Podcast appearances and mentions of alyson caffrey

If you've ever felt like your business runs you (instead of the other way around), this episode is a breath of fresh air. Molly is joined by returning guest and systems expert Aly Caffrey—a fellow mom, business owner, and the brains behind Master Maternity Leave. Aly's mission? Helping women build sustainable, streamlined businesses that actually support the life they want—without the burnout.  Expecting a baby and wondering how you'll keep your business running while you step away? Alyson Caffrey is the ultimate pro on how to simplify and streamline your business, so that you can take a true maternity leave—without sacrificing momentum or income. Aly's Master Maternity Leave course is the go-to resource for entrepreneurial moms who want to create true flexibility and presence during their leave while knowing their business is still supported behind the scenes. This is my referral link—I may earn a small commission if you purchase, at no extra cost to you. This is a resource I wish every expecting business owner had in her toolkit. Don't just “wing it”—instead, prepare with confidence for so much more ease, flow, and presence. Inside this conversation, they chat about:

Alyson Caffrey is an Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author of The Sabbatical Method, and founder of two businesses, Master Maternity Leave, and the consultancy Operations Agency. She's best known for streamlining back-end operations of brands using her Operations Simplified™ framework to unleash the power of small teams. Alyson believes that if she can return fulfilled founders back to their families, she can generate a much larger impact in the world. Alyson also hosts The Growing Pains podcast.

Join Corey Quinn and Alyson Caffrey—Operations Strategist & Founder of Operations Agency—to uncover the systems and strategies that fuel sustainable agency growth. Known for helping founders escape the chaos of day-to-day operations, Alyson has spent the past 8 years streamlining backend ops for agencies, small and large. Together, they dive into the operational foundations every agency needs: from lead generation and fulfillment systems to time tracking, delegation, and performance measurement. Alyson shares why operations don't have to stifle creativity—and how a few key shifts can help agency leaders reclaim their time, scale smarter, and make a bigger impact both in business and at home. Episode Highlights: - Who Really Owns Operations? — Why most agency founders are unknowingly holding back their own growth. - The System Every Agency Skips — And how it could be the key to sustainable, stress-free scaling. - Time Tracking Isn't About Control — It's about profit, performance, and clarity. - Creativity vs. Structure? — Why SOPs actually unlock more creative freedom, not less. - The Sales Cycle Blind Spot — What most agencies miss when planning for growth and cash flow. - Lead Gen Is Not a Guessing Game — The framework for building a predictable client pipeline. - Delegation Without Drama — How to step out of the weeds without dropping the ball. - AI in Agency Ops — How to start integrating AI where it actually moves the needle. - The Founder Bottleneck — Why your agency can't scale until you let go of this one thing. - The Metric That Matters Most — Why leading indicators beat lagging ones every time. The resources mentioned in this episode are: - Work with Alyson Caffrey & Book her for speaking: https://www.alysoncaffrey.com/media - Connect with Alyson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alysoncaffrey - Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alycaffrey - Learn more about Operations Agency: https://www.operationsagency.com - "The Motive" by Patrick Lencioni: https://www.tablegroup.com/product/themotive - Escape the generalist trap with my best-selling book “Anyone, Not Everyone” and discover how to become the go-to agency in a vertical market https://www.AnyoneNotEveryone.com

Discover how top-producing agents are navigating shifting real estate markets, leveraging powerful client engagement tools, and staying ahead with data-driven strategies to spark more listings and deepen relationships.In this episode, real estate professionals Jenn Auten, Alyson Caffrey, and Mike Chabot share insights into current market trends from Denver to Santa Clarita to Palm Springs. Jenn breaks down how her team uses Homebot to boost client engagement, manage data, and identify high-potential sellers. The discussion dives into innovative follow-up strategies, listing timelines, and the evolving role of technology in staying connected with clients and maximizing opportunities.

Planning maternity leave as a self-employed mom can feel overwhelming—how do you step away from your business while ensuring everything runs smoothly? In this episode, we sit down with Alyson Caffrey, Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author, and founder of Master Maternity Leave, to discuss how self-employed moms can prepare financially, set up systems, and transition back to work with confidence.We cover essential questions like: ✅ How to plan for maternity leave while keeping your business afloat ✅ Financial strategies for self-employed moms without traditional paid leave ✅ Resources and programs that can help supplement income during leave ✅ Maintaining client relationships and managing expectations ✅ Easing back into work while balancing new motherhoodWhether you're expecting your first baby or planning ahead, this episode is packed with actionable strategies to help you take a fulfilling, stress-free maternity leave.

Maternity leave as an entrepreneur doesn't have to mean choosing between your business and your baby. Alyson Caffrey, operations expert and author of the Sabbatical Method, reveals how she transformed from answering client messages hours after giving birth to enjoying a fully present two-month paid leave with her second child.Most business owners build their companies around their unique skillsets, making it nearly impossible to step away. Alyson breaks down the four essential systems every business needs: lead generation, conversion, fulfillment, and improvement. She explains how analyzing your calendar can reveal shocking insights about where your time actually goes – and how much of it you're spending on tasks that could be delegated for a fraction of your hourly rate.The emotional journey of entrepreneurial motherhood runs deep. Your business was likely your "first baby," making it difficult to loosen your grip on the reins. But as Alyson discovered, trying to maintain business-as-usual with a newborn on your hip simply isn't sustainable. The surprising truth? Maternity leave can become a powerful catalyst for business transformation and growth when approached strategically.With only 13 states offering any maternity leave support for self-employed mothers, entrepreneurs must create their own solutions. Alison shares practical strategies for reimagining your business structure based on how you want life to look after baby arrives – from financial preparation to team training and systems documentation. Her advice? Give yourself at least two months to fully embrace the transformative experience of new motherhood, then customize everything else to fit your unique family needs.Whether you're expecting your first child or planning for future family growth while building your business, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective on creating space for both ambition and motherhood. Follow Alyson on Instagram @MasterMaternityLeave or visit mastermaternity.com/guide to access her comprehensive free resources for planning your entrepreneurial maternity leave.Resources:Maternity Leave Planning guide: https://www.mastermaternityleave.com/free-maternity-leave-planning-guide The Ultimate Time Audit & Productivity System (Freebie)Grab it here: TIME AUDIT WORKBOOKHow to Hire Your First VA for $27Get it now: GROWTH CHEATSHEETDiscover Your WHY – Free 5-Day WorkshopSign up for free here: DISCOVER YOUR WHYThe Mom Balance Playbook (Freebie for Managing the Mayhem)Download here: MOM BALANCE PLAYBOOKHire a VA or start your VA business here: https://camillewalker.co/5-Minute Meditations for Kids PodcastListen & subscribe here: APPLE SPOTIFYConnect with Alyson:Instagram: @alycaffrey: https://www.instagram.com/alycaffrey/ @MasterMaternityLeave:  mastermaternity.com/guide Connect with Camille: Follow Camille on Instagram: www.instagram.com/CamilleWalker.coFollow Call Me CEO on Instagram:

As a business owner, stepping away from your business—even for something as important as maternity leave—can feel overwhelming. How do you keep things running smoothly without you? Will clients leave? Will your business suffer? These are the questions so many women in business struggle with when preparing for maternity leave. That's why I'm so excited to have Alyson Caffrey on The Business Edit Podcast today. Alyson is the founder of Master Maternity Leave and an operations consultant who helps business owners create space to step away from their businesses—whether for maternity leave, a sabbatical, or simply to regain their time freedom. After her own experience of struggling to take maternity leave, she developed a framework to help other women do it differently—without the stress, burnout, or fear of business collapse.In this episode, Alyson and I dive into everything you need to know about planning your maternity leave as a business owner, including how to set up systems that allow your business to run without you, common mindset blocks that keep entrepreneurs stuck, and why creating space to step away might actually grow your business in the long run. Even if you're not planning a maternity leave anytime soon, this conversation is packed with valuable insights for any business owner who wants to create a more sustainable, life-first business.If you've ever wondered how to step away from your business without everything falling apart, this episode is for you! Tune in now to The Business Edit™ Podcast.SHOW NOTES: jadeboyd.co/planning-for-maternity-leave-with-alyson-caffreyLINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Master Maternity Leave WebsiteMaster Maternity Leave InstagramMaster Maternity Leave Free GuideThe Sabbatical Method Book CONNECT WITH JADEWebsiteInstagramJoin My Email List LEVEL UP YOUR BUSINESS + PRODUCTIVITYOrganize your Business Digital CourseThe Business Edit™ Coaching ProgramFREE RESOURCESFREE Double your Profit While Working Less MasterclassFREE Task Batching WorkbookFREE Weekly Review ChecklistThe Business Minimalist Blueprint Workbook

Are you a self-employed business owner that wants to plan the maternity leave of your dreams? Today I am joined by Alyson Caffrey to talk all about how to plan a maternity leave that is right for your business and for your family. Alyson is a systems and operations analyst who helps business owning moms plan for maternity leaves and then enter back into their businesses with confidence. Alyson and I chat about marketing systems that create leads while you are away from your business, whether a business owner with no team can use this system and about some creative ways you can bring additional revenue to your business while on maternity leave. This was such a great episode. I can't wait for you to listen! Thank you so much for tuning in today!  Connect with Alyson: Website: mastermaternityleave.com Podcast: Growing Pains Podcast  Maternity Leave Planning Guide: mastermaternityleave.com/guide Master Maternity Leave Course: mastermaternityleave.com/planningcourse Instagram: @mastermaternityleave Connect with Jenny: Website: www.jennyrothcopywriting.com Email Insiders: www.jennyrothcopywriting.com/email-insiders Free Email Marketing Strategy & Email Template Collection: https://jennyroth.myflodesk.com/emailtemplates Email: Hello@jennyrothcopywriting.com Instagram: @JennyRothCopywriting 

Coming in at number four of your favorite episodes lately: In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Alyson Caffrey, the founder of Operations Agency and the co-creator of the operations simplified framework, which is aimed at streamlining the backend operations for digital and creative agencies. She also authorizes The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business. With a wealth of experience in helping agency owners find a balance between their work and rest, Alyson sheds light on how the Sabbatical Method can revolutionize how marketing systems are handled. Key Takeaway: Working less to achieve more is a paradigm shift in the traditional hustle culture, especially among agency owners in the marketing realm. Alyson Caffrey joins me in elucidating how the Sabbatical Method is transforming the marketing systems landscape. We delve into the concept of "systematic rest," an innovative approach to interspersing work with adequate rest to prevent burnout and enhance productivity and creativity significantly. By embracing the Sabbatical Method, agency owners are discovering a potent strategy to scale their business while reducing the hours they traditionally grind away, making the notion of working less to achieve more a reality. More About Alyson Caffrey Get Alyson's book -  The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business - https://amzn.to/3Q3inVd Find out more about the Operations Agency - https://www.operationsagency.com/ Connect with Alyson Caffrey on LinkedIn - https://www.operationsagency.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts If you liked this episode, please rate and review the show. Click here - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-duct-tape-marketing-podcast/id78797836 scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then, let us know what you loved most about the episode. Connect with John Jantsch on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/ducttapemarketing/ Are you stuck trying to figure out your marketing strategy? Get Your Free AI Prompts To Build A Marketing Strategy HERE - dtm.world/freeprompts

Have your leaders thought about taking a leadership sabbatical? Alyson Caffrey, a small business Operations Strategist, is here to share more with us about leaders taking a “leadership sabbatical”. This structured approach allows overwhelmed business leaders to step back from daily operations and focus on strategic decision-making. Alyson outlines a three-phases process: preparation, sabbatical, and reintegration. We talk about the crucial role of operators in creating systems and boundaries to support leaders. By implementing this method, leaders can have growth, empower their teams, and enhance their businesses. For full show notes, check out www.TheOpsAuthority.com/podcast/259 Stay Connected: Join the Ops Insiders FREE Facebook community! Other Ways to Connect with Me: Facebook Page Instagram Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network

Ever feel like you're the only one who can do certain things in your business? This can keep you trapped in the day to day and keep your business from running like a well-oiled machine. What if you could shift that by systematizing your operations and building a knowledge base? In this episode of the Lean Out Your Business podcast, I sit down with operations strategist and best-selling author Alyson Caffrey to discuss streamlining business processes for growth. She emphasizes the importance of developing a "company knowledge base" to ensure consistent and efficient operations, which is especially crucial for remote teams. Alyson is committed to using her experience growing businesses and streamlining operations to help 'parentpreneurs' kid-proof their businesses and live family-focused lives. We explore the need for clear roles, structured processes, and a simplified approach to avoid the pitfalls of scaling complexity. Alyson introduces the concept of "operation simplified," emphasizing the importance of fixing issues as they arise and having a solid maintenance plan in place. Tune in for insights on optimizing operations and achieving a joyful, scalable business.     “Structure in your business operations isn't restrictive. It gives you the freedom to focus on what truly matters.” -         - Alyson Caffrey In this episode, Alyson and I dive into how systematizing operations can drive growth, create consistency, and ultimately give you the freedom you're looking for as a business owner, including: - The importance of a company knowledge base - Why structure leads to more freedom - Overcoming resistance to systematization - How to attract & retain top talent - The benefits of saying 'no' more often - How time off is crucial for growth   Ready to simplify and streamline how you scale your business? We are now accepting Visionary CEOs and their right-hand Ops Leads into our signature Simplify to Scale mentorship program. Learn more and join us at https://www.leanoutmethod.com/scale Join us for our transformational in-person business retreats and masterminds each Spring and Fall at https://www.leanoutmethod.com/retreat. Have questions? Want to explore partnering together to scale your business? Connect with me on my personal Instagram @cristagrasso or LinkedIn and let's start a conversation. If you loved this episode, please help us spread the word and reach more business owners like you by leaving a 5-star rating and review. Hit subscribe to be the first to listen to new episodes each Tuesday. For full show notes and more visit https://www.leanoutmethod.com/podcast      

We're taking a break over the summer and bringing you our Homerun Rerun series with some of our favorite episodes from the podcast. We hope you enjoy!!This week on the Marketing Like a Mother podcast, Olivia is talking with the CEO of Operations Agency and the Founder of Master Maternity Leave, Alyson Caffrey.Alyson created a system for mompreneurs to master maternity leave so that they don't have to choose ‘business or baby' after starting or growing a family and she prides herself on helping business owners create systems that amplify their business growth while simultaneously decreasing stress behind the scenes.Alyson took two maternity leaves from her business in the last two years and is currently in the mommy trenches with two little boys under three.In the episode, they discuss:* How you as a business owner can begin to plan for maternity leave (or any extended leave!)* How to transition from “my business is my baby” to “my business is my capable adolescent”* What if you're a solopreneur?* How to build a business that's “life-proof”* What “maternity leave” actually looks like* How to decrease your stress level while out on leave* Alyson's and Olivia's own maternity leave stories* And more!You can learn more about Alyson at https://www.mastermaternityleave.com or she is mastermaternityleave on social!Never miss an episode when you subscribe to our Substack!Learn more about Michelle here and about Olivia here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marketinglikeamother.substack.com

Maternity leave should be a magical time. Don't let the stress of "leaving" your business ruin that for you and your family! In today's episode, I dive deep with Alyson Caffrey on how to strategically plan maternity leave without pausing your business. Alyson shares her journey from juggling a newborn and emails to creating Master Maternity Leave—a system to ensure your business thrives while you take well-deserved time off. Her insights on mindset shifts, team autonomy, and scaling even when you're away are game-changers. Tune in for strategies to kid-proof your business and achieve true work-life harmony. We cover: Tools and strategies that will help you to define and prepare for the leave/breakThe importance of leveraging and trusting in your team during this time How to reframe the idea of leaving your business as an opportunity for growth rather than a pauseTools and resources that will allow you to create processes and systems for your business to run smoothly without your constant involvementCONNECT WITH ALYSON:Website: https://alysoncaffrey.com/ and https://mastermaternityleave.com/Instagram: @alycaffrey and @mastermaternityleaveDM "CRUSH" on Instagram and to receive the Maternity Leave Planning Guide for FREE!CONNECT WITH HOLLY:• ASK ME ANYTHING: www.hollymariehaynes.com/chat• WATCH THE EPISODE AND BONUS CONTENT ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/@hollymariehaynes• SAVE 50% OFF THE CLUB: https://www.hollymariehaynes.com/club (Use code CEOBONUS)• WORK WITH HOLLY: www.hollymariehaynes.com/workwith me

On today's episode, I am sharing an episode that I did on the podcast “Growing Pains” with Alyson Caffrey. Tune in as I share about my personal and professional journey while balancing a family. We discuss the challenges of leaving a corporate career to start a business while prioritizing family. I emphasize the importance of intuition, empathy, and understanding individual needs in both parenting and leading a team. I talk about self-discovery, reinvention, and the significance of operations in entrepreneurship. I hope that this episode can inspire you to balance motherhood and business, and the value of being ambitious and going for your goals no matter the obstacles. For full show notes, check out www.TheOpsAuthority.com/252 Stay Connected: Join the Ops Insiders FREE Facebook community! Other Ways to Connect with Me: Facebook Page Instagram Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Alyson Caffrey, the dynamic COO of Operations Agency.Alyson recounts her East Coast upbringing and how the "Northeast hustle" instilled a unique drive in her. Despite not coming from an entrepreneurial background, she became an "accidental entrepreneur" after leaving her 9-to-5 job. Within 30 days of her departure, she was fully booked with clients needing her operational expertise. She reflects on the surprising yet fulfilling shift from considering a law career to diving into entrepreneurship, and how it significantly shaped her personal growth and confidence.Alyson delves into how she balances her personal brand with Operations Agency, underscoring the importance of defining her core purpose. Alyson shares the evolution of her business, from managing various projects to focusing on documenting SOPs, which has proven to be the most effective service for her clients. She highlights the pivotal role of personal branding and how it seamlessly ties together her various business endeavors. Let's embrace the power of innovation and efficiency with Alyson Caffrey as we unravel this enriching episode of The First Customer!Guest Info:Operations Agencyhttps://www.operationsagency.com/Alyson Caffrey's LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alysoncaffrey/Connect with Jay on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jayaigner/The First Customer Youtube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@thefirstcustomerpodcastThe First Customer podcast websitehttps://www.firstcustomerpodcast.comFollow The First Customer on LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/company/the-first-customer-podcast/

Over 1/3 of agencies frequently struggle with overservicing clients.  You've likely felt the pain yourself.When projects are going well out of scope and things are taking longer than your team planned, it can have a major impact on your agency's profitability.Alyson Caffrey, Founder & COO of Operations Agency, has identified the 5 biggest scoping mistakes across dozens of agencies that are often leading to this overservicing problem–and ultimately underperforming profit margins.  In today's conversation, you'll learn:What those 5 common mistakes areHow to spot & avoid them (to improve your agency's performance & profit)A talk track for managing revision requests that'll make your team & your clients much happier (because what is agency life without those additional client demands?)Resources Mentioned in This Episode:Connect with Alyson on LinkedIn Connect with Operations Agency on InstagramAn Agency's Guide to Measuring And Improving Billable Utilization (Ebook)How to Avoid Unprofitable Client Work (Webinar) 3 Steps to Simplify Your Capacity Planning (Webinar)How To Drive Client Results 70% Faster w/ Kate VasylenkoThe Client (a film by Umault)Want to watch the video version of the podcast on YouTube?Check it out here: Agency Life Podcast on YouTubeWant to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

You can Watch or Listen to this episode: https://the6ways.com/30"Rise and grind" has become a popular phrase in entrepreneur culture, implying that in order to have our own businesses we have to start working the moment our eyes open and it has to be HARD. But my guest in this episode Alyson Caffrey disagrees (as do I). Listen to hear 6 ways taking rest can make you MORE successful.Occasionally a helpful announcement for listeners gets added to the show so the timestamps below may be off by 30-60 seconds, but they should be pretty close.00:42 6 Ways Entrepreneurs Resting Can Increase Their Success05:01 #1: Important Schedule Shift06:47 #2: Task Dividing Hack09:29 #3: Amazing Test Run14:21 #4: Time Zone Trick15:21 #5: Going Deep18:00 #6: Every Entrepreneur Needs This21:36 I'm a parent and I'd be curious to know if you have any tips for getting more rest as a parent and an entrepreneur? Some REALLY awesome tips were shared in this episode – please think about who you know that would benefit from these, and then make sure to share it with them. Because WE ALL DO BETTER WHEN WE ALL DO BETTER.

Alison Caffrey opens up about the perfect storm she faced as a new mom and entrepreneur. With her business reliant on her time and her husband losing his income, Alison found herself answering client emails mere hours after giving birth. She shares her emotional journey, from using alcohol to cope with stress to the realisation that her business needed a complete overhaul.  … Sponsors Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Personio - all in one HR platform: https://personio.com/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/. You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes.

Join me in a captivating discussion with Alyson Caffrey, the Maternity Leave Girl, as we explore the intersection of parenthood and entrepreneurship. Alyson shares her journey of prioritizing rest and family while building a successful business. We delve into fostering independence in children, effective leadership, and the profound lessons learned from both parenting and business ownership. Tune in for practical insights on creating a supportive team, implementing systems for scalability, and finding fulfillment in both business and parenthood. Ready to be inspired? Press play now!   Learn more and connect with today's guest:  https://www.instagram.com/alycaffrey/ https://www.instagram.com/mastermaternityleave/ Want to work 1:1  Let's work together!  Looking to take more action, but aren't sure where to start? Sounds like group coaching could be a great fit! To find out more about my GROUP COACHING or to sign up go here Want to focus on the relationship between YOU and YOU in a super fun way?  My Monthly Graphic Tees and Sweatshirts are designed for you and your inner conversation. It's time to fall in love with YOU. Get them now!     

In this episode of "The Art of Slowing Down," host Analena Fuchs is joined by small business operations strategist and best-selling author, Alyson Caffrey. Together, they delve into the intricacies of building a successful team and the challenges faced by solo entrepreneurs. Aiming to offer practical advice and valuable insights, Alyson shares her expertise in streamlining operations, creating high-performing teams, and the critical role of rest and relaxation in sustaining business durability and longevity. As they explore the balance between work and rest, they also touch upon the significance of delegation, setting boundaries, and embracing the opportunities for transformation that motherhood can offer to entrepreneurs. Join us as we uncover the art of slowing down and achieving sustainable growth in the world of business! Towards the end of the episode Analena also does a brief review of Alyson's tropical and true sidereal Human Design Chart which both find resonance for Alyson. About Alyson: Alyson Caffrey is a small business Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author and founder of Operations Agency. She's commonly referred to as ‘The Wolf' among our clients because she just gets shit done. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands and using her Operations Simplified™ framework to unleash the power of small teams. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. Alyson is mom to two young sons under three years old (yea, it's crazy) and enjoys spending her time at home with her growing family. Get in contact with Alyson & Operations Agency: The Growing Pains Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-growing-pains-podcast/id1647042513 Alyson's website: https://www.operationsagency.com/ Alyson's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alycaffrey/ Operation's Agency Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/operationsagency/ Operation's Agency on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/operationsagency Alyson on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alysoncaffrey/ How to connect with Analena? Ready to unlock your zone of genius? Book your Human Design Reading: https://calendly.com/analenafuchs/ E-mail: bloom@analenafuchs.com Analena's Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.analenafuchs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Analena's Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/analena.fuchs Analena's Offers & Latest Heart Projects: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://analenafuchs.com/info⁠⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-art-of-slowing-down/message

Are you a small business owner juggling it all? Discover the power of systems and strategies with tips from my next Turquoise Talk guest. Alyson Caffrey is a small business operations strategist and bestselling author. She is also the founder of Operations Agency and is known for helping parentpreneurs kid-proof their businesses and live family-focused lives.   Also in this episode: How to increase profitability through effective operations  Three key systems every business owner should have in place The benefits of having a sabbatical plan and preparing for maternity leave in your business    If you're a mompreneur looking to streamline your operations and create a business that gives you more time with your family, Alyson's insights and practical tips will help you navigate the challenges of balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship.   Book mentioned: 10x is Easier Than 2X by Dan Sullivan   About Alyson:  Alyson Caffrey is a systems gal. Give her a messy, disorganized situation and she's ALL ABOUT making things less stressful, more organized, and amazingly streamlined. After working behind the scenes of several high-growth companies, Alyson founded Operations Agency in 2018 to help growing companies define, create, and optimize the way they operate. They help unleash the power of small teams, increase client retention rates, help owners double their revenue, and so much more. The power of clear operations is incredible.   Alyson is also the author of The Sabbatical Method, How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business. This book gives you the tools you need to remove yourself from day-to-day operations and get back to what really matters: your family.   Learn more about Alyson's course: https://www.mastermaternityleave.com/    Connect With Alyson: Website | Instagram   Be sure to follow this podcast to automatically receive new episodes: Apple | Spotify | Webpage   Connect With Martine: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram   Book A Free Clarity Call with Martine: https://calendly.com/martinewilliams/clarity-call   Check out my favorite books and items to make life and business a little more simple and a lot more fun!: http://www.shop.martinesfavoritethings.com    About Martine Williams: Martine is a life coach, public motivator, podcaster, author, and mompreneur who helps other mompreneurs win at work without losing themselves in the process. Martine brings her experience as a certified PDP Professional and life coach to coach entrepreneurs on how to illuminate their strengths, cultivate their confidence, and elevate their lives. She also loves inviting mompreneur guests on the show to share their perspectives and provide inspiration, success tips, life hacks, and skills for a burnout-proof life and business. This podcast is edited and produced by: Chris Assist Media

Tune into "Operational Excellence in Non-Profits: A Masterclass with Alyson Caffrey" on episode #83, where Alyson Caffrey reveals the secrets to streamlining non-profit operations. Discover expert strategies for enhancing efficiency, implementing SOPs, and ensuring your team's efforts align seamlessly with your mission. This episode is a must-listen for non-profit organizations looking to elevate their operational game and make a greater impact. Join us for actionable insights and tips from a leading operations guru. Episode notes: wowdigital.com/083

Hey you wild women!  Alyson Caffrey joins us for this episode. She is a small business operations strategist and the founder of Operations Agency. Additionally, she's known for streamlining backend operations and unleashing the power of small teams. If you find your business goes through feast and famine cycles, it's time to operationalize. At its core, Alyson describes this as habit stacking in your business to structure and streamline all your processes. This is especially important for moms who want to build both a family and business that thrives. In this episode, you will learn about: How Alyson acts as the woman behind the curtain for successful businesses. Who she works one-on-one with now and what kind of experience she provides. How following a calendar helps her stay on track every day. The career path she pursued but didn't follow through with, and what she did instead. Alyson's Venn diagram approach to streamlining a business. Why it's crucial to have a place for your internal knowledge base. Why you don't have to choose between growing your business and growing a family. The challenge Alyson faced when she became a mom and what it taught her. Why some moms get off track in their business and how they can avoid it. How to deal with mom guilt when your business is your baby too. The importance of trusting your team and how you can show that trust. Why mommy wine culture is ridiculous and how alcohol can derail you. How to prepare your business if you plan to take time off. What Alyson did right after giving birth and how this influenced her work today. How far in advance you need to prepare your business before you take time away. What her book “The Sabbatical Method” teaches. What it means to be a wild woman: Not being ashamed or afraid to do what's best for you. Mentions: www.wewildwomen.com/mediakit www.operationsagency.com/thesabbaticalmethod ______________ Got a minute? I would love a review! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap, and give me five stars. Then select "Write a Review." Make sure to highlight your favorite bits. Subscribe here. ______________ Connect with Alyson: www.operationsagency.com @operationsagency  Connect with Renée: @renee_warren @we.wild.women www.wewildwomen.com

It's that time of year where we close out the podcast with a highlight of our favorite moments from our favorite interviews this year. In part 2 of this series Alan and Jonathan share the next 5 of their favorite moments.  We hope you enjoy these clips, and as you rest over the holidays take time to listen to one, or all of the episodes mentioned.    Episodes Mentioned.  342: Jimmy Rollins https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-9u7w7-136994d 343: B.J. Thompson https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-6byfa-1373b86 344: Alyson Caffrey https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-d4s7j-137def9 350: Melissa Hughes https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-3gu46-13bb1b3 381: Faith Eury Cho https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-wffg6-14ebbdf    

I am delighted to welcome to the show Alyson Caffrey. She is a small business Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author and founder of Operations Agency. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands and using her Operations Simplified™ framework to unleash the power of small teams. She left the board meetings, consulting 8-figure companies on their operations, to serve parentpreneurs running small businesses. Alyson believes that if she can return fulfilled founders back to their families, she can generate a much larger impact in the world. Alyson is committed to using her experience growing businesses and streamlining operations to help parentpreneurs kid-proof their businesses and live family-focused lives. Whether navigating a new baby, managing the chaos with young kids, or simply making sure you're front row at all the wrestling matches, Alyson helps create businesses that give time back to our family, not the other way around. Alyson is mom to two young sons (yea, it's crazy) and enjoys spending her time at home with her growing family. Grab her free checklist for  parentpreneurs: https://alysoncaffrey.com/checklist Connect with Alyson: Website | Amazon | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

Hey solopreneurs! This episode is a must listen for you! We see you juggling all of the things at home and while running a business. Today we're discussing strategies to make your business more efficient and give you back control no matter what stage  you are at in your entrepreneurial journey.Connect with Alyson on Instagram @alycaffreyComplete The Kid-Proof Business Checklist here.I would love to hear your biggest takeaways! Connect with me in the DM's over on Instagram @amytraughJoin us for our free weekly networking event, Coffee Talk, every Monday at 12:30 EST. Click here for details.The Podcast(H)er Network is the fastest growing network for female hosted podcasts. Go on over to www.podcasther.com/amy to learn more about the Network.

Alyson Caffrey join us again! Small business Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author and founder of Operations Agency, she's commonly referred to as ‘The Wolf' among her clients because she just gets it done. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands and using her Operations Simplified™ framework to unleash the power of small teams. Alyson is committed to using her experience growing businesses and streamlining operations to help parentpreneurs kid-proof their businesses and live family-focused lives. Alyson helps create businesses that give time back to your family, not the other way around. Join us on The Mompreneur Model and connect with Alyson at OperationsAgency.com, AlysonCaffrey.com/checklist and on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.     Please support UnsilencedVoices.org. Thanks to StadiumBags.com. Connect with Word of Mom on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and email us at info.wordofmomradio@gmail.com for more info. WordofMomRadio.com - sharing the wisdom of women, in business and in life.  

On this episode of THRIVE — sponsored by E2M Solutions— Kelly and Alyson Caffrey discuss the critical nature of rest and time off for strategic agency growth.Alyson Caffrey and I cover these points and more:Recognizing the signs of burnout in agency owners;Implementing breaks to set boundaries and prioritize self-care;The importance of intentionally building systems and processes;How to get started with a plan for rest as a business owner; andThe benefits of taking time off to recharge.Be sure to tune in to all the episodes of THRIVE to get practical tips on becoming a conscious leader, growing your agency, and more. Thanks for listening, and I'd love to hear your takeaways!If you enjoyed this episode, post it in your stories and tag me @kelly.l.campbell. And don't forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast wherever you listen.Learn more about THRIVE at https://klcampbell.com/podcast/ and https://www.e2msolutions.com/thrive/ CONNECT WITH ALYSON CAFFREY:Operations AgencyLinkedInInstagramCONNECT WITH KELLY CAMPBELL:LinkedInInstagramTwitterWork with Kelly 

In this episode, your host Kyrie sits down with operations strategist Alyson Caffrey to explore the art of setting up systems in your business and personal life for a harmonious and successful existence. Alyson shares her insights on achieving that delicate balance between spending quality time with your children while thriving in your entrepreneurial endeavors. Alyson dives into the importance of setting boundaries with your kids and reveals the significance of her morning routine in her daily life. Learn how she empowers her children to navigate their routines with systems that help them know when it's time to rise or stay in their rooms. Discover the wisdom of decluttering and focusing on the essentials, such as morning routines, exercise, and taking well-deserved breaks. Alyson opens up about the dynamics of having a supportive partner and the external expectations placed on moms versus dads. Join us as Alyson sheds light on the burden many moms carry, the "badge of honor" of doing everything for everyone all the time. She discusses the differences between her first and second pregnancies and the challenges of maternity leave as a mompreneur. Alyson's journey takes a turn when she realizes the need for change in her work-life dynamics. She recounts her experience of working from the hospital just after giving birth and the realization that her business needed to support her family, not the other way around. Learn how she began building the systems that transformed her life. Discover Alyson's strategy of auditing her business to identify what needed to shift and her decision to hire employees. Find out how she used maternity leave as a benchmark for assessing her business's performance and making improvements. Alyson delves into the world of financial planning and providing real-time metrics for herself to gauge her business's health. Learn how she created repeatable systems to ensure that anyone could perform her tasks. Lastly, we explore the incredible synergy between motherhood and business management, and how mastering both roles can enrich your life. Join us for an enlightening conversation on finding success while nurturing your family. Find Alyson: @alycaffrey www.alysoncaffrey.com/checklist www.mastermaternityleave.com/plan Find Kyrie: @theconfidentmompreneur --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-confident-mom/support

In this episode, I host Alyson Caffrey, a small business Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author, and founder of Operations Agency. Allison shares her journey and discusses the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, including the importance of self-belief and persistence. She shares strategies for maintaining focus and celebrating success, and discusses how balancing motherhood while running a business has shaped her leadership style.    Resources from this episode:   Check Out Alyson's Operations Agency Website   Follow Alyson on Instagram   Order Alyson's Book ‘The Sabbatical Method'   Check Out My Website    Book a 15 minute 1:1 Discovery Call     Sign Up For Virtual Bootcamp Groups    Discover Coaching Mentorship    Check Out 14 Nights of Easy Dinner Recipes    Get Your Printable Goal Guide  Thank you for listening to this episode! Please take a screenshot and share your biggest takeaway on your Instagram stories and tag me @molly.asplin so that I can shout you out! Until next time,    Molly Asplin    Facebook | Instagram | TikTok *Team Beachbody® does not guarantee any level of success or income from the Team Beachbody Coach Opportunity. Each Coach's income depends on his or her own efforts, diligence, and skill. See our Statement of Independent Coach Earnings for the most recent information on the actual incomes of all our Coaches.  

On this week's Dream Business Radio Show, I interview Alyson Caffrey. Alyson Caffrey is a small business Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author, and founder of Operations Agency. She's commonly referred to as ‘The Wolf' among our clients because she just gets stuff done. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands and using her Operations Simplifie framework to unleash the power of small teams.  Download MP3 Connect with Alyson: www.AlysonCaffrey.com  

Usually, a sabbatical is for people who need time to rest and recharge. But did you know that sabbaticals are important for your agency operations, too?   This week, we're taking a different approach to the ongoing conversation we've been having about systems and processes, agency operations, and ways to optimize your business growth. From Alyson Caffrey's perspective, it's not just employees and agency owners who need time to rest and recharge — your business does, too. Blocking out time to work on biz dev and improving systems and processes is the break your agency needs in order to grow. Like training for a marathon, an agency needs time to rest and create muscle memory around new agency operations. With these dedicated mini sabbaticals, not only will your agency be more optimized, but it will increase your agency value when it's time to start working on succession planning. You literally can't afford not to try this method out. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: The two traditional forms of sabbaticals people take What is an agency sabbatical? How we can weave sabbaticals into our daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly routines Setting boundaries that help you weave rest into your work routine What it means to allow rest for the agency How to retrain your team to protect their time and use it purposefully Getting agency operations to function flawlessly without bottlenecks Identifying which systems and processes to document and how to break them down into more manageable pieces Starting where you're at without pressuring yourself to be perfect

What's your approach to down time and rest? My guest today believes utilising strategic rest can help you cut the tether from your business and achieve longevity and peace in the day-to-day.  By removing yourself from the business, you can address structural changes to operations and lay a foundation to scale.  Don't let yourself get to the point of forced medical sabbatical or being burnt out from your business - take time out now and you'll see benefits in the long term sustainability of your business and have more balance and enjoyment in your life! Alyson Caffrey is the ‘Wolf' that helps streamline the back-end operations for digital and creative agencies. She is the founder of Operations Agency, the co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework, and the best selling author of The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business. She is also the host of the celebrated Growing Pains Podcast. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. Listen in as Alyson and I chat about why systemising our business is the key to sustainable growth, the common systems most entrepreneurs ignore, how she developed the critical actions highlighted in her method, and how to integrate a sabbatical method in 90 days! Grab the Sabbatical Method Toolkit at https://www.operationsagency.com/thesabbaticalmethod See more from Alyson at her website, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn --- Ready to simplify your business? Start with these resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.marissaroberts.com/resources/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Enjoyed this episode? Please subscribe, rate, and review us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or your favourite podcast platform! --- Come chat with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

In today's episode, we have a special guest, Alyson Caffrey, who will redefine what it means to take a sabbatical and provide valuable insights for small business owners. Alyson, the author of "The Sabbatical Method," challenges the traditional perceptions of sabbaticals and emphasizes the importance of rest for high performance. Alyson's journey from accidental entrepreneur to empowering leader will inspire and motivate you to take control of your life and business. Plus, she'll share practical tips on effective messaging, building systems, and achieving work-life balance.  We dive deep into:  The concept of micro hits of rest The power of starting small The significance of every step taken towards achieving one's dreams.  Resources Shared:  Website: https://operationsagency.com Growing Pains Podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-growing-pains-podcast/id1647042513  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@operationsagency Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/operationsagency Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/operationsagency/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyson-caffrey-26723990/ All of Amanda's Podcast Episodes: https://www.amandamckinney.com/podcast  Amanda's Book: https://www.amandamckinney.com/book  Amanda's Coaching Options: https://www.amandamckinney.com/coaching 

In this episode of The Businessology Show, Jason and Alyson dive into the fascinating world of business operations and strategic thinking. Join them as they explore the parallels between developing land and roads and developing administrative functions within a business. Alyson Caffrey, a Systems and Process Creations expert, shares her insights on the importance of paving the road and finding the right person to navigate it successfully. Jason and Alyson discuss the balance between promoting from within and inviting external conversations to ensure operational efficiency and strategic growth. Get ready to uncover the secrets to increasing productivity, unlocking growth, and mastering the core metrics that drive small businesses. Plus, they'll delve into the hustle culture, breaking systems, and finding new ways to operate more efficiently. You won't want to miss this enlightening episode packed with practical tips for taking your business operations to the next level. Let's get started!

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Alyson Caffrey, the founder of Operations Agency and the co-creator of the operations simplified framework, which is aimed at streamlining backend operations for digital and creative agencies. She is also the author of The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business. With a wealth of experience in helping agency owners find a balance between their work and rest, Alyson sheds light on how the Sabbatical Method can revolutionize the way marketing systems are handled. Key Takeaway: Working less to achieve more is a paradigm shift in the traditional hustle culture, especially among agency owners in the marketing realm. Alyson Caffrey joins me to elucidate how the Sabbatical Method is transforming the marketing systems landscape. We delve into the concept of "systematic rest," an innovative approach to interspersing work with adequate rest to not only prevent burnout but to significantly enhance productivity and creativity. By embracing the Sabbatical Method, agency owners are discovering a potent strategy to scale their business while reducing the hours they traditionally grind away, making the notion of working less to achieve more a reality. Questions I ask Alyson Caffrey: [00:45] How does rest contribute to business growth? [02:31] Can you explain the framework you mentioned? [03:43] Is a long sabbatical the goal of your method? [05:44] How does your 90-day method alter established work habits? [08:28] Do founders grasp your concepts both logically and emotionally? Get the full show notes here. More About Alyson Caffrey Get Alyson's book -  The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business  Find out more about the Operations Agency Connect with Alyson Caffrey on LinkedIn Like this show? Click here, scroll to the bottom, rate 5 stars, and select "Write a Review." Then be sure to let me know why you like the show! Connect with John Jantsch on LinkedIn Stuck trying to figure out your marketing strategy? Get Your Free AI Prompts To Build A Marketing Strategy HERE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alyson Caffrey is the ‘Wolf' that helps streamline the back-end operations for digital and creative agencies. She is the founder of Operations Agency, the co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework, and the author of The Sabbatical Method: Create a business that can function without you. How can your book, The Sabbatical Method, help the struggling entrepreneur? How did you develop the critical actions highlighted in your method? What is the sabbatical method? Why is systemizing our business the key to sustainable growth? What are common systems most entrepreneurs ignore? Alyson Caffrey Alyson Caffrey is the ‘Wolf' that helps streamline the back-end operations for digital and creative agencies. She is the founder of Operations Agency, the co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework, and the author of The Sabbatical Method: Create a business that can function without you. She is also the host of the celebrated Growing Pains Podcast. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. Excellent Executive Coaching Podcast If you have enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. We would love for you to leave a review. The EEC podcasts are sponsored by MKB Excellent Executive Coaching that helps you get from where you are to where you want to be with customized leadership and coaching development programs. MKB Excellent Executive Coaching offers leadership development programs to generate action, learning, and change that is aligned with your authentic self and values. Transform your dreams into reality and invest in yourself by scheduling a discovery session with Dr. Katrina Burrus, MCC to reach your goals. Your host is Dr. Katrina Burrus, MCC, founder and general manager of www.mkbconseil.ch a company specialized in leadership development and executive coaching.

Picture this: you're a parent, juggling the responsibilities of a thriving business, and the demands of a bustling family life. Sound familiar? Then you won't want to miss our conversation with best-selling author, mom, and successful business owner, Alyson Caffrey. Alyson opens up about her early journey as a mom and business owner, revealing the tough choice she made prioritizing business over family and the profound effect it had on her life. As we navigate the complexities of weaving in work with family life, Alyson shares her unique strategies for maintaining harmony. We discuss the importance of setting boundaries and how to design your workday around your children's needs. Discover from her experience, how to build a successful business while ensuring your family doesn't take a backseat. Alyson also offers a wealth of insights on how to adjust systems to suit different seasons of family life. Take note parents, this is all about making the most of your resources to elevate both your lives and businesses.Our discussion doesn't stop there. We delve into planning for significant life milestones such as maternity leave and sabbaticals.  Aly has a passion for helping mom's who are pregnant and want help planning their maternity leave, too!What's the real secret to harmony and freedom? According to Alyson, it's not success, but systems. Tune in as we talk about the power of dreaming, the discipline that liberates you, and how to use your time as a valuable currency. Learn how to protect your time and energy by setting up efficient boundaries. Whether you're a new parent or a seasoned pro, this episode is sure to provide you with insightful strategies for managing your work and family life. Don't miss out!Connect with Alyson at alysoncaffrey.com and on insta @alycaffreyGrab a copy of her book: The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your BusinessJoin the FOC parent community - an awesome group of parents who want the best for their kids - to be kind, confident, and independent adults who Thrive! Click to join!Check out our shop for tools that help kids develop healthy habits, from toddler to teen. Consider a copy of our Kids Guided Journal for those ages 6-12, too! It's a great birthday gift for those last-minute parties. This journal has been getting 5 STAR REVIEWS and you can guarantee it is wholesome material for your kiddo to engage with! SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY EMAIL NEWSLETTER Each week we send out 1 email that links to our newest podcast episode and contains a FREE printable that goes with the pod topic. You'll have access to coupons and deals when you receive our email, too! WIN!PARENT COACHING IS NOW AVAILABLE! Check our website for details. Support the show

On this week's Dream Business Radio Show, I interview Alyson Caffrey. Alyson Caffrey is a small business Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author, and founder of Operations Agency. She's commonly referred to as ‘The Wolf' among our clients because she just gets stuff done. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands and using her Operations Simplifie framework to unleash the power of small teams.  Download MP3 Connect with Alyson: www.Alysoncaffrey.com   .fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:100% !important;margin-top : 0px;margin-bottom : 0px;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 0px !important;padding-right : 0px !important;margin-right : 1.92%;padding-bottom : 0px !important;padding-left : 0px !important;margin-left : 1.92%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1075px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:100% !important;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:100% !important;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}.fusion-body .fusion-flex-container.fusion-builder-row-1{ padding-top : 4%;margin-top : 0px;padding-right : 10%;padding-bottom : 4%;margin-bottom : 0px;padding-left : 10%;}

Whether you have a life change coming up, need a break for a passion project, or just want an alternative to burning it all down, a sabbatical might be just what you need.Alyson Caffrey walks you through preparing your business to run without you for a week, a month, a quarter, you decide. Key TakeawayEven if you think you'll never take a sabbatical from your business, chances are that circumstances outside your control may force one on you in the future. It is better to prepare and not need the break than to need a break and not be prepared for it.We talk aboutYour sabbatical personality typeWhat to prepare before you take your sabbatical and do on sabbaticalHow to come back after your sabbatical to maximize the effectWhat on earth to tell your clients before you head outWhat Alyson left out of the book that she still wants people to knowLinksTo read the transcript, grab the resources, and explore other episodes go to dianemayor.com/230

Operations is often an overlooked part of an agency's framework. But having the correct operations in place can not only make your business run more smoothly on the day-to-day, but it can also allow you to take time away for rest, which is essential to growing your business. Alyson Caffrey is here to talk about her Sabbatical method, and how having your operations in check is one of the strongest business decisions you can make. This week, episode 198 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about agency ops and the power of sabbaticals!Are you leaving money on the table with your proposals? Introducing Smart Pricing Table, the ultimate agency proposal software with built-in upsell features. Maximize your revenue potential today. Download our Sponsor's free guide, the Profitable Proposal Blueprint, today. In this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Alyson Caffrey shares the importance of building rest into your workflow and actionable steps you can take right now to strengthen your business through operations to allow yourself to take time off. Alyson Caffrey is the ‘Wolf' that helps streamline the back-end operations for digital and creative agencies. She is the founder of Operations Agency, the co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework, and the best-selling author of The Sabbatical Method: Create a business that can function without you. She is also the host of the celebrated Growing Pains Podcast. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients, and create high-performing teams.In this episode, Dan and Alyson discuss the following:Ops is the unsung hero of your agency, but it's not as attention-grabbing as sales.Treating your ops as a system for repairs.Hiring unicorns at the leadership level, not the fulfillment level.The importance of taking time off to rest and how that will actually grow your business.Check out Alyson's Book “The Sabbatical Method” today!Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!Learn more about The Digitial Agency Growth Podcast at https://www.salesschema.com/podcast/ and Smart Pricing Table at https://www.smartpricingtable.com/dagCONNECT WITH ALYSON CAFFREY:LinkedInInstagramOperations AgencyCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales Schema

Feel guilty when you take time off? Struggle to rest and always think you need to be doing more? STAAAAAHP. Todays guest, Operations Specialist and author of The Sabbatical Method, Alyson Caffrey talks to us about the ROI of rest and how we can rest and still make money even without a full blown team.About Alyson:Alyson Caffrey is the ‘Wolf' that helps streamline the back-end operations for digital and creative agencies. She is the founder of Operations Agency, the co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework, and the best selling author of The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business. She is also the host of the celebrated Growing Pains Podcast. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. Find her on social: @alycaffrey FIND KATIE ONLINE: Work with Katie: https://www.katiebambrick.com/work-with-meInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiebambrickcoachingRemember to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and leave a rating (we're only interested in 5 stars round here - lol jk, but srsly).

Alyson Caffrey talks about operations and the value of creating systems to do stuff. Systems are the habits for your business to get stuff done. Alyson shares how a fractional COO can help your business create a plan, document what works and make it duplicatable and scalable. Check out more of Alyson Website: operationsagency.com YouTube: /@operationsagency Instagram: /operationsagency Did you love the value that we are putting out in the show? LEAVE A REVIEW and tell us what you think about the episode so we can continue putting out great content just for you! Share this episode and help someone who wants to connect with world-class people. Get out BizLife.coach Follow us at facebook.com/n2rpeterson, instagram.com/n2rpeterson, linkedin.com/in/robertav2l, https://www.youtube.com/c/AddValue2Life

Ep 143: Take a Sabbatical: Create a business that can function without you with Alyson Caffrey Do you want to enhance the efficiency of your business operations and cultivate trust within your team so that you could literally step away from the business and have it keep running smoothly and successfully without you? Our guest, Alyson Caffrey, helps business owners do just that. Today, she's sharing solutions to help you improve business efficiency through effective delegation and the establishment of trust so you too could take a sabbatical if you want to.   Alyson Caffrey is the founder of Operations Agency, co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework and best selling author of The Sabbatical Method: Create a business that can function without you. She's commonly referred to as ‘The Wolf' among her clients because she just gets stuff done. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands, but mostly digital and creative agencies. As a fractional COO for many high-growth businesses, Alyson fell in love with the results that clear ops bring to a service business. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. Alyson is a mom to two sons and enjoys spending her time at home with her growing family. Listen in to hear more from Alyson on how to create a business that runs- even when you're on a sabbatical. “Creating transparency and organization within a business helps everyone function better and reduces stress levels.” - Alyson Caffrey   In this episode, you will be able to: Discover the indispensable role of trust and delegation in a successful operation. Understand the critical importance of collaboration and teamwork in maintaining lean operations. Overcome your initial fears and doubts about starting or scaling a business and learn how to convert them into stepping stones to success.  Use her 90/90 principle to ensure strategic project focus for better business results Determine what you should put in place in your business in order to step away and take a sabbatical Connect with your host: I would love to hear how this helped you! Comment on this episode's Instagram post and share how this inspired you. If you have any other tips or ideas leave a comment under the post for this episode on our Instagram page @quotablemediaco or shoot me a DM. You can also connect with us at our Quotable Magazine Instagram account @quotablemagazine   For any show ideas, to submit a guest to the podcast, or if you have any questions, please visit https://quotablemediaco.com/podcast. This episode is brought to you by Quotable Media Co's special visibility package for local businesses. Set up a call to see how this package can work for you! If you're not local but want to see how we can work together, let's chat!   ‘Get Quotable' Visibility Package   Connect with Alyson: Visit Alyson Caffrey's website, Operations Agency, to learn more about her services and how she can help streamline your business operations. Follow Alyson Caffrey on Facebook,and Instagram for valuable insights and tips on operations strategy and business growth. Purchase Alyson Caffrey's book, The Sabbatical Method 

When was the last time you took a break from your agency? Do you stress out just thinking about taking time off? Do you feel like everything will fall apart with you? This is usually the case when agency owners need to create SOPs and delegate more to their team. Getting serious about SOP documentation levels up your agency, sets up the team for success, and increases its overall value. It starts with an important mental shift and understanding your agency will actually benefit from you taking a step back. Today's guest is a process and systems expert who focuses on establishing all the necessary systems and procedures to make sure you have something to lean on. If you're doing all the agency work, you're rarely able to put 100% into anything. This is why she focuses on teaching how to leverage rest and create simple systems to increase your agency's longevity. Alyson Caffrey is a systems and process creation expert and the founder of Operations Agency. She helps founders get their agencies out of their brains and centralized to help them be more impactful. She's also the author of The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business, a guide to help return business owners back to their families. With it, founders learn that taking a break can increase your business's longevity, uncover some inefficiencies, and professionalize operations. In this interview, we'll discuss: Taking a step back increases your agency's value. Simplifying SOP creation to have an immediate impact. 3 keys to successful digital agency processes Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM   Why Agency Founders Need to Be Intentional with Their Time  Like many service-based business owners, Alyson hadn't planned to start an agency. She was working as an Operations Manager in Colorado when her husband got a career-defining opportunity that meant moving cities. Not long after that, she was approached by several former clients to continue providing some services, and she was suddenly an accidental agency owner providing SOPs and operations support. With no children and her husband occupied in the military, Alyson had a ton of time to dedicate to her business. This meant she was able to serve clients at a really deep level in the beginning. However, when she became a mom she was confronted with the need to take time off. As the operations expert, Alyson knows she should've had her processes documented, but like the cobbler's children with no shoes, she had not prioritized it. She now attributes the birth of her son to finally being more intentional about the time she spends working in her business and making sure she can spend time away from it, too. Taking a Step Back Helps Increase Your Agency's Value Agency owners work very hard to build a business with the idea that at some point, they'll have freedom and the ability to take breaks. However, once the agency starts growing it never seems to be the right time to take time off. Many agency owners are they're forced to decide between their agency and their personal life. That means missing important events and strained relationships. Alyson says for her it was a high-stakes moment when she realized there was a problem. It all starts with a mental shift and understanding you're selling a transformation, not your time. Many agency owners think they're the only ones that can lead their business to success. However, once you remove yourself from the equation of day-to-day operations, the agency's value instantly drives up. When you can step away from the agency to recharge, or even just to work on the business and not in it, that single benefit is a game changer. Three Steps You Can Take to Start Empowering Your Team Where can you start to systematically take action to make the necessary changes? Alyson started by changing how she performs inside her business. Screen recording. Instead of just going in and doing the work, Alyson started to screen-record while she did it. Become the advisor. Next, she provide the resources and guidance for her team to get the results but didn't do the work for them. Test the framework. Alyson decided to test out her client-facing frameworks with her own team to see which processes they could set up using them. How to Simplify SOPs and Have an Immediate Impact on Your Agency Although the process of creating SOP's and documenting processes can take time, Alyson saw results almost immediately. After screen recording her processes, she was able to delegate some things to her client success manager. This small act freed up some of Alyson's time so she could focus on more important elements of the agency. Start with the administrative tasks, which can be delegated overnight once you record the process. Things like sending client reports and scheduling meetings do not require a special skill set. Nothing will fall apart if you, as the agency owner, are not doing it. You can focus on other areas of the business while still allowing clients to feel supported without your direct input. Also, setting up a way to centrally locate all processes helps your team have independent access to information without needing your help. Do you need an Operations Manager right away? In Alyson's opinion, no. Most agencies can wait until they've grown to maybe 30-40 people, depending on the type of agency. But it's not a one-size-fits-all idea. Some owners can achieve results on a smaller scale. You can start by delegating or offloading just 20% of your tasks and still have a small win. Are Your Digital Agency Processes Set Up for Failure? Alyson says agency owners need to understand there are two states of operations. There's operations creation and operations management. Usually, people want to skip right to the management part. Often, agency owners want someone to come in and take over operations management without taking the time to first create the pathway. According to Alyson, this is largely why agency owners get burned with hires. They hire someone to do something without providing the tools for this person to get familiar with their role. Furthermore, creating something that isn't maintainable sets up failure. You can have fancy spreadsheets and automation but if you don't understand how to maintain them, these processes go out of date fast. Building a system that needs less maintenance ultimately results in a better system that lasts longer. 3 Keys to Successful Digital Agency Operational Processes Clear Expectations: We've all been there with projects that have a thousand revisions, take too long, or go out of scope. Start by taking a close look at those projects and get some SOPs to ask and answer: What's in scope? What's outside of scope? What's the timeline? Standard Operating Procedures: You need to document absolutely everything around how you deliver your core services. A lack of centralized SOPs creates a limit on how much you can grow. Transparent Reporting: There's no need to overcomplicate this step. Focus on measurable KPIs around your projects. Are they on time? Within scope? Are they coming back error-free or an acceptable amount of minor errors? You want to gain visibility into how things are functioning overall to help you lay a foundation to get to the next level. Your Digital Agency Can Grow In Your Absence Some owners don't want to hear this but the reality is your agency can grow in your absence. Stepping away to take a break gives you the opportunity to get to the next level. When climbing Mt. Everest, one of the main reasons climbers fail to reach the summit is the lack of altitude acclimation. This means climbers don't take enough breaks at strategic points to prepare themselves for the next level. In the end, reaching the summit is just 15 minutes of celebrating success. The fun part is the climb. Prepare your agency for joy in the day-to-day, not just in reaching the summit. Stop working weekends or into the evenings. Stop missing important events or skipping vacations. The trade-off is sacrificing daily operations for the joy of reaching the summit. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? If you want to be around amazing agency owners that can see what you may not be able to see and help you grow your agency, go to Agency Mastery 360.  Our agency growth program enables you to take a 360-degree view of your agency and gain mastery of the 3 pillar systems (attract, convert, scale) so you can create predictability, wealth, and freedom.

Do you feel physically and mentally tired but guilty of taking a break because the business operation depends on you? Alyson Caffrey founded Operations Agency, best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for many brands and creative agencies. Alyson uses the Sabbatical Method to liberate herself from the cycle of stress and busyness by prioritizing team trust, delegation, and intentional rest.As a fractional COO for many high-growth businesses, Alyson fell in love with the results that clear ops bring to a service business. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams.Top reasons to listen to the entire episode:You'll learn how to leverage the benefits of rest.Discover the framework behind Alyson's book, The Sabbatical Method.Find out how to insert a micro-dose of rest in your daily life.Full Show Notes Here!Links & Mentioned ResourcesThe Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your BusinessCan Your Business Function Without your QuizGetting Things Done Boob by David AllenLoomTechSmith (formerly Jing)Episode 246: Kamal Ravikant on Venture Capitalism, Becoming a Writer and Practical Tips on Self Love Part 2Episode 80: How to Hold Successful Meeting with Caterina KostoulaGrowth Driven Entrepreneur CommunityConnect with Alyson CaffreyWebsiteLinkedInInstagramFacebookEnjoy today's episode? 1. DM me @mrdarrellevans on Instagram.2. Click here to leave us a rating and review on follow on Apple Podcasts.3. Join the Growth Driven Entrepreneur Community 4. Want to work with Darrell one on oneThanks for listening,Darrell

Welcome back to another episode of The Agency Accelerator! In this week's episode, our host, Rob Da Costa, sits down with the brilliant Alyson Caffrey, founder of Operations Agency. Together, they dive deep into the strategies and techniques that agency owners can implement to build a self-running agency, ensuring its success even when they take a much-needed sabbatical. Alyson shares her invaluable insights on professionalising operations, creating systems and processes, and streamlining backend operations. She introduces her Sabbatical Method and Operations Simplified Framework, which empower agency owners to strategically utilise rest to grow their businesses. Time Stamp [00:00] Alyson Caffrey from Operations Agency discusses how to professionalise your operations and implement systems and processes that will allow you to take a sabbatical from your agency. The aim is to build a self-running agency that doesn't rely solely on you! [04:33] Don't be your own capture, know that you can take time off and get good boundaries. [08:27] Agency owners struggle with perfectionism and trust which leads to poor delegation. Instead of selling their time, they should focus on creating core processes and delegating tasks to their team.  [13:13] At what stage in an agency's evolution should you start to document your processes? [18:10] Keep adding to your processes to build a solid foundation for your agency [22:55] Being numbers-driven and metrics-focused is crucial. Metrics provide insights and inform operational changes. Key metrics create structure and momentum. [25:34] What tools and apps does Alyson recommend to support systemisation [29:46] If Alyson could go back in time and give her younger self, just starting out in business, a piece of advice, what would it be? Quotations “We will have to take some time off at some point, so focus on building your business to support this rather than panicking because you're being forced to take time off!” - Alyson Caffrey “I always say that finances tell us the truth and operational key performance indicators tell us the narrative in between the truths” - Alyson Caffrey “Taking action is better than waiting for perfection” - Alyson Caffrey Rate, Review, & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts “I enjoy listening to The Agency Accelerator Podcast. I always learn something from every episode.” If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people like you to move towards a Self-Running Agency. How to leave a review on Apple Podcasts Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you loved most about the episode! Also, if you haven't done so already, subscribe to the podcast. I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the feed and, if you're not subscribed, there's a good chance you'll miss out. Subscribe now! Useful links mentioned in this episode: Operations Agency WebsiteSocial media: @operationsagencyYouTube ChannelFree LIVE Agency Growth WorkshopsThe Self-Running Agency Book

As entrepreneurs, it can be quite difficult for us to take the right kind of rest. Countless things vie for our time and attention. And even when we do manage some downtime, we can be plagued by feelings of guilt,  restlessness or even fear. But what if taking the right kind of rest could actually increase your productivity, creativity and ability to problem solve? With these questions in mind, I interviewed Alyson Caffrey, a small business Operations Strategist, the  Bestselling Author of The Sabbatical Method, and the founder of Operations Agency. First, Alyson and I discussed how women, especially, feel we have to justify rest. Then Alyson related several powerful truths, including acclimating to ascend, building a business to thrive without you, channeling a sabbatical personality, and acting rather than reacting. “If we're building a business that can't function without us, then we might need to reconcile with the fact that we could be building a personal life that can.” – Alyson Caffrey What You'll Learn 30,000 foot view Acclimate to ascend (repair to build) Thriving without you Taking a break before you crumble Sabbatical personalities Standardizing to serve clients more Action not reaction Contact Info and Recommended Resources I highly recommend you listen to every episode of my Foundations for Your Coaching Business series: mollyclaire.com/the-masterful-coach. Connect with Alyson Caffrey Alyson Caffrey is a small business Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author and founder of Operations Agency. She's commonly referred to as ‘The Wolf' among our clients because she just gets shit done. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands and using her Operations Simplified™ framework to unleash the power of small teams. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. Alyson is mom to two young sons under three years old (yea, it's crazy) and enjoys spending her time at home with her growing family. Websites: Operations Agency  Book: The Sabbatical Method  Youtube Instagram | @operationsagency Facebook LinkedIn | Alyson Caffrey Connect with Molly Claire Masterful Coach Foundations: Are you a mission-centered Life Coach ready to build your profitable + purposeful business? Masterful Coach Foundations + The 10K Accelerator Method is designed just for you: mollyclaire.com/foundations. Drop me a comment or question:  Instagram | Molly Claire Coaching IG  molly@mollyclaire.com Facebook I appreciate your feedback and rating of my podcast: Please head on over to your favorite podcast platform and leave a review of The Masterful Coach. This easy task truly helps! Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Amazon Music | RSS Work with me: mollyclaire.com/coaching Get my FREE 10K Goal Tracker: This free goal tracker will help you organize your plan so you can make money + make a difference, one client at a time. Request your instant access copy today! mollyclaire.com/make-your-first-10k-goal-tracker Feeling stuck in your coaching business? It's not your fault. To help you get unstuck, I have 5 Tips No One Ever Told You. Get them for FREE at mollyclaire.com. Get my book: The Happy Mom Mindset: mollyclaire.com/book

Today on the show we have Alyson Caffrey. Alyson has been one of my favorite people to work with and collaborate with over my many years of entrepreneurship. She has just completed an incredible legacy project of a book called The Sabbatical Method.  The Sabbatical Method is a powerful formula to set yourself up to take weeks, months, or maybe longer away from your business and ensure that your business still continues to grow and thrive while you are away and the actual process of going on a sabbatical turns you into a better leader, parent, partner, and human overall. We are going to dive into how we set ourselves up to create these sabbaticals and what benefits can we expect from them.  In This Episode: We are taught in order to be successful we need to make ourselves irreplaceable at work but what we don't learn is that in order to run a successful business our job is to make ourselves replaceable in the business.  If we can be able to give ourselves small doses of strategic rest, it will unlock a lot of challenges that entrepreneurs and small business owners face.  Being intentional about scheduling breaks can help you recharge for the rest of your day.   And so much more!!! Connect with Alyson Caffrey: Alyson's Website The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business  

Bonus Episode #1 This episode was featured on Easy Style with Sami and is all about creating your dream personal and professional life. It's critical to build in time for yourself. As leaders in our organizations, that means setting the systems we need to be able to step away and truly relax.  Alyson Caffrey shares her sabbatical method to approach our businesses in a way where we can take mini sabbaticals regularly and bring meaning and impact to all aspects of our lives. Check out the Full Show Notes   Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-first-click Learn more about The First Click: https://thefirstclick.net Schedule a Digital Marketing Therapy Session: https://thefirstclick.net/officehours 

QUICK LINKS:• The Agency Profitability Toolkit - Get the templates, formulas, and frameworks we've used with our consulting clients to help them double their profitability in under 60 days, absolutely free• For more information on our Agency Profitability Systems and Consulting, check out parakeeto.com• Love the podcast? Leave us a review on the platform of your choice at this link• Want to see/read more about this episode? Then do make your way to parakeeto.com/blogGUEST LINKS:Yellow PencilPaul's LinkedInPaul's 311 podcast legendarypodcasts.com/paul-bellowsABOUT: Paul Bellows is the President and co-founder of Yellow Pencil. Since 1996, his team has designed and built digital platforms and worked alongside public sector clients to develop the operational maturity and cloud infrastructure that power exceptional experiences and service journeys.

Stories and wisdom for your start up success. Empowering business owners to embrace the change for new growth with Alyson Caffrey, writer of the "Sabbatical Method".Connect with Alyson on Instagram: http://instagram.com/alycaffreyListen to Alysons Podcast, "Growing Pains" & check out her book, "The Sabbatical Method" here: https://linktr.ee/acaffreyLearn all about YYC Fempreneurs, our events and our marketing education at http://yycfempreneurs.com!Connect with Lyndsie on Instagram: http://instagram.com/yycfempreneurs.  

Hey, Family Brand fam! Melissa here, and I can't tell you how excited I am to finally drop this episode featuring our chat with the amazing Alyson Caffrey.  Alyson's wisdom and insights are absolutely game-changing for entrepreneurial families! Alyson is the founder of the Operations Agency, a bona fide organizational wizard who streamlines businesses to run like well-oiled machines. And why does she do that? So you, as owners, can focus on what truly matters - raising your families and doing what you love! Alyson's got a brand-new book that I'm super excited about! It's called "The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business." In "The Sabbatical Method," Alyson talks about the power systems and strategic rest in business. In this episode she even takes it a step further to share how families can apply systems too, to help life run more smoothly.  We all know that balancing work and personal life can be tricky, especially when you're a Mompreneur like Alyson (shout out to her adorable boys, Frank and Jack!). That's when she realized something had to give, and the concept of strategic rest started to take shape. Now, you may be thinking, "rest in business, really?" But hear me out, Alyson's onto something BIG. Her method is all about creating room to let things evolve naturally, letting you see what breaks, who thrives, and where the hidden opportunities lie. And trust me, it's not as easy as it sounds! This is where her book comes in. As Alyson explains, rest isn't just beneficial, it's essential, just as crucial for entrepreneurs as it is for climbers preparing for Everest's demanding ascents. In this book, Alyson provides a five-phase framework to help founders, CEOs, and leaders like you strategically leverage rest, thereby improving business operations and showing up to your family more fully. This is what she calls the Sabbatical Method. Dozens of people across America are already benefiting from her insights, acclimating to the pressures of entrepreneurship as they scale their businesses. I have no doubt you will too. That's all the sneak peek you're getting for now! You'll need to hit play on our podcast to hear the rest of this super insightful conversation and get more deets about her book.  So, ready to unlock some life-changing strategies? Then don't wait another moment. Hit play to hear the full episode!  LINKS: Website: familybrand.com Social: Instagram: www.instagram.com/ourfamilybrand Facebook: www.facebook.com/FamilyBrandOfficial YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCGu-7odB6gkPbyXpUIQLkrg Twitter: https://twitter.com/OurFamilyBrand   NEW: What Culture are You Creating In Your Family? Take the Quiz Now! https://familybrand.com/quiz   Connect with Alyson Caffrey: Website: https://www.operationsagency.com/thesabbaticalmethod The Sabbatical Method: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4WHZNPB?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_R9TDD17WX36VTTE977QV   Episode Minute By Minute: 0:00 Show introduction + a little bit about Alyson Caffrey 5:47 Alyson's new book, “The Sabbatical Method” 8:42 Proof that systems can make a big difference 11:00 What is “The Sabbatical Method”? 15:06 Where should you start when implementing this method? 18:16 How to maintain systems in the household while owning your own business 26:20 Big takeaway from “The Sabbatical Method” 28:41 What's the right amount of hustle time before rest? 31:05 So your business is your baby…. 33:33 How to connect with Alyson and buy her book

QUICK LINKS:• The Agency Profitability Toolkit - Get the templates, formulas, and frameworks we've used with our consulting clients to help them double their profitability in under 60 days, absolutely free• For more information on our Agency Profitability Systems and Consulting, check out parakeeto.com• Love the podcast? Leave us a review on the platform of your choice at this link• Want to see/read more about this episode? Then do make your way to parakeeto.com/blogGUEST LINKS:Operations AgencyAlyson's Instagram Operations Agency LinkedIn Operations Agency YouTube ABOUT: Author of recently released book, The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest & Grow Your Business, Alyson focuses on helping her clients at Operations Agency to build scalability AND sustainability through ops.

In this episode, Tyler Narducci interviews Alyson Caffrey. Alyson Caffrey is a small business Operations Strategist, Bestselling Author and founder of Operations Agency. She's commonly referred to as ‘The Wolf' among our clients because she just gets shit done. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands and using her Operations Simplified™ framework to unleash the power of small teams. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. Covered in this episode: What is the Sabbatical Method™ for agencies  What critical system most agencies are missing  How to optimize your agency to generate more revenue How strategic rest can 2X your agencies output How to efficiently offload tasks so your agency runs without you And SO MUCH MORE … In this podcast you get the latest success strategies, scaling techniques, and top-tier interviews with agency industry professionals sharing their success stories and lighting the pathway for all to follow. Learn how to go from a freelance marketer to a successful agency owner. Want to skip all the "learned it the hard way" mistakes most agency owners make? Apply for the 100% Done-For-You Leads and Sales Program today!

Alyson Caffrey is an operations strategist and the founder of operations agency. A digital agency show veteran, this is her third chat with Brent on using operations to grow and scale your digital agency. She is the author of the Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest & Grow Your Business. She focuses on helping her clients build scalability AND sustainability through ops. She is a mom to two little boys under three and loves chatting about growing businesses and growing families.

In this episode of "She's Busy AF", host Lauren Loreto interviews Alyson Caffrey, founder of the Operations Agency, the co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework, and the author of The Sabbatical Method: Create a business that can function without you. They discuss the importance of work-life harmony for business owners and the mindset shift needed to effectively delegate tasks to a team. Alyson emphasizes the need for a solid foundation before delegating and the incremental process of building trust and increasing delegation over time. They also touch on The Sabbatical Method, data-driven decision-making, and the importance of taking breaks to avoid burnout. Overall, the conversation highlights the importance of building a solid foundation for a business and prioritizing work-life harmony.Find her on social: @alycaffrey Buy her new book: https://amzn.to/3MJQsGC--Follow us on Instagram: @brandgoodtimeCheck out our services: www.brandgoodtime.comConnect with Lauren on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/laurenloretoTimestamps: Title: Introduction of Alyson Caffrey [00:00:16] Lauren introduces Alyson Caffrey, founder of Operations Agency and co-creator of Operations Simplified Framework, and talks about her expertise in streamlining backend operations.Title: Importance of Work-Life Harmony [00:01:54] Alyson and Lauren discuss the importance of work-life harmony for business owners and the need to have pockets of friends for different lifestyles.Title: Mindset Shift for Effective Delegation [00:05:17] Alyson talks about the mindset shift needed to effectively delegate tasks to a team and the incremental process of building trust and increasing delegation over time.Training Wheels for Delegation [00:07:02] Alyson discusses the importance of an iterative process when delegating tasks to a team, using training wheels to guide them.Avoiding Quality Issues When Delegating [00:08:40] Alyson suggests starting with low-hanging fruit and creating a list of non-negotiables to avoid quality issues when delegating tasks to a team.Challenges of Maintaining Quality in a Growing Agency [00:11:53] Lauren and Alyson discuss the challenges of maintaining quality in a growing agency and the importance of having a process in place and someone owning quality.Pushing Buttons and Pulling Levers [00:13:37] Alyson discusses the challenges of delegating tasks to a team and the importance of having a solid foundation before doing so.The Sabbatical Method [00:17:21] Alyson talks about her upcoming book on the sabbatical method and how it can help business owners build systems to function without them, whether for longevity or for exit.Removing the Founder [00:19:44] Lauren raises a question about how to maintain a company's culture and values when the founder is removed, especially in the context of a potential acquisition.Building for Longevity vs. Exit [00:20:43] Alison discusses the importance of determining whether a business is being built for longevity or for an exit strategy.Corporate vs. Small Business Operations [00:21:29] Alison compares the differences between corporate and small business operations and how small businesses can leverage corporate strategies.Simplicity in Decision Making [00:25:38] Alyson and Lauren discuss the importance of data-driven decision making and the power of making quick, informed decisions as a founder.Importance of Simple Operations

How streamlined are resource and capacity planning in your agency? To streamline operations and scale your agency, you must be willing to do the hard things others aren't doing. Knowing your numbers and your team's involvement is crucial to understand your time utilization and operational cost. In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I'm joined by Alyson Caffrey, the founder of Operations Agency and co-creator of the Operations Simplified Framework. She helps streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands, but mostly digital and creative agencies. She explains the importance of time tracking, diligently updating your project management tools, and leading by example to scale your agency. Take advantage of this episode to learn more about time tracking, utilization, and standardizing core services! Key Questions: [01:50] What are the biggest mistakes you see agencies make when it comes to resourcing and planning? [08:08] What's your recommendation for someone without any reporting or tracking for their resourcing or planning and looking to start? [16:05] What are your thoughts on how to start resource planning and technology to leverage? What You'll Discover: [02:06] Standardize your core services to capacity plan well and avoid being all over the place. [04:18] How to avoid perfectionism and hiring a specialty “unicorn” person who does everything. [08:20] How to track your time and your team's time to understand your basic capacity. [16:17] How to streamline your agency's day-to-day by setting up time tracking and a comfortable project management tool. [24:04] The importance of doing the hard things others aren't doing to scale your business gradually. Connect with Alyson: WebsiteLinkedIn

Join Dori DeCarlo on The Mompreneur Model as she brings  Alyson Caffrey to Word of Mom Radio. Alyson is the founder of Master Maternity Leave, a course and series of resources for mompreneurs and small businesses with expecting employees. Her mission is to help small businesses and mompreneurs realize maternity leave as an opportunity, not a setback. Alyson now runs her first business, Operations Agency, a bustling home with two young sons (Frank, 21/2 years and Jack, 1 year), and helps expecting entrepreneurs prep for this massive shift in life and business. Tune in for The Mompreneur Model anytime in podcast. Connect with Alyson at MasterMaternityLeave.com and on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Follow Her Growing Pains Podcast, too!     Thanks to our sponsors at theBrainLoveHealth.com. Please support UnsilencedVoices.org. Enjoy Healing Through the Arts with Arete Gallery in New Hope, PA through April 2023. Connect with Word of Mom on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. WordofMomRadio.com - sharing the wisdom of women, in business and in life.  

THE Content Creation Solution (course): From stuck in a rut to content creation MACHINE. Let's go. bit.ly/40m0kvN ------------ Make sure to snag your FREE Personal Brand Toolkit: Some of my best free offers to help you refine your personal brand and marketing strategy in one place: www.elevatedwithashley.com/toolkit ------------ Courses and programs available now: https://elevatedwithashley.com/courses/ ------------ If you are looking for additional support you can always reach me, Ashley, via email at hello@elevatedwithashley.com, DM me on IG @ashleyrlatimer, or join us in the Free Elevate Academy For Brand-building Maverick Marketers and Mompreneurs Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2406212362994471 ------------ Connect More With Alyson Caffrey: https://mastermaternityleave.com https://www.instagram.com/mastermaternityleave/   https://operationsagency.com https://www.instagram.com/operationsagency/       *Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Online Business Coach

With the goal of helping moms transition into motherhood with clarity and autonomy, Alyson Caffrey, founder of Operations Agency and Master Maternity Leave, navigates the universal, yet often overlooked, challenge of prepping for maternity leave with humor, grit, and empowering advice.Alyson Caffrey had been running her own business and prepping for maternity leave when she realized there wasn't much information available for mothers who were in the same position. She decided to take matters into her own hands and create a support system for expecting mothers. Alyson encourages mothers to be intentional about their maternity leave and to communicate their feelings and needs with their partner and support system. She also encourages them to take care of their physical and mental health by getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, and nourishing their bodies with whole foods. Alyson hopes to create a world where mothers feel supported and empowered during this life-changing time.In this episode, you will learn the following:1. Discovering how to plan maternity leave to gain autonomy and creative agency.2. Understanding how to create clarity and support for expecting employees.3. Learning how to create a balanced schedule to make the best decisions during maternity leave.You can connect with Alyson on Instagram @mastermaternityleave and find more information on her website http://mastermaternityleave.comLike what you heard here?I'd be honored and grateful if you would head over to iTunes to leave a review and let other female entrepreneurs know what you learned! While you're there, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode.Overwhelmed? Frazzled? Tired of your calendar controlling you?You are in the right place! Sign up for this free, on-demand training and learn how to gain control of your time no matter what life throws at you!>>> https://www.megansumrell.com/freetraining

Hello, mompreneurs! On this week's episode, I interview Alyson Caffey, mompreneur and founder of Operations Agency and Master Maternity Leave on how moms, mompreneurs, and business owners can create opportunities to grow in planning and executing maternity leave instead of creating more stress and setbacks.Some of the topics and takeaways:Managing comparisonitisWhat are your non-negotiables to show up as your best self?How are you treating those non-negotiables?Auditing your timeLeadershipTransferrable leadership skills learned as parentsHow to look at maternity leave as an opportunity, not a set backManaging your energy Auditing time for energy adding and energy draining tasksBeing accountable with how you are using your timeDelegating things that suck your energySafeguarding your time post baby Buy Back Your TimeHow to advocate for yourselfYou are the perfect mom for your childThere is no one size fits all way to run a familyThe ladder of be, do, haveBeing the agent of change in your familyThere is no one-size fits all way to do anything in life.Everything happens at the exact right time.Have the patience to make it one more dayResources:The Leadership Lid - John MaxwellBuy Back Your Time by Dan MartellConnect with Alyson Caffrey:Master Maternity LeaveMaster Maternity Leave ProgramsGrowing Pains PodcastOperations AgencyOn Instagram:  @MasterMaternityLeave @OperationsAgencyConnect with me! Follow me on Instagram @angela.masciulliI DM me with comments and collaboration requestsWebsite: https://mombusinesscoach.com/Email me: hello@mombusinesscoach.com⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Leave a review on Apple Podcasts (scroll to the bottom to leave a review)Please share this episode and follow/subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.Thank you for listening and keep up the great work, mama! xo- Angela

Maternity leave on the mind? Thinking about taking some time away from your business to vacation or just be? You might be craving this space while also totally freaking out about how to make it happen... so let me introduce you to Alyson Caffrey of Master Maternity Leave! Alyson is not only a mom to two young sons (Frank, 2.5 years and Jack, 1 year) but she's also the founder of two businesses: Operations Agency + Master Maternity Leave. She's on a mission to help entrepreneurs prep for a massive shift in life and business. Which is why this episode was all about: Our experiences taking maternity leave for both of our pregnancies Demystifying your leave experience And the growth opportunity, stepping away from your business with the right systems can bring My favorite takeaway

On today's episode, entrepreneur and operations expert, and high capacity leader Allison Caffrey joins us for a conversation about the importance of systems within an organization and why a properly planned system for mastering maternity leave creates a healthier culture, and helps teams lead more effectively before, during and after maternity leave.    About Alyson Alyson Caffrey is the founder of Master Maternity Leave and the Master Maternity Leave Signature Course. She spent the last five years as a small business operations consultant in her company, Operations Agency, helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands. Since entering motherhood, her mission is to help small businesses and mompreneurs realize maternity leave as an opportunity, not a setback. Before becoming a mom, Alyson had never taken more than a week off from her business- nor did she want to! However, she knew she had to change something in order to prepare to take some time off and augment her day-to-day to fit her new lifestyle when she returned to work post-baby. Shocked at the lack of structured information available regarding planning maternity leave for female business owners, she decided to lean in and document her experience prepping, executing, and returning from maternity leave - twice in seventeen months! Alyson found that few small business owners had a plan of action for how they handled tasks, cross-training and shifting responsibilities for expecting parents. They shared that this led to parents returning to work with lots more on their plate than when they left, team members bothering them while out on leave with emails and meetings… and even early returns.  Alyson made Master Maternity Leave, a series of resources for mompreneurs (expecting moms running their own shop) and small businesses with expecting employees. Her goal is to use her skills as an operator to help centralize the company's procedures and training and create overall transparency internally so that when someone goes out on leave, team members know how to shift and accommodate.  Alyson now runs Operations Agency, a bustling home with two young sons (Frank, 2 years and Jack, 8 months), and helps expecting entrepreneurs prep for this massive shift in life and business. Connect with Alyson Website: https://mastermaternityleave.com/about/ Download a free planning checklist at Mastermaternityleave.com From Stay Forth EFFECTIVE: Leadership development cohort waitlist https://effective.stayforthcoaching.com  

In this episode we talk with Alyson Caffrey about how we can take control of our maternity leave and be more intentional about the time we take off from work. We specifically cover how she helps small business owners along this journey so that they can leave their company for a short period of time without having to shut down anything or feel guilty for leaving in the process. If you are not a business owner this is still a really great episode because you can apply what we talk about here to help structure how your maternity leave may look. from work or even how you will transition at home with a new baby if you're a stay at home mom or have a side gig you're working on.   Read the full blog here   Postpartum University - Nutrition Plan 10 Postpartum Tasks - How Others Can Help   Connect more with Alyson Caffrey: Website: mastermaternityleave.com Instagram: mastermaternityleave Facebook: Master Maternity Leave LinkedIn: master maternity leave Podcast: growing pains podcast Ultimate Maternity Leave Checklist   Connect more with The Entering Motherhood Podcast: Website: enteringmotherhood.com Instagram: entering_motherhood and sarah_marie_bilger Facebook: EnteringMotherhoodPodcast Services: Birth and Postpartum Services Email: enteringmotherhood@gmail.com   Official Affiliates of the Podcast: LoveHeld Kindred Bravely Postpartum University Hypnobabies (MOTHERHOOD20 for 20% off)  Made for Mama Shop (ENTERINGMOTHERHOOD for 15% off)

This week on the Marketing Like a Mother podcast, Olivia is talking with the CEO of Operations Agency and the Founder of Master Maternity Leave, Alyson Caffrey. Alyson created a system for mompreneurs to master maternity leave so that they don't have to choose ‘business or baby' after starting or growing a family and she prides herself on helping business owners create systems that amplify their business growth while simultaneously decreasing stress behind the scenes. Alyson took two maternity leaves from her business in the last two years and is currently in the mommy trenches with two little boys under three. In the episode, they discuss: How you as a business owner can begin to plan for maternity leave (or any extended leave!) How to transition from “my business is my baby” to “my business is my capable adolescent” What if you're a solopreneur? How to build a business that's “life-proof” What “maternity leave” actually looks like How to decrease your stress level while out on leave Alyson's and Olivia's own maternity leave stories And more! You can learn more about Alyson at https://www.mastermaternityleave.com or she is @mastermaternityleave on social!

Intro What could you do to position your agency for higher profitability and greater overall success? Rather than following the age-old trend of attempting to shave pennies off of costs to achieve higher profitability, Alyson Caffrey recommends focusing on optimizing backend operations like fulfillment and delivery instead. In this episode, she expounds on what agencies can do to increase efficacy by improving systems that function behind the scenes. What you will learn in this episode: How to identify the symptoms of a struggling agency. Why you should move away from billable rates to value-based pricing. How to start charging prospects for discovery, rather than doing it for free. What agency owners can do to secure the backend of their business. Why you should establish one “king” metric during the sales process. The benefits of productizing your intellectual property to increase profitability. Bio Alyson Caffrey is the founder of Operations Agency and co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework. She's commonly referred to as ‘The Wolf' among her clients because she just gets stuff done. Alyson is best known for helping streamline the back-end ops for a multitude of brands, but mostly digital and creative agencies. As a fractional COO for many high-growth businesses, Alyson fell in love with the results that clear ops bring to a service business. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. Alyson is a mom to two sons and enjoys spending her time at home with her growing family. Resources: Website: https://operationsagency.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyson-caffrey-26723990/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/operationsagency

Alyson Caffrey of Operations Agency, is the founder of Operations Agency and co-creator of the Operations Simplified™ Framework. As a fractional COO for many high-growth businesses, Alyson fell in love with the results that clear ops bring to a service business. She and the team at Operations Agency are determined to help businesses thrive profitably, serve more clients and create high-performing teams. When it comes to streamlining the operations of a professional services firm, Alyson knows her stuff. Additionally, her website has a ton of free resources which we encourage you to check out. In this episode Jeremy and Chris unpack these topics with Alyson: How to think about capacity planning for professional service firms How to prepare your firm for offshoring What is the best project management tool to use? “Standards of Excellence” for your team Why screencasting for service delivery is important and how to use it for your team and clients Follow the show on Twitter @CPAAdvisoryShow Jeremy Wells on Twitter @JWellsCFO Chris Hervochon on Twitter @ChrisHervochon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cpaadvisoryshow/message

In this episode I'm chatting with Alyson Caffrey, the founder and CEO of Operations Agency. She is a member of our Process People community based in Pennsylvania. She's also a Trainual Certified Consultant. In this roundtable discussion we talk about how operations and remote work is changing in 2022 and beyond. We even talk about the Metaverse and how technology is colliding with the workplace. We get into process, how it fits into your culture, and how to make your company culture infused with process so that it sticks. We discuss Allyson's new book that is coming out called Operations Simplified. Allyson is so enjoyable to talk to. So take a listen. Learn more about Trainual Certified Consultants & The Process People Community. Find the show notes and relevant links for this episode here! Watch this episode on Youtube here. Host: Chris Ronzio Learn more about Trainual, the world's top Business Playbook™ software.

Galen Low is joined by Alyson Caffrey, CEO of Operations Agency, to unpack exactly how to find that perfect interlock between ops team members and project managers to grow the business in a way that everyone on the team can benefit from.

When you start a business, systems optimization isn't usually top of mind when it comes to priorities. However, if you want to scale and grow, you need to have processes in place for your team to follow. Today's guest is Alyson Caffrey, the Founder and CEO of Operations Agency. Her goal is to help organizations create powerful, reliable systems that support their vision. In this episode, Alyson shares how you can develop your operations so you can run and grow your business at the same time. There is SO much great info in this episode if you are looking to effectively scale your business. Hope you enjoy the show.Action ask: If you don't have Loom or some other screen capture application, get one and start documenting processes your team can follow to get to "done right".

Alyson Caffrey is an SOP and process and operations expert. Her company has created over 1,000 SOPs for agencies and other types of businesses just in 2021 alone. She has a 13-person team at Operations Agency and many people call her The Wolf (a nod to Pulp Fiction). She works with dozens of agencies and helps them build out SOPs and operations processes for their business. We've been fortunate to have her as a guest expert/mentor in our UCACDEMY community.

Today my guest is Alyson Caffrey. Alyson is the founder and CEO of Operations Agency, where she and her team are responsible for streamlining the back end operations for a multitude of seven and eight-figure brands. Contact Info: https://operationsagency.com

Ever feel like you're on a rollercoaster as an entrepreneur? With the heavy sales dominated months and then the months full of providing the service with almost no sales because you're delivering on the promises you made to clients? My friend Alyson and I discuss how to create systems and processes and when to look for help so you can take all the things you do and your proprietary process on HOW you do them out of your head and create a system that can run without you. Just imagine, taking yourself out of your business for a few weeks and its keeps on going. Genuinely, - Victor P.S. Whenever you're ready, the best way I can help is by getting my new book "The Complete Automation Strategy" 4-Phases to Generate Never Ending leads... Get your FREE copy of the book HERE

About Alyson Caffrey: Alyson is the Founder and Chief Operator of Operations Agency. She founded the agency back in 2015 to help digital agencies and service providers grow their capacity for more clients and experience a less stressful workflow. Her efforts and expertise have helped six figure agencies get to seven figures and above. Alyson has been featured on the Digital Agency Show and One Hour Funnel live to talk about how to implement processes into agencies and use them to scale. Resources From Alyson: Smooth Operator Podcast [CLICK HERE] Perfect Onboarding Process Blueprint [CLICK HERE] Follow Alyson Online: Website: [CLICK HERE] Facebook:[CLICK HERE] LinkedIn:[CLICK HERE]

Podcast Show Notes with Kyle Gray & Guest Cody Burch Building a Business With Cody Burch Today on this show we have Cody Burch. Cody is a friend of mine I've known for a few years now and we've worked alongside each other in many awesome organizations. I am so excited to share his story with you on the podcast today.    We are going to go from when he set out on his own journey to build his own business and the many interesting and powerful things he's done to build it. From creating a podcast, writing his own book, and most recently hosting his own event, which was very successful and very exciting.   He's done this all very quickly by making big moves, investing in himself and really connecting with his audience. He is so vulnerable and honest in his storytelling that I think a lot of you are going to find it really inspiring and I hope it helps you take action on your dreams as well.  Keywords Podcasting, podcaster, interview, interviewer, guest, podcast guest, interviews, podcasting guest, The Story Engine, The Story Engine Podcast, Entrepreneurs, Selling with Story, business, business coach, coach, marketing   #kylegray #thestoryengine #thestoryenginepodcast #podcast #podcasts #storytelling #podcasting #influencer #listening #news #show #business #Businessman #Businessowner #businessowners #businesscoach #businesslife #businesstips #businessminded #entrepreneurs #sellingwithstory #marketing #entrepreneur Key Takeaways Cody's Transformational Journey from Techy to Entrepreneur Creating A Podcast That Is Truly Authentic The Struggles Of Producing And Selling Live Events Invest In Relationships Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode Alyson Caffrey Podcast Episode Cody Builds a Business Podcast Onehourfunnel.com Facebook Instagram Transcript Kyle Gray: My name is Kyle Gray and today on this show we have Cody Burch. Cody is a friend of mine I've known for a few years now and we've worked alongside each other in many awesome organizations. I am so excited to share his story with you on the podcast today. We are going to go from when he set out on his own journey to build his own business and the many interesting and powerful things he's done to build it. From creating a podcast, writing his own book, and most recently hosting his own event, which was very successful and very exciting.   Kyle Gray: He's done this all very quickly by making big moves, investing in himself and really connecting with his audience. He is so vulnerable and honest in his storytelling that I think a lot of you are going to find it really inspiring and I hope it helps you take action on your dreams as well. Without any further ado, let's turn it over to Cody. Cody Burch, welcome to The Story Engine Podcast. It's so exciting to have you on the show today.   Cody Burch: Hey. What's up, Kyle. Thank you for having me. I'm really pumped to keep going.   Kyle Gray: You have an incredible story that I really want to explore about the past year of your life and a lot of the things we've created. Before we dive into that, I want to ask you the question I ask all of my guests at the opening, tell me about a moment in your life that has defined you and really helped you become who you are today, serve who you serve and doing, and how do you do what you're doing.   Cody Burch: I've always identified as a tech guy, that was the role I fit in the last company I was at. The last company I was at, I was there for 10 years and I was just a tech guy. I learned all the technology, I use all the technology. When we would go to events, I would just hover in the corner and learn what we needed to learn. I didn't ever need to meet anybody. I wasn't very social. I didn't see any value in relationships or being out in the front. I was there to learn, learn the technology, learn how to implement it for ourselves and for our clients and that was just how I saw the world. I remember when I was getting the itch of entrepreneurship in the fall of 2016, it became very apparent I needed to transition out of that job I'd been at for 10 years which was a very difficult mourning and grieving process. The last part of that story was I had annual review to wrap up how that year had gone and it was a breakfast meeting that turned into a lunch meeting.   Cody Burch: We were just there all morning. It wasn't going well so just imagine an awkward meeting of being very apparent that it wasn't going to work out much longer. As that meeting wrapped up, we went outside to say our goodbyes and it was December, it was right before our Christmas party, right before the holiday break. I remember my former employer, he said, "Hey, if you ever want a recommendation, I can put in a good word for you." He didn't mean it in any bad way. He meant it in a helpful way, I really believe that but in my head I heard, "Hey, if you want to just be another tech guy for somebody else, I can put in a word for you and I'll get you another tech guy job, another right hand person tech implementer tech job." I really used that as fuel to fuel me to say, he doesn't even see it. I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to start my own business. I want to solve my own problems, I want to serve people on my terms. It was in that moment where I really felt a shift in my identity like how I saw myself, if that makes sense.   Cody Burch: Since then I've always identified as an underdog. I've got this sign behind my head temporarily, I'm probably going to take it down eventually, but it says, prove them wrong. It's just how I've manufactured a lot of the stuff I think we'll chat about today of that motivation of how to move forward in the world and solve interesting problems over and over again and not give up and keep going ahead. I think that was the real moment that really changed everything for me.   Kyle Gray: I think that's incredible. I was going to ask about this sign because if you're watching on YouTube or have ever seen any of the content Cody makes, it catches your eye right away. I've always wondered what the motivation behind that was. It's definitely part of your message. Since then it's been so cool seeing everything developed because I remember working alongside of you in one company and seeing how you've just established yourself since then, since you've gone out and really created your own path. It's been amazing to see what you've been doing. You've been doing great social media posts. I see a lot of your presence just even on Facebook and things like that. Creating your own show, your own podcast, creating your own book. Most recently, having an event which was just two weeks ago, if I remember right. I'd love to hear and go through this process with you and explore this journey.   Kyle Gray: From first setting out on your own and really deciding and perhaps buying the prove them wrong sign, to where you are today because I think you've made a lot of great progress and you've come forward and really establishing yourself as an authority of something much more valuable than just another tech guy. First, I'd love to hear what were some of the first moves? How did you set the foundation for this new direction and this new journey you are going to take?   Cody Burch: A great story framework I heard is once upon a time, and then suddenly, and then luckily, and then happily ever after, right? Once upon a time, suddenly this thing happened but luckily this silver lining appeared and then happily ever after. Once upon a time I was a tech guy for this company and then suddenly found myself unhappy and wanting to be entrepreneurial. Then luckily I had a skillset to serve other people. I was really good at Facebook ads. I was really good at lead generation. I was really good at online marketing. Then that's how I got started. I took that skill set I had to the world and just basically hung my sign out on the street and said, hey, I'm open for business. You may have known, I do online marketing for this one company for this subset of people, but now I do that for anybody. Anybody who needs any help, let me know. Now, quite frankly, when I got started, I did anything and everything I could that would pay anything. I built membership sites.   Cody Burch: I built WordPress sites. I did some graphic design. I did some blog posts. I did some content marketing. I did some email marketing. Quite frankly, I'm pretty good at a lot of those things. I'm not really good. I'm pretty good. The number in my head was I had to make 7,000 bucks a month. That was the math of how I could not be so disruptive financially to my family because I was the main breadwinner of our family. I didn't have any money saved. I didn't have any old, dead, rich uncle that left me an inheritance. I just had to figure this out and had to make money for my wife and kids. That first month I made just over 7,000 bucks and then thought, well that looks like that's going to work and what if I could get to 10,000 bucks, that's just this arbitrary entrepreneurial number that we hit. Then I did that soon after as well, but it was through number one, saying yes to everything. That was something I thought was a necessary part of my journey that I wanted to churn through as fast as possible. There's no way to sustain a business when you do everything.   Kyle Gray: You gotta get out of there fast. It will drive you crazy. I've been there too.   Cody Burch: I just wanted to keep it super short and get through that. Within a few months I was just doing Facebook ads, just doing sales funnels, and I was still doing email. That was the three-pronged approach, that's just the worldview I had. If you want to sell something online, you need an ad to send traffic to a funnel and then you need to follow up with an email. The email stuff, it didn't bring me a ton of joy and I stopped doing that pretty quickly. By about six months in, again, I wanted to go as fast as possible. When I would think through those first six months, it sounds like it was years like that wasn't year two, that was month two. I just went as fast as possible and I did some stuff for free and then I raised my prices. I think my first ads client was nothing. Second ads client, I charged 200 bucks. Third ads client, I charged 500. Fourth ads client, I charged a thousand. Fifth ads client, I charged 2000. Then I haven't raised my prices much from there, but that was all within six months of launching. That was that first evolution of take this problem I saw in the world of helping people get more leads and make more sales using the power of online marketing and then doing it for them.   Kyle Gray: Tell me what about one of the skills that when starting out you had a good basic skill set to get you going. What was one of the skills that you were critically deficient in that you needed to build up fast to succeed?   Cody Burch: The sales part was tough for me. I had never sold in the past. I had never needed to sell or whatever you want to call it, enroll new clients or position myself as an authority that was worth being paid what I was asking for. That was something I had to figure out really quickly, which also was accompanied by having no clue really how to run any kind of books, bookkeeping or accounting or invoicing. Again, within month five or six I hit a turning point, a hockey stick on the growth chart and I was forgetting to send invoices. I was forgetting to bill clients. Having so much fun doing the thing because I think that's how we all are, we're craftsmen in those ways. I was forgetting the nuances of the business, like, oh, they never even signed their agreement but I already went ahead and get started or they didn't even pay their second half of their invoice and it was due 60 days ago.   Kyle Gray: That was pretty nice, you're in a good spot if you're having so much fun, you're forgetting to bill. I mean, it's better if you're billing but that's a good place where I think it's something that a lot of people would love to be and you're in so much of a groove and you're in your zone of genius. Things like that can pass you by. Again, good to build that skill up too.   Cody Burch: I got better at it and then I hired it out. I mean, I brought on my first position I hired was an ops manager and she's still with me to this day and she's fundamentally changed my business and allowed me to experience some of the growth I've had as well.   Kyle Gray: Is that Alyson by chance? Because she's been on the podcast.   Cody Burch: Yeah, she's a genius. Everybody, Alyson Caffrey is a genius.   Kyle Gray: Yeah, she's the best. I try not to tell people about her because every time I do, they hire her, try to get away from me, so don't hire her. Leave a spot for me soon, I need her next. Yeah, but she's a genius.   Cody Burch: She's so great. Maybe this is a fun transition point, like getting that part of my business figured out. I don't know about you Kyle, but business got easier for me and then I decided to mess it up with some of the other things you talked about with books and podcasts and live events. We can talk about that next if you want.   Kyle Gray: Yes, yes. That is the next thing I want to talk about, out of bookkeeping and into book writing. Tell me about the One Hour Funnel book.   Cody Burch: Here's how that came about. I had the idea for this notion of a one hour funnel in August of that first year. I jumped in January. My first day on the job was February on my own for the first time ever. In August, I registered the domain name and filed for the trademark for this idea of a one hour funnel. In my head it was just a quick way to launch marketing funnels that's just what I'm about. I'm an engineer, I'm a tech guy, I'm an efficiency guy. I just wanted to do this quickly. In my business I thought the more I can systemize how I fulfill on these sales funnels, the more profit I'll have, the more predictable results I can get for clients. I was taking what worked with winning campaigns and separating it out from what didn't work with campaigns that I was launching that weren't working. Finding out what the commonalities and made a little roadmap and then put in mind like, well this would be a really cool book or would be a cool podcast. I didn't know what it could be but I was like, this could be something. Another mutual friend of ours, Chandler Bolt, has a course called Self-Publishing School. I bought that like first thing. I jumped in February, I think I bought that course in March or whenever it was open in 2017. It was about how to self-publish a book.   Cody Burch: Now, full disclosure, I didn't really ever log in. I didn't really look at it. I kinda did but then I got busy and in my head I was like, I know I want to write a book. I know I want to write a book. I know I want to write a book. Knowing Chandler, it'll never be this price again. It's going to get more expensive along the way. Right? I bought that course and then didn't do much with it. That was 2017 and then in 2018 I launched a beta group. What I did first was I launched my own course. I made The One Hour Funnel a course and it launched to tens of people with accumulative yawn like the market didn't really care. They didn't know who I was. That was going to hit me too like it would serve me to be better known and to stop being behind the boards in my home office and still identifying as a tech guy and get out in front more. What I did is when that webinar launched to sell my course, The One Hour Funnel course, I decided to start a podcast to document the whole journey.   Cody Burch: I had no followers on YouTube, no followers on Instagram or Facebook. I had no Facebook group, I had no email list. I had literally nothing, zeros across the board. I had dozens of agency clients in my email list, which was just in Gmail. I didn't have CRM or anything. Episode one is, hey, what's up? I'm Cody and I'm going to document this process. Then podcast is called, Cody Builds a Business, and it's documenting that journey. In the opening credits it says going from literally nothing and nobody to a million dollar business. Now at the time of this recording, I think I'm about $924,000 away from hitting that million dollar mark but we're getting there. We're on our way. Here's what I thought would happen. I was so brilliant. Launched a podcast, it'll be new and noteworthy on Monday. The world will love it. I'll host the webinar on Thursday. All of the people on the show will, of course, they'll sign up for the webinar, then they'll buy my course and I'll need to decide do I want a vacation in Lake Tahoe or vacation in Aspen like, what do I do now?   Kyle Gray: On Sunday, right?   Cody Burch: Right, on Sunday. Exactly. That of course didn't happen. Episode two is, I'm doing a webinar. Episode three is, well, that didn't work. Episode four is, well, what do we do now? Episode five is, Cody is depressed. Episode six is, Cody picks himself up off the floor. It's so great to document that. For those listening, number one, you'll listen to the episodes because they're useful and they're funny and helpful. Number two, document your journey however that is most comfortable for you like a podcast like this with Kyle, like a YouTube channel, like a blog or whatever that is. Now I can look back at that and see what I've done and where I've come from and what I've learned and how I've grown. The course came with the podcast, it was both dropped at the same time. Then the turning point there for me too was I got on the phone with a guy named Dean Jackson, he's a marketing guy. He said, you should write a book like the course would be a great book. That's one of the lenses through which Dean sees the world is he helps people write books and I was like, no, I don't want to write. I mean, I do, but I don't, it sounds so hard like it would take forever.   Cody Burch: I want it to be a book that my grandkids' grandkids' grandkids will remember. That's a lot of pressure and I'm just not ready. He's like, no, no, no. Write a short book. Write a book that will help your desired customers raise their hand and say, I need some help. That was in June. The course launched in April, podcast launched in April, book writing process was in June almost exactly a year ago. Then the book ended up dropping in August.   Kyle Gray: One of the things that I love about the podcast and the book that I think a lot of people listening in can really find to be much more manageable and much more applicable to their lives is I do love how it's really short. It's a very crisp book that focuses on a single problem. Actually, my new book, Selling with Story, I wanted to create something like that and I failed.    Cody Burch: Got it.   Kyle Gray: It's a much bigger book and I wanted, but I really set out and I was like, it's going to be crisp. Nice. I liked that and I think it's a really useful focused tool. I also appreciate just the short and whimsical consumable nature of your podcast as well. I think it's made it easy for you to create ideas and synthesize ideas and just look around and see, oh yeah, this is something going on in my life. I'd love for you to share this. I think we talked about this on your show, but you were watching your kids play basketball and that turned into an idea. Tell me about just a couple of the little inspirations for many episodes and how you turn that into content or some of the most successful ones because I think this format is really good. It's really personal and it's very easy to achieve.   Cody Burch: Yeah, for sure. One thing I noticed, what I thought my podcast would be in the beginning was me documenting the journey. It was like, and I'm joking, it wasn't really, but it's like Facebook in '08 where it's like, hey, I had some eggs. The world is like, well I don't care. I was documenting in a way, like I had a podcast interview today and then I did this, I did that, did this, did that, and then I thought, well that's going to run its course. People ultimately probably don't care. They're not that voyeuristic about what I did at the gym that day. I exaggerated a bit to prove a point. Then I started to document what I was learning and then I would go on trips and then people like that because I would go to $10,000 masterminds and my fans will be like, what was it like? Who else was there? What did you learn? What were your top takeaways? Well, that's cool because I just take it for granted that people don't do that. I don't do it a bunch but I was able to go to some conferences, not all of them are 10k obviously, I couldn't afford that.   Cody Burch: Some of them were and they were interesting and I met cool people and did cool things and got to bring back the top learnings from those episodes. There was still something where I was trying to put on a front in a way of a persona of what I thought a good podcast host should sound like. Then that lasted until about episode 96 when I think it's 96 where I recorded an episode called Hitting Rock Bottom. That was in January of this year I think when that episode dropped. That instantly became my most shared, commented, downloaded episode. It was about the story I opened up with on here, like just me transitioning out of that job for so long and what that was like and the fear I faced and the uncertainty and then the malaise that I went through. Just all of this stuff. I just told the full story in a respectful, historian way. Then people loved that. Then my second biggest download episode was me talking to my wife. We were just, I don't know, you know, my wife, we just have a good chemistry.   Cody Burch: She's very funny and charming and it was just amazing so people love that too. Then I thought, well, people sure love this part more than my observations about whatever I saw at baggage claim at the airport, like a comedian or something. Right? I was just like make an observation and talk about it. I try to make sure those episodes are in there, those vulnerable moments. It gives me a place too where it's, for the most part, it's just me. It's just me in my home office and a microphone and I can just open up and it's therapeutic for me to do that as well. Then the other thing that I noticed along the way, like you mentioned, is just the observations I would have like when I'm at the airport or the person at Starbucks gets your name wrong or somebody steals your parking spot or the kid on the basketball team shoots into his own goal or whatever, right? You're like, well, what's that like? How does that show up in business and what can we learn from that?   Cody Burch: Man, I'm a huge fan of regularly documenting your observations in the world to help other people, to serve other people through your experiences. My show is a mix of those things. It's my observations, it's my vulnerable moments. It's my most afraid moments and most proud moments. My podcasts this last week after my live event, I was like, I'm going to own it. I'm super proud of myself. I think we don't acknowledge that enough in this world. It's more fun to differ. It's not me, it's God. It's not me or it's my team. It's not me, it was the hotel or it was the AB team like no, it was all of those things. Yes, it was God and yes, it was my team and yes it was, but like I'm going to own it. I did a really good job and I'm really proud of myself. That was my episode last Wednesday, and that got good feedback. People are like, dude, good for you like I'm rooting for you and I'm following your journey here. Sounds like you just crushed it and let's be happy for a minute and not be melancholy about what you're concerned about or whatever. Super fun. Everybody should do a podcast in my opinion.   Kyle Gray: I love that. That's another thing that I've really enjoyed about what you're doing in your show is you're able to and yeah, I don't think enough people do that where there's this hype, I'm so cool kind of marketing. I think a lot of us are afraid to become like that, but sometimes it's good to celebrate and share and be happy. I think that more of the sharing that authentically is good. I also think you do a great job at just having calls to action and really moving people forward. Oftentimes you're saying, I know in the episodes leading up to the event, you reach out and you say, hey, I want you to come to this event. I want you to check out this book. You're standing behind what you're doing and you're really proud of it and it comes through in the episode. One of the next questions I want to ask, this is one of my favorites I've been asking recently. On this journey, you've made a lot of investments. You said you made $10,000 events and things like that. Tell me about the investment that you made that you were really feeling it in the pit of your stomach. Like, oh no, and it was a scary move to do. You're like, I'm not even sure if I should tell my wife about this one, maybe. You made it and it was a risk and it paid off huge.   Cody Burch: I mean, that was one of them. I don't know, there's an organization called Mastermind Talks. I remember I was talking to a friend of mine, Nicholas Kusmich when I was starting to get a lot of momentum at year one in the business. We were having dinner and I said, hey, where do people like you hang out? Like, I want to help more influencer, thought leader, guru, course creator, expert businesses with their ads and marketing. He said, well, I go to Mastermind Talks. I was like, great, got that down. What else? He's like, that's the only one. That's all you need to know about. I was like, wow, okay, cool. What is that? He told me and I said, how do you get in? He's like, well you can't, it's really hard and you have to know somebody and it's super expensive and how much does it cost? 10,000 bucks and you have to get recommended. It's like a secret society, right? I did some research on it and then in 2018 I applied to be in it and according to their website, they have a tougher acceptance rate than Harvard.   Cody Burch: There's a 15,000 person waiting list and it's a 150 person event that's run once a year, not 151 people and not five times a year. It's 150 people once a year. The odds just are horrible. I applied to get in and I asked Nicholas and a couple other people and say, hey, you think I would be a good fit for this community? Could you put in a good word with the organizers and all that stuff? In March of 2018 I got accepted and as we all know now it's 10,000 bucks. I didn't have 10,000 bucks for sure. It was just a dip in the business where I was like, I don't have that. It's one of those where it's like 10k today or 16k in payments or something like that. Interest doesn't make sense at all. I got to find 10 grand on a credit card or somewhere, sell something or something to get the money. That was something that was probably the scariest or the riskiest investment. By then I knew my business. Here's my big risk, Kyle, is I'm not super comfortable in crowds. To walk into a room of 150 successful entrepreneurs, I knew I wouldn't just start crushing it and high fiving people, making a bunch of good friends.   Cody Burch: I also didn't want to put so much pressure on myself to ROI my 10,000 and be that guy. You know what I mean? I don't want to be that guy at the event trying to close deals in the bathroom and close deals in the hallway. I just wanted to be just fully present, no expectations, serve where I could serve, contribute where I can contribute, go on. They had social events like a great hike and the hikes were super social because you go for a walk for an hour with other entrepreneurs and you can just talk and make great connections on those hikes. That definitely paid off. Super cool community, tons of interesting people that helped me. I think the biggest takeaway from something like that is just the level that some of those people play on made me think bigger. It could be an income goal or impact goal. Like I want to get a thousand leads this year and they're like, what if I could help people get a million leads? What if I could try to change the world of online marketing with this skill set that I have and just dream bigger, like what's my moonshot?   Cody Burch: These people are doing such interesting things. One guy there was like legalizing cannabis in Canada or something. That's such a big mission, whether you're for or against it are not so relevant, but like that undertaking is enormous. What a cool mission. Here I am trying to get a couple of leads on Facebook. It was like, I got to dream bigger and play bigger. That's the one that comes to mind.       Kyle Gray: Absolutely. It's a big risk. Time and time again when I make investments like that, that scare me, it gets you into that mindset because it's something that forces you out of your comfort zone and now you're like, okay, it is time to play bigger. It's time to make this work and it's time to make this count. I'm certain that that part of this inspiration and part of what you are doing and part of the world that you've been surrounded and then placed yourself led to your event. We know that it's been a big success, but I'd like to hear a little bit about the planning and the purpose and the setup and the promotion of this event because I was expecting either that or you talking about your event as this big investment. Tell me about the lead up to this event and how you made it into this big success for you.   Cody Burch: The event was the hardest thing I've ever done. I have never been more stressed. I'm trying to think as an entrepreneur like we get, I don't know about you, but you get comfortable. I figured out how to make a decent income running ads and marketing and that was pretty easy. Then I was like, well, I'll mess this up. I'll go write a book that's going to be hard or I'll mess this up now I'll do a podcast or whatever. For me, I was like, I'll just throw a huge wrench in this whole machine and I'm going to do a live event. I thought it would be hard. I had done it once before at that last company and it was so hard, but I thought, I'm a good marketer, people know me now. Podcast had been around for a year. I've got lots of interesting friends. It's in Denver, it's going to be affordable. The ticket prices are going to be a couple hundred bucks. I'll probably sell it out instantly. It was so hard. The first, like the 12 disciples, we all have those 12 disciples, right?   Cody Burch: The 12 disciples bought instantly. Like Cody, I believe in you and I'm in, they paid full price, they told their friends. That was like probably four months out and then I didn't sell any tickets for months and I was super stressed. There were more than one night of just tears. I remember one night I went upstairs, I worked from home in the basement and then told my wife, I said, I feel like a fraud. Then I just burst into tears because for me I'm a good marketer, I know how to get leads and make sales for myself and for clients. I was like, here I am putting on a marketing event and I have no clue how to market it like I was trying everything and but nothing was working. It felt so good to say that out loud, I feel like an impostor. Then to notice, just to deal with that emotion like let that come out. She hugged me and she's like, you got this. Because she didn't know I'd been putting up a front too for her, trying to be strong and tough. I got it, no big deal like we're going to crush it.   Cody Burch: In my head I had a ton of fear and uncertainty because when you do an event, we were on the hook for something like 30,000 bucks was the financial investment and it comes in stages. We paid a $5,000 deposit for the hotel to reserve the room and reserve the food and then had to get the AV guy there. Then we had to get a room block that we guaranteed. That was my most stressful day is when you do an event, you tell the hotel how many people, how many rooms you're going to sell. The day that that bill came due, I found out that none of my attendees were staying at the hotel so that's all on me. That was a low day for me. A friend of mine reached out, how are you doing? I said, I'm doing horrible. I'm having a really awful day because this thing is happening to me and it's going to cost me thousands of dollars and I just messed up and I feel stupid and I feel blah, blah blah. If any of your listeners think I just crushed it all the time, every day. Every day was roses and I sold it out instantly. It was so, so, so hard to fill it.   Kyle Gray: Every detail of that, like a can of Sprite at an event at a hotel costs $6 or something like that. Down to the, you just think like, I mean I've been to events and people go to these things all the time and you'll see a water bottle or a little snack pack or something, that's like crazy amounts of money. You'd never pay that much for a can of soda normally, but people just grab them, they're free and they're like, oh yeah, let's just drink. When you see somebody just at the soda bar putting an extra Dr. Pepper in their backpack for the road, you're like, oh my God.   Cody Burch: There was that, there's that for sure. Promotion wise, I did a free plus shipping book funnel, so buy my book and on the thank you page it was like, "Hey, you got the book now. This comes with a ticket to the event. Here's how to redeem your free ticket," which I would do like a seat deposit, that got zero sales. That didn't work. I did an opt-in funnel, I think it was a free download of the book and the thank you page with same thing like, "Hey, this book is amazing and there's a live experience happening soon since you downloaded the book. It's clear you have this problem. Here's how to redeem your free ticket." That got zero sales. I tried discounted tickets like $97 tickets, that got one or two sales. I did a five day challenge, which I loved, where it was a lead generation challenge. At the end of the challenge I did a webinar about this general concept of online marketing. I sold the course and I sold an event ticket and that got five tickets sold I think.   Cody Burch: In hindsight, that was the biggest bang for my buck of getting multiple ticket sales with one promotion. I did a thing called a live stream, which was a three hour training and it was a QVC infomercial, teach for a bit, have a testimonial, make an invitation to the event. That got zero sales but that I had to hire a camera crew in a studio space to film that. What works in hindsight was chats like this, was interviews with friends and people on my podcast and people on their podcasts and lots of Zoom calls and lots of phone calls and lots of direct messages and lots of Facebook groups support, lots of giving. We were talking before we hit record how you and I support different online communities. Just giving, giving, giving, giving, giving was helpful. I had enough goodwill that when I would make that invitation saying, "Hey, it's clear you have this problem, you need to get this part of your life figured out." That worked. They were just one off.   Cody Burch: Most days I was striking out, and if I got lucky I would hit a single, but I never hit a home run and never hit a grand slam. I never spoke from stage and closed 20 tickets, it never happened for me. That wasn't my reality. Filling it was super duper hard and I'm happy to talk about anything else around that feeling inside, but the execution and I knew, and you knew, everybody knew that Cody and my wife, Christy and Alyson on our team who we've already said was amazing, would pull off the best event anybody's ever seen, which we did. Then I introduce a new flagship program that people join there as well, which was super fun. That's why I've seen it as a success now. In hindsight, it was super hard. We maxed out. I've said this a few times and I maxed out, I have two credit cards, two business credit cards, we maxed them both out. I got home from the event. I had missed three payments of other stuff. They're like, "Hey, we billed the card on file that was maxed out."   Cody Burch: I was like, yeah, I know, like, sorry. Now I'm picking up the pieces of that. I just want to tell you and your listeners like, I put it all on the line financially, not that I would have been bankrupt or lost my house or had to foreclose on things. I don't want to over dramatize that, but I just can't overstate how much I felt like I had at stake to execute this live event. If that encourages anybody to say, "Well, I'm going to go for it just like Cody went for it," then kudos to you.   Kyle Gray: Cody, I really, really appreciate just the vulnerability and openness in this. I think a lot of listeners can find and take courage that there's a lot of people out there like I was saying earlier that are just hype marketing, I'm so cool, I'm so amazing. What really comes down to it and what I'm hearing and despite the digital marketing and even being a master at Facebook ads and all of these things, what it really came down to was making human connections. Getting in the right room with the right people, getting on the phone with the right people, giving, giving, giving and contributing however you can. There's no shortcuts, there's no easy, easy ways to your gold plated helicopters or anything like that. I so appreciate your openness and your vulnerability in this journey. I think everybody listening will to. I'd love to, and it just comes down to true human connections. The means and the tech and the methods are all, you know, some work for some people, some don't. In the end, it's how you connect with people. I'd love to hear any closing thoughts and where can we go to learn more about you and connect with you further.   Cody Burch: Thanks for saying that, man. My closing takeaway is the old adage of dig your well before you're thirsty. For me, in hindsight, for hosting a live event and this is true for anything, replace live event with, you have a book that's coming out that you want to launch or you have a virtual summit you're going to do, or you have a workshop you're going to introduce, or you have a new flagship service or product. I told you at the beginning of the interview here, I don't consider myself a very social person. I'm not a social butterfly. I'd go into a room of a hundred strangers and leave with a hundred strangers. I wouldn't leave with 20 best friends. Just never been that guy but I wish I had been. My advice to people listening is knowing that at some point you're going to need to rely on people to help support whatever your dream and your vision is that you're working on.   [social quote]I dug a small well and then I got very thirsty. That's my advice to anybody is to invest in those relationships now before you need them. You can't err on the side of being too generous and you can't do it on the side of being too convenient and all those amazing things and generate as much goodwill as possible. Cody Burch: Again, a book, podcast, product, whatever it is, to take the time now to start to make those connections and to give and to connect with people and to see what they're working on and to stay in touch and never ask. Just give, give, give, until you're ready at whatever point in a year or two or five years to say, hey, it happened. I wanted to let you know that I did finally read that book and I would love your support, a rating, a review, a download, a launch team or whatever. People say, I would love nothing more than that. You've been giving to me for five years now, or for five months. I would love to do that. I dug a small well and then I got very thirsty. That's my advice to anybody is to invest in those relationships now before you need them. You can't err on the side of being too generous and you can't do it on the side of being too convenient and all those amazing things and generate as much goodwill as possible.   Kyle Gray: Where can we go to learn more about you?   Cody Burch: That's right, the second thing, I'm just kidding, man. I'm not ready to ask yet. The best place to go learn about what I'm working on all around The One Hour Funnel idea is at onehourfunnel.com. You can grab a copy of the book there for free. The book that started it all, the book that started an event that started a movement. It's just super fun to have done that, so that's the main hub and I'm @onehourfunnel on Facebook and on Instagram as well.   Kyle Gray: Cody, this has been a stunning conversation and I really appreciate everything you've shared. Thank you so much for joining us today on The Story Engine Podcast.   Cody Burch: Thanks for having me.   Kyle Gray: Thanks for listening to the Story Engine Podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes and resources mentioned on this episode and every other episode at thestoryengine.co. If you're looking to learn more about how to use storytelling to grow your business, then check out my new book, Selling With Story: How to Use Storytelling to Become an Authority, Boost Sales, and Win the Hearts and Minds of Your Audience. This book will equip you with actionable strategies and templates to help you share your unique value and build trust in presentations, sales, and conversations, both online and offline. Learn more at sellingwithstory.co. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.

Alyson founded Operations Agency to serve entrepreneurs in the Digital Marketing space when they hit multi-six figures and want to get to seven without the headache. She's responsible for streamlining back-end operations for a multitude of brands, launching digital and in-person products and managing growing teams. Listen to this episode for a primer on making and using SOP's for your business.

Welcome to the Smooth Operator Podcast with your host and Operator, Alyson Caffrey