86. How to Transform from Reactive Online Service Provider to Strategic CEO (My Personal Story)

Ever feel like you're the assistant in your own business instead of the CEO? You're not alone.

In this deeply personal episode, I'm sharing my journey from scattered OBM to soul-aligned coach, and the exact moment I realized that my "successful" business was actually running me instead of the other way around.

If you've ever felt stretched thin by client work, stuck reacting to everyone else's priorities, or wondered how your business started controlling your life instead of supporting it, this episode will resonate deeply. I'm pulling back the curtain on what "success" really looked like behind the scenes and the breaking point that changed everything.

The truth is, most service providers accidentally become assistants in their own businesses. We think flexibility and constant availability make us valuable, but they often lead to chaos, burnout, and loss of direction. When you're operating inside everyone else's business instead of your own, it's impossible to build something truly scalable and fulfilling.

In this episode, I share the mindset shift that transformed everything: moving from "What do my clients need?" to "What actually lights me up?" This isn't just about feeling good (although you will) — building around your unique magic is the smartest business strategy you can implement.

Key Points Covered:

✨ Why being "fully booked" can actually mean you're losing control of your business

✨ The daily reality behind a "successful" OBM business (spoiler: it was chaotic)

✨ The breaking point that made me question everything

✨ How I reclaimed my voice and rebuilt around my strengths

✨ What true business alignment actually feels like

✨ Why your unique magic isn't just nice-to-have — it's your competitive advantage

If you're ready to stop being the assistant in your own business and start leading something extraordinary, this episode will show you exactly how to make that shift.

💫 Grab my free Premium Offer Starter Kit mentioned in this episode at dancingleafsolutions.com/resources

💌 DM me "UNIQUE MAGIC" on Instagram @soulfulbizcoachandrea to share what lights you up most in your business

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

FREE RESOURCES
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(⬆️ Live Business Growth Trainings for VAs & OBMs, The Premium Offer Starter Kit, Peaceful Profit Vault)

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🎧 Podcast produced and edited with love by @FerAssists 🩵

Transcript

Andrea Elibero: [00:00:00] Andrea here, your host and passionate business coach and scaling strategist for soulful service providers and coaches. Welcome to another episode of Solepreneur 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?

Well, you are in for a treat 'cause that's exactly what we are doing here. In each episode, we will be uncovering the truth of the lessons and the stories behind what it truly takes for sold entrepreneurs 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.

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 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.

You never miss an empowering episode filled with real stories and soulful insights.

Hello and welcome back to Solepreneur Scaling Stories. Today I have something very special for you. We're talking about me. I promise you, obviously I'm going to bring it back to you, but this is a very important lesson from my business that will 100% relate to you.

So. The theme of what we are talking about is when I realized I had accidentally become the assistant in my own business instead of the CEO.

And if you have ever felt really stretched thin by client work, stuck in the day-to-day grind, or wondering how.

You got to this point where you feel like your business is actually running you. This episode is for you, so let's dive in.

All right, so we are rewinding to about three years ago

[00:02:00] when I was an OBM retainer.

Clients had like four retainer clients, something like that, fully booked, making my income goals on the outside. Everything looked great

and my clients were happy. Everything was going well, quote unquote, on the outside. However, behind the scenes was a different story.

My brain, I felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane.

I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions because although as an OBM you only have a few clients,

there's so much that pops up.

Day to day, minute to minute, like things like that because I'm the one in charge of everything.

So I would be jumping from pointing out one fire for one client

to going over here doing launch tasks and making last minute changes, helping the team or another client.

Overseeing automations, email automations for the other client, putting together a strategy

for a [00:03:00] membership for another client, et cetera, et cetera.

Everything felt really chaotic.

And it wasn't because I was unorganized. It was because that's the nature of

retainer, hourly retainer work when you're doing these general things.

And I was available for. Everything. I was the person in charge of the running of these people's businesses

and that's what it was. Right? I didn't make this up. That's like what an OBM does when you do general OBM work.

And initially when I did this and for a while, it felt good, right? Like I felt like I have great responsibility.

I was. Doing a great job. Um, the fact that I was available for my clients for whatever they needed, and because I was flexible, I was serving them so well, serving them so well. However, over time, it was something that [00:04:00] got to me and really made a difference in my own life, my own business, and how I was functioning Really day to day,

there got to a point where it wasn't my business anymore.

Right? I was really just. Operating inside of other people's businesses without making mine a priority.

So.

Let's like dive in even a little more and get real with some of the details. 'cause I know that some of you are living the same exact thing right now because I talked to you and I know how it is.

Um,

I actually, I had one client who at that time

would leave me daily,

10 minute, no joke.

Voice notes on WhatsApp.

Nothing like urgent requests, things like that. It was stream of consciousness that I had to sift through that I had to listen to, that I had to respond to

thoughtfully,

you know, because that's what was expected. That's, I don't know how she processed things.

I had, you know, other people who are amazing clients like.

Lovely person, but I had other clients who would text [00:05:00] me,

you know, or message me on Slack. Um, quick questions, but maybe like a bunch at a time. And it would turn into deeper things. Bigger things. 'cause it always does. Other ones who would do last minute changes and, oh, I wanna launch this thing next week.

You know, all you, you know what I'm talking about. Right?

So because of all the things going on and all of the details in doing this type of work,

I couldn't turn my brain off

even when I wasn't working, even if I'm just watching tv, like whatever.

I was always constantly thinking, oh, did I miss something?

What was going on? There was a lot to manage.

I was juggling everybody else's priorities except for my own.

And the worst part was that I didn't even have the mental space to fully process what was going on and how I felt about it and how it was affecting me.

I was exhausted. I was numb. I was functioning, but I was not thriving.

And then came the breaking point.[00:06:00] 

This was all happening in the time when I was preparing to move from Miami to Spain.

I had, again, the full client roster. Everything looked successful

and I moved. I didn't even take a day off except for flying. And I got to Spain and I realized that, oh my God, I am so burnt out.

I had at that time, um, a couple of client contracts that naturally ended. And, you know, when that happens, it's okay. Like, we're good, whatever. Um, I would normally go and find more clients, but during this time I froze. I couldn't do it. I sat at my computer, I would see things come through,

and I couldn't bring my fingers to the keyboard.

I knew. That I should be doing this, and I just couldn't do it. And that's when it hit me.

I was running a business that wasn't my business. It wasn't what [00:07:00] I set out to be doing. I wasn't in the driver's seat. I was being driven by everybody else's needs, schedules, energy, expectations,

and even though I was good at it, even though I could imagine, even though my clients were happy, it.

Got to me. I ended up being miserable, and that was the moment that everything changed. So I did something radical.

I said, I'm not going to look for new clients. I need to see what is going on. I can't go on like this. I can't continue. This is not sustainable.

I stopped asking, okay, what do my clients need?

What does everybody else need? And I started asking, what do I need?

And in this process of taking a step back, having some breathing room, and really diving in, what I had realized was that the thing that actually lights me up, I mean, this is not a [00:08:00] surprise because here doing this, it was coaching now.

Coaching is not a brand new idea.

It has always been a thing that I have loved. I went to a PhD program, a doctoral program in clinical psychology. I was doing that for seven years and when I had, um, wanted to or decided to leave my my nine to five and. I was like, okay, I wanna work online. One of the things that I thought about was life coaching, and then I was like, I don't know how to do this.

Let me start out as a ba. Um, and then even when I got my OBM certification,

shortly after, I was like, I want to start coaching. I started doing some coaching on the side,

but I didn't let myself go all the way in, right? I said, okay, OBM is the safer path. Like, I'm good at that. It's more stable, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

I'm good at it. It doesn't light me up as much, but that's fine. Right. Deep down, I knew.

[00:09:00] Despite all of that,

when I do this, when I am coaching,

I felt alive when I had some experience coaching at that time, when I first started, I was like, oh, this is amazing. Right? Time flew. I had all these ideas

and

it felt like me.

So. During this burnout time, after moving to Spain,

I, uh, also, I took an intuition course from a friend of mine that was amazing. I had slowed down enough that I could actually hear my inner voice, the one that I had been tuning out in favor of everything else, everyone else, you know, everything else that was going on.

I started working on rebuilding self trust. I started believing in myself that what actually lit me up was a thing that mattered. That I could build a business that was both around my natural gifts and that supported the lifestyle that I wanted. [00:10:00] And once I made that decision that this was inevitable, that this was possible, everything started shifting.

So today my business feels completely different, and I'm not talking about just in structure or revenue, but I'm talking about energy.

When I wake up in the morning, I'm excited. I love seeing my email. I love looking at my Slack messages. My workday is more spacious, and it's not necessarily because of coaching versus

service provider being done for you, service provider.

It's because of the business structure.

I feel strategic. I feel focused. I feel grounding because I am not spreading myself so thin. And the reason this is, is because of couple of things. One is that, again, my energy is being supported. I built a business that supports my natural strengths in my [00:11:00] natural.

Workflow and things that I am that come easy to me, things that I love to do.

The second reason is because of how I structured the business,

and that is by having one core offer. I have other things, but the main, main, main, main things is having a core offer that is strategic, that is able to be systematized that.

All of the things right, that I can do and do easily, and that doesn't, it's not hourly. And this is also what I help my clients do. And again, it's not like I'm saying don't be a done for your service writer. I'm saying structure it in a way that supports you. And that is not, I will die on this hill That is not hourly work.

Because it is not sustainable to do that.

So I have a core offer. I have a business rooted in my strengths, rooted in my passions. I get to blend my psychology expertise with my soul aligned [00:12:00] business strategy,

and my clients come to me specifically for. The magic that I create for the transformation that I am here to deliver

because I am not reacting.

I'm not doing things I think I should do. I am literally creating from my soul.

And when I find myself working during off work hours, it's not because I have to, it's because I want to. 'cause I generally. Genuinely love it. And this is what alignment looks like. Calm, clear, and confident. So if you feel like you are the assistant in your own business, if you feel like you are reactive and not proactive,

if you felt like you're building success or you've built a success, quote unquote, but it doesn't actually feel good,

if your business feels like, Ooh, I don't know if I can actually sustain this 'cause I'm tired,

you're not doing it wrong.

You just haven't built your business around your personal unique magic yet,

and

this unique magic is the work [00:13:00] that feels effortless to you, but it's wildly valuable to your clients. It's the thing that people thank you for.

It's what lights you up. It's what sets you apart, and it doesn't have to be something like crazy that nobody's ever done before.

It can literally be email management. If you create a system and you're like, I love this. Right. It can be that, and it's not just about feeling good, although it will, it's building around your magic is the smartest business move that you can make because when you're in your unique magic, when you're in your zone of genius, your results improve.

Your clients are happy, or your confidence skyrockets, you feel amazing. You stop blending in and you start becoming the choice for your clients, and life is so much happier. Trust me. I know.

So that is my story from scattered OBM to Soul aligned coach from assistant in my own business to intentional CEO.

And it can be your story too. So if that [00:14:00] resonates with you, I have something special that is free. You can grab my premium offer starter kit where I walk you through the exact. Steps to identify your unique magic and turn it into a premium offer that scales effortlessly.

You'll find the link in my show notes, and this is a framework that I use with my clients to be.

Go from burnt out to booked, out to fulfilled, and fully aligned. So I would love to hear any thoughts you've had on this episode, how it's landed with you. Come and chat with me on Instagram

that's also linked below. It's soulful Biz Coach Andrea.

Also let me know what your unique magic is if you have discovered it

through this episode.

So until next time,

keep on growing and keep on living in alignment. And remember that you are not meant to be an assistant in your own business. You are meant to lead something extraordinary.

So I will see you guys next time. 

[00:15:00] 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 dancing leaf solutions.com/resources for free tools to help you do just that.

And thank you again for being a part of the Solepreneur Scaling Stories community. Your presence and dedication to growth inspiring me every day.