Top Business Podcast • over 4 million downloads • 900+ episodes

The Strategy Hour Podcast

with abagail pumphrey

Recognized by INC and Forbes as one of the best podcasts for entrepreneurs, join our twice-weekly show as we share business strategies, interviews, and actionable advice for building an online business your way.

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Our Episodes

Podcast, Leadership Guest User Podcast, Leadership Guest User

Unpopular Opinion: The Toxic Behavior That is Rampant Inside the Business "Education" Industry

There’s a massive problem that’s affecting our entire audience right now, and we have some seriously strong feelings about it, which you’re going to hear all about in today’s episode. Do you guys remember that show called Celebrity Deathmatch? That’s what we’re doing today, but we’ve got “serving” and “marketing” in the ring. We are furious on behalf of our clients because of how they have been manipulated into wasting so much of their time and money.

Today, we’re going on record to say that the business education industry is rampant with marketing pros trying to teach other people to be marketing minions instead of actually teaching foundational business concepts that don’t change. Marketing is in our blood, so we get the desire to do this, but marketing is not the key to success. Hear us out.

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Podcast, Project Management Guest User Podcast, Project Management Guest User

How to Hire a Personal Assistant and Delegate Tasks Strategically

When we first began to consider that we may need personal assistants, we discovered that we had some unexpected, and somewhat complicated, reservations. While the extra help would certainly have been welcome, we had a tough time justifying the hire in our minds. Hiring an assistant brought up an unexpected amount of mind junk, from outdated notions around a woman’s role in the house to Emylee’s very personal experience of her mom and nana owning a cleaning business, and it just seemed impossible to align the hire with our values. Add to that the terrible depictions of personal assistants that you saw in movies like The Devil Wears Prada, where PAs were always repeatedly degraded by their bosses, and the idea of hiring a personal assistant could easily make you feel like a monster.

It took us months and years to finally process and overcome these limiting beliefs and ultimately make one of the best decisions of our careers! Not only was hiring a personal assistant much more affordable and manageable than we expected, but we hadn’t anticipated the amount of freedom, peace of mind, and brain space it would give us! No matter where you are in your career, hiring a personal assistant is likely a much more achievable goal than you realize. In this episode, we break down how we chose to get a personal assistant, the process we used to prioritize our needs and reflect on how our personal assistants impacted our lives. So let’s dive in!

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Podcast, Leadership Guest User Podcast, Leadership Guest User

A Bookkeeper's Perspective on the 1:1 vs. 1:Many Business Model with Parker Stevenson

Put your socks on, pour a fresh cup of coffee and tune into this conversation with Parker Stevenson. If you’re a service provider who wants to make more and work less, today’s episode is for you! It’s not that we’re comparing one business model against the other, but rather, we’re considering an informed perspective on the 1:1 and 1:many approaches to business.

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Podcast, Customer Relationship Management Guest User Podcast, Customer Relationship Management Guest User

How High Earning Service Providers Manage Their Clients

It has come to our attention that there seems to be a widely held belief that high-earning service providers already know exactly what they’re doing. The perception is that everything is running super smoothly and that they are acutely aware of exactly what they need to be doing at all times. That they are solely focused on their zone of genius and that they've made no changes to the backend of how they run things. This is most definitely not the case.

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Podcast, Leadership Guest User Podcast, Leadership Guest User

October 2020 Profit Report: One UX Tweak We Made that Increased Our Membership by 15%

Today on the show, Emylee and Abagail walk listeners through their October profit report and, as per usual, it is nothing short of wild! Before October kicked off, Abagail and Jared suddenly needed a bigger space and ended up purchasing a new home without even planning to. What’s more is it is a fixer-upper that needs quite a bit of work, and we don’t need to tell you what a time-suck buying and renovating can be. At the same time, Emylee was away for a week on a much-needed break, and things got crazy and chaotic very quickly, but they managed to pull it together and still make a great profit in the end.

Amidst it all, they planned for a big launch in November and ran their first sale on the Creative Template Shop’s annual membership, all of which they discuss in this episode. They also had to establish whether a monthly or annual membership would be more profitable in the long term, so they did an experiment to see whether they could switch over to just an annual membership but realized that the slower conversion rate was not going to cut it just yet. Tuning in, listeners will find out how they managed to increase their memberships while reducing the one-off purchases in the Shop, and where all the other revenue came from in October. Of course, they also share the details on what they had to spend to keep things moving along smoothly and treat themselves appropriately. Be sure to tune in for all of it, and more!

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Podcast, Scaling Guest User Podcast, Scaling Guest User

Scaling Your Service-Based Business to 6-Figures Using Dubsado with Elizabeth McCravy

In today’s episode, we are talking with Elizabeth McCravy. She is a Nashville-based website designer and business strategist. She designs strategic and fun website templates for female entrepreneurs. Today we are focusing on her journey utilizing Dubsado to grow her business to six figures plus. We are going to be looking behind the scenes at what features she loves most about Dubsado, what order of importance she recommends for you to set up using Dubsado’s features, to get stuff off your plate so you can focus on clients and actually scale.

Elizabeth says she was only able to scale to six figures because of Dubsado, so if scaling and clients are in your future, Dubsado is going to be for you. We also do a little sneak peek on how Elizabeth has set up Dubsado to use for her podcast guest’ inquiries. She also answers the question of what feature Dubsado should have if it could only have one! We hope this one is an eye-opener for you as far as different strategies to implement in Dubsado in your client-based business, podcast, guest blogs, or anything related to getting people interested in working with you. Let’s get those workflows set up!

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Podcast, Leadership Guest User Podcast, Leadership Guest User

How to Reorganize Roles and Responsibilities in Your Team to Prep for Hiring

In today’s episode, we are going to talk a bit about reorganization and what it looks like to really get clear on the roles and responsibilities of your team members inside your business. We will talk about how you might do this as a way to clean up and get your head straight before you go through a hiring process.

We have probably made every mistake in the book when it comes to hiring and have learned a lot over the last few years as we have expanded our team. We have come from every end of the spectrum when it comes to hiring a team – having a big team, a small team, no team, contractors, and everything in between!

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Podcast, Leadership Guest User Podcast, Leadership Guest User

Leadership Development and Creating a Sense of Ownership with Alyssa Bloom

Today's guest, Alyssa Bloom, has spent the last 10 years working for one of the biggest companies in the world, being a manager for virtual teams. She manages over 120 people and has an incredible background in management and people leadership. In this episode, we are talking about creating a sense of ownership in your community and culture in your business. We have always been open about our struggles as leaders of our internal teams. We have had challenges with motivation, delegation, and just making sure that our staff is happy and that they like what they are doing.

It has been something we have wanted to get better at ever since we hired our first VA. So, having someone we love and respect so much help us get organized and in shape was crucial, and we are sharing that process with you today, along with how you can replicate it. There are so many good takeaways that Alyssa shares. We hear how to get more organized, make good hires, and most importantly, how to create a sense of ownership within your team and have your staff be as happy as they can be.

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Podcast, Marketing Guest User Podcast, Marketing Guest User

Free Challenge: 4-Day Batch Blitz

Today we are talking about batching your shiz! Yeah, girl! We know it’s a sexy topic going into the holiday season, but even in general, people want to get as much done in as small a window as possible so they can focus on the thing that they started their business to do. A lot of people find marketing monotonous, which we get, and we have been making it not only easier for you but also more fun with the Creative Template Shop.

Another great way you can wrap up the end of the year is by batching a bunch of content so you can serve your clients, finish projects, ship out orders, get things listed, have fun in the holidays with your family, and renovate the new house you just bought too! So, to do this and to make it fun, we decided to bring back the challenge concept, and today’s show is all about our newest one – The 4-Day Batch Blitz!

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Podcast, Marketing Guest User Podcast, Marketing Guest User

Preparing Your for Black Friday Promotions with Abbey Ashley  

Our guest on the show today is Abbey Ashley, the founder of The Virtual Savvy! After running her own successful VA business for a few years, she has gone on to help other aspiring virtual assistants launch and grow their own at-home businesses from scratch. We get to pick her brain today, and the reason we’re so excited is that she has an amazing business philosophy which involves keeping things simple while still making a major impact! She has perfected the art of doubling down on the areas that work and remaining laser-focused on those rather than getting distracted.

In this episode, you’ll learn about her launch game plans as well as how she deals with Black Friday, teaching us how to set ourselves up for a booming year ahead.

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Podcast, Marketing Guest User Podcast, Marketing Guest User

Crafting Your Perfect Sales Pitch (without being icky)

We remember our first good sales experiences so well! It can be one of the best feelings in the world and it does not have to have that slimy and sleazy feeling to it at all. Today we are talking about what we are actually doing and the process for having more efficient, successful sales meetings, that just feel better. No one one wants to feel icky and coercive when they are pitching and the truth is you really do not have to! What you really need to learn how to do is to let people fall in love with your offer, so it is less about selling and more about showcasing your process. If you follow these simple pointers the actual sales pitch will be a home run, we promise!

We have spoken at length on the podcast about locating your ideal and appropriate clients and this episode is essentially what to do once you have found them. Bad experiences in this department can make you feel terrible so we are trying to steer as far clear from these as possible. You do not want to be word-vomiting your way through nervous, un-researched meetings. These can leave you feeling like a wreck and with no more money to your name! Let's rather get strategic and get selling!

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Podcast, Leadership Guest User Podcast, Leadership Guest User

Crocodile Tears and the 3 Biggest Mistakes You're Making in Business

Ya’ll know we’re on a mission to turn you into a full-time creative entrepreneur who earns a sustainable income from your passion. Because we’ve been on this journey ourselves for the past four years and have helped thousands of people through it, we have seen and heard most, if not all, of the mistakes in the book. While we’ve spoken a great deal about getting your perfectionist or overachieving mindset right, that alone won’t help you to succeed. On a practical level, you need to stop making crucial mistakes, including focusing too heavily on the appearance of your brand, thinking that your audience is a bunch of strangers and convincing yourself that gadgets and systems will get you to where you want to be. Today we unpack each of these common mistakes, so get your notebook and listen up! 

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Podcast, Leadership Guest User Podcast, Leadership Guest User

Hiring for Growth Positions in Your Company with Jill Stanton of Screw the Nine to Five

Today on The Strategy Hour we are so happy to be joined by our friend Jill Stanton! Jill is the co-founder of Screw the 9 to 5, where she helps ambitious entrepreneurs quit their day jobs and live out their business dreams. They also have a very popular podcast and through all this work has inspired tens of thousands of people to build thriving businesses and live lives full of meaning and purpose. You can see why we love Jill! This is such a fun conversation, in which we focus on what it means to hire for growth instead of filling spaces. There is a big difference between building a team that actually helps you make more money and just getting bigger. It is such an opportune time to talk to Jill about this as she and her husband have just implemented these changes themselves within the last year! So the results are not all in yet, but it is looking good so far.

No matter how big or small your business is, this episode has lessons for you, many of which can be implemented from day one in order to set yourself up for success. As many of you will have noticed we are getting into the habit of emphasizing profit above all else and this is something we have in common with Jill! We are just so excited to have someone with this much experience in the online business world to share their genius with you. We have so much respect for Jill and Screw the 9 to 5 as she has learned so many lessons and we can all be really grateful that she is here to share these us!

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Podcast, Leadership Guest User Podcast, Leadership Guest User

October Profit Report: How We Nearly Tripled Our Profit

It’s time for another profit report! These are not an excuse to talk about our business – we truly want to arm you with helpful information that you can apply to your business as a full-time creative entrepreneur. Ups and downs are a natural part of any business, so we want to give you a glimpse into our month-to-month profit not so that you might compare your business to ours, but learn from our mistakes and find your own rhythm. We aim for a 30% profit and share what all our expenses are each month and the different sources of income over that period so you get all the details. Today you’ll learn what profit means to us, how our summit sales performed, why you must get hooked up with sponsors, the ins and outs of payment plans, and more! 

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Woman leaning on back of chair and smiling at camera

meet your host

I don’t believe there’s one right way to build a business.

I’m your host, Abagail Pumphrey. And I’m dedicated to supporting online businesses.

I’m here to help you build business your way: one that supports not only the life you have but the life you want. I’m on a personal mission to help you become financially free.

I’m talking about all the lessons learned as I turned a layoff into a 7-figure online business. I’m here to help you prioritize your life every step of the way, whether you’re creating your first digital product, growing an email list, or scaling an already profitable business.

I want to hear your hot takes, your biggest takeaways, or the genius ideas that pop in your head as you’re listening to the show.

My DMs are always open on Instagram, so head over and introduce yourself so I can get to know you!

Listener Love

  • 5 stars

    paigeamberbacani
    Abagail, thank you SO MUCH for this fresh passion! I can hear the genuine excitement in your voice over what is working well for you right now and what you have overcome in the past! Your resilience is truly contagious and I am so grateful for the knowledge that you freely share!

  • 5 stars

    GoodGood Investing
    An amazing podcast! From business strategy and systemization, to motivation and inspiration, The Strategy Hour really does cover it all! We love this podcast to bits!

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Software & Services We Swear By

Meet Our Partners

The links below are affiliate links. We receive a commission (at no additional cost to you) when you purchase through these links.

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