Well, tonight I sent off my nomination packet to run for the Board of the International Virtual Assistants Association .
My goals are to increase awareness of the VA industry among the public and the media, grow membership of the premier VA organization, and expand educational opportunities to members.
If you’re an IVAA member, don’t forget to read the nominees applications and vote accordingly!
Today, (while hard-wired into our cable connection, lol), I was on the IVAA summit site. Barbie Dallman has a wonderful testimony to the power of conferences.
I couldn’t help going back to my own first IVAA conference. I had just joined IVAA the month before, and on a whim, decided to attend the conference in Chicago in 2004. I flew alone and stayed in a room by myself (too scared at the prospect of an unknown roommate). I walked into a room full of strangers at the cocktail party and literally had too much anxiety to go up to someone and say hi. I seemed paralyzed by fear. Looking back on it, it seems silly because now I feel perfectly comfortable walking into a room full of VAs because we already have something in common. Or a room full of writers, editors, publicists, etc.
Barbie’s testimony really struck a chord with me. It is about facing your fears. If I hadn’t gone to that conference two and a half years ago, would I have gone on to do speaking engagements, serve on a Board of Directors, and write and promote another book?
Barbie said her net profits increased 60% following the conference. I made a contact at the Houston conference in 2005, that referred a client to me that earned me over $11,000 in the span of 10 months. Now I’m not a math person, but that’s a good ROI.
If any of you VAs are on the fence about whether or not to attend the conference, please look at the bigger picture of what it will do for your business a year from now. You won’t be sorry!
It’s hard to consider March as “spring” though, as I look at the snow on the ground and my back muscles ache from shovelling yesterday. But I’m going to be optomistic that yesterday’s snowfall was the last of it. I’m ready for some warmth!
I have a couple of items to share: 1) I am now the Managing Editor of IVAACast, the International Virtual Assistants Association’s online magazine. It has a circulation of 4,000 and hasn’t been published in a while, so the “first” issue (again) will go out next month. I have a great staff and I’m looking forward to resuming this fine publication.
On a related note, I’m about to throw my router out the window. For some reason, it will not let me access the ivaa site. This is a problem (see paragraph above). Since I have to check IVAA for email, etc., I need to be on that site. My poor husband has been troubleshooting for about a week trying to figure out what’s going on. He was on the phone with Linksys last night for at least an hour and still can’t figure out a solution. But if I plug my laptop directly into my cable connection, it works. Then, however, I lose my Vonage phone line. Technology is great when it works!!
Right now I’m editing a really great book, and I have 3 more lined up after this one. I can’t think of a better career.
Next week I travel to Manchester, CT, to the Manchester Community College to give a presentation based on my book, Entrepreneurial Freedom. The staff up there has been incredibly helpful and kind and I’m looking forward to it.
At the end of the month, I’m giving a presentation during one of Myron Golden’s workshops on the bookwriting process. Those are always fun and Myron is one of the most positive people I’ve ever met.
And it wouldn’t be the month of March without my older son’s birthday. He’ll be 7. That’s hard to believe.
In April, I’ll be going to the IVAA summit in San Francisco, and giving a presentation on Continuing Education–Investing in Your Own Mind! And in researching flights, I’m really wishing there were direct flights from Harrisburg, PA to San Francisco, but I don’t see that happening in my lifetime!!
Happy Spring everyone!
Lauren