of your Facebook fan page. It's the moment-by-moment way that you create a digital version of yourself, usually in type; often by voice.

What is it that you want people to see and experience of you? How do you know whether they do? And what would you do if you knew that they didn't? What course corrections would you make? How would things be different?

Inquiring minds really do want to know. :)

Do you dig a dangling carrot?

2010-03-09T20:54:00-05:00

A somewhat growing undercurrent in the Virtual Assistant industry is the notion of working for incentives offered by clients for creating big results. I was asked this morning what I think of it, and I thought I’d share it here—with all of you.

Right out of the gate, I want to be clear that I’m not talking about anyone's being asked to meet reasonable metrics—which are fine and appropriate in just about every conceivable business relationship I can imagine. I’m talking incentives that push people to try to go beyond the reasonable metrics, or that seek to make them responsible for outcomes that really aren't theirs to be responsible for.

So having said that, I hate incentives. But there’s a reason for that. I’m not extrinsically motivated. And I hate incentives for VAs because they tend to be used to make Virtual Assistants responsible for things that aren’t their responsibility (like increased sales—which is really something that either belongs in the hands of the client, or a sales person).

About this intrinsic/extrinsic thing…

If you are extrinsically motivated (motivated by things outside yourself, and enjoy earning bonuses, awards, rewards, and the like) then incentives probably make sense to you. You like the idea of competition—with others or yourself. You like the hunt. You like trying to go for something possibly unobtainable. You get juice from it all.

If, on the other hand, you are intrinsically motivated (motivated by things inside yourself, like what’s learned by doing, or how it feels to do something well, or the satisfaction gotten from making a great contribution, and the like), then incentives probably make zero sense to you. You do your best all the time—you don’t need or want someone trying to elicit more because if you had it to give, you’d already be giving it. For you, incentives probably feel demoralizing, or at least really icky.

But some clients try to incent VAs. Some business models, espoused by Virtual Assistants and often clients themselves, are based on performance-based incentives.

Are they good or are they bad? Neither. Or both, really. It just depends on what motivates you as to which side of that line you stand on.

If it’s extrinsic and you love incentive, risk, and the feeling of being a proverbial Lamborghini on a flat stretch of road with no cops in sight, then maybe you should take incenting clients out for a spin and show them just who’s boss.

But if it’s intrinsic, and the thought of someone offering you something to get on a gerbil wheel, and then dangling a carrot to make you stay on it, run faster, and do more, makes you want to sit down like a mule and refuse to budge, then just refuse. Don’t even waste a moment of your time with anyone who even hints about incentives, and stop listening to people who tell you that there’s a holy grail of skill sets you must master. Truly. You are enough. You do enough. Right now, even.

And this is the point, and today’s Bit O’Moxie: know what motivates you. You can’t fight City Hall, they say, and I’ll add that you can’t fight your own nature with any degree of success. So knowing what motivates you will absolutely bring you one giant step closer to the practice of your dreams. And if that’s not a truly good incentive, I honestly don’t know what is!

:::::tossing confetting::::: Yay, Moxie!

2010-03-02T02:59:51-05:00

Moxie is five years old. It’s birthday was actually on February 25th—I was close to a week late in even noticing. When I did, it stopped me cold.

FIVE years? How could it be that five years had passed and I’d not noticed? More, how could it be that I’d been writing this thing for FIVE YEARS? Never mind that I only write weekly…to do anything for five years, on a schedule, committed-like is pretty damned awesome.

So kudos to me. And kudos to you—especially if you’ve been reading this whole time. If you have, and if you’ve been in business this whole time, too, then give yourself an extra-big high five—you’ve been more successful than the vast majority of people who start micro businesses.

This whole thing raises something else, for me, and maybe for you. It’s that we humans don’t give ourselves credit for the cool stuff we do. And I think it’s because we’re just too close to it that we have no real perspective on it. And, of course, that we get so busy with the doing of it that the noticing of it takes a backseat--assuming that it's even in the car with us at all.

That sucks.

We need to create our own noticing posses. Know what I mean? Groups of people who love us and who want to remind us of how fabulous we are, how big-deal our accomplishments are, and who want us to make sure we get and celebrate each and every last one of 'em.

Because when we celebrate how far we’ve come, it entices us and inspires us to intentionally keep becoming who we're here to be, and it keeps us creating and doing according to our visions for ourselves. And that, in turn, entices, and inspires others to do the same thing. It's absolutely love in action.

Today's Bit O’Moxie is a wish. Here’s to continued our greatness. And here’s to even greater noticing. And to being a valuable witness for others. May we each have the moxie to step up and step into our greatness with even more presence!

(photo credit: tawntawns)