​[00:00:00] E28 How can I take a break without letting my clients down?
Leanne Woff: ​ [00:00:00] Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to another episode of the Audacious OBM. [00:01:00] Today we are talking holidays. How can I take a break without letting my clients down? Now I know, as an OBM, I get super invested in my clients and in their businesses and the way that they run. I become integral to the team, to them, and if I’m not there, it feels a little bit wobbly.
So If I am this invested, how can I possibly step away for a period of time without it having a negative impact on my clients who mean so much to me? On their teams who I’ve built relationships with? In this episode, I’m going to talk about I’m going to give you 7 things that you can do to make taking a break a little bit easier.
These are the things that I generally do [00:02:00] and that I have found work and I’m hoping that it will give you a starting point and the confidence you need to take some time out when you need it. The first of these things is define what break means for you. What do you mean Leanne? A break is a break.
Well, yes, but not all breaks are made equal. So I know because of my personality, even if I’m having a break, I don’t stop. That doesn’t mean I am available to clients. It doesn’t mean that I’m working all the time, but it means if I want to learn something new, generally, I’m going to do this while I’m on a break because that’s me and that’s what I enjoy.
And a long time I learned that if I try and take a break the way everybody else tells me to, I come back from that break and I don’t feel [00:03:00] refreshed. I get bored and I want to be able to do what I want to do when I want to do it. So if that means I want to do a course, then I’m allowed to do that and I give myself that permission.
If it means that, I want to check in with a certain client just to see how they are, then I’m going to do that because that’s what I want to do. It might be for you that you don’t want to look at a computer screen for a week straight. That’s great. Make that what it means for you. But what I want you to have is permission that breaks can look how you want, so that you come back refreshed.
And so for me, that sometimes means, Oh, I’m going to log in to this tool and I’m going to play around, because I can’t stop thinking about it and I find it exciting. Like that’s fun for me, even though it seems kind of [00:04:00] worky. It’s fun for me and I want to be able to do that in between doing all of my other holiday things.
Number two, choose when. This is a crucial part of actually being able to relax when you are on a break. The timing is important and so although you can’t always be, planning in advance for months and months on end to when you’re going to take a break or you might not have full control over when you’re going to take a break.
You can be a little bit proactive and you can look at the clients that you have and what is going on for them. When you’re considering when, I want you to think about when the critical times are for your clients. You work with them day in and day out. You know when things are crazy, when things that are really important are happening, and when things are just ticking along because you’re ramping up to the next thing.[00:05:00]
Map that out across your clients. Then you’ll know what impact it will have if you’re not there. And I like to be around when it’s a critical time, when I know my client is going to need me specifically, when I know that something, a big launch is happening and there is a likelihood of things needing to be happening really quickly or with somebody who knows this in and out. Where, the outcome is big for the client. I like to be around. Usually, too, because I’ve put in all the work to get it up to this point. So I’m going to be there when it launches. So map out those bits. Look for some quiet times.
Those are the bits where you want to take a break. If there are no quiet bits Talk to your clients about it. I have had many conversations with my clients [00:06:00] around when what’s happening in their world and at some point I want to take X amount of time off and when do they think would be a good time.
Not saying that that is when I’m going to do it, but having the conversation so I can get some more insight into what the plan is.
Number three. Plan in advance. Give your clients as much notice as possible. Sometimes we plan when we’re going to go away, but we don’t actually tell our clients. Don’t do that. Tell them as soon as you know, or as soon as you’re thinking about it. Keep them in the loop, because what adds to their discomfort is you saying, Oh, by the way, I’m not going to be here next week, or I’m not going to be here in two weeks.
And it makes them feel wobbly, like you’re there to keep them stable, and all of a sudden you’re bang, not there. It has a big impact. So if we can share with [00:07:00] them our thoughts, and when we’re planning on doing things, hey, in July, I’m planning on having a week off. That’s what I’m thinking because kids have holidays or because I really want to go to Paris, whatever it might be, so that you’re planting that seed early on.
And the more notice that we have as humans, the easier it is for us to work through something. So if it is going to be a little bit wobbly or it scares us, there’s heaps of time for us to get okay and comfortable with the idea. And that’s what we want. So we want to give clients as much notice as possible, and we want to keep them in the loop.
Which brings me to number four, which is manage the discomfort. When we’re going to take a break, we know that things won’t be happening as they normally do within your client’s business, because you are not there. It adds a layer of unknown and for majority of humans, change or unknown, is [00:08:00] really uncomfortable.
And so what we want to do is manage that before we get there. The more levels of certainty we can give clients, the lower that discomfort will be. We want them to know what it’s going to look like. We want them to have everything they need for this to feel easy. And so I want you to think about what it is that your client might need during that period.
You know them well. Well enough to know, okay, these are the bits where they’re going to wobble. I know if I’m not there to schedule, six months worth of social posts that don’t go out for another three months, it’s not going to be an issue. But I also know that I’m not going to be there, every second day to jump on a call and just let them know what they’re doing for the day. Look for the bits where your presence or your lack of presence is going to be felt [00:09:00] and come up with a plan for those things.
So you. Being in the position that you are, you know the way they think, you know generally their temperament, the way they feel, what they stress about, what they don’t. And so I want you to think about your clients specifically and what they might need to make this easier. Because if you can communicate that to them, it’s also going to make it feel better for you.
Because you’re not going to be worried either. I want you to put your holidays in their calendar. Have it black and white, easy to find, Hey, this is when Leanne isn’t here. I want you to share your plan. As we’re preparing for us not being around, tell your client, Hey, this is how it’s going to work when I’m not here.
This is what I know that you would have needed me for. This is the plan to happen instead. As you’re putting things in place, share it with them so that they can see in that lead up, in that journey [00:10:00] towards that break, you’re on top of it. You’ve controlled the whole thing.
It’s all right. You know what they need and you’ve got it sorted and you’re not concerned so they don’t need to be. Give them the reassurance. Manage that discomfort and be proactive. So have those conversations sooner rather than later. Looking at the scope. Talking to your client. Asking them if they’re, they think they’re going to be okay.
And reassuring them that you’re confident. And set up an autoresponder. So when you go on leave, set up an autoresponder that says, Hey, I’m on leave. And then tells them what to do. So if your clients have forgotten that you’re on leave, well, maybe they haven’t forgotten, but maybe they’re used to just typing in your email to talk to you.
And they do that. We want them to get something back that says. Hey, you know I’m Lee, I’m on leave. Thanks so much for keeping me in the loop anyway, I’ll get back to it and read [00:11:00] through it all when I’m back. Here’s what you can do in the meantime. And you decide, it might be email a different person. It might be you can call this person.
It might be, if it is urgent, do these three things. It might be if you’re looking for where something is saved, go to Blah. So thinking about the things that will make it easier for your clients and then it becomes easier for you too. Number five. Manage the work. Okay. Work, like everything else, and workload goes up and down.
And if you are planned properly, you will know what can be done in advance. Look at those things. And even if usually you don’t do things that early, when you’re going to not be there, see if some of that stuff can be done early. And then communicate that to your client. Hey, I know that we usually do this
in the second week of the month, but I’m going to do this in the [00:12:00] last week of the month before because I’m not going to be here and I want it done. I want it done properly. So I’m going to do it here. You manage that in advance. And so it’s taking some of the pressure off that time. And to do that, you really need to look at the different things that you do for clients and pick up the common threads, because sometimes we just go into Autopilot, and we do, and we do, and we don’t actually create the connection of, ah, this is what we’re doing. So sit and think about some of these things, and think about the bits that can be moved to be earlier, that aren’t going to have a negative impact by doing that. Then I want you to think about what’s going to be needed.
You’re not there, some of this stuff we’re going to move to earlier. What else might my client need in this period? And Is it critical? They might need somebody who can send text messages to clients. Is that critical? Is that a critical [00:13:00] thing if it’s not done? Yes or no? Because some things, just because we do them, doesn’t mean that they’re 100 percent essential.
They’re beneficial, they increase experiences, they do all different things. But, the whole ship won’t fall over if those things don’t happen. So we need to know what those things are. And then evaluate with the things that are critical, the things that do need to happen how we’re going to keep, fill that gap.
What questions might they have? I find it helpful if I’m not going to be around to have a space in their project management system that has, here’s all the bits that you always ask me for. Here’s the stuff, here’s where I keep this. Here’s the email address for this person. The things that I know my clients consistently will message me about and go, Hey, you know that thing, like I have a mini handover, little land where they can go and they can get what they need because I am not there.
And then tell them it exists [00:14:00] and tell them to use it. Number six, help them find temporary support. So when we’re not around. The likelihood is they might need another body, and it might not be for your entire role. It might be for a little bit. Someone who can stay on top of the inboxes or somebody who can help manage the team so that they all know what they’re doing.
And it might be at a smaller capacity than to what you do it in. Let’s say you spend an hour every day managing a team, you might get somebody in who just does a 30 minute check to make sure things are going along and that everyone knows what to do and that’s it. That’s enough while you’re not there.
So I want you to think about. With those things that we know need to happen, who else can do them? And I want you to think about the people that you know and the people that you trust that you can bring in and share that [00:15:00] idea with your client. Hey, I have a really close colleague who is an OBM.
They’re fantastic at what they do. I trust them and I think that we should bring them in to get them to do these bits while I’m not here. Are you happy for me to do that? And so it’s giving them a second layer of confidence. It’s somebody that you already know. It’s somebody that you’re confident can do the job that, you know, so well how to do and it gives them that support.
Whereas if we just say, oh, we’re going to need to find someone. It already feels yuck. It already feels unknown, so we want to try and limit that. And then start talking to your fellow OBMs. Think about the different people you need to connect with so that you’ve got people you can reach out to when you want to be on leave.
There are so many capable OBMs out there, and they’re just an email, a Facebook group, a WhatsApp message [00:16:00] away. Use them! And if you can, bring someone in a little bit sooner. So if you’re going to subcontract and say, hey, this person on my team is going to help you while I’m gone, get them in on the conversation as early as possible, even if it’s just for a little thing, so that your client gets familiar with the face.
That person becomes a known quantity, even for a little thing. Hey, I’m going to have Susie come in and she is going to brief the team. She’s amazing. She’s on my team. I’ve seen her work. I trust her 100 percent and so should you. And then you might get Susie to come in, for one little job. So the client can see her, meet her, go, Oh yeah, okay.
I know who Susie is. Cool. So always be proactive. Try and think ahead and try and minimize the discomfort. And the last thing that will help you take a break as an OBM is to set your [00:17:00] boundaries and communicate them. You might have boundaries, but you don’t communicate them. And everybody’s boundaries are different.
So it might be okay for your clients to send you emails. With little questions while you’re on break. You might already have factored in 30 minutes a day while you’re on leave that you’re going to check that and look for anything urgent and if it’s urgent You’ll reply, you know that it’s going to take you two minutes to do that.
And you’re quite happy with that. That’s cool. Your boundary might be, you don’t want to talk to anybody work related. That’s cool. Don’t send me text messages. I won’t answer. Don’t send me Slack messages. I won’t answer. Don’t contact me on Facebook. That’s for. Friendship questions, not work questions.
And communicate what it’s going to look like to your clients. Because the second that you give people the clarity, they’re usually [00:18:00] pretty good at following those things. And unless the whole building is burning down, which I’ve never had that happen once, They’re not gonna contact you, they’re gonna manage it, and they’re going to value you enough to go, this is what they need, so they can come back and be, all guns blazing, ready to go.
They’re refreshed, they’re happy, that you’ve got to remember that this relationship goes two ways, and the likelihood is your clients want you to be at your best. And they want you to have a break when you want to have a break. Like as much as you want to make their lives good and easy, they want that for you too.
So remember that and let them know how they can help you do that. That’s where your boundaries come in. So that’s it for today. I hope that that helps you and gives you a little bit of a framework to work through, especially if you’re living in the, how do I do it and my clients are dependent on me and what [00:19:00] if I do that and then they all leave?
They’re not gonna leave. You are very crucial and critical, but we want people who value us and value that we need time out too. Thanks so much for joining me today. If you found this episode useful, please jump on your favorite podcast app and leave me a five star review because that is how these platforms tell other OBMs that there is quality advice here.
If you have any questions. Don’t forget, please send me a DM or an email. You’ll find me at Leanne Woff on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or you can email helpme at audaciousempires. com. Have a great week.
[00:20:00]

E27 Do OBMs need Work Agreements and Contracts? A necessary evil or overdone formality?

​[00:00:00] Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to today’s episode of the [00:01:00] Audacious OBM. Today we are talking all things OBMs, work agreements and contracts. Do OBMs need work agreements and contracts? Are they a necessary evil or an overdone formality? I’m really excited to talk about this today because it actually came from one of our listeners.

Thank you, Kirsten, for submitting your question around if you really need a work agreement as an OBM. Kirsten has been thinking about the way she operates as a virtual assistant and the agreement she has now and if that needs to be changed, or what is the standard for OBMs. So I am not a legal professional in any way, shape or form, and highly recommend going and getting your own legal advice.

But I can tell you what I did. The first thing was I did not create my own. [00:02:00] So, Legal is its own language, and I know enough to know that just writing something down does not make it a contract. . I very early on went on a hunt for a legal contract to use as a work agreement with my clients. So I bought the template from a legal provider years ago, and I still use it.

I’m very much of the opinion that I paid money for it back then and, I read through it in detail and I still think that it is valid and relevant. And it is something that I can always get checked and updated by a legal professional if I want to, rather than starting from scratch. When considering work agreements and contracts, I personally would not offer services without one.

And I know that there is some conversation around, but do they really hold up in court or whoever really goes down the [00:03:00] contract path to then say, ‘Well, it’s in your contract’, and does that actually work? And my response is, understand what you’re using it for, understand its function for you because you can have an agreement and it might not be all about legal proceedings for you. It might be, to do with the appearance of professionality. Maybe you want a way to show that you are in it for the long haul in this business. And if you are a serious business owner, then maybe you need a work agreement, other people have them. It’s one way to show I’m not just here to play, like I’m serious about this now, work agreements can look all different ways.

And this is why I am saying understand its function. Because its function might be [00:04:00] a way to include how to work with you or how best to work with you or what your standards are. And doing this, it sets a certain level and it actually helps you to communicate with your clients better. So when you are looking into contracts or work agreements, think about what do I actually want this to do for my business?

Do I want it to be legally binding so that no matter what, if I’ve done work for someone that it’s iron clad, it has the payment terms, it has everything I need to feel safe and secure. And if that’s the answer, then you know a lawyer is gonna be the one that’s gonna create that for you. Okay. The second thing I wanna talk to you about is thinking about and understanding how you are going to present this work agreement and [00:05:00] what communication is required to deliver it. So you know, one option might be that you have a work agreement, it’s templated. Every time you get a new client, you populate the fields, you email it through to the client, you have them sign it, send it back. That’s one way you might use a, an online document signing tool, or you might use a secure document signing tool, like different tools do different things.

Or you might want to sit down face to face with your client and go through your work agreement page by page with your client so that you and them are really, really clear on what you’re agreeing to. Or you might wanna do that on a Zoom and then get them to sign it through a digital meets. Are you going to give them a copy of it?

Please say yes. . So it’s about thinking through your process of how are you [00:06:00] going to communicate what’s inside of this contract with your client? So everybody is clear. Now, some things that are common that are included in work agreements, and I know that these are some of the things that are in mine.

It’s the price. What is the service that I’m offering? What is in scope? What is not in scope? How much am I charging for it? What is the payment schedule? What is the way that I like to work? How can they expect communication from me? What are the limitations to this service? I also have things in there, a little bit about me and my team because it’s nice and honestly, work agreements, contracts I find really boring.

I find it hard because I don’t fully understand it. I’m not a legal professional. I’m an online business manager. You can also have in that when this contract will be reviewed. So if you’ve got [00:07:00] long-term clients or you’re working in retainers, you might not have a contract that just goes on forever and ever and it’s good to have a something in there that indicates what the limitation on the timeframe for this contract is.

Then I also want you to think about . If you do have ongoing clients, do you need to redo a work agreement for every job? And my answer to you is it depends. I have offered services in all different ways before, and I usually would do a work agreement at the start, and if it is a retainer client, if it is someone who’s committing to a certain number of hours, if you’re charging hourly per month, then I might do one agreement and I might, put that in place covering however many months.

That would be the way I would’ve approached that. Now [00:08:00] if I do project work and it’s a set, this is the project, this is the scope, this is where it starts, the middle, the end, this is the milestones, these are the payment terms. For that project, or if you look at it as a job, for that job, I would do one agreement, and then if that client was to come back to me even a month later and say, oh great.

That project was amazing, Leanne, can we work on this thing next? I would say, absolutely we can. We’ll do another agreement. So it’s a different service. Like one project is open and then closed. Now we’re working on another project, so that needs to open and close in the same way, kind of like buying a house.

It doesn’t matter if you’re going to buy, if you go and you buy a house from someone. You’re going to fill all out all the paperwork for that house and make sure that legally it’s yours, and then say a month later you wanna buy another house and it happens. You happen to be buying it from that same [00:09:00] person.

You’re gonna want another contract for that house. So for that reason, I’m saying I would start new contracts if I’m doing project work like that.

I have currently got some of my clients on retainers, and as I said, I do that for periods of time because I understand as vital team members, sometimes it’s not as clear as, here’s the project I’m working on. You are working as a consultant or a service for X amount of months. That might be what your agreement covers.

And what you’ll find is when you start looking up templates for work agreements, for contracts, you’ll find different, formats based on the way that you offer your services. So you might find contracts that have, for retainers, contracts that are for. Projects. So have a look like Google is our friend, and there’s lots of providers of these.

And [00:10:00] really, if you’re brave enough, pick up the phone and talk to the person behind the screen, the person who created it, or send them an email because they’re likely a lot more clever in this area than you or I. And they will be able to answer the question of, is this for me? And what do I consider?

There are some services too, which offer contracts and then they might offer an hour of consulting with that contract and help you set it up so that you can answer your questions. They help you tailor it a little bit, and you pay for that hour in that little package and then you’ll sort it. So I think it is something that I would always invest in upfront and it’s definitely something that I still do for every client.

 The other thing that I want to cover one final thing. Sorry, I lie. Two final things, . One is NDAs. So along my journey I found that people are [00:11:00] quite sensitive when it comes to their business and their information and the things that they have worked so hard to create and protect and they want some kind of guarantee that their information is safe.

And that started to come across with people asking me to sign non-disclosure agreements, NDAs. And I remember one time someone wanted me to sign their NDA and I was talking to some business colleagues of mine and said, is it standard practice to sign somebody else’s? Because then it has their terms and the way that they want the rules to be.

It covers them. It doesn’t really cover me or have it anything from my standpoint. And the advice I got back was you can have your own NDA. So now what I’ve done is I’ve actually put a non-disclosure agreement into my own contracts that says look, [00:12:00] I’m not going to share your information far and wide.

Obviously I am saying this in layman’s terms, , And I don’t want you disclosing the information that I share with you either. So my IP, my secrets, my way of doing things, like that’s a benefit for my clients, not for my clients and their friends. And their friends of their friends . So it becomes a mutual thing.

So I really liked that. And then it’s something that I know people are already sensitive about. And so now I show that I’ve already thought about it. Hey, there’s an NDA in there, so you don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have to worry about me going and sharing your IP with your competitors. I’m not interested in doing that.

And then the final thing is, when does work agreements and contracts fit in to your process? When are you going to deliver them? Talk to your client about them and what surrounds [00:13:00] that you can, a lot of people do it all different ways. You can, before you even have a conversation, say we need to have a work agreement, you can have a conversation and then have the first invoice paid, and then do a work agreement.

I like to get to know the client a little bit, learn about what they need, where they’re going. So possibly have a 15 minute chat, then maybe jump on a Zoom and chat more to get a really solid idea of if we’re gonna work together. Then usually I will quote them. I let them sit with the quote and what my approach would be to work with them.

And then once they say, yes, I’m keen, then I send them the, let’s get the boring stuff out of the way email. And that email has, okay, so the first step for us to move forward is to sort out the legal and admins and bobs, and that is their invoice. It is the payment [00:14:00] terms, it is the start date, and it is the work agreement.

Once all of those things are ticked off, then we move to strategy session. Then you get the best of my brain, and so it’s like I give it to them all in a little nutshell. So that. it doesn’t feel like they’re getting 10 emails filled with different requests for forms and admin. It’s in a little bundle.

I’ve already told them, Hey. This is the evil necessity, right? It might not be fun and it might even be a little bit awkward. Some of us find asking for money really awkward. Some of us find asking anybody to fill out forms awkward asking them to do something when you are providing the service. But in this way, I’ve added my own little personality to it.

I’ve, just kind of said, I know, but let’s do it and get it out of the way, and then we’re all happy. And we do, and people just jump on board. They do it, and we move on and it’s great. It’s also a great way [00:15:00] to show them what’s coming next. Now we’re doing this. Then once we’ve done that, we move into this phase.

It shows that you are structured and that you’ve considered things and you are planned that you know how you are gonna work with this client and what is happening in the future, even if they don’t. So gives you that opportunity to create that relationship and for you to start becoming a partner in this conversation instead of as an assistant.

Yeah. So in terms of if OBMs need work agreements. I would say that they’re a necessary evil. I would not say that they’re an overdone formality, even though hey, they are overdone. People do contract upon contract upon contract, and I think that there is a legitimate reason for that. So Kirsten, I hope that that answers your question.

If anybody else has questions, please [00:16:00] send me a DM, Leanne Woff on Instagram, you’ll find me on LinkedIn, you’ll find me on Facebook , or send us an email. Help me@audaciousempires.com. I would love to hear from you. I really want on this podcast to talk about things that are relevant to you right now and help get you unstuck.

And the more feedback I get. The easier it is for me to do that. Otherwise, I’m just guessing. No, I’m not. I actually get a lot of questions all the time, but I do wanna hear from you and if you are finding these episodes helpful, please jump on to whatever podcast app you are listening to this on and leave me a five star review because that is how other OBMs hear about me and my show.

Thanks guys. See you next week..

E25 How to manage your personal life and work life as an Online Business Manager

Leanne Woff: ​Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to this week’s episode of the Audacious OBM. Today, I’m  going to talk to you all about how to balance your personal life and your work life as an online business manager. Now, do you want to know my secret? Of course you want to know my secret. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be listening to me right now.

All right, so how do, how do I balance my work life and my personal life? The answer, quite simply, is that I don’t. I don’t believe you can. I don’t believe that it’s actually something that’s possible or something that you should be trying to achieve. Balance insinuates some kind of evenness. And in my opinion, that doesn’t exist.

Last time I checked, life is not linear or controllable. Business? Not linear or controllable. Anything that has people involved, not linear or controllable. So, why do we keep trying to achieve this mystical balance? And  what’s the impact of that? What rules does that put on us? What stress does that put on us?

But, there is the need to be able to have a life, and a business, and a family, and a hobby. And sometimes it can be hard to manage all the different things in your world. What I’m going to give you, instead of telling you how to achieve balance, I’m going to tell you how I manage my day to day and all the things that we do.

So to give you context, I have six kids. I have parents, I’m a sister, I’m a wife, I have a very needy cavoodle, I like to do cross stitch, and I like to do jigsaw puzzles, and I am an extreme extrovert, being that if I don’t connect genuinely with people on a regular basis, I’m very cranky, I’m very sad, you know, I like jokes, and I like [00:03:00] hanging out with people, I, have to run my children around to different sporting activities, and I am an avid learner.

And I own Audacious Empires, which is my OBM agency. It is my baby. And I run OBM Academy, which is where I mentor and guide other OBMs to create wildly profitable OBM businesses. All of this stuff is important to me. And I’m pretty certain I’ve probably left out a whole bunch of things. So, when I say to you, I’m going to walk you through the things, how I manage everything.

I say that knowing there’s a lot of things in, my life. This isn’t just one thing and therefore the tips kind of fall flat. Number one, number one tip, know you. [00:04:00] And sometimes this is the bit that we find the hardest. We haven’t actually thought about What makes us up. So just like what I explained to you of me, do that for yourself.

What brings you joy? What keeps you alive? What drains you and makes you tired? What makes you want to poke yourself in the eye? What are all those things? Because… If you don’t predefine some of that stuff, you’re never going to be able to manage all these things. It will always feel like a complete tug of war that you’re losing, and no one wants that.

So, get to know you. Have a little think. Number two, think about what you want from life, your personal life, and what you want from business. What actually is it? What in life do you look at and you think, yeah, I’m really glad I’m [00:05:00] able to do this. I’m really glad I’m able to drop my kids off at school. Or I’m really glad I’m able to have international clients and be on, be in international meetings at seven o’clock in the morning.

 What is it that you want from life and from business? I want a business that makes me lots of money, and these are the things that I’m okay to do to get that, or that gives me flexibility, or that lets me learn and spend 20 hours a week learning, whatever it might be. Then, once you’ve kind of mapped out these things, so from life, I want to be a mum that is present as much as I can be, without compromising all the things that are important to me.

 I want to be a, what do I want to be? I want to be a good friend. And I want to be [00:06:00] someone who is known as being kind and who is supportive and who if somebody, one of my friends needs my help, they know they’ll ring me and I’ll answer. That’s what I want to be. I want to have time for people and I want to be doing life with people, with my family.

I want to know what’s going on in your world. I want to be connected. These are the things I want in life. Now that I know what I want from life and what I want from business, what I want you to do is ask how much you’re willing to give for each of those things. So, okay, I want a business that makes lots of money.

Well, how much am I willing to give to get that? Am I willing to work a hundred hours a week? Am I willing to compromise on business ethics? Am I willing to miss my [00:07:00] kid’s school performance? Am I willing to let somebody else run my kids around to their different extra-curricular activities or do the nighttime story, like what is it that I’m willing to give to get that?

And then in terms of life, am I willing to make less money if it means I can put my kids to bed every night. Am I willing to, have a smaller brand if it means that, , I’m not able to make 7am meetings internationally? Am I willing to do 10 hours of learning every week if it means that I can go to every sport?

 What actually matters here? Because what you might find is the things that you thought mattered, don’t, and the things that you , don’t think mattered, do. But without thinking about it, how are you going to know? And it doesn’t have to be even. That’s what I want to really impress here. It is give and take, but in all different ways, and sometimes it’s take a lot, give a little, and sometimes it’s give a lot, take a little.

 I’ve always called it triage. I triage my life, my business, my everything. I don’t believe you can separate them. Both are so important and, I don’t know about you, but I have this theory that if the CEO walks in today, and he’s got a big decision to make, but he’s just had a massive fight with his partner.

The decision that he makes might not be the one he made on a day where he walked in and felt incredible. People are people and we cannot disconnect who we are from what we do. Not 100 percent and not in that manner. We can be logical and we can, do the best that we can, but at the end of the day, we’re one human.[00:09:00]

We’re not just fragmented pieces that kind of co exist together. We’re all in one body here. So stop trying to fight that and start trying to accept and then use it to your advantage. You know that that’s what it is, so how can we manage based on that knowledge? Thing number four. Think about what happens in an emergency.

What is your backup plan? And this can be a big emergency or this can be a little emergency. The little emergency could be usually, your partner takes the kids to school and that’s normal. Now, let’s say one day your partner can’t. All of a sudden, are you on school duty? Is that what the swap is going to be?

Or, is it, no, in that case I’ll have to ring grandma and she will have to help, because I know she said she will before, because I really can’t miss the 7am meetings. Like, it’s too important to me and I know that the kids don’t really mind who drops them off. Or, let’s say there’s been a project that you are working on and it’s gone live and all of a sudden all the links don’t work.

Okay, this is a big deal. So I’m needed and I’m needed to fix this. And that means I can’t put all the kids to bed tonight. Well, can my partner put the kids to bed? Hey, partner, this is the book I would have read. Like, I just need to be able to go and fix this and then I can put the kids to bed as normal tomorrow, but tonight I just can’t and that’s how it has to be.

And is that acceptable to me? Because if it’s not acceptable to me, I have to change something. If my business needs me and that’s something that I’m not willing to compromise, now I have to be the bedtime person because of the stability it gives my family, then I have to work out what my other options are.

And that might be, [00:11:00] okay, I have someone on my team who is the crisis manager. And if this happens, they will get a phone call at 7 o’clock at night and it’s pre arranged. They’re the go to for this because it’s not something I can do. So there are always other options. You just have to think about them and plan for them first and be okay with what those scenarios might look like.

So number five is what are your backups?  I want you to list out all the possible backups in your life. So it could be your family. It could be after school care. It could be, a list of friends. So it can be people and it can be things. It could be, okay, I’m not going to be able to drop my kids off at school, so I’m going to write a note and leave it in their lunchbox every single day.

Whatever it is, write all of the lists so that you can still fill the different parts that you want in either family or business. I’m going to have a team, I’m going to have this kind of person who does this, or I’m going to set up an automation so that I don’t have to spend an hour a week on emails.

Whatever it might be, think about your backups. Things you can put in place to back up what you want to achieve in business and in life. Six, monitor your vital signs. , it’s a bit odd Leanne, we’re not in medical school. No, we’re not. But, I know when I’m not very happy, or I’m not behaving the way I normally would, my vital signs are different.

Like, where’s my patience at? If one of my, different compartments in my one being is taking too much, I will be able to tell because I will run out of patience faster than I normally would. Whether that’s in life, or in business. I will have less breath, I’ll breathe faster, and feel like I’m running at a thousand miles an hour.

I will have a higher stress level and notice that my shoulders and my neck are all tensed up and, , all like I’m playing Mario Kart and my hands are like gripping that steering wheel like there is no tomorrow. I know that my whole sensory levels will be off the charts. Little noise will trigger a big reaction because my senses are overloaded.

Like, what are my vital signs? Am I reacting to different things the way that I wouldn’t normally? Is my breathing even and calm? Am I laughing a lot? Am I smiling? Am I giving people the time and space they need to talk?  or am I just ranting? Like these are the things that will tell you something has to change and you need to go to one of those backups or you need to change the level of give and take for right now for whatever reason it is.

Because here’s the other thing. Things will not always be the same. You need to be able to shift and change dependent on what’s happening. What are the critical points? Because there are days when business-land will need you more than personal land. And there are days when personal land, if you’re not there, the whole thing will crumple.

So be there and work out how you can be. I’m not saying that, you know, it’s as black and white as you can have everything and that’s all cool. I’m saying that you need to be flexible in terms of what every day looks like and know that different things require different levels of you and it changes  and that’s okay.

And then the last thing, the last tip for managing business, life, and you, your whole world, is to monitor your stakeholder’s vital signs. Now, stakeholders, that’s a fancy corporate word that I actually don’t really like. But, in this case, I’m going to use it. Mostly because I can mock it. You know, so the stakeholders, the business, how’s that going?

What are the vital signs like of that? Is it healthy? Is it growing? Is it, humming along the way it should? Is it giving you the learning outlet that you need? What are the vital signs here? Clients, how are they going? Are they happy? Is your relationship with them good? Can they see the impact you’re having?

What are the vital signs? Your partner, your dog, your kids. Are they happy? Are they healthy? Are they laughing a lot? Or are they crying in the corner? Do they look really hungry? Do they feel neglected? What are the vital signs? And then make plans. Adjust your give and take based on those. Sometimes we don’t realise the things that need to change unless we actually look out, outside of us.

Look at all those things that really matter to us and go, Hey, this is actually going okay. And it’s not that you need to be everyone’s everything or meet every expectation. It’s that for the important things, there are indicators you can look at that will help you manage the tug of war, so that nobody really has to lose. In summary, I don’t think balance exists. And I think that some days being all about business is okay. And some days being all about you is okay. And some days being all about your kids is okay. Or your dog. Or the fact that you just really need to read a book. Making life work for you is more important.

And knowing what you’re willing to do and give to have that. That’s how you manage it. But if you’re not willing to give anything, then it’s never going to work. If you’re constantly just looking for that, no, I want the mathematical equation here, or I want the 100 percent of everything. You’re never going to find that level of managing things with ease that you’re looking for.

The moral of the story, really think about what you want things to look like and really think about what’s important to you and those around you. Stop trying to get this magical balance and just be a practical and emotional person. Thanks, everybody. Have a great week

E22 Going back to basics: Messaging made easy

Hello, hello, hello everybody. Welcome to this week’s episode of The [00:01:00] Audacious OBM. I’m your host Leanne Woff and today we are talking going back to basics. Messaging made easy. Today I want to talk to you about marketing. If you’re running a business, part of that is sales and marketing and alot of the time we go into business because we’re good at what we do and then we get to all of the marketing, the sales, the mechanics of business and we fall over a little bit because in our heads when we start, it’s great to be able to do what we do and we’re super skilled and we know that, but then to have to learn all this other stuff really quickly so that people can actually find out about us and work with us, it’s a whole different ballgame.

Marketing and sales. It’s one of those things. And it’s one of the most important things in your business. And a big component of marketing and sales is [00:02:00] your messaging. I think that messaging has the power to make or break any sale. So your messaging is that, who are you? Who are you here to help? How do you help them?

And tell me why I should pick you and not somebody else. In a nutshell, that’s what messaging is. And it can be really creative, and it can also be really intricate. When you’re crafting messaging, it’s all about coming up with something to start with, investigating, releasing that kind of messaging, seeing how it lands, adapting it, and then repeating that whole process again.

Ongoing. Because people change. The things that resonate with people change. The people that you work with might change, you might change, [00:03:00] and with all those things your messaging changes too. The impact of that is, that it can feel really big and overwhelming. It can feel like a big deal. Especially if we start overanalyzing and we start thinking too much.

Because then it feels like we’re on a hamster wheel. Now, because this is a known fact, there are so many people out there who want to help you with this. As is with a lot of things, and every man and his dog has an opinion about how to market and how you can market right now better. It’s always, Don’t do all these things.

Do this. Do this one thing. And, I’ve tried doing that. I’ve tried doing this and it never works. And no, no, no. If you’re not doing this, you’re wrong. Or if you’re not doing this, you’re wrong. Or, skip all the hurdles and do this instead. And then we’re in this overwhelmed, [00:04:00] trying to do everything, overthinking spiral.

And you know what? We end up doing nothing. Let me tell you something, doing one thing, just one, even if it’s not the best thing, even if it takes you too long, is better than what you’re doing now. Why? Because at least you’re doing it. You’re doing it and you’re trying something. And it’s the truth.

It’s something that I have to remind myself about all the time. And just, Do one thing, just get started. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be the thing. And when it’s not me reminding me, it’s my coach reminding me. I am the queen of wanting to [00:05:00] find the very best way to do something. And it makes me fantastic at my work.

It makes me really skilled. And it also holds me back a lot because I want everything, I wanna find the best way for everything. And it’s just not practical. You can’t do that in life. So I’ll give you an example. My coach was asking me about the clients that I wanna work with and why it is that clients choose me.

And I was sitting there and I’m looking at her going, I don’t know. No, Leanne, you do know. Pick this client. Tell me why they picked you. Okay. So I started to talk and, she said to me, what are the things they actually asked you? Like, when you first had an intro call, what was it? And so I said, oh no, they picked me because they really wanted a team [00:06:00] who knew what they were doing.

So they saw my expertise and they didn’t want someone whose hand they would have to hold. They just wanted someone who could run with it and who was capable. And I kept talking and she paused and she goes, And that’s what you say. And I stopped. I was like, you’ve got to be kidding me. I’m trying to think about how to market better and get my messaging better and, had been swirling around with all these different ideas trying to find the right words.

And she was just sitting there going, you already know why. You’ve, they’ve told you. They’re your words. Just take them and put it over here. It was obvious. But for me, in my, but I want the best way. I couldn’t even see the obvious thing. Another example. So I have this podcast. Thank you for listening. And I’ve done lots of [00:07:00] presentations in different people’s communities.

Like I’ve done training and I’ve done guest podcasts and I’ve spoken at events. So I’ve done, a lot of things where I’ve been featured in those groups. And I want to be able to put all those as featured in things on my website. And so I said to my coach. I haven’t done it because I don’t know where on my website these things should go.

And it’s really silly. And she’s like, oh, you just put it on your speaker page. And I was like, yeah, I know, but I don’t have a speaker page. And she’s like, why? I said, because then it’s a whole thing. And then I have to work out what to write and what to say and what topics and call to actions and all the messaging.

And she just starts laughing and she’s like, No, you’re making it too hard. You just need three things. [00:08:00] Who it is you’re speaking to, what you speak about, and some testimonials. And then look, here’s some places that you’ve already spoken at. Job done. So stop making it a big thing. It doesn’t have to be this full blown, page.

And I found it hilarious. So in my head, I had made it this really big thing, and now it’s on my list of things that I have to do to get this page up. But. In thinking of it in just three sections, three things, say it like it is, fill the page, get it up, and then you can add to it as you go. And again, it’s me trying to find the right words in the right way, the best way of doing it, so that for whatever reason, before I do anything.

And because sometimes I get so entwined in messaging, and I can go down many rabbit holes because I want it to be amazing messaging, it can hold me back. So I [00:09:00] just wanted to say sometimes in business, in marketing, with messaging, we just need to go back to basics. And so if you want a really great way to get better messaging or just to start somewhere, think about reality.

Think about the literal conversations you’ve had with clients or people you’ve worked for and think about the questions that they’ve asked you, the objections that they had or look back at the testimonials. That you’ve been given and see what they say, see what words they use. And I actually find this one really good.

It’s when I look through random chit chat conversations with my clients. That’s where I find the gold. Because there’s no shiny parameter put around it. Just people organically saying what they really believe. Especially if you have a good relationship with your clients. And that’s [00:10:00] where your good messaging comes from.

And so it doesn’t have to be perfect. And if you’re trying to craft messaging, go back to those conversations, just like I did, and then add an, ‘Are you looking for a….?’ at the beginning. So from my example before, it would be, ‘Hey, are you looking for a super capable team whose hand you don’t have to hold to keep your business running like clockwork now?

Come talk to me. I’m for you.’ It doesn’t have to be lots and lots of fancy words if you’ve got something someone else has already said. And I really hope that this has made it a bit easier for you and that you can jump on the bandwagon with me of trying to make things more basic to get the outcome that we want instead of going into this overthinking spiral.[00:11:00] 

So with your messaging, I want you to think about who are you, who are you here to help, how is it that you help them, and tell me why you are not the person next to you. Bye guys, have a great day.

E23 You just lost a client, now what? The steps to take to get back on track, fast.

Leanne Woff: ​[00:00:00] Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to another episode of The Audacious OBM. [00:01:00] I’m your host, Leanne Woff, and today we are talking all things, you’ve just got that call, you’ve just got that email, you’ve lost a client. Doh, doh, doh! These are the steps. That you can take to get back on track fast. So this episode came about after a conversation I was having with somebody, one of my students in OBM Academy, and they’d just gotten an email that out of the blue, they were losing one of their clients.

No wait list, no pipeline. And now they’re down a client and everything that comes with that. Cue panic. We’ve all been there. We all know what that’s like, and we all know how stressful it can be. Especially if it’s unexpected. And this is something I’m actually seeing a lot right now, because some people are pulling [00:02:00] the purse strings tighter.

It’s not as easy to secure a lead as it used to be. People aren’t buying as quickly. So, in their panic state, I started talking to my student, and I said, okay, so let’s look at the things that you can do. The first thing was to review the facts. And I’m talking about the emotional impact.

Okay, so this is stressful. I feel uncomfortable. I feel sad. I feel upset. I feel angry. Whatever it is. This is unexpected. Maybe it was unjust. There’s an emotional impact. The financial impact. Okay, so now I’m down money. That’s the reality. Lose a client, revenue goes down, unless you replace the revenue.

It’s going to have an impact. This is what that impact is. This is [00:03:00] what it’s worth. Mindset impact. Okay, so I’ve lost this client. Is it me? Did I do the wrong thing? Could I have done something differently? Maybe I can’t work with anybody else now. Maybe I’m not good enough. And we go into this spiral. So I want you to analyse all those bits.

And then… I want you to set this aside for a minute. Let’s just park it. You’ll work it out. You always do. And even if, financial impact, you can’t get a new client tomorrow, you will work it out. That doesn’t mean you need to work it out this minute. And it might not look the way you think. It might be, okay, this week I’m going to buy home brand bread instead of brand bread.

You know, there’s all different ways you can do it. Doesn’t necessarily have to be business at the end of the day. You need to make sure [00:04:00] that you can cover all your bases. But we’re going to park that for a sec, because stress and overwhelm is not going to help. Then, once we’ve decided that we’re going to put that over there just for a second, we will get back to it.

We need to get logical. Nothing that you do today or even tomorrow will, bam, get you that new client. It doesn’t matter how stressed you are, how frantic you are, or how many panicked emails and phone calls you send and make, it’s not the way business generally works. You need to remain calm and clear.

It’s the only way you’ll be able to think properly and make better decisions. It’s your only way, so I want you to remember that. Calm and clear. We want to be logical as much as we can, remove the emotion. Number [00:05:00] three, we want to look back. Now, this is where we go, What caused this? Why am I in this position?

Why do I feel this way? Why did I lose the client? Now, the panic behind it, so regardless of whatever the reason is that you lost that client, the panic that you feel Is because you don’t have somebody knocking on your door saying, Oh, I want this spot. I want this spot. Or you wouldn’t be panicking.

So that panic is because you don’t have a lead pipeline. Maybe it’s cause you’ve not really been marketing. Maybe you felt you didn’t really need to. People have always just come to you, or it’s word of mouth. Or you’ve had the same clients for a really long time, and that’s great. So that’s what’s looking back.

What caused this? What marketing have I been doing? What’s my leads like? Where do they usually come from? [00:06:00] Then, I want you to look forward. Now, remembering we’ve parked your current situation to the side. Look forward. Look to a year from now. You don’t have this problem anymore. It’s resolved. It’s done.

You’ve got new inquiries coming in all the time. You’ve got a waitlist of hungry clients waiting till you have a spot. That’s your situation. Now I want you to think about why. Why might that be? What does your business look like at that point? And what’s it doing and what’s it doing well?

So once you’ve looked at that, felt it, thought about it, I want you to make a list. Make a list of all those things, the things that your business might be doing. We’re consistently building our email list. We’ve got a sales strategy. We’re connecting in [00:07:00] conversation with all different people we’re speaking or we’re, proactively asking for referrals.

Whatever it is. I want you to start thinking about what is building that pipeline for your business in a year. Once you’ve got that list of all different things, you then need to think about what’s the first, just one logical step you can take towards that. If you’ve got a list of all the things that your business would be doing to be in that situation, and you know what currently is happening in your business, we want to get here.

So we want to look at that first. That’s your new focus. The panic is not your focus. The find a new client is not your whole, all consuming focus. Your focus is let’s get some systemization, let’s get some new leads in. And this is what’s going to lead us there.[00:08:00] Number six, big warning. Do not get stuck in, I’ll just do more for my other clients, trap.

 Let’s remember, we’ve lost a client, we’re panicked, we’ve still got other clients. And by autopilot, we might just go, Oh, I’ll just work harder in here. Whether we really need to or not, I’ll just do more. I’ll just do more. And we do this because it’s our safe place. We know what we’re doing. We can execute the way we always have.

And we don’t have to stretch ourselves. This space is comfortable. And it’s also your one way ticket to going nowhere. We need to venture out outside our comfort zone. And we need to get uncomfortable, even a little bit. If you want to prevent this from happening again, if you do want to find that new client, you got to get comfy with trying new things, because if you do the [00:09:00] same thing and expect a different result, it’s just not going to happen.

I wish, but it won’t. Number seven, I want you to review the opportunity. So we’ve switched gears a little bit here. We’re no longer running away from the panic and the stress. We’re reviewing the opportunity. We’re looking forward. So I’ve lost a client. What does that mean for my day-to-day? What does that mean for my time?

What does it mean for my schedule? I still have the other client work. I know how much of my time that takes up. I know how much of my time my last client that’s gone took up. So technically… I’ve got more capacity now. I want you to measure it. I want you to actually realize how much time that is because I don’t want you to [00:10:00] unconsciously waste it.

What we want to do is prioritize that time. We want to use it wisely and we want to stay focused on the things we listed above. Let’s get this business back on track and let’s do it fast. You won’t do that if you keep wondering what to do next, what to do next. You’ll do it by doing the actions that you’ve already listed.

Then, the last thing that I want you to do is systemize whatever it is you put in place. What we don’t want is for this to be a start and stop activity. Once the panic has resided, we want to keep doing the things we’ve built in. So, if that is- Okay, I’ve now… got a plan to build my email list or I’ve now got a way to network better, whatever it is that you’ve put in place, create a system around it, because what [00:11:00] the worst thing that you can do is wait till you get a new client and then stop because you’re too busy.

But that’s how we got here in the first place. So if it is, upgrading your lead onboarding process, upgrading your sales calls, making it easier for people to buy from you. When you’re coming up with solutions for these things, think about it from a whole system perspective. What does this look like on a day-to-day?

What does, what needs to be done to keep this going indefinitely? Okay, because then you really won’t be in this position again. Each time you add one of these things to get to that future point of got a lead pipeline, it’s okay. Got a wait list of hungry clients, it’s okay. It’s because you’re doing these things and you’re doing them consistently.

And it doesn’t mean there has to be a whole lot of manual work. It might be manual at the start and then you automate it. Because we always do the [00:12:00] process, try the process, then improve it, automate it. So we want to make this as easy as possible, but still getting the traction that we need. And Before I said to you, we’ll come back to our panic.

Now you can come back to your panic and I want you to create a space where that panic has the time of day where you can step aside and go, this is really stressful, even if it’s talking to a friend, talking to your coach, talking to another OBM, whoever it is, and going, Hey, this happened. And it’s a lot of pressure, let that out, but don’t stay there.

And then also look at other solutions to your problems because just getting a new client might not be the thing that you need. It’s not the thing that’s the quickest to fix, like the quickest way to get more money might be to [00:13:00] cancel your email subscription. That’s going to get you more money than trying to reel, quicker than reeling in a new client.

So there’s different things you can do, so just be open. So I hope that this has helped you. I’m going to leave you with one final note. And that is, this happens to us all. You’re not alone. And the more practical we can be about it, and try not to get bogged down with the emotion, the easier it will be and the faster you will get traction again.

Because you’re staying in business growth mode. And that’s what you want. Bye guys. Have a great week.

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