“When you have a good purpose or when you have a purpose that you are excited about and you can create a process to actualize on that purpose, you have focus. And then, when you have the right people leveraging and utilizing processes, you have momentum because, again, you’re doing the work quicker while achieving the same results.” -Veronica Yanhs, CEO, Business Laid Bare
Episode Summary:
Today, I am joined by Terri M. LeBlanc, our very own business operations strategist at Business Laid Bare. We discussed the ins and outs of our Orgasmic Operations ™ framework that serves as the foundation of our work. And more importantly, we share how you can begin applying these same principles in your business so that your operations are orgasmic, efficient, and well lubricated.
Here’s the thing, when you have orgasmic operations, your business becomes pleasurable, productive, and ultimately more profitable because everything feels good. Your team members feel really good because they feel confident they’re working in their zones of genius. And you’re more productive because you’re turning out work and finishing projects in a more efficient way.
After listening, we hope you’ll be ready to take action, so we offer several strategies throughout the episodes to get started with ease. Enjoy!
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
- [00:57] Why we love operational efficiency at Business Laid Bare
- [03:11] Overview of our Orgasmic Operations ™ framework
- [03:52] Why our first pillar is center around people
- [05:29] Playing to your team’s strengths
- [08:33] Why it’s not about the tech
- [10:59] Actionable takeaways from our People pillar
- [16:54] My favorite pillar, Purpose
- [17:22] Setting up strategies with purpose
- [22:12] How purpose and vision work together
- [23:04] Our biggest takeaways for the Purpose pillar
- [25:21] The Process pillar within our framework
- [27:05] Process as a guiding roadmap
- [28:06] The importance of documentation
- [30:18] Why Veronica loves process
- [34:37] The shame that can sometimes accompany process
- [35:10] Creating flow and momentum in your business
- [37:05] Getting started with process in your business
- [39:03] How Business Laid Bare applies the Orgasmic Operations ™ framework to a system
Connect with Us:
- On Instagram | @businesslaidbare
Resources Mentioned:
- People. Purpose. Process. (My Orgasmic Operations Method) Venn Diagram
- Ready to get laid up and talk about making your operations organismic? Sign up at www.businesslaidbare.com/consult
- Visualizing tasks and project management | ClickUp
“So here’s why I love process. It’s because it allows you to have more freedom. Whether you are the CEO or a team member, you don’t have to scratch your head thinking about reinventing the wheel. You can get that thing done quicker. And especially if it’s something complex.” -Veronica Yanhs, CEO, Business Laid Bare
veronica: [00:00:00] Hey, I’m Veronica Yanhs and I’m obsessed with backends. Specifically your business backend your operations, and I’m the CEO and founder of Business Laid Bare. We’re a digital operations agency that builds well lubricated and Orgasmic Operations ™ so that your business is pleasurable, productive, and ultimately profitable because when you feel good, everything else feels good too.
Like your team, your customers, and your bank account. I mean, who doesn’t want to consent to that? This podcast gives you the tips, interviews, and mindset shifts on how to run your business and its operations so that it’s immensely pleasurable, productive, and profitable.
So ready to whip your business into shape with me? Let’s get it on.
veronica: [00:00:47] Welcome to another episode of The Business Whip and this episode is without a doubt, like so near and dear to my heart, because I am joined by Terri my amazing operations strategists to talk about the Orgasmic Operations ™ framework that Business Laid Bare is known for. We are here to talk about the three components of people, purpose and process, and how that all plays together to make the ooey-gooey deliciousness center that this Venn diagram represents of Orgasmic Operations ™ so that when you run your business, things feel amazing. Things are well lubricated, meaning like things happen the way they’re supposed to, we’re more efficient, we’re more productive as well and that people are happy and satisfied in their jobs and what they’re doing. While also satisfying the clients as well, because people is not just about you or your team anymore. It’s about the people that pay you to fulfill on your work.
There were so many ways we were talking about earlier in which we can go on this, right? If this was the first time you’re listening to us we’re like, we’re not the Joe Rogan podcast. We’re not going to talk about this for like, What is it? Five, four or five hours? I don’t even think I could talk that long without going crazy. So the goal of this episode is to just let our listeners know like why this is so near and dear to our hearts. And how this can be applied to your business so that your operations are orgasmic and efficient and well lubricated and all that fun jazz. Because it’s important.
We don’t want you to burn out. We want you to be consistent and have a great foundation so that you can grow and scale and increase your capacity because you can bust through those capacity ceilings with this framework. And I couldn’t have thought of a better person to join me in this episode because Terri, you and I are almost like in the trenches in a way. Creating those strategies and implementing those strategies for our clients so we see this day in and day out.
terri: [00:02:46] We definitely do. And I think when we start with people, I think that’s probably my favorite part of the process. Is getting to talk to the owners of the businesses, talking to their staff, to find out what they love doing, what they don’t like doing. What their needs are and often we find out little fun, little tidbits about them too. Which is really great.
veronica: [00:03:11] I love this. Okay, then with that being said, then let’s just jump in. So before we jump in the overall operations framework, orgasmic operations framework, is people, purpose, process. And even though we are a digital operations agency that gets really horny for SOPs and process, and all that stuff, it goes last because without the two other pillars going first, people and purpose, we’d just be creating processes for shits and giggles, right? There’s no direction. There’s no intention.
Everything in your business can be and should be systematized and a process created out of this. But if you’re just doing it without intention or feeling like you’re just randomly creating processes, you’re just going to burn out. And it’s, that’s not the point. We want you to create processes that actually support what it is that you want to achieve in your business. And like Terri said, we start with people because we are a people-first agency.
At the end of the day humans are humans, right? We’re not robots. We have emotions. We’re complex, like multifaceted, emotional, and logical beings that are ever-evolving. So we have to make sure that for operations to actually fit with the people who are utilizing them, they have to acknowledge who we are as people, like. I think that’s why bringing in the humanity into operations is so needed, but so underutilized, talked about, and actually implemented. Which is why we’re so hell-bent on being people first.
terri: [00:04:42] When you look at other organizations that may be people have worked in other businesses than what they do now, is that that’s often not the way businesses approach the process or approach operations. It’s all about, we’ve got this widget, we’ve got to get it out the door, we’ve got the service we’re providing, we’re just going to provide and, as one of our clients said recently, you know, we’re gonna build the plane as we fly it.
And you have to stop at some point look at the people on your team and see why they’re in the game, right? Why they’re playing, why they’re with you, why they’re by your side. And because that’s going to allow you to whatever your purpose is, help you magnify that on so many levels. If you’ve got the buy-in of the people on your team that’s going to help you in the long run.
veronica: [00:05:29] And you’re just overall like taking care of people. To know what your strengths are Terri, and to know what Mekaila, my assistant’s strengths are, it helps everybody do their job well.
Like sure, I can take one for the team and do good work, but if it doesn’t play to my strengths, it might take me a lot longer and I’m more likely to procrastinate. I am so guilty of this. And so it’s like, by understanding yourself, even like how you think, how you visualize information. Are you somebody that needs visual, like index cards because you want to move things left and right. Or are you like, I’m a list maker. I need to see things in a list. Getting to know yourself and your people on your team is invaluable.
And so that’s why we focus so much on getting to know our clients and their team, well. How do they tick? How do they thrive? What are their like, love languages? What are their secret powers? That just helps us do our work better because then getting the team to adopt to new change almost feels like it’s so natural because we created a solution that honors who they are as people, and what they need.
terri: [00:06:43] Yeah. And it helps them see that we are listening as we do our work with clients, that we’re listening to everyone. That’s going to help us be the most successful and help that business be the most successful is that we’re listening. We’re not just coming in and making all these random changes and hoping that when we, you know, come to an end of our time together that they continue to work on.
We’ve often seen, because we approach the people first, and we talked to them that we start to see improvements in the business. Either them creating their own SOPs, improving on the strategy that we’ve given them before we are even done working together.
It’s happened in days before, sometimes within hours. And that’s, what’s really exciting. I think for the work that we do, is that when we focus on the people, and we talk to the people, and we develop the strategies around that, that feed into that purpose, the people we’re working with just jump in feet first. They don’t even doubt that this isn’t going to work. They’re like, we’re just going to do this and jump in most of the time.
veronica: [00:07:42] And they often feel heard. So we divvy up a lot of the work in the business. Even though I try to be less in the day-to-day, like the one thing that I love doing is interviewing all of the team members that we work with. If a client signs up with us, they undoubtedly have team members. I want to interview them. Like all of them.
And it’s like a conversation, like sure I have things that I want to ask them that will help us do our job, but it’s like just having this conversation and making sure that they feel heard it helps them buy into the change more. It helps them get re-energized for the business because they’re not just here for a paycheck. Their needs are being heard and being met because if I’m creating a solution, if we’re creating a solution for our clients, Terri, that doesn’t make sense to them. It’s like we’ve had just wasted everybody’s time. And then, unfortunately, we got paid for it and we feel like, we love money, but not unless we deserve it in the sense of that.
By taking people into account first, I think this is where business operations. and not think I know, like this is where business operations need to focus on. Like, it’s not about the tech. Tech is great. We love tech, but it’s only just the tip of the operations iceberg. There’s no tech without strategy, without the people using it, without like the setup, the framework.
terri: [00:08:56] And its hard sometimes. I mean, we’ve had that experience where we’re like, oh, this is new tech that’s on the market. Or this tool that we’re using has this new feature. What do we do with it? And sometimes you have to be like, wait, hold a minute. How would we use it? Okay, great. Is that better than what we’re doing?
Is it just adding something? Is it really something we need to worry about right now? And so sometimes that tech I know for both of us is, that it is kind of shaky.
veronica: [00:09:20] Yeah, we get excited. So, but if we were to give a special shout-out to a tech, an app that we wholeheartedly love it is ClickUp, because it honors how different people need to use and visualize their task and apps. And basically, it just is so customizable to the point where different people can feel like this is manageable and they can get excited, even if they’ve never used project management software in their life.
Asking them how they need to view things, how things need to be set up, what is important to them and like making sure that that happens, ClickUp actually has the capability to do that. And no, this episode is not sponsored by ClickUp, but we just wanted to give a shout out to ClickUp for being able to allow different people who need either, like to see things in a list, or things in visual, like Trello board card views, or maybe they need it in a Gantt chart or in a calendar view. It allows people to filter for what they need so that they can do their jobs efficiently.
terri: [00:10:24] Yeah, definitely. And I think what’s also great is that it’s flexible by project or product or by whatever you know, the department you might be working in to. And I think that’s what we love about the tool too, is that you can kind of customize different spaces within the tool, so that not only are you looking at the tasks that you need, but you’re setting up that space in a way that makes sense for whatever thing you’re working on.
veronica: [00:10:47] And I love that you call it a tool. A tool is not the end all be all. It is an instrument to be wielded by someone, and that’s where we first go to, is that somebody.
So if we could like wrap up the people pillar really, really nicely, what is one takeaway, and I’ll let you go first, that people can walk away with and implement into their business, relating to people and making their business orgasmic that way?
terri: [00:11:15] I think just taking the time to talk to each one of your team members in a conversational way. I think that gets tied up in, you know, performance reviews and, you know, meeting my goals. But the goal of having this conversation with somebody on your staff is to ask some simple questions.
Like, what do you like doing? What do you not like doing? What are we doing well as a business? And where could we be doing better? What do you want to be doing that you aren’t doing right now? And I think that’s key, right? Because you could find out somebody has a really amazing strength or really amazing interest in something that fits your purpose perfectly.
But until you have that conversation with the people on your team, you won’t know that. And don’t think you know, either. Like don’t make the assumption, you know, really have an honest conversation and it doesn’t have to be long, right. Like 10, 20 minutes. So, my only piece of advice there is to make sure you tell them what the meeting is about.
I’m one of those people, if somebody says I’ve got to meet with you and doesn’t give me any framework, I panic.
veronica: [00:12:13] Oh, we’ve had this conversation. Like we were born and trained to like, have negative responses. Like the moment someone’s like, we need to talk, I think I’m in trouble.
terri: [00:12:22] Yes exactly that same reaction.
veronica: [00:12:24] And I love that, because by getting to know your team, and so I’ll add onto Terri’s the action item that I want you to take is to have your team members take a strengths assessment from Gallup or Clifton. Whatever they were constantly rebranding. So basically take your strengths assessment because you want to be operating, everybody should be operating from their strengths because the more people operate from their strengths, the more efficient they are, the more productive they are. The more fulfilled and happier they are.
Like if I was forcing you Terri, and I love this example that you gave me in our Slack channel, and we’ll talk about it. It’s relating to building boxes. It was great. We were able to have these conversations as to what Terri does best because I had everybody on our team, including myself, take the strengths assessment. And for reference, I thought that I was great at taking action, doing things, but it turns out that execution is actually my last domain.
Whereas with Terri and Mekaila, Terri your top domain is strategy, which is why you are the lead operations strategist. And your second domain of excellence and strength is execution. Whereas Mekaila, her number one domain strength is execution. What I always procrastinate on because I’m like so much ideas, you both can take those ideas and run with it. And I love it.
So, take the strength assessment. And by taking the strength assessment, we’re going to go back to the example, Terri, you told me that you are, if I was to ask you to build a box and you didn’t know what a box was, you said it was hard, right. To just make something from nothing.
terri: [00:13:57] I can’t make something out of nothing. But if you give me a box and you say, “Terri, this is the box. Make this box better”, or “figure out what’s wrong with this box.” I’m on that, like, yes. Okay, this box needs to be, whatever, and that came out of an honest conversation that I had with a manager at a previous job. And I was interviewing for a new position. She said, you know, Terri, we gave the job to somebody else, but I want to tell you why. And it’s because. And she goes, this isn’t anything that’s bad or wrong with you, but we’ve just realized that when it comes to something new that hasn’t been done before, you really struggle. But when it’s in place and there’s some framework there, holy smokes, you just fly. And she was right. And I was like this light bulb that went on, you know.
Sometimes you can find that doing a strengths to find, or sometimes you have a really great manager or a friend, a coworker that will tell you those things. Hang on to that piece of advice and another piece of advice that another manager gave to me as the best advice I’ve ever received on the job.
veronica: [00:14:54] I love it. Thank you so much for sharing it because then it helps me say like, I’m really good at making something from nothing. If I had to take a whole bunch of chaotic information and turn it into like a spreadsheet, or a framework, or something. Like that happens to me so naturally. Taking, making something from nothing. And then like, Terri was like, well, I could take what you had and run with it. And then Mekaila like ties us both nicely together because if it needs to be executed, Terri you share the strategy with her. You tell her what your intentions are and she can run with it.
This is what we mean by really getting to know your people. Everybody’s happy doing what they’re doing. Like if I had to like translate a hundred lines of something from a spreadsheet somewhere, and I see all those things I have to do, I’m just like groaning and you’re groaning too.
terri: [00:15:40] But I’ll get it started to figure out what the best process will be to possibly do it, right. Then we’ll do a little video or write up a little thing, and Mekaila will have it done in like 20 minutes because she just, and she’ll usually find a little bit better way. Like she’ll take my processes and find, just tweak it just a little bit. And it goes even faster than what I had initially set up, which is great. As a team, we work so amazingly together we’re well, oiled.
veronica: [00:16:04] Yeah. And by spending that time to just know everybody and to know what makes them tick, like even creating that Slack channel, the work your strengths Slack channel, like it allows me to constantly go back and audit. Okay, is this assignment that I gave Terri or Mekaila something that they would like to do.
And granted, we all have to do things that we sometimes don’t like, it’s part of life. But I would say that we in general stick to our zones of strength and genius and all that good stuff, most of the time. Like sometimes I’m just like, can you do this? Because I’m really like stretched and I’m exhausted or whatever it is. And Terri will take over and it’s not her strength, but we get it done and we work together. I’m like, or at least get it started, and then I can finish because I have a whole bunch of meetings that day.
So people, so crucial. In the beginnings of setting your operations in your business, and your team up for success.
Okay. So after people. We have purpose and okay. Yes, they’re all my favorites for different reasons. So I love purpose because it allows you to focus. It gives you this guiding star as to understanding like where you want to go and where do you want to take your business?
Right. Like you can’t just do things. Hoping that things would stick. Sure, there’s a testing period and all that good stuff, but it’s like, you need to have direction and focus.
terri: [00:17:22] And that’s key to setting up the strategy in anything that we do. Is that knowing what that purpose is, what the mission is, what the goals are for a client or a potential client helps us, you know, create a strategy that works because we know, how robust does the strategy need to be? Is this business just starting out? Are they looking to scale or are they just trying to maintain?
You don’t necessarily want to give somebody, if they think, you know, that having a CRM is too robust for their one-person organization right now, then, we can adjust that and make that adjustment because we’re looking at what we’re doing right now. And hopefully creating a system that can grow with them.
Hopefully not, you know, the next month they’d have to change that system, but something that is flexible enough for them at this stage that can grow with them a little bit before they have to maybe invest in a larger tool or you know, a different type of strategy.
veronica: [00:18:13] And sometimes it’s really interesting. Like you have these businesses who are doing really, really well. We work with businesses who are just blowing up and essentially what’s happening is that what operations or systems they did have was, they were good enough, right.
They were like Franken-systems, sure. Duct taped together, but they were good enough to make things go along. But then like the moment their business exploded, it’s like those systems are now really overtly not good enough. So it’s like, when you have systems that break, it actually allows you to reassess, where is it that I want to go.
Breakage is good. I have had to learn, personally, that failure is a great thing. Breaking is a great thing because coming from a Chinese background and upbringing, it’s like, you had to be perfect. Perfection, and then some, was expected of me. So it’s like to give myself that grace to have things break has been really, really therapeutic.
terri: [00:19:06] I that’s like the hardest thing to learn as you know, I’m an oldest child. So like it felt all my life like I’ve needed to be perfect. Right. And to allow yourself to learn for something breaking or not working or, you know, finding a tool that you’re like, oh, this is going to be great. And then you get into it and you’re like, oh my gosh, this is not what I need. Or this is too complicated.
I think you have to be able to understand that nothing is, you can’t be perfect, right. But it’s hard, it’s hard. And you want everything because you’re worried as a business owner that if something breaks the public sees it, that the client sees it and we had this happen recently, right.
That they’re not going to become a client, right. But you have a great opportunity to have a conversation with a potential client when something happens or with a current client when something breaks, about how we’ll fix it. It’s you know, and we’ll figure it out and find the best way forward from that. And everything’s a learning process.
But it’s you know, social media, and seems to demand that perfection. And so you just think nobody else is struggling. Like we are, nobody else ever has an email go to the wrong person, you know, that kind of thing, but it happens. And so I think that’s part of the, understanding that you’re going to have those pitfalls and downsides every once in a while.
veronica: [00:20:24] Yeah, I hear you. And I just have to say the Orgasmic Operations ™ framework, when I came up with it, wasn’t linear. Like a lot of people when they ask you to come up with a framework, it’s step one, step two, step three. And I get it. Especially for a new prospective client who talks to us about operations and because we are so paradigm-shifting to begin with, we’re just so different in terms of operations.
Helping our clients understand that we are not like a linear framework thing was something that was missing for me until I realized that putting the Orgasmic Operations ™ framework into a Venn diagram was the solution. Because I kept going, people go first. That’s a non-starter. But at the same time, it’s more complex than that because the clients we work with are complex, like we’re human, right? You have to layer in the framework together in a way, and of course we walk our clients through this, and it’s not like it’s rocket science once we’re doing it together. I just had to say, like, it just didn’t make sense until I threw it into a Venn diagram
terri: [00:21:24] Well and I think it reflects how operations works too. Right? I mean, we’ve discovered this as we’ve worked with clients, is that you discover, you know, you set out a timeline, what your goal is for your time together, and you think we’re going to do ABCD all the way down to whatever letter we go to, but then you realize that you’re working on one part of it and there’s a sticky point in it is because this other process that interfaces with it isn’t fleshed out yet.
So you have to kind of move around to jump around. And so the way we work, our philosophy, our framework, is the way operations work right. Is on the back end. They’re not silos, there’s not an individual thing.
One thing feeds the other. And if it all is working together and is firing on all cylinders, your business is banging, right.
veronica: [00:22:12] So if you’re still a little bit confused as to what this purpose section is, it’s like your vision, your mission, your goals. And if you think of it this way, it plays along with the people so well, because if you have a goal that you want to achieve, or if you have a mission for how you want your business to show up and transform the world, the community, whatever it is, it self-selects the people that are not meant to be there.
So then when you have the right people. Working for a unified purpose because you don’t want to be a shiny object syndrome and have like more half-baked projects than completed projects. You have that alignment. So right people, with the right purpose, equals alignment. This is what the Venn diagram works.
So, what is like one big takeaway that people can apply to their businesses listening to this episode now, in the purpose circle, for me what do you want to achieve in your business in like say the next 90 days to three months. And I love choosing 90 days or three months because it’s like the perfect balance between momentum and motivation. Any longer you’re like, ugh this is dragging out and I’m not like, I’m not excited anymore because you know, we humans are like that. And then any shorter, it’s, there’s not enough time to get actual good work and things done. Right? So to me, like 90 days, it’s just three short months. I can’t believe how short 90 days actually is when you get to like planning the work.
So that is my biggest takeaway from purpose is to create a boundary, set a boundary for the next 90 days. Like, what do you want to achieve? What is your business about?
terri: [00:23:47] And I would say that taking it to the next level, then once you figure that out, is that everything you do for those next 90 days should be reflected back into that purpose. So as you do a task, as you meet with a client, as you talk with team members, if you’ve got one-on-ones happening, make sure that those things, ask yourself, does this fit my business’s purpose?
And if not, then you need to figure out, how do we change this? How do we make this fit? Or two, is it something we need to do away with?
veronica: [00:24:15] Oh, I love this. And this is where that focus comes in, but like, it doesn’t feel so rigid. I’m all about structure and not rigidity. And by having a theme or having that focus, you’re not going to be doing things that don’t serve the purpose. Like, if my goal this month is to show up in front of an audience more, then you know that the actions that you’re supposed to be taking are not going to be anything else other than, does everything you do relate to showing up to your audience more?
And I know that was like super vague, but you just have to get detailed as to like what it is that you want to accomplish so that when you look back in three months, you didn’t feel like you were spinning your wheels, working so hard and have nothing to show for it.
terri: [00:24:56] Right, or doing busy work sometimes that happens. You just think i’ve got to do this. This has to be done. And so there is going to be some tasks that are like that. But if you’re at a point to where you’re looking to hire, like I said earlier, you might think about those tasks and whether there’s somebody else, that’s their zone of genius and they could, what takes you an hour or a week because you procrastinated to do, maybe it could be done by somebody else in 10 minutes.
veronica: [00:25:21] Okay, so our final pillar, process, is something that we’re going to have a great time talking about and we’ll show you how they all tie together. And of course, if you are a visual person, we’re going to have this Venn diagram up for you on the show notes page so that you can see what happens like when you’re missing a pillar. And what you would need to do to fix it. So it’s just a really, really dynamic framework that gets applied. And then we’ll talk about how we can use a specific example, like our project management systems, to show you how the framework applies to your business as a whole, but also to each individual system in your business.
So, process, Terri let’s talk process. You’re like rubbing your hands together. So tell me about process with the framework. What does this mean for you?
terri: [00:26:07] For me it, after we find out the people in the purpose, you know, we will often, the next step is really to find out what systems on the operations side that the client needs the most help with. And we try to find out what those processes, what is their ideal situation and what might we be able to do to get it to that ideal situation.
And that’s a lot of talking. I think a lot of people, and there’s nothing wrong with that, a lot of people rush to find the tool that will fix it, right. If you don’t understand why the process is broken or why you need to have a specific process around something like team onboarding, which we talk to clients a lot, then it’s really hard to find the tool, a tool, if there is even a tool that will work for you.
You just kind of jump from tool to tool and kind of have shiny object syndrome and you have your stuff in all lots of different places and nothing is talking to each other and it can be a bigger mess.
veronica: [00:27:04] That just is making me itch. So yeah, I love that process is like creating structure. Like, this is the part where I see this as people, it’s like you’re getting your dream team together and making sure everybody’s happy, right. Fulfillment is so happy. Like we don’t want people to just come here for a paycheck. I love that you and Mekaila contribute so much to the business. And that yes, you think about the business a lot, but you’re contributing because I feel like you have that space too, and that you’re not being overloaded.
So it’s people and then like the purpose part is about beginning, the beginnings of structure. Like you have the two guard rails. Whereas like the process now is almost creating, like I’m imagining a tunnel where you’re still giving people space to breathe and to do things their way, but you have a little bit more of a guidance, like roadmap, to have them through. The process is about helping people do the work so that there’s predictability, stability, repeatability. So that everybody’s not scratching their heads or having to reinvent the wheel.
Process is all about making sure you’re not reinventing the wheel.
terri: [00:28:06] Exactly, every time you do it, right? I think it becomes most apparent when somebody leaves the office, whether it’s on vacation, or there’s an illness, they leave the company, that is usually when you, a lot of times we’ll notice. Oh, I don’t know how they did this. I have no idea how this is done.
And then you have to reinvent the wheel and maybe the person that was doing it had a great process, but they just didn’t write it down or record a little video about it. And so that’s something we want to discover because, as we were talking earlier, you know, somebody might find a way to do it. And somebody else on the team finds a little bit better way to do it. If that’s documented, and there’s conversations about that, then whoever needs to take over that role at whatever point in time, it’s there, it’s all written down and it just, it goes a lot faster
veronica: [00:28:54] And I love that, you were saying about not documenting process. Like to me, understanding humans, I think humans naturally are fans of routine and repetition because, and I don’t have any scientific backing behind this because I just listened to podcasts or like I read like productivity hack articles, just to understand like where people are hacking from just to get to know, understand, like what drives people.
Like if hacks are important, it means that some people are looking to do things better. And I’ve learned that it you do something repeated over and over, it’s almost like you’re using the same neural pathway and you’re not carving new neuropathways to learn something new.
So when you do something over and over again, which I’m inclined that humans like to do, this is a habit.
terri: [00:29:34] I think they say it takes 21 days to develop a habit.
veronica: [00:29:36] Oh my goodness. Okay, 21 days. And so that habit stays a habit until you document it. The moment you document a habit, that is when you have a process. That’s, in my opinion.
terri: [00:29:48] I think people to get scared. I mean, we’ve had this conversation before Veronica where we’re like people, like, I don’t really like, why do I have to document this. Oh my gosh, I have to write this out. You don’t have to write it out. You can record a Loom video of yourself doing it, right. It can be a checklist.
It doesn’t have to be step by step of what you do. At least get something down because that’s going to help you in the long run when you figure out if there’s a tool you need to bring onboard. If you need to bring a team member onboard, at least you have a little bit of something there to start.
veronica: [00:30:18] So here’s why I love process. It’s because it allows you to have more freedom, whether you are the CEO or a team member. You don’t have to scratch your head thinking about reinventing the wheel. You can get that thing done quicker. And especially if it’s something complex, like if you are a branding and design agency, for instance, and you’re onboarding a new team or a client, they’re going to have like ideal client profiles that they’re telling you about, branding logos, like things that they maybe already have, like all that stuff. And it’s like, in order for you to do a good job, you need to be able to get that information.
So process creates efficiency and process creates more freedom because the more you document, the more you can either delegate or automate, or even just streamline it, like improving a process by even 50% saves you so much time because time is finite. Like we don’t have all the time in the world, right? So it’s like, how can you spend more time doing what you love? And by creating process in your business, by creating that consistency, you are minimizing that cognitive bandwidth you’re minimizing the cognitive load that could be spent doing something else, like…
terri: [00:31:31] You’re finding time in your day, essentially, is what it comes down to. So you could take that time to work on something in your business, read a book, walk the dog. And that sometimes happens to us, you know, and we’ll have refined a process and then we’ll all like, oh, I’ve got this great idea I thought of, because we’re not worrying about whether you know, something is working or not.
veronica: [00:31:53] You just know.
terri: [00:31:53] Yeah.
veronica: [00:31:54] And you feel super confident, like what I’ve talked about so many with clients about, and I didn’t realize this was a thing, but they’ve felt a lot of shame. Like a lot of the clients we work with are creative or they’re CEOs who are like big picture strategy thinkers who are not meant to be in like the nitty-gritty stuff, right.
So when they have a messy backend, when they have no process, when their business feels like a hot mess, they tell me, it’s like, they know that I’m coming into their house, but they haven’t cleaned in like a year, but they knew I was coming for like three months now and they still haven’t done anything.
It’s like, it’s not your fault because that’s not how you think. So either hire us to do your operations for you or hire somebody that does. Or maybe record yourself at least with the process and even if it’s the most inefficient process you have it documented because then you can continuously improve on it.
terri: [00:32:44] And we’ve had clients, we’ve asked clients, you know, record yourself, walking us through your process. Whatever it is and what inevitably, what we see happen during those videos is that the client themselves will start to improve upon the process or see, oh, this is a sticky point. This is where it’s not working.
And so I think that’s a great thing is that even if it’s to document the process and then you discover it, I keep doing this every time, or this is where my clients are getting stuck because not only will you see the process from what’s happening on your side, especially if you’re working on something that is client-facing. You might see how your client sees it as well and know to make tweaks so that the clients see things differently or more clearly on their side.
veronica: [00:33:27] You know, who is like a, such an amazing example of a company with good process is, love them or hate them, McDonald’s.
terri: [00:33:34] Oh, yes.
veronica: [00:33:35] You can literally take a 16-year-old off the street. And in whatever training session they have with the company like they can start shipping, your job is to ship as team members, right.
Look at how quickly they can be hire, train, and flipping burgers, doing whatever it is that they’re doing. I personally love McDonald’s. So I’m grateful for the consistency. Like every McDonald’s I go to. Whether it’s in Hawaii or I’ve went to a McDonald’s in Greece because after like four weeks of like Grecian food, I was like, I’m actually craving some McDonald’s
terri: [00:34:09] We did that in Paris because we’d just gotten off the plane and we were too tired to think about anything else. And so we actually, that was our first meal in Paris. I hate to say, but yeah. You know, jet lag and you’re tired. At least I know what I’m getting here, right?
veronica: [00:34:21] We are Business Laid Bare. We have nothing up our sleeves and there’s no such thing as like a guilty pleasure. It’s a pleasure. Just, it’s a pleasure, pleasure. So like, yeah, you know that you can depend on the system. So going back to the whole shame part, it’s like. I didn’t know that when people had a hot mess of a business until like I started to like interview potential clients, they were like, I feel so ashamed in that I have such operation shame that I don’t feel confident, like marketing myself or charging more money because I don’t think that: one, I can handle.
Because I don’t have like a good onboarding process or a good system for XYZ, but I also don’t feel like I’m legit enough. So by creating good process, it makes you feel more confident in what you do. And I know it might not be the most fun thing, but there are ways in which you can make it easier. And now that we’ve talked about process in like the third part of the Venn diagram, we can tie it back in.
When you have a good purpose or when you have a purpose that you are excited about and you can create a process to actualize on that purpose, you have focus. And then when you have the right people leveraging and utilizing processes, you have momentum because again, you’re doing the work quicker while achieving the same results.
Your analysis paralysis has gone. You can create the same results in less time. And your precious brain creative juices can be now left to like free flow and you can do even better work. So that’s like how all the three play together. It’s just beautiful. In my opinion.
terri: [00:35:59] It is, it is. What I love about what we do is that we see that happen sometimes relatively quickly. We can change one, improve one thing, document one process, and suddenly everything, you know, a bunch of stuff shifts, in a good pattern in the business. And that, I love that.
I love it when a clients, you know, we give them a strategy and they’re like, oh, we need to change it like this to be just that much better for us. And you’re like, that’s what this is all about, right? That’s the other thing, processes and all of this should not be static. It’s always an iterative process.
You should always be looking and having those discussions about how can we improve this? make this better? Is our purpose changing? Are our goals different this quarter than last quarter? How can we make sure that what we’re working on all aligns with the overall goal and purpose that we’ve got the right people doing the right things? Is that I think some people think that once you get your business operations in order, i’m going to be good and golden until, you know, I retire and that’s not necessarily the case.
veronica: [00:36:57] No, we love one-night stands and all, but you should never one-night stant your operations.
terri: [00:37:01] No, it should be a long, honest, loving relationship.
veronica: [00:37:05] I love this. So what. in this section, can our listeners take away from? Before we jump into a specific example, how we leverage this, I would love to hear like what in the process pillar do, can people take away from after this episode?
terri: [00:37:20] Process is important and doesn’t have to be a big, scary thing. It can be as simple as creating a quick checklist for yourself, or recording a video of you doing something so you have it documented and saved somewhere and going back and revisiting that. Don’t let that idea of writing stuff down, scare you or recording something. The video might only just be for you. It doesn’t have to be for anyone else, but sometimes just talking it out can be a huge, huge game-changer.
veronica: [00:37:50] And I’ll piggyback off of that is that creating quick wins, especially when it comes to process, willl snowball into other things. So when I say quick wins, like what is something that will take you less than four minutes to record on a video? Or maybe even like storing information, like a process doesn’t necessarily have to be a procedure, but in the process pillar, it’s all about knowledge and documentation. So like, do you have certain hashtag groups you use for Instagram that you can store somewhere?
terri: [00:38:20] Creating templates for emails
veronica: [00:38:21] Oh yeah, canned email templates.
Something like easy for you. And I’m just trying to think of all the ideas to give you without inundating everybody.
Like, yeah. Is there an email that you write over and over again that you could turn into a template so that you’re not starting from scratch? Or is there like a reference guide to if you’re constantly sending designs to t-shirt printers? What is that checklist of things that you need to keep track of so that if somebody else is in charge of sending that t-shirt to get printed in the future, it’s not going to be messed up? It’s going to be done to your standards so that you’re not the bottleneck. So how is it that you can un-bottleneck yourself? I think that is a great summary for what processes is about.
terri: [00:39:03] Yep.
veronica: [00:39:03] Oh, I love this. This is so exciting. Okay, so let’s wrap up our episode with an example of how we apply, like the Orgasmic Operations ™ framework to a system. And I already picked one out and I don’t think you’re going to hate it, but it’s going to be the project management system because we are both project managers at heart. And so I think this would be great.
Let me just reiterate. If you don’t know what the difference between a system and a processes is like, Business Laid Bare believes a system is a collection of people, tools and process working collaboratively together to achieve a specific result or goal repeatedly. So if we’re talking about project management systems here, it’s like, what is the result?
We want to make sure that we can manage our tasks, and projects, and to-do lists. Or a goal could be like a new product or to make sure that client work doesn’t get scope cree.
terri: [00:39:57] Yes. That’s the big, scary monster in the room. Or we’ve helped clients track goals for their business and our project management tool. So that there’s transparency to everybody in the team of what our goal, what the company’s goal is for the year, for the month, for the quarter, whatever it might be.
veronica: [00:40:13] I love it. So how can we apply the Orgasmic Operations ™ framework?
Let’s start with people, obviously. So what’s important when it comes to making sure that the people pillar is well taken care of in project management.
terri: [00:40:25] Understanding how people visualize their tasks and how they’re most productive. As I think we’ve mentioned earlier in the episode, some people work better with a checklist where they can tick things off. Other people might see things in Kanban boards. Um, some people it’s calendars or the project manager’s favorite Gantt charts.
veronica: [00:40:43] And don’t be afraid to lean in on the negative emotions. Like what is it about a project management app that might scare you or make you feel apprehensive about using it? Oh, it might be too complex for my brain. Or I might not have time for it. And it’s, I just have so many other things to like manage why do I have to look at that thing?
So then you learn to work with them and to understand that you need to create a solution that gets them to buy in, in an excited way. Oh, well, if you’re worried about it, tell me what it is that you need to see, just like Terri said. And then it’s like, if I created you a view in your project management app, that just allowed you to see a running list of everything you needed to do today, tomorrow, the next month on your plate, and it allowed you to sort however you wanted, would that help? Oh yeah, absolutely. Then I don’t have to think about it in my head anymore. And I don’t need to have three different notebooks or like post-it notes. And I know that I lost two already this week. So it’s like they talk themselves into getting excited. Check.
Okay. What about purpose?
My favorite part about having purpose in a project management app is setting business goals or themes and making that viewable to everybody. How many times have I gone into a client’s project management apps, so pro tip here, where they don’t have any goals or priorities or themes listed. And when I say themes, it may be that you’re not ready to set goals. And you’re like this year, I want to just feel good. I want to do things that feel good. Maybe my word is joy. Maybe my word is consistency, whatever it is, it’s a focus, right? So it’s not like hard set, I got to make a thousand dollars. Whatever it is. So purpose allows you to create that boundary.
terri: [00:42:24] And if it’s written down in a project management tool, in some fashion, you see that every time you get in. I think the other thing people worry about when they work on a project management tool is then everybody can check up to see what I’m doing. It’s just like when you’re in yoga class, nobody is watching you. If you have a good team atmosphere, you should be checking in on tasks and that kind of thing, but you know, I think that some people get apprehensive that they go into project management tool It’s like people are, you know, watching them. And, but I think if you have a good team atmosphere, it’s more of a collaboration on every task that you do, that meets your purpose.
veronica: [00:43:00] I love it. And so for process then, is like, how do we set the structure or the hierarchy so that it makes sense to the people using it? And when I say like structure, like you can just imagine, like, I have a folder that says client work, or I have a folder that says admin, and then within each subfolder or like different projects or recurring tasks that you need to do.
So that’s an example of a process of a setup.
terri: [00:43:26] Well, in addition to that, what you are able to do when you have those different areas in your project management tool, is create, you know, tasks and processes or tasks around specific processes. So when somebody has, for example, when a client is onboarded, perhaps every time a client is onboarded, there’s a specific set of tasks that generate for different people on your team because they, you know, take care of a different part. And, you know, because those tasks are getting generated that no step is going to be missed, that those are generated every single time, regardless of, you know, what’s happening, but that’s the way we always onboard a client. So there’s that consistency. The client sees that you present a more professional look and feel to your clients so hopefully, they buy again, right.
veronica: [00:44:06] Yeah, and I just love that by applying the Orgasmic Operations ™ framework to every system that we do for our clients, either for them or with them, there is intention. And it has done with a lot of empathy, compassion, awareness, and that we’re not just doing things because we think it’s right.
Even if we believe there is the best way to do something for a specific client, but they just can’t see it. Or they’re not ready to approach that yet. It’s like we create a solution that meets them where they’re at and then give them a, “Hey, when you’re ready to take this to the next level. Here’s what we suggest next”, because we don’t ever want to leave you hanging. And we don’t ever want to leave you wanting more because yes, we are all about teasing you inside, but not for the things that matter. So we want to make sure that wherever it is you need to go for your business, you have the right operations too. And if you’re not ready for like the creme de la creme of solutions, we’ve got you and we’ll give you the right solutions for you without making it a bandaid solution. We can give you the right solution without making it a bandaid.
And I think that’s what gets our clients so excited. That they know how to grow and we purposely want to work ourselves out of a job because of course it’s not our job to be in your business all the time. We want you to thrive and teach you how to fish without us so that when we leave, you can just continue doing what you want to be doing, confidently.
veronica: [00:45:28] This was such a great conversation. Like this is the first time I truly got to have this conversation about what the Orgasmic Operations ™ framework is about. And I’m so glad that you got to join me, Terri. So thank you for spending this time to do so
terri: [00:45:42] You know I love talking about this stuff. I get really excited. You see us, people get see us in some team meetings when we start talking about how this all fits together and how we apply this to the business every day. A lot of times there’s a lot of hand-rubbing, like, yay.
veronica: [00:45:55] And when you have orgasmic operations, your business becomes pleasurable, productive, and ultimately profitable because everything feels good. Your team members feel really good. They feel confident. They’re working in their zones of genius. You’re productive because you’re turning out work and actually finishing projects and probably in a more efficient way.
And ultimately the profits come in because you’re putting things out in front of potential customers. You have great ideas that actually turn into something and by making sure that everybody is taken care of, and that you are focused on where you want to go and you’ve created structure. This allows you to run a much more lean business so that the profits go back into your pockets rather than just being spent on apps that may not be needed, or on team members that may not be helping you contribute to your vision.
And if you are ready to make your operations orgasmic, and you would love for us to like take a peak, Hey, I would love to jump on a call with you. So just sign up at www.businesslaidbare.com/consult and we’d love to see what we can do to make your backend orgasmic, and like out of this world.
Thanks for listening to The Business Whip. Hosted by yours truly, Veronica Yanhs, CEO and founder of Business Laid Bare. If you enjoyed this episode, spank that subscribe button in whichever podcast app you’re listening in and share this with your friends.
Your support means everything. So thank you from the bottom of my butt, because let’s be real. It’s so much bigger than my heart. I’ll see you in the next episode.
