We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful LaToya Ball. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with LaToya below.

LaToya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

This is such a touchy topic. According to social media family and friends are the last to support and the worst to ask. It’s a little truth to that but it’s more to it for me. Asking anybody to support my business is a hard task for me. I want my work and actions to prove that I am the best and hope that everyone just loves and supports it. But without an ask you never get an answer, right? So it’s appropriate to ask anybody for support but if you are going to ask PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be prepared to back it up. I live by word of mouth is the best advertisement and referrals but for those you must be able to show up and out. As an entrepreneur, there is no line to draw when asking for support unless you are asking someone to extend the truth and you know you can’t deliver. Don’t ask someone to put their name and reputation on the line and you have them looking bad. If you go down, do it alone, and don’t drag those who are supposed to be closest to you with you. I have been lucky enough to have some of my greatest clients as family and friends, but I think with this blessing comes a little more responsibility than having a stranger as a client. So I know genuinely if you are referred by a family or friend it is because I exceeded their expectations. Working with family and friends they expect more, and I think they should. I suggest starting with family and friends, if you are able to maintain the personal and business relationship and strive in both, this sounds like a major move. DO IT!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Allow me to introduce myself, My name is LaToya Ball and I am THE P.O.P.pin Virtual Assistant and Operational Leader especially for small businesses, looking to scale. I have been in the administrative field for over fifteen years, where I have served several executive-level managers and directors in several fields. I started in my local county government, went to the federal government, the nonprofit sector, and then the healthcare field. I have been blessed to work with CEOs and managing directors who have shown an interest in my elevation and expansion of knowledge and understanding of the value of the back office. The organization and efficiency of the back office of businesses are a vital part of an organization’s success. But it is also a safe space. If you are great at your job then you are definitely acknowledged, but if not the top of the organization is looked at for answers. I have always wanted to play a significant and indispensable role in an organization’s success but the front and center of being the lead was always a little nerve-wracking to me. Ironic, huh, especially since the one thing that I was always afraid of I am walking in now. But I have always thrived in creating systems, learning the ins and outs of every unknown and unseen space in business, and being the go-to and guru of keeping things moving. It’s my safe space and comfort zone. Creating the rules, creating change, and setting the temperament is my love language. I started with my Associate’s in Office Administration and then graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. My specialty goes a little deeper than systems, I have a true passion for offering a sense of peace to my community. So that is just what I offer, peace of mind, peace of time, and peace within your passion. I am a change narrator and want my community and clientele to focus on their passion, so I become the team and support they need to take their dreams to the next level. I am most proud of creating trust between myself and other business owners. As a business owner myself, I know how hard it is to give a little of your dream in someone else’s hands, and to be able to build that trust is a major accomplishment for me and the business. I want people to know that you can not build alone, I know they say it is harder and takes longer but I truly don’t believe it can be done. Just starting at sanity purposes, you need a backup. And we are humans, which means we are not perfect nor are we the same, Why have one person overwhelmed with all the aspects it takes to run a successful business? Find someone you can trust, grant some grace, and do the work.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As an Operational leader, Pivoting is the name of the game, hence, the name of my business (Pivotal Operations Practice). I think coming into my own, was a pivot, I just knew with my experience, and knowledge I had all the answers, whew that was a rude awakening. Learning effective listening and researching systems, and really matching personalities has played a major role in my success. Before in the corporate world, things were drastically different, a lot of the direction came from the senior executives, and they pretty much had the answer, but needed someone to execute. As an independent operational consultant I am responsible for sorting the problem, researching the solution, and bringing options to the table, I enjoy the challenge and responsibility, but it was definitely a mind shift change, that had to pivot immediately. Now with the current government wanting to re-enforce staff coming back into the office, pivoting my mindset and highlighting the benefits of a virtual independent staff will also be a make or break for the success of my business. In addition, the introduction to AI has caused a major pivot in business, Artificial Intelligence is evolving technology at a rapid pace and is expected to take over virtual administrative and operational tasks, so pivoting to working with a collaborative program is a major adjustment.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think every day is a journey of resilience in the world of entrepreneurship. I have been placed in a space where I had to decide between financial elevation and quality and time serving my passion. I have faced a time when I had to decide between quality and meeting my own financial goals. Because I started as a small business, I had to do what I encourage my clients to do, and that is expand/build a team and learn to trust someone else with the dream. So at the beginning of the pandemic, there was an overflow of entrepreneurs, who needed my service and was familiar with the quality of my work. At one point the workload became overwhelming and I had to revisit my own standards and policies. I had to recruit help and train a team to pass on my dream. Trusting someone as a new entrepreneur to show up as me or better was mentally and emotionally draining. I spent more time worrying and watching over my shoulder looking for perfection. This cost me my peace and put me on the short road to burnout. I literally became sick for weeks, my body was shutting down from the inside out, which was costing me money, and time. I felt lost and confused, and took that time of healing to just really pray and fast and ask for guidance. Today after a lot of work on my emotional intelligence and spiritual healing, I have one of the best business managers and partners ever.  My business manager now handles all my hard work, chasing after the money, helping me devise a plan of success and rest, etc. This was a burden I was carrying around and I didn’t even recognize it.  It was showing up in my work and costing me money and time and of course the magic word…PEACE.  I’m so glad I made the strategic move of expansion and I feel better too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.popvaservices.com/
• Instagram: popo_va_services
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/THEPOPPINVA
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latoya-ball-76019124/

Image Credits
S. Damone Photogrpahy