119. Stop Saying "I Save You Time": How to Actually Attract Clients as a VA or OBM

I see you posting things like "I help busy CEOs save time" or "I set up systems so you can scale" and I can't. I just can't. 

You are selling yourself so short. You're doing so much more than what you're telling people, and nobody is going to book you because you told them you can save them time.

Here's the truth: Your clients aren't hiring you because you save them time. They're hiring you because of what life feels like because of the time you save them. Because they can close their laptop and not reopen it an hour later. Because they can take a two-week vacation for the first time since starting their business. Because their team is happy and stays.

In this episode, I'm breaking down why your messaging is making you forgettable, what you're actually selling, and the three questions that will transform how you talk about your work.

Plus: I'm sharing real before/after messaging examples so you can feel the difference.

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Podcast produced and edited with love by @FerAssists

Transcript

[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Hello and welcome to Soulpreneur Scaling Stories. I'm Andrea a certified OBM turned business coach, helping VAs OBMs and done-for-you. Service Pros turn their unstructured expertise into a signature method and a business that pays them for outcomes, not hours. So if you want a business that gives you freedom instead of taking it, you are in the right place.

[00:00:23] Andrea Elibero: you guys, we need to have a serious discussion today, and also welcome to Soulpreneur Scaling Stories because I am active on threads and Instagram and I see so many times you guys posting things like, I help busy CEO Save time, or I help you set up systems so you can scale. I handle your backend so you can grow.

[00:00:45] Andrea Elibero: Ugh. I can't. I can't, and I'm going to tell you why I can't. what I'm going to tell you to do instead is going to be so much better for you and is going to make such a difference in your business. Now, I. [00:01:00] What I see when I read these types of messaging, brand messaging statements is that you are selling yourself so short.

[00:01:10] Andrea Elibero: You are doing so much more than what you are telling people, and you are like really confining yourself and just like making yourself and your role in what you do for your clients so small when you're doing that. So one, let's not do that anymore because that's just not good for you. And two, I promise you that

[00:01:30] Andrea Elibero: nobody is going to book you because you're telling them, nobody wants to talk to you because you're telling them that you can save them time. Right? Like you are not just saving them time, you are not just setting up their systems and the fact that you think that that's what you do, that that's your main like thing that you do for them.

[00:01:48] Andrea Elibero: I hate to break it to you, but that's why like my clients might not be coming to you as much as you would like them to. 

[00:01:54] Andrea Elibero: Now listen, like I said, I've been on threads. I've seen this on Instagram. I see it everywhere and [00:02:00] like I can't even tell people apart anymore because it sounds so polished, professional, there's no personality. Everyone sounds exactly the same. when This is their main messaging, and that's exactly the problem, right?

[00:02:15] Andrea Elibero: You don't want to sound like everybody else. The goal, the literal goal of being on these platforms is for somebody who you want to work with to read something that you wrote or watch a reel whatever, like see something that you have put out there and be like, oh my God, she sees me, they get me.

[00:02:33] Andrea Elibero: Like, yes. Like I would love that. Oh my God, that sounds amazing. That is a problem that I have. Oh, they have a solution for me. Oh, I haven't thought of this before. That's not happening. When you tell them that you set up their systems and save them time and you help them grow, right, they are scrolling right past you.

[00:02:52] Andrea Elibero: And it's sad, right? It like sucks for you because. They're scrolling past you and they have [00:03:00] no idea the kind of work that you actually do. They have no idea, like the kind of help that you provide and how amazing you are. They can't feel it. They can't feel it, and this is why people are not reaching out to you.

[00:03:16] Andrea Elibero: This is why your clients may not be converting. This is why you're not being memorable and nothing is happening. It's because you're playing it so safe. When you show up online, when you say bland, things like this, because you are downplaying the transformation that you provide and because maybe you don't even see it yourself.

[00:03:37] Andrea Elibero: And now I'm not saying all of this to be mean. I'm really not trying to do that, but I'm really trying to drive home a point in what a big deal this is and what a small shift can do for you and for your business. And so let's get to the meat of this. So. Your clients are not hiring you because you save them time.

[00:03:59] Andrea Elibero: They're [00:04:00] hiring you because of what life feels like because of the time that you save them, because of the support that you give them, because of the systems that you create. Because when they're doing everything themselves, one is they're probably not good at a lot of the things that you're amazing at.

[00:04:22] Andrea Elibero: So it's a huge mental load on them, right? They are thinking, thinking, thinking. They're having to figure it out. They're having to learn, you know, all of these things, right? They're like, and that's just them. So one, it's a mental load thing, right? So two, it is a time thing, but it's a time thing because.

[00:04:41] Andrea Elibero: They're working so much, right? Like and then what happens? Because they're working so much, they're working so much that maybe they're not fully present at their, you know, when they're with their kids, maybe they're working so much that they are losing sleep. Maybe they're working so much that they don't [00:05:00] take full days off on the weekends, and maybe they're missing out on life.

[00:05:05] Andrea Elibero: On things that happen with their family and friends on trips. Maybe when they go on vacation on their holidays that they are like, they have their phone on them and they're replying to their clients, or things like that, right? Maybe when you're creating systems for them that. Without these systems or what's been, what's happening now is that they're onboarding clients.

[00:05:25] Andrea Elibero: Maybe it's taking longer than it should, and their clients aren't having as good of an experience. And what does that actually mean? That means that now they're not going to maybe refer somebody else, right? That means that maybe they're not gonna stay in that person's world. So maybe somebody's really good at getting clients, but their system and the onboarding and how they treat their clients is so clunky.

[00:05:45] Andrea Elibero: That it's actually doing a disservice to their business, and because it's doing a disservice to their business because that person is not happy. That means the person that they're trying to help is not getting the help that they need, and then other people that also need that help, they're not [00:06:00] getting that help either.

[00:06:01] Andrea Elibero: All because the system wasn't set up right. They're hiring you because there are so many things that happen because of the things that you do. So why aren't you talking about it? What if also like things like, maybe they have a team and maybe the team is unhappy, so maybe their team is there and let's say that, a lot of things are happening last minute and now their team is not able to function really well and they don't stick around.

[00:06:33] Andrea Elibero: And they need somebody to come in because with a happy team, that means that they do better work. Things get done faster when there are, you know, systems in place and now they get to grow and they get to grow with a happy team that stays with them, but they get to pay well because now their business is growing.

[00:06:50] Andrea Elibero: You know, like all et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. What you do is the vehicle that gets them to the [00:07:00] transformation. And it's the transformation that we want to call out. So hopefully that makes sense. And so it's about just thinking deeper about what you do and the results of that and why, and I'll give you another, another level to it.

[00:07:15] Andrea Elibero: And why is so important for your specific client, the people that you love working with. Not just it's, you know, I'm sure it can apply to everybody. We wanna talk to your specific people too, so we wanna be. Ultra specific in our messaging when we're out there like sharing what we do with the world. So your person feels like, oh my God, she's talking to me particular, like specifically to me.

[00:07:39] Andrea Elibero: And that's how you get remembered. And I'll give you some examples. So the, I help you save time, right? We've gone over this. You're not helping them save time, you're selling relief mental space. Yeah. The moment that they close their laptop and they don't have to reopen it an hour later, the fact that they can go on a two week vacation holiday and they don't have to [00:08:00] worry, and it's the first time they've been able to do that since they started their business.

[00:08:04] Andrea Elibero: Instead of, oh, I take tasks that you don't want to do off your plate. You're not removing tasks. You're removing the constant background noise and the mental load of thinking like, oh, I have to do something. I have to do something. I have to do X, Y, Z. This is not getting done. All of that. And that affects everything beyond their business too, right?

[00:08:20] Andrea Elibero: That affects their life, their relationships, their time with their family, all of that. The, oh, I help you scale that sounds impressive, but what does that even mean? Can you draw a picture of your mind of I help you scale what that looks like? It doesn't say anything. What are they scaling into? Are they scaling into, you can scale and still have a chaotic business.

[00:08:42] Andrea Elibero: You can scale and still be full of pressure, but that's not what you're helping them do. Right? Maybe you're helping them grow a business that is going to actually support the life that they want. Something like that. I'll give you one more. I set up systems so you can scale. Oh, that sounds a little bit more high level, but it's still vague [00:09:00] because what does that mean for them?

[00:09:03] Andrea Elibero: Who cares? Systems are boring. I'm saying the is somebody who enjoys setting up systems. It's talking about systems are boring. That people, people who are not systems people do not want to hear all of like about all of your details about your systems, right? Like they wanna know what does that mean for them?

[00:09:20] Andrea Elibero: You are not just setting up systems, you're creating a business that doesn't rely on them for every single thing that doesn't have a hundred fires a day like it does now, where they don't have decision fatigue, that they don't have to remember like 5,000 steps where they're inevitably going to drop the ball on something and cost themselves maybe a client, you know, things like that.

[00:09:45] Andrea Elibero: So let's give you a couple of examples to nail in what I'm talking about. So instead of saying like, I manage your inbox instead, what if you said you end your workday knowing that nothing important is sitting [00:10:00] unanswered and you don't think about your inbox again until tomorrow? That has feeling to it, that you can picture, right?

[00:10:07] Andrea Elibero: Like you can, you can feel that. So think about that when you're thinking about your messaging or like, I handle client onboarding. Okay, great. Boring, but what if instead you said something like, your clients feel so taken care of from day one, which means that now they're going to stick around, they're not gonna have issues.

[00:10:26] Andrea Elibero: They're going to have referrals happening day in and day out naturally because of how amazing you make them feel. That is so much more interesting then I help you onboard your clients. Right? And then one more. I support you during launches. let's have you run a smooth launch. Boring.

[00:10:45] Andrea Elibero: What about if instead, imagine your lunch for the first time ever feeling so organized and calm instead of the chaos that you're used to and you not having to carry the entire mental load of making sure that [00:11:00] everything gets done. Imagine you being able to go to the beach on day one of your launch. Wow.

[00:11:06] Andrea Elibero: Like that's something that they want. So do you feel the difference? The first one describes the task, right? The second one describes the entire experience. It describes the feelings, it describes the emotions, and so that's what I want you to take away from this. That's what I want you to interject into your own messaging when you talk about your business and what you do.

[00:11:27] Andrea Elibero: And so if you are listening to this and realizing that you have been more surface level in your messaging, I have a little exercise for you. So whether you're a VA or an OBM doing higher operational level work, this applies to you guys equally. So pick one service that you offer and then answer three questions about it.

[00:11:50] Andrea Elibero: What does my client stop experiencing because of this? What do they start experiencing and what becomes possible in their [00:12:00] life, not just their business because of this? And that last piece is the heart of your messaging, because that's how people feel and how you want them to feel when they read your content, right?

[00:12:15] Andrea Elibero: So you're going to speak to a specific person. You are going to think about and maybe think about one client that you've had really good results with and think about, okay, I've done this, and now they've stopped experiencing something. They've started experiencing something and because of that in their life and their business, these things have happened.

[00:12:35] Andrea Elibero: And why do we care? What does this all mean? So like I've been kind of. Saying throughout this episode is that this is really the difference between somebody reading or talking to you about what you do and think, oh, that sounds fine. That sounds nice, right? And the like, oh, I need this right now. The I need, this is urgency.

[00:12:56] Andrea Elibero: And that comes from going deeper from getting. [00:13:00] Into the depths of what you do about what actually happens when your clients work with you about all the ripple effects that are beyond just the tasks that you do. That's the urgency that you need to create in order to more easily attract high level premium aligned clients.

[00:13:20] Andrea Elibero: And so if this is all clicking for you and you're realizing that like, oh, I have been a little bit surface level in my messaging. This is one of the big things that I do with my clients inside of Effortless Attraction, which is my eight week group program that is for a marketing system creation for VAs and OBMs.

[00:13:42] Andrea Elibero: So the problem I don't see, it's usually that like, oh, you don't know how to post, or you just need more ideas. Sometimes that's the problem, but it's more like. You're trying to talk about something that you're not really connected to on a deeper level, or you're describing it in a way that doesn't capture the [00:14:00] depth of what you actually do.

[00:14:01] Andrea Elibero: So the gap is the same, like I said, across VAs and OBMs, and that's one of the big things that we fix inside of Effortless Attraction. We get very clear on your messaging. On your positioning, how to talk about your work in a way that makes the right people immediately understand the value of it. And then we build a marketing system around that that is specific.

[00:14:23] Andrea Elibero: I have designed the system specific for you for, uh, service providers, so that way it's not insane amounts of content, things like that. It varies depending on what season of business you're in. It's amazing. So I'm really excited because Effortless Attraction is officially open. The full launch is April 6th through the 17th.

[00:14:42] Andrea Elibero: We start on April 20th, and I only run this program twice a year, so you want to get it now, you can join for 2 49. It's a total of 500, two payments of 2 49. So if your marketing has felt random, inconsistent, or like something that you want to avoid, this is going to change that. You will walk [00:15:00] away with a clear, simple marketing plan that actually fits your client workload, that is doable, that you will stick with, and messaging that makes you stand out from all of these people who say that they save their clients time.

[00:15:13] Andrea Elibero: And it is, everything is so much more simple. So the page is live right now, so you can read through it all, see how it works, and decide if this is right for you. It is, and then it is linked in the show notes below, and I'm so excited to see you in there because it is so, so, so good. So remember that you are not just somebody who helps with tasks or sets up systems.

[00:15:35] Andrea Elibero: You are somebody who changes how your clients like their experience in their business and their life, and your messaging really needs to reflect that. 

[00:15:44] Andrea Elibero: That's a wrap on today's episode, and thank you so much for listening. If anything we talked about today made you think, okay, well, what does this actually look like in my business? That's exactly what a free business audit is for. In just 45 minutes, I'll help you [00:16:00] identify your unstructured expertise, pinpoint what's keeping you capped, and map out what your signature method could look like.

[00:16:06] Andrea Elibero: There's a link in the show notes to grab your spot, and I will see you in the next episode.