Most women entrepreneurs who struggle to sell aren't bad at selling — they're carrying fears they've never named, marketing a product they don't fully believe in, or waiting to feel confident before they take action. In this episode, Kerri Roberts sits down with Andee Hart, founder of She Sells Differently, for one of the most honest and practical sales conversations this show has hosted. Andee spent 17 years as a top-performing tech sales executive, scaled a candle company into 120+ boutiques across North America in two months, and now teaches women entrepreneurs to sell with soul — and this conversation goes deep on every part of that.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. The three fears that quietly hold most women entrepreneurs back — fear of rejection (which Andee reframes as "no just means not yet"), fear of imposter syndrome (and why claiming your gift is a fraud is actually a slap to the gift giver), and fear of judgment, which leads to underpricing, hiding, and playing small
2. Why selling without believing in your product is simply impossible — Andee is direct about this: no amount of training can teach you to sell something you don't believe in, and if that's where you are, the conversation isn't about sales, it's about alignment
3. What "selling differently" actually means — asking targeted questions to quickly qualify whether someone is your customer, being willing to say no and point someone to a better fit, and why that kind of integrity almost always comes back around in referrals or future sales
4. Why the number one reason businesses aren't getting traction isn't their product — it's a lack of consistency and simplicity, and the pattern Andee sees over and over of entrepreneurs jumping from offer to offer instead of scaling the one thing they already have
5. What to do when you feel invisible in a crowded market — Andee's candle company framework for finding your one differentiating thing and using it relentlessly in your sales and marketing, with specific examples from military-inspired, coastal, faith-based, and ingredient-focused candle brands

About the Guest:
Andee Hart is the founder of She Sells Differently, a bold and counter-cultural sales company and community designed for women entrepreneurs who want to lead with value and build without burnout. After 17 years as a top-performing sales executive in the tech industry, followed by scaling a candle company into more than 120 boutiques across North America in just two months, Andee brings a deeply values-aligned, faith-rooted approach to sales education that has earned her a podcast debuting at number 39 on Apple's marketing charts and a fast-growing audience of founders learning to sell with soul.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Meet Andee Hart — From Dancer to Tech Sales to Candle Company to Sales Coach
 01:28 The Three Fears Quietly Holding Women Entrepreneurs Back
 05:16 Kerri's Take — How Corporate Confidence Doesn't Automatically Transfer to Entrepreneurship
 06:28 Andee's Imposter Syndrome Moment — And the Mindset Shift That Changed Everything
 09:26 2 Timothy 1:7 — The Verse Both Kerri and Andee Keep Coming Back To
 11:56 How Mindset Directly Impacts Sales Performance
 13:10 What "Selling Differently" Actually Means — and the Power of Knowing Who Is NOT Your Customer
 18:33 The Magnet Principle — Attracting the Right Clients by Repelling the Wrong Ones
 23:48 Confidence in Selling — Why Your Past Buying Experiences Are Holding You Back
 25:57 Faith, Purpose, and the Proverbs 31 Take on Selling Nobody Talks About
 30:36 What to Do When You Feel Invisible in a Crowded Market
 33:02 Consistency and Simplicity — The Real Reason Most Businesses Aren't Getting Traction
 38:07 Dan Martell's Warning: Adding More Offers Is Often Self-Sabotage
 41:47 Andee's Final Encouragement — Take Imperfect Action
 43:17 Where to Find Andee and She Sells Differently

Strong people systems free you up to actually sell — the free HR Audit will show you where yours are creating drag instead of momentum: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Andee Hart — andeehart.com | Instagram: @andeehart
• She Sells Differently podcast — search "She Sells Differently" on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell — referenced in episode (link in show notes)
• 2 Timothy 1:7 — referenced in episode
• Proverbs 31 — referenced in episode
• Alex Hormozi and Russell Brunson — referenced by Andee regarding the "one offer" scaling framework

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/therealreasonwomenstruggletosell

Support the show

Hiring for an entrepreneurial spirit sounds like a smart move — until the person you just brought on starts challenging every system, resisting structure, and quietly dismantling the culture you've spent years building. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts makes the case that "entrepreneurial spirit" in a job description is often a misleading signal that attracts exactly the wrong candidate for a small business with a team to protect. Inspired by Brian Chesky's interview on Diary of a CEO, backed by data, and grounded in Kerri's own career journey and hiring mistakes, this one is required listening before you post your next role.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why the traits that make entrepreneurs successful — high independence, risk tolerance, and nonconformity (found in all six dominant personality types in a 2024 analysis of 25,000 startup founders) — are often the exact traits that create tension, turnover, and culture damage inside a small business team
2. What Brian Chesky said on Diary of a CEO that reframed this entire conversation: "If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products" — and how Airbnb protected cultural fit even at the cost of high-performing candidates
3. The real cost of a hiring misalignment — the US Department of Labor estimates a bad hire costs at least 30% of the person's first-year salary, and that doesn't include lost productivity, morale damage, or client dissatisfaction
4. Four alternative phrases to replace "entrepreneurial spirit" in your job postings right now — including "strong sense of ownership and accountability," "thrives in a collaborative, fast-moving environment," "resourceful problem solver who respects existing systems," and "excited to contribute to and improve established processes"
5. Two situational interview questions that reveal whether a candidate will execute your vision or quietly fight it — "Tell me about a time you followed through on a system someone else created" and "How do you feel about executing someone else's vision with excellence?"

CHAPTERS:

00:00 The Hot Take — Why Hiring for Entrepreneurial Spirit Can Backfire
 01:10 What "Entrepreneurial Spirit" Actually Attracts (And Why That's a Problem)
 02:14 Brian Chesky on Diary of a CEO — Culture Is the Machine
 03:00 Kerri's Career Journey — From Distribution to Insurance to Starting Her Own Firm
 05:16 The Savior-to-Scapegoat Pattern — What Happens When You're the Entrepreneurial Hire
 06:47 Entrepreneurial Traits Come With a Shadow — The Mental Health Data
 08:47 What a Bad Hire Actually Costs — DOL and Gallup Data
 09:22 What to Take Away — Hire for Alignment, Not Hustle
 10:08 Why "Entrepreneurial Spirit" Is a Misleading Signal in Your Job Posting
 11:42 Why It's a Culture Clash Risk and How It Leads to Turnover
 12:52 What to Say Instead — Four Alternative Phrases for Your Job Descriptions
 14:28 Sample Language Swap — How to Rewrite That Job Posting Right Now

If your job descriptions, hiring process, or performance documentation aren't working together as a system, the free HR Audit will show you exactly where the gaps are: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Diary of a CEO podcast — Stephen Bartlett interviews Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb (episode referenced; search "Diary of a CEO Brian Chesky")
• Interesting Engineering (2024) — study analyzing 25,000 startup founders and six dominant personality types
• US Department of Labor — bad hire cost estimate (at least 30% of first-year salary)
• Gallup research — only 1 in 10 people have the natural talent to manage others
• PACE official report — mental health statistics among entrepreneurs (30% depression, 29% ADHD, 11% bipolar disorder)

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/whyentrepreneurialspiritcanruinyourteam

Support the show

Rewiring your brain with gratitude and mindset isn't a fluffy concept — it's backed by functional MRI scans, the Journal of Applied Psychology, Harvard Business Review, and research from the University of Manchester. If you've been feeling stuck, spinning in your head, or wondering why certain people seem to attract opportunities while you keep grinding, this episode is the one. Kerri Roberts brings 10 data-backed insights on manifestation, mindset, and gratitude — and three practical shifts you can apply today.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. The neuroscience of visualization — functional MRI scans show that imagining an action activates the same motor pathways as physically performing it, and athletes who mentally rehearsed free throws improved almost as much as those who physically practiced, according to the Journal of Applied Psychology
2. Why writing down your goals gives you a 42% higher chance of achieving them — and why keeping your goals, vision, and mission statement on your desktop background every single day is one of the most powerful habits Kerri has built into her business
3. Three mindset shifts that actually move the needle: declaring the energy you want to live in before you feel it (what psychologists call dispositional optimism), activating your brain's salience network by reviewing your vision often so your brain starts filtering for opportunity, and embedding intentions into your identity through daily repetition so behavior becomes belief
4. The ripple effect of gratitude across every area of your life — a daily gratitude practice boosts long-term wellbeing by more than 10%, roughly the same impact as doubling your income (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), reduces cortisol, improves sleep, increases serotonin and dopamine, and according to Harvard Business Review, teams in high-gratitude cultures are 76% more engaged
5. How gratitude and mindset practice specifically transform your professional success — optimists are promoted more often, close more sales, and have higher job satisfaction, according to research by Seligman (1998), and leaders who model gratitude build trust faster, which means business moves faster

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Why Kerri Is Teaching Mindset — And Why the Data Is What Gets Her Going
 01:09 The Neuroscience of Visualization — fMRI Scans and Mental Rehearsal
 02:38 Setting Intentions — Why Writing Goals Down Gives You a 42% Edge
 03:29 Mindset and Positive Psychology — Optimism, Growth Mindset, and Self-Talk
 04:29 Gratitude and the Neuroscience of Thankfulness — 10 Data Points
 05:51 Kerri's Personal Gratitude Walk Practice (and Where It Came From)
 07:10 Mindset Shift #1 — Declare the Energy You Want to Live In
 08:59 Mindset Shift #2 — Activate Your Brain's Salience Network
 10:16 Mindset Shift #3 — Embed Intentions Until They Become Identity
 12:15 How These Practices Transform Relationships
 15:22 Gratitude in Faith — Partnering With God Through Mindset and Expectation
 16:03 How Mindset and Gratitude Transform Your Health
 19:32 How These Practices Transform Your Professional Success and Leadership
 22:14 Your Challenge — What Energy Are You Declaring Right Now?

A clear, grateful mind leads better — and so does a clear HR system. If you want to know where your people foundation is creating friction instead of flow, take the free HR Audit: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Huberman Lab Podcast — Dr. Andrew Huberman on the brain's salience network (referenced in episode; search "Huberman salience network")
• Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey and Mark Covey — referenced in episode
• Dan Martell / Buy Back Your Time — daily non-negotiables framework referenced in episode
• Journal of Applied Psychology — mental rehearsal and athletic performance study
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — gratitude and long-term wellbeing study (2010)
• Harvard Business Review — "The Power of Thanks" / high-gratitude culture engagement study (2019)
• University of Manchester Sleep Psychology Study — gratitude and sleep quality research
• Seligman (1998) — learned optimism and professional performance research
• Colossians 4:6 — referenced in episode
• Proverbs 23:7 and Hebrews 11:1 — referenced in episode

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/howtorewireyourbrain

Support the show

If you've been going, going, going for so long that you can't quite remember what it feels like to lead from a place of ease instead of survival, this episode is going to resonate deeply. Healing hustle culture isn't about doing less — it's about learning to recognize when your nervous system is running the show, understanding the masculine and feminine energy imbalance that's keeping you stuck, and doing the inner work that actually transforms how you lead. In this return visit to Don't Waste the Chaos, Kelly Howe — leadership coach, EFT tapping expert, and intuitive mentor — sits down with Kerri for one of the most honest and layered conversations this show has ever had.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. What masculine and feminine energy actually mean in the context of leadership and business — how too much masculine energy creates burnout and hustle, how too much feminine energy creates spinning wheels without forward momentum, and what Kelly calls "frequency first leadership" — leading from your unique energetic design rather than from a template
2. How subconscious money blocks show up at the nervous system level — why you can logically know you should raise your rates but your body won't let you, and how to start shifting your relationship with money from one of stress and anxiety to one of peace and flow
3. How to recognize misalignment before it becomes burnout — including the Human Design framework, what a "not self theme" is and why generators experience frustration as a signal they're off track, and why the emotional glitches and friction points in your life are actually the pathway back to alignment rather than signs something is wrong with you
4. What nervous system regulation actually means in practice — three grounding tools Kelly recommends beyond tapping: hand-on-chest breathing with the phrase "I am safe, I am held," orienting to the present moment through sensory detail, and putting your feet on the earth to reconnect with grounding energy
5. Why the work that feels the hardest — the shadow work, the resistance, the things you most want to avoid — is often the portal to the next version of yourself, and how embracing rather than running from your shadows actually removes their power

About the Guest:
Kelly Howe is a leadership coach, intuitive mentor, and EFT tapping expert whose work bridges modern psychology, ancient healing tools, and energy and embodiment practices to help entrepreneurs and leaders step into what she calls frequency first leadership. A former registered nurse who transitioned from physical healing to inner transformation work, Kelly helps clients untangle nervous system programming, release subconscious money and worthiness blocks, and find their unique masculine-feminine leadership balance through one-on-one coaching, Human Design readings, and her three and six month program, The Return.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Kelly's Return — What's Changed Since Episode 48 and Where She Is Now
 01:11 Masculine and Feminine Energy in Business — What They Actually Are
 03:20 What Happens When You Lean Too Far Into Either — and What Balance Looks Like
 05:35 Frequency First Leadership — Kelly's New Framework for Whole-Person Leading
 07:17 Kerri's Personal Experience — What She Got From Working With Kelly for Six Months
 09:00 The Inner Work Bleeds into Everything — Why You Can't Separate Business from Life
 13:00 Faith, Spirituality, and EFT — How Kelly Works With People of All Belief Systems
 16:30 Deprogramming Subconscious Beliefs Around Money and Worthiness
 18:30 The Raise-Your-Rates Example — When Your Body Won't Let You Do What Your Mind Knows
 24:30 Money Blocks, Lineage Trauma, and the Nervous System Response to Abundance
 30:50 Kerri's Pool Story — What It Looks Like When You Hear Your Own Beliefs Out Loud
 35:10 Recognizing Misalignment — Human Design, Not Self Themes, and Frustration as a Signal
 43:30 What Nervous System Regulation Actually Means — And Three Things You Can Do Right Now
 47:10 Shadow Work — Why the Things You Avoid Are Usually the Portal You Need
 54:40 Kelly's Offerings — Soul Signature Session, The Return Program, and How to Connect

Building a business from a place of clarity and alignment starts on the inside — and it also starts with knowing where your people systems are creating friction instead of flow. Take the free HR Audit: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Kelly Howe — kellyhowe.co | email: [email protected] (mention the podcast for $500 off your first month of The Return)
• Kelly's first appearance on DWTC — Episode 48: Leveraging EFT for Peak Performance in Business (linked in show notes)
• Soul Signature Session — Kelly's intro offer; a light introduction to Human Design and Gene Keys with a channeled message
• The Return — Kelly's 3 and 6 month coaching program; intuitive messages, Human Design, Gene Keys, and nervous system work
• Human Design — system referenced throughout; five energy types, not self themes, strategy and authority
• Gene Keys by Richard Rudd — referenced in episode for shadow work
• EFT for Christians — book referenced by Kelly
• The Manifestation Lab (Kelly's podcast) — referenced in previous episode appearance; link in show notes if still active
• Wayne Dyer quote — "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change"

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/healinghustleculture

Support the show

Most small business owners don't have a strategy problem — they have a clarity problem. They're busy, they're reactive, and they've mistaken their to-do list for a strategic plan. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts strips business strategy down to its essentials, pulling from some of the sharpest minds in leadership and organizational health — Peter Drucker, Patrick Lencioni, Gino Wickman, Eric Ries, Ed Catmull, and John Maxwell — and showing you exactly how she applies these frameworks inside Salt & Light Advisors today.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why strategy is not a plan — it's a set of choices — and the three questions every business owner needs to be able to answer clearly: Who are we specifically here to serve? What will we be world class at? And what are we going to stop doing?
2. Patrick Lencioni's six clarity questions from The Advantage — why do we exist, how do we behave, what do we do, how will we succeed, what's most important right now, and who must do what — and why answering these six questions does more for your organization than any strategic plan ever will
3. How to use a weekly scorecard the right way, why leading indicators matter more than lagging ones, and why if your metrics are up but your team morale is down, something in your strategy is broken
4. The Eric Ries build-measure-learn cycle from The Lean Startup — why small experiments beat big bets, how to treat failure at small scale as tuition rather than trauma, and how running even one experiment per quarter makes your strategic decisions sharper over time
5. Why culture is the ultimate strategic advantage — what Ed Catmull learned at Pixar about getting the right people and the right chemistry, the Gallup stat that only 22% of employees strongly agree their company has a clear direction, and why those who do are four and a half times more likely to be engaged

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Strategy Is Not a Plan — It's a Set of Choices (Peter Drucker & Roger Martin)
 01:22 Three Questions Every Business Owner Must Be Able to Answer
 02:30 How Kerri Runs Every Opportunity Through a Strategic Filter at Salt & Light
 03:54 Simplicity Is Strategic — Patrick Lencioni's Six Clarity Questions
 05:45 Data Should Drive Strategy — The Weekly Scorecard and Leading Indicators
 07:01 Speed of Execution — The Eric Ries Build-Measure-Learn Cycle
 09:32 People Strategy Is Strategy — Ed Catmull, Pixar, and the Right Chemistry
 10:54 The Gallup Stat That Should Wake Up Every Leader (22% and 4.5x Engagement)
 11:15 Culture First — How Kerri Hires for Values, Not Just Skills
 12:06 Leadership Shapes Strategy — John Maxwell and the Role of Wise Counsel
 13:51 Your Weekly Challenge: Pick One Area Where You've Been Reacting Instead of Choosing

Your people strategy and your business strategy have to be aligned — and the free HR Audit is the fastest way to find out if yours are: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Effective Executive / Peter Drucker — strategy as a set of choices; "what gets measured gets managed"
• Roger Martin — Harvard Business Review article on strategy as specific choices to win in the marketplace
• The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni — six clarity questions and organizational health as competitive advantage
• Traction by Gino Wickman — the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), rocks, and weekly scorecard
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries — build-measure-learn cycle; failure at small scale as tuition
• Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull — right people and right chemistry at Pixar
• Various writings by John Maxwell — "everything rises and falls on leadership"; "a leader knows the way, goes the way, shows the way"
• Gallup State of the Global Workforce Report — 22% engagement clarity stat referenced in episode
• PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Data and Analytics Survey — data-driven companies 5x faster decision-making stat
• McKinsey research — organizations prioritizing simplicity outperform by up to 40% in long-term returns
• Dan Martell — business coach and author of Buy Back Your Time (referenced)
• Kelly Howe — EFT coach, Episode 48 of Don't Waste the Chaos

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/strategyisthepowermove

Support the show

If your business is running you instead of the other way around, you're not failing — you're just overdue for a hard look at everything you're holding. Sustainable leadership doesn't start with better time management tips or a new project management tool. It starts with a brain dump, some honest math, and someone willing to sit with you in the mess. In this episode, Kerri Roberts sits down with strategic consultant Amanda Quick for one of the most grounded and practical conversations this show has ever hosted about delegation, burnout, systems, and what it actually takes to step into your role as an empowered business owner.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. The brain dump exercise Amanda uses with every client — listing every single task they touch in their business, calculating how much time each takes, and doing the simple math that reveals what they're actually earning per hour — and why seeing it on paper changes everything
2. The mindset shift that has to happen before delegation is even possible — why many business owners feel unworthy of having help, why they believe there's only one right way to do things, and how those beliefs are quietly keeping them stuck
3. How to identify which tasks to delegate and what to hire for — Amanda's process for creating a second column in the task list that maps admin tasks to a VA or junior role, calculates the cost of that help, and shows owners they'll still come out ahead financially
4. The early warning signs of burnout that business owners often rationalize away — including feeling unable to stop, losing joy in work, health taking a toll, and the powerful reframe that you can be genuinely grateful for your business and also completely exhausted by it at the same time
5. Why SOPs are not just for big businesses — how Kerri used AI and a voice memo to create her podcast SOP in minutes, immediately delegated it to her team, and was able to walk away from the episode and stay in her role as host instead of doing everything herself

About the Guest:

Amanda Quick is a strategic consultant and business coach whose practice, Amanda L. Quick Coaching, helps small business owners and entrepreneurs untangle operational overwhelm, price their services profitably, and build delegation systems that free them to lead from their zone of genius. Drawing on her experience launching and running an award-winning co-working space and roles in real estate and network marketing, Amanda brings a hands-on, no-judgment approach to business strategy that bridges mindset and operations.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 How Amanda's Consulting Practice Was Born from Her Co-Working Space Members
 03:20 Why Business Owners Don't See How Much They're Actually Carrying
 05:47 The Brain Dump Exercise — Laying It All Out to Finally See the Weight
 07:46 Delegation Mindset — Why Self-Worth Is the First Barrier to Getting Help
 09:01 The Task List Math That Shows You What You're Actually Earning Per Hour
 12:07 How to Know What to Delegate and What a First Hire Should Actually Look Like
 17:15 Scheduling Mistakes — Task Switching, Underestimating Time, and Setting Realistic Deadlines
 22:00 How Kerri Used AI and a Voice Memo to Create Her Podcast SOP and Hand It Off
 29:30 SOPs for Every Business, Not Just Big Ones — Starting Small and Building Habits
 33:41 Early Warning Signs of Burnout That Business Owners Rationalize Away
 37:14 Both Can Be True — Gratitude and Exhaustion Are Not Mutually Exclusive
 40:10 The Fear of Hiring When You've Been Burned — And How to Build Trust Anyway
 44:55 The First Action Step for Any Business Owner Ready to Regain Control
 48:50 Amanda's Offerings — Workshops, Strategic Intensives, and Where to Find Her

If you're ready to get a clear picture of where your people systems are holding you back before you take your next step as a leader, the free HR Audit is a five-minute starting point: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Amanda Quick — amandaleequick.com | Instagram: @AmandaLQuickCoaching
• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell — referenced in episode (link in show notes)
• The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson — referenced in episode ("slow down to go fast")
• Telling Yourself the Truth (workbook referenced by Amanda) — link in show notes if available
• Kelly Howe (EFT tapping) — Episode 48 of Don't Waste the Chaos (linked in show notes)
• Asana — asana.com (project management tool mentioned by Amanda)
• ChatGPT / OpenAI — openai.com (used by Kerri for SOP creation via voice memo)

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/howtoturnoverwhelmintosustainableleadership

Support the show

If you're a small business owner who's been hearing about AI for two years but still only using it to help you meal plan or write the occasional email, this episode is your wake-up call. According to a 2024 McKinsey report, 40% of small businesses have already integrated AI into at least one operational area — and companies that adopt it early are growing twice as fast as those that don't. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts pulls back the curtain on exactly how she uses AI inside Salt & Light Advisors, then hands you a list of 20 specific, practical ways you can put it to work in your business today.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. How Kerri uses AI across four core areas of her own consulting business — content creation and repurposing, business strategy and brainstorming, client delivery and HR consulting, and podcast and book development — and the specific time savings she's seen in each
2. Five immediate AI use cases for any small business owner: email drafting, social media content creation (including a sample prompt you can use right now), AI customer service chatbots, internal knowledge management, and financial analysis using tools like QuickBooks Smart Insights
3. The full top-20 list organized by business function — marketing and content creation, operations and administration, HR and people operations, finance and legal, and industry-specific applications for retail, healthcare, and construction
4. How Kerri used AI to compare two final job candidates — uploading resumes, interview transcriptions, and questionnaire responses to get a side-by-side pros and cons analysis — and why this is one of the most underutilized applications in HR
5. The one rule Kerri lives by when using AI — it's a starting point and a refinement tool, never a replacement for human experience, voice, or judgment — and the cautionary tale of the salesperson who copy-pasted a ChatGPT response, label and all, into her inbox

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Why Kerri Is Teaching an AI Episode (When She's an HR Person)
 02:12 The Data: Why AI Matters Right Now for Small Businesses
 03:19 How Kerri Uses AI Inside Salt & Light Advisors — The Overview
 05:19 Content Creation and Repurposing — Turning One Episode Into Many Assets
 07:02 Business Strategy and Brainstorming — SOPs, Offers, and Role Development
 09:09 Client Delivery and HR Consulting — First Drafts in a Fraction of the Time
 11:21 Podcast and Book Development — The Silent Co-Author Who Never Sleeps
 12:32 Five Quick AI Use Cases for Any Small Business Right Now
 14:19 The Social Media Content Prompt You Can Use Today
 16:50 The Top 20 Ways Small Businesses Are Using AI in 2025 — Full List
 21:00 How Kerri Used AI to Compare Two Final Job Candidates
 22:04 Start Small, Start Now — The One Key Takeaway

If AI can help you run your business more efficiently, imagine what a clear HR foundation could do — take the free Salt & Light HR Audit to find out where your people systems are slowing you down: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• ChatGPT / OpenAI — openai.com (Kerri's primary AI tool)
• Canva AI / Canva Magic Design — canva.com
• Jasper — jasper.ai
• Notion AI — notion.so
• ClickUp AI — clickup.com
• QuickBooks Smart Insights — quickbooks.intuit.com
• Loom (used for recording processes before converting to SOPs) — loom.com
• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell — link in show notes
• Oura Ring ($40 off with Kerri's code) — link in show notes
• McKinsey 2024 AI adoption report — referenced in episode

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/69top20waystouseai

Support the show

How do you know when it's time to pivot your business — not because things are falling apart, but because the way you've built it is quietly draining you even while the revenue keeps coming in? If your clients don't fully understand what you do, your offers are all custom-built, and your team can't explain the core thing you sell, that's not a failure — it's a signal. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts walks through the exact clarity framework she used after her own two-year business pivot, pulls from the best thinking of Donald Miller and Dan Martell, and gives you a peek behind the curtain at what Salt & Light Advisors actually changed and why.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Six specific signs it's time to pause and reassess your business model — including offering too many things, custom quoting everything, team confusion, and outgrowing your original audience or capacity
2. The Donald Miller "grunt test" — if a stranger can't grunt back what you do within seconds of seeing your website, your message is too complicated, and it's costing you clients
3. A four-step clarity framework: name your ideal client, define the promise in one sentence, simplify the path so buyers say yes or no instead of "what the heck," and buy back your time by cutting anything that isn't revenue-driving, brand-building, or soul-nourishing
4. Exactly what Kerri changed inside Salt & Light Advisors after two years — moving from all-custom one-to-one work to three primary tiers: community offerings, packaged project-based services, and clarified fractional support with updated pricing
5. The four new offerings rolling out at Salt & Light — The Circle (for women focused on growth), an HR mentorship package, HR in a Box for DIY business leaders, and The Leap for corporate professionals ready to make the jump to entrepreneurship

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Why This Episode Exists — The Hidden Costs of Complexity
 01:52 Six Signs It's Time to Pause and Reassess Your Business
 02:32 The Frameworks Kerri Uses for Clarity — Donald Miller and Dan Martell
 03:38 The Four-Step Clarity Framework (Name, Define, Simplify, Buy Back)
 05:51 What This Looked Like Inside Salt & Light Advisors at the Two-Year Mark
 07:55 The Questions Kerri Asked Herself Before Making Any Changes
 08:53 The Three Tiers of Salt & Light's New Offer Structure
 10:22 How the Project-Based Services Were Repackaged Around the Problem, Not the Product
 11:30 Clarifying Fractional Support and What the New Service Map Looks Like
 12:26 The Brand Pivot — One Home Base Instead of Three Separate Sites

Before you can simplify your business model, you have to know where your people systems stand — and the free HR Audit is built to show you exactly that in five minutes: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell — link in show notes
• Donald Miller / Building a StoryBrand — storybrand.com
• Salt & Light Advisors full service map — saltandlightadvisors.com
• Kerri's personal brand hub — kerrimroberts.com
• Community interest (The Circle, HR Mentorship, HR in a Box, The Leap) — message the word "pivot" on social media or leave a comment to get details

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/68whentopivot

Support the show

Reentering the workforce after staying home with your kids is one of those transitions that nobody fully prepares you for — the mom guilt, the identity questions, the logistical chaos, and the feeling that you have to prove yourself all over again. In this episode, recorded live from the Salt & Light Advisors team retreat at the Four Seasons in St. Louis, Kerri Roberts sits down with two members of her own team — Brittany O'Brien and Paige Mulligan — for an honest, unfiltered conversation about what the transition actually looks like from the inside. No highlight reel. Just real talk.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. What made two stay-at-home moms decide it was time to re-enter the workforce — and why "something felt missing" is a more honest answer than most people admit out loud
2. How long the transition realistically takes to feel balanced — Brittany's honest answer is a couple of months, and Paige's is "give yourself grace and it flows" — and why both timelines are valid
3. Why remote work isn't automatically easier for moms with kids at home, the boundaries that actually help, and what a real unfiltered workday looks like when school gets out early or the kids are screaming in the background of a 50-person webinar
4. What both Brittany and Paige wish they had known before re-entering — including the cost of people-pleasing your way through a career, why self-confidence matters more than checking every box, and what it means to own the role you were hired for
5. Why Kerri scrapped the corporate "work from home is not a replacement for childcare" policy when she built her own firm — and what she believes a healthy workplace culture can actually look like for working moms

About the Guests:
Brittany O'Brien is a business operations specialist at Salt & Light Advisors who transitioned from a career in education, bringing her strengths in organization, problem-solving, and communication to the team as a mom of two. Paige Mulligan is the marketing coordinator at Salt & Light Advisors, Salt & Light for Women, and Don't Waste the Chaos, managing branding, social media, and content while raising two young kids — and she is the person behind much of what you see and hear from this show.

Brittany O'Brien and Paige Mulligan are members of the Salt & Light Advisors team, an HR and people operations consulting firm founded by Kerri Roberts, who specialize in business operations and marketing respectively and both navigated the transition from stay-at-home mom back into the workforce in recent years.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Recording Live from the Team Retreat — and Why This Conversation Matters
 01:37 What Made Brittany and Paige Decide It Was Time to Go Back to Work
 02:26 The Hardest Parts of the Transition — Guilt, Logistics, and Identity
 06:16 How Long Does It Actually Take to Feel Balanced? (Real Answers)
 07:15 The Remote Work Dream vs. Reality — Flexibility and Chaos in Equal Measure
 09:31 What a Real Unfiltered Workday Looks Like with Kids at Home
 11:31 Boundaries, Sanity, and How to Protect Your Time While Working Remotely
 13:02 How Working Remotely Has Changed Both of Them Personally and Professionally
 16:50 Why Kerri Scrapped the "Work From Home Is Not a Replacement for Childcare" Policy
 19:14 What Paige Said About Watching Her Boss Take Time for Herself
 21:00 Advice to Their Younger Selves — Stop People Pleasing, Own Your Role
 28:24 What They've Each Learned About Themselves Through This Process
 30:15 Tips and Strategies for Navigating the Transition — What Actually Helps
 37:15 Funny Moments Working from Home with Little Ones Around
 39:45 What Working Mothers Are Modeling for the Next Generation

If you're a business owner trying to build a workplace where working parents can actually thrive, the free HR Audit is a good place to see whether your people policies are set up to support that: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
�� https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Brittany O'Brien on LinkedIn — link in show notes
• Paige Mulligan on LinkedIn — link in show notes
• Salt & Light for Women — linked in show notes

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/67realtalkformomsreenteringtheworkforce

Support the show

Reverse bullying in the workplace — when employees intimidate, manipulate, or threaten their managers — is one of the most underreported and underdiscussed dynamics in leadership today. Most leaders who experience it tell themselves they're supposed to be strong enough to handle it, that speaking up would make them look weak, or that addressing it will make things worse. In this solo episode, Kerri Roberts pulls from her own experience being bullied as an executive and two landmark legal cases to give leaders the clarity, courage, and concrete steps they need to address this head on.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. What reverse bullying actually is — how it shows up through defiance, coordinated grievances, threats of legal action, and social sabotage — and why so many leaders silently tolerate it rather than address it
2. A detailed breakdown of the Laura Händel case, in which four subordinate nurses filed a coordinated campaign of 32 charges against their nurse manager over six years — one of whom had applied for Händel's job — and what finally changed when the High Court reviewed it
3. What the Ruffy v. Board of Management of St. Anne's School ruling clarified about what legally constitutes bullying: repeated, inappropriate, dignity-undermining behavior that causes recognized psychiatric injury — and why a flawed disciplinary process does not automatically meet that threshold
4. The organizational impact of ignoring reverse bullying — how it drives good leaders out, creates cultures of resentment, and signals to the rest of the team that bad behavior is acceptable when it's directed upward
5. Seven specific strategies for recognizing and addressing reverse bullying: promoting transparency, establishing clear behavioral expectations, documenting patterns, assessing witness credibility, identifying potential collusion, resolving complaints swiftly, and bringing in HR or legal expertise when needed

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Why Kerri Is Recording This — A Personal Story and a LinkedIn Moment
 02:17 What Is Reverse Bullying and How Does It Show Up?
 03:56 Kerri's Personal Account — The Gossip Queen and the Lawsuit Threat
 05:29 The Laura Händel Case — 32 Charges, 6 Years, and a Coordinated Campaign
 10:33 Key Takeaways from the Händel Case for Leaders and Business Owners
 12:32 The Ruffy v. St. Anne's School Case — When a Flawed Process Isn't Bullying
 18:43 What This Ruling Means for Leaders Who Fear Holding People Accountable
 20:51 The Organizational Cost of Tolerating Reverse Bullying
 22:00 Seven Strategies for Recognizing and Addressing Reverse Bullying

If you're dealing with a situation like this and don't know where to start, the free HR Audit will help you see where your people systems and accountability structures actually stand: saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

— Resources to keep building —

🎯 Take the free HR Audit — Score your HR systems in 5 minutes and see exactly where your gaps are.
👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hraudit

🎙️ Listen to Don't Waste the Chaos — The podcast for small business owners building strong people operations.
👉 kerrimroberts.com/podcast

📖 Get The HR Easy Button — Kerri's book on building HR systems that actually work for small businesses.
👉 https://amzn.to/4cPyrFh

✉️ Subscribe to the newsletter — Weekly HR insights for founders, in your inbox every Monday.
👉 saltandlight.myflodesk.com/saltandlightadvisors

—

Need fractional HR support or want to talk through a specific challenge?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/contact

Ready to build foundational HR systems on your own?
 👉 saltandlightadvisors.com/hrfoundations

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Kerri's original blog post on reverse bullying — published April 27, 2024 (link in show notes)
• Laura Händel v. Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) — UK High Court case referenced in episode
• Ruffy v. Board of Management of St. Anne's School — Irish Supreme Court case referenced in episode
• Quigley v. Complex Tooling and Moulding Ltd — precedent case cited in the Ruffy ruling

📝 Full show notes + transcript: https://kerrimroberts.com/dontwastethechaos/66whenemployeesbullyleaders

Support the show