The constant drive to evolve, stay on top of SEO and manage my own admin is something that's always on my mind. It's a little like the old saying about a mechanic - always working on everyone else's cars, but never on their own. That's the case here, and one of the reasons behind this blog.

Marketing and advertising any kind of business support has flooded our feeds since Covid. Remote work and 'virtual' everything became a hot topic. And now when someone mentions the term 'virtual assistant' there's an automatic connection to offshore contractors. So, what makes me different? Tried and tested experience, perspective, piles of chaos and now, this blog. It might not sound like much, but you'll see why in time.

Every day, I spend my time helping businesses solve problems. Sometimes it's building a workflow to save hours every week. Sometimes it's troubleshooting a tech support issue. And other times, it's writing policies, organising events, rescheduling appointments and ultimately bringing a little bit of order to a very busy inbox.

Those aren't what I would call 'loud' tasks. They're the things that happen quietly in the background when nobody's looking and go unnoticed. And that's okay, that's the job.

Every now and then I'll finish a project, create a kick-ass new workflow, introduce a new tool or learn something that someone else could benefit from. Although I won't share trade secrets or a client's playbook, if a basic automation or Excel trick can make someone else's life easier I'm going to share it.

And so, Offline & Over-Caffeinated was born. I didn't want it to be a blog full of buzzwords or every VA's blog of their 'top ten tips' or cheat sheets. I wanted it to be a place to share the tried-and-tested solutions from behind the scenes that my clients and my own business benefit from.

Each post will be inspired by real experiences, without spilling confidential and private details (that's something I won't ever compromise on!)

If you're a business owner or in charge of running a company or not-for-profit organisation, I hope you find something useful here. If you're just curious about what really goes on in my day-to-day, I hope it's not too boring (I'll try to keep it full of colourful words, lol) and you enjoy the ride. You can expect a mix of system solutions, workflow ideas, productivity wins, the occassional tech headache and the odd story that more than likely starts with "this is only a 5 minute task".

Now, please excuse me, my coffee has gone cold... which means it's probably time to make another one and wrangle the next piece of chaos.

Until the coffee runs out and the chaos returns,

Chrissie ☕