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Links Referenced:
- Hootsuite
- Upwork
Tweetables:
Imposter syndrome is resistance keeping you from what you’re called to do. #vatip 
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We start to feel like an imposter because we haven’t done it virtually yet. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
Focus on what we say we can do and do it to the best of our ability. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
On Video:
In Words:
Hello and welcome to The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant. I’m your host, Tiffany parson, and this is episode number 112. Now, today’s topic comes from Chris, one of our listeners, and it’s all about imposter syndrome.
Now, she sent me this wonderful email and there’s a portion of it where she’s seeking advice regarding feeling like she has imposter syndrome. I’m going to read a portion of her email. My computer is sitting right here, so I am going to pull this up very quickly. Need my glasses so I can see, and I’m going to read the portion of the email in regards to imposter syndrome. Chris says:
One thing I struggle with is ‘imposter syndrome’ I feel like I’m not good enough or have that many skills as I’m not techie or an organizational freak. I do well in my jobs because I am a hard worker and always willing to learn, but when it comes to VA work it freaks me out because I don’t consider myself an expert at anything. I worked in Customer service for years and the past 2 years I have done admin and office manager, but still feel that I am not good at what I do.
This message is for Chris and anyone else that has ever felt like they have imposter syndrome.
The first thing is in regards to being an expert. Our clients expect us to be good at the service they have hired us for. If the service they have hired us for is customer service, client care, office manager, admin, they expect us to be the best at that. If they didn’t hire us to be a techie, they don’t expect us to be the best at being a techie. If they didn’t hire us to get them organized, then they don’t expect us to be an expert at organization.
I get the feeling of having imposter syndrome and a lot of that is just resistance creeping in keeping you from what you know you’re called to do.
If you’ve got experience in customer service, you’re doing office and admin work, that’s enough. That is enough. If you listed out everything you’re doing on your job, you would say, gosh, I am doing a lot of stuff. There are many things on that list that could transfer into your VA business, whatever that is, because your same employer that you’re working for that’s got you doing customer service, admin, and office work, there’s another person that realizes, you know what, I don’t need an employee in the office, but I could use someone virtually to do those same things.
There are clients that need someone to answer email, manage their calendar, to respond to their email. If they have a phone line, to answer the phone line, to return a message, to do all of that using social media. Maybe it’s on Facebook, maybe it’s Twitter, maybe it’s Facebook Messenger to do customer service. In regards to admin work, maybe it is creating a document for them, maybe listing out what all they have to do for the week.
I remember years ago I had a client. I was in charge of her Google Calendar and every week I would print out her calendar. Print out meaning, you know, have a PDF version of it, and email that to her so she’d know what was going on for the week. They may need some of that. They may need somebody to do their spreadsheets. I don’t know what’s all included and what you’re doing currently in the office, but I guarantee you the majority of things you’re doing could be transferred to your VA business.
This is where we start to feel like an imposter because we haven’t done it virtually.
It doesn’t matter where you got your experience from, whether you’re doing it for yourself, you taught it to yourself, you’ve done for a client. It does not matter where you got your experience from because when you’re talking to your client, again, guess what they want to know. Are we a good match and can you do it well for me?
That’s what they want to know and then, of course, they want to know about the money and stuff. But the main thing is can you do it? Can you do it well? I know for sure, Chris, based on your email, you would not be offering anything that you don’t know how to do. But even in the things that we know how to do, guess what? Things change.
If your client uses Gmail, Gmail is always doing something. They’re sending you something. “Oh, try this. We’re doing this. We’re doing that.” Just like Facebook, always adding something new, and those are things we just have to keep up with. While we may know it well today, things could change tomorrow and we don’t know the new thing.
But guess what? Your client is a person. They’re a human being. They recognize, oh, yeah, there’s a new update. Now, if down the road you don’t know that there was a new update and you don’t know about the change, that could be a problem. But if you’re keeping up and you know what’s going on, you don’t have to, you know, say the change comes out tomorrow, you don’t have to be an expert at that change tomorrow.
Just even being aware that there was a change is a step ahead of your client because guess what they’re keeping up with. They are not keeping up with what you offer. They’re keeping up with what they offer to their own clients and customers. If it’s jewelry, if it’s coaching, if it’s fitness workouts, whatever, they’re keeping up with that stuff and we’re to keep up with the service we provide for them.
I want to make sure that this does not fall. I’m going to take it down. Okay, here’s the laptop. I’m just going to bring it across the screen [laughs]. It was about to fall. I will jury-rig stuff y’all. Okay, I didn’t want it to fall.
All right, so getting back to this. I can totally relate. I can remember when I first started, and actually on the job feeling like an imposter, and interviewing feeling like an imposter. Because while I knew how to set up websites and do JavaScript way back in the day, and mainframe code, I still didn’t feel like I knew everything.
Guess what? We never will learn everything. If you’ve been doing something for 3 to 5 years, you’re not going to know as much as the person that’s been doing it for 20 years. What are we measuring the standard up against? If it’s based on somebody that’s been doing it way longer than we have, then no wonder we feel like an imposter because I’m not as good as her because she’s been doing it for so long or he’s been doing it so long or he loves it, this and that.
We have to put our blinders on and not even look to the right or to the left and what other people are doing, but just focus on what we say we can do for our client and do it to the best of our ability.
Even when we’ve done things to the best of our ability, things happen that are out of our control. Stuff could easily happen. You could have stuff scheduled in Hootsuite ready to go. Hootsuite makes the update and, oops, none of the scheduled posts are happening for the day.
You’ve got to bring the solution to your client. You don’t have to be the expert and know why Hootsuite is not working. You would just need to know it’s not working and how am I going to get this resolved for my client. Your client doesn’t even have to know what all you went through to get it resolved. Guess what they want to know at the end of the day. That you took care of it, that you took care of them.
What will set you apart from anybody else is the same things that you like about this podcast. You like that it’s authentic, it’s genuine. That’s what your clients are looking for too – authenticity, someone that’s genuine, someone that’ll, you know, bring solutions. If that’s you, don’t worry about having imposter syndrome. It might creep up. It creeps up on all of us, even the people that you see that are like, oh, my gosh, they’re doing it. They’re in the six and seven figure category. Guess what? They have it too. They have it too.
I don’t know if you know this, and I know Chris shared in her email that she is newly saved, a newly saved Christian, which is fantastic. That is just amazing, Chris. I just feel honored and overwhelmed that you shared that in your email. That’s something that, you know, could easily be taken for granted. I know everybody that listens and watches the podcast does not believe in God. They don’t believe in Jesus, you know, but I do.
I want you to know this, Chris, and I know other people are listening and watching. This episode is for everybody that this applies to. We’ve been called to the earth for a purpose and I believe there are different purposes, different seasons, that we’re to do different things.
But the flipside of that is that there’s also a blocker. The enemy does not want what we were sent here for to happen. His job is to disrupt, to interrupt, to cause doubt to keep us from that, and imposter syndrome falls on that list. What we do is to make sure we keep our head forward and also up praying to God when situations like that happen.
Every week I record a new podcast and every week I am like I don’t have anything to say. I don’t think I have anything else to say. I don’t know. It never fails. I get an email from a listener like Chris or a post on my Facebook or just I end up watching something and it gives me encouragement and I want to pass it on to you. Different things happen.
Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Somebody is looking for exactly what you have, virtually.
Chris also wants to travel. I think she lives in Australia right now, which is amazing. I am in North Carolina, one of the southern states in the United States and I used to have a map in my old office of the United States and I used to put a magnet on the map for every client in different places where my clients came.
But that is how small minded I was and not even thinking, hey, you’re virtual. You’re not just going to have clients in the United States. You’re going to have people all over the world. If I had known that, I’m sure impostor syndrome would have taken over and I’m like I don’t have anything to offer or share, you know, I’m still working and getting clients myself.
But the beauty of all of this is we’re all in the trenches together. We’re all in it together.
Chris, thank you so much for emailing me and for sharing your story. She wants to travel to other places, and being a virtual assistant lets you do that. You know, clients, if they ask me where I am, most likely it’s because they’re talking to me and they’re wondering about my accent. But if we’re interacting through email or Upwork or something like that, they don’t ask me where I am [laughs.] That’s the beauty of it. I wish you well and all the best in your business.
If anyone else has a question, you can ask me on Facebook. Every week, an email goes out to those on my VIP list with the podcast, the recording, the transcript, and the video so you can listen to it and watch in your favorite way or however you’re feeling that particular day. You can always hit reply and ask me your question. The questions that I get asked, if I know and feel like it will help the overall listeners, then I bring it to you. Otherwise, I’ll just answer privately.
Anyway, thanks again so much for listening and watching. I wish you all the best in your virtual assistant business. You have a wonderful and fabulous day.
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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