The Virtual Wire

Au revoir...

Being one of the six bloggers on The Virtual Wire has been a joy for me. I love to write, and blogging here has allowed me to be a part of the most amazing and talented team. As I communicated to my fellow authors earlier this week, I've met some of my closest friends here and it's my dearest hope that those friendships will last a lifetime.

As you can imagine, it is with mixed feelings that I announce to you all today that I have made a decision to leave the AssistU community and, with that decision, inevitably I must leave The Virtual Wire.

This was not an easy decision. Taking on a position that is not in alignment with AssistU’s definition of a VA means that to stay within my own integrity, and feel that I was honouring the tenets of AssistU, I must leave this wonderful community. I have grown exponentially as a human being and businessperson through my association with AssistU and I consider my decision to simply be the next step in my personal and professional development. I find that I cannot resist the opportunity to become part of the leadership team in a growing company with a mission and vision that I deeply believe in. This is right for me.

To my fellow authors on the blog, I want to say that I admire, respect and adore you all. I am so proud of all we’ve accomplished together as a team of bloggers in an emerging profession.  Keep up the fabulous work.

To the AssistU community, I thank you all. Each day of my membership within this community has brought me clarity, higher understanding and inspiration. For this, and for all the good things AssistU has brought into my life (including this new and wonderful opportunity), I am deeply grateful.

And to you, the readers, I want to say that I gain great solace in knowing that I now become one of you, as I will be reading this blog every day.

With much love,

Margot

Building Foundations of Trust

There's no doubt that a virtual assistance team will bring a multitude of benefits to business today. Collaborative VA teams (in fact virtual teams in general) allow a business to dispense with most of the encumberments of having employees while gaining the benefits of the ideas, experience and specialized knowledge that good VAs bring to the table.

But, a VA team won't bring true collaborative genius to your business unless unshakable trust is established. How do you manage that? In my opinion, it’s all in the team-building. I recently wrote an article on trust-based team-building and much of what I wrote was learned through the VTP training at AssistU and through my experiences as a VA.  I thought I’d post a quick summary of my strategy points here:

• attract the right team members – “fit” is everything
• value an innovative mindset – strong people have a lot to bring to the mix
• provide meaningful work – challenge is generally more inspiring than boredom
• offer variety – change it up because “variety is the spice of life”
• allow independence – invested decision-makers feel valued and respected
• create an aligned vision – there’s cohesion when the whole team has a focus
• be trustworthy – it takes trust to gain trust

The bottom line is that when you build a virtual team – particularly a specialized team made up of seasoned VAs - you need to be sure that each member will be able to see the value placed on her or himself, the value of each other member, and the value of the team as a whole. There are a variety of ways to build trust and focus into a virtual team. Over at the Stronger Teams blog, they suggest following Mind Tools advice for negotiating a Team Charter. That might work well for some teams.

In any case, I believe that the solution to building a successful team – VAs or otherwise – is to have a foundation of trust. A virtual team is more than the sum of its members – it's a culture with a life of its own.  And trust is integral to the survival of the culture.

Happy Friday

Today has been a day of introspection and decision for me.  Although I have several posts ready to go as I need them for my posting day, none of them seemed quite right given my state of mind.  I've started to post one on three separate occasions over the course of the day...and in the end, each time, decided that it wasn't the right one.

Now, at the end of the day, I've decided not to post a pre-canned message that would not be an authentic reflection of me today, but rather to merely wish all of the Virtual Wire readers a wonderful and productive weekend - whatever that means for each of you.

So....Happy Friday all!!  May your weekend be joyful.  :c)

Building Trust

One of the most amazing pieces of my journey through working virtually has been the partnerships that have developed for me on a work level. If you’re dealing with ideal clients, you’ll be in a beautiful partnership that enhances your life. I feel blessed to be able to say that this has happened for me many times over. And I’ve developed partnerships with VAs that have been some of the strongest, most valuable relationships I’ve ever experienced.

Last year, I was so over-capacity due to personal circumstances that I needed to hire a VA to help me. After considering it for far too long (I’m horribly picky with my clients’ work), I asked someone whose work was well-known to me (and who I trusted like a sister) to handle some task pieces that were just bogging me down and preventing me from focusing on the work I needed to prioritize. That VA was our own Franni Ferrero. We built our own Groove workspace and collaborated very effectively, and I’m happy to say that within no time at all, I was back on top of my workload. I will be forever grateful to my virtual sistah for her long list of talents, her huge heart and her incredible loyalty. (hugs Franni) We look for opportunities to work together and frequently make up our own just for the sake of experiencing true partnership over and over.

I’ve built a different kind of partnership over the past several months with Denise Milligan. While working with the same client, we ended up with split responsibilities and areas of focus. Mine being the marketing arm; and D handling the technical pieces. What’s beautiful about this partnership is the complimentary back and forth collaboration on intersecting projects and the deep understanding that voluntary sharing of ideas and strategies brings to us. We both have been able to better manage our own areas of expertise by involving the other one and listening to each others’ suggestions. This has allowed us to bring invaluable insight to the decisions we make on behalf of the client. It’s been an amazing experience for me. Genuine collaboration truly rocks!

Working at these levels of virtual collaboration comes with its challenges, but making it work really boils down to one thing: trust.

Both of these partnerships work beautifully because we have built an incredible level of trust. How do you build trust in a virtual partnership? I would imagine that varies by individual.  Here’s what builds trust for me:

• Being aware of my partner's reputation for performance and results
• Seeing my partner follow through on what she says she will do
• Noting the alignment of my partners’ stated values and her actions
• Maintaining frequent communication
• Bringing as much fun to the partnership as possible – make ‘em laugh!
• The willingness to help each other wherever possible

And last, but not at all least, is the factor of believing in each other and in the strength of your partnership. Trust can only be built through a relationship, so in my opinion, for a partnership to genuinely work well, it must be a relationship. A strong relationship.

What builds trust in a virtual partnership for you?

Doing Business in Your Bathrobe

OK – what’s the absolute BEST moment you’ve experienced in the course of becoming a self-employed business owner? For me, it’s the fact that I could dispose of every set of pantyhose in my lingerie drawer. Yup – that’s what it was.  Silly? Maybe. True? Absolutely.

In the corporate world, there was an image to project – an expectation to fulfill. I truly lived my job – to my own detriment – sending urgent Blackberry messages on my commute and through my family dinner, checking work emails from remote at home, even getting up in the middle of the night to retrieve a message I heard coming in on my powered-up laptop. It was sad. I came to hate it. That lifestyle just wasn’t me.  And the pantyhose I wore with my corporate uniform became the symbol for that dissatisfaction.  The day I felt confident enough in the success of my business to just ditch those panyhose…well, that was the moment of my true liberation.

These days, I pick my hours, pick my attitude and pick my attire. If I want to roll out of bed at 4:30am, grab a coffee and work for 3 hours in my jammies…well I can. And sometimes I do. It’s my business – and my choice.  I choose no pantyhose. 

In celebrating my feeling of freedom, I’d like to point out that International Robes is sponsoring "Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Day" . How cool is that? They came up with a sponsorship to feature the day WebMomz named to honour the hard work, dedication and dreams of those of us who work in a bathrobe.  I love it!

Prioritizing a Healthy Life

I'm turning 45 this year. (My mother gasps every time I mention it.) I’m ever so cool with my age. I’m thrilled with the odd silver strand that’s showing up in my curly locks – I figure I earned every one of them. I’m ecstatic that I have to exercise more to keep my energy levels up where they need to be – otherwise, how could I feel sure that I’m healthy? I’m even getting attached to the tiny, little feathery lines beginning to form on my upper lip.

Sound crazy? Maybe so. But frankly, I think too many people worry about things like age, weight, hair colour and trends. I'm not a girly-girl.  I don't think about most girly things.  I don’t have time for that.  I have more important (to me) things to think about. Now don't get me wrong...  Some of the women I admire most in the world care a lot about age, weight and hair colour.  I respect their priorities and the path their energy takes, but my priorities and energy run a different direction.  For instance, it’s my foremost intention in the first decade of this millennium to ban stress and unhealthy actions from my life. But, I’ll be honest. I want it to be as easy as possible to achieve this state of bliss…

The forty-fifth year of my life seems like a good time to streamline my healthy-living goals down to a core few that will give me the most bang for my buck. So I tried to whittle it down to three basic steps that will bring me daily to the healthiest place I can be. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

1. Regular, peaceful sleep
2. Fun-based exercise every single day
3. A diet that’s based on fresh, natural foods

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  It won’t be. But it will be completely worth the effort. Each of these steps will help me feel healthy and fit. All will help rev up my metabolism and help keep my stress levels down so my body won't feel tired and sluggish.  Of course I will occasionally let one of them slip, but if I frame my steps in ways that make me feel good, I’m more likely to take them regularly. Good habits are always easier to keep when you aren't exhausted and stressed all the time.

What’s YOUR plan for long-term healthy living?

 

Gifts in Unexpected Places

It was a particularly challenging holiday season for my family this year.  We experienced a lot of change – and a huge loss - in 2006.  This Christmas we spent the holidays on the move and in the midst of my own struggle to deal with a holiday that just wasn’t the same without my beloved brother, it took all of my energy to make sure everyone else was okay.  There were times that it felt like too much – that I just couldn’t keep managing it all.  I felt sad, depressed and lost.

On Christmas eve, in a hotel in Ottawa, I felt the need to escape for a short break and I wandered down to the lobby thinking about how shattered my family life seemed.  It felt like I was frantically trying to pick up the pieces for all of us, but I didn’t know where to find them.  It was simply painful.

So, I shut it all out by sitting myself down at the hotel’s courtesy PC and logging onto my work email.  Working always makes me feel more focused.  In one of those moments that the universe brings you when you need it most, I found an old reference to a video that tells the most inspiring story.  When I watched it, everything clicked into perspective and my feelings, my attitude and my life changed forever.

Take a look at what can be achieved when you believe deeply in the power of yourself and those you love; when you move forward and create your own possibilities:

This Christmas eve – in a hotel lobby six hours away from home – I got the best gift.  I remembered what’s really important: believing in myself, believing in those I love and taking action.  I have to make the mental leap to move forward and know that despite all the distractions that influence me to believe differently, there is no convenient alternative.  It isn’t easy nor is it without risk, but then, nothing worth doing ever has been.

As I'm fulfilling my wish list this year, I know that this gift I've received will influence how I go about it.  Making my life what I want it to be starts at only one place: with me. 

P.S.   Read more about Dick and Rick Hoyt here.

Making a list...

I thought in my final post of the year I would share my wish list for 2007.  I’ve thought long and hard about what I really want…

1. A loving family environment that helps me grow as a person; makes me laugh, think and feel deeply; inspires me to remember all the blessings in my life, and be myself because I simply can’t help it and they wouldn’t want it any other way.

2. Interesting and inspiring work. There is nothing that’s made a difference to my life more than waking up with the desire to jump out of bed and skip the 30-second commute to the work of my dreams. 2006 was a road with a lot of unexpected curves and bumps, but the journey brought me to exactly where I’m supposed to be. Thank you, Universe.

3. Passionate, visionary people in my life. I feel blessed to have been involved with some of the most caring, brilliant and inspiring people in the world over the course of 2006.  I love brainstorming with visionaries, discovering promising new ideas and building them up to their potential.  I want that in my life forever.

4. Challenging experiences.  Some of the most inspiring people I know were the hardest ones to work with and some of the most incredible things that have happened to me were truly difficult to get through - and the best results were born from the most challenging of them.  I’ve found that I want my ideas to be tested and found strong.  I want to triumph over adversity.  I want to be kept on my toes and to be with other people who want to be on theirs. What’s life without a little challenge in it anyway?

5. Finally, I want all those folks who have been part of my 2006 journey to know that I feel blessed to have shared time with you. Through this year I’ve grown: as a woman, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a businesswoman and a friend. Much of that growth has been influenced and nurtured by the amazing people in my life. So my last big wish is for all of you to experience an exceptional journey of your own in the New Year - one that’s filled with passion, challenge, love and laughter - one that’s perfect for you.

And that’s what I want.

Margot

P.S. I wouldn’t turn down world peace or the end of racism either.

 

Networking for Introverts

Business Networking: words that send an icy chill down the back of many a business person.

Introvert: a label for me - and others like me.

Business networking is the process of establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with other business people and potential clients and/or customers. The bottom-line purpose of business networking is usually to increase business revenue - one way or another.

An introvert is defined by WordReference.com as a person who tends to shrink from social contacts and to become preoccupied with their own thought.

How to combine these two seemingly contradictory terms? The Business Pundit blog has some ideas. Go here to check it out.

The upshot of it all is that ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING. Go figure.

Simple and Easy: The Way I Like it!

Don’t you love it when someone introduces you to a cool little tool that solves your immediate problem? That’s what Denise Milligan did for me this week.

I was working on something for a client that we both partner with and I asked for her thoughts on an urgent issue that required more web development knowledge than I’m commonly responsible for. Denise, a former project manager for a web development firm, was the perfect person to give me a bit of insight and guidance.

The challenge: Letting her see what I was doing while I was working on it

The solution: Let’s Powwow

There are lots of different solutions for working on the same document together from one person's desktop, but we had none in common that were already in place. I’m used to destop-sharing applications that take a bit of doing to install, but Denise had run across Let’s Powwow recently and tried it. She assured me that it would be something we could put in place in a split second at no cost to us. So I tried it.

It worked. And it worked well. Working off the same desktop together allowed us to combine thoughts and streamline the document in a matter of moments. The biggest benefits to me were the ease and speed of download combined with the easy functionality – almost NO learning curve.

I won’t hesitate to use this tool the next time I’m in the same position.

You gotta love it when you find something that makes life easier!