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Say No to Tiny Retainers
In thinking about what I shared last week about ditching the PAYG pricing model, there’s another angle on that that I wanted to share. If you haven’t read that yet, take a minute and do that now, then...
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The Client is NOT Always Right!
This thinking, that the client is always right, is certainly the pervasive thinking in many businesses. If you believe your clients are always right, think again. When that thinking is in place, it...
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How to Choose When You Fear Being Imperfect, or That You Will Choose Badly
Jane was working with me on her marketing. She needed to do some research, choosing someone to send a letter to. She found several people she thought would be appropriate, but really struggled and...
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Incentives Are Seductive Lies. Be Honest and Ask For the Business You Want
Valerie was having a challenge moving from the conversation to working with the client. She called to say that she’d read about a strategy on a community site for Virtual Assistants and was considering...
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It’s Not Enough to be Brilliant. You Have to Share It
Brilliance…we all have it, and it deserves to be shared as it does nothing just caged up inside of us. I didn’t always believe that. Back in the day, even reading Marianne Williamson’s famous quote...
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Don’t Tell Me What to be Happy About!
In the middle of an interview with a prospective client, Jean knew she didn’t want to work with him. She waited for a break in the conversation and gently gave him the news. He said, snidely, “Young...
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How Working on Retainer Leads to More Sanity in Your Virtual Assistant Business
Ranetta wrote to ask: I know you’re a fan of the retainer model. But my coach says what’s smarter is to bill at the end of the month, but require a minimum number of hours. That way you get the best of...
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Why You Can’t Discount Your Fees and Come Out on Top
Last week, Ranetta wrote to ask: I know you’re a fan of the retainer model. But my coach says what’s smarter is to bill at the end of the month, but require a minimum number of hours. That way you get...
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Do It! Rock the Boat!
This is an older story—one I use because I think it makes the point easy to understand. Years ago, at lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in quite some time, I ordered the Chicken Peppercorn Salad, but I...
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Don’t Leave Money on the Table!
Jasmine picked my brain with a billing question. One of her clients has her making lots of phone calls. Often, Jasmine ends up sitting on hold for long periods of time. And when she does, there’s...
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Accept or Shift Your Primary Commitments to Reach Your Goals With Ease!
The brilliant Alice Inoue of Happiness U wrote a smart post about why people don’t reach their goals. I loved it, wanted to share it, and felt called to add one more piece to the discussion in case...
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Never Agree to Being Paid for Outcomes
One of my coaching clients said that she’d been approached by a prospective client who, in discussing his needs, said he wanted to only pay her for successful outcomes based on the work she did, rather...
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Moxie Starts in a Deep, Quiet Place
I had the most interesting conversation with a new mentee at AssistU. Her POV on moxie had it dealing with action. Strong action—ballsy action. I shared with her that while it’s often true that moxie...
View ArticleLeaving on Sabbatical, but not Leaving You High and Dry!
Another October, and here I am again, just starting my sabbatical. In case you’re new to me, I go on sabbatical for Q4 of each year and use the time to travel, sleep (a LOT), engage in even...
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What to do When a Client’s Beliefs Break Your Heart
Although on sabbatical, I don’t exactly hide away from the world, and so when a friend reached out to me about an issue she was having with a client who revealed information that cut my friend to the...
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Whenever You See Two Options Choose the Third
There was a client who came through the Registry at AssistU for a referral to our VAs. A variety of VAs found him interesting and responded to his request. In response, he sent each a laundry list of...
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Two Things to Learn From My Experiece With Airbnb
I recently went to look for something on my Airbnb app, and was stopped by a screen that asked me to agree to their nondiscrimination policy before it would let me continue. It didn’t display the full...
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Indispensable: Being Fully Human in the Time of Automation
In 2006 I was introduced to Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. It was the first time I had my eyes opened to the idea of a real possibility that automations...
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Do You Know How to Manage When a Client Wants Time Away?
At some point it’s going to happen—a client will need to take some time away from working with you, whether to retool a business, travel for fun, or because finances are tight. And often, the client...
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Qualify Any Prospect in Three Minutes, Max
When I was training as a professional coach at Coach University, I learned a very powerful thing: Play to the strong, not to the weak. (More on this, here) In essence, that means that you don’t spend...
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