Ops on Top w/ Veronica Yanhs

0:00:03

Hello, everyone. Welcome. Welcome. I am Briar. Harvey. This is the neurodiversity media network. Today, I am with the incredible Veronica Yanhs.

0:00:16

For ops on top folks, operationalizing, operationalizing, operationalizing, your marketing. That's what we're talking about. Correct. Because ops puts you top of your business, your game, makes you look like a savior because when you care about your business and your team members and even your prospects and your audience, like, people who are not even prospects, people who just got a whiff of who you are. It's, like, it shows. Like, you can only put out this social media highlight reel for so long. Right? So it's like, we've had so many clients come to us saying, like, my I have to put up this outwardly appearance, but then when we get money and we get clients and all that stuff, we're scrambling. Like, if you lift it up the hood of our business, you wouldn't like we don't even like what we see, but there's no time. So it's like, we really wanted to put together the series, this of episodes to showcase the importance of operationalizing different aspects of your business and not just doing that, but just as importantly, when? To do each and everything?

0:01:26

Marketing is tough for people because obviously, you have to market your business if you wish to have clients. But there are Veronica said before we got on the call, more ways to market a business than to actually make money. And, factually, that is correct. There But they're wrong. Correct me. Please. Fails. Correct me. But no. Yes. It's not consent. The issue is that people don't understand how marketing work. And because they don't understand how marketing works, they don't understand how to systematize it. So I think we start with when is the right time? That is a great question.

0:02:23

And first of all, here's the thing about working with us on marketing ops with our clients. We always say, like, we can operationalize pretty much anything you have. And the reason why I say this is because our brains are so process driven, like, if you were to say, oh, hey, I wanted I do this. I do this. I'm like, okay, we can take this information you give us and create predictability, dependability process from it. What we're missing though is that strategy sauce. We're not marketing strategist. We've but as someone who is a CEO, corner myself. Like, I've seen and worked with enough clients and done things around business that I can can consult on some things, but I never wanna say, yeah. We we're we're, like, the Jill of all trades kind of thing because we're not. So I just wanted to put that caveat there that I am not a marketing expert by any means.

0:03:14

So when clients come to us regarding operationalizing their marketing, we'll ask them questions ultimately, like, does it feel good? Like, oh, I'm supposed to be doing social media marketing. Okay. Great. We can operationalize that.

0:03:27

But but before we even do do even like doing it, I personally hate running on the algorithm treadmill, like, to fight for that attention, that nanosecond shelf life. Like, I'm very much quality over quantity unless it's food, kind of person. Like like like, right? I just I I I believe in mile or inch wide mile deep kind of philosophies, or if we have to be everywhere all at once? How do we do so in the most thoughtful way? Right? So I always am about asking people to really check-in like this. It's actually feel good because if you have to show up for your business and you don't like doing the thing or it's not in your wheelhouse or it feels good to you, it's like you're not you're not gonna be consistent about it. And that's what operations is striving to do is to make something consistent, but it does it's not just all on ops. Like, you have to play your part too. Okay.

0:04:24

So that was a randy tangent. But to answer your question, Brian. But it's true. You have to love you have to love your marketing. You have to love your marketing. And we'll we'll talk about how to judge a little later.

0:04:42

But when is the right time for marketing? The right time to operationalizing your marketing is once you've operationalized the rest of the major parts of your business. So the reason why this episode comes third, is because this is actually the third part of the orgasmic operations method, your presence in the Venn diagram. So ultimately, yes, because I have to be special, don't have we have phases, sure, but everything has to be working together. But if we had to prioritize it, your marketing operations comes last after for your internal operations and your revenue operations. Because what's the point in spending all this money on marketing because I've had plenty of clients tell us, yeah, we can't focus on operations. We're focused on marketing right now on sales. And I'm like, but sure. What happens when all the tens of thousands of dollars you pay experts to do work to consult for actually come to fruition. Are you able to reap the rewards that your marketing efforts brings you?

0:05:46

And I'm based on the data that we've had with clients and talking with hundreds upon hundreds of CEOs and founders when I, like, out at events, It doesn't seem like people are ready because they haven't operationalized how they work on the day to day, the internal ops. How they operationalize, how they make money. And so when you bring in all the clients and you're coming into this bottleneck, it's like, there's no way you can take and and actualize on all the money that people actually wanna send to you. And if you are just still taking money because you're like, oh, I got you gotta take money. You can make deposits. It's like, then that affects does your team have the ability to implement without bending over backwards, burning up and sides. So that's why operationalizing your marketing comes last because if nothing else is ready, you're drinking out of a fire hose. And that's correct.

0:06:44

It's Alice and I talk a lot about on the marketing show, which is are you ready for all of these people if your marketing efforts work. So, what does it look like to be ready? What does it look like to be ready is you're literally asking you and your team. And this is the question that I feel like I've been asking all the time. Like, if your business was to explode, experience ten, fifty, whatever x growth tomorrow, would your business be able to handle it? And if the answer is yes or I think so just with a few minor tweaks, then you're ready to operationalizing your marketing.

0:07:32

But then the caveat is. The caveat is, like you said, Briar, we have to constantly think about marketing. Right? So to me, it's almost like this DNA Helix. I think I said this in the last episodes or two. It's not a pyramid priority thing where you're once you're done with and one you're going on to the next level or step, it's it's like a Helix. You're working on a little bit at a time. Your marketing, your operations, your fine you know, it's like, it spirals like this so that it's organic and that everybody or every department, every category gets its do time and focus. It's not just ops all the time.

0:08:11

So if I was to say that you don't have any of your marketing operationalized, it's like, pick your pick an internal piece of your operations, then pick a revenue piece. And then pick a marketing piece, and then rinse wow, their rinse and repeat to build it all up one at a time. Which creates momentum which Alice and I are also talking about right now because these things are so intertwined. And I think that's part of where people get stuck. Right? What's operations and what's marketing and how can we think about them separately? And the answer is, you should not. When I am operationalizing my marketing Veronica, what do I need to do? What do I need to know? Yeah. You need to know what you're doing. So when you said that they shouldn't be separate? I agree with you. There are like two sides of the same point. But it's it's almost like your your marketing is like your what? Like, what do you want? To do. What does your business wanna do to show up in front of people?

0:09:25

Then the operationalizing part is the how How does this happen? Oh, the one is I I wanna write these SEO friendly, heavy focused, blog post so that I can get SEO traffic. Great. But how do you have a process like do you outline first? Do you do keyword research? Second, do you or keyword research first to see if it's even a viable topic. And then when do you write the blog post? Who if you have multiple people in which you're like passing the baton. Who writes, who edits, who oks it? Like, sometimes, I'm not the only one writing blog posts or business late there, but you can bet that I have stacked there with the people and my team members to decide what is an appropriate process, aka, the the title or the topic that we wanna talk about if we don't have a solidified title yet is the task name. And then we have, like, so many sub tasks so that people know. It depends dependencies connected to it so that once the writing's done, if the next person needs to edit, then it notifies them that they can begin editing. And if I'm not the one writing it, then there is a Veronica approval.

0:10:42

Section or tasks. And it's just like me doing a quick cursory glance. And sometimes I don't even need it. And I'm just like, oh, you all know this topic. I'm just gonna delete myself out because it's one less thing I have to do. But we have a process, and then we have, like, inside our task description and click up. Like, here is the keyword. Here is the slug. Basically, the the URL part after our dot com. Here is the main focus keyword, the headline, the meta description, like the actual body, so that it's really easy even down to the categories and WordPress, what people are clicking so that we all know.

0:11:18

Right? And that that to me is operationalizing something. You're creating order. Predictability. It's not just right blog posts and upload. It's all these little details. Right? And I don't want it to sound overwhelming, but it's also like, hey, if you're listening to me that, I like to say that we call in the people who know that business is hard, And we don't sugar coat things. And it's just I'd rather showcase, like, the reality behind it and why it's important to operationalize because if you have so many blog posts going out at once. Is everything going out with the same consistency? And then after you are done scheduling your blog post, what about the social media content that connects to it? Right? Then there are some sub tasks with that. Right? So it the more you operationalize how you market, the easier things are because then there isn't just this, like, linchpin or this, like, auto neck area for potential failure. And that if somebody was sick, either you pause it and wait for them to come back or somebody can take over because they know what the process is.

0:12:29

You know the problem with how when you are neurodivergent especially if you have ADHD, how is kind of a mystery? And I say this to someone who does actually understand this. How do you get there, Veronica? How do I get there? And with even with my neurodivergence. Like, I've personally had friends that have told me that I do have ADHD and that I've just been able to manage or just deal Like, this is not even a conversation that I really was like, oh, this is me. I'm just like, this is who I am. I just this is how I work.

0:13:11

And I have learned that I needed to create a process for myself to make sure that things have been accounted for because then that quiet the anxiety part of me. So I've learned that anxiety is actually not what I have. It's actually a a symptom of something deeper. So I'm just like, oh, if anxiety's coming up, that means that I'm not honoring my needs somewhere. For this example in particular. So for me, this is why I always have like my iPad Pencil because pen to paper really helps me. Because staring at a blank screen for some reason, there's a lot of pressure, but when I can just write free flow, drop pictures, doodle, arrows, this is my personal process. Sense. I brain dump everything. And even then, like, I I have team members that I can check with, But, like, the first thing is always just like this blah, this, like, word vomit, and that just works for me personally.

0:14:12

And this goes back to the whole People First and Pleasure Field approach that is so strong with our operations fees because we have to honor how different people process, how different people brain dump, how different people work. Right? And for me, my team honors this so that I can get this down. And and we also try to be really, like, cognizant of each other's needs. And so when Makayla and Terry know that this is who I am, they'll sometimes be like, hey, Veronica, we kinda did the work and we assume this is what based on what we know what processes before you create a process. This is what we think you need. And I was just like, oh my god. That's everything on the list. No changes or, hey, I'm gonna add one more thing into this. Thank you so much for, like, thinking about me and shortcutting what I need. So minimizing that cognitive load when team members know how you think made it really easy for me to help make the process a reality. Does that answer anywhere else? Truly it did.

0:15:08

One of the things that we know about ADHD diagnosis in women's especially past middle age, is that we get here by developing and creating systems. And your personal system may or may not be the right ones for your marketing. But I encourage folks to lean into that. There is if if you can, in whatever dysfunction way you like. Make a process that works for you and that people can come along with you, then that's a system. Absolutely. Because the system is our definition is the people, the process, and the tools working together to achieve a specific result and goal or basically something that is consistent. And if this is the case, is the end goal is an SEO friendly, because I mostly optimize. An SEO friendly, heavy focused, block post.

0:16:24

What are the people that are involved?

0:16:26

Who are all the people involved? Who what are all the tools and resources that we need to make it And what's the process? Right? So if you begin applying this people process and tools to each of your marketing initiatives, you're already turning your brain into that process driven, operationalizing your marketing mode, which is more than what many people can say. Because you're thinking intentionally not about the what, but now the how as well. So this is pretty high level of this conversation because like I said and like you said, there's so many ways in which we can market. But I think the most important thing is it's like, if we talk about high level things like this, then people who are listening can bring that to affiliates, referrals, social media, billboards, what have you? The list goes on and on and on. So what that means then is that regardless of how you are choosing to market, You have to be intentional enough about the process, to be able to say This is how we do things every time. This is who is involved. And and this is key. This is the result we expect. Let's talk about results. Yes. And I don't remember who said this quote, but something along the lines of what is measured can be managed or maybe what isn't I don't know.

0:18:04

But basically, in layman's terms for me is if you have a documented process. And to me, like, habits are undocumented processes. So the moment something is written down in a video form, audio form, or text form, it becomes a process. It allows you to see, like, oh, So this is everything that I need to write a blog post. It wasn't just write blog post and hit publish. It was all the little details that I would Oh, and then there's, like, the the the images. Right? That if you put on, like, social media, there's, like, the preview image. See, another thing. Right? See, even I forget and we do this as part of our our core our core marketing is because I'm gonna forget otherwise. Team members are gonna forget.

0:18:50

So when we talk about creating the sense of the the how, it allows you to see I'm trying to put this into words. So maybe you can you can play off of me here prior but it's like, how am I supposed to say this? Okay. How would you think I would say this? Crap. My brain is like, going in ten different directions at once. So this is what I'm learning to, like, man. Not ADHD at all. Not not at all. So help me out here. Help me out friend really quick. What you think I would say so that I could come back to not being crazy. And I'm gonna write this down. You see, this is where my pen comes in handy.

0:19:31

So what we're looking at here is that the process dictates the flow of things. Yes. But that doesn't mean that the flow is guaranteed. So how about that? How do you make things sequential and ensure all of those boxes get checked. I love that. And thank you.

0:20:01

So when you create that process, it allows you to audit if that process is the best it can be. But if it's always in your head, I'm pretty much guaranteed that you're gonna forget something. So when it's documented and you go through the process, did I just spend ten hours writing something? Or did I just spend more time creating it than marketing it? So having this documented process of how you market helps you measure the energy it takes, the resource it takes, and even the ROI that you garner from And even if it's a roll or slow boil that, like, things like YouTube and SEO take, it's like, well, what does the data show you? Are you getting more and more traffic or impressions to your business? So when we talk about data, and performance. And all those fun words that basically say is the thing you're doing effective.

0:20:58

If there's no process to it, you you can't say with absolute certainty, yes or no. And in this marketing world, you need to be able to certainly say yes. It's helping, no, it's not. Because marketing is always attached to dollars at the end of the day or time. You're paying with time and or money.

0:21:19

And I think one of the issues here is that when we make a system. There is often a desire to make sure that we are like checking all of the boxes. But that's not actually the purpose of the system. The boxes are just a guideline. So what it looks like then in practice is that you have taken the time ahead of time to define what all of this looks like and then can go through and visually scan, did we do this? Did we do this? Did we do this? Which is not to say, especially if you have structured this in a project management system like ClickUp or Notion, The number of boxes that don't get checked in my project, my management system is high, but that doesn't mean it didn't get done. So how do we let go of the need to check all the box Sometimes, you can maybe not get as detailed, so to answer your question earlier about how to make it sequential.

0:22:46

It's almost like you can go a few ways. One, the easiest way is to hire experts Right? Like, in this case, we hired an SEO expert shout out to the love at First Search Team. Thanks, Meg. Meg k bolt is a genius y'all. So they have been really instrumental in helping us understand the strategy. And then we went ahead and been like, oh, if this is the strategy, then this is how we do it. Sequentially.

0:23:17

So the first step is getting the strategy because you don't wanna be, like, the blindfolded, leading the blindfolded. Like, there are so many resources both paid and free. We just chose to cut through all of it and just hire the experts that we know and love because it saved us time. And so I think that's what we'd call reinventing the wheel. And then there's three point in doing that, if somebody else has already systemized this process. Whatever the process is, if somebody else has a system, can you borrow that? Exactly.

0:23:56

And when I say the whole blindfolded, leading the blindfolded, it's like if you don't know what you're doing and then you're somebody else that doesn't know what they're doing, you're never you're gonna be spinning your wheels. So this is also where we come in. Right? So this is where at the very beginning, I said, we don't have that secret sauce because we're not marketing strategist, but we've been around the block enough to know what comes for second, third in a high level way. When it comes to things that we do ourselves, especially, like, email marketing, social media, content, SEO, referrals, podcasting, all that stuff. So you can always hire somebody who is operationally minded or hire a marketing ops person into your team to consult with you to be like, this is what I wanna do, create a process from it. So, like, we or that full stack team where we do we do that for our clients, so we don't do it right away. Because like I said, there's no point in operationalizing your marketing if the rest of your business cannot handle the growth of that marketing will yield to you. So hire out.

0:24:58

And and and I think that's key. Who already does this. Who knows how to do this marketing technique and this teaching about it? And what can I learn from them? Is a really important question to ask, when there are more ways to market, then there are to make money. Like, marketing is the piece that it's interesting because I feel like most people have a lot of guilt and obligation around their marketing because they're not doing it rights. And that spirals into shame about not doing it right. And so rather than asking someone who has that experience, we entrench and go, no, I'll figure it out myself.

0:25:59

And, like, what we even do when we get to the marketing upside, if if if someone says I want to do mailer letters, like postcards that because they still exist clearly. They still work They'll do them. Because I signed up for something. I'm like, oh, ten percent off my first, like, hello, fresh box kind of thing. I'm gonna try it. Why not? Because it they, you know, it takeled my fancy enough. So it still works, but I have no experience in it.

0:26:27

So what we would suggest when we tell our clients because when it comes to operationalizing, this is where we walk that gray area, how many shades of gray, many shades of gray is we'll say, hey, you told me that this is what you need. Okay. Well, you wanna do mailers, you wanna do social media, you wanna do all this great. Well, we know nothing about mailers. So why don't you take this document? This needs a requirements document that we've created for you because then you actually can stay in a cut and dry matter.

0:26:56

What I wanna do, what I'm hoping to achieve from this, go find someone who's an expert at mailers. Get get the information from them and then bring it back to us and we'll create a process. But, like, with the team at love it for search, for instance, like, they they had, like, a documentation. Like, they're, like, first step to this, second step to that. Right? So we took that added our own flavor to it, populated it into ClickUp, and figured out a way to implement it with our revenue and internal ops. Because everything played together in the Venn diagram for me. So there's not one way to do it, but always go find an expert. Right?

0:27:31

Like, I think when you were at this point in your business, Find somebody that knows what they're doing really well. And then if you need that operationalizing brain, come to us, come to someone who knows marketing operations? Like, you can look up marketing operation strategist even though they might not be advertising them that way. They could be, like, tech kinda, like, tech stack folk, but again, that might not be there. But something with the word operations in their wheelhouse and especially if they're used to operationalizing their marketing. This is where then you can come in and be like, this is the information I have, the what now make it come to life with the how? I want to talk more about this needs and requirements document. Because this is something that you can build yourself. You do not need Veronica to build you a need and requirements document, but it will help you understand exactly what you are looking for. What goes in it? Okay. I was gonna say, like, if I could share my screen, but it's faster just for me to talk about it.

0:28:36

There when we when creating a system, Yes. The definition is the people processing tools that go into achieving the result. But we actually have a process for how we build the system. Of course, we do. But in this case, it's actually that pyramid visual in the very very bottom layer. The first thing that we always do is gathering needs and requirements that this system of the for the people that this system affects. And I'm not just talking about clients, or internal employees and team members. Like, what about stakeholders? What about leads versus aspects. And people who are outside the least lead in prospect realm your audience that those those recent wafers of your business So it's like who is affected by the system?

0:29:27

What does the system need to be successful? What does version one looks like? What must this system have? It's a nonnegotiable. And what's a nice to have? And a lot of people missed this part because they just go straight to the tip, which is apps and automations. That's why I say, like, systems, like, apps are just the tip of the system's iceberg because the tip is what people see. It's so pretty. It's automated with Zapier and this and this and this and it's beautiful. But how did we get there? We had the needs and requirements filled out. We also had the goals and KPI section filled out. We also have the process or the setup filled out before we lay it on the last thing, which is that apps and automations that make this entire strategy set up framework come to life.

0:30:18

And I think the problem here is that the business world currently is structured to prioritize those apps and operations. And it's like Yeah. Let me show you a visual. Yes. See this digit cube that I have. Well, okay. It's not a good visual. I have a lot of toys.

0:30:41

So imagine in my, like, lip balm is kinda like that pyramid. Right? So imagine this is three d. The most important layer is the bottom layer. And the least important layer is the apps and automation, but do you know what people always see first? So we tilt it this way. They only see this. So, like, while it's the least important, it's always the first impressions, the shiny things, which is why it's like we talk about the text stack and the what did it? The feel good text stack, what I said? The support Your emotional support of text stack, call it all of us out with your emotional text emotional support text stack.

0:31:19

And in terms of the way that business is sold to us in as a development process people start with the apps and the automations. So when I am at the base of that pyramids and developing my needs. How do I set aside my shiny objects. That's true. That's a great that's a great thing. Do you wanna do like a live workshopping? Like, how we would do this with clients? Sure. Okay.

0:31:58

Is there a marketing tactic strategy that you're looking to implement? Well, see, the beautiful thing about being a media company is that my marketing is the same as my product. Right? Mhmm. Me being here with you is creating a product and also marketing it to everyone who watches now and in the future because we'll talk about the neurodiversity media network throughout the show. But for the sake of this example -- For the sake of this example, let's talk about advertising. -- because I'm building that in right now. Okay.

0:32:42

So advertising, what is the end goal that you would like from Advertising. Lots and lots of money, obvious. Excellent. Lots of money. So that's a need. That's a need. Right? Because -- Right. -- the non negotiable. Right. And then what kind of advertising I am personally looking for companies that either work with neurodivergent folk or would like to spanned out into an accessible market. Okay.

0:33:24

Do these different types of advertising require different processes gut feeling? Yes. Okay? So immediately in my head, and usually when we're doing this with clients, we have a document that we're that we have on our side that we're typing these downs. Like, you want to make lots of money. That's an end goal. Great. Because we wanna be able to create systems and processes that allow you to make money.

0:33:50

And then when I asked you, do different mark or advertising outreach attempts require different systems and processes? You said, yes. And it could be wrong. Right? At the end of the day, everything we're operating on is a hypothesis. Mhmm. And if it's wrong, it's wrong. Great. Because at least we have data as to why it was wrong in how we can fix it. So -- Oh. -- failure is a great thing, and this is me personally growing from traditional Chinese upbringing. So failure is great. And now I'm thinking in my head. Okay. So Briar might need actually three systems to make sure her advertise her big advertising container ecosystem works.

0:34:36

And then what else do you feel like is a non negotiable that you need to have for this system to be successful. So I've been building out the back end system. I need for potential advertisers to submit, obviously, their collateral information One of the things that I'm also looking to do, though, is building in keyword optimization for Kaiser's because we already build that process in for our collaborators. So I can offer an additional keyword optimization for advertisers who want to be searchable for a specific thing. Would you say that keyword optimization is a must for version one? Or is it can we put it in the nice to have? Because it's more important just to get that those systems It's nice to have right now. Okay. Awesome. So I'm marking that as n t h. Nice to have.

0:35:48

You see how like I'm asking you quite. I haven't even asked you about any tech yet, which I'm happy to. But do you see how in understanding your needs requirements, I'm just like, okay. What is it that you're trying to do? How how do you kinda wanna do it? What do you like, what is it gonna need for it to be successful. And if you're the one in charge of the system and executing it prior, what are your nonnegotiable so that you will stick to this or that make that system easy because it aligns with how you work and think. And for me -- Yeah. -- because it's literally has to be laid out step by step by step, and I have to know what all of the variables might be. Because because I am autistic and won't remember. So So it's Yes. A hundred subplacs when -- Yes. -- overwhelm you? No. K. You see, that's a need and requirement right there. That's not nice to have. It's a need because it's literally preventing you from executing. So I just wrote a hundred subtasks. Alright.

0:36:56

So now let's talk about tech a little bit because tech is what brings the system to life. Are you married to any tech in your tech stack that you don't, that you must use. Notion. K? Notion? Anything else? Truly. No. That is the only thing consistently at this point in time in my business that everything is built into, but everything else around that is should fill a function in my business. Now, let me ask you some few more questions that people often miss that we always ask. What how will this new system that you're creating be actually, let's just make it simple. How can this how will this system feel orgasmic to you? When it's filling itself out without me having to do the inputs. Okay. So, like, thinking if somebody filled out all the information, you need to upload the assets I got put into Notion. Mhmm. That's a win. Mhmm. Alright. So I'm putting the big o here. Trying to make an o face. Filling itself out. Anything else? Truly, that's that's the big part. What does success of version one look like? So when we build this with that client because we're I'm just assuming you're a client right now.

0:38:36

There is this thought in design and prototyping. It's called minimum viable product, the MVP. Because we believe that progress over perfection is a winner. And if you're waiting till things are perfect before you launch it, it's never going to launch because you're always gonna find something to add to it. We've had to caution this with clients all the time. Like, launch a dirty, And I'm not saying, like, completely dysfunctional, but what is, like, what is the most minimum way you need to know to gather data? Because the moment you launch it, you can see, like, oh, this hypothesis that I spent, like, ten days building this back end for actually wasn't needed at all. And I didn't need to spend all this time because I found clients were requesting a simpler way, something like that. So MVP, what does success of version one look like? It looks like me being able to read ads on the air and not having to find them. Okay.

0:39:43

So when I hear things like this, I'm creating a process in my head now. And I know that the person is you, the resource, and the tools you need are notion maybe zapier. Maybe. Maybe. We're not sure yet. Like, I always when I create a process, we always assume it's a hundred percent manual. And we build it that way because then we can go through each process map and be like, oh, this is color coded pink, which is manual for us. Can it be automated? And the answer is yes. Sweet. Let's do it for the next round.

0:40:16

So for you, I am gathering all this information to understand what is important. I'm seeing that the biggest biggest need that I'm drawing squares around is that it has to be easy for them to submit their collateral to you. As someone who is a guest on a lot of podcasts, when people make it hard for me to, like, submit my information, I oftentimes am just, like, this was too complicated. Here's my media. Here's my needed kit. Linked in Notion. Name, Bio. Five pictures for you to choose from. Opt ins and lead magnets that we're gonna be talking about. Here you go. Here's how to pronounce my name. Right? So it's like literally a media page for podcast information.

0:40:59

So this is what I mean when we talk about the the needs and requirements documents. I'm literally asking you what do you need for this system to be successful? What are those requirements? What are those nice to haves? What are techs tech stuff that you're married to, not married to. Like, when we talk about things like customer journeys and CRMs, everybody has they're like, I'm married to this. It's like, well, You may be married to it, but based on what you just told me about the needs and requirements, it's not gonna satisfy this app is not good enough for you. So are you willing to, like, carry that baggage? Or would you want me to showcase how much better and more our gas make it could be? So this has just been a really quick because usually the needs and requirements are a lot longer.

0:41:46

We gather needs and requirements for every single client. System before we proceed, but sometimes we shortcut it and be like based on what we know, here's what we believe your needs and requirements are. Help us fill in the gaps or if it's good to go, we can go. And even just that, I wanna be very transparent. Was enough for me to go, oh, I know we holes I need to plug. That's because I have an operational black background. If you do not have an operational background, What these questions will do for you is clarify who you need to go and ask for help.

0:42:23

Because I want you all to really start leaning into the idea that we are done doing these things by ourselves, for ourselves. If you are building a business, you cannot do that in vacuum. You have to be able to go and find someone else who already has this skill. Because the when we talk about I love about spiritual folks, talk about compressing time, you're not compressing time here. You're taking your time and reallocating Right? Instead of the time that you would spend learning how to do this thing, you're going to continue to operate in your zone of genius and pass this thing off to somebody else. And I get it.

0:43:21

At early stages of business, things are expensive. You may have to budget for this. But Veronica, when we are determining our needs and requirements, how much do you focus on time and energy allocation. Oh, plenty. But oftentimes, when we get to this point, our clients, we're already doing it for them. So we lean a little bit. We don't focus so much on that.

0:43:52

But literally, this is then where we have this, like, I don't call it a matrix necessarily, but I'm thinking about, like, the time it takes, the money it takes, the ROI, implementing this will yield, and what are the other things? So this is why I have a document. Because I can't remember everything, but it's like time money, ROI, do you even have the people to do this. And if the numb if it's like a high ROI thing, but it takes a lot of money and a lot of people, versus, like, a high ROI thing with, like, maybe one tick in the RO or in the people and one tick in, like, the money box. It's, like, this is how you determine when things go.

0:44:39

So when it comes to actually prioritizing time, Time is an interesting figment. It's almost like the whole money thing where, like, no matter if if somebody perceives and it's important, they will find and this is where people become predatory about their sales tactics. It's like, if you've sold something well enough, people will do anything they can. Openly credit cards, whatever, withdraw things they would never do to pay you. So I think time is always that way too, which is why For me, time is hard because people, one, don't know how much time it truly takes them to do something. If they've never done it or don't think about this, and they don't account for the life factor.

0:45:26

I was three x something. If something is new to me, I'm just like just in I'm a three x. I think it's gonna take me a month. Social multiply it by three. And if I get it done in, like, one week, I was like, wow. I learned a lot, and why did I give myself three three months to do this? And two, if you don't Right. When when it goes the other way and you're at the end of three months going fuck, I still haven't figured this thing out. Exactly. You have learned a really valuable lesson in time. The one it's almost like money is that infinite resource, whereas time is like that finite resource. Mhmm.

0:46:06

So to answer your call, question. It's really hard to put a time to it unless you kind of like gut feeling no or ask for help on. But The best thing I can ask you to do because you know yourself the best is if this is new, add a factor to it. If you do this day to day, if you do this every day, like, your recording podcast left and right and you're just like, I know the process it takes to get from recorded to shouting out to social media networks and stuff. It takes me, like, an hour. I trust you because you do it all the time. But if it's something new like advertising, to anybody listening, add some sort of life unknown factor to it and start with three. I know three's a lot, because if you say I'm gonna take one week to do this and you say and you multiply by three becomes three weeks, well imagine what happens when you get done and say, like, one and a half weeks, then it's data. You're like, oh, this actually wasn't so bad and because I hopefully created a process from it while I was doing it, hint hint, it should be even less next time.

0:47:09

So I purposely did not answer your question directly because I don't know the answer to it because everybody's different, but I kinda like pulled it out enough to kind of give you all a gauge as to what you can expect for yourself. And I think that And track your time. Tracking your time is truly one of the most important things that you can know here. The more you spend building your business the more you come to terms with the fact that operating outside of your zone of genius cost you money. So how do we come to terms with that? How do we outsource those things? And how do we figure out what they need to be first? We do an audit. So yeah. And then you focus on one thing, hopefully, at a time, I'm not the best at it right now.

0:48:13

I admitted to my team members. I'm juggling three projects at a time. But because I was able to brain dump, I was like, oh, actually know. And I knew because I'm like, this is the one revenue yielding project that I'm doing, oh, that leads perfectly into the stuff. Well, we'll talk about the end of this episode. But it's like, oh, well, this the thing actually leads me right yields me revenue right away. This yields me ease of revenue later because then my follow-up game is so strong because we're revamping our CRM and it's looking really, really cool. And I'll when I can share a screenshot. Like, it's all an active campaign and there's so many, like, oh, it's just really beautiful to me because it's all automated. And logiced out.

0:48:52

But so while the reason why I'm bringing all this up is because when you were talking earlier and I was looking away, it was because I was literally writing really quickly, like, what the beginning process of your advertising process looks like. Right? It's people tools and process. So I wrote v one, v two, v three because I'm just like, what's what's v one? The minimum viable product. And for me, you wanna make it easy to collect the collateral. And if it's completely manual right now, right, it's fine. Wanna make it easy to collect information so it's at least organized. And then step two, we didn't talk about this that much, but there's that keyword optimization. Alright. Maybe version three is automating the collateral collection. And then so when I started thinking about that.

0:49:39

I was drawing out usually, do this in Miro. I was drawing out things like, okay. The person's gonna land on your sales page. They're gonna click a button. And then they're gonna fill out details -- Mhmm. -- deep. So it's like and it gets more specific than that. But of course. I was just thinking about what that process flow would be so that the system was fully thought out.

0:50:02

Needs and requirements, the setup, the people, the tech, this is what I mean by building a system, and it's not just sign up for a sana or sign up for whatever. It's literally Place down to the first. On there's there's that too. If it doesn't if it works with your brain, if it doesn't work, then I don't sign up part. Please don't sign up for Asana. If you are watching this, the odds of Asana working with your brain are not high, friends. I'm just gonna be really honest with you. So I was really grateful that we could actually do this, like, needs and requirements brainstorm, like mock interview thing.

0:50:44

But and this works not just for your marketing operations. We do this for every system, whether it's internal operations or revenue operations or marketing operations or even just like projects, like gathering needs and requirements, is so overlooked because people immediately jump into thinking they know the solution because other people have you're wigged into them or like, oh, I love this app. I love this app. Right? You have to be on TikTok. You have to because it's the fastest girl. You know what I mean? Like, it sounds really appealing to me, but what I'm thinking about it. I'm just like, it doesn't feel good at all right now at this moment in time. Not saying not in the future, but it's just like, it doesn't say good. Right now, there will be no TikTok. And I think this is even if you don't go and see for Monica.

0:51:38

You can operationalize this type of question as asking for yourself. What do I need? What's important to me? What do I just need? Members need. What do you want? What does my team need? How do we do this in a way that feels good for everybody involved? And you ask those every fucking time y'all, every time you build something new in your business, Please ask yourself what it looks like when it's built. Don't just build it and go. It'll be amazing because let me tell you that's how you end up creating a fifteen part course that nobody buys. Right? If you're not asking this question, not just about your operations, but about your team, about your customer or client base, you're not gonna know.

0:52:38

So this leads us fairly neatly into the ways in which we audit our systems. And Veronica and I talked about it a little bit last time, but it's ready. Y'all It's ready. So Audit. It's it's it's ready enough for us to give you a link so that you can go and get on a waitlist. And guess what? I can't share it for some reason, so I'm gonna share it with you prior here in the private chat that we have in Streamyard, and then you're going to share it out. Because technology doesn't always work, but I'm okay with that. So you don't freak out. Things are things are fine.

0:53:18

So I have been so excited to put this together because we've been doing assessments for our clients for years. We do it brick and mortar is nonprofit service based. Business to business based. It's e commerce, like, it's never ending. And we've been so successful with all of our clients, and I'm sometimes waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I think we make our own luck. Seriously, this is the this is the crazy part of me. The anxiety part creeps in.

0:53:49

But we've been able to take this exercise that clients pay us thousands of thousands of dollars to do, and I turned it into a DIY version. So you can have this experience for yourself. And so that's what this link is. It's the DIY version of the operations assessments that clients pay us to do at a fraction of the cost so that finances aren't in the way of you actually understanding what you're at the stage in your business and or in this financial situation, this is how we think. This is all the things that we think about. This is what we look in all those nooks and crannies that people can't hide from? Like, you can you can fake projection numbers. You can't hide from operations folk. So we've asked, like, a hundred plus questions in this nicely made notion template that you can use yourself so that you can see where your holes are, how the gaps can be filled, and most importantly, what is the priority of the systems that areas of focus you need to be implementing so that you're not doing everything at once. And because our brains have already been in this, it being scaffold. So as you build things, it gets a lot easier. So AKA, your internal ops probably go first, then your revenue ops and then your marketing ops. But the road map is a little more specific with specific action items in there. So link is in the comment.

0:55:19

Comments and And then the show notes if you are catching this later. I am so excited to launch this and Right now there's a wait list because I wanna make sure that it looks really good and we'll be launching the MVP and for the first people that buy this when we do make updates to it because I promise you it's not gonna be a hundred percent perfect. I am beginning to just give myself grace. I wanna give you and it's actually pretty great. People already want it. I'm like, that's it's it's it could be better. So when things get updated, we will be sure to let you know as a thank you for being like a founding buyer of this, and I'm so excited for it. I'm like genuinely excited for this.

0:56:02

And I want y'all to understand that that is the way that you build things with intention and with a foundation so that by the time you go to sell it, it is a joy to do so. And, truly, that's what this entire series is about, I know people don't think operations are sexy. Veronica and I are obviously outliers because we love operations, but it is the thing that if you get it right, it makes everything else feel fun. I truly cannot emphasize how much I mean, media network. I'm doing things completely different in my business than I was this time last year, than I was in December. And because I built myself a system before we started. Everything has just been easy. I find all of places where things aren't working, and then I can fix them. I know what I don't wanna do, and so I figure out ways to out source it, either to my team or to tech. This is how you build something that makes it a joy to deliver.

0:57:24

And if you're struggling with this, please stop struggling. It doesn't have to be hard. You do not have to work sixty hours a week. You should not be working from your bed unless those are deliberate bed work hours. That's a that's a rant for another day. Well, I felt this joke of inspiration the other day, and I was just like, I gotta grab my top to get this idea down so that I can go to bed in peace. But like I tell, all my workshop attendees and when I speak, My job here is not to convince you that you need operations. Hopefully, I have inspired you to get excited about what operationalizing the different parts of your business can do for you. Your team members, your clients, your customers, and all of your qualities of life, insanity, in, like, peace. So this is why I do what I do.

0:58:24

Like, if you there's nothing you take away from these three episodes thus far the series. It's that I would love to inspire you to just switch that mindset of getting inspired to think about your operations. Even if you're not the one implementing it, just getting excited about it and not being, like, oh, I don't wanna touch this with, like, a ten foot Dildo kind of thing. So I have a lot of times That said sounds dangerous. Ten foot dills out. You know, I don't have one. I'm sure somebody out there does, but I'm sure somebody out there has something, like Okay. Build out.

0:59:00

Plenty of people say, yeah, I know I need ops. It's just this I just know I need it. It's and I'm like, okay. Well, I would love for you to say, I need ops because this is what it would do for me, and I'm so excited for it. I just don't know the I don't I don't have the expertise to do and don't know what to do. I'm like, that's where we come in. And this is our bread and butter, everything that we do every day. This is what business late bear stands for, is to help impact driven ventures and organizations create that sustainable uncapped income and impact in a more useful, pleasurable, and sustainable way because if you're truly going to have an impact, it is done by not flaming out. Your legacy is created with small actions and systems that are built over time to withstand time.

0:59:50

And I always say, if you wanna have an impact on your community, on others, It's like, look at your internal business first. Is this the type of organization that it's it's like that that analogy prior words, like, you can't love other people until you love yourself or something like that. If you can't help other people until you help yourself. So before so if you wanna make a great impact on the world, which I know you do, It's like make sure that you take care of your first, yourself first, and your team members. And that is through operations. That is correct. Yeah. That's all I got. This episode. I I'm done. This has been delightful. So what are we talking about next time. I think we should talk about that project management shutdown. Right. That doesn't mean I have to talk about that project manager show down. Alright, y'all. So two weeks from now, we'll be back to talk about project management and how to make it work In the meantime, please do go and get yourself on Veronica's waitlist for the audit. It's gonna be amazing. I think you'll all benefit greatly from Truly, I'm buying the damn thing because even with an operational background, somebody else's process is always gonna be different than yours.

1:01:21

It's always going to open up new avenues of exploration or new questions to ask yourself, allow yourself to explore operations with a little bit of joy, curiosity. Curiosity. It will change rental. Like, what can wear it to? I know. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing this business. And if I don't believe in something, why would I do it? So This is what I meant to do in this lifetime at this stage right now is to create change and impact and diversify wealth to leave the world a better place.

1:02:01

Through orgasmic operations. That that sounds really good. That sounds amazing. We're gonna have to write that down for you. Y'all, this is what we're building. Here at the neurodiversity media network, this kind of exploration. And if you have not yet subscribed, please take a look. It's neurodiversity media network dot com. Paid subscribers get access to a couple of private streams. Plus, when we are done with this series, we'll create a master class page for you with all of the things that we've talked about here plus some additional resources for you to dive deep and rabbit hole on in the way that my people love to do. So if you're interested, give us a look. Please sign up for Veronica's waitlist, and we will see you in two weeks for project management.

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