What Works

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 A...

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...

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...

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,...

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 th...

“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 “c...

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, oppo...

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...

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 i...

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...

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...

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 busine...

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 work...

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 prioritiz...

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 th...

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. Th...

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...

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 ta...

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....

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 jumpsta...

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 ho...

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...

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...

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...

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...