I’m not naturally a confident person. When I was in junior high school, I always dread the idea of walking back home from school, because I will walk in front of all these people sitting on the side of the road, and I have no idea what to do with them. Should I smile, should I say hi, or what? I was just awkward.
In the beginning, I was not confident about my writing skills as well. When someone asked me to teach a group of young people in a writing class, I can’t accept the offer, even when I had already written 20 books at that time.
They call it imposter syndrome. I just call it: giving too much importance to self-perfection.
I observed new graduates from Remote Skills Academy (RSA) in my capacity as the CMO of RSA. Remote skills such as Virtual Assistance, is a new skill for most RSA Alumni. It takes a lot of courage to go out there in the world and say that they’re offering their service in this new field, that they literally just graduated last week.
Looking back, here’s what I did to kickstart a new career path and be confident while doing it:
- Acknowledge that we truly have the knowledge for the job already. The few weeks of following the course, your fellow alumni and your certificate will be the proof of that
- Be ok with not being perfect at first and the most imporant is you will try your best. Elizabeth Gilbert published several books we haven’t heard of before she published the mega-bestselling ‘Eat Pray Love’.
- Setup a CV, Portfolio, and ‘Rate Card’ to showcase clearly what you’re good at, the service you offer, and its price
- Put your new job title or the job you’re looking for on your social media (e.g. LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc)
- Update your knowledge by following the latest trends, participating in current events, and learning new tools. Check out our Free VA resources that can help you kickstart your career as a Virtual Asisstant or a Remote Worker in general
- Get in touch with the influential people in this new industry you’re in, ask for their advice, and even start to contribute to help them in any way
- Start the fortune wave by collecting experiences, giving special prices to people, and even volunteering your new skill in the cause you care about
- Ask for a testimonial from the people you worked with and put it on LinkedIn
Gradually, by doing these small efforts, you’ll start to see the small wins growing bigger and you’ll feel more confident running your new remote business
Good luck!
