Here's the truth... I don't work that much in my private practice anymore.

It runs itself. And I'm a little embarrassed to admit that, even though it's the goal for most women business owners.

We just hit a million dollars in revenue this year. In this episode, I'm sharing exactly how I got here... including the task I FINALLY handed off after holding onto it for 11 years.

In this episode:

• The 3 stories we tell ourselves about why we can't hand things off (I've told myself every one of them)
• Why I stopped interviewing our volunteers and students... and why you need a "big business mentality" even if your business is only making $100K a year
• The budgeting task I finally handed to my CFO, and the warning sign that told me it was time
• The California background check task I held onto for 11 years because of ONE mental block
• 3 filters for deciding what to hand off next... and the short list of things only YOU should be doing
• My 5-step process for turning a Loom recording into an SOP with AI (the prompt is below!)

Take Action:

Write down two or three things you want off your plate this week. Then pick one and hand it off by Friday.

Resources from this episode:

• Loom (the screen recording app I use)
• YNAB (You Need A Budget), the budgeting software we use (affiliate link)
• My free SOP-Generator Prompt (copy it below)
• Well Women Business CEO Reset Retreat: Costa Rica, January 15–19, 2027 (application only)

Free SOP-Generator Prompt

Paste this into ChatGPT or Claude along with the transcript from your video:

I recorded a video of myself doing a task in my business, and I'm pasting the transcript below. Please turn it into a clear, step-by-step SOP (standard operating procedure) that a new team member could follow without asking me questions.

Format the SOP like this:

1. Title

2. Purpose: one or two sentences on why this task matters and what result it should produce

3. Who does this task and how often

4. Tools and logins needed (names of tools only, never passwords)

5. Step-by-step instructions: numbered, each step starting with a verb, with any decision points written as "If X, then Y"

6. What a finished, correct result looks like

7. Common mistakes and how to fix them

8. Who to ask if something goes wrong: [name or role]

Rules:

• Use only what I said in the transcript. Do not invent steps. If something seems missing or unclear, list it at the end under "Questions for me" instead of guessing.

• Remove filler words and tangents.

• Use plain language and short sentences.

• If you need to ask me clarifying questions before writing the SOP, ask them first.

Here is the transcript:

[paste transcript here]

I recorded this episode in a mostly empty house about an hour before my husband arrived after driving our 26-foot moving truck cross-country from Madison to San Diego.

So I'm pulling back the curtain on what I'm REALLY working on in Q4 as a female CEO, in the middle of a cross-country move.

Renaming my 11-year-old business. Training a new COO. And building an AI-powered app called the OK Owl that my therapists can ask anything, 24/7.

If you're a women business owner scaling a wellness business and wondering what the day-to-day actually looks like at this level... this one's for you.

In this episode:

• What I think is missing from most business advice for women at this level (and why I'm doing this episode at all)
• The California law that pushed me to rename my business... and the "waterfall" of changes nobody warns you about when you change the name of your business
• What training a new COO taught me about marketing: consistency beats brilliance
• How I built the OK Owl with Replit and Claude... and kept it HIPAA compliant
• The employee survey answer that kicked off this whole 6 to 9-month project
• What this move forced me to admit about trying to do it ALL

Take Action:

Take five minutes right now and write down the three things you've worked on in the last month. Then name what you actually accomplished that you haven't acknowledged yet... and say it out loud.

Resources from this episode:

• Get my weekly newsletter at wellwomenbusiness.com
• Want a live workshop on building your own AI-powered policy app? Click here to email me and let me know.
• Well Women Business CEO Reset Retreat: Costa Rica, January 15–19, 2027 (application only)

Please subscribe and leave a review for the Well Women Business Podcast wherever you listen. It helps the podcast reach more women, and I read every single one!

I'm only a third of the way through a book that has already changed how I lead my team.

It's Inner Propaganda by Owen Fitzpatrick, and it hands you a simple 3-step protocol for those moments when your emotions hijack your brain at work. As a female CEO (and yes, a perimenopausal one), I needed this.

I'm sharing the story I've told myself for YEARS about my own staff... and the decision about their pay that I announced at our recent staff retreat because of it.

If you're a women business owner scaling a wellness business and you feel everything deeply... this one's for you.

In this episode:

• The line from Inner Propaganda that explains why naming your feeling PRECISELY calms your brain down
• The "us versus them" story I've told myself about my staff for years... and where I think it really comes from
• Why naming your goal changes what your brain does with your feelings
• How to tell whether you're leading for your team or just trying to be liked
• The pay decision I made for my team this year... and why I made it from my goal, not my feelings
• What Ryan Deiss admitted about running a business that made me so grateful (and what it has to do with Costa Rica in January)

Take Action:

Next time your emotions hijack your brain and you start that death spiral of frustration, anger, or loneliness... stop and run the protocol. Name the feeling, name the goal, and take one action toward that goal today.

Resources from this episode:

• Inner Propaganda: Leading Hearts and Minds Through Turbulent Times by Owen Fitzpatrick
• Well Women Business CEO Reset Retreat: Costa Rica, January 15–19, 2027 (application only)

Please subscribe and leave a review for the Well Women Business Podcast wherever you listen. It helps the podcast reach more women, and I read every single one!

Most business owners wait for a crisis before they diversify their revenue. Elizabeth Martin isn't waiting.

Elizabeth is a mental health OT who runs Holistic Community Therapy in Portland, Oregon... the ONLY mental health OT clinic in her state that's reimbursed by insurance. She opened it in 2019, right before the pandemic hit, and kept it going. Now she's looking years ahead and planning new revenue streams to protect what she's built.

In my first-ever live coaching call on the podcast, she lets us listen in as she bravely thinks it through out loud in public.

If you're a women business owner scaling a wellness business, her questions are the ones you should be asking too.

In this episode:

• Why Elizabeth's long-term thinking about revenue risk is exactly what smart CEOs do... and why my cash-heavy practice needs the same thinking in reverse
• Why some insurance-based practices set up a SEPARATE entity before they offer cash-based services (not legal advice!)
• Why a cash-based offer should cost 2 to 3 times what insurance pays
• The parent coaching service I've wanted to launch for YEARS... and why this conversation has me rethinking revenue in my own practice
• How a new revenue stream can give someone on your team a path to leadership
• You're not selling your services, you're selling an outcome... plus the simple next step Elizabeth chose to test her idea

Take Action:

Decide what the next revenue source in your business should be... the one that diversifies your income with the least amount of work and the most enjoyment. Write it down this week and take one step towards building that revenue source.

Resources from this episode:

• Well Women Business Assessment (take it to apply for a live coaching call on the podcast)
• Well Women Business CEO Reset Retreat: Costa Rica, January 15–19, 2027 (application only)

Please subscribe and leave a review for the Well Women Business Podcast wherever you listen. It helps the podcast reach more women, and I read every single one!

Description

I just spent four or five episodes teaching you my strategic planning framework... and then one article, sent to me before a board retreat, showed me what it was missing.

Today I'm getting honest about the strategic planning mistakes I made for years as a women business owner, and what I'm changing now. I walk through Richard Rumelt's four hallmarks of bad strategy, the three-part kernel of good strategy, and the one step I was skipping before every annual plan.

If you're scaling a wellness business and your plan reads more like a wish list than a solution, this one is for you.

In this episode:

• The listener email that called me "literally the only person" she hears talk about what goes wrong... and why I keep doing it
• What I got RIGHT in my strategic planning series... and the one ingredient that was missing the whole time
• Rumelt's four hallmarks of bad strategy, and which ones I was guilty of
• Why "grow revenue by 10%" is a goal... NOT a strategy
• The real staffing problem I diagnosed in my own business last year, and where our staff satisfaction scores landed this quarter
• The three-part "kernel" of good strategy, and how my nonprofit board used it to decide what to say NO to

Take Action:

Pull out the strategic plan you started during the last few episodes and look at it again. Before you add another goal, write down the specific problem your business is trying to solve... then decide this week whether your plan actually solves it.

Resources from this episode:

• The Perils of Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
• Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
• Annual Strategic Planning Workbook/Template
• The Unfiltered Female CEO Newsletter — sign up at wellwomenbusiness.com
• Well Women Business CEO Reset Retreat — Costa Rica, January 15–19, 2027 (application only)

Please subscribe and leave a review for the Well Women Business Podcast wherever you listen. It helps the podcast reach more women, and I read every single one!

I once paid a social media manager a lot of money and never had a single client tell me they found us on Instagram, so this year we shifted that budget somewhere I can actually track every conversion. Today I'm wrapping up my four-part strategic planning series with the marketing section, the part of the plan most of us write with the best intentions and then let fall off the table the second things get busy. I walk through the exact questions I use to measure online visibility, local visibility, and customer satisfaction, plus why I believe marketing without a plan just doesn't get done. I also share why our client surveys are always anonymous, and the simple reason that matters for getting the truth. If you've been marketing your service-based business without measuring any of it, this episode gives you the questions to finally start.

In this episode:

• Why I paid a social media manager real money and never saw a single client say they found us on Instagram

• The three questions I use to measure visibility... online, local, and conversions

• Why Google Ads became more valuable to my marketing than social media, because I can actually see what converts

• Why anonymous surveys are the only way you'll ever get the honest truth from your clients

• Why marketing without a plan just doesn't get done... and how this ties together the whole four-part strategic planning series

Take Action:

Identify one challenge you're having with marketing in your business right now, then pick one question from this episode to help you come up with a way to solve it for next year.

Resources from this episode:

• Annual Strategic Planning Workbook/Template

• The Perils of Bad Strategy (McKinsey)

• Episode 21: Strategic Planning 101

• Episode 22: The Financial Planning Every CEO Needs To Do Every Year

• Episode 23: Operations Planning

• Well Women Business Assessment

• Well Women Business CEO Reset Retreat — Costa Rica, January 15–19, 2027 (application only, spots limited)

Please subscribe and leave a review for the Well Women Business Podcast wherever you listen. It helps the podcast reach more women, and I read every single one!

When I hired the right administrative team a little over a year ago, I did the math and realized we now have the capacity to grow to two and a half million dollars in revenue before we'd need to hire again. Today I'm continuing my strategic planning series with the operations section, the part that actually determines whether your business can grow without you working more hours. I walk through the four planning areas I use, from deciding whether to launch a new product or grow what you already have, to the exact systems we built so our team stopped losing messages between email, WhatsApp, and our project management platform. I also get honest about who this phase of business actually gets lonely for, and why I'm looking for peers, not students, to join me at the Costa Rica retreat. If you're a women business owner trying to build infrastructure instead of just working harder, this episode is your framework.

In this episode:

• Why I did the math on my own admin team and found out exactly how much revenue we can grow to before hiring again

• The four operations planning areas... product development, team and culture, physical resources, and processes and systems

• The exact system we built to stop losing messages between email, WhatsApp, and our project management platform

• Why offering too many services too soon is what fractures most growing businesses

• Why I'm looking for peers, not students, to join me at the Costa Rica retreat

• The bold claim I made about what this retreat could be worth to your business next year

Take Action:

Pick one or two operations planning areas from this episode, pull up the template, and fill in just those sections to start your pre-planning for 2027.

Resources from this episode:

• Annual Strategic Planning Workbook/Template

• Episode 21: Strategic Planning 101

• Episode 22: The Financial Planning Every CEO Needs To Do Every Year

• Well Women Business CEO Reset Retreat — Costa Rica, January 15–19, 2027 (application only)

Please subscribe and leave a review for the Well Women Business Podcast wherever you listen. It helps the podcast reach more women, and I read every single one!

Only 1.9% of women ever grow their business to seven figures, and if that is your goal, this episode is about making sure the money side of your business can actually get you there. I'm continuing my strategic planning series with the finances section, the one part of the plan that most owners avoid the longest even though it decides whether the business is actually profitable. I walk through the exact questions I use every year, from setting quarterly revenue targets that don't look the same every quarter, to finally deciding what a living wage actually looks like for you as the owner. I also get honest about why paying yourself well is not something to feel guilty about, even in a health or wellness business built on service. If numbers make your stomach drop a little, this episode will help you look at them anyway.

In this episode:

• The statistic that stops me every time... only 1.9% of women ever grow a business to seven figures

• Why your quarterly revenue goals should NOT all look the same (and the seasonal example from my own practice)

• The living wage question most service-based business owners are afraid to ask themselves

• How to actually find your most profitable revenue source instead of guessing

• The one thing you should never do... add a new revenue stream before checking this first

• Why I built an entire retreat morning around sitting with your numbers in community

Take Action:

Pull up the free template, download it, and fill in your revenue numbers for the finances section, then just look at where you stand year to date.

Resources from this episode:

• Annual Strategic Planning Workbook/Template

• The Unfiltered Female CEO Newsletter — sign up at wellwomenbusiness.com

• Episode 21: Strategic Planning 101

• Well Women Business CEO Reset Retreat — Costa Rica, January 15–19, 2027 (application only)

Please subscribe and leave a review for the Well Women Business Podcast wherever you listen. It helps the podcast reach more women, and I read every single one!