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Hi and welcome to The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant. I’m your host, Tiffany Parson, and you’re watching and listening to episode number 157.
Now, if you’re following our Facebook page and I hope you have liked it and are following the page but I posted over the weekend a huge honor that we got that we are in the top 10 virtual assistant podcast.
And I owe that all to you because you are a faithful listener. Even if this is your first time listening. I appreciate you so much. So that wasn’t just an honor for me, it was an honor and appreciation for you because you are the listeners and you are the ones that got us in the top 10. So if you want to see specifically what that is head on over to the facebook page. It’s The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant, Facebook.com/tbbva.
Now let’s get on into episode number 157. How good are you at making decisions?
If a graphic designer were creating a logo for you, how quickly would you be able to select the logo that was just for you, if you were given three choices?
Would it take you minutes to decide? Would you need to think about it overnight?
Would you need to consult with some other people and have them look at it first? Would it take you a week? Would you need to pray about it?
How long would it take you to decide?
Now, some of that may seem extreme. However, that is often how it is for some people in their decision making.
But that is not the best thing when it comes to a business owner. You can’t go consult whoever your group is that you usually consult with to ask them, “which one do you like the best?”
Because guess what? The one that they like the best has nothing to do with you. It has to do with the person that’s giving their opinion, and everybody has an opinion.
However, as a business owner, it’s important that you stick to what you like, and you make the decision faster than taking a week to pray about it.
It is your business. It should be based on you, the things that you like, who you are.
Guess what this requires us to be?
Clear on who we are as a person.
I’m sure you’ve heard this word used a lot online about being “authentic” and “authenticity” and “keeping it really” and “real talk” and all this stuff.
But it boils down to the person that’s talking, knowing who they are, being confident in it, and that is what exudes from them. That’s that confidence that’s them, knowing who they are, which spills over into their decision making.
As a business owner, you should be able to look at three logos and be able to say “Yes, No, No”. Knowing what you’re looking for, knowing what resonates with you as a person.
Do you know when you hear the word brand? Guess what a brand is? You are a brand. Your brand is you, who you are as a person.
If you are busy copying off of someone else, what they like, how they move, how they speak, what they do, copying off of everything. Now your brand becomes that other person and no longer you.
It’s important as business owners that we stick to who we are.
If you’re not comfortable with yourself, it’s gonna be hard to make those decisions.
We have to choose every single thing, from our colors to our hours of operation, who we choose to work with, the services we want to provide, what social media platforms we want to be a part of, do we want to be a part of any social media platforms?
Do we start with the facebook business page? Do we do LinkedIn? Do we do instagram?
Imagine if you had a team of people.
Now they’re looking at you to be the decision maker. You are the one that has to make the decisions.
Now many of you watching and listening to this episode are not at the point where you have a team, it’s just you. So start now being clear on who you are, being clear on what you want in your business, and being able to make those decisions so it doesn’t take you several days.
Or consulting a committee that has nothing to do with your business.
Or taking a whole week to pray about it, when hopefully you prayed about your business before you jumped in.
Trusting yourself that you’re gonna make a good decision for your business. Right or wrong, it’s your decision.
Imagine if you agreed with what someone else said, because that’s what they liked. You didn’t really like it, but they liked it, so you went with it. And then come to find out down the road it was not a good match. Can you be upset with that person?
No. You have to be upset with yourself because you’re the owner. You made the decision. You decided to follow them.
When I make a decision in my business, let’s say I select some hours of operation and it turns out that those just don’t work. Maybe the summer came, school started, whatever the case may be, and I need to make an adjustment.
Well, that’s what life is all about. That’s what business is all about. And that’s the beauty of owning it yourself. We can make adjustments along the way.
Recently, I changed the Facebook cover on the Facebook page. And I had to decide what’s gonna be a good fit should it be similar to what we had before.
I had to make the decision and I couldn’t take all day because we needed a cover change. And I also had a do a whole new graphic for the podcast because I don’t look like the picture that we had before. It’s time to make the change.
And I couldn’t take all day doing that. Now, obviously, when you’re creating graphics, it may take a few days to get some ideas going. But it shouldn’t take forever.
It might take a while just to get it created. But as far as making the decision, this is it, should not take that long.
When you’re deciding on your business name, how did you do that?
Did you consult with a committee that had nothing to do with your business? Or did you write a bunch of different names that came to you or did you pray about it and then the name that spoke to you the most?
You had to make a decision. It’s probably one of the first things you did once you decided, “hey, I’m gonna start a virtual assistant business”.
And you started thinking about names. And usually your name ends up being your website address. Or maybe you have two different things. Maybe you have a business name and your website address is something completely different.
Then we have to figure out a name to use on our Facebook business page. And it’s always good to use your own name for your business page, because that’s what people are going to remember.
My clients don’t always remember Virtual Hired Hand, but they’re gonna remember Tiffany Parson because they see that in the email when we’re communicating.
When they’re speaking to me, they’re saying, “Tiffany”, when they email me, they’re saying “Tiffany”, even though they’re e mailing me with my virtualhiredhand.com email.
I even have clients that have never been to my website. So having my company name being my Facebook page was not a good decision for me. It was best that I have my own name, and that’s what I went with.
And so those are things that we have to decide in our business. And I realized in making the switch and making the changes, even just changing profile pictures on Facebook. And all the other places what I have had to make the updates, these are quick decisions that have to be made.
And I wondered and thought about everybody in their virtual assistant business. And what are the things you’re sitting on because you won’t make a decision.
Services, a lot of people start out as a general admin. And nothing’s wrong with that because it gives you a chance to explore. However, how long have you been exploring?
Is it time to cut some things off? If you’ve been offering a particular service for a year and nobody’s taking you up on that service, take it off.
No matter how much you love it. If the market does not want it. They don’t need it, take it off of the roster. Try something else.
Or break it up. Rename it. Do something that makes a difference to see if that will attract people. The market will let you know whether it’s something that they want, but we have to make the decision to put it out there for them.
So we’re deciding our business name. We’re deciding on website address. We’re deciding our hours. Guess what other things we have to decide? Very simple, but we have to decide how we’re going to present ourselves to the public.
Are you more casual or are you more professional? Are you somewhere in between? Are you a little bit more laid back. Are you conservative? Are you wild and crazy? That is based on who you are as a person.
I’m not a wild and crazy person, but I’m not a super straight-laced person. I’m in between. I like to do fun things with my hair and clothes and that puts, I feel like that puts me in between.
I don’t want to wear a business suit. I wanna wear clothes that are comfortable, but also cute.
I hated wearing suits when I had to, when I worked in corporate, when I worked at the bank as an intern and then into the health industry.
When I started doing computer programming, all that went out the window and we were able to wear jeans. And let me tell you, that was the best thing ever. To wear jeans to work. I will never forget the first day wearing jeans to work. I mean, I felt like I was breaking a rule, but that was the standard in our work environment.
And that’s what you get to decide for your business.
You get to decide how you’re going to present, what your attire is gonna be. And nobody can look at you and say, “oh, she’s not professional”. It’s your business.
You get to decide how you want to run it. You don’t let anybody tell you. And you don’t go and consult with a group of people that have nothing to do with your business.
And I’m stressing that because most of the people that we’re asking for their opinions on things, are they partners with you and your virtual assistant business? Or is it, you just like to know what they think?
That’s great, but over time, that can become a crutch. You need to be the one to make the decision in your business.
When you’re sending emails to clients, guess what? You’ve gotta write the email, re-read it, you know, check it for spelling or whatever, and then decide when to send the email. When you’re going to respond. How you’re going to respond.
Everything we do requires us to make a decision.
We even have to make a decision about how much we’re going to share. What are we gonna share? Does that make sense? Is that too much?
Always, we’re always making decisions. It all boils down to being comfortable with who you are as a person. Being, and I’m going to say the word, your authentic self.
If you’ve never been able to be free professionally, this is where you get to be free.
And I get it. It’s hard if you have always, and I’m gonna use the suit as as a way to be our analogy for our restriction because a suit to me is very restricted and heels and nude hose.
That’s what we had to wear when I first started incorporate as an intern. And I was an intern at the bank and we had to look like that. And when we were interviewing, we had to wear the navy blue suits. It was suffocating
And I can’t imagine if I had been working and wearing clothes like that for 12 years and then jumped out on my own. And it’s like, oh, I finally get to be myself. So I understand that that maybe foreign or you’re not sure, EXPLORE.
I’m still exploring what is a good match for me.
The whole change with going from relaxed hair to natural hair is a HUGE change for me. I knew immediately. I’m like, okay, I got to change up the earring game and everything else. I have to, you know, I want to add some color to my face. So I need to put on some lipstick. Because with the new look now you see, okay, let me add some things that will accent the way I look even more.
I still want to look like myself so you won’t ever see me with the whole full face of makeup. I want you, no matter where you see me, I want you to know, be able to recognize me.
I’m just laughing because there was this picture going around on Facebook and the girl looked one way and the after with the makeup, like a totally different person.
And that is not how I want to be in my business. I want you to feel like you are right here in the room with me and we’re having this conversation about our virtual assistant businesses.
That is what I always want every single time you watch and listen to the podcast. Even if we’re on the Facebook page and I am just commenting back to you, I want that to be it. I want you to always feel like we are talking to each other.
That is a part of who my brand is being real, being relaxed, and being confident, and making decisions for my business in a quick way.
You know, growing up, I have always been able to make quick decisions.
And sometimes when you’re a quick thinker and you’re quick to make decisions, that kind of makes other people nervous because they’re wondering, “how do you already know? Like we just found out. How do you know?”
Sometimes I just I don’t know. I just know automatically. If someone is going to be a right fit to work with me or if they’re not gonna be a right fit. And I go with that, and I trust myself. And I go forward in that.
And I know everybody that listens to the podcast may not be a Christian, but if you are, take the Lord with you everywhere. The Holy Spirit is right there with you all the time. Right there as a guide, as a consultant on what to do when you’re not sure.
And it won’t take all day. You’ll know right away.
A lot of times we already know things we have to say No to, it’s just that we don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.
We don’t want to let anybody down. We don’t wanna have to tell somebody, No, but there are times when we do. There are times when we have to let people know it’s just not gonna be a good fit.
And when you do that, when you’re true to who you are, it feels good every single time. It feels good. You feel relieved.
A burden has been lifted, the weight is off, especially if you knew this was gonna be a troublesome person to work with. Or this was gonna be way more than I thought it was gonna be.
So the whole point of today’s episode is to get you going in making decisions, trusting yourself, being who you are, showing up as yourself in business.
Not who you think you ought to be in business. You know, thinking, oh, I should have a suit and I should look like this. And I should have an office and this and that.
If that is not who you are. No, you should not. You should be whoever you are. And don’t let anyone tell you different?
Don’t let anyone tell you what your business should look like because they are not you and they do not own your business. All right, you’ll have a wonderful and fabulous day.
Thank you so much for watching and listening. I’ll see you next time.
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