Topics

KEYNOTE: Ambition on a Mission: 9 Strategies to Make Your Work Matter – Ann Tardy
There is an evolution starting in the workforce! At the core, we all want to love our jobs and make a difference with our work. Ann will reveal how to make your work matter. You have the power to influence people, effect change, and make a difference…regardless of your position. When you put your ambition on a mission, you can impact the evolution and make your work matter. Get ready to discover the 9 strategies that separate the mediocre from the magnificent, the feeble from the fabulous, and the boring from the brilliant. Be prepared to evolve your own mindset to a moxie mindset, one that is determined, gutsy, passionate, and on a mission. The world is starved for your contributions, your commitment, and your passion. It needs people to light the fire and fan the flames. Now is the time to strike the match!

"Another Social Networking Site – Should you use Google+?" – Gwen Nicodemus
MySpace was flashy and pimped out by teens. LinkedIn targets professionals, but doesn’t get a lot of on-going traffic. Google tried Buzz and Wave, but those social networking ideas never caught on. So, Facebook has been the gold standard of social networking for personal use and business. Yet Facebook is not perfect and has many drawbacks. So, Google came up with Google Plus, which is currently in beta testing. Is it any good? How does it work? What makes it better than Facebook? Should you switch or add it to your marketing plan? Will it catch on?

"Balancing Life and Work: Are We Making Technological Progress?" – Nora Rubinoff
As a virtual professional, your work is your life, right? Wait a minute! There’s more to life than work, isn’t there? For those of us who work from home and those of us married to our jobs, technology is supposed to free us. If you find yourself struggling, let’s talk.

"Becoming a Techie VA" – Sharon Broughton
Curious about what is involved in becoming a Techie VA? Learn how to shift your practice to this new specialization, how you can earn more and bring more value to your clients. Techie VAs are highly specialized in their specific area of expertise which includes offering shopping cart assistance, WordPress, ezines, product launch, affiliate manager, html, and more. This session will introduce you to the different types of techie VAs and what they specialize in, how to shift your practice to be a techie VA, how much you can raise your rates with this new specialization and some of the services you can offer. Learn all this and more from Techie VA expert Sharon Broughton.

"Bridging the Gap with Branding" – Patty Gale
A branded, content rich web presence that tells your stories is a proven an cost-effective way to grow your VA business. In today’s world of internet marketing, having a website is simply not enough. Your clients are everywhere…they’re on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and places you probably don’t know about. It takes your website, social media, email marketing and client gratitude all working together in an integrated system to maximize your ROI to your business. Tapping into these Four Pillars of Internet Marketing will help you turn scattered marketing efforts into a simple, focused and automated system that will have your marketing plan working for you 24/7. Discover to: Build Trust with Your Prospects, Grow Your Client Base, Strengthen Customer Loyalty, Get the Jump on Competitors, Develop and Stay ‘Top of Mind’, Extend Your Reach, and Diversify: Add New Streams of Income.

"Build a Successful Virtual Business Without Boundaries" – Michelle Dale
Michelle Dale developed a thriving VA Business while traveling and living in a variety of different countries, and is still regularly on the move. Michelle’s journey began in 2005 when she left the UK to begin travels in Egypt and experience life abroad, and since then has grown from a solo business to a highly effective online business manager with a wildly successful multi-VA practice. In this discussion, Michelle will discuss how she and her team of highly skilled VAs assist businesses of all sizes into making the transition from offline to online, using unique and diverse methods of online business management and provide a service which is turning businesses all over the world into lucrative, paperless enterprises. Over the years, they have perfected their program and Michelle wants to share this knowledge with Entrepreneurs, Virtual Assistants, Digital Nomads, Work-At-Home Parents, Military Spouses and quite honestly, anybody who is looking to quit their job, find real financial freedom, and become a totally independent mobile entrepreneur!

"Capture Everything. How to Use Evernote to Manage Clients, Projects and Your Business!" – Renee Shupe
Do you have files everywhere? Is your hard drive cluttered with notes and ideas of things you want to do? Do you wish you could find that note you made about that cool piece of software you wanted to buy? Is your task list overflowing with things still needing to be done? Do you still pack around a note book so you can capture business ideas? Well it’s time to stop the madness! Use Evernote to capture everything, that task that needs to be done, that awesome recipe you found online, that great article at the doctors office. No matter what you need to capture Evernote can do it and more! With tags, linked notes, the ability to share notes and to sort it any which way Evernote is the program that lets anyone with a million thoughts capture everything. While not a traditional project manager Evernote can be tweaked to work with your working style. You’ll also learn how to import files and documents automatically and how you can use it no matter where you’re at or what you are doing – Web, Desktop, or Smart Phone Evernote will be there for you.

"The Commitment of Long-Term Client Relationships" – Sue Kramer-Harrawood
When you see a post mentioning cultivating long-term client relationships, do you shake your head emphatically yes? Do your ACTIONS mesh? When your client says, ‘I really prefer talking with you on the phone’ do you say ‘That’s great, I do too!’ all the while thinking ‘What’s wrong with e-mail!?’. If this is you AND you want to change your attitude and/or have boundaries (You won’t partner with clients whose preferences don’t mesh with yours), this is your session. We’ll discuss how to have enjoyable non-toxic client relationships. Caution: this session is not for the faint of heart or for those who will not confront or put boundaries in place. New or seasoned VAs – we all desire long-term client relationships. We put on our big girl pants when we decide which kinds of clients we’ll partner with and what we are willing to change within ourselves to realize our worth. Only then can we have a live conversation with our clients, respect the client’s wishes and stick to our boundaries. Hint, clients respect us more when we stick to your boundaries. Not all clients are a fit and not all VAs are a fit and that’s okay.

"Contracts That Work – A Client’s View" – John Mitchell
John Mitchell is a former practicing attorney who owns a leadership development company. Over the past ten years John has partnered with many Virtual Assistants and knows firsthand the value they bring to business owners. As John’s company grew his VA added VAs to the team of specialists supporting the business. Their contracts were often long, full of legal jargon, confusing and/or contained inapplicable language and often protected the VA and not the client. John knew that many contracts were edited and passed from VA to VA without being reviewed by an attorney – a practice that allows VAs to unknowingly open themselves up for potential legal problems. In this session John will speak about contracts from a client’s perspective and from the perspective of a small business owner like you. He will point out language that impedes your efforts to build a strong client relationship. John will utilize actual contracts submitted by your colleagues (business names and identifying information will be removed). He will also suggest alternative language to share with your attorney so a contract can be drafted that works for both the VA and the client.

"Develop A Business Foundation…Empower Your Business" – Patty Benton
In this session VAs will learn what the 3 main components to building a successful business are, why many people miss incorporating these components into their business and steps you can take today to incorporate them and create the business you intended.

"Do You Have An Itch to Niche?" – Jeannine Clontz
Hesitant to niche your practice? Want to but don’t know where to start? Afraid you’ll lose business in other areas? Leave your fears behind and find out why it’s so important to establish a niche within your business. Learn about others who have been hesitant; why you want to niche; and easy ways to establish your niche whether skills or industry-based. We’ll also walk you through establishing a basic marketing plan to help you focus marketing efforts on your niche to yield the most new clients and continue to expand and solidify your practice!

"Dominate Your Industry!" – Tonya Hofmann
Do you want to work fewer hours and make more money? Imagine being able to increase revenue while decreasing stress, work hours and having to sell by simply following our proven easy to follow formula for extreme income streams in your business! Is the only way to make more money in your business to increase how many hours you work? Do you want more time for family, hobbies, etc.? Create a product or program that will continue to pay you over and over and you don’t have to do anything after that! We’ve been successful for years developing extreme streams of income and we want to share our secrets with you. We help identify areas for programs, possibilities for memberships, possible advertisers and show how easy it is to develop a website that draws your exact qualified target market to you to buy your products/services!

"8 Shockingly Simple Ways To Out-Sell, Out-Market and Out-Perform The Competition" – Mike Michalowicz
Throughout my experience I have discovered marketing techniques that make businesses grow explosively – virtual or otherwise. Additionally, I have studied the use of behavioral influence and its effects on marketing, sales and performance. I have also consulted with over 330 businesses (from Fortune 100s to mom-and-pops) to break through glass ceilings using the techniques I share in this presentation. In my high energy, entertaining presentation, I share easy to apply strategies on the two most influential words that MUST be used to grow a base of ravings clients, and the exact strategy to making it happen; the frequent flyer model and how to deploy that as a marketing platform; the labeling patterns used by consumers and how to leverage it for fast marketing growth; the use of secrecy to rapidly spread the word through viral word-of-mouth marketing; and four other highly actionable techniques. Every concept is easy to understand, easy to implement and attendees can apply the strategies immediately upon leaving the event. I assure my presentation will be the most impressive business presentation they have ever seen.

"5 Simple Steps to Attracting More Ideal Clients" – Sydni Craig-Hart
I hear from VAs every day that their biggest challenge is quickly getting more clients. You need more business NOW. There is so much hype around marketing, what to do, what not to do, the latest "make or break your business" strategy, that it can be difficult to figure out what steps to take first.
It’s time to end the struggle and the worry. You love what you do. You’re great at what you do. You need to learn how to effectively communicate the value of what you offer in a way that is comfortable, authentic and highly-effective. On this call you will learn: 1) The one thing you MUST do before spending another dime on marketing (this will make all your advertising, marketing, and publicity efforts 100% more effective!), 2) How to get referrals from past clients, friends, and family, 3) 3 easy ways to use the Internet to enhance your image and build a professional brand that attracts your ideal clients, 4) Exactly why you need to team up with local businesses to create power partnerships that bring in more clients for everyone and 5) How to get your ideal prospects to call you before they shop around.

"How to Become a Virtual Author’s Assistant" – Jan B. King
In 1995, 250,000 books were published in the US. By 2010 that number skyrocketed to about 1 million. The difference? Successfully self published authors. There are big changes ahead for aspiring authors and published authors and they desperately need administrative help to create their manuscripts, help find a publisher, guide the self publishing process and the extra sets of hands needed for all the marketing and promotion activities, especially helping to set speaking engagements. Becoming an author’s or speaker’s assistant is a fun and challenging niche with numerous potential clients. We will discuss the various skills involved and how to attract profitable clients.

"How to Bring More Excitement & More Income to Your Virtual Support Business Managing Telesummits for Your Clients" – Leesa Barnes
So, your client wants to host a telesummit and has asked you to set it up. And now the panic sets in. You know how to set up teleclasses and webinars. Those are easy, but is setting up a telesummit any different? It is and if you’re not sure what to do, you could ruin your client’s reputation, reduce your client’s ability to make money, plus shatter your own reliability with your client. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Join Leesa Barnes, a leading authority on virtual events, as she shares with you how you can skyrocket your income setting up virtual events and telesummits for your clients.

"Investments Every VA Should be Making in Their Business" – Yvonne Weld
We have all heard the saying "you have to spend money to make money" yet so often Virtual Assistants are heard saying they can’t afford valuable investments in their business. Today we will cover the five investments that every Virtual Assistant should be making to assist them in getting ahead and building a successful Virtual Assistant business. We will also look at some tips to ensure that you get the best "bang for your buck" and finally provide you with the tools to determine your ROI (or return on investment) so you can be making the most beneficial choices for your business (after all every VA business is different and what works for one won’t necessarily work for the next).

"Learn to Create and Sell Service & Support Packages to Clients, Move into a Value-Based Business Model, and Stop Trading Hours for Dollars" – Donna Toothaker
Are you nervous to raise your rates? Are you tired of tracking every minute of client work? Most importantly, are you tired of trading hours for dollars, and not getting paid for your true value and worth? Learn how (and why!) to create service and support packages for clients. Moving to the "package model" in your business will allow you to charge what you’re worth, service clients in a bigger and better way, and create a client list of raving fans. Learn the strategies and tools to create packages that make sense for your business… and for your clients! You’ll learn the different types of packages, what to include in your packages, how to overcome any possible client/prospect objections and you’ll learn the strategies that you can implement immediately to begin moving out of the hourly model and into the package model. You’ll learn all the tips, tricks and techniques for creating a successful "value based" business. Stop selling your time and learn how to sell your true value, worth and outcome that working with you has for your clients. This is a not-to-miss session!

"How to Create Mutually Respectful Relationships with Your Clients" – Sydni Craig-Hart and Nina Feldman
Sydni Craig-Hart and Nina Feldman will educate you on how to teach your clients to respect your boundaries, setting the right tone at the beginning of the relationship, empowering VAs to stand up for themselves, having clear communication with clients.

"Put Your Small Business on Autopilot and Watch Your Profits Skyrocket!" – Katrina Sawa
Are you constantly struggling in your business or working way too hard for not enough profits? Want to find out how to work less in your business and make more? This also includes the running of your business – you’ve got to automate, delegate and systemize more in order for your marketing, your business and often times your LIFE to run on autopilot. Yes, you CAN automate much of what you’re doing and still be interacting personally and building quality relationships in order to attract more of the right kinds of ideal prospects. When you put your business on autopilot if can literally run without you when you’re gone – on vacation, sick or have an emergency. This IS the next step for you in transforming your business to fit your lifestyle. Learn how to put your marketing and business tasks on autopilot to free up more of your time; how and what to delegate more of in order to free you up to do more profitable tasks; the types of technology you MUST invest and put in place or it won’t work; and how to put this into a smooth running system so it actually gets done!

"Making Virtual Personal: Brand Strategies for Virtual Professionals" – Emily Morgan
In an industry where business is conducted based solely on a strong online reputation, what makes you and your virtual business unique? What makes clients select your company over others who are seemingly just as qualified? Managing your brand is no longer a nicety, it’s an essential element of career and business success. How do you establish clarity on your existing personal brand? How is this expressed in your virtual business to ensure you land the work and types of clients you want to work with? We will discuss the contributing factors that develop a brand’s identity and introduce strategies to extract and express your authentic brand into your virtual business.

"Marketing and Publicity – Yes You Can Grow Your Business To Exactly Where You Want It To Be" – Diana Ennen
Growing your business can at times seem difficult and overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be. There are tried and true methods that you can use that are guaranteed to work and that’s exactly what we’ll show you. We will discuss article and press release marketing, mastering social media, pitching your way to success and so much more. Tips that will show you exactly how to do it right so you always get the best results. We will outline ways that will not only get you more clients and additional income, but help you land the right clients and get the most income. We’ll also share some of the do’s and don’t's to help you master your PR campaign and walk you step by step through the entire process. You’ll be a PR pro in no time.

"Q&A Power Hour: Everything You Want to Know About Becoming a VA" – Kelly Poelker
Spend an hour with VA industry veteran and co-author of Virtual Assistant – The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA, Kelly Poelker, learning everything you want to know about becoming a virtual assistant. Submit questions prior to attending and I’ll open the floor to additional questions. All attendees will receive free VA Self-Assessment from Academy of Virtual Professionals.

"QuickBooks® Tips and Tricks" – Kay Morgan
Welcome to QuickBooks(R) 2012 – a sneak preview. What has changed for the year 2012? Did you know there are keyboard tricks to QuickBooks(R) that save key time? Did you know you could clear a zero amount on the receivables report? Did you know about the company snapshot and how to adjust it for your client? Did you know you could modify and export reports? Did you know you could add account balances to the bottom of an invoice? Did you know you could add your clients logo to invoices? These are just a few of the trips and tricks you will learn by attending this session.

"The Secret Life of Domain Names" – Mary Motz
There’s much more to the humble domain name that meets the eye. If all you see at your registrar are .COMs and .NETs – and a place to park a website, be sure to join me for this presentation that will open your eyes to some very handy things you can do with your domains. I’ll cover 1) New and unusual domain "extensions" and how they can work for you; 2) DNS Management 101: Customize how your domain behaves (it’s not as scary as you think!); and 3) Domain Names as Real Estate: How to sell your unused domain names. I promise a non-boring, practical session that will expand your awareness of what’s possible with domain names.

"SEO for Business Owners – How a VA Can Help!" – Charly Leetham
What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it’s importance to small business and how a VA can add to their portfolio. Charly answers these questions in this presentation, explaining how being indexed by search engines will help a business market successfully online. She offers advice on how a business owner can get listed quickly and start ranking for their chosen keywords using her own tried and tested techniques. Charly will tailor this presentation to show VAs how they can help their customers on a day-to-day basis to grow their business and add value to their customer.

"STOP Avoiding Your Follow Up!" – Katrina Sawa
Step-by-step presentation on how to build and leverage your contact list into your own personal follow up cash machine! ADMIT IT…You have a big stack of business cards sitting on your desk of people you want to follow up with BUT HAVEN’T, don’t you? You do realize that you’re missing out on a TON OF SALES. You’re probably missing out on a few joint venture or referral opportunities too…and who knows, all that LACK of FOLLOW UP could have brought you an extra $1000, $2000 or even $5000 in revenues just this month alone! So what are you going to do about it? There are some simple systems you can put in place right now to make sure no one slips through the cracks. Get out of the overwhelm you’re in or guilt you’re feeding yourself and learn how to actually get all your follow up done including what to say, send, write or call about. Learn ways to build and manage more quality relationships with clients, prospects, leads, referrals and everyone you come in contact to – online or off. Then learn the easiest and quickest ways to build an effective follow up system that will bring your results!

"3 Essentials to Building a Successful Virtual Assistant Business" – Cindy Greenway
There are some key items that lead to a successful Virtual Assistant business. Unfortunately, many of these key items are ignored…leaving the Virtual Assistant frustrated and asking "Why can’t I find great clients and build a great business?". In this session, Cindy will focus on 3 essentials to building a successful Virtual Assistant. You can choose to ignore these and continue struggling … OR … you can make note, take action and succeed in achieving your goals, attracting the attention of great clients and earning great revenue each month.

"Trimming the Fat: Expenses of International Money Transfers" – Jonathan Cooper
Our company, ATMCash, is an online money transfer service. From our website, ATMCash.com, US residents can conveniently and inexpensively transfer money to their Virtual Assistants in over 150 countries. The employer, will appreciate the ability to complete reloads from their online account in 30 seconds. The VA will appreciate the access to funds from the over 1.5 million ATMs worldwide and knowing that the moment the sender loads the funds, they are instantly available for withdrawal. Our costs are the lowest in the industry, we provide live phone and chat support and already have transferred millions of dollars servicing freelancers and Virtual Assistants.

"VA Subcontracting: 7 Secrets of a Highly Sought-After Subcontractor" – Laura Pumo
The VA industry has experienced significant growth of multi-VA and online business management teams within the last 5 years. As a result, more and more virtual assistants are working as subcontractors with some of the most successful teams in the industry. Learn the 7 crucial keys that sought-after subcontractors possess. During this program, you will learn where to look for subcontracting opportunities, how to gain access to the "circle of trust" with successful VA teams, the dynamics of and how to work with multi-VA teams!

"Video Marketing 101" – Carla Wilson
Want to know the next wave in service offerings for your clients? Consider Video (and other digital media!) Marketing! There are many economical ways to produce and post great video for clients – and you can be the one to introduce this "new-fangled" marketing venue to your clients! Learn *what* digital media marketing entails and *why* you want to offer it as a service offering. Learn *who* wants to use digital media in their marketing and *where* they use it. Learn basics tools used for producing digital media and *how* to use (and re-use) it. Join Carla Wilson as she shares her not-so-secret secrets, tips and tricks in this webinar.