Did you know, most small business owners spend more time planning a vacation than planning for the growth of their business?

That is mind-blowing.

In this episode of The Scalable Expert Podcast, Tara sits down with Lynne Roe to unpack the critical role of strategic planning and why it's one thing so many entrepreneurs get wrong or overlook completely.

You’ll hear how Lynne's personal story shaped her approach to building a flexible, life-first business and why planning should always start with the lifestyle you want to live.

Lynne also shares her powerful framework of building both an Invisible Team (systems, automation, SOPs) and a Human Team (delegation, hiring smart), and how that combination frees up time and energy to grow your business with clarity and confidence.

🧭 What You’ll Learn:

• Why “winging it” keeps your business stuck
• How to start building your plan around the life you want
• The difference between an invisible team and a human team
• The mindset shift from solopreneur to business leader
• How planning creates freedom (not limitation)

⏱️ Episode Chapters:

[00:00] Welcome + Meet Lynne Roe

[01:00] Lynne’s origin story: launching a business during a family crisis

[02:45] From chaos to clarity: using strategic planning to stay focused

[03:40] Designing a business that supports your life

[04:30] Why small business owners skip planning (and what it costs them)

[06:00] Staying accountable to your plan (even when new ideas pop up)

[07:00] The Invisible Team: systems, SOPs, and automation

[08:30] The Human Team: delegation that pays for itself

[10:30] “Who, not how”: the mindset shift that unlocks scale

[12:00] Why Traction by Gino Wickman is a must-read

[13:00] Why combining content with coaching is the future

[14:30] Final advice: Plan your business like it pays for your vacation

💡 Resources Mentioned:

• Traction by Gino Wickman
• Get A Grip by Gino Wickman (story-based companion)

🎯 Your Next Step:

Take the Scalable Expert Quiz to find out what phase of growth you're in - and how to start building your plan, systems, and team.

Mentioned in this episode:

https://taralbryan.com/step/15-learn-to-scale-call

Welcome to The Scalable Expert, the podcast where we unlock

2

the secrets to building a business

that grows with you, not around you.

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I'm your host, Tara Bryan, business

strategist, mentor, and creator

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of the INFINITE SCALE Method.

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If you're a coach, consultant, or

service provider who's maxed out

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with one on one work, overwhelmed by

the grind, and ready to scale your

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expertise into a business that works

for you, then you're in the right place.

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Each week I'll share actionable

tips, inspiring success stories,

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and proven strategies to help you

reclaim your time, grow your income,

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and create a business that delivers

results without sacrificing quality.

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Let's dive in and make your

business INFINITELY SCALABLE.

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Hey, everybody.

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Welcome to this week's episode.

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I am thrilled that you're here,

and I would love to welcome

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Lynne Roe to the show today.

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Lynne, welcome.

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We are so excited to hear from you today.

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To get us started, tell us

a little bit about yourself.

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Give us a little bit about your story,

your business, and all of the things.

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Lynne Roe: Thank you so

much for having me today.

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So I am a business coach.

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I work with small business owners who are

growing their businesses very rapidly.

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Mostly they are making six figures

and growing to seven figures.

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And I do that by helping them

develop a strategic plan for how

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to get there and then staying

accountable for getting there.

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And the way that I got to doing strategic

planning with my clients is when I first

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started the business, I had, my daughter

was away at college and she called me up.

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She had fallen down the stairs

and she had a concussion.

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And of course I went to pick her up and

bring her home and they said, Oh, she'll

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be better in two weeks, maybe two months,

two months went by and she was not better.

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And she was actually really bad.

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It was a severe concussion.

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not able to walk without assistance.

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She'd bump into walls, she'd fall down.

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It was very bad.

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And here I was trying

to launch a business.

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And how do you do that while you

are also trying to care for someone?

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So I I had spent years in, in

Corporations and not for profits

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doing strategic planning.

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And so I thought, okay, let

me just do strategic planning

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for how to grow this business.

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And that's what I did.

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I developed a strategic plan for

my business and followed that.

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And it was great.

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And my clients heard about it and

they said, Oh, let's do that with me.

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I want to know how I

can launch my business.

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So that's what I do.

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And it took, honestly, my daughter was

After two years, she still wasn't better.

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It was eight years before she was able

to function again and ten, after ten

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years, she went back to college as a 28

year old freshman and she just graduated.

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We were very excited.

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Tara Bryan: Oh, that's so exciting.

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I love that.

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Like how I have.

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I have two teenagers and a younger

one, but I am just about to

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send my oldest off to college.

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So that that's where I'm like,

Oh, I have to pick her up.

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That'd be terrible.

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Yeah.

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Lynne Roe: How do you manage?

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Anyway so that's how I got

into strategic planning.

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And now I do strategic planning

with all of my clients.

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That's how I start our engagement.

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And We always start with the same

first question, and that is, what is

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the lifestyle you want to be living?

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So for me, I needed a lifestyle

where I could be flexible and

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be home to care for my daughter.

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And how was I going to grow a business and

do that at the same time for other people,

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some clients may wanna have, they wanna

own a jet and jet set around the world.

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They need a different kind of

business than I needed, right?

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To be able to do that.

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So it's a question I always start

with my clients is what do you want

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to be doing with your life because

our lives are not here to devote

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our whole life to our business.

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Our business should be

supporting our life.

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So when we're going to design

how we want our business to be,

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what we want it to grow into.

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We think about what is it

that we want to be living?

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What is the lifestyle

we want to be living?

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That's awesome.

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All right.

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So I there's so many

things to unpack there.

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So I thank you for sharing your story.

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So when you started, you had a

background in strategic planning.

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I did, yes.

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And you, did you overlook it at first

when you were starting your business?

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I did.

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Yeah.

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I never, it never, I thought, oh,

this is just a small little business.

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I don't need a plan.

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The thing is that if you don't

have a plan, then you don't know

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which things you're doing when

and the new idea comes along and

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you think, oh, let me go try that.

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And then you also have these

ideas in the back of your head.

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Okay, I should be doing this

and I should be doing that.

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And it gets overwhelming, right?

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As a solopreneur, as an entrepreneur, it

gets overwhelming trying to do everything

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you think you're supposed to do.

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But if you have a strategic plan that says

this month, I'm focusing on these things.

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And next month, I'm focusing on

these things and that other thing

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that sounds like a great idea.

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It's scheduled for me to do

it in July or August, right?

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So you can forget about it.

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You don't have to be thinking,

oh my God, I have to get to that.

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No it's already there.

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So it's freeing.

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It's freeing to have a plan and

know what you're doing when.

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Tara Bryan: And what's so great

about it is that, so that's what

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you were doing your job, right?

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You were doing strategic planning

were you working in a corporation?

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Lynne Roe: One of many

things that I did, but yes.

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Tara Bryan: Yeah.

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And so then you start your own

business and you're like, oh

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yeah, this is going to be great.

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I'm going to do all these things.

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And then you go, oh wait, I need a plan.

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Wow.

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Isn't that like a novel concept?

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And I say that with love

because that's how I was too.

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I was like, Oh yeah.

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Yeah.

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No problem.

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Yeah, I got this, right?

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And then you're all over the place doing

all the things when you first get started.

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And then you need a plan.

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And then.

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You actually can execute on the plan

instead of doing all of the things.

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And so I love that because you took your

expertise, you applied it to what you

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were doing and you were almost forced

to, which to be honest, most of the time,

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until people are forced into some sort

of constraint, they're not disciplined

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enough to do it and they just kind of

go off and do all the things and then

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you realized the power of that and then

started helping other people do that,

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which then is really what helped you

build your business, which is, sort of

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like a full circular moment, isn't it?

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Where it's like, oh my gosh.

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And so my question for you, around

this and, I am a, I am a strategist.

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I love it.

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All things strategy.

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Especially strategic plans, but one

of the biggest challenges, especially

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with working with entrepreneurs is that

it's not easy to help other people.

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It's easy to maybe help them

create the plan, determine what

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their lifestyle is super hard to

keep them on plan and on track.

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So is that one of the things

that you do as one of your

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offers in your business model?

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Lynne Roe: Yes, it is.

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Absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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So.

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You know, I do that

through private coaching.

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I do that through some masterminds

and I do that through groups as well.

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But the idea is to help people stay on

task with what they had planned to do.

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. If you follow it, it's amazing how

much you can actually accomplish.

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And what happens for the people who are

already doing fairly well, you know,

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they're making six figures, they've got

a business, it's, they've got a proof of

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concept, they've got some clients but then

they get to this point where they're still

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doing it all themselves and they can't.

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And so part of the plan is how do

we get these things done so that

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I'm not doing it myself, and I say

we, we need to have two things.

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You need to have an invisible

team and a human team.

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Tara Bryan: Hmm.

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I like that.

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Yeah.

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So I don't call it an

invisible team, but I may now.

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I like that.

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So tell our audience what that means.

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Lynne Roe: Yeah, the invisible

team is the automations that you

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can set up in the background.

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It's the processes and procedures about

how you do things so that you're not

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trying to figure it out every time it

is, the standard operating procedures

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that you set up for you to have.

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So it's all of those things to make

sure everything runs smoothly in the

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background and also so that you don't

have to do it yourself so that you can

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take those processes, procedures and

things and have somebody else do them.

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So that's kind of your invisible team.

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Tara Bryan: Okay, wait a minute.

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I gotta stop you before

you go to the other team.

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Okay, so do you have this trademarked?

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Because that is a fabulous, like you

just turned all of that stuff super

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sexy by calling it the Invisible Team.

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Do you?

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Do you like do you use that?

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Lynne Roe: No, I probably

should, but no, I don't...

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Tara Bryan: Oh my.

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You should use that.

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That's sexy.

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That's good.

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Yeah.

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I love, I call it the

Invisible Team though.

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Yeah, all the time.

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I love that.

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Okay, I'll stop.

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But that's amazing.

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You should trademark that

and have that be your thing.

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Building an Invisible Team.

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Or we could partner because that's what

I do all that invisible team, but it

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is interesting, like total sidebar,

but it is interesting when you're like,

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you need to have processing, you need

to have SOPs and you need to actually

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have a plan for what you're doing.

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People go, Oh yeah,

that's the boring stuff.

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I don't know how to do that.

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Yeah.

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That's boring.

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Right?

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You're like, Oh, you

need an invisible team.

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They're like, Whoa, tell me more.

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Okay.

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So I like that.

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Okay.

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So then talk about now the regular team.

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Lynne Roe: So then we have a human

team and the human team, it's it's

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the people are like, Oh my God,

I don't want to hire somebody.

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But the thing is that if you

are doing everything yourself,

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you're doing the 20 an hour jobs,

you're doing the 30 an hour jobs.

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And once in a while, when you have time,

you're doing the 500 an hour jobs, right?

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1, 000 an hour jobs.

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But if you have somebody else, if

you're spending, let's say 10 or 20

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hours a week, which is what most people

spend on the 20 an hour jobs, you're

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not spending it on those jobs that

are worth a whole lot more, right?

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If you just paid somebody else to do

that, those jobs, 20 an hour jobs,

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now you have time to do the jobs

that are worth a whole lot more.

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And that's what actually grows

your business very quickly,

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otherwise you're stuck.

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You've got, you're wearing every hat.

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You're trying to do everything and you

just can't, you just can't do it all.

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So finding that human team and

that human team does not have to

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be I'm hiring a full time person.

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It doesn't have to be.

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You can hire a part time person who

is overseas sometimes, it depends on

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your business what you need, right?

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Sometimes that's a solution but

sometimes the best solution is

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to hire an expert in the field.

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So for example, you could build

your own website, but unless

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you're a website developer.

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You're not going to do it nearly as

quickly as the website developer can do

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it, and you're not going to do it as well.

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You'll have something that's okay, but

you won't have something that's great.

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And for you to spend, I was talking to

one gentleman who spent probably 100

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hours trying to develop his website.

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And he was getting paid

500 an hour by his clients.

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He was able to hire, he got, he did the

website, he got it done, it was okay.

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It wasn't great.

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It was okay.

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It worked.

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Then he talked to a website

developer who said, I can do

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it for two to three thousand.

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I could do the website for you

and you'll have it in two weeks.

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This guy spent months

trying to develop a website.

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So much time that he could have been

spending doing more valuable work.

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And not that the website designer isn't

valuable, it's that they're experienced

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and they can do it faster and better.

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So their time, they get paid more

per hour because they can do it

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faster and they can do it better.

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So sometimes that's the way to go.

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Tara Bryan: Yeah.

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Awesome.

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All right.

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Good.

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Okay.

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I love all of that.

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So tell us a little bit, like what advice

would you have for my audience around,

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um, some of the techniques that you use

to teach your people how to go from where

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they are today to where they want to go.

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Lynne Roe: So aside from starting with

a strategic plan, another thing I.

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Work with my clients on is instead of

saying to themselves, how do I do this?

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They start saying to themselves,

who can do this for me, or who

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can I find to do this for me.

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And just that little shift makes

a big difference if you start

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thinking who instead of how.

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Now you're thinking, okay, do I hire

someone on my team, or do I get somebody

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on the team that I already have, or do I

hire it out, pay someone else to do it?

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And when you start thinking that

way, that's when you start to

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move from being an entrepreneur

to being a CEO of a business.

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Before that, you're an

entrepreneur, you're doing it all.

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But once you start thinking,

who else can do this?

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That's when you start to become the CEO.

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Tara Bryan: Yes.

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So powerful.

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Awesome.

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All right.

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What's one tool resource or book or

whatever that you use in your business

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that you couldn't live without?

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Lynne Roe: My favorite business

book is Traction by Gina Wickman.

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I think it's an amazing book.

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It's great for any new entrepreneur.

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It's also great for bigger businesses

that are existing, but it's a great book.

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So that's, I can't live

without with that one.

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Tara Bryan: Yeah, that's amazing.

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Do you have the the

supplement, the actual story?

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I can't remember what it's called.

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I have it here.

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Do you know what I'm Get A Grip?

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Yes.

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I've read that one?

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Where it's the story.

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So Traction is amazing as

the how to book, right?

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Get A Grip is an illustrated story of a

company implementing and using Traction.

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Yeah.

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So those two together are

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what I think is like the secret sauce

because then you can actually follow along

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with a company who's implementing it.

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So it it's the holistic picture.

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So we will put both of those

in the show notes, but I agree.

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I love I love that book.

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So let's talk about your business

model for just a second, because

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I would be remiss as, the host

of The Scalable Expert podcast.

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If we didn't talk a little bit about

scalable offers, so tell me a little

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bit about, so you said you do one on one

work, you do masterminds and you do group,

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coaching, do you have any offers that are

available without your time and attention?

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Lynne Roe: I do.

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But I'm finding that people

really don't, you know, I have a

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course that's available online.

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I find that people really don't want

that anymore because there's so many

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education resources out there, right?

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People really want live in person,

the ability to have a conversation.

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So, all of the things that I'm

building now have something

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built in where I'm involved.

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Tara Bryan: Yeah, but you have the

foundation is like the training

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where they're learning and then

they get to interact with you.

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Correct.

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Kind of for the application piece.

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Yeah.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Yeah, because I agree.

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I mean, I think that's sort of the

way that things are going, right?

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Like, you know, a lot of

courses that are out there.

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Some of them are good, but a lot of them.

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Don't drive towards that

transformation and there's not

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a personalized element to them.

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Very few people know how to add that

personalization in where you're inserting

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yourself into the conversation In a

scalable, almost automated fashion,

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but putting that together where

you're not teaching and repeating

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yourself 40 million times, right?

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Like I call it 50 first dates.

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If you've seen that movie, where

you're not doing that, but yet,

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then you get to come in at your

highest level and help people.

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And it's more of a

combination aspect of it.

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Yeah.

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So that's amazing.

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That's what you're doing.

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So you're offering that to people,

so that they get both and you're

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able to maximize your time.

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Awesome.

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Very cool.

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All right.

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So what are some final words of

advice that you have for my audience?

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Lynne Roe: I really think that

the average person spends 15 hours

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planning a one week vacation.

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It's very rare that I find a business

owner who spends that kind of time

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planning for the growth of their business

and the business pays for the vacation.

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So spend the time to plan for how

you're going to grow your business.

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Tara Bryan: That is powerful.

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You're totally right.

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People spend more time doing that

than they do planning their business.

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I love it.

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All right.

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Well, you heard the final

word from Lynne today.

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So thank you Lynne for

being on the podcast.

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It was a pleasure to have you

on and for everyone listening go

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ahead and subscribe to the podcast.

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Give us a like, do all the

different things wherever you're

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watching or listening and until

next time, have a great week.