Category: Leadership Skills

Ever Considered a Virtual Assistant?

Virtual-assistant Illustration by Delesign Graphics on Iconscout

Prior to 2004, Rita Toews from Winnipeg was writing books but had no way to get them to potential readers, so she started writing e-books. E-books were new, as few people knew about them. So, she created “Read an E-Book Week”—during the first week of March—to create a mass opportunity for one week out of the year for writers to get international publicity.

As I considered ways to celebrate the week, I turned to an e-book I read in 2020: Michael Hyatt’s The Virtual Assistant Solution: Come up for Air, Offload the Work You Hate, and Focus on What You Do Best.

Consider these questions:

  • Is your e-mail inbox completely out of control?
  • Does your to-do list feel never-ending?
  • Are you burning the candle at both ends?

Bryan Miles, Founder of Belay Solutions, wrote the foreword to Hyatt’s book, and noted, “I am blessed to help serve leaders all over the world with a daily, real, meaningful, tech-savvy service.”  His company provides virtual assistants, and he explains, “A humble leader is just flat out of breath but willing to get the kind of help necessary to creatively achieve more than they could on their own. They know they can achieve more if they are free to focus on what only they can do and leave the rest to someone else. These leaders are very driven and wish to get ahead and produce results, but they are humble and their humility attracts people who naturally want to work hard for them. Enter Michael Hyatt.”

Click here to learn more from Michael Hyatt about The Virtual Assistant Solution

Abby Wambach’s The Wolfpack Way: How Women Can Come Together, Unleash Power, & Change the Game

The first Wednesday in February is celebrated as National Girls and Women in Sports Day—a day devoted to breaking gender stereotypes built around the sports industry.  To honor the day, let’s listen to Abby Wambach: a decorated soccer champion, who scored more international goals than any other player—man or woman—in history.  She won two Olympic gold medals and a FIFA World Cup championship.

After her retirement, Barnard College asked her to give a commencement speech.  Barnard is a private women’s liberal arts college in New York City, founded in 1889 as a response to Columbia University’s refusal to admit women.

Wambach’s thoughts turned to a TED Talk about the wolves of Yellowstone National Park. In 1995, wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone after being absent for seventy years. It was a controversial decision, but rangers decided it was a risk worth taking, because the land was in trouble.

The results: The plant ecosystem regenerated. The animal ecosystem regenerated. The entire landscape changed. All because of the wolves’ presence. See what happened there? The wolves—who were feared by many to be a threat to the system—became the system’s salvation.

In the same way, women—who are feared by many to be a threat to our system—will become our society’s salvation. As Wambach put it, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. WE. ARE. THE. WOLVES. Throughout my life, my Wolfpack was my soccer team. Now, my Wolfpack is All Women Everywhere.”

The message Wambach shared with the Barnard women is this, “Women must stop following the Old Rules, which exist only to maintain the status quo. If we follow the rules we’ve always followed, the game will remain the same. Old ways of thinking will never help us build a new world. Out with the Old. In with the New. Welcome to the Wolfpack Way—8 New Rules that will change the game.”

Click here for more from Wambach