What Works

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 c...

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 owner...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 di...

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...

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 c...

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...

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 bel...

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...

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 &amp...

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 audien...

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...

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 th...

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 findi...

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...

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...

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 busines...

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, a...

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 g...

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 crea...

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 exc...

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 g...

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 sustain...