Shows / Businessing with Pat Miller
Businessing with Pat Miller
Businessing is the weekly show where small business owners figure out what to do next. New episode every Monday morning with Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community. Each week: one big story boiled down to what to do about it, a conversation with an owner who's been where you are, what came out of the Idea Slam this week, and the AI story of the week. Nobody taught you how to run a business, so you've been guessing. Guessing is expensive. The Small Business Owners Community…
Episodes
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Extra: Your Next Sale Might Be One You Didn't Make | Businessing
The prospect who said no might have said not now. Lisa Raebel from Rebel Girl Revenue on the revenue sitting right under your feet: the follow-up call that…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
What I'd Tell Myself on My First Day in Business | Businessing
If you like to eat, you have to like to sell. That's the first thing I'd tell myself on my first day as a business owner, and there are six more. This week on…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Extra: On Stage It Felt Like Dancing | Businessing
You practice a talk chapter by chapter, bridge line by bridge line. On stage, none of that is there. Here's what blacking out on the red dot taught me about…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Extra: If Your AI Makes a Mistake, Who Pays? | Businessing
If my AI makes a mistake, who pays for it? I asked my insurance agent, Tom Gaumond from G2 Insurance. Short answer: don't count on your general liability…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
What I Learned From Doing My TEDx Talk | Businessing
I almost impaled a guy in the front row at my TEDx talk, and somebody's alarm went off during my big finish. Here are the eight things my second TEDx taught…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
How to Get Booked on More Stages | Businessing
Getting booked on more stages starts with the one thing almost nobody does, which is asking. Pat runs a conference, so he sits on the other side of that inbox…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
What to Say When They Say They Can't Afford You | Businessing
They liked the whole thing right up until the number. Then came "I can't afford it," and the first instinct is to apologize for the price and start cutting…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
What a Small Business Conference Actually Does | Businessing
A small business conference is either worth the money or it isn't, and the answer shows up in the hallways, not the sessions. SBOC26 is in the books: about 125…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
What to Say at a Networking Event | Businessing
What to say at a networking event comes down to three words: clear, curious, and kind. Nobody ever handed you those words, so here they are. You walk in, you…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Host Your Own Event for Under $200 | Businessing
Host your own event and every advantage moves to your side of the table. You pick the room, you pick the topic, you pick who's in it, and you're the one…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
How to Get AI to Recommend Your Business | Businessing
Somebody in your town is getting recommended by AI right now, and there's a good chance it isn't you. There's no magic to how it picks. It reads what the web…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Five Reasons You're Not Doing The Thing | Businessing
There's something on your to-do list that hasn't moved in weeks, and it isn't because you're lazy. Five faces of inaction keep small business owners stuck, and…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
4 Ways to Partner Without Trading Referrals | Businessing
Not every referral partner is ready to send you business yet, and that's fine. There are four ways to move a new partnership forward without either of you…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Start Using AI With One Small Task | Businessing
Most owners stall out on AI because they're trying to hand off the whole business at once. Start with one small task instead. Think of everything you have to…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Why Your Entry-Level Offer Doesn't Sell | Businessing
Your entry-level offer isn't selling, and the reason is sitting right there on your own price sheet. You built the cheap package because it was supposed to be…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
AI Saved You 5 Hours a Week. Where'd They Go? | Businessing
AI is handing small business owners more than five hours a week back, so where did the time go? If you're still as busy as you've always been, those hours got…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Panic Hiring: The Available and Willing Trap | Businessing
Panic hiring starts the second somebody quits and their work lands back on your desk. Available and willing is not the same as right for the job, and the…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Too Busy to Fix What's Making You Busy | Businessing
You're too busy to fix the stuff that's making you too busy. That's the trap, and it doesn't break on its own. One year ago today somebody told me they wanted…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Your Cheapest Clients Ask for the Most | Businessing
Your cheapest clients ask for the most. If your calendar is full and your bank account isn't, you've probably got a roster full of bargain shoppers, and today…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Sending Invoices Isn't Getting Paid | Businessing
The average small business owner is owed $17,000 right now, and most of that money is sitting in invoices that got sent and never paid. Sending the bill and…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Follow Up Without Being a Pest | Businessing
The fortune is in the follow-up, but nobody wants to be the pest who emails three times a week hoping somebody finally says yes. So today I'm giving you six…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Become a Market of One | Businessing
Become a market of one. Get so narrow that when your customer describes their exact problem, you're the only name that comes up. On today's Businessing, I…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Right Seat, Wrong Person, or Training Problem? | Businessing
You hired someone full of hope, and now it's not working out. Before you fire anybody, you need to know whether it's a wrong-seat problem, a training gap, or…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Clone Your Decisions, Not Yourself | Businessing
You can't clone yourself, but you can clone your decisions. Pick the five decisions you make every week, teach them to your AI once, and build a second brain…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Your To-Do List Is for Forgetting | Businessing
Your to-do list has one job, and it isn't remembering. It's forgetting. Today Pat teaches the Forget to Finish system, the way to get everything done without…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Raise Your Rates, Even If You Lose Clients | Businessing
The math on raising your rates is not what you think. Bump a price 10%, lose a quarter of your clients, and you still walk away with the same profit and more…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Most Deals Close After 5 Follow-Ups | Businessing
Only 2% of deals close on the first contact, so if you give up after one follow-up, you're leaving most of your sales on the table. Today's Businessing breaks…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
How to Name Anything So It Sticks | Businessing
Most owners name their best offer something boring and forgettable, and it costs them sales. Today I'll show you how to name anything so it actually sticks…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Less Friction Means More Sales | Businessing
Every time you make buying easier, people spend more. Amazon's new Alexa numbers prove it, and it should change how you run your sales process. On today's…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Stop Telling Customers You Use AI | Businessing
The more your customers use AI, the less they trust it, and a new Gallup poll says that's a warning shot for anyone bragging about AI in their marketing…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Why McDonald's Bets on AI Its Customers Hate | Businessing
McDonald's and Wendy's are installing AI order-takers their own customers don't want. Here's the profit math behind the AI bet, and what it means for your…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
How to Build a Collaboration That Works | Businessing
Collaborations and joint ventures are one of the best ways to grow your business when you don't have a pile of marketing dollars to spend. Today I walk through…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
How Scarcity Gets People to Buy | Businessing
Scarcity is one of the oldest moves in sales, and it still works: give people a real deadline and watch what happens. Today I break down how to use scarcity to…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Your Judgment Is What People Pay For | Businessing
The cost of information is going to zero. The cost of your judgment is going up. If you lean on AI and only on AI, you're going to become a commodity. On…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Shoppers Now Prefer AI Over Your Website | Businessing
For the first time, more shoppers say they'd rather buy through an AI than your website. If your products aren't in the AI yet, you're about to be invisible…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Bring Back What You Used to Sell | Businessing
You don't always need a brand-new product. Sometimes the smartest move is bringing back the one you used to sell. Panda Express and KFC are printing money…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
AI Plus Your Judgment Pays 34% More | Businessing
We were told AI was going to crush small business owners and make all our experience worthless. The new Upwork numbers say the opposite. Pair AI with your…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
You Have One Job: Sell Something | Businessing
You have one job as a business owner, and it's selling. Everything else, the website, the social media, the funnels, comes second. Three million Americans…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
How to Handle Bad News in Your Business | Businessing
How you handle bad news in your business is one of the differentiators between the owners who make it and the ones who don't. The trick is a four-step move…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Your AI Emails Sound Too Much Like You | Businessing
Two friends told Pat they couldn't tell his emails from AI anymore, and now he's having an identity crisis. If your AI writes exactly like you, how does anyone…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Two Questions That Clear Your To-Do List | Businessing
Your to-do list has a bad houseguest on it, and today is the day it goes. Pat runs your whole list through two questions and cuts everything that can't earn…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
How to Fire Someone the Right Way | Businessing
Firing someone is a skill, and nobody teaches it. After 20 years of managing people, here's exactly how I do it, whether it's for cause or for performance…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Why Your Phone Isn't Ringing | Businessing
When your phone isn't ringing, it's almost never bad luck. It's one of two things: people can't find you, or they don't know why they should call you. I've…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Why In-Person Connection Beats Zoom | Businessing
In-person connection is king, and you just can't get the same connection online as you get in a real room. I spent this week with two mastermind groups in…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Mid-Year Business Review: 5 Questions to Ask | Businessing
Halfway through 2026, your mid-year business review comes down to one shift: the question goes from what do we wanna get done this year to what can we still…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Treat AI Like a Junior Employee, Not Software | Businessing
68% of small business owners are using AI, but only 15% have installed it into their regular workflow and are actually getting the benefits. Pat says the gap…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Don’t Rent Your Business From One AI Tool | Businessing
The AI tools making you faster can also become a business risk. When everything you run lives inside one model, you don't own that part of your business…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Self-Improvement Is Crushing Your Business | Businessing
Self-improvement is crushing your business. The fastest way to grow isn't getting a little less bad at the thing you hate, it's handing that thing to a person…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Good Problems Mean Your Business Works | Businessing
You know that line in the old movies when somebody says it's quiet...it's too quiet? That's your business in the calm right before everything hits the fan, and…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Small Business Burnout? 3 Ways to Reset | Businessing
Small business burnout is real, and when you're the business, you can't afford to run at 80%. If things feel heavy and slow and harder than they need to be…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
How to Actually Take a Week Off | Businessing with Pat Miller
Taking time off isn't optional. You're going to take it whether you like it or not, because if you don't, you'll get sick or burn out or both. So you might as…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Gamify Your Customer Loyalty | Businessing with Pat Miller
Chipotle just gamified its rewards program with visit streaks, monthly challenges, and local leaderboards. You're not Chipotle, but that doesn't mean you can't…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
The Calculator Moment for Knowledge Work | Businessing with Pat Miller
The calculator moment hit knowledge work. If you sell training, education, or consulting, the way you make money just changed. When the calculator showed up…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
What are you consuming to find inspiration? | Businessing with Pat Miller
The best way to move your business forward is to change the inputs you take in every single day. That's the big story today. When you're the only boss you've…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Stop Chasing Every New AI Tool | Businessing with Pat Miller
Sandra Yancey runs a multimillion dollar business on five AI tools, not eighty-two. When everybody else zigs toward the next shiny object, she says go left…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
AI Agents Are Your New Customers | Businessing with Pat Miller
The Visa CMO just said it out loud: AI agents are your new customers. Pretty soon they'll land on your website and buy on their own, and if your sales page…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Every Role Touches Revenue | Businessing with Pat Miller
Every role in your business touches revenue. The CFO, the receptionist, even the person who forgot to clean the bathroom. Once you see it, you can't unsee it…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Solve the Right Problem | Businessing with Pat Miller
Most business owners are asking oddly specific questions that are really just versions of the wrong question. The real one is simple. Does anybody actually…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Stop Showing the After Photo | Businessing with Pat Miller
Are you showing people the finish line and potentially scaring off the customers who could hire you? A new study on "fitspiration" content says showing the…
- Businessing with Pat Miller
Operator to Icon with Matt Stone | Businessing with Pat Miller
In an algorithmic, AI-powered, synthetic world, the people willing to share what made them who they are have the advantage. That's the operator-to-icon trade…