Sink Handle Podcast Ep 43

Episode # 43 - Get Your Act Together

When people contact me for help they fill out a form and one of the things I ask is, “What do you need help with?”  A surprising number of them choose “I don’t know.” from the dropdown.  They don’t know what kind of help they need, just that they are overwhelmed and exhausted.  They need a plan. They need strategy.  They need to be able to find things in the chaos. 

Yes, these are the things I help with as a Director of Ops, but not everyone needs that level of service or is ready for it.  So I have created Get Your Act Together as short intensives to get you set up for success in just a day or two.  Today we are breaking down what these new services look like.

Quotes from today's episode:

  • “The majority of people that sign up for a consultation with me have no idea what they need.”
  • “I keep re-learning that so many of the entrepreneurs out there aren't operators.  They can’t get the trains to run on time.”
  • “I don’t think that an exhausted, overworked business owner needs more homework.”

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Episode 43. So on my website, you can schedule a discovery call with me to see how we would work together. And if we're a fit, and to also find out more information about what kind of help we can give you, right. And when you sign up through acuity, I asked a couple questions about you like your name and your website, just so I can look you up before we get in the call. And maybe your timezone, things like that. Simple things. But one of the questions I ask is, what kind of help are you looking for? And I have a few options listed, like operations management, consulting, etc. One of the choices I have is, I don't know. Because that is by far, the answer I get the most, most people pick, I don't know. And that is because most people come to me not knowing what they need, or how to fix things. They just know they're overwhelmed, they're exhausted, they can't keep going on like this. And the thing I hear a lot is that they just can't ever find anything, like something as simple as that, right? That causes so much chaos, everything's kind of everywhere. We don't know where it is. It's the digital version of that messy desk you see in the movies, where there's just stacks of paper everywhere, it's chaos. And most people are just overwhelmed at running their businesses at this point when they come to me. And that's why I love discovery calls because I get to ask questions and really drill down on what someone needs. And sometimes that is a full director of operations or OBM level role, where they really need someone to come in and manage the day to day, and they need that level of support. And then we can figure out if I'm the right person for the job. I mean, there are certain criteria, I'll ask about revenue, right? I mean, if you're gonna bring someone in that level of support in your business, you're going to need to be able to pay them. So you're gonna need to have a certain level of revenue coming in to be able to do that. Or if you have a team already, because if you're looking for help, and it's just you, you're not going to need a manager, you're probably going to need a virtual assistant first, to be able to help you with the doing.

So there are different levels of what you have now and what you really need. And that's what I really love to drill down in discovery calls. And I love talking to new people. I love discovery calls. Um, but lately, I am seeing a really good percentage of these people who are coming to me, and they don't need that level of support. They are overwhelmed and nervous, but they don't need a full time manager or a director of Ops, they aren't ready for it. And I don't want to sell someone into something they don't need at all. Like, that's just not the way I work. I want to be the right fit because everyone has been much happier that way. But I still want to be able to help these people, especially as I'm seeing so much of it lately, right, like this level of a lot of people have come from either with COVID and the apocalypse, they've built these businesses. And they, you know, they need help. I found that many like, I'm finding that many entrepreneurs are not operators, they have an idea about something they want to do. And they go and build a business around it. But they're not like operators, they don't want to be in the day to day, they don't want to make sure all the trains are running on time kind of thing. Right. And even if they could be that operator, they don't really want to be they want to be the visionary like the one leading and creating and doing the thing they love to do, they really have no interest in like, where all the bills are filed, right.But any smart person in business knows that a business has to be well run, to not just survive, but to grow. Because if it's not well run, there's so much waste of time and effort and money because of chaos. And even though they and I want to be able to help those business owners, kind of get it together to be efficient, and focus on what they're good at so they can grow this business that they have. So many people are coming to me right now stressed out. The Apocalypse is hard. I mean, we're at a year now it's March. And everyone's like they've had it. And on top of that money worries or trying to build a business and COVID or trying to pivot, all that stressful, right? And then when you're trying to get all of that going, and you are overwhelmed and you're not the person that should be doing the jobs. Oh, you're overwhelmed. And there's so much to do and it can be exhausting. So what if I could help? What if I could help organize and set up a plan may start again. So after these calls with people that really needed help, I really start again. So I wanted to help these businesses. So what if I could help them get organized and set up a plan to go forward? What if I could take my skills with ops strategy processes systems, and put them on the right plan? Let's tell you, what if I could take my skills with off strategy, and processes and systems and put them on the right path, that they could then continue on their own, or with a VA or with a team, and they wouldn't need only two. And they wouldn't just need to work with me as like an everyday manager kind of like, take what if I could take my skills with our strategy processes and systems and put them on the right path, that they could then continue on their own with a VA or their team or just themselves. But they knew what they were going to do. They had a plan. That folks, so my chair squeaking.

So that is why I have created, get your act together. These will be short intensive sessions where we will get to skip these short intensive sessions, where we will get you set up and on your way quickly. This is not a six month course on how to get organized. That is the easiest way a lot of people will tell me if I wanted. This isn't a six month course to get you organized. So many people would tell me to create a course right now to teach you how to do these things, and sell that course. And that's not what I want to do. I don't think a very overwhelmed business owner who is exhausted needs a six month course with homework thrown on top of it. Right like that is the last thing you need is more on your plate. So instead, these are going to be really intensive ways to get you going quickly. And there are two ways. And there are two ways to get your act together. assistance intensive and strategy sessions. So the first one is the system is intensive. And it is one day. That's it. It's structured like a VIP day, if you're familiar with that. And we would start with a call in the morning. Sorry, yeah. So it's structured like a VIP day for familiar with those. So you have your one day with me. We pick it, I do nothing else, but hang out with you. Well, so it's structured like VIP day where we start out with a shit. So it's structured like a VIP day, if you're familiar with those where it is one day that I work on your business. Nobody else says you got me for the day. Are you kidding me? I gotta fucking this. It's structured like a VIP day where we start with a call in the morning. It's fucking crazy. I can't get the sun's out. It's structured like a VIP day. If you're familiar with those. I work with your business all day. That's it. No one else's business. You got me for the day. And my team. So what we're going to do is we start off in the morning with a 90 minute call on Zoom. And we're gonna do a full business systems audit. What are you using? What are you not using? What's missing? not working? Like? What are you having problems with. And then we kind of work through all of that and figure out a plan there. And then you go about your day. You're on a call in the morning. That's it. Then, for the rest of that middle of the day, the Reynolds OBM team gets to work, we will create the best thing ever.

It is what I run my business on it is what I create for all of my clients as well. It is the Get your act together dashboard. This is a one-stop shop for everything in your business. So we're going to add all your SOPs, your policies, your links, all your stuff, so that you can go to this one place and everything there. You can go to one place and everything is in there. Links to everything a video on how to do this SOP for that a template. Like if you're hiring all your offer letter templates can be in there. You can have your links to your invoice tracking sheets or whatever it is, all of the stuff for your business gets put in here. And then we start to build out some other different tracking stuff like things for Team info or a master or URL sheets, you know exactly where everything is all the time. And this is all for you. So what do you need us to create. And then we give you systems. And then this is the next part, because I think this is important. We give you a system for documenting all your processes. We're gonna give you a how to video on how to get that going. And then you can hand this all off, we're gonna give you a plan for all the recipes that you need to create an SOP is so hard. And then we're gonna give you a system for documenting all of your processes that you can have either you can work on or a VA can work on, but you don't need our full team if you don't want. So it'll be a how to video on how to create these things, a template, and then a place to put everything. Now you may be thinking, why do I need this, because when you have all of that, you hand it to the next person and you delegate all of it. This is how you get the work off your plate.

If you have a thing that you do every week, you record the video, we show you how to get it processed to an SOP. And then you put it in your dashboard done. You then say Hi, it's in there, Can someone help me? You hire a VA, they take care of it, it's delegated. These are the ways you get things off your plate and delegated so that you are not working on them. This is exactly what I do. Whenever I come into a business, most of the time I come into businesses. And it's not the day to day management of things that they mostly need. They need the upkeep of everything. But what they need is the systems. They don't know anything is nothing's streamlined, or nothing's in process over and over again. So no one really knows the way we're supposed to do it. But by creating processes and systems, the other team members know exactly what's going on, it's easily delegated. And then the owner of the business can then go do what they really want to do. Maybe it's sales, maybe it's creation of products, whatever it is, that's how you get out of the day to day. And that is why I think this is so important. creating those processes and systems, and then putting them all on that dashboard. And then you can give it to someone else to do. It's my favorite thing to do. As you can see, I get very excited to nerd out about it. And I love to make these beautiful dashboards so that it's so much easier for someone who's not a systems nerd to find everything.

Okay, and then the other option to get your act together is the strategy sessions.This will be 290 minutes, Jim calls over the course of about a week or two, usually. about three to five days in between where we are going to deep dive into your business. I use the strategic mapping model, which is trademarked under the DIR, I use the strategic mapping method, which is a trademark process, I am licensed to use. Is it a method or a model? I use the strategic mapping method, which is I know I got to look it up. So I use the strategic mapping model, which is a trademark process that I am licensed to use. Because I'm a director of operations. I've been trained extensively on this. And in fact, I have been asked to be the first strategic mapping model, expert coach for the certification throughout 2021. So I'm well versed in how to use this thing, and it's fantastic. So what we do is we break down to figure out so on these calls, we are going to break down everything in your business, who you are, what you do where you want to go, which is the mission vision values. But it sounds scary. If I say it that way. It's not.

The next is what's important to you. With each strategic objective, our financials, the most important thing, our efficiency is the most important thing, things like that. We go through this whole structure to figure out what's most important to you. And then we start pulling out projects that you want to get done and the goals around them and then work And then map those out over the next year to create kind of a big plan for the year. And all of us know right now a year is a long time to plan. So what we're going to do for the next 90 days, next quarter, we break down all the projects, you want to get done in the next 90 days, what what or when, and how they're going to get done. And after those two calls, you have a plan all mapped out in a Trello board that you can just take with you. So if that's all you want to do, you come to me you want to plan, you can take that plan and go off on your own and do it yourself, or the VA or your team. I mean, so as you can see, right? After the two calls, you will have a plan all mapped out on your own Trello board, because Trello is the easiest way for me to just give it to you. And then you can either work on it yourself or with a VA or your team. Or if you need additional help. After all of this, if you get this great plan, you're like, Whoa, this is awesome. And you want to work with the Reynolds OBM team We're here to. So we can always help you with this. But these this we can always help you. With the rounds, OBM team is always here to help. But I know that some of you are not ready for our regular DLO services. So I wanted to be able to make it so that I can still help you and have help within reach. And you can see that these short intensive versions of our regular director of operations, help. Oh Lord, this sucks. You can see like, having these short intensive versions of our regular like Director of Operations help is really where you are right now. Oh, God, Lord. So I so between the systems intensive and the strategy sessions, I feel like those are two great places to really get your act together to really drill down into some things that will help you to figure out what the plan is, and get set up and organized so that you can do this where you are, if you're not ready for us yet. So I wanted to have something where I could help you guys without a long commitment or having to pay for someone to be in your business every day. And so I wanted to be able to have some kind of like Reynold OBM light version, where we can help you without the commitment. So if any of this so if you need this kind of Reynolds OBM lite version of this, this short intensive version of our, our help.

I would love for you to go to reynoldsobm.com slash Get your act together. And you can set up a discovery call there to talk to me. We can walk through what you're looking to do, what kind of help you need, and how we might be able to help you. Alright, guys, that's it for me today. I'll see you next week.