Speakerbox Media frees creatives to work in their zone of genius with BILL

Sarah Smith believes everyone should be able to operate in their ‘zone of genius’—that sweet spot where natural talent meets passionate purpose. It's more than just a business philosophy for the co-founder and CEO of Speakerbox Media. It's the driving force behind everything her podcasting production company does.

"My husband, who's creative and brilliant, felt stifled in traditional corporate settings," Sarah reflects. "So many creative people share that struggle, and it just isn't fair. Everyone should be able to work the way they work best and make a living doing it."

This conviction led Sarah and her husband, Ray Smith, to launch Speakerbox Media in 2018, transforming an award-winning final project from business school into a thriving podcast production agency. Today, their team helps Fortune 500 companies and B2B tech brands turn their stories into sales through high-quality audio and video content.

"If you create your best work in your pajamas at 11 o'clock at night, if that's your 'zone of genius,' that's great with us," Sarah says. "We don't care how our team gets it done or when they get it done. We just want to support them in being able to do their best work."

But Sarah herself was drowning in manual financial systems, far from her own zone of genius.

Challenge: When managing bills is a roadblock to growth

As Speakerbox Media grew from a two-person startup in a spare bedroom to a distributed team serving clients nationwide, Sarah found herself trapped in a frustrating paradox. The very growth she'd worked so hard to achieve was pulling her away from the strategic work that drove that growth in the first place.

"I remember literally having stacks of receipts and an overflowing inbox," Sarah recalls. "My co-founder kept looking at it like, 'Are you going to get to those?' I was staying up nights plugging in receipts, doing manual data entry. It was painful, and worse, I was exhausted from the wrong type of work. There's nothing in my zone of genius that involves manually entering bills."

The challenges multiplied as the team expanded. Managing expenses for remote contractors across different markets became increasingly complex, and manual systems that once took a few hours were now consuming entire days that should have been spent on strategic growth and client connections.

"I had an accounting firm that put everything in QuickBooks, but I wouldn't know where we were until 30 days later," Sarah explains. "When you're scaling, you need to know right now. Managing cash flow is make-or-break, and that real-time data just wasn't there."

Solution: BILL Spend & Expense brings clarity and control

In 2022, Sarah discovered BILL Spend & Expense (formerly, Divvy) and immediately recognized its potential to transform their financial operations. "At first I was skeptical—BILL seemed too good to be true," Sarah admits. "You're going to help me create budgets? I get virtual cards? I'll be able to see spend in real time?"

The implementation delivered on every promise and more.

"One of the biggest things for us as a remote team is being able to give producers in different markets their own virtual cards," Sarah explains. "I can allocate their budgets, and they're able to spend within their project limits. No more reimbursement delays, no more out-of-pocket expenses. They have the autonomy they need to do their jobs."

The real-time visibility transformed the way Sarah can manage the business. "Before BILL, I was flying blind, with data that was always 30 days behind. Now, I know exactly where we are at any moment. If we're approaching our 30% expense target, I see it coming. I can make adjustments in real time instead of finding out a month later that we overspent."

For the creative team, the experience was refreshingly simple. "Everyone loves that they can just snap a picture of their receipt and they're done," Sarah says. "BILL automatically matches receipts to transactions and puts them in the right categories. My team members are even able to tag expenses to specific campaigns or events, which gives us incredible visibility into project profitability."

The platform's security features also proved their worth in an unexpected way. "We had a fraud issue in which our card information was compromised," Sarah recalls. "Because it was a virtual card, our operations manager saw the fraudulent charges immediately and froze the card. We were able to mitigate the damage right away. With traditional cards, we might not have caught it for days or weeks."

“Before BILL, I was flying blind, with data that was always 30 days behind. Now, I know exactly where we are at any moment. I can make adjustments in real time instead of finding out a month later that we overspent.”

Results: Bringing the team back to their 'zone of genius' 

The impact of BILL Spend & Expense on Speakerbox Media's operations has been transformative. What once consumed days now takes hours, freeing Sarah and her team to focus on what they do best: creating exceptional content for their clients.

"Before BILL, I had a full-time assistant spending 30 hours a week on expense management," Sarah reveals. "That was cut in half immediately. We saw a 50% increase in productivity in receipt management and approvals alone."

The efficiency gains have translated directly to the bottom line. Speakerbox Media has consistently maintained its target of 20% profitability while scaling to seven figures in annual revenue, and BILL has helped Speakerbox Media stay true to its founding principle.

"Other tools try to become all-in-one solutions, and because of that, they lack the depth in doing the thing you originally wanted them to do really well," Sarah emphasizes. "BILL has its own zone of genius in automating financial systems, and that helps us stay in ours."

Summary: Protecting the creative spark while scaling sustainably

For Speakerbox Media, BILL Spend & Expense represents more than a financial tool—it's a guardian of their creative mission. By automating the manual processes that once consumed Sarah's nights and weekends, BILL has helped the company scale from $500 in startup capital to seven figures while maintaining the flexibility and creative freedom that defines their culture.

"When you run out of money, the game is over," Sarah reflects. "So many great companies go under that way. BILL helps us be proactive—showing us our cash flow moment by moment, helping us maintain control and giving us the best shot to succeed."

“Before BILL, I had a full-time assistant spending 30 hours a week on expense management. That was cut in half immediately. We saw a 50% increase in productivity in receipt management and approvals alone.”