93 | Next Level Series - Day 2 - Mastering System and Team for Scale

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This is a special three-day podcast series designed for coaches who are ready to up

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their game by building scalable offers, building out their systems, perhaps

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delegating to a team and maintaining a really high client experience to build

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and maintain your retention rates.

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Over the next few days, I will share my own journey of doing these things

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as well as actionable steps to help you make your coaching business

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more sustainable and impactful.

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Hello.

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Welcome to the second episode of our next level series.

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I'm really excited today to cover mastering team and systems for

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your coaching business to grow without taking more of your time.

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Because let's be real you wear many hats.

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The marketing sales delivery, system's, ,it.

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Finance.

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CEO.

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So at some point, you will want to get back to the freedom, impact and

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ability to serve at the highest level that you went into your business for.

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And, right now you are probably drowning in tasks, constantly context switching.

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And feeling like you are the only one who can get things done right.

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Maybe it feels a bit messy behind the scenes and you feel like you

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don't have a proper business.

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You have a mess that is pieced together, and somehow you are just about

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balancing it so it doesn't fall apart.

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So today I will break down exactly how I have built both my team and

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systems so that my business can grow without me being the bottleneck.

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And I hope this provides you with inspiration for your business.

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So before we talk team let's talk systems because the world of AI and

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tech is so amazing now that maybe you don't need a team right now.

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There may be systems to do some of the tasks for you.

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Before you move on to considering a team.

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Think of your systems as your business nervous system, the infrastructure

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that keeps it all running without you as a person having to balance

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all of the things that you need to remember as a business owner.

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The best thing I did this year, it was set up a task management system.

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I use Asana, but you can also use Trello.

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It's been a complete game changer in my business because I can

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rest easy now, knowing that every single task I do is documented and

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each task includes a loom video.

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With me demonstrating how I do that particular task.

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From that main manual of all of the things we do in my business, there are automated

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recurring tasks for things like weekly tracking of testimonials or screenshots

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that might be useful to gray my business.

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Monthly financial reviews.

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Regular things that happen in my business like replying to client's

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monthly action review forms.

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Recurring tasks such as this podcast.

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So I no longer need to hold in my head this really long to do list.

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Because my to-do list is populated in Asana automatically.

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As are my teams to do list.

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Because our standard operating procedures are not just in a word

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document manual, or all over the place in lots of different ways when you

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have been trying to set up procedures.

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But you can search and anyone in the team can step in and find that

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process and execute it easily.

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Let's get further into automation.

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So your business should work for you while you sleep as much as possible.

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So here are some key automations that my business has.

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The first is marketing automation.

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So you will want to have automated email sequences in place to

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do your most regular tasks.

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Yes, this might just be your nurture sequence for example once people

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download your lead magnet, but you may also want to have other automated

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sequences for your clients delivery.

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I love when a client joins my program because I know that everything

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is sorted and they will receive, for example, monthly reviews.

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They will receive weekly emails, reminding them to log in and ask questions.

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They will receive weekly emails, asking them to RSVP for our calls.

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So there is a lot you can do with automation beyond that

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initial nurture sequence.

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You will probably also once you use automation for your social media

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content scheduling, because you can't just go in and post every day.

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It's really nice eventually to have a plan that's all scheduled and

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you know, that that job is done.

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Some people in my program have software they use for their LinkedIn

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connections and DM sequences.

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I did sign up to something once called Meet Alfred to try and get this part

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automated in my business because currently I delegate it out to a VA. But I must

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admit I got banned from LinkedIn for three weeks and I was mid promoting a big

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five day challenge so it was not ideal.

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So I haven't had the energy to look into why it blocked my LinkedIn

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account because I do know lots of other people using this successfully.

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Depending on where you're at in your business.

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You might also want to use automation for things like Facebook ads or LinkedIn ads.

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Okay, let's talk about sales automation.

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So you can have automated systems for your Calendly for example.

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You can have reminders set to ensure that more people show up at your calls.

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You might want to have lead qualification workflows like application forms.

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Before using your time, which is the most precious resource you

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have, in having discovery calls with people that aren't a good fit.

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You might have follow up email sequences.

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So you remember to follow up with people after your sales calls.

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And under this, you'll also want to think about your payment and invoice tracking.

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I generally use a sales page now, which has been wonderful because then people

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can just hit buy now on the sales page.

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Get a receipt, get their login, get automatically tagged into

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all of these automations.

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So I have made my life super, super simple by doing that.

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Occasionally, I do use Xero as well to create invoices if it's something

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different from my normal program.

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But creating that sales automation for me has been an absolute game changer.

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Okay in automation.

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Our last point here is client onboarding.

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You will want to have automated a really lovely onboarding system.

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I send gifts as well, which I love and up until very recently, this was a

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chore of going to about five different shops, buying all different things,

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buying the envelopes, writing the label, taking them to the post office.

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And I have finally got a system in place, which is creating personalized goods.

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And my business operations manager automatically handling that process

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when someone signs up so that has been a real weight lifted.

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Like I mentioned earlier, you're probably also wants to use scheduling

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tools and automated emails.

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So people, for example, get a link to your one-on-one onboarding call for example.

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I also use add event, which is a tool that allows people to automatically put

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all of our group calls in their calendar.

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There's an automated onboarding form.

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So again, we get to capture.

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Where they are at when they're joining.

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And I also recently have created a client tracking tool, which we use jointly to

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really track their whole journey because it's so easy to not see your own progress.

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So it's been something I've been working on for about a year now, and

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I'm so happy to finally have the shared way of keeping track of things like

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onboarding forms, monthly reflections.

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Other financial trackers or social media numbers trackers.

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People's goals.

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People's niches, everything all in one place.

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Okay.

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So that's our automation eco system.

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We talked about marketing automation.

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Sales automation and client onboarding.

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Now let's talk about building your team.

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Depending on where you're at maybe you already have a team in place.

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Maybe you have a VA, for example, who helps you with some admin tasks ,or maybe

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you are in the place where you're thinking you should be able to do this on your own.

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And it's probably more complicated to try and explain what you need to do

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than just get on and do it yourself.

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There's different needs for all businesses, but I will outline what

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I see as the five critical roles to help you get some clarity about all of

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the different hats you may be wearing and any that you may wish to delegate.

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Okay.

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So our first role in your business is the visionary.

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So this is you if you are the founder of your business.

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It's up to you to set the strategic direction of where

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the business is heading.

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You'll also be doing the coaching or perhaps at the higher level coaching.

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So depending on where you're at in your business.

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At some stage, many people only coach their top paying clients.

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So for example, people have things like an inner circle.

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And many coaches start to delegate or have associates for

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other programs that they run.

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Your role also might be in your content to ensure that the content

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is calling in the right people and in line with that strategic direction.

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Next up is the integrator.

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So I'm super excited to have hired Olga as my online business manager.

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Who essentially takes my ideas and maps them out and makes them happen.

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I feel so grateful to have found her.

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And be able to have discussions weekly about ideas.

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So for example, we only discussed this idea for the podcast series a week ago.

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And here we are with the podcast series all mapped out because Olga has managed

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to go and create the signup pages and automations and all the things that

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we needed to make this happen quickly.

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She's continuing to map out processes as she does them as well as me.

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So our systems are getting super organized.

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She has operational oversight of the annual plan in my business and different

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things we're doing at different times.

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It's so wonderful when you can get somebody who knows your business or

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starts to know your business as well as you do and will automatically know, okay,

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every month we onboard people, let's do the gifts, lets do the off-boarding.

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And it's starting to really happen.

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I worked with someone called Skye Barbour in a program called Business Beyond

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You to really get ready for this hire.

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What's worked really well is regular feedback.

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So Olga is extremely direct, unlike me, who will spend hours trying to

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think about the right words to give feedback, but because she is direct and

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literally says, give me feedback, then I can record loom video saying I really

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like how you did this, for example, this is how I would like this done.

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Or this is the changes that I've made to the things that you did so

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you can see why I made these changes and what sort of things I prefer.

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So it's been really great to start giving feedback from day one.

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So it's not a sudden shock if things start to bug you and you don't share it.

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And then you build up that resentment and then you blow because they're

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making mistakes, but you have never told them that they're making mistakes.

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So I think the best thing I did right from the start with Olga is have that

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open communication and ensure that she knows if I'm making edits to an

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email she's drafted, that it's still so helpful for her to drop me that email

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because it takes the energy of that blank page syndrome away from me, but

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that I do want to inset my own stories and things, to connect with my audience

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authentically, but that it's still so helpful to have social post drafts, email

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drafts, sign up page drafts done for me so I can make quick edits and move on.

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Okay.

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So the next thing you might have in your business, although I don't yet because I

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sell from a sales page, is a sales team.

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Many people have people DM-ing aiming to get calls in the

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diary, people closing calls.

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As I mentioned, I don't do that, but I do know several people who do

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so that is an option depending on where you are at in your business.

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Finally, let's move on to your marketing team.

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So this is for things like content creation, or perhaps if you're

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selling to organizations, you've got other processes like following up

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inquiries or generating sales calls through emailing or whatever system

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you are using to generate inquiries.

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Many of the clients that I work with in my business of coaching have

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super solid systems in place now.

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And I love when someone recently said in my program, I have a guaranteed

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process to bring sales into my business.

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And it was such a joy because there's very rarely as an entrepreneur, a guaranteed

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process to bring sales into your business.

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But what she had done throughout the program.

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Is really track her activity and the output.

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And therefore you start to have the power of knowing, okay, I do this much

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volume and it brings in this many sales and now she is at that place where

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she has that pretty much guaranteed because she seen it pan out every

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single month for the last six months.

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And when you have that system working for you, you can eventually delegate

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that process and free up your time.

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You also might be thinking about social media management.

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I had a social media manager for the last 18 months who is actually just

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moved on to a different role but now I have Olga, my business manager

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also mapping out content for me.

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It's also something I'm quite enjoying spending a bit more time myself on,

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because I do think there is a real pleasure in expressing your ideas

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because it gets them clear for you.

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So I do think I have become rusty from 18 months of not taking such

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an active role in my social media.

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As I used to do the whole thing myself but it's a real joy to start thinking

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about who I want to speak to what topics I want to talk about to have a bit more

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flexibility in being a bit last minute.

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Cause I am last minute Lott, as I share a lot.

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So I do want to say, yesterday in my business of coaching call, this

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happened rather than everything be really scheduled in advance.

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I may not have the freedom to be able to do things myself.

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Having a social media manager doesn't mean that you lose all connection with your

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audience though, because I would really recommend editing the post so they sound

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like you and feel like you, otherwise, it's kind of pointless putting them out.

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Because the entire point of our content is to call the right people into our world.

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And usually you are the best person to do that.

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Creating content will actually give you the clarity that you

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need to grow into your business.

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Create your ideas, create your offers.

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See what resonates with people.

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So there are pros and cons to having a team in this area.

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But the pro for me has been taking that mapping and thinking about things away.

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And see the content be able to make edits, make suggestions, drag it across

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to accepted, and someone else schedule it for me, it has been an absolute dream.

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Okay.

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The final hat I will cover here is finance and operations.

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So this might be your bookkeeping, maybe regularly reconciling your Xero if you

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use some sort of software like that.

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I pay my accountants to do this now for me.

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They also run payroll for me once a month.

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But what I've realized recently, and you will see a podcast on this

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later this week, is that there does need to be this bridge between the

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business owner and the accountant.

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So the mistake I made since having an accountant is leaving it down to them.

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Rather than actively, looking at my finances regularly.

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I'm working with a qualified accountant and finance coach at the moment to become

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the CEO in my business and really know how to run profit and loss reports.

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Really understand what I might want to do in order to, for example, pay

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into a pension, longer term planning.

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I'm also excited to be getting more into setting financial goals, looking

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at my prices, making sure that my price accounts for those things that

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we forget about like your onboarding call or your replying to monthly

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action reviews or onboarding gifts.

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So you really start to see what is your profit margin for each of your products.

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So that is something I'm actively working on at the moment.

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And I cannot wait to continue to up my game in this finance and operations area.

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So let's cover hiring and systemization a little bit further.

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I would suggest you document every single process with loom videos.

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I always thought that it would be really tricky to map out processes and

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right points when I'm doing things.

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But the easiest way to do it has been every time I'm about

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to do something in my business.

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I hit on loom and I talked through.

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Okay.

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Someone's just left the program.

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So here I am logging into my Kartra to ensure that I stopped

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tagging them into certain emails.

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Now I go over to the slack group.

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So anyone can now watch those videos and do my exact process just

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as I do it and it's not taken any more time to map out that process.

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Something I learned in the business beyond you course, is about 30

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day, 60 day and 90 day goals.

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So ensuring that you just have that one clear project.

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So for me, it was handing over my podcast production process, because that probably

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took two and a half hours, perhaps after I had finished recording to do

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the editing, get it on the platform.

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Do the show notes, do the email, do the social posts.

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So if I could just focus on that for that first 30 days and handing

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over that really effectively.

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Then I was buying myself two and a half hours a week to be able to

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start thinking about what's that next thing I can free up more time with.

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I can use my Asana system to track performance and give feedback.

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Although we do have our system in place we still speak weekly.

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My last point is build a team culture of continuous improvement.

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And we really do have that.

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I think one of my greatest strengths is never pretending I'm perfect myself.

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I make plenty of mistakes and I share lots of them on this podcast with you.

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And I hate this new thing online, where business coaches constantly share how

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brilliant they are and how stupid you are.

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Looking on social media lately, there is this real trend of this.

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I don't know if you've noticed it, especially on Instagram.

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It's like, Here's why your offer isn't selling and here's why mine

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flew out the door in 10 minutes.

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And they would never admit to the fact that their offer hasn't

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probably sold or that they're not brilliant at absolutely everything.

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And I think it just creates this horrible culture of you thinking

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that everything needs to be perfect.

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And what I really want to convey is that businesses are messy.

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Businesses are stressful at every single stage.

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And we're all just trying to improve every single day.

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So I think because I demonstrate that then people never need to be

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worried about making mistakes because I will leave feedback and then we

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can continue to amend from there.

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Okay, moving on to scaling strategies.

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So, this may be different depending on whether you're selling to

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individuals or organizations.

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Tools that I would recommend to really leverage is either Asana or

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Trello for your project management.

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Loom for video documentation of all of your tasks.

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Calendly is great for scheduling calls.

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I use Kartra for my email automation, as well as my course hosting.

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But if you don't have a course, then there are lots of cheaper

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sites that do the email automation.

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So it depends what you need.

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As I mentioned, I currently use my VA for my LinkedIn connections and other

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tools that I know people use successfully um, other than me, of course, who didn't

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use it successfully is Meet Alfred.

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There's also a system I pay for called Zapier, which connects things like

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Facebook ads to your email list and does loads of other really fancy things.

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I'm not using it as much at the moment because I've only used

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ads for a short period of time.

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So what red flags might you want to watch out for?

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If you are spending more than 20 to 30% of your time on admin tasks,

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you might want to think about how can you do this more effectively?

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Is that an automation you need to build out?

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Is that a team member you need to hire to do this for you.

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Lots of people talk about to as what's their 10 pounds tasks.

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A hundred pound tasks and thousand pound tasks.

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And obviously eventually you want to be more at that thousand pound

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task level rather than doing the things that you may be able to pay

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someone 10 pounds an hour to do.

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The last red flag is, can you go on holiday, without worrying about your

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business and know that someone is going to get back to people or you have systems

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in place that help you to really switch off when you want to in your business.

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Creating these systems has led to a really profitable, joyful and customer focused

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business for me in school hours and term time only, which is an absolute joy.

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I take the entire six weeks off every summer, for example.

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And things still managed to happen in my business.

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And like I said, I won't pretend that everything is shiny and perfect.

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It will still feel messy sometimes, but I do have that scaffolding

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in place now to be able to take time away from my business.

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I also have a Co-Coach in my program who I've haven't mentioned and she's amazing.

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So she can also support me in replying to clients for example.

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Although I have made it very clear that the program is term time only.

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So I'm not obliged to provide support in that period.

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But Jacqui will reply to ensure my clients are cared for.

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I also have a VA in my business who does regular tasks for me.

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So for example, Takes the takes the transcript of this podcast.

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Create the set into a LinkedIn article and a blog puts it on

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my website every single week.

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So it's an amazing when you can eventually work with someone long

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enough that they know you inside out, they know how to do things.

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And we very rarely speak actually me and my VA, I don't think I've seen

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her for like four or five months, but she actually is coming to my workshop

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this week so that will be nice.

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But the joy is when you get repeatable systems and you have

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people in your business who care about you, who care about your

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success, just as much as you do.

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I know this is something that people really struggle with.

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So I feel.

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So genuinely lucky and grateful that I had a VA in my business for several years

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now, who cares about me and my business.

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I also had a social media manager who again, cared about me and my business.

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I have Olga now my business manager, who really wants me to succeed.

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Really helps my awareness in right we need to really focus on generating

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income rather than these tasks.

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So she is a real champion in my business.

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I have Jacqui, my co-coach in my business coaching program.

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Who cares about my clients just as much as I do.

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she will literally have a call with them within five minutes of seeing

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their post, for example, that maybe they're overwhelmed or something has

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happened in their family and they can't decide how to prioritize it.

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she will have conversations with me every single month as to how

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my clients are getting on what we can do further to support them.

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So she supports me and those inside my program, so, so much.

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And I cannot really believe that I have found such values, aligned

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people to support the work that I do.

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Many of the people I worked with in the business beyond you program really

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struggled with finding good people.

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So I don't know why I managed to attract people who care about me

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and my business, as much as I do.

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So, if you are thinking that you'll never find someone like that,

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Then actually, do you know what?

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I think you might be wrong.

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'cause I've been really, really lucky.

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I feel supported.

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We haven't actually covered the cost of hiring a team.

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So, let me share with you that I don't have any actual employees.

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I would say Olga is a contractor, so it's flexible, which is heavenly.

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Then Nicole was paid for four social posts a week.

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So she was paid on an output rate rather than an hourly rate.

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And Jo, my VA is 25 pounds an hour and she just bills for whatever she does.

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She, luckily doesn't have a minimum set hours so I'm really,

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really lucky that I can flex as I need to in my business to grow.

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Okay.

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Here is your action plan from today's episode.

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So map out all of your current tasks, if you haven't already.

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Start creating loom videos every single time you do something in your

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business, don't think it's going to set you back and you haven't got time.

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You're doing the process anyway, you just hit record on the video and

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then carry on with your life as if you weren't even recording yourself.

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Think about the first role you want to hire and also keep thinking what

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is going to bring in the income.

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What is their help going to help to free you up to do?

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So, for example, by having Olga, I have recently collaborated with a coach

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training organization, which has been on my list for years and now have a

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regular relationship with them to provide their coachees with business support.

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And that is a really big thing that I haven't thought or shared

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much about yet, because it will pretty much be like passive income.

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Because it's their business, they're doing the marketing and

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I'm just providing a service.

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Also keep looking for what will make the biggest impact?

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I know that testimonials and case studies have literally made my entire business.

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So one of Olga's key tasks is to keep track and record all of our

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case studies or results from people.

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Something that we have done is built in every single email I send some sort of

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screenshots of loved the planning day.

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Come join me in the online version.

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So how can you really utilize the things that are going to

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bring in income in your business?

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And then actually take the time, which is what I'm doing right now in this

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moment to think, because of those small changes of Olga drafting something

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and putting it into my Kartra site for me as a draft email with all the

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social proof attached has genuinely brought in income in my business.

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So don't be scared to hire.

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Just think about what small things can bring you money in your business.

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And even if that is not as a sales person, because Olga is not doing sales.

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It can free you up to do that big picture and exponential growth

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activities in your business.

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FInally, if you haven't already- start building your automation ecosystem, really

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think about all the different things that you're doing on a regular basis.

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And is there any ways of automating things?

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If you are just starting your business, this isn't really something

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that you need to spend time on.

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And I have lots of people in my business of coaching program,

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seeing perhaps what I'm doing and wanting to do something similar.

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But your best results will come from personal interaction.

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So while we talk about automation and scaling, The more, you can put your

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personal touch into it the better.

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So don't always think that automating is better than just sending someone to reply.

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And I'm still at the stage in my business where I send personalized

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replies to every email they send me.

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So yes, we can build out automations, but don't forget the personal touch.

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If you want help making this transition in your business, this is

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the sort of thing we will be working on in my next level mastermind,

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. If you.

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would like the details, drop me an email on joanna@joannalottcoaching.com.

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And I will send you over the details and we can have a chat

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and see if it's right for you.

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It would be wonderful to spend the time and get the support network around you

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to get your business to the place that it gives you the freedom that you dreamed

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of and frees up your Headspace to spend time with your family and your clients

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rather than drowning in the admin.

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Our next level podcast series tomorrow, I will be sharing how you can create an

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amazing client experience that will build your brand and build your retention rate.

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So I can't wait to see you then.