OBM Larissa Parks Nominated for two Assist U Awards

I’m honored to announce today that I’ve received two (count ‘em…two!) nominations in this year’s Assist U Community Recognition Awards.

One is for the 2010 VA of the Year and the other is for the 2010 Techie of the Year. That one I’m pretty excited about because I do take pride in my technical skills!

In case you haven’t been following along this has been a very transitional year for me and it’s been full of changes (more on that later).I’ve been spending a great deal of time doing different training programs including one  that will make me an Infusionsoft expert (when I’m done) and another that gave me 1ShoppingCart expert status. I’ve also taken the exhaustive OBM Certification program.

(Psst….don’t tell anyone, but I’d really like to win the title of 2010 VA of the Year. I was nominated last year and so if I don’t win this year I’m going to develop a Susan Lucci complex.)

Dang it’s hard to type with your fingers crossed…. :-)

I’m officially an Online Business Manager!

Wow, am I tired. I mentioned in my last post that you wouldn’t be hearing from me in awhile and I’m coming back to announce that I just earned my certification as an Online Business Manager! Yay me! I’m a Certified OBM!

In case you haven’t heard the phrase ‘Online Business Manager’ before, it’s defined as:

“A virtually based support professional who manages online based businesses, including the day-to-day management of projects, operations, team members and metrics.”

Sounds sort of similar to the definition for a Virtual Assistant, I know, but it’s different. A VA does tasks for clients but an OBM focuses more on the managerial role, strategy and project management. Besides, I am a firm believer in continual education so I can help my clients in as many ways as possible.

Of course I picked up loads of new skills and future clients – I hope you appreciate what I just went through for you.

OBM Training is a five month program but I did it in three days. Intense…ALL DAY…three days. I then did one entire week of grueling and rigorous certification. ONE WEEK. Those five days were spent performing real life strategy projects, working for actual six-figure and seven-figure clients. I created project plans, mapping and techniques to help the clients grow their businesses.

So there you have it. Larissa Parks the Virtual Assistant is now also Larissa Parks the Online Business Manager.

And I look forward to serving new and existing clients in an even bigger way!  Well, let me get back to spring cleaning, because a lot of changes are about to happen.