This week, we have a very exciting episode with Emylee, Abagail, and Abagail’s partner, Jared Pumphrey, who joined the team earlier this year as Boss Project’s Marketing Manager! Join us as we dive into what Jared’s role entails, how it has impacted our business, and how he has no idea how we managed before we had someone dedicated to running the day-to-day operations. Tuning in, you’ll also find out how to set boundaries for a healthy marriage when going into business with your spouse, as well as what Jared and Abagail love about working together.

Jared unpacks the importance of having an internal system for quality control and why, if you're the last person who did something to a document, you can't verify that it's perfect. Later, we reflect on how a team can thrive when they are allowed to play to their strengths, what that entails, and how you can go about helping them operate in their zone of genius.

It has come to our attention that there seems to be a widely held belief that high-earning service providers already know exactly what they’re doing. The perception is that everything is running super smoothly and that they are acutely aware of exactly what they need to be doing at all times. That they are solely focused on their zone of genius and that they've made no changes to the backend of how they run things. This is most definitely not the case.

While it doesn't take much talent to have a creative hobby, it takes skill, practice, and, most importantly, systems to monetize your creative passion and turn it into a career. By working with creatives, today’s guest is able to use his skill in law and tax while also vicariously working in the creative industry through all of you amazing ‘creativepreneurs’. Braden Drake is your gay best friend who also happens to be an attorney and tax pro, but aren't talking about the boring (but necessary) legal stuff today! For that, you need to head over to Braden’s podcast, Unf*ck Your Biz. Today, we are talking about creating systems, standard operating procedures, and processes that work the way YOU want to work in your business!

This is a roundtable-style discussion about how our individual personalities impact the way we organize our to-dos and develop our SOPs, as well as how you can create systems that will actually benefit your business rather than wasting your valuable time as CEO. We also touch on the Profit First methodology and how it ties into getting “your legal and tax shit legit,” as Braden says. Tuning in, you’ll learn about the three things you need to consider when creating standard operating procedures for your business, how to create processes that work for your personality type, and the system Braden suggests to stay legal and compliant, plus a whole lot more!

Make sure not to miss this informal and informative conversation full of practical tips with your new best friend, Braden Drake.

Today on the podcast, we have Pri. She’s an award-winning SEO strategist, Google Analytics expert, and Founder of Brilliantly Visible. Pri is based in London, and her work is frequently shared as an example of best practices in action at industry events in the UK. With her signature PROPS method, Pri helps people build out datasets and create simple, automated metric dashboards that help them answer some of the most important questions they have in their business: what are my results, and how am I getting them? Those are two really helpful things to be mindful of in your business when you are growing from a data and analytically-driven place, but also in a place that’s in alignment with how you want to run your business and the decisions that you want to be making. If you have been avoiding looking at your data to see if you are actually getting the results you want, or if you are feeling overwhelmed about how to make decisions based on the results you are getting, this is the show for you! You will walk away with so many tips on how to make smart, intentional decisions in your business.

When we say that today’s episode is going to rock your world, we’re not even joking! If you have a client-based business and use Dubsado, maybe you have wanted to set up workflows, but been so overwhelmed that you haven’t started, then stop what you're doing and listen to this show with a notebook because Krystal Clark literally breaks down every step! From lead capture to onboarding to delivering to offboarding, she leaves no stone unturned. Krystal even goes so far as to give us five hacks on how she’s using Dubsado differently than what we have heard before!

Today on the podcast we have Cami Monet, a watercolor artist, and custom wedding stationer. She is all about paper goods with purpose and personality. Camille Monet operates under two branches where she has custom wedding clients and does all their custom stationery. Her product line is also available for both retail and wholesale. When she isn’t doing all of these things, she also has a podcast with a friend, where they share ways to make business strategy a piece of cake for paper people.

In this episode, we’re talking a little bit about processes, using Dubsado, and all about how to create a high-touch premium service with your clients. This is for anyone who wants to dip their toe into charging premium prices this year, and for those who are already offering premium services. This episode will also give you some good ideas on how to be high-touch without having to be in the process every time. Camille shares details about her speedy process on getting clients in the door and paying. The customization and personality aspect of her process is unlike any other that we have heard of, so we know you guys are going to get some really good takeaways today. Let’s get going!

Today we get to talk about one of our favorite things — meetings the Traction way! While most people hate meetings, we are going to share a few things that might change your mind. Meetings are notorious for consuming a lot of time, often with little real progress, but we will present you with an outline that will make your every meeting from here on out a super productive, efficient one. We’ve spoken about the book Traction many times, but we want to remind you once more to go read it because this is where this outline and our guidelines around meetings come from.

Sometimes a meeting is not necessary and a Slack message or quick update will suffice, but other times having a meeting makes sense, and therefore it’s important to know how to approach them. Having a weekly meeting keeps all parties fully informed on decisions that were made, as it can be easy to think that everybody is in the loop when they’re not. If you are someone who has little patience for inefficiency and is always looking for the quickest, most productive ways to communicate and do things, this outline is perfect for you! This is as applicable to small teams as it is big ones, and don’t hesitate to ask your contractor to attend these meetings. Be sure to tune in to this episode to get the best strategy for efficient meetings!

Are you ready to plan the year ahead? It might be easier to do when you’ve had a great 2020 but, even then, you can plan to stick to the plan! We know we just want more of what we had but we are also keen to try new things too. In 2020, we found the sweet spot of being consistent and boring and realized that they are our middle names. We embrace them, we love them, and this is where we flourish and feel comfortable. While it’s not flashy or sexy and it doesn’t do dances on TikTok, we are 100% okay with that!

Not all of us dream of making seven figures. For some of us, our businesses are perfect the way they are when they work for us instead of us working for them. In other words, while you might not roll in the dough, if you are satisfied with what your business brings in and it supports you to the extent that it suits your lifestyle, who cares about the rest? It is worth remembering that you risk much more when you try to grow and scale your business aggressively, and many have closed their doors after pursuing exponential growth instead of keeping to the stable and consistent things. We would like to be around, no matter what happens in the world, and we believe that we can do that by doing more of the same-old same-old. This strategy will not get us on Oprah’s couch or anything spectacular like that, and we don’t have $10 million growth plans, but tune in to hear how we are planning to bring boring, stable, and consistent back!

In today’s episode, we are going to talk a bit about reorganization and what it looks like to really get clear on the roles and responsibilities of your team members inside your business. We will talk about how you might do this as a way to clean up and get your head straight before you go through a hiring process.

We have probably made every mistake in the book when it comes to hiring and have learned a lot over the last few years as we have expanded our team. We have come from every end of the spectrum when it comes to hiring a team – having a big team, a small team, no team, contractors, and everything in between!

Today's guest, Alyssa Bloom, has spent the last 10 years working for one of the biggest companies in the world, being a manager for virtual teams. She manages over 120 people and has an incredible background in management and people leadership. In this episode, we are talking about creating a sense of ownership in your community and culture in your business. We have always been open about our struggles as leaders of our internal teams. We have had challenges with motivation, delegation, and just making sure that our staff is happy and that they like what they are doing.

It has been something we have wanted to get better at ever since we hired our first VA. So, having someone we love and respect so much help us get organized and in shape was crucial, and we are sharing that process with you today, along with how you can replicate it. There are so many good takeaways that Alyssa shares. We hear how to get more organized, make good hires, and most importantly, how to create a sense of ownership within your team and have your staff be as happy as they can be.

Today we are talking about batching your shiz! Yeah, girl! We know it’s a sexy topic going into the holiday season, but even in general, people want to get as much done in as small a window as possible so they can focus on the thing that they started their business to do. A lot of people find marketing monotonous, which we get, and we have been making it not only easier for you but also more fun with the Creative Template Shop.

Another great way you can wrap up the end of the year is by batching a bunch of content so you can serve your clients, finish projects, ship out orders, get things listed, have fun in the holidays with your family, and renovate the new house you just bought too! So, to do this and to make it fun, we decided to bring back the challenge concept, and today’s show is all about our newest one – The 4-Day Batch Blitz!

On the show today, we have brand designer Colin Tierney joining us. He owns and runs Tierney Studio where he has grown his branding and started a whole new business before the pandemic hit, which we will get into today. Talking to Colin, we give you another perspective on a Dubsado customer’s experience and how they have used the software and CRM to perfect their client process, land deals faster, offload projects, and more.

As a fellow designer, Abagail wishes she knew about Dubsado when she was still in the design business since their software takes the client management side of things off your hands to free you up for doing the design work. There are just too many benefits of signing up for Dubsado, as you will hear from Emylee, Abagail, and Colin. If you’ve had questions about the capabilities of Dubsado or have thought about getting started with the platform, this episode will give you a really good peek behind the curtain. Remember, as a listener of the podcast, you can also get Dubsado for 50% off your first month or first year!

When we say that today’s episode is going to rock your world, we’re not even joking! If you have a client-based business and use Dubsado, maybe you have wanted to set up workflows, but been so overwhelmed that you haven’t started, then stop what you're doing and listen to this show with a notebook because Krystal Clark literally breaks down every step! From lead capture to onboarding to delivering to offboarding, she leaves no stone unturned. Krystal even goes so far as to give us five hacks on how she’s using Dubsado differently than what we have heard before!

Today on the Strategy Hour Podcast, we figured that – in light of the current coronavirus restrictions – it might be a good idea to share some strategies for creating a super productive work environment at home. With a great deal of travel suspended, in-person events canceled, schools closed, and employees asked to go home, people around the globe are having to think about how they can remain productive out of the office.

Some of you might already be working from home, but for some, this might be a first-time experience and we want to help you master the most common challenges when living, working and parenting in the same space. With kids at home, parents are now confronted with the added challenge of having to look after their children while still maintaining work productivity. In this episode, we dish out strategies for getting your to-do-list crossed off, whether you are a business owner, parent, or both!

Ya’ll know we’re on a mission to turn you into a full-time creative entrepreneur who earns a sustainable income from your passion. Because we’ve been on this journey ourselves for the past four years and have helped thousands of people through it, we have seen and heard most, if not all, of the mistakes in the book. While we’ve spoken a great deal about getting your perfectionist or overachieving mindset right, that alone won’t help you to succeed. On a practical level, you need to stop making crucial mistakes, including focusing too heavily on the appearance of your brand, thinking that your audience is a bunch of strangers and convincing yourself that gadgets and systems will get you to where you want to be. Today we unpack each of these common mistakes, so get your notebook and listen up!