VACOC Monthly Guest Expert Teleseminar Series:

Assert Yourself Today!

DATE: Thursday, March 19, 2009
TIME: 5pm PST / 6pm MST / 7pm CST / 8pm EST
DURATION: 60 minutes (call in 10 min. early to secure your seat)
COST: FREE!

WHO SHOULD ATTEND? This class is open to all Virtual Assistants, small/boutique business owners, solo professionals, solopreneurs and independent professionals. Invite your business buddies! If you know some folks who would like to attend, feel free to copy and paste the contents on this page, and post invitations on the forums, listservs and groups you participate in.

Can you say "no?" Can you set boundaries and ask for what you need? Do you speak up in meetings? Do you let people yell at you? When you are served a cold meal in a restaurant, do you return it or eat the cold food you are paying for? Are your clients treating you like an employee or a collaborative business partner?

If you want to make money and gain respect, you can not be a walk-all-over doormat or a pushy jerk. You must become an assertiveness communicator, which is powerful and free of worry and judgment.

To succeed, you must become empowered to assert yourself with confidence and communication that is appropriate, effective and mostly, respectful. Join us for the "Assert Yourself Today!" teleseminar and learn how to:

• Realize the differences between passive, assertive and aggressive communication styles.
• Learn how to say "no" without feeling guilty.
• Deliver constructive feedback with the Fact, Impact, Future performance improvement technique.
• Take control of your life.

When you stand up for yourself and express your honest thoughts, feelings and needs in direct, appropriate ways, you can have win-win results and a whole lotta respect for yourself and from others. Start asserting yourself today by registering for the call!

Sign Up Today For This Free Expert Series Teleseminar!

OK, we all know that we need to send them out, but do we know the really important facts that will make our newsletters - and our careers - a success? Well - we all will now! Here are 5 tips to make your newsletter a welcome addition to your recipients' inboxes:

1. Create a QUALITY (read: not "Salesy") product. Create your newsletter in MS Publisher or an Adobe product or any other newsletter creation software package that you are comfortable with. When you create it, keep in mind that you want it to be an "of value item". Include one article that allows you and your readers to share a common experience, something that they will enjoy reading, etc...you want it to be an interesting read so that they want to share it with others. Next, include something that will create a bond between you and your readers - for instance maybe look up a local charity event coming up within the next couple of weeks an include a brief write-up on that event, remember, you want it to be an event or charity that will appeal to most people...a food drive, homeless charity, children's, pets and seniors are usually popular. And finally, include and offer or call to action item..get them to go to your website and participate in a poll, register for a drawing, participate in a contest, etc... Please make sure that your newsletter looks professional and pleasing to the eye, not to busy, not to bland.
   
   
2. Once you have created this wonderful, much awaited by your SOI (Sphere of Influence), newsletter - convert it to .pdf format.
   You are going to send it as an attachment to your email, rather than sending the newsletter out in .html format. (If you don't have the full version of Adobe Acrobat on your computer, you can go to the Adobe website and download a free converter easily).
   
   
3. Decide HOW you are going to send out your newsletter.
   Depending on the number of people in your SOI, you can either send your newsletter straight from your own email software (I don't recommend this, and certainly not for any quantity over 25 at a time...plus there's no tracking capabilities.). I personally recommend you use a program like Constant Contact (up to 500 contacts is $15/month), aWeber (up to 500 contacts is $19/month), or GetResponse ($17.95 month - maybe hard to import list). I know there are others out there...but those are the most common. You can also get stand alone email sending software for your computer, but this is probably more involved than many want to get, and I don't recommend it for the general masses.
   
   
4. Format Your Email Message for Success!
   Get personal! Almost all email programs, like the ones mentioned in #3 above, have personalization features.
   
   
   • You want the email subject line to read something like this: "[FirstName], here is the latest issue of my newsletter that you requested." (Feel free to actually include your newsletter's name - if it has one - and it should!)
     
   • Again, make sure you address them by first name in the greeting within the body of the email. "Hello again, [FirstName]!"
     
   • The body should say something like:
     
     "I hope this message finds you well. I love the article that I have included in this month's newsletter, please check it out and let me now if you enjoyed it as much as I did. Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends and family that I might have missed.
     
     I am sending the newsletter to you attached as a .pdf file. I do this because almost every single computer can open that file format and read it as I intended it to look, and it's also great for printing out and sharing with friends, since it's printer ready. If for whatever reason you cannot open it, you can go to Adobe.com and download a free reader that will install quickly and easily and allow you to read the newsletter and print it out for your friends.
     
     Enjoy this newsletter, and remember to get in touch and let me know if you like the article. I hope to see you again soon!
     
     All the best,
     (Your normal signature with full contact info including phones, email, website and blog URLs.)"
     
     
5. Don't Forget to Attach Your Newsletter .pdf File!
   I know it sounds like a "no brainer", but you have no idea how many times people get click happy and forget to attach the actual newsletter file.
   

That's it - do this EVERY MONTH - and you will be pleasantly surprised at the results, be sure to add new contacts to your Sphere of Influence daily as well...your income won't grow if your network doesn't either! OK - now pay close attention to this brown link below...click on it!

Sign up for my own monthly Email Newsletter, "eRealty News Bites" Today!

If this is a secret, then please forgive me for asking...but it's driving me nuts not to be able to access this feature anymore!

On the front page of Active Rain, there used to be a list of the Membership Type categories, and you could click on that to see the members come up in order of points rankings...that is no longer there. I can choose a state and then from within that state choose a membership type...but not just an overall search for Virtual Assistants or Loan Officers or Real Estate Agents, etc... Can anyone tell me how I can access that generic search feature anymore?

This function was quite useful for looking for non-region specific vendors, etc... Plus it also gave visitors to Active Rain an immediate insight to the types of members that there are here...

So if you are of the brilliant nature and know the answer to my quandry, than please do share!

I promise...your secret is safe with me!

This isn't your typical lead generation piece, rather it is a case of hide or seek...

The scenario is that I had someone call my toll free number last night and leave a 90 second message - as far as voicemail messages go, that's pretty substantial. The problem is, that I have my toll free number through an online service (RingCentral) - and I have loved them in the over 2 years that I have been with them... I use them for faxing as well, but this particular voicemail message came in BLANK! Totally silent for 90 seconds. I have tried it on my Mac, my PC (both from the wav files) as well as to log into RingCentral and try to play the message directly from there. No matter what I do, the message is blank. I have submitted a help request to RingCentral to see if they could troubleshoot it. All my other messages have always played perfectly. So, moving on and still trying to help this person, I figure I will just dial the number that I know the call came in from - so I did and it simply gives me this message: "The number or code you have dialed is incorrect, please try the message or code again - Message 7". I Googled the number, no results. The only thing that I know is that it is a Baker City, OR number. So, I guess I have come to a dead end. Hopefully the person will contact me again and not just assume that I am a flake and didn't follow up. They were probably using a headset and a service such as Skype or some other outbound calling service from their computer when they called me and that is why I cannot return the call to their number. But, I am done, I have to let it go...

So my question to you out there, is when you get a lead via your website or email or even by phone...how far do you go to track it down, get it into a system and make sure that you have done your utmost to make sure that person is taken care of to the absolute best of your ability? Do you have your CMS in place? Do you use it? Do you log into it daily and actually WORK it? I've said time and time again, it doesn't matter what system you use, it just matters that you USE one!!! I worked my butt off to come to dead end that I described above, but I know all too many agents who are willing to say, "Well, I tried to call them back, they didn't answer." and then they throw the message away like they are done with it! OH NO YOU DIDN"T!!! Take that piece of paper, enter the data into your CMS and try to follow up daily for a week until you get through...leave messages...ask someone to call you back and give you a better number to reach "John Smith" at...ask someone to call you back with a mailing address so you can get a letter in mail letting them know that you tried to reach them...do everything you can for a week...and then just leave them in your monthly "touch" file and add them to your quarterly newsletter, etc... The point is to get them in your system! You may not track down each person, they may have changed their minds and would now rather saw off their left arm then have to talk to you on the phone...but when they see how professional you are, how your follow-through skills are...they're going to remember you, and recommend you...and when they are ready - they're going to use YOU!

I have a friend who is a brilliant HR Consultant and she is putting on this seminar at the Temecula Chamber of Commerce. Here are all the details, please pass the info along to any contacts that you may have in your database who own companies that employ 10-50 people.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Topic: "Pitfalls to Layoffs & Terminations" Click to View Flyer

What you will learn:
-Laws that effect your downsizing strategies
-How to avoid lawsuits?
-Steps to take before, during, and after the layoff and termination
process.

Cost: $29, or $39 at the door.

Where: Temecula Valley Chamber of Commerce
26760 Ynez Ct.
Temecula, CA 92591

Time: 8:30 am to 10:00 am

Register: By Calling 951-693-4477 or click the Pay Now Button

Sponsors: Clear Blue Promotions
Dan Mulhern Designs
McClellan Insurance Agency