Getting More Done by Doing Less with Stephanie Skryzowski

Stephanie Skryzowski, CEO and founder of 100 Degrees Consulting shares her sticky floor journey of "hat holding" and how being the person who feels like she has do "do it all" can lead to burnout.

In this episode we uncover:

• What is the Sticky Floor of Hat-Holding and how it leads to burnout
• How to switch your mindset from "role based" to "outcome based."
• The power of doing less- and how that leads to more abundance!
• Dreaming big dreams - and the importance of setting no limits to your aspirations.

https://stephanieskryzowski.com/

https://100degreesconsulting.com/ 

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Transcript

0:00

Do you pride yourself on doing it all? I feel like that might be a little bit of a trick question, but it's something that I know I have struggled with in the past. And today's guest, CEO and CFO, Stephanie Krzyzewski says it best. But she struggled with this sticky floor of hat holding. You know what I mean, being the person to do everything because only you can do it the way that it needs to be done and it all needs to be done. Stephanie had a thriving career, the picture perfect family life, but she was crushed under the weight of a million hats. Wife, mom, admin CEO, CFO, house cleaner cook childcare provider. The list goes on and on. It wasn't until she was on the brink of burnout that Stephanie finally took off some of those hats. She rearranged a few others and she walked away from some altogether. That she could finally see the light doing less creates the opportunity for more. And more she has done today. You will hear all about how Stephanie finally put down those hats. How, when you see your work as your worth, you unintentionally create boundaries to keep you small. And how dreaming as big as you once did as a kid is the secret to success. You are listening to the glass ceiling and sticky floor podcast. The podcast that will empower you to shatter limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors. To uncover infinite possibilities so that you can live your best life. I'm Erica Rooney and I'm on a mission to bring more women into positions of power and keep them there. I'm obsessed with all things, growth and abundance. And I'm here to talk you through the tried and true secrets to get you to level up your career and your life. We talk about the hard stuff here. Imposter syndrome, perfectionism, fear and burnout. So pull up a seat. Popping into your bed and let's dive in. Stephanie Skrzewski is the founder of 100 Degrees Consulting, and she helps organizations analyze, translate, and transform financial information and. Processes to more effectively utilize limited resources and make a more powerful impact on the people and the communities they serve. TLDR, she's the bad ass CEO and CFO with a dream to help nonprofit leaders manage their money so that they can actually create a massive impact. But she's also what we call a hat holder, which we're going to hear when we dive into her sticky floor, what that means, but Stephanie, welcome to the glass ceiling and sticky floor podcast. How are you? I'm so good. Thank you so much for having me. Well, I'm super pumped to be here. I got to give a shout out to our girl, Emily Bauer, who is like the friendship matchmaker who introduced us. And we have quickly become BFFs because we are, got our hands in all the same pots, but I would love to hear a little bit about 100 degrees because it's not just a solopreneur adventure for you. At this point, you have a whole damn team. Yes, yes, I do. Yeah. So 100 degrees consulting, was founded by me almost nine years ago, to provide CFO, like financial strategy, financial management to nonprofit organizations. And so today we have, 16 full time employees. all around the country, we have a couple employees globally and we serve, nonprofit organizations basically as their fractional outsourced finance team. Um, and so nonprofits of any, really any size, small organizations up to, you know, large ones. And I mean, you know, maybe 15 million organizations come to us and we provide a bookkeeping and, um, you know, payroll and accounts. Payable and budgeting and cashflow management and all the things, basically anything an internal finance team would do. We do on a fractional basis for our clients. Oh my goodness. And I love this because that is. Kind of how it started, right? But it's also still growing and evolving because you're not just a CFO, you're a speaker, you're a soon to be published author, you're the host of the podcast, The Prosperous Nonprofit, you're a wife, you're a mom with two little kids, and you're also currently remodeling your dream lake house. So did I miss anything there? Whew, you captured it all. Um, I am pretty impressed. Yeah, you captured it all. And oh, also, um, uh, I am a marathoner and I am getting back into marathon running after having my children. And so add that to the list. I'm running, um, my eighth marathon, but my first one in, the last one I did was nine years ago. Um, so marathon number eight is about two months away. Girl, you are crazy. I'm a fitness fanatic, but I stick to half. So I have done two full marathons and I was like, never again. Well, you did the second one. That's amazing. She didn't want how I did that girl. I don't know how, but here we are. So I want to kick this off and I want to say like, if we were to travel back in time to the Stephanie, who's maybe in college, figuring her life out, did you ever imagine that this would be your life? Yes and no. yes, because I was that little kid that had all the businesses doing all the things selling lemonade and painted seashells and doing odd jobs and walking dogs and hosting a summer camp for my neighborhood for the neighborhood kids. So like, I think that's always been that sort of entrepreneurial spirit has always been deep down inside of me. I remember going to the library as a kid, which was one of my favorite things to do. And I constantly got, check this book out. It was like 101 money making ideas for kids. I probably checked that thing out. Like I don't even know how many times, but I loved it. So I was always kind of in that, like. Entrepreneurial mindset as a child, but going through high school in college, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. Um, and so I thought that was my path. And right after college, I was like, I was Googling, um, as I was about to graduate college, like the next year I was Googling best law firms in the world because I was like, well, I can't just work for any law firm. I have to work for the best. The number one result on Google, I applied to be a legal assistant there and got the job at, it was this massive international firm in Manhattan. And so right after college, I started this job at the law firm and promptly, like within less than a year decided I hated it, did not want to be a lawyer at all. And then sort of had this winding journey to eventually land into nonprofit finance. Um, but so I guess to answer your question, not really, I did not really think that this is what I would be doing, running this company with employees and, you know, doing nonprofit finance. No, I thought it was going to be like a super high power lawyer in New York. Well, now you're just a super high powered CEO and CFO. So you got dual titles here. I love it. Now, what I, what I love, love, love about doing this podcast is we take these women like yourself who look like they've got it all right. The beautiful home, the beautiful family. I mean, everything's amazing. Everything's just been coming to you. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. So, and this is where I love your sticky floor of hat holding, which was a totally new term for me, but it totally clicked and resonated. So talk to me about your sticky floor. I want to hear about hat holding, but also any other sticky floors that may have kind of emerged along your journey. Oh yeah, there are so many, but specifically related to wearing all the hats and not just wearing all the hats, but like Holding onto them with like a death grip and not wanting to give up any of the hats. you and I just, we've had conversations before about like, are sort of being raised in this, time where our value is related to our work output and work and worth are kind of like one in the same. And so for me, what that looked like was like, well. I have to do all the things and I'm not just going to do all the things, but I'm also going to wear that with a badge of honor. And I found that really, coming to play both at work, you know, I started when I first started in the nonprofit sector, my title was operations manager. And I think everybody knows that a title like that at a very small organization means you basically do everything. And I did. And so I would sort of proudly tell people, Oh, I'm the operations manager. I wear all the hats, ha ha ha. And what that meant was like, in reality, yeah, I was doing the bookkeeping and the accounting, but I was also running fundraising events and posting on the website and. Stuffing envelopes and like so much stuff. And that meant that I was probably not very good at any of that. So I think there's that piece of wearing all of the hats, but I also see that, um, you know, in my personal life, especially when I first had children, it was like, yeah, I am going to make sure I have a perfect spotless house and I am going to put a home cooked meal on the table every single night. And I'm not going to have any childcare because I'm going to be the primary childcare provider for my daughter. And also I'm going to run and grow this company that I've just created. And also I'm going to be perfectly fit and this amazing wife and like, I'm going to do all the things and like, yeah, I'm good. Like, no, no, I'm, I'm not good. And so I really learned, I would say within the first year of my first daughter's life that like, I got to take some of these hats off. I cannot hold onto these hats anymore because I'm not happy. I am going to break myself or break my business or break my merit. Like something is going to fall off. I can't hold onto these hats anymore. And so I think that's just one, one of many, many examples that I have seen in my life of like, just sort of having this death grip on these hats and then failing. Finally realizing that like, okay, if I'm going to be the most successful version of myself in each of these different areas of my life, as a mom, as a wife, as a business owner, as a CFO to my clients, like I got to take some of these hats off. Well, that totally resonates with me because I just, I felt that in my bones. I remember feeling all of those things. And I've done a lot of deep work on this. And my perspective is that women in our generation, we were told that we could have it all do it. I'll be at all. And we came from this generation before us where women did not have a lot of the, freedoms that we do today, right? Like I still work with women who were told they had to wear pantyhose and skirts every single day to all their meetings. And that was their dress code and that women didn't belong in the C suite, right? Like when we think about how many women are CEOs and CFOs and CPOs today, that number was like non existent. Back at our mother's age and our grandmothers couldn't even get a mortgage themselves. So we come from these generations that did not have the same levels of freedom that we do. However, they still held on and taught us these expectations of what a good wife and mom So we then took this hat of, I'm going to be a badass CEO, CFO, CPO, whatever C O O you are, right? C level leader. But I'm also going to keep alive what it is to be a good mom and a good wife. And that just doesn't work. And that's why it's so different for men and women because Men never had that, you know, they never had to, to dance that balance, right? And so women are constantly faced with this paradox of working like we don't have kids and being a mom, like we don't have a job. It's why we are always the default parent and where I get stuck. And I'm curious to hear from you is I still want to be the default parent. I still want to be that mom who does all those things. So like, how do we balance that? Yes, I know. I was just like, this is, this is the idea for like my either second or third book, but I'm like, we need to have this conversation because I do want to be like, I've, I've had this conversation before. Like, I want to be a stay at home parent to my, to my daughters. I want to be that. And also I want to be a full time CEO and scale my company to like a 50 million, you know, a 50 million company. Like I actually, and actively want both of those things at the same time. So I have no answer for you. I don't know because I feel the same way I agree. I want to be the default parent. I want to take them to all their things. And, I want to be there when they get off the bus every day from school. And also. I want to have more time to work, so I don't know, I do not have an answer, but I actively want both of those things right now. Yeah. And I mean, maybe that is the great paradox of our generation that we are teaching our kids. And what I will say is this happened just this morning. I was talking to my daughter. And they did something that got my goat. And I was like, yes, mom packed your lunch. I got your boxes ready with all your pencils. Your coats are by the door. Like I did all these things. And my little five year old daughter just looks at me and she goes, do I need to go have a word with dad? Maybe, maybe you do. We're teaching these little girls who are going to grow up to be women with their own set of sticky floors that like. Maybe we don't have to do it all because that was kind of the vibe I was getting from her was like, hey, you are still a great mom and you're still the default parent, but like, you didn't have to do all that this morning. So maybe there's a lesson in my little five year old. I don't know. But what I wanted to ask you too, when you were going through your hat holding floor. How, what, what was that breaking point for you? Because we hold on to these roles with a death grip, like you said, how did you finally hit that point where you're like, enough? I need to change. I think it was probably that, like, things were just not up to my standard and I was not performing at my own high standard and like, I have very high standards for myself as I'm sure you do as well as I'm sure a lot of your listeners do. And when things were just like not meeting my standard anymore, that was sort of like, okay, well I could do it myself, but I'm actually not even like achieving excellence like I want. Or I could get help by putting, taking some of these hats off, putting some of these hats down. And then the standard would be back to excellent, right? Even something as simple as like the cleanliness of my house. Like I'm pretty particular about how clean and how organized I want my house. And when I was not able to consistently keep it at the level I wanted, I Like, okay, well, what would happen if I took this hat off and just hired somebody to do it, then the level is back up here again, I'm at this level of excellence, and so I'm not keeping the perfect house myself. Who cares? At least the level of excellence is still where I want it to be. And so I think it was like figuring out, okay, well, what's more important to me, the, you know, the level at which each of these things are performing or are done, or, me having this weird pride of like doing it all myself. And I think that came. That happened in like hiring in my business as well. There got to a certain point where I was maxed out in the number of clients in the amount of work that I could take. And it's like, okay, I have a choice here. I could either, well, of course I could turn clients away, but I could take clients on and the level of work and the level of, you know, excellence that I'm providing to them is probably going to be a little bit lower cause I'm tapped out in terms of time. Um Or I could bring somebody on, to help me, I could hire someone and my company would still be putting out excellent work. Maybe it wouldn't be all me, but we would still be able to do, to do this amazing work. And so I think it was like, yeah, when things kind of started slipping and I realized that and acknowledge that, um, then it's like, okay, it's, it's time. I love this. And when I do a lot of my coaching, I ask people to shift their mindset, thinking from role based to outcome based. Because you were living in this, in this world where it was role based and you had all the job responsibilities, right? If you looked at a traditional job description, yours was 10 pages long, and you were getting a certain outcome that you needed, right? That you wanted, that you desired. But when you shift to outcome based, You can hire different roles that are all leading to the same outcome. And so if you can shift your thinking from role based to outcome based, and then the second question that I always ask is, is this going to matter at the end of the day, or is this going to matter in 10 years? Because talking about the cleanliness of your house, I love a maid bed. I love my bed to be crisp and clean. There's something about it when you walk into the room, but here's the problem. I'm the first one out of that bed in the morning. So that means I either then have to get my husband to make the bed or I have to come back and make the bed, or I have to leave the bed messy. And so I'm trying to test my own boundaries. By not making the bed. So do you have any areas in your life right now where you are testing the boundaries of your hat holding? Oh, that's such a good question. I think, yeah, I, I definitely would say. In my business, I have a leadership team that is really strong and so they have helped coach me to take the hat off and leave the hat off and don't freaking grab that hat and put it back on if things change because I definitely have like, you know, maybe somebody leaves on the team or their role shifts and I'm like, Oh, I'll just take that back there. I'm like, no, you will not. Yo, you will not put that back on. I would say. The, on the home and the personal side of things is where I experienced this more. And I think it's especially, you know, with my husband. So I think anybody in a partnership of any sort can kind of relate to this, but like, if he, if I have him responsible for certain things in our home, like maybe it's dinners, maybe he would not choose the same things that I would, or maybe he would not do things the way that I would. But the outcome is still there, like it's still getting done. We all are still eating healthy food for dinner and it, you know, in the timeframe that we need to and my kids are fed. And so even if it's not the way I would do it or the things that I would choose, like being okay with that, um, that's like, that's kind of a journey. and I feel like, sometimes when you delegate things, you like, Micromanage the way that they're done versus just like delegating the outcome. but I think I've had to like really test myself there and push myself a little bit there because I'm, you know, at the end of the day, I do like control over things. and then it's, it's really interesting though, now that we're talking about this, cause in work, I actually find it easier than I do at home. Like I find it easier to delegate an outcome and just like, let it go at work versus home where I'm like, or we're having that for dinner. Like, I don't want that, you know, so I don't know. It's interesting. Well, I love that you say that you have this leadership team that coaches you, because number one, it speaks like to the true testament of the leaders you have in place. But one thing when I ever, when I find myself really digging in and holding onto those hats is reminding myself that with every hat that I feel like I have to hold onto, I am stealing an opportunity from someone else. And what I mean by that is in my personal life, if I never allow my partner to pick up my kids from school, I am stealing his opportunity to have those carpool conversations. If I never allow him to be the one going back and forth to cheerleading and gymnastics and all of the activities, I am stealing those moments from him where he could watch our children thrive and activities they love, right? And in the workforce, if I am, Constantly the one that has to do everything. I am stealing these opportunities for growth and development of my team members. And that is what they all want and crave, right? I think back to what I wanted and craved, and I wanted those opportunities. So if you are holding onto this, No, you've got to let him go, because you are quite literally stealing opportunity. I love that. Yes. I got another question for you, because we are talking about partners and spouses. A lot on this show. Has your partner been a key player in like calling out your sticky floorness? I think yes, a hundred percent. So I have had, but like in a, you know, so another example of a sticky floor for me has just been my own limiting beliefs. And I remember telling a business coach years ago, I told her, I, you know, I think I'll basically have to grow my business to about a million dollars in revenue, but I have to stop there. Like, I don't, I cannot envision a possibility of us ever growing beyond that. Cause like, I just don't know how I would handle that. I don't want to manage that many people. And she's like, well, you just hire a leadership team. Like what a million dollars. Do you have to stop there? How do you think any company has ever grown ever? Like, no, you don't have to stop at a million dollars. And so. But there have been lots of situations in my life where I've just put my own, like I have installed my own glass ceiling over myself. Like, this is it. This is as far as I can go. And my husband has always been the one to be like, yeah, right. Like you can do anything that he's my biggest cheerleader for sure. Like you can absolutely do anything that you set your mind to. He believes in me. I mean, sometimes. Yeah. Most of the time, way more than I do, you know, and thinking about writing this book. Yeah, you're totally going to get a publishing deal. Of course should be on the New York Times bestseller list. I'm like, okay, babe, let's be realistic here. But he, um, so I think he, he definitely helps me bust through the, any limiting beliefs that I have that are like, Oh, I don't think I can do this. I don't think I can hit that level. he believes in me usually more than I believe in myself. I love that because it's just so important to have people in your life who are your biggest supporters and who can see beyond your own ceilings. And so, for you, that's your husband, and I think that's amazing. But I love where this conversation is going because I do not believe, especially that we as women, Dream big enough. And I think, like you said, we put this ceiling on what is possible because we cannot fathom what life looks on the other side of that. And I was actually putting together some stuff for a new podcast episode that I'm going to drop where I talk about Oprah and Taylor Swift, because these are two bad ass women who were just ordinary people who were facing rejection. And they talk a lot about not letting rejection Stop them. So when you talk about putting ceilings on what is possible and you talked about having a business coach, how do you move through those glass ceilings? Yeah, I think it's been like a muscle that I have had to flex that I have done with the help of a coach. I have since the beginning of my business. So, okay, backing up when I first started my business, I was, it was My husband and I were trying to get pregnant, with no luck for like years at that point. And I was, I had left the nonprofit world and I was working in this job that I was not passionate about, but it was like really easy. It was close to home and I was just trying to remove the stress out of my life. So. So that we could hopefully get pregnant and, um, and I hated the job. And so much of my life until that point had been just like, so passionate about my work. And then I lost that and I was still not getting pregnant. I was just not in a great place. and so I ended up. Connecting with this woman who is sort of like a life and executive and career and business coach. And that was my first, because I had tried one therapist and I was like, therapy doesn't work. I don't like this person. And so, then I found this, this coach that, Really helped me even understand what a limiting belief was at that point. Cause I was not into like this personal development space and the stuff that I do now. But anyway, so I've had a coach on all that to say, I have a coach from literally day one of my business. And I've really never been without some sort of coach. And so these coaches have all been the ones to help me think bigger because when I was working for, inside nonprofit organizations and inside corporate, I remember a leader telling me, Stephanie, you don't know how to think outside of the box. That's not what you do. You think inside a box, you're a finance person. You think in numbers, you think inside the box. So I had been telling myself for a decade. I don't know how to think outside of the box. I'm not a big picture thinker. I can only think in Excel spreadsheets. and so really having a coach to help me be like, think bigger. And, you know, she, I remember she asked me, okay, well, this is what you did in revenue this year. What's your revenue goal for next year? And I threw out a number that was, I don't know, a hundred thousand dollars more or something like now, like that's pretty small. And she's like, well, why, why is that your number? why not? Why isn't it this? And then I've worked with another business coach is like, okay, what are your prices? Great. Triple them. So just being around people that are just have number one, they train you to think bigger and to be more expansive, but also they're living it by example. So having this example of people who have done things that are like 10 X, what I'm doing right now has been so inspiring. and it really helped me to get rid of that, like. You know, belief and that, that thing that I've been told that, Oh, you don't know how to think big. You, you think inside the box. All right. I've got to dive in a little bit on this question because I think that so many women say I will hire a coach when, when I make X amount of dollars, when I get the next promotion, like they feel like they have to have this level of some kind of financial security or financial, you know, number that they've attained. And you're saying, Nope. I had a coach from day one. What would be your words of advice to someone to just say, you know what? I know it's going to be scary, but you got to do it. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, I'm a numbers minded person. And so I'm like, what's the ROI on this? and I didn't know, but I did know that it was, uh, like a tax deduction. So that was like, okay, well I can deduct this on my taxes. So done. But no, I, I, you know, I was immediately calculated the ROI. Okay. If this coach costs you. 5, 000. How am I going to make 5, 000 or more by the end of this? And I did. And thinking about my investments over the years, each coach has been like progressively more expensive than the last. and I have always at least doubled my return on that. And so it, you know, I think it looks different for everybody and it has looked different for me what that return has even, has even been. Um, but I've always, I've always doubled my return. So. There's no right moment. And if you're thinking about it, that means that now it was the right moment because there's obviously something going on that is making you think like that. If everything is great, then there's probably, I don't know, then you probably wouldn't need it, but if you're thinking about it, then you definitely need that. And you will absolutely, um, double your ROI. I always have it at least again, at least double, if not more, Kind of looking for a new coach right now. So yeah, it's, I always need a coach. Always. I love that. And as a numbers girl and a growth girl, do you believe that like every year I should spend X amount or this certain percent on my personal development? Yeah, a hundred percent. I wouldn't say like, I don't have a specific, like, Oh, this is how much of my salary I should be spending, or this is how much of my business is revenue I should be spending. But I will say I did a podcast episode about this. I don't know, maybe a year and a half ago, but I looked back at the history of my company and. Aside from my team, like salaries and benefits and those things, I think professional development was the next biggest expense of, of all time in my company. And. I can also say that my company would not be where it is today if I had not made those investments, and I would not be as like, you know, things are not perfect by any means, but like, I wouldn't be as sort of healthy as I am like mentally and as a leader if I didn't have that That coaching. and so it's absolutely, it is in our budget every single year. I will always have a business coach. I will always do, events with other business owners who are in a similar place as me and also have a professional development budget for my team. I love that. Make sure it's a line item in your budget every year. Yes. 100%. Stephanie, if you could go back in time to the little girl selling lemonade, doing summer camps, being a little baby entrepreneur, quite literally. What would that one piece of advice be that you would give her today, knowing everything you know? Oh man, let's see. I think it would be to, to keep dreaming as big as I did back then, because I think somewhere along the way the dreams were stamped, like stamped down and there was not that message to it, like, Go to any college that you want, go to the one that you feel really connects with you. Do whatever major you want, like the dream bigger. It was more like, let's follow this very practical path that is, um, guaranteed. Success but small success and so I would say to just like dream as big as you possibly can think as big as you possibly can because that's, you know, that's what I've done. I would say over the past 510 years and like I I can't even believe what, you know, I can't even believe the results. I can't believe I have the company that I have, that I'm writing a book, that I'm doing, that I'm speaking on stages. I mean, I was the girl that would never raise her hand in class ever because I was terrified of like speaking in front of 20 other people. And now I'm getting in stages in front of a thousand. So, um, I would say just, you know, dream bigger, think bigger. Um, cause you never know where you'll end up. Yeah. Stop putting ceilings on what's possible and start smashing through them. Stephanie, if somebody wants to work with you, check out a hundred degrees consulting, have you speak on stage? How can they get in touch with you? Yes. Well, the best way is that our website, that's where all the info is. We have a lovely little contact form there and we are checking that inbox every single day. So you'll get ahold of us quickly, but it's at 100, like the number one zero zero degrees consulting. com. And then also on LinkedIn, Stephanie Skrzewski, um, and Instagram Stephanie dot S K R Y. Amazing. And of course, y'all that the last name is a lot. So it's all going to be in my show for you. So head there, Stephanie, thank you so much. This was so fun and definitely a bright spot in my day. Yes, Erica. Thank you so much for having me. This is great. So now that this episode is over, I've got to ask you. What hat are you currently wearing? That you can put down. Even if it's just for a little bit tested out, it doesn't have to be forever. And this is something that I often feel so challenged with. But if you get really truthful with yourself, You can test it out and you can put down that hat and it might not be a hat that is serving you any longer. So as Stephanie said, Stop putting ceilings. On your own success. You guys know, that's my mantra. I'm all about stop putting ceilings on what is possible and start breaking through them. But today's message is for sure, going to be about taking off the hats, setting them down and walking away. So, let me know, hit me up on one of my socials. What hat are you going to put down and walk away from? What, how are you going to rearrange? Because y'all, this is not final. You can always pick that hat back up. If you need to. But I want you to test it out and I want you to see if by doing less, you actually achieve more. Now if you haven't already rate, reviewed and subscribed to the podcast, please make sure you do. I am so grateful that you were here, that you were spending your day with me and listening to this show. But when you rate review and subscribe, it truly helps it land in the hands of the woman that needs to hear it the most.