#228 - Sustainable Business Practices - Being Boss with Emily + Kathleen

Episode Transcript
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Emily Thompson (00:00):
How are you doing Boss, I know that many of
you are feeling an edge, an edgeto make the very most of this
downtime and to move yourbusiness along even if things
are feeling slow, to prepare forwhat I truly believe is going to
be a new economy, and to connectwith a community of business
owners who are figuring this outas we go. Well, the being boss

(00:21):
conference is now online, makingit accessible to every one of
you, no matter where you are.
And in light of world events,we're shifting our content in
ways that will make it mosthelpful to you now, focusing on
time management and marketing inthis new world of doing
business, keynotes, panels,breakout sessions, Live podcast
recordings, and more. Making upthree days of a virtual

(00:44):
conference for creative businessowners that is unlike anything
that's been done before. Sure,we won't be sipping Zaza rocks
in the French Quarter, not thistime, but you can wear your yoga
pants and still get insights andtactics from top creative
business owners, who are alsonavigating this disruptive
moment in history and connectwith creative business owners

(01:05):
from all over the world. Getyour virtual ticket and join in,
make the most of this time andfigure out how you and your
business are going to make itthrough to the other side at
better than before. Learn moreand join us at being boss club
slash conference. I'm EmilyThompson.

Kathleen Shannon (01:27):
And I'm Kathleen Shannon.

And this is being boss. In this episode of
being boss, join Kathleen and meas we talk about sustainable
business practices includingoverall business tactics, and a
deep dive into marketing and CEOlevel tactics. As always, you
can find all the tools books andlinks we reference on the show

(01:50):
notes at WWW dot being boss dotclub.

being your own boss means finding ways to
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All right, Kathleen, how you doing?

Well as of recording this. So far, so good,
we're just kind of hunkeringdown as a family. And you posted
some homeschooling tips A whileago on Instagram that have been
tremendously helpful. Um, butyeah, just hanging in there. How
about you?

Same, same, it's kind of life as usual, more or
less, because we have beenhomeschooling for five years.
Also, if you want thosehomeschooling tips, they are on
our Instagram being boss club, Iadded them as a highlight. So
you can go check those outanytime. So yeah, it's kind of
life as usual, striving forbusiness as usual, which is

(03:42):
something we're here to talkabout today. And it's also
funny, I keep having someinteresting conversations with
people who found themselvesalmost being led in this
direction. And like weird andinteresting ways. And my
illustration of that is, thetopic of this episode was packed
months ago, and just sort ofcomes out at a time that I feel

(04:04):
is wildly appropriate for wherewe all find ourselves.

Well. And you know, it's funny too, because
every day feels like the longestweek ever. And that's only gonna
continue to change, like thingsare changing very rapidly. So in
full disclosure, we're recordingthis in advance, I have no idea
what's going to happen even bythe time we launch this podcast,
but I think that no matter whatphase you're in, in your

(04:31):
business, or kind of businessthat you're creating, creating a
business that with the aim oflasting a really long time with
the aim of lasting five years,10 years, 15 years, 20 years. I
mean, whenever I think aboutbraid, I want it to be the
business that I retire from.
Whenever I'm a little old lady.

(04:53):
So for me really thinking aboutcreating a sustainable business
will hopefully ride any sort ofups and downs in the economy, or
even just in the more microlevel of changes that naturally
come with business, whether it'shiring a team, firing a team,

(05:15):
changing business models,pivoting, all of those things
are going to happen, and theywill happen. But you want to
create a foundation and abackbone that is sustainable, no
matter what is thrown your way.

Exactly. So that's what we're going to be
diving into. together today. Andthe way we've sort of broken
this up as into three mainsections. So I think we're gonna
start kind of vague and sort ofoverall, like good basic
business practices, and thenheading into to sort of narrow
new fitness, to more narrowsections, being marketing, and

(05:56):
then just like general highlevel management of your
business. So let's dive intosome of these just basic
business practices that aresustainable or important for
building a sustainable businessthat can weather any and
hopefully all storms.

Okay, Emily, whenever it comes to creating a
sustainable business,

what what do

you really think of whenever you think of
sustainability? And how doesthat kind of overarching, like
big picture, how does that lookfor you?

I think on a very basic level, it begins with
managing your resources, like agood management of your
resources. And this is true,whether you are a solopreneur,
with a side hustle. Or if youhave 1540 80,000 employees,
whatever it is, you have to knowhow you have to know what your

(06:47):
resources are. And you have tomanage them responsibly. And so
you can think of this in termsof your own time, I think that's
the one that probably you willhit home for everyone listening
to this, you only have so manyhours in a day, and you only
have so many of those hours thatyou're actually going to be
productive. So burning yourselfoff, or burning yourself out, is

(07:12):
actually the correct word there.
When things are easy, leaves youincapable of coping whenever
things are difficult. So bylearning to manage your
resources you are you can sortof save up your energy or your
money or your team's time orwhatever it may be. So that when
you need it. It's there.

Yeah, we talk a lot about resources with that
even in the book where we talkabout time, energy and money.

Yes, the beam boss book, being boss, clubs,
slash book, folks.

There you go.
So we talked about time, energy,and money being the three
primary resources that we'realways making sure, are in
balance. And so especially rightnow, usually, it's time for me
and getting burned out isusually means that I'm working a
lot of hours. Right now, I'mgoing to make the time because
we're in a moment of Okay, Iwill scramble to find time,

(08:09):
right now, my resources aredollars, I've got to make sure
I've got the dollar bills, andthere's only so many of them. So
that's the resource that I'mreally glad we've spent the last
year at braid, really stockingmoney away, and not pulling
profits, but putting all themoney that we have back into the
business and not even investingbut saving, like a good cash

(08:31):
buffer. But, you know, dollarbills. That's, that's a big one
right now. And then also energy.
Oh,

sorry, go ahead.
I want to throw in here thatit's not just like saving them,
but it's also using them in theright places. So it's making
sure that whenever it is,whenever you are purchasing
something, or investing insomething, it's something that's
going to have the kind of impactthat you want to have.

The other resource I've been really
protective of since our burnoutepisode at the beginning of the
year is energy. And so right nowI feel like I took really good
measures, including selling achunk of being boss to you,
Emily, you know, like reallyseeing what is my capacity? What
can I really handle. Andsometimes you have to push up

(09:16):
against your boundaries to knowwhat that is. Sometimes you have
to overextend yourself. And Ithink in times like now, I'm in
a place where I'm seeing, okay,what can I handle and I've been
like we've all as creativeentrepreneurs have seen ups and
downs naturally in our business,probably more so than people who
work for corporate do so in someways, I think that we're

(09:36):
probably more prepared in someways and less prepared in
others. Of course, there's somany pros and cons to the kind
of support that comes in doesn'tcome with with the traditional
workforce, but all of this tosay, I think though, whenever it
comes to your resources, you'regoing to weather, some storms,

(09:59):
and you're going to see whatyou're made of, and you're going
to get real crafty andresourceful, you're going to
figure out how to draw moretime, more energy and more money
into your business. But it'salso something that you want to
sustain over long term and thinkbig picture about, like, how can
you kind of steady those ups anddowns to be more of a level,

(10:20):
hopefully upward incline.

Yeah, and I love that you brought up the topic of
boundaries there, because this,or having boundaries is
imperative for managing yourresources in all ways. But also
having good habits and routines,that can help sort of keep you
in check is really helpful. Soit's like really going back to
these core being boss pillarsthat will help you help you in

(10:46):
building a business that issustainable. I also want to say
one of the things that I've feltcoming very strongly out of this
is one of your return oninvestments I've made in my
community. So having so manysupport, or so many people

(11:07):
offering support, and even ifthat support is just like send
me a text message checking in,or whatever it may be, I think
one of the best things that I'vedone for my business is building
relationships with people whoend up having my back when I
need it.

Yeah, this is huge. I think that we always
come back to the idea thatbusiness is personal. And it is,
especially right now. I feellike everybody's in it together
more than ever. And I'm seeingthe ebb and flow of generosity.

So yeah, right, good relationships, client
relations, leaders, employees,all of those things like how
building a support system ofpeople will help you stay afloat
longer than if you've burnedevery bridge you've ever built.

You know what that's also true with business
partnerships. I mean, we've hadsome tense conversations through
the course of Well, I mean,since we've been working
together, but I think that thefact that we've prioritized even
our own relationship, people, itblew their minds listening to
our episode about the businessbuy out, you buying a big chunk

(12:25):
of my shares for me at beingboss, and that we're still so
tight. You know, and, and evenjust in the past few days, we've
had some tense conversations,because we're both freaking out,
well, I shouldn't say that,we're not freaking out, I'm
probably more so than cavalese.
freaking out, at least keepingyour cool. It's so weird, I
will, I do want to just saytransparently, in this time that

(12:47):
I'm trying to be like that grownup that like mature, I get, I
get it, I get to decide how Irespond to all of this. And it's
really testing my character,like, I'm not going to let my
anxiety take over, I'm going tomeditate every morning, I'm
going to hydrate. And I'm goingto keep my energy grounded. So
I'm really trying hard. But Ialso want to be honest, in that

(13:11):
this is scary for everybody.
You're self included, you'rekeeping your cool, but
everyone's a little bit scaredin a time like this. And in
times of economic crisis, likein 2008. Now I know how the
grown ups felt, then I was stilla little young. Or, you know,
after things like 911 this iswhat we're going through right

(13:33):
now is completely unprecedented.
So of course, there's going tobe some fear that comes with
that. But whenever you maintaingood relationships, you can be
scared together. Or you can cometo solutions together, you can
brainstorm together, you can begenerous together.

For sure, I will say I'm probably most at ease
about this because I am inconstant contact with people
with other people who havebusinesses who are in similar
but obviously very differentsituations because no one is
experiencing this in the sameways by any means, which is also
just one of the fascinatingthings about it. But it's

(14:09):
because I'm staying in constantcontact, working through others
peep other people's problems,helps me deal with my own house
put my own in perspective. SoI'm not sitting here sort of
swirling in my own demise orwhatever it is. So good
relationships, I think are oneof the most imperative.
sustainable business practicesthat any entrepreneur can
practice.

I'm having a conversation with some biz
besties tomorrow and I keepthinking about canceling it
because you know, My days aregetting hijacked by
homeschooling and justconversations I wasn't expecting
to have about everything that'sgoing on and I was like, No, no,
I'm gonna keep these meetingsthat I have that are touching
base with my biz besties andpeers and colleagues because

(14:53):
they're important to

it's very, I have been finding them to be
very useful. According to aotherwise completely nebulous
timeline, like, if I can justshow up for these meetings or
you know, have these calls,whatever, I find it very helpful
and can come out of it moreready to move forward.

I also want to point out like, we're, we're
talking about this in thecontext of what's going on right
now. But this all relates tothings. I mean, these are all
practices that we've had inplace of building relationships,
having masterminds, havingbusiness bestie chats, we've
been doing this for the lifespanof our business. And so it's
these habits and routines thatyou develop in the good times,

(15:38):
that will float you through thebad times. And that's what
sustainability is about. 100%

for sure. So, um, I think next up one of my
most important, like basicbusiness practices that everyone
should absolutely be followingif you want your business to
live for any length of timeperiod, is that, sure you need
to learn how to sell. But morethan that, you need to learn how
to deliver and making sure thatwhatever it is that you are here

(16:06):
doing with your business,whatever it is that you're
creating for your customer oryour client, that you know how
to deliver that thing. Ioftentimes find people,
especially new entrepreneurs,who have great branding, great
website, but a weird productthat they don't know how to
deliver, or their ability tomanage their customers or
clients expectations and deliveron those expectations are

(16:30):
lacking. I've seen so manybusinesses falter because you
don't lock in on that key pieceof business. And that is
actually delivering what it isthat you're here to deliver.

Well, that segues perfectly into my number
one tip for sustainability orthe number one thing that makes
me feel sustainable, is being anexpert at something and having a
process that backs up thatexpertise, and allows me to have
a process that I follow everysingle time in order to deliver

(17:03):
a brand platform that is graphicdesign, logo brand identity and
messaging. And I always knowexactly what I'm doing. I always
know exactly what's next. And Ican communicate that to my
client, especially wheneverthey're investing in us. The
last thing that you want is toleave someone who either wants
to buy you or has already hiredyou feeling unsure about what's

(17:25):
next. You want to be able todeliver on even just the
communication between point Awhere they start and point B
where they end with you. Youwant to explain Okay, here's how
this works. Next, here's what'sgoing to happen next. Here's how
we're collaborating. Here's whatwe expect from you, here's what
you can expect from us. So theway that I always think about

(17:46):
delivery is going back to acontract which might sound
really funny coming out of mymouth because I'm so right
brained creative practicallyallergic to lawyers. Sorry,
autumn with Boyd, you know, Ilove you

know, is allergic to autumn.

not allergic to autumn, but like, you know,
that kind of stuff overwhelmsme. And it's always all about
worst case scenario. But I haveflipped the script on contracts
and really thinking about, okay,you're doing XYZ, you're paying
me this amount of money, I aminvoicing you on these dates.
And then here's what you getfrom me. Here's our touchstones,

(18:21):
here's our milestones, here'swhere we're gonna deliver actual
things, here's what you canexpect and when you can expect
it. So for me, that helps mereally frame up what that
delivery is. And then fromthere, of course, I'm a branding
expert. So I want to bring somebranding into it on the outer
layer, I can let people knowwhat to expect, on a website, in

(18:44):
my email exchanges, on my socialmedia, it's always pointing back
to what they get after they workwith me.

And I even want to bring this into the product
space is sort of bringing overthat line from service into
product, we keep these things inmind to at Almanac and it's not
that different. I mean, makingsure that your website explains
what it is that you'redelivering in terms of the
product that you're making, orcreating or have sourced from
somewhere, making sure that youare delivering in the timeframes

(19:14):
that you've said on yourwebsite, you're going to deliver
them and then making that youknow, unboxing scenario special
or at least in line with whatyou're putting out on your
social media or your website orin those pieces of
communication. You canabsolutely be consistent no
matter what kind of business youhave, so that you are leading

(19:37):
your customer client throughyour process, and you are
delivering and just the way thatyou say you're going to, if not
maybe a little extra sometimes,but at the very least exactly
the way you've said you will.

Another basic business thing for creating a
sustainable business is to startsmall. So if you're at the
beginning of your business,start small Use what you have
before you invest. So forexample, starting this podcast,
we were literally recording,with our earbuds from our apple,

(20:11):
you know, headphones, we wereyou were editing the podcast
yourself. I mean, we were justrunning a lean operation just to
know, okay, this is somethingthat we're interested in doing.
And we can do it. Whenever youstarted Almanac, you were only
selling a candle, you know, andprobably perfecting your systems
and processes with selling acandle before you add more

(20:34):
inventory. So that's somethingthat I think is incredibly
important, whenever it comes torunning a lean business is to
one practice, you know, practicewhat it is that you want to do
before you invest a lot into it.
And then once you know, okay, Iliked doing this thing, and I
want to continue to grow it,that's whenever you start
building on to that foundation,so you're perfecting systems as

(20:57):
you go. And as you're buildingthem. And, and it keeps you from
getting overwhelmed and burntout on like, Okay, today, I need
to figure out freshbooks andAsana, and podia. And, you know,
Shopify, and all these systemsand processes, and I need to
figure out how to train myemployees, start small, I'm also
a big fan of solopreneurs,figuring out how every single

(21:21):
aspect of your business runs,and really trying to DIY it,
like, even if you're not agraphic designer, try and do
your own branding, try and doyour own customer service, try
and do all the things so thatone, you understand the amount
of work that goes into it. Andthen to you understand, whenever
you who you need to hire, youknow, you'll, you're you'll

(21:42):
really and this probably goesdown into the management section
we're going to talk about so I'mgoing to put a pin in this
before I go too deep.

I will I do want to throw in here too, though, my
friend Kelly knight who runsmodern mystic is one of these
amazing bosses and I watched herdo it, she runs a multimillion
dollar business. And every timeshe gets a new system or decides
to create something new, orwhatever she is doing it like I
have heard her get into heremail marketing platform just to
figure out how it works so thatshe can adequately offboard it.

(22:13):
And she knows what goes into it.
So no one is above getting theirhands dirty. And I think that is
a very important mindset forbuilding a sustainable business.

Yeah, and we're talking literally taking
your own trash out.

Oh, cleaning your own toilets like that, like
the whole thing for

that makes a boss a boss. And honestly, as I
grow my team, it makes me feelreally boss to get my hands
dirty. It's like, Yeah, get onthe ground level and do what
needs to be done.

Yeah, for sure.
I want to hit on one new thingthat we have implemented before
it being boss. It's somethingthat I've implemented, I
currently have implemented atAlmanac. And this is especially
helpful for creative businessowners, because you have a ton
of ideas I know you do. I knowyour type. I've talked to you a
couple of times in my life. AndI know that there's no shortage

(23:06):
for all the amazing things thatyou want to do and accomplish.
But sometimes you need to turnit off, and maybe not turn off
the new ideas, but turn off theimplementing of them. So
previously, we have implementedthis thing that we just simply
called no new ideas. And soevery time and as yet no new
things, no new things. Sowhenever a new idea pops up,

(23:28):
it's fun to share it for sure.
But then the other one looks ather one looks at the other and
says But no, no more new things.
And then you're like, Okay,we've implemented this, we've
done this at almanaque. As wehave brought on our first full
time employee, we wanted todedicate the first sort of three
months to really onboarding herinto all the systems of the

(23:49):
business. And in doing so weimplemented no new things, none.
We did, though, create anotebook where we're keeping all
of our new ideas so thatwhenever this like no new things
timeframe is done, we can goback to that notebook and see
all the great ideas we've hadand choose the things that we
want to implement. And I thinkthis is really great for record

(24:12):
keeping. But I also intend touse it as a tool of teaching,
just to show the team that if wewere to implement every new
idea, think about like how manythings are in that notebook,
there's no way we would get allof them done and the work that
we have to do. So having no newthings, I think implementing our
new idea, notebook andunderstanding that you just

(24:36):
cannot implement every idea thatyou have and that there is a
time for the right ones, whichis not always now is very
important for sustaining growthand then just sustaining once
you have grown.

I also love leveraging what you have and
then growing upon that. So thebraid method is how we've been
Working upgrade creative foralmost the past decade. And even
as we expand our business toinclude things like broader
marketing tactics, or, well,let's start with marketing
tactics, you still have to gothrough the braid method first,

(25:15):
so that we get to know you andwho you are. And then we can do
digital advertising. Or we canimplement some additional
tactics, or we're expanding intobuying media, you're still going
through the brain methods sothat we understand who your
target audience is, so thatwe're getting you on the right
channels and in the rightplatforms, or even as we expand

(25:37):
into working with organizationsand nonprofits and companies,
we're still taking them throughthe braid method, it might be a
modified braid method to workfor, how does it look, whenever
we're taking a board of 12people through the braid method
versus a single creativesolopreneur. So we're always
expanding on that basefoundation of who we are and how

(26:00):
we work because it's how we workbest. In order to do that,
instead of reinventing the wheelevery time, which is sometimes
the sexier thing to do. Like

there's not a cow years into it guys exactly.
hire some

think or you know, even whenever we launched
an E course, it was rooted inthat foundation of how do we
work with people one on one, sowe're really just taking, I
shouldn't go too far into thecourse because we no longer
offer it. But, you know, is thekind of thing that well, and
also no longer offering that wasalso a decision that helped us

(26:38):
streamline and create asustainable business as well
like looking at where our time,energy and money was going. So
all of this to say is thatbuild, create a solid foundation
and then build upon that evenwhenever you are building new
things and new ideas that itmakes sense in your business.

Want to hear a little truth about me. Because
of the work that I do buildingbusinesses and masterminding
with creatives to help thembuild businesses, I'm a systems
snob. If it's not easy to dobusiness with you, I won't do
business with you. If I have tofax my order to you because that
still exists, I will findsomeone else. If Facebook is the

(27:18):
only way I can contact you. I'mnot buying what you're selling.
In my experience of businessworth my business takes time to
make sure that they make it easyto do business. My favorite tool
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clients acuity scheduling acuitymakes it easy for me to schedule
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(27:41):
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(28:04):
required by going to acuityscheduling, calm slash being
boss. Alright, now I want totalk about marketing. Because I
think anyone listening this canunderstand that marketing,
unless you're one of thoseblessed folks. And there are
plenty of you out there whodon't need to do a ton of
marketing, though, I'll betalking a little bit about this

(28:27):
in a second. Marketing is a veryhuge part of what it is that you
have to do to have a business.
So I want to talk about somesome practices that creatives
can have to build a sustainablebusiness through having
sustainable marketing practices.

Well, of course, I'm going to start with
branding, because I believe thatgood marketing starts with good
branding, being able to positionyourself with solid messaging
about who you are, what it isthat you do, why you're
different, and why people shouldhire you, while at the same
time, your dream customerlooking at you and saying Yes,

(29:09):
you are. For me. That is whatbranding is. So having a solid
brand is the first step to asolid marketing plan.

I will second this and that. You know, several
years ago, I had braid do mybranding for my web design
company that I ran for eightyears. And I think I got you I
heard you guys need three yearsand do it. And that branding,
the messaging that you guyscreated for me, stayed true
through a couple of different,not quite total pivots, but

(29:40):
shifts in my offering and shiftsin my dream customer. All of
those things really goodbranding, sustained my business
for years and still to this day.
If I were still running thatcompany, it would still be just
as true.

Well and that's part of it is whenever
your business is personal andwhenever you're putting yourself
into it. Your values are goingto come through the branding
process that we take youthrough. And that is who you
are. And that's we're alwayslooking for what's never going
to change. You know, as businessmodels change as the economy
changes as technology changes,things are going to evolve, of

(30:17):
course. But what won't change?
And how can you leverage yourbranding so that instead of a
rebrand, it feels like the nextchapter in your book. And I
think that that's what you'vedone, as you've evolved, Emily,
is that you've just layered onthese chapters in your book that
create one big, beautiful story.

I mean, maybe there's only in chapter three of
what I hope is an epic.

So what you want to do is think of your
brand as the outer layer of yourbusiness. It's the front window,
it's your website. And what itdoes is it simply allows you to
explain who you are, versusfeeling like you constantly have
to be selling for me, goodbranding takes a lot of the egg
out of the selling, because youcan just simply say what it is

(31:02):
that you do. And then I thinkabout the next layer of branding
as your content. So I think ofthat as the newsletters that
you're putting out the podcastinterviews that you're giving
the social media posts that getmaybe a little bit more
personal, they just continue tosupport the story of your brand
and allow people to connect toyou in a way that keeps you top

(31:24):
of mind whenever they need tohire someone for whatever it is
that you do.

I want to touch on something you just kind of
brought up a second ago and oneof my most important tactics for
good marketing practice is tonot oversell your audience. I
think that's something that,especially for an overly eager
entrepreneur can be very easy,or someone who is maybe just
starting out and doesn't quiteget the nuances of marketing.

(31:51):
Marketing isn't just aboutselling, selling like hard
selling constantly and buy hardsell. I mean, you're telling
someone to buy something, asopposed to suggesting an outcome
that maybe your product orservice could, could help them
with. So by hard selling toomuch, or even soft selling too

(32:12):
much, you can oversell youraudience, so that they're not
going to buy from you anymore.

Well, it goes back to what we were saying at
the beginning aboutrelationships. So you have
relationships with your businessfriends, you have relationships
with your vendors, you also havea relationship with your
audience. And it has to feellike a give and take asset, feel
good for everybody, you have tobe offering value, even if

(32:37):
somebody never hires you,

right, because that is the world that we live
in these days. And so a goodrule of thumb, one of the things
that we say, and I, you know,train my team on whenever they
are doing marketing is to give,give, give, then sell. And you
can take that very literallythis idea of like, if you were
posting or creating a week'sworth of Instagram content,
three of every four posts shouldjust be content, just sharing

(33:01):
something valuable, somethinginteresting or funny, or
whatever it may be, and thensell the fourth one can be
selling. And if you do that,then really only one post per
week, if you're posting everyday is going to be a hard sell.
And that's actually posting aproduct or posting about your
service and asking people toclick through LinkedIn bio and
buy this thing. Similar withyour email marketing, give them

(33:23):
really great engaging contentmore often than you're asking
them to buy the thing thatyou're selling, or also in
networking events, whenever youare face to face with people. I
know that's a touchy subjectthese days. But if you are at a
networking event, don't be theperson who's walking up giving
out business cards and tellingpeople to call you so they can
buy your thing. Have aconversation, give give, give,

(33:45):
then sell.

I have a question as this relates because
we have a wildly differentbusinesses. So you have an
almanac, where really a lot ofthe content that you're posting
is viable at the same time.
Whereas braid creative, I'mprobably only hard selling once
a quarter whenever we happen tohave an open spot. I mean, we
usually have a waitlist forbranding projects. So if there's
the rare time that we have acouple spots open, I might just

(34:10):
send out an email that says hey,by the way, I never feel icky
doing it because it really is Ithink of being of service like
I'm doing you a favor lettingyou know that we have spots
open. But for you it's a littlebit different because your your
product kind of is your content.
So how does that work for you?

One of the best ways to do this, if you're
product focused is to thinkabout sharing with people how
they can use your product as away of like that giving piece
and this can be kind of tricky.
There's like some gray areahere, but my example is that I
sell crystals. And so you knownot every post on our Instagram
or even in our email newsletteris like, Hey, here's a crystal

(34:51):
go by it. It's like here's anaffirmation or a mantra or a
meditation for this crystal.
It's just simply sharing Someinformation about the product
without asking anyone to buy it,maybe they already have one at
home. And I'm teaching them howto better use the crystals that
they already have. So oranother. Another way to think

(35:13):
about this is to think about howyou can share content that helps
support the lifestyle of yourproduct of your product brand.
So one of the themes of Almanacis to embrace the season. So
every, every turn of theseasons, we're sharing things
like Tarot spreads, orforecasts, or meditations, or o

(35:34):
or seasonal blessings, you havecontent that supports the
lifestyle that your product canplug into. Simple as that. It's
about being creative with howyou talk about your product,
basically,

um, let's touch on social media marketing,
because that's like the thingthat seems to get the most
clicks, whenever we're talkingabout it. Like people are really
excited about social mediamarketing, it's

also really easy to burn you out. Yes, if you're
not doing it sustainably too,for sure. I mean, this is the
thing that most This is thenumber one marketing avenue for
most businesses these days,especially those of you who are
listening to this podcast. Andit's very easy to think that oh,
I need to be posting two times aday because that's what makes

(36:23):
the algorithm happy. Or thisexpert says that I need to do
this or whatever it may be, Ithink that you need to define
how you need to do it foryourself in your business, and
then do that, because anythingother than that, and we can talk
about really what that lookslike, is not going to be

(36:43):
sustainable for you. So mybiggest thing around this is to
create a regular postingschedule for whatever, like
whatever platform you're postingon, whether that be a blog, or
your Instagram or your emailnewsletter, but don't
overcommit. A lot of timespeople will be like, I'm going
to blog two times a week andpost everyday on Instagram and
do a weekly newsletter and allof that. And then you literally

(37:05):
spend your entire life justmaking content. And that's no
good for your business at all.
That is like a mismanagement ofyour most important resource
your time. But by not overcommitting, and really thinking
sustainably about how much timeyou're going to be putting into
your business in terms ofespecially social media
marketing, the better off itwill be and having a regular

(37:28):
posting schedule will make iteasily easier for you to
implement.

I've had such an interesting relationship with
content marketing, because westarted as content marketers,
and I loved it, I was literallyblogging. It's hard to remember,
but I think every single day

does, yeah, he did for years. For years, every
day.

It seems so impossible now that I don't even
remember that person who wasblogging every day. And then I
was instagramming every day anddoing lives and stories every
day in one capacity or another.
And then I was blogging somemore and sending out newsletters
every week. And then with theburnout, and then just really
focusing on client work, Ibecame too busy to do any of it.

(38:13):
So one of my goals this year wasto really get back into content
marketing. Or I don't even likesaying content marketing,
because for me, it's reallyengaging, like engaging with my
Instagram and newsletter and thepeople who follow along and read
and hit reply. So for me, I hadto start small again. So I

(38:35):
started just with Instagram, Ididn't worry about the
newsletter for a little bit, Ijust started by getting into the
rhythm of Instagram. And gettinginto that rhythm meant creating
a content calendar. So onMondays, it's about something
inspiring, maybe a quote,because those are always fun.
Tuesday's is about our companyculture. So maybe a vignette
from the office or highlightinga specific person that we work

(38:58):
with. And then Wednesday's is ablog post from the archives.
Again, I don't have time to bewriting new blog posts right
now, leverage what you have guysleveraging what I have. So I'm
going back to my archives, andposting old blog posts for
content and they're great. I'mlike, oh, wow, I wrote this

(39:18):
might as well repost it, becauseif I forgot about it, surely my
audience forgot about it too.
And then maybe sending out anewsletter on those. Well, I'll
get back to that. Then onThursdays, I'm sharing a case
study Fridays, I'm sharingsomething in pop culture. So all
this to say I had to find thiseditorial content, like this
editorial calendar rhythm inorder to get excited and then

(39:40):
automate it. So this is also ahuge part of having a
sustainable business isautomating your own system. So I
know every Monday I'm gonna loadup my Instagram for the week,
and I'm loading it up so that itpublishes itself and that's the
it's an hour. It's an hour ofwork, and it's done. So then
from there, once I got to thetene of that after a couple of

(40:01):
months, then I can start addingback in newsletters. So now my
goal is a newsletter a week, andreally trying to hit that. And
then after that it might bewriting a new blog post, maybe
just once a month. But startingsmall and sustainable is the key
to it. And really tackling andgaining confidence in one thing
before you add on a new thing,

right, and you're also building repeatable
systems that you can hand off tosomeone in the future, if you
ever choose to do so, which is agreat idea. One thing I want to
add to the social mediaspecifically, actually,
literally any marketing channelthat you're using is to
consistently check your metricsand sometimes be open to
changing your tactics. So if youare killing yourself trying to

(40:42):
post on Instagram every singleday, and you're not paying
attention to if it's actuallyworking for you or not, then
you're just wasting your time.
If you are going to becommitting yourself to doing
some marketing, also commityourself to tracking up as to
whether or not it's actuallyworking, and use what you're
seeing to make decisions movingforward. You don't have to post
on Instagram every day, if it'snot working for you by any

(41:04):
means. We did this at Almanacrecently leave some comparisons
year over year as to how muchmoney we had generated from
Instagram, our website platformgives us some of those metrics
and saw that our revenuegenerated from Instagram
actually greatly declined lastyear, even though my efforts
into Instagram had greatlyincreased. So we decided to

(41:26):
spend less time on Instagramthis year, because it's
obviously not paying off. Andthat's going to save us a ton of
time and not make us any lessmoney. If anything, we can put
those efforts into more moreeffective tactics that will make
us more money. So being veryaware of how your efforts are

(41:46):
like what the ROI is, what thereturn on investment is, in
terms of your time intomarketing is imperative to
actually making marketing workfor you.

I disagree.
But with a caveat. I'd love tohear it. This is like a classic
Emily and Kathleen, this wasright olden days, right boss,

let me see Kathleen, okay. So

I love the way that you are able to
mathematically figure out timeand dollars. I mean, I've seen
the spreadsheets and we've madesome really like easy decisions
because of this formula that youuse at being boss even. And so I
think that that works forsomething like Almanac where you

(42:29):
can directly see, but forsomething like braid or any
other service providers, let'ssay that you're a coach, I do
think it's important to continueto be consistent, maybe not even
posting at the frequency thatyou were at Almanac, that
posting with frequency becauseit's not really about the volume
that you need of click throughsand metrics, it's really about

(42:50):
providing proof of reliabilityand consistency for that one
person that wants to hire you.
So again, this is probably morefor a service provider. But if
someone's thinking about hiringyou, they're checking out your
website, and they're like, oh,check out their Instagram, and
they see that you've beenposting content that's relatable
and that they like and resonatewith, for the past year

(43:12):
consistently, they know thatyou're showing up, they know
that you are engaged in yourbusiness and you are there and
that you're going to be engagedwith them. So that's where
that's the only place where Ikind of disagree, I think that
we would obviously meet in themiddle if we hash this out and
more. But do you see where I'mcoming from on that, like just
providing that proof, for sure.

(43:33):
But

consistently doesn't need to be two times a
day too much exactly like onetime a week, it can be just as
effective in that scenario asfive times a week.

Well, also with us specifically on Almanac
It was almost like a pendulumbecause I remember whenever you
were like, I'm gonna double downon Instagram, I'm gonna post
like two to three times a dayand really go hard. And I think
if that's what allowed you tosee if that experiment worked.
Like sometimes I think going allin eliminates a lot of the
variables of knowing like, Isthis working? Is this not

(44:06):
working? So you're probablygoing from like, I want to
completely delete all myInstagram and social accounts,
which is where you probably weretwo years ago, two

or three at a time or two in my life

to I'm gonna double down on this. And post
three times a day to now you'reprobably in the middle where the
rest of us are. And you're like,I can do a post a day. Right?
batch them all together once amonth. Spend a few hours on it
and be good.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think the point here is
like, know what your goals areand then track those metrics is
I even think do if you wereshowing up consistently on
Instagram once a week for yourservice based business, but none
of your people are on Instagram,then get off Instagram like
there are still times when whenthat is completely relevant,
like find the place where peopleare.

Okay, but do you want to hear something
funny? Yeah, like one of mybiggest clients is on Facebook,
and I live really push myInstagram posts to Facebook just
for her. And she likes everysingle post. So like, that's
it's funny because it's a singleperson, but that metric is so
incredibly important that it'sworth it.

That's funny. I like yeah, okay, I want to move
out of social media for just asecond because it has, it works
for some people, it doesn'talways for everyone, but I want
to tell you what will alwayswork, no matter what, no matter
where the economy is, I mean,it'll obviously be a little
different depending on thetimes, but you have to make word

(45:37):
of mouth marketing, easy. Usereal people, their real
experiences and theirconnections to market you. And
you'll never have to post onInstagram ever, if you don't
want to. Because people willgenerate business for you. You
also one, you do this bydelivering amazingly, which we
talked about a minute ago. Andtwo other ways making it easy.

(46:00):
Sometimes that's promptingpeople in saying whenever you're
done with a project, hey, do youhave any friends that you know
would benefit from working withme, or is asking for reviews of
your products, and then over toFacebook to leave a review or do
a post it on Instagram, have ahashtag on Instagram so that
people can tag that hashtag inrelationship to sharing your

(46:24):
unboxing or your products onInstagram, there are lots of
little ways that you can dothat. And I'll tell you, it will
make your business if you canget word of mouth marketing
flowing for you.

And again, good branding allows you to talk
about yourself in a way thatother people then also know how
to talk about you. So one of myfavorite exercises for word of
mouth marketing is to imaginethat you're sitting at a coffee
shop, and you're overhearing acouple of people talking about
your business. It's someonethat's worked with you or bought
your product or has hired you.
And they're talking to a friendwho has no idea who you are or

(47:02):
what you do. What is it thatthey're saying about you? And
this is such a cool exercisebecause it gets you in the
mindset of real language, youknow, not over jargon, like your
languages and over jargon, oryou'll start to realize, Oh, my
positioning statement or myelevator pitch is a little bit
too long. Or here's where theymight be comparing me to

(47:24):
something that I'm not quite sohow do I talk about that in that
context? For example, with braidand branding, a lot of people
might think that we also dowebsites, you know, and so
whenever I think about myoverheard conversation in a
coffee shop, they're like, Oh,so did they do your website, I
imagined my client being like,no, they actually set me up

(47:45):
before with all the assets andwords and graphic design that I
then give to my web developer,you know, so that's the kind of
stuff and then I'm able to saythat to potential clients
whenever they're asking aboutwebsite. So think about it as an
overheard conversation. Andbefore we go too deep on this
one, we are so passionate aboutword of mouth marketing, we did

(48:06):
an entire episode on it. SoEpisode Number 213, of being
boss is word of mouth marketing.
Please go back and listen tothat one if you haven't already,
because we really do a deep divethere.

Yeah, word of mouth marketing will outlive any
algorithm change or you know,platform failure, or whatever it
is like people will talk aboutyour product. If you deliver
amazingly and they know how totalk about it. You want to hear
some crazy stats. Listen tothis. According to the Journal

(48:41):
of Clinical Psychology, you areless than 50% likely to stick to
your resolutions for change.
With an accountability partner,your likelihood of accomplishing
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specific accountabilityappointment with a person to
check in on your shared goals,your chance of success rises to

(49:02):
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share and check in on yourgoals, you double your chances
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In the being boss community.
We're doing this together. EveryMonday bosses from around the

(49:24):
world are coming together tocheck in with each other in what
we call our Monday meetup.
Whether it's looking back at ourbeginning of the year goals or
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(49:44):
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dot club slash community.

(50:05):
All right, next up, I want totalk about really top level
think like SEO, sort of mindsetpractices, that one can have to
really sustain their business onthat very, like, Swift, 30,000
foot view. And we've talkedabout like, time management,
which is, you know, quitegranular, like, Where are you

(50:27):
spending your time, those sortsof things and, and that specific
marketing piece, because so muchof our time does go into
marketing. But I really want tothink of like, big picture
business stuff that people needto be practicing to build a
sustainable business.

Well, the first one I think of is knowing
what it is that you're doing. SoI know that we talked about
where you're spending your time,but what is literally your job.
Yeah, and so for me, this washuge whenever it comes to a
sustainable business, becauseit's easy as the CEO, to get
bogged down with managing peoplemanaging money, like all that

(51:07):
big picture, stuff that you'retalking about, even toilet, the
toilet. But for me, whenever Ireally look at my job
description, I'm a creativedirector, and I want to be
creative. So for me, that meansdesigning, interfacing with
clients, working with my artdirectors and my team to get a
product out, directing them, youknow, internally, meeting with

(51:30):
marketing directors, atorganizations, you know, as the
creative director of our agency.
And so that, for me feels hugeis just knowing what it is that
you do and what your jobdescription is, and what your
job roles and duties, we evenhave an exercise in the CEO day
kit that helps you do this, andthen it helps you figure out,
Okay, if this is my job role,then what am I doing that I

(51:53):
don't want to be doing? And whocan I hire to do that. And I
have lots of thoughts on hiringand management whenever it comes
to how you hire and who youhire. But I want to hear your
thoughts first on other bigpicture things.

Well, before I go into that, I do want to say
that yes to this. And I thinkwhat makes this session
important sustainabilitypractice is that it keeps your
relationship with your businesshappy. When you're spending too
much of your time doing the shitthat you can't stand doing, you
begin resenting the time thatyou have to spend your business
and you're not going to stay inyour business for very long. So

(52:29):
really pinpointing the parts ofyour business that you want to
be doing and prioritizing thosethings that you keep a healthier
relationship with your businesslong term.

Yeah, because here's the thing is that every
job is a job. And I know thatour podcast is called being
boss, and we're all take controlof your work and do what you
love and all the things. But atthe end of the day, especially
in a time, like now, your job isa job, and they're going to be
stressful times. And wheneveryou are clear on what you're

(52:58):
doing and why you're doing itand what your actual job is, you
can always point back to thattrue north. And for me, it makes
me understand what I'm willingto fight for and what I'm not
willing to fight for. You'relike what I need to hire out or
let

go of, for sure.
So you did bring up CEO daycare,which is something that I
actually want to talk about. Oneof the things that we really
want bosses to do, to build asustainable business is to take
themselves out of that sort ofgranular here's what I'm doing
every minute of every day ortomorrow or even next week and
think about what you're doingfor an entire year. We've

(53:34):
systemized this using somethingwe call CEO day kit, which is a
a set of videos and worksheetsthat walk you through a planning
day that will help you plan foran entire month. And what why
this is so important forbuilding a sustainable business
is that you can set aside timewhere you are focused on
planning your business. And onthat day, you can think about

(53:57):
that 30,000 foot view of whatare you marketing for the next
12 months? What are you creatingfor the next 12 months? When are
you making your next hire? Whenare you taking your vacation?
When are you doing these thingsby having this plan in place,
you can go at this plan withmore sustainable momentum than
if you were just like puttingout fires and being reactive and

(54:20):
just trying to make it do andimplement all of your new ideas,
all of the things by sittingdown once a month. Know once a
year for sure. once a quarter, Ithink at least once a month if
you're really gonna do this isvery important for you to build
a sustainable business. So we dohave CEO day kit. You do not

(54:42):
need CEO day kit in order tohave that 30,000 foot view but
it is our favorite tools thatare built for creative minds who
want to do business.

It's also tools that we literally actually
use so whenever I'm taking mycoaching clients through, I mean
coaching, either I'm constantlyreferring back to this kit. So
whether they want to make ahire, or they want to understand
what they're marketing and whenor even what their goals are for
the year, I'm constantly goingback to CEO daycare, because we

(55:16):
really, truly use it. Again, youcan piece it all together, if
you're just listening to all ofour podcasts, we're giving you a
ton of good free information.
But I go back to it time andtime again. And so I mentioned
the job roles and duties somuch, probably because I just
took one of my coaching clientsthrough it. And we discovered
that what she needed hire wasnot a VA, but a senior account

(55:38):
executive who could manageprojects like a boss. So
actually, I want to talk abouthiring really quick because I
get asked a lot when to hire andthat first hire and this goes
into managing like literallybeing a boss of other people. So
my general I'm just gonna quickfire this my general rules of

(55:58):
thumb are I hire wheneverwhenever it was just me at 125%
capacity, or whenever it was meand my sister 125% capacity we
make our first hire. And so thenonce they are at 125% capacity,
I see okay, where are youoverextended? And where do we
need help next. So for me, italways feels almost making a

(56:20):
hire always feels a little bitlike that quitting your day job
leap, it always feels like areally big deal. And then the
second thing, whenever it comesto managing those employees is
just always touching base, weshould probably just do a whole
separate episode on how to workwith your employees. So I'm
gonna put a pin in that one. Butyeah, hire whenever you're

(56:43):
feeling the pain whenever you'refeeling at 125%.

I love it. Okay, I want to bring up two things,
both money related. Actually,before I bring up those, I do
want to go back to marketingreally quick, because I think
marketing is one of those placeswhere you can easily like just
sort of get ahead of yourself inthis exercise that we have in
SEO daycare, but you obviouslydon't need SEO to get to do it
is to have a marketing calendarthat you plan out well ahead of

(57:10):
time so that you know whenyou're or what you're marketing
when, so that you are not oneselling out your audience. And
two, you have a plan in placefor that very big chunk of your
business. So that's one nowthere's many things. Let's talk
about these because these aretwo of my favorites. One, pay
yourself if at all possible, youshould. In this time, I will

(57:36):
allow you not to pay yourselfbecause I know things are a
little wacky. Hey, you knowwhat? I'm not paying in this

time. The government? I'm still pulling a
check. But you better believethose quarterlies are put on
hold? Yeah, right. I don't. Idon't know. Maybe Yeah, no, you
can post that, Cory becausethat's where I'm at.

Yeah, and I think the again, the asterisk
around that is only because likeshits real.

And the Asterix, you'll go to jail if
you don't pay your taxes. Soeventually I'll pay them but
right,

I think you cannot at the moment for a
little while, which is nice. Ithink they're working on some
sort of extensions. We'll see.
We'll see. Regardless, payyourself if at all possible and
as much as you possibly can.
Because again, this is like oneof those sustaining a healthy
relationship with your business.
You didn't start this so thatyou could starve you didn't
start this or that you lose yourhouse. You didn't start this so

(58:30):
that you could be in financialpain consistently you started
this so that you could have anabundant bank account. So
prioritize that and my favoriteresource for this and this is
actually like money. Tip numbertwo is to follow the profit
first model for how it is thatyou manage the money in your
business. Profit first is a bookwritten by a man named Mike

(58:53):
mccalla wits, he we had him onthe being boss episode to talk
about profit first previously,if I'm not mistaken, it was
Episode 126 speak and check theshow notes to double check that
and this book gives a very clearguideline for how it is you
should be dividing up the moneythat comes into your business to
cover the important parts ofyour business expenses such as

(59:15):
owners compensation, settingaside money for taxes that you
either pay now or pay later.
Setting aside money for youroperating expenses, which
includes being able to pay yourteam and those sorts of things.
If you put this into place foryour business, it is a health
indicator for your business anda health indicator is an
indication of the sustainabilityof your business and it also

(59:38):
builds in your ability to payyourself so when it comes to
building sustainable businessthat is my sort of number one
tactic and oh, it's just areally good important one. And
Mike mccalla Wits will be one ofthe speakers at the being boss
conference which is now going tobe held online. Just A couple of

(01:00:00):
days after this episode goeslive. So if you do want to join
us there who will be answeringsome questions about profit
first, but he'll also beanswered talking about some time
management thing, which is gonnabe amazing. Anyway, that's the
thing. Probably first, yourbusiness please though, please,

Kathleen Shannon (01:00:17):
I second all of that with profit First, it
really helps you see the healthof your business, a lot of us
might be shaken up a little bitright now. So it gives you
something to aim toward. Butthere's a big mindset shift to
in paying yourself and for me,with any sort of newbie boss
who's just now getting set up,you want to open a business bank

(01:00:37):
account. And you're gonna haveto have some things in place
like an LLC, and you can figureall of that out. I think we have
episodes about it, like theactual logistics of that kinds
of stuff. But have a bankaccount and literally move money
from your bank account to yourpersonal account. I know far too
many people who are just leavingmoney in their bank account
because they're thinking of itas well. This is all my money

(01:01:01):
anyway, so I'm just gonna leaveit here. No, literally, if you
can write yourself a check,because I also think there's
some magic in that there is somemagic in writing yourself a
check and depositing it intoyour personal bank account, that
you've done the work and thatyou earned it.

Emily Thompson (01:01:17):
No, I love it. I feel like we've sort of covered
a very real gamut of all of themost basic and important
practices for literally anybusiness owner to build a
sustainable business high five.
Thanks for listening. And hey,if you want more resources,
we're talking worksheets, freetrainings in person meetups and

(01:01:39):
vacations and more. Go to ourwebsite at www dot beam boss dot
club.

Kathleen Shannon (01:01:48):
Do the work the boss

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#228 - Sustainable Business Practices

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#228 - Sustainable Business Practices