I turn frazzled women into kick-ass Virtual Assistants so they can have flexible working lives that fit around their families (and shoe shopping).
π Two resources I think you'll love
|
Greetings from bonnie Scotland! This week's edition is a little different from usual. I've come across two things recently that changed how I plan my personal and professional lives, and I wanted to share them with you. The first is a phenomenally insightful YouTube video by Daniel Pink. At first, I was like "Urgh, New Year shizz, same old, same old", but I hit play and discovered the content was different from any other planning advice I've come across. βIt's 26 minutes of absolute gold dust.β I've actually rewatched it a few times since it came out in January, which is very rare for me. All of the advice was insightful, but I really liked his "premortem" exercise. This is where you imagine it to be the end of 2026, and the thing you said you wanted to do didn't happen. You then work out what might have caused you to fail and work backwards to pre-empt the obstacles. The video is fantastic and well worth a watch. β A friend who is always spot on with their literary recommendations left a voice note telling me about this book last week. They'd just completed the 'baseline quiz' and wanted to thank me for being such a good friend. Obviously, I was completely intrigued and went to check it out. I assumed the book would be about financial literacy, but it's actually about creating a personal blueprint for a life full of meaning, connection, and joy. You start by taking a short quiz to provide a baseline to measure your progress against as you balance and build your life. I do love a good quiz, but my baseline score was a real eye-opener. My Social Wealth and Mental Wealth scores were strong, and I knew my Physical Wealth score would be low, but I was taken aback by my Time Wealth score. It turns out that while I thought I knew what my priorities were, and believed I was focusing on them, my answers suggested otherwise. Now that Iβve established a baseline to start from, Iβm working on defining my βLife Razorβ. A razor (as in Occam's razor) is a philosophical principle that allows you to shave away unnecessary choices or explanations so you can make clearer decisions. I'm really enjoying the process of redesigning my life, and I think you'd love this book. β Espresso Shot Let's take Daniel Pink's "premortem" idea and make it work for your VA business. Enter your own numbers and context into this prompt, then paste it into your AI tool of choice THE PROMPT "Imagine it's the end of 2026. My VA business is under-booked β I have fewer than [X] clients, and my monthly revenue is below [Β£X]. I'm regularly working evenings and weekends despite wanting to keep to a 4-day work week. I've been running the business for [X] years and primarily serve [type of client]. Give me the 7 most likely reasons this has happened, ranked by probability. For each, suggest one specific, actionable fix I could start implementing this week β not theory, not "consider your mindset", but a concrete next step." Modern but busy AF VA? Then sign up for my monthly Espresso AI newsletter for more handy VA-centric prompts like this. πͺ Other useful VA resources
That's it from me - have an awesome day! β PS: Just signed up and missed an issue? Read previous Coffee Break newsletters here.β |
The VA Handbook
I turn frazzled women into kick-ass Virtual Assistants so they can have flexible working lives that fit around their families (and shoe shopping).
Good morning! Last week, I celebrated the tenth anniversary of my VA Handbookers Facebook group. A whole decade! As I was replying to all the lovely congratulatory comments, I realised how many of the VAs have been in the group since the early days, and how I've watched their careers and lives change over the years. I've seen them grow teams, open agencies, have children, move countries, and even change the direction of their business to become OBMs or social media managers. I've also had the...
Good morning! It seems that spring has finally sprung. The daffodils are out, the days are getting longer, and the weather is getting slightly warmer. However, I'm still being cautious because: I live in Scotland. I've been fooled before. I have another couple of recommendations for you this week. Wispr Flow I'm writing this week's newsletter using Wispr, which is a free voice-to-text app that came recommended by a friend. As someone who doesn't touch type and is trying to mitigate RSI, it's...
Greetings from a breezy but beautiful Scotland! The March issue of my Espresso AI newsletter goes out on Thursday, and, as usual, I wanted to share a preview of what the existing subscribers will receive. This monthβs issue covers: 1. The OpenAI furore Youβve likely seen the headlines about OpenAI's recent political donations and lobbying, and by the looks of my LinkedIn feed, everyone and their Mum is either switching to Claude or at least has an opinion on the subject. In this month's...