I think I need an OBM, but I’m confused what you actually do for me?
+ why you may be ready to hire an OBM instead of a VA (no shade to my VA followers - we all need you too!).
Mar 20, 2026
This is a question I get often enough to write a whole substack post about it (I also just finally published my website with FAQ’s, yay!). Let’s get into it!
You think you need an OBM because you:
Have a ton of ideas for offers you want to bring into the world, and desire a thought partner to help you decide where to start and how to execute the logistics
Are about to shift your work from 1:1’s to a membership/community space and desire support deciding which platform to choose, when to start promoting it, how to invite your existing audience, how to design the space, what to communicate once someone signs up, and how to engage in the space without burning out
Have scattered systems and manual processes that you know could be better, you just don’t know how (I’ll talk more about this in a little bit). You’ve tried to use Asana, Airtable or Trello for task management but always abandon systems when things get busy (no shame!). You have a hundred Google docs for every new idea and are tired of feeling like admin work takes you more time than your actual sessions, classes, design work, workshops, events, etc.
Have a VA and love their support, but you might be outgrowing it? You still feel like you’re micromanaging/delegating tasks every day but you’re feeling like it’s more work to explain what you need them to do all the time. You’re curious if an OBM might be a better fit for this season of your business, or if you need both?
Are a very organized person who has taken every detail of your business so seriously. You are tech-savvy, have the tools setup, the automations/workflows are running, and you’re feeling into a season of expansion that you’ve never existed in before. You’re ready, you just desire a thought partner to meet you in your business with the level of intention and detail that you have so you keep the momentum and actually SOAR.
The work I do is not one size fits all. It’s deeply human. I meet you where you are right now and use my expertise and intuition to co-create with you. We create the pace, we decide right away what you need to be lead with clarity, and masks are off. You have nothing to prove here.
At the end of the day, I am a mom of 2 littles under 3 with a wild, fiery spirit that I am returning back home to every day. I am also a 3/5 emotional generator so I have learned a lot from being inside businesses for the last 10 years in various roles (Executive Admin, VA, HR, Payroll, Tax Prep, Book Keeping) and am endlessly energized by what happens when we empower heart-led creatives, healers and movement leaders with systems that hold them the way they hold everyone else.
So here’s what the heck I actually can do, and how my brain works when I work with clients:
Helping You Decide What Actually Matters
This is the part people don’t realize an OBM does, but is the most used day to day. A lot of my work is strategic thinking with founders over voice memos, emails, or 1:1 sessions.
We talk through questions like:
What should you focus on this quarter?
What’s creating unnecessary stress in your business?
What could be simplified or eliminated?
What systems would make the biggest difference right now?
How to respond to invitations for affiliate or partnership?
Do you know your actual capacity or are you operating from feeling like you just need to make more money?
The goal isn’t to just add shiny tools and be done. The goal is to create clarity, ground your energy and reduce friction.
The range of desires that clients come to me with is a spectrum, and most of the time, you don’t know what you don’t know. You just trust your body signaling to you that how you’re operating right now is not sustainable.
Audit the offers in your business ecosystem
Before we even touch tech, we get really clear about out what you’re actually selling, how you’re talking about it, and how you’re pricing it.
Most businesses feel messy because your offers have evolved organically over time. That’s actually a really beautiful thing, we just need to ground them into a clear, regenerative wheelhouse that energizes you.
We’ll talk through things like:
What are you actually selling right now?
What’s the difference between your offers?
How do people move from one offer to another?
What is a one-time purchase vs recurring?
Do your prices actually match the work involved?
Which offer energizes you and which are draining you?
What we might create
a database to outline all of the important details about your offers
a database or google doc outlining your client journey (how someone moves through your business from lead to paying client)
a pricing structure that better aligns with your actual capacity + the minimum amount of money you desire to make per month (without attaching too much to the dollar amount because you are capable of WAY more than you’re even seeing right now).
Tools we might use
Notion
Google Docs
Example:
You might have 1:1 coaching, workshops, and a course, but no clear way for people to move between them. You may desire to move away from 1:1 work and build a membership that includes your courses and workshops.
We’d design the pathway your clients move through (freebie —> audit —> membership —> 1:1 work), then I’d set up email workflows to help communicate that to your existing audience and maintain it with you over time. We’d set KPI’s and have a dashboard to measure analytics so we have tangible touch points to ground into over time.
Building the Actual Backend Systems
When your offers are clear, we can focus on building the operational sanctuary for your business. This is where things like task management, dashboards, and project workflows live. I refer to these as your business rituals or your altar space. The things you return to with devotion to ground into why you’re doing this in the first place.
What this includes
business analytics dashboards
project management systems
task tracking workflows
SOP libraries
client portals
content calendars
internal team hubs
Tools we may use
Notion
Google Sheets
Airtable
Motion AI
ClickUp
Google Drive
Slack
Discord
Loom
Zapier
Real example
For my designer client we rebuilt their backend to support their shift from overflowing retainer work into clear, milestone-based projects.
We created:
milestone project templates
retainer task structures
a Motion AI task system
Meeting agenda templates
A better meeting transcript + action item system
Notion content tracker
Before this, they weren’t tracking their hours, they were just serving their clients.
Now they can:
see project scope + hours worked each week clearly
show up prepared for meetings instead of looking back at paper notes they never updated
delegate design tasks
charge appropriately for their work
Connecting the Tools So Things Happen Automatically
Once systems exist, we start connecting them together. This is where automation reduces manual work, while balancing what’s still important for you/your human team members to hold.
We might automate things like
new leads getting added to your CRM
people receiving welcome emails after booking
tasks being created when someone buys an offer
meeting notes turning into action items
Status changes in your CRM when people book a discovery call
Tools we might connect
Zapier
Airtable
Dubsado
Mailchimp
Flodesk
Calendly
Acuity
Stripe
Google Sheets
Example:
Someone books a discovery call. Instead of you manually sending everything, the systems communicate and streamline:
sending them a confirmation email
collecting intake questions
adding them to your CRM with the appropriate status and information from the form
the session notes are stored after the call
create a task for you to follow up with a list of the action items from the call
So instead of having:
• a spreadsheet
• an Airtable
• an email list
• and Venmo payments
That don’t talk to each other and create 4+ opportunities to drop the ball manually, you just have to focus on reviewing the form and showing up in your power.
Designing the Client Experience
Operations also shapes how people experience your business once they become clients, and this is where I see systems get leaky really fast. And by systems I mean the boundaries and expectations that you have for yourself in your business.
We look at things like:
How do people book sessions?
What happens after they purchase?
Where do they access materials?
How do they communicate with you?
What are people saying about your services over and over again?
We might build
onboarding emails
scheduling systems
client portals
feedback forms
communication templates
Tools we might use
Flodesk
Calendly
Acuity
HoneyBook
Dubsado
Notion
Circle
Google Calendar
Example:
A client books a package. Instead of emailing back and forth, they receive:
• a welcome email
• a link to schedule sessions
• a place to access resources
• clear expectations about the process
Think: what are my people’s most frequently asked questions/critical feedback and how do I front load empowering them with that knowledge from the start?
Organizing Your Marketing Systems
A lot of founders have great ideas but no structure for consistently sharing them. Operational structure can help create systems that make dropping in marketing content easier.
We might create
a content planning system
a repurposing calendar
email marketing workflows
waitlists for upcoming offers
launch logistics timelines
Tools we might use
Flodesk
Mailchimp
Substack
Squarespace
Planoly
Notion
Example:
Instead of wondering what to post every week, you’d have a content system that tracks:
ideas with clear messaging for your ideal client
drafts that I help create with prompts for where you drop in your copy
what’s scheduled
what’s already been published (so we can repurpose what’s working really well)
Financial Visibility + Regulating For Growth
Many founders either avoid looking at their numbers, or are anxiously attached to them and panic when they’re not moving (or dropping).
We might set up things like:
a tech stack audit to keep track of what tools are supporting you each month
dashboards to track monthly income
offer revenue breakdowns
expense tracking
simple profit reviews
a database to set metric focused goals with affirmations attached to them
Tools we might use
Notion
Google Sheets
Stripe dashboards
Example:
You want to create a new offer but want to evaluate if that’s a smart financial decision so we review:
how much each offer currently generates
your monthly revenue trends
whether a product or service is actually worth your time or if it’s time to phase it out
A bonus question I hear often is: why would I hire an OBM over a VA?
When you desire a partner to help you lead. You’re craving someone with operational literacy + implementation expertise to help you make business decisions with. VA’s are perfect for when you have tasks like responding to emails, organizing meeting notes, making sure clients are completing onboarding, sending feedback forms or contacts. I love to work alongside VA’s if that makes sense for you financially! When you’re spending a lot of energy feeling like you don’t know what to prioritize, what your direction is, you want help making the next step and someone who confidently knows HOW to do it, you want someone to talk out decisions with and split/delegate the work to…you’re ready for an operational partner. And being really honest about the numbers…When you’re ready to invest $1,800-$3,000 per month without hesitation versus $700-$1,500/month for a VA that you’re still managing.
