Creative Shop Talk Podcast Episode 321 | Customizing Your Vision and Values as Your Business Grows

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With Retail Coach Wendy Batten

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts |Spotify | Radio Republic | YouTube | PlayerFM | Stitcher | iHeartRadio

Episode Overview: 

As our businesses grow, our roles change. The things that worked in an earlier stage may not be what we need in the next one. In this episode, I’m talking about what it means to stay true to your own vision, values, taste, and way of doing business as your shop evolves.

I share a story from the days when I taught paint workshops and how a room full of people could start with the same supplies, the same guidance, and the same goal, yet create completely different projects. That’s a lot like running a business. We need the foundational pieces, but we also get to decide what our business looks like and how we build it.

As a business grows, especially when a team becomes part of the picture, our vision needs to grow too. I walk through the areas I believe are important to get clear on, including motivation, intent, leadership, customers, team, standards, culture, and values, and how those pieces can help guide the decisions we make.

Our Key Topics:

• Why staying true to your own vision matters as your business changes and grows
  
• How having clear vision and mission can help you avoid copying what other businesses are doing
  
• What needs to expand in your vision as your business grows beyond just you
  
• Why motivation, intent, customers, leadership, team, standards, and culture are important parts of a three-to-five-year vision
  
• How your values can become a decision filter for your strategy, marketing, customer experience, and the inventory you choose to sell

Key Takeaways For Shop Owners

• You get to build your business your way.
  Having the right foundational pieces doesn’t mean there is only one way to use them. Just like the people in my workshop created completely different signs from the same materials, our businesses can reflect our own taste, vision, and uniqueness.
  

• Your vision has to grow with your business.
  As your role changes and your team grows, your vision needs to become something other people can understand and get behind. It can no longer live only in your head or exist only as your personal vision.
  

• Get clear on what you actually need from the business.
  I talk about the difference between motivation and intent. Motivation is what drives you, while intent gets into the results and resources you need, including time, money, energy, and the impact you want to have.
  

• Your business vision needs to include more than the founder.
  As you grow, you need to think about who you are serving, what your team looks like, your standards, and the culture you are creating. The business and brand become bigger than just your own thing.
  
  
• Your values can help you make decisions.
  When your vision, mission, and values are clear, they can become filters for decisions around your strategy, marketing, customer experience, inventory, and the way you serve your clients.

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Resources Mentioned and Related Episodes:

Join me in The Collective: a 12-month coaching experience for established business owners who want a well-run, profitable business that supports the life they want to live.

Episode 215: Customer Service vs. Customer Experience

Episode 173: Find the Right Customer for Your Shop

Let’s hang out in a private coaching session!

Follow along and chat with me on Instagram and join my love list.

About Your Host, Wendy Batten:

In case we haven’t met…I’m Wendy Batten. I’ve been a small business owner, coach, and mentor for over 25 years. I help thoughtful, established entrepreneurs step into their role as CEO and build businesses that are profitable, meaningful, and supportive of the lives they want to live. My work blends real-world strategy with a life-first philosophy, shaped by lived experience, not theory. I’ve been there! Through honest conversations and practical insight, I invite you into bigger thinking about leadership, possibility, and how to build both business and life on purpose.

For more support from Wendy:

Hang out and connect with Wendy on IG

All of Wendy’s current programs and services for shop owners can be found HERE. 

Never miss an episode!  Subscribe to the Creative Shop Talk Podcast and get the tools, inspiration, and strategies you need to thrive as an independent retailer. Click here to subscribe to iTunes! 

Loved the episode? Leave a quick review on iTunes– your reviews help other retailers find my podcast, and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. So grateful for you! Thank you!

Creative Shop Talk Podcast Episode 320 | Curating Your Business: When Your Ambition Evolves

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With Retail Coach Wendy Batten

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts |Spotify | Radio Republic | YouTube | PlayerFM | Stitcher | iHeartRadio

Episode Overview: 

It’s story time. In this episode, I’m sharing something personal about how my business ambitions have changed and evolved over the years. 

Ten years ago, I realized that even though my husband’s and my businesses were successful and our lives were busy, I was ready for a big change. I had to step back and dig deep on these questions: What do I want to do, be, have, and experience in my life? From there, we began designing our life first and reverse engineering our businesses around it. 

It was hard. But we did it. We started living differently. We stayed open to possibilities. We sold some of our businesses. We moved to our crooked cottage by the sea. I started my coaching business and my Inner Circle.

And yet, here we are, an entire decade later, I’m asking those same questions again. I’m curating again and I’m feeling extremely ambitious and excited for what the next 10 years will look like in my business. So let’s talk about it: what it means to stay curious, to listen to what is changing, and to continue refining both business and life as our priorities evolve. 

I also share what I’m building next, including The Collective, a new space that brings life and business planning together for entrepreneurs who want to build sustainable businesses around the lives they actually want. Let’s do this.

Our Key Topics:

• Why I realized that a successful, busy business and a full life weren’t necessarily the same thing
  
• How a moment of clarity changed the way my husband and I thought about our ambitions, our business, and our life.
  
• What it means to design your life first and then reverse engineer the business around it.
  
• Why staying curious and listening to yourself and your clients matters as your business evolves.
  
• How I’m bringing life and business coaching together in the next phase of my work with The Collective – you’ll want to hear about this!

Key Takeaways For Shop Owners

• Your definition of ambition can change.
  Ten years ago, my ambition looked very different from what it looks like today. I’ve learned that it’s worth revisiting what I actually want instead of continuing toward goals simply because they were once important to me.
  

• Start with the life you want, then build the business around it.
  Rather than automatically allowing the business to dictate how life looks, I’ve found value in asking what I want for my life first and then figuring out what needs to be true for the business to support that vision.
  

• Curiosity creates room for change.
  I talk about continuing to listen, including listening to clients, pushing boundaries, and not being afraid to change. Staying fresh in business can mean being willing to reconsider how you’re doing things.
  

• Fear can be part of making a meaningful change.
  I’ve had ideas and decisions that I knew I wanted to act on but delayed because I was afraid. I’m learning again that moving into something new can require working through that fear rather than waiting for it to disappear.
  

• Your business can be built around your needs and values.
  I’m thinking differently about business support now, with more attention on the wellbeing of the entrepreneur alongside the business itself. For me, that means creating something sustainable and customized rather than simply adding more information, strategies, or things to do.

“We don’t have any more time to mess around.” – Wendy Batten

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Resources Mentioned and Related Episodes:

Join me and other life-first business owners in my new program The Collective.

Want to work with me to plan out your week so it’s built with intention that works for you and your business? I’m hosting a workshop on September 29th to help you do just that! Join me for Your CEO Time: From Spinning to Soaring. 

LAST CHANCE! Need some help getting familiar with your numbers? Grab my Profit Planning Masterclass now for $47!

LAST CHANCE! Be the retailer who walks into Q4 with a plan, not panic. Grab the Holiday Success Bootcamp now for $97 before it is gone at the end of September!

Episode 319: The One Thing Retailers Need to Know Before October

Let’s hang out in a private coaching session!

Follow along and chat with me on Instagram and join my love list.

About Your Host, Wendy Batten:

In case we haven’t met…I’m Wendy Batten. I’ve been a small business owner, coach, and mentor for over 25 years. I help thoughtful, established entrepreneurs step into their role as CEO and build businesses that are profitable, meaningful, and supportive of the lives they want to live. My work blends real-world strategy with a life-first philosophy, shaped by lived experience, not theory. I’ve been there! Through honest conversations and practical insight, I invite you into bigger thinking about leadership, possibility, and how to build both business and life on purpose.

For more support from Wendy:

Hang out and connect with Wendy on IG

All of Wendy’s current programs and services for shop owners can be found HERE. 

Never miss an episode!  Subscribe to the Creative Shop Talk Podcast and get the tools, inspiration, and strategies you need to thrive as an independent retailer. Click here to subscribe to iTunes! 

Loved the episode? Leave a quick review on iTunes– your reviews help other retailers find my podcast, and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. So grateful for you! Thank you!

Creative Shop Talk Podcast Episode 319 | The One Thing Retailers Need to Know Before October

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With Retail Coach Wendy Batten

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts |Spotify | Radio Republic | YouTube | PlayerFM | Stitcher | iHeartRadio

Want to work with me to plan out your week so it’s built with intention that works for you and your business? I’m hosting a workshop on September 29th to help you do just that! Join me for Your CEO Time: From Spinning to Soaring.

Episode Overview: 

As October approaches, it seems that most retailers are either fired up and ready for the season or feeling frozen and overwhelmed by everything that is coming. Q4 is usually quite busy for most making it easy to move into a reactive mode: doing what we have always done without being strategic about where the business is headed. Kind of like, “we know this (whatever this is) works, so let’s just do that again.” Sound familiar?

Before getting caught up in marketing, events, teams, and everything else that comes with a busy season, I want retailers to get very clear on their numbers. Understanding operating costs, margins, profit goals, budgets, and what you want to take home gives you a much clearer picture of what you are actually trying to achieve.

When I know my numbers, I can make better decisions about where to spend my time and where to push the gas or maybe pump the brakes. In this episode, I talk about looking month by month through October, November, December, and January so I can understand where the business is today, where I want it to go, and what I need to direct as the founder and CEO in Q4.

Our Key Topics:

• Why getting clear on your numbers should come before getting busy with marketing and other Q4 activity.
• What financial clarity can tell you about your budget, operating costs, margins, profit goals, and what you want to take home.
• How looking at October through January helps you understand what you are trying to achieve and which levers you need to pull.
• Why your role as the founder and visionary is to direct the business rather than try to be the person doing everything.
• How knowing your numbers can help you make decisions, stay focused, and avoid reacting to the noise of Q4.

Key Takeaways For Shop Owners

• Know your numbers before the busy season takes over. You need to understand the financial side of your business before you start making decisions about marketing, events, hiring, or other investments. Without that clarity, it is much harder to know what you are actually trying to accomplish. (Need help? Grab my Profit Planning Masterclass for $47 now. It’s available as a stand alone course until the end of October!)

• Look beyond a single month. I encourage retailers to look at October, November, December, and even January together. Seeing the months ahead as a whole gives a better understanding of what is coming and what needs to happen financially.

• Get curious about the numbers. Instead of simply looking at the numbers, you can ask why they are what they are, what they make possible, and what you need to do to reach the results you want. That curiosity can turn the math into a tool for making decisions.

• Step into the CEO role. As the visionary and founder, your job is to direct the business. That means understanding where you are investing money, what needs attention, and where your time is best spent rather than trying to do every piece yourself.

• Build goals around the business and life you want now. You do not need to make your goals about beating last year’s numbers. (In fact, please don’t!) You need a clear picture of the business as it is today, where you want it to go, what you want the profit to provide, and what you want for your life.

“When you know your numbers, every decision gets easier.” -Wendy Batten

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Resources Mentioned and Related Episodes:

Want to work with me to plan out your week so it’s built with intention that works for you and your business? I’m hosting a workshop on September 29th to help you do just that! Join me for Your CEO Time: From Spinning to Soaring. 

Need some help getting familiar with your numbers? Grab my Profit Planning Masterclass now for $47!

Be the retailer who walks into Q4 with a plan, not panic. Grab the Holiday Success Bootcamp now for $97 before it is gone at the end of September!

Episode 317: Take Control of Your Time as a Business Owner

Let’s hang out in a private coaching session!

Follow along and chat with me on Instagram and join my love list. 

About Your Host, Wendy Batten:

In case we haven’t met…I’m Wendy Batten. I’ve been a small business owner, coach, and mentor for over 25 years. I help thoughtful, established entrepreneurs step into their role as CEO and build businesses that are profitable, meaningful, and supportive of the lives they want to live. My work blends real-world strategy with a life-first philosophy, shaped by lived experience, not theory. I’ve been there! Through honest conversations and practical insight, I invite you into bigger thinking about leadership, possibility, and how to build both business and life on purpose.

For more support from Wendy:

Hang out and connect with Wendy on IG

All of Wendy’s current programs and services for shop owners can be found HERE. 

Never miss an episode!  Subscribe to the Creative Shop Talk Podcast and get the tools, inspiration, and strategies you need to thrive as an independent retailer. Click here to subscribe to iTunes! 

Loved the episode? Leave a quick review on iTunes– your reviews help other retailers find my podcast, and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. So grateful for you! Thank you!

Creative Shop Talk Podcast Episode 318 | Navigating the “Messy Middle” of Business Growth

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With Retail Coach Wendy Batten

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts |Spotify | Radio Republic | YouTube | PlayerFM | Stitcher | iHeartRadio

Episode Overview: 

In this episode, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at what it feels like to be in the messy middle of making big, important changes in a business. My friends, I am in the middle of it! So let’s talk about it: I’m sharing the challenges (and major wins) I’ve been facing while upgrading my own business, from competing priorities and projects taking longer than expected to learning new things and asking for help.

I also share what has helped me move through the mess. I’m reminding myself to take action, invest in the right people, return to the reason behind the work, and ask what I actually need in the moment.

For me, this is also a reminder that as our businesses evolve, our roles evolve too. The goal isn’t to avoid every difficult season. It’s to have the systems, people, mindset, and perspective that help us navigate those seasons well.

Our Key Topics:

• Why business growth can feel messy: How evolving businesses often require us to evolve our roles, systems, and priorities too.
• How to move forward when things feel overwhelming: Using imperfect action, realistic expectations, and the willingness to adjust when plans take longer than expected.
• Why you don’t have to do everything yourself: Recognizing when to hire, delegate, ask for help, or learn something step by step.
• What it takes to lead well through change: Taking care of yourself, challenging negative self-talk, and making sure you’re grounded enough to lead your business and team.
• How to decide what deserves your time: Returning to the bigger purpose, prioritizing the people in front of you, and using the four Ds: do, delegate, defer, and delete.

Key Takeaways For Shop Owners

• Our role has to evolve as the business evolves. I can’t keep approaching every new stage of my business exactly as I did before. Growth often requires me to step into a different kind of leadership.
  

• Imperfect action is still action. I’ve found that taking action, even when it isn’t perfect, helps me move forward instead of staying stuck in stress and anxiety. I don’t need every piece figured out before I begin.
  

• I don’t have to do everything myself. One of the ways I’ve been moving through this season is by hiring people who already know how to do some of the things I’m trying to learn or accomplish. Delegating has helped me move forward.
  

• I need to take care of myself in order to lead well. I’m reminding myself that wearing myself out is not a badge of honor. Sometimes what I need is a morning off, a step back, or simply some space to get grounded again.
  
  
• I can choose what stays on my list. The four Ds give me a practical way to look at my priorities: what do I need to do, delegate, defer, or delete? Not everything that lands on my list needs to happen right now.

Want to work with me to plan out your week? I’m hosting a workshop on September 29th to help you do just that! Join me for Your Week By Design.

“Imperfect action wins over no action any day.” -Wendy Batten

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Resources Mentioned and Related Episodes:

Are you ready to stop duct taping your marketing pieces together? To start putting real strategy in place that actually worked for your business around your marketing? The Sales and Marketing Accelerator Program is available on demand!

Episode 261: How to Stay Focused and Get Things Done

Episode 285: Avoiding Retail Burnout: Closing Loops and Leaning Into Your People

Let’s hang out in a private coaching session!

Follow along and chat with me on Instagram and join my love list. 

About Your Host, Wendy Batten:

In case we haven’t met…I’m Wendy Batten. I’ve been a small business owner, coach, and mentor for over 25 years. I help thoughtful, established entrepreneurs step into their role as CEO and build businesses that are profitable, meaningful, and supportive of the lives they want to live. My work blends real-world strategy with a life-first philosophy, shaped by lived experience, not theory. I’ve been there! Through honest conversations and practical insight, I invite you into bigger thinking about leadership, possibility, and how to build both business and life on purpose.

For more support from Wendy:

Hang out and connect with Wendy on IG

All of Wendy’s current programs and services for shop owners can be found HERE. 

Never miss an episode!  Subscribe to the Creative Shop Talk Podcast and get the tools, inspiration, and strategies you need to thrive as an independent retailer. Click here to subscribe to iTunes! 

Loved the episode? Leave a quick review on iTunes– your reviews help other retailers find my podcast, and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. So grateful for you! Thank you!

Creative Shop Talk Podcast Episode 317 | Take Control of Your Time as a Business Owner

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With Retail Coach Wendy Batten

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts |Spotify | Radio Republic | YouTube | PlayerFM | Stitcher | iHeartRadio

Episode Overview: 

Of course you love what you do – and that’s why you started your business. But perhaps you also took this leap because you wanted more control over your schedule and more freedom to do the things you love outside of work.

This episode centers around answering a question that has come up countless times in my years as a retail coach and that I have even grappled with in the past as a business owner: where should I be spending my time? As business owners, we have three major resources to manage: time, money, and capacity or energy. Time is finite, which means we have to be intentional about how we use it. 

We’re covering a lot of ground in this episode from setting clear boundaries between work and personal life, why you should plan your week around the life you want to live now, and a time management framework that helps me think about where my time is best spent as CEO of my business. 

I hope from this episode you’ll think about what you really want in your life and then reverse engineer your business time to reflect your life goals and needs.

Our Key Topics:

• Why work expands to fill the time available and how setting clear boundaries can change that (Parkinson’s Law at work!)
• How to build a life-first business by defining personal needs and capacity before determining work hours
• Why the business owner’s role needs to evolve as the business grows, including shifting from founder to CEO
• What CEO and business development time should include, from planning and financials to marketing, sales, and customer experience
• How to protect your time, energy, and capacity by reducing time spent on administrative and repeatable tasks

Key Takeaways For Shop Owners

• Your personal time needs boundaries, too.
  Stop thinking you need to work all the time. I’ve learned that I have to define my own boundaries around when I work and when I’m finished, because there will always be something else I could be doing in my business.
  

• Your business gets to fit into your life.
  Look honestly at what your life needs right now, whether that means time off, family time, travel, creative time, or simply space to enjoy your life. Then you can determine how much work time actually fits.
  

• Your CEO time cannot be the first thing to go when you are short on time.
  Business development includes planning, financials, decision-making, vision, and intentional learning. I’ve found that this is often the first category to disappear when things get busy, even though it is where the business needs leadership most. This is so important.
  

• Not everything that feels productive is moving the business forward.
  I want to distinguish between meaningful marketing and sales work and simply staying busy with activities like posting on social media. Dedicated time for strategy, events, emails, launches, customer experience, merchandising, conversion, and other sales activities matters.
  

• You must protect your energy.
  Our businesses can only grow when we are taking care of ourselves and protecting our energy. I see this as part of leadership because the energy and enthusiasm at the top of the business affect the culture and the people who interact with it.

Want to work with me to plan out your week? I’m hosting a workshop on September 29th to help you do just that! Join me for Your Week By Design on September 29th.

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“Our businesses can only grow if we protect the asset. And we are the asset.” -Wendy Batten

Resources Mentioned and Related Episodes:

Are you ready to stop duct taping your marketing pieces together? To start putting real strategy in place that actually worked for your business around your marketing? The Sales and Marketing Accelerator Program is available on demand.

Head on over to the Work With Me page to register for the Your Week by Design workshop!

Episode 263: Why CEO Time Isn’t Optional in Your Retail Business

Let’s hang out in a private coaching session!

Follow along and chat with me on Instagram and join my love list.

• Pinterest
• Facebook

About Your Host, Wendy Batten:

In case we haven’t met…I’m Wendy Batten. I’ve been a small business owner, coach, and mentor for over 25 years. I help thoughtful, established entrepreneurs step into their role as CEO and build businesses that are profitable, meaningful, and supportive of the lives they want to live. My work blends real-world strategy with a life-first philosophy, shaped by lived experience, not theory. I’ve been there! Through honest conversations and practical insight, I invite you into bigger thinking about leadership, possibility, and how to build both business and life on purpose.

For more support from Wendy:

Hang out and connect with Wendy on IG

All of Wendy’s current programs and services for shop owners can be found HERE. 

Never miss an episode!  Subscribe to the Creative Shop Talk Podcast and get the tools, inspiration, and strategies you need to thrive as an independent retailer. Click here to subscribe to iTunes! 

Loved the episode? Leave a quick review on iTunes– your reviews help other retailers find my podcast, and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. So grateful for you! Thank you!