The Disappearing Boss

I write about how to empower your team with customer-centred processes so you can overcome your fear of disruption and take breaks from your business with complete peace of mind.

Welcome to The Disappearing Boss!

A fortnightly newsletter that shares how to empower your team with customer-centred processes so you can overcome your fear of disruption and take breaks from your business with complete peace of mind.

Who's The Disappearing Boss for?

The Disappearing Boss is for small business employers with a team of up to 10 people who:

  • Need to leave their business to do something else for a while, and want to be sure there's a business to come back to.
  • Want to see their business continue to thrive after their retirement (and maybe even pay them a pension)
  • Want to enjoy holidays with their family without checking emails, or being interrupted.

The Disappearing Boss is a step-by-step guide to empowering your team through customer-centred processes, that leaves you free to step away from the day-to-day running, and leaves your team free to deliver on your business promises with personality, creativity and flair.

In each issue we'll build one customer-centred process for your business, using a skeleton process you can start from and customise to suit your unique Promise of Value, along side real-life examples you can learn from.

But that's not all, I'll also show you how by thinking differently about what a business is, and the parts people play in making it happen, you can go way beyond the ability to simply take worry-free breaks, and find new ways to build your business into a valuable and lasting legacy.

Who am I?

I'm Kirsten Gibbs, and I spent my entire corporate career avoiding two things:

  • Being told what to do
  • Telling other people what to do

And over decades of working with micro-business owners of all kinds I've perfected a way to make sure that what needs to get done can get done - without the need for anyone to give or take orders.

I've helped micro-business employers like you get unstuck from their business and find new freedom:

  • from dreading taking a break to enjoying a month on the other side of the world.
  • from thinking of selling up, to turning their business into a successful boutique franchise.
  • from struggling to turn around their newly-acquired business to working part-time (and then selling it for twice the usual multiple).
  • from spending all their time feeding the team with work, to becoming a futurist thinker, author and podcaster, alongside their thriving business.

My promise to you

  • I'll never miss a fortnight. You'll always have something new to work on that will move your business forward.
  • You'll get actionable insights and practical exercises that build step-by-step into a complete framework for building a customer-centred business that runs itself.
  • I'll give you milestones along the way, so you can measure progress by the breaks you take - from a short break of maybe just a couple of days, through longer and longer breaks until you can take a full sabbatical.

Why write The Disappearing Boss?

Because if humanity is to make it safely and happily through the Anthopocene, we need to change the way we do business.

And I believe small, customer-centred businesses like you, like those I work with every day are the ones who'll do that.

But only if everyone in them can thrive as a human being.

The Disappearing Boss

I write about how to empower your team with customer-centred processes so you can overcome your fear of disruption and take breaks from your business with complete peace of mind.