Beth Beutler's Blog, page 7

Happy New Year – New Freebies and Affordable Resources All Month Long

Happy New Year to you all!

Coming off the holiday season, we often feel like it’s time to simplify, buckle down, work on goals or new habits, and get a fresh start in several areas of our lives.

HOPE Unlimited is here to help and encourage you and I’m excited about some new ways to do that this year.

Over the course of January, I will introduce you to three free and/or affordable resources a week to help you excel and exhale.  Some are new, some are enhanced, and some may be classics that you may have forgotten.  Let’s get started with the first three!

Freebies and Features Page: January’s F&F page is up here. Get your free downloads and other info!
Refresh – Helping You Take Breaks that Work. I’m concerned for professionals (myself included sometimes) that don’t take a real, meaningful break or two during their workday. These fun exercises (that can be cut to fit into a planner) will help you do that.  The full January bundle is FREE as an introduction to this service. Click here for more info.
Today’s Name of God – this is our Hope in Action project for 2019. The goal is to discover and share 365 names/characteristics of God. The project is non-denominational. It’s ideal for anyone who feels that God is a foundation to their personal value system and who would appreciate the near-daily inspiration.  Posts begin on January 1st on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and there are other ways to see the names, too. Click for the details.

That’s all for now! A very happy new year to all and watch for more freebies and affordables throughout January!

Beth

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Merry Christmas!

Just a simple greeting for a hopeful, Merry Christmas! Enjoy your weekend!

 

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Refresh and Shine in the New Year! (An Open Letter)

Hello readers, friends, clients, customers…

I hope your holiday season is off to a great start. This time of year, in addition to the traditional festivities, we tend to reflect on this year and turn our thoughts to the new year and what we hope to become and accomplish as we move into a new chapter.

I’m excited to let you know that HOPE Unlimited is here to encourage you along the way, not just in virtual assistance, but in virtual strategies and encouragement. I realize that being connected with HOPE Unlimited means different things to different people, from regular encouragement and ideas through blog posts and social media to hands-on virtual assistance short or long term.

To bring a cohesiveness to HOPE, I’ve reshaped our service options into memberships–with a range of choices to appeal to professionals who don’t need a VA, and/or those who do.

You can be a member of HOPE Unlimited for free, simply by subscribing to receive Breath of Hope (the weekly blog post and message) and/or joining the “semi-private” Facebook group.

But if you are ready to be refreshed and to shine, you’ll want to look at options that begin at $5 a month.

All the details are at our new memberships page.  Check it out and join the option that fits you best!

I also want to give a shoutout to those who participated in our Friends of Hope initiative the last couple of years, through voluntary donations toward our resources.  With the new membership plans, I am sunsetting the Friends of Hope program. But I’ll be keeping the page accessible as a shoutout to those who participated. You can view that list here.

Thank you to ALL of you who read or interact with me. Here’s to a hopeful new year!

Beth

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Five Exaggeration Words that Can Ding Your Credibility

How accurate are your claims and statements about your business or professional life?

If you are in business for yourself, marketing often falls on your shoulders. It’s hard to find the delicate balance of confident self-promotion while remaining gracious and humble. One temptation in marketing ourselves and our businesses–that can often be unintentional–is to use superlative words to add attention and perceived credibility to our work. But the use of exaggeration can backfire, especially if you do it a lot. If you want to have true integrity, here are some words you should be careful of using in your business conversation and promotions materials, along with examples.

Always – “Our company always puts the customer first.”  This may or may not be, and maybe shouldn’t always be, true.

Responsive – don’t describe yourself this way if you don’t have systems in place to respond to all forms of communication your customers may choose (including social media.)

Never – “We never close.”  If you close any time, (i.e. Christmas) avoid saying this or using the word never…ever.

Constantly – “We see this constantly as we interact with clients/customers.”  Do you really? Or is it more that you have one or two examples in mind and want to sound like you are an expert who deals with this issue frequently?

Wrong numbers – “There were more than 3000 people at the event” when the venue only holds 2500.  This exaggeration may not seem like a big deal, but if you speak about integrity then brag about bigger attendance than was accurate, how honest are you really being?

What exaggerations have you heard that make a company’s credibility a little dimmer for you?

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How Not to Lose Track of Productivity During Hectic Holiday Weeks (Guest Post)

Think about how much fun you have with family and friends during special especially when it comes to food. Food—those recipes that are handed down, the new ones that you create, even the time spent in the kitchen as well as the time spent eating—are part and parcel of our memories and our shared traditions. We laugh over ridiculous dishes or cooking failures, and we exclaim over things that delight our taste buds. Food has power—but that power doesn’t end at home. In fact, food at the holidays can have power, particularly when you’re battling over the difficulty you might have with productivity during this busy time of year.

There are lots of distractions that your employees might have during the holidays, but you can use those to your advantage when you integrate food. For example, you might have a catered lunch that involves brainstorming for the year ahead. How else can you tackle holidays and productivity? This graphic (thank you, Zerocater) for these ideas.

 

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The 7 Minute Organizing Challenge

Feeling overwhelmed by a messy home or office? Don’t know where to start to bring some order to the chaos? Try the Seven Minute Challenge.

1. Go to the area of the office, or room in the house, that is frustrating you the most. Bring an empty bag, box or other type of container with you.

2. Set a timer for 5 minutes.

3. From left to right, work your way around the area/room. DO NOT LEAVE THE AREA FOR FIVE MINUTES. As you find things that belong elsewhere, put them in the container.

4. Focus on doing a surface de-clutter, not a deep organization or even cleaning. If it takes less than five minutes to do the quick de-clutter, feel free to dust something or more deeply organize one very small thing.

5. When the timer goes off, set it again, for two minutes.

6. Spend the next two minutes putting everything in the container into the room(s)/area(s) where they belong, preferably in their assigned space, but at least in the room.

7. Take a breath and if you feel up to it, select another room/area of the house/office to attack, using the same system.

Keys:

1) You must stay in the room/area for the full five minutes, or spend up to two minutes making your deliveries.

2) You are not doing a deep cleaning…keep moving from left to right.

3) Only do as many seven-minute segments as energize and encourage you.

Let me know how it goes!

 

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Sometimes Helping People Means Letting Go

Helping people is a good thing.

In our daily work, we are usually helping someone. It may be a client, a customer, a patient or a member of a congregation.

The reason we work, in addition to making an income, is often to be able to use our gifts to help people.

But sometimes, helping people well means to step back.

There are times that a client or customer will move on, and that’s okay. Perhaps they got all they could out of your services and are ready to grow in other areas.

Sometimes YOU would benefit from stepping back. You might learn a new skill by taking a new position, or from working with different people in a different industry or have time to focus on a new project.

Still other times, there becomes a stagnancy to the working relationship, where you aren’t helping your clients, customers or members grow and the work has become so routine that it’s lacking vitality in all directions.

How do you know when it’s time to make a change, either by leaving a position, or suggesting that a client be served by another company, helping a team member find a better fit elsewhere or admitting you don’t specialize in what a member wants anymore?

It’s not an exact science. There isn’t a formula, but I do have one suggestion.

Stay open. Walk the path.

“Walk the path” have been guiding words for me for a long time. Paths aren’t often straight and simple. There are bends and bumps along the way.  Don’t try to rush it, but don’t keep your eyes only on the ground instead of the horizon ahead, either. Embrace the twists and turns and be willing to let go of some views in order to experience others. This may very well mean that you leave a job (or are forced to.) That a client may decide to hire someone else. That a team member may retire or want a change.



Sometimes helping people (and yourself) means letting go.  But it could mean a brand new, extremely worthwhile, chapter in your life.

Photo Credit

 

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How to Handle Decision Fatigue

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the number of decisions you have to make? I’m not talking just about major decisions – should I take the job offer? Can I build my own business? Is it time for me to ask for a raise?  We have major career and personal decisions to make from time to time–that’s life.

But what about smaller decisions? Things like, what time should I leave for that appointment? What outfit should I wear today? What are we having for dinner?

I was considering the idea of decision fatigue one day and headed out to the car. When I turned on the car, the radio came on, and a gentleman was speaking. “You have to stop letting everyone else make your decisions for you.”

Timely piece of advice there.

You see, I suffer from decision fatigue.  On a weekly basis, I have the privilege (and sometimes curse) of deciding what work I will do when, and where I will do it. Will I work in a co-work spot? Coffee shop? From my home office? Should I go to the gym today? Practice bowling? (I play in a league.)

These decisions may seem unimportant in light of major life decisions. And for many, you may envy the flexibility my season of life affords me. But to be honest, sometimes these decisions drain me. They require mental energy and accountability to myself, which can be tiring.

That is why we should be attentive to the number of decisions we have to routinely make.

Think of it this way. You can have a major leak in a pipe, or a number of smaller leaks in areas that may be losing connection. Either way, it’s still draining resources. You might be able to last longer with the smaller leaks, but they are still going to affect you.

It’s the same with small decisions. Any exercise of our decision making “muscles” will tire us. It’s not that we don’t use them, and with use, they become stronger. But if we have to make too many decisions at a time, we can suffer from decision fatigue.

To reduce decision fatigue, you can apply the following ideas:

Set up routines (i.e. morning and evening) that you repeat daily (being flexible when you need to.)
Understand your energy cycles, and make important decisions when you aren’t under stress or exhausted.
If you have flexibility as to where you work, pay attention to the environments that stimulate your productivity, and don’t feel like you have to try every new place that comes along. (Speaking to myself here!)  Choose to work regularly in the environments that inspire you most.
Ask questions before you make a commitment. Why do I want to take this class? Is now the best time? How many nights out a week energize me vs. exhaust me?
Whenever possible, reduce the daily decisions. For example, simplify your wardrobe to match your season of life.  I currently don’t need a lot of business office clothes, so I stick with lots of mix and match pieces that can be accessorized in different ways, can transition into business or active use, and used year-round with layering.  Another example is following a similar menu each week, varying the dishes, but keeping the types of dishes consistent (i.e. Taco Tuesdays or Fend For Yourself Fridays.)

We will always have decisions to make. But if you can streamline your decision-making processes, you might be able to reserve the energy and focus you’ll need for the larger decisions of life and work.

 

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Com-MIT to Your Most Important Thing (Flashback)

Being a generalist is my specialty–people hire me to take care of the little things. As a Virtual Assistant and business owner, I have a myriad of little tasks each week to keep up with, for my clients and myself. Although I help overwhelmed professionals excel, I can feel overwhelmed too.

So what’s a busy pro to do?

Take some advice from the exceptional book, Winning Well, by Karin Hurt & David Dye.* Ask yourself,

What’s the Most Important Thing?

On the day I wrote this, I was booked to teach the first of a summer lunch and learn series for a local company. My comMITment to them was the most important thing for that day. Yes, I had a list of other things to do, but my mind needed to be primarily focused on serving that group well.

Since that comMITment did not take the entire day, there were other important things I could plan for.  Things like:  wrapping up details from another speaking assignment. Investing in some VA client work. Taking some time for myself and a current hobby.  Conveniently some of these could take place in the vicinity of that company, and after I was finished with the presentation.

So for me, MIT became “multiple important things.”  (I bet you have those days, too.)

However, the concept of the MOST important thing still applies. The other things I mentioned didn’t HAVE to be done that day. But my comMITment to that company was the priority.  

So I challenge us all, especially when feeling overwhelmed, to narrow down to the one MIT for the day, and work the rest of your responsibilities around it.

 

 

*I am privileged to be the Virtual Assistant for Winning Well. I can tell you without bias that their book is excellent. 

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November 2018 Freebies and Features – Get Yours!

Hello friends and members!

Happy November!

This is the month where we think a bit more about thankfulness than we might other times of the years. The approach of the holiday season begins to turn our minds toward various types of celebrations, and some anticipated breaks from work.

To encourage you in your gratefulness, this month’s freebie is a printable that will help you find things to be thankful for in your work. Click here to get to November’s Freebie/Feature page!

The featured product for the month is my course, Is Your Work Space Slowing You Down? Access, Align and Activate it for Extreme Productivity.  Available for individuals ($15) or groups ($20-35) it’s an approximately 1-hour look into how you can become more productive by re-considering the space in which you work.  It includes a 38-minute presentation video and accompanying materials, including a tip sheet for running a great Lunch-and-Learn.

I have some interesting things planned for 2019 that I’m not quite ready to reveal–yet. But soon. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, enjoy the freebie!

Beth

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