Okay, maybe not. But you know your business needs you to step up and lead.

And... you might be worried that the only way to manage your workload and team is to be the "bad boss" you despised.  

Whether it's managing contractors, corralling employees, or just keeping your clients on the same page, part of your job as the leader of your business is being the boss.

Your personal management style allows you to form stronger relationships with your team members, manage your own workload more efficiently, and stay happier at work. Plus, your personal management style influences the way others perceive your company, your brand, and the value your business creates.

This week on Help Yourself, CoCommercial founder Tara Gentile, PR & media strategist Brigitte Lyons, and management consultant Lucus Lyons discuss:

• How we discovered the kind of manager we did not want to be
• What steps we've taken to refine our own personal management style
• How we manage ourselves to make sure the important stuff gets done
• Plus, answers to your questions!

Tara Gentile is the founder of CoCommercial, the small business association for a New Economy. She's also the host of Profit. Power. Pursuit., a podcast about the nitty-gritty of running a small business today, and a bestselling business instructor on CreativeLive. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, DailyWorth, and Inc.

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Brigitte Lyons is the founder of B. She started in public affairs, corporate PR and as the marketing director of a nonprofit trade association. Today, her agency works predominantly with small businesses and organizations — experts and thought leaders who are looking to hone their message and build a community around their work. They help you identify what’s most attractive about your work to the audience you’re trying to reach, identifying holes in the market that aren’t being served by your competitors.

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 As a former market director at Chase, Lucus knows a thing or two about team-building. He was responsible for hiring, training, managing (and firing!) a team of over 100 employees. Through it all, Lucus was consistently rated by his staff as one of the top managers in the company when it came to employee satisfaction.

Don’t let the “big bank” background fool you -- the lessons Lucus learned guiding his team will transform your management mindset, and he will give you concrete tools to help you develop strong relationships with your team, so everyone is performing at their best.

You don't have to work your butt off to take full advantage of the summer months as a business owner. There are a few key things you can do to keep the revenue flowing in, ease up on your schedule, and prepare for growth in Q4.

My guest co-host, Brigitte Lyons, and I talk about how we prepare our businesses for summer and set ourselves up for success during this typically slow time.

On this week's episode of Help Yourself,  we'll chat about:

• What our summer business schedules look like
• How we work with our teams to create space for fun
• Why you shouldn't completely unplug from your business in the summer and what to do instead
• How to keep the revenue flowing in during the summer
• And, your questions!

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Tara Gentile is the founder of CoCommercial, a business owner community for the New Economy, and the host of Profit. Power. Pursuit., a podcast about the nitty-gritty of running a digital small business. She's a bestselling instructor on CreativeLive and a 9-year veteran of the digital small business scene. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, DailyWorth, and more. She's the author of The Art of Earning and Quiet Power Strategy.

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Brigitte Lyons is the founder of B. She started in public affairs, corporate PR and as the marketing director of a nonprofit trade association. Today, her agency works predominantly with small businesses and organizations — experts and thought leaders who are looking to hone their message and build a community around their work. They help you identify what’s most attractive about your work to the audience you’re trying to reach, identifying holes in the market that aren’t being served by your competitors. 

You've got a lot on your plate: your business, your family, the state of the global community, and all the creative ideas jangling around in your head.

How in the heck are you supposed to focus on the kind of creative, deep work that you love... while keeping everything else afloat?

It's this question that drives illustrator, writer, and cartoonist Jessica Abel, author of Growing Gills: How To Find Creative Focus When You're Drowning In Your Daily Life.

On the next episode of Help Yourself, Jessica and I will have a candid discussion about:

• When we've had a hard time focusing on what counts
• How we get our heads back in the game and prioritize creative work
• The tools and techniques we use to make creative work a daily habit
• The role creative work plays in our professional and business lives
• Plus, your questions!

Cartoonist, author, and educator Jessica Abel is the author of Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You’re Drowning in Your Daily Life, the graphic novel La Perdida (winner of the the 2002 “Best New Series” Harvey Award), Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars, as well as two collections of stories from her omnibus comic book Artbabe. She and her husband, the cartoonist Matt Madden, were series editors for The Best American Comics from 2007 to 2013. Together they’ve authored two textbooks about making comics, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics. Her book (and podcast), Out on the Wire, is about how the best radio producers in the world use story to keep us listening.

Jessica is the chair of the illustration program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Both within and without PAFA, Jessica helps creative people with big ideas to get past procrastination and anxiety, and get on with the business of making their potentially transcendent, game-changing creative work real in the world.

What does it take to go from being a nobody to a somebody? From an outsider to an insider...and even a leader?

Tara Gentile and her guest co-host, Brigitte Lyons, talk about what it really takes to breakthrough, get noticed, and rise above in your market, your community, or any audience.

On this week's episode of Help Yourself, Tara & Brigitte will jam on:

• The pivotal moments when they realized they'd gotten noticed
• How they find the confidence to show up on a daily basis
• What they did to create relationships with influencers
• How they avoid "internet social awkwardness"
• And, your questions!

Brigitte Lyons is the founder of B. She started in public affairs, corporate PR and as the marketing director of a nonprofit trade association. Today, her agency works predominantly with small businesses and organizations — experts and thought leaders who are looking to hone their message and build a community around their work. They help you identify what’s most attractive about your work to the audience you’re trying to reach, identifying holes in the market that aren’t being served by your competitors. 

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Help Yourself is a live talk show about digital small business, the New Economy, and the ins and outs of growing a company you love. Each week, Tara Gentile and her guest co-hosts talk about marketing, management, mindset, social media, productivity, and the latest news from the digital small business world. Whether you’re a coach, consultant, designer, educator, or professional building your own space in the New Economy, you’ll find valuable takeaways and of-the-moment ideas.

Blogging, podcasting, webinars, videos, memes, infographics... there are a gazillion ways to create content for your audience and entice them to buy.

In the next episode of Help Yourself, Lacy Boggs and Tara Gentile go deep on what they see on the horizon for content marketing.

They'll jam on:

• What their current content strategies are
• How live content is changing the landscape in 2017
• How they see small business owners making mistakes with content marketing today
• And, of course, your questions!

Lacy Boggs is a content marketing strategist, author of the bestselling Kindle book, "Make a Killing With Content," and director of The Content Direction Agency. She helps small businesses and solopreneurs to drive their own content marketing with strategies and frameworks that make content easier and more effective to produce and close the gap between content and sales. Check out her free resource library at lacyboggs.com/library