Plan For Progress, Not Perfection: The Commitment Blueprint
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.
Today, I’m talking with Coach Pony founder Christie Mims. Christie helps coaches build a real business with her program of the same name. Plus, Christie is host of the Coach Pony podcast, a show we lovingly produce at YHM.
I knew I wanted to talk with Christie about her processes & systems—but when she told me about her two competing sales funnels, I had to know more. What I learned is that by honing her full sales system—and not just an individual funnel or two—she celebrates the complexity that comes with any buying process.
This conversation is going to be a treat for anyone who wants the inside scoop on how sales funnels actually work. And it might also be a cautionary tale.
Now, let’s find out what works for Christie Mims!
When you bring a systems thinking approach to business strategy, management, sales, marketing, and even the creative process, how does that shift your decision-making and action?
To kick off this month, I wanted to start with a conversation from my own team—the YellowHouse.Media team. I asked Sean McMullin and Lou Blaser to talk with me about the systems they’re using to manage the podcasts we produce and how they’re organizing that in Clickup.
Moving to Clickup was absolutely a case of getting the beat. Sean had to pay close attention to how our podcasts hosts worked, what was different from the way hosts who are always on deadline versus hosts who work ahead approach their work, and how software was either adding or removing friction from the process.
Sean and Lou talk about all of that and more.
So let’s find out what works for managing projects at YellowHouse.Media!
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, Nayla Bahri, Mytili Jugunaathun, and Lisa Townsend on how they’ve leveraged their strengths.
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!
Now, let’s find out what works for Kris Windley.
I still struggle with belonging. I struggle with the constant fear of unfamiliar situations and people—along with the fear of plenty of familiar situations and people—something Laura James describes in her book, Odd Girl Out.
But I can also see my outsider perspective as a strength—and one that I can leverage.
My guest today surprised and delighted me when she started our conversation off with her own exploration of belonging—and how finding that intrinsic sense of belonging has become a real strength for her while also leveraging her outsider perspective, too.
Reva Patwardhan is a coach and facilitator who guides changemakers and leaders working for social change to help them lead with confidence, clarity, and purpose.
This conversation had so many high points for me. We kick off with belonging, but we also talk about deep processing, narrowing the scope of her work, noticing, systems, and why slowing down is so important.
Reva and I also talk about her experience through the lens of ADHD, as well as her experience as a highly sensitive person.
This conversation is rich and useful, whether you’re a neurodivergent business owner or not. Reva’s experiences lay out a beautiful framework for better understanding yourself and your own strengths – so with that…
Let’s find out what works for Reva Patwardhan.
This month, I indulged myself a bit with our focus on the podcast. I wanted to talk to other neurodivergent business owners about how they leverage their strengths in their businesses. It’s part personal research project and part public service.
The public service part is the part where, even if you’re not neurodivergent, you start to see how your own strengths can give you creative direction in how you build your business. You can filter how you build your business through what truly makes you feel effective, alive, and capable.
You can adapt your business instead of always adapting yourself.
I could think of no one I wanted to kick off this series with more than Brittany Berger. Brittany’s personal leadership and advocacy was some of the first that made me think, “huh.”
Brittany is the founder of Work Brighter, a platform that provides resources and encouragement for neurodivergent, disabled, and chronically ill people who want to make productivity techniques work for them.
Brittany and I talk about how she manages her energy, how she structures her day, and why self-disclosure has been key to finding her way, as well as—and this is crucial—why she can write about the intersection of pop culture, productivity, and content marketing like no one else.
Now, let’s find out What Works for Brittany Berger!
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.
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!
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!
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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