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If it’s in your heart and that dream is there, I encourage you to do something with it. #vatip 
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Hi, you’re listening to episode number 81. This is an opportunity for you to go through and review some things about your business. I’m going to give you a list of questions. I don’t have the answers for you to these questions, but that’s something to think about. They are questions I have been answering for myself as well, and I thought it would be a perfect way to wrap up the last episode of the year with these questions so that you could enter into the new year clearing some things up and knowing already what you want to focus on.
Here’s some things to ask yourself about your business:
What worked this year? What was really great? What would you look at and say, you know what, that really worked? The flip side of that, hmm, that didn’t work, and you may already know right away the answer to both of those questions. So jot that down. What worked? What didn’t work?
What were you consistent at? If it was something that you had to do every week, like a blog, record your podcast, post on social media, send out a newsletter, what was your thing that you had to be consistent with? Maybe it wasn’t a weekly thing. Maybe it was bi-monthly, monthly, whatever. What was it? What were you consistent at?
What were you not consistent at? The things that you weren’t consistent at, are these things that you would like to focus on for next year, make sure that you’re consistent at, or do they fall into the bucket of, you know, it wasn’t a fit anyway or it wasn’t going to work? Jot some of those thoughts down as well.
What were your successes? The things you can look back on and be – for me, a success is something I look back on and I’m really proud of. I know success is defined differently for different people. So what were your successes?
The flip side. What were your failures? I don’t want you to just leave failures at, oh, I didn’t do good at this, and this was a miss. I didn’t do that, dah, dah, dah. Once you’ve written down your failures, what were the lessons? What were the lessons from that? On a previous episode, we talked about how things can get maybe mixed up sometimes because of miscommunication. That may have happened this year and maybe you consider that a failure. But what was the lesson?
After you’ve noted the failure, what was the lesson? There’s a lesson in every failure.
I saw this quote yesterday. “If you’re failing, it means you’re trying.” So don’t feel bad about having to write. We all have that. If there are no failures, you had no failures to write down, then you must have a lot of inconsistencies and things that you didn’t even attempt.
What was a big hit? Maybe these are things that surprised you that were a hit. Maybe it was something that you weren’t sure was going to work out and it worked out, or you weren’t sure if you were going to like it and you really liked it, or you weren’t sure whether you would get a good response back and you got a great response back. What were the hits? What were your hits? I’m pausing like I’m waiting for you to write it down. But I want to make sure you at least get the question written down so you can evaluate these things for your business.
Now, I’m not going to hold you long in this particular episode. But I want you to know this is our last episode for 2016.
Just to share with you a few things for me, I won’t go down the list of all the questions, but just some things coming to the top of my head that I know I was consistent at. I was consistent with posting Instagram. If you haven’t seen the Facebook Live show I did about social media, I encourage you to go back and revisit that video about how to get content so that you can be posting regularly. Instagram was my number one spot this year, and I say that because that’s where I posted the most and was consistent with.
I started with Twitter and Twitter kind of has a different feel now. It’s kind of shifted from what it was. I have started tweeting articles that I’m reading and want to go back to, like reference again later. I’m using Twitter kind of like as a bookmark, and that just started recently. I’ve noticed some people using it in lieu of email, like as a way for people to contact them through their Twitter, and I thought that was really neat. I like that because that builds that instant engagement and communication. I thought that was pretty cool.
Now, you can do live video on Twitter. I’m curious to see what that’s going to do to Periscope. I don’t ever go on Periscope. If you started out using Periscope – I talked about Periscope earlier in the year along with Blab before they closed out. But Periscope, you had to basically build a whole new audience. Some of your Twitter followers may have followed you to Periscope, but some may have not. But you had to build a whole new audience.
So now that you can go live on Twitter, you don’t have to worry about building a new audience. You’ve already got your Twitter peeps so, you know, you can go live there. You can even go live now on Instagram. The only thing with that is you live and it goes away after you’re done with your live, so it’s literally, you know, think about it like TV. Once the broadcast is over, it’s over. There is no replay. So I’m curious to see what that whole Twitter live thing is going to do to Periscope.
Let’s see, what else? Oh, for me, what I would call a hit is doing the Facebook Live shows. That was a hit for me because I enjoy doing the videos. I didn’t know if anybody would watch or respond, and it really didn’t matter. One thing that helped get adjusted to doing live videos, believe it or not, is doing the regular podcast because I was used to recording audio and not having anyone be there, and that’s cool.
One of the big compliments that I got from someone I was speaking with that’s on my email list for Virtual Hired Hand, and she was telling me how I do really well on Facebook Live whether people are watching or not, and she was saying how you just talk as though people are there. The podcast helped tremendously with that.
Something that helped tremendously with the podcast itself is that even as a kid I would play by myself and talk as though people were there and, you know, pretend like there was a class and all that stuff. All those things helped make it easier up to now to be able to talk to you without you physically being here or being on webcam or something like that where I can see you, so that makes those things a lot easier. I’m saying all that to say I thought my Facebook Live shows are a hit. I will continue with that, continue to refine and improve that.
I want to encourage you to try something new in the new year for your business, something that you’ve been wanting to do.
Maybe it is Facebook Live. Maybe you want to try Twitter Live, whatever. Something new to help you grow outside of your comfort zone. After you’ve gone through all your answers to all the questions, see what are the commonalities. See where you can grow bigger, do more outside of what you’ve already done.
I want to encourage you to continue in your virtual assistant business. There are a lot of business owners that need you, are looking for you. Step out there.
One thing I plan to do in the new year is step out there with Facebook ads. I started doing Facebook ads and I stopped. I allowed someone’s comment about my Facebook ads to deter me from moving forward and that’s just kind of crazy. One of the things that stumped me, and it may sound crazy, I don’t know, but the fact that I got a private message about my Facebook ad and telling me what I should say and how I can improve it. It was a little startling because it’s like, ah, people are seeing my ad. You know, I thought the comment was unprofessional, but at the same time it was like, oh gosh, people are seeing it.
Anyway, I don’t care. I’m just going to jump out there, especially now. You guys have seen me on video every single week if you’ve been catching any of the Facebook Live shows. Hey, let’s just have fun with our businesses, and remember, we are still in the minority. There are a lot of people that are at jobs they hate. They’re sick of, tired of, but are going into another year at that same job, not doing anything to fulfill their dream, and you’re not. Even if you haven’t started your business all the way, the fact that you’re listening to this podcast says it’s there. It’s in your heart. That dream is lying there and I encourage you to do something with it.
If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while over and over and have not moved out, step out, just step. What do you have to lose? If you’ve been listening to this podcast and you have stepped out on faith and you’re out there and you’re like, “Oh, Tiffany, I’m just – I don’t know if this is right,” dah, dah, dah – keep flying. Keep flying. Flying is doing that next thing that takes you outside of that comfort zone. Maybe it’s raising your rates. Maybe it’s adding a new service. Maybe it’s adding a new way to market your business to show what you know in your business. Whatever it is, I encourage you to do that.
Thanks so much for listening. You know where you can 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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