The Woodard Report Podcast: Taking Your Life Back From Your Business With Dr. Sabrina Starling

In Episode 63 of The Woodard Report Podcast, host Heather Satterley interviewed Dr. Sabrina Starling, founder of Tap The Potential, about strategies for entrepreneurs to build sustainable, profitable businesses while maintaining work-life balance. 

Starling shares her journey from community mental health to business coaching, realizing that many of her clients - small business owners - didn't have work-life balance issues but rather "lack of people" issues. This inspired her to find ways to help entrepreneurs turn team members into "A players" so they could regain control of their lives. 

She presented on this topic at the Scaling New Heights conference held in St. Louis in June 2022. Her session was called Avoiding Burnout: Make Work Support Life. 

Starling discovered common patterns among businesses with A players and wrote her first book, How To Hire The Best. Her mission is to help entrepreneurs have profitable, thriving businesses without buying into hustle culture or burnout. 

The Tap the Potential solution involves five steps: 

1. 1.  Design a sustainably profitable business using systems like Profit First. Set profitability guardrails and align spending with what contributes to profit. 

1. 2.  Niche down to a clearly defined "sweet spot" - your top 20% of clients that drive 80% of revenue. Let go of unprofitable "PITA" clients. 

1. 3.  Innovate to add value for your best clients. Raise prices to reflect that value. 

1. 4.  Build a lean, mighty team of A players who are 900-1200% more productive than average hires. Don't over-hire. 

1. 5.  Systematize what you can so you can step away from the business. 

Starling emphasizes knowing your values, making them your "immutable laws," and only hiring those whose values align. Shared values form the culture and velvet rope of a business. 

She advises entrepreneurs to identify their own $10,000 per hour activities - the things that will best grow the business - and focus limited time there while delegating or outsourcing the rest. 

Starling's big goal is helping 10,000 entrepreneurs take 4-week vacations over 10 years, disrupting hustle culture. Business owners can take the pledge at tapthepotential.com/4-week-vacation-pledge/ and get support to achieve work-life balance. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Focus on profitability first, then build your dream team. Don't over-hire or over-serve unprofitable clients. 
• Know your values and hire only those who share them. Values form culture. 
• Identify and spend time on high-value activities; outsource the rest. 
• Long vacations yearly are possible with the right systems and team. Take the pledge! 

This episode provides an excellent overview of Dr. Starling's insights and strategies for achieving work-life balance as an entrepreneur. To hear the full conversation and get all the details, be sure to listen to this episode featuring Dr. Sabrina Starling by clicking the link below. And don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode of The Woodard Report Podcast! 

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