How To Scale Your Supplement Business - Case Study

We've noticed that in areas where we're a little bit unsure of how to proceed, we can always fall back onto Systemology. We can reference. Okay, let's go back to the knowledgeable worker. Let's identify the CCF for this, you know, specific scenario.

Hello, it's David Jennings from Systemology, and today I've got a very special treat. We're chatting with the systems champion, Hayley Santos from biooptimizers.com and I do a lot of discussions with business owners and the idea of systems champions come up more and more. And oftentimes it's the difference between businesses that really make systemology and building a systems culture work and those that don't. So today we'll be able to dive into the world of systems champions with Hayley, maybe just to start, if you'd like to tell us a little bit about yourself and a little bit about the company you work for.

Yeah, great. Thank you again for having me online. I started as a systems champion about two and a half years ago with the Bio Optimizers team. And that team was at about 40 people at that time, and now we're at about 150. So the team has grown quite a bit. We are in the health and supplements industry. In my personal life, I really enjoy exercising, working out, pursuing health. So that was, of course, a fantastic fit. But it's been a really interesting journey as a systems champion to help the team identify places that they need systems and why systems are beneficial and remove any fear around systems. So that's been a lot of what I've been focusing on.

Have you always seen yourself as a systems person or was this a role that kind of was morphed into for you?

It was definitely a role that I morphed into, but looking back, I think I've been naturally well suited for it throughout my whole life. Prior to doing this, I was doing environmental research, actually selling ski gear. So very different role. But was interesting for me about this job posting is it had a feature of being, you know, naturally systems oriented, having daily habits, liking to stick to those habits. And I've always been a very habitual person that likes to, you know, do things a certain way. So I think I've always had a natural inclination to do this type of thing, but I didn't have the awareness of that until two and a half years ago.

Yeah, yeah. And when, like, it sounds like the business owner was recruiting for this particular position, sometimes a systems champion is found inside the organization and then they're trained up and Then they take that role. And can you tell us a little bit more about.

Yeah.

Does it sound like. Do you know much about the business owner? Had they read Systemology and said, oh, we want a systems champion, let's go run an ad for that. What happened there?

Yes. So it started with our business owner owner identifying a need of. Okay, I keep hearing about systems, we need them. And then our COO actually read Systemology and said, we need a systems champion. So they started to pursue finding a specific systems champion instead of choosing someone within the existing team. Again, we're at about 40 people then and now we're much larger. So we do start to actually look for what we call specialists within departments and say, okay, I think this is our systems champion within this department. So I think it can be done either way. In my personal spot, it was a hire of a systems champion and I do believe that it is a full time job for one individual, especially as a team is scaling to really have them focus on systems and get to know those. But I think it can go either way. For me it was an intentional hire.

Yeah. And when they recruited, were they looking for any particular characteristics or past experience or did they want a clean slate? And had you had any exposure to systems? I know you said you weren't a systems person necessarily traditionally trained, but yeah. What sort of background, if any, were they looking for?

Yeah, so they were not looking for any experience with systems necessarily. They were looking more for traits in an individual. And again, that was someone who is very habitual, really likes things to go in a certain way. Just naturally systems oriented is I think what they had in the posting that truly resonated with myself. I had very little experience with systems prior to this when I was doing environmental research. We did create some SOPs in terms of how to conduct a certain type of research, but that was about the extent of the experience that I had. And again, they were really just looking for traits opposed to experience at that time.

Yeah. And then when they came on board or they got you on board, how were you then directed to what needs to be done? Did that come from the COO or did they give you a copy of Systemology or where did you start?

I did start with Systemology. That was my first task was to read the book and that was a huge help. It really helped orient exactly what I was there to do. And I worked closely with the COO to identify some good places to start, some individuals to reach out to. I did actually start working with what is mentioned in Systemology. The CCF to try to identify, okay, where, where do things look like they might break? What's going well, you know, who do we have single person key dependencies on? So I started with that, just trying to make sure that if there was one person in a seat doing just that thing, we of course documented that and then started to look at the entire system outlined in the CCF and thought, okay, if something were to break, what would it be, when would it happen and how can we avoid it? So that was where things started in the beginning.

Did you have any background experience with the industry as far as like, in the, like you were in environmental services and the health supplement industry is different. I'm just curious.

Yeah.

If you feel a systems champion needs to have exposure to either business or that particular industry or. Yeah, I don't know if you've got any insights on that.

I think it helps. It would absolutely help. Just having prior context as to what should be going on I think is incredibly useful. Instead of just documenting what is going on. There's also the aspect of what should be going on, especially as teams are looking to scale. I had no prior experience. Again, I like to go to the gym. I use supplements to some extent, but I had no experience on the inside of it. And it is a long, strong learning curve to get up to date with all the things that matter within the health industry or whatever the industry might be. So I would say that someone who has that prior experience would be a fantastic fit. But it's not impossible to have someone who is that clean slate.

One thing we find with the right person and it sounds like you are almost like you'd have to be naturally curious and sometimes not knowing too much about the thing also means you can approach it with fresh eyes and really pragmatically and say, you know, we're not creating a system just for system's sake here. We're creating something that improves the way that we work. I don't know if you have any thoughts on either that or any other traits that, that you think about in yourself that have meant that you were kind of able to excel at the role.

Yeah, I think of trait of mine that I think helped a lot was quick learning speed, just being able to gather information quickly put it to use. Again, if you don't have prior experience, there is a lot of learning to do. So I think someone who can be adaptable like that can help. Someone who likes the precision and detail oriented, being focused on the details, that aspect is great in the systems champion. But also being Adaptable and flexible, I think is important in someone who has that core skill. I think can walk a very fine line of coming into an industry, learning about a particular process or a large scale process, whatever the topic might be. And they can have the curiosity, like you just mentioned. I think that is a fantastic trait to look for. They can have the curiosity to ask some questions of, okay, you know, how does this piece connect to all of these other pieces? But they can also to some extent accept that there are things that work that are the way that they are and they can continue to write the process. I've seen some individuals get very stuck in, you know, missing details. So it's important to be able to accept some aspects that just are and then continue with them, but have some curiosity to ask some questions around it too.

Yeah, one thing it's interesting to think about when the business owner got a systems champion in your business being sort of larger and I think it's put them in a good position where it almost sounds like you become like if we think of the systems area as its own department and you're like the systems champion department head. And then there are other systems champions now working in the different departments because obviously each department has different subtleties and work differently. And it's almost like people can go through this journey where maybe if they're smaller, they might start off with an existing team member and they make this part of their role. As they get a bit bigger, they might have someone dedicated to it. As they get larger again, they start to build it out like a department. Do you have any thoughts on that or when the right time to get a systems champion might be for a business?

Yeah, I'm very biased. I'll say get a system champion from the start, but acknowledging I'm heavily biased there. At our size, we do now actually have a team and we have kind of dedicated individuals. But looking back to the very start of a team, I think if you can start with your core team of it's 5 to 10, however, whatever that team size is really encouraging your team to embrace the cultural value of systems and processes. And getting the team to think in that fashion, I think is a very good way to start. And then exactly what you said, maybe around 10 to 15 people, you've got one or two who are part time starting to document these things that they already have a very good grasp of. It doesn't take too much effort for them to now document these things. It's like you say, it's just recording what you're already Doing, you know, making a formal checklist, it's really not too challenging. I think once you hit 20 people, I might say depending on the type of industry that you're in. Of course we are not a service based industry so it might be a little bit different if, you know, 15 of your 20 are all doing one role. Might be a little bit different, but I would say around 20, start looking for a dedicated systems person who can really be there from the ground up with the team and they'll be able to get incredibly in depth with the team, the individuals, the workings of the team to figure out what exactly is going on and those people can actually help kind of research solutions for problems that start to come up as a, as a company scales. Of course there are issues that come up. So I think having a systems champion who knows exactly what's going on can see where the pain points are, that person can actually help resource how to grow, which I think is a fantastic perspective.

Are you guys a virtual team or are you in an office?

We are fully virtual online.

Yeah. I definitely find virtual teams in particular really benefit from systems and process because it kind of helps smooth out the communication and setting expectations and things like that when you're not sitting right next to each other.

Yes, absolutely. I'd say our team has relied a lot on systems and specifically our communication system that I developed within the past year. Having a streamlined communication system from the start I think is larger than anything else, I'll be completely honest. Especially being in a remote world, you know, wi fi can go down, a natural disaster can happen. Hopefully it doesn't. But having everything documented very well really helps our team be able to lean on one another when something is going on. As you know, we're all people, things, things happen in life and it's made it a lot easier as people come and go or role shift. Everything is already documented, it's very simple, it's all online, it's all in one library. Everyone knows where to find it. So yeah, being remote has, having systems has been just huge for us. Again, I'm biased but yeah, you and me both.

What are some of the challenges? Especially you know, there's going to be certain challenges as you're scaling as you're virtual. Even just getting team to adopt systems mindset especially, I mean you guys were already quite established, you had a good sized team so people are going to be already doing things a certain way. I don't know.

Yeah.

If you kind of look back over the last few years around some of those hurdles You've had to try and navigate through and if you can identify what they are and maybe even some of the things that you did to overcome them.

Yeah, definitely some challenges with growing as there always are. I think some of the initial challenges that I faced being someone, again, dedicated to this specific role. There were a lot of people who felt maybe a little bit, you know, uncomfortable with someone starting to shine some light on exactly what they were doing. Again, in the situation of keeping dependencies where there's one person doing one thing, they can sometimes relate that to their job security. So it's establishing a very supportive presence within the team. I found help with that just to say, I'm here to help you. I'm not here to take your role away from you. So building a really good relationship with the team and being there to support them, I think was a really good thing to start off with and definitely a challenge. Just people can be afraid of shining light in places that haven't been identified before. I think some of the other challenges that we faced was a perception that systems and creativity cannot go hand in hand. You can have one or the other, which is definitely not the case. So in the realm of, you know, take marketing, for example. We've got a very creative marketing team. They are fantastic for that reason. But we said, okay, let's start to put some systems around how we market. So, you know, templates, SOPs, best practices, you know, when and where we put out ads or videos. And there was some resistance of, you know, if we have templates, then we can't do whatever we want it said. And we said, you know, work through it together, saying, you know, with these templates, we already know we've done these things and they're great, we like them. That's on brand for us. And now we don't make mistakes that maybe we made in the past. So it's helping direct our team a little bit more and say, let's take the skills that you have and bring them to the next level instead of that person spending time doing things that maybe they did a year ago that they hadn't thought about. So I think those were the two biggest challenges. Just a little bit of fear and then just, you know, fear around position and then people being afraid that systems and creativity cannot go hand in hand when they can.

Is there anything that you wish you knew about the systems champion role before you took it? Like. Like that? Some advice, like, let's say a systems champion is watching this right now, or they don't even know if they're a systems champion yet, or they're thinking about it, or they're not quite sure. Is there any things that you wish you knew before you started?

That's a challenging question. I think the role was not very well defined when I first started being the first individual. I wouldn't change anything about that. However, I would say if there was someone who were interested in being a systems champion, be open to learning, I think would be something I would highlight. I knew there would be some, you know, learning curve as we talked about earlier, but maybe just they can be a really long learning curve. You do need to know what every team does their best practices, the team members, how everything connects together. I'd say the. The learning curve I underestimated for sure.

Yes. Yeah. And it feels like it never ends as well. Like I. I feel like you mentioned earlier one of those traits to be fast learner because you're always learning about new team members, new roles, new problems in the business. Like you're involved in solving problems and having permanent change. This particular role, it's not something that's very well spoken about and it's definitely an area that I want to really bring front and center. Could you imagine, like, where the business would be if they didn't have this role in place? Like, I know you've had some significant wins and we're seeing the growth there, but yeah, I don't know if there's anything that you can speak to around the importance of the position as a systems champion.

Yeah, I think having someone dedicated to this is very important because what I saw with our team before I was around is, you know, our business owner started to say, let's focus on systems. And people weren't quite sure what that meant. They weren't sure how to do it. And in a growing company, everyone's got very high priorities. There's always something urgent to work on. So documenting systems definitely falls to the side. I will say I've noticed that one. So having a dedicated individual can be really essential to have someone who is making sure that things are documented, they're made up to date, they're stored in a proper location so that those things are always there. Those SOPs are always in one spot. So if someone leaves or if roles change, that's already all captured. Think of it as a safety net for the company to have all of these things previously captured.

Yes, yeah, yeah. Just in the tail end. I, I mean, I've recognized that building effective systems is the master skill of business because effectively, it touches every aspect of the business, it's about codifying best practice and setting the standards so the team can follow it. So I've realized, hey, this is a huge leverage point that is under focused a lot oftentimes because a lot of business owners don't see themselves as systems people. And the systems champion really becomes the yin to the business owners Yang, as in they help to really drive this forward and make it happen. A lot of the work that we do, like we've built up now the business Systems Accelerator, which is like the world's first training and community for systems champions. I'm wondering if you can speak to a little bit about like just Systemology. You know, you've obviously read the book and involved in seeing the videos that come out in the YouTube channel and engaging as well. I'm just wondering, yeah, if you can speak to a little bit about the work that we do and kind of how it's helped guide and shape the work that you do.

Yeah, Systemology was the inspiration for my role entirely. And as I mentioned before, there was not a lot of guidance when I came in. Systemology was the guiding light for the systems champion role in this team. And I actually have a growing team now as well. We've got three other systems champions and they all read the book and it's been their guiding light. And we've noticed that in areas where we're a little bit unsure of how to proceed, we can always fall back onto Systemology. We can reference. Okay, let's go back to the knowledgeable worker. Let's identify the CCF for this, you know, specific scenario. And yeah, it, it really has been the guiding light. And we all subscribe to the videos, to the emails, and we, you know, keep up on them. Your videos are actually topics of conversation for our team. So we continually embrace the content that you guys are putting out and it continues to be guiding light for our team, what we do. And in areas of confusion, we always go back to the basics of Systemology. This is where we started. It worked. You know, we now have a team opposed to one person and we've helped our company scale, choose softwares, adopt those softwares, train the team on softwares, all because of Systemology. So. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you taking the time and sharing some insight. I think a lot of business owners will be thinking, where do I find my Hayley? They need to find their Systems Champion. Every business needs them. Yeah. Just want to say a big thank you to you, Hayley, for your time. And if people are looking for a Systems driven supplement business. I'll put a link. It's biooptimizers.com to find out more about what they do. And again, thank you for your time. Hayley.

Yeah, thank you as well. I really appreciate it and looking forward to we have more content in the future. Always regarding life.