Full show notes + links mentioned in this episode:

👉🏾 https://karveldigital.com/55

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📸 Instagram: @karveldigital

💼 LinkedIn: Kronda Adair

🎵 TikTok: @krondakarvel

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About Begin As You Mean to Go On

Hosted by Kronda Adair, founder of Karvel Digital, this podcast is for Black women running mission-driven service businesses. We help you increase your income and impact—without the hustle—by strategically automating your backend systems so you can reclaim your time and peace.

🔗 Learn more: karveldigital.com

Welcome to begin as you mean to go

on where we help black women with

2

mission-driven service-based businesses,

grow your income and impact while

3

creating a more peaceful, profitable

business by strategically automating

4

your critical business systems

5

Kronda: My name is Kronda Adair.

6

And I went from making $500

websites to becoming a certified

7

automation service provider.

8

Doing multiple six figures per year,

while working part-time wrangling

9

to high energy dogs and having some

of my highest revenue months while

10

taking completely off-grid vacations.

11

Thanks to strategic

automation and a small team.

12

Inside my million dollar system service

and my automation club membership, we

13

help you create a cohesive software

stack and automate one new thing per

14

month in your business resulting in a

compound interest of time, energy and.

15

peace So you can build your business

without the patriarchal white

16

supremacist hustle and grind.

17

If you're ready to work hard once

and hire and employ technology to

18

execute proven marketing strategies.

19

So you can get back to the rest

of your business and your life.

20

You are in the right place.

21

Let's get it going.

22

Hey y'all.

23

Welcome back.

24

I'm so excited to be in

your ear holes once again.

25

And this episode, I wanna talk

about sustaining automated systems.

26

Now the first thing is this

episode is inspired by my friend,

27

Blessing Richards, who has a

podcast called The Blessing Effect.

28

And her most recent episode

is titled Automation Works.

29

When you get clear on what's real,

what's used, and what's necessary.

30

And when I listened to this episode,

I had two immediate reactions.

31

One is all of my clients need to

hear this like right now, like

32

yesterday, like a month ago.

33

And the second is I need to record a

follow-up episode because one thing

34

that I see happening with some clients,

not all, is that, especially if there's

35

no one technical on the team who.

36

Can seamlessly own the

systems that we build.

37

Once they've off boarded, then

clients can fall off a cliff.

38

It's like you go from scattered tools

and scattered systems to streamline

39

tools and streamline systems, but

not knowing how to maintain them.

40

And if no one on your team internally

is gonna own the systems, then

41

the systems will start to degrade.

42

And the thing is, we understand

this concept of in every

43

other area of life, right?

44

If you go from living in an

apartment where you don't have

45

a ton of responsibility, like

someone else maintains the systems,

46

if something breaks, you call

the manager, you have it fixed.

47

If you go from that to.

48

Having a house and having a house

with some land, it's now your

49

responsibility to upkeep those systems.

50

You understand that you're gonna have

to mow the lawn or upkeep, your yard

51

or hire somebody to do that for you if

that's not how you wanna spend your time.

52

So we need to bring that same energy

into our business systems when we're

53

upgrading from, maybe doing a lot of

things manually to trying to have.

54

Strategic automated systems inside our

business, whether or not that involves ai.

55

If it does involve ai, which that's

Blessings forte is she's helping people

56

install AI agents into their business.

57

And one of the challenges that she's

finding is that people are coming to

58

her very excited about getting AI and

implementing AI into their business,

59

but they don't have the foundations.

60

And we're gonna talk about what those are.

61

So let's just start with

this premise, right.

62

If you don't maintain your system,

then it's going to stop being a

63

system and become a liability.

64

And I think people have been fed

this automation equals autopilot,

65

and that is not actually true.

66

Automation is simply, you know,

I say this all the time, don't

67

buy software, hire software.

68

So you've now hired software and

yes, it's not gonna take smoke

69

breaks, it's not gonna take vacation.

70

But it's also not gonna work perfectly

every single time, forever and ever.

71

amen, and you're gonna have to

maintain your business is gonna change.

72

You are going to need updates

and upgrades to your system.

73

So someone is going to have to

take responsibility for that.

74

So let's talk about the four systems that

you need to really create sustainable

75

automated systems in your business.

76

And some of this Blessing goes

into detail in her podcast episode.

77

I'm definitely going to

put that in the show notes.

78

If you need to go and listen

to that first pause here, go

79

listen to that and come back.

80

Go ahead.

81

I won't be offended.

82

the first thing you need

is mature processes, right?

83

You can't.

84

Automate a process that is

going to be changing every week.

85

And this is one of the biggest

challenges when clients start to

86

want us to automate things, but they

also wanna have a million exceptions.

87

I like people to pay in full, but

sometimes I have payment plans.

88

Sometimes the payment plan is 50% upfront

and then spread out over six months.

89

But sometimes it's, 25% upfront,

spread out over 12 months.

90

The more exceptions you have in your

processes, the harder it's going to

91

be to automate, because the robots are

only about the ones and zeros, right?

92

They want things to be consistent.

93

And when you start introducing exceptions,

you start introducing oftentimes

94

unnecessary complexity, and that's just

gonna make things harder to maintain.

95

So if you're trying to automate

your chaos, you're just going to

96

increase the effects of your chaos.

97

You're not actually

gonna experience relief.

98

Your processes also need to be documented,

and this is one of the biggest gaps that

99

I see literally in the last six months.

100

I have asked.

101

Almost every business owner that

I've had a meaningful conversation

102

with, I ask this question, which is,

Hey, how are you documenting your

103

processes inside of your business?

104

And a hundred percent of the time,

people say, one of two things they

105

say, well, we don't, we don't have.

106

Documentation for our processes,

or they start talking to me

107

about SOPs or monday.com.

108

And when I say, how are you

documenting your processes?

109

I mean, where is the place that

you go that's outside of your

110

tools, where there's a visual

representation of how people and

111

software work together to you know?

112

Move your processes forward, whether

that's lead generation, whether that's

113

marketing processes, sales processes,

delivery, and things like that.

114

And so that is a gap that I'm committed

to addressing moving forward, because

115

it's literally the first thing we have

to do when we start working with clients

116

is take everything that's been living

in your head, that's been living in

117

your team's head, that's been living in

scattered Google Docs all over Google

118

Drive and create a centralized visual.

119

Record of how things move through.

120

And when we do this, people

experience so much clarity

121

and that in itself is so valuable

that I've realized I need to

122

start teaching people how to

actually do this for themselves.

123

And so later on in the episode, I'm

gonna tell you about the process

124

mapping workshops that I'm running.

125

Throughout the rest of this year so that

if this is something you lack, which

126

statistically speaking it probably is,

it doesn't have to stay that way, right?

127

You can come and you can learn how

to start mapping these things out,

128

if not you, someone on your team.

129

so I'll tell you more about that later.

130

The second thing is clean data.

131

This is another thing that almost

a hundred percent of clients we

132

work with, we end up having to do

some sort of cleaning on your data.

133

this week's example is we're

moving a client from MailChimp to

134

a different email service provider.

135

And so every.

136

subscriber that she has an address for

that address all lives in one column.

137

The street address, the city, the

state, the country, the zip code, all

138

of those things are in one column.

139

And in order to import those

things into her new platform,

140

those things had to be separated.

141

Now, normally I can.

142

Usually give a file to chat GPT and

say, Hey, can you work this out for

143

me and get like 80% of the wave there?

144

This data was so irregular and

so Unifor chatty G just threw it

145

back at me and said, I don't know.

146

I don't know what to do with this.

147

So we ended up having to do it by hand.

148

Clean data is non-negotiable,

especially if you want to start

149

implementing AI into your business.

150

Those robots need to know,

where's this data gonna live?

151

And they need to know that

data is formatted consistently.

152

So this is a non-negotiable.

153

You can't automate inconsistent

naming conventions, outdated

154

records, or duplicated information.

155

The third thing is, where are

people on your team communicating?

156

You need to have a communication hub

where everybody knows where to go

157

and talk about the things that are

going on in your business, whether

158

that's Slack, whether that's Google

Chat, whether that's clickup Chat.

159

There needs to be a centralized place

because if you want to have automations

160

that are gonna update you about things,

that also needs to come to a central place

161

where everyone's gonna be able to see it.

162

And the last thing is project management.

163

So having a place where everybody on

the team can go to see what is being

164

worked on, when is it due and what's

the state of the task or the project.

165

I do have clients who operate without

project management and it's very hard to.

166

Have transparent automation.

167

If there's nowhere for the robots to

go and update you on, Hey, here's the

168

status of this thing, or I'm done with

this thing, or I'm blocked doing this

169

thing and I need human intervention.

170

So all of that is a cliff notes

of what Blessing really deep

171

dives into in her episode.

172

Again, please go listen to it.

173

So

174

I wanna talk about what happens after

you hire someone like me to come

175

in and create those systems, right?

176

We build out those things, we help you

make those decisions so that you have

177

consistent information so that you

have, a central source of truth for the

178

data that's coming into your business.

179

We can help you do all of those things,

but I wanna talk about how do we then.

180

Create off-boarding that is more

of a gentle off-boarding ramp and

181

not so much a flying out of the

nest and dropping off of a cliff.

182

Because what I found is as much detailed

documentation as we leave clients with.

183

If they don't understand how to read

the map or how to then go and make the

184

changes that they wanna make, then it's

not as useful to them as it could be.

185

So I had this revelation several months

ago as clients were starting to offboard,

186

and so here's what I've started to

do to try to, smooth out that ramp.

187

The first thing is when

clients ask questions.

188

I will start to transition from just going

to fix the thing to sending them a loom

189

video saying, Hey, this thing is fixed.

190

Here's how it was fixed.

191

Here's where it lives and here's where

it's gonna live in the documentation.

192

When you go back to, your process maps.

193

Now, if you're the type of person

whose eyes glaze over, when you look

194

at those kinds of things, you may not

appreciate that, but the reality is.

195

Having those artifacts is going to

help when you go back to that thing,

196

and it's something that you're paying

attention to and you need to change it.

197

And so oftentimes, clients will come

back and say, oh, how do I do this?

198

And then I'll start to refer

back to the artifacts and the

199

resources that I've been creating.

200

The second thing is that we've teamed up

with Saba from Her Support System and she

201

has an entire directory of VAs and OBMs

that she has either trained or vetted.

202

Who are qualified to come in and own

the kinds of systems that we build.

203

And so now I'm able to say to my clients,

Hey, go and check out this resource.

204

Go and learn how you can hire a VA or

hire an OBM, who's proficient in the

205

kinds of things that we've built for you.

206

And then go into the directory and hire

someone who can manage these things.

207

If you don't have someone on your team

who's going to do the learning to take

208

this over, now they have a resource

where they don't have to start from

209

scratch and say oh, I gotta hire this va.

210

I have no idea where to start.

211

Saba's directory is amazing and

people are hiring great people

212

out of there all the time.

213

And so I have that as a resource.

214

Now, if clients don't take advantage of

the resource, that's a whole other thing,

215

but it is there for them and

clients get an email 30 days before

216

they're scheduled to offboard with

us if they're not gonna renew.

217

And so at that point, if they're

like, yeah, I think we're ready to

218

fly the nest, that's when I really

heavily start saying, okay, you're

219

gonna want go look this resource.

220

You're gonna wanna start this process

before you're fully off boarded so

221

that we can have a smoother transition.

222

The next thing that I'm doing is.

223

Frankly, episodes like this because

I think we need to start to shift the

224

mindset about automation from, oh, it's

this project that I'm gonna do, and then

225

it will be done to, oh, this is changing

the way that we're going to do things in

226

order to incorporate automated systems.

227

And so we have to shift

our mindset, our culture.

228

In order to accommodate this

and make use of it long term.

229

And so I start to have those conversations

and I will be creating more content like

230

this and doing workshops to help people

start to put the foundations, the process

231

mapping foundations in place to be able

to benefit long term from automation.

232

And there's nothing I love more than

getting emails like I got recently

233

from a client who off boarded about.

234

Seven months ago saying, oh yeah, I

went into Active Campaign to go make

235

some changes and I was so thrilled

to see how thoroughly everything was

236

documented, how easy it was to get to.

237

I love receiving emails like that

because that really is the goal is

238

to create a living system that gets

to keep living and growing with you.

239

So something I used to say all the time

is, work hard once, and I think that still

240

applies because there is a heavy lift from

going to no systems or scattered systems

241

to having something more streamlined.

242

But it doesn't mean never work again.

243

You're still gonna have to

maintain the things that we build.

244

And the goal for us is to build something

that's worth tending and that's.

245

As easy and simple as possible

to maintain and grow with you.

246

The bottom line is that automation

is actually a team sport.

247

Your software, your processes, and

your people all have to work together.

248

And in order for that to happen,

there needs to be transparency

249

about how all of those people,

processes and software work together.

250

And that's where the process mapping

comes in, and that's why it's the.

251

First place that we start,

about a year and a half ago,

252

we found a tool called Puzzle.

253

And something that I talk about a lot

is the difference between a tool that

254

is made specifically to do something

and a tool that could also do something.

255

And one analogy that my mentor

came up with that I love is you

256

could keep all of your contacts

in your phone in the Notes app.

257

you could do that, but every other

app on your phone expects contact

258

information to be in the Contacts app.

259

So it's just better for everything,

for, running your life if you

260

keep your contacts where they

are expected to be kept for the

261

thing that is made to do that.

262

And that's how I feel about Puzzle.

263

There really hasn't been

an app before that is.

264

Specifically made to document processes.

265

And so finding it really

changed the game for us.

266

And we used to use tools like

Miro, Lucidchart, Whimsical.

267

I talk a lot about how stable

my tech stack has been.

268

There really hasn't been significant

changes in it for the last 10 years.

269

So when I tell you that I found this

business process mapping tool and I

270

instantly broke up with all of those

other sort of design whiteboard tools.

271

That is very significant.

272

So I want you to start to have

access to being able to map

273

these processes for yourself.

274

And so I'm hosting a

process mapping workshop.

275

I'm hosting several process

mapping workshops called Get

276

Your Business Out of Your Brain.

277

So if you are someone who knows that you

need to start this journey and you want

278

to have the foundations in place, to

start automating for yourself, to hire

279

someone like Blessing, to create AI agents

for you, this is where you must start.

280

Before I wrap things up, I want you to

hear from Lisa, Catherine, and Blessing

281

as they share their feedback from

the first iteration of the Get Your

282

Business Out of Your Brain Workshop.

283

Katherine: I think my biggest takeaway

was when I realized that walking through

284

the process with you live, meant you

were able to really see areas where

285

things could be improved immediately.

286

Then I could see it and think, no wonder.

287

My brain is overwhelmed when I

think about new clients or because

288

I want to expand my business.

289

And I'm like, why do I, why

am I resisting this now?

290

And also I know that if I get

another va I can show them

291

the thing with all the links.

292

And it's not like I have to go, oh, is it

in this Google drive or is in this folder?

293

Or, yeah, it's in this note on my iCloud.

294

It's like all over the place.

295

It can all be in one thing that can be

shared with your VA I just had no idea

296

what a weight it would take off of me

just knowing that I could hand that over.

297

And then also you can see it.

298

'cause when you see it, it

just, it hits different, right?

299

Instead of a long list.

300

So I'm just really grateful to have

had you, you do that and go, oh wow,

301

Lisa: you hooked me in with, get

your business out of your brain,

302

because literally I'm just like

packing it all around up in here.

303

And it's so good to have a person.

304

Like, Catherine said someone

else who's looking at it.

305

'cause it's a fresh process in your

mind, versus what I'm like packing

306

around and you're like, oh, here's a

gap and here's a gap and here's a gap.

307

So that's brilliant.

308

yeah.

309

Yeah.

310

so helpful.

311

Blessing: It's cool to watch other

people go through that moment

312

because it's very like validating.

313

Like no, like people probably think,

'cause I'm, you know, my background's

314

in engineering, I build agents and

I've, built software and whatever.

315

And so I think people often think

that because that's my thing, that

316

the business side is no brainer.

317

And it's like, actually no.

318

It's like all of us have our own

things that we're really good

319

at and we do extremely well.

320

But I think carrying the mess

of the business in you means

321

that we all move really slow.

322

When it comes to not just like

saying, oh, I need this thing, but

323

thinking through the implications of

it to come up with the best design.

324

And if to some degree I feel like

I do it so much for others and I'm

325

just like, I have nothing left.

326

It's like the hairdresser whose

hair is just maybe you should

327

sit down in your own chair.

328

And it's like, I would

if I could, you know?

329

Right.

330

Mm-hmm.

331

Um, and even still, I've come to the

appreciation that building software.

332

It's still a different discipline

than making sure humans use

333

it the way they need to.

334

and so while I sit at that boundary, it is

amazing to watch Kronda do what she does.

335

And I'm just like, that's

what it should look like.

336

Stop asking me to do that.

337

Katherine: It is wonderful to do things

like Systems Over Stress, but if people

338

don't have their process mapped out first.

339

They're gonna stall.

340

And even though there's a document to

walk you through what you do and how

341

you do it, for me that just didn't

work because my brain is very visual.

342

Like I understand the map, I can draw it.

343

And I did do a flow chart and it

was, you can imagine, and then

344

there was like all the notes.

345

So to, to see something like that,

that's what you need before you

346

start working on any software or

any system or anything like that.

347

This has to be the foundation.

348

this is where we are, this is

where we're gonna go, and these

349

are all the steps in between.

350

So I think, definitely

just do the map first.

351

Blessing: No, I thousand percent agree.

352

When I work with vendors and I consult

with my clients, it's There's a,

353

it's a subtext of what I do, which is

like, how do you prepare for a product

354

call when you're vetting a product?

355

And it's I can't actually do that for you.

356

If we don't do this, I can't.

357

Because if you go talk to anybody with

software, they're gonna tell you, Hey, you

358

know, just buy and figure it out, which

doesn't matter what vendor you talk to.

359

And the mo, the ones that I find the best

are like HubSpot and Salesforce calls

360

because they're just like, just sign up.

361

And to some degree, I've

watched these softwares, I've

362

done enterprise build on them.

363

Yes, they're right because

you don't know what you want.

364

Just pay us the money and we'll

help you figure it out later.

365

I can understand why vendors have

come to this point, because people

366

can't tell them exactly what they need

and then even when you do, sometimes

367

you'll get that run around and I'm

like, well technically you can do that.

368

And so I can't even advocate and say, Hey.

369

You might think that this software will

work better for you, but given your

370

own actual needs and like the rhythms

and even the psychology of how you

371

use software, I actually think this

might be better for your organization.

372

Right?

373

And we can fill the gaps like

functionally with other tools because

374

it actually matters more based off of

your priorities to do these things.

375

Or these are your highest revenue

generating or cost saving things.

376

Operationally, if I don't have this

information, we might as well just pick

377

an app and see what happens, because

there's nothing to guide that decision.

378

So head over to karveldigital.com/process.

379

I have at this time of this

recording three different dates.

380

It's the same workshop.

381

We're running it live because you

need to actually experience this.

382

and we're gonna be talking about

your actual processes and what

383

makes sense for you to map and where

it makes sense for you to start.

384

So these are live workshops.

385

We won't be posting replays or recordings.

386

so pick the date that you can attend

or pick the date that you wanna send

387

your nerdiest ops minded systems

team member to attend and plan

388

to show up and actually start to.

389

Work on this for yourself and start

to make progress for yourself.

390

Again, that's  karveldigital.com/process.

391

I cannot wait to start mapping with you.

392

I think you will be surprised at how

quickly you can start to get clarity about

393

some key things that might be, taking up

a lot of space in your brain right now.

394

so please share this if you have

questions, if you have comments.

395

I would love to get your feedback,

hop on over to LinkedIn or Instagram.

396

You can send me a voice note or a DM and

we can have a conversation about this.

397

And, if you know people who also need to

start getting these things out of their

398

brain, share this episode with them.

399

All right.

400

I will see you next time.

401

Until then, don't forget to

begin as you need to go on.

402

Kronda: Thanks for listening

to begin as you mean to go on.

403

If you like this episode, show your love

by leaving us a five star rating and

404

review, share it on your favorite social

media platform or in your newsletter, or

405

hit me up and let's have a conversation.

406

Send me a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn

or hit me up on threads and let

407

me know what you liked about this

episode and what were your takeaways.

408

Until next time, don't forget

to begin as you mean to go on.