Find the systems you need to grow your business
Years ago I heard someone say “every struggle is a missing system” and it went *zing* right to the heart of so many issues for me. Systems are not just my business but something I believe whole-heartedly make our lives better all around.
But there are two problems:
I never want you to train your employees again.
And while this seems antithetical to the advice I gave you last week to Stop Being the Bottleneck in your business, it’s actually the first step to taking yourself out of that position.
In most organizations – companies, non-profits, even governments – there are people who know how to do all the things. They might be the founder, the CEO, someone who has been around for years or decades. And that person can be the ultimate middleman who insists all decisions go through them first.
Successful organizations disperse information and decision making power to the people doing the work, with clear guidelines and policies to ensure things are done correctly.
Continue Reading ￫
When you hear “bottleneck” it very rarely refers to the neck of a bottle, instead the term has become useful imagery for a narrow point that impedes the flow of anything from traffic to information.
I’m sure you’ve experienced the annoyance of 4 lanes of traffic going down to 2 – usually on a busy weekend when you just want to get out of town! Now imagine that frustration is a daily or hourly occurrence for your team.
You might be the bottleneck in your business without ever realizing it.
Last year I stumbled upon the perfect dad joke when answering questions about business in 2020:
“I don’t know because I don’t have 2020 vision…”
would be my go to intro when giving advice about what marketing trends would reveal and if Tik Tok would take over Instagram.
Well, it turns out that silly dad joke was prescient because now that everything is different, everyone is racing toward to a “new normal” and trying to figure out what the future holds. But in all the worrying and guessing and considering, there’s a big topic I want to talk about.
The elephant in the room.
The pachyderm in the pandemic. Continue Reading ￫
Hello New Year.
Hello new goals.
Hello new you!
Despite the ritualist changing of the calendar this month, there’s nothing magical infused into the January air that ensures that every goal you set will come true.
In all reality, not to be a buzzkill, things will not go perfectly and you will mess up.
Totally normal.
What really makes a difference is how you react and what happens next.
There are so many ways this could go! The NFL draft? Draft beer? Protecting your home from gaps in windows and doors?
All no.
I want to talk about the nearly endless supply of half-finished, partially written bits of inspiration that we let marinate for days, months and years, assuming they’re going to magically fit or finish themselves.
It’s time to tackle your blog post drafts, Instagram drafts and the half chapter of a book you were inspired to write 5 years ago.
Once I made the decision to leave Infusionsoft, now Keap, I knew that the task ahead of me wouldn’t be simple. After all, the majority of users I speak to who want to leave cite the multitude of campaigns, emails and lists they have as the main impediment.
Infusionsoft knows this. They know that the more they become your “all in one” solution, the harder it will be to find another, comparable, software for the same price. Which is a good business strategy… if their software worked reliably.
I like to compare Infusionsoft to the family minivan which was omnipresent in the late 1990s. In the beginning it was fine that there was one sliding door you had to open yourself and enough seatbelts for 7 people. It would get am AND fm radio and play a cassette tape, if you’re lucky. Now, 30 years on, a minivan needs dual sliding doors that open on the press of a button, built in DVD players for the kids and bluetooth enabled phone calls for drivers. It needs a rear hatch that auto opens and closes and OnStar and rear camera and, and, and.
And all of those features are just fine, but if the van doesn’t drive then it’s just a waste of time. And that’s how I began to feel about Infusionsoft, sure the ease of duplicating a campaign is nice and custom dashboards are fine but if emails are not reaching inboxes then we’re dead on the road here.
Here are the steps I took to move away from the busted minivan which is Infusionsoft: Continue Reading ￫
When I started my business Infusionsoft was the gold-standard. They understood customer care, pushed the boundaries with new and useful tools inside the application and gave business owners so many ways to track metrics that I knew I could never fully explore them all.
So what changed to turn me from a raving fan into a raging customer? Why didn’t I Keap Infusionsoft?
The name change was the least of my concerns when they transitioned the software name from Infusionsoft to Keap by Infusionsoft in 2019. I already knew I was leaving after Infusionsoft cost me hundreds of dollars. Here’s why…
Since October I’ve been using one of my favorite apps, Productive, every day to track my goals. These range from taking a daily vitamin and making my bed to remembering to take out the trash for pickup and watering my house plants so they won’t die. At the end of a long day seeing another “perfect day” was a little boost as I collapsed into bed. But, over time, I realized that these were shallow victories because it wasn’t actually a challenge.
In other words, I made these goals easy to achieve so I could see immediate results in my environment AND on the tracker which tells you how many perfect days you’ve achieved.
And while that worked to get me back into good habits and routines, it’s time to change things up and stop having perfect days.
In May I was thrilled to be part of the team that welcomed 100 women to Los Angeles for a one day event hosted by Natalie MacNeil. Most were already members of our year long Conquer Club Incubator and I have never been in a room more full of inspiring, diverse, empowered women in my life.
This was our fourth event together so, in addition to some pictures, I wanted to share some of my small tips for managing events that you won’t find on event planning checklists.
