There is a lot of vandalism of our assets by well-meaning VAs. Most don’t realize that when they post a piece of content under my name or the client’s name, they are representing that person. Imagine taking the microphone away from Rihanna while she’s singing on stage, but you don’t know how to sing. And you’re deaf, so you don’t realize that your singing doesn’t sound the same. This is what happens when VAs work on content without understanding the context. Whenever you touch any piece of content, always ask yourself WHY someone should see it and WHO specifically should see it. You must know the GCT (Goals, Content, and Target audience). One way the #1 VA mistake hurts us is when a VA processing one of our videos, or a client’s videos, does not understand the GCT of that video project. This leads to bland summaries that don’t get views or engagement, even though the original video itself is powerful. The same applies to the articles we create from videos. Unintentional Vandalism: The Cost of Misunderstanding Content and Brand Recently, we’ve had some people attempt to work on my personal brand. These are not bad people; they are great VAs. They’re well-meaning and want to do good work. They’ve gone through some training and have a bit of work experience and knowledge about digital marketing, but they’ve struggled to make a significant impact on my personal brand. We have a document called the personal brand manager, and they don’t know what it is. They don’t know the different people involved, the specific terminology we use, or the underlying concepts. They don’t even follow me on Facebook. So, it’s not that they’re bad people; they simply don’t have enough understanding to effectively represent me in personal branding. If you look at my personal brand, or anyone else’s for that matter, depending on its sophistication, there could be a lot of content. In my case, we’ve collected a significant amount of content over the last few years. We’ve processed it through all the stages of the Content Factory. Much of it has been done by myself because we practice “Learn, Do, Teach.” So, if I want to tell other people that it takes 15 minutes to take a raw video, process it, script it, and post it to a webpage, then I should be able to demonstrate that I’ve done this many times myself. I can’t simply delegate tasks that I’ve never done before. And if I’m going to give advice on “how do you speak on TV,” “how do you speak at a conference,” or even “how do you run a Facebook ad,” then I need to have that expertise myself. If I lack expertise in the topics I am teaching, it would violate the “Learn, Do, Teach” principle. If someone tries to teach something they have never done themselves, it’s like a fat person trying to give weight loss advice. It’s not that their advice isn’t good. It’s probably good advice. But they’re not implementing it themselves, which means they’re not credible, and they’re repeating what someone else said. Anyone who gives an opinion or advice on how to do something should be an expert practitioner on that topic, even if they are highly confident in their opinions. If not, they make the #1 VA mistake, which will likely always continue to be the #1 VA mistake. Personal Branding and Topic Wheels: Insights for Virtual Assistants Let’s see what personal branding actually is. For business owners, their “personal brand” is largely about their network. It’s not what they say about themselves. Some people think that to build their personal brand, they must constantly talk about themselves and their accomplishments. They want others to know what they do so they can hire people, drive leads, grow their business, and build partnerships. This might seem logical, but it’s not how it actually works. This is because people, in general, are selfish. They care about themselves. They care about what a certain business or person can do for them. They don’t care about someone else’s accomplishments. When someone just talks about themselves, others think they’re a douchebag. However, when others in their network talk about them, that is what actually builds their credibility. Even if someone creates a hundred pieces of content per day, they still can’t outperform what their network can do for them. We organize all this content, whether co-created or not, into different topics in a topic wheel. A topic wheel maps out ‘who a business owner knows’ – their network – with ‘what they know’ – their areas of expertise. If someone is an introvert, this organization can start with topics they are passionate about and then associate those topics with other people who share the same passions (an inside-out approach). If they are an extrovert, they can start with the people they know and map that to their expertise (an outside-in approach). This is how you establish a strong personal brand. When we look at the six stages in the Content Factory process: a figurehead produces the content, and a virtual assistant processes it. Producing content is the highest value use of a business owner’s time, which also includes building relationships and traveling. However, they should never handle the processing, which should always be done by virtual assistants. This allows the figurehead or business owner to have time for activities that generate more revenue for the business. But when you, as a virtual assistant, are going to write under the figurehead’s name, you better have excellent grammar. You also must understand the different people that are in their network and why they are in their network. You must understand what themes or topics are important to them and know what is their “why.”  When you promote content for a business owner following the Content Factory process, you must be aware of their audience as well as their business strategy – their goals, content, and targeting. In