Whether you love the idea of a sabbatical or need to plan for a longer break from business due to upcoming life events (like welcoming a new baby), you may find yourself wondering if it’s really possible to step away from your work when you’re so entangled in the day-to-day. The Copywriter Club’s Kira Hug wondered similarly - and found solutions to her questions as well - when she decided she wanted to take a 3-month maternity leave. In this episode of Better Than Big, Kira joins me to share...

From the very start of her business, communication consultant and coach Hillary Rea held tight to a core belief that she could live life on her terms if she designed her business intentionally. In this episode, she joins me to talk about what “life on her terms” looks like (it involves Japanese lessons and fun exercise classes) and about how she set up her schedule so she could live fully and still run a thriving business. We also talk about the importance of defining your capacity for client...

Conversion copywriter Amisha Shrimanker spent the early years of her business saying yes to everything and reacting to whatever her clients needed. When she realized it wasn’t working to be a “keyboard warrior”, she started asking herself some tough questions - questions that helped her see where she could take back control in her business. In this episode, Amisha joins me to talk about the adjustments she made to her services, the boundaries she set with herself and the collaborations she...

Too often, we’re told that the best way to schedule our days and plan for our business is to adopt someone else’s approach to time blocking or color coding our calendars. But what if that kind of structure doesn’t work well for you? That’s the topic I’m discussing with my guest, business designer and strategist Michelle Warner, as we talk about how she’s designed her business so she can push when it feels right, and rest when it doesn’t. In this episode, we talk about when Michelle realized...

Many business owners start their business because they value choice and autonomy over how they spend their time but sometimes forget just how much they can exercise it. That was the case for writer and stress management coach Justine Sones who, over time, came to realize that she could set up her work and schedule to match her needs instead of just mimicking industry standards. In this episode, we’ll talk about the choices Justine has made and tradeoffs she’s weighed to create a business that...

If you’re a self-described people-pleaser, it might be hard to imagine what it would look like in your business to do less. But in this conversation with Malia Tippets, the founder of Bridgetown Marketing, you’ll hear that it is possible to step away from people-pleasing tendencies and run a business that protects your time and energy. You’ll hear Malia share how she learned to set better boundaries, communicate clearly and say no. Plus she reveals the two tools she uses to say no to requests...

When Charlotte Isaac first started her business as an operations consultant, she had a lot of clarity around what she wanted her business to provide for her - including time for travel and lots of space to take care of the necessities of everyday life. In this episode, she talks about the unique ways she’s created that time and space in her business including her decision to take Mondays off and the boundary she set of only checking email twice a week. We also chat about the importance of...

It’s easy to define success in purely the financial sense but so important to look at it more holistically and consider what you want your business to create for you emotionally and personally as well. Financial behaviorist Jacquette M. Timmons explores this broader definition of success with her clients, and it’s something she lives out in her own business as well. In this episode, she joins me to talk about how she’s created a business that deeply serves her life by challenging the...

The narrative around doing more and being more and growing more in your business is everywhere - and it gets even stronger as we approach a new year because that’s the time when business owners are supposed to set big goals and aspirations. But what if the idea of adding more and more and more is not feeling so aligned for you anymore? What if you’ve come to realize that staying on the constant hamster wheel of busy is making your life too complicated and stressful? And what if you’ve...

When I first started thinking about trading the classic coaching model for a different type of offer, my brain went wild with ideas. I struggled to figure out which idea to pursue until I asked myself a key question that clarified everything. In this episode, I’m going to tell you what that question was and share how it led me to create a coaching offer that combines the best parts of my past services in an entirely new way. I’ll also tell you about what that means for my business in the...

Throughout this past year, I’ve felt a slow and steady pull to rework my services but found myself delaying any sort of action in that direction. I initially thought it was because I didn’t know what to do next or what I wanted. But I soon realized that I was stuck because I was questioning whether or not I was allowed to want something better when things were already good.   In this episode, I’m taking you behind-the-scenes of my recent pivot and sharing the fears, questions and doubts I...

Years ago, Melissa Dinwiddie got on a call with a competitor in her industry and decided they’d both be better off if they merged their programs and worked together instead of alone. That partnership showed Melissa the power of collaborating with other business owners on programs and products, and it’s something that she’s carried forward into her business today. In this episode, Melissa joins me to talk about how collaborating on programs and products has benefited her business. She also...

Years ago, Brandi Bernoskie was a solopreneur focusing on web site development. But the more she listened to her clients, the more she realized they had other needs - needs she could serve if she brought in collaborators from other disciplines to expand and enhance her client experience. In this episode, Brandi joins me to talk about how she knew collaboration was going to be an essential part of her business and about how she finds the right people to bring onto teams for her client...

When copywriter Melissa Harstine brought her business into the online space, she wondered what kinds of marketing activities would replace the coffee chats and networking meetings that had worked for her offline and allow her to market her business in a personal, intentional way. Strategic collaborations like guest podcast interviews and email newsletter takeovers turned out to be the right fit for her. In this episode, Melissa joins me to talk about why she decided to focus on collaborations...

Years ago, I worked with a few mentors who took a prescriptive approach to coaching where they focused more on telling you exactly what to do than on exploring solutions together. That kind of coaching works for some people but I quickly learned it wasn’t right for me - not as a client or as the coach - because I preferred a more collaborative approach. In this episode, I talk about the moment I learned that I prefer a collaborative approach to coaching and take you behind-the-scenes to...

It’s easy to get caught up in the online world and think there’s only one way to design your services or scale your business. In reality, though, there are many paths you could choose - including a path that matches your particular values around how you like to work and how you want to make an impact with your clients. In this episode, my guest Katie Wussow joins me to talk about how she’s created offers that align with her personal values. She shares where she went wrong with her offers and...

By the very nature of being in business, you will include some people and exclude others - the choice you get to make is whether you’ll do it from a place of intention and consciousness or not. In this episode, my guest Erica Courdae joins me to share how she made inclusivity an intentional and explicit value at her beauty salon and in her work as a DEI coach and consultant. We talk about what it actually looks like to build a business where inclusivity is top of mind including the strategies...

There’s a big difference between having brand values and explicitly living them out in your business. And as my guest India Jackson learned, there’s a real benefit to doing so as well. When India started sharing her brand values more explicitly in her brand visibility agency, Flaunt Your Fire, it helped her attract more aligned clients, find more ease in her marketing and drive important decisions in her business. Not to mention, it inspired a second business, Pause on The Play. In this...

A few years ago, while doing a rebrand of my business, I realized that my number one value in business was choice. I’m talking about choice in how you spend your time and shape your work, and choice in how you design your business to better support your life. And not only did I want my brand to stand for choice - I also wanted to embody the value of choice in my business day to day. In this episode, I’m talking about why it’s so important to me to live out my brand values in my business. I’m...

When Jill Wise’s business took off, she realized she needed to do something to free up her time. Initially, she thought that meant hiring a team member. But as she considered her options from a strategic place, she discovered that it actually made more sense to focus on streamlining her communication demands using canned email templates and smart automations. In this episode, Jill joins me to talk about how canned email templates have helped her save time, better serve her clients and...

When it comes to things that overwhelm you in your business, there’s a good chance creating social media content tops your list. Kinsey Streib felt similarly in her business, Feel Good Social, so she designed a system to help her better organize and plan social media content. In this episode, Kinsey and I talk about the system she designed to organize the social media content, assets and strategy for her business and her client work. We also talk about creating systems to match the way your...

When your service includes a lot of moving parts, you can’t always rely on your brain to remember all the tasks and to-dos. That’s where systems come in - specifically a client management system that can help you stay organized and keep your projects on track. In this episode, Sean McMullin joins me to talk about the system he uses to manage complex and ongoing client projects at the podcast production agency, Yellow House Media. We also talk about the importance of evolving your systems over...

As someone who places a high value on choice and time freedom, it’s a little ironic that I use a scheduling system to help me manage my time. The reason I’m able to do it is because I’ve created a system that allows me to have structure in my days while also enjoying plenty of flexibility too. In this episode, I’m sharing more about the system I use to help me manage my time and talking about how it’s evolved over the years to become even more flexible. I also introduce the tools I use to...

Whether it’s a holdover from a corporate career or completely subconscious, business owners can fall into the trap of working all the time and forget that they can design a business that provides them with ample time off. In this episode, my guest Michael Knouse shares how he’s designed his business so he can enjoy an abundance of time off each year to ski and travel and adventure. We talk about the importance of trading busy work for smart work, about how he was able to take a month off to...