BetterPhotoJim

3 Reasons Why Virtual Assistants Don't Work

Recently, a friend commented asking for my insights about working with virtual assistants and delegating in general.

Any photographer or creative person knows why this is important. We are constantly being blessed with ideas and information. So much so that we sometimes feel like we're drowning in these ideas. We need help sorting and getting things done.

So here it is, folks: virtual assistants don't work. 

In my experience, I have found it to be more time-consuming and less efficient to work with a VA. 

In Tim Ferriss' book "The 4-Hour Workweek", Tim highly recommends using virtual assistants as a way to live a mobile, free lifestyle. I am sure this works for Tim but I have not yet cracked the code. 

Is anyone other than Tim finding that this really works? 

I have tried virtual assistants outside of the United States and VAs in the US, and every time, I've found it easier and more efficient to simply roll up my sleeves and do the work myself.

Here's why:

1. Virtual assistants rarely take full responsibility for clear communication. For things to work, the VA must take 110% of the responsibility to make sure they both listen and respond with efficiency, clarity, and understanding. I'm not saying that I don't take 110% of the responsibility as well. I do. Both parties must.

2. They rarely show enthusiastic initiative, or at the very least, a work ethic that powers them through occasional feelings of apathy and inertia. They don't care as much as I do about my customers, my products/services, or my business. They never will.

3. Face-to-face contact (you know, the kind where we actually sit down together, maybe share a handshake) is so powerful when it comes to making a connection that works long-term.

I know what you're saying now:

"Maybe the problem isn't with the virtual assistants; maybe the problem is with Jim." :)

Hey, I'm a pretty easy guy to work with. Yes, I have learned recently that I need to be a strong leader, a commander, a CEO ("Clear Expectations Officer"), but I am VERY forgiving and understanding. If I would have found a VA of merit yet, I would not be giving you this report at this time.

One thing makes it easy for me to come to this conclusion: I have my team at BetterPhoto to compare VAs against. The dozen members of Team BetterPhoto show initiative, are enthusiastic, and exhibit humility. I can ask them to assist me with something and they get the job done... with awesome energy.

So I return to this conclusion: virtual assistants don't work.

Or at least... I have not yet found one that works. 

Are you a rockin' virtual assistant and disagree wholeheartedly? Great...  I challenge you to tell me how to make this work. What am I missing here?

Believe me... I want to be proved wrong. I want to find a way to rise above the sea of information and ideas that I am constantly battling my way through.

I know that value of delegating. I live by the law of doing only those things that I (and only I) can do. I don't believe in settling for less than the best quality; I will not accept the idea that I should just lower my standards. I stand for high quality, awesome product creation and customer support, and I know that delegating tasks to others I trust is essential to success.

But at this current moment, I believe that there are very few people out there who:

1. Take pride in their VA work
2. Take full responsibility for clear communication
3. Show initiative and anticipate needs

And it's a shame. No one in this economy can afford to entertain a spirit of entitlement and expectation. If there is one thing that is true now, it's that you have to work hard. That is the one thing in common I see in every single successful person I know, those people who are continuing to grow at this time.

Live Like a Kid - Live in the Now

I'm sitting out on my deck right now, watching my 5-year old son play with his trucks and stuffed animals. All of the yellow Tonka trunks (and one red fire engine) are surrounding the big blue dumptruck with two small stuffed doggies, a stuffed froggy and a couple of stuffed kitties. I am not sure exactly what is going on but I think it hardly matters at all to my son. He is completely in the moment, talking in the various voices of the trucks and animals.

I want to be more like him.

I could sit here and wonder what happens to us as we become adults. I could scrunch my eyebrows up as I worry about the bills or figuring out what I "should be doing" this week or what might be the "best" plan or strategy.

But instead I think I'm going to take my cue from my son and enjoy the breeze, enjoy talking to you, enjoy eating a lovely dinner with my wife and kids...

As soon as he's done with this truck-and-froggy-and-doggie town.

Are you like me? Is this how you feel when you're photographing... totally in the now?

Adaptability - A Fine Line When It Comes to Your Power Hour

I am starting an intensive 3-day seminar tomorrow so my next blog post will likely be on Monday.

I set out to do Power Hour (made up of the activities I value most) first thing every morning. I start with prayer and then walk and read, and end (usually) with writing a blog post. I do my best to avoid any distraction until I am done writing in my "Journal of Appreciation and Gratitude".

However, if my kids are being super cute and I'm connecting with them in a deep, fulfilling way, I am open to adapting my Power Hour. Since I value family time and being a "present", attentive father, I will make an exception when the morning is clearly being comprised of magical, love-filled moments.

I just have to be careful about those other times - when external forces demand my attention...  and it just doesn't feel "right". This can be email. It can be one of my kids tattling on the other. It can be my worst distracting force... myself... when I am doing anything and everything I can to avoid doing my work (organizing my papers, doing the dishes, checking email again).

It can be a fine line to know when to adapt and when to hold the line. But I usually can tell when the moment is magical vs. those times when my boundaries (and clear vision and discipline) are being tested.

Here's another thing I value: capturing ideas and thoughts like these. So if I have thoughts like this, I will often write them down very quickly (even sometimes in the middle of a meditation or prayer) before I get back to my Power Hour. It can pull me off course a bit but I highly value capturing ideas and conversing with you.

So I'm not giving you permission to be super flexible. I'm just saying: remember what you value most, and be open to adapting your actions if a slightly modified path will better serve you as you honor your highest values.

Keep to your schedule when doing your Power Hour, especially for the first month as you rewire your morning habits. After the first month, though, be open to adapting once or twice a week, in order to best meet your deepest needs and live your day according to the things you value most in life.

And above all, if you have to interrupt or stop your Power Hour in the morning, be fully aware that you're going to have to do your Power Hour later. And the later in the day you schedule it, the harder it will be to do.

Hi, I'm Jim. I'm a recovering IM-er. It's been 21 days since my last fix...

I recently went into my Yahoo Instant Messenger preferences and changed the settings to keep the program from automatically launching whenever I booted up my computer. I effectively said "No" to instant messeging. And now I feel much freer.

I did not come to this decision easily. I've been addicted to being interrupted and interrupting people on my team, when I needed something "urgent". (I put that in quotes because, in truth, the tasks and projects were often not really urgent. They felt that way at the time, but, in retrospect, were clearly just "false urgent fires" that primarily made me feel more important).

I can meet my need for significance in better, more productive ways.

So now I start off each day completely on my own agenda, getting my most important work done first. No email, no IM.

What I do instead is (sometimes) open up the Yahoo Instant Messenger for an hour or two in the middle of the day, for some pre-scheduled "office hours". I have my team working according to the same schedule. In this way, everyone is able to get their work done without being interrupted.

I have to say... it feels great to be saying "No" to instant messenger Interruptitis and saying "Yes!" to creative productivity - doing my right work first thing every day.

And me and my entire team are so much more productive.

Is there some kind of merit badge for this?

To Do Lists Don't Work

First, a quick "shout out" to my friends: THANK YOU, everyone who responded to yesterday's survey on learning time management skills. I have had over 110 people respond so far, and I'm deeply moved reading the results. As I listen to what you're saying, I sense a lot of pain and see that this an area where many feel a desperate need for help.

It's no wonder... many of us feel BURIED under a mountain of images. And if it's not keeping on top of our photos, the challenge is taking care of the kids, juggling work and photography... even keeping on top of the organizational system itself.

Many of you said one thing in particular: To Do lists don't work for you.

You may have lists, lists, and more lists... and never enough time to complete the first project on the list before you (or someone you know) adds another 10 things to the list.

Okay, here's something I learned recently, that will help you:

1. After you write your next list of things to do, take a minute and see if you can group any of the tasks around one central interest or objective.
2. After you group similar tasks, clearly write that common objective.
3. Then write WHY you want to achieve that result.

For example:

If I wrote down:

1. Write blog
2. Read surveys
3. Take out garbage
4. Rip apart Fast Company for ideas, and clean up
5. Shoot video welcome

I might notice that items 1,2, and 5 are related, and have to do with my over-arching objective of creating relevant, rockin' content (for you, my reader). Why do I want to create killer content? Because I want to be the Blog Dog of the photography improvement world, get my monthly visitors up over 200k, and generally BE CREATIVE! That's exciting for me.

And now I've just turned an ineffective list of chores into something emotionally exciting (and much more powerful).

If you want to learn more, check out Tony Robbin's "Time of Your Life" program - I highly recommend it.

Either way, try out this trick of grouping tasks into core objectives (and writing down your driving purpose for each objective) and let me know how it goes.

Remember, I'm here to help, and I have many tips and techniques that I'll be sharing with you over the next several weeks. In the meantime, group your next To Do list into a much shorter list of central objectives and kick some To Do list butt!

Wish You Could Get 28 Hours in a Day? You Can!

• Do you often feel overwhelmed?
• Do you sometimes feel buried under a mountain of projects?
• Do you wish you could SOMEHOW make more time for the important stuff in your life?

Okay I am here to help. I am resolved to assist you in finding solutions and learning time management skills that actually work... And these techniques can't take 6 months to learn... I am committed to finding quick tips and tricks that multiply your time.

In fact, I've already found a bunch of practical ways to "bend time" and get more out of every day. (See yesterday's blog post on doing a Power Hour first thing in the morning).

But I want to make sure I am actually addressing your specific needs (and not just want I THINK you need)

Here is the first step.  Please take a moment today to fill out this brief survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H5RWB7S

Your answers will help me get to the next step in developing a solution for you and others like you.

Your friend,
Jim Miotke
jim@betterphoto.com