Engineering Calmer Agencies & Consulting Firms: Calm is the New KPI

Break the Ceiling is now Beyond Margins. I’m excited to bring back the show and introduce you to people thinking about operations, finance, and business-building with calm as their top KPI. Do you know someone who could use a little more calm in their business? Someone who wants to think beyond margins? Share the show with them! And make sure you follow or subscribe in your favorite podcast app.***Honestly, I don’t really want to 10x my business. There. I said it. I want interesting work, enough revenue to be comfortable, and 10x the time spent riding my bike or paddling in my kayak. Maybe that’s how you feel, too. When you set out to build your business, I bet you wanted to build something you loved that made you money, supported your family, created great jobs for other folks, and gave you freedom and flexibility. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy… but this?!You've worked weekends, early mornings, and late nights around your kids' soccer practices, and you've been exhausted and overworked. You've worn all the hats and done all the jobs. Maybe you’ve been through burnout or burnt it all down (maybe more than once). Now you just want a business that works for you, that feels fun, comfortable, and calm.. Your goals are similar to mine: you want to take Fridays off, chaperone your kids' field trips, or hang out in the sunshine on a Tuesday afternoon, but still know that the work you’re doing matters. For all the talk of entrepreneurship leading to more freedom and flexibility, you and I know those things don’t just happen.But we all want to be financially secure, to build something meaningful and important, to make the right decisions, the smart decisions. And when things aren’t going all that well, or there are just a million decisions to make, or we don’t really know what to do next, you make the choices you see others making.I call these default decisions.These are choices we make in our business, based on what everyone else is doing, without really ever thinking about them or whether they're the right choice for you and your business. Default decisions sound like "best practices," or "what's working right now," or "my step-by-step method to X."The defaults are hard to escape. They're caused by something deeper - this culture that you probably started your business heavily influenced by, even if you wish you weren't - productivity and achievement culture.That's where it's about outlasting, out-hustling, growth = success, profit doesn't matter, reinvesting in the business, growth, growth, growth, 10x everything.And by following these default decisions, you can build a business that is technically "correct" by all external definition. But those default decisions end up anchoring you to a business that's only focused on your sales, your output, your efficiency, your productivity - because, well, that's the default.Default decisions are based on assumptions—that your idea of success is a permanent island getaway or a Lamborghini in the driveway, or maybe that “doing more” or “crushing it” is the key to overcoming any challenge.Those assumptions can lead you astray when they are absolutely not the things you want from your business. Remember, calm? Fun? Comfortable?Relying on default decisions might boost your bank account for a month or juice your social media following, but they won’t get you the calm, comfy business you crave.Here’s what I’ve learned over 15 years of building my own companies and acting as CFO for others:Your company is going to end up being whatever your top priority is. If your top priority—is growth - the default? Well, your company will end up focusing on growth — potentially at the expense of your profit margins, your team's well-being, and sometimes even your ethics. If you want to build something different, you have to solve for something different. Instead of solving for growth, what if you solved for calm? You can’t build a calmer business unless you design it that way. It has to be built into your business's DNA. It has to be your overriding priority, the thing that you’re solving for, the touchpoint you’re always coming back to. To build a calmer business, you need to make calm your new KPI. I’m your host, Susan Boles, and this is Beyond Margins – the show where we geek out about how to build a calmer business with comfortable margins. I’m a speaker, podcaster, and consultant with more than 15 years of experience as both a CFO and COO in a variety of industries. I’ve worked with major universities, small retail shops, and software companies, just to name a few, and now I focus on working with agencies, consultants, and creatives.  Each episode, we’ll explore: Financial strategies that help you build towards something calmerNew ways to think about your operations to build more comfortable margins Team management and leadership strategies to help you support your team’s wellbeingCountering default decisions and unpacking productivity & achievement cultureBuilding more margin into your business – not just profit margins, but capacity margins, energetic margins, and emotional margins. You’ll walk away from each episode thinking more deeply about your decisions - and some strategies to help you build more margin and calm into your business.Join me as I explore what it looks like when you make calm your new KPI.

I wanted to give you an update on what's going on with Break the Ceiling. Over the last two years, I've released almost a hundred episodes of Break the Ceiling. I've put out so many episodes that I'm really proud of, and I've talked to a ton of really amazing business owners. Thank you so much for listening and hanging out here with me, geeking out on the backend of running a business.I wanted to let you know that we're going on hiatus, so we won't be releasing any new episodes for a while. I want to take some time to think about how I want the show to evolve, and I'd like to reimagine it a bit. So I'm taking a break from recording and releasing episodes here so that I can take this space.And to be honest, it's been a heck of a year and a half for me and I need a little bit of a break.Stay tuned to this feed and hit subscribe if you're not already a subscriber so you don't miss it when we come back with a new updated and improved show. We have some really exciting things planned, both for the podcast and for the business.In the meantime, there's almost a hundred episodes in the feed so definitely catch up on the ones you’ve missed. I'd love to connect with you and hear what you'd like to see for the show going forward and I'm looking forward to being back in your podcast feed and your ears soon.Learn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @theSusanBolesLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

Boundaries are all about setting guidelines for how you work.From your very first interaction with a client or a prospect, you're giving them hints about how you work or even explicitly setting expectations for how you'll work together.So if you take four days to respond to their request for information, they might have the impression that you're a little slow. React immediately, and they'll think you're always available.What choices we make about where our boundaries are–or aren't–can have a huge effect on our overall capacity and how much time it takes to actually serve each client.Boundaries can be a really powerful tool when we're talking about streamlining or increasing your operational capacity.Today we're going to dig into them with my guest, Brittany Berger. She's the founder of Work Brighter, which is a digital media company that helps productive unicorns go beyond working smarter to a version of productivity that makes room for “unproductive” things like rest, self-care, and fun.She started Work Brighter after five years running content marketing in really high-stress startups that prioritized hustle, growth, and scaling over self-care and mental health. Now that she's changed her own mindset, she spends her time helping other high achievers find balance for themselves and advocating for mental health awareness.Let's just say her boundary game is strong.Listen to the full episode to hear:How Brittany uses boundaries as guardrails for habits and routines that protect her mental and physical healthHow adding a little extra friction around things like email and social media can help reinforce your boundaries and keep you from breaking them yourselfWhy building boundaries to manage your energy rather than pushing through leads to sustainable productivityHow Brittany has redefined success in a way that respects her health and wellbeing and not just the bottom lineLearn more about Brittany:BrittanyBerger.comWork Brighter@workbrighter on Instagram@thatbberg on TwitterThe Slackification of the Family Home–The Atlantic MagazineLearn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

You are not your business.Your business is something you are creating, which means you have a relationship with it.Like any relationship that we are in, the relationship that we have with our business can be complex and takes understanding, consideration, and work. And as with our personal relationships, the ones that we have with our businesses are shaped by our past experiences, for better or worse.We might have been told that we’re supposed to leave our baggage at the door when we come into work–we might even think we succeed–but that’s not how humans work. And when we ignore how our pasts affect our present, we set ourselves up to repeat unhealthy relationship patterns everywhere in our lives.In today’s episode, we’ll talk about how your foundational experiences might show up in your business and create limitations to your growth, especially when it comes to perfectionism and control.Nicole Lewis-Keeber is a business therapist and mindset coach who works with entrepreneurs to create and nurture healthy relationships with their businesses. She's a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Masters in Social Work and she writes and speaks about the impact of small-t trauma on businesses. Her biggest, most important work is in combining therapeutic processes with business coaching to help entrepreneurs build emotionally sustainable and financially stable businesses.Listen to the full episode to hear:How your business is not you, but a thing you’re in relationship withHow control relates to trust and its impacts on your ability to lead and growHow perfectionism is a safety mechanism and tools to help you begin to lower that shieldWhy when you’ve tried all the systems and none of them worked, it’s probably not the systemsLearn more about Nicole:Trauma and Its Impact on Business - Free CourseNicole Lewis-Keeber CoachingInstagram: @nicole.lewiskeeberFacebook: Nicole Lewis-Keeber CoachingLearn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

When was the last time you crossed off everything on your to-do list? Have you ever? Does even glancing at it make you feel overwhelmed and maybe a little bad about yourself?Hustle culture tells us that working 24/7, 365 will bring us success, that we have to grind it out to gain ground.But not only is that not realistic for real people with families and friends and lives we want to live, it’s not even true.There’s a ton of research out there that says resting actually increases your productivity, your effectiveness, your problem-solving skills and your creativity.We need rest to do our best work and to be able to bring our best selves to our businesses.But those to-do list items still need to get crossed off. How do you create the space for rest? For your family and friends and for your best work?There's no shortage of “helpful information” out there about personal and business productivity.We all know those blog posts about some millionaire’s morning routine or the latest hack or a new software tool that will magically solve all of your problems with getting things done. But those so rarely work for the average person, let alone if you’re adding neurodivergence, chronic illness or disability to the mix.So what do you do? How do you tackle the overwhelm and miles-long to-do list?Tanya Dalton says the key is to get crystal clear on your priorities and then use that as a filter for everything else.Tanya is a productivity expert, speaker, and best-selling author of the Joy of Missing Out. She serves as a growth strategist for female leaders and hosts the Intentional Advantage Podcast. Tonya is also the founder and CEO of inkWELL Press Productivity Co., which provides tools that work as a catalyst to help women do less while achieving maximum success.Listen to the full episode to hear:How getting clear on your mission, vision and core values and leading from them creates a priorities filterFive questions to ask yourself when you’re prioritizing a taskHow to create a priority list, or a “to-do list with intention”Why implementing priority systems at home too creates space for rest and empowers everyone in your householdWhy a perfectly even work-life balance is not only unachievable, but undesirable, and a new way to think about balanceLearn more about Tanya:TanyaDalton.cominkWELL Press Productivity Co.the Intentional Advantage PodcastThe Joy of Missing Out BookFacebook: @Tanya.i.DaltonInstagram: @Tanya.i.DaltonLearn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

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 businessWhy 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 itWhy maintenance mode isn’t about finding the perfect system but stacking systems that are good enoughSteps to start looking for what you can automate, delegate, or make more efficient in what you do every dayLearn more about Sean:Yellow House MediaLearn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

Sometimes the challenges to consistency come from self-sabotage, things like distraction, boredom, imposter syndrome.But especially for folks who are neurodivergent or dealing with chronic issues or disabilities, consistency comes with additional challenges that require you to figure out how to manage unpredictable energy levels, or how to cope with executive function issues.Most common productivity advice centers on the idea of trying to do more work, to shove more into the day, to force yourself to change your behavior so you can do more.But what if you don't want to do more? What if you just want to make it easier on yourself to do the work you love?Or what if your brain or energy levels just don't work the same way that the productivity bros hawking the advice do? Then a lot of that advice is just downright useless.The real key is figuring out how your brain works and creating an environment that supports you in doing your best work. And that may take some experimentation, but it probably won’t happen following someone else’s hacks.Marie Poulin, of Notion Mastery, helps ambitious business owners level up their digital systems, workflow, and productivity, so they can spend more time on what matters. She's been an influential voice in the Notion community, has a big following on her Notion Youtube channel, and has created a lot of the Notion resources available today.Marie also recently discovered that she has ADHD, so her brain works a little differently and things like consistency, scripting or executive functioning–like deciding what to prioritize working on–can be extra challenging.Marie and I talk about consistency and how critical it was to her success with Notion and her course and community Notion Mastery. We also talk about how discovering she was neurodivergent explained so much about how her brain worked and has helped her figure out how to set up systems that work the way she does.Listen to the full episode to hear:How Marie uses making public commitments as an external motivator to keep herself consistentWhy she learned to build in opportunities for later iteration and improvement to projects so she can be finished enough for nowHow Marie stumbled into her ADHD diagnosis and how she gave herself permission to accept that her brain works differentlyTools for noting when and how you work best so you can minimize resistance in your scheduleLearn more about Marie Poulin:Mariepoulin.comNotion Masteryyoutube.com/c/mariepoulinHow to Run Your Life Inside of NotionInstagram: @mariepoulinTwitter: @mariepoulinLearn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

It's ok to quit.Consistency can be critical to success, but knowing when to quit is an equally valuable skill.So, how do you know when to quit and when to just push through the hard parts?You've heard me talking to business owners who credit being consistent as the key to their success.But failure is also a part of being an entrepreneur and one we talk about a lot less because it's not as pretty. Most successful business owners have at least a few failures in their rearview mirror.I had 2 businesses that were marketing and branding successes and abject financial failures before I started ScaleSpark.Failing sucks, there's no doubt about that. But those failures are a big part of what motivates me to teach financial skills and why I believe that your numbers tell you a story about what to do next in your business.Deciding to quit something is so hard and emotionally wrenching. I also wish I'd listened to the story my numbers were telling me on both those businesses and quit earlier.But you don't always know if you're failing. Maybe you're just stuck in what Seth Godin calls "The Dip:" that point in every project where you have to figure out if something is genuinely not working or if you have to push through.Today my guest and I are talking about how to know when you should quit.Margo Aaron is the cohost of the YouTube show Hillary and Margo Yell at Websites and the author behind That Seems Important. She's a psychologist turned accidental marketer and she's fantastic at getting to the heart of the entrepreneurial mindset. Her email newsletter consistently gets right to whatever mindset fog I'm in at that point in time and always manages to encourage me to keep going.Margo and I have both quit businesses. And in this interview that we originally recorded in September of 2019, we explore what it meant to quit and how we each realized it was time to let go.Listen to the full episode to hear:The client call that made Margo realize she had a major disconnect between what she was getting paid to do and what she wanted to be doingWhat questions to ask yourself to assess if you’re in “the Dip” or if it’s time to let goWhy product-founder fit is as important as product-market fitHow to build a business that aligns with your values and defines success on your termsWhy you need creativity, intuition, and experimentation in your business, not dogmatic models and rulesLearn more about Margo Aaron:That Seems ImportantHillary and Margo Yell at WebsitesLearn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

Consistency is the underlying premise behind maintenance mode, behind working the system, behind the mantra of "don't break it". It's the opposite of shiny object syndrome.When you're consistent with your offers and your messaging, people know who you are, what you stand for, and what you sell.When you're consistent in your operations, your team and your clients know exactly what to do next.When you're consistent, you're efficient and you don't waste time, effort, or money.Consistency means that you don't get exhausted by decision fatigue - because a lot of your daily decisions have already been made and you're just following the process you decided on a while ago.Consistency builds resilience. Even when you're operating at 10%, having built habits and processes means that you can keep the ball rolling.In order to become more consistent in your business, there are two things you have to figure out.First, you have to get your mindset wrapped around being consistent and prioritizing it. That sounds simple, but in my experience, it's just not. It's so easy to self-sabotage by getting distracted or bored or prioritizing other things.Second, once you know that consistency is an important value to you, you have to build habits and design your environment so that being consistent is actually the easiest path for you to take.If consistency is the goal, building habits is how you accomplish it.Meet Sarah. Sarah Von Bargen is a writer, coach, and educator who helps people spend their time, money, and energy on purpose. And she uses habits to make sure they're sticking to that purpose. Habits have been a critical component in her own business success and in the success of her students, too.Listen to the full episode to hear:How the stress of flying by the seat of her pants turned Sarah into a data-driven plannerHow changing your exterior circumstances–like charging your phone in another room–supports the interior work that builds lasting habitsHow Sarah uses a “think about it later” list to help keep herself from productive procrastination and shiny object syndromeWhy you should test shiny new ideas on social media or your blog to gauge interest before you spend time or money developing themLearn more about Sarah Von Bargen:Yes and YesInstagram: @yesandyesblogMoney & Happy Facebook GroupFree Workbook: How To Rescue The Time & Energy To Go After What You WantLearn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

The point of maintenance mode is to give you time and space to take a REAL break. Not a vacation where you're checking your email or you're stuck on your laptop kind of break. But a real, genuine break.That step back can feel kinda scary. It might feel like you're standing at a precipice, trying to figure out if you'll trip and fall over the edge, or if it's just a tiny step down to a solid surface. That step means that you have to trust that the systems you've built and the team you've trained can handle whatever comes up. That's the goal, to allow you to be able to take a break from your business without breaking your business. And what does that look like in a real business? To go through the process to prepare for maintenance mode, build the systems, and then trust them to work and step away? That's what we're talking about today.Claire Pelletreau is a Facebook and Instagram ad expert and conversion optimization expert. Claire also LOVES talking about money–profit, loss, the whole shebang. She asks her guests how much they charge–and how much they earn–on her show, the Get Paid Podcast.Claire recently took a break from her business while on maternity leave for several months. She knew it was coming, so she prepared, she planned and she got her business ready to operate in maintenance mode. And then she walked away. For months. During a pandemic. Listen to the full episode to hear:How Claire changed her content strategy and schedule for her podcast to cover her maternity leaveHow she budgeted for her leave and unforeseen expenses in her absenceThe process of mentally and emotionally checking out from her business and what it was like to come back to work in a vastly different world after summer 2020Letting go of selling herself as part of the package and giving her team ownershipLearn more about Claire Pelletreau:ClairePells.comInstagram: @clairepellsFacebook: @absoluteclaireThe Get Paid PodcastLearn more about Susan:Scalespark.coTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanbolesResources:You Need a BudgetClockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, Mike MichalowiczRachel Rodgers Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here