We have a list of goodies to share with you today of things we have learned over the last 18 months. We aren’t digging into the archives from years ago. These are definitely things we have learned and implemented more recently, and they are things we know you can benefit from. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, these are tips that you should pay attention to for yourself, and try to figure out how they can work for you!

How are you spending your time as a business owner, and what are you choosing to prioritize? As the CEO of your company, it’s crucial that you allocate your time in the best way possible. This, however, is much easier said than done. While the internet is populated with countless examples of how to increase your productivity and get more done during your working hours, few of them take into account the myriad of distractions and obligations that you and your clients need to contend with on a daily basis.

We are so excited to walk you through some of what we’ve been working on behind the scenes. Today we are going to let you guys filter through our brains about how we got to this point, what is new, and how you can be a part of it. One of the incredible things about running an online business is that we have been able to be part of a lot of the shifts that have happened for the entire industry. We have had to act and react based on many changes and our business has gone through loads of pivots.

In today’s episode, we share what we’ve learned about the business journey, and break down some of the phases, checkpoints, and milestones you’ll experience along the way. Throughout our careers, we’ve had the honor and privilege of working with some pretty phenomenal service-based organizations. And due to the nature of our work, we’ve had the opportunity to observe the inner workings of countless small businesses. In that time, we’ve seen key patterns emerge that we believe anyone can learn from!

Today, we discuss the difference between one-time projects and retainer projects for clients and how you can determine which is right for you. There are many filters through which to run your decision-making process when deciding whether to explore one over the other or have a hybrid between the two. In this episode, we share insight into the questions you should be asking yourself in order to make that call.

Our mission at Boss Project is to empower creative business owners to build a life and business that excels financially and supports them soulfully. Since we started this business, we have been truly dedicated to helping build a community of fiercely supportive people that are also ridiculously profitable. So much of that comes with financial literacy.

We want to see more women and femmes in business be not only financially safe but financially thriving. That’s a huge reason we brought on today’s guest who is dedicated to empowering people through financial literacy. Shannon McLay is the CEO and Founder of Financial Gym, a revolutionary financial services company, and she is an expert in helping others to build both personal and business finance.

How to live more and do less is one of our favorite topics of conversation. If you’re a natural people pleaser, it can be really hard to consider taking some things off of your to-do list. But people-pleasing can be rooted in a manipulative reflex. It can also be a trauma response. During the conference that Abagail recently attended, she heard from three speakers with one underlying message-- do less!

While this sounds counterintuitive, it's something we truly believe, and we want to share some of the nuggets of wisdom that helped us to prioritize this in our own lives, within a productivity-obsessed culture. Three inspiring speakers shared very different insights from their own personal journeys and the research they have done to understand the lives of others. Today, we’re sharing them with you.

Today’s discussion is about an idea that has had a resurgence recently for a number of reasons. The concept of finding a Third Place is nothing new! It’s actually been around for a long time; it is just popular at the moment. No matter how trendy it is, it is worthwhile to discuss and integrate into your life. The ‘Third Place’ was coined by a US sociologist who wrote a book called The Great Good Place describing a place outside of your home or work where you can relax.

The onset of a New Year is often accompanied by an inordinate amount of pressure. From the onslaught of 30-day health and wellness challenges to the call to “be more productive,” it seems like we are constantly being asked to do more and be better. But what does “better” mean exactly? And who are we doing it for?

In today’s episode, we unpack how to create better habits that actually stick and discuss ways to bring positivity and intentionality to both our personal and professional lives. We discovered long ago that New Year's resolutions just aren’t designed for us and that everyone has a preference when it comes to building healthier habits. Tune in as we discuss everything from starting your morning with positive intentions to crafting a mission statement for your business, and much more!

What would you do if your business disappeared overnight but your skills and experiences remained? How would you choose your product or service? Would you want to play a similar role? Should you even remain in the same industry? Today on the show we share our answers to all these complicated questions, and more, as we reflect on what we’ve learned from building a business and running it for almost ten years!

In our conversation, we reflect on the current economic climate, what we learned from starting a business during a recession, and what we would want from a second business after building a company based on passion from the ground up. Tune in as we indulge in a conceptual exercise examining what we’ve learned over the past few years and what we would do differently for our next business, and why!

We usually share a free-balling, brain-storming episode around this time of year about what we want the next year to look like. We are so ecstatic (and intimidated) about some of our ideas and we want to document them for you all to hear! This year, we dove into having a hybrid company really heavily but going into 2023, we have to ask ourselves what the right mix is for our team.

We know how stressful it can be to figure out how projects are going to happen and we encourage you to plan for the new year with flexibility. Find the balance between having a plan and being flexible to allow for inevitable changes that you can’t predict. Be prepared that your plan may not happen exactly the way you want it to. Spend your planning time looking at where your leads are coming from and what makes sense for your business based on the leads that you have.

There have been a lot of conversations in our incubator coaching lately about what to do when leads are lower. But that’s only part of the conversation. Today, we want to focus on how to know what’s right when you’re considering different ideas to pursue. When we’re in a rut, we tend to think that it’s time to think far outside of the box. Innovation is amazing when you’re in a season to be able to create something new and it makes sense, but when you need a cash injection, or you want to start the year off with a bang, it’s not necessarily the best time to start with something brand new!

What if, instead, you looked for ways to do the same thing, but in a different room? Could you do the same thing through a different lens? At the end of the day, if you already have systems and processes around the thing that you have been delivering, selling, and pricing, it’s so much easier to stay in that lane. Don't reinvent the wheel! While it might sound counterintuitive, we encourage you not to think outside the box, but to spin it in a different direction. It’s the same thing, just from a different viewpoint!

Have you ever felt that you’ve run out of boxes to check? It can feel unsettling not to be clear on what you should be pursuing, especially as you get older. We were pretty surprised to find out that most of the things we strive for as we age are actually developmental milestones. We learned that, with the passing of each decade, there needs to be a realignment to work toward a new set of goals. There’s a progression from building your career in your twenties, to finding life alignment in your thirties, connecting to passion and purpose in your forties, and building a legacy in your fifties and beyond. Striving to make these things a priority is a natural part of the life cycle.

This is not the first time we’re speaking about boundaries, and it won’t be the last. We love boundaries! They’re our favorite ‘B word’. We like setting them, we like holding them, and we like helping other people set them. One thing we find interesting is that when we start the conversation about boundaries and we lovingly push our clients or our team to create, set, and hold a boundary, it can be triggering for a lot of people. That’s because it makes us reflect on toxic behaviors we have allowed or done or negative stories we have told ourselves about why we might need boundaries.

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