Episodes

  • 001 - Your Business Is Not Your Boss Trailer

    001 - Your Business Is Not Your Boss Trailer
    Dec 1 2023
    In my new podcast, Your Business Is Not Your Boss, I will share insights from nearly a decade as small business coach and nearly two decades of experience as a small business owner to help other small business owners overcome overwhelm and redefined their relationship with their business so they can regain relaxed control.This podcast is for you if: - you want to have greater clarity about exactly what you expect your business to do for you- you want to develop more effective systems inside your business- you want to have a complete repository of documentation for all your processes and workflows- you want to empower your teams and delegate like a boss- you want to be able to review your progress clearly to ensure you keep your business in its place
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    3 mins
  • What do you need to stop doing?

    What do you need to stop doing?
    Jan 8 2024
    If you are like a great many people, you likely just made a list of resolutions or goals for this brand new year.Fantastic!Here’s a way to make that list even more effective: add at least a few things you will STOP doing.It is likely that you won’t realize the resolutions and goals you’ve outlined if you don’t also identify the habits and behaviors that will get in your way.-You may want to hit the gym every morning, but first you need to STOP snoozing that alarm clock.-You may want to reach out to new customers each week, but first you need to stop wasting time on YouTube.-You may want to delegate more, but first you need to stop buying into the idea that it will just be faster if you do it yourself.What you DO matters. A lot.But so does what you DON’T do.
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    13 mins
  • This is how you win

    This is how you win
    Jan 15 2024
    I was watching John Wick Chapter 2 the other day and the opening sequence features John laying waste to an army of henchmen in a warehouse.As he is cracking skulls (and being struck by vehicles) below, two crime bosses discuss what makes John so absolutely terrifying: “John Wick is a man of focus, commitment and sheer f***ing will.”Nothing about how strong he is, how fast he is, how good he is with a gun, or how smart he is.Focus, commitment, and will make him uniquely dangerous and nearly impossible to kill.You may not have access to all the resources you would like. You may not be the smartest business owner around. You may not be an expert in all the latest marketing tactics. You may not know all the right people.But you can choose to be more focused, committed, and driven than absolutely anyone around you.What if those are the traits that will help you advance your business in ways that your competitors can’t match?Take a minute to make a note of a goal or outcome you want to realize. How would someone who was wholly devoted to that outcome spend their days? What would they do? What WOULDN’T they do? How would they maintain their focus on accomplishing that goal? What would keep them awake at night? How would they invest their time and their money? How would they navigate distractions?How devastating would they be to their competition?Go be that person.
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    12 mins
  • Fix your systems before they embarrass you

    Fix your systems before they embarrass you
    Jan 22 2024
    One of the most hilarious and poetically perfect videos on the internet is a clip of 90’s rockers Rage Against The Machine playing live on the BBC. The clip focus on the ending of their song “Killing In The Name,” which features frontman Zach DeLaRocha sing-screaming “F*** you I won’t do what you tell me” seventeen times on the studio recording.During this live performance DeLaRocha omits the not-ready-for-prime-time word the first eight times through, but as the music climaxes he raises his middle finger to the camera and lets the F-bomb fly on repeat.Moments later the feed is interrupted by a commentator saying, “Sorry…that suddenly turned into something we were not expecting. Well we were expecting it, and asked them not to do it, and they did it anyway.”So, the BBC invited a band who might have been best known for their “F*** you I won’t do what you tell me” attitude…and were somehow caught off guard that they, in fact, did not do what they were told.Here’s the thing: while you are shaking your head at how obvious this outcome seems, you likely have systems and processes in your business that you KNOW are broken (or at least iffy) but will leave you speechless when they fail at exactly the wrong moment.You will likely never perfect every system in your business, that’s not the point, but you should never be surprised when something works the way you built it.I’m guessing that you just thought of a system or a process that needs some work. Take a moment to capture it and identify what you need to do to shore it up.(Need some help? Let’s jump on a discovery call to see how I can help you fix those busted systems before they betray you.)
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    14 mins
  • Interrogate your mistakes

    Interrogate your mistakes
    Jan 29 2024
    I once leased a very expensive software product and then abandoned it because our operation wasn’t in a position to integrate it in a productive way.It still makes me mad that I paid THOUSANDS of dollars for a software product that was never put to use, but I couldn’t afford to waste more time and money trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole.It was a costly failure that left me with two choices:Rehearse the failure as a sort of punishment for my bad judgement orInterrogate that failure for anything it could teach me about how to make better choices moving forward It probably seems painfully obvious which path is more profitable, but there’s a decent chance you’ve chosen option 1 a time or two in the life of your business.There is no CTRL-Z. You can review your mistakes, but you can’t revise them. You only have what’s next.Instead of reliving your least favorite decisions as a way of reminding yourself of your fallibility, what if you interrogated your mistakes by asking…What can that experience teach me about myself, my business, the market, etc.?How can that experience have a positive influence on what I am doing now/next?And ultimately, can I find space for gratitude?There is no going back, only pressing forward.
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    16 mins
  • Do this next time you’re stuck

    Do this next time you’re stuck
    Feb 5 2024
    I heard a story recently about a mysterious sound reported by the Swedish navy in the early 80’s. The sound occurred frequently in the waters along their coastlines and the military set out to determine what sort of threat might be behind it. They suspected submarines and literally dropped bombs into the water to destroy this mystery threat. Nothing worked. For more than a decade.In the end, after biologists were enlisted to join the military investigation, the sound was found to be fish flatulence.What does this have to do with your business? In the same way that the military immediately believed this unusual sound to be a threat and focused on very specific causes – and the biologists had a completely different focus – you are prone to see the obstacles and opportunities in front of you through a very specific lens.The paradigm through which you see the world, your business, and every day problems can be so entrenched that it is invisible to you. Instead of seeing all the possible solutions to a problem, you focus on a tiny subset. We all do.This is why you need people in your network from a variety of backgrounds and skill sets. People you can ask, “hey, what do you think about this?” People who will offer you the most remarkable and unexpected solutions, not because they are smarter than you, but because they see the world differently.The next time you are struggling with a challenge you just can’t seem to overcome, ask for input from someone who lives far away, works in a different industry, or who has a radically different background.You might be surprised at how they are able to highlight possibilities you simply couldn’t see on your own.
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    10 mins
  • Do the first thing last

    Do the first thing last
    Feb 12 2024
    I don’t know if I’ve ever been “cool,” but I know for a fact that any chance I had is in the rear view mirror.How can I be so sure? Well, one of my favorite things is to have the laundry done before I go to bed on Friday.Yeah.But here’s where that decidedly uncool pastime can help you and your business.In an effort to ensure I had every opportunity to get the laundry done by “lights out” on Friday, I started loading the washing machine before I left the house on Friday morning.I wasn’t keen on running the machine when no one was home, but I wanted it to be fully ready to go as soon as I arrived home in the afternoon.I knew that when I returned home I’d be greeted by a dozen distractions. The dog would want my attention, I’d have my hands full of things I’d collected throughout my day, I would want to change my clothes, the Yankee game would need to get thrown on the TV, and I’d probably need to go to the bathroom. In light of these distractions, I wanted to front load (laundry humor!) the activity that was my biggest priority.Instead of coming home and having to decide in what order I would do all of the above, including grabbing the laundry hamper and tossing a load in the machine, I just needed to press START on the washer and move on to any of the other things vying for my attention.I call it doing the first thing last.When you are ending a work session, or ending your day, just consider where you will want to start when you return and take the first step.That could mean putting the appropriate tools in place for your next phase of work, opening your notebook to the notes you will need to start your work tomorrow, or removing distractions that may make it more difficult to focus on the next thing.In the same way that one relay runner is trying to pass the baton to the next in the most seamless fashion possible, making the ending of one task the beginning of another sets you up for smoother transitions and less wasted effort.
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    12 mins
  • Your employees can’t read your mind

    Your employees can’t read your mind
    Feb 19 2024
    The client on the other end of the phone was on the verge of tears: “My employees are driving me crazy!”Carrying the weight of small business ownership is no small feat and you can’t do it alone. Even if you don’t have W2 employees, you likely still employ contractors to make your enterprise work.Unfortunately, every person you hire (or contract with) brings their own set of quirks and idiosyncrasies with them to the party.But here’s where you can do yourself a favor and, quite likely, eliminate a great deal of the frustration you experience with the people who work for you:Tell them what you want them to do.Specifically, clearly, unapologetically. Just tell them.I’m sure this seems ridiculous on the surface but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the following exchange with a client:THEM: this person always [insert frustrating behavior here]!ME: What did they say when you told them you wanted them to stop [frustrating behavior] or [insert desired behavior]?THEM: …You’re the owner. You get to dictate how things get done. Be compassionate and don’t try to control every aspect of their work, but it’s okay to say, “this isn’t working for me, I need you to…”Being direct affords you the ability to assess their progress toward an outcome you have voiced clearly instead of constantly being frustrated by their performance and your tacit acceptance of that performance.Now it’s up to them.I can’t guarantee that every employee will rise to the challenge, but you will likely find that many actually want to do the best job possible and now have the insight to be more successful.There are myriad reasons why employing people will drive you a little crazy, but it cannot be because you don’t tell them what you want.
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    11 mins