Managing your Business with Strategy and Vision | OBM | Dana Johnson
Updated: Apr 19, 2022
Dana is an OBM for the finance industry serving bookkeepers, accountants, and wealth/financial advisors. Dana creates and manages simple systems to keep your customer service top-notch, CRMs up to date, and calendars full! She also provides LinkedIn visibility strategies to connect with top clients. With her ability to pivot ideas and put them into motion quickly, Dana keeps your business running with more balance in your personal life. Listen to this episode and learn how she built her business and how important it is to find your tribe so you don’t do this alone!
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Would you like to connect with Dana? Jump right HERE and find her contact info!
Meet Dana Johnson:
Dana Johnson is the owner of Dana's Desk, as an online business manager, LinkedIn strategist, and growth advocate. She likes to help small and medium-sized businesses gain connections and visibility on LinkedIn.
Dana started her business pre-pandemic, pregnant with her third child, working in an office, and looking for options. It doesn't matter what state you live in - childcare is astronomically expensive! Already Dana was bouncing around, skipping her lunch break in order to get her two boys out of school, to after-school care, or hang out in the office. It really wasn’t conducive.
Thankfully her manager at the time was lenient and family-centered, so her oldest could hang out in the break room, but it was not a long-term solution.
Dana's boss mentioned working online because he knew of some operation managers that work remotely and for multiple agents. Dana did a deep dive and discovered virtual assisting.
Dana bought a course from Virtual Savvy... launched her business the next month... and has been growing ever since!
Setting up your LinkedIn Profile with Strategy
Dana got started with Linkedin when she helped one of her clients find talent for high-rating searches. As each new job came up, they would look for a certain type of candidate. Dana was searching for all sorts of different individuals through their profiles and became methodical about the certain skills they were looking for. Once she got used to this, she started going more wide-frame and watched for taglines and summaries.
The candidates that stood out become more noticeable, and she took notes when her client would see a profile and say, “This will be a good candidate”. Dana was picking up on what was sought after by industry leaders.
This had Dana thinking about her own LinkedIn. If she wanted to take her business to the next level or talk to someone of that caliber, she needed her profile to stand out.
LinkedIn is one of the best places for a business to network and grow, especially with a pandemic. You're able to network with people across state lines in a much easier fashion because there are over 5 million people there! The opportunities are amazing on LinkedIn.
I Need Help with my LinkedIn!
If you are interested in having Dana help you with your LinkedIn profile, she has a VIP day with 4 dedicated hours for your LinkedIn profile. It all starts with an audit of your personal profile and personal brand to see what you do and don't have. After the audit, Dana looks into optimizing your profile picture, banner, and about me section. There's a tagline section you can utilize some SEO beyond your job title. Use this to showcase what you're passionate about, how you problem solve! That way if someone even searches through Google - that tagline will pop up in the Google search and they'll find you.
The next phase is all about creating a strategy for identifying your ideal client. Not everybody wants the same client! It is important to have an idea of who you want to work with. Dana helps create a blueprint to find them on LinkedIn.
Once you find your ideal client, Dana will walk you through the motions of how to nurture those leads. It’s kind of like a networking event - you don't just walk up to someone and say “Here’s my life story! Let’s do business together!” You have to be stealthy and strategic. See what their activities are, make a connection, and then talk to them about what you connected on.
Making Connections on LinkedIn
There's a way to make connections on LinkedIn! It's not a random basement invite to a party or a group that makes you wonder, "Why was I invited to this?" You need to make real connections.
Once you know your ideal client, look at their profiles. See if you are in line with them. Market research and build your marketing strategy around this information. That way you're always problem-solving for them, and they'll see the value in what it is that you offer, so when it comes time to job numbers, there's no second-guessing!
Signs a Business Needs Dana
It may be time to talk to Dana if you are growing, ready to make a pivot and you don't have a system in place. It's really hard to do that by yourself! That's a big project to undertake when you already have your client base built. This is a great time to bring in someone like Dana to take your workflows, pick your brain a little bit and help you design that blueprint and put it in action. It also takes time to nurture those leads in your business, and Dana also helps with that part of your business as well. Dana builds those connections and leads them into your funnels so that that second avenue that you are thinking of grows just as smoothly as your first.
Growing and Managing your Business
You grew your business to have more time, but the truth is: it takes so much time to keep everything managed!
It’s hard to manage your business and grow your business at the same time.
So if you want to grow your business, you need someone to step in and manage what you've already made (or manage the part that you're growing) so that you can step back at some point and take a breath.
Dana’s Advice to Fellow Business Owners
Dana would recommend finding your tribe of like-minded individuals. Find some that are at the beginning of their journey just like you, but also find those veterans that have gone through the motions and know the steps and offer advice.
Most of the time there is too much information out there! Going through resources can be overwhelming. Having someone that's been there and saying, “This is a well-thought-out resource, here you go” with a nice bow on it, makes all the difference.
Visionary + Nurturer = Dana
Dana is a visionary, and also a nurturer. When she works with a client and they share their goals, she takes it on as if it were her own. She researches and comes up with different avenues and sees how she can make it work.
Dana doesn’t like being in the spotlight, so she loves strategizing and coming up with all the stepping stones to make your vision become a reality. You get to be in the spotlight and Dana gets to celebrate you from the sidelines.
Dana loves working on the logistics of your goals and visions. Whether that’s creating the 3-hour workday, the 4 day work week, or being able to travel and work at the same time - Dana loves making them happen!
Dana is Learning…
Right now Dana is learning yoga again, and trying to create more inner-mind peace.
Professionally, Dana is diving deep into investing and building wealth. She has always been a big budgeter, but she is now learning about the stock market, investing, and what to do with her money now that her business is taking off!
Connect with Dana!
Dana’s Website: www.ddvirtualmanagement.com
Dana’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ddvirtualmanagement
Dana’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-m-johnson/
Book a Meeting with Dana: https://businessconsultantcompany58422.hbportal.co/schedule/6138b5f51acd6b0032346979
Connect with Dani:
As always, you can find me at https://www.daniellehamlet.com/ Want to be a guest on the podcast? Email discoverycallpodcast@gmail.com. Find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/danihamlet/
Connect on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/danihamlet
Want to join the Discovery Call Community? Hop in at https://www.facebook.com/groups/discoverycall
Before you go, one more question: Would you like to start your own podcast for your business? If that is a YES, Let’s connect and book a free strategy call: discoverycallpodcast@gmail.com.