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

Abagail Pumphrey 5/17/22 Abagail Pumphrey 5/17/22

The Secrets Multiple 6-Figure Earners Aren't Telling You

After serving clients one-on-one, we ultimately changed the entire landscape of our business, yet we didn’t even realize that’s what we were doing! If we could go back in time, there are so many things we would do differently, and today, we’re going to share them with you. When we got to a certain stage of business, we froze up and felt like we were on an island. We had no idea what the next step should be and it felt like everyone else had all of the answers. So many of our clients reach the same phase where they hit a milestone marker and feel like there's something that they’re missing, like a missing piece of information; a formula, or a blueprint.

If you feel like million-dollar businesses are gatekeeping this information, the truth is, some of them are! If you’re at the stage of hitting a quarter of a million dollars and don’t know where to go from here, we’re here to tell you. Consider us your Fairy Godmothers of Business Past, telling you your future so you can really decipher what you want to focus on in this phase! Tune in to find out which things you’re tying to success that need to be let go.

Guest User 5/12/22 Guest User 5/12/22

Everything You Need to Know About Hiring

As most of our listeners at Boss Project know, Abagail is our CFO and sits in HR as well. She has worked hand in hand with plenty of amazing people in HR to learn about the hiring process for a company. She has single-handedly shifted her team from just Emylee and Abagail, to exploring contractors, part-time employees, full-time employees, and pretty much everything in between! Inside the incubator, she has started to have conversations about hiring, and she has plenty of wisdom to share from all of this experience.

Most business owners struggle with follow-through. The reason why Boss Project has been successful is that where Abagail struggles to see things through, Emylee excels! This formula, along with having the team to support it, has been a winning recipe for us. If you’re a solo business owner, you could be leaving money on the table for this reason. That’s where the magic of having help, even for ten to fifteen hours a month, comes in.

Abagail Pumphrey 5/10/22 Abagail Pumphrey 5/10/22

We're Reclaiming The "C" Word (No, Not That One)

You don't have to be good at everything you try. And you don't have to only do things that you’re good at. As kids, we’re often far more comfortable with experimentation and trying new things, than we are as adults. When we get older we increasingly feel pressured to stick with what we’re good at and not ‘waste our time’ on things that aren’t directly related to productivity. For perfectionists, it can be particularly difficult to try new things, which can have an adverse effect on decision making abilities.

The term consequences might be rife with negative connotations, but we’re determined to take it back and make it a neutral word! Examining the potential consequences of our decisions is hugely valuable. It can help us determine what we want and fully understand what each choice can offer us. There is no one-size-fits-all solution that will work for everyone, nor should there be. Many of us think we should be pursuing relentless growth because that’s what the world tells us we should want, but when you consider the consequences of constantly scaling it becomes apparent how unrealistic (and unpleasant!) that is. Tune in today as we discuss how to unpack the consequences of our decisions, how to make choices based on the season of your business, and much more!

Abagail Pumphrey 4/26/22 Abagail Pumphrey 4/26/22

The #1 Thing Holding Service Providers Back From Raising Their Prices (and What to Do About it)

We have now done multiple callouts, promotions and launches of the Incubator. We've had hundreds of applications and we’re working with incredible clients inside the program. And if you’re not one of them, you should be! If you’re scared to start a conversation with us, you need to get rid of that feeling right now because we are really not scary at all. You can literally ask us anything, we have no boundaries when it comes to helping our clients. We’re here to help you change your business for the better, so don’t waste any more time stuck where you are!

Abagail Pumphrey 4/21/22 Abagail Pumphrey 4/21/22

10 Strategies to Get More Referrals in 2022

Referrals are, without a doubt, one of the hottest topics that we have going on inside our world. We are so intentional about you doing business the easiest way possible without having to invest in huge ad spends, or allocate loads of money to marketing budgets, or focus on growing an absurdly huge social media presence. We really want you to focus on connections instead. The vast majority of our clients get booked out with almost exclusively referrals, and as they grow they start experimenting with different strategies.

Today, we want to talk about ten ways to get more referrals in your world. A referral lead is just as real a lead as a stranger! Quit downplaying the quality and impact that referrals can have on your business, just because they felt easier to get. Referrals, by and far, are better quality, will pay better, will be easier to work with, will finish their projects faster, and they also know other dreamy clients which they may end up connecting you to. It literally only takes one dreamy client to connect you to a network of other dreamy clients, and the clients that we see who use that route, reach their goals way more easily, and are happy in their day-to-day business.

Guest User 4/14/22 Guest User 4/14/22

What's Your Business Retirement Plan?

If you’re a true crime fan and you enjoy a scandalous story about fraud, you’ve definitely spent some time thinking about people who are bigger visioning. These are people who started by looking at the end result, instead of asking themselves what they can do today. While we’re definitely not advocating for crime, we totally believe that there’s great benefit to be had when you consider the big picture of your business! Legacy planning doesn’t mean you’re not invested in your business today; it just means you’re building with the future in mind, and that can only benefit you, both today AND in the long term.

We’ve seen people invest so much into their business only to realize that the success of their business rests solely on their ability to keep it afloat. Creating systems, training staff, and starting with the end in mind are all powerful tools to help your business to thrive even once you have made your exit. We’re in the business of helping you to make the changes you need to make to create a sustainable business plan that will enable you to thrive today, and to continue to flourish after you eventually leave! So, tune in today to find out more about creating a retirement plan for your business!

Abagail Pumphrey 4/12/22 Abagail Pumphrey 4/12/22

The 7 Red Flags and Toxic Behaviors Happening in Your Business + How to Correct Them

As owners and CEOs, we’ve made plenty of mistakes, but we’ve also learned a lot from them. In today’s episode, we discuss some of the mistakes we’ve made, as well as the errors we’ve seen TONS of CEOs make over the years. So, if you recognize any of these in yourself, don’t worry, you’re in good company! Tuning in, you’ll hear us break down the 7 most prominent red flags and toxic behaviors that continue to happen in business. Learn how to recognize them, why they happen, and the tiny course corrections you can make to solve them.

The things that we are pointing out today are based on specific lessons we’ve observed throughout our careers. We’ve seen these errors play out in various ways, from friends who have needed to course-correct, to mistakes that we have inadvertently made in our own business. We’re taking this as an opportunity to share our knowledge so that you can become aware of these potential pitfalls and hopefully skip them altogether!

Abagail Pumphrey 4/5/22 Abagail Pumphrey 4/5/22

Why You Should Encourage Conflict Within Your Team

If you’ve listened to this podcast before, you might be under the impression that the hosts get along just fine. You’re right! When there are just two people, conflict is a lot less complicated, and a lot easier to resolve. Around two weeks into having a bigger team, we noticed that everyone would look to us for the answers, never contesting our conclusions. Different perspectives, backgrounds and insights all help us to make better decisions as a company. Abagail and Emylee want to make it really clear that not only do they not want to make all the decisions, but they actually believe that would be a really bad idea! That’s where conflict is necessary for the business to grow and thrive.

Abagail Pumphrey 3/29/22 Abagail Pumphrey 3/29/22

Bootstrap, Burnout, and Beyond: The 3 Phases of Your Service Based Business

The things we hear all the time are either, “I’m doing all the right things but I don’t necessarily know what to focus on next. I don’t know which lever to pull next and I don’t know why I’m feeling so overwhelmed.” Or, “This is so fun and easy! How do I set up myself for success in the future? How do I maintain this and keep growing?” We find that everyone’s always trying to look ahead, yet what’s truly beneficial is understanding the phase that you’re currently in order to clock why things are going well, where they’re going wrong, and what you need to do to move into the next phase. What we forget is that pitfalls are inevitable and that, as things grow, there are going to be roadblocks, hesitations, and frustrations. We are all bound to feel stuck at some point or another we want to assure you that this feeling is normal (and necessary) and that we can help you to get out of it! In this episode, we tackle the three phases we see every service-based business owner move through, fill you in on how we really feel about burnout, and share our greatest wish for every single service-based business owner out there.

Guest User 3/24/22 Guest User 3/24/22

What Does Building a Life-First Business Truly Mean?

What kind of business are you dreaming of? Whatever that looks like, it is your choice! And you get to make that everyday. We’ve had a lot of people approach us asking for permission to pursue a life-first business, but the call is yours to make. Our lives are all so different and unique that we can’t prescribe the details of what a life-first business looks like for you, but we can offer you some hard-earned wisdom to guide you in creating a framework that works for you! We all have boundaries we need to put in place to fulfill the life-first structure to support you as you create the life that you want. It’s fully within your power to implement and enact a plan to achieve it, but you’ve got to make the call. While there’s never going to be a magic bell that tells you what to do, we’re here to help show you the way.

Abagail Pumphrey 3/22/22 Abagail Pumphrey 3/22/22

If We Were Starting Over

Starting a business is a huge undertaking. And sometimes when we’re in the midst of building a company and struggling with a particular problem, it can be tempting to simply give up and start over with a new business. But the amount of work it takes to get a business off the ground is far more overwhelming than making changes to your current business. It’s just that it usually doesn’t feel that way because you’re not in the thick of things.

In today’s episode, we’ll be tackling the topic “What would we do differently if we were starting over?” Tuning in you’ll hear about some of the mistakes we’ve made, what precipitated them, and how we’ve helped clients avoid the same pitfalls. It may seem like the things that worked seven years ago would no longer be relevant today, but we’ve found that’s totally not the case. Many of the most important lessons we’ve learned are ones we often need to be reminded of to help us solve current problems. So this episode has been really helpful for us too! Tune in to hear our lessons on scaling up, honing in on your talents, why we love collaboration, and so much more!

Guest User 3/17/22 Guest User 3/17/22

7 Positioning Mistakes to Avoid in Your Service Based Business

We may be divided in how aware we currently feel in terms of how we’re spending our time, but one thing we can agree on is that we need to be mindful of it! So many mentors over the years have questioned how we’re utilizing our time and, for as many years, it wasn’t being used as effectively as it could be! As service-based business owners, many of us tend to wear too many hats, which prevents us from focusing on what we do best. We’ve personally been through a really unique season where we've been hiring a lot and we have more help than we’ve ever had! This has allowed for more time to rethink how we’re spending the time we do have, instead of simply filling it with the necessary tasks to keep charging on.

Does that mean we’re working any less? Absolutely not. This is not a slow season by any means, but we have been able to dig into a time where we can be really intentional. In this episode, we discuss the importance of protecting your hours and being intentional with your time, the value of visioning, and the seven most common mistakes we see service-based business owners making. Tune in to find out what needs to shift in order for you to unlock future growth and move towards a life-first business!

Abagail Pumphrey 3/15/22 Abagail Pumphrey 3/15/22

Are Done-For-You Services Going Extinct?

There’s something in the air at the moment; so many people are questioning themselves and their businesses, and there are a whole lot of very valid reasons for this (we are in the midst of a pandemic and heading towards a potential World War, after all). A lot of service providers have, as a result of these feelings of uncertainty and overwhelm, considered pivoting their business by adding different streams of revenue, changing their offerings, and so on. For anyone who is entertaining alternative ideas, we understand the allure, but we want to bring you back to reality and share with you what you should be doing during these challenging times instead!

Abagail Pumphrey 3/1/22 Abagail Pumphrey 3/1/22

The #1 Shift We Implemented with Our Team in Order to Transfer Ownership and Delegate

The interesting thing about any mistake is that it’s not always detrimental when you do it at the beginning, but holding onto it can sometimes prevent you from future success! At a recent conference we spoke at, we were asked about some of the biggest mistakes we have made in our business; and one of the things we highlighted was structuring our business according to task-based activities, rather than bringing in a team of permanent employees with outcome-based deliverables.

Guest User 2/24/22 Guest User 2/24/22

Group Coaching vs. 1:1 Coaching vs. Done-For-You Service: Which is Right for Your Business?

Something we feel is getting a little bit confused in the realm of being a service provider consultant, learning from other people, hiring contractors, having employees, and serving clients, is the question of how we serve said clients, how we learn, and how we get work done in our own business. The conversation around working one-on-one with people, using done-for-you services, and learning in different aspects by buying books, hiring a coach, or being in a group coaching program, all start to get a little muddy when we’re also service providers in that very business.

We want to clear this up and provide some perspectives and clarification on the buckets we see us providing, our clients providing, our clients hiring for, and really how things can be structured to have purpose within these different containers. Today, specifically, we’re talking about what the heck group coaching is and when it’s actually beneficial, versus one-on-one coaching and done-for-you services, both as a provider and the consumer.

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!

DM Me on Instagram

Listener Love

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!
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!
Genevieve0721
I wanted to reach out and let you know how much I’m enjoying your podcast. It’s truly amazing and I’ve learned so many valuable tips and insights on how to scale a business without burning out. Your content is truly awesome and I appreciate you sharing it with us listeners!
Mezar C
Your podcasts are fantastic! The latest episodes highlighing your journey from graphic design to various marketing roles is truly motivating for aspiring entrepreneuers unsure of their career paths. Awesome content!
Fabi Paolini
Love your podcast, you bring so much value to your listeners. Thank you!
Josuediazv
I really enjoyed the episode that covered the importance of building a highly engaged and motivated team to help company scale and grow. I would highly recommend this podcast to everyone interested in learning practical business strategies to start, scale, and grow a business.
Ashao FreeSky
Super valuable. Abagail provides simple and actionable advice for growing your business. Her episodes are super practical. I love how grounded and down-to-earth she is. You can tell she genuinely cares about helping. I definitely recommend giving the podcast a listen!

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Software & Services We Swear By

Meet Our Partners

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