Celebrate with us as we mark the 100th episode of the Mom CEO Suite Podcast!

In this episode, I break down exactly what a Systems Strategist does. And I explain how a Systems Strategist differs from an Online Business Manager and a Virtual Assistant.

If you've ever felt overwhelmed or found yourself drowning in repetitive tasks, this episode will help you identify whether hiring a System Strategist could bring clarity and ease to your business operations.

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• The Harmony Systems Sprint

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Welcome to episode 100 of the Mom CEO Suite podcast.

What does a system strategist do and how to know if I need one?

Now, before I get into what we're talking about in this episode, I am pausing and taking a moment to celebrate because this is the 100th episode of the podcast and I am so excited.

This podcast has been one of my favorite things over the past year or so and I typically am slow to celebrate things happening in my business.

And so today I am pausing, I'm taking a moment and celebrating the fact that we have made it to 100 episodes of the Mom CEO Suite podcast.

Okay, I'm so excited.

Thank you all so much for listening and staying tuned in this far through the journey.

So if you want to celebrate with me, I want to ask you a favor.

If you want to celebrate our 100th episode episode.

You've been listening to the podcast.

You love the episodes.

Do me a favor, head over to Apple itunes and leave a review.

Leave a five star review and I'm going to start reading the reviews and the episodes.

So that will be super helpful just to continue to help me to get the word out about the podcast.

Okay, so happy 100th episode to the Mom CEO Sweet Podcast.

Okay, what are we talking about in this episode?

I am explaining exactly what a system strategist does just in case people don't know.

A lot of times in the online space, words and terms phrases are just thrown out there.

And so I'm really just breaking down what a system strategist does.

I also get into the difference between a system strategist, an online business manager, and a va.

I also give you some characteristics of a good system strategist.

I also let you know some signs that you might need to hire a system strategist and then I get into some benefits that come along with hiring a system strategist.

Okay, so this is going to be a really good episode.

I had lots of fun talking about it, of course, so stay tuned and enjoy the episode.

Hey, friend.

Welcome to the Mom CEO Suite podcast where faith, family and business come together.

I'm your host, Felicia Pugh, Christian wife, mom of two and life and business system strategist for mom entrepreneurs with over 10 years of experience working behind the scenes of businesses and ministries and as a work from home mompreneur.

I'm here to share my personal journey and practical strategies to help you design systems that bring peace to your work and home life.

While many strive for balance, I believe it's harmony, an integrated flow that works for you that truly sustains.

Together, we'll explore how to grow your service based business in a way that is sustainable and keeps your family at the heart of it all.

Plus, hear real life stories and expertise from other mompreneurs who are walking the same path.

Motherhood gets hard, entrepreneurship gets hard.

But together we can do hard things.

Welcome to the suite.

Hey friend.

Welcome to the episode.

Thank you so much for being here.

So over the past few weeks, past couple of months, I have been doing a lot of work related to my messaging, related to my branding, and just doing more selling.

Specifically the signature offer that I have right now, the Harmony System, Sprint.

And as I'm honing in on the messaging and selling more, it's really forcing me to think through different questions that my dream clients would be asking and different objections that they might have.

And so as I am going through all of this messaging, branding and selling, it dawned on me that some people might not actually know what a system strategist does.

And so I have been branding myself as a life in business system strategist for mompreneurs.

And so today I'm really going to get into answering that question of what does a system strategist do and how do I know if I need to hire one?

And I'm really passionate about talking about this specifically for mompreneurs, because as I talk about this when I tell my story, but I was an entrepreneur before I started my business and I just thought that, you know, after I had my daughter that I would just kind of be able to continue on in my entrepreneurial journey.

As I was, I didn't really know what to expect.

I knew things were going to change.

I just didn't know how much they were going to change.

And I just had no idea how challenging the duality of motherhood and entrepreneurship was going to be.

Now, I already knew the importance of systems.

Like I have been.

You know, I'm a systems thinker.

My background is in admin.

I'm very organized.

And that shifted into system strategy over the years.

So I always knew the importance of having systems.

But it wasn't until I had my daughter that it really became like a necessity for me to be able to even just kind of exist at this intersection of motherhood and entrepreneurship.

And so that's why I'm really passionate about helping moms in business create and implement not only business systems, but systems for their home and for their life as well.

Because it really allows you to be present in both areas of your life without having to sacrifice One for the other, more specifically, without having to sacrifice your family time for the sake of the business.

Because I think a lot of us, most of us want to be present moms for our children.

And so that's why I'm really passionate about talking about it.

So I'm excited to get into this today.

And so actually, before I get into that, you know, it's not a thing, at least for me in my journey.

I didn't just wake up one day and say, oh, hey, I want to be a system strategist.

Right.

I had no idea that this was even a thing.

So like I mentioned before, my background really was in being behind the scenes of businesses, being behind the scenes in ministries, and being that right hand person to the visionary and being the person who was creating these processes, making the vision come to life by creating the step by step for how that was going to happen.

You know, at the time, I did not know that what I was doing was system strategy.

I just, you know, was doing what I knew how to innately do.

You know, I was just keeping things organized.

And then I was introduced to the online space where I found out like, oh, this is actually a thing that people need and that people pay for.

Right.

And so I kind of started shifting from the admin space more into the system strategy, systems consulting, operations consulting, all those things.

Right?

So it wasn't a thing where it was like, oh, I want to be a system strategist when I grow up.

I just always have been naturally gifted in this.

And once I was introduced to the online space, you know, I pivoted a few times, many times, and this is where I have landed.

So what does a system strategist do?

A system strategist is really someone who focuses in, on the process of.

I'm going to, in this episode, I'm going to speak mainly about business systems.

Okay.

So they focus in on the process of businesses, okay?

So analyzing existing processes, designing new processes, implementing new processes, optimizing processes.

And then in some cases it could be training, you know, employees, or it could just be the business owner training in these new processes that have been created.

And the goal is really to create more efficient business processes.

We want to increase productivity, we want to eliminate inefficiencies.

And efficiency really relates to.

I know I've mentioned this before, but efficiency relates to having little to no waste.

So if there is a process in the business that is wasteful in terms of time, or if there's lots of delays in the process, you know, we want to get rid of that we want to get rid of things like bottlenecks or things that are stopping or slowing up the process.

Okay.

So that's what a system strategist really does.

A system strategist is focused on the processes of the business.

Okay?

Now one of the things that happens in the online space is that terms and roles, and sometimes they get misused or we are calling one thing when it really should be called something else.

And so a lot of times I see this interchanging use of the terms system strategist, OBM and VA or these roles are used interchangeably, but they all are different and they serve different purposes.

And so I'm going to go through really quickly, just kind of high level, what the differences between those different roles are.

So again, like I mentioned, the system strategist is looking at the process.

And so when I talk process, just think about the business processes, I like to think of it in terms of marketing, sales, client experience, human resources, finances and operations.

And so what is your process for onboarding a client?

What is your process for fulfilling a client's project?

What is your process for offboarding a client?

What is your process for capturing leads?

What is your process for nurturing leads?

What is your process for marketing on social media?

What is your process for referral?

Marketing?

Right.

So it's just looking at all of these different processes and again analyzing, designing, implementing, optimizing and training in those different areas.

Okay.

A system strategist can also be the person that is going to actually document this.

So once we've created this new process, we can document it as a standard operating procedure or an sop.

And that's what we use to train the team or to train the business in the new process or system.

Okay.

And the focus again is really on increasing productivity and optimizing the workflow, right?

Saving time, making it more efficient.

So that's what the system strategist is doing.

The obm, which stands for online business manager, this is a person who is really managing the day to day of the business.

So they are in communication primarily with the business owner.

And then if there is a team in place, if there's contractors in place, it's the OBM that's going to be managing and overseeing those people.

They're also going to be managing and overseeing the projects, creating plans for the projects, making sure that the timelines are being met, just making sure that the tasks of the contractors and the employees that they are being completed, you know, monitoring different metrics for the business and just making sure that everything is Running smoothly.

Okay, so the system strategist is more so focused on the processes, creating the processes, and they are more like one off projects, shorter term projects.

The OBM is going to be a person that's working with you on an ongoing basis.

Okay, so this is going to be more long term.

Now I have seen it where a system strategist after a one off project will stay on with a client on a monthly basis on a retainer to continue to refine their processes.

And I have also seen where an OBM has taken on the role, in addition to project management and day to day things, taken on the role of a system strategist and focused on creating and updating the processes and the workflows and the sops and all of those things.

So none of this is like set in stone, but it's just to kind of give you an idea of the division of labor and a high level overview of these different terms that you might hear in the online space.

And then the VA or a virtual assistant, this person is more of a doer.

So they are not really creating any strategy.

They are not overseeing other people.

They are really handling the routine tasks, the administrative tasks, the repetitive tasks and any assignments that are given to them.

They are more so the doer, okay?

They are following the systems and the processes that have been created.

They are not necessarily the person that is creating them.

Now I have seen where people have hired VAs, quote unquote VAs, to create their systems and to do their SOPs and all of those things.

And so that's why I said sometimes there is like this, this crossing of the functions which, you know, different things work for different people, but there are some differences in the responsibilities.

Okay?

And so the va, again, their timeframe of working it will depend on the business.

So it could be ongoing or it could be project based, shorter term, depending on the needs of the business owner.

Okay?

So that's just kind of the differences between those.

Again, the system strategist, I just want you to think, okay, this is the person that's going to come into my business as a consultant.

They're going to look at the business processes that I have and they're going to help me to make them better, they're going to help me make them more efficient, they're going to help me get them optimized with automation, okay?

So that now this VA that I hire or this OBM that I hire, they can manage it on an ongoing basis.

Okay, so let me see.

Also let me get into before I talk about how to know if you, you need to hire a system strategist.

Let me just give you some key characteristics of a system strategist, right?

So we are very detail oriented people.

We're very analytical, but not only that, we can see the bigger picture, right?

So it's kind of a two part thing for us.

Some people are only visionary and then some people are only detail oriented.

But with system strategists, we can see the bigger picture.

We can see the end goal, but then we can also see and we can figure out, you know, how to get there step by step, right?

That is, that's what we're good at, okay?

We're problem solvers.

We're saying, how can we get to this end goal?

And we are also structured thinkers, right?

So we think in structure.

And I know for me personally this can sometimes be a hindrance for me in my own business because if I don't have a structure around something, it's hard for me to take action around it, which is not always necessarily good because sometimes we just have to take imperfect action and sometimes we don't have the structure.

But we are structured thinkers.

And when I say structured, I don't want you to think inflexible because we're structured, but we're flexible because we understand that there is more than one way to get to the end goal.

Okay?

There's more than one way to get to the end goal.

And that's kind of why a lot of the systems services that you might see is done for you and customized.

Because every business is different, every business owner is different, every business has different goals.

And so we are creating your systems and your processes based on what makes sense for your business, based on what makes sense for you as the business owner as well.

Okay?

So we're structured thinkers, but we're also very flexible.

We're also tech savvy.

We like to play around with tech and software probably a little bit too much.

Okay.

When we should be doing other things.

But we're very tech savvy.

And so when we are talking about hiring a system strategist, this person should be talking to you about optimizing.

I mentioned this earlier, optimizing your processes.

And the way that you do this or one of the ways that you do this is through automation.

So if you're looking at a system strategist and they are not talking to you about optimizing your process, your workflow through automation, then you want to run, okay?

Because automation is going to be one of the main ways to optimize your workflow to save time to reduce inefficiencies.

Okay.

But we like tech, and so it's okay that you don't.

Or if you don't.

Okay.

Because we do.

We do.

We love it and we have fun in it.

And what else?

Yeah, those are the main things.

Okay.

So I hope that kind of gave you a good idea of what to look for when you are, you know, engaging with different people who you might be seeking to hire.

Now, how do you know if you need a system strategist?

Okay, here's a few things that you want to look at or a few things that you want to consider.

If you are constantly feeling.

And these are in no particular order, if you are constantly feeling overwhelmed with the work in your business, this might be a sign that you don't have those processes in place.

And so you need someone to come in to help you make sense of all of the things that you are doing.

Okay.

And create that structure to take away the overwhelm.

All right.

If you don't have your processes documented, right?

So you might have processes.

Matter of fact, everybody has processes.

Everybody has a process.

Everybody has a system.

It just might not be an efficient system.

Right.

Or it may be a system that's not documented.

It's in your head.

Okay.

And so when something lives in your head versus on paper, well, first, number one, that makes it difficult to repeat it at the same standard each time.

But then it also makes it difficult for you to be able to delegate that particular task to someone else.

Okay?

So if you don't have documented processes in your business, this could be a sign that you need to hire a system strategist because you need to get those processes out of your head.

Okay?

You need to get the processes out of your head so that you can.

For each client, you can be operating at the same standard.

That's for.

If you're talking about client experience.

But for your leads, for your project management, you need to be operating at the same standard so you can measure what's working and what's not working, right?

So you can get to the point where you can.

Where you can scale or figure out how to scale, but you can do that if you don't have that process documented and you're not repeating it in the same manner over and over to be able to spot inefficiencies or room for improvement.

Okay.

If you are finding yourself spending a lot of time on repetitive tasks, this could be a sign that you need to hire a system strategist specifically for the optimization of your processes.

Right.

Because there's probably many things that can be automated in your business.

You might be spending a lot of time doing manual things, or again, if it's repetitive, it can probably be handled by tech in some capacity.

And so you might need to hire a system strategist to help you figure out what those things are that you can automate and then also set up that, those specific automations for you.

Okay.

So those are a few ways.

I think those were three different ways.

But you know, if you're just feeling like in your business things are a little bit chaotic on the back end, if things are falling through the cracks, right.

If you're missing deadlines, if you're doing a lot of manual work, if things are not documented, if a lot of things are living in your, in your head as the business owner, if you, for, for the different processes that you, in your business, if they're being done differently every time, that's a sure sign that you need to hire a system strategist so you can get some standardization in place.

But if you've noticed that some of those things are relatable to you, then you probably need to hire a system strategist.

Okay?

And again, like I said, we come in as a consultant, we look at your existing processes.

You know, we, we look at what your goals are.

Right.

We just don't come in and say a good system strategist is not going to come in and say you need to do this without understanding what your goals are.

Okay.

So if you are finding that okay, yes, Felicia, I need to hire a system strategist.

Definitely.

Feel free to connect with me through the Harmony System Sprint.

This is a one week intensive where I come in and do exactly what I've been talking about this whole episode.

And I'll help you design and optimize your processes, remove inefficiencies.

And when you do this right, when you hire a system strategist, what is going to be the benefit to you is that you will have streamlined operations so you're able to do more in less time.

You're saving time, okay?

The quality of your work is going to improve because there is a standard.

Things are not falling through the cracks.

If automation is handling things, then the quality of the work that each client is getting or receiving or each lead is going to be the same.

It's going to be standard, it's going to be at that high level.

Okay.

And they're not going to be subject to, you know, you as the business owner having a bad day and, you know, not communicating well on one particular day or forgetting to send a particular link.

Right.

The benefit to you in hiring a system strategist, and this is key, is that you will have peace of mind that things are working in your business, okay?

Even without you having to do the work.

I say a lot, let automation be your assistant, okay?

And automation comes in after we have, you know, analyzed and designed your processes.

Once we do that, we can optimize it with automation.

And this literally can operate as an assistant to you, okay?

And so you have peace of mind, knowing that your business tasks are getting done and you're able to step away from the business.

You're able to be that present mom, so you're not having to be chained to your laptop.

You can go to the soccer games or you can homeschool your kids without doing it in a way where you are stressed out about the business or sacrificing these precious moments with your kids.

You can be present for all of the milestones, okay?

And that is really the larger goal that we want to get to.

Systems really set you up for a life of freedom, okay?

They really do.

And so, again, after listening to this episode, if you are interested in getting more information about how I could serve you as a system strategist, then go ahead, click the link in the show description to check out the information about the Harmony System, Sprint, or if you just have a question that's not related to that particular service, feel free to shoot me a message over on Instagram and I'll be happy to answer your questions and talk about your specific scenario.

Okay?

So I hope that this was helpful and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.

Thank you for listening to the Mom CEO Suite podcast.

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