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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 166. The very first podcast of the new year!
WHAT WORKED?
And we’re gonna look back for a moment at 2019. I want to ask you what worked in your virtual assistant business for you. What worked?
I made a list of things that worked for me in 2019. And obviously, if it worked last year, I’m gonna continue in it so it can work this year.
The first thing that worked was I took on some new things.
I decided to try some new things. To give you an example, some of the new things that I tried was to do a webinar a month for the virtual assistant business owner circle. It was a webinar to promote the monthly membership program.
It was free training to give you some experience of what it would be like to work with me and then give you a chance to sign up for the membership. Because I noticed outside of that, just me talking about it, saying something briefly on the podcast, was not getting the members into the program. So once I started doing the webinars that helped people who were able to ask me questions and you know, build rapport. And that’s what it’s really about, building relationships.
Unfortunately I slacked off and stopped doing those towards the end of 2019. That is something that I know. I must absolutely get back into the flow and start doing it again. And the way I’m going to do it this time is to do Facebook Live. And have you guys come.
I really like Facebook Live. It eliminates having to send out replay links in all honesty, because the replay is there. I will still send out emails directing you to the Facebook page and all that good stuff. But I really want you to see that, you know, I’m open as possible in wanting more good people to be a part of this industry. And so we will be doing more of those.
The other new thing I tried was a Facebook page for the podcast.
We had not had The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant podcast Facebook page before last year. And it was something that I just thought of on a whim on the weekend because I know if there are people that watch videos on Youtube, then surely there are people that also watch videos on Facebook. I mean, I’m one of them.
I watch videos on every platform Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and so I thought, maybe there are other people like that, too. But I did not want the podcast videos to mix in with my regular Facebook page because I wanted to be exclusive to those who are virtual assistant business owners.
My regular Facebook business page is a mix of both the audiences, VA business owners, it’s also clients and friends and family and anyone else who just wants to be a part of that community. This is why you know, the Facebook page was a great idea when the thought came to me. This is, like, perfect, I can post videos up there as well.
It seems to be working pretty good. There are guests over 65 people on the page, over 70 followers, and it started from zero.
And it’s not about the numbers per se, but just the fact of see it go from zero to getting over the 50 mark, right? Without ads or anything like that, really telling you guys about it. So if you have not joined that Facebook page, be sure you do The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant on Facebook, facebook.com/tbbva.
Okay, so number three is not giving up on the podcast.
In 2019 there were times when I just wanted to be like:
You know what, I don’t feel like recording the videos anymore. I don’t want to. I don’t. I’ve run out of stuff to say I don’t have anything else to say. I don’t think, so I don’t know what may stop doing the podcast.
I promise you every time that thought came up, I’d get an email or a message from someone who had a question or someone letting me know that they found me and were excited and listening to the podcast episodes. And that alone kept me going because knowing that at least one person is on the other side, listening to the podcast is huge.
It’s easy to feel like you’re alone. You’re the only one that has a business at home or you’re the only one that’s doing your business part time and you work full time. And when you know that someone else is on the other end that has experienced what you have experienced.
Or, in my case, someone that’s on the other end that’s listening, who wants to get into it. Or is in it already and is looking for you know, someone to link arm in arm with to say, hey, we’re in this together. I love it! That’s what gets me excited. And the podcast continued, obviously, and we will continue on in 2020. And I’ve been recording, it started out as just audio’s back in 2011 and in 2017 maybe 2016 before that. But 2017 for sure when I started and added the Youtube end of it as well.
So that continues it worked in 2019, it’ll continue in 2020.
The last thing is serving my clients.
I’m gonna always provide exceptional service to my clients and whether we continue and have an ongoing project situation or it’s a one off. I always want to give my absolute best. I can’t help but give my absolute best to my clients and making sure they get what they need. And they walk away with the result that they wanted and more.
A lot of times, especially people that come and do the strategy sessions with me, they have this one idea about how they want to do things. But I’m able to help them open their eyes and see it in a bigger picture from a different perspective, and that gets them excited. And that gets me excited as well and happy to serve them so clearly that will continue.
What I’m working on in regards to clients, is setting a goal for how many more clients I want to take on every single month because I like recurring clients. The people that you know are going to come. One-off projects, it’s like you have a strong month and you may not, have a low month and you may have a strong month. It’s kind of an up and down thing.
But if you can get recurring clients, it’s just better, way better. And more than one recurring client who has a significant project. More than one, because you don’t ever want to just lean on the one because if they switch things up, then you’re screwed.
Okay, so those are all things that worked in 2019.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK?
What didn’t work in 2019?
Not being consistent did not work.
I got included on this list. I think it was like top 10 virtual assistant podcasts or something to that effect. And I read it and I was excited and grateful , all that good stuff.
But one thing I did not like was in the description, where it said, how often does a new episode come out… and for mine it said once a month and you guys that bothered me. I didn’t like that.
It said once a month. And I wasn’t mad at them for writing it or anything, because what they’re looking at is when the podcast is coming out. And it probably looked like it was once a month. That kicked me into high gear to make sure I get an episode out every single week, excluding the holiday time. And because I have, when I am included in another list or interview or whatever I want it to be said, or be able to say that a podcast episode comes out every single week, every week.
Once a month?
That’s easy to, you know, forget the podcast. Forget you were on the email list. And then when you get in email like, what, who is this? And I don’t want to be forgettable. So every single week, every single week!
Now, having said that, something else that also has to happen that did not work in 2019 is the flip side of that taking care of the virtual assistant podcast. But as far as emailing my regular list for my business Virtual Hired Hand, I fell off. Y’all, I fell off, so that didn’t work.
And this goes into so there are three things I want to share. So I shared what worked. What didn’t work. This last point about what didn’t work leads into…what I learned.
WHAT I LEARNED
Overall, if you don’t show up, no one else will.
If you don’t email your business list and you’re expecting more clients. Well, how do they know you’re looking for more clients if you don’t tell them?
How do they know what you offer if you don’t tell them, if you don’t show them?
And I don’t mean post your price list. I don’t mean, sending out just emails if you’re offering, you know, specials, whatever it is you’re doing or how you’re doing it.
What I mean is that if they don’t see you, then they think you might be out of business. “Out of sight, out of mind.”
And it’s not just not showing up in email, but if you don’t show up on social media, you don’t exist either. So if you don’t email a list, you don’t show up on social media, you don’t exist. And showing up as a business owner, a virtual assistant business owner.
Giving those perspective clients information, education, entertainment, motivation, whatever it is that you’re drawing from along with education. Because they’re things that you know that would be really helpful to perspective clients. If you don’t show up, they won’t.
It’s just like when I stopped doing the webinars to promote the Virtual Assistant Business Owners Circle. No show up. No new members.
Not emailing my regular list on a consistent basis, which also included the blog on a consistent basis, just to feed Google if nothing else. No new clients. Not from content marketing. No new members. Not from content marketing.
They may have come from somewhere else, but they did not come from content marketing. You get, get what I’m saying. And we have all this information in our head. But we’ve got to get it out. We got to get it out. We got to get it out. You gotta get it out. Even the podcast.
If I don’t show up on the podcast, no one will go to the Facebook page. No one will send an email, message, or anything because it’s like you don’t exist. We have to show up in 2020 so that we can accomplish what we’re looking to do.
You got into business either for freedom, money, but hopefully one of the main purposes aside from that is that you really wanted to help someone. You really wanted to add value to someone. You really wanted to lend a hand to someone that needed it. And usually service providers, we like to help, we like to be of service, that is what we do. Whether its social media, bookkeeping, Pinterest, transcriptions, email support, doesn’t matter.
However, if we don’t put ourselves out there, if we don’t show up and I mean, show up every day. And I know it’s hard because you may have a job outside of this.
You may have a family. You may have a hobby. You may have a part-time job. You may be in school and a whole bunch of other “maybes” that you might have.
However, if your virtual assistant business is going to be a priority, and if it’s going to help you reach your goals and get where you want to be this year, you have to show up.
Can’t miss, can’t miss a day. I’m telling you. I’m Also telling me, can’t miss a day. And I know you guys are watching me. So it’s almost like I’ve got automatic built in accountability. And so if you need that automatic built in accountability, you just come and be a part of the Virtual Assistant Business Owners Circle.
We don’t do accountability partners or anything like that, but I ask my members when we do our live Q&A training, it’s an automatic. You’re giving an update on what’s happening in your business.
Fortunately, right now, the membership is small enough that you feel like you’re being coached individually, because I’m able to give you that much attention during our time. In addition to the skills training, in addition to we discuss marketing and building our business and all that good stuff.
So if you want to know more about that, just go to tiffanyparson.com/vaboc. Or if you’re watching this on Youtube, look in the links in the description below.
So I encourage all of you show up, and that means social media and social media every day.
Email, not everyday. Not every day for email. Weekly for email. Start out with that weekly for email. Not everyday people would be so annoyed.
Does it really matter that? Yeah, it matters if they’re annoyed. You don’t want to send out 365 emails. That’s what social media is for and it can look however you want it to look. There is no secret formula.
We know Facebook favors videos. We know Instagram stories are where the people that really want to dive into your world they’ll, dig a little deeper. They’ll look at your stories.
Those who are just learning you, they’re gonna look at posts. But your real tribe, they’re gonna dive deeper into your stories. Think about how you utilize your social media. Use that as a guide.
So I hope this helps. If you didn’t get the three things.
The first thing is what works for you.
The second what did not work.
And number three overall, what did you learn in 2019?
Thank you so much for watching and listening. You have a wonderful and fabulous day!
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