Grow Your VA & OBM Business: Soulpreneur Scaling Stories
You started your VA or OBM business for freedom, but somewhere along the way, it became chaotic. Whether you're scaling into overwhelm or feeling burned out and bored, there's a better way to grow.
This podcast helps virtual assistants, online business managers, & done for you service pros identify their unstructured expertise and build it into a signature method, so they can stop trading hours for dollars and start running a business that pays them for outcomes.
With a mix of solo episodes and guest interviews, you'll get practical strategies and psychology-backed insights to move from unstructured expertise to a clear method, intentional positioning, and sustainable growth.
We'll cover questions like:
- Why do I keep attracting clients for work I've outgrown?
- How do I know if I'm ready to specialize?
- Should I force myself into industry labels or create my own positioning?
- Why do I keep downplaying what I'm actually good at?
- How do I stop working 50+ hour weeks at the same income level?
- How do I raise my rates without losing all my clients?
- Is my offer wrong, or is it my audience?
- Should I quit my business or just evolve it?
- Why are people excited about my work but not buying?
- How do I know if this is fear or real misalignment?
- How do I make decisions from clarity instead of desperation?
What makes this podcast different:
I'm Andrea, a certified OBM who started as a VA in 2019 and built my own service business from the ground up. With 7 years of clinical psychology training (master's degree before leaving the PhD program), I bring therapy-level insight into business coaching. I don't teach generic "grow your audience" advice that doesn't work for DFY service providers. Instead, I focus on psychology-backed strategies tailored specifically to how VA and OBM businesses actually work - addressing both the external positioning work and the internal nervous system shifts needed to make sustainable change.
This isn't about hustle culture. It's about building a business that supports your actual life, with relationship-based marketing strategies designed for VAs & OBMs.
Ready to turn your unstructured expertise into a signature method? Press play.
Grow Your VA & OBM Business: Soulpreneur Scaling Stories
128. The Truth About $25/hr OBM Job Posts (And Why You Need to Stop Applying)
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If you are an OBM or ops strategist who has seen those $25 an hour job posts and felt that mix of frustration and quiet defeat, this episode is for you. That rate is not what the market pays. It is what one small corner of the market pays, and it is not the corner you want to be in.
This episode gets into why those posts exist, what happens when you say yes to them, and the real shift that gets you out of that market entirely and into one where clients are seeking you out.
Key Points Covered:
✨ Why $25/hr OBM job posts are not the market rate, just one corner of it
✨ What happens in a client relationship that starts with a fundamental mismatch in value
✨ The two ways to get clients and why only one of them leads to being sought after
✨ Why applying to more listings will never get you paid what you are worth
✨ What having a clear method actually means (and it is not niching into a weird narrow specialty)
✨ How to use that frustration as information about where you have outgrown
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Podcast produced and edited with love by @FerAssists
[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Hello, and welcome to Soulpreneur Scaling Stories. I'm Andrea, a certified OBM turned business coach helping VAs, OBMs, and done-for-you service pros turn their unstructured expertise into a signature method and a business that pays them for outcomes, not hours. So if you want a business that gives you freedom instead of taking it, you're in the right place.
[00:00:23] Andrea Elibero: Okay, you guys, we seriously need to have a discussion about those $25 an hour for an OBM or ops strategist job posts that I keep seeing. I know that you've seen it too, 'cause I see it over, and over, and over again And I'm not going to lie, they make me so frustrated and sad at the same time because they get people who apply for these positions and work for them, and who are earning way below what they should be.
[00:00:56] Andrea Elibero: And it's people who are smart, people who have been doing this work, [00:01:00] people who have managed systems and launches and, you know, running entire businesses behind the scenes. And somehow they are convinced that this is normal, or this is what the market will pay. Listen to me carefully. It is not. This post and these types of job posts that I'm seeing, they are not what the market will pay, quote, unquote.
[00:01:25] Andrea Elibero: They are what one small corner of the market will pay. And this is a corner of the market where maybe they don't value done-for-you work as much as other people. Maybe they just are like, "I just need some help, and I don't care," you know, uh, whatever. You are somebody who is interchangeable for them, and like a line item, not somebody who maybe, you know, they are hoping to develop this deep relationship with.
[00:01:55] Andrea Elibero: And when this type of person posts this, you know, [00:02:00] and they don't value you, and they are not willing to pay, guess what happens when you actually work with them? And I say this as somebody who has been that person who has said yes to this type of job posting in the past And if you are hearing noise in the background, my dog is chewing on things, and this is how I keep her quiet, so this is better than the alternative.
[00:02:26] Andrea Elibero: Okay, so when I started out as a VA, like in 2019, I took on some clients that I really didn't have any business taking on. I, I wasn't like desperate. One, I didn't know any better, and two, I really, really wanted to quit my nine-to-five and I had to replace that income. And so I figured, well, any little bit that will get me there will help.
[00:02:48] Andrea Elibero: And I thought, "Okay, like this is what's available. I can find it." And I said, "Okay, fine." And it felt fine at the beginning, like this is my starting point, you know, and I can just kind of build from here. [00:03:00] But these clients, oftentimes there was something off with them right from the start. But, you know, I felt it and I said yes anyways.
[00:03:10] Andrea Elibero: And as a surprise to nobody, it didn't work out long term. Because a client relationship that starts with a fundamental mismatch in your perceived value, it doesn't just correct itself over time. It stays that way. And so you keep getting paid way under the standard, actual standard market rate, and paid as this interchangeable person who is not that valued And you just keep showing up because, yeah, I need the income and I'm doing this, and technically nobody's doing anything wrong, but nobody's right either.
[00:03:50] Andrea Elibero: And I can promise you, 'cause I've seen it in myself and in clients, my coaching clients, that resentment will start to build. Not right away, but it [00:04:00] definitely will build slowly. One day, you know, you've grown into doing strategic work for this client, and you're still getting paid this $25 an hour, and you start wondering why you're doing this and not just going back to a nine to five if this is, you know, how little money that you're making.
[00:04:19] Andrea Elibero: And it's not just me. I will also share a client story. So there is a coaching client in Expansion, my one-on-one program, who joined earlier this year who is so capable, who is so proactive. She's an amazing operations person, systems person. She knows her stuff. You know, she keeps her projects moving. You get the idea.
[00:04:41] Andrea Elibero: And when she came to me, she was earning maybe around like $600 a month, uh, for may- for, I don't know, something around like 25 hours and whatever. It worked out to be approximately $25 an hour doing ops work, doing systems work. And I said, "No, we have to fix this." [00:05:00] Um, and so her client... And her client, to her credit, actually acknowledged that she knows that she's underpaying.
[00:05:07] Andrea Elibero: She just, you know, w- she just kept going on doing what she does, giving her tasks, things like that. She kept benefiting from somebody whose strategic ops skills were s- so much more valuable than what she was paying for it. And my client, the ops person, she told me on our very first call that this client of hers was gonna be the first one on her list to stop working with once she reaches her income goals.
[00:05:33] Andrea Elibero: And think about that, right? My client is doing this really high-end strategic work. Her client is getting insane value. Her client knows that she's paying less than what she could, and my client, the ops person, knows that she's worth more, and both of them are just waiting. You know, they're, like, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
[00:05:51] Andrea Elibero: They're waiting for it to be over. And it's like she's being treated as a placeholder. And now she didn't have a bad relationship with this client [00:06:00] per se, but there's some undercurrent there, right, that doesn't really align with how you wanna be feeling when you are working with clients. And the reason that it ended this way is because she was just a person for hire and got hired.
[00:06:16] Andrea Elibero: So What can you do instead? Because we don't have to do this. This is not amazing. There are basically two ways to get clients. The first way is to, you know, have your social media set up, have maybe your website, whatever, be in places, maybe do some networking, or just be in places where people are looking for support.
[00:06:37] Andrea Elibero: Oh, go to job boards, apply for listings. Somebody books a discovery call, great. Hope that they see your value. And then you have to discuss your rate with this person, and hopefully it's fair. You know, both of you agree on it. Sometimes that works, of course. Sometimes you find great clients that way. But a lot of times you end up in those conversations where people cannot afford the [00:07:00] rate that you have.
[00:07:01] Andrea Elibero: And because a lot of times those people who are actively posting listings are the ones who just need... They're shopping for the lowest price. But the second way, the second way is to be sought after. It's to have something specific enough where somebody, whether it be a past client, a colleague, somebody who heard you on a podcast, a social media follower, like whatever, they are thinking, and maybe even they'd say to somebody else like, "Ooh, like this is what I need.
[00:07:31] Andrea Elibero: Like I am struggling with this thing, and this person can help me." Or they tell somebody else who has that similar problem, "Oh, I know exactly who you need to talk to." And now they're seeking you out. Those are fundamentally different markets. The first one is asking, "Oh, who's available, and what do they charge?
[00:07:46] Andrea Elibero: That's all I want to know." Right? Can you get the job done? Can you do it within a budget? But the second one is saying, "Ooh, I have this problem. I need to solve this problem. And how can I find that person who's going to solve my problem?" [00:08:00] And they are not as worried about the price because they are valuing what you do.
[00:08:05] Andrea Elibero: And the thing is, is that you don't get into that second category by being better at the first one. Right? You're not negotiating your way to a pay that you deserve or that reflects the value that you provide. You don't apply to more and more job opportunities hoping that somebody finally sees your worth.
[00:08:24] Andrea Elibero: You have to... And I don't like saying have to, but if you think about it in this case, if you are wanting to be seen as somebody who is an expert in something, if you're wanting to be seen as that somebody who can do all the things and be recognized for what you actually do, then you have to build the second one.
[00:08:43] Andrea Elibero: You have to be the person who people recognize as that person And I want to be clear about what I mean when I say build something, quote unquote, because I'm not talking about niching down per se into this like weird narrow specialty, like I [00:09:00] only work with gluten-free food coaches in the Pacific Northwest or whatever.
[00:09:03] Andrea Elibero: Like, like that's not what I mean by building something. What I mean is having a clear method, knowing specifically what problem you solve, how you solve it, and what it looks like for someone who works with you, what outcome they walk away with, what problems you're solving, what desires you're helping them achieve, and having your own method that gets that person from A to B.
[00:09:27] Andrea Elibero: And when you can clearly describe that, it changes your business because now you're not just a... You're a skilled person, period, but you're not just looked at as a skilled person who is available and who somebody can just pay to do, you know, the things, to do the tasks. You become somebody who is seen as the go-to person to solve this specific problem in this specific way.
[00:09:50] Andrea Elibero: And now the right people are starting to look for you instead of you looking for them. And my client with this 24 hour- 24 hour, $25 an [00:10:00] hour situation knows exactly what she's good at, right? Obviously all the systems, all the ops stuff, the automations, et cetera, et cetera. And she's been doing that as a part of what she had been offering in her business for years, but she hadn't packaged it into anything.
[00:10:17] Andrea Elibero: She had just been selling her time and had been selling her tasks, and taking on whoever, you know, signed up for that. And part of what we're doing together is taking all of her expertise, which is real, which is significant, just like yours is, and turning it into her own process so that way she can lead with that.
[00:10:39] Andrea Elibero: Something that attracts the kind of client who will look at it and say, "Oh my God, yes, like I need that." Not like, "Okay, great, like yeah, like I'm adding her to the pile of people that I'm interviewing," right? And that's the shift that you're looking for. It's the shift that you're [00:11:00] not going to... It's not gonna happen when you just start with marketing.
[00:11:04] Andrea Elibero: It's going to happen when you get clear, like super clear, on your offers, and what that does, the transformation and the messaging behind it, and creating it strategically. And when I think about these $25 an hour OBM job posts, the frustration that I know you feel, because I feel it too, I invite you to see that as information.
[00:11:33] Andrea Elibero: That means when you see these and you say, "Oh my God, I can't believe that they're paying this and they're expecting g- to get this high level of service for such a low amount," that means that you know you've outgrown that corner of the market. You know that you are worth more than that, that you have skills, you have something specific to offer, and that there are clients out there who 100% will pay for what you're worth because they know it too, if only they could [00:12:00] find you If only you have created your offers and your messaging clear enough and specific enough to be found.
[00:12:10] Andrea Elibero: And that frustration is the gap, right? So that's the information. The gap has nothing to do with your skills, it has everything to do with the structure, with how they are contained and presented to the world. And slow mornings, which is the thing that most of us got into this for, they don't come from grinding harder in a market that prices you like you are just some task doer, right?
[00:12:38] Andrea Elibero: That they just need to get things off their plate and have anybody do them. The slow mornings come from building something intentionally that puts you in a whole different conversation, in a whole different room. And the predictable income, the higher predictable income that I know you also started your business for, it is from clients who seek you out.
[00:12:58] Andrea Elibero: It's from work that feels [00:13:00] like yours, that energizes you, that you're excited about. And it's a business-- It's also from a business that doesn't require you to take every job up and apply to all of those just to keep the lights on. And that's what happens when you get so clear on your method and how you talk about your method and build from there.
[00:13:24] Andrea Elibero: And if this is resonating, I have a really cool free training that I just created for you. It is called The Slow Morning Studio, and it is a free five-day email experience. There are five shifts, five minutes per day, delivered straight to your inbox. There's no, like, crazy challenge or course that you have to do, no live sessions.
[00:13:46] Andrea Elibero: It's very peaceful. It's just you, your inbox, and five days of creating this foundation. And by the way, if you send me things, I will email you back and give you feedback. Um , and we start with what you want your business to look like, [00:14:00] and we build towards an offer and a method that makes that come true.
[00:14:04] Andrea Elibero: And so you can join that for free at dancingleafsolutions.com/slow-morning-studio. And the link is in the show notes and is clickable as well. So if you have a client like the one that I described today, this placeholder client, and you're already counting down until you can leave them, take this as your sign.
[00:14:25] Andrea Elibero: You do not have to wait until your income is stable to start building something different. You can do both at the same time, and that's what the Slow Morning Studio helps you to do. And so with that, I will see you guys in the next episode, and I hope that you found this really helpful.
[00:14:42] Andrea Elibero: That's a wrap on today's episode, and thank you so much for listening. If anything we talked about today made you think, "Okay, well what does this actually look like in my business?" That's exactly what a free business audit is for. In just 45 minutes, I'll help you identify your unstructured [00:15:00] expertise, pinpoint what's keeping you capped, and map out what your signature method could look like.
[00:15:05] Andrea Elibero: There's a link in the show notes to grab your spot, and I will see you in the next episode.
