As a web developer I rarely, if ever, use any of the free WordPress themes that abound, but the Adapt theme by WP Explorer caught my attention recently. And in case you are not yet aware of WP Explorer it is a great place to find free and premium WordPress themes.

The Adapt theme caught my eye because it was crafted to work for sites where the focus of your work and recent news is the primary purpose. Additionally, it is 100 percent GPL (General Public License) and free. In short, it looks to me like a great theme for people who need to get a website up quickly and don’t have a big budget to work with. It is very minimal and very easy to setup. It comes with built-in post types for your portfolio, homepage highlights and homepage slider, so adding your content is a breeze. There are page templates for your blog, filterable portfolio, full-width pages and even a landing page template.

The Adapt theme also features:

• Fully responsive layout
• Homepage slider with unlimited heights. (Love this!)
• Portfolio slider
• Filterable portfolio template (This makes it a great choice for freelancers who need a quick way to showcase a portfolio. Adapt’s filterable portfolio page template allows you to easily sort and display portfolio items by category.)
• Full-width and landing page templates
•  Blog page template
• Threaded comments
• Widgetized sidebar and footer.

If you or your clients use 1Shoppingcart are you aware that your package price has gone up and that they are now billing every 4 weeks instead of every 30 days? This means that you are paying 13 months instead of 12. The price gap between 1Shoppingcart and Infusionsoft is narrowing so this is probably a good time to reassess your business growth needs. Download the free Infusionsoft Internet Marketing Guide and compare.

Let’s face it. People are not as successful as they want to be, as rich as they think they could and should be, or even as happy as they want to be. And that is the truth. And when you couple these very normal and natural thoughts with persistent economical / political low-level dread, there is some real room for mental and emotional improvement just to survive the evening news!

You already know that I do not bombard you with a ton of “buy now” stuff and I only recommend products that I actually use and benefit from myself. What I want to share with you today is A Year of Success.

If you connect with me on Facebook. LinkedIn or Twitter, you already know that Larry Winget and Bob Burg are friends of mine, and people who I have a VERY high professional and personal opinion of. Larry Winget is known as “The Pitbull of Personal Development” and is a 5 time New York Times / Wall Street Journal bestselling author and somebody you see on TV a lot. Larry is a regular contributor on Cavuto, Fox News, and other news networks. Bob Burg is one of my favorite authors and if you haven’t already done so, you really should read the Go Giver or Go-Giver’s Sell More and his latest book, It’s Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most In Business.

Larry and Bob have partnered with Chief Fascination Officer of Fascinate, Inc., Sally Hogshead and leadership development speaker & consultant Mark Sanborn. Mark is the president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea lab for leadership development. Leadershipgurus.net lists Mark as one of the top 30 leadership experts in the world. Mark is the author of You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader which speaks to leaders at every level, both those with and without titles. The book focuses on six things that all leaders do to make a positive difference. If you want to learn how to lead, or you are a leader looking for ways to lead better or teach others to lead, this book is for you. Fascination is an intense emotional focus. When customers are fascinated by you and your message, they’re more likely to trust, believe, and respect you. As the only keynote speaker and author on this topic, Sally has developed a scientifically-based system of influence, based on the brain’s hardwired patterns. For any goal that requires strong communication— from selling insurance to motivating top talent— the Fascinate system outlines the shortcut to persuasion. Sally has taught over 100,000 people how to use their natural strengths to become more persuasive.

I tell you all of this so you know who will be working with you and what they collectively bring to the table. In fact, the four of them have reached over a million people with their messages, all over the globe. In A Year of Success, they will teach you, challenge you, provoke you, (Larry!) and push you outside your comfort zone to the point that you gain with bigger, faster, and smarter results, no matter what you are doing.

Pinterest is sweeping the internet and let’s face it… it is fun! It is also a great way to drive traffic back to your blog or website.

As Virtual Assistants and Online Business Managers you are very likely already working in Pinterest either for yourself or for your clients. And if you aren’t yet, you will be soon!

If you are managing your clients WordPress websites, you can easily add a Pinterest Pin it button to the site in just a matter of minutes.

1) Click on Plugins and type “pinterest” into the search box.

#2) For purposes of this post I chose the Pinterest “Pin It” button.

#3) Activate plugin and then choose your settings.

It will then show up where you placed it. You can also navigate to Appearance — Widgets and add Pinterest to your blogs sidebar.

In this age of mobile marketing it is getting more and more difficult to get people to open your emails. Once an email campaign has been sent, email marketers can expect their open rates to peak within the first two hours after delivery, so it becomes incumbent upon you to craft emails that people actually look forward to receiving and want to open.

There are several steps that you can take to help you identify just what your message is.

1. Identify what YOU want. What is your purpose for sending this email? Are you trying to get people to signup for your teleseminar, purchase a new product, click on an affiliate link?
2. Identify what THEY want. What is your audience really looking for? Do they need an answer to a burning question? Do they need a product or solution that you are offering? Do they look to you for advice on current events in your particular industry?
3. Identify a hot topic in your industry. For instance, right now everybody is talking about the new Facebook Timeline for business pages. What does this mean for all of us who have these pages? How will it impact how we do business on Facebook?
4. Identify your offer. You should try to offer something that has true value to your audience. Free or paid for, it has to be valuable to them. It has to answer a question or offer solutions. For instance, are you offering a free consultation, or giving away a free trial to your membership site? Make the offer clear.
5. Summarize. Be clear and concise when ending your message by taking a good look at 1-4 and putting it all into one easy to read paragraph.

Distractions are everywhere and for professionals who have “Shiny Object Syndrome” (SOS) the world is a dangerous place.  Slick, pervasive marketing campaigns attract even the most educated and otherwise disciplined executives to chase the next best thing.  This segment of the market buys into and then often pays for the promises of new technology, coaching or other products and services which seem to answer their problems.

It is important to recognize which of your clients have SOS.  They will often give you direction and ask you to begin a project.  Yet, before you complete the task at hand and can test or implement what you have created, your client is enamored with something new, and probably expensive.  They change direction.  You are now on a new project using a new technology or tool or method. There is a learning curve associated with this that you really cannot reasonably bill the client for.  And if you are able to bill the client,  these are not necessarily good billable hours.  Your client may experience disappointment because they are continuously investing in his business growth but never really seeing results.  This happens because he (or she) does not allow the seeds he has planted through each project you have completed to come to fruition.  Instead, he simply wants to keep trying new things without properly measuring his success or failure in the last endeavor.

Here is the first way to manage a client with SOS.  Help them establish clarity of focus and build a system to measure all opportunities in an objective manner.  This will help him separate the real opportunities from the illusions.

Schedule time with each client and engage in an active listening session.  Ask the client to share their goals with you.  These should include project goals, business objectives and their perceived life purpose.  Be sure that these goals are clear and measurable.  This will serve as your baseline for measuring success in future projects.  Document the conversation and review the main points with your client to make sure they are accurate.

When you client approaches you with a new idea, take some time to listen.  If you hear your client talking about “how” to accomplish a result without sharing “why” they want to accomplish this result, you may have a case of SOS on your hands.  Those who are suffering from SOS typically spend a majority of their time selling others on the benefits of a particular way of solving a problem.  They begin to sound like a commercial for that which they want to purchase.

While being open to their ideas, you should ask them how this new idea helps them accomplish their project goals, business objectives or life purpose.  You should ask them;

• “On a scale of 1-5 how aligned with your goals, objectives and purpose are the outcomes you imagine this will create?”  (In this case, “1” represents “No Alignment” and “5” represents “Perfect Alignment.”)

• If they have offered a rating of 4 or 5, follow this question with,

• “Please describe in detail why you believe this is true.”

Ask for clarifying points anywhere you are unsure of what they mean or if you feel that they need to analyze their reasoning more.  You should support their enthusiastic vision, but at the same time help them see past the marketing rhetoric to the reality of the results that are likely from engaging in the project.

If, by the end of the discussion, both of you are convinced it is a good idea you should move forward with it.  However, before you do, establish clear objectives including time frames for testing, implementing, and allow results to show up.  Failure is often a result of not thinking clearly at the outset of a project and then changing too many things too quickly.

In the next article, I will share another strategy for dealing with clients with SOS that will save you both time and energy.

As work-from-home entrepreneurs we experience stress on a daily basis. We deal  with client deadlines, acquiring new clients, client retention, team building… the list is endless! And this is before spouse and kids get home.

Stress does not just affect how we sleep or function when we are working, it also can cause chronic discomfort in parts of your body. For me it is my back if I don’t pay close attention and prevent knots and sore muscles. Once your muscles are all knotted up it is difficult to get them relaxed again. When your body is in pain, your work suffers. When your work suffers, you have now added more stress because you are running behind schedule. It is a never ending cycle if you don’t listen to your body and take care of yourself, and therefore your Virtual Assistance practice.

It is up to us how we deal with our stress though, and these are some of my go-to stress busters.

Deep Breathing

Remember when your dad told you to “suck it up”? He knew what he was talking about. Taking deep, calming breaths calms your brain and therefore your stress response.

Draw as much breath into your lungs as you can. When you exhale, suck your belly button toward your spine to push your diaphragm up so you can empty all of the air in your lungs. When you are consciously taking very deep, calming breaths you are bringing nitric oxide from the back of your nose and sinuses into your lungs which dilates the air passages in your lungs and so that you are getting oxygen to your entire body.

Scrunch Your Face

Seriously… scrunch your face tightly (pretend you just banged your toe against a stone wall) for about 15 seconds and then relax. Repeat this several times and you will notice that the strain that you are holding above the neck is diminishing. I have done facial exercises for years, partly for stress and partly for vanity. Why not? They work, they are fun to do and at the very least, it moves you away from your keyboard for a while.

Jump Like a Little Kid

I have a Needak Rebounder (mini-trampoline) in my office and several times a day I will get on it and just bounce around like a happy child. I may not be on it long, sometimes just 5 or 10 minutes at a time, but I feel energized and happy when I get back to my desk. It is a GREAT stress buster and does some pretty amazing things for your legs too!

Reduce a Tension Headache

I actually got out of a speeding ticket some years ago because I showed this acupressure trick to the state trooper who nabbed me. I could tell that he had a bear of a headache and offered my tried and true headache buster.

Take the thumb and index finger of one hand, and apply a firm pinching pressure to the soft, fleshy web between the thumb and the index finger of your other hand. Be careful not to bruise yourself. If that happens, you are pinching too hard. And before you ask, I don’t speed anymore!

Move It!

As very busy entrepreneurs we need to make movement a integral part of our business model. Any type of exercise or movement will help reduce stress and help you focus on what is important – joyfully building and growing your business!

Please share your stress-buster moves. We would love to hear from you.

There seems to be a particular personality type that is attracted to the newest, greatest, next best thing in the market.  I call this condition “Shiny Object Syndrome” or (SOS).  Some of my clients are like this.  I also have partners and team members who attract clients like this.  It is challenging to deal with these clients but over the years I have developed several strategies to make it easier for all of us.

Over the next few posts, I am going to share some strategies for dealing with clients who have been “diagnosed” with SOS.  But, first, let’s understand how to identify SOS and why it can be detrimental to success in business. When you recognize that your client has SOS you can take action to limit the consequences to both of you. By staying on track and making sure that your virtual assistance client understands the forward progress that is made on a regular basis, you will be able to help them reconsider purchasing the next and greatest tool, software, etc. Too many of which are pure hype, by the way!

Shiny Object Syndrome is one of the root causes of business mediocrity.  Otherwise capable individuals find themselves distracted by new technology, new coaches, new business models, etc.  These individuals are seduced by the promise of something better, usually because they are not getting the results they want.  Slick marketing and the testimonials of others trigger your clients’ imaginations and within a relatively short period of time those suffering from SOS believe they have to solution to their version of “world hunger.”

The truth is, the lack of results is caused not by poor tools or methods, but rather, by a lack of clarity of vision, a lack of complete discipline to execute that vision, or the lack of confidence that they can achieve the great vision they have set forth.  In other words, those infected with SOS have acquired the virus because their business model immune system is weak.  They have allowed themselves to be undisciplined in their focus and are not exercising their will power stay the course they originally outlined.

Curing SOS takes time.  It requires a change of habits which arises from a change in emotional response caused by a change in thinking.  You must administer an inoculation which alters the emotional high associated with “new” to an emotional response that is neutral.  You then must build the immune system by building an emotional high related to “completions” of existing plans.  This approach will help your client overcome SOS given enough time and discipline.  Cutting back on the intake of potentially harmful marketing is recommended and doing serious research on the tool or system they are eyeballing is necessary for both of you. It may well be that the tool or system is a good idea, but you won’t know until you take a good long look at it. Another thing that clients tend to forget is that there is often a steep learning curve associated with any new system and they and you, will need to re-prioritize your work load and goals if they do proceed with the purchase or subscription.

If your clients do not recognize that they are falling prey to some seriously talented copywriters, they will experience continued dissatisfaction with their results, and your work!  Over an extended period of time, they may lose the passion for their business model and their results will decline further.  Discontent turns to depression and they may give up on their dream.  If they adopt the failure as part of their self-image they will struggle in other areas of their lives.

In the next few posts you will learn some specific tools to help you change your client’s habits so that they can overcome Shiny Object Syndrome.

Inert (adj.) – Having no inherent ability to move or to resist motion.

Does this describe the clutter on your desk and in your office? Matter is inert. Files are inert. Books are inert….. You get the idea.  To de-clutter your working space, you need to make matter mobile, meaning, PICK IT UP AND PUT IT AWAY!

As busy as we all are, sometimes it is just way too easy to let things get out of hand and then we are left  staring at a pile of files that are threatening to either topple off of the corner of the desk or trip you up when you step unwarily over them. Been there, done that!

This is where containers become your friend. And any container type will do. Shoe boxes, bank boxes, baskets or clear plastic containers, preferably with lids. These containers can be used to sort out what will be re-distributed (put away), donated, or dumped.

Re-distributed

Working from our own home offices as we do, it is not at all unusual to find that little things wind up on our desk during the day that really have no business being there.  With me, I tend to need to put away such items as water bottles, hand lotion, books that somehow migrated into my office, and any other number of small items that landed on or near my desk. These all go in the box next to my office door and at the end of my working day they are treated much as the left behind items in a grocery store are. I take my box and put everything in it back on the shelf.

Donate

Twice a year I engage in what I term a “Purge Party” and go through closets, cupboards, drawers, garage and get rid of junk and other stuff that just accumulates and is of no real use to me but may well be to somebody else.  By purging old clothes out of closets, old food out of the pantry, and old folders and papers out of your office, you can free up your mind and increase your energy. To this end, there is a large box in the garage labeled “Donate” which reminds me to place items there so I don’t have to store them indefinitely. When it gets full, off it goes to Goodwill, or it prompts me to have an impromptu “Purge Party”.

Dump

Obviously you need to dump things that you really can’t donate and just don’t want or need. My favorite things in the world to dump are plastic storage lids. Do they have naughty relations in the dark cupboard and reproduce?? Where do the darn things come from anyway and where are the containers that they are supposed to be paired with? It is a conundrum.

I would love to hear how you manage clutter in your home office!

Chronically messy and unorganized people will staunchly defend their overflowing desktop by saying that they know just exactly where everything is. One enterprising lady I know even told me that she remembers things by their location, and can lay her hands on any file at any time. That being said however, she then sheepishly admitted that there is a threshold beyond which she beings losing track of things and that this is happening more often. And she is fully aware that she spends part of her working day hunting for things. She also said there is a certain comfort level in habit, and as we all know, habits can be hard to break!

I have no doubt that adhering to a time worn custom can be soothing to a frazzled solopreneur but as a rule of thumb, it can be more efficient to have a well organized workspace. An organized workspace allows you to focus on the task at hand rather than losing focus while looking for a misplaced paper or file.

Here are 6 steps to decluttering your desk.

1. Reduce distractions. Is your desk covered with pictures, knickknacks, yesterdays mail and a pile of yellow note pads that outline all tasks past and present? Take a good look around you and see what may be distracting and what is just plain old fashioned annoying and get them off of your desk.
2. Everyday use: Really the only things that should be on your desktop at all times are the things that you use every day. Clearly you don’t want to have to hunt for your favorite pen or that critical notepad with your creative thoughts that you jotted down in a free moment. However, speaking of notepads, consider getting a large whiteboard and placing it above your desk where you can see it and transfer the “Must Do”items from notepads, pieces of paper, index cards, etc., to the whiteboard and shred those pesky pieces of paper. It is much more efficient and if your eye sees it, your mind will respond to the urgency of the project or projects. It is much too easy for an important task reminder to get lost on a piece of paper.
3. Right hand or left hand? Depending on which hand you use the most during the day, it makes sense arrange your desk accordingly for fingertip management. I happen to be ambidextrous so this one is easy for me and allows me to make maximum use of my L-Shaped desk. If you are right-handed, placing your pens, pencils, pads, phone where you can comfortable reach them on the right side of your desk, makes the most practical sense. Ditto left handed people. It just makes everything from writing notes to taking phone calls faster and more efficient.
4. Like likes Like: You wouldn’t place your dish towels in the same drawer or cupboard as your pot lids and this same principal holds true for your desk. Organizing like things together on the desktop forms small centers where you can find and use items easily.
5. Time Management: It is very easy to lose track of time when working on client projects, or even your own projects. I find that having a large clock on my office wall just above my desk as well as a day minder (bright red!) helps me keep track of what I MUST do and when it needs to be done. The day minder stays on the desk and serves as a reminder to come up for air and check my task list against my time constraints.
6. Designated clutter free zone: Your desk is where you work. And even though we work in an increasingly virtual world and our computer keyboard is our connection to our clients and our team members, we do still have to have a clutter free zone, meaning a dedicated flat surface where we can write.  Writing and note-taking is important and we need a spot to work without having to displace something else.

What are some of the ways you declutter and gain in efficiency? I would love to hear them!