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It’s time to come off the bench and get in the game with that idea. #vatip 
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You learn what your rhythm is after you publish one post after another. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
You can start your VA business part-time with just one client. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
In Words:
Hi, and welcome to episode number 78. Today, we’re going to talk about all of your wonderful and fantastic ideas that have been sitting on the shelf. Whether it’s service ideas, things you want to provide as a service. Whether it’s how you manage your clients, how you systematize things, how you plan to promote yourself. Whatever those ideas are that you’ve been writing down and you’ve been collecting, it’s time to dust off the cobwebs and get them off the shelf. That’s what we’re talking about in today’s episode.
Not too long ago I posted on Instagram this quote: “Million dollar ideas are a dime a dozen. The determination to see the idea through is what’s priceless.” That quote was by Robert Dieffenbach, and I’m sure I messed up his last name.
The point is everybody’s got an idea, but not everybody sees it through.
I want you to see your ideas through. Through meaning you actually put some action into it. You point in a direction and you fire off so that you can learn whether or not this will work or it won’t work, so that you can tweak it, fire it off again. Learn from firing it off, tweak it, and fire it off again.
If you’ve ever done anything regarding social media and testing out what is your audience like, even if it’s just personal, if you’re doing things on your personal profile on Facebook or Instagram, you have to find your rhythm as to what that is that your people respond to. It could be an ongoing process, especially just starting out.
If you have just now created a Facebook page for your virtual assistant business, trust me, I understand the struggle in trying to figure out what is the thing for me to be sharing, what should I be saying, how often? As long as you continue to put one foot in front of the other, hit publish one post after the other, one day after the other, you’re doing great because each time you do that you’re able to learn from that experience.
Same thing if we go over to your website and you’ve decided to start blogging. If you’ve hit publish one post after another post after another post, you learn what your rhythm is. You learn your voice. You start getting a response back. You start hearing from people as a result of what you’re sharing.
Everybody that you see, follow, listen to, and read did not know what they were doing when they started out, but the way they learned how was to jump in and do it.
Jump in and do it. It’s just like this podcast. I come on every week. I’m not 100% sure, but I have learned over the course of time that I’ve been doing the podcast, and I always lost track as to how long it’s been, but I’ve learned to listen to what you guys say. I’ll also do some searches some week. If I’m totally blank, I’ll do some searching and digging and to see what you’ve been saying. If you haven’t been saying it to me, who have you been saying it to, to figure out, hey, what can we talk about on the podcast?
Lately, I’ve just been getting some major, major inspiration and downloads as to what to share with you on the podcast and decide as soon as it hits me, I’m going for it. I’m sharing it. Just like tonight is not my normal recording night for the podcast, but hey, I’m in mode. I’ve got what we’re going to talk about, and it’s about the ideas.
If you’re still pondering, you’re still getting ideas, you’re still trying to figure it out, like how to start your VA business, that is over. If you’ve been doing that longer than, I don’t know, what’s too long for you? Has it been a month, two months, six months? If it’s been six months, it’s been too long. Do you know why I say that? Because you can start your VA business part-time. One client. One client. You can start your VA business with just one client.
Don’t be afraid. If Upwork is intimidating for you, jump in. Don’t be afraid. The way to learn is to get in there and start doing it.
Enough writing, enough planning, enough drawing diagrams, enough imaging, enough dreaming. This is it. It’s November. It’s November, and if you’ve been listening to this podcast for two months, if you’ve listened to three episodes, I’m pushing you to start with the skills that you have right now, right this moment.
To my veteran VA business owners, you’ve been in the game for a while, you’ve been rocking and rolling, you’ve got your monthly recurring clients, but you’ve got some ideas that have been sitting on the shelf as well. Maybe there’s an information product you’ve been wanting to create. Maybe there’s an eBook you’ve been wanting to write. Maybe you want to start a podcast. Maybe you want to build your team and take some of the workload off yourself.
It is time to come off the bench and get in the game with that idea. The only way that you know that it works is to work it. That’s the only way.
You know, hey, a while back I was like, oh, I’m not going to do Photoshop. I’m going to stick with the other things. I’m not going to get into it. But guess what? I found the right system to learn from and jump right in and wondered why the heck I hadn’t started learning it much sooner. Guess what? You can’t stop me now. You can’t stop me now.
The latest thing that I’ve learned how to do, and I don’t know, this might make some of you laugh if you’ve been on it for a while, is Snapchat. About probably two years ago I created an ID and installed the app on my phone and then I took the app off my phone, and then maybe a year ago put the app back on my phone and, you know, had to ask for what my password was again because I forgot what it was. Here, recently, like literally before the podcast, I started playing with Snapchat. I don’t know what I’m doing on Snapchat, but I’m playing with it.
This past weekend, my husband and I were at dinner with his sister and her fiancé, and we were all playing with Snapchat and figuring it out. I was like, oh, great, now I’ve got somebody else to play with on Snapchat, and so that’s what got me going. I had learned how to do the filters for your face, but I couldn’t figure out how to do the video so I took time out and learned how to do the video and now I’ve got it, and I’m just cracking myself up.
Now, I have only done, I think, two snaps – one the other day and one today. You can check them out. I am, let me see, TiffanyParson on Snapchat. I’m just playing. Have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m having fun learning as I go. It’s no pressure. No pressure at all. It was something, an idea, a thought sitting on the shelf for me that I want to learn how to do this. I see people doing it. I want to figure it out. It looks like fun. But I had just put it, you know, I’d take it down a little bit and put it back. Take it down a little bit and put it back.
So this is something that, for me, I have decided to go ahead and learn how to do, just like with Photoshop. Took the idea off the shelf and ran with it. Now, I’ve creating graphics using other systems all along, up until this point. But Photoshop was important to learn because it opens up a whole new opportunity when you know how to use that particular software. Anyway, it’s been months ago for that.
But those are examples of how whatever idea you have had that’s been sitting on the shelf, to get it off the shelf. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been. I want to encourage you now because it is November. The year is almost done. It’s almost done.
What do you want to be able to say you accomplished in 2016? What things have been sitting on the shelf waiting for you?
You’ve been jotting it down and feeling real good about yourself because it’s in your notebook, but there’s no action behind the writing. So time to put forth some action. Put a challenge to yourself. Is it going to be before Thanksgiving, or is it going to be before the end of the month? I wouldn’t go, you know, into December. I would leave it with that to get it off the shelf, to start going. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
It does not have to be perfect. You want to get it moving so you can start working it to see what works.
New things are always coming out and people jump on board not knowing what they’re doing, but testing it out. If you think, oh, I’m going to look goofy and silly, join the crowd. If you look goofy and silly, then everybody else that uses it is looking goofy and silly too. Join the crowd and have fun doing it.
We don’t have long before the holiday starts. The holiday fever hasn’t started for me, but it won’t be long before it starts. Has it started for you? If it has not, get moving now because when the holiday mood hits you, you’re not going to want to take things off the shelf. You want to coast. You’re going to want to coast, and that’s fine. But if it hasn’t come, hasn’t come yet, go ahead and do as much as you can right now before it starts, before you’re thinking about Thanksgiving, before you’re thinking about Christmas, before you’re thinking about New Year’s.
I think there was one episode where I talked about how there’s something going on every single month. It’s never the right time, never the right time. I’ll have to dig around and find that episode. If we can find it, we’ll link it up. But there’s something going on every single month.
I challenge you now, if you’ve been gathering ideas in your idea basket, wherever you put your ideas, let’s pull some of that out and get moving.
You never know who is watching you, and because you’re moving forward and dong your virtual assistant business, you have no idea who’s watching you, who you’re encouraging as a result.
If all you have is one thing that you do, maybe you type really fast, if that’s all you’ve got, work it. Work it. I did a Tips & Tech Facebook Live show about three tips on managing your email because I had a client ask me what’s a good way to manage email. Well, for my fast typers, my email management support folks, that’s something that you could also do on your Facebook page, is sharing those things on your blog, is sharing those kinds of tips and information.
This is an idea of content that may have been sitting on the shelf. As you’re clearing off the shelf, you may realize some things you’ve already done and didn’t realize you’ve done it. Because maybe by the time you took off with it, you modified it and so it looks different now than how you initially planned it. So you can get that off the shelf and have new spaces ready for new ideas, because things come so fast. They change so fast and you want to be right there when change happens.
I could go on and on, but I won’t because you’ve got some action steps to take. You’ve got to clear off your idea shelf and get things moving.
If you have any questions, you know where to find me.
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you like what you heard, stay tuned. We’ll be back. Tell me what’s going on with you. Come on over the Facebook page: facebook.com/tiffanyparsonbiz, or if you prefer a little shorter message, come on over to Twitter: @tiffanydparson.
See you next time!
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