Better Than Big

Years ago, Melissa Dinwiddie got on a call with a competitor in her industry and decided they’d both be better off if they merged their programs and worked together instead of alone. That partnership showed Melissa the power of collaborating with other business owners on programs and products, and it’s something that she’s carried forward into her business today. In this episode, Melissa joins me to talk about how collaborating on programs and products has benefited her business. She also shares the behind-the-scenes stories about how the collaborations come together, including how she vets potential collaboration partners and how they plan for the project and divide the work. 

Get the Time Freedom training + guide: www.ashleygartland.com/timefreedom

Get access to the private podcast feed, Do Less, Live More: www.ashleygartland.com/dolesslivemore

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

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Learn more about Melissa: https://creativesandbox.solutions

Follow Melissa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_creative_life/

Years ago, Brandi Bernoskie was a solopreneur focusing on web site development. But the more she listened to her clients, the more she realized they had other needs - needs she could serve if she brought in collaborators from other disciplines to expand and enhance her client experience. In this episode, Brandi joins me to talk about how she knew collaboration was going to be an essential part of her business and about how she finds the right people to bring onto teams for her client projects. We also talk about how Brandi keeps track of all her relationships and how she and her team ensure that things go smoothly for projects that involve multiple people and many moving parts. 

Get the Time Freedom training + guide: www.ashleygartland.com/timefreedom

Listen to the private podcast feed, Do Less, Live More: www.ashleygartland.com/dolesslivemore

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Follow Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

Learn more about Brandi: https://alchemyandaim.com

Follow Brandi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandibernoskie/

When copywriter Melissa Harstine brought her business into the online space, she wondered what kinds of marketing activities would replace the coffee chats and networking meetings that had worked for her offline and allow her to market her business in a personal, intentional way. Strategic collaborations like guest podcast interviews and email newsletter takeovers turned out to be the right fit for her. In this episode, Melissa joins me to talk about why she decided to focus on collaborations and about how she got started with them. We also talk about the steps she takes to help her get a yes on a pitch and about the surprising things collaborations have helped her learn about her business.

Get the Time Freedom training: www.ashleygartland.com/timefreedom

Listen to the private podcast feed, Do Less, Live More: www.ashleygartland.com/dolesslivemore

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Follow Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

Learn more about Melissa: www.melissaharstine.com

Follow Melissa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissaharstinecreative/

Years ago, I worked with a few mentors who took a prescriptive approach to coaching where they focused more on telling you exactly what to do than on exploring solutions together. That kind of coaching works for some people but I quickly learned it wasn’t right for me - not as a client or as the coach - because I preferred a more collaborative approach. In this episode, I talk about the moment I learned that I prefer a collaborative approach to coaching and take you behind-the-scenes to explain how I’ve made collaboration a cornerstone in my client work. I touch on how I make it clear that I’m in partnership with my clients and share what this approach looks like day to day. I also get honest about the tradeoffs and benefits of this approach for both me and my clients. 

Book a Discovery Call with Ashley to learn more about working together: https://ashleymgartland.as.me/discoverycall

Learn how to create more time with my private podcast Do Less, Live More: www.ashleygartland.com/dolesslivemore

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Connect with Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

It’s easy to get caught up in the online world and think there’s only one way to design your services or scale your business. In reality, though, there are many paths you could choose - including a path that matches your particular values around how you like to work and how you want to make an impact with your clients. In this episode, my guest Katie Wussow joins me to talk about how she’s created offers that align with her personal values. She shares where she went wrong with her offers and walks us through the changes she made to course correct. She also shares why she’s happier with her services today than she was when she was pursuing an infinitely scalable model. 

Learn more about the SImplified Services Intensive: https://www.ashleygartland.com/services

Get access to the Do Less, Live More private podcast feed: www.ashleygartland.com/dolesslivemore

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Follow Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

Learn more about Katie: www.katiewussow.com

Follow Katie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiewussow/

By the very nature of being in business, you will include some people and exclude others - the choice you get to make is whether you’ll do it from a place of intention and consciousness or not. In this episode, my guest Erica Courdae joins me to share how she made inclusivity an intentional and explicit value at her beauty salon and in her work as a DEI coach and consultant. We talk about what it actually looks like to build a business where inclusivity is top of mind including the strategies Erica uses to make sure clients feel welcome and safe. We also talk about why being inclusive is not about perfection, and about why taking an all or nothing approach isn’t the best way to build an inclusive business.

Get the Time Freedom training + guide: www.ashleygartland.com/timefreedom

Check out the Do Less, Live More podcast feed: www.ashleygartland.com/dolesslivemore

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Follow Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

Learn more about Erica: https://www.ericacourdae.com/?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=betterthanbig&utm_campaign=interview

Follow Erica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericacourdae/ 

There’s a big difference between having brand values and explicitly living them out in your business. And as my guest India Jackson learned, there’s a real benefit to doing so as well. When India started sharing her brand values more explicitly in her brand visibility agency, Flaunt Your Fire, it helped her attract more aligned clients, find more ease in her marketing and drive important decisions in her business. Not to mention, it inspired a second business, Pause on The Play. In this episode, India joins me to talk about how she made the transition to sharing her brand values explicitly and about the domino effect it created not just in her business but in communities around her as well.

Grab the Time Freedom training and workbook: www.ashleygartland.com/timefreedom

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Check out the private podcast feed, Do Less, Live More: www.ashleygartland.com/dolesslivemore

Follow Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

Learn more about India: https://flauntyourfire.com/ 

Follow India on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/flauntyourfire, 

http://www.instagram.com/theindiajackson

Listen to Pause on The Play: https://www.pauseontheplay.com/show

Listen to Flaunt Your Fire podcast: https://flauntyourfire.com/show

A few years ago, while doing a rebrand of my business, I realized that my number one value in business was choice. I’m talking about choice in how you spend your time and shape your work, and choice in how you design your business to better support your life. And not only did I want my brand to stand for choice - I also wanted to embody the value of choice in my business day to day. In this episode, I’m talking about why it’s so important to me to live out my brand values in my business. I’m also sharing specific ways I’ve embodied the value of choice in everything from my schedule to my services to my marketing to my client work so you can steal from my ideas if you want to bring more choice into the way you do business too.

Get the Time Freedom training + guide: 

Get access to the private podcast feed Do Less, Live More: www.ashleygartland.com/dolesslivemore

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Connect with Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

When Jill Wise’s business took off, she realized she needed to do something to free up her time. Initially, she thought that meant hiring a team member. But as she considered her options from a strategic place, she discovered that it actually made more sense to focus on streamlining her communication demands using canned email templates and smart automations. In this episode, Jill joins me to talk about how canned email templates have helped her save time, better serve her clients and eliminate decision fatigue in her business. We talk about the many (and sometimes surprising) places she uses templates, about how she keeps them all organized and about why using templates can actually help you be more high-touch with your clients, not less.  

Get the free Simple Systems Guide: https://www.ashleygartland.com/simplesystems

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Follow Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

Learn more about Jill: www.wordsbyjill.com 

Check out Jill’s Canned Email Templates: https://www.wordsbyjill.com/canned-email-templates

Follow Jill on Instagram: www.instagram.com/wordsbyjill

When it comes to things that overwhelm you in your business, there’s a good chance creating social media content tops your list. Kinsey Streib felt similarly in her business, Feel Good Social, so she designed a system to help her better organize and plan social media content. In this episode, Kinsey and I talk about the system she designed to organize the social media content, assets and strategy for her business and her client work. We also talk about creating systems to match the way your brain works and explain why it’s ok to design imperfect systems to start.

Get the free Simple Systems Guide: https://www.ashleygartland.com/simplesystems

Learn more about Ashley: https://www.ashleygartland.com/

Follow Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleygartland/

Learn more about Kinsey: www.feelgoodsocial.com

Follow Kinsey on Instagram: www.instagram.com/feelgoodsocial