Process Breakdown Podcast (audio)

Empathy is the tool Liz Illg uses to run her business. On this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, Ms. Illg talks about process development using her grounded method “the client love process,” a method that helps you build business processes based on genuine and intentional client care implemented at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Ms. Illg, also known as “The Process Queen,” shares the lessons she learned from scaling her pet-grooming business from zero, and she reveals the problems she encountered due to lack of process. 

She shares practical insights on ways to implement her ‘Client Love Process’ method to your company’s onboarding procedures, the biggest mistakes you might be making with your processes, and how to jump these hurdles appropriately.

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Key Resource List:

* SweetProcess.com* Lizillg.com* Puff and Fluff Grooming and Pet Sitting* Never Lose a Customer Again by Joey Coleman

Show Notes:

0:08 – Podcast intro

0:55 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures, SweetProcess, highlighting a 14-day free trial.

1:36 – The guest speaker, Liz Illg, is introduced.

2:21 – The guest talks about how she started her pet-grooming business with zero employees and with little to no money in her pocket. The company is now of high value.

4:23 – Ms. Illg shares the first nightmare she encountered when starting her business.

5:20 – Ms. Illg talks about how she battled through her first company problem.

7:52 – The guest speaker shares her story of becoming The Process Queen.

9:27 – The speaker talks about her proven process method, The Client Love Process, and how she uses it to run and scale her pet-grooming business successfully. 

11:40 – She also shares a book, Never Lose a Customer Again: Turn Any Sale into Lifelong Loyalty in 100 Days by Joey Coleman, a book that has helped her implement processes effectively.

18:05 – The guest speaker gives real-life scenarios of The Client Love Process in action when onboarding clients.

23:21 – The speaker shares the next step she takes after onboarding clients.

26:57 – The speaker talks about the biggest mistakes that companies make when it comes to processes.

30:40 – Ms. Illg suggests some gift ideas you could give your clients.

34:00 – The speaker shares her favorite Audible books.

Documenting your processes is just as important as having them. On this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, he features Erin Mathie, a process development and automation expert with more than seven years of experience in system development.

She breaks down the significance of companies having standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the risk attached when you don’t have SOPs to help document your processes. She also explains how to go about creating SOPs for your company as well as the what-to-dos and what-not-to-dos.

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Key Resource List: 

* SweetProcess.com* Business Made Simple

Show Notes:

0:05 – Podcast introduction

0:56 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures, SweetProcess, highlighting a 14-day free trial.

1:46 – The guest speaker, Erin Mathie, is introduced.

2:32 – Mathie shares how companies should start tackling their SOPs with a practical example of her past client.

3:56 – The guest shares the first things she does with companies that have let go of staff and need documentation on their job process.

6:10 – Mathie shares the highest risk factor of companies that don’t document their work processes.

7:20 – The guest shares tips on solving your business bottlenecks.

8:15 – The speaker shares preventive measures that could be used in tackling bottlenecks with an example of a company that had late invoice payment issues with their clients.

10:16 – The speakers talk about the relationships that companies have with SOPs.

11:01 – The speaker shares practical steps to follow when you work on your SOPs.

12:45 – The guest shares how you can develop an SOP mindset for smooth work development with an effective tool she uses.

15:23 – Mathie shares the mistakes companies make when creating SOPs.

17:30 – The guest recommends the tools she uses for process automation.

19:02 – The guest shares how she uses Zapier.

19:32 – The guest shares the enthralling story of how she transitioned from being a science teacher to a successful entrepreneur.

20:54 – The speaker shares the first step you should take when systemizing processes.

22:12 – Outro

Guest Profile

Erin Mathie is a professional process and systems developer. She is the founder of Business Made Simple, a management consulting company that helps businesses create and automate processes...

The Chief Operating Officer or COO is an important thought leader of any company. If you’re looking to be a COO, trying to be a better COO, or you’re new to the job and you want to know the ins and outs, potholes to avoid, and best practices of being one, then this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast with the host Dr. Jeremy Weisz is for you.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz features Bill Shepard, the founder, and CEO of the Chief Operating Officer Business Forum, a company aimed at creating a safe place where chief operating officers can find peer support, guidance, and collaboration to help them succeed in their jobs.

He speaks about ways COOs can have better and more meaningful relationships with CEOs, as he has been in both positions, and also shares the challenges that come with being a COO and how to overcome them.

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Key Resource List:

SweetProcess.com

COO Forum

COOs in Transition

Show Notes:

0:05 – Podcast introduction

00:47 – Dr. Weisz talks about SweetProcess, an SOP software that makes it drop-dead easy to train and onboard new staff and save time with existing staff. It is used by hospitals, banks, and first responder government agencies that use it in life or death situations to run their operation. He also highlights their 14-day free trial.

1:30 – Dr. Weisz introduces the guest speaker, Mr. Bill Shepard.

2:20 – Mr. Shepard shares some of the ways COOs can create an amazing relationship with CEOs.

8:04 – The guest talks about the COO’s journey; the good and the troubles of every emerging COO.

10:05 – Mr. Shepard gives a list of things and the kind of attitude every COO should bring when having a meeting with the CEO.

11:26 – Mr. Shepard shares the winning way a COO can create a meaningful relationship with a CEO.

13:50 – The guest speaker shares a story on staying in your domain as a COO and showing respect for the CEO’s decision.

18:23 – The guest shares another example of the key things to do when trying to build a strong relationship with the CEO.

20:00 – Mr. Shepard talks about the most challenging thing for COOs and how to overcome the hurdles.

21:43 – Mr. Shepard gives an example of a challenge most COOs face when building a relationship with CEOs and how to get through it.

24:20 – The speaker shares a valuable way his company, Chief Operating Officer Business Forum, is helping COOs who have been or would be furloughed or laid off. He gives another example of the downsides and difficulties in the role as a COO due to these uncertain times and...

Do you think of ways to add value to your company? Have you ever thought of selling your service-based business? Or are you thinking of selling your service-based business?

And most importantly, should you be thinking about selling it?

If your answer is yes or no to any of the above questions, you’d be surprised that your service-based business may not worth as much as you think.

On this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, he features John Warrillow, founder of The Value Builder System™, a system that helps you determine if your business is valuable enough to be sold.

Mr. Warrillow shares stories of how service-inclined business owners discovered the emptiness of their company’s worth when they were selling it, and he then shares practical tips and insights on how to gauge the value of your business and how to improve it.

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Key Resource List:

SweetProcess.comBuilt to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without YouThe Value Builder SystemCheck Your Company’s Sellability Score

Show Notes:

0:05 – Podcast introduction1:08 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures, Sweet Process, and highlights their 14-day free trial.

1:56 – The guest speaker, John Warrillow, is introduced to listeners

4:50 – The guest talks about how to approach the difficult conversation with your teammates and employees when you’re about to sell or thinking of selling your company.

7:06 – Mr. Warrillow gives insights on how to brand your business in a way that your service brand is sellable.

9:03 – Mr. Warrillow gives an example of a service-based brand that planned on selling their company but found it to be unsellable. He then explains the steps the owner took to make the company sellable.

10:48 – The guest speaker shares ways to redefine your business to become an asset, in the event you decide to leave. He introduces an example of how he had to rebrand his own company in order to make it sellable.

12:09 – The speaker shares the steps he took to make his service-based company sellable: what was impactful, what flopped, and how he eventually scaled it.

15:03 – Mr. Warrillow shares the ways to effectively “niche down” as a service company that wants to scale using his working system, The Scalability Finder. 

17:10 – The speaker shares the secrets of niching down your business, and the questions you should ask yourself throughout the process.

Processes are an important part of running a business. They help to simplify tasks, understand insights, and keep work organized. In this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast, we interview Joe Bockerstette, a partner at Business Enterprise Mapping, an organization aimed at transforming organizations by changing how they solve problems and manage work. 

Joe speaks on how to measure and improve your company’s process and how it would positively affect your company afterward. He shares the common mistakes companies make with processes, how to resolve them, and why business mapping and measuring your process is important.

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Key Resource List:

* SweetProcess.com* BusinessMapping.com

Show Notes:

0:05 – Podcast intro

0:47 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures, Sweet Process, highlighting a 14-day free trial.

1:33 – The guest speaker, Joe Bockerstette, is introduced.

2:30 – The guest talks about the time he won Golfweek 2019 Father of the Year, and his experience as a board chair of the National Down Syndrome Society and co-founder of the Down Syndrome Association of Northeast Indiana.

6:29 – Mr. Bockerstette shares what process-based measurements mean.

7:49 – Mr. Bockerstette talks about the process-related pain points he faces when he’s working with companies.

9:08 – The guest speaker shares his process, including how he starts measuring and improving a company’s process.

11:46 – The speaker shares the biggest mistakes companies are making with process measuring. 

13:57 – Mr. Bockerstette speaks on one of the main characteristics of process measurement.

16:21 – The speaker shares how he handles doubts and pushbacks from clients when working to improve their process.

18:03 – Mr. Bockerstette gives an example of a client they worked with and the pushbacks they encountered and how he went about the situation.

20:06 – Mr. Bockerstette talks about business enterprise mapping and how his company handles it.

22:44 – Mr. Bockerstette talks on the types of process measurements.

26:05 – The guest speaker shares the questions people who feel business mapping isn’t important should ask themselves.

27:56 – Outro

Guest Profile:

Joe Bockerstette is an executive and consulting partner with more than thirty years of experien...

In this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast we interview Gray MacKenzie, the founder of ZenPilot, an agency that helps digital agencies find the structure and the process needed for them to operate, scale, and grow effectively.

Gray shares practical insights on how you can structure your digital agency to produce results consistently, and how to develop a process that would help you improve the quality, consistency, or efficiency of your client services delivery and agency operations.

He shares tips on the major process-inclined pain points, biggest mistakes, and how to go about solving them.

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Key Resource List:

* ZenPilot.com* GuavaBox.com

Show Notes:

0:05 – Podcast intro

0:41 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures, Sweet Process, highlighting a 14-day free trial.

1:35 – The guest speaker, Gray MacKenzie, is introduced.

2:10 – The guest talks about how he and his business partner, Andrew Dymski, started their digital agency, GuavaBox.

3:57 – Mr. MacKenzie talks about the biggest mistakes they made when they first started their agency.

6:50 – The guest speaker shares ways you can set up a process that would help strengthen the delivery of your service as a service-based company.

7:45 – The speaker shares a story of how they worked with a web agency to help strengthen their deliverables and make the quality of their work standard despite the designer or developer working on it.

8:48 – Mr. MacKenzie talks on how to optimize your processes as an agency to get better results when working with varying client’s needs.

10:15 – The speaker gives more advice on creating processes as an agency.

11:07 – The guest speaks on the challenges he faced with setting pricing when he first started his agency and how he resolved it.

12:08 – The guest gives advice on the questions every agency should ask themselves during the sales process that would help with systemization.

13:05 – Mr. MacKenzie speaks on which is better: having a game plan or using direct sales when trying to acquire customers.

14:44 – The guest speaker talks about when an agency should use dire sales for client acquisition.

18:20 – Mr. MacKenzie shares some of the tools companies should be using for task management during their onboarding process.

21:55 – Mr. MacKenzie shares some of the tools for his agency.

23:33 – The guest speaker shares his thoughts on call tracking tools like gong.io.

24:40 – Mr.

Introduction

President of Marc Nelson Oil Products, Peter Nelson, had the advantage of experience in his industry after having run his business for decades. But the absence of documented business processes, procedures, and policies created a knowledge gap among his employees and affected their performance. Peter sought the help of Adi Klevit—a business process consultant – in finding the right system for documenting their business processes, procedures, and policies. Having tried several systems, Adi recommended SweetProcess due to its reliability. Both of them worked together to streamline the company’s business processes and create efficiency among employees. They share their experience with us in this case study. First, let us know more about the company to put things in perspective. 

Peter Nelson, President of Marc Nelson Oil Products, Inc.

Adi Klevit, CEO at Business Success Consulting Group

About Marc Nelson Oil Products

Marc Nelson Oil Products is a supplier of oil products such as diesel, lubricants, and gasoline to filling stations. It offers customers a complete experience from the purchase, delivery, and management of their products. 

Established in 1936, the organization leverages its wealth of experience in delivering excellent services and satisfying the needs of its customers. With four bulk plants and eleven automated commercial fuel stations under its belt, it offers its host community Oregon 24/7 access to fuels. 

In sync with the latest technology in fuel management, the organization offers customers the opportunity to track their products using an inventory management system and a card lock. It prioritizes the safety of customers and the general public with the use of reliable tanks and an analysis and sampling system to evaluate the condition of fluids in vehicles. 

The company currently has fifty-five employees.

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The Biggest Pain Point

Skilled and experienced employees are an asset to any organization. Peter has employees who have worked at his company for over twenty years. Such employees have the skills to deliver great results. But what happens when they decide to leave the company? They leave with all the knowledge and skill they have acquired over the years, leaving a huge gap behind. Peter explains that this can be very painful:

“I have some people here that have been here longer than twenty years, so they really know the business, and not everything is written down. It isn’t written down in a precise, clearly defined manner and so when somebody leaves, it’s painful.”

New employees coming in to replace those who have left have a hard time settling in, as they do not have an existing document to consult for assistance.

Introduction

Luke Pickerill, president of MonteVista Homes, helps home buyers achieve the American dream of owning a home by building custom homes at a production home value price. Building high-quality homes to clients’ satisfaction require a high level of efficiency. However, a lack of effective business process documentation used to cause setbacks. An attempt to resolve the problem with manual documentation was unsuccessful. Luke was convinced there was a better solution out there, and he sought it out online. He found several software solutions, but SweetProcess stood out for many reasons. Read along to find out those reasons and how the organization leveraged them to improve their workflow. First, let us have a backdrop of the company.

Luke Pickerill, president of MonteVista Homes

About MonteVista Homes

MonteVista Homes is a second-generation, family-owned home building company based in the state of Oregon. It offers clients a complete home acquisition experience from choosing a suitable neighborhood to choosing their preferred design specifications. 

Prioritizing the comfort and safety of its clients, the company operates on a 250+ Point Proprietary Quality Control Assurance system to maintain high standards in all its projects. Its home designs are created to suit the taste and lifestyle of homebuyers in Oregon. 

MonteVista Homes offers homebuyers good value for their money with competitive pricing. Its homes are built with high-quality materials and sold to clients at affordable prices. 

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The Biggest Pain Point

Construction work is highly technical. The intricate details can sometimes be complex even for an expert.

“It’s actually a very complicated process. From an operational perspective, it’s relatively complex,” Luke admits. 

The job requires a lot of manpower and it takes the collective effort of everyone to achieve set targets.

“There are all of the day-to-day operations that go along with that, but then we employ about seventy-five to a hundred individual trade partners in order to get these homes built. Each trade partner may have anywhere between one to forty employees.”

Although the various trade partners work on different projects, they all have to move at the same pace to complete the production circle. But there was a disparity in the knowledge base of workers that hindered a uniformity in operations. Luke laments that this was the hardest nut to crack. 

“The most challenging part is the operational organizational side of it. You have, at any given time, fifty homes under construction. You have a certain number of trades that are involved in any given market group. As one trade gets ahead of schedule early or late, that can affect all other buildings simultaneously.”

The team acknowledged the need for SOPs,

Introduction

Ben Hendershot is the Chief Operating Officer at Altvia. Working in an organization that helps private equity firms and other private market participants operationalize their software, he was no stranger to streamlining business processes. He was keen on improving his company’s business operations, but finding the right system was a bottleneck. Ben understood that his team would be more efficient if they had all the tools that they needed in one place, instead of toggling between different systems. He found the missing plug after trying out SweetProcess. He tells us about how SweetProcess fine-tuned their operations. First, let us know more about the company for a better understanding.

Ben Hendershot Chief Operating Officer at Altvia

About Altvia

Altvia is a software-driven company that assists private equity firms to strengthen their relationships with clients using data intelligence. The company leverages the best technology and processes to create a free flow of communication between limited partners (LPs), general partners (GPs), and portfolio organizations. 

A premier entity for private equity created on salesforce, the Broomfield-based organization offers various expert services including investor relations, business intelligence, capital raise and deployment, and compliance.

Established in 2006, Altvia has a clientele of top firms across the world.

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Their Biggest Pain Point: Too Many Processes

Many organizations suffer from the lack of documented business processes in their workflow. However, this was not the case with Altvia. They created too many processes that impeded their workflow. 

“We had lots of different processes and procedures and documentation spread across various systems. We had an internal wiki of sorts that had a whole bunch of instructions in it,” Ben says.  

Creating tons of processes was meant to enhance their efficiency, but it turned out to be counterproductive. With as many as ten different processes for one task, team members were overwhelmed. They struggled to sieve the useful information from the fluff. Sometimes they mistakenly picked the wrong document from the pile. They also had many questions about what to do and how to do it. It became apparent to Ben that something was off, and all fingers pointed at the gaps in their processes.

Finding a Great Product at an Irresistible Price

Ben’s decision to adopt SweetProcess was born out of a need to resolve an operational problem. He wanted to be able to create a single version of every procedure to avoid things getting mixed up. 

“When I heard of SweetProcess and when we implemented it, it was great because you can only have one version that’s active of a particular procedure or process. Therefore, you minimize the likelihood that somebody is going to look out fo...

Introduction

Mary Pittman is the Process Improvement Leader at IMS ExpertServices, a consultative firm that caters to the world’s most influential law firms. Dealing with such an elite clientele demands excellence. Employees are required to be on their A-game at all times. But achieving that was difficult using manual documentation methods. There was a knowledge gap problem among the staff. Mary understood that having the right system in place was essential to deliver the great results the company needed. Mary’s quest to streamline their processes led to her discovery of SweetProcess. She tells us how SweetProcess made the staff more efficient and accountable. First, let us learn more about the company for better understanding.

Mary Pittman Process Improvement Leader at IMS ExpertServices

About IMS ExpertServices

IMS ExpertServices is a consultative expert services firm trusted by the top attorneys. It supports the world’s most influential firms through rigorous research, strategic alignment, and management services to position them for success on complex litigation and important matters.

The organization mainly works with the top 100 firms across the United States and also offers consulting services. It provides expert witnesses and manages the engagement between clients and witnesses from start to finish. The firm acts as a mediator and resolves any disputes that may arise between both parties.

IMS ExpertServices has built a good reputation in the country with offices in various states including the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Dallas, and Pensacola. It has been in business for about three decades.

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The Biggest Pain Point: Juggling Too Many Systems

A difficult situation sometimes leaves us with many unanswered questions. Mary had her fair share of questions as she grappled with the manual systems in the organization.

“Why do we have so many homes for different documents? Why do I have to be in so many different systems to do something? Why do I have to be in a process chart type of system to create a process chart?”

Making use of different systems to execute the simplest of tasks was a problem. Navigating through hard-to-use systems was more difficult than the actual tasks. There was also a tribal knowledge problem among workers. A select few were privy to some vital information, while others were clueless. Operations suffered in the absence of the employees who had all the information. This was a difficult situation for the organization, and it impacted its outcomes negatively.

Signing Up for SweetProcess: A sigh of relief

Everyone at the organization, from the base to the top, was feeling the brunt of the inadequate systems on the ground. A COO was having difficulty getting his team through a system that was newly implemented.