Amanda McVicker (00:00)
Hello and welcome to today's episode of The OBM Educator. Today's episode is kind of a celebration and kind of a reflection, because we're at one year of The OBM Educator. I launched the podcast last year on May 2. This episode is coming out on May 1. So it's been a whole year of this podcast, and I definitely would never have been able to guess the impact that the podcast has had. You know, not only on my business, but on myself as well. You know, when you start something like this, obviously there's a goal for it, like you want to have things come out of it. You want to increase your reach. You want to, you know, speak to your audience. But something I wasn't quite expecting so much of was hearing from people who did not know me personally that you know found the podcast or found me, and then the podcast and them telling me, like how much this podcast has helped them in making the transition from VA to OBM, helping them start their OBM business and grow as an OBM.
And you know, if you had asked me last year, like, what are your goals for this, one of them definitely would have been to help people right like that is why I am coming here every week. I want to help you with growing your business, but I don't think I could have fully imagined the impact that I've seen it have, and so I am very thankful and grateful for you, the listener who you know, come back each week listen to sometimes what I feel like are my ramblings, but really have used The OBM Educator as your professional development, like your time to work on your business, and so that's amazing. I love that. Today I am going to be talking about some of the lessons that I've learned over the year that I think could apply to you in your business, kind of in general. So I'm excited to get into those again. I'm just very thankful and grateful for you to be listening to this. So let's get into it.
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.
Okay, so let's get into some of the things that I have learned this year that I think are applicable in business in general, but I will obviously be throwing in that OBM angle. So the first thing is, what I have realized from finally doing something consistent in my business. You know, over the years, my email marketing has not been consistent. My content has not been consistent. And I knew that if I were, if I was starting a podcast like it couldn't be something that I start and then stop and, you know, miss a bunch of weeks. Like, I've definitely have missed some weeks, but for the most part, you know, this is episode 45 and there are 52 weeks in a year. So overall, I have been pretty consistent with putting out episodes. And so from that, my recommendation, and it is different with like a service provider type business, but is to pick something to market yourself and be consistent with it, whether it is Instagram posts, Instagram Stories, LinkedIn blogs, email marketing, just something where you are putting yourself out there through some type of medium in a consistent way that you can grow an audience. No one ever reached out to me on a day that a podcast didn't come out and be like, where's the podcast, right? But I know that by consistently putting something out that I know that there are some people who, every week they're listening to an episode, and so if you pick something to fully go in on, fully be consistent on you are, over time, going to grow your audience. You. May or may not get business from it right away. I think over the long term, it's something that will definitely help you grow your business, but putting yourself out there, like part of you out there, consistently, is going to help solidify you as the expert again, build a community, build an audience, and you're also going to get into the habit of doing it. And so when it comes time to making a pivot, or needing to bring on new clients, like you have a consistent base that you have been working on to meet your needs. So another thing that I've kind of learned throughout this process that I think is pretty applicable is know when to outsource and when to pull back. So when I first had the idea of launching a podcast, I knew like I didn't know things. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to put together the strategy on anything, to create the assets, all of that stuff, and I didn't know how to like edit and so I outsourced the, essentially the creation of my podcast, to a podcast manager. And because of that one, I was on a deadline, like, in order to meet the deliverables that she needed to make it so that I wasn't wasting my money, like, I needed to get her the things right, if it was just left up to me, like, Who knows when this would have happened? But then also, it was professionally done. And then she became my editor for a few months, and it was great, but then I got to the point, you know, in reevaluating expenses and reevaluating contractors and seeing the work, not saying that, you know, what she was doing wasn't like invaluable, but seeing that it was actually something I could probably do on my own without it taking too much time. I knew when to pull back, and so, you know, a few months in, I ended up taking over the editing, the uploading the show notes, like all of that stuff. And it's been a great process ever since. And I think that this can be applicable, because as service providers, right, we are saying to our clients, oh, just outsource that. Just just outsource that. Get someone else to do it, when, in reality, there are some things worth outsourcing and some things that aren't not saying that it's not worth it, but that if, for whatever reason, you're trying to cut expenses, you're trying to do things more on a budget, you can do things on your own. So when you're looking at your business and you think of, okay, typical things that get outsourced, social media, bookkeeping, creating a website admin like looking at what really is taking away time and what is going to be the most worthwhile investment if you're at a point where you just can't invest in everything. I had that with a bookkeeper. I had a bookkeeper for a few years, and it got to the point, but my books were pretty standard. I knew that I could keep up with it in QuickBooks, and it could save me a few $100 a month to just do it myself. And so when you're looking at what it is you want to outsource versus what it is that should probably stay with, you know that there's a time and place for both, and it doesn't make it right or wrong depending on like either way that you choose it. And the last thing that I think really does apply to just business in general is that you need to embrace the journey of what you're doing right, even if it isn't as smooth as you hoped for. And that journey can be it can mean so many things. It could mean from when you were just thinking about your business to actually starting it and becoming a VA to realizing that it's not all you hope for. And you know, there's something more that you're feeling that you're called to, to starting to think about becoming an OBM, to actually making the decision to be an OBM, to making the transition right. There are so many different steps in the journey, and I think something that is super important is embrace the journey just kind of in its entirety. Be thankful for all of the spots in your journey, even if it's not what you were thinking or what you wanted, because ultimately it is all going to lead to progress. So when I first started thinking about starting a podcast, it might have been 20. 2022 maybe even 2021 it had been a while that I had been thinking about it, but I did not book a call to, you know, explore working with a podcast manager until december 2023 so I was sitting on that idea for almost two years. But that's like, still part of the journey. Every time I thought about it and I hoped that I could do it, and that I got scared and thought, you know, no one would ever listen to this, like all of those things were part of the journey when I, like, bought my mic a year and a half before I started my podcast, to having the meeting, to setting the date on when the launch would be, to moving it around, because I got nervous, right? Like all of those parts are part of the journey, and that technically happened before the podcast even started. And then everything after of when I record an episode and get it through, and then 25 people listen to it when I'm hearing other shows having hundreds of downloads, right? So it's all part of the journey, and you need to embrace and be thankful for each part of it. And I want to say thank you again for being part of this journey with me, for people who have been here since the launch, to those of you who have found me along the way, I am so thankful for you to be a part of this. To You know want to be live coached, to wanting to be interviewed, to giving episode topic suggestions and to sharing your feedback, I have appreciated it all, so I hope this was helpful as you think about your own business journey and where you want to take it, what you want to do with it, and know that you know, no matter what it is that you like wherever you want to take your business, you can do it. And I end my emails like this every week. But for real, I am cheering you on always, and I love hearing all of your success stories and wins. And I know that over the next year or two years, three years, however, long The OBM Educator goes on that I am just going to love doing this for you guys. We definitely have some fun things coming up in the next few months. I am so excited to share all this with you and share what my plans are. I think that there are going to be some really big game changers in helping you become the best OBM that you can be. So I cannot wait to share that with you, and I will talk with you guys next week. 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 love 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.
