On today's episode Kristin speaks to Nneka Roberts, a Systems Strategist, about how to design our systems to support our mission, values and income generation so that we can focus on work we love and let the systems (rituals, team, tools and our time) work for us.

This is a great conversation around focusing our businesses around lead generation, sales conversions, delivery and support and to stop worrying about all the extra tools and things until we need additional systems or tools.

Kristin and Nneka talk about how too many people think they need everything to get their business making money but instead we should focus on the 4 core areas and worry less about having every bell and whistle.

The key is to have enough systems in place while keeping the systems- processes, workflow and tools simple enough to support your business and the work you do best.

Connect with Kristin to learn more about her offerings, coach and podcasts here: https://KristinFitch.com

Follow Kristin on Instagram at @KristinFitch.com

Connect with Nneka at SageSimpleSolutions.com

#systems #simplifyyourbusiness #onlinebusinesstools #entrepreneurs #femaleentrepreneurs #coaches #leadership #businesssupport

0:00

Here's what I want to ask you. What is holding you back? What is the thing that's holding you back from going after your dreams and from finding meaningful work you love? Aren't you ready to wake up to the possibilities that are in your life and go after the things you've dreamt up? It's time for you to feel alive again, lit up in for you to know that you're deserving, and you're worthy for the future that's waiting for you. I want you to feel fulfilled and find abundance in your life. I think it's time and I'm ready to help you get started. Now, I'm your host, Kristen, of building a life you love. And each week on the show, we're going to help you figure out how you do go after your dreams and find work you love. Here we go. Let's get started. Hi, and welcome back to another episode of building a life you love. This is your host, Kristen. And today I'm excited because we are going to dive into simplifying our systems. We're going to talk about when do we need systems and tools? When do we need to get people to help us in whatever we're building. And we're going to talk about all the things you don't need starting out. So this is a great episode, if you've started a side gig if you have a business and you're still a solopreneur or a small company where you farm out most of your work. So it's such an invaluable conversation. I think it has some great perspectives and ideas for you too. Let's jump right in. Hi, today on the show, I would like to welcome Anna cut Roberts, she is a system strategist. And she helps establish coaches and creatives break up with being the bottleneck in their business. So they feel exquisitely supported as they grow their impacted income. She helps by designing systems that back their brilliance. Welcome, Annika, I can't wait for this conversation today.

1:38

Ah, thank you for welcoming me, Griffin. Thank you. Thank you, I feel so good to be on your show today. Thank you. And I'm

1:45

very excited for this conversation. Because I think it's an area that a lot of people when it has to do with systems and tools, and, you know, getting the right people to help us. And it has to do with tech, a lot of people want to just put up their hands, you know, and especially if they're a smaller, you know, or a not a big huge company. And this is close to my heart, because for over 20 years, I've worked in the marketing technology space. And I really get how important processes and systems are. So I'm so happy you're joining us today to share your wisdom and knowledge.

2:19

Yeah, well, one of the things I found when I'm working with beginning business owners, or I have a 20 year career in corporate, as a systems analyst, I feel like always there The thinking is the team or the tool will solve the problem without having any process or workflow or order to the way that things are going. And so what you want to do before you start thinking about the tools and the teams that you have uses, what's the order in which things are working in your business? And what's the order in which you want them to work in your business? Then you can get the teams and the tools to do it afterwards?

3:01

Oh, absolutely. Love it. So can you first start by telling us a little bit about your backstory, and then what you're up to now?

3:09

Okay, well, I came into this world because I have a 20 year career, like I said, with big brands like IBM and I was a consultant for them, and went into businesses took a look at their systems, I advise them on process improvement and what tools that they could implement and how they can change it teams in order to support their mission and their values. That was for very, very large companies. So one of the projects that I worked on, we came in, we did that, and I ran the project, and it made $20 million in the first year. And at the same time, I have a 20 year history with the online space. I started off with a plus size laundry company with my ex husband. We did that for a while learned about SEO, Wordpress, came on the scene, learn about content marketing, started blogging, and then started a life coaching practice that I had for five years. And what what I noticed with my peers is that they were excellent coach, coaches, excellent coaches, but the part where the they're building their business and to support them, they weren't really doing very well. And so I was helping them a lot with that. And that's why I decided to transition into doing this work.

4:24

No, that's awesome. So tell us first of all, you're helping people in this way you're helping them create systems and even understand what you know, what is their What should their workflow be? What should the order of things be that will help support them right to make income and to really build a life that they are passionate about and gives them the freedom to do what they want. So with that, what are you finding? Where are people getting stuck, you know, what are we what's happening?

4:51

So I see a few problems and it happens I'd like the current levels of messes I would say the first problem happens with beginners and there's this tendency to think that they need a lot of tools in order to make their business work. Like, you start off on, you're like, Okay, well, I need a website, and I need WordPress for blogging, and I need you know, and I need a CRM and I need this and that, and one, it kind of slows you out for a while, because you're not doing you're not really focused on income generation. And to it, it's like crack, crack crack. Because you don't really, you haven't really done the work yet. And so you don't, you can't really set up the tools the way that they need to be set up. So you're working on somebody else's advice. And what I like to tell beginners is to keep things simple. When you're starting off, the most important thing is income generation. And that is done through connecting with people and telling them about who and what you do, and selling. So basically, the tools that you need are very, very simple at that point. And your system for doing it is very, very simple. Maybe I could talk about this next, I wanted to talk about the core systems in your business. So that that, that everyone understands that.

6:10

Yeah, let's dive into that. Let's step back for a second and talk about that. What what is, what are our systems? Or what should they be? What's really,

6:17

yeah. So I call it the three plus one system. So your business has three core systems that generate income, and one that kind of supports them? The three are one is your lead generation system, lead generation is? How are you getting people to find out about you? And how are you going to be educating them about what you do? In today's world that can be as simple as social media, pick a platform, do you want to do Facebook Do you want to do tick tock, whatever your platform is, but find a way so that people find out about you. And that this, you can start educating them, and you can start nurturing them and connecting with them. So that might be, you know, one on one coffee chats, it might be just talking to people in DMS, it just it just depends. This is a time that you learn what you love. And then you make a system from from it. The second system that you have, that everybody has is this sales system. So now you have leads, they want to work with you, they're qualified to work with you, how do you get them from that point to the part where they pay you to work with you, right? They become a customer? So and that piece is? How can you connect with them? How can you make a phone call with them? How can you maybe have a questionnaire so that you can screen them? How do they pay? Right? And how do you enter into the agreement? So how do you set up your contract? That's right, this is probably your sales is probably the engine, wherever you have a tool, this is probably where you want to put it in. So you probably need payment processing. You need somebody something that had those question is a scheduling tool. And there you have it, it's your and it could be just one thing. We talked about that afterwards. And then the third, the third system that you have number three, number five, number eight, is your delivery system. How are you going to onboard your clients, however, you're going to deliver what you promised, if you're a coach, and you're starting off, on stick to one on one, that will be the most profitable for you. And it will be the simplest for you. And it will help you to learn how to work with clients if you're a new coach. So the way to do that is you're basically just doing phone calls at that point sessions with your clients. And over time, you may be developing some assets as you work with them. So you have again, a scheduler, and you need a way to put a place to put your assets. So Google Docs or Dropbox or something like that, again, keep things very, very simple. Keep in mind that these are the three systems you need either way to generate leads, you need a way to convert them into clients, and you need a way to serve them, basically. Yeah, that that doesn't require a lot of tools, or a lot of team, in fact, any tools or anything. And then there's the fourth the plus one comes in when you've gotten all of that and you have clients everything is going well, then you may find that you have a lot of work and you start to need some help. So now we're talking about the support in your business, your team members, how are you going to onboard team members? How are you going to train them? How are you going to hire them? And how will you if you need to release them already fire them. Those are the that's like the plus one part that happens once you're established was this is this is for my clients that are established and they have teams or they're they're getting their first email And so now you're starting to think about how can you support your Okay, can you have support in your business? Yeah,

10:08

that's so good. I love how you break that down. Because this is a pitfall. So many people find themselves in, they really do think I have to have my website fully working, I have to have this Facebook page, I have to have this social, they really think every piece has to be put together before they do any outreach, any connecting any, but then they spin their wheels and takes a really long time. And then months later, they realize they haven't progressed. And then they start questioning like is this even going to work. But to your point, I always try to say to them, these are these are things you might have to do, or you might do at some point. But if they're roadblocks meaning obstacles today that are standing in your way, like they can't get done today, put them on a list, put all the things on the list. And then what are the two or three things that if you pulled those things out, which are exactly the things you just talked about, that if you did those, it would help you actually build this business, you know, because we get so worried with this huge, long list of things that it doesn't have to have all happen as long as someone can find us online and verify who we are right that we're a trustworthy person. And obviously being consistent in showing up online. And starting to connect these people though, they'll know that and of course, having testimonials as we, you know, build the business. But I love that you're talking about that, because a lot of people do get stuck in this story that they believe they have to have all these things or else you know, they can't start their business, they can't actually generate revenue. And so I love that you talked about those steps, I think it's amazing.

11:40

Yeah, that's probably the most critical thing for for business owners starting off is to, the most important thing for you to do is create is to have a valid product. And to do it as soon as possible day one, if you can start to work with people and start developing that product, whether it be a service or an actual tangible product, but then you will know that it's something people want to buy. And as you do that, you will build up those you will build up the processes start to create the foundations of your systems. Right. So what I do with clients is I work with people at the point where they have a viable product, they are probably at the right of the point where they feel like they are doing a lot of work, but they need some help with that work. That's the part where we start to talk about you know, shoring up your tools on hiring some people. The other thing that I see other mistakes talking about mistakes earlier, is one as people talk about trying to get tools to do the work for them. The other mistake is trying to hire team members prematurely to do work for you. So again, if you're just starting up focus on on your product on delivering your product and getting done. Relax, you don't need a VA yet. It's okay. I know a lot of coaches say hire VA, I'm the one that will say, hold off, wait, get your business up and running. And then you can start to have those types of expenses.

13:16

Yeah, and let's talk through that for a minute. Because I think you know, we both get the point that and maybe everybody doesn't realize this, if you hire a VA or anybody help other contractor Freelancer doesn't have to be a full time employee. You can't just hire them and say, oh, here, you're gonna help me five hours a week, you have to define Right? Like, what's the work? What are the steps, right, you have to have a process or procedure, you're gonna have to train them on how to do what you need. And if you don't, then you may not get the level of results or work you want from the person because you didn't train them to your expectations and your needs.

13:54

Right. So right, that's so true question. And what I see is a lot of churn with these also, coaches get very, very frustrated with their ways because they don't, you know, they finally like throw things over the wall. They're like, here, do this. I mean, the other day, I hired someone to do to kind of strip through my testimonials because I had been aggregating testimonials throughout the year. And I had all these video testimonials, but they weren't kind of they they weren't clean. There was a lot of bombing. And I and I there were the questions mixed in between. And so when I gave it to her, I had to give it to her with instructions. I couldn't just say, Okay, there's these testimonials, go off and just clean them up. We had a conversation about what I wanted from her what, what the end result would be. I didn't talk to her really about how to do it because I like to empower my people to figure that part out. But I did tell her, this is what I expect. And this is When I talk about a snippet of a testimonial, this is what I mean by it, right. So you have to be at the point where you can turn that thing over to someone, meaning you've either done it yourself before, or you have a clear understanding of what you want to happen. And it doesn't have to be all perfect, either, you can probably figure that out with the person. But be very clear that tossing things over the wall and hoping that they that someone picks it up, it's really going to set you back more than sets you forward.

15:36

Yeah, and I actually want to stay on that for just a minute. And it's about expectations. So I was in a position, I guess it was a year, two years ago, I was working with an old colleague of mine, and it had become like a full time thing, which it wasn't really in the plan. But then it just kind of happened because he needed the help. And now I've just that contracts recently wrapped up. But when I was there, they had hired someone to help in their sales and new business development area. And there was this particular thing that he wanted this person to do. And he was a little frustrated with her when I kind of checked in and said how's it going? But the problem was, is yes, he showed her what he she needed to do. And it was kind of like editing a PowerPoint, and then this, these other documents and stuff, but it was very specific how he would do it. But I said, Well, wait, you have expectations for but you've done this for years, and that you could do it in your sleep. You showed it to her one or two times and you expected the same level of, you know, xx excellence that you have. And I said, let me show me it. And let me see if I can fix your document the way you want. And I said no, if I can't, then we need clear directions for her on exactly which things get changed and what how you change them. So that she has a reference to go back to you know, and then anyone could do this work for you. But you have to be so crystal clear on? What are you asking for? And then if it's something where it's like, oh, well, I would make this choice or this choice, right? So partly, he was showing data for different markets like media data, but he might choose one category over another and he'd have a reason for it. Because he has a lot of experience. Well, I don't know all that information. So I need to know, how can I then make the better choice, right, so you have to give me some logic or thinking behind that. But the point was, is we then came up with an entire process a whole, you know, five page document with examples and screenshots of how you would edit this thing. So that it would be to his level of, you know, what he wanted. But without that, you know, in his mind, he's thinking she didn't do what I really wanted, it was okay was 70%. You know, and, um, once again, if somebody we give them work, and it's not perfect the first time? Well, part of that is there's a learning curve, right. And so I think we just need to be clear that just because you give somebody work sometime doesn't mean it'll be exactly how you would do it, because they're new at it, and you have lots of experience, most likely and doing that work. And so I just want to remind people, it takes time to bring people along, right to work with you to understand your thoughts and what your expectations are. And so I would just say give people a little grace, as long as you feel like there's a fit there to begin with, you know, yeah,

18:13

definitely. If they, I saw what I thought the clients, I say, you know, you're what I what I term a systems is the rituals in your business that are embodied in you right now. And it becomes a system when you're able to communicate it outside of you so that a tool or a team member can pick it up, and then do it, what these things are lived experiences. This is why I say in the beginning, when you really have no lived experience, it's difficult to come up with a system, because you haven't really done it. And I know, I know from experience that when you're starting off, you want some certainty, and you want to know the right way to do things. This is really the time to experiment in the beginning to kind of figure out what works for you and what doesn't. So that later down the line, then it's in you and it's embodied. Now you need to get it out of you and onto paper so that someone can take it over. So what happens with my clients a lot is that they say things like, like you were saying, with your clients like, Oh, but I get to it was very frustrating. I had to explain to her 10 times, well, again, your lived experience. And probably what happens is that when you were explaining it, you miss some steps because you're not used to telling someone else so what I do with my clients is I'm the one that goes in and I asked them all the questions so that when they write it down it they can give it to a stranger and a stranger can pick it up right and executed the way that they want want it to be executed. If they haven't done that work, then they're left trying to do it with an employee or team member without kind of getting that out of them. And that's the frustrating part. It's like, but this is easy, but it's easy because you've been doing it. It's right. That's right. And and the other thing I hear from people is, oh, this, they're supposed to know. Right? You hire VA, they are skilled in what they do. They know how to post to social media. They know how to how to set up a schedule. They know how to do things in a spreadsheet, they have the skill, but they're not they don't know yet how, what's your voices, they don't know yet your frequency of posting, they don't know yet how you repurpose your content. Those are the things that they will have to learn. And this is your lived experience that you now have to bring out of you to share with someone else. I help you to bring it out so that you can share it with somebody else with a stranger.

20:59

Absolutely, yeah. So let's dig into I think two things. One is how do we keep our simple? We talked a little bit but how do we keep our system simple, because people do want to just keep adding, for instance, tools. And I know tools are only a piece of this. So any suggestions there on how do we just make sure we're not biting off more than we can chew. And it's really not making us more productive, or score helping us in our life in our business, it might be actually causing more. Furthermore, yeah.

21:27

So I see this on both sides, right. In the beginning, the tendency is to get more tools. When people hit like mid six figures, the tendency is let's just hire someone else. And I see. So I see them in both phases, right. And this is just like, before you start adding both to your business, I want to step that I take is starting to eliminate things that aren't working. Because when what tools do is they make the systems work well, and that produces more, right, and they make bad systems run horribly run well, as well, all they make bad systems run well also. But that just ends up in disaster for your business. Right when on the on the team side. When you don't have enough team you feel supported and depleted, and you need more help. If you add more team to pour systems, then it's just going to be like too many cooks in the broth. And everybody starting to Dingle dangle. And it's going to feel even more frustrating to you're going to feel like I have this big team, it's going to be very expensive to support that big team. But I'm still not getting I'm still the bottleneck for my business. And what I help you to do is step out of being that bottleneck. So for in the beginning, I will say, again, keep your keep your business simple. Think about those three primary systems that you have your Legion, your sales, your delivery, and how you can lean it out, make it as simple as it can possibly be for you. Right, and then you start thinking about well, now that I have it as simple as possible, I need a tool that can help me to do that. Right?

23:19

26:06

I would even take it a step further. I would take it a step further. If email, is email even part of your lead generation right now. Right? Your you know, your new business, or even long term like is email a part of your lead generation right now? How are you going to use this collection of emails that that you have, that you're paying for? That's what I mean, by looking at the systems in your business? Do you even need this to at all? I'm not saying that you will never have an email list. What I'm saying is that that's what you know, like everybody's always like, well, she said that you never even know. That's what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that when you're proving out your product, now is the time do you really need an email list right now? Are you connecting with people through email? Or will it be just another thing to do?

26:52

That's right. I agree with that. I think too many of us really do. And you made a comment about this earlier, but we are working on someone else's advice or what their steps were. But it doesn't mean it's right for us. And actually, that's one thing I want to jump into is, I think too many of us have been in the pitfall of trying to build a business because of what we saw other people do. The issue with that is, is that that means that we don't feel ease, instead of saying what works really well for me, and what I can really commit to each week and how I want to connect with people and how I want to do business. And if we just base it on that instead of Oh, my God, I have all these things I have to do because someone else is doing all those things. And then we have overwhelm instead of this, this alignment with the work we're doing.

27:41

Correct? Correct. You want to think we want to feel into it's an I again, I say, In the beginning, it feels a little bit scary. I know I've started like four businesses. So and then everyone it feels scary, even though I know this. But business really is about that lead generation, that ability to say to get someone's attention and to, to connect with them, and to educate them on what you're offering. That is basically is and then you need to convert them into a into a sale. So the tools to do that can be extremely simple and clear. I'm talking, you're getting attention on Instagram, people are connecting to you there. You talk to them in their DMS, they say, Oh, I'm interested in your product, you have a quick call, and you send them the contract. And the way to make a payment. Very, very, very simple. Very simple. I also Yeah, go ahead. No, I was about to say that. And in the beginning, there are some very simple tools for that I recommend honeypot myself, I love it. If you choose to go with another tool, like a lot of people want to go with dubsado dubsado has a lot of plug and play. And so it's more difficult to set up. And we typically need help with that. I would say keep it, keep it very, very simple. In the beginning.

29:12

Absolutely. So what else would you want to share? You know, with people as we're trying to build, you know, lives that we have more financial freedom and flexibility.

29:25

So, one of the things when you're when you're starting off, we talked about a lot about that and how to keep things simple. But there comes a time in your business when you're making money. And you're feeling like oh my god, well now I really need some help because you've got your social media going, you might be doing three platforms instead of one at this point. Your clients are coming in, they love what you're doing. So now you want to start thinking about who do i Who do I get to help me and how do I come out of being the middle of everything and kind of orchestrating everything. That's the point at which I like, starting to work with people, so that we can start documenting what their systems are so that when people come on, they are very well trained, so that we know what they're going to be doing. We know how to hire them. We know how to recruit for them, and so that they're very well trained. And they can be on boarded really well.

30:20

Yeah, absolutely. Oh, so good. And before you share with us where people can connect with you online, any resources or recommendations, books, podcasts, anything that you would want to share with us, or tools, systems?

30:40

Well, like I said, I highly recommend honey book for your for to handle keeping up with your leads, scheduling, they do contract, and then they do payment processing in there, they you can fill out your questionnaire, your intake form in there as well. So it's all in one. It's probably the one all in one that I would ever recommend for portfolio, but it's very good when you're starting off. It just keeps things simple. When you're starting off. I would say also, if you insist on having a website, I've done this for the first year of my business, it's just fine. Have a one page website on Squarespace. Yeah, keep that right, plain and simple as well. And then for your, for your your documentation, you can use Google Docs or drop off. Right, and that, that's enough to get you started.

31:34

Great. Wonderful. Thank you for all the nuggets of wisdom and knowledge today. How can we connect with you online and learn more about all the great ways you're helping coaches and creatives in their businesses?

31:46

Okay, you can go to Sage, simple solutions.com If you would like to work with me, and there, it will show you how to connect with me online. So that's why we the hub of everything, go to Sage, simple solutions.com. And you get all set up.

32:04

Oh, I love it. Thank you so much for being with us today. Happy New Year. And I look forward to connecting with you again soon.

32:10

Thank you so much, Kristin. Oh,

32:13

and as we talked about systems and building businesses that allow us to do work that we're passionate about, and really be able to design a life we love. I want to share this quote with you as we wrap up by Laura Vander cam, you don't build the life you want by saving time you build the life you want. And then time saves itself, recognizing that is what makes success possible. Oh, I love that. I think that's so great. I think it's so important. Once again, I talked about this all the time, but we have to build the life we want, which means we have to be clear on our priorities. And we have to be clear on what it is we want in our lives and what we want that to look like. And then we build that life around those priorities. So that's it for today. I hope you have a great day and I will see you back here on the next episode. Once again. Thanks for listening to the podcast. And if you enjoyed the podcast, we would love it if you could leave a review on Apple podcasts because that helps us get discovered by more people. We'd also love your feedback. So email me at Kristin at Kristin Fitch calm or DM me on Instagram. I'm at Kristin Fitch and let me know what ideas or ideas for shows or for guests that you have. I would love to hear from you.