Day 4.5 Systems that Rock & Save Your Sanity 2016Planathon.com

Hello there. My name is Natasha Vorampiova and I am the founder of Systems Rock. Today I want to prove to you that you are capable of creating systems, even if you don't think of yourself as somebody who are able to create structures. But before we talk about that, let me quickly tell you how I started teaching systems because that happened almost accidentally. And I say almost because I've always known myself as a structured person and somebody who easily creates and follows structures. But what happened was that when I decided to start a business and it was my very first business and very first online business, so you know, this deep learning curve. So when that happened, I quickly found myself with this never ending to do list and I felt constantly tired and I knew that I could not really continue like that for, for much longer because besides laying the foundation for my own business, I also had a one year old. I was working part time for a law firm. I was studying Flemish, the language of the area in Belgium where we live. So I had a lot on my plate. So I could not afford my business sucking all the energy out of me. So I started looking for solutions. And I started listening to the interviews with established business owners, their success stories. And the word that kept coming up over and over again was systems. And I saw that, okay, for somebody with an established business, with a team of people, with this large suite of products or services, systems is something that was definitely helpful. But I could not see how I could use systems in, in my tiny business where I was the only person who was doing. Things changed when I realized that when those business owners talked about systems, what they meant were routines that worked for them and their businesses. And yes, those routines can be complex and elaborated if you have a big business that but easily they can be very simple and like very checklist, step by step. Like for somebody like me who was just, who just needed to go through the day and make sure that I accomplished what they wanted to accomplish. And I started experimenting with my own routines. I started sharing my kind of approach and advice with my friends and things started to click. I realized that I was making progress much faster, that my to do list was not as scarily long, that my friends were able to get some peace of mind as well. And that's when I renamed my business into Systems Rock. Because before that I was going to be a marketing consultant. But I knew that systems was something that I really, really, really wanted to learn how to get better at for my own business and for amazing business owners who were around me who actually saw that what I was teaching in my approach were very useful. So I never looked back. And ever since I started working with small business owners, helping them so to finally get to the stuff that matters, through all that stuff that doesn't matter and doesn't allow us to make progress. So going back to my promise in the beginning to show you that you two are capable of creating systems. And what I want to start with is that kind of definition that I gave about systems and the fact that systems are nothing else but routines that work for us in our businesses. So I'm sure that you do a bunch of things on a regular basis, daily, weekly, monthly. And that can be uploading and publishing blog posts, writing blog posts, publishing podcasts, maintaining your website, onboarding clients, working with clients. So I'm sure that there's a bunch of activities that you can think of right now. And the thing is that I also suspect that with many of those activities, you think of those activities as this one thing. For example, collecting testimonial, one thing, writing a blog post, one thing, onboarding a client, one kind of thing that easily can be your task on a to do list. However, if you look at those activities closer, you might notice that it's actually not a one thing, but it's a series, series of steps. It's actually a process. And let me give you an example. So something as simple as collecting testimonials. We all collect testimonials from our clients and that's kind of just like, okay, collecting testimonials, but let's look at it closer. First you have to ask the client for a testimonial and you can ask them just like that. Can you give me testimonial? Or you can send send them a list of questions to help them write something that you can actually use. If they did not get back to you, you'll need to follow up with them. If their testimonial needs editing, you might want to edit it and send it back for their approval. You will need, if your industry allows to get their permission, to use their headshot and name underneath the testimonial. Once you received it, you will need to save it somewhere you and or your team members can access it. Once that's done, you will use it somewhere on your website or some documents and correspondence. So you can see that collecting testimonials is not one item. It's a series of steps. This is what I invite you to do. First, we talked about thinking and picking a few repetitive activities that you do in your business. So that is the first step. Then pick one and actually break it down into these steps. And you can use for example a bunch of post its to help you with that. Take a large surface board and on each post it write down the step of the process and kind of just line them up in the order of how it will be happening. You can also use your favorite mind mapping software. You can work with blank piece of paper, word documents or an Evernote note, whichever two you feel more comfortable with. But outline those steps and also note if there is any supporting documents that you might need at each step. Going back to our example about testimonials, you might note in parenthesis next to send the client a feedback form. Link to that feedback form or whenever you talk about follow ups or requests there you can easily give example emails that would go out something that you've sent already so many times. So you can just take something that you've done. We don't really need to recreate it or write it newly. And I know that might seem like a lot of work and if you are not a list person that might feel like okay, I don't feel like doing this, so that's okay. But what you can do if writing out step by step is not your thing is record a quick video to show how you do something. Or you can record a quick audio and kind of narrate the steps and have that audio transcribed. You can ask somebody on Fiverr who does transcriptions and they they'll transcribe a 10 minute segment for for $5 for you. And then once you have that transcript you can go and nitpick the the steps from that conversation that you recorded. So there are different ways to actually outline those steps. Don't look for excuses. Pick an activity, break it down into steps and note where you can provide additional information about each step and how you can use it afterwards. First of all, that checklist will help you to make sure that every single item on that list happened. That is very helpful. For example, when you upload blog posts and if you forgot something and then you realize it only once the blog post is published like that, links go open in the same page while you want them to open in another page. If you had that on your checklist, that would not happen. These checklists are also very useful if the process that you outline happens over a period of time. So once, say you're collecting a testimonial from somebody and you sent them request to fill out your feedback form. You can just mark where you are in the process and what happens next that you need to follow up with them if they did not get back to you within the next week, for example. So you will not have to keep all this information into your head. And not keeping all this information in your head will allow you to be more creative, will allow you free time to play with your kids or spend it doing something that you love. And last but not least, when you have checklists like that, you can see how you can start decorating, delegating and having other people help you. Because when it's just single item collected testimonial, how can you delegate it? You can't. There are so many pieces that go into that process. However, if you have a step by step, you can your assistant send your client a request to fill out your feedback form. You can have your assistant follow up with the client to make sure that they actually would fill out that form and send you that feedback. And you don't even need to worry that something will not be done in the way that you want it to be done, because it will be your template that they are using. And as long as they are also checking off those checkboxes on the checklist, you will know that they've done it. So keeping track of where your assistant is with each task will also be so much easier. So if you've not experimented with systems yet, try it. You can see that this is not something that is outside of your reach. All you need to do is document the process like something that you do already, maybe intuitively. And maybe it will be challenging to list every single step. Maybe you will have to come back to this list and add a few steps once you realize that, oh, I also do this, or here, here is the resource that might be helpful. Look at that checklist and make sure that somebody other than you can follow the steps and get the same outcome. That will be a fantastic system. That will be a system that will help not only you, but somebody who you want to help you running your business or helping with individual pieces. So I know that it might sound like a lot and how will that ever look that checklist? That is why I'm going to share with you a bunch of my own checklists. You will have a list, you will have access to a folder with checklists like my onboarding checklists, my web maintenance checklist, checklist for how I upload and format blog posts. And you will see that some of them, like blog post formatting and uploading, it's kind of several processes in one, because it's just like one giant thing, but something like website maintenance. It's a quick checklist and some of the parts are already automated. So all I need to do just keep track that the technology works and everything works. So have a look at my checklists and see how you can adjust them for your own business. Or follow my lead and see how you can outline something that I an example that I don't have there. And here's something kind of bonus points and challenge. I think that it would be fantastic if you outline your process, provided as much information about it as you feel comfortable with and send it back to me. I will add it to this shared folder so that over time this folder grows into a library which of systems systems that different business owners from different industries use. Can you imagine what an amazing resource it will be for us? Because you can always go and look for ideas how structure something that you are only considering testing in your business or what tool somebody uses to create this shortcut for themselves. I'll make sure that I identify what systems those are and what industry they are from so that it's easier to navigate. But I invite you to participate in this challenge because this is something I'm super excited about. Having us first of all be accountable to each other and make sure that okay, I'll create my system and I'll submit it into the library and two, just be of assistance to the rest of our planetum community. I will continue sharing my checklists with you, so I invite you to do the same. So if you need to get in touch with me. NatashaYSTEMstruck.com Ask questions, submit your checklists and I hope to hear from you soon.