93 | Next Level Series - Day 2 - Mastering System and Team for Scale
This special three-day podcast series is tailored for coaches eager to enhance their businesses by building scalable offers and implementing effective systems.
Throughout the series, listeners will gain insights from Jo Lott's journey, focusing on actionable steps to achieve greater income freedom and a stronger influence in their field.
On Day 2 of this series, Jo highlights the importance of building efficient systems and automating tasks like marketing, sales, and onboarding before expanding your team. She also outlines five key roles essential for a thriving coaching business, focusing on collaboration and clear communication.
Key Timestamps
- [00:01:00] Mastering Team and Systems Overview
- [00:02:00] Importance of Business Systems
- [00:03:00] Task Management Systems
- [00:05:00] Marketing Automation
- [00:06:00] Sales Automation
- [00:08:00] Client Onboarding Strategies
- [00:09:00] Building Your Team
- [00:17:00] Process Documentation
- [00:20:00] Scaling Strategies and Tools
- [00:26:00] Team Hiring and Costs
- [00:27:00] Action Plan
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Useful Links
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Transcript
This is a special three day podcast series designed for coaches who are ready to up their game by building scalable offers, building out their systems, perhaps delegating to a team and maintaining a really high client experience to build and maintain your retention rate.
Speaker A:Over the next few days I will share my own journey of doing these things as well as actionable steps to help you make your coaching business more sustainable and impactful.
Speaker A:Do follow along for the next three days.
Speaker A:Join the conversation in our free Slack community over this next week where we will explore each topic further and you can ask for my support and support of other coaches.
Speaker A:I hope you love this three day Next Level series.
Speaker A:If you are looking for our regular episodes, you will find it as usual on Thursday.
Speaker A:Hello, welcome to the second episode of our Next Level series.
Speaker A:I'm really excited today to cover mastering Team and systems for your coaching business to grow without taking more of your time.
Speaker A:Because let's be real, you wear many hats the Marketing, Sales, Delivery systems, IT Finance CEO.
Speaker A:So at some point you will want to get back to the freedom, impact and ability to serve at the highest level that you went into your business for.
Speaker A:And right now you are probably drowning in tasks, constantly context switching and feeling like you are the only one who can get things done right.
Speaker A:Maybe it feels a bit messy behind the scenes and you feel like you don't have a proper business, you have a mess that is pieced together and somehow you are just about balancing it so it doesn't fall apart.
Speaker A:So today I will break down exactly how I have built both my team and systems so that my business can grow without me being the bottleneck and I hope this provides you with inspiration for your business.
Speaker A:So before we talk team, let's talk systems because the world of AI and tech is so amazing now that maybe you don't need a team right now, there may be systems to do some of the tasks for you.
Speaker A:Before you move on to considering a team, think of your systems as your business nervous system, the infrastructure that keeps it all running without you as a person having to balance all of the things that you need to remember as a business owner.
Speaker A:The best thing I did this year was set up a task management system.
Speaker A:I use Asana, but you can also use Trello.
Speaker A:It's been a complete game changer in my business because I can rest easy now knowing that every single task I do is documented and each task includes a loom video with me demonstrating how I do that particular task from that main manual of all the things we do in my business.
Speaker A:There are automated recurring tasks for things like weekly tracking of testimonials or screenshots that might be useful to grow my business.
Speaker A:Monthly financial reviews Regular things that happen in my business like replying to clients Monthly action review forms Recurring tasks such as this podcast so I no longer need to hold in my head this really long to do list.
Speaker A:Because my to do list is populated in Asana automatically as are my team's to do list.
Speaker A:Because our standard operating procedures are not just in a Word document, manual or all over the place in lots of different ways when you have been trying to set up procedures, but you can search and anyone in the team can step in and find that process and execute it easily.
Speaker A:Let's get further into automation.
Speaker A:So your business should work for you while you sleep as much as possible.
Speaker A:So here are some key automations that my business has.
Speaker A:The first is marketing automation.
Speaker A:So you will want to have automated email sequences in place to do your most regular tasks.
Speaker A:Yes, this might just be your nurture sequence for example once people download your lead magnet.
Speaker A:But you may also want to have other automated sequences for your client delivery.
Speaker A:I love when a client joins my program because I know that everything is sorted and they will receive for example monthly reviews.
Speaker A:They will receive weekly emails reminding them to log in and ask questions.
Speaker A:They will receive weekly emails asking them to RSVP for our calls.
Speaker A:So there is a lot you can do with automation beyond that initial nurture sequence.
Speaker A:You'll probably also want to use automation for your social media content scheduling because you can't just go in and post every day.
Speaker A:It's really nice eventually to have a plan that's all scheduled and you know that that job is done.
Speaker A:Some people in my program have software they use for their LinkedIn connections and DM sequences.
Speaker A:I did sign up something once called Meet Alfred to try and get this part automated in my business because currently I delegate it out to a VA.
Speaker A:But I must admit I got banned from LinkedIn for 3 weeks and I was mid promoting a big 5 day challenge so it was not ideal.
Speaker A:So I haven't had the energy to look into why it blocked my LinkedIn account because I do know lots of other people using this successfully.
Speaker A:Depending on where you're at in your business, you might also want to use automation for things like Facebook ads or LinkedIn ads.
Speaker A:Okay, let's talk about sales automation.
Speaker A:So you can have automated systems for your calendly.
Speaker A:For example, you can have reminders set to ensure that more people show up at your calls.
Speaker A:You might want to have lead qualification workflows like application forms before using your time, which is the most precious resource you have in having discovery calls with people that aren't a good fit.
Speaker A:You might have follow up email sequences so you remember to follow up with people after your sales calls.
Speaker A:And under this you'll also want to think about your payment and invoice tracking.
Speaker A:I generally use a sales page now, which has been wonderful because then people can just hit buy now on the sales page, get a receipt, get their login, get automatically tagged into all of these automations.
Speaker A:So I have made my life super, super simple by doing that.
Speaker A:Occasionally I do use Xero as well to create invoices if it's something different from my normal program.
Speaker A:But creating that sales automation for me has been an absolute game changer.
Speaker A:Okay, in automation, our last point here is client onboarding.
Speaker A:You will want to have automated a really lovely onboarding system.
Speaker A:I send gifts as well, which I love.
Speaker A:And up until very recently this was a chore of going to about five different shops, buying all different things, buying the envelopes, writing the label, taking them to the post office.
Speaker A:And I have finally got a system in place which is creating personalized goods and my business operations manager automatically handling that process when someone signs up.
Speaker A:So that has been a real weight lifted.
Speaker A:Like I mentioned earlier, you'll probably also want to use scheduling tools and automated emails so people, for example, get a link to your one on one onboarding call, for example.
Speaker A:I also use Add Event which is a tool that allows people to automatically put all of our group calls in their calendar.
Speaker A:There's an automated onboarding form, so again we get to capture where they are at when they're joining.
Speaker A:And I also recently have created a client tracking tool which we use jointly to really track their whole journey because it's so easy to not see your own progress.
Speaker A:So it's been something I've been working on for about a year now and I'm so happy to finally have this shared way of keeping track of things like onboarding forms, monthly reflections, other financial trackers or social media numbers trackers, people's goals, people's niches, everything all in one place.
Speaker A:Okay, so that's our automation ecosystem.
Speaker A:We talked about marketing automation, sales automation and client onboarding.
Speaker A:Now let's talk about building your team.
Speaker A:Depending on where you're at, maybe you already have a team in place.
Speaker A:Maybe you have a va, for example, who helps you with some admin tasks.
Speaker A:Or maybe you are in the place where you're thinking you should be able to do this on your own.
Speaker A:And it's probably more complicated to try and explain what you need to do than just get on and do it yourself.
Speaker A:There's different needs for all businesses, but I will outline what I see as the five critical roles to help you get some clarity about all of the different hats you may be wearing and any that you may wish to delegate.
Speaker A:Okay, so our first role in your business is the visionary.
Speaker A:So this is you.
Speaker A:If you are the founder of your business, it's up to you to set the strategic direction of where the business is heading.
Speaker A:You'll also be doing the coaching, or perhaps at the higher level coaching.
Speaker A:So depending on where you're at in your business, at some stage, many people only coach their top paying clients.
Speaker A:So for example, people have things like an inner circle and many coaches start to delegate or have associates for other programs that they run.
Speaker A:Your role also might be in your content to ensure that the content is calling in the right people and in line with that strategic direction.
Speaker A:Next up is the integrator.
Speaker A:So I'm super excited to have hired Olga as my online business manager, who essentially takes my ideas and maps them out and makes them happen.
Speaker A:I feel so grateful to have found her and be able to have discussions weekly about ideas.
Speaker A:So, for example, we only discussed this idea for the podcast series a week ago and here we are with the podcast series all mapped out.
Speaker A:Because Olga has managed to go and create the signup pages and automations and all the things that we needed to make this happen quickly, she's continuing to map out processes as she does them as well as me.
Speaker A:So our systems are getting super organized.
Speaker A:She has operational oversight of the annual plan in my business and different things we're doing at different times.
Speaker A:It's so wonderful when you can get somebody who knows your business or starts to know your business as well as you do and will automatically know, okay, every month we onboard people, let's do the gifts, let's do the offboarding, and it's starting to really happen.
Speaker A:I worked with someone called Sky Barber in a program called Business beyond you to really get ready for this hire.
Speaker A:What's worked really well is regular feedback.
Speaker A:So Olga is extremely direct, unlike me who will spend hours trying to think about the right words to give feedback.
Speaker A:But because she is direct and literally says, give me feedback, then I can record loom videos saying, I really like how you did this.
Speaker A:For example, this is how I would like this done, or this is the changes that I've made to the things that you did.
Speaker A:So you can see why I made those changes and what sort of things I prefer.
Speaker A:So it's been really great to start giving feedback from day one so it's not a sudden shock if things start to bug you and you don't share it and then you build up that resentment and then you blow because they're making mistakes, but you have never told them that they're making mistakes.
Speaker A:So I think the best thing I did right from the start with Olga is have that open communication and ensure that she knows if I'm making edits to an email she's drafted that it's still so helpful for her to draft me that email because it takes the energy of that blank page syndrome away from me, but that I do want to insert my own stories and things to connect with my audience authentically.
Speaker A:But that it's still so helpful to have social post drafts, email drafts, sign up page drafts done for me so I can make quick edits and move on.
Speaker A:Okay, so the next thing you might have in your business, although I don't yet because I sell from a sales page, is a sales team.
Speaker A:Many people have people dming aiming to get calls in the diary, people closing calls.
Speaker A:As I mentioned, I don't do that, but I do know several people who do.
Speaker A:So that is an option depending on where you are at in your business.
Speaker A:Finally, let's move on to your marketing team.
Speaker A:So this is for things like content creation or perhaps if you're selling to organizations, you've got other processes like following up inquiries or generating sales calls through emailing or whatever system you are using to generate inquiries.
Speaker A:Many of the clients that I work with in my business of coaching have super solid systems in place now.
Speaker A:And I love when someone recently said in my program, I have a guaranteed process to bring sales into my business.
Speaker A:And it was such a joy because there's very rarely as an entrepreneur a guaranteed process to bring sales into your business.
Speaker A:But what she had done throughout the program is really track her activity and the output and therefore you start to have the power of knowing, okay, I do this much volume and it brings in this many sales.
Speaker A:And now she is at that place where she has that pretty much guaranteed because she's seen it pan out every single month for the last six months.
Speaker A:And when you have that system working for you, you can eventually delegate that process and free up your time.
Speaker A:You also might be thinking about social media management.
Speaker A:I had a social media manager for the last 18 months who's actually just moved on to a different role.
Speaker A:But Now I have Olga, my business manager, also mapping out content for me.
Speaker A:It's also something I'm quite enjoying spending a bit more time myself on because I do think there is a real pleasure in expressing your ideas because it gets them clear for you.
Speaker A:So I do think I have become rusty from 18 months of not taking such an active role in my social media as I used to do the whole thing myself.
Speaker A:But it's a real joy to start thinking about who I want to speak to, what topics I want to talk about, to have a bit more flexibility in being a bit last minute because I am last minute lot as I share a lot.
Speaker A:So I do want to say yesterday in my business of coaching call this happened rather than everything be really scheduled in advance and me not have the freedom to be able to do things myself.
Speaker A:Having a social media manager doesn't mean that you lose all connection with your audience though, because I would really recommend editing the post so they sound like you and feel like you.
Speaker A:Otherwise it's kind of pointless putting them out because the entire point of our content is to call the right people into our world and usually you are the best person to do that.
Speaker A:Creating content will actually give you the clarity that you need to grow into your business, create your ideas, create your offers, see what resonates with people.
Speaker A:So there are pros and cons to having a team in this area, but the pro for me has been taking that mapping and thinking about things away and see the content, be able to make edits, make suggestions, drag it across to accepted and someone else schedule it for me has been an absolute dream.
Speaker A:Okay, the final hat I will cover here is finance and operations.
Speaker A:So this might be your bookkeeping, maybe regularly reconciling your Xero if you use some sort of software like that.
Speaker A:I pay my accountants to do this now for me.
Speaker A:They also run payroll for me once a month.
Speaker A:But what I've realized recently, and you will see a podcast on this later this week, is that there does need to be this bridge between the business owner and the accountant.
Speaker A:So the mistake I made since having an accountant is leaving it down to them rather than actively looking at my finances regularly.
Speaker A:I'm working with a qualified accountant and finance coach at the moment to become the CEO in my business and really know how to run profit and loss reports.
Speaker A:Really understand what I might want to do in order to, for example pay into a pension.
Speaker A:Longer term planning.
Speaker A:I'm also excited to be getting more into setting financial goals, looking at my prices, making sure that my price accounts for those things that we forget about, like your onboarding call or your replying to monthly action reviews or onboarding gifts.
Speaker A:So you really start to see what is your profit margin for each of your products.
Speaker A:So that is something I'm actively working on at the moment and I cannot wait to continue to up my game in this finance and operations area.
Speaker A:So let's cover hiring and systemization a little bit further.
Speaker A:I would suggest you document every single process with Loom videos.
Speaker A:I always thought that it would be really tricky to map out processes and write points when I'm doing things, but the easiest way to do it has been every time I'm about to do something in my business, I hit on Loom and I talk through, okay, someone's just left the program.
Speaker A:So here I am logging into my Kartra to ensure that I stop tagging them into certain emails.
Speaker A:Now I go over to the Slack groups so anyone can now watch those videos and do my exact process just as I do it.
Speaker A:And it's not taken any more time to map out that process.
Speaker A:Something I learned in the business beyond you course is about 30 day, 60 day and 90 day goals.
Speaker A:So ensuring that you just have that one clear project.
Speaker A:So for me it was handing over my podcast production process because that probably took two and a half hours, perhaps after I had finished recording, to do the editing, get it on the platform, do the show notes, do the email, do the social posts.
Speaker A:So if I could just focus on that for that first 30 days and handing over that really effectively, then I was buying myself two and a half hours a week to be able to start thinking about what's that next thing I can free up more time with.
Speaker A:I can use my Asana system to track performance and give feedback.
Speaker A:Although we do have our system in place, we still speak weekly.
Speaker A:My last point is build a team culture of continuous improvement.
Speaker A:And we really do have that.
Speaker A:I think one of my greatest strengths is never pretending I'm perfect myself.
Speaker A:I make plenty of mistakes and I share lots of them on this podcast with you.
Speaker A:And I hate this new thing online where business coaches constantly share how brilliant they are and how stupid you are looking on social media lately.
Speaker A:There is this real trend of this.
Speaker A:I don't know if you've noticed it, especially on Instagram.
Speaker A:It's like, here's why your offer isn't selling and here's why mine flew out the door in 10 minutes.
Speaker A:And they would never admit to the fact that their offer hasn't probably sold or that they're not brilliant at absolutely everything and I think it just creates this horrible culture of you thinking that everything needs to be perfect.
Speaker A:And what I really want to convey is that businesses are messy, businesses are stressful at every single stage and we're all just trying to improve every single day.
Speaker A:So I think because I demonstrate that then people never need to be worried about making mistakes because I will leave feedback and then we can continue to amend from there.
Speaker A:Okay, moving on to scaling strategies.
Speaker A:So this may be different depending on whether you are selling to individuals or organizations.
Speaker A:Tools that I would recommend to really leverage is either Asana or Trello for your project management loom for video documentation of all of your tasks.
Speaker A:Calendly is great for scheduling calls.
Speaker A:I use Kartra for my email automation as well as my course hosting, but if you don't have a course then there are lots of cheaper sites that do the email automation, so it depends what you need.
Speaker A:As I mentioned, I currently use my va for my LinkedIn connections and other tools that I know people use successfully other than me of course, who didn't use it successfully is Meet Alfred.
Speaker A:There's also a system I pay for called Zapier which connects things like Facebook ads to your email list and does loads of other really fancy things.
Speaker A:I'm not using it as much at the moment because I've only used ads for the short period of time.
Speaker A:So what red flags might you want to watch out for?
Speaker A:If you are spending more than 20 to 30% of your time on admin tasks, you might want to think about how can you do this more effectively?
Speaker A:Is it an automation you need to build out?
Speaker A:Is it a team member you need to hire to do this for you?
Speaker A:Lots of people talk about it as what's their 10 pound tasks, 100 pound tasks and thousand pound tasks.
Speaker A:And obviously eventually you want to be more at that thousand pound task level rather than doing the things that you may be able to pay someone ten pounds an hour to do.
Speaker A:The last red flag is can you go on holiday without worrying about your business and know that someone is going to get back to people?
Speaker A:Or you have systems in place that help you to really switch off when you want to in your business?
Speaker A:Creating these systems has led to a really profitable, joyful and customer focused business for me in school hours and term time only, which is an absolute joy.
Speaker A:I take the entire six weeks off every summer for example, and things still manage to happen in my business.
Speaker A:And like I said, I won't pretend that everything is shiny and perfect.
Speaker A:It will still feel messy sometimes, but I do have that scaffolding in place now to be able to take time away from my business.
Speaker A:I also have a co coach in my program who I haven't mentioned and she's amazing so she can also support me in replying to clients.
Speaker A:For example, although I have made it very clear that the program is term time only so I'm not obliged to provide support in that period.
Speaker A:But Jackie will reply to ensure my clients are cared for.
Speaker A:I also have a VA in my business who does regular tasks for me.
Speaker A:So for example takes the takes the transcript of this podcast, creates it into a LinkedIn article and a blog puts it on my website every single week.
Speaker A:So it's amazing when you can eventually work with someone long enough that they know you inside out.
Speaker A:They know how to do things and we very rarely speak actually me and my va.
Speaker A:I don't think I've seen her for like four or five months but she actually is coming to my workshop this week so that will be nice.
Speaker A:But the joy is when you get repeatable systems and you have people in your business who care about you, who care about your success just as much as you do.
Speaker A:I know this is something that people really struggle with so I feel so genuinely lucky and grateful that I have had a VA in my business for several years now who cares about me and my business.
Speaker A:I also had a social media manager who again cared about me and my business.
Speaker A:I have Olga now my business manager who really wants me to succeed.
Speaker A:Really helps my awareness in right we need to really focus on generating income rather than these tasks.
Speaker A:So she is a real champion in my business.
Speaker A:I have Jackie, my co coach in my business of coaching program who cares about my clients just as much as I do.
Speaker A:She will literally have a call with them within five minutes of seeing their post, for example that maybe they're overwhelmed or something has happened in their family and they can't decide how to prioritize it.
Speaker A:She will have conversations with me every single month as to how my clients are getting on, what we can do further to support them.
Speaker A:So she supports me and those inside my program so so much and I cannot really believe that I have found such values aligned people to support the work that I do.
Speaker A:Many of the people I worked with in the business beyond you program really struggled with finding good people so I don't know why I managed to attract people who care about me and my business as much as I do.
Speaker A:So if you are thinking that you'll never find someone like that then actually do you know what?
Speaker A:I think you might be wrong because I've been really, really lucky.
Speaker A:I feel supported.
Speaker A:We haven't actually covered the cost of hiring a team, so let me share with you that I don't have any actual employees.
Speaker A:I would say Olga is a contractor, so it's flexible, which is heavenly.
Speaker A:Then Nicole was paid for four social posts a week, so she was paid on an output rate rather than an hourly rate.
Speaker A:And Jo, my VA is £25 an hour and she just bills for whatever she does.
Speaker A:She luckily doesn't have a minimum set hours.
Speaker A:So I'm really, really lucky that I can flex as I need to in my business to grow.
Speaker A:Okay, here is your action plan from today's episode.
Speaker A:So map out all of your current tasks if you haven't already.
Speaker A:Start creating loom videos every single time you do something in your business.
Speaker A:Don't think it's going to set you back and you haven't got.
Speaker A:You're doing the process anyway.
Speaker A:You just hit record on the video and then carry on with your life as if you weren't even recording yourself.
Speaker A:Think about the first role you want to hire and also keep thinking what is going to bring in the income?
Speaker A:What is their help going to help to free you up to do so?
Speaker A:For example, by having Olga.
Speaker A:I have recently collaborated with a coach training organization which has been on my list for years and now have a regular relationship with them to provide their coaches with business support.
Speaker A:And that is a really big thing that I haven't thought or shared much about yet because it will pretty much be like passive income because it's their business, they're doing the marketing and I'm just providing a service.
Speaker A:Also keep looking for what will make the biggest impact.
Speaker A:I know that testimonials and case studies have literally made my entire business.
Speaker A:So one of Olga's key tasks is to keep track and record all of our case studies or results from people.
Speaker A:Something that we have done is built in every single email I send some sort of screenshots of Love the planning day.
Speaker A:Come join me in the online version.
Speaker A:So how can you really utilize the things that are going to bring in income in your business and then actually take the time, which is what I'm doing right now in this moment to think because of those small changes of Olga, drafting something and putting it into my Kartra site for me as a draft email with all this social proof attached has genuinely brought in income in my business.
Speaker A:So don't be scared to hire.
Speaker A:Just think about what small things can bring you money in your business and even if that is not as a salesperson because Olga is not doing sales, it can free you up to do that big picture and exponential growth activities in your business.
Speaker A:Finally, if you haven't already, start building your automation ecosystem.
Speaker A:Really think about all the different things that you're doing on a regular basis and is there any ways of automating things?
Speaker A:If you are just starting your business, this isn't really something that you need to spend time on and I have lots of people in my business of coaching program seeing perhaps what I'm doing and wanting to do something similar.
Speaker A:But your best results will come from personal interaction.
Speaker A:So while we talk about automation and scaling, the more you can put your personal touch into it the better.
Speaker A:So don't always think that automating is better than just sending someone a reply.
Speaker A:And I'm still at the stage of my business where I send personalized replies to every email they send me.
Speaker A:So yes we can build out automations.
Speaker A:But don't forget the personal touch.
Speaker A:If you're listening to this in the three day window that it's being released which is the 9th, 10th and 11th of December, then head over to our Slack channel and share your learnings.
Speaker A:Ask your questions if you want help making this transition in your business.
Speaker A:This is the sort of thing we will be working on in my Next Level Mastermind which is starting on the 9th of January.
Speaker A:If you would like the details, drop me an email on joannaoanalotzcoaching.com and I will send you over the details and we can have a chat and see if it's right for you.
Speaker A:It would be wonderful to spend the time and get the support network around you to get your business to the place that it gives you the freedom that you dreamed of and frees up your headspace to spend time with your family and your clients rather than drowning in the admin Our Next Level Podcast series.
Speaker A:Tomorrow I will be sharing how you can create an amazing client experience that will build your brand and build your retention rate.
Speaker A:So I can't wait to see you then.
Speaker A:If you want to connect with me and other like minded coaches, don't forget to join our free Slack community which is open this week only.
Speaker A:There you will be part of a supportive space where we will continue the conversation and share all of our own insights to help each other to scale and grow our own coaching businesses sustainably.
Speaker A:You will find the link in the show notes to sign up.
Speaker A:I would love to see you there and hear your thoughts.
