Ops On Top w/ Veronica Yanhs

0:00:01

There we are. Hello, everyone. We are live. I am Briar Harvey. This is the neurodiversity media network. Today, we got ops on top y'all. This is truly I'm so excited. It's a short series. I've only got four more with you.

0:00:22

So we're gonna make the most of it. Yes. Day? Quality over quantity. Right? Except for food? Well, right. And even then even then, it depends. Okay. We're talking about people today.

0:00:41

The non sexy part of operations that includes people management. So set the scene for us first. When you talk about people, what does it mean to you? Yeah. Ultimately, it's exactly what I mean. Like, the people that are supporting the business. People who are at the end of the day humans who are emotional, multifaceted, human beings that have ultimately good intentions. And we want to be able to honor them, capture what they need to thrive, not just survive, and then ultimately build systems that allow them to, as the title of this episode is called tag teaming, playing together so that your business runs. So that money making is easier so that there's no balls drops in batons are passed well. And also so that Work is done effectively and efficiently because productivity means nothing if quality of life is not honored. Or the work quality is high.

0:02:00

So let's start from the top. How do we make things operationally people centric Okay. This is gonna sound like such a cop out answer, but it's so overlooked. Honestly, it is. The first thing we literally do is you have to switch that perspective. If you prioritize profit over people, or something else, like, another another keyword we use a lot is presence. Like, your marketing operations, like if you prioritize your marketing over your people, nothing is ever going to work because at the end of the day, your business isn't built. On only automations or robots. You need the people there with that nuanced human touch that makes a business really successful. So the first step you have to do is just like you switch that mindset. How do I create a people first and pleasure filled work environment. So that's like I thought you said it's boring.

0:03:06

And the reason why I say this is because most people don't think about it. They think about their operations. It's like, oh, here's a system, here's a thing, here's an app, and it all gets typed together. And it neglects the most important part. So first, create that awareness for yourself. And then second, really quickly. Second, talk to your team. And we can talk about it as well. No. That That that involves talking to people, Veronica. We don't do that around here. No, we don't. Just kidding. No. Seriously.

0:03:41

It's like, it's super simple once we think about it, but people often are so focused on the revenue KPIs, making their investors happy, making their clients happy. It's like you forget about who's really there to support this business? Who has that buy in? The people. The people who are doing the work for you have that buy in. So structurally, what does it look like when people come first? Structurally, when it looks it looks like Okay.

0:04:21

The best example I can give you is, you know how people are like, oh my business is my baby? I don't want your business to be like a baby where you have to like wonder if it's going to live to the next day or if you have to like manage it and take care of it. You want your business to actually be a resourceful functioning adult. And how that structure looks like is a little bit different for everybody, but that's why I'm like, how do you turn your business from being something you have to do this all the time, micro managing, being doubtful to I have immense trust. So good operations allows management, CEOs, C Suites, whatever investors to trust that the team, the business, can run on its own, like an adult. And I I I think you've nailed the issue here. It's about trust. I don't trust that anyone is going to love my business the way that I love my business because why would they? I don't trust that even though I've hired these people, that I can just give them things to do that I won't have to, you know, circle back and fix later. This is, I think, a very common mentality. When it comes to trusting the people you're working with. So how do we build trust in Yeah. So when you create good systems and processes within your operations, that creates consistency that creates predictability.

0:06:17

So as an aside, when when people are often like be are often told, you you need to hire. Right? You need to delegate work that you shouldn't be doing. You're the CEO. You shouldn't be working with the clients. Whatever the narrative that fits with your your industry or what your business mentors have told you. And it's like, yeah, your business may be ready to hire or rather you may be rather ready to hire, but is your business. So we're gonna switch that So, like, you may be so excited to, like, delegate things off your plate, hire an assistant, hire a marketing coordinator so that they can take care of your social media or whatever. But it's just, like, if your business is not ready to hire. If you don't have the set expectations in place, for them to execute, you're never going to be able to trust them. So that means that you have to do the work.

0:07:17

This is where that whole kinda slow down the speed up mentality comes, like, imagine if you hired somebody to manage your clients, right, the a client success manager It's like, well, how would they know what that looks like aside from their maybe their experience that their coming in with, but ultimately, you have a set way that you want something done. How do you transfer this knowledge? Other than institutional knowledge to your business, to your team members. And so that's why I'm like good systems create good company culture, good operations creates good communication. And ultimately, good operations creates this amazing collaboration between people that allows them to be resourceful without constantly going back and, like, saying it's the Asprior show and they don't know something. Right.

0:08:13

And we get there good operations through documentation because I can't trust what I don't know. What I can't trust. That's true. Mhmm. That's the most basic thing is to document. And if you wanna elevate that a little bit, so yes. Step one, document your brain. Right? Get get it out of your brain in to something else that could be like a business brain. Your knowledge base is what we like to call it, your business wiki, something. It's a start. Then the second step is to, if you know that this is going to be something that you want to have somebody else take care of, Now it begins now we begin to ask those important questions that often get overlooked like, hey, I want you to be doing this, but is this in your zone of excellence at minimum?

0:09:09

Because good teamwork. Yes, people are willing to bend over backwards for you if they believe in your mission. I've seen it. I have team members that I'm just like, why are you still with me? They're like, we believe in what business laid bare does. We're here. Yes.

0:09:25

It's not always fun all the time. And sometimes, like, revenue sucks because of we're responding to whatever it is we're responding to in the in the world. But it's just like at the end of the day, we know that this too. She'll pass and we're here with you. And I'm just like, how did I get so lucky? And they're like, well, because you you care about us as people. You asked us, what is it that we love to do? And you asked for consent. Like, if there is something that we might not know how to do it, don't wanna do it. It's like, you still ask us because we know that if we don't do it, you will. So it's not like you're above it.

0:10:03

So ultimately, it's about, like, understanding what what people care about, what your team members value, what are their core values, does it align with your core values and your business's core values? What are their zones of genius? When I talk about a zone of genius versus a zone of excellence, like, zone of excellence to me is like, you're good at something. You're really, really good at it. But you don't really love it. You're just really good at it because you're just good at it. Zone of genius then correct me if I'm wrong. It's almost like, time doesn't exist. Like, how did three hours suddenly go by? But yet, you didn't feel like you did work at all, and it rejuvenates you more than it depletes you, and it feels like its second nature.

0:10:47

And I think this is particularly difficult when you are neurodivergent because a lot of us are good at a lot of things. We hyper focus. We learn the thing until we can do the thing. But that doesn't mean that we love the thing. And I look at the trajectory of my business as I mean, there were a lot of things I did that I was really good at, and it took me to here to figure out what it is I actually loved.

0:11:24

So when we are building a business that centers people and puts them into their zone of genius. What do we do with the stuff that isn't in someone's zone of genius? Should we hire out should we distribute the task? Talk me through how that works a little bit. Yeah. And there's no, like, cut and dry answer. And the reason why this is so important in terms of talking about people's zones of genius is I come from a background. I'm Chinese, where I was it was hammered into me to improve my weaknesses. But I am more like, why don't we cultivate and make better your strengths? So with that in mind, when it comes to then something that's not as pleasurable, we we we have a conversation. Gosh, it's just like, that's all I that's like my answer for everything is to have a conversation, like, say, like, Michaela and I my amazing operations manager.

0:12:36

Like, she some she helps out with content creation. Right? But she likes she likes it and she's great at it. But we know that right now we're setting up a process. We know that we don't like it. It's not our where we should be. Yes. Creating content is where we should be, but, like, social media stuff. That can be delegated to somebody else. We both agreed upon that. But right now, we're setting the standards.

0:13:00

Like, she just created this massive process match and then turn that process map into repeatable tasks because we set the standards on what we would like for when we do find that social media person. To come in. And because she created that amazing process map of, like, what happens and then what, and how do we tie this into, okay, If I have this blog post task in our project management app called ClickUp, we love ClickUp. We have, like, a custom field that says, is there, like, a social media content created with it. Because she did some research and was like, there should be all these social media content, bite sized pieces supporting this content. So she's like, okay. Here's what we should do. Here is the task template that gets duplicated every time it's created. So she doesn't have to manually add them in. And it makes our work easier. It makes our job easier. It makes her dislike it a little bit less because there's process. And she can, like, Zoom through because we have templates in Canvas, everything, to make the work palatable at that minimum.

0:14:03

I mean, like I said, business is not all fun fun and sunshine. Like, you know, we still do things to make it work because we know the end goal. So for us, we have the conversation of keeping it in house so that we can tighten this process up process up from a to z, and then when we're ready to delegate and bring somebody else on. We know what their job descriptions are gonna look like. They already have systems and processes so that they don't have to go from negative to, like, baseline, like, they could just hit the ground running. So I don't know if that even answered anything, but I'm just a jazzy little lessons up to follow on that train. They also have ownership because if I come in where a system already exists. And it's been handed to me with the acknowledgement of this is what we have so far learn it, and then run with it. I have the ability to say, this works here, but I'd like to switch this over here and see how that goes. And then I've been able to claim this thing as my own, which is I think essential for getting buy in from people new in an organization.

0:15:24

Ownership is everything. When people show up to an organization, and I'm particularly talking about small and micro businesses like the ones we have. When they care and when they're just not here to just get only a paycheck, there is just this different vibe, this energy that shows up. And it's really hard to explain until you've experienced it because they're more proactive. They are more willing to put the work in because they know that the work they like, they are proud of the work. So they're like, this is not my best work. They're like, okay. This is how I can improve upon that. It's like, you can't force people. Okay. You could, but it's like forcing that type of ownership and that buy in never is going to be successful. And so when you honor people and say, hey, I know things are rough or hey, if I need to do research and here's the type of research I'm needing in the next two weeks, someone to do deep dive into this tech, this new tech that our client uses that we don't really know about, versus, oh, I'm thinking about writing grants, who wants to take care of what and why? Terry's like, I'm all in the tech. I love deep diving into Tech Mahayla's like, I wanna do the grants. It's like, okay. I gave them an option. I'm like, it has to be done. And I'm like, okay. But then what can I help with?

0:16:54

So when you treat people with dignity, I mean, this I feel like this conversation sure doesn't always talk about operations, but it's just like, when you treat people, how you want to be treated, or how you believe they should be treated in a best way. Like, it pays back, like, hundred folds at minimum. And you say it's not operationally related, and I argue that it completely is. Because if you don't have procedures for how you treat people. If they're isn't an institutionalized culture, then this stuff isn't just standard. And you take it for granted in your business because you have deliberately constructed it this way. You should come and listen to me in faith. Talk about business culture when it's not done. Right? Right?

0:18:02

So I think that Centering people in your operations allows you to build something with longevity? Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Because if we're going to create something that matters. It's not just gonna be like a quick viral moment. It requires like, a sustainable way to see that result happen, but also a sustainable input into making that happen. Because if you burn out, then that means that we didn't do a good job, honoring the people's needs to succeed.

0:18:46

And I don't get it right a hundred percent of the time. I have burned out myself in the past, but I would say with this iteration of my business that I restarted, in the beginning of twenty twenty. Like, when the going gets tough, it's not the same feeling because I'm just like, oh, I've centered the systems, I've created the support I need from my business, from my team members to allow me to continue to persevere. Like, resilience, you know, is a good and bad thing sometimes. But it's just like, I believe in this business so much. I'm doing I'm gonna do whatever it takes to succeed. In a way that aligns with my core values.

0:19:24

And to be able to share that with team members, like, one day Mikaela was like, I was updating some things and click up. And if you are in the same task, in the same description with different people, I'm like, Mikayla, what are you doing And she's like, oh, I just wanted to get this done because I know that it's gonna make your day so much easier tomorrow. And my day was kind of off because, like, I don't micro manage my team member's time. I'm like, you can I'm like, I don't care if you do pot, whatever. It's like, if you have to chat with the client, just be professional. Be yourself. Be professional. The type of BLB expects. And get your job done whenever. So, like, some people are, like, night out, so I don't expect them to work, like, a nine to five unless we really need to, like, meet. But, like, Makayla's, like, oh, yeah. I had a rough day today because just needed to deal with my kids, so I just wanna work now. And I'm in hyper focused mode, so I'll talk to you later. Like, okay. Why? So I have to let them be adults and ride, meet their time.

0:20:23

This is, I think, part of culture is believing that the people that we are paying money to are going to show up in the way that we want them to. What do we do to build this when it hasn't existed before? When it hasn't existed before, the easiest thing because when you start out in a business in any event, oftentimes it's like the me or if you have a co founder. And then when it when you start to bring in team members, that's when it moves into the we. So the whole transition from me to we to eventually they isn't always easy.

0:21:11

But the easiest thing that you can do is we talked about this documenting and creating processes, but build yourself like a road map of where you intend the business to go, because because if you have no goal and even I'm not saying, like, ten years down the line, maybe even, like, yearly milestones if you wanna think of it that way, This then allows you to work back to say, okay. To get from, like, here to this first milestone, what do I need? So this is where I have this, like, exercise where if I draw myself in the center of a piece of paper, and I draw, like, say, like, nine or ten circles around it. It's like, what do I not need to be doing or what do I need to be done by other people that will allow me to stay in my zone of genius, excellence at minimum, and get us from here to that milestone as efficiently and effectively as possible. So things like, I shouldn't be writing my own copy because I will spend like ten years trying to attempt one paragraph and it's mediocre at best. So that's a waste of my time. So I wrote copywriting. I also said calendar management because sometimes I'm moving so fast, but, like, I'm just, like, I put something on the calendar for a meeting, but then, like, a meeting link didn't get added because I was busy working with the client. We've since solved that.

0:22:30

But just, like, just write down all the things that you need support on. And this is where, instead of finding, like, this is where I think hiring sometimes goes wrong. People are like, oh, I know that I need to hire a marketing manager. I was like, what does that mean? To you. I don't know. I just I I people are telling me I need a marketing manager. I'm like, great.

0:22:49

So then when you actually write down the tasks, so instead of hiring for a role, you're hiding hiring for a group of tasks, you're creating your own job description, your own unicorn or your own perfect team member that you're like, oh, I need this person. I don't know what their title is to do this, this, this, this, this, and that. And therefore, you're setting good boundaries. Right? And, yes, your job a job description and responsibilities can change, at least. That's what you know you're going to be hiring for. So before you can even get to hiring, you need to know yourself What does your dream team look like? And I think that's key in small and micro businesses. Because otherwise, you're going to attempt to hire someone based on title and not specifically.

0:23:45

This is this is something I have heard Dusty complain about so many times. So our friend Dusty Arab is a fractional marketing chief chief marketing officer. She does this fractionally. She gets hired by companies to come in and be the chief marketer in charge, only how many of them actually know what that means? Right? Very few of them. It's it's it's taken Dusty a long time to clarify to people that marketing only works when everything else is already in place, And yet marketing tasks are the things that many micro business owners don't like to do So it's the thing that they wanna get rid of first. But that doesn't necessarily mean you need a chief marketing officer, either? No. It does it.

0:24:53

And we'll talk about this in our next episode because, like, if marketing tasks are so important to you, then let's just play devil's advocate. So what happens when all those marketing tasks one get taken care of? And then the the as a result of those tasks, constantly posting on social, constantly networking, affiliates, whatever it is, whatever all that works. And then the slew of customers and buyers and clients come your way, are you and your team going to be able to handle it? And if the answer is yes, but it's like we'll do anything to make it happen, then that means that that's not really a yes. It has to be can you handle it? And is it going to be pleasurable for everyone? Which is why we're talking about what we're talking about today because you have to be able to create internal system, the non sexy stuff, which as an aside and not Ryan, I talked chat about this before the podcast episode started.

0:25:51

Not everybody believes that the business the stuff that we're talking about, the people side, the back end, the project management, the knowledge management, how teams communicate. With each other. I've had investors tell me that they're like, that's not sexy. Like, why would we want to invest in a company, like, business late there to get all that ready? And I'm just like, I'm not in the business of having to convince people anymore, but rather to awareness shift. And so I was happy that I put out my first no for an investor because we're trying to get them to hire us so that we can operationalize their portfolio companies.

0:26:25

But I was just like, oh, if investors are thinking about this too and also saying it's not sexy and it's like the it's not contributing to the bottom line. It's like this pervasive negative, negative. It's what's fueling businesses, whether you are a nonprofit or an agency or an e commerce. It doesn't matter. It's what's feeling people to not care about people, their teeth, as much as they should. And I think This is institutionalized. Right? That there is a lot of belief that And and we talked about this in the first episode. There's a lot of belief that it's the marketing that's not working or the sales that's not working. When in fact, it's your operations that aren't working. And when you are unwilling as a business to prioritize your operations, it's going to feel like everything else is the problem. Oh, yeah. That is that is such a great thing to say because then it leads me to, well, if you keep if you're like, okay, if you're automatically hot provide this so much, what is it that I can actually do? Here are some actual things that you can think about and do.

0:27:47

So one, begin that awareness shift that your people are important. Like, truly, And by putting your money where your mouth is, talk to them. Ask them questions like hey, what's going well for you? What's not going so well? What do you need to make your job easier or you know, have you fall in love with your job more here. What are your zones of excellences? What are your zone what is your zone of genius? What do you need help with. I just talk to them as a person. So that's step number two.

0:28:24

Step number three, this is where we talked about documentation. Take all the information that you have in your business. I know this is nonstop. Right? It's ongoing. But at least take that information they shared document that, put that somewhere. Like my team and I on our Slack channel, we have a work your strength. Slack channel where we talk about things like this. Oh, I can't build something from nothing. So I kinda like, the first time, so I kinda need, like, a help getting there. But then after I do it once, I can do it again. Or, hey, I love hyperfocusing, so these I like working in chunks of time or I love adding extra subtasks to click up so that when I check them off, I get like a high off of them. Little things like this are worth documenting and matter. So not not just how do we create social media content, but also document like how your team thrives.

0:29:26

And then I think the next important thing is to, like, look at your project management. Right? That's an internal operations thing that we don't we didn't really talk about this episode, but it's if it's hard managing tasks, and it shouldn't be. That means that your project management needs to be elevated because this is where people are actually taking the time to do the work. This needs to be tracked somehow so that it ties into your larger projects or your marketing campaigns so that your project management is kinda like your command center where you know exactly who's over who's overburdened, who's not being utilized as well, who's just sitting there like hanging out. While marketing campaigns are happening at this very moment in prep for, like, your big launch event in quarter three or something. So those are like the things that I think about when it comes to internal operations or your people.

0:30:23

There's some more, but I can I thought I'd stop there? And I think what's key here is under standing how your people lead to profits. Right? So we've reversed the order. You no longer are prioritizing your profits. You're prioritizing your people. But how does knowing my people and knowing their strengths equal profits? Yeah. So when you're able to trust that your team has got you, you as the salesperson or your sales team can boldly go out and sell knowing that you don't have to constantly look back going, can we handle it? Are we on like this rickety, like, stilt? So that it's almost like this energy shift where when you feel like you your you've got your business has got its stuff together. When you have your shift together, when you're team knows what they're doing when they're excited.

0:31:28

It changes how you show up in business. It changes how you show up to your prospects your leads, your prospects and leads that don't even know that they should be your clients or maybe even, like, referral partners. It doesn't matter. Like, the energy shifts. And then it also causes you to think about, okay, if my people have got this, Now, how do I take care of them? Two, which also leads to creating better solutions right, when you make more money in your business and when you have good operations. Hopefully, the money retains itself and profits. Because nobody wants leaky buckets.

0:32:10

So, like, it doesn't matter if you tell me you're a seven plus figure business. It's like, well, what does your profit margins look like? Right? So I think there's just like this domino effect. When you take care of your people, it forces you to show up at a higher caliber as a business owner, as a CEO. And then it ultimately says, hey, if I am showing up in this caliber and I have such this amazing thing, we want people to know about it. So then it forces you to think about your products and your services in an elevated way. And if you have systems and processes support that. It just, like, it constantly scaffolds and builds on each other. Like, it makes sense in my head because I have, like, the spider web of a of a visual going on. But I'm just trying to, like, make it as linear as possible in this, like, short time you and I have together. And it's not linear, but I think that it's easy to see how prioritizing the growth of the people whose wages we pay allow us to bring in more revenue.

0:33:19

Yesterday, the operator and I did a whole hour on the difference between profit and revenue and y'all. Just because your revenue is seven figures, does not mean that your profit is. So when were people focused rather than profit focused, it allows us to build things in a way that scales the revenue without it being bloated and over inflated. Right? There are so many things that we are paying for when we are trying to grub that if we are calculating what that structurally looks like, and our team is supporting us in that, then we're actually able to reach those profit margins that we want.

0:34:19

Like, here's an example. Say, you were told that if you were to be a service based business, you have to be writing these, like, massive proposals that command so that you can get, like, five plus figure contracts. Like, big contracts. And you spend six hours writing each proposal. These are stories that we have had to hear and also fix for our clients. So if you're wasting six hours and there's twenty proposals to write, That means that it's not you as the person or not experiencing the need and the support that you need to be able to thrive in that internal operation side. Right? You are considered in the people as well. And then it also then domino effects into your clients who are also people. Because when I talk about people, it's like who are all the people that experience that that experience your business. It's not just you. It's your prospects, your clients, the people outside. So it's like everybody benefits or doesn't benefit from your systems or lack thereof.

0:35:36

So when you're like, when you are slogging through something like this, it's not profitable. And then it and then we come in and we're just like, well, what if you rewrote the proposal this way or created some sort of a productization approach? So that you're not spending six hours, but instead maybe we clocked her down to, like, thirty minutes. So I'm just looking six hours and thirty minutes, that's a pretty big win, which then because then we were able to minimize what her scope of work was. And that then her team didn't have to, like, be everywhere all at once. So that's how it led to higher profits for them was because We analyze what was not going well, what was her zone of genius, what was her team zone of genius, and we re jigged the offer so that they are now making more money than ever. With ease and not her regret or, like, regrettably sitting there on hour twelve going second proposal out of twenty, done.

0:36:39

And that benefits me as a customer or a client too. If the process is streamlined enough that there is perhaps a template in place for the proposal process. And I can receive that in half an hour after we've had a call because it's just a matter of pushing a few buttons as the client, my experience has become so much better because I feel like if this is working, then the thing that I'm going to pay you money for is also going to be successful. And your team ultimately is like, okay. We're ready to take on whatever it is that comes our way. Right? So if you've, like, not productized your services, and framework your services. It doesn't benefit your team members at the end because now they're probably, like, trying to juggle all these balls at once and Who knows if the balls that they drop inevitably are going to be glass or plastic? What's gonna shatter and what's gonna really hurt the client experience? And so That's why we're, like, if you focus on your internal operations first, get your team working together, like, an actual team instead of, like, a basketball, like, in basketball where they're like, oh, you have to work together as a team, not like five individual players. It's it's true because that affects everything else. From how you proactively plan to how you react to things that just come from left field. Okay. So knowing that I have the ability to structurally figure out what works and what doesn't. And I can talk to my team and I can fix things on the client side.

0:38:38

Why do we not prioritize people more? I actually so I feel like I've talked about this a lot. Right? Like, it's And the reason why I'm saying this is because I'm interested in hearing your answer. I actually wanna hear your answer, but I believe it's because people people have been told so long that they just the big the most important to KPI is revenue. And it is important Right? Revenue is important. That's how the lights get kicked on. But at what cost to the people supporting you? And this is where if you have bad hot operations. This is where the whole, like, retaining talent conversation comes in. If you don't have good operations, you're just allowing amazing people who would probably be so helpful to your business, leave for better things because they're being their needs are being taken care of. They're not working twelve hour days unless they choose to and are inspired to. So I believe those are the reasons why, but I wanna hear yours because you've also been in the ops world. You're fighting behind.

0:39:49

You know, profit and product activity seemed to be the metrics that we care about, and it's really interesting to me how we have institutionalized those things, I think, to the detriment of the stakeholders in our businesses. Stakeholders, you know, your employees the people who also benefit from a successful business. When we prioritize shareholders, though, profit is the only thing that matters. Not how the business is run, not what it does, and not how it benefits people at large. Right? So I think that we have a lot of growth to do here. So much growth. And growth is a great thing because growth means that you're willing to evolve. And if you're here to build something bigger than yourself, how do you actually want to look back on your legacy in this business that you've built?

0:41:08

Am I the type of person that cared about team members and treated them like people made it easy so that if someone miscarried their baby. Like, we've had so many of these stories that clients share with us. Like, thank you for creating these systems and processes for us and helping us do so because I didn't have to choose between baby and business. Right? And that's just part of being human is the human experience. And so that if I were, like, so gung ho about bringing humanity and injecting and prioritizing humanity into your operations because operations like you said what has been tied to productivity, which then to me, I'm, like, thinking, like, assembly line all of a sudden, like, you're just here make all these widgets, get the thing done, goodbye. We'll see you tomorrow. Like, I don't want you to just be another gear in my business because that's not how I believe life should be lived and experienced. I want you to be family. Like, we don't wanna work with clients unless we wanna invite them over to my house kinda thing. So it's like, I don't wanna work with team members that I don't wanna consider as family because that's how important they are to me. I've missed that. Not in that toxic word family way. No. Okay. There's not two, but the best sense of the word fam. Mhmm. Yeah. People who you actually care about and whose material lives and the things that go on in their lives affect yours. I think there's really so I've got a show coming up next month with Joa, Ahern, Sauron.

0:42:51

We're gonna call it fix work. One of the things that we are looking at is that right now, we spend approximately six to nine months of wages to train each new employee that comes into a business. And yet, the average employee retention rate is ten weeks. So we're paying a lot of money to train people that come in and go, oh, oh, no. No. I can't stay here. Sorry. I'm leaving y'all. Do you want me to add another stat to this? Yes, I do.

0:43:31

A study by gallop, the people that are the host of strains finders, which I love because again, straints. They did a study and only twelve percent of the hundreds of people they interviewed said that they had a good onboarding experience that they felt that they were on boarded well. So that means that eighty eight percent of people did not feel that they were onboarded well and set up for success. And I didn't wanna talk about the system because This also can go into so many other areas. But one of the more one of the last systems that we always look at for internal operations is new hire onboarding and training because who wants to feel like a glorified babysitter on the hiring side, who wants to feel like they're not set up for success and that they don't have ownership and their wings are being clipped the new hires. It's like, but you can't talk about this stuff unless you yourself know how your business is run. Because while you're bringing on amazing talent who who are, I'm sure, really really smart.

0:44:38

It's like they still are looking at you, especially in the first few months Right? Is it ten weeks? Right? The first few months to ninety days on how you want them to play within your world? And if you don't know? How are they going to know?

0:44:55

And oftentimes CEOs are blaming their assistance. Like, oh, yeah. I went through, like, my fifth hire this month. Again, someone's story, not mine. And I don't know why they I can't just retain them. And why are they like, why am I so why is my luck so bad? I'm like, You know what? The common denominator? Your log friend. The fish the fish rots from the head, and I just had to say that to him that she's like, oh, oh, I'm like, yeah, we can fix this for you. So that's one of the last systems, though.

0:45:29

And It it is because onboarding is how you know that everything else is working. If your attrition numbers are high, if your retention rate is low, then your onboarding probably doesn't work. But that's not what you need to fix first. You need to go back and look at everything else to center people. And that's what this is right here. How do you center so that when they come into your system, they feel successful. Was that a question, or was that a statement? Because I felt like it was a great statement. And I did wanna interrupt. It is a great statement, and it's a question. How do you center people in your system so that they feel successful?

0:46:26

You begin by talking with them. Again, we don't do that here, Veronica. I'm sorry. I don't do things like normal people. You talk to them because who am I to make an assumption as to what your life experience or lived experiences like? Just tell me, it's so much easier for me instead of guessing and playing twenty questions just say, hey, how is it how how does how is it easy? How what's the easiest way for you to manage all of these tasks that I'm giving you? Oh, well, I thrive really well when I just have a list that I can just, like, blast through or I actually need to see what are all the things that are on my play and also what's coming up so that I can plan and and basically make sure that my energy is always at the best when I show up for you, so I'm not just login. So it allows me to say, oh, I'm gonna do the easy thing here, the harder thing here because I have an appointment on Monday or something.

0:47:24

It's like you just ask people. I know it's like such a cheater answer, and I'm like, well, and I wanna point out too that what's key here is you ask people what they need, and then you may follow through. You follow through. And that is frequently in your project management system. So we have we have that coming up. Right?

0:47:47

We're gonna be talking a little bit about how projects get managed for, like, marketing and profit purpose this. Right? We can. We absolutely like, hey, that's another reason to slot another episode in. Let like, let's just make an episode about that. We can jam on project management and how a people first and pleasure filled approach wins for everybody because when people are like, oh, I hate this app or I hate that app. And then I'm, like, the most part of the the app. No. Really not the app. But I'm, like, well, based on what said, here's what I think a solution could be.

0:48:24

In the moment, they look at it. They're like, you just took my brain and made it visual. Like, that I can see. And I'm not just seeing up here. And I'm like, yeah. Well, because I asked you questions. I talked to you And we talk and we also know what we're listening for because we do this day in and day out. And so when you care about people and you truly because there's nothing worse than talking to somebody, asking them how they feel and then ignoring it and just going on as if you never had that conversation. Right. Right? Because that can happen too. So if you're going to talk to people, you gotta commit. You gotta commit and hear all the good things and not so good things that come your way and be open to change. And that's how a people first and pleasure fill up approach and operation begins and sets the tone for everything else you do afterwards. That's it. That's all I got today. I don't think we could have wrapped that up with a bow any nicer than that.

0:49:23

So y'all, if you need help with your operations, business laid bare dot com, Veronica has productized this in a number of ways, so you can DIY it She's got school for you or your ops manager. She can help you do it with her in like an accelerator. Right? You're done for you. Many different ways of approaching. Yeah. So we've I have one offer, really. Right? Well, okay. We have a few.

0:49:59

Like, we assess the business because you always have to assess the business. And then based on this roadmap from the assessment, it's like now is where the implementation phase comes in, the WIP phase. And how you want to play whether you wanna play by yourself or play with us. It's like we've had the same solution, but it's parse out in different ways because different people learn in different ways. And also, different businesses have different needs because there are some people that are just like, I do not wanna be touching this. I love operations. I just wanna give my feedback, but you don't want me doing anything, so I need the done for you. Or I wanna train my operations person because she has the potential to become a COO, which is what we did. You can read our case study on this. She went from assistant to COO because we were able to help her think strategically and approach her operations from a strategy perspective rather than just be like hands and waiting for the COO to tell her what to do. So there's lots of ways in which we can support because different people in different businesses have different needs.

0:51:05

And what it does is it allows you to center your people. And if that's a priority for you, then I really want you to get your operations under control. For no other reason than I want your business to be successful. Yeah. Most businesses are not profitable until year three. If you fix your operations or you start with good operations, you're going to have that timeline easily. Yeah.

0:51:42

And a lot of people and I will end after this have are saying things like, you can't work on your operations until you get some clients or get some data in from your marketing. It's like, actually, you can. You can decide how you want to show up up, which will then influence how you market and how you make money. So that is my Blue Ocean strategy on operations. Because just by you showing up in your business, you're operating, you're working, you're doing something, that is data. Because if you're going to work with someone that says you cannot scale like a service based business and you have to, like, sell some sort of product or coaching, It's like you I I really encourage you to leave those people and coaches behind and the dust there is no one right way to do any business. So Oh, let let it go. But a coach told that to me. A pretty well known coach in the online business world has -- I believe it. -- me. So I believe it. We can help you scale. A service based business because we've done so ourselves, and it begins with operations. People first and pleasure filled. Alright, y'all. Yep. We will be back next time.

0:52:59

I'm not sure what we're talking about now. We have to discuss whether or not this project management has to be slot it in here somehow. Mhmm. And then then we'll have to come up with a lovely, punny, and sexual title because obvious that's, like, half of the joy of of this series here. Right? What what, like, delegation, domination? Oh, You've already done it. See, it's going on the list. It's going on the list.

0:53:27

Alright y'all. Is you have benefited from this particular joyous exploration into operations? You should come and subscribe to the nerd diversity media network. You can find us at nerd diversity media network dot com. We are currently one hundred percent listener supported. So if you can help us fund our own operations, that would be Very helpful. Thank you. We will leave links in the chat, and we will see you next time for what did you say? It was so good. Oh, delegation, domination? Delegation, domination. Truly. Like, well done. All the props considering it's been A week. Has it not? It's been a week. Alright. Yep. This is always a highlight. So I know I'm in my zone of genius when this feels doesn't it doesn't feel like work. When it doesn't feel like work. And that's the goal, and that's what we hope for you. Alright. We'll see you next time. Bye.

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