PA = "Publishing Amazonian""????

One of the things I spend my time on now, since leaving my full-time job nearly 2 years ago to run my own business, is write.

You'll probably have seen the cover images of my two books for the PA and EA community: "Brave PAs" and "The PA & EA Circus", plus my three therapeutic fiction books for children and young adults: "Missing Mark", "Darcy Decides" and "Tasha's Torment" - all five were published during 2015.

What you may not know is that I also work with other people to help get their books published.

October saw the launch of "Dating Dilemmas" written by 'Ditzy Daisy' and edited by Angela Garry. Daisy is the pseudonym for a good friend of mine who spent several years on the online dating secret. She recently shared her tales with me - some horrific, some hilarious, others downright strange - and we worked together on publishing them as a book, the ultimate guide to meeting entirely the wrong man through online dating... 98 pgs. 5" x 8". £8.00. "Dating Dilemmas" is available via Amazon worldwide - a link to the .co.uk page is here.

Today (9 December 2015) saw TWO more books that I've edited and worked on, going online at Amazon:

"A to Z Pearls of Wisdom for Executive PAs" - written by Lindsay Taylor and edited by Angela Garry. 154 pgs, 5.06" x 7.81". £12.99. Lindsay is holding a special launch event for the book in January - contact her for details lindsay@yourexcellency.co.uk. Available worldwide via Amazon - .co.uk link is here.

and

"Chilli the Chimp" was written by Nigel Measures, illustrated by Andy Case, produced and edited by Angela Garry under the "PICA BOOKS" brand. 28 pgs, 8.5" x 8.5". £8.00. This is volume 1 in the 'Paws for Tails' animal-themed series for little children, to be followed soon by volume 2: "Freckle the Fox". Available worldwide via Amazon - .co.uk link is here.

I'm working on several other books at the moment - including several of my own writing, and two from other authors. If you have a book hidden within you, and you'd like some assistance with planning, writing, and producing it - please get in touch! I'd love to work with you!

In particular, under my own PICA BOOKS branding (www.picabooks.co.uk), I'm looking to work with writers on the following four areas:

• fictional books for small children for fun and learning, 
• therapeutic fiction books for children and young adults.
• CPD & learning books for adults, and
• therapeutic / firsthand experiences books for adults.

Within this, there would be no fee for my involvement and for getting your book published - instead, we'd each receive a proportion of the royalties for the book.

However, if you wish to publish under your own branding, I'm happy to do this and can work with you for a flat fee instead.

Please contact me to discuss - angelagarry@picaaurum.com.

Wise up. GO TO BED.

I took some time off during November to catch up on some ill health that need looking after. This is a vital thing for all of us to do for ourselves.

Far too many of us struggle into work when we are sick, making ourselves feel worse (and often causing our illnesses to last longer as we are not giving ourselves adequate time to recover from them) - and most often, passing our germs on to everyone else.

Hands up if you are one of the "oh, but I'm so indispensable in what I do, I simply *have* to go in to work" brigade?

Now look at that from your boss's point of view: yes, your boss might need you to be there - but do you really offer a positive view of the organisation to your boss's visitors, sitting at your desk sneezing / coughing / spluttering / looking hideously ill?

If you are ill - GO HOME. GO TO BED. GET BETTER. Then return to work when you are ready.

I have worked for two previous bosses who had strokes - one of them actually IN the office. I myself had struggled in to the office on many occasions whilst suffering from severe chest infections (on two occasions I had managed to cough so hard that I had cracked a rib, and yet I STILL made my way into the office, to sit there coughing in agony).

Wise up to yourself. Look after yourself.  If you don't, it's unlikely that anyone will do it for you.

Tonight's #adminchat on Twitter - I'm the "guest expert" this week at 6pm - 45 minutes from now

Join me, in just under an hour - at 6pm GMT - on Twitter for this week's #adminchat.

I'm the "guest expert" for this week's one hour of Q&A - and my chosen topic is "SP2PB: Self Preservation to Prevent Burnout".


If you're not already a Twitter member - sign up for your free account NOW.  Then search for the conversation by using the searching tag - #adminchat

(It's easiest to do this via a third-party tweeting package - I recommend using TWUBS.com to follow the conversation as this will prevent any other tweets from popping up in the way of the chat.)

Lucy Brazier's hosting team will be asking me questions - and I'll be answering. Feel free to join the conversation, ask a question (numbering your question Q1, Q2, Q3, according to wherever we are in the numbering at that point) or post an answer to a question (using A1, A2, A3)...  Watch the conversation for a few minutes and you'll get the hang of it, if you're a newbie...

So, join us via Twitter or Twubs.com - see you in 45!!

 http://ln.is/twubs.com/wOeBu



Angela Garry

The wrong message for Christmas - John Lewis advert 2015

I can't bear it. The Christmas 2015 John Lewis advert is SO wrong.

• We see the lonely old man in the moon.
• A little girl sees him through a telescope.
• He looks sad and all alone.
• So she sends him a telescope for Christmas and waves at him.

"Ah, how sweet." Right?


WRONG!!

This is purportedly a message to encourage us to think of old people at this time of year and to do something for them.

My response to the ad?

If you agree with me - please feel free to SHARE this post, especially to John Lewis and Co.


Angela Garry

Women in business

Survey figures show that 97% of PAs in the UK are women (Source: APA PA Survey, 2012) - but only 25% of FTSE 100 Board Directors in the UK are women.  (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34663119 - 29 October 2015). 

This doubles the number of women directors since 2011, with a new target of 33% of women board members at FTSE 350 firms by 2020.

However, much as we might applaud the increase, it has been revealed that 260 of the 286 women on the boards of FTSE 100 companies are non-executives: in other words, these women are involved in the policy making decisions for the business but not in the day to day operations.

In addition, it should be noted that the FTSE report counts positions held by women not individuals, so women who serve on more than on board would have been counted multiple times. (In other words, the number of individual women in Director roles in the FTSE 100 companies is lower than the 25% of roles reported.)

Whichever way you choose to read the figures, we need more women to aspire to (and gain) top positions in business.

As PAs we are in the PERFECT position to learn about running an organisation, as we usually in a unique role in the company - we are the person who works closest with the Executives. We run their office while they are out, we deal with their contacts and correspondence with ease. We become their business partner, working in conjunction with them, on projects and major tasks. We need to push for more recognition for our skills and worth within the organisations we support, and for more progression routes.

We have the skills, the experience, the expertise and the knowhow - let's use them!

Susie Barron-Stubley - funeral details

The PA and EA community has been rocked this week by the tragic news of the death of Susie Barron Stubley. Susie, owner / MD of Castalia Executive Coaching, is loved by so many of us. She trained, coached, mentored and inspired so many, worldwide. We are all greatly at a loss without her.

I first met Susie when she was blonde - back in 2009-10, when I attended one of her seminars. She offered me some sound advice on something related to my job, and a couple of years later she was one of the judges when I was nominated for PA of the Year, and she gave me some great tips, pointers and feedback. She then offered business advice to me and encouraged me in the early stages of my own PA training work. All of this, she gave willingly and freely, with great cheer, common sense, compassion and a smile. She later 'went red' around 2012, exchanging her then trademark blonde hair to become a vibrant redhead, a colour that seemed to match her temperament so well - bright, bubbly, vivacious, charming, and a bit naughty. She had the most amazing laugh, that made me smile every time I heard it. I remember it now, I can hear it. And always the lipstick, the bright red lipstick...

Details for Susie's funeral have been announced, with requests that we share them out, in the hope that all her friends get a chance to see them, and thus have the opportunity to attend. Please feel free to like / share / forward this post - and I'll see you at the funeral, if you're able to make it.

Get your bright red lipstick out for the occasion. Let's see this beautiful, wonderful woman off with a smile to match hers.

A tribute page has been opened by Susie's family - if you wish to, you can use the space to leave a message, a thought, post an image, or make a donation to the MIND charity. The page is at http://susie.barron.muchloved.com/


Angela xx

Number one social media influencer for the PA community!

Lordy, lordy, my head is swelling as I sit here typing this....    :-)

The website address of the list, if you want it, is http://eventopedia.com/the-pa-club-power-list

The site says "The PA Club’s most influential Powerlist is based on the active users of Twitter and other social media and their Klout scores. This Klout score is based on various metrics from Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Instagram, Foursquare, Wikipedia as well as Klout. The influencer list is an almost real-time run down of the most influential PAs on social media. This list is automatically updated on a weekly basis every Friday."

#SOproud!!

Onwards and upwards.....

Angela  xx

Explaining who and what I am....

It's quite complicated, being a PA. One of the biggest obstacles in the job is that some of the people you come into contact with have  no idea what a PA is and subsequently no idea what you do all day. I spent a lot of time during my 24 years in administrative roles (of which 18 were in PA roles), explaining what I did, where my role fit within an organisation, how I worked with the boss and in what way my skills could be best utilised...

I'm still defining myself now - even though I left my official Personal Assistant role in February 2014 - over a year and a half ago! Why?

Because, even though I'm no longer someone else's PA, I'm now MY OWN PA. I carry out all of the PA tasks, responsibilities and duties that I used to carry out for other people - except now I am doing them for myself. Technically, I'm the CEO of my little training company - but as I'm the only member of staff I'm also my own PA.

Plus, in addition to delivering training, mentoring and coaching worldwide for PAs, EAs, VAs, Secretaries and Administrative Staff - and editing NAHPA magazine - and writing books - and editing and publishing other people's books - I'm also a Virtual Assistant, doing administrative work for three CEOs from my home.

I found myself this evening explaining all this on the phone to a lovely chap from Eventopedia, as his team had thought I was no longer a PA / EA / VA and therefore not eligible to be a member of their weekly Top 250 PA board - they'd removed me from the Board last week and I queried it with them.

During our conversation I noted that they took their information mostly from Twitter - and pointed out that, for me, the Twitter headline doesn't allow enough space to list all my roles and responsibilities, because I'm still a multi-tasker! I explained the work that I'm currently doing - for whom - for what - for when - for how - and I've now rejigged my Twitter headline to squeeze in "Virtual Assistant", which means I should be back on the Eventopedia Top 250 PA Social Media list when it's published at the end of this week.

(Headline box outlined in pink: not enough space for everything I do!)

The list is at http://eventopedia.com/the-pa-club-power-list - and I recommend it to PAs / EAs / VAs to find mentors for their development - seek out someone in a similar industry to your own and follow them on Twitter / LinkedIn / etc - and contact them to ask if they would consider working with you on a one-to-one basis by phone or Skype or in person every now and again to help you out with your CPD.

It's a great list of fabulous people in wonderful roles. USE IT!


Angela Garry
The world's most connected Personal Assistant, Virtual Assistant, and PA Trainer / Mentor / Coach.

Thank us, and mean it - or lose us...

(This piece is reproduced from my LinkedIn posting today at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thank-us-mean-lose-angela-garry?trk=pulse-det-nav_art)

You know how sometimes an article can jog your memory of something?

Today, I was pointed in the direction of Mark Goulston's rather excellent article on the importance of thanks and praise for assistants (see "How to give a meaningful Thank You", from February 2013 - available on the Harvard Business Review website https://hbr.org/2013/02/how-to-give-a-meaningful-thank). Reading the article, I was reminded of a Personal Assistant who spoke with me a couple of years ago about one of her former bosses.

Since 2010 I have been delivering training, mentoring and coaching sessions worldwide for PAs, Executive Assistants, Secretaries and administrators. Kelly* attended one of my training sessions in 2013, around the time Mark was writing his article. She was at that point about three years into her job at a leading finance organisation. Within my training session I had mentioned the importance of thanks - and she came to chat with me afterwards on how much this had resonated with her.
This was what Kelly told me of her story:

"I'm really happy in my current job and I get on very well with my Chief Executive and my colleagues. Maybe it's rare in the finance industry but it's actually quite a caring culture at the company, and we are actively encouraged to notice and appreciate each others' efforts. One of my previous jobs was totally different though...

"I was the Chief Financial Officer's personal assistant at a bank. He was quite 'old school' and a couple of times while I was there he referred to PAs as 'secretaries with an attitude', which I very much disliked but he thought was a bit funny and clever. He'd say it to visitors to his office - in front of me. They'd smile, I'd wince politely, they'd go into their meeting, and I'd sit at my desk thinking of ways to get him back...

"I never did though, I was far too professional in my work and I became more determined, I suppose, to prove him wrong and to make him appreciate what I did, by going that extra mile on things, putting in additional effort.

"Looking back now, I can quite easily see that his doing down of my skills, his lack of thanks and praise - and his lack of acknowledgement of any sort about my efforts - was actually making me want and need them all the more, and I became a workaholic, yearning for some sort of acknowledgement of my hard work. Of course, I didn't see this at the time. Nobody does in that situation, I suppose...

"The more I worked, the harder I worked, the more effort I put in, the earlier I came into the office and the later I stayed to get things done, the less he seemed to notice. The pressure grew all the time, and I became more and more unhappy, more and more tired, more and more determined to get things right enough that my boss would have to see how good I was, surely he would see it one day? But he never did.

"A colleague from another branch of the bank came into my office around 9am one day for an all-day meeting with ten or twelve others, plus my boss, who hadn't arrived yet. He and my boss were due to meet for an hour first before the others arrived for the major pitch on a project. He commented on the two empty coffee cups on the shelf behind my desk - hadn't the room been cleaned last night, he asked? I explained that they were my 'first thing in the morning' and 'one hour after arrival' drinks from this morning. "You mean you've been here over an hour already?" he asked. "About two hours, actually, to get the final things ready for this meeting", I said. 

"He sat at a spare table in my office and got on with some paperwork whilst waiting for my boss to arrive. When my boss finally came in half an hour later, the colleague said jokingly to him "You work Kelly much too hard, you know. Do you know she's always in the office so early each day?" My boss smiled and replied "She thrives on the pressure, she wouldn't have it any other way."
"They went into their meeting. I was in split in two trains of thought. Part of me thought, yes, I did seem to thrive on pressure, I worked hard and got into routines to get me through a lot of work swiftly. The other part of me thought, no, I wasn't thriving at all, I was miserable, over-worked, over-wrought and exhausted, and why couldn't my boss see that? Probably because *I* hadn't seen that until then.

"The all-day meeting was about a really major project, which could have a big impact for the organisation. I'd spent an enormous amount of time in the weeks leading up to this meeting, putting together the documentation, the presentation slides, the handouts, etc. The other attendees arrived and joined the meeting. I flitted about, organising teas and coffees, making sure the lunch order was finalised, making yet more copies of papers after someone spilled coffee on theirs, and mopping up the spilt drink. As I was doing this, I heard my boss say something about how they ought to halt the confidential discussions whilst "the little woman was cleaning the table". No mention of the fact that I had typed all of the confidential documents that they were looking at, or of the other hard work that I had put in to ensure that everything was ready for this major meeting. Just a sly comment that implied that I couldn't be trusted to hear something confidential.

"I went back to my desk and got on with my work. But I also spent the day thinking (and fuming!) about what had been said. At the end of the all-day meeting, the visitors left, and the colleague left. My boss came out of his office, beaming from ear to ear. "We've got the project 'go ahead'", he said. "This is going to be major. Of course, you're going to need to put in some harder work from now on, but at the end of this project it's going to mean a lot. I'm even going to get a nice big bonus out of it." He was so proud. Something on my face must have registered for a second... "I'll see you right, don't you worry. In fact, I'll go and sort that out now" he said, and he left for the day.

"A small part of me thought "Wow, has he gone to speak with someone about a bonus for me?" I went home, exhausted. When I got into work the following morning, everything was the same as usual. I did an hour and a half's work before my boss swanned in with an unfeasibly large bouquet of white lilies, wrapped in paper, which he plonked on my desk. "This is for your hard work on the project" he said, and went into his office. Not even a "Thank you"' and certainly no hint of a bonus for me.

"White lilies have been traditionally used as a highly scented flower to mask the smell of death. We've had white lilies at family funerals. I don't like their smell, and because of the funerals, I associate them with death. To be brutally honest, I hate white lilies. They're not a cheerful flower. And they're certainly not a 'thank you for all your support' flower. What were these flowers were to me? They were the death of my role. 

"I sat at my desk and typed a resignation letter, resigning with IMMEDIATE EFFECT and stating that I would take my remaining holiday entitlement - all 16 days of it - during my notice period. It was close to Easter. This meant that I gave a month's full notice, but didn't owe the organisation another day or my time. I didn't even owe them that day - my annual leave entitlement was enough for me to walk out, there and then. So I did.

"I printed two copies, signed them both, and put one into my boss's in tray and the other into the internal mail tray in the corridor, in an envelope marked to the Director of HR. I emptied my few personal things from my desk. And I put the lilies in my office bin which I stood on my desk - next to a handwritten note saying "Thank you."

"My 'thank you' note wasn't to say 'thank you for being a great boss' - oh, no no! It was to say 'thank you for showing me that I needed to do this for myself, and that I needed to make the decision to leave'. 

"Then I walked out, crossed the road and signed on with a temping agency, who found me a full-time role to start just a couple of days later. I never went back.

"After a few months of temping in several offices, a week here, a couple of weeks there, I found my current role and I love it. I'm not looking for a boss who tries to thank me for every single little thing I do day in day out, but being genuinely thanked every once in a while when I've been working hard is SO joyful and means SO much."

* Note: Kelly has given me her permission to repeat her story here, on condition that I change her name for anonymity purposes.


To bosses worldwide, the bottom line is this:

Take on board the amount of work that your assistant does for you. 

Notice the number of hours they put in on your behalf. 

Look at the amount of success you achieve as a result of their efforts. 

And then THANK THEM. Genuinely. Mean it.

Not just a quick "thanks a million" as you walk out of the door, or a "Tks" at the end of an email.

Let your assistant know that their work is appreciated, that their efforts are appreciated, that what they do MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

Then I want you to do something more.

PAY THEM ACCORDINGLY.

Administrative Assistants, Personal Assistants, Executive Assistants, Secretaries, whatever you choose to call us in our roles, are paid VERY little for the level of expertise and professionalism which we demonstrate on a daily basis. And yet, more and more, you expect more from your assistant.

In the Hays / Executive Secretary survey (results published in July 2015), 63% of managers / executives credited their assistant with working at MANAGERIAL or DIRECTOR level. There is no excuse for paying such a worthy worker a pittance for their efforts in ensuring that you do well in your role of running the organisation.

Without the support of your Assistant, where would you be?

PAs and EAs the world over are supporting the leadership of businesses, working in partnership with their bosses, to run organisations. We are not the stereotypical "take a letter, Miss Jones" secretary or no-brained receptionist from the cartoons of the 1950s. We never were. We are working in partnership with you, we have well developed skills and expertise, we soak up your knowledge in order to keep the organisation running all day while you are out at meetings. We deal with your visitors, your phone calls, your correspondence, with the knowledge and learning that we have developed in our roles. We help you to lead your business to success.

All of that deserves thanks, praise and appropriate remuneration.

As I've said before, it's all L'Oreal, you know.

We're worth it.


Angela Garry
angelagarry@picaaurum.com
Worlds most connected PA and PA Trainer on LinkedIn
Global PA & EA Trainer at Pica Aurum www.picaaurum.com
Author "Brave PAs" www.bravepas.com and "The PA & EA Circus"  www.thepaeacircus.com
Editor of "National Association of Headteachers' PAs" magazine www.nahpa.org.uk

Reporting on my first time as a speaker and exhibitor at the Office* show last week...

Oh my! I had a whale of a time last week....

I was invited, back in about April, to be a speaker within the Seminar programme at the Office* show in London, which took place on Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 October. Just one week before the show, I was asked if I could cover someone else's slot in the programme too - so I was booked for two sessions, plus I had a stand within the exhibition.

With my friend Di Solomon roped in to be my "Honorary Personal Assistant" for the two days - we set off from the Midlands to London, arriving at the Olympia venue on Monday around 4:40 pm. By 5:30 we had emptied the contents of the car into the stand, and then headed off to our hotel to check-in, then out for dinner. (We found a lovely pub almost directly opposite Earls Court tube station!)

Tuesday morning saw us up early and out of the hotel. We should have been WELL in time - but for some unknown reason I managed to completely mess things up and wrongly navigated from a map - so we arrived LATE for the 9:00 am start (eeeeek!) - and I staggered in, huffing and puffing, through the doors around 9:15. Thankfully, with the stand being on the back row of the exhibition space, there were very few people around at that time so we were able to get the table set up with copies of my books for sale, and get settled in, ready for the crowds...

My first speaking session was at 12pm on the Tuesday - speaking on "Talent management - managing your career and shaping your future". This was the session I was asked to cover at a week's notice, and seemed to go down well with the audience - lots of people came over to the stand afterwards to give good comments and feedback, and to buy my books, plus there were several really positive tweets about it on Twitter, so I was very pleased. I got a chance to wander around some of the other stands mid-afternoon - but the day absolutely flew by - Di and I could hardly believe that suddenly it was 4:15pm already, with only another 45 minutes of the show remaining for the day!

It was a really great two days being on the "other side" of attending - I'd attended as a PA for many years, and this was my first time being a speaker and/or exhibitor - so speaking twice AND having the stand really gave me a whole new experience of Office* !!

Di and I attended the drinks session which was hosted at Pizza Express for speakers and exhibitors at the end of the day (the photo shows Marion Lowrence, Vickie Sokol Evans, me and Di), then crossed the road to the Masala curry house for a delicious dinner, before retrieving Di's car from the Olympia car park and back to our hotel for the night.  Needless to say, after the fiasco of my map-reading that morning, I made sure that we did better on our route back to Olympia on Wednesday morning (I still can't quite believe how badly I misread the map on Tuesday!!), and we were back at the stand ready for the 9am opening of day two.

It seemed a little slower on Wednesday with less people - or it could just be that we'd calmed down from the flurry and excitement of the day before... My seminar was at 10:45, speaking on "The beginner's guide to integrating the many parts of the PA & EA". This was the session I was really excited about - as it was based on my new book "The PA & EA Circus", which I had finished writing at the end of August, just in time to get it published to bring copies along to sell at Office*....

Again, the session seemed to go over very well, with more really positive feedback from attendees who came to visit the stand, and more positive tweets - and over the two days Di and I managed to sell a good number of copies of my books.

With being on the stand, there wasn't really time for me to attend other seminars over the two days  which is a real change from my previous experiences of attending Office* - but I didn't miss out in any way: instead of meeting PAs as I walked around, they made their way to me at the stand!!  As always, I absolutely loved meeting so many PAs and EAs - it's such a great event for meeting and networking and making really good connections.

If you didn't attend this year, please please please put the dates in your diary and make an effort to attend in 2016 - it's going to be 11-12 May next time and at a change of venue - the ExCel in the London Docklands areas. Details will be added to http://www.officeshow.co.uk in the coming months. I can guarantee you'll have an interesting time, and meet some great people - and the training seminars, free keynote seminars, technological seminars AND exhibition are all brilliantly planned and put together.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Angela
xx

Working with PAs & EAs worldwide.... can you spot yourself in one of my course photos?

I've just been spending an hour or two pulling together some images to use in a promotional banner, to advertise my training courses.

Going through my folders of photos has taken me ages - because for every image, I've stopped, looked at the faces, remembered some of the names (but not all, I'm good but not THAT good) - and remembered the stories they shared within the courses that they attended.

In just five and a half years (during the first four years of which I was already carrying out a full-time job), I've met and delivered training, mentoring and / or coaching for well over 3,000 Personal Assistants, Executive Assistants, Secretaries, Office Managers, Admin Assistants - support staff by whatever name or title you choose to call them.

I'm not sure I can express in words how lucky, fortunate, hanging-out-of-my-pockets-with-joy this feels. I just know that I've spent the last two hours or so with a great big grin on my face, remembering.

Here's the combined image that I've put together, to be displayed in the middle of a vertical banner advertising my Pica Aurum training courses:  can you spot yourself?????

I've made the image clickable so that you can see a larger version of it.....

Sorry I couldn't include everyone - there were SO many photos of groups to choose from, these are just a selection....


Angela

An innovative new training / mentoring / coaching offering for PAs & EAs worldwide...

As a Trainer for PAs, I often receive requests to travel round the world to deliver courses for groups / companies / events - and I also market my own courses within the UK and Europe.  

For example, I'm currently marketing courses 1 and 2 in my series of two-day workshops, taking place across England, Scotland and Ireland in October to December 2015. Courses 3 and 4 are in preparation, and I'll hopefully start delivering those next year also. Details at www.picaaurum.com

Whenever I advertise one (or more) of my courses and send out marketing messages via LinkedIn, Twitter, email, etc, I endeavour to send out to targetted people, groups or companies who might be interested in attending.  Putting messages about the courses on discussion groups on LinkedIn can be really helpful as it brings in people who are members of those groups but might not already be on my contact list, so it helps to expand my reach.

However, it does bring about another issue: people outside of my target area also see my messages and contact me saying "your courses look great - but I am not near your venue. Are you thinking of coming to XXXXX sometime soon?" I've responded with messages saying whether I am (or aren't) due to be delivering training anywhere near them, and also offering my services to their company to deliver bespoke training for them and their colleagues, should they wish to fly me out.

This works for some, but not for others - so I have decided to further develop my already comprehensive course handbooks to include images of the slides from the presentations I would make during each course - and to then make these available for purchase. This means that potential attendees worldwide who cannot make it to one of my events can benefit from working through the training materials on their own and at their own pace. The purchase price will include up to two hours of one-to-one Skype calls with me, to discuss any items within the course content or their CPD which they would like to talk about.

Purchasers could choose for the Skype element to be four half-hourly calls, or two one-hour ones, etc. - we'd arrange it to suit both of us. They can also choose whether to work through the whole course handbook before talking with me, or whether to work through half or quarter of it at a time - or to utilise the Skype calls for mentoring / coaching sessions on other CPD matters, in addition to working through the course handbook.

With this in mind, I've today completed the print-on-demand process for the course handbooks for courses 1 and 2 - and they are both now available via Amazon worldwide and also direct from me (if you would prefer for your company to be invoiced for the purchase).

The attendance cost for my two-day courses is around £300 per programme (depending on whether you book on the Early Bird, Normal or Last Minute rate).

The complete handbooks, including images of presentation slides and two hours of Skype calls with me, are priced at £200 for each course, making this an affordable alternative.

Course 1, "Two Essential Days for PAs", contains two one-day workshops, "Be a Multi-Tasking Miracle Maker" and "Project Management for PAs / EAs".  These are the links to buy this from Amazon.co.uk - course 1 and Amazon.com - course 1

Course 2, "Two 'How To' Days for Tomorrow's PA", contains 8 essential topics to ensure you are ready for tomorrow's challenges: presentations, overflowing inboxes, purple folder, appraisals, social media, managing change, minute-taking, networking. These are the links to buy this from Amazon.co.uk - course 2 and Amazon.com - course 2

To purchase either course handbook from me direct (so that your company can pay via invoice), please email angelagarry@picaaurum.com to arrange this.

Best wishes,

Angela Garry

The importance of CPD - and some CPD items for you to use

Hello everyone


CPD. Continuous Professional Development. We should be doing it - every day. And it's not just the odd training course here or there or attending a conference. EVERY DAY you should be taking in new information and learning from it. Put aside 5 to 10 minutes in your lunch break to browse a PA-related website or magazine, read a chapter from a PA book, download an item and work through it, listen to a podcast or a language cd on the way to and from work rather than the radio. DO SOMETHING actively about bettering yourself.


In this day and age, when 100 people can be applying for the same PA role as you, IT IS NO LONGER GOOD ENOUGH TO BE GOOD ENOUGH AT OUR JOBS. WE MUST BE EXCEPTIONAL.

Below I have details of four free CPD items for you to download plus two to buy, plus details of my training courses for autumn 2015 in the UK & Ireland - and I urge you all to work on your CPD!  I'll post more items in the coming weeks....


1. FREE CPD ITEMS TO DOWNLOAD:

* Is your business suffering from "Invisible Employee Syndrome"? Download this report to learn about Invisible Employee Syndrome including the symptoms, causes and effects that it could be having on your business. Also discover how modern HR systems, in combination with senior leadership commitment, workforce insights and process integration, can help to stem the rising tide of this modern workforce ailment. http://picaaurum.tradepub.com/free/w_fair03/

* “Social Networking with a purpose” Tips for Building a Social Referral Machine. Referral recruiting is based on the principle that high achievers know other high achievers. When your employees' trusted contacts share your openings with their trusted contacts your organization's recruiting reach grows exponentially – which means you can wait for the right talent to come to you. http://picaaurum.tradepub.com/free/w_orac404/

* "A Modern Approach to HR For Dummies" – an executive brief offering: (a) The top three reasons for HR transformation; (b) How thinking like a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) can help HR align to the business and win top talent, and (c) The role of key technologies in modern HR and how to choose the right partner for your HR strategy. http://picaaurum.tradepub.com/free/w_orac406/

* "How Well Do You Know Your Workforce?" Think you know your workforce inside and out? Find out if you do! Many young and fast growing companies are recruiting and expanding fast. While these are exciting trends, new challenges quickly emerge regarding their people. Now that the company is bigger, across different offices, regions and countries, things get more complicated. When HR is asked questions regarding the workforce, answers take longer to find, and often there is no consistent view because information is spread out in different places.  http://picaaurum.tradepub.com/free/w_fair07/

(As per previous posts, the hosting site for these 4 items requires you to log-in, either via a free registration or via your LinkedIn account - they will then email you with a clickable link to the download page / webinar page for your item.)


2. CPD ITEMS TO BUY:
“Brave PAs” by Angela Garry - for PAs, EAs, Secretaries and Admins working in Education - has been named by Executive PA magazine as “the new PA bible”. Available via Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Details at www.bravepas.com

And ANNOUNCING MY NEW BOOK: “The PA & EA Circus” – available NOW via Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Details at www.thepaeacircus.com


3. CALLING ALL PAs AND ADMINS!!!!!!
Angela Garry and Pica Aurum are proud to announce the Autumn programme: five dates, five venues, two courses. Bookings are open. Details at www.picaaurum.com

Course 1. "Two Days for PAs" - Two workshops, "Be a Multi-Tasking Miracle Maker" and "Project Management for PAs / EAs"

CLARION HOTEL, LIMERICK - Thursday 5 & Friday 6 November 2015 - http://picaaurum-limerick.eventbrite.co.uk

JURY’S INN, EDINBURGH - Thursday 3 & Friday 4 December 2015 - http://picaaurum-edinburgh.eventbrite.co.uk


-----plus-----

Course 2. "Two 'How To' Days for Tomorrow's PA" - Eight essential topics to ensure you are ready for tomorrow's challenges: presentations, overflowing inboxes, purple folder, appraisals, social media, managing change, minute-taking, networking.

BEST WESTERN SKYLON HOTEL, DUBLIN - Tuesday 20 & Wednesday 21 October 2015 - http://picaaurum-dublin.eventbrite.co.uk

NOTTINGHAM BELFRY – Monday 9 & Tuesday 10 November 2015 - http://picaaurum-nottingham.eventbrite.co.uk

CORUS HYDE PARK HOTEL, LONDON - Tuesday 24 & Wednesday 25 November 2015 - http://picaaurum-london.eventbrite.co.uk

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!!!

Angela Garry
angelagarry@picaaurum.com

A particularly busy week ahead....

I got home on Sunday afternoon from a few days' break in Paris with a friend - which was lovely. Now I'm back to the grindstone....

Projects this week include:

• finalising a book on online dating that I'm editing - written by a friend, under a psuedonym;
• working on putting together an A-Z book for a fellow trainer;
• working on putting together a children's book for a former colleague; 
• working on my presentation for the Office* show in mid-October;
• pulling together more articles for this term's issue of NAHPA magazine for PAs in education;
• plus more writing of my own books (I have four in different stages of development at the moment), and marketing for my training courses.

Fortunately, with my bad back, I can manage to work on all of these from my bed via laptop and iPad and the internet. I love technology that enables me to continue doing stuff even when I can't sit up at a desk.......   :-)

Sharing the Forewords for my two books "Brave PAs" and "The PA & EA Circus"

I'm so proud to have written my two books for the PA / EA community - and equally proud of the wonderful Forewords that were written for them.

The first Foreword was for "Brave PAs", my book for educational PAs and secretaries. This was written by my former boss, Dave Harris - the most inspiring person I've ever worked for - who was the Principal of the Academy where I worked for 5.5 years. Dave is now the Managing Director for Independent Thinking Ltd - a group of educational speakers.

The second Foreword for "The PA & EA Circus", my book for PAs and EAs in any industry. This was written by one of the leading lights in the PA / EA profession: Lucy Brazier, CEO of Marcham Publishing (publishers of Executive Secretary magazine, and creators of the incredible ExecutiveSecretaryLIVE conferences worldwide).

I'd like to share both with you. For the Foreword to "Brave PAs" click here - and for "The PA & EA Circus", click here.


I'm really proud to have worked with both Dave Harris and Lucy Brazier, and honoured to know them as friends.


Angela

Where would you bury YOUR crock of gold?

All too often, we forget to sit back and take stock - and remind ourselves of what we can achieve, what we have done, what we have managed to make happen. We are rushed of our feet in our busy roles as PA & EAs, and we neglect to congratulate ourselves or take pride in the miracles we have brought about.

Reading a friend's status on Facebook just now, I was reminded of my favourite quote from 'Brideshead Revisited' by Evelyn Waugh, which brings to mind the idea of remembering / acknowledging and taking pride in what we do... 

To set the scene for you: friends Sebastien Flyte and Charles Ryder have just had a picnic and are lying on the grass under a tree, smoking Turkish cigars and watching the smoke drifting upwards through the leaves. They have eaten strawberries and drunk some wine (which, as Sebastien had predicted, went very well together), and it's a beautifully hot and hazy sunny day. Then Sebastien speaks:

"Just the place to bury a crock of gold" said Sebastien. "I would like to bury something precious in every place where I have been happy - then, when I was old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember."

I have a few places where I would bury my crock(s) of gold:

• at the top of the red steps at Times Square, New York - my favourite place in the world, where I feel my most excited about life;
• in my best friend's garden in Exeter, England - where I feel the most comfortable and happy, with my loved ones around me;
• on the beach at Sidmouth, England - my favourite seaside view in the UK, near the city I lived in for 13 years;
• on the mountain-top overlooking Hong Kong - spectacular view, really moving, a huge sense of achievement for having "made it";
• on the beach at Jomtien, south of Pattaya, Thailand - so beautiful, so peaceful, so lovely, even through illness;
• at the Arenal beach in Javea, Spain, recuperating after surgery - I fell in love with the town and am hoping to make it my new home in the near(ish) future; and
• standing in a hotel meeting room in Bangkok, Thailand, delivering my first major international two-day training course to a group of fabulously enthusiastic PAs - with a tremendous sense of pride and fulfillment at what I'd achieved to get there.

Sit back in your chair for a minute or two and take stock of what you have done, where you have felt a sense of fulfillment and achievement... Where would you bury YOUR crock(s) of gold and why?

Best wishes,

Angela 
x

Calling all PA-Assistcom members - have you voted yet on the Members' Voice Awards for 2015?

My work is nominated in three different categories in the PA-Assist Members' Voice Awards for 2015 - so if you are a member of the site, your votes would be very much appreciated!

I'm nominated for:

• PICA AURUM for Best PA Training Provider, 
• "Brave PAs" for Best Book for PAs, and
• "PAs, EAs, VAs and Senior Admins" for Best On-line Forum for PAs.

From the latest newsletter from PA-Assist.com:  

PA-Assist.com Member's Voice Awards 2015 - Voting is open for Members ...

Wow! The race to vote for the 2015 final 'hot lists' are off to a stunning start!

With the nominations stage indicating that we are going to see some very closely run categories this year, our 12,500+ pa-assist.com members are certainly active in wanting to recognise who they see as the leaders amongst the profession.

You can see the full MVA Shortlists for who are the most nominated, by category for 2015 here:
http://www.pa-assist.com/members-voice-awards-2015 (sign-in required), or ...
 

... get straight to the voting here!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MVA2015

To recap - our 2015 Categories are:
Best PA Specialist Recruitment Consultancies
Best PA Industry Events
Best PA Industry Magazines
Best PA Training Providers
Best Books for PAs
Best On-line Forums for PAs
Best Apps for PAs
Best Venue Finding Services
Best Travel Management Companies

Voting closes Midnight, 31st October 2015.
The 'Most Popular' in each category will be announced 20th November 2015.

With more than 7,500 votes cast last year, it certainly provided a very popular format for us to 'help you, our members, to have your say', and represent some of your feedback to those that work to support the profession. Most Popular winners for 2014 included: PA Life, office*, Today's PA, Hays Plc, and Angela Garry's On-line Forum "PAs, EAs, VAs and Senior Administrators".

Have your say - please do get involved!
Cast your votes for 2015 here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MVA2015

Self-employed working from home - pros and cons

I left my previous job in February 2014 - to go it alone, working solo as a PA Trainer, writer, magazine editor.

Until this, I got up before 7am, left the house by 7:45, arrived at work around 8:15, started working at 8:300, had half an hour for lunch somewhere between 12:30 and 1:30, left between 6pm and 8pm (most days), got home 20 minutes later, then spent at least two evenings per week planning my OTHER work for the PA community: devising course programmes, networking and mentoring. It felt rigid, very hard work, and very tiring. I'm naturally NOT a morning person, so getting up before 7am every school / work day for my whole life was a strain every day.

Now I get up at varying times (depending on the end of the previous day), commute by wandering downstairs, start working when I choose to (if I'm up early I can skype with colleagues in Asia first thing), take a lunch break when I remember to, go out for a few hours or read a book or play with my cats or take a snooze (depending on my bad back), then start work again whenever I want to, make dinner at some point, watch some TV and do some more work, sometimes catching second or third wind late in the evening and working through til the early hours. In comparison with my 24 years of working set hours, it sounds incredibly chaotic, but for me it really works. I'm awake and at the computer at midnight (when colleagues in America and Canada are also at work so we can skype then), and I go to bed when I choose to, not worrying about having to get up early the following day.

So - what are the pros and cons of one over the other?

For me. the pros of working for myself, from home are:

• I get to pick and choose the number of hours I work on each day.
• I get to choose when I work them - whether all in one go, or here and there throughout the day / evening / night.
• I feel much more freedom in what I'm doing, with more control over it.
• I'm not tied to having to get up earlier than my internal body clock would like (I've struggled with getting up in the morning for years!).
• No driving through rush-hour traffic - rain - snow - to get to work and no staying late after hours to avoid the rush-hour traffic on the way home.
• I'm spending very little on petrol for the car.
• I'm spending less money, full stop, because I'm not stopping off at shops on the way home from work to buy something for dinner.
• Still suffering from ill health, my back pain doesn't allow me to go food shopping with a trolley round a large supermarket, so I order my shopping online - but working from home means I can have it delivered during the day for a much cheaper cost than the evening deliveries I was restricted to when I was out all day at work elsewhere.
• I'm not interrupted constantly throughout the day by visitors to my office, so I feel more productive.
• Being more productive means I can work shorter hours if I choose to.
• If I need to order anything I'm home for deliveries (meaning I don't miss a day-time delivery during the week and then have to hike to the post office to pick things up at the weekend).
• Lots of smaller costs in terms of workclothes (I can wear what I like at home!), costs of shoes (slippers!), etc.
• Almost every week I get new ideas of things that I could do in the future, topics or tasks that I could include in my work - I feel energised and very lucky to be in a position where I can have so much control over what I do.

Cons of working from home:

• Less interaction on a personal basis with people - visitors, taking phone calls for the boss or colleagues, etc - can mean sometimes I don't see "real people" for a few days if I don't leave the house. Having worked in several PA roles where I was an office by myself without much contact during the working day with other colleagues, I'm OK with this. Plus my cats love me being home with them so much.
• There's no regular payslip with money thunking into my bank account once a month. I'm now used to this though, and with my lower spending costs I find that I need less money per month and my fears of "oh my, who's going to pay the mortgage?" have been unfounded - I'm doing OK!
• There can be a temptation to keep running off with new ideas, and not finishing the task in hand. I'm a bit of a magpie and am attracted by "bright and shiny things" (e.g. new ideas) but am learning to rein things in a bit, list the ideas somewhere safe and then return to them at a later date, after I've finished the tasks I have already got underway.
•  At first, for the first few months, I had a bit of a "hmmm, who's going to tell me what to do?" feeling, as I've been used to supporting the leader of an organsiation for almost my whole career - but I've always been well motivated and able to find things to do in my roles, so not having a manager has been something I feel that I've drifted into quite easily overall.

Overall, I feel that I have landed on my feet. Leaving my job and starting out as self-employed came a bit suddenly, as it was driven primarily by my ill-health (it had been a "plan" to leave my job at "some point" in the future, but I hadn't planned properly when I would do it) - but I've done it, I haven't gone under, I'm still paying the mortgage, I'm doing OK.

For having always worked for someone else, having spent my working life managing someone else's working life, it's a complete change to be managing my own instead. I love it though. I loved being a PA too - please don't get me wrong - I had some fantastic jobs that I absolutely loved with all my heart - but this is a move to something completely different, which I also now love.

I'm very lucky in this. I know I am.  I have had friends who dread Mondays, hate the idea of going to work in the morning, can't bear that the weekend goes so quickly - whereas I now sometimes have to stop myself to think "what day is it?" as I'm so engrossed in what I'm doing or time is flying by so easily and I'm enjoying what I'm doing so much. So yes, I know I'm very lucky. But I do think a lot of it comes down to the great skills I learnt as a PA over the years: managing my own workload, prioritising, scheduling, taking on tasks without supervision, getting things done with little or no budget, coming up with ideas and magical solutions - all of these are skills and abilities that I developed in my PA roles, and all have proved essential now that I'm running my own business from home.

It's hard, of course it is. Most jobs are. Making sure I have a steady enough stream of income lined up for the coming months, timetabling courses, marketing events (which I've not been involved in before, so this is a new thing for me - a new learning curve), and taking a leap of faith on things here and there - but it is SO worth it.  I suppose from looking at my lists of pros and cons above this is probably fairly obvious, as I couldn't think of anywhere near as many cons as I could pros.

So.. I'm moving onwards and upwards. Which is most Definitely my phrase for this part of my working life.

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!

Angela
x

The importance of lists

I have a guilty secret.

I keep lists. Lots of lists, in fact.
In fact, I'm probably what could be called a serial lister.

I list the things I want to get done during this working week.
I list the ideas that come into my head for future projects.
I list the gifts I aim to buy for Christmas presents.
I list the shopping I need to buy.
I cross reference my lists - checking off on old lists to see if there are items that need bringing forward to my new list.

And sometimes I make a list of all the lists I currently have in motion.

I have lists in three different notebooks. For different reasons - personal stuff, magazine stuff, training stuff.
I toy with combining all three notebooks into one BIG notebook, with everything all combined in ONE BIG LIST.

But I think I like individual lists more. I get more pleasure from ticking off a few items from a short list, than ticking off a few items from a great big long list that seems never-ending.
Hence I have several lists: I think it'd be depressing to look at my entire list of "things I'd like to get done before I die / make my fortune and don't need to work anymore" and realise that I have only ticked off a few.

But I *am* getting there:

• Four books written and produced this year. - and more planned, both by me and by other authors, which will be published under my new PICA BOOKS publishing name.
• Took over ownership of the NAHPA magazine and rebuilt a bigger subscriber list in the first four months. 
• Created, developed and delivered new training courses, with more on the way. 
• 28 countries visited in 5 years. 

Tick, tick, tick, tick. 

Next step: make enough money to move to Spain.
That's on a BIG list.

So, yes, the bottom line is: my guilty secret is that I love making lists - and then ticking things off on them.

What's your guilty secret?

Pulling together articles for the next issue of NAHPA magazine

I *love* working with PAs. I have to get that out there. We're a fabulous bunch, we really are...

Ask a PA to write an article for a magazine, give them a specific wordcount and a deadline, and GUESS WHAT? They get it done ON TIME, usually EARLY. And it's usually really well written and needs minimal editing. Plus they'll often write more than you ask for, so there's no need for me to stretch an article out by adding to it, there's usually plenty enough in what they write to fill an extra page or half page. There's absolutely minimal chasing to be done on my part to get the pieces from them, as they are all well planned and well timetabled, and when I ask them to submit a photo or two alongside their article, THEY DO IT, there's no need to remind them (which you invariably have to do with almost EVERYBODY else you come into contact with as a PA). I love it! It makes my job as Editor of the magazine so much easier!

I received two articles for the magazine today - one from PA Trainer and Neuroscience expert Sue France, and the other from Scottish PA of the Year 2015 Liza Young. Both are really interesting pieces of writing, which I hope will inspire the magazine's readership in different ways. If you'd like to read what they have written, GET SUBSCRIBING NOW! This issue will go to press in mid-October for distribution around half-term.

(For those not in the know, I am the owner and editor of NAHPA, which is the UK and Ireland's National Association of Headteachers' PAs magazine - it's the leading publication for PAs working in education. The magazine has three issues per year - one per term, distributed in March, June and November - giving over 90 pages of valuable CPD, motivational and inspirational articles for just £35 per year. That's less than £1 per week throughout the academic year, or about 40p per page. Articles are sourced from world-class trainers and from PAs working within Education. Details and how to subscribe are at www.nahpa.org.uk )

Two lovely reviews for my newest book, "The PA & EA Circus"

I've sent pdf copies of my book to several of my high profile PA contacts around the world, asking them to give brief reviews on it, and the first two responses are very encouraging!! I'll post more, as and when they arrive...

Roll up, roll up PAs and EAs!
I believe the very best advice and know-how can be gleaned from those who have first-hand experience of their topic.
Angela, as a seasoned PA and EA, certainly knows her topic and, coupled with her sense of humour, shares her knowledge in this enjoyable and highly informative book.
This is sure to be a favourite on all PAs' book lists.
Lindsay Taylor - UK - who formerly appeared in her own PA and EA circus prior to setting up Your Excellency Ltd and specialising in training PAs and EAs worldwide. www.yourexcellency.co.uk

Angela Garry has put together an insightful and comprehensive look at the amazing world (circus) of the PA, EA, Secretary and Administrative Assistant.
Her book covers everything from the very start of your career for both the newcomer to our profession as well as those who have been doing it for years.
A brilliant read from beginning to end.
Michele Thwaits - South Africa - President of PAFSA (Professional Association for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants). www.pafsa.co.za

Calling all PAs and EAs - Come and see me speak at Office* 2015

Come see me speak at office* 2015...

"A beginner’s guide to Integrating the many parts of the PA"

10.45-11.45 | Wednesday 14 October 2015 | London, Olympia

Welcome to the circus that is the world of the PA! Multi-tasking, working to multiple managers, dealing with multiple demands on our time, keeping multiple plates spinning – we almost need to have multiple personalities to match!

Being a PA or administrative assistant is no easy task. You need to be able to wear the many hats of a wide range of roles and your manager will quite often expect things of you that you are unfamiliar with. They may presume that you already know what to do without being told, and they will probably expect that you automatically know their preferences and be able to organise logistics successfully on their behalf. You also need to be able to drop everything at a moment’s notice, adapt to new situations, manage your Executive’s working life (and, for some, aspects of their personal life too!), and remain calm and unflustered throughout. How can you build the skills to lead the circus successfully alongside your manager?

This session examines the skills that you will need to lead the circus successfully alongside your manager, looking at some of the various “hats” that PAs wear – together with routes to multiple resources which will help you to develop each aspect and bring them together into a cohesive whole, including:

• Links to discussion groups and networks
• Sources of free articles and papers
• Details of a number of books and online resources.

 So - put on your lion-tamer outfit and let's join the fray!

Register now to visit office* 2015 and see me speak

There are loads of reasons to visit office* - to meet and research new ideas with 150+ top suppliers, take your training into your own hands with 36 CPD accredited seminars and 10 free Keynotes or to get involved in Hot Topic discussions to share and receive the latest knowledge with your peers.

office* is completely free to attend so register now to join over 4,000 office professionals for an educational, inspiring and fun day out of the office.