Perspectives

I am reminded over and over – dreams DO come true. No matter your age, it’s never too late to make your dreams become reality.

My first book, What’s Love Got To Do With It – How to Have the Perfect VA-Client Relationship, has just been published. To read more about it and order your copy – here’s the link – https://www.createspace.com/3448474

I am so excited to see something that was a jumbled mesh of brain matter become a published work. I have so many people to thank – for their support, encouragement and belief in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. This book is full of practical ways to fill a VA business with ideal clients. It is also a great resource for entrepreneurs who want to work with that perfect VA – the one who will be with them for the long haul!

There were times I didn’t believe it was really going to happen. I took two writing courses before I could actually make myself finish the book. Then there was the job of graphics. Thank goodness I have someone who I trust totally – and they created an amazing product. Then there were those who just encouraged and pushed and supported me as I finished my first published work.

Don’t ever stop dreaming – and then work to make those dreams become realities. If I can do this – trust me, you can do!

What is a saboteur? The dictionary defines it as “one that practices sabotage.” Sabotage is defined as, a) “an act or process tending to hamper or hurt” b) “deliberate subversion.” So what the heck does this have to do with being a small business owner? Everything!

Many times in our continuing education, we are taught to watch for those outward influences that may tend to hurt our business. These may include friends who are always negative; or colleagues who drain all your time, never giving anything back; or even family who are moving from catastrophe to catastrophe. But we sometimes forget the greatest enemy of all – ourselves. Many times, we are the worst about slowing our own progress – and that’s because of our internal saboteur.

In working with my coach recently, I was given an exercise that was tough, but very helpful to me. She asked me to actually name and describe my greatest saboteur. In doing this, it made it very real and therefore very present in my life. And because it was present, I can now be very aware of it. By the way, I’ve named my saboteur Melba. Long story – no time!

Melba is my greatest critic. She constantly criticizes me. She can’t stand anything other than perfection. And she has the hardest time relaxing. Now that I am very present to her, I can quickly see when she’s raising her ugly head. And being able to see that allows me to stop her negative talk – and continue forward on my path to success.

So the next time you tell yourself, “Who am I to …”, remember your saboteur. Allow yourself to see her (or him or it) for what it is and then move on. Don’t let negative self-doubt slow or stop your path to where you want to be. Who are you not to be successful? Why can’t you make a million dollars this year? When will you take that dream vacation? Whatever your goals are for this year, keep your eye on them. If you can quiet your saboteur, you can hear those dreams becoming reality!

Here’s to reality!

Vickie

P.S. If you’re looking for the next member of your team, I’d love to talk with you. Visit me at A Balanced Alternative.

Are you a virtual assistant who is having trouble filling your business? Do you wonder why you can get prospective clients to the consultation process, but not beyond?

Let’s face it – we have so much to do and spending a lot of time with the consultation process doesn’t seem that important. But that’s where most VAs go wrong.

Join me tonight for a free teleconference call on The Consultation Process: How to work Before, During and After the Consultation to get that ideal client. This teleconference is being held by The Virtual Assistants Networking Group, a group of national VAs sharing ideas and getting tips from the experts. Please plan to join us at 8pm Eastern for this informative topic.

Due to this being a “join-only” group, the call-in information will be given only to those who email me to express interest. I do apologize for doing it this way but I want their confidentiality kept intact. If you would like to attend this teleconference, email me at Vickie Turley.

I look forward to having you on the call!

Vickie

You know what they say about the cobbler’s children needing shoes, or the plumber’s wife calling a plumber – we seem to have a tendency to know how to mentor to others, but we have a hard time living our teachings. Well, today I got a reminder from one of my networking buddies and it made me realize, if we don’t live our teachings, how can we expect those we are teaching to believe us? How can we expect to affect change in their lives when we can’t be trusted to do as we teach? I for one want to be remembered as someone who not only mentored those around her, she walked her walk.

Here is the article from the amazing Adam Urbanski. I hope it speaks to you. I’d love to hear from you.

“Two things that happened recently made me take another look (again) where I invest – or waste – my time on regular basis. Last week my two “little” girls went to their first Winter Formal Dance. When they both told me they were asked to the dance, I knew that my “babies” aren’t babies any more.
And my secret hopes that maybe that will want to hang onto their childhood days a while longer where totally crushed when I saw them all decked out the evening of the dance. And I thought, “Where did the time go?” Then, someone congratulated me on my 20,000th tweet on Twitter. Well, it turned out it was a system glitch – I really only wrote 6700 tweets so far. But the message made me think…

If each tweet takes on average about 30 seconds to write (I was being optimistic), and I wrote 20,000 messages… That’s 167 hours! That’s a full month of working 40 hours a week just tweeting! Now, as I said, I don’t have 20,000 tweets – but many of my friends have that many and more!
So what’s my point here? You see, those two unrelated events made me take inventory of how I use my time and, once again, see if I can weed out any time wasting activities.

I already eliminated most of my emails (only very few people can contact me directly by email) and I keep my email closed when I work. And in general I’m pretty good about keeping the small stuff from distracting me.

How about you? How are you doing with reaching some of the goals you set for your self for this year? Are you on track? Are you as productive as you’d like to be? How much of your time is invisibly wasted on the “small stuff” – like tweets, emails, and just shuffling papers?

Fact is, we all do it. The trick is to do less of it. Because if you are busy majoring in the minor stuff, you’ll never find time to do what really matters.

This weekend think about your daily work habits. I’m sure you’ll find a few opportunities to weed out small, but deadly, time zappers! I hope you find these tips helpful and put them into action to make yourself more productive, and your business more profitable in 2010 and beyond.
Until next week, here is to your outrageous success… Cheers!”

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© 2000-2009 Marketing Mentors Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The author, Adam Urbanski, helps service professionals and business owners how to
attract all the new clients they want, and how to develop marketing
strategies to increase sales and profits. His website offers more how-to
articles and free tips to create a winning
marketing action plan at www.themarketingmentors.com.
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I’ve tried to start walking again. I say it that way because I do good for awhile, then it falls off, then it picks back up again, and so on. But today I walked and it was amazing!

We all know the benefits of walking, but something new happened to me today and I had to share it immediately (before it’s gone). We don’t take advantage of the small things.

For most of us, we think it’s not worth it if it’s not something big, whether that be in our personal or business lives. If we don’t walk 5 miles, we’re not making an effort. If we don’t land a new client today, it’s a day wasted. If we don’t learn a new skill, we aren’t pushing ourselves. But I realized that the small things count just as much (if not more) than the big things.

The small things are what get the job done. One small change, one small task, one small mindset shift, one small movement, can make all the difference. When we begin making small changes, they add up to really big stuff!

So my small thing today was this – I’m going to do a better job of congratulating myself when I walk. I won’t worry about how long it’s been since I last walked. I won’t worry about how long I walked. I will be happy with the fact that I walked. So what small thing are you going to do today? I’d love to hear your comments.

Vickie