66. From Yes-Person to $7K Months: How Service Providers Can Scale Without the Hustle

Are you tired of feeling like you have to say “yes” to everything just to keep your business afloat? In this episode, I’m sharing how you can still say “yes” to the right opportunities—but in a way that feels aligned, strategic, and profitable. It’s not about saying no to growth; it’s about saying yes to the things that support your business goals without burning you out.

I’ll walk you through the exact framework that helps virtual assistants, OBMs, and service providers scale to $7K+ months while working less. You’ll learn how to set boundaries without shutting doors, create offers that serve both you and your clients, and make decisions that support your long-term growth. This is about creating a business that feels expansive, not exhausting.

If you're a virtual assistant, OBM, or online service provider ready to create a business that feels spacious, profitable, and aligned, this episode is your roadmap to scaling with ease.

Key Points Covered:

✨ How to say “yes” without sacrificing your time or energy

✨ The framework that helps service providers scale to $7K+ months

✨ Why boundaries aren’t about saying “no,” but about choosing aligned opportunities

✨ How to create offers that serve both your clients and your business goals

✨ The mindset shift from overworked VA to strategic service provider

✨ Simple strategies to work less while increasing your income

🚀 Ready to scale your business with ease? Discover how my 1:1 EXPANSION Program can help you create a peaceful, profitable business, without the hustle. Learn More →

💫 Tired of exhausting discovery calls? Master the art of selling with ease by creating your own Signature Framework inside my low-ticket mini-course, FRAMEWORK FLOW. Start Now →

Thank you for being a part of the Soulpreneur Scaling Stories community!

FREE RESOURCES
🔗 Free Business Growth Resources
(⬆️ Peaceful Profit Vault, Burnout to Balance Free Masterclass & The Aligned Offer Suite Roadmap)

LET'S CONNECT
📸 Instagram
🧵 Threads
👩🏼‍🏫 LinkedIn
🎥 YouTube
💻 Website

WAYS I CAN SERVE YOU
✨ 1:1 Business Coaching
⭐️ Core Offer Alignment Intensive
👩🏽‍💻 Framework Flow Mini-Course (use code PREMIUM for a special discount)

🎧 Podcast produced and edited with love by @FerAssists 🩵

Transcript

[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Andrea here, your host and passionate business coach and scaling strategist for Soulful Service Providers and Coaches. Welcome to another episode of Soulpreneur Scaling Stories. Have you ever wanted to look behind the curtain of your fellow entrepreneur's business to see what actually went into scaling it?

[00:00:22] Well, you are in for a treat because that's exactly what we are doing here. In each episode, we will be uncovering the truth the lessons and the stories behind what it truly takes for solepreneurs to scale their businesses intentionally. I'm hoping that their stories will help you to unlock the true potential of your business so you can create your own soulful, abundant, and aligned laptop lifestyle through intentional scaling.

[00:00:46] So whether you're just starting out on your scaling journey, or you're a seasoned entrepreneur seeking inspiration, this episode has something incredible in store for you. Are you ready to rise, grow, and create? Create a business that fully supports your dream life. Well, let's [00:01:00] dive in before we begin, make sure to hit that subscribe buttons.

[00:01:03] You never miss an empowering episode filled with real stories and soulful insights.

[00:01:11] Hello. Okay today. I really want to talk about something that I see. So much of, and that is

[00:01:19] when my clients and I used to do this so much.

[00:01:23] Being afraid of saying no.

[00:01:25] How can you grow your business while saying no to things that you don't actually want to do?

[00:01:30] So a lot of online service providers, my virtual assistants, my OBMs feel trapped. 

[00:01:36] Like you have to say yes to every car Kline request, every client, all the things, because you think that, oh, this is how I grow. This is how I earn more money. Et cetera, et cetera. That I am going to.

[00:01:52] Disprove. So let's get into it. So I'm going to show you the new way that's working in 2025 to rapidly, but peacefully grow [00:02:00] your income without taking on every client, every task, every thing that comes your way. 

[00:02:05] So today we're going to talk about why this. Traditional way of operating. As a kind of like general list, like do all the things, why it's not working, why it's outdated. The surprisingly simple approach that will attract naturally your premium clients who respect your boundaries and who pay more money. And the exact framework that my clients are using right now to do this, to grow their income while being selective, while doing the things that they actually love. So I'm going to lay out some scenarios that I am sure that you have probably experienced in your virtual assistant OBM service provider. Lifetime. 

[00:02:43] So

[00:02:44] getting a slack message late at night at 9:00 PM with a quick question that turns into this hour long emergency tasks you feel you have to do right now.

[00:02:53] Opening emails, but cringing from certain clients, because you will know that there will be a last minute request in there. That's not [00:03:00] really a thing that you love doing, but you feel like you have to say yes to anyways, right? 

[00:03:04] Because their client, you don't want to let them down. Whatever things.

[00:03:08] Starting off your week, juggling seven different client projects, across five different management tools. Doing everything under the sun from basic admin to complex tech work. Not really. Like doing the, one of the things that you're not particularly amazing at, and then you don't love.

[00:03:24] Finding yourself procrastinating on some things until late at night, because deep down you really hate doing it. 

[00:03:30] You don't want to, but you're really afraid of letting it go. Of saying no, you're afraid of saying no, because what if. You lose out? What if saying no. Is. The thing that makes your business go down the drain. You know what if you say no, and that's why you have to go back to a nine to five and you don't get to do this anymore.

[00:03:52] And maybe a potential client is like, oh, I'd love to work with you. 

[00:03:55] But these are the things that I need. And half of what this person said are things that maybe you [00:04:00] don't know how to do, or that are outside of your expertise. Or are things that you know how to do, but you really dislike doing. And you just say, sure, I can do all of that. I'll figure it out. Even though, you know, You know, in your soul that this is going to be stressful. 

[00:04:13] It's going to be time-consuming. All right, so what's going on here? So now.

[00:04:19] When I started in 2019 as a virtual assistant. I was this person. I was this person where I said yes, to all things, to all the clients, social media management, shore website updates, of course, you know, setting up a complex automation sequence that I didn't really know how to do. 

[00:04:34] Why not? I bent myself into a pretzel, trying to be everything to anyone. And let me say that there is a time and a place to do this. And this is particularly at the start of your business, especially if you came from a different area and you're not familiar with all the different opportunities out there. 

[00:04:53] This is also a way that I learned what I liked and what I didn't like. Right. By trying all of this stuff out.

[00:04:58] I came from nursing. [00:05:00] Before that psychology. So. This was all new to me. So I said yes to all of the things. And part of it was, I could figure out what I actually liked doing.

[00:05:10] However, there are people who do this far, far too long. And this is not what we want to see. So in my case, I spent so much time watching YouTube tutorials, trying to figure out tasks. That I wasn't that great at that. I didn't love doing, I procrastinated on a number of things. I made mistakes because I was trying to fit it all in. 

[00:05:30] I was trying to rush, there were a lot of things that I had a lack of confidence in. You know, and I was working so much, but I was making a lot of mistakes, not earning so much because I was doing a lot of, I was just doing too much, too many random things. And this is why this approach fails spectacularly. Here's what happens when you do all the things? 

[00:05:50] When you don't say no. You take on these misaligned clients or these misaligned tasks and every single one adds an exponential layer of [00:06:00] complexity. So things just don't add a little bit, every time you add something different things get more complex and this really multiplies. So it's not this linear complexity, right. 

[00:06:09] It's a really exponential and. Because of that, you don't really get to improve and get amazing at the things that you love. You really stay mediocre at doing a lot of things. So you're very broad. And very mediocre. You need 176 different tools and systems for everything that you do. And mentally when you're switching between so many different types of tasks, You do this context, switching that really hurts your productivity because you're not just there, like okay. 

[00:06:43] Automatically. Okay. Let me stop this. Go into that. It takes time in your brain to build a transition from one thing into the next.

[00:06:49] And it's really difficult. Andy. Efficiency. If you've got it, there's no processes or no efficiency. Cause everybody's different. Everybody has different needs. Everybody prefers to communicate on a different platform. 

[00:06:59] [00:07:00] They all, you know, like every single thing is different.

[00:07:02] So you cannot be efficient. You cannot have processes or any systems.

[00:07:07] in addition to all of those things, your energy gets so drained.

[00:07:11] When you're doing things you don't love when you're working with clients that you don't love, you need energy in order to work on your own business, but you don't have that. You spend hours learning tasks that you'll rarely do again. And it's interesting because when you're working outside, like doing things that you don't necessarily love, and maybe you're not the most amazing ad. This impacts how you're feeling mentally. 

[00:07:36] So this really impacts your own imposter syndrome. This creeps in so much when you're working outside of your area of expertise.

[00:07:43] There's a procrastination cycle going on. That creates more stress. And again, the mental load of juggling so many different things is really exhausting.

[00:07:52] And again, it's this whole generalist.

[00:07:55] Theme. 

[00:07:56] So saying yes to all the things. It means that you are in [00:08:00] generalist clients, see you as a generalist, clients pay you as a task doer.

[00:08:07] Because you're not out here saying that you're solving their problems. You don't say I have a solution for this. You say I can do all of these things.

[00:08:15] You attract clients who want to pay less, who wants somebody who can do all the things. And this is a more difficult client to work with.

[00:08:24] You compete with everybody, you don't stand out. 

[00:08:26] You blend in with the crowd. There's nothing that makes you unique and special.

[00:08:31] And almost, I would say most importantly, there's a ceiling. There's a time ceiling. There's an income ceiling. There's a rate ceiling. So you automatically cap your entire business. You cannot grow. You don't have systems. 

[00:08:45] You can't work harder. You don't have an incentive. Sorry, not harder, faster, or you can't work faster. And you don't have an incentive to do that. Because. If you're really amazing at something and really fast now you're penalized for doing it faster and that's a silly way. [00:09:00] You know, to function, to run a business. 

[00:09:03] There's no scaling. There's no growth. There's no anything book beyond trading time for money. There's no clear path on how to do that.

[00:09:10] So let's ditch plot. We don't want to work that way. This is not the business system for 2025. So if this is your current business, Amazing. It's been working for you now. 

[00:09:22] I have something for you that is going to completely elevate everything. And help you to transition into. 

[00:09:31] Getting more profits peacefully. And here's what it is.

[00:09:36] It is having a strategic core offer. That has a matching trust-building offer.

[00:09:42] And this is not any core offer. This is an offer built around your personal unique magic around your zone of genius. And let me tell you why this changes everything in your business.

[00:09:53] The really cool thing.

[00:09:55] Is that any service can become a premium specialty. When [00:10:00] packaged strategically.

[00:10:02] Let me say that again. You don't have to necessarily give up.

[00:10:07] The variety.

[00:10:08] You just have to organize it in a different way. 

[00:10:12] And this is the thing that makes it a core offer. This is the thing.

[00:10:17] That makes it so you can have systems.

[00:10:20] This is the thing that makes it so you can work more efficiently. And this is the thing that makes it so you can communicate the transformation.

[00:10:29] Get the premium clients save time and grow your business way more peacefully than what you're doing before.

[00:10:35] Let me tell you how

[00:10:36] so it can be anything. 

[00:10:37] It can range from inbox management, project coordination.

[00:10:40] Tech. Content creation. There is a way to transform whatever you love doing into a premium offer that naturally attracts higher paying clients. And it's by having a core offer with a clear framework.

[00:10:56] And I'm going to give you an example in a minute.

[00:10:58] So when you have [00:11:00] this, this core offer with a clear framework, you're going to automatically attract clients who say, oh, that person specializes in this thing. 

[00:11:07] You're going to become known for that thing.

[00:11:09] And when you become known for that thing,

[00:11:12] And you solve a specific problem extremely well with your framework, that makes you sound really fancy. You get to charge premium rates and nobody's questioning at. Right. Nobody's like, why is she charging so much? 

[00:11:24] I was like, oh, instead they're like, oh, this sounds great. This is exactly what I need.

[00:11:30] Because you have a core. Offer you get to create repeatable systems that let you work more efficiently. So now you don't have to work so much. It becomes easier. Your marketing also becomes effortless. Because now you're talking about what you do best. You have a way to talk about it.

[00:11:50] You have the natural messaging and language that come that your framework for this core offer gives you. And now you're working in [00:12:00] transformation. 

[00:12:01] You're telling people the transformation you give them and not the tasks that you will do.

[00:12:06] Now you also get to break free from hourly pricing that penalizes you from being efficient for being good at what you do.

[00:12:13] You are.

[00:12:14] Now automatically a strategic expert you've changed nothing. But now you're an expert. You're not just somebody who does tasks.

[00:12:22] Now you have a proven process that you get to systematize your messaging. 

[00:12:27] Again, speaks directly to your ideal client's specific challenges. And now you're not competing with anybody else. You are your own comp. You're not even, there's no competition. Because you're the one that people think about. Right. So let me share a real example.

[00:12:42] So one of my clients was a general VA doing. A bunch of things, right? 

[00:12:46] Inbox management, social media, website updates. But instead of trying to say, okay, I am the person who does all these tasks like she is doing before we worked together to create.

[00:12:57] Her.

[00:12:58] Framework her core offer her [00:13:00] CEO support system. And this framework focuses on systems and operations. I'm going to tell you what it looks like, but let me tell you what happened after she implemented this. Instead of juggling 12 clients who wanted everything under the sun, she worked with just for premium clients.

[00:13:17] She completes her work in three focused days per week.

[00:13:21] Her income went from three K to seven K

[00:13:25] while working on her client works three days a week.

[00:13:28] She also gets to have clear boundaries built into her framework, which is amazing. She never has to say yes to work that she doesn't want, because she said, this is what I do. And. What are the client's work. 

[00:13:42] They kind of get funneled into that. So there's no room before these other outside things. And that makes her business way more fun to do. So, let me show you how this works. So instead of random tasks, like, okay, this is what I do. I do email management, calendar, [00:14:00] website updates, social media, posting, team coordination, and project management. That's how you communicate the tasks that you do. 

[00:14:06] This is not what gets you premium clients.

[00:14:09] What gets you premium clients is saying that I will deliver you a specific transformation. And I do this through my CEO support system that has three clear phases. Phase one is that we do an operations audit. 

[00:14:25] So I'm going to review your current systems. I'm going to identify roadblocks bottlenecks, gonna map out essential workflows. I'm going to create a plan. Then we're going to move into phase two.

[00:14:36] We're going to optimize your systems.

[00:14:38] So what we're going to have an email management protocol. We're going to structure your calendar. 

[00:14:42] We're going to have a task organization system and a team communication flow. And then once those were set up, then in phase three, we're moving to quilt support and in growth support, we're going to have workflow automation, team coordination, progress tracking, and strategic planning.

[00:14:59] So [00:15:00] it's the same thing, but do you see how, when you package it up differently?

[00:15:04] It now she's not a task to her anymore. 

[00:15:08] Handling random requests. Now she's positioned as a strategic partner helping her CEO scale.

[00:15:15] It's the same tasks. But they're structured in a way that shows a clear progression and results. They're structured in a way that justifies premium pricing. That creates natural boundaries that makes the deliverable super clear. 

[00:15:27] And that attracts clients who value systems. This is how you transform from being seen as a general admin VA to being viewed as a strategic operations expert without necessarily changing what you do. Just how you package and present it.

[00:15:43] So the key, isn't saying no more often, it's having a strategic offer that naturally attracts the right clients and repels the wrong ones. Because when you are known for doing one thing exceptionally well, you don't have to turn away clients because the wrong ones won't approach you in the [00:16:00] first place anymore. You are going to naturally attract the most amazing clients that you want to work with.

[00:16:05] So can you see by how having the strategic core offer along with this trust-building offer? 

[00:16:10] Because let me.

[00:16:11] Give you a little bonus in this episode.

[00:16:13] Because having this trust building offer makes it really easy. It's a smaller offer that makes it easy for somebody to say yes.

[00:16:20] And with that then naturally step into the bigger offer your core offer, because then they can see, oh, this is actually a lot of work to do. 

[00:16:27] And yes, please help me do that. So it makes it really easy to have clients work with you. So can you see having this setup will make it natural to say no to misaligned work?

[00:16:38] It will attract premium clients who respect your boundaries and will allow you to earn more while working less. And I want to also throw in here that. If you are ready to step into this peaceful, profitable business structure that is built specifically around doing things that you love only, and your strengths, I would love to invite you into my [00:17:00] one-on-one.

[00:17:01] Expansion is a signature three-month experience

[00:17:04] where are going to transform your business. 

[00:17:05] And it has three phases. There is a pre-phase as well, because I start everything with cleaning up and optimizing

[00:17:11] my client's business structure. So that way from the start, you can create more time, money, and energy. And then in phase one and it's called eliminate, we get really clear on the foundations, your a vision, your values, your personal unique magic.

[00:17:25] And this helps you to understand what exactly what makes you exceptional and how to build your business around Jordan actual, your natural strengths and not somebody else's blueprint.

[00:17:35] And then we move on to phase two. Which is where we create the core offer and the trust-building offer that feels really effortless to sell because it's so aligned perfectly with your strengths and your passions.

[00:17:46] We have your framework, clear boundaries, establish the strategic pricing that really reflects your true value. 

[00:17:52] And then in phase three is where we get to do all the fun stuff with your marketing, your messaging

[00:17:57] to create it. So it's so magnetic, it's simple, effective [00:18:00] lunch plan. I have a system for marketing. So that way it's really easy to follow.

[00:18:05] And you won't have to even think about it anymore after we set it up, it'll take very little time. 

[00:18:10] So that while you were out there, you get known for doing this thing that you love doing, and immediately stand out as the go-to person to do that. So with this in three months, working on this, you get a scalable stress-free business that doubles your profits in half the time. So I really, really invite you to connect with me. 

[00:18:29] You will see all my links below, so feel free to DM me. I mostly hang out on Instagram.

[00:18:35] If you DME with expansion, I will share all the details and write if you are listening to this around in this. I'm recording. It'll be out, I think in January, February. Right now I have, this is in beta and it is half off. It is an amazing, amazing deal. 

[00:18:50] You get so much, so I'm super excited to help you create a business that is, that brings you a peaceful profits.

[00:18:57] So I will catch you guys on the next one. 

[00:18:59] [00:19:00] Thank you so much for joining us today. I really hope you found inspiration and insights from today's episode. You know, scaling your business intentionally and from the inside out is a transformational process, but I'm here to support you every step of the way. Head on over to dancingleafsolutions. com slash resources for free tools to help you do just that.

[00:19:25] And thank you again for being a part of the Soulpreneur Scaling Stories community. Your presence and dedication to growth inspire me every day.