Creativity is generally associated with art, yet it encompasses so much more than that! Because of the narrow definition of creativity, the majority of adults feel out of touch with their creativity or devoid of it altogether! Studies show that it’s in our DNA to be creative. Yet, as we get older and are influenced by society’s limitations of what constitutes creativity, we fail to flex our creative muscle in a way that resonates with us as individuals. All of us are intrinsically creative, whether we’re artistic or not, and in this episode, we break down what creativity means to us and share tips for getting in touch with your creativity and helping others to do the same.

We’re nearing the end of 2022 and auditing season is upon us! The time is ripe to start looking at how you want 2023 to pan out personally and operationally within your business. We want you to conquer the world, so today, we’re going to share some tips for setting yourself up for success in the new year. Although auditing might not sound sexy, it’s one of our favorite things to do. In this episode, we share some of the strategies we’ve used over the years to carry out an effective audit. You’ll learn how best to take stock of which areas need tweaking in order for you to reach your goals in 2023! Bear in mind that this doesn’t have to be your final iteration but making decisions in advance and working backwards from your goal is essential. Tune in to find out how to identify your financial goal and gap, find a plausible method to fill that gap, and reach your goals!

The festive season is upon us! And for service providers that means navigating the immense pressure to take part in retail-centric holidays like Black Friday Sales. In today’s episode, we answer some of the most common listener questions that come up over the holiday season. Like how to handle pressures around Black Friday Sales, when to allow discounts, when free collaborations are worth it, and whether you should work with friends and family.

It may seem like the benefits of some of those things are worth it, but they also come with plenty of hidden costs. Tuning in you’ll hear us share some of the key things we’ve learned from working with relatives, taking part in Black Friday sales, and offering our services for free. These things are a lot more complicated than they seem at first glance! Today’s episode is all about uncovering the true cost of these kinds of discounts, optimizing your price plans, and learning how to give your time the value it deserves. Because if you’re going to spend time away from work, we want it to be spent regenerating and being present with your family, not chasing false leads!

We’ve been working with our clients behind the scenes and noticing some commitment issues when it comes to setting goals and deciding on how to reach them. On some level, the hesitation stems from perfectionism and feelings of Imposter Syndrome. But there’s more to it than that. Today we want to talk about an article that we read recently which delves into the things that we’ve been talking about for years, but from a different angle. Ultimately, perfectionism, Imposter Syndrome and all the related feelings come from a place of worrying about making the wrong decisions. So, we’re going to unpack the principles of creating a regret-free business and life!

It has been really interesting for us to see how centric defining our values has been in ultimately operating our team. We didn’t realize how much we relied on them until some things came to light with our clients. So, what are values to a company? We all understand what our values are in our personal lives, but when we start talking about business values, these things are often assumed. As you grow, you have to be incredibly strategic about identifying your values.

We want to encourage you to identify three values that can help you get focused around how you are going to serve your clients. Asking questions about your boundaries, communication preferences, work style and ethic can lead to clarity around your business values. Having an internal value that is very specific around how your team runs is also critical to your culture. These values make it possible to get everyone on the same page and settle a lot of conversations around what should happen!

Let’s talk about your website! The one place you can present the version of yourself and your business that is accurate, helpful, and actually effective for you and your business. Have you looked at it lately? We’re guessing that many of you have put your website on the backburner for the past few years; especially if you’ve been in business for a while. We’re also guessing that the reason you’ve done this is because you’ve been treating social media as your main marketing platform.

An important factor to consider is that when social media platforms change their algorithms (and your business doesn’t get as much traction as a result), people will go back and look at your website. If you haven’t been paying attention to your website, it’s not going to go down too well! We’re also guilty of not always paying attention to everything on our website, but there are certain things that we have never (and will never) stop doing. So, regardless of the last time you touched your website, we’re going to talk about how to get it back to the point where it best serves you.

Developing consistent client delivery is a surefire way to set up your business for success and today, we break down how best to do so. There are stages to this, especially if you’re a solopreneur offering a broad variety of services. The most important phase, for the purposes of today’s episode, is phase one. It’s important to spend time improving your processes and developing efficiencies from the get-go, as tedious as it may feel. The question we get asked the most in our trainings is about efficiency. The answer is uncomfortably obvious and it’s merely a matter of prioritization. Tune in to learn the simple art of tweaking and repeating and discover how best to create efficiencies for yourself while simultaneously optimizing the client experience!

Let’s talk about communication! In the past, we’ve talked about how to plan for expected leave (like holidays and maternity leave), or how to deal with situations where you unexpectedly need to leave work (when you are sick or your child needs you, for example). Today, we’re discussing this topic, but from a different perspective. We want to talk about the internal structure of our team and how we set up meetings, communications, and different tools to help our team function optimally when we can’t be there. So much of it comes down to the fact that we don’t do anything in secret and always maintain consistency in the way that we show up at work.

There’s a toxic culture rearing its head in the small business world– monitoring productivity. What’s the buzzword? Productivity Paranoia! That’s the fixation that leaders have with their employee’s work, which leaves them thinking way too much about how their staff is spending their time, and what the resulting output is.

Today, we’re here to share how we monitor our teams without micromanaging them. We’ll talk about the effective systems we use to keep our team connected and all moving toward the same direction without any creepy stalking.

Today we’re talking about unanticipated leave. We’ve spent a good amount of episodes talking about how to prepare for maternity leave or a longer vacation or break, both of which are amazing! But for the most part, these are eventualities that you can anticipate and plan around. So what do you do to prepare for things that you can’t anticipate like family emergencies or medical leave?

This year we have both had major health challenges as well as family emergencies that left us unable to work for days and weeks at a time. These events were stressful in themselves. But, had we not taken the necessary steps to prepare for unanticipated leave, things could have been a lot more dire and overwhelming, especially for our team. To find out whether you’ve prepared your business for unplanned time off, make sure you tune in for our breakdown on how to elevate your systems, build better communication, and plan for unplanned time off!

When prospective clients are on the fence or delaying commitment to a particular project, it can be wildly frustrating. Not just that, but the follow-ups use up a whole lot of unnecessary time and energy. In this episode, we share the exact scripts we use to nudge people off the fence and reduce communication delays. You are responsible for closing the loop, and it is especially critical when you start documenting your sales process and really tracking conversion rates. Reviewing your sales information is only helpful once you’ve closed the loop and are certain as to which leads are going to convert to sales and which aren’t.

Today, we are specifically addressing those waiting for their prospective clients to sign off on a project but are left without a clear answer. So many service providers struggle with non-committal potential clients who seem eager but never quite get around to closing the deal. If you’re holding a spot for someone and they haven’t committed, you need to solidify that space or move on. Our prospect follow-up scripts will help you close the loop and mentally move on. Tune in to find out how to restructure your process to reduce cumbersome delays, and kindly and effectively communicate your parameters!

As a company, our mission is to help women create more financial freedom for themselves, which is why financial literacy is a foundational part of what we teach. And while we know it may be intimidating, taking action will give you fresh insight into your company, while also allowing you to make better decisions, and ultimately, save you money!

From knowing your books to mastering your cash flow, it all starts with information. Understanding your numbers is the foundation. And the only way to be free to run your business effectively is by understanding how these all work together. Tune in today to learn how to get your company’s finances under control and empower yourself with the information that's going to help you build a truly sustainable business!

Today, we’re cutting the small talk and diving right into part 2 of our conversation. That’s how important we deem this topic to be.

If you own a service-based business, there’s a high chance you’ve encountered a client who wants to change some aspect of your delivery. Usually, this comes up during the sales process, but occasionally it arises immediately after they’ve booked. Today, we’re talking about how to navigate this based on when and where they are wanting to customize the product, and how to handle it at each stage.

When clients feel that they can negotiate price, tinker with the scope, and haggle with you on the deliverables, what do you do? We’re here to help you navigate these complexities.

Today we’re going to talk about the art of the follow-up! Once you’ve pitched your service, it’s possible that you’ll experience potential clients ghosting you, being passive-aggressive towards you, or fighting against the process that you’re trying to put them through. All three of those things have happened to us in the last seven days so we know all about those weird experiences. In an ideal world, people will seamlessly move through your sales process, discovery call, and pitch meeting, and then they’ll pay you. This happens almost half of the time but the other half of the time, you’ll be faced with resistance and objections that you’ll have to work through. Today, we’re going to talk you through how to deal with them!

Being a human being these days is undeniably stressful. We are constantly expected to function at our best while being endlessly bombarded with a million different things that are competing for our attention. Add social media into the mix and now you also have to deal with an onslaught of content about anything and everything, from how you too can achieve impossible standards of beauty to live feeds of devastating world events.

All of these rapid changes have had a tangible impact and are evident in the rising rates of depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental health issues. So how do you, as a leader, support your team in this climate of information overload and unprecedented global events? Tune in for a deep dive as we discuss the single most important skill for leadership, the research underpinning it, and why it will not only make you a better leader but also, a better person!