What Works

The Nitty-Gritty: * How Co-Creating Inclusion founder Alethea Fitzpatrick took a long & winding road to creating her new company* Why embracing uncertainty has helped her stay flexible while building her business* The many pivots she’s made from architecture to photography to operations management to diversity consulting* Why respecting her Zone Of Genius has kept her from getting caught up in expectations Starting a business is a risk. Running a business is a risk. Growing a business is a risk. Ostensibly, we’ve all signed on for this risky life as an entrepreneur. But, we often find ourselves searching for certainty and hunting for the “sure thing.” We do it every time we think another $2000 course is going to answer all our questions about building a successful business. We do it every time we wait a few more months to launch a new offer into the world. We do it every time we avoid reinforcing a boundary because it might upset a client. In our last episode, Episode 241 with Charlie Gilkey, we talked about how striving for certainty keeps us stuck. When we aim to choose the “sure thing,” we hesitate, procrastinate, and avoid. Charlie advocated for building our courage by finding all the moments in the day when we can choose the option that has room for growth, for vulnerability, for risk… and yes, for uncertainty. I was reminded of that idea during my conversation with today’s guest, Alethea Fitzpatrick. Alethea is the founder of Co-Creating Inclusion, a diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm with a mission to shift culture and drive equity through workshop facilitation, leadership development, and business integration. But Alethea has also been the founder of a host of other ventures! To continue our focus on resilience and entrepreneurship, I wanted to talk with Alethea about the long and winding journey she’s taken to get to where she is now. Because where she is now is authentic, organic growth and a whole new level of success doing work that is incredibly important to her (and to the world). We’ll get to how she’s achieved that in a minute—but first… …let’s take another look at how having the courage to tolerate uncertainty, to even embrace uncertainty, can work in a business. Later in the conversation, Alethea shares that she’s chosen clarity of her Why and her What but she’s remaining open to how it’ll all come together. She’s choosing to be strategic about designing a container that’s flexible enough to hold different outcomes. I think this is a beautiful example of what Charlie was talking about in our last episode—but it also seems to be the secret sauce for how Alethea has gotten where she is right now. She has always followed clarity while allowing for openness and uncertainty so that she could grow into the direction of her goals. Keep that in mind as Alethea and I talk about the journey she’s taken to get to where she is now. Alethea and I also talk about the businesses and jobs that predate Co-Creating Inclusion, the moment she realized there was a new opportunity presenting itself, how the transition into consulting felt, and how her Zone of Genius keeps her from getting caug... ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty-Gritty: * Start Finishing author Charlie Gilkey explains the relationship between resilience and finishing the projects and plans we start* Why tensions like mastery versus growth, structure versus novelty, and serving ourselves versus serving others make it harder to reach our goals* How vulnerability and little “c” courage can help us achieve bigger, more meaningful results* What Charlie coaches his clients through when they fail to reach an important outcome We all procrastinate, avoid, and hesitate from time to time. If you’ve ever stared at an empty email trying to figure out the exact right thing to say… If you’ve ever avoided a networking event because you weren’t sure how everyone else was going to be dressed or whether you’d feel like you belonged there… If you’ve ever hesitated to share your thoughts in a comment because you didn’t know how you’d be received… Well, you and I have a lot in common. Maybe your list isn’t the same as mine. Maybe there are other variables or scenarios that send your mind swirling. Regardless, life is full of those moments when we procrastinate, avoid, and hesitate because we’re not exactly sure what will come next. Business is full of those moments, too. Today, I invited my dear friend Charlie Gilkey back on the show to talk about the subject of his new book, Start Finishing: How To Go From Idea To Done. It’s perfect for this month we’re spending on resilience. You see, Start Finishing, sounds like a book on productivity—and it is. But it’s the kind of productivity book that only a philosopher could write. And this is the kind of interview on productivity, decision-making, planning, and doing your best work that only a philosopher could give. If you don’t know Charlie already, let me give you a bit of background. Charlie is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Nebraska. He was a logistics officer in the Army National Guard and was deployed in Iraq. He’s now the co-founder & CEO of Productive Flourishing, which helps people build better businesses through strategic planning, system development, self-mastery, and personal effectiveness. I wanted to find out what resilience has to do with the way we do—or do not—complete the projects that we start and the goals we half-heartedly commit to. My conversation with Charlie certainly provided some answers to that question—and a whole lot more. One of my biggest takeaways from talking to Charlie was the divide between certainty and uncertainty… …and how our quest for certainty keeps us stuck. I’ve been paying much closer attention to the moments when I can make a choice where the outcome is uncertain but the upside is big. It’s helped me lean into vulnerability, find my true commitments, and achieve some pretty amazing results in a very short period of time. Charlie and I also talk about the tension between mastery and growth, why we love structure but still crave novelty, how we let conflicting patterns mess with our ability to create results, and why achieving success isn’t just a matter of intelligence or information. Now, let’s find out what works for Charlie Gilkey. ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty-Gritty: * How What Works founder Tara McMullin realized that business had gone off track* Why she chose to pivot to a building community-oriented business support network instead of offering coaching or online courses* What mistakes she made along the way and how she changed course to correct them* Why “steadfast commitment” is her barometer right now I turned 37 last month. I certainly don’t get worked up about getting older nor am I one for big birthday celebrations or rituals. But this year, it really hit me just how much growing up I’d done in the last 12 months. I’ve done a lot of work on myself. And that’s led to a lot of very practical work being done to the business, too. I’ve examined old stories that were still controlling my thoughts and actions. I’ve looked at the shadow side of my strengths. I’ve questioned myself, my motivations, and my goals to make sure I’m blazing my own trail and not chasing someone else’s idea of success. And, like I said, this wasn’t just personal work—if there’s any “just” about that. All of the personal work I’ve done has led to some very real changes in how I run my business and how I operate as a leader. Over the last year, I’ve worked to slow down and loop my team into ideas I have or changes I want to make. I’ve integrated my work into the systems that our team uses. I’ve gone deep into the way our core product is built and delivered to question why we do what we do and how our product could serve our customers better. I’ve worked to make this podcast best in class. Looking back on all the work I’ve done over the last year, I have to admit… I am pretty damn proud of myself. So I asked myself what exactly I learned through all that work—and how I could leverage it to keep the momentum going. I looked at all the ways the work I did over the last year left me feeling more fulfilled, more fully realized—and I realized that it all had one thing in common. When I committed—truly, fully committed—I not only got satisfying results, I felt freaking great about the process of getting those results. When I did something just because I could—or I thought I should—I might succeed but it didn’t make me feel awesome. I ended up feeling more anxious, self-conscious, or just plain bored. Okay, commitment. I can do that. And yes, again—this applies to both my personal life and my business life. It applies to my mindset and to the practical, hands-on work I do on a daily basis. So on my birthday, I decided that the question that would shape this next year in my life would be: “What am I willing to make a steadfast commitment to?” And to answer that question, I would ask myself what does steadfast commitment actually look like? What does steadfast commitment to a race look like? What does steadfast commitment to an offer look like? What does steadfast commitment to this podcast look like? What does steadfast commitment to my relationship look like? Truthfully, these questions didn’t appear out of thin air. It’s actually something that’s been percolating for quite some time. So much of my life and business to this point has been guided by impulse... ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty-Gritty: * How Debra Giunta’s vision for Design Dance led her to make specific hiring decisions as the company grew in scale* Why she waited 6 years to hire herself on full-time* How her dance program and curriculum adapts depending on the school she’s partnering with* What she looks for in the people she hires—and how that’s evolved over time I’m pretty sure I took myself to Starbucks for an iced latte with the first 10 bucks I made with my business. From there, everything I earned went into the family kitty. I started my business with a vision of paying myself… and not much else. Many years later, this is the #1 thing I regret from those early business years. Had I spent more time considering where I was going and how I could reinvest in my business to get there faster, I think I’d be in a very different place right now. That said, I don’t beat myself up about it. I did the best I could with the information I had at the time. Today, I do things very differently. I invest in my team. I invest in professional tools. I invest in our growth. And, as I’m starting a second company, I’m reexamining how I do those things with a fresh mind. By the way, if you missed the 411 on my new company, Yellow House Media, you can catch up by listening to Episode 232. A huge part of what we do here at What Works—and inside The What Works Network—is purposefully expose you to business owners who have taken a different path. I want to equip you with more information, options, and experiences than I had all those years ago. That’s what this whole Scaling Up series has been about. Today’s conversation is the last in our series on Scaling Up. We’ve covered a lot of territory —everything from starting with scale in mind, to intentionally not scaling, to leveraging your special sauce, to building certification programs, and more. But today’s conversation gives us a crash course in how all these things can fit together and it tackles another common dilemma business owners with scale on the brain face. Is your first priority paying yourself? Or is your top priority paying someone else? 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. We’ll find out What Works for Debra Giunta in just a minute—but first, I have a favor to ask you. ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty-Gritty: * Why The Ops Authority founder Natalie Gingrich opted for scale using a certification program instead of building out an agency* What she created first on the way to developing her certification program* How she determined what the certification program would include and how it would be structured* What she’s tackling next to continue to create value and build capacity for her company What you do doesn’t have to be magic. One of my all-time favorite quotes is Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I love this idea because not only does it apply to the iPhone in my pocket or the car that plays music from that phone as soon as I turn the key. But it also applies to the work we do on a daily basis. I’ve heard from so many small business owners over the years that what they do for their clients can feel like magic. Maybe you feel that way too. You don’t know exactly how it happens… but you get on Zoom with a client and magic happens. You start writing sales copy for a client… and magic happens. You get on a stage… and magic happens.You start painting or designing… and magic happens. Now, I don’t—in any way—want to discount the feeling that comes along with making that kind of magic happen. But… what I do want to do is point you to the underlying technology that makes it happen. “Technology” in this case isn’t code or wires or processing units. It’s a system. We all have them. And, even when something feels like magic, there is a technology—a system—that is making it all happen. So let me remind you of Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The reason your work feels like magic is because it’s really advanced technology! And, listener, do you know what else that means? It’s super valuable. This month, we’re talking about scale and, as you might have already guessed, the advanced technology behind the magic you make on a daily basis could be the key to scaling your business. So far, we’ve explored this in the form of your “special sauce.” But really, special sauce is just another way of talking about advanced technology! In Episode 236, Carol Cox shared how she’s using her advanced technology to train other speech coaches to work for her. In Episode 237, Katey Schultz shared how focusing on her advanced technology allowed her to expand the capacity of her monthly mentorship program. Today, we’re going to look at another way of scaling up based on your advanced technology—certification programs. My guest is Natalie Gingrich, the founder of The Ops Authority. After spending 15 years in corporate at a Fortune 150 company, she dove into entrepreneurship leveraging her project management and HR experience to assist high-level influencers in the online and small business worlds. What she discovered along the way was that there was a ton of super capable women whose skill sets were not leveraged and whose natural tendency toward leadership wasn’... ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty-Gritty * How writing mentor Katey Schultz knew she wanted to scale up her Monthly Mentorship program* What she did first to scale… and why it wasn’t enough to meet her goals or her personal needs* Why some big mindset shifts were key to seeing the real opportunity—and how a moment of deep fatigue opened the door to an important aha moment* How Katey settled on a format for serving many more writers in much less time Scaling up often requires zoning in. What I mean is that, most of the time, a business doesn’t actually scale up the whole of what can do. It scales up one small piece of the puzzle. The result might be focusing on a particular outcome you can create for clients. It might be focusing on a particular aspect of your methodology. It might be creating leverage from a particular component of the brand. It might even be a particular feature or component of your value proposition. And, quite often, businesses choose the wrong thing to focus on. A business that’s not operating at scale can be good at many things. But which one of those many good things will be the key to scaling up? It’s easy to see how the wrong choice gets made. My guest today had a business that resembles so many: one that required her constant input, expertise, and care just to stay afloat. While she felt like it was already a success in many ways, Katey Schultz (get Katey’s free guide to using flash storytelling to power your content marketing) realized that her business wasn’t really meeting her needs. She wanted more of a challenge. She wanted more time. She wanted more money. So Katey started to look at how to scale her offer, a monthly mentorship for writers. This conversation is the story of her journey to do that. We talk through the mindset shifts she needed to make, the experiments she ran, and the aha! moment that made her realize she’d scaled the wrong thing. Now, let’s find out what works for Katey Schultz! A good story, in about one page or less, is a powerful and genuine way to sell things. Katey is offering What Works listeners a guide on how to do just that. Get the free PDf here! 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 ★

The Nitty-Gritty: * How Speaking Your Brand founder Carol Cox realized she was at capacity and hungry for more* Why she chose to hire & train another speech coach instead of moving into online courses* The mindset work she needed to do to prepare herself for the transition into scale* How she found her first hire and got her started with clients When it comes to small business, there are plenty of special snowflakes out there. And before I inadvertently offend you, let me explain what I mean. A special snowflake business is one that’s focused on the unique talents of the owner. It’s the “only you can do what you do” mantra so many fluffy business classes preach. When you have a special snowflake business, customers buy to get a piece of you. They want what you can do for them. Look, some people genuinely like it that way. Cool. But special snowflake businesses don’t scale. Oprah is truly special—but she didn’t create a culture-shifting television show, her own entertainment network, and O Magazine by being a special snowflake. Oprah figured out her special sauce and channeled that into all sorts of ventures that grew the capacity of her work & impact beyond her own personal capacity. Working out the recipe to your own special sauce is a key to crafting a company that scales. When many small business owners start thinking about growth, they think about all the tasks they don’t like to do and outsource them. The dream is to be left with only the task of making the product or delivering the service that you love. Regardless of whether you ever reach the point of living that dream, eventually, you’re at capacity and stuck at a ceiling—again. If you want to really scale, you have to be willing to train other people to create value for you (and for your customers). You need to get others in on the game of making the product or delivering the service. That’s the plan Carol Cox devised. Carol is the founder of Speaking Your Brand, a speech coaching agency that helps women entrepreneurs and executives craft their signature talks. I wanted to ask Carol how she worked out the recipe to her own special sauce so she could start training the first speech coach she brought on board. Carol and I talk about the time and energy she put into working with clients 1:1, paying attention to exactly how she worked her magic. We also chat about how she knew it was time to hire, what have been her biggest fears throughout the process, and how her mindset about the business she’s building has shifted. Now, let’s find out what works for Carol Cox! ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty-Gritty: * How ScaleSpark founder Susan Boles uses software to solve capacity problems for her clients and help them scale up* Why she starts with a software audit before making any changes—and how you can too* What she looks for when considering what software options to go with* The first step to getting started with new software (it’s not what you’d expect!) When I first got serious about building a team and documenting our business systems… …I signed up for Asana. If you’re not familiar, Asana is a project management system that tons of people were raving about at the time. They claimed how organized it made them. they said how wonderful it was to have a checklist of everything that needed done in front of them. They loved being able to assign deadlines and delegate tasks. That all sounded marvelous. But my experience of Asana was… not so great. No matter how hard I tried to “be good”—check off all the boxes, stick to my deadlines, and process my tasks, I’d end up falling behind and ignoring the whole system. My team could use Asana. But I couldn’t. And I felt like a bad business owner. I felt like I wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t disciplined enough, like I just couldn’t hack it. Dramatic? Maybe but it seemed like Asana was what worked for everyone I respected and I just couldn’t seem to get on board. Late last year, Marie Poulin—who you just heard from in Episode 234—shared that she’d switched her project management (and practically everything else) over to an app called Notion. It turned out that Notion (why yes, that’s our referral link) allowed for way more than checking things off a list and organizing tasks by project. It was purposefully non-linear, adaptable, and infinitely customizable. I was intrigued. We took a look… and we were hooked. Now, it’s no surprise that my team can use Notion. They’re a bunch of a project management badasses. But the fact that I can use it? Well, that was a surprise. What Notion has made me realize is that software doesn’t just work on its own. It works with you—or it doesn’t work. Asana is great. But it’s not great for me. It doesn’t help me scale my capacity. It doesn’t help me do my job. Notion works with me. It let’s me think the way I want to think. It helps me do my job and increase my capacity for doing my best work. Notion reminded me that I am organized, disciplined, and committed to growing my company. And no piece of software can take that away from me again. Now, my guest today is no stranger to the way software can either help or hurt a business. Susan Boles is the founder of ScaleSpark, a consulting firm that helps companies break through growth ceilings by fixing back-end processes and creating systems designed to scale. ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty-Gritty: * Why a cocktail party conversation prompted Marie Poulin to confront the assumption that scaling your business is the ultimate goal* How Oki Doki’s hybrid business model works—and why it’s the perfect approach for Marie and her partner, Ben* How Marie’s personal priorities and ideal lifestyle are helping to shape her business decisions* Why she’s looking for a sense of equilibrium between the energy she puts into the business and the energy she receives from it To scale or not to scale—that’s really not the question. At least, it’s not the first question you need to ask about the direction you want to take your business. As we mentioned in Episode 232, Sean and I are choosing to prepare our new company for scale is because it will help us live the lifestyle we want to live and do the kinds of work we want to do. Callie Willows mentioned in our last episode that one of the reasons the Member Site Academy works so well for The Membership Guys is that it supports the lifestyle her and her partner want. Coaching and consulting just wouldn’t. She also talked about how building a membership site has allowed her to thrive as an introvert. So maybe the real questions are: What kind of life do you want to lead? What kind of work lights you up, allows you to thrive? Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the hype or anti-hype around scaling and miss those questions. Today, my guest is Marie Poulin—our first 3 time guest here on the pod! Marie is not someone to miss the important questions. Her and her husband Ben are building Oki Doki with the life and work they want to lead top of mind. That choice has brought them face to face with some scrutiny from people with a scale-or-die mindset. Marie recently wrote a lengthy article about her choice not to scale—or, not to scale in any conventional way—so, of course, I wanted to bring her on the show while we’re covering scale to talk about it! Marie and I chat about the hybrid business model Oki Doki has developed, the cocktail party conversation that shook her up, how she approaches finding a equilibrium with her energy, and how her focus on profitability has paid off. Now, let’s find out what works for Marie Poulin! 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 ★

The Nitty-Gritty: * Why Callie Willows and her partner decided to go “all in” on a membership site as their only offer* How she stays on up to date with the content and conversation inside the community* Why member experience is their top priority and retention is their top metric* What makes a membership site perfect for her own unique kind of introversion Okay, who wouldn’t want to be paid month after month for the same product? That’s the promise of a membership site. You set it up, convince people to join you, and they pay—and pay again, and again, and again, and again. You tend to the group and the money just keeps coming. Now, if you’ve already guessed that this is—in fact—not the reality of building and running a membership site, you would be correct. Creating any kind of subscription-based product has the potential for a huge payoff with healthy profit margins. But actually building the business that allows that to happen is a different story. Building a subscription-based product is one key way small businesses can scale up. But they can require a significant trade-off in at the beginning. It takes time, energy, infrastructure, and savvy marketing to get to a point where the business is healthy and profitable. I know this from personal experience. So does Callie Willows, the co-founder of The Membership Guys. Callie runs Member Site Academy, a leading training resource and community for membership site owners. Callie and I talk about why The Membership Guys chose to focus on just one offer, the mindset shifts she’s had to make running a membership site, the operations that go into keeping members happy, and how running a membership site is a great fit for her as an introvert. Now, let’s find out What Works for Callie Willows! 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 ★