102: 4 Ways to Stop Being the Bottleneck

1. Figure out what you’re best at — marketing, fulfillment, or operations — and then hire people to fill in the gaps.

Start by delegating the one area you struggle with most, and then as you grow, you can keep outsourcing until you’re only responsible for the things you’re best at.

 

2. Your employees may be wanting to step up and do more, they’re just waiting for you to give them the opportunity.

If you’re struggling to delegate, start by giving people small tasks to see how they perform. This helps your team feel valued, and it allows you to see who you can trust to take on new responsibilities.

 

3. Great systems will take pressure off of both leaders and team members.

When your business isn’t reliant on any one person, people can feel empowered to step back or take time off when they need to.

Stacy Tuschl on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Tricia Sciortino on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter

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Stacy Tuschl’s Well Oiled Operations Podcast

(2:58) Stacy shares the story of starting her first business in her parents’ backyard

(5:42) Stacy explains how many of us are slowing down our own business growth

(7:14) How can business owners best identify their next hire? 

(10:33) Stacy shares some simple strategies to help leaders start delegating 

(17:07) When you build systems, your employees can understand what you’re expecting and how to achieve it

(23:05) How can leaders hold teams accountable without being overbearing? 

(25:46) You’ll never finish your to-do list, so stop trying to

Stacy Tuschl:

I want to pick and choose what I love and what lights me up and what excites me today. I don’t want to be dreading payroll or dreading… Right? I don’t want to be thinking, “Oh, I’ve got to post on social media today.” I want to get all of that off my plate.

Stacy Tuschl:

And the only way to do that is to truly start to figure out like, “Well, what are the next steps? And who do I hire next?” And I’m just a big, big believer in delegating. I don’t want to add things to my plate. I want to remove things, and I want to zone in, on what I am truly really good at.

Ryan Fitzgerald :

Welcome to One Next Step. The most practical business podcast in the world. You’re now one simple tip, practical tool, and small step away from growing your business. One Next Step is brought to you by BELAY, the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with virtual assistance, bookkeepers, and social media managers. Accomplish more. Juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. And now, to your hosts.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Welcome to One Next Step. The practical business podcast that helps you run your business so it stops running you. I’m LZ, and I’m joined as always by my amazing co-host, Ryan.

Ryan Fitzgerald :

Hey LZ, you truly are the amazing one. And we have an amazing conversation for our listeners today. See, today our CEO Tricia Sciortino, is joined by Stacy Tuschl for a conversation about the four-step process you can use to stop getting in your way of your businesses growth and start delegating more effectively.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Stacy is the CEO and Founder of The Foot Traffic Formula, and she’s an expert at helping business owners, scale without burning out. Sacrificing more of their time or making the business more complicated than it actually needs to be.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Stacy is also a bestselling author, podcast host, and the owner of multiple seven-figure businesses, so she has a true wealth of experience to share with our listeners. If you’ve ever felt like you had to choose between growing your business and avoiding burnout, this episode is for you.

Ryan Fitzgerald :

Speaking of burnout LZ, let’s talk really quickly about time and how there’s never enough of it? But what if you could have an extra 15 hours, every week? Sounds too good to be true? It’s not.

Ryan Fitzgerald :

With the help of BELAY, the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with subscription-based virtual assistant, bookkeeper, and social media manager services. You could reclaim an average of 15 hours every week, delegating just five tasks. Accomplish more. Juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. Now, let’s dive into today’s conversation.

Tricia Sciortino:

Hey Stacy, thank you so much for being on the podcast with us today. How are you?

Stacy Tuschl:

I am so good. I am really looking forward to this conversation.

Tricia Sciortino:

Me too, me too. I actually personally am looking forward to this conversation and I know it’s going to be great, informative tidbits that we can get out to our audience as well. But before we even get started talking all things shop, if you will. I would love to know, if you wouldn’t mind telling us the story of you starting your very first business.

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah. So it’s actually going to be 20 years in August, which is crazy.

Tricia Sciortino:

Wow!

Stacy Tuschl:

So crazy. So right out of high school, I was a dancer in high school. I was actually just got into dance in high school, which is very late for a dancer and I didn’t want to stop dancing, but I wasn’t good enough to go professional when I had started so late.

Stacy Tuschl:

So I thought, “Well, I’ll just teach a middle school team.” They’re younger than me. Right? They’ll want to do this. So we did a competitive middle school team. I pass out flyers in my neighborhood and we had 17 girls showed up, that first summer. And within three years, I had 100 kids coming to my parents backyard in the summers.

Tricia Sciortino:

Wow!

Stacy Tuschl:

And then a church gave us a free, their basement for free in the winter. So I’m here in Wisconsin. So I didn’t think I was starting a business. I thought I was just continuing my passion. I did it for free. I charged people to pay for the competitions, and pay for the uniforms and all of that. But I charged them, if the costume was 27.42, I charged 27.42. There was literally 0% profit margin.

Stacy Tuschl:

And within about three years, my family starts to see what’s going on. And my grandfather actually started a construction business over 50 years ago. And my parents, grandparents, everybody worked in that business while I was growing up. So they were entrepreneurs and they saw what was happening and they’re like “We don’t know anything about dance, but we think this might be a business.”

Tricia Sciortino:

Right.

Stacy Tuschl:

We think 100 kids, this was just 100 kids every Sunday. I was only teaching one day, because I was going to school full time. So I was so excited when they said that. I had no idea I could ever charge and do this. But three years in, I incorporated, got a space to rent, and actually started charging and officially jumped into it.

Stacy Tuschl:

So today, I have two dance and music schools for children. So like your typical ballet, tap jazz, the little ones come. And then we’ve been grossing over a $1 million a year. I mean, selling to a market maybe within nine miles of one or those two studios. And have about 50 employees and have been completely out of the business now for almost nine years.

Stacy Tuschl:

So really figuring out how to get it, to run without me. And then, that was my first business. And then I started teaching people how I did that in my second business, which is now Foot Traffic.

Tricia Sciortino:

Which is, what we’re here to talk about.

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah.

Tricia Sciortino:

Okay. So that is an amazing story. Wow.

Stacy Tuschl:

Thank you.

Tricia Sciortino:

I love it. And that’s the perfect segue into what is going to be a great, great conversation. So many people struggle to lead, truly and lead organizations.

Tricia Sciortino:

We see it all the time here at BELAY and I’m sure you do as well, now with your new coaching business. So I’d love to ask you this, profoundly open question, which is truly resonates with so many people. Why are so many people getting in their way of their own business growth?

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah. Ugh. And that’s what it is. It’s us, getting in our own way when we’re thinking, “Why isn’t the business growing fast enough? And why isn’t…” And we have these external situations where we’re blaming, but it is us. And maybe that’s part of the reason is, we don’t even see it’s us. We are blaming other things. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

“It’s the market, and my market saturated.” or “Facebook ads we’re working and now they’re not working.” And just all the things. So because we’re looking externally, we can’t fix and remove ourselves as that bottleneck.

Stacy Tuschl:

So it is common. We do it all the time. We do it at every stage. You might have removed yourself, when you were finally hitting 100,000 a year, but then you started growing and you became a bottleneck at that next stage when you had to hire, or you had to fire. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

Entrepreneurship is a lot of uncomfortable moments and just, it’s not something we’ve done before. So slowing down, firing the person that needs to be fired, or hiring somebody because we’re afraid to hire and bring on that investment. All of those things are basically allowing us to be the bottleneck.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. And I think you bring up the most, probably the hardest and most interesting part of leadership and entrepreneurship is the hiring component.

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah.

Tricia Sciortino:

It’s probably one of the biggest decisions we make in the day to day, as a business leader is who we work with and who we don’t.

Stacy Tuschl:

Absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

So, absolutely. Who are the right and wrong people that we allow into our organization or our circle? So how could you help a business owner identify who is their next hire? Who that person should be?

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah. So first just really realizing you do need help at any stage. Right? Most of us need to hire. So just even getting to that place of believing, I need to hire, is a milestone. I always say there’s three main or areas in your business. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

There is the marketer, the person who is trying to bring in more income. Right? There is fulfillment, keeping your current clients happy and wanting to renew and refer and all the things. And then there’s that operations business, not exciting piece. Right? But it’s the stuff that has to happen. So marketing, fulfillment, operations. Those are three undeniable departments in your business.

Stacy Tuschl:

Now in the beginning, you are all three of them. Right? And you’re probably doing one, pretty well because that’s where you naturally fall. Like, “I’m naturally a marketer. I love that piece, but I might be so excited to market and get new people that I suffer on the delivery because I’m not, I don’t have time to focus over there and I’m just focusing on getting new, getting new.” Right? But then maybe somebody’s like a natural processor and they love systems and they love checklists. And they’re systematizing the whole business. Yeah.

Tricia Sciortino:

Totally. Totally me.

Stacy Tuschl:

You’re systematizing, but maybe you’re systematizing too soon. Do you have the numbers to be having the luxury to be back end behind the scenes? Right? So I always tell people, “Figure out who you are.”

Stacy Tuschl:

So Tricia’s the back end operations, I’m the marketer. Right? So if you and I were working together, I would say, “We need somebody to be head of fulfillment. We need to get our weakness in here and get it in now, because if I can focus on marketing and Tricia, you can do the back end and we can get somebody to love up on our clients. Oh my goodness, we’ve just built a dream team.” Right?

Tricia Sciortino:

Yes.

Stacy Tuschl:

So I want you to look at who you are. Right? What’s your number one, what’s your number two and then I would outsource your number three. So maybe somebody on your team already, you were like, “Oh wow. I have a Tricia.” or “I have… Wait, this person would be great at it.” Put them in charge of owning that, owning operations or owning fulfillment. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

And then from there after you’ve outsourced number three, and they’ve helped you bring that revenue to make it make sense. Go outsource your second. And then at some point you actually outsource the thing you’re best at, because it’s not that I don’t do marketing anymore. I just don’t own the marketing department. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

I’m still in there. I’m visionary. I’m creating content but my marketing team is looking at the numbers and saying, “Could you make a video on this? Could you do a podcast on that?” Right? So it’s really, really good to get you, the CEO out of the ownership seat in those three roles. But it take, it’s one step at a time. You’re not going to hire three people at one time and then just step away.

Tricia Sciortino:

Right. Well, so many people have such a hard time truly delegating any of it. Whether it’s the really small startup who feels like as the owner, an entrepreneur, they should do everything. Or they feel nobody will be able to come on and do a better job than I am because I am so passionate and this is my company.

Tricia Sciortino:

So what do you say to leaders who want to get better at delegating? Should get better in delegating and what are some communication strategies they could and should implement, around delegating?

Stacy Tuschl:

For sure. So I do a lot of parenting analogies when I’m talking about employee with the boss. Right? And I mean, think about it, it is very similar. Right? No disrespect comparing an employee to a child, nothing like that. I’m just saying, the way that we lead as a parent, a lot of times is way we lead with our team members.

Stacy Tuschl:

So just like if you’ve got a young child and they all of a sudden want a cell phone. Right? They may not have shown responsibility enough yet, to give them a cell phone. So you may start giving them some tests, and seeing if they could, or maybe you give them the cell phone, but they break it and you’re like, “No more.” You’ve lost it. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

It’s the same thing when it comes to our employees. Start to give small tests and let them earn your trust, let them earn your respect. And the problem is, a lot of people don’t even let go enough to give a small sample project. So they’re like, “Well, I don’t think they could handle it.” It’s like well, you’ve never actually given them an activity to try to handle it. So you are thinking this without actually seeing if it’s true. So why not test something and see how they do.

Stacy Tuschl:

Don’t give them something where if they drop the ball, it’s major and it’s going to mess up everything. Right? Give them something where it’s not as major and you could easily fix it, knowing they didn’t do it. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

So I remember one of my friends said, “I told my team member two weeks ago to send out this email, to remind all of our friends we were doing something.” And she’s like, “And I’m testing her and I want to see, I’m never going to bring it up again, and I want to see if she sends it out without me having to remind her, because that will show that I can just brain dump something on her plate and she’ll take care of it.” And she sent it out. And that gained her the trust of, “Wow, I can just start saying, could you do this? Could you do that? And I can trust that she’s going to do it.” Now, if she didn’t send it out, it’s like, “Reel it back in.” She’s not able to just list things out and have that person do it. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

So again, don’t test on something that, “Oh my goodness, you’ve ruined the business today. You didn’t send out this thing that we need, XYZ.” Right? Do something where it wouldn’t be, and maybe do it the day before you need it done. And if it doesn’t get done, you have time to say, “Listen, you didn’t do this and we’re going to do this together because this has to get done and here’s what I want you to do.” Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

So just little, little projects, little tests. And then as they earn your trust, you’ve got to let go and say, “Oh it’s…” It would be like your child always coming home on time. Never missing curfew. Being the perfect child, but you never give them more responsibility or… Right? They would start to feel like, “I’m doing all of these things and she still doesn’t see that I’m capable.” That is how your team feels when they are constantly going above and beyond but you are still holding on so tight.

Tricia Sciortino:

Wow. I really love that analogy, honestly. From the team member perspective truly. How they may feel a lack of empowerment if you will.

Stacy Tuschl:

100%.

Tricia Sciortino:

Or discouragement by you not, allowing them to do more. Especially the ones that really do want it. I think that’s a very profound way to look at it. And I agree with you, parenting is a lot like leadership. It’s a lot of life lessons. Yeah.

Stacy Tuschl:

That empowerment piece is huge, because there are some people that want it. They want to be a leader. They want to step up. They want to say something and you take it serious and then we implement it. Right? They want to see that they’re being valued. And I think in a lot of places that is not happening.

Stacy Tuschl:

The owner, especially in small business. Right? The owner is just thinking about what they want and how their way is. And it must be this way, because we’ve always done it this way. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

Really letting people step up and give suggestions and then actually taking them once in a while, you will light your team on fire. When you start to show them, I trust you. I believe in you. I respect you. I love your ideas. They’ll keep coming back to you with that kind of stuff.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. I mean in some shape or fashion, it is, it can be a currency for some people. It is a love language for some people. The act of you letting something go and giving it over to them is a reward.

Stacy Tuschl:

Absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

For many, many people. And then that leads to of course, great employee satisfaction, which leads to high performing teams, which leads to great results. So…

Stacy Tuschl:

Absolutely. There’s so much potential if you would step into this. All of the perks that you will get from leaning into this, it’s too good to not at least start to try and learn that strategy and that skillset.

Stacy Tuschl:

It takes time. I mean, it’s hard to let go. It wasn’t easy for me either. But the more you do it and the more they gain your trust, the more you’re like, “Oh, why not? Let’s let her do this. Why not?”

Tricia Sciortino:

Absolutely, absolutely. And that doesn’t ever mean you’re not needed back in. Sometimes you got to stick your toe in, and help course-correct and then you step back out again. So…

Stacy Tuschl:

Absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

I love it. I love it.

Catherine Bowman :

So one of my favorite things is, getting on a zoom call and a couple of times I’ve looked into the eyes of some exhausted and tired leadership. I implemented really, a focus for my clients on delegation and had one leader in particular who just held it all in. I said, “Let’s start with delegating and doing that from a financial perspective.”

Catherine Bowman :

And so we built his budget and his chart of accounts around, what ministry head is going to own this. I challenged him to not look at the nit-picky line items, to just look at the overall budget for a couple of months, and he quickly became relieved of that stress.

Catherine Bowman :

And that was a huge win for that client. I remember talking six months later and he was not the same person, he was six months ago. And it was a win-win for both of us, because I could do my job and his people could do their job and then he could do his.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Their story can be your story too. And all it takes is one next step to get started. You shouldn’t have to do everything. And with the BELAY bookkeeper, you don’t have to. Visit belaysolutions.com today to start accomplishing more and juggling less.

Tricia Sciortino:

You talk a lot about the importance of systems and automation for business growth. So [crosstalk 00:17:15] I… You do. So I’d love to, if you would share some advice for our leaders who really want to start implementing systems but feel like, maybe they’re starting from scratch. What’s a great place to start?

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah. And it’s so funny because I obviously teach this and people will say, “I don’t know where to start, I just, I don’t understand.” Now, a lot of people believe systems sound not fun, and it just sounds like, “Oh, that will… Just not be exciting to the people on our team.” But I always tell people, “Systems are exciting for people on your team, as well as the CEO, because you see what is expected of you.” And people like to know what is expected. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

Nobody wants to go first and then maybe mess up. Right? They want to know what you think, how this needs to be done. Now, as you start to put systems into place, it really does start to bring that freedom back.

Stacy Tuschl:

In the beginning, the systems you want to start with, are the systems that actually make you money. So in the beginning you want to think about, “How do I onboard clients?” Right? How do I even sell clients? So somebody just said to me, “Oh, my customer service rep, she just answers these emails, but she doesn’t understand she should be selling in the email. And when she DMs, she should be selling in the DMs.” And I said, “Okay, what is the system for responding to DMs and emails?” And she was like, “Yeah. No system.” “Okay, so you expect her to be doing something you’ve never trained her on.” And she’s like, “Correct.” And a light bulb went off. Right?

Tricia Sciortino:

Right.

Stacy Tuschl:

So the first thing I told her to do is go back home and to start to open up some emails and write some sample scripts of how you would go back and reply and sell. Right? What does that look like?

Stacy Tuschl:

So in the beginning, when you’re doing it by yourself, you make the system. So when you train somebody to step into your DMs or into the customer service email, or answer the phone, they know how to answer those FAQs. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

So systematize things where first of all, systematize what you’re frustrated with. Right? So think about what happened today or what happened this past week and where were you unhappy, with the result that happened? It’s most likely from a lack of a system. And if you could systematize whatever that frustration is, they will be happier because they’ll know what to do. And you’ll be happier because you’ll be getting the outcome you were intending.

Stacy Tuschl:

So I think start there, start with your frustrations and then start with, we are the customer facing type systems, of what they feel. Right? So in my business, when they come into the dance studio. Right? I want to make sure that there’s a welcome gift, and that is systematized. They know what to give that child, and what that looks like and what to say to mom, and how to walk her over to the dance studio and introduce her to the teacher. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

In Foot Traffic, same thing. When somebody buys one of our programs, there’s an automated email with step by step. How to do this, and where to go next and how to get support and who to email and all the things. Right? Systematizing that onboarding with your clients could make or break, how long they spend time with you, from now on.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. Absolutely. I love how you talk about… And I’ve heard you coined the phrase well-oiled operations.

Stacy Tuschl:

Yes.

Tricia Sciortino:

So this is the framework in the beginning of what becomes, ideally a machine.

Stacy Tuschl:

Correct.

Tricia Sciortino:

If you will, so that your team and you honestly can spend your brain power, not thinking about how you’re supposed to do something, but things way bigger than that. You have to think through the steps of how do I process this invoice or how do I onboard this client? You can actually be thinking about, way more important things than the tasking of those things.

Stacy Tuschl:

Absolutely. And with the idea, like I always say to people, “Get your business to run without you.” Now I like working. So I actually want the, I want to work in the business, but I don’t want to have to work in the business.

Stacy Tuschl:

I want to pick and choose what I love and what lights me up and what excites me today. I don’t want to be dreading payroll or dreading… Right? I don’t want to be thinking, “Oh, I’ve got to post on social media today.” I want to get all of that off my plate.

Stacy Tuschl:

And the only way to do that is to truly start to figure out like, “Well, what are the next steps? And who do I hire next?” And I’m just a big, big believer in delegating and just continuously, I don’t want to add things to my plate. I want to remove things, and I want to zone in, on what I am truly really good at.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. I love that. I think that’s truly a great goal for any CEO or entrepreneur to have is I always say, I always reference myself as not ever wanting to be the bottleneck and I don’t ever want to feel like something’s waiting on me, if I’m out for the day or on vacation.

Stacy Tuschl:

Right.

Tricia Sciortino:

So if I want to step away for a week and enjoy family time, the machine has to run completely without me. I don’t want anything to have to wait till I get back and so that. And there’s peace in that! As a person, as a woman, as a mom, as a wife, that I can truly step out of the business and no, nothing’s waiting on me.

Stacy Tuschl:

I love that. And it’s also for your employees, your team, your contractors. So the fact that if they want to step away for a week vacation, if they’re doing something like, “We’ve got this, we’re systematized. You can be gone. Our social media manager is getting married and immediately going on her honeymoon. So she took off two weeks.”

Stacy Tuschl:

So it’s not just about me, being a well-oiled machine. It’s what are the systems in place to make sure it doesn’t look like she’s out of town for two weeks. Right?

Tricia Sciortino:

Right. Right.

Stacy Tuschl:

So it gives freedom to everybody on the team, not just the CEO. And that’s what makes the team want to stay with you because they feel they don’t have that pressure on their shoulders either.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. Yeah. And that’s a gift. I mean, that’s a gift to every human out there. Absolutely. I love that. Great. Okay, so we have this team of people, that we have working for us now. Another struggle we see typically is, is really honestly accountability? So talk to us a little bit about how you can hold teams accountable for their performance, without being the overbearing boss.

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah. So what people typically do is they say, “Tricia, could I have this done by Friday?” And then they think it’s magically, out of my head and Tricia’s just going to make it happen. Unfortunately, not everybody just reports what you needed when they needed it with the deadline. Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

And a lot of people need accountability or they need the follow-up of, where are we at with this? Are we on track? Are we on deadline? So one of the biggest things that we do, is everybody’s weekly to-dos, they’re in our project management software and they’re wide open for everybody on the team to see, everybody. So if anybody wanted to see what I, said I was going to do by Friday, they could go onto our board and see my list. And at the end of the week, everything should be turned to dones. Right? And that accountability right there is massive.

Stacy Tuschl:

So what’s amazing about seeing on a daily basis, we have this battery that’s tied to our weekly to-dos. So we can see, “We’re 42% done this week does anybody need help?” And when people know that they play a part in that battery, they’ll start to raise their hand and say, “Oh, I’ve got to do this by Friday, can somebody teach me how to do this?” or “I don’t know how to do that.” Right?

Stacy Tuschl:

So I think just putting it out there, making it visible and making everybody aware, versus just this one-on-one relationship. Right? Because I think the worst people to hold accountable is the boss, because we might not think to go back, but sometimes when everybody else can see it, somebody’s going to say, “Wait, we didn’t check the board or we didn’t check the battery or…” Right? So just put it out there and really have that visible for everybody.

Stacy Tuschl:

And it’s not this punishment of, “It’s just no, it’s here’s what I said and I’m ready to do it and I’m the leader. So every week I’m marking done on all of the stuff.” Right? And they’re following that. And every week we reset the tone and say, “Okay, here’s what I’m committing to now.” So I think having it public is really helpful.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yeah. Well, and you’re really setting the standard by putting yourself out there first and foremost.

Stacy Tuschl:

Absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

And by you being done on Friday, like you expect everybody else. You’re really practicing what you preach.

Stacy Tuschl:

Absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

Which I think is huge for executives, that you’re in tune with the reality of your team and that you actually model, what it is you actually expect them to do as well. And you’re in there with them.

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

I love that. That’s great.

Tricia Sciortino:

So another thing that, gosh, is so resonating in today’s work environment, if you will, is this overwhelming burnout, is this business owners really owning and understanding how to move forward to avoid or get themselves out of what it means to be an overwhelmed, burnt out leader, any advice?

Stacy Tuschl:

Oh yeah. I mean, now I feel really great. Years ago, I was that person. Right? And when I’m talking to friends or I’m just at a conference and I’m watching how they can’t be there and participate, they have to sneak out in the hallway and talk to somebody or they’re texting all the whole time. Right? And they’re putting out fires.

Stacy Tuschl:

It’s really common to see people working seven days a week, or not even be able to work an hour or two without being interrupted, via text or project management or Voxer or something like that. Right? And I think it really comes down to, I always tell people, “You’ll never finish your to-do list, ever. You will never catch up.” So I was talking to this guy who was working seven days a week and he’s very successful.

Stacy Tuschl:

And I said… And he has children. And I said, “Why do you have to work Saturday, Sunday?” He’s like, “I just try to catch up on the weekends.” And I said, “How is that working out for you?” And he’s like, “I never catch up,” Right. So you’ll never catch up. So why do you keep trying to catch up? At some point you have to say, “It’s Friday, closing my computer, I’m walking out of this office and I’m not going to come back till Monday.” And that is okay. It’s okay.

Stacy Tuschl:

It’s not even, okay. It’s a necessity. Right? To slow down, to recharge, to spend time with family, to take a break. Right? So I have very good boundaries now. I mean, I pretty much work, nine to three or nine to four, depending on the day. And when I close my computer, my computer stays in my office and I come back the next morning.

Stacy Tuschl:

On the weekends, I never go on my computer. However, I used to be the girl that would put the kids to bed and bring my laptop into my bedroom and I would work till whenever I could, and then fall asleep. But then I would miss out on that time in the morning to be productive and to get going. Right? So you’ve got to just decide and I think this doesn’t end.

Stacy Tuschl:

Talking to that guy. He was grossing over a $1 million a year, very successful business. You keep the bad habits, they stay with you. So if you’re doing it at a certain stage, you’ll keep doing it. At some point, you’ve got to break that bad habit of just working, working, working.

Tricia Sciortino:

There was a season of time where it was commendable to be the overworker. 10 years ago it was like, “Wow, they’re the hustler. Look at them working seven days a week.” And I think the conversation has changed.

Stacy Tuschl:

It has.

Tricia Sciortino:

And what is success? Because I’m with you. Success is having a fulfilled family life and spending time with my children. It’s not just what my revenue is that year. So, if more people could think that way, gosh. And then to me also, it’s the behavior you models for your team.

Tricia Sciortino:

So years ago we were in the same place, where, I’m with you. I was working at 10:00 at night because I felt like I had to, when I was burning myself out. But then the team sees me working at 10:00 at night and then the next thing you know, other leaders are working 10:00 at night.

Stacy Tuschl:

Because you set an expectation.

Tricia Sciortino:

I set an expectation or a standard that it was okay, or that everybody should work more to get the business, to do what it needed to do. And so it created a very negative, environment set by the leader because I was doing the wrong things.

Stacy Tuschl:

What’s funny is people will say, “Oh, I tell them they don’t have to be working that, I just like to.” No, no, no.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yes.

Stacy Tuschl:

The second you are emailing or tagging them in the project management software or voxing them on a Saturday. There is a feeling in there of, “I need to respond now.” So whether you said it, or you said, “Don’t do it.” They’re still struggling of, should they do it or not?

Stacy Tuschl:

So I actually have a rule for my team, because a lot of my team are salary employees. So they’ve got flexibility. You are not allowed to be emailing, tagging, messaging. If you’re doing something on a Saturday, you better do that privately and nobody should feel you are working.

Tricia Sciortino:

Same. We even have it nights and weekends, there is no work to be done and nobody should ever know you’re doing work. And I actually feel totally accountable to lead by example, so then therefore I don’t anymore.

Stacy Tuschl:

Yep.

Tricia Sciortino:

And what a gift.

Stacy Tuschl:

It completely a gift. Absolutely.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yes. Yes. Well you are just a nugget of so many amazing resources to leaders and you have so many great resources. Can you give us a rundown of where our listeners can find you, listen to you, follow you?

Stacy Tuschl:

Yeah. So my two favorite places are it’s the podcast. So Foot Traffic Podcast. And then my second favorite place is Instagram. We, I mean we crank out content. We are a content machine. We have a lots of great reels, especially where, not like dancing reels and I think crazy, it’s actually good pieces of content with usually a free template or something to go with it, to help guide you. So I would say Instagram @stacytuschl or the Foot Traffic Podcast.

Tricia Sciortino:

Yes. And I follow you on Instagram and she’s not lying folks. She has a lot of amazing content in Instagram. And what I love about it, it’s small, bite size.

Stacy Tuschl:

Yes.

Tricia Sciortino:

Totally actionable nuggets of business advice. So thank you Stacy. This conversation has been so good. Guys, Stacy has agreed to hang around a little after this conversation for one more bonus question. We’re going to ask you one more key step you can take to start leveling up your leadership. You don’t want to miss it guys so stick around.

Tricia Sciortino:

To hear the clip, subscribe to our email list and we’ll send you a link to our bonus content or visit onenextsteppodcast.com, where you will find the link in our show notes.

Lisa Zeeveld:

That was such a great conversation between Tricia and Stacy Tuschl. I feel like I learned so much and there were so many nuggets of wisdom LZ.

Lisa Zeeveld:

I know, I agree. I think the process Stacy shared could completely transform, any business. Now we have one next step for our listeners to take. I want you to head on over to the show notes page to access today’s resource and take the first, next step towards elevating your business.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Well, thank you so much for tuning in for this week’s One Next Step. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple Podcast or follow us on Spotify. And if you’re ready to start accomplishing more and juggling less, go to belaysolutions.com.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Join us next time for more practical business tips and tools to help you advance your business one step at a time. For more episodes, show notes and helpful resources, visit onenextsteppodcast.com.

Ryan Fitzgerald :

Next week, we’ll have an extra masterclass with my fabulous One Next Step co-host and our BELAY CFO, Lisa Zeeveld. in this episode we’ll be talking about how you can lead anyone from anywhere and become a successful leader of a modern hybrid team. You definitely don’t want to miss it here’s a quick preview…

Lisa Zeeveld:

Taking the time for that employee to share with you where they feel like they’re winning, what they want to celebrate with you, what they need help with, and you doing that in return, and we get that feedback all the time that people are like, “Oh, I just had an annual review.” Again, you’re missing all the details if you’re doing it that far apart. So do it quarterly, and offer that feedback. It’s going to make all the difference in the world with your team. I promise.