April 1, 2025 • 34 mins
What does it really take to build a business—and a life—that puts your family first? Meet Ramona Hooper, an Accredited Online Business Manager from Vancouver who transformed crisis into opportunity and turned a global pandemic into the catalyst for an entirely new career path.
In this episode of The OBM Show, (also available as a video on Youtube), Ramona shares how she went from corporate burnout and unexpected unemployment to creating a thriving OBM business—all while navigating some of the hardest moments of her life, including her husband’s health crisis and juggling her son’s virtual schooling.
From working 70+ hours a week to reclaiming her time and replacing her income within four months, Ramona’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, and true transformation. You’ll hear the exact strategies she used to find her first OBM clients, how she built her confidence and tech skills on the fly, and the behind-the-scenes of her signature VIP Day structure.
Whether you’re exploring the OBM path or looking for real talk about balancing business and life, this episode is packed with inspiration and practical wisdom.
Listen now and discover how Ramona created a career that lets her son get “the best of me, not the rest of me.”
Thanks for tuning in to The OBM Show — your go-to podcast for Online Business Managers and entrepreneurs who want to scale strategically and sustainably.
If this episode resonated with you, be sure to follow the show and leave a review. It helps more aspiring and established Online Business Managers find this content and grow their businesses with confidence.
✨ Ready to take the next step?
Grab your free OBM Starter Kit → obmschool.com/starter
Explore more tools and trainings → obmschool.com/resources
Learn about becoming a CPD-certified Accredited Online Business Manager → obmaccreditation.com
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Until next time—keep building the business behind the business.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Today's guest, she is the definition of badass.
Ramona Hooper is an accreditedOBM, a total tech wizard, and
the brains behind Made A CoSolutions.
She's got a background in IT anda stack of certifications longer
than your client to-do list andan absolute deep love for
turning chaos into clean,automated workflows.
(00:23):
So in today's episode, Ramona isgiving us a raw, unfiltered look
at her day-to-day from theleading client teams to managing
launches and all of those thingsin between because this is what
OBM life looks like when you'vebuilt it with intention.
Welcome to the OBM show, thepodcast that pulls back the
curtain on what it really takesto thrive as an online business
(00:47):
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 business since
2009, building systems, managingremote teams and mentoring OBMs
who make businesses run likeclockwork.
(01:10):
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 sustainable success.
Plus the tech mishaps, growingpains and lessons learned along
the way.
If you're ready to stop spinningyour wheels step into your
(01:31):
leadership role and see whatactually happens behind the
scenes of thriving businesses,you're in the right place.
Let's get started.
Welcome to the OBM Show, thepodcast that pulls back the
curtain on what it really takesto thrive as an online business
manager and help businessesscale without burning out.
(01:54):
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 OBMs
who make businesses run likeclockwork.
Now, I've seen what works, whatdoesn't, and the messy middle
(02:16):
that no one talks about.
Here, we get real about thetools, strategies, and stories
that drive sustainable success,plus the tech mishaps, growing
pains, and lessons learned alongthe way.
If you're ready to stop spinningyour wheels, step into your
leadership role, and see whatactually happens behind the
(02:37):
scenes of thriving businesses,you're in the right place.
Let's get started.
Let's get started.
Hey, welcome Ramona, a day inthe life of an OBM.
I am so excited to have you heretoday.
Welcome.
So Ramona, can you just take asecond and explain a little bit
about yourself?
(02:57):
I know we've already kind ofintroduced you, but from your
own words, a little bit aboutyourself and how you found our
OBM space.
SPEAKER_01 (03:05):
Oh, I'm so thankful to be here today.
You're one of my favoritepeople.
So thank you for that.
As indicated, I'm Ramona Hooper.
I live in Vancouver, BritishColumbia, and I'm a And I had
been at the same corporate ITprofessional job for 23 years.
And within five days of eachother, my husband and I both
lost our corporate high payingjobs.
And so I had to figure outsomething else real quick.
(03:26):
Of course, like so many peoplewith all the impacts of the
pandemic, we're dealing withvirtual school shutdowns, just a
lot of impact from that.
And then my husband also hadhealth issues to add into the
mix, because why not, right?
He had a stroke, he had heartproblems, just a few things came
up all at once.
It was the most hectic seasonI've ever had in my whole life.
So I was just open to ideas ofwhat I could do.
(03:46):
And I had already started on thepath of becoming a virtual
assistant through the free mamaprogram.
And they had highlighted toLauren.
She's so awesome.
And then they had highlightedOBM and your name came up quite
often in that space.
You're very well regarded.
And I looked into it.
I went on to your call onJanuary 1.
I signed up
SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
this year 2021 2021.
I
SPEAKER_01 (04:11):
signed up and then I scheduled out the con to be
prepared to write the exam inApril.
It was the most hectic scenarioof my life.
Like I don't even know how I fitit in.
I don't think I slept much.
Best thing I've ever done in mywhole life.
Every single thing has becomemanageable and flexible.
And yes, I have a lot of movingparts of my lifestyle, but it's
all possible as a result ofcreating a space that can
(04:34):
accommodate all that as an OBM.
SPEAKER_00 (04:36):
Yeah, I love that, Ramona.
And I'm so grateful to have youhere in our space today talking
about what it looks like.
And I think it's reallyimportant Thank you so much.
day in the life of an OBM.
(04:58):
Can you let us know, like, whatis a typical day look like for
you?
I know you've got your son, youtake care more or less of your
hubby these days.
What does that look like?
So I
SPEAKER_01 (05:08):
have a plan to review methodology.
I come up with a plan and then Ifit it into little pockets of my
schedule.
So the first plan is for themonth and then for the week and
then for the day.
And so I pocket in all thethings I have to deal with, like
my hubby's, you know, rehab orfor a stroke, my son's school
activities.
And then I go What are my chunksto work that are uninterrupted?
And then I fill those in and aday in the life for me, like
(05:31):
today, for example, I get up, Icame on to this call.
And then after this call, I havea quick website to build.
And then after that is launched,I have to fill in two spots for
next month to make sure that myschedule continues to be packed.
My work schedule tends to bearound 25 hours a week,
sometimes 20.
And I fit that in, right?
(05:53):
And my old life, I used to work70 hours, we can get paid for
40.
So I am over the moon happy withthis new scenario.
Like I can't even like thissmile hasn't stopped since.
SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
Are you making, are you meeting what you made in
your high paying corporate job?
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (06:08):
It took me one quarter to replace my old
salary.
And now I'm working to replacemy husband's old salary as well.
Cause why not?
Talk a while ago.
And you're like, what are yourbig goals?
I'm like, I want a couple ofcommas.
I want a couple of commas.
And my reason for that isthere's this social thing I
heard a long time ago that saidit's, morally irresponsible to
(06:32):
be a billionaire.
So why not make a millionbillion dollars and then give a
ton away?
I mean, why not have a big carryaudacious goal?
Now, I don't see that happeningin the next quarter or so.
But if I veer along with runninga lean business and having
growth in mind and having whatI'm capable in mind, and then
continuing to cover what I needand then cover what I want to
share.
I think it's a solid businessplan.
SPEAKER_00 (06:54):
Yeah, I would say so.
I mean, it's working right now.
Tell me a little bit about whatyour client roster looks like.
You've talked about acquiringtwo more clients this month.
What does a full roster looklike to you?
SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
So a full roster to me is I typically have one
long-term client, 90 days or sofor a project and a launch.
And that's usually a little bitmore complex, a business that's
a little more developed, usuallyhigh six, early seven figure
scenario.
And then I fit in between fourand six VIP days.
And those tend to run between500 and a thousand dollars per
(07:27):
time.
And I start those with a techstack review.
I help them optimize what theyhave, but they're not using.
I make a recommendation and thenI will either leave them with a
Google data suite dashboard sothey can see everything in one
place because that frees up timeand so forth.
Or I automate your calendarbecause so many people got
successful in spite ofthemselves.
And those little tweaks helpthem claw back the most time,
(07:49):
the quickest.
SPEAKER_00 (07:50):
Oh, clawing back time.
I mean, it's really the onlything that we can't get back.
I bet your clients love you forthose lovely dashboards.
There's nothing like clarityaround metrics and And what's
really going on in the businessthat my God bless these, you
know, successful despitethemselves clients, because they
just don't have these things inplace.
SPEAKER_01 (08:09):
I feel like technology should be a silent,
effective partner.
Like you don't have to be techieto run a business.
If you hire someone that cantake care of some of the things
that you don't have, then you'rejust in a stronger place.
And some of the OBMs lead withmarketing and they'll farm out
some of the techie things.
That's okay too.
Like I just happened to leadwith tech and then I'll get help
with some of the copy writingor, you know, the marketing,
(08:30):
things like that.
And that Knowing
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
what to delegate and when to delegate is a fine, fine
art.
Kelly is being a troublemakertoday.
I took him on a walk so that hewould nap.
But as you can see, he does notwant to nap.
So he'll just eat my fake.
He'll eat the fake cactus.
Good.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour transition, because I know
you were in the VA space for ahot second, working with Lauren
(08:55):
Golden at the Free Mama, who welove.
How did you know that OBM was abetter fit?
What were the events leading upto having you make that
decision?
And I know that you have thatniche in tech or you sort of
lead with tech rather.
So would you say that you're ageneralist OBM or would you say
that you're more of a techperson?
SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
I lead with tech and I definitely qualify myself as a
specialist given the experiencesI have and the skills I'm
willing to always develop.
(09:46):
to being a VA but I just feltready to just keep going with my
journey and I also feel like ifyou were to go to a gym and you
might have someone that is anewer trainer or you might deal
with a kinesiologist
SPEAKER_00 (09:58):
yeah
SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
getting it done something right but I just feel
like as you develop more skillsand you have a specific need
you're good I recommend VAs allthe time I hire VAs all the time
you know you've laid out reallywell the difference between a VA
and OBM and like one is leadingand one is doing and one you
know like there's all thedifferences between the two.
And I just felt I more naturallyveered into being able to
(10:20):
pinpoint where the problem is,coming up with some ideas for a
solution.
And then that was the directionthat we kept going over and over
again.
And I'm like, I think that's theOEM.
SPEAKER_00 (10:27):
Yeah, I would say so.
Yeah.
I love that.
Thanks, Ramona.
That's great.
And when it comes to yourclients, I want to dig in more
into these client pieces.
I think you've given us someinsight into what your roster
looks like, that you have thatone big client and a few
project-based VIP day clients,which is fantastic.
I'm all about, you know, medating projects and really
(10:48):
seeing if the client's a goodfit before, especially over at
OBM school.
What kinds of clients get youexcited?
SPEAKER_01 (10:57):
The people that are successful in spite of
themselves.
So I'm a genius, but you cancome in and help the most with
that.
And you can, they can see thevalue of that the quickest.
Now, when you were saying like,where do I, you know, where do
clients come from and how to dothat?
When I first started, I felt alittle bit of a sense of a
failure to launch.
I think that's pretty normal asan OBM.
(11:17):
I was like, where am I going toget clients?
Or I would go through a processto secure somebody and they'd be
like, Oh, do you have anexample?
Or do you have this?
Do you have a resume?
Like all these kinds ofquestions.
And I had to stop for a momentand go, what can I do about
this?
Like, what can I handedly doabout this question that keeps
coming up?
And I realized I'm in business.
I can use my own business as a,you know, like
SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
as a showcase for how amazing we are as OBMs.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (11:43):
Right.
And so when I'm recommending atextile I'm like, this is what I
have and why.
And so here's my PM tool.
Here's my CRM tool.
Here's my automated this, here'smy payment.
And here's how I send documentsback and forth.
And when they need an example,if I've ever signed any
non-disclosures and sometimes Ido, I got caught into a really
techie thing.
And they're all the same price,all these juicy examples I can
(12:04):
share with anyone.
So I was like, I can make my ownjuicy example.
And then I also did a couple oftiny offers so that I could
showcase, well, here's the wholeprocess for a launch.
A mini one takes this long andmedium takes this long, a big
one takes this long.
And that really helped me staybusy, keep my mindset right, and
just keep growing forward.
And then I got excited about thework.
(12:25):
I learned what I liked.
I learned what I wanted todelegate through the process.
And I just highly recommend it.
And I followed by money.
So in our community, we werepretty heavily impacted by the
pandemic.
Who hasn't?
It's a global event.
And I talked to my son's typewindow instructor.
I'm like, do you have automatedscheduling?
Do you want to remove some touchpoints?
Do you want to
SPEAKER_00 (12:45):
You are such a, you are an angel.
SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
And I said, do you want to film out some of the
things that you do?
So if people can't come toclass, they can still keep up,
right?
The next one was my dog groomer.
No scheduling, no this, no that.
I went, do you want ascheduling?
Do you want a form?
Do you want to qualify who'scoming in?
Like, do they have any healthconcerns?
So I created a form and Icreated a thing.
Next person, I created awebsite.
So I just started following mymoney in my community because I
(13:09):
started there.
And then I was like, refer me,like tell people that I saved
you time or money or write me alittle referral.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
so smart.
Yeah, that's so smart.
Or put up a thing on your wallthat's promoting my services to
your people.
And that's great.
That's such a good strategy forlocal business.
Are you hearing this, peoplelistening here?
Here's a fantastic strategy ofputting yourself out there,
helping other people, which iswhat we love to do, and also
(13:37):
recognizing that our zone ofgenius is is actually a very
strong zone of genius that canbe brought into so many
different kinds of businesses.
I think, Ramona, the thing thatyou brought up, which I think is
so important to highlight, isthis notion that there's
customer relationship managementtools, there's automation tools,
there's project managementtools.
(13:58):
But when push comes to shove,most businesses are using either
the same project management toolthat we use as OBMs or something
mildly different, but it allworks the same.
And for those of us who are onthis mission to understand
technology, like I literally,before this call, I was speaking
to another OBM who was like, Ican't stop researching this
(14:21):
role.
I can't stop researching all thethings.
It's like sort of like researchprocrastination, and just
recognizing that you know, wewill figure it out as things go.
And if, you know, the Taekwondoinstructor has a Taekwondo CRM,
it's not going to be sodifferent from the CRM that
we're already using in anotherbusiness.
You know, they're all,especially the service as a
(14:42):
software, not service, yeah,service as a software, the SaaS
products that are on the marketthese days are all more or less
the same.
You know, you got one, you learnone project management tool, you
can apply those same principlesto the next one.
SPEAKER_01 (14:57):
Do you want me to share how I learned and mock
speed and keep up on the test?
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Yes, please.
SPEAKER_01 (15:01):
Okay.
So I didn't realize this was afeature because it doesn't take
me much time.
But when you realize thatsharing it helps other people,
I've just started talking aboutit a lot in the last quarter and
it's been really successful forpeople.
So when I take on anything,anything, anything like data,
Google suite, I didn't know howto do dashboard when I first
started as NoBM last January.
(15:22):
So I went, what does this tooldo?
Okay.
That became my checklist.
And then against the checklist,do I know what these things are?
Do I have to learn what thesethings are?
That makes me a beginner.
When I start utilizing the tooland flipping through the thing
and creating some results, I'man intermediate.
When I am really quick and I'mefficient and I can troubleshoot
and I...
and I can troubleshoot and Icould teach somebody else, I'm
(15:47):
in advance.
I then document what I've doneand I set it aside as an SOP
because skills are perishable.
But every time you have impostersyndrome and you're like, oh, I
can't, I don't know what to do.
That's what you do.
You can either use it as skill,develop a skill, enhance a skill
and just keep on trucking.
And when people start realizingthat they can assess,
(16:08):
self-assess that if they're abeginner, intermediate or
advanced, how to do that andthen what your next steps are,
you'll never be stuck and youcan keep up.
SPEAKER_00 (16:15):
I love that.
I love that.
And I love that little tidbitabout the Google data suite.
Great.
So is that something that youuse with a lot of your clients?
SPEAKER_01 (16:23):
Most, I don't think there's anyone that I get
involved with that doesn't havea dashboard or some site just
because everything feeds intothis little view for them.
And they just, instead of goinghere and here and there and here
and trying to keep it allstraight, right.
And setting right so that somepeople can see it and other
people can't, or, you know,it's, it's a beautiful thing.
And most people have KPIs orthey should,
SPEAKER_00 (16:46):
um, indicators.
Yeah.
Most people, Have them.
Do they monitor them?
I don't know.
Do they think about what theyshould be?
Maybe not.
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (16:54):
I had a funny takeaway last week.
When you're dealing withstatistics, all you're doing is
reporting, right?
Like you're whatever it is,good, bad or gnarly or good
results or bad results.
You're just reporting.
And I had a client last weekasked if I can manipulate data.
And I'm like, no.
For what reason would youmanipulate data?
Just so it could look differentfor whatever.
Oh, to see like a projection ofsome sort.
(17:14):
It may have been nefarious.
I said, I don't work with agreen crayon.
I work with statistics and Ireport them.
I could redact them or whatever,but I do not modify data.
So I just want to give you guysthat careful tip that data can
be scary.
So if people see for the firsttime all their finances, like,
ooh, they didn't know that theywere...
Not
SPEAKER_00 (17:32):
profitable.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:34):
Don't change it for them.
Get them working on it.
SPEAKER_00 (17:37):
Yeah.
So when it comes to clients, Iknow you love the tech piece,
but what kind of work reallygets you excited?
Like what do you love doing withyour OBM clients aside from
dashboards and tech?
SPEAKER_01 (17:48):
When I can simplify something and create an income
stream for them.
Oh, it's my favorite.
Like I didn't even...
know that I would tap into themembership thing or whatever.
But everyone has his own genius.
And if they can share it on agrand scale and leverage that
time, people benefit from that,especially because...
If a business isn't brick andmortar, they've been impacted by
(18:10):
the pandemic.
Some good, some bad, but they'vehad an impact.
And the people I'm typicallyworking with had a negative
impact.
They had this chunk of timewhere they couldn't work.
So even if they're back inbusiness now, they still have a
chunk of time that they couldn'twork.
So even if we add that extrastudent income, how happy are
they to find an actual beacon ofhope that they can regroup or,
or fix
SPEAKER_00 (18:29):
something extra, like something good that came
out of the bad.
SPEAKER_01 (18:31):
Right.
And also it prepares them.
If something else happens, it'screated an extra of income.
So if something else happens orthere's another way, they can
feel a little bit more okay, alittle bit more secure at
SPEAKER_00 (18:41):
night.
Yeah.
I think that is such a blessing.
I mean, I know that we bring somuch goodness to our clients'
businesses.
And I think when, you know, asOBMs, we do try to focus on the
things closest to the money, youknow, like supporting the
client.
Sometimes that can be verydifficult and sometimes it's
hard to measure the impact wemake as OBMs because it's not,
you know, we're not in sales,for example.
(19:01):
But that's so interesting thatyou were able to create a
passive-ish, because I don'tknow if I don't know if I
believe in passive revenue, soto speak.
Yeah.
I mean, there's still a lot ofwork there, but like a stream of
another stream of revenue thatthey didn't have before that now
gives them hope.
And it was a lot different fromwhat they did before, which is
so, so amazing in so manydifferent ways.
(19:22):
You mentioned the membershippiece.
SPEAKER_01 (19:24):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Can you speak to that a little bit?
SPEAKER_01 (19:26):
So I kept hearing OBMs did launches and I was
like, what do you mean?
Like just put something out inproduction.
I didn't know what a launchmeant in OBM reference.
And typically it's you'recreating like a course or a
membership, or you're doing abig shift in migration of one
system to another system, thatkind of thing.
So I came across the tiny offerand it walked through all the
(19:49):
steps, but on a little scale.
So for example, if you want toteach someone how to do a budget
or finances, you have all thesame components as a big launch.
Like you have your landing pageand your emails and you know,
the way to pay the way to enterthe system, the content, and
then, you know, the follow-upand so forth.
So by doing a tiny offer, offer.
I can do one a week.
I just talked to people and inthe recommendation after the
(20:10):
tech review, I'm like, hey, haveyou thought of this so that you
can reach more people or growthis stream on the side?
We could deliver it in a week.
And then I now have a portfolioof things that can show people
of the different things thatI've created.
I'm like, well, a little scalelooks like this, a medium scale
looks like this, and a big scalelooks like this.
And I'm very confident now inthe assessments I make because I
know what it's going to take ifI have to add in editing or if I
(20:32):
have to add in this or if it's alittle, we're going to take your
smartphone and just Trumanaround, like it helped me build
the skills I needed to do thetask, have someone else do the
task and charge appropriatelyfor the task when you factor in
the time.
SPEAKER_00 (20:44):
Right, right.
So you have someone elsecreating this funnel sequence.
SPEAKER_01 (20:49):
I do it.
SPEAKER_00 (20:50):
Okay.
So you do it.
So do you, do you use any, doyou have any people on your team
right now?
SPEAKER_01 (20:54):
I farm out the work.
So for example, I will createthe structure and I'm like
module one has these two videosand this content.
And so I'll have the businessdraft up what they want for the
thing.
And then we'll have videoeditor, edit the content.
And then we have a copywriterreview and brand the material
that goes with it.
SPEAKER_00 (21:10):
And this is all under your side of the piece.
Yeah.
That's great.
That's great.
So you're able to leverage teamto, to really be able, because
again, we're not video editors.
I'm definitely not a copywriter,but you don't like copy either.
It's like recognizing our zoneof genius and playing into our
(21:31):
strengths.
And yours, it sounds to me, it'sthe tech, it's the strategy,
it's the understanding theconcepts.
And I think what is so magicalhere is that you're able to take
what the client has and put itinto something a little bit
different in a way that they'venever been able to see.
And what a blessing that is.
for those lucky people that getto work with you.
SPEAKER_01 (21:50):
You had talked also about the agency model.
Well, I wasn't sure what I wantto sign up with.
I'm a really effective team ofme.
Right.
Um, and you know, the littleagency model, I was curious
about that.
So I'm like, okay, here'sonboarding, here's offboarding.
Well, when I go in to work on ateam now and I'm onboarding and
offboarding, that skill comesfrom that place in the virtual
space.
Like I didn't used to do itcorporately.
(22:11):
That was quite a differentprocess.
Like there was HR, there's allthese things.
And so to develop that skillfrom this place, um, It allowed
me to do that.
SPEAKER_00 (22:19):
Yeah, that's great.
That's great.
So do you have any sort of wordsof wisdom you would offer
somebody who might be thinkingabout stepping into the OBM
shoes besides all of theamazingness that you've shared
with us, especially about thefailure to launch guys?
SPEAKER_01 (22:35):
Yeah.
If you have a failure to launch,you just stop and then do a plan
to review.
So my plan is this, what am Igoing to do about it?
And let's review how that'sgoing.
And sometimes you throw thatwhole little cycle away and you
start again, but don't changethe goal.
If you're failure to launch,that's like having one slash
tire on your car.
Don't slash the other three.
If
SPEAKER_00 (22:53):
you're like me, you drive with that slash tire and
your husband's like, what?
You broke the whole rim.
SPEAKER_01 (23:00):
You're like, what's a light?
I mean, the light was pretty.
I want to encourage people torealize that they are more
capable of what they think.
If you have that inner littlevoice.
You've got to stop being mean toyourself.
You've got to start trustingyour intuition.
Like women in business, theirbest and their worst feature is
their intuition and theirability to multitask, right?
(23:21):
So I used to work in a verymale-dominated area.
And I mean, more women camealong towards the end.
But for the first 15 years of myrole, I mean, I was like the
only girl.
And it was so funny because thatwas my best and my worst
feature.
So I carried that into here.
And I feel like some people needthat as part of their OBM.
(23:42):
toolbox is like, just recognizeit and go, you're thinking about
10 things and there's one thingon the table.
I go, how awesome is that?
If you can keep the main thing,the main thing, and approach it
with logic and less emotion, andyou repeat that cycle over and
over again, you're unstoppable.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (24:01):
Yeah, I agree with that.
I think so often we doubt ourown abilities.
We don't necessarily listen toour intuition, especially when
it comes to maybe vetting out aclient.
We're like, well, they're okay.
You know, despite my, you know,inner, you know, bubbly
feelings, I'm just going to goahead with this client.
So I think that is a reallyimportant thing to remember is
(24:21):
is that we really do need togive ourselves credit where
credit is due.
And I find just with our OBMcommunity in general, like
things that come reallynaturally to us, like being able
to organize or recognizing amess and desiring to clean it
up, or just being really greatat managing people because we
care about people and we're justempathetic beings.
These are all our strengths thatoftentimes OBMs won't charge for
(24:45):
or won't lead with becausethey're like, well, it comes so
naturally to me.
Like, how could I charge forsomething like that?
I'm like, no, That's actuallythe exact thing that you need to
be charging top dollar for isthat natural skillset that we,
you know, as women and asbusiness owners and just as
people have our own strengths.
(25:06):
So I, you know, I think it'simportant to really bring that
up and remind the listeners heretoday that, you know, you really
do have a lot to offer apotential client and there's
always room to grow.
Like Ramona, you've been in thisbusiness, like when would you
say that you got like sayentranced with the online space?
SPEAKER_01 (25:24):
When I was transitioning from being an
employee to not being anemployee and figuring out what
to do, I was like, I'm just notwilling to be an employee.
I was working for 24 years and Ijust went, okay, what are my
options?
And I just had this big eyesopen, ears open approach to the
whole thing.
And I just knew that there's asolution out there.
Like I'm in Canada.
So I was like, there's 38million people here right now
(25:45):
and there's solutionseverywhere.
So I only need one of them.
I only need one solution to thisproblem.
SPEAKER_00 (25:50):
And the solution was, oh, and international
business where now I can serveglobal people and it's not just
38 million.
It's now, I don't know how manybillions of people are there in
this world.
SPEAKER_01 (25:59):
And there's not a lot of OBMs in the world.
So when I looked at howlucrative this is, that was
amazing to me.
The other thing that really hitme was in your call, one of your
calls that we were on, you weretalking about how, no, you
charge for that.
I'm like, I charge for that, butdon't take me 10 minutes.
And as a OBM business or abusiness owner in general, or
anyone offering a service,you're not, they're not paying
(26:19):
you because it took 15 minutes.
They're paying you because ofthe solution you provided them
and you just save them threehours a day.
SPEAKER_00 (26:26):
Right.
Or 10 hours seeking out thatinformation on their own.
SPEAKER_01 (26:29):
And they're paying for what got you to this place.
And if you get okay with thisbeing a earn while you learn
business, then you're going tobe unstoppable.
And so I, I used to not chargeto automate calendars.
And you were like, are youcrazy?
Maybe.
I think so.
(26:49):
Yeah.
Like, well, maybe I shouldcharge.
And I just have it as part of mylittle mini VIP day and I just
do it.
And it's part of that package,but I'm paid well for that task.
And some work has actually comefrom that.
Like people say, can I meet withyou?
And I refuse to say, well, doesMonday or Tuesday work or does
afternoon or evening work?
Here's a link to my calendar.
And people have come in andthey've been like, what the
(27:10):
what?
Yeah.
You got a calendar.
It's branded.
It's cute.
And it's instant.
And Work has come from that.
So the more professional thingsyou do to run your business, the
more people are going to seeyou.
that and desire that themselves.
So when somebody is used toworking with someone and they
go, does Tuesday work, doesFriday work, does the morning
work, does all this stupid 20minutes back and forth, when the
(27:33):
meeting's only going to be 20minutes, I didn't get it done in
a second.
That's desirable.
SPEAKER_00 (27:38):
Amen to that.
SPEAKER_01 (27:39):
The other thing that can help is financial literacy.
I know a lot of people head intobusiness without financial
literacy because they work withthem and they get to a really
reactive place.
They don't know how to beproactive anymore.
They're just overwhelmed.
So I lead with tech and mysecond thing is the finances
because they are married likethey need they could be a bad
(27:59):
marriage or a good marriage butif you work with us it becomes a
good marriage right I hope soand I feel like if the word
financial literacy or budgets orfinances or income or assets or
any of those things kind of giveyou that pit in the stomach I
want you to revisit that thingthat I said a little while back
about determining if you're abeginner intermediate or
(28:20):
advanced and develop that skilland document that skill the
principles for financial naturalliteracy or sound, but you will
benefit so much in your ownbusiness as well as helping
others in theirs if you leadwith that.
The other thing that happens isas a professional, you're
dealing with people that are inbusiness making quite a lot of
money.
If you don't bring that, youcould miss out on an opportunity
because they need that.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
I agree.
And I think also one of thethings that I often...
ask VAs who are transitioning toOBM or just people in general
about the client, what are theirfinancials?
I'm never really surprised whenthe VA is like, well, I don't
really know how much my clientis making.
And well, how are you going totransition to OBM role if you
don't have that aspect offinancial literacy and you're
(29:03):
not willing to ask those perhapsuncomfortable questions around
revenue and profitability andwhere are we at and what are
these revenue streams?
It's such an important piece ofthe business.
And we encourage people toactually ask on their intake
form as obms you know how muchare you making every month in
revenue on average because it'simportant for us as obms to
(29:25):
understand you know what's thebudget that we have to work with
can we hire a team can we notafford team do we need to do
this do we need to do that soit's a really good point the
financials
SPEAKER_01 (29:34):
and with that your business cases come from that so
for example when i go in andsomeone says well i just need
you to fix this little thing buti can't really afford you to be
quick be gone i'm like okay um Itable it and I go, okay, what if
we create this stream of incomeand that pays for me whenever
you need me on call, right?
And what if we call back thistime so that instead of four
hours a day, you're now on anincome producing activity, which
(29:56):
allows you to bring in this muchmore per week, per month, per
quarter, per year, that pays forme and your holiday this
SPEAKER_00 (30:02):
year.
Right, exactly.
And it has you focused more onwhat you do best and less on,
you know, VA tasks as thebusiness owner when they, you
know, we oftentimes, I mean,when we want to do kind of busy
work, we default to those sortsof tasks that aren't closest to
the money.
SPEAKER_01 (30:17):
And the tech window place said, I can't afford you.
And I said, okay, but right nowyou have a need to create a
stream of income for the peoplethat aren't coming to class.
What if we do that?
SPEAKER_02 (30:26):
And
SPEAKER_01 (30:27):
you pay me in 30 days.
Right.
And so he did.
And he now has the equivalent ofa whole class of people in there
that don't even come to the tothe
SPEAKER_00 (30:38):
place.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:39):
And now when he needs something, he knows that
I've got solutions like that inmind.
And he knows the professionalismin mind.
And that's where we're comingfrom.
So when you guys partner,whatever your special thing is,
some people are marketing, somepeople cooperating, some people
lead teams, some people are techlike there's niches that you can
i'm canada so i don't know howyou guys niche niche whatever
SPEAKER_00 (31:01):
who knows we're international here we say what
we want
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
you know you lead with that but if you partner
that with the finances and youunderstand how those two your
component works with the financethen you can always make a
business case a compellingbusiness case to stay in
business or grow somebody's
SPEAKER_00 (31:18):
business that's great thank you ramona one last
question i know we've we'vetaken up quite a bit of your
time and i really appreciate youbeing really transparent and
honest about your journey.
So one last question for you,how has being an OBM really
impacted your personal life?
SPEAKER_01 (31:35):
I was pretty frazzled by the time the end of
my corporate career came.
And I just sort of startedagain, like when the virtual
school and then the OBM trainingcame on board, I just decided to
add in some stacks of healthyhabits.
It involved, okay, if I'm athome, I'm not moving much.
So let's incorporate, you know,working out, let's get the
(31:56):
water.
Let's get, you know, all the
SPEAKER_02 (31:57):
Peloton.
SPEAKER_01 (31:59):
I did.
I did.
I got a Peloton.
SPEAKER_00 (32:02):
I would get one too, but you can't order them where I
live.
Do you believe that?
Well, I'll come
SPEAKER_01 (32:07):
see, I'll pack one.
And, you know, like just the Soall these healthy, awesome
things happen in transition.
And I just took a day to dayapproach to it.
I'm in the best place I've everbeen in my life.
I'm 46.
So I don't say that lightly.
Like I've had a lot of years sofar of, you know, professional
experience.
(32:27):
And I've never had balance.
I've never had flexibility.
In my old world, I was expectedto work 70 hours a week and get
paid for 40.
Every holiday I ever took, if Icould even get them, they called
me on my holiday with anemergency.
So I never had a real
SPEAKER_02 (32:40):
holiday.
SPEAKER_01 (32:41):
I took a holiday.
with my family and I didn't getany calls.
Like my phone was off.
I was like, well, that's aholiday.
I'm like, yeah, I don't want togo back to the other kind
SPEAKER_02 (32:50):
of holiday.
SPEAKER_01 (32:50):
I'm helping people and I'm helping people on, on
terms that work for the personand for me.
So there's no person coming into take, you know, credit for my
work or to set me aside.
Cause I get insecure ofsomething that I could do.
I'm just busy with work that Ilove.
I'm working with people that Iget to pre-qualify and, Oh, I
love Kelly.
SPEAKER_00 (33:10):
What do you want my love?
You've destroyed everything inmy office.
Let me finish Ramona.
SPEAKER_01 (33:14):
It helps me.
It just got me back in thedriver's seat of developing
skills because sometimes whenyou're an employee, you just get
bogged down and you forget toput your learning first and your
health first.
And you know, the things thatare outside of your work first.
And since I became an OBM, myson gets the best of me, not the
rest of me.
So I don't see ever not being anOBM.
SPEAKER_00 (33:34):
That's the most amazing thing ever.
Yeah.
I love that.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ramona.
And thank you for coming on hereand talking about a day in the
life.
And okay, so how amazing isRamona Hooper?
So from the tech workflows toclient boundaries, she just gave
us a full access pass to what itreally looks like to be a high
level OBM running a businesswith clarity, confidence, and
(33:57):
honestly, zero fluff.
So if you're sitting herethinking now, I want to be like
Ramona when I grow up, I'm goingto leave some resources below
this podcast.
or you can just head on over toobmschool.com forward slash
resources to get tons of freetools and trainings and insider
access to the world of OBM.
(34:17):
And if you want to work withRamona and you're thinking,
where do I find someone like herfor my team?
I'm going to leave herinformation here as well.
And yeah, You can also checkthis video out on our YouTube
channel.
If you just search Day in theLife Ramona Hooper, you will
find it.
So thank you so much forlistening.
(34:38):
And if you loved this peekbehind the curtain, leave us a
review or share it with someonewho needs to hear it.
Catch you next time on The OBMShow.
Today's guest, she is the definition of badass.
Ramona Hooper is an accreditedOBM, a total tech wizard, and
the brains behind Made A CoSolutions.
She's got a background in IT anda stack of certifications longer
than your client to-do list andan absolute deep love for
turning chaos into clean,automated workflows.
(00:23):
So in today's episode, Ramona isgiving us a raw, unfiltered look
at her day-to-day from theleading client teams to managing
launches and all of those thingsin between because this is what
OBM life looks like when you'vebuilt it with intention.
Welcome to the OBM show, thepodcast that pulls back the
curtain on what it really takesto thrive as an online business
(00:47):
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 business since
2009, building systems, managingremote teams and mentoring OBMs
who make businesses run likeclockwork.
(01:10):
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 sustainable success.
Plus the tech mishaps, growingpains and lessons learned along
the way.
If you're ready to stop spinningyour wheels step into your
(01:31):
leadership role and see whatactually happens behind the
scenes of thriving businesses,you're in the right place.
Let's get started.
Welcome to the OBM Show, thepodcast that pulls back the
curtain on what it really takesto thrive as an online business
manager and help businessesscale without burning out.
(01:54):
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 OBMs
who make businesses run likeclockwork.
Now, I've seen what works, whatdoesn't, and the messy middle
(02:16):
that no one talks about.
Here, we get real about thetools, strategies, and stories
that drive sustainable success,plus the tech mishaps, growing
pains, and lessons learned alongthe way.
If you're ready to stop spinningyour wheels, step into your
leadership role, and see whatactually happens behind the
(02:37):
scenes of thriving businesses,you're in the right place.
Let's get started.
Let's get started.
Hey, welcome Ramona, a day inthe life of an OBM.
I am so excited to have you heretoday.
Welcome.
So Ramona, can you just take asecond and explain a little bit
about yourself?
(02:57):
I know we've already kind ofintroduced you, but from your
own words, a little bit aboutyourself and how you found our
OBM space.
SPEAKER_01 (03:05):
Oh, I'm so thankful to be here today.
You're one of my favoritepeople.
So thank you for that.
As indicated, I'm Ramona Hooper.
I live in Vancouver, BritishColumbia, and I'm a And I had
been at the same corporate ITprofessional job for 23 years.
And within five days of eachother, my husband and I both
lost our corporate high payingjobs.
And so I had to figure outsomething else real quick.
(03:26):
Of course, like so many peoplewith all the impacts of the
pandemic, we're dealing withvirtual school shutdowns, just a
lot of impact from that.
And then my husband also hadhealth issues to add into the
mix, because why not, right?
He had a stroke, he had heartproblems, just a few things came
up all at once.
It was the most hectic seasonI've ever had in my whole life.
So I was just open to ideas ofwhat I could do.
(03:46):
And I had already started on thepath of becoming a virtual
assistant through the free mamaprogram.
And they had highlighted toLauren.
She's so awesome.
And then they had highlightedOBM and your name came up quite
often in that space.
You're very well regarded.
And I looked into it.
I went on to your call onJanuary 1.
I signed up
SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
this year 2021 2021.
I
SPEAKER_01 (04:11):
signed up and then I scheduled out the con to be
prepared to write the exam inApril.
It was the most hectic scenarioof my life.
Like I don't even know how I fitit in.
I don't think I slept much.
Best thing I've ever done in mywhole life.
Every single thing has becomemanageable and flexible.
And yes, I have a lot of movingparts of my lifestyle, but it's
all possible as a result ofcreating a space that can
(04:34):
accommodate all that as an OBM.
SPEAKER_00 (04:36):
Yeah, I love that, Ramona.
And I'm so grateful to have youhere in our space today talking
about what it looks like.
And I think it's reallyimportant Thank you so much.
day in the life of an OBM.
(04:58):
Can you let us know, like, whatis a typical day look like for
you?
I know you've got your son, youtake care more or less of your
hubby these days.
What does that look like?
So I
SPEAKER_01 (05:08):
have a plan to review methodology.
I come up with a plan and then Ifit it into little pockets of my
schedule.
So the first plan is for themonth and then for the week and
then for the day.
And so I pocket in all thethings I have to deal with, like
my hubby's, you know, rehab orfor a stroke, my son's school
activities.
And then I go What are my chunksto work that are uninterrupted?
And then I fill those in and aday in the life for me, like
(05:31):
today, for example, I get up, Icame on to this call.
And then after this call, I havea quick website to build.
And then after that is launched,I have to fill in two spots for
next month to make sure that myschedule continues to be packed.
My work schedule tends to bearound 25 hours a week,
sometimes 20.
And I fit that in, right?
(05:53):
And my old life, I used to work70 hours, we can get paid for
40.
So I am over the moon happy withthis new scenario.
Like I can't even like thissmile hasn't stopped since.
SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
Are you making, are you meeting what you made in
your high paying corporate job?
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (06:08):
It took me one quarter to replace my old
salary.
And now I'm working to replacemy husband's old salary as well.
Cause why not?
Talk a while ago.
And you're like, what are yourbig goals?
I'm like, I want a couple ofcommas.
I want a couple of commas.
And my reason for that isthere's this social thing I
heard a long time ago that saidit's, morally irresponsible to
(06:32):
be a billionaire.
So why not make a millionbillion dollars and then give a
ton away?
I mean, why not have a big carryaudacious goal?
Now, I don't see that happeningin the next quarter or so.
But if I veer along with runninga lean business and having
growth in mind and having whatI'm capable in mind, and then
continuing to cover what I needand then cover what I want to
share.
I think it's a solid businessplan.
SPEAKER_00 (06:54):
Yeah, I would say so.
I mean, it's working right now.
Tell me a little bit about whatyour client roster looks like.
You've talked about acquiringtwo more clients this month.
What does a full roster looklike to you?
SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
So a full roster to me is I typically have one
long-term client, 90 days or sofor a project and a launch.
And that's usually a little bitmore complex, a business that's
a little more developed, usuallyhigh six, early seven figure
scenario.
And then I fit in between fourand six VIP days.
And those tend to run between500 and a thousand dollars per
(07:27):
time.
And I start those with a techstack review.
I help them optimize what theyhave, but they're not using.
I make a recommendation and thenI will either leave them with a
Google data suite dashboard sothey can see everything in one
place because that frees up timeand so forth.
Or I automate your calendarbecause so many people got
successful in spite ofthemselves.
And those little tweaks helpthem claw back the most time,
(07:49):
the quickest.
SPEAKER_00 (07:50):
Oh, clawing back time.
I mean, it's really the onlything that we can't get back.
I bet your clients love you forthose lovely dashboards.
There's nothing like clarityaround metrics and And what's
really going on in the businessthat my God bless these, you
know, successful despitethemselves clients, because they
just don't have these things inplace.
SPEAKER_01 (08:09):
I feel like technology should be a silent,
effective partner.
Like you don't have to be techieto run a business.
If you hire someone that cantake care of some of the things
that you don't have, then you'rejust in a stronger place.
And some of the OBMs lead withmarketing and they'll farm out
some of the techie things.
That's okay too.
Like I just happened to leadwith tech and then I'll get help
with some of the copy writingor, you know, the marketing,
(08:30):
things like that.
And that Knowing
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
what to delegate and when to delegate is a fine, fine
art.
Kelly is being a troublemakertoday.
I took him on a walk so that hewould nap.
But as you can see, he does notwant to nap.
So he'll just eat my fake.
He'll eat the fake cactus.
Good.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour transition, because I know
you were in the VA space for ahot second, working with Lauren
(08:55):
Golden at the Free Mama, who welove.
How did you know that OBM was abetter fit?
What were the events leading upto having you make that
decision?
And I know that you have thatniche in tech or you sort of
lead with tech rather.
So would you say that you're ageneralist OBM or would you say
that you're more of a techperson?
SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
I lead with tech and I definitely qualify myself as a
specialist given the experiencesI have and the skills I'm
willing to always develop.
(09:46):
to being a VA but I just feltready to just keep going with my
journey and I also feel like ifyou were to go to a gym and you
might have someone that is anewer trainer or you might deal
with a kinesiologist
SPEAKER_00 (09:58):
yeah
SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
getting it done something right but I just feel
like as you develop more skillsand you have a specific need
you're good I recommend VAs allthe time I hire VAs all the time
you know you've laid out reallywell the difference between a VA
and OBM and like one is leadingand one is doing and one you
know like there's all thedifferences between the two.
And I just felt I more naturallyveered into being able to
(10:20):
pinpoint where the problem is,coming up with some ideas for a
solution.
And then that was the directionthat we kept going over and over
again.
And I'm like, I think that's theOEM.
SPEAKER_00 (10:27):
Yeah, I would say so.
Yeah.
I love that.
Thanks, Ramona.
That's great.
And when it comes to yourclients, I want to dig in more
into these client pieces.
I think you've given us someinsight into what your roster
looks like, that you have thatone big client and a few
project-based VIP day clients,which is fantastic.
I'm all about, you know, medating projects and really
(10:48):
seeing if the client's a goodfit before, especially over at
OBM school.
What kinds of clients get youexcited?
SPEAKER_01 (10:57):
The people that are successful in spite of
themselves.
So I'm a genius, but you cancome in and help the most with
that.
And you can, they can see thevalue of that the quickest.
Now, when you were saying like,where do I, you know, where do
clients come from and how to dothat?
When I first started, I felt alittle bit of a sense of a
failure to launch.
I think that's pretty normal asan OBM.
(11:17):
I was like, where am I going toget clients?
Or I would go through a processto secure somebody and they'd be
like, Oh, do you have anexample?
Or do you have this?
Do you have a resume?
Like all these kinds ofquestions.
And I had to stop for a momentand go, what can I do about
this?
Like, what can I handedly doabout this question that keeps
coming up?
And I realized I'm in business.
I can use my own business as a,you know, like
SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
as a showcase for how amazing we are as OBMs.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (11:43):
Right.
And so when I'm recommending atextile I'm like, this is what I
have and why.
And so here's my PM tool.
Here's my CRM tool.
Here's my automated this, here'smy payment.
And here's how I send documentsback and forth.
And when they need an example,if I've ever signed any
non-disclosures and sometimes Ido, I got caught into a really
techie thing.
And they're all the same price,all these juicy examples I can
(12:04):
share with anyone.
So I was like, I can make my ownjuicy example.
And then I also did a couple oftiny offers so that I could
showcase, well, here's the wholeprocess for a launch.
A mini one takes this long andmedium takes this long, a big
one takes this long.
And that really helped me staybusy, keep my mindset right, and
just keep growing forward.
And then I got excited about thework.
(12:25):
I learned what I liked.
I learned what I wanted todelegate through the process.
And I just highly recommend it.
And I followed by money.
So in our community, we werepretty heavily impacted by the
pandemic.
Who hasn't?
It's a global event.
And I talked to my son's typewindow instructor.
I'm like, do you have automatedscheduling?
Do you want to remove some touchpoints?
Do you want to
SPEAKER_00 (12:45):
You are such a, you are an angel.
SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
And I said, do you want to film out some of the
things that you do?
So if people can't come toclass, they can still keep up,
right?
The next one was my dog groomer.
No scheduling, no this, no that.
I went, do you want ascheduling?
Do you want a form?
Do you want to qualify who'scoming in?
Like, do they have any healthconcerns?
So I created a form and Icreated a thing.
Next person, I created awebsite.
So I just started following mymoney in my community because I
(13:09):
started there.
And then I was like, refer me,like tell people that I saved
you time or money or write me alittle referral.
That's
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
so smart.
Yeah, that's so smart.
Or put up a thing on your wallthat's promoting my services to
your people.
And that's great.
That's such a good strategy forlocal business.
Are you hearing this, peoplelistening here?
Here's a fantastic strategy ofputting yourself out there,
helping other people, which iswhat we love to do, and also
(13:37):
recognizing that our zone ofgenius is is actually a very
strong zone of genius that canbe brought into so many
different kinds of businesses.
I think, Ramona, the thing thatyou brought up, which I think is
so important to highlight, isthis notion that there's
customer relationship managementtools, there's automation tools,
there's project managementtools.
(13:58):
But when push comes to shove,most businesses are using either
the same project management toolthat we use as OBMs or something
mildly different, but it allworks the same.
And for those of us who are onthis mission to understand
technology, like I literally,before this call, I was speaking
to another OBM who was like, Ican't stop researching this
(14:21):
role.
I can't stop researching all thethings.
It's like sort of like researchprocrastination, and just
recognizing that you know, wewill figure it out as things go.
And if, you know, the Taekwondoinstructor has a Taekwondo CRM,
it's not going to be sodifferent from the CRM that
we're already using in anotherbusiness.
You know, they're all,especially the service as a
(14:42):
software, not service, yeah,service as a software, the SaaS
products that are on the marketthese days are all more or less
the same.
You know, you got one, you learnone project management tool, you
can apply those same principlesto the next one.
SPEAKER_01 (14:57):
Do you want me to share how I learned and mock
speed and keep up on the test?
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Yes, please.
SPEAKER_01 (15:01):
Okay.
So I didn't realize this was afeature because it doesn't take
me much time.
But when you realize thatsharing it helps other people,
I've just started talking aboutit a lot in the last quarter and
it's been really successful forpeople.
So when I take on anything,anything, anything like data,
Google suite, I didn't know howto do dashboard when I first
started as NoBM last January.
(15:22):
So I went, what does this tooldo?
Okay.
That became my checklist.
And then against the checklist,do I know what these things are?
Do I have to learn what thesethings are?
That makes me a beginner.
When I start utilizing the tooland flipping through the thing
and creating some results, I'man intermediate.
When I am really quick and I'mefficient and I can troubleshoot
and I...
and I can troubleshoot and Icould teach somebody else, I'm
(15:47):
in advance.
I then document what I've doneand I set it aside as an SOP
because skills are perishable.
But every time you have impostersyndrome and you're like, oh, I
can't, I don't know what to do.
That's what you do.
You can either use it as skill,develop a skill, enhance a skill
and just keep on trucking.
And when people start realizingthat they can assess,
(16:08):
self-assess that if they're abeginner, intermediate or
advanced, how to do that andthen what your next steps are,
you'll never be stuck and youcan keep up.
SPEAKER_00 (16:15):
I love that.
I love that.
And I love that little tidbitabout the Google data suite.
Great.
So is that something that youuse with a lot of your clients?
SPEAKER_01 (16:23):
Most, I don't think there's anyone that I get
involved with that doesn't havea dashboard or some site just
because everything feeds intothis little view for them.
And they just, instead of goinghere and here and there and here
and trying to keep it allstraight, right.
And setting right so that somepeople can see it and other
people can't, or, you know,it's, it's a beautiful thing.
And most people have KPIs orthey should,
SPEAKER_00 (16:46):
um, indicators.
Yeah.
Most people, Have them.
Do they monitor them?
I don't know.
Do they think about what theyshould be?
Maybe not.
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (16:54):
I had a funny takeaway last week.
When you're dealing withstatistics, all you're doing is
reporting, right?
Like you're whatever it is,good, bad or gnarly or good
results or bad results.
You're just reporting.
And I had a client last weekasked if I can manipulate data.
And I'm like, no.
For what reason would youmanipulate data?
Just so it could look differentfor whatever.
Oh, to see like a projection ofsome sort.
(17:14):
It may have been nefarious.
I said, I don't work with agreen crayon.
I work with statistics and Ireport them.
I could redact them or whatever,but I do not modify data.
So I just want to give you guysthat careful tip that data can
be scary.
So if people see for the firsttime all their finances, like,
ooh, they didn't know that theywere...
Not
SPEAKER_00 (17:32):
profitable.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (17:34):
Don't change it for them.
Get them working on it.
SPEAKER_00 (17:37):
Yeah.
So when it comes to clients, Iknow you love the tech piece,
but what kind of work reallygets you excited?
Like what do you love doing withyour OBM clients aside from
dashboards and tech?
SPEAKER_01 (17:48):
When I can simplify something and create an income
stream for them.
Oh, it's my favorite.
Like I didn't even...
know that I would tap into themembership thing or whatever.
But everyone has his own genius.
And if they can share it on agrand scale and leverage that
time, people benefit from that,especially because...
If a business isn't brick andmortar, they've been impacted by
(18:10):
the pandemic.
Some good, some bad, but they'vehad an impact.
And the people I'm typicallyworking with had a negative
impact.
They had this chunk of timewhere they couldn't work.
So even if they're back inbusiness now, they still have a
chunk of time that they couldn'twork.
So even if we add that extrastudent income, how happy are
they to find an actual beacon ofhope that they can regroup or,
or fix
SPEAKER_00 (18:29):
something extra, like something good that came
out of the bad.
SPEAKER_01 (18:31):
Right.
And also it prepares them.
If something else happens, it'screated an extra of income.
So if something else happens orthere's another way, they can
feel a little bit more okay, alittle bit more secure at
SPEAKER_00 (18:41):
night.
Yeah.
I think that is such a blessing.
I mean, I know that we bring somuch goodness to our clients'
businesses.
And I think when, you know, asOBMs, we do try to focus on the
things closest to the money, youknow, like supporting the
client.
Sometimes that can be verydifficult and sometimes it's
hard to measure the impact wemake as OBMs because it's not,
you know, we're not in sales,for example.
(19:01):
But that's so interesting thatyou were able to create a
passive-ish, because I don'tknow if I don't know if I
believe in passive revenue, soto speak.
Yeah.
I mean, there's still a lot ofwork there, but like a stream of
another stream of revenue thatthey didn't have before that now
gives them hope.
And it was a lot different fromwhat they did before, which is
so, so amazing in so manydifferent ways.
(19:22):
You mentioned the membershippiece.
SPEAKER_01 (19:24):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Can you speak to that a little bit?
SPEAKER_01 (19:26):
So I kept hearing OBMs did launches and I was
like, what do you mean?
Like just put something out inproduction.
I didn't know what a launchmeant in OBM reference.
And typically it's you'recreating like a course or a
membership, or you're doing abig shift in migration of one
system to another system, thatkind of thing.
So I came across the tiny offerand it walked through all the
(19:49):
steps, but on a little scale.
So for example, if you want toteach someone how to do a budget
or finances, you have all thesame components as a big launch.
Like you have your landing pageand your emails and you know,
the way to pay the way to enterthe system, the content, and
then, you know, the follow-upand so forth.
So by doing a tiny offer, offer.
I can do one a week.
I just talked to people and inthe recommendation after the
(20:10):
tech review, I'm like, hey, haveyou thought of this so that you
can reach more people or growthis stream on the side?
We could deliver it in a week.
And then I now have a portfolioof things that can show people
of the different things thatI've created.
I'm like, well, a little scalelooks like this, a medium scale
looks like this, and a big scalelooks like this.
And I'm very confident now inthe assessments I make because I
know what it's going to take ifI have to add in editing or if I
(20:32):
have to add in this or if it's alittle, we're going to take your
smartphone and just Trumanaround, like it helped me build
the skills I needed to do thetask, have someone else do the
task and charge appropriatelyfor the task when you factor in
the time.
SPEAKER_00 (20:44):
Right, right.
So you have someone elsecreating this funnel sequence.
SPEAKER_01 (20:49):
I do it.
SPEAKER_00 (20:50):
Okay.
So you do it.
So do you, do you use any, doyou have any people on your team
right now?
SPEAKER_01 (20:54):
I farm out the work.
So for example, I will createthe structure and I'm like
module one has these two videosand this content.
And so I'll have the businessdraft up what they want for the
thing.
And then we'll have videoeditor, edit the content.
And then we have a copywriterreview and brand the material
that goes with it.
SPEAKER_00 (21:10):
And this is all under your side of the piece.
Yeah.
That's great.
That's great.
So you're able to leverage teamto, to really be able, because
again, we're not video editors.
I'm definitely not a copywriter,but you don't like copy either.
It's like recognizing our zoneof genius and playing into our
(21:31):
strengths.
And yours, it sounds to me, it'sthe tech, it's the strategy,
it's the understanding theconcepts.
And I think what is so magicalhere is that you're able to take
what the client has and put itinto something a little bit
different in a way that they'venever been able to see.
And what a blessing that is.
for those lucky people that getto work with you.
SPEAKER_01 (21:50):
You had talked also about the agency model.
Well, I wasn't sure what I wantto sign up with.
I'm a really effective team ofme.
Right.
Um, and you know, the littleagency model, I was curious
about that.
So I'm like, okay, here'sonboarding, here's offboarding.
Well, when I go in to work on ateam now and I'm onboarding and
offboarding, that skill comesfrom that place in the virtual
space.
Like I didn't used to do itcorporately.
(22:11):
That was quite a differentprocess.
Like there was HR, there's allthese things.
And so to develop that skillfrom this place, um, It allowed
me to do that.
SPEAKER_00 (22:19):
Yeah, that's great.
That's great.
So do you have any sort of wordsof wisdom you would offer
somebody who might be thinkingabout stepping into the OBM
shoes besides all of theamazingness that you've shared
with us, especially about thefailure to launch guys?
SPEAKER_01 (22:35):
Yeah.
If you have a failure to launch,you just stop and then do a plan
to review.
So my plan is this, what am Igoing to do about it?
And let's review how that'sgoing.
And sometimes you throw thatwhole little cycle away and you
start again, but don't changethe goal.
If you're failure to launch,that's like having one slash
tire on your car.
Don't slash the other three.
If
SPEAKER_00 (22:53):
you're like me, you drive with that slash tire and
your husband's like, what?
You broke the whole rim.
SPEAKER_01 (23:00):
You're like, what's a light?
I mean, the light was pretty.
I want to encourage people torealize that they are more
capable of what they think.
If you have that inner littlevoice.
You've got to stop being mean toyourself.
You've got to start trustingyour intuition.
Like women in business, theirbest and their worst feature is
their intuition and theirability to multitask, right?
(23:21):
So I used to work in a verymale-dominated area.
And I mean, more women camealong towards the end.
But for the first 15 years of myrole, I mean, I was like the
only girl.
And it was so funny because thatwas my best and my worst
feature.
So I carried that into here.
And I feel like some people needthat as part of their OBM.
(23:42):
toolbox is like, just recognizeit and go, you're thinking about
10 things and there's one thingon the table.
I go, how awesome is that?
If you can keep the main thing,the main thing, and approach it
with logic and less emotion, andyou repeat that cycle over and
over again, you're unstoppable.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (24:01):
Yeah, I agree with that.
I think so often we doubt ourown abilities.
We don't necessarily listen toour intuition, especially when
it comes to maybe vetting out aclient.
We're like, well, they're okay.
You know, despite my, you know,inner, you know, bubbly
feelings, I'm just going to goahead with this client.
So I think that is a reallyimportant thing to remember is
(24:21):
is that we really do need togive ourselves credit where
credit is due.
And I find just with our OBMcommunity in general, like
things that come reallynaturally to us, like being able
to organize or recognizing amess and desiring to clean it
up, or just being really greatat managing people because we
care about people and we're justempathetic beings.
These are all our strengths thatoftentimes OBMs won't charge for
(24:45):
or won't lead with becausethey're like, well, it comes so
naturally to me.
Like, how could I charge forsomething like that?
I'm like, no, That's actuallythe exact thing that you need to
be charging top dollar for isthat natural skillset that we,
you know, as women and asbusiness owners and just as
people have our own strengths.
(25:06):
So I, you know, I think it'simportant to really bring that
up and remind the listeners heretoday that, you know, you really
do have a lot to offer apotential client and there's
always room to grow.
Like Ramona, you've been in thisbusiness, like when would you
say that you got like sayentranced with the online space?
SPEAKER_01 (25:24):
When I was transitioning from being an
employee to not being anemployee and figuring out what
to do, I was like, I'm just notwilling to be an employee.
I was working for 24 years and Ijust went, okay, what are my
options?
And I just had this big eyesopen, ears open approach to the
whole thing.
And I just knew that there's asolution out there.
Like I'm in Canada.
So I was like, there's 38million people here right now
(25:45):
and there's solutionseverywhere.
So I only need one of them.
I only need one solution to thisproblem.
SPEAKER_00 (25:50):
And the solution was, oh, and international
business where now I can serveglobal people and it's not just
38 million.
It's now, I don't know how manybillions of people are there in
this world.
SPEAKER_01 (25:59):
And there's not a lot of OBMs in the world.
So when I looked at howlucrative this is, that was
amazing to me.
The other thing that really hitme was in your call, one of your
calls that we were on, you weretalking about how, no, you
charge for that.
I'm like, I charge for that, butdon't take me 10 minutes.
And as a OBM business or abusiness owner in general, or
anyone offering a service,you're not, they're not paying
(26:19):
you because it took 15 minutes.
They're paying you because ofthe solution you provided them
and you just save them threehours a day.
SPEAKER_00 (26:26):
Right.
Or 10 hours seeking out thatinformation on their own.
SPEAKER_01 (26:29):
And they're paying for what got you to this place.
And if you get okay with thisbeing a earn while you learn
business, then you're going tobe unstoppable.
And so I, I used to not chargeto automate calendars.
And you were like, are youcrazy?
Maybe.
I think so.
(26:49):
Yeah.
Like, well, maybe I shouldcharge.
And I just have it as part of mylittle mini VIP day and I just
do it.
And it's part of that package,but I'm paid well for that task.
And some work has actually comefrom that.
Like people say, can I meet withyou?
And I refuse to say, well, doesMonday or Tuesday work or does
afternoon or evening work?
Here's a link to my calendar.
And people have come in andthey've been like, what the
(27:10):
what?
Yeah.
You got a calendar.
It's branded.
It's cute.
And it's instant.
And Work has come from that.
So the more professional thingsyou do to run your business, the
more people are going to seeyou.
that and desire that themselves.
So when somebody is used toworking with someone and they
go, does Tuesday work, doesFriday work, does the morning
work, does all this stupid 20minutes back and forth, when the
(27:33):
meeting's only going to be 20minutes, I didn't get it done in
a second.
That's desirable.
SPEAKER_00 (27:38):
Amen to that.
SPEAKER_01 (27:39):
The other thing that can help is financial literacy.
I know a lot of people head intobusiness without financial
literacy because they work withthem and they get to a really
reactive place.
They don't know how to beproactive anymore.
They're just overwhelmed.
So I lead with tech and mysecond thing is the finances
because they are married likethey need they could be a bad
(27:59):
marriage or a good marriage butif you work with us it becomes a
good marriage right I hope soand I feel like if the word
financial literacy or budgets orfinances or income or assets or
any of those things kind of giveyou that pit in the stomach I
want you to revisit that thingthat I said a little while back
about determining if you're abeginner intermediate or
(28:20):
advanced and develop that skilland document that skill the
principles for financial naturalliteracy or sound, but you will
benefit so much in your ownbusiness as well as helping
others in theirs if you leadwith that.
The other thing that happens isas a professional, you're
dealing with people that are inbusiness making quite a lot of
money.
If you don't bring that, youcould miss out on an opportunity
because they need that.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
I agree.
And I think also one of thethings that I often...
ask VAs who are transitioning toOBM or just people in general
about the client, what are theirfinancials?
I'm never really surprised whenthe VA is like, well, I don't
really know how much my clientis making.
And well, how are you going totransition to OBM role if you
don't have that aspect offinancial literacy and you're
(29:03):
not willing to ask those perhapsuncomfortable questions around
revenue and profitability andwhere are we at and what are
these revenue streams?
It's such an important piece ofthe business.
And we encourage people toactually ask on their intake
form as obms you know how muchare you making every month in
revenue on average because it'simportant for us as obms to
(29:25):
understand you know what's thebudget that we have to work with
can we hire a team can we notafford team do we need to do
this do we need to do that soit's a really good point the
financials
SPEAKER_01 (29:34):
and with that your business cases come from that so
for example when i go in andsomeone says well i just need
you to fix this little thing buti can't really afford you to be
quick be gone i'm like okay um Itable it and I go, okay, what if
we create this stream of incomeand that pays for me whenever
you need me on call, right?
And what if we call back thistime so that instead of four
hours a day, you're now on anincome producing activity, which
(29:56):
allows you to bring in this muchmore per week, per month, per
quarter, per year, that pays forme and your holiday this
SPEAKER_00 (30:02):
year.
Right, exactly.
And it has you focused more onwhat you do best and less on,
you know, VA tasks as thebusiness owner when they, you
know, we oftentimes, I mean,when we want to do kind of busy
work, we default to those sortsof tasks that aren't closest to
the money.
SPEAKER_01 (30:17):
And the tech window place said, I can't afford you.
And I said, okay, but right nowyou have a need to create a
stream of income for the peoplethat aren't coming to class.
What if we do that?
SPEAKER_02 (30:26):
And
SPEAKER_01 (30:27):
you pay me in 30 days.
Right.
And so he did.
And he now has the equivalent ofa whole class of people in there
that don't even come to the tothe
SPEAKER_00 (30:38):
place.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:39):
And now when he needs something, he knows that
I've got solutions like that inmind.
And he knows the professionalismin mind.
And that's where we're comingfrom.
So when you guys partner,whatever your special thing is,
some people are marketing, somepeople cooperating, some people
lead teams, some people are techlike there's niches that you can
i'm canada so i don't know howyou guys niche niche whatever
SPEAKER_00 (31:01):
who knows we're international here we say what
we want
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
you know you lead with that but if you partner
that with the finances and youunderstand how those two your
component works with the financethen you can always make a
business case a compellingbusiness case to stay in
business or grow somebody's
SPEAKER_00 (31:18):
business that's great thank you ramona one last
question i know we've we'vetaken up quite a bit of your
time and i really appreciate youbeing really transparent and
honest about your journey.
So one last question for you,how has being an OBM really
impacted your personal life?
SPEAKER_01 (31:35):
I was pretty frazzled by the time the end of
my corporate career came.
And I just sort of startedagain, like when the virtual
school and then the OBM trainingcame on board, I just decided to
add in some stacks of healthyhabits.
It involved, okay, if I'm athome, I'm not moving much.
So let's incorporate, you know,working out, let's get the
(31:56):
water.
Let's get, you know, all the
SPEAKER_02 (31:57):
Peloton.
SPEAKER_01 (31:59):
I did.
I did.
I got a Peloton.
SPEAKER_00 (32:02):
I would get one too, but you can't order them where I
live.
Do you believe that?
Well, I'll come
SPEAKER_01 (32:07):
see, I'll pack one.
And, you know, like just the Soall these healthy, awesome
things happen in transition.
And I just took a day to dayapproach to it.
I'm in the best place I've everbeen in my life.
I'm 46.
So I don't say that lightly.
Like I've had a lot of years sofar of, you know, professional
experience.
(32:27):
And I've never had balance.
I've never had flexibility.
In my old world, I was expectedto work 70 hours a week and get
paid for 40.
Every holiday I ever took, if Icould even get them, they called
me on my holiday with anemergency.
So I never had a real
SPEAKER_02 (32:40):
holiday.
SPEAKER_01 (32:41):
I took a holiday.
with my family and I didn't getany calls.
Like my phone was off.
I was like, well, that's aholiday.
I'm like, yeah, I don't want togo back to the other kind
SPEAKER_02 (32:50):
of holiday.
SPEAKER_01 (32:50):
I'm helping people and I'm helping people on, on
terms that work for the personand for me.
So there's no person coming into take, you know, credit for my
work or to set me aside.
Cause I get insecure ofsomething that I could do.
I'm just busy with work that Ilove.
I'm working with people that Iget to pre-qualify and, Oh, I
love Kelly.
SPEAKER_00 (33:10):
What do you want my love?
You've destroyed everything inmy office.
Let me finish Ramona.
SPEAKER_01 (33:14):
It helps me.
It just got me back in thedriver's seat of developing
skills because sometimes whenyou're an employee, you just get
bogged down and you forget toput your learning first and your
health first.
And you know, the things thatare outside of your work first.
And since I became an OBM, myson gets the best of me, not the
rest of me.
So I don't see ever not being anOBM.
SPEAKER_00 (33:34):
That's the most amazing thing ever.
Yeah.
I love that.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ramona.
And thank you for coming on hereand talking about a day in the
life.
And okay, so how amazing isRamona Hooper?
So from the tech workflows toclient boundaries, she just gave
us a full access pass to what itreally looks like to be a high
level OBM running a businesswith clarity, confidence, and
(33:57):
honestly, zero fluff.
So if you're sitting herethinking now, I want to be like
Ramona when I grow up, I'm goingto leave some resources below
this podcast.
or you can just head on over toobmschool.com forward slash
resources to get tons of freetools and trainings and insider
access to the world of OBM.
(34:17):
And if you want to work withRamona and you're thinking,
where do I find someone like herfor my team?
I'm going to leave herinformation here as well.
And yeah, You can also checkthis video out on our YouTube
channel.
If you just search Day in theLife Ramona Hooper, you will
find it.
So thank you so much forlistening.
(34:38):
And if you loved this peekbehind the curtain, leave us a
review or share it with someonewho needs to hear it.
Catch you next time on The OBMShow.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.