What Works

In This Episode: * What Works founder Tara McMullin shares how she’s planning for 2021 at both What Works & YellowHouse.Media, as well as how she’s allocating her resources to better serve her teams* The 3 commitments she’s made to guide her personal and leadership choices throughout the year* The Strategic Priorities her companies are focusing on to move forward and what projects she’s working on to make it all happen!* Plus, Tara’s unconventional take on goal-setting & sticking with her plans Welcome to the first What Works episode of 2021! This episode is going to be a look behind the scenes of my two companies and how we’re planning for 2021, some of the choices we’re making, and what we’ll be looking for as the year progresses. Not only is this the kick-off episode for 2021, it’s the kick-off for our January series on “working the plan.” This month, I’m going to be sharing conversations about planning for parental leave, leveraging LinkedIn, and writing a book—all things that have taken intentional planning and execution! But before we get to those, I wanted to share not only how I’ll be working the plan this year but how the plan got made in the first place. I recorded this episode in mid-December 2020. And in that time, I’ve already discovered some things that are altering my plans. After all, the very act of working a plan means you’re gaining new information and even discovering new ideas. Planning is a learning process. It’s not about getting the plan right, it’s about finding a starting point and then learning from the result as you go. My plan is never set in stone. Adjusting my plan doesn’t mean I’ve failed or done something wrong. It means I’m learning. So I start with my best guess of what I want to do and then adapt from there as I gain new information and experiences. In this episode, I’ll share how I’m reallocating my resources this year to better serve my companies, what commitments I’ve made for the year, the Strategic Priorities we’re focused on, and what projects we’re kicking off the year with. Here’s what works for me when I’m working the plan! ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * How Modern Learners Chief Learning Office, Melissa Emler, grew to meet the challenge her business faced leading thousands of educators through adapting to online learning* Why she continues to work her day job—and how it serves her as a business owner and leader* The 3-part framework she used to lead her community through the frantic pace of change this year* Why she’s prioritizing difficult conversations about systemic oppression and racial injustice in education There’s a little cartoon that I’ve seen pop up again and again over the years. A caterpillar and a butterfly sit at a cafe table, each with glasses of wine. The caterpillar says, “You’ve changed.” And the butterfly replies, “We’re supposed to.” “You’ve changed” is often wielded as negative feedback. And sure, I guess there are times when people change for the worse. But more often, “you’ve changed” means something more like, “You’re not playing small like me anymore.” No matter how much you know you’re supposed to change, no matter how much you want to change and grow—leaving people and their expectations behind can hurt. But this is the process we’re called into as business owners over and over again. This week, we’re wrapping up our series on leading ourselves by taking a closer look at who we’re becoming—and how we’re changing—to lead ourselves into the future. If you haven’t heard the other episodes in this series, I highly recommend making to time to do so! The first episode was with Emily Thompson from Being Boss and Almanac Supply Co—and we talked about how she used a “full body yes” to make a big decision. The second episode was with coach & strategist Valerie Black about how she surfed the ebbs & flows this year as the pandemic rocked her business and her ego. Last week’s conversation was with Alethea Fitzpatrick about how she’s led herself & Co-Creating Inclusion, her DEI consultancy, by focusing what she can control and letting go of what she can’t. Today, we’re talking to Melissa Emler, who leads a community of educators & administrators over at Modern Learners. As you might guess from the name of her company, Missy has been through the wringer this year! The pandemic brought an intense urgency to the work she’s been doing and the change she’s been trying to create in education for years. Suddenly, schools all over the world knew they needed a new approach to learning. But that wasn’t the only thing creating twists & turns for Missy this year. In this conversation, you’ll hear how Missy balances leading her company with working in the “lab” of a day job, the 3-part framework she’s used to lead educators through big change, and how she created space for conversation about injustice and systemic racism in education. Plus, you’ll hear how Missy uses a key question about change and figuring out who we want to become to meet the moment to lead herself and others. Now, ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * How Co-Creating Inclusion founder Alethea Fitzpatrick navigated this year by focusing on what she could control and letting go of what she can’t* How she took care of herself during troubling times, all while her business was taking off* What operational adjustments she led the business through as they grew* How she’s planning for next year with more uncertainty and growth on the horizon It’s a bit cliche to say that entrepreneurs have control issues. I mean, our drive for control over our time, our work, our creative output—it’s one of the reasons many of us ended up starting our own businesses in the first place! Our control issues can have positive side effects. Needing to be in control can inspire you into resourcefulness, it can motivate you to learn new skills, it can help you find a sense of independence… …but control issues, ultimately, harm us and our companies. Our control issues can hurt the people we work with and can stifle our creativity. Trying to get or maintain control can hold our imaginations and wellbeing hostage. adrienne maree brown writes in *emergent strategy, “*Many of us respond to change with fear, or see it as a crisis. Some of us anticipate change with an almost titillating sense of stress. We spend precious time thinking about what has changed that we didn’t choose or can’t control, and/or thinking ahead to future stress.” Well, yes. That feels familiar. This week, we’re continuing our series on leading yourself with Alethea Fitzpatrick, the founder of Co-Creating Inclusion—a diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting practice. Alethea told me that her go-to practice for navigating the twists & turns of this year has been focusing on what she can control and letting go of what she can’t. As you might guess, Alethea’s consultancy has experienced massive growth this year—which has been its own challenge—while she also had to deal with pandemic life with 2 kids in New York City. I’ve watched Alethea navigate big emotions, uncertain outcomes, and limited capacity and her openness & grace in the midst of oppression and violence has been astounding. Now, let’s find out what works for Alethea Fitzpatrick. ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * How coach & strategist Valerie Black led herself through a year of ups & downs* The practices she uses to find her center and stay present—so she doesn’t end up “future-tripping”* What she did to hold boundaries around her work as clients started to come back* The question she’s asking to find direction for the next phase of her work I used to live in Astoria, Oregon. That’s where the mighty Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean—the northwest corner of the state and the home of the Tribes of the Chinookan people. Every day, I’d walk along the river several times and just watch the water flow. Because we were so close to the mouth, the river actually experienced considerable tides. Throughout the day, the height of the river might change anywhere from 6-10 feet. Not only did the level of the water change dramatically throughout the day, it would appear that the flow of the river reversed. When the tide was out, the river flowed as you would expect—toward the ocean. When the tide was coming in, it looked like the river flowed backwards toward Portland. It was wild. Of course, under the surface of the rising tide, the Columbia River continued its journey toward the Pacific. The river never actually changed course—just the water on the surface. Life and work can create a similar illusion. It can feel like half of the time we’re moving forward… …and half of the time we’re being pushed backwards by forces outside of our control. But under the surface, we’re still growing, adapting, emerging. We’re continuing our journey. When you’re building a business, you’ll inevitably experience ups and downs, ebbs and flows. When things are bad, it can feel like every success you’ve ever experienced is being washed away by failure. But, of course, the truth is that we’re always learning and moving forward. As we continue our series on leading yourself and examining the practices that small business owners used to navigate this wild year, I’m thrilled to introduce you to coach and founder of The Change Agency, Valerie Black. I met Valerie at this time last year and was immediately struck by her mix of gentleness and tenacity. She is both strategic and intuitive, open-hearted and strong-willed—not that any of those things are mutually exclusive, of course! Valerie has had a year of ebbs and flows, as she put it. And I wanted to capture her story and learn more about the self-care practices that saw her through this year. Now, let’s find out what works for Valerie Black! ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * How Emily Thompson, host of Being Boss & founder of Almanac Supply Co, led herself through a year with plenty of twists & turns* How she knew that taking over Being Boss on her own with the right decision for her & the vision she has* How she managed herself through turning an in-person event into an online one* The practice she uses to stay focused and present with her own experience* What she did at Almanac Supply Co to replace a revenue stream lost to lockdown Well, folks—we’ve made it. It’s the final month of 2020 and we’ve been through a lot this year. I can’t even pretend to know what the year was like for you. I don’t know if you felt incredibly lonely or never got a moment to yourself after March 17th (or both). I don’t know if you finally confronted your racist uncle or spent precious energy reminding people that your life does matter. I don’t know if your business cratered or skyrocketed. I don’t know if you lost a loved one or welcomed a new life into your family. But what I do know is that, if you’re reading this right now, you led yourself through it. You found a way to cope. You found the strength to keep going. You nurtured the resilience to grow and adapt. And you should be proud of that. I’ve had the great privilege of getting the inside scoop on how hundreds of small business owners navigated the endless twists and turns of this year. I’ve watched as they rise to the occasion over and over again inside The What Works Network. I’ve observed their new self-care practices. I’ve seen how they reimagine their brands. I’ve witnessed them wait it out. And I’ve seen how how they’ve grown. This month, I wanted to take a look back at how they’ve led themselves through this wild year. So I spoke to 4 small business owners who each had a very different experience this year. What they all have in common, though, is a fine-tuned sense of self-leadership. Sometimes that self-leadership took the form of intentional practices of self-care. Other times, it was finding the courage the make big decisions. And still other times, their self-leadership stared down challenges with intense creativity & imagination. My first guest in this series is Emily Thompson, host of Being Boss and founder of Almanac Supply Company. Emily had a big year—she separated from her long-time business partner Kathleen Shannon. She reimagined the Being Boss business model. She pivoted an in-person event to the online space. And, she got creative about how to replace a major revenue stream for Almanac. Emily and I talk about all of these moments and much more. We’ll get into the conversation in just a minute. But first, I want to invite you to join me for a different kind of annual review. It’s happening on Instagram—and every day this month, I’m sharing a different question you can use to look back on the year. So whether the year has been up, down, or lots of ups & downs, these questions will help you reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how you’ve grown. Today’s question is: what did you create this year? Follow along by finding me on Instagram – I’m

In This Episode: * How financial coach Keina Newell realized she had a mindset problem–plus all the ways she tried to make things work without working on her mindset* The personal practices she uses to notice her thoughts and create new ones* How her sales process and revenue has shifted since she started addressing her mindset–and the incredible financial results she’s been able to create* Why taking a more objective approach to noticing her thoughts has helped her keep her mind fresh and her options open Life teaches us a lot. Some of it is good and helpful—the skills that help us make our way in the world. And some of it… well, some of it ends up getting in our way. But we might not realize the friction that it’s causing or the opportunities that it’s blocking until things come to a head. Once you’ve discovered that there’s a problem with what you’ve already learned, what do you do? All this month, we’ve been talking about leveling up and learning new skills. But this week, we’re going to talk a bit about unlearning. Marga Biller, program director at the Harvard Learning Innovations Laboratory, defines unlearning like this: “Unlearning is learning to think, behave, or perceive differently, when there are already beliefs, behaviors, or assumptions in place (that get in the way), at either the individual or organizational level.” Often, we try to do or learn new things without addressing the beliefs, behaviors, and assumptions that we already have—even when those things are contradictory. For instance, it’s hard to speak up on social media and share your big message if you’ve learned through social conditioning or personal trauma that you can only be safe when you’re silent. It’s hard to ask for testimonials or write effectively about your offer if you’ve learned that humility is always playing down your achievements or ability. It’s hard to charge more for your services or products if you’ve learned that money is the root of all evil. Here’s what I’ve learned over the years: The job of entrepreneurship is so different and foreign to most of us that we don’t realize all the things we’ve learned that block our ability to do it effectively until we’re deep in it. Entrepreneurs have to unlearn trading time for money. They have to unlearn old management habits. They have to unlearn perfectionism. They often even have to unlearn old identities. Truly, the list could go on and on. But I won’t—I want to get to this week’s conversation because it’s a good one. This week, I’m talking with financial coach and the founder of Wealth Over Now, Keina Newell. Keina and I started this conversation with the frame that we were going to be talking about learning mindset skills. And we definitely talk about that. But after reflecting on this interview, I think what we talked about the most was unlearning many of the habits and patterns that she’d learned along the way. Keina and I talk about what she thought the problem was and how she tried to fix it before landing on learning and unlearning key mindset pieces, as well as the self-coaching system she used to final... ★ Support this podcast ★

Today, you’re going to hear from four small business owners who have learned to see things in a new way–to shift their perspective–and as a result show up differently for themselves and their businesses. I’ve got stories from writing coach Beth Barany, Work Brighter founder Brittany Berger, business finance coach Lauren Caselli, and speech language pathologist and life coach Melissa Page Deutsch. Each one has a very different story of how they learned something new and it shifted their perspective. Pay attention to how that new perspective helped them see both their challenges and their opportunities in new ways. What Works Is Brought To You By Mighty Networks powers brands and businesses – like yours! – that bring people together.With a Mighty Network, online business owners just like you can bring together in one place: * Your website* Your content* Your courses* Your community* Your events online and in real life* And charge for them…all while building YOUR brand. Visit mightynetworks.com to see more examples of brands bringing people together and taking their businesses to the next level. ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * Why Dana Kaye  and Felton Kizer came together to build a stock photography business–and the important mission behind the company* How the process of making things official helped them learn how to work with each other* The skills they’ve learned as they have developed the new business, as well as how they’ve leveraged their existing business-building skills to give it a jumpstart* Why they’re each playing the roles they are in the new business and how that’s guided the development of the business Starting a second—or third or fourth—business is a great test of your skills as an entrepreneur. On one hand, you’re reminded of all the things you learned getting the first venture or few off the ground. You can put those skills to use faster and avoid some of the hassle you went through when you did it before. On the other hand, there are inevitably new things to learn. You might need to pick up skills that come from using a different kind of business model. Or, you might need to learn some new software. Or, you might want to acquire some new marketing or sales skills to support the new company. Last year, I had to level up my own skills as the co-founder of my second company, YellowHouse.Media. YellowHouse.Media is the podcast production agency I run with my husband, Sean. Starting the new venture was a huge affirmation of skills that I already possessed. It was incredibly fun to design a business from scratch and see it come to fruition really fast—almost exactly how I had envisioned it. I even got to exercise skills around package design and pricing that I had learned but never put into practice. But there were also all kinds of new skills to learn, too. I needed to learn how to run the business model I had designed. I needed to develop new communication skills and new team-building skills. And I had to learn new software, too. Of course, the biggest learning curve was figuring out how to work with a business partner—and how to work with my husband.  We’re still figuring that one out. All this month on What Works, we’re talking about leveling up our skills and, this week, I’ve got the inside scoop on a brand new joint venture that friend of the pod Dana Kaye and her new business partner Felton Kizer put together. Knowing what I’ve learned about my own second company, not to mention working with a business partner, I knew this conversation would teach us a lot about the skills that go into building a new business. You might remember that Dana Kaye is the founder of Kaye Publicity, a PR firm for authors, as well as the host of the podcast, Branding Outside The Box. Felton Kizer is a photographer and the founder of Off-Kilter Media. Together, they’ve just launched Bouquet Stock Photography. They wanted to see more people of color, those in the LGBTQIA+ community, non-binary folks, ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * Why Christianne Squires created The Light House, a community for contemplative leaders, and how it differs from her first business, Bookwifery* How she uses discernment to explore potential decisions and choose what action to take* How the way she creates value has changed in her new community-based business model* What she’s done to hone her skills for community building and how she sees her role in the business now Different kinds of businesses require different skills. Okay, maybe that’s obvious—but hear me out. I’m not talking about the skills that you offer as a product or service. I’m talking about the skills that you use to actually build and operate the business itself. Learning how to run a wholesale product business is different than learning how to run a creative agency is different than learning how to run a training company is different than learning how to run a digital products business is different than learning how to run a software as a service business. There is plenty of overlap. There are plenty of foundational concepts and skills that are key to each of these different business models. But when it comes to the specific craft of building a particular type of company, that is its own unique skill set. This month, we’re taking a closer look at how entrepreneurs level up their skills to build more effective and profitable businesses. I’ve been reminded just how specific the skills required to build a certain business model can be at least twice in recent memory. Most recently, I’ve been learning the ins and outs of building a productized service business and creative agency model as we grow our podcast production company, YellowHouse.Media. I had to reacquaint myself with retainer pricing, writing proposals, and managing projects—as well as helping clients navigate the ups and downs of birthing something as big as a podcast. A few years ago, though, I pivoted my coaching and training company into a community-based business. I’ve spent the last few years unlearning the expert marketing and product development model my business was originally based on and learning a new skill set around subscription pricing, retention, and community building. It’s been a ride! I had to rethink how we create value (and what that value even is). I had to take a fresh approach to how we market and sell. And I had to reconsider what leadership looks like in a peer-to-peer support community. This year—both as predicted and rushed along by the pandemic—has seen a wave of new community-based businesses. And lots of people are learning just how different this skill set is! I wanted to talk with someone else who has experienced this shift first hand and I was thrilled when Christianne Squires agreed to share her story. Christianne is the founder of The Light House and, formerly, Bookwifery. You’re going to hear all about these two businesses—and what makes them different from each other over the course of this conversation. You’ll also hear how Christianne has been nurturing her skills as a community builder and how that’s pushed her rethink how she creates value, ★ Support this podcast ★

In This Episode: * How writer Kris Windley learned illustration skills to level up the way she communicates* The process she uses to figure out what she’s going to draw and how it’s going to enhance her writing* The 3 ways she coaches herself through the hard parts in learning a new skill* Where she draws motivation from to continue to learn new things and level up her skills The very first online course I ever created taught students how to build a WordPress website. I created the course about 10 years ago before drag & drop page builders were the norm and before premium themes were easily customized. Back then, building a website was a special kind of skill. If you wanted something custom, you had to know some HTML and some CSS and you had to know where to put it to make it do the things you wanted to do. The first time I taught the class, the sheer newness of what was involved hit the students like a tsunami. They felt in over their heads and they were quickly drowning among the flotsam & jetsam of page templates and child themes and stylesheets. I felt horrible. I wanted to teach them this new skill so badly. I wanted them to feel powerful and in control of their online presences. But instead, I felt like I had resigned them to the horrible fate of feeling confused and overwhelmed by something that seemed so central to building their businesses. We worked through it… but I knew I didn’t want a repeat of that. So the next time I taught the class, instead of diving into the first lesson, I shared a video with them where I explained what was going to happen—not in the class itself, but in their minds. I asked them to remember back to the last time they were learning something brand new—something that they had no point of reference for. I asked them to remember that it was hard at first but, little by little, it started to make sense and they were able to apply what they were learning. After I set this expectation, it was a little easier for everyone. There were still plenty of questions and problems learning the material—but there were far fewer freakouts and panic attacks! Not only were my students learning to build their websites, I was learning a valuable lesson about what it takes to learn a new, foreign skill as an adult. This month, we’re exploring how we level up by learning new skills. We all bring a unique skill set to our businesses. Some of us bring the skills we learned in school or corporate careers that transfer directly into the work we’re doing today. Others bring certifications and licenses from careers that no longer serve us. Some of us bring skills from our hobbies, personal adventures, or relationships. Others bring skills they had no idea would be useful but have been invaluable to their growth. The way we leverage our existing skills and learn new ones helps us to creatively solve business problems, invest ourselves in future outcomes, and differentiate our brands. Over the course of this month, we’ll hear from a number of small business owners who have spent time and energy on learning a new skill so they could level up some aspect of their businesses—or, in one case, start a new one. You’ll hear from Christianne Squires who committed to leveling up her community-building skills so she could serve her people in a new way. ★ Support this podcast ★