Hello and welcome to the OBM Educator. I hope you are ready to get deep today because I know so many people are going to need this. Today's topic comes from some coaching calls that I've been having lately, and when I see topics come up over and over again with different people, I know that they are topics that a lot of people are feeling and struggling with. So I find them particularly important to talk about first, obviously, to address the topic, but also so you don't feel like you are alone. On these coaching calls, the women that I've talked to they bring up this topic but with almost a feeling of shame, like why can't I figure this out? But really it is so common because it's something that is difficult to figure out and overcome. So today, specifically, we are talking about what happens when you become good at a lot of things and you might be like wait what? And let me preface this by saying that there's absolutely 100% nothing wrong with being good at a lot of things. I love personally being a Jill of all trades versus being a specialist in one thing. It gives you variety in your day, you're probably better at figuring things out and it really is more helpful to your client to be a generalist OBM, but what I'm going to talk about today are some of the more challenging things that come along with being really good at a lot of things, and how it might affect you, how you OBM from day to day. So let's get into it.
01:31
Welcome to the OBM Educator. I'm your host, Aamanda McVicker, a veteran OBM who serves six and seven-figure entrepreneurs as well as educates new OBMs with the skills and confidence they need to start and grow their own successful online business management business. Follow along as I share valuable insights, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks and proven strategies to help you build a better OBM business. So just as practically everything else that I talk about on this podcast, from being an OBM of over four years still currently an OBM I am bringing perspective from my own personal experience as well as from talking with a bunch of people about this as well. But for me personally, I classify myself as a Jill of all trades, a generalist OBM and a let's figure it out attitude when clients are wanting to do something new, which happens a lot. For the most part, I love it. Again, it gives me more variety in my day and helps me learn a lot of things that I wouldn't normally learn, but there have been challenges that come along with it, and these are things I hear in coaching calls all the time, too.
02:43
When I'm talking with VAs who do OBM work, we call them OBMs in disguise we lovingly call them that or OBMs who are trying to balance the transition from VA to OBM, and they're in that messy middle where there's a lot of overlap, or, you know, you might be listening to this as an experienced OBM and be like well, what about me? I struggle with this too, and don't worry, I also talk with many experienced OBMs and I'm included in that who struggle with this, and so, no matter where you are in this journey, you are not alone. So what are the challenges that people face when they're just so darn good at a bunch of things? We're going to talk about two of them today. So the first thing this one's hard. You might be good at something you don't enjoy, and I start with this one because I think it is the most common that we try something, we're moderately good at it, but we don't really like doing it.
03:42
The specific example that I think a lot of people can probably relate to is social media, because, obviously, as being an online business online service providers. We have to be somewhat decent at social media marketing for our own business. We have to know content pillars. We have to know how to write it in Scrum Pose and how to put something up in Canva, like we just kind of all know that. Does it mean we like it? Not all the time, but clients do try to add that into what we do, and especially true if you started for that client as a VA, because that's a common VA task, but you go along with it. You don't like it. We're using content as this example. You don't like it, but you'll spend your time doing it, writing posts, creating graphics and again, you're good at it.
04:31
Probably aren't amazing at it If you were, you'd probably be more of a social media manager instead of an OBM. But to your client, you get the job done and they don't have to pay separately for a social media manager. And like so many things that I mentioned on this podcast that clients do that are kind of an inconvenience for us. It is not malicious that they put that task on us. It's just that they have a service provider who is willing to do something outside of their normal area of expertise and even if they aren't amazing at it, they will take that overpaying for the expert service.
05:05
But here's what happens, and this is the challenge. You start resenting your work. If you don't enjoy doing it, you're not going to want to do it. You'll start putting it off. You'll find yourself more reactive, like yeah, I forgot, I need to do that Instead of proactive, like here's everything planned out and you won't be excited to actually do the work. You'll also more likely get burnt out, which affects the work you actually like doing. So what do you do? If there is a task or service you don't like doing and please don't roll your eyes you don't do it, and that's obviously way easier said than done. But what I encourage you to do, like here's the action steps Take a look at what tasks you are doing, what projects and tasks that you are doing in your clients' businesses that you do not like.
05:55
Make a list, circle it, check them off, whatever. How can we get those off of your plate? There are a couple options. If you're the only person in your client's business, like you're the OBM and there is no VA, or like you're kind of in that transition, messy, middle or whatever and they're not really at a point where they can hire someone else. Maybe you hire a VA, you hire a subcontractor to do those things, for you to do the content, or if they have a VA already or they're in a position where they could hire someone, you suggest to your client that they do that. You know you can reduce your hours or it might mean that you would actually be able to get some stuff done that's been on your to-do list forever, which we'll get to in a sec. But you wanna make it clear to your client and most definitely future clients going forward, that it's not a service you provide. You can do this through like a monthly or quarterly update email on a client call, whatever, however, that feels comfortable to you. I usually do like an update email when I have changes like this, and then follow up on a call if they have any questions. But you want to make it clear to your client this is not a service you provide anymore.
07:04
So the second challenge that you might find when you are good at a lot of things is that you are trying to squish a lot of tasks in your day, week, month, whatever. This is going to be super common with someone who is doing a package retainer versus an hourly retainer. So, package retainer being, you have a set of services that you do within the month and you get paid a package rate for it, versus an hourly retainer where you have a certain amount of hours a month that someone has contracted you for. But this does affect both. So imagine this scenario You're on your monthly strategy call with your client and they mentioned wanting to set up a quiz lead magnet.
07:42
Those are very popular these days, so you're pretty swamped with a bunch of other things. But you know how to set up a quiz lead magnet. Maybe you did it for another client, maybe you've done it for yourself, or you can figure it out because you're good at that stuff and you know it probably won't take that much time once you get all the different components. So you say, sure, let's do it. So then, as you're waiting for those components to come in, your client reaches out asking your opinion on what the different results should be and you're like, okay, well, yeah, I could spend a little time doing that. You spend about an hour that day going through what would make the most sense with her offers. So then she comes back with well, what do you think the nurture sequence should be. And so you spend some more time mapping out the nurture sequence because you have some knowledge of email marketing and lead magnets and what will work and all of that, and you send it back Another two hours gone, that you weren't planning. And then they send you the quiz but they leave three questions blank because they couldn't think of anything and they just ask if you can whip something up real quick. Anyone else cringe when you hear the words whip something up real quick Another hour gone.
08:49
So this once project that you said sure we can do that right now, whatever actually ended up taking an additional four to five hours out of your week. So either you worked an additional four to five hours than you were planning on working, or there's about four to five hours of work now. That is not complete. Either scenario is not ideal. So what do you do? This is where you need to speak up, which I know makes a lot of us super nervous. So if you just cringed, no worries, you're not alone. But here's the thing Entrepreneurs are always going to be coming up with new ideas. It's in their blood and, as someone who is good at a lot of things, you're going to be able to help them with. Pretty much all of it. It's in your blood. But as the OBM, you also have a responsibility to your client and yourself to keep things on track, and that means if an awesome new idea comes along that you can help with, make it clear to your client what that means, what has to move in order to put that out ASAP, what priorities need to shift and if things can't shift, what can stay on the CEO's plate.
10:08
There is a misconception out there that because someone has hired an OBM, then they never have to do anything in their business ever again, and sometimes us OBMs are the perpetrator of that myth because that's how we market ourselves right Never do anything again. I can take everything off your plate. But there are times, especially when a CEO wants multiple things right now, that they either need to hire more help or get in it themselves. And I find that CEOs who go through multiple service providers, multiple OBMs, have that belief that when they hire someone, they should just be able to hand things off and never touch it again. But as OBMs, we have our own business. We have multiple clients, unless we are an employee of their company. That's just not how it works. So to overcome this challenge, we need to speak up.
11:00
So those are the two challenges that I think are most common. We either get very resentful because we don't like what it is that we're good at and our clients want us to do it, or we find that there are just too many things that get put on our plate and there's not enough time to get them all done without being overly stressed, burnt out right. Burnout is kind of like the ultimate thing that happens when all of these challenges come. If you take anything away from this podcast episode, I want it to be that there is nothing wrong with being good at a lot of things, even if it presents challenges. It is such a benefit to your clients and to yourself to have a wide variety of knowledge, but there are times it means that we have to be a bit more discerning with how we work so that we can avoid the burnout. If you were listening to this episode and you were thinking of your particular situation and thinking, yes, this helps, but there's so much more to my situation, I would love to be able to coach you through that.
12:00
I am offering discounted one-off, one-on-one coaching calls. These are normally only available, like in my six-month mentoring program. I'm offering these as a one-off for very limited time. We will dive into your specific situation. You'll get customized solutions and we'll put together an action plan in this 45-minute call for you to overcome your challenges. Right now I'm offering these at $97 for the call, which is, I mean, more than half than what these normally would be. The link to book is in my show notes and, again, this is going to be for a very limited time. Thanks for joining me today. I hope this was helpful. I'll talk with you guys next week. Bye, thanks for joining me for this episode of the OBM Educator. I hope what you heard today is helpful for you on your OBM journey. If you love today's episode, I would so appreciate you sharing it and leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Want to be a guest on the OBM educator? Fill out the form in the show notes and I'll be in touch. Join us next time on the OBM Eeducator.