September hits like a wall for most small business owners — suddenly everyone wants to book and you're scrambling. This episode is the "August prep guide" your listeners didn't know they needed: specific, practical moves to make before fall arrives so you can ride the wave instead of drown in it.

Talking points

• The 4 business systems worth locking down before September (onboarding, inquiries, proposals, scheduling)
• How to start warming your audience in August so they're ready to buy in September
• What to do with your website before fall traffic picks up
• Abbey and Court's personal August checklist — what they're actually doing

Episode Show Notes: https://duocollective.com/blog/business-checklist-before-q4

Tuesday Tips & Sips: https://duocollective.com/subscribe

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duoonairpodcast/

Networking events have a way of leaving you more drained than when you walked in, buttoned up with a stack of business cards, wondering if anyone in the room even saw you. Court sits down with Theresa Schroeder, founder of Made Here, a community for small town Wisconsin women in business, to talk about building the room where none of that happens.

Theresa spent a decade building a massive team in network marketing before she walked away and started completely over, teaching women about social media and personal branding until that turned into something bigger. Now Made Here gives small town women a room with no name tags and nobody checking your follower count at the door, and you leave with the woman you're already texting on the drive home.

Inside this episode:

• Why Theresa niched all the way down to Wisconsin instead of building something bigger, and how that's exactly what made the room feel real
• The phrase she keeps coming back to, human first always, and how it shapes the second someone walks through the door
• What made her bring in a brand strategist instead of piecing something together in Canva, even though she loves Canva and is good at it

Theresa married a fifth generation potato farmer and moved back to the small Wisconsin town she once swore she'd leave, and it took an entry level job with nowhere to go before she found her way into network marketing, built a team for ten years, and had to figure out who she was without it. Made Here is what she built once she stopped chasing a bigger stage and started building a smaller room instead.

Episode Show Notes: https://duocollective.com/blog/finding-a-business-community

Tuesday Tips & Sips: https://duocollective.com/subscribe

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duoonairpodcast/

Most service providers price based on what they think the market will bear — not on the actual value they deliver. This episode breaks down the psychology and strategy of pricing in a way that makes it feel less scary and a lot more intentional, using real frameworks from brand strategy.

Talking points

• How your brand positioning directly dictates your pricing ceiling
• The "stranger on the street" test for knowing if your price matches your presence
• What undercharging actually signals to potential clients (it's not what you think)
• How Abbey and Court have each navigated pricing pivots in their own business

Episode Show Notes: https://duocollective.com/blog/service-pricing-conversation

Tuesday Tips & Sips: https://duocollective.com/subscribe

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duoonairpodcast/