looking for a few good virtual assistants for Paul Wheaton

Hey, I'm Beau.  Paul keeps telling me to come up with some galactic title for myself, but that's weird, so for now he's just calling me the Ringleader of the VA Circus.  I'm hoping to bring on a couple new Virtual Assistants for Paul.   It's a cool gig for what I suppose is a very small cross-section of humanity.  Think you might occupy that cross-section?  Read on to find out.  It's kind of like a really fun and strange version of those online personality tests!

The qualities we're looking for in new VAs for Paul can be summed up with the following image:



Still interested?  Read on . . .

Here's how Paul described the VA postion a couple years ago.  Mostly it's still a great image of what it looks like to be a VA.

paul wheaton wrote:I need a new virtual assistant.  I broke the last two.  Damn.  And duct tape does not work in a virtual way.

Saving the world is 1% hearts, flowers and rainbows ...  and 30% scrubbing toilets. 50% trying to have a rational conversation with hostile, crazy people, 60% mind numbingly dull tasks, and 2% trying to get these numbers to add up to 100.

Tasks include:

 - helping people who ask incomplete questions

 - henching (what is the gender neutral form of "henchman")

 - figuring out gender neutral words

 - assist with world domination

 - fill out long, boring forms

 - try to figure out a path to get things to work out

 - help people get set up in the digital market

 - help people get set up with the affiliate stuff in the digital market

 - help with the kickstarters

      o months of getting ready
      o the crazy 30-day scramble during
      o months of fulfilling

 - make a media rich thread about something

 - guide people signing up for an on-site thing

      o do you need a ride from the airport?
      o do you wanna rent a bunk or stay in a tent?
      o is our food okay, or do you need access to cook stuff?

 - figure out where we forgot to advertise a cool thing

 - change ads in the ad system to match the seasons

 - master our ad stuff

 - test new features in permies

 - test old features in permies - find out where that problem is coming from

 - update our event pages

 - maintain a list of about 20 lists and maintain all those lists

 - maintain some calendars of what we wanna do when

 - talk to crazy people

 - talk to angry people

 - talk to people that are crazy and angry without giggling at them

 - lots of emails (most of which don't make sense, but still need a rational answer)

 - emails with Mark Shepard. What does he want? How can we do that with what we have?  Now replace "Mark Shepard" with 40 other names of cool permies.

 - stuff that has never been done before

 - stuff that has been done before

 - figure it out

 - give a shit

 - work hard

 - get shit done

 - get shit done despite the wacky obstacles

 - help me get more shit done

 - figure out how a few of us with these resources can make massive positive change

 - inspire good stuff in others

It seems to take about six months for a person to get to the point that they are earning their crappy pay. After that, they start to bring in coin that covers the pay.  And then they bring in enough to warrant a raise.  One VA got several raises the first year, ending the year with more than double the original pay.  

I have hired some VAs that said that they are already rock stars, so they need to start with rockstar pay. And I would get an invoice showing them editing the same post at permies for 30 hours.

Here's the thing:  My assistant ends up being the highest paid person in my empire.  I end up keeping about 80 cents per hour for myself.  So this person would be getting paid more than me even at minimum wage.  I am totally cool with that if that person improves the forward velocity of the empire.  

History says it takes a lot of my time to get my assistant up to speed.  In the first few months it will take me 20 minutes to teach my assistant about a thing that I can do in two minutes.  And there are hundreds of little things.  Somewhere around the six month mark is when it switches - it takes less time to teach the assistant ...  My past teaching time starts to pay off!

I like the idea of a VA that will get better every year, be part of the team for 20 years, and maybe get to the point of hiring a dozen additional VAs.  

It's a tough job. Work. Grind, grind, grind. The more you get done, the bigger the todo list gets.  The only good part is that we really do make a positive difference - and there are a lot of very lovely people that will express their gratitude.    

I am looking for somebody full time.

If you're still reading, and still interested, please fill out
this fancy little questionnaire,
and drop us a reply on this thread once you've submitted.

Really want the gig?  Here is a cheat-sheet, just for you (shh, don't tell):
Have a high post-count on permies.  If you're already permies volunteer staff, that's a major plus.  If you've done a few hundred dollars in affiliate sales through permies, you're probably instantly near the top of the list.  Tadah!  I'm here to help.

Not for you, but still want to do/help/earn with permies in other ways?  Maybe check this out.

Any questions for Paul's assistants, past and present?  Post them here.  

Here's some more info:

How many VA’s do you have at any one time?

paul wheaton wrote:I think that if the VAs are figuring out ways to bring in more coin than they cost, and they are mostly self-directed, then I can see keeping a dozen busy.  

Some VAs have worked 15 hours a week - and I think I need something closer to 40.  

Most VAs take about six months to ramp up, and that means that it actually takes more of my time than if I had no VA.  And it costs money.

Who is the us in ‘ figure out how a few of us with these resources can make massive positive change’

Ultimately, Paul.  But right now there are 6 VAs including me (Beau) doing a lot of the VA wrangling so we can stay on track while he does other stuff.  So I guess you have to find me at least mildly tolerable, as well.  Then there are dozens of very active, incredible volunteer Permies staff who are delightful to work with, and a hundred or so other folks who pop in and out as they're able.

When you say full time, is that old school, 9 to 5, 50 weeks a year, or modern, get the job done but check your email from 5am to 9pm, seven days a week? Or French, work three and half days, go for lunch on Thursday and not be seen or heard of until Monday . . .

paul wheaton wrote:Yes.

Paid by the hour.  Some people are 40 hours a week every week.  Some are a little over or under each week.

What time zone?

All permies business is done in Mountain Standard Time.

Does the person need to be in the US . . . And have citizenship or the right kind of Visa to work?

paul wheaton wrote:They don't need to be in the US.  Nor any of that other stuff.  

Adrien lives in canada.  Devaka lives in Sri Lanka, pretty much the opposite side of the world.  The bernal brothers live in Colombia.  We get it all done over the internet.

Some thoughts from R, maven the "why" behind the "hows and whats" of permies.  And a note from Paul.

r ranson wrote:I'm a volunteer who works with/for Paul to help permies be the wonderful land of lovely that it is.  

The biggest thing I noticed about working with Paul on projects is the huge amount of trust that I need to have.

He doesn't do things the normal way.  And that's okay.  That's why permies is the way it is and not like the rest of the internet.  If the normal way worked, everyone would be doing permaculture by now (spoiler, they aren't because normal doesn't work).  

But sometimes I don't understand why he makes the choices he does.  Very early on, I decided to think like this. "It's Paul's website, not mine.  He's been doing this a lot longer than I have.  This choice may not make any sense to me now, but the results are awesome.  I'm just going to go with what he says and I suspect the reason why he likes things done this way will make sense later."  

From watching the VAs he's had, the ones that do the best and learn the most have the ability to trust that he might know what he's talking about even if it doesn't make sense from where you're standing right now.  Just go with it.  Take it and go all the way with it.  And you learn so much more than you would doing things the 'normal' way.  

I wish my life was in a place to be Paul's VA right now because I could learn so much working closely with him.  It would be a helluva lot of work!  But the skills learned and the connections made would be amazing.  I'm envious of anyone up for the challenge.  And as a permies person, I'm here to support you as you help grow The Empire.  

paul wheaton wrote:

r ranson wrote:But sometimes I don't understand why he makes the choices he does.  Very early on, I decided to think like this. "It's Paul's website, not mine.  He's been doing this a lot longer than I have.  This choice may not make any sense to me now, but the results are awesome.  I'm just going to go with what he says and I suspect the reason why he likes things done this way will make sense later."  

Yesterday, somebody asked me a question.  Only, it could have been phrased better - as most questions can probably be phrased better.  

To simplify the question a hundred fold, the better phrased question would have been "can I have some of your candy please?"  Instead the question was more like "I don't understand the problem.  Why don't you just give me some of your candy?"  

In this case, I feel like I have already been generous, and already added a lot of generosity on top of that.  And i am willing to be even more generous, but for this particular thing there are 16 years of lessons learned and trying to solve a problem about 10,000 times bigger than this piece of candy.  But my current solution requires that a line is drawn.  I made the line clear - and that this piece of candy is on the other side of the line.  The explanation of the line would require reading a couple of my books, and then a further two hour explanation - and it would be just that if the person was hungry for this knowledge.  But the way the question is phrased makes me think that this would still not be enough to be satisfactory.  

If this was my assistant, then I could say "If you read these two books and rack up a few more months, it is possible that the answer you seek will present itself to you.  For now, let me just say that there is an important line right there, a line that is important to me, but probably seems crazy to everybody else.  Maybe if you respect my crazy line now, in time it will seem less crazy."

I think this sort of thing comes with any job.  "why should I do that?"  "For monies?"

Some notes from Nicole, permies' favorite moderator and Paul's former VA (and a response from Paul):

Nicole Alderman wrote:I was Paul's VA for a bit more than 1.5 years. I really liked working for him, furthering permaculture, and learning so many new things. He's by far the best boss I've had! I really appreciated how he paid me to learn skills and follow my passions that helped him out. I got to figure out how to make banners, do graphic, make websites, email SEPP HOLZER (he called me Frau Alderman, and I'm still squealing about that months later).

I wish I could have kept working for him, but I was just juggling too much elsewhere in my life, and kept dropping balls. I had to put this ball down, and I hope someone wonderful can pick it up and do it justice!

I worked usually 14-30 hours a week. Things get really exciting during kickstarters and summer events! I really, really appreciated when Lara was working with me, as she was handling events/rentals while I worked on other tasks. There's LOTS of tasks, and I think Paul would do well with 2-3 more assistants, rather than just 1 more!

My tips:

~ Be willing to be a mind reader! Paul's got a ton of plates spinning, and he really doesn't want one of those plates to be explaining something. It's generally better to spend the time to figure out what he wants and ask if that's it, rather than asking him to explain further.

~ Do the best you can (or as Paul would say, "give a shit"), and be okay with him coming by and telling you to change/fix/improve/scrap various things. You're still helping a ton because you did a lot of the mental work for him. Also, be okay with trying 100 things and only 2 of them working out, and not knowing in advance which two.

~ The search function is your friend! There's a lot of info stored on permies.com, and you can usually find a deeper understanding of a task or Paul's works by searching permies.

~ Make lists. Be organized. Prioritize. You will be given a LOT of tasks. And then more. And then more.

~ Be willing to stare into the abyss of things to do, pick a thing to do, and do it.

Check out these threads by Paul for a bit of a view into the Abyss that is all the tasks:

State of the Jungle

my plans for my permaculture empire

If you happen to be a Pollinator, check out this thread

paul wheaton wrote:

Nicole Alderman wrote:Be willing to be a mind reader! Paul's got a ton of plates spinning, and he really doesn't want one of those plates to be explaining something. It's generally better to spend the time to figure out what he wants and ask if that's it, rather than asking him to explain further.

:)

Nobody is actually required to be a mind reader.  But from my end, things are starting to work well when it seems that way.  

I know that my assistant will ask "how do you want me to do that?" and sometimes I'll say "figure it out."  Mostly I am thinking that if you spend about two minutes trying to figure it out, a perfectly lovely path with present itself.  Or sometimes I don't have a good answer, or my approach would have a lot of "it depends" sauce on it.  So, you dive in, explore, and ...  after a bit, come up with a pretty good solution.   But I think this stuff usually comes about four to six months in.  

And a few noteworthy anecdotes from Nicole

Nicole Alderman wrote:

N Stephanson wrote:To the former assistants, what are your best and worst memories of working with Paul and all the crazy people he mentioned in the ad?

I didn't mind working with most of the people. For me, that wasn't the hardest part. These were the two different types of people I had a hard time with:

(1) One was a dude who would just CONSTANTLY bombard me with emails telling me to do something and how awesome it would be and I just needed to do it NOW. He usually wrote like that, too (lots of shouting capital letters). And when I told him I needed to verify with Paul before doing said thing, he would get very frustrated and send me more emails about how AMAZING his idea was and how I needed to do it NOW. I told him I worked for Paul, and Paul was busy, and I wasn't doing something without his approval. The guy really, really grated on my nerves.

(2) Interacting with potential WWOOFers was more depressing than anything. I would spend sometimes months communicating with someone back and forth to arrange their stay during the WWOOF week at Wheaton Labs. I'd get really excited for them an And, in the end, they'd never show. I probably communicated with 100 WWOOFers/HelpXers, and only I think 3 ever came.  (This is why Paul has the $100 bootcamp fee. It takes a lot of time to communicate with people....and a lot of the time they just never show. But, those that pay are a whole lot more likely to come, and it pays for whoever  never shows)

Best memories? Sepp Holzer called me Frau Alderman! *Insert fan-girl scream.* I literally got emails from him, and that was amazing. I also really enjoyed learning how to make websites with Wordpress. I recall being entirely entranced by website making for a few weeks as I built the Wheaton-Labs.com and Paulwheaton.com websites. It was really fulfilling and fun!

Aaaaaand another round of reflections from R:

r ranson wrote:One year later, some thoughts and observations

(remember, I'm 100% volunteer - not a VA - so I'm only seeing things from the volunteer side)

It takes one heck of a lot of time to train a VA to permies culture.  We can generally skip this if the person has posted to permies a lot.  We can see what areas they need help learning and where they already 'get' us.  This saves a lot of frustration on both sides.   So I can see why Paul prefers to hire people who have a history of posting on permies.  

The volunteers do an incredible amount of work on permies.  On top of that, there are so many active volunteers.  It's overwhelming when someone first sees the chaos behind the scenes.  Our tracker of 'active staff' - aka, staff that are actively doing stuff on permies daily - only goes up to about 40.  I suspect there are another 50 or so that are intermittently active and maybe pop in once a week, once a month, or maybe just a few times a year, to help out.  For most of us, the knowledge that we are making the world a better place by helping build a community where the chaos of the internet is kept in check is enough.  But also, we are incredibly proud of what we help build and how the moderation works here.  

A big learning curve in becoming a VA is understanding what the volunteers do and what they - due to being volunteers - don't like doing.  It's very easy to step on volunteer toes in the excitement to do what paul needs doing.  Some tasks, the only thing that is involved is to say to the volunteers "hey, how's it going?  Do you need any help?" and they will usually say "nope, I got this"  or "yes, I don't know what direction to go with this".  But other tasks, we just don't like doing and for these, we need more help from the VAs.  

Being able to prioritize tasks is also a huge thing for becoming a VA.  And the reason why I don't want the job.  There is so much to do and it all looks so urgent.  

In my mind, I separate the running of permies from the greater Empire tasks.  Permies is a small part of Paul's empire (in my mind, the most important part, but I'm biased) and only a part of his plans for infecting brains with permaculture.  Permies runs pretty well on volunteer power.  I imagine that the goal of the VAs is to help infect brains and to bring in income so that bigger and more influential projects can happen.  More Empire tasks but knowing how to use permies tools to make these easier.  

From the little I've seen, the current batch of VAs are lovely.  There are some advantages of having a team so they can learn from each other and different people have different superpowers to make things happen.  I'm mostly just writing this because I'm procrastinating doing my own tasks and wanted to get this down while it was near the surface of my mind.  

Paul's newest VA here!! I've been in the role a few months now and it is full-on. In a good way! But be prepared to not understand a lot of things initially and as they slowly start to take shape out of the fog other things pop up that throw you back into the confusion. I mean, it's pretty awesome - I think it can just be a bit challenging depending on your mindset. I'd maybe compare it to being comfortable with letting the wild things grow in a garden where you're more used to a manicured look It does all make sense (ultimately) and there are (what seems like) an infinite amount of connections going on within the permies ecosystem.  

Working as a VA is lots of work but is also rewarding, exciting and inspiring. The other VAs (including Beau!) are also excellent to work with - and we are all pretty diverse - like any good permaculture garden should be. So it's definitely recommended to be yourself, jump in, and give it a crack!

Hi! Even though I have been a VA for several months now, I would still consider myself relatively new. I enjoy finding creative ways to generate income and building new strategic relationships while maintaining the existing systems. It’s been a pleasure working with this VA team, we work together collaboratively to accomplish tasks and have many opportunities to showcase our individual talents. I’d say it’s a win-win situation.

The individual who wants this role should already be or be willing to quickly become a function stacking expert.


As a VA it's super important to:

Love time management and have a well organized and systematic to do list

     Everything is the most important thing and it's your responsibility to get the most important thing done immediately.

Not ask a question you can look-up and find yourself, but if you've searched high and low, ask!

Ask questions for three reasons:

1. Someone might have that same question but hasn't it asked yet or it has been asked and someone knows exactly where the answer is
2. There is a good chance that your question will improve permies for the foreseeable future
3. Someone will tell you how incredibly dumb the question is and may forever think you are a dunce, but you will have gained valuable knowledge and someone new who asks will think you're brilliant

Every mistake that you learn from will save you from thousands of similar mistakes in the future, so if you treat mistakes as learning opportunities that yield rapid improvements you should be excited by them. But if you treat them as bad things, you will make yourself and others miserable, and you won't grow.
-Ray Dalio

Have a sense of humor

Work hard and realize you are truly contributing to something much larger than yourself. Not just Paul hahaha

I have been a VA for almost 7 months.  In any other job I have worked, by the 6 month mark, I am bored, and irritated with the work ethics of employees, and the general ethics of management.  Being Paul's VA, I feel like the job hasn't lost whatever the equivalent is for that new car smell.  I actually do learn something new every day, and my skill set has probably doubled since I started.  I'm doing things I never thought I would have and new and amazing opportunities are arising because of it.

A couple of things I think a new VA should keep in mind:

Organization is key

You've probably read that VA's need lists of lists of lists and a list for that stuff too.  It is no joke! Unless you are already insanely organized and have all those organization skills in place, get yourself some awesome apps, notebooks, plug-ins, and widgets.  I never considered myself unorganized, but with the amount of stuff I keep track of in a day, I have begun to utilize a lot of really neat tools to make sure I don't drop my balls any more than might be unavoidable.   Some of the tools I use are Clockify and Notion, as well as a lot of spreadsheets and sticky notes (the kind that stay on your desktop, not your wall)

christine wrote:  Everything is the most important thing and it's your responsibility to get the most important thing done immediately.

I second this!  Once I finish a task on my to-do list (or sometimes when I start a task) I could get another (or 5 more) task to do that is at least as important as the task at the top of my to-do list.  It makes it extremely important (at least for me) to take the time each morning and night to evaluate the prioritization of my to-do lists - and to keep them up to date.  Not to mention, not lose the to-do list of lower-priority tasks that I made a week or two ago.  After almost 7 months, I am finally starting to feel like I  am getting the hang of it.

Don't stop doing the things you love about permies & remember why we do the things we do!

It can be easy to get caught up in the VA stuff and either forget or just put aside posting and engaging with permies in the ways that I used to.  Sometimes it is necessary to do a not fun thing instead of spending time writing or responding to awesome posts, but don't let that go on too long.  I try to make sure I read one post a day, post once a month (I wish it were more) and utilize the community for encouragement and motivation.  The community and knowledge base here is awesome!  When you're an hour deep into something boring but necessary and you've been fielding cranky emails all day, it can be a bummer.   My cure is to laugh.  Put on a podcast.  Or take my job outside!  (Remote work is awesome!!)4

Ultimately, this job is amazing.  The other VAs are fantastic and I feel like I have learned a lot from all of them (and will continue to do so).  I'm super excited for more amazing people to join our team!

Christine Circe wrote:

Have a sense of humor

Humour.

Can it be dry?

Some would say testy dot dot dot.

I just applied! Been following and admiring the work for years and think it would be a dream gig to jam with the band. Cheers and keep up the good work.

After much reflection, I have submitted. And there was much rejoicing. And now for something completely different.

I had respond to 90% of the questionnaire, but reading Cassie Langstraat Bigs Lists did frighten me a little. I may read and listen more before finally put my submission in...

62 year old USAF veteran, formerly a small business owner for 30 years, detailed oriented optimist honored tone born at this time to fight the fight of our lives for freedom. I am able to pivot quickly and find solutions. I can be a strong henchman. I am Christian who is a devoted mother who is concern for all children. I have raised two productive male members of society that are 27 and 30. I want to be a part of the solution for our future to maintain our freedom that is under attack. I am active in my community learning skills through the Live Free Academy where I learned about this organization. I am a determined badass that is hell bent on maintaining freedom against tyranny. I would be honored to be Paul’s VA!! Thank you 🙏🏻

14 people have filled out the questionnaire so far.  You are some super fascinating humans!

Just a reminder - Paul needs full-time folks.  If that's not you, there are lots of other things to do, ways to earn, tasks with which to help.  

Beau Davidson wrote:14 people have filled out the questionnaire so far.  You are some super fascinating humans!

Just a reminder - Paul needs full-time folks.  If that's not you, there are lots of other things to do, ways to earn, tasks with which to help.  

14 people in 2 weeks.  

Last time, we had more than 50 people in the first week.  

Quality over quantity?  

Maybe we just need to tell more people about it.

Beau Davidson wrote:14 people have filled out the questionnaire so far.  You are some super fascinating humans!

Just a reminder - Paul needs full-time folks.  If that's not you, there are lots of other things to do, ways to earn, tasks with which to help.  

Opps, I can do full time if you could make note of that on my questionnaire... didn't realize it was full time only.

Just a note, as I'm not sure if it's been covered previously, but maybe we can reiterate that the new VA(s) position is for extra help. I had a thought that maybe potential people are thinking that there seems to be a high turnaround of VAs/perhaps it's not a great role and that maybe we're recruiting to replace - which isn't accurate. We're recruiting to expand

So I thought it might be good to make it clear that this is for MORE VAs - come join us!!

Jules Silverlock wrote:We're recruiting to expand

muahahahaha

Questionnaire complete.  Best… questionnaire… ever!

Matthew Wagner wrote:Questionnaire complete.  Best… questionnaire… ever!

But I totally blew the web savvy question.  I looked at it this morning and did a face palm. 🤦🏼‍♂️. My new answer would be 0011 or maybe 0010 after blowing the question.

😂

And that answer about hugging a chicken…. I just had to go try that… even though it wasn’t my answer.

Beau Davidson wrote:Just a reminder - Paul needs full-time folks.  If that's not you, there are lots of other things to do, ways to earn, tasks with which to help.  

Two questions about that :)

I read that Paul "thinks he needs 40 hours", does that mean that full-time is at least that ? (I was thinking to apply for 30 as the question is asked but if 40 is what you need, 40 it is :) )

I've been looking around but can't find the way to become a volunteer, could you please guide me ?

Thank you :)

Beau Davidson wrote:14 people have filled out the questionnaire so far.  You are some super fascinating humans!

Just a reminder - Paul needs full-time folks.  If that's not you, there are lots of other things to do, ways to earn, tasks with which to help.  

I'd be interested in writing tasks! If there's a list for that, please add me.  

When is the "closing" date?
This is a great opportunity indeed.

Zoran Jovanovic wrote:When is the "closing" date?
This is a great opportunity indeed.

I think Paul likes the idea that we might be able to add a few, get up to speed for a few months, and then add a few more.  So in a sense, there is no closing date.

I think that if you are interested in pursuing this position later, the best thing to do would be to actively engage in the permies community.  Make great posts and helpful replies.  Work through the scavenger hunts, which are basically training guides for how permies works and what it can do.  Maybe write some book reviews, or get familiar with the digital market and affiliate system.  Then when you want to, come back and fill out this questionnaire.  Or maybe there will be a new similar thing at a later date.

The key is, being familiar with Permies and Paul will make choosing and training VAs much smoother.