Episodes
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As we go through the life cycle of our business, we're going to come to all these different forks in the road. That's very normal. We usually wind up asking ourselves some version of the question, "Should I be branching out?" at different stages of our business.
People wonder if they should be trying out different marketing tactics, or create a new offerings, or deliver their services differently. And there is plenty of noise about what the current golden ticket is (podcasts! online courses! membership sites!) as we cycle through new trendy options.
Rather than falling for other people's hype, this episode helps to navigate how to answer the branching out question for yourself through a process I call the Assumption Busting Question Tree. It's not a catchy name, sure, but it will help you surface the assumptions you might be making and get you to a clearer, more true-to-you answer about what your right next steps are.
https://www.simpleprospering.com/
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Today I want to talk about the lifecycle of a healing arts business. I have been working on figuring this out for, oh… almost 24 years now… Both in navigating my own healing arts businesses (which have spanned many different business models, aka ways of delivering the service), and in helping many many other people to do the same thing.
If that sounds like a snoozefest, the reason why it’s useful to connect all the dots in one place is that once you see the patterns, you can spot where you are within them (within your own business). And from there you can do a lot of things! Things like:
Understanding what is “normal” ups and downs, and what is cause for recalibrating things
Assessing current challenges and knowing what will actually help to alleviate them rather than throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks.
Saving you from spending TONS OF TIME AND MONEY on things that will not help you because they are not oriented towards a tiny healing arts business, or because they are just not the right tool at the right time.
Feeling much more comfortable in your own skin, and in your own business, based on living up to the values and desires that you have for your work, rather than all the “supposed-tos” that float around. Basically, feeling less like you are “doing it wrong” in your business, and knowing that some amount of consternation is just normal when you are self-employed.
So… hopefully this mapping of the lifecycle of a healing arts business will help you to more quickly and easily alleviate unnecessary stress!
Want some support in your business? Visit simpleprospering.com
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Episodes manquant?
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I’m emerging from a creative cave, and so I thought I’d talk a bit about the creative cave itself. This is when you know you want to focus thoroughly on one thing, and so you deliberately stop doing other things that will drain time energy and attention away from the One Thing.
But if you wear all the hats in your business, how do you decide what can be paused? And once you do, how do you make sure to put your creative cave time to good use?
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When we work for ourselves, one of the things we are constantly engaged with is refinement.
In this week's episode I trace the journey of refinement for the Healing Arts Practice Incubator, complete with embarrassing tales of my early days in practice.
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Many of us come to self-employment through a side door. Meaning, few of us choose self-employment first, and then what it is we will do as a self-employed person second.
Instead, most people acquire some skill, and either right away or eventually, it makes the most sense to deliver that skill as a self-employed person.
This means that many people wind up working for themselves without ever consciously asking themselves the question, “Do I want to be self employed?”
Oftentimes those of us who support self-employed or entrepreneurial types of businesses are caught up in cheerleading it as the best option for everyone. But in this episode, it's real talk time. Let's go through some of the pros and cons of choosing either self-employment or being employed by someone else. There is no one right answer, and, leveling with you here, there is no one perfect career path. So let's talk about it!
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We made it to the final building block! This week I’m discussing building block number 6: how to systematize your burnout proof business.
(If you missed building blocks 1 through 5, you can go back through the most recent episodes, and/or you can download the free ebook You Need a Holistic Business here.)
Building blocks 1 through 5 are all about attaining liftoff, but most of what you will be doing in your business is running your actual business!
This is when the challenge becomes how to streamline and systematize the operations of your business so that you don’t wind up constantly in the weeds or constantly reinventing the wheel (I’m going to go ahead and mix metaphors here!).
In this episode we cover some of the key places to set up your systems, in as simple a way as possible, so that you have more wind at your back than you have wind-drag.
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This week I am delighted to be joined by Michelle Warner, a business designer and strategist and an expert on the topic of relationship marketing.
The vast majority of what we see these days is traffic-based marketing, which is well suited to mass market brands, but not at all well suited to tiny service-providing businesses. What serves us well is strategic, generous fostering of relationships.
In this interview, Michelle Warner talks us through some of the typical misconceptions, pitfalls, and, most importantly, winning approaches to cultivate our own relationship marketing skills for our own businesses.
You can find more of Michelle Warner's work at themichellewarner.com
You can find more of my work at Simple Prospering
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"Marketing" and "sales" are much loathed words and activities in the tiny service-providing business space. Most of us got into our work to help people out while practicing something we have a deep love for. Not to feel like we're shaking people down for money. That's totally fair!
Except... if a business is not bringing in revenue, it's not a business (call back to building block #1...). So marketing and sales become essential, but we don't have to do them in ways that are either overwhelming or which just feel gross. We truly don't!
In this episode I discuss the simplest definitions of marketing and sales for our purposes, and the simplest and most effective (and non-gross) ways to engage with them.
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In building block #4 from You Need a Holistic Business, I'm talking about how branding (done right) puts a lot of wind at your back.
I also talk about what branding is NOT, particularly when it comes to small service-providing businesses. You don't need an iconic logo the way mega corporations do- If you're listening to this podcast you probably aren't thinking about opening up "flagship" stores, or buying a Superbowl ad, or generally "dominating market share" like an 8-figure company.
In our cases, branding is about the cohesive voice, vibe, and flow of how your business is presented in the world. In this episode, I go through each and walk you through how you can give yourself a brand refresh if you need one.
You can download the free ebook here: https://www.simpleprospering.com/free-trainings
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We are going through the 6 essential building blocks for a thriving small business. This week is number 3, about how you can craft your business model in a way that is thoughtful about your strengths, your clients' true needs, and your revenue goals.
One the one hand, sometimes we assume that we need to tolerate a certain level of burnout, when we don't! And on the other hand, sometimes we seek self-employment nirvana to our own detriment, and jump from one business model to the next too quickly.
In this episode we discuss how you can think through crafting your model for yourself over both the short term and the long term.
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In building block #2 I'm talking about how to build a business around BOTH your strengths and your clients' true needs. Oftentimes things are lopsided in that equation. A symptom that things have gotten out of balance is that everything starts to feel Sisyphean- you keep rolling that boulder up the hill and it keeps rolling right back down.
In micro businesses we wear all the hats! So we have a lot less running room for a business that isn't well structured. I troubleshoot how to spot an unbalanced business, and how to weave your strengths and your clients needs into an offering that is satisfying and sustainable for both of you.
This is the audiobook version of chapter 2 from my free ebook: You Need a Holistic Business: Learn the Six Essential Building Blocks. You can download that at simpleprospering.com/freetrainings.
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This episode is essentially the audiobook version of the first chapter in my free ebook, You Need a Holistic Business: Learn the Six Essential Building Blocks. If you want the full ebook, you can download that at simpleprospering.com
Building block number 1: Know what your business needs to earn.
Without understanding what your business needs to bring in in order to be sustainable, it's easy to wind up trying on tactics without having any clear direction and to wind up walking in circles.
This is especially try for tiny (sole proprietor) service-providing businesses. We figure if we only have to worry about paying ourselves, we don't really have to think about it that much. But we very much do!
This episode will guide you how to sort out what you actually need to bring in to make sure you can take good care of yourself as a small service-providing business.
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In the last episode I discussed the "Jeremy Bearimy" loop de loop of one's business's evolution and maturation. Other entrepreneurial spaces would call this a pivot...
But sometimes we think we are in a pivot, when in fact we are channeling our inner squirrel.
I talk about an inquiry that I use to help me discern whether I am in a healthy pivot, or whether I am running around piling up acorns to deal with later. Oh and there is talk of emulating oak trees. And I generally beat the metaphor of squirrels vs. oak trees to death. Enjoy!
You can find the article version of this podcast at simpleprospering.com
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I'm your host, Brooke Thomas, and I am a self employed lifer. I help the helpers- people who have tiny, but mighty service providing businesses.
If you're here, you might be self employed a freelancer or an entrepreneur with a small team. And the things that you do come from your heart with an earnest intent to make things better for the people that your work serves. You may also have discovered that one of the people your work life serves is also you and that for as much as you give, you too should get nourishment and support back from your work.
In Simple Prospering, we explore just how to do that.
After taking a year off from this podcast, I'm back! The reason why I took a year off is because I knew that I was deep in a transition phase with my business.
In this episode I talk about the twists and turns that any self-employed person is likely to encounter, and also (re) introduce myself by way of telling you some of my own twists and turns.
What's Jeremy Bearimy? Listen to find out!
www.simpleprospering.com
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As you are probably well aware, as self-employed people we wear many hats. While many work days do look the same, many do not! We will often be doing very different tasks on any given day, week, or hour.
As a self-employed lifer (my last salaried job ended in 1999, 2 years after I finished my bachelor’s degree…) I actually find this wearing of many hats delightful and stimulating and creatively engaging.
What is less delightful however are things like burnout, over-giving and under-receiving, and trying to do everything in your business, even the things you could hire out for and delegate for. So just to clarify: I am not advocating for doing everything, all of the time, and loving it.
Now that I’ve clarified that I’m not glorifying overwork: you do, in reality, have stuff to do right! So what to do when we are wearing the many hats? How do we find more enjoyment in that (provided we aren’t clutching all of the hats all of the time)? The answer for me has been experimentation and interval training.
SHOW NOTES
The Pomodoro Technique: https://francescocirillo.com/products/the-pomodoro-technique
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This is the final episode in the series about compass points we can use for our businesses. We’ve talked about how to make progress, how to simplify our work, and what it means to have a financially beneficial business. Today we will talk about how to create something every human being deserves: humane work lives.
SHOW NOTES:
Tim Kreider The Busy Trap: https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/
Tim Kreider It's Time to Stop Living the American Scam: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/opinion/work-busy-trap-millennials.html
Tara McMullin The Valuable Business of Maintenance Work: https://explorewhatworks.com/disruption-vs-maintenance/
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This is part 3 of a series about the compass points that I use as the true north for any business. In the first 2 episodes in this series we covered how to make progress and the things that can get us caught in the weeds, and in last week’s episode we discussed strategic simplicity and some of the more common things in this cultural moment that can keep us mired in needless complexity.
Which brings us to the topic of today’s episode, the one most service-based business owners, myself included, would rather put their heads in the sand over than talk about! Businesses should be financially beneficial to those who run them and work within them.
Here are the top 3 common issues around money that I want to get to today:
1) We tend to over-give and under-receive which creates Chronic insufficiency, often experienced as underearning.
2) We usually do not know how much we need to earn and therefore we do not know what we need to charge (meaning we don’t have informed pricing or financial planning for our businesses).
3) We do not set up systems so that finances are tracked and taken care of; and then we wind up short when it comes time to pay taxes, take a vacation, or take some sick or personal time off. OR we simply don’t know where all the money goes and why we don’t feel like we’re earning enough even though our revenue numbers look pretty good.
If you can relate to some or all of these, you are not alone! I see this over and over again when I work with very small business owners. And of course, I have done all of these things myself. I came to financial recovery work the hard way.
SHOW NOTES:
Financial Recovery Institute: https://www.financialrecovery.com/
Wealth Addiction by Phillip Slater: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wealth-addiction_philip-slater/451973/#edition=2213787&idiq=10966918
Underearner's Anonymous: https://www.underearnersanonymous.org/
Earn What You Deserve by Jerrold Mundis: http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/118580/
Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanny (Huson): https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/682878.Overcoming_Underearning
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz: https://mikemichalowicz.com/profit-first/
Profit First Professionals https://profitfirstprofessionals.com/hire-pfp-form/
Xero: https://www.xero.com/us/
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Today is part 2 of 4 in my series on the core values, or compass points, that Simple Prospering orients as its True North, and values that I think can be mighty helpful for all businesses.
I talked about value 1, make progress, in the last two week’s episodes. Today we are talking about value #2: how to keep it simple!
Simple is in the name of my business, so obviously it's important to me, but “keep it simple” is often thrown around like trite advice and it’s easier said than done when you are in business for yourself.
In this episode I focus on 2 common barriers I see to effective simplicity in one’s work. Really I am sacrificing 2 sacred cows in this week’s episode:
Barrier number one/aka Sacred Cow number one (especially in service-based businesses): Workism and The Passion Principle.
Barrier number two/aka Sacred Cow number two (for nearly all entrepreneurs) Frankensteining your offerings until you’ve created, you guessed it. a monster.
SHOW NOTES
Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, Workism is Making Americans Miserable https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-workism-making-americans-miserable/583441/
Erin Cech, book, The Trouble With Passion: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303232/the-trouble-with-passion
Kelly Diels: https://www.kellydiels.com/
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Last week began a 4-part series on the core orientations that I believe provide a solid true north compass point for small businesses.
In the last episode I talked about how to make progress. After publishing that episode, I realized that I had left out the approach that I actually use THE MOST to make progress. I’m using it constantly, it's my go-to. So I decided a brief addendum episode was warranted.
Here's how I actually make sure I do "the thing".
SHOW NOTES
Last week's episode: https://www.simpleprospering.com/podcast/how-to-make-progress
Simple Business Incubator and Simple Business Accelerator: https://www.simpleprospering.com/work-with-me
Tom Hanson at KNVP Studios https://www.knvpstudios.com
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Today’s episode kicks off a 4-part series where I will be talking about the core values of my work here at Simple Prospering.
I work with many different types of service-based businesses, and have run a few different types myself, but no matter what the business does, these 4 values describe the kind of container I would love to see all businesses existing within because they are the values that make for healthy business ecosystems, and healthy humans who operate within those ecosystems.
So regardless of what it is you do in your work, these 4 values provide great compass points for any of us who are self-employed or running a small business.
In today’s episode I will tuck into value number 1: Make progress! That might sound like, "duh", but it is the thing we often bump up against when working for ourselves.
I discuss the trap of the 3 P's (perfectionism, procrastination and paralysis), the growth mindset, the difference between being in motion vs. being in action, and the difference between interest-curiosity and deprivation-curiosity.
This episode comes with exercises you can try out yourself to get out of any of those 3 P's.
SHOW NOTES
Dr. Carol Dweck: https://profiles.stanford.edu/carol-dweck
James Clear on Taking Action: https://jamesclear.com/taking-action
Dr. Judson Brewer book Unwinding Anxiety: https://drjud.com/book/
Jordan A. Litman and Paul J. Silvia study on interest and deprivation curiosity dimensions: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16740115/
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