The End Goal of Maintenance Mode, What it Is, and What it Isn't

Maintenance mode as a topic for the podcast actually came out of a personal capacity crisis.

Like a lot of people, since March of 2020, I've been without child care. With my son in hybrid school all year long, I gradually started having less and less time to devote to ScaleSpark.

I lowered the bar on my expectations for myself and what I could accomplish again and again and again, but there was still stuff that just wasn't getting done.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't sitting around doing nothing. I executed a big business model shift that included piloting my first group program and creating my Not Rocket Finance course.

I got a TON done. But it was a lot less than I normally would have.

Then at the beginning of 2021, I reached a bit of a crisis point.

I couldn't keep trying to shove a full-time business and being a full-time stay-at-home mom/homeschooler into the same hours. Something had to change.

I really started to take a look at what I could stop doing, what needed to change, and what systems I needed to build to take my business from one-to-one client services to a scalable business that could operate in maintenance mode.

And I've spent the last 16 episodes interviewing founders about maintenance mode and consistency, exploring capacity, business model, and techniques to prepare and execute maintenance mode in your business.

So to wrap up the theme, I wanted to take you behind the scenes and talk about what I learned from all my interviews over the last few months and what I experimented with and tried out in my own business.

So I brought my executive producer, Sean McMullin, on the show to interview ME about maintenance mode.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How shifting from big picture problem solving to treating the process of being consistent as a series of small experiments satisfied the need to break things in the business
• Why you need to figure out how you’re self-sabotaging, then why you’re doing it in order to create effective systems and supports that keep you from it
• Why maintenance mode isn’t about finding the perfect system but stacking systems that are good enough
• Steps to start looking for what you can automate, delegate, or make more efficient in what you do every day

Learn more about Sean:

• Yellow House Media

Learn more about Susan:

• Scalespark.co
• Twitter @ScaleSpark
• LinkedIn @thesusanboles

Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here