All Episodes

July 8, 2025 17 mins

What if having a full client roster isn’t the dream? 

In this episode of The OBM Show, I’m unpacking the dark side of being booked up as an Online Support Professional - and what it really takes to grow your virtual business without recreating the burnout you left behind in your 9–5.

Whether you’re drowning in Slack pings and client requests, or you’re starting to feel the weight of overcommitment creeping in, this is your permission slip to pause and redesign your business so that it’s sustainable, enjoyable, and still profitable.

🎧 In this episode, we cover:
 ✔️ Why being “booked out” is often a red flag, not a goal
  ✔️ The real reasons OBMs hit burnout—even when things look successful on paper
  ✔️ How to audit your capacity and uncover hidden energy drains
  ✔️ The mindset shift from freelancer to CEO (and what that actually looks like)
  ✔️ Simple ways to rework your OBM offers, time blocks, and boundaries so you can breathe again

If you're celebrating because your calendar’s “booked up”, but feel overwhelmed and overworked at the same time, this episode will help you create more margin, scale smarter, and reclaim your energy—without sacrificing your income or client results.

-------------------------


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 Kitobmschool.com/starter
Explore more tools and trainings → obmschool.com/resources
Learn about becoming a CPD-certified Accredited Online Business Managerobmaccreditation.com

🧭 Not sure where to start?
Find out your OBM Archetype and get personalized next steps → obmschool.com/quiz

📺 Prefer to watch?
Subscribe to our Youtube Channel and hit the bell icon to get notified when we drop a new video → youtube.com/@SarahNokedOBM

Until next time, keep building the business behind the business.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Now let's talk about a phrase that we love to hate.
It is booked out.
Now, it sounds like the holygrail of online freelance
businesses, am I right?
You've got a full roster ofclients, consistent monthly
income, and you're finallyfeeling like you are in demand.

(00:22):
Your friends might be cheeringyou on.
I hope you've got biz bestiesthat are cheering you on.
Clients might even be referringyou.
It looks and feels like success,but behind the scenes, you're
Thank you so much.

(00:55):
If you're eating at all, maybeyou're living off of coffee,
you're working late, answeringDMs at 10 p.m., and canceling
plans with friends and loved onebecause this project is almost
done.
And deep down, you know.
Thank you so much.

(01:27):
So if you're booked out buttotally burnt out, this episode
is your permission slip topause.
Audit and rebuild your OBMbusiness in a way that actually
works for your life.
Let's break down why thishappens because if you're in
this boat, I promise you are notalone in the booked out but

(01:50):
burnt out sinking ship.
OBM work is deep work.
You are not just a task ticker.
You are the operational brainbehind your clients' business.
You're holding timelines,tracking progress, leading
meetings, communicating withteam, and often thinking about
their business long after theday ends, right?

(02:13):
The calls end, all that stuff.
It's still on your mind.
There's a high level ofemotional and mental load that
comes with the OBM role.
You're managing people,projects, systems, and
expectations, and you're doingthis all at once.
Now, most OBMs, we got herebecause we're really good at

(02:34):
making things run smoothly,which means we say yes a lot.
You say yes to a quick call, yesto last minute changes, yes to
the fifth one more thing thatyour client requests this week,
not because you're weak, myfriends, but because you are
capable, because you care,because you can, because your

(02:57):
heart is of service.
But over time...
Those yeses become a trap.
You stretch and you stretch andyou stretch and suddenly there's
no space left for you.
And the truth is, most of ushave built businesses that were
designed for service, not scale,right?

(03:18):
We build them around ourclients' needs instead of really
designing them around our owncapacity, maybe our own
lifestyle, our own dreams andwishes.
And now we're waking up insideof businesses that look
successful on paper, but feelcompletely unstable,
unsustainable to run.

(03:39):
We built them around ourclients' needs instead of
designing them around our owncapacity.
And now we're waking up insideof businesses that look
successful on paper and maybe tothe outside, but feel completely
unsustainable to run.
So what does that actually looklike in real life, right?

(04:02):
You wake up with anxiety, notexcitement.
There's a pit in your stomachevery Sunday night.
You're constantly reshufflingyour calendar, trying to squeeze
in just one more call, one morecheck-in, one more urgent task.
Maybe you have a dream roster,but no time to think.

(04:23):
No time to strategize and notime to rest.
So if you are delivering amazingresults but feeling disconnected
from your own goals, you've hityour income target, but you
can't even remember the lasttime you took a full day off,
let alone planning a vacation.
And then comes the guilt, right?
Because that's just like theicing on the cake because you

(04:44):
should feel grateful.
You should love this feeling.
You worked so hard to get here.
But the truth is, when yourbusiness grows in a direction
that isn't aligned with you, itstops feeling like freedom and
starts to feel like a trap.
And that's the moment you knowit's time to pivot.
And that's the beautiful thingabout having a freelance

(05:07):
business as an online businessmanager.
You can pivot.
You can be light on your toes.
But before you redesignanything, you need to face the
truth.
You need to start by auditingyour capacity, not just in
hours, but in energy.
Like, I've been running thisbusiness for a couple decades
almost, and when I was in my20s, it felt a lot different

(05:32):
than I feel now working as anOBM in my 40s, okay?
So I want you to look at yourcalendar and ask, how much time
am I spending on calls eachweek?
How much time is spent in true,truly strategic leadership
versus implementation or adminwork?

(05:57):
Which client energizes me andwhich one quietly depletes me of
my life source?
Where has scope creep takenroot?
How much time am I spendinganswering messages slash
cleaning up a messy desk?
Delegation system slash fixingthings I didn't break.

(06:18):
And my friends, I want you to bebrutally honest.
Don't just sugarcoat it.
Think about these things.
Look at your calendar and reallyask yourself these questions.
And then ask yourself, if I hadto run my business exactly like
this for six more months, wouldI still want to be in business?
If the answer is even a hesitantno, it's time to make some

(06:43):
serious changes.
So the mindset pivot...
That changes everything, right?
It's about shifting from afreelancer mindset to a CEO
mindset, right?
You're not just a serviceprovider.
You are the CEO of your owncompany.
And as CEO, your time is yourmost valuable asset.

(07:07):
And this is such an interestingthing to realize because we see
it a lot with our multi six andseven figure clients, putting
them into the CEO seat.
And for us, as service supportprofessionals, it's really hard
at the beginning to to imagineyourself in the CEO role and to

(07:28):
imagine time as being your mostvaluable asset.
Because at the beginning, you'vegot a lot of time.
You can take on a lot ofclients.
You can stay up late.
You can stretch yourself thin.
But as CEO, now your time isyour most valuable asset.
This means setting your schedulearound your brain and not just

(07:49):
your availability.
Now, to me, that means havingset days where I have calls with
clients because it takes a lotout of me.
I got two days a week to doclient-facing meetings.
That way, I know Mondays andTuesdays are really dedicated to
that, and it means that I'vecreated systems that can reduce

(08:13):
the mental load instead ofadding to it.
You really need to be settingschedules around your brain and
not just your availability.
It's like when you work well,what's happening with your
family, what's happening in yourlife.
So the other thing is part ofthis big shift is systematizing
your onboarding and offboarding.

(08:35):
I really like to look at thoselow hanging pieces of fruit, so
to speak, that are going to helpyou clear off some of that
medial, just doing things allthe time, right?
So create a client welcome kit.
Create a templated SOPwalkthrough for your clients.
Create an offboarding checklistso that, my friends, you are not

(08:59):
reinventing the wheel every timeyou commit a recurring task in
your business.
I want you to build a self-servedashboard for your clients with
FAQs and processes to reduce theback and forth.
And you can block your calendarfor deep work and CEO time

(09:20):
because this is the thing thatalways gets pushed to the side
is you actually working on yourbusiness development.
It's such a core part of what wedo inside of OBM School and
specifically, I mean, in all ofour programs, but our core
modules inside the acceleratorare all about your own business

(09:40):
development and Because that isoften what gets pushed to the
wayside and that actually is thething that you really need to
focus on and you really need tohave in place.
So when it comes to blockingyour calendar for deep work and
CEO time, you know, you want toactually start to think about

(10:01):
what days you want to reservefor strategic thinking about
your business.
What days are maybe for admin?
What days are for client calls?
The truth is when you protectyour energy, your leadership
gets stronger and your clientswill notice.
So when it comes to your OBMoffers, one of the biggest

(10:26):
contributors to burnout iscustom offers, right?
If every client has a differentpackage, a different call
cadence, and a different set ofdeliverables, you're not
scaling, you're juggling.
So the first thing I want you tothink about when it comes to
your OBM offers or your servicepackaging is how you can

(10:47):
streamline your offer suite.
So creating one or two signaturepackages that really align with
the way you like to work.
So for example, one of thethings that I constantly
encourage students inside of OBMSchool to leverage is a monthly
retainer that includesoperational strategy, team

(11:12):
oversight, and a specific numberof calls.
Like, yes, within that plan, itis quite custom, but it lines up
nicely with the way we onboardclients as it relates to
strategic breakthrough strategysessions and all of the goodness
that is inside of ouraccelerator program and how how

(11:32):
I have run my agency for thelast decade.
Okay.
So yes, you want to have amonthly retainer with, you know,
room for the client's unique,whatever they need in their
business, but you want to havethe cadence on par.
So, you know, you meet with theclient once a week or You have

(11:53):
that action plan sent once amonth.
And so all of these things arehappening in a way that is the
rigoramole.
The reporting is happening atthe same time.
The calls are happening more orless at the same time of the
month.
The plan for the month is beingdelivered regarding the retainer
so as to offset scope creep,right?

(12:14):
The other thing or anotherexample I can provide you guys
with to sort of showcase this isthe dating project.
I know it's not the sexiest wayto call it, but these are those
VIP intensives.
We call ours a breakthroughstrategy session.
But having those kinds ofproducts on your service

(12:34):
offerings is going to really–make it an easy handover with a
strategic action plan.
And it's a paid thing.
So it's going to save you thatagony of either doing it for
free or doing it after you'vesigned a retainer package and
you're really not sure what theclient needs.

(12:55):
And also, because it'ssummertime, you might have a
limited time summer offer withclearly defined scope and
availability.
It might be a systems revamp.
It might be an audit of sorts.
These sorts of things makeselling easier.
It makes delivering it cleaner,and it makes scaling possible.

(13:17):
It also makes bringing on teampossible.
I'm not going to get into thatso much today, but when you're
clear about what your offer isand what you don't offer, you
start attracting clients whoreally respect your time, your
talent, and your terms.
which really blends nicely intothe next thing I want to talk

(13:37):
about, my friends, which isboundaries and the kind that
actually stick.
So if you want to protect yourenergy, because I know you do,
and you want to stay out ofburnout zone, boundaries need to
be built into your businessmodel from the beginning, right?
So for example, maybe you doreal-time, you leverage
real-time team communicationlike Slack or Voxer, right?

(13:58):
Slacker Voxer access ends at 4p.m.
daily, no exceptions.
Maybe client calls are onlyavailable on Tuesdays and
Thursdays and not scattered allthroughout the week and at all
times of the day.
Maybe there's a form for urgentrequests that have to be
submitted and only certainthings qualify.
So this isn't about beinginflexible.

(14:21):
It's about being intentional.
You are modeling leadership.
You are teaching your clientswhat it looks like to build a
business with structure, andthat is so much more powerful
than being available 24-7.
Am I right?
And let me tell you what happenswhen you actually make these
changes.
You reclaim your calendar.

(14:42):
You raise your rates and youattract clients who don't blink
at your pricing because they seeyour value.
You show up to client callsfeeling present and focused
because you are not dead andrunning on fumes.
And you finally feel the freedomyou were craving when you
started this whole journey,right?

(15:02):
That's why we start thisjourney.
We want the freedom, theflexibility, and the meaning,
right?
I've seen OBMs double theirincome while cutting their hours
in half just by tightening theiroffers, enforcing boundaries,
and stepping fully into theirCEO role.
It's not just about doing less.

(15:22):
It's about doing better.
Burnout doesn't make you betterat your job, my friends.
It makes you bitter.
It makes you short-tempered.
It makes you question yourpurpose.
But freedom, on the other hand,freedom fuels clarity,
creativity, confidence.
So let me leave you with thisquestion.
What can you remove, reduce, orrestructure this week to create

(15:46):
more space in your business?
Not someday, not later, not now.
this week because you don't needto be superhuman to succeed.
You just need to build abusiness that's designed to
support you and not drain you.
If this episode has youthinking, something's got to
give in my business, you are notwrong and you don't have to

(16:07):
figure it out alone.
If you are already working withclients and you are ready to
build a business that supportsyour life, not the other way
around, then OBM School is yournext step.
We have a professionalcertification program called OBM
Accreditation.
We also have our OBMAccelerator.

(16:27):
And you can learn more about ourprograms at obmschool.com
forward slash programs.
And if you're early in yourjourney, maybe you're just
getting started and figuring outwhat kind of OBM you want to be,
start with our OBM Starter Kit.
Inside, you'll find OBMonboarding templates, boundary

(16:47):
scripts, and a clear roadmap tohelp you build a freedom-based
OBM business by design, not bydefault.
You can download that for freeat obmschool.com forward slash
starter.
And hey! If this episodeinspired you to rethink your
summer schedule, I want to seeit.
Tag me on Instagram atsarahnoked or at the OBM school

(17:11):
and show me how you arereclaiming your time.
Whether it's a new boundary, aFriday off, or just breathing
room in your calendar, I'malways cheering you on.
You can be booked out and free.
Thanks for being here with me onthe OBM show.
I will see you in the nextepisode.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

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

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club

The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.