00:00 - Amanda McVicker (Host)
Hello and welcome to the OBM Educator. I am so excited for you to be here listening to this first episode. My name is Amanda McVicker. I am an online business manager, or OBM, if you haven't heard that term before and I am so excited to be bringing you this podcast. It has been a goal of mine to create a podcast for probably the past year, year and a half. It's always been in the back of my mind like, yeah, that would be really cool to start a podcast for OBMs. I know there are a couple out there now, but when I was first thinking about this about a year ago, there really weren't any podcasts I don't think, out there by OBMs for OBMs. OBMs would have interviews on other podcasts talking about what it was like to be an OBM, but there really wasn't a podcast that was explicitly for OBMs talking about what OBMs go through their day-to-day life, for OBMs, talking about what OBMs go through their day-to-day life. It was really a gap that I wanted to fill in this space, since I have been helping VAs make that transition to OBM and I'll get a little bit into my background later on. But I just wanted to say that I also think that there's a lack of sharing around what it's like to be an OBM. It's really easy to learn about being a VA or social media manager or even a business coach or any other type of coach, but the teaching around being an OBM is usually held behind a course or a program or certification of some kind, or a program or certification of some kind. And if you know anything about me, have binged any of my content. You know I am all about giving that value in everything I do. So, yes, like, obviously, my paid offers, my mentoring courses, things like that but in my content, in my blog posts, in my freebies, in my newsletters, in my free masterclasses and now in this, in my podcast, I am all about giving the value. And so when you come listen to an episode of the OBM Educator, be prepared to learn something. Just putting that out there.
02:23
But yes, without further ado, I want to dive into today's episode and what I want to talk about. So we're going to first start with diving a little bit deeper into what my goal is with this podcast. You know what is it that I want you to get out of it as you listen to it, and then I'm going to share a bit about my background, like why am I the one who is the person talking, right? Why am I the person who is doing this podcast? And then I also want to share what you can expect when you tune in each week. I have really thought about the structure of this podcast and have had many ideas of what I want to talk about, who I want to bring on, what I want them to talk about. So I'm going to share what you can expect.
03:11
Welcome to the OBM Educator. I'm your host, Amanda McVicker, a veteran OBM who serves six and seven figure entrepreneurs as well as educates new OBMs with the skills and confidence they need to start and grow their own successful online business management business. Follow along as I share valuable insights, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks and proven strategies to help you build a better OBM business. So first I dove a little bit into my goal with this podcast to fill this gap of really having education around what it's like to be an OBM. But I want to take you into the OBM world. I want to pull back the curtain, give a sneak peek, but actually way more than a sneak peek. I want to show, like, what is it like to be an OBM? And I have, like, this huge, long list of topics how to get a client, marketing, client management, how to hire a team, when to bring on a team, how to fire someone, how to fire a client. What happens when you get fired as the OBM? What do you have to do when you fire a team member Like the hard things that we have to talk about that no one really wants to Boundaries and mindset. What else is there? Talking about systems breaking down, like the systems that you would set up in a client's business, and what are the platforms that you would use to do that? Basically, like anything around what it's like to be an OBM it's on my list and we're gonna talk about it, and so I'm really excited to give you that like little bird's eye view into the OBM world so you can know what it's like to work as one, what it's like to face the challenges that OBMs do and what it's like to find clients and grow a successful OBM business. Because that is my ultimate goal with you listening to this podcast that you would become an OBM, that you would feel confident in your knowledge, that you could go out and be like, hey, yeah, I'm an OBM now because I know what I'm doing, and obviously there's so much that is learned on the job and I will talk about this because I learned so much on the job as an OBM. But there is something to be said about getting confidence before you get started, and sometimes just that little bit of knowledge can help push your confidence over the edge so that you can actually do it. And so that is my goal with this podcast. I'm really excited for it. Again, it is something that I have been wanting to do for so long now, and the fact that it's finally here, I am so excited.
05:59
So now a little bit about my background. Why am I the person to be talking about this? So my official background it wasn't really corporate, it was association. But my nine to five background was as a conference planner. I was a conference planner at an association in Washington DC and I planned a 2,500 person conference, week-long conference for kind of funny, for like OSHA officials. So anything safety-wise I know a lot about. But anyway, that was what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to plan conferences. I wanted to climb that corporate ladder. There were times that I was like, who plans Microsoft's conferences? I want to plan Microsoft's conferences. That would have been way too stressful, but like that was what I everything I did. I became a certified meeting planner. I studied about meeting planning and conferences. I went to conferences to learn about conferences, everything and I knew that since I was like 13, that that was what I wanted to do.
07:14
But then my husband got a promotion that had us move to a different state, and the state that we moved to, the place that we moved to, didn't really have a thriving event scene, especially not conferences. If you know anything about DC, that's like the association capital of the world, and so all of the associations who have conferences are there. But also when we moved, like right before we moved, we found out that I was pregnant, and so it just kind of led to the decision that I was going to be a stay-at-home mom and not work for the beginning part of my child's life, which is great. I had a great year. But then in that year I got pregnant again and so I ended up being a mom of two before my first son's birthday and things were just kind of going really crazy my first son's birthday and things were just kind of going really crazy. And all this time I'm, like you know, obviously wanting to make more money to help out financially, and I am on Pinterest Googling whatever like what can I do to stay home? And that's where I learned about the virtual assistant world. And so for about a year, while I have my baby and I'm pregnant and then my second baby, I'm learning about what a VA is and I'm like I could do that. Like that sounds great. And so I started my VA business in 2019.
08:49
Fun fact when my second son was like a month old, I think maybe like a month and a half I started my VA business and I started working for event planners because that was my background and it really took off. Event planners really needed that type of support and so I was doing that VA business stuff, really loving it, and, at the same time, I was growing my business, like my side of the business, and I was setting up systems in my business. My first system and I still use it to this day and I absolutely love it is Depsado. It was my CRM, my first CRM, and it's what I recommend to everyone if you're looking for a CRM. But I was setting things up like that. I was setting up a mailing list, I was creating systems in my business and I was like I really like this. And if you know anything about event planners, they are very organized in their planning, but not so much their business.
09:51
And so, as I was learning about the online space, I was learning about what an OBM was. I don't really remember when I first heard the term, but once I really learned what it was, I was like I could totally do that. That would be so cool. And so I started thinking about being an OBM for event planners to get their backend business tidied up, less stressful, easy to onboard clients and everything. And that's kind of what I was thinking. But I was afraid to take that leap and actually do it and like say to my clients hey, like you could actually benefit from this.
10:33
And as I was kind of planning out what that would look like, covid happened. And so March 2020, covid happened and definitely the world shutting down, but events completely shut down. And there was that week that we all went home or whatever. Every single event that I was working on it was like dominoes One by one was canceled, and like we were like starting the week with no, I think it'll be fine, and ending the week with like yeah, it's over.
11:05
And so, in the span of a week, I lost all my clients. I was back to zero and I was like, okay, well, what am I going to do now? And even then I was back to zero and I was like, okay, well, what am I going to do now? And even then I was like, well, I could be an OBM, like I like it, I like the systems and everything. But even then I was like, oh, I don't know, I don't know if I can do it. And so I spent another month and a half researching what I had already researched, playing around in systems I had already played around with. And then, finally, 2020, the end of April I made the announcement that I was now an OBM.
11:44
And then it seemed in that time, probably from like May to July. It seemed like a long time, but I was putting myself out there, marketing, doing project packages, things like that, and I got my first client in July. And you know, when I look at it now is like that's actually a very short period of time. But then I got my first client in July. My business was booked out by October. I went from a 1K month in July with my first client to a 6K month. Less than four months later, I had extremely fast growth. I built my business off of referrals. My first client referred me to my second client before we even started officially working together, just from how I was on my like the strategy call to kick things off. So referrals completely grew my business to the point that in October of 2020, I had a booked out business and it was crazy and then booked out changed for me as I got childcare, we got a nanny, you know, and I started bringing on more clients.
12:56
I had a period where it felt like I'm sure I will do an in-depth episode on this, but I had about a three month period where I was like adding new clients, firing clients, and it felt so rocky and tumultuous that I was like I don't know what's wrong with me that this just feels like I don't have anything steady. But really what it was is I was figuring out what was working for me and what wasn't and by the time we got to June 2021, I had six clients I think was making about 8k months. But I was so burnt out because it's hard, when your business is gaining that momentum, to say no right. It's hard to say like oh, there's a client who wants to hire me, there's a client who wants to pay me. I'm sure I can have room for one more client, but this leads to a breaking point. In 2021, I really pushed that breaking point.
14:05
But in 2022, I got pregnant with my third child, had some pretty bad morning sickness that went into the second trimester. I was doing some event planning again Like I had all of these things that I was not giving myself time to like take a step back and relax, and I burnt out. I almost closed my entire business. I actually ended up letting go of half of my clients and I had to figure out what that balance was. I had to. Again, I let go of clients. I raised rates to kind of match that, to make it so that I could devote my time to fewer clients and give them, like, the attention and care that they needed, and I created a business again that could give me what I wanted. So since 2022, when that happened, I have been a stay-at-home mom. Now with being a full-time OBM, I work maybe 15 hours a week, 10 to 15 hours a week and I'm proof that you can do both at the same time.
15:11
But in my journey and this is why I say like I I am pretty qualified to talk about this and have a podcast about this, because I have been through almost anything you can as an OBM. I've been booked out, I have been fired. I have fired clients. I grew a team, I fired team members. I've created boundaries and I've been lax about boundaries. My package and offer wise. I've done strategy sessions and audits and VIP days and project packages and retainers, and so much of what I'm going to be talking about in this podcast is coming from real life experience and how I've been able to come through it on the other side to have an extremely successful business. You know something that I am so proud of. I have, you know, three amazing clients who I have been working with for three to four years. You know, throughout these podcast episodes you're going to hear from them and what it's like to work with an OBM. I have come through, on the other side of that burnout and the not having balance in my business to a point where I am so proud of this business that I built and I want to share it with so many people.
16:32
Now what can you expect with this podcast? I know that was a very quick change. So the first thing is, you know, things like that solo episodes, where this is going to be like the how-to, it's going to be the education, the here's the topic and let's talk about it, the things that I had mentioned before. Like you know, there's going to be some things that it's like grab paper and pen because this is like a learning one, like write this stuff down, but then there are also going to be things where it's like okay, so this is the situation and this is how you get through it. Solo episodes are really going to be diving deep into those topics.
17:10
The second thing that I'm going to be doing, and this is going to, so solo episodes will be half of them and the other half are going to be a guest, and so the different types of guests that I'm going to be having are first, new aspiring OBMs, who we're going to do coaching calls, and so it'll just be that you know that they have a problem, something going on in their business that they want coaching through, and I will coach them for 20 minutes. I do these free calls. I have done them now for about two years and they're my favorite thing to do, because they have this topic that they really want to get in the nitty gritty on. You know they really want to get in the nitty gritty on and you know we really dive deep and they leave the call with the solution, with their next steps. I love doing that and so I'm going to record you know, some of them and share that recording here so that you can see, like how maybe you're going through the same thing. How would I, as a mentor, be able to help you through that the same thing? How would I, as a mentor, be able to help you through that?
18:17
The other type of guest we would have is successful OBMs. You know OBMs who have been doing it for a while, sharing what it was like when they were getting started, what really helped them with success, what were the challenges that they overcame and what it's like being an OBM in the industry right now and what it's like being an OBM in the industry right now. The other type of guest will be those who have hired OBMs and so, like I said, I'm going to be starting with my clients because I love them so much. They technically they're all business coaches, but they are in vastly different industries and my initial goal, like when I was thinking about the three of them was like well, it can show, like, all these different types of people who can have OBMs, and I am planning on like reaching out to so many different types of industries so that you can really see all these people who would benefit from an OBM. But we're also going to be asking you know, what was it like when you were hiring an OBM? What were you looking for? What like turned you off in interviews when you finally started working with one? What were like first things that you've noticed that like really helped your business? What can you not live without? Like all of these things, so that you can get a sneak peek inside their brain, your ideal client's brain, and see what it is that they're thinking.
19:35
And then the last type of guest will be specialists. So I am definitely not an expert on everything. I am an OBM generalist. Some people have like focuses. I'm a generalist, I know a lot of things well, but I wouldn't say that I'm like an expert or a specialist at those things, and so I'm going to bring in the experts and specialists to talk more with you that you know that could be like a marketing or social media person a personal branding, an accountant, finance bookkeeper, different types of specialists that will help you with your OBM business. So that's what you can expect. I'm really excited and I'll have this at the end or in the show notes that if you want to be a guest, if you want to be coached, if you are an OBM and you want to be interviewed, or if you have an OBM and you want to be interviewed, or if you have an OBM and you want to be interviewed, or if you're a specialist, you know you can fill out the form. Would love to have everyone. I'd love to have everyone on here.
20:43
Becoming an OBM really was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. It has led to so many great opportunities. It has allowed me to support my family in ways I really could have only dreamed of. It gave me a renewed sense of purpose after leaving my you know event planning career. When I had kids, a rooftop I would shout about it. I'm not really that type of person, but any person I meet, literally.
21:21
I will talk about online business and OBM stuff because I think that so many people could be an OBM, whether they have the experience in the online space or not. There are plenty of people who come from a corporate nine-to-five who jump straight into being an OBM. But I want this podcast to be the first stepping stone into the OBM world and into your journey. You may listen to this because you're interested in becoming an OBM and realize you know what. It is not the right fit, and that is great, because then you can figure out what is. But you also might listen to this and realize it's an amazing fit for you and through learning what I'm going to be teaching and from hearing about the experiences from others, you are going to be so much further ahead than if you were trying to figure this out all on your own. Because I know this, because I've been there.
22:10
I held out on becoming an OBM because I didn't think I knew enough. I waited, I didn't think I had the experience I needed and it cost me time, money, all of those things. And the longer I waited, the harder it was for me to actually take that leap, and I do not want that for you. So I hope you will join me each week as I bring you your OBM education as a part of today's launch. If you're listening, on launch day, we actually have two other episodes that are live ready for you to listen to, one being on what does it take to make the transition from VA to OBM, which a lot of you listening probably would be interested in, since most OBMs do start as VAs, and the other episode is an interview with one of my clients, rita Goodrow, who is a business strategist and speaker. Rita was my first OBM client and we have been working together for four years now, and so you'll get the CEO perspective of what it's like to have an OBM.
23:19
Thank you so much for joining me. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast, follow me on social media I am mostly onInstagram at amandamcvicker_obm and sign up for my newsletter so you don't miss a thing. I'll chat with you guys soon. Bye, thanks for joining me for this episode of the OBM Educator. I hope what you heard today is helpful for you on your OBM journey. If you loved today's episode, I would so appreciate you sharing it and leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Want to be a guest on the OBM Educator? Fill out the form in the show notes and I'll be in touch. Join us next time on the OBM Educator.