We recently connected with Jennifer Oates and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.
Honestly, the most innovative thing that I did for my career was start over. I was a teacher for 10 years, and was set to stay in that role until retirement. But I wasn’t happy, and it wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be. I spent a few years thinking of ways to change my career, and after doing some research (and some help from some great friends) I chose to become a virtual assistant. From there, I tried a little bit of everything until I found what worked for me. I found out that while the classroom is not the place for me anymore, I am still extremely passionate about helping educators. So I worked my way up and now manage the businesses of online course creators. I am so thankful that I took the leap – I had people questioning my decisions because of the time I had put into my career, but I am so much happier where I am now, and I have the flexibility and freedom to make my own choices for my business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Since I used to be a teacher, the first thing I did when I became a virtual assistant was help teachers who sell products on TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers). I helped them with product creation, I managed their Pinterest accounts, and I managed their social media accounts. The longer I did this, the more work those clients gave me. I started handling more of those clients’ businesses and working my way up. I did some research, and found an Online Business Manager certification program through the International Association of Online Business Managers. I got certified in April of 2021 and officially became an OBM. What this means is, I am the right-hand person for my clients. I manage the team, the timeline, the meetings, the deadlines. I work alongside my clients so they can keep their eye on the vision while I make sure everything runs smoothly. My specialty is working with online course and membership creators. I work with them from the time they have the idea for their course or membership, throughout the creation of it, and then help them launch it. Then we step back and analyze what worked and what didn’t work, and make plans for the next launch. I hire new team members as needed, and I handle the day-to-day tasks and communications with those team members.
Most of my clients (past and present) host their online courses and memberships on a platform called Kajabi. I am a little bit of a tech nerd, so once I saw that this was a platform I was going to need to know, I took a course to become a Kajabi Tech Specialist. Now, I offer packages that not only include launch and team management, but also include the creation of the back end of the course, sales page, checkout page, and the automations that go along with the course. I am so excited to help my clients start from just their idea and handle all of the tech for them, plus give them the tools they need to launch their course to their audience without them having to spend countless hours learning a new platform.
I offer Kajabi VIP days who are just looking to have the tech done but want to handle the launch themselves – this allows you to book my time for a day (or two, or three) and we dive in and get everything done for your course in just a few days so that it doesn’t get dragged out for months. Then I have retainer packages for clients who want me to get everything set up and then make it “go.”
I love what I do so much, and I am so thankful that I made the leap into this online business industry – I get to help educators make their vision come to life.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I decided to start my side-hustle in the fall of 2019. I had just started my 10th year teaching, and was hopeful that I could find something that would replace that income so I could be home with my kids more and be more flexible with my time.
I had a good friend who had taken a course on becoming a virtual assistant (Micala Quinn’s Overwhelmed to Overbooked, now called the Live Free Academy) and was so excited that she had so much business already. I signed up for the course, and asked my friend if I could do some subcontracting with her while I figured it out. Within 2 months, I had already found enough of my own business to stop subcontracting and only work with my own clients – I found most of my work in Facebook groups, and was working at night since I still had my full-time teaching job. By February of 2020, I told my husband that I was ready to put in my notice. I would, of course, finish out the year teaching, but I was confident enough to tell my principal I was not coming back for the following school year. 3 weeks later, we shut down because of Covid. I continued to teach online and work on my business, and by the summer, I had completely replaced my teacher salary.
My husband and I talked a lot that summer about how glad we were that this all happened when it did – with our 2 small kids continuing with at-home learning that fall, I don’t know how I would have been able to continue teaching. The timing of it was just amazing, and that fall is when I began to take over more responsibilities with my clients and really build my business into something that felt real.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I read the book “Becoming an Online Business Manager” by Tina Forsythe, the founder of the association, when I thought that I may want to become an OBM. This book goes into what an OBM actually does, how to set yourself apart as more than a general VA, and the types of trainings you need to excel in this business. I then took a certification course through the International Association of Online Business Managers, where they teach you everything you need to know about launch management, creating and maintaining systems, managing a team, and working alongside online business owners.
I also took a course to become a Kajabi Tech Specialist called The Heart-Centered Apprentice. This course is run by Meg Burrage and Kim Brown – Meg knows all you can know about Kajabi, and Kim is an amazing coach that will sit and talk strategy with you about how to make your business not just successful, but what you want it to be. I learned so much from this course about how to run my business and how to sell my Kajabi packages.
I am featured on the directories for both of these courses, which is one huge benefit to finding what you love and getting certified – people are much more likely to choose you when hiring someone when they can see that you have put in the work to learn all you can about what you do.
https://www.heartcenteredapprentice.com/spotlight-on-jennifer-oates
Contact Info:
- Website: jenniferoatesobm.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferoates53
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-oates-6bb785219
- Other: OBM Directory: https://onlinebusinessmanager.com/our-experts/jennifer-oates HCA Directory: https://www.heartcenteredapprentice.com/spotlight-on-jennifer-oates
Image Credits
Headshots only: Anna Bargeron Photography