Last night, my four-year-old Julius woke up with a barking cough.

I went into his room in the dark and did the things mothers do. I gave him water. I gave him a chewable children’s Tylenol. I curled my body around his small, hot one and sang “You Are My Sunshine” in the half-whisper I use when I’m trying to keep the whole house asleep.

Meanwhile, my brain was doing math.

The next day was supposed to be my first real workday after vacation. It was supposed to be his first day at a new camp. We had already packed a lunch featuring turkey pepperoni, as per his request, and set out his favorite hot dog T-shirt. I had imagined a glorious productivity sprint: inbox, client work, edits, strategy, maybe even the kind of deep thinking that requires an actual uninterrupted thought.

Instead, at 2:17 a.m., I was Tetrissing my calendar. Could my husband take a morning shift? Could I move the call? Could I work during Bluey? How sick was too sick for camp? What kind of cough were we dealing with? How many hours of sleep could I lose and still be a decent mother, writer, editor, colleague, human?

Once upon a time, I thought leadership meant being exceptional. I pictured achievement. Recognition. A woman in a beautiful blazer walking onto a stage with great hair, a Steve Jobs mic, and impeccable boundaries. I thought leadership meant rising above the mess of ordinary life.

Now I think leadership means tending to what has been entrusted to you. Children. Communities. Ideas. Friendships. Teams. Drafts. Clients. The small rituals that help people feel safe enough to grow.

Motherhood has changed my understanding of leadership more than any job title ever could. It has taught me to make decisions with incomplete information. To stay steady while someone else melts down. To adjust, and adjust again. To think in both the next five minutes and the next five years. To care deeply without believing I can control the outcome.

That last part might be the hardest and most useful lesson of all.

In my work, I see this everywhere now. At ParentCo., the website I edit, leadership means helping overwhelmed parents feel less alone and more equipped for the day in front of them. In Write Up, my community for writers, it means creating a space where writers can be ambitious, vulnerable, practical, and human at the same time. In friendships, it means showing up with honesty, encouragement, and sometimes dinner. In my own creative life, it means protecting the work long enough for it to become what it wants to become. It means learning to be nicer to myself at 2 PM at 2:17 AM when my half asleep brain is churning with worries from the existential to the totally banal.

None of this feels separate from mothering. It all comes from the same place.

Care is a form of intelligence. Consistency is a form of vision. Stewardship is a form of power.

Yielding to what’s in front of us—and changing plans to make it work—is leadership, too. Our task is to meet what is in front of us, not what we expected it would be. And the truth is, the day ahead is not yet known.

I still want the big stages. I still want the books, the rooms, the conversations, the work that reaches people. Ambition is very much alive in me. But it has been reshaped by all these nights and mornings, by the packed lunches and fevers and deadlines, by the communities I am helping to build and the people I am lucky enough to love.

At 25, I wanted to be impressive.

At 39, I want to be trustworthy.

Today, I know that leadership is also about relationships. To lead means to care for other people. To be in charge of other people means relinquishing the myth of heroic individualism.

The idea that all of my time is luxuriously my own? That’s only true if I’m truly alone.

I want to be someone who can hold things with care. Someone who builds places where people feel braver and less alone. Someone who keeps singing in the dark while also quietly, stubbornly, reimagining the whole day ahead.

That feels more like leadership than ever.

— Hannah

This year, I asked one of our WWC members if she would write about her experience inside of The Wise Women’s Council, my ongoing group coaching program. Previously, she wrote about changing her relationship to rest, slowing down to be present to her own life, and the dangerous trap of comparative joy. This month, we’re digging into our core values and how they help us make decisions about the way we show up to our lives. If you’re looking for a group coaching program for women, check out The Wise Women’s Council and apply to join.

— Sarah K Peck

Hannah Howard is the author of the memoirs Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen and Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family. She writes for Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and Bon Appetit. Hannah lives in Chicago with her family and loves stinky cheese. Subscribe to her Substack, Letters from Hannah. She is also a member of The Wise Women’s Council.

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If you’re staring at your lead funnel wondering where everyone went, or if you’re questioning if your business is still viable in today’s world—you are not alone. The landscape has shifted dramatically. And a lot of what worked five years ago just isn’t landing anymore. After fifteen years of building businesses and working with leaders, I’ve seen a few patterns and practices that can help.

I want to break this down, not just from a tactical standpoint, but from a mindset perspective, too—because what’s required of us as entrepreneurs is changing. And if we don’t specifically address what’s changing, a lot of business owners may think that they are doing something wrong and throw in the towel too early, when it’s really the entire system that has shifted, and it’s up to us to respond strategically.

Here’s what I’m seeing, what we’re talking about, and what I’m doing.

Should You Pivot, Persevere, or Quit?

Strategies & mindsets for small business owners in 2025

IF WE HAVEN’T MET BEFORE

I'm Sarah K Peck and I'm a business strategist, leadership coach, and entrepreneur. Over the last twenty years, I've studied psychology, received a masters from Penn Design, and an MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology, and I've been a small business owner for 15 years. That means I've lived through multiple economic shifts, navigated entrepreneurship as a new parent, then through Covid, and again through a medical emergency. Over the last decade, I’ve coached and worked with hundreds of founders, leaders, and entrepreneurial operators.

In addition, I am part of a strong community of business strategists, marketers, sales geniuses, and peer business owners that I talk to on a regular basis about what we're seeing. A huge thank-you to Michelle Warner, a business wizard who I partnered with to host “Business As Usual? Or Throw In The Towel?” for my entrepreneurship group. Shout-outs to Alexis Grant, Margo Aaron, Sean O'Connor, Kaleb Leíja, Allison Davis and more! Talking to other business owners is essential for navigating pivots, downturns, and market volatility.

The Game Has Changed. Here’s Why.

BEFORE you throw in the towel, before you conclude that your business isn't working anymore, and before you shift to trying a half dozen new things, it’s important to get clear on why the business landscape is dramatically different than it was a decade ago.

While business owners are rightfully concerned about the economic tumult and the wild political swings, things actually got harder before 2025. Yes, this current season is making things even worse. But it’s important to remember that many folks across the board were tired, burned out, and frustrated for much of the last five years. There’s a pervasive sense (and objective data) that it is harder to generate leads, convert customers, and sell.1

Here's why ↓

AN ERA OF ‘FREE MONEY’ AND ‘EASY LEADS’

The era of free money and low-cost leads isn’t here anymore. (I explain what this means in more depth in the video above.)

If you look at the last ten to twenty years, especially in the United States, we’ve had huge periods of startup growth, with both venture capital flowing and relatively easy business borrowing. When interest rates are super low, it effectively means borrowing money is ‘free.’ With easy access to capital, the cost of starting a business is low. But today, interest rates are higher, loans are harder to get, and things are more expensive. This means both the costs of starting and sustaining a business are much higher.

In addition, leads were also pretty cheap and easy to get. With the rise of social media, email marketing, digital marketing, and online business, you could find potential customers quickly and at lower costs. Coupled with first-mover advantages of the social-tech space, early business owners could gain massive upsides.

Today, however, consumers are more discerning (aka consumer maturation). People are more cautious, more burned out, and more discerning. Acquisition costs are higher, advertising costs are higher, customers are spread across dozens of social media apps, and the tech platforms with the best leads can charge premium prices. Layer in the complexity of consumer privacy regulations and this means it’s harder to reach customers. It's not harder than ever, it's just harder than during the ‘gold rush era’ of the 2000s and 2010s.2

YES, BUSINESS IS HARDER. NO, IT’S NOT WHAT YOU DID.

The important takeaway: If you feel like business is harder in general, it is, for a whole lot of people. The mindset mistake a lot of people are making is the "grass is greener" assumption — that it’s only *their* business that is uniquely doing badly, and they'll have more luck if they pivot to an entirely new business model, or shut down entirely. This might not be the best strategy, even though it feels awfully tempting.

I want this to be reassuring, in a way. If it feels like things are taking twice as long, and they’re twice as hard—say, you have half as many customers than 10 years ago— that doesn’t necessarily mean your product is broken. It means the rules have changed.

And there are key things you can do from here.

PLEASE NOTE: The context and strategies below are particularly useful for small business owners, bootstrapped businesses, and folks who still have access to their key vendors and core resources. If you’re affected by supply chains, if you are a larger business or you are a more mature business with the capacity to scale new product offers, then these strategies are likely too simple for you—let me know in the comments what still lands.

Here’s How to Adapt Accordingly.

1. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU ARE UNIQUELY GOOD AT

Start by asking: What do I do really well? What is working in my business right now?

So many of us have a handful of offers on the table—five, six, ten different things—and only one or two are actually generating significant revenue. That’s the workhorse. That’s where you start. Review your products or services, and drill down to the core offer that brings in revenue. Zone in on your specific genius. List out where you already have systems, suppliers, leads, and contacts in place.

Evaluate your existing assets: How many leads do you have, what market are you in, what do you already have built, and what are your key strengths and skills?

When pivoting or trying new things: Seek confirmation that your current business is truly dead in the water, or no longer viable. Too many people throw in the towel on businesses that need to be tightened up. If you do want to pivot, consider how you can double down on an existing asset or strength.

Mindset Trap: When the Grass Feels Greener…

It can be extremely tempting to want to throw in the towel and give up when things are tougher than before. But before you leap to a grass that seems greener, consider: What will you have to build, acquire, purchase, or do from scratch to make this work?

If you need to build a new product, and talk to an entirely new market, and generate an entirely new lead list, is that going to be cost-effective? Make sure the profit margins are worth it, and the costs are reasonable. It’s not wrong to pivot, but thinking that a new business landscape will be easier may be a mindset fallacy.

The mindset trap that people fall into? Believing that by switching to a new product or market, they’ll be able to return to the era of easy leads and quick returns they experienced a decade ago.

It’s okay to look over at all the pretty land around you, but you might be better off sticking to your own garden and adding some new fertilizer and mulch, and investing in the garden you currently have.

2. DOUBLE DOWN. MAKE IT EVEN BETTER

Double down on your key offers.

Once you’ve identified what’s working best, focus your energy there. As tempting as it is to throw spaghetti at the wall when things get tough and to let tantalizing new ideas steal your focus, that’s usually a fast track to burnout. So instead of adding a ton of things to your plate:

Go all in on your core offers. Consider what it would look like to go all in. “Every week, make your service or offer a little bit better,” Michelle Warner told me. That’s how you play the long game and stand out.

Review your numbers. Make sure you still have the margins you need to make this business work. If rising costs have outpaced your offer, then the model may no longer be viable—and it’s smart to acknowledge that early. Make sure your core products are profitable in the face of inflation and longer lead times. If they are, double down and keep going.

Reposition as needed. A key strategy during downturns is to continue to do what you do best, but reposition it within the context of a recession. Remind your customers why this investment matters now. Connect it back to what they are currently challenged by, and re-assert the value of your business.3

Keep showing up consistently. Get clearer and louder about who you help and how. This is not the season to hide out or wait for things to stabilize. Claim your space, sharpen your message, and reintroduce yourself to your people.

Mindset Trap: Over-Stuffing Your Offers

Eliminate distractions and busy work. Cut what isn’t working, unless it’s essential to your core strategy. Fight the urge to launch 10 new things or burn everything down. That’s stress talking, but it will lead you to overwork (and burnout).

Don’t over-stuff your offers. In a panic, it’s easy to assume your offers need more. But your customers are stressed too. If you overload your offers, you risk confusing or losing them. Keep your offer clear, deliberate, and intentionally scoped.

People often prefer a deliciously cooked steak with the perfect pairings (or a single bowl of scrumptious pasta), over the all-you-can-eat buffets of randomness.

3. DON’T SPREAD YOURSELF TOO THIN.

Your biggest strategic move is not burning out.

When things feel uncertain—when leads dry up or clients hesitate—it’s easy to panic. More offers! More bells and whistles! Pack your offer with extras! Try every new marketing strategy! The temptation is to throw spaghetti at the wall, launch new programs, and try to be everywhere at once.

That urge comes from fear. I’ve felt it, too.

Don’t spread yourself too thin. I’ve done this the hard way—offering too much, too fast. When you pare down, you get clarity. You preserve your energy (and your team’s!) And you give yourself space to respond to the real-time needs of clients and customers (who are also stressed and stretched right now).

So instead, ask yourself: What can be cut? What’s draining energy without delivering results? Not forever—but for now.4

Right now, business owners need capacity. During downturns, business owners actually need to reserve some capacity in order to be responsive and resilient. Your clients might want more hand-holding. Marketing is taking longer. You might have less energy than you used to have. So it’s even more strategic to stay focused on your core offers. You’ll also want to reserve some capacity so you can stick it out for the long-term.

If you fill all of your time creating new work for yourself, you’ll run out of gas. Your biggest strategic move is keeping space on your calendar so you have time and energy to respond to clients, to think strategically, and to weather long sales cycles.

Mindset Trap: More is Not More

Instead of panicking and offering everything in the kitchen sink, resist the urge to do everything. Your clients are craving clarity, consistency, and steadiness. Remind them, “Hey, here’s what I do. Here’s who I help. Here’s how I can support you.”

If you try to sell everything, people will remember nothing. Cut the frills.

4. THE BIGGER QUESTION: DO YOU HAVE BANDWIDTH?

This is the real question that I’m seeing across the board. Folks are tired from the yearly pivots, adaptations, and changes. They are exhausted from the volatility. So the deeper question to ask yourself is:

Can you sustain the version of your business that exists now? Do you have the energy to keep going, knowing it might take longer and be less lucrative for a little while? If you can dig in and stick this out for the long haul, that’s what it’s going to take.

Because if you can say yes—if you’re willing to adjust expectations and keep refining your core offer—there is still a path forward. You don’t have to quit. But you do have to acknowledge the shift.

If the answer is no? That’s not failure. That’s strategy. Stepping back, pausing, or even closing a chapter is sometimes the smartest move.

Mindset Trap: I’m The Same Person As Before

Just like the business landscape has changed, the psychological landscape has changed. So many business owners are burned out—from online business, constantly pivoting, and the intensity of entrepreneurship.

When evaluating your business strategy, it’s also wise to evaluate your capacity and drive, too. For me, after having children, my capacity went down significantly. (I’m not the same bouncy sprite I was in my 20s, not by far!) My time is more limited, my energy lower. It’s wise to factor this in when business planning—which is why I plan around 25-hour weeks instead of 40-hour weeks.

[Want to work smarter, not harder? Click here to download my free mini-book with three core worksheets to help you focus, do less, and cut down your work hours]

What do you legitimately have bandwidth for? The math I’m seeing is folks are twice as tired, have half as much time, and things are costing twice as much. Make sure you can sustain your business with these resource shifts (including your own capacity).

THE BOTTOM LINE

We’re in a season of contraction. That doesn’t mean the end—it just means we need to lead differently. Be sharper. Be calmer. Be focused.

So, should you pivot, persevere, or quit?

Only you can answer that. But here’s the recap:

1. Understand the context. Things are more expensive. Leads cost more.

2. Focus on your core offers. What are your workhorses, your revenue generators?

3. Double down on what’s working. Focus on your core offers, clear up your core message, and make that offer even better where you can.

4. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Simplify what you can. Eliminate clutter, and fight the urge to do everything and be everywhere.

5. Check your energy. If you have reduced capacity or energy from burnout or long-term business work, keep simplifying and focusing your business plan so you can sustain it for the long haul.

And if the numbers still work? Congratulations! Keep going. You’ve got this. If you choose to keep going, we’re going to do it with clarity and intention—not hustle and panic.

We’re playing a longer game now.

— Sarah K Peck

Leadership ☀︎ Business ☀︎ Parenting ☀︎ Mindset ☀︎ Humor ​
Startup Parent​ (Podcast) ​
Founders With Kids​ (Community) ​
Wise Women’s Council​ (Leadership Incubator)

You can also find me on ​LinkedIn​, ​Substack Notes​, and ​Threads​.

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DO YOU PREFER VIDEO OR WRITTEN POSTS?

This post is both video and written. Above is an 11-minute video distilling these massive conversations into a four-part framework to evaluate and adjust in your business. Do you have a preference for video, audio, or written? Let me know by voting in the poll below.

This is a normal stage of being starting and growing a business. But this is where things can get tricky. Many business owners, struggling with the marketing and sales aspects of business, will shift their attention to other areas of business. This is where a small business owner might make a consequential error. If you’re trying to operationalize and streamline before you’ve nailed predictable sales, you’re jumping between stages of business.

It’s tempting to think that if you focus on standardizing and operations, you’ll feel less overwhelmed. But if you’re making these moves in the wrong order, chances are you’ll sink yourself and your business. It’s important not to interpret the frustration of marketing and sales as a sign to do something else entirely. Instead, step back, identify which of the five stages of business you’re in, and focus your work on what’s necessary in that specific stage.

Knowing what to work on in your business, and doing it in the right order, is the brilliant art of sequencing. This idea of sequence over strategy comes from business strategist and multi-million dollar startup operator Michelle Warner. She is a growth strategist who helps small business owners dial in their business model, increase profitability, and create businesses that last. Every year, I invite her to guest lecture in Wise Women’s Council, an incubator for women entrepreneurs and leaders. Over the many years I’ve watched Michelle teach, I’ve seen just how useful these models are.

In this article, I’m going to give an overview of the five stages of small-business growth, ideas that come from original research published by Harvard Business School in 1983. In addition, I’ll share the key lessons and insights I’ve learned about how to take this model and apply it to small businesses today.

The Five Stages of Small-Business Growth

How to work smarter if you're a business owner.

This model was originally published as The Five Stages of Small-Business Growth in Harvard Business School, May 1983. It is based on research by Neil C. Churchill and Virginia L. Lewis. The name credit above is to the original authors.

Here’s the problem:

Most business owners try to operate their businesses as though they are in every stage at the same time, and try to do too much all at once. Or they will do stages out of order, spending precious resources on work that is not productive or useful (yet). This leads to burnout, waste, or failure.

Here’s what to do:

Business owners should identify what stage of business they are in, and focus the majority of their resources on the stage they are currently in. Instead of doing everything at once, filter all strategic advice and tools through the lens of these five stages. The key strategic insight? It’s okay—essential, even—to minimize work that comes in later stages.

☀︎ STAGE 1 — LAUNCH & VALIDATION

You’re just starting a business with an idea, concept, or early prototype. Your fight is for existence. You need to launch quickly and validate that your business product/service is something that people will actually buy.

• Launch quickly.

• Validate demand for product/service.

• Prove people will pay for it.

• Do this as fast as possible.

• Do not get bogged down by extensive plans, marketing strategies, hiring, research, etc.

VALIDATION → VIABILITY. The owner is the direct manager of everyone on the team. The team is small or may not exist. The owner and the business are synonymous with each other. There are minimal formal systems. Your primary goals are to establish that you can get enough customers and deliver products (or services) sufficiently so that you can become a viable business.

☀︎ STAGE 2 — SURVIVAL & CASH FLOW

You've got a viable business if people buy! As a workable entity, your next job is to stay in business and stay on top of revenues and expenses. The business is experimenting and iterating on customer acquisition and growth.

• Now you need to stay in business.

• Focus on cash, marketing, sales.

• Experiment until you find what works.

• This can be messy, iterative, and experimental.

• Goal is to learn reliable ways to reach paying customers, repeatedly, and deliver sufficiently on your services or products.

MESSY → PREDICTABLE. The organization is still simple, the owner directly involved. There may be some employees. You are NOT focused yet on systems, planning, forecasting, or SOPs. This stage moves from scrappier to more predictable. Your primary goal is to generate enough cash flow to stay in business, while growing to a size that builds a decent economic return on your assets and labor.

Many businesses stay in Stage 2 for years, and that's normal. It can take a long time to find the right marketing mix and asset mix to reach predictable levels of profitability. Some businesses do not progress through Stage 2, getting stuck either earning marginal returns, or the delivery process is too costly or cumbersome:

“The mom-and-pop stores are in this category, as are manufacturing businesses that cannot get their product or process sold as planned. Some of these marginal businesses have developed enough economic viability to ultimately be sold, usually at a slight loss. Or they may fail completely and drop from sight.” — Churchill and Lewis, HBR, 1983

☀︎ STAGE 3 — SALES, SYSTEMS, SUCCESS

You're here when sales are predictable and reliable, when you can estimate upcoming sales and revenue within ~10%, and the business is sufficiently profitable. At this point, your business can:

• Begin to systematize + standardize processes

• Invest in strategic planning + operations

• Hire managers, professional services, more team members

• Refine + eliminate inefficiencies

PREDICTABLE SALES → SYSTEMATIZATION → PROFITABILITY. Businesses are refining their sales, systems, and processes towards expanded profits. Profits are reliable and consistent. Many businesses remain here for a long time or indefinitely, as Stage 3 is a successful stage for businesses. Not all businesses move to Stage 4 or 5.

↕ → AN INFLECTION POINT at STAGE 3.

There is a pivot point that happens for business owners at this stage. There are two different paths: deciding between stability or further growth.

→ STABILITY: Once businesses have reached sufficient size and economic health, many owners opt to stay here indefinitely. They reap the rewards of continued success, and can hire out management, operations, or directors to allow the owner to step away from some of the business. The challenges here are complacency and adaptability: not all teams are well-equipped to deal with environmental, market, or economic changes. Poor management, shifting costs, or new competitors can cause a business to fold or drop back down to Stage 2: Survival.

→ GROWTH: Alternatively, some business owners reach success in Stage 3 and want to continue to expand. They decide to use their business as a leverage point for growth, by re-investing profits into a growth and expansion. This is riskier, as you are re-investing profits, but has much higher potential rewards.

Many businesses stay in Stage 3 very successfully. Not all businesses move to Stage 4 or 5 if it’s not in line with the business trajectory or aims.

KEY INSIGHTS

From Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3:

In general, most small business owners will operate in the first three stages, and very few will progress further to stages four or five. At this point, there are many key insights that apply to small business owners:

STAGE 1: Validate quickly! This should be quick. Do not get stuck in this stage. Too many entrepreneurs will spend far too much sweating over a product, service, or offering and never put it in front of people. You should put your offers and ideas in front of people quickly to test and validate that there are potential buyers.

STAGE 2: Make money! Early sales are almost always messy and experimental. It’s wise to keep your team small and lean, and your growth through this stage is all about finding pathways to consistent, reliable, predictable customers and sales. This can take years. If you’re in the messy stage of cash flow, marketing, and fulfillment, you’re right there alongside many, many other business owners.

❌ IF YOU ARE IN STAGE 2: Do not focus your energy or resources on building systems, processes, SOPs, large teams, or extensive plans before you have moved through these first two stages. If you are still iterating on marketing and sales, then standardizing this (only to have it change) is a waste of time. Keep your systems lean, your processes lean, and try to focus the majority of your effort on building towards reliable sales. Once you can predict your sales flows with confidence and accuracy, then you can begin to operationalize.

STAGE 3: Reliable sales and profit = now it’s time to get more efficient! When you reach the point where sales and marketing channels are reliable and predictable, and you are sufficiently profitable, then you can move to operationalize, standardize, and streamline.

OVERALL If your business is still in an early stage, and it feels messy, that's a totally normal part of business. Finding your marketing mix and reliable sales can take years. The more you focus on the stage you're in, the better you'll grow.

Next, let’s look briefly at Stage Four and Stage Five.

☀︎ STAGE 4 — TAKE-OFF & SCALING

In this stage, the business is now looking to rapidly expand, grow, and scale. You are taking the success from Stage 3 and trying to leverage it to expansion, which will require adequate financing and sufficient growth to maintain the expansion. This will often require more refined systems, operational and strategic planning, and effective management. The key challenges in this stage:

• How to grow rapidly (and how to finance that growth)

• Managing a fast-growing, increasingly complex organization

• Managing cash flow

• Higher levels of risk

• Owner's ego, skill at scaling, blindspots

INVESTMENT → EXPANSION. This is the chance for a business to become a big business. But it requires a high level of skill in management, forecasting, planning, hiring, delegating, and managing complex business environments. Limitations at this stage, the authors write, are usually because of the owner. The owner might not be skilled at managing a growing company, they may struggle to delegate, or they run into problems with cash flow.

"If the owner rises to the challenges of a growing company, both financially and managerially, it can become a big business. If not, it can usually be sold—at a profit—provided the owner recognizes his or her limitations soon enough.”

“Too often, those who bring the business to the Success Stage are unsuccessful in Stage IV, either because they try to grow too fast and run out of cash ... or they are unable to delegate effectively enough to make the company work." — Churchill and Lewis, HBR, 1983

☀︎ STAGE 5 — MATURITY

The company has reached a formidable size, with advantages in size, financial resources, and market reach. At this stage, you’re a very large business focused on consolidating and controlling your financial gains, expanding the management team, and eliminating the inefficiencies that happen due to rapid growth.

Your goals are to:

• Consolidate and control financial gains

• Retain advantages of flexibility, size, responsiveness

• Expand management to top-tier operators; Professionalize the company w/ highly experienced people; Staff adequately.

• Eliminate inefficiencies, decentralize, finesse operational planning

• Systems are extensive and well-developed

“The corporation must expand the management force fast enough to eliminate the inefficiencies that growth can produce and professionalize the company by use of such tools as budgets, strategic planning, management by objectives, and standard cost systems—and do this without stifling its entrepreneurial qualities.” — Churchill and Lewis, HBR, 1983

A FEW FINAL NOTES:

Different parts of your business may be in different stages. Many businesses will operate with different products and divisions, and each product might be in its own stages. This is a useful way to think of the model. You might have an offer that is solidly in stage three, and you’re now exploring new offers to add to your product suite. Those new offers are right back in stage one, “validation” and they might spend a fair amount of time in the second stage.

Not all businesses are designed (or intended) for Stage 4 or Stage 5. For the completionists and perfectionists out there, please truly ignore the last two stages if they are not a match for the business that YOU are building. The majority of businesses will land in Stage 3 as a successful end stage.

If you are looking for support in starting, growing, and scaling your business, I wholeheartedly recommend Michelle Warner as a business strategist and thought partner. Check out Michelle Warner’s podcast, Sequence Over Strategy, where she breaks all of this down and does custom Q/A with different business owners to talk them through the process. Here are a few episodes to start with:

• Episode #8: The Five Stages of Small Business Growth

• Episode #10: Aligning Marketing and Growth

• Episode #11: Aligning Product and Customer Growth

• Episode #13: How to Master Your Marketing Using Sequence First

• Episode #23: The Three Growth Dials

If you are looking for a community of entrepreneurs to grow with, I run Founders With Kids, an online community for parents who are also small business owners and entrepreneurs. It’s a supportive community of entrepreneur parents who want to growsuccessful, sustainable businesses, with the difficulty level on “hard” while we also raise kids and manage the mayhem of family life at the same time.

— Sarah K Peck
Leadership ☀︎ Business ☀︎ Parenting ☀︎ Mindset ☀︎ Humor

Startup Parent (Podcast)
Founders With Kids (Community)
Wise Women’s Council (Leadership Incubator)
You can also find me on LinkedIn, Substack Notes, and Threads.

Parenting is a time of deep transformation, but our culture doesn’t talk enough about the real superpowers that becoming a parent offers:

• The ability to tape, glue, or MacGyver your way out of nearly anything. Yes, my child's current puffer jacket has been reinforced with duct tape.

• Your ultra-creative negotiation skills, formed from years of dealing with unreasonable, fickle, tiny human beings. From the forced choice, to psychological incentives, to the dangling bribes, to the big eyes—you can do it all. 

• The ability to move and live within uncertainty. "I'm not sure when that's going to happen, sweetie. I can't tell you or promise that for you right now."

• The need to be impeccable with your word, because if you make a promise, you shall never pass that exit on the highway again without hearing about it. You will learn to keep promises or you'll never let it down—making you a stickler for precise language and cautious about the hand-waving promises you maybe used to make.

• The ability to empathize, understand, and validate people. "That looks like it hurts so much. You really didn't like it when your brother punched you in the face. I'm so sorry that happened to you. I can see that’s making you really angry. I’d be angry, too.”

• The amount of stamina, resilience, and adaptability needed. I never realized that a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old are like animated kettlebells. Turns out I'm carrying 75+ pounds of wiggly, defiant humans across steps and bridges and grocery carts and escalators and more.

• The ability to put others before yourself. “Oh you need to poop? Go ahead, I'll just cross my legs in a pee dance for the next twenty minutes.”

• The skills of tending and befriending, and community building. You're going to see these parents everywhere—school, around town, after-care, and they're probably going to be in summer camp with you. That and you have to talk to someone; so you begin to strike up conversation out of desperation and sleep deprivation.

These are just some of the skills you build through parenting littles. And it turns out, these skills are really important for another realm, too…

These are also the skills that we need in CEOs.

We need creative problem solving, empathy, resilience, stamina, clear communication, patience, and the ability to tolerate uncertainty in today’s leaders.

Parenting delivers this in spades. Parenting expands your ability to understand other people, to weather the storm, to attend to internal and external emotional hurricanes, and it asks you to cultivate patience like none other.

In Western cultures, however, mothers and caretakers are mostly rendered invisible, bound to the home, and isolated from one another. As a result, this type of skill-building is often invisible and unrecognized. 

At Startup Parent, we want to remind you of all of these newly-acquired skills. Your journey in parenting is building you into the next-level leader that our world so deeply needs.

Parenting is an unrecognized leadership incubator.

We believe that parenting is an unrecognized leadership incubator for what the world needs next—the skills you'll need for the rest of your lifetime. When we bring people together in our communities, we take these skills and build on them, expanding your leadership toolkit. 

Skills like:

• Learning how to make hard decisions with multiple stakeholders and only partial information.

• Learning how to listen to your internal voice and hear what your gut has to say—and recognizing that "because" is a complete reason.

• Strengthening your ability to say no when you need to, even to things that you really want.

• Getting better at setting clear boundaries around work, family, and leisure needs.

• Realizing that doing this alone is a recipe for utter chaos, and learning to lean on and build support systems so you have places to go when you need help and support.

• Learning how to ask for help and support, and learning to ask more often than you think you should.

• Identifying what you need to pick yourself back up when you fall apart, and building a custom "self-care toolkit" to help you refuel.

• Honoring how much rest matters, and not trying to just "push harder," because that doesn't work for most parents.

• Accepting that it's okay not to have all the answers, and that you are limited, fallible, and human.

• Discovering how to be brave and vulnerable when you're with a group of people you trust.

What skills has parenting taught you? What life lessons, spiritual teachings, wisdom, or business savvy have you gained through all of this? Leave a note in the comments.

— Sarah Peck
CEO & Founder
Startup Parent

The Wise Women's Council is a year-long leadership incubator for business moms.

Translating parenting skills into leadership savvy is what we’re all about in The Wise Women's Council, and it's why we're building a Fatherhood Group and a community for Founders With Kids.

We believe there’s a better, more innovative way to build and lead. The Wise Women’s Council is a year-long leadership incubator for business moms who are tired of hustle culture — women who want to learn how to live and lead differently. Come be around other working moms who get it.

Because most business advice today doesn’t work for working moms.

If you need real people to talk to, and you want to make business-parent-friends, check out the Wise Women's Council, which is now open for enrollment. We only open twice a year for new members, and we'd love to see your face in the group. 

I hope you apply to join us if it's right for you.

Like weeds in a hot summer garden following weeks of abundant rainfall, you’ve got to get out the weed-whacker regularly and keep the projects at bay, or risk drowning out the plants you’ve been trying to grow all along.

The result? Paralysis. Indecision. Procrastination. Stress.

Workplace stress affects as many as 80% of today’s workers, and 40% of people report that their workplaces are extremely stressful and that it affects them in their everyday lives and personal time.1 2 Even as an entrepreneur, where I’m my own boss (and employee), the workload I place on myself can start to pile too high.

And herein lies the question:

How do you find a way to prioritize and focus when there are so many projects calling for your attention, and a never-ending stream of new projects?

That’s what today’s article is about.

In this article, I’ll tell you a story about finding focus that comes from Warren Buffett that has been extremely helpful to my own practice and to the people I work with. This practice has radically shifted how I show up to my own work, and it’s changed how I parent. It’s counter-culture and challenging to implement, but it works.

So if you’re struggling to focus or you’re stressed by too many projects, read on.

Warren Buffett—or a story about him—might have the answer.

The Warren Buffett* 25/5 strategy for finding focus

*This is not actually attributable to Warren Buffett, and when pressed, apparently he said he doesn’t remember this story at all — but the internet has repeatedly shared this story as something that comes from him.

For the longest time, I’d heard this story—this philosophy, really—that has been attributed to Warren Buffett. Apparently his pilot, a guy named Mike Flint, was talking to Buffett. Flint asks Buffett for life advice and how to get find time to get everything done he wants to get done in his life. Buffett replied with a three-step approach to solving the problem. It made such an impression on Mike—or whoever first heard the story—that this story passed on from person to person.

The story has been retold enough that it falls into internet lore, and you’ll find it on nearly every news outlet if you search, but try to trace the story back to an actual source, you won’t find it. The story is most likely fake—or it’s been transmuted in an elaborate game of “Internet Telephone,” but the process is so useful that I’m re-sharing it here. Take the truthiness of the story in question, but follow the steps and see what happens. Regardless of whether or not Buffett actually said any of these things, the process is still valuable.

STEP 1: Write out your top 25 career goals, life goals, project dreams, and aspirations.

What are your biggest goals in your life? If you don’t have a bucket list, take time to write them down. Even if you only have time to scratch out your top ten or so right now, do this first step—it’s important.

For example, you might have “run a marathon” on your bucket list, or “write a book,” or “have a family.” Whatever your top 25 list is, make it. Get at least 15 on the page.

It can take some time to write out a list. It can be between 20 and 30 things, more is fine as well. But take some time to write down what’s on your goals and aspirations for your own life. Now, this doesn’t have to be a list of everything you should do or that you’re supposed to do, but you can add those to the list, too.

This can be physical well-being, friendship goals, travel dreams, experiences, projects you want to build, things you want to write, professional certifications, and more.

If you’re still struggling, then write down all the things you’re currently working towards, and write down the things that occupy your brain space. For example, if you’re feeling pressure to get a degree, or fulfill some cultural or familial duty, add it to the list.

I wrote a list of 50 things that make me happy, here, which you can use as inspiration if it’s helpful.

Only when you finish this list —

— GO FINISH YOUR LIST! —

Then go to Step 2.

STEP 2: Circle your top 5.

Now that you have your list of All The Things, you’re going to go back through the list and circle the top five.

What are the biggest career or life goals you have?

For me, it’s easy to pick my top two:

1. Create my own family—have babies (if I can).

2. Write books.

I’ve got a few more in the top five, including running my own successful company and writing for major publications and outlets. Those are in my top four and they are nearly everything I’m working on building and making right now.

Down later on the list—it’s been a while since I’ve done this—but I have other goals and things I enjoy, like running a marathon, competing in triathlons, traveling and visiting lots of countries around the world, learning another language, and even completing yoga teacher training.

Once you have your top 5 list, then it’s time for Step 3.

Pause here and make sure you do Step 1 and Step 2 before going any further.

.

.

.

.

.

You'll really want to do this before you move on!

STEP 3: The Avoid-At-All-Costs List.

This is where the list becomes really interesting.

Apparently Buffett goes on to ask his employee: “What are you going to do with the other twenty things?”

He responds: “Well the top five are my primary focus but the other twenty come in at a close second. They are still important so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I’m getting through my top five. They are not as urgent but I still plan to give them dedicated effort.”

“No,” says Buffett. “You’ve got it all wrong.”

“Everything you didn’t circle in your top five just because your Avoid-At-All-Costs-List.”

“Everything You Didn’t Circle Just Became Your ‘Avoid At All Costs List.’”

Everything that’s on your list that’s not in your top five? Those are your highest distractions.

Because it’s not things that we don’t want that will distract us. 

It’s secondary goals and wishes that will pull our focus, cause us to lose ground, and ultimately distract us from the very things we want.

James Clear, a popular productivity blogger and the author of Atomic Habits, wrote about why these very things are the biggest productivity killers in our lives:

“Getting rid of wasteful items and decisions is relatively easy. It’s eliminating things you care about that is difficult. It is hard to prevent using your time on things that are easy to rationalize, but that have little payoff. The tasks that have the greatest likelihood of derailing your progress are the ones you care about, but that aren’t truly important. […] Every behavior has a cost. Even neutral behaviors aren’t really neutral. They take up time, energy, and space that could be put toward better behaviors or more important tasks.”3

It’s our inability to focus on the things that matter the most that cause us the most heartache.

I’ve been guilty of this time and time again.

In my adventures of book writing, I’ve often gotten lost in multiple-idea-itis, and I’ve scrawled and scratched the ideas all over my notebooks. Eagerly, I’ll start writing one of them, getting thousands of words down until I find myself somewhere in the 20,000 word mark and feeling overwhelmed and at a crossroads. Certainly, the next idea to come to my mind unrelated to the book has potential—maybe more potential than this one?

And so for years, I’ve stumbled, not knowing that pushing through the blockages and challenging moments at each of those writing thresholds is the more important task, and I am a bit sheepish to say that I have at least a dozen partial drafts buried in my hard drives.

The harder truth? I have to ask myself if I would be okay with writing 80% of five books and never having a single book make it to the light of day. This is why book writing can be so hard. So if I want to publish a book, however imperfectly written and however full of mistakes—I’ll need push through the process until I make a book, full of mistakes and errors and humanity. But this also requires a ruthless lid on the other ideas on the shelf, canning my easily distractible mind and asking it to keep returning to the attention of this project until the project is realized.

This is so hard for me.

Anti-Goals and why they matter

Most projects have clear goals and a desired outcomes. But folks often fail to create a list of known anti-goals. Anti-goals are objectives that you actively avoid, as they are the opposite of your goals, or impediments to your progress.

Your “avoid-at-all-costs” list just became anti-goals to your top five.

“Spending time on secondary priorities is the reason you have 20 half-finished projects instead of five completed ones,” writes James Clear. “The most dangerous distractions are the ones you love, but that don’t love you back.”

The bigger you get, the more you manage, the longer you live—the harder yet more important this is. We won’t arrive at focus unless we do the work to get there. Focusing ruthlessly on fewer things requires deep focus and a commitment.

I am still learning this.

In work [in life, in parenting]: pick your top two

IN BUSINESS

In many companies, leaders suffer from the dangerous assumption that they can have three, five, even ten project priorities running at any one time. It’s worth it to stop and ask whether or not these objectives are actually in competition with each other. Are they competing for time, energy, and resources? Does having more goals slow down the process or viability of each goal? What if the reason you’re not having success at your initiative is simply because you’re running too many burners at once?

Take the time to cut half the work off of your plate, and double down on the initiatives that really matter. The painful part is having to decide what’s first, and which of your darlings you need to let go of.

IN PARENTING

In parenting, I follow the same strategy. Rather than try to somehow optimize all of my parenting and be The Best Parent Ever (this is an impossible goal), Alex and I have tried to focus on one or two things at a time, and just do those things. For the longest time, it was Sleep and Reading. That was it. And when transition seasons came along (potty training, new schools, focused learning needs, etc) — that was one of the top two, and we had to drop something else.

So much of the world acts like we can optimize all of parenting, as if we live in a world devoid of constraints. That’s not a real world.

We have limited time, energy, and resources.

So pick two…

… or up to five.

— Sarah Peck
👾 Founders with Kids community — helping tired parents make friends
💜 The Wise Women’s Council incubator
🎧 The Startup Parent Podcast

One thing you can do to change your business and your life is to start your own mastermind. By which I mean, you’re going to assemble a group of people and decide to nominate each other to your own Personal Board of Advisors.

You don’t need to wait for an invitation from someone else to have a personal board of advisors. This is something you can build. …

Read more

“Oh, you’re a writer? So you sit at a computer all day? What exactly do you do?” Goodness, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this question, and how I’ve also wanted to know just what other creatives do with their time. So many founders and creatives struggle to figure out how to set up their life (and work) without work exploding out to all areas of life. Today’s essay looks at the stress and intensity of creative & knowledge work, and the faulty metaphors we still use for what work is. Tara McMullin, the author of this article, is a writer and critic who explores the influence of work culture and politics on our identities, livelihoods, and relationships. She's the creator of What Works, a newsletter and podcast about rethinking work for the 21st-century economy, and the author of What Works: A Radically Different Approach to Setting Goals.

Where does a politician go when they want to talk about creating more jobs?

They don't go to a high-rise office building. They don't visit the insurance agency storefront in an office park. They don't go to the local restaurant with a "Now Hiring" sign emblazoned across its front door for the last three years.

They go to a factory.

When a politician wants us to think of them as a job creator, they use The Factory as a metaphor. Like jobs get produced on an assembly line of public policy.

The Factory metaphor still informs how we think about work and what we expect from ourselves as workers: efficiency, standardization, automation, and output.

The Factory is an outdated metaphor for work today—fewer than 10% of US workers are employed in manufacturing. But that metaphor still informs how we think about work and what we expect from ourselves as workers.

Productivity, efficiency, standardization, automation, output—we often rely on concepts that govern industrial and manufacturing process management to describe work that defies the very definition of those terms.

But when we try to squeeze creative, knowledge-based, service, or care work into the mental model of The Factory, we create confounding and stressful working conditions for ourselves (and often for others).

And because our work is often framed as a privilege, we have a hard time recognizing and describing the stress we feel so that we can address it.

The Factory idea still permeates our disposition toward work because, as a metaphor, it is generally recognizable and it’s easy to imagine what that kind of job entails.

I've never worked on an assembly line, but I can picture one. I'm sure you can, too. I can easily imagine what that kind of job would entail (which is not to say that kind of job is easy or desirable—just imaginable).

However, I have no idea what the average architect or home health aide's job is like. I've eaten in plenty of restaurants, but I don't really know how the job of a server or line cook works. I ostensibly work full-time as a writer, but the daily work of other writers is basically a black box to me.

In other words, The Factory lacks the inherent ambiguity and uncertainty of more 21st-century modes of work. We want metaphors that translate easily across different groups of people. I can have the perfect metaphor for some complex topic, but if my metaphor isn't recognizable to you, it doesn't work.

But The Factory is an abstraction. It’s not accurate.

What I think of when I think of an assembly line or manufacturing workshop is different from what factories are really like. The metaphor itself becomes a blueprint for reality.

The goals I set for my work are built according to this blueprint. My expectations for how I perform are directed by this blueprint. The challenges I face and the solutions I seek to create are based on the logic of this blueprint.

As time goes on, I get frustrated because the blueprint I'm working with doesn't actually match what I'm trying to make. It's like trying to build a BILLY bookshelf with the instructions for a MALM bed frame. The parts don't match, the steps make no sense, and I just can't figure out how this bed frame is supposed to organize all of my books. Alright, I'm mixing metaphors now...

That frustration—that confusion—is at the heart of so many of the problems we face with work today. Setting aside the economic, political, and cultural issues that vex our working lives (a big ask), the mental model we have for work is just wrong.

Let's make this frustration and confusion more concrete by looking at three specific types of work, and what’s known as “work intensity.”

How “Work Intensity” helps explain the frustration and confusion of various jobs.

Management researcher and theorist Armand Hatchuel labels our frustration and confusion "work intensity." He argues that work intensity functions differently for different types of work—that means that different types of work need different strategies for mitigating or combating work intensity.

To figure that out, Hatchuel offers three factors of work intensity: definition, design, and stability.¹ The definition of a job is the set of rules, requirements, knowledge, and objectives that give it shape. The design of a job is the policies and procedures put in place to limit the bounds of the job and reduce the mental load it requires. The stability of a job is the amount of fluctuation the worker can expect in the job's tasks and responsibilities from day to day.

Another way to think of it is that definition is a function of the job itself and its associated tasks. Design is imposed by management to make the job as stable as possible. And stability (or lack thereof) is understood over time.

Hatchuel illustrates these aspects through 3 types of work: factory work, bus driving, and creative or knowledge-based work.²

1. A factory worker's job is highly defined, designed, and stable.

The archetypal factory worker shows up to a day at work knowing exactly what their job is, how to complete that job, and what the rules around that job are. Management creates training, policies, and procedures to limit the job and reduce its mental load. Management further controls all work conditions—equipment, raw materials, schedule, location, etc.

2. A bus driver's job is pretty different.

It is still highly defined, but the design and stability of the job are lower than in the case of a factory worker.

While a bus driver still follows a strict schedule, expectations, and rules, the driver has a great deal of autonomy on the road. They can't change the route, but they are responsible for dealing with how passengers and traffic can create unexpected (and unwanted) changes in their working conditions. Aside from a radio connection to dispatch, they're on their own. Further, sometimes a bus driver's job isn't driving the bus at all—sometimes it's counselor, moderator, knowledgeable citizen, or overdose interrupter—the boundaries of what is and what isn't the job of the bus driver are constantly changing.

The example of the bus driver makes me think of my time in retail management, too. The people I managed had relatively defined jobs, especially at a task level: cashier, barista, bookseller, etc. They received training in how to use all of the tools of the trade: cash register, inventory system, espresso machine, etc. We even did our best to train them on how to recommend books, respond to customer questions, and keep an eye out for theft.

But workers still had plenty of autonomy when they were on the floor. I couldn't observe the thought process that went into a customer interaction. I wasn't actively controlling the flow of work in the café. As a manager, of course, I had even more autonomy and self-management responsibility. That meant that I had to step in when work design systems failed, and the situation got too unstable. I could see the consequences of work intensity on the people I managed and on myself.

3. Finally, we arrive at the creative or knowledge worker.

This job is moderately defined, with low design and stability. Creative and knowledge-based work (and also most service and care work) is fluid, amorphous, and often ambiguous. Each worker is a sort of node in a system—the connections between nodes are critical but also subject to change at any time.

Like the factory worker, the creative or knowledge worker can only do their job if someone else in the chain does theirs. But unlike the factory worker, what each person in the chain does isn't well defined. Each consecutive person who picks up that widget from the assembly line sort of makes it up as they go.

One worker builds on or adjusts the widget based on what they know about widgets and how they interpret their role; the next worker takes what that worker has done and builds on or adjusts the widget based on what they know and how they interpret their role.

Hatchuel argues that this high reliance on others combined with the ambiguity around one's job increases work intensity. Further, adjusting that intensity is more complicated because the work processes involved are often personal and unarticulated rather than physically observable.

Work Intensity is described by the definition of the job; the design that limits the bounds of what the work is; and the stability or the amount of fluctuation day-to-day.

The creative or knowledge worker also has plenty in common with the bus driver. They both have considerable autonomy (read: responsibility) over their self-management and responses to changes in conditions.

However, the bus company can mitigate work intensity for drivers by observing patterns, designing new training, and equipping drivers with new strategies. Since drivers' difficulties on the road are easily observed and defined, the company can create solutions or policies to offer drivers more support (and stability).

But the creative or knowledge worker is in a pickle, facing novel challenges every day. In fact, they're often tasked with inventing novel challenges since their jobs revolve around working with new ideas, designs, and solutions.

When I send out a newsletter, I risk getting something wrong and inspiring an inbox full of unexpected emails—which then changes how I spend my day. When I post something on social media, I am creating the potential for a post to go viral—which is destabilizing even if it's positive! When one of our podcasting clients logs into a Zoom session with Sean and me, they're often creating unexpected work for themselves by asking for our opinion on their content.

Doing just about anything at all in the realm of creative, knowledge, or service work can open a can of worms.

Creating training or policies to address this barrage of novelty is nearly impossible. So, no matter the intentions and resources of the employer (or self-employed person), the work can be deceptively intense.

That deceptively high intensity is a narrative problem, which is to say that it's a problem with the stories we tell ourselves, which is also to say that it's a metaphor problem. Our mental model of The Factory obfuscates why we experience stress or confusion—and offers remedies that can’t actually fix our distress.

We can easily understand why a factory job would be stressful (e.g., dangerous machinery, unreasonable quotas, etc.) or how a bus driver might be regularly frustrated (e.g., acting to diffuse threatening situations).

But the creative or knowledge worker has it easy, right?

We often downplay our stress or strain because we don't have a way to articulate exactly what is so intense about what we do.

To be clear, I'm not saying that factory workers or bus drivers have it easy. I'm not even saying that creative or knowledge workers are in a worse spot.

My point is that most of us don't know how to recognize or describe the source of stress and intensity of a job that we might well perceive as fun in the right circumstances.

The lack of recognition or description doesn't change reality, though. It just makes it harder to deal with.

To cope, we often try to turn creative, knowledge, and service work into something that resembles factory work; we talk about automation, productivity, and efficiency, set stronger boundaries, take less shit, and unplug.

That's the power of a foundational metaphor like The Factory. You can see the influence of The Factory on the landing pages for top productivity apps, on book covers, and across YouTube channels.

How to do more in less time.

How to optimize everything.

How to automate your life.

As a result, we talk about automation, productivity, and efficiency. We wring our hands over the details of a process or rule. We decide to have stronger boundaries. Set a reasonable schedule. Take less shit. Unplug.

These objectives can have merit—well, not the hand-wringing. But I see many people get down on themselves when they don't follow through on their commitment to a saner working life.

The truth is that stabilizing inherently unstable work is a Sisyphean task. Standardizing an element of your job might make you more productive in one area but destabilize another element of your job.

What's more, who honestly believes that optimizing creative, knowledge, or service work leads to better outcomes? Who believes that innovation happens in assembly line conditions? Who believes that care and service work is best done by adhering to a strict schedule and set of rules?

The more we attempt to squeeze creative, knowledge, and service work into the metaphor of The Factory, the more likely we are to burn out.

Not so much because we're working hard but because how we're trying to work isn't aligned with what we're trying to make.

What have you found that works—really works—for you?

Leave a note in the comments.

— Tara McMullin

Tara McMullin is a writer and critic who explores the influence of work culture and politics on our identities, livelihoods, and relationships. She's the creator of What Works, a newsletter and podcast about rethinking work for the 21st-century economy, and the author of a book by the same name. 

You’ve been reaching out to me asking how to communicate with your teams, venting about how angry this makes you, furious about the chaos this caused in your families, and telling me how absolutely fried and exhausted you are. Inside our leadership incubator, folks were swapping stories and resources all weekend—plus, several of our podcast guests are affected, so we’re updating our release schedule accordingly.

Last year, I shared my playbook for leadership during crisis, a work-in-progress framework that I review and update regularly. I use this to think about how I want to show up as a leader. Today I want to highlight three key pieces that are relevant to leadership communication, especially in weeks like this.

Being in a leadership position asks you to come up with answers and frameworks when they don’t exist, and communicate to people when you don’t have the answers. Leadership asks us for resilience, emotional vulnerability, and bravery. This is part of why it’s so hard. Building your own frameworks and playbooks for leadership can help you, especially during crisis moments.

There are also many folks falling sick from the stress and cumulative effects of dealing with crisis after crisis. That’s why building your own frameworks is part of creating a sustainable long-term leadership plan. You’re welcome to borrow from this and build on it as you create your own playbook.

Wait, so what happened? Quick recap of SVB+ so far

If you don’t know much about it, on Friday Silicon Valley Bank closed, putting many founders and companies in crisis because suddenly all of their money was potentially just… gone. If you're an entrepreneur who has spent years of your life fundraising to build a project and then suddenly find out that you might have to shut your company down and fire everyone—that’s the bottom falling out. This doesn’t just affect entrepreneurs, either: payroll companies have been affected, there’s always a slight risk of “contagion,” (when other bank runs happen because of consumer fear), there’s risk of corruption, and there’s a lot of talk about whose fault this is.

I'm not an expert on banks, the financial system, or payroll—but I do work with founders on leadership communications, boundaries, and building resilient businesses and teams. For better or worse, each new crisis gives me a chance to revisit my frameworks and build upon them.

Leadership during crisis: a few notes

Leadership today includes facing the ongoing crises of our generation: a pandemic, ongoing wars, gun violence, racially-motivated hatred, domestic terrorism and years of civil and global unrest. Part of the work of leadership involves dealing with big events, and leading your teams and people through hard times.

As you navigate each crisis, take notes. Building your own frameworks and playbooks for leadership can help you, especially in future crisis moments. As part of my own leadership practice, I journal notes and put together draft frameworks for my future self to lean on. This is a working playbook for navigating leadership in a crisis, a set of rules I’m developing as I learn how to navigate uncertain and challenging situations.

Below are highlights from the list that apply to this week’s bank events, and an additional notes I’m adding to the list going forward.

1 — There is no “one right way” for a leader to respond.

Some people are rash, some people are impulsive, some people are a calming presence. Some people don't respond much publicly. You'll see all types across the board. This is why there isn’t one way to respond. You’ll define and refine your response style by paying attention, taking notes, and creating a framework.

Which styles stand out to you, both positively and negatively, and which styles represent who you want to be? Keep a file of messages you appreciate and why. In these communications are ideas for the values you want to stand for during crisis.

• Values for me: kind, clear, empathetic and brave.

• Anti-values for me: rash, mean, impatient, blaming.

Note what happens to you during events and keep track. Collect observations like a set of data points that show you what your typical crisis response is. For me, if I start to feel overwhelmed or panicked, I can get into a place of blame, gossip, and impatience. When that happens, I know that I’m overwhelmed and I almost always need to go outside, go for a walk, and do breath work or talk to another human before doing anything sudden.

2 — It's okay to wait 48 hours before responding publicly.

Key word: publicly.

It can often be a good idea to wait before responding publicly. Especially if the news does not directly affect you or your team, listening can be a great stance. Listen, learn, read, sleep. Your organization does not need to be a breaking news organization, nor is it a sustainable business practice for you to add 24/7 news reactions to the work you do. Not every piece of news needs to be addressed within hours. Specifically, I’m thinking about international crises, wars, public relations blow-ups, civic unrest, and more. If we’re responding to everything in real time, we’re going to run our organizations into the ground and not do the focused work we came here to do.

It’s okay to take a few days to respond publicly.

Not responding at all is also a valid choice, as long as you have a clear framework around what you respond to and why, and you’ve communicated it to your clients and network appropriately. (See more in notes 4 through 7 in the leadership playbook.)

But your team is not the public. So often people focus on making public statements while completely stepping over the need to communicate to their internal team. With your team, you need to tell people as early as you can.

3 — Tell your people as early as you can that you are aware of the news, especially if this will directly affect your team, people, or clients.

This is new to my playbook this year. If the current news affects your team, you need to talk to them as soon as it’s feasible. Too often, people want to wait to have all the information before communicating. This can result in too much silence, and can cause anxiety and distrust in your team. The longer you wait, the more alarming it can be.

Think about what you do when you hear a piece of alarming news. Do you forget about it? Likely not—you text and ask loads of questions, or try to find out more. People will talk, gossip, or look to the leadership team to figure out what’s going on. Your clients, staff, and teams during a crisis will react in similar ways. 

Here’s what’s going on in their minds:

OMG did you see this bank? Do you think _____ knows? Why haven’t they said anything? Are we in trouble? Are we going to get fired? Do you think we’re screwed? Are we going to get paid yet?

An absence of communication can be alarming and disorienting. But it’s still possible to create consistency and calm amidst chaos. As a leader, you'll often want to tell people as early as you can that you are evaluating the situation, that you don’t have answers yet, and that you’re aware of what’s going on.

This is a tricky place to navigate, so I want to break it down into three smaller steps and give more examples.

First, tell people you are aware of what’s going on, even if you don't have answers yet.

Say something even and especially when you don’t have the answers. People want to hear from you. Even a simple message that says, “I’m aware of what’s unfolding and we’re monitoring the situation,” is reassurance to people.

For example: 

“Hi everyone, we’re monitoring the banking situation with SVB and how this may or may not affect us. Right now, I don’t have enough information to tell you much more than that—but you should know that we are aware what’s going on and we are contacting all of the right parties to get more information. We plan to tell you more by tomorrow afternoon, and we will keep everyone posted as things unfold.”

Second, tell people what they can expect from you, including when and how you'll communicate with them.

A message that tells people when you will be in touch with them next can be a huge relief for your team.

For example, if it's a Friday afternoon: 

“Over the weekend, we will be in touch with you by Slack if anything urgent comes up. We would appreciate everyone checking in on Slack at 5pm on Sunday for any updates, and being available from 5pm-10pm on Sunday evening to prepare for Monday morning, but you don't need to check in any other time than that. Please take time to rest as much as you can before then.”

Another example:

“We won’t have any news or updates until Monday morning. I know how stressful it will feel this weekend, so please do your best to take care of yourself. All of our senior staff and leadership team will be working round the clock this weekend in shifts to figure out our next best steps, and to put us in the best place for Monday morning. We’ll have a phone call for questions and venting available all weekend if you need to talk to someone.”

Tell people what they can expect from you, when you’ll be sending it, and how it will be delivered (a morning briefing? an end-of-work check-in? by email, phone, other?).

Third, remind people to take care of themselves.

In a world of constant crisis, we need more self care, not less. The speed of communication, pace of change, and ability/necessity to be “always on” means that our nervous systems are overloaded and don’t have enough time to decompress. As a result, the negotiation between wellness and work has gotten harder, not easier.

Sometimes the only way to give yourself a break is to take a break even when it's not convenient or even when it feels like a bad time. It will never be convenient, and if work always wins out over rest, then you’re on a road straight to burnout. As the popular book Burnout reminds me, the need for rest will take you down in the form of burnout or illness if you don't take enough time for rest.

For me, rest needs to be communicated, scheduled, and I need to loop other people in to hold me accountable. This is proven in various corporate settings—it was either Buffer or Evernote, I believe, that had a policy for a while that you got paid a bonus of $1,000 to take a week vacation but you only got paid if you didn’t ever check email.

How to do this with your organization? Here are a few examples:

Tell people who are over-working in the crisis to schedule compensatory days off to decompress. Often people go through a crisis and then keep working regular hours. This is a great way to get team members to quit outright or quiet quit. Send a note to your team this week that you’ll give them next Wednesday or Friday as a full day offline, with no obligation to check email or Slack.

Lead by example. “Once we are out of the immediate firestorm, I’ll be taking two mornings to go for long hikes as a way to rest my nervous system and stay healthy. I’ll be in at 12pm both of those days. If you’d like to put a four-hour block on your calendar for time away, please do so on Thursday or Friday this week and check with your manager about which time is best for your project team.”

Schedule a bonus 3-day or 4-day weekend within the next two months. For all the times you ask people to work late, to work weekends, so stay on high alert, they need times they can count on to be away and off. “We’re going to take Friday, June 16th and Monday, June 19th as a two extra non-work days so there is a 4-day weekend for rest, decompression, and holiday observance. Our offices will close on Thursday at 5PM. Any messages sent after 12PM on Thursday will go into our pause box and be responded to the following week. Thank you for understanding.”

• Depending on your industry and organization, this can be tricky to do, but it’s so important. If you can’t do this within two months, that’s a bigger issue.

• If you can’t give everyone time off all at once, you may need to stagger it across different weeks to have enough employees on deck, e.g., you can give a third of your team a three-day weekend the last weekend in April, another third the first weekend in May, and the last group the following weekend.

• You can engage your clients in the decision and give them extra space, too. Tell them early enough that you’ll be offline for them to be able to plan ahead and coordinate.

Last but not least, take care of yourself, too.

You can’t be a good leader if you’re drowning.

Being in a leadership position asks you to come up with answers and frameworks when they don’t exist. It asks you to take risks and lean into bravery. It means you’ll often be unsure, or you’ll be wrong. I’ve been called out and called in and challenged so many times, and each time I’ve had to look further inwards and ask more of myself. There is so much I don’t know. The risk of failing is part of the job of leading.

That’s why it’s important to get support for yourself. Don’t just try to push through, or do it all yourself (hello, kettle, I’m pot—still learning this one). Identify people who can help you. Keep a resource list of trusted advisors, peers, therapists, and partners. Our latest podcast episode with Dr. Pooja Lakshmin is all about self care and well being, and I absolutely loved getting to interview her. It’s well timed for this week, too.

And develop a framework for yourself. That’s leadership.

Working on developing your framework can be more important than standing up in the moment. Yes, leadership involves reaction, but it’s important to react in a way that is supportive for the people you lead. This takes planning and long-term vision. If you don’t have a framework in place, start to pencil one in as a work-in-progress, and reflect on how it supports you and those around you each time big events unfold. If we’re only ever in reaction mode, we lose our power to take a stand for something and create action that moves the needle forward over time.

Leadership Communication: A Recap

1. There is no “one right way” for a leader to respond.

2. It's okay to wait 48 hours before responding publicly.

3. If this will directly affect your team, your people, or your clients, communicate with them early and regularly.

   • Tell people as early as you can that you are aware of the news. Tell people even if you feel like you don’t have answers. “We’re monitoring the situation and will update you on Monday morning.”

   • Tell people what communication they can expect from you, when, and how. “We’ll send an email every day at 5PM with an update.”

   • Remind people to take care of themselves during a crisis. Giving them clear communication can give them time to decompress, too. It sets a healthy and important boundary around stressful news. “We have people working around the clock on this, so please take time to rest this weekend. We’ll send news at 5PM on Saturday and Sunday, and we might ask people to be available Sunday from 5PM-10PM to step in. Outside of that, please don’t work.”

4. Take care of yourself, too. You can’t be a good leader if you’re drowning.

Read the full leadership playbook here.

— Sarah Peck
CEO & Founder
Startup Parent

PS — Daylight savings is already tough for parents, and this weekend in particular? Well, I am starting to wonder what is up with March 13th, because this weekend is consistently a doozy. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS & INVITATIONS

• DR. POOJA LAKSHMIN — Our episode with Dr. Lakshmin is now available everyone on The Startup Parent Podcast this week, with a deep dive into why doing more doesn’t make us feel better—in fact, it might result in rage, depression, exhaustion, dissociation, and more. Her book is out today!

• PANDEMIC STORYTELLING CIRCLE — On Friday, March 17th, 2023, we’re hosting an event open to the broader Startup Parent community—moms, dads, pet parents, caretakers—anyone who would like to can attend our special pandemic storytelling circle. Join us.

• WWC SCHOLARSHIPS — Interested in joining us in The Wise Women’s Council? We have specific scholarship opportunities as part of our work towards social justice and social equity.

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When you’re stuck in your business, who do you call?

If your answer is “no one,” or “whoever answers the group chat first,” you are not alone. It’s the default setting for founders and solopreneurs. And it’s exactly where I was when I first learned that I needed a personal board of advisors. I was trying to do everything myself, and calling it hustle.

You…

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When you look around at what we call work, life, and community—it's not working for most people. So many people are burned out, yet still trying to somehow do it all in their businesses and their lives as though this is the recipe for satisfaction and success.

But hustle culture and do it all culture both have a dark side that’s not often talked about—an insidious idolization of “missing sleep, meals, family, community, and anything else outside of work that might provide comfort, rest, respite, or meaning,” writes Erin Griffith for the New York Times.

Over the past few years, I’ve watched as work continues to expand scope across all facets of life, curious about who hustle culture benefits and whether or not it’s an effective strategy for individuals or teams. The benefactors of hustle culture are often an elite few—and it’s not usually the people are hustling the hardest.

A few years ago, I put together a talk on the problems of hustle culture, and a related short book on how to strategically work smarter (and work less). I’ve given this talk to retreats, team off-sites, masterminds, and leadership organizations as a way to rethink the way we rush through work and continue to try to do more.

Last month, I recorded one of the sessions I did for the B2B Writing Institute, and Sarah Greesonbach, the founder, sent me the recording to share with everyone who is a paid subscriber to this newsletter.

When you are a paid subscriber to the newsletter, you’ll not only get access to the private podcast, our advice columns, our community forums, but you’ll also occasionally get extra bonuses—like a full recordings of this talk on hustle culture and it’s downsides. If you’re on the free plan, upgrade to get access to this talk.

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A lot of work advice normalizes working overtime through side projects, side-hustles, and all-or-nothing mentalities. You don't have to go very far on the internet to find people evangelizing late-night work, weekend work, and all-hours hustle.

The problem with hustle culture is that it’s already proven to be quite toxic—and the assumptions behind hustle culture are often wrong. Humans need sleep and rest, and rest isn't something that's easy to sacrifice. The people who do boast about sacrificing sleep and rest often end up burned out or sick.

It's also not very interesting.

In grade-school, we used to play a game called "Would you rather...?" The idea is to pick between two options. In this case, would you rather work at a startup that works 80-100 hours a week, for half pay, with little organization or thoughtfulness, and leaders that don't know how to set boundaries and edges—

Or, would you rather work at a startup that sets boundaries around their most precious resource (human labor—aka time and energy), and focus on the best things to work on? Also, would you rather be paid double, because you're working half as many hours?

I think it's way more interesting and challenging to build a company that also has a humane ethos and celebrates the fullness of human life. If I had to pick between a startup that worked 100 hours a week and one that works 40 hours a week and was successful, I know exactly which one I'd pick.

I think it’s harder to build a startup on limited hours, and guess what? I like challenges.

Hustle culture asks us to push harder, work more, and “use up” all available hours we have in front of us. It tells us that we’re lazy if we’re not working until we drop, and says that it’s our individual fault if we can’t get things done.

Believe me, I love working nights and weekends. And when it’s a passion project, or an idea… it doesn’t even feel like work. Lest we be confused, I LOVE working. I don't mind hustle culture when applied appropriately. There are times and seasons to hustle. But when you do it all the time, you lose the variety of life rhythms that are essential to innovation and productivity.

Hustle is like a dial: let's say you can dial up your work energy between level one and six. Your goal is not to drive at level six 100% of the time. You will operate most effectively if you have a mix of level three and four, with sufficient time at level one, and occasional bursts at level six.

I'm not saying you should never hustle—I'm saying that hustle when done at all costs and all times, doesn’t work.

Hustle as a way of being is just a fast-track to burnout. The people who benefit from burned-out employees are the ones who don’t mind cycling through and hiring lots of new people to replace you.

When I became a parent, it became so clear how toxic the hustle noise is. As a caretaker, your time freedom completely disappears. That’s why so many parents today are being vocal about normalizing reduced work hours & escaping the lazy side of the hustle mindset. Especially as Millennial and Gen Z men think about becoming fathers, many of them are focused on doing work and family life differently—they don’t want to be absent fathers. They want to be equal parents.

Jay Acunzo, a brilliant creator and storyteller who is also the parent to two young kids, told me that as both his work and parenting challenges increase, he now searches for people who have stronger boundaries around when work gets done.

“I used to tinker on my side projects at night,” he said, “and the weekend? I could do SO MUCH with a weekend.” Now that he has an almost one-year old and a three year old, that space is just not available anymore. Did that stop him from working on projects? Not at all. But it did shed light on how much work culture defaults to assuming people will work nights, weekends, and any other time we have available.

Work wants all the time you can give it, and then some.

Startup culture has become synonymous with "hustle culture," but that's become an ill-defined excuse to work all hours without any limits.

“I used to endorse hustle culture,” Alexis Grant, the founder of They Got Acquired shared, “Until I became a parent and learned that working parents don’t have time for side projects.” Instead of running yourself into the ground trying to keep up with everyone else, parents can remember that they already are hustling—they are keeping children alive and healthy 100+ hours week over week.

“I used to endorse this—long work hours—until I became a parent and learned that working parents don’t have time for side projects.” — Alexis Grant, founder of They Got Acquired & four-time member of The Wise Women's Council

“When someone says they operate like a startup, often they mean they’re working all out, putting in lots of hours,” she says about our assumptions of what “startup culture” is supposed to look like.

“But it can also mean operating lean and scrappy, strategically working to gain customers and revenue, [and] prioritizing shipping over perfect.” Building a big company on fewer hours means being even more lean and focused, and it’s a skill that parents are well-equipped to learn.

Operating like a startup can also mean being lean and scrappy, and being very intentional about what you're building on limited resources. One of those limited resources might be the number of hours you have to put towards the startup.

Grant has been really vocal lately about the ways that hustle culture doesn’t work for parents. She’s been a client of mine, and has been in the Wise Women’s Council for four years now, so we’ve talked about this A LOT together. (Also, Startup Parent is a sponsor of her podcast—we’ve been supporting each other for years, and her new media company is all about building companies that sell, but aren't traditionally covered in the media.)

“You don’t have to work yourself into the ground to build a successful company,” — Alexis Grant, founder of They Got Acquired

She speaks up about the reality of being a working parent, talking openly about the limited time hours and focusing on what can be built instead.

Startups are about building new visions, new ideas, and new projects. They can also be about doing things in new ways—including building successful companies on fewer hours and dollars.

Today, Grant is working on a new media company focused on businesses that aren’t often seen in the media—companies that grow well, that make big revenue, but aren’t necessarily the glamorized unicorn tech companies that get almost all of the media coverage.

They Got Acquired is redefining startup success by telling the stories of online companies that sell between $100K-$50M. How she does it is just as important as why she’s doing it: “I’m building this startup on 30 hours a week, and I pick up my kids up from school at 3pm three days a week,” she says.

Not every company needs multi-million dollar rounds and thousands of employees to get to work. Not every company has to be venture backed. And not every company needs to embrace the toxic side of hustle culture that grinds its employees into the ground.

Being a parent doesn’t mean you can’t get things done. It means you get things done differently.

It might not feel like it, but today's parents are on the leading edge of redefining what work culture looks like, because kids are a forcing function. They limit your hours and ask you to think differently about how work and life fit together.

• Work culture IS changing, and the more vocal parents are about ending workdays at reasonable hours, the more we can keep this change coming.

• Normalize flexible work, reduced hours, and the idea that big thinking can still happen with tiny teams or fewer hours.

• Ignore how fast everyone else is moving, and ignore most of the startup-hustle mania that saturates the news.

Remember: It doesn’t matter how "fast" you move. A lot of companies out there are spinning their wheels and look busy, but they aren't doing the work that matters. If you’re putting one step in front of the other, your revenue is solid, and you’re growing a building a little bit each day, you’re doing it.

Onwards and sideways—kids, interruptions, sick days, and all.

— Sarah Peck
CEO & Founder
Startup Parent

A FUTURE OF WORK TO BELIEVE IN:

• At Startup Parent, we believe that parenting shouldn’t be at odds with work—and the insights from your parenting journey propels you as a leader that this world needs. We disrupt the myths of parenting to tell true stories of motherhood, fatherhood, and parenting today.

• The Startup Parent Podcast is an award-winning podcast ranked in the top 1% of podcasts globally. Join us as we interview parents about what the future of work, life, and leadership look like. Click here to add the show to your player.

• If you're a working mom looking for a community that understands you, apply to join The Wise Women's Council, our leadership incubator for entrepreneurs, executives, and managers who are also moms. The program runs annually and we open for applications twice per year. Click here to apply.

Picture your ideal morning routine. What does it look like?

Ask anyone on the Internet, and the collective blog-o-sphere will tell you the list of ways you should wake up and care for your self and your soul. If you search the hashtag #morningroutine, you’ll come away with the conclusion that there’s somehow a “right” way to approach your morning routine…

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