Engineering Calmer Agencies & Consulting Firms: Calm is the New KPI

In today’s episode, I talk with business coach Ashley Gartland and marketing & operations project manager Hailey Thomas about their different approaches to delivering intensive-style offerings. You will hear that these different approaches might actually be more effective in delivering value to their clients than sitting through yet another meeting.

The key takeaways:

- Unique approaches to managing and minimizing client meetings
- Adapting a six-month partnership program to a two-week coaching intensive
- Offering 3-day work retreats to bang out most of a project in a weekend
- Challenges of transitioning from a typical client meeting structure
- The impact of the change on clients
- The impact the on operational capacity

Show Notes

I make no attempt at hiding my personal dislike of meetings. 


I’ve spent more time in meetings about meetings and meetings to prepare for other meetings than I can count. I’ve even suffered through long staff meetings where my boss literally just read printed out emails. 


I’ve truly felt the pain of being in meetings that could have just been an email. 


But are meetings really inevitable? 


All this month, I'm asking the question: does it really have to be a meeting?


I am starting off by applying this question to client meetings. Is there a different way to approach meeting with your clients that could reduce time spend in 'update' meetings and drastically speed up results?


One way of potentially doing this is through intensives – taking all the work we used to do with clients over several weeks or months and condensed it down to just a few hours or days.


In today’s episode, I talked with two founders about their different approaches to this intensive-style of delivering offerings: business coach Ashley Gartland and marketing & operations project manager Hailey Thomas.


You will hear that for both of these founders, taking this different approach when working with clients might actually be a more effective way of delivering value than sitting through yet another meeting.


In this episode:

  • How both women have taken their own unique approach to managing and minimizing client meetings.
  • How Ashley Gartland adapted her six-month partnership program to a two-week coaching intensive so she could automate her process and serve more people.  
  • How Hailey Thomas offers 3-day work retreats where she and her clients bang out most of the project in one weekend
  • What kind of challenges they’ve run into transitioning from a typical client meeting structure
  • How this change to intensives has impacted their clients 
  • What impact the new approaches have had on operational capacity
  • What kind of impact the changes have had on them personally as business owners

Links:



Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

Creators and Guests

Host
Susan Boles
Speaker, Podcaster & Consultant at Beyond Margins | 15+ years of experience as both a CFO and COO

What is Engineering Calmer Agencies & Consulting Firms: Calm is the New KPI?

Can you build a business based on… “calm?” Host Susan Boles looks beyond the usual metrics of success to help you build a business where calm is the new KPI. With over 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur, CFO, and COO, Susan shares the business strategies that lead to a business with comfortable margins—financial, emotional, energetic, and scheduling margins. Join her and her guests as they counter the prevailing “wisdom” about business growth, productivity, and success to provide a framework for making choices that align with your values and true goals. Episode by episode, you’ll get a look at the team management, operations, financials, product development, and marketing of a calmer business.