030: How Do You Turn Chaos into Order in Your Business?

Hey, have you heard there's a new.

Style of CEO on the block. The modern CEO. And she is changing the way businesses are run. She's setting her own hours and her own salary. She's creating a business around what matters most to her. Freedom, family, and impact. And her corner office looks nothing like what you'd see on Wall Street.

It's a kitchen t your grandma's lake.

House, a spacious home office, the living room floor maybe surrounded by kids and crayons or the local coffee shop.

Your business, your way.

This modern CEO is here to stay.

Because when you embrace your role as.

Modern CEO, you will have more freedom, more profit, and more fun. Most importantly, you'll fall in love with your life and a business in a way you've only dreamed. Trust me, this isn't a pipe dream reserved for only a select few. You are the modern CEO. You are creating a business and life you love because a better business means a better life.

Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Amber McHugh, and I am coming at you for the next episode in our how to Clone Yourself series from Chicago, Illinois. In fact, I think the weather here has given me a little bit of a cold. You could probably hear that in my voice. And I'm at my sister's place right now, and the best place to record in her amazing apartment that overlooks the beautiful city of Chicago is in her closet. So I'm sitting on the floor of my sister's closet, and I am so pumped to be here with you. I'm excited to be here in the US Right now we're taking a little break from Africa over the summer because where we live in Africa, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it is currently rainy season, and that means that there is torrential downpour rains the majority of the day. And I like some rain. I really like rain, but I like warm rain or I like being able to stay inside while it's. If it's cold rain, and we can't do that all day every day. So actually, the rainy season just started as we were living, leaving Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and it was cold and it was wet. So I'm super happy to be back here in the US For a few more weeks enjoying this amazing weather because it's summer here and enjoying spending some time with family. And what enables me to be able to do this is, in fact, a little bit of magic from how to Clone Yourself. And today we're going to start a new section and a new portion in our series as we pivot from preparing to clone ourselves and getting a handle on where our time is going. And we move now into how do we build systems and how do we get more efficient so we can save ourselves from the overwhelm. At its core, a fully functioning business is basically a set of systems and processes. Whether we're talking about marketing like John Janczyk from the book Duct Tape Marketing was in that particular quote, or we're talking about serving your clients, or we're talking about how you manage your money. Systems are the key to doing it well and doing it consistently so you can ultimately scale your business and feel like you are cloning yourselves again. We are several steps into this how to Clone Yourself series and please take note that we have not talked about hiring yet. Hiring is one small piece of how you will clone yourself and scale your business. Yes, it's an important piece, it's a super impactful piece, but it is one, one small piece and you can start to get gains on how you can and will clone yourself before you even get to the hiring stage in your business. And if you are now thinking about hiring in your business, following along and doing all of these steps as we go, it's only going to give you more leverage and it's going to set you up for success when you are in fact ready to make that hire or when you do in fact make that hire. Gene Brown says, we build our business systems the way we build our cities over time, without a plan, on top of ruins. And I don't know, it's a little bit harder for me to see that in the United States because Chicago's looking pretty good. I mean, they're building over time, but it's gorgeous. There's gorgeous skyscraper and well thought out architecture going up over time. We in fact took the river cruise. We're doing a little bit of touristing while we are here. And we took the river cruise and learned about the architecture of the city on that boat. And they talked about contextualism and how when a building goes up, it's aligning itself and it's thinking about the river and how the river flows and it's thinking about the buildings that are next to it. And so many of the buildings that went up gave nods to their neighbors. Part of the building was a similar height to its neighbor or a piece of the building changed. If it was going to keep going and if it wasn't going to be a similar height but it was going to be higher, the building would change dynamics where its neighbor's roof ended and it would start to do something different. And that's called contextualism, where in architecture you're relating yourself to your neighbors or you're seeing your neighbor across the river being reflected in the building on the other side of the river as it's going up because it wanted to pull in that beauty of its neighbor and not just stand alone. You do not have to stand alone and nor do your system stand alone. Whether you like it or not, whether it's a plan or no plan in place, your systems, in your business do not stand alone. And I'm going to confess right now, as we're diving into the systems conversation. I love systems. Well, it's not exactly the systems themselves I love so much, though I do love it when things work. It's more about what the systems and processes represent, what they can do for your business. And in this case, as we're talking about business, as we're talking about creating more smooth sailing in your life, it is systems that are going to help us grow and operate. Smooth like butter. And again, this is both on the business front and the personal front. You guys know that I leverage these systems in my personal life as well. So I encourage you not to just think about your business, but think about your life. And now we're going to dive into the systems conversation. If you're not already getting a sense of why you need systems, let's dive into this a little bit more. Talking about systems is just another way of looking at scaling your operations and getting you more freedom. Put simply, if you're going to scale your business, systems are non negotiable. In fact, even if you don't pay attention, systems are happening everywhere you look, either by design or organically. That Starbucks barista that takes your order, asks for your name and puts it on a cup. She puts the cup in line in front of the coffee machine. There is a system that unfolds at Starbucks by design that ensures the right order is prepared at the right time for the right person. You've heard me talk about the traffic systems in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, before these traffic systems organically take shape. Because of course, there are systems in place. There's a method to the madness, but it is pure madness. And these traffic systems in Addis Ababa certainly don't have the intention that Starbucks has. And this lack of attention to systems absolutely shows it is pure chaos. In less than 24 hours, I witnessed three accidents and one near accident turned mob fight. Yes, that was scary. We were right in the Middle of it rules that we might abide by in other parts of the world don't exist in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and apparently we're not taught through driver's education. There are very few traffic lights, and even where there are traffic lights, you better keep your eyes peeled when going through the intersection because not everyone follows those lights. During some busy hours, there are traffic cops routing traffic and people generally listen to the traffic cops. But during holidays or busy seasons, traffic cops are not present. People volunteer to direct traffic. No, they don't go into a specific office to volunteer. They literally volunteer just by hopping in the middle of the intersection. And they do exactly what a traffic cop does. But they're not doing this just because it's a paid volunteer position. As in if you want to leave a donation in the basket that one of the volunteers is directing traffic for and they're carrying the basket for, that would be appreciated. And if you're not leaving a donation, it might get a little contentious. Again, none of this is organized by the government or some volunteer non profit organization. People are just taking it upon themselves to put out the collection basket and direct traffic. This is a system that's known by the locals and by my driver. They informed me of this process because I would have had no clue. The system organically involved based on a need. Someone saw, the locals reorganized, they adapted, and they adjusted based on this need that they identified. Still, the traffic system in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia remains chaos. You see systems happen whether we're intentional or not. Our systems can either be intentional or organic. Starbucks system is intentional in that they want to get their people orders quickly, they want to get their clients served quickly, and they want it to feel good. They want those orders to be correct. They want to get the right order to the right person. They want the experience to be incredible. And on the flip side, the traffic system in Addis Ababa has organically evolved and it feels kind of all over the place. Systems are intentionally, organically happening in your life as well. Consider your morning routines, how your day unfolds, your relationships with others. Are you being intentional or do you see opportunities to be more intentional? Your time is precious. So we're not necessarily going to put tons of systems in place all at once for all of the things in your business or your life. However, it's definitely going to be helpful if we get systems in place for those things that you have prioritized earlier in the process. As we move through this how to Clone Yourself series in the podcast, as outlined in the get efficient prioritization matrix that we built out. Focus on the things that drive you crazy. Focus on the things that take a lot of time. Focus on the things that are really important to the business. Focus on what matters in your life. These are the things that we're going to look at putting systems in place for first. If you're thinking. But it's all important, Amber, I get it. And remember, you can add to and update your focus at any time. There's no pressure to get this perfect or right Right now the power of systems is that a few tweaks can have tremendous impact. For example, it drives me crazy when I'm rushing out of the house and I can't find my purse. Please tell me I'm not alone in this. It's the worst. I was so sick of scrambling every time I left the house. I knew I had to set up a new system for my purse caretaking before I lost my ever lovin mind. Now I have a dedicated space for my bag, my pur, my wallet, my keys all in the same location so it's easy to find if I ever need to leave in a hurry. It makes sense, right? Something you do on a regular basis can set off a whole day if the system is off. We also have a system for where we put our keys. I don't drive anymore, so I'm not too worried about my keys at this point. However, my husband's car keys have our house keys on them as well. Here in Addis Ababa, the house keys are needed on both sides of the door for locking and unlocking. There's no latch that you can turn so you need the keys to leave the house as well. When I need to find the house keys in a hurry and get out fast or if I think about there being a fire, it drives me crazy to feel like I'm trapped in the house with no keys in sight. Therefore, my husband and I work together to build a system making sure the keys are systems always go back in the same spot. No more crazy Amber running around wondering how she's going to get out. Trust me, crazy Amber running around isn't good for anyone. Yes, systems apply in both our business and our life. A better business means a better life. So get systematized, stay systematized and make things easier on yourself. It is a win win. In fact, if you feel like you are teetering on burnout right now and you don't have a team, systems are going to help you save time and get more done in less time. It's just one way that you can start to clone yourself and multiply your efforts again. When you're ready to build out your team, or if you already have a team, you want to expand or increase efficiency. Having efficiency and having systems in place is going to help your team get on board and help you more quickly. Systems are a form of cloning and they're going to help you accelerate your results. So we talked about systems being organically or intentionally built out. But what if systems include good Systems have five key the what, the where. Where does this need to take place? What technology system if it's not a physical place, the when, the why, and the how. When you can identify the what, where, when, why and how of a process. Your systems will be in good shape. We're going to go through the steps in detail as we move through how you will get efficient with systems in this portion of our series in this how to Clone Yourself podcast series. Because systems will save you from overwhelm, even just so. So systems are going to help so you can be sure that your systems are working when your business is moving in harmony and that you and your team are in a state of efficient, effortless ease. This is a shift in your business and life that you will be able to feel. It feels literally like a weight has been lifted. So what are systems going to do for you? Like, tell me more. Why do I really want to do this? Well, some systems are going to offer you a quick fix. My stress levels immediately go down when I can find my keys, my purse and my wallet when I need to leave the house. That's a quick fix that I'm getting immediate results from.

You may also notice things like it.

Takes you less time to do things. You may notice your clients are happy because you have a path for them. You may also close deals faster. So you will notice some immediate benefits from systems. But let's face it, there will be some systems in your business that you need to be more thoughtful about that will take longer to build out or longer to see results from. For those systems that will take more time to build out, I really want to encourage you to invest the time. It's a time investment that will pay off huge as your business grows. Sam.