Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today’s topic is Help I’m stuck! I have no idea what to do.
Today’s Quote: If you feel like you’re stuck, that’s a good indicator that you need to think about how to get somewhere else. – Rebecca Jarvis
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
One of the words that VAs like you use when they first start talking to me about a problem they are having is the word STUCK.
I remember being in a coaching group once and one of my colleagues said that she got her clients ‘unstuck’, and our coach didn’t like that word because she didn’t think it defined what my colleague actually helped her client with.
But it IS the word her clients used. Just like my clients – VAs like you – use.
And it’s really important to talk about, because if you are feeling stuck – and if you are describing it as stuck, then its because you are stuck – and you don’t know what to do about it.
Whew!
So here we are.
What does it mean to be stuck? It means you can’t take a step forward from where you are, for one reason or another.
And the solution to being stuck is to move.
But the problem is that we often don’t know what to do next, and so we stay with our feet firmly planted where we are.
I want to talk about how to get moving on today’s episode, but to do that first we need to talk about some real examples.
Let’s look at why you might be stuck:
Are you feeling overwhelmed?
Do you have too much to do?
When we have too much going on around us, sometimes we don’t know what to do next.
How to prioritize things can be a big issue – especially if your clients are telling you everything they need done is important. (hint: it’s not).
Having too much to do can be paralyzing. Looking at a never-ending to do list can make us seek something easier to focus on.
Are you feeling scattered?
Is your task list all over the place?
When you aren’t specializing your services for your clients, you might be doing a lot of things that are not related to each other – not similar type of tasks.
Stopping and starting tasks is challenging. It takes your brain a certain amount of time to reset between tasks – and when you are doing 30 different things in a day, that can be hard on it, not to mention time consuming.
Are you feeling lonesome?
Working on our own can be a real challenge.
Without having the interruptions and disruptions of a regular office, we can forget to take breaks. We can work long hours. We can lose track of time.
As much as you might not want to work in an office anymore (I know I don’t), there are good things about it – like those forced breaks.
When we run all day long, burnout comes along and part of that is the feeling that we are all on our own.
Are you feeling tired?
Whether you have too much work, or not enough work, tiredness can definitely be a big part of our feeling stuck.
I find that I get more done when I am busy. I know that sounds funny to say because of course we are getting more done, but I also mean that I don’t waste time when I have less of it – and that makes me work more efficiently.
Feeling tired can lead to lots of other feelings, but one of the most significant ones is being unfocused.
Keeping a positive mindset is also affected by tiredness.
Are you feeling uninspired?
For our business to grow, or even just be sustainable, we need to grow with it.
Growing can come from learning something new, working with new people, doing new things, or even just having what we do changing around us.
Are you doing things you don’t want to do?
This is a big one for VAs, because often we say yes to whatever work a client asks us to do – because they are paying us – but then our business becomes a job we started for ourselves. Still having someone else in charge of what we do, but with a whole lot more headaches.
Ugh even I don’t feel well now!
Let’s stop the list here – you definitely get my drift by now …
and I’m sure you may even have found one or more of your own issues here.
So let’s talk about why you are stuck in any of these situations… and how to get moving.
First you have to consider is why is this happening?
What is in your control? What is not?
What do you need help fixing? What can you do on your own?
When you are overwhelmed, how can you control that better? Having a meeting with a client. Focusing on time management. Focus on prioritizing our work properly.
When you are feeling scattered, it’s time to really look at what services you are offering your clients. When you can do like tasks, or similar tasks for your client, you can develop better work habits and systems that help you deliver your services better. Jumping all over the place all day long doesn’t have to happen.
When you are feeling lonesome, you need to find a community – or even just a friend. Talking about business issues helps a lot of things – but it really helps your mindset. Your mood. So many VAs tell me their spouse or family doesn’t understand what they do, and yet they don’t have a community of VAs that DO understand, that they turn to – whether to complain or to cheer.
When you are feeling tired, the first thing you need to do is sleep. But why are you tired to begin with? Are you working long hours? Late hours? When your family is sleeping? Not taking proper breaks, or not eating right? Tired comes from a lot of things, and there are many ways to fix tired.
When you are feeling uninspired, it’s time to brainstorm what you really want – to learn, to achieve, to do better, whatever makes sense to you. Sometimes we feel uninspired because things aren’t going right for us – we don’t have enough clients, we aren’t earning enough money, we hate the tasks we do all day – and so our mindset can’t stay in a positive place. Inspiration doesn’t flourish in a negative environment.
With any of these situations, you have to help yourself get out of it.
But what if you don’t know how to?
That’s not unusual at all – running a business is new for most of us. We haven’t done it before.
We haven’t had to worry about all of this kind of stuff before.
My best advice is for you to learn HOW to do just that.
But the second best thing is to find someone to help.
Get the right help.
If you aren’t good at time management, take some training and learn how to do things better.
Time is our friend as a VA – time is money, and that’s a good thing!
But if you constantly lose it or waste it, you are losing and wasting money.
You have to preserve your time and use it well when you run a service business. Wasting any of it – you don’t get it back.
So learn how to do it.
If you aren’t good at saying no to your clients for things that they ask you to do, work with someone like me to define your services and understand why you are saying yes to this and no to that. You do NOT have to do whatever a client asks you to do. You ONLY need to do the things you want to do. It’s your business, and you have to start acting like a business person. You can’t get sushi at McDonalds – you just can’t. No one needs to explain why to you. It’s not on the menu. Your clients can’t ask you to do whatever they want. Plain and simple.
If you are exhausted because you are running your business when your family is asleep, and you are still a full time mom and housewife through the day, that is 100% on you. You can’t sustain it. You have to get your family to help you with whatever you need help with so that you can run your business during regular business hours, and you can be with your family when the office door closes at the end of the business day. Or you can hire a housecleaner and a gardener, and meal plan, and carpool. That’s help too.
Once you know what your issue is, and once you have considered what will help you resolve it, I want you think about this:
What does your ideal situation look like to replace how you are feeling right now?
Remember when you start your business, we ask you what your WHY is?
That’s kind of what this is right now too.
What does your ideal day look like?
What does a ‘fixed’ issue look like?
That is going to be the vision that drives you to change your behaviour and help you get moving.
If you know that your ideal workday means researching content and creating content for your clients, then that’s what you need to visualize. And you need to stop doing their scheduling or their invoicing. Get new clients if you need to.
If you know that you want to go on a vacation after Christmas with your family and not do any work, then that’s your why right now for getting moving, and not being tired, and not being down, and not being overwhelmed.
Or maybe you just want to watch a movie with your partner after dinner, instead of heading back into the office to do more work.
Once you know what you want, you have to plan how to get there.
Set a clear goal of where you want to go.
What are the steps? specifically?
If you don’t know, get help to figure it out.
Break down the action steps to get there. Daily actions work best. I know, I’m a broken record. Because it works.
Set a deadline. A date on the calendar. And tell someone about it. Don’t let yourself off the hook, and tell them not to let you off the hook either.
Focus on it every single day and it will happen.
Let’s go back to the quote for this episode: If you feel like you’re stuck, that’s a good indicator that you need to think about how to get somewhere else. – Rebecca Jarvis
That’s what we are doing is going somewhere else. And that’s the main thing we need to do when we are stuck.
When you are stuck, I want you to remember that.
And I have another quote to end this episode, because we have grown since the beginning of this episode, haven’t we?
It’s from Andrew Carnegie – The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.
I don’t love that it’s a quote from a man about men, but it says exactly what I want you to take away from this episode: choose one line and stick to it. Follow it through to where you want to go.
What You Need to Do Next:
I am here to help. It’s the only reason I’m here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through challenges just like yours, and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of. That you dream of.
I’d love to do the same for you.
Let’s work together privately to get you to your really big goal. It’s the fastest way to get results and we can start right away. Learn more about private coaching here.
The Virtual Circle (TVC) is a monthly mastermind group for Virtual Assistants just like you. We get together 3 times a month for group Zoom sessions to talk about what you are struggling with, working on, or celebrating. It’s a close knit community of your VA colleagues that provides the best kind of support for your VA business. Learn more about TVC here.
My self study program Getting Started as a VA can help you get your VA business started easily and quickly too. You can sign up right away and be on your way to getting clients by the end of the program, with all the right foundations in place. Check out the program here.
Reach out to me if you need to talk about where you are stuck and what the right option might be to get you moving. It’s literally all I’m here to do is help you get to where you want to go. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me here.