Introducing Elaina Horsfall who is one of our team of fabulous virtual assistants.
Elaina has a background in managerial roles, leading teams of up to 18 people. Her areas of expertise are customer service, HR, training and development.
Elaina is particularly skilled at creating order from chaos and making the overwhelming feel achievable. She works with a number of creative clients and enjoys being the organised ying to their creative yang.
Elaina lives in Wiltshire with her daughter and their cats and when she’s not working, she loves baking, crafting with her daughter and interior design.
How did you come to be a part of the Clear Day team Elaina?
I’d just figured out my ‘who I want to work with’ after a year or so in business. I was looking for an associate position and came across Clear Day. A short while later, Helen arranged a zoom for us to chat and we got on so well. The rest, as they say, is history.
How do you uphold the Clear Day values of calm, clarity, confidence, focus and progress?
I’m particularly skilled at creating order from chaos and making the overwhelming feel achievable. To help calm an overwhelmed mind, in the first instance, I simply listen and we go from there.
As a natural organiser I love to help my clients figure out what their end goal is. I then go about helping them to achieve this by having small but achievable steps in place, no big leaps necessary!
Communicating on a level which my clients are comfortable with helps. Sometimes this style of communication changes as their needs change but for their clarity it’s important that I can communicate with them effectively, whatever this may look like at the time.
I’ve always been big on improving confidence and lifting others up so I take opportunities to remind my clients that they’re amazing at what they do and are making a positive difference in our world. For the things that they’re not as good at, and we all have them, they have me. Together, we’ve got this.
When it comes to focus, life happens and focus slips. I believe it’s important to acknowledge this, in doing so we can give ourselves permission to change the focus when we need to. It’s fluid.
There are times that I need to help my clients focus, help them to set aside a rigid way of thinking and do what works for them rather than what is considered the social norm. Once we work out where the focus should be at this time, we can move forward with confidence and clarity.
To me, progress doesn’t have to look the way we thought it would. We often have this vision in our mind and anything short of that is perceived as a failure. I remind my clients that this isn’t failure, it’s part of an ongoing journey where we learn and grow and that journey will change at points which is absolutely ok.
I often ask my clients “how are you going to reward yourself?” because even the tiniest of steps can be exhausting at times and it’s so important to recognise that you’ve made progress. Self-care must be a priority, especially as an SME business owner where we wear so many hats.
Describe your ideal client:
My ideal clients are the creatives of this world, they make the world a better place in their own unique way and often without realising it.
As a trained counsellor and life coach I align well with businesses that help others to improve their lives in some way. Be that coaches, counsellors, therapists or cosmetic dentists; these people all make a positive difference to the lives of others.
I also have a personal interest in art and interior design so again, I align well with these businesses too.
In Clear Day, I’m also the Tech VA. If you’d have told me a few years ago that I’d be considered a ‘tech’ person I’d have disagreed. Looking at it now, it absolutely makes sense because I can see patterns and errors. I’m creative myself but also have analytical thinking skills so this combination means I can think ‘outside of the box’.
So, I can often be found working on projects to streamline a business, their processes and systems. No one business or business owner is the same so each time it’s different. It could be starting from scratch or it could be that just a few tweaks are needed to bring balance back and free up time.
Whatever the plan is, the outcome is to bring clarity and peace to the client and that’s why I love doing it.
Click here to find out more about working with Elaina or any of the Clear Day team.
Clear Day
May 2023