Ep 25 - Do you need an online business manager? An interview with Nevine El Sherbini

 

 

Episode Show Notes

Hi, I’m Sarah Almond Bushell, and welcome to Beyond the Clinic! Today, I’m joined by Nevine El Sherbini, an online business manager (OBM) and dietitian. We’re exploring how OBMs can help dietitians and nutrition professionals streamline their businesses and when it’s time to hire one.

In this episode, Nevine El Sherbini shares her journey from dietitian to OBM. Nevine explains the role of an OBM, how they differ from VAs or business coaches, and why a business might need one. She also discusses her career pivot and solo travels that led to her current path. This episode provides actionable advice for dietitians looking to manage their businesses more efficiently.

1. Role of an OBM: They handle systems, processes, teams, and projects, freeing up time for business owners.
2. When to Hire an OBM: If you're overwhelmed or struggling to execute ideas, an OBM can help.
3. OBM vs VA: VAs focus on tasks, while OBMs take a strategic approach to manage projects and teams.
4. Nevine’s Journey: From VA to OBM, helping dietitians with efficient systems and business growth.
5. Business Strategy Execution: OBMs help implement strategies, while business coaches work with business owners to create and develop them.

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Beyond the Clinic! If you found value in today’s discussion and think an online business manager might be the support your business needs, be sure to check out Nevine’s website at www.thriveonlineservices.com or connect with her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nevine-el-sherbiniobm.

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Episode transcription:

Beyond the Clinic EP25

[00:00:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Hello, and welcome to episode number 25 of the Beyond the Clinic podcast. And I'm really excited because this marks six months of this podcast being live. Can you believe that? That is super exciting. So I have got a guest for you today. We are meeting with Nevine El Shabini, who is a friend and a colleague of mine, and she is actually an online business manager.

[00:00:28] Sarah Almond Bushell: So she's a dietitian, like me, but she decided to pivot her career into a different direction, and now she supports other dietitians and nutrition professionals with the running of their business. So we're going to talk through what is an online business manager? What's the difference between an OBM, as it's shortened to, and a business coach, and an OBM and a VA?

[00:00:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: Because they're all along the similar sort of spectrum. And she's also going to give us her story and a little bit of insight for how you might want to get started if this is something that resonates with you as well. So with that said, let's dive in.

[00:01:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: So welcome, Nevine. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here. I would love for you to just introduce yourself and let people know what exactly an online business manager does.

[00:01:19] Nevine El Shabini: Sure. And it's a

great question because I think you'll agree that there's a lot of dieticians that don't even know what the term means and certainly don't know how an online business manager can actually, help them in their business.

So essentially I like to think that I just make my clients lives easier and really help free up their time so they can really focus on activities that are going to bring an income and really allow them to grow their business. And I think I probably, I would say I support them in three key areas.

So one would be managing systems and processes. So that's really ensuring that their business runs efficiently. One would be managing teams. So that would be making sure that anyone on their team is happy but also knows what they should be doing. So everyone knows exactly what they should be doing and when.

And the last one I would say is managing projects and that will look different in different businesses, but essentially from project planning to overseeing and making sure like all the moving parts of any projects moving it in the right direction. That's how I would essentially where I essentially support.

I don't know if you want, if I should share maybe finer details of what that actually might look like? Some examples?

[00:02:32] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. So my next question I had for you just bouncing off what you just said is, it sounds as though you're ready for an online business manager when you've got a lot of stuff going on and you're perhaps feeling a bit overwhelmed, you might be spinning plates your business is, it's booming.

[00:02:48] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's really busy and you just need someone to come in and support you with that. So how would. Someone know that they're ready for an OBM.

[00:02:56] Nevine El Shabini: So I think you've really hit the nail on the head. That's like those feelings of just complete overwhelm of maybe even burnout. And just knowing that you need somebody to come in and really help take some things off your plate.

[00:03:08] Nevine El Shabini: Also I find People often, they have lots of business ideas. So they're like, Oh, I really have all these ideas of things I want to do, but they don't even have time to just even think about, how they're going to get from A to B. They're like, Oh, I want an online course. Or, I want to bring on some associate dietitians or, but they're just like, I don't even have time to even think about, what that looks like, let alone actually doing it.

[00:03:29] Nevine El Shabini: So I would say, yeah, definitely that feeling of feeling overworked, but also having just lots of ideas of things you want to do. People are very, have lots of creative ideas, but they just need someone to really help execute them,

[00:03:40] Sarah Almond Bushell: yeah, absolutely. So they're stuck in that place of feeling too busy, but also having loads of ideas and just, it's the execution part, isn't it?

[00:03:48] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's getting it done. That's the stealing block. Yeah. Amazing. So we've talked a little bit about the role of an OBM. I think a lot of our listeners will be familiar with the role of a VA, a virtual assistant. Can you just outline kind of the difference between the two and perhaps how those two roles might complement each other?

[00:04:09] Sarah Almond Bushell: And, you're very welcome to talk about what that actually looks like in your business as well.

[00:04:16] Nevine El Shabini: Yeah. So I actually started off as a VA. So I would, the best way I think to describe the differences is a virtual assistant is more of a kind of a doer. So someone who's actually doing the tasks.

[00:04:29] Nevine El Shabini: Whereas an online business manager is. Someone who oversees the task, oversees the process, and manages everything. Perhaps if I use an example of, I don't know, a blog, for example. The virtual assistant, maybe with some guidance, they might write the blog, and they might upload it to the website, or find images for it, that kind of thing.

[00:04:51] Nevine El Shabini: Whereas an online business manager is much more a bit more strategic and looking at the bigger picture. So they'll be like looking at, okay, what blog posts do we need? How many do we need a month? Let's put a plan together, doing research to make sure that you're, creating the right kind of blog post.

[00:05:07] Nevine El Shabini: So coming from it as a more of a strategic and planning angle. And Online business managers and VAs often work together because it's very rare for me to, and I don't think I ever have, worked with any clients who don't have some form of administrative support or a content creator or someone because they need someone to actually be doing the tasks and that's not what I do.

[00:05:31] Nevine El Shabini: So it is very very common to work together.

[00:05:35] Sarah Almond Bushell: Brilliant. Yeah. So they've often had that, got that first hire or they might even have a small team of support staff, whether it's an intern or a VA or, there's other people helping them in their business and you're overseeing the work that everybody does.

[00:05:50] Nevine El Shabini: Exactly. And I think some people underestimate the time that it actually takes. To do all of that, to manage people and, having to review work and approve it and, answer questions and, make sure people know what they're doing. And, essentially that's, can take up a lot of time.

[00:06:05] Nevine El Shabini: So actually having somebody that you can trust that can do that for you can really be valuable.

[00:06:11] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, absolutely. And I've had firsthand experience of that. So a few years ago, I decided that I was going to take on a load of interns. And I think I had about 30, 30 to 40, probably 30 at one time, and they were creating content for me.

[00:06:27] Sarah Almond Bushell: We did it all appropriately. We had SOPs for every step of the journey. And we had some interns who were doing the keyword research and creating blog outlines. Some who were actually doing the writing, some who were creating social media posts from the finished article. I think there was five different roles that they could go through, but oh my God, the time it took for me.

[00:06:48] Nevine El Shabini: I can't imagine that number. That's a huge number.

[00:06:49] Sarah Almond Bushell: It was and also I had an assistant in my business as well, who was another dietician who was amazing. And between us, we just spent so much time. We ran the program for a year and then we decided we had to knock it on the head because It was it was so labour intensive that we weren't getting a return on the investment in the time that we were spending on it, from the work that they were doing.

[00:07:12] Nevine El Shabini: Yeah.

[00:07:13] Sarah Almond Bushell: So I can totally see how, this role would be really useful. I just want to touch on, so you mentioned taking a bit more of a strategic approach. So as I'm a business coach. So can we just talk through a little bit between the difference between an OBM and a business coach really?

[00:07:28] Nevine El Shabini: Yeah. And, sometimes I, because dietitians don't know what a business manager does, I do get confused with a strategist or, a business coach. So I would always say, and again, most of my clients, but not all, are already working with a business coach. Because, again, they have.

[00:07:47] Nevine El Shabini: These ideas but they need to make sure that they are the right ideas for their business. And so what is, what the ideal situation is for them to come with me, knowing that these are the right ideas to actually implement. So if I had someone coming to me and saying, oh, I've got 10 ideas, which one should I do, that wouldn't be my role, but if they came to me and said, I have done this research or I've been working with a, business coach, or I've done, all of the kind of legwork to validate this idea.

[00:08:19] Nevine El Shabini: And now I want to start implementing this idea, then that would be the stage that I would come in and be able to support them. Yeah, I would say that's the main difference. I love working with people who have business ideas because. Essentially, if people don't really know what they want to do, I can't really help them.

[00:08:37] Nevine El Shabini: But yeah, they need to have a refined, one or two refined ideas before they start working with me.

[00:08:44] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I think I've experienced the same as well. So sometimes people will come to work with me and then want me to do it. And I have to say no. So I am a strategist. I will support you with your business strategy and design, but actually you need to go and do the work.

[00:09:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: And if that means that you have to bring in a team, including an OBM and a VA and whoever else, that's what you need to do. So it's the overarching strategy to help them. Get more clients, get more revenue, build their business, really. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think most of us are familiar with the setup of the NHS and the way I like to think about it is if you were the band seven clinician, the lead clinician, the specialist, the OBM might be your team lead or even your department manager.

[00:09:34] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then the business coach might be like the director who is setting the strategy, setting the tone, setting the vision for the business, maybe even like the chief exec kind of thing. So it's like that overarching approach. Does that resonate? Yeah.

[00:09:48] Nevine El Shabini: That's a great comparison.

[00:09:49] Nevine El Shabini: And I'm sure one that like all your listeners will really resonate with, having mostly mainly, come from the NHS. So yeah, absolutely. And people like, your dietician assistant might be your VA.

[00:10:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yes, exactly. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. That really, yeah. Makes the picture a lot more clear.

[00:10:05] Sarah Almond Bushell: Doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Love that. I think everyone will be able to resonate with that little that little analogy there. Amazing. So let's talk a little bit about your journey to becoming an OBM. So how did, so you're a dietician. I am. By trade. How did you get to,

[00:10:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: How did you get to do this?

[00:10:22] Nevine El Shabini: So I love talking about my story and my journey because I think it's not a typical one that any dietitian has taken and I probably, I think I've always been a bit of an anomaly, so that doesn't surprise me. But essentially I would say my journey really started probably about five years ago, 2019, when I took a sabbatical.

[00:10:41] Nevine El Shabini: I was working as a specialist renal dietitian for a very large London teaching hospital and had been there for about 16 years. And I guess whilst my journey probably started there, taking the sabbatical, I would say probably for a few years leading up to that, I definitely had certain feelings of, I think best described as maybe being a bit restless not really 100 percent content.

[00:11:04] Nevine El Shabini: I just found myself complaining about lots of things and being frustrated by so many things. But to be honest with you, Sarah, I never dreamed of leaving because as far as I was concerned, that was all I could do. This is what I do. And so I never dreamed of leaving. So I think I just managed those kind of frustrations by really getting involved in like non direct patient work that I really liked.

[00:11:24] Nevine El Shabini: So I was very active in my niche. I was a committee member on the renal nutrition group. I worked with kind of national guidelines, so I did a lot of other things, but I think it was only when I took my sabbatical. Naturally, I took a two year sabbatical and I thought at the time, I thought it was just a break.

[00:11:40] Nevine El Shabini: That's all I thought. I thought, I'm just going to take a break. I'd always had a passion for traveling. I had some savings and I thought, you know what? I'm going to go traveling for two years and this is the break that I need. I'd been there for 16 years and I'll come back and I'll be feeling refreshed and everything will be fine.

[00:11:54] Nevine El Shabini: And that's what I thought was going to happen. But I would say, you Very quickly, probably within three months, I realized that, actually, I didn't want to go back. And actually it was more than I didn't want to. I think it was, I just knew that I shouldn't go back. And it was a real pivotal moment for me.

[00:12:10] Nevine El Shabini: And I know you, you talk a lot about these kinds of like moments. I don't want to dramatize it, but it felt like an epiphany. I even remember it being like, I remember being in this, on this beach in Mexico and just thinking the feelings that I had were a lot stronger than I had allowed myself to feel.

[00:12:25] Nevine El Shabini: And I really would encourage anyone who's just has those slight negative feelings that something maybe isn't quite right to really explore them. And take time out to explore them. And I know everyone can't take two years out, but even if you can just take half an hour out of your day, like I found journaling really helpful, but I really was able to realize that I'd be doing a disservice to myself going back to a job that I knew I was not a hundred percent happy in and I thought I'll put it to the back of my head. I'm going to travel for two years and, towards the end of two years, I'll figure out because obviously at this stage, I had no idea like what I would do and then COVID hit and I think COVID was a very big time for lots of freelancers and online businesses.

[00:13:07] Nevine El Shabini: So I decided to come home and everyone obviously was going into lockdown and it was then that I thought, okay, now is the time to figure out what you're going to do because you've got. a lot of time now. And to be honest, I did have no idea what I wanted to do. I looked at it with a very kind of clean slate.

[00:13:21] Nevine El Shabini: , yeah. I think traveling the world solo gave me a lot of confidence. That was one thing. And it was because I stepped outside my comfort zone. I'd never traveled by myself. I'd never even had a weekend away by myself. And there I was traveling through Latin America, completely on my own.

[00:13:35] Nevine El Shabini: And it just gave me like a huge sense of confidence. And I think the other thing was I met so many inspiring people. And people who had like completely changed their lives. So I remember I met this woman from America. She was living in Guatemala. She used to be a prison officer and she now had a travel agency in Guatemala.

[00:13:53] Nevine El Shabini: I met a lady who was a chef and she turned she was now running a pet and home sitting business traveling the world. And so I really was like, Maybe do anything doesn't have to be dietetics. And so I, I basically ended up becoming a virtual assistant because for me it was like the easiest route into working online because I didn't know anything about online businesses and I was, doing courses and learning and, really trying to upskill in areas that I didn't have skills in.

[00:14:19] Nevine El Shabini: So I actually worked as a virtual assistant for a year. And then I transitioned I, I found my niche within working as a virtual assistant. I realized I wanted to work with dieticians and it made sense for me to do that. So that was another thing that kind of happened in the first year of working online.

[00:14:37] Nevine El Shabini: You talk about it a lot about having a niche and it was something that I, eventually. found and made sense to me. And actually when I was working as a virtual assistant, it was definitely my unique selling point.

[00:14:49] Sarah Almond Bushell: That was going to be my question. When you were working as a virtual assistant, was it for dietitians or were you working for other people as well?

[00:14:55] Nevine El Shabini: So at the start I was very open, I was just like, I just need to get clients, I just it was the first time I'd had my own business. I was like, So I definitely had but my first client happened to work in the health food award business. She had a business in the UK of health, health food.

[00:15:10] Nevine El Shabini: So that was my first client. And I was like, Oh, that's interesting because that's, of interest to me, but I did have other clients. I would say again, probably within a few months, I realized that I enjoyed working with dietitians more and I like, I enjoyed working with them and I enjoyed the work more, just the content was, more interesting.

[00:15:28] Nevine El Shabini: I was more passionate about it. So during that first year, I actually dropped my, my clients that weren't in the nutrition space and just focused on, on that. Yeah. Okay. That was my need.

[00:15:39] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then, what was your transition from VA to OBM? Did you need to go and do some training to, learn how to do OBM work?

[00:15:48] Sarah Almond Bushell: What happened

[00:15:48] Nevine El Shabini: there? Yeah. Again, and I would say This is probably just for most of the last few years of working online. It wasn't my plan. I definitely was just figuring everything out on the spot. And everything I felt really happened organically. So I just came across a course. One of these like one hour free webinars, I was doing so many of those but this one really resonated with me.

[00:16:11] Nevine El Shabini: So it was somebody selling a course on how to be an OBM. I didn't really know what an OBM was at that stage either. And it just resonated with me because I just remember some of the qualities she was saying that an OBM needs to have. So someone who loves planning, who's super organized, who can, manage multiple things going on at once, a good communicator, good at decision making.

[00:16:32] Nevine El Shabini: And I just remember thinking. Oh my God, this is me. And when she was talking about, some of the tasks, I was just like, Oh my God, I would love to do those things because I would definitely, as a VA was starting to, and this is probably towards the first year of working as a VA was starting to think, do I want to do this forever?

[00:16:50] Nevine El Shabini: Like it had been an amazing starting point for my kind of like online business career. Because I just learned so much about how different online businesses worked and it really was beneficial, but I would say some of the tasks, I started to find a bit boring and I just felt that I, I had skills.

[00:17:06] Nevine El Shabini: I was more, I had more specialist skills that I could offer, so it came at the right time. And yeah, I, I did this course and yeah, after I finished it, I just knew, I was like, this is what I want to do a hundred percent. This is what I want to do.

[00:17:18] Sarah Almond Bushell: Amazing. And I think it's so interesting how life can lead you there without you even really knowing that's the direction you're going to go in and when you get there, You're right, you feel that passion, that burn, don't you?

[00:17:32] Sarah Almond Bushell: You feel like this resonates, I'm in the right place, I know exactly what I want to do now.

[00:17:37] Nevine El Shabini: And that's just happened, in my life as a whole, when I look back five years ago when, I was working You know, living in, London, I had a very hectic social life.

[00:17:46] Nevine El Shabini: I was living a kind of conventional nine to five. And that just, it didn't resonate with me. And like now, I travel the world, I work online, I, work the hours I want to work. I just, it just feels right. It feels like this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And I think you just have to trust the process.

[00:18:02] Nevine El Shabini: And sometimes that can be really hard to do. And it was a massive mindset shift for me because I was definitely somebody, I enjoyed the security of, having, I had a mortgage. I wanted to make sure that was paid. I just I did enjoy that security, but it wasn't as important to me as I realized, once I didn't have that anymore.

[00:18:20] Nevine El Shabini: And I realized actually there were other things that were way more important to me in life than having that kind of Fixed income every month. So yeah, you have to trust the process and it can be scary, but

[00:18:30] Sarah Almond Bushell: yeah, absolutely.

[00:18:31] Sarah Almond Bushell: And just for everyone listening, where are you now?

[00:18:35] Nevine El Shabini: Okay, yeah, so I'm in Egypt now.

[00:18:37] Nevine El Shabini: I've been here for about two weeks. So I'm in a place called Dahab which is a beautiful like old fishing village in the Sinai area. So you've got the mountains on one side and the sea on the other. It's very super chill. So yeah, I've been here a couple of weeks, but this year I've been in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Columbia, been back in Europe, family and friends in London.

[00:18:58] Nevine El Shabini: I was in Malta, I've popped to Ireland. So I love traveling. Traveling's my life. And yeah, having this business really allows me to do that.

[00:19:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, absolutely living the dream.

[00:19:09] Nevine El Shabini: I feel so, I feel like that.

[00:19:12] Sarah Almond Bushell: Brilliant, that's great. Awesome. Let's get back to OBM. Tell us, for those people listening who are thinking yes, you know what, I'm overworked, I'm overwhelmed.

[00:19:22] Sarah Almond Bushell: I've got VAs. I'm still feeling it. I need an OBM. Tell us the sorts of things that you can help people with. What do you do? What can, what could they expect from working with you?

[00:19:33] Nevine El Shabini: Okay. I'll give you some of typical examples of things that I currently help my clients with. Like you say, for example, they've got a VA and, they might be like, Constantly having to answer questions.

[00:19:42] Nevine El Shabini: Maybe the VA, maybe they don't have their processes, mapped out in standard operating procedures. So that's one of the things that I can do. I create standard operating procedures for all the processes in their business. Everything is documented. So whoever's actually executing the task, they don't have to ask any questions because everything's all. written down. It might be that I support in setting up a new system. So for example, if they say, Oh, I want a new electronic health record system, but I don't know which one to use. I don't have time to look at all the different ones available. I might go and research, look at the pros and cons, present that to my client, and come up with perhaps what I think is the best fit for them.

[00:20:18] Nevine El Shabini: And then I might set it all up, set up all the automations, that kind of thing. I help clients with their content. So for example, And I think that's a big one. Dietitians they want to put content out there, but they're so fixated on the one to one clients, like bringing in money that, they find it really hard to balance that.

[00:20:35] Nevine El Shabini: I can take, I can take management of that whole process. From looking at blog post ideas to doing the keyword research, to creating, a three month plan to overseeing the content creators, if they've got, a VA or if they've got an intern or they've got, whoever they've got writing the blog posts.

[00:20:53] Nevine El Shabini: So reviewing all the blog posts, making sure they're all optimized for SEO just making sure that they, they're getting scheduled when they're supposed to be scheduled and everything. Making sure things are repurposed so they can then use it for social media. So again, my clients that I do content management for, all they really do is at the beginning, we might just generate some ideas together and then they see the finished blog post just to prove that they're happy with it to go.

[00:21:16] Nevine El Shabini: But by that stage, it's gone through a sort of series of reviews by me. What else? Let's see. Hiring team. For example if they maybe need a new VA or if they, perhaps they need somebody like a freelancer.

So,

[00:21:30] Nevine El Shabini: I don't know, I want my website updated. I don't even know where to look. That takes time, sifting through all the, All the different, potential people who can help you with your website.

[00:21:39] Nevine El Shabini: And so it might be that I, jump on discovery calls with different website developers, making sure, see who's first and then present that to my client and say I've, shortlisted these two. So yeah, I would say there's some of the things.

[00:21:51] Sarah Almond Bushell: Brilliant.

[00:21:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: That's great. And I know that you helped me with hr probably, I don't even know if we really knew each other then, but I was at the point where I had some contractors, some freelancers working for me, and I was looking into bringing them into the business as employees, and I didn't really know how to get started with that.

[00:22:09] Sarah Almond Bushell: And you put me in touch with an HR person so I could go and find out. that information. And actually I decided it wasn't the right thing for me at all. But I wouldn't have known that. So I think you're right. I think it's doing that little bit of research, signposting people essentially doing all the hard work, the groundwork, and presenting them.

[00:22:27] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. And I love your Your content creation support that you give because I could totally see myself employing you to do that in my business. Come up with the ideas at the start and look at the finished articles at the end and I don't have to do anything in between. So

[00:22:45] Sarah Almond Bushell: I love that idea.

[00:22:46] Nevine El Shabini: Oh, thank you. Yeah. I know there's so many steps. So now I can understand, when dietitians come to me, I've been on some discovery course and they're just like, I just do not have time for it. I know I need to do it. I know because when I've done it, I really see, more business coming in, but I just don't have time to do it.

[00:23:00] Nevine El Shabini: So yeah that's great.

[00:23:03] Sarah Almond Bushell: Brilliant. So I think we're just about coming towards the end of our chat, but I've got five quickfire questions for you if that's okay. So the first one is, what's the best bit of your working day?

[00:23:18] Nevine El Shabini: Okay, so I would probably say the beginning of my working day. So I am a complete planner.

[00:23:25] Nevine El Shabini: Um,, I like to know what my day is going to look like. So I start my working day I have my morning routine. I cannot start my working day until I've done my morning routine. So I'm always feeling really refreshed in the morning and kind of very motivated and ready to go. And I start my day by basically having a look at all the tasks that I have from the week.

[00:23:44] Nevine El Shabini: Let's say it's a Monday. These are the tasks that I've got for the week, and I figure out what I need to do on Monday. And I literally put them in my calendar in the order I think I need to do them, at the time that I need to do them. So making sure that I've given myself enough time and just that feeling of knowing how my day is going to go.

[00:24:02] Nevine El Shabini: Cause it's very rare. Obviously some things come in where someone's can you do this? It's urgent, of course, but. It's very rare that happens. So that kind of feeling at the beginning of the day when I've planned out my day, I know exactly how it's gonna go and I'm just ready for the day.

[00:24:16] Nevine El Shabini: I would say that kind of, yeah, first thing in the morning for me.

[00:24:19] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, I'm the same. I'm definitely, I'm not a morning person, but I'm much more effective at work in the morning. Yeah. Yeah. Number two, why do you do what you do?

[00:24:30] Nevine El Shabini: Okay. Let me think about this one. Okay. So I would say primarily why I do what I do is for myself , which might be an unusual thing, or maybe not something that other people might think of, but I think sometimes as dieticians we're so conditioned to just wanna do things for other people.

[00:24:46] Nevine El Shabini: And I would say the main reason that I kind of work online is because I wanna have total freedom. I want work life balance. And so that's why I work online. But in terms of specifically, why I work as an OBM, I think I would always going to go down the line of a service provider.

[00:25:02] Nevine El Shabini: It's something that was the best thing for me, when I NHS, the thing I love the most is helping people, I just want to help people. So I think I would always going to go down the kind of route of providing a service. And as I said to you, when I first saw this course about online business management, it just really resonated with me.

[00:25:19] Nevine El Shabini: I think that I have the right qualities to do this. I think it's what I'm good at. I think it's what people need help with. I'm sure you've heard of the ICA guy. I never know if I say it right. Finding something that you enjoy doing, that you're really good at, that people need help with.

[00:25:34] Nevine El Shabini: And I think it just makes for me to work with dietitians. I love Seeing other dietitians thrive and their businesses thrive. So it just makes complete sense to me. I wouldn't, I don't think I, would want to work with, in other industries that don't excite me or that I'm not passionate about.

[00:25:49] Nevine El Shabini: So yeah, I've made a long winded way of why I do what I do.

[00:25:54] Sarah Almond Bushell: Brilliant. And the freedom, of course, as

[00:25:56] Nevine El Shabini: well. Absolutely. That's my number one, my work life balance is priority. And, it was only something I realized after I left. I didn't even really think much about it in my kind of.

[00:26:05] Nevine El Shabini: My old life, as I like to call it.

[00:26:09] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Yeah. Question number three, tech, love it or hate it?

[00:26:13] Nevine El Shabini: I think if you have an online business, you have to love it. I don't think you have a choice, or at least you have to grow to love it. I think just I think the big thing is not to be too scared of it.

[00:26:22] Nevine El Shabini: And it can be scary. And I know I've spoken to dietitians and they tell me things like, Oh, I keep hearing all these like different names, all these different platforms and softwares, and I'm like, I don't even know what they are. And it's. You don't have to know all of them. But I just, I like the things you can do with them, let's say.

[00:26:37] Nevine El Shabini: And whilst there's always like a little bit of anxiety about learning a new a new platform, a new app, there's so much support now out online, whether it's, your online community, whether it's a YouTube video. So I, I love that. I love what you can do with tech and, I definitely have my favorite things that I just like, I absolutely love.

[00:26:53] Nevine El Shabini: So yeah, definitely more on the love side.

[00:26:57] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah, me too. Question four, how do you stay motivated?

[00:27:02] Nevine El Shabini: I think for me It's probably around like creating a day that I want to do. I remember in the past, that kind of, that feeling of waking up in the morning and going, oh God, I've gotta go to work.

[00:27:13] Nevine El Shabini: I don't, I've never get that. Yeah. I haven't had that for years. Brilliant. Love it. And I think it's a combination. Really enjoying what you do and just creating your day, so that you are going to enjoy your day. So for example, if there's tasks in my business I don't want to do, or that I can't do, I'll outsource it, or get some support with it.

[00:27:30] Nevine El Shabini: If it's something that's a bit challenging, I'll maybe try and do it in the morning when I know I'm like, I've got a little bit more energy. I always make sure I inject something fun in my day, so I've got something nice to look forward to. So I think just curating my day so it's a day that I want to live in.

[00:27:44] Nevine El Shabini: It just, yeah, keeps me motivated. Yeah.

[00:27:47] Sarah Almond Bushell: Yeah. Brilliant. And number five, what's the one thing you know now that you wish you could tell your former self when just starting out in business?

[00:27:57] Nevine El Shabini: Oh god, where do I begin? There's so many. Okay let me think. I think to not compare yourself to what other people are doing.

[00:28:07] Nevine El Shabini: Because I think if I had, I would have just gone maybe just down the route of working, you know, putting my, my, my sort of kidney nutrition what I was doing in the NHS straight or online. I was able to. Try not to look what other people are doing and just knowing that everyone's on their own journey in terms of their destination, in terms of, what that journey looks like, in terms of the pace.

[00:28:30] Nevine El Shabini: And, again, I speak to a lot of dietitians that they're like, Oh, I see this dietitian. They've got like a membership. They've got this and, I'm really struggling. And yeah, it's just to remember that, everyone is on their own journey. It looks completely different. They were probably where you were.

[00:28:45] Nevine El Shabini: And so I really. Tell, would tell my former self that, it doesn't matter because I started this quite later on in my life. And I remember, thinking, Oh, by this point, people should have established businesses. And, I had to just get out that mindset and just be like it's okay.

[00:28:58] Nevine El Shabini: You can do it anytime. And yeah, just stop looking at other people and just focus on what you're doing. So I think that's what I would tell myself.

[00:29:06] Sarah Almond Bushell: I absolutely love that and I think I think that's definitely something that we, as clinicians, and actually maybe it's just dietitians, I don't know, but that fuels our imposter syndrome and it slows us down and it stops us.

[00:29:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: Being brave and taking that uncomfortable action. And often it's the uncomfortable stuff that leads us to the success that we want. And I'm guilty of it as well. And that's part of the reason why I don't really spend very much time on social media, other than, what I need to do for my business, because.

[00:29:38] Sarah Almond Bushell: I'm drawn to look at other people who are succeeding in social media, who are, living the life. And we all know that social media posts are curated. It's not real life. It's curated life, but still it can trigger you. It can make you feel as if you're not doing as well as perhaps other people are.

[00:29:57] Sarah Almond Bushell: And so for me, I've just learned not to do that. So I think you're absolutely right. Don't compare yourself. We're all on our own individual journeys. Our businesses and our business ideas are all completely individual to each other. Even if, there's another person who works in exactly the same niche with exactly the same idea, the client with exactly the same offer.

[00:30:20] Sarah Almond Bushell: You've got a different audience. You've got different people around you and you are unique. People choose to work with you because of you. So yeah, you can't compare.

[00:30:30] Nevine El Shabini: No. I say, what is it? Comparison is the thief of joy, I think is the the famous quote. So yeah, I'm totally in support of that.

[00:30:39] Sarah Almond Bushell: Definitely. It's been amazing. Thank you so much. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Do you want to tell people where they can contact you if they feel like they need an OBM or they feel like they want to train to be an OBM even? Can you just let people know the best way to contact you?

[00:30:53] Nevine El Shabini: Sure.

[00:30:54] Nevine El Shabini: So I would say either via my website. So that's www. thriveonlineservices. com. So you can book a call with me to have a chat with me. And alternatively, I'm also on LinkedIn. So they're probably the main places to get me.

[00:31:10] Sarah Almond Bushell: Awesome. That's great. And I'll make sure I grab those links from you and pop them in the show notes for everybody as well.

[00:31:15] Nevine El Shabini: Brilliant.

[00:31:16] Sarah Almond Bushell: Brilliant. Thank you so much for your time and enjoy your time in Egypt.

[00:31:21] Nevine El Shabini: Thank you so much.

[00:31:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: I'm very jealous because it's not very warm here and I think it's very warm where you are.

[00:31:25] Nevine El Shabini: It's 33 today. I'm literally like my hair, the sun is shining into my lounge. So yeah, it's very hot.

[00:31:32] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's 11 here, so there you go.

[00:31:36] Sarah Almond Bushell: Thank you so much, Sarah. And thank you so much for inviting me and having me on your podcast today. Thank you.

[00:31:41] Nevine El Shabini: It's a pleasure. Take care now. Bye bye.