Every small business owner goes through a phase (or many) where they're just trying to keep up. In the beginning, you might be trying to keep up with the vague idea of all of the things you're supposed to be doing to get your business off the ground and functional....
I'm a Trekkie. I grew up immersed in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I devoured Deep Space Nine and Voyager. And while I'm not as up-to-date with the more recent incarnations, Star Trek is still an important part of my identity. Quick aside: I suspected Sean--my...
I think we dabble to keep ourselves safe. Try a few different social media platforms. Experiment with a few different kinds of offers. Play around with a few different marketing techniques. On one level, it feels like you're increasing the odds of success and...
The world of business—big business, small business, micro business—has a bias for more. More revenue equals a more valuable company. More users equal a more valuable platform. More followers equal more valuable content. And that bias for more has largely been...
When you started your business, you probably thought a lot about what you wanted to do. That's certainly what I thought about! What do I love to do? How can I do that for other people and get paid for it? Do I want to have a writing business so I can spend my time...
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!
Today’s guest mentioned early on in our conversation that she found herself taking the work that came to her, growing her capacity to be able to bring in *more* work, and never really stopping to ask herself how she was designing her business.
Her name is Hailey Thomas and she’s the founder of BrainSpace Optimized, where she helps entrepreneurs plan, execute, and complete projects in 90 days or less.
Unfortunately, Hailey suffered a big, personal loss that made her rethink the way she’d been doing business to that point.
We talk about how her tunnel vision led her to skipping her initial grief, why she let go of her clients and contractors, and how she started to process what she truly needed from her life and business.
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.
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.
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.
Host of What Works
Tara is a podcaster, small business community leader, strategist, and speaker. She’s been helping small business owners build stronger businesses for over a decade.
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