Welcome back to another episode of your favorite podcast! Today we are answering your requests to break down the various roles we currently have at our company. So, just for all of you, we will be unpacking the size and impact of each of these in our beautiful little biz! We have been taking on new people and restructuring lately so what better time than now to do this exploration. We finally have a solid group and each role is pretty clear, which is more than we used to be able to say! We have to admit that for quite a long time certain jobs and departments remained quite a mystery to us, what they were really for and how much we could ask. Building a business is always going to include bringing people on and letting people go and it can sometimes prove quite hard to find the right fit. But we are much more confident right now than we have ever been!

So at the moment we have a nice mix of new faces and old hands and we have to shout out once again to Traction, the book we have drawn so much inspiration from, for helping us figure out our company structure. We have had to change our mindset from small business owners to the CEOs and founders of a company, which is harder than it sounds! It has taken three years of trial and error and in the beginning we did not even have plans to build a team at all! We are still figuring out how big we want to be; right now we stand at about 20 people working on things. Quite a lot, we know! Some of these are contracted out, some are employees, some are part time, but it is quite crazy to us that there are so many heads together on our little biz! So stay tuned as we dive into our business together.

Hey everybody we are super excited to have our friend Nikki Porcher on the show today! Nikki is the owner and founder of Buy From a Black Woman, which is an online non-profit organization that is bringing awareness and funding to businesses owned by black women! Nikki has had an amazing journey since starting this initiative and she now showcases a large number of black women business owners in her directory, Instagram, and in her shop. A fearless and natural creative, Nikki is so much fun to talk to and we know you are going to love this conversation too! During the episode we hear about this incredible journey that she has been on, starting with a blog, which became a hot Instagram account, then a directory and now a non-profit organization.

She currently gives out grants to black women to start their business and get off the ground, providing a network of support and knowledge to aid them in their pursuits. We have to admit we learned a lot in this conversation and Nikki is so open in sharing with us and we ended this chat just wanting to know more, support more and spread the love! There are so many great businesses in her directory and we should all be buying from them! It is so easy to do a little research, branch out a little further and diversify your world! Nikki is such a great example of turning your passion into something amazing and impactful and to be honest her story really reiterates a lot of what we always say!

Hi guys! Today’s episode is a really big deal. We are busting with excitement to share with you our motivation behind changing a key aspect of our business—the name! When you start a new company, the last thing you think about is changing it. Even though change can be terrifying, we hope that you will be equally as enthusiastic about the new direction we are moving into as we are. We assure you that we will do everything possible to continue serving you to the best of our abilities, and we can almost guarantee that you will love this change as much as we do.

Part of the name changing process involves making our brand more inclusive by collaborating with online entrepreneurs who will be educating you on a wide range of topics. You will not be hearing from only us in future but will be enriched by the knowledge of a plethora of experts in various fields of business. Be sure to tune in today to join in our celebrations and to find out all the cool new things we are going to be offering you.

Today we welcome Erin Abernathy & Steph Pulido from Out of Office Media. We are so excited to have them here on the Strategy Hour Podcast to talk about working with micro-influencers and how brands can create strong content and build a really engaged audience. Our guests are best friends, the co-founders of their company, and they have recently been recognized by Forbes! Their goal is to serve and interact with female millennials and they are now based in New York City. In their business they work with micro-influencers, or those that have less than about 10k followers on social media, to grow their following and in turn aid a brand’s goals. This is really about building a small yet strong tribe whether you are a solopreneur, budding influencer or big brand.

So if you are what may be called a micro-influencer and would like to dabble in working with brands and companies, creating another revenue stream, this episode might be just the thing you have been looking for. Erin and Steph offer a bunch of great strategies to get started, boost engagement, and niche down your market. So no matter what business or field you are in this can help you get to where you need to be. So without further ado, let’s dive in!

Welcome back to the podcast all of you wonderful listeners! Today we have a great show in store for you, one that is less about how you make money and more about how you spend it. We know that most of us quite like doing that! Bethany Tran of The Root Collective is here to tell us all about how to spend your money in more positive ways to create a better world around you. She is a problem solver and entrepreneur who started the company to help serve struggling communities through job creation. She actually left a stable job to pursue this work and we applaud her for that. She explains The Root Collective’s business model as well as gives some general ideas and information on wiser ways to spend your bucks!

Essentially, this episode is all about how we as women can spend our money in better ways and make a conscious impact on the economy and communities. Bethany has lots of ideas for how to implement these ideas and changes at a reasonable speed and we are pretty sure that after this episode you are going to want to buy some boots from her shop. You have been warned! She talks branding, community, sustainability, and we ask her why she has the best hair in the world! Here at TCC we really believe women rule the world and we need to step into the role as much as we can!

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of The Strategy Hour Podcast! Today our guest is Suzi Istvan from Splendidly Curious. Suzi is a brand strategist, marketing expert and has many years of experience working with a wide variety of different types of companies and organizations. She lives in upstate New York with her beautiful big family and we cannot wait to share this amazing conversation with y’all! Suzi is here to tell us about the roles of marketing director and integrator and how they can take your business from lighting up to burning hot! If your biz is currently small and just starting out or you are making a step up to the next level, trust us, this episode is going to help a ton!

The chat was amazing and enlightening for us and we gained so much just talking to Suzi, so we are sure there will be a treasure trove of stuff for you to mine in here! During the conversation, Suzi even interviews us a little bit, which was fun! We cover how to build and coordinate your team cleverly and finding that all important person who is as invested in your business as you are. This role, which Suzi and others have dubbed the integrator, can take a lot off of your hands and free up more time for you to explore and double down on your areas of genius. In the end, you are looking for someone who thinks of your business as their business and who can free up your mental load, so you can pursue all your dreams with more energy and vigor!

Welcome back to the show, everyone! As promised we are doing the second part of our segment on hiring a full-time employee. So if you haven’t listened to part one yet, we recommend you go catch up on that, ASAP! In that episode, we covered the application process, defining the role, finding and vetting candidates. Today we are diving straight on into the interview and onboarding process. We will be doing a follow up part three in a few months to report back on the outcomes of this whole process, so stay alert for that in the not too distant future!

Now, we have to be clear, we were looking for a unicorn. We needed someone who was creative and motivated but did not feel compelled to do these things in a business of their own. We have found that this configuration is quite rare and quickly found out that we would be lucky to nab someone who fits the bill. Having part time or freelancers work for you can be great and you may love these people but there is a limit to how much they can actually do for you if they are running their own thing as well and you are only part of that bigger picture. This was one of the main reasons we were looking to fill this particular role, so we could get a little more out of a full-time employee and have someone who is as dedicated to our biz as we are!

Hello all you wonderful listeners and welcome back to The Strategy Hour! Today we will be talking about a big step we took recently and when we say big, we mean really big! That’s right, we hired our first full time employee here at TCC and we are going to be talking all about the first part of this process and helping you think about this idea for yourselves. Before this everyone we have hired has been part time as a contractor and we were their client. To tell you the truth, we have been itching to get someone on board with more time and commitment to our business and this is when we decided to do it!

When someone is an actual full time employee everyone can get a lot more out of the relationship and knowing boundaries and how and when to do what can be a lot clearer. We do have to admit that there was some hesitation on our part due to going into the unknown. We had some concerns about what this would mean financially and legally and so we asked ourselves and others a lot of questions before getting serious. When we felt like these were answered and it was the right time, we got serious! As we cover during today’s conversation, our favorite book at the moment, Traction, came in handy for some helpful ways in which to go about this process. So join us as we break down this big step and hopefully get you thinking about your own big steps too!

Hey everybody and welcome back to The Strategy Hour! Today we are talking PR, media, and marketing with Christina Nicholson of the Media Maven. Christina was in news broadcasting for many years before she decided to start her PR firm and now helps businesses grow their brands by gaining exposure and using it wisely. Today’s show has Abagail riding solo as Emylee is away with a sick little one, but do not fear! It promises to be just as jam-packed and dynamic as usual with such an amazing guest.

Inside this episode, we will be talking about how to get more media coverage and how to utilize it, getting comfortable in front of a camera and much more! Christina also talks about common mistakes and simple tips for getting the most of out of your PR. As an industry expert from the other side of the fence, Christina has a lot of wisdom to share on how to get noticed and present well. We get into reaching out, who are the best people to speak to, and ways to make the process of marketing yourself more enjoyable for better results. For all of this and a whole lot more, you know what to do!

On today’s episode we are super-duper excited to host Ashley Knight of The Hello Boss Community. Ashley founded the community as a means to support and bolster other businesswomen who were in the same boat as her. Through her group she is able to teach and coach strategy to an ever growing number of dedicated members and she loves it! And we love her for it! Here at The Strategy Hour Podcast we know the value the of groups we have run and been a part of, they can be the lifeboat bringing you back in when you are out at sea, so we know exactly what Ashley is talking about!

In our discussion we cover the early stages of starting a supportive community, relationships within this space, real world events, social media, sensitivity masterminds and much more. Ashley is one of the most dedicated community founders we have spoken to and we are sure her attitude and advice is going to be wonderfully useful and inspiring to all of our listeners. So whether you are part of an online community or looking to start one yourself, this is definitely the episode for you. Listen in to get the low-down.

Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of your favorite podcast! We are doing all the end of year round ups, reflections and strategy activities and today is all about getting that planning in for next year. We cannot believe 2018 is basically already over; it has just flown by and we are pretty sure you feel the same way! So if you have not yet got down to planning things for you and your biz, this is just what you need to get started and crush that session. We all need things on our calendars so we do not go stumbling blindly into the next rotation around the sun. So why not get down to it with us? We got you!

We will also be giving a few sneak peeks into what we will be doing next year, so you are not going to want to miss that juicy info! We chat about making time for your planning session and how to prepare successfully as well as getting into some of the key aspects of realistic and inspiring goal setting. A key takeaway from today is how to look at the drivers of your goals and using this information to make more accurate and helpful plans. On top of this, we give a few frameworks and suggestions, things that have helped us immensely in the past and we finish off today’s show with some failsafes, so you don’t do a lot of planning only to forget about it a few months into the new year. So for all that and more, join us on today’s episode!

Hello all of you beautiful people and wonderful biz queens! Today on the show we are super happy to be speaking to our friend Indigo Colton about the recent switch she made from running her own business to become a full time employee at someone else’s company. We think this topic has not been covered enough and it is really an important subject to understand if this question ever arises for you. We will be hearing from Indigo about her thought process, the deciding factors and some of the potential red flags. For Indigo, the change was the right move and we will try and unpack why it was the case so hopefully you can keep making the right choices for yourselves!

Some of you may already know Indigo but this peak inside her mind is a great way to get to know another side of her. We have a really interesting conversation we know you are going to love! We have noticed people seem to be a little hesitant to share their own experiences and inner workings on this subject, so it is just great to have an open and honest conversation about these things. We will be covering the feeling of going from being your own boss to the position of an employee, benefits and things that can be learned from another business, networking possibilities and all of Indigo’s ideas and feelings in-between! So let’s get right down to it!

Hello everyone and welcome back to the The Strategy Hour! Today we are once again joined by our friend Steph Crowder for a Boss Talk session and we will be discussing the role of mindset in defining success. These episodes are definitely some of our favorites and it is always a pleasure having Steph sit down for a dive into an interesting subject. We actually stole this topic straight from her and she dug into her deep archives and pulled this one out just for our listeners. We will really be considering how to get past mindset issues and how differently we combat these problems. It is such a great question and we cannot wait to unpack it right here on Boss Talk!

The discussion covers a meditation on different kinds of mindsets and attitudes and how these impact levels of success. We then go on to talk about grit, determination, and perseverance and how vital these qualities are in any type of achievement. The topics of nature and nurture are also relevant and a large takeaway from today is that we do not start on an even playing field but we do get to decide how we play the game and when we get back up from a fall. For an inspiring chat with a great soul-sister of ours, be sure to tune in!  

Hello everybody and welcome back to our podcast! Today’s show is almost like a grown up book review project, so just imagine us handing in a report and giving a presentation at the front of the classroom! The reason we are going back to school for this one is because since we recently read the book in question, it has made such an impact on both of us and TCC as a whole that we just could not wait to share it with all of you. Today we will be talking about Traction by Gino Wickman and how it immediately changed our trajectory and gave us so many tools for our biz. We know you are going to love them all! We cannot say this enough, whatever stage of your business you are in, go read it! The book has so many great strategies and this is the Strategy Hour after all, so there you go!

Today we will be looking at a few of the exercises and frameworks that Wickman offers in the book, which cover goal setting, company roles, vision and loads of other good stuff. We guarantee that these tools will change your biz for the better, forever! The book contains fun and engaging quizzes and activities and we really recommend that you use it as a kind of work book, moving through it with your own projects and departments. We will definitely be following this episode up sometime in the not too distant future with a report back on the effects of the framework, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for that some time next year. So without more fuss, let’s get down to it!

Welcome back to another episode of the Strategy Hour Podcast. Today we are diving into why we take every December off. Now the truth is, we love you all, but we are tired! Our brains hurt, our throats hurt, and it’s time to take some time away. Life can get incredibly busy, especially around the holiday season, and sometimes that can be just too much to handle on top of running a business full-time. We all know that as Murphy’s Law would have it, everything happens all at once; business picks up, family events are scheduled, big life changes happen, you name it!

So inside this episode we are diving into exactly why we have adopted this strategy of taking the month of December off, and what it has done for our business and our personal lives. We also dig into exactly how we manage to prepare and plan ahead with our team to be able to pull it off. Finally, we share all the juicy details to help you do it too. That’s right, you can do it too! Just take what you learn here from us today, see how you can apply it directly to your business, and jump on the magical train to free Decembers!