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Susan Finch was asked to quote a document accessibility project for a state agency. She went through every file, found more than the request covered, and sent back a list of questions. She admits she brought those questions too soon. In this solo episode, Susan talks about where the real work hides in making a report accessible, why charts and tables matter so much, and why printed pieces need attention too. She also shares how the agency answered and what she would change about how she asked. If you quote, buy, or publish reports, brochures, or PDFs, this episode will help you decide what to raise before you price a job, what to put in writing, and what can wait until you are hired. The companion quoting checklist is on the blog here.    Key points The text is easy. The real hours in accessibility work go to charts, tables, and image descriptions. Describe the finding. Alt text that repeats a chart title tells a screen reader user nothing about what the chart shows. Never guess the numbers. When charts are flat pictures, ask for the source data instead of estimating values. Print needs care too. Type size, paper finish, and color shifts decide whether a printed piece can be read. Disclose without stalling. Put risks and costs in the quote as written assumptions instead of open questions. Good questions build trust. A job that does not happen right now can still leave the door open.

A client opened an email from his church asking for help. He clicked the link, filled out a form, and reset his password. Ten minutes later, a second email warned him it was fake. In this solo episode, Susan Finch walks through what happened next, what could have happened, and the one setup decision that kept it from reaching the rest of his firm. She talks about why church, school, shopping, and subscription sign-ups don't belong in a business inbox, why forwarding work email to a personal account causes trouble, and why outdated email programs need to go. She also makes the case for a written email policy that staff talk through, sign, and revisit once or twice a year. Listeners can download a free starter policy template with discussion questions built in. Key Points Trusted senders get spoofed. The fake email used the name and look of his own church, which is exactly why he clicked. One login opens everything. In Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, the email password also opens Drive, OneDrive, shared folders, and client files. Separate admin account matters. The firm's admin login was a different account, so the compromised inbox couldn't reach every other user. Keep personal sign-ups out. Church, school, shopping, and subscriptions each keep a list that can leak your work address and who you trust. No forwarding, no mixing. Forwarding to personal Gmail, or pulling one system into another, puts company mail where nobody controls it. Write it, sign it, review it. A policy only works if staff understand it, sign it, and see it updated once or twice a year.

Q4 is a good time to find out where your money is going. In this solo episode of Rooted in Revenue, Susan Finch walks through a year-end cleanup most business owners skip. She starts with the subscriptions that renew quietly every month or once a year, from CRMs, MLS fees, and AI tools to the Amazon subscriptions that come back after you cancel them. She also covers domains, which is where a forgotten renewal gets expensive. Five of her clients lost their websites in the last three months because a former marketing company registered their domains under its own name and credit card. Susan talks through what belongs on your list, who should be getting renewal notices, and why checking your own website regularly matters more than most people think. If your business runs on tools and domains you haven't looked at in a while, start here.

Naming your company is not a job for a Friday night and a six pack. On this episode, Susan breaks down the naming mistakes she runs into constantly with DIY clients, names nobody can spell, names so long the URL wraps around a football jersey, and taglines that are just template filler nobody bothered to replace. She walks through real examples, including a flower shop called Petallica and a fish and chips stand called Frying Nemo, plus a client who brought in a domain without checking who already owned the .com. Susan covers what to check before you fall in love with a name, trademarks, state business licenses, WhoIs lookups, and why your tagline needs to come from a mission statement, not a mood. If you have not locked in your name yet, listen before you print anything. 6 Key Points Spell it out loud test If someone can't spell your company name after hearing it once, you've already lost them. Length kills the URL A name so long it barely fits a domain is a name people will never type correctly. Check before you fall in love Trademarks, state business licenses, and WhoIs lookups all happen before you commit, not after. Vague names say nothing A name that could belong to any industry does the opposite of what a name is supposed to do. Domains carry hidden risk Not checking who owns the .com can land you next to content you never wanted your brand near. Taglines need a mission first A real tagline gets derived from a mission statement, not pulled from a template.

Two unrelated client projects landed in Susan Finch's lap the same week — a document hub for Dan Pflugshaupt (Gallery of Homes, CSSE, NRBA) and FAQ content built for AI answer engines for Michele Scherger on Florida's Treasure Coast. Different clients, different states, same underlying problem: ads and content that dump people on a homepage instead of giving them a real answer. Susan walks through what changes when every page has to stand completely on its own, why Corey Frank and Chris Beall's "earn the next conversation, not the close" philosophy from Market Dominance Guys applies far beyond sales calls, and how a resource hub organized by real-world sequence beats a folder full of files every time. Includes a practical homework list anyone can run on their own site this week.   00:00 — Cold open: two different client projects, same underlying problem 01:15 — The wasted click: ads that dump people on a homepage 02:00 — The test: would this page help someone who never buys from you? 02:51 — Corey Frank and Chris Beall: earn the next conversation, not the close 03:37 — Dan Pflugshaupt's document hub as the working example 04:28 — Why it's a landing page with a request-it CTA, not a shared drive 05:09 — Organizing by situation and transaction sequence, not alphabetically 07:44 — Don't gate everything behind a form too early 08:00 — The naming convention nobody wants to talk about 08:49 — Pivot to Michele Scherger's FAQ project and the answer engine angle 09:18 — Why AI answer engines reward clear, complete answers 10:29 — Dan's six-category hub structure, sequenced by real transaction flow 11:09 — Walk beside your site visitors, don't rush the close 12:02 — Homework: audit your last three ad campaigns 13:18 — What analytics can't tell you — ask your team 13:42 — The Binky Patrol example: people couldn't find what was obvious to Susan 14:49 — Teach your team how to use the hub you already built 15:33 — The offer: ask for an independent review, Austin tells you the truth 16:17 — Close: earning the next conversation, credit to Corey and Chris

When agency owners hit a wall, the first instinct is usually to add a new tool — a new Slack channel, a project management upgrade, maybe an AI feature. Melissa Morris, founder of Agency Authority, says that is almost never the fix. In this episode, Susan Finch and Melissa dig into why communication overload and workflow chaos are not tool problems — they are clarity problems. Before any tool can work, the workflow has to be documented, the offer has to be defined, and the team has to be part of the conversation. Melissa's track and field analogy makes the whole thing click: if the hurdles are too close together, new tracksuits will not help. You need to spread them out. Find out what she asks clients before she ever touches a tool — and why the answers are always in the room. Find more at rootedinrevenue.com. About Melissa Morris: As the founder of Agency Authority, an operations consultancy for agency owners, she uses her 10 years agency experience to help business owners maximize their team, increase their productivity, and grow their profits. Firmly committed to breaking the ‘long hours and bad pay’ stigma that plagues the agency world, she and her team help business owners and their team members do the work they love without sacrificing client satisfaction, the bottom line, or their own sanity. Free offer For anyone resonating with our chat and is looking to get more support or connecting with Melissa they can go to youragencyauthority.com/learnmore.  Connect with Melissa: www.youragencyauthority.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissavmorris/ https://www.instagram.com/youragencyauthority/ https://www.facebook.com/agencyauthority

Most podcasts don't die because the host runs out of things to say. They die because nobody wrote anything down. In this solo episode, Susan Finch walks through the operational framework Funnel Media Group uses to keep shows running — even when teams shift, guests go quiet, or life gets in the way. She covers the non-negotiables: documented SOPs for every step from guest outreach to post-production, numbered episode folders, a shared master tracking spreadsheet, templates for audio, video, and clips, a link to your branding guide, and a boost package strategy that actually gets your guests to share the episode. Short, practical, worth bookmarking. If your show has started and stalled, or you want to set it up right from the beginning, this is where to start.

You did your homework from Key Man Part 1. You know who your key people are. Now what? Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan are back — still in the same room, still making the most of Lany's four-hour drive to tackle the part most business owners skip: how to actually approach your team about documentation without triggering a panic spiral. Someone's going to feel like their job is on the line. Someone's going to get squirrely. That's normal. Lany and Susan walk you through how to handle the egos, frame the conversation, and make documentation something your team actually gets behind. Plus: why your money is really in your operations, the authenticator PSA you didn't know you needed, why you never put employee names in an SOP, and how to make the whole thing a little bit fun. Part 2 of the Key Person series — don't skip Part 1.

Most business owners think they know who the key person in their organization is. They think of the CEO, the founder, the executive. But Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan have a different perspective, and once you hear it, you cannot unhear it. In this episode, Lany opens with a concept borrowed from the insurance world: Keyman Insurance, which is an actual policy that protects a business when something happens to a critical individual. But what the insurance industry focuses on and what actually keeps your day-to-day operations alive are often two very different things. The real key people in your business are rarely at the top of the org chart. Susan and Lany walk through what happens when a business loses that person: the front desk admin who handled all invoicing, the ops coordinator who held every password, the team member who just knew things no one else thought to document. One HR company Lany references lost their key person and had no passwords. No access. No continuity. The business scrambled. The conversation shifts to prevention. Where does all the knowledge live? Is there a hub, a Start Here folder, a documented set of SOPs that would allow someone to step into a role and keep things moving? For smaller businesses especially, under 15 people, cross-functionality is not optional. It is survival. They cover how to start: build the hub first, then work department by department or person by person to identify what everyone is actually doing. Lany shares how she developed full job descriptions for a nonprofit education client before even touching SOPs, because no one had clearly defined what each person was responsible for. Susan introduces the Peanut Butter and Jelly method for documentation, the practice of writing every step as if explaining it to someone who has never done it, never used the software, never seen the interface. A process you think has five steps almost always has twenty-five when you write it out properly. The episode closes with action items: go back into your business, ask your team who they think the key person is, and see if the answers match. Then start imagining what a two-month absence from that person would do to your clients, your vendors, and your operations cycle. That discomfort is your starting point. Lany's Energy & Task Tracker (free) [00:00:00] Introduction: Susan and Lany recording in person [00:00:45] What is Keyman Insurance and why it matters [00:01:30] Who are the real key people in your business [00:02:45] Stop and reflect: who was invaluable at companies you've worked [00:03:30] The hit-by-a-bus plan and why documentation is hard to sell [00:05:30] Real examples of companies that lost their key people [00:06:30] Passwords, hubs, and why it all has to be done first [00:07:00] How to avoid the crash: prevention over reaction [00:07:30] Building the hub and Start Here folder structure [00:09:15] Identifying roles and job descriptions before SOPs [00:10:30] Cross-functional teams and why it matters under 15 people [00:12:00] Daily task documentation: composition books and tracking [00:13:00] Energy and task tracker spreadsheet from Lany [00:14:00] The Peanut Butter and Jelly method for documentation [00:16:00] Screenshots, video, and keeping SOPs current [00:17:15] Wrapping up: prevention, empowerment, and business resilience [00:18:15] Action items for Part 1 and preview of Part 2

While editing an episode of Leader Generation, I heard something that stopped me mid-cut. The guest — Mariano Bosaz, VP of Global Consumer Strategy at Coca-Cola and author of The Digital Mindset — had dreamed of becoming an ambassador for a country. Official title, formal post, the works. It didn't happen. (Turns out without a family diplomat connection, they just send you somewhere terrible when you're old to make photocopies.) But what did happen? Eighteen years at Coca-Cola, three continents, 92 countries, building bridges between people, technology, and culture. He became an ambassador. Just not the one he'd imagined. That got me thinking about my own story. My son Austin asked me what I wanted to be when I was young — like, little-kid young. I told him the truth: a teacher and a children's author. Neither happened the way I'd pictured it at 12, 15, or 22. But I taught volunteer art literacy at my kids' elementary school for 12 years. I teach clients every day how to show up authentically and stop hiding behind corporate-speak. I host workshops. I've been in teacher mode longer than most credentialed teachers I know. And my book, Dino Manners, came out in 2009. I've finished others. There's a binder of short stories written for our kids sitting in our house right now. I did both things. I just didn't recognize them because they didn't arrive in the packaging I expected. In this short episode, I want to push back on the idea that unrealized dreams are failed dreams. They're rarely that literal. They're pointing at something — a drive, a value, a way of moving through the world. Those don't expire. Give it a listen. Then maybe pass it along to someone who needs to look at their dreams from a different angle — at any age. Links mentioned in this episode: https://marianobosaz.com/ https://tenloradio.com/e/ep161-digital-mindset-the-bridge-leaders-need-for-the-ai-era/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianobosaz/ https://binkypatrol.org https://dinomanners.com

Susan Finch sits down with Laura Patterson, President and Co-Founder at VisionEdge Marketing. They explore why businesses chase shiny new tools instead of maximizing what already works, the real cost of remote work on mentorship and professional development, and how strategic restraint might be the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. Laura brings decades of experience helping companies achieve measurable business outcomes through marketing, while Susan brings her perspective from working with business-focused podcasts and small- to mid-size companies. Together, they challenge the assumption that more tools, more content, and more technology automatically equals better results. The conversation moves from the "random acts of marketing" that plague so many businesses to the critical importance of in-person mentorship for young professionals. Laura shares insights from her 20-year intern program, while both hosts discuss how the shift to remote work has created a mentorship crisis that's hurting the next generation's ability to navigate difficult conversations and workplace dynamics. Whether you're drowning in marketing tools, struggling to find clarity in your strategy, or wondering how to bring up the next generation of professionals, this episode offers a refreshing dose of reality and actionable wisdom.   Laura Patterson is President and co-founder of VisionEdge Marketing, a growth strategy firm she launched in 1999. A globally recognized expert in customer-centric growth and Marketing Performance Management, Laura has worked with over 300 companies to replace disconnected acts with deliberate, measurable strategies rooted in creating business and customer value. Her career began at Motorola and grew through leadership roles in marketing operations, product and strategic marketing, and customer marketing and loyalty. She is the author of multiple books, including the award-winning Fast-Track Your Business: A Customer-Centric Approach to Accelerate Market Growth, and holds a patent for Accelance®, a SaaS platform that connects activities directly to business outcomes. Laura hosts the "What's Your Edge" podcast and has mentored over 50 marketing interns over 20 years. A LinkedIn Influencer and frequent keynote speaker, she has won over a dozen thought leadership awards. Connect with Laura at visionedgemarketing.com.

After getting flooded with AI-generated guest pitch emails, Susan and Lany decided to remind everyone what Rooted in Revenue is really about. It's not just about making money. Everything you do impacts your revenue: your sleep patterns, your workspace, your team, even that specific spot on your couch where you always fall asleep. The podcast is about how to keep money from draining out of your business through inefficiency, procrastination, and all those hidden time thieves you don't even notice. Neither Susan nor Lany went to college. They learned to run businesses by working in businesses, making mistakes, and course-correcting. The education system doesn't teach you who to hire first, when to buy the domain, or that you probably don't need a 40-page business plan. Real business transformation takes 9-12 months, not 30 days, because you need space to think, innovate, and rediscover the joy you'd forgotten about. Time is your real currency, and everything is rooted in revenue.   TIMESTAMPS 00:45 - Why they started Rooted in Revenue several years ago  01:45 - Everything impacts your revenue: systems, processes, efficiency 02:30 - You're an athlete in your business: how is the athlete performing? 03:30 - The education system doesn't teach you how to run a business 07:15 - Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) and their limitations  08:15 - The problem with business plan obsession  11:45 - The biggest deficit: time, not money  13:15 - The trap of creating vs. implementing with AI tools 13:45 - The Love-Hate-Delegate framework  17:30 - Using spreadsheets with formulas to track tasks  23:30 - Nine to twelve month process vs. 30-day overwhelm 24:30 - The plan is never the plan: it's a concept 25:45 - Rediscovering joy and forgotten talents  26:30 - Cheryl Walsh's Laguna's underwater mermaid photography metaphor  27:30 - What you say vs. what the team says vs. what consultants find  28:00 - Bringing back the original spark  28:15 - Lany's six-week Chaos Cleanse Facebook group  29:00 - Reviewing old course materials for new insights  29:30 - Keeping materials in a "Stuff I Learned" folder to revisit and search

Technology promises to solve every business problem, but what if the tools themselves are creating the chaos? Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan explain some reasons why organizations continue to struggle despite investing in the latest software, platforms, and systems. The pattern is predictable: Someone attends a conference, hears about a game-changing tool, signs up immediately, and brings it back to the team without considering compatibility, redundancy, or whether anyone will actually use it. Or worse, a new executive arrives and forces their favorite tools on everyone without understanding existing workflows. Before reaching for another software solution, companies need to answer fundamental questions about mission alignment, internal communication, and who will own the implementation. The disconnect between leadership vision and team reality creates friction that no amount of technology can fix. They break down the patterns they see repeatedly: reactive purchasing, shiny object syndrome, and tools piled on top of unresolved problems. They offer a framework for slowing down, asking better questions, and ensuring your team is aligned before spending another dollar on software that might just become expensive shelfware.

Susan Finch and Lany Sullivan dig into something nobody wants to talk about but everybody needs to hear. A client's new bookkeeper asked a simple question about canceling a former employee's card. The owner said they already had the card. Turns out the physical card was in a desk drawer, but the numbers were saved in the employee's personal Amazon account. For 18 months. Lany brings her banking background to this conversation - branch operations, mortgage processing, risk management, the whole deal. She's seen what happens when businesses don't have proper controls in place. She's also seen the theft, the fraud, and the embezzlement that follows. They walk through why your bookkeeper just paying the bill isn't oversight. Why the "put it on your personal card and expense it" model doesn't work anymore. Why most employees probably don't need company cards at all. And what to do instead - purchasing processes, approval limits, the works. If you've got company cards floating around and you're not 100% sure where they're saved or what they're being used for, this episode is for you. 00:00 - Introduction and WinCo shopping conversation 00:45 - The company credit card discovery story 02:00 - How easy it is to add cards to personal accounts 03:15 - Why checks and balances are critical 04:15 - Understanding financial leakages and OPM 05:15 - Risk tolerance and compliance boundaries 06:00 - The bookkeeper's role in reconciliation 06:30 - Small business vulnerabilities 07:00 - The American Express expense report model 08:00 - Individual card numbers and identification 09:00 - Generational differences in floating expenses 09:30 - Two-factor authentication and dual signers 10:00 - The four-step purchasing process 11:00 - Setting spending limits and approval levels 12:30 - Trusted contractors and liability 14:00 - Ethical contractor practices 15:00 - Who really needs a company card 16:00 - Onboarding and credit card policy documentation 17:00 - Honest mistakes vs. intentional fraud 18:30 - Simple prevention: stickers on business cards 19:00 - The debt obligation reality 20:00 - Rethinking your approach 21:00 - Executive branch only recommendation 22:00 - Streamlined purchasing processes 23:00 - Questions for your bookkeeper 24:00 - Real theft, fraud, and embezzlement experiences

We're drowning in content glut. Empty posts churned out to keep up with everyone else. There's no joy, no depth, no controversy. You can FEEL the difference between obligated content versus real engagement. What are we losing? The skill of conversation. The skill of listening. Those spontaneous "hey, come look at this" moments. Pulling each other into offices to analyze something together. These aren't scheduled Q&A sessions. These are the messy, real exchanges where magic happens. Here's what's fascinating: I was editing Deborah Fell's episode when she mentioned a CEO who told her he NEVER takes meetings, that his schedule is impossible, and that she shouldn't even try. But when she said, "Would you like to be on my podcast?" His response? "Oh, I'm glad to do that." Professionals at all levels don't want more meetings, sales pitches, or brain-picking sessions. They want real conversations with pushback. They want to share their stories. The best ones are willing to go eyeball to eyeball on important topics. Stop trying to feed the algorithm with volume. Stop the sycophant responses and empty praise. Stop formatting everything with bullets just because you think you're supposed to. Start having conversations worth recording. Start capturing spontaneity. Start admitting when we don't have the answer and need to think together. Start going back to people and saying, "Remember when we talked about this? What happened?" Consider getting the "monument" update - the current state of a conversation or event of the past. That's what this conversation with Deborah is about. Getting back to real conversations.