What is draining you?

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Do you sometimes feel that a particular client or few clients are leaving you feeling drained at the end of the conversation or at the end of the day?

 

Have you thought about the reasons why you might be feeling this way? There are three possible reasons for this.

 

  • Over giving: Charging too little or giving too much of your time, almost always leads to feelings of being drained. It takes courage to charge what you want to charge and end the session when you say you’re going to end. Do it anyway. It will leave you with more energy to continue your day.
  • Not speaking your truth: What about those things you wish you could say to your client (but it might be rude or disrespectful, and after all, they’re paying you lots of money . . .). Those are the things you need to say!! Just begin your bold statement with a large dose of acknowledgment, compassion and gentleness. It’s nearly impossible to boldly speak your truth and get drained at the same time.
  • Getting attached to your clients getting results: Generally speaking this is a good thing . . . don’t we all want this for our clients? The problem is that when you get attached to your client getting great results, you tighten up and when you tighten up, you lose connection with your client and you lose connection with your intuition. From this place, you probably push your client too hard, or you protect your client from your inner pusher and you become quiet and withholding. Neither works.

 

Instead, trust that there is a much bigger picture working here. Sometimes people are ripe for results, and other times, it takes time.

 

Your clients’ results do NOT determine your goodness or worthiness. You can be amazing, even if your client didn’t get results and you can be terrible and still have clients get results but its helpful to use their lack of results as inspiration to step up your game so that you are holding the most optimal space for your clients to get results.

 

It’s helpful to trust that there is a bigger picture happening that we are not always privy to that goes way beyond how much money they made, weight they lost, or soul mate they have found. It’s helpful to celebrate the results they are getting, no matter how big or small.

 

It’s helpful to address your clients’ feelings about the results they’re getting. It’s helpful to love them completely as they are, even if they don’t change a bit, and, at the same time, it’s helpful to hold vibrant space for them to become who they are becoming.

 

But, it’s NOT helpful to take responsibility for your clients’ results. You can’t get results for your client, even if you try your hardest, because they are the ones doing the work . . . it’s their results. Your job is to hold impeccable space, like a cocoon for a butterfly. The space you hold includes your love, wisdom, energy and compassion and it’s their choice to become the butterfly.

 

When you’re doing your best to help your client win, it’s best to simply hand the rest over to them and to God and trust that everything that is happening is exactly what needs to happen, but, what if you’ve been charging an amount that feels good, sticking to your time agreements, speaking your truth, and giving the results over to God but, you’re still getting drained? Well . . .

 

Sometimes the arc is simply over and it’s time to complete. After all, even the best things in life have a beginning, middle and end. Your work together might feel like a stick of bubble gum that you’ve been chewing for 30 minutes and it simply no longer has much flavour.

 

If this is the case, its time to set this client free and refer them to another resource that can help them grow.

 

This will make space for new clients to emerge.

 

Sometimes, the problem is having draining clients . . .  but other times, the BIGGER problem is simply getting enough high-paying clients to pay the bills.

 

If this is the case, I’d love to help.

How do I systematize my business?

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What do you understand by the term “business system”? What is it and how do they make your business work for you instead of you working for your business?

 

To read more about the basics of systems, you should get the book called “The E Myth” by Michael Gerber. It’s a great book on systems and it tells you how to structure your business so that things run on autopilot.

 

A great example of a system is McDonald’s. McD’s is probably one of the perfect system businesses out there today. Every job is very carefully defined. They have a 200 percent turnover in their employees every year, which means they have to have everything systematized in order to get anything accomplished so that the people know exactly what they need to do.

 

They know that when they put the burger on, they press this button and this button for certain specific period of time, and there’s a chart in front of them on the wall that says, “Time to flip the burger when the buzzer goes off” and then they flip the burger. Then, they have another little diagram that shows them how the Big Mac is built and they follow that. On the sheets, it tells them, “This is a Big Mac sheet” or the wrapping sheet or the boxes they put them in, it tell them that “This is a Big Mac box”. Every little detail, even down to washing the floors in the bathroom is laid out for them.

 

They have checklists, and they go through these checklists for all of the things that they have to do. As a manager, you go through the checklist, and say, “this, this, this, and this is all being done. It’s all being done properly. These got done today. Now I can move onto this next batch of things that I need to do.” All I have to do is look at this list, make sure that it got done, or followed through with the task exactly the way they were told to do.

 

The result? You have a product that is consistent every time – you can go to Paris and you can get a Big Mac that tastes the same as it does in Italy, New York, California or South Africa. They taste the same everywhere because they use the same system, the same ingredients and they build them the same way.

 

If you can build systems around your business, the effect will be the same. You can have a system for gathering buyer leads, seller leads and then building that list and monetizing that list by sending out e-mail to them, offering them products or services for sale. It’s a great way to set up your business so that everything is done for you.

 

Once you’ve built a system, got it going and then let it continue to move and make money you will want to move on to the next system. It’s a great way to do business and it lets you extract yourself from the business so that you actually have a business rather than a job.

 

If your current business will collapse if you leave, then it’s a job. If your business will continue without you there, then you have a system – you have a business, and that’s what you want to create. You want to create something that you can sell later and make money with.

 

I can help you with:

  • Gathering buyer leads
  • Gathering seller leads
  • Selling e-mails and newsletters to people on these lists

How to make the most out of a Virtual Assistant

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A Virtual Assistant is able to free up at least two hours of your time every day. You can choose to spend those two hours or more on more important business tasks or activities that actually produce some income and progress.

 

Here are seven of the most recurring and time-consuming tasks you can leave to your Virtual Assistant to do.

 

  • Calendar Management.Managing your calendar yourself will not only take up a lot of time, but due to an overloaded mind, you might forget to schedule one or two meetings. There are several free online calendar tools such as Google Calendar where you can put your VA in charge of keeping your schedules and appointments updated.
  • Social Media Management.You might not have the time to regularly create engaging Facebook or Twitter posts to attract more customers, so why not give the task to your VA? A large percentage of your customers/clients are scrolling through Facebook or Twitter at least once a day. Therefore, do not pass up the business opportunity just because you were too busy.
  • Email Management.Emails will just keep piling up as your business grows, and some of those emails may be useless spam or an actual inquiry. Of course, you do not have the time to sort through absolutely every single email flooding into your inbox, so let the VA handle that.
  • Blog Writing and Posting.Regular (but not spammy) blog postings on your website is important for search engine rankings, and for giving customers the information they need. You can have the VA do the proofreading and posting after you have written the blog, or your VA can do everything from writing to posting.
  • The busier you get, the harder it may be to monitor your bill due dates, cash flow, expenses, sales, invoices, etc. This is something that needs someone’s full and undivided attention, which you can have your VA give since you obviously have too much on your mind as a business owner.
  • Customer Support.The best way to keep customers happy is to give them the attention they need and deserve, even if you are neck-deep into tasks. However, if you cannot immediately attend to your customers yourself, having your VA step in and represent you is a great idea. It is a whole lot better than completely ignoring the customer’s concern/email and getting back to them quite late.
  • Email Marketing.Properly informing consumers of promos, sales, new products, etc. can involve sending out a lot of emails. Again, this is a time-consuming task, but VAs can use tools like Mailchimp to make the bulk emailing a lot easier and faster to do.

 

 

Rapid Prototyping

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Have you tried problem solving through discussion, brainstorming and a whole lot of creating with your hands? Well, then you need to try what is called Rapid Prototyping.

Think about a challenge you are currently dealing with at work or at home. Then follow the steps below to start coming up with incredible solutions – while having fun.

What’s the purpose of doing this?
Rapid Prototyping forces you to start generating ideas to problems you’re stuck on. The aim of building a physical prototype isn’t so much to get an accurate representation of the solution, but rather to force you to get off your computer and work with your hands (which can help you see things from a different perspective and get away from the distractions of your everyday work) and give you something to work with when you’re trying to explain your solution to others.

How to prepare:
You don’t need much to get started. All you need is to have a problem in your mind that needs to be solved. For materials, you could go to a craft store to get some supplies or you could work with whatever you have lying around. You would need items like modelling clay, paper clips, chopsticks etc, however, the less materials you have, the more creative you will be forced to be.

Gather a few things from around the office – sticky notes, scissors, coloured paper, tape, paper clips etc but don’t feel like you have to have a whole lot of supplies.

Although you can do Rapid Prototyping alone, it’s a lot more fun (and easier to generate better ideas) with another person or a team so see if your co-workers are willing to join you.

You need to set up a few ground rules: the most important rule is to stop your technology from distracting you. The easiest would be not to allow any phones, tablets, laptops etc in the room. You could put your phone on silent and put it on a table in the corner, provided you are disciplined enough to ignore it when it “rings”.

Next, you need to grab a timer and stick to the allotted times for each step of the activity. By compressing time, you actually get better ideas, faster.

Here’s the process you need to follow:

Step 1: Immersion: Time = 5 minutes
Start by reviewing all the information you have about the problem you need to solve and make notes (on the sticky notes so you can work with them later). Where are you now? What do you know about what people want or what could be improved? What are other people doing that you like?

If it’s not something you feel you have a ton of personal experience with, you could sneak a phone or computer into the room (for this step only) and quickly scan any research that has already been done in the area, such as user surveys or articles reporting on data on the subject you’re discussing.

Step 2: Insights: Time = 5 minutes
Now take all your sticky notes and look for connections within them. Are there common threads that stand out? Are there any ideas you could group together into a bigger concept? What surprising things stand out to you?

Can you see why it’s useful to write on sticky notes? You can move and group similar ideas to help you draw those connections.

Step 3: Strategy: Time = 10 minutes
Now, with all this information you have, it’s time to brainstorm ways to address your problem. You want to come up with many ideas, and not be held back by anything that sounds “too crazy”.

Depending on the size of the original question you started with, you may need to hone it in a little at this point.

Step 4: Design: Time = 10 minutes
Now, pick one of the strategies you find most interesting and build a prototype of it. Depending on what you’re working on, prototypes can take a lot of different forms: a storyboard, a paper prototype or a physical sculpture.

The prototype you create does not need to be perfect or functional. It just needs to tell the story of your solution in a way that’s quick and easy for people to understand and that allows you to start seeing how your solution could play out in reality.

The result:
Will the solution and design you come up with during this activity be the final answer to your problem? Probably not, but you will definitely have started to generate ideas, and you’ll have a solid jumping off point to build on. It’s not about what you’re building, but about what happens afterwards.

Take the prototype you’ve created, and think about ways it could be improved or added to. Take it to your team (your manager, boss, wife, significant other) and get their thoughts and ideas. Go through this activity again to come up with more solutions until you feel yourself getting closer to the result you want.

Just doing this activity will help you get closer to your solution. It will force you to start coming up with ideas and open your mind to more creative ones.

What problem has this helped you solve?

Let me know at #PriorityAdminDiva

On-Demand Personal Assistance

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Do you need help with calls, research and other short tasks that can be handled by an intelligent, multi-talented assistant?

 

Here are a few examples of what I am talking about:

 

Custom Research (Data Mining):

Finding detailed answers or solutions to unique questions and problems facing you, the client, for example:

  • Compile a list of all trade fairs coming up in the next few months
  • Find all the day care options between my house and the office and set up visits for any morning you’re free in the next two weeks.
  • Compile a list of outdoor events available near Cape Town including distance and price.

 

Deal with Customer Service:

Contact Customer Service on behalf of clients . . . examples:

  • Call SAA/British Airways to get your laptop/Ipad/Tablet back which you left on the plane after your most recent trip.
  • Deal with the warranty/guarantee process on your laptop/Ipad/Tablet that just died while you were using it.
  • Cancel your subscription to Getaway magazine

 

 

Product and Service information:

Find, research and/or order products and services, for example:

  • Phone around to find the stockist closest to you of your favourite wine
  • Find out prices and how long it would take to make a dozen custom decorated cupcakes from a few bakeries near you.

 

Personal and Work Projects:

Miscellaneous projects lasting 1 – 10 hours where clients need some extra help:

  • Put together a list of blogs and other sites that write about [your business] along with their Facebook and Twitter followers.
  • Put together a list of suppliers of [name the product] and get at least three quotations from those closest to me.

 

Reservations and Entertainment:

Find and book restaurants, appointments and entertainment, for example:

  • Find a restaurant for next weekend that can host a dinner party for 25 people, at around R120.00 per person, and has halaal and vegetarian menu options. A private room would be a bonus.
  • Find a place in Cape Town that does kiddies parties, and can also do theme parties.

 

The tasks listed above share three common attributes:

  • High Pain:

This is a task you need to get done, but when you think about doing it, you wish someone else (like me) could just take care of it for you. They’re time consuming, boring or simply annoying tasks. Perfect tasks for outsourcing to someone else.

 

  • Low requirement for perfection:

No one will be able to complete a task for you as well as you could do it for yourself. Make peace with this fact, then figure out which tasks you don’t need to be done perfectly. If someone else (like me) is finding information for you and only finds 90 percent of what you’re looking for, is that enough or do you need 100 percent of the information to be found?

 

  • Objective outcome:

The best tasks to outsource are the ones that don’t require preferences to be taken into consideration, and only rely on requirements to be met, e.g. the request to find a restaurant for a birthday party – there are a lot of objective conditions to be met for the request to be considered successfully completed.

 

A similar but poor request would be to ask for a fun and interesting restaurant for a date. There is too much subjectivity and personal preference in this request and the odds of coming back with a good outcome are slim to none.

 

Questions:

  • What do you have on your To Do list that I can help you with right now?

 

 

  • Do you follow any personal guidelines when outsourcing tasks? What are these guidelines? Please share them in the “reply” box below.

 

 

 

Are you having meetings at the wrong time?

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Meme10_Eat a live frog first thing in the morning

 

 

Here are 5 reasons why you’re possibly meeting at the wrong time . . . every time.

Early morning or end of day – You’re meeting at the beginning or end of the day. 9am meetings are just asking for latecomers, and at 4pm, people are tired and are more likely to leave early.

End of or beginning of week – You’re meeting before or after the weekend. Mondays and Fridays are common days for workers to take off to turn a weekend into a long weekend or work from home (or they could be distracted by weekend plans).

Lunchtime – you’re meeting when everyone’s hungry. Even 11am meetings can run into lunchtime, so plan more time around the hour of growling stomachs.

Afternoon slump – you’re meeting during the afternoon slump. Afternoon slumps start around 2pm. Give employees/colleagues more time to get their second burst of energy.

Afternoon brainstorm – you’re meeting to brainstorm in the afternoon. Studies show creative thinking peaks earlier in the day, so consider the type of meeting you’re having besides considering the time of the meeting.

5 Reasons why you should have a business vision

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Every single organization on the planet, even our own careers, always function on three levels. What we do, How we do it and Why we do it ”  – Simon Sinek 

 

Having a business vision gives you focus and clarity, it helps with decision making and it stops you getting side-tracked and distracted when life takes over.

 

Asking yourself these five questions will guide you through creating your business vision and prevent the “mind blank”, writer’s block and overwhelm that hits us when we’re faced with a question like “what is your business vision?”

 

1.What does success look like to you? How will you know when you’ve “made it”? Describe your idea of success: use your imagination, instincts, and/or intuition to express your “big picture”. In other words, describe what it will be like when you have reached your ultimate business goal.

 

Write down what you want your business to become but make sure you include some big numbers that you can measure – turnover, income, profit, number of customers etc.

 

This is not your business plan – but your vision can help you populate your business plan and marketing plan because your vision is your destination. Don’t let doubts cloud your vision.

 

2. Why is success important to you? Why do you do what you do?

  • Why is it so important to you?
  • Are you trying to make your life and that of your family better?
  • Are you trying to get out of a job and go self-employed full time?
  • Are you trying to help your community?
  • Is it make or break otherwise you have to get a job again?

 

What’s the driver behind you having your own business?

 

3. What difference does your business make?

What difference do you want to make for your customers?

 

  • What do you want to bring into the world?
  • Do you want to make life easier for mothers, small business owners, etc?
  • Do you want to help children have more fun learning?
  • Do you want to help businesses fulfil their potential?
  • Do you want to make women feel gorgeous and get their self confidence back?
  • Do you want to help women create a beautiful home?

 

It doesn’t have to be big and life changing but there will be a reason (or several) why your business will make a difference to the world.

 

4. Who is your “ideal customer”?

  • Who is most likely to buy from you? Who “gets” you?
  • Who would you love to work with? Who’s a really good fit?

 

Think about what sort of individual or business they are, where you might find them, what problems you could solve for them. These questions should all be easy to answer and you will DEFINITELY have one even if you haven’t sold to them yet.

 

5. What are your milestones?

  • What are the achievements you want to reach along the way that will show you you’re moving forward?

 

Milestones could be:

  • Leaving your job to working full time on your business
  • Having an annual holiday
  • Increased levels of income or more free time
  • Covering school fees or buying a new car

 

There may be smaller milestones like:

  • Setting up a website
  • Working with a particular customer or client

 

These milestones are personal to you and your business and they will keep you on track when you’re feeling lost or overwhelmed – write them down and tick them off as you achieve them WHICH YOU WILL!

Do you overwhelm your prospective clients?

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View from 34th Floor(1)

 

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get rather annoyed with the way some marketers bombard me with their content marketing, many using the “Fire Hose Effect”.

 

We all know that a fire hose blasts a flame with a high powered surge of water, destroying anything in the way of the water stream or at least completely soaking anything in its pathway.

 

The Fire Hose Effect in marketing works very much the same and is how many marketers are targeting their prospects. They assume that once they have your attention they need to throw as much marketing material in your face as possible so they don’t lose you. With the Fire Hose Effect, the goal is to keep your attention while they have you.

 

For example: A prospect visits your website site where you flood them with calls to action. They can sign up for your free newsletter or free class, watch your video, connect with you on Facebook and Twitter etc. Now, let’s assume they choose one of these offers they’re then provided with more content than they know what to do with.

 

I’ve had situations where as soon as I sign up for the free newsletter, I’m given a link to a video series, a workbook, a book and a link to member only content – password protected (some of it time bound forcing me to respond within a given timeframe).

 

It’s too much all at once. I’m now feeling overwhelmed and you know what happens? Half the stuff I receive goes unopened and therefore unread. If I’m really interested in what you have to say, I will file it in a file called “unread” with the intention of reading it later when I have the time. I must warn you though, this file is growing daily and the likelihood of me ever getting to read what’s in it is getting slimmer by the day. So instead of taking action like you were expecting me to, your mail has gone unread.

 

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Let me share three simple steps you can take to stop overwhelming me (your future prospect) with information overload.

  • One call to action – decide what you want me to do and then create one landing page that does everything in its power to motivate me to follow through.
  • Create one simple, powerful and valuable piece of information to enter into your sales funnel – free information is great and valuable information makes me see you as a credible resource I can turn to for help. Keep it simple and focus on quality over quantity.
  • Follow through – building a relationship with me (your future prospect) is the best way to move me forward in your sales funnel. Instead of overloading me with freebies and content, follow up to see how I’m doing with the information you provided. Ask me if I have any questions, ask if I’m ready to take the next step and tell me what that next step is.

Make things simple for me and for yourself.

Create a highly focused strategy that strives to offer specific information to interested people like me.

Then build relationships with people like me by providing superior quality information and a genuine interest in my progress.

August is Women’s Month

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South Africa commemorates Women’s Month in August as a tribute to the more than 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 in protest against the extension of pass laws to women.

The Government of South Africa declared August Women’s Month and 9 August is celebrated annually as National Women’s Day.

Women’s Month 2015 will celebrate women achievers and their participation in the economy.

The theme for Women’s Month 2015 is: Women United in Moving South Africa Forward.

Question:

Womens Month 2015 Question