A Legacy By Chance or Choice
It’s only been a few days since two entertainment icons from my youth died. Farrah Fawcett known for tv and films and Michael Jackson known for his music and dance. Much talk about their respective legacies has been covered in the media.
Analysis of their career choices and their respective impacts can be found in bits of media everywhere. Farrah’s legacy was summed up “as a strong woman who looked fear in the face, who demonstrated great courage, and who always knew what she wanted regardless of whether it was the popular choice or understood by others.” Michael’s legacy was how he influenced and changed the worlds of music and dance — removing all boundaries, making the seemingly impossible possible.
This makes me pause. It makes me think. Is a legacy acquired by chance or choice? Do virtual assistants have legacies?
I define legacy simply as two things: 1) having an impact, and 2) something of value intended to be passed on. In this context, the answer can be “Yes!” Admit it, right now, the names of virtual professionals who have and continue to make impacts and bring value to the virtual assistant industry are forming in your mind, aren’t they? These are legacies in the making. . . strong individuals who are paving the way. Influencers. Trailblazers of the virtual industry.
I wonder if any of these leaders ever thought about legacy when they first opened their doors for business? Probably not. Would their legacy be considered ‘by chance?’
Chance lends itself to think of randomness but Einstein proved with his theory of quantum physics that even randomness or chance is governed by choice. So, we’re back to choices – consciously made or not.
Some entrepreneurs and solopreneurs do make a conscious choice when setting up their business to leave a legacy. How? By keeping their vision in mind when setting up the groundwork for their business model. They are continually thinking ahead, that THIS business will be generational or perhaps be sold to a partner – some day, one day. As the business grows and evolves, they begin to picture their successor and plans of succession are put into motion with the grooming of the next generation.
Let’s think again of the trailblazers. Each made choices about how they wanted to run their business. Each, also, chose to share that knowledge and their experiences with those coming after them and that sharing is the seed of a legacy. Those tiny bits of sharing open the door to blossom a new growth of inspiration and motivation for others to follow. Feel the influences happening? Feel the boundaries fading and the great virtual openness widening before you? The nuggets of value get shared and wisdoms are being passed on to the next generation thereby giving birth to a budding legacy.
Every day we make choices about how we will do something, about sharing our experiences and knowledge, and about how we react to everyday events. It’s only when we look back to see how far we’ve come that we see those that have benefitted from our experiences and the sharing.
To those who have walked before me, thank you for making my path easier, for leaving me a worn place to get a foothold. For those coming behind me, may you find footholds that are strong and hands stretched out to give you a lift when you need it. And, to Farrah and Michael, may you find well deserved peace.
Janet Janowiak of Ezone Secretary
Congratulations to Janet Janowiak of Ezone Secretary, who is the recipient of this week’s VAccolade Business Entrepreneur Award.
Janet is a virtual assistant living in Waterford, WI. She offers services such as bookkeeping, contact management, payroll and human resources. She has been a valued member of VAnetworking since 3/6/2007.
8 List-Building Tips To Give to Your Virtual Assistant
There’s no point in putting out a great newsletter if you don’t have a list of people to send it to. Building your list is an ongoing process, and here are a few ways to get your Virtual Assistant started doing this for your business:
1. Provide a free gift, an e-course, a special report, an e-book, or a tip sheet. Nowadays people aren’t going to hand over their email without getting something else valuable in return. Your virtual assistant can set up your autoresponder (aweber) or shopping cart program (1shoppingcart) to deliver this gift once a visitor has submitted their name and email.
2. Make sure your VA puts a sign-up box on each page of your website; you never know which page people will land on. Also, make sure the sign-up box is “above the fold” so that visitors don’t have to scroll all around to find it.
3. Have your Virtual Assistant create a separate landing page at your website that’s dedicated to your newsletter or free gift. Include a description, testimonials, a sample issue or archives and of course your sign-up box. See our free gift offering page as an example: www.VAnetworking.com/blog/
4. Make sure you promote your free gift and newsletter on your blog, in your email signature, and on the business cards and flyers that you hand to people in person.
5. Have your VA design you a sign-up sheet or basket to collect cards when you’re speaking or when you attend a booth at a trade show or fair. A nice touch is to send a personal email to each name on the list with a personal invitation to join your mailing list with a link to the sign-up page. This may get a better response rate than someone receiving an “opt-in confirmation e-mail” a few days or a week after the event took place.
6. Your VA can submit your newsletter to sites such as Best Ezines. Use the URL of your newsletter page (see #3) versus your home page.
7. Submit your individual newsletter articles to free article directories such as Ezine Articles, Ideamarketers.com, and ArticleDashboard.com. You can also try an automated online service like SubmitYourArticle.com. This is a great task to offload to your virtual assistant. When you submit articles to these sites you’ll increase traffic to your website, attract new subscribers for your mailing list and improve your website’s ranking with the search engines.
8. Have your VA research joint-venture opportunities. I joined two joint venture promotions during the month of June and my list grew like wildfire! You can partner with others who offer complementary products and/or services and put together a page of free offerings and then promote it like crazy.
Growing your list takes time but the investment is well worth it as you begin your relationship with your subscribers. Let your Virtual Assistant tackle this list building for you while you do what you love in your business.
Hire a Virtual Assistant Private Investigator for Twitter Success
If you were around in the 80’s you might remember Tom Selleck in Magnum, PI, the cool, calm and collected private investigator who collected all the facts, uncovered the clues and solved the mysteries. Well I like to think of Virtual Assistants as the Magnum PI’s of the internet marketing world delving behind the scenes to find new tools that can enhance the way you market on the web. Does the analogy fit? Read on and find examples of how a Virtual Assistant can enhance your Twitter marketing and more.
A Twitter Newbie: So you’ve finally made it to Twitter but you’d really like to connect with like-minded people but don’t know how to find them. Twello and WeFollow are two great sites for your VA to investigate first. By using specific keywords, it’s simple to find people with something in common. Take it a step further by looking for people that your friends or colleagues follow on Twubble. Within no time flat, and with your VA’s help, you’ll have a good base of people to follow on Twitter.
Network in Your Community: Twitter is not just about connecting with friends and colleagues at a distance; it’s useful for backyard networking as well. TwelloHood is the “Google maps” of Twitter allowing you to pinpoint Twitter users by topic or name. Give your VA some parameters to search like relevant keywords or a specific niche and she/he can create a great list of individuals to follow. You never know, these local “tweeters” may turn into joint venture partners, colleagues or clients; all due to your VA’s keen insights.
Follow and be Followed: Maybe you are at the point where your Twitter account could use some spring cleaning. You’ve got a huge fan base but you’ve lost track of the followers and who you should be following. With a nifty tool called FriendorFollow, your Virtual assistant can uncover:
- Who you are following that’s not following you back
- Who’s following you that you’re not following back
And with the click of a mouse, you’re back on track.
Measure You’re Tweets: If you don’t already have a Google Analytics account, ask your VA to set one up and monitor your Twitter traffic. Many people think that Twitter can be a waste of time but statistics can tell all!
Well there you have it! These are just a few of the tasks that a Virtual Assistant can carry out to enhance your Twitter marketing. And the best thing about it - no requirements to have a fancy red sports car, short shorts and a large mustache are necessary – unlike the “fab” Magnum PI.
Public Service Announcement: Virtual Assistants Really Hate it When …
I’ve got a peeve with some of you prospective VA clients out there and I need to get it off my chest. Please forgive me in advance if I offend, because truly, it’s not my intention to do so. My only goal here is increased awareness of an issue that, in my mind, hurts all business people in the end. Here goes:
For the love of Virtual Assistance, Do your homework before you ask for a quote!
What do I mean by “homework?” Well, if you want to avoid royally pissing off the next Virtual Assistant you contact for a quotation, read the following detailed instructions and take some notes:
- Google the services you’re looking for in a VA. If Google doesn’t bring up anything promising, check out VA directories, RFP systems. or ask your colleagues to recommend a VA based on personal experience.
- Write down the URLs of the 3 top contenders. Yes, THREE is enough! Anything more and you’re just price shopping. That’s bad karma, but more on this later.
- Go to each VA’s website with pen and paper in hand. Check out key information such as services offered and how, rates and package deals, owner bio or company profile, testimonials, etc. Make note of what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’re not sure about. What you’re not sure about will determine what you’re going to ask the VA during the pre-consult.
- Contact each VA to arrange a time to discuss your needs AND the question marks still in your head after reviewing each VA’s website.
- Okay, here’s the part I need you to pay close attention to: while you’re on the phone with the VA, ACTUALLY ASK THE QUESTIONS THAT YOU NEED ANSWERS TO.
If you do everything I’m telling you to do, you should have 99% of the information you require to decide if she could be “the one” before the conversation is over. If you think she won’t be a fit, please, tell her this either before you get off the phone or within 24 hours of speaking to all 3 contending VAs. Explain your reasoning.
Yes, if you turn her down, she may be offended (silly VA). Or, she might counter your convictions with additional reasons she could be the right VA for you anyway (ambitious VA). Or, she might thank you for your candor and refer you to someone better equipped for the job (considerate VA).
Now, you may be thinking that this is a great deal more honesty–and interpersonal squirming–than you really want to expose yourself to before you’ve even decided whom to hire. Yet by going through this exercise now as opposed to AFTER you get a quote, you’ve achieved a couple of things:
- If you do decide, after receiving a quote (and possibly formal proposal which gee, takes TIME to write), you’ve created a climate of candor and honesty. No one is playing it too close to the chest and no one is feeling ripped off. Nice feeling, don’t you think?
- If you decide against hiring the VA you spoke with (again, BEFORE she wasted time on a quote), you’ll feel confident in your decision and will sleep easy at night. Why? Because you didn’t created one of those convoluted situations where a business person is putting much energy into a process that was a lost cause to begin with. Yeah, lost cause. Lost cause because had you done your homework like I told you to, you would have known within minutes of speaking to the VA if you weren’t that into her.
Reasons you might not be into a VA could include:
- price
- personality
- skills
- availability
- procedures
- work style
- etc.
Don’t you want to know this stuff before you get a quotation drawn up? There is nothing worse than spending time and energy on a quote only to have the prospective client turn around and say,usually quite sheepishly in an email response they’ve been avoiding, “I’ve decided to put this project on hold for now due to [insert excuse here but usually this piece includes financial reasons, change in strategic direction, personal challenges, and on and on].
Um, yeah.
Making people do cartwheels for you when you’re not really that hot to trot in the first place is inconsiderate, wasteful and downright unprofessional. It makes VAs want to take up drinking. This is the bad karma I was talking about.
So, please, I beg you, do your homework. Make the most of your research process. Ask the tough questions (like “Why you?” and “How much?”) during that pre-consult. It will put some good energy back into a universe that could really use some right now.
