What Works

In This Episode: * Why Coach Pony founder Christie Mims uses 2 “competing” sales funnels to accommodate for different ways of buying* How she melds both sales automation and a human approach to produce 7+ figure sales* The nuts & bolts of what both sales funnels entail and how they actually work together* Plus, why Christie’s approach is inspiring but, ultimately, might not be the best approach for you How reliable are your sales? How steadily do new customers buy? How loyal are your retainer clients or repeat customers? Every business owners wants to feel confident when it comes to sales. Not just how to close a sale, but really how the chance to make a sale presents itself, how the process evolves, and how that final decision gets made. Can you engineer a more reliable sales system? Yes, you sure can. But it’s not the “if this, then that” kind of process that many reductive sales courses try to sell you on. It would be awesome if I knew that every time I did a particular task, I could count on a sale. It would be awesome if I knew that stringing together a series of specific actions would supercharge my sales. But so many things impact the way people buy… that it’s impossible to reduce sales to a single process or procedure. That said, we can still dance with our sales systems! So let’s return to Donella Meadows’s article on dancing with systems. Meadows encourages us to “celebrate complexity.” Now, you might be thinking… “But Tara, what about building simple business models? What about creating simple marketing procedures?” I’m glad you asked! The reason we actively build simple structures, models, and procedures for our businesses is because the world is a complex place. When we focus on simplicity in how we design our businesses, we really can celebrate complexity in the world and our customers’ lives. Meadows writes: There’s something within the human mind that is attracted to straight lines and not curves, to whole numbers and not fractions, to uniformity and not diversity, and to certainties and not mystery. But there is something else within us that has the opposite set of tendencies, since we ourselves evolved out of and are shaped by and structured as complex feedback systems. When it comes to sales, I believe our goal is to create the simplest system that celebrates the reality of complexity in the environment. So what makes the environment we’re selling in so complex? Timing, trends, current events, seasons, budgets, competition, competing messages, personal histories, family needs… The list could go on and on. Every customers brings their own complex set of influences to the table when they interact with your business—especially in the sales process. This is one of the reasons that “sales funnels” so often fail. A sales funnel is usually built from the business’s perspective—a perfect scenario of “if this, then that” actions that assume a lot about the people who are going through that funnel. But no matter how niche your target customer or client is, ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * Why Sean McMullin & Lou Blaser, from YellowHouse.Media, switched their project management software from Notion to Clickup (and why it’s not the right move for everyone!)* How they’ve reduced their podcast management procedure from 75 sub-tasks to 11 umbrella tasks* Why streamlining the procedure has allowed them to bring a more customized approach to each podcast they produce* How focusing on the system behind podcast production has helped them create a lot more capacity for new clients A couple of months back, I read a downright beautiful article about systems. Yes, you heard that right: a beautiful, thoughtful, and useful article about… systems. It was written by Donella Meadows, an influential environmental scientist and leading thinker on systems change in the 20th century. The article outlines 14 principles for *dancing* with systems. But today I want to focus on the first: get the beat. When we talk about business systems, it’s easy to default to software, automation, or project management. But a system is much more organic than that. And if we don’t allow for a system’s inherently organic nature, we miss out on really understanding that system in order to work with it, dance with it. Meadows explains that a mistake we so often make when we approach systems is that we see understanding the system as a way of predicting and controlling its output. She writes, “The goal of foreseeing the future exactly and preparing for it perfectly is unrealizable.” I get that that might be frustrating—especially as we see data and the ability to instantly connect with customers as modes for the ultimate in business predictability. It can also be a relief. If the goal of understanding systems isn’t to control them or predict their output but to dance with them and learn from them, we don’t have to be so hard on ourselves! And that brings me to Meadows first dance step—get the beat. The mistake I see business owners make with systems is that they try to impose systems on their businesses. They create or build systems for different areas of their businesses. But that negates the systems already at work in a business. And inevitably, trying to create a system instead of investigating a system, leads to frustration. Meadows writes, “Before you disturb the system in any way, watch how it behaves.” So let’s say you want to work on your marketing system. If you start with a blank page and start building something from scratch, you’re missing out on all of the data & feedback that already exists in your marketing system as it is now (whether you know it’s a system or not). If instead, you map out your existing marketing system, no matter how haphazard or messy, you can start to ask some really interesting questions about that system: * How did we get here?* How else could this work?* What might happen if we don’t make a change?* What are the long-term ripple effects of allowing this system to continue to play out... ★ Support this podcast ★

Personal strengths are like a photo filter. Imagine you’ve got a photo that’s… fine. You upload it to Instagram or VSCO or some fun photo editing app. And then you scroll through the filters until you find one that brings the picture to life. With the tap of a button, you can make the photo go from washed out colors to… black & white, or soft shades of peach and pink, or punchy shades of blues and greens. Your filter might up the contrast or even everything out a bit. Personal strengths can do the same thing for your business strategy, marketing tactics, or the way you deliver your offer. So what happens when we start to use personal strengths as a filter for business? First, it becomes much easier to make decisions about what steps to take next. The strengths filter makes it easier to see whether one path or another is going to work better for you. But second, your strengths filter can help you find creative ways to do some of those shoulds and supposed-tos that just feel so meh. What if you approach email marketing through the filter of relationship-building? That’s going to look pretty different than an email marketing strategy based on ideation or analysis. What if you create an online course but filter it through of teamwork? That’s going to look pretty different than an online course based on focus or competition. What if you prioritize networking but filter it through humor? That’s going to look different than networking based on discipline or strategy. And when you apply your strengths filter to come up with creative ways of reimagining these actions and systems, not only will they feel more natural to you, they’ll be more effective too. 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 (Nonprofit Video Lab), Dr. Nayla Bahri, Mytili Jagannathan, and Lisa Townsend on how they’ve leveraged their strengths. ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * Why writer Kris Windley decided to learn how to illustrate her articles* How doodling has helped her work with her ADHD* How she finds the idea or image she wants to illustrate for each piece* The metaphor she uses to think about skill-building I’ve become a bit obsessed with the concept of “sensemaking.” Really, I’ve been obsessed with it my whole life, I just didn’t have a name for it. Sensemaking is the process of taking sensory information and situational knowledge and creating a framework for meaning and decision-making. Okay, I know, that sounds kind of heady. But really, we do it all the time. Imagine you venture into the kitchen after a long day in your home office. The kitchen is torn apart. You see dishes stacked on the counter, cupboard doors open, and pantry items covering the table. You smell a slightly chemical citrus scent in the air. Your spouse isn’t there to ask what the heck is going on. Quickly, you deduce that they got the idea to deep clean the kitchen and had to step away for a bit. The job is almost finished but there’s still a ways to go and you’re hungry for dinner. You take the initiative to order pizza. That’s sensemaking. You went from “what the heck is going on here?” To “dinner is on its way” in less than 60 seconds. Anyhow, I’ve always got my eye out for a new way to make sense of the world. A framework, a script, a visualization, a map, a diagram… I love these tools. And I make good use of them in my own head. But my sensemaking tools don’t always make it out of my head. In the last year or so, I’ve really started to recognize that I have a unique strength for explaining how I make sense of things and that my frameworks are helpful for others, too. Score another for neurodivergence! That said, it’s taken some practice find my public sensemaking rhythm. The way I write and speak has evolved quite a bit in a short time—at least from my perspective. But the other thing that’s shifted for me is the ability to turn ideas into a visualizations and graphic representations. 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! ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * Why coach Reva Patwardhan counts her intrinsic sense of belonging as one of her top strengths* How “deep processing” allows her to work with high-achieving women in unexpected ways* How she’s learned to work with her ADHD instead of against it* What she’s discovered at the intersection of neurodivergence and being a woman of color I think a lot about belonging. In fact, “belonging” is an ongoing conversation between our community advocate, Shannon, and I. We talk about belonging because one of the biggest concerns that prospective Network members and new members have is whether they will belong. They ask if there are people like them in the community: people with a similar business model, people from the same industry, people who come from the same background they have. On one hand, these questions are easy to answer. Typically we can say, “Yes! There are people like you here.” But on the other hand, a sense of belonging isn’t just a factor of who you’re in proximity with. A sense of belonging isn’t situational. It’s intrinsic. And if through trauma, oppression, toxic relationships, injustice, or cruelty you’ve lost your sense of belonging, it doesn’t matter how much the people around you are like you. You can still feel separate and other. Belonging isn’t a switch you can turn on and off. At least not in my experience. One of the threads of that ongoing conversation that Shannon and I have about belonging is indeed about my experience—and about how her experience is pretty different. A couple of years ago, we reached the joint revelation that we have different default settings when it comes to belonging. When she walks in a room, she assumes she belongs. And in a uncommonly positive result of confirmation bias, she typically starts to confirm her belonging in all sorts of social and situational ways. When I walk in a room of people—which I try to avoid at all costs—I assume I don’t belong. I assume I’m missing the memo on something everyone else has known for all time. I feel cut off and I shut down. My own confirmation bias starts to pick out all the reasons why I do not belong in that room with those people. While that probably sounds pretty awful, and it is, I believe that it’s also caused me to build a strength in leadership. As a leader, I interact with a group in a different way. It’s understood that I am on the outside, not belonging in the same way to the group as others. And similarly, being on the outside, gives me a better perspective on the group and their challenges. So it works out pretty well. Sebene Selassie writes about a similar phenomenon in her extremely excellent book, You Belong. Sebene examines the benefits of living in the margins of society. She writes, “If we imagine each circle is made up of people who are facing inwards, the closer you are to the center, the less you see. Conversely, if you are in the outermost circles, you have the greatest perspective.” Are there real issues with being in the margins of society? Absolutely: lack of access to resources and lack of participation in decision-making chief among them. But operating on the outside gives us perspective we can use to do real good in the world. ★ Support this podcast ★

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 creating compelling content How do you operate in a world that’s not designed for you? How do you make sense of instructions that weren’t written for you? How do you navigate expectations that weren’t set with you in mind? These are big, personal questions and, thankfully, we’ve started taking a look at the answers at a cultural level and not just at the individual level. But until we see some serious change to a culture that privileges white, male, thin, neurotypical, heterosexual, cisgendered, hierarchal, and non-disabled ways of living, we’ve got some adapting to do. It’s easy to think that these adaptations are a constraint. A limitation of what’s possible. And honestly, sometimes they are. But often, these adaptations are leveraged as strengths. Truthfully, I didn’t think these questions belonged to me for a long time. I thought I’d been gifted with talent, intelligence, and at least a bit of charisma and that I really should be able to make it all work pretty easily. It wasn’t until I ran straight into a wall of burnout after college that I started to question whether that was really true. It’s been 16 years since I hit that wall. Since I sat on my professor’s couch and cried that I just didn’t know if grad school was the next step for me. Since my mom took the truck up to Syracuse to move down the furniture we’d already moved into my grad school apartment. And over those 16 years, I’ve tried to fix myself. I’ve tried to become the kind of person who operates in this world naturally, who follows the instructions to a T, and who easily meets and exceeds expectations. But last year, I got curious. As I talked about some of my own breakthroughs and personal successes in terms of learning to manage myself better and execute on ideas, I got gentle messages from folks urging me to be careful about not taking neurodivergent experiences into account in the way I explained what I was working with. At first, my reaction to these messages was the deep concern that comes along with inadvertently harming someone or making them feel like they don’t belong. But then, once I understood their own experiences better, I started to wonder: is my experience really that different than theirs? Or rather, do my experiences fit the norms as neatly as I’d like them to? I found myself wanting to reply that I appreciated their messages, truly, and this doesn’t come easily to me. It’s the hardest work I’ve done in my life. Over time, the evidence grew and grew. No, my experience didn’t fit the norms. It might be different than other people’s but my sense that I didn’t belong to the shoulds and supposed-tos of culture, relationships, productivity, or emotions became clear. At the same time, I was hearing even more women talk about themselves and their experiences in ways that felt haltingly familiar... ★ Support this podcast ★

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 ownership of their work Entrepreneurs have a reputation for having control issues. They also have a reputation for being real idea people. And what happens when you combine those two qualities? Well, it can be total chaos. Chaos can be building a system then immediately trying to quote-unquote improve it. Chaos can be hiring up a team but never really letting them do their jobs. Chaos can also be trying do 10 different things at once and juggle them all yourself. 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. ★ Support this podcast ★

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 one thing to get your business to a point that’s stable and sustainable. It’s another to make room for big projects like writing a book or building a new offer. And it’s yet another thing to carve out the space to work on a creative project that may or may not ever bring financial benefits. It’s those big projects—the business-related and the not-so-business-related—that so many business owners dream of being able to spend time on. Sometimes, we put them on our calendar—block out a week or even a long weekend—but then life happens. Some quote-unquote emergency bleeds into the time we’ve set aside. Other times, we dwell in the daydreaming. Pinterest boards are curated. Research is done. Ideas are floated past significant others or mastermind groups. But nothing material ever comes of it. While Tara will gladly tell you that I’m a huge fan of daydreaming, I also want to make at least some of those dreams real. Last week, when I talked with Jacquette Timmons about finding the perfect blend of your work days and weeks, I mentioned that one of the things in my particular blend is working on art throughout the days. I love that I’ve developed a working life that allows me to simultaneously kick butt & take names producing podcasts at the same time I’m exploring my passion for visual art. It’s taken commitment, experimentation, and a lot of work on business systems—not to mention some serious mindset work!—to get to that place. And that’s exactly what I wanted to talk with today’s guest about. 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! ★ Support this podcast ★

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 taking a break from hosting and handing the mic over to her husband & business partner, Sean McMullin: I have a confession, dear listener. I was once late to the start of a group coaching call because I was… taking a nap. Through some combination of oversight and calendar failure, I missed that I had a call that I needed to be on until Tara woke me up! So embarrassing. And while I’m committed to making sure that never happens again, I’m equally committed to continuing to take naps in the middle of the day. Taking a nap in the middle of the day is one thing I’ve done to find the right blend of work, rest, and recharging that works for me. It’s a small way that I take a break almost every day. At different times in my journey with YellowHouse.Media, I’ve been overwhelmed and overworked. It felt like there were never enough hours in the day or days in the week. And that is not okay with me. So I started to make changes. I changed the time I got started in the morning, I changed the project management tool we use, and I changed how I interacted with clients. Soon enough, I wasn’t just feeling less overwhelmed and overworked. I had time for a nap! I also had time to take breaks periodically throughout the day to work on my art. 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! ★ Support this podcast ★

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 before there’s a crisis is critical This month’s series is all about “taking a break”—so Tara is taking a break from hosting and handing the mic over to her husband, producer, and business partner, Sean McMullin. Take it away, Sean! I never want to do work I can’t walk away from. When Tara and I started YellowHouse.Media, it was really important to me that we set it up in such a way that—eventually—it could run itself. We had built this great life together. We could travel, explore, and pursue interests outside of work—and I was only going to be game for this whole entrepreneurship thing if it wouldn’t completely disrupt that life. We actually talked about our initial approach to building a business that could work without us in Episode 232. And later in September, we’ll talk again—this time with our production coordinator Lou Blaser—about our latest steps in making that happen. It’s taken some serious time and intention to get to the point where taking real time off or dramatically reducing hours for an extended time is possible. But here we are. Last week, we took our first trip of this Hot Vax Summer. And later this month, we’re driving out to Montana to enjoy a month in the mountains again. We’ll still be working but the business will largely be in maintenance mode. Which brings me to today’s topic. When Tara and I decided I’d take over for her this month and explore the topic of taking a break, I immediately knew the first person I wanted to talk to. My friend and YHM podcaster Susan Boles. Susan is the founder of ScaleSpark and the host of Break The Ceiling. She has an eye for efficiency, systems, and automation that makes her the perfect candidate for talking about how to put a business in maintenance mode. And, Susan, like many others, was forced to wrestling with the reality of building a business made for maintenance mode when the pandemic hit and schools closed. During our conversation, you’ll hear that story and why it’s so important to her to have a business that runs in maintenance mode. You’ll also hear how Susan can fall prey to shiny object syndrome and other distractions just like any other business owner, as well as how she’s combating self-sabotage and how she balances work as a creative outlet with taking breaks. Now, let’s find out what works for Susan Boles! ★ Support this podcast ★