Davis Virtual Assistants

How many of you have an older sibling? How many of you are 2nd on the tax deduction food chain? I’ll raise my hand and answer “me” and “me” to both questions. Fortunately for me, my older sibling is my big brother Scot. He’s my hero. He understands how difficult it was in our household. He taught me some Army Ranger moves before I went on my first date. He held my hand at Jeff’s funerals. He’s the best big brother a girl could ever have. Not much of a rivalry going on, but let it be known growing up I always wanted to be Just Like Scot.

The subject of today’s Hey Mister DJ post is the band Filter. I’m bringing up the subject of siblings because Richard Patrick, Filter’s lead singer, is the younger brother of Robert, the actor who played T-1000 in the Terminator films. I know nothing personal about these brothers, but I can bet some fans and reporters would ask about the other one during conversations and interviews. Let the eye-rolling ensue!

I digress: Long gone is my fascination with all things MTV. I watched opening day August 1, 1981, at the tender age of 15, and yes, was glued to the tube for many years thereafter. The concept of having a visual with the music blew my socks off! Some of the vids kicked ass, while others looked as though they had a $100 budget. I’m way past their demographic, and that’s cool. Still, I enjoyed my “MTV years” and took with me a new-found appreciation of music.

I never quite understood the meaning of Filter’s video for Take a Picture. The water, the airplane, all of it. After reading a bit, I’ve come to learn (though have not confirmed this with Richard Patrick), that the song tells the story of him waking up drunk on an airplane, butt naked as the day he was born. “Take a picture, because I won’t remember.” Ahhhhh … now I get it. The song’s lyrics and the vid have taken on a whole new meaning. Especially telling is the line, “Hey, Dad, what do you think about your son now?” Powerful stuff, and I dig how Richard delivers the line in the first video below. “Take a Picture.” It’s a new addiction of mine …

Hey Mister DJ: Dude, I also agree that no one should be left alone. Get my weekend off to a kicking and screaming start and play me:

Take a Picture

Good morning, my Killer Sharks!

Thrifty Thursday^** for September 25, 2008 tells us to not phreak out about the current state of the American financial system. Small business is the backbone of our economy, and this small business babe wants you to keep on doing what you’re doing! Don’t stop with the hiring of new employees. Don’t stop with the creation of new products. Don’t stop selling. Don’t stop with your plans to outsource.

Thrifty Thursday^** for 9/25/08 is for you (and yes you, the Guppy in the back row with her fin up waiting to ask a question), the American Business Owner. I love you, I adore you, and I want to help you keep some extra bank in your well-lined pockets. Today’s Thrifty Thursday is a whopping 15% discount on your October 2008 invoice for any virtual assistant service I offer. How may I help you today? Do you want to begin advertising on Backpage and Craig’s List? Need some typos fixed on your Dreamweaver website? How about getting those 15 articles posted? Ready to jump on the CRM bandwagon? Let me know what you need, and let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Thrifty Thursday^** 9/25/08 phone lines close at 5:00 PM U. S. Eastern time next Wednesday, October 1, 2008. Contact the Virtual Assistant, and let’s talk about outsourcing!

^** This Thrifty Thursday discount may not be combined with any other offers or discounts offered by Davis Virtual Assistants. This discount may be claimed only by new Davis Virtual Assistants (DavisVA.com) clients.

Good afternoon, campers!

Tomorrow is the day and DavisVA.com is the place to be for the best damn HTML Basics Training in the known universe. Two-hours of online classroom instruction where I’ll teach you the basics of HTML coding. This is a skill that all Virtual Assistants must have in their virtual services toolkit. Don’t argue with me because you know I’m right.

Once you learn the method to the madness of coding, you can begin to decipher what you’re seeing in a Page Source. Plus, after attending tomorrow’s HTML Webinar, you’ll see that Hypertext Markup Language really isn’t hieroglyphics! I know it’s confusing to your eyes and your brain and because of this you’re afraid to learn to code. Let go of those fears, right here, right now. Why? Because your fears of learning to code are preventing you from picking up clients who need you to code their Craig’s List ads and articles, and to add some basic codes to their LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Plurk profiles. This is a skill which clients will gladly pay for your knowledge and expertise. I’ve said it hundreds of times and I’ll say it once more right now: I am taking your potential clients and it’s all because you don’t know how to code.

DavisVA.com’s HTML Basics Webinar is for those of you who are brand new to coding and need to learn the basics, along with those folks who are petrified about learning this basic skill. Two hours with me, plus free and lifetime follow up after the Webinar, and I’ll give you a skill you’ll use for life.

Click here for more information and to register for DavisVA’s HTML Training.

Good morning, Sharks!

One of the many reasons I adore what I do for a living, aside from my literal 30-second commute, is that I’m afforded the opportunity to be exposed to a wide variety of technologies. Systems like WordPress, salesforce.com, SugarCRM, Jott and GoToMeeting all rule my day, and the days for my clients. A Virtual Assistant and her clients are best served, and the partnership is more productive, when reliable and useful technologies are in place.

Today’s Lori Recommends is all about project management and more specifically web-based project management. The days of the multi-tabbed spreadsheet and the hundred-pages-long word processed document are a thing of the past! It’s a Digital World, I am a Digital Girl, and I’m here to tout the virtues of my favorite collaboration tool, Basecamp by 37signals.

37signals, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1. Your pricing model for Basecamp is spot-on perfect, and I dig that you charge me and my clients per project and not per seat.
   

2. Basecamp is incredibly easy to use! User manuals aren’t needed, and I applaud your amazing programmers.
   

3. A hubba-hubba-ding-ding from me to you on your 30-day trials. Sweet.
   

4. File uploads, full control over the users on a client’s Basecamp, real-time notification of new To Do Lists and new Messages, Writeboards. Everything my clients need, including the kitchen sink.
   

5. Per your website, “Pay as you go, no long-term contracts, no sign-up fee, no termination fee, cancel at any time.” Even sweeter. Mmmmmmwah! Who loves ya, baby!

I’m Basecamp’ing with a wide variety of professionals, including a team of attorneys, life and business coaches, and a well-known gospel singer. The things they need to project manage are completely different, and yet Basecamp handles all of their needs with ease. Basecamp is a multi-purpose tool that’s low cost to boot.

Lori Recommends Basecamp. Sign up today for your own 30-day trial and see for yourself just how easy, and inexpensive, true project management can really be.

Good morning, campers!

Why do Monday’s have such a bad rap? Could it be the proverbial “Monday Morning Blahs” have taken over our collective mindset? Is Monday just a reminder that the weekend has, well, ended? Or maybe it’s the mere sound of the word “Monday” escaping our lips that leaves us with a sour taste in our mouths?

I must say I dig Monday’s! Each one is a new day, a fresh start, and for me, Monday’s have a special feeling and vibe all their own. My aggressive nature seems to increase exponentially on the first day of the work week, and crazy as it might sound, I feel even more alive.

If you’ve dragged yourself out of bed this morning, I want to hear about it. More so, I want to know how the DavisVA.com team can make your Monday’s all bright and shiny and sexy again. Monday is the day to plot your plans for World Dominance, and not the day to hit the snooze bar a record 11th time. Talk to me and tell me how this Virtual Assistant and her kick ass team can make your Monday Morning Business Blahs a thing of the past! Talk to me and let me know how we can work together to snuff out your competition. Talk to me about your business pain and about all that administrative stuff you need to take off your plate.

Talk to me …