What do you do when things don’t go exactly the way you plan them?
Stay on your path no matter what obstacles get in your way! See if you can find the path through whatever is going wrong.
I am a planner. I like to be ready for what is coming. But sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Here’s a little story on how you can keep going when things seem like they are not quite right.
I was recently getting ready to travel to Toronto for a speaking engagement with the Association of Administrative Professionals Toronto Chapter.
Sure it’s a long way for me to go for a talk, but it’s a group that I have built a nice relationship with, and I look forward to being able to be part of their program when I can.
Here I am with chapter President Erika Giesl after my talk.
We are both advocates for the administrative assistant industry and it is so great to be able to connect with each other to help more women succeed.
The last time I spoke for this group, I had a big glitch.
My Dropbox had not sync’d before I left home and I found myself all the way in Toronto without my Powerpoint presentation. I realized an hour before my talk that I had no notes with me.
Luckily, I know my content! I was able to take a few moments to write down a few key points that I did not want to miss covering, and I spoke freely without my presentation. The evening went very well, thank heavens!
This time I made sure I had my Powerpoint ready to go!
So I could not believe it when I had more issues this time. And they weren’t just technical!
The day before I was to make the trek to Toronto, I fell on the ice in our laneway and banged up my knee and ankle.
Not good when you are about to get in the car for a few hours and then deliver a talk (standing is kind of important for that!).
We have had alternating weather this winter – heavy snow and then a thaw and everything is so icy.
The next morning I was sore but not too bad, thankfully.
A swollen knee and ankle was not the only obstacle I faced!
On the way to pick up my rental car for noon, the agent called me to say the car they had intended to have for me was not returned yet, and it would be a couple of hours before they had it. I had a 4 hour drive, so time was of the essence. I told them I could not wait. They told me to come ahead in and they would figure something out.
They explained that due to the latest storm, all of the rental cars were picked up for insurance claims, meaning people had gotten into accidents and needed rental cars. I was what they call a retail renter on Tuesday, a rare thing apparently!
I ended up getting an SUV – a beautiful brand new Ford Explorer – a very nice ride for my trip.
And of course I got it for the price of my reserved standard car! (thank you, Enterprise!)
I started out my drive, late, and stopped at Staples to print a few documents to take with me. I learned another lesson! Powerpoints and Excel spreadsheets are not the preferred document type for Staples printing. I had to leave Staples without my documents! I chalk that up to poor (last minute) planning for myself – a mistake I won’t make again!
The drive was great. Bare roads, sunny skies. Light traffic.
Finally, things were going my way.
I made it to my hotel in Pickering (the cozy Comfort Inn, I used to stay here often when I was travelling for my old job!) and got to have a rest before heading out to the restaurant where my talk was to take place.
Keeping an eye on Toronto traffic, I had a strict timeline to get back in the truck to drive to the restaurant. I had to leave at 5:15 to be sure I didn’t not arrive late.
At 5:13 I was hurriedly fixing my hair and …
The fire alarm went off in the hotel!
No kidding! I knew I could not leave the hotel and wait to come back in to get my things, so I abandoned the hairstyling and grabbed everything except my clothes and toiletries and headed down the hallway.
I thought it was a drill, but as I came out the front door of the hotel I saw the fire truck coming down the street. I had to get out of the parking lot before they blocked me in!
I ran to my big truck and started it and pulled out of the parking lot as quickly as I could.
The fire truck pulled in and passed me and parked in front of the building.
I wasn’t sure if the building was on fire or not, but I had a speaking gig to get to! … so I turned left and drove away.
I made it!!
I headed out and arrived at actually arrived at the Canadiana restaurant with plenty of time to spare – which allowed me to network with the ladies in attendance. We chatted about the VA industry and we asked each other quite a few questions before my talk ever began.
That allowed me to tailor my content more to their needs when it came time for my presentation. I actually cut one whole section out of what I was going to talk about, because I realized that it might not be as relevant for them as I had thought. That was definitely a helpful networking session!
My talk went very well, we had some awesome conversation and questions about the Virtual Assistant industry.
Many of the women around the table had no considered actually becoming VAs, but after our meeting, many of them saw the possibility of them starting a business doing what they love, on their own terms.
Being a Virtual Assistant means that you get to choose – you get to choose who you work with, what you charge, what services you offer – even when and where you work. I love sharing those possibilities with administrative assistants. As I always say, you already have the skills – to be a VA, you just need to start the business!
Wonderful group of ladies here. I look forward to coming back again soon, but certainly with maybe next time I’ll enjoy just a bit less drama!
So what is my lesson here for you?
For those of you already operating your VA business, my lesson here is that sometimes you will have obstacles jump up in your way as you try to get where you are going – but if you roll with them and change your direction as necessary, you can still get where you want to go!
Look at something in your business that isn’t going the way you want it to. What are the obstacles in your way? How can you work with them, instead of against them, to change your course a little and get where you want to go?
You don’t always need a rental car glitch and a fire drill to shake things up!
For a few tips on putting out fires (haha, see what I did there??) and what to do when things go wrong in your business, check out this blog post: What To Do When Something Goes Wrong in Your Business