The Team Systems That Help You Scale Without Doing Everything Yourself with Lia Garvin

We think as a leader we have to do everything and it's all on our shoulders, and then we become our own bottleneck and we're not making the money we want to and we're not getting our message out there. And that's what I do is like, I help you identify exactly what's getting in your way and how you take your team from something that's just costing you money to something that's making you money.

It doesn't all fringe on you anymore.

Yes.

I want you to take this massive sigh of relief knowing that if you can nail this and if you can get this, there is gonna be so much pressure Relieved around you having to consistently be the driver of everything in your life. Leah, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me on. I am so excited to be here.

Oh no, this is gonna be such a fun conversation because You know, Chris and I have gotten to work with you in so many different ways. We've seen your magic. We've seen you in your magic. We get to see you in our mastermind. And something that's so cool about that is you are the team whisperer. Like, that is your magic. We're going to talk about what exactly that all means. And I'll tell you that in the rooms of 7 and 8-figure earners, which you're in there to also work on your business, but we also watch you get incredible clients. Yeah. And we watch how much you help us having you in the rooms. Meaning, you know, there are things that Chris and I are not experts on with helping people really build out these like unstoppable, insane teams that truly are the things that scale businesses. Like, as founders, we love to think it's ourselves, but we actually know, I actually know it's the team that I have around me who are the ones who are making my business grow the best. And I think that this is such an overlooked piece of the pie. And, you know, the fact that we get to have you in these rooms and watch how every single year your name is said over and over by the person who really helped them the most in the room because they were struggling so much with their team or didn't know where— they weren't aware of their leadership and how that was bottlenecking them. And so when people talk about scaling, I think this is one of the most overlooked conversations. That's the most important conversation. So if you guys want to know what a team whisperer is, you're going to want to sit tight on this conversation because it doesn't all fringe on you anymore.

Yes.

I want you to take this massive sigh of relief knowing that if you can nail this and if you can get this, there is going to be so much pressure relieved around you having to consistently be the driver of everything in your life. So Leah, again, excited to have you here.

Love it.

I mean, I can't do that in front of myself, so thank you. So you've worked in insane companies. You tell, tell us some of the companies because I know that there's, there's so many.

Yeah, so I came from big tech. I worked at Microsoft, then I worked at Apple, then I worked at Google. And in those roles, I wasn't an engineer, so I didn't come from an engineering background. So that's a tough situation, right? Being a woman in tech, a non-engineer. And I think why I love working with teams so much is when you come from sort of a different professional background, you have to figure out, well, what is your place? How do you add value? I can't get in a computer debate with like an engineering manager, but I can look around and see, hey, we have the smartest people in the world. They're getting paid the best. They wanna be here. Why are projects late? Why aren't things getting done? Why are people frustrated? Why are they feeling unmotivated? And in these companies working on things from launching the iPhone X when they removed the home button, real controversial launch there.

Oh my God, that's funny. Yeah.

Yeah. To YouTube Shorts and augmented reality products. All of these teams where they're trying to solve really hard problems, they have all the right pieces, But like, there's still disconnects. And so I got super passionate about, you know, how do we get people on the same page so they can do these really hard things? How do we get leaders the right language to motivate people? Because pay isn't always enough, right?

Totally.

And so that's what I was doing within Google and Apple and Microsoft, really helping, you know, ensure these products were getting shipped. But knowing that it's not just like getting people in a room and thinking they're going to work itself out, right? It's a whole different thing. And in doing that, I got passionate around, well, how could I help teams of all types and businesses of all sizes? And so 4 years ago, that's why I left Google was I said, hey, I love helping people kind of bring out the best in their teams and their work. And a lot of that comes down to just kind of really simple shifts and that makes it easier. And I love what you said in the intro is like, We think as a leader we have to do everything and it's all on our shoulders, and then we become our own bottleneck and we're not making the money we want to and we're not like getting our message out there. And that's what I do is like, I help you identify exactly what's getting in your way and how you take your team from something that's just costing you money to something that's making you money. And that shift is where like literally you can do anything. Okay.

But that is so intense for you to be able to walk in and be like, let me tell you everything you're doing wrong. Like, really, that's who you had to be as a woman in these companies that are male dominated. So first of all, I want to— I kind of want to start the conversation of like the fact that you started in such an intimidating industry may not have been for you, but I want to hear like the whole experience there because that alone actually makes me feel so anxious of, you know, I predominantly have worked with women my whole career.

Yeah.

Just the thought of working in something that, number one, I have no clue about. So being in a tech industry, but being someone that I need to get their attention and be like, take me serious.

Yeah.

And let me tell you what you're doing wrong. What was going on in your head when you first had to start doing that?

So my first day at Microsoft, there's an employee onboarding. You go there for half the day and I sat down at a table and a guy sits down next to me, another person just starting. And he looks at me and goes, let me guess, marketing or HR? And I was like, what? I don't know what you mean. And I literally This was the first time I had dealt with someone just looking at me and saying, like, you don't belong here.

Yeah.

Literally. And because it was my first role in tech and I hadn't yet, like, I didn't even know what I should feel imposter about.

Right.

What do you mean? What do you mean? I don't do that. And I was like, wait a second, this person thinks I don't fit here. And I— that kind of like created this like imposed imposter syndrome that I started feeling walking in every meeting and feeling like Oh, I don't understand the technical side of this, or I don't know what this person's talking about, or should I study all night to learn what they mean? And it kind of created this question that I had over and over of, well, how do I add value? And at first I was, I was taking notes in every meeting and reading them after and trying to be like, okay, now I can have this debate about should this product—

You're going to be an engineer overnight.

Yeah, overnight at a Google? Really? No.

Right?

But we get in our head of like, okay, if I could just study more.

I need to be different. I need to be different.

Right. And then I remember it so well because I would sit down with folks and because I didn't understand, I didn't have that background, I'd say, well, Lori, talk me through what's hard about your work or where are you getting stuck? And you might say something like, oh, well, my manager said this was the most important thing to do, but then this other person asked me and I don't know what to do first. Like, I don't know where to start. And so I've just kind of been sitting here for a few hours not really doing anything. And I'm like, oh, well, okay, what if we looked at it this way? And I started sitting down with people and asking them where they were getting stuck.

Hmm.

And figuring out, oh, wait a second. Okay, so we have people didn't really get the decision that came out of that meeting, or these 2 priorities aren't the same, or this person thinks they have the same job as this other person and they're both working on the same thing.

Yeah.

And I started to notice these patterns. And then I would ask questions when some project was stuck or something wasn't getting done saying, hey, this decision wasn't really clear. What if we make that more clear for someone? Or these 2 people think, Sarah thinks this is the priority and Joe thinks is the priority and you're saying it's something else. Maybe we should get on the same page over here.

Yeah.

And so I started to raise these people-related issues that weren't like HR compliance things. It was like getting things done issues.

Yes.

And then as I was doing that, people were like, hey, she's got a point over there. Right? And it started— I started to say, wait, okay, so I actually am seeing something others aren't. And this is like the team whisper, sort of how that came to be was I could look at a dynamic and say, okay, this leader over here thinks this is why people aren't getting things done, but the team is actually confused over here. And I would bridge that communication. And it was, I think it was born out of a survival of like, well, I gotta figure out how to keep this job and add value. And then it started to be this superpower that I kept really expanding on.

How did you bring that to people? Were you just like, hey, I've been asking some— how did you bring this to like the higher-ups?

Yeah, so it's a great question because like you said, you can't just come in there and be like, here's what's wrong with everything.

Yeah, exactly. They don't like to hear that. Go figure.

Thank you. Right. So the way was really through kind of open-ended questions, through saying, hey, I know we have the same goals here. This is what I'm hearing. This is what I'm seeing. What do we want to do about it? And really kind of surfacing what's going on, not even really layering my own analysis on it because maybe I don't have all the information.

Yeah.

Right? So I'm not gonna say, well, Joe hates his job over here.

Yeah.

And you're mean, but sort of how do I bring the walls down?

Yeah.

And knowing that in a situation where I'm a little bit on the back foot, because someone could say, well, it's because you don't understand the technical details, that's why.

Right.

So it was like, Hey, if we want to get this done and these people don't know what the decision is, how are we going to get that to them?

Right.

Is that something I can help with? So it was a little bit of surfacing it in a very, here's the data, using, okay, here's the facts. And then what if we tried this? Or can I help by relaying this information or sitting down with this person and explaining it? So I'd say, Open-ended questions and then offering value and not accusing folks and not saying it's wrong, but pointing back to, if we want to do this and this is getting in the way, we could try XYZ. What do you think?

Yeah, it's so crazy because you really created your own position.

Yeah, literally.

So even from— because there are different people who listen to this, entrepreneurs, want to be entrepreneurs, corporate people, anyone who wants to be doing something more. The people who sit in that chair across from me, who get interviewed because they're successful and people are like, wow, they're really great at what they do.

Yeah.

Just like you have kind of figured these things out by going, okay, how could this work for me? What's my zone of genius? And even though my boss or this person is not asking me to do this, how can I go show them that there's something really missing here? And so how did you continue to show up? And one day did you go, okay, well, this is what I'm doing now, or how did that it turned into what you moved on doing?

Totally. Well, like you're saying, I mean, as, as it started to help things move faster, then people would bring me on for that. So they'd be like, hey, Leah, like, we need you in this team to go help figure this out. So I started working on, um, in, in Bing, like the search engine at, at Microsoft. And then on HoloLens was a new project they had. They were making the AR headset and they said, We've got a team that we have the right people, but stuff aren't— things aren't getting done. Like everyone's confused. Like, Leah, can you help figure this out? And so I got a name for myself inside of these companies as someone that could kind of see the pieces and make these small shifts that would help kind of open the floodgates to stuff getting done. And it was interesting because I saw the same challenges show up the exact same way at Microsoft. Then at Apple, then again at Google, and I was like, "This is wait a second." Just you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Over and over and over. Yeah. Of people like that there's a small disconnect in understanding either what you're supposed to do or how to get something done or what you know the decision is what the priority like and when people have that clarity, okay now they're able to. sort of, again, unleash whatever their full potential is. I think the other piece that I started to see as I was doing this more and more was how much people are blaming. It's either the managers or the teams or the leadership. And what my belief was and what I started to implement was it's kind of like all of that and none of it. And so in order to not have villains here, It's the systems. It's the small repeatable actions that we, if we set up and make clear, all the little emotional or subjective things kind of go away. So if—

Because you have something to finally measure against.

Exactly. Yeah. And you aren't just winging it and you're not reinventing the wheel and you're not having— sometimes your meetings are 30 minutes and sometimes they're 3 hours.

Yeah. My worst nightmare.

Right? So, and that's the other piece that I think really helped me sort of have a methodology around what I did.

Mm.

And then within Google working on AR and then YouTube Shorts and then a number of other teams, I could say, hey, we have these really high stakes moments, really high visibility projects and teams. We can't afford to not be on the same page.

Mm.

We can't afford to move slowly. These are, and right now I think especially with AI, every freaking company out there is trying to keep up with AI. We gotta figure out how to move faster.

Yeah, totally.

And so that's where figuring out, okay, what's going on? Why are people moving slower? And then surgically removing those obstacles. That's what I've been really focused on.

It's so interesting 'cause when you say that, all I can think of is in order for a team to move forward or a project to move forward, You need anywhere from 2 to 20 to 1,000 different types of personalities and skill sets.

Yeah.

And when you put that all together, it leaves so much room for error. And I love that you literally were like, okay, the only way to really work with these people is to tell them it's the systems, not them.

So then—

but it's so valuable because if we all have a system, we can, like you said, take emotion out of it. And I see this all the time, and ladies are going to hate this, but especially in female-run companies because it's so emotional.

Yeah.

And there's so many different things and so many different experiences working with a bunch of women, and they should have just known that I felt this way, or they should have done it like this or said it like this. And I think giving us these very clear systems to measure against is a huge way to keep everything cohesive. So let's talk about that. But first, I want to know, What made you leave there? And then we're going to get into systems. Okay. So I need to talk about something I get asked constantly. And it actually takes me back to when I first had the idea for my company, Glossy. One of the very first decisions I had to make before I even had the product in hand was what platform we were going to even host the store on. And so many people from other founders that I completely trust kept telling me the same thing for completely different reasons. And that was to use Shopify. Shopify. So if you've been sitting on a business idea, Shopify makes it easy to make it happen because everything you need to start selling is included and ready from day one. So when Glossy actually launched, I understood exactly why everyone kept pointing me there, because here's what I wish someone had told me is the second a customer is ready to buy, that's not the moment to make them work for it at all in any way. And Shopify's checkout for Glossy is so smooth. And once someone's ordered once, Their info is already saved. So the next time they want to go and check out again, that alone keeps people from bailing right at the finish line. So honestly, the bigger shift for me was on the growth side. Shopify handles the setup in the backend for Glossy. So I actually have time to focus on growing the brand instead of fixing tech problems at midnight. And that's time back in my life with people I actually love instead of buried in the backend of my own site. So with Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and real business. So you guys go make it one. And if you're ready to stop putting off your business and start hearing cha-ching, then you are ready for Shopify. Start your free trial at shopify.com/happy today. You heard that right. Start your free trial today at shopify.com/happy. That's shopify.com/happy.

Yeah, I mean, you kind of called it out. I was, I would say, doing my core job, which is like shipping these products. And then I had this second side hustle internally of like fixing all the team stuff.

Yeah.

And I think after a while I was like, I kind of just wanna fix the team stuff. And I was really passionate about that. But inside of tech, and I think inside of big companies, it's either you're going down an HR path, which is really not my background. It's not about compliance and it's not about kind of like—

Totally.

Sort of like the firing people.

Yeah.

Like really integral in like the operations side. And so I thought to myself, well, I'm kind of at this crossroads and also I love trying this on all different kinds of teams. What would it look like to, you know, help teams from the outside in? And it was hard choice because I was at Google, I was doing well there. It's a great, you know, great paying job, great company.

Exactly.

And I took a leap. I said, you know, I'm always going to wonder what if. I'm always going to wonder, could I have done this? You know, should I have left and should I have tried this? And so I was getting a little bit of interest in doing consulting work on outside. I started to see the line of sight. And then as I was interested in that, my, my job started really picking up and I had no time for this kind of building out the side thing. And I said, this is literally the moment I'm going to have to decide.

Yeah.

Like, am I going to, you know, Kind of like, you know, jump or not. And I— so I left 4 years ago this summer, and right away I actually joined a, like, a small mastermind. And first out of the gate, I was planning on just doing trainings and workshops and coaching for, like, corporate teams.

Corporate teams.

Yeah. Okay. And in this mastermind, I was talking about, you know, I teach people how to give feedback and, you know, delegate and different things. And the other business owners were like, I need that. Yeah. I don't know what— like, we need all the things.

So the people in the mastermind.

Yeah. Yeah.

I'm telling you, this is why masterminds are magical, especially for certain types of people. Yeah.

They were like, wait, why are you doing that for corporate teams that fucking have all this already? I started a business, I hired 80 people and no one will talk to me. Yeah. Totally. Or like, I don't want to be the bad guy. I don't know how to give feedback. I'm trying to be the mama bear and then helping everyone and now I have like, You know all these problems. Like what is this? And so really quickly I saw wait a second, all of these things I could either like reinforce them for teams that have these structures in place, or I could share this with business owners entrepreneurs that maybe have never heard of it or are really struggling with things like you mentioned. Yeah, you have a team member and they're. You know, they're coming in late, 15 minutes late every day. They are rushing in the door. They say there's traffic or construction, but they have an iced coffee and you can really tell that they stopped. And like, at first it's okay, but then it's disruptive. And now they're throwing off the morning and now they're doing that again. And you're like, well, I don't want to be mean. I don't want to be a micromanager, but like, how do I have this conversation? That's the stuff we're dealing with every single day.

Mm-hmm.

Or I asked you to do something and you said, yeah, it's on my list, I've got it. And then the thing didn't get done when I said, and I'm wondering, do I ask you about it? Do I let it go? This second guessing that we have as a business owner.

So much resentment.

Exactly.

And energy drains from that.

Yeah.

And imagine if you were completely free of that because you've found—

Exactly.

Like you created a culture as well, which I think is huge. What you do is you create this culture that it's like, you know, when you're straying from it.

Yeah, exactly.

And the conversations get a lot easier. So let's talk about, um, what do you think is one of the most misunderstood things that business owners, uh, think about systems?

I think it's a belief that you have to have a big team or be like way far along in your business. Like we're thinking systems means I'm turning it into a massive corporation.

Got it.

Right?

Yeah.

So we think, okay, I'll do that once I have 10 people, or I'll do that when I've reached a certain milestone. But if, like we said, if systems are just like the repeatable things you do to have a consistent client experience or to deliver your service in a certain way, we should really have them day one, right? Like, hey, if I am a business coach, And I want to make sure that every single one of my clients is on board in the same way, and I make sure I understand their problem, and they go through my program in a certain way. To do that consistently is systems, right? If you're running a med spa and you want to make sure every time someone comes in they're rebooking or they're coming back, the like the conversation you have with your team around what should we talk about rebooking—that is a system. system, right? If you have a gym and you have personal trainers that are supposed to be meeting people more than just one time, right?

Yeah.

Like the signing people up for a membership or package, that's a system. And so I think the misconception is that I have to have this big company or massive team in order to figure this stuff out. And the truth is, solopreneur all the way to corporation, like you need these things in order to be able to actually be running a business. And not just have this thing that sometimes people come to you for.

Yeah. And the perfect time is right now.

Yeah, literally.

Because, yeah, especially if you're listening, you're more at the beginning. You're lucky if you are far in. Don't worry, you're not too late. Yeah. Because it does take time. Yeah, it can really take some time. And it can, you know, people might be listening and have a lot of anxiety around like, oh my God, I'm already so busy. Yeah. And I know that integrating and creating systems is going to be a big lift. So what would you say there for someone who's like, I'm in deep, man. I don't know. Should I start with a small system? What does this look like?

I'm so glad you asked because I think that's the second misconception, that it takes a lot of time. It actually doesn't. And what I do with businesses is I start removing the steps that take time. Right. And so let's say I sat down with you and you said, oh my God, like, how am I supposed to build any systems? I'm in meetings all week. I'm in all these things.

Exactly.

And then you have a team of 8 people. We would start and say, okay, well, what meetings could you not be at? What meetings could maybe a team member or a person like that you have that you could train them? Maybe they can't take on all the meetings tomorrow. But is there someone that you see has potential to be able to take that on? And then that would be an example of like, hey, how can we start to pull you out of the weeds in certain different places? Let's say everyone's coming to you for every single decision. You kick off a project and everyone's like off and running and it seems like it's going well, but then you have a team member that's like, hey, I just wanted to run this by you. I just wanted to run this by you. I just want to run this by you. And now it's like 50% of the stuff that they're doing, you have to be the sign-off.

Yeah.

Now you can't walk away from your phone for more than 2 hours because they might need to run something by you and you don't wanna be the blocker. That's where we would put a system in. And so it, again, it doesn't mean like changing your whole business overnight.

Mm-hmm.

But by identifying the places that you are, I would say, involved the most deeply in your business, in starting to plug that hole with something like, hey, For the decisions thing, Lori makes the decisions on XYZ. When it's this type of decision, you make the decision. If the client calls for this thing, now come to me and you spell it out really clearly. That system can take like 5 minutes to build, literally.

Yeah.

Right. And so that's how we start to do it is say, okay, what would you need to be true in order to stop making that decision? Well, you'd need to know your team member either thinks the way you do.

Yeah.

Or would deal with a crisis in the same way. And the system is like how we spell that out so that they can do that. And again, it's just a handful of conversations. So it's, it's not about overhauling everything. It's, it's just setting this clear, like, okay, here's what we do when this happens. Here's what we do when we're not. And you don't have to be like, okay, I'm out of here. Right? And then we let folks kind of take on more and more and more until you feel like, yeah, I'm really pulled out of the weeds. I can focus over here.

I think what people don't get is that as a business owner, they think they have to touch everything. Yeah. And one of the biggest things about having someone like you is the, the massive amount of permission to say, just so you know, like if you were working at Google, this would not fly. They would look at this as beginner stuff. Yeah. Like the fact that you think you have to be here, here, here, and here is actually not how a true entrepreneur thinks.

Yeah.

And so I'm not saying that to make anyone feel stupid. I'm saying it to give you permission to go, oh, I thought that my team would look at me differently if I wasn't in this anymore. Where what happens is you end up empowering your team so much, they like their job more because now they can own something from start to finish rather than constantly feeling like, I do this job, but it's like I'm in it, but I'm not, and I need permission for all these things. And yeah, Nothing feels better than knowing someone owned a project, seeing it, loving it. You weren't a part of it. You're like, oh my God, you appreciate them more. They appreciate you. They appreciate the freedom. And so I think something that you do when you go and work with people is it's like this, again, a massive sigh of relief around, oh, I actually didn't know that this is how other people were operating. No wonder they can get more things done.

Exactly. And it's a Huge money saver, right? Because think about like your kind of personal hourly rate, what you could be doing if you had that time freed up.

Exactly.

Right? Let's say it could be, you know, $500 to like $1,500 an hour. Like if you were like utilizing your time in its best way. Now you're in here approving social media copy, double-checking this email. You're like literally pulling money away from what you could be, you know, reinvesting into your business. or serving clients. And so the more we do this, like my clients typically within 30 days have like been able to extract like $15,000 right away off the top that they were spending in the wrong place. You know, spending, we said 3 hours in a meeting that could have been 30 minutes, right? Looking at maybe I didn't have to be in some of these meetings at all.

Yeah.

2 people working on the same thing and then you double checking all of that work, right? So it's not only liberating for you, it's not only empowering for your team, it really is about the bottom line. Because the more you are in kind of in the weeds, the less you can grow and scale. And I think a lot of times, like you said, we, we don't want to do this because we say, well, I don't, I don't even have 5 minutes to like eat lunch, let alone how am I supposed to like delegate all my work? I can't do that. That's impossible. And so we keep doing it because the truth is it sort of is faster to do it yourself, like until someone knows how to do it, right? Like just calling it out. It is faster for you to do it your way. But if you invest 20 minutes in explaining it to someone, sitting down, seeing how they're going to do it, going, oh wait, this is kind of almost there, but not quite getting them dialed in. Now that 20 minutes every single day you've gotten back and you— it's— it has like an exponential effect. So I think with anything, we can believe we don't have time, whether it's delegating or exercising or whatever it is, right? But I know you talk a lot about, um, on the show, habit stacking or doing things at the same time, or like—

Mm-hmm.

It's sort of in, in essence like that, where we understand that the, that the upside is like just around the corner. Like we— and it's worth investing that.

It's so worth it. Yeah. Because the little— again, it's going to go back to this like resentment bank that is constantly withdrawing from your mind and you don't realize it till you— one thing you guys should start doing right now is look at how much you feel annoyed at doing certain things or the fact that someone's doing something a certain way and you haven't implemented something. And I guarantee you're draining so much energy. Yeah. And creative energy does not like resentful energy, and big money energy does not like resentful, wasteful energy. And so it's very much like how you feel in your business really matters.

Yeah, it's so true. And I think one, one example of that is waking up in the middle of the night wondering, oh my God, did that client email go out? Did that person finish that project? And you're sitting there thinking, I actually have no idea if people are working on the right things, what they're doing. And you don't wanna ask them because you don't wanna be a micromanager. And you think to yourself, how do I not know what's going on in my business? I should know this. Now you're being—

And then now you feel bad, right?

Yeah. And after folks were asking me that all the time of like, I don't know if people are working on the right things. And it was again and again and again. And the answer wasn't just to ask them a million times, right? It wasn't to then become a micromanager. And actually, after being asked this so many times, I built this tool called Snippets.

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Where at the end of each week, team members, it started off as a Google Doc and now I built it into an app. It's like, hey, send me 3 things, your top wins for the week, places you were stuck and you need my help, and then priorities for next week. Now, the framing for this was the magic. Because we want our team members to feel appreciated and recognized, not micromanaged, right? Yeah. And so, hey, share your wins. I want to be able to congratulate you. I want to be able to promote you when it's time. We also don't want our team members sitting on some problem because they didn't want to bother us. How many of us have that happen? Like, they're like, well, you seem busy. I didn't want to bother you.

This is a big deal to me. Bother me?

Yeah. It's like, yeah, how, you know? And so we give them space and then priorities for next week. We say, hey, I want to make sure that you know what to be working on. You're moving the needle. You feel really like you can be owning this without asking me. And so this snippets tool was the answer to so many different problems of like, I don't know what my team's working on. People feel undervalued and unappreciated. They're sitting on problems. No one's telling me.

Hmm.

Like this. This is an example of a super simple system That takes people 2 minutes to fill out on a Friday. They send that in. Now you have full visibility and everybody wins, right? And so that's what I mean by it doesn't take years to implement, weeks. It's like, hey, what if we just had an easy way to know what people are working on? Like XYZ. And that's an example of how simple it can be.

Yeah. Is there a common problem that you just see repeated over and over in businesses that you're like, Oh my God, if I could just solve this for you guys.

Yeah, I think it's this— well, delegating would be first. We talked about that feeling like it's a time thing when it's really, you know, do I— I don't know if I trust my team yet, or I don't even know if I trust myself to know what I'm handing off.

Man, tell me about that.

Yeah, I think a lot of times we are so used to doing the thing, we're so used to Like, let's say we're struggling with handing off, you know, content stuff. We're so used to how we think it's in our mind or coming with ideas on the spot. We don't really know how to explain it to somebody else. Right? Or let's say we are a coach and we feel like our clients come for us. You know, like I don't know if they're gonna go to a team member if I say I have this other coach or this other expert, or happens a lot with my med spa clients. Like they built this business around them being the best and now they're trying to have other providers and they're like, I don't want her, you know, I want you.

Now you put a ceiling on yourself.

Exactly. So we don't necessarily trust that we ourselves to kind of be able to hand something off or that our team is ready. And I think that's one of the biggest traps that we fall into. Another is Avoiding the hard conversation.

Oh yeah.

It's like, oh yeah, you know, nobody wants to be the bad guy. No one wants to be mean. No one wants to be the boss that's always breathing down your neck. But I think when, when we let challenges go on and on and on, they don't go away. And one of the biggest lessons I've seen is most issues in teams in companies, they're not some explosion, they're not some huge conflict. It's actually a conversation that just kind of got kicked down the road over and over, or one that we didn't even realize we needed.

Yeah.

You know, like, for example, let's say you have a star performer, you have Kaylee, who's like your right-hand chick, right?

A-player.

Your A-player. And you think, okay, she's doing an amazing job. She knows I love her. She knows that, you know, I value her so much. And so you're kind of just doing your thing. Now, Kaylee might be thinking, gosh, I love what I'm doing, but I don't know, like, is there a future for me in this company? Does Lori have a plan for me? What's my career? And you might have a high performer that you've been doing everything right, but you never sat down with them and said, hey, this is the vision that I have for you.

Yep.

You know, where do you want to go in your career? How can we like map that out for you? And so I've actually seen a lot of folks lose some of their best people by not having this conversation to reengage them. And I call that the sit-down. You're not saying, hey, I see you, I value you, where do you want to go? And let's make a plan for that.

Yeah.

It's very similar if you have a person that's struggling and saying, hey, I know I could have been more clear here. X, Y, and Z was missed. This deadline was missed. You came You know, we're late a bunch of times, or this client had this complaint, and here's the impact of that. Let's make this plan to fix it. Like, it's kind of the same conversation you can use to really support your team or to really develop them. But a lot of times we avoid it because we're busy or we think the person already knows, or with the feedback we think they should know. That's, I think, the most common thing that we can resolve, like, in a 30-minute conversation.

How can we start from the beginning with people Making this our culture, because I was just thinking, I'm like, oh, God, the conversation you're avoiding is the culture you're creating.

Yes.

It's 100%. Oh, God, if you're not saying anything, all of a sudden you're in a culture on a team that's like, well, nobody really says anything and everybody's a little unhappy and everybody's a little resentful. So if you already have your company rolling, can you go and almost make a statement of like, hey, Here's how we're going to operate from now on. Yeah. And not like, oh, I'm sorry about operating this way before, but how do we make it a very positive thing for, for a company that's already very much— the culture is there. Yeah. And now we got to break it. Yeah. But then let's also talk about how we can do that from the beginning.

I love that. So I actually get this question all the time because when someone brings me to their team, we don't want to be like, all right, new sheriff in town, everything's changing, right? Because everyone's like, no way, right? So it's something I have to deal with every time I come into a team. And I think when you're doing it from, you know, just like starting today, the easiest way is to— well, I think 2 things. You can attach it to like, hey, we're halfway through the year, or we're at the end of the year. You can attach them like time-based metrics. Hey, it's April. April's a great month for change. April tax season, we're running out. You know, like I think saying, hey, I've been reflecting reflecting a lot on how everyone here can feel more supported. You could say that on a Tuesday.

Yeah.

You say that on November 15th, anytime, right? So you take responsibility and you say, hey, I want to create a company that everybody, you know, really knows what's expected of them and knows where they're going. Or, um, I've noticed some things that, you know, I've been reflecting on, places that I'm getting really stuck in the weeds, and I feel like I'm starting to really block you from being able to Really kind of drive your own work. So I would say it starts with owning it, and then you can say it at any time. Because if you're owning it, your team's like, all right, I'm listening. If you're like, Lori, I was reflecting on your poor performance today, and I was just like, no more of that. You know what I mean? They're like, wow.

Great.

Hey, I'm glad you like me. You know what I mean? So when it's about you, now you have people listening. And so that is always the place to to start. And it's about helping people be more successful. People, they always need to know what's in it for them, right? So like, okay, you're thinking about how to make my job more successful. You're thinking about me having a career path. You're thinking about me having more clarity. Okay, I'm up for that, right? So that's the framing if it's in the middle. If it's from the beginning, I would say it's similar. It's like saying, hey, let's create a culture that is a company that we all want to be a part of. And then here's some of the things that are going to help us get there. So it's a similar message and it's never too late to do that. You might be listening to this and say, oh shit, I didn't do a lot of this stuff. I'm in the weeds. I don't delegate.

It's a lot of people. It's very normal to not understand this yet.

Exactly. I don't know if anyone, if people hate their jobs. You might say— I don't want to know. Yeah. And I don't want to know. Should I just keep avoiding it?

Yeah, exactly.

Right? And it's literally tomorrow saying, hey everyone, I wanna make sure that this is a company that everybody's excited to be a part of. Here's some ideas I have. What else? Invite them into the conversation. And literally you can have that conversation anytime.

Leah, what about businesses who, you know, I, I've been in these businesses, I've seen these businesses where the business is struggling and it's, it, it can feel like from a founder perspective and then from the employees, perspective, it's kind of like, like you said, the blame game is happening. Yeah. The founders are like, okay, I'm not growing because you're not doing the job or you're not bringing me ideas. And then the employees are like, well, that's not my job. It should be your job. And so it's just when you go in the middle of a company that maybe feels like a mess, how do you start within that?

Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest thing that's creating the mess is that no one's clear. Right? The business owner thinks everyone's supposed to read their mind.

Yep.

The team thinks the business owner's micromanaging, or they think, this was just my job, they weren't clear they're actually supposed to also be running, growing the business, right? Whatever it is. And so the first thing I do is saying, okay, let's get all clear on what we're— what's expected of everyone. And that's why one of the main ways I work with companies is setting up their Team Ops Playbook because we all need to know everything's in people's minds, it's all spinning. You think it's this, I think it's this, it's on this website, it's in this email. And I say, hey, let's get it on paper. What actually are we trying to do? And when you get it on paper, it serves 2 purposes. It creates one central language and it makes it more official, literally.

Yeah.

I know it sounds a little bit silly, but when you have this playbook, Now you're not the bad guy. Lori wants it her way. She's— it's because she said so. It's like, what's in the playbook? Like, this is how we run our business. Yeah. So it makes it a lot easier to hold people accountable. And so that is where I always start, is saying, let's get all the different, like, assumption-y things that are everywhere and get aligned. So I sit down with the business owner and I map this out. We share it with the team. Everyone sees, oh, wait a second. That's what they meant, or that's what's expected of me, or that's my kind of how I'm being evaluated, or that's when we get raises. It's not just because I finished a project.

Yeah.

It's not every Tuesday.

Totally.

And that clarity gives us a foundation to be able to see, were people not good at their jobs or did they just not know what they were supposed to do? Does this person have a bad attitude or do they feel undervalued? Right. Is this person just literally think they should be paid more every time they finish a project? Or do they really not know how to get paid more? And those are the things that I spell out in the playbook so that you— we know where to start. And that's why I say like that playbook alone starts saving folks within the month of rolling it out $15,000 to $20,000 in the business owners working on something over here. They're doing this. We start to get really clear on what are we doing? What does done look like? What should we focus on next? It kind of removes all this guesswork and everybody's operating from the same starting point.

So good. So I know, especially in the mastermind rooms that we get to both be in together, something that comes up a lot is they're all like thinking that this magical unicorn human exists, whether it's a personal assistant, whether it's a, a marketing person, whether whatever it is. And a lot of them feel like they have the wrong people in the wrong positions or the wrong people in general.

Yeah.

And I know from my personal experience that I have had people that I fully did not lead well in the past that I was like, oh, maybe it wasn't them.

Yeah.

Like, I can look back and go, okay, it was a little of them, but maybe it was really me. Like, I didn't— I wasn't giving them systems. I wasn't asking them clear things. I didn't know what their zone of genius was.

Yeah.

I expected them to come to me with what this job should look like. Like, when you're, when you're first getting into entrepreneurship, you're kind of a massive shit show as a founder. Like, all you can think of is, how do I get my idea out? And how do they start working on my idea? And it can be very— feel very selfish and one-sided.

Yeah.

It's not that you don't like the person, you want to love the person.

Yeah.

But you're just not communicating well. Do you see that a lot, where a lot of times it, it could be the right person?

Yeah.

But they're not necessarily leading well? How do we diagnose that within our company of Is it the right person? Is it not the right person? Is it me? Yeah. Growing up, money wasn't something that we talked about. I was raised in a more religious family, and there was kind of this unspoken rule in my religion that wanting money made you a bad person. So we didn't talk about it much. We didn't plan for it, and we definitely did not have enough of it. And I really carried that tension around money into my adulthood with this weird mix of needing money but feeling really guilty for wanting it. And it's taken me years to rewrite that story. And that's part of why I think so much about the tools that help people do that. And Monarch is one of the best that I've ever seen. So instead of just showing you what you already spent, it helps you actually plan accounts, investments, savings, goals, spending all in one place. So you can see if you're on track before it's too late to adjust. So imagine finally seeing exactly where that extra 15% of your paycheck has gone. And where it's been going every month, and you didn't realize it before that. So the AI weekly recap flags spending spikes and net worth shifts before they become a real problem. And you can ask the AI assistant things like, how much did I spend on travel last summer? Or can I afford this without touching my savings and actually get the answer? It's basically a financial advisor in your pocket. How cool is that? You don't have to be ashamed of wanting money or scared of it. You get to write your own story with it. And Monarch just makes the story a lot easier to write. Write your own money story with Monarch. Use code EYH at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code EYH.

Well, first, I've been there. And I mean, it's like, I know this stuff and I still do it.

Right.

I remember last year I wanted to hire like an assistant, someone to help with like brand marketing stuff. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna do all my best practices. I'm gonna put a job description, best thing, interview 3 people so I can get a really good sense. I met with— folks were local, I met with them in person. I like found someone. And then I was— I did I did this whole onboarding process. It was super clear. And then a week or two after she started, she sent something back and it wasn't really what I wanted. I was like, okay, she's done. I was like, nope, never mind. We're finished here.

You're like, I had a system for you and you did not do well.

And then I'm like, wait, no, this is where we fall apart. Right? It's like the first thing that goes wrong, we're like, ah. I can't deal with that. I'm busy. I'll just do everything myself again. Right. And so I say that because it's not about having all the best pieces. It's about what do you do when something doesn't go exactly right? Yeah. What is your reaction? What is your response? Because we've all been there. Because, yeah, you put all this effort and you're just like, why the hell can't they just get it right?

Yep.

Right. And so that's a moment where we ask ourselves, okay, Like, was I clear? Did I give feedback? And was this person receptive? And those are the things that are going to figure out if it's you, it's them, or it's like a system thing. So first saying, okay, did I even really say what I wanted? No, I just said run with this.

Okay.

And then they did. Now, okay, so now you know, okay, next time I can be more clear spelling it out or saying, hey, here's an example.

Or, you know, you can't even tell Claude to run with it.

Exactly right. Exactly. So saying, okay, here's my slide deck, or here's how I run this meeting, or here's past content that's worked, or here's the email sequence, and giving an example. Okay, so let's— you fix like the clear thing. Let's say you were clear and they did it wrong, right? Now it's, did I give feedback or did I just go like, this is what you came up with? No thanks. Right? We're out of here. So feedback is the second piece. Saying, hey, Lori, I know we talked about this. We looked at these examples. This isn't quite right because X, Y, Z. Can you take another pass at it and come back to me? Right. That's the feedback.

So good.

Third is your reaction to it.

Yeah.

If you go like, it was right. No, no, that's fine. That's you. It's not my fault. I didn't do it wrong. And you get some weird defensive shit.

Yeah.

Now you know.

Now you're clear.

Right. Versus if I'm like, oh my gosh, yes, thank you. Let me go try it again. Now that's salvageable. So you have to set the expectations, you've got to give feedback, and then you look at how that person responds, you know, and say, are they— do they take responsibility when they don't get it right? Yeah. Even if you weren't clear, like someone could just try again, right?

Why are we so bad at this? Right? It's like when you're saying it, I'm like, well, duh, this is so simple. But it's the emotional side of worrying about it. Yeah. How do you help Women especially. Yes, I'm calling everyone out. I'm generalizing hardcore because it's true. I see it all the time, more frequently than men. And the reason I see a lot of men's businesses move faster is because they just don't sit here forever. They're kind and clear, typically.

And they say what needs to be said.

Say what needs to be said. And a lot of women's businesses struggle and move slower because it's like, oh, I didn't want—

it's going to be viewed as Yeah, I think it's a tough situation because I think women bosses are held to a double standard, right? Like, if sometimes if a man's direct, it's like he's assertive. And if a woman is, it's like she's a cold bitch, right?

Yeah.

So it's a tough situation. But I think a lot of that we put on ourselves. And I think that's what you're saying too, is like, we don't want to be mean. We want to be friends. We want to be liked. We want to. And so we've created a story. that like, if I, if I say something and you, you might get upset or cry or whatever, we've decided that we haven't even given the person a chance. And so I think for women listening, it's like, like you said, being clear and being direct. Brené Brown, clear is kind, is her line, right? Like, those aren't mean qualities. Now, if you are so frustrated because you haven't said something for months, And now you've decided this person doesn't respect me and this and this and this. And you've created this whole case that you can't have the conversation in a neutral way. Maybe it will come off as mean. Yeah. So I think a lot of the work that we have to do is give the feedback earlier before it becomes this snowball thing and then be specific and talk about like how it actually affects things. So I think, does it have to be done your way? Did it actually— did the way they did do it affect the output? Right? Like if they use a different example or they talk to the client in a certain way. And that's why the playbook can be so valuable again, is because it removes the subjectivity. I was working with a med spa that had like a 90-page manual on how people should talk to like each of their patients and what they should. And I was like, This is too detailed, right? People are gonna just like rebel against it because it feels so oppressive. But if instead we have just enough detail of like, this is the experience we're trying to create in the Smed Spa.

Mm-hmm.

We want people to walk in and feel like they're in the most luxury, luxurious spa on the planet. We want them to feel welcome. We, we greet them by name. You set this experience, your employees can adapt that the way they see, you know, fit and make that theirs. So that's what I'm doing with the playbook is saying no one wants a rule book that everyone's just going to act like a 13-year-old and go like, oh yeah, well, I'm going to wear black shoes with this. And so we give the why and the context, and the more context reduces the mean. It reduces the subjectivity. It reduces the my way or the highway.

Yeah.

It's the same with parenting. It's the same with dealing with any kind What has been some of your—

just so people can really understand when you go into a company, what's been some of your biggest, like, client wins?

Yeah, I would say, you know, off the bat, one client I had was like hemorrhaging money in overtime costs. Right. And they, they said, well, I don't, you know, I need this work to get done. But, you know, I have this office manager and she's working around the clock. But, you know, I didn't, I didn't really I thought I was paying her $20 an hour and now I'm paying her like $40 an hour to finish all this stuff. And a simple win was saying, okay, well, let's outline what kinds of work constitute that it would become overtime and where do we just work on it the next day? You know what I mean? And so like literally that's as simple as it can get, right? Of saying, okay, you know, this is when we do overtime, this is when we don't, if we're heading into a launch or this big event. And that saved her. I think she was spending maybe $4,000 in overtime a month, like literally overnight, by saying, okay, this actually— none of this was really needed to be extra, you know. Another example, I had a client that was about to— it was an event production company, and they had one person that was kind of like doing everything and a second team member that was like doing some stuff. And the one doing everything was about to go on maternity Oh gosh. And they brought me in because it was like, hey, we need to really balance this out so the second person can take more on. And so we implemented this playbook that I was talking about because we needed to get all the different things out of everyone's heads and on paper and implement the playbook. We hired a second person and I did some really direct coaching with the person that was struggling and they ended up having like $1 million in revenue in one quarter. Wow. Based on that clarity. Wow. Yeah. And that is like, that's what I'm saying is it's these small shifts that unlock literally unlimited revenue because again, your team is here to help you earn more money. And if they're costing you and you're doing the work you're paying other people to do, like something's not working here.

Yeah.

And that's these quick shifts that we make that like open the floodgates.

And this is what high-performing teams and high teams that are producing a lot of income, if you guys are wondering, it's literally they understand systems and teams.

Yeah, exactly.

And when you read biographies of just entrepreneur greatness, they talk so much about teams and how they will literally say, it's not me. Of course, I'm the visionary and I'll grind, But if I didn't understand how to put a great team around me, or if I didn't have this person or these people, then it just doesn't work. You can only scale so far. So, Leah, how can we— if we're interested in learning more, how can we work with you?

Yeah, so DM me the word happy, and I will send you the link to the Snippets app that I mentioned, which is that bird's eye view of, hey, what are people working on? What are the wins? What are the blockers? And what are priorities? This is a great place to get started because it is like your easiest system to answer one of the biggest questions. But 2 ways I support folks most is through the ops playbook that I mentioned, which is setting up that kind of business bible for your team that's gonna keep everybody clear. And then doing essentially fractional COO. Like people bring me in to figure out, okay, where are these gaps? Where are we bleeding money? Where can we kind of plug these holes? And then I fix those issues one by one. And so find me on Instagram @lea.garvin or on my website, leagarvin.com.

I'm so grateful for you. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

It was so— it's always fun to talk. So much fun. So you guys, until next time, earn your happy. Bye, everyone.