Candid conversations with small business owners about what’s working to run & grow their businesses
“Tara is a master at bringing together knowledgable, generous business owners who have worked hard to build their businesses–and are willing to share it all.”
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About What Works
What Works is a free weekly show that takes the mystery out of how small businesses really work.
With each episode, Tara deep dives with a small business owner and asks about how they manage their marketing, money, operations, team-building, growth, or personal leadership. She asks the nosy questions you’ve always wanted to ask other business owners!
Why a podcast?
We produce the What Works podcast because it makes learning on-the-go easy. You can take this free in-depth audio content wherever you go and listen whenever you have time using apps like Spotify, Castbox, Castro, and Apple Podcasts.
New to What Works? Try This Episode:
Behind The Scenes Of The Awkward Marketing Video Series With Rachael Kay Albers
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Browse Our Episodes
EP 249: Standing Out With Exceptional Customer Experiences With Project Army Founder Viktor Nagornyy
Viktor Nagorynyy is the founder of Project Army. What started as an SEO and digital marketing consultancy has blossomed into a full-service website support & hosting company that prioritizes customer service and experience.
Viktor shares how doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing has led to big results, why customer service is so important to him, how prioritizing customer service has helped the company grow, and how he utilizes social media to offer help to anyone—even if they’re not a customer.
EP 248: What’s Working In Setting Boundaries While Delighting Customers With Coach Nicole Lewis-Keeber
Nicole is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker turned business therapist & mindset coach who helps entrepreneurs identify the patterns that cause friction and dysfunction in their businesses. She helps them identify trauma of all kinds, rework habits, and redefine relationships—with themselves, their team members, and their businesses.
I wanted to ask Nicole how she helps her clients establish strong & clear boundaries while maintaining exceptional customer experiences in their businesses.
We talked about how to know when you have a boundary problem, why unclear communication is unkind, how to renegotiate boundaries when there’s a problem, and what kind of routines we can put in place to keep boundary issues from happening in the first place.
EP 247: Managing Exceptional Client Experiences In Less Time With Coach Ashley Gartland
Ashley is a business coach who specializes in helping overwhelmed, frazzled entrepreneurs streamline their businesses and work less—while they continue to grow.
Ashley took me through her whole client process—from on-boarding, to communication, to workflows, to off-boarding. You’ll learn about how she manages the whole client experience through a customized Trello board both she & the client accesses. And you’ll learn how she’s streamlined her own packages to allow her to provide the best experiences.
This interview—and this whole month—is going to be full of aha moments you can immediately apply to your own business to find what works.
EP 246: Learning From Your Mistakes With Leadership Developer & LMFT Rebecca Ching
I spoke with one of my oldest business friends, Rebecca Ching, about some of the mistakes she made when she took a huge leap forward in her therapy business and opened a multidisciplinary brick & mortar practice. Today, Rebecca is both the founder of Potentia Therapy and an Integrated Leadership Coach helping entrepreneurs and leaders navigate the complexities of leadership today.
Rebecca shares both the errors in her execution and the errors in her thinking that led to some difficult years.
She also gets into some deep reflection around her personal identity and sense of worthiness that really resonated with me. For many of us self-described “achievers,” making a mistake or failing at a venture isn’t just a set back—it rocks us to our core.
If that’s you too, I think you’ll especially appreciate this conversation.
EP 245: Coaching Yourself To Stick With It With Original Impulse Founder Cynthia Morris
Cynthia Morris is the founder of Original Impulse. She coaches writers, artists and entrepreneurs to get out of their own way so they can finish projects that matter. She’s also the author of The Busy Woman’s Guide To Writing A World-Changing Book.
Cynthia and I talk about her 20 year journey of business ownership, creative exploration, and coaching. I ask her about the lessons she’s learned along the way and how she’s kept the business going for over 2 decades.
Pay close attention to the commitment she made to taking risks and the willingness to do the hard creative work she asks her clients to do.
EP 244: Managing Anxiety As An Entrepreneur With Supernova Collective Creator Jo Casey
The Nitty-Gritty: How coach and business strategist Jo Casey manages her anxiety as an entrepreneurThe situation that revealed just how big an impact anxiety had on how she ran her businessHow setting clearer boundaries and doubling her rates helped to get back on...
Are you a small business owner with an unconventional or highly thoughtful way of working?
Would you like to share the nitty-gritty of how you do things with the What Works audience?
We’re always looking for guests, especially from unusual industries, using creative business models, and from underrepresented communities.
Here’s how to be considered:
- Let us know 2-3 processes or strategies you use in your business that are unconventional or incredibly thoughtful that might make a good angle for a 30-40 min deep dive interview, or…
- Share a personal inflection point in your business–like a mindset shift you made and how it played out in your business
Guest Submission Form
Meet Tara McMullin
Tara McMullin is the founder & host of What Works. She’s been connecting small business owners through mastermind groups and online community for over a decade. Whether on the podcast or in the online network, her goal is to facilitate the free flow of ideas, information, and inspiration between entrepreneurs.
She believes that no one person has the answer to “what works” in small business–but that, together, we can create