Ultimate Blog Challenge

I've been so busy working on my new businesses that I've gotten away from the writing I enjoy so much.  Yes, I have been doing a lot of writing, but it's been for business.  So, mostly copywriting...not writing for me and being creative.  So, I've taken the suggestion of a good friend and joined her in doing the Ultimate Blog Challenge!

Who wants to join me?!  Just click HERE if you do and then please comment below with your blog address and we can support each other!  Maybe I'll rewrite my story... Maybe I'll write a new one!  Maybe I'll outline my novel.  Who knows, but it will be a challenge for sure.  

Not sure if you can write every day?  That's okay.  I don't write on Sundays so I'll write two on Saturday and schedule it to go out on Sunday.  And I'll schedule my posts on Facebook and Twitter.  If you need help with any of this, just let me know.

Don't want to join me?  That's okay!  Just let me know what you would like me to write about.  I'll need at least 31 ideas!  Bring it on guys!  What do you want to know about me?  Something you want to learn?  I'll do the research and write about it.  Movie reviews?  Okay!  Food reviews? OH YEAH!

Regardless, be sure to follow my ramblings and make tons of comments!  I don't want to be the only one in the challenge with no comments!  UG!  

Happy New Year Everyone!!

To Brand or Not to Brand? A VERY good question!

Recently I read an article where the author said "Most people don't need to "trust" the brand to buy..." and "I refuse to believe that people do business with a brand."   

After my shock wore off, there were several things that I found very interesting.

The first thing was that a few comments agreed with her (which I found even more shocking), and the second thing was that no one shared the article, at least not from the articles page that I could see.  The article was written in 2009, was posted on the very popular real estate site, Inman News, and was written by Teresa Boardman.  Teresa is a favorite at Inman News where she writes regularly.  There is a link to this particular article at the end of my post.

Branding Happens! It happens to the big AND the small.  It's happening to Teresa's readers as she writes for Inman News.  It happens when you send out a mailing, write a blog post, drive down the street...  What you are wearing, saying, doing, posting....it's all your brand.  Teresa also said, "Brands are impersonal..."

New Bio

It's a challenge when you're asked to write something about yourself in the first person.  With the formation of my new company I was asked to write my bio.  Here is my first go... What do you think?

"Hi, I'm Sheila.  In 1993 I went from working at WordPerfect to working at a Real Estate School in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I determined to take the classes and get my license so I could help the students with their homework.  Little did I know that I my life course would change.  I fell in love with real estate during those classes.  I expected the classes to be hard, yet was very pleased when I found that it all made sense to me very quickly. 

Since that time I have worked as a residential property manager, commercial agent assistant, HOA office assistant, Director of Kiosk Leasing at a local Mall, assistant to the In-line Leasing agent, assistant to a commercial developer, and finally as a virtual assistant to real estate agents. 

Curve Ball

In my life time I've been thrown so many curve balls and I'm getting used to dodging them.  But, that doesn't mean I don't sometimes get knocked down by one, only to have to get back up and start over.  If you want to know my life story let me know.  My friends say I've lived in a soap opera and when their lives get boring they can call me for a good dose of reality check.

Through the process of building my company I have come to realize that I'm headed in the wrong direction.  This has come as a huge shock to me, but at the same time an even bigger relief.  Which is shocking!  Although it has knocked me completely down and I'm on the floor a little dizzy thinking of starting over.

I've heard others say things that make me believe they are passionate about their business and where it is headed.  You can actually see the passion in their eyes and hear it in their voice as they talk about their business.  I've wondered why I've been having such a hard time getting excited to work every day.  Now I know why!!

While doing my coaching program I have found that I'm not feeling passionate about my business.  Don't take that the wrong way.  I love real estate and probably always will.  I just happened upon it in 1994 and have loved it ever since.  It makes sense to me and comes naturally.  I enjoy the people I meet and the agents I have worked for are pretty awesome.

"Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew!"

Remember when you were a kid and your mom used to say this?  Usually it was after you had taken way too big of a bite of some fabulous food and now you were choking.

Now that I'm older this term has a different meaning for me.  It means something different than actually taking a big bite of chocolate cake and gagging it down.  It means taking on more work than I have time to accomplish in a day, week, or even in my lifetime.  It means I've taken on so much that my family and clients are all suffering because of it.

I've spent this week focused on getting my lists back in order and making sure I have everything written down, with the intention of putting it all on a calendar and making a real plan for the next three months.  It has been a hard and time consuming task, however very necessary.  I'm glad I did it.

Once I filled out over 5 pages notes with my thoughts as they came to me, I broke everything out into categories, then broke them all out into headings, then made the sub-lists and finally I put them in the order in which they needed to be completed.  Then I just sat there staring at the page and just about had an anxiety attack!

The List...

http://lilisnotes.com

Only two more days, well more like one and a half days, until November 1st!  How have I done on my October goals?  Well, I could have done better, but I know I did as much as I could.  Trying to work 40 hours a week, take care of 4 daughters while my husband works out of state, and trying to get a business up and running, not to mention the homework, cooking, cleaning, driving, school plays, and practices.... I'm lucky to get any anything done at all.

At some point a few months ago I quit writing lists.  I used to be a big list writer.  I would make lists for everything.  And if I did something that wasn't on the list but should have been, I would write it on and then ceremoniously cross it off.  This way I could see the full measure of what I had accomplished.

But, within the last few months I have become so busy and the lists so long and unorganized that I felt incredibly overwhelmed and for some reason I simply stopped making them.  I just quit writing things down, quit putting things in my calendar, and even deleted the notes on my iPhone.  I'm not sure how much this helped me.  I have mixed feelings about it actually.  

On the one hand it did reduce my stress somewhat.  I focused on a few core goals instead of the very, very, very long list of every single little thing.  I was able to accomplish a few of my goals even without the lists.  However, I now realize that by letting go of the lists there are probably things that I'm forgetting to do.

Now the question is... Do I create a new list?  Here is the bare bones list of where I need to start:

Home	LeapFrogVA	Your REVA	REVA Trainer	Church	Coaching
·  Christmas shopping  ·  Thanksgiving planning ·  Cleaning the house ·  3 Costumes for play ·  Holiday schedules for kids ·  Halloween costumes ·  FB Page for Casi’s Business ·  Family Calendar for play practices and schedule	·  Website ·  Add Paypal link ·  Merchant account ·  Blog ·  Marketing ·  Social Media Calendar ·  Blog post calendar ·  Research ·  New Client Plan ·  November Goals ·  Pick winners of FB Contest and create headers ·  Make MY new header for FB ·  FB header for Broker	·  Brand ·  Website (draw up for Harbertsons) ·  Paypal Link ·  Merchant account ·  Blog ·  Marketing ·  Intro Video ·  Email marketing letters ·  White pages and/or Report for list ·  FB Page for realtor ·  Hire VA to help?	·  Brand ·  Website(draw up for Harbertsons) ·  Paypal Link ·  Merchant account ·  Blog ·  Marketing ·  New VA Training ·  New REVA Training ·  Advanced REVA Training	·  Write program ·  Choose music ·  Schedule program and practices ·  Special Numbers ·  Speakers ·  Signup Sheets	·  Sessions ·  Planning ·  Calls ·  Complete worksheets
					·  Find Partner ·  Find Web Person ·  Find Copyriter ·  Year End Goals ·  Next Year goals ·  RE Classes ·  Update Listing and Closing List

Notice I left out the majority of the stuff I do as the mom, accountant, housekeeper, organizer, scheduler, referee, animal trainer, landscaper, chef, and shopper for our home and remaining 4 daughters.

http://rantscollege.blogspot.com

And notice my husband missing from that list.  You see, he works in Idaho right now, and he will be moving to New Mexico at the end of November for 18 months.  I will get to see him two weekends a month instead of one when he moves to New Mexico.

The other thing you will notice is that I am missing from that list.  Nothing on any of my lists ever includes me and what I want to do.  I want to read, play my flute, exercise, sleep, get my nails done, catch a movie...but there is already way too much on the lists.

Believe it or not, those aren't the only lists! I also left out the other 6 column list that includes confidential client information and to do stuff for the 9 real estate agents I'm currently assisting.  And the other 3 columns I have started for the new agents I've picked up in the last few months.  Plus there are a few other virtual assistants I am helping with their businesses.  (They are helping me by providing me with direction on my training program I'm going to someday, in my spare time, create. haha)

Today I am not feeling well and am very stressed about the very long list of things I need to do.  Man!  Do I need a partner!  Right now I'm just me.  No one helping.  I have mentors, and awesome people I can go to with questions and for help.  But, I have to do all of the work myself and it is just too overwhelming.  I know I can make this thing work.  But how?

How will I ever get it to work if I only have 15-20 minutes a day to build my business?

Social Media Confusion, FrUsRaTiOn, OVERLOAD?

When someone uses the term "Social Media," what do you think of?

Does it scare you?

What does it mean?

How do I start?

How do you manage it?

How do I keep up?

How much time do I spend on it?

How does it help me?

How will it help my business?

I haven't been keeping up....how in the world will I ever get up to speed?

If you’re like me, these questions have been on your mind lately also. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to explode thinking of everything I need to do and adding Social Media to that list feels overwhelming. So, let me share with you what I've found and what calms my social media nerves and frustrations.

I did exactly the OpPoSiTe!

Bwahahaha!  Today, I did exactly the opposite of what I have been saying I should do!  I didn't write down my goals for the day before I started working.  I think I got everything done, but who knows!  Now, it's 8:00 pm and I'm not sure....

Good News is I got all of the following done:

5 Steps to Accomplishing Goals

Here are the steps I have found that work best for me when I am setting AND accomplishing goals.

Make Yourself Accountable

Before I even start on a goal I like to figure out how I'm going to hold myself accountable.

You may thing this should be the last step.  But it is important from the very beginning to have a way to make yourself accountable for completing the goal.  Too many times we think of a goal and there is no traction, no substance to it and it just... goes away.  If that happens it wasn't really a goal, just an idea.  So, at the very beginning, throughout, and at the very end be sure to make yourself accountable to completing the goal. 

Are you going to write about it in your journal or on a blog?  Is there an ending "event" that will happen when the goal is accomplished?  Are you going to report to someone?  If so, who? When? Where? How?

Recently, for my business, I found someone to be my accountability partner.  This is going to be great!  We have similar goals since we are in the same line of business.  We are not competitors so we can be specific and open when we are discussing our goals and ideas.  What will we do as accountability partners?

• Talk about what goals we want to accomplish in specific detail
• Decide how we are going to accomplish our goals
• Give each other tips and ideas to help create the specific goals
• Report to each other frequently - this will help with focus and encouragement

Then we will get back together and report to each other.  

• If the goal wasn't accomplished, why?  
• If the goal was accomplished, what were the struggles?  
• What would we have done differently?  
• Would we do it again?  
• Was it worth it?  

If you have a business, having someone to confide in is a must.  When I first started my business I didn't have any kind of partner.  No one to bounce ideas off of.  (My husband is a construction superintendent, so he doesn't know much about virtual assistants.) No one to help me focus in on what I needed to do.  Having an accountability partner is free and something that benefits both of you.  So, I highly recommend it!

WRITE It Down

Make simple, yet as specific as possible.  This can be a little tricky, but you'll need it this way for step 3.

Write down what the end result of this goal will do for you.  What is it that you want to accomplish?  This is a step that some of us will skip.  Yep, I've done it too... Only to find that the goal was forgotten, put on the back burner, and obviously never completed.  So, take some time to think about it.

For my business this month one of my goals is this:  Double my likes on Facebook from 40 to 80 by November 1.

Put it EVERYWHERE so you see it!

I like to type up my goal in a cool font and post it where I have to think about it all the time.

I put it on the mirror in the bathroom, on the refrigerator, on the kitchen cabinets, on a post-it in the car, in the notes on my phone.  One time I even typed it up and made it my background on my computer!  This is why it's a good idea for my goals to be simple yet specific.

Here is what my reminders look like this month for my Facebook goal:

Every time I see this little reminder I think of all of the details in my plan....

Make the PLAN!

While I'm creating my little reminders I'm brainstorming on how to accomplish this goal.  This will be the biggest step of all!

Now, you may be asking yourself why I put this so low on the list.  Well, that's because while you are figuring out how to make yourself accountable, writing down the end result, and creating your reminders and posting them, you will be thinking about THE PLAN.  Your brain needs time to think and ponder what the steps will be in the plan.  From the very start of this process you should be keeping notes.  The drafts from when you write down your goal are probably going to be part of The Plan.

This is where you really get detailed.  Don't hold back.  Write down every idea that may help you accomplish the goal.  No matter how simple or crazy.  While brainstorming I like to write everything that comes into my mind.  Sometimes I'll write several pages.  Sometimes I do research online for additional ideas.  Sometimes I like to chat with my husband, my daughters, and my accountability partner.  Anyone who may have some insight, encouragement, or just to talk about it.   

Be sure to ask for help from those around you!

Once I have written down everything and all of my ideas are on paper, I like to sleep on it.  Maybe even take a day or two to ponder over everything I've written down.  Then, I put all of my thoughts in order and make clear specific steps to accomplish the goal.  

Don't be afraid to revise your plan!  While working on your goal you may find there are steps you missed, steps that need to be changed,  steps that need to be adjusted.  That's okay.  Make the necessary adjustments to your plan and keep on going!  Your end goal is still the same.

Here are the tasks for my Facebook goal.  (Be sure to leave me a comment and let me know if you have other ideas.) 

• Create a blog on my website for Realtors and other real estate virtual assistants
• Write articles that are interesting and helpful to real estate agents and virtual assistants
• Post my blog articles on Twitter, LinkedIn, BlogFrog, and other social media
• Like real estate agent and virtual assistant fan pages and participate with their posts
• Have a fan page party during the last week of October
• Have a promotion for new likes....  Create a Facebook fan page header for one lucky person from my new likes
• Use my free $50 Facebook coupon to advertise (create ad for Facebook)

As the month goes on I'm sure I will add to this list, change it, and keep on searching for more ideas. 

Do Something EVERY day!

Make it the first thing you do every morning!

Every day do something that will help you accomplish that goal.  Research an idea, do one of the steps on your plan, work toward completing one of the steps in your plan, be ACTIVE in working toward the goal.

There will be days where you may get discouraged, not have time, or simply not be able to work on your goal.  That's okay.  Don't let that stop you from starting again the next day.  And remember, "A journey begins with just one step."  Start your journey today and CREATE A GOAL!

CLICK HERE to help me accomplish my goal this month, and be sure to:

• Leave me a message saying you read the post
• Leave your fan page address so I can return the favor
• Let me know what goal you have set for yourself this month so I can cheer you on!

Thanks for reading! 

 

If I don't Do It, It Doesn't Get Done!





When I had my first child and found out he was a boy, I was only momentarily disappointed.  I've told him about this before and he thinks it's funny.  My son and I have a fantastic relationship for which I am very grateful! He is a wonderful son and I love him more than I thought possible to love anyone. 

As a matter of fact I love all of my children! Each individually as they are all very different from each other and need to be loved individually... The same, but different. 

And I love them all more than life itself.  I would do anything for them....and I do!  Just this morning I drove my daughter to school because she missed the bus.  And I didn't even get upset with her.  Which is amazing, because I was 30 minutes late for work.  Happily I work for some pretty terrific people who are as much about family as I am.

Anyway, my reason behind that moment of distress when I had my son is only because I thought it would be best to have a girl first because they are so helpful.  Girls are nurturing, clean, helpful, loving, patient, understanding...hahaha!!!  Boy was I crazy to think that!  As it turns out that my 4 girls following my son are much harder than he ever was.  Who knew?? 

My son is now 20, almost 21, and out on his own.  My daughters are 16, 14, 11, and 8.  They are wonderful and independent girls.  I'm amazed at their talents and how much they are growing up each day.  They all have minds of their own and several know what they want to be when they grow up.  We love going to the movies together, cuddling on the couch, eating popped corn, and so many things the same.  Yet, they are all so different from each other.  I kept trying to have another boy, but 5 children was enough.

My husband has 2 sons and 1 daughter.  It's nice when they are here every other weekend.  I miss having my son in the house.  He was an equalizer for all of the hormones.  I love all 8 children!  It's the best when they are all home.  They were all here over the 4th of July.  It was a riot! 

* * * *

I have always been a little weird about cleaning, so I mistakenly figured my daughters would be like me.  When my mother asked me to clean the kitchen, I did the dishes that were IN the sink AND the ones that were spread all over the house, washed the counters and cabinets, washed the table, swept the floor, and put the dry dishes away.  I even baked cookies and then...get this... I cleaned up after I was done!  I know...what a concept!

My mom and dad both worked and they refereed, or kept score, for every sport there was.  They were gone a lot.  I have 2 big brothers, 2 little brothers, and 3 sisters.  I am the oldes girl.  My brothers and sisters will tell you that I was a very mean big sister.  About an hour before my parents were expected home I would go on a rampage and get the house cleaned up.  I hated the thought of my parents coming home to a messy house. 

I was also usually expected to do the laundry (and keep the house clean.)  I sorted the clothes, stacked them in the baskets while waiting for the next load to wash, folded the clothes, threw away the lint and dryer sheets, and put the clothes away.  I was the oldest girl.  It was expected that I help out.  My two older brothers...well, they were boys so a lot of the house chores fell to my shoulders.  My mom never had to worry that I would take care of things while she was gone.

So, naturally, since I work and my husband is out of state, my girls are often left to their own devices.  I love my girls!  Don't forget that.  They are good girls.  But they are not like me when it comes to cleaning.  They walk over trash on the floor, only do the dishes half way, don't put the milk away, leave their towels on the floor and "girl stuff" all over the bathroom, and generally are almost the opposite of what I thought having girls would be like.

They also fight like girls.  They yell and scream at each other.  They rip each other's papers and throw things at each other.  They say mean and hurtful things to each other.... 

And they also love each other and make up plays and dances together.  They hug on each other and help each other with their hair.  They hold hands when we are walking through the store.  They like to bake, and watch baking shows together. 

Yesterday I came home and several of them were glued to the computer watching a YouTube video on how to make Boston Cream Pie from scratch.  "Let's go get some heavy cream, and chocolate, so we can make ganache mom!  Look at that guy on YouTube, he isn't famous and he can do it.  If HE can so can WE!  It's sooo easy!"  I love it when they all work together and help each other....just wish it would happen more often, that's all.  A mother can dream can't she?

Having girls is very different than having boys.  Having all girls in the house (including our dog, frog, and fish) makes it really hard about 1 week a month.  Today is the peak of that week and so I feel like I'm going a little crazy. 

Before you get the wrong idea about my girls... There are more days than not that I come home and the house is clean.  They do their chores most of the time, fight less and less, and they are trying.  They take care of each other and support each other.  Today is just one of those days.  Tomorrow will be better!

It doesn't help that I haven't seen my husband in almost a month.  He will be home Friday though!!  I'll have him all the way until Sunday!  Soooo excited!

Now, after working all day, making dinner, cleaning up dinner, and getting everyone in bed.... I have to work on my business.  I'll be up for a while.  It's the more quiet now than it has been all day!

All of these adorable figures came from

Gift Express

A fantastic site you should all check out today! 

Click on any of the figures or click here to check out

Gift Express - The Only Place To Shop!