by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Dec 1, 2020 | Delegation, Entrepreneur, Virtual Assistant
If your ToDo list is made up of:
- Administrative Duties: scheduling meetings, drafting and sending emails, filtering your inbox
- Managing your database of contacts and customers
- Proofreading office documents
- Sending greeting cards, invitations, and newsletters
- Storing and managing files in your cloud software
- Travel planning
- Creating forms
- Setting up project management software
- Editing and uploading blog posts
- Adding and updating WordPress plugins
- Managing social media postings
- Playing email tag
- Scheduling appointments
- Curating content
- Drafting e-newsletters
- Creating a blog and branded social graphics
- Managing your team and projects
Then who is operating your business?
Stop allowing your business to run you (around in circles). It’s time you stepped away from the low-payoff activities and put your value back on the playing field.
Remember WHY you started your company.
What skills did you bring to the table and what are you doing now?
This is crucial not just to your success but to how you spend your time.
If you are busy using your toolbox on all of the backend tasks, social media, and daily minutia, where and when are you able to apply your core genius before total burnout?
Train yourself to stop doing tasks that don’t add much value to your business – admin, repetitive, things you hate and things you aren’t good at. Ekaterina Ramirez
ToDo List Exercise
- Commit to 1 week
- Create a spreadsheet: date, task, time in, time out, started, completed, in process
- Track every task, project, distraction, interruption, time lost
- Note what wasn’t done
- Pay attention to time spent on social media (via all devices)
- What were the income-generating tasks?
- How many fires did you put out?
- How much time was wasted on email traffic?
- What items were top priority? Low priority?
- What was a total waste of your time?
- What did you hate doing?
- What else is noteworthy about your time-tracking exercise?
- Before you take on something new, STOP and ask yourself 1). Is this the best use of my time 2). Can someone else do it for me?
What IF you could free up as much as 20% of your time for responsibilities and core business needs that truly matter? Would you invest?
It all begins with the act of delegation.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Nov 24, 2020 | Guest Blogger, Small Business, Social Media
There are so many different social networks to be on today, it is no wonder small business owners feel their heads spinning when they think about it.
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Twitter
- TikTok
- Snapchat
- Pinterest
- LinkedIn
- Reddit
- Parler
- Mixx
- Flipboard
- Me-We
- YouTube
- Rumble
These are just the most recently popular social networking websites where people gather today.
So, what is a small business owner to do? Let us look at some options here:
Ask Where Your Clients Are on Social Media
Yes, you can ask your clients which social network sites they participate the most on. When they visit your business online or in-person be ready to ask them. Online, you can send out a quiz via email or even on a landing page of your website. If you are an eCommerce merchant, you can easily check your Google analytics to see where people are coming from to your website.
Do Some Research
Many of the networks have a completely different audience. Many young people on TikTok may not even use Facebook or LinkedIn for example. Stay tuned with the latest trends of where people are going online. Recently many conservative-minded people fled over to Parler. Some even quit being on Facebook and Twitter.
It is not always about which social channel has the most users, but about which channel has more of YOUR user base.
The Big Three Social Networks
The big 3 are Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter in the United States. These are the social media sites with the most users. They do not necessarily spend the most time on these but that is where they have an account and login at least once per month. Interestingly, the site with the most time spent is over on Instagram. So, if you have a younger female clientele, Instagram would be your #1 choice for where to market your business.
But remember if you need a large broad audience, these big 3 networks are where you will need to be.
Best Social Sites for B2B
Now on the other hand, if you are doing business just with other businesses you may want to consider LinkedIn. LinkedIn is known as the professional social media network. Most people talk business only on this professional network. Keep that in mind!
Younger Audience Networks
If the teenagers and young people in their 20’s and 30ths are your target audience then maybe TokTok or SnapChat would be where you want to market to. But do remember, it’s not where the highest earners go to be social.
Reaching Higher Income Demographic
As I researched this one recently it took me by surprise! YouTube far outranks all the others in a higher income user. Yes, YouTube! 83% of users on YouTube earn over $75+K per year. The next one that even comes close is Facebook with 74% of its user base earning $75+K.
The least was SnapChat audience at 22% of its audience earning the $75+ per year. Twitter came in at 32%, Pinterest at 41%, TikTok at 40%, and LinkedIn at 49%.
Best Social Media Networks for Customer Service
So, another thing to consider when choosing your social media sites to be on or advertise on is customer service. I love the speed of customer service over on Twitter. So, if your business handles a lot of customer service questions or complaints, Twitter is the place to be on.
Customer service works when someone tweets a business and then the business takes it as a private direct message. That way the whole thing does not air out in public. Many companies will either call or email you to help you resolve a problem or issue.
Up and Coming Parler and Rumble
Recently 2 other social media sites have exploded in the United States due to censorship claims. Millions have signed up on both and many left Facebook and Twitter as they signed up for Parler. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out in the coming months. Will they continue to stay on Parler? Will they stay off of Facebook and Twitter?
I believe Twitter may be in more danger as Parler has a familiar Twitter feel to it. I will say Parler seems to be handling their growing pains better than Twitter did a decade ago with their fail whale. Twitter used to be out for hours upon hours. I have not seen that with Parler though some users had trouble signing up on the busy weekend.
Parler is a more conservative network in many ways and they do not allow terrorists, spam, unsolicited ads, pornography, threats to harm, porn, blackmail, and content that glorifies violence against animals. If you see anything that looks suspicious you can report them just like on Twitter and Facebook
Rumble came about as YouTube videos were being taken down as fast as they were being put up. Rumble was formed to provide video creators a way to host, manage, distribute, create OTT [over the top] feeds, and monetize their content. Political commentator Dan Bongino co-owns the platform. “We need somewhere to go where conservative views won’t be discriminated against,” Rumble is similar to use as YouTube.
Your Turn
So where will you spend your time and effort marketing in the coming year? Which social media platform (s) will you spend marketing dollars on? Let’s discuss in the comments below.
Guest Author
Lisa Sicard
Lisa loves helping others to thrive online through Social Media, Blogging, and SEO. What good is knowledge if you cannot share it with others? She has 30+ years of experience in marketing/advertising with 9 years of experience in content marketing, social media, blogging, and SEO. Check out her latest eBook “How to Tweet and Thrive on Twitter” now on Amazon.
Connect with Lisa
www.inspiretothrive.com
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by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Nov 17, 2020 | Entrepreneur, Life Thoughts, Virtual Assistant
Your virtual assistant is more than that amazing avatar behind the company name that gets your SH** done in a timely manner. We are your left hand, right hand, and perhaps a toe or two that manages all those business nuisances and trying tasks so you can focus your most valuable time on what you do best. The prime reason you started your business.
You know we exist because everything you need or want seems to get done. Kind of like some unicorn magic. We are damn good at what we do, or at least I know that I am. I have been in business since 2002 and absolutely love what I do and whom I serve.
Social media has blessed me with wonderful connections, colleagues, partners, clients, and even sub-contractors, some that I have met in person.
While running your business, and mine, is paramount to my success and paying bills, of course, I do have a personal life that I highly value, protect, and embrace. I am more than the Ace behind the keystroke of our partnership of timely deliverables and virtual support.
Since I have introduced my new website, I thought I might grab your virtual ear and share a little bit about me. What drives me. How I thrive in life. My goals.
My foundation, my essence if you will, begins with my personal beliefs about health, well-being, and longevity which grew out of my firsthand experience working in a naturopathic clinic with the founder (also a relative). My philosophy continued to develop due to my social media research role for various client professions: chiropractor, sports/conditioning coach, and health industry authors/podcaster. I read, researched, learned, and educated myself. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. I followed doctors, health professionals, organizations, and clinics on social media. I purchased books. Talked to people, listened to interviews, and formulated ‘ME’ based on the science, case studies, and personal stories. A life-long learner with an interest and passion for living MY BEST life.
My health is extremely important to me. If I am not healthy and thriving, I cannot provide the executive support I promise to you. I choose to live out my years actively and dis-ease free.
I think in terms of ‘healthspan’ not just lifespan.
“Healthspan,” a coinage now gaining traction, refers to the years that a person can expect to live in generally good health — free of chronic illnesses and cognitive decline that can emerge near life’s end. Although there’s only so much a person can do to delay the onset of disease, there’s plenty that scientists are learning to improve your chances of a better healthspan. via Kaiser Health News (KHN)
I have been whole food plant-based for about six years and love, love anything veggie related. The produce aisle is my candy store. I do prefer shopping at local farmer’s markets if I can. I can’t really think of a fruit or veg that I don’t like or can’t prepare for that matter. I enjoy raw vegan as well as cooked foods. Playing in the kitchen is my therapy and have created many recipes of my own. Food can harm or heal. I love to eat healing, whole foods to nourish and feed my mind, body, and soul.
Exercise is my other passion. Exercise and fitness! I don’t ever want to say, ‘I’ve fallen and can’t get up’ before I’m 100 years old. I want to be able to play, jump, run, climb, squat, get dressed, sit on the floor, tie my sneakers, sit in the sand, or splash in the water until my eyes close forever. As you may have read in Virtual Assistants, Passion, Preference, and Persistence (MY WHY of starting Ace), my mom, sister, and more recently, my niece all passed from breast cancer. I embrace and value every day of my life and will live my best life in their honor because theirs were drastically cut short.
I have a gym in my basement, love to kayak, hike, SUP, and cycle. My longest bike ride is 52 miles so now 30 seems so short. I will get to a century ride. Goals!
I have been tracking my fitness since January 2019. I keep a whiteboard in the basement gym and record the time I lifted, time on the treadmill, steps, calories, miles walked, and whether it was fasted cardio. I also write down every lift with reps and sets. This is just me. I want to be accountable, motivated, and responsible for my own healthcare. [bctt tweet=”I am the architect of my body/life and I need to be proud of my building.” username=”AceConcierge”].
My day starts between 5:15 and 5:45 with my morning routine of hitting the gym for 1 to 2 hours. If I’m not doing intermittent fasting I will make a high protein green smoothie and perhaps some avocado toast after I train. I do change it up. After the gym and breakfast, you’ll find me outside weeding, pruning and planting until it’s time to move on to the office. In the colder months, I’m seated at the helm much sooner.
At the end of my workday, I prefer to enjoy a bike ride, a hike, or kayak. If I could, I’d always be out doing something. I don’t watch any television. I love to read, mostly health books or client books.
The ocean is my air but living in Virginia I’ve adjusted to appreciate the beauty of the mountains. They are majestic in all seasons. I love seeing the bones of the trees. I am in awe at the shapes, sizes, and expanse of these skeletons in the winter. We have many that were here during the Civil War and I wonder what they saw. What stories they would tell.
And no story about me would be complete (as many would tell you), without the mention of my love of wine, a newly acquired taste for bourbon, and now craft beers. Virginia is the mecca for adult beverages. We have beautiful wineries and vineyards, amazing distilleries, and fabulous breweries. There are even biking trails around some of the venues. How can you go wrong? Right?
So, this is your personal behind the scenes look into your virtual assistant.
Tell me, who are you? What do you love? What are the routines that make you, you?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Nov 12, 2020 | Entrepreneur, Goals, Productivity, Time Management
Our magnificent brains have a restricted capacity for devoting attention. When you multitask, you are not training yourself to manage more activities, but in fact, you are simply instructing your brain to take on more, with limited individual attention. It isn’t an act of increased productivity. It is distributing your focus over multiple activities simultaneously. You are more apt to forget, lose, or miss important details. You may think you can function on full throttle with a hoard of tasks, but it comes at a great loss. Consider it mental overload.
It is more important to be present and engaged with whatever you are doing versus being in the overtasked coma state. Your brain switches back and forth, stopping and starting whenever you choose to multi-task. Diverting your focus increases inefficiency, no matter how badly you convince yourself that you are the master. You’re not and it’s detrimental to your results.
While you can manage automatic, higher-level task switching like walking and talking at the same time, crafting an email, sending a text while Zooming a co-worker produces less than satisfactory results. Writing and speech-related tasks compete for attention in the prefrontal cortex. Some researchers suggest that multitasking can actually reduce productivity by as much as 40% and the number of errors can increase by 50%.
In an NPR interview, Stanford University professor Clifford Nass said ‘heavy multitaskers” have trouble tuning out distractions and switching tasks compared with those who multitask less The study revealed that even when chronic multitaskers were focusing on a single task, their brains were less effective and efficient.’
If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It’s like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention. Joss Whedon
Instead of consistently jumping around from project to project, create focused time blocks, turn off notifications, and tune out distractions.
Steps to STOP Multi-Tasking
- Set priorities
- Figure out exactly when you are most productive
- Reduce or eliminate distractions
- Turn off notifications
- Sign out of social media
- Time block your day
- Be present
- Finish what you start
- Don’t be afraid to say no
- Take breaks
- Be mindful of your habits and adjust accordingly
Take a step back and think of all of the times where you have been engaged in 2-5 activities at once.
Seems a little outlandish, right?
What were you able to:
1. Absorb
2. Contribute
3. Conquer
4. Complete
What will you do to minimize multi-tasking and commit your focus to a single project?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Nov 2, 2020 | Leadership, Life Thoughts
Change isn’t just something you find deep in your pockets or between the couch cushions. It is the journey to growth and greater things in both your personal and professional life. It is essentially impossible to push forward with yesterday’s thinking. This is just the pond of stagnation with a green gooey film. It’s not efficient or effective to repeat the ritual of yesterday’s thinking, trusting you’ll experience different results today. This is sure to bury you in the end.
‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.’ Henry Ford
Over the past year, my web developer reached out asking if I was ready to update my website, change my theme, and make it mobile responsive. Well, I did not want to. It was that simple for me. No matter how many themes or websites I looked at, none truly stood out and made me squeal with delight. They were all so blah and I couldn’t envision Ace on those pages. Besides, I didn’t like the scrolling and shifting and flowing of today’s present-day themes.
I continued to push the site to the back burner while I pressed on with my clients and managing their business operations. My clients take precedence.
Fast forward to an email from my developer when he was updating my plugins and security;
“The latest version of WordPress doesn’t work well with the theme you have been using for quite a while. The theme author will no longer be updating the theme so you need to decide what you want to do going forward. It appears that the site will be visible but there may be some incompatibilities.”
This was the kick in the pants I needed to move it or lose it. It was time to suck it up and put in the time and effort to work on my site. To evolve. To change.
My developer sent me to the Divi site to pick a theme and I quickly messaged my designer to help me ‘see’ Ace in a different place. I was stuck in my old ways. Old theme. Old style.
The green gooey film was suffocating and I allowed my old thinking to trap me like quicksand. I knew I needed to peel off the layers because I DO embrace growth, change and rebirth!
Silly me. Who wouldn’t want a refresh?? The excitement began to pique. I was eager for something new.
It’s been an exciting ride to watch my designer magically create the new Ace Concierge site from documents I wrote, questionnaires I answered, discussions we had, images I sent and the long-term relationship we have nurtured. She and her team put me on (digital) paper, sharing my passions, my business experience, my authenticity, and genuine desire to help others. If you want to know WHY I created my company, click here: Virtual Assistants, Passion, Preference and Persistence
Old ways, yester-days are just that! Old and expired. Keep the past in that bucket in order to generate new innovative ideas, processes, business, and personal growth, your health, and anything else that needs to be reexamined. Anything else that requires transformation.
We are evolving beings.
Embrace the new.
Life is about revitalization and advancement.
Welcome to the rebirth of the Ace Concierge website.
I hope you enjoy your time here.