Let’s cycle through some methods that will allow you to: - Sense when a period of expansion has reached its pinnacle and a recharge is needed- Reap the most rewards from planning stages- Find a rhythm that lets you and your team flow with the needs of each season and stage of developmentWhen we think about expansion versus contraction, most of us are like, “Of course we want to expand. I want to grow, I want to help more people, I want to reach more people. I want to expand my business!” Or maybe you're in a place where you want to have additional locations, or maybe you want to build a team. But the reality is - most expansion will require a level of contraction first. 🌞 Time for refection: be aware of what cycles mean in your business. 00:52🤔 Is it time to recharge and reassess: Stephanie's challenge this year. 03:00🤯 Too many projects and overpromising to your clients. 04:54🌊 The Flex Plan: Set your business plan for the slowdowns too. 06:19🔋 Creating recharge moments before you get exhausted. 07:34🙃 Priority lists done differently. 08:39🤓 Getting comfortable with the cycles your business goes through. 09:48🆚 Expansion vs contraction: Don’t be afraid of the contraction in your business. 11:42🏆 Success is in the streamline. 13:10💪🏾 Contraction while spreading out or distributing your work: It helps you, your business and team, even if you’re in the contraction cycle. 14:39__Thanks for listening to Spark, a podcast that aims to provide a roadmap for the vegan professional. If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.
It’s not uncommon for business owners to feel like we're in a race against time—we're trying to get the maximum amount of things done in a day until the clock runs out. But I want you to start thinking of your business differently. Don’t always approach your day like you’re racing against time; instead use time as an asset in your business. What that means is sitting down and figuring out what the most important things you do in your business are.Separate out the things that are critical, crucial, and important to your business. You want to identify the things that really help keep your business afloat! Turn those into recurring tasks. Doing this will help you complete them faster and experience their benefits sooner. This is a critical shift toward success that can happen in your business.💥 The power of creating recurring tasks for running your business more smoothly. 00:39👌 How do recurring tasks provide us with freedom? 01:47⏰ Stop racing against time. 03:38👉 Identifying important things in your business and making them into recurring tasks. 05:07😇 Stephanie’s big tasks and tools list. 07:23 😎 Setting up recurring meetings with clients.08:40🤩 A tip from Stephanie: set time aside for a content-creation meeting. 11:11🤝 Taking a look at recurring events that can help you focus on customer experience. 12:28👔 Prospecting and sales management: prioritizing your tasks. 14:19❓ Benefits of recurring: Are the things you've been working on actually creating returns? 16:40🤓 Ensure that your time is secured around projects or collaboration opportunities. 19:50🙋🏾♀️ Getting to the point where a feeling of accomplishment starts to motivate you to do more, and change your mindset. 21:04__Thanks for listening to Spark, a podcast that aims to provide a roadmap for the vegan professional. If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.
⚡Finding your rhythm during the day to feel more energized. 00:38🤔 Reflect on what you've done in the past but don’t criticize yourself. 03:55💫 Why re-adjusting your schedule and morning routine is important. 04:35🌞 Creating an intentional morning routine around accomplishments. 07:11✨ Stephanie's magical morning. 08:35🌻Finding more natural flow and using "me time" for personal nourishment. 11:22🏊🏾♀️ How Stephanie found something more delightful to start her days with. 13:48🛌🏾 How to test your wake-up time without taking away from your sleep.15:56⏰ Adjusting your work schedule to gain more flexibility. 18:28😇 Distractions may pull you away; how to find a mechanism to get proactive again. 21:41💡 Having a plan sized just for you is essential. 24:26Thanks for listening to Spark, a podcast that aims to provide a roadmap for the vegan professional. If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.
How do you push back the fear, the discomfort, and the challenges you may be facing in your business when it's time for you to make bigger decisions? And how can you prepare your mindset—what I like to call your “million-dollar mindset”? The reason behind a million-dollar mindset is that when you think about your business, it stops you from thinking small, or about what you have already accomplished in your business. Instead, you start thinking with a mindset that has you reaching towards the stars, towards something big, something that might be scary—maybe something that you don't initially see is within your reach. When you start to build that mindset your perspective grows, and your ability to make more difficult decisions becomes a little bit easier. 🛣️ Pushing past fears and harnessing a million dollar mindset. 00:42❎ Don’t get stuck in the crossroads: stop looking for the perfect environment for your business. 03:07👀 Widen your perspective to see not only the challenges ahead but the opportunities as well. 05:02 📋 Making a list of your challenges and identifying the biggest one of all. 07:58🧅 Peeling back layers and making decisions about what to do next. 11:13 ✨ What is the biggest move you can make in your business? 15:55🙌 Developing an offering that really works. 18:19🤔 Taking a look at different levels of the offerings you have: why it is important to have high-end offerings. 20:38😇 Creating a community offer. 24:37💲 A million-dollar revenue may look huge, but in reality, it’s not that huge. 27:51🤩 The proper mindset is key in preparing you to make important decisions about steps forward and building a small, mighty business. 30:11👓 Open up your purview and start to look at your business through different lenses. 31:57__Thanks for listening to Spark, a podcast that aims to provide a roadmap for the vegan professional. If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.
It’s important to strike a balance and make sure that you are not only investing in your business, but that you're also investing in yourself. That means making sure that you're paying yourself, even if it's something teeny, tiny, even if it's just a little bit in the beginning. Make sure that you have some level of compensation in your business for yourself as the owner, as the founder, as the leader in the organization.⚖️ Why finding a balance between investing in your business and paying yourself is crucial.00:39🤔 Savings versus compensation. 02:36💸 Decision time: Should you have a business bank account or a separate bank account for business? 04:12😇 The deeper meaning behind compensating yourself. 07:08🙌 Pick a date! 11:39📈 Doing an annual review of your salary. 13:02🎯 Why it’s important to think of yourself as a person who should be compensated too. 15:04Thanks for listening to Spark, a podcast that aims to provide a roadmap for the vegan professional. If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.
✅ How to get the most out of what you’re spending your time on: tactical skills and critical mindset shifts. 0:39↗️ Why you should start thinking about leveling up your business. 02:05🛣️ When you start leveling up, why delegating tasks and building ‘fast lanes’ for your team are crucial moves. 05:00🤔 How to create ‘fast lanes’ in your business and tips for batching your work. 07:46🤓 Leveling up in small ways: doing things different and better. 10:26⚠️ Don’t be a critic of your work! 13:13📈 Leveling up in big ways. 14:53💫 A different approach: hiring someone to make good things better. 17:51🙌 Investing in software, tools and 3rd party services, and moving away from the bootstrapping mindset of “doing it all”. 20:37🙃 Changing your role in your business is sometimes needed to achieve the level of service you want to provide your clients/customers.. 23:22)🤩 Leveling up is not just about spending money on looking big; remember, it always comes down to your customers and community. 27:45
We all love to “get things done.” Who doesn’t love to check things off a to-do list? But even if you’re good at task execution it’s still easy to get caught sometimes in the loop of tweaking, editing, and perfecting. The problem with this is it can cause you to lose sight of when to move on from work that should have been marked as completed. In this live session of Spark! Stephanie talks about how to set those important boundaries so you can move forward and make more efficient use of your time. You’ll learn: Tips for catching yourself when you are falling into the rework trap How to know when you really need to tweak something, and when it’s time to move on Why efficient task execution is such an important part of good time management Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
When you’re on video - whether in a meeting, or doing a live session of some kind - do you ever find yourself fidgeting or staring at yourself, evaluating your every move? If so, you might need to build your on-camera confidence. In our online world of video meetings it can be hard to get used to seeing yourself, and especially resisting the urge to critique. In this live session of Spark! let’s talk about ways to build your confidence behind the camera, including how to set up your virtual space so it feels like a safe haven. We’ll discuss: The benefits of creating a standard intro for live videos or meeting ice-breakers (and how to do it) Why you should choose a look/style for your videos, and stick to it Tips for a more professional on-camera appearance, like standing for meetings if you can Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
Do you get the Monday blues? If you do, you need to listen to this episode of Spark! Inside, Stephanie talks about how she transitioned her Monday blues into Monday magic! Make Mondays one of your favorite days of the week by designing them to be productive, inspirational and motivational. You’ll learn how to use this first day as the springboard for a fantastic week. Listen to find out: Why you should be saving Mondays to ONLY work on things that can be utilized or leveraged in a given week. Key tasks to help you set your week up right (e.g. a critical calendar review, task prioritization, organizing expectations, etc). The difference between a tactical Monday and a long-term planning or strategy day (this is an important difference! Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
I love the creativity that comes with running a business. And I love being able to harness that creativity within a structure that really helps me take advantage of my creative process. In today’s live session of Spark! I want to share a powerful lesson with you: how to translate a creative idea into a document that can be used for strategic planning in your business, and a key tool I use for avoiding rework, and enhancing my creative process even more. You’ll learn: - How you can avoid starting from scratch every time you want to enter your creative zone - How to use templates as building blocks so you can really focus on the creative process - The practicalities of creating templates that really work Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
Pre-pandemic being “camera ready” was never a daily requirement for me. I could jump out of bed, throw on some comfy clothes, grab some breakfast and dive into work without worrying about hair, makeup and all that jazz. However, these days I am often called to be on camera with just a moment's notice! So I have had to make some changes to accommodate these altered expectations - and comfort level for me! I know I’m not the only one facing this new reality, so today I want to talk about some things you can easily change in your office and the way you prepare for your day so you are always prepared to turn on your camera. We’ll cover: - Easy office set-up tips for an always-professional appearance - Why you must move past pandemic excuses...we’re in a different phase of “working from home” now - New expectations for personal “at home appearance” - what is acceptable (and what’s not) Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
Titles like “founder”, “manager” or “leader” can carry a heavy weight. When you take these roles on, you may be seen as the person who should have all the answers. This false precedent can make you feel inadequate if you don't have all the answers. Today, I want to challenge that myth, and talk about the fact that true strength comes from understanding where and when you need help, and how to ask for it! In this live session of Spark! We will talk about: How to be an independent thinker who can wisely gather and use feedback and ideas from others Finding the magic: how to use help from others intelligently, and realizing that you don’t have to do everything on your own Why the best leaders are those who know when to accept help from others to make their businesses better Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
Do you feel successful in your vegan business? If your immediate response to this question is “no”, join me for today’s live session of Spark! We’re going to talk about perspective, and whether that feeling is attributable to a real problem with your business, or misplaced expectations. Understanding whether it’s your business or your perspective that needs to change is key in moving forward and truly embracing success! Today you’ll hear about: How to realize if you are measuring success through the lens of your setbacks How to spot the micro-wins in your business Why it’s important to celebrate, even when things don’t turn out perfectly Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
When pressure and stress pile up in our daily business lives, it’s easy to become hyper-sensitive, at which point every request can feel like a weight on your chest. But sometimes, when you’ve pushed yourself too far, everything can feel like pain/pressure and your sense of what’s doable can disappear. I found myself in this spiraling state last year, and in this live session of Spark! I will share how I recalibrated myself to regain my sense of pain (unhealthy and unhelpful) versus discomfort (often essential to growth). By really identifying the difference, I knew when to take a deep breath and forge forward, and when to stop. This was an “A-ha!” moment in my business, and I’m excited to share it with you! Tune in to learn: Why discomfort is sometimes healthy and necessary to growth How to recognize the difference between pain and discomfort, and stop doing things that cause pain How to reset when you are in a downward spiral Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
One great strategy for building your business is to design and create an amazing signature offer. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, a signature offer is THE product or service that you ultimately want to be known for in your business. This is something that can define the culture and style of your business, as well as act as a linchpin that your other products and services are grounded in. In today’s live session of Spark! join Stephanie to talk about strategies for developing your unique signature offer, and why most businesses should have one. You’ll learn: What makes a service or product a signature offer How a signature offer can distinguish your business or organization Why you should consider developing one now! Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
tumbling and falling down are a natural part of being in business, but it’s the ability to get back up that determines your journey to success! As business owners we don't often talk about the resilience and mental strength it takes to stumble around in the dark - and consistently get back up - as you're trying to figure things out. And as a VEGAN business owner, there’s a lot to figure out! In our live session today, I will talk about the courage and bravery it takes to leave the doubt behind. Join me to take a moment to recognize and celebrate that with me! We’ll: - Celebrate as a community today - Talk about why it’s important to recognize our resilient qualities - Discuss how YOU can get featured in Vegan Mainstream’s “Celebrating Vegan Business” social media series! Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
Launching a new website is a major undertaking that can make business owners want to run in the other direction, but sometimes you just have to face the inevitable. At Vegan Mainstream we continue to refine our approach to service the vegan business community. Several months back we started to notice that our website was no longer handling what we needed from it. It was time for a new website. It was a lot of work, but we launched our new site in March and I couldn’t be happier with the results! If you are building your first website, or contemplating a website relaunch, you won’t want to miss this live session of Spark!, where I will share 3 principles that helped guide us through the process. You’ll hear about: How to define your website’s purpose (and why that’s so important) How to ensure you fix chronic website issues with a relaunch Why investing in a good website pays off (and what that looks like) ------------- Get training or support for your business or organization - EXPLORE OUR COURSES https://master.veganmainstream.com/ Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
There is a lot of added pressure when you run a passion-based business. When it feels like change isn’t happening fast enough you may react by trying to do it all -- working late, weekend meetings and spending less time with family and friends. But what if you said “NO” more? Would it make you more effective? When you have time to think, take breaks, reflect, and consider your options, you just might have the space and creativity to make a greater impact. We will explore this idea in In today's Spark! Session. Let’s discuss: - How committing to less can lead to greater impact - How to determine what to say “no” to ---------------- Get training or support for your business or organization - EXPLORE OUR COURSES https://master.veganmainstream.com/ Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
The world may influence you but it should not define you. Too often business owners feel like they have to copy another’s style, approach or business model to be successful. But all this does is create an industry of services and businesses that are indistinguishable from one another. And that makes it hard for customers to find their perfect product, service or solution. There’s no doubt that it’s important to benchmark and understand what others in your industry or field are doing and how they impact the world. But you should ALWAYS let your unique self shine. In today’s Spark! session we will talk about how to use benchmarking without watering down your brand’s impact. You’ll hear more about: - Why you should be focused on learning, while guarding against copying - How to articulate what’s unique about your business or brand, and use it to your advantage Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise
As you move through the ups and downs of your business, I want to remind you to never lose faith in yourself. The reality of being in business is that there will be times when you don’t have the answers, but you have to make a decision anyway. This can be scary and stressful, but it may be easier if you can remember that you are on a path to learning and growth. As the manager, CEO or founder of your business maybe it seems like you should know it all, but that’s a myth. We all have to take a leap of faith at times. In order for you to land firmly and safely on the ground you have to start with encouraging and believing in yourself. Doubts aren’t the enemy -- it’s your response to those doubts that can derail or send you into turmoil. Today, I want to talk about three things I do every week, to help keep me on an encouraging track. Join me to learn: - Best practices for encouraging yourself on a consistent basis - How doubt and courage can coexist, and the benefits of embracing that truth Subscribe to Spark - A Roadmap For The Vegan Professional on Soundwise