Don't Waste the Chaos

What if the thing holding back your business performance isn't your strategy, your team, or your marketing — but an emotional response your nervous system learned before you were ten years old? EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, is a science-backed practice with over 100 peer-reviewed studies behind it, and in this episode, Kerri Roberts sits down with her own personal EFT coach to pull bac...

What are the HR trends that are actually going to matter for your small business in 2025 — and more importantly, what can you do about them right now without blowing your budget? After 20 years in HR and a year of 30% business growth, Kerri Roberts is pulling out her HR crystal ball and walking through the 10 trends she's watching most closely heading into the new year. This is a solo episode...

Are behavioral assessments actually worth the investment for a small business — or are they just another HR tool that sounds great in theory and collects dust in practice? If you've ever wondered which assessment is right for your team, whether you can use them in hiring without landing in legal hot water, or how to get real ROI from the tools you're already paying for, this episode brea...

What does emotional intelligence actually look like in practice — and why do so many leaders who know about it still struggle to develop it? If you've ever wondered whether your leadership style is pulling the best out of your people or quietly pushing them toward the door, this episode is going to give you a lot to sit with. Kerri Roberts sits down with organizational development consultant...

What can veterans and military spouses teach the rest of us about resilience, leadership, and building a life that actually holds up under pressure? As a Marine Corps veteran's spouse of 16 years, Kerri Roberts has had a front-row seat to lessons most civilians never get — and in this special Veterans Day episode, she's sharing seven of them. Whether you have military ties or none at all...

Are you running on coffee fumes and skipped lunches, wondering why you can't focus or why your energy crashes by 2pm? For most busy business owners, nutrition is the last thing on the priority list — but it might be the one thing quietly sabotaging your productivity, your mood, and your long-term health. In this episode of Don't Waste the Chaos, Kerri Roberts sits down with registered di...

Year-end payroll is one of those things every business owner knows is coming — and most still scramble through it at the last minute. Between W-2s, tax filings, benefits reviews, and compliance updates, there are a lot of moving pieces, and getting any one of them wrong can mean penalties, frustrated employees, or a mess you're untangling well into the new year. This episode is the practical...

Most small business owners spend their marketing budget on tactics — the website, the social media, the ads — before they've done the foundational work of figuring out who they actually are and who they're actually for. And according to Kristen Graham Brown, that is the single most expensive mistake a business can make. Kristen has spent 14 years building Hoot Design Company into a cultu...

HR compliance is one of those things most small business owners know they should be on top of — and quietly hope they never have to deal with until it's too late. The reality is that legal exposure from employment law violations doesn't announce itself in advance. It shows up as a discrimination complaint, a misclassification audit, a harassment lawsuit, or an OSHA violation — and by the...

Most companies think culture is the snacks in the break room, the company t-shirt, or the fun Friday happy hour — but all of that is just icing, and you can't put icing on nothing. Brandy Spurling has spent years helping organizations understand what culture actually is, how to assess it honestly, and how to build it in a way that sticks. This conversation is one of the most practically usefu...

AI and automation are reshaping human resources faster than any shift Kerri has seen in over 20 years in the field — and if your HR processes are still manual, you are already behind. This isn't about replacing HR professionals or business leaders. It's about getting the administrative and transactional work off their plates so they can finally focus on the strategic decisions that actua...

Working parent guilt is something most of us carry around every single day — but here's what very few people know: guilt and shame are not the same thing, and confusing the two may be doing far more damage than either emotion would on its own. Karen Brooks has spent over 20 years working with at-risk youth, trauma survivors, and adolescent girls, and this conversation is one of the most genui...

Outdated HR practices aren't just inefficient — they're actively costing you talent, productivity, and your competitive edge in the market. Most business owners and HR teams know something feels off about how they're running their people operations, but they don't know exactly where to start fixing it. This episode is the practical, no-fluff walkthrough you need to identify wha...

Professional networking is one of those things everyone knows they should be doing — and almost no one is doing it well. Most people show up once or twice, expect something to happen, and then wonder why their network isn't producing results. David Clithero has spent nearly 40 years building relationships the old-fashioned way — and the proof is in the people who, when he leaves a room, can&a...

Workplace conflict doesn't resolve itself — it just gets more expensive the longer you wait. Most leaders know there's drama happening in their organization, and most of them are hoping it works itself out. It won't. Unresolved conflict leads to decreased productivity, legal exposure, and the quiet exit of your best people — and if you're in a leadership seat, this episode is a...

Financial stress is one of the top drivers of employee burnout and disengagement — and healthcare out-of-pocket costs are quietly one of the biggest contributors to that stress. Most employers look at their comp and benefits package, benchmark it to the market, and move on. What they're missing is the gap between what the insurance covers and what their employees can actually afford to pay wh...

Upskilling your employees is one of the highest-ROI investments a small business can make right now — especially when recruitment is tough, the economy is uncertain, and employees are staying put rather than jumping ship. The question isn't whether you need a learning and development program. It's whether yours is actually working. In this episode, Kerri walks through how to assess wheth...

Most small business owners think workers' compensation costs are just part of doing business — fixed, unavoidable, and completely outside their control. They're wrong, and this episode is the conversation that changes that. Flint Walton has spent more than 30 years in loss prevention helping companies across industries reduce their exposure, lower their experience modification rate, and...

Most people say they hate HR — and honestly, most of the time they're right to be frustrated, but not for the reasons they think. The problem isn't HR as a function; it's HR that has settled for being a cost center, stayed buried in administration, and never figured out how to prove its value to the business. This episode is Kerri getting raw about her 20-year journey in HR — the wi...

Micromanagement is one of the most common and most costly leadership problems in small business — and most micromanagers don't even realize they are one. It shows up as lack of trust, perfectionism, poor delegation, insecurity, organizational culture, or just not having the right systems in place. And the worst part? It's quietly killing your team's motivation, creativity, and desir...

Workplace burnout isn't just about feeling overwhelmed — there is actual science happening in your body that explains why it's so hard to shake, and understanding it is the first step toward doing something about it. This episode is an expansion of my interview with Lydia Melton on burnout's impact on the P&L (Episode 23), but this time we're going deeper into the physiolog...

You've probably heard of a SWOT analysis — but if you're being honest, do you actually know how to run one, what to do with the results, or why it's worth the time? This episode is the down-and-dirty practical walkthrough that most resources skip, built specifically for small and mid-sized business owners who want to do strategic planning right without spending a fortune on consulta...

A single workers' compensation claim for tennis elbow averages $70,000 — and that's before you factor in legal fees, OSHA fines, lost productivity, and the experience modification rate that follows your business for years. Most small business owners think workers' comp insurance is the answer, but Paul Krewson has spent 20 years proving that early intervention is what actually keeps...

Reducing your workforce is one of the hardest decisions a business owner will ever make — and doing it wrong can land you on TikTok, in a lawsuit, or both. Most small business owners avoid this conversation entirely until they're in crisis mode, which is exactly when the most costly mistakes happen. This episode is the practical, legally grounded walkthrough you need to have in your back pock...

Why do employees who interviewed as adaptable, flexible team players suddenly dig their heels in the moment you introduce a real change? It happens in every organization, at every level, and most leaders either get frustrated and push harder — or give up entirely. This episode breaks down the actual science behind resistance to change and gives you a practical, step-by-step framework for navigatin...