From Task-Taker to Strategic Partner: How to Lead Proactive Client Meetings

Your client meetings should showcase your leadership—not just your note-taking skills.

Join Sarah Noked in this episode of The OBM Show as she reveals a simple, repeatable framework to turn every meeting into a strategic, value-packed session that builds trust, strengthens your authority as an operational professional and leader, and supports premium pricing.

Here’s what we cover:

• The pre-meeting power play that builds unshakable confidence before you even join the call.
• How to craft a strategic agenda that immediately frames you as the leader in the room.
• Simple facilitation techniques to guide the conversation and keep your clients on track.
• The single most powerful phrase you can use when you don't know the answer to a question.
• The story of our student Maria, who used this framework to raise her OBM rates by 30% in a single quarter.

Stop letting your strategic brilliance stay behind the scenes. This episode gives you the tools to step into your leadership role, facilitate meetings that "wow" your clients, and get paid for your strategic mind—not just your ability to complete tasks.

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Until next time, keep building the business behind the business.

Episode Transcript

Sarah Noked (00:00):
Let's talk about client meetings today, and I
want you to be really honestabout how they make you feel.
So you're probably familiarwith that feeling.
I know I am.
Maybe 15 minutes before you'resupposed to log into your
meeting, your heart startsbeating just a little bit
faster.
Your hands get clammy and youstart running through a mental

(00:20):
checklist of everything you'vedone and you worry about that
one thing that you might havemissed.
Now you go into that meetingand you feel like you are about
to be quizzed.
You have your notebook ready,your pen is ready, and you spend
that next hour furiously takingnotes while your client pretty

(00:40):
much dictates a to-do list forthe coming week.
Now, I know you're a brilliantoperator.
I know you are a master oflogics behind the scenes.
But in this meeting, you havebecome a passive participant.
And then it happens, the momentof dread, where the client
pauses and looks at you and thenasks that big old question,

(01:04):
open-ended question, so what doyou think?
And in that moment, do you justever freeze?
And all of those brilliantstrategic insights that you had
in the shower about yourclient's business, all those
ideas you had working on theirsystems, they just vanish.
You are unsure of how to voicethem, how to sound like the

(01:28):
authority that I know you are.
You are, in essence...
afraid of being quote-unquotefound out, so you give some safe
non-committal answer.
Now, if any of this soundsfamiliar and is literally giving
you anxiety at the moment, Iwant you to know that you're not
alone.
Many OBMs are absolute geniusesat managing projects, managing

(01:56):
team and tech, but feel theirconfidence completely evaporate
the moment they're in thespotlight of a client call.
And that's why you stay doingbecause you feel like a fraud
when it's time to do theleading.
But I'm here to tell you thatthose clients, those visionary

(02:18):
founders that you are workingwith are not paying you just to
manage tasks.
Oh, no.
They can hire a lot ofdifferent freelance roles to do
just that.
What they are hiring you andpaying you for is your strategic
mind.
And this, my friends, is yourhighest value.
It's the thing that makes youan irreplaceable asset.

(02:41):
And it is not in just executingtheir vision.
It is 100% in shaping theclient's vision.
And today, I want to spend sometime teaching you how to stop
being a passive note-taker andto start being the facilitator
who runs the damn show.

(03:03):
We are going to give you asimple, practical framework to
plan and lead meetings thatdon't just report on the work,
but actively showcase your valueand build profound client
trust, Welcome to the OBM Show,the podcast that pulls back the

(03:29):
curtain on what it really takesto thrive as an online business
manager and help businessesscale without burning out.
I'm your host, Sarah Noked,agency owner, OBM mentor, and
founder of OBM School.
I've been working in the backend of online businesses since
2009, building systems, managingremote teams, and mentoring

(03:52):
OBMs who make businesses runlike clockwork.
Now, I've seen what works, whatdoesn't, and the messy middle
that no one talks about.
Here, we get real about thetools, strategies, and stories
that drive sustainability.
All right, let's get right intoit.

(04:22):
The entire secret to aconfident, successful,
value-driven client meeting...
actually happens before themeeting even begins.
The transformation from tasktaker to strategic partner is

(04:47):
unfortunately or fortunately,depending on how you're looking
at the side of the coin, it isall in the preparation.
So think about it this way.
A leader doesn't show up to ameeting and asks, so what should
we talk about today?
A leader shows up and says,here is what we need to focus on
to move your business forward.

(05:07):
Here are the key decisions weneed to make today to hit our
goals for the quarter.
Now that shift from beingreactive to being proactive is
really what separates a good OBMfrom an elite sought after OBM.
It's what allows you to chargea premium rate because you are

(05:28):
no longer being paid for yourtime.
You're being paid for yourleadership and results.
So here is the framework formaking that shift happen.
And it starts today.
And it is a two-part process.
So part one is what I lovinglycall the pre-meeting power play.
Confidence doesn't justmagically appear.

(05:51):
It is born from preparation.
And I know a lot of you guyslike to prepare.
And I want you to make apromise to yourself that you
will never, ever, ever go into aclient meeting empty-handed or
unprepared.
This is where you can shine.
This is your powerful tool.
And it really starts withhaving a shared agenda.

(06:11):
I'm not talking about a simpleto-do list.
I'm talking about a strategicdocument that you share, that
you create and send to theclient at least 24 hours before
every single meeting.
I'm telling you, this act alonewill begin to reframe their
perception of you and you arenow setting the stage for

(06:34):
something different.
Now, this agenda should havethree distinct sections.
I always love my first section,just like how I start my
coaching calls inside OBM Schoolwith wins and progress.
You always, always want tostart on a good note.
It's not just fluff.
It's psychology, and it kicksoff the meeting on a positive

(06:55):
note.
and immediately demonstratesthe return on their investment
in you.
It could be things likereviewed last week's email
campaign, which had a 42% openrate.
And for those of you guys whoare working with clients, you
know that a 42% open rate iswell over that 25% average.

(07:16):
Or updated the new onboardingsystem, which has already saved
the team three hours this week.
You are just simply lovinglygently reminding them of your
value before the meeting haseven truly begun.
Now the second section and thisis the heart of it is strategic

(07:38):
discussions and decisions.
This is where you explicitlystep into your leadership role.
You don't phrase this sectionas talk about the launch.
You frame it as a decision thatneeds to be made.
For example, decision needed onQ4 launch strategy, reviewing
option A versus option B.

(08:00):
Or it could be something likestrategic choice on new
software, a discussion of thepros and cons of migrating Asana
to ClickUp now versus in Q1.
So when you frame it this way,you force the client to see you
as a strategist who has thoughtahead, analyzed options, and is

(08:26):
there to guide them to the bestpossible choice.
Like, I already feel betterabout And the third section is
roadblocks and action items.
This is where you demonstrateyour foresight.
Now, you're not just looking atwhat's been done.
You're looking ahead at whatcould go wrong.
So, for example, it might besomething like addressing the

(08:48):
potential bottleneck in thegraphic design approval process
or something along the lines ofconfirming the plan for who will
handle customer service duringthe summer when so-and-so is on
maternity leave.
This shows the client that youare thinking three steps ahead,
protecting their business andtheir launch, their whatever,

(09:10):
their livelihood, right?
Now, before you even get onthat call, right after you've
reviewed the agenda that you'vecreated, I want you to perform
one small but mighty ritual.
Now, recently, I did an episodeon imposter syndrome.
And if you guys caught thatepisode, you know I talk big
about having a wins document.

(09:31):
right?
Some document that you keep,some are private, that you can
sort of keep track of the winsthat you've had with clients.
And when you open up thatdocument, you know you're going
to Have some cold, hard evidenceof all of your amazing
accomplishments, which I know ishard for you to deal with.

(09:51):
The successful projects, thesystems that you put in place,
the positive client feedback.
I want you to read just a fewof them.
This isn't an exercise on ego,certainly not.
This is is a groundingexercise.
It is a pre-meeting power-up,and it primes your brain with
facts of your competence so thatyou can walk into that meeting

(10:15):
grounded in truth and not in thefeeling of being a fraud.
Okay, now on to part two, youreally need to facilitate and
not just participate.
Okay.
And I know for a lot of us,this comes from that place of
like sort of giving the onus orgiving the power to the client.
But you've done the prep work,you've set the agenda, your role

(10:38):
now is to be the guide, thefacilitator of the conversation.
So you start by opening withauthority, right?
The very first words out ofyour mouth set the tone for the
entire meeting.
So instead of a passive, hey,how are you?
You can start with confidentleadership.
Thanks for your time today,dear client.

(10:59):
If you saw the agenda, which Ihope you had a chance to read,
my main goals for this call areto finalize the launch date,
decide on the webinar topic, andmaybe something along the lines
of assign the key rules forProject X.
My intention, dear client, isthat we leave this meeting with

(11:20):
a clear plan for the next twoweeks.
Let's dive in, starting withthe great progress that we saw
on the social media front,right?
The wins, the wins.
Now, with this, just this shortpiece, This short intro to your
meeting, you have takencontrol.

(11:41):
You've stated the purpose,you've articulated the desired
outcome, and you've directed theconversation.
You, my friend, are now theleader in the room.
Now, during the meeting, it isyour job to guide the
conversation.
Now, we all have those clientswho love to go off on a tangent,
right?
It's your job to protect theagenda at all costs.

(12:06):
And you can do this verygracefully by using a parking
lot technique.
Okay, a parking lot technique.
When the client goes awry, goesoff topic, you listen in.
intently and then you say, wow,this is a really important

(12:26):
point and I want to make sure wedon't lose it.
I've just added it to ourparking lot list of all the
things and we can either circleback to this at the end of the
call if we have time or I canmake this a priority agenda item
for our next meeting.
So To make sure that we getthese launch dates decided

(12:47):
today, let's refocus on thetimeline.
And you see how beautifullythat you've shown respect for
ideas, but my friends, you'vealso shown respect for your
meeting time, for your meetingpurpose, for the meeting that
you are actually leading.
And finally...

(13:08):
you must get comfortable withwhat I call the leader's phrase.
I want to share something withyou that you're going to love.
And this whole thing issomething that I want you to get
comfortable with.
And it's what I call theleader's phrase.
So as we've discussed...
many times and as you feel alot, the fear of being asked a

(13:34):
question that you don't know theanswer to is a primary driver
of that wonderful impostercomplex that we all need to
manage in our lives.
You believe that an expert hasto have all the answers all the
time but But a true leader's jobisn't to know everything,

(13:55):
right?
And we certainly can't knoweverything.
It's really about leading theprocess of finding the right
answer.
So when a client asks you acomplex technical question and
your mind goes bippity-blank,you take a breath.
You calmly use the mostpowerful phrase in an OBM's

(14:15):
toolkit.
Are you ready?
Are you sitting down?
That's a great question, dearclient.
I don't have the answer rightnow, but I will find out and
come back to you with a fullrecommendation by the end of
tomorrow.
Now, this does not make youlook incompetent.

(14:38):
It makes you look honest.
It makes you look organized.
And the most important thing isit makes you look resourceful.
It builds trust for more thanfumbling for an answer or making
something up.
You are not an encyclopedia.
You are certainly not AI.
You are the lead researcher andstrategist in your client's

(15:01):
business, okay?
Now, I want to share a storywith you, a real-world story
from...
One of my students, because Icould definitely share this
story about myself.
I definitely have felt this waybefore.
But I think Maria reallyembodies this transformation
because she's brilliant.
Her work is brilliant.
I've seen her projects in ouraccreditation.

(15:22):
She's got beautiful workflows.
She knows what she's doing.
And the irony was on our hotseat coaching calls inside of
accreditation, it was very clearto me that she was terrified of
being seen as a leader.
So she would literally get sickto her stomach before client
meetings.
I know a lot of us feel likethat, but she saw her role at

(15:47):
this point in time as justlistening and taking notes and
then kind of going away andexecuting a to-do list.
And she really wasn't leadingher meetings with her clients
because she didn't want to beasked something that she
couldn't answer on the spot.
And during one of our hot seatcoaching calls, she really
admitted something huge to ourcommunity.

(16:08):
And that was that she hadidentified a major strategic
recommendation that she knewcould save one of her big
clients thousands of dollars amonth but legit guys she had
been sitting on it a whole monthbecause she was afraid to bring
it up in a meeting because shedidn't want to be questioned
about things okay so like aloving community that we are, we

(16:34):
coached her right then andthere to completely reframe her
role.
And from the next meeting withher client, she was no longer an
attendee.
She was the facilitator.
And her job was to guide theconversation.
And that absolutely includedpresenting strategic
recommendations.
And she prepared her very firststrategic agenda, the one that

(16:57):
I talked about.
And she had her wins documentat the top, front and center
open on her second monitor asevidence for herself.
And she went into that clientmeeting, heart pounding, but she
opened it with authority.
And when the client asked areally complicated technical
question about that migrationthat was going to ultimately

(17:18):
save money and time that she wasproposing, the old Maria
probably would have panicked.
The new Maria, the facilitator,she just took a couple breaths
and instead of panicking, shecalmly said, Dear client, that's
an exact question that we needto answer to make this seamless.
My plan is to consult with thetech team, map out two potential

(17:42):
paths, and I'll present it toyou with a clear recommendation
with pros and cons by the end ofday Thursday.
For now, let's focus on theoperational goals of this shift.
The client, Maria later toldus, was blown the F away.
He didn't need her to be thetech guru on the spot.

(18:03):
He needed her to own theprocess of getting the answer.
And that single shift unlockeda level of confidence that she
had never felt before.
Now, if you're ready to makethat same shift, the very first
step is to get your own internalprocesses so solid that you
feel confident and in control.

(18:23):
Now, you can find a whole bunchof practical, easy to use
resources, including templatesfor setting client expectation
right from the start by headingon over to obmschool.com forward
slash resources.
And thank you so much fortuning into this episode of the
OBM show.
If this episode resonated withyou, please share it.

(18:43):
You never know who else is inyour circle and who needs to
hear that they are not a fraud,that they are the leader in the
making.
And I'll catch you in the nextepisode.