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Bonnie Taylor Wachowicz thrives on challenge. In 1999 she was laid off from a corporate administrative job she’d had for eight years. When she was told she was laid off, she asked if she could work with the rest of the staff who were laid off, to help them write their resumes! They declined her offer, but it is a good example of Bonnie's ability to find opportunity in the face of problems.
She came across AssistU's Virtual Assistant training program in 2000 and recognized this as a great solution to her desire to be a “self bosser”. She contacted them to enroll in the program only to be told they weren’t accepting Canadian students.
“So I emailed back,” she says with a laugh. “I told them I wanted to set up a similar program in Canada and asked for their help to do it. When I heard back from them, they had changed their minds and said they’d take me after all, along with one other Canadian student, and they wanted us to provide the Canadian content.”
Recalling the twenty week training program, Bonnie describes it as being very intensive. “There were a lot of things I needed to research about myself, as well as researching Canadian resources. A lot of the program is about setting up a business unique to me. Since high school I knew I wanted my own business, but didn’t know what kind of business.
With the training from AssistU I was able to create a business using my administrative skills. The next step was to create the services I really loved to offer, as administrative work was becoming less and less fulfilling - and that led me to the Changing Course "Outside the Job Box" consulting program in 2009. With the addition of this program, I was able to adapt my services to create the lifestyle I love. The foundation I created for Taylor Made Time through the comprehensive AssistU program continues to hold whatever business changes I throw at it.”
Today, Bonnie offers her services as an "Outside the Job Box" Career Consultant, using licensed materials from Valerie Young (www.changingcourse.com) to supplement her training and experience. She also offers coaching to clients who want to extend the consultation experience and have further business support to reach goals of creating their ideal business and lifestyle. Teleclasses and workshops on the same topics are offered as well.
"The best part of this consulting is that I hear a client's voice go from a normal level, sometimes sounding a bit down or even hopeless, to an excited, lively discussion with lots of laughs. There is nothing so joyous as the sound of an excited happy client - and that's how many of them sound after they begin to realize they can create a better lifestyle.
Some of my clients are what Barbara Sher would call "Scanners", people who want to do "thousands of things" but have been led to believe they can only choose one thing. For a Scanner, that is practically a death sentence! I love to work with these people to show them how they really CAN do all the things they want."
"Outside the Job Box" career consultants are very different from traditional career consultants. Clients don't do skills analyses or assessments, but they do complete a homework assignment before a consultation, which helps them to define what they truly love to do and what their ideal environment is.
Instead of trying to fit a client's skills into a job label, Bonnie helps the client learn how to create multiple income streams based on the work they really love to do. That work may include skills they have gained from their previous education or employment, but it may be used in a very different way. Other times, it does not include those skills at all.
Just because someone is very good at data entry, does not mean they HAVE to use it - they might really hate it! Bonnie's consultations provide the groundwork for change, rather than instant riches. She calls this "reality dreaming" - figuring out how to use what you love to create multiple income streams that, over time, may develop into higher profits. At some point the client will realize their dream lifestyle, and in some cases it does not take very long at all!
A vital quality that Bonnie brings to her work is her creativity. “I have a great imagination, and that’s the basis of all I do. I see problems and immediately start imagining unique solutions. I question everything, and each question sparks off another string of imagination.
I like to go beyond the expected. In the corporate world, roles are very narrowly defined and if you step outside that you can get into trouble. You can’t just go off in an innovative direction. With small businesses, there’s more opportunity for creativity, and I think small businesses can react to market changes much more quickly. Helping people to see how they can turn their love of a hobby, or a specific skill they have fine tuned and really enjoy, or a multitude of things they really enjoy, into multiple income streams is like play for me! It's an opportunity for me to use my imagination and that is something I truly love to do.”
Like many creative people, Bonnie values her independence and looks for variety in her work life. “I don’t fit well into strongly defined roles. I like having my own work hours and my own work space. I like to work with people over the phone, so I can relax and really listen for what my client is telling me behind their words. My intuition comes into play very strongly during a consultation.
All my consultations are recorded, so that I can listen a second time with my entire attention focused on the ideas we come up - and then I am able to come up with even more ideas, and look for resources that will help the client create their ideal lifestyle. The recording is also supplied to the client, so they can recapture that joy any time they start to feel overwhelmed or fearful of the changes they are making.”
Although a consultation session itself is 90 minutes and includes an ebook and several pages of follow up information, the actual time that Bonnie puts into a consultation is far more. She wants to provide the best value possible for her clients, and each resource she discovers makes it into her cache of information that can then be shared with more clients. Often those resources are the clients who have been through an "Outside the Job Box" consultation!
Bonnie’s creativity, need for variety, and love of challenge mean that her own business is always a work in progress. “My website changes often. My tagline changes often. My business changes often - I went from virtual assistance to mentor-coaching to coach/consulting in just 7 years! But there’s always something consistent.
It’s that foundation piece; if you have something solid under you, you know you can jump and you’ll land safely. Right now I operate Taylor Made Time on my own, and I've also partnered with Win Day (www.wildrosewebsites.com) to create a new online business called Inform To Enable Inc. (www.inform2enable.com). This business is a convenient method to offer programs and resources for entrepreneurs to build and maintain their businesses, as well as a place for us to develop and support success teams in the future.”
As her business continues to evolve, so too does Bonnie as a person. In fact, some of the tasks she’s been called upon to perform have resulted in significant personal growth. Part of being a virtual assistant in the first years included spreading the word about the profession by speaking in public.
“That was a frightening thought at first,” Bonnie admits “I was a very shy child and shy as an adult too, it was very difficult to learn how to put myself "out there" for networking purposes. It was even more horrifying to realize I needed to start doing public speaking on the topic of virtual assistance!
Now I find parts of public speaking quite enjoyable and satisfying, although I still do lots of prep beforehand to get past the shyness! If it's something you really want, you have to just jump in and keep doing it until you get better - or until you are finished with it and you're ready to move on.”
On to the next challenge.
Written by: Bonnie Taylor Wachowicz |
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