Marissa Bracke

Monday Mashup #5: Three Choices I Make Each Day

Marissa — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:15:11 +0000

The Monday Mashup is an experiment, designed to get my creative juices flowing. I get a random word and a random number, and I write a list based on that mashup. I’m not going to require myself to make the list perfect or expert–just requiring myself to do it consistently. At least for now.

This week’s mashup: Three Choices (that I make each day)

1. PC or Mac?

I grew up on Atari and then on PCs. We never had an Apple computer in our household, and I avoided using them in school because PCs were my comfort zone. I got to know Apple during undergrad when the folks I worked for during the summers (and after graduation) used Macs exclusively. But I still favored PCs.

But then I got a Dell Inspiron 1720 that was equal parts pink bubble gum beauty and spawn of Satan. I designed it to be my dream computer and it mocked me with its pretty exterior and clusterbumble of Vista issues inside. I spent more time fixing it than I spent using it. And around the same time, Apple came out with the “Hi, I’m a Mac” commercial series… oh, Apple. You had me at “I’m a Mac.”

I got my first iMac early this year, and it was passionate love at first type. For all of the PC folks who say, “Tell me why Macs are better than PCs, and give me a reason other than ‘It just works,’” I say, “How sad you’ve forgotten what life can be like when you have a computer that just works.” I could not run my business if I had to deal with the headaches of Windows. So I still own my beautiful pink PC… I just use it as a backup, a Hulu/Netflix display, and as an in-case machine, should I wind up with a client who needs something generated via PC. But I choose my iMac as my main machine–enthusiastically.

And I love those Mac commercials so much I want to re-convert all over again when I see them. Marketing genius.

2. Coffee or Tea?

Both! But in the morning, it’s decidedly coffee. I have only one mug of coffee each day, but I cannot start my day without it. Not because of the caffeine, but because of the ritual around it. I pour the water into the coffee pot as my dogs eat their morning meal. The aroma of dark roast coffee wafts out to greet me as it starts to brew. The pot finishes its brew cycle as I let my dogs outside after they’re done eating and just as my morning toast pops up from the toaster.

I doctor up my coffee in a particular way, too. Since I can no longer afford the (exorbitant) luxury of Starbucks fancy coffees every day, I make my own version. I use three Tablespoons of hot cocoa, one packet of Stevia powder, and two Tablespoons of Peppermint creamer in my mug of coffee, and stir it all up. It is heaven in the morning.

Throughout the rest of the day, I have a variety of teas, often using my Libre because I like to watch the tea brew and change color and swirl. But in the morning, I choose that one mug of coffee that makes the world all right.

3. Early riser or night owl?

Whether this is a choice is debatable. I think there’s a strong built-in urge to be one or the other, and I think you can tailor that urge, but you never really get rid of it. I’m a night owl. Always have been. My body does not know the rhythm of getting tired as night draws. I tend to get burst of productive energy that hits around 10pm and lasts until around 2am Eastern.

I really like the early morning hours, though. There is something magic about the hours when the earth around me is just waking from its slumber, when the birds sing to a quiet neighborhood, as if they always get the Time To Wake Up memo an hour before anyone else. But it’s nigh impossible for me to get up at that time and stay awake all day. If I sleep for 8 hours and wake around 10am, I’m golden. If I wake before 9ish, no matter how long I’ve slept, I’m exhausted within a couple of hours, and throughout the day.

So I’m a night owl. I’m experimenting with trying to be a morning person, but so far, nothing has been as effective for making my waking hours, well, actually wakeful as being a night owl.

Your turn!

Are you a PC or a Mac? Do you favor coffee or tea? Do you share my night owl tendencies or rise with the early birds? What other daily choices to you make?

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Monday Mashup #4: Eight Tabs (that are often open in my browser)

Marissa — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:05:58 +0000

This week’s mashup: Eight Tabs (that are often open in my browser)

1. Gmail

I live out of my Gmail inbox. Gmail makes storing, sorting, searching and using the emails I receive so easy that it makes more sense to use it as a hub than to try and extricate all of that information and put it into other places. I use many of the Gmail features, including color-coded labels, filters, and canned responses, all of which make my life as an online businessperson significantly easier.

2. Google Reader

There are a couple hundred million blogs out there, and in my obsessively extensive websurfing, I’ve seen an awful lot of them. Not all of them, but probably more than what can possibly be considered normal. The ones that click with me–the ones where I can lose a couple of hours reading the archives and wind up penning a fangurl-esque email to the author proclaiming my adoration for their writing–get put into Google Reader, where I can check in on them on a daily basis.

3. Google Calendar

Google Calendar (also known as “Gcal”) is my favorite online calendar–and I’ve tried several. I prefer it to iCal too.

4. Basecamp

I love Basecamp, both for working with my clients and for keeping my own stuff in some semblance of order. Havi (and via Havi, Cairene’s systems magic) have helped me learn how to turn Basecamp from “somewhat useful tool” into “powerful way to get things done, keep in touch, manage an entire business and discrete projects, and never lose a piece of information ever again.” I use it, I recommend it, and I’ve used other similar products only to come running back to Basecamp every time.

5. Freckle

Freckle is a time-tracking application that makes tracking your time easy, intuitive, and–yep, I’m going to say it–kind of fun. (I know. That blew your mind right there, didn’t it?) Since the Freckle team added a timer that you can access via a bookmarklet, it went from “great” to “how are people not using this?!” Even the interface is actually colorful and fun to use. This is the time-tracking software that all other time-tracking software lays in meadows daydreaming of becoming.

6. Twitter

Okay, you got me, you wildly astute reader, you. This one’s a cheat. I don’t “often” have Twitter open in a tab. I use Tweetdeck.

But this list seemed wholly incomplete without the inclusion of the one social media tool that, if some social media-obsessed lunatic ever put an iPhone to my head and insisted I become monogamous with only one social media tool, I would opt for without much hesitation. (Other than the expected hesitation of wondering why the hell someone is forcing me to make hasty decisions about social media communication with threat of blunt iPhone trauma. Of course.)

And if your first thought when I say “Twitter” is “But I just don’t get Twitter,” I can discern a few things about you:

One: you feel overwhelmed by the amount of conversation and information being exchanged online and see Twitter as more noise.
Two: you envision the entire populace of Twitter sharing what they had for breakfast and what their dog is doing, and you can’t fathom why anyone would care.
Three: you haven’t given Twitter a fair shot (at least one month of 10-minutes-a-day usage) to prove to you that neither of the first two are accurate, even though some people do share their breakfast preferences and their dog’s activities, and you’d probably be surprised at how much really good conversation gets started around seemingly stale topics like that. By the way, I had pancakes, and my dogs are napping.

7. Hulu

I spend the vast majority of my waking hours at or near the computer. When I’m at home, I am very rarely near a television. But there are programs (Psych, House, The Office, Community, Greek… to name a few) that I enjoy too much to give up. Enter Hulu. Hulu is [insert deity of choice]’s way of saying, “Fear not, precious internet citizen, for though you may flee the land of high cable bills and programming that runs on someone else’s schedule and pummels you with too many commercials, you need not be without your entertainment.” Thank you, [deity of choice]. (Oh, and [deity of choice]? Thanks for apple crisp, inflatable moonwalk bounce houses and poster putty, too.)

8. Facebook

Equal parts social hangout and wanton timesuck, Facebook has two primary hooks for me:

First, it’s the only social media outpost one of my brothers and my sister-in-law use, despite my persistent attempts at Twonverting them. (Converting them to Twitter. You got that, right?)

Second, it’s the only place where I can simultaneously learn what my elementary school boyfriend’s children are dressing up as for Halloween, RSVP for a teleworkshop a colleague is presenting, discover what 80s teen flick character my college volleyball teammate would be, and brush up on my Uno skills with players from Indonesia, Ireland, and Australia (wassup, Alai, Mark, and Lelei!).

Facebook is way less streamlined than Twitter (what with its bajillion applications and quizzes and ways to annoy people), way less useful than most of the internet marketing types desperately try to make it out to be, and yet… there’s a reason oodles of us keep checking in and hanging out each day. With all of its flaws and mishaps and timesuck qualities, it’s social, it’s fun, and it feeds that most basic of online-human traits: curiosity about everybody else.

Your Turn!

What tabs are often open in your browser? Do share! I’m always looking to add to my tab collection.

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It’s Field Trip Time! Guest Post at Inspired Home Organizing

Marissa — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:35:31 +0000

One of my favorite people in the world, Jen Hofmann (who also happens to run one of my favorite small businesses in the world, Inspired Home Office), invited me to write a guest post for her blog on the topic of finding a VA.

I happily accepted her invitation, and my post “5 Guiding Principles of Finding Your VA” is published at her site.

I invite you to take a “field trip” to her blog to check it out!

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Monday Mashup #3: Ten Expressions (5 That I Loathe & 5 That I Love)

Marissa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:05:06 +0000

This week’s mashup: Ten Expressions

The first five expressions are ones that bug me.

1. To be honest with you… When someone says this, my immediate thought is, “Were you not being honest with me before?”

2. Not to be rude, but… Does this phrase ever preface a comment that isn’t rude? It would be more honest to say, “Get ready for the rude!” At least then I wouldn’t think you were full of it.

3. If you want my opinion… If I’ve asked for your opinion, there’s no need to say this. And if I haven’t asked for your opinion and you’re genuinely uncertain whether it’s wanted, wouldn’t it be better to ask, “Do you want my opinion?” Phrasing it like this basically says, “I’m pretending to care about whether you want to hear my opinion, but really, I’m givin’ it to you no matter what.”

4. It’s hotter than a witch’s _ _ _! Ugh. First, this is a disgusting phrase on multiple levels. Second, saying this makes you immediately seem less intelligent than you did before you uttered it. Third, what on earth does that even mean? Have you felt various parts of a witch’s anatomy and come to some conclusion about their temperature relative to the outdoor climate? Just… ugh. But every single summer, I hear this at least once. And I am appropriately perturbed every time.

5. Very truly yours… When I worked as an attorney, this was a common closing phrase on letters, and it never seemed very truly appropriate. It seemed either patronizing or silly. (”Oh, you’re truly mine? Not just truly, but very truly? Well, isn’t that sweet. Thank you so much… random person with whom I have no relationship.”)

The next five expressions are ones I dig.

6. Bob’s your uncle… This British phrase is a favorite. I have no real reason why, other than it delights me when someone uses it in their speech as if it’s just the most natural thing in the world to say. “I saw them at the Cafe, and Bob’s your uncle, we were having coffee and laughing like old friends!” Love it.

7. Mad as a wet hen. I’ve never actually seen a wet hen. I can only assume that hens, when wet, are mad. But I have a clear visual in my head of an infuriated, soaked clucker running around, flapping and squawking, and juxtaposing that visual with the person toward whom the phrase is being applied always makes me giggle.

8. How do you like them apples? (see also How ’bout them apples). This phrase got a resurgence in pop culture lingo after the movie Good Will Hunting featured a main character using it to great effect. But ever since I was a little girl, I found this phrase as crisp and delectable as the fruit it references. A little nonsensical? Sure. A little old-fashioned? Maybe. A satisfying way to sum up an unexpected happening? Absolutely.

9. Thank you. We say this reflexively in a lot of situations because it’s socially expected. And that’s fine. But when someone says “Thank you” and means it in a way that goes beyond social expectations or reflexive response, those two words always nestle into a soft, cozy spot in my day and leave me feeling glowingly appreciated.

10. Go big or go gnome! I saw this one on a T-shirt made by the folks at Television Without Pity, referencing the Travelocity gnome used in The Amazing Race. I loved it immediately, first because I have an odd fascination with and adoration of gnomes, and second because it’s simultaneously zany and just a little pep-inspiring. It’s a win-win pep phrase. You either Go Big (huzzah! biggifying!) or you Go Gnome (possibly even better).

Your turn!

What expressions make you madder than a wet hen? What phrases do you love and use, even if they make no sense to anyone but you?

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Monday Mashup #2: Six Witnesses

Marissa — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:00:36 +0000

This week’s mashup: Six Witnesses

1. The movie. Let’s get the obvious one out of the way: Harrison Ford + Kelly McGillis + Lukas Haas = Witness, a 1985 film about a young Amish boy (Haas) who witnesses a murder, and a cop (Harrison)’s undercover adventure trying to protect the boy and the boy’s mother (McGillis).

2. Jehovah’s Witnesses. Did you know that Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the earth will never be destroyed or depopulated? I’m fascinated by religious beliefs and practices (hence why one of my BAs is in Religious Studies), and I’m curious about how this belief syncs up with (or doesn’t sync up with) the current push for greener practices. Do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that push is unnecessary, because the earth will withstand whatever we thrust upon it, or do they see it as a means to ensuring that the earth won’t be destroyed? Fascinating.

3. Human rights. Peter Gabriel (yep, that one) launched Witness.org, a group using video and online technologies to “open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.” Throw that one into your arsenal of examples for the next time someone says the time we spend on the internet has no redeeming value.

4. You can’t handle the truth! Being a witness in a courtroom is rarely similar to the dramatic portrayals we see in the movies. But that’s usually the only background people have when they actually have to go to court and be a witness. So if it’s not like what you’ve seen on TV, what is it like? The Iowa State Bar Association has a nice guide on what to expect as a witness. Some of the tips given (stick to the facts, ask for clarification rather than guessing what someone just asked you, admit what you don’t know) are good for conversing in general, not just being on the witness stand.

5. Earth Witness Mudra. The “earth witness mudra” is depicted in this photo by the Buddha’s right hand, extended and pressing the earth. It symbolizes the moment when the Buddha attained enlightenment, and called upon the earth goddess to bear witness of his enlightenment. The left hand is in the mudra of meditation, which symbolizes method and wisdom joining together. Also, I like the pink and light blue in this photo–more whimsical colors than you typically see in religious artwork, no?

6. Cyndi Lauper. Her “Time After Time” is an instantly recognizable classic, and even her cheeky “She Bop” (the meaning of which was lost on me until only about three years ago when a friend became appalled that I called myself a fan but didn’t know) gets the occasional nod in the 80s flashback clubs. But one of the lesser-played but great tracks on her album fits with this week’s mashup, and therefore, I present her song “Witness.”

Photo by Wonderlane under license CC BY-NC 2.0

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Monday Mashup #1: Eight Remedies

Marissa — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:15:53 +0000

This week’s mashup: Eight Remedies

1. Planning. I’m currently in a process of reassessing and refocusing. I started to feel a bit… uncertain about my direction. And while my first instinct is to just plow ahead with more fervor, the real remedy is to take a step back and give myself time and space to get a new perspective, and a new plan. And then plow ahead with more fervor.

2. Vinegar. From pet odors to streaky windows, sore throats to clogged showerheads, classic white vinegar is your remedy. Who knew?

3. Jason Mraz. “The remedy is the experience.”

4. Black Crowes. “Can I have some remedy?”

5. Milk Rice. Whenever I got sick, Mums would make milk rice for me. So, to this day, milk rice is a cure all for me. Whether I have a tummy ache or just a bad day, Mums’ milk rice makes it all better. Here’s a recipe for milk rice–I have no idea what Mums’ recipe is. This isn’t her recipe; it’s just a recipe.

6. Ginger. Speaking of tummy aches, ginger is great for achy stomachs and indigestion. I like to take just a little nub of fresh ginger and put it in a mug of hot water. Wait a few minutes, and then sip the water. It’s tasty (assuming you like the taste of ginger, that is!), and it eases stomach upset.

7. Copylicious. Kelly Parkinson, the Writer-in-Chief at Copylicious, is the remedy for what you think copywriting might be–dry, corporatized, robotic. Her Twitter bio declares that she fights robot invasions, and when it comes to copy, she does. She’s got the mind of a top-notch strategist coupled with a real-person vernacular and a sense of humor to boot. (Not in the market for any copy at the moment? Check out Kelly’s blog for tips on everything from email subject lines to using LinkedIn.)

8. Windex. I have no personal experience with this one, outside of being amused while watching Michael Constantine advise its use for remedying all physical ailments–including a wedding day pimple–in the delightful movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Even if the Windex isn’t the cure-all that Gus Portokalos believed it to be, the movie is a sure-fire remedy for a down day.

Your turn

What remedies do use, love, find amusing, or listen to?

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A Tale of Two Camps: Reassurance-focused & Results-focused

Marissa — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:16:01 +0000

People go seeking assistance for myriad reasons.

When it comes to solopreneurs seeking assistance from a virtual assistant, though, there are two main camps of people: those who are seeking help with tasks and projects, and those who are seeking help with overwhelm, and view getting help with tasks and projects as a means to that end.

At first blush, those may seem like different ways of saying the same thing. That’s how it seemed to me too. But the two camps are actually sharply distinct in needs, expectations, and even language.

Welcome to the Two Camps. Which do you call home?

The first camp I call the Results-Focused Camp, or the Results Campers. The Results Campers come to me for help getting certain tasks done, for handling to-do list overflow, to pass along to me stuff that needs handling that they’d rather have me do than invest all the time in learning the details themselves (e.g., 1ShoppingCart or CSS/HTML).

The second camp is the Reassurance-Focused Camp, or Reassurance Campers. The Reassurance Campers come to me for help because they feel overwhelmed. They want to get help so that they feel more in control, less stressed, and less swallowed by overwhelm. They come to me expressing a need to get help with the “stuff,” but what they’re seeking is a kind of emotional support–finding someone to handle the “stuff” is a way to get that support, but it isn’t the “getting stuff done” that is actually motivating them to seek an assistant.

Some Results Campers feel overwhelmed too–the difference is that the Results Campers identify the overwhelm as being caused or triggered by specific tasks (or by having too many tasks to do each day), whereas the Reassurance Campers just know that they’re flummoxed, stressed and running at their emotional limit, and see having an assistant as a way of lessening that.

Let’s take a closer look at these intriguingly different camps of businessfolks.

The initial consultation

In their initial consultation, the Results Camper says to me:

“I’ve got more things to do than I have time to do them”
“It probably makes more sense to have someone else deal with this stuff than to have me deal with it”
“I can’t stand trying to figure out what steps come next in a project and I need someone who can do that for me.”
“I could pass on some of this work and make more room in my own day for higher-level stuff / higher-paying stuff.”

The Reassurance Camper says to me:

“I’m so busy, I just need someone to help me out.”
“There’s so much to do! It’s really overwhelming. I definitely need some assistance.”
“I always feel like I’m running and maxxed out and stuff still doesn’t all get done.”
“I just get so stressed out. I’d really like you to help me so that I’m not so stressed out all the time.”

The difference

The Results Camp speaks in terms of what needs to get done, and which tasks are overflowing or have too high a “time cost” or “energy cost” to be worth their while. They can usually identify specific projects or activities (even if in general, broad strokes) that could use an assistant’s help.

The Reassurance Camp speaks in terms of emotions, focusing on how busy they feel, how swamped they feel, and even how scared or panicky they feel with so much on their plates. They often cannot give specifics regarding what they need help with; they’re faced with more of a general sense of foreboding or anxiety, and want the assistant to figure out what tasks might make that feeling decrease.

This sets up a difference in needs.

The Results Camper needs:

to be able to confidently hand off a certain set of tasks or projects
to be able to let go of tasks/projects: “I want to know that once something is handed off, it’s going to be dealt with, and that I can essentially just assign it and forget about it and move on to other things.”
to see finished products and results

The Reassurance Camper needs:

a dialogue around tasks: “Yes, I’ve received it. Yes, I’m working on it. Yes, I’ll get it back to you by the date you want it. Yes, it’s coming along.”
to remain involved with the items assigned to the assistant, receiving comfort from the reassurances along the way
to see the steps you’re taking and the process

The reason for these differences is that there is a difference in the core reason each camp hires an assistant. The Results Camp hires assistants because they want to see a change in their Action Items list: they want less “stuff” on that list, or they want only a specific kind of “stuff” on that list and want anything else handled by someone else.

The Reassurance Camp hires assistants because they want to see a change in their emotional load: they want to feel differently than they did before having an assistant, and shifting tasks to someone else or handling a different kind of action item is a means to that end.

And just in case anyone’s jumping to the conclusion that there’s a gender divide, with males hanging out in the Results Camp, and females making their home at the Reassurance Camp, I’ll put that to rest right away–gender is NOT a reliable predictor of which camp a client resides in.

As an assistant, knowing which Camp a client calls home is vital.

If I’m working for a Results Camper, my process goes something like this:

Receive task list or project via email (sometimes with a deadline, though often not)
Complete tasks or project
Notify client that I’ve completed the tasks or project (or mark them off in Basecamp)
Repeat as needed.

If I’m working for an Reassurance Camper, the process goes something like this:

Receive task list or project via email (usually either without a deadline or with a need-it-immediately deadline)
Notify client that I received the email. Give assurance that I will do the tasks by date requested, or offer a date that I plan on doing the tasks.
Update client as I work on the tasks. Be prepared to answer questions about why I did something a certain way, or to document my process for the client.
Notify client that I’ve completed the tasks or project. Update any previously-given answers or process documentation.
Repeat as needed.

Handling a Results Camp client like an Reassurance Camp client tends to frustrate the Results Camp client. The client thinks, “If I wanted to be involved every step of the way I would’ve handled it myself!” Or the client worries that constant updates indicate that I may not be certain of what I’m doing and am wanting them to check over my work.

Results Campers want to know that it’s done, and want to count on the fact that when it’s done, it’s done well.

On the other hand, handling an Reassurance Camper like a Results Camper leaves the Reassurance Camper feeling unsatisfied, EVEN IF the results are the exact same. The Reassurance Client thinks, “How can I feel comforted if I don’t know what’s going on?” or thinks that a lack of updates or process documentation indicates that I’m not doing the work–or that I won’t get the work done.

Reassurance Campers want to feel reassured and be told that everything is okay.

Camps and Costs

If you’re looking to hire an assistant (or if you already have), it’s vital to know which Camp you reside in too, if for no other reason than cost.

If you’re an Reassurance Camper, your assistance costs will most likely be higher than a Results Camper when all other factors are equal.

This is because, as an Reassurance Camper, you’re not just asking an assistant to take care of tasks or projects–you’re counting on your assistant for a type of emotional support too. And along with that emotional support comes additional time spent offering more updates, more documentation, more back-and-forth–more reassurance. The more you count on your Helper People to reduce your emotional loads, the more you should expect to pay.

Interestingly, this also tends to be true for a client’s clients/customers. A Reassurance Camper will usually handle their own customers and clients in the way they like to be treated–with lots of updates and reassurances (and re-reassurances), being given the information they need and then reminded of it, trying to forsee and halt all questions and problems that might occur and creating a process that assumes that they will occur, so that you can head them off at the pass.

Results Camp clients usually treat their customers or clients the way they prefer to be treated: being given the information, trusted to do with the information what they need to, and able to seek additional help only if they request it rather than assuming they need it.

Again, there is additional time involved with the Reassurance customer service method. It’s neither right nor wrong, neither better nor worse, but it is more time-intensive, and therefore costs more. (It also carries with it the potential downside that customers will learn that they can wait for you to answer their questions and handle their issues, rather than seeking to find answers or resolutions on their own–and once you teach your customer base that, you have to be prepared to maintain that level of customer service. Again, that adds up in admin costs. Totally fine to do it that way–but it gets pricey, and you as the Helper-Person-hirer need to be aware of that.)

Welcome to your Camp.

The point of realizing these two Camps exist–and learning which one feels like home–is not to give you a point from which you should start trying to change and morph into the opposite Camp. Neither Camp has a monopoly on effective working relationships or successful businesses. There’s no need for a Reassurance Camper to decide she needs to strive to be more Resultish, and Result Campers don’t need to pack up their tent and start moving to the Reassurance border.

The point is to better understand what kind of help you (as a Helper Person Hirer) truly desire, and why. Understanding that helps you communicate that to your Helper Person (and helps you weed out ill-fitting Helper People to find ones that really get how best to work with a Camper like you!).

The point is also to help Helper People identify what kinds of Campers they’re working with, and to tailor the way the help each client to best meet the core reasons those clients hired them in the first place.

How about you?

Which camp feels like home to you? How might knowing your Camp help you work more effectively with your own colleagues and Helper People?

Photo by Dawn Endico under Creative Commons license BY-SA 2.0

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Another Office Spa Day Success Story

Marissa — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:25:31 +0000

Jen Hofmann’s Office Spa Day is always an adventure and a welcome break from my routine, not just because I get to interact with Jen and several other really fantastic folks, but because my beloved office area gets some much-needed care and attention.

I rave to friends and family about how much I get done each time I participate in Spa Day — today I took photos. As the Before photos demonstrate, my office was pleading for Spa Day compassion and rescue!

Just for reference: this transformation happened in just about 80 minutes!

Here’s my Coffee Table, which sits near my desks

My Computer Desk:

My Computer Desk Area:

My Writers Desk:

Sure, I could work on my office space outside of Spa Day. But truth is? I don’t. There is something about the way that Jen structures Office Spa Day that makes it… well, more than a decluttering session. She makes it a gentle and compassionate, humorous and accepting, journey through your space, your stuff, and yourself. I don’t get that on my own. Hence why I’m an Office Spa Day Addict!

I cannot encourage you enough to check out Jen’s website: Inspired Home Office. She’s got a blog where she offers up incredibly useful and relatable posts, and she’s got several products & services, all of which I recommend highly and without reservation.

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Tim Ferriss’s missing link and why your business needs a Rosie

Marissa — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:00:05 +0000

If you follow Tim Ferriss’s advice about outsourcing — or if you just hire more than one other person to help you with your business — you’re probably losing money, time and clients. And it’s probably happening because things are falling through cracks, slipping into the void left by The Missing Link.

There’s a Missing Link between Tim Ferriss’s advice about outsourcing (or your current team set-up) and a successful outsourcing or team environment. It’s a link Ferriss fails to discuss, and one that most people don’t even consider until they’re urgently in need. One vital element that will save you money, lessen your stress, and ensure happy customers (who become return customers & your biggest source of referral income): the Manager.

The Missing Link Manager

Think less the dude who bossed you around at your high school fast food job, more Rosie from The Jetsons

If you’re a one-(wo)man shop, you’re the Manager by default. You know all aspects of your business (because you’re the one doing all of it). You know how things get done, you know whether they’re actually getting done, and you know how they all connect (because you are the connection).

If you hire one other person, then you’re probably acting as the “Manager,” in that you still know all the aspects of your business*, you’re just having someone else help you get some of ‘em done.

* If you hire one other person and you don’t know all the aspects of your business–that is, you’ve turned over knowledge and control to someone else and you’re not checking up on what they’re doing, and you’re not keeping yourself informed as to how they’re running things, you’re asking–nay, pleading–for a disaster. And they’re probably milking you. More on this in a forthcoming post.

Once you hire more than one additional Helper Person, you have a choice: either you retain that “Manager” role, where you’re overseeing your Helper People’s activities and ensuring things are getting done (a) correctly, (b) timely, and (c) effectively, or you can delegate that role to someone else.

What The Manager does

The Manager makes sure:

that your Computer Guy is communicating with the Customer Service Gal so she can let your clients know when your online ordering page will be back up & running
that the Product Production & Shipping Fellow knows what Customer Service Gal is promising customers on shipping times so that he knows when to have products ready to ship
that you know what your travel itinerary is, and that Events Planning Dude knows when the event ends and communicates that to Personal Assistant Lady so she knows when to pick you up at the airport
that if someone is screwing things up, either (a) you’re informed of it so that you can deal with the Problem Person, or (b) (s)he, as Manager, can deal with Problem Person in whatever way is appropriate.

The Manager is, essentially, the hub of knowledge in your stead.

She’s the one that takes on all of the “make sure everyone knows what they need to know” stress, and handles all of the “ensure no one is completely bumbling their part of the job” matters. The Manager is the steady, consistent Center for all the rest of the Helper Person spokes of your business.

Like a wheel, if there is no center (no Manager), the spokes are disconnected, and the wheel is weak… and traveling on that wheel is a break-down waiting to happen.

What happens when The Manager link is missing

When you have Spokes with no Center Hub (Helper People with no Manager), you wind up with:

broken chains of communication, which lead to misunderstandings and mishandling of business situations — or personal misunderstandings which wind up costing you clients and/or Helper People.
Multiple ways of handling the same issue, which leads to inconsistent treatment of your customers and your products.
Confusion over who’s doing what, who’s already done what, who was responsible for telling whom about what next action step, and eventually resentment from Helper People who caught heat for something that they thought someone else was handling, which leads to a revolving door of Helper People and more time you have to spend training someone new.
Lost money and time as you wind up having to step in when things get really bad and try to sort them out after-the-fact, fixing problems that have already occurred and stressing out over whether the problem is really fixed when you step back out again.

The inescapable bottom line is that someone in your business needs to have an overview of who’s doing what, what happens when, what goes where, and how things are supposed to be done.

That someone can be you.

But if you want to follow the Tim Ferriss business path and “outsource your life,” you need to hand over those reigns to someone else. You’re free to relinquish the role as your wheel’s center hub. But someone else needs to fill that void to keep the Spokes from breaking and prevent the Wheel from collapsing.

What makes a good manager

You know who’d make a bang-up manager? Rosie from The Jetsons, the housekeeper robot. She had everything it takes to be an ideal Central Hub for your business:

able to keep in mind The Big Picture (need to have a functioning house and healthy family) without letting little details slip by (George’s breakfast needed to be ready before he hopped into his ship each morning)
close connection to all of the Spokes in the Jetson household (the family members, pet, and house itself)
genuinely gave a damn about her purpose: Rosie’s dedication to the Jetsons didn’t stop at the end of her tasklist; she was concerned about their overall wellbeing and worked proactively to ensure their wellbeing, improvising solutions where necessary
able to keep organized the input she received from all of the various Spokes, as well as from her own work and observations, and able to process all of that information in a way that allowed to her to both ensure efficient running of the overall household and communicate the overview back to George (the “business leader” in this metaphor) when necessary

And, okay, so Rosie’s a robot and a cartoon. Two strikes against hiring her for your own business.

But when you run through the vital characteristics of a manager, you’ll notice that MBA, degree in management, or Fill In A Fancy Sounding Certficiate Anyone Can Pay To Receive are absent. In other words, what’s on the resume isn’t nearly as important as how well the person fits with you and your team, and how much the person is willing to work for your goals.

Notice what else is missing from the Good Manager List? “Ability to boss other people around.”

That isn’t what this kind of Manager is about. Your Manager needs to be able to be direct and ensure that stuff’s getting done, but she doesn’t need to be requiring others to “report” to her, or firing off “Joey didn’t email me until 8:03 even though he said he’d email me at 8:00!” emails to you. (A Manager who does that fails the first item on the Rosie Abilities list above — keeping a view of the Big Picture.)

Your Manager needs to be prepared to jump in and pick up the slack if necessary, but doesn’t need to be hawking over everyone else’s digital shoulder. Your Manager needs to be responsive to “holes” in the system so that she can help fix them — and so that you don’t have to — but doesn’t poke the holes in the system herself. She’s not out to make someone else look bad, but to make the system as a whole as effective and smooth-running as possible. As effective and smooth-running as you’d make it if you had the time, energy and desire to be the Manager yourself.

Is your Central Hub person doing that for you now? Are you doing that for yourself? Could you use some help in that area?

. . . . . .

If you’re unfamiliar with Tim Ferriss…

he’s the fellow who wrote The 4-Hour Workweek, a great book with lots of good ideas and tips that sets out to demonstrate that anyone can run a business with minimal time spent managing it and maximum time spent following your dreams and pursuing your hobbies.

Tim Ferriss advocates outsourcing of every possible activity, pointing out (rightly) that the more activities you’re able to outsource, the more time and brainspace you free up to do other things (vacation, plan the next product your business will sell, read a book, whatever).

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Well-wishes for Chaz from all around the ‘net

Marissa — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:41:40 +0000

My brother Chaz had a rollerblading accident on Friday, and wound up with two badly broken wrists. He’s had surgery on his right wrist (and is the proud owner of a metal plate and some pins and some wires in that arm now, sure to set off metal detectors wherever he roams), and the left wrist will be put in a cast sometime in the next couple of weeks. He’s currently recovering at home and is in really good spirits.

We’ve received a plethora of well-wishes from folks far and near, many via Twitter and Facebook. I can’t tell you how much we all appreciate the kind words and support (and the many wishes for fast healing!). Suffice to say… big, big THANKS to everyone for sending your thoughts and good energies.

If the text in the images seems blurry, just click on the image to see a higher-resolution version of the image, which will open in a new window or tab.

The fellow referring to cocoa and coffee (above) is speaking about something else entirely, though I’m sure Chaz would think references to cocoa and coffee were pretty swell too.

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