Laura Kåmark
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Be Bold Make Waves Podcast, a show bringing you inspiring stories of women who are growing and scaling their business. I’m your host, Laura Kåmark, a website and tech integration specialist who works with online business owners who love their work and not their website. Join me as we have incredible conversations about business mindset, productivity, and of course, the website and tech behind the business. Let’s go ahead and dive in to this week’s episode.

Hello, and welcome to today’s show. For those of you who don’t already know me, my name is Laura Kåmark. I’m a website and tech integration specialist who works with women who love their work, but not their website. My guest today is Keldie Jamieson. She is a certified online business manager, trainer, coach and founder of the OBM Leadership Academy. With over 30 years of experience working in corporate leadership, operations and administration. She understands what it takes to lead, manage and scale a successful business. Kelly has had the pleasure to work with some of the most influential, mission driven and passionate women in the online entrepreneurial world, helping them grow their community, business and teams Keldie now trains corporate escapees, freelancers, virtual assistants, and other support professionals how to create a fulfilling career as a certified OBM as well as coaches and mentors, others OBM and VAs, Keldie, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Can you tell our listeners just a little bit more about you and how you help people?

Keldie Jamieson
Yes, thank you, Laura, for having me on the show. And yes, how I help people, I have been working behind the scenes in business for 30 years for a very long time. And I entered the online space more than 10 years ago. And I have been an online business manager, a certified online business manager for more than a decade. And now what I do is I’ve training, I’m really training the next generation, that’s how I like to put it the next generation of OBMs. More and more businesses are coming online, more and more businesses are growing to the point where they actually need to have a partner in their business to help manage the back end. So they can focus on either marketing, sales, or whatever it is that they do in their business. That’s their specialty. And they need someone else to kind of take over the planning and the project management and running the team and all of that kind of stuff. And so yeah, I am a trainer now for the International Association of online business managers. And I have my own business. So it’s, it’s, I’m a licensed trainer, I don’t work for the association, but I am able to teach their curriculum. And then I also mentor and coach, online business managers. It’s it’s a wonderful, fulfilling career as an OBM. But even more so as a mentor for the next set of OBM, ZZ that are kind of coming up into the world. And I also want to say that, as an OBM, I’m not very techy, some people are, and they’re not. And I know that you come from tech, so I just want to put that out there. You don’t have to be techie to be an online business manager, because you’re literally a business manager. That’s it’s an it’s in our title, we manage businesses. But we’re not necessarily techie. So when some people think of OBM, they confuse us with a virtual assistant. We’re not a virtual assistant virtual assistants actually do the work, they understand how to push all the buttons, and do the tech and a lot of freelancers, the same thing. They know how to do all of that stuff, we actually just look at it from the higher level of what do we need, who are these brilliant people we need to be that need to be on our team. Because we cannot do our work without a team and without virtual assistants and freelancers and consultants coming in to actually help a business as well. So there’s a little bit of a difference there. So we definitely are not for everyone and not for every business. Whereas other people are needed in business before and OBM. So just kind of wanted to clarify that because some people think and OBM does a whole bunch of things. And we literally stay in the management and leadership section of a business.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. So what would you say are some of the skills that you find that a lot of OEMs have if they don’t need to have the technical skills necessarily, but like what are some of the skills that make like a really great OBM that someone may be listening is like, oh, that’s me, is this something I should be

Keldie Jamieson
looking into? So I don’t want to over generalize, but we all geek out on organization. So we love systems. We love colored post it notes and you know all those kinds of weird things. We’re great at planning. We love to have things organized systems in place. It’s also important to be good at leadership. So leading yourself and Leading the business in the team and even leading your clients. So leadership is a huge component of being an online business manager. But there’s project management involved launch management, we do some launch strategy, not necessarily giving the strategy but understanding it. So we can implement it, team management as well. And then we’re there to act as the partner and start taking things off of the CEOs plate, whether that’s coming to us or being delegated to an existing or a new team member. So we’re there to kind of shift the focus for the CEO from doing everything to doing just what they’re really brilliant at, and or where they need to have their focus for the team.

Laura Kåmark
That I think that’s a great description of that all. How did you get into all this? Like, if we can go back a little bit like what was sort of your backstory on getting into the world of online OBM.

Keldie Jamieson
So I’ve come from corporate and I was a business administration, bookkeeping, a general manager, and the business that I was working for was closing. And the opportunity came for things to change for me. So this was, oh, I guess it was maybe not quite 20 years ago, maybe it was more like 15 years or so ago, when this happened for me. And what was happening was, there was a shift happening in our family like I, my kids grew up before school, daycare, then they went to school, then they had after school care, then I would come home from my job from the commute, and we would have dinner and they would do their homework, maybe have a bath, and then they go to bed and the day kind of just cycled. I didn’t know any of the parents of my children. So they didn’t go with strangers to their house. Because I was working all the time. I never got to know the parents. So my kids were, let’s say, not the happiest. I mean, I’m sure they felt they were happy. But I could see that things were not as good as some of their friends. And what I noticed was that my youngest daughter stopped hugging me. So I could hug her and she would hug me back, but she would not come and instigate the hugs. And I was seeing this. And then as this opportunity, as I call it, even though the business was closing, and most people would be freaking out, I gotta go get a job. I was looking at this as an opportunity to reconnect. And so it was with intention that I left the business and I decided to leave, I was going to be a bookkeeper and a virtual assistant. I thought that’s what I had to be, I wanted to be someone’s virtual partner and work at a higher level. So I was calling myself a virtual partner. I wasn’t finding the right clients. But ultimately, what allowed me to reconnect with my daughter was becoming an online business mentor at first when I heard the term. And then I got the training. And then everything clicked in the online world to find actual remote online businesses to work with so that I could travel with my daughter when she was doing extracurricular activities, we got to reconnect. It’s just, it’s really interesting, because it took about two to three years. And I actually like with intention for me to reconnect with my daughter. So to let them start doing extracurricular stuff, to be a part of it to travel to be the place where all her friends could come after school because I could just listen. So I didn’t have to do anything, but I could be that ear if they needed it. And one day when I was dropping her off at another parents house to take her to a competition, you know, out in another city where they were going to spend the weekend, I couldn’t go for this one thing. So my daughter chose cheerleading, finally, after testing a bunch of things, but you know, dance and gymnastics was her thing. And when when I dropped her off, I went to get her suitcase. And when I gave her the suitcase at the door, she came up and hugged me and said, you know, Mom, I love you, I’m sorry, that you can’t come with us, you’re gonna miss such a good time it was she was she loved everything about what she was doing and where she was going. And I didn’t say anything, but I, you know, packed up, drove down the road, pulled over, called my husband and said, you know, our daughter just hugged me, and had a little cry. And he even said, Wow, this is great. Like this was done with intention. This is what you’ve been working for. It was very intentional, to leave corporate and to decide to start my own business and work online, so that I could reconnect. It was well worth it. And it did take time. Right? It takes a long time for them to trust you again. And I trust is maybe not the right word, but I feel like it kind of was because she couldn’t trust that I would be home that she could necessarily do all those activities when I was commuting. You know, and she’s always stuck in before and after school care. And then later she got to learn to trust me that I would be dropping her at school picking her up, her friends could come over, she could start to have a life again. And then that connection happens. So I did all of this. I mean, I did it for myself as well. But I really have to say that I did it with the intention of reconnecting with my daughter so, and it was well worth it.

Laura Kåmark
I love that so much. I think that’s something that we do talk about a lot in the online space is like, why are we all doing this, and I love hearing everyone’s story behind it. Like, for me, it was that I actually got laid off from my corporate job when I was pregnant with my first child. And it wasn’t expected. And it wasn’t necessarily intentional. For me to stay home. I had, like, you know, super secure corporate job. And but it didn’t make sense for me to go back to work, and not be home with this new baby. And so my husband, I just decided that we would figure out a way to make it work, because he’s also an entrepreneur, of course.

Keldie Jamieson
Yes, my husband as well. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, it’s,

Laura Kåmark
we make it work. And we do it intentionally so that we can have the freedom to make our own schedules to be there when our children need us. The end of last year, we were gone, we hadn’t traveled in a while. And you know, we took two weeks off when we went and visited my parents down in Mexico. And it was great to be able to have the space and freedom to do that. And, you know, spend my kids were like in the pool all day long, they loved it,

Unknown Speaker
it was so great. Their swimming skills are so much better now to which was so fun.

Laura Kåmark
But like it was great, it was a great time to spend time with family and just like have that freedom and not be locked into this like oh, well, you only get so many vacation days a year because that’s all you get.

Keldie Jamieson
And sometimes they don’t line up. So when when couples are like a two income family, and they both have jobs, sometimes it’s really difficult to get your vacation times and your schedules to line up. And if anything was to happen, then it’s also hard to reschedule. And what I love about working online and being an entrepreneur is that we can shift and pivot and move. Sometimes we’re on on a little bit too much when I say that, like we’re always thinking about our business. So even when we’re on vacation, sometimes we’re checking our email, those things can be difficult to let go of. But that would be the ultimate for a lot of entrepreneurs is to be able to go on vacation and not check your email. That’s going to be lovely. It’s hard. But I mean, it’s a goal. I think that is a goal for entrepreneurs and CEOs. If they can build a team that will allow them to completely unplug. Yep.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, absolutely. When do you see that people are ready to hire an OEM? Where are they usually at in their business where it’s, it’s time for them to bring someone else in to help them.

Keldie Jamieson
So every online business or every business needs people to do the task. So freelancers, virtual assistants, consultants coming in, are the first people that you usually hire. And you’re not ready for an online business manager until you have like consistent recurring revenue. And I like to kind of quote the number between 15 and $20,000 a month of revenue. And the reason I say that number is you need to be able to pay the team that you have that’s doing all the work, you need to pay your taxes, you need to pay yourself, because that’s why we got into business. And then you can bring in a manager who can start to take things off of your plate. And I always say that the manager comes last. And we want a long term relationship. So if we come in too early, you might feel like you’re going to take back the reins a little bit. So there needs to be that comfortable income level for an entrepreneur. So we’re looking around $200,000 A year typically, for them to bring in an online business manager, even just part time I liked. I like to work with a client that’s more like seven figures. I like a big team, I’m not techie. So I just give me all the team members who know what to do. Let me hire who I need to hire in and out when things need to happen. I don’t need to have someone as a full team, full time team member, that they could be a consultant that comes in to excuse me do a redesign or something like that. And then they can work with us for three to six months, and then they can leave and I’m all good with that. But an online business manager wants to be in your business long term. So we’re kind of thinking in the range of five to 10 hours a week is kind of like the minimum. So I would actually say like, I like seven and a half really like I really do like about 30 hours 30 to 40 hours a month is a really good amount of hours for an online business manager to make an impact. I know some people don’t actually agree with me, they think it’s less. But I think in order to make a really good impact on the team and serve the team and be there for the team as well as the entrepreneur and the CEO. You need to be in that business a little bit more. You’re running team meetings, you’re you know, finding out if the team needs your support sometimes, even though they’re contractors. They need a person to talk to When they’re struggling in their business or personally, it there’s a whole dynamic with building a team. And so you need to be that leader, you need to be planning ahead. 90 days, the annual planning, we’re doing operations, I mean, there’s so much planning launches that are going on, it would be hard to do all of those things on a regular basis, with a very minimal amount of hours that are going in. So just know that you need to know that you need to be ready financially, know that you need to have that level of work available. So if you think that you need an OBM, but then you ask them to only work like two hours a week. You don’t really need an OBM, right, so everyone wants one, but you don’t need one then. And if you’re a micromanager, who will not delegate, you are not ready for an OBM doesn’t matter if you make $10 million. If you’re a micromanager and won’t delegate off your own plate, then you’re not ready. So those are things that people need to look for. Are you ready? I mean, you can be a recovering micromanager. But you have to be willing to, to learn to trust your team so that you can let go because micromanaging is usually about trust. So

Laura Kåmark
and then what do you find that when someone does hire and OBM? How does their what is their business change? Has their life change? Like, what is it that that CEO now is able to free up? Well,

Keldie Jamieson
a lot of times, we are freeing up their time, and some people take that time and they put it back into their business. And some people put that into their personal life because they just need time and a way to breathe. They can go on maternity leave, and different things like that, go on vacations and unplug. What we’re looking to do is to actually be the partner for the CEO to help take some of the responsibility weight off of their plate. That’s really what we’re looking for. We’re looking to, to supply like a sigh of relief. Think of it that way. You’ve been struggling, you’ve been doing all the things yourself all the time, you’re managing the team, you’re even if the team’s doing the stuff, you’re still thinking, did they get it done? Do I have to check do I need to approve it? You know, it’s you know, I’m thinking about this did that social media posts go out or I saw someone comment and you’re like all over the place, you’re always on, you’ve done everything in your business. So now it’s a matter of having someone to come in who gets you who understands your values, understands the mission, and the vision of the business wants to be a part of your community and help your clients. And then they can help shoulder that load. Right. So they are going to shift it, you’re going to give things that maybe you’re not great at, or things that are just time consuming, that aren’t in the best interest of the business for you to be doing anymore, you’re going to shift those over to the business manager. So things you might keep might be sales conversations, it could be the marketing side, but you could hire a marketing manager as well. But typically, a lot of people that are new to hiring and OBM might actually still keep the marketing themselves the strategy and things like that. And then whatever it is that you do, that’s your service to your to your clients, whether that’s you’re a coach, or maybe you’re a service provider, and you’re really good at doing whatever it is that you do. And you’re still that person that does it. And then eventually, over time, as the business grows, you can even start to transition some of those things out more and more. So it’s really about giving you space to do whatever it is you need to do with that space, I never want to assume that it’s everyone says hire an OBM and you can scale your business to whatever, well maybe they want space because they’re happy with where they are, they can afford an OBM. And now they want to have a life as an entrepreneur. Oh,

Laura Kåmark
I love that so much. And I love giving them space that right there that that resonates with me so much, because that’s something that I know, I find a lot of clients are striving to get to that point where they can have that space because your business is growing. But then there’s just there’s so many ideas. Like I know I have a million ideas every day. I’m like, Oh, I could do this. And I could do that. Oh, what about this thing? And there’s a lot. There’s a lot that goes into running a business and trying to keep it all? Like, which ideas do you go forward with? Which ones do you put on the backburner for a little while and there’s a lot so

Keldie Jamieson
there is a lot and I just also want to say one thing when we get space because this happened for me actually, this fall. I made room for space for myself this year. And I achieved it. And then as an entrepreneur, you know, we’re online, we’re seeing things. And of course, I saw someone say, I just did this one little thing here, here and here. And you know, it doubled my revenue and all these things, right? And I was like, Oh, I could do that in my business. And I was starting to think about it what I could do with that space. And then the next morning I woke up and I went, What am I doing? I created that space for my personal side. Not for my business side and I had to wake up when I woke up it was like a relief. No, no, I’ve actually achieved what I was trying to achieve all year. But then when I felt it, I was like, I need to feel it, I need to feel it. So also know that as an entrepreneur, and OBM can help you fill it, but maybe we can also help remind you to fill it with something, not with all your business ideas. Just know know your vision, know your goal, know what you’re really looking for. And then if you need a reminder, like when you share that, Your OBM can actually remind you as well. But hey, you actually, you have this hour a day and you’re thinking about doing this now, why don’t you go for a run? Why aren’t you going to the gym? You said you wanted to go to the gym and be healthier? Why aren’t you volunteering at your kids school because you said you wanted to be able to do that. And you’re filling your space with work. So just know there’s different things that we can do. For a business owner.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. And I think that’s such a good reminder to, for us to all look at what we’re doing when we do get more space, how we’re filling that time, and is that in alignment with what we’re striving for in our big vision. So I love that. I would love to talk a little bit about your website and the tech that runs your business. You’ve mentioned a couple times already that you’re not very techy. And I definitely have we have listeners on the show that are not techie people, I would love to hear kind of the tech behind your business and how you as a non techie person, manage all of that.

Keldie Jamieson
So great question, what I do is, first of all, my website is on Kajabi. Because I’m not afraid of tech, I will learn Tech, I can do it. I don’t enjoy it, I am probably five times as slow as somebody who loves to do that kind of work. So I use Kajabi. Because it’s all in one, I can get an answer. I’m techie enough to you know, create a a website or a landing page, I have to tell you, I’m not great at making it look good. So I had learned WordPress years ago, because I thought that I needed to know it to be a virtual assistant before I became an online business manager. And I hated all of it. And when I put my website together, it was ugly. Like nobody would want me to build them a website, just first and foremost. I know what I like when I see it when other people do it, but my creative brain just doesn’t go there. So I use Kajabi. I use Cal Calendly for scheduling because it’s super easy. Zoom is really easy used to use Skype before that. What else do I use Camtasia. I’m learning. I’m so slow, but I don’t use it really anymore. I’ve farmed that off to my team. There’s so much faster and better at it than I could ever be. But as an entrepreneur, we learn to do all the things. So I’m actually going through a rebrand right now and my team is like wireframing out new stuff. There’s so much better at it. Like, what’s a wireframe? I would never have done that for myself. I would just be dragging dropping testing, you know, so I’m not afraid of tech. But I go to our Google. So I love Google workspace or Google. What do they call it now? Sweet? No, it’s like Google suite with workspaces.

Laura Kåmark
I know I still want to call it G Suite. Yeah, exactly.

Keldie Jamieson
So I use that. Dropbox Hello signs, I’ve learned those tools. I’ve used some others I’ve used keep when it was Infusionsoft. And I learned a little bit about keep. But what I needed to know as well in business manager was just the reporting like showing where the like the where I find my numbers for my data. I didn’t have to learn how to send the emails and I don’t even even I don’t even like doing that. And Kajabi I have to tell you, I don’t like pushing any of the buttons. It’s just not something that just doesn’t wake me up. I would rather talk to people, I would rather be planning out what what our next move is I would rather be looking in the project management tool and follow it following up. It just resonates because I come from, I guess that background, I love organizing, I used to do event management I was I’m the person people go to when they need to get stuff done. But I don’t actually want to push all the buttons I have not found any software that lights me up that I’m so excited to use close would be Canva that’s my sort of creative side. But even then, really, my team does things 1000 times better and faster than I could ever do them. Love that what

Laura Kåmark
um, how big is your team currently?

Keldie Jamieson
So I have I work with a virtual assistant agency, but on my team so I have my own OBM there as a project manager. I have a graphics person and a web person and a like video editor. And then I had someone do my logo and rebrand. So there’s like six and I will transcriptions seven. So there you go seven people. They all do, you know, part time or whatever varying things, but I have the same group of people all the time. And so because I’m small enough that I can work with an agency so it depends on how big you are so small enough to work with an agency If that I just find it enjoyable, because I get to know my team members. But you know, as as businesses get larger and larger, they might want to hire individuals that can take on more. So I just that was my route, I decided to go the agency route. Because it fit the way that I wanted to work this way, I could actually talk to just my OBM, or the project manager pretty much, and then not have to worry about the rest of it. You know, even though I’ve done that for clients, where I check in with all the team, but I was trying to not be my own OBM. That’s where I was headed with that

Laura Kåmark
makes so much sense. What At what point did you start growing your team?

Keldie Jamieson
Really, about two years ago, I was like doing it myself. So as an online business manager, I was really not advertising for myself. So the first 10 years of business, I did not have a website at all, I would write it out like all of the content, and then I would get a client and I would shove it in the drawer. And then a year or two later, I would be looking for a client. And I would take it out. And I’m like, Oh, I learned this. And I do this now and whatever. And then I would update it. And then I would go to update, or think about doing the website. And I’d get a client and I shove it in the drawer. So I got all my clients through word of mouth referral, and through the RFP process through the International Association of online business managers. So I didn’t feel the need to actually make the website because I knew I didn’t want to maintain it and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, I really got a team probably about two years ago, where I like was all in and just, I’m just gonna get the team. And, you know, I looked actually it’s interesting, because I’ve worked with so many people when I selected the agency, I followed them for a good year or so before while I was still humming and hawing and humming and hawing. And then I found someone that had the same value system and team development, things going on that I think are really important. And then when the time was right, I just bit the bullet and did it. And then I was very happy that I did.

Laura Kåmark
I think you just touched on a really interesting point, too, that I think as business owners, we all need to remember is you were following someone for over a year. And that’s how long it can take sometimes longer sometimes it’s rare. I feel like that’s not always talked about in again, the online space where we’re looking for getting more clients and building relationships. And it’s it’s a long game, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time for us to grow our businesses. And that’s okay. And just remember that, like, as you’re planting those seeds and building those relationships, it’s having those discovery calls. And just because it didn’t turn into a yes right now doesn’t mean it’s a no, it’s just an A lot of times not right now. And there’s a lot of times, I know I’ve had clients that come back later, and are ready to move forward. Because sometimes it just takes time.

Keldie Jamieson
And just in this economy, there’s like a trend going on right now that we’re seeing, and people are still buying, but they’re taking longer to make a decision. That’s what’s been happening over the last year or so. So when people are worried that there’s nobody out there who is hiring, it’s not that we’re not. And it’s not that we’re not buying digital products or courses and different things, but we are taking longer to make a decision of where that money is going. So we’re we’re more cautious. And so we’re looking for that relationship, we’re looking to follow to make sure that the person that we’re going to be investing our money with, however, that Lux is, you know, similar to us with our values, or whatever it is that we’re looking for, it’s not as simple. It’s not like going to the store anymore, it is a little bit longer period. So if it took you I would say not that it’s doubled the time. But let’s say somebody was more like a two or three month lead. Now it’s like a six month lead time.

Laura Kåmark
Absolutely. Absolutely. What would you say is some of the one of the biggest challenges that you’ve overcome since

Keldie Jamieson
starting your business? Confidence, for sure. I thought I was confident coming from corporate and leadership, I was confident but I wasn’t always confident in tech. And I think that some of my clients because of the level that they were in the online space was a little intimidating a couple of times. And then I learned and got more confidence just by being in their business and realizing they were just the same to me as the corporate world except things were a little more flowy when we got in there. But yeah, I think confidence is something that’s really happened for me over the years and then just calm in realizing that no business is perfect. So as an online business manager, what’s kind of great is when we do work for those clients that might seem like they have it all together. They’re, they’re hiring you because they have a problem. And so as any service provider when someone’s hiring you, and you’re kind of fan girling on them or whatever, they have a problem. And then when you get in the back end, you’re like, Oh, they’re as messed up as I am. They’re just like, all bright and shiny from the front end. I’m not. But you know, it’s just that that revelation is nice to have as well. So confidence and that I’m literally not alone in how I’m doing things.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that. That’s yeah, I can relate to that so much. I was just talking with a colleague the other day about how we, it seems like people are so have it all figured out all put together. And then when you actually talk with them, one on one, if you get are able to get a glimpse of kind of what’s behind the curtain, it’s we’re all still trying to figure this out. It’s not. We’re all we all have the same struggles, it might look like it’s all perfect and polish from the outside. But it’s really not

Keldie Jamieson
it not. It’s not those seven figure business owners, eight figure business owners, they’re struggling, they just it’s different struggles, like everyone goes through different phases in their business. So they’re in a different phase. But I kind of feel like we’re always struggling in some fashion. And we’re learning new lessons all the time.

Laura Kåmark
Absolutely. Oh, my gosh, I love that. What would you say I’m, I’m a big fan of like celebrating our wins, and like really congratulating ourselves. So what’s something that you’re really proud of that you’ve accomplished in your business?

Keldie Jamieson
Literally, this past year, I actually slowed down, but I made great income. So it was kind of like that slowing down to speed up or to ramp up. I’m not sure. But I feel very intentional with what I was focused on in this past year. And I like I said, in this fall, in the fall, I realized that I had this space that I created. And it feels good to know that I can do that. So again, more confidence in that, but I’m feeling really proud about not being as anxious anymore. I’m definitely more calm. And I’m not very Woo. But I’m kind of like, you know, things take care of themselves. And I kind of seem to be in that space right now. So I’m, I’m enjoying it. I’m just enjoying. Not working so hard. I guess that’s the thing. That was my big lesson for the year that I was working on. Not wanting to work hard. Maybe smarter, but just not harder. Work doesn’t have to be hard. Even if that’s a lesson we learned when we were children, hard work hard work, hard work. And then you see other people and you’re thinking they’re not doing anything, but they actually are. But just a good lesson to learn is that work doesn’t have to be hard. And I’m still learning that lesson. So don’t think I’m over it. Anybody. It’s something that we have to remind ourselves of, right? It’s it’s like a subliminal thought that pops up, oh, I don’t want to do that thing. Because it’s going to be hard. That will be hard work. And sometimes you have to let go of that. And just know that it might be work. But it doesn’t have to be hard work. It could be enjoyable work. It could be energizing work. So just rewiring our brains on some of the things the beliefs we have or the stories we tell ourselves

Laura Kåmark
that I think it’s so important, because yet the stories that we tell ourselves, I had a mentor who said once if you’re going to tell stories make it a good one. So when we’re sitting there wondering why, you know, someone said no to a proposal, and you’re making it a good story, don’t make it about you, it’s probably not about you. Probably has nothing to do with you. But there’s so so many times we internalize it and make it about us when really it has nothing to do with us. So

Keldie Jamieson
100% For sure. Yeah. Oh, my goodness,

Laura Kåmark
I would love to know, what are you doing in the industry that’s kind of making waves, what are you doing different than other OEMs other OEM trainers, what’s what’s kind of your, your stand.

Keldie Jamieson
So I am a licensed trainer for the association. So the associate International Association of OEMs used to train their own people. And then they got to the point where they needed to offload that. So I was one of the founding trainers to have my own business. That was a huge transition, I went from being a day to day OBM working in the background to being someone who has to stand to the light now market themselves. And I was a whole business model shift. So it was kind of like starting over again. And what I love about what I’m doing is I actually work with less students, but more in depth. So that is one of the things that makes me a little bit different. So you get to come through the association, get all the benefits and the support and the curriculum is all supplied by the association. And then I also do coaching and mentoring and then teach some of the not the tech but maybe some strategy ideas that people need to know about as well. That’s outside that curriculum. So I, what I do differently is, I am like all in on my students just like I was with my clients. So when people train with me, they have less students in the cohorts on purpose. And they get more access to me as a mentor for whatever that is. And in fact, my alumni get me forever, because I literally have alumni calls. So they get support from the association coaching and mentoring twice a month with the Association, and then they get to more of those with me forever. So I give I give more access than I think most trainers do. I have a lot of experience doing this. I’ve been a certified OBM for 10 years. And I don’t think there’s anything out there that trains OEMs, anywhere close to the level that we do inside the association, because literally the founder of the association wrote the book, becoming an online business manager more than 10 years ago, that term came from that error, like it was called, I’m pretty sure she coined that phrase. And then a lot of people think they know what it is, and they think they know from reading the website, but until you’ve been through the training, to understand the level that we hold you to, it’s a different level, like we have expectations and values and things that people have to adhere to, when they are a member of the association. So I love that support. So I think that’s different than a lot of the trainers out there. And then just from a personal level, literally, whatever you need, I’m here for you, I’ll help you with client stuff, I help my people with contracts, they have a client problem, their client has a problem. And they need another opinion from somebody that’s been doing it for a very long time. They can come and ask me anything. So I’m always all in my students get a lot of stuff when they can. It’s just it’s, it’s, it’s interesting to me, sorry about that. It’s interesting to me, because a lot of people want to put lots of people through OBM training, just numbers, just draw my program, whatever. And I thought I wanted that too. Because we all see bright, shiny objects, someone else is doing it. And then I ended up with a cohort that had more than 10 people in it. I think I was 12 or 15. And I was exhausted, because I was still giving the kind of access that I wanted to give. So then I learned Yeah, no, I don’t want to do that. I feel like I was letting the students down, not giving them the energized me. They were getting the exhausted me. And so now I won’t ever have more than 10 people in any kind of a cohort that goes forward, because I just can’t handle the level of support that I feel like they need to have access to without paying extra because I know some trainers in the past or other programs, they put you in the program. But if you need extra support, you have to pay them for private coaching. I don’t do that with with my people. It’s like come to my twice a month coaching calls whenever you want to ask and get extra support, besides the sport they already get. So I don’t believe in people paying you and then charging them extra to get more support in what you’re training them on.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah, I mean, you’re providing high touch. Yes, it touch support. And I love that I’m I’m definitely one of those people that I appreciate high touch support. I know I give my clients a lot of high touch support, when they have anything website tech related that comes up. And that’s something I mean, and I enjoy it because I enjoy building those relationships with my clients. That to me is my favorite part.

Keldie Jamieson
Yeah, that’s, that’s fine, too. I love meeting people. Everyone’s so different. I love meeting diverse people. So the high touch part, I agree. I think I’ve always did that as an OBM. And I’m no different working with people that want to become OBM is the same thing. What what do you need from me? How can I help?

Laura Kåmark
That’s a much Keldie I could talk to you all day. This has been so much fun. I do we are getting close to our time. And I do have one final question that I asked everyone who comes on the show. And that is what is one piece of advice you would give to someone when they are first starting out. That would help them be bolder, be louder and make waves in their business.

Keldie Jamieson
Just be yourself. Literally Be authentic show up as who you are. You’re not going to be for everyone. Not everyone’s gonna like you. You don’t like everybody else. Not every client is the right fit for you. You need to look for clients that are going to suit your business. So don’t be afraid to be yourself. If you’ve got tattoos, maybe you swear maybe whatever is different about you that you think you need to hide, don’t hide. Just show up as yourself and you’ll find success with the right people with clients that are happy to work with you and that you’re happy to work with.

Laura Kåmark
I love that so much such great advice. Can you tell our listeners where they can find out more about you your program and hang out with you online

Keldie Jamieson
Yes, you can find me at OBMleadershipacademy.com. And you can learn about, you know, an OB M Essentials Kit. So kind of like what people are looking for in an OBM, you’ll see a great definition definition between a VA and OBM and what that looks like. And yeah, and you can follow me I have a, I’m on Instagram, but not really. I’m more on Facebook. You know, I’m that older generation. And so yeah, just look for Keldie Jamieson and on the I mean, my name is unique. So I pretty much if you just Google my name, you’ll find me somewhere. But yeah, I’d love to see people over at OBM Leadership Academy. And if you’re looking to hire an OBM, I can help people with that, as well as people that are looking to become an online business manager. So both

Laura Kåmark
wonderful. I will link all that up in the show notes. Keldie, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I really appreciate having you on the show and hearing your story.

Keldie Jamieson
Thank you, Laura. Thank you for having me.

Laura Kåmark
Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode. Be sure to check out the show notes at Laurakamark.com/podcast. And if you’re ready to turn your website into a marketing machine, get more sales, save time and simplify the back into your business. Grab my free resource power integrations for your website. Head on over to Laurakamark.com/power. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week. Bye now.