Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
[Music] so [Music] [Music] good morning good afternoon good evening wherever you are in the world it’s dr janice hooker fortman with relationship matters this show is all about relationships personal relationships and professional relationships and the communication patterns that you have to use that you should use to maintain those positive relationships we have all different kinds of guests we have housewives we have hypnotists we have dance instructors we have entrepreneurs because in order to maintain whatever it is you’re doing your relationship you’ve got to be positive and you have to know how to communicate now for my little soapbox i am vaccinated i cannot wait until i get my booster shot now i know i have friends i have viewers who don’t believe in the vaccine don’t believe in being vaccinated but let me say this if you are watching the news you will see that now the coronavirus is attacking children i think they said last week 252 000 children nationwide came down with the virus so my thing is even if you don’t want to get it for yourself get it for someone that you love get it for your grandchild your child someone else’s child your mom your dad get it for them because it’s not going anywhere until we all do what is best for all of us as a nation now as far as i’m gonna say now this is my opinion when you’re not getting that shot you’re being selfish you’re thinking only about yourself now if you i know there are all kinds of reasons why people are not getting them some people say you know they’re shooting things in your body is going to change your dna um it’s the mark of the beast or whatever uh because i’m i’m not one of those people of course you know that but just think about it because i think the worst thing in the world for you as a parent a grandparent or just someone who’s around children to find out that because you were not vaccinated that you passed it on to someone else and they died so that’s me and my soapbox so you can agree and you cannot agree but anyway i’m happy to see all of you uh today and we have a guest she is the virtual assistant to the stars she is fantastic now let me say this i’m going to ask you a question a couple of questions do you have a project based task something that you might only need to do once do you need to do some research make some phone calls this data entry are you a startup business or entrepreneur or maybe you’ve been an entrepreneur for a long time had a business for a long time do you want to expand your client base do you need assistance with scheduling some appointments collections or anything like that now if you answered yes or if you just got a project you could have a personal project and you’re not um an entrepreneur business owner but it’s something that you need doing then you need to contact karen brown she is a virtual assistant extraordinaire and she’s mine so and i found her and i’m not letting it go but anyway i want to bring on to you the virtual assistant to the stars miss karen miss karen brown
Karen Brown
Hi karen hi dr jan how are you today
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I’m just great how are you
Karen Brown
I’m wonderful it’s good to see you
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
You as well thank you for that fabulous introduction you are something else
Karen Brown
Well honey you know i give credit where credit is due
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I appreciate that you’re the virtual assistant to the stars so now i want to go all the way back and i want you to tell us what you did before you became a virtual assistant because you know years ago there was there wasn’t a such a thing as a virtual assistant as a matter of fact it took me a while to try to figure out what is a virtual assistant now i’m going to say this it says here wait a minute on my computer about shutting down and installing and restarting no what the heck technology wait a minute wait pick a day i have to do this audience i’m going to pick um sunday september 12 and okay pick a date i hope that doesn’t schedule a time pick a date sunday september 12 2021 8 23 p.m you know what okay so that’s that i don’t believe that can you imagine if we is another brand technology works when it works [Music] anyway i want you to tell us uh what were you doing before you became a virtual assistant
Karen Brown
Well dr jan i have been an executive assistant has been my career for 30 plus years and prior to becoming a virtual assistant it’ll be almost a year coming up at the end of september when i made it official but prior to that i was really trying to figure out my next move and then the pandemic hit okay so i was at home like everybody else waiting for this pandemic that i thought was going to be very short-lived so so i was looking for a job trying to make up my mind what was going to be my next move and the pandemic was going longer and longer and longer so throughout my uh job search i was just connecting with people checking in on with people seeing how they were doing and then i started doing some volunteer work project based as you mentioned earlier uh just helping some people people out and specifically one of my clients her and her husband had both had covet so her business had really been stalled out during that time so she was trying to make some connections so i started making phone calls for her setting up appointments and this went on for a few months and then she said karen i don’t know how i’ve gotten along without you maybe we’ve got something here that we could work with let’s see if we can take it to another level and so we just thought about how we were just working virtually and then the internet company start telling you you know to boost your speed because everybody’s doing zoom and you want to have the best broadband that you can and we just kept going on and on and figuring it out and we decided i was going to stay with her and then i just started sharing that information looking out to for people that maybe had their own not-for-profit business that were working from home that had started a business and i went from there
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh okay so how did you how do you find your clients or how did you actually
Karen Brown
I’ve been able to find my clients through word of mouth oh do a good job and then someone either sees what you’re doing through the client or somebody just happens to speak about what they’re doing and they’re like well how are you doing all of that it was like i have an assistant an assistant what do you need an assistant for and then when you tell them they say oh i’ve got a pile on my desk that i haven’t been able to get to and this is something that i could utilize and so i just do what i call an inquiry intake with the prospect and get them to actually kind of jog their mind to find out what it is that they that they need and then we have a meeting and we talk about it and then we go from there
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And so uh do you do so mainly do you do like one-time projects or do you have clients that you know like you keep for a long period of time how do you how do you do that i mean you know
Karen Brown
When we meet and we have this uh this intake we determine at that time because when people start to really brainstorm and do a brain dump they find lots of things that that need to be done so my job is to funnel it down and prioritize and then sometimes we do start with one project and that project goes so well then it might lead into another project or that project could be closed off and now we open up another another project but then to specifically answer your question there are some times where it’s just a one and done there’s some times where it’s ongoing or that one and done can come back later later on a few months later and say do you have any bandwidth where you can help me with this it might be a month it could be just a week a week long project
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay do you have a particular expertise or can you just do everything
Karen Brown
Well having been an executive assistant for 30-plus years i have had experience in so many different industries that i’m able to to be flexible and to learn things quickly i have worked with construction companies i’ve worked with restaurants i’ve worked in the office environment and the the thing that i like most about being an executive assistant is that no day is the same i really thrive with the variety and of not knowing because the not knowing gives me an opportunity to learn and i and i like that i like that
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay
Karen Brown
But i would say that my niche would kind of be not for profits
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay
Karen Brown
Because i like the giving back aspect i like where you’re working with people that might not necessarily have uh mainstream resources for whatever it is that they’re doing or they’re or they’re going through and there’s so much information behind the scenes when you’re dealing with the non a non-for-profit that i just find it very exciting and and informative so that would be my my niche i would say
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay all right so now um i know uh before we went on you were telling me something how you helped someone or a couple per you know personally so do you do a lot of assisting on a you know with people who don’t have businesses or or do you do mostly with businesses and and which do you prefer i know you say you prefer non-profits and so usually that’s a business but what about you know like if someone says if if i said well you know what uh personally uh i don’t have a business but i got a filing cabinet or i got a bunch of papers laying around that need to be filed away and need to be organized do you ca do you do stuff like that so yeah i’m asking it’s because my audience that they’re entrepreneurs and business owners but then there’s there are retirees there are people that say girl i need my closet is this or my bookshelf i’ve got so many books i need to go through these books and you know stuff like that
Karen Brown
Right dr jan i have done it all okay i have done it all i have worked with uh individuals that don’t necessarily have their own business like you said but they could be on the board of of an organization and that requires them to be organized they might need to type some letters and they’re not into that they might need to do uh i’ve helped people when there’s been a death in the family and they want to send out their thank you cards for the bereavement gifts and things that they’ve received i’ll help them keep track of the people that sign in on the guest book at the funeral service or the cards that come in and we’ll catalog them and then send making mailing labels uh sometimes people have huge mailing lists for holiday gift with their clients they might take all the organizations the families the businesses that they have and they want to send out a a massive card list okay i i can do i can do that okay i can be available if you’re you’re traveling and you need me to come and what are your plans i’ve i’ve i’ve done that for my for my cousin that used to be really really busy you know and so it’s just a matter of the fact that there are so many things that we can do to be helpful that’s the not-for-profit side or the volunteering or just to feel a need for someone that that has that need you don’t have to be an expert at everything you just have to be willing
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh okay all right and and and and you are you know i have you on to today because of course uh you are my virtual assistant but i never knew you know i would get all of these uh ads i’d see all these ads and and i get this you know a lot of information from different people uh requests you know i can be your virtual assistant and and my thing was what the heck is a virtual assistant and how can you assist somebody if you’re not you know like in their presence if if you’re you’re not face to face so now what but when you started out well you were an executive assistant first so therefore you were you know in the presence of people so was there how was that that transition was it easy for for for you to do for you to make that transition
Karen Brown
I considered it very easy dr jan because even when as a executive assistant working in an office the people that you are supporting are not in the office all the time that’s the beauty of having an assistant is that they are the person that holds the fort down while you go off and do what you what you have to do okay so to me it was a very easy transition it was no different than me texting you saying did you make it to the restaurant on time okay uh call calling you sending you an email letting you know that while you were in the meeting your flight changed and you’re not gonna be able to get out of miami tonight so i rebooked your hotel go back to the hotel don’t go to the airport okay so it’s it’s the same thing it’s just now everybody’s virtual and i i i love it i find it much more productive working from home because you don’t have that water cooler conversation when i go to my coffee pot there’s nobody there but me okay so i don’t have to stand in line uh i i just really like it i like working my own schedule and i love the fact that i still feel successful every day because i know that i’m helping someone do something
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Like i wonder who that client is oh there’s lauren just wait a minute i’m looking at this he says no she’s my virtual assistant uh there’s enough of me to go go around
Karen Brown
All right and that and that and that’s because you can be uh organized there is so much work that is not done on on screen you you know what i’m saying you you set up a meeting with someone like we have our weekly meetings all right so then so then we’ve met and now i’m off and running with what it is that i need that i need to do okay i don’t have to type nine to five i can do that you know at any time if i need to type up a letter or or something like that okay so to me it’s it’s very easy it’s i love the flexibility i love knowing that i’m helping people solve solve a problem sometimes don’t even know that they have have a problem and sometimes through just brainstorming or brain dump what i call it when you get all your thoughts and out on paper you you come up to another level just like you attended the book club the virtual book club yes uh-huh okay that that client i kept saying oh you got to get your book out you got to get your book out you should have a book club and she said you do know we’re in a pandemic and i said yeah but you can still have a book club and she said how i said virtually see and if you just keep throwing that word out there virtually people are having their board meetings virtually you know people are having cocktail hours virtually they’re having book clubs virtually it’s all doable like my niece says it’s all figure outable you just have to think about it
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh so i a question came in uh from a different platform it says uh what main thing have you done differently from when you first started uh your profession as a virtual assistant i’m not sure what that question is really is really asking so i i’m well i’m just reading uh how it came through so i guess it would mean when you first started you know okay you started when you first started out being a virtual assistant have you changed the way you you get your clients or the the way you do things or or did you start out this particular way and then you know you you’re doing the same thing thinking the same ways looking for the spammy clients
Karen Brown
No because i’ve had some clients come come and go because the project was was finished okay uh i’ve had clients who we’ve moved on to different things that we’re that we’re doing so therefore that would be a term i think we could say that that business has has grown all right as far as how i’ve got my clients i still have not had to advertise if that’s the question okay it’s been a word of mouth refer referrals okay and just not being afraid to or hesitant i should say and as you’re networking with people because you can still network virtually and when you’re just sharing what’s going on what’s you know catching up with people it just it just opens doors you know when they say a closed mouth can’t doesn’t get fed right you’ve got to be your own spokesperson and even if i’m not talking about it in terms of getting more clients i’m just sharing what it is that i’m doing because i’m excited about it gives me energy it gives me joy i’m i’m happy to to do what i’m doing to me this is the best thing i wouldn’t care if they opened up an office building across the street i’m working virtually okay okay i love it i really love it
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So tell me karen do you have to have particular qualifications to be a virtual assistant do you have to be certified or licensed you know any particular qualifications
Karen Brown
Your qualification would be your skill set and for you to be able to build relationships with the people that you’re working for you you can’t be shy you can’t be hesitant to say what it is that you’re thinking you have to be uh responsible for your uh the quality of your work let’s say for your actionable items uh you have to be a little pro proactive and aggressive at times uh one of my clients calls me the sergeant but i’m here to be your your reminder and i can’t be timid when if something gets lost in in translation or gets lost in the shuffle i’ve got to be able to say you know text you i’ve got to be able to to uh work in the chat box on voxer if that’s uh on um zoom if that’s the platform that we’re using and in terms of certification you can get certified with maybe some of your programs and your processes if you want but like i said if you’re if you’re willing to learn uh the different uh products that your client has or what their uh systems are all about then that’s your you’re getting your on-the-job training like you would on any other other job you know people hire you based on your resume and based on how good you interview and then you come to the to the workplace and you learn what it is that you need to learn by asking questions
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay so lauren has a question he and he says so how does a person know when they actually need a virtual assistant
Karen Brown
Well i would say that if you’re doing things that are not making you money but that are necessary for your business that might be a question that you would ask yourself is this something that i could delegate to a virtual assistant no that might be one thing okay because if you’re missing or if you or if you’re missing meetings because you’re not reading your email you could develop a system where as you’re talking to somebody on the phone or on email and you could say yes i do want to meet with you i’m going to connect you with my virtual assistant and she’ll work to get to get us a meeting done boom that way you are not sitting there going through the calendar going back and forth with this client or this prospect or this person trying to find out what days that we can work and the best thing about having a virtual assistant that you have to learn as an individual is you have to let go of control
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Wow you know now that’s something that i know a lot of people probably have an issue with is is is letting go uh they would not be a good candidate for a virtual assistant if they want to be in control and because what’s what’s the point it’s i re i liken it to somebody wants to hire a housekeeper but they spent four hours the day before the housekeeper comes cleaning up because they don’t want the housekeeper to see that they need cleaning so you’re paying them to do it you know people do that all the time
Karen Brown
I know i know that’s the real thing it’s the same thing is that sometimes people don’t want to use their virtual assistant because they’ll say my handwriting is bad i need to type this up before i give it to her yeah no you develop a relationship of and it’s of trust of loyalty and trust and understanding that your virtual assistant is not going to do anything that’s going to make you look bad and you have to accept that she’s going to ask she or he is going to ask questions to get to know you to get to know your style to get to understand you she’s not trying to rewrite your your book or your letter she’s just trying to edit it so that it looks good i’m laughing at her karen had to pry my fingers from all half of the things she does but you have to be bold in your conviction that you want your client to look good you want them to be happy you want them to be satisfied you want them to not cringe when the phone rings and it’s you you want them to know that i’m calling because i have a question and i’m trying to complete this task and maybe something’s missing or as a virtual assistant you can’t be like years ago there used to be secretaries then it went to administrative assistant and then it went to executive assistant a secretary did whatever was put in her inbox she just typed it she didn’t think about it she didn’t give her input you know if it didn’t make sense oh well that was his story not mine okay then you got your administrative assistant who did a little more travel took phone calls but she was signing off on things and she didn’t want to put her name on something that didn’t look good then you got your executive assistant who might work with a team of people or who might be the first person that the executive uh their clients interacted with and people knew that if the executive wasn’t around they could talk to the executive assistant all right so you take the all those pieces together and as a virtual assistant you’re wearing many hats but your main thing is to be that front office that’s that introduction to the client and you want everybody to be happy to have the information to know that they can call on you if they can’t find the client and that they know that you’re going to follow through
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay but lauren also says you really have to be able to face your weaknesses and he says that was them very difficult for him to admit you know he said well that was very difficult to admit what you need help with well that wasn’t difficult for me because i need help with everything so karen um i’ve got to go to a quick commercial and i will be right back and um we’re going to delve more into now we’ve talked about you know what you do uh but we’re gonna delve more into the relationship aspect of of what you do so we will be right back with karen brown virtual assistants to the stars we’ll be right back [Applause] [Music] teresa pushkar is a communications dynamo a one-of-a-kind author and edutainer she weaves her potent message on the power of present moment living into everything she does with the history as audiobook producer and the director of coaching programs at the motivational book publishing leader nightingale conant she was graced to co-create programs with such wealth building luminaries as brian tracy jay abraham and robert kiyosaki theresa is my audio producer she worked with me on the missing secret she wrote the workbook for the missing secret she sat behind the studio screen almost like this gemstone who was just radiating this loving energy and every time i look up from my reading and look up from the mic i look out over there and there’s her smiling face and i so loved working with her that i said i’m going to record another program can you come and be the radiating gemstone again it took less than 10 days we had three strategy sessions she came up with an outline and then we went into the recording studio she had all these questions and she just interviewed me we walked out of there with eight hours of usable audio that is like a three to four hundred page book [Music] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] and i am so happy that your relationship with your daughter has improved [Music] hi we are back now if you would like some eye-popping videos or promos or book trailers done you can reach me at jan4now125 at gmail.com so if you would like to advertise and you saw some eye-catching videos you want to increase your visibility again you can contact me at jan4now125 gmail.com or 1-877-667-7325 and remember i am a communication relationship coach and i especially love working with adult daughters and their moms when they have challenges in that relationship now i’d like to bring back miss karen brown
Karen Brown
Hey kendo
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Hello hello hey hey so now let’s talk about relationships so i want to ask you this question um have you ever had a prospective client and you knew right away this relationship will not work and if you have why how did you know
Karen Brown
Well i’m kind of dealing with that right now of a client that was referred to me or a prospective client i should say was referred to me called we talked we talked we talked several times and nothing has has happened nothing has moved forward i should say all right and in analyzing the situation i always look to see if there’s something different that i can do okay to bring them across the line is is is my uh my thought process my concept and i always go back to the fact that when i do build a relationship with with the client and you’ve heard me say this before let me you have to help me help you all right there has to be a give and take a participation okay i’m not asking you to to work at my desk i’m not gonna run everything that i’m doing behind the scenes by you but you have to make yourself available okay it would be no different than you can’t tell your nail tech that your nails are jacked up and you never keep your appointment okay so in in that case you just know that they’re not ready and that it’s not going to work right now it’s not to say that later on down the line that you all can’t revisit it and maybe build the relationship of being a virtual assistant to support them but right now it’s not working because you can’t even get started
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay okay so now have you had clients and you know you were working with them but let’s say in the middle of doing whatever it is you’re doing for them you decide that this is not working and i don’t mean a prospective client i mean someone that you’re working with period
Karen Brown
Existing client yes and you can just say that uh what i’ve what i’ve decided to do is once i determine that it’s not a good fit that’s that’s my thought process that it’s not a good good fit uh and i go back to that inquiry intake form okay because that’s crucial to have some type of documentation to say what it is that we agreed upon what it is that we decided that we’re going to do and let’s just say for simplicity if we say that there were 10 items on our on our list that we were going to attack tackle and if we haven’t hit any of them that’s clearly it’s not a good fit okay but maybe we have segwayed off of that and it’s a situation where they’re trying to get more bang for their buck off of what we’ve originally agreed to well that’s not gonna work for me okay okay because it’s not fair and that’s telling me that they don’t have the the proper integrity because some people would think that you’re taking a risk by uh being an entrepreneur and i’m sure that there have been situations where it has been been risky all right but the thing that i love most about being a virtual assistant is that i have the flexibility to uh help my clients to learn new things which i wasn’t getting to experience in the office environment and and to grow and so i feel that god brought me to this point and that is note that i’m blocking my blessings if i hold on to something that’s not serving me
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay and so now i started laughing stress lauren is not a problem client
Karen Brown
Oh really no see everybody can’t be an executive assistant or a virtual assistant some people don’t like the change some people don’t like the flexibility it doesn’t bother me if we aren’t if we say we’re gonna meet at 10 and it has to be 10 15 or 10 10 30. you learn how to juggle to me uh virtu being a virtual assistant is no different than if you had a large family everything doesn’t go you know as as planned every day okay and i’ll tell people sometimes what they’ll say i’m sorry we have to change it i said yeah but we changed it on the computer we’re not changing it on a regular typewriter so it’s not a problem for me so that’s that’s part of your a relationship and another thing i think that’s key in building a relationship is that you you want to be trustworthy with your client as well as yourself so for example if someone asked me to do something that i’m not not only am i not familiar with or i’m not good at or it’s not my interest i’ll just say that’s not that’s not my lane okay i’ll say oh no no no no that’s that’s not my not my lane i don’t want to mess that up i don’t want to waste your time i don’t want to waste your money you you want to take that to somebody else and a lot of times people will ask me to do things because i i have to admit i’m very fast all right i i’ve i’ve learned to be quick because i never know what’s coming down the pike okay that’s how i had to operate in in the office i might have uh supported 35 people and people say 35 people well it wasn’t like they were all lined up at my desk at one time half of them might be off on on a job site you know you know what i’m saying and so you just learn how to juggle i mean it’s not for everybody and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So so so is it too personal to ask you how many clients you have
Karen Brown
Well it it it varies and they’re not all full time and i’d say nine nine nine right now
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay well now i can attest to the fact that you’re very fast you know i’m like oh i gotta get this done and when you say clients it doesn’t mean it’s not like on a job where you’re working nine to five and you have to give that all that uh concentration to that one client i have clients that only need a few hours a week and then like i said if you’re a client if i’m working with you but we might be working on a project that has a time a timeline you know like when i did the book club we worked on that for a couple of weeks prior to it launching and then once the book club was done then that was that was over okay okay and then we move on to another project or we kind of go into hiatus for a while or we start working on something else that was on the list
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Okay so now okay so with your client like you have some that are long term and some that are short term and what do you think the now and i would say that the relationships that you form with your clients i’m sure some of them are just plain professional relationships and some of them end up being personal relationships so what do you think is the most important thing as far as maintaining both your professional and your personal relationships that have come from your profession
Karen Brown
Well i would change the the comment a little bit okay because i feel that all of my clients are my clients and we are professionally personal okay i like that okay all right and i say that because i learned a long time ago that europeans thought that americans were too businesslike that we always wanted to chop chop just get right to the point and in taking that thought in i learned from like um employees that were on exchange programs and they would come back and those would be their takeaways that how much time does it really take to say how was your weekend i hope you’ve been getting some rest i hope you’ve been spending some time with your family or how was that concert that you went to or sharing a movie or something we are all human we want to be seen we want to be recognized for more than what we do okay and so i like to say that it’s professionally personal because i i want you to know that i care about that your family was sick or that you had a flat tire on on the road it’s not that i was going to come out with the tow truck and help you change the tire but to just know that you probably had a little hiccup in your day and i’m going to give you a few minutes if somebody says well i’ll be home at two o’clock we can have a meeting at two o’clock no we can talk at 2 30. okay okay give them a chance to come in get a sip of water and and relax okay uh it’s a lady told me uh one of my um managers told me a long time ago we worked in uh public relations and and she saw this line of people standing at my desk and they were just going all over you know upset about some deadlines or something and she stood up in the middle of the floor and said hey it’s pr people not the er oh so okay calm down it’s all figureoutable and so i i like to have a personal relationship because i think it makes it more uh long-lasting it makes for a stronger relationship because you can’t be so by the book that you don’t understand that somebody has to take their their child to college and see about their their dorm space right right you know so you want to be you have to be flexible and you can only do that if you build a personal relationship and you know sometimes i’ll say hey you’re meeting you’ve got three meetings back to back uh you you want to get your lunch ready early today because i don’t want you passing out on my watch and you can tell some people they get angry oh really yeah so you know because they had too many meetings and they didn’t get to eat anything and these are the things that you you look out for and you can’t be afraid to to say that you know especially if they kind of mention just like man you know my eating is really really bad so i kind of lock that away and then there’ll be an opportunity where i’ll say have you had lunch today and they’re like well as a matter of fact i have thank you okay you know so that’s that’s how you endear your clients to you and there’s nothing phony or fake about it it’s like you care about people my daughter says all the time that i don’t meet any strangers i can talk to somebody in the store and she’s like oh when was the last time you saw her i’m like so who and she said the lady you were talking to i said oh i just met her she said you won’t talk that long okay all right it’s an authenticity about you
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So karen tell me um when you’re not this is another question that came in what type of activities do you do when you’re not working to relax
Karen Brown
I’m doing virtual line dancing at home
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh yes i found a lady who they weren’t having the in person anymore and she started a youtube channel of doing online line dancing what’s her name i might know her huh what’s her name uh it’s called uh lines in motion okay because you know i am a lion dancer okay well i mean years i’m sharing that information with you uh i love movies so now that the theaters are open that was one of the things that i missed the most during the pandemic so now that the movies are all open i’ve been going back to the movies but i watch uh movies on on on the television stream them and my friends and i will all watch it together we’ll get on yeah we’ll get on together there have been concerts online that i’ve been doing i’m an avid reader i love i love reading
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
What kind of books
Karen Brown
A lot of self-help books spiritual books and uh some some novels but there’s so much to learn now right now so i’m really been into uh some self-help books devotionals and things like that uh just staying in touch with my friends i love travel so i’ve got a couple of trips coming up
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh yes i’m getting back on the plane i’m excited about that uh spending time with my family i mean last week i went to a concert i went out to dinner last last night you know so it’s a lot of things to to do girl you got so much energy good grief i relax when i retire what advice would you give someone who might want to do what you do who might want to be a virtual assistant
Karen Brown
My advice would be open up your ears open up your eyes and just look around and find a niche find a need of something that needs to be done for example one of my friends was uh looking for a job and the job wasn’t going to start for him for a month and so she just started reaching out to people asking them if they needed any help with any anything and she was just honest that she needed to make a few dollars and the request started rolling in as you and i were talking earlier you will be surprised at the things that people will pay for okay and sometimes the seed just needs to be planted that you if you have the idea then god already gave you the god wink that that you have skill all right so now it’s up to you to open up your mouth and start sharing your idea and it will eventually land with the right person
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I like that i i i really like that well i want to say here lauren says that my entire life has changed in the last few weeks since bringing karen on board i wish i would have done this years ago and then he says thank you dr jan for sharing her with me so i have to remind him that uh i’m just sharing see how we have this relationship you and i had a relationship you shared me with lauren and now he and i have the relationship because it’s it’s just all the uh the energy the chemistry the genuineness and and it’s really it’s all about love loving what you do loving people caring about people and that’s why i said that i am the virtual assistant for you and i didn’t know until today that i was renamed the virtual assistant for the stars because you’re a star he’s a star we’re all stars we are we just have to go about and letting our light shine yes definitely definitely caring and audience what i need to do here if you are looking for an assistant and a virtual assistant and virtual assistant to the stars this is who you need to contact it’s karen at virtual assistant that is karen virtual assist for you dot com whatever project you have to do that you’re looking to do whether you are an entrepreneur starting out you’ve been a business owner for a while or even if you don’t have a business and you have that project that you’re looking at and you say you keep saying you know what i need help you need to contact karen virtual and i got some other things that i need i got a whole list so i don’t know if you’re gonna have time we’ll be together forever i was gonna say i don’t know if you’re gonna have time for lauren i’m gonna have to talk to him no need to fight no need to fight there’s plenty of me to go around but karen thank you so so very much for being a guest on my show today i have really enjoyed you and um you have given my audience a wealth of information and i really hope that um all of you out there you see that across the bottom of the screen i keep running it because i want you to have a chance to write it down i don’t want to hear which i’ve heard i didn’t get a chance to see that who was that and what what what what’s the thing i’m interested so i’m running this across the bottom of the screen in the lower third so karen thank you so much again i have enjoyed you
Karen Brown
Thank you it’s been my pleasure i really appreciate it i enjoyed it as well
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Alrighty so you have a beautifully blessed well we’re in chicago so the bless you a beautifully blessed the rest of your evening
Karen Brown
That’s right thank you so much
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
All right karen take care
Karen Brown
All right talk to you soon
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Alrighty wow that was a great guest and with a wealth of information and you know what i really like about karen i like what she said about professionally personal i really like that because i’ve always said relationships are everything life is about relationships relationships matter and there are all kinds of relationship matters so i will see you again next week with another guest that i know you’re going to get a lot of information from some entertainment from some motivation from and some inspiration from so i want to say to you have a blessed rest of your morning afternoon evening wherever you are in the world and um i guess i can share karen with you alrighty bye [Music] do [Music] do [Music] you