S01 Ep24: Crushing Big Goals with Small, Consistent Steps with Stephanie Skryzowski

EntrepreneurshipSelf-Improvement

Apr 23

Written By Melissa Wesner

When you’ve got big dreams, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the actions you need to take to get where you want to be. In this week’s episode, however, you’ll get to hear Stephanie Skryzowski, a visionary Chief Financial Officer, talk about the power of small, consistent actions to achieve your big goals.
In this episode, you’ll hear Stephanie talk about:
• How habits and small steps can help you make significant strides towards your bigger goals
• Books to get you thinking about your own habits
• Habits Stephanie is implementing in her own personal and professional work
• Small, consistent steps you can take to be on top of your financial numbers
If you’re ready to think about bite-sized steps you can take on a regular basis to crush those big dreams, this episode is for you!
Follow Stephanie Skryzowski:
Website: www.100degreesconsulting.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/stephanie.skry
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieskryzowski
Free download from Stephanie: www.100degreesconsulting.com/cash
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (00:01)
Welcome to the dreaming and doing podcast. I am really looking forward to today's conversation. I am here with Stephanie Skryzowski from a hundred degrees consulting. Stephanie and I actually met through a mastermind business coaching program that we were both doing. And one of the things that I really love about Stephanie is that she is a very big dreamer.
And so today she is going to be talking with us about the power of consistency as it relates to working towards our really big goal. So welcome, Stephanie. Thank you for being here.
Stephanie Skryzowski (00:43)
Thanks so much for having me Melissa, I'm excited to chat with you.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (00:47)
So before we dive in, tell us a little bit about you, your background, and the work that you're doing with 100 Degrees Consulting.
Stephanie Skryzowski (00:55)
Yeah. So 100 Degrees Consulting provides fractional CFO and bookkeeping services to nonprofits. And we have an agency. We've got about 16 employees of amazing nonprofit finance people that serve our clients really, really well. And I've been doing this and running this business for about eight years. And before that, I spent about 10 years working inside the nonprofit sector, working for nonprofits.
most recently as the CFO of about a $15 million organization. And as I was sort of thinking about what the next step in my journey would look like, I thought, well, I think there are smaller nonprofits out there that still need this type of work that I'm doing, this financial management support, but maybe they can't afford a full -time CFO or maybe they don't even need somebody full -time. So I'm just going to give this a try.
And so I started researching nonprofit organizations that I was personally really passionate about their mission and what they were doing. And I was cold emailing. I would look on their website. I would see if they had a CFO listed. And if they didn't, I would look for their CEO's email address and then just start sending emails saying, listen, I love what you're doing. I'm a CFO. This is how I can help you. Are you interested? And that's how the business began.
And so, you know, we're talking about consistency today. And so I think that was like the first step in, you know, in a consistent action that has really driven a lot of growth and success with sending those emails because I didn't get responses from like the first batch of 20 that I sent and then the first batch of 40 that I sent. I wasn't getting responses every day, but I just continued to take that consistent action. Even when people said, started saying, yes,
We are interested in having you as our part -time CFO. I still kept doing it. And so that has been a big part of how the business has grown over the last eight years.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (03:03)
Yes, I love that Stephanie. So talk with me about how you have more recently been finding consistency helpful in working towards some of your big goals.
Stephanie Skryzowski (03:17)
Yeah. So over the past couple of years, I've really been thinking about how can I form partnerships with places where, or organizations where a lot of nonprofits are hanging out. So I've been thinking really strategically about the growth of my company and thinking about our business model. And our business model is, you know, we bring on new clients and then we add team members and we bring on more clients and we add team members.
And that's fine. That has been served us really well over the last eight years. And that's like sort of slow and steady, consistent growth. And I like that. But I was also thinking of like, okay, well, how does this business scale? Like how do we get in front of more nonprofits, more potential clients at once? And so thinking of this partnership idea and specifically working with
organizations like nonprofit associations, sort of like a membership association for nonprofits, or foundations, which are large organizations that give money to nonprofits. They have a lot of nonprofits in their network. And so the consistent action that I've been taking is just doing, actually it's more cold outreach, honestly. It's really researching what I think would be smart partnerships for us.
and just doing a little bit of outreach and doing that consistently. And so for example, I was trying to build relationships with state nonprofit associations and there is a nonprofit association every single state. And so last year I sent out a personalized email to every single state to somebody there and just saying, hey, this is what we do. I'd love to maybe provide education to your members, that kind of thing. A handful of people responded.
But most didn't. And so then in terms of consistency, I did it again. Not like obnoxiously. I waited like a long time. I mean, some of them even a year and reached out to maybe a different person who could be a good fit. And so now more people responded. And I've really seen that momentum like start to build for us because some of the relationships that we built last year, now we're also doing things with them. We're sort of expanding our partnership this year because
I've been proactively communicating with them, reaching out. And now we've got new partnerships with some organizations this year, and I imagine that would expand next year. So everything with consistent action and this, you know, specifically, but I think with all consistent actions, like it stacks on top of each other. So I feel like consistency helps you get not just one win, but like those wins continue to stack and stack and stack.
And I think that's where the power of consistency just comes in, really. It's not necessarily a quick win when you're doing something consistently, which can be hard and a little bit discouraging sometimes, but it's like the compounding interest is basically, it's like the power of compounding. So yeah, that's one example of something I've specifically been working on where I'm seeing consistency really start to pay off.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (06:33)
Yes, and it's interesting that you use that as an example because that's a great example of one of the things that I really appreciate about how your brain works, just having spent some time with you and kind of seeing the ideas that you generate, right? Because this idea of consistent action, like small consistent action that sounds small, small consistent actions. And yet I know that what you're telling us right here is actually a really big thing, right? Because you're thinking bigger.
Right, I hear you saying I started out with individual clients and maybe one -on -one work and growing those like individual relationships with maybe one organization. And so now you're taking small consistent actions with these bigger organizations to form even bigger relationships. And so I love that example. And I was reading an article yesterday for an.
for a podcast episode I was recording this morning about that very topic about forming partnerships, but professional partnerships and the value in that. And so it's just really interesting that that's exactly what you're doing today. So I have a question about that because, you know, I'm thinking you're sending out these cold emails and like you said, you're not always seeing immediate results.
How do you handle moments of where you're just feeling discouraged? Like I feel like I'm doing all this work. I'm going through this time intensive process of identifying contacts and their emails and I'm sending these emails and maybe I'm not immediately getting the responses that I wanted. How do you handle moments of feeling discouraged or whether you're questioning is this even working?
Stephanie Skryzowski (08:17)
Yeah. So it depends on my mood for the day, I think. But I would say there's two different directions I might go when I'm feeling like I'm not getting the results. And honestly, I know we're talking about work right now, but I'm also thinking about fitness because I feel like consistent actions in fitness and your health and wellness journey, this is so similar. But I'm thinking, okay, if I'm feeling like
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (08:21)
Hehehehe.
Mm -hmm.
Stephanie Skryzowski (08:46)
just so discouraged, I'm not seeing the change I want to, I take a break. Sometimes it's like, you know what? I just cannot send another email today. I'm done doing this research. I just don't, I just need a minute. And so I step back and maybe I don't do anything for a week. And I set a reminder on my calendar or I have it in my project management system. Like I'm going to come back to it. I know I will because I've built in the systems in the background.
to help me stay accountable to this consistent action, which I think is huge, and allows me to take a break knowing that I am going to come back to it. Like, I'm not breaking the habit. It's not going to go away forever, but I'm taking a break. So I would say that's one thing, is that I just like, all right, I'm going to take a minute here. This isn't working. I feel discouraged. I'm not going to spin my wheels anymore right now. So either take a break or the other thing that I do, because I have this...
this method, like this consistent action and specifically like reaching out to organizations to get to know each other. It has worked in the past. And so I remind myself of that. And I think about what does my track record look like? And maybe I had to send out 200 emails to get my first four clients as my company started. But now I look at how many...
organizations have we served? How many clients have we served? Look at how big the company is. This works, so just stick with it. It's a numbers game. And so I think actually too, with any sort of consistent action or habit, a lot of it is a numbers game and you're going to win, but you have to put in the effort. Actually, I was just rereading Atomic Habits for the third time right now and I was just…
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (10:24)
you
Stephanie Skryzowski (10:36)
reading the part about where it's, I forgot, there was, I don't know, I'm going to totally butcher this. There was some study or something. Oh, it was like a photography class. And do you, you've read it, I'm going say, right? Yes. And so I think like the photography class, the professor divided the class into two parts and half of the class had to, they were graded based on the quantity of photos that they produced during the semester.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (10:45)
Yes. Yes.
Stephanie Skryzowski (11:03)
And the other half of the class was graded based on the quality of the photos. So they had to submit one photo, but it had to be like the best ever. And the result was that the group that actually had to do quantity, the best photos of the whole class were in that group because it was just a matter of practice and experimentation and consistency and trying new things and shifting. Whereas the
the half of the class that was responsible for just one photo and it had to be the highest quality photo. They were so focused on that that they didn't try other things. And those were like really mediocre results. And so if anybody listening has not read that book, like read it and then listen to it and then read it again and then listen to it again, like you could just keep going with that. But anyway, yeah, backing up to your original question.
I either take a break or I remind myself of my track record. And then, you know, I just, I love that example from Atomic Habits. It's like, it's quantity so often. And I think that goes along with what we're talking about for consistency.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (12:09)
Yeah, and I love it and I've read the book and I've heard that study and I think the message and the takeaway from it can be so impactful and yet even though I've heard it, just listening to you say that right now, I'm reminded of how I can still fall back into old patterns or ways that some perfectionism shows up and I want results now and I might not like learning the hard way by doing the quantity. I don't like that because I want the results now.
And just reminding myself about that study, I think, can be really helpful.
So what are some specific habits or strategies that you have been developing to help yourself be consistent with small steps?
Stephanie Skryzowski (12:55)
Yeah, that's a good question. I think so much, and again, I'm thinking way beyond just this one particular project that we're talking about. I've also been, I think we were talking about this at our masterminds, but just on a sort of fitness and wellness journey. And actually, thanks to your suggestion, I did hire a personal trainer back in August. And so I've been working with her since then. And so anyway, anything that you're going to do consistently or building a habit,
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (13:11)
Mm -hmm.
Stephanie Skryzowski (13:25)
Um, something for me is like making sure that the systems are set up to help me be consistent basically. So like with the work project I mentioned and all of this outreach and partnership building, I have it in my project management system so that every single week, um, a new task pops up. That's like reach out to 10 organizations. And so I checked that off. And once I've done it that week,
it repopulates for the next week automatically. And so it's always top of mind. I'm not going to forget about it. And so it's not something I have to use brain space for, which is like huge. How can we make these consistent actions, these habits really easy for ourselves? And so using a tool, a software tool that I'm already using for other things is one way that I have done that. And then, you know, again, sort of parallel thinking about my fitness journey and, and
thinking about wellness and this personal trainer. Her appointments, my appointments with her, go into my calendar. I am starting to look at them, or not starting to, I have really looked at them as like, that's what can't move. Other things can move around it, but that's the appointment that cannot move. I think we all, in our calendar, sort of in our head, there are some appointments or some meetings that we're like, oh, that one has to stay, but like, okay, let me shuffle some other things around.
And that's how I look at the personal training appointments. Like those are the ones that have to stay. If I have to move something else, I will because this is what's really important. And so I think like having that priority mindset for whatever consistent habit you're trying to build, as well as, you know, setting up your systems and things so that they're working for you. And again, making it easy for yourself. And he talks about that in Atomic Habits too. This is very good timing because I'm like almost done with -
with reading the book right now so all of this stuff is like popping up fresh in my brain again.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (15:23)
Yes, I love that. And exercise is one of the things that I was thinking about when I was thinking about our conversation for today, right? Because I think exercise is one of those things we might have a goal in mind for why we're exercising, but it's also a habit that we don't necessarily see immediate results for, right? Like maybe after your workout, you get energy or you feel better. That might be an immediate or you have a sense of accomplishment.
but some of the other longer term goals that people have for exercising, you don't see them right away. And so it can be discouraging if you don't see those results, but being able to say, I know that each and every time that I achieve this smaller daily task or the smaller daily goal, I'm moving in the right direction.
Stephanie Skryzowski (16:09)
Mm -hmm. And I think too, like this was not meant to be an atomic habits conversation, but again, top of mind right now. But what he mentions in the book as well is like, if your goal is like this number measurement of something. And so maybe that's like, I want to lose 20 pounds, which my initial fitness goal was related to weight loss. And it just sort of struck me.
a few months into my like, you know, renewed fitness journey, that like, actually that's not my goal. Like that is a byproduct of me just being healthier, but like the actual weight loss is not my goal. And that felt like such a, such a weight lifted because like you're saying, I mean, I could work out every single day this week and maybe the scale is not going to move at all. And like, how discouraging is that? All I'm going to want to do is like,
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (17:02)
Mm -hmm
Stephanie Skryzowski (17:04)
go eat a giant cheeseburger because I'm sad. Like that's not helping me at all. And so taking away that like number goal has helped me, I think, stay more consistent because the goal is so much bigger than a number on a scale. And like thinking about the work project, if I had set the goal as like, okay, I want a hundred new people in my online course through these partnerships every single month, I think I would get super discouraged because...
That's not happening. The partnerships that we are building take more time than that. It's a much deeper relationship. Things are shaping, you know, sort of shaping up much differently than I had initially intended, but I'm still getting results that I want, but they're not tied to whatever that original number would be. And so I think that's just a huge mindset shift because often we're like, well, that's miserable. So like, that should be my goal, but -
It's actually quite discouraging to have that like specific number.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (18:04)
Yeah, well, and it's also about, I'm thinking about the example you're giving about what is in my control versus what is not in my control, right? Like, is it completely in my control to lose 20 pounds? Maybe not. Is it completely in my control to get 10 new partnerships? Maybe not, right? Because there are variables that are outside of my control in that, right? The timing for a company, their finances, or whether or not they already have other...
Stephanie Skryzowski (18:23)
Mm -hmm.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (18:33)
people in those roles, that part is not in my control, but it is in my control to reach out.
Stephanie Skryzowski (18:39)
Yes. That's such a good distinction too. Yeah. I love that. I love that. And I think that helps keep the motivation high. Like let's do what we can and the results are, they're going to be what they are, but love that. Good distinction.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (18:55)
So let me ask you, you work with nonprofits on their finances, their bookkeeping, their accounting, their forecasting, all the things, right? What are, as we're talking about these small habits, right? And maybe finances, what are some small habits that you think nonprofits or even business owners can engage in to help them meet their bigger goals with their company's finances?
Stephanie Skryzowski (19:23)
Yes, that's such a good question. And this is definitely applicable to business owners, to freelancers, to entrepreneurs, to nonprofits, to anybody who's responsible for any type of finances. But I would say, yeah, some small consistent actions. I always recommend looking at your bank balance every single day. It just keeps your money at the top of your mind. And...
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (19:26)
you
Stephanie Skryzowski (19:50)
It's not necessarily to check for fraud or anything. Although you certainly can, it's more just to be like, okay, just keeping your money in the top of your mind. So that's a daily action. A weekly action might be, let's see, I would say I more think about monthly actions, honestly. So monthly actions are making sure that all of your bookkeeping is done, whether that's by you or by somebody else that you hire in your business or your organization.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (19:58)
you
Stephanie Skryzowski (20:18)
And then looking at your numbers, looking at your financial statements and understanding how much revenue did we bring in last month from which sources? How much did we spend? Is it trending upwards? Is it trending downwards? And really understanding the way that money is flowing into and out of your accounts is huge. And so that is a monthly small action that's really, really important.
And then I would say the other monthly action, sort of small consistent habit that we work on with all of our clients and I also really recommend is looking into the future. And so when we're looking at our financial statements, that's looking at what's already happened. We can't change that anymore. When we look at our profit and loss statement for last month, what's done is done. It is what it is. But what we can do is we can look into the future and try and predict.
how much revenue is gonna come in every single month, how much expenses are gonna go out the door every single month. And that gives us an idea of like, where some gaps might be. Are there gonna be peaks? Are there gonna be valleys in our cash flow so that we can make decisions today so that we don't have a cash crunch later on or so that we're not surprised later on if we have like a not so great month. And so those three things, looking at your bank balance every single day,
looking at your financials every month and looking at a forecast, looking into the future of your finances every single month. Those consistent actions add up big time. It's more like if you don't do them, like you could really find yourself in trouble very quickly. But if you do do them, you can make such better, smarter decisions, more strategic decisions when it comes to your money.
When it comes to business growth or organization growth, you just have so much more power when you are sitting with your numbers on a consistent basis.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (22:17)
I love that. Now Stephanie, your podcast is about prosperous nonprofits. And so when you think about that idea of prosperous nonprofits or even a prosperous business, what is it that comes to mind for you?
Stephanie Skryzowski (22:35)
Yeah. So on my podcast, I ask all of my guests, what does a prosperous nonprofit look like to you? And I get really a variety of answers and largely they're little to do with money. I would say if I was answering this, this could be a good episode for my podcast is me answering the question because I don't think I usually do. So thank you for that.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (22:57)
You
Stephanie Skryzowski (23:01)
I would say when I'm thinking about a prosperous nonprofit, we have a cash reserve. So we've got three to six months of cash in the bank that are going to help us weather any storm or any valleys in our cash flow. So we have a cash reserve and we have a team that understands the value of managing your finances really well.
and we're looking at the financial statements every single month, and we have a strong forecast so we can see what's coming and make really smart decisions. And so, you know, we work with a lot of organizations, you know, they do care about their numbers, but we talk to some potential clients and you can tell they kind of like just don't care and they're hiring us or they want to hire us because they feel like they have to, they just want to check a box. Like, yeah, we need a finance team because...
somebody's got to do the budget, somebody has to file our tax return, and that's pretty much it. That's not really our ideal client. We want to work with people who like understands the power of your numbers and how they can really help shape and grow your organization and your impact. And so I think a prosperous nonprofit and really any prosperous organization, whether a nonprofit or a business, is a team leadership that really understands how important
important financial management is to the strength, the growth, the sustainability of your company.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (24:29)
Yeah. And I will just say our office, we work with a fractional CFO company who also does our bookkeeping. And I cannot tell you how, I mean, you know, cause this is the work that you do, but at least for me as the business owner, it is so helpful to have that team there because when these questions come up about can we spend money on this or even compensation? And I'm like, I don't know. Like I'm the money person. Like I'm a therapist. I like people. I like the relational side of things.
The numbers are not my love, they're also not my strength. And so it is so helpful to have someone that I can go to and say, hey, this is a question that's coming up or hey, can we do this? And someone can just very quickly and easily give me an objective answer or show me the objective data when I am not the person who's gonna put together a spreadsheet or any type of dashboard, but they're gonna do all those things for me.
Stephanie Skryzowski (25:25)
Mm -hmm.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (25:28)
And it's just been so helpful. So I know that the work that you're doing with your nonprofits, I am just sure that it takes such a big weight off their shoulder.
Stephanie Skryzowski (25:37)
Yeah, 100%. And you know what? We're actually, for my company, we are looking for a fractional CFO for ourselves because it's like, you know, you need that outside perspective. I feel like so, yes, even a company that provides CFO services to other organizations, we are also looking for a fractional CFO. So yeah, I think there's huge value in bringing in outside expertise when it comes to your finances or really anything for sure.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (25:49)
Mm -hmm.
Now, is there anything else, Stephanie, that's coming to your mind that we missed around habits or creating small steps every day consistently?
Stephanie Skryzowski (26:18)
Let's see. I mean, without reciting the entire Atomic Cabbage book. No, you know, I think what has been helpful to me is it's a lot of mindset stuff and it's a lot of like almost like playing little tricks with your mind. But one thing that I have always told myself, especially when it comes to not necessarily the project example that I was talking about, but when it comes to fitness or when it comes to
eating healthier or other habits, a lot around wellness, honestly, that I've been working on. One time or one minute or one something is better than zero. I always tell myself that. If I only have 10 minutes to go walk on the treadmill today, well, 10 is better than zero. Or this week, if I only took my vitamins once and instead of beating myself up about it,
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (27:01)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Stephanie Skryzowski (27:14)
you forget your vitamin six state? Once is better than zero. And so I think like, you mentioned perfectionism before and we want to be perfect. We want to like…
not break the streak, right? Create the streak and not break the streak. But I think that if we can try and shed a little bit of that perfectionism and just remind ourselves, like, one time is better than zero times, like $1 is better than $0, whatever it is, whatever you're working on, that one little thing that you do, even if you don't do it the next day or even if you skip a few days, one is better than zero. So it's so much of a mindset thing. And I would definitely, again, recommend Atomic Capits for this topic.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (27:40)
Hmm?
Stephanie Skryzowski (27:56)
for sure. But yeah, that's what I would say. Where
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (28:01)
I know that you are a big
about really big dreams that you have even for your practice and really big dreams that you have for your family. And so I ask everybody who comes on here is what is a big dream that you have right now?
Mm -hmm.
Stephanie Skryzowski (28:23)
I have a lot of them. I think my biggest dream right now, well, one of them, this is a work -related dream, but my biggest dream right now is to get a book deal for a book that I'm writing, maybe multiple books that I'm writing.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (28:41)
Stephanie and I hope people are listening. I hope, you know, I think putting it out there, sometimes people hear it and they're like, oh, well, that's what I do. And that sounds really interesting.
Stephanie Skryzowski (28:49)
Yes. Yes. Any book agents who want to represent me, reach out. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, who knows how it will evolve, but yeah, the title of the book right now is called Do Good and Prosper.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (28:56)
Are you open to sharing the general idea? Is that like open?
Stephanie Skryzowski (29:09)
And it is for people who want to do good work in their career, like you're doing, like my company is doing, maybe nonprofit workers or teachers, anyone who's doing good in their work, but also wants to prosper. Because I feel like I've just seen so many people, especially in the nonprofit sector, martyring themselves to the mission of their organization, and they are not living a prosperous life.
And I don't mean just financial prosperity. In the book, I have eight different types of prosperity. And so readers will be able to sort of assess where they are in terms of like, how prosperous am I feeling right now? And it'll walk them through the eight different types of prosperity, hopefully with an end result of feeling like, okay, now I have some action items that I can take to help me feel like, yes, I can have this amazing do good career as well as live a really prosperous, thriving life.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (30:04)
I love that Stephanie and I'm so glad that you can be on here today to talk with us and so if anyone is looking to connect with you how can they find you?
Stephanie Skryzowski (30:10)
Yeah, so our website is 100 like the number.
degreesconsulting .com. And so we've got a contact form on there. That would be a great place to reach out. You can also find me on Instagram and on LinkedIn at Stephanie Skryzowski. I think that would be a great place to start. And I will say if you are responsible for money management in some way, shape or form, whether you work for a nonprofit, you own a small business, or you're working inside a business and you have responsibility for finances, I do have a
forecasting template that I'd be happy to share. It's just at 100degreesconsulting .com slash cash. And that will, you know, now you don't have to stare at a blank spreadsheet like, how do I do this? So it's a forecast template that will help you build that consistent action of spending time with your finances. Awesome.
Melissa Wesner, (she/her) LCPC (31:08)
I love that. And we will include all of that information in our show notes so people can connect with you. Thank you for joining us, Stephanie.
Stephanie Skryzowski (31:17)
Thank you so much for having me.