Why Your 1st Virtual Assistant Hire Failed
Hint: It Wasn’t Them, It Was You!
My son’s dad and I finalized our divorce before he was 2 and soon after I participated in what I call “catch and release dating.” Let’s just say I did a lot of releasing (which is embarrassing to admit).
It was like I kept catching the exact same fish, over and over, and I didn’t get smart very fast. And they were all rotten, broken fish who were hurting me and didn’t understand what being a single mom entailed. Or they were too perfect and they bored me so I ran away from them fast.
It wasn’t until I realized that I was the key ingredient to each dating failure. Every single failure included me. A good friend of mine told me “Dot, your picker is broken.” That stung.
But, I knew it was more than just my picker. I wasn’t exactly clear on what I wanted in a partner, what my deal breakers were, and what the deepest desires of my heart were. Honestly, I also needed some therapy to heal the wounds of my childhood and my so-called “failed” marriage. Once I did some self-reflection, enrolled in therapy to heal and got clear on what I wanted… BAM, there he was - my fish! I kept him!
The same thing likely happened to you when you hired your first virtual assistant or employee. It failed. But you likely told yourself one of these statements…
They were too hard to communicate with.
Your schedules didn’t align.
They didn’t meet your deadlines.
It would have been easier to do the work yourself than it would have been to train them.
Only you can do the work and no one else can.
They weren’t willing to put in the hard work.
They were just plain weird.
I can’t trust anyone else to do this work.
I hate to break it to you, but your relationship with your virtual assistant (or employee) likely failed because of you. Yep, YOU! All of those statements are limiting beliefs holding you hostage to doing everything. You likely need to swallow the hard pill, do some self-reflection, and work on learning to communicate and delegate like a BOSS!
Hiring isn’t hard. It takes a strategy, habits, and accountability and is a muscle you can learn to flex. Having people work for you is just another relationship, just like a marriage, and it takes work. All relationships take work. My first marriage wasn’t a failure… it was in fact, a great success and catapulted me into the life I lead now. Your hiring failures are there to give you clarity on what you don’t want and what you do want. Your failures should catapult you to work on finding clarity and on learning the art of delegation. Call that a win and get back into the “hiring pool.” Your fish is out there, I promise!
