E67: 3 Founders, 3 Paths to Building a Business That Lasts Three women founders, three very different starts. I sat down with Lisa Council of Mrs. Grout, Stephanie Veraghen of Show Up Awesome, and Stephanie Melvin of Sol to trade the real stories: a layoff two weeks before Christmas, five-year plans for 10 industries, and a corporate exit over integrity. Then we get into funding, how long it took each of us to reach $250k, why we were slow to pay ourselves, and selling from genuine care. Scan...
13 days ago • 1 min read
E66: Values-Driven Marketing in Action with Mrs Grout Founder & CEO Lisa Council Lisa Council, founder of Mrs. Grout, is my longest-term client. We’ve been working together for more than a decade, and in this conversation we talk about how that trust was built, what we’ve learned from each other, and why her new website converts at 20%. Lisa walks through the review program her team runs, the low-cost touches that make customers feel appreciated, and her advice for women building businesses...
27 days ago • 1 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! I am writing you from the past. I pen every Two on Tuesdays email you receive from my heart, several weeks in advance of when you receive it. Which means I don't know exactly where things stand as you read this. But, writing from late September, the state of our world feels particularly perilous. So this week, I won’t be sharing any tips or strategies for building your business. Instead, I want to call each of you in. I am here today to ask you to do two very important...
29 days ago • 2 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! When times get hard and uncertain, our instinct is often to retreat. We stay online because it feels safer than showing up in person with all our messy humanity on display. We avoid the discomfort of real conversations about how we're actually doing. We keep our heads down and try to push through alone. But here's what I'm seeing after nearly 20 years of working with small businesses through multiple economic crises: The small businesses doing best in this moment of...
29 days ago • 2 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Last week, I asked you to name the one thing you need to finish this year well. Now let’s talk about what comes next. As this email lands in your inbox, I’m heading into 2027 strategic planning with one of our client teams. The first question I usually get from leaders new to intentional planning days is this: What should we do before our planning retreat or offsite days to get the most out of that time? I love this question because, the truth is, much of the magic of...
29 days ago • 1 min read
E65: Cordelia Proves a 3x James Beard-Nominated Restaurant Can Also Be a Container for Community. When Craig and I visited Cordelia in Cleveland, the last thing I wanted was to take the server up on their offer to talk to the owner. Restaurant owners have long been some of my least favorite people to talk to. But Andrew Watts was a delight, and our whole evening turned into one of the best lessons on the values, beliefs, and community I've had in years. In this episode, I walk through what...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Q4 has a way of sneaking up on us, and this year it’s bringing more than the usual year-end rush. Between economic instability hitting our businesses and a tense election season affecting our communities (and maybe even the safety of people we love), many of us are arriving at fall's traditional "completion season" already exhausted. The cooler air carries that familiar energy to finish what we've started. But if you're feeling like you don't have it in you to push...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
E64: Mobile Websites Mostly Suck, and That’s a Brand Trust Problem. Here Are 3 Ways to Fix It. Nearly two-thirds of searches happen on mobile, and a bad experience there costs trust and conversions. In this episode, I talk about why mobile websites mostly suck, why we small businesses are part of the reason Google keeps users on its own platform, and why a lazy mobile design is the brand equivalent of poor customer service. The good news is that it doesn't take much to get it right. It just...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
E63: Half of America’s New Business Founders Are Women. The Data Can’t Even See Them. The media spent the summer calling the surge in solo businesses a “fake business boom.” I dug into the data and found something else: just under half of new businesses are started by women, in a dataset that doesn't even track gender. Most small business research is built to leave women-owned companies out entirely, and I talk about why that matters. I also share my own path, from solo owner to a 10-person...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read