What happens when you unexpectedly need to step away from your business's operations? How can you prepare your business not just to survive but to thrive, even when key team members are away?

In our continuing series on planning for leaves, sabbaticals, and breaks from your business, we’re shifting our focus from the personal side to the backbone of any business: operations.

Layla Pomper, creator of Process Driven, joins me to delve into the empowering process of building operational resilience in your business. This process not only allows you to take a break more easily but also ensures your business runs more efficiently day to day, putting you firmly in control of your business's future.

Layla shares a range of practical strategies, tactics, and systems you can implement now. These will not only prepare you for a break but also instill confidence and peace of mind in your business operations.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why clearly defining each team member’s “what, who, when” is the crucial first step to managing an absence
• How your business model impacts your options for taking leave
• How lazy training gives team members exposure to and familiarity with your process
• Why you should be using shorter absences and vacations as fire drills for your systems
• Steps business owners can take to remove themselves as bottlenecks
• How to build a network that you can lean on during a break

Learn more about Layla Pomper:

• Process Driven
• YouTube: @laylapomper
• Connect on LinkedIn

Learn more about me, Susan Boles:

• Beyond Margins
• Connect on LinkedIn

We value your thoughts and feedback. Feel free to share them with Susan here. Your input is not just valuable; it's crucial in shaping future episodes.

How do you step away from your business for a necessary break without losing momentum or compromising your values?

Deciding to take a leave or sabbatical, and then figuring out the best approach for you, how to maintain client relationships while you're away, or even ensuring you have enough financial security during your break are all complex challenges that many of us face.

As part of my exploration of breaks, leaves, and sabbaticals and all of the different ways you can plan for them, I’m talking to Erica Courdae and India Jackson, the partners behind Pause on the Play, a resource library, podcast, and consultancy committed to guiding individuals in defining their values, diversifying their networks, and disrupting systems of oppression.

India has just returned from parental leave after having her first child. Together, she and Erica have navigated the operational and financial complexities of planning for leave, including their decision to shut down the Pause on the Play Community.

While the context of Erica and India's experience is parental leave, the strategies they employed are universally applicable. Their unique approach to planning and managing their leave can be a practical guide for anyone considering a break from their business.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How a desire for openness, simplicity, and sustainability shaped their conversations about the business even before planning for India’s parental leave
• How Erica and India went about simplifying processes and closing loops with their clients and community leading up to going on leave
• How the business maintained some revenue during leave, and how they planned an on-ramp for India’s return
• How joy and ease are informing their decision-making as they return to full operations
• Why they have clear containers around what platforms they use to discuss work and personal life
• How they are building opportunities to connect with their communities as people without always making it about work

Learn more about Erica Courdae and India Jackson:

• Pause on the Play
• Instagram: @pauseontheplay

Learn more about me, Susan Boles:

• Beyond Margins
• Connect on LinkedIn

Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback with Susan here. Your input is valuable and can help shape future episodes.

Sometimes, you just need a break. I know I did.

What was meant to be a quick breather turned into a transformative journey of two and a half years. The show (and my company) emerged with a new name, a new look, and a new perspective on what truly sustains a business—and a life.

I say that I took a break from my business. But the reality is that I broke. I realized that I was burnt out to the point where I was physically, psychologically, and emotionally impaired.

In this episode, I share the whole story—the behind-the-scenes of what went wrong, what went right, and why I’m back. Today’s episode kicks off a series on, appropriately, taking a break.

Whether you need a break because of burnout like me, you or someone you love got sick, you're getting ready to have a kid and need to plan for parental leave, or you just want to take a sabbatical to refresh, big breaks are hard to prepare for.

How do you figure out how to pay yourself (and your team) during a break? What systems and procedures need to be in place to make sure things run smoothly? How do you handle managing and serving your clients while you're away? And, if the break is unexpected and unplanned, what then?

After all, running a business is a marathon—not a sprint. If we’re going to be in it for the whole 26.2 miles, we better learn how to rest. And that starts with making calm your KPI.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• The challenges of pausing work and the reality of burnout recovery
• Why I made the counterintuitive decision to take a full-time job to rest
• The importance of building a business with comfortable margins and a focus on sustainability rather than relentless growth
• Why I’m using calm as a key performance indicator (KPI) in business and advocating for a model that values space, margin, and a personalized definition of success

Learn more about me, Susan Boles:

• Beyond Margins
• Connect on LinkedIn

Learn more about Sean McMullin:

• YellowHouse.Media

You can leave Susan a message with all your thoughts and feedback here.

I wanted to give you an update on what's going on with Break the Ceiling.

Over the last two years, I've released almost a hundred episodes of Break the Ceiling. I've put out so many episodes that I'm really proud of, and I've talked to a ton of really amazing business owners.

Thank you so much for listening and hanging out here with me, geeking out on the backend of running a business.

I wanted to let you know that we're going on hiatus, so we won't be releasing any new episodes for a while. I want to take some time to think about how I want the show to evolve, and I'd like to reimagine it a bit. So I'm taking a break from recording and releasing episodes here so that I can take this space.

And to be honest, it's been a heck of a year and a half for me and I need a little bit of a break.

Stay tuned to this feed and hit subscribe if you're not already a subscriber so you don't miss it when we come back with a new updated and improved show.

We have some really exciting things planned, both for the podcast and for the business.

In the meantime, there's almost a hundred episodes in the feed so definitely catch up on the ones you’ve missed.

I'd love to connect with you and hear what you'd like to see for the show going forward and I'm looking forward to being back in your podcast feed and your ears soon.

Learn more about Susan:

• Scalespark.co
• Twitter @theSusanBoles
• LinkedIn @thesusanboles
  
  

Boundaries are all about setting guidelines for how you work.

From your very first interaction with a client or a prospect, you're giving them hints about how you work or even explicitly setting expectations for how you'll work together.

So if you take four days to respond to their request for information, they might have the impression that you're a little slow. React immediately, and they'll think you're always available.

What choices we make about where our boundaries are–or aren't–can have a huge effect on our overall capacity and how much time it takes to actually serve each client.

Boundaries can be a really powerful tool when we're talking about streamlining or increasing your operational capacity.

Today we're going to dig into them with my guest, Brittany Berger. She's the founder of Work Brighter, which is a digital media company that helps productive unicorns go beyond working smarter to a version of productivity that makes room for “unproductive” things like rest, self-care, and fun.

She started Work Brighter after five years running content marketing in really high-stress startups that prioritized hustle, growth, and scaling over self-care and mental health. Now that she's changed her own mindset, she spends her time helping other high achievers find balance for themselves and advocating for mental health awareness.

Let's just say her boundary game is strong.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How Brittany uses boundaries as guardrails for habits and routines that protect her mental and physical health
• How adding a little extra friction around things like email and social media can help reinforce your boundaries and keep you from breaking them yourself
• Why building boundaries to manage your energy rather than pushing through leads to sustainable productivity
• How Brittany has redefined success in a way that respects her health and wellbeing and not just the bottom line

Learn more about Brittany:

• BrittanyBerger.com
• Work Brighter
• @workbrighter on Instagram
• @thatbberg on Twitter
• The Slackification of the Family Home–The Atlantic Magazine

Learn more about Susan:

• Scalespark.co
• Twitter @ScaleSpark
• LinkedIn @thesusanboles

You are not your business.

Your business is something you are creating, which means you have a relationship with it.

Like any relationship that we are in, the relationship that we have with our business can be complex and takes understanding, consideration, and work.

And as with our personal relationships, the ones that we have with our businesses are shaped by our past experiences, for better or worse.

We might have been told that we’re supposed to leave our baggage at the door when we come into work–we might even think we succeed–but that’s not how humans work. And when we ignore how our pasts affect our present, we set ourselves up to repeat unhealthy relationship patterns everywhere in our lives.

In today’s episode, we’ll talk about how your foundational experiences might show up in your business and create limitations to your growth, especially when it comes to perfectionism and control.

Nicole Lewis-Keeber is a business therapist and mindset coach who works with entrepreneurs to create and nurture healthy relationships with their businesses. She's a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Masters in Social Work and she writes and speaks about the impact of small-t trauma on businesses.

Her biggest, most important work is in combining therapeutic processes with business coaching to help entrepreneurs build emotionally sustainable and financially stable businesses.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How your business is not you, but a thing you’re in relationship with
• How control relates to trust and its impacts on your ability to lead and grow
• How perfectionism is a safety mechanism and tools to help you begin to lower that shield
• Why when you’ve tried all the systems and none of them worked, it’s probably not the systems

Learn more about Nicole:

• Trauma and Its Impact on Business - Free Course
• Nicole Lewis-Keeber Coaching
• Instagram: @nicole.lewiskeeber
• Facebook: Nicole Lewis-Keeber Coaching

Learn more about Susan:

• Scalespark.co
• Twitter @ScaleSpark
• LinkedIn @thesusanboles

When was the last time you crossed off everything on your to-do list? Have you ever? Does even glancing at it make you feel overwhelmed and maybe a little bad about yourself?

Hustle culture tells us that working 24/7, 365 will bring us success, that we have to grind it out to gain ground.

But not only is that not realistic for real people with families and friends and lives we want to live, it’s not even true.

There’s a ton of research out there that says resting actually increases your productivity, your effectiveness, your problem-solving skills and your creativity.

We need rest to do our best work and to be able to bring our best selves to our businesses.

But those to-do list items still need to get crossed off. How do you create the space for rest? For your family and friends and for your best work?

There's no shortage of “helpful information” out there about personal and business productivity.

We all know those blog posts about some millionaire’s morning routine or the latest hack or a new software tool that will magically solve all of your problems with getting things done. But those so rarely work for the average person, let alone if you’re adding neurodivergence, chronic illness or disability to the mix.

So what do you do? How do you tackle the overwhelm and miles-long to-do list?

Tanya Dalton says the key is to get crystal clear on your priorities and then use that as a filter for everything else.

Tanya is a productivity expert, speaker, and best-selling author of the Joy of Missing Out. She serves as a growth strategist for female leaders and hosts the Intentional Advantage Podcast. Tonya is also the founder and CEO of inkWELL Press Productivity Co., which provides tools that work as a catalyst to help women do less while achieving maximum success.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How getting clear on your mission, vision and core values and leading from them creates a priorities filter
• Five questions to ask yourself when you’re prioritizing a task
• How to create a priority list, or a “to-do list with intention”
• Why implementing priority systems at home too creates space for rest and empowers everyone in your household
• Why a perfectly even work-life balance is not only unachievable, but undesirable, and a new way to think about balance

Learn more about Tanya:

• TanyaDalton.com
• inkWELL Press Productivity Co.
• the Intentional Advantage Podcast
• The Joy of Missing Out Book
• Facebook: @Tanya.i.Dalton
• Instagram: @Tanya.i.Dalton

Learn more about Susan:

• Scalespark.co
• Twitter @ScaleSpark
• LinkedIn @thesusanboles