Craig Canningsis the founder of VA Classroom, an online training center for Virtual Assistants who are looking to expand their services to clients with social media and internet marketing. Craig has been training and managing various Virtual Teams since 2003. He managed a large virtual staff while working as a Director of Business Development with a successful Internet Company. His first hand experience in working with accomplished Virtual Professionals has provided much of the inspiration for launching VAClassroom.com. In addition to teaching and serving as a leading expert in internet practices, Craig’s passion in life is spending quality time with his 4 main “gals” – his wife and three young daughters - at their home in British Columbia, Canada.
Craig, we are very pleased to welcome you here on the Forums, since so many of us have benefited from your teachings and enjoyed your energy as a major internet guru. Let's start by asking about your background. Where did you grow up, what have been the most pivotal life experiences for you to date, and what influences have been strongest for you over the years? In a nutshell, what brought you to the place you find yourself today?
From birth to somewhere around age 21, I wanted to be either a lawyer or a sports agent. I was planning to go to law school.
I grew up on the west coast of Canada, in British Columbia, with a great family and amazing parents; it was a wonderful childhood. I studied psychology and counseling in college, and was all set to go out and become America's Family Therapist. Then I started working with my brother-in-law, who had started an internet business back in '97. He taught me all about internet business and marketing, and how to connect with people online. I was involved in affiliate marketing, online business development, and I was managing ten or twelve people on a virtual team. We trained them in our systems, and after a while, we realized they had become the glue that kept our business going. I could see that encouraging this way of working could benefit many different kinds of businesses. That experience led to the startup of the VA Classroom a couple years ago.
When I made the move into entrepreneurship online, I was stretched to the limits, and the challenges really enhanced my potential, fueling my passion and shaping the person I am today. It's really neat to be on the cutting edge of a fast growing industry.
VAClassroom.com (self-described as "...a comprehensive skills training center for virtual assistants, online professionals and consultants") is an immensely successful service to virtual assistants worldwide. To what do you attribute your success with this site?
I did a lot of research before we started. I knew how things were evolving; I could see the growth in the small to medium sized business sector, and many of these enterprises were online. Since I was working in an internet business already, I could see that people needed assistance of the kind VAs can offer. It was good timing; that's where our success came from.
Also, I am a counselor at heart, and I wanted to create a supportive environment, offering authentic, high-caliber training to VAs. I get really excited about my students' success stories. We're invested in our students' success, and that's had a ripple effect.
Currently, you have an impressive list of information products for sale; and they're all likely to continue to enjoy healthy sales, since they address vital issues that most VAs face. By now, you're surely a wiz at generating and promoting these products. Please share a few tips about the product creation and launching process. How are product launches relevant to service providers, such as VAs?
That's a timely question, because we're about to offer (in 2010) a new program titled, Product Launch Support Specialist. In my career so far, I've done a ton of product launches, including some major failures as well as major successes. From that experience, we've put together a blueprint that we'll be sharing in the new course. We can identify a growing demand from businesses coming online with their products, with no idea about how to do a product launch.
For now, I'll say two things about product launches. You've got to have an amazing product to begin with, and a market that's very interested in it. Many may have this in place, but then they have no marketing strategies in place for a launch. You need to do a pre-launch to peak interest and build your credibility.
Your teachings have consistently been on the cutting edge of relevance for virtual assistants as well as most anyone interested in how the internet works. Honestly, it seems a bit as though you must have a direct line to the future, in the way you seem to be always just ahead of the crowd, right there with instruction just when we need it. Where do you get ideas about new products? What do you do to market-test your ideas before investing in them: or do you just trust your instincts and dispense with needs analyses?
After a while, you find yourself in tune with the heartbeat of your industry, and when that happens, you can trust your instincts to some extent. Since I was working in online business anyway, it became obvious to me where the gaps were, what areas weren't being covered.
We also work with an advisory team of internet entrepreneurs, who help us identify market needs, new training products, potentially helpful directions we can take. So it's as we go along, opportunities come up. For instance, we noticed people didn't really have a handle on how to make their Facebook Fan Pages work well for them, so it was a good idea to offer training in creating winning Fan Pages. Many of our students are landing new opportunities from these courses.
What do you enjoy the most about your work? What needs changing?
I am privileged to work with a lot of talented, energetic VAs. I'm extroverted by nature, and I love doing live coaching calls, and teaching.
What needs changing? I want to be able to establish a focus. This life encourages a really fast pace and continual flying by the seat of your pants. I think some important things get lost in the warp speed of it all – like business planning, fine-tuning and marketing refinements, forecasting. You have to find a way to morph out of this frenetic pace.
This interview series gives us the chance to ask people who don't work as VAs to comment about our profession. As an industry, virtual assistance is still in infancy. So we love hearing the perspective of respected others on how we're doing. You have worked with VAs for years, but you are not a VA yourself, so we have to ask: what's your advice for us? How can we strengthen the industry; how can we build larger, more willing markets; what are our opportunities and in what areas do we tend to have blind spots?
I've worked with a lot of very talented VAs. The VA industry is growing, but we should always guard against slipping into coast mode. I think VAs should position themselves as continual learners, reading blogs, researching new niches, discovering ways to play a bigger role with their clients.
VAs tend to be good at collaboration, and I think you should talk together about how to set standards and quality controls. You should discuss better practices for more efficiently working with clients. This is being done, but it needs to be done more consistently and often.
How to regulate the VA industry is a really hard question, because VAs are so diverse.
A difficult question for VAs who help clients with their online presence is how much the VA can represent the client, and where the line is drawn between ghostwriting and authenticity in social media. Give us your current thoughts on the matter?
It's as if your daughter is getting married, and you are in charge of the event. You can set up all the details, and do everything, but if the bride doesn't show up, it's all for naught. That's an analogy for what you're doing when you're managing social media for other people. A VA can do all the setting up, but the client has to establish the actual relationships. Clients can outsource everything but their voice. I know others may disagree with me on this.
While your online success is awesome, your impressive skill as a teacher seems to be central to your nature. Please share with us your thoughts on teaching: what it means to you, why you like it/excel at it, what part it plays in your life mission.
I love it when I see people achieving breakthroughs in their business, or having 'ah-ha!' moments because of what we've taught them or because of some nugget they took from participating with us. It all comes from my passion for counseling. I want my business to be a helping business; I want it to be meaningful, or else it grows stale.
Kelly Cannings, a virtual assistant, is your "...wife and 'real' boss," as well as co-founder of VAClassroom.com. What's your perspective on the work-at-home life? And how do you balance personal and professional 'voices' online?
We are a WAHC (Work At Home Couple)! Yes, it can be challenging. One thing we do: I don't own an iPhone or Blackberry. We have set places in our home where work happens, and we don't take work with us when we leave those places. Even if I respond to just one email or take one call during off hours, that's quality time taken away from my family; so I just don't do it. It seems to work for us.
Where do you think you and your career will be a few years from now? What kinds of changes are anticipated in your long term plan? And/or, what do you foresee in your professional life in 2010?
In the process of branding VA Classroom, my own personal brand has been established. This gives me the opportunity to do some speaking engagements, and also to start up a blog, which I'll be doing in 2010. It will focus on the topic of e-learning - how new media integrates with e-learning, which I think will be just really exciting.
With
VA Classroom, we're offering some cool new training programs: mobil and video marketing from the service provider's perspective, for instance. It will be another year of programs designed to positively impact a VA's ability to recruit clients and grow income. I'm looking forward to it!
Interview graciously conducted by: Mary H. Ruth of Virtual Writing and Communications: Specializing in writing, editing, and social media marketing, Mary has been a virtual assistant, and member of VAF, since 2007. Please visit her blog, Virtual Assistance and You, a journal for VAs and their clients.
Interview with Craig Cannings, co-founder of VA Classroom
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