Layla argues that software is just a tool within a larger system, not the system itself. Business success depends on interconnected processes and human decisions, not on picking the right app like ClickUp.
Hey, my name's Layla and over the past year I have been ved as the ClickUp person on YouTube, which, may I say is such an honor. Thank you so much. To be honest, becoming the ClickUp guru kind of surprised me. Not because I didn't put a lot of work into becoming known for that, but because to me and the way I teach ClickUp, I always try to emphasize the fact that ClickUp doesn't really matter. I mean, it matters a little bit, right? Like it is an amazing tool, it makes our work easier. Obviously my ears to the ground in terms of what might be happening in that software, but it's not as important as we might think, namely because a system isn't a software. And that's what I'm going to be ranting about for this entire video. So stick with me. The fact of the matter is if ClickUp raises another round of funding or becomes a total enterprise tool and doesn't care about small business anymore, which for the record, I don't think will happen, but if it did, we'd be fine. Because what makes our businesses run and what makes a small business successful is not the software that we use, it's the actual skill we bring to it. A system is not a software. So what is a system? Well, a system is how a bunch of different processes work together. Meaning all the little things you do, the way you do things, when you put them all together at the macro view, that is your system. Your business is a network of systems, things that work together to make it all work all right. And yes, ClickUp can be a conduit. It helps those systems work more smoothly, but it's not the thing that's making your business successful. Every software that we use is a collection of sub processes and design choices and support staff's decisions all bottled together into one cohesive system that you are buying as a service. Hence software as a service. It's all kind of bundled together on an ongoing package because you are paying for their collection of systems that they've put together. When we use software in our business, we're taking a collection of systems built by somebody else and plugging it into our overarching system, which is our business system, and hoping it all helps everything work together. By using a pre made software and plugging it into our business, we're avoiding having to create something from scratch. Can you imagine how expensive it would be if you and I needed to invent our own versions of ClickUp just to get this kind of project management? Yeah, it'd be Crazy. Let alone trying to invent email so we could send messages to people. We don't have time to do that. We don't have the skills to do that. And that's why we end up renting that intellectual property from other people. Which is where again, software as a service. We are renting that service and plopping it into our business. As we cobble together software and people and skills and inspiration, we are building our own leviathan, our own business, our own entity, our own system. But to state the obvious, each individual cog in the machine of our business is not our business. It is a tool in our toolbox that builds our business. It is a brick in the foundation of our business. But it is not our business. If ClickUp goes away, we would replace it with, with something else. If Gmail goes away, we'd replace it with something else. If the Internet went away, we'd replace it with something else. As small service businesses, we're using software in the same way a manufacturing business might buy a screw, right? They don't invent their own patent for a screw. They just go buy a screw and install it into the thing that they're building. The same way you and I don't go out and invent email. No, we, we rent email or we buy email and we use that as one little tool inside the toolbox of making our business system function more efficiently. Just like a painter might take colors seen before, but present them in a way that makes you think you've never seen them before. Or just like a musician might take a series of chords, change the tempo a little bit and make you feel like it's a different song. In that same way, we as business owners are charged with taking pre made structures, software, systems framework, strategy, copy, cobbling them together into something that somehow feels new or different or insightful or energizing or exciting or something. And that, that is, is what business is. That is what process is. That is what the overall system of our business is. It is how we created something from these pre made parts into something that really feels special, unique, and of course accomplishes our ultimate job, which is either creating impact, creating opportunity, creating profit, or creating a little bit of all of the above to build a system that actually serves its purpose. So that's why when I see people describe systems as software and use those words interchangeably, I get kind of upset. And that is kind of the purpose of this video. My, my rant video here is because all too often I see us using the word system and software interchangeably. But if I were to use the word paint and painting interchangeably, I think artists would be pretty offended. If I were to use the word note and song interchangeably, you'd look at me pretty confused. In the same way software is a note in the song we are creating in the systems, and they are not in any way the same thing, the same complexity or the same level of importance. Business is my favorite form of art, and I have a feeling many of you agree. And if we start to see business as what it really is, which is the orchestration of all of these parts, and stop calling it some kind of cookie cutter framework that we can just copy and paste or buy our way into, then maybe we'd all start to really see it for what it is as a functional form of self expression, change making, and of world shaping and potentially, who knows, even a force for good. Maybe a software is an ingredient, it's a tool. But the system that we build, reflecting all of the intentional decisions and the design choices and the human choices and the everything else we put into our business, that, that is so much more. That is why I end every video the way I'm going to end this video, which is to all of you, please, business owners, business leaders, team leaders, creatives, creators, enjoy the process.
