Susan sits down with leadership and culture consultant Melissa Carson to tackle a challenge so many entrepreneurs face: digital tool sprawl.

Together, they unpack the overwhelm caused by scattered systems and explore how creating a single source of truth—your personal data warehouse—can unlock mental clarity and free up energy for more meaningful work.

Melissa shares her struggles with multiple overlapping tools (Google, Microsoft, Airtable, and more) and the mental load of duplicated content workflows. Susan guides her through the process of consolidating tools, designing for ease, and building a system that actually supports her business rather than drains it.

Whether you’re drowning in Google Docs, lost in Notion, or stuck juggling endless spreadsheets, this episode offers a roadmap to a calmer, more intentional business setup.

What You’ll Learn

• How a “personal data warehouse” can transform your content and client operations
• Why choosing the right tool isn’t about features, but about how it feels and supports your brain
• The power of building a single source of truth to reduce decision fatigue
• How to leverage automation to reclaim time and mental energy
• Practical first steps to start consolidating and simplify your systems

Learn More About Melissa

• Canopy Strategies Website
• Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn

Learn More About Susan

• Beyond Margins website
• Connect on LinkedIn

• (00:00) - The Power of a Centralized Digital Brain
• (01:51) - Meet Melissa Carson: A Case Study in Digital Overwhelm
• (02:30) - Diagnosing the Bottlenecks: Tools and Redundancies
• (04:37) - Strategies for Building a Personal Data Warehouse
• (21:37) - Consolidation and Efficiency: Steps to a Calmer Business

• Find out more about Calmer Brain by grabbing a copy of the Beyond Margins Services Guide
• Apply to be a guest on a future live diagnosis episode of Calm is the New KPI