Episode 160 Transcript
Heather Porter (00:01.126)
Welcome to the show, Sara. It's a pleasure to have you on the show. We're going to talk about so many fun things, including your new book. How are you?
Sara Howard (00:08.91)
Thank you so much for having me on the show, Heather. It's really nice to be with your audience. I'm really grateful for this.
Heather Porter (00:15.976)
So good. So by the time we have our conversation, people will know what your business does, a little bit of a backstory about you, your new book and all these amazing things. But we're going to start with some tips to get stuck in. So straight away, think about your business, which I know is amazing and has had a lot of growth and we'll talk about that, but think about your business. What are three tips that you have used over the years growing your own business to have?
Sara Howard (00:29.676)
Okay.
Sara Howard (00:37.358)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (00:44.646)
more balance and less of that hustle culture thing going on.
Sara Howard (00:47.534)
Mmm, mmm. Yeah, which I know is really the big theme of this podcast and I love it so much because I think so often as business owners we buy into this we have to hustle kind of mantra and it's really not healthy, which I've learned the hard way over the 18 years that I've grown my business. So my three tips would be first of all, be clear.
Heather Porter (00:53.762)
Yes.
Heather Porter (01:04.039)
Me too.
Sara Howard (01:11.18)
on what you want your life to be like outside of work because the whole point of running your business is so that you make the business work for you, not the other way around. And too often, and I've done this myself, I'm working every waking hour for the business and I've lost sight of the fact that business is meant to be working for me. Otherwise I just get a job that paid me a salary, right? I'm in control. So once you're clear on what you want your life to be like, you can set.
better boundaries around that and be really strict with where you put your time and energy. And for me, that's the key to balance. For me, balance is not necessarily about one thing and then the other and self care. It's actually about having a full life with time for everything that's important to me. And that includes sleep and exercise and family and friends and things like that. you know, if having a life outside of work...
that means you can take a holiday without taking work with you. Set boundaries on that. You're in control of that. So be clear on what you want your life to be like. The second thing is to be clear on what the values are that drive you personally and the decisions you make because that's how you build a culture in your business that feels really genuine and true to you. And you can set quite good intentions and expectations around that as you grow your team. So for example,
Heather Porter (02:00.775)
Hmm.
Sara Howard (02:23.414)
And I would write it down, like write it down now. What are the values that drive you? Is it flexibility? Is it connection? Is it balance? Is it freedom? What helps you make the decisions that you make day to day? And that's part of your culture. And then you can create those expectations with your team. So in my business, we offer true flexibility. You can work from anywhere in the time that works for you and your life, but that goes both ways, right? And there's an expectation around that because when we all have to pull together, we do. And so it's a bit of give and take.
Heather Porter (02:44.837)
Nice.
Sara Howard (02:53.328)
And similarly, we have a very strong culture where we don't work with dickheads, if I can put that on there. But we also have to listen to each other and trust our instincts when we see those red flags. so being intentional with that, documenting that is really important for creating that business that is less about hustle, more about balance for you and your team. And write it down, write it down. And the third thing is don't just chase growth for growth's sake.
Heather Porter (02:57.896)
So good. Yes.
Sara Howard (03:23.348)
often we hear from family and friends that the measure of success is growth and it's an upward trajectory of income or revenue or whatever and that's not always what you really want when you go back to that first point around what do want your life to be like.
You need to know why you want to grow. What's the end game for you? What do you want your life to be like this year and in three years and in five years when your kids finish school? And being really clear on that because I think growth without hustle is about growing better, not just bigger and sometimes not even bigger, right? You know, small can be beautiful depending on the time of life you're at.
Heather Porter (03:58.729)
There's a couple of things that you said in there that really speak to me. So the first one is, well, what you just said, like don't chase growth for the sake of growth. Um, that's so huge. I have spoken to people and they're like, I, know, I have a huge office and I have this big team and I'm like, and do you like it? And they're like, yeah, I just did it. Yeah, I just did it. Cause I thought I should.
Sara Howard (04:06.244)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (04:17.026)
They're
Right. And on the outside it looks great, right? It's a measure of success. It looks great on LinkedIn. It looks great on Instagram. But inside, you've lost the joy. And for me, you lose, I think you mentioned this in a podcast recently, when you lose the joy in what you're doing, that's the key, that's gonna send you into burnout. That's the problem. Yeah.
Heather Porter (04:28.179)
Yeah!
Heather Porter (04:38.728)
Hmm.
Heather Porter (04:42.616)
So true, so true. Now do you know the author Mark Manson? So the subtle art of not giving an F. Yeah him. Okay so I do like some of his content a lot and he just put out a video he was being interviewed I don't I forget the interviewer but somebody was interviewing him on his thoughts on sort of business growth strategies and what's good and what's not and he was rating them from zero to ten and when the
Sara Howard (04:48.589)
yes, yes, yes, yes, I love that.
Heather Porter (05:10.056)
interviewer said, well, what's your take on values? And he said 10 out of 10, the one of the most important things. And so interesting. Yeah. I wanted to validate what you said. And he explained that.
Sara Howard (05:17.098)
Wow, there you go.
Yeah, that's so interesting. I found it's really liberating but also really hard to work out what your values are. If anyone's listening and they're not sure even where to start, I think Brene Brown has something on her website, you know Brene Brown that does Dare to Lead and all of that stuff. She has a cheat sheet on her website which is free to download and it's brilliant and it's a list of all lots of different possible values that could drive you individually or drive the culture of your team.
Heather Porter (05:29.542)
It is.
Mm.
Heather Porter (05:37.105)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (05:46.16)
Okay.
Sara Howard (05:50.952)
have to pick two. That's her discipline, like you can only pick two. That's the hard part. Once you get crystal clear on what those two things are, everything else becomes easier and you need to be clear on what it feels like when you're leaning into those values and what it feels like when you're not being true to those values and then you can start to see how that shapes the way you want to run your business.
Heather Porter (05:56.552)
Mmm.
Heather Porter (06:12.454)
Would you like to share your values?
Sara Howard (06:14.958)
I will, but you know what, I've changed one over the years, so I'm going to tell you why. Very clear to me, my primary value is connection, right, and I love connecting people, I love connecting ideas. As a writer, that's what I do. know, I kind of gather all these ideas from all different sources, things I read, listen to, whatever, and I create something new about them. So connecting people, creating experiences around people is really important to me. When I originally did this exercise with my team many years
Heather Porter (06:41.768)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (06:44.272)
ago my second value was balance and they challenged me on that because they didn't see me as leading a very balanced life and which they were completely right about. I absolutely shone a mirror to me and I went oh that's actually probably quite true.
It was something I aspired to and as I said I think earlier for me a balanced life was a full life and a busy life but I wasn't really prioritizing the things that mattered most to me. My team really had to tell me that and it was really interesting to reflect on that and the uncomfortable truth I came up with after deeply going within was probably my second value is efficiency which sounds super nerdy but that is how I have a full life.
Heather Porter (07:20.124)
Rock.
Heather Porter (07:26.266)
It... but it makes sense though, doesn't it? Yeah...
Sara Howard (07:28.542)
Yeah, yeah absolutely. So that's me being very raw, authentic and honest with everyone right now.
Heather Porter (07:36.841)
No, I really, really appreciate it because you, you're, we're to talk about what you've built next and you've grown something really amazing. So it makes sense. It's good to get inside the head of somebody that has a bit of balance and has, you know, learned the hard way so to speak. So I want to talk to you about your business writers Australia. Why did you start it?
Sara Howard (07:47.778)
Yes! Yeah, absolutely!
Sara Howard (07:56.536)
Mm-hmm.
Sara Howard (07:59.938)
Well...
started about 18 years ago, Heather, and I was working in the UK. I originally didn't train as a copywriter or content writer, which is what the business does today. I actually was working as a retail buyer for a long time. But when I had kids, that wasn't a great, you know, wasn't an easy career to follow with the amount of travel that was involved for that and the opportunities in Sydney were fairly limited. We were working in the UK for a while though, my husband's business was there. And so I retrained as a copywriter and I worked with a company called Writers Limited in Bristol.
Heather Porter (08:08.714)
Okay.
Heather Porter (08:12.743)
Wow.
Sara Howard (08:30.672)
and when it was time for us to move back to Australia with two tiny children like age two and four, they suggested that I open up the Sydney office and we started as a partnership. So when I started it in Sydney, I was very much operating almost as a freelancer I guess, but I had...
Heather Porter (08:42.504)
Okay.
Sara Howard (08:48.63)
I had the safety net of a team in the UK who would mentor me through the growth or the launch part of the agency and give me feedback on the work so that I had like a second pair of eyes on it which really helped me improve the quality quickly. But it was on me to build the client base and to grow the business using my network and just, you know, one client at a time, one project at a time. Which I managed to do successfully more than I probably expected to. All I really wanted when I started the business was the flexibility to work around childcare and the school run.
Heather Porter (09:02.696)
Mm.
Sara Howard (09:18.544)
and have a business that didn't require cash flow for stock and things like that, things that, you know, my retail background I knew would get me unstuck quite quickly. I needed to be able to pay the mortgage, simple things. within a few years we were...
Heather Porter (09:18.727)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (09:34.296)
growing really busy and I couldn't do everything that was needed of me in the time that I had. So I hired a client manager part time and then another writer part time and then more writers. And now we have eight writers in a studio in Stanmore in the inner west and a client relationship manager. And we work with major companies. Like we do incredible work. We're sort of behind the scenes under the radar with big corporate clients, big not for profits, writing their campaigns, writing their content, their brand messaging strategies.
Heather Porter (09:46.855)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (10:04.24)
Amazing.
Sara Howard (10:04.24)
writing their tone of voice guidelines, doing quite strategic work and the business is really thriving. It's been really interesting and I think I've grown a lot through that process and learned a lot and obviously developed my own skills as a writer as well.
Heather Porter (10:19.566)
Yeah, wow. And what an interesting time to have a business that focuses on messaging and writing and because of, you know, obviously AI. I want to talk to you about, we're going to talk about it. There's so many people, you know, they're like, what am I going to do my job and this and that, but I feel like the brain and strategy and how we humanize brands is not going anywhere. So tell me more. What's your thoughts on AI?
Sara Howard (10:26.562)
Yes.
Sara Howard (10:30.048)
Yeah, let's talk about it.
Sara Howard (10:43.352)
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. Well look, I just think it's such an interesting time to be talking to you about this because we are at the most disruptive time in our profession, right, as an industry. You know, my business, you know, as a marketer you know that we've ridden this content marketing wave and there's been so much demand and so much work for writers coming through all of that. And suddenly, you know, we now have a GPT that can do a lot of that, right, in theory.
Heather Porter (10:50.908)
You
Heather Porter (11:11.012)
Mm. Mm. Mm.
Sara Howard (11:11.882)
in theory.
And so I'm definitely seeing a change in our industry. I'm definitely seeing clients, especially major corporations who can afford to invest in private GPTs and in-house AIs, using that more in-house and doing a lot of the, what I would call the simple or basic tasks that they use to outsource to agencies like us, and they're doing them in-house. And that's actually fine, right? I think that's a good thing for them to take control of things like customer communications and those sorts of things. Where I do worry,
is that we've got this deluge of AI-generated content that doesn't feel very genuine.
or authentic and as human beings we're craving that more and more and where we're doing really interesting work now is at that, I'd say we're probably more thinkers than writers. We're really looking for where the problems are in our clients' businesses and how we can solve those through brand messaging or storytelling or elevating the thought leadership of their senior leadership team or actually getting a clear and compelling voice in the market that claims some white space that hasn't
been claimed before. And so, yeah, it's a really interesting shift. And I think not all writers see themselves as problem solvers. But ultimately, that's what we're all here to do if we're working on projects in the service of our clients and their customers.
Heather Porter (12:35.26)
really, really good point because the conversations I keep having with people are you still need the thinking and you still need the strategy and now more than ever you need it. So and what are your thoughts on that? know so actually let's talk a little bit about what you do in your business because I know you do training that's part of what you do. So what are the different areas that you do?
Sara Howard (12:44.941)
Yes.
Sara Howard (12:51.746)
Yes, we do.
Yeah, so we work at a very, I would break down what we do into strategy which is more around brand messaging, brand storytelling, the narrative of the whole business or their call value proposition and the voice that they use to take to market. So what makes them distinctive in the way that they write. The second piece is copywriting in terms of executing that. Like so, okay, once you've got your tone of voice you actually need to redo your website or whatever. We can do that piece too or your email journeys and things like that.
Heather Porter (13:11.112)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (13:20.935)
Nice.
Sara Howard (13:24.24)
The third piece is around content writing, which is more around the editorial and the valuable relevant content that you can create. A lot of what we do there is around thought leadership. So we might ghost write for senior executives in major global corporations, for example, or write research reports, deep, thinky stuff. And the fourth piece is the training. often, particularly when we do tone of voice rollouts, we then need to actually help everyone in that organisation learn how to write in that voice, because often it's about forming new habits.
Heather Porter (13:41.223)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (13:54.112)
and usually it's also a very good way to develop better and more effective business communication skills anyway. So often that, the good thing for us is that actually often comes out of HR's budget, not marketing's budget, so we kind of play in both areas. And often we'll work with HR teams on rolling that voice and the brand proposition into the employee value proposition and the values as well, so we kind of work in internal comms in that space too.
Heather Porter (14:19.378)
Amazing. So do you, are you actually utilizing the AI tools? Do you bring those into some of your training and strategy with your clients?
Sara Howard (14:29.236)
Yeah, look, I think where we're getting the most value out of them in our business is probably in the ideation piece and some of the frameworks, particularly around the strategy or training where we need to...
create a way to almost scenario different options and things like that and the GPT is quite good at giving us that and then we can humanise it or make it more relatable to that business. We have to be pretty careful with what we do in terms of the copywriting piece because a lot of our companies, our clients, if they're ASX listed, they've got some regulatory requirements on reporting what is and isn't AI produced. So we actually have to document it if we're using it to write anything, even if it's two words in a headline. And so we've got some really strong policies around
Heather Porter (14:47.814)
Mm.
Sara Howard (15:12.208)
internally and that's really important to our clients as well. And I think it's a good discipline to have but it adds another layer to it. So we're definitely not in the business of using AI to generate blogs and I think there are businesses that will do that and probably do that very well. We tend to be more in that problem solving and then using the AI as almost a second brain to help.
interrogate things or sanity check things or create a structure for something. And look, it's very useful at finding, I'm often using it to say I need a word beginning with that means, you know, flexible because I want a literation and a headline. It's very good at that, much better than a Cisaurus. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Heather Porter (15:45.702)
Ha ha ha ha!
Yeah. Smart. Very cool. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And I want to go now because I know your values a little bit and you're around balance and efficiency. So it'll be interesting to have this next conversation around a bit of a case study. And you mentioned executives, ghost writing, things like that, but I'd like, I'd like you to paint me a picture on any of those offerings that you do in your business.
Sara Howard (16:04.941)
hehe
Sara Howard (16:11.266)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (16:16.294)
What was sort of a before and after, and how do you work with a client that comes to you?
Sara Howard (16:21.23)
There's lots of different ways that we can do that. In terms of the ghost writing piece, I'll give you an example, is we're working with a major...
Heather Porter (16:29.426)
Sure.
Sara Howard (16:31.982)
major HR consultancy firm global and what we're doing is creating localized content for their Australian market So this is actually a lot more strategy and stakeholder management than it sounds because we've got to create an editorial committee around these very very very busy consultants who are very very very smart but have no time whatsoever Create trust with them work with them to identify What are some of the topics and questions that customers are asking so that we can build out an editorial plan around that that is not just
Heather Porter (16:52.018)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (17:01.996)
and responsive but actually looks at what's happening in the market and where their business needs are and what their customers are thinking about at different times of the year. And then spend time on the phone with them doing an interview that we've researched and got questions prepared for to create a piece of content which usually looks like a thousand word article or like an op-ed or something like that.
Heather Porter (17:23.142)
Okay.
Sara Howard (17:24.834)
getting their sign off on it, getting global sign off on it, getting images sourced for that, uploading it into their system and then publishing it and then encouraging that author to then promote it on LinkedIn and make sure that we're amplifying it and getting impact from that. And we've been doing that with this company for about four or five years and in the last year the content we've been creating for them we've started to get access to the metrics because we like to actually know what the impact is and it's been working really well and it's been interesting to see what is particularly resonating with the local audiences and where we've got room for improvement.
So we're constantly improving on that. But I love that feeling of when I talk to the person who is the author that I've written for, and they're so happy with the article. And they feel really confident taking it out to their clients and sharing it with the world. And I've just helped them express their ideas in a way that lands for them and will land for their audiences as well. And that's something I get a lot of satisfaction out of.
Heather Porter (18:19.196)
Yeah, obviously, because you're their voice. And if they feel that happy around putting it out there as themselves, like that's the best you could offer or wish for, right? Yeah.
Sara Howard (18:23.062)
Right.
Sara Howard (18:26.54)
Yeah. Yeah.
Absolutely. And look, I'm very nosy and curious and I love talking to smart people. So getting on the phone with them and having a 45 minute Teams meeting is like the best fun I can have because it makes me think about all these other ideas. And to be honest, that's what I've done in my business all the way along is I've talked to smart people at banks and universities that I've interviewed and I've gone, oh, that's a really good strategy. I could actually put this to work in my business. And so a lot of the things that we've implemented as a very, very small business have come
Heather Porter (18:39.664)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (18:59.58)
from those big business frameworks, know, like, you know, success profiles for the types of people we need in our organisation or even our culture, which is very intentional, is more the sort of work that you would see in a bigger organisation because we've written about it so much we realise the value of it.
Heather Porter (19:17.606)
In marketing, always say borrow ideas from other industries. So it's a similar sort of concept. Yeah. It's really smart. Yeah.
Sara Howard (19:21.612)
Yes, exactly. Yeah, borrow ideas from bigger businesses and you know, when you're small, you can quickly put them in. You don't have to get sign off from 25 people in the board. Yeah.
Heather Porter (19:30.51)
Yeah. Wow. And this is all making sense from what you're saying of the case study, by the way, around the future of writing is problem solving. Cause all the things that you just said, sourcing images and it's a lot. There's a lot that goes into it.
Sara Howard (19:40.428)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sara Howard (19:46.584)
There's a lot of moving pieces. It's not just the writing and a lot of it is about building trust and knowing that business so well that you know how that message will then also help them sell more of their services. Because ultimately that's why they're spending the money in it. There's an investment. There's got to be a return on it. It's not just about their opinion, but it's actually positioning them as the expert in that area to solve problems for their clients. That's what we're doing.
Heather Porter (19:52.775)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (20:12.826)
Absolutely. Now you have a book, Beyond Solo. Yay. There's more than one way to grow your business. It's new. It just came out recently, right? my congratulations. Tell me more. Tell me more. Like why the book? What's, how does it fit into your plans for the future? Yeah. Fill me in.
Sara Howard (20:15.63)
I just matched! Thank you!
Sara Howard (20:23.372)
Yes, two weeks ago. I had the launch in Sydney in two weeks ago.
Sara Howard (20:33.154)
Yeah, well look, I've always wanted to write a book and...
About two years ago I went to this beautiful content summit here in Sydney and talked to lots of really interesting, amazing freelancers, freelance writers. And they were all really interested in asking me about how I grew an agency and what that took and how I knew when was the right time to bring people on board and what was involved. I actually had that light bulb moment where I went, I've been wanting to write a book. I could write about a book about this, right? This is something I do know about. I've spent...
Heather Porter (20:51.25)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (21:04.254)
know, 16 years at this point working through this and I know all the mistakes I've made along the way and what I wish I'd known at the beginning. So I thought about it as the guide I wish I'd had and I knew that I didn't have all the answers. So being the curious, nosy person I am, I reached out to about 25 different founders and consultants and agency owners and all sorts of people here in the US and the UK. And I asked them about their businesses and I really asked them to go, let me under the hood. Tell me about the numbers. Tell me about the people.
about the prophet, know, tell me about what went wrong. And I...
created this sort of framework then that impacts about four or five different models. So not just the agency path to grow where you have an in-house team, which is what I've done and I've loved doing that, but there are hybrid models where you can kind of flex around a mix of in-house or contract and how do you manage that, right? Because you've got a quality control issue there. So there's a lot of pros and cons around that. It's flexible, but it also needs a good foundation and processes. Collectives was really interesting to me. I talked to a couple of really interesting
collectives and cooperatives that have more of a communal profit share or an A-team kind of structure where they're just the best of the best and they'll come together around projects and then disband or it's more structured. And then people who are doing really clever things around productizing their services or packaging it up in a way that gave them evergreen income and I thought those things were genius and I wish I'd thought about that a lot sooner because they do take a lot of time to get up and running and build a community around but they can be really valuable.
you was the interesting thing for me because I also wanted to explore what the exit strategy could be for any small business owner because too often I know we don't start with the end in mind and at a certain point most small businesses either just close their doors, some unfortunately go bankrupt which obviously you hope is not the case for anyone listening to this, but very few exit like through a sale or through a succession plan because you need a lot of time to prepare for those sorts of things. So I wanted to explore
Heather Porter (22:46.31)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (23:08.144)
how you build those valuation numbers into your business and actually plan for that quite strategically. And so the whole journey was a really interesting reflection for me writing the book and it's been such a joy to bring it out into the world and to have conversations with people like you Heather about everything I learned in the process of writing it.
Heather Porter (23:27.942)
love it and a writer who's written a book I mean you know it's gonna be good also are the things that you just mentioned actually in the book so bit of comments on exit strategy all the models product productizing services all of that
Sara Howard (23:32.456)
I hope so.
Sara Howard (23:39.948)
All the models? Yeah.
Yeah, and lots of different ideas from lots of different people, but I also made it really practical because I mean, I'm a busy person and I don't have time to read a lot of lofty, abstract academic theories around this stuff. So there is a lot of research in here, but I've actually created all these checklists and frameworks that can help you just start putting it to work. So, and there's also a few that I'll keep uploading onto the website, which is beyondsolo.co. So you can sign up for some free resources, know, business model on a page, things that you can start to plan things out around just to make
Heather Porter (23:54.962)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (24:14.212)
it really easy and practical. Through all the interviews, the big thing I took away was that there's sort of five P's that every successful business has in common and it's true of the big businesses that I talk to as well as the smallest and the freelancers. And so I really unpacked what each of those five P's mean for each of the different models that I talked about. So the chapter on each of those. But we're talking about things like purpose, people, process, proposition and profit. And you need to have a clear foundation in all five of those.
Heather Porter (24:23.645)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (24:44.112)
things to really be able to grow and to grow without having to hustle and without leading into burnout.
Heather Porter (24:50.502)
It's so good. Is this book, would this be a good read for somebody that already has an existing established business in a small team as well?
Sara Howard (24:58.584)
think so, I'd like to think so, particularly if you're thinking about what are the other alternatives or even if you're thinking about what's next for me because often I think you lose sight of that as a business owner when you're busy growing the business for everything else, your clients, your team, everything else. So I think so, I've had a few people who have read it who I would think know everything in this book already and they've gone, it was actually really good for me to reflect on the things that I'd forgotten that I need to actually focus on now and so I think it is, they're probably my, well I'd like
Heather Porter (25:00.742)
Sounds like it. Yeah.
Mm.
Sara Howard (25:28.608)
say there are, yes of course there are one or two good takeaways you could definitely get from that.
Heather Porter (25:30.48)
Yeah, I think I think there would be I think because like when we start our businesses and grow and if they are growing and we have the team and all the systems and things that we're building to be more efficient than you do you can easily lose sight of other options because you're in your little lane way
Sara Howard (25:44.086)
Right, right.
Yeah, exactly. In fact, one of the agency owners that I interviewed for the book, who runs a hugely successful award-winning marketing agency, like she's amazing, she said if she could go back in time, because she never worked in a creative agency before starting her own, she said, I'd go and work in an agency for six months and learn what not to do and steal some of the processes. And I said to her, well, that's kind of what I've done in the book. I think I could save everyone that six months. I put it all in there. So yeah, so if you're thinking like that, then this is the book for
Heather Porter (25:54.909)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (26:06.408)
There you go.
Sara Howard (26:16.432)
you.
Heather Porter (26:17.2)
Yeah, I'm seeing multiple ways this could be used. So that's good. Okay. Thank you. Think about over the last year, specifically in your, in your business and life, what have you done exceptionally well?
Sara Howard (26:19.886)
Yeah, great. No, thank you.
Sara Howard (26:31.662)
that's a really hard one because I've got to be honest, like publishing a book was really good. You know, I think I did that. But honestly, writing and publishing a book at the same time as running a business was exceptionally hard. And I would say that I probably took my eye off the business ball a little bit last year when I was deep in the joy of writing and editing the book and that that
Heather Porter (26:36.169)
huh.
Heather Porter (26:41.352)
That's it.
Heather Porter (26:48.936)
Hmm.
Sara Howard (26:57.472)
something that I, it's not that I regret it like because there's only so many hours in a day but I hadn't realized quite how much mental effort both things would take. Look I think one thing that we have done well as a team in the last year is adapt to the changes that are going on all around us and the changing client needs that we have and really just not put our heads in the sand and pretend it's all going to go away because we know it isn't and so we've really evolved the services that we offer and the capabilities that we have in the
to step up and solve those harder problems for clients and I think that's something we're doing really well right now. So that's all credit to the team because as I just said I was probably a little distracted.
Heather Porter (27:37.512)
Well, I get a sense of maybe what the answer to the next question might be, which is think about yourself from a year ago in a different angle. What would you say to yourself to do differently over the last year?
Sara Howard (27:45.71)
You
Sara Howard (27:56.694)
Yeah, think it's probably the same answer as now. Look, I would probably tell myself writing a book and running a business is a lot harder than you think, but it is so worth it. Like I really would, I would say keep going to that one year ago self and not to doubt the path that you're taking because it's brought me so much joy and I just, I'm really excited with the, you know, where it can also lead us, the business and me personally next. But probably being more mindful of the fact of, like I said actually,
Heather Porter (27:59.424)
huh.
Heather Porter (28:05.853)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (28:26.748)
about setting some boundaries and making time for both and so I think the best thing I did was actually work out with the team that I could take a day off a week just to focus on the book but I probably did that a bit later than I should have and so if I could go it will be alright you can you can step back from the business one day a week to focus on the book and then you're setting some boundaries around both that would probably be a smarter way to do it yeah.
Heather Porter (28:51.186)
Good, because I know a lot of... Yeah.
Sara Howard (28:51.662)
And do you know what, actually the flip side of that is by doing that, I kind of trusted the team to just get on with what needed to happen. you know, that whole delegating to your team and setting clear expectations, but then getting out of their way, that's a practice I'm still working on. But definitely when I do it, it works. So I will probably tell myself to do that sooner.
Heather Porter (29:14.482)
Good. There's plenty of people out there I know that want to have a book in them, right? So this is, I'm sure they're listening in going, can I do it? Can I do it? And you said, yes, do it and start sooner.
Sara Howard (29:18.37)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (29:23.086)
Well,
Yeah, just do it and it will bring you so much joy but the thing I realized when I got, you know, I wasn't finding the blocks of time to write that I thought I would have naively to write a book. So what I did was I got the Atomic Habit app on my phone. You know James Clear Atomic Habits is a free app and I just set an intention that I was going to be a published author and I had to write two paragraphs a day before 9 a.m. So it would nudge me at 8 a.m. I would sit down at my laptop and I would
Heather Porter (29:35.42)
Ha
Heather Porter (29:42.066)
Totally, yeah.
Heather Porter (29:49.798)
Nice.
Sara Howard (29:53.332)
write two paragraphs and that's the only way I could get through probably the middle section of the book, you know that hard bit where most people kind of get stuck and stop. I just had to keep chipping away at it two paragraphs at a time.
Heather Porter (30:06.716)
That is reasonable. That's bite-sized. Yeah.
Sara Howard (30:08.398)
It is. It is. And I could do it in maybe 20 minutes, maybe a bit longer. And if I had time, I could keep going. But it was a reasonable expectation. And I think I've seen a few writers interviewed at writers festivals and things and they go, you know, you just got to write the 400 words a day or whatever it is. Like you've got to set yourself a very small target that you can get through. Yeah.
Heather Porter (30:12.626)
Yeah. Okay.
Heather Porter (30:29.768)
So the Atomic Habits app, yeah, so does it help you focus on something you want to focus on and then give you steps? Is that how that app works?
Sara Howard (30:32.237)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (30:37.044)
Yes, so it's about setting a habit, not just, you don't set the habit as I will get up.
at 6am you've got to have a reason to do it. So the habit is all about what do I want to look like as a result of doing this habit. So for me it was about I'm going to be a published author and so the way to get there was two paragraphs a day. So you can set it to do anything. I probably at the time I was like this is so good I'm going to do this and this and this like you know get up earlier and go for exercise. was like no I need to do one thing. One thing. Yeah but you can use it for everything and I think it's a really great. It's such a good thing because you don't want
Heather Porter (31:05.552)
Nice.
Sara Howard (31:13.144)
break the streak, right? It's an app that rewards you when you keep logging that you've done your two paragraphs. You get a little endorphin rush and you don't want to break the streak.
Heather Porter (31:15.292)
No. Smart.
Heather Porter (31:21.672)
Very smart. Thank you for that recommendation. Very good. So as we start to wrap up, I want to just clarify who you work with in your business. So we know about your book, beyondsolo.co. I think you said was the URL for that. Perfect.
Sara Howard (31:25.698)
Yeah.
Sara Howard (31:34.318)
That's right. Yes, if anyone wants to sign up I'll send them lots of really useful tips and resources.
Heather Porter (31:42.108)
Go check that out you guys. Now if they want to work with you and your actual business, what type of people would be your best client and then where should they go to find out more?
Sara Howard (31:46.926)
Mmm!
Sara Howard (31:52.494)
So you can go to our website writers.net.au and we've got some really good case studies on there that will show you the kind of work we do and the type of people we work for. We work with not-for-profits, we work with big corporations in lots of different sectors, financial services, property, higher ed. We work with mid-sized companies as well and smaller businesses. So really it's just if you've got a marketing challenge or an internal...
HR challenge that you need help resolving through messaging or storytelling. That's where we can help and we can just start with the problem and work out the best way forward because there's probably not, we've seen so many different ways to do that through words. We can help you get the answer that you need.
Heather Porter (32:35.228)
Perfect, thank you. Now, as we say goodbye, and if we think back on our conversation together, are there any last words of advice or anything that you'd like to leave the listeners with?
Sara Howard (32:49.442)
Just think.
It's probably something I said at the beginning, really my biggest takeaway from everything I've learned running a business and growing a business is that it's so important to remember to grow better, not just bigger. And sometimes it's okay to scale back. If you're in that position, like you mentioned before, where you've grown and on the surface it looks really successful, but it's making you miserable inside, don't wait for someone else to change that for you. You are in control. You're in the driver's seat. It's your business. And it's okay to be small.
you know a micro business can be very mature and It's the maturity and the stability and the skills that you bring to your clients that they value for not the size of your balance sheet So just be clear on what matters most to you and that might be freedom It might be opportunities to stretch your skills It might be new people that you want to meet to expand your network You might want to have more influence in your industry. Whatever that means to you. That's your growth target. It's not about revenue
does still need to be profitable because ultimately that's the thing that will sustain you and I think too often we think of profits last but actually that's what you're doing it for as well.
Heather Porter (34:02.908)
You could not have ended this episode in a better way. Now people are like, great, I'm going to go write a book. I'm going to change the structure of my business and I'm going look at my values.
Sara Howard (34:04.576)
I'm
Well, that's three great takeaways. I'd be very happy. And look, I'm always happy to talk to people. I'm very active on LinkedIn if anyone wants to find me there. Sarah Howard, I'm Sarah without an H. So please come stalk me there and have a conversation if you've got any questions as well. I'd love to have a chat. Yes. good.
Heather Porter (34:30.024)
Perfect, amazing. and last question. This is a selfish question for me. Bristol, do you love Bristol?
Sara Howard (34:36.258)
do, you know what, it's now one of my favourite parts of the UK. I lived in London for nearly 10 years. But Bristol, it's really cool and creative. I think it's where all the cool people go. The coffee's good and the climate's better and I love the beaches around South Wales and Devon. It feels like my place, yeah.
Heather Porter (34:41.753)
Uh-huh.
Heather Porter (34:55.684)
All right. I had to know because I have a girlfriend that it's from there as well. She's living here this year and she loves it. And my partner is from London. So that I think Bristol's on the cards later this year. So thank you. Amazing.
Sara Howard (35:01.611)
It's great.
Sara Howard (35:05.346)
Definitely explore Southwest England. It is a magical place. Yeah, I highly recommend Thank you
Heather Porter (35:11.474)
Thank you for saying that. And thank you, Sarah, for being here so much and having this really amazing conversation and inspiring our listeners and letting me into your business and your life a little bit as well. So thank you very much.
Sara Howard (35:21.806)
Well, thank you for the opportunity. It's been great being here. Thanks everyone.
Heather Porter (35:24.873)
Thank you.
