What Works

EP 419: What is an “ethical business?” with Brooke Monaghan Apr 11, 2023

At least in my corner of social media, there are a lot of folks asking what makes a business ethical. Or, perhaps more accurately, there are a lot of folks answering that question.

And there are probably even more folks worried that there’s something unethical about the way they run their businesses. They’re afraid they haven’t checked all the ethical business boxes.

When Brooke Monaghan emailed me to ask whether I wanted to have a messy conversation about some of the messaging around ethical, equitable, or trauma-informed businesses, I jumped on the opportunity. You see, while this is certainly not true of all messaging on these topics, much of it unintentionally replicates problematic systems and social relations.

Capitalism always appropriates that which tries to resist it.

This episode explores a few different ways to think about the messages you’ve probably run into as you think about working or doing business differently. It’s not about calling anyone out or shaming anyone. It’s a look under the hood at some of the unexpected forces at play.

Footnotes:

Find out more about Brooke Monaghan.
“Does social media leave you angry?” on NPR
Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher
A Spectre, Haunting by China Miéville
“White Women/Black Women” by Phyllis Palmer
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
Utilitarian ethics
Deontological ethics

I release every episode in essay form on Thursdays. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, or read the archive at read.explorewhatworks.com.

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EP 418: [Dispatch] Going beyond the "greedy corporation" critique Apr 04, 2023

This Earth Month... buy more stuff?!

We're about to be bombarded with messaging about corporate climate initiatives. We'll have the chance to buy merch to "support" the planet. And we'll be incentivized to spend more so that a small portion can be donated to organizations fighting climate change.

As you might expect, it's all marketing. Earth Month and Earth Day seem to have become another excuse for a sale.

But we miss a key issue in our fight for change if we stop at the "greedy corporation" critique. In this short dispatch, I compare Panasonic's #CreateTodayEnrichTomorrow campaign to Parks Project's mission to do good, and I advocate for a systems-level critique that can penetrate do-good messaging to get to the heart of the problem.

Footnotes:

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EP 417: [Dispatch] "All parasites have value" Mar 28, 2023

"All parasites have value, Sibling Dex. Not to their hosts, perhaps, but you could say the same about a predator and a prey animal. They all give back—not to the individual but to the ecosystem at large."
— Mosscap, in A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

For the next few months, I'm focusing on some big projects and taking my foot off the gas of the podcast a bit. But since writing is how I think, my big projects spin off shorter pieces as I work through ideas.

I'll share some of these shorter pieces here on the podcast and in the What Works newsletter as "dispatches" from my projects.

Today's dispatch explores our feelings about those who don't work—and how those feelings can create obstacles to more sustainable choices about how we do work.

Footnotes:

Monk & Robot novellas by Becky Chambers
Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker's Notebook by James Boggs
The Immunity to Change process via MindTools

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EP 416: Anxiety (and Mental Health) in the Achievement Society with Morra Aarons-Mele Mar 14, 2023

I’ve called myself a recovering overachiever. I’m recovering not from the drive to excel but from the anxiety inherent to wondering if anything I achieve will ever be enough. And folks, it’s a struggle.

The philosophy Byung-Chul Han describes this anxiety as central to contemporary society. He dubs our modern age the “Achievement Society” and argues that our plethora of potential projects and opportunities work to maximize our productivity. After all, what better way to inspire people to greater efficiency than by inspiring them to tackle #AllTheThings?

This week, I talk with the host of The Anxious Achiever and author of the forthcoming book of the same name, Morra Aarons-Mele. We both the anxiety that the drive to achieve can create and how mental health conditions of all kinds impact the way we work.

Footnotes:

Pre-order The Anxious Achiever by Morra Aarons-Mele
Listen to The Anxious Achiever podcast on your favorite app
Find out more about Morra Aarons-Mele
The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault
“High-Functioning Anxiety - Life Fright of the Shy Loud” presented by Jordan Raskopoulos at TEDxSydney

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EP 415: The Economics of Being Needy with Mara Glatzel Feb 28, 2023

We all have deep human needs—for belonging, for autonomy, for creative expression, for safety and security. But modern life can make it a real challenge to get those needs met in meaningful ways. Instead, we’re offered products with flashy marketing messages. Kitchen gadgets, social media platforms, clothing, personal care products, and many others offer to help us live our best lives. Financial and educational products promise a greater sense of security and autonomy. But do these commodities really satisfy our needs? Or do they merely stave off the hunger a little longer?

In this final episode of The Economics Of, I explore how various economic concepts can help us understand why we buy the things we do, how our consumption relates to larger economics forces, and how our relationships are influenced by it all. I also talk with Mara Glatzel, the author of Needy, about how to better understand our own needs and create the conditions through which we can get those needs met.

Footnotes:

Get your copy of Needy by Mara Glatzel
Learn more about Mara Glatzel
“Varieties of the Rat Race: Conspicuous Consumption in the US & Germany” by Till Van Treeck, via the Institute for New Economic Thinking
“Trickle-Down Consumption” by Marianne Bertrand and Adair Morse in The Review of Economics and Statistics
“Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” by Karl Marx
Adam Smith’s America by Glory M. Liu
Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman
“Alienation” on Overthink with David Pena-Guzman and Ellie Anderson
More on Thorstein Veblen via Investopedia
Everything, All the Time, Everywhere by Stuart Jeffries
Liquid Love by Zygmunt Bauman

New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weekly

If you’d like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that’s led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and rebuilding a structure for work-life that works.

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EP 414: The Economics of Ideas with Jenny Blake Feb 21, 2023

What makes an idea valuable? What turns it into a product that can be bought, sold, or rented? Ideas turn into capital assets thanks to our system of intellectual property rights. But understanding IP isn’t simply a matter of learning what a trademark or patent is, and then learning how to leverage it to create wealth. To truly understand intellectual property, we need to under property—what it is and why it exists—first.

In this episode, I explore the origins of our conception of private property, why we’ve coded intellectual property rights into law, and how one business owner—Jenny Blake—licenses her IP to companies to generate (relatively) passive income.

Footnotes:

Jenny Blake’s Free Time
Jenny Blake’s Pivot Method
Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
“Coding Land and Ideas | The Laws of Capitalism” featuring Katharina Pistor via the Institute for New Economic Thinking
“Enclosure” on Wikipedia
“Legal Evil” featuring Katharina Pistor via the Institute for New Economic Thinking
“How to Unf★ck Intellectual Property” featuring Dean Baker via the Institute for New Economic Thinking
Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy and Who Pays for It? by Brett Christophers
Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher

New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weekly

If you’d like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that’s led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and rebuilding a structure for work-life that works.

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EP 413: The Economics of Getting (And Paying) Attention: Part 2 Feb 14, 2023

This is Part 2 of The Economics of Getting (and Paying) Attention. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, I highly recommend starting there!

In today’s episode, I explore the “right to publicity” and the value of celebrity as an economic condition. From there, we get into how audience-building businesses gain efficiency by vertically integrating media, ads, and offers and how micro-media creators often leverage monopoly power to charge exorbitant prices.

Footnotes:

“New wellness price point just dropped” Conspiratuality Instagram post
The World After Capital by Albert Wenger (available free)
“The Audience Commodity and its Work” by Dallas Smythe
“From Celebrity to Influencer” by Alison Hearn and Stephanie Schoenhoff
Good Mythical Morning on YouTube
Sporked
“How Audience-Building is Different from Finding Clients” by Tara McMullin
Vertical integration

New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weekly

If you’d like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that’s led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works.

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BONUS: Permission to Speak with Samara Bay Feb 09, 2023

How comfortable are you with your own voice? How likely are you to say what's on your mind?

Samara Bay, the author of the brand-new book Permission to Speak, is on a mission to change what power sounds like. I found Samara because one of my favorite podcasters was on Samara's show. I then binged her back catalog and started recommending her show to everyone I worked with. One of those folks then turned around and told Samara I had shouted her out! We've been fangirling together ever since.

I first had Samara on the podcast during the Self-Help, LLC series (Episode 397: Bad Usage). But her book has just hit the shelves so I took that as an excuse to schedule another chat and bring it to you as a bonus "mini" episode. Enjoy!

Footnotes:

Buy Permission to Speak at Bookshop.org (or wherever you buy books!)
Find out more about Samara
Follow Samara on Instagram
YellowHouse.Media

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EP 412: The Economics of Paying Attention (Part 1) Feb 07, 2023

Attention is a scarce (and precious) resource. A gargantuan number of media outlets, advertisers, influencers, and brands vie for our attention every day. In turn, many of us (including me) are out there trying to attract attention, too. At the same time, the changing nature of the attention market (as well as larger macroeconomic shifts) creates some real weirdness.

This is the first episode of a two-part deep dive into the economics of paying attention, getting attention, and audiences as a commodity. In this episode, we’ll question how an influencer can charge $100k per year for coaching, examine how attention scarcity impacts the market, and explore the “principal product of the mass media.” This episode is for you if you ever spend time on social media, consume any kind of traditional media, buy things, or hope people will buy things for you. We’ll get into the weeds—but all for the purpose of getting very, very practical.

Footnotes:

“New wellness price point just dropped” Conspiratuality Instagram post
“Paying Attention: The Attention Economy” via the Berkley Economic Review
The World After Capital by Albert Wenger (available free)
“Georg Franck’s ‘The Economy of Attention’: Mental capitalism and the struggle for attention” by Robert van Krieken
“The Economy of Attention” by Georg Franck, translated by Silvia Plaza
“The Audience Commodity and its Work” by Dallas Smythe
Dallas Smythe 1979 lecture via SFU Communications
“The Economics of Working Together with Kate Strathmann” on What Works
“Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory” by Christian Fuchs

New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get the delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weekly

If you’d like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that’s led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works.

Want more of What Works? Subscribe FREE to the What Works newsletter at read.explorewhatworks.com
Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 411: The Economics of Cashflow (Remix) Jan 31, 2023

Toward the end of last week's episode, Kate Strathmann talked about the importance of understanding the "tiny economy" of your business. Digging into cashflow is a perfect way to do just that. When we start thinking about how money flows 3 dimensionally, we start to see new opportunities for investment, growth, and exercising our values.

This episode originally aired in September 2021. Turns out, I needed an extra week to put together the economics of attention, and this piece followed up my conversation with Kate beautifully. I'll be back next week with an all-new episode!

Footnotes:

Cashflow Is A Feminist Issue (essay version)
SBA report on credit market experiences among new business owners
Report on the gender gap in business financing (CBS News)
The Valuable Business of Maintenance Work
Your Biggest Small Business Opportunity is Doing Less
Decolonization is for Everyone: TEDx talk by Nikki Sanchez

Written versions of each new episode are available at explorewhatworks.com every Thursday. Or, sign up for What Works Weekly—free—and get them delivered to your inbox automatically!

If you’d like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that’s led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works.

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EP 410: The Economics of Work Relationships with Kate Strathmann Jan 24, 2023

Sure, you can build a business or independent career made for one. But once you start thinking about making a bigger impact or scaling up to serve more customers, you start thinking about hiring help. And that makes a lot of people nervous!

The idea that we might unintentionally create a toxic work environment or exploit the people we hire is enough to keep many from hiring help at all. While you might expect this subject to get more of a psychological or sociological treatment, economics has a lot to teach us about creating equitable relationships at work, too.

In this episode, Kate Strathmann joins me for a “conversation with no answers,” where we explore the possibilities of work relationships outside the traditional structures.

Footnotes:

More from Kate Strathmann and Wanderwell Consulting
Previous episodes featuring Kate: 341, 298, 153
“Exploitation” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Episode 386: Extra Context — Getting Paid
Surplus Labor in Radical Economics
More about Guerilla Translation
“Open Value Accounting” (contributive accounting)

A written version of each episode is published every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get it delivered straight to your inbox by signing up at explorewhatworks.com/weekly

If you’d like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that’s led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works.

Want more of What Works? Subscribe FREE to the What Works newsletter at read.explorewhatworks.com
Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 409: The Economics Of Information and Care Jan 17, 2023

The first time I heard you could charge $47 for a PDF less than 50 pages long, I was shocked. When I first encountered an online course selling for $2000, I about fell out of my chair. Of course, it wasn’t long until I, too, was selling information products for more than my first car cost.

Of course, I’m also an autodidact who benefits greatly from the proliferation of “free” information. And I’m a writer and podcaster who chooses to make 99% of what I make free to consume and use.

I’ve benefited from both sides of the equation when it comes to the economics of information. And so this episode is a long time coming. It’s an exploration of the seeming paradox at the heart of how we value information. And this episode covers some broad territory: from the 1960s and Stewart Brand who originated the phrase “information wants to be free,” to how information gets priced, to a case study on two of my most popular forays into information products, to feminist economics and the erasure of care work.

Footnotes:

“The Real Legacy of Stewart Brand w/ Malcolm Harris” on Tech Won’t Save Us with Paris Marx
“The Zen Playboy” by Malcolm Harris in The Nation
My courses on CreativeLive
“Feminist Economics” video series from the Institute of New Economic Thinking, hosted by economist Jayati Ghosh
Berik, Günseli, Ebru Kongar. The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Economics. 2021. 1st ed., Taylor and Francis, 2021.
“What is Money? With Paco de Leon” on What Works
Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle by Silvia Federici

“Course Mechanics Canvas: 12 Levers to Achieve Course-Market Fit” by Wes Kao

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EP 408: The Economics Of Big (and Small) Decisions with Hillary Rea Jan 10, 2023

Welcome to “The Economics of…”—a new series from What Works. In this series, I’ll be exploring how economic concepts and frameworks can help us run our businesses or manage our careers. Each episode will have some fundamental economics education and a case study to make each concept tangible.

Today, we’re tackling a pretty fundamental economic concept: opportunity cost. Opportunity cost helps us understand what we have to give up in order to get what we want. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, it is. But opportunity cost asks us to dig deep to discover the hidden costs of any decision—and that can be anything but straightforward.

In this week’s case study, I talk with Tell Me A Story founder Hillary Rea about the opportunity cost of quitting social media (or rather, the opportunity cost of not doing all the things she has the time to do now!).

Footnotes:

Learn more about Hillary Rea and Tell Me A Story
Economics in Two Lessons by John Quiggin
“Unlimited Wants, Limited Resources”byRobert Skidelsky and the Institute for New Economic Thinking
“Networking That Pays” by Michelle Warner
Music by Track Club

An essay version of each podcast episode drops every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. If you'd like to have it delivered straight to your inbox each week, sign up for What Works Weekly—FREE: explorewhatworks.com/weekly

“Thanks to What Works, I’ve broken up with goal setting as usual. Tara has laid out a liberated way to identify what matters to me and move towards it without striving, suffering, or burning out.” — Annie Schuessler, Rebel Therapist

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EP 407: How To Feel Good About Going Slow Jan 03, 2023

Well, it’s the first week of January. And whether you’re back to work or eking out a few more hours of unstructured liminal time, the arrival of New Year energy is imminent. You know what I mean by New Year energy—it’s that annual infusion of urgency, striving, and discipline that comes crashing down on our post-holiday mellowness. And if we’re not paying attention, that New Year energy will sweep us out to sea.

What if this year, we embraced patience?

In this piece, I share how baking has helped me feel good about going slow and why that’s crucial to the way I work.

Footnotes:

You Belong by Sebene Selassie
“The Human-Built World Is Not Built For Humans” by L. M. Sacasas
Music available on Track Club by Marmoset

Essay versions of podcast episodes are released every Thursday on the website. Sign up for What Works Weekly to have them delivered to your inbox: explorewhatworks.com/weekly

Start the new year with a radically different approach to goal-setting. Grab my new book, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting: explorewhatworks.com/book

Or join me for a brand-new live workshop on January 10, 17, and 24 called Work In Practice: workinpractice.life

Today’s episode is an edited and updated version of a piece that was originally published in December 2021.

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A Vision for Work in 2023 (and Beyond) Dec 20, 2022

If 2020 was the year people asked, “Can we really work from home?” and 2021 was the year people asked, “How might we return to the office?”, then 2022 was the year people started asking, “Why do we put up with this crap?”

If like me, you’ve been working from home for many years, maybe this shift in discourse felt irrelevant. You’ve got your own gig; you make your own rules; you create your own working conditions. But I believe this larger shift transcends the divisions created by our tax codes—contractor, employee, sole proprietor, member of an LLC, and even employer. Whether we have obligations to an employer or rely on some of the world’s largest corporations for “free access” to the software products they create to harvest our personal data, we are workers.

The way we think about work and workers is changing because work changed and is still changing.

In this quick bonus episode, I lay out a vision for work in 2023 and beyond that defies the structures and assumptions that keep us focused on productivity and efficiency, despite our best efforts to prioritize creativity, collaboration, and care.

Look for the written version of this episode at explorewhatworks.com

Ready to transform the way you work? I have two recommendations:

The first is my new book, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting. It’s a fundamental rethinking of why we choose our goals, why we’re always striving for more, and how we might create work and life structures that don’t revolve around achievement or the relentless pursuit of growth.

You can grab your copy—or gift one to a friend—at explorewhatworks.com/book.

And the second is a brand-new workshop that I’m teaching January 10, 17, and 24th called Work In Practice. This 3-part workshop builds on the themes of the book and applies them to our daily work. On January 10, we’ll tackle job crafting so we can do better work with less stress. On January 17, we’ll embrace our limits so we can make reasonable and sustainable plans for the year ahead. And on January 24, we’ll creates systems of care for ourselves and others to increase our access to resources, as well as increase what we have available to give and share.

To find out more, go to workinpractice.life.

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EP 406: Our Favorite Things of 2022 Dec 13, 2022

This episode is decidedly different from what you've heard on What Works this year! If this happens to be your first foray into the show, maybe start with an earlier episode.

But if you're into hearing my dear husband (and executive producer) chat about the ups and downs of this year, as well as some of our favorite things of the past 12 months, listen on!

All of the books we mention in this episode are linked in my Bookshop store.

Thanks for listening this year! Look for new episodes in 2023. I've got some great stuff planned.

***

Our work has evolved. Our way of working has not. Make 2023 the year you transform the way you work.

I'm teaching a 3-part live workshop in January called Work In Practice. I'll guide you through rethinking the way you work from the ground up. We'll dismantle old mindsets and standard operating procedures. And then we'll rebuild a vision for work that's based on sustainability and satisfaction.

Get all the details at WorkInPractice.Life!

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EP 405: What causes work stress? And what can we do about it? Dec 06, 2022

Everyone experiences work stress from time to time. But some of us experience persistent work stress—even though we have more "tools" for reducing stress than ever before.

If you've experienced work stress this year, there's a good chance you're thinking about how you can create the conditions for less stress in the new year. So today, I'm exploring how psychologists understand what kinds of work create more stress, what conditions reduce stress, and how we might intentionally design our work to be more sustainable.

Note: In the last third of the episode, I use a swear word (commonly abbreviated B.S.) to reference a book & theory by David Graeber. It's the name of the theory... so I use it a lot. If you'd rather not hear it, stop the episode around 17:45. You'll still get most of the message!

Footnotes:

Creating Sustainable Work Systems: Developing Social Sustainability (2008)
Chapter: "Sources of work intensity in organizations" by Armand Hatchuel (2005)
Demand-Control Theory
Job Demand-Resource Model
The Office (US Version)
B***S*** Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

Looking for a great gift for your clients, colleagues, or team members? How about my new book, What Works? It's a great way to spread the message that we don't have to do things the way they've always been done. And you can provide a little relief when it comes to all that "New Year, New You" garbage. Grab your copy here!

Essay versions of each podcast episode are released every Thursday. Get them delivered straight to your inbox by subscribing here—free of charge.

Reviewing the past year and planning for next

If you’re listening to this close to its air date, you’re probably thinking about how this year went and what you’d like to tackle in the next year. I suggest including a review of the demands of your work, the autonomy you allow yourself, and the resources you have at your disposal:

Does your work present challenges that motivate you to learn and think creatively?
Are those challenges met with an appropriate level of autonomy and sufficient resources?
In what ways do you deny yourself flexibility in the way you work?
How does flexibility (or lack thereof) impact how you meet the challenges of your work?
What resources would allow you to challenge yourself in new ways?
What challenges would you like to take on in the new year?

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EP 404: What lights your fire? Nov 29, 2022

Over the last two years, I've transitioned from identifying as a business owner first to identifying as a writer and podcast first. In the first year—2021—I didn't realize that's what I was doing. But over the course of this year, it was quite intentional. Making that shift has allowed me to explore creative territory that I didn't think I could explore when my primary function was content marketing.

In this week's episode, I talk with India Jackson about transitioning from content marketer to writer and podcaster. I share what it's meant for my work, my sense of identity, and my mental health. Plus, we talk about some of the difficult decisions I had to make on this journey.

Tune in to India's show, Flaunt Your Fire, wherever you listen to What Works or at flauntyourfire.com

Footnotes:

Find out more about India Jackson and Flaunt Your Fire
Find out more about Pause On The Play
Hear India on EP 398: Good Bodies and EP 294: Offering Bespoke Services
Jay Acunzo's LinkedIn post

Grab your copy of my new book, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting!

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EP 403: Have your values been hijacked? Nov 22, 2022

The shelves are full of products that promise to fulfill your values: ecofriendly, independent, cooperative, woman-owned, Black-owned, sustainable, etc. And right on! Unfortunately, not every product that claims to align with your values really does. Often, values-marketing is more about maintaining the status quo than it is about doing things differently. That’s what I call “values hijacking.”

Values hijacking occurs on the consumer level, but it also occurs on the cultural and political levels. Marketing, government policy, incentive structures, and cultural norms can all short circuit our critical thinking about what action to take.

On today’s episode, you’ll hear about one my husband’s biggest soapbox issues, and then I’ll turn the mic over to Erica Courdae, host and founder of Pause on The Play, and we’ll go deep on how our values become hijacked by systems of power.

Footnotes:

More about Erica Courdae and Pause on the Play.
POTP Episode 178: Values hijacking, capitalism, and systemic change with Tara McMullin

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EP 402: How do you crack the code on goal-setting? Nov 15, 2022

What is a goal really? What purpose does a goal really serve? And is that purpose truly benefiting us, the goal-setters?

These are big, messy questions. But they are far from abstract. Our answers to these questions—whether we know it or not—shape the way we work and live on a daily basis. This intermediary space—the space between philosophical questions and practical implications—is a place I happily hang out in all day long. Luckily, I know someone who likes hanging out in that place as much as I do!

His name is Charlie Gilkey. He’s a friend of the pod—as well as the co-founder of Productive Flourishing and author of Start Finishing. He’s also the host of the Productive Flourishing podcast.

Today’s episode is a rebroadcast from the Productive Flourishing feed. Charlie and I talk about why in the world I wrote a productivity book, how the cultural code we operate in impacts the way we plan and set goals, how that code disproportionately harms some more than others, and much, much more.

Footnotes:

What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting by Tara McMullin
More about Charlie Gilkey
Start Finishing by Charlie Gilkey
Listen to Productive Flourishing
Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne

Written versions of each episode drop on Thursdays at explorewhatworks.com. Get them deliverable to your inbox by subscribing at explorewhatworks.com/weekly.

Introducing Recovering Overachiever Club

Recovering Overachiever Club is a 3-week deep dive into why we strive and what we can do differently in the new year. Join us November 29-December 20 for exclusive essays, podcast episodes, and conversation—oh, and earn a few merit badges, too. Learn more!

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EP 401: Do we really all have the same 24 hours? Nov 08, 2022

Do we really have the same 24 hours as Beyoncé? Yes. And no. And… it’s complicated.

There is a never-ending stream of advice about how to make the most of your time. And honestly? Most of it is just bullsh*t. That’s because there is no way to hack yourself or your work to produce more in less time if your emotions are fried, your energy is drained, or you’re dealing with the effects chronic illness.

This conversation—originally broadcast as a Spotify Live—is an unflinching look at what it means to consider our multidimensional capacity in the realms of work and life. You’ll hear from my friends Jenny Blake, author of Free Time, and Charlie Gilkey, author of Start Finishing—and me, too!

Note: the audio quality on this episode is totally listenable—but it’s not our normal podcast quality.

Footnotes:

Get What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting by Tara McMullin
Find out more about Jenny Blake
Buy Free Time by Jenny Blake
Find out more about Charlie Gilkey
Buy Start Finishing by Charlie Gilkey

Written versions of our podcast episodes land on Thursdays at explorewhatworks.com. Get them delivered straight to your inbox by subscribing at explorewhatworks.com/weekly

Introducing Recovering Overachiever Club

Recovering Overachiever Club is a 3-week deep dive into why we strive and what we can do differently in the new year. Join us November 29-December 20 for exclusive essays, podcast episodes, and conversation—oh, and earn a few merit badges, too. Learn more!

Want more of What Works? Subscribe FREE to the What Works newsletter at read.explorewhatworks.com
Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 400: The Power of Practice Nov 01, 2022

It’s been almost exactly 7 years since this podcast first launched as Profit. Power. Pursuit. Since then, we’ve produced 400 regular episodes (with some bonuses here and there). You know, I’ve written many more than 400 blog posts and emails. But we don’t number those—plus, they are published across different sites on the web, so I never have a handled on just how many times I’ve hit “publish.”

400 episodes is a lot. It’s more than the vast majority of podcasters will ever make. The only reason I bring that up is because today’s episode is about the power of practice. Developing a podcasting practice is the only way to consistently put out a strong episode week after week. But developing a practice of any kind was not something I knew how to do 7 years ago.

This episode dives into what I’ve learned about practice from 7 years of podcasting. Plus, I share an excerpt from my book (out today!) about the satisfaction of practice in an achievement-oriented world.

Footnotes:

Join Tara TODAY for a live reading and Q&A about the book
Buy What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting wherever you buy books!
Listen to Tara’s interviews about the book on this Spotify playlist

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Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 399: Self Help, LLC: The Politics of Hustle Culture with Jadah Sellner Oct 25, 2022

Hustle. Grind. Boss up. Do more. Love them or hate them, these words are embedded into the ways we think about work and entrepreneurship. But as we’ve seen with the enormous growth of the r/anti-work subreddit and the panic about quiet quitting, more people than ever are thinking about different ways to go about building their lives, careers, and businesses.

As we close out the Self-Help, LLC series, I wanted to address where our productivity hang-ups come from, who our productivity really benefits, and how we might go about doing things differently. This episode is in 2 parts. The first half or so is an introduction to how employers (including self-employers) profit from unpaid work and why the productivity-wage gap has become so immense. The second half of the episode is my conversation with Jadah Sellner, about the vision for business she lays out in her new book, She Builds.

Footnotes:

Find out more about Jadah Sellner and her new book, She Builds.
“TikTok ‘5-to-9’ Trend Shows Quiet Quitting Hasn’t Killed Hustle Culture” on Bloomberg
Dolly Parton rewrites her working woman’s anthem for SquareSpace
THE ULTIMATE MORNING ROUTINE (parody)
Revolution at Point Zero, essays by Silvia Federici
Data on the productivity-wage gap (Economic Policy Institute)
Self-Help, INC by Micki McGee
Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber

Essay versions of each episode of the podcast come out on Thursdays at explorewhatworks.com and in my newsletter. Sign up free: explorewhatworks.com/weekly

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EP 398: Self Help, LLC: Good Bodies With India Jackson, Tiffany Ima, and Jessica DeFino Oct 18, 2022

I wanted to include an episode on bodies in the Self-Help, LLC series because so much of our modern discourse around productivity, empowerment, entrepreneurship, and personal growth includes messages about our bodies. These messages might not be explicit, but the messages are there—and our brains pick them up loud and clear.

Similarly, we might not realize that we’re sharing messages that insert themselves into how others perceive their own bodies—but many of us are. It’s impossible to talk about self-discipline, accountability, or efficiency without those concepts leaving their marks on our flesh.

This episode covers a tiny sliver of all the ways that the medium of self-help acts on our bodies. But my hope is that it will encourage you to think critically about the messages you receive about your body and the messages you share that might impact others’ bodies.

You’ll hear from independent beauty culture journalist Jessica DeFino, body confidence influencer Tiffany Ima, and Flaunt Your Fire founder India Jackson.

This episode contains frank talk about bodies, weight, beauty, dieting, and related topics. I know that these subjects can trigger harmful thoughts and behaviors for me if I’m not careful. So please, take care while listening to this episode.

Footnotes:

Subscribe to Jessica DeFino’s newsletter about beauty culture and the beauty industry.
Follow Tiffany Ima on Instagram.
Listen to the Flaunt Your Fire podcast and learn more about India Jackson.
Erica Courdae on reconsidering your normal, as well as “Normal is a Life with Michelle Kuei” on the Pause on the Play podcast.
“Body acceptance stops at the skin. Why?” by Jessica DeFino
“The Skin as an Antidote to Consumerism” by Jessica DeFino
“How White Supremacy and Capitalism Influence Beauty Culture” by Jessica DeFino in TeenVogue
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
“Postscript on Societies of Control” by Gilles Deleuze
Self-Help, INC by Micki McGee
“Rachel Hollis Part 1: Hashtag Relatable” on Maintenance Phase
“The Trouble with Calories” on Maintenance Phase
“Bodybuilding vs Powerlifting vs Weightlifting” on Shape
Confidence Culture by Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill
Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World by Danielle Friedman
3 Books for Remembering “You Have a Body”: On disability, on chronic illness, and on our bodies in society

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EP 397: Self Help, LLC: Bad Usage With Samara Bay Oct 11, 2022

We form an impression of our voices early in life. While it might shift some as we age, those impressions tend to stick with us. For many of us, what we learn about our voices is how their don’t quite measure up to the ideal: too high, too low, too soft, too loud, too this, too that. This is especially true for women, queer people, transgender people, non-native English speakers, Black people, people of color, indigenous people, and really anyone whose voice doesn’t fit into the white, male baritone mold.

So what do we do? We try to sound more like everyone else. And that can not only mess with our ability to use our physical voices, but it messes with our ability to use our metaphorical voices and confuses our sense of self.

Samara Bay, a Hollywood dialect coach who’s worked on blockbusters like Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy, is on a mission to help everyone find “permission to speak.” In this episode, we dig into how the self-help imperative to “own your voice” might be more complicated than it sounds.

Footnotes:

Find out more about Samara Bay
Pre-order Samara’s book Permission to Speak
“I still have a voice” by Alice Wong
Samara Bay on Anna Sorokin and Elizabeth Holmes’s voices
Women and Power by Mary Beard
More about African American Vernacular English on Pause on the Play
College students talk about their relationships to their Southern accents on Dolly Parton’s America
“The Magic of Voice Transitioning with Nicole Gress” on Camp Wild Heart with Mackenzie Dunham
“Me minus me” on This American Life (Sandy Allen’s vocal transition)
“If you don’t have anything nice to say” on This American Life (complaints about female voices)
More on the mid-atlantic accent

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EP 396: Self Help, LLC: #MakingMemories with Sara Petersen Oct 04, 2022

There’s an influencer for every thing these days. Camping equipment? Sure. Nutritional supplements? You bet. Miniatures? You know it. College admissions? But of course. In this episode, though, we’re going to focus on one of the original influencer niches: MOMS.

The rise of the influencer ushered in a new outlet for self-help. Now, not only are there motivational books and talks, there’s a product endorsement to help you live your best life. Influencers give us, perhaps, the direct line between personal growth and consumer capitalism. I talk with the author of the forthcoming Momfluenced, Sara Petersen, about all of that and more.

Footnotes:

Subscribe to Sara Petersen’s newsletter
Pre-order Momfluenced
“Life After Lifestyle” by Toby Shorin
“The Rhetoric of the Image” by Roland Barthes
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord
Episode 393 with Kelly Diels
Episode 395 with Steph Barron Hall
“The Influencer Industry: Constructing and Commodifying Authenticity on Social Media” by Emily Dean Hund

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EP 395: Self Help, LLC: Instagram, the Algorithm, and Personality Types with Steph Barron Hall from Nine Types Co Sep 27, 2022

If your Instagram feed or Explore page looks anything like mine, then you likely see a preponderance of posts about personality types, conditions, or other self-knowledge. We’re hooked on learning about ourselves! And perhaps even more hooked on sharing what we’ve learned—which means that the Instagram algorithm (as well as TikTok’s and Pinterest’s algorithms) has learned to love this kind of content, too.

In this episode, I explore discovering ourselves versus making ourselves, why self-knowledge is big business on Instagram, and how creating viral personality content can wreak havoc on the creator’s psyche. To dig into this with me, I invited @ninetypesco creator, Steph Barron Hall, onto the show.

Footnotes:

Find Steph Barron Hall on Instagram (@ninetypesco)
Learn more about working with Steph
How to be Authentic by Skye Cleary
Learn more about the Enneagram and find your type
The Nine Types of Rest
Self-Help, INC by Micki McGee
“Double consciousness”
“Looking glass self”

Essay versions of each episode are posted at explorewhatworks.com every Thursday. Or, sign up FREE at explorewhatworks.com/weekly to get them delivered straight to your inbox.

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EP 394: Self Help, LLC: The Paradox of Self-Help Expertise with Patrick Sheehan Sep 20, 2022

Our quest for self-improvement requires us to decide who (or what) to trust with our time, energy, and money. What book do you decide to read next? Which coach do you hire? What accounts do you follow? Our consumer choices seem endless—so finding someone or something to put your trust in might feel like an Olympic feat.

On the flip side, as business owners or independent workers whether explicitly or implicitly in the business of self-help, our goal is to cultivate trust. Why would someone trust us with their business, their marriage, or their hopes and dreams for the future?

In this episode, I sit down with sociologist Patrick Sheehan to talk about his study of career coaches and the role they play with job seekers. We examine the roles that both credentialed and experience-based experts play in society and why uncertainty and instability might inspire us—for better or worse—to put our trust in prophets rather than priests.

Footnotes:

Edelman Trust Barometer 2022
“Confidence in US Institutions Down; Average at New Low” Gallup
“Fatigue, traditionalism, and engagement: the news habits and attitudes of the Gen Z and Millennial generations” American Press Institute
“We’ve stopped trusting institutions and started trusting strangers” by Rachel Botsman (TED Talk)
“The Change Rules of Trust in the Digital Age” by Rachel Botsman (HBR)
“Where did all the coaches come from?” by Patrick Sheehan (Work In Progress Sociology)
“The new economy as multi-level marketing scheme: career coaches and unemployment in the age of uncertainty” by Patrick Sheehan (Work in Progress Sociology)
“Gun Culture and Wellness Culture Come From the Same Place” by Alan Levinovitz (Huffington Post)

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EP 393: Self Help, LLC: Selling Empowerment with Kelly Diels Sep 13, 2022

It’s not only self-help or entrepreneurship products that are sold as tools for “empowerment” today. It’s just about everything: makeup, clothing, workout equipment, vitamins, office supplies… Whole brands are built around the promise that a purchase won’t just solve your problem, it’ll make you a better, more fulfilled person. But empowerment isn’t for sale—only the status quo.

In this episode, I talk with writer and coach Kelly Diels about empowerment marketing and what she calls the “female lifestyle empowerment brand.” You’ll also hear from independent beauty writer Jessica DeFino about how empowerment is leveraged by the beauty industry.

Footnotes:

Learn more about Kelly Diels
Learn more about Jessica DeFino
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
How to be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment by Skye Cleary
Helen Gurley Brown as quoted in Self-Help, INC by Micki McGee
“The Rhetoric of the Image” by Roland Barthes

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EP 392: Self Help, LLC: Winners & Losers Sep 06, 2022

It’s hard to escape the language and politics of self-help today. Whether you’re browsing your LinkedIn, Instagram, or even TikTok feed, there’s a very good chance that the first post you see offers up some idea for living a better life or growing a more successful business. Shoulds and supposed-tos are cultural currency. We gain social capital sharing advice or “giving value.” And that’s left me wondering: are we all in the self-help business now?

Today’s episode kicks off an 8-part series called Self-Help, LLC which will explore that question from a number of different angles. In this episode, I’m taking a close look at a particular construction of personal growth and entrepreneurship culture: winners and losers.

Footnotes:

Dr. Rick for Progressive
Why does the insurance industry have so many mastcots? on Planet Money
Self-Help, INC by Micki McGee
More about Marshall McLuhan (”The medium is the message”)
Nixon’s universal health care plan proposal
Reaganism & Thatcherism
The Old is Dying & the New Cannot be Born by Nancy Fraser

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COMING SOON: Self-Help, LLC Aug 23, 2022

Self-help is everywhere. But for a long time, I tried to avoid it. "I just focus on business," I'd say. What I didn't realize back then was how much the structure, grammar, and discourse of personal growth permeate every layer of a business—and the entrepreneur behind it.

Self-help sells. It's an $11 billion industry that's predicted to go to $14 billion in the next 3 years.

And that's only counting products and services that are sold under the banner of "self-help." Even bigger than the explicit "live your best life" market is the valence of messaging, media, and cultural ventures that orbit it. In fact, there is a very good chance that, in one way or another, you and your work are part of the greater self-help ecosystem.

You don't have to be a life coach, motivational speaker, momfluencer, or day planner designer to produce products and services that tap into the desire for a better, easier, or more fulfilling life. You might be a copywriter that leverages personal growth messaging in the copy you write. You might be a non-profit director that leverages donors' desire to "make a difference" to raise funds. You might be a management consultant that helps companies build better workplace cultures so employees feel a greater sense of purpose.

Or, like your humble podcast host, you might one day make the startling discovery that: yes, you wrote a self-help book after more than a decade of declaring that you help people build better businesses, not better lives.

I've gotten really curious about the business and politics of self-help. What makes self-help-inspired messaging so effective? Why are we constantly on the lookout for better ways to live and work? What compels us to follow aspirational Instagram accounts? Are we all in the self-help business?

Next up on What Works, I have an 8-part series called Self-Help, LLC. It's a look at how the gospel of self-improvement shapes our lives, our work, and the businesses we're building

I talk with writer Sara Petersen about Momfluencing, sociologist Patrick Sheehan about the coaching industry and backlash to credentialed experts, and brand strategist India Jackson about how our bodies are shaped by self-help. I also talk with Nine Types Co founder Steph Barron Hall about the draw of self-knowledge on Instagram, coach and writer Kelly Diels about the female lifestyle empowerment brand, and coach and author Jadah Sellner about the politics of hustle culture.

My intention is that this series gives you a fresh perspective on what you create, what you consume, and how the underlying values of self-help culture influence them both. We'll dig into the business models behind explicitly self-help ventures and examine how less explicit personal growth businesses build on self-help's logic.

The first episode in this series—Winners and Losers—drops September 6. Make sure you hit "follow" in your favorite podcast player and share the show with a friend who loves to think critically about the world we live in.

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EP 391: How do human decisions shape the economy? with Stacey Vanek Smith Aug 09, 2022

The economy seems like a monolithic entity we measure, manage, and adapt to. But really, economics (as a field) and the economy (as a system) is really just an agglomeration of human decisions. What’s in? What’s out? What’s up? What’s down? And most importantly: Why? In this episode, I talk with Stacey Vanek Smith, a co-host of NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money and this summer’s guide for Planet Money Summer School. We talk about how someone with no economics background can get so obsessed, how the economy is a profoundly human system, and, of course, inflation.

Footnotes:

Episodes of What Works are published as articles every Thursday. Get them delivered straight to your inbox at explorewhatworks.com/weekly

Leave a review, browse old episodes, or leave a voicemail at whatworkspodcast.com

Pre-order What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting at explorewhatworks.com/book

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THE BOOK: Do your Big-G Goals Serve You? Jul 26, 2022

What’s a Big-G Goal? Well, those are the kind of milestone targets we set. At that time, my Big G Goals were about how many new members I could enroll or what kind of stages I could speak on. At another time in my life, writing a book was a Big G Goal of mine. And before that, completing a Ph.D. was my Big G Goal. They’re the kind of goals that make you feel validated for about 24 hours after you achieve them—or make you feel like a failure if you don’t.

Well, "a failure" was exactly what I felt like. So I went back to the drawing board. I wiped the slate so clean that I started to question whether Big-G Goals were helping me make my life better or whether they were simply squeezing me into stories someone else was telling.

My new book, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting, arrives on November 1. But you can pre-order wherever you buy books: explorewhatworks.com/book

My guess is that, as a listener of this podcast, you’re interested in approaching life and work in new ways. You think critically about the shoulds and supposed-tos you grew up with. You notice how it always seems to be “up to you” to fix yourself, rather than questioning whether you’re broken at all.

You question conventional ideas of success and achievement. You notice when conventional wisdom starts to infringe on your values.

This book is for you.

I can guarantee you that it’s different than any other book on goal-setting—because it’s not really about goal-setting at all. It’s not a thinly veiled pep talk. It’s not about turning structural problems into your personal to-do list.

What Works will change the way you think about goal-setting—but it will also change the story you live in. Life and work don’t have to be structured around the next achievement or milestone.

What Works will help you take on the big questions that bubble under the surface of most advice on success and productivity—the philosophical, cultural, and political discourses that unconsciously shape how we think.

But in the end, What Works will also offer you a practical framework you can use to discover what works for you.

Pre-Order What Works today!

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EP 390: Context Clues: Is a recession inevitable? Jul 12, 2022

How do you prepare your small business for economic ups and downs? Is a recession inevitable? And what even is a recession? In this episode, unpack why the economy cycles through periods of boom and bust. I also demonstrate how a similar cycle is at play in the online business space. And I offer some strategies for making sustainable business decisions—no matter what happens with the economy.

Footnotes:

Gates of the Arctic National Park
Caribou population cycles
Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Sea by Bathsheba Demuth
Beargrass
Mast fruiting
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Are recessions normal?” on Make Me Smart
Economic cycles on Investopedia
Spotted lanternfly and tree of heaven
Timothy Snyder on the Ezra Klein Show
“The best of all possible worlds” from Candide
A history of recessions in the 20th and 21st centuries
Rana Foroohar on the Ezra Klein Show

Article versions of episodes are posted at explorewhatworks.com every Thursday. To get those articles delivered straight to you, free of charge, go to explorewhatworks.com/weekly

Have a question about an episode of What Works? Is there something you've noticed online, in the news, or in your business that you're curious about? Go to zipmessage.com/whatworks! Leave me a message, and I'll try to respond in a future episode!

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EP 389: Context Clues: Does everyone need a personal brand? Jul 05, 2022

Personal brand development is now a mainstay of college career preparation. Young social media influencers are well-versed on the language of personal branding. It seems cultivating your personal brand is a prerequisite for navigating the 21st-century economy. Public image has a long history, of course. But how has our relationship with ourselves changed since we started to put so much effort into emphasizing the most marketable parts of our identities? This episode tackles the history of personal branding, the labor of self-branding, and why so much value is being created in the “social factory.”

Footnotes:

“Sentimental ‘Greenbacks’ of Civilization”: Cartes de Visite and the Pre-History of Self-Branding by Alison Hearn (The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture)
“Cartes de Visite,” Art Gallery of New South Wales (YouTube)
The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler
“Meat, Mask, Burden: Probing the Contours of the Branded Self” by Alison Hearn (Journal of Consumer Culture)
The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles by David Harvey
EP.385: Who do you work for? on What Works
Connect with Tyler McCall on Twitter
“On the internet, we’re always famous” by Chris Hayes (The New Yorker)
“The Problem with Personal Brands and the Labor of Authenticity” by Tara McMullin

Essay versions of each episode are available every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. To get them delivered straight to your inbox, sign up free at explorewhatworks.com/weekly

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EP 388: Extra Context: Not Getting Paid Jun 28, 2022

“You could make money with that!” That’s probably the first thing you hear when someone discovers you’re an excellent baker, or designer, or potter. Even if your hobby is collecting super hero figurines, someone has probably suggesting “monetizing” that interest. There is all sorts of historical, economic, and sociological context for this. But in this episode, I talk with someone who typifies not getting paid for what you love to do: my husband, Sean McMullin. You’ll hear how Sean’s extended family in Utah and Montana, as well as his time living in an Iñupiat village in rural Alaska, shaped how he thinks about work he doesn’t get paid for.

Footnotes:

More about the Iñupiat people
“I grew up in a church led by a prophet” by Meg Conley
YellowHouse.Media
Sean McMullin on Instagram

Essay versions of each episode are published every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get the delivered straight to you by signing up at explorewhatworks.com/weekly

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EP 387: Context Clues: Is there hope beyond positive thinking? Jun 21, 2022

“Positive thinking” comes in many forms: New Thought, the prosperity gospel, manifestation teaching, self-help guides, and more. It’s hard to argue with thinking positive thoughts! But when positive thoughts become a substitute for curiosity and inquiry about real challenges, positive thinking can lead us away from real solutions. In this episode, I explore my own encounters with the world of positive thinking and how facing reality has actually given me more hope.
Footnotes:

More about Mary Baker Eddy
More about Ernest Holmes and The Science of Mind
More about Norman Vincent Peale* The Power of Positive Thinking
Mary Kay Ash on YouTube
Confidence Culture by Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill
Rhonda Byrne on YouTube
“Farm-To-Table: Reciprocity in Every Seam” (Christy Dawn ad)
“Manifestation, eugenics, and flower oil” by Meg Conley
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
At The Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit

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EP 386: Extra Context: Getting Paid Jun 14, 2022

Who doesn’t love to get paid? So we’re going to talk about how that actually happens. Not the dollars and cents of getting paid, but the form and structure. In the previous two episodes, we examined our relationships to work—both paid and unpaid. And it got me thinking about how we actually account for the ways paid work, well, pays—and especially how that impacts business owners and independent workers. I’m talking the difference between wages and profit, how surplus labor creates profit, and specifically how I structure my own pay in order to have a better perspective on my work.

Footnotes:

Surplus Labor in Radical Economics
Karl Marx via The School of Life
“The ‘Cult’ of Passive Income” via Tiffany Ferguson

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EP 385: Context Clues: Who do you work for? Jun 07, 2022

It seems like every business owner or freelancer I know wants to quit social media. But very few people are actually doing it. It seems easier to imagine the end of your business than the end of social media, to paraphrase Mark Fisher. There’s something about our relationship to social platforms that makes them feel inescapable. And, perhaps without even noticing, it’s started to see like we’re working for them more than working for ourselves. In this episode, I unpack our relationship to platforms and who profits from our labor. And it starts in an unusual place: the recent Etsy strike.
Footnotes:

“Etsy sellers will go on strike in April and ask customers to boycott” on The Verge
“Why Etsy sellers are going on strike” on Yahoo Finance
“16,000 shops join Etsy strike” via KERO
Rob Kalin speaking to the World Economic Forum
Mark Zuckerberg testifying before the House Energy & Commerce Committee
“How Facebook (Meta), Twitter, social media make money from you” via Investopedia
Tyler McCall on Instagram and Twitter

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EP 384: Context Clues: Do you love your work? May 31, 2022

I grew up expecting to love what I did for a living. I was encouraged to choose a career that I was passionate about. But when I did, I bumped up against the stark reality that work I loved didn’t pay the bills. At least not in any straightforward way. In this episode, I explore the context of “doing what you love” and how it shapes the way we build our businesses or careers today.

Footnotes:

Analysis of wages during the 90s (BLS)
Eupsychian Management by Abraham Maslow
Target Commercial: “Come in for workout gear, leave feeling empowered.”
Dan Olsen on The Ezra Klein Show
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord
“The Passion Paradigm: Professional Adherence to and Consequences of the Ideology of ‘Do What You Love’” by Lindsay DePalma
“Down with Love: Feminist Critique and the New Ideologies of Work” by Kathi Weeks
Work Won’t Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe
More about Lou Blaser and Midlife Cues
“To My Brothers and Sisters In The Failure Business” by Seymour Krim
Works Progress Administration

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EP 383: Extra Context: Rugged Individualism May 24, 2022

“Rugged individualism” is the very language we speak in America. It shapes the way we approach work, family, and society. And rugged individualism has a direct impact on the decisions we make about our businesses and careers. In this short Extra Context bonus, I unpack where rugged individualism comes from and highlight a different way forward.

Footnotes:

Rugged Individualism Monologue by Terry Smith
"The Myth of Rugged Individualism” by Robert Reich
“We’d Like To Thank You, Herbert Hoover” from Annie
Individualism and Economic Order by Friedrich Hayek
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit
“The Philosophers: Loneliness & Totalitarianism” on Vox Conversations

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EP 382: Context Clues: What makes for a fair refund policy? May 17, 2022

No one likes being asked for a refund. In fact, I find the thought of it stomach-churning. And when what’s being refunded is the product of your time, experience, and expertise… it’s tempting to put every obstacle you can think of between a customer and a refund. In this episode, I’ll take you on a journey from the 17th century all the way through the modern era of online business refund policies to answer the question: What makes for a fair refund policy?

Footnotes:

About Josiah Wedgwood
“Josiah Wedgwood: An Eighteenth-Century Entrepreneur in Salesmanship and Marketing Techniques” by Neil McKendrick
“Beyond The Pottery: The Creative Giant, Josiah Wedgwood” on YouTube
“They Broke It” by Judith Flanders
“What a Hundred-Year-Old Department Store Can Tell Us About the Overlap of Retail, Religion and Politics” by Tobias Carroll
“Many (Un)happy Returns? The Changing Nature of Retail Product Returns and Future Research Directions” Journal of Retailing
Online Outlier & Regina Anaejionu
More on “caveat emptor” (the buyer beware)
“Is the customer always right?” The Merck Report, June 1915
“Is the customer the enemy?” by Chris MacDonald
“The Customer As Enemy” by Michael Schrage
Kaye Publicity & Dana Kaye

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EP 381: What happens when you take a 4-month break from business as usual? May 10, 2022

At the end of 2021, I stepped away from my business: left our community, off-boarded my employee to another company, and focused on my mental health. Over the next 4 months, I wrote a book and thought about what might be next for me and my work. In this episode, I share what I’ve been up to in that time and what I might do in the months to come.
Resources:
* What Works: A Comprehensive Framework For Changing The Way We Approach Goal Setting* NYU’s Intro To Creative Nonfiction course* Catapult’s Writing Pitches That Land Bylines* How Your Personal Priorities Shape The Way You Design Your Business
Essay versions of new What Works episodes are posted on Thursdays. Sign up for What Works Weekly to get it in your inbox!

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EP 380: When does overdelivering become overcompensating? with Allison Davis Apr 05, 2022

I’m sure you’ve heard it before: underpromise and overdeliver. But is that really the best way to do business? Or does it just give us a permission slip for self-exploitation? When does overdelivering become overcompensating? And when does being generous just morph into entrepreneurial martyrdom? I sat down with sales coach Allison Davis to talk about overdelivering, generosity, and when it all gets to be too much. We talk pricing and scope of work—but we also talk about familiar relationship patterns and how they play out in our expectations for ourselves or others.
Resources:
* Allison Davis* Down Girl: The Logic Of Misogyny by Kate Manne* Kate Manne on Forever35* Living A Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed* EP 371: How does emotional labor impact our work?

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EP 379: Why do we choose squeezing more in over taking time off? (Time & Money 8) Mar 29, 2022

I’m bringing our Time & Money series to a close this week by exploring why we choose squeezing more in over taking time off. I share how The Squeeze works, why work gets more intense over time, and some of the economic incentives that keep us from making different choices.
Resources:
* “Feeling The Squeeze? Why Your Business Feels So Tight” by Tara McMullin* “Busy vs Squeezed: How To Tell The Difference & Why It Matters” by Tara McMullin* “Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren” by John Maynard Keynes* Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher* Protestant Ethic & The Spirit Of Capitalism by Max Weber* “When Time Is Money: Contested Rationalities of Time and Challenges to the Theory and Practice of Work” by Barbara Adam* Can’t Even by Anne Helen Petersen* Wintering by Katherine May
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EP 378: How much time do you work? with Anne Ditmeyer (Time & Money 7) Mar 22, 2022

A lot of the work we do today doesn’t much look like “work.” The divide between work-life and life-life is flexible and porous. So what does that mean for the way we spend our time? Or how we earn a living? In this episode, I share designer, coach, and consultant Anne Ditmeyer’s story of rethinking how she works thanks to a big move to Paris. And, I argue that perhaps we need a radically different way of thinking about what work is—instead of a better “work-life balance.”
Resources:
* Learn more about Anne Ditmeyer* Lost In Work, by Amelia Horgan* Episode 349 with Brittany Berger

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EP 377: What game are you playing? (Time & Money 6) Mar 15, 2022

The systems we operate in all have different incentive systems: our business models, the social media platforms, our economy, the culture at large… And many of these incentive systems have become simplified and gamified—changing the way we view the results of our work and the goals that we hold. In this episode, I explore how the philosophy of games can help us identify when we’re just trying to “game the system” instead of taking effective action based on our own values and goals.
Resources:
* C. Thi Nguyen at the Royal Institute of Philosophy* Nguyen on The Ezra Klein Show* How Twitter Gamifies Communication* *What Tech Calls Thinking* by Adrian Daub* *Games: Agency As Art* by C. Thi Nguyen

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EP 376: What Is Our Time Worth? With Keina Newell (Time & Money 5) Mar 08, 2022

Most of us learn the value of our time in our first jobs. Even as we get more experience and our hourly jobs turn into salaried jobs or freelance projects, the specter of selling your time for a particular wage looms. In this episode, I talk with Wealth Over Now founder & Money Files host Keina Newell about how she thinks about the intersection of time and money. I also offer up a light history of wage work and how that history influences as business owners.
Resources:
* Wealth Over Now — Keina Newell* Money Files — Keina’s podcast* What is the domestic system?* What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?* Further reference: Labor writers Kim Kelly & Sarah Jaffe in conversation* EP 341: Taking Better Care Of Each Other with Kate Strathmann* Games Against Humanity: C Thi Nguyen on the Conspirituality podcast

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EP 375: Is this really a new economy? (Time & Money 4) Mar 01, 2022

I’ve been talking about the “new economy” since about 2010. But more and more, I recognize that the economic possibilities created through the internet aren’t nearly as new or innovative as I’d first thought (and hoped). It seems that the old economy is just making itself over as the not-so-new economy. In this episode, I explore 3 processes of the old economy—speculation, financialization, and liquidation—to pinpoint how they’re showing up in our digital world of independent work.
I weave together the housing market, creator economy, Great Recession, and crypto promises to help you situate yourself in this strange, not-so-new world. At times, it’s a bleak story—but ultimately, understanding where we’re at gives us a better opportunity to make different, more humane choices.
Resources:
* CNBC Interview with NewNew Founder Courtne Smith* Investopedia on financialization* *The Big Short* by Michael Lewis* Michael Lewis on 60 Minutes* “How the financial crisis changed jobs” from Marketplace* Gig Economy explainer via Marketplace* NFTs explainer via Marketplace* “How Money Became The Measure Of Everything” by Eli Cook* “The complicated reality of doing what you love” by Marian Bull* Greater Fool Theory on Investopedia* “I crowdfunded a novel using cryptocurrency” by Elle Griffin

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EP 374: How do you measure quality time? with Elisabeth Jackson (Time & Money 3) Feb 22, 2022

There’s more than one way to measure success—and there’s more than one way to measure time. How do you account for the time you spend working? And is it really the most effective—for you—to spend it? In other words, what constitutes quality time when it comes to the way you work? I talked with business operations coach Elisabeth Jackson about how she changed her overwork habit, how she measures quality time for herself & her clients, and why she doesn’t love the word “productivity.”
Resources:
* Find out more about Elisabeth Jackson* More about Frederick Winslow Taylor* *Lost In Work*, by Amelia Horgan* EP 373: The Eggbeater Effect, listen or read

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EP 373: Should we lower our expectations? (Time & Money 2) Feb 15, 2022

We spend money on lots of tools designed to save us time and work. But all too often, those tools just end up raising our expectations. Why do work in less time when you could do more work in the same amount of time?! In this episode, I examine “the egg beater effect” and why we should, just maybe, lower our expectations a bit.
Resoures:
* You’re Wrong About: The Stepford Wives* More Work For Mother by Ruth Schwartz Cowan* Episode 371: What is the creator economy? with Gina Bianchini* Episode 364: The Abundant Value Of Virtual Assistants with Janice Plado Dalager* Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren by John Maynard Keynes

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EP 372: What Is Money? with Paco de Leon (Time & Money 1) Feb 08, 2022

“Time is money.” Ben Franklin gave us that chestnut in 1748—and ever since, we’ve been trained to think of our lives as opportunities for making a buck. This week, we start a series exploring the “time is money” construction. But before we think through how we spend our time, we’re going to think through money: what it really is, how we relate to it, and some of the factors that make it “weird.” I talk with Paco de Leon from the Hell Yeah Group and author of the brand-new book, Finance For The People.
Resources:
* Finance For The People, by Paco de Leon* The Hell Yeah Group* The Nerdletter

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EP 371: How does emotional labor impact our work? Feb 01, 2022

Emotional labor is an under-appreciated, under-compensated type of work. But it’s essential for navigating the 21st-century economy. Entrepreneurship almost always brings with it a need for managing our emotions to lead and care for others. And this expectation is only doubled when the entrepreneur is a woman or marginalized person. What’s more, the type of marketing that many of us are told to do today is thick with emotional labor: showing up with confidence, using your personality as leverage, banking on your sense of self. It’s no wonder so many business owners are burning out. In this episode, I tackle: What is emotional labor? And how does it impact our work as entrepreneurs?
Resources:
* The Managed Heart by Arlie Russell Hochschild* The Impact Equation by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith* What Is The Creator Economy? With Gina Bianchini* The emotional labour of academia in the time of a pandemic: A feminist reflection by Michelle Newcomb

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EP 370: What is the creator economy? with Gina Bianchini Jan 25, 2022

What is the creator economy? And why are so many creators… miserable? Mighty Networks founder Gina Bianchini was the first person I knew talking about the creating economy. She’s passionate about helping entrepreneurs, organizers, and creators see why building independently beats trying to amass huge audiences on the usual platforms. In this episode, we talk about what the creator economy is, how the game is rigged, what’s making creators miserable, and how she sees a different way forward. Plus, we’ll discuss research from the massive independent study that Mighty Networks commissioned.
Resources:
* How “Building An Audience” Is Different From “Finding Customers”—And Why It Matters* What Tech Calls Thinking by Adrian Daub* Lost In Work: Escaping Capitalism by Amelia Horgan* The New Creator Manifesto (Research on the creator economy)* Mighty Networks* Creators Calculator* Subscribe To What Works Weekly
Looking for a transcript? I’m publishing every episode in essay form on Thursdays at explorewhatworks.com!

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EP 369: Do your goals make you a better person? Jan 18, 2022

The way we set goals often invites a load of comparison and competition. We can even create a moral hierarchy of more and better. In this episode, I explore the roots of moralizing around the goals we set, borrowing from Dr. Devon Price, Max Weber, Kate Manne, and Simone de Beauvoir.
Resources for diving deeper:
* *Laziness Does Not Exist* by Dr. Devon Price* Max Weber* Morality* Kate Manne on the immorality of diet culture* *You Belong* by Sebene Selassie* Simone de Beauvoir & The Ethics of Ambiguity

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EP 368: What Does Growth Without Striving Look Like? with Rita Barry Jan 11, 2022

“What does growth without striving look like?”
Rita Barry posed this question 3 years ago, and it’s stuck with me ever since.
In this episode, I talk with Rita about the journey she’s been on to answer that question as her company has exploded. We dive into validation-seeking, social conditioning, and identifying what you really want in the face of so much “common sense” about what success looks like.
You’ll hear Rita’s story, plus commentary from writer Anne Helen Petersen (via Librairie Drawn & Quarterly) and psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe (via Renegade Inc).
Find out more about Rita Barry at ritabarry.co
This year on What Works, I’m exploring how we can navigate the 21st-century economy with our humanity intact. Read articles, listen to the archives, and sign up for What Works Weekly at explorewhatworks.com

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EP 367: Moving Into A New Chapter with Darden Creative Founder Tamera Darden Dec 14, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why Darden Creative founder Tamera Darden decided to shut down her business at the end of 2022—and how that decision evolved* How she wrestled with the practical, emotional, and financial questions around this big decision* The experience that led her to reclaiming her original vision for the business* How she’s planning to move forward and what it means for the way she works in her own business
How do you know when it’s time to quit?
It’s a question I’ve been asked countless times over the years. Sometimes, the question is asked in frustration or sadness. A business owner will tell me they’ve tried everything; they’ve tried everything; they’re at a loss about what to do next.
Other times, the question is asked sheepishly, with almost a tone of guilt. The business owner will tell me that they’ve been successful, maybe even more successful than they dreamed. But that something isn’t right. They’re unhappy or just feeling the pull of a new challenge.
Either way, knowing when to quit is almost never clear cut.
When I sat down with Tamera Darden a couple of months ago, we were scheduled to talk about values and how her business has operationalized those values. But in our pre-show warm-up, she told me she’d decided to shut down her business at the end of 2022.
So we pivoted. I let her know we were doing this series on letting go & beginning again and offered, if she was ready, to talk about her decision.
We went there. I was struck by her willingness to occupy uncertainty and liminality. And I was impressed by her self-confidence, even when things weren’t quite crystal clear.
I told her to let me know if anything changed in the 8 weeks or so before our conversation would actually go live.
A few weeks ago, she sent me a message. She needed to make an update. Her decision had evolved.
I hesitate to say she’s changed her mind—you’ll hear why.
Instead, she asked more abundant questions about what was next for her, why she felt compelled to shut down the business, and what other options could look like.
What follows is both parts of that conversation. It’s a rare look into the reality of how entrepreneurial decisions evolve if we let them.
Tamera Darden is the founder of Darden Creative. She’s a photographer, creative director, and business mentor with a vision for helping Black women-owned businesses thrive.
Changing your mind is hard. Doing so in a public forum is even harder.
I believe very strongly we owe it to ourselves to normalize coming to new conclusions based on new information, questions, or perspective. I hope this conversation creates some space for you to let your own positions evolve.

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EP 366: Unpacking Business Grief with Charlene Lam Dec 07, 2021

In This Episode:
* Creative grief worker & curator Charlene Lam shares how grief impacts us—as humans, leaders, and business owners* How she discovered a passion for understanding grief and helping others process after the death of her mother* The practical exercises she uses to process feelings of loss
Toward the end of 2020, I started to hear the murmurs of something I’d come to learn was called “ambiguous loss.”
Of course, 2020 was full of loss and grief. There were goals, events, and—of course—people who were no longer with us.
But there was also an amorphous, chronic type of grief that set in. The murmurs spoke softly of pain and exhaustion that couldn’t be attributed to any one particular loss.
In 1999, Pauline Boss coined the term ambiguous loss for exactly this kind of feeling. In a conversation with Krista Tippett, Boss said:
“We like to solve problems. We’re not comfortable with unanswered questions. And this is full of unanswered questions. These are losses that are minus facts.”
For me, the ambiguous loss of the last 2 years has been felt as a sort of ongoing liminality. I’ve felt stuck between the life, goals, and identities that were part of my pre-2020 life and the next life, goals, and identities that have yet to take form. And while this is my sense of a personal ambiguous loss, I think it also mirrors the ambiguous loss we’ve faced as a society.
As the pandemic has worn on and social change has stagnated, we keep catching glimpses of what might be on the other side.
But the promises that “it’ll be over soon” have become ever harder to believe. We’re stuck between our pre-2020 world and the world that has yet to come into focus.
Grief in general, and ambiguous loss in particular, might seem like an odd topic for a business podcast. But it was conversations with small business owners that made me realization how important talking about grief is for us.
Business owners like us go through all sorts of experiences that can bring on a sense of loss or grief: the failed launch, a canceled event, the lost opportunity, an unmet goal, the loss of a team member, or the end of a working relationship. But our natural optimism as entrepreneurs, as well as a culture that doesn’t make much room for grief, means that we rarely pause to observe and process the transition.
So last December, we decided to devote this December to letting go, processing grief, and beginning again. At the end of last year, this topic felt urgent—but now, this topic feels timely.
While I think we’re all still feeling deep uncertainty about what’s next, we have a little distance from the onslaught of fear. I’ve talked to a bunch of people who finally feel like they have the capacity to make a decision about moving on and process what that means for them.
Today, I want you to meet Charlene Lam, a creative grief worker, as well as a business mentor, content marketing strategist, and curator. She’s the creator of The Grief Gallery and Grief. Grit. Grace., where she writes, speaks, and curates exhibitions that help people process their grief.
Charlene and I talk about what grief is and how we process it—as well as how grief shows up for us as business owners and what we can do to let go of what was and begin again with a new vision.

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EP 365: Asking Abundant Questions To Solve Business Challenges Nov 30, 2021

I always hesitate to talk about practicing an “abundance mindset…”
…because it so quickly veers into positive vibes only, charge what you’re worth, girl, wash your face territory.
And to my mind, that territory is steeped in scarcity and its cousin, precarity.
Abundance isn’t about ignoring unpleasant feelings or people who ask hard questions.
When we do that, we’re essentially signaling that our positive vibes are so precarious that something challenging or unpleasant could cause us to lose our high. Practicing abundance, instead, invites us to wrestle with hard things without fear of losing our way.
Abundance isn’t about charging what you’re worth because abundance knows that markets are fickle and that human experience can’t be quantified in hourly rates or flat fees.
While I readily acknowledge that “charge what you’re worth” has helped lots of people ask for more, it also reinforces scarcity thinking in the form of “getting what’s yours” or “they’re out to get me.”
Abundance also isn’t about equating endless hard work with deserving more abundant rewards.
It’s certainly not about sucking it up. This kind of thinking reinforces that there’s a limited supply of resources out there and you better get up before dawn to grab your bit.
Truthfully, I’m not sure I can define abundance succinctly.
What it means to me is a present knowing that I am enough, that I have enough, and that there is enough time, attention, and support to live a meaningful life and do meaningful work. I can’t say that this is my mindset at all times—far from it.
But in the times when I’m feeling most hopeless or desperate, it’s the mindset that I eventually bring myself back to. It’s the Truth that’s guided difficult decisions and unlocked completely unexpected paths forward. An abundance mindset—when I’m truly in it—shifts my perception and presents new possibilities.
Maybe one way to think about it is that an abundance mindset isn’t so much an answer to the problems of scarcity, urgency, and precarity, but a series of questions that remind you there is always a way forward.
Throughout this month, my goal has been to speak some of those questions out loud. Hopefully, you’ve experienced at least a small shift in perception as a result.
Today, we’ll round out this series with 3 more stories about interesting questions and new ways forward. You’ll hear from sales coach Allison Davis, business strategist AnnMarie Rose, and Athena Village founder Kelly Pratt. Listen for the shift in perception that allowed them to see a new possibility for their work and businesses.

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EP 364: The Abundant Value of Virtual Assistants with Janice Plado Dalager Nov 23, 2021

In This Episode:
* Consultant and virtual assistant Janice Plado Dalager joins Tara for a conversation about the unique skill set that virtual assistants and other support professionals bring to small businesses* How VAs end up mistreated by entrepreneurs—and the gendered and racialized components of these relationships that make mistreatment more likely* Why emotional labor is an undervalued skill for support pros, as well as why it should be a key part of how this work is compensated* How small business owners can check their own behavior to make these working relationships more humane
Back in 2016, the odd-job platform TaskRabbit ran a series of ads in New York City subways.
Imagine a photo of a thin, white woman in upward facing dog pose on a yoga mat. She’s blissed out. Above her, the poster reads “Mopping the floors” in trendy, pseudo handwriting script. Below her, the TaskRabbit tagline reads “We do chores. You live life.”
The ad campaign communicates the promise of letting your chores disappear into someone else’s workload.
We do chores, you live life: Who is “you?” And who is “we?”
Do the folks who are mopping floors ever get to be the “you” who lives life while someone else does the chores?
I’m Tara McMullin and this is What Works, the show that explores entrepreneurship for humans.
Independent work, the gig economy, online business—they’ve all been sold to us as ways to transcend old class divides. They promise a more level playing field for offering your time and skills. No fancy resume needed, just a willingness to put in the work.
Of course, this is far from the truth.
Michael Zelenko puts it this way in an article for The Verge:
Instead of establishing partnerships within a community, the gig economy and TaskRabbit’s ads reaffirm a class divide, between the “You” — whose life is defined by recreational activities — and the “We,” whose lives are devoted to doing your chores.
Rather than leveling the playing field, gig work and the ever-increasing push to classify more workers as independent contractors has, in effect, reestablished a servant class. Now, however, it’s not just elites and the aristocracy who get access to servant labor—it’s anyone with a smartphone and a few extra bucks to spend on takeout or housework.
The more times I get my groceries delivered, the more I see my time, work, and self-care as more important than running errands. It’s a short jump to start to see those who are running my errands as less important than me. Less deserving of the good life.
And, in classic upstairs/downstairs Downton Abbey fashion, the more I use these services, the easier it is to allow the people doing them to be invisible. Sarah Jaffe, the author of Work Won’t Love You Back, recently talked about the culture of entitlement to service that we have in the United States on The Ezra Klein Show. She suggested that our sense of freedom hinges, in some ways, on being able to get what we want, when we want it—without consideration for those who are making it happen.
And this is where I want to pivot to talking about micro entrepreneurship and digital small business.

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EP 363: Making The Hard Call With 90-Day Business Launch Founder Michelle Ward Nov 16, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why Michelle Ward decided to retire as the When I Grow Up Coach to go all-in on the 90-Day Business Launch* Why a complicated business model (and her peer mastermind) made the decision pretty clear* How she made the transition and the impact its had on revenue* How she’s reprioritizing business & life so she’s focused on what she really values
Small business owners are famously susceptible to the sunk cost fallacy.
If you’re not a familiar, sunk cost fallacy is the idea that the more we sink our time, money, and other resources into a project or idea, the more likely we are to stick with it even when it’s not working.
Our resources are limited—or at least feel that way. So we’re attached to them. Deciding to invest precious resources into an idea then creates an attachment to that idea. The more attached we become, the less likely we are to willing detach.
The more resources we sink into a project—and the more attached we become—the fewer choices we seem to have about how to move forward.
This is the work of a mindset of scarcity and limitation.
Now, I don’t want to give short shrift to the drain on material resources any project, idea, or business can be. We can invest money in growth—and not see it shift into a return. We can invest time in a new offer—and not see it sell. We can forgo our own compensation to make a big move—and have it not work out.
Those situations all suck. And the drain on resources is very, very real.
However, where the scarcity narrative starts to wreak havoc is in our perception of choice. Is it possible to peer through the thick fog of disappointment and still see an array of possibilities in front of you?
Maybe even an array of opportunities?
Now, it’s easy to see how the sunk cost fallacy applies when things aren’t going well. But the sunk cost fallacy also applies when things are humming along, doing just fine.
In fact, I’d wager that it’s harder to see different opportunities and make the choice to pursue a new way forward when things are working. When the investments you’ve made are paying off, it’s harder to walk away.
But that’s just what today’s guest has done.
I’ve known When I Grow Up Coach Michelle Ward almost as long as I’ve been working for myself. So when she emailed me a couple of weeks ago to ask if she could come on the pod to talk about how she’d retired the When I Grow Up Coach brand and gone all-in on her 90-Day Business Launch program, I said: hell yeah!
This is a story about wrestling with long-term success and the decision to go a different way. It’s also a story about recognizing that, any time you make a big move, things like money and marketing won’t magically stay the same. And finally, it’s a story about recognizing abundant long-term opportunity over short-term consistency.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Michelle Ward!

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EP 362: Debunking The Myth Of Scarce Attention Nov 09, 2021

Have you heard?
The average human attention span is now shorter than a goldfish’s! Thanks, internet. TV journalists and politicians talk to us in sound bites, assuming we don’t have the attention for more nuanced analysis. Boomers bemoan fast media like TikTok and Instagram. It seems like attention might be one of our scarcest and most precious resources.
But I’m starting to wonder whether attention is really a scarce resource. Perhaps what is truly scarce are media and messages worth paying attention to. Before I get into the latter, let’s debunk the former.
It turns out that the panic over our attention spans being less than a goldfish’s is a pseudo-scientific soundbite in and of itself.
Actual research psychologists say they don’t really study “attention span” as a discrete component of how we think. Instead, attention span is relative. How long we can pay attention to something depends on the task, our level of interest, and the varied circumstances we bring to a given situation. For instance, I might be able to work on an essay for hours at a time because I’m fascinated by the subject and in a creative flow. But on another day, even though my interest hasn’t changed, I might not be able to sustain 5 minutes of distraction-free work because I didn’t get enough sleep or I’m feeling anxious about something.
What’s more, according to a BBC article debunking this “common knowledge” about goldfish and attention spans, goldfish do actually have the ability to pay attention! Scientists have been studying fish for over 100 years to get a better idea of how memories are formed and how learning happens—precisely because fish are able to “pay attention” long enough to do both.
So, it turns out that scientists agree that given the right task and the right circumstances, we have an abundance of attention.
That’s not to say that we don’t also have personal, neurological, and systemic challenges with paying attention. But it is to say that, as marketers, we don’t need to fight for our own slice of attention tartlet. How, then, could we approach marketing and business-building differently?
Business owners tell me about how hard it is to reach people on a regular basis. How hard it is to get people’s attention. These business owners try to keep up with the algorithm changes, the trends that are going viral, and the memes that get noticed. This complaint is a red flag 🚩. That’s a meme joke.
Algorithms and memes aren’t the way to access an abundance of attention.
And when gaming the algorithm and leveraging the memes does pay off? That attention is precarious—fleeting. The attention we do get paid is more like an impulse purchase rather than a long-term investment. Many people today have a greater supply of money than they do time. So getting someone to pay attention—which is a function of time—might be harder than getting them to pay currency.
And yet, it’s understood that the work we create for the payment of attention doesn’t have to be as high quality as work that people pay money for. Quality attention requires quality work. When we make work designed to satisfy the demands of the algorithm, we’re rarely making work that satisfies the interests of the people we want to connect with. Just because something gets likes or reach doesn’t mean people are really paying attention.
Today, the mediascape is very different from when I became a blogger and social media user back in 2009.
Platforms were real channels for sharing whatever it was that you wanted to put online.

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EP 361: Embracing Your Whole Identity With Coach & Consultant Angela Browne Nov 02, 2021

In This Episode:
* How Angie Browne‘s career has evolved into embracing her whole identity as a coach & consultant* Why she’s exploring big questions about our identities and how we work* What she did to establish how she wanted to work with clients and companies in this chapter* The story she’s rewriting a personal story she’s been telling for years
We all have an abundance of identities.
I’m a woman. A wife. A mother. I’m a business owner, a writer, a podcaster. I’m a runner, a yoga practitioner, a paddle boarder. I’m an introvert, a book lover, and a new cat parent.
I am many other things, too.
The professional world—as built by white men—has been a place where we leave our other identities at the door. We transform into whatever the job requires of us and try to ignore the rest.
There’s a passage that really encapsulates this in a book I read earlier this year—Having and Being Had by Eula Biss. She writes about a conversation she had with her mom:
“The hardest part of working isn’t the work, my mother tells me, it’s the passing. She means passing as an office worker—dressing the part, performing the rituals of office life, and acting appropriately grateful for a ten-hour shift at a computer.”
When we opt to forge our own path as business owners, it’s easy to imagine that we’ll escape these rituals, avoid assimilating to the expectations of the office. And sure, some of them we do escape from. But there are plenty we end up sticking with—like trying to be grateful for spending 10 hours in front of a computer. And there are others we adopt as part of our new work: the rituals of social media, networking, email responsiveness.
It’s not so much that dressing the part, performing the rituals, or adapting to your work environment is a bad thing.
It’s there also needs to be space for the identities, responsibilities, and personal needs we have outside our job descriptions or client agreements.
Making that space is one way we practice abundance. It might mean rearranging your schedule. Or, it could be a clause you add to your contracts that acknowledges that missing an appointment or rescheduling because of a family need is not the end of the world. It could be a having a colleague you do a mutual mental health check with each week. Or, it could be as simple as acknowledging the transitional space at the beginning of meetings before you get down to business.
This week, my guest is Angela Browne, a coach for luminaries and a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant for organizations. Part of our conversation is about the way she’s learned to bring her whole self into her work—whether in her former work as a head teacher or in her roles.
But another key part of our conversation revolves around abundant curiosity—the kind that is willing to ask bold questions without needing to have definitive answers.
My hope is that this conversation will inspire you to consider how you can both make space for your many identities in the way you work and make space for abundant curiosity.
Now, let’s find out what works for Angie Browne!

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EP 360: Slowing Down To Make Sustainable Choices Oct 26, 2021

I am a fast person.
I walk fast. Cook fast. Write fast. Talk fast. Work out fast. It’s like I’m always moving towards some urgent need or trying to escape some impending disaster. So I’ve been working on slowing down for the last few years.
To do that, I have to be mindful. I have to be present enough to notice that I’m zooming around and get curious about why. Then, I can take a beat and slow down the tempo.
I say that like it’s easy, or like I even remember to do it on a regular basis. I don’t.
I find it hard to look around at the world—the news, the market, my family, my community—and not feel the pressure of urgency.
Things change so fast today, yes. But the problems we face and the opportunities in front of us are also urgent.
It’s not just the speed with which things happen. It’s the fleeting window of possibility we have to make changes or seize the moment.
In her book Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown writes:
“There is such urgency in the multitude of crises we face, it can make it hard to remember that in fact it is urgency thinking (urgent constant unsustainable growth) that got us to this point, and that our potential success lies in doing deep, slow, intentional work.”
Maybe we could call it strategic FOMO. The fear of missing out on the chance to change course, solve a challenge, make things better.
Of course, good strategy is never created quickly. Changing course, solving challenges, making things substantively better is slow work.
Otherwise, it’s not strategy—it’s just another crappy repair on top of a history of band-aid solutions.
Slowing down is key to building a business that operationalizes and embodies its values.
When you slow down, you can ask yourself better questions, gather diverse perspectives, get curious what’s really needed, and take time for quality.
And that’s really why I’ve been working on slowing down. I’ve become acutely aware of the friction and dysfunction that making a fast decision causes. I can easily see how speed has made it harder to make sustainable, humane choices.
I’ve also become aware at just how lovely it can feel to pause and check in. To say, “let’s revisit that next week.” To luxuriate in exploring how things could be done in ways that epitomize my values and honor my capacity.
Today, you’re going to hear from 4 other business owners who have also found that slowing down has helped them operationalize their values in their businesses.
You’ll hear from Sarah Cottrell, the founder of Former Lawyer, Gracy Obuchowicz, a self-care consultant for companies & organizations, Yvette Ramos-Volz, a glass artist & aromatherapist, and Jennie Morris, the founder of Vegologie.
Each one is finding ways to create the necessary space to check in with their core values before making decisions about their business—big or small. By slowing down, they make their values a core operational consideration,

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EP 359: Operating An Ethical Business With the ethical move Founder Alice Karolina Oct 19, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why brand strategist Alice Karolina created the ethical move, which helps small business owners navigate building more ethical marketing and sales systems* How the ethical move evolves as they practice reflection and collaboration* Why Alice prioritizes moving slowly when it comes to building the business* What they’re discovering as they incrementally investigate what building a business that prioritizes ethics looks like
I had always thought I was running a pretty values-driven business.
I cared about people and tried to operate always assuming the best of them. I developed programs in the spirit of experimentation—a core value for me. And I utilized transparency and honesty in my marketing and sales processes.
But at the same time, I didn’t ask a lot of questions. If someone told me it was totally fine to do X, Y, or Z marketing tactic, I believed them.
I operated my business that way through October 2016. Then, I had a wakeup call and a lot of questions. Like many people, I had so many questions about how the United States had gotten to that point. I had questions about the deep betrayal that I felt as a woman and the deep betrayal that wasn’t at all new for women of color, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, and disabled people.
And all of those questions started to trickle down into my business. I started to see ways that I was inadvertently replicating power structures I wasn’t okay with. And I started to see how it’s so easy to turn a marketing campaign into a misinformation campaign.
I wanted to figure out how to do things differently.
I have learned so much over the last 5 years. And I’ve changed a lot of the ways I personally operate—as well as the operations in my business. We regularly explore what it looks like to live and work our values as a community.
And one thing I’ve wrestled with in all that change and learning has been why we’re doing things differently and why we endeavor to do better. It’s easy to let “wanting to do better” become wanting to follow the right rules, get the language just right, or make sure that you speak up in just the right way when something horrific happens.
This is a pattern that so many white, straight, women like myself fall into. And I know it’s one that I could easily fall into being the rule-loving, achievement-oriented person I am.
Last year, one of my commitments was a reminder for me to examine my pattern of defensiveness.
I talked about it a bit here on the podcast. This year, one of my commitments reminds me to speak up, to not avoid conflict, just because I have something difficult to say. As I’ve worked through those patterns and altered my habits, I’ve gotten pretty clear on what I do want and don’t want when it comes to doing business differently.
What I do want is to regularly examine the work I put out into the world to make sure it leaves room for human experiences that are different than mine. I don’t want to exclude or hurt people by virtue of the way I do business or even share my own story.
What I don’t want is to live in fear of saying the wrong thing, getting called out, or being cancelled.
And the good news is that by focusing on leaving room for other people’s experiences and taking steps not to hurt people with the language I use or the stories I tell, I don’t have to live with that fear.

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EP 358: Imagining New Ways To Work With Future Proof Skills Lab Founder Liz Wiltsie Oct 12, 2021

In This Episode
* How Future Proof Skills Lab founder Liz Wiltsie has build her business on her North Star values & the movements she belongs to* How she makes room for difference, both in her own business and in her work with clients* What she’s decided not to do with her business because of her values
Imagine yourself sitting at a table. In front of you, there are all your favorite art supplies. Maybe there are paints, crayons, or pastels. Maybe there are stacks of magazines and illustrated books you can cut up for a collage. Maybe your art is music and your favorite instrument is on the table. Or maybe, like me, your favorite art supply is a tablet—one you can draw & paint with as well as create written art.
On their own, the art supplies don’t amount to much, right? The value of a tube of paint, a trumpet, or a pen is based on what we have the potential to do with it. Art supplies are tools and raw materials for creating. We imagine something and start to make it, or we get inspired and follow that inspiration.
Our values can also be raw materials for what we create in the world.
They give us something to work with, make with, imagine with.
The strength in our values isn’t simply in knowing them or putting them on our websites—their strength is in what we do with them.
What’s more, we can express those values in different ways.
Just like you and I will create something completely different with the same palette of paint, you and I might build very different businesses even if we’re working from the same set of values. The way I build my business model or core competency based on a value for community care is going to be different than the model or competency you build out based on your value for community care.
So maybe now, you imagine sitting at a table with your values in front of you. They’re the raw materials you have to play with. Also at the table is what you have to offer and who you’re offering it to. Now, you get to make art!
That might sound like a simplistic or even naive way to think about business-building. But let me tell you: it works. And not only that, it makes choices like how to market, what price to set, or how sell much much easier too. Starting with your values as raw materials helps you shape your business, instead of letting shoulds & supposed-to’s shape it.
My guest today is a perfect example of this. Liz Wiltsie is the founder of the Future Proof Skills Lab and the host of Sustainably Human At Work. She’s a trauma-informed, abolitionist skill builder on a quest to support small business owners to create more intentional, imaginative, and connected workplaces.
Liz and I talk through the values her business is built on, as well as the movements her business uses as the focal point of her work. Plus, she sheds some light on how both our needs and our values end up manifesting in different ways, as well as how that applies to the workplace.
Now, let’s find out what works for Liz Wiltsie.
Some of the thinkers Liz mentioned in our conversation:
Janaya Future Khan Jake Ernst James-Olivia Chu Hillman Drive by Dan Pink

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EP 357: Building A Business Based On What Matters With Coach Mara Glatzel Oct 05, 2021

In This Episode:
* The key values that coach Mara Glatzel has built her business on* How her human-first approach to business gives her a framework for caring for herself and for her clients* The belief systems she’s worked on unlearning to better fulfill her values* How being “well-resourced” gives her what she needs to respond when things get stressful
Years ago, I was the trainer at the Borders Books & Music I worked at.
It probably won’t surprise you that I loved this role. I poured over the training manuals. I thought about better systems for acclimating a new bookseller to a store with some 90,000 titles. I took seriously my job to communicate company policy, as well as the special privilege of working for a company with a mission and values like ours.
You can imagine me now putting air quotes around “special privilege.”
Understandably, I couldn’t remember the company’s mission and values now. So looked them up and found them on an old Blogspot blog from around the time I reciting them to my trainees in the fluorescent-lit breakroom.
Ready for this inspiring list? As of 2005, the values for Borders Group, Inc were: Leadership, Results orientation, Respect, People development, A positive workplace, and Customer service.
Yeah. Nothing innovative there. You could probably look in the training manual for most mass retailers and find something remarkably similar.
That’s the thing about company values, right?
They seem to be there to sound good, to tell trainees that the company cares about more than profit. We roll our eyes or tune out completely. In practice, these values mean nothing.
They mean nothing because they are rarely operationalized in any meaningful way. When Borders said they valued “respect,” how does that translate to the daily work of the average bookseller or warehouse employee? And who or what is doing the respecting? My fellow booksellers and I respected each other—for the most part, it was a great group of people to work with. But did I feel respected by corporate? Rarely.
That’s not to say that I don’t believe any large corporation is capable of operationalizing their values. Patagonia, for instance, has a set of values that is designed to impact its decisions as a company and the daily work of employees. Patagonia’s values are more like directives: build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to protect nature, not bound by convention.
Damn, that’s good.
I can imagine sitting in a meeting about product development, or warehouse operations, or marketing and actually using those directives to guide both strategic direction and execution.
And essentially, that’s what I mean when I talk about operationalizing your values.
It’s taking what you say is important to you & your company and turning it into material decisions, procedures, and ways of working. It’s finding ways to get creative with “the way things are done” so that the way you’re actually doing things reflects what matters to you.
I think this is of unique concern to small business owners because we have incredible potential for doing things differently—and so often just don’t.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much we take existing systems and ways of working for granted—and then find ways to operate within those conventions that make us feel lik...

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EP 356: Creating A System Of Care Sep 28, 2021

Systems have a reputation.
If you’ve ever thought to yourself, as I have, “Oh, I’m just not a systems person,” you might know what I mean.
Often, the way we talk about systems is tangled up in talk about software, procedures, rules, and a sort of legalistic structure for “this is how we do things here.”
When you say, “I’m not a systems person,” you’re likely expressing the kind of claustrophobic feeling that comes from being confined to a set of rules—even if they’re rules you yourself created!
When you say, “I am a systems person,” you might very well be expressing the relief that having clear instructions and a solid expectation of how a goal is accomplished can deliver. Systems are a way of easing anxiety for you.
I can easily find myself in both camps.
I might identify as a “systems person” in the morning and “not a systems person” by the afternoon.
And I’ve noticed that, for me, there’s a moral component to how I’m feeling about systems at any given time.
When I’m feeling like a systems person, I get the moral high ground of being someone who follows the rules and does things “the right way.” When I’m feeling like I’m NOT a systems person, I get the moral high ground of being a creative, think-outside-the-box kind of person.
Of course, it’s just as easy to get down on myself about either side of the moral equation too. When I’m feeling especially systems-oriented, I often feel I’m not as creative as I should be. When I’m feeling creative, I often beat myself up for not following the rules.
I have no idea if my moralizing about my waffling identity around systems is normal or not. But I suspect that I’m not alone.
I bring all this up because I think it’s easy get caught up in moralizing about the way we run our businesses. It’s easy to translate “this is how we do things” to “this is the right way” to “I’m good because I do things the right way” or “I’m bad because I don’t do things the right way.”
Morality, suffice to say, is also a system—it’s a cultural system for understanding what is good and what is bad, as well as what makes someone a good person and what makes someone a bad person. And like every paternalistic either/or system I can think of, moralizing tends to do more harm than good.
Maybe you don’t see your identity around systems and your business as a moral issue. I might be way off in left field here!
But, I gotta tell you, I hear a lot of confessions from business owners.
They confess that they have procedures but don’t follow them. They confess that they don’t have a marketing system. They confess that they’re so tied to their procedures that they can’t think strategically about whether what they’re doing is actually creating the results they want. They confess that they’re stuck in analysis paralysis because they’re looking for the best system for achieving their goal.
In other words, I hear confessions of perceived sins on either side of systems as a moral issue.

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EP 355: Cash Flow Is A Feminist Issue Sep 21, 2021

In This Episode:
* Tara explains how using a system-thinking approach to money makes it easier to invest in the growth of your business* Why cash flow is a 3-dimensional way to think about your business’s money* How the different components of a cash flow system work together to create a desired outcome* Why managing for cash flow creates the conditions to live out feminist values in your business
It’s easy to think 2-dimensionally about the money in your business: revenue and expenses. But 2-dimensional thinking makes it much harder to find the money to grow. If you can start to think 3-dimensionally (revenue + expenses + time), then you can expand your opportunities.
Managing for cash flow gives you a way to see the interconnected components of money in your business. Plus, it’s a way to powerful financial systems and live out feminist & anti-colonialist values.
Find this episode in article form by clicking here.

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EP 354: Making Sales A System With Coach Pony Founder Christie Mims Sep 14, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why Coach Pony founder Christie Mims uses 2 “competing” sales funnels to accommodate for different ways of buying* How she melds both sales automation and a human approach to produce 7+ figure sales* The nuts & bolts of what both sales funnels entail and how they actually work together* Plus, why Christie’s approach is inspiring but, ultimately, might not be the best approach for you
How reliable are your sales?
How steadily do new customers buy? How loyal are your retainer clients or repeat customers?
Every business owners wants to feel confident when it comes to sales. Not just how to close a sale, but really how the chance to make a sale presents itself, how the process evolves, and how that final decision gets made.
Can you engineer a more reliable sales system?
Yes, you sure can. But it’s not the “if this, then that” kind of process that many reductive sales courses try to sell you on.
It would be awesome if I knew that every time I did a particular task, I could count on a sale. It would be awesome if I knew that stringing together a series of specific actions would supercharge my sales.
But so many things impact the way people buy… that it’s impossible to reduce sales to a single process or procedure.
That said, we can still dance with our sales systems!
So let’s return to Donella Meadows’s article on dancing with systems. Meadows encourages us to “celebrate complexity.”
Now, you might be thinking…
“But Tara, what about building simple business models? What about creating simple marketing procedures?”
I’m glad you asked! The reason we actively build simple structures, models, and procedures for our businesses is because the world is a complex place. When we focus on simplicity in how we design our businesses, we really can celebrate complexity in the world and our customers’ lives.
Meadows writes:
There’s something within the human mind that is attracted to straight lines and not curves, to whole numbers and not fractions, to uniformity and not diversity, and to certainties and not mystery. But there is something else within us that has the opposite set of tendencies, since we ourselves evolved out of and are shaped by and structured as complex feedback systems.
When it comes to sales, I believe our goal is to create the simplest system that celebrates the reality of complexity in the environment.
So what makes the environment we’re selling in so complex? Timing, trends, current events, seasons, budgets, competition, competing messages, personal histories, family needs…
The list could go on and on.
Every customers brings their own complex set of influences to the table when they interact with your business—especially in the sales process.
This is one of the reasons that “sales funnels” so often fail. A sales funnel is usually built from the business’s perspective—a perfect scenario of “if this, then that” actions that assume a lot about the people who are going through that funnel.
But no matter how niche your target customer or client is,

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EP 353: Dancing With Systems In Clickup With Lou Blaser & Sean McMullin from YellowHouse.Media Sep 07, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why Sean McMullin & Lou Blaser, from YellowHouse.Media, switched their project management software from Notion to Clickup (and why it’s not the right move for everyone!)* How they’ve reduced their podcast management procedure from 75 sub-tasks to 11 umbrella tasks* Why streamlining the procedure has allowed them to bring a more customized approach to each podcast they produce* How focusing on the system behind podcast production has helped them create a lot more capacity for new clients
A couple of months back, I read a downright beautiful article about systems.
Yes, you heard that right: a beautiful, thoughtful, and useful article about… systems.
It was written by Donella Meadows, an influential environmental scientist and leading thinker on systems change in the 20th century.
The article outlines 14 principles for *dancing* with systems. But today I want to focus on the first: get the beat.
When we talk about business systems, it’s easy to default to software, automation, or project management.
But a system is much more organic than that.
And if we don’t allow for a system’s inherently organic nature, we miss out on really understanding that system in order to work with it, dance with it.
Meadows explains that a mistake we so often make when we approach systems is that we see understanding the system as a way of predicting and controlling its output.
She writes, “The goal of foreseeing the future exactly and preparing for it perfectly is unrealizable.”
I get that that might be frustrating—especially as we see data and the ability to instantly connect with customers as modes for the ultimate in business predictability.
It can also be a relief.
If the goal of understanding systems isn’t to control them or predict their output but to dance with them and learn from them, we don’t have to be so hard on ourselves!
And that brings me to Meadows first dance step—get the beat. The mistake I see business owners make with systems is that they try to impose systems on their businesses. They create or build systems for different areas of their businesses.
But that negates the systems already at work in a business. And inevitably, trying to create a system instead of investigating a system, leads to frustration.
Meadows writes, “Before you disturb the system in any way, watch how it behaves.”
So let’s say you want to work on your marketing system. If you start with a blank page and start building something from scratch, you’re missing out on all of the data & feedback that already exists in your marketing system as it is now (whether you know it’s a system or not).
If instead, you map out your existing marketing system, no matter how haphazard or messy, you can start to ask some really interesting questions about that system:
* How did we get here?* How else could this work?* What might happen if we don’t make a change?* What are the long-term ripple effects of allowing this system to continue to play out...

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EP 352: Personal Strengths Make Strategy Stronger Aug 24, 2021

Personal strengths are like a photo filter.
Imagine you’ve got a photo that’s… fine. You upload it to Instagram or VSCO or some fun photo editing app.
And then you scroll through the filters until you find one that brings the picture to life. With the tap of a button, you can make the photo go from washed out colors to… black & white, or soft shades of peach and pink, or punchy shades of blues and greens.
Your filter might up the contrast or even everything out a bit.
Personal strengths can do the same thing for your business strategy, marketing tactics, or the way you deliver your offer.
So what happens when we start to use personal strengths as a filter for business?
First, it becomes much easier to make decisions about what steps to take next. The strengths filter makes it easier to see whether one path or another is going to work better for you.
But second, your strengths filter can help you find creative ways to do some of those shoulds and supposed-tos that just feel so meh.
What if you approach email marketing through the filter of relationship-building?
That’s going to look pretty different than an email marketing strategy based on ideation or analysis.
What if you create an online course but filter it through of teamwork?
That’s going to look pretty different than an online course based on focus or competition.
What if you prioritize networking but filter it through humor?
That’s going to look different than networking based on discipline or strategy.
And when you apply your strengths filter to come up with creative ways of reimagining these actions and systems, not only will they feel more natural to you, they’ll be more effective too.
I’ve got four more stories of business owners leveraging their strengths for you today. And the thread that runs through each of them is how using personal strengths as a filter allowed them to make components of their businesses more natural and effective.
You’ll hear from Lysa Greer, Mary Knox Miller (Nonprofit Video Lab), Dr. Nayla Bahri, Mytili Jagannathan, and Lisa Townsend on how they’ve leveraged their strengths.

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EP 351: Thinking Differently With Writer Kris Windley Aug 17, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why writer Kris Windley decided to learn how to illustrate her articles* How doodling has helped her work with her ADHD* How she finds the idea or image she wants to illustrate for each piece* The metaphor she uses to think about skill-building
I’ve become a bit obsessed with the concept of “sensemaking.”
Really, I’ve been obsessed with it my whole life, I just didn’t have a name for it.
Sensemaking is the process of taking sensory information and situational knowledge and creating a framework for meaning and decision-making.
Okay, I know, that sounds kind of heady. But really, we do it all the time.
Imagine you venture into the kitchen after a long day in your home office. The kitchen is torn apart. You see dishes stacked on the counter, cupboard doors open, and pantry items covering the table. You smell a slightly chemical citrus scent in the air. Your spouse isn’t there to ask what the heck is going on.
Quickly, you deduce that they got the idea to deep clean the kitchen and had to step away for a bit. The job is almost finished but there’s still a ways to go and you’re hungry for dinner. You take the initiative to order pizza.
That’s sensemaking.
You went from “what the heck is going on here?” To “dinner is on its way” in less than 60 seconds.
Anyhow, I’ve always got my eye out for a new way to make sense of the world. A framework, a script, a visualization, a map, a diagram… I love these tools. And I make good use of them in my own head.
But my sensemaking tools don’t always make it out of my head.
In the last year or so, I’ve really started to recognize that I have a unique strength for explaining how I make sense of things and that my frameworks are helpful for others, too.
Score another for neurodivergence!
That said, it’s taken some practice find my public sensemaking rhythm. The way I write and speak has evolved quite a bit in a short time—at least from my perspective.
But the other thing that’s shifted for me is the ability to turn ideas into a visualizations and graphic representations. I’ve never thought of myself as very good at visual art or graphic design—even though I wished I was.
Then, I had a conversation with writer, developmental editor, and communications consultant Kris Windley. Kris told me all about how she’d been learning how to draw to support her writing—and that helped manage her attention & focus as she navigates ADHD.
I don’t think I can overstate how much this got my wheels turning. It wasn’t until January that I really got to work on the project finding ways to illustrate my ideas. But once I got started, I couldn’t stop!
Here 8 months later and almost a year after that conversation, I feel like I have a really powerful tool in my toolkit. And that that tool leverages a strength I had only been using at half-power.
This episode is a rebroadcast but, if you follow my non-podcast work, I think it will have new meaning for you now—as it does for me. And regardless, I think it’s really encouraging to hear about how Kris has intentionally and methodically introduced this new skill into the way she works!

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EP 350: Slowing Down For Success With Coach Reva Patwardhan Aug 10, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why coach Reva Patwardhan counts her intrinsic sense of belonging as one of her top strengths* How “deep processing” allows her to work with high-achieving women in unexpected ways* How she’s learned to work with her ADHD instead of against it* What she’s discovered at the intersection of neurodivergence and being a woman of color
I think a lot about belonging.
In fact, “belonging” is an ongoing conversation between our community advocate, Shannon, and I.
We talk about belonging because one of the biggest concerns that prospective Network members and new members have is whether they will belong. They ask if there are people like them in the community: people with a similar business model, people from the same industry, people who come from the same background they have.
On one hand, these questions are easy to answer. Typically we can say, “Yes! There are people like you here.” But on the other hand, a sense of belonging isn’t just a factor of who you’re in proximity with.
A sense of belonging isn’t situational. It’s intrinsic.
And if through trauma, oppression, toxic relationships, injustice, or cruelty you’ve lost your sense of belonging, it doesn’t matter how much the people around you are like you. You can still feel separate and other.
Belonging isn’t a switch you can turn on and off. At least not in my experience.
One of the threads of that ongoing conversation that Shannon and I have about belonging is indeed about my experience—and about how her experience is pretty different.
A couple of years ago, we reached the joint revelation that we have different default settings when it comes to belonging. When she walks in a room, she assumes she belongs. And in a uncommonly positive result of confirmation bias, she typically starts to confirm her belonging in all sorts of social and situational ways.
When I walk in a room of people—which I try to avoid at all costs—I assume I don’t belong. I assume I’m missing the memo on something everyone else has known for all time. I feel cut off and I shut down. My own confirmation bias starts to pick out all the reasons why I do not belong in that room with those people.
While that probably sounds pretty awful, and it is, I believe that it’s also caused me to build a strength in leadership.
As a leader, I interact with a group in a different way. It’s understood that I am on the outside, not belonging in the same way to the group as others. And similarly, being on the outside, gives me a better perspective on the group and their challenges. So it works out pretty well.
Sebene Selassie writes about a similar phenomenon in her extremely excellent book, You Belong. Sebene examines the benefits of living in the margins of society. She writes, “If we imagine each circle is made up of people who are facing inwards, the closer you are to the center, the less you see. Conversely, if you are in the outermost circles, you have the greatest perspective.”
Are there real issues with being in the margins of society? Absolutely: lack of access to resources and lack of participation in decision-making chief among them.
But operating on the outside gives us perspective we can use to do real good in the world.

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EP 349: Updating Your Default Settings With Work Brighter Founder Brittany Berger Aug 03, 2021

In This Episode:
* How Work Brighter founder Brittany Berger leverages her unique strengths to create a custom approach to productivity and structure* Why she tracks her mood and energy to make her working time more effective* How she’s reimagined traditional productivity “rules” through the lens of neurodivergence and chronic illness* How her obsession with pop culture has become a strength for creating compelling content
How do you operate in a world that’s not designed for you?
How do you make sense of instructions that weren’t written for you?
How do you navigate expectations that weren’t set with you in mind?
These are big, personal questions and, thankfully, we’ve started taking a look at the answers at a cultural level and not just at the individual level.
But until we see some serious change to a culture that privileges white, male, thin, neurotypical, heterosexual, cisgendered, hierarchal, and non-disabled ways of living, we’ve got some adapting to do.
It’s easy to think that these adaptations are a constraint. A limitation of what’s possible.
And honestly, sometimes they are.
But often, these adaptations are leveraged as strengths.
Truthfully, I didn’t think these questions belonged to me for a long time. I thought I’d been gifted with talent, intelligence, and at least a bit of charisma and that I really should be able to make it all work pretty easily.
It wasn’t until I ran straight into a wall of burnout after college that I started to question whether that was really true.
It’s been 16 years since I hit that wall. Since I sat on my professor’s couch and cried that I just didn’t know if grad school was the next step for me. Since my mom took the truck up to Syracuse to move down the furniture we’d already moved into my grad school apartment.
And over those 16 years, I’ve tried to fix myself. I’ve tried to become the kind of person who operates in this world naturally, who follows the instructions to a T, and who easily meets and exceeds expectations.
But last year, I got curious.
As I talked about some of my own breakthroughs and personal successes in terms of learning to manage myself better and execute on ideas, I got gentle messages from folks urging me to be careful about not taking neurodivergent experiences into account in the way I explained what I was working with.
At first, my reaction to these messages was the deep concern that comes along with inadvertently harming someone or making them feel like they don’t belong.
But then, once I understood their own experiences better, I started to wonder: is my experience really that different than theirs? Or rather, do my experiences fit the norms as neatly as I’d like them to?
I found myself wanting to reply that I appreciated their messages, truly, and this doesn’t come easily to me. It’s the hardest work I’ve done in my life.
Over time, the evidence grew and grew. No, my experience didn’t fit the norms. It might be different than other people’s but my sense that I didn’t belong to the shoulds and supposed-tos of culture, relationships, productivity, or emotions became clear.
At the same time, I was hearing even more women talk about themselves and their experiences in ways that felt haltingly familiar...

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EP 348: Knowing When To Get Out Of The Way With Let’s Do The Books Founder Mark Butler Jul 27, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why Let’s Do The Books founder Mark Butler has been working on getting out of the way for his team* How he’s evolved the way he works to take a break from creating chaos while still leaning into his strengths for experimentation and ideation* Why he’s focused on finding the space to quiet his mind* How he’s created an environment where his team members can really thrive in ownership of their work
Entrepreneurs have a reputation for having control issues.
They also have a reputation for being real idea people.
And what happens when you combine those two qualities? Well, it can be total chaos.
Chaos can be building a system then immediately trying to quote-unquote improve it.
Chaos can be hiring up a team but never really letting them do their jobs.
Chaos can also be trying do 10 different things at once and juggle them all yourself.
It’s not easy when it feels like your life or business are in chaos.
It’s hard to find the space to take a mental break, let alone some time away from work.
My buddy Mark Butler, has been working on lessening the chaos from the last few years and so I knew he was the perfect person to round out this series on taking a break.
Mark is the founder of Let’s Do The Books, as well as a CFO for 7 and 8-figure coaching businesses. He’s generous, rigorous, super fun to hang out with, and makes for great bear bait (that’s a story for another time).
Mark is actively working on quieting his mind, exploring how to create the best conditions for his team members to thrive, and learning when to get the heck out of the way—or else allow chaos to creep back in.
We talk about all of those things—plus how his high value for family influences the direction he’s taking his work-life.
Strap in.
Let’s find out what works for Mark Butler.

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EP 347: Carving Out Space For Creative Work With The Autonomous Creative Founder Jessica Abel Jul 20, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why Jessica Abel believes carving out space to work on experimental and creative projects is key* The strategy she recommends for buying the time you need to do creative work* How she measures creative projects in “developmental markers” and “success markers”* And why she’s committed to building a team that helps her make room for big picture thinking and creative projects
It’s one thing to get your business to a point that’s stable and sustainable.
It’s another to make room for big projects like writing a book or building a new offer.
And it’s yet another thing to carve out the space to work on a creative project that may or may not ever bring financial benefits.
It’s those big projects—the business-related and the not-so-business-related—that so many business owners dream of being able to spend time on.
Sometimes, we put them on our calendar—block out a week or even a long weekend—but then life happens.
Some quote-unquote emergency bleeds into the time we’ve set aside.
Other times, we dwell in the daydreaming. Pinterest boards are curated. Research is done. Ideas are floated past significant others or mastermind groups.
But nothing material ever comes of it.
While Tara will gladly tell you that I’m a huge fan of daydreaming, I also want to make at least some of those dreams real.
Last week, when I talked with Jacquette Timmons about finding the perfect blend of your work days and weeks, I mentioned that one of the things in my particular blend is working on art throughout the days.
I love that I’ve developed a working life that allows me to simultaneously kick butt & take names producing podcasts at the same time I’m exploring my passion for visual art.
It’s taken commitment, experimentation, and a lot of work on business systems—not to mention some serious mindset work!—to get to that place.
And that’s exactly what I wanted to talk with today’s guest about.
What does it take to be able to carve out the time and energy to pursue big creative projects?
Jessica Abel is the founder of The Autonomous Creative and the creator of The Creative Focus Workshop. She’s also a cartoonist, author, and educator. She helps all kinds of creative people juggle the work that pays with the work they dream about.
Our conversation isn’t so much about taking a break from work entirely. It’s about taking a break from one kind of work to focus on the projects we so rarely make time for.
Jessica and I talk about how her work has evolved over the years and how she’s able to juggle so many projects herself, as well as the patterns she’s noticed among creatives, the routines that can help us make sense of our time, and how she paces herself.
Now, let’s find out what works for Jessica Abel!

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EP 346: Finding The Right Blend With Financial Behaviorist Jacquette Timmons Jul 13, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why financial behaviorist Jacquette Timmons is more interested in finding the right blend that finding a balance between work and life* How she approaches the way she engages with work to stave off burnout* Why rest is part of the work she does* How the structure of a business contributes to whether we’re able to find the right blend for ourselves
Reminder, this month, Tara is taking a break from hosting and handing the mic over to her husband & business partner, Sean McMullin:
I have a confession, dear listener.
I was once late to the start of a group coaching call because I was… taking a nap.
Through some combination of oversight and calendar failure, I missed that I had a call that I needed to be on until Tara woke me up!
So embarrassing.
And while I’m committed to making sure that never happens again, I’m equally committed to continuing to take naps in the middle of the day. Taking a nap in the middle of the day is one thing I’ve done to find the right blend of work, rest, and recharging that works for me.
It’s a small way that I take a break almost every day.
At different times in my journey with YellowHouse.Media, I’ve been overwhelmed and overworked. It felt like there were never enough hours in the day or days in the week. And that is not okay with me.
So I started to make changes. I changed the time I got started in the morning, I changed the project management tool we use, and I changed how I interacted with clients.
Soon enough, I wasn’t just feeling less overwhelmed and overworked. I had time for a nap! I also had time to take breaks periodically throughout the day to work on my art.
Solid systems, strong client relationships, naps, and art is the perfect blend for my day.
You probably have your own ideal blend for how you spend your time—whether working or otherwise. Maybe you save working on your big projects until after 10pm. Maybe you take 1 week off per quarter. Maybe you don’t schedule calls on Mondays or Tuesdays.
And if you don’t have found the right blend for you yet, now is the perfect time to think about what it might be and start experimenting you way to it.
Today, I have a conversation with one of my oldest business friends for you on exactly this subject.
Jacquette Timmons is speaker, coach, and financial behaviorist who helps people make human choices with their money.
I wanted to find out what taking a break and taking care of herself meant to her. And eventually the conversation got to this topic of finding the right blend—so that whether you’re working, resting, exercising, eating, or exploring your other interests, you feel satisfied and fulfilled with the way you’re spending your time.
Now, let’s find out what works for Jacquette Timmons!

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EP 345: Putting Your Business In Maintenance Mode With ScaleSpark Founder Susan Boles Jul 06, 2021

In This Episode:
* Sean McMullin asks Break The Ceiling host Susan Boles what she’s learned about creating a business that runs itself* Why maintenance mode is key to creating the space to experiment and try out new ideas without breaking your business* How to view your business in smaller pieces to create your own minimum viable maintenance mode* Why creating the systems you need to take a break before there’s a crisis is critical
This month’s series is all about “taking a break”—so Tara is taking a break from hosting and handing the mic over to her husband, producer, and business partner, Sean McMullin. Take it away, Sean!
I never want to do work I can’t walk away from.
When Tara and I started YellowHouse.Media, it was really important to me that we set it up in such a way that—eventually—it could run itself. We had built this great life together. We could travel, explore, and pursue interests outside of work—and I was only going to be game for this whole entrepreneurship thing if it wouldn’t completely disrupt that life.
We actually talked about our initial approach to building a business that could work without us in Episode 232. And later in September, we’ll talk again—this time with our production coordinator Lou Blaser—about our latest steps in making that happen.
It’s taken some serious time and intention to get to the point where taking real time off or dramatically reducing hours for an extended time is possible.
But here we are.
Last week, we took our first trip of this Hot Vax Summer. And later this month, we’re driving out to Montana to enjoy a month in the mountains again. We’ll still be working but the business will largely be in maintenance mode.
Which brings me to today’s topic. When Tara and I decided I’d take over for her this month and explore the topic of taking a break, I immediately knew the first person I wanted to talk to.
My friend and YHM podcaster Susan Boles. Susan is the founder of ScaleSpark and the host of Break The Ceiling.
She has an eye for efficiency, systems, and automation that makes her the perfect candidate for talking about how to put a business in maintenance mode.
And, Susan, like many others, was forced to wrestling with the reality of building a business made for maintenance mode when the pandemic hit and schools closed.
During our conversation, you’ll hear that story and why it’s so important to her to have a business that runs in maintenance mode. You’ll also hear how Susan can fall prey to shiny object syndrome and other distractions just like any other business owner, as well as how she’s combating self-sabotage and how she balances work as a creative outlet with taking breaks.
Now, let’s find out what works for Susan Boles!

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EP 344: Time To Take A Break? Jul 01, 2021

Do you ever get the feeling you’re white-knuckling it through business ownership?
Like if you just squeeze the wheel hard enough and focus on what’s in front of you, you can keep your business from ending up in a serious fender bender (or worse)?
I’ve certainly felt that way. All throughout 2020, I felt like my extreme vigilance was the only thing between my business and an 8-car pileup. And we didn’t get hit nearly as hard as many businesses.
It’s a burden, being able to control situations with my hyper-vigilance, but it’s my lot in life. — Tina Fey, Bossypants
That hyper-vigilance can look like needing to have my fingers in every project or having to touch base with every customer. It can look like working 10 hours a day or checking in on the weekends. It can look like not going on vacation for fear of things crumbling without me or always leaving my inbox open throughout the day.
This last year involved every one of those habits at one point or another. Sometimes all at once.
Truthfully, I’m still burnt out from The Year Of White-Knuckling.
And I need a break. That’s why, if you’re reading this at the time it’s published, I’m unplugged and on vacation. Note from writing self to vacation self: seriously, let go—don’t work this week.
Of course, “taking a break” isn’t just about taking a vacation. It might mean making space for a creative project. Or making time to work on your business. Or taking Fridays off. Or putting your podcast on hiatus. There are so many ways to take a break from things that drain us (even if we love them) but hyper-vigilance is not the way you do it.
Last year notwithstanding, I’ve led my business to a pretty peaceful equilibrium.
We have strong systems, predictable cycles of work, and a dreamy community of customers who cheer when we take some time off.
But I also catch a glimpse of my former hyper-vigilant self every time I see Sean worry about our clients on the weekends or try to make vacation plans around reliable access to the internet every morning.
While it would be wonderful to work in a world where taking a break meant just shutting down the computer on a Friday with no preparation and not giving work a second thought for 10 days, taking a break takes some work.
There is work to be done on the business—I’ll get to the specifics in just a moment—and there is also mental work.
Now, if you’re not the anxious, hyper-vigilant business owner that I am, maybe mentally preparing for a break isn’t so hard. I have no idea what that’s like. Feel free to skip ahead, though.
For all the worriers out there, probably the most helpful mental shift I’ve made over the years is learning that:
There is no amount of worry or hyper-vigilance that will stop something bad from happening.
I can’t not take a break because I believe checking email every day averts all potential problems.
Ish happens.
Even the best systems, happiest customers, and most independent team members won’t stop the random problem from breaking through.
But just because I can’t stop a problem from happening doesn’t mean that a problem will happen. I can take a few days or a few weeks off without there being a problem that...

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EP 343: 5 Ways To Do More & Better By Teaming Up Jun 29, 2021

I did not like group work as a student.
I much preferred to take on a project myself. I wanted complete control over the vision for that project, its execution, and all of the details along the way.
And when I say I “preferred,” what I really mean is that I still prefer to do things on my own.
However, building a business has taught me that I’m not going to build what I want to build without group work.
All this month, we’ve been exploring the possibilities for teaming up as we run our businesses. We explored hiring & managing with Podge Thomas, and I shared how I cope as an anxious, introverted, and autistic boss with Annie Schuessler. We explored how we can expand the visions of our businesses to ask how they can help us take better care of each other–and not just meet individual goals for success–with Kate Strathmann.
And we explored how to guide ourselves through the process of asking for and receiving support from others with Shulamit Ber Levtov.
This week, we’re going to wrap things up by exploring 5 things that are only really possible when we team up.
As I mentioned, group work is not my thing. And, I’ve realized that the things I’m most passionate about pursuing and creating are things that can only be done as part of a group. I need a team to build community. I nurture community to transform small business ownership. I need a team to help people express themselves & their ideas with podcasts. Heck, I need a team to produce this podcast!
A lot has been written about the promise of “solo entrepreneurship” over the years. And 8 years ago, I wrote about how I believed that solo entrepreneurship is a myth. Businesses aren’t built in a bubble, I wrote.
The only reason it feels like we can build a business on our own is because we have so many ways of working together. Only we take those ways of working together for granted.
The reason social media can work for marketing? It’s because we’re all collaborating on the content we put there–intentionally or not. The reason so many of us can sell to individual consumers or entrepreneurs with no middle man? We’ve all agreed that supporting each other is a key part of creating the world we want to live in.
The reason the technology we use to run our businesses gets better and better? We’re all a part of the feedback loop driving innovation.
The more we can draw out how we’re all a part of an implicit collaboration, a quiet team of supporters, the more we can ease into the power of making those collaborations explicit.
Entrepreneurship isn’t actually group work.
It’s a huge opportunity to take better care of each other. An opportunity to make our little corner of the world a better place through the vehicle of business. And we just won’t do that alone.
Today, I have 5 ways we can team up to do bigger and better things.
SEO consultant Meg Casebolt shares a story about teaming up to create a truly unique experience.

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EP 342: Getting Help Before The Ish Hits The Fan with Shulamit Ber Levtov Jun 22, 2021

In This Episode:
* How mindset & resilience consultant Shulamit Ber Levtov became interested in the mental health challenges women face in entrepreneurship* Why she took a month off from work to prevent experiencing a full burnout last year* The methods she uses to identify what she needs and how she’s feeling* Why she always starts with getting her emotional support needs met first* How she crafts clear boundaries and direct communication about what she really needs
When was the last time you asked for help?
The last time you tried to solve a problem by asking for guidance instead of throwing yourself into Google? The last time you told someone about something that was really weighing on you, not looking for answers but just reaching out for empathy and understanding?
I can’t remember the last time I did. So if you’re having a hard time picturing it, I’m right there with you.
I’ve been my identity around being the one with the answers, the one who has it all together.
Of course, much of that has been a mask for how utterly out of place and clueless I feel most of the time.
The more I can present myself as a smart, successful, and altogether resourceful leader the less likely I am to consciously worry about being rejected.
Today, we’re talking about cultivating emotional resilience and accessing support as a small business owner.
In their book, Burnout, Drs Emily and Amelia Nagoski term the collection of symptoms we face as the ones who have to have it all together as Human Giver Syndrome.
The “human giver” idea comes from philosopher Kate Manne who uses it to make a distinction between the expectations put on women, along with people of color, queer people, immigrants, and other marginalized groups, and the expectations put on white men. Human givers are the people who human beings rely on for moral support, emotional labor, admiration, attention, and care.
The Nagoskis suggest that human givers who give and give without the ability to take time to receive support for their own labor and stress are on a fast track to burning out.
I think this same dynamic can play out with business owners—no matter their gender.
Under-resourced business owners are often relied on for moral support, strategic direction, project management, post mortem analysis, and planning with little ability to receive support on those tasks—or many others.
What’s more, our culture valorizes entrepreneurs who do this work day in and day out, for long hours, with no breaks. Of course, none of that valor translates into a better safety net and more abundant collective resources for business-building.
Now, I’m in way trying to make entrepreneurs the subject of sympathy. The upside to building a business, even as an under-resourced business owner, can be immense.
But that doesn’t lessen the strain of making that upside reality.
It’s hard. And it’s lonely. And it often goes unrecognized.
Even though I am one of the many business owners who has a hard time setting aside my I’ve-got-it-all-together identity to ask for & receive support, I have created a container where people to do this on a daily basis.

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EP 341: Taking Better Care Of Each Other with Wanderwell Founder Kate Strathmann Jun 15, 2021

In This Episode:
* Wanderwell founder Kate Strathmann and I unpack how our personal values often don’t line up with economic forces—and how that impacts our business* Why rethinking the purpose of your business might help you rethink your goals to be more aligned with your personal values* How expanding your vision to include taking care of others as well as yourself can create a paradigm shift in your business
Marketers love to tell you: do this and you’ll make more money.
Or, do this and you’ll have more freedom.
Or, do this and you’ll get to be more you.
If you do what I tell you to do, your life will significantly improve.
The reason for this is simple: capitalism turns life improvement into a task of consumption.
We’re convinced we can buy our way to an easier, more satisfying life. And that means many of us are convinced we can work our way to the money we need to do that.
Further, the more we improve ourselves and enhance our lives, the more we can use our selves as a form of capital to reinvest in the market. As Jia Tolentino writes, selfhood is capitalism’s last natural resource.
Now, I’m not meaning to pick on marketers here.
Because the way we (and yes, I’ll include myself here) market our products and services is only one very small part of a systemic problem.
The larger, systemic issue is how most of us are conditioned to focus our effort on the individual pursuit of success. We focus on our individual challenges, our individual needs, and our individual opportunities.
And that’s great because businesses can sell us answers to the questions of individual success and the solutions to individual challenges.
When their solutions don’t bring about the results we’re looking for? Well, it’s likely because we’re just not as capable as we need to be, right? Ugh.
Individualism is insidious.
Of course, just because individualism is insidious doesn’t mean we don’t have individual needs, goals, and desires that are absolutely worth pursuing.
It’s just that individualism as a system, along with the personal responsibility doctrine and the false promise of meritocracy create a series of assumptions that ultimately pit my success against your success, my needs against your needs, my desires against your desires.
We can talk about wanting business to be a win-win all we want but, as long as we’re working in these systems, it’s incredibly difficult to make it happen.
So what that does is put our personal values in conflict with economic forces. It puts the way we want to see the world in conflict with the way the world works.
Over the last 5 years, I’ve been trying to imagine and build ways of doing business that meet & exceed my individual needs while also broadening my focus beyond only my individual success. I still have many more questions that I have answers—and I’ve peeled back many layers of privilege and conditioning to see things in new ways.
Last spring, a new layer to peel back started to emerge. My friend and our resident business radical, Kate Strathmann, made it clear that many of the ways we were responding to the pandemic and resulting economic shock were an attempt at “individual solutions to ...

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EP 340: Managing As An Introverted, Anxious, and Autistic Boss: Tara’s Interview On The Rebel Therapist With Annie Schuessler Jun 08, 2021

In This Episode:
* How I decide what roles to hire for (and why understanding our team structure is key)* When it’s time increase capacity by hiring versus fixing messy operations* Why you don’t want to clone yourself to get more done* How product and operations can overlap to creating some really exciting opportunities
When I say I’m an introvert, I mean I’m a hardcore introvert.
People don’t believe me when I say that because I’m loud and enthusiastic—but being loud and enthusiastic is not the same thing as being extroverted.
If you spend more than an hour with me in a social situation, you’ll see the life drain from my eyes as my internal batteries release their last burst of energy.
I wish I was kidding—but I am not.
I also happen to be an introvert surrounded by extroverts.
I’m an internal processor surrounded by external processors. I’m an avoider of small talk surrounded by people who love small talk.
It’s a tricky situation.
Who are these people? They’re my team members—and among them, my husband.
Sean and I often joke about how unfortunate it is that I’ve ended up with so many extroverts in my life. Not because there’s anything wrong with extroverts but because it can be exhausting!
My friend Annie Schuessler asked if I’d be willing to talk about managing a team as an introvert and I jumped at the chance. I’ve learned so much about team-building in general over the last 5 years but I’ve also learned a bunch about how to put guardrails in place around my own energy and bandwidth as I work with my teams.
Since recording this interview, I’ve also started to talk publicly about how the way I work and relate to others is filtered through the lens of autism. So many of the things I’ve always thought of as a result of introversion and social anxiety are present because of my autism.
I am introverted, I do have social anxiety, and I’m autistic.
That’s a pretty thick soup to be wading through as a manager.
The main reason I wanted to share that before you hear this interview is because my experiences as an introverted boss may be quite different from your experiences if you’re also an introverted boss.
The other reason reason I wanted to share that is because, before I had the framework of autism to make sense of my life, I was constantly working against myself in an effort to fix things I perceived as problems & deficiencies.
While I’m still working to become a better manager and leader, I’m also looking much more objectively at how I can build structures that don’t require me to work against my nature quite so often. In so many ways, my autism is a strength for business-building, writing & podcasting, and team-building. But it takes work to embrace those strengths when they’re so different from what other people expect!
Alright, here’s what you’re going to hear in this interview—Annie and I talk about how I find team members, why you need to know what you’re really hiring for before you start looking, how I’m onboarding new hires now, and why you don’t want to clone yourself.

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EP 339: Hiring For The Upside With Small Business Co-Pilot Founder Podge Thomas Jun 01, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why management specialist Podge Thomas believes your team should be your biggest asset* How to prepare to hire—and how to take better care of your team member through careful onboarding* How our previous experiences with management shape the way we approach the prospect of hiring today
Managing has gotten a bad rap.
In fact, if I had to guess, I’d say that “not wanting to manage people” is the biggest reason people cite for not hiring.
Sure, there might be financial issues. There might be issues with finding the right person. There might issues about knowing what to hand off.
But almost everyone I talk to has either a fear or an unwillingness to manage people.
So why do so many of us have such an aversion to management?
Why have so many people sworn off hiring help?
Why has solopreneurship become such an enticing thing for people wanting to build a business?
Here’s my take: we grossly overestimate the risks & liabilities of hiring people and managing them. And we grossly underestimate the benefits of doing so.
Typically cognitive bias, especially for entrepreneurs, works the other way. We fixate on the upsides and ignore potential risk. That’s entrepreneurial optimism in a nutshell.
So maybe this is managerial pessimism?
I don’t know—but what I do know is that hiring might be the best thing you ever do for yourself and for your business.
That’s not to say that I think it’s the right decision for everyone—but I do believe it’s a good decision for more business owners.
This episode is going to be perfect for you whether you’ve avoided hiring to this point, whether you’re considering making the leap, or whether you’ve already got a team and looking to become a better boss and really receive the benefits of building a team.
But before we get into the meat of it, I want to paint a picture of the upside of hiring for you. Because there’s a very good chance that, even if you’re already paying people, you haven’t experienced this yet.
Upside #1: People have your back
Team members—especially employees—aren’t just there to get things done for you. They’re part of the fundamental support of the business. And sometimes, that looks like making sure you’re in a position to the do work that only you can do.
They might keep you from getting derailed by an unhappy customer. They might watch out for you when they know you’re under the weather. They might pick up an off-hand remark as an idea for a game-changing project.
I simply cannot oversell the benefit of having a team that has your back. Of course, building this kind of team takes work—management work—but it is so, so, so worth it.
Upside #2: Other people can create or deliver value for you
Most micro business owners—solo or not—operate as if they’re the only ones who can create value for the business. But team members can create value, too!
They can turn ideas into reality. They can work with your clients or lead conversations in your course. They can build systems that dramatically increase efficiency and effectiveness. They can even build offers for you!
Maybe that seems incredibly far-fetched at this point. Maybe you never even considered that as a possibility. But it’s all true. Of course, you’ve got to hire the right people and guide them...

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Q&A: What Content Should Be Free? And What Should Be Paid For? May 27, 2021

How do you know what content should be free? And, what should be paid for?
This month, we’ve been talking all about building an audience and/or finding customers—as well as how those two things are different.
And one of the things a conversation about audience-building always comes back to is content.
What kind of content do you create? Where do you share it? Who do you create it for? And on & on…
The big question I get repeatedly, though is: How do I know what content should be paid for and what content should be free?
And I get it!
There’s a whole industry out there that appears to be helping you sell content–whether as ebooks, online courses, membership sites, Patreon incentives, or paid newsletters.
But what I’ve learned is that we are never really selling content. Or information. Or even ideas.
We’re always selling an experience. We craft an experience of content that facilitates transformation–and that’s really what people buy. Because the info is out there, right?
Even if your product is quote-unquote only an online course with no feedback, no live calls, no engagement from you, it’s still an experience. Because you’ve crafted each module and what order they appear in, you’ve chosen the course platform, you’ve designed the way you’re delivering the information–all to facilitate change. That’s an experience.
I want to share a clip of The What Works Network Insider Hour from this month where I share how I approach this question specifically in my own business and, specifically, how my thinking has changed over the years.
I get into my overall strategy for content as it relates to our product and I talk about how that approach ties into our sales process, too.

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EP 338: Why Staying Small Leads To Big Results May 25, 2021

This month, we’ve explored finding customers and building an audience—which are not the same things.
Every business needs to find customers. But not every business—not even most businesses—needs to build an audience.
Yet, so many small business owners get hung up on building their following counts or email lists instead of doing the things that actually lead to sales.
The drive to build an audience partially comes from the false belief that “scale” is the universal goal for all businesses.
Many successful businesses never scale—or they don’t scale in terms of serving thousands of people instead of tens of people. They might scale in terms of efficiency or price or team—but scaling up one or all of those things does not require you to build an audience.
But everywhere you look on social media, someone is telling you that you have to scale.
As Maggie Patterson put it, they’re serving you poison and then selling you the cure.
Now look, if you’re excited about scaling up or you’ve found success with scaling up, wonderful!! I personally love the idea of serving at scale and enjoy speaking to an audience.
But I also recognize that this is the best way to build a business for only a teeny tiny segment of the business owner community.
A stronger, more sustainable, more effective way to build a highly profitable business is to…
wait for it…
Stay small and do things that don’t scale.
Today, I have 3 more stories of people who are serving and building in a really impactful ways without building an audience in the way you might have been taught.
You’ll hear from messaging consultant Dr. Michelle Mazur, branding expert Amy Walsh, and leadership consultant Nancy Hess.

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EP 337: Connecting With Stories With Tell Me A Story Founder Hillary Rea May 18, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why storytelling is good for business and how it can help you build your audience* Why you don’t have to squeeze your story into the hero’s journey* How finding a related emotional touchpoint can lead to telling a powerful story even if it isn’t directly related to the information you’re sharing* How to start your own story bank so you’re never at a loss for a good story to tell
Nothing fosters human connection faster than a story.
Stories are the most direct way to tell someone else—or a whole audience of people—an important truth about you. Stories give us shared experiences and emotions to build relationships from.
Stories make even the biggest concepts or most technical information feel real.
Practicing storytelling has been a game changer for me in the way I communicate, market, and teach. And I believe it can do the same for you.
Today’s episode is a sort of conversation-meets-workshop excerpted from a special joint event for The What Works Network and Standout Podcast Club.
I talk with Tell Me A Story founder Hillary Rea about how we can more effectively use stories in the content we create and why stories have such a positive impact on our results as business owners.
This conversation is chock full of ideas, explainers, and ways to experiment with story so you can forge a deeper connection with your audience.
So settle in for this conversation on connecting with story with Hillary Rea!
Check out Hillary’s 30 story prompts.

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EP 336: Marketing Without Scale With Brand Strategist Felicia Sullivan May 11, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why brand strategist Felicia Sullivan doesn’t bother with using social media to find clients* How she uses coffee dates to make long-lasting relationships* Why she prioritizes consuming remarkable content and how it helps her meet the people she wants to meet* How she uses Medium to deliver remarkable content on the platform her clients are most likely to be engaging with
“Do things that don’t scale.”
That’s venture capitalist Paul Graham’s advice to new entrepreneurs.
What he means is that instead of trying to appeal to the masses or market an idea with a million-dollar advertising budget, start by wooing 1 person at a time.
I’ve always loved this advice and found it to be unfailingly effective.
But… it’s possible to take this idea too far.
When I say it’s possible to take the idea of doing things that don’t scale too far, I’m talking about the tendency to assume that you do things that don’t scale until you can do the things that scale.
For Graham’s audience, that is totally the right idea.
But for small business owners, more often than not, the idea is: do things that don’t scale—and then do them some more.
And this absolutely applies to how we build audiences or find customers.
The activities that have brought me the biggest leaps forward in terms of the size of my audience were things that came from 1:1 interactions. The things that have brought in incredible clients? They certainly didn’t scale.
It’s not that scale isn’t possible—it’s just that scale is a potential result not a method.
The best path forward for most small business owners is a marketing strategy that doesn’t scale: referrals, word of mouth, networking, interacting with people online. Even creating highly valuable podcast episodes or newsletters!
Today, I’m talking with Felicia Sullivan, a brand strategist who has built a thriving business on marketing activities that don’t scale. Felicia works with startup founders and small businesses doing $10-20m in annual revenue—folks who aren’t looking for business help on Instagram.
So Felicia spends her business development time on 3 things: coffee dates, writing long-form articles geared directly to her prospective clients, and referrals.
This episode answers some of the questions I’m most frequently asked about when it comes to marketing businesses that aren’t built on online courses (which, you know, is most of them).
Get ready to take some notes.
Let’s find out What Works for Felicia Sullivan!

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EP 335: Finding The Right Strategy To Market Your Business with Savvy Social Podcast Host Andréa Jones May 04, 2021

In This Episode:
* How social media marketing expert Andréa Jones balances two different marketing strategies for her agency and for her membership community* Why she prioritizes feelings when it comes to positioning and messaging* How she incorporates social media marketing into the larger context of a sales campaign* Why promotional content isn’t all that useful for building an audience or finding customers—and what’s working instead
Some of the most successful business owners I know spend absolutely no time on marketing.
They have social media accounts but they’re for posting images about vacations or family or hobbies.
They have blogs but they largely sit dormant.
They have email lists but never send any email.
They don’t have massive advertising budgets or a marketing team that takes care of it for them. Their businesses are simply designed to work—to thrive—without the playing the games we’ve come to associate with marketing in the 2020s.
The topic we’re covering this month is always a crowd-pleaser.
We’re talking about building an audience.
Except that… we aren’t really going to be talking about building an audience at all.
Truth be told, I chose this topic about halfway through 2020 knowing that people love to hear about all the ways people work on attracting followers and building their email lists.
But the more I thought about what I wanted to cover this month, the more I realized this month needed to be about shedding light on some of the most pernicious shoulds & supposed-tos that exist in the small business world online.
So we are going to talk about building your audience, but we’re going to juxtapose that with the reality of how marketing—or more specifically, finding customers & clients—work in businesses that are booming.
And that’s exactly where I’d like to start.
There’s a difference between building an audience and finding customers or clients.
At one point in the recent history of the social web, these 2 actions might have been one and the same. But today, the conversation about building an audience has become detached from finding customers or clients.
Building an audience typically looks like working the algorithms by figuring out when to post to maximize likes, what types of media receive the most engagement, and which hashtags to use to broaden your reach.
Building an audience has mostly been removed from the context of finding customers.
Sure, the conversation might start with identifying your ideal customer… but it quickly devolves into chatter about Reels, and Stories, and stickers, and the best ways to promote your business.
The prevailing narrative assumes that every purchase is the result of a long and drawn-out journey from haphazardly discovering something you post, to hitting the “follow” button, to signing up for your email list, to attending a webinar, to finally considering buying from you.
Here’s the thing: I can’t say that I’ve ever bought an information product or contracted a service that way.
I don’t want to speak for you here—but my guess is that the majority of your purchases don’t follow that pattern, either. Instead, you buy because a friend recommended something or because you h...

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EP 334: Creating Mental Space With Simple Changes Apr 29, 2021

What’s the ROI on mental space?
What would it be worth to you to get some peace of mind?
What would you be willing to do to alleviate a bit of uncertainty from your life or business?
All this month, we’ve been talking about simplifying and the immense benefits you can experience by building a simple business.
We’re going to close things out here by taking a look at how operational improvements can create a profound sense of relief—and open up mental space that you didn’t even know was cluttered!
I can easily remember what it was like to run my business before we built solid systems.
Cluttered is exactly how I would describe it.
It wasn’t just the operational clutter–files all over the place, to-do lists scattered all over my desk, and priorities that could change on a whim.
It was also the mental clutter.
Where did all that mental clutter come from? Well, it was a result of a whole bunch of unhelpful habits and patterns.
It was people-pleasing and scarcity thinking and entrepreneurial optimism. I had mental clutter from my habit of trying to remember all of the things instead of documneting stuff. I had mental clutter from avoiding conflict and never setting firm boundaries.
In order to clear up my operational clutter, I also had to clean up those patterns.
Because a simple system was never going to stick if my habits were just going to lead to me cluttering things up again.
And I think that’s where we so often go wrong when it comes to simplifying and cleaning things up.
We put smart systems on top of unconscious mental patterns. We try to apply countermeasures without addressing the inner game of business at the same time.
If we’re building awareness of how and why things get messy or complicated in the first place, then we can design a cleaner system AND maintain it.
Which is great.
AND… it gets better. As I mentioned, one of the best benefits of cleaning things up and simplifying is mental space.
Once I was less exhausted and emotionally drained from navigating my own cluttered systems, I had way more space for actually helping people!
I had more space for learning more. I had space for thinking more. And I had more space for getting create.
You heard Sophy Dale echo this sentiment in Episodes 330 and 331, too.
So, I’ll ask again: what is it worth to you to get that mental space?
I ask this not because it requires some financial investment.
What it likely requires is the discomfort that comes from doing things a new way.
Maybe you decide that to clean things up, you need to start documenting everything you do. Or track you time. Or wait 3 days before you act on a new idea.
Maybe you realize that you need to actually check items off in your project management software instead of just “checking in” to see what’s overdue.
Maybe you commit to organizing your inbox in another way or following a checklist for tasks that often suffer from overlooked details.
I’m not making light of any of these choices. These seemingly small operational shifts require a lot of effort in terms of addressing those mental habi...

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EP 333: Simplifying Social Media Content Creation With Andréa Jones and Tara McMullin Apr 27, 2021

What Works is all about exploring what’s really working for small business owners.
Because there are a lot of assumptions and misconceptions about what it takes to build a stronger business.
This week, I’m bringing you something a little different. It’s an interview that I did for Andréa Jones’s podcast, The Savvy Social Podcast.
Andréa and I are both on a mission to bust some of the assumptions that people have about what’s good for business when it comes to social media marketing.
For me, it’s a small part of what I do. But for Andréa, this is her whole business. Andréa runs a thriving social media marketing agency called OnlineDrea as well as a training community for small business owners called Savvy Social School.
I’ve featured Andréa here on the pod before and we talked about how she approaches social media pretty differently when it comes to her own business versus how she manages social media for her clients with very different business models.
Good news: next week’s episode is a follow up to that conversation.
I respect the heck out of the way Andréa approaches social media and the way she trains other small business owners to manage their own marketing. And so when she asked if she could interview me about the unconventional approach I’ve taken to social media this year, I was honored.
What follows is that conversation. If you like this conversation, you’re going to love Andréa’s podcast, the Savvy Social Podcast—so check that out wherever you listen to What Works. And tell her I sent you, okay?
I asked Andréa if I could rebroadcast this conversation here at What Works because I think it gives a glimpse into how simplifying can help you focus on quality over quantity.
So without further ado, let’s get into. Listen up for the most concise explanation I’ve ever given for the philosophy behind What Works, why I’m focused on remarkable content this year, and how that focus has simplified the way I produce content for social media.
I also talk about how I view my primary job at What Works as a content creator—which is a job I love but isn’t right for everyone.

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Q&A: How Do You Make A Big Change To Your Business Model? Apr 23, 2021

How do you make a big change to your business model without making it harder than it has to be?
How do you navigate sunsetting an old offer (or a few), raising your prices, or shifting your target client?
After spending a whole month talking about simplifying on What Works, I’ve had more than a few people wonder what it was actually going to take to make some big changes to the way they do business.
This question happened to come up during this month’s Insider Hour—a Q&A session I host each month for What Works Network members. And I wanted to share my answer in case it’s helpful to you and the changes you’re considering for your business, too.
You might also find it helpful to check out these resources:
* Free Workbook: How To Create A Plan To Grow Your Business* 7 Simple Business Models For Small Business Owners* Why Reactivity Leads To Complexity* Embracing Simplicity with Brigitte Lyons & Sophy Dale* What I Wish Every Small Business Owner Knew About Making More Money

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EP 332: Maybe Simplicity Is Just A Dream… Apr 20, 2021

I’m convinced that every entrepreneur has a fantasy business that they daydream about.
It’s free from all of the baggage and assumptions that we’ve built up around our existing businesses.
And I’m also convinced that that fantasy business—as pie-in-the-sky as it may be—has something to teach us about our existing businesses.
They can show us how we’d market differently, set policies differently, and protect our time differently. They show us the kinds of relationships we’d prefer to have with clients or the type of work we’d rather be doing.
And, maybe more than anything, they show us just how simple a business can be.
With a few exceptions, I don’t think most of us daydream about convoluted, complicated businesses. We dream up simple businesses—ones that thrive with minimal BS.
Today, I’m sharing 3 ways that I built my fantasy business—the one I’d been dreaming about for years—and how it’s different from What Works.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
* Why making changes to an existing business is less like steering a big ship and more like dragging the anchor behind you* How focusing on process & systems helped us create a simple business model* What we did to create an offer that was an obvious “yes” for the right people and an obvious “no” for the wrong people* And how we’ve gotten away with almost zero marketing since we got started almost 2 years ago
Read the full transcript below:
If you were to start a new business—something that has nothing to do with what you’re doing now…
…what would it be?
Maybe you daydream about starting a copywriting business specializing in beekeepers, or you fantasize about becoming a tarot reader for financial professionals. Perhaps you’ve thought about how you’d do web design differently or create a curated subscription box in a whole new way.
I’m convinced that we all have a business—or several—that we daydream about.
And I believe that there’s a lot we could learn from these fantasy businesses.
This month, we’ve been talking about simplifying.
I don’t think any of us dreams up overly complicated businesses. These businesses strike an elegant balance between your needs and wants as a founder and the market’s needs and wants.
None of my fantasy business ideas are complicated.
A few years ago, I wanted to launch a brand of bralettes for bigger busts. Just one or two styles sized appropriately for people with a D-cup larger. And mind you, this was before everyone started selling bralettes for bigger busts.
I’ve dreamed up a personal training business for high-performing women—part coaching, part fitness, all monthly retainer.
I’ve talked about how I’d love to open a simple, high-quality coffee shop in my town. And I’ve dreamed of opening a yoga studio on Main Street, too. While coffee shops & yoga studios might not be high-margin businesses, they’re undoubtedly simple models.
I’ve also joked that one of these days, I’m just going to quit everything and set myself up as a professional Canva designer. I also imagine this business to be pretty straightforward.
Our fantasy businesses can teach us what we’d do differently if we were starting from...

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EP 331: Embracing Simplicity With Brigitte Lyons & Sophy Dale Apr 13, 2021

In This Episode:
* How Sophy Dale decided to let go of 2 of her 3 businesses and just focus on one and why figuring out a novel distribution strategy was a key part of the decision* Why Brigitte Lyons paid attention to what would break if her business grew to figure out how things needed to become simpler* Why Brigitte chose to focus on long-term client engagements* How Sophy is actually able to get more support now that her business is simpler* The tools and software that they use to run their streamlined businesses* And, of course, the incredible results of all of this simplification!
So… things have gotten complicated.
Your business is a mess of competing priorities. Mismatched marketing messages. Dusty old brand positioning. Stale offers. And the clutter from all the times you’ve tried to solve problems by doing more.
It’s easy to think that all of this unproductive complexity is a sign that you screwed up—that you’re not very good at this whole building a business thing.
But that ignores the fact that all of us have been programmed from birth to equate more work with good work, checking more things off the list with checking the right things off the list.
Today, I’ve got part 2 of my conversation with Brigitte Lyons & Sophy Dale about simplifying their businesses. But first, I want to explore a key aspect of how we let things get so complicated in the first place.
Last month, I read a book that I just can’t stop quoting or recommending—and I’m not gonna start today.
The book is Can’t Even: How Millennials Because The Burnout Generation. Yes, I’m a millennial—an elder millennial to be specific. And I deeply and profoundly relate to everything in this book. But as the author, Anne Helen Petersen, points out the systemic causes of our burnout culture are felt by every generation—just with slightly different results.
Petersen writes:
Barring a significant, psychology-altering intervention, once someone equates “good” work with overwork, that conception will stay with them—and anyone under their power—for the rest of their lives.
She goes on to say:
We’ve conditioned ourselves to ignore every signal from the body saying This is too much, and we call that conditioning “grit” or “hustle.”
If that’s feeling a little too real to you right now, you’re certainly not alone.
I’m quite certain that there are many listeners out there releasing a collective OOF.
Here’s the thing, we can say we started our own businesses to gain more flexibility in our lives, more control over our schedules, more time to spend with family or on our art or in our communities…
…but we haven’t had the psychology-altering intervention that would allow us to actually make that happen.
We’ve been taught that unless we pay our dues through overworking and overproducing and overdelivering, we can’t be successful.
And the way that plays out in our businesses? Complexity.
More offers. More clients. More emails. More marketing tactics. More social media posts. More lead magnets. More Zoom calls. More deliverables.
When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, right?
Doing more and inevitably making things more complex is the main tool we’ve been trained to use.

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EP 330: Letting Go Of Complication With Brigitte Lyons & Sophy Dale Apr 06, 2021

In This Episode:
* How Sophy Dale ended up running 3 separate businesses—and what made her realize it was all too complicated* How Brigitte Lyons realized that her PR agency was letting scope creep make it feel like she was still throwing spaghetti at a wall* What both Sophy & Brigitte did to approach simplifying their businesses* And the personal reasons why simplifying was the ticket to creating businesses that worked both for their bank accounts and for their lives
What I wish every small business owner knew about making more money is…
…it doesn’t have to be so complicated.
I mean that literally.
Creating a more complicated business doesn’t guarantee you a bigger paycheck, a bigger audience, or a bigger impact in the world.
Adding more and more moving parts to how your business runs doesn’t get you more happy customers or more personal satisfaction, either.
Of course, this doesn’t put a stop to the anxiety of feeling like, if only you could do more, things would be better.
I am certainly not immune from overcomplicating things and feeling despair that there aren’t more hours in the day.
I’ve created intricate marketing plans, business models, and schedules all with the hope that I could pass a threshold of doing enough to make it big.
But looking back over the last 12 years…
I can easily see that my greatest successes have come from keeping it simple.
So what does this mean for you?
Whether you want to make more money or you’re looking to make a bigger impact or you’re looking for more time, we’ve got to get down to the fundamental challenges that exist in your business.
What I mean by that is that “not making more money” isn’t actually a problem to solve. It’s a symptom, an indicator that there’s something else going on.
Making more money is the result of solving a more specific problem or set of challenges.
It might be a positioning problem. Or a pricing problem. It could be a customer challenge or a capacity issue. It might be a marketing problem—although, I wouldn’t bet on it.
It might be a business model challenge or an operational issue.
Or, it could be any combination of those things.
By addressing those root challenges, we can create simple, sustainable businesses that make a lot more money.
Or we can build simple, sustainable businesses that afford us more time, flexibility, or a greater impact in our communities.
Today, we’re kicking off both a series on simplifying and a set of two episodes with businesses owners who have direct experience with dramatically simplifying their businesses—and in turn, creating immense growth.
Brigitte Lyons is the founder of Podcast Ally, a PR agency specializing in getting experts and idea people booked on podcasts.
Sophy Dale is a copywriting mentor, messaging coach, and brand storyteller who helps coaches, designers, and course-creators write compelling copy.
Both Brigitte and Sophy know what it’s like to run complicated, bloated businesses.

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EP 329: The Anatomy Of An Opportunity Mar 30, 2021

Sometimes it can feel like you don’t find opportunity, opportunity finds you.
But even then, it’s the fact that you were paying attention—listening, watching, taking it all in—that allows you to act on it.
It can make me sick to my stomach to think of all of the opportunities I let slide because I wasn’t paying attention!
All this month, we’ve been looking at identifying opportunity and making exciting things happen. To kick off the series, I shared a framework for examining your business through the lens of sustainability to discover your next opportunity.
Then, I talked with Anna Wolf from Superscript Marketing about how she realized that the building sustainable structures & systems for her business was her big opportunity.
Next, we turned our attention to financial sustainability and I shared my 2019 conversation with Systems Saved Me Founder, Jordan Gill.
Finally, I shared my conversation with business coach Justine Clay and we looked at how identifying choice is a big part of realizing you have an opportunity–and how to navigate the crossroads when it is time to make a choice.
As we close out the month, I have 3 more inspiring stories for you—all on the exact same theme: paying attention.
Zoe Linda Pollard shares how she went from working in a digital marketing agency to starting a social media strategy business to finally discovering that her big opportunity was to focus on helping business owners build & run affiliate marketing programs.
Erin Detka shares how she went from running a massage studio to starting a web design business in mid-2020 and how it helped her to get back to the kind of lifestyle she really values.
And finally Corinna vanGerwen shares how she started her business doing something that–at most–only a few people had done before. And how paying attention to her past experience and the current market helped her find the perfect niche opportunity!
Before we get to those stories, though, I thought I’d add my own in.
In the last 12 years, I’ve certainly spotted and acted on plenty of opportunities. I wrote & sold one of the first ebooks in the craft & maker business world. I created a group business coaching program before that was a thing. I took the leap to appear on CreativeLive in front of 10s of thousands of live viewers and teach 12 classes over 4 years.
But I’m incredibly proud of the story behind YellowHouse.Media and how paying attention helped us spot the right opportunity and build a fast-growing business.
I can remember back in 2015 when I started jonesing to host a podcast… I had no idea how podcasting-as-marketing worked. I knew that I had an opportunity to connect with my existing audience and connect with new people to grow my audience.
But it was early enough—which wasn’t very early at all—in podcasting that “if you build it,

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EP 328: Navigating The Crossroads With Business Coach Justine Clay Mar 23, 2021

In This Episode:
* How business coach Justine Clay decides whether or not to pursue an opportunity* Why she starts with feelings first and how she builds a “scaffolding” around those feelings with practical execution* What she did in the midst of the Great Recession to create a new opportunity by generously serving out-of-work creatives* How Justine views working on herself as an opportunity for growth
Opportunities always come at a crossroads.
Sometimes they’re intersections with big flashing lights and signs pointing to what’s ahead in either direction.
Other times, it’s impossible to know where each path goes. Maybe it’s even hard to see that there is a choice of direction in the first place.
But when we can really take notice of all the places we choose to go one direction or another, we can see that there are opportunities all around us—even when they’re not the opportunities we were looking for.
This month, we’ve been exploring how we spot opportunities and what we do with them once they’re in view.
Opportunities are, in effect, choices.
And while we don’t all have equal access to the same quantity or quality of choices, I think it’s valuable to notice when you do have a choice and how often you make a choice without even realizing it.
With every new opportunity—every choice—there’s a trade-off.
You might have the opportunity to hire someone to help you—but that means you’re trading off some amount of control.
You might have the opportunity to try out a new marketing channel—but that means you’re trading off time and effort you’ve been putting into another marketing channel.
You might have the opportunity to develop a new offer—but that means you’re trading off the focus you’ve put on what you’re currently offering.
Trading between one option and another isn’t a bad thing, of course.
It just is.
No matter what we choose or what opportunity to pursue, there’s something else we’re not choosing or pursuing. That’s opportunity cost.
If I hire someone for my business and trade off some control, I’m potentially missing out on keeping things simpler and more streamlined.
If I pursue a new marketing channel, I’m missing out on the potential growth that continuing to focus on my existing marketing channel could create.
If I develop a new offer, I’m missing out on the potential revenue that doubling-down on my current offer could generate.
Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Opportunity cost exists with every choice, on both sides of the crossroads.
Except that we rarely notice it.
When we make a choice or pursue an opportunity without realizing the trade-off, or when we fail to see we’re making a choice at all…
…we rob ourselves of the chance to truly evaluate the direction we want to take next.
We’re so eager to consider the benefit of choosing one direction or the other that we rarely stop to weigh what we’re giving up no matter what we choose.
This week, my guest is Justine Clay,

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EP 327: Building A Financially Sustainable Business Model With Systems Saved Me Founder Jordan Gill Mar 16, 2021

In This Episode:
* How Jordan Gill used data and experience to set competitive prices for her business operations firm* Why she focused on serving seasonal service-based businesses and how that impacts the way she delivers her service* The stat she used to figure out a new way to offer her services* What expenses Jordan accounts for in pricing her unusual offer
Is your business financially sustainable?
The answer to that question goes beyond how much revenue your business generates, how much you charge for your products or services, and or even how much you pay yourself.
We tend to fixate on those measures of financial success because they’re pretty objective. I can check my P&L and spot how much revenue came in last month or last year. I can pat myself on the back for raising the prices on my offer. And I can enjoy a healthy salary or bask in my profit distribution…
But none of those numbers really capture the financial sustainability of my business as a whole—and that can mean I might miss out on the opportunities for future growth or impact.
In Episode 325, I defined financial sustainability as having a revenue model that supports the business’s operational evolution and the financial needs of the people involved.
Let’s unpack that a bit.
Your business’s revenue model—or your business model—is the system that you use to create, deliver, and exchange value. In other words, it’s what you sell, how you deliver it once it’s sold, and what you charge for it.
Now, we often measure this sort of “in the moment.” Is the revenue model working right now? Is the business generating enough to cover my own pay and the business’s expenses? Am I working too hard today for the paycheck I’m getting tomorrow?
Obviously, you want your business to work right now.
But if all we ever do is set up our businesses to work right now, then we’re missing opportunities to build margin and resilience into our businesses for the future. Plus, we’re having to continually go in and recalculate–which creates the sort of precarity that leads to burnout.
So maybe your revenue model is working today. But will it work tomorrow?
As your needs and the needs of the business evolve, will the revenue model be able to keep up?
I can almost guarantee you that your next financial opportunity comes from taking a longer view on your revenue model.
I’m in the midst of this with a number of business owners right now. Taking a short-term view has helped them get their feet under them and find an impressive level of initial success! But now they’re feeling squeezed just trying to figure out how to eek out a little more growth.
For me, the key here isn’t to consider what a little more growth could look like—that shorter-term view. But instead, to consider what a lot more growth could look like and take long-term view.
Consider that your long-term, higher-level growth opportunity is rarely a matter of doing more. It takes a long, hard look at each revenue stream and weighing whether it can adapt to hold its weight in a business generating 2 or 3 times more re...

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EP 326: Creating Sustainable Structures & Systems With Superscript Marketing Founder Anna Wolf Mar 09, 2021

In This Episode:
* Why SuperScript Marketing founder Anna Wolf started her niche content marketing agency aimed at the financial service industry* How learning search engine optimization led to major growth—and a focus on productized service* What prompted Anna to become obsessed with building sustainable structures & systems for her agency* How focusing on SuperScript’s core competency gave Anna a framework for pursuing growth
What does your business need to be able to do really, really well in order to thrive?
The answer to that question is your business’s core competency—or one of its core competencies.
Your core competency is the key capability your business has or a key promise that it makes that differentiates your business from others offering similar products or services.
And knowing your core competency is a key way to build both opportunity and capacity into your business—which in turn, makes it more sustainable.
This month, we’re taking a closer look at how business owners spot opportunities and choose to pursue them.
Now, I know “core competency” sounds like a jargony management consultant phrase. And that’s because it is. But it really is such a useful concept.
When you know the core competencies of your business, you can invest your time, energy, and even money, into the systems and structures that are going to allow you to make sure that aspect of your business works as well as it possibly can. When that aspect of your business is working as well as it possibly can, it helps to differentiate what your business does and how it serves its clients or customers—which then helps you position the business, attract your perfect-fit customers, and set your prices sustainably.
Let me give you an example.
At What Works, our core competency is built on community-building.
But we actually get more specific than that. Our core competency is actually how we create conversation to foster learning inside of our community. We do that a few ways: a weekly member-only newsletter, weekly events, and weekly check-ins & conversation-start questions.
We also do it through this podcast—which, even though it’s free & publicly available—is still a key part of the conversations we start & nurture inside the private network.
A few years ago, we realized that, while we had systems in place for scheduling events, planning community content, and producing the podcast, all of those systems were siloed–disjointed. Despite the fact that they were doing VERY similiar jobs, these systems didn’t play nicely together and they weren’t managed in the same place.
So we made a change.
We brought together every single aspect of conversation-starting we do at What Works into a single database.
Today, you can find the procedures for creating an event, managing our newsletters, or producing the podcast all in one place. Everyone on the team knows what’s happening from day to day–because it’s all right there.
Each aspect of our conversation-starting content is designed to work together cohesively, as are the logistics behind each aspect.

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EP 325: When Opportunity Meets Sustainability With Tara McMullin Mar 02, 2021

What if your biggest opportunity didn’t involve doing more but doing less?
What if scaling back and simplifying wasn’t only a way to make your life better but a way to build a more successful business, too?
This month on What Works, we’re exploring opportunity—how we discover it, how we decide to pursue it, and what we do to take advantage of it.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how we are prone to waiting until “opportunity” comes to us nicely packaged and easy to use.
We wonder if the latest social media platform will be the key to growing an audience or if the new trend in products or services will unlock a new revenue level.
But I find that the best opportunities don’t come nicely packaged.
Instead, opportunities often present themselves in messy ways—a series of “What if?” questions, a loose synthesis of seemingly unrelated information, or a jarring new perspective on an old problem.
And I have found, over and over again, that the best way to notice these messy, half-formed opportunities is to put myself in the thick of other people’s “What if?” questions and the din of their seemingly unrelated stories.
I’ve discovered my best opportunities at conferences and meet-ups, as well as in masterminds, direct message threads, and even when I’m doing podcast interviews!
We have a whole world of information at our fingertips.
But what’s really useful are the ideas that are filtered through our conversations and connections—curated, social ideas that help us turn questions into opportunities.
These settings hold one of the keys to new opportunities because they help us see things in a new way. They change our perception of what’s possible by presenting options we might not have ever considered on our own.
And this is key.
Because no matter how creative we might be, it’s hard to come up with a completely unfamiliar idea. Instead, we use what’s familiar or known to make smaller leaps.
This contributes to the phenomenon that I’ve been calling “The Squeeze.”
“The Squeeze” occurs when you’ve run out of capacity in your business.
You simply don’t have the time, energy, or mental bandwidth to do more, and so you can’t really see a way for the business to grow. Still, The Squeeze convinces you that if you just rearranged the pieces or tried a little harder, you could force some fresh growth.
But alas, you just end up squeezed into a different arrangement of the same pieces.
In other words, you use what’s familiar to try to work your way out of the Squeeze… and so you can’t quite escape because “what’s familiar” is what got you into the Squeeze in the first place.
To actually alleviate the Squeeze, you have to take a completely different perspective and see things in a new way. And that’s how talking things out with others and learning how they see things differently really helps inspire opportunity.
Now, I know it’s challenging to have those conversations or connect with people who see things in different ways. That’s one of the reasons I started this podcast 5 years ago; I desperately wante...

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EP 324: 4 Patterns That Make Relationship-Building A Challenge Feb 25, 2021

A big part of how I do what I do is by spotting patterns.
As a podcaster, I’m looking for the patterns in the stories my guests tell me.
As a business coach, I’m looking for the patterns in how a business is functioning or how a business owner is approaching a challenge.
As a community builder, I’m looking for patterns in how people connect and ask for help.
As a producer, I’m looking for patterns in content, perspective, and voice.
We have a lot of patterns when it comes to our relationships. And I’ll spare you the impromptu podcast therapy session and assume that you’ve noticed some of yours.
My own patterns include conflict avoidance, overgiving, and ghosting–that’s my non-technical term for my pattern of just disappearing from relationships.
I have good relationship patterns, too. Of course, those don’t make for entertaining and educational podcast episodes.
All this month, we’ve been examining the relationships in our businesses and how we make them stronger. We looked at our relationship with our customers, our relationships to our team members, and our relationships to our community and internet neighbors. We even looked at our relationships to ourselves and our businesses.
This week, we’re going to step back and take a look at the patterns that often make nurturing our relationships difficult.
A couple of these patterns are overt–and a couple are more stealthy. As you listen, I encourage you to pay less attention to the specific patterns and stories we’re diving into today and pay more attention to your own curiosity at how your own relationship patterns are at play in your business. You may or may not see these exact patterns and stories as your own–but I know that your own patterns are influencing YOUR story.
You’re going to hear from 4 different business owners today and I’ll help you unpack the very common patterns that I see at play in each story. My goal isn’t to pathologize or armchair diagnose. I just want to help you hear what I hear in these stories and celebrate the ways these business owners have overcome their patterns made really great choices for them and their businesses!
Today, you’ll hear from coach Carla Reeves, real estate broker Page Huyette, coach & podcaster Shawn Fink, and attorney-turned-community-builder Ali Zucker.

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EP 323: Get To Know Your Neighbors With Rebelle Founder Shannon Siriano Greenwood Feb 23, 2021

Do you know your neighbors?
Sean and I know a couple of ours—but most are strangers.
At this point in time, not knowing your neighbors is pretty common. We mind our own business. We go about our own lives. We rarely intersect with the people around us–which is even more true today when we are not supposed to be intersecting with people outside of our own households!
Most of the time this is fine, right? Maybe it’s not ideal. But it’s fine.
It becomes a problem when there’s a need. Maybe you just need to borrow a cup of milk. Or maybe you’ve got to leave town for a month to care for a family member. Maybe there’s an extended power outage in town.
Who can you rely on?
This week, we’re wrapping up our series on relationship-building. We’ve looked at your relationship with yourself & your business, your relationship with your customers, and your relationship with your team. Now, it’s time to examine your relationship with your network. All the neighbors in your neighborhood, if you will.
So as I just alluded to…
Getting to know your neighbors is a disaster preparedness skill.
I heard Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown talk about this on the How To Survive The End of The World pocdast. Autumn said—and I’m paraphrasing because I have no idea which episode it was in—when you know who is around you, you have a better idea of how you can care for each other. You’re more likely to seek out community-based solutions when things go awry.
This idea has stuck with me. Partly because I heard it while walking through my neighborhood of strangers in the middle of an ongoing global health crisis. And partly because it got me thinking about my “internet neighbors.”
It probably comes as no surprise that I am a huge proponent of getting to know your internet neighbors. And by that, I mean the people who are closely adjacent to you in your industry, in groups you belong to, and in the social media platforms you frequent.
I feel lucky that I got on social media before we’d optimized our tactics and sliced & diced the amount of time we spend actually getting to know people in those channels. I really got to know my internet neighbors in those early years. We had each other’s backs. When something bad happened, we could come up with a solution together.
We knew each other so much more than just as personal brands or headshots.
I think it’s legitimately harder to get to know your internet neighbors today–despite it being more important than ever.
So few people are actively engaging with social media. They’re planning & scheduling their content and then getting the hell off the platform.
In her book, Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino writes, “On the internet, a highly functional person is one who can promise everything to an indefinitely increasing audience at all times.” That’s not advice—by the way. It’s a warning. And it’s one of the reasons why our internet neighborhoods feel so foreign and impersonal.
Social media has taught us to be flat, to optimize our identity, to be as consistent as possible for as long as possible.
In other words, we rarely have the chance to actually get to know someone as a human being. To get to know your neighbors,

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EP 322: Building A Stronger Team With Productive Flourishing Founder Charlie Gilkey Feb 16, 2021

I didn’t start a business because I was excited about managing people.
I wasn’t dreaming of hiring a team while I was writing blog posts in the stolen moments between nursing my baby and nap times.
Truth be told, I’m still not excited about managing people–although, I do dream about hiring more often. Yet, here I am–managing 5 people between 2 companies.
If I had to pin down the biggest lessons that I’ve learned about building a business, I think they might all have to do with the relationships I have with my team members.
Which is not to say that I have it all figured out! But boy oh boy, do I approach things differently than I used to.
This week, we’re examining how we nurture the relationships we have with the people who work with us.
I’ll be honest with you: there are so many different places I’d like to take this episode. There are so many of the lessons I’ve learned that I’d like to pass on. Luckily, the lessons I’ve learned have largely come through conversations I’ve had on this very podcast!
And there’s one conversation in particular that I come back to time & time again. It was my first interview with my friend and founder of Productive Flourishing, Charlie Gilkey.
Looking back on this conversation, I can see that there were already lessons that had started to come into focus about how I work with people and what it looks like to nurture relationships with team members. But what I can also see is how much this conversation actually helped to solidify those learnings into how my thinking & approach have changed since.
Before we get to that conversation, though, I wanted dig into a topic that I’ve been thinking about a lot and writing about some—and that’s the value of maintenance work. I think any discussion of the relationships we build with our team members needs to acknowledge that some of the most important work that gets done in our businesses is often under-appreciated and undervalued.
And I want to make sure that we approach this topic with the shared understanding that it’s not a conversation about delegating or handing off work you don’t want to do. It’s a conversation about team-building, management, and relationship-building—and to do any of those things effectively, we have to get comfortable with the value of maintenance work.
We need to get more comfortable with contributing our fair share to maintenance work—because yes, entrepreneurs and CEOs have maintenance work to do. And, we have to get comfortable with recognizing the contribution that the people who do maintenance work with us make to the overall health of our businesses.
Because, there are some really harmful things that happen with hiring & management in small businesses.
There are low wages, weird power dynamics, and the mislabeling of workers. There’s abuse, unrealistic expectations, and boatloads of scope creep.
It happens in restaurants, in corner stores, and in accounting firms. And, yes, it happens in coaching businesses, marketing agencies, and online course companies.
The problem is that many of us have put the work we do as business owners on a pedestal and see all of the other work—the maintenance work—as beneath us.
Whether it’s customer service or project management or formatting content or organizing files,...

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EP 321: Designing A Remarkable Customer Experience Feb 09, 2021

“Exceptional customer service.”
I’m sure you’ve heard those words uttered during a training session for a retail or service industry job at some point in your life.
Heck, those words might even be in your own values statement or team member handbook.
Goodness knows I’ve got nothing against exceptional customer service–it’s just that it’s a little… vague. And more than that…
We tend to associate “customer service” with fixing problems.
There will always be problems to fix for customers but what about the rest of their experience with us?
What if we used the relationship we want our customers to have with our business as the basis for designing their WHOLE experience.
Last week, we talked through how critically examining your relationship to yourself as a business owner can help you develop a healthier relationship with your business so that it can take care of you instead of you always taking care of it.
This week, we’re taking a closer look at our relationships with our customers.
Sure, we could talk about delivering “exceptional customer experience.” But the ideas that always pique my curiosity are the ones where I learn how a business owner is thinking really creatively about how they design their customer experience.
Customer experience starts long before you ever make a pitch.
It begins when a potential customer first learns about your business and brand. That first impression sets a tone that will likely carry over into their experience of buying from your business and using your product or service.
Customer experience carries on through the buying cycle as a potential customer learns more about your business and how it helps people like them. They experience your business in a new way when they actually make a purchase and get onboarded into your world. Customer experience is, of course, baked into how they use your product or service, as well as how they’re “off-boarded.”
But customer experience doesn’t stop there!
It continues on after they’re done with their initial purchase–the ongoing nurturing they receive from you impacts their experience, too. And then, when make a follow-up offer, that’s ALSO part of their customer experience.
Being really intentional about how you design the customer experience from start to finish means you’re being really intentional about the relationship you want to build with the people who are buying from you–and even the people who never do.
What I really love about customer experience design is that it can be so creative!
There truly is no one-size-fits-all process. Our different values, types of customers, ways of serving, skills, strengths, differentiators, points of view… they each contribute to making our customer experience uniquely our own.
During the course of this episode, we’re going to look at 4 ways you can make your customer experience remarkable and help build a more intentional relationship with the people who buy from you. I’ll share some things you can consider as you think about your own customer experience and you’ll hear examples from thoughtful business owners who made customer experience design a priority.
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EP 320: Making Your Business Your #1 Ally Feb 02, 2021

Businesses are all about relationships, right?
Sure, I think we can all agree on that to one extent or another.
But what exactly do we mean by that?
Most often, a business’s relationships are understood in terms of customer service, promotional partnerships, and management structures. They’re draped in the same words we use to describe our time and money: optimization, efficiency, investment, opportunity.
That’s not the language we use to describe our relationships with the people we genuinely care about, though. Most of us don’t want to optimize our marriages or see our friendships as opportunities for advancement.
We want to connect.
To relate. To belong. To nurture. So what happens when we apply this same motivation to our business relationships?
This month, I’ve got a series on relationships for you. We’re going to explore the obvious—our relationships with customers, with our teams, and our colleagues. We’re also going to explore the not-so-obvious—our relationship to ourselves and our businesses.
As I mentioned, much of the talk about relationships in business is couched in the language of optimization, opportunity, and even domination and exploitation. When Gary Vee says he’s “crushing it,” it’s not really an “it” he’s crushing but a “who.” When we talk about likes, shares, clicks, and eyeballs, we forget that there’s are living, breathing humans on the other side of that metric.
Our capitalist culture has taught us to reduce all of these interactions to their ability to help us earn more and get ahead.
We’re taught to value individualism, speed & efficiency, competition, ownership, hierarchy, and the myth of the meritocracy. Jennifer Armbrust, who you’ll hear from later in this episode, describes these traits as part of patriachy and the masculine economy. Jennifer proposes a different type of economy, the feminine economy. In the feminine economy, we value abundance, gratitude, empathy, care, collaboration, and interdependence—the roots of true relationship.
It’s tempting to think that, because we’re small business owners, we’re always on the side of good, honest, sustainable business.
But since the patterns of domination and exploitation are baked into our definitions of power and success, we don’t get a free pass. Small business isn’t the solution to our problems but it can be a vehicle for pursuing business relationships in a more human way if we’re willing to examine how we do business and what that means for the people we’re in relationship with.
This is one expression of how Jennifer describes feminist entrepreneurship. She writes in Proposals for the Feminine Economy:
Feminist entrepreneurship requires that we quit equating masculine principles with success and power, and feminine principles with inadequacy and weakness. To do something as audacious as call your business “feminist” requires showing up every day with humility, heart, intrepid creativity, criticality, courage, self-love, and a passion for growth. It requires accountability to yourself, your business, and to the larger social project of dismantling patriarchal & oppressive systems.
How we understand the relationships we form in business and how we pursue nurturing those relationships can be a huge step in the direction of doing business through a feminist lens.

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EP 319: Why Our Plans Need More Margin Jan 28, 2021

Margin is space—the space between and around.
There is the margin of a page, of course. And there is the margin around the border of a forest. There’s also the margin in your business–the space between your revenue and your expenses.
Most of us don’t have nearly as much margin as we used to. At one point in our lives, we uttered the words, “I’m bored…” and our caregivers rolled their eyes and told us to go outside. The margin between planned activities, play dates, and bursts of play gave us an opportunity to feel that boredom.
When do we ever feel bored now?
When are we ever faced with a lack of things to do or chores to take care of? Even in the midst of this Great Pause, margin feels tenuous. I’ve had countless conversations with people who fear returning to normal and, with it, the crush of things to do and places to go that squeezes all of the margin out of our lives and work.
I’m one of those people who feels anxious at the thought of losing the margin I’m now enjoying thanks to the forced change in my habits and patterns. My 12 year-old daughter is too. She loves cooking and crafting and finding endless ways to rearrange her Harry Potter Lego sets without the distraction of constantly coming up with things to do outside of the house.
This month, we’ve been talking about how to work our plans—how to see a plan & its execution as a learning process, how to identity the working style that works for you, how to invite change into your plans.
Margin is a key component of planning, but one we rarely acknowledge.
In fact, a lack of margin is one of the chief reasons we fail to follow through on our plans.
We don’t allow for margin at the start or finish. We don’t leave margin between projects or items in a check list. We certainly don’t make room for error. And the result is that everything we do starts to feel rushed, harried, and full of anxiety.
In Episode 298, my friend Kate Strathmann told me that she noticed she’s more likely to cause harm when she’s feeling urgency. We were talking about sales in that conversation, but I think this idea applies to many things—including planning.
We’ve inherited a pattern of over-scheduling, over-planning, and over-committing, as well as technology that eliminate our margins and induce urgency—and, with it, anxiety. We’re taught to believe that more is better by cultural forces like rugged individualism and white supremacy, as well as our broken capitalist economic system.
We try to tackle too many things at once. We think we can do things faster than we really can. We forget to factor in preexisting commitments. We don’t take stock of our resources before we start doling them out—literally and figuratively.
It’s no wonder then that we so often feel “the crunch” when we’re trying to stick to our plans.
And when we’re feeling “the crunch” we’re much more likely to take action that causes harm to ourselves, to others, and to our communities.
Maybe we ignore our families or intimate relationships. Maybe we pull too many all-nighters. Maybe we resort to choices and tactics that damage the community or industry ecosystem we’re a part of. Maybe we start to believe the horrible things we say about ourselves: how slow we are, how unprepared we are, how unskilled we are—and my personal go, how lazy I am.

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EP 318: Writing The 2nd Draft With Sell From Love Author Finka Jerkovic Jan 26, 2021

In This Episode:
* What Sell From Love author Finka Jerkovic learned from the process of writing her book’s first draft* How she determined what problem the book was solving* Why her writing process changed between her first draft and her second draft* Why writing the book was a “top secret” project
Planning is a learning process.
When we set out an objective, make a plan to achieve it, and then implement that plan, we inevitably learn key things.
We might learn that we don’t want to achieve the objective after all. We might learn that the path to achieve it isn’t what we thought it was going to be. We might learn that we need more help or different help, that we need to acquire a new skill, or that we need to adjust our implementation.
Making changes—even big ones—to our plan doesn’t mean we’ve abandoned it.
It means we’re learning.
All this month, we’ve been talking about working the plan. It’s January, after all, and I’m sure you’ve made some plans for this year!
I kicked things off by sharing a bit about my personal planning process and how I’m planning for both of my companies in 2021.
Then, I talked with Gillian Perkins about how she planned for the parental leave she took last year and what she learned about how she works in the course of implementing that plan.
Last week, I talked with Emily Crookston about how she’s learned to leveraged LinkedIn and discovered the way she wants to show up online.
This week, I’m closing out the series by talking about 2nd drafts—both literal and metaphorical—with the author of Sell From Love, Finka Jerkovic.
You’ll hear how it took writing a first, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink draft in order for Finka to learn what her book was really about and how it was going to serve her readers. You’ll also hear how she’s needed to find a second draft of what makes her feel satisfied and worthy based on her own values instead of the performance-oriented culture she was raised in.
And, of course, you’ll hear how Finka planned for writing her book and discovered her writing practice along the way.
Now, let’s find out what works for Finka Jerkovic!

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BONUS: Finding Your Podcasting Rhythm With The Standout Podcast Club Jan 21, 2021

Flow. Rhythm. Consistency.
These are all words we want to associate with how we do our work, but so rarely can we actually describe a week or even a day as flowing, rhythmic, or even possessing some level of consistency.
Variable, external circumstances certainly contribute to our state of relentless syncopation. But the way we think about our work–how we organize it, visualize it, plan it–doesn’t help either.
Now, this episode of What Works is a bonus. In fact, up until yesterday, I had no idea we were going to be publishing this. But when Sean and I got off our latest round table discussion in the Standout Podcast Club, we knew it was the perfect addition to this month’s What Works series on working the plan.
If you haven’t heard, Standout Podcast Club is the brand-new training, coaching, and networking hub for podcasters that we launched through YellowHouse.Media. Every month, we host a round table discussion where we dig deeper into an aspect of podcast production.
This month’s topic was finding your podcasting rhythm so that you can stay on track with the workload and avoid feeling like you’re always behind, which is a huge problem for podcasters. Essentially, the topic is working your podcast plan.
Now, even if you’re not a podcaster, this is a valuable conversation.
If you’re regularly producing any kind of content or you want to be–content like articles, a newsletter, or even social media posts, this conversation applies directly to you. If you’re not regularly producing content and you don’t want to be, there’s likely some other process in your business that often feels disjointed or for which you often feel behind. You’re going to find something valuable in here, too.
Sean and I talked through the common pitfalls of managing a podcast workflow, as well as how to mentally organize the flow differently, how to plan ahead, what to consider when it comes to the technology you use to manage the process, and how to find a consistent pace so you’re not feeling like you’re always rushing toward the finish line.
You’ll also hear us work through a sort of hot seat example of what we’re talking about with Jacquette Timmons host of the More Than Money podcast.
Finally, we mention some graphics and screen sharing, and I’ve included each of those below!
How podcasters typically think of their process–episode by episode
How we think of the podcasting process–incrementally over time
Episode by episode project management
Timeline view project management
Sean’s spur-of-the-moment mindmap

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EP 317: Leveraging LinkedIn With The Pocket PhD Founder Emily Crookston Jan 19, 2021

In This Episode:
* How The Pocket PhD founder Emily Crookston started leveraging LinkedIn after the pandemic threw a wrench in her public speaking plans* Why she went from posting spontaneously to planning out her content and using a weekly structure to guide her* What prompted her to start a video interview series on LinkedIn* And why Emily doesn’t care about trying to work the LinkedIn algorithm
So you’ve got a big plan for this year (or even this week or this month!).
What happens when somebody throws a wrench in the works?
Do you fight to get back on track?
Do you flee to something else entirely?
Do you freeze and hope that it’ll all blow over soon?
Each of these 3 responses is perfectly normal & understandable. After all, fight, flight or freeze is a baked-in biological response we all have.
But most of the time, we need a different way to respond when our plans get interrupted.
Fight, flight, or freeze might be our biological response when faced with a threat but they’re rarely the best response.
I propose that the more strategic—more human—response is to adapt. It’s not so much a reaction to the threat as it is a curiosity about what we can do with the new information or circumstances.
I’ve been coming back to a line from Sebene Selassie’s book, You Belong, over the last few weeks. She writes, “Curiosity is a crucial component in reducing our reactivity.”
Curiosity asks us to consider how we can approach new information or circumstances creatively—instead of trying to figure out how to fight it, how to run the other way, or how to wait it out.
Obviously, we all got thrown for a loop last year when Covid hit. That wrench in the works played out different for every one and every business—but we all had to adapt in some way.
If you fought, fled, or froze, you’re not alone!
I think we all responded that way initially. I certainly did—big fighting energy over here!
What was amazing to watch though is little by little, the business owners I’m in community with started to ease up on that immediate reaction and started to find a more adaptive, proactive response.
I saw amazing things happen for people when they adapted—even if those things didn’t always lead to financial relief or more time to themselves.
One of those people is my guest today, the founder of The Pocket PhD, Emily Crookston.
Emily is a ghostwriter and editor who works with experts and thought leaders to help them bring their ideas to the masses.
As you’ll hear, Emily’s plan for 2020 was to grow her business through in-person speaking engagements. Her first gig was on March 8—and then… lock down.
But Emily adapted—taking the same strategy she was applying to speaking gigs and applied it to LinkedIn. She’s seen tremendous success on the platform over the last year and I wanted to talk with her about how she adapted her plan, decided on LinkedIn, and then figured out how to make the most of the platform by working her plan.
We talk about how she made the jump from posting spontaneously to planning her content & scheduling it. We talk about the video interview series she started.

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EP 316: Planning For Parental Leave With Startup Society Founder Gillian Perkins Jan 12, 2021

In This Episode:
* How Startup Society creator Gillian Perkins prepared for her recent parental leave* What her normal 20-hour workweek looks like and how she adapted that as she was working toward her leave* Why she describes her process as “batching chaotically” and how making that process what she plans for has made things easier for her* What she’s learned from taking time away from the business over the years
There are a lot of folks out there telling you how to get your work done.
There are planners, apps, frameworks, and methods. And there are even more messages about delegating, time-blocking, batching, and fitting a whole year’s work into just 12 weeks.
It’s easy to think that the “way you work” works for you—and maybe it does. But it’s also easy to believe, if you let yourself, that the way you work has been shaped by the “shoulds” of an entire industry devoted to the capitalist pursuit of helping you produce more, be more efficient, and crank out more value for every hour of labor you put into the world.
How would you structure your work if you didn’t constantly feel the need to fit more work in? How would you approach your tasks with intention instead of obligation? How would you create plans with stewardship instead of urgency as the motivation?
This month on What Works, we’re tackling the topic of how we work our plans. This is a topic near and dear to my heart because I’ve spent years trying to squeeze myself into all the “right” ways of working and planning—only to discover that I really had to make it mine to make it work. I needed to rebuild my understanding of my work and accountability from the ground up to realize just how powerful I could be with how I create my work and use my time.
In the last episode, I shared a bit about that and quite a bit about how I’m planning for What Works and YellowHouse.Media. And, I mentioned that one of my commitments for 2021 is Adapt & Emerge.
So I want to apply that lens to the conversations I’ve had for this month’s episodes. I want to explore how business owners find the curiosity to question how they “should” be doing something or what they thought the plan was going look like and, instead, find their own way by intentionally adapting as they go.
This week, my guest is Gillian Perkins—a YouTuber with over 450 thousand subscribers, marketing expert, business strategist, and the creator of Startup Society.
I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Gillian through YellowHouse.Media, where we produce her podcast, Work Less, Earn More. Gillian is a disciplined, rigorous executor who is no stranger to making a plan and working it.
And there are plenty of conventional ways that Gillian manages the work to be done—for instance, she loves Asana!
But there was a really intriguing part of our conversation where I learned that Gillian’s found her true way of working on big projects—like planning for her recent parental leave—doesn’t necessarily fit the way we think it’s supposed to be done. She calls it “batching chaotically” and it’s a mode of operation I can definitely relate to!
In this conversation,

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EP 315: How I’m Planning For 2021 at What Works & YellowHouse.Media Jan 05, 2021

In This Episode:
* What Works founder Tara McMullin shares how she’s planning for 2021 at both What Works & YellowHouse.Media, as well as how she’s allocating her resources to better serve her teams* The 3 commitments she’s made to guide her personal and leadership choices throughout the year* The Strategic Priorities her companies are focusing on to move forward and what projects she’s working on to make it all happen!* Plus, Tara’s unconventional take on goal-setting & sticking with her plans
Welcome to the first What Works episode of 2021!
This episode is going to be a look behind the scenes of my two companies and how we’re planning for 2021, some of the choices we’re making, and what we’ll be looking for as the year progresses.
Not only is this the kick-off episode for 2021, it’s the kick-off for our January series on “working the plan.” This month, I’m going to be sharing conversations about planning for parental leave, leveraging LinkedIn, and writing a book—all things that have taken intentional planning and execution!
But before we get to those, I wanted to share not only how I’ll be working the plan this year but how the plan got made in the first place.
I recorded this episode in mid-December 2020. And in that time, I’ve already discovered some things that are altering my plans. After all, the very act of working a plan means you’re gaining new information and even discovering new ideas.
Planning is a learning process.
It’s not about getting the plan right, it’s about finding a starting point and then learning from the result as you go.
My plan is never set in stone. Adjusting my plan doesn’t mean I’ve failed or done something wrong. It means I’m learning. So I start with my best guess of what I want to do and then adapt from there as I gain new information and experiences.
In this episode, I’ll share how I’m reallocating my resources this year to better serve my companies, what commitments I’ve made for the year, the Strategic Priorities we’re focused on, and what projects we’re kicking off the year with.
Here’s what works for me when I’m working the plan!

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EP 314: Discovering Who You Want To Become With Modern Leaders Co-Founder Melissa Emler Dec 22, 2020

In This Episode:
* How Modern Learners Chief Learning Office, Melissa Emler, grew to meet the challenge her business faced leading thousands of educators through adapting to online learning* Why she continues to work her day job—and how it serves her as a business owner and leader* The 3-part framework she used to lead her community through the frantic pace of change this year* Why she’s prioritizing difficult conversations about systemic oppression and racial injustice in education
There’s a little cartoon that I’ve seen pop up again and again over the years.
A caterpillar and a butterfly sit at a cafe table, each with glasses of wine.
The caterpillar says, “You’ve changed.”
And the butterfly replies, “We’re supposed to.”
“You’ve changed” is often wielded as negative feedback. And sure, I guess there are times when people change for the worse. But more often, “you’ve changed” means something more like, “You’re not playing small like me anymore.”
No matter how much you know you’re supposed to change, no matter how much you want to change and grow—leaving people and their expectations behind can hurt. But this is the process we’re called into as business owners over and over again.
This week, we’re wrapping up our series on leading ourselves by taking a closer look at who we’re becoming—and how we’re changing—to lead ourselves into the future.
If you haven’t heard the other episodes in this series, I highly recommend making to time to do so! The first episode was with Emily Thompson from Being Boss and Almanac Supply Co—and we talked about how she used a “full body yes” to make a big decision.
The second episode was with coach & strategist Valerie Black about how she surfed the ebbs & flows this year as the pandemic rocked her business and her ego.
Last week’s conversation was with Alethea Fitzpatrick about how she’s led herself & Co-Creating Inclusion, her DEI consultancy, by focusing what she can control and letting go of what she can’t.
Today, we’re talking to Melissa Emler, who leads a community of educators & administrators over at Modern Learners.
As you might guess from the name of her company, Missy has been through the wringer this year! The pandemic brought an intense urgency to the work she’s been doing and the change she’s been trying to create in education for years. Suddenly, schools all over the world knew they needed a new approach to learning.
But that wasn’t the only thing creating twists & turns for Missy this year.
In this conversation, you’ll hear how Missy balances leading her company with working in the “lab” of a day job, the 3-part framework she’s used to lead educators through big change, and how she created space for conversation about injustice and systemic racism in education.
Plus, you’ll hear how Missy uses a key question about change and figuring out who we want to become to meet the moment to lead herself and others.
Now,

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EP 313: Focusing On What You Can Control With Co-Creating Inclusion Founder Alethea Fitzpatrick Dec 15, 2020

In This Episode:
* How Co-Creating Inclusion founder Alethea Fitzpatrick navigated this year by focusing on what she could control and letting go of what she can’t* How she took care of herself during troubling times, all while her business was taking off* What operational adjustments she led the business through as they grew* How she’s planning for next year with more uncertainty and growth on the horizon
It’s a bit cliche to say that entrepreneurs have control issues.
I mean, our drive for control over our time, our work, our creative output—it’s one of the reasons many of us ended up starting our own businesses in the first place!
Our control issues can have positive side effects. Needing to be in control can inspire you into resourcefulness, it can motivate you to learn new skills, it can help you find a sense of independence…
…but control issues, ultimately, harm us and our companies. Our control issues can hurt the people we work with and can stifle our creativity.
Trying to get or maintain control can hold our imaginations and wellbeing hostage.
adrienne maree brown writes in *emergent strategy, “*Many of us respond to change with fear, or see it as a crisis. Some of us anticipate change with an almost titillating sense of stress. We spend precious time thinking about what has changed that we didn’t choose or can’t control, and/or thinking ahead to future stress.”
Well, yes. That feels familiar.
This week, we’re continuing our series on leading yourself with Alethea Fitzpatrick, the founder of Co-Creating Inclusion—a diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting practice.
Alethea told me that her go-to practice for navigating the twists & turns of this year has been focusing on what she can control and letting go of what she can’t.
As you might guess, Alethea’s consultancy has experienced massive growth this year—which has been its own challenge—while she also had to deal with pandemic life with 2 kids in New York City.
I’ve watched Alethea navigate big emotions, uncertain outcomes, and limited capacity and her openness & grace in the midst of oppression and violence has been astounding.
Now, let’s find out what works for Alethea Fitzpatrick.

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EP 312: Surfing The Ebbs & Flows with The Change Agency Founder Valerie Black Dec 08, 2020

In This Episode:
* How coach & strategist Valerie Black led herself through a year of ups & downs* The practices she uses to find her center and stay present—so she doesn’t end up “future-tripping”* What she did to hold boundaries around her work as clients started to come back* The question she’s asking to find direction for the next phase of her work
I used to live in Astoria, Oregon.
That’s where the mighty Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean—the northwest corner of the state and the home of the Tribes of the Chinookan people.
Every day, I’d walk along the river several times and just watch the water flow.
Because we were so close to the mouth, the river actually experienced considerable tides. Throughout the day, the height of the river might change anywhere from 6-10 feet.
Not only did the level of the water change dramatically throughout the day, it would appear that the flow of the river reversed.
When the tide was out, the river flowed as you would expect—toward the ocean.
When the tide was coming in, it looked like the river flowed backwards toward Portland.
It was wild.
Of course, under the surface of the rising tide, the Columbia River continued its journey toward the Pacific. The river never actually changed course—just the water on the surface.
Life and work can create a similar illusion.
It can feel like half of the time we’re moving forward…
…and half of the time we’re being pushed backwards by forces outside of our control.
But under the surface, we’re still growing, adapting, emerging. We’re continuing our journey.
When you’re building a business, you’ll inevitably experience ups and downs, ebbs and flows.
When things are bad, it can feel like every success you’ve ever experienced is being washed away by failure.
But, of course, the truth is that we’re always learning and moving forward.
As we continue our series on leading yourself and examining the practices that small business owners used to navigate this wild year, I’m thrilled to introduce you to coach and founder of The Change Agency, Valerie Black.
I met Valerie at this time last year and was immediately struck by her mix of gentleness and tenacity. She is both strategic and intuitive, open-hearted and strong-willed—not that any of those things are mutually exclusive, of course!
Valerie has had a year of ebbs and flows, as she put it.
And I wanted to capture her story and learn more about the self-care practices that saw her through this year.
Now, let’s find out what works for Valerie Black!

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EP 311: Finding The Full Body Yes With Being Boss Host Emily Thompson Dec 01, 2020

In This Episode:
* How Emily Thompson, host of Being Boss & founder of Almanac Supply Co, led herself through a year with plenty of twists & turns* How she knew that taking over Being Boss on her own with the right decision for her & the vision she has* How she managed herself through turning an in-person event into an online one* The practice she uses to stay focused and present with her own experience* What she did at Almanac Supply Co to replace a revenue stream lost to lockdown
Well, folks—we’ve made it.
It’s the final month of 2020 and we’ve been through a lot this year.
I can’t even pretend to know what the year was like for you. I don’t know if you felt incredibly lonely or never got a moment to yourself after March 17th (or both). I don’t know if you finally confronted your racist uncle or spent precious energy reminding people that your life does matter. I don’t know if your business cratered or skyrocketed. I don’t know if you lost a loved one or welcomed a new life into your family.
But what I do know is that, if you’re reading this right now, you led yourself through it.
You found a way to cope. You found the strength to keep going. You nurtured the resilience to grow and adapt.
And you should be proud of that.
I’ve had the great privilege of getting the inside scoop on how hundreds of small business owners navigated the endless twists and turns of this year. I’ve watched as they rise to the occasion over and over again inside The What Works Network.
I’ve observed their new self-care practices. I’ve seen how they reimagine their brands. I’ve witnessed them wait it out. And I’ve seen how how they’ve grown.
This month, I wanted to take a look back at how they’ve led themselves through this wild year.
So I spoke to 4 small business owners who each had a very different experience this year. What they all have in common, though, is a fine-tuned sense of self-leadership.
Sometimes that self-leadership took the form of intentional practices of self-care. Other times, it was finding the courage the make big decisions. And still other times, their self-leadership stared down challenges with intense creativity & imagination.
My first guest in this series is Emily Thompson, host of Being Boss and founder of Almanac Supply Company.
Emily had a big year—she separated from her long-time business partner Kathleen Shannon. She reimagined the Being Boss business model. She pivoted an in-person event to the online space. And, she got creative about how to replace a major revenue stream for Almanac.
Emily and I talk about all of these moments and much more.
We’ll get into the conversation in just a minute.
But first, I want to invite you to join me for a different kind of annual review.
It’s happening on Instagram—and every day this month, I’m sharing a different question you can use to look back on the year.
So whether the year has been up, down, or lots of ups & downs, these questions will help you reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how you’ve grown.
Today’s question is: what did you create this year?
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EP 310: Unlearning Default Thoughts With Financial Coach Keina Newell Nov 24, 2020

In This Episode:
* How financial coach Keina Newell realized she had a mindset problem–plus all the ways she tried to make things work without working on her mindset* The personal practices she uses to notice her thoughts and create new ones* How her sales process and revenue has shifted since she started addressing her mindset–and the incredible financial results she’s been able to create* Why taking a more objective approach to noticing her thoughts has helped her keep her mind fresh and her options open
Life teaches us a lot.
Some of it is good and helpful—the skills that help us make our way in the world.
And some of it… well, some of it ends up getting in our way.
But we might not realize the friction that it’s causing or the opportunities that it’s blocking until things come to a head.
Once you’ve discovered that there’s a problem with what you’ve already learned, what do you do?
All this month, we’ve been talking about leveling up and learning new skills.
But this week, we’re going to talk a bit about unlearning.
Marga Biller, program director at the Harvard Learning Innovations Laboratory, defines unlearning like this:
“Unlearning is learning to think, behave, or perceive differently, when there are already beliefs, behaviors, or assumptions in place (that get in the way), at either the individual or organizational level.”
Often, we try to do or learn new things without addressing the beliefs, behaviors, and assumptions that we already have—even when those things are contradictory.
For instance, it’s hard to speak up on social media and share your big message if you’ve learned through social conditioning or personal trauma that you can only be safe when you’re silent.
It’s hard to ask for testimonials or write effectively about your offer if you’ve learned that humility is always playing down your achievements or ability.
It’s hard to charge more for your services or products if you’ve learned that money is the root of all evil.
Here’s what I’ve learned over the years:
The job of entrepreneurship is so different and foreign to most of us that we don’t realize all the things we’ve learned that block our ability to do it effectively until we’re deep in it.
Entrepreneurs have to unlearn trading time for money. They have to unlearn old management habits. They have to unlearn perfectionism. They often even have to unlearn old identities.
Truly, the list could go on and on.
But I won’t—I want to get to this week’s conversation because it’s a good one.
This week, I’m talking with financial coach and the founder of Wealth Over Now, Keina Newell.
Keina and I started this conversation with the frame that we were going to be talking about learning mindset skills. And we definitely talk about that.
But after reflecting on this interview, I think what we talked about the most was unlearning many of the habits and patterns that she’d learned along the way.
Keina and I talk about what she thought the problem was and how she tried to fix it before landing on learning and unlearning key mindset pieces, as well as the self-coaching system she used to final...

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EP 309: How To Change Your Perspective Nov 19, 2020

Today, you’re going to hear from four small business owners who have learned to see things in a new way–to shift their perspective–and as a result show up differently for themselves and their businesses.
I’ve got stories from writing coach Beth Barany, Work Brighter founder Brittany Berger, business finance coach Lauren Caselli, and speech language pathologist and life coach Melissa Page Deutsch.
Each one has a very different story of how they learned something new and it shifted their perspective. Pay attention to how that new perspective helped them see both their challenges and their opportunities in new ways.
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 308: Leveraging Old Skills & Learning New Ones With Bouquet Stock Photography Founders Dana Kaye & Felton Kizer Nov 17, 2020

In This Episode:
* Why Dana Kaye and Felton Kizer came together to build a stock photography business–and the important mission behind the company* How the process of making things official helped them learn how to work with each other* The skills they’ve learned as they have developed the new business, as well as how they’ve leveraged their existing business-building skills to give it a jumpstart* Why they’re each playing the roles they are in the new business and how that’s guided the development of the business
Starting a second—or third or fourth—business is a great test of your skills as an entrepreneur.
On one hand, you’re reminded of all the things you learned getting the first venture or few off the ground. You can put those skills to use faster and avoid some of the hassle you went through when you did it before.
On the other hand, there are inevitably new things to learn. You might need to pick up skills that come from using a different kind of business model. Or, you might need to learn some new software. Or, you might want to acquire some new marketing or sales skills to support the new company.
Last year, I had to level up my own skills as the co-founder of my second company, YellowHouse.Media. YellowHouse.Media is the podcast production agency I run with my husband, Sean.
Starting the new venture was a huge affirmation of skills that I already possessed.
It was incredibly fun to design a business from scratch and see it come to fruition really fast—almost exactly how I had envisioned it. I even got to exercise skills around package design and pricing that I had learned but never put into practice.
But there were also all kinds of new skills to learn, too.
I needed to learn how to run the business model I had designed. I needed to develop new communication skills and new team-building skills. And I had to learn new software, too.
Of course, the biggest learning curve was figuring out how to work with a business partner—and how to work with my husband.
We’re still figuring that one out.
All this month on What Works, we’re talking about leveling up our skills and, this week, I’ve got the inside scoop on a brand new joint venture that friend of the pod Dana Kaye and her new business partner Felton Kizer put together. Knowing what I’ve learned about my own second company, not to mention working with a business partner, I knew this conversation would teach us a lot about the skills that go into building a new business.
You might remember that Dana Kaye is the founder of Kaye Publicity, a PR firm for authors, as well as the host of the podcast, Branding Outside The Box. Felton Kizer is a photographer and the founder of Off-Kilter Media.
Together, they’ve just launched Bouquet Stock Photography. They wanted to see more people of color, those in the LGBTQIA+ community, non-binary folks,

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EP 307: Mastering A New Model With The Light House Founder Christianne Squires Nov 10, 2020

In This Episode:
* Why Christianne Squires created The Light House, a community for contemplative leaders, and how it differs from her first business, Bookwifery* How she uses discernment to explore potential decisions and choose what action to take* How the way she creates value has changed in her new community-based business model* What she’s done to hone her skills for community building and how she sees her role in the business now
Different kinds of businesses require different skills.
Okay, maybe that’s obvious—but hear me out.
I’m not talking about the skills that you offer as a product or service.
I’m talking about the skills that you use to actually build and operate the business itself.
Learning how to run a wholesale product business is different than learning how to run a creative agency is different than learning how to run a training company is different than learning how to run a digital products business is different than learning how to run a software as a service business.
There is plenty of overlap. There are plenty of foundational concepts and skills that are key to each of these different business models.
But when it comes to the specific craft of building a particular type of company, that is its own unique skill set.
This month, we’re taking a closer look at how entrepreneurs level up their skills to build more effective and profitable businesses.
I’ve been reminded just how specific the skills required to build a certain business model can be at least twice in recent memory.
Most recently, I’ve been learning the ins and outs of building a productized service business and creative agency model as we grow our podcast production company, YellowHouse.Media.
I had to reacquaint myself with retainer pricing, writing proposals, and managing projects—as well as helping clients navigate the ups and downs of birthing something as big as a podcast.
A few years ago, though, I pivoted my coaching and training company into a community-based business. I’ve spent the last few years unlearning the expert marketing and product development model my business was originally based on and learning a new skill set around subscription pricing, retention, and community building.
It’s been a ride!
I had to rethink how we create value (and what that value even is). I had to take a fresh approach to how we market and sell. And I had to reconsider what leadership looks like in a peer-to-peer support community.
This year—both as predicted and rushed along by the pandemic—has seen a wave of new community-based businesses.
And lots of people are learning just how different this skill set is!
I wanted to talk with someone else who has experienced this shift first hand and I was thrilled when Christianne Squires agreed to share her story.
Christianne is the founder of The Light House and, formerly, Bookwifery. You’re going to hear all about these two businesses—and what makes them different from each other over the course of this conversation.
You’ll also hear how Christianne has been nurturing her skills as a community builder and how that’s pushed her rethink how she creates value,

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EP 306: Finding A New Way To Communicate With Writer Kris Windley Nov 03, 2020

In This Episode:
* How writer Kris Windley learned illustration skills to level up the way she communicates* The process she uses to figure out what she’s going to draw and how it’s going to enhance her writing* The 3 ways she coaches herself through the hard parts in learning a new skill* Where she draws motivation from to continue to learn new things and level up her skills
The very first online course I ever created taught students how to build a WordPress website.
I created the course about 10 years ago before drag & drop page builders were the norm and before premium themes were easily customized.
Back then, building a website was a special kind of skill. If you wanted something custom, you had to know some HTML and some CSS and you had to know where to put it to make it do the things you wanted to do.
The first time I taught the class, the sheer newness of what was involved hit the students like a tsunami. They felt in over their heads and they were quickly drowning among the flotsam & jetsam of page templates and child themes and stylesheets.
I felt horrible.
I wanted to teach them this new skill so badly. I wanted them to feel powerful and in control of their online presences.
But instead, I felt like I had resigned them to the horrible fate of feeling confused and overwhelmed by something that seemed so central to building their businesses.
We worked through it… but I knew I didn’t want a repeat of that.
So the next time I taught the class, instead of diving into the first lesson, I shared a video with them where I explained what was going to happen—not in the class itself, but in their minds.
I asked them to remember back to the last time they were learning something brand new—something that they had no point of reference for. I asked them to remember that it was hard at first but, little by little, it started to make sense and they were able to apply what they were learning.
After I set this expectation, it was a little easier for everyone.
There were still plenty of questions and problems learning the material—but there were far fewer freakouts and panic attacks!
Not only were my students learning to build their websites, I was learning a valuable lesson about what it takes to learn a new, foreign skill as an adult.
This month, we’re exploring how we level up by learning new skills.
We all bring a unique skill set to our businesses. Some of us bring the skills we learned in school or corporate careers that transfer directly into the work we’re doing today. Others bring certifications and licenses from careers that no longer serve us.
Some of us bring skills from our hobbies, personal adventures, or relationships. Others bring skills they had no idea would be useful but have been invaluable to their growth.
The way we leverage our existing skills and learn new ones helps us to creatively solve business problems, invest ourselves in future outcomes, and differentiate our brands.
Over the course of this month, we’ll hear from a number of small business owners who have spent time and energy on learning a new skill so they could level up some aspect of their businesses—or, in one case, start a new one.
You’ll hear from Christianne Squires who committed to leveling up her community-building skills so she could serve her people in a new way.

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EP 305: How To Keep Speaking Up (Even When Things Go Wrong) Oct 29, 2020

I have a confession to make.
This month, I committed to speaking up on Instagram Stories every day. I pledged to share something–not necessarily profound, not necessarily useful or valuable–just something.
I didn’t follow through.
In fact, as of the time of this recording, I’ve been hiding out for more than a week–not really publicly posting anything anywhere. What had been a consistent effort to creatively share my ideas, reflections, and stories has ground to a halt.
Today, we’re talking about all the things that keep us from speaking up–and how we can work through them.
This is far from the first time I’ve gone dark on social media. It’s the first thing to go when I start to feel overwhelmed and depressed. I’ve been fighting back a period of depression for over a year now and it’s just gotten to be too much.
There is something different about going dark this time, though.
So far, it’s only impacted social media. And, frankly, I don’t need to constantly post to social media to run my companies.
What’s really different about how I’ve kept speaking up outside of social media is that systems and routines that I’ve put in place to help me maintain a consistent practice of using my voice and sharing my ideas.
The What Works Weekly newsletter has still be going out every week.
This podcast, of course, has still been produced every week.
I’m still showing up to share and lead The What Works Network.
My businesses can surviving without social media.
They can’t survive without me speaking up.
Twelve years into this small business leadership thing and I KNOW that my mental health impacts my ability to share. But it doesn’t have to stop me in my tracks.
I can focus on systems that inspire me to share my thoughts and give me direction when I need it. I can commit to a sustainable pace for using my voice and pull back on any extra effort when it gets to be too much–without feeling bad about myself or my capacity.
Speaking up for yourself and your business is no joke.
Putting your ideas, stories, or information out there can be daunting. Any number of things might be going through your mind:
Is this really helpful? Hasn’t this already been said a million times before? What if someone yells at me? Who am I to say this? What if they think I’m weird? Is anyone paying attention at all? What if it goes viral and I get inundated with replies?
And it’s not just the head stuff that stops us!
Sometimes the challenge is finding our people and speaking directly to them. Sometimes the obstacle is finding a message that makes a connection. Sometimes it’s the logistics or the technology that throw you for a loop.
So many things can stand in the way of us speaking up for ourselves and our small businesses.
Today, I’ve got 5 stories for you. Each story is from a small business owner who identified a hurdle they had to speaking up and found what worked for them to overcome it.
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EP 304: Speaking To New Audiences With Rebel Therapist Founder Annie Schuessler Oct 27, 2020

In This Episode:
* How Rebel Therapist podcast host Annie Schuessler found her voice as a podcaster—and how her show has evolved over time* How she plans her content for her podcast and selects the guests she’ll have on the show* Why she decided to start pitching other podcasts to have her on—and the process she uses to do it* The techniques Annie uses to break through the fear of asking to be on other podcasts
The number one way I’ve built my audience might surprise you.
It’s NOT through especially useful or creative content. It’s not through some top secret ad targeting strategy. It’s definitely not through social media.
It’s not even through this podcast.
The number one way I’ve built my audience is by borrowing other people’s audiences.
When I had a craft and design blog, I borrowed other people’s audiences by doing extensive write ups on makers I loved—who then enthusiastically shared that write up with their audience.
When I started doing more business coaching & education, I guest posted on big name online marketing sites and their readers followed the links back to my site.
As time went on, I borrowed audiences by appearing on podcasts and speaking for free. And of course, I borrowed the audience at CreativeLive for years—which is a move I still benefit from to this day.
There are other ways to grow an audience—things like search engine optimization, PR, and—of course—advertising. But even at the heart of these tactics is the strategy of borrowing audiences from other sources.
Now, even though borrowing audiences is something that I know works for me, I all too often forget to build that work into my plans.
During our last What Works Network virtual conference, sales strategist Allison Davis shared that it’s the only way she’s working to grow her audience. Sure, she has some social media presence but her core strategy is borrowing other people’s audiences.
Once Allison shared that, it became a hot topic of conversation: how do you borrow someone’s audience? How do you get in touch with the people who have the right audience for you and your work? How do you make the most of these opportunities?
Today, we’re answering a bunch of those questions with Annie Schuessler from Rebel Therapist.
Annie helps therapists and other healers move their businesses beyond private practice. She has her own podcast—also called Rebel Therapist—and we talk about how hosting her show has helped to use her voice.
But we also dive into how Annie has been borrowing other people’s audiences all year long through a podcast tour, a concerted effort to pitch other hosts and appear on other shows.
Not only has her tour been successful—but it’s helped create incredible results in her business, like overselling her last Create Your Program group coaching offer.
We talk about how Annie finds shows to pitch, the research she does to pitch them, how she tracks her pitching, and how she’s overcome the fear she first felt when getting started on this project.
Now, let’s find out what works for Annie Schuessler!
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EP 303: Creating A Curated Newsletter With #jesspicks Creator Jessica Williams Oct 20, 2020

In This Episode:
* Why Jessica Williams created #jesspicks, the curated weekly newsletter for sidehustlers who love their day job* How each edition of the newsletter is structured* Why going “all in” has been the key to growing her subscriber list* What her weekly workflow looks like to put the newsletter together* How curating the newsletter has helped her to find her confidence as a writer
When you think about someone sharing their message, you think about the writers, the speakers, the artists.
You think about people who are creating original work.
We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to constantly be creating original work and finding something new to say. After all, that’s how we prove how valuable we are, right?
But creating original work isn’t the only way to use your voice.
Curators use their unique perspective and keen eye for connecting the dots to create value. They build and share their message by surfacing the work of others. They tell stories through the relationships between the pieces they choose to display side by side.
I see my role as the host of this podcast as one of a curator. The way we choose the topics we’re going to cover, the conversations we’re going to showcase, and the small business owners we’re going to talk to is all an act of curation.
I take a lot of pride in curating this show and thinking through how each theme relates to the next, how each conversation builds on the last, and how each guest is the opportunity to highlight a different story.
I also send out a weekly newsletter where, yes, I do write an original little piece as a letter, but I also share a set of links that have caught my eye over the last week or so. It’s an opportunity for me to show my point of view by highlighting ideas and voices that don’t necessarily “make the rounds” in the small business space.
By the way, if you don’t get What Works Weekly, can can subscribe by going to explorewhatworks.com/weekly
I was inspired to add curation to my communication and marketing strategy by Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger and currently creating & curating at Unemployable.
Brian started talking about curation versus creation as a way to share your message and make an impact in the summer of 2019. He said that he had started to elevate the role of editor over writer because while there is a surplus of good writing, there was a poverty of attention.
In that way, curation does double duty.
It’s not only a way to share your perspective with your audience, it’s a way to do them the service of wading through the sea of original works to deliver what’s important to them.
I’m all in on curating. And I think it’s something that most small business owners should consider as a potential way to use their voice and highlight their perspective.
So to take things really meta, as I was curating this month’s Speak Up theme, I knew I wanted to include a curator.
Jessica Williams came to mind.
Jessica is the curator behind #jesspicks, a weekly newsletter for side hustlers. Jessica is herself a side hustler, working during the day at &yet,

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EP 302: Connecting With Confidence with Brand Builders Academy Creator Suz Chadwick Oct 13, 2020

I started my very first blog back on Xanga in 2003.
I might be your internet grandma.
I used my Xanga blog to share what I was thinking about my senior year of college and process a lot of the reading that I was doing about my field of study, contemporary and postmodern Christian theology.
It was also full of personal updates and the musings of a 21-year-old young woman.
Through my Xanga blog, I got to connect with people online. Some were old friends from high school. Others were strangers from the internet. It was exactly the kind of online social interaction that I loved as a hardcore introvert.
Back when I was writing my Xanga blog, we were blissfully ignorant of the possibility that the companies that we used to facilitate this kind of online social interaction could conspire to use our data and online activity to manipulate us. All most of us saw was the possibility of a connected online community.
I’m Tara McMullin and this is What Works, the show that takes you behind the scenes of how small business owners are building stronger businesses through uncompromising commitment and decisive action.
My little Xanga blog didn’t last more than a year. But when I did find my way back to what was now being called social media, it was like rekindling lost love.
I fell head over heels for sharing my experiences and opinions while meeting new people and cultivating new relationships online.
I happily admit that I spent loads of time on social media connecting with people—and, in the process, connected my way to a large audience and plenty of authority. But then, things started to get a little rocky.
I started playing to the audience instead of connecting with people. The updates and emails I shared were less about connecting and more about broadcasting. I stopped writing for one person at a time and started writing for thousands.
These relationships that felt so natural and genuine started to feel strained. My interactions started to be less about connection and more about transaction.
Over the last few years, I’ve been working on things. I’ve been focused on prioritizing connection again and sharing more naturally again, instead of trying to work the system and grow my audience.
And I like it. I’m back to meeting new people, having loads of side conversations, and sharing without some grand plan.
That leads me to today’s guest.
Suzanne Chadwick is so good at showing up and connecting with people. In fact, she does it every week day morning—a habit we talk about during this conversation.
Suz is a bold branding, business, and speaker coach who helps women create businesses that fit their lifestyle. Her coaching helps female entrepreneurs show up in bold ways and share their messages online and on stages.
I invited Suz onto the show to talk about how she cultivates the confidence and go-getterness that exudes from the way she speaks up. And I expected to have a conversation about going big—and we did—but my big takeaway from this conversation is in how much she prioritizes the small ways she can connect with people, the little things she does to make people feel seen and included.
So I hope you listen for that and consider how that can apply to the way you speak up and show up, too.
Now, let’s find out what works for Suz Chadwick!

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EP 301: Taking A Stand With Tell Me A Story Founder Hillary Rea Oct 06, 2020

In This Episode:
* How Tell Me A Story founder Hillary Rea realized that she’d let her message get watered down* Why trying to please people who weren’t really her ideal clients contributed to losing track of her voice* The concrete steps she took to take a stand and show up more completely* What she’s still wrestling with as she deliberately speaks up in more potent and powerful ways
To quote the great Lin-Manuel Miranda:
If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for?
Whether you’re a Hamilfan or not, you get the gist: you have to be clear on your values and what you believe or else you risk getting caught up in what others what you to believe or how they want you to be.
This applies in life, in politics, and—of course—in business too.
And today, more than ever, people expect businesses and their leaders to speak up, to share what they stand for, to claim what makes them different, and to tell their stories without hesitation or equivocation.
So this month, we’re looking at different ways that small business owners take a stand, show up, and speak up.
Speaking up is—for sure—one of the things that business owners must do decisively and consistently to build a stronger business.
Now, that doesn’t mean you have to shout.
You don’t have to plaster social media channels with your messages or barrage your potential customers with emails.
It’s more about finding your voice, being willing to show up, and creating a connection with the people you want to reach. Sometimes that happens on a very small and powerful scale—other times, it happens on a much bigger scale.
When I talk about “speaking up” here, what I’m not necessarily talking about is growing your audience or building a personal brand. Instead, I’m talking about the system you create that allows you to communicate clearly and effectively with the people who matter most to you.
And to go back to that line from Hamilton: it’s about taking a stand so that you don’t fall for all the suggestions of how you “should” be presenting yourself or your message in order to get noticed.
The more you understand your own voice and your unique communication style, the more effectively you can design a system for being heard—whether that’s in your marketing, in your team communication, or in your customer communications.
So I have 4 stories for you this month: one about speaking with confidence on stage & off, one about podcasting, one about newsletters, and—today’s story—one about taking a stand and its ripple effects on a business.
My guest today is Hillary Rea, the founder of Tell Me A Story. Hillary helps entrepreneurs, leaders, and change makers identify that personal narratives that create powerful communication.
Now, you might think Hillary had this whole speaking up and taking a stand thing under control.
She did, too.
In fact, in episode 226, Hillary shared how she’s found the confidence to stand on stage and share vulnerable personal experiences through storytelling.
But earlier this year, just after Covid-19 upended her business, Hillary realized she had let herself, her story, and her stand get watered down. She was trying to squeeze into a mold that she assumed other people wa...

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EP 300: Celebrating A Milestone With Emily Thompson, Elsie Escobar, Jessica Kupferman & Tara McMullin Sep 29, 2020

This is our 300th episode of What Works!
To celebrate, What Works host Tara McMullin and top podcasters, Emily Thompson (Being Boss), Elsie Escobar (The Feed, She Podcasts), and Jessica Kupferman (She Podcasts) came together for a live podcast recording.
We looked back at 2020 and shared what we’ve learned about ourselves, our shows, and our businesses.
Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us over the last 5 years!
***
Emily Thompson, host of Being Boss, is a long-time business coach and creative warrior, helping retailers, makers, coaches, and designers develop an online business model and grow their creative business. She is also the founder of Almanac Supply Co., a retail business that makes and curates products that help people connect with nature.
Elsie Escobar, co-host of The Feed and She Podcasts, is a die-hard podcast junkie who lives, breathes and works the medium, and has since 2006. She’s worked with hundreds of podcasters, sharing tools for better production, educating them in the fast-moving podcasting space, as well as cultivating a strongly engaged community through The Feed: The Official Libsyn podcast which I both co-host and produce.
Jessica Kupferman, co-host of She Podcasts, is a marketing and sales expert with a history of being both the devil’s advocate and the first person to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Along with Elsie, she’s on a mission to grow the number of successful woman-hosted podcasts, thereby giving light and voice to the millions of messages that need to be shared with the world.
Tara McMullin, host of What Works, is building stronger small businesses through her podcast and The What Works Network. She’s also the co-founder of YellowHouse.Media, a full-service podcast production agency that helps entrepreneurs create standout podcasts that grow their businesses.

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EP 299: How To Design Your Own Sales System Sep 22, 2020

Very few small business owners start out as confident sales people.
In fact, selling is quite often a new business owner’s #1 fear.
Many avoid selling. Some stumble through it. And still others look to leaders and sales trainers to learn their methods and duplicate their models.
In that process, they learn what works… but they often also learn that “what works” doesn’t necessarily work for them.
All this month, we’ve been examining sales and selling–asking “what works?” when it comes to asking someone to buy what we’re selling.
First, I talked with Autumn Witt Boyd who shared how she realized that she’d taken the trend toward sales automation a little too far–and has since developed a hybrid process that’s high touch without overwhelming her.
Then, I talked with Katie Hunt who shared how she had a fabulous new offer launch without spending tons of money on advertising or recruiting an army of affiliates.
Last week, I shared my conversation with Kate Strathmann where we both shared our reflections on building less harmful sales systems–systems that are less manipulative, less urgent, and more in line with our values.
This week, I’ve got 4 more stories to share with you from small business owners who have intentionally done things their own way when it comes to sales and selling. They’ve found what truly works for them–even if it bucks the prevailing wisdom or would make a bro marketing expert role his or her eyes.
Before we get there, though…
I wanted to share some questions you can use to examine your own sales process.
First, I want to say that I don’t think learning someone else’s sales system is a bad thing. And I don’t think every effective sales system being taught is inherently manipulative or harmful. Even if you plan to find your own version of what works, learning about effective sales systems can help you get creative with the way you do want to go about selling your offers.
When it goes wrong is when we don’t take the time to carefully examine and analyze what’s going on in a sales system that we’re learning and, instead, just naively follow the instructions.
So these questions–which I formulated from the conversations we’ve had this month–can help you take a closer look at a sales system that you’ve learned or one you’ve created and make sure that it’s creating the experience you want your customers to have.
The first question is:
Does this sales process mimic the experience I want customers to have after they buy?
Both Kate and Autumn talked about how they want to align what was special about the type of experience they offered with the way sales conversations actually went down.
For Autumn, that meant incorporating more personalized, human conversations into what had become a really automated experience. For Kate, it meant making sure that the collaborative, co-creative experience she was building also carried over into the content and conversations she was having around her program.
Before you decide on what your sales process should look like,

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EP 298: Creating A Less Harmful Sales System with Wanderwell Founder Kate Strathmann Sep 15, 2020

This show is called What Works for a reason.
Sometimes it’s a declaration: this is what worked for this small business. And often, it’s a question, “What works?”
Today’s episode is very much a question, many questions, really:
* What works when it comes to selling when you want to avoid manipulative or exploitative practices?* What works when your values conflict with many of the best practices of selling online but you still want people to buy your stuff?* What works when it comes to sales in a business that is actively anti-racist and anti-capitalist?
And even more bluntly: Can you even sell things without causing harm or perpetuating harmful systems?
My friend Kate Strathmann is the founder of Wanderwell, a bookkeeping and consulting firm that grows thriving businesses while investigating new models for being in business.
Recently, Kate took a bit of a detour from how she’s used to building her business, which is 90% referral based and fueled by deep relationship- and community-building. She decided to offer a small group program called the Equitable Business Incubator as a way of exploring anti-capitalist business practices and how they apply to the small businesses we’re building.
To fill the program, Kate need to sell differently.
Which led her to asking the question: Can you even sell things as a anti-capitalist?
While that might not be your specific question, I have a feeling that you too have wondering how you can effectively sell your offers without causing harm, perpetuating harmful systems, or damaging relationships. And that’s why I knew Kate and I needed to explore this topic on the show.
This is a conversation about what a kinder, less harmful sales process could look like—and it probably contains more questions than answers. But I’m confident those questions can help you find the answers that are right for you and the sales system that you want to build to make your business stronger.
We start out by defining what we’re really talking about when we talk about capitalism and anti-capitalism. Then, Kate shares how the Equitable Business Incubator came to be and how she ended up selling it. And then we dig into what makes many of the sales formulas and best practices being taught today problematic—and how to think differently to create your own alternative practices.
Now, let’s take a look at what works for creating less harmful sales systems!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 297: Selling A New Program With Proof To Product Founder Katie Hunt Sep 08, 2020

In This Episode:
* How Katie Hunt adapted her largely events-based business in the wake of Covid-19* Why a product she’d been working on since December 2019 was the key to serving her people in the most valuable way* How Katie adjusted the messaging and marketing campaign to reflect the current state of affairs* A complete breakdown of the social media posts and email messages that made her sales campaign a smash when it was time to launch
There are a lot of misconceptions about what it takes to launch and sell a new online course or program.
Heck, there are a lot of misconceptions about selling in general—but this is just one podcast episode.
“Launching”—depending on when and where you started your small business—means many different things. I’ve talked to plenty of people who swear it’s not a launch if you don’t have a Facebook ad funnel. Others will swear it’s not a launch if there isn’t a 3-part video series to warm up your audience. Still others will swear it’s not a launch if you don’t have a list of 15,000 people to blast with 30 different emails.
Launching a new online course or program has become so misunderstood and, simultaneously, blown out of proportion, that I often outlaw the use of the word! As my friend Amy Walsh once said, “Launching is for rockets.”
Instead of launching, I plan—and talk about—sales campaigns.
Today, we’re diving straight into an incredibly successful sales campaign to get the nuts and bolts of what worked.
When the economy ground to a halt earlier this year, many small businesses were forced to think fast and make big changes on the fly. At this point, we’re probably all familiar with the local restaurant that figured out an ingenious takeout model or the local clothing store that created virtual shopping appointments or the local yoga studio that started sharing classes, workshops, and meditations online.
And while many digital small business owners kept operating business as usual—or as usual as one can operate in a pandemic—there were a few groups that were deeply affected by the shutdowns.
Two of those groups were small business owners running in-person events as a component of their otherwise online business and small business owners who depend on trade shows for the majority of their wholesale orders.
Today’s guest is Katie Hunt—who is a member of the former group and serves the latter group.
Katie is the founder of Proof To Product, which helps creative entrepreneurs run and grow thriving product-based businesses. She works with designers, illustrators, and artists to help them develop in-demand product lines and get them sold in stores all over the world.
Not long after the pandemic threw her business and the industry she serves for a major loop, Katie and her team launched Proof To Product Labs to provide a completely digital, ongoing support opportunity for business owners when they needed it most.
And that launch was a smash.
Katie and I get into all of the nuts and bolts of how she adjusted the offer to meet the moment and how she warmed up her audience before the campaign, as well as the exact mix of emails, podcast ads, and social media content she used to sell the offer when it went live. We also talk about how she sees the sales system evolving in the future and how the offer has been received now that people are using it!
Now,

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EP 296: Putting The Humanity Back In Sales With Lawyer Autumn Witt Boyd Sep 01, 2020

In This Episode:
* How attorney Autumn Witt Boyd discovered that she’d over-automated the sales process for her law firm* The adjustments that she made to get her sales process back on track—and why she chose to put a human touch on it* What steps a potential new clients goes through in Autumn’s hybrid sales system* How her values are reflected in the way her business does sales now
We all have a story about a bad salesperson.
Ask my husband about buying a car and he’ll tell you about the time he and his ex-wife got trapped in a user car lot when they refused to make an offer on a car that was well over their budget.
It’s cliche—but true.
If this is the kind of story you think about when you think about sales, it’s no wonder that selling your own products or services would be a challenge.
But this is not what your sales system needs to look like to be effective.
You can be a kind, generous, and human sales person and be incredibly effective.
This month, we’re talking sales.
We’re going to get into the human side of sales in a minute or two. But first, I think we need to make an important distinction here: marketing is not sales. Sales is not marketing.
Can there be overlap? Sure. Does one often support the other? You bet.
But marketing and sales are not the same thing.
In fact, an intentional, proven sales system is often one of the missing pieces of a business that almost works—but isn’t quite there.
You can’t market your butt off and expect it to just materialize into purchases—you have to sell.
So then, what is sales?
Sales is the system that presents the offer, answers any questions or objections, and then makes the ask and closes the deal.
Sales tends to happen a little more behind the scenes—which is why it’s one of the more misunderstood parts of running a small business. It often happens in an email, on the phone, or even in person.
Our goal for this series on sales is to demystify the process and give you a look at what really works when it comes to selling your service, your program, or your product. We’re even going to take a look at sales through a feminist or anti-capitalist lens.
To kick things off, I thought it was fitting to talk with a lawyer—another profession known for their sales techniques… about how she moved away from impersonal, automated sales processes and into a more human way of selling—and why that generated better results for her firm.
Today, I’m talking with my friend Autumn Witt Boyd, the founder of The AWB Firm, which specializes in helping online business owners protect what they’ve built.
Autumn and I talk about why she started tinkering with her sales process in the first place, the speed bumps she experienced along the way, why her sales process ended up too automated, and how she’s taken a more human approach and actually gotten much better results.
Now, let’s find out what works for Autumn Witt Boyd!
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EP 295: It’s Always A Work In Progress Aug 25, 2020

The market is constantly changing.
New technology, new trends, new players.
We can either treat the constant changing and uncertainty as a threat…
…or we can treat it as an invitation to see everything we do as a work in progress.
All this month, we’ve been looking at the process of value creation–how we wind up building the products and services we sell.
We heard from Alisha Robertson about how she turned her book into the idea for a membership community. India Jackson shared how she she went from modeling to photography to running a brand visibility agency. And we heard from Michelle Markwart Deveaux about how she took a tried-and-maybe-not-so-true model for offering voice teaching services and turned it on its head to improve how she delivered value AND to make more money.
Along the way, I also shared stories from my own companies about how things have evolved and what I’ve learned as things have changed about the ways I create and deliver value–from business support to podcast production to leadership development.
So back to change and uncertainty…
…like I said, change and uncertainty is a given.
There is absolutely no point in fighting it–trying to get things exactly right or anticipate what’s going to happen next.
And you know what? That’s great!
Because at this point, it should be clear that creating value is always a work in progress.
As the market changes, our offers can evolve.
As we learn more, we can try new things.
The challenge in this is actually treating your business as a work-in-progress.
So often, I see business owners work in fits & starts–trying to solve one piece of the puzzle once and for all… only to get frustrated, take a break, and then find something else to fixate on for a while.
Whether it’s creating value, making your systems more efficient, or growing your audience… the trick to treating your business as a work in progress is consistent action. Business-building has to be a habit, not a one-off project you have to get right.
To make business-building a habit, you need a solid system to focus on what matters, a structure of getting the work done, and the support of peers and mentors who can inspire you to keep going.
That’s exactly what we do at The What Works Network.
When you join The What Works Network, you commit to making business-building a habit. Each month, we give you the focus, structure, and support you need to take your work in progress and make it a little stronger.
Together, we take consistent, strategic action to build a more effective, efficient, and sustainable business.
The What Works Network is accepting new members right now through the end of August.

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BONUS: Refining How I Offer Business Support Over The Long-Term Aug 20, 2020

Hey, it’s Tara McMullin, and this is a special bonus episode of What Works, the show that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how small business owners take decisive action to build a stronger business.
This is the third and final episode in a series on how I’ve approached creating and delivering value through the products and services I’ve offered over the years.
In the first episode of the series, I shared how my most recent offer, a live program called The Commitment Blueprint, started as a personal life change, grew into a free webinar, and then transformed twice into a paid product.
In the second episode, I gave you a closer look at my other company, YellowHouse.Media, and shared how and why we’ve taken on the productized service model.
And now, as I close out the series, I want to share how The What Works Network has grown out of a long line of products and services that package small business support in different ways.
Earlier this week, I spoke with Michelle Markwart Deveaux about how she refined her voice coaching offer from a pay-for-service model into a value-pricing model, and what that did for how she packaged, sold, and delivered the value she was creating. Just repackaging the same offer in a new way made her business more enjoyable to run and more profitable too. It also gave her students a whole new perspective on what she was offering and how it benefited them.
Refining, repackaging and re-messaging the way I offer support for small business owners over the last 10 years has given me the chance to build a stronger business model and find more valuable, more aligned, and more customer-centric ways of creating value.
Now, to be clear, it would be easy to say the different offers I’ve made over the years are truly different products or services, but I see them as one long lineage of refining and repackaging, and that’s the key take-away I want you to have from what I’m about to share.
Building a stronger business doesn’t mean throwing in the towel on what you’ve already built.
It’s a process of building on what’s working, making guesses about what could work better, and finding ways to experiment your way to a more sustainable, profitable and effective model for everyone involved.
Let’s, as they say, start at the very beginning.
So first, did you know I used to design websites? It’s true.
I used to run my blog during the day in between taking care of my new baby, and then I would build websites either really late at night or very early in the morning. And building websites was a really easy concrete way to create and exchange value. In other words, it was an easy way to make money when that was something that was super important, just figuring out how can I make money.
But what I found was that what people really got out of the work that we did together was a better idea of how to structure their business. In the process of building a website, writing an about page, figuring out what needs to go where on that site, we’d have a lot of conversations about their business,

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EP 294: Refining Your Offer With SpeakEasy Cooperative Founder Michelle Markwart Deveaux Aug 18, 2020

In This Episode
* Why voice teacher Michelle Markwart Deveaux refined her offer from a pay-for-service model to a value pricing model* How that shift changed how she packaged her services and what outcomes she focused on for her students* What she did to double her rates while deliver 3 times the value* How she started sharing her methods and business structure with other voice teachers and professionals
Product development isn’t always about building something new.
Often, it’s about taking what you’ve already built and making it stronger.
You refine the packaging, the value proposition, the customer experience, the delivery mechanisms, and the price. Little by little, you create value simply through the process of excavating the most useful or transformative pieces of your offer and making sure they are as polished & refined as they can be.
Refining the product or service you already offer can be as good—or even better—for giving your business a shot of energy as offering something new.
When you refine or repackage your offer, new people might notice it who passed it by before. New methods of delivery might give you back some serious time. A new price point might unlock a new level of profitability for your business. A new message or angle on what you really offer could open your eyes to a whole new way to market what you do.
In other words, refining your offer could lead to a new, bold vision for your whole business!
This is exactly what I talked about with today’s guest, Michelle Markwart Deveaux, founder of FaithCultureKiss voice studio and the SpeakEasy Cooperative.
Michelle is a voice teacher… as well as champion for voice teachers who want to empower students, performers, podcasters, and voice talent of all kinds to use their voices in powerful ways.
Michelle started out teaching voice with the same kind of offer you’d expect any voice, piano, or instrument teacher to use. Students paid her for each lesson and they called it a day.
But as she started to hate how transactional that method was and how guilty it made her feel for doing work outside of her lessons, she started to refine her offer—and ended up creating a whole new model for teaching voice.
We get into all of that and more, including how she doubled her rates and delivered 3x the value, how she structures her packages, and how she got started teaching voice online. Plus, we talk about how she took what she learned refining her original voice teaching offer and created a new offer to help other voice teachers, too.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Michelle Markwart Deveaux!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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BONUS: Why We Chose Productized Services For YellowHouse.Media Aug 13, 2020

In This Episode:
* Why Sean and Tara McMullin chose to “productize” their full-service podcast production offer at YellowHouse.Media… and what productized services actually are* What’s included in the package they offer–and why they don’t often custom or a la carte services* How the productized service model allowed them to quickly create a small group coaching program to increase their capacity and serve more clients
Hey! It’s Tara McMullin and this is a special BONUS episode of What Works—the show that takes you behind the scenes of how small business owners take decisive action on building a stronger business.
This is the second episode of a bonus series on how I’ve approached creating and delivering value through the products and services I’ve offered over the years.
In the first bonus episode, I shared how my most recent offer, a live program called The Commitment Blueprint, started as a personal life change, grew into a free webinar, and then transformed—TWICE—into a paid product.
In this episode, I’m going to give you a closer look at my other company, YellowHouse.Media, and share how and why we’ve taken on the productized service model—including what that means for how we serve our clients, run our operations, and build for the future.
Plus, I’ll share how the same principles that apply to YellowHouse also apply to What Works and how we continue to develop The What Works Network to support small business owners as they build stronger businesses.
Now, in the last regular episode I spoke with India Jackson, the founder of brand visibility agency Flaunt Your Fire. India described what clients come to Flaunt Your Fire looking to achieve and how the agency helps them achieve those results.
She also shared that she tailors each client engagement to the goals of that client using both master services list and a really strong idea of what the agency’s yes, no, and maybe projects are.
This bespoke service model is typically how people approach building a service-based business.
The client tells you want they need, you figure out how to make that happen and put a price on it. Each engagement looks different and might include a different mix of services.
And this model works.
But it’s not the only way to build a service-based business.
A few years ago, I started to notice that the most successful people I was working with in our community and mastermind groups were running a different kind of service-based business.
They were running productized service businesses.
(And in case you’re wondering, yes, most of the time these productized service businesses were out-earning the digital product businesses. So don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make money in client services.)
I was intrigued by the model and operations behind these successful productized service businesses… but, more than that, I was intrigued by how happy these business owners were!
They were focused.

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EP 293: Offering Bespoke Services With Flaunt Your Fire Founder India Jackson Aug 11, 2020

In This Episode:
* How Flaunt Your Fire founder India Jackson takes a strategic approach to offering custom service packages without getting overwhelmed or burnt out* Why getting to know her potential clients really, really well helps her put together the right packages for their needs* How her “master list” of services helps her build bespoke engagements easily & efficiently* How she’s gotten her team involved with client-facing work and slowly let go of control
Somewhere in the craze for online courses and making money in your sleep, service-based businesses got a bad rap.
Of course, most of the bad rap really just came from marketers who convinced would-be business owners that passive income and infinitely scalable models were the only way to ensure they wouldn’t be overworked and overwhelmed by client work.
The other reason, I think, that service-based businesses got a bad rap was that so many service providers weren’t very thoughtful or strategic in how they offered their services. And understandably so!
You want to make clients happy. You want to say yes. You want to close the deal.
And so you agree to switching things up, doing things that you’re only kind of good at, and going along with what the client wants instead of what you know to be best.
That’s all a recipe for taking on too much uninspired work for yourself—and even for your team.
But offering a service doesn’t have to be that way.
Offer development is an incredibly important part of running a service-based business. Without a careful strategy and thoughtful process behind how you create value, you are likely to get stuck in the trap of trading time for money or wind up overwork & overwhelmed.
That’s why I wanted to make sure we included a bespoke service-based business in this series on creating value.
I invited India Jackson, the founder of Flaunt Your Fire, a full-service brand visibility agency, to share her approach to how she creates value and constructs the services she offers clients.
India is clear on what her agency does and what it does not do.
She’s clear on why her agency offers the types engagements it does and why some projects just aren’t right for them. And, she’s clear on how her team adds value to the services the agency provides—so India isn’t stuck doing everything herself.
Even if you don’t run a service-based business, this conversation has a lot to offer. Listen in and consider how you might be trying to do too much with your product-based business or how you’ve succumb to making offers that aren’t aligned with your values or best work.
We’ll get to this conversation with India in just a minute—but first, don’t forget to check out our special bonus series this month for a behind-the-scenes look at how I’ve developed some of my favorite offers over the years. In the first episode, I shared how we took The Commitment Blueprint from idea to free offer to paid template to paid live program. In the second episode—out Thursday—I’m sharing how Sean and I developed the service package we offer at YellowHouse.Media. It’s the perfect follow-up to this conversation with India.
Now, let’s find out What Works for India Jackson!
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BONUS: How I Created 2 New Offers When People Asked Me, “What’s Next?” Aug 06, 2020

In This Episode:
* How a significant life change for What Works founder Tara McMullin turned into an idea and then several iterations of offers* The process Tara used to turn The Commitment Blueprint process into a free webinar, then a paid template, and finally a live paid program* How a similar process is helping Tara and the What Works team continue to evolve how The What Works Network is structured* And why asking “What’s next?” doesn’t have to mean creating a brand-new offer but, instead, iterating on what you’re already selling
This is a special bonus episode of What Works–the show that takes you behind the scenes of how small business owners take decisive action to build a stronger business.
This is the first episode in a three-part series taking a closer look at what’s worked for me as I’ve developed a new ways to create and deliver value over the years, both here at What Works and now at YellowHouse.Media.
Today I’m sharing how our latest What Works offer, a live program called The Commitment Blueprint came to be—tracing it from its humble beginnings as the seed of a major life and business shift for me to a successful webinar, to a paid template, and finally to the live program version.
Now I’m going to be breaking it down iteration by iteration, from idea to offer and really to the next offer from there and the next offer after that.
So let’s start at the beginning—the idea.
Like so many offers out there, the idea for The Commitment Blueprint really came as a result of solving my own problem.
Now I had always been a planner and a goal setter, but I started to notice that my planning and goal setting was maybe causing me more problems than they were solving. I started to get really caught up in other people’s goals and trying to prove myself based on reaching them. And I realized that I needed to make a change or I was going to be constantly chasing after other people’s ideas of what I should be achieving or accomplishing instead of building the life and business that I really wanted.
So at the beginning, little by little, I started to focus more on process. In other words, I was thinking about. What could I commit to doing consistently to change my current experience and my future outcomes. Now, this led to all sorts of personal growth for me, I got back to being an athlete again after 20 years, I prioritized execution and systems in my work for like the first time ever. I learned to see how other people were functioning in the world and that helped me temper my righteous indignation, at least most of the time.
This whole process was just the experience of major personal growth. And I realized looking back over that time, especially as people started to ask me more and more, “Hey, Tara, something’s different with you. What did you change? What happened here? What, what are you doing?” I realized that there was method to the madness.
I had made certain commitments to myself. And I developed a process for upholding those commitments. And then from there I was able to make adjustments over time.
So once I realized that there was a method to the madness, I realized that I could share it with other people. And that led to the very first offer. In other words, the very first way that I could create value for other people using this same system.
Turning the method into a free webinar
So from there,

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EP 292: Figuring Out What’s Next For Your Offer With LOE Collective Founder Alisha Robertson Aug 04, 2020

In This Episode
* How Alisha Robertson got the idea for The LOE Collective, a membership community supporting women business owners* The process she used to figure out how the community would take shape and what features she would include* How her course library & Intentional Success Path help members feel at home and in control* Why the pricing for the community has evolved over time
“What’s next?”
The first few dozen or so times I heard this question from a customer I was perplexed—even a bit concerned.
Whether it was after a course wrapped up or a coaching engagement came to a close or a small group came to a close…
…when a customer would ask me “What’s next?”, I worried that I hadn’t done my job.
I thought maybe they wanted to know what was next because they hadn’t quite gotten what they came for. They hadn’t seen a real change or improved their situation.
It took me much longer than I’d like to admit to realize what they were really saying was, “That was great. What else can we do together?”
I realized that “What’s next?” was an invitation to create more value for the people who I was already helping—and, in turn, make a very, very easy sale.
This month, we’re focusing on how small businesses create & deliver value.
How do we develop new offers? Put together new packages? Build new products?
We’ll be deep diving into 3 businesses and how they create & deliver value.
I’ll also be sharing a series of short bonus episodes looking back at how I’ve created & delivered value over the years—and how that process continues to evolve both at What Works and at YellowHouse.Media. Plus, we’ll close out the series by hearing from a few more business owners who have found creative ways to create and deliver value through the offers they make.
As I mentioned earlier, “What’s next?” is often a question that helps you figure out how to create and deliver value beyond what you’re already doing.
A product or service that solves a particular problem might shine some light on the next problem that needs to be a solved. A product or service that creates a delightful experience might simply leave the customer asking for more.
Or “What’s next?” might simply be a request to go deeper, keep working together longer, or investigate new possibilities.
Alisha Robertson found herself with a whole bunch of customers asking her “What’s next?” after she released a book called Living Over Existing. After a lot of thought, some customer research, some soul-searching, Alisha came up with her next move.
Alisha and talk about how the LOE Collective came to be, how she’s set up her community to meet those “What’s next” needs, and how she created the Intentional Success Path to guide her members through more “What’s next” questions. Plus, Alisha shares why she also created a physical welcome kit to send to her new members.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Alisha Robertson.
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EP 291: Reply Hazy. Try Again. Jul 28, 2020

I had a Magic 8 ball when I was a kid.
I wouldn’t say that I relied on it in any serious way… but, when my kid brain was trying to process some big emotions or sort through a sticky situation, I often pulled it out and asked it questions.
Most of the time, the mysterious blue text that would emerge from the dark depths of the ball would give you some sort of definitive answer. Without a doubt. Signs point to yes. Don’t count on it. My reply is no.
But there was another set of answers that just really left you hanging.
The one that sticks out in my mind is “Reply hazy. Try again.”
All things considered, “Reply hazy. Try again,” was probably the most accurate of Magic 8 Ball answers.
You can ask the ball a question. You can shake it vigorously and beg for the answer you’re hoping for. But, in truth, the reply is ALWAYS hazy.
The future is hazy.
It’s unknowable. And that makes taking decisive action to build a stronger business much more challenging.
But we have a choice. We can either fight it–and metaphorically try to shake that damn ball until we have a complete picture of what the future is going to be.
Or we can make decisions based on the information we have, a solid understanding of our goals, and an acceptance of the uncertainty of it all.
Waiting until you have all the answers you need or want is a great way to keep spinning your wheels. While embracing uncertainty might be risky and it’s can definitely be scary, but it’s the only way we move forward.
This month, we looked at 3 different stories of embracing uncertainty. Lou Blaser told us how a big life change allowed her to look at her business in a new way and see how she could finally build the business she’d been dreaming about for years. Sarah Avenir shared how she leads herself and her team through uncertainty. And Cher Hale told us about getting clearer and clearer on her vision for life and business–and the big moves it required of her.
We’re rounding out this conversation about embracing uncertainty today by hearing from 4 more small business owners: Podge Thomas, Melissa Dinwiddie, Kat Lu, and Amy Feierman.
Each entrepreneur embraced uncertainty in a way that allowed them to move forward despite not having all the answers or a guarantee of what the future would hold.
My guess is that you’ll hear a version of situation or question you’re wrestling with right now in at least one of these stories.
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.

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EP 290: Discovering Your Vision With Ginkgo Public Relations Founder Cher Hale Jul 21, 2020

In This Episode:
* What led Ginkgo Public Relations founder Cher Hale to move from Las Vegas to Portland, Oregon* How she took her business full-time in a new-to-her city* How her mom’s romance novels inspired her to discover a bold new Why for her business* What action that new Why led her to take and how she’s showing up in new ways because of it
What do you want?
It’s a simple enough question.
What do you want from your life? From your business? From the work you do on a daily basis?
What do you want from your home? Your relationships? Your community?
It’s a simple question—but it’s not easy.
Answering this question—even imperfectly—can give you more confidence in managing and even embracing uncertainty.
What do you want is not an easy question for me to answer.
What I want is often influenced by what others have, what they do, and what they’re going after. What I want is often an effort to prove that I’m good enough, smart enough, and goshdarnit, you should like me.
I’ve been working hard on making sure that I’m really honest when I answer that question. It takes some soul-searching and a willingness to admit that I’ve been on the wrong path. But it’s been oh-so worth it.
Because when I know what I want, I can make much stronger plans for my life and business. I can pursue more decisive action. And I don’t have to wait around for the approval or praise of someone else.
Today, we’re talking about how knowing what you want—and discovering a clear vision for your life and business—can help you navigate uncertainty and even embrace it.
My guest is Cher Hale, the founder of Ginkgo Public Relations.
Cher is full of incredible stories of figuring out what she wants and taking action to make it happen—from making a big personal moving, to going full-time with her business, to embracing a bold new “why” for her business.
We talk about why she made the move from working on the Vegas Strip to getting weird in Portland, how she used retainer clients to take her business full-time, and how she rewrote some of the harmful mindsets she held. We also talk about her mother’s erotic romance novels and how Cher was inspired to make a big shift in who she serves with her business and why.
Don’t worry—this interview is completely PG.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Cher Hale!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 289: Leading Through Uncertainty with &yet CEO Sarah Avenir Jul 14, 2020

In This Episode:
* How Sarah Avenir took on the role of CEO for digital development & strategy agency, &yet* Why Sarah considers herself a naturally fearful person—and how she pushes herself to face that fear* Why refining the positioning & messaging at &yet helped her to discover how her strengths could be of highest value* How she structures her work and responsibilities to maintain her capacity for leadership* Why she focuses on being “anti-overfunctioning”
We’re looking for leadership.
We’re living through this time of deep uncertainty: uncertainty about our health, uncertainty about our culture, uncertainty about our businesses… uncertainty about our communities, our families, and—I think—even uncertainty about our relationships with ourselves.
We’re looking for leadership because there’s a lot to be wary of and, at the same time, there is a lot of opportunity too.
We’re looking for leadership because where there is a leader there are other followers we can gather with.
We’re looking for leadership because we’re called on—every day—to lead more and more ourselves.
If you’re a leader—and I know you are—you’re being called to lead in a new way right now.
And that leadership can be humbling, scary, and exhausting.
Your leadership is also an opportunity to figure out what your best role is—how you contribute the highest value, how you work best with others, what your vision of the future is. The call to leadership in this moment is a call to growth and clarity—which shouldn’t be confused with a call to certainty.
I wanted to dig into what leading a team or community through a crisis can look like…
…and I could think of no one better to talk to about this than my friend Sarah Avenir.
Sarah Avenir—who you might know better as Sarah J. Bray—recently took the helm as the CEO of &yet, a digital development and strategy agency.
Sarah is an incredibly thoughtful leader and I knew her approach on leading both herself and her team through this time would be an insightful look at embracing uncertainty.
Sarah and I chat about how she became CEO of &yet, how she considers herself a naturally fearful person, and why a key part of her leadership is knowing others have her back. We also talk about how she structures her time, team, and approach to her work so she can focus on her own role and let other people do their job.
Now, let’s find out what works for Sarah Avenir!
Grab Sarah’s book, now in its second edition, Gather The People. And keep your eye on this Instagram account for a free Gather The People course!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.

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EP 288: Rethinking Your Business Amidst Change With Second Breaks Founder Lou Blaser Jul 07, 2020

In This Episode:
* Why I chose “embrace uncertainty” as one of my commitments for 2020 and how it’s served in this wild year* How Charlie Gilkey recommends finding the most courageous next step* What led Second Breaks founder Lou Blaser to rethink her business model—and return to a years-old vision for her work in the process* What 2 questions she used to find new ways of creating value* How she used existing assets in her business to start building toward her new vision
The tweet that’s pinned to the top of my profile lists my 3 commitments for this year.
Those commitments are my guiding principles, the things I’m actively trying to cultivate more of in my life, the ideas that guide the decisions I made.
My three commitments for 2020 are: Question normal. Expect success. And embrace uncertainty.
Now, most people I know have had to recalculate their goals for 2020. But these commitments? Well, they’re more relevant than ever.
In fact, I’ve had a few people @ me on Twitter and ask if I’m psychic!
While each of my commitments for 2020 have been a huge help for navigating this wild year, it’s that last one–Embrace Uncertainty–that’s really asked me to grow.
Uncertainty seems to be the theme of 2020.
With everything that’s happened so far this year and no real confidence in what might be coming, we’ve all had to recalculate.
Some business owners I know have had to completely rework their business models. Others have taken huge in-person gathering online. Others are discovering they have skills that are incredibly useful in the pandemic economy. And still others still aren’t sure what they’ll do next to bring in some revenue.
As I’ve worked with business owners on making decisions and reworking plans, there’s one thing I keep coming back to, though. While 2020 might have presented us with a unique batch of unpredictable circumstances, uncertainty is not a new condition of entrepreneurship.
Uncertainty is baked into the operating system of how we function every day as business owners…
…whether we like it or not… and whether we like to admit it or not.
When I chose embracing uncertainty as one of my commitments for this year, I didn’t have a pandemic in mind.I wasn’t gearing up for a historic upheaval in the labor market. I didn’t predict the long overdue tectonic shift in public opinion about systemic racism and police brutality.
I chose to commit to embracing uncertainty because I wanted to take more courageous action. I wanted to see what would happen for me and for my business if I stopped trying to predict the right thing to do and started leaning into my full potential and my full vision.
And while you might think I’m a natural risk taker, I can assure you I am not.
This idea wasn’t really mine at all. It was a very important lesson I learned from my friend Charlie Gilkey during an interview for this very podcast.
Before we get into this week’s interview with Lou Blaser, I want to share a snippet from this interview to tee up all of the conversations we’re having this month around embracing uncer...

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EP 287: The Things We Thought We Knew About Money Jun 30, 2020

How we think about money impacts what we do with money.
And for many of us, what we think about money is influenced by narratives, frameworks, and biases we picked up well before we started our businesses.
The money framework I picked up as a kid was that I could either make a lot of money or I could do something I love.
Now, no one sat me down and told me I was destined to barely scrapping by if I didn’t choose a lucrative career that I didn’t like very much. But my little kid brain chewed on everything that I was being told and interpreted that way.
I could either make a lot of money or I could do something that I loved for work.
My idealist teenage brain told me that I was NOT going to be one of those people who choose to make a lot of money–so I settled on a major I loved and a career path I thought would bring me fulfillment even if I’d be struggling for the rest of my life.
When I started to have major doubts about that career path, I had to go back to the drawing board. And that’s what eventually led to me starting my own business. Even in that process, that either/or money framework was still doing its work and keeping me down.
It took real work to start to replace either/or with both/and–and truthfully, that work continues to this day.
Today, I know that I can do work that I love AND make a lot of money. But I struggle with similar either/or framework: either I can compromise my values so I can make a lot of money easily or I can hold fast to my values and turn making a lot of money into a struggle.
Today I’m working to replace that framework with one that reminds me that I can hold fast and find abundance with ease. I know embracing that money narrative is the key to the next phase of my business–and my life.
This week, we asked members of The What Works Network to share one thing they thought they knew about money but later discovered wasn’t true. Each shared a narrative or bias that held them back from fully embracing their business and their earning potential.
As you listen, consider which of these narratives are ones you’re currently operating with and how you could start reevaluating them. What would you do differently if you reprogrammed those money thoughts? What decisions would you make if you claimed a new money narrative?
You’ll hear from Charlene Lam, a curator and social media strategist, Maggie Patterson, the founder of Scoop Studios, Carol Hamilton, the founder of Grace Social Sector Consulting, and Anna Wolf, the founder of Superscript Marketing.
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 286: Pricing For The Future With Fire + Mineral Jewelry Founder Tiffany Whipps Jun 23, 2020

In This Episode:
* Fire + Mineral founder Tiffany Whipps shares how she’s gone from willy nilly pricing to pricing for the future of her company* What her “feather money” phase taught her about the value of her products* The future expenses she’s factoring into her pricing today* What product-based businesses need to consider when they’re thinking about their pricing & business model
Pricing your products or services can feel like a game of pin the tail on the moving donkey.
There are so many factors to take into account. The price you choose needs to consider the market, your cost of goods sold, the positioning of your brand, the value of what you’re offering, and the cost of doing business.
Each of these pricing factors have their own challenges and potential pitfalls.
And just because you figure out the equation once…
…doesn’t mean you’ve solved it for all time.
The factors that influence price change over time.
Over time, the market changes, your cost of goods change, your brand positioning might change, the value of what you’re offering can change, and almost without a doubt the cost of doing business will change. And that all means that what you price your products or services at in the beginning will likely need to adapt to future circumstances.
But what if you could start to anticipate those changes? Could you build future changes into your pricing strategy?
Yes, I absolutely believe that you can.
As you grow as a business owner, you can start to anticipate market changes and plan for the way your cost of goods increases. You can set a goal to position your brand in a certain way and you can become smarter about your target market so you understand the value of what you’re offering more fully.
And perhaps most importantly…
You can plan for the ways your cost of doing business will evolve.
You can anticipate the team members you’ll hire. You can plan for the software upgrades you’ll need. You can build in margin to cover unforeseen circumstances or changes in the market that impact your bottom line.
Very, very few business owners do this from the start. But over time, you can get better and better at your pricing strategy—and even your overall financial strategy—so that you’re planning for the future instead of reacting to it.
And that’s exactly what I’m talking about with today’s guest, Tiffany Whipps. Tiffany is the founder and designer behind Fire + Mineral Jewelry. Tiffany has been designing jewelry full-time since 2012 and she’d be the first to admit that her pricing strategy has become a lot more sophisticated since she put together her first line sheet on a whim.
I originally invited Tiffany onto the show to showcase how money flows through product-based businesses. And we absolutely talk about that. But we also talk about how Tiffany’s approach to money has grown more sophisticated over time, as well as how she’s now pricing for the business she wants to have instead of the business she has right now.
Tiffany and I talk about how her pricing strategy has evolved over the years, why she’s focused on products that have more long-term value as opposed to what’s trendy right now, and how she’s using her goals to set prices for her new work.

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EP 285: Going All In With Strategist Marie Poulin Jun 16, 2020

In This Episode:
* The webinar that changed everything for strategist Marie Poulin* Why she decided to go “all in” on creating content about Notion and how YouTube has impacted her bottom line* How she developed and sold an in-progress online course about Notion * The process she’s using to create additional leverage in her business even when clients coming asking about 1:1 services
The path to building a business that works is not mysterious.
Sure, there is always some luck involved. Timing, connections, and how you show up can play a big role in whether or not you feel traction early.
But the nuts and bolts of it? It’s really not up for debate.
You create a product or service that people want because it is going to solve a problem or improve their lives.
And then you find enough people who want it and are willing to pay the right amount for it to offset the costs of doing business.
Then, you make the methods and costs of doing business efficient, effective, and humane.
Okay, sure, that’s pretty reductive—but it’s also true. That’s how you build a business that works.
The problem is that we have a tendency to fight one or more of those steps.
We resist the process.
We resist building the right product or service for our people. We resist going out and finding customers or clients. We resist putting an appropriate price on the work. We resist making our business operations more efficient or humane.
And so things get sticky—or worse.
I’ve gone through the push & pull of resisting the process of building a business that works many times.
I notice it every time I feel like it’s hard to make money.
It’s in these times that I have to look at what part of the process I’m resisting and why I’m resisting it. And it almost always comes down to feeling like I don’t wan to go all in on what I’m working at.
Maybe I don’t want to go all in on the product I’m working on.
Maybe I don’t want to go all in on the way I’m building a customer base.
Maybe I don’t want to go all in on how we’re operating or the systems we’re using to do business.
The problem is that not wanting to go all in on any single part of the process creates friction and makes it harder to make money.
This week, we’re taking a look at what happens when you’re able to go all in on every aspect of building your business—product, marketing, and operations—and how that impacts how money flows through your business.
To do that, I talked with Marie Poulin.
Now, Marie has been on the podcast several times now. Most recently, I spoke with her about her decision to not build a business that scales. Funnily enough, at just about the time that interview aired, things started to change for Marie.
Marie found something she could go all in on.
And suddenly her path to the right product, the right marketing, and the right operations became clear—as did the path to making money with ease.
In this conversation, Marie and I talk about how she transformed her business when she stopped resisting and found the thing she could go all in on.

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EP 284: Pricing On A Sliding Scale With Corpus Ritual Founder Jennifer Patterson Jun 09, 2020

In This Episode:
* Why grief & trauma worker Jennifer Patterson prices a significant portion of her work using a sliding scale* How a sliding scale system increases accessibility to valuable healing work for people from disadvantaged and marginalized communities* Why Jennifer priorities clear & direct communication when it comes to how people find the right amount to pay* What she thinks about “charging what you’re worth” (hint: she’s not a fan)
People with power have used it violently against others throughout history.
We are being reminded of this right here, right now.
Before I get into today’s episode, I want to make sure that my position—and the position of my company—is clear. We condemn police brutality and state-sponsored violence. We believe Black lives matter. People took the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many others unjustly.
To our Black listeners, I want to acknowledge your cumulative pain and thank you for the superhuman ways that you continue to show up.
To all of the indigenous people and people of color who listen, I want to acknowledge your cumulative pain as well. Thank you for continuing the work.
This show is all about learning about what’s working to run and grow a small business.
However, the question that feels most urgent right now is:
What works to end this violence, to end our systems of oppression, to end the continual trauma perpetrated against Black people and people of color?
The answer is… I don’t know. I’m listening to the people are working toward these ends though, so that I can do better work myself.
But I do know that just as power can be used for harm and violence, it can be used to make new culture. It can be used to set new standards. It can be used to create new systems that take the sanctity of all lives and the dignity of all work into account.
And I know that business owners have power.
We have the power to do things differently. We have the power to question how business has always been done. We have the power to question the leaders who encourage us to exploit others and ourselves in the name of success.
This month on What Works, we’re talking about money. Money is a tool for creating change—and it represents cog in the system that has been used to exclude, exploit, and dehumanize people for a very long time.
When we start to question our assumptions about money and its role in our business, we start to undo that system little by little.
Today, my guest is Jennifer Patterson. Jennifer is a grief and trauma worker and the founder of Corpus Ritual.
Jennifer operates a significant portion of her business on a sliding scale pricing system. She does this for all the reasons I just outlined. She sees pricing as a way to work towards economic justice and make valuable services available to everyone—especially people from marginalized communities that need it most.
We’ll get into exactly how this works in just a minute—but first, I wanted to share that money is not the only way we can create change through our businesses.
White supremacy and systems of oppression are at work in the default ways we operate throughout our businesses—marketing, sales, management, hiring, communication, and more. One resource that I’ve been sharing a lot over the last f...

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EP 283: Taking Stock Of Our Evolving Relationships To Money with Tara & Sean McMullin Jun 02, 2020

In This Episode
* The single most important lesson Tara McMullin learned about money in the last 5 years* How that lesson rippled through her business and personal development as a leader* Why this lesson also led with taking stock of how much her sense of credibility was tied to the money she makes* How Sean McMullin is asking new questions about money and his relationship to it now that he’s a business owner, too* What his experience with collectivism has inspired him to consider as the business (and bank account) grows
Money is always about more than the dollars and cents.
No matter how nice it might be to objectively measure the value of a thing or calculate the salary of a new hire or assess the return on a particular investment, there’s always something else going on. Something that defies the ability to measure it with pure math.
There are the cultural norms we carry, the familial attitudes that are passed on to us, the limiting beliefs we’ve picked up along the way.
There is always so much more to consider about money than the dollars and cents.
This month, we have a series of episodes exploring money and our changing relationships to it.
This is a series we’ve been planning since late last year but as the current global health crisis has blossomed into a global economic crisis, these questions about money and our relationship to it–especially as small business owners–feel more relevant every single day.
Over the course of the month, you’ll hear from What Works regular Marie Poulin about how a surprise discovery led her to upending her business model while finding a whole new sense of ease when it came to making money.
You’ll also hear from jewelry designer Tiffany Whipps who has seen first hand the wild swings in value that a fickle market can create. And you’ll hear from Jennifer Patterson, who runs a large portion of her herbalism and breathwork business on a sliding scale.
Plus, you’ll hear What Works network members share how their relationship to money has evolved over time, too.
All throughout this series, we’re asking you to examine the assumptions and beliefs that you hold about money.
Some of them might be long held… perhaps stemming from how your parents handled money or a story you heard a long time ago.
Others might be more cultural… maybe you’ve picked up some beliefs about money that come from how the news is reported or which business heroes are celebrated.
Others might come from your very own market… I hear tall tales about money repeated as fact in my own industry all the time.
Today, I wanted to start close to home.
My own relationship to money has changed so much over the time I’ve been a business owner. So the first half of this episode is my own reflections on the most important money lesson I’ve learned in the last 5 years and the specific ways it’s played out in my business over that time.
The second half of the episode is a conversation with my husband and business partner, Sean, about how his relationship to money is changing now that he’s a business owner, too.
As I put this episode together, I realized that the whole of it is really a conversation about...

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EP 282: Finding Support Through Coaching With Wholehearted Coaching Founder Shirin Eskandani May 26, 2020

In This Episode:
* What happened with coach Shirin Eskandani got the call for her dream job–singing in Carmen at the Met* How she discovered coaching and the process that would help her reexamine how she feels and what she wants* The role coaching plays in her life now that she is a coach herself* How she works to support her own clients in a coaching relationship today
I was not a girl scout. But I love merit badges.
As in, few things thrill me more than earning recognition for learning or doing something.
I’ve been chasing merit badges all my life—so much so that the pursuit of merit badges has often led me away from what I really want out of life… and toward what will earn me the next badge.
I’ve taken numerous jobs I didn’t want just to get the merit badge. I’ve agreed to plenty of collaborations I didn’t really want just to get the merit badge. And, I’ve chased a bunch of goals that didn’t really inspire me just to get the merit badge.
Every merit badge I earn is just another attempt to prove to myself that I’m good enough, that I’m worthy. And each merit badge I earn only convinces me that the next merit badge will be the one that finally makes me happy.
It’s only been in the last couple of years that I made this realization. And I did so with the support of my husband, my team, and coaching.
Now that I know about my merit badge pattern, I’m always on the lookout for it.
I’ve rearranged my goal-setting, planning, and decision-making so that I have a better opportunity to notice when I’m stretching toward something I really want… or gunning for another merit badge.
I know I’m not the only person who always has her eye on the next merit badge. There’s a good chance that, as a listener of this show, you’re also keen on collecting accomplishments and achievements. Maybe that’s been helpful for you… and maybe it’s gotten you off track.
Maybe it’s been a result of your own sense of self-worth… and maybe it’s been an attempt to prove it.
My guest today found herself in a similar situation to me—always trying to prove she was good enough by climbing the rungs of her chosen career ladder: opera singing.
But when she earned the merit badge she had most wanted her whole life, she realized that she still wasn’t happy.
I’ll let her tell that story—but, listener, I can relate. And that’s why I so wanted to bring Shirin Eskandani onto the show.
Shirin has done a lot of work on rewriting this pattern and she’s found support for that work through coaching.
Today, Shirin is not a full-time opera singer. She’s a full-time coach herself.
Shirin is a life coach, public speaker and writer who specializes in mindfulness and mindset work. She has been a featured wellness expert on the Today Show and Cosmopolitan Magazine. Shirin’s holistic approach to transformation is influenced by her background in meditation, spirituality and the arts.
We talk about achieving her childhood dream and realizing she still wasn’t happy, as well as how she started to choose the thoughts that would help her feel the way she wants to feel, made the leap to coaching, and found her why. We also talk about coaching as a support structure and how coaching can ...

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EP 281: Business Support Comes In All Shapes & Sizes May 21, 2020

Leading a business can be lonely.
I noticed just how disconnected business owners are when I started my very first website way back in 2009.
That website was a blog about makers and artists in Pennsylvania. I wrote about their stories and shared products that caught my eye. The blog was relatively popular but the real magic of it wasn’t in what I was writing about.
The magic was in how it connected people who didn’t know anyone else who was trying to make a go of turning their ideas into a business. They connected on my website, they connected in an early iteration of what Facebook groups have become, and they even connected in person.
Even though I haven’t written for that blog in a decade, I know there are still people from that community who support each other as business owners. They are less lonely because of the connections they made through that simple website.
After I handed that blog off to other people and started down the path of business coaching and education, I noticed that not only were small business owners a lonely bunch, I noticed that our isolation often led to missing information, confirmation bias, and unhelpful assumptions.
And that’s what’s really led to how I’ve structured my business from there on out. I have been creating the structure to connect small business owners to each other for the last 10 years. I build containers, see what works, and then evolve. From Kick Start Labs to Quiet Power Strategy to What Works, I’ve endeavored to help entrepreneurs find the support they need–the support they crave.
I’ve seen first hand how, yes, the emotional support of the right people can make all the difference in whether you press on or whether you quit. But even beyond the huge help of emotional support, I’ve seen how the right people can open your eyes to new ideas, how it can help you check your assumptions and self-limiting beliefs. I’ve seen how support can help you set new goals and find your focus.
I believe we all need to find our support as small business owners… and I believe that support comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it’s the people we hire to work for us. Other times it’s our families. Sometimes it’s the professionals we engage with. Other times it’s the colleagues who call us on our own bullshit.
All this month, we’ve looked at the challenges–and opportunities–that small business owners face in getting the support they need to feel confident and prepared.
We’ve looked at mental health support, we’ve examined peer support, and we dug into coaching. This week, we asked 4 of our community members to share times when they’ve experienced a profound sense of support and I’m thrilled with how each of them shared a different form of support.
Rebel Therapist founder Annie Schuessler shared how being honest & vulnerable with her peers has made a huge impact on her and her business.
Business coach Justine Clay shared how a year-long program and accountability partner helped her get a new business off the ground.
Voice coach and the SpeakEasy Cooperative founder Michelle Markwart Deveaux shared how her team supports her–and has helped her see herself and her role in a new way.
And coach Leigh Johnson brings it all home by sharing how important different types o...

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EP 280: Thriving With High Functioning Anxiety With The Happier Approach Host Nancy Smith May 19, 2020

In This Episode:
* How licensed professional counselor & therapeutic coach Nancy Jane Smith learned to navigate high-functioning anxiety while building her business* How high-functioning anxiety differs from our usual concept of what anxiety “looks like”* The strategies Nancy uses to help herself (and her clients) deal with HFA* Which of the 3 voices in her head Nancy uses to guide her action and keep moving forward
Can we talk about anxiety?
Even if you don’t think of yourself as having anxiety or dealing with anxiety, there’s a good chance you’ve felt pretty anxious over the last 2 months.
I’ve been calling it ambient anxiety.
It’s just in the air.
Everything is in flux. Nothing is in our control. Everyone is on edge.
It’s just really hard to get a solid handle on what’s going on a day to day or even hour by hour basis.
Your response to all of this ambient anxiety might be to slow down—even shut down. You might feel numb or a bit panicked. You might have trouble concentrating or find yourself caught up in worry.
That’s a very normal, very understandable response.
But it’s not the only way that anxiety can manifest.
The other way anxiety makes itself known doesn’t even look much like what we think of when we think anxiety.
And that’s how I initially responded to the anxiety of our present moment.
This month on the show, we’ve been talking about finding support as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship can be a lonely endeavor and the mental health challenges that many of us face don’t make it any easier to feel like you’re not alone.
Which leads me back to how I found myself quote-unquote coping with my anxiety a few weeks ago…
Instead of shutting down, I turned on. I worked long, hyper-productive days. I created new things. I hosted live events. I checked in with friends and supported our members and clients.
My anxiety led me to over-functioning. My subconscious was trying to work my way through the stress and uncertainty. I was trying to control the uncontrollable.
That burst of anxious over-functioning led to a complete collapse. I’m now trying to get back into a more manageable and gentle groove but I’m feeling pretty rotten.
I’ve talked to a lot of people who have been living a similar story.
Which really isn’t that surprising to me because in the before times, I was having a lot of conversations that started with: “Can I tell you about high-functioning anxiety?!”
You see, I started learning about high-functioning anxiety from our guest today, Nancy Jane Smith. The way Nancy described anxiety was nothing like what I thought of anxiety to be… but was everything about my experience of the world.
I’ve shared on the podcast before that only recently did I realize I was living with chronic anxiety. I had always identified as dealing with chronic depression and didn’t recognize my normal-for-me mental state was one of high anxiety. But the more I’ve learned from Nancy, the more I’ve learned about my own brand of anxiety.
Nancy is an expert in High Functioning Anxiety. Nancy is trained as a licensed professional counselor and therapeutic coach.

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EP 279: Leveraging Masterminds For Support With Startup Pregnant Founder Sarah Peck May 12, 2020

In This Episode:
* Why Startup Pregnant founder Sarah K. Peck started organizing mastermind groups & experiences before she was even a business owner* How Sarah facilitates conversation among group members for maximum results* Why mastermind groups are less about getting answers and more about getting in touch with your own inner knowing* The role that mastermind experiences play in her business today and how her business model is structured (including pricing)* Why structure is such an important part of creating highly effective mastermind groups
What would we do without the internet?
I mean, really.
I have access to a global library of information and ideas in my pocket at all times.
If I have a question, I can typically find an answer in less than 60 seconds.
And how about online learning?
If I want to learn a new skill, there’s probably a YouTube video or a CreativeLive class or an ebook that will teach me what I need to know.
It’s probably impossible to quantify the amount of new skills I’ve picked up thanks to the internet.
And how about the people that the internet brings together?
You know I love online communities, social networks, and just finding random connections between humans you would have otherwise never met.
The internet gives me access to people all over the world.
Information, ideas, learning new skills, meeting new people and connecting with old friends… the internet, with all its faults and foibles, can be an incredible place for support.
But at some point, learning new information, acquiring new skills, and even meeting new people starts to come up short.
At some point, as my guest today says, you realize that their aren’t external answers to internal questions.
You realize that beyond access to the world’s information and citizens… you need access to yourself: your own inner knowing.
One way I’ve gotten access to myself—my own inner knowing and decision-making—is through mastermind groups.
Last year, at an in-person gathering of one of the masterminds that we run at What Works, one participant told me that they didn’t really need anyone to tell them what to do with their business. They knew exactly what they should be doing. Instead, they said they needed people to ask why they weren’t doing it.
That’s why they were in the mastermind group.
To me, that’s the perfect illustration of how a mastermind group can support business owners who are committed to—not just learning a new marketing skill or figuring out how to launch a new product—but to becoming a more whole entrepreneur and building a business that works exceptionally well.
I’ve been running mastermind groups of one sort or another for about 5 years and I have a lot to say on the subject. But I didn’t want you to just get my thoughts…
So I invited someone equally as passionate about masterminding as I am, Sarah K. Peck, the founder of Startup Pregnant.
Sarah was on the show before talking about how the Startup Pregnant podcast got started—but the whole business and community of Startup Pregnant has evolved and grown a ton since then. ★ Support this podcast ★

EP 278: Prioritizing Your Mental Health With Chris Brogan May 05, 2020

In This Episode:
* Bestselling author & business consultant Chris Brogan shares how depression and anxiety impact his experience as an entrepreneur* Why he always knows what he can “drop” when things get rough and what he isn’t willing to let slide* Why he has been transparent about his mental health challenges on social media and how he’s helping to reduce the stigma for others* How he approaches his conversations with others to be as supportive as he can, while also creating his own support network
I have received an outpouring of gratitude in the last 6 weeks.
Telling you that makes me quite uncomfortable and feels self-serving, but I promise there’s a point.
The messages I’ve received have thanked me for being a leader and for sharing how I’m personally processing both our public health crisis and our economic pause.
Many of these messages have also ended with something along the lines of: I hope there’s someone supporting you right now.
And that’s why I’m sharing this with you. Because, sure, I know that sharing how I feel, what I’m doing to navigate planning or marketing, and how I’m coping is helpful.
But what I think is really helpful about what I’ve been sharing?
It’s showing people that they’re not alone.
I think that’s what they’re really saying to me when they say “I hope there’s something supporting you right now.” They’re saying “you’ve made me feel like I’m not alone and I hope you don’t feel alone either.”
Because the truth is…
Leaders get lonely.
When everyone is looking to you for answers, for support, for guidance, you can feel like there’s no one to go to for your own support.
And since all small business owners are leaders in one way or another, we all feel that loneliness sometimes—or maybe, we feel it quite often.
This month, we’re tackling that feeling of loneliness and the different kinds of support we can lean on to feel grounded and whole.
We’re going to tackle 2 sides of this conversation—mental health and business owner support—and we’ll acknowledge that this conversation really has many more sides than that. I’ll share what works for me and we’ll be asking our community members to share what works for them, too.
You’ll hear from Nancy Jane Smith about living with and finding support for high-functioning anxiety which is something I certainly deal with, along with many other business owners I know. You’ll also hear a conversation between me and Startup Pregnant founder Sarah Peck about using & facilitating masterminds for support. And you’ll hear from Shirin Eskandani about finding support through coaching.
Today, we’re kicking things off with Chris Brogan, an author, speaker, and consultant who has been incredibly forthcoming about his own experience with depression and anxiety. Chris helps business owners feel less lonely by vulnerably sharing what he’s going through on a regular basis and by regularly offering his support to those who are in the throws of mental health challenges.
Post by post, conversation by conversation, Chris is doing his part of reduce the stigma of depression, anxiety, and even failure.

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EP 277: 3 Tools These Small Business Owners Swoon Over Apr 30, 2020

The tools I use to run my business have come a long way in the last decade.
Back then, I had to do most things manually. Now, integrations and automations are a given.
Back then, I had to learn code and poke through dense documentation to get what I wanted. Now, everything is drag & drop.
Back then, digital small business owners were repurposing tools meant for other tasks to put our businesses together. Now, we use tools that are made just for us.
But it’s not just the tools that have changed. It’s also how I use them.
When I started my business, I was always just trying to get one step ahead and the tools I used were solving problems as they came up–no real rhyme or reason. I didn’t stop to think about what my technology or system needs might be even a few months in the future.
Today, I look at my tools in terms of how they’ll help me grow. I ask myself how I can use them to build a foundation that makes my business easier to run months or years in the future. I don’t just solve problems with my tools–I create systems.
We’ve covered a lot of territory with the tools we use to run our businesses over the last month. And we’re going to cover a little more today.
But I think this mindset shift around how we use technology and develop systems has been a thread that has tied all of our episodes together. Whether it was my conversation with Sean, or Jessica, or Prerna, or Holly & Arryn, I hope you picked up on the strategy that these business owners use when it comes to picking and working with tools.
That strategy isn’t just about what tools or systems they use.
It’s really a bigger mindset around how they run their businesses. They expect to be running, building, and growing these businesses for years to come and so they choose tools, systems, and workflows that make that easier.
Today, I want to share 3 more business owners and their favorite tools with you. You’ll hear from designer & illustrator Cynthia Oswald, operations manager Heidi Johnson, and software engineer Rachel Ober. Each one is sharing a tool that’s dramatically changed the way they do business–each in completely different ways.
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 276: Tools For Building An Online Personal Training Business With Holly Myers and Arryn Grogan From Lift With Holly & Arryn Apr 28, 2020

In This Episode:
* How personal trainers Holly Myers and Arryn Grogan use systems and software to run a thriving online coaching business* Why they invest in new training and certifications as tools to use in their business* What coaching online has allowed them to accomplish* What tools they use to communicate with clients, produce a library worth of content, and build programs for people to purchase
My routine has been disrupted.
It’s been six weeks since I’ve been to the gym and I’m quite certain my neighbors are very confused about what I’m doing with the kettlebells in the backyard.
Like most gym-goers, I’ve been experimenting with working out from home and hoping that my gym family is well.
Luckily, I also have an Instagram gym family—and they’ve been motivating, educating, and challenging me since long before this all started. It’s been so fun watch them re-learn how to do business overnight while, at the same time, providing an immense amount of leadership for the people they care about.
Now, all that said, this episode sounds like a no-brainer—but I assure you, it was recorded weeks before every gym in America shut down.
This week, we’re taking a look at the tools that personal trainers use to run their businesses online. And since I realize that you’re most likely not a personal trainer, I want assure you that this episode is still full of interesting ways to think about your business and the tools you use to run it.
My guests today are Holly Myers and Arryn Grogan from Lift With Holly And Arryn. They were running an online personal training business before taking your personal training business online was corona-cool!
I found Holly and Arryn through my Instagram gym family and fell in love with their joy, strength, and precision. Their content is incredibly useful and very fun and real at the same time.
Because Holly and Arryn specialize in training other coaches on the techniques they’ve mastered, they realized that online coaching was a great fit for them early on. Instead of constraining their client base to their hometown, they’re able to coach people from all over—and coach while they’re on the road, as well.
In this episode, we talk about the tools and systems they’ve used to build their online training business—including the equipment they prefer, the software they use for coaching, the system they use for putting together programs, and how they build content for Instagram.
We also talk about some of their favorite tools for working on the road.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Holly Myers and Arryn Grogan!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 275: Tools For Building A Copywriting Agency With Content Bistro Founder Prerna Malik Apr 21, 2020

In This Episode:
* The process Prerna Malik, founder of Content Bistro, uses to create effective copy for her clients* Why she keeps her tools simple and isn’t quick to change them just because there are new options out there* How Prerna uses experience, testing, and research to push the edge and try new things with the copy she writes* What she did to translate her service processes into a program for other agency owners and service-based businesses
Your process is your most valuable tool.
By that, I mean that the way you do what you do, the system you use to create results, the pattern you follow time and time again is what all the value-generating activities of your business are based on.
Now, when you’re just getting started with your business, your process probably feels pretty loose and undefinable. You might even call it magic.
And so then it’s no wonder that you have trouble explaining it or documenting it—let alone putting a dollar value on it.
But as your business matures, your process (should) become clearer and clearer. You can explain it. You can document it. You can see the financial value in it.
Everything else in your business layers on top of your process to create clarity and efficiency.
Your process provides the foundation for every other tool you introduce into the way you run your business.
This month, we’re examining the tools we use to run our businesses. So far, we’ve talked through some of the tools that Sean and I use to work with clients in our podcast production agency. I talked with Jessica Stansberry about the tools she uses to run her content-driven digital products business.
And this week, I’m talking with Prerna Malik about the tools she uses to run her copywriting agency, Content Bistro.
Yes, Prerna and I get into the specific tools she uses—things like Google Drive, Notion, and CrazyEgg. But we also talk a lot about her process—how she does what she does.
Like I said, process is the most valuable tool in your business and your process should determine the tools that you use.
Prerna’s approach certainly demonstrates this. Her tools help her make her process work. They help her make her process more efficient. And ultimately, it’s her process that’s helped her build an incredible business.
Now, let’s find out what works for Prerna Malik.
Tools In This Episode:
* Google Drive – document collaboration and file storage* Notion – project & process management* CrazyEgg – heat maps, user recordings, and A/B testing* Book Like A Boss – scheduling system
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Y...

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EP 274: The Tools That Power A Content-Driven Business With Grit Host Jessica Stansberry Apr 14, 2020

In This Episode:
* What tools Jessica Stansberry uses to run her content-driven business* How she knows when it’s time to switch tools and what criteria she uses to pick a new one* What project management tool she’d make out with if she could* How her systems and workflows help her get the most out the software she uses to run her business
Most small businesses today create some form of content.
Some are sporadically posting updates & photos on social media.
Others take the time to create helpful articles, entertaining videos, or valuable podcast episodes.
But there’s a whole category of small business that I would consider content-driven. In other words, these businesses rely on the steady production of content that keeps the existing audience happy while it also helps attract new audience members.
These businesses might make money by selling advertising, leveraging affiliate marketing partnerships, or selling their own digital products. And often, it’s a combination of all three.
These businesses—and the creators behind them—have a lot to teach us about the tools and workflows that can make the content we create easier to manage, more effective, and more profitable.
We’re continuing our series on the tools we use to run our small businesses…
…by taking a look at the tools a content-driven business uses to create, manage, and publish all that content—as well as how it actually drives revenue, too.
I could think of no one better than my friend Jessica Stansberry to talk content & tools with. Jessica is a YouTuber, podcaster, and fellow lover of tools.
She’s the host of Grit, a podcast about business and lifestyle design. She’s also produces videos on planning, productivity, business, and marketing for over 66,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Jessica and I chat about the hardware, software, and systems she uses to manage it all—plus her criteria for selecting or switching tools! I also asked her about the tools she uses to manage her life outside of business.
Now, let’s find out what works for Jessica Stansberry!
Tools In This Episode:
* Clickup – project management software* Canon D70 – camera for video* Ring light – lighting for video* ATR2100 – microphone* Zoom H1n – portable audio recorder* Premiere Pro – video editing* MemberVault – learning management system for online courses* GoodNotes – iPad app for notetaking* Keywords Everywhere – SEO research Chrome extension
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EP 273: The Tools We Use To Run a Podcast Production Agency with YellowHouse.Media Co-Founders Sean and Tara McMullin Apr 07, 2020

In This Episode:
* Sean and Tara McMullin, co-founders of YellowHouse.Media share the tools they use to run their podcast production agency* Sean shares the value of templates across a variety of tools* Tara sheds light on some of the “magic” tools that help them make standout podcasts* And they both share what’s working when it comes to tools for managing stress & anxiety right now
When I started my business over 11 years ago, the only tool I worried about was WordPress.
My business was my website and my website was my business. WordPress made it all work.
And while I still use WordPress to this day, there are dozens of other tools I use to run both of my companies. There’s my email provider, my web host, our community platform, the graphic design tools I use, the communication software we chat on… each tool has it’s purpose and place within the larger business.
This month, we’re going to take a deep dive into the tools that different businesses rely on to run.
We’ll talk software, systems, and processes—plus how it all works together.
We’ll talk about how things have changed, what’s stayed the same, and how to know when it’s time to switch up your tools.
And, we’ll talk with business owners that run different kinds of businesses—digital products, 1:1 services, and agencies.
Focusing on tools is especially relevant right now because many business owners are looking for ways to run more efficiently and more effectively so that they can boost profit or create new streams of revenue as the economy is changing.
We’re also trying out new tools to cope with interruptions and stress.
So in this kick off episode, I wanted to talk about both of those pieces of the puzzle with my podcasting partner-in-crime, my husband and the production coordinator for What Works, Sean McMullin.
Together, Sean and I run YellowHouse.Media, a full-service podcast production agency that specializes in helping small business owners create standout podcasts that power their marketing and sales.
We’ll get into the tools we use to run YellowHouse—including how we set up client dashboards, manage projects, edit audio, and consult on content strategy. But first, we wanted to share some of the tools we’re using to mange stress and anxiety right now.
Let’s get into it!
Tools Mentioned In This Episode:
* Headspace – meditation app* Rode Procaster – Tara’s microphone* Audio Technica ATR2100 – Sean’s microphone* Google Drive – documents, spreadsheets, storage, and more* Descript – transcripts and audio editing* Headliner – app for creating audiograms* Canva – graphic design tool* Notion – project management and organization tool* Squadcast – remote interview recording tool
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EP 272: Making Your Brand Personal With Stasia’s Style School Creator Stasia Savasuk Mar 31, 2020

My brand is more “me” than ever.
Which is funny because, up until 2017, my brand was my name.
That year, I made a conscious effort to move away from my personal brand and build out a company brand, something that could represent an idea that was much bigger than me.
At that same time, I started to do some significant personal work. I drank less. I ate better. I started moving my body. Later, I did a heap ton of mindset work. I discovered the great outdoors.
I started to feel like a new person… and at the same time, I started to feel more myself. More comfortable with myself. More confident, more whole.
Along the way, the brand I was building evolved. It created a space where I could fully belong—as a leader, a businesswoman, and as a human.
I wasn’t playing at who Tara Gentile was anymore. I wasn’t hoping to become something that I really wasn’t. I wasn’t putting on a nice dress and fancy makeup and hoping people would trust me.
I could just be me.
We’re closing out this month on branding by getting personal.
We’re looking at how who we are informs what we create and how those brands evolve over time.
Like I mentioned, my business brand is more “me” than it’s ever been.
Just because my brand represents a company and a community doesn’t mean that it’s not extremely personal.
So whether your business is represented by your name and your face or whether you’re building something separate from you, there’s a lot to dig into in this episode.
Today, I’m joined by Stasia Savasuk, the creator of Stasia’s Style School. Stasia helps people find the courage, clarity, and congruency to rock their personal style.
I wanted to showcase her story during this month as a way of helping you reexamine the stories and patterns that we inadvertently fall into because of what we believe it takes to fit in, to be professional enough, or to earn credibility.
Stasia’s personal story—and how she’s turned her passion into a thriving business—will shed light on all the hangups you might have about your personal style and the way your personality plays into the brand you’re building.
We chat about how Stasia realized she was fitting herself into imaginary boxes, how the birth of her first child changed how she approaches her own body & style, how she finds the guts to dress the way she wants, and how her personal style informs her personal brand.
Now, let’s find out what works for Stasia Savasuk!

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EP 271: Brand-Building Is More Important Than Ever Mar 26, 2020

People are still spending money.
It’s a message I’ve shared over and over again over the last 2 weeks. Not everyone is spending money… and not everyone has the money to spend. But plenty of people are still investing in goods and services that will make their lives and businesses better.
And along those lines, my friend Mark Butler shared some great insight with his audience last week after investing in a program–even in the midst of our current economic situation.
He said that, even when times are tough, when we need help, we’ll invest with the people & businesses that we trust.
Who do we trust? Well, they’re the people–the brands–that have made a lasting impact on us over the years. They’re the people and companies that have made an effort to connect with us, that share our values, that represent what we want to see more of in the world.
I’m Tara McMullin and you’re listening to What Works–the show that transcends the hype to bring you stories of what’s really working for small business owners today.
Yes, people are still spending money and they’re spending it with brands they like and trust.
This weekend, I spent money at my local brewery because I want to support them as they try to keep their workers employed. I spent money at a local cafe. And I spent money at Whole Foods, which might be a big corporation but one that does a helluva lot of good for its workers and our local economy.
These brands are really important to me. They represent my home, my friends, and the world that I want to live in. I value their presence and I want to see them thrive.
They’ve worked hard to build brands that truly connect with people.
The small business owners we support at The What Works Network are doing the same. We asked 4 of them to share how they approach brand-building and what they’ve done to create a genuine connection between how they show up and the people they care about.
Now, I want to let you know that each of these contributions was recorded before the outbreak had fully hit North America. But I think sharing them with you and inviting you to think about how you want to approach your own brand-building is more important than ever.
You’ll hear from Layla Pomper from Process-Driven, Lou Blaser from Second Breaks, Julie O’Hara from Hearts & Brains Consulting, and Margy Thomas from ScholarShape.
Let’s get into it!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 270: Building A Brand That Defies Stereotypes With 300 Pounds And Running Host Martinus Evans Mar 24, 2020

In This Episode:
* Why Martinus Evans started running in the first place* How his idea of a runner changed at the starting line of his first race* Why Toastmasters played a bit part in his decision to play bigger* How he’s defining his brand on his own terms
My now-husband and I agreed on our second date: we are not people who run for fun.
Run to escape zombies, sure. Run as a necessary part of a pickup game of basketball, okay.
But run for miles on end chasing some feeling of inner contentment? Hell no.
It was much to his dismay, then, when I started running 3 years ago.
I started running because I wanted to move my body more and practice personal accountability. Running seemed the easiest way to do it—no gym membership, no expensive equipment. Just sneakers and pavement.
But still, I was not running for fun. I was not one of those people.
Now, let’s pause for a second and imagine what those people look like and sound like.
Maybe you picture Rob Lowe’s character from Parks & Rec—high energy, frenetic, obsessive, and very trim.
Maybe you picture marathon runner Des Linden who became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years back in 2018. She’s petite, wiry, and has that stare of someone completely focused on her goals.
Maybe you picture a friend of yours, a coworker, or a family member who has been running their whole life.
That’s how I pictured those people—the people who run for fun—a few years ago too.
When I started running races, however, I realized that the picture of a runner that I had in my mind couldn’t be further from the truth. I mean, sure—there are plenty of wiry, high-energy, trim people who toe the starting line.
But there are also people of all different shapes, personalities, and backgrounds who race, too.
We’re all runners—no matter how “off brand” any of us might seem.
Now, I know I use running & fitness metaphors quite a bit on this show. But today, there’s a very good reason why I’m talking about running.
Back on that second date with my husband, I had a certain idea of who a runner was and how someone got to enjoy running. Think of that as the brand of “running.” When I started running, I didn’t feel very on-brand.
Now, my guest is Martinus Evans, the host of the 300lbs And Running podcast and the founder of the Slow AF Run Club.
Martinus isn’t very “on brand” either if you consider a runner someone wears short shorts and only eats salads. But Martinus is very much a runner. And Martinus has built a brand around rebranding who you think of when you think of a runner.
Today, we’re talking about building a brand that defies convention and stereotypes.
Martinus and I chat about how he got started sharing his journey to become a runner, how his first race changed his own idea of who a runner is, and why Toastmasters played a big part in him finding the confidence to go big. We also talk about dealing with negativity online and why he chose to create the Slow AF Run Club as a standalone community instead of a Facebook group.
Now, let’s find out what works for Martinus Evans!

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EP 269: Co-Creating A Brand In Community With Shameless Mom Academy Host Sara Dean Mar 17, 2020

In This Episode:
* Shameless Mom Academy founder & host Sara Dean shares how her brand developed over time and in partnership with her community* Why she started the podcast in the first place, as well as why it was key she didn’t have a business in mind at first* How she came to understand the rewards of imperfect action* Why she took some big risks to bring her community together in person and how it paid off
It’s tempting to think that you control your own brand.
After all, you’re the one paying for the logo art, the web design, the copywriting, the photo shoots…
Your money, your decisions.
Your story, your brand.
Except…
A brand is really only as strong as the idea of it in your customer’s mind.
Let me say that a different way: you can put loads of thought and money into carefully crafting a brand for yourself or your business but, at the end of the day, if the customer thinks of you or your company as something else entirely, none of that thought or money matters.
Your brand is what your customer thinks it is.
Your brand is what your customer thinks it is. It’s the impression they have about who you are, what you do, and how you help them.
So in essence, all brands are co-created with their customers.
We saw this in my conversation with Gina Bianchini from Mighty Networks in Episode 267. Gina and her team is in constant contact with their user base to understand how people want to use their product and what that means for leveling up the brand.
We saw it again in Episode 268 with Alyssa Catalano from Studebaker Metals. Alyssa shared that their unique approach to genderless accessories was always sparking conversations with new customers. Those 2-way conversations go a long way to create a stronger brand identity for Studebaker.
And I’ve experienced this first hand. The hardest part of my business transitions and pivots over the years hasn’t been the process of changing a name or redoing a website. That’s the easy part.
The hardest part of rebranding has been rebuilding the idea our customers and community have about who we are and what we do for them.
That process is never a one-way conversation. It’s collaborative and co-creative, especially in a community-based business like ours.
My guest today also runs a community-based business and she’s intimately familiar with the role that her community members play in the brand she’s building.
Sara Dean is the founder and host of Shameless Mom Academy.
As the Shameless Mom Academy podcast started to take off, Sara realized that what she was creating wasn’t just hers. It wasn’t just her sharing her thoughts and stories behind a mic and her audience listening, all from their respective houses, in their separate communities.
No, Shameless Mom Academy was a connection between women wrestling with their identities as mothers and ambitious women. This connection was the real story, the real brand powering an emerging business.
Today, Sara leads the Momentum Mamas membership community,

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SPECIAL: COVID-19 And The Impact On Small Business Owners Mar 14, 2020

Well, things are weird out there.
We’re all wondering how the coronavirus pandemic will shape our lives and work in the months (or years) to come.
For many small business owners, there’s real uncertainty about how COVID-19 will play out. Many are feeling the immediate effects. More still are planning for the long-term fallout.
Now more than ever, we need honest conversations that transcend the hype, uncertainty, and panic. This is a special episode of What Works.
Normally on What Works, we talk with small business owners about what’s actually working for them. Not the hype about starting or growing a small business, but the reality of how marketing sales systems and management work on a day to day basis.
But in this episode, I wanted to have an honest conversation with three business owners who I love and respect about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on their businesses now and what they expect that impact to be in the coming months.
I’ve personally had to make difficult choices this week, as well as leading our digital community through this uncertainty. So I know that the stress of the uncertainty is real.
And while I know that nothing beats an actual conversation with another human being, I also know that, often, the next best thing is listening in to a conversation between people you trust. So that’s what I wanted to bring you today.
I invited Jacquette Timmons, Autumn Witt Boyd, and Lauren Caselli to talk with me about their experience so far dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, the impact they’re experiencing now and how they’re preparing for the future, plus what they’re both fearful of and optimistic about.
Jacquette Timmons is a financial behaviorist, the host of More Than Money, and a sought after speaker on how our choices impact our money.
Lauren Caselli is the founder of Lauren Caselli events, a boutique events planning agency specializing in events for the tech sector.
Autumn Witt Boyd is the founder of the AWB firm, a law practice that works with small business owners on intellectual property, contracts and agreements, and employment.
Now, our goal was to give you a look at what we’re thinking about and how we’re approaching taking care of business and taking care of ourselves in this uncertain time.
You’ll hear about the ripple effects we’re considering, the legal gray area we’re navigating, the way we’re planning for the short and long term, and you’ll hear about the emotional impact we’re dealing with.
One last thing before we dive into this conversation: this conversation was planned in about 24 hours and we wanted to turn it around fast. In the process, we had some tech mishaps at the beginning of the recording, so we ended up recording on a platform that doesn’t have the sound quality you’re used to hearing on What Works.
My hope is that you’ll value the conversation enough to forgive us for the lower fidelity!
***
P.S. We know a lot of small business owners are looking for thoughtful spaces to process what’s going on, plan for the future, and connect with people who understand their concerns. We’ve extended a 30-day free trial of The What Works Network so you can join in on the conversati...

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EP 268: Creating A Focused & Intentional Brand With Alyssa Catalano from Studebaker Metals Mar 10, 2020

In This Episode:
* What Studebaker Metals stands for as a brand and how that shapes the choices they make about product, marketing, and messaging* Why they’re focused on producing genderless accessories—and how that impacts the conversations they have with customers* What their motto, “Slow is fast,” means and the role is plays in their brand positioning* How they make the choice about what stays and what goes when it comes to their product line
Strong brands are focused and intentional.
You know exactly what you’re going get from them. When a brand you’re a fan of rolls out something new, you already know you’re going to want it.
They’ve sold you before they ever showed you the product—because they were never focused on selling you a product in the first place. They’ve been selling you on the idea behind the brand all along.
Think Apple and how they leverage global attention with every new product cycle.
Think Target and how they sell out of every new design collaboration.
Think Glossier and how they’ve encouraged a generation of women to think about makeup in a new way.
Think Everlane and how I just had to try out the performance leggings they just rolled out. They’re great, by the way.
Strong brands aren’t just for big companies or mid-sized direct-to-consumer businesses.
Even a tiny business can build a strong brand.
But since tiny businesses lack the ability to invest heavily in brand-building advertising, it means the burden for brand development is on conscious, intentional choices about messaging, product development, and organic marketing.
Tiny businesses have an even greater need to stay focused and intentional if they want to build a strong brand.
This week, my guest is Alyssa Catalano, the co-founder of Studebaker Metals—a metalsmithing and accessories brand that epitomizes focused and intentional choices.
Alyssa and the Studebaker Metals team have made careful brand choices about everything from how they style their products to how their products are categorized to the tools they use to craft their products to the messaging behind the products.
Alyssa and I talk about the unconventional choice to produce unisex accessories, why slow is fast and what that has to do with their brand positioning, and how their brand plays out in advertising, plus the roles of timelessness and place in how their brand is built.
Now, let’s find out what works for Alyssa Catalano!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 267: Leveling Up With Customer Feedback with Mighty Networks Gina Bianchini Mar 03, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Gina Bianchini has been leading a slow & intentional brand evolution at Mighty Networks* Why customer feedback has been the key factor in how the brand (and product) has adapted* How the Mighty Networks team is using an online course to gather more customer feedback and create a plan for the future of the brand* What led to leveling up the Mighty Networks visual brand in 2019
Brands evolve.
Sometimes brands evolve naturally—think Dunkin’ Donuts changing their name to Dunkin’ to reflect the fact that more people think of them as a coffee place than a donut place.
Sometimes brands evolve… unnaturally—think Weight Watchers changing their name to WW because, well, I’m not sure why other than they’re trying to stay afloat as more & more people care more about health than weight loss.
The reason that brands evolve is that a brand is only as strong as its reputation in the mind of the customer.
A company doesn’t—can’t—have sole ownership of a brand.
A brand is what the customers believe it is.
Yes, a company can influence a brand’s reputation and story—but it doesn’t own it.
Brands are co-created with the people who engage with it.
This month, we’re examining how brands are built.
No, we’re not talking about where to get a logo done or what color scheme to use on your website.
We’re talking about how the people you care about—your customers, clients, and prospects—remember your business.
We’re talking about the story you tell about what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for.
And we’re talking about what it takes to define a reputation and a presence when there are so many things competing for the attention of our people.
Over the course of this month, you’ll hear from Martinus Evans who is redefining what it means to be a runner with his podcast 300lbs And Running and his community, the Slow AF Run Club. You’ll hear from Stasia Savasuk about how her journey to discovering her personal style taught her about establishing a personal brand. And you’ll hear from Alyssa Catalano from Studebaker Metals about how what you offer defines your brand.
But today, we’re kicking things off with Gina Bianchini from Mighty Networks.
Now, as you probably already know, Mighty Networks is a sponsor of What Works. Plus, we’re proud users of their community-building and course delivery software.
And, as such, I’ve seen the Mighty Networks team go through a careful brand evolution over the last 3 years.
In fact, Mighty Networks brand evolution is a perfect case study in co-creating a brand with the people who engage with it and that’s exactly what I wanted to talk with Gina about.
Gina and I chat about what’s stayed the same and what’s changed over the last few years as Mighty Networks has grown and grown. You’ll hear about Gina’s light bulb moment, how building a community for Mighty Networks users helped her see how people were really using the software, and why she decided to build an online course. Plus, you’ll hear how all of this learning helped Mighty Networks create a stunning new visual brand, in-house,

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EP 266: Building An Inclusive Community With Whole30’s Melissa Urban & Dr. Carrie Kholi-Murchison Feb 25, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* The day Melissa Urban realized she needed to do more to make the Whole30 community more inclusive* Why she’s chosen to be public about her learning when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion* How Dr. Carrie Kholi-Murchison is taking the lead on efforts to make sure everyone feels seen and heard within the community* What unique challenges Whole30 faces in their DEI efforts* Why listening is at the heart of so many of the initiatives they’re rolling out
Who’s missing here?
What points of view, what lived stories, what experiences aren’t represented here?
Up until a few years ago, this is a question I didn’t think to ask.
The reason I didn’t ask those questions, simply put, is because the spaces I was in—the spaces I had created—seemed so normal to me. The spaces I was in and the spaces I had created were full of middle class, white women.
If I’m being frank, the only question I would ask from time to time were: where are the men?
Which probably just further proves my point… I was used to seeing men around, so I questioned it when they weren’t there. I wasn’t used to seeing people who had different points of view, different lived stories, and different experiences than mine so I didn’t notice they were missing.
Who’s missing here?
It’s a question that asks so much more of me as a leader than to “simply” even out the demographics.
“Who’s missing here?” asks me to consider why people are missing in the first place. What is it about the way I’ve built my business, my community, my brand that doesn’t create space for people who are different from me?
Over the last few years, like many white women I know, I’ve been on a personal growth journey to better understand systematic oppression and internalized bias—and their role in my business.
I’m personally invested in this journey. I’m politically invested in this journey. And yes, I see this journey as integral to my effectiveness as a leader and entrepreneur, too.
I do not have answers. I don’t even have all the questions! But I’m learning and sharing that learning with you is important to me.
While there are many white women entrepreneurs who are on this journey with me, few have been so public about her learning, her missteps, and the action she’s taking in her business as Whole30‘s Melissa Urban.
About a year ago, shortly after I finished my own life-changing Whole30, I noticed that Melissa announced she was searching for someone to lead diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for her company. I kept my eye on those developments and always enjoyed seeing her update her audience on the hire and progress they were making.
So when we decided to do this month on leadership, I knew I wanted to talk with Melissa and the woman she hired to fill this role, Dr. Carrie Kholi-Murchison, now Whole30’s Director of People & Culture. I wanted to find out why and how Melissa has been leading so publicly on this front—and I also wanted to find out what Kholi was doing to lead this change internally in the organization.
This conversation has been several months in the making—even though we recorded it less than a week ago!

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EP 265: Leading Differently With MicroConf Co-Founder Rob Walling Feb 18, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* What values are woven through Rob Walling‘s many ventures* Why he started MicroConf and how it’s a direct reaction to so many communities & events for founders* How Rob sees his role as a leader of a rapidly growing community* How he turns his values into policies, systems, and operating procedures no matter one business he’s working on
“Different is better than better.”
That’s what Sally Hogshead says. Sally is a brand expert and the creator of the Fascination Advantage Assessment, which helps entrepreneurs and leaders discover what’s naturally fascinating about themselves.
What she means is that better is fleeting. It’s uninspired.
“Better,” she says, “keeps you chained to the same way of working as your competition.”
Being different, on the other hand, helps you stand out. Being different helps you gather the right people around you—because they immediately see what you’re about.
Different helps you win on your own terms.
So how do we arrive at “different?” How do we build our brands, our ideas, our businesses to be different?
Different is a result of operationalizing our values.
This month, we’re working our way through a series of conversations about leadership. Specifically, I’ve been talking to small business owners about how they lead with their values and how those values pop up in their businesses in their systems, policies, and operating procedures.
Today, my guest is Rob Walling and Rob is committed to doing things differently.
Rob is best known for his leadership in the world of bootstrapped software-as-a-service businesses. He is the founder of Drip, MicroConf, and most recently TinySeed. He’s also the host of Startups for the Rest of Us and the author of Start Small, Stay Small.
Rob has chosen, from the beginning, to do things differently—and the reason is his values. His values led him to realize that he could build a business without playing by everyone else’s rules—and that’s made him a leader for thousands of others who are looking to do things differently too.
I talk with Rob about the throughline that weaves his different ventures together, the values that define his work, how his community and events are a reaction to the “standard” in his field, and how he views his role as a leader. Plus, I ask him how he’s ensuring his values continue to play out as his community rapidly expands.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Rob Walling!

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EP 264: Leading A Growing Community With Rebelle Founder Shannon Siriano Greenwood Feb 11, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* The “fetal position” moment that led Shannon Siriano Greenwood to start Rebelle* Why belonging, inclusivity, vulnerability, and authenticity are the top values the community leans into* How the details and design of each event help bring the values to life* How she sees her role as a leader within the Rebelle community* How she’s managing the growth of Rebelle so that she ensures its values continue on
Stepping up as a leader takes a willingness to walk a fine line.
On one hand, you become a leader because there is a community, an organization, a group, or a movement that you care passionately about. Your leadership is an expression of belonging at the same time it is a question of possibility.
On the other hand, as a leader, you have a responsibility to set the tone, to hold others accountable, to make decisions for the group, and set standards. Your leadership is product of always being a few steps in front of the rest of the group.
Whether you’re leading a team, a community, your current clients, or a bevy of customers, every small business owner is a leader. Which means you—yes, you listening right now—are walking this fine line whether you realize it or not.
This month, we’re examining leadership and specifically how we lead with our values—and turn those values into systems and action.
One way that we, as leaders, can make sure our values are known and that our actions support the kind of culture we want to create within our businesses, is by recognizing our role as members of the group we lead.
If you’re leading a team, you’re a member of the team.
If you’re leading a community, you’re a member of that community.
If you’re leading a movement, you’re a member of that movement.
Yes, you have a role and responsibility that is separate from that—and often takes up much more of your time and attention. But you’re in it, too. And that’s important.
Last week, Erica Courdae shared that one of the ways she leads is by modeling how she wants her values to play out. She shows up and does the work just like she wants her staff to.
This week, my guest Shannon Siriano Greenwood, echoes something similar. When I asked her how she views her role, she told me that she sees herself as much as a member as a leader.
In my own business and The What Works Network, this is also how I’ve learned to see things. If I model the kind of behavior I want to see play out, others will follow my lead. If I show up as a member in our community, others will mirror what I do.
That’s not how I used to operate, though. I used to think that being a leader meant distancing myself from the people I lead. It meant being different and doing differently.
What I’ve learned is that being a leader is both/and.
I’m both a member of my community and the one that sets the standards. I’m both a member of my team and the one that makes the plans. If I’m careful and thoughtful, I can do both.
And now, it’s time to get to this week’s guest. I’m thrilled to bring Shannon Siriano Greenwood back to the podcast.
Shannon is the founder of Rebelle, which started as a conference and grew into a whole community of women ...

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EP 263: Turning Your Values Into Action With Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coach Erica Courdae Feb 04, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* The frustrating situation that led Erica Courdae to go on her own and create Silver Immersion, an inclusive hair and beauty company* How Erica has developed her voice and ability to stand up for what she believes in* Why modeling is a key way she leads her team—and her clients* How she made the transition into coaching and decided to specialize in diversity, equity, and inclusion for business owners* Why Erica takes a stand for imperfect allyship and how that plays out in her business
Values.
We talk a good game about having values, living our values, and even running a business with our values.
But, like, what does that really mean?
It’s not enough to have them written down somewhere. It’s not enough to put them on your website. It’s not enough to talk through them with a new hire.
No, values can be, should be, the filter for how we do everything in our businesses.
Part of our job as business owners—as leaders—is to ensure that the values we hold dear are operationalized in our work. It’s our job to make sure values turn into systems, product features, or boundaries with clients.
Strong leaders turn values into action.
This month on What Works, we’re talking about leadership—and specifically, we’re talking about how leaders operationalize their values, how they turn values into action, structure, and systems.
I’m fascinated by the creative ways that entrepreneurs operationalize their values. I’m fascinated by how values make decisions easier, policies clearer, and plans stronger. I’m fascinated by how brands display immense leadership by doing things differently than the norm—all inspired by their values.
And I’m fascinated, of course, by the results that businesses see because of how they operationalize their values: stronger communities, bigger movements, more brand recognition, and, yes, often more profit, too.
Displaying strong leadership and operationalizing our values isn’t squishy and it’s certainly not just a nice-to-have.
It’s become the bar we have to rise above if we want the work we do to be relevant and meaningful.
Over the course of this month, we’re going to hear from leaders who have operationalized their values in a variety of ways.
You’ll hear from Shannon Siriano Greenwood, who has built an incredible, values-driven community with Rebelle. Shannon is now expanding outside of the Richmond area and I wanted to hear how she’s taking her values into new territory.
You’ll hear from Rob Walling, a serial entrepreneur, podcaster, and the founder of MicroConf. Rob has intentionally an event experience that’s different than others in the same field by focusing on his values.
You’ll hear from Melissa Urban and Carrie Kholi-Murchison from Whole30 on why they’re investing in making the Whole30 community a more diverse and inclusive community—and what steps they’re taking to do it.
But today, my guest is Erica Courdae, the founder of Silver Immersion, a Baltimore-area hair and makeup business, as well as a diversity, equity,

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EP 262: Honing Your Craft Using Smart Project Management With Kickass Conferences Founder Isaac Watson Jan 28, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Kickass Conferences founder Isaac Watson manages massive projects like organizing a conference* The 5 phases that each event plan goes through and how project management works at each stage* What tools Isaac and his teams use to ensure every detail is accounted for and every guest has a fabulous experience* How he manages the experience on the ground during a live event
I used to balk at project management.
It felt like the systems I was supposed to follow were imposing rules on things that didn’t need rules.
I’d get it done. And I’d do it my own way, gosh darn it.
But then, at some point…
…probably the 341st time I didn’t have enough time to execute a project the way I really wanted it to be done…
…I realized that project management is as much about honing your craft as it is about making sure you hit deadlines or don’t forget a step.
Teasing out the bits and pieces of how projects happen helps us make better stuff…
…whether what you’re making is a publicity campaign, a book, a set of complex financial reports, or a podcast.
This month, Sean and I have working hard on the next phase of our project management at Yellow House Media. Yellow House is the full-service podcast production agency we co-founded back in August.
The way we look at it, every step in the process of producing a podcast is an opportunity to make a show better—to make it more engaging for the listener and to drive more results for the business owner. But to fully take advantage of those opportunities, we have to have our process down.
We can’t just throw an episode together. We have to carefully and intentionally work each step of the process so that both the host that we’re working with and our team has the greatest freedom to innovate and improve.
The structure of project management gives us the space to hone our craft, to get creative, and to make something great.
And the better we get at making great podcasts, the better our project management gets too.
My guest today has had a similar experience learning the ins and outs of event planning and hosting kickass conferences.
Isaac Watson is the founder of Kickass Conferences, an event strategy and production studio based in the Pacific Northwest. Isaac helps community leaders develop and deliver transformative events for their audiences that inspire them to build a better world. So far, he’s planned and managed events that have touched over 21,000 lives across the US and Europe.
Isaac is a natural event planner. I know because I’ve attended a number of events that he’s planned and I hired him to plan a conference for me 4 years ago.
But Isaac hasn’t relied on his natural aptitude for creating meaningful and engaging experiences. Instead, he’s designed a process he can rely on to pull off one great event after another.
This process and the way he manages his events is clearly a product of the way he’s honed his craft over the years.
He notices what works, he notices patterns, he notices the things that go unnoticed—and then he adapts the way he manages future projects.
In this conversation, Isaac and I talk about how things have evolved since his ve...

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EP 261: 5 Project Management Tools These Small Business Owners Can’t Do Without Jan 23, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* 5 small business owners share the project management tools they can’t live without* Why each tool is the right fit for the way each business owner works* How they incorporate the tools into their workflows* Plus, what tools haven’t worked for them
Project management is so much more than software.
But if you think about tools like Asana, Trello, Clickup, or Notion (referral link that helps to support What Works) when you hear project management, you’re certainly not alone.
I remember when Asana first started gaining popularity among digital small business owners. “Finally!” we thought collectively, “We can figure out how to get it all done.”
Of course, most of us quickly realized that software like Asana doesn’t solve the problem of having too much work, unclear priorities, and a decidedly nonlinear project to complete.
Project management is as much about how you approach the work that needs to get done as the software you use.
So if project management is as much about how we approach the work as it is the software we use, why do we spend so much time stressing over that software?
My hunch is that, despite all indications to the contrary, we believe that there’s a piece of software out there that will make us more productive, more organized, and more effective.
Here’s what I’ve found to be true, instead:
My project management software is only as good as I am. I can’t expect it to do for me what I’m not willing to do for myself.
But if I commit to doing the work of project management…
…if I organize my projects and get real about what’s required to bring each of them to completion…
…if I’m willing to do the work I say I’m going to do…
…if I consciously balance my big picture goals and my daily to-do lists…
…then I can find project management software that helps me do that. But it starts with me and my own approach to the work.
Now if that sounds personal, I can assure you that it is. I thought I was “broken” when it came to project management and that maybe there was some piece of project management software that could fix me. I tried a bunch. For while, I tried managing projects in Evernote–but that really just turned into me relying on my own brain, as per usual. Then, we dabbled in Trello… but it just didn’t work for us.
Then, I tried using Asana. My team used it for 2 full years but I could never get the hang of it.
That’s partly because I needed it to do something it just didn’t do–but it’s also because I wasn’t fully committed to doing the work of managing my projects. Then, I decided to grow up and do hard things.
At the same time, we switched to Notion.
Yes, Notion lets me do things I could only dream of in Asana or Trello. It combines content with task management in an completely customizable interface.
But the most important piece is that I decided to manage my projects. I decided to work the system. I committed to following through–and Notion helps me do that.
Today,

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EP 260: Tracking Complex Projects With On-Demand CFO Christina Sjahli Jan 21, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why clear client communication helps on-demand CFO & cash flow analyst Christina Sjahli manage her complex financial projects* The system she uses to keep track of documents and change history* How she uses deadlines for herself and her clients to manage the progress of her projects* What Christina learned from her corporate finance experience that’s transferred to her own business—and what she left behind
Can I really learn project management as an entrepreneur?
A few of years ago, it became trendy to explain away the operational problems in our businesses by saying something like, “Dammit, Jim! I’m an entrepreneur, not a manager.”
This trend was fueled by a book called Rocket Fuel, by Gino Wickman. In Rocket Fuel, Wickman argues that entrepreneurs are Visionaries.
He writes, “Entrepreneurs hunt. They don’t manage. They explore rather than analyze. They build companies with vision, creativity, and tenacity; not with policies and procedures.”
He continues by suggesting that every Visionary needs someone to be their Integrator. The Integrator’s role is to manage between the entrepreneur’s vision-driven ideas and the people on the ground actually making those things happen.
I bought it. Hook, line, and sinker.
The ideas in Rocket Fuel felt right to me.
After all, the idea of creating, managing, and—dear god—following procedures made me feel all sweaty and claustrophobic.
Finally, someone was telling me what I suspected all along: I just wasn’t good at managing. I wasn’t built for precision execution. I would always suffocated by routine, analysis, and consistency.
Lots and lots of other small business owners I know bought this argument too. Soon we saw job descriptions for Integrators everywhere. We saw virtual assistants and online business managers start advertising themselves as Integrators.
The language might be new to you—but I have a feeling that this distinction between the idea-creators and the idea-managers feels familiar.
Here’s what I’ve realized since I myself caught the Rocket Fuel fever:
While it’s true that some of us are gifted with natural aptitude toward one side of this spectrum between vision and management, that doesn’t get us off the hook for taking the time and care that’s necessary to manage projects well.
Just because I’m an idea machine doesn’t mean I can’t also be a procedure machine.
Just because I’m creative doesn’t mean I don’t have to follow systems.
Just because I’m fueled by vision doesn’t mean I get a pass on thinking through the process behind my vision’s execution.
Plenty of people will say that you’ve got to stay in your Zone Of Genius to be successful. At the risk of mixing metaphors, I say cross training is important.
I’m not either/or, I’m both/and.
And the more I’ve stepped into everything I can bring to the table,...

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EP 259: Managing The Creative Process With Brooklyn Book Doctor Founder Joelle Hann Jan 14, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Brooklyn Book Doctor founder Joelle Hann manages the process of book writing for her clients* What her book coaching experience taught her about creating and managing a group book proposal writing program* The tools Joelle uses to track her clients’ progress and coach them along to completion* Why it’s key for Joelle to consider the human element at every stage of managing a book writing project
What happens when project management and the creative process collide?
I think we expect a mess. A gnarly pileup of missed deadlines, unrealistic task lists, and artistic prerogative.
But what if the creative process was manageable?
What if there was a way to do your best creative work while also honoring your commitments to the more objective pieces of your project?
That’s the question we’re asking today.
Managing the creative process is exactly what my guest, Joelle Hann, does.
Joelle is the founder of Brooklyn Book Doctor. She works with authors to help them complete their book projects—whether it’s crafting the proposal or completing the manuscript.
Her job is to be as much creative partner as it is project manager.
After Joelle and I wrapped up our conversation, she told me: “the human element is a huge piece of the puzzle.”
And, honestly, if you listen for this idea throughout this interview, I think you’ll see what she means.
Joelle has become a master of managing for the human element in the creative process. And while Joelle has to manage the human element with her clients, we have to do this for ourselves every day.
I believe that all business owners are creatives in one way or another. Whether your version of creativity is expressed in product development, code, design, marketing, or management, you’re creative.
And that means we’re tasked with managing the human element—that’s us—in the creative process each day.
It’s the reason we can fail so epically at developing systems, documenting our work, or shipping new work. It’s the reason we can expect a team to follow our procedures while ignoring them ourselves. And it’s the reason why the technology we use and the way we approach that technology can make such a difference in whether we follow through on the work or not.
Be sure to listen to this conversation for not only some ideas on working with your customers or clients—but working with yourself.
Joelle and I talk about the tools she uses to manage different types of writing projects, what she’s learned about managing projects for creative people, and how her project management system blossomed into its own offer for working clients through the book proposal process.
Now, let’s find out what works for Joelle Hann!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.

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EP 258: Managing Multi-Layer Projects With Kaye Publicity Founder Dana Kaye Jan 07, 2020

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Kaye Publicity founder Dana Kaye plans and manages multi-layer book publicity projects* The tools she uses to track progress, run reports, and organize the information that goes into every project* How her team members take ownership of different areas of each project* Why she’s learning to take a more top-level role in each project they manage
One of my most important personal commitments from last year was to “work the system.”
In other words, I wanted to stop constantly reinventing the wheel, breaking things that weren’t broken, and looking for new novel things to add to my plate.
I wanted to take the systems that we had as a company and work them. No more pretending that I didn’t have to follow the procedure or document my work just because I was the boss. No more excuses for why my tasks weren’t getting checked off or the process wasn’t getting completed.
Just working the systems we had, making them better, and following through until every last item was crossed off the list.
By and large, I was pretty successful! I confirmed this with my team to make sure I wasn’t blowing smoke up my own butt.
What I’ve discovered as I’ve embraced working the system is that—against all odds—I actually love it. In fact, now that I’ve been working the systems for a year, I see systems everywhere. I see how they make things better, how they make me better.
And I relish getting those set up and figuring out how they can become more effective.
Since I’ve decided to finally embrace not only having systems in my business but actually using them myself, I thought it would be fun to kick off the new year at What Works by focusing on project management.
In other words, what does it take to make sure that the projects we start are projects we can finish?
And how do different kinds of projects take on different forms as we use tools to track and complete them? And… how do different kinds of business owners approach managing projects differently?
This month, we’re going to take a look at how a book coach manages the creative process for her clients. We’ll examine why communication and expectation is so important in complex projects with an on-demand CFO and cashflow analyst. And we’ll find out how a conference planner sees his events from vision to final invoice paid.
Plus, we’ve also asked a panel of small business owners to share the tools they use to manage their projects and why they love them. You’ll hear about software like ClickUp, Asana, Trello, and Notion so you can make a more informed decision about what will work for you.
But today, we’re starting with a look at managing massive multi-layer projects.
Dana Kaye is the founder of Kaye Publicity, a publicity agency specializing in helping authors get media coverage for their books. As you’ll hear, publicity projects aren’t exactly linear. It’s not just a list of tasks that need to be completed step by step.
There’s traditional media to go after. There are influencers to reach out to. There is content the team needs from authors and there are conversations that need to be had with the publisher.
Each type of media is another layer in the project. Each layer is owned by a different member of the team.

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EP 257: End-Of-Year Mailbag Episode With Tara McMullin Dec 24, 2019

We’ve had a helluva year here at What Works. We’ve talked to over 100 small business owners, published more than 80 episodes, and tackled 12 different themes this year.
What Works is special because we focus on the people who are making their businesses work every single day.
We believe we all have a lot to learn from each other—and the more honest & transparent we are about how our marketing, operations, tools, product development, or sales processes work, the better chance we all have for success.
On this episode, it’s no different—except, instead of me being the one asking the questions, you are!
Here’s what we covered:
* 2:20 What are the best ways to grow your organic reach on social media today?* 12:48 What kind of structure have you used for in-person strategy intensives?* 19:31 What’s working for you right now as you deal with capacity challenges in a 1:1 service business?* 28:46 What trends do you see coming in 2020?* 36:08 How did you come up with the name for YellowHouse.Media?* 38:24 What are your biggest business lessons from 2019? What marketing will you continue in 2020 and what will you stop doing?* 49:58 How have you leveraged the symbiotic relationship between your podcast and your community?* 55:21 Still running Facebook/Instagram ads in 2020?* 56:43 Who manages your finances and payroll? We use Gusto and recommend you do, too (we receive a small commission when you sign up)!* 57:49 What has been your biggest business challenge in 2019?

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EP 256: Discovering What You Need From Your Business With BrainSpace Optimized Founder Hailey Thomas Dec 17, 2019

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EP 255: Taking Stock & Setting New Intentions With Podcasting Advocate Elsie Escobar Dec 12, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why podcast advocate Elsie Escobar created a personal process for looking back over the year and setting her intentions for the year to come* How setting clear boundaries helps her to stay on top of her commitments and execution* The tools she uses to look back over the past year and how they give her a fresh perspective on what she’s experienced
Do you know what you did this year?
Do you know how many blog posts you published? How many emails you sent out? How many customers bought your product?
Have you kept track of the accolades that have come your way? Or the speeches you’ve delivered? Or the interviews you’ve done?
When the year is hurtling toward a close, it’s easy to lose track of everything you’ve accomplished already. All you can see in front of you is a to-do list that absolutely must get done before you can relax and enjoy the holiday cookie spread.
But that’s precisely why taking a look back is key.
This month, we’re examining how we can take better care of ourselves as small business owners.
We’re putting aside cliche self-care tips and digging into how entrepreneurs actually engineer their routines, procedures, and operations to care for themselves.
This week, my guest is Elsie Escobar. Elsie is the co-host of LibSyn’s podcast The Feed as well as their community manager. She’s also the co-host of She Podcasts, a podcast and community of over 14,000 women podcasters. Her mission is to help more people use their voice and make an impact through the craft of podcasting.
With everything she has going on, it would be easy for Elsie to forget what she’s accomplished in a year.
It would be easy to dismiss the small wins and important insights she’s experienced.
That’s why Elsie has developed a personal process of looking back, assessing her opportunities, setting intentions for the new year.
Elsie and I talk about the energy of the end of the year—and how it can contribute to feeling like we need to catch up no matter how much we’ve achieved. We also talk about the experience that catalyzed her will to look back and set intentions, as well as how she’s trained herself to recognize her true capacity.
Now, let’s find out what works for Elsie Escobar!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 254: Transforming Your Business Model With Growth & Impact Strategist Toi Smith Dec 10, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Toi Smith made the shift from virtual assistant to online business manager to growth & impact strategist* How she reassessed the true value behind what she was offering her clients so she could rework her business model* What eliminating exploitative business practices from her own model has taught her about creating value* How her rates, working hours, and client load is different now that she’s built a business that helps her take care of herself
Business is an experiment.
You try something, you get a result, you learn. Then you try something else.
Little by little, the learning adds up to a business that works.
But often, our learning leads us down a path that earns some money and keeps us busy but doesn’t really let us thrive.
Discovering “what works” can feel like a dead end.
In other words…
…success can make you feel stuck.
You’re your own boss. You’ve got good clients. You have plenty of work to do.
By many accounts, you’re successful.
So it can be really tempting to just make do with what you’ve got—even if it is slowly and relentlessly grinding you down.
So what happens when “what works” is actually grinding you down and making it hard to take care of yourself?
That’s the question we’re exploring today.
It’s a question I’ve asked myself several times during the course of my own business.
There have been plenty of times when what’s working in some ways just wasn’t working for me as a human being. There have been times when what works has turned into what worked—and I needed to rethink my business in a way that would contribute more to my own well-being.
Today’s guest is Toi Smith—a growth & impact strategist who has wrestled with this same question.
Toi and I talk about how her identity and business model has shifted from virtual assistant to online business manager to strategist and why each pivot was necessary. We also talk about the ups and downs of making these changes and the impact each shift has had on her rates, working hours, and client load.
Pay close attention to how Toi talks about her mindset shift away from thinking of her work as labor and into thinking of it as thought partnership and leadership.
She’s had to dismantle and reassemble the way she thinks about how she and her business creates value in order to realize the full potential of her own entrepreneurship.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Toi Smith!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 253: Discovering The Joy of Missing Out With Inkwell Press Founder Tonya Dalton Dec 03, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How The Joy Of Missing Out author Tonya Dalton discovered the stories and self-talk that were keeping her from really enjoying life and celebrating her success* Why identifying the litmus tests she put herself through helped her determine what she really wanted out of life and business* How she reflects on the good, the bad, and the ugly to keep her stories and self-talk in check* How Tonya rewrites her stories so her self-talk supports her and the life she wants to lead
Let’s talk about self-talk.
Self-talk is that voice inside your head that narrates everything happening around you.
Sometimes self-talk pumps you up—like after you nail a meeting with a new client and you remind yourself what a boss you are.
Sometimes self-talk cuts you down—like when you realize you’ve made a mistake and you tell yourself you’re such a screw-up.
I think we’re all pretty familiar with how our inner critics or inner cheerleaders can impact the way we feel or act at this point.
What you might not be so familiar with is how your self-talk can reinforce stories about how the world works… stories that just don’t hold up to scrutiny.
This month on What Works, we’re examining taking care of ourselves with our businesses. That doesn’t just mean taking time for a Hawaiian vacation with all those sweet airline miles you’ve earned on your business credit card. Nor does it mean treating yourself to a massage, a meal delivery, or a first class upgrade because you “deserve it.”
Taking care of yourself with your business means examining how you work—and how the business works for you—from the ground up.
Today, we’re going to look closely at a key component of how you make decisions for your business—your self-talk—and how your self-talk contributes to the 21st century phenomenal of FOMO.
Specifically, we’re going to look at the stories we tell ourselves and how they convince us to do more, push harder, and never rest for fear of missing out.
Next week, we’ll examine how your business model and identity as a service provider impacts how you run your business with growth strategist Toi Smith.
You’ll also hear from podcaster Elsie Escobar about how she audits her growth and accomplishments over the course of the year and sets intentions for the year to come.
Then, you’ll hear from Hailey Thomas about how a sudden loss led her to rethinking the way her business operates and how it impacts her life.
Alright, back to self-talk and the fear of missing out.
A bunch of the stories we tell ourselves revolve around what it takes to be a good business owner.
And these stories make it really difficult to take good care of ourselves.
Your story might be that a good business owners is always available for their clients—so the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night is check your email.
Or, you might tell yourself that a good business owner always completes their to-do list—and you beat yourself up when you don’t.
Or, you might tell yourself that a good business owner is on all the social media platforms—so you work your tail off to be o...

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EP 252: Making New Clients Feel At Home With SmartStart Founder Linda Lopeke Nov 26, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why SmartStart founder Linda Lopeke has every potential client complete a rigorous application* How she sets expectations clearly from the get-go so that every client has the best chance of getting results* What inspired her approach to business systems and client experience* How she makes brand-new clients feel at ease, step-by-step
Starting my working life as a retail worker, I always associated “customer service” with what you do when there’s a problem.
A customer needs to make a return. They have a question about this week’s sale. They need to report a problem with the bathroom.
Despite years and years of training on customer service, no one ever said to me: customer service starts before the customer even walks in the door.
Customer service is having the right product on display. It’s having the carpet freshly vacuumed. It’s having the music at the right level, playing the right songs.
Do customer service right, right from the beginning, and you dramatically reduce the number of problems you encounter during the day.
I didn’t learn that lesson until I started my own business—and really many years after.
For our final episode on our series on designing exceptional customer experiences, I spoke with Linda Lopeke, the founder of SmartStart.
Linda knows that customer service starts long before the first purchase is ever made.
She’s designed her entire client on-boarding system to set clear expectations, ensure fit, and make new clients feel at ease. Instead of crossing her fingers and hoping she doesn’t run into customer service problems, Linda has crafted a process elevates her client experience.
I talked with Linda about the lengthy application process she uses, why she interviews every prospect before they can work with her, and how she brings on a new client step-by-step.
Play close attention to all the opportunities Linda has to set expectations throughout the process and reduce the friction of doing the work.
Now, let’s find out what works for Linda Lopeke!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 251: Teaching Customers How To Use Your Product One At A Time With Tyme Iron Creator Jacynda Smith Nov 21, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Tyme founder Jacynda Smith manages 100-200 individual consultations with new customers each week* Why these personalized consultations help Tyme delight 90% of frustrated customers* How virtual styling sessions create a feedback loop that helps Tyme get better & better* What Tyme is doing to leverage the success they’ve had with personalized virtual styling sessions
“Do things that don’t scale.”
That’s the advice that Paul Graham, co-founder at startup accelerator Y Combinator, commonly gives to founders.
“Do things that don’t scale” just happens to sound like the opposite of what many digital small business owners fret about when they exclaim, “but that doesn’t scale!”
Here’s the thing: if we spend all our time worrying about what does and doesn’t scale, we don’t take the very necessary steps to get to the place where scaling is even an option.
Today, we’re examining customer service that might not scale but has helped the company create massive growth.
Before we get there, let’s take a closer look at this idea of doing things that don’t scale.
In Graham’s article on the concept, he outlines how a number of today’s huge companies did things that didn’t scale to build their footprint.
First, companies like Stripe, Airbnb, and even Facebook recruited new customers by hand. The Stripe founders personally set up new users and installed the software on their websites. The Airbnb founders literally went door to door. Facebook famously went from campus to campus signing up new users.
Second, founders make deliberate choices to take small actions that build the foundation for their ability to scale up. Graham writes, “the right things often seem both laborious and inconsequential at the time.” The “right things” were actions like the Airbnb founders taking professional photographs of early home listings or Steve Jobs prioritizing the quality of execution of his product from fonts to packaging.
Finally, Graham talks about how many successful companies have been built by “over-engaging” with a small group of core users in the beginning. The founders reach out, have one-on-one conversations, and find out how the product is meeting (or not meeting) the user’s needs. It creates a feedback loop that helps the product get better and the company better understand the customer.
And that leads us to today’s conversation with Jacynda Smith, the creator of the Tyme Iron.
The Tyme Iron is a unique hairstyling tool that’s meant to replace both your flat iron and your curling iron so you can create a variety of styles for medium-length to long hair.
When you look at it, you get it.
But when you use it? Well, that can be a different story.
Faced with questions and even some frustration from new users, Jacynda made an interesting choice. She decided to FaceTime her customers, one at a time, and walk them through the process of creating the style they wanted to create with their new Tyme Iron.
In other words, Jacynda made the choice to do something that doesn’t scale.
But instead of abandoning that choice as the company grew, she doubled down.
As you’ll hear, the company now employs 5 full-time virtual stylist...

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EP 250: Creating Wildly Fun Client Experiences With Allie LeFevere Nov 19, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Obedient Agency co-founder Allie LeFevere believes so strongly in the power of humor to build a brand and market a product* How the agency incorporates humor into every touchpoint of their client experiences* The brainstorming techniques they use to find surprising & delightful marketing ideas* Why humor has even made its way into their hiring process
The first time I heard the phrase, “Surprise & delight…”
…I was being trained on Starbucks & Seattle’s Best Coffee company culture.
Our trainer—who was excellent—told us that we were empowered to look for little ways to surprise and delight our guests. Whether that was delivered a freshly brewed cup of coffee to the table they were sitting at or simply taking the time to learn our regulars’ names, the expectation was set that we would go above & beyond.
The “surprise & delight” mantra has stuck with me over years of running my own company.
I’m not as good with stylish gifts or personal notes the way some business owners are. But I am very good at surprising & delighting our clients by taking extra time to answer questions, providing extra resources, or just paying for coffee when we meet up.
It doesn’t take much for an experience to be memorable.
And building a brand around memorable, surprising, and delightful experiences? Well, that’s a recipe for success.
This week, we’re taking a look at a very particular way to surprise and delight your customers—with humor.
Allie LeFevere is the co-founder of Obedient Agency—a full-service humor marketing agency.
Truly, the first time I landed on their website, I can describe my experience as nothing less than surprised and delighted. It’s not funny for funny’s sake—it’s humorous for clarity’s sake. Every piece of it serves to define who they are, what they do, and who they do it for in the most unique ways possible.
I had to know how this brilliant branding & positioning functioned on the inside. Had they designed equally surprising & delighting client experiences?
Yes, of course they have.
Allie and I talk about how that website got built—which is a great look at the brainstorming process they use throughout the agency. We also chat about how they infuse humor into every touchpoint they have with a client, how they manage each client touchpoint, and why client fit is such an important piece of the puzzle.
Now, let’s find out what works for Allie LeFevere!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 249: Standing Out With Exceptional Customer Experiences With Project Army Founder Viktor Nagornyy Nov 12, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Project Army founder Viktor Nagornyy discovered his opportunity in the website support & hosting market* The reason he decided to do the opposite of industry standards when it comes to key customer policies* How he landed on competitive pricing without having to slash expenses or sacrifice customer experience* Why prioritizing exceptional customer experiences has led to significant business growth
I’ve been building websites with WordPress for almost 11 years now.
In the beginning, I used the cheap web hosts you’re probably already familiar with—I won’t name names, though.
I relied on the support those web hosts offered to teach me just about everything I know about name servers, MX records, cPanel, and common errors you get when screwing around in the backend of WordPress.
I asked, they answered.
Then, something changed.
Over time, the support got less and less reliable. It got less and less helpful. It was less and less personable.
And somewhere along the line, the support started to suck.
At the same time, I started to notice I just wasn’t getting same level of service from these companies that I had in the past. My website was down frequently. They started to tell me I needed to upgrade and then upgrade again.
That’s when I jumped ship.
Today’s guest noticed the same crap happening in the web support & hosting industry.
Instead of pursuing a marginally better solution, he decided to take advantage of the situation and use exceptional customer experiences as a way to stand out in a very crowded market.
Viktor Nagorynyy is the founder of Project Army. What started as an SEO and digital marketing consultancy has blossomed into a full-service website support & hosting company that prioritizes customer service and experience.
Viktor shares how doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing has led to big results, why customer service is so important to him, how prioritizing customer service has helped the company grow, and how he utilizes social media to offer help to anyone—even if they’re not a customer.
Now, let’s find out what works for Viktor Nagorynyy!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 248: What’s Working In Setting Boundaries While Delighting Customers With Coach Nicole Lewis-Keeber Nov 07, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* What business therapist & mindset coach Nicole Lewis-Keeber does to help her clients identify boundary issues in their businesses* Why clear communication is key to have a great relationship with your business and your customers* How to renegotiate a relationship that’s run afoul of your personal boundaries* What habits and routines you can develop to ensure you’re upholding your own boundaries on a regular basis
Underpromise and overdeliver.
It’s a sound strategy for wowing your customers…
…but it can also be a recipe for burning out.
Unfortunately, plenty of well-meaning small business owners take the “underpromise & overdeliver” mantra to extremes—especially women.
They bend over backwards to make sure their customers are happy—even if their boundaries and values are being trampled.
I’ve seen this phenomenon up close & personal many times. I’ve also seen how taking the uncomfortable step to establish clear boundaries, charge prices that are appropriate for the level fo service being delivered, and realign scheduling can catapult a business into new, exciting territory.
Since we’re focusing on customer experience right now…
…I wanted to spend an episode focused on what creating customer experiences is not.
And creating exceptional customer experiences is not necessarily about underpromising and overdelivering.
It’s not about bending over backwards to fulfill an unreasonable request.
It’s not about spending every waking moment going above and beyond for your clients.
And while those examples might be an extreme interpretation of what ends up happening in many businesses, they’re also what drive many business owners out of service delivery and into business models where they think they can keep customers at a distance—only to find out they bring the same problems with them.
The problem is that exceptional customer experiences—and exceptional customer relationships—start with clear boundaries and expectations.
And that’s just not a social or professional skill that many of us learn.
We’re often rewarded by teachers, romantic partners, bosses, and friends when we compromise our boundaries. We learn to underpromise and overdeliver at a young age—and we keep it up until we just can’t keep it up any longer.
It’s all part of a cycle that I learned about from my friend Nicole Lewis-Keeber.
Nicole is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker turned business therapist & mindset coach who helps entrepreneurs identify the patterns that cause friction and dysfunction in their businesses. She helps them identify trauma of all kinds, rework habits, and redefine relationships—with themselves, their team members, and their businesses.
I wanted to ask Nicole how she helps her clients establish strong & clear boundaries while maintaining exceptional customer experiences in their businesses.
We talked about how to know when you have a boundary problem, why unclear communication is unkind, how to renegotiate boundaries when there’s a problem, and what kind of routines we can put in place to keep boundary issues from happening in the first place.
Now,

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EP 247: Managing Exceptional Client Experiences In Less Time With Coach Ashley Gartland Nov 05, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Ashley Gartland works with her business coaching clients to help them streamline their own work and reduce their sense of overwhelm* What goes in her welcome email to keep new clients from feeling overwhelmed as they’re getting started with coaching* How a customized Trello board helps her (and her clients) manage the engagement efficiently* Why she reduced her business model to just 2 packages and how that’s helping her create better client experiences
All told, I spent about 12 years of my life in retail and customer service.
I was a pharmacy technician dealing with sick, scared, and overwhelmed pharmacy customers at the ripe old age of 16.
I was cashier at Kohl’s, often stepping in for the cashier supervisor and hawking credit card applications without understanding the damage those credit cards were going to do to the people applying.
I worked in a tiny jewelry shop in the upscale Hotel Hershey.
And I worked my way up for barista to manager at a Borders Books & Music in Reading, PA.
#restinpeace
Customer service is in my blood.
I’ve probably dealt with every conceivable customer service experience you can think of—some fun, others quite uncomfortable, and still others that left me questioning my own ability to form rational thoughts.
And while customer service wasn’t always the most enjoyable part of my job, it was something I took pride in.
Then, I become a business owner.
I thought I was leaving customer service behind.
Now, of course, I know how silly that seems.
Despite being “founder & CEO,” customer service is woven into everything I do. Every decision I make directly impacts the experience we’re creating for the people who pay good money to do business with us.
What’s more, any misstep I make with customer service or experience feels like a judgement on me and my greatest work. It threatens to derail my schedule and ruins my day.
What I have learned as a business owner, though, is that customer service is as much—if not more—what happens far in advance of actually talking to a customer or putting a product in their hands. It’s the planning, the communication, the policies, the expectation-setting, and the procedures.
This month, we’ll be exploring how small businesses create exceptional customer and client experiences…
…through the way they plan, communicate, create procedures, and set expectations & policies.
You’ll hear from Viktor Nagornyy who has grown his website support & hosting company by prioritizing exceptional customer service—something unheard of in his industry. You’ll also hear from Jacynda Smith, who has developed a system for providing one-on-one help to everyone who buys the hair tool she invented.
You’ll hear why Linda Lopeke developed her rigorous client on-boarding process and how Allie LeFevere incorporates humor into her client experiences. And in our next episode, you’ll hear what’s working to create firm client boundaries while you prioritize exceptional experiences with Nicole Lewis-Keeber.
But first, I want to share my conversation with Ashley Gartland with you.
Ashley is a business coach who specializes in helping overwhelmed,

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EP 246: Learning From Your Mistakes With Leadership Developer & LMFT Rebecca Ching Oct 29, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Potentia Therapy founder Rebecca Ching learned from key mistakes she made bringing her vision to life* What she does differently today when she’s finding the right people for her team* Why learning to lead has made her less lonely as a business owner* The process of self-reflection that allowed her to stop debating her own worthiness despite her setbacks
If there’s one constant in business and entrepreneurship, it’s that stuff happens.
Things go wrong.
We make bad choices.
The market shifts.
An employee leaves.
The big client gives notice that they’re terminating your contract.
We can’t always prepare for what’s going to go wrong—but we can work on becoming more resilient when bad things do inevitably happen.
This month, we’ve been sharing conversations all around the topic of resilience.
We’ve looked at why we don’t push through to our goals and finish the projects we start. We’ve explored the natural and not-so-natural pivots that happen over time. We’ve examined how expectations can get out of hand and what it looks like to coach yourself through 2 decades of business ownership.
Today, as we close things out, we’re going to take a good, long look at actually learning from our mistakes.
I spoke with one of my oldest business friends, Rebecca Ching, about some of the mistakes she made when she took a huge leap forward in her therapy business and opened a multidisciplinary brick & mortar practice. Today, Rebecca is both the founder of Potentia Therapy and an Integrated Leadership Coach helping entrepreneurs and leaders navigate the complexities of leadership today.
Rebecca shares both the errors in her execution and the errors in her thinking that led to some difficult years.
She also gets into some deep reflection around her personal identity and sense of worthiness that really resonated with me. For many of us self-described “achievers,” making a mistake or failing at a venture isn’t just a set back—it rocks us to our core.
If that’s you too, I think you’ll especially appreciate this conversation.
And if you’ve appreciated this deep dive we’ve spent on resilience this month, I’d love for you to leave What Works a rating & review on Apple Podcasts. Your kind words mean the world to me.
Now, let’s find out what works for Rebecca Ching!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while ...

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EP 245: Coaching Yourself To Stick With It With Original Impulse Founder Cynthia Morris Oct 22, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How coach & author Cynthia Morris has coached herself through 20 years of growth as an entrepreneur* How she battles the “octopus of lots of different offers & ideas” that sneaks up on you when you’ve been in business that long* Why a trip to France helped open a new chapter in her business—and ultimately created its own challenges* How she wound up with the business model she has today
I am really willing to do that?
I pulled myself out of bed this morning at 5:30 and went downstairs, anxiously awaiting my first cup of coffee.
I put the water in the kettle, fired up the burner, and prepped my Aeropress.
At this point, I realized the dishwasher needed to be emptied.
Now, I am not the kind of woman who does household chores unprovoked. In fact, some serious provoking is usually what it takes for me to do things like fold the laundry, sweep the floor, or return the accumulation of water glasses on my desk to the kitchen.
I’m not proud of this. It’s just the truth.
But I’ve been working on it.
Because I value my marriage.
So, I told myself I was willing to empty the dishwasher and I did it.
Thank you… thank you… Hold the applause to the end, please.
“I am willing…” that’s a personal mantra I’ve been working on over the last 6 months or so. I learned it from a book with a questionable title by a coach named Gary John Bishop.
Truthfully, I haven’t gotten past the first chapter of that book because “I am willing” was enough of a mind-bender to work on for awhile!
Reminding myself that I’m willing has had a dramatic impact on my business, too.
During a sales campaign that I wish was over already, I remind myself that I’m willing to show up, answer questions, and find every last person who is ready to buy.
During a conference that has my social anxiety peaking, I remind myself that I’m willing to meet new people and nurture old relationships.
While emptying out my inbox, I remind myself that I’m willing to take a few extra minutes and reply to emails that have been waiting for me.
It’s these small activities—and often the moments of small “c” courage that Charlie Gilkey talked about in Episode 241—that really add up at the end of the day.
Just like proactively emptying the dishwasher or folding my laundry really adds up in my marriage!
When you’re looking at something like your business—or your marriage—that ideally is going to last 10 year, 20 years, 30 years or longer, it’s easy to think about the big moments and forget about all the small things you were willing to do along the way.
But my guest today hasn’t forgotten about the small things that have made her business stand the test of time.
Cynthia Morris is the founder of Original Impulse. She coaches writers, artists and entrepreneurs to get out of their own way so they can finish projects that matter.

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EP 244: Managing Anxiety As An Entrepreneur With Supernova Collective Creator Jo Casey Oct 17, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How coach and business strategist Jo Casey manages her anxiety as an entrepreneur* The situation that revealed just how big an impact anxiety had on how she ran her business* How setting clearer boundaries and doubling her rates helped to get back on track* Why she’s simplified her business as a way of managing her anxiety* The positive results she’s seen by making her anxiety conscious and working to manage it productively
Wait, my anxiety isn’t normal?
We were driving along Interstate 90 somewhere between Chicago and Minneapolis on the hottest day of the summer.
Sean asked me, “Can you remember a time when you didn’t feel anxious?”
I paused. I thought. I looked back over the key periods of my life.
“Well, no. I can’t remember a time I didn’t feel anxious,” I finally responded.
Honestly, I was surprised.
You see, I’ve spent my whole adolescent and adult life being hyper-aware of my history of depression. Even when I’m feeling good, I’m on the look out for the warning signs.
I realize that might sound a bit anxious all on its own—but looking for the warning signs has allowed me to get help before things got really bad a numbers of times.
I’ve spent the last 7 years or so fairly free of depressive episodes and generally considered my mental health to be strong.
So this realization that anxiety—that tight feeling in my chest, the lump at the pit of my stomach, the prickly skin, the whirling mind, the foreboding sense that at any moment things could all fall apart…
That realization that anxiety has always been with me and—get this—that it isn’t normal? **It was a shock.
As I started to examine the impact anxiety has had on me, I couldn’t help but see its presence all over my business.
Now, here’s the thing. You might be surprised to learn just how big an impact anxiety has had on me and my business over the years.
You probably don’t think of me as someone who struggles to make decisions or take action. You don’t think of me as someone nervous about stepping out of the shadows or making big moves.
But there is a whole category of anxiety that often presents in high-performers—the achievers, the doers, the make stuff happen people. It’s called High Functioning Anxiety.
Simply put, High Functioning Anxiety is the constant sense that everything will fall apart around you if you’re not performing at your highest capacity all the time. It’s mix of overdoing, overthinking, and over-achieving.
And listener? I would not be surprised if that sounds familiar to you.
I learned about High Functioning Anxiety from one of Yellow House Media’s podcasting clients, Nancy Jane Smith, and her show The Happier Approach.
Ever since I heard the concept, I can recognize my anxiety everywhere. I feel it when the hotel shuttle bus is making me late for my flight. I feel it when I receive an invitation to a party I’m expected to attend but don’t have the right outfit for. I feel it every time I hit send on an email or realize I’ve made a typo in a sales page. I feel it when I’m obsessing on a client situation or setting big goals for the business.

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EP 243: Living Up To Your Own Expectations With ClickMinded Founder Tommy Griffith Oct 15, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Tommy Griffith left a job he loved at AirBnB to pursue growing his side hustle, a digital marketing education company called ClickMinded* How his expectations of life as an entrepreneur collided with the reality of executing his plans* The mindset that allowed him to persevere through some pretty gnarly circumstances* Why Tommy decided to bring on a partner at ClickMinded late in the game—and how that decision helped him take the company to the next level
Let’s talk about your fantasies.
Most ads that grace your Facebook or Instagram feed are selling every business owner’s fantasy: more money with a heckuva lot less work… get paid to be you… use this 3-step formula to finally find true freedom.
Most of those ads look pretty much the same because they’re selling an end result—an outcome that inspires you to buy. There are photos of beautiful destinations. There are videos with soft, natural lighting. There are charts that only point upward.
What most ads leave out is how it’s all going to come to fruition.
Sure, there are blog posts, email courses, and webinars that will tell you more about what happens in between now and full fantasy realization. But the details are in the product they’re selling or the service they’re offering.
And rightfully so! If you have a product that has the potential to create the ultimate fantasy, you should absolutely get paid for that.
Of course, what comes between the “now” and full fantasy realization—that’s where our brains start to play tricks on us.
This doesn’t just happen with business training or services, either. It happens any time someone is selling wellness, weight loss, retirement planning, relationship coaching, fitness, personal styling… in fact, most consumer industries are all about fantasy fulfillment.
We know that it will take time and work to create our dream outcome. We know there will be detours to follow and mistakes made. We know it’s never quite as easy and straightforward as it seems.
And yet…
We forget.
We fixate on the fantasy and forget reality.
Now while we’re fixating on the fantasy, we get careless. We assume that our dream of working from the beach, traveling full-time, putting the kids through college, or—say— building a custom tiny house in the Flathead Valley of Montana is just right around the corner and we act like our success is a foregone conclusion.
This is where the story starts with today’s guest, Tommy Griffith.
Tommy is the founder of ClickMinded, a comprehensive digital marketing training company that started as a simple, in-person SEO workshop.
I’ll let Tommy tell you the whole story—but suffice to say that it includes leaving a great job at AirBnB, living abroad, fantasies of working from the beach, food poisoning, ruining $50,000 worth of work, and being robbed.
Through it all, Tommy persevered.
And the story—a happy one—ends with a pretty unexpected move to bring the company into its next stage.
Tommy and I chat about why he made the decisions he did, how he kept going when things were nowhere near awesome, and how his expectations routinely got in the way of his execution.

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EP 242: Embracing Uncertainty To Grow Your Business With Co-Creating Inclusion Founder Alethea Fitzpatrick Oct 08, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Co-Creating Inclusion founder Alethea Fitzpatrick took a long & winding road to creating her new company* Why embracing uncertainty has helped her stay flexible while building her business* The many pivots she’s made from architecture to photography to operations management to diversity consulting* Why respecting her Zone Of Genius has kept her from getting caught up in expectations
Starting a business is a risk.
Running a business is a risk.
Growing a business is a risk.
Ostensibly, we’ve all signed on for this risky life as an entrepreneur. But, we often find ourselves searching for certainty and hunting for the “sure thing.”
We do it every time we think another $2000 course is going to answer all our questions about building a successful business. We do it every time we wait a few more months to launch a new offer into the world. We do it every time we avoid reinforcing a boundary because it might upset a client.
In our last episode, Episode 241 with Charlie Gilkey, we talked about how striving for certainty keeps us stuck.
When we aim to choose the “sure thing,” we hesitate, procrastinate, and avoid.
Charlie advocated for building our courage by finding all the moments in the day when we can choose the option that has room for growth, for vulnerability, for risk… and yes, for uncertainty.
I was reminded of that idea during my conversation with today’s guest, Alethea Fitzpatrick.
Alethea is the founder of Co-Creating Inclusion, a diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm with a mission to shift culture and drive equity through workshop facilitation, leadership development, and business integration.
But Alethea has also been the founder of a host of other ventures!
To continue our focus on resilience and entrepreneurship, I wanted to talk with Alethea about the long and winding journey she’s taken to get to where she is now. Because where she is now is authentic, organic growth and a whole new level of success doing work that is incredibly important to her (and to the world).
We’ll get to how she’s achieved that in a minute—but first…
…let’s take another look at how having the courage to tolerate uncertainty, to even embrace uncertainty, can work in a business.
Later in the conversation, Alethea shares that she’s chosen clarity of her Why and her What but she’s remaining open to how it’ll all come together. She’s choosing to be strategic about designing a container that’s flexible enough to hold different outcomes.
I think this is a beautiful example of what Charlie was talking about in our last episode—but it also seems to be the secret sauce for how Alethea has gotten where she is right now. She has always followed clarity while allowing for openness and uncertainty so that she could grow into the direction of her goals.
Keep that in mind as Alethea and I talk about the journey she’s taken to get to where she is now.
Alethea and I also talk about the businesses and jobs that predate Co-Creating Inclusion, the moment she realized there was a new opportunity presenting itself, how the transition into consulting felt, and how her Zone of Genius keeps her from getting caug...

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EP 241: Finishing What You Start With Start Finishing Author Charlie Gilkey Oct 03, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Start Finishing author Charlie Gilkey explains the relationship between resilience and finishing the projects and plans we start* Why tensions like mastery versus growth, structure versus novelty, and serving ourselves versus serving others make it harder to reach our goals* How vulnerability and little “c” courage can help us achieve bigger, more meaningful results* What Charlie coaches his clients through when they fail to reach an important outcome
We all procrastinate, avoid, and hesitate from time to time.
If you’ve ever stared at an empty email trying to figure out the exact right thing to say…
If you’ve ever avoided a networking event because you weren’t sure how everyone else was going to be dressed or whether you’d feel like you belonged there…
If you’ve ever hesitated to share your thoughts in a comment because you didn’t know how you’d be received…
Well, you and I have a lot in common.
Maybe your list isn’t the same as mine. Maybe there are other variables or scenarios that send your mind swirling.
Regardless, life is full of those moments when we procrastinate, avoid, and hesitate because we’re not exactly sure what will come next.
Business is full of those moments, too.
Today, I invited my dear friend Charlie Gilkey back on the show to talk about the subject of his new book, Start Finishing: How To Go From Idea To Done. It’s perfect for this month we’re spending on resilience.
You see, Start Finishing, sounds like a book on productivity—and it is. But it’s the kind of productivity book that only a philosopher could write. And this is the kind of interview on productivity, decision-making, planning, and doing your best work that only a philosopher could give.
If you don’t know Charlie already, let me give you a bit of background. Charlie is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Nebraska. He was a logistics officer in the Army National Guard and was deployed in Iraq. He’s now the co-founder & CEO of Productive Flourishing, which helps people build better businesses through strategic planning, system development, self-mastery, and personal effectiveness.
I wanted to find out what resilience has to do with the way we do—or do not—complete the projects that we start and the goals we half-heartedly commit to.
My conversation with Charlie certainly provided some answers to that question—and a whole lot more.
One of my biggest takeaways from talking to Charlie was the divide between certainty and uncertainty…
…and how our quest for certainty keeps us stuck.
I’ve been paying much closer attention to the moments when I can make a choice where the outcome is uncertain but the upside is big. It’s helped me lean into vulnerability, find my true commitments, and achieve some pretty amazing results in a very short period of time.
Charlie and I also talk about the tension between mastery and growth, why we love structure but still crave novelty, how we let conflicting patterns mess with our ability to create results, and why achieving success isn’t just a matter of intelligence or information.
Now, let’s find out what works for Charlie Gilkey.

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EP 240: Leveraging Commitment To Find What Works With Tara McMullin And Big Dreams Bold Moves Host Malia Russell Oct 01, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How What Works founder Tara McMullin realized that business had gone off track* Why she chose to pivot to a building community-oriented business support network instead of offering coaching or online courses* What mistakes she made along the way and how she changed course to correct them* Why “steadfast commitment” is her barometer right now
I turned 37 last month.
I certainly don’t get worked up about getting older nor am I one for big birthday celebrations or rituals.
But this year, it really hit me just how much growing up I’d done in the last 12 months. I’ve done a lot of work on myself. And that’s led to a lot of very practical work being done to the business, too.
I’ve examined old stories that were still controlling my thoughts and actions. I’ve looked at the shadow side of my strengths. I’ve questioned myself, my motivations, and my goals to make sure I’m blazing my own trail and not chasing someone else’s idea of success.
And, like I said, this wasn’t just personal work—if there’s any “just” about that.
All of the personal work I’ve done has led to some very real changes in how I run my business and how I operate as a leader.
Over the last year, I’ve worked to slow down and loop my team into ideas I have or changes I want to make. I’ve integrated my work into the systems that our team uses. I’ve gone deep into the way our core product is built and delivered to question why we do what we do and how our product could serve our customers better.
I’ve worked to make this podcast best in class.
Looking back on all the work I’ve done over the last year, I have to admit…
I am pretty damn proud of myself.
So I asked myself what exactly I learned through all that work—and how I could leverage it to keep the momentum going.
I looked at all the ways the work I did over the last year left me feeling more fulfilled, more fully realized—and I realized that it all had one thing in common.
When I committed—truly, fully committed—I not only got satisfying results, I felt freaking great about the process of getting those results.
When I did something just because I could—or I thought I should—I might succeed but it didn’t make me feel awesome. I ended up feeling more anxious, self-conscious, or just plain bored.
Okay, commitment. I can do that.
And yes, again—this applies to both my personal life and my business life. It applies to my mindset and to the practical, hands-on work I do on a daily basis.
So on my birthday, I decided that the question that would shape this next year in my life would be:
“What am I willing to make a steadfast commitment to?”
And to answer that question, I would ask myself what does steadfast commitment actually look like? What does steadfast commitment to a race look like? What does steadfast commitment to an offer look like? What does steadfast commitment to this podcast look like? What does steadfast commitment to my relationship look like?
Truthfully, these questions didn’t appear out of thin air. It’s actually something that’s been percolating for quite some time.
So much of my life and business to this point has been guided by impulse...

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EP 239: Expanding Your Capacity Beyond The Classroom With Design Dance Founder Debra Giunta Sep 26, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Debra Giunta’s vision for Design Dance led her to make specific hiring decisions as the company grew in scale* Why she waited 6 years to hire herself on full-time* How her dance program and curriculum adapts depending on the school she’s partnering with* What she looks for in the people she hires—and how that’s evolved over time
I’m pretty sure I took myself to Starbucks for an iced latte with the first 10 bucks I made with my business.
From there, everything I earned went into the family kitty.
I started my business with a vision of paying myself… and not much else.
Many years later, this is the #1 thing I regret from those early business years. Had I spent more time considering where I was going and how I could reinvest in my business to get there faster, I think I’d be in a very different place right now.
That said, I don’t beat myself up about it. I did the best I could with the information I had at the time.
Today, I do things very differently.
I invest in my team. I invest in professional tools. I invest in our growth. And, as I’m starting a second company, I’m reexamining how I do those things with a fresh mind.
By the way, if you missed the 411 on my new company, Yellow House Media, you can catch up by listening to Episode 232.
A huge part of what we do here at What Works—and inside The What Works Network—is purposefully expose you to business owners who have taken a different path. I want to equip you with more information, options, and experiences than I had all those years ago.
That’s what this whole Scaling Up series has been about.
Today’s conversation is the last in our series on Scaling Up. We’ve covered a lot of territory —everything from starting with scale in mind, to intentionally not scaling, to leveraging your special sauce, to building certification programs, and more.
But today’s conversation gives us a crash course in how all these things can fit together and it tackles another common dilemma business owners with scale on the brain face.
Is your first priority paying yourself? Or is your top priority paying someone else?
My guest is Debra Giunta, the founder of Design Dance, a community dance education company that’s reaching over 1500 K-12 students with arts education and social-emotional learning every year.
I talk with Debra about her vision for Design Dance and how it led her to making important choices about when she started hiring help. We also talk about how Design Dance has expanded from its original school partner into 50 different sites, how she hires teachers to manage all those programs, and the nitty-gritty of how the business runs on the inside.
We’ll find out What Works for Debra Giunta in just a minute—but first, I have a favor to ask you.

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EP 238: Scaling Up With A Certification Program With The Ops Authority Founder Natalie Gingrich Sep 24, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why The Ops Authority founder Natalie Gingrich opted for scale using a certification program instead of building out an agency* What she created first on the way to developing her certification program* How she determined what the certification program would include and how it would be structured* What she’s tackling next to continue to create value and build capacity for her company
What you do doesn’t have to be magic.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
I love this idea because not only does it apply to the iPhone in my pocket or the car that plays music from that phone as soon as I turn the key. But it also applies to the work we do on a daily basis.
I’ve heard from so many small business owners over the years that what they do for their clients can feel like magic.
Maybe you feel that way too. You don’t know exactly how it happens… but you get on Zoom with a client and magic happens. You start writing sales copy for a client… and magic happens. You get on a stage… and magic happens.You start painting or designing… and magic happens.
Now, I don’t—in any way—want to discount the feeling that comes along with making that kind of magic happen.
But… what I do want to do is point you to the underlying technology that makes it happen.
“Technology” in this case isn’t code or wires or processing units.
It’s a system.
We all have them. And, even when something feels like magic, there is a technology—a system—that is making it all happen.
So let me remind you of Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
The reason your work feels like magic is because it’s really advanced technology! And, listener, do you know what else that means?
It’s super valuable.
This month, we’re talking about scale and, as you might have already guessed, the advanced technology behind the magic you make on a daily basis could be the key to scaling your business.
So far, we’ve explored this in the form of your “special sauce.” But really, special sauce is just another way of talking about advanced technology! In Episode 236, Carol Cox shared how she’s using her advanced technology to train other speech coaches to work for her. In Episode 237, Katey Schultz shared how focusing on her advanced technology allowed her to expand the capacity of her monthly mentorship program.
Today, we’re going to look at another way of scaling up based on your advanced technology—certification programs.
My guest is Natalie Gingrich, the founder of The Ops Authority.
After spending 15 years in corporate at a Fortune 150 company, she dove into entrepreneurship leveraging her project management and HR experience to assist high-level influencers in the online and small business worlds. What she discovered along the way was that there was a ton of super capable women whose skill sets were not leveraged and whose natural tendency toward leadership wasn’...

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EP 237: Discovering What Scales With Writer & Maximum Impact Founder Katey Schultz Sep 19, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty
* How writing mentor Katey Schultz knew she wanted to scale up her Monthly Mentorship program* What she did first to scale… and why it wasn’t enough to meet her goals or her personal needs* Why some big mindset shifts were key to seeing the real opportunity—and how a moment of deep fatigue opened the door to an important aha moment* How Katey settled on a format for serving many more writers in much less time
Scaling up often requires zoning in.
What I mean is that, most of the time, a business doesn’t actually scale up the whole of what can do. It scales up one small piece of the puzzle.
The result might be focusing on a particular outcome you can create for clients. It might be focusing on a particular aspect of your methodology. It might be creating leverage from a particular component of the brand. It might even be a particular feature or component of your value proposition.
And, quite often, businesses choose the wrong thing to focus on.
A business that’s not operating at scale can be good at many things. But which one of those many good things will be the key to scaling up?
It’s easy to see how the wrong choice gets made.
My guest today had a business that resembles so many: one that required her constant input, expertise, and care just to stay afloat.
While she felt like it was already a success in many ways, Katey Schultz (get Katey’s free guide to using flash storytelling to power your content marketing) realized that her business wasn’t really meeting her needs. She wanted more of a challenge. She wanted more time. She wanted more money.
So Katey started to look at how to scale her offer, a monthly mentorship for writers.
This conversation is the story of her journey to do that. We talk through the mindset shifts she needed to make, the experiments she ran, and the aha! moment that made her realize she’d scaled the wrong thing.
Now, let’s find out what works for Katey Schultz!
A good story, in about one page or less, is a powerful and genuine way to sell things. Katey is offering What Works listeners a guide on how to do just that. Get the free PDf here!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 236: Leveraging Your Special Sauce With Speaking Your Brand Founder Carol Cox Sep 17, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Speaking Your Brand founder Carol Cox realized she was at capacity and hungry for more* Why she chose to hire & train another speech coach instead of moving into online courses* The mindset work she needed to do to prepare herself for the transition into scale* How she found her first hire and got her started with clients
When it comes to small business, there are plenty of special snowflakes out there.
And before I inadvertently offend you, let me explain what I mean.
A special snowflake business is one that’s focused on the unique talents of the owner. It’s the “only you can do what you do” mantra so many fluffy business classes preach.
When you have a special snowflake business, customers buy to get a piece of you. They want what you can do for them.
Look, some people genuinely like it that way. Cool.
But special snowflake businesses don’t scale.
Oprah is truly special—but she didn’t create a culture-shifting television show, her own entertainment network, and O Magazine by being a special snowflake.
Oprah figured out her special sauce and channeled that into all sorts of ventures that grew the capacity of her work & impact beyond her own personal capacity.
Working out the recipe to your own special sauce is a key to crafting a company that scales.
When many small business owners start thinking about growth, they think about all the tasks they don’t like to do and outsource them. The dream is to be left with only the task of making the product or delivering the service that you love.
Regardless of whether you ever reach the point of living that dream, eventually, you’re at capacity and stuck at a ceiling—again.
If you want to really scale, you have to be willing to train other people to create value for you (and for your customers). You need to get others in on the game of making the product or delivering the service.
That’s the plan Carol Cox devised. Carol is the founder of Speaking Your Brand, a speech coaching agency that helps women entrepreneurs and executives craft their signature talks.
I wanted to ask Carol how she worked out the recipe to her own special sauce so she could start training the first speech coach she brought on board.
Carol and I talk about the time and energy she put into working with clients 1:1, paying attention to exactly how she worked her magic. We also chat about how she knew it was time to hire, what have been her biggest fears throughout the process, and how her mindset about the business she’s building has shifted.
Now, let’s find out what works for Carol Cox!

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EP 235: What’s Working To Scale With Software With Scale Spark Founder Susan Boles Sep 12, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How ScaleSpark founder Susan Boles uses software to solve capacity problems for her clients and help them scale up* Why she starts with a software audit before making any changes—and how you can too* What she looks for when considering what software options to go with* The first step to getting started with new software (it’s not what you’d expect!)
When I first got serious about building a team and documenting our business systems…
…I signed up for Asana.
If you’re not familiar, Asana is a project management system that tons of people were raving about at the time. They claimed how organized it made them. they said how wonderful it was to have a checklist of everything that needed done in front of them. They loved being able to assign deadlines and delegate tasks.
That all sounded marvelous.
But my experience of Asana was… not so great.
No matter how hard I tried to “be good”—check off all the boxes, stick to my deadlines, and process my tasks, I’d end up falling behind and ignoring the whole system.
My team could use Asana. But I couldn’t.
And I felt like a bad business owner. I felt like I wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t disciplined enough, like I just couldn’t hack it.
Dramatic? Maybe but it seemed like Asana was what worked for everyone I respected and I just couldn’t seem to get on board.
Late last year, Marie Poulin—who you just heard from in Episode 234—shared that she’d switched her project management (and practically everything else) over to an app called Notion.
It turned out that Notion (why yes, that’s our referral link) allowed for way more than checking things off a list and organizing tasks by project. It was purposefully non-linear, adaptable, and infinitely customizable.
I was intrigued.
We took a look… and we were hooked.
Now, it’s no surprise that my team can use Notion. They’re a bunch of a project management badasses. But the fact that I can use it? Well, that was a surprise.
What Notion has made me realize is that software doesn’t just work on its own.
It works with you—or it doesn’t work.
Asana is great. But it’s not great for me. It doesn’t help me scale my capacity. It doesn’t help me do my job.
Notion works with me. It let’s me think the way I want to think. It helps me do my job and increase my capacity for doing my best work.
Notion reminded me that I am organized, disciplined, and committed to growing my company.
And no piece of software can take that away from me again.
Now, my guest today is no stranger to the way software can either help or hurt a business.
Susan Boles is the founder of ScaleSpark, a consulting firm that helps companies break through growth ceilings by fixing back-end processes and creating systems designed to scale.

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EP 234: Choosing Not To Scale With Oki Doki Co-Founder Marie Poulin Sep 10, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why a cocktail party conversation prompted Marie Poulin to confront the assumption that scaling your business is the ultimate goal* How Oki Doki’s hybrid business model works—and why it’s the perfect approach for Marie and her partner, Ben* How Marie’s personal priorities and ideal lifestyle are helping to shape her business decisions* Why she’s looking for a sense of equilibrium between the energy she puts into the business and the energy she receives from it
To scale or not to scale—that’s really not the question.
At least, it’s not the first question you need to ask about the direction you want to take your business.
As we mentioned in Episode 232, Sean and I are choosing to prepare our new company for scale is because it will help us live the lifestyle we want to live and do the kinds of work we want to do.
Callie Willows mentioned in our last episode that one of the reasons the Member Site Academy works so well for The Membership Guys is that it supports the lifestyle her and her partner want. Coaching and consulting just wouldn’t.
She also talked about how building a membership site has allowed her to thrive as an introvert.
So maybe the real questions are:
What kind of life do you want to lead? What kind of work lights you up, allows you to thrive?
Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the hype or anti-hype around scaling and miss those questions.
Today, my guest is Marie Poulin—our first 3 time guest here on the pod!
Marie is not someone to miss the important questions. Her and her husband Ben are building Oki Doki with the life and work they want to lead top of mind. That choice has brought them face to face with some scrutiny from people with a scale-or-die mindset.
Marie recently wrote a lengthy article about her choice not to scale—or, not to scale in any conventional way—so, of course, I wanted to bring her on the show while we’re covering scale to talk about it!
Marie and I chat about the hybrid business model Oki Doki has developed, the cocktail party conversation that shook her up, how she approaches finding a equilibrium with her energy, and how her focus on profitability has paid off.
Now, let’s find out what works for Marie Poulin!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 233: Creating Scale With A Single Offer With Membership Guys Co-Founder Callie Willows Sep 05, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Callie Willows and her partner decided to go “all in” on a membership site as their only offer* How she stays on up to date with the content and conversation inside the community* Why member experience is their top priority and retention is their top metric* What makes a membership site perfect for her own unique kind of introversion
Okay, who wouldn’t want to be paid month after month for the same product?
That’s the promise of a membership site. You set it up, convince people to join you, and they pay—and pay again, and again, and again, and again.
You tend to the group and the money just keeps coming.
Now, if you’ve already guessed that this is—in fact—not the reality of building and running a membership site, you would be correct.
Creating any kind of subscription-based product has the potential for a huge payoff with healthy profit margins. But actually building the business that allows that to happen is a different story.
Building a subscription-based product is one key way small businesses can scale up.
But they can require a significant trade-off in at the beginning. It takes time, energy, infrastructure, and savvy marketing to get to a point where the business is healthy and profitable.
I know this from personal experience.
So does Callie Willows, the co-founder of The Membership Guys. Callie runs Member Site Academy, a leading training resource and community for membership site owners.
Callie and I talk about why The Membership Guys chose to focus on just one offer, the mindset shifts she’s had to make running a membership site, the operations that go into keeping members happy, and how running a membership site is a great fit for her as an introvert.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Callie Willows!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 232: Scaling From The Start With Yellow House Media Co-Founders Sean & Tara McMullin Sep 03, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Sean & Tara McMullin are starting a second company, Yellow House Media, and keeping scale in mind from the get-go* How they’ve prioritized doing every task like they’ll have to do it again tomorrow* Why they’re keeping future hires in mind while they document processes* The importance of considering an exit strategy earlier than you’d ever expect
Big businesses start small, too.
Today, we’re kicking off a month focused on scaling up.
We’re examining the misconceptions, the assumptions, the biases, and—of course—the many ways that small business owners today are scaling up.
And no—it’s not all online courses or apps.
If you’ve been thinking about how your business can have a bigger impact, serve more customers, and make you more money…
…but you’re at a loss of how to do that without running yourself into the ground or sacrificing your values…
…this month is dedicated to you.
To start this month, I have a confession to make.
I started a new company. A second company.
And I started it with someone you know: my husband and the producer of What Works, Sean McMullin.
We’re approaching the first moves in this company completely differently than when I started my own business almost 11 years ago.
To sum it up: we’re starting with scale in mind from the get-go.
To be honest, the idea of “scaling up” snuck up on me the first time around. By the time I was well on my way to scaling up in theory, I realized that my company wasn’t ready to scale up in practice.
My finances were a mess. My team was disorganized. There was little—if any—documentation. Important stuff fell through the cracks all the time.
Getting that stuff handled? It took years.
I do not want to repeat those mistakes.
And since Sean was around for that clean-up job, he doesn’t want to repeat them either.
So Sean and I are doing things very differently this time around.
In just a bit, we’ll have a conversation about what scaling up means to us, why we’ve started this company, and how I finally convinced Sean to start a business.
We’re also going to talk about the nitty-gritty details of how we’re starting with scale in mind. Things like process documentation, planning for future hires, pricing with labor in mind, creating scripts, anticipating training, and considering our exit strategy.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg for what we’re covering on the podcast this month. You’ll hear from Callie Willows who scaled up with a membership site, Marie Poulin who is intentionally choosing a path that doesn’t necessarily scale, and Carol Cox who is hiring and training coaches to help her scaling her speech coaching company.
You’ll also hear from Katey Schultz who challenged some personal assumptions to scale up her writer mentorship program, Debra Giunta who has scaled her company providing ★ Support this podcast ★

EP 231: Taking Risks And Experimenting With Confidence With Author & Online Business Manager Victoria Klein Aug 29, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Victoria Klein questioned her choices and assumptions to try some decidedly unexpected things in her business and life* Why she decided to go back to school to study Japanese and how the decision gave her a fresh perspective on her business* What’s happened to her level of confidence as she’s experimented and questioned her assumptions* Why her business is better off today than before she took these unconventional risks
Assumptions, defaults, stories—I’ve had a number of conversations recently about the role unconscious choices play in how we run our businesses.
Maybe your inbox is out of control and your calendar is jam-packed, so you go with the flow and assume you need to hire help.
Maybe you tell yourself a story about keeping prices low so that more people will buy and sales will be easier.
Maybe you default to following someone else’s business plan instead of getting creative with your own.
Every single day—every hour, even—we’re presented with choices. But most of them never really look like choices to us because we’re so used to falling back on the default or playing to the story that’s already in our heads about what we’re supposed to do in that scenario.
The option of doing something different doesn’t even cross our minds.
We’re wrapping up our month on confidence with today’s episode and I think it’s worth taking a look back on what we’ve covered. Not in a “previously on What Works…” kind of way. But, instead, looking at the threads that have tied these stories together.
One thing I’ve noticed is how all of our guests made the decision to disrupt the stories about what life or business was supposed to look like…
…and embraced something personal, maybe even unconventional.
Jamie Varon picked up her life and moved to the south of France—and discovered a new a approach to life.
Hillary Rea realized that success doesn’t have to mean conventional growth and that her body of work is much more than the number of butts in seats.
Michael Karsh didn’t wait until he felt ready or experienced enough to sign big deals with Google or Facebook.
Victoria Clark chose to prioritize building her career in a way that meant she was getting paid for the hard work and long hours she was putting into practicing law.
Disrupting long-held stories, beliefs, and assumptions is really uncomfortable. It’s unnerving. While you’re there, being a leader, questioning something important… you end up questioning everything else too.
So maybe that’s another way to look at confidence.
Confidence is the skill, the practice of questioning everything.
It’s the power to be uncomfortable while you forge your own path and make your own decisions. It’s the habit of never assuming that the next step is REALLY the next step.
Today, for our final Candid Confidence Project conversation, my guest is Victoria Klein.
Victoria is an author, entrepreneur,

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EP 230: Finding The Confidence To Come Back After Major Loss With Book Coach Jodi Brandon Aug 27, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Jodi Brandon took nearly 2 years away from full-time work on her small business to care for her dying mother* When and how she made the decision to step back from her business and step up for her mom* How she kept things going behind-the-scenes while she wasn’t working normal hours* Why her confidence took a hit when she returned to full-time work* What she learned about running her business through the process of returning & rebuilding her confidence
Small business owners—especially women—take time away from work for all sorts of reasons.
I’ve already spoken with Catherine Orr and her business partner Elena Rue, who took simultaneous maternity leaves. I spoke with Rebecca Tracy who takes extended time away for rock climbing and hiking.
Others take sabbaticals or take time away to write books.
On a regular basis, though—and much more frequently than I would have ever guessed as a clueless 26-year-old just getting started—small business owners take time away from their businesses to care for sick or dying family members.
It makes a lot of sense in many ways.
Small business owners work flexible schedules. We often have more passive revenue streams that might keep money trickling in even if we’re not actively working. We can work from anywhere.
But small business owners also have a lot to lose.
We could lose clients, the audience we’ve built over years of hard work, the brand reputation we’ve worked so hard for, the team we’ve trained…
Of course, when it comes to family, it’s worth the risk.
So what happens when it’s time to come back to your business? What happens when you sit down to your desk for the first time in weeks or months? What do you do first? How do you feel? What do you set your sights on?
These are daunting questions. And they get to the heart of the crisis of confidence that comes from stepping away from a business for an extended period of time—often unexpectedly and without a real plan.
Today, my guest is someone who has lived this scenario.
Jodi Brandon has more than 20 years’ experience in book publishing. Today, her passion is working as a book coach and editor for creative entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to serve their business with a book.
Jodi took 2 full years away from her business full-time to care for her mother. We talk about how she made the decision, the challenge of trying to keep up, how she felt when she started back in her business, and how she’s adjusted both her work and her mindset.
This conversation with Jodi is part of a month-long series on confidence and entrepreneurship called The Candid Confidence Project. To get the full series delivered to your inbox—and check out what we’ve already released—click here.
Now, let’s find out what works for Jodi Brandon!
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EP 229: Leveling Up Your Confidence With Lawyer Victoria R. Clark Aug 22, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why attorney Victoria R. Clark decided to leap into her own solo law practice just 5 years out from law school* How she’s focused on working through her weaknesses and supporting her business with each new challenge* What happened when she realized that her prices were keeping her stuck and overworking* Why she believes increased confidence is the key to overcoming every obstacle she’s faced with her business
Starting a business takes a real leap of faith.
I don’t think anyone starts a business expecting to feel fully confident in what they’re doing. So we end up being fairly prepared to feel unsure and a bit anxious at the beginning.
As the saying goes, you feel the fear and you do it anyway.
Throughout this series on confidence, I’ve wanted to look beyond getting started and look at what happens when our confidence falters long after that predictable startup period.
What happens when a new opportunity, a new goal, or a new idea causes our insecurity to come flooding back?
How do we deal with it, find new confidence, and move forward?
My guest today is Victoria R. Clark, the founder and managing attorney of Clark Law in Washington, DC.
When Victoria got in touch with me, she told me that it wasn’t just getting started that required a new level of confidence. She had to find a new level of confidence every time she wanted to show up and level up.
She told me that anything from introducing herself at a networking event to pricing her services to adding new areas of her practice required her to dig deep.
And here’s the thing, talking to Victoria, you’d never know her confidence wavers.
She’s self-assured. She’s present. She’s willing to put herself out there and show up for herself in intimidating spaces.
Like Katie Linder and I talked about, though, there’s always that tricky balance between the confident public persona and lingering, hidden self-doubt.
So I wanted to hear how Victoria has dealt with it—and is dealing with it. I think Victoria’s story might just sound pretty familiar to your own.
Victoria and I talk about why she decided to start her own law practice in the first place, how she became more confident talking about herself, and how she took a new approach to what she can control on a daily basis. We also chat about how aspects of the business have evolved as she’s gotten more confident in what she’s doing.
This candid conversation with Victoria is part of a whole series we’re doing here at What Works on confidence. We want to shed light on how small business owners continue to find confidence, long after they’ve taken the leap to get started.
You’ve already heard stories about raising your prices, landing huge clients, and changing up your habits—and there are more coming. When we’re not posting new conversations here on the podcast, we’re sharing personal essays and reflections from What Works Network members on how they find the confidence to take the next step.
To get the full series delivered to your inbox—and check out what we’ve already released—click here.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Victoria Clark!

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EP 228: Trusting Yourself & Your Decisions With Coach Katie Linder Aug 20, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How podcaster & coach Katie Linder uses her Radical Self-Trust framework to ensure her life and goals support her confidence* Why she finds confidence in sharing the work she’s most passionate about as she’s creating it* The 6 foundational pieces of the Radical Self-Trust framework* How she uses “cross walking” to match her to-do list with her values
Showing up and being seen can be a real mind-bender.
Every post we make on Instagram, every video we record for YouTube, every blog post we write, every email we send, every client consultation we do…
They can all feel like an invitation to have others judge whether we have our shit together or not.
So we work really hard to present as polished, professional, and confident.
I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Looking polished, professional, and confident—whatever that means to you—is great.
But it becomes a problem when the image you’re trying to portray becomes disconnected from what you actually feel.
What happens when I show up looking like a powerhouse but feeling like an impostor?
I can tell you exactly what happens to me when I show up looking like a powerhouse and feel like an impostor: I end up hiding.
Sometimes I literally hide: in my hotel room, away from social media, ghosting on relationships.
Sometimes I hide more metaphorically: not setting clear goals, not saying what I really mean.
It’s at these times when finding my confidence, trusting myself, and showing up to be seen is most important.
My guest today is facing challenges like these head-on.
Her name is Dr. Katie Linder and she’s the creator of the Radical Self-Trust Podcast Channel. Katie developed the Radical Self-Trust framework as a way of helping herself and her clients source a new level of trust and confidence in themselves so they can overcome any obstacle.
I wanted to find out the personal and professional challenges that led Katie to document this process…
…and, of course, I wanted to hear more about the process itself.
Katie and I talk about the self-doubt she struggled with initially while launching her business, how she balances the public persona of confidence with lingering self-doubt, and how showing up & sharing actually gives her confidence.
We also discuss the Radical Self-Trust framework and how it can be used to discover a new path forward.
This candid conversation with Katie is part of a whole series we’re doing here at What Works on confidence. We want to shed light on how small business owners continue to find confidence, long after they’ve taken the leap to get started.
Throughout this month, you’ll hear about finding the confidence to come back after a major loss, experiment & iterate, stick with the plan, and regularly level up. When we’re not posting new conversations here on the podcast, we’re sharing personal essays and reflections from What Works Network members on how they find the confidence to take the next step.
To get the full series delivered to your inbox—and check out what we’ve already released—click here.
Now,

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EP 227: Raising Your Prices With Confidence With Content Marketing Strategist Abby Herman Aug 15, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Abby Herman, founder of Write Solutions, set her prices so low to begin with* How she realized she needed to raise her prices and how long it took to make it happen* What happened when she realized that her prices were only part of the problem and how her services have evolved since* Why Abby feels more motivated than ever to find a new level of satisfaction in all areas of her life and work
Nothing can spook an entrepreneur’s confidence like setting a price.
As soon as you come up with a number, your inner critic goes into overdrive:
“It’s too high! They’ll laugh at us!”
“It’s too low! It’ll bankrupt us!”
“Is it really worth that much?”
“Who do you think you are asking for money at all?”
“What if they can’t pay?”
“What if I lose sales?”
“What if I’m wildly successful and can’t keep up?”
As my grandmother would say: Good grief!
If putting a price on your products or services—let alone raising your prices—makes you want to run and hide, all that mental chatter is a good excuse.
My guest today is no stranger to this incessant mental chatter around pricing.
Abby Herman is the founder of Write Solutions, a content marketing agency for service-based business owners who want to gain visibility for their businesses with personalized content strategies and implementation.
When Abby started out, she priced her work so she could guarantee she’d get paid—even if it was next to nothing. She had bills to pay and a child to take care of.
As time went on, though, Abby discovered that pricing her work the way she was just wasn’t working.
Abby and I talk about how she ended up working for so little and what she needed to do to raise her prices. We dive into all the feelings that came up around raising her prices and discovering the real value of what she was offering.
And the best part? Abby shares how upleveling her prices and services has inspired her to uplevel every other aspect of her life, too.
This candid conversation with Abby is part of a whole series we’re doing here at What Works on confidence. We want to shed light on how small business owners continue to find confidence, long after they’ve taken the leap to get started.
Throughout this month, you’ll hear about finding the confidence to come back after a major loss, experiment & iterate, stick with the plan, and land giant clients. When we’re not posting new conversations here on the podcast, we’re sharing personal essays and reflections from What Works Network members on how they find the confidence to take the next step.
To get the full series delivered to your inbox—and check out what we’ve already released—click here.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Abby Herman!

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EP 226: Showing Up With Confidence With Tell Me A Story Founder Hillary Rea Aug 13, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Hillary Rea, founder of Tell Me A Story, discovered her love of rich and nuanced storytelling* What she does to help new storytellers find more confidence in themselves and their ability to perform* What triggered a recent crisis of confidence and how its helping her move forward with growing her company* Why she’s channeling the confidence she feels in other aspects of life to provide the support she needs
I shared my own crisis of confidence a few months back on Instagram.
I wrote about how I felt at a loss with how to share our product with the people who needed it most. I’d spent 2 years trying to figure it out and I didn’t feel any closer to a solution.
I was feeling stuck and inadequate.
My friend Lou Blaser commented, “I had thought this was going to be a different post. Because Tara McMullin & ‘crisis of confidence’ didn’t compute in my brain!”
Just last week, someone else told me that they loved my interview with Claire Pelletreau from Get Paid because it can seem like people like me have it all figured out. And I share in that interview how much I do not have figured out yet.
The truth is that any entrepreneur can suffer from a crisis of confidence.
Any small business owner can find themselves riding high one minute and feeling lost the next.
Any smart and ambitious founder can have all the right answers… until the next question gets asked.
This month, we’re examining confidence. Specifically, we’re looking at how small business owners find the confidence to take a big step forward.
So let me say it again: any entrepreneur can suffer from a crisis of confidence…
…even an entrepreneur who is totally comfortable hopping on a stage in front of hundreds or thousands of people and sharing intimate personal stories.
My guest today is just one such entrepreneur. Her name is Hillary Rea and she’s the founder of Tell Me A Story, a company that trains entrepreneurs, start-up leaders, and those looking to leave a bigger footprint on the world, how to find their voice and share their unique story with honesty and passion.
She’s also the creator of a long-standing live storytelling show by the same name.
Right before we recorded this conversation, Hillary posted a vulnerable reflection on her blog looking back at her time producing this live show and how it’s matured.
In it, she shares her inner monologue about the doubt and even embarrassment she felt preparing for a big anniversary show. She wondered why the show hadn’t grown more. She wondered whether people took her seriously. She wondered if it was time to throw in the towel.
So while Hillary originally came on the show to talk about how she sources her confidence from showing up and being visible, we also talk about this very real crisis of confidence and how it’s impacting her business moving forward.
This candid conversation with Hillary is part of a whole series we’re doing here at What Works on confidence. We want to shed light on how small business owners continue to find confidence,

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EP 225: Finding The Confidence To Close Big Deals With Edios Media Co-Founder Michael Karsh Aug 08, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Edios Media‘s target clients have evolved over their 3 years in business* What happened with co-founder Michael Karsh and Elizabeth Madariaga got the chance to pitch a project for Google* Where Michael sources his confidence while working with giant corporations* What Michael and Elizabeth have focused on operationally to continue leveling up their service and their confidence
Even in today’s digital world, when we think small business, we often think the mom & pop shop on main street.
Or, maybe you think about the lawyer who drew up your will or the accountant who prepares your taxes.
Even online, you probably think about coaches, designers, artists, educators, copywriters, and project managers.
One thing all of these businesses have in common is that they’re person to person kind of businesses. Whether the person is walking through the door of a coffee shop or the person represents a business they founded, each transaction feels really personal.
It’s a business ecosystem we can all be really comfortable with.
But there’s a different business ecosystem that many small business owners and self-employed people deal in.
That ecosystem? Big business.
Did you know that 54 percent of Google’s workforce is temporary workers, contractors, and vendors? I sure didn’t.
Did you know that Facebook has tens of thousands of contract workers? Nope, I didn’t know that either.
Some of these workers are people who choose flexible or temporary work at home over long-term permanent employment.
But plenty are small business owners who are doing business with the big dogs—or… should I say unicorns?
Today, my guest is Michael Karsh. And Michael is the co-founder of a company that does business with the unicorns.
When I first met Michael, he wasn’t a business owner. He was my content producer at CreativeLive. Together, we developed 9 classes and reached tens of thousands of people with high-quality video education. Later, he helped work on this very podcast.
A couple of years ago, Michael and another of my producers, Elizabeth Madariaga, started their own video production company, Edios Media. You can hear more about their first year in business in Episode 101.
I wanted to bring Michael back on the show to take a look at how his and Elizabeth’s mindset and confidence level has evolved as they’ve worked with giant clients like Google, Facebook, Salesforce, and The Sundance Institute.
Michael and I talk about the first big deal they signed, how the clients they serve today are different from what they initially expected, and how the business itself has evolved to serve those clients.
***
This candid conversation with Michael is part of a whole series we’re doing here at What Works on confidence. We want to shed light on how small business owners continue to find confidence, long after they’ve taken the leap to get started.
Over the next month, you’ll hear about finding the confidence to raise your prices, come back after a major loss, experiment & iterate, and stick with the plan. When we’re not posting new conversations here on the podcast,...

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EP 224: Building Confidence Through Consistent Action With Shatterboxx Design Founder Jamie Varon Aug 06, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Jamie Varon decided to embrace an “effortful” attitude and put more intention into her work* Why living and working from France reset her satisfaction meter and helped her find a new level of confidence* Her weekly writing practice and how that habit has impacted her ability to show up and do the work* The results she’s experiencing—personal and professional—from embracing a new working style
I used to find confidence in the fact that lots of things come easily to me.
I taught myself how to play the piano as a small child.
I could pitch a softball at 60mph without much practice.
I got excellent grades without studying.
I was given extra responsibilities at my first jobs.
My default mode was to expect to good at whatever I tried. I expected things to be easy and effortless.
Most of the time, this was good. It meant that I had the confidence to try new things or step up to a new level.
But operating like this also had a serious downside.
The downside of finding confidence in things being easy is that, when I tried something that didn’t feel easy, I ran the other way.
Anything that took effort or practice tore down my confidence and left me feeling like a sad sack.
This month, we’re examining confidence. Specifically, we’re looking at how small business owners find the confidence to take a big step forward.
As you might imagine, lacking confidence in anything that required me to actually work at a thing didn’t serve me well as a business owner.
For years and years, I ran my business in a way that allowed me to avoid hard things.
I hired contractors instead of making a home for employees. I relied on more passive marketing instead of picking up the proverbial phone and closing the deal. I avoided examining my own mindset instead of confronting my biggest fears and weaknesses. I set goals that felt safe instead of taking a long hard look at what I really wanted from my business.
A couple of years ago, I started to get real with myself.
I realized I had been coasting. And, while coasting felt good, it wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing.
This was around the same time I started bouldering.
Imagine a 15ft wall—or, quite literally—a 15ft boulder.
Your job is to start at the very bottom and use your hands and feet to work your way to the top.
Unlike big wall climbing, bouldering doesn’t use ropes. You fall on pads. And, you will fall.
I was terrible at bouldering at first. Like, truly terrible.
Looking back, I’m not sure what even possessed me to sign up for the class. And I’m less sure what made me decide it was a good idea to go back for the second class!
Getting on the wall the first 5, 10, or 15 times, I felt weak. I felt inept. I felt truly terrible at the task set before me.
But I kept getting on the wall. I practiced—and I hadn’t truly practiced anything in my previous 35 years of life.
Eventually, I got better.
Now, I teach bouldering at my gym and other climbers come to me for tips on a regular basis.
Bouldering taught me how to work hard at somethin...

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EP 223: Confusing Confidence and Status With What Works Founder Tara McMullin Aug 01, 2019

I opened my email and saw the message that brightens the spirit of any cross-country traveler: my upgrade was confirmed.
Even better, this upgrade included my daughter.
Lola has always loved flying but this was her first First Class flight.
Of course, she had no idea what to expect when we boarded the plane.
She was 6 at the time and small enough to sit quite comfortably in economy so she was dwarfed by the faux leather lounger she buckled into. She was thrilled.
An hour later, the captain announced we’d be waiting at least another hour before we could take off.
We were going to miss our connection to Portland.
I was stressed and anxious. Lola had already fallen asleep while watching a movie on my iPad.
I grabbed my phone and called the special hotline for United MileagePlus premium status holders.
A cheery man answered the phone almost immediately. He already had my flight info and agreed that there was no way I was going to make my connection.
He said, “I can see you’re sitting in first class right now. Why don’t I go ahead and confirm your upgrade to the first flight up to Portland tomorrow morning?”
I thanked him profusely.
When I hung up, the flight attendants were coming around to get beverages.
I asked for a gin and tonic.
The flight attendant replied, “I make them strong. That okay?”
Of course, it was okay. I was stressed and, while my conversation with the agent had made me less anxious, a little self-medicating wouldn’t hurt.
Self-medication is one of the perks of First Class travel.
Eventually, we did arrive in San Francisco. We proceeded to the customer service desk.
We bypassed the long line of people waiting for help rescheduling their flights and entered the area designated for premium status holders. There was no wait.
They gave us a hotel room to sleep in for a few hours and a stack of meal vouchers—and sent us on our way. We made it to Portland the next morning, tired but care-free.
This kind of service is why I value frequent flyer status. The upgrades, the shorter lines, the extra perks.
But it’s not the only reason I crave it.
Receiving that kind of service, achieving that kind of status… it makes me feel special.
Like I belong to a not-so-secret club full of those who have been deemed worthy by the powers that be.
It gives me a little boost of confidence every time I enter an airport.
But not just there. My status as a woman who uses a barbell gives me confidence at the gym. My premium status as a speaker gives me a confidence boost at conferences. My status as an employer or a multi-6-figure business owner gives me a confidence boost when I’m interviewing or facilitating.
Feeling special is often a feeling I confuse with confidence.
This month, we’re looking at confidence. Not so much the confidence to start a business but the confidence to grow one, to deal with unforeseen challenges, to level up yourself and your goals and pursue something bigger than you ever imagined.
Throughout the month, I’ll be sharing conversations with small business owners about how they navigate insecurit...

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ANNOUNCING: The Candid Confidence Project Jul 30, 2019

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in business…
Any entrepreneur can suffer a crisis of confidence.
Late last year, I felt woefully unprepared and underskilled for the task I had in front of me. I felt like I had been faced with setback after setback, with defeat after defeat.
I’d spent 2 years trying to build what I saw as the answer to a huge, painful problem for small business owners. And I just couldn’t seem to get traction.
I believed in the idea, the people, the systems, and the plan more than ever but I lost confidence in my ability to execute it.
I was able to keep up a brave face for a long time…
…but in early November, I collapsed in tears.
My faith was gone and, without it, I didn’t know how to solve the problems in front of me.
It was finally at that point that I reached out to my crew. I came clean. I got really honest. And I laid it all out for them.
For me, getting honest was the path forward.
Yes, my supporters comforted me, gave me new ideas, and asked tough questions. But I had to get really, really honest first.
Without getting honest about how low I was, I couldn’t have accepted their support. I couldn’t have taken different actions. I couldn’t have made the big decisions I needed to make.
As you know, honesty, transparency, and candor are very important to me.
It’s our goal here at What Works to create a safe space to get real about the ups and downs, ins and outs of small business ownership.
Honesty creates a space for us to examine what’s really going on and what we can do about. Honesty helps us identify the real challenges beneath the logistical obstacles we wrestle with on a daily basis.
Honesty levels the playing field.
Honesty helps you see that your challenges and my challenges aren’t so different after all—even if they present in different ways.
It’s time for us all to get open and honest about confidence.
We decided that this August, we want to tackle a candid conversation about confidence in a big way.
And so, we created The Candid Confidence Project.
We know you have big goals for the rest of this year. There are numbers you want to hit, things you want to create, and relationships you want to nurture. And, we know those goals can often make you question your ability and readiness.
The Candid Confidence Project is designed to guide you through examining your own stories about confidence, how you handle insecurity, and how you find the drive to level up.
Here’s what’s coming:
* Here on the podcast, we’ll be sharing a new candid conversation about confidence every Tuesday and Thursday in August, kicking off on August 1st with my own reflections on confusing status with confidence.* We’ll also be sharing written stories from successful small business owners every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.* Plus, we’ll be hosting a public conversation about confidence each weekday in August on our Instagram account, @explorewhatworks.
The Candid Confidence Project is not about the leap to get started…
…it’s about finding the confidence to continue, to change your plan, and to do hard things.

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EP 222: Planning & Hosting Events All Over The World With Brazenist Founder Brooke Roberts Jul 23, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Brazenist founder Brooke Roberts left rural Kansas for a life and business in global travel* What Brooke learned about planning and hosting events from her career and businesses* The exact process she uses to plan events for her business—whether they’re simple meet-ups or retreats in exotic locations* What mistakes she’s learned along the way and how they’ve changed her planning process
The What Works team has a standing item on our weekly meeting agenda to discuss… events.
Events have been part of my business road map for years but they never quite seem to take priority.
We do run one annual event—our retreat to Whitefish, Montana with ambitious small business owners—but we’d love to run more regional meet-ups, live podcast recordings, and even a conference some day.
I find the logistics of planning these events quite overwhelming. And, at the same time, I look at the brilliant people planning great events for their businesses—people like previous guests Lauren Caselli, Nailah Blades, Racheal Cook, and Shannon Siriano Greenwood—and I can’t help but feel like I’m missing out on something! (And, no, it’s not just FOMO, it’s very real.)
So this week, as we wrap up “On The Road” month, I wanted to look at what it takes to take your customers on the road with you.
This week, my guest is Brooke Roberts, the founder & host of Brazenist, an online education and offline experience company helping goal-getters to future-proof, redefine success, and live a brazen life. Brazenist is Brooke’s latest venture in a line of successful businesses and a traditional career in taking people to faraway places.
You’ll hear how a high school trip to Europe helped her embrace the wide world beyond her rural Kansas hometown. You’ll also hear how an accidental career in the study abroad space helped her launch not just 1 business but 2!
Brooke and I talk about her process for planning events—whether their simple meet-ups or retreats in foreign countries. Plus, we talk about her non-negotiables and past mistakes.
Now, let’s find out what works for Brooke Roberts!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 221: Fitting Business Into A Full-Time Travel Lifestyle With Amy Scott Jul 16, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Amy Scott, founder of Nomad Editorial and Nomadtopia, quit her office job and started traveling full-time back in 2004* How she ramped up from freelancing to running her own businesses* How the technology she uses has changed over the years—and made her location independent businesses easier to run* What an average week looks like for Amy (hint: there’s really no such thing as average…)
This week, we’re indulging a personal fantasy of mine.
Maybe it’s one of yours, too.
We’re talking about packing up and leaving town—for good. We’re talking about hitting the road and never looking back.
This week, it’s all about becoming a digital nomad.
If you’re like me, every shiny Airstream trailer you pass feels like it’s taunting you.
Every Ford Transit van that whizzes by brings about fantasies of custom build outs and months spent in remote campgrounds. Every adorable AirBnb listing that pops up on social media or in a magazine brings on thoughts of “Yeah, I could live there for a month.”
Maybe it’s my mercurial nature…
Maybe it’s a deep desire to “quit” suburban culture and blaze my own trail…
Maybe it’s a pull start over, start fresh…
The life of a full-time digital nomad isn’t in the cards for me right now. That’s okay.
Instead, I’m trying to bring as much of it into the life I have now as possible.
Whether you too want a little more digital nomadism in your life, you’re ready to sell all your earthly possessions and hit the road, or you’re simply curious, this conversation is for you.
Today, I’m joined by Amy Scott. Amy is the founder of both Nomad Editorial and Nomadtopia, a hub for inspiration and resources for location independence. Amy opted out of her office job and traditional lifestyle back in 2004 and never looked back. She now keeps a home base in Buenos Aires while she travels the world with her Argentine husband. Her podcast, Nomadtopia Radio, features interviews with people living their version of Nomadtopia.
Amy and I talk about the steps she took to create a location independent lifestyle, the initial challenges she overcame, and how her life has evolved since becoming a digital nomad. We also talk about the nitty-gritty of tech, tools, and techniques it takes to live life on the road and run a business at the same time.
Now, let’s find out what works for Amy Scott!
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* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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EP 220: Managing A Team From The Road With Kinetics Consulting Co-Founder Kate Leese Jul 09, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Kate Leese and her husband decided to travel full-time in an Airstream while building Kinetics Consulting* How the logistics of running a business from the road have impacted their approach and operations* The tools and method she uses for managing their team—all full-time travelers themselves!* How Kate’s leadership style has evolved since starting the business and adapting to a new way of working
A few months ago, I got a little idea. It seemed a bit absurd at first.
But finally, I was able to give it a voice.
I said to Sean, “What if we spent a month in Montana this summer?”
I think his response was something like, “Wouldn’t that be nice?”
A response like that is all I need to start the actual process of scheming something into reality.
“Yes, it would be nice, and here is my 9-part plan for making it happen!”
In order to spend a month on the road, I knew we’d need to keep working.
I’d have some masterminds to facilitate, emails to write, and podcast episodes to share.
Once I determined the things I’d have to keep doing throughout the summer, I could look at what I could get done well in advance. Little by little, I worked my way through the check list so that I could work a maximum of 3-4 hours, 4 days per week and stay on track while we were gone.
We leave July 18. It’ll take 6 days to drive out so that we can stop at a bunch of National Parks and get Junior Ranger badges with my daughter. We’ll be in the Flathead Valley for just over 2 weeks. And then we’ll take our time coming home.
It’s not exactly a month in Montana—but it is a month outside the comfort of my home office.
My guest today hasn’t just figured out how to run her company from the road for a week or a month at a time. She and her husband travel permanently.
But here’s the kicker—they only work with people who do the same.
Kate Leese is the co-founder of Kinetics Consulting, which helps electric and gas utilities create a culture of safety and preparedness.
Kate and I talk about how she made the move to full-time travel and how it impacted the way she approaches her life and work. We also discuss the logistics of working from the road, how she finds team members, the systems they use to manage projects, and how the way their team is built helps them stand out.
Now, let’s find out what works for Kate Leese!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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Ep 219: Prioritizing Time Off With Calibrate Your Year Creator Kelly Higdon Jul 02, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* The day Kelly Higdon realized she couldn’t keep working at the pace she was working at* How she plans her year to prioritize her life—and then fits her business in the space left over* What she’s changed to allow for taking 3 months off from her business per year* How her business is different today thanks to her new working style
We recently asked What Works Network members how many vacations they take per year.
One vacation was a pretty common answer—always quickly followed up by the fact that work travel is often fun, too.
Some said 2 was their minimum—plus plenty of long weekends.
A few people admitted that they don’t regularly take vacations—and I’m sure plenty of other folks were silently nodding along with that side of the conversation.
And a few others totaled up their vacations as accounting for at least 4-8 weeks out of the year!
Sean and I normally take one vacation, one trip with light work—like the trip we’re leaving for in a couple of weeks—and plenty of weekend outings. I’ve cut back on the work travel in recent years but it looks like that’s gearing up more this fall and in 2020.
Today on the show, we’re not measuring time off from work in terms of long weekends or weeks.
No, today, we’re talking months.
Kelly Higdon is a business and lifestyle coach who prioritizes her time off so much…
…that’s she’s worked up to taking a full 3 months off from her business every year.
Unfortunately, Kelly’s inspiration wasn’t a well-timed shower idea or download from the universe—it was a trip to the hospital.
You see, Kelly wasn’t always so good about making space in her business for her life. At one point, she was working full-time as private practice therapist, growing a business on the side, and growing a baby. She was working all the time—and it caught up with her.
Kelly shares that story and her process for planning that much time off. She walks me through how she plans for life first and then makes her business fit in the space that’s left, as opposed to the other way around. She also shares how her business is different—and how it’s growing differently—than when she was working all hours of the day & night.
Now, let’s find out what works for Kelly Higdon!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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Ep 218: How I Build Flexibility Into My Business With Tara McMullin Jun 27, 2019

As you’re listening to this, I’m somewhere between the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Acadia National Park in Maine. Sean and I are celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary in the only way we how: in a National Park!
That’s right, I’m on vacation—but that doesn’t mean the business comes to a standstill.
We’ve worked hard to improve the operational efficiency and predictability of our business over the last few years and that means that I get to enjoy both my time off and the flexibility of my schedule on a daily basis.
Plus, it means that my team gets to do the same.
You’re listening to What Works, the show that gets candid about what’s really working to run and grow a small business today as told by small business owners themselves. I’m your host, Tara McMullin.
We’re spending the month of July exploring the theme “On The Road.” Our goal is to look at how small business owners plan for time off, work from anywhere, and manage teams that are remote, too. I’ll tell you more about what you’ll hear this month soon.
But first, I wanted to share what’s worked for me as I’ve endeavored to build a more flexible business that allows me and my team the time off we need, as well as the ability to work on our own terms.
First, I’ll mention that most of the team works a pretty typical schedule. I start work by 9am most days and wind it down by 4:30pm. That gives me time for my workout in the morning and my interests in the evening.
I work in my home office Monday through Thursday. On Friday, we have a team meeting with our local employee, Shannon. You can find us at a picnic table inside Whole Foods in Lancaster most Friday mornings! The rest of that day is a buffer. If I don’t need the work time or I’m craving some “me time,” I’ll be done for the week.
If I’m inspired to start something new or I’m on a deadline, I’ll do that. Regardless, I’m done by about 3pm so that I can either pick up my daughter or head to the climbing gym.
What I’ve found is that consistency, routine, and structure actually allow me the flexibility I crave from my business.
I don’t just do what I feel like when I feel like it. That’s not real flexibility because it means something is always getting left behind and I’m not mastering my own workload.
And that really is the string that ties the 4 ways I’ve built flexibility into my business together.
First up…
Embracing predictable cycles
Within the first few years I was designing websites and consulting on business strategy, I started to notice that clients would disappear during the summers. Their projects would stall out. Deadlines would come and go.
I can remember thinking that there was just no point in working during the summer.
And then it hit me: I didn’t have to.
Summer often feels like a time when we’re just punching the clock. Sure, we’ve got some passion project underway or maybe we’ve got a client or two who really wants to get moving during the summer. But lots of people want to travel, take it easy, and enjoy the weather.
So that’s what I did.
I decided I would wrap up any projects I could, put my calendar on hold, and just enjoy the flexibility of summer.

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Ep 217: Finding A Niche Audience With Bawdy Bookworms Founder Thien-Kim Lam Jun 25, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* What inspired Thien-Kim Lam to develop a subscription box and virtual book club for a niche audience* How she channeled her love of romance books and her experience selling adult toys into the subscription she would have loved to buy herself* How she’s connecting with the right people using a Facebook group, author partnerships, and savvy content marketing* Where she’s run into trouble with her niche
The first business idea I ran with was a blog for makers and artists in Pennsylvania.
I was smitten with the new maker movement and I figured that highlighting “made in PA” goods would be an easy way to engage with the community.
I was right.
“Made in PA” wasn’t just the perfect constraint on who to feature. It also served as a constraint for who the audience for the site was too. I was writing about Pennsylvanians for Pennsylvanians.
I had no idea at the time just how savvy this business decision was.
I immediately connected with incredible people.
And they were immediately into what I was doing because they loved that it was just for them.
Soon, the site caught the eye of people from the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, one of the largest non-profit craft associations in the country. Within a few months of launching my site, I was teaching social media workshops with the Guild’s artisans.
I was invited to attend one of the largest tradeshows for handmade goods in the United States on a media pass. I spoke at Etsy headquarters. I hosted meet-ups.
The site never got huge, of course.
But that didn’t matter because people were connecting with it and with me because they knew I made it for them.
Today, we’re talking about building a niche audience—just like I did with my very first website.
There has never been a better time to have a niche business. In fact, I would list not specializing in a niche as one of the top 3 business mistakes I’ve personally made over the last 8 or so years.
Thien-Kim Lam knows the power of an engaged niche audience.
But her niche is a little different than mine was.
In fact, consider this your parental advisory warning.
Thien-Kim Lam is the founder of Bawdy Bookworms, a subscription box company and virtual book club for women who prioritize pleasure.
She took her love for romance books and experience selling adult toys and turned it into the subscription service she would love to buy, knowing there was a niche audience out there who would think the same thing.
Thien-Kim and I talk about her initial challenges bringing the subscription box to market and what’s working now to connect with her niche audience. We talk optin incentives, author partnerships, content marketing, and Facebook groups.
Now, let’s find out what works for Thien-Kim Lam!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in ...

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Ep 216: There’s No “Right” Way To Grow Your Audience Jun 20, 2019

All this month, we’ve been talking about building an audience here on the podcast—and we’ve been asking members of The What Works Network, well, what’s working for them when it comes to audience-building and marketing their businesses.
Some people have told us that keeping it simple and focusing on just one technique has paid a lot more dividends than trying to be everywhere and do everything.
Others have told us that video, like showing up on Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, or YouTube, has helped them reach new people.
Plenty of folks told us that the most important thing they do to build their audiences is reaching out to new contacts one at a time.
Still others told us Facebook groups, guest teaching, virtual coffee dates, in-person events, or asking for referrals and recommendations are their sweet spot.
Clearly, there is no right way to build an audience today.
That can be comforting for sure.
Those of us who are naturally questioners, rebels, and skeptics don’t have to mold ourselves into something we’re not or fit our businesses into someone else’s formula to get ahead.
And… at the same time, all of that open-ended possibility can be daunting.
As much as we want to do things our own way, it would be nice if there was a clear, well-maintained trail for our hike to the top of the audience-building mountain.
Make no mistake: I’m not suggesting that we all need to blaze our own trails when it comes to marketing our businesses.
Far from it.
But we do need to decide on a plan and stick to it.
“How?” you ask.
Earlier this month, friend of the pod Bonnie Gillespie shared 5 things that have worked for her over the last 20 years of building her Self-Management For Actors audience with What Works Network members. I want to focus on the first three for the sake of brevity:
Time. Trust in the long-haul.
Consistency. Never stop showing up.
Treating everything I do as if it’s the only thing they’ll ever see. And being sure my links roll deep for those who’d like to follow ’em to other things I’ve created from there.
I can’t agree more with these points.
Plus, I think they’re useful constraints for finding the audience-building plan that’s going to work for you.
Consider each of these points as questions:
* What can you stick with for the long haul? What could you do week in and week out for the next 10, 15, or 20 years?* What can you deliver on consistently so that your traction grows and grows?* What can you work towards mastery of? What are you willing to get better at every single day?
The answers to these questions might not be as sexy as a technique promising to be the secret to finding 10,000 true fans in 10 days. But, in my experience, these answers will serve you much better.
Like the small business owners you’ll hear from today, my own audience-building strategy has evolved over time. And like Bonnie, it’s required trust in the long haul, leaning towards mastery, and—as Dr. Michelle Mazur calls it—radical consistency.

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EP 215: Growing An Audience Together With Community Builder Eli Trier Jun 18, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Eli Trier embarked on her first community project—and the results she experienced from that first project* How facilitating community projects help her reach important business goals and build her audience* The exact process Eli uses to put together each project* How community projects differ from less effective marketing tactics like telesummits
When I first heard about this idea of a “community project,” I was dubious.
It sounded an awful lot like an telesummit—which I’m on the record for calling bad marketing.
My beef with the vast majority of telesummits or online summits is that they’ve evolved to serve the needs of the organizer—and nearly no one else.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, it’s when someone organizes an online event, solicits a bunch of speakers with good-sized email lists, and then has those speakers promote the event so that the organizer’s list grows by leaps and bounds.
The pitch emails I still receive for telesummits—even after writing a 3000 word screed against these marketing events—are egregious. Full of jargon, double-speak, and quid pro quo.
So you can imagine that when I heard about someone organizing a bunch of people creating content around a theme and using it to grow an audience, I wasn’t impressed.
And then, I talked to Eli Trier.
Eli Trier organizes community projects for introverts and quiet revolutionaries. Her goal is to raise the level of discourse around a topic, bringing people together and growing audiences in the process.
I was so impressed with Eli’s approach and how it tied into our values and philosophy at What Works… that I hired her to help us with our first community project—coming out in August.
Eli and I talk about why it’s important to her to deep-dive on important questions and involve a diverse set of voices in the discussion. We also get into the nitty-gritty of how Eli’s community projects work, how she plans for them, and how they help her reach both her audience-building and sales goals.
Now, let’s find out what works for Eli Trier!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

Want more of What Works? Subscribe FREE to the What Works newsletter at read.explorewhatworks.com
Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 214: Creating Content That Stands Out with Awkward Marketing Creator Rachael Kay Albers Jun 11, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Rachael Kay Albers got the idea to create a “business comedy show“* Why Awkward Marketing really stands out—even when plenty of other marketers are using video to promote their businesses* How the show supports her web design & digital marketing studio, RKA ink* The start-to-finish process she uses to produce each season of the show* How she finds new videos and measure the success of the show
Lots of people want to know how to stand out online.
Few people put in the time and effort to actually stand out.
What I’ve discovered over the years is that standing out is never the product of following whatever trend is lighting up social media or taking the blogosphere by storm.
Standing out is incredibly personal.
Anytime I’ve tried to play the game, I lose.
Anytime I make up my own rules, I win.
This podcast is no exception.
I could have chosen to play the game of getting the online business world’s biggest stars to talk about their own pet projects and programs. I could have crossed my fingers and hoped they’d promote the show to their massive audiences.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I looked around the podcast marketplace and found a hole to fill—the very show that I wanted to listen to: small business owners talking about what they were really doing.
I wanted it to feel more like a mastermind than a masterclass.
I wanted it to challenge assumptions and debunk myths about “the right way” to do things.
And I really wanted to highlight the small business owners who so often don’t get much press but are making things work every single day, without buying into the hype or gurus.
This show is different and that’s a big reason why it stands out.
The other reason it stands out is because we put a lot of time and intention into those very aspects of this show. We work hard to get better out our craft. I work hard at becoming a better interviewer, Sean works hard at becoming a better producer, Marty works hard at becoming a better editor.
We want to be different and excellent. And it results in stand out content.
My guest today also has a knack for creating stand out content.
Rachael Kay Albers is a marketer who hates marketing. As the founder and creative director of RKA ink, a branding, web design, and digital marketing studio, Rachael has helped hundreds of small business owners all over the world stand out online without selling their soul or playing the manipulation game.
When not crafting epic, unforgettable brands for her clients, Rachael hosts Awkward Marketing, a business comedy show blending fun-size small business advice with storytelling and sketch comedy, for entrepreneurs who want to create epic, unforgettable brands online.
Now, if you did a double take when I said “business comedy show,” I get it.
But that’s a prime reason why Rachael’s content stands out. It’s unexpected and far from ordinary.
The other reason it stands out is the painstaking effort that Rachael puts into each episode. She’s working to become masterful at making you laugh while learning the ins & o...

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EP 213: What’s Working In Finding New Fans With SEO Coach Kim Herrington Jun 06, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Kim Herrington believes start content creation is the key to building your audience and getting off the social media treadmill* How she used 20 targeted articles to boost a website’s traffic by 1000%* The tools she uses to discover what to create content about and the technique she uses to maximize their potency for search* How she bridges the gap between social media and SEO to get the best results
Social media success isn’t the same as business
I spend about an hour every morning looking through news and culture websites. I hit CNN, Slate, and Vox, and then I open up Apple News to see what I might be missing from more unusual sources.
The other day, an article on Buzzfeed caught my eye.
First off, yes, I love me some Buzzfeed. Sometimes you just need cute dog pics and funny parenting tweets to bring a smile to your face.
This article was neither about cute dogs nor parenting tweets.
It was about an Instagram influencer with over 2 million followers who wasn’t able to sell 36 shirts to her audience.
That’s a conversion rate of fewer than 2 thousandths of a percent.
Now, I gotta hand it to Buzzfeed. Their angle was to curate a bunch of tweets that contained genuinely helpful marketing lessons in response to this debacle.
Most of those tweets were along the lines of knowing your customer and what they want to buy.
Fair enough.
Unfortunately, that’s not how a lot of people go about “winning” at the game of social media. It’s all about churning out content that will get the likes.
Churn and churn and churn.
And to what end?
Hopefully, sales, of course. But so often, the sales just don’t come.
My guest today wants to offer a remedy for the churn and burn that is audience-building on social media…
…a remedy that is much more likely to lead to sales and time saved.
Kim Herrington helps online entrepreneurs and influencers conquer the content creation treadmill with SEO and marketing strategies to build traffic and empower them to achieve their goals. She’s worked with people like Sarah Von Bargen, Paul Jarvis, and many more to increase organic traffic as much as 1,000%.
Kim is also the founder and Creative Director at Orsanna, a digital marketing agency that focuses on day-to-day marketing. Her agency’s client list includes brick-and-mortar stores, product designers, doctors, dentists, law firms, manufacturers, and other small businesses.
I asked Kim what’s working when it comes to SEO today—not just from a technical standpoint, but from the perspective of building audiences hungry for the products or services we offer. As part of our “what’s working” series, Kim shares her own experience working with clients and how SEO has helped them build much bigger audiences.
We talk about what SEO actually is and how creating the right content can bring leads who are ready to buy straight to your website.
Kim also shares some straightforward ways to organize your content so you get as much “juice” from it as possible.

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EP 212: Building Your Audience Behind The Scenes With Social Media Strategist Andrea Jones Jun 04, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why social media marketing agency founder Andréa Jones doesn’t try to game the social media algorithms to build her audience and, instead, spends a lot more time behind the scenes* How she finds people to connect with, how she starts the conversation, and how she follows up* The process and tool she uses to track her time spent on her behind-the-scenes audience-building* Why creating social media content is still an important part of how she’s building her audience
Back in 2010, I was spending a lot of time on Twitter.
And, I can remember realizing one day, while working from my dining room table back before I had an office to call my own, that a lot had to be happening behind the scenes.
In other words, there was everything I could see happening on Twitter, in emails, on websites, and in teleseminars. And then there were all of the conversations that had to have happened to make that possible.
I could see people promoting each other’s programs and services. I could see joint ventures. I could see genuine friendships and deep collaborations.
I could see these same people start to rise to the top, see their audiences explode, their authority grow exponentially.
And I knew—for certain—that it wasn’t just happening, it was being nurtured and engineered behind the scenes.
All of a sudden, I felt like I was on the outside looking in.
Except, I didn’t feel like an outsider. I just felt like I needed to find the door.
My hypothesis was that much of this relationship-building that turned into serious audience-building was happening in-person at events and coffee dates.
I didn’t have access to that.
But I did have Twitter and it felt like the next best thing.
So I started to put together a list of the movers and shakers that I wanted to form relationships with.
I made that list the main Twitter feed that I saw. I spent a good hour or two every day (okay, probably more than that) pouring over that feed and interacting with what people tweeted. It was strategic and genuine at the same time.
The results came fast and furious.
In no time, I had all sorts of new friends and opportunities.
And, even though I was forming these relationships one at a time, I started to see my audience grow exponentially from the shares and comments I was receiving from the people who I was interacting with. I was getting interviewed, hosting panel discussions, and being invited to events.
Those individual relationships led to massive growth.
Over time, I started to rely on these relationships and stopped putting such an emphasis on meeting new people. In fact, meeting new colleagues and influencers became a pretty low priority.
That was a mistake.
When I realized that my audience-building had stalled out last year, I started thinking about what I could do to jumpstart growth again.
So I asked myself: what’s worked in the past?
The answer was easy, networking behind the scenes, connecting with people one at a time, trusting that real relationship-building leads to real audience-building.
And yep, I can say the results have been typical in the best possible way.
Here’s what I know:

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EP 211: Building An Audience With Tara McMullin May 30, 2019

A year ago this week, I deleted about 12,000 people off my email list.
That meant that my audience shrank by about 80% with the push of a button.
GDPR was going into effect and, while I wasn’t caught up in the mass hysteria happening in the digital marketing world around compliance, I did look at the regulations as an opportunity to take a new approach to building an audience for my brand.
Quick aside—pro tip: never get caught up in any mass hysteria, especially when it’s about digital marketing.
The me of 2018 felt pretty calm and collected about the whole thing—but the me of 2016 or 2017 would have lost my marbles.
That email list—and the number attached to it—represented all of the work that I had put into writing, speaking, teaching, and positioning my business over nearly 10 years. But there was a problem…
I had become more attached to the number than the people on that list.
And that number was holding me back.
I viewed every marketing, branding, sales, or product development decision through the lens of that number.
I would experiment with messages, angles, and stories to see what would happen to that number—and all of the smaller numbers it would spit out, like click thru rate, open rate, or unsubscribes.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the people reading—I cared about them deeply. It’s just so easy to forget that numbers are people… and that sometimes the people I care about most just aren’t represented by the big number but by one that’s much smaller and harder to discern.
When I made the decision to all but start over with my email list, it was a decision to do the work to find that number, rediscover the right people, and rebuild my audience from there.
This month, we’re tackling a topic that tends to be top of mind for most small business owners: building your audience.
Whether your business is the kind that thrives with an audience of 10 or whether you’re aiming to reach millions, we’ll be exploring what works for a variety of entrepreneurs as they work to attract the right people and earn attention for their brands.
Now, I’ve been building an audience online for over 10 years but my perspective has recently made a big shift.
To kick off this month’s theme, I decided to share what’s working for me as we build an audience around honesty and transparency in small business—including my own.
The first thing that’s changed is who I show up as.
When my company made a big shift 2.5 years ago to focus on The What Works Network, I declared that I was no longer the teacher or coach. My products weren’t going to revolve around how much I knew and how much of that I could teach you.
I simply recognized that I didn’t have all the answers—and I wanted to turn my focus to gathering a group of people to build collective knowledge.
This represented a huge change in our business model—and I knew that.
What I didn’t realize at the time was how much that was going to change the way I approach audience-building, too.

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EP 210: Doing Less To Achieve Your Goals With Do Less Author Kate Northrup May 28, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Kate Northrup started doing less by accident—and why she decided to move forward doing less on purpose* The exercise Kate used to determine the 2 activities that have led to her biggest business wins* How the way Kate asks for and receives help has evolved since she became a mom* The process Kate uses to know what she needs help with so she always has an answer to the question, “What can I help you with?”
All this month, we’ve been exploring running our businesses by the numbers.
We’ve heard from a bunch of small business owners about how tracking metrics and financials have led to better decision-making and results.
But the one number we haven’t tackled yet is… TIME.
They say that we all have the same 24 hours as Beyonce to make things happen.
But what “they” don’t account for is all the help she has or the way she structures her time to focus on what’s vitally important for her. And the result? We feel shamed into adding more & more to our to-do lists.
Today’s guest, Kate Northrup, has a different approach.
Simply put, Kate is an advocate of doing less.
I’ve known Kate for many years now and I’ve loved watching both her business and her personal life bloom in new ways. It would be easy for her to be an overwhelmed, overworked entrepreneur, wife, and mother. But Kate has made it her business to figure out how to do less and achieve her goals in life and business.
As an entrepreneur, bestselling author, and mother, Kate Northrup has built a multimedia digital empire that reaches hundreds of thousands globally. She’s committed to supporting ambitious women to light up the world without burning themselves out in the process. Kate teaches data-driven and soul-driven time and energy management practices that result in saving time, making more money, and experiencing less stress.
Kate’s work has been featured by The Today Show, Yahoo! Finance, Women’s Health, Glamour, The Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Wanderlust, The Huffington Post, and more.
Find Kate on her podcast, on Instagram, and on her website.
If you’re hungry for more real talk about growing & running your small business—without the hype or gimmicks, join us inside The What Works Network.
Next month, we’re turning our attention to building an audience and cultivating the relationships that can move our businesses forward. We’re even hosting an all-day virtual conference on the topic on Thursday, June 13th, featuring Amy Walsh, Dr. Michelle Mazur, Alethea Fitzpatrick, and Dana Kaye. We’ll deep dive into topics like representing your brand visually, creating a rallying cry for your business, building an inclusive audience, and nurturing a magnetic brand.
We’ll be opening membership to The What Works Network soon: click here to get all the details and signup to be notified when you can join us!

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EP 209: 7 Surprising Things Small Business Owners Learned When They Ran The Numbers May 23, 2019

Imagine the open rate on the last email you sent to your subscribers.
Think about the net profit your business has generated already this year.
Consider how many people viewed your last video, clicked on your blog post, or listened to your last podcast episode.
Those numbers aren’t just numbers for a lot of us.
At best, they can be subtle points of validation that we’re headed in the right direction. At worst, they can be emotional landmines.
All this month, we’ve been exploring how metrics, traffic, and financial impact the decisions we make as business owners.
These are important conversations because we’re often missing key pieces of information that make decision-making easier. But let’s not pretend that knowing your numbers will make all of your decisions objective or black & white.
Every time I peer into my profit & loss statement or check on the click thru rate of an email, I’m confronted with my own expectations and mindset.
If I’m not careful about checking those expectations before I start digging into the numbers, I could (and have) end up berating myself for old mistakes or less-than-stellar performance.
The flip side of this is that, not only can getting clear on our metrics or financials help us make more objective decisions about our business, it can present a huge opportunity for cleaning up our mindset and setting clear expectations for ourselves. We can address the emotional weight that comes along with tracking sales, leads, or our time.
We asked 7 members of the What Works Network to share a time when getting clear on the numbers told them a surprising story about what was really going on under the hood.
As you listen to these stories, consider the emotional or mindset transformation that had to happen alongside each new decision made based on something as seemingly objective as numbers. Put yourself in these small business owners’ shoes and think about what it took to start operating in a new way, regardless of the evidence.
In this episode you will hear from Susan Boles from Scale Spark, Kirsty Starmer from Build@Beach, Natasha Vorompiova from Systems Rock, business strategist Michelle Warner, Parker Stevenson from Evolved Finance, photographer Trish Mennell, and Julie Treanor from Just Lead.
Do you have a story about learning something surprising about your business based on metrics or financials? Have you made a big decision because you finally got clear on the numbers? I’d love to hear about it! Share your story on Instagram and tag me, @tara_mcmullin and use the hashtag #explorewhatworks.
Ready to join the conversation?
If you’re ready to get real about your small business and talk about what’s really working without the hype or gimmicks, you’ll want to join us inside The What Works Network. We’re opening the doors to new members soon! Click here & sign up to be notified when we start accepting new members.

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EP 208: Pricing By The Numbers With Systems Saved Me Founder Jordan Gill May 21, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Jordan Gill used data and experience to set competitive prices for her business operations firm* Why she focused on serving seasonal service-based businesses and how that impacts the way she delivers her service* The stat she used to figure out a new way to offer her services* What expenses Jordan accounts for in pricing her unusual offer
Sometimes the numbers top you in your tracks.
It was the summer of 2017. I was on a bonus day of vacation with Sean and Lola because our original flight had gotten canceled.
We were on the way to Sean’s grandmother’s lake house and I thought I’d check in on my email quick since I’d be coming back to work a day later than planned.
Staring at me from the top of a stack of unopened emails was an email informing me that, soon, 30% of our membership revenue was going to flow toward Apple instead of our bank account.
My stomach sank.
The still-new community wasn’t even breaking even yet and now we were going to have to give up 30% of our revenue to the world’s richest company?
I panicked.
Luckily, even in my panic, I read through the email a few more times to check the—unbelievable—details. It turned out that Apple was going to take 30%—but only for memberships that originated in our app.
Okay, crisis averted. But in the time between my panic and realizing what was really going on, I had already started to concoct a plan.
My plan was simple: we needed a serious influx of new members to offset the potential hit to our revenue. So… get this… I decided to drastically reduce the price of membership from $60 per month to just $15.
Yes, that’s right, when faced with the potential loss of 30% of our revenue, I made a decision to lower our prices.
Hear me out: I thought that by lowering the price to something more akin to a piece of software you subscribe to, I could build our customer base by hundreds—if not thousands—while maintaining our current expenses.
This did not happen.
Instead, new members joined at about the same rate but with 75% less revenue coming our way.
It didn’t take long to realize that this was not working.
The numbers just didn’t add up.
Without an onslaught of new members at this lower rate, we were never going to be able to cover costs.
I’d made a big pricing mistake and something had to change.
Of course, it wasn’t just a matter of covering expenses. That’s an important part of pricing—and one we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of in this episode.
But price tells a story. While I was trying to tell a story about our community being as invaluable as one of the software tools you run your business with, the story we were really telling was just, “This is cheap.”
By raising the price, we could better reflect what we actually offer.
That’s another piece of the story we’re covering in today’s episode.
Meet Jordan Gill. Jordan runs a business operations firm and is the founder of Systems Saved Me, a hub for templates and online training designed to improve your business systems.
Jordan is adamant about running her business by the numbers.

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EP 207: What’s Working In Tracking Your Business Finances With Kaitlyn Louvier From Bench May 16, 2019

I know plenty of small business owners who struggle with how to price their products or how much to invest in advertising. I see people question whether they can hire someone to help or whether that conference is in their budget.
And at the heart of all of these questions, are the nitty-gritty financial numbers behind all of our businesses.
Unfortunately, we often get caught up in the sexier questions and forget to dive into the reports… if we have the reports at all.
My business had been making well over $100,000 per year before I finally hired a great bookkeeper who could help me understand what was really going on with our finances.
There is absolutely no shame in not having your bookkeeping and financial reporting figured out right now. But today is the day you need to start moving in the right direction if you want to experience more clarity and growth for your business.
In this episode, we’re continuing our “what’s working” series. This series features consultants, service providers, and software companies that help make small businesses work. They offer a bird’s eye view across industries and business models to help us parse the trends and systems that are actually working for lots of businesses.
I’m joined by Kaitlyn Louvier from Bench, a hybrid bookkeeping software and service provider for small business owners. Bench’s goal is to help entrepreneurs master their financial lives with highly personalized bookkeeping services.
Kaitlyn and I talk about the difference between bookkeeping and accounting, what solid bookkeeping helps you avoid, and the top 5 numbers you should be tracking in your business finances. We also chat about the pros and cons of the options small business owners have to keeping their books managed.
This conversation is a valuable look at what’s working to track your numbers no matter what kind of bookkeeping system you have. But if you’re ready to level up how you manage your business finances, you can support the work we do here at the What Works podcast by giving Bench a try. Go to explorewhatworks.com/bench to start your free trial and get 20% off your first 6 months of bookkeeping. That’s explorewhatworks.com/bench or mention What Works when you start your trial!

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EP 206: Choosing Between Two Businesses With Grace & Vine Founder Madison Wetherill May 14, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Madison Wetherill found herself the owner of two small businesses—and how she knew something had to change about the way she was managing them* How Madison came to think of herself as a “busy person” and why that impacted the way she structured her time* What she noticed about the way she was spending her time and how it related to the results she was creating* The way she restructured her priorities and found a new—more productive—set of responsibilities that help her drive revenue
I just got home from talking with the new manager of my climbing gym.
Wait: don’t fast forward… this isn’t yet another story about how fitness is like business.
I was there to talk to him about a job.
As in, a job that I am considering taking…
Of course, I don’t need this job. It would simply be a way for me to continue learning and sharing my passion for climbing.
They’ll pay me; but it literally isn’t about the money.
Because, as you can imagine, the numbers don’t add up.
This month, we’re talking about running our businesses by the numbers, looking at the way we spend our time, make decisions, and plan.
I’ve already been working at my climbing gym—just an hour per week teaching beginners how to boulder. I haven’t been paid this little per hour since 2004.
Taking on some additional responsibility and exploring a new skill set won’t get me any big pay raise. Actually, it won’t get me any pay raise.
My priorities are clear. My life & business come first. This job—no matter how much I might enjoy it—comes second. If I take it, I’m confident I’ll do great and show serious commitment. I’ll be an asset to the gym. And I’ll learn some new things along the way.
Unfortunately, our priorities aren’t always that cut and dry.
It can be tough to know whether the thing you’re spending time on is paying the dividends you need it to—whether those are financial or otherwise.
Madison Wetherill—a food blogger and the founder of Grace & Vine, a web design studio—found this to be the case late last year when she realized that her food blog was taking up most of her time but her web design studio was producing serious financial results.
It was time to make a decision and get her priorities straight.
Madison and I chat about how she ended up with 2 businesses in the first place, how she knew something needed to change, and how her workdays have changed now that she’s reprioritized her businesses. We also discuss how she’s becoming aware of her identity as a busy person—and the challenges that creates.
Have you made an important decision in your business because you got real with the numbers? Have you discovered a new opportunity right under your nose when you examined your traffic, profit margin, or conversion rate? We want to hear about it!
Share your story on Instagram and tag me, @tara_mcmullin and use the hashtag #explorewhatworks.
Now, let’s find out what works for Madison Wetherill!
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EP 205: What’s Working In Traffic & Analytics With Rita Barry May 09, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Rita Barry chose to focus on helping clients understand the numbers when it comes to their website traffic* The mistakes small business owners make that prevent them from taking advantage of the information they have* The first step Rita takes with every new client* Why Rita maps the customer journey and how it helps her make recommendations to clients* What Rita looks for when she opens up her clients’ Google Analytics dashboards
Let’s cut to the chase: how confident are you in your ability to understand what’s going on with your website traffic?
When was the last time you even logged into Google Analytics or your stats dashboard? Do you know where your traffic is coming from and what traffic sources produce the most email subscribers or sales?
Do you know what blog posts bring in the most revenue? Do you know what social media platforms actually drive traffic to your website (or just which ones you think drive traffic)? Do you know the process a new customer goes through from the moment they hit your website to the moment they make a purchase?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, dear listener, you’re not alone.
The truth is that I don’t know the answers to most of these questions, either. I have a good idea of where our traffic comes from and how new subscribers get on our email list.
But I could be doing a lot more to equip myself with the knowledge I need to make better decisions and smarter investments.
Today, I’ve got a special interview with Rita Barry.
Rita is the founder of a marketing agency that specializes in helping their clients understand the metrics and analytics behind their businesses so they can make the most of the information they have.
As with the rest of our “What’s Working” series, instead of asking Rita what works for her, I ask what’s working as she helps her clients navigate the world of conversion rates, website traffic, sales funnels, and buyer journeys.
Rita and I talk about how to approach Google Analytics (hint: it’s not a Magic 8 ball), how she chooses what metrics to track for her clients, and why she focuses on mapping the customer journey in every client engagement. Plus, we also unpack a lot of the shame and overwhelm can come along for a ride when you dig into your numbers.
Have you made an important decision in your business because you got real with the numbers? Have you discovered a new opportunity right under your nose when you examined your traffic, profit margin, or conversion rate? We want to hear about it!
Share your story on Instagram and tag me, @tara_mcmullin and use the hashtag #explorewhatworks.
Now, let’s find out what’s working in traffic and analytics!

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EP 204: Creating Value After Going Viral With Jennifer Johansson May 07, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty
* How Jennifer Johansson started promoting her art on Pinterest* What happened when one of her pins was repinned over 50,000 times—and why it created a spike in traffic but not in sales* How she regrouped and made a decision to create a online course inspired by her viral pin* The process Jennifer used to create her online course and how her course has impacted her art business as a whole
Going viral doesn’t always go the way we planned.
My dear friend Brigitte Lyons is a media strategist and PR specialist. But back in 2013, she wrote a blog post about… an unrelated topic.
This was back before blogging always had to be strategic content marketing. And so, when Brigitte had something to get off her chest, she wrote it down and published it.
This blog post started to make the rounds. It even ended up on Reddit and drove crazy amounts of traffic to her website.
For more than 2 years, Brigitte’s website traffic was dominated by people coming to read this off-topic blog post.
In Google Analytics, this looked good. But for Brigitte’s business? Well, it really had no bearing whatsoever.
Brigitte might have seen this spike in traffic as an opportunity to go rogue and develop a whole new line of business. After all, the numbers don’t like, right? Thousands of people were clamoring to read this post.
But not every viral sensation is a business opportunity waiting to happen.
Luckily, Brigitte stayed the course and has an incredibly successful PR firm today.
Of course, sometimes traffic tells a different story. Sometimes an unexpected viral hit can turn into an unexpected product strategy.
This month, we’re exploring the ways we engage with numbers as small business owners. Often, when we get clear about the numbers, our next steps are much easier to figure out.
Traffic can be a tricky number to parse…
…but when paired with other information and matched with curiosity, we can make better decisions and follow the best opportunities.
My guest today is Jennifer Johansson, a mixed media artist, living and working in Carbondale, Illinois. Jennifer studied art and education in college, going on to teach high school art and art history for 15 years. About 9 years ago, she was able scale back her teaching to focus more on her art.
In an effort to spool up her art business, Jen started sharing her work on Pinterest. And one day, she noticed a particular pin was sending an outsize amount of traffic to her website. Not only that, it was generating comments and emails from interested people.
But they weren’t so much interested in buying her artwork as they were in learning how to create the art they saw on Pinterest.
Jennifer spotted the opportunity—which was distinctly different than Brigitte’s!—and started to take action.
In this conversation, Jennifer and I talk about the pin that went viral, the decision to build an online course about her unique style of art, and the nitty-gritty of how she created the course. We also chat about how her business has evolved as a result of pursuing this line of business.
Have you changed course in your business because you got real with the numbers?

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EP 203: Running Your Business By The Numbers With Tara McMullin May 02, 2019

When I signed off on my taxes last month, it was the first time in 10 years that I didn’t owe any money to the IRS.
In fact, I got a refund.
Now, I’d love to tell you that’s because I was much more diligent with my financial planning. And, that is partially true.
But the main reason I’m getting a refund is that I personally made a lot less money last year.
Not gonna lie: making less money was a big hit to my ego.
Worse, I realized how much my personal identity as a provider, a businesswoman, and a leader was tied up in the dollar dollar bills.
Let me clarify: I don’t define myself by how much money I make. I don’t think I’m worthless if I’m not rich…
What happened is that I had been using money as validation. I equated my ability to do my job with my ability to continue to grow the revenue my company generates.
So it wasn’t so much the money itself—but continuing to push the needle on that money that felt tied to my value as an entrepreneur.
Taking a deliberate step back to pivot, as well as develop a new product and marketing strategy, as I have over the last 2 years, just didn’t allow me to grow at the same rate.
But, instead of seeing that objectively, I responded emotionally.
I’ve recently learned something fairly obvious but nevertheless profound about myself: I define myself by my accomplishments.
Not just because my accomplishments tell others something about who I am but because I worry, deep down, that I don’t have much to offer. The more I accomplish, the more value I can believe I have.
Accomplishing that year-after-year revenue growth was a sign that I had created something valuable… that I was valuable.
In that way, money has been an easy metric for me to use to measure my worth and to calculate the exact value I’m creating in the world.
That means that when my paycheck took a hit, it felt like my credibility took a hit.
Of course, revenue is just one very small way to measure success or value. Thankfully, I can use it to pay my mortgage but otherwise it’s about as useful as a Facebook like or an Instagram follow when it comes to measuring my personal value.
While I’m personally working on not defining my identity or credibility solely by what I’ve accomplished, it has been helpful for me to look at what we’ve accomplished as a company outside of my self-imposed numbers game. I’m choosing to take pride in the process and enjoy the journey of refining my approach.
Today, my company produces this exceptional podcast that gives you behind-the-scenes access to how businesses actually run (no gurus, hype, or magic formulas).
My company hosts an exceptional network of small business owners having candid conversations about what’s working and not working in their businesses.
We’ve dialed in operations, honed our approach, and nurtured a community culture of constructive optimism.
My company facilitates small group masterminds that bring business owners together around a common goal. I’ve personally had the chance to level up my facilitation skills and learn how much I love this role.
Today, my company operates better than it ever has.

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EP 202: Rebuilding Your Business After A Break With Ad Strategist Claire Pelletreau Apr 30, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* What happened when Facebook ad strategist Claire Pelletreau returned to her business after an unexpectedly long maternity leave* Why she took a gig subcontracting from another ad strategist* How she found her confidence as a consultant, educator, and strategist again* What went wrong when she launched a product she thought would be a no-brainer* How her offers have evolved to support her business as it matures
Last fall, I was hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and I felt the weirdest pain in my right ankle.
It felt like I had rolled it, or sprained it, or done something very weird to it. But I hadn’t.
I was just hiking along and then felt a shooting pain.
I kept hiking—maybe not the smartest thing to do, but that’s what I did—and the pain would come and go.
When I got home from the trip, still experiencing some odd pain in my ankle, I decided to take a break from running.
First, I took a week off. I tried to run a few miles—no dice. It hurt.
Then, I took a couple more weeks off. Ran again and made it a little further but still felt the pain.
At that point, I gave myself permission to just work out in other ways for the foreseeable future.
I’d attempting running every so often but I wasn’t putting in the miles like I did before that hike.
That’s how I spent this winter: lifting weights, focusing on climbing, and becoming quite familiar with the elliptical machine.
By February, I needed to start adding miles back in so that I was ready to start a half marathon training plan in mid-March.
I was nervous.
I was afraid that I’d not only lost the physical fitness I’d earned through running but mental fitness, too. It took me a long time to build up to being able to push through both the physical and mental barriers you run into with running.
I honestly expected to have lost it all.
Little bit by little bit, I realized just how little I lost.
And sure, I needed time on my feet and miles under my belt to establish my base running fitness again. I actually came back faster than I was before I took the extended break!
When I started running, I was planting a seed—a small investment in my future fitness. The more I ran, the more I nurtured what was growing inside me.
But even when I took an extended break, what I had planted didn’t stop growing.
Now, my guest this week had a similar experience in her business.
Claire Pelletreau is a Facebook ad strategist and the host of the Get Paid podcast.
A few years ago, Claire took some maternity leave—and that maternity leave ended up being twice as long as she originally planned.
Coming back to work was, as she put it, terrifying.
She worried that she’s lost her edge and had gotten left behind by changes in the market.
But what she ultimately found was that the seed she’d planted years ago was still growing… it just took her a little time to reclaim her confidence for tending it.
Claire and I not only talk about her return from maternity leave, but why she took a gig subcontracting for another ad strategist, how she found a new level of confidence,

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EP 201: Turning A Side Project Into Your Main Gig With Work Brighter Founder Brittany Berger Apr 25, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Brittany Berger came up with the idea for the Work Brighter newsletter* How Work Brighter evolved as she continued to work her day job—and then as she struck out on her own* What her current vision for Work Brighter is and how it informs her growth strategy* Why Brittany chose to think of her company more like a software company than a content company
A side business can be your main focus.
Mike McDerment founded Freshbooks—a company that now reportedly brings in over $50 million in revenue each year—because he saved over an invoice he was working on for his internet marketing consultancy.
But Mike didn’t quit his existing business to start a new one. He started building it on the side.
And well before Freshbooks started making, well, really any measurable amount of money per month, he figured out a way to devote 80% of his time to making that company and his solution for small business owners like him a reality.
He made the new company his top priority, even though it wasn’t paying his bills.
This probably seems pretty counterintuitive. Don’t you want to prioritize what’s making you money?
Sure, prioritize what’s making you money if it’s what you want to continue doing and has the potential to grow into the kind of company you really want to run.
But that wasn’t the case for Mike. He saw the potential of Freshbooks long before anyone else did. He knew that Freshbooks wasn’t just a great idea—it had the potential to far exceed the earning and impact potential of the business he was currently running.
Now, today’s show isn’t about Mike—but you can get the full scoop on what worked to get Freshbooks off the ground in the early days and what worked to reinvent it when they need to leap ahead of the market in Episode 152.
But Mike’s story is the perfect introduction to Brittany Berger‘s story.
You see, Brittany is all-in on the seed she’s planted, just like Mike. And, just like Mike, it’s not her primary source of revenue yet.
Yet, the seed she’s watering and tending to has the potential to grow into a big venture.
Brittany Berger is founder of Work Brighter, a digital media company that helps productive unicorns go beyond working smarter to a version of productivity that makes room for “unproductive” things like rest, self-care, and fun. Work Brighter currently publishes a weekly newsletter and hosts a membership community full of resources and templates.
One of the things that stood out to me most about our conversation was how clear-eyed Brittany was about her priorities for this growing company. While she’s still earning income as a content marketing consultant, Brittany knows that Work Brighter is her future. It’s her primary focus.
Brittany and I talk about about how Work Brighter got started, why she treats it more like a software business than a content business, and how she creates her weekly newsletter. We also talk about her business model and why she chose to focus on building monthly recurring revenue.
Now, let’s find out what works for Brittany Berger!

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EP 200: Weathering The Ups & Downs Of Entrepreneurship Over The Long Haul Apr 23, 2019

Even for successful entrepreneurs and small businesses, sometimes things don’t go to plan.
The longer you’re in business, the more times you’ll deal with projects that don’t work out, offers that don’t sell, or strategies that take you down the wrong path.
In many ways, staying in business over the long haul is a constant exercise in maintaining your heading—and navigating back when you inevitably veer off course.
When we launched The What Works Network, I had a vision of small business owners who were frustrated with one-size-fits-all online courses flocking to our platform to work together on making their businesses better.
I could see hundreds and then thousands of entrepreneurs sharing their challenges, offering their solutions, and deep diving into complex issues. I imagined leading the charge for more honest, open-minded, and sophisticated exploration of how we do business.
That didn’t happen.
Despite years of experience and success, my new idea didn’t take off as planned.
It’s taken many experiments, mistakes, and a lot of frustration to finally feel like we’re gaining traction.
During this time, though, I learned so much about building an exceptional product. I learned about building a community—and not merely an audience. I learned about leadership and earning others buy-in.
I know that almost two years of heartache and frustration have taught me what I need to know to create something even better than what I dreamed of in the beginning. And, I know I wouldn’t be here now if I hadn’t been able to cope with those trials.
One of the benefits of being in business for over 10 years is that you know that you’re not alone in the dips. You know that others have suffered setbacks and created their own mistakes, too.
Today, we’ve released our 200th podcast episode out into the world.
And to mark this milestone, we wanted to share exactly these kinds of stories with you—so that you, too, know you’re not alone.
I asked 6 small business owners to share with me about a time when things weren’t going to plan and how they got back on track.
In this episode, you’ll hear from Kathleen Shannon from Braid Creative, Jason Harrison from Present Tense Fitness, Laura Simms from Your Career Homecoming, Molly Mahar from Stratejoy, author Esme Weijun Wang, and jeweler Megan Auman. We’re having really honest conversations about entrepreneurship, leadership, and running a small business.
Each of these stories contains some element of essentialism—recognizing the highest value of the business and the business owner and eliminating everything that doesn’t serve that value.
In his book, Essentialism, Greg McKeown writes, “Saying no is its own leadership capability.”
Throughout these stories, you’ll hear business owners recognize the importance of “no” and step up their leadership to get their businesses—and their lives—back on track.
I think, at this point, we all recognize the importance of saying “no” to ...

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EP 199: Leveling Up Using A Simple One-Day Event With The CEO Retreat Creator Racheal Cook Apr 16, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Racheal Cook scratched her own itch and created a 1-day event without a “grand plan”* Why the CEO Retreat helped her overcome a persistent challenge for her clients* How the event evolved to become a key part of how her business has leveled up over the last year* What Racheal did to overcome her greatest fear about hosting an in-person event
“Meet me in Astoria, Oregon. No charge to you. Let’s talk business for 2 days.”
That was the invitation I sent out to our business coaching clients about 5 years ago.
I legitimately had no idea what I was doing… I just believed that, if I got as many of them as possible in a room together, they could help each other in ways we couldn’t yet imagine.
Some drove to my tiny little town on the Oregon coast. Some flew into Portland and made their way two hours west. As they arrived, I knew we were doing the right thing.
There was nothing fancy about that first retreat (or most of the ones that came after it).
We sat at Ikea desks and we ate pizza from the local pub. We used giant post-it notes and scribbled on whiteboards.
There wasn’t much of a curriculum, just an attempt to address each attendee’s challenge one-by-one or two-by-two during the time we had together.
And while we don’t do these events anymore, this concept is never far from my mind. Getting the right people in the right room to talk about things we don’t often talk about when it comes to business—well, that’s the heart and soul of everything I do now.
That small retreat blossomed into a whole new way of doing business for me and a whole new way of solving problems for our clients.
My guest today has a similar story. Racheal Cook is the creator of Sweet Spot Strategy and the CEO Retreat.
Today, the CEO Retreat is a key touchpoint of how Racheal works with her clients. But it didn’t start that way.
In fact, you’ll even hear her admit that there was no “grand plan” behind her first experiment with a live event.
She just had the urge to get the right people in a room together to work on their businesses.
Racheal and I talk about how she came up with the idea of the CEO Retreat, how it solved a persistent problem for her clients, and what her greatest fear about hosting the event was. We also discovered how the idea has evolved and the role it plays in her business today. Hint: it’s big!
Do you have a story about planting a seed in your business?
Have you run a small experiment and watched it transform your business? Have you taken a small step and put yourself on a whole new path? I’d love to hear your story.
Share it with us on Instagram using the hashtag #explorewhatworks and tag me, @tara_mcmullin. We’ll be sharing your stories throughout the month! And, you’ll be entered to win a free lifetime membership to The What Works Network. For full rules and giveaway instructions, go to explorewhatworks.com/aprilgiveaway. Giveaway closes April 22, 2019.
Now, let’s find out what works for Racheal Cook!
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EP 198: Finding A New Opportunity To Serve With Abundance Practice Building Founder Allison Puryear Apr 11, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How a conversation at a networking event planted a seed for Abundance Practice Building founder Allison Puryear* What the first business coaching program Allison led looked like* Why she knew this opportunity was the right thing to pursue* How Abundance Practice Building has grown and evolved since that first group
I’d like to introduce you to Shannon Paris.
Today, Shannon is our Director of Product for What Works. But when I hired her, I was hiring a community manager.
I’d known Shannon for over 10 years. She and I had co-managed a Borders Books and Music until she left to join a company as a visual merchandiser in the fair trade industry.
When she was looking for a new gig, I knew she was the right person for the job.
But, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take some convincing on her part!
Shannon had never been a community manager before.
She didn’t know what the job entailed and she wasn’t necessarily steeped in the culture of the internet.
What Shannon had, though, was extreme people skills. She’s a master of friendly matchmaking, professional networking, and team member buy-in. I also knew she was detail-oriented, focused on helping people feel like they belonged, and excellent at having difficult conversations.
In other words, I knew Shannon was the perfect community manager.
Luckily, she trusted me enough to take the job. Not only does she make What Works Network members feel at home, connect them to resources, and help them turn their challenges into posts that get our whole community talking, she also makes The What Works Network hum like a well-oiled machine.
I could see the seed of a community manager well before Shannon saw it herself and bloomed in the position.
That’s the funny thing about some seeds we plant as small business owners: sometimes it takes someone else to tell us something is starting to grow!
That was the case with Allison Puryear.
Allison is now the founder of Abundance Practice Building. But before founding this business, she had 3 private therapy practices in 3 different states.
Then, someone started to show her the seed she’d been planting all along: Allison was really good at building private practices.
The peer pressure started to mount and she couldn’t escape it anymore. It was time to bloom!
In this conversation, Allison and I talk about how she created her first group business development program, where she found her first clients, and how she evolved the group from that point. We also discuss how her business has grown into what it is today, including a high-touch mastermind and a membership community.
Do you have a story about planting a seed in your business?
Have you run a small experiment and watched it transform your business? Have you taken a small step and put yourself on a whole new path? I’d love to hear your story.
Share it with us on Instagram using the hashtag #explorewhatworks and tag me, @tara_mcmullin. We’ll be sharing your stories throughout the month! And, you’ll be entered to win a free lifetime membership to The What Works Network. For full rules and giveaway instructions,

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EP 197: Growing A Sold-Out Program From The Seed Of An Idea With Fix My Churn Founder Val Geisler Apr 09, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty
* Why Val Geisler, email marketing specialist and founder of Fix My Churn, used a 2-hour workshop as a test run for a bigger program* How she sold the workshop to her email list and followers* What she did after the workshop to flesh out her 12-week program once she had proof of concept* How she used the success of her workshop to create the initial sales for the program
Big results typically start with small wins.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love sharing parts of my workouts on my Instagram Stories.
Sometimes I share a bouldering problem I’m especially proud of. Sometimes I share a new-to-me movement. Sometimes I share a new PR.
Last week, I shared a video of a progression of pull-ups I did after a climbing workout. I did 4 wide grip pull-ups, 4 strict pull-ups, 3 neutral grip pull-ups, and 1 measly chin up with minimal rest.
Whenever I share things like that, I can count on getting some version of “Oh, I could never do that!” or “How the heck did you even start working on that?” in response.
The truth is that, just over a year ago, I couldn’t do a single pull-up. And that just a year before that, I couldn’t run a mile without stopping to catch my breath.
My fitness journey started with the seed of an idea.
I thought that if I got myself out of bed and walked on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes every morning before I had my coffee, my quality of life would improve.
I didn’t imagine doing pull-ups. I certainly didn’t imagine running a half marathon. And I didn’t imagine playing with barbells on a regular basis.
But I committed to that small action to test my hypothesis. Would life be better if I moved a little more?
Yes, yes it was.
It was easy to see that moving made me feel better. It made me sharper.
Once I’d established that, I started to add a little more intensity.
I incorporated a few minutes of jogging. I started hiking. Eventually, I tried climbing for the first time.
My life kept getting better and better.
I added strength training and lengthened my workouts.
Today, I’m training for a half marathon and teaching a climbing class at my gym.
Two years ago, these things would have seemed ridiculous.
As I’m sure you already realize, this same pattern of behavior applies to business, too.
What you will be working on 2 years from now may be unbelievable to your current self. But the road to get there starts today with small actions, ideas, and experiments.
My guest today is Val Geisler. Val is an email marketing specialist and the founder of Fix My Churn.
Today, Val is wrapping up a 12-week email marketing program that netted her about $90,000.
But just 6 months ago, this kind of result would have been hard to believe.
A small offer—a 2-hour workshop on the research behind successful email marketing—changed everything.
I talk with Val about how she came up with the seed of her big idea, how she sold the workshop that started it all, and how she developed the 12-week program once she knew it would be a success.

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EP 196: Building An Empire One Piece of Content At A Time With Bonnie Gillespie Apr 02, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Bonnie Gillespie started building her content empire before she even started a business* Why a 3-ring binder was all the evidence she needed to know it was time to write her first book* How she used an automated Twitter account to build her audience and produce a new product from repurposed content* And, why Bonnie doesn’t buy into guru culture—despite being a leader thousands of people look to for guidance
Writer’s block—most people who write have experienced that crushing feeling of having nothing to say.
And if finding new customers, convincing them to buy, and developing new products depends on your ability to produce great content, writer’s block can feel worse than an empty bank account.
But what if everything we believe about writer’s block and our business’s dependency on a steady stream of new content is wrong?
This month, we’re examining the stories of business owners who have planted a seed, watered it, tended it, and helped it grow.
In this episode, you’ll learn how Bonnie Gillespie, the author of Self-Management For Actors, planted a seed before she even started her business. Her bridge job as a show business industry columnist blossomed into an empire that is still rooted in the words she wrote over 20 years ago.
Email by email, article by article, blog post by blog post, book by book, even tweet by tweet, she’s strategically pieced together her body of work.
Bonnie and I talk about how she realized her first book was waiting to be born, the way she used an automated Twitter account to develop a new product, how she stays in dialogue with her audience to fuel the content she publishes, and why she doesn’t buy into guru culture.
Do you have a story about planting a seed in your business?
Have you run a small experiment and watched it transform your business? Have you taken a small step and put yourself on a whole new path? I’d love to hear your story.
Share it with us on Instagram using the hashtag #explorewhatworks and tag me, @tara_mcmullin. We’ll be sharing your stories throughout the month! And, you’ll be entered to win a free lifetime membership to The What Works Network. For full rules and giveaway instructions, go to explorewhatworks.com/aprilgiveaway. Giveaway closes April 22, 2019.
Now, let’s find out what works for Bonnie Gillespie!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.
It’s tax season… and that means you’re thinking about whether your books are in order.
If you’re ready to stop stressing about cleaning up your business finances yourself, it’s time to get Bench.
Bench combines easy to use software with real human beings who do your bookkeeping...

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EP 195: How Small Ideas Lead To Big Success With Tara McMullin Mar 28, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty
* Tara shares the story of how the seeds she panted at the beginning of her business journey have grown into The What Works Network* How a small action now can turn into big success for your small business down the line * Why your next big idea will probably come from the small ideas that you are planting today* And a sneak peek at the candid conversations coming up in April
Well before he was a New York Times bestselling author, Chris Guillebeau penned an ebook called 279 Days To Overnight Success.
In it, he outlined all the hard work he put into becoming a full-time writer over the course of 10 months.
The point was simple: fulfilling his dream of becoming a full-time writer didn’t happen because someone tapped him on the shoulder and made him a full-time writer.
It didn’t even happen because he got a big media break or a had a viral hit.
Chris planted seeds with every blog post he wrote and connection he made. He did the work of raising those seeds into saplings and watched them grow into trees. All along the way, he continued to plant seeds.
Chris is now the author of 5 books, the host of a remarkable conference, and an international speaker. But he certainly didn’t get there overnight.
The first seed I planted in my business was my first post-collegiate blog: Handmade In PA.net.
I had no idea what I was doing at the time. I just knew that I loved blogging and I loved the new maker movement.
When I started that blog, my only plan was to sell some advertising in the sidebar to cover a few lattes per month. I can remember telling a reporter from the local paper how much I was charging for advertising and he chuckled.
It wasn’t much.
But, low and behold, I got a few advertisers and made a little money.
More importantly, the site was a hit among a very niche, very small group of people. I wrote consistently, I connected with the audience, and I connected the audience to each other. They loved it.
Now, this is not a story about how Handmade In PA.net beat the odds and grew into a behemoth indie craft site. It did not.
Instead, it’s a story about how my vision grew.
By starting out small, I started. I turned words into pixels. I met people. I learned things.
I went from a local craft blogger to a global craft blogger. I went from a blogger to a writer and teacher. I went from a writer and teacher to a coach. I went from coach to trainer, facilitator, podcaster, and CEO.
My vision grew and grew and grew to what it is today.
The second seed I planted in my business started with a mind map.
Back in 2012, I worked with clients through a one-off consulting session model.
They’d share their goals and challenges through an intake form. I would pour over the intake form, research their digital presence, examine their market, and create a overview of where I saw opportunity and what they could do to seize it.
I loved these sessions and the businesses I got to work on in that model. Even more importantly, my clients loved these sessions and got great results.
And often, they’d come back looking for more.

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EP 194: Finding A Niche In A Crowded Market With Photographer Janeris Marte Mar 26, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty
* How Janeris Marte transformed her photography business when she went from a jack of all trades to specializing in adoptive families* The simple strategy Janeris uses to connect with prospects* How she designed photography packages that perfectly align with her clients’ unique needs* Why finding her niche not only made it easier to market herself but made it more efficient to run her business, too
Could your target market use a clean up?
There’s a reason that every marketing class you’ve ever taken or any business coach you’ve ever worked with has asked you to start by defining who your customer is.
And that reason is simply that most beginner business owners—and even plenty who should know better—end up trying to be everything to everybody.
And, of course they do! It seems like it would be so much easier to make a product that everybody wants to buy. It seems like it would be so much more effective to create marketing that resonates with everyone.
But… in the end, when you’re speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to no one.
When you’re creating for everyone, you’re creating for no one.
We’ve been talking about decluttering your business this month.
So far, we’ve tackled streamlining your business model, limiting your working hours, and focusing only on the work that truly lights you up. Plus, you’ve heard how members of The What Works Network have created more results with less work in a variety of ways.
This week, we’re going to look at decluttering your customers.
Now, a serious note: I’m not at all suggesting anyone you work with or create for is clutter!
But… I am suggesting that there’s a good chance you’re not as clear on who you serve and why you serve them as you could be.
Case in point: Janeris Marte had been a photographer for 18 years with limited success. She was a self-described jack of all trades.
Then, she realized she had an opportunity.
She could specialize in photography for adoptive families.
Instead of creating portraits of anyone who popped into her inbox, she could focus on connecting with a community of people she knew well with a service that could transform their families.
In this interview, you’ll hear how Janeris decided to focus on adoptive families, how she connects with new clients, and the specialized packages she’s able to offer because of her niche.
But I also really want you to pay attention to how Janeris describes the impact this focus has had on her business operations and client experience, too. She wasn’t only able to clean up the way she markets herself as a photographer, she was able to become much more efficient at the way she communicates with clients and delivers her services, too.
Has your business gone from a jack of all trades to a highly specialized venture?
I’d love to hear your story. Share what works for you on Instagram using the h...

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EP 193: Doing More With Less: How Small Business Owners Take A Minimalist Approach Mar 21, 2019

Imagine you want to get stronger.
What do you do?
If you’re like me, you’d head to the gym, grab some dumbbells, and start squatting, pressing, and curling as many times as you could until your legs and arms felt like they wanted to fall off.
It turns out… more isn’t always more when it comes to the gym.
And more isn’t always more when it comes to your business, either.
Now, repping it out at the gym isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s a time and place for focusing on lifting a weight more times.
But it’s not the most efficient way to get stronger.
It absolutely blew my mind when I learned that, if I want to get stronger, I should focus on lifting heavier weights just 1-5 times per set. Yes, just 1-5 times.
For instance, in 2018, I set a goal of doing 10 unassisted, uninterrupted pull-ups in a row.
Before I knew better, I would try to get as many pull-ups as I could every time I was near a bar.
Then, I started doing some research. You see, the best way to hit this kind of strength goal isn’t—shocking enough as it is—to wear yourself out in one or two sets.
It’s to pull way back and instead, try for 5 sets of 3 or 4 sets of 4. Then, slowly over time, increasing your sets and reps until you can manage the goal.
By focusing on low numbers, you’re actually able to increase your results.
And even better? You don’t feel nearly as spent at the end of your workout.
The reason I bring all this up is that some of the most profitable businesses that I’ve had the privilege to examine operate in this sort of fewer reps for more results kind of pattern.
They focus on efficiency. They concentrate on a few key actions. They value rest and space.
As you might know, we have a community-based business model that invites small business owners into a private network where they can have candid conversations about making their businesses better, just like we do here on the podcast.
In the beginning, we really wanted to overdeliver on the value of joining The Network, so we created all sorts of events and exclusive content. At one point, we were hosting 2-3 events and posting 3-4 article-length pieces of content per week.
What we knew is that events and content gave our members something to connect with. It gave them a common language they could use to talk to one another.
But what we didn’t take into account was just how much we were flooding them with points of connection and common languages! It wasn’t that it wasn’t valuable. It wasn’t even that it was overwhelming…
It was just that it was all so diluted.
It was burning out our team, our members weren’t showing up, and it wasn’t enticing new people to join.
Last fall, we decided to pull way back on how many events we planned and how much content we created. In December, we decided to pull back even more.
Now, we host 1 weekly event and we focus on conversation starters around a monthly theme instead of article-length content.
The result? People plan for our events and show up. They anticipate our conversation starters and chime in. They’re more engaged, they’re more motivated, and they’re talking about The Network more with their colleagues.

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EP 192: Creating What You Love Using Patreon With Real Talk Radio Host Nicole Antoinette Mar 19, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* How Nicole Antoinette pivoted her business to focus solely on her podcast, Real Talk Radio* The question she asked herself to ensure the longevity of the podcast once she started it* Why she chose a community-funded business model through Patreon* How she structures her Patreon tiers, pricing, and rewards* What’s working to grow the number of patrons supporting the show
Fill in the blank: I wish I could just get paid to __________.
Maybe you said “make art,” “have great conversations,” or “write books.”
Maybe you dream of being able to focus on world peace, doing sketch comedy, or telling stories about the world’s great philosophers.
Plenty of creative, passionate business owners have the work they wish they could focus on and the work that pays the bills.
The result tends to be a business model that is a bit fractured and unwieldy. You end up doing a bunch of little things to make it all add up at the end of the month.
What if you could clean it all up and just focus on the thing you love the most?
Today’s guest, Nicole Antoinette, faced a similar dilemma.
Nicole is the host of Real Talk Radio, a podcast that digs deep into the lives of athletes, writers, entrepreneurs, parents, coaches, and activists. Four years into finding an opportunity to coach people who wanted a similar lifestyle to hers, she decided to make a big change.
Nicole decided to do away with coaching and digital products and just get paid to having fascinating, honest conversations with people living fulfilling lives.
To do it, she used Patreon.
Patreon is a platform that allows creators like Nicole to create a community-funded business model.
Nicole and I talk about how she arrived at the idea for the podcast, what she did to ensure the longevity of the project once it took off, and why she chose a community-funded business model. We also talk about how she structures the pricing, rewards, and growth of her Patron community.
Have you discovered a way to get paid to just create? I’d love to hear from you. Find me on Instagram—I’m @tara_mcmullin—and let me know how you did it!
Now, let’s find out what works for Nicole Antoinette!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 191: Your Business Is A Mess–And That’s Okay With Tara McMullin Mar 14, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Tara shares why it’s important to clean things up–but not get caught up in making things perfect* Why the mess exists–and how that’s a feature, not a bug* How to use hypotheses instead of discrete goals to learn more about what works for you* How to create adaptable plans based on your particular mess and your goals
Businesses get messy—old products, defunct systems, cluttered inboxes.
And we’re talking about how to clean up your business all this month. You’ve already heard from Jereshia Hawk who took mess of offers and streamlined her business to just one product. You just heard from Mindy Totten who figured out how to clean up her schedule and work just 3 days per week.
You even heard from me about 3 ways I’ve been cleaning up my business over the last 2 years.
But, I think it’s also important to say that…
Your business will always be a mess.
The mess is a feature, not a bug.
Sure, we want to make sure there isn’t excess clutter or wasted money—but we also shouldn’t focus so much on making things perfect that we forget the beauty in the imperfection.
Today, instead of cleaning things up, I want to highlight the mess.
You see, your business is a series of interwoven systems, mechanisms, and information that impact and influence each other so that no one component can be singled out as a problem or a solution.
Every time you clean something up or organize a mess…
…you end up uncovering something else that needs to be addressed.
Russell Ackoff, a pioneer in both management science and systems thinking, said:
Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes. Problems are extracted from messes by analysis. Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes.
If you feel like you solve one problem only to discover another, this is why. If you feel like every time you make an incredible discovery about your business it changes everything, this is why. If you feel like everything you learn about growing your business seems to influence everything you’ve experienced running your business, this is why.
It’s a mess.
And that’s okay.
Your job is to manage this mess.
That means being willing to adapt, try new things, experiment, and — most importantly — accept that the work is never done.
Every change you make to your website has the potential to ripple through the rest of your business. Every adjustment you make to your pricing can set off a chain reaction. Every revision you make to your plan could create a counteraction later on down the line.
The more aware you are of the messy nature of your business, the more you can use the mess to your advantage.
The real problem is that…
You’re not planning for the mess.
When you plan for your business — whether it’s setting goals...

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EP 190: Getting It Done In Just 3 Days Per Week With Oasis Center For Craniosacral Therapy Founder Mindy Totten Mar 12, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why bodywork practitioner Mindy Totten decided to take her 6.5-day per week business and turn it into a 3-day per week business* How specializing on a single modality helped her earn more while working less* The internal shift Mindy needed to go through to make the 3-day work week possible* The process she used to put her clients on her schedule—instead of theirs
I started my business when I was a stay-at-home mom.
I had to fit my work in during naps, evening writing escapes, and breastfeeding sessions (luckily, there were plenty of those).
When I decided to take the business full-time, I was convinced I would get so much more work done. I’d be able to do all the things I used to dream of but couldn’t fit in.
Well, I was wrong.
You see, when I started working full-time hours, I had a lot more breathing room. And while that sounds great, what it really meant was that I didn’t have to be so focused or productive anymore. I could approach my work with a much more laissez faire attitude.
I went from working 15 hours per week to working 40 hours per week and I really didn’t have much more to show for it.
What I realized is that, when my time was constrained, my focus was heightened.
Now, luckily that was 9 years ago, and I’ve learned how to reproduce the level of focus I had achieved as a part-time business owner working full-time hours. I really can get much more done now than I used to.
But I know lots of people who still struggle with fitting it all in.
That’s why I wanted to talk with today’s guest about how she’s streamlined her business workload to just 3 days per week.
Mindy Totten is the founder of the Oasis Center for Craniosacral Therapy in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the creator of The Bodywork Project, a program helping bodyworkers learn the business skills they need to succeed.
Mindy and I chat about how she streamlined her schedule from working 6 1/2 days per week to working just 3 days per week. We also talk about the internal shift that made that move possible, how her prices have adapted to the new schedule, and how her business operations have evolved.
You’ll even hear the story what happened when she broke the news to a client who had been seeing her on the same day every week for a decade!
Have you made a dramatic change to the hours you work on your small business?
Have you streamlined and focused your business in a different way? I’d love to hear from you. Share the story on Instagram and tag me @tara_mcmullin and the hashtag #explorewhatworks—or shoot me a message.
Now, let’s find out what’s working for Mindy Totten!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking...

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EP 189: What’s Working In Community Building With Mighty Networks’ Senior Community Strategist Audra Lindsey Mar 07, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty
* What makes for a vibrant and engaged online community or group* The workflows that Audra Lindsey has used to save time and streamline how she manages large communities* The importance of getting members to talk to each other* How doing less to manage a community or group can create a more valuable experience* Why Audra focuses on building a culture around sharing experience—not sharing advice
Don’t let the term “community building” fool you.
This episode is all about how we bring people together as small business owners. Whether you’re building community in a small group, on a membership site, through in-person events, or even on social media, the act of gathering people together is often a core activity today’s small businesses.
Unfortunately, there’s been so much hype about automation, scale, and getting hands-off with your business over the last 5 years that many small business owners have made a mess of their people.
They’ve kept them at arm’s length. They’ve developed products and offers that put huge, unhelpful boundaries between them and the people they serve. They’ve automated all the spontaneous interactions out of their communication.
And… it shows.
It shows in brand authority. It shows in customer satisfaction. And, it shows in the bottom line.
I’ve made this mistake and experienced this myself.
Well, we’re in middle of a market correction.
One that, I believe, is going to be around for a very, very long time.
Business owners are cleaning up all the crap that’s kept them away from the people they serve.
They’re putting the focus back on those very important people.
You see it in small group programs, mastermind groups, hands-on support, community-based business models and more.
So while you’ll hear the words “community” and “community building” a lot in today’s episode, what we’re really talking about is how to focus on people in a way that adds to your bottom line and makes your life easier as a small business owner.
And, I know no one better to talk about this than Mighty Networks’ Audra Lindsey.
Audra is the Senior Community Strategist at Mighty Networks, where her focus is on designing and implementing best practices in community strategy and community building. She has launched successful apps and online communities for customers including Gretchen Rubin, the NRDC, The Representation Project, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Intuit, McGraw Hill, Lean In, and American Express. Her role also includes leading content strategy, providing support and guidance for all Mighty Network Hosts, and helping deliver product improvements and features.
Before Mighty, Audra spent several years working with arts organizations and non-profits in the Bay Area to expand their online presence, design innovative marketing campaigns, and launch new fundraising initiatives.

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EP 188: Streamlining Your Business Model To Just One Offer With Services That Sell Creator Jereshia Hawk Mar 05, 2019

The Nitty Gritty On Streamlining Your Business Model:
* Why Jereshia Hawk quit trying to build a suite of products and streamlined her business model to just one offer* The mindset challenge she had to overcome to make the decision to retire her old offers* The exact process she used to retire her offers and pivot her business* How Jereshia markets and sells her only offer to insure she has a steady stream of sales
More is more when it comes to building products and making money, right?
Well, that’s what I thought at the beginning of 2016.
I can distinctly remember creating a spreadsheet of everything my company was going to offer throughout the year. There was a course on selling, a coaching program on course design, a high-end mastermind program, our signature business coaching program, a retreat, and more.
I was planning a sales campaign every 6 weeks for 12 months straight.
My goal? To cross a huge revenue threshold that I’d been working toward for years.
Maybe it goes without saying, but my plan did not come to fruition.
By the second sales campaign…
…what had been a carefully engineered business model turned into a muddy and overwhelming mess.
More is not more when it comes to building products and making money.
Of course, it’s easy to make that mistake.
Within 10 months of setting out on this plan to offer #allthethings, I had come to my senses and streamlined our business model to focus again on one core offer—with one or two complementary offers to provide a deeper level of service.
My business started to feel cleaner. Our mission became clearer. Our value proposition felt locked in.
It was a painful—but important—lesson in the art of decluttering a business.
Over our next 7 episodes, we’re going to explore how small business owners do more with less. Think of it as a little business spring cleaning.
Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Jereshia Hawk who got real with me about a similar experience to mine… thinking that more offers would mean more money.
When she realized that just wasn’t happening, she went back to what she knew best, focused on one single offer, and… made bank.
Keep listening to hear how Jereshia approached her business before her own decluttering, what prompted the shift to a single offer, the role her “minimum viable audience” played in her decision-making, and how she retired her old offers to make the space for what was working.
Do you have a story about decluttering or tidying up your business? Have you eliminated things that weren’t working to focus on what was? I’d love to hear from you. Hit me up on Instagram and share what’s working for you. Tag me @tara_mcmullin and use the hashtag #explorewhatworks.
Now, let’s find out what works for Jereshia Hawk!
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Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:

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EP 187: Spring Cleaning Your Small Business Feb 28, 2019

The Nitty Gritty:
* Why taking the time to tidy up your business is so important * The 3 ways Tara has cleaned up her business over the last few years* Information on The What Works Network Spring Cleaning Virtual Conference* Plus, a sneak peek of interviews coming out in March
Does your business spark joy?
Or are you overwhelmed by the piles of business clutter that have grown up around you over the years?
Maybe you have dusty products in one corner of your business, crusty old marketing assets in another, and a mess of outdated prospects in another.
If you’re like me, that kind of business clutter can weigh heavy on your mind.
Six months after I started my very first website, I had the opportunity to purchase a website from a friend who wanted to get out of the blogging scene. She had a much bigger audience and a global platform. I seized the opportunity and used it to catapult my ambitions into the big time.
But a few years after that initial purchase, I had moved on to other things.
I was coaching and teaching business to a different audience and using my own name as my brand.
Yet, that website persisted.
I had a team member manage the editorial calendar and guest contributions. We’d stopped selling ads—so the site wasn’t generating any revenue directly—but we occasional used it to promote other offers.
On paper, the website didn’t take up any of my time or energy.
But mentally? That was a different story.
Of course, I only discovered the mental load of that website when I decided to sell it.
When I finally handed off the keys to the domain name, email list, and web host, I realized just how much the upkeep of that website contributed to my baseline stress level.
What a relief!
I wish I could say that was the only time an old opportunity took up space in my brain… but it certainly was not. Is not.
* I don’t use Twitter at all anymore but I still have it on my phone. My account is still active. People occasionally still tweet at me with questions or thanks.* I don’t—and won’t—promote my old books anymore but they’re still available on Amazon. People still buy them.* I don’t use plenty of old Facebook groups that I belong to. I still get notifications from them.
The clutter piles up. I might not be tripping over it but it would be silly to think that it doesn’t impact my day-to-day life and my ability to create results for my business.
Today, I want to share 3 ways I’ve been cleaning up my own business—with ideas for how you can do the same.
But first, I want to let you know that March is Spring Cleaning month at The What Works Network and we’re hosting our next virtual conference on March 21st with 4 different ways you can tidy up your own business.
What’s a virtual conference?
Well, we host these events ever quarter at The What Works Network. They’re community-wide collaborative learning experiences that you can attend from anywhere and, yes, they’re recorded if you can’t make it live.
Let me run it down for you: our members gather in our virtual conference space on Crowdcast starting at 11am Eastern/8am Pacific.
Our first session sets that stage for the day and I guide you through some reflect...

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EP 186: Finding Clients On LinkedIn With Career Stories Founder Kerri Twigg Feb 26, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty on Finding Clients on LinkedIn:
* How career coach Kerri Twigg is using LinkedIn to find clients and generate more than 30 requests for services per day* The process she uses to vet new connections and establish a relationship with the people she connects with* How she creates content that immediately communicates who she is and what makes her different* How she manages a waitlist of prospective clients who want to work with her
What if there was a social media platform that’s main mission was to help you connect with other professionals?
What if that social media platform also helped you build a digital representation of your best work?
What if it helped you see the incredible people you’re just one introduction away from?
Would you use it?
Of course you would! It probably sounds like the holy grail of social media.
Now you might have already guessed… that social media platform is LinkedIn—an often forgotten option in the digital marketing world.
Well, despite the headlines that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have captured over the years…
LinkedIn has been a central hub for networking, marketing, and sales all along. Finding clients on LinkedIn is totally possible.
Business owners find stellar new employees there. Deals with big corporate clients get started there. And life-changing introductions get made there.
When I started hearing more and more buzz about what was happening on LinkedIn, I decided to check it out for myself. I’ve been experimenting with posting articles, duplicating content from other platforms, and promoting the podcast there. I’ve been expanding my network and checking in with people I haven’t talked to in years!
I can’t say I’ve had any huge successes yet—but the response has been good enough to keep me coming back on a daily basis, something I haven’t been able to say about Twitter for a long time.
But, of course, I wasn’t satisfied to just play around with LinkedIn. I wanted to talk to someone who was really crushing it on the platform. I asked around and was reintroduced to Kerri Twigg—someone who cracked the LinkedIn code enough for the company itself to name her a LinkedIn Top Voice.
In this conversation, you’re going to hear why Kerri decided to focus on LinkedIn as her core client acquisition channel, the process she uses to vet connections, how new connections become clients, and how she manages the sizable waitlist that’s formed from her outreach.
Are you using LinkedIn as your main method of finding new clients? Or maybe you’ve really honed your process for turning new connections on any social media platform into new clients or customers? I’d love to hear from you. Hit me up on my main platform of choice—Instagram. I’m @tara_mcmullin. You can send me a message or share your story in a post and tag me!
And now, let’s find out what works for Kerri Twigg!
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EP 185: Finding Your Personal Networking Style Feb 21, 2019

You might think of me as a fairly gregarious entrepreneur who delights in inviting strangers on to this very podcast for conversations about life and business. But…
In many ways, I’m a walking, talking introvert meme.
I’m a bit of a loner.
I would much rather do things on my own than rely on others for help. Parties, conferences, and even coffee dates make me anxious and sweaty.
And yet… the relationships I’ve developed as a small business owner are some of the deepest and most valuable I’ve experienced in my whole life.
Moreover, those relationships have been key to any and all success I’ve experienced over the last 10 years.
Despite knowing this, I still find networking and relationship-building to be difficult. But I work at it. I work at it and work at it and work at it.
This month, the members of The What Works Network have been talking about how they meet new people, expand their professional networks, and nurture their existing relationships.
I am constantly in awe of the people who dedicate time each week for virtual coffee dates. I am blown away by the members who are always on the lookout to create new work with friends and colleagues.
These are incredibly effective networking strategies. But it doesn’t mean they’re the networking strategies that will work for me.
For me, there are few instances when the ethos of what we do here at What Works is more apparent than when it comes to networking. You see, it would be easy for me–and other loner types–to say that traditional forms of networking don’t work for me.
The challenge is in discovering what does work for me. The value is in sharing it.
What works for me is showing up with work I believe in–even if it’s a simple post on social media–and inviting conversation. It’s asking you, as I have been in every episode, to connect with me on Instagram, and tell me your story. It’s being willing to jump into the middle of a conversation on social media because I know I can shine.
I’m at my best when I am sharing my work outloud and in public, inviting conversation on that work. I am doing my own version of networking when I turn comments on blog posts, Instagram pics, and podcast episodes into deep friendships that support me and my business.
And in the process of doing it, I build relationships, meet new people, and connect more deeply with people I care about.
These things still aren’t easy for me. But I can do it and it works.
Of course, this strategy might not work for you. It’s a bit weird and totally me.
That’s okay. I hope what we can agree on though is how utterly essential expanding your professional network and maintaining your relationships is to the success of your business.
Because it’s true.
If my approach doesn’t work for you, what does? Well, we asked 4 members of The What Works Network to share what works for them when it comes to expanding their networks and nurturing relationships with colleagues.
Each has a her own spin on the type of relationships she values, how she puts herself in the best position to take advantage of her relationships, and what puts her at ease when talking business with others.
I’d love to know what works for you when it comes to expanding your network and nurturing your relationships. Shoot me a message or tag me in a post on Instagram and let me know! You can find me @tara_mcmullin.

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EP 184: Taking Your Small Business Seriously With Lauren Caselli Events Founder Lauren Caselli Feb 19, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* The moment Lauren Caselli knew her event planning business (and her life) needed a fresh approach* Why she chose “seen” as her word for 2018 and how that philosophy helped her make significant changes to the way she does business* Why taking her business seriously has allowed her to rest more, take on fewer events, and receive more support* How her mindset has changed now that she’s taking her small business seriously
There’s what you think your business will be when you start it…
…and then, there’s what you know your business can be once you’re in it.
Very few small business owners start out with a clear vision of the potential for their business. I know I didn’t! I didn’t even realize I was starting a business.
I thought I was starting a blog.
Well, part-time blogging grew into full-time blogging. Full-time blogging turned into offering web design services. Web design grew into business coaching, strategy, and training. It’s really only been in the last few years that I’ve had a clear picture of what the real opportunities are for my company.
My guest this week also started with a pretty different picture of what her business was going to look like… but a coffee date with her boyfriend put her on a very different trajectory.
Lauren Caselli is an event planner and the founder of Lauren Caselli Events. In 2017, she had a wake up call about what wasn’t working with her business and made a plan to change it in 2018.
Now that she’s planning for even more growth in 2019, I wanted to talk with her about making big changes in her business.
Lauren and I talk about what wasn’t working for her before, how her relationship to her business has changed, what mindset shifts she experienced to create growth, and how the business itself has changed.
Has your business undergone a big shift from kind of working to really working?
Did you reach a breaking point and decide to shake things up for the better? I’d love to hear from you. Hit me up on Instagram—I’m @tara_mcmullin. Tag me or DM me and let me know what led up to the change!
Now, let’s find out what works for Lauren Caselli!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

Want more of What Works? Subscribe FREE to the What Works newsletter at read.explorewhatworks.com
Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 183: What’s Working In Professional Networking With Rebelle Con Founder Shannon Siriano Greenwood Feb 14, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Shannon Siriano Greenwood decided to explore lifestyle design by bringing people together at Rebelle Con* How she is currently expanding her professional network and meeting new people to support her* The #1 mistake Shannon sees people make while networking for their small businesses* What surprised her about the way attendees network and build relationships at Rebelle events* How Rebelle Con is expanding this year to help even more small business owners near Richmond, VA build their personal networks
Behind every major or minor success in my business is a relationship with someone who inspired me, challenged me, or hooked me up.
So despite the fact that professional networking excites me as much as a root canal, I wouldn’t be here without the relationships I’ve built.
What I’ve learned over the last 10 years is that I can make business networking work for me. I don’t have to attend cocktail mixers or even meet up with strangers at conferences.
What’s worked for me is using the communication tools that light me up to expand my network, meet new people, and form the seed of new relationships. Today, I’m using Instagram Stories & direct messages to connect with new people. I’m also exploring LinkedIn and, of course, I regularly develop stronger relationships with people in The What Works Network.
Once I’ve established a new relationship using one of those tools, I can go deep on a Zoom call, at a coffee date, or between sessions at a conference.
Or, even here in an interview!
Case in point, my guest today is someone who I got connected to through a quick exchange on Instagram, an introduction via email, and then a deep dive interview.
That chance connection I mentioned was with Shannon Siriano Greenwood, the founder of Rebelle Con and the Rebelle Community, in Richmond, VA.
I thought Shannon would be the perfect person to answer the question:
What’s working in professional networking today?
After all, Shannon is the mastermind behind how hundreds of entrepreneurs and professionals have met, bonded, and become friends since the conference was started in 2017.
Shannon and I talk about her personal networking style, the mistakes she sees small business owners making when it comes to expanding their networks, and how she purposefully structures events to make meeting new people easier.
Do you have an unconventional way of expanding your personal network? Do you make networking a priority in your weekly schedule? I’d love to hear from you. Find me on Instagram—I’m @tara_mcmullin—tag me in post or shoot me a message!
Now, let’s find out what’s working in professional networking!

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EP 182: Launching A Brand On A Mission With Fear Her Fight Athletics Founder Maria Rodriguez Feb 12, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty:
* Why Maria Rodriguez started Fear Her Fight Athletics–and the surprising results of her initial product launch* How Maria centers her mission to empower people of all shapes, sizes, and identities in the gym* The key question Maria asks of herself and her community before designing new products* How Maria is doubling-down on her mission and exploring new territory with her 2019 business goals
Many businesses get started because someone asks what they want from a business. Plenty of other businesses get started because someone asks what customers want from a business.
Far fewer businesses are the result of asking both questions.
But at the intersection of these two questions is fertile ground for starting a business that is both personally fulfilling and in high-demand. This week, my guest is Maria Rodriguez, the founder of Fear Her Fight Athletics. I was introduced to Maria and Fear Her Fight by digital strategist Evan Leah Quinn because she thought I would appreciate the trifecta of Maria’s badass powerlifting coaching, her intersectional feminist fitness brand, and her mission to make people of all shapes and sizes feel more empowered in the gym.
Well, Evan was right!
Now, I thought I was bringing Maria on the show to talk about the mission and message of Fear Her Fight—and yes, we definitely talked about that quite a bit.
But I didn’t realize I was also going to get a masterclass on seeing things from the customer’s perspective and designing products that people would clamor to buy.
Fear Her Fight Athletics is a perfect example of how a business can blossom when it’s personally fulfilling, mission-driven, and creating products people can’t wait to get their hands on.
Maria and I talk about how Fear Her Fight got started, how centering her mission has helped to energize her customers, how she thinks about the products she’s developing, and her goals for the coming year.
Have a brand that’s both personally fulfilling and mission-driven? I’d love to hear about how you’re bringing your message to the center of your products and promotion. Hit me up on Instagram—I’m @tara_mcmullin and let me know what you’re up to!
Now, let’s find out what works for Maria Rodriguez!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

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Or, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more.

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EP 181: How Tara McMullin’s Brand Has Evolved Over The Last 10 Years Feb 07, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty
* The many ways Tara McMullin’s business and brand has changed over the years* Why she finally feels able to be 100% honest with her brand and content* How to nurture community culture that affirms the contribution of every member* Why CoCommercial has become The What Works Network
At the end of 2016, I decided I wanted to do business differently.
I wanted more for our customers, our followers, and our listeners than talking heads and internet business celebrities.
I wanted to honor the unusual, unconventional, and diverse ways that small business owners like you make things work.
I wanted to affirm your resourcefulness and problem-solving skills.
I wanted to leave plenty of room for “it depends” and “this might sound weird, but here’s what works for me.”
Most of all, I wanted to make sure that more small business owners had access to the kind of insider information that gave me the info I needed to make important decisions about how I did business myself.
In other words: I wanted to put you in the driver’s seat when it came to gathering information and ideas for your business. I didn’t want you to be at the mercy of someone’s sales funnel or course catalog.
That’s why we built our small business owner community.
I envisioned our community growing into a hub where small business owners from all different industries came together to talk shop, get real, and support each other.
And… I knew I couldn’t do it under the brands that I’d been known for up until that point: Tara Gentile & Quiet Power Strategy.
This community was more than me. It was more than a particular framework or methodology. It stood for a bigger mission.
So I dusted off a dream that I had started working on a few years prior to this pivot: a coworking space that brought freelancers and small business owners together in community.
And I called our community the name of that coworking space…
CoCommercial.
To me, the name had meaning. It had an origin story.
But, in all honesty, we’ve been fighting this name since Day 1.
Please hold your “I told you so’s” for later!
For every person who got excited about what we were creating together, 3 other people just got confused about the name!
Now, fast forward a bit to another naming opportunity.
Back in April 2018, we ended our podcasting partnership with CreativeLive, who had helped us produce and edit this podcast since 2015. They graciously allowed us to take full control of the existing show.
With this big opportunity, we had the chance to make a statement. We wanted to imbue the podcast with the mission of our company and community. We wanted to have a public version of the private conversations we were having inside of CoCommercial.
Above all, we wanted to produce something that would give you an inside look on the nitty-gritty details of how others run their businesses–just like we do inside our community.
We had a show all about what was really working for small business owners–regardless of the current hype–and we wanted the name to reflect that.
And then it hit us: the show should be called “What Works.”

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EP 180: Selling & Hosting Retreats With Writer Jennifer Louden Feb 05, 2019

The Nitty Gritty:
* What Jennifer Louden has learned about hosting & selling retreats in the 20 years she’s been running them* How far in advance Jen starts planning for a retreat–and how far in advance she starts marketing a retreat* The core role retreats play in Jen’s business model* How Jen structures each retreat to create the best experience for herself and her guests
Every time I go to Glacier National Park, I can feel myself expand. I take up more space, I dream bigger, I breathe more deeply.
I’ve had breakthrough ideas about who I am, what I do, and how I want to run my business winding up and down the Going To The Sun Road. I’ve seen glimpses of my full potential hiking through the woods or above the tree line.
So when I saw a new hotel go up in my favorite town outside the park, it was an easy decision to bring a group of small business owners there for a retreat.
What wasn’t so easy… was figuring out exactly how to do that.
Luckily, I had hired a fabulous event planner—Lauren Caselli—who you’ll hear an interview with soon. But I wish I had had today’s conversation first! Today, my guest is Jennifer Louden. She’s been running retreats for about 20 years now—so she’s figured out a thing or two about how they work both logistically and business-wise!
Jen hosts multiple writing retreats every year, in addition to supporting writers through her community, The Writer’s Oasis. Plus, she’s the author of 6 books—with over 1 million copies in print.
Jen and I chat about the role of retreats in her business, how far in advance she starts planning, what’s working for her right now to sell her retreats, and how she structures each event for both her participants and herself.
Now, let’s find out what works for Jennifer Louden!
What Works Is Brought To You By

Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place:
* Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand.
Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level.

I pay the CoCommercial team—and myself—with Gusto. Now, you might be thinking… “I’m not ready for a payroll provider.” I was in the same boat when I started with Gusto. Gusto gave me the confidence to hire—both contractors and employees—and they’ve made it easy to stay compliant, offer great benefits, and keep me in control of our money. Gusto automatically files and pays your taxes, guides you and educates you along the way, and takes the guesswork out of taking care of your team. We love Gusto and we think you might too. Test it out—and get 3 months free–at gusto.com/whatworks.

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EP 179: Reimagining The Coaching Business Model With Business Strategist Kyla Roma Jan 29, 2019

The Nitty-Gritty on Kyla’s Coaching Business Model:
* How business strategist Kyla Roma created a new coaching business model that combines both her needs and her clients’ needs* Why Kyla decided to change things up and what constraints inspired her to innovate on what was working* The unique coaching program structure and technology Kyla uses to respect her clients’ lives as “rich tapestries”* How much time delivering personalized coaching services takes in her new model (it’s less than you’d think!)* Why Kyla decided to narrow the scope of her program to just a couple of key outcomes
It’s easy to think that, as a life, business, or health coach, there’s a specific business model that you’re supposed to follow.
In fact, I’ve been hearing exactly that from business owners for years.
First, they work on getting 1:1 services dialed in, then they jump into group coaching, then they start building out their programs into online courses or workshops. Eventually, they plan to retire 1:1 coaching and group coaching… and enjoy their carefree new lives of selling online courses and snapping selfies from Cabo.
Here’s the thing: there is no such thing as “the coaching business model.”
Plenty of successful life, business, and health coaches—along with money, mindset, and productivity coaches—run their businesses in all sorts of creative ways. But, if you’re not paying attention, you could easily miss what they’re up to and how their businesses work.
Today, I’m going to take you behind-the-scenes of one such creative coaching model.
My guest today is Kyla Roma. I’ve known Kyla for years and I’ve always respected the way she balances the creative and the analytical.
Kyla’s approach to business coaching and strategy is no exception. About a year ago, Kyla started pioneering a new model for the way she’d deliver business coaching. In our interview, we go behind-the-scenes of how that model evolved and how it works today.
Kyla and I chat about what prompted the idea, how she structures the coaching program, the unique way she incorporates technology to make the program more human, and how she markets the offer.
If you have an innovative coaching model—or your business defies the conventions of your industry—I’d love to hear from you, too! Hit me up on Instagram where I’m @tara_mcmullin. Shoot me a message and tell me what works for you!
Plus, you can grab Kyla’s guide to 3 profit mistakes that service-based and teaching businesses make by clicking here.
Now, let’s find out what works for Kyla Roma!
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EP 178: The Most Productive Habits Of Thriving Small Business Owners Jan 24, 2019

Well, we’ve nearly made it to the end of another January.
As of today, I’m 24 days into my first Whole30. I’m 4 weeks into a new training program. I’m 14 posts into committing to writing and sharing more often on Instagram and LinkedIn. I’m 4 weeks into bullet journaling.
As you might guess, I love January. I love the potential, the possibility, and the opportunity of the new year. I love setting new intentions and goals.
Of course, not everyone feels this way. “February is the new January” memes are popping up everywhere. There’s a January backlash that’s been gaining steam over the last few years.
If you don’t mind, I’d like to share my take on why this is… but I need to do it, as per usual, with a fitness metaphor.
When I was a young athlete, I loved the fast burn. I was always itching to steal second base, to sprint across the finish line, or to take a fast break for a lay-up.
When I started training as an adult, I approached things the same way. Even if it hurt or ruined me for the rest of the day, I’d hit the high intensity intervals hard. Endurance was like a dirty word.
I figured if I kept training at that high intensity, I would eventually be able to endure.
But I was wrong.
Luckily, I learned a lot more about pacing and the benefits of low-intensity exercise. Instead of asking myself how fast I could run for 15 seconds, I started asking myself if I could hold this pace for a mile, 3 miles, or even 10 miles. Instead of always working myself into a sweaty mess, I learned to take plenty of rest and enjoy a workout that was hard work–but felt easy.
I started to embrace the slow burn.
The results spoke for themselves. Yes, I could run for miles upon miles without stopping. I could move heavy weights. I could climb for hours. And the crazy thing is: when I did decide to up the intensity, I could go faster and harder.
I toed the line at which working hard turned into overworking. I trained myself to stay on just this side of comfortable so that when I did really want to push myself, I was ready.
The way we’ve been trained to approach January–whether in life, fitness, or business–is the fast burn. Set all the resolutions. Change all the things.
It’s exhausting. And no wonder people are ready to move away from that all or nothing approach to the new year!
But that’s not how I’ve approached the last few Januarys.
January is, instead, an opportunity to set the pace that I can keep for the next 52 weeks. It’s a chance to ignite my slow burn and reclaim my routine.
The way I do that is by identifying the habits I want to nurture throughout the month.
My habits are the things that either stoke my fire or slow my flow. They’re either propelling me forward with grace or making a mess of my best intentions.
Whether it’s in life or business, the health of my habits is the biggest contributing factor to the success of my goals.
That’s why I choose to use January as a time to reexamine my habits, choose 1 or 2 things that I want to actively cultivate as habits, and eliminate something that’s not serving me. It’s not a frenetic race to some external goal. It’s a refinement of what’s working and an elimination of what’s not.
I want to celebrate the most effective habits of small business owners in our network. So, we’ve asked 4 members to share what’s working for them as they reexamine and refine their own rou...

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EP 177: Evolving Your Entrepreneurial Mindset With Life, Listened Co-Founder Meagan Francis Jan 22, 2019

Meagan Francis, founder of Life, Listened, discovered a whole new entrepreneurial mindset as she made the transition from the owner of a content marketing business to the employee of a marketing & communications firm to the head of her own podcasting business.

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EP 176: Shaping Your Message While Sharing It With The World With Scholar Shape Founder Margy Thomas Jan 15, 2019

The Nitty Gritty
* Margy Thomas, Ph.D. and founder of ScholarShape, supports academics and researchers in telling their stories through what she calls the Story-Argument concept. This tool or strategy, applied to her clients’ work, turns their text into “both a functional machine and a pleasing work of art.”* Why Margy’s so passionate about academic writing, plus the reason Margy works with clients across different specialties instead of niching down* How Margy turned the “magic” of the way she works into a repeatable process — and how that changed the way she works with her 1:1 clients* Why she uses tarot cards to better understand what she already knows and look at things with a new perspective
It’s tempting to think that to do your best work, you have to hunker down in your creative cave, scratch out your brilliant thoughts by the fire, and only emerge once you’ve had your eureka moment.
In fact, I know plenty of thinkers and entrepreneurs who have tried to do exactly that.
Sometimes it’s a fear of criticism. Other times, it’s a fear of someone stealing the work when it’s not yet complete.
Often it’s a reaction to the Impostor Complex… feeling like your work isn’t enough—and might never be.
Regardless of the reason why, retreating to the creative cave has killed at least as many good ideas as it has birthed. Today, we’re going to examine a different way of getting to your eureka moment and developing your body of work.
Margy Thomas is the founder of ScholarShape and has worked with hundreds of scholars around the world in their journey of telling their stories as a developmental editor and writing consultant.
Recently, Margy has been working to systematize her coaching and create a framework she can share with more academics crafting books and papers.
I wanted to have Margy on the show to share what she calls the co-construction of knowledge and meaning. Margy has been sharing the bones of her coaching framework—the Story-Argument Model—with her audience little by little as she develops it.
Together with her audience, she’s defining the work and improving on it.
Instead of waiting for her eureka moment, she’s utilizing her creative process in dialogue with the people who need her work most.
Margy and I chat about the personal growth process that comes along with sharing your work publicly, how her work is evolving because of the way people interact with it, and the way she came to terms with the idea of an MVP—or minimum viable product.
And if you’re interested in the Story-Argument strategy and how you might be able to apply that to your writing, be sure to check out Margy’s free 7-day writing course for knowledge builders.
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From magic to process
“When I’m working with scholars one-on-one, I’m not giving them information or ideas or advice. I’m holding space for them to help them to develop their ideas and their thoughts. I’m providing scaffolding and structure to that process.” — Margy Thomas
Margy’s clients often told her that she was magic. After hearing this over and over again from her clients,

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EP 175: What’s Working (And What’s Not) In Facebook Ads With The Ad Strategist Founder Amanda Bond Jan 10, 2019

The Nitty Gritty:
* Why Facebook ad costs have risen so dramatically and what we’ve been doing that contributes to the problem* The metric that Amanda Bond encourages her clients and students to prioritize instead of Cost Per Lead* How skewed expectations for conversion rates have led to declining ad performance* The 3-part customer journey that Bond advises for excellent customer experience and profitability
Have you heard? The sky is falling!
Okay, the sky isn’t actually falling. What is being talked about by every Chicken Little out there is how much Facebook ad costs are rising.
Recode, Business Insider, Adweek, Adespresso, and more have been talking about declining inventory and rising costs for the last year. Small business owners are catching on too. Inside our network, we’ve been watching as members scratch their heads about the cost of clicks and leads.
We’ve been promised clicks and leads for less than a dollar by every Jeff, Ryan, and Frank out there with a Porsche and an online marketing course—but what we’re really seeing is lead costs balloon to $5, $10, or even $25 or more, with little to no profit on the backend.
So what’s going on with Facebook ads today?
That’s what this episode is all about. In mid-December, Amanda Bond, founder of The Ad Strategist, pulled down her regular website and put up a sprawling multi-part article on everything that’s not working with Facebook ads today. She explained how many of us have been sold a bill of goods when it comes to how we market our products and services—and backed it up with case studies and data.
She also presented a case for what is working—based on her extensive work running clients’ ad campaigns and teaching small business owners to do it themselves.
I wanted to have her on the show to explain and dive deeper into some of the things she discussed on the site.
This episode is part of a special series we’re doing talking to the people with a bird’s eye view on what’s really working. In November, we talked to Isa Adney from ConvertKit about what’s working in email marketing. And, in December, we talked to Sai Hossain, the founder of Crowdcast, to find out what’s working in live video broadcasting.
This month, we’re looking at Facebook advertising to find out what’s working—and what’s not—with Amanda Bond.
Bond and I chat about bro marketing, why ad costs have been rising, why she has people focus on earnings per lead instead of costs per lead, and how she thinks about planning an ad campaign to maximize both the customer experience and profit.
To find out what’s working in Facebook ads today–and what’s not–listen to the interview here or wherever you listen to podcasts!

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EP 174: Creating Real Value On Social Media With Creative Genius Law Founder, Patrice Perkins Jan 08, 2019

After over 10 years in this business, I’ve seen a lot when it comes to social media.
I’ve been around for Blogspotting and LiveJournaling. I’ve seen the rise and fall of the Twitter empire. I remember when organic reach on Facebook was a given and I watched as Instagram morphed from iPhone snaps to carefully posed and perfected images.
Much has changed about the way small businesses approach social media, too. Some marketers are still trying to be everywhere at once while plenty of others are focused on one, favorite platform. Some are sharing highly curated content and others are sharing whatever floats their boats.
Perhaps the answer to the question “What works in social media marketing?” has never been more ambiguous.
This episode is the finale of our 5-part series on trends shaping small business in 2019. If you haven’t caught the first 4, check out our feed on your favorite podcast player or at whatworkspodcast.com.
My prediction for 2019 is that this is the year when many small business owners find their strides with social media.
Okay…
2019 newsflash—there is NO right way to do social media to support your business.
The only way to do it is the way that works for you.
That might mean giving it up entirely and focusing on coffee dates, networking events, and online communities—see our trend episode on “real relationships” with Jordan Harbinger for more on that.
But it might also mean embracing a less tidy feed, a more consistent schedule, a more uniform aesthetic, long form captions, short form videos, being silly, being an activist, or just being yourself.
The power of social media today is in how you make it your own—not in how you try to conform to the norms of your industry or digital space.
I’ve talked to a number of small business owners over the years who have found their own unique ways of utilizing social media. I talked to Lauren & Jason Pak who built a huge global following for their Boston-based gym by sharing educational fitness content informed by their values for inclusivity and positivity. I talked to Elizabeth Dialto who has openly pursued authenticity and transparently shared when she’s making changes in the way she engages with the channels she uses.
But the small business owner who’s approach to social media stood out to me the most over the last 3 years has been Patrice Perkins.
Patrice is the founding partner of Creative Genius Law. Now, I’ve known Patrice for many years but her social media posts started to peak my interest when I noticed her sharing hyper-informative content based on legal news in pop culture. When a company was getting sued for ripping off a designer or when a video game got served because it might have stolen a performer’s signature move, Patrice would write about it—at length—on Facebook and Instagram.
I personally loved learning from these posts… but I was curious about how this kind of sharing was delivering business results. So I asked her!
But first, I’d also love to know: what’s working for you when it comes to social media. Are you swearing off of it in 2019?

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EP 173: Investing In Physical Products With Inkwell Press Founder Tonya Dalton Jan 03, 2019

A few weeks ago, Derek Halpern—who has made millions of dollars selling online courses—announced that he was quitting information marketing.
He said he was burnt out. He’d lost track of why he was in the business in the first place. His information marketing business didn’t light him up.
He announced a sort of digital fire sale of all his courses, one final time, and then took them off the market.
Over the last 3 episodes, I’ve been running down what I see as the top trends shaping small business in 2019 based on the interviews I’ve done over the last few years. Because of my behind-the-scenes view here at What Works (and yours, too!), I often get to see trends happening before they tip into the mainstream.
Today’s trend is no exception.
I can relate to Derek and the circumstances that prompted his decision.
Two years ago, I was burnt out on advice culture and information marketing, too.
I felt pressured to be constantly turning my personal experience into something useful for thousands of people.
And? It just wasn’t. I didn’t have all the right answers for everyone who was following along. I didn’t have brilliant life lessons to share every day. I wasn’t an expert on all the things people wanted me to be.
I believe that information marketing, advice culture, and the expert brand ecosystem is going through a reckoning. Not only are people like Derek and I burnt out on it. Consumers are overwhelmed by it.
Consumers are becoming more interested in trusting themselves instead of some stranger they found on the internet.
Now, maybe all this sounds like a pretty bleak prediction for the future of information marketing.
After all, already two of the trends I’ve highlighted for 2019—focusing on real relationships and reapproaching high-touch services–are in direct opposition to the way information marketing has been executed for years.
But I don’t think that’s the case.
Information marketing is not dying.
Instead, there is a growing list of options for business owners who want to run lean and mean, make a great profit, and prioritize flexibility. But they look a lot like how small business was done before information marketing!
The option I took was to create value by making it easier for small business owners to talk with each other, by facilitating those conversations, and by creating tools for shared experiences.
The option Derek took was to harness his marketing prowess into a wellness company with a mission that lights him up.
But a big trend I have been seeing bubble up is creating physical products—tools—for self-exploration and learning.
I believe 2019 is the year we’ll see this hit the big time.
Now, those tools for learning and self-exploration aren’t always literal tools. Sometimes they’re the perfect pieces for a capsule wardrobe—like Jay Adams and Katie Doyle created with Brass Clothing. Other times they’re the perfect greeting card or gift when nothing conventional would fit—like Emily McDowell created with Emily McDowell Studio. Or, they could be sports bras designed specifically for women who enjoy an active, outdoor lifestyle—like Bridget Kilgallon and her co-founders did with Aret Basewear.
You can find all of those interviews in our archives—but my choice for today’s interview is a litt...

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EP 172: Reapproaching High-Touch Services With Perfect Planning Events Founder, Tara Melvin Dec 27, 2018

Imagine making money in your sleep.
When I first started selling ebooks and courses that’s all anyone could talk about, and I’ll admit that the first time I woke up to money having been deposited in my PayPal account over night, I was pretty damn excited.
But what I realized soon after was that there was nothing passive about passive income.
Whether you’re making money through ads, online courses, ebooks or apps, you had to work. Sure, the revenue might come in over night, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t spend the whole day before at your desk.
Now while many still promise an infinitely scalable business built on online education, most people have wised up. It’s not that information marketing doesn’t work in terms of creating a scalable and profitable business, it’s just that there are other ways to make scalable and profitable work for you.
Many of the most successful small business owners today run high-touch service-based businesses.
Instead of scaling their businesses digitally, they’re building smart teams, honing their procedures, and filling out a niche.
They find profit in optimization and being able to deliver impeccable outcomes. They’re signing big clients to long term deals and enjoying steady income. They’re minimizing the costs of software and marketing in favor of investing time in relationships.
Now all of that might sound pretty good even if it’s a bit intimidating, but it gets better.
All of the business owners that I’ve talked to who have decided to go all in on high-touch services and forgo the often empty promises of information marketing feel a huge sense of relief. Plus, they’re enjoying balancing running a smart business with honing their craft.
For many, it’s a win-win.
Now running a high-touch service-based business might not be what works for you, but I think this trend still has something to offer you. Use it to challenge your assumptions about what you should be doing to generate revenue, earn trust, and serve customers. Look for opportunities you might have quickly dismissed while being herded into an information marketing model and ask yourself whether they might still have legs.
And, if you’re happily and profitably running an information marketing business, wonderful! I still think that there’s something to take away here.
Successful high-touch service-based businesses are highly structured and organized.
Consider how your information marketing business could optimize for experiences while continuing to systematize and automate. Or, consider where you might need to pull back on automation in favor of more human experiences.
When I looked through our archives to share an example of this with you, I had plenty of options.
I looked at Jennie Nash whose company Author Accelerator is paring book coaches with aspiring authors using a framework Jenny herself pioneered as a coach.
I looked at Autumn Witt Boyd who has built a full service law firm by honing in on her strengths.
I considered Arianne Foulks who has been raising the bar on ecommerce web design for years, and Jason Van Orden who exited one of the first online information marketing companies only to start delivering coaching and teaching experiences.
Ultimately, I decided on Tara Melvin, the founder of Perfect Planning Events.

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EP 171: Focusing On Real Relationships With The Jordan Harbinger Show Host Jordan Harbinger Dec 25, 2018

It’s tempting to think that all the time you spend on social media, writing articles, creating podcast episodes, or recording videos is time spent building relationships.
Heck, I’m doing it right now.
Every podcast episode I create is an effort to create a genuine connection between you and me.
But I know from experience that my efforts in broadcasting—whether on the podcast, with content marketing, through email, or on social media—pale in comparison to the time I spend interacting with people like you.
The conventional wisdom in today’s media-rich world is that you start by creating content, then build your audience, and then market a product to them. Final step? Bathe yourself in dollar bills.
However, this is a reductive take on what actually works.
Businesses aren’t built on audiences. They’re built with people. And there is a very real difference when it comes to creating for audiences versus nurturing relationships with real people.
We talk differently to groups of people. We share different ideas when we’re battling for the attention of others. We prioritize different outcomes when we’re shouting from our soapboxes.
At the end of the day, all this social maneuvering isn’t nurturing real relationships and its rewards are short-lived.
It might take a little more work but interacting with people one by one and cultivating true connection will serve you, your business, and your customers for the long haul.
That’s why “focusing on real relationships” is the second trend I see shaping small business in 2019.
Hopefully you’ve heard this before… but Paul Graham, a co-founder at the startup accelerator Y Combinator, says:
“Do things that don’t scale.”
Unfortunately, the vast amount of small business advice out there says to do exactly the opposite.
Only do things that scale. Only produce things that can be used by thousands of people. Find the lowest common denominator and make it your lead magnet. Only spend time on platforms where you can reach huge groups of people all at once.
Look, if doing things that don’t scale works for businesses that will eventually be valued in the ballpark of hundreds of millions of dollars or more, then it will work for you.
And, it starts by focusing on real relationships—one person at a time.
Now, the first relationship I would suggest you focus on is the one you have with yourself. Focus on understanding your strengths and your most productive ways of working. Focus on deepening your confidence and self-awareness. Focus on creating work that thrills you.
During my interview with Srini Rao, he told me:
“When you satisfy your own desires and you maintain your own values and standards — as opposed to letting it be driven by the desire to live up to the expectations of other people — you’re much more likely to create something with emotional resonance, something that’s going to have a lasting impact on people.”
Once you’ve developed habits and practices that strengthen your relationship with yourself, you have a foundation for nurturing relationships with others.
They might be potential customers or existing customers. They might also be colleagues or mentors. They could just be people you think are awesome who you want to get to know better!
What’s working for me is using the platforms I love the most to connect with individuals instead of just broadcasting. That means that when I hop on Instagram, I’m not just double-tapping and posting. I’m commenting, I’m responding to others’ stories, and I’m letting people know when they post something that really resonates with me.
It also means that I don’t just use our small business communit...

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EP 170: 5 Trends Shaping Small Business In 2019: Prioritizing Sustainability With The When I Grow Up Coach Michelle Ward Dec 20, 2018

This January, I’m celebrating 10 years as a small business owner.
To say that a lot has changed since I started my very first website while breastfeeding my infant daughter is an extreme understatement.
It’s not just the marketing tactics we rely on or the social platforms we frequent that have changed, though. I think it comes right down to the kinds of questions we’re asking and the visions we’re pursuing.
Our businesses have matured—and we’re doing our best to keep up.
Since my job is to both interview small business owners here on the podcast and observe the comings & goings of hundreds of small business owners in my company’s small business network, I have a pretty great vantage point for seeing how the landscape is changing.
I see 5 key trends shaping small business in 2019.
Over the next 5 episodes, I’ll be sharing each one with the help of interviews we’ve done over the last 3 years.
The reason we can do that is because, well, these new trends are actually nothing new. They’ve been bubbling beneath the surface for years—as all good trends do. In 2019, I see them tipping, reaching the main stream, and affecting the way you look at how you do business.
So while these episodes are old, I encourage you to listen to them with new ears and a new perspective. Things have changed—but these interviews represent the future, not the past.
The first trend I see shaping 2019 is prioritizing sustainability for your small business.
Now, what I’m not talking about here is the 4-hour workweek or passive income.
In 2019, small business owners are going to make substantive changes to the way their businesses are run to create something that has staying power.
People will worry less about what’s working right now and start thinking more about what’s going to work over the next 10 years.
For some, that will mean building more robust teams. For others, it’ll mean prioritizing values for social justice and environmental sustainability and building them into their business models. For still others, it will mean taking a careful look at their offers and paring back to the core things they’ll be able to sell for the long-term.
When I consider this trend, I think about Michael Siriani, who did the work to make his business a certified B Corp, or Jennifer Armbrust, who is exploring feminist business models.
I also think about Susan Correa, whose line of environmentally-friendly children’s clothes is changing lives in India, or Michelle Fifis, who’s streamlined her business to make her business easier to run and more profitable.
There’s also Natalie Sisson who is rebuilding her brand to be more focused on her customers and less on her or Chris Mittelstaedt, who has pioneered feeding the hungry with the product his company can’t use.
Ultimately, the small business sustainability story I wanted to share with you is Michelle Ward’s.
Michelle has been building her business under the brand When I Grow Up Coach for over 10 years. While things have certainly evolved over time, much of how she runs her business and supports her brand has remained the same.
Michelle has approached her business with an eye for sustainability from day one—and it’s supported her through the ups and downs of breast cancer and adoption.
As you listen to Michelle’s interview—whether it’s your first time or whether ...

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EP 169: Leveraging The Wing Woman Effect With Build Yourself Workshop Founder Mia Scharphie Dec 18, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* The origin story of the “wing woman effect”
* How Mia Scharphie, founder of Build Yourself Workshop, uses what she calls a Virtuous Circle to connect with other business owners and grow her company (and how it differs from a mastermind)
* Why making amazing connections with other entrepreneurs doesn’t come down to magic or luck but instead by intentionally crafting the relationship
* How to use online business communities to find a business ally (plus, a number of ways to do this offline, too)
* What to do when you struggle with making an ask in business
Mia Scharphie believes in the power of a virtuous circle. It’s all about proactively cultivating the business allies within your realm who help take you to new heights — in business and in life. In this episode, Mia shares exactly how she cultivates strong business allies by making asks, connecting over a virtual coffee date with people she admires, and so much more.
If you’ve ever wondered how to take your business to the next level through strategic business connections, a business bestie, or a wing woman as Mia describes, this conversation is for you. (And be sure to download her guide on growing your virtuous circle by clicking here.)
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Creating your virtuous circle
“It’s about linking together with other people who can support you and connect you to the opportunities that you want. But it’s also about building deeper, longer-term relationships with other people that really levels you.” — Mia Scharphie
For Mia, a virtuous circle isn’t a nice to have; it’s a must-have. “It’s a fundamental approach to how I think about and grow my business,” she says. “It’s really about focusing on other people — but as part of this collective pact that can move you forward.”
There are a number of totally practical ways that Mia creates and grows her virtuous circle. First, she has what she called a business wing woman. “It’s what some people might call a mastermind,” Mia says. “We get under the hood. We share language and templates. Sometimes we’ll even swap challenges and solve them for each other.”
For example, Mia recently helped her wing woman through a recent challenge on structuring her calendar… and ultimately, Mia helped streamline her schedule so it’s that much easier to say yes to what she wants and no when she feels it necessary to preserve her energy and focus.
Working with this business ally is something Mia’s done for the better part of four years. She also makes goals to meet for virtual coffee with interesting business owners that she connects with through CoCommercial and podcasts. This approach to connecting with other members and online business owners has led to partnerships and a safe space to share what’s working — and what’s not — in business.
Intentionally crafting connections
“Sometimes things seem magical… but I think you can craft a relationship this good.” — Mia Scharphie
In this episode, Mia talks about the origin of her relationship with her “wing woman” Kristen… and how, over 4 years, they’ve supported each other through countless business challenges. And, as Mia mentions, this connection with Kristen didn’t happen by magic or by accident.
Instead, relationships that click and last begin with your willingness to make an ask — even if you’re not fully clear on what you’re asking for, Mia says. The other key, she adds, is “to show — not tell — what is really going on in your business.

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EP 168: Shifting Your Mindset To See Yourself And Your Small Business Differently Dec 13, 2018

Both as humans and as business owners, we tell ourselves stories.
I might tell myself that no one will pay what I need to charge for my work.
You might tell yourself that you can’t hire anyone who will do the work the way you want it to be done.
Someone else might tell themselves that they don’t have enough experience to be taken seriously, that hard work equals results, or that they can do it all themselves.
These stories aren’t necessarily good or bad–but they do frame the way we see our opportunities and challenges. These stories influence our plans and calculations. They impact our relationships with others and the relationship we have with ourselves.
The more I’ve learned about business, the more I’ve learned that these stories play a huge role in how likely our businesses are to succeed or stagnate.
The stories we tell ourselves as entrepreneurs make up our mindsets.
Another way to look at it is that these stories create a pattern of expectations and beliefs. Every action you take and every decision you make is filtered through these expectations and beliefs.
Your expectations and beliefs can keep your business stuck—even when it feels like you’re doing everything right. Your mindset can reinforce assumptions and prevent you from seeing opportunities to innovate. Your mindset can even create problems where there were none before.
You might build a new product, streamline your business model, employ a new marketing strategy, or even pivot your business entirely–but if your fundamental beliefs and expectations about your business are off, you’ll remain stuck.
Last week, I realized an old mindset that I need to work to rewrite and redefine.
It’s a story about not being popular–an old, ingrained expectation that who I am, what I create, and what I value isn’t something people actually want.
And when I say this is an old story, I don’t mean “as old as my business” old. I mean it’s almost as old as I am.
I can see how this mindset has repeatedly caused me to sabotage my own work. I start a project assuming it will flop or be misunderstood. I finish a project with half the attention I started it with because I can already see it bombing.
Maybe it surprises you to hear this. It surprised me to realize it! But it’s true.
This is the #1 thing I need to address in the new year–for both my personal satisfaction and the health of my company.
I know my true goal isn’t to be popular or to create something for everyone. However, I am on a mission to create work that serves people in a big way and I can’t do that while continuing to operate under these expectations and beliefs.
As you can imagine, discovering a story like this can start to change everything. Suddenly, you see yourself, your business, and your opportunities in new ways.
It’s been a constant theme here on the podcast as many conversations about marketing, management, or brand have turned into conversations about an unexpected identity crisis or mindset shift.
So we wanted to dedicate a whole episode to exploring the ways that shifting your mindset can shift your business.
Now, before we get too far in, I want to make one thing clear: shifting your mindset is not a magic bullet. While your mindset can absolutely get in your way and impact your actions, it does not instantly solve systematic racism and sexism. It doesn’t break down very real barriers that exist because of your gender, your sexual orientation, the socioeconomic status you come from, or the place you were born.
These things are not in your head. They require extra work and energy–whether you’re a white man doing the work to create a more inclusive work culture or a genderqueer person of color battling these obstacles on a daily basis.
But again, to do that work effectively, you have to be aware of the assumptions, beliefs,

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EP 167: Focusing On Bigger, Longer, and Local With Scoop Studios Founder Maggie Patterson Dec 11, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Maggie of Scoop Studios pivoted from working with online entrepreneurs to local, in-person clients — and how tapping into her existing network made all the difference in finding leads
* How Maggie’s role within the agency shifted to Director of Sales when her business partner left — and how that impacted the rest of the team structure
* Who updates standard operating procedures and when
* Why Maggie only works with clients on engagements six months and longer (hint: healthier cash flow and happier clients!)
Maggie Patterson, Principal of Scoop Studios, recently made a huge pivot in her company. For the first year or so of business, Maggie worked primarily with online business owners. But when she saw that business wasn’t growing and finding leads became increasingly harder, Maggie knew it was time for a shift.
That’s when she decided to stop working with online business owners and instead work with local business owners. The results? She’s getting paid more, she’s working with her ideal clients, and she’s working with them on a longer basis. “I’m so glad we made that move,” Maggie says.
In this episode of What Works, Maggie shares the process of pivoting her business, growing her team, and setting herself up for success over the long-term.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Embracing local events to find clients
“I can walk in and be one of the smartest people in the room whereas online there are a lot of smart people. I have a different perspective than everyone else in that room. That enabled me to make a lot of connections quickly and really parlay that into business a couple months later.” — Maggie Patterson
Despite living in a town with a population of 500, a post office, and a pizza place, Maggie found there were more than enough leads right in front of her. But, as an introvert, she had to motivate herself to get in front of them.
“My motto during that time was: every single day, I have to talk to people,” she says. “It’s so easy when we work behind a computer to go an entire day and not connect with people. To not leave our house. To basically hide out and do our thing.”
So as Maggie shifted from working with online businesses to local businesses, she knew she had to look elsewhere for leads. That’s why she started going to the Chamber of Commerce meetings and realized that her next clients were in that room.
Reinvigorating your network
“I spent a lot of time reconnecting with past clients and reconnecting with people I worked with that were in different corporate roles. I was really reinvigorating my network and investing in those people and letting them know that I’m open for business. Because you can’t assume that people know what you’re doing.” — Maggie Patterson
Maggie doesn’t just find leads from going to in-person events. She also reconnects with past colleagues or past clients to let them know: here’s what I’m doing and I’m open for business! Maggie stresses the importance of staying connected with those folks and investing in the connections that already exist. They are a goldmine!
Longer engagements = win
“Longer engagements are easier for us to manage because we aren’t doing the kind of project work where we’re parachuting in and out of someone’s business. There’s always so much context missing. When we’re doing ongoing work, month in and month out, we can provide a better work product. And, ultimately, it’s much easier for me to not be involved on a day-to-day basis for the smart cookies on my team to take that mantle and run with it. That frees up my time to really focus on running the business.

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EP 166: What’s Working In Live Video Broadcasting With Crowdcast Founder & CEO Sai Hossain Dec 06, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* The live video broadcasting opportunity Sai Hossain saw for creators and entrepreneurs that inspired him to create Crowdcast
* How small business owners are generating leads with live video and 2 key ways they are using live video to drive revenue
* How live video is working for small business owners today as they build audiences and nurture relationships
* Plus, the inside scoop on the future of video broadcasting and some features coming soon to Crowdcast
Must See TV might be all but a thing of the past but there is still one place where appointment television is alive and kicking: live video broadcasting.
Today, you can get up close and personal with your favorite brands, celebrities, influencers, and entertainers streaming places like Instagram Live, Facebook Live, and YouTube Live. Plus, you can hang out with a community of fans, ask questions, and suggest topics while you watch.
But live video broadcasting isn’t just for internetainers. By 2021, live video is projected to be a $70 billion industry and small business owners and emerging creators are using it for big business results.
So, how, in the current environment, are business owners using live video to power their businesses?
Sai Hossain, founder and CEO of Crowdcast, is leading the charge. He’s taking live video broadcast beyond the webinar to build audiences, nurture relationships, and drive revenue.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.
Helping people share their knowledge
“How can I create a new live video experience that is really focused on conversation?” – Sai Hossain
While on a retreat in Costa Rica with creators and thought leaders, Sai learned about a key challenge influencers faced in expanding their audiences and spreading their messages: outdated webinar software and clunky online course platforms.
He discovered an opportunity to help creators and entrepreneurs share their knowledge, host conversations, and gather their communities together.
Sai created Crowdcast to solve this problem.
Live video broadcasting is an evolving market
“We know that the world of live streaming is going to merge with the world of live seminars.” – Sai Hossain
As small and creator-owned businesses push the limits of social media and live video, technology is evolving to meet demand. Live video platforms are constantly rolling out new features and programs.
Sai and his team are talking with users, watching the trends, and adapting Crowdcast to meet demand, too. They’ve recently rolled out features that allow for better lead generation and payments–with more on the way.
More than just webinars
In the past, when creators, influencers, and online business owners thought “live video,” they thought about webinars. However, Sai sees an opportunity to create beyond the traditional webinar format. From his perspective, the distinction between audience-building and revenue-generating content is a blurry one.
Crowdcast users are creating regular live shows, interacting with their audiences in Q&A sessions, and hosting roundtable discussions.
They’re creating content in real-time–even when they’re not launching or selling. Live video can create that coveted “know, like, and trust” factor fast when creators and marketers put relationship-building and content first.
This content can both build community and drive revenue over time.
Crowdcast for activism
“I would say the biggest issue with tech companies...

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EP 165: Tracking Goals While Managing The Day To Day With Serial Entrepreneur Jessica Fialkovich Dec 04, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* What Jessica Fialkovich’s daily life looks like as President and Cofounder of Transworld Business Advisors—Rocky Mountain, investor, and nonprofit board of director
* How Jessica uses the bottom up approach for setting company goals
* How goals are established among team members and how those goals influence yearly company goals
* Why you should think about your business not as an extension of your identity but as a financial asset — and ways to shift your mindset
* Jessica’s tips for efficient team meetings
Jessica Fialkovich knows what it takes to start and grow a successful small business. And, she knows how to buy and sell them. Today, Jessica’s the President and Co-Founder of Transworld Business Advisors—Rocky Mountain and she strategically leads and supports her team.
In this episode, Jessica outlines exactly how she and her team set the yearly company goals. She also describes goal setting is a personal process — and how she works with each team member to create goals that work to motivate and inspire them.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Setting and establishing yearly company goals
“I look at all of my team’s goals individually and then I roll them up into overall company goals. We usually establish somewhere between 3-5 goals for the year. Then we establish an overall theme.” — Jessica Fialkovich
Together with her team, Jessica sets a handful of yearly goals for the company. What do they want to accomplish? Who do they want to help? What’s their upcoming focus? Right now, Jessica and her team are setting goals for 2019 because they like to have them honed in on by the end of the year. As a team, they decide on a yearly theme as well. Their goal for 2019 is to take really good care of the buyers. “This is an area where we really can improve,” Jessica says.
Once the goals are set, Jessica summarizes them into one company document which is distributed to the entire team.
Empowering team members to set goals
“Most of the team are salespeople and salespeople are very goal-oriented to begin with. I talk to them about them running their own mini business underneath our business. As much as we do well, and as long as their business is increasing, they’re going to do well. Their financial rewards are tied directly to their performance.” — Jessica Fialkovich
Not only do you want to set goals, but you also want to empower your team members to reach them. Jessica keeps her team focused by hosting quarterly kick-off meetings to do just that. Every team member creates between 3-5 personal metrics for the year, including:
* What is their gross commission goal?
* How many deals do they want to close?
* Is there a specific industry or niche they want to specialize in next year?
* How do they plan to personally grow and develop next year?
Their goals also draw back to the company’s yearly theme.
Motivation and personalizing goals
“Show me what’s worked in the past and let’s amplify that for the future.” — Jessica Fialkovich
Every person is motivated differently. Some people are motivated by stretch goals that almost seem impossible to reach. It pushes them. Alternatively, some people resonate with more realistic goals that build off of their work the year before. These same people would be demotivated by such a big stretch goal.
That’s why Jessica works with each salesperson on a personal level. Together, they look at what happened in the past that worked (and what didn’t), plus what needs to change to reach that new goal. For example,

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EP 164: From Special Snowflake To Special Sauce–An Excerpt From Subtle Nov 29, 2018

I avoided confronting my mindset as a business owner for years.
I figured that, if I got the numbers and the strategy right, I could grow my business without worrying about my own personal development or leadership.
But the more I looked around, the more I realized that the entrepreneurs who were excelling in ways I wanted to excel thought differently than I did. They approached their systems, customers, and identity in a way that felt unfamiliar.
After a good long while and plenty of false starts, I realized that mindset was every bit as important to the success of a business as strategy and numbers.
I’ve been hosting the What Works podcast for over 3 years now and I’ve interviewed over 150 small business owners in my quest to find out what’s working—and what’s not—to grow and manage a business today.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege to ask creatives, coaches, tech entrepreneurs, educators, writers, and designers how they approach their businesses. Sure, they’ve given me the nitty-gritty on how things work and why they do things the way they do. But they’ve also given me—and you, our listeners—a front-row seat to how they think.
To grow our businesses, the way we think about our businesses needs to grow and evolve, too.
Sure, the business owners I’ve interviewed do things very differently. I’ve talked to people who sell high-end services and those who sell accessible physical goods. I’ve talked to people who are building big teams and those who are going it solo.
However, I’ve noticed that the most successful among them have a similar mindset about key aspects of their businesses. They think pretty similarly about how they tackle problems and create value.
But they didn’t start out thinking that way. Their mindsets have evolved over time. Many have even gone through similar identity crises, mindset shifts, and vision overhauls—all because the way they were thinking about their businesses subtly shifted.
These subtle mindset shifts are—as I see it—a key missing piece for many small business owners confused about why their businesses aren’t growing.
I wanted a way to document the patterns and changes I saw among our guests here at What Works. So over the last 6 weeks, I wrote a small book called, Subtle: The Small Shifts That Lead To Big Results.
Today’s special episode of What Works is one of my favorite chapters from the book: the shift from Special Snowflake to Special Sauce.
Be sure to listen if you have a hunch that the idea “only you can do what you do” is holding your business back from greater success.
And, if you want to grab a copy of the whole book (including audio version) for yourself, click here!

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EP 163: Profiting From Partnerships With Branding Outside The Box Founder Dana Kaye Nov 27, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why speaker, author, and publicist Dana Kaye prefers intentional slow growth in business — and how she manages her company’s growth today
* How growing too fast can negatively impact you, your clients, and your business — and, on the contrary, how growing more intentionally can change everything for the better
* How Dana uses strategic partnerships to grow her business and serve her clients in an out-of-the-box way
* How she collaborates with other service providers to serve clients in an organized and comprehensive way
* Why she schedules in lunch dates in person (or on Zoom) every week — and the importance of sending out thank you notes
Dana Kaye does things differently. She won’t give you the same run-of-the-mill advice that other publicists will… and that not only helps her company grow, it also helps her clients reach new heights. In this episode of What Works, Dana describes how partnerships lead to smart and intentional growth. She also discusses how important networking and expressing gratitude is for small (and big) business.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Using partnerships to grow your business
“The reason I was able to grow my PR company so quickly was because I was bringing something to the table that the publishers weren’t. I was implementing out of the box strategies to promote books where the publishers weren’t.” — Dana Kaye
Dana started her book PR business in 2009 at a time when “book sections were dying and newspapers were going under.” How do you help authors stand out when people seemingly aren’t buying books (or maybe not even reading) anymore? That’s precisely the question that Dana asked herself — and realized that the only way to make it work was by thinking outside of the box.
One of those ways was partnering with companies that shared something with her clients. For example, her first client Jamie Freveletti wrote international thrillers about an ultramarathon runner. “My first thought was to partner with a running company to sponsor her book trailer.”
And that’s exactly what happened — and more. Dana secured a partnership with specialty athletic wear company Sugoi. Not only did they sponsor the book trailer as hoped (they even sent Jamie some of their clothes to wear in it!), they went even further. They included the book in their newsletter and on their website and co-sponsored in-store book tour events.
Overall, it was a win-win for both Jaime and Sugoi: they both got in front of a new audience and grew brand awareness for their products. On top of it all? It was fun!
Curious if you should pursue a partnership? Dana created a sweet quiz you can use to vet any opportunity or idea.
Intentionally growing slow
“By slowing down and focusing on the types of clients that you want to work with on the projects and services you really want to offer, you’re going to offer a higher level of customer service, be overall better at your job, and I predict be happier and less stressed, which we all want.” — Dana Kaye
One of the loudest entrepreneurship stories you hear is on hustling and growing your business fast. “I see a lot of entrepreneurs jumping in and trying to scale really fast,” says Dana. “They see one thing that’s working and try to do it 10x that.”
“But more money, more problems,” she adds. “Are you really equipped to deal with those problems?” And the answer is usually no.

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EP 162: Owning A Business Instead Of A Job With The Freedom Plan Author Natalie Sisson Nov 20, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Natalie decided to pursue a personal brand under her name — and why she decided to keep The Suitcase Entrepreneur, too.
* What Natalie’s personal brand looks like from the inside out — and why she’s considering a done-for-you offering as part of her services
* What she learned from taking a 3-month sabbatical to figure out her next moves — and how Natalie decided to move back to her native New Zealand
* How Natalie uses an “idea journal” to quickly document new project ideas before committing to them. Plus, a quick look into how she makes decisions for her life and business so that they align with her purpose, vision, and goals.
Natalie Sisson spent the better part of six years working remotely and traveling around the world. And while many of you likely know her as the Suitcase Entrepreneur, she’s set her bags down to make a home in her native New Zealand (puppy and partner included!).
Although life’s changed quite a bit for her from her working-and-traveling-the-world-days, Natalie’s still teaching business owners how to create a more sustainable and profitable business using smart systems. Her latest feat? Launching the brand new book, The Freedom Plan. Through it’s pages, Natalie teaches entrepreneurs how to reclaim their time, streamline their business, and be more profitable while living your ideal lifestyle and feeling on purpose.
Check out this episode to hear more from Natalie about shifting her work away from the Suitcase Entrepreneur and to her personal brand under her name, why implementing systems can completely change the way you do business, and so much more.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Using a personal brand to better serve your clients
“I’m helping people create a more streamlined business that gives them freedom. I might say: hey, this is Natalie and this is how I want to help you. But it’s not about me. This is not a blog about following my journey or what I’m doing right now — although there’s an element of that that people want to learn from.” — Natalie Sisson
Even though Natalie works under her name now rather than the Suitcase Entrepreneur, it’s really not about her. “It’s about you and what you can accomplish and how I can help you accomplish that thing,” Natalie says.
The biggest difference between her personal brand and the Suitcase Entrepreneur? Now she teaches people how to implement the systems and tools that she’s used over the years to grow her business. It’s a lot less about Natalie personally and more about how she can serve her clients with what she knows.
Implementing systems and hiring to optimize the work, save time, and spend more time doing what you’re good at
“I’ve noticed that when I’m working I’m expanding my time to fit the work; I can actually do it in a lot less time than I realize because I’ve created good systems and because I’ve created a little virtual team around the world. A lot of the stuff that I do is the strategy and the content creation and the curriculum creation for the programs and offerings that I have.” — Natalie Sisson
Right now, Natalie’s challenging herself to work one single hour a week — just to see if she can based on the systems she has in place. Part of her ability to optimize her work is through developing efficient systems. She also hires out some of the work — but only did so once the systems were strongly in place. Natalie works with a part-time virtual assistant “who knows my systems and business inside and out.” Her V.A.

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EP 161: Gratitude Is The Whole Customer Experience Nov 15, 2018

What would 11-star service look like? That’s the question that Brian Chesky asked himself to figure out how he and his team at Airbnb needed support hosts to help everyone involved have an exceptional experience.
I first heard this idea of 11-star service during Brian’s interview with Reid Hoffman on the first episode of Masters of Scale. The idea is that you want to create the capacity for these exceptional customer experiences to happen on a regular basis. The more regularly they happen, the more people come back and buy again–and the more they tell their friends.
Of course, creating this 11-star service doesn’t just produce business results. It produces human results. Someone who takes the time to create an 11-star service isn’t just concerned with the bottom line, they are truly invested in showing genuine gratitude to the person they’re doing business with.
This month at CoCommercial, we’re talking about Gratitude and how it shapes the way we do business. What does authentic, meaningful gratitude look like? How are small business owners showing their customers this gratitude and creating exceptional customer experiences on a regular basis?
So we asked a few of our members: what do you do to ensure your customers know you’re grateful?
In talking with 5 of these members we noticed a pattern in their responses.
Gratitude wasn’t about a thank you gift or note. It wasn’t something that happened once at the end of an engagement. It wasn’t even a bonus surprise that got thrown in as a special value-add. These are the themes being explored in the conversations we’ve been having all month long with our CoCommercial community.
These business owners have operationalized gratitude into the very bones of their businesses.
It’s how they do business. They are integrating gratitude into every step of the customer experience. From the very beginning, they’re connecting the customer’s experience to the mission of the company.
They are making sure that their customer feels like more than a transaction.
For them, gratitude is the whole customer experience.
Prefer to read? No problem. Find the entire episode in article form by clicking here.
This episode features Lacy Boggs, Nicole Lewis-Keeber, Bonnie Gillespie, Anna Laman, and Kristen Runvik.

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EP 160: Finding New Customers Without Marketing Your Life Away with Lagom Body Co Founder Kristen Runvik Nov 13, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Kristen Runvik is scheduling her life, job, and business to make sure she’s spending her time the way she wants to
* How she divides her time to find balance between her side hustle with her day job
* What she does to get the most out of Instagram marketing without letting it consume her
* How Kristen takes what she has learned at in-person events online
More than 44 million Americans have a side hustle to earn extra money for living expenses, savings, and investments. But having a side hustle doesn’t necessarily mean you have a plan for quitting your job and going full-time with your business.
In this week’s episode of What Works, Lagom Body Co founder Kristen Runvik shares with us how she divides her time between life, job, and business, how she finds new customers without spending all of her time marketing, why she has a love/hate relationship with Instagram, and more.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Marketing your business without marketing your life away
“I have this notion of being anti-hustle. I don’t want to be working 50 to 60 hours a week. I want to be really intentional about the way I am approaching my business and my work.” — Kristen Runvik
Kristen Runvik is a holistic clinical herbalist and the founder of Lagom Body Co. And… she’s also our Member Experience Specialist at CoCommercial. She teaches workshops on holistic seasonal health and creates nature-based skincare products that nourish the skin and spirit.
She does all this while going to herbalism school.
Some people might think that this is insane.
But Kristen approaches things differently. She intentionally creates space for the grounding self-care that makes working full time and growing business on the side possible. She does all this by avoiding the bad habits that are prevalent in the content marketing world and maintaining healthy boundaries.
Whether she is working from home, from the coffee shop, or the top of a mountain, she is balancing strategic thinking with the creative process. She sets up operations aspects so that she can keep the product in front of the right people, in a way that is consistent, comfortable, and meaningful. In this way, Kristen can maintain her passion for helping women optimize their health and live their purpose.
Using Instagram to drive sales
“I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram but I realized when people don’t see my content and they don’t see my stories they’re not clicking over to my profile and then over to my website.” — Kristen Runvik
Kristen, like many of us, hates feeling like she has to be on social media 24/7.
She experimented with going off of social media to see what would happen. When retail sales completely dropped off, she realized how much Instagram was sending customers back to her website. Kristen came back to Instagram in a healthier way, with more intention behind her process.
Instagram is now where some of her most engaged customers are coming from.
Translating in-person event success to online events
“An interesting thing about in person events is that you never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes events are really busy and you make no money and sometimes they’re dead and you still make money. You just never really know is going to happen.” — Kristen Runvik
Kristen does a couple of different types of in-person events. She sets up a table and gets face to face with a potential customer at vending events. She also gets direct engagement with a target audience at curated events that that often include an educational element. While she has love for both, for her,

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EP 159: What’s Working In Email Marketing With ConvertKit’s Isa Adney Nov 08, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Who is succeeding with email marketing today–and how they think about their email lists differently
* How ConvertKit makes it easy to test ideas and create a new product
* Why simplicity is winning when it comes to email–and how that means you can spend less time marketing
* How ConvertKit bridges the gap between the business just setting out and the more mature business with more sophisticated needs
* Plus, a special trial offer–first month free!
Despite the annual warnings that email marketing is losing its effectiveness, email continues to be a top sales driver across industries and business models.
Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone uses email to drive sales the same way they did 5 years ago or that they’re using the same strategy as the business next door.
How are the leading businesses using email marketing in the current environment?
Isa Adney, ConvertKit’s resident educator & webinar host, has her finger on the pulse of email marketing today and shares a variety of examples of how business owners are using email marketing to their advantage—without letting consume your every waking hour.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Breaking through the email noise
“The real magic to me is the person behind the email and how much they care. Those are the people who cut through the noise.” –Isa Adney
Isa shared that the small business owners she sees having the most success with email marketing are those who prioritize serving or teaching over selling or marketing.
They’re creators, action-takers, educators, and professionals who really care and make an effort to show that with every email they send. That means the most successful emails are often the simplest.
They share a personal thought, helpful idea, or other valuable tidbits.
Despite being a fast-growing company, ConvertKit is no exception in prioritizing serving and teaching.
In addition to their blog and weekly workshops, ConvertKit offers courses on everything from setting up your first landing page, to building up a consistent process of communicating with your list, to advanced execution of your email marketing strategy.
Your email list as more than just a number
“Our most successful customers are the people who don’t see their list as a number.” — Isa Adney
Isa subscribes to hundreds of newsletters from ConvertKit customers to keep up with trends in email marketing.
She’s noticed that the most successful email marketers are those who don’t see each email on their list as a conquest to celebrate but, instead, as people.
Because they value the people on their lists as people, these email marketers aren’t just broadcasting. They’re curious about the stories behind the people and they start conversations to find out more.
Email marketing strategy can evolve
Isa had plenty of examples of small business owners who have leveled up their email marketing execution little by little.
Instead of trying to do #allthethings, business owners like Abbey Ashley at The Virtual Savvy, Megan Martin at Megan Martin Creative, and artist Amira Rahim have each evolved their approaches to email marketing as their businesses have matured.
Some make use of automation, some use Convertkit’s purchases integration, some grow through opt-in incentives (lead magnets). What they all have in common is finding an email marketing strategy that works for them–whether it’s currently trending or not.
Give ConvertKit a try

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EP 158: Building A New Business From His “Unique Genius” With Strategist Jason Van Orden Nov 06, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Jason Van Orden ultimately left the business he ran for ten years and how taking a sabbatical helped him get to the heart of why he felt so discontent and uninspired
* The identity crisis Jason experienced as he shifted from being known as the founder of Internet Business Mastery to being a consultant
* How Jason realized that his unique genius comes out when he’s in a room full of people — not teaching online courses without a real-time feedback loop
* Plus, a look at Jason’s quick reference guide, a document that reminds him of who he is when he’s at his best
Jason Van Orden founded Internet Business Mastery ten years ago — and over the last decade, he successfully grew it into a well-known resource for starting an online business. Yet, as the business boomed, Jason started to feel more and more discontent with his work, especially during the last couple years. Through scaling the business and automating it, Jason lost connection with his creativity and passion.
That’s when he decided to take a break and to ultimately start a brand new business from a different angle and doing something completely different. In this week’s episode of What Works, Jason shares what starting a new business looks like after being known for another one — and how he reignited his passion for his work and business.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Curiosity as the antidote to discontent in business
“I could see that I hadn’t been following my curiosity anymore, hadn’t been experimenting, hadn’t been trying new things, hadn’t been as interactive and connecting with my audience because I’d been making things more and more hands-off. These were all the little things that were adding up to not providing me the energy that it used to.” — Jason Van Orden
After a decade in business, Jason started to feel the inklings of discontent. Where had his creativity gone? Where was the passion? It started to wane so he decided to do something to open himself up to new possibilities.
With prompting from his wife, he took a sabbatical from his business. “At first, I thought all I needed was just a sabbatical from my business to figure out how to reinvent the business I already had to be fulfilling for me once again.” But it wasn’t an overnight aha moment or quick change. “I started following my curiosity and it took a good couple years of following that to get to the heart of what needed to change and what the next evolution looked like for me.”
After some time, Jason realized that what he needed was much more than a shift within his current business. It was time for something bigger — something different — than that. Ultimately, Jason realized that he was ready to collaborate with other people and with a completely different audience so he decided to shift into business strategy, coaching, workshop facilitating, and mentorship.
Uncovering your unique genius
“I haven’t made a digital course in a few years now. Everything’s been geared more towards facilitation and the group workshop framework over formula teaching and how-to. That’s where I create my greatest value and find that people enjoy — and benefit from — what I do.” — Jason Van Orden
Your unique genius is usually something you find incredibly easy that your clients don’t want to do or can’t do. For example, Jason’s unique genius is solving problems in a creative way that provided results for his clients. As Jason says, it seemed to natural to look at problems in a certain way — a way that would provide the client with a level of confiden...

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EP 157: Planning For Parental Leave With StoryMine Co-Founders Catherine Orr & Elena Rue Oct 30, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Elena and Catherine approached their second pregnancies different from their first — and how that impacts their work at StoryMine
* How the cofounders approached their dual pregnancies as an opportunity to implement systems and create a more efficient business model that worked for their ideal way of partnering with clients
* How they use content marketing to educate and inform potential clients about their work — and why that’s so helpful for
When Elena Rue was pregnant with her first child, she didn’t meet with leads in person once she started showing. “I didn’t want them to assume that’s going to change StoryMine,” she says. Which, of course, it didn’t. Instead, it altered her perspective on running a creative business as a parent — for the better.
Now, as Elena and StoryMine’s cofounder Catherine Orr navigate their second pregnancies — this time, together — they’re approaching it as a “positive disruption” to their business and using it as a catalyst for improvements from hiring to operations. Hear all about it in this week’s episode of What Works.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Creating a pregnancy announcement strategy that aligned with their brand (and personal) values
“Us feeling like we’re not being authentic goes completely against the work that we do: sharing true stories and the power of how having people talk about what’s actually real and actually true can move people much more than having scripted talking heads talking about why your organization does this great work.” — Catherine Orr
Both Catherine and Elena frame their dual pregnancies as a positive disruption to their business. They wanted to share the news with their clients in an authentic way while also ensuring they knew the work would still get done. Knowing there was a limited window before Catherine and Elena went on parental leave also provided an opportunity to plant seeds about their upcoming availability.
In terms of their announcement strategy, Catherine and Elena wanted to approach it in a transparent way so that it aligned with how they roll in their business. This time, they started by telling their past and present clients first, then announcing it through their email newsletter. They even made an announcement video, obviously filmed and edited by them, in their StoryMine way.
Using their pregnancies as an opportunity to implement necessary systems and hire team members
“This time around we aren’t just closing our eyes and crossing our fingers. We’re taking way more control over it and we have the confidence to say that yes we can do this and knowing there’s another side. .” — Elena Rue
During the first pregnancy, Elena says they were just “crossing fingers and hoping it works.” In the second pregnancy, especially because Elena and Catherine were pregnant at the same time, they decided to use it as an opportunity to increase operational efficiency.
For example, they wanted to work with clients earlier in the process — six to eight months in advance — so that they aren’t in a rush to get the work done. “We really started systematizing the work that we do,” says Catherine. “We have a process and we’ve developed a unique method of the type of story that we do.”
In addition to operational improvements, the pair used the experience to hire consistent support rather than project-based contracts. While they still bring on people per project, depending on when and where it’s happening, they really needed someone to thread together everything and strengthen the business backbone. “We’re seizing on this opportunity and this real sense o...

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EP 156: Teaching Live Courses For Maximum Results with Yes and Yes’s Sarah Von Bargen Oct 23, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Sarah decided to offer her online course Bank Boost in a live setting using weekly emails and live Q and A sessions
* The values and psychology behind her product pricing and how she markets the live courses in a low-key way without webinars
* Why she goes offline for a couple days at a time to work on content — and how that frees up the rest of her time to work with clients and so much more
* How she plans to market her live courses in the future
* What Sarah’s different streams of income look like
Sarah Von Bargen writes and teaches about “the space where money and happiness meet.” In this episode of What Works, Sarah walks us through her decision-making process to transform one of her popular eBooks into an online course and everything else that goes into promoting and running it.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Why take things live?
“It’s a values-based thing. It doesn’t feel good to me to take hundreds of dollars from someone and then they don’t use the thing that I sold them. I believe in the work that I do, I believe in my course, and I know that if they did the course, it would be life-changing. But if I can make some tweaks on my end, and help them get to the place that they want to go, why wouldn’t I?” — Sarah Von Bargen
Why did Bank Boost go from an eBook to an online class? Well, Sarah wanted to create an opportunity for her audience to not only benefit from the information — but to work through it along with a community of like-minded people going through the same thing.
While small business owners might shy away from turning a DIY experience, like working through an eBook, into a live curated one for their customers or clients, Sarah says that it’s not that much extra work. When the course is running live, Sarah spends about 20 minutes engaging and liking posts while her assistant answers questions.
When she and her assistant aren’t chiming in, the community members step up to the plate every time. “The community that I’ve worked really hard to create is incredibly supportive,” says Sarah. “If somebody posts something in the Facebook group asking a question, 9 times out of 10, I don’t even need to be the one to weigh in and answer it because everybody is so excited to share their insights and advice.”
Marketing live online courses
“Because of the price point and because it’s such an easy yes, I do not do any webinars. I know when I’m going launch and the 2-3 weeks leading up to it I write blog posts that touch on the topic of finances. Then I make sure to include at the top that Bank Boost is opening again and to get on the wait list.” — Sarah Von Bargen
The Bank Boost online course costs $35. Yep, that’s it. As Sarah declares on the sales page: “That’s less than most impulse purchases at Target. I didn’t want you to go into debt in order to learn how to save money!” Awesome.
Because the price is a no-brainer, Sarah skips the webinars. Instead, she focuses on sharing in Instagram Stories, in her free Facebook group, and in her weekly Sunday link round-up. She also sends emails to her list — and particularly any subscriber who joined by way of a finance opt-in.
To promote the course, she also updates her website banners and popups to promote it and her Facebook header. Then, once the course is open, she sents out an email to the waitlist.
Listen to this episode to hear more from Sarah Von Bargen on how to promote an online course, pricing your products, and how to make time for content writing.

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EP 155: Small Business Owners Get Honest About Fear Oct 17, 2018

Underneath their ambitious and confident facades, small business owners experience quite a bit of fear.
Since our goal is to bring you honest conversations about what it really takes to run a small business, we thought it was high time to talk about the fears we all face on a daily basis.
We spoke to 11 small business owners and several themes emerged. These themes were echoed in the conversations we’ve been having about fear all month long with our CoCommercial community.
Prefer to read? No problem. Find the entire episode in article form by clicking here.
In this episode, we explore the fear of judgment, the fear of visibility, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of not being worthy, and the fear of giving up control.
Each entrepreneur we talked to spotted these fears in different scenarios, things like public speaking, pricing their work, or pivoting a business model. But one thing remained constant:
Their fears never really subsided.
Instead, they decided to focus on taking action—and enjoying the results—instead of dwelling on the fear itself.
Maybe you too share the fears that these small business owners face. Maybe your fear or anxiety is fueled by other concerns. As this episode unfolds, I challenge you to find some awareness of the fear you’re dealing with right now.
Where does it come from?
How is it impacting your day-to-day actions?
How does it affect the way you set goals or make decisions?
And…
What are you going to do about it?
This episode features: Jessica Abel, Lou Blaser, Dr. Michelle Mazur, Stephanie Stiavetti, Mark Maya, Vanessa Ragains, Nat Couropmitree, Tzaddi Gordon, Jeff Tyack, Jennyann Carthern, and Sarah Li Cain.
For more honest conversations about growing, running, and managing a small business, become a part of the CoCommercial small business network.

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EP 154: Exiting One Business And Starting Another With Jadah Sellner Oct 16, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* The strategies that led to Simple Green Smoothies’ explosive success: from adopting Instagram early to focusing on the community from day one to zeroing in on a single topic to grow the brand
* The pivotal moment when Jadah Sellner knew she wanted to leave Simple Green Smoothies to start something new — her own personal brand — to free her voice
* What the process of exiting the company looked like for Jadah, how long it took to officially make the decision, and what life’s looked like since then
When you find what works in your business, you want more of that. But what happens when you reach success and realize that you want something else? Today’s guest, Jadah Sellner, can tell you more about that. She’s the former cofounder of Simple Green Smoothies, the wildly successful online resource for recipes and cleanses.
Everything about the company worked: Instagram followers climbed, the email list multiplied, and launches sold out. As Jadah says, they had a system that worked: rinse and repeat. And while things were working, Jadah wanted more: more creativity, collaboration, and communication that was authentic to her. She wanted to show up in the world fully expressed.
That’s when she decided to leave Simple Green Smoothies and start her personal brand. In this episode, Jadah shares her experience on launching — and exiting — a company and pivoting to create a personal brand… plus, all the magic, wonder, and intention in between.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Establishing your voice in a crowded market
“We really took a stand for how we were different. We shared beginner-friendly green smoothies. We used a higher fruit ratio and some people were like: these are too sweet! And we were like, we are not for the hardcore raw foodist yogis. We are for the everyday mom who’s core vegetables are corn and potatoes: because that was me.” — Jadah Sellner
There is no unique message, only unique messengers, Jadah says. And that’s certainly the case when it came to Simple Green Smoothies. So how did they amass 400,000 Instagram followers during Jadah’s time there by sharing green smoothie recipes, despite no formal wellness or nutrition training?
For one, they used their experience as busy moms wanting to eat and feel amazing to their advantage. They shared fun content around the recipes — and their lives as moms — rather than deep nutritional information. For them, green smoothies gave them more energy — and made them feel like the best moms in the world because their kids were drinking spinach smoothies.
Leaving a successful company to pursue your own
“I wanted full expression and using my full voice. We really built Simple Green Smoothies in a way where we had a consistent strategy: the challenge, email sales funnel, sell the cleanse. Rinse and repeat. But what was missing was actually me using my voice and I think my voice is one of my best gifts. I wasn’t using it in that business and I saw the vision for building my personal brand, speaking on stages, being a guest on other people’s podcasts, and launching my own.” — Jadah Sellner
It took a couple years for Jadah to officially leave Simple Green Smoothies. The company was successful… and she wondered if it was the right decision to actually leave to start something new. Would she be as successful in a new venture? Was leaving the smartest move, especially when things were working?
She didn’t know the answer but she needed to find out. Jadah longed for full expression to use her authentic v...

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EP 153: More Leading, Less Managing with Wanderwell Founder Kate Strathmann Oct 09, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why making decisions as a collective aligns with Kate Strathmann’s business vision instead of the “this way or the highway” mentality
* How Kate pushed past her introvert tendencies to show up for team members and clients and the importance of meeting face-to-face as a remote company every week, even if there isn’t an agenda
* How Kate sets healthy and strong boundaries with her team and clients — and how she supports her employees in bringing their full self to work
* Why Kate values flexibility and autonomy as company-wide values so her team does what’s best for them
Kate Strathmann’s company Wanderwell Consulting pays homage to Aloha Wanderwell, the first woman to travel around the world by car during the 1920s — and a woman who continued traversing the planet for the rest of her life.
That same adventurous, quirky, and unconventional spirit threads through everything at Wanderwell, from how Kate hires and leads to how she works with clients in a “pretty off-beat, feelings-oriented, and very non-traditional kind of way,” she says.
In this episode, Kate shares how she leads a remote team in a democratic way, how she faced her own limitations to become a better leader, how she approaches work and life, and, of course, more about rebranding under the name Wanderwell.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
There is no “Right Way”
“It’s really important to me that we don’t have any kind of “Right Way” or top-down old school way of saying: this is how you do business. The word wander in a literal sense speaks to the spaciousness and openness to what we’re trying to do and the space we’re trying to give the folks that we work with to find their own way and to say that: you’re not going to figure it out right away. This is a nonlinear process. There’s going to be lots of ups and downs and twists and turns… it’s kind of an adventure. But at the end of the day, we want to well, do well, and feel well.” — Kate Strathmann
My way or the highway doesn’t work. “That kind of mindset isn’t as resilient over time,” says Kate. “It tends to be overly dependent on one person and their personality. Some of those businesses rely on charismatic personalities and we’re seeing a lot — especially politically — how that doesn’t work.”
What does work? Realizing that your business is less about you and much more about your customers and clients. “This business is about a larger mission in helping people do business in a different kind of way,” Kate says. “It would be really out of alignment for me to say: this is exactly how you’re supposed to do this thing — and you’re doing your business wrong.”
Where do you notice this rigidity in your business or mindset?
Flexibility matters — in life and in business
“One value that’s really important to me — and to my team especially — is that of autonomy and having a lot of flexibility for our whole lives to be supported by our work and our business.” — Kate Strathmann
Full-time workers spend the majority of their time… at work. When that’s the case, says Kate, it’s incredibly important to support the full expression of who they are at work. “I think a lot about how we can support folks to show up as full humans in the space where they spend the majority of their time,” she says.
At Wanderwell, for example, Kate’s created a strong vision of flexibility that plays out in the team culture. In a practical way, this looks like:
* Encouraging team members to take a vacation and go completely offline for a real, true break.

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EP 152: Reinventing Your Product–Twice–with Freshbooks Co-Founder Mike McDerment Oct 02, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Mike transitioned from growing his design and marketing firm to creating FreshBooks, an invoicing software tool for small business owners
* How a strong value of honesty seeps through the company and results in an open and transparent team that makes the product better
* Why Mike created a pretend competitor to test new product features, how they tracked that project’s milestones, and when they knew that their new version would be a success
If you’re a small business owner, no doubt that you’ve heard of FreshBooks. In fact, you might even use the software to bill your clients. But what you might not have heard is how FreshBooks came to be and how it’s improved over time.
Mike McDerment, FreshBook’s cofounder and CEO, joins the podcast today to talk about how he structured his design agency to create more time to work on FreshBooks, why they used a secret company to test new features before launching them to the FreshBooks customers, and how important strong values are to create a strong company culture.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Creating time to develop your business’ side project
“I built my firm in such a way that I got a lot of time back. I helped curate the work of my team members and push them to do as much of the client engagement work as I can. That’s the one thing that I felt that I was still involved with and should be — but I wanted to just show up to meetings and grooming work.” — Mike McDerment
For the first two years, FreshBooks made only $100 a month in revenue. That meant Mike and his team needed to get creative. Mike started by pivoting about 80% of his time from the firm to FreshBooks, which at the time was an unnamed side project. The rest of it was financed by agency staff who, when they had extra time, put that into FreshBooks. “That’s how we financed it without being explicit about it,” Mike explains. “We would have that company running and we were paying those employees, but more and more of their downtime was working towards the side project.”
Soon enough, FreshBooks started to take off — a founder bought in and so did his mom: she wrote him a $10,000 check to invest in FreshBooks. At that point, Mike knew it was time to start firing clients from the design firm to work on FreshBooks full-time.
Testing and changing your product by pretending to be a competitor
“How are we going to figure out if this is a better experience for people and know that conclusively from a business results standpoint? We had a variety of other considerations but it basically led us to: how do we test it before it’s live? But, I was also thinking: we’re doing this to build something that’s a step change for us in a our business that helps us move faster and get ahead of the competition. If they’re able to watch us work along at this, that’s not very helpful or very stealthy — and we don’t get the benefit of being ahead.” — Mike McDerment
Creating a secret competitor — a company they called Bill Spring — isn’t the average way to test new features or products. But that’s exactly what Mike and the team at FreshBooks did. “We used that as a petri dish,” Mike says. “That was a very important thing and I’ve learned a lot about innovation.” Particularly, he adds, how larger companies sometimes lack the ability to innovate because it’s too big of a risk.
But they wanted to take huge risks. To get around that, they created a logo, website, and articles of incorporation for Bill Spring — but there were no legal ties to FreshBooks....

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EP 151: Doing More With Less With SystemsRock Founder Natasha Vorompiova Sep 25, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Natasha sold her digital offerings business arm to focus solely on 1:1 work — and how she gained two clients through sending out an email
* How she found ways to bring more of herself into her business
* Why Natasha uses affirmations to become the best business owner she can be and what her daily routine looks like
* Where she noticed limitations in her personal life and how they impacted her business
Natasha Vorompiova wants to help you amplify your impact through systems. That might look like organizing and optimizing your inbox or clarifying how your business operates. But Natasha isn’t just passionate about systems: she’s always looking for ways to optimize her own life and limitations to show up with more clarity in business. In this episode, she shares just how she does that through affirmations, paring down to just one-on-one clients, and much more.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Bringing your whole self into business
“I’ve stopped separating who I am in life and who I am in business. I realize more and more, I’m just this one single person and my weaknesses, or things that don’t go well for me as a person in my day-to-day life, those same things show up in my business.” — Natasha Vorompiova
Separating yourself from your business is nearly impossible as an entrepreneur. Any shortcomings in your personal life show up in business just as much as your strengths. That’s something Natasha recently learned and started to tend to more.
“I started looking for patterns,” she says, “where things don’t work overall in business or in my personal life. I started noticing what doesn’t work and tried to concentrate just working on that element.” For example, Natasha wouldn’t voice her opinion with some individuals in her personal life. That bled into her business and she’d struggle with having an upfront conversation with a client.
True to her nature, Natasha decided to focus in on that personal shortcoming to see if she could improve it. And she did, making it that much easier to have tough conversations and ask her clients deep questions. “When I started to allow myself to ask questions that were a bit more confronting and not just systems focused, we are able to discover so much more,” she adds.
Who do you need to be to achieve your goals?
“I started paying very, very close attention to who I need to be in order to achieve something. That’s how I can then make sure that the action I take leads to the goals that I want to achieve.” — Natasha Vorompiova
Have you ever felt like your goals were unattainable because of your (real or perceived) personal limitations? Without paying close attention to what you’re aiming for, it’s easy to slide off the path. That diversion comes by way of procrastination and avoidance, says Natasha.
“When I begin procrastinating or avoiding something, I know I need to confront that versus just pushing through it,” she says. At the end of the day, “the goal itself or the money is not what we’re after,” says Natasha. “We’re after what that goal represents or what it will allow us.”
How about you? Is there somewhere in your life that bleeds into the way you operate your business that might negatively impact it? Is there a way that you can focus on it so that you’re able to realign with your path forward?
Using affirmations to reach your goals
“The process of it made such a big difference and impression on me the very first time because I was able to feel and connect to that statement on a totally different level.” — Natasha Vorompiova
Have you ever used affirmations as a mindset tool to reach your goals?

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EP 150: Juggling A Jeweler’s Business Model with Designer Christy Natsumi Sep 18, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Christy’s sustainability values inform her minimalist and unique jewelry designs — and where she sources diamonds and gemstones from
* What her weekly schedule looks like — from meeting with clients, working in the studio, sketching, and tending to longer-term projects
* Who she hires to create a sustainable business model from accountants to lawyers to web designers to marketers
* How Christy infuses her multicultural background into her work
The jewelry trade isn’t always known for its sustainability — especially when it comes to sourcing diamonds. Today, that’s changing because jewelry designers like Christy Natsumi are making conscious choices to source diamonds and gemstones from vendors with honest supply chains.
Through that thoughtful choice — and oh so many more — Christy creates change through her business: from where she sources raw materials from to the local artisans she hires in San Francisco to the unique and timeless designs she produces.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
The importance of having help and hiring experts
“I’ve made my choices mostly on intuition and trust. It’s invaluable to have people who have your best interests in mind. It’s a foundational point that you need to be able to grow and thrive.” — Christy Natsumi
While Christy doesn’t have any employees (yet!), she outsources specific parts of the jewelry manufacturing “to people who specialize in those particular techniques to accelerate the production and delivery time.”
This includes local-to-her contract artisans in San Francisco. “It’s a very conscious choice to work with local makers and trade workers,” Christy adds. But it’s not just artisans she’s working with: she also works with an accountant that she meets with monthly as well as a lawyer that she consults from time to time on web copy. Her lawyer also drafted the contracts for her custom work. “Sometimes I’m taking in grandma’s diamonds so there needs to be protections in place for that,” Christy says.
Beyond the legal work, Christy’s hired business coaches, videographers, and marketing and PR contractors. And lucky for her: her husband is a web designer and photographed all pieces since she opened her jewelry design studio.
Making time for yourself keeps you engaged in your business
“I bring attentiveness to my personal needs at the end of the week to make sure that I’m staying engaged and focused and to avoid burnout.” — Christy Natsumi
Being your own boss can sometimes feel like you’re operating in a vacuum. That’s why Christy’s created specific workweek flows to keep her vision front and center. At the end of every week, she prints out photos from clients as well as kind words they send in an email.
This ritual is part of Christy’s work week — and it’s something she intentionally does to stay inspired. “It honors the craft and it also honors the people you’re serving,” she says. “It’s really important to take a moment at least once a week to be reminded of that — and center back into why you’re doing something.”
Is there a way that you can build in time to reflect on the value you’re creating for your customers and clients every week?
Including custom pieces in a product-based business model
“The custom process allowed me to be a little bit more environmentally mindful. I struggled in the beginning with the thought of making things for sake of producing a ton of things. I loved that the bridal pieces allowed me to not only merge value and client needs but it served my business in terms of h...

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EP 149: Combining Creativity and Productivity To Do Great Work With Unmistakable Creative Host & Author Srinivas Rao Sep 11, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Take a look at Srini Rao’s daily writing routine — from the apps to the systems — that enable him to write 1,000 words a day, every day
* How creating for one — rather than many — invokes higher quality work
* Why looking at the long-term view helps you avoid the comparison trap
* Thoughts on mastering the creative process so that your work makes a lasting impact on your audience, customers, and clients
Srini Rao writes at least 1,000 words a day and yet the majority of them you’ll never read. Why does he write so much, knowing that most of it won’t see the light of day through a blog post, an email, or a book chapter? Srini argues that within that daily practice comes some of your best work… and the essential opportunity to master your craft.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Using a daily writing system to do the work
“The seeds of your most resonant work are actually created in private. When you’re creating this much in private and you don’t have the pressure to share everything, then you can be selective. I create a large volume of work much of which largely nobody sees.” — Srinivas Rao
Here’s a reality: not everything you create will be great and not everything will be for public consumption. That’s just part of the creative process. But as you dedicate yourself to a daily practice, you hone your skill and thus are more selective about what you do share.
Take Srini for example. He writes over 7,000 words a week and only a small portion of those words become a blog post or an email or a book chapter. But through that process, Srini uncovers some of his best ideas. Here’s a look at his daily writing routine:
* Wake up at 6 am
* Meditate for 10 minutes using the Calm app
* Read for 45-60 minutes. Almost everything he writes that day is inspired by something he’s read… and he only reads out of real books, not Kindle books.
* Turn on the same techno track on repeat and put on noise canceling headphones.
* Write in a physical notebook by hand first, then turn on Mac, open MacJournal, and write 1,000-1,500 words, which usually takes 30-45 minutes.
Srini employs this process using the Activation Advantage, a concept from the book, The Happiness Advantage. By reducing the number of decisions he needs to make, he dives immediately into the work. No energy is spent on the steps that need to happen before he can start writing — like choosing a pen or notebook (or even music!) because it’s already planned out.
The importance of creating for one
“When you satisfy your own desires and you maintain your own values and standards — as opposed to letting it be driven by the desire to live up to the expectations of other people — you’re much more likely to create something with emotional resonance, something that’s going to have a lasting impact on people.” — Srinivas Rao
Right now, you can create and share something online in the blink of an eye. Because of it, truly good work is often eclipsed by the stuff that gets all the likes. Despite that, Srini believes in a daily creative process to master your craft.
But it’s not just about the daily work: it’s also about creating something that matters to you and slowly becoming your personal best at it. In Srini’s latest book, An Audience of One,

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EP 148: Building For Business & Life With Your Spouse with Productive Flourishing’s Charlie Gilkey & Angela Wheeler Sep 04, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* What boundaries Charlie Gilkey and Angela Wheeler, founders of Productive Flourishing, set to coexist between business and life in a healthy way — plus, some of the rules they follow, like no screens in the bedroom (or in the hot tub!)
* How their work styles differ — and how they make space for both
* Why open communication is at the core of everything they do, including their relationship with each other and their team
Ever thought of starting a business with your spouse? It takes strong boundaries, vision, and understanding to do it right: something that Charlie Gilkey and Angela Wheeler, founders of Productive Flourishing, have refined over the last 10+ years of working together.
Of course, running a business and being in a relationship together results in unique challenges. How do you carve out time, outside of business, for your spouse when you work together all day? How do you determine who does what work — in the business and at home? How do you make sure you aren’t driving each other crazy?
Charlie and Angela have run Productive Flourishing since 2007… and in this episode of What Works, they share what they put in place to do their best work — and show up as their best in the relationship, too.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Creating boundaries: when business and life co-exist
“There isn’t a very clear line that this is life and this is business. They mix all day, every day. As things have shifted and changed in our life, things have shifted and changed in our business — and who does what and when.” — Angela Wheeler
While it may seem that there’s no separation between life and business for Charlie and Angela, there definitely is. But it’s not without effort: part of that distinction comes from the boundaries and rules they’ve created for coexisting both as a partnership in business and in life.
“We have different ways of working,” Charlie says, “and it’s a constant challenge for us.” One of their differences? Charlie’s an early riser: he’s usually halfway through his workday flow when Angela wakes up.
One of their rules here? Charlie doesn’t talk to Angela until she talks to him. “Then, I don’t stay in that weird relational hover zone to where it’s like: are we saying hi in the morning and being lovey-dovey?” he asks. “Or are you doing your thing and I’m doing my thing?” Knowing what to expect from one another, as they work and live together, helps them stay focused on doing the work.
Appreciating contrasting working styles and roles
“Equality is not equal time and it’s not equal results which can be a really sticky part of a relationship.” — Charlie Gilkey
As a society, we’re conditioned to believe that productivity means working hard from 9-5. But work doesn’t always fit into that 8-hour time slot. Many times, it expands past those hours. That’s been the case for Angela who’s consistently worked through a health journey that prevents her from working at the capacity she would like to.
“What am I able to contribute,” she asks, “versus what I wish I could contribute? It’s totally a mindset thing on my part but it’s also an honoring and a recognition on both of our parts.” Beyond handling the financial aspect of business and working on projects for Productive Flourishing, Angela also takes care of things around the house: something that has tremendous value for both their business and life — but it’s not something that earns her a paycheck.
As Charlie says, equality doesn’t mean equal time or effort. Understanding and appreciating this really required many open conversations between them to f...

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EP 147: Scaling Mental Health Services With Move Forward Counseling Founder Alison Pidgeon Aug 28, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Alison Pidgeon left her Director role at two outpatient clinics to start Move Forward Counseling, a group mental health practice based in Pennsylvania
* The reasoning behind Alison’s choice to stop taking new clients — plus, how she divides her time between counseling and running the business
* What makes growing a group mental health practice work. In the conversation, Alison shares how she approaches team building and culture creating to keep her practitioners happy
* How she structures pay for the other therapists in the group practice and what money goes where
Sometimes, the way you’ve worked for years doesn’t work anymore. Life changes and responsibilities shift. That was the case for Alison Pidgeon. As the former director of two outpatient clinics, Alison started feeling the itch to go out on her own. She was burned out, and with two small children at home, Alison yearned for more flexibility.
So she made some big changes. Alison left her position as director and started her private practice just days later. As her practice grew, Alison made the switch from a solo private practice to a group practice. Today, seven therapists work at Move Forward Counseling alongside Alison to serve the women of greater Lancaster County community.
Listen to this episode of What Works to hear more about what it took for Alison to scale her business from one to 7, how she shows appreciation for her staff, and how she’s established a thriving business through word-of-mouth.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
How to influence your company culture
“My staff feels valued. They feel respected. They have flexibility and autonomy over their schedule and what kind of clients they want to see. They’re paid well so they have time to take care of themselves and take care of their families.” — Alison Pidgeon
Every company has a culture: some companies are intentional about it while others are not. Alison is someone who cares about her staff — and through her own experience in community mental health, she learned what not to do.
“I saw what was happening in the agency and I did the exact opposite,” she says. And it’s paid off. Her staff are happy in their jobs, they aren’t overworked, and they have the ability to choose how they work.
Influencing the culture started early and found its footing in Alison’s own ponderings: “How would I want to be treated as a provider?” she asks. “It was easy to take that and develop that culture in my own practice.”
Why should you scale a high-touch business?
“Private practice can be quite lonely. It’s nice to have other people around. Obviously you can make more money and you’re able to scale your business and it’s not tied directly to trading dollars for hours anymore which really appealed to me.” — Alison Pidgeon
Sometimes there’s an identity crisis as you scale a business — but that shouldn’t turn you away from an opportunity that’s crossed your path. As Alison continued working solo in her private practice, she realized that she could grow the practice — and that doing so would round out the services that they provided in one place.
“I came up with the umbrella that we’re a practice focused on women’s issues,” Alison says. “Underneath that, everybody has their own specialty. Not everyone is doing the same thing but I’ve been able to tie it together for the purpose of branding and marketing.”
So far so good: there are currently seven providers (meet them here!) On the logistical side of things, every provider is set up as an independent contract...

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EP 146: Wellness Hacking For Time Management Success With Business Strategist Michelle Warner Aug 21, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* From the ideal diet to meditation to work style, learn how Michelle embraces her Ayurvedic dosha type
* How Michelle’s rebel brain held her back in traditional work environments — and how she unleashed it so she could do her best work
* Why Michelle embraces three-day sprints for deep diving into client work and balancing that with three-day sprints for working on CEO type tasks
As a startup cofounder and high achiever, Michelle Warner eventually hit a wall. She completely wore out her adrenals from working countless hours every day. But, instead of pushing through it and carrying on, Michelle’s body forced her to stop. That’s when she decided to get curious: how could she live and work in a way that aligned with her natural strengths instead of constantly pushing against them?
As she began to understand both how her mind and body work optimally, Michelle appreciated what once caused her so much frustration: time management. Today, Michelle designs her business to fit her life instead of modifying who she is for the work.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Discovering and working with the rebel brain within
“I could not be told to sit in an office at a specific time. I would lose my mind. A piece of that is my entrepreneurial self. I’m just not meant to be an employee. But a piece of that was also trying to structure my day in that way and digging in on something that inherently didn’t work for me.” — Michelle Warner
Have you ever struggled with working a traditional 9-5 schedule? You’re not alone! Michelle did, too. In fact, she struggled so much that she would surf the internet, send emails, or run errands throughout the entire day… anything so she didn’t have to feel like she had to work during those hours.
… But then she’d spend the rest of her evening working from home. As you can imagine, working this way wasn’t the healthiest: Michelle spent most of her waking hours working.
Eventually, Michelle understood and starting working with the rebel within. In other words, she needed the freedom and flexibility to work on what made sense for her and her schedule rather than being dictated by a color-coded calendar.
And while the typical Pomodoro timer didn’t work for Michelle, now she blocks off time and makes a list of projects to do within that time. It works marvelously. “I have to roll with the flow of the day,” she says, “and make sure that I’m at the point I want to be by the end of that day. I need to leave that flexibility for the rebel brain in me.”
Michelle’s 3-Day Intensives
“I can have the 3 day routines and know what needs to happen but I can’t necessarily know which project. I can’t look at my quarter and say: these 3 days for this project and these 3 days are the next project. I will freak out and not do it. If I have a list of 10 to choose from, then one, I’m much more calm about it and two, I make the right choice in term of prioritizing what needs to get done.” — Michelle Warner
For some, slow and steady wins the race. And for others, like Michelle, it’s more of a sprint. Because she embraces how she naturally works best and she understands the rebel inside, Michelle sets aside three full days deep dive into client work, according to what needs to be done each day and according to her bigger business goals.
“I allow myself to completely go down the rabbit hole of their business,” Michelle says. “I create everything they need and get completely engrossed in that world. I don’t worry about anything else.” Now, this is her go-to style for client work — and she’s proven that there isn’t just one single way that you can do th...

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EP 145: Developing, Manufacturing, & Marketing An Innovative Product With Têra Kaia Co-Founder Bridget Kilgallon Aug 14, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Bridget’s struggle finding tops that fit her body type encouraged her to make her own — and how that pursuit turned into Têra Kaia’s first top, TOURA
* The six words the Têra Kaia (formerly Aret Basewear) team uses to influence their branding, whether that’s photo styling or product developing
* Their journey for finding a local athletic wear manufacturer that could make high-quality garments at an affordable price point — and what led Bridget to switch manufacturers
* What their ambassador program looks like and why Instagram is their main marketing channel
* How they ensure that customers find the right fit every time by using a sizing guide and a free exchange program — and how that value drives product design and informs customer service
On today’s episode of What Works, Bridget Kilgallon, co-founder of Têra Kaia (formerly Aret Basewear), a collection of minimal basewear for the outdoorswoman, openly shares her journey bringing a physical product to market. From hand-sewing and testing the first top to partnering with a local manufacturer to marketing the brand, Bridget walks us through her thoughtful approach to product design, branding, and customer satisfaction.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Finding a local manufacturer
“Finding a reliable manufacturer that can create our tops at the quality that we want at a price that works in the marketplace: that was the biggest hurdle we faced as a business. It still continues to be to this day.” — Bridget Kilgallon
Once Bridget nailed down the handmade prototype and tested it for four months with willing participants, she needed to find a manufacturer. As you can imagine, finding one that meets your needs isn’t always easy but Bridget knew what she needed: a local manufacturer that specialized in athletic wear. And she did… but they only worked in standard format, meaning they only produced athletic wear with one-size-fits-all type of sizing like S, M, and L.
“It took a lot of convincing for us to be like: no, we’re doing it differently,” she says. “Our sewing process is different and our fitting process is different.” So, the search continued. They ended up working with multiple different manufacturers in and around San Diego, California, but continuously faced issues with quality control and price point.
As of today, they’re in the process of switching to a new manufacturer that can do everything in one place. Plus, this new partner has a design studio on site to help get their designs ready for production.
Matching your values with your branding
“We’re not just making athleisure: we’re making something that’s functional and technical. A lot of clothing companies for women right now are focused on making something that’s stylish and pretty. We’re not on board that. We think womenswear should be just as functional as menswear.” — Bridget Kilgallon
From the get-go, Bridget defined Têra Kaia’s top as technical gear… and that one key decision influences everything from how they communicate online to how they create imagery for their online shop and on Instagram. “We really go out of our way to make sure that it’s communicated that this is a piece of technical gear,” Bridget says.
Beyond the design, they identified keywords that they use throughout the branding process: contour, strong, dynamic, futuristic, minimal,

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EP 144: Centering Women Of Color In The Outdoors with Color Outside Founder Nailah Blades Wylie Aug 07, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why moving to Salt Lake City from San Diego inspired Nailah to start Color Outside — and how the free meetup transformed into the company it is today
* How Nailah budgets, markets, and plans retreats — and why she hosts them in places that you wouldn’t normally take a vacation
* How she uses private Facebook groups to connect with her people right away, plus her approach to sharing and posting content within it
* What’s included in every retreat–including renting out an entire home, hiring a private chef and a photographer, offering unique activities, and more–plus, the pricing strategy Nailah uses to calculate costs–including profit
As a new mom and a newcomer to Salt Lake City by way of San Diego, Nailah Blades Wylie sought community and adventure to reconnect with herself. That’s why she founded Color Outside, a meetup-turned-travel company for women of color who are ready to create unapologetic, joy-filled lives through outdoor adventure.
In today’s conversation, Nailah shares how she budgets, markets, and plans the retreats and what’s so important about getting out into the wild. If you’ve ever considered running retreats or live events as the core offering of your business model, this is an episode not to miss.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
The evolution of Color Outside from a free meetup to an adventure company
“I realized that hiking, exploring, kayaking and being out in the wild helped me to really reconnect with that part of myself that I was missing. My mind stopped racing. I was able to think through things more. I got a broader perspective on what was going on in my life… and I thought: other women need this.” — Nailah Blades Wylie
As a new mom and a new resident of Salt Lake City, Utah, Nailah felt disconnected from herself — and from a community. She craved getting into nature and she needed to be around other women going through the same thing.
Initially, Color Outside started as a free meetup group. She organized hikes for women of color to come together and explore this new place she called home. As Nailah continued to host meetups out in the wild, she realized just how much she enjoyed it.
With a background in life and business coaching, she easily connected with other women on a deep level. In this episode, Nailah talks about a hike that confirmed this for her. As she and another woman powered through the woods, the woman shared that she was in a job she hated — and that she wanted to be a writer instead.
For the remainder of their time together, they mapped out a plan for her to start exploring this new life path as a writer… and by the end of the day, the woman felt so much better because she had a plan to research and implement.
That’s when Nailah knew that Color Outside could be so much more than a meetup group. It could be an opportunity for life and business transformation — and a place where women of color could feel — and experience — unapologetic joy, one of Nailah’s biggest values for Color Outside.
Prioritizing and infusing unapologetic joy into everything
“Expressing our joy and being unapologetic about it is revolutionary, especially for women of color. It’s something that’s not a given for us. We have to fight against the stereotype of the angry Black woman or the spicy Latina. Just showing up and taking up that space is huge: it ripples throughout our community and the entire world.” — Nailah Blades Wylie
Unapologetic joy: even thinking about the idea feels liberating.

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EP 143: Licensing Your Signature Work With Momtography® Creator Beryl Ayn Young Jul 31, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Beryl runs the Momtography® training program, how she landed on the price point, and how she promotes her teachers once they’ve successfully completed the initial training program
* Why Beryl’s first step to licensing her work included hiring Autumn Witt Boyd, an intellectual property lawyer, to legally prep Momtography® for distribution
* How she finds qualified people to work with, how many teachers she’s currently working with, and her vision for the future of Momtography®
Today’s guest, Beryl Young, returns to the podcast — and this time, she’s sharing everything behind licensing her signature work, Momtography®. So far, Beryl’s licensed twelve teachers, with plans to expand to all 50 states in the U.S. in the future.
In this conversation, Beryl talks about how she started Momtography®, how she prepared her content for licensing (including hiring a lawyer!), and what it felt like to transition from the creator to the leader.
If you’ve ever considered licensing your work — or want to hear more of the nitty gritty details on how it can work — this episode is for you.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Prepping to license your work
“The first step was hiring a lawyer because I hadn’t trademarked the name. I knew that if I was going to percolate this on a national level, that was the first bow I needed to tie up. I also wanted to make sure that all my legal ducks were in a row. I wanted to speak to someone who worked with other licensing programs who could give me guidance.” — Beryl Young
Getting your work ready to license is no small feat. Besides creating the content and finding people to train, you also need to ensure your work is legally ready for distributing.
How do you protect the integrity of your work? How do you ensure that people don’t steal your idea? Those were some of the questions Beryl had — and why she hired
Intellectual property lawyer Autumn Witt Boyd to help her do just that.
Together, they parsed out the contracts and trademarks associated with the program as well as non-compete clauses. If you choose to license your signature work, take Beryl’s lead and contact a lawyer to set strong foundations to protect you and your creations.
Giving up control to move from creator to leader
“I asked myself: can I trust other people with this? I started building my team out over the last 2-3 years and this felt totally different. If somebody teaches this class in a way that’s different than me or in a way that I don’t agree with, am I going to be able to take that manager/CEO role and apply it? Can I let go of control and allow this to happen and allow Momtography® to spread?” — Beryl Young
As an infinitely creative individual and the one-woman show behind Momtography® for so long, it was difficult for Beryl to shift identities from creator to leader. But to allow Momtography® to expand, she needed to give up that control… and trust.
Giving up that creative control doesn’t mean you give up structure or rules. Instead, Beryl’s implemented a training and coaching program to show her teachers what’s expected. Part of that includes guidelines on what teachers can charge for the classes they teach.
While licensing your work requires shifting up to a leadership role, it doesn’t mean that you are divorced from the creative aspect of it. Rather, it means that you’re in a position to set your teachers...

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EP 142: Growing Organically Through Unconventional Channels with CozyCal Co-Founders Chris Tan & Kat Lu Jul 24, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* What inspired Chris to start building CozyCal, a simple and easy-to-use online scheduling tool for small business owners and solopreneurs
* Why Kat Lu decided to leave her healthcare consulting career to work on product development and customer support at CozyCal full-time
* How Kat and Chris manage their roles in the company as a couple (and how their backgrounds influence how they operate)
* What channels they use to grow CozyCal including the WordPress Plugin Directory, webinars, podcasts, and affiliate programs
* Why they use Intercom over email for real-time feedback and communication with their users — and how that informs their development process
Kat Lu and Chris Tan never set out to build a SaaS company… but when a friend needed an easy way to schedule appointments online for her naturopathic practice, Chris decided to develop a minimalist calendar to automate the process for her.
That service is now CozyCal, a simple-to-use online scheduler, that helps users generate leads and grow faster. After seven months of working on the product part-time, they decided to go all in. Kat left her job in healthcare consulting to become CozyCal’s product and customer support manager while Chris continued to build out requested features as the head (and only!) developer.
In this episode, Kat and Chris shed light on what their product development process looks like, what it’s like to work together as a couple, and all the interesting ways they market and promote CozyCal.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
How they use Intercom for onboarding and real-time customer support
“Intercom made a huge difference for us. Prior to that, we used Zendesk and it’s a more passive channel of communication between us and the customers. We have to wait for them to send an email to us and then we send an email back. There is no real time communication. With Intercom, we’re able to talk to users in real time and gather feedback.” — Kat Lu
Collecting user feedback is essential for SaaS companies like CozyCal. Customers who use the product every day know the product well, then share their ideas to optimize and improve it.
That’s why Kat and Chris recently switched from the email helpdesk tool, Zendesk, over to Intercom. Intercom makes it dead simple to communicate with customers in real time and collect feedback. In fact, the pair joke that they answer customer requests faster than they respond to each other’s text messages.
Another feature they love, Kat says, is Intercom’s onboarding campaign feature. So far, they’ve used it to auto-send messages throughout a new user trial period. “It really makes a huge difference to us,” she adds.
Here’s an example of how a 10-day onboarding campaign works:
* Day 1: Welcome message in app and email
* Day 2: Examples of how other people use CozyCal
* Day 5: Reminder of additional features, like payment and Zapier integrations
* Day 9: Prompt user to upgrade to the Pro Plan
As you can see, they strategically educate users over a period of time in accordance with the trial — and they do it all from Intercom.
Using the WordPress plugin directory to market and grow CozyCal’s user base
“One of the terms of being in the WordPress plugin directory is that, if you’re selling a SaaS, you need a freemium plan. That’s one thing that’s tricky. The people who come in through WordPress may not be the easiest to convert — but just having that...

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EP 141: Making Clients Comfortable With Uncomfortable Subjects With Financial Behaviorist Jacquette Timmons Jul 17, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Jacquette uses different themes every month to inform the activities and questions she poses during her monthly dinner series, The Comfort Circle™
* Why Jacquette increased the event pricing from $75 to $150 per person and what went into the decision to host the dinner in the same restaurant month after month
* How the dinner series works into her larger business model — and why she’ll be offering self-hosted dinners as well as firm-hosted ones
* What’s the future of The Comfort Circle™? Jacquette says that it might include retreats
Financial behaviorist Jacquette Timmons helps people talk about uncomfortable things. One of the ways she does that is through The Comfort Circle™, an intimate gathering where she walks her guests through curated topics about money and life over a three-course meal.
In this episode of What Works, Jacquette shares her perspective on discomfort and why it’s crucial to success, how she uses different topics to curate The Comfort Circle™ experience, and where this in-person event fits into her business model.
If you’re a coach or consultant and you’re looking for new ways to approach your business model, this episode is for you. And even if you aren’t, Jacquette’s stories and experience provide insights into pricing a service and leaning into discomfort: two essential skills that every entrepreneur needs.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Why an in-person dinner on money and life?
“My clients can talk about sex with their friends. But they can’t talk about money because there isn’t an environment where people feel that they can be vulnerable.” — Jacquette Timmons
It was obvious to Jacquette: people need safe spaces to have difficult conversations. Initially, Jacquette considered a traveling conference that would pop-up in several U.S. cities. But she realized that it required too many resources.
Instead, she decided to think smaller and more intimate… and that’s where the idea for The Comfort Circle™ came. The dinner series, which started in January 2017 in New York, provided a space for real talk around money and fit within her business vision while suiting Jacquette’s natural inclination to connect in person. “I know live events are powerful,” she says. “I know I show up powerfully and I connect well with people that way.”
Jacquette consistently hosts The Comfort Circle in the same restaurant for a small group. She says the max is twelve guests because her intent was always to keep the dinners intimate.
How The Comfort Circle™ fits into her larger business model
“The dinner is a lead generation vehicle. It’s an opportunity to get to know me and my approach. Some of them convert into coaching clients. Not every dinner results in immediate conversion or a conversion to a four figure coaching engagement but that does happen.” — Jacquette Timmons
Jacquette uses the monthly dinner series as a way to connect with potential clients — both personal and corporate. “I already do financial workshops for corporations,” she explains, “but there are times when they don’t want to do the same old thing. This is a way of doing something different.”
Different indeed! For example, a law firm hired her to host a customized dinner for 40 people. And instead of charging the typical $150/per person, the firm paid her as a speaker. “I now think of this as there’s a self-hosted version of the dinners and there’s the firm-hosted dinners, which I’m hoping will gain some traction,” Jacquette adds.
Besides strategically using the dinners as a lead generation exp...

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EP 140: Paying Attention To The Red Flags With Don’t Panic Management Founder Jess Ostroff Jul 10, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* The red-yellow-green system Jess Ostroff and the Don’t Panic Management team apply to every potential new client relationship and new hire to help them take the emotion out of it, particularly when it’s not the right fit
* What Jess does if a potential client isn’t ready for their services yet, like helping them systematize their business so they’re ready for an assistant in the future
* Why Jess chose to only hire United States-based and college-educated virtual assistants
This week’s guest is Jess Ostroff, founder and Director of Calm at Don’t Panic Management, a people-first virtual assistant agency founded in 2011. In addition to running the Don’t Panic team, she’s also a speaker and author of Panic Proof: How the Right Virtual Assistant Can Save Your Sanity and Grow Your Business.
In this episode, Jess shares the process she uses to vet new clients and new hires, plus how she operationalizes red flags to help her identify make-or-break situations using a red-yellow-green system. For Jess, this system helps her make choices that are informed by both her gut reaction as well as objective facts.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Operationalizing red flags
“It’s not just feeling. That’s why we have this red-yellow-green system. I might say: Sally is so nice and she really needs our help. And Jen, my colleague, will say: yes, but did you see those 10 red flags? We gave her a yellow and now she’s a red. She’s not a good fit for us. It makes it easier for me to say no with objective ranking factors in place.” — Jess Ostroff
How many times have you said yes to a new client when you should have said no? Maybe the client needed more than what you offered but you felt bad or felt like you should say yes simply because you knew you could help them (and you needed the work.)
Whatever the situation, Jess’ method for systematizing red flags with new clients is key for looking through an objective lens rather than a rose-colored one. “I like to start out by feeling what I’m feeling,” says Jess. “But then I like to fact-check that against that everything else I have in terms of information.”
Here’s a real-life example. The beginning of a new relationship with a client starts with a general form on Jess’ website. Once they receive that email, they apply the red-yellow-green system immediately. They only move forward with people who pass with a yellow or green.
Here’s what this looks like:
* Red is a hard no. If the individual provides no information about their business in their initial email or there are other indications that they aren’t a good fit, they don’t move forward.
* Yellow is a maybe. In this situation, Jess would need to gather more information. She might ask them to fill out a pre-call form to get a feel for their experience working with assistants, plus what their needs are.
* Green is a yes. These individuals are self-aware, very organized, and very communicative. It’s obvious that they’re ready for the help and they have a system for bringing on an assistant with clear tasks and expectations.
But the red-yellow-green system doesn’t stop at the intake form: it’s used at every additional step, including phone calls, to ensure it’s a good fit for everyone. “If it’s a red, I’ll say: you know what, I don’t think you’re ready or the right fit,” Jess says, “and I’ll point them in another direction.”
Finding and working with clients that are the perfect fit

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SPECIAL: Changing Your Name After 10 Years of Building A Personal Brand With What Works Host Tara McMullin Jul 03, 2018

When I got married 11 years ago, I was depressed, ashamed, and feeling like I had no opportunities left — in the way only a 25-year-old can feel.
I had always planned to keep my maiden name, which was Seefeldt, but I also planned to be a successful academic with a published work or two under my belt by the time I got married. Instead, I was a grad school drop out working as a retail manager earning less than $30,000 per year.
When I met my husband, I was so depressed that I hadn’t been able to eat solid food in about a week. My weight had plummeted and, instead of a solid size 8 and 145 pounds as I’d been most of my life, I was struggling to keep my size 0 pants on my boney frame. I was a complete mess.
Marrying my husband — in my tortured mind — seemed like the only solid opportunity I had left.
Of course, when you’re that depressed and unwell, making the decision to get married is never a good one. You could be marrying the best person on earth, even the best possible match for you, and you’d be in trouble.
But marry I did.
I was pregnant — by choice and plan but, again, after a life-to-that-point of not wanting children — within 3 months.
While pregnant with my daughter, I was put on Zoloft in an attempt to quell the early symptoms of prenatal depression. It worked beautifully. The medication took the edge off and helped me to see new possibilities. I started to feel more in control, more confident, and more capable again.
This state of mind helped me make room for starting a small business — the business that has grown into CoCommercial. I started doing things that made me feel like me again — writing, reading, and thinking.
At the same time, it became clear that my marriage was just not going to work. It was a rough time and I didn’t handle it very maturely — but eventually, we made the mutual decision to split up.
This was a really positive step in the right direction, even if it caused some logistical difficulties initially.
One such difficulty was realizing that I had started to build a brand and a reputation with a name that didn’t feel like my own — Gentile. I considered changing it as we finalized our divorce but going back to Seefeldt seemed like a domain name nightmare and I wasn’t creative enough come up with something on my own!
That was then. This is now.
When I created my 2018 goal list, I put changing my last name on it — along with climbing a V5-graded boulder problem (done), doing 10 unassisted pull-ups (I’m at 6), running a sub-30-minute 5k (I did 28:18 last month), and hiking the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park (on the schedule).
Even if my long-time partner and I weren’t going to get married, I was going to change my name to something else.
Well, we are getting married in 2 weeks and, luckily, marriage makes the paperwork a little easier.
We toyed with the idea of both of use changing our names but, in the end, I decided on simplicity and doing — for the second — the decidedly un-modern thing of taking his last name.
Starting June 28, I’ll begin the transition to calling myself Tara McMullin.
Personally, this was an easy decision. Professionally, it causes me anxiety.
I’ve spent the last decade building name recognition, credibility, and a reputation as Tara Gentile. I’ve done podcast interviews, spoken at events, been a featured expert, written books, and been a ★ Support this podcast ★

EP 139: Getting The Best From The People Who Work For You With Eventual Millionaire Founder Jaime Masters Jun 26, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Jaime’s lessons from hiring virtual assistants in the Philippines — and why she eventually hired an employee local to her
* How Jaime and her team use Asana to manage projects and assign tasks
* What books and tools Jaime uses to track employee time — and how she uses that as a tool to ensure employees are doing what they love with their time
* Hear more about Jaime’s approach to the not-so-fun aspect of running a business: firing employees
* The difference between an owner and an operator — yet how crucial they are to each other’s success
Jaime Masters is a business coach and host of the Eventual Millionaire blog and the going-on-seven-years podcast series. In this episode of What Works, Jaime walks us through her process for hiring and keeping employees happy. She also shares her tactics for firing underperforming employees in a fair and diplomatic way.
Curious about the resources that Jaime mentions on this episode? You can find them all at this link!
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
When hiring an employee is good for business
“Before I was trying to hide from the responsibility [of having employees] because I had a bad experience. But it made me understand how important it is to not do everything yourself. I thought I was good at everything but my executive assistant was good at so many other things than me. Letting go made a huge different in my sanity. I could double myself.” — Jaime Masters
Before Jaime hired her first employee, she tried working with virtual assistants from the Philippines. Jaime was afraid to hire an employee because of negative experiences in the past — and she thought that a V.A. would meet her business needs.
But a coach she worked with told her an employee is a good thing. “You’ll be a better business owner because you have that responsibility,” they said. Jaime took that to heart and hired her first employee: an executive assistant. It turns out Jaime’s coach was right: not only did hiring an employee force Jaime to show up on time — it also made her more dedicated to her work. “It made me put roots down and say: okay, we’re doing this!” she says.
Today, Jaime employs four full-time employees: an operator, a full-time virtual assistant, a technician who specializes in Infusionsoft, and a personal assistant. She also works with many contractors, including ghost writers, copywriters, and podcast editors.
An overlooked reason why tracking employee time is a good thing
“The goal is to level up the things that they do best so that they can feel in flow and love their job.” — Jaime Masters
In most jobs, tracking time and tasks is a way to keep employees accountable. But in Jaime’s world, she uses time tracking not only to see what employees are spending their time on — but also to ensure they’re spending time on the things that they love.
If employees spend more time on things they’re naturally good at, they’re happier and more productive. That’s what Jaime’s seen with her team by putting this practice into place. And it’s super simple: they use the RescueTime time management software.
Taking the emotion out of firing underperforming employees
“I had to put something in place on the firing side so that I could separate it from my emotions because I want to help everybody and I hate firing people. Everybody’s probably heard that you want to be slow to hire and quick to fire.

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EP 138: Establishing Authority With Standout Content On Instagram With Achieve Fitness Founders Lauren & Jason Pak Jun 19, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Lauren and Jason Pak, cofounders of Achieve Fitness, use their Instagram to educate and inspire their audience — and why they chose Instagram as Achieve Fitness’ main marketing platform
* What their weekly social media schedule looks like and how they plan, create, and edit that content
* How the first four years of business helped the duo master the day-to-day operations and why they now feel confident to delegate to team members
* What their strategy for hiring new team members looks like and how they infuse empathy and kindness into everything they do, including weekly team meetings
Lauren and Jason Pak are the cofounders of Achieve Fitness, a gym based in Boston, Massachusetts. While personal fitness is what they do, their why is even more compelling. This husband-wife team set out to change the industry: they want to make the fitness industry a more approachable and positive place to be.
While the pair got into personal training by accident in 2007, their approach to growing their business is anything but accidental. They’re extremely intentional about their core values and building that into everything they do at Achieve Fitness, from planning and creating Instagram posts to hiring new coaches.
Listen to the entire episode to hear more from the Paks and definitely check out their 5 Year Business Anniversary video on YouTube to see their story in action.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Translating your core values into your social media content
“It’s our mission not just to change our gym and our area but we really want to change the way that the fitness industry approaches helping people. We felt like, especially on social media, a lot of what happens is trainers trying to show off what they could do in order to impress other people. What was actually happening was they were intimidating other people.” — Lauren Pak
Lauren and Jason were frustrated by the fitness industry. To them, it felt unapproachable and inaccessible — and they saw that same theme extend to social media. The majority of posts that they saw were trainers showing off — and in a way, they felt, making fitness intimidating for others.
When it came to crafting their own social media presence, they decided to do things differently and made it easier for people to feel that being healthy and fit was possible for them.
“We really had to take a step back and say: are we doing this for other coaches? Or are we doing this to make a positive impact on the industry? That means we need to simplify things and make it much more approachable and much more accessible,” Jason said.
Planning a weekly social media strategy
“We’re spending about 15-20 hours on social media creation so it’s pretty much a part-time job. We were only recently able to get involved with it since we were able to develop a really strong team at the gym.” — Jason Pak
For the first four years of business, Jason and Lauren were deep into the day-to-day necessities. But now that they’ve hired out some of those responsibilities, they have more time to translate their vision into Instagram content that attracts a worldwide audience. You can see their entire Instagram feed by clicking here.
At the heart of what they post is the desire to educate people. They schedule in a weekly meeting where they plan the content for the week, including taking photos and videos. Then, they post videos and demos, with a focus on proper form,

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EP 137: Transitioning Into Intrapreneurship While Maintaining Your Mission With &yet Chief Of Strategy Sarah Bray Jun 12, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Sarah Bray, entrepreneur, author, and digital strategist, transitioned from working exclusively for herself to joining the smart and passionate team at &yet, a design and development consultancy
* What it means to be an intrapreneur in the modern creative world — and what drew Sarah to the &yet team
* How to fuel your self-confidence, especially if you’re moving from the entrepreneurship world to a team culture
* Why Sarah and the &yet team create resources, like Leadershippy, that serve the company culture as well as the public to inspire, educate, and support them on their work/life journey
Have you ever felt that you could never work for someone else, other than yourself? Sarah Bray, entrepreneur, author, and digital strategist, felt the same. That is: until she saw how she could give more life to her ideas by working on a team.
Despite working independently for years, today, Sarah works as the Chief of Strategy at &yet, a design and development consultancy based out of Richland, Washington, that centers their work on possibility and people..
Listen to this inspiring episode of What Works to hear more from Sarah about her transition from working solo to working in tech.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Tapping into your confidence as you transition from entrepreneurship to intrapreneurship
“My confidence in what I could do and what I could bring came from those experiences and that validation. I was at a point in my growth that I didn’t have to seek out those people. I never had to sell my ideas to anyone because they’d been reading my work for a long time and they knew who I was.” — Sarah Bray
The digital entrepreneurship world and the tech world are similar in many ways. Culturally, they’re both forward thinking and quick moving. There isn’t much bureaucracy (hopefully!) — autonomy and bold ideas are welcome.
But the big difference between the online business world and the tech world is that the people who work within each realm don’t cross paths often. As Sarah shares, her new coworkers at &yet weren’t familiar with her digital work, besides her business partner Adam. But it didn’t matter because Sarah knew she created quality work… and she used that confidence to push forward from running solo to joining forces with others.
If you’re considering making the jump from growing your own business to working for someone else, consider: what do you do really well? How is what you do well served by pivoting to a team-based environment? And how does this shift serve you personally and professionally?
Embracing frustration to fuel your work
“Frustration is the most amazing thing. Anytime there’s something I’m annoyed about or that’s driving me crazy, that’s the feeling that I know my own limitations well… and that I really need to be working with other people to move my ideas farther than I’m able to take them.” — Sarah Bray
Something I love about &yet’s company culture is that they fully embrace the idea of possibility. But not as a grandiose vision that doesn’t feel grounded in reality. Instead, it’s at the heart of everything they do and something they highlight on their website’s homepage.
Possibility is no doubt something that Sarah embraces in her life, too. If she didn’t, would she have considered working for someone else? Would she have believed that working with others could make more of her ideas come to life than w...

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EP 136: Playing Big With A Boutique Music Licensing Company with Catch The Moon Music Founder Cathy Heller Jun 05, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Cathy and her songwriting agency, Catch the Moon Music, manage music inquiries and how they close deals
* Hear all the details on Mochas and Music, Cathy’s unique way of putting her music in the hands of music supervisors (hint: it worked!)
* Why she uses live events to bring together songwriters and music supervisors together in one room, plus why she started a course for songwriters
* How she turns outreach on its head by approaching clients in a way that’s authentic to her, and equally important, valuable to them
On this week’s episode, we talked with Cathy Heller, songwriter and President of Catch The Moon Music, a songwriting agency for T.V., ads, and film based out of Los Angeles. In our conversation, she shares where her love of music stems from, how she used closed doors as an opportunity to create her own path, and why she’s now offering courses for other songwriters.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Using “no” as a tool to uncover your strengths
“I believe that if it is right and the world is saying yes, then there’s enough room. But you need the courage to try and you might be told no. If you’re told no enough times, maybe you need to realize that you’re meant to be on the other side. You’re just really great at identifying great music so you should be the one choosing the songs.” — Cathy Heller
When Cathy first pursued her music career, she wanted to be a singer. She didn’t anticipate songwriting as her chosen field — but when she went to Los Angeles and she heard no enough times, she realized that she didn’t need to be the singer. Instead, she could be the one writing the songs.
That moment transformed her career from singer to songwriter and ultimately she founded Catch The Moon Music, a boutique music licensing company. Today, her clients include global corporation like Coca Cola and McDonald’s as well as Netflix, Crate and Barrel, and Disney.
As Cathy mentions, sometimes when you hear no enough, it’s not the wisest choice to keep pushing through to prove a point. Sometimes those no’s are really a window, showing you different opportunities that might suit your talents better.
Radical empathy is the tool for solving other people’s problems
“The difference between a hobby and a business, at its core, is radical amounts of empathy. If anybody wants to make money, somebody else is going to give you that money, so we have to spend a lot of time anticipating other people’s needs.” — Cathy Heller
At the core of Cathy’s work is curiosity. “What else can I create with my two hands that is going to serve my audience,” she asks. Her method includes asking the music supervisors who are choosing music what they need. Not only that but she’s always looking at what they’re already using in their T.V. shows and ad placements, then reverse engineers songs from what she’s learned to anticipate their needs.
Think about your own business: how can you embrace radical empathy and put yourself in your customers shoes? How can you start to anticipate what your clients and customers need?
Finding what is authentically you… and what’s valuable to others
“Every person has their thing and when it’s expressed, it makes the world brighter and better. Every person can find a way to make it a living but it takes some introspection, it takes some exploring, and it takes some start and stops because sometimes we gotta try things to figure out what works and what doesn’t. We have to be willing to put in the quest.” — Cathy Heller
Even after taking a break from the music world for two year...

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EP 135: Growing A Truly Sustainable Business With Art & Eden Founder Susan Correa May 29, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* The story behind Susan’s personal breakthrough that prompted her to leave a two decade fashion career to launch Art & Eden, a sustainable clothing line for kids
* How Susan transformed her approach to business from fast to slow
* What processes Susan and the Art & Eden team put in place to stay accountable to their sustainability values
* Where — and why — they give back a portion of their profits to social equity projects as a part of their Buy Better, Do Better mission
After two decades in the fast fashion industry, Susan Correa decided to leave her career as the sole breadwinner of her family to pursue a more sustainable approach to fashion. Today, Susan is the founder of Art & Eden, a sustainable clothing line for kids that approaches fashion in a slower, more intentional pace and weaves in social equity projects into the foundation of the business model.
Listen to this episode of What Works to hear more from Susan on what transformed her mindset to create a business that is better for the planet and the people. Plus, so much more on the values, processes, and branding efforts that go into a sustainable business model — and how that applies to any business.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Leaving behind a career to launch a business
“It was the most difficult decision of both my personal and professional life. It was a really tough decision but I could no longer participate in a world that values profit over people. I knew too much.” — Susan Correa
In Susan’s fashion industry experience she focused entirely on profit. What trends would bring the most money? That was at the foundation of everything Susan did for two decades. But after learning more about using business for good, including giving a portion of profits to social equity programs, Susan faced a turning point in her life.
Susan declares, “I had one of two choices: accept the industry or change the industry. And I’m one that doesn’t take anything lying down so I decided to make change a reality.”
With a newfound passion for sustainability, partnered with her longstanding experience in fashion, she decided to leave the career behind and start a brand new business from the ground up. That business is now Art & Eden, a collection of sustainable children’s clothes made from organic cotton, low-impact dyes, and unique prints.
Staying accountable to sustainability principles
“It’s really a coming together of committed people from committed institutions that makes it all come together. Even in our smaller world of Art & Eden, engaging with a community that cares is what enables us to make this a possibility.” — Susan Correa
Creating a sustainable foundation to your business requires buy in and help from anyone — and any company, collaborator, or partner — that touches your business. In this conversation, Susan shared multiple ways that her company stays accountable to the sustainability principles that they were founded on. Here’s a quick look:
* Sustainability from seed to finished product. This means asking questions like: are we dying the textiles in the correct manner? Are we labeling products correctly? Are we working to educate our farmers?
* Relationships with independent testers. Art & Eden works with the Global Organic Textile Standard, or GOTS, as well as ★ Support this podcast ★

EP 134: Realizing Your Idea Is So Much Bigger Than You Imagined With Startup Pregnant Founder Sarah K Peck May 22, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* What inspired Sarah to launch Startup Pregnant (and how that concept pivoted from book to podcast)
* Sarah’s strategy for securing sponsors before launching a podcast (hint: it’s all about knowing your target audience and what their pain points are)
* What new resource Sarah’s working on to meet the precise needs of her community
Sarah Peck is a writer and the host of Startup Pregnant, a weekly podcast where she explores and reimagines what parenting, entrepreneurship, work, and motherhood looks like. Listen to this episode of What Works to hear more about Sarah’s journey in launching Startup Pregnant, plus her vision for the podcast and her body of work.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Securing podcast sponsors before launching
“If somebody’s going to put dollars for advertising somewhere, they’re going to spend it on Google ads and Facebook ads because they’re better. But I can happily lose that game because what we’re looking for in sponsors is people who believe in the value and the mission of what we’re doing. They think that providing services for new moms isn’t just a business opportunity — it’s also worth doing in the world.” — Sarah Peck
At a bare minimum, Sarah needed enough to cover the costs of running the podcast — and while that didn’t mean she paid herself (at least not yet), she didn’t want to pay out of pocket to launch Startup Pregnant.
Luckily she didn’t need to. She asked four people who were already a part of her blog community and they all said yes to sponsoring the podcast. So what did it take for them to say yes, especially because the podcast wasn’t even launched yet?
It was all about the intended audience of the podcast: women entrepreneurs who might also be mothers and what might help make their lives easier. Sarah says they value things that save them time, save them money and also help them with efficiency… so services like Acuity and MeetEdgar are two sponsors that meet those needs.
Creating a wildly valuable resource that your audience needs
“Here’s what I made. Steal it. I’ve just saved you 25 hours of time and here are the negotiation scripts. It solves a really specific problem for people — but I hope it can also change people’s lives.” — Sarah Peck
What happens when you need to go on maternity leave… but you aren’t sure what the policy should be? Sarah’s target audience are entrepreneurial and working moms — specifically new moms — and this was a question she heard all. the. time.
She decided to put together an entire resource, dedicated to not only answering this question — but also providing policy language and negotiation scripts. “Look, you’re pregnant so you’re really tired,” Sarah says, “and you have limited time. You’re trying to finish your job and you’re trying to do a good job. Doing research is not easy.”
Think for a moment about the struggles and pain points that your audience might face. How can you offer something as specific and resourceful as this?
Letting your vision lead you… even when you don’t know where it’s heading
“It’s not easy for me to do but I’m trying to remain as open as possible to the fact that I might not even know what this is becoming yet.” — Sarah Peck
The truth of entrepreneurship is that everything is an experiment. The path isn’t laid out for you. You have to forge through, learning more about your customers, your product or service, and yourself along the way.

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EP 133: Building A Business In The Feminine Economy With Sister Founder & Director Jennifer Armbrust May 15, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* How Jennifer’s creative entrepreneurial journey influenced the creation of Sister and Feminine Business School
* What led Jennifer to transition from solopreneurship to a brand that’s bigger than her — and how collaboration sets the foundation for Sister
* The practical and foundational values of creating and formulating a feminist business
* Why you should see your business as a partnership and some of the tools Jennifer uses to connect students with their business’ “spirit”
Do you think there’s a better way to approach your work than just hustling hard? Jennifer Armbrust, founder of Sister and Feminist Business School, would argue there’s a more feminine way to build and grow your business.
In this episode of What Works, Jennifer walks us through what a feminine economy looks like, how to use those values to guide your business decisions, and tools for working on your business in a holistic, healthy way for work/life balance.
Jennifer also discusses her experience with growing from a solopreneur mindset to a leadership one… and the struggles she faced on that journey.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
What is a feminine economy?
“If capitalism is an economy that values masculine traits, what could another economy look like? That’s where we get the feminine economy. It’s almost a backward question. Instead of saying what economy would we need for feminine values, I’m saying: what if we start valuing feminine principles? Will that shift the economy?” — Jennifer Armbrust
Capitalism currently operates according to masculine traits of the ego, Jennifer says. For example, worker value comes from productivity, poverty is vilified, nature is dominated, and systemic racism and sexism are commonplace.
You can find the graphics mentioned in the podcast here.
So what would the world look like if we included resourcefulness, mindfulness and gratitude, integrity, and honesty in the very foundation of every business and system? Things would radically change — for the better.
Infusing feminine ideals into daily life
“It’s a creative act every day going to my business, taking these ideas and ideals, and asking: what are the choices and the ways I’m setting up my business that’s going to evoke them?” — Jennifer Armbrust
One of Jennifer’s most recent experiences putting her values into her business was with her new office. “I want it to be honoring my body,” Jennifer shares, “which is the first principle of the 12 principles for prototyping a feminist business. Our bodies are things that we use in our day-to-day workspace so how do I configure my workspace to support my body?”
With that as a guiding principle, she got both a sitting desk and a standing desk. She also added a meditation pillow. “I’m not trying to make the choice that other people made before me,” she says. “Instead, it’s: what is my office? What is Jennifer Armbrust’s office for Sister? What is this space going to be and how do I work in it?”
What are some feminine values that you already infuse into your business? What are some that you’d like to explore more in your everyday work life? Check out the 12 Principles of the Feminine Economy from Sister for more insight and ideas!
Scaling from one to many, with intention

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EP 132: Choosing The B Corp Life with Buzz Food Truck Founder Michael Sirianni May 08, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Michael created Buzz, a rock-and-roll infused sandwich shop on wheels
* How he infused his personal values into Buzz — and how those values extend into the culture of the company
* Everything Michael learned from taking the B Impact Assessment
* How becoming a B Corp positively impacts Buzz, its employees, and the community
* What running a responsible business means to Michael
Today on What Works, we welcome Michael Sirianni, owner of Buzz, a mobile rock-and-roll inspired sandwich shop serving the Lancaster, Pennsylvania community. But Buzz is about so much more than egg and cheese sandwiches: as a B Corp certified business, Michael runs his restaurant-on-wheels a bit differently than most.
Listen to the entire conversation with Michael to hear all the details on what B Corp certification is, why sustainability is an important foundation for running any business, and how the B Corp certification benefits Buzz, its employees, and the community.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
How B Corp Certification aligns Michael’s company and personal values
“I’m a firm believer that a company’s values need to drive and reflect what your customers, vendors, and employees value. In addition to that, those values should be rooted in kindness, fairness, and generosity.” — Michael Sirianni
Most of us go into business because we see possibility for a better world — and we see how we can help make it so. That’s definitely true for Michael, who, after years working in the food industry, felt that his B Corp business matched his personal values. “I think that’s who I always saw myself as a leader in business,” Michael adds. “I could not be more happy that B Corp came along and now my personality matches my professional desire.” For him, making Buzz a B Corp certified business made it possible to make an even bigger impact than without it.
What Michael learned from taking the B Corp Assessment
“I sat down with my books and said I can’t really afford to do this. I can’t afford to give everyone a living wage and bring home X of profit. But that’s what the whole thing’s about. It’s about saying profits need to be sacrificed for the betterment of my staff. When you give somebody a living wage, they’re less likely to leave, they learn more, they grow more, they’re more invested, they become a bigger part of your company in the long run, they’re less likely work a second job because they have less of an economic need so they’re available more hours to you. There are all these positives about it. That’s the thing I learned most and simultaneously the thing I’m proudest about.” — Michael Sirianni
Going through The B Corp assessment, Michael realized that if he truly wanted to create the company he was the proudest of, he needed to be able to pay his staff a living wage. That meant that he’d take home less profit — but, to Michael, it’s worth it because it results in happier and healthier employees. In addition, providing stable, living-wage jobs to his employees results in a stronger community.
What responsibility in business looks like
“Are you doing what’s right for your community? Because they’re your customers and they’re your future employees. The private sector, as we define it, absolutely has a responsibility to make themselves a part of the solution and a part of progress.” — Michael Sirianni
B Corp certification is Business Sustainability 101. “Everyone should do it,

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EP 131: Optimizing What Works For Your Small Business With Oki Doki Co-Founder Marie Poulin May 03, 2018

The Nitty Gritty:
* Marie shares the role customer interviews have played in the evolution of her online learning software product, Doki
* How automation plays an important role in how Marie and her partner manage their workload without assistants or contractors
* What enables Marie to balance managing her business with outside pursuits like rock climbing and permaculture
On this episode, I’m caught up with Marie Poulin, the co-founder of digital agency Oki Doki during another live recording of the podcast.
Marie is a designer and digital strategist who helps small business owners translate their 1:1 services into profitable digital products and programs. She co-founded Oki Doki with her partner Ben, and together they run Doki, their platform for delivering online learning experiences. When she’s not working with clients, you can find her climbing rocks or playing in the garden.
On a personal note…
One of the personal goals that I set for myself this year was:
“Spend at least as much time mastering technique and perfecting form as learning new things”
You have no idea how difficult this is for me. I love to try new things… and I hate repeating things for precision.
You can ask my mom about how well I handled that in grade school.
But I’m in the process of massively leveling up—as I know you are too—and technique counts. It counts big time.
I’m applying this goal to everything from physical fitness to new digital tools to tried-and-true marketing techniques. It always takes a mental cue for me to pause and perfect my technique before I move on but, each time I do, I get better and better.
Without spending time on optimizing what works and mastering technique, you end up piling more and more on your plate because you assume the only way to move forward is to do more. You never give what you’ve introduced into your business (a new social media channel, a sales funnel, a team member, etc…) the time to show you what it can really accomplish on its own.
It might feel slow at first–but it’s the fastest, most sustainable way to make progress in the long-term.
Marie cares deeply about mastering technique and optimizing what works
One thing I always take away from conversations with Marie is her commitment to getting things right, focusing on the details, and optimizing what works. She recognizes that the best way to get big things done is to care about the little things.
You’ll find this theme throughout the whole interview and you’ll see how she’s applied technique and optimization to everything from her product development to her service delivery to the way she sets up her weekly schedule. Listen to the full episode to hear it all.

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EP 130: Crafting Communities–And Happier Businesses–Both Online And Offline With Happy Startup School Co-founder Carlos Saba May 01, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* What prompted Carlos to shut down a thriving digital agency to start The Happy Startup School
* What happiness as a business model looks like — and how Carlos teaches that model to others
* Why Carlos includes an application process for his in-person events, plus the four main elements he always follows to produce a great event
* How Carlos and his business partner Lawrence turned an idea for in-person conversations in unique places around the world into their retreat, Alptitude
Carlos Saba is an agency owner turned community builder — and his focus? Happiness. Through his work with The Happy Startup School and his retreat, Alptitude, Carlos is sparking conversations around building a life and business rich in purpose.
In this episode of What Works, Carlos digs into why he left agency life behind, the importance of starting conversations with like-minded people, giving yourself space to think up new ideas, and how to turn a dream into reality.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Making a case for the lazy approach to business
“Some people are built in a certain way that they can just chase that thing and they make a success out of it through brute force. What we’re much more about is the lazy approach to business: how can we do things a bit more effortlessly? How can we actually tune into what we want to do and what we get energy from, and where we find flow — and overlap that with a way of making money and a way of sustaining ourselves and making a business?” — Carlos Saba
In modern life, quick success is celebrated. We love overnight successes — even when we know, behind the scenes, they are anything but instant wins. No doubt you know of an entrepreneur who seemingly popped out of nowhere and are killing it.
While it may seem glamorous — and something that all entrepreneurs strive for — what if you don’t? What if you want to move more slowly towards your goals? What if you don’t want to hustle hard for 50 or 60 hours a week? What if you want more balance in work so you can more fully enjoy your life?
Those were some questions that Carlos asked himself as he created The Happy Startup School — and something he wanted to share with others.
Optimizing for happiness in life and work
“We were optimizing for happiness. It isn’t just about the money — what we’re all trying to do is find happiness. And happiness is a personal thing and it’s different for everyone, but that’s the thing… the startup school wasn’t just about starting a business: it was also about building a business that aligns with who you are.” — Carlos Saba
When Carlos and his business partner Lawrence started talking about The Happy Startup School, they knew they wanted to focus on educating clients. They thought the school would train entrepreneurs on how to build and grow lean startups in a happy way, that was based on two of their favorite books: Lean Startup and Delivering Happiness.
But they realized they could do so much more than that. That’s when they decided to focus entirely on happiness in life and business — and to share that with their community. Now, they provide resources, gatherings, and people to spark new ideas and conversations around infusing happiness into every aspect of life and business.
Creating space for event attendees
“The real key thing that we think is really important is space. Not filling it for the sake of filling it because you think that’s how you create value but actually creating the space for value to emerge fr...

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EP 129: Building a Client Pipeline With Communication Rebel Founder Dr. Michelle Mazur Apr 26, 2018

The Nitty Gritty:
* How Michelle created the “3 Word Rebellion” framework that brings her new client leads
* Why Michelle uses a free consultation to book new clients
* The importance of Being Boss’s Chalkboard Method for knowing how many clients she needs at any time
* How Michelle has optimized her schedule to make 1:1 client coaching more sustainable
In this episode, I catch up with Dr. Michelle Mazur (episode 53) for another special LIVE episode of the podcast!
Michelle founded Communication Rebel on the belief that communication changes the world. To do that, Michelle helps business owners, executives, and thought leaders craft their 3 Word Rebellion, their speech, and their positioning and pricing so they can get booked. The speakers she works with have generated incredible results like booking a $10,000 speaking gig, raising 3x the amount of money expected for the launch of a charity, and becoming an international speaker in front of world leaders. She lives in Seattle with her adoring husband, 3 obsessive felines, and a huge collection of Duran Duran memorabilia.
Michelle made her “lead magnet” and her first offer one and the same
Instead of spending time creating a piece of lead generation content that was separate from her initial offer, Michelle uses her 3 Word Rebellion framework 2 ways.
First, it’s freely available right here. She acknowledges:
There will be a small percentage of people who can do it. They can nail their 3 Word Rebellion on their own; they don’t need any help. And… the majority of people struggle with this because they are so close to their message.
Once she’s delivered the framework and given people a chance to give it a try on their own, she shares why it can be so difficult to come up with it on your own. This opens the door to make an invitation to work with her to craft your 3 Word Rebellion.
Michelle doesn’t take any speech coaching clients that haven’t first completed their 3 Word Rebellion–her seed offer.
She’s learning to make an offer much, much sooner
What I’m realizing is that people want to find out how to work with you a lot sooner than you think. I know everybody thinks you have to do so much nurturing and give 3 or 4 emails of packed-tight content but we have to start making the ask sooner!
Because Michelle’s lead magnet is perfect for people ready to work with her right now instead of 6 months from now, she’s started to realize that people want to find out how she can help right away.
The big takeaway here–and I was so excited Michelle spoke about this–is that, if you make your marketing assets much closer to the “buying” part of the customer journey, you’ll need to spend less time in nurture mode and can get to the sale right away. You’ll not only move people through the process faster, but you’ll end up losing fewer clients to competitors because they want help now… not at the end of your 26-part email automation sequence.
Learn more about how Michelle is building a client pipeline and turning lookers into buyers by listening to the full episode below or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

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EP 128: Melding Disparate Passions with Herbalist & Spaceship Builder Lisa Akers Apr 24, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* The breaking point in Lisa’s life that inspired her to turn to herbalism for answers — and why she decided to study herbalism deeper
* How Lisa manages her job as a spaceship builder and her herbalism clients
* What specific strategies Lisa uses to plan and optimize her daily and weekly tasks
* Who, exactly, Lisa works with through her herbalism business — and how she balances client sessions with the unpredictable needs of spaceship building
Lisa Akers is both a spaceship builder and herbalist (really!) While this might sound like an unusual duo, Lisa demonstrates just how closely the two are related — and how she balances working as an engineer and working as an herbalist.
In this episode of What Works, Lisa shares how she connects engineering and herbalism, what’s so magical about herbalism, and how she optimizes her week around the energy available to her.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
What drew a spaceship engineer to clinical herbalism
“I saw an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, and eventually an herbalist who said, ‘here’s what’s going on, sweetheart.’ And she was right. I said, ‘this is magic so I need to learn more about this herbalism thing.’ If she can do that over the course of 90 minutes then I need to know how this works because I could be really helpful and support other people. I wasn’t thinking of it as a business at that point — just to learn for myself to support my own needs and my family’s needs.” — Lisa Akers
At one point in Lisa’s health journey, she ended up in the emergency room, convinced she was suffering from a heart attack. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case — but doctors gave her Xanax to help her mediate the stress she was under from working long hours instead.
Dissatisfied with that solution, Lisa sought additional professional opinions. Every doctor she saw recommended Xanax. At that point, she explored alternative routes in an effort to understand and fix the root problem. “I’m an engineer. I’m trained to search for the root cause so that we can fix it and prevent the symptoms and the indications of failure from happening,” says Lisa.
Through her experience with the herbalist who pinpointed her health imbalance, Lisa knew that herbalism worked — and she wanted to learn more about how she could help herself, her family, and eventually clients.
Pinpointing and working with ideal clients
“I work with a fairly narrow group of people in midlife and later who are finding that the lifestyle they lived as young people no longer works for them in their more mature adulthood. They’re struggling with diabetes, high blood pressure, autoimmune disease, or maybe even cancer. They need a better solution. They don’t just want to follow down this pathway where they take this medication that makes this other symptom happen that they have to take another medication for that causes something else. They have this downward spiral that ends in their death and nobody wants that — they actually want to make it better so I’m looking for people who want to understand how that works.” — Lisa Akers
Lisa knows exactly who she can help: people who want answers to their health woes that they can’t find anywhere else. One way Lisa attracts those folks is through positioning herself as a scientist. She’s someone who not only understands plants, but someone who also thinks with an engineering perspective: that we need to get to the root of the issue to truly fix it.
And Lisa’s knowledge and ability to find and understand scientific studies around plants give her a strong foundation to her herbalism bu...

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EP 127: Getting Lean For More Meaningful Growth With Textile Design Lab Founder Michelle Fifis Apr 19, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Michelle Fifis consolidated her offers into her membership program, the Textile Design Lab
* The steps Michelle took to achieve greater profitability focusing on doing less and more meaningful growth
* What parameters Michelle uses to decide whether a new marketing opportunity is worth pursuing–or just a time suck
* The brand partnership Michelle has leveraged to increase her reach, get paid, and amp up her brand’s visibility
* How Michelle’s team has evolved to support the focus she’s created in her business–and what her next steps are with hiring
Today, I’m catching up with Michelle Fifis for a special episode of What Works that we recorded live on Crowdcast.
Michelle is the creator of Pattern Observer, a blog all about surface design, and the founder of The Textile Design Lab, a community and education space for emerging and established surface designers.
After leaving her corporate textile design job in 2010, Michelle wanted to keep her momentum going, stay up with the trends and industry news and keep track of her inspiration and resources, so she created the blog Pattern Observer. Today, Michelle is a successful textile designer who has worked with such clients as Lucy Activewear, Columbia Sportswear, Jantzen Swimwear, Pendleton and P&B Textiles.
On her blog, she continues to write about business and textile design and her membership community, The Textile Design Lab, offers learning and networking opportunities to hundreds of designers worldwide.
Fewer moving pieces, more profit
Michelle and I focused our conversation on how she’s made her business more lean-and-mean over the last year–and increased profitability at the same time.
She said:
I am constantly trying to systematize what I am doing and then passing it off to someone on our team, which includes my teammate Chelsea and my husband Ken.
I have cut back on the amount of information that I am taking in with regards to marketing and business growth. I used to constantly try new things and really bought into the “you have to do x,y, or z to grow your business.” I am now very hesitant to start something new or add something to our business unless I can figure out a way for someone else in our team to manage it AND it is not going to affect our profitability.
Meaningful growth instead of a breakneck pace
It can be so tempting to pursue growth at the expense of your life, health, and bottom line. Michelle took a hard look at how she’d been growing her business over the years and decided to make some changes. She said:
I am over this focus on super fast business growth. When my business was very young, it would double every year, so I got into this mindset that I needed to continue to grow at that rate. But that level of growth became stressful and I was investing so much money in future growth that my profitability was becoming lower and lower. Since pausing on my extreme growth plan I am happier, less stressful and more profitable than ever! And still growing at a healthy rate!
Listen to the full episode to learn more about how Michelle Fifis has streamlined her business to make more money.

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EP 126: Navigating The Process Of Rebranding & Repositioning with Truce With Food Creator Ali Shapiro Apr 17, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* Why Ali’s new brand message is all about shifting the way her clients see themselves
* How she draws a connection between health and politics — and positions her opinion in a way that her ideal customers breathe out: “finally, someone gets it!”
* What writing exercise she used to inform her new website copy (and exactly what her company’s new position is)
* Why you should always ask your customers for feedback, plus the exact process Ali used to choose a logo that spoke to them
In this episode of What Works, we welcome Ali Shapiro, MSOD, certified holistic health counselor, and founder of Truce with Food® to talk about her recent rebranding and repositioning of her business.
We cover everything from what she’s learned as a health coach and her own experience with cancer as a teenager, to the importance of using customer feedback to inform branding decisions, to bringing politics into your business as a way to truly serve your customers.
Listen to this episode to learn more about Ali’s health journey and her experience working with women who are fed up with the status quo — and are looking for radical shifts toward true healing.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
How Ali knew it was time to reposition.
“I realized that as I got more resilient, I actually became healthier. I really started to see with my clients that if I could help them with a research-based but client-proven process to focus on that emotional piece, their healing was exponential.” — Ali Shapiro
For Ali and her clients, experiencing true healing isn’t just about what you eat. It’s about how food and emotions work together to cultivate and activate natural healing within the body.
Ali knew that positioning her work around both the body and the emotions would be more difficult than just talking about food. At the same time, she felt that it might be too much for people — would they resonate with it? Would they want to work with her? Ultimately, she knew that bringing together food and emotions was crucial for her clients to experience true healing.
Fortunately, her clients responded well and told her just how much of a relief it was, despite the hard work. Why? Because it gave them answers. They were finally understanding aspects of themselves that they never had.
This was the foundation of her rebranding and repositioning.
The importance of asking for customer feedback as you rebrand.
“I didn’t end up going with the logo because I didn’t want to turn people off before they really understood what it was about. Always ask your customers and clients — even your ideal clients are going to have a range of reactions.” — Ali Shapiro
As Ali worked with her clients, she realized that her work was founded on liberating women so they can get answers and feel their absolute best. As she rebranded, Ali wanted a logo that represented the work she did — and ended up with two that she loved.
One logo was a dynamic logo of a woman’s body behind bars — and the bars faded away — it was a literal representation of her work. Ali loved it, but when she asked her customers, it was a split: half of them liked it while others felt that it didn’t totally encompass her work — and in a way, it didn’t align with the experience they had with her. So… instead of using the logo that she liked the most, she decided against it based on customer insights.
Why Ali brings politics into her business (and her branding)
“When you start talking about who has power, and who doesn’t,

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EP 125: Writing Content For Results with Content Direction Agency Founder Lacy Boggs Apr 11, 2018

The Nitty Gritty:
* Why Lacy is producing fewer “how to” articles and, instead, focusing on “riffing” on the leading edge of content marketing thought leadership
* How she’s developing a process for asking for referrals after realizing her top clients come through that channel
* Why her priorities have changed when it comes to growing her email list–and why she’s stopped using content upgrades to find new subscribers
* How she makes sure none of the work falls through the cracks even as her client load and her team has grown
Today, we’re catching up with Lacy Boggs in a special episode recorded live on Crowdcast. Lacy is a content strategist and Director of The Content Direction Agency, which helps online small business owners communicate and connect with their audiences through authentic, organic, and values-driven content.
Lacy has been honing her business model, adjusting her own content marketing strategy, and growing her team over the last year.
Figuring out what’s not working is just as important as figuring out what is working–especially if you want to cut back on your workload and cultivate sustainable operations in your small business. Lacy shared that she’s been intentional about figuring out where her clients come from and reducing the amount of time and effort she puts into marketing activities that don’t yield the kinds of clients she’s really looking for.
For her, that means backing away from email list growth-at-all-costs and, instead, putting an emphasis on showing up in communities where her ideal clients hang out and writing content that positions her as an authority worth trusting.
Listen to the full episode and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or RadioPublic so you never miss an episode. Plus, follow CoCommercial and What Works on Crowdcast to get notifications whenever we do live episodes.

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EP 124: Co-Writing A Book To Grow Your Brand With Being Boss Author Emily Thompson Apr 09, 2018

The Nitty Gritty
* The four reasons why Emily and Kathleen, co-hosts of the Being Boss podcast, chose to traditionally publish their first book, Being Boss, instead of self-publishing (and how they weighed the pros and cons of each)
* What the collaborative process looked like behind-the-scenes for them, from writing sessions over Zoom to in-the-moment editing
* The multiple marketing channels they’re using for the book launch from traditional methods like radio and T.V. to community-focused methods like launch teams made up of passionate Being Boss supporters and more.
Today on What Works, we welcome back Emily Thompson, founder of Indie Shopography, co-host of the Being Boss podcast, and co-author of Being Boss: Take Control Of Your Work + Live Life On Your Own Terms.
Emily graciously takes us behind the scenes of co-writing her first book, including what she considered when choosing between traditional and self-publishing. She also shares the process behind writing the book together with Kathleen Shannon, and what marketing methods they used for promoting the book.
We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Why they chose traditional publishing over eBook and print-on-demand
“For us, it was a matter of a couple different things, one of those being our multi-year long relationship where we were both talking about writing the book — and neither of us had done it yet. We both knew that external pressure — those deadlines and expectations from someone else — would actually help us write the book. That was a big part of it: knowing that we were answering to someone else.” — Emily Thompson
If you know Emily and Kathleen, you know they are no strangers to doing the work. Each of the women run their own successful companies in web design and branding, respectively. Yet despite their independent success and work ethics, the book still hadn’t been written.
Ultimately, the pair looked at their biggest roadblocks to writing the book and realized that while they’re both completely capable entrepreneurs, they felt that having to answer to someone else would actually force them to get the book out the door.
But that wasn’t their only reason for choosing traditional publishing. They also wanted to reach further than their Being Boss community — something they felt they could only do by traditionally publishing their book. “For us it was about creating an experience for the people who are going to be reading the book,” says Emily. And that simply wasn’t something they could create through self-publishing as an eBook or even as a print-on-demand book.
How they collaboratively wrote the book
“The book started with us getting really clear on the entire linear outline. From there, we started writing from the very beginning all the way to the very end so we could really build upon each piece as we went as opposed to piecemealing it together. We found that writing separately was a lot less productive than actually writing together so we would block out a couple of hours every week. We would get on Zoom and we would write together.” — Emily Thompson
Yay! for the digital age where we can co-collaborate on projects, no matter where we are physically located. That was definitely the case for Emily and Kathleen, who co-wrote their book together from two different states, using the (practical) beauty of Zoom and Google Docs.
Have the right tools was only one part of the book writing process, though. It also required that Emily and Kathleen release any expectations (and the...

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