Firing my first VA/Learning to Be a Boss

Ugh. I had to fire my first VA today. In retrospect, I tolerated too many red flags all along the way and could have saved myself the pain by nipping it in the bud weeks ago. No we are in a virtual arguement over what I should pay for what services - even deliverables that are completely unusable. Yuck.

This is why I don't like being a grown-up or a boss. Can't someone else do this hard stuff while I do all the fun stuff?

No takers?

Oh, okay. I'll do it and grumble all the way:)

Reality is Negotiable.

Sarah

No, I'm Not Out of Things to Outsource

In a flurry of creativity created by a call with Stephanie Hartman (www.stephaniehartman.com) I now have Adeel doing keyword research for Profit Purpose and Beyond. Then he will meta-tag my site and I will experiment with possible Google adwords. I think I will also ask Adeel to be my Vendor Manager for the Profit Purpose and Beyond Expo.

I feel much better now.

Reality Is Negotiable.

Sarah

Out of things to outsource

I am running out of things to give to my very capable assistants. The things that eat up my time right now (cleaning house, laundry, driving my son to swim lessons) they can't do. The things I am working on for Profit Purpose and Beyond are things that only I can do because I've never done it before.

Well, wonderful Gabrielle is designing some new site pages for me, so that is a help. Somehow I've got to teach them how to use Send Out Cards - my fabulous new resource for sending real cards in real envelopes with a real stamp in my handwriting with the click of a mouse.

As a matter of fact, that should be a fabulous resource for The New Rich! Take a peek here: Send Out Cards.

Hmmm.....how to teach Adeel how to work it.......

Reality is negotiable!
Sarah

It's Harder Than I Thought

Well, now I am trying to get a product launch up and going (you can see it here: www.profitpurposeandbeyond.com) so that it can create some passive income and it is just not going smoothly!!!! Even with my new outsourcing staff, things are taking way way longer than I want them to. Sometimes I feel like it is just easier to do it myself than have to explain what I want, wait for a reply, re-clarify what I want, and then wait for it to happen. So frustrating.

I think I'll take a break a do something that isn't frustrating....like taking my son to the swimming pool.

Reality is negotiable.
Sarah

What I Need To Get Rid Of

This is an overwhelming topic for me. I seem to be loaded down on all sides. Being the child of a child of the depression, getting rid of anything is a challenge. Add to that that 2 years ago I cleaned out my father's house, which was full of junk and some really cool stuff - like carousel horses he made and my mom painted for a Christmas float, plus my husband's mad collection of found objects he can't live without (3 - count them - 3 antique bathtubs sitting in storage) and now, my grandmother's house. Oh and did I mention I am trying to sell 4 quarter horses?! Yikes!

Well, I spent this past weekend at my grandmother's house. You can see my earlier post about how it got in the shape it is in. We are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. If it can be salvaged in any way, I am moving it to our storage building. It will either be a useful something in my life - like a huge wardrobe I am having refinished, or it will go to my friend Harriet who just opened an antique store. And I've gotten very objective and unsentimental about what is going where. Except......

the heirlooms category - that is the tricky one. But honestly, what am I to do with the Rising Sun silk flag my father brought home from WWII or the Haviland Gold Band China or the 8 piece place setting of sterling silver that has never been used? I found that treasure in an old wooden trunk under layers of fabric and sheets. These are the things that trip me up.

In two weeks a Pod is showing up in our driveway in Evergreen (did I mention that I have two house in two different towns?) and we will begin dividing up what will go where and what we are getting rid off. I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

Reality Is Negotiable.

Sarah

Timothy Ferriss Interview Recording

One of my uber-mentors, Suzanne Falter-Barnes (www.getknownnow.com) has given me permission to post a link to the interview she had with Tim Ferriss. Here it is:

http://tinyurl.com/2z2w39

Good stuff, so give it a listen!


Oh - here is a little more info on Suzanne. I highly highly recommend you visit her!

Learn how to get known so you can not only find your biggest audience … but you can attract calls from major media and publishers. Check out Suzanne’s freebie, The Platform Jump Starter, at www.getknownnowblog.com

Reality Is Negotiable.

Sarah

Outsourcing My Life

Last week I started the quest to outsource my life. I decided that waiting 20 days for Get Friday was longer than I wanted to wait so I turned to Elance. Here is the job description I posted:

I am looking for very basic personal and professional virtual assistance. Excellent English required. Projects and tasks include document creation, web research, text updates to website, light blog maintenance, database management and updates. Customer service experience a plus. This position will start at 10 hours per month and can quickly grow for the right person.

I received 12 bids from the US, Canada, India and Pakistan. The price ranged from $2 per hour (that is not a typo)to $20 per hour. I agree with the editor of Esquire, US service providers are in deep deep trouble. If I didn't already have a Fabulous US-based VA (your remember Amber of Smart To Finish, right?) I would absolutely go with the US or Canada option. However, with such an expert already in place to provide guidance, I started looking at the India and Pakistan options.

That put me in the $2/hour to $5/hour range. A very strange thing happened at this point. I actually started debating the merits of spending an extra $3 per hour - $3 measly dollars!!!! Anyway, not all providers are created equal as I quickly found out.

At the top of the price range came two very different bids. One in excellent smooth English with a reassuring voice and presentation of remarkable credentials. The other was, well, not that at all. Lots of Sirs, and typos and sentences I had to read several times to understand. Next.

In the $2 price range came two bids - one from a very experienced Elance provider with excellent reviews (it pays to read these) and an incredible skill set. The other from a newer provider who had the web design skills plus administrative skills that made me drop my teeth. Both were presented in excellent English.

What is an Outsourcer to do?

Well, I narrowed it down to three and gave them a short test project to complete - I got their agreement to this ahead of time.

$5/hour Smooth English returned it in record time though not in exactly the format I'd asked for. $2/hour Newer Provider returned it next with an exact accounting of how long it took and in the exact format I'd asked for. Provider #3 has yet to respond so they are out of the running.

After much gnashing of teeth I finally decided.....to hire both. I mean honestly for an average of $3.50 an hour I have two assistants with very different skill sets. How can I possibly beat that?!

Today we are working out the Terms and Conditions and I am using Elance's sample work contract to make sure everyone is on the same page.

I am on my way!

Reality is negotiable.
Sarah

Fast Track to Product Creation

If you know me at all, you know I don't like messing around tryng to figure out how to do things all by myself. One of the big time-freeing and income-generating ideas Tim talks about is creating intellectual products that you work on once and sell for a long long time. The task can sound overwhelming, right? Well, there is a live coaching program called The Product Factory that will get you from here to there in 90 Days, plus help you sell the thing. How easy is that?

The Product Factory:
Mitch Meyerson and Michael Port, two of the most successful and inspiration coaches you'll find, have come up with a brilliant way for you to:
Produce your signature product or program in 90 days....
And promote it to 50,000 people at the same time!
For the full story go here:
http://tinyurl.com/35m2jv

Free Remote PC Access

I was on the phone today with a group of my clients talking about, what else? Tim's book. I mentioned that my husband had signed up for the free 30 trial of gotomypc.com because he is traveling so much right now.

Well, my sharp and savvy clients don't miss a beat. One of them quickly chimed in with a FREE - like free all the time free - way to do this. It's called www.logmein.com. Just configured it in about 1.5 minutes. Just sign up from the computer you want to access and you are good to go!

Love free. It is one of my favorite words.

Reality is negotiable.
Sarah

Get Friday Update

Got an email from Asha today who is one of the head people at Your Man In India's VA program, Get Friday. In my initial call I asked about help with website maintenance and transcription. He said they outsourced transcription - which I can understand. The English required for that skill is better than average. I got confused when he said they also outsourced website maintenance because in Tim's book and on their website, basic site maintenance is clearly listed as something they do.

In my reply I was more specific about how very basic my needs are. I already have a VA who is incredibly skilled in web design and Html. We just get behind sometimes in basic updates like text changes and adding links. So, we'll see what I hear next.

The biggest piece of knowledge I gained was that there is about a 20 day wait to receive an assistant from Get Friday. I am sure the incredible popularity of The 4-Hour Work Week and Tim's recommendation of Your Man In India has driven demand for their services through the roof.

Nevertheless, I plan on signing up for a 10 hour package. Between my business and personal life, I know I can come up with 10 hours worth of stuff for them to do for me in a month.

I'm still working on what I want my life to look like. The best I can do is think about what I want it to look like in 6 months and in a year. Things just get to fuzzy after that.

The one thing I know I want in 6 months: a housekeeper. Not a cleaning service. A housekeeper. I have no idea what one of those costs where I live or even where to find one. But I plan on finding out. No more laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher, endless vacuuming of dog hair, fights over who let what sit too long in the fridge. I might even find one that cooks.

Yes, a housekeeper is at the tip-top of my list for freeing up my time. Anyone want the job!

Reality is negotiable.

Sarah

Just Heard Tim Ferriss

I listened to Tim Ferriss on Michael Port's Think Big Revolution Call just a little while ago. At first I wondered what I would learn that the book didn't already cover. I can tell you that I learned plenty! I'm not going to go into a full call outline here. Hopefully, Michael (he's a friend of mine) will let me post a link to the call recording here once it is ready. But I will hit a couple of the high points.

First, I'm all about the shortest route to get where I want to go. Tim told the audience that the way to experience the fastest impact of The 4-Hour Work Week (in 48 hours or less) is to concentrate on these two elements of the book:

1)Definition
-Your perfect life
-Your TMI (Total Monthly Income) required to live it
-Your TDI (Total Daily Income) required to live it.
This can be done in an afternoon.

2)Elimination
-Focus on elimination rather than organization. Elimination focuses on getting rid of the unnecessary and organization can focus on organizing the unimportant.
-Put the email auto-responder in place. You can see the one I use right here at this blog.
-Look at business expenses. Eliminate those expenses that are not producing a significant financial yield and are producing stress and headaches.
-Look at customer base - use the same criteria as above.

So, there is my action plan for the week. Stay tuned as I get it all defined. My challenge point will the very first one: defining my ideal life specifically so I can then price it out. Because I tend to get cerebral on these kinds of exercises, this might take me a little longer than 48 hours.

The second thing he shared that really set me thinking was his definition of success: doing what you want to do but having the option not to do it. This kicked off the conversation about outsourcing. He did suggest outsourcing/systematizing one piece of your business at a time. Otherwise it can get mentally overwhelming.

I've already made my preliminary call to Your Man In India's VA service called Get Friday. I've given them parameters on a couple of pressing projects and "The Support Team" is going to call me back in 24 hours. I'll let you know how that goes.

Now, you need to know that I already have a Fabulous VA named Amber Miller (she can be found at www.smartofinish.com). We are moving into an intense work period for an event launch and she is going to need backup. My plan is to find someone that we both like and let her do the managing.

If you get the chance to listen to Tim on any of the conference calls he is doing these days, jump at the chance. You will hear great stuff that he does NOT cover in the book. I'll probably be on the call, too, as I seem to be addicted to the special way he turns my brain inside out!

Reality Is Negotiable.

Sarah

The New Rich

Timothy had my attention from the get go, but the paragraph that riveted me to the book and forced me to stay up to all hours reading as much as I could til my brain gave up in exhaustion is on Page 7:

Gold is getting old. The New Rich (NR) are those who abandon the
deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the
currency of the New Rich: time and mobility. This is an art and a science that we refer to as Lifestyle Design.

He succinctly put into three sentences exactly what my husband and I tried and tried to articulate about our dreams. The best we could come up with that we wanted the freedom to be Nomads and have access to houses in all the fun places we could dream of. Once we had a child, though, it became more difficult to keep that vision front and center. It just sounded too hard. Well, it did until we read The 4-Hour Work Week!

Now part of the business coaching that I do is about working smart, not hard. Much of it is inspired by Jennifer White's excellent book Work Less Make More. But even it assumes that you need to work several days a week (Support and Focus Days) and that there is enough work that only I can do that requires my personal time and attention. Don't get me wrong, this concept was extremely liberating and I've used to liberate many many entrepreneurs. But if my whole focus becomes replacing myself while still making money and then using my time to pursue what my heart is about in this world - well that is a horse of a different color.

The last thing that sticks in my head - at least today - is:

The perfect job is the one that takes the least time.

Love that! Somehow as a coach I've let myself believe that I have to "work" and that making a difference in people's lives takes that dreaded word TIME. What I am starting to see is that I can set up my business so that clients can access my expertise in a meaningful way that I don't have to be present for, unless I want to be. And I am no less a coach for setting up my business on this model.

Reality is negotiable.

Sarah

Lightening My Load

So here I am in LA surveying all of the c-r-a-p that I have inherited over the past few years plus all the c-r-a-p my husband brought here when we sold his farm in Mississippi. Holy cow - can you say overwhelmed!

When my father died, I got the job of cleaning out my childhood home. While I threw away a ton of stuff, there were a few pieces of furniture and some books that I chose to keep, mostly for sentimental reasons. When he died I also got the job of cleaning out my grandmother's house. This story is so mired in traditional Southern twisted-ness it deserves it's own paragraph!

No one has lived in this house for twenty years, yet there are still jelly jars on the shelves, food in the fridge (can you say gross!), clothes in the closets and furniture, letters, jewelry, china, packed suitcases - oh god it makes my head spin. Plus the roof is caving in because my dad and his sibs could not agree on who should pay to have it fixed so they just let it cave in. Now mixed in with all the unbelievable junk is cool stuff, vintage jewelry, salt cellars, antique furniture and luggage, letters that my aunts and uncles wrote home as far back as 1923, etc - and I am a sucker for all things cool and vintage. But oh is it work to get to it and then what do I do with it once I have it?!

But, as my husband keeps reminding me, we can't light on our travel feet if we are weighed down with stuff. He reminds me that one of my favorite coaching things to say is "It's all about choices".

I'll keep you posted on how I dig through all this mess! Oh - and any advice would be most appreciated!

Sarah

My Husband Asked Me....

Well now my whole family is getting hooked on this book. My husband, who reads nothing cover to cover, read the entire thing page by page and is starting to quote Timothy. Yikes!

This morning he asked me what trip I would take if I knew I only had three months to live. He chose stag hunting in Russia, something I know he has longed to do.

After mulling it over during my 3 hour drive to LA (don't get excited, that means Lower Alabama in my part of the world!), I decided that I would return for a month long workshop at Shakespeare and Company in the Berkshires. I spent a month there one summer over 5 years ago and it is truly one of the bright and shiny moments of my life. If I knew I only had three months to live, I would want to spent one third of it immersed in one of my greatest joys - studying and performing Shakespeare - in one of my very favorite places.

My choice reveals so much to me about me that I have to ponder it all the more.

So, what would you choose?

My Email Autoresponder

Okay, so I am doing some things out of order from the book. For starters, I am getting my email under control. Here is the message I just loaded up into my vacation settings in Gmail:

Hi!
In an effort to break my email habit, I will only be checking my email twice a day at noon CST and 4 pm CST. If you need me more urgently than that, call me. While I will try to respond to your email immediately, please give me at least 24 hours to get back to you.

Thanks so much for helping me with this!

Sarah

P.S. If you email message doesn't include a specific question, please don't be offended if I don't respond. Just trying to manage my e-load!

So far, so good. Now to decide about Spam Arrest. I don't want to have to pay for it for every email account I have - and I have 3. Hmmmm......

Sarah

An Explanation

You can hardly move in the virtual world these days without running into Timothy Ferriss, the uber-lifestylist who is blowing apart the way everyone is thinking about work. This guy is everywhere!

I got his book The 4-Hour Work Week hot off the presses and was immediately enthralled. Just so you know, I am not easily enthralled. I am a business coach and reading books like this is part of my job. In fact, I've read so many that they've all started running together. Until I read this one. As I told my fabulous VA, Amber, from the get-go this book immediately began to transform the way I thought about work. I 'll talk more about this as we pursue this adventure together, but it's been a long, long time since I got caught up in this kind of vision for my business and, more importantly, my life.

And I so want Timothy to be right! I so want it to be possible to create a self-sustaining business and a lifestyle that is long on free time to enjoy the things that excite me. Mostly, I want to know that I can create it now, this year, not sometime in the future, "when the time is right".

So, starting this week, I am going to begin from the beginning of the book, work through the questions and exercises, pursue the contacts he suggests pursuing, basically following the book to the letter.

I'll post my thoughts, my answers, my challenges as I come to them. Just don't expect me to post 12 times a day everyday. Following Timoth's lead, I will post maybe 3 times a week. I invite you to follow along with me, posting your comments, your questions and challenges right along with me.

So....let's begin, shall we?

Sarah