by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Mar 9, 2021 | Entrepreneur, Productivity, Time Management
Getting down to business is more than being busy. Busy focuses on getting things done and checking off items on a To Do List. It is easy to confuse being busy with being productive. As an entrepreneur, you’ve got an organization to manage, a product or service to market, and a team to lead but if you’re tied up dowsing fires, and making checkmarks, then your productivity level is probably waning. Put the fire chief hat on the shelf and consider results-oriented actions to produce measurable outcomes.
Busy is transactional behavior, a quick fix, not a long-term solution for success. Think in terms of transformation.
Transformational thought processes generate a foundation for infinite strength and durable business achievement. Productive people establish viable systems and processes to direct their attention to single tasks, minimizing diversions and distractions.
Busy people touch everything that comes across their desk, check email at every ping, lend an ear for text messages, maintain a side-eye on social media posts, fiddle here and there, and at the end of the day, have managed to spread themselves so thin, wondering where did the time go.
Choose to reach peak productivity levels on any given workday by forgetting about looking and feeling like a busy donkey and transform yourself into a productive unicorn today. Larry Kim
Busy people tend to ask, ‘What else can I do?’ Filling their day with a whirlwind of activities that can fuel the ego and make for great conversation at the (virtual) watercooler. The busy bees are intent on doing more, perhaps in a chaotic and unfocused fashion, accomplishing a myriad of micro-tasks to fill their day. Maintaining the busyness is also another tactic for avoidance and possibly not eating the frog.
In How Being Busy Makes You Unproductive, Travis Bradberry stated, The truth is, busyness makes you less productive.
Productive people ask, ‘What else can I remove?’ Productive people hone in on their talents, top priorities and core genius to drive their results. Fueled by purpose, they often check in with themselves, thinking about what they can do, dump or delegate.
I received an email from an exceptionally valued long-time client who shared her To Do list with me. She stated: “These are just a few of the things I need to grow my business – and I am failing at doing them, but when I do, it totally pulls me away from the work I NEED to do that is billable.”
Determining the greatest value of your time requires a little taste of honesty. While you may enjoy many of the daily business operations and social media fun, they aren’t your ticket to paradise. They are required fillers to help fortify your business structure but are hardly the top dollar shakers.
Everything we do is an investment of our time. In many ways, time is more valuable than money, as you always have the opportunity to make more money, but you cannot recreate lost or wasted time. It is gone forever. If you think of time as a commodity and all of your actions/choices as an investment, it may change the manner in which you approach your business operations and your life.
Stop doing stuff that isn’t valuable. So much of what people do in attempting to be productive involves just trying to fit more low-value tasks into the same amount of time. Being productive means accomplishing more with the same or less effort. Mark Shead, Productivity 501.
Transform your life and your business by not being busy. Be productive.
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 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 | Sep 4, 2018 | Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media
If you want to successfully promote your business, you need to know how to create effective landing pages. Distraction free landing pages can help you generate more leads and sales. If set up properly they can achieve conversion rates as high as 60% or more.
Therefore, today I am going to show you how to create landing pages that convert…
Find a landing page software:
The first thing you must do is get yourself a landing page software. Of course, you can always hire a designer to create the landing page for you. But using a tool will save you time and work out cheaper.
Most of the top ones provide access to several templates with which you can design your landing pages quickly. You also won’t need to hire a designer every time you need an edit. A couple of good landing page design tools you can try are Leadpages and Unbounce.
They have templates that will make it easy for you to design webinar landing pages, product landing pages and more.
Design the landing page:
After you choose your landing page software choose a template that will suit your project best. Then you can begin designing your landing page. Start by writing a headline. It should be both attention grabbing and enticing as it needs to convince people to read the rest of the landing page.
You should also optimize it for social media so that the headlines will drive more clicks and shares.
Next, write the body copy. The goal of the body copy should be to convince people that signing up for the content in exchange for their details or buying the product is worth it. The best way to do this is by discussing the benefits of the content or product.
Start with a short paragraph and then continue with bullet points that quickly state the benefits.
After that you can end with a call to action that asks people to ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Buy Now’ to gain access.
Here’s a good example of a landing page from Hubspot that promotes a free marketing assessment…
As you can see it starts with an attractive headline followed by a sub headline. After that you have a couple of short paragraphs which are followed by bullet points that state the benefits of the assessment.
Finally, it ends with a call to action that asks people to fill up the form.
Another important step they have taken here is adding their logo at the top. When people see this they will instantly know that this is a promotion from Hubspot. If you don’t have a logo, you should at least add your company name at the top.
Attach it to a domain:
The aforementioned landing page design tools can host your landing page. So, you can set them up there. But if you want them to have an extra layer of credibility you should host it on your own domain. When people see that the name on the logo matches with the one in your URL they will trust you more.
So, attach it to your website.
If you are a startup and haven’t got a website, you can purchase one using a domain name finding tool.
When you type in the name of your company in the search field it will find all the domain names available and you can buy the one you like most.
Once you have a domain you can attach the landing page to it and it will look very credible. Some landing page design tools have their own WordPress plugins. So, if your website runs on WordPress, adding the landing page to it should be much easier.
Send traffic and test results:
The next thing you must do is send traffic to this landing page. This should be done through both organic and paid methods.
While you do this watch out for the conversion rates to see if they meet the industry standards. If it is not converting well enough you should make some modifications to see if it improves.
Split test different versions:
Another thing you can try is to split test your landing pages right from the start. This is where you create different versions of your landing page and then simultaneously send the same amount of traffic to all of them to see which converts the best. To help with split testing you can use a free tool like Google Optimize.
Now create your landing pages…
This is how you create landing pages that convert. Start by getting a landing page design tool. Next, choose a template and add your copy to it. After that you can attach it to a domain and send traffic.
While you do this you should regularly monitor your page to make sure it is converting well enough.
How do you create your landing pages? Do you use any tools or do you design them from scratch? Please leave your comments below.
Guest Author
Mitt Ray is the founder of Social Marketing Writing, where you can download 100 free social media background images.
Connect with Mitt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mittray
Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mittray
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/socialmarketingwriting
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Mar 28, 2017 | Entrepreneur, Goals, Productivity
If you’re like me, you probably start your day with a morning routine. Routines help build positive habits, support priorities, create structure, amplify your time, and increase your productivity. Plus, you have the opportunity to set the mojo for the day.
Probably the most important period of your day is when you first wake up. Your morning routine can set you up for massive success the whole day. Matthew Toren
These are essential productivity components whether you operate your own business, support others with theirs, have a career, a family, or even a guinea pig. A morning routine will help you kick ass all day long. Stuff needs to get done. Put away. Managed. Started. Finished. There’s plenty of verbs for all of this but you get the idea!! That being said, do all of your typical morning routines strengthen daily positive productive habits? Sometimes, not so much. You may hit snooze (several hundred times), get sucked into social media, the abyss of checking your inbox, the dreaded remote control, or perhaps even a tempting starchy bagel. Truthfully, I’m not sure which is worse but either way, most are not only a distracting waste of time but studies say these types of morning activities are not the most prolific, thought-provoking methods to ACTIVATE your day. First off, set your intentions. Goals. Priorities. If you don’t have any direction, how will you direct your day? A plan is key to reducing chaos, eliminating overwhelm, being on time, and getting more done. It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter whether you go old school with a pen and paper or more digital with a Google Doc, an app, or some other online tool/platform that you will COMMIT to. This is nothing new. You’ve read it before but maybe now you’d like to SPRING into action. It is March. So March on to the new you.
Break it down and simplify your priorities:
Personal & Business
- Think about what you value most
- What will your morning routine look like to you?
- How do you best start your day?
- What invigorates you – inspires you to be your best/do your best?
- What NEW habits should you bring into your life?
- What old habits should you kiss goodbye?
- What/who should you make more time for?
Healthy routines impart a healthy mind, body, and spirit. A whole healthy you generates a more vibrant and industrious day. [GREAT GOAL] Think of your morning routine as the tool to achieve optimal workday performance. Fuel and nourish your race car if, and only if, you want to win.
Morning Routine Key Principles
- Prepare: design your motivational morning routine
- Time block: actually block off time for specific tasks and HOLD to it. Example: 5-6:30 am gym
- Boycott technology: tune out and turn off distractions and notifications. Facebook, Twitter, and other social posts will still be there after your “self-deposits”
- TIP: Leave your Smartphone on the other side of the room. Don’t grab for it unless you’re turning off the alarm to jump out of bed. [DIGITAL DETOX]
- Be present – in THIS moment Multi-tasking is not allowed
- Self-nourishment: If you sacrifice your health and wellness, there is no business. YOU are a priority. Do it for yourself, friends, family, loved ones, and your company
- Food: science-based evidence clearly demonstrates that foods are medicine. Give your body what it needs to support and power your day
- Meditation: focus, quiet the mind, practice being present and mind FULL
- Exercise: being fit isn’t a fad. It keeps you healthier, reduces or eliminates pain, enhances your life, keeps you younger, strengthens your heart and lungs, battles disease and helps to sustain mobility….. just to name a few benefits
- Goals: write them down!! Keep your goals/plan visible. Be accountable and share it with your friends and family. Your dog might have an interest too
- Action: take daily actions to get you closer to your goals
- Ask yourself: does “this” support my vision?
- Will it help me be better or do better?
- Is it growth-oriented?
Sound off: How does your morning routine IGNITE your day?
