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OBM Tip of the Week

3 Tips to staying true to being you in what you do!

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Original Post May 19, 2013

Who doesn’t like a useful tip? Well, here are three tips for staying true to being you in what you do!

Tip #1: If “How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything”, then make a quick assessment of how you do everything… is it impassioned? Half-way? Detailed? Great intentions, not great follow through? With excellence?

Once you know how you do what you do ask yourself: Are you happy with the result? If so, great move onto the next tip… if not take a moment and write out what you like the result to be.

Tip #2: Are you doing what you love? Honestly, it is time we simply do what we love to do and hire someone else to do the rest. I get that it is easier said than done, but if you look at the big picture of your life it is the only way to stay true to you doing you in your business. If you hate article marketing, but you continue to do it then this is what happens: first you feel bad (cause you hate it), second you are slower than needed (because you are avoiding it), and third you will make mistakes (because you will wait till the last minute and then have to rush.) Or you could have simply delegated to someone who LOVES it and bam… they feel good, you feel good. Everyone is happy! I cannot say it enough, stop doing the work you do not love to do.  Someone out there would love to do it AND can do it better than you!

Tip #3: Get clear on WHY you do what you do. There should be a deep-rooted reason for the work that you do. When we are rooted in the why of what we do, we can truly enjoy the process of the work. WHY do you serve your clients the way you do? Is it a passion to help people (which I know for many OBM’s it really is)? Do you need to feel a validation within yourself of the value you bring or your worth in the world? Are you passionate about the message or product a client is offering? WHY do you do what you do. Let me just say, for some of you it will simply be to make money and that is fine.  But serving money will not fulfill you for the long run so I encourage you to look deeper and develop an understanding around your why. This will help you to love truly the work you do and to stay true in you being you in what you do!!

Does the OBM need to be the marketing manager?

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Original posting April 3, 2013

As the Certified OBM Training Manager so many years I still have had a lot of people ask “Is the OBM also the Marketing Manager?” And I would like to make this as clear as mud:  YES and NO!

Before you start thinking I am talking out of two heads let me explain why I am saying this.

  1. No, you do NOT need to be a marketing strategist or expert. Knowing what kind of marketing strategies to employ is ultimately up to your client or their own marketing coach to decide.
  2. Yes, you DO need to manage marketing activities to make sure they are getting done… same as you would with any other project in the business.

The OBM is the Manager of EVERYTHING… so stop trying to ‘get out’ of the stuff you don’t want to do, manage or be responsible for.  Best to just step up ?  I get that ‘marketing’ in this 24/7 communication environment looks a bit like a monster.. but as the OBM you need to be willing to step in and make sure that marketing activities are being completed, especially if you are on incentive. ?

Now here’s the tricky part.  As an online business manager, the simple truth is you can’t manage where there is no business, and without marketing, there will be no business, no clients, no revenue.  So don’t escape the opportunity to learn and grow in this area.  There is no such thing as an OBM who says: “Well I just don’t like marketing so I am not going to help here.”  Visibility for a business is the only way it grows.. plain and simple.

So though you don’t need to be the marketing expert, you do need to have a sound knowledge of what it takes to manage marketing initiatives.

OBM Tip of the Week – Coaching Approach Part 3

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(excerpt from Chapter 4 of Becoming an Online Business Manager)

Coaching Approach Tactic #5: Recognize that a business is one of the world’s most effective vehicles for personal transformation there is.

As an Online Business Manager the trials and tribulations you go through as you invest in the vision of your clients will coach you, if you let them.

One of your clients is taking a sabbatical for three months and you will earn considerably less. Have you become a little complacent about your work as an OBM and what will this 3-month window allow you to do, or become, as a person and a professional?

The business is taking a new turn and you don’t have the specialized expertise required. Is this an opportunity for you to release your preference to be the one who knows every­thing? Can your identity as a success survive the fact that you won’t be the smart one in this scenario?

You’re in a low energy mood for a while and you realize it’s because you’re tired of using a coaching approach with your client! Instead, you turn it on yourself and ask yourself where are you not stretching?

The ways in which a coaching approach can be applied to your path as an OBM are limitless. In fact, I would encour­age you not to think of a coaching approach as something you turn on and off, or as a blanket you put on top of something. It’s the inner fuel that drives the work, not decoration.

As you read on in the chapters that follow, I know you’ll benefit beyond measure from what is provided as concrete direction for how to play a bigger role with your clients and yourself. Read and listen closely and you’ll see a coaching approach between the lines, and that this theme runs as a thread throughout the OBM conversation. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that quite possibly, without a coaching approach to business, the OBM role would not have emerged quite this way!

The very best OBMs are an embodiment of the coaching approach and speaking as a business owner, I’m incredibly grateful for this.

I hope you don’t mind if I say on behalf of the business owners whose lives and business you will touch, thank you, for your willingness to wade into these uncharted waters.

You’re about to enter into the guts of the “doing” part of the book, where the “what you do” steps are revealed. As you soak in the wisdom there, read with a coaching approach in mind. And when you’re ready to apply a coaching approach in real-life, here are some sample questions you can refer back to:

As we talk about X (where X is a new project, idea, prob­lem that needs solving), what happens in your physical body?

  • Why do you think X is happening? (Where X is a recur­ring problem, results that aren’t as stellar as hoped, an emotional reaction on the part of the client)
  • Would you prefer to earn more money and work a little more, or earn about the same amount of money and work a lot less?
  • What is the end goal of your business – is it to work it until you retire at a certain time? Sell it to someone for a lump sum? Have it be run by a team while you pursue other interests?
  • What other area of your life have you experienced suc­cess in? What can you transfer from that success and apply to your business? (A person trained in martial arts might recognize they aren’t being as strict or disciplined with themselves in their business as they can be, and can enjoy being.)

OBM Tip of the Week – Coaching Approach Part 2

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(excerpt from Chapter 3 of Becoming an Online Business Manager)

Coaching Approach Tactic #4: Come to under­stand that the business can only grow to the extent, and at the rate that, the business owner grows as a person.

I call this the “Paul Principle,” in sharp contrast to the “Peter Principle” which says that in corporations, people will rise to the level of their incompetency and then stay there. Likewise, in any given business, the growth of the business will rise or fall to the level of the business owner’s personal development. If a business owner isn’t willing to look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge their whole selves, experience says the business won’t be able to make big shifts either.

Applying this once again to our scenario, let’s use our imagi­nations to illustrate this tactic.

Is it possible that the business owner has made a habit of requesting to start lots of new projects at the last minute, within short timeframes, only to abandon them later, making deadlines moot (and downright annoying)?

Is it possible the business owner “owed” something to the virtual assistant and didn’t follow through, preventing the VA from being able to proceed and leaving the VA feeling unable to speak “truth to power” out of fear?

Could we consider the fact that the business owner is some­one of such high profile that the VA has put herself in a state of ultra-sensitivity, worrying about her performance and in awe about her association with this person, resulting in her being paralyzed and stuck?

Especially when it comes to the online world, these are the subtexts that can often emerge ONLY when a coaching-approach is taken. Based on the scenario and tactics above, I hope you’re beginning to grasp what it means to take a coaching approach as an Online Business Manager. It can be boiled down to something very simple:

It’s not only what you do but HOW you do it that will set you apart.

So how do you translate this into the way of being that is the heart of what an Online Business Manager is?

There’s no requirement that you become a coach or take coach training, however if you do, it will without question better equip you for your OBM career as well as transform your life. Start with the basic tenet that underlines every­thing coaching:

Questions.

Lead with questions.

In case of emergency, ask the very best questions you have.

Ask what questions you’re not asking and what those will reveal.

OBM Tip of the Week – Coaching Approach Part 1

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(excerpt from Chapter 4 of Becoming an Online Business Manager)

Coaching Approach Tactic #1: Assume every­one is doing their very best, especially when they don’t seem like it.

This means that even though the Virtual Assistant crashed and burned, there is a story behind it. Not even just that their dog is ill, or they’re overworked, either. Very often it can mean that (1) expectations of the project weren’t clear in the beginning (2) they did not realize they were welcome to ask “stupid” questions (3) prior experience on projects for this business had deadlines that were flexible or even (4) their self-esteem is low for unrelated reasons and they aren’t good at setting personal boundaries or saying no.

Coaching Approach Tactic #2: Set up a business culture that requires over-communication, always.  And that the only real mistake that can occur is the failure to com­municate early.

In an online business situation, the majority of unknown “gotcha’s” will be prevented with the application of this one coaching approach tactic. I’ve been known to get very ada­mant when emphasizing this one, along the lines of:

“You can’t get it wrong UNLESS you don’t tell me you’re get­ting it wrong.” Translation? The only real mistake is a failure to communicate. You can call me up in the middle of the night and tell me things are doing horribly, and really, I will be much more okay with it than not knowing until it’s too late.

Coaching Approach Tactic #3: Be serenely confident in the fact that until you successfully go through a conflict or sensitive negotiation with someone, you don’t know the true nature of the relationship.

I am of the conviction that until you have to go through a tough or even just touchy something with someone, you aren’t really friends. Perhaps because Tina and I only ever work with clients we respect as much as our friends, we apply this to our business relationships too.

As an OBM who’s in it for the long haul, and wants to really reach the pinnacle of success available, be open and willing to embrace conflict. Take feedback as a vitamin and strengthen your internal self each time. Use the other coaching approach tactics here to anchor your conflict in productive conversation. Remember that to the degree you can be serene through a conflict, the more you are learn­ing and the less likely you’ll have to go through this same conflict again, in another form.

How does this apply in our scenario? In mentoring OBMs over the years, we’ve come to recognize that managing con­flict is one of the most difficult things an OBM does. Your goal is to be able to transcend the fear of initiating quickly, the conversations that need to happen with the errant VA and also of presenting the ugly problem to your client.

OBM Tip of the Week -Becoming a part of the client’s business

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excerpt from Chapter 3 of Becoming an Online Business Manager

I have a coaching client who has been in business for over four years now, and has a number of people on her team who have worked with her that entire time. We were talk­ing recently about ways that she can get out of the day-to-day needs of her business so she can focus more on growth activities. I asked about the current people on her team and whether any of them might be ready to take on a bigger role within her business. Her response:

“There is one girl I’ve worked with for years who does a great job, but she always refers to it as ‘your business.’ For example she will say ‘Here is an update for YOUR webpage’ or ‘What do YOU want to do here.’ Never does she say OUR, US or WE when talking about the work we do together, even after all these years. So I don’t get the sense that she really cares about my business”

Can you see what my client is saying here? The words that her team member is using are drawing a line between her client’s business and the work she is doing for her client. She isn’t really showing that she is engaged or invested in the work.

This is such an interesting distinction! On one hand I totally get why this is happening – after all, it isn’t the team mem­bers business, so why should she act as though it is? This is how most contractors (and employees) act with our clients (and employers). We draw a line in the sand between the two of us, and I believe that’s in order to keep ourselves safe from the impact our work has on our client’s business.

We’re not going to get deep into the psychology of why this happens, but I would really like to challenge this status quo way of working.

When a client hires us to work with them and contribute to their business in some way, it truly is a collaborative effort. Whether it’s doing their filing or helping them create a new product line, the end result is created together. While the client may own that result, energetically you are a part of it as well.

Take a look at the words you use when talking to or about your clients. Are you saying YOURS or OURS? YOU or WE? Pay attention to what you are saying or typing over the next few days, and make note of it.

I challenge you to start using more inclusive language and pay attention to how that feels. Does it make you uncom­fortable? If so, dig a little bit into that and see what’s up. Perhaps you need to do a bit of personal work to feel com­fortable with this level of engagement. It could be you feel you don’t deserve it, or perhaps you truly don’t have confi­dence in the work you do. Or maybe there is an issue with the client that you need to face. This can be a tough process indeed, but don’t be afraid to shine that light on what is going on behind the scenes.

Being plugged in as a part of your client’s business is abso­lutely essential to working in an OBM capacity. If you aren’t able to do that then this may not be the best role for you.