I have seen the virtual assistant industry evolve a lot over the years, but I never imagined there would be virtual assistants out there pretending to be other virtual assistants to solicit sales of training courses... Not only is this type of thing deceitful, but it's also unethical too. To some it may not seem like a big deal, especially to the people doing it, but let's unpack this a bit, shall we?

What's actually happening...

Virtual Assistant 'experts' who train, coach and mentor other virtual assistants are hiring team members to support them (that's fine, I do the same) BUT they are asking those Virtual Assistants to use their personal accounts (personal brand name accounts) to contact other virtual assistants, pretending to be the VA expert and interact with them AS that expert.

They are using scripts to ask questions, where they seem genuinely interested in 'connecting' with you, but in actual fact these scripts are being used to 'pre-qualify' you as a potential customer.

Why This Upsets Me...

First of all, I've worked to earn my place in this industry as an expert, coach, mentor etc... I have spent many years to create content and information and education that Virtual Assistants can learn from.

And I don't get it; check out that closing message - if "Breanna" genuinely wanted to "Connect" with other VA's why is she sending "Mary" into her account, and... if that reply was from "Mary" why is she using "Bre's" account to connect...

It's very fishy.... Very Catfishy...

But having other 'experts' coming in using these tactics is harmful in several ways.

Trust

It breaks trust for the rest of us (and quite rightly so, when you pretend to be someone and you aren't) who are trying to make true authentic connections, because once this happens several times, we start to get 'labeled' as the same.

But not only that... If I can't trust who you are... How can I trust what you teach, or anything you say?

Teaching Methods

I would never advise any VA to pretend to be someone else on social media, especially these days. Connect as a company or brand sure, connect as a team member of that person sure, but PRETEND to BE that person... It's not the VA's finest lesson to be teaching people that's ok. Is that really someone VA's should be learning from or might that create even more unethical VA's?

What Is The Impact...

Well I'll let the comments speak for themselves when late one night, after I finished getting the kids dinner and was about to start getting them to bed, I decided to make this video...

Which in turn, got some comments from Virtual Assistants generally about how they felt about this...

Do Your Homework...

We have some GREAT people in the industry who have done wonderful things for fellow VA's, but just be aware, that all that glitters is not gold - some people on the internet have the 'appearance' of being genuine, authentic, successful VA Experts, trainers, coaches and mentors, but when someone has to resort to things like that to grow their business, what version of success is that really? Instead, go by the results and feedback from people, from the valuable content they put out, not from the shady messages that slide into your DM's.

So How Did The Story End...

I will show you. Marketing results at their finest, using the catfish technique. Comments are welcome.