As the former President of the Association of Celebrity Personal Assistants (www.acpa-la.com), I’m often asked how personal assistants cope while working in an environment that insists that they be perfect at what they do. My answer is: no one is perfect.

When I worked as a booking agent for the Los Angeles UnifiedSchool system in the late 1970s (scheduling artists to appear in school assemblies in order to showcase their crafts to students), I learned through trial and error about booking people on the wrong day or time, or at the wrong location.

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My LARK method includes:

K is for Kindness

And, finally the L.A.R.K. ends with K for kindness; keep going; kick old habits; and, keep laughing.  All of the above will keep the LARK flying !

Kindness is sometimes tough to find in this business or any other. Yet it’s essential to your mental health and to the health of those around you. Instead of the old saying: “Kill them with kindness” I rather like “Keep them alive with kindness.” Try this turn-a-bout on the old phrase and you’ll find yourself starting to kick the old habits of putting yourself and others down with your words and actions. Continue Reading…

The first step in the L.A.R.K. method is to ask for and accept that you deserve what you want. This step is more difficult for most people than the listening exercise. Asking for what we want from our bosses (or lovers, or families, or mechanics) is a big step for many of us. Another step in the process is the realization that we actually deserve to ask for something and receive it. Talking with fellow personal assistants, I’ve found that they find this step to be very difficult to do. Asking for help, or asking for something like a day off from work or a raise, is torture to them.

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Dear Readers: Usually this page is where an “excerpt” from my book. Dealing with Divas, can be found. But I wanted to share one of my recently syndicated articles with you. So, I bring you Love is an Eleven Letter Word.

Click here to read my article

In my book, Dealing With Divas, I explore myths that I feel can be changed. Here is one of them:

# 4—Old Thought: Make a mistake and you’ll pay for it.

Mistakes are a normal part of life, and you will make some mistakes in any job. But, what’s the worst thing that can happen if do make a mistake and you tell the truth? My advice is, if you do something wrong—break something, double-book an auditorium, or simply forget an item on the list—tell your employer immediately and ask for help to fix the situation. In baseball, a player is considered a good player if he has a batting average of .333—that’s an average of hitting the ball less than four times out of ten tries at bat! It’s not ten out of ten. If you do something wrong, don’t beat yourself up over it—give yourself a break.

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