be paul's virtual assistant (VA)

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 asistant 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 assitant 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.

I will be doing quite a lot of the training, but my past assistants, Liv, Nicole and Adrien will be helping a little too.  

If you're thinking "maybe" then here is a questionnaire i made where you can tell me more about you, and your email address.

Any questions for me or my past assistants?

Henchperson. Please mail my first check to 12345 Fakeaddress Lane, Montgomery, AL, 84827.

This job is easy!

In context, a verb fits, not a noun. So it probably needs to be "henchpersoning." ;)

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

How many people does a VA report into?

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

Same goes for team . .  

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 . . .

What time zone?

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

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

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.

How many people does a VA report into?

Just me.  But there are about a hundred people making all of everything work.  So they would talk to all of those people a bit here and there.

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

Me, permies.com staff, people here at wheaton labs ...  people involved in the kickstarters ...  other permaculture leaders ...  some of the pollinators and other peeps at permies ...  people with web sites, magazines and stuff ...

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 . . .

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?

I live in mountain time.

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

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.  

Thanks Paul. I’d rather not dwell on this anymore and over think. I could have spent all weekend filling out the form, but instead, gave you uncrafted answers. Doesn’t mean I’m not serious.

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.  

"Normal" is HIGHLY overrated.

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

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.  

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?"

Paul, any interest in breaking down the job into smaller more focused tasks and allowing people to volunteer/contribute their time to perform tasks where they have experience/skill performing,  an interest in, or passion for?  Rather than hiring someone to do "everything", I would focus on hiring someone to manage volunteers (not you) ideally this individual would see their job as more of a partner in improving the community and changing lifestyles.

Just my thoughts...

There was a time when Adrien was my assistant, and we were going to hire three more people and Adrien would manage them.  It turned out to be too much of a struggle to get it started at the time.  

I do think it is possible to do, but it will take a better recipe than Adrien and I tried.  

In the meantime, all of my stuff is set up with a 50% affiliate fee for anybody that has any skill in any of that space.   A few people do this once in a while.

Plus, all the "thread boost" stuff currently has a 40% or 50% affiliate fee.   I don't think anybody has ever tried this.

I hired a professional publicist for my book.  That was a big fail.

I have had lots of professional relationships, that paid, for lots of different people in lots of different ways.  

So, to answer your question:  I am very open to it - but it is not as simple as you might think.

I couldn’t resist. I went through your questionnaire and had quite a bit of fun with it. So, it is there for you to peruse, although I may not be the best fit as a full time assistant. However, I wouldn’t mind being a voluntary assistant to an assistant. Cheers!

I've managed volunteers in the past and I can imagine after about 2 years of being Paul's VA, this might be a good way to grow.  But I wouldn't recommend doing it at the same time as learning how to be his VA.

The thing about volunteers is that they aren't paid to do anything.  They choose to do it.  This means they can choose how they do it (which may not be up to standards).  And they can choose to not do it (and then the volunteer manager has to step in at the last minute and pick up the pieces).  They can choose to undo it (leaving you to rebuild it).  

If a volunteer chooses they can take on a world of commitments then drop them all leaving the job undone, done wrong, or worse, needing doing immediately so you miss Christmas dinner because the rotten C--- assured you they would, but they didn't and now I don't get any turkey... (personal experience and then it's me that gets the blame I couldn't make the big family dinner.)

We're very lucky on permies with our volunteer staff and very choosy about who we invite to staff.  But I also feel that as staff, we have a lot more freedom than most volunteer organizations.  We can do as much or as little as we want, we can switch areas and write a daily-ish a day for a few months, then maybe we want to build content and make new forums, or some days I just hunt through the forums and give out apples until my daily limit is reached, or... whatever I want to do that day.  

But to build momentum for The Empire, more reliable commitment would be needed.  

Many times I have asked the all volunteer permies staff "can somebody make a thread that says xxxx?" And it gets done about 15% of the time.  About 30% of the time somebody says "why?" and the rest of the time there is no response.   All legit, they are volunteers.  

When I ask my assistant to make that thread, I expect it will exist within a few hours and I will get a link to it.  If there is a reason it might take longer, I get a reply explaining when it might be ready (and maybe some into about the delay).  

A good assistant really helps with my forward velocity.

A difficult subject but what about succession planning? Who will be running Wheaton Labs and Permies in 50 years, 100 years? AI girbot?

This is by far the funniest job application I have ever filled.
Thanks for this, who ever wrote it (I'm guessing one of the previous assistants that had to re-write it 12 times).

I'm pretty sure Paul wrote nearly all of it! He did ask for his previous assistants input, which we gave merrily!

The "cry for two days and eat a case of chocolate" option was from me . Mmmm, chocolate!

Edward Norton wrote:A difficult subject but what about succession planning? Who will be running Wheaton Labs and Permies in 50 years, 100 years? AI girbot?

I'm thinking Paul has a will that covers all of that. And I sure have no idea what's on that will, and I wouldn't expect Paul to tell many/any people what's on it. I just hope he'll have a long healthy life!

For free I would be honored and happy to help spread your teaching through a non virtual platform. Particularly, totem poles known as community boards of permaculture activities. I feel that this is the important next step to move from virtual to in person for environmental reason of trees and plants as well as for people’s health. If you wanted to pay me one time as a holiday present I could really use the money and would be thankful but as the meaning is so important I don’t have to be paid. Thank you for reading this and happy holidays. -Kristen

For people looking for volunteer (or get-paid as you go) opportunities, promoting the Digital Market could be a really great option.  There are some great things available there created by amazing people who need support to keep on creating awesome stuff.  

This not only helps permies (I think it's like 1 or 2% of every sale goes towards the server bills) and Paul's Empire, but it also helps permaculture reach more people.

The affiliate system is set up so people who want to do this can be rewarded for their hard work: https://permies.com/wiki/affiliate

Nicole Alderman wrote:I'm pretty sure Paul wrote nearly all of it! He did ask for his previous assistants input, which we gave merrily!

The "cry for two days and eat a case of chocolate" option was from me . Mmmm, chocolate!

I filled out the application and I was mightily tempted to select one of the 'stabby' options as a laugh, but I wanted to be sure that my application was taken seriously so I didn't 😃

Sounds exciting. Most fun applying for a job I ever had. May the best (or appropriate) Permie win! (I'll be happy for the person even if it isn't me.)

This looks very appealing to me coming from the background that I do, but there are too many personal negatives at the moment. I am 'retiring' in 19 day's time after building a very successful design/production house business. I am based in Thailand, which has its benefits, but maybe too many negatives? I'm only 51, so tech is not a mystery and have spent half a life in front of a computer (which I need to get away from, for a while). I'm used to working to the client's way of doing things and not imposing my own, but happy to suggest things where I believe it would make a noticeable improvement. I'm a Limey, so can spell words correctly, but also have bad teeth (obviously).

Maybe if a similar position came up in the future, it would be perfect, but for now, I need my 'me' time. I hope you find the perfect VA, Paul.

It seems interesting, however if I were to take on this offer, I wouldn't be able to commit to 40 hours a week. I am actually working on a certification (tech related), and my goal is then to get a really good paying job, that will help me fast track toward my homestead goal.

Unfortunately, said job has nothing to do with permaculture, but it does pay a lot.

My understanding from reading the other posts is that you get paid in money, but most importantly, in knowledge too. So perhaps it pays much less in term of money, but it does pay a lot in term of knowledge. With a huge benefit being that it helps promote permaculture too, which few jobs really do.

I am honestly curious about this, however I can't be full time. Maybe quarter time, and it might even be too much, as despite being unemployed right now, I have a lot on my plate. And since I plan to get back in tech, I might be able to do a few things in the week, maybe a bit more on the week-end. On the positive side, I am good at tech (and kinda love automating stuff), and am used to having a TODO list the size of Mt Everest. I think I "get" Paul's way of thinking, but maybe I'm wrong.

I'd like to add that I have no problem being paid with heirloom seeds.

I'm interested, the timing is right for me and I've found that I work well with "flexible" environments.

Is there a timeline you're looking to fill the position? Is the six months thing like a tryout? I'm attending the master gardener course in January, so I'll have a chance to meet irl and get a vibe of Paul's antics.

Dear Almighty Overlord,

My questionnaire has been completed and I look forward to your consideration an opportunity to work with you and your team.

I am a digital nomad living in Italy, and currently teaching Engliah speaking. Me and my wife are searching for our homestead to buy in a wild, natural and largely abandoned area of Abruzzo where land is cheap, night sky is dark, air is clean and the water in the springs runs cold and clean.

I don't want to say too much because it could be an intriguing thread topic about stories of picking up and leaving the old life behind for something more rewarding, but nevertheless, I want to take a moment to say I am committed to this life of practicing permaculture, especially valuing the marginal which these lands and this are is considered by many locals to be.

All the best and I hope we can speak further in the near future.

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 asistant 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 assitant 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.

I will be doing quite a lot of the training, but my past assistants, Liv, Nicole and Adrien will be helping a little too.  

If you're thinking "maybe" then here is a questionnaire i made where you can tell me more about you, and your email address.

Any questions for me or my past assistants?

paul wheaton wrote:Any questions for me or my past assistants?

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?

To Paul, what are your best and worst experiences working with virtual assistants?

Best assistant ever:  Emma.  For her very first day she wanted to meet in missoula to go over stuff to get started.  So I sit down and she already has four pages of notes of how to connect me with media.  She is ready to do all the stuff on her four pages, she just needs to go over the details with me before she executes.  She is going to drag me, kicking and screaming, into a world of awesome.  

I think I have had some excellent assistants do excellent things.  Each is a different in how they shine.


Worst:  I'm on the road so I am heavily depending on my assistant to get things done.  Everything is normal.  Tasks, priorities, emails ....   and then the assistant is just gone.  No longer responding to emails or anything.  Stuff is half finished and I am trying to recover stuff left half done.  

A normal assistant:  finds ways that we move a few more of my products each week.  A mention in the dailyish.  A link in a thread or one of our other web pages.  Maybe some improvements in presentations.  Possibly something with the PIE stuff.  A new ad.  Maybe a trade of mentions with another organization.  Maybe setting up some advertising.  This might bring in an extra $100 per week.

Here is something that would be for a super high paid assistant:  a bunch of my stuff that i sell has a 50% affiliate fee.  What if my assistant found a bunch of networks of people looking for stuff with a 50% affiliate fee and convinced a bunch of those people to harvest that coin?  This might bring in an extra $20,000 per week.

I'm currently an EA, and had a few thoughts.

Our team ALSO has an affiliate manager, whose job is to recruit new affiliates, maintain existing ones, and make sure promotions are communicated and hyped.  

I'm personally not responsible for anything that increases revenue directly. You can obviously run your business how you want, but my job description as an EA is to move stuff out of the way so all the revenue-generators have the space to do that. Zone of genius and all that.

Part of the benefit of being a remote EA (and in my case never ever being on the phone) is that I get to giggle to my heart's content over whatever strikes my funny bone, so long as I don't let it get in the way of a professional response.

Best of luck in finding someone that can move your mountains out of the way to let you get the big work done.

N Stephanson wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:Any questions for me or my past assistants?

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!

I have been unemployed since August this year, and I would love to work as your VA. I did fill out the form. I used to work in accounting and I love to write yet I have not published anything.

I hope you consider me, Thanks!

Lana

Well that was the best and most enjoyable job application I have filled out. I have been home with the kids since August and am really looking for something just like this. 8 years Air Force (oodles of discipline and getting it done with no resources). Been doing Document Control for energy companies (Oil&Gas, Windmill, and hydropower) and a Warehouse Foreman. I've written quite a bit, but not published aside from threads here and there. I would like to lend my skills to my passion for permaculture. Even if you, for some mind boggling reason, choose someone else,  I'd love to volunteer and pick up any slack that may need tending to.
I do recommend you become one of the bad guys though.
There is a vacancy for a Permaculture Palpatine,
But there's also Yeoman Plow Yoda, Rocket Stovi-Wan Kenobi, loads of options...

May the Forest be with you

51 people applied so far.  Between other tasks today, I am going to try to narrow down the list.  Glancing through the responses is quite fun!

I rather like the idea of choosing one who, after a month or two, might choose another ...  and, in time, we have six or seven people ...

Hi, I filled out the form over the weekend. I am excited for this opportunity! What a great way to learn and grow for something as impactful as permaculture!

I am available to make this a full time gig. My salary request might seem a little high, it's  what I get paid now. Making this single mom's farm dream into reality.

It'll be a great experience where ever it goes. The questionnaire was delightful! haha =D

Best of luck to everyone.

paul wheaton wrote:

I rather like the idea of choosing one who, after a month or two, might choose another ...  and, in time, we have six or seven people ...

A Minion Army of Virtual Assistants!

GRoup of Assistants and Supporters that Self Replicate and Outspread Our Type of Stuff

GRASSROOTS

I dunno, it kinda got a little rough there at the end lol :)