Nicole Smith
Welcome to Take Control with Nicole, as business owners we experience first hand the fine line between our personal and business lives. During our conversations, we will look at simple hints and tips to create time, reduce overwhelm, and help you to navigate through your journey to where you want to be. If you’re looking for smarter ways to work, and create space and time freedom in your day, then you’re in the right place. All right, let’s go.

Nicole Smith
Hello, and welcome back for another episode of Take Control with Nicole. Today I am speaking with the amazing Chloe Porter, all about OBM’s vs. VA’s. But first of all, I’d love to introduce you to Chloe. Chloe is the captain of operations and business integrations at Audacious Empires. She is the absolute queen of keeping the Audacious Empires wheel spinning, she’s got the drive, the determination capability, and care factor to smash those goals and manage the entire team. She listens to what you want, identifies what you actually need to take your big vision and make it a reality, creating more time and freedom for you to do what you love the most. And the reason that you actually started your business in the first place. We all need a Chloe in our world. Well, hello, and I’m so excited to have you on here today and talk all the things.

Chloe Porter
I’m so excited. Thank you so much for having me. I think this is gonna be a really good episode for everybody out there who’s wanting to know about OBMs and VAs.

Nicole Smith
The topic that we were just talking about before we press that ye old record button that keeps coming across in my world. And I’m sure in your world as well, that yeah, the difference between the two. But before we dive into the all the nitty gritty stuff, tell us a bit about you and the team, Audacious Empires give us all the gold.

Chloe Porter
So we are a team of women here at Audacious Empires, we all have our own skill set. But pretty much we come into your business and help create the space that you need for you to stay in that little shiny place that you want to be in. So we take you out of doing all the boring admin stuff with team management, project management, all the stuff that bogs you down from being in the creative space. And we give you the platform to then be able to do your creative work. We look at all of your systems, your processes, we take your vision and make it a reality, and all of those kinds of things. And I think it’s really great. I think everybody sometimes just need that person in the corner to give them a little bit of a push and a little bit of a helping hand.

Nicole Smith
I totally agree. And I love the team at Audacious. You guys are my go to for all things fabulousness. I know Brooke, she’s a very big part of my team, my VA over here. And when I started my business, it was the intention to find my humans, so that I didn’t have to do the doing all the time. Because I’ve done the doing. I was very good at doing the doing. But I don’t want to do the doing anymore. So that’s where you guys come in, right?

Chloe Porter
Yeah, that’s it. So sometimes, you know, you guys are just wearing so many hats in the business and you’re getting pulled in all sorts of different directions. And you’re doing so many things that you don’t actually have to be doing, somebody else can do that, you know, your brain needs to be doing all the things that you’re good at that nobody else can actually do. So you just need somebody else to step in and take some things off your plate and do all the, I guess, the boring bits that some of you might call them. So you can actually take the time to do stuff that you want to do, that you love to do and that you need to do. Nobody else can do it, but you.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, that’s right. And it’s those, like, some of the repeat tasks that are easily you know, you can easily create a process or you come in and see, we can automate things here. Or have you thought about this? Or do you actually need to be doing that? I know, that’s a question that I’ve asked my clients a lot. Is that something you should be doing or can your team do that for you?

Chloe Porter
And that’s right. And that happens very, very often with our clients too. So they’re always doing things and saying how, you know, tired they are or I was meant to do this and I didn’t actually do it because I spent an hour doing this and it’s like, okay, but hang on, did you actually need to be doing that or could you know, you’re second in charge be doing that and they sort of sit there and go, oh, I didn’t think of that. I’m just so used to being the one doing it that I just do it. Like without even thinking I just go and do it. But you’re right. So they just need somebody else that identifies those things, or even it’s the fact that they have identified it, but they need somebody else to say it as well. They need that second person saying it for them to then go okay. I’m not the only one that’s thinking it.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, exactly. Because it’s so easy just to do the doing that you’ve always done you know, and you know hmm, maybe you shouldn’t be doing that thing. But it’s, I can do it much quicker than having to train someone.

Chloe Porter
Yeah. And especially if you don’t have any processes and systems in place, you might just sit there and think, well, it’s just quicker if I do it. Quicker for me to do it, then explain it to somebody else. You know and it’s, but if you had those SOPs and things in place, you wouldn’t have to explain it to somebody else, because it’s all documented, right? And it’s documented in a way where you can give it to somebody who’s never done it before and they can follow it step by step and actually do it.

Nicole Smith
Singing my language doo doo doo. There’s gonna be so many things of crossover that I do with my clients, and what and your fabulous team do with with your clients as well. So I know this conversation is just going to be amazing. Before we dive any further in, let’s ask that question that is on everybody’s lips. What is the difference between? Well, firstly, what is an OBM? What is a VA? And how are they different?

Chloe Porter
Yeah, so that’s the big one that comes up all the time. And I explained it in the way that and OBM works closely with you and your team to take the pressure off daily functions of your business, they get in, they do all the strategic planning with you, they do the project management, team management, they look at the systems, the procedures, all the techie things, they have such a high understanding of the online world that they’re able to work really well with you and get your business to the place that it needs to be. That’s how I describe an OBM whereas a VA, goes a little bit hand in hand with an OBM in the sense of they’re really good at taking a task and doing it. As an OBM, you’ll be able to assign tasks to them and get them to do the repetitive recurring tasks and things like that. But when it comes to big picture, thinking, they’re not often able to do that. They need direction they need somebody that’s hovering over them, and holding their hand a little bit. And quite often, they can only offer hourly type support as well. So you might find that they can say, hey, I can give you five hours a week or 10 hours a month or something like that. Whereas an OBM generally has packages that are customised to your business needs. There’s no, you know, I can only offer five hours, 10 hours, 15 hours, it’s just a package with a price attached to it, but it’s very customised.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, I think there is that real definitive not divide, because each and every one OBMs, virtual assistants, whatever niche they’re going in, so talented at what they do. I think I know, from my journey, I’ve come from a background of being an assistant in the corporate space. So being EA, and then all the variations of what that means Chief of Staff ending up but knowing as a business owner, what level of support do you need, as well? Are you looking for someone just to do the doing? Or do you want that right hand woman, man, person, human, whoever it is person on your side, to talk with you and help you to identify those strategic things that you’re looking to achieve? Or, you know, developing out that new thing that you can conceptually see up there, but can actually connect the pieces together?

Chloe Porter
Yeah, that’s right. I totally agree. And a lot of people will often start out with a VA. And then as they grow, sometimes they might outgrow the VA, or they just realise that they need that person between the VA and between them. And that’s quite often what happens. It’s not, you know, that the VA is just doing a terrible job or anything like that. It’s just that business needs that extra component. And quite often, that’s the OBM that comes in and they can be a sounding board. They can be a thinker, your doer, your strategist, your you know, your CEO, all the things rolled into one.

Nicole Smith
I’ve noticed as well, because obviously OBM if we haven’t actually said online business manager, just in case you don’t know what that is. And VA is a virtual assistant. We’re really focusing on the OBM side today, I think primarily or a little bit of both, but any who’s what I found is in the small business space, there’s no real sort of regulations or anybody can go and call themselves an OBM or VA really without truly understanding the skills of what an actual OBM is. I’d love you to give us a little bit of colour around that. What is if you said I am a definition of what an OBM should be go, what is that?

Chloe Porter
You should absolutely be upskilling 24/7. That is a big thing that I want to say. The training, the digging around and looking at new things and playing with things never ever, ever stops. If you ever have somebody say, I know everything about this particular tool you don’t, because tools and systems and things are always evolving. So you have to evolve with it, you have to follow the trail learn as you go. Remember to always be in touch with all the new updates, we’re just forever evolving as OBMs. Whereas with a VA, normally, or typically they have a specialised skill in one area. And they might do training now every three months, or every six months or something like that. They’re not usually up to date with all of the new tools and tool updates and things that are rolling out. That’s one of them. Another one is you have to have big picture thinking you have to as you’re doing something, you already have to be thinking about the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and what’s going to be the impact of this. And if I touch that, what’s going to happen here before you actually do anything, you have to already be thinking of those things and seeing them and understanding them sort of just okay, yep, I’ll go do that. Oh, whoops, this broke, or I didn’t think about this. But now this has happened. You know, you’ve got to be that one step ahead. You’ve got to be very proactive. That’s another one.

Nicole Smith
I agree with the proactivity point of view as well. You know, when you bring somebody on into your business, that’s your right hand person, the job, you don’t want to have to, micro, I hate micromanaging.

Chloe Porter
Yes, you don’t want to do that.

Nicole Smith
It makes me feel awkward. I’m sure it makes everyone else feel awkward, like my go-to is I trust that you know what you’re doing? And you’re good at what you do, until you tell me or prove otherwise, right? So if you come into a business, and you’re your OBM, and you’re being the person that’s helped driving those changes, those things, taking that action and being proactive, seeing the potential, Nicole, when are we doing this? But have you thought about that, or we could this could happen and bringing that attention to the business owner. So because they’re over here playing in the, you know, the sparkles in their world of whatever they’re focusing on, you know, so being able to have having you there to do that is, uh and when you find your person oh it’s just harmony, isn’t it?

Chloe Porter
It is yeah, so the point is that, bringing an OBM in, you don’t want to be doing the thinking and the behind the scenes thing you just want to be playing in your shiny land. So having that person do as you just said, being proactive and picking things up earlier on and bringing it to your attention if needed. That’s super important. If your OBM isn’t doing that, then they’re not doing, you know, what an OBM should be doing.

Nicole Smith
It’s exciting. What else? What else do OBMs do?

Chloe Porter
So many things.

Nicole Smith
Where do we start

Chloe Porter
I honestly don’t think that there’s a, like a clear enough description. I always just say that it’s everything rolled in one, you know, we’ve been described previously by clients, as so many things, even therapists, you know, sounding board therapists, you know, my, my sister, my counsellor, my, you know, all sorts of things, honestly, just think that we’re everything that you need in one. You know, we can build the systems, we can create the processes, we can liaise with your team, we can manage your projects more than one project at once, you know multiple projects, and we can strategize with you and everything that you’re thinking about, we can bring it all down a touch. So you know, you know, a lot of people have so many thoughts that swirl around in their head, and they get so overwhelmed, they don’t know where to start, or they start somewhere and then when they’ve gotten halfway, they realise oh, that wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe I should have done this. So we’re very capable at tightening everything down to help you see clearer.

Nicole Smith
I was just as you just went on to that point, that is where my head went, there was the next point I was going to bring up, as entrepreneurs and creatives, you know, whatever industry you’re in, if you own your own business, you’re creative, right? You create things all the time, think about different ways of doing it. I’m one of those people that will be like, oh, I know what we’re going to do now we’re gonna do this. And sometimes it takes off and other times I actually stop and think and think that’s not the only time but having someone in the corner to go okay, so I understand that that seems really exciting for you right now. But just remember that what we’ve spoke about in X meeting and our focus for this quarter is this, how does this connect to this goal that we’re looking at right now? And it’s like, just come back out of the clouds just for a minute. And if that’s the way you want to go, fabulous, we’ll support you to do that. But just know that if you’re here, you can’t do that over there.

Chloe Porter
That’s it. Yep. Yep. So it’s just quietening everything a little down a little bit and getting you to see oh, okay, if I do that, then this is going to have this kind of impact? No. Is that really a good idea? Or is it just not something that should happen yet?

Nicole Smith
Yeah, exactly. And you know, having someone in your corner who gets your business understands you, as a human first connects with your team, and understands where you are heading, what your visions are for your business. What are your passions, what you love to do in your business, what you kind of just do, because you know, you’re thinking you have to do it. It’s such a great experience.

Chloe Porter
Yeah, that’s it. So we like to get deeply immersed into your business, and all things that come with it, your business ends up becoming ours. So your wins become our wins, your losses become our losses, we share all the feelings with you, and you don’t see it as just, I’m in here to do a couple of tasks or do this one project and get out, you’re stuck with us forever. We’re stuck with you forever, and we love it. You know, that’s that’s how it ends up going end up creating building this amazing relationship, and this great connection that just lasts forever. And it’s amazing.

Nicole Smith
And having a trusted advisor really, you know, trusted sounding board, a trusted sister, friend, therapist, whatever you want to call yourselves like, it’s yeah, it’s the missing piece with a lot of small businesses, I think, especially when you get to a point where you know where you want to go. And you just need that helping hand to actually take that action and make it a thing.

Chloe Porter
Yeah, that’s it. So quite often, you know, somebody’s been doing this for a really long time, they’ve grown, their team’s grown, or they’re looking to grow their team, and they’re just feeling a little bit lonely sometimes, they just need somebody else that’s in it with them, to be able to take them to the next level, and help them achieve what they want to achieve. It just gives them the extra push and the extra support, and all the other things that come with that. And I’ve seen it quite often, you know, someone might start with two or three team members. And then 12 months later, they’ve got eight. And they’re massive, and they love it. And it was just what they needed. And they’ve got new courses out that are really successful and new products and all sorts of things. Whereas, you know, possibly prior to having an OBM. They were trying to do all that, but they just couldn’t get it to the end, they got halfway, they got stuck, started creating something and they lost their creativity space, because they’ve been too busy doing all the project management and all the other things that they didn’t have to do. It got put on pause, and then I hear all the time or I started doing this and then I paused it and now it’s been 12 months, and I still haven’t picked it back up.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, exactly. That’s it’s such a common story, isn’t it with services and offerings and the whole world of marketing? Like where do you even start? Sometimes like, yeah,

Chloe Porter
Yeah, everything’s changing all the time. So it’s just you can’t do everything. You can’t keep up with the new social media updates, the email marketing updates, the tool updates, you know, maybe processes or systems isn’t your jam, you don’t really understand it, therefore, nothing’s working, how it should be. So you’re sitting there writing, manually writing emails that need to go out at 12pm, every single Friday, when really that could be automated, but that’s not your thinkg so you can’t get it to work.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, yeah, that’s right. It’s, I think, because I come from that tech space as well. So for me, it was naturally easy to come and step into that world. And I can do all the things. But I choose not to do the things because, you know, I’ve built systems in my business that work really well. And you know, for instance, we’re still on the social media train and look, sometimes it falls behind, we are human beings. And at the moment, I’m having one of those moments, but I know I’ll get back on track. But I’ve got Brooke in your team and since she’s been on board, I have just noticed she’s bringing, she’s brought in things that I’ve been wanting for ages that hadn’t I hadn’t even vocalised to her. So you know, commonality on the design on my Insta feed, right? I’d started to create templates here and did that and did this and try it and never really kept it. She’s just done them. And now they’re there in my Canva. And if I do want to go and create something, it’s there, or when she does it, she knows how I talk and the language I use and the images I like. And it’s just like the first time she created a reel for me. I was like, oh my God. It’s amazing, so great. It’s having that support of the people who get your business, understand what you need. And you don’t even have to tell them they just, I think your mind readers. Mind reading

Chloe Porter
And that’s it. It’s having someone that can do the thinking and the doing. Being proactive, right bringing things to light that you probably hadn’t even thought of, or that you hadn’t talked about yet. And having that second brain, if you will, so you’re not doing all of those things all the time.

Nicole Smith
And that’s what’s fabulous about your team, there at Audacious as well. And you mentioned this right at the start is, you’ve got so many humans in there that have varying degrees of different focuses, can’t even word things. They specialise in different areas. So when you identify the need of your client, you don’t have to go out and find the peoples because you’ve already got them.

Chloe Porter
Yeah, that’s it. So we all have our own specialised skill sets, and we bounce off each other. So it’s never just one of us working with somebody, you have the whole team, you have all of us. And we bring in all of our different skills, when they’re needed and where they’re needed. But you never, not just you’re never going to have just one of us, right. So whilst you might be talking primarily to one of us or two of us, you actually have all of us behind the scenes that are in your world, doing all the things.

Nicole Smith
And from personal experience, I can tell you, it’s amazing. I’m a very organised person on the day to day normally. And I knew that when I needed someone, I needed someone that could out organise me, right. And there’s probably a lot of entrepreneurs out there as well that maybe think maybe think they’re very highly organised. So they might be some very organised people, but you need someone that can come in and kind of sit and take it, run with it. And I felt so supported, I knew I didn’t have to worry about anything, I knew that you guys were doing your thing. And if you needed me, I’d be here and give you the things. And that’s the other action, that is a great thing to talk about.

Nicole Smith
Just interrupting this episode for one little message, if you have been listening and love what you hear and want to come in connect, we have a Take Control with Nicole Facebook community, right over there on Facebook, that I would love to invite you to come and join us. We are a supportive community, we are looking to really take action in our businesses, and change the way or evolve the way we’re working right now. So I invite you to come on over and join our community and connect with us all. Community is the essence of everything in business, being able to really build those relationships that you can nurture, and grow and support and celebrate each other. Oh, how fabulous, I hope to see you over there. Pop on over to Facebook, Take Control with Nicole, see you soon.

Nicole Smith
This is a two way relationship, right. So as much as you’re going to do the things you can only do the things, if us as the business owner give you the things that you ask us to give you.

Chloe Porter
Absolutely, yep. Yeah. Yeah, that’s the way that’s the way it works. So we can only take it so far before it’s hey, I’m just wondering, can I please have this? And yeah, as long as there’s that constant communication. And, you know, quite often you might speak to us daily, as well, I just want to mention that, it’s a very, there’s a very close communication going on, as long as we’re getting all the things that we need to keep progressing, then things will stay on track, always. But the minute that just becomes, you know, silent or very delayed or anything like that, then you will notice an impact on the things happening in your business.

Nicole Smith
And we have to be aware of that, right? That that is not that is us, as business owners, holding up the process, it’s your team are doing your fabulous things, okay? But you can’t deliver the the work if we’re not giving you things. I see in my world too, when I’m working with with people that they know they need it. They haven’t created the space or capacity, or invested that time to deliver or practice or do or connect in. And so that experience isn’t great, because I’m sitting here waiting, and I can’t do anything until I’ve got the thing or I’ve moving on to the next thing and you know, as it keeps going. So that is if you take anything out of today, this is a two way relationship. We’re never ever going to just hand the full thing over. Because we’re still running the business. It’s our business. We got to give the things

Chloe Porter
Correct. Correct. It’s most definitely a two way relationship and always will be

Nicole Smith
And a fabulous one at that. So good.

Chloe Porter
That’s it.

Nicole Smith
So if someone is sitting here listening today, and they’re like, okay, this OBM thing sounds pretty good. I think I might be interested in that. How do I know if I’m ready?

Chloe Porter
I would say if you feel like you’re wearing too many hats in the business, it feels stressed all the time. You know, you’re you’re working 15 hour days, 12 hour days, you have an idea in your head, but you don’t know how to bring it to life, all those typical kinds of things, then I would say, definitely go and have a look, do some research and do research on more than one person and actually talk to a couple of people, even if you talk to them more than once. Because the relationship and the connection has to be there. If you’re not feeling that is not gonna work.

Nicole Smith
Totally agree with that, knowing that we need those humans in our world. And that connection piece, we’d have to trust them. It’s not like you would walk down the street and be like, oh, hey, Joe blow over there, go and do my things. Like help me with my things. I don’t know who you are. I don’t know if we can have a funny chat like this, where I just go a bit crazy and just like go and you’re just giggling at me like Yes, hello. So funny. We need to have that human connection element. Because we’re not robots. We want to be able to build a relationship and have that confidence that you’re you as an OBM can actually go to me, Nicole, we need to stop and pause for a minute. Because if you don’t have that relationship that can be taken in a in the wrong way and then shatter it.

Chloe Porter
Yeah, yeah, there definitely has to be that relationship there has to be that connection it makes working together a lot easier as well, you know, if there’s something personal going on, and perhaps that’s why you haven’t been able to deliver something that you’re supposed to deliver, you want to be able to say, you know, hey, I’m actually not doing okay, this has happened, can you give me a week or you know, something like that there needs to be that connection, that level for it to work, and especially because you will talk to them daily, you want to be able to have personal or normal human conversations, right. And if you’re not hearing from them, at least every second day, every third day, then maybe have a look at that, because I think that’s right, if they gotta just popping in once every two weeks, or once or once a month, it needs to be quite regular, because you want to feel like you’re on the same page as well. Like you want to know what they’re doing. They want to know what you’re doing, you know, everything needs to match up, make sure you’re on the same page, and all the goals are lining up,

Nicole Smith
Because things do change quickly in the life of anyone. Right? And being able to feel that climate of what’s happening and where we’re at. And then you know, as a team, or as, as your, you know, as a OBM how to best support your human right, like what do they actually need from me? Do they need like, come on now, like, or is it? Hey, it’s okay, I got you.

Chloe Porter
Yeah, that’s it. And we understand that not everybody is the same either. Some people learn differently. Some people have a lot going on. And so they need more time to work on a project with you, or whatever it may be, you know, we understand that. Not everybody is the same. And so it’s really important that when you’re building that connection, that you start to map these things out, you know, I know some people, their brain just goes 100 miles an hour, and so they need the constant, hey, slow down, hey, remember, we spoke about this, hey, remember, this was our goal. And then other people are quite good at staying on track. So you don’t have to do a lot of that. So it’s just about us adjusting what we do, how we communicate, and how we approach things based off how you are and how you prefer to learn or how you prefer to go about things too. And same deal with different communication tools and project management tools and things that’s why I was saying, OBMs are always quite, they understand all the tools and things in the online space, because everybody uses different ones. So you know, not everybody’s going to be picking up the phone or sending a text message or sending an email. Like there’s a lot of other tools out there. And your OBM needs to be able to dive in and use those as well. They have to become part of your business part of the team and use all the things that you guys use for it work.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, because I think that’s an integral part of it right? It’s you’re not coming into maybe they need a big shift up and a change. But if things are running relatively smoothly, you’re not there to come in and just be like, cool. Yeah you’re going to integrate in the, adapt the team? Yeah. I’ve just said the word integrate. I know we haven’t spoken about business integration. Now I know that that is something that you guys are just fabulous at. Can we have a little chat about that?

Chloe Porter
We can.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, great. What is it? How to people like because that’s a big word that people are like, I don’t get it.

Chloe Porter
And it’s so hard to describe. I honestly feel like business integrators and online business managers, mesh. Yes, they mesh together deeply.

Nicole Smith
I agree. So like when we started working together, I’ve known Leanne, who’s obviously the founder a long over time. And there is a there is a difference with the what you guys deliver as a team, right? There is the OBM function. But you guys, it’s just this different, you really you are you’re integrating the what you’re working into the business, you’re connecting it in, not only with the business owner, but with the tech, with the people with the audiences outside, you’re making it from an idea all the way through to execution and supporting those sales just to come flooding in. So exciting. So that’s a difference, I think between like, I don’t know, elements, or OBMs do that as well.

Chloe Porter
Yeah. Yeah, that’s where it get’s to the like, they come hand in hand. They’re, they’re brought almost into one, if you find the right person, I guess. But I find it very hard to split them apart. Like, for me, it’s just, it’s all in one. Like if I’m the OBM, or you call me integrator, I’m doing all those things together.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, just touching base on communication styles. I know that, you know, in my previous lives, I used to support three very high flying women in business in investment banking, all three of them had very different working styles and very different communication styles. And being able to, as you said, adapt to that is really key. Because you may be on a call with one business owner who is just one way like, I know, for instance, you know, I still support Scott, I do 10 hours a week for him, basically running his personal life. I know sometimes when I get on the call with him, it’s a direct phone call dot points only, only the high important touch points. That’s all I have time for I can hear in his voice the way he answered the phone. We’ve been working together for a long time. So I know these things, which is why long term relationships are good, right? Other times you’ll get on the phone, I can tell his tone is different. Okay, you want more you want more details. Now we’ll probably end up on the phone for 45 minutes to an hour having personal conversations on all sorts of stuff, we’ve done the business stuff, tick that off. So being able to not only adapt to different people’s, but almost different situations within different phone conversations and yeah, connections.

Chloe Porter
Yep, yep. So that’s exactly what you just said where ongoing relationships or long term relationships are really important. Because as time goes on, you’ve already gone through the, I guess you could say, awkward initial stage of hey, this is me and this is you

Nicole Smith
Yeah, yeah,

Chloe Porter
You’ve already gotten past all that. So you already know so many things about each other, you’ve already learned each other’s cues for things, especially, you know, you can sense if something’s wrong, or if they’re a little bit stressed today. So then, you know, okay, I’ll just, maybe I’ll just give them a little bit of breathing space. You can already pick up on a lot of those things. And you’ve already been in the business for so long that you already know, the business inside and out, as well. So it’s a lot easier to then do anything else moving forward.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, I think as well, like, you know, I know when I’ve got things going on, I am quiet. I become quiet and come with go for socials and not as much on the camera and might be posting on stories, but I’m not on the camera as much. And I won’t chat as much to people. Whereas when I’m in a normal just flowing phase, like you always hear from me. So being able to identify that and then say, okay, I can see something’s going on. I don’t know what, what can I do to help her right now in like, what questions can I ask? Is there something I know that really gives her pain that I can make sure it’s not a thing for her right now? It’s eliminating one thing from from her world?

Chloe Porter
Yeah, that’s right. And you sometimes won’t even notice that you’re actually doing these things. They’re catering to your client in that sense as time goes on, because it just becomes natural. Yeah. You know, you’re not sitting there thinking, oh, I wonder what’s going on. Maybe I should do this. Like you’re just naturally doing things that you know, that might make them feel better or make them feel that stressed.

Nicole Smith
That’s right. Oh, I love it. So good. Is there anything else you wanted to mention? Just before we jump into our three questions,

Chloe Porter
I just want to say if you are thinking about hiring an OBM or looking for an OBM do your research, please do your research. I’ve had so many people say I previously hired an OBM and they just did this and it turns out well, they they’re not an OBM, they’re just a VA. And they even actually call themselves a VA you just didn’t look deep enough into that. Or you know, they hired somebody really quick. They had a five minute chat with them hired them and their personalities didn’t match, you know, all of those things. So do your research, have a couple of chats and, you know, see where it goes. Don’t jump so fast.

Nicole Smith
And as you can see, just from that, just that last snippet of conversation, that connection point is relationship is just, that’ll make or break.

Chloe Porter
Yeah, totally. I agree. I agree. It’s key without it. It’s not going to work.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, exactly. Amazing. Thank you. So good.

Chloe Porter
Thank you.

Nicole Smith
Let’s see if my words will stay in one shape form for the last little bit. Okay, here’s our fabulous three questions. Are you ready to rock and roll?

Chloe Porter
I am. Let’s go.

Nicole Smith
Okay, what’s your go-to app that creates easy in your every day?

Chloe Porter
In business or personal life?

Nicole Smith
Oh, you can share both if you like.

Chloe Porter
In business, I could not live without Asana, my project management tool. So that is a big key player in keeping the entire team connected. And especially with remote working and things like that. Everybody can see everything, and they know what they need to be doing. And if somebody’s away, someone else can pick up the pieces quite easily. So I definitely couldn’t live without that in business. Yeah. Yeah, in my personal life, I don’t think there’s an app as such, but I don’t think I could live without my phone.

Nicole Smith
Yes. It’s true. Our whole lives are on there now. Right?

Chloe Porter
Yeah that’s it.

Nicole Smith
With technology evolving, like if you think no, no, even just 10 years ago, the technology the difference? Like there’s no way you could have access to Asana on your phone if that’s what you choose to do. You know, that just wasn’t a thing. You had to have the computer whereas now you can work from anywhere you can be

Chloe Porter
Yeah you can check your emails and slack, your Voxer, your WhatsApp. Everything on there.

Nicole Smith
All the tech love it. Okay, online paper or hybrid to do lists, lover?

Chloe Porter
I’m definitely both

Nicole Smith
Yeah, cool.

Chloe Porter
Definitely both. So I’m a very visual person. So sometimes I just need the old school pen and paper to map something out or jot something down to see it and then I can go okay, now I need to go and put it into here. So it prompts me to do what I need to do. Definitely, both.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, awesome. Love it. If you created more space in your world, what would you do?

Chloe Porter
I would definitely travel. So I’ve not done any travelling. I’ve always wanted to, but I just feel like I’ve never had the time.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, yeah, travelling. Well, you have to start to put on your vision board where you’re gonna go to.

Chloe Porter
I know I already have said if I went anywhere, like I’ve never been overseas, if I ever went overseas, I would go to Italy.

Nicole Smith
Beautiful

Chloe Porter
First place.

Nicole Smith
So good. Yeah, funnily enough. I’ve never been to Italy. I lived over in London for six years and never Oh, hang on, I lie, such a lier. I have gone, when I was younger with my I can that’s like pre adult. So I’m not I’m I need to go back there though.

Chloe Porter
Was it amazing? Do you remember?

Nicole Smith
Yeah, like it Rome’s like quite a busy, you know, busy city. But yeah, it was good. It was really good. All of the European cities are beautiful, though. Just the history. And

Chloe Porter
Yeah, I would love to go for that reason, the culture and just everything.

Nicole Smith
It’s amazing. Like when I worked in London, I would you know, first day I was travelling to London and I caught the train from Brighton and arrived into Cannon Street Station, which is just one after London Bridge. And I’m going across the river and I looked down and there’s Tower Bridge and London Bridge that way. And it’s just just the feeling of I never was into history until I lived over there will be a getting old thing as well. Older, advanced, more fabulous. It’s a more fabulous, it’s

Chloe Porter
More amazing,

Nicole Smith
A more amazing. Well, thank you so much for jumping on and dealing with my verbal situations today. It’s been so fabulous. Where can we find you and all about Audacious Empires,

Chloe Porter
You can find us if you want go to our website, you can go to audaciousempires.com We have so much information on there. And we recently just revamped the website too. So it’s looking lovely. It’s looking fresh, had a few great comments on it as well. And we’re also on Instagram and Facebook @audaciousempires. So you can have a look over there too. And we’ve recently just put together a Six Steps to Becoming a Six Figure OBM to it’s free cheat sheet. So if you want to have a look at that, you can find that on our website at audaciousempires.com

Nicole Smith
I was just about to say we haven’t spoken about that but you’ve just done it there. informing which is perfect. And we’re going to put all those links in the show notes as well. So please go on over and connect and say hi to the team over there. And if you are a VA listening or an OBM, just like sneakily listening to what’s going on over here, and you’re interested to discover what that is about go and download that because I can assure you, if you are anything on your way up to what audacious team is, it’s going to be fabulous. Absolutely do it.

Chloe Porter
You’ll love it, I promise.

Nicole Smith
Yes, yes, I promise to. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much.

Chloe Porter
Thank you. It’s been so great. Thank you.

Nicole Smith
It’s been a pleasure. Well, thank you for everybody who is out there listening. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and enjoy creating space and time freedom bye now.

Nicole Smith
Well, there we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure having you on board. Have we connected on socials yet? If not, please come on over say hi, I’m on all the platforms @theartisanssolutions. So I’d really look forward to seeing you over there. And if you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to tag me and I’d love it if you could leave a review. And of course share this with others so others can come and join us next time. All right, then everyone have a fabulous rest of the week. And until next time, see you then.