S1: Welcome back to work woman! I am pumped about this episode.
S1: For those of you who are in business in the
S1: nitty gritty of how to scale and grow, you are
S1: going to love this episode. For those of you who
S1: are not about growing your business and could care less,
S1: this probably is not going to be the episode for you,
S1: because we are going to go so deep down the
S1: rabbit hole of process creation. How freaking fun! All right,
S1: before we get totally started, I want to explain why
S1: I have this gorgeous champagne glass. Um, this was a
S1: gift from Jared and Sandy gland. It is a Tiffany, uh,
S1: champagne glass. And it is gorgeous. But I want to
S1: explain why I have the champagne glass at 1017 in
S1: the morning. It has water in it. Don't worry. That
S1: is not vodka. This champagne glass is important because when
S1: we were having our holiday Christmas party in 2019, I
S1: made a toast. This was, I believe we had like
S1: 8 or 9 full time team members at the time,
S1: and we had all of their spouses with us. And
S1: I made this toast and the toast went something like,
S1: here's to however amazing 2019 was. I'm sure I read
S1: off some stats because that's just how I make toasts.
S1: But here's to 2020 and making process sexy. And we toasted.
S1: But it was one of those awkward toasts where they're like,
S1: what the frick is she talking about? Well, little did
S1: they know that this process that we're about to talk about,
S1: which is a process tracker, was about to be rolled
S1: out and all that unfolded in 2020 of actually utilizing
S1: this thing, making it work, getting our business organized because
S1: we knew although we only had 8 or 9 team
S1: members at the time, we knew that in order to
S1: grow and scale, we had to make it a priority
S1: when we were small to start documenting what was working
S1: for our business, how we were doing, what we were
S1: doing in order to duplicate our teams, to create more
S1: opportunity for each and every one of them to get
S1: out of their role because they had confidence that their
S1: current role was already being documented. If you do not
S1: focus on this as a business owner or as a
S1: leader in your department or your company, your business will
S1: not be able to scale. It can't. Because just think.
S1: Think about it this way. You have a front office
S1: team member, but your aspiration is to have six locations.
S1: Right now you only have one. If that front office
S1: team member does not duplicate in documentation form, what makes
S1: him or her so great as a front office team member?
S1: What is your confidence in opening up the second location?
S1: You might have confidence for the second location because you
S1: haven't actually gone through the process, and the pain of
S1: duplicating when it doesn't work out. If you don't have
S1: the foundation, what do you duplicate upon whatever you happen
S1: to put in for? The second option is what you get.
S1: So let's say you have a great front office staff.
S1: You still might. In the third process of duplicating, when
S1: you go to your third location, think that process documentation
S1: is not important until you happen to have what every
S1: business runs into, which is a poor performer. That front
S1: office team member that doesn't smile when she greets patients
S1: or customers, or doesn't answer phone calls because she doesn't
S1: really like the phone or is not interested in making
S1: outbound phone calls because not their job. If you do
S1: not know and have clarity around the process for how
S1: to not only should in the job posting it, say
S1: this is your job. So that's step number one. And
S1: if you want to go deep into what is required
S1: to make a fantastic job post to get the type
S1: of team you want, you should go check out the
S1: previous episode called What Do We Call That episode? We
S1: called it How to Write a Job post to get
S1: Your Dream Team. That was episode 31. Go check that
S1: one out so you have the post, but once you
S1: have the post, it's not just that you are answering
S1: a phone. How do you actually answer the phone? What
S1: do you say when somebody calls? If that process is
S1: not documented, you're duplication of 2 to 3 will will
S1: make you lose confidence in your ability to actually scale
S1: and grow your business to the six or the ten
S1: or the 100 that you are capable of. Do not
S1: let your lack of process documentation diminish what you are
S1: capable of, and what your potential is with the growth
S1: of your business. Don't do it. Just just make a decision.
S1: You're not going to allow that to happen. This is
S1: why my toast, my cheers to making process sexy was
S1: so important, because what I fully acknowledged is we were
S1: not going to allow process to be the thing that
S1: stopped Cardone Ventures. And I just have to be honest,
S1: I am the the last person in the building that
S1: is qualified to make process documentation. If you are familiar
S1: with the risk assessment, I am what is called an influencer,
S1: not in the traditional form of an influencer. I am
S1: somebody who just likes people. I like a lot of people.
S1: I like talking to them. I like just being liked.
S1: That's something that is important to me on a day
S1: to day basis. I'm not a heavy data person. I'm
S1: not heavy, heavily detail oriented in my core nature. So
S1: me being the person that processed documents has nothing to
S1: do with being qualified. And that's important because my guess
S1: is you don't feel like you are qualified to be
S1: the person in your organization that process documents for a
S1: minute or for a quarter or for a year. Let's
S1: forget what we prefer to do and what we are
S1: good at, and forego that for what is a priority
S1: for the organization in order to get our goals. This
S1: is the same as working out. You can say I'm
S1: not a morning person. Great. I know you're not a
S1: morning person. It's okay that you're not a morning person.
S1: You're still going to get up in the morning in
S1: order to work out so that you can get your goal.
S1: The goal has to outweigh the preference. The goal has
S1: to outweigh the preference. You cannot just choose to prefer
S1: not to document your processes. You have to choose to
S1: do it. So now that you're here and you're like, yes,
S1: I'm committed. 2021 we are going to make process sexy
S1: in my organization. I'm going to cheers to that. I'm
S1: going to take a little drink of water here. Delicious.
S1: And these glasses are so nice. Uh, now that we've
S1: made that decision, let's talk about how you actually go
S1: about doing this. Because it's easy to say, I'm going
S1: to do it. And it's challenging when you get back
S1: home in front of your computer to say, where the
S1: frick do I start? For us, I'm going to do
S1: this whole demonstration around the Google suite. So we use
S1: Google Suite as an organization. So that means instead of
S1: Excel that sheets instead of Microsoft Word, that's docs. I'll
S1: do my best to kind of make that differentiation. But
S1: let's not get caught up in that. Let's just focus
S1: on how we actually put this in place. The first step,
S1: like we're going to go through these and baby steps.
S1: I was trying to figure out how I want to
S1: do this podcast because it's going to get really nitty gritty.
S1: But um, there's no other way besides literally talking about
S1: opening up an Excel document and putting a framework in place.
S1: So let's roll with it. The first step is creating
S1: an Excel or Sheets document called Process Tracker in your
S1: shared drive. As an organization, you should also have a
S1: folder that has this process tracker as an item, and
S1: then you break out your departments underneath those that tracker
S1: in folders so that each department can go into sales
S1: or marketing or finance. They don't have to look at
S1: this long list of all of the different departments processes.
S1: This keeps things organized for new team members. It keeps
S1: it organized for cross training. Meaning if your sales team
S1: members also do some pieces of marketing potentially, or they're
S1: interested in moving from sales to marketing, it's very easy
S1: for the entire team to know what is the process
S1: for X, y, z. The other reason that this is
S1: important is sometimes a lot of times processes are cross department,
S1: but there should be one part, one department that actually
S1: owns the move forward of every single process. That's the
S1: department that you put that process in. So for instance,
S1: let's say your organization runs events. There are lots of
S1: departments that touch events. You have to sell the event.
S1: You have to account for the event. You have to
S1: prep the team who's going to be on site at
S1: the event. So just in those three areas, there are
S1: three different departments that that touch. It's still an events process,
S1: but you tie in these other departments through the steps
S1: which we're going to get into. Don't get too overwhelmed.
S1: We're still at opening up a document on your computer
S1: that says Process Tracker and putting a centralized place for
S1: processes to get created. Think of this as your container.
S1: I don't want to just breeze past this because in
S1: you creating a container, you are going to be able
S1: to organize the thing that comes up. What I hear
S1: most from business owners is the frustration of I don't
S1: know where to put this. So the overwhelm of a
S1: situation where something didn't go right, a team member didn't
S1: do what you wanted them to do, but there is
S1: no way to be able to say, here's how to
S1: actually do it. That feels like you could easily slot
S1: it in to a container that always gets tracked back
S1: to that people know to go to when updates and
S1: changes gets made, is where business owners don't even start
S1: the process of documenting, because it's always the little tiny
S1: thing that emphasizes the need for this big structure. But
S1: then the big structure is overwhelming. If you do it
S1: this way and you split in this tracker, so you
S1: have your it's literally like a sheet tracker. You have
S1: sales that has a section, you have marketing that has
S1: a section, you have finance that has a section. That way,
S1: you know, okay, right now we're only going to create
S1: one sales process. Like we have this problem with sales.
S1: At this moment we are only going to create one.
S1: We know that there are multiple sales processes. This is
S1: not to say that there are not more, but these
S1: are the locations of the ones that we do know exist.
S1: Once you have this in place, it's going to be
S1: so easy. It's like clockwork when an issue comes up
S1: and a client isn't handled properly, or there was a
S1: ball that was dropped. Yes, you have to address that
S1: situation in the moment to fix it. But then, you know, okay,
S1: I'm going to put a process. This is where it's
S1: going to go. This will save you so many headaches
S1: as you scale and grow your business. I promise this
S1: will take you less than 15 minutes originally through the
S1: exercise that we're going to work through to set up.
S1: And then you just know to always go back to
S1: that as soon as an issue arises. I don't want
S1: to make this overly complex and have you guys feel like, oh,
S1: this is so overwhelming and it's so much work. The
S1: starting point is the easy part, the the issues with
S1: your team individually and not being able to scale and
S1: grow your business and you losing confidence in the opportunity.
S1: That's what's hard. Process documentation shouldn't be that hard. Okay,
S1: so you have in your columns of your Excel or
S1: Sheets sheet, you have the department in column A, column B,
S1: you have the process name. Column C is the link
S1: to the actual process. Those are the only things that
S1: are in the tracker. I'm going to repeat that column
S1: A is the department. Column B is the process name.
S1: Column C is the link to that process. Depending on
S1: how much time you have, you can brainstorm with your
S1: departments the processes that you know need to be created
S1: in order to kick start this. This is what I
S1: did in 2019. It's like, okay, let me sit down
S1: for five minutes with each department and rattle off all
S1: of the products or services or things that I know
S1: need to have a process around it. And once I
S1: created just my brain dump, I then went to the
S1: department head and we prioritized which ones were going to
S1: be written first, based on which area of growth the
S1: business was going to have. The biggest pain point in.
S1: You don't just randomly start creating process for process sake.
S1: You should start by creating the processes that absolutely need
S1: to be documented that will allow for growth or funneling
S1: any sort of activity, whether that be client or team activity.
S1: Through that process. So if you go through each one
S1: of those departments, that's pretty straightforward. Let's say you have
S1: eight departments in your organization times five minutes. Uh, what
S1: is that, 40 minutes? Yes, that's 40 minutes. I'm not
S1: the best at mental math here. Will just like, nodded
S1: his head like, yes, thank you. 40 minutes. So now
S1: we're up to 40 minutes. You created it. You put
S1: your folders in place and you did 40 minutes of
S1: prep work. You do not have to do that prep work.
S1: If you are strong with your department heads and you
S1: feel like this is something where they can have the
S1: opportunity to have transparency into their thinking, you can put
S1: this structure in place and then send it to them
S1: and say, hey, I want you to spend. If they're
S1: the department head, they should be spending at least 15,
S1: maybe 30 minutes going through and listing out the processes
S1: that are within their department. So once they've done that,
S1: all of a sudden you're back down to all you
S1: had to do was create the framework and process. So again,
S1: these are different options to be able to lean into
S1: your existing team or to give enough framework so that
S1: you've kind of you've not stopped yourself from having to
S1: have multiple conversations with every single team member about how
S1: this is supposed to work. If you are going to
S1: send it to your team to have them fill this out.
S1: My strong recommendation would be for you to do one
S1: of the departments, like if you are a leader, but
S1: you also, um, but you also have your own department.
S1: If you're the business owner and you have your own department,
S1: you would do those examples so that they can actually
S1: see and have reality on what that looks like. Okay.
S1: Once you have your process names, then the next question
S1: I always get asked is what does process documentation look like?
S1: What am I actually supposed to be documenting in these processes,
S1: and how do I standardize this? I will caveat this
S1: by saying there are different businesses that listen to this
S1: podcast that have different flexibility around how stringent process documentation
S1: should look like. I'm going to introduce you to a
S1: framework that we create all processes in, and I've never
S1: come across a process that cannot be put into this framework.
S1: But if you want to try me on that, I
S1: am happy to review your process. If you want to
S1: shoot an email to info at Cardone ventures.com, I'd be
S1: interested to see if there was one that just couldn't
S1: fit into this framework. I have not found one yet,
S1: but that's okay. You might be the first. So back
S1: to our process tracker. The very first row should be
S1: a link to the template. So you have like literal
S1: row one says template with a link to click on
S1: that template. So this is what's used in column C
S1: to link out once it's customized by the process. So
S1: you have the template the department head or you goes
S1: into that template fills out their process. Then they link
S1: it in column C. So at the end of the
S1: day you have the department filled out all of the, uh,
S1: process names filled out, and then you have the actual
S1: links that tie out. But when you first start, you're
S1: going to have a bunch of empty links. Now we
S1: need to work on how you create a process template
S1: that works for your organization. So let's just dive right
S1: on in. We have this concept called vision, commitment and
S1: execution plans. These are used in a variety of ways
S1: in our organization. But one is in order to process document.
S1: Every single thing that you put into a department has
S1: a reason that you were doing it. You are not
S1: just some sadistic person that likes to create process for
S1: processes sake that has no value. What you recognize as
S1: a leader or as a business owner is it has
S1: immense value, and that's why you are spending your resources
S1: to create this. But oftentimes a process as somebody doing
S1: it gets lost in the bigger scheme. Like, why is
S1: this important for the organization to be able to uphold
S1: this process? And so this vision commitment, Execution Plan framework
S1: allows you to frame for any team member, even if
S1: you only have eight right now. When you have 80
S1: team members, it's going to allow you to frame for
S1: them why this thing that they're doing is so critically important.
S1: In order for the business to function and serve its
S1: clients the way that it needs to. This always feels
S1: a little weird for smaller businesses to start implementing because
S1: it feels like too grandiose, but you have to put
S1: your yourself in the perspective of somebody who's never likely
S1: talked to you as a business owner, or if you're
S1: a department head and a leader, they've never talked to
S1: you because there's different management layers in between you and them.
S1: That's just the reality. So knowing that, how can you
S1: leave these impactful messages, so to speak, to these team
S1: members for why this is so critical and why you've
S1: had this role to begin with? So the vision statement,
S1: every single process that we have has a vision behind it.
S1: So I could pull up a couple and give you
S1: some examples towards the end. But I want to make
S1: sure that you understand this is like one maybe two sentences.
S1: If it's an events process, the vision would be something like.
S1: This process was created in order for every client to
S1: have a remarkable experience. When they meet our Cardone Ventures
S1: team at an event, and ensures that the details will
S1: be smoothly taken care of and deliver to them a
S1: ten-x experience. That's the vision. So all of a sudden
S1: when you're that role, you're not stuck in, oh, I
S1: have to update this tracker and I have to take
S1: out the trash in this area, and I have to
S1: send out this email communication because that's the nitty gritty.
S1: But the purpose of those nitty gritty things are so
S1: important because it allows the client to have a remarkable experience,
S1: which is important for the organization to hit its goals,
S1: which then means it's important for the team members to
S1: hit their goals through working with you. Vision statements. Important commitment.
S1: So commitment has two parts. What is the team member's
S1: commitment and what is the leadership team's commitment? The leadership's
S1: commitment is giving the right process and training to the
S1: team member, so they have confidence in their role. This
S1: is a step that's often missed. So many business owners
S1: just get mad that their team doesn't do the things
S1: that they want them to do. But then when you
S1: ask the question, well, how did you tell them to
S1: do that? They don't have an answer. Well, this is
S1: how you tell them, and you provide them the assurance
S1: that this is what this is supposed to look like.
S1: And I'm detailing out what my expectation is. That way,
S1: if they don't do your expectation, you can go back
S1: and say, well, this was listed for you, why didn't
S1: you read it? And they're like, oh, I didn't think
S1: it was important to read it the second time. They
S1: do that wrong. And you've already gone through the training
S1: because it was your commitment to train them on them.
S1: And they say, oh, well, I just forgot. That allows
S1: you to not let that person be a team member
S1: in your organization because it's a willingness to learn. It's
S1: not a skill issue because you provided them the skill.
S1: The commitment on their end is to learn the process,
S1: to master the process, and then ideally be able to
S1: train other people on this process. So that's two steps.
S1: Their commitment, your commitment. The execution step is much more
S1: traditional process documentation. This is the actual things that need
S1: to happen in ideally a sequential order for the business
S1: to move this process forward and for somebody to have
S1: clarity on these things. In most of our documentation, we
S1: include video links to the process. A lot of our
S1: work is done on a actual computer, whether it's client
S1: calls or financial modeling or putting together a marketing budget.
S1: So all of those things exist on a computer. Therefore,
S1: we can have somebody narrate, this is what I'm doing,
S1: this is where I click to find that blah, blah blah,
S1: so that there's just additional context that's given and there's
S1: no wiggle room for somebody saying, oh, I didn't know
S1: you were supposed to click on that. Well, it's in
S1: the video. Uh, the second piece is because it's on there,
S1: we detail what the process step is, and then we
S1: take a screenshot of it so it serves as a guide.
S1: What I've been talking about is in these execution steps.
S1: But as a framework for execution. I'm just going to
S1: recap this. We start with vision, which has one statement.
S1: The template then has commitment, which has two pieces the
S1: leadership teams, the team members. Then in the execution steps,
S1: you can add little places to put a video overview
S1: and to put screenshots. The bulk of the steps as
S1: a framework should always follow a pre, during and post framework.
S1: Think of this as any activity that takes place in
S1: your organization. I'm just going to continue to use this
S1: events one, because I think it flows nicely before somebody
S1: attends an event. How many things need to happen in
S1: order for that event to run smoothly, like a 25, 30, 45?
S1: Quite a few. All of those things should be documented.
S1: The pre steps to making that act successful need to
S1: be documented in sequential order. Then the during steps, what
S1: needs to take place to create a remarkable experience for
S1: that event. Everything that happens during that then needs to
S1: be documented as well. And then the last step is post.
S1: So you don't just have an event, everybody just doesn't
S1: show up and then leave and have nothing happen. There's
S1: surveys to be sent out. There is follow up with
S1: the venue to make sure that everything went well. There's
S1: the invoicing, there's the tracking, there's the testimonials. Like there
S1: are steps that should happen every single time to ensure
S1: that we're capturing what we need to capture after it
S1: takes place. Most people just show up when they do
S1: a process documentation, and they only think about what needs
S1: to be happening during the call. I'm going to write
S1: a sales script for the call, but then they entirely
S1: neglect what happened to prep for that call and what
S1: needed to happen in follow up after that call. So
S1: they missed the pre and the post and everybody focuses
S1: on the during. The other mistake that everybody makes is
S1: just focusing on all of the steps and not framing
S1: why it needs to happen and what my commitment is
S1: as a leader and what their commitment is as a
S1: team member. The execution. Like if you're looking at your
S1: current process documentation, What I would encourage you to do
S1: is say, okay, I already have scripts for a salesperson.
S1: That is the bulk of the during. That's great. Plop
S1: that into this framework, but then add the context for
S1: the pre, add the context for the post, and then
S1: just write a few statements for why it's important and
S1: who's responsible for those two things. Last piece of the
S1: process documentation or of the template is creating a matrix
S1: for who created this document, who approved this document when
S1: it was created and when it was last modified. This
S1: will allow changes to happen all the time because as
S1: we talked about when we first started this, the purpose
S1: of process documentation isn't to put something in stone and
S1: like print it like in a book like you do.
S1: You never have a printed book in 2021 because technology changes,
S1: the requirements change, a new idea comes up. You need
S1: to have flexibility around this, but you also need to
S1: be able to track that flexibility so that it doesn't
S1: just get lost. So this last rubric is really helpful
S1: so that if it was a previous employee that no
S1: longer even works with you, you can. And maybe they
S1: weren't even all that great of a performer then, you know, oh,
S1: I need to go back and relook at this to
S1: make sure that this is actually the right way to
S1: get this done. To create context, the next steps in
S1: our document says send to approver for approval and then
S1: update Process tracker with new process name link and appropriate folder.
S1: So the team is now trained to just put back
S1: this process tracker. It's always to put back this process tracker.
S1: Well an additional note on this. Depending on the size
S1: of your business, we've been able to manage this all
S1: the way up to the 50 employee mark. One person
S1: should be in charge of making sure that every single
S1: one of these processes is approved in a standardized format,
S1: so that that can then be duplicated with teams. Beyond.
S1: What this means is, I am that one person in
S1: this organization. So regardless of if it's sales or marketing
S1: or finance or operations or learning content, I am ultimately
S1: going to be reviewing these to make sure that this
S1: is exactly the way that it needs to be done,
S1: and that this tracker has continuity to it, so that
S1: when new team members join, there's one way that we
S1: do things and it's grooved into the organization until the
S1: organization is actually ready for the department to take this
S1: on itself. If you don't have one person approving processes
S1: and you allow this looseness to take place, what you're
S1: going to find is inconsistencies. And in order to create confidence, remember,
S1: process is all about creating confidence. In order to really
S1: create that confidence, one person has to have visibility into
S1: this project. Now, eventually I will hand this off to
S1: one other person and that will likely scale until around
S1: 200 to 250 employees for the management of just the processes.
S1: But that is resource well spent in an organization because
S1: without it, the business doesn't have the operating manual for
S1: it to work in. All of a sudden you're going
S1: to hit these break points. When you hire your 80th
S1: or your 120th employee where there were things documented, but
S1: they're not really updated any longer. You just have to
S1: be diligent about it. And this is why I made
S1: the toast of we're going to make process sexy because
S1: this is not fun work. There's nothing fun about this
S1: unless you are a freak. I do not find this fun,
S1: but I find it useful. And I find it to
S1: be the thing that needs to happen at this stage
S1: of the organization. So when you make a funny toast
S1: and you provide lightheartedness to something that isn't fun, that's
S1: also you demonstrating your leadership abilities because you as a
S1: team need to do not fun things in order to
S1: scale and grow your business. When people on social media
S1: make it seem so fun and exciting and you know,
S1: people driving around in nice cars and having big meetings,
S1: That's like 5% of growing and scaling a business. The 95%
S1: is this type of work. And when you can add
S1: light heartedness and make this work feel fun and get
S1: enthusiasm and excitement and explain why it's so important to
S1: your team, ideally you can get their buy in and
S1: influence them so that it doesn't feel as dreadful as
S1: process documentation oftentimes is. So with that, I hope that
S1: you enjoyed this. If you have any questions at all,
S1: feel free to shoot me a DM. I would love
S1: to answer your questions. This is something that we go
S1: pretty deep into at the Ten-x 360 event, where we
S1: talk about the importance for KPI trackers. We talk about
S1: the importance of your financials, tying out to the processes
S1: that you're creating, and how you strategically prioritize those resources.
S1: So if you're interested in getting more information on that,
S1: go to Cardone ventures.com forward slash Ten-x 360. Guys until
S1: next week. Make it a great one.