Buying Back Your Time: Mike Abramowitz on Systems and Scaling

[00:00:01] Dieser komplexe Finanzierungstalk ist ganz schön anstrengend. Ob ich mein Depot jemals angelegt kriege?

[00:00:06] Aber du hast doch schon ein Depot.

[00:00:08] Äh, nee.

[00:00:09] Doch, du hast das Vodafone Giga Depot.

[00:00:11] Ach stimmt! Und da habe ich ja selbst in der Hand, wie groß mein Depot ist.

[00:00:15] Jetzt mit dem Vodafone Giga Depot und verbrauchtes Datenvolumen in den nächsten Monat mitnehmen.

[00:00:19] Go on im zuverlässigen 5G-Netz von Vodafone.

[00:00:22] Vodafone. Together we can.

[00:00:38] Und jetzt hier ist Ihr host, Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt.

[00:00:45] Das Episode of Scaling Up Services ist Brought to you by Dash VA.

[00:00:49] Dash VA provides virtual assistant services for growing businesses.

[00:00:53] Everything from managing emails and schedules to top notch research and marketing support.

[00:00:57] Dash VA has revolutionized my day-to-day operations, taking on all of the nitty gritty so that I

[00:01:03] can focus on the tasks that really matter.

[00:01:05] And let me tell you, it's not just about getting the job done.

[00:01:07] It's about how they do it, with efficiency, dedication and a keen understanding of my business needs.

[00:01:13] If you're an entrepreneur or small business owner, having a great virtual assistant is

[00:01:17] not just a convenience, it's your secret weapon.

[00:01:19] It allows you to focus on what you do best, growing your business.

[00:01:23] You know what they say, if you don't have an assistant, you are the assistant.

[00:01:27] So if you're ready to join the virtual revolution and supercharge your productivity, visit dashva.nyc

[00:01:34] to learn more about how they can help you elevate your business.

[00:01:37] With Dash VA, it's not just about success.

[00:01:40] It's about partnering with a team that's committed to your mission.

[00:01:43] Visit dashva.nyc to learn more.

[00:01:46] Now back to our episode.

[00:01:48] Welcome everyone.

[00:01:49] This is Scaling Up Services.

[00:01:50] I'm Bruce Eckfeldt.

[00:01:51] I'm your host.

[00:01:51] Our guest today is Mike Abramowitz.

[00:01:53] He is a family man with a business.

[00:01:55] He's a front row dad.

[00:01:57] He does a couple of other things.

[00:01:58] I'm fascinated by this conversation because he works with owners, entrepreneurs, business folks,

[00:02:03] to help them create leverage.

[00:02:04] And I think it's a huge aspect of our audience here is figuring out how to really get more

[00:02:09] leverage in their business, with their time, with their energy.

[00:02:12] He's co-founder of the Better Than Rich Show, which I was on a while ago.

[00:02:15] And so I'm excited to have Mike come on here and really talk about what they're doing

[00:02:18] and really the community they've built, the tools that they've built, and really the movement they're creating

[00:02:22] around helping people sort of get more of what they want out of not just their business, but their lives.

[00:02:28] And Mike's got a really interesting story and background and is highly motivated in this space.

[00:02:32] And so I'm really excited for this.

[00:02:33] With all that, Mike, welcome to the program.

[00:02:35] Thanks Bruce for having me.

[00:02:36] I appreciate it, man.

[00:02:36] Yeah, no, it's good to have you on.

[00:02:38] Before we kind of dig into all the things you're doing today and the Better Than Rich Show and all the other programs you're running,

[00:02:43] let's get a little background.

[00:02:44] How do you get into this?

[00:02:45] What was your professional background, personal background?

[00:02:47] Give us the story.

[00:02:48] Sure, sure.

[00:02:48] I'll give the short long version, then we could go in any direction that you see fit.

[00:02:52] So grew up in New Jersey.

[00:02:53] My dad owns a plumbing business and he worked six days a week my whole life.

[00:02:57] And because of that, I saw him work a lot, which was awesome for ambition, but he also missed like a lot of basketball games growing up.

[00:03:02] So when I left for college, I was studying to be an engineer, but I started selling Cutco kitchen knives when I was a freshman in college.

[00:03:09] And that like opened my mind to sales and like what I put in is what I get out and being a business owner could be different than what I witnessed with my dad.

[00:03:16] So I paid my way through college selling Cutco.

[00:03:18] And when I graduated, they offered me a career position.

[00:03:21] I also invested into real estate.

[00:03:22] I had three rental properties before I graduated college as well.

[00:03:25] So I was just like everything was just trying to get ahead, learn as many skills.

[00:03:28] But then the market collapsed in 2008.

[00:03:30] I lost the properties.

[00:03:32] I was negative $130,000 in debt.

[00:03:34] I had a 400 credit score.

[00:03:35] I was near bankrupt.

[00:03:36] I called the valley of my twenties.

[00:03:38] I mean, it was just really tough.

[00:03:39] I mean, death of loved ones, a seven year relationship ended.

[00:03:42] It was just a top season.

[00:03:43] Yeah.

[00:03:44] So I was in my direct sales business, just like grinding and working and trying to like make my money back.

[00:03:50] And it just was this like never ending cycle.

[00:03:53] So I went to my first Tony Robbins event, 2012, 2013.

[00:03:57] He said, my mess is my message.

[00:03:59] And at that event I left, I said, that's what I'm going to do.

[00:04:02] I'm going to take the valley of my twenties and teach other people.

[00:04:03] So I went to the school system in Pinellas County, Florida.

[00:04:07] I spoke for 300 hours that next year, crafting my message, which turned into my first book.

[00:04:12] And that led into nine books, which led into PB and J for Tampa Bay, where we provided a hundred thousand meals to the less fortunate.

[00:04:18] It was this awesome passion project.

[00:04:20] Wow.

[00:04:20] But then I realized I still don't have time.

[00:04:22] I was book signing.

[00:04:23] I was traveling.

[00:04:24] I was speaking.

[00:04:24] I was still running my direct sales office.

[00:04:26] So when I fell in love with my now wife and I was like, there's no way I could sustain all this.

[00:04:31] I hired my first business coach in 2016, and he had a history scaling help scaling a company in India from 6 million to 30 million with a team of 1400 underneath.

[00:04:41] And he came back to the States to teach small business owners how to corporatize their small business.

[00:04:46] And I was one of his clients and students.

[00:04:48] So he asked me some really important questions, Bruce.

[00:04:52] He said, what is the purpose of business for you?

[00:04:55] And I said, business for me is a vehicle for me to add value to the marketplace, make money, take that money, put that money into passive investments and make that money more money.

[00:05:05] So that way it could have the race, freedom, time, money, location, freedom.

[00:05:08] So I could be a more present father and husband.

[00:05:10] And while also serving humanity, he said, the way you're going to do that is going to be through your direct sales office.

[00:05:16] Forget about the other stuff.

[00:05:18] So I sunset of the books and all the things that just spent the last few years building.

[00:05:21] And he helped me like create predictability in my direct sales business with Cutco.

[00:05:25] We did things from like bringing offshore virtual assistants in and putting in like project management software tools and updating our CRM and, and just like simplifying with predictability.

[00:05:36] So then when COVID hit 2020, we were poised, like we were doing zoom meetings before anyone else was doing zoom meetings.

[00:05:42] We were doing virtual stuff and trying to, and for context, I don't know if you're, you know, how familiar the audience is with Cutco, but everything was direct to consumer.

[00:05:50] So it was like in-person interviews and trainings in person, in home demonstration.

[00:05:54] So to bring that to the virtual space was very taboo, but we did, and we did it and we made it happen.

[00:06:00] And 2020, we provided a thousand jobs.

[00:06:02] We did a two and a half million in sales and we crushed it.

[00:06:05] And it was awesome.

[00:06:06] And then the real test happened December, December 31st, 2020, when my son was born, he was born New Year's Eve, 2020.

[00:06:12] And he was 26 weeks, one pound, four ounces.

[00:06:15] Wow.

[00:06:16] And we didn't know how long we were going to be in the hospital with him.

[00:06:19] So I told my team, I said, listen, I don't know how long this is going to be, but you guys got it.

[00:06:24] And they ran the business without me for those eight and a half months.

[00:06:27] They did over 1.3 million in sales, provided 600 jobs, put quarter million in revenue in my pocket without me there.

[00:06:33] So I called my business coach, Andrew.

[00:06:35] Oh, you had a chance to meet.

[00:06:37] And I said, do you think we could teach other people and like other business owners how to buy back time and like create predictability in the business?

[00:06:42] Like you taught me, he said, let's find out.

[00:06:44] So that was the birthplace of better than rich.

[00:06:46] We created a partnership and that's what we do now, which is helping business owners that have a family and they just want to create predictability in their business to buy back time.

[00:06:53] And we've helped hundreds of other business owners now through predictability with systems, with AI virtual, AI powered virtual assistants and our agency and our educational products and whatnot.

[00:07:03] So it's been crazy the journey, but I share the story because there's so many different directions that we can go.

[00:07:08] That's most relevant to your audience.

[00:07:10] And it is sometimes circumstances happen.

[00:07:12] And I was able to, my wife became a full time medical mom and I did what I'm doing now to replace her income.

[00:07:18] But now our son is great.

[00:07:20] He is a three and a half.

[00:07:21] He was on a ventilator for his first two years of life.

[00:07:23] He's thriving now.

[00:07:24] He's doing awesome.

[00:07:25] We have a daughter, nine months old, Ella, and I have a lot of flexibility and freedom.

[00:07:29] My wife has not had to go back to work and just helping this new audience.

[00:07:33] I retired from Cutco after 20 years and, and doing this full time.

[00:07:36] And it's just been, it's been awesome helping this audience and this avatar, just like learn from stuff that I didn't know was a gift for me from a crazy challenge and circumstance.

[00:07:45] So that's the long, short story.

[00:07:46] No, I love it.

[00:07:47] Yeah, no, I'm an incredible story.

[00:07:49] I'm, I guess what I'm most curious about is kind of some of the mindset shifts.

[00:07:53] Cause I think that's, I mean, it's one thing to kind of have the tools and have the strategies, but a lot of these blocks that I find, you know, we end up in are really about how we think about things and how we think about whether it's time, when we think about our energy, when we think about kind of our role or what we have to do and what we don't have to do.

[00:08:09] Like what for you were some of the big sort of internal transitions or transformations that you had to go through to really start embracing some of these ideas?

[00:08:18] Yeah.

[00:08:18] The number one immediately showed up was no one can do it as good as me.

[00:08:23] So that was a big, you know, big ego check that I had to put at the door because every time I said no one could do it as good as me, what I was doing as I was diminishing the confidence of my development.

[00:08:32] So instead the paradigm shift was how can I simplify this so anybody can do it?

[00:08:37] And that, that shift allowed me to have lower wage workers execute the plays that I used to create, that I used to execute.

[00:08:46] So like that's everything from talking with prospects and prospective talent, like recruits or new hires to prospective clients, to working with our current team, to working with our clients.

[00:08:56] Like everything came from that lens and that shift of how can I create predictability and simplicity so anyone can do it?

[00:09:03] And that was the strategy work.

[00:09:05] That was the deep work that I started doing versus working in the business.

[00:09:09] I started working on the business and simplifying and strategizing and, and, and figuring out ways.

[00:09:16] And that's where like I created a framework that has served me, but I didn't know this was the framework, but this is essentially what I was doing.

[00:09:22] I call it the time rich six now, but it's something that, that really helped me just buy back the time.

[00:09:27] But from that lens of how do I make it predictable and simple that anyone could do it and let me let go of control.

[00:09:32] Do you have an example?

[00:09:33] I mean, cause I think this is, this is powerful.

[00:09:35] An example of what, what was complicated for you that you then had to simplify?

[00:09:40] Tons.

[00:09:41] I'll cut me off.

[00:09:42] Okay.

[00:09:42] So the, for the first one is running interviews.

[00:09:45] We were in a recruiting company.

[00:09:46] So it was like, we would run eight to 12 interviews a week group interview style.

[00:09:51] And, and it was reading a script.

[00:09:53] The script was like 25 pages that had to be almost like memorized.

[00:09:57] And there was like a one-on-one interview, a group evaluation, plus a final interview.

[00:10:02] And it was like 25 pages of scripts that need to be memorized.

[00:10:05] And the training that required to going into 25 pages to train someone on that, it just like took so much time and energy.

[00:10:12] And if it didn't get good results, then the training process was so difficult.

[00:10:15] So it's like, how do I simplify this?

[00:10:17] So anyone could do it.

[00:10:18] I turned the entire interview process instead of a one-on-one interview.

[00:10:21] I took it, turn it into a form, like a more extensive form that the applicant fills out.

[00:10:26] So we could get to know them a little bit better.

[00:10:27] The group evaluation, instead of me, instead of the interviewer reading something and going through 25 pages,

[00:10:33] we turn it into a video sequence of bite-sized videos of three to five minutes.

[00:10:37] And then there was like a prompt and a question at the end of each video.

[00:10:40] So the facilitator just had to facilitate the video of me versus them having to learn the script.

[00:10:47] And then it was just the final evaluation, which is all I really had to train them on.

[00:10:52] I just had to train them on how do you decide whether or not someone's going to be a good fit for our company.

[00:10:56] So like the training was mitigated down to just like one phase versus all of it.

[00:11:01] So that's one good example.

[00:11:03] I'll give you one more, which was handling all of the incoming calls.

[00:11:07] So I had about a thousand people who bought Cutco from me and then they all had my personal cell phone number.

[00:11:14] And then I had, you know, I've trained 5,000 sales representatives on how to sell Cutco.

[00:11:18] All of them had my phone number.

[00:11:20] And then anybody who wanted a job to work with me had my phone number.

[00:11:23] So it was all like directed to my one point of contact.

[00:11:25] So you can only imagine what type of chaos that would produce.

[00:11:28] Like there was no spare time.

[00:11:30] I was always in reaction mode.

[00:11:32] So I created for, I segmented the communication guidelines.

[00:11:35] So I segmented it into like internal, anyone who's already preexisting working with me, they only communicate to me on WhatsApp.

[00:11:42] And then I would add offshore virtual assistant to every WhatsApp channel.

[00:11:46] She started creating those channels for me.

[00:11:48] So that way, if anyone sent me a message on WhatsApp, she was in those channels.

[00:11:52] So if it was something she was able to help them with, she would just check in and she was just, she would just handle it for me.

[00:11:59] And if it was something that she couldn't handle, then during my office hours I created, I would just jump in.

[00:12:04] And then for clients, I sent, I created a secondary cloud phone number for those that my VA can also support with.

[00:12:11] So that way it wasn't direct to my phone.

[00:12:13] It went to a cloud phone number and that way my VA could support on the cloud phone number.

[00:12:17] And we did the same thing for prospects, for recruits as well.

[00:12:21] Did a separate cloud phone number and also created a separate like email, email marketing, like a CRM that we use that we kind of put them through without going into all the weeds.

[00:12:30] I also had like a Thinkific learning management software that I use.

[00:12:33] So essentially I just, I wanted to free myself up.

[00:12:36] So everyone didn't have point of contact to Mike.

[00:12:39] That was, that was important.

[00:12:40] Yeah.

[00:12:41] I mean, a lot of kind of system design here.

[00:12:43] I mean, how, I guess, did that come naturally to you?

[00:12:46] Or was this a muscle that you kind of had to build and sort of thinking through like, okay, what, what are the processes and the systems and how do I kind of segment these things?

[00:12:54] Like how did that, how did you actually do that?

[00:12:57] So I did have the gift of, I do have my industrial engineering degree.

[00:13:00] So like, I think that does help.

[00:13:03] But then I also had my business coach, Andrew, who had the experience corporate and corporate where I didn't really ever work corporate and bringing some of the things that he brought to me.

[00:13:11] So like you connect those two, I think really made a difference.

[00:13:15] And then just my eager desire to just learn and read and study, you know, the works of those that were better before me.

[00:13:23] So I mean, how to win friends and influence people and all the greats of seven habits, highly effective people.

[00:13:28] But then books like one minute manager.

[00:13:30] I mean, it's a simple book, but it's broken down to like, how can you have impactful conversations and have them fast?

[00:13:37] Well, that's a system.

[00:13:39] It's like, give them autonomy, like as an example.

[00:13:41] So those, those were a couple, I don't know if that directly answers the question, but.

[00:13:46] Yeah, no, it's good.

[00:13:47] Because I think that that can be a struggle for certain folks that, you know, is, is thinking in terms of systems or developing kind of that capability or that muscle for be able to actually abstract something into kind of some system and say, oh, I see.

[00:13:58] I've got these four different segments of people that I work with.

[00:14:01] Let's, let's, let's have the process for these people use this tool and this one, this tool.

[00:14:05] And these are the, I can have, you know, this person feel these or filter them or do a first pass out at triage.

[00:14:11] And then I only get the ones that they can't handle.

[00:14:13] And there's a little bit of just abstraction here that you have to kind of apply to the process.

[00:14:17] I think two things immediately.

[00:14:18] Now that you say that McDonald's was a good example for me.

[00:14:21] Like how do I McDonaldify the business and how to make like very, very predictable.

[00:14:25] And the founder, the movie, the founder was really helpful and inspiring there.

[00:14:29] So I'd recommend someone just watching the movie and seeing the scene where they like drew on the tennis court.

[00:14:34] And like, this is exactly what it looks like.

[00:14:36] This is the process.

[00:14:36] And then the other thing that really helped was, was the e-myth and the e-myth is a great book.

[00:14:42] But the, the idea of the user experience is like almost like a flow chart.

[00:14:46] So it was very much, how can I, how can I put myself in the user experience step by step by step by step from first point in contact,

[00:14:55] to the last point of contact until there was a handoff.

[00:14:58] So every time there was a handoff for an exchange, it was like, and that was the end of that user experience.

[00:15:04] And then I had to figure out how do I make it a smooth handoff, even if it was the same person, but it was a different department.

[00:15:09] So it created a segmented departments between marketing and sales and then sales and fulfillment.

[00:15:14] Then it's fulfillment for like advancement or development.

[00:15:17] So it's like creating the segments of the departments and then the predictive, like the if thens, if this happens, then this happens.

[00:15:23] And just going through the user experience that way, I think really helped a lot.

[00:15:27] Again, I'm trying to oversimplify a very loaded question, but those are a couple of things that I know did.

[00:15:32] I love it.

[00:15:33] I love it.

[00:15:33] So you mentioned this time reach six kind of model or thinking that you, that, that kind of summarized everything for you.

[00:15:38] Talk to us a little bit more about, you know, what, what that was and how it came about.

[00:15:42] So, so I call it the time reach six.

[00:15:44] I came up with this concept about eight months ago, but this is essentially what I did to, to protect my time and to buy back time and, and create a few, you know, multiple businesses and also the nonprofit and like to be able to run without me there.

[00:15:57] Uh, the first, the time reach six, number one is boundaries and boundaries are, well, how do you protect your priorities?

[00:16:04] Priorities being priorities to work on the business, but also your health or relationships, what matters most to you.

[00:16:09] So for me, the example I use is if someone called me at two in the morning while I'm making love to my partner, uh, am I going to answer the phone?

[00:16:15] No, that means it's out of bounds.

[00:16:17] It depends on what your kinks are.

[00:16:18] Yeah.

[00:16:19] So, so that's out of bounds.

[00:16:20] So if we clearly know what's out of bounds, then we need to get really defined of what is in bounds and what is out of bounds as an example.

[00:16:26] So getting clearly defined on the boundaries and the priorities, that's number one.

[00:16:29] Number two is communication guidelines, which is what I alluded to, which is how do you want people to communicate with you?

[00:16:35] What deems an email versus a text versus a call versus a virtual chat versus in person?

[00:16:40] And just getting really explicit on the communication guidelines and the rules of engagement for prospects, for clients, and for talent.

[00:16:47] Then number three is systems.

[00:16:49] Systems are if then processes.

[00:16:52] That's it.

[00:16:53] And the systems, I break it down into four pillars of business.

[00:16:57] There's four pillars of business.

[00:16:58] Every business has these four, which is attract, convert, onboard, retain.

[00:17:03] And there's two journeys.

[00:17:04] There's the client journey and the talent journey.

[00:17:06] So attracting new clients is lead gen in marketing.

[00:17:09] Attracting new talent is app taking applications.

[00:17:12] And then it's convert, converting clients, which is the sales process or converting talent, the interviewing process.

[00:17:18] Onboarding clients and talents is just setting the expectations or the training.

[00:17:22] And then retaining clients is client maximization like referrals and testimonials, reviews, and ascension offers.

[00:17:29] And talent retention is meeting cadence and culture and advancement opportunities within your organization.

[00:17:35] So that's the if thens are going to be inside those four pillars.

[00:17:40] Those are those flow charts we alluded to.

[00:17:42] Number four is playbooks.

[00:17:44] What is the documentation of those systems?

[00:17:48] So if then, every exchange has a documentation, we call those playbooks.

[00:17:53] You could call them SOPs, Standard Operating Procedures.

[00:17:55] Loom is a great resource for that.

[00:17:57] You just record yourself doing it.

[00:17:58] Dan Martell's book, Buy Back Your Time.

[00:18:00] The Cane Quarter Method is a go-to.

[00:18:02] So those are playbooks.

[00:18:03] And then the team is number five, who is executing the plays.

[00:18:07] So that might be a team of virtual assistants.

[00:18:08] It might be a team of experts.

[00:18:10] But just who's executing the plays?

[00:18:12] And then tech is number six, which is what technology is that team using to support them?

[00:18:17] What AI tools or CRMs or project management software or internal communication platforms like Slack?

[00:18:23] So that's the time-rich six.

[00:18:25] Boundaries, communication guidelines, systems, playbooks, team, and tech.

[00:18:29] Too many people go to the tech first.

[00:18:31] Let me find the get rich quick or the easy, shiny object thing where I say, let's take a better, more new framework better.

[00:18:37] Let's make what we're already doing better.

[00:18:39] Let's do it more often, get more data, and then we'll look for the new thing.

[00:18:43] So better, more new.

[00:18:44] And then it's like, who's going to be executing and using that technology?

[00:18:48] What are the plays that they're going to be calling?

[00:18:49] What are the systems that they're going to be implementing?

[00:18:51] And then my boundaries and communication guidelines to make sure that I can spend my time on the highest value, highest leverage activity.

[00:18:58] So where do you start?

[00:18:59] So if I'm looking at this thing, great.

[00:19:02] These are six things I want to try to figure out how to implement.

[00:19:04] And like you mentioned, like everyone kind of goes to tech and that is usually not that successful.

[00:19:09] That's why it's number six.

[00:19:10] So don't go to number one first.

[00:19:12] So you start at number one.

[00:19:13] So you really figure out like, where am I?

[00:19:14] What are my priorities and where are my boundaries?

[00:19:16] And that will start to give me then the sense of what do I need to build around that?

[00:19:20] So talk to me.

[00:19:20] So how does someone figure out their boundaries and priorities?

[00:19:22] Like is this, is it pretty obvious typically?

[00:19:24] Is that there's some soul searching here?

[00:19:26] Like when you're working with folks, what typically happens?

[00:19:29] Well, it's usually going to be in the camps of relationships or health or what value, what they value most.

[00:19:37] And sometimes it's like time freedom.

[00:19:39] Sometimes it's what value, what do I value most is I want to spend time with my family.

[00:19:43] It's like, well, let's describe that.

[00:19:45] Is that a family meal?

[00:19:46] Is that every meal?

[00:19:47] Is that a vacation?

[00:19:48] Like, what does that mean?

[00:19:49] How frequently do you want to do that?

[00:19:50] Oh, I want to get, I want to make my health a priority.

[00:19:52] Cool.

[00:19:52] What does that look like?

[00:19:56] And we have six pillars in front row dads.

[00:19:58] There's wealth and legacy.

[00:19:59] There's vibrant health.

[00:20:01] There's intentional parenting, thriving marriage, emotional intelligence, and business evolution, creating a business that produces time freedom.

[00:20:09] So usually the priorities are going to be in one of those six camps where it's like, I want to build passive income that I could have wealth and legacy.

[00:20:16] And I also want to have a healthy body with a lot of high energy.

[00:20:20] I want to be an intentional parent for my kids.

[00:20:22] I don't want to have a partnership with my spouse or who I'm doing life with.

[00:20:25] And I also want to have a high level of EQ where I have an emotional awareness to my surroundings.

[00:20:30] So it's somewhere, it's probably going to be in those six pillars where I want to spend time on these things because they're, they're, they're, they're very important to me.

[00:20:38] How, I guess, how often do you reevaluate this?

[00:20:40] Right.

[00:20:40] Because I can imagine that, you know, I have a certain set of priorities now, but you know, in a couple of years, whether it's, you know, I'm evolving or life situations happen.

[00:20:49] Right.

[00:20:49] Like I need to kind of like either when do you do it?

[00:20:52] Like what are triggering events or how frequently do you need to kind of reassess this?

[00:20:56] For me, I do this in the fall season or the fall season of where I'm at.

[00:21:00] So there's the, uh, the, I'll go through this real quick, but the framework I use is there's the spring season where I'm planting seeds for whatever I want to be, whatever fruits I want to bear in the fall.

[00:21:09] And then there's the summer season, which is the grind season of doing the thing.

[00:21:12] Fall season is the season I bared the fruits and now I have an opportunity for reflection.

[00:21:17] And then winter season is the season of unpredictability where it's, I have to, I'm using those resources, resources I conserved.

[00:21:24] We just don't know when winter comes.

[00:21:26] So too many people get stuck in reaction of winter or grind of summer.

[00:21:30] They actually don't take the time to plant the seeds in spring and then take the reflection time in fall.

[00:21:34] So that's why I like to make sure, okay, what season am I in first?

[00:21:38] If I know I'm in a fall season, I got to take the time for reflection.

[00:21:41] If I know I'm in a spring season, I got to take the time to plant the seeds and get, but also have clarity of what are the, what are the fruits I want to bear?

[00:21:47] If I play an apple season spring, I'm going to get apples in fall.

[00:21:50] And that's the problem with business owners.

[00:21:52] They plant, they plant apple season when they get oranges.

[00:21:54] They're like, what the heck?

[00:21:55] Meaning they create a business that requires all of their attention and I'm in control of everything.

[00:22:00] And then when they get to fall season, they're like, oh my God, everyone constantly is bothering me and I'm in distraction.

[00:22:05] It's like, that's the type of, that's the type of business you created in spring.

[00:22:09] So we got to now plant new seeds and reevaluate the current system that you built for yourself.

[00:22:14] Yeah.

[00:22:15] Yeah.

[00:22:15] I want to dig into this systems and playbooks.

[00:22:17] How do you, or any best practices or techniques that you've seen in terms of figuring out how to actually sort of develop these systems and document these systems that you've created?

[00:22:26] So the easiest way is, is flow charts.

[00:22:28] And that's what I have found has worked for me is just pen to paper.

[00:22:32] I mean, you can obviously do it on Canva or whatever, but it's just pen to paper, just walking through the user experience for the entire client journey and the entire talent journey.

[00:22:41] And we use a five I framework that helps us, which is the five eyes of marketing, which is ignorant, informed, intrigued, interested, invested.

[00:22:51] So it's just walking through that for the client and also the talent journey where someone is ignorant.

[00:22:56] They don't know who we are at all.

[00:22:58] And we want to get them to be informed of who we are.

[00:23:00] And then once they're informed of who we are, how do we get them intrigued to like, want to learn more about us?

[00:23:05] And then once they're intrigued, how do we get them interested where they're willing to spend their time with us?

[00:23:09] And then once they're spending their time with us and they're interested, how do we get them invested with us to do business with us or join our team?

[00:23:15] So like walking through that entire journey on the front end, top of funnel has been really, is really a good place to start.

[00:23:22] And then the same thing on the back part of the funnel, which is the onboarding, like most retention issues happen with clients and talent.

[00:23:30] The attrition rate is typically due to their experience did not meet their expectations.

[00:23:35] So if the experience did meet the expectations, well, let's figure out what are the expectations we're creating during the onboarding process.

[00:23:43] And then how does that compare to the fulfillment process?

[00:23:46] And just again, walking through that user experience using like a flowchart example is what helps me.

[00:23:52] Great.

[00:23:52] And talk a little bit about team, because I think once we have a process, then it's figuring out how do you staff it or how do you resource it appropriately?

[00:23:59] And I think this is the challenge a lot of folks listening here kind of run into as they've built a business up to a certain point, but they've just kind of hit the ceiling of capacity.

[00:24:09] But like figuring out how to bring in other people, you know, find the people, get them engaged, recruit them and actually get them into roles that are meaningful and productive is a huge challenge.

[00:24:20] How have you approached the team challenge?

[00:24:22] So, so I follow, I like buy back your time by Dan Martell and he says the replacement ladder.

[00:24:27] So replacement ladder is first administrative.

[00:24:30] So we got to find a way to get all the admin off of your, the owner's plate.

[00:24:34] That's everything from inbox calendar, social media, you know, any type, any type of graphic images or video editing or anything that the owner is doing that is admin related CRM stuff.

[00:24:45] Data entry needs to get offloaded first.

[00:24:48] Once that's offloaded, then we go to, I swap marketing and fulfillment.

[00:24:52] Like those two can kind of interchange, but marketing fulfillment and then sales and then leadership.

[00:24:57] So replacing those individuals in that order is important.

[00:25:00] And that's why Andrew Biggs and I, we started an agency by accident of installing virtual assistants.

[00:25:07] The short of that is we, we did a beta test with five.

[00:25:10] We said, we'll do this with five business owners.

[00:25:12] My team of 12 virtual assistants that were just doing work for me.

[00:25:15] I said, what if I let my team do work for you?

[00:25:18] And I said, I'll do that with five people.

[00:25:19] 10 raised their hand and said, all right, we'll do it with 10 of you.

[00:25:21] And now we have 60 to 70 business owners and 40 to 50 offshore virtual assistants doing administrative that we've trained just because it like grew into something that the marketplace needed.

[00:25:34] And then we solved the problem and it's been really good.

[00:25:36] But administrative is definitely a problem that we need to solve first and then, and then kind of build from there.

[00:25:41] The next piece I would say for this owner to answer the question is when we simplify the system, then we can have lower wage talent execute the plays.

[00:25:51] So if we could have better playbooks, more detailed playbooks, more, more predictable playbooks, then you don't have to have eyes high of a talent or a who executing those plays like McDonald's.

[00:26:04] So one of the things I would recommend is if you don't have the skill to create the playbook, then you could hire an expert, which is a who as a contractor versus internal to help you build, build those playbooks.

[00:26:16] So that way you could have lower wage workers, then execute those plays versus if you hire an expert internally.

[00:26:24] Now, I'm not saying don't do this, but if you hire an expert internally, the infrastructure of the business is now reliant on that who.

[00:26:31] And if that who is sick or out or unavailable or quits, now the predictability of the entire business is compromised and now it falls on the shoulders of the owner.

[00:26:40] So that's why I like to err on the side of predictability and systems and documentation with the playbooks instead of just solving a problem with a new who or a new tech.

[00:26:51] Although a who and a tech is helpful, from my experience, I don't think that's the main thing.

[00:26:56] Yeah.

[00:26:56] Well, and it allows you to be, it just helps with the redundancy or at least criticality of the role.

[00:27:02] It's like if I lose somebody, if I lose an assistant, I've got the playbook, I've got everything there.

[00:27:07] Not all that knowledge just walks out the door when they do.

[00:27:11] Let's talk a little bit about tech in the end here.

[00:27:13] I think, and this is an area that, you know, at the last couple of years, things have just gone through the roof in terms of the number of tools and whether they are their AI or communication tools.

[00:27:22] And we have Slack and we have WhatsApp.

[00:27:23] Like it is a little overwhelming.

[00:27:25] How do you kind of tackle that?

[00:27:27] Once you've figured out your playbook and your team, like how do you approach the tech and the tool space?

[00:27:32] What served me was a better, more new framework.

[00:27:35] So I, the new, the new is always there.

[00:27:38] So I figured out what am, what, what can I do to make what I'm currently familiar with better?

[00:27:42] So I built my, my seven figure sales organization on Google sheets, you know?

[00:27:46] So, so the, the Google drive suite was, was, was enough for seven figures.

[00:27:51] And at some point I was like, all right, I need to get a little bit more sophisticated, but how can I just use it better?

[00:27:55] Same thing with AI, all these cool new AI tools there that's fancy.

[00:27:59] I just chose to get better at chat GPT, better input creates better output.

[00:28:03] So I have, I spent, I have these prompts, these custom GPTs, and I'd be willing to share a couple of these with your audience.

[00:28:09] I do some of these like free events and whatnot, where I just share these.

[00:28:14] I spent like 20, 30 hours on giving really good prompts into custom GPTs instead of trying to find the cool new thing.

[00:28:21] So I just tell the business owner, you got to stay in your lane.

[00:28:24] If you're trying to find the cool new tech solution, I'd invite you to say, how can I just do what our team and our culture and myself, what I'm familiar with?

[00:28:33] How can I make it better?

[00:28:34] Use it more often, get more data, more repetitions with it.

[00:28:37] And then we'll figure out, okay, maybe we'll add something new if we're not getting, we're not getting traction within our team.

[00:28:45] Yeah.

[00:28:45] Yeah.

[00:28:45] No, I find that very true.

[00:28:47] It's like, it's easy to just kind of keep chasing new tools as opposed to investing and optimizing the ones that you've had.

[00:28:53] I guess when, when would you kind of switch to a new tool or what are kind of sort of issues or situations where what you do kind of say, Hey, look, we really do need to adopt a new tool.

[00:29:02] And, and reinvest in something new.

[00:29:04] Is there a break point there that you look at?

[00:29:06] It's a good question.

[00:29:07] I mean, the consequences are, are there's going to be pain or consequences at some point when there's, and you as a business owner will know, and you know, you're, they'll, they'll know their industry better than anyone.

[00:29:19] Me, I, I, when I'm familiar with my industry, if I'm working with a client or, or anyone that's a member of our community, I just ask them, it's like, how will you know that, that it's, it's, there's pain.

[00:29:30] Like where, where are you seeing the pain?

[00:29:31] And then what we'll do is we'll analyze is the pain coming from unpredictability and the user experience, or is it an actual tech problem?

[00:29:39] And I'll give you a small example.

[00:29:40] Alex was in his, and he, he was in his industry and he's like, the onboarding is we're having a really tough time with onboarding our new, our new recruits.

[00:29:48] Anytime someone new started working with us, he had a team of like 40 or 50 people.

[00:29:53] They're not getting inside the internal communication channel.

[00:29:56] They use WhatsApp.

[00:29:57] It's like, we're having trouble with this.

[00:29:58] And I don't think the onboarding is working.

[00:30:00] I said, well, is it the onboarding that's not working?

[00:30:02] Or is it the WhatsApp tech solution?

[00:30:03] That's not working.

[00:30:04] He said, well, the tech, we need to find a new tech.

[00:30:07] I said, finding a new tech means you have to now train all 40 or 50 people on a new tech solution versus let's see where in the onboarding, can we be a little bit more efficient or have an opportunity?

[00:30:19] So all we did was we added a group onboarding info session on how to get into WhatsApp for all new members for like 30 minutes as like a troubleshooting session.

[00:30:29] Instead of changing the tech, we just added a 30 minute meeting once a week.

[00:30:33] And that was a way easier solution than changing the tech stack as an example.

[00:30:38] Yeah, no, it's a good one.

[00:30:39] Mike, this has been a pleasure.

[00:30:40] If people want to find out more about you, more about Better Than Rich, the other work that you do, what's the best way to get all that information?

[00:30:46] I'd love to give a gift.

[00:30:47] I mean, if anybody could use help on delegation or processes, if they go to betterthanrich.com slash 90 day plan, nine zero day plan, that's a link.

[00:30:57] It'll go directly to my calendar.

[00:30:58] And there's two calendars on that link.

[00:31:00] One is a one on one with me where I'll map out all your delegation needs for you for the next 90 days.

[00:31:06] And then if our team could handle those needs, obviously you could use our agency for that.

[00:31:10] If not, you'll at least have the plan.

[00:31:11] And also at the bottom of that page are any upcoming events that I'm doing.

[00:31:15] I call them GSD workshops, get stuff done workshops.

[00:31:17] I love it.

[00:31:18] Where I will share those AI prompts and tools to help you delegate your inbox using AI and custom GPT, your tone, your writing style, intentional conversations.

[00:31:27] I have all these chat GPT playbooks that I can get done in 30 minutes.

[00:31:32] What might take someone 10 hours.

[00:31:34] So I'd love to demonstrate that and get stuff done with somebody.

[00:31:37] And again, betterthanrich.com slash 90 day plan.

[00:31:40] And both of those links are on that website.

[00:31:42] Perfect.

[00:31:43] Mike, it's been a pleasure.

[00:31:43] Thank you so much for taking the time today.

[00:31:45] Thank you so much for having me.

[00:31:46] I appreciate it, Bruce.

[00:31:49] You've been listening to Scaling Up Services with business coach Bruce Eckfeldt.

[00:31:53] To find a full list of podcast episodes, download the tools and worksheets, and access other great content, visit the website at scalingupservices.com.

[00:32:02] And don't forget to sign up for the free newsletter at scalingupservices.com slash newsletter.

[00:32:18] This podcast is a part of the C-Suite Radio Network.

[00:32:22] For more top business podcasts, visit c-suiteradio.com.