What if the smartest business move you could make right now is to pause? That's exactly what we're tackling today. We're walking through how to recognize when life is telling you to hit pause on your side hustle—and how to do it without burning bridges, losing clients, or feeling like a failure. Whether it's a newborn, an aging parent, a kid who needs you, or your own health hanging by a thread, sometimes the bravest thing you can do is put the business in amber and walk away for a season. We cover a practical 90-day pause plan: how to set the date, communicate with clients, shut down marketing, cut costs, document everything for a smooth restart, and then ease back in leaner than before. Because stopping for a season is how you make sure there's a next season. Highlights Why grinding through a life crisis backfires—missed deadlines, sloppy work, and dried-up referrals The "sandwich generation" reality: 47% of adults in their 40s and 50s are caught between kids and aging parents What it means to put your business "in amber" like the mosquito in Jurassic Park—preserving it to unthaw later The 7-step 90-day pause plan: set the date, align with your spouse, wrap clients, shut off marketing, cut costs, write a restart note, and do a monthly checkpoint How to communicate with clients so you look professional—not flaky—when stepping away Why you should refund deposits for work you haven't started yet What to turn off: booking links, social automations, CRM notifications, and app alerts The monthly checkpoint: 20 minutes to check email and the bank account, nothing more How to restart the right way—evaluate your motivation, warm up your list, and ease back in at a slower pace Why coming back leaner might be the biggest win of the pause Chapters 0:00 — New Dad Overwhelm 1:32 — When Life Demands Pause 2:56 — Health Comes First 4:04 — Why Grinding Backfires 6:15 — Business In Amber 6:58 — Set Date And Align 7:45 — Wrap Clients And Leads 9:57 — Shut Off Marketing 11:52 — Cut Costs And Document 13:38 — Monthly Checkpoint 15:38 — Restart The Right Way 17:25 — Ease Back In Leaner 19:28 — Three Closing Challenges 21:51 — Protect The Next Season Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review! For more information about The Side-Hustle Dad, visit our website at https://thesidehustle.dad Remember, build the business, but be the dad! This show is part of the ICT Podcast Network, for more information, visit ictpod.net.

Is your business growing, or is it just getting bigger — and harder? Most business owners confuse growth with scale. Growth means adding more — more people, more products, more customers — and working more. Scale means more with less: systems, better training, better leadership, and the freedom to step away. If your revenue is going up but your life is getting harder, you are growing without scaling. And that is a recipe for burnout, not success. Brad Sugars said it best at the BizX conference: "The whole point of business is that bigger should be easier." Yet 90% of businesses never scale. They stay flat year after year until the owner either sells for less than they wanted or just walks away exhausted. The good news? There are six specific areas you can work on to change that — profitability, customer predictability, operational systems, leadership capacity, scaling readiness, and owner independence. You do not have to tackle them all at once. Pick your weakest area and start there. Along the way, I share a real story about a client who got a phone call from her office while we were at a conference in Tampa — and how her response was a masterclass in scaling. I also break down Mike Michalowicz's four-week vacation challenge, his advice on pricing and customer selection, and Dr. Ivan Misner's elegant approach to saying no. If your business cannot run without you for four weeks, it is not an asset. It is a job. Let's fix that. Highlights Why growth without scale just creates a "bigger, harder job" The difference between growth (more with more) and scale (more with less) A real-life story: a client's office ran out of water while she was at a conference in Tampa — and her team solved it without her Why 90% of businesses never scale and eventually disappear The six drivers of scale: profitability, customer predictability, operational systems, leadership capacity, scaling readiness, and owner independence Why you cannot scale a business that depends on you remembering everything and solving every problem The three layers of owner independence: operational, management, and leadership Mike Michalowicz's four-week vacation challenge and how it forces your team to step up The "break your arms" experiment: what happened when a construction owner and a service-industry owner were told they could not do operational work Why price dictates perception and how your pricing tells the story of your business How to clone your best customers by listing them by revenue and asking "cringe or crush it?" Dr. Ivan Misner's graceful refusal: "If I said yes, I'm afraid I'd let you down" Chapters 0:00 — Bigger Should Be Easier 1:24 — Growth Versus Scale 2:02 — Tampa Water Crisis Lesson 3:16 — Why Most Businesses Stall 4:29 — Six Drivers of Scale 7:16 — Owner Independence Layers 8:36 — Four Week Vacation Challenge 9:52 — Break Your Arms Experiment 11:35 — Price Dictates Perception 12:11 — Clone Your Best Customers 13:08 — Graceful Ways to Say No 14:08 — Closing Call to Action 14:45 — Final Encouragement Want to get more help from Lee with your business? Visit her website: https://leegray.actioncoach.com/ Identify your strengths and weaknesses as a second actor with our comprehensive Second Act Assessment. https://secondact.scoreapp.com This show is part of the ICT Podcast Network. For more information, visit ictpod.net.

What happens when one person looks at a crumbling, century-old Masonic temple and sees not a problem, but a home for every dreamer in town? Mary Landes did exactly that. After moving back to Salina from the East Coast, she took a building that most people had never set foot in, started a nonprofit, worked without pay for years, and turned it into a thriving co-working space, event venue, and community hub. Along the way, she discovered that a building with seven floors, 16 bars, a three-story theater, and 104 hand-painted stage backdrops might just come with a few ghosts, too. Plus, we taste-test a table full of snacks made right here in Kansas. Highlights A pilot skywrites "Happy Halloween" with a Ghostbusters drawing over southeast Kansas, tracked by his transponder, not smoke. Mary Landes left Salina to live everywhere from Connecticut to North Carolina to Philadelphia before coming home with a big idea. The Temple is a seven-floor former Masonic temple in downtown Salina, built from limestone quarried at the same source as U.S. capitol buildings. Mary started the Salina Innovation Foundation, forming a nonprofit to save the building after the Masons could no longer maintain it. She was not paid for years while building the co-working space. The co-working space has hosted everything from dog obedience classes to attorneys, photographers, therapists, a Venezuelan destination photographer, and a security company that grew to over 100 employees. The Temple contains a three-story theater that seats 1,500, with 104 hand-painted canvas backdrops from 1905, the only complete collection still together in the United States. Security cameras have captured orbs moving through the building on three different feeds, and paranormal groups regularly hunt there. The Temple turns 100 in 2027, and Mary is working on elevators, accessible bathrooms, and climate control to modernize the building. The Masons' original lodge burned down twice, the replacement collapsed during construction, and they rebuilt it to last. In the 1940s, the Temple served as a USO club with as many as 5,000 people at dances. Tony's Pizza started in downtown Salina when Charlie Walker experimented with freezing and reconstituting pizza. Sydney and Gus taste-test Kansas-made snacks including cherry cheesecake popcorn, gingersnap bites, garlic parmesan pork rinds, freeze-dried candy, and honey sticks. Chapters 0:00 — Plane Art Surprise 2:07 — Meet Mary Landes 3:49 — What Is The Temple 4:12 — Mary's Journey Home 5:20 — Coworking Inspiration 7:15 — Inside The Temple Tour 10:21 — Saving The Building 15:04 — Coworking Success Stories 20:00 — Downtown Vision 25:28 — 100 Years And Upgrades 26:25 — Ghosts And Orbs 28:19 — Temple Origins And Collapse 30:46 — Masonic Heyday Events 31:40 — Artifacts And Ghost Energy 32:55 — Top Floor Views History 34:25 — Paranormal Hunts Hotspots 36:00 — Modern Upgrades Accessibility 38:57 — Theater Backdrops Treasure 42:13 — How To Visit Contact 42:28 — Saving Historic Buildings 45:55 — Kansas Made Snack Taste Test 53:13 — Wrap Up Credits Farewell Resources Mentioned The Temple Phone: 785-201-3132 Wilkins Acres General Store From the Land of Kansas Twisted Pepper Company Schlegel's Popcorn Perry's Pork Rinds King's Candy Shop  AJ Honey Farms Fili Creative  Forge Podcast Learn more about the podcast at askakansan.com! This show is part of the ICT Podcast Network, for more information, visit ictpod.net

What happens when your wife looks at you across the kitchen table and says, "I need you to stop"? You set up an emergency brake before starting your side hustle — and now she's pulled it. Do you fight it, ignore it, or lean into it? When you're building a side hustle, you cast a vision for financial freedom and a better future for your family. But what about the hard seasons you didn't plan for? The moments when the business is costing more than money — it's costing your presence, your time, your marriage. This is the first in a series of episodes tackling the difficult scenarios side-hustle dads face, and today we're walking through exactly what to do when the emergency brake gets pulled. Highlights The emergency brake isn't a failure — it's the safety net you built working exactly as designed She's not pulling the brake on you; she's pulling it for you, as an outside observer seeing what you can't What she's really communicating: you are more valuable elsewhere — as a husband, as a father Resentment creeps in slowly; the brake gives you a chance to stop it before it's too late Personal story: pulling the brake on a T-shirt business when it drained the family instead of enriching it First-hour response: close the laptop, then say three sentences — "You're right, thank you for telling me, and I'm stopping" Day one: message all clients transparently, then fully engage with your family during the hours you'd normally be working Day two: start the hard conversation — ask what's been hardest on her, and don't get defensive After 48 hours: rebuild the plan — reconsider hours, rates, automation, or even whether to continue at all Give the emergency brake back before you restart, with new boundaries in writing This might not be about the side hustle — if the issue is systemic, seek professional counseling Chapters 0:00 — Emergency Brake Moment 1:30 — Why Stopping Is Safety 3:40 — What She Is Protecting 5:29 — Get Curious Not Defensive 6:25 — Personal Story: T-Shirt Stop 8:00 — First Hour: Close Laptop 10:31 — Day One: Clients and Family 12:27 — Day Two: Hard Conversation 14:31 — Rebuild Plan and Boundaries 17:22 — Bigger Than Side Hustle 18:27 — Closing Encouragement Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review! For more information about The Side-Hustle Dad, visit our website at https://thesidehustle.dad Remember, build the business, but be the dad! This show is part of the ICT Podcast Network, for more information, visit ictpod.net.

In this episode, hosts Ed O’Malley and Susan Kang are joined by Kansas Health Foundation’s Associate Vice President, Drew Wilburne to dive into Mindset #6, Policy Over Politics.  Through lived experiences, the team breaks down the difference between policy and politics and what it looks like to bring together advocates, activists and bridgers to work on a health challenge.  In the conversation, Drew discusses his work on Pennsylvania's Council on Reform under Governor Tom Wolf, the Wichita groundwater contamination crisis and how the Medicaid expansion debate in Kansas has become a proxy for political factions rather than a genuine policy conversation. The takeaway is clear: putting policy over politics is harder, not easier, than the alternative, and it's really the only path that lasts. HIGHLIGHTS Understanding the difference between policy advocacy and political advocacy. Why "policy over politics" is harder than the default approach, not easier: it requires leaning into disagreement rather than papering over it. The three roles needed for transformative policy change: advocates (who speak up), activists (who mobilize advocates) and bridgers (who find common ground across factions). How working upstream on health naturally leads to policy work — because individual motivation isn't enough when systemic conditions prevent people from being healthy. Drew’s experience leading Pennsylvania's Council on Reform under Governor Tom Wolf, and how the governor used his authority to design a process that forced collaboration across agencies, parties, and sectors. The Wichita groundwater contamination crisis: a decades-old chemical spill that went undiscovered for nearly 40 years and how a coalition of state senators, county commissioners, city council members, foundations and community organizations came together to secure $2.5 million for resident testing. How the Medicaid expansion debate in Kansas became a proxy political fight rather than a policy conversation, and what a policy-over-politics approach to expanding healthcare access could look like instead. The emerging insight that those in authority can create a policy-over-politics mindset by designing the engagement process, not by dictating solutions. CHAPTERS 2:10 — Why Policy Over Politics 4:34 — Policy vs. Political Advocacy 6:43 — Upstream Health Through Policy 9:29 — Advocates, Activists, Bridgers 12:53 — Welcome Drew Wilburne 15:55 — Drew's Lesson’s Learned  20:14 — Coalition Example: Pennsylvania Reform 25:33 — Systemic Strike Force 26:28 — Designing the Process 28:20 — Inviting Opposing Voices 29:06 — Setting the Stage Long Term 30:12 — Kansas Groundwater Crisis 32:56 — Collaboration Across Sectors 34:27 — Leaders Using Authority Well 37:36 — Kansas Ten Years Out 38:10 — Medicaid Expansion Reframed 40:40 — Bridgers Over Factions 43:33 — Key Takeaways RESOURCES MENTIONED Refer back to the episode on Working Upstream here: https://kansashealth.org/2026/08/11/leading-health-chapter-12/ Review how to Create Collaboration as you work through policy here: https://kansashealth.org/2026/09/22/leading-health-chapter-15/  Learn more about Judy Huemann and see the Crip Camp Documentary here: https://www.netflix.com/title/81001496 Leading Health is an invitation to move the needle on Health in Kansas, and we invite you to join us in leading the way.  Don’t have a copy of Leading Health? Claim your copy and learn more about the movement at kansashealth.org/leadinghealth Continue the discussion with these resources: Book Clubs Speakers and Workshops Share Your Story And be sure to subscribe, and drop a comment to let us know what you think.