The CEO Help Desk from Run Like Clockwork

It would be wonderful if clockworking your life + business just took a cookie-cutter plan. However, part of life inevitably includes unexpected crises. Clockwork prepares you to navigate unexpected crises with grace and ease.

Our guest on the Run Like Clockwork Podcast is Clockie winner, Leslie Liondas, CEO of Liondas CPA. In February, Texas was hit with a series of major snow storms… while Leslie was on vacation… during payroll time. If Leslie had not been clockworking her business, it could have been an absolute disaster! Instead, her team navigated this unexpected crisis in her absence with great success!

Topics Leslie + Emily cover on this episode:

• What the impact of the crisis would have been without clockwork in place
• Designing a business that's prepared for when life happens
• Implementing a new project management system
• How capturing systems gives peace of mind knowing crises are inevitable
• How processes can make sure you're not transferring bottlenecks to other team members

Have you experienced an unexpected crisis that rocked your life + business? Those experiences can either shut things down or be used as fuel for preparing for the next.

If you'd like to feel prepared for a crisis and not worried about what will happen to your business or team when (not if) something arises, we'd love to work with you! Apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

We are not creating oxygen. This saying is a guiding principle of our Clockwork culture - we say it all the time in our team, to our clients, to our family members, and anyone operating from a frantic energy. There's a difference between taking something seriously and thinking we're creating oxygen.

In this episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Adrienne + Emily dive into this motto and way of operating that is countercultural to hustle culture norm. This is an important part of our Clockwork Your LIfe series because this reframe will impact all areas of life + business… if you embrace it.

Topics Adrienne + Emily cover in this episode:

• The reframe from panic to perspective
• How to create a team culture that cultivates an environment of calm
• What to assess if your team is giving off frantic energy
• How available are you for others… really?

A culture of creating oxygen is often a byproduct of a business in need of efficient systems and processes. Nothing in your business should be an "emergency." Clockwork really helps you equip your team and systems to alleviate the "creating oxygen" energy… but it also starts with you and the culture you choose to cultivate.

How do you feel about this guiding principle? Is it one you have adopted or want to? We'd love to hear from you! Tag us on Instagram @rlclockwork or share inside our free Run Like Clockwork Facebook Community.

If you're ready to Clockwork, we'd love to work with you and your business. Apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to our most recent free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

Clockworking is like building the plane while it's flying. Your business is running, maybe not so smoothly, maybe on the verge of overheating, or maybe the weather conditions are unpredictable… whatever the current conditions, there's no perfect time. There's just make-it-happen time. Clockwork helps you turn your plane into a well-oiled machine.

Our guest on the Run Like Clockwork Podcast is Clockie winner, Véronique Desnoyers. She and her partner, Pedro Paparella, are actively clockworking their company, Ademic Media, while it's in full-flight. Véronique is the perfect guest to be in this Clockwork Your Life series because she works alongside her partner (talk about merging life + business!) and she exemplifies tenacity + grit, qualities needed to clockwork life + business!

Topics Erica + Véronique cover in this episode:

• Balancing life + business
• Rebalancing the Team and leaning into the hiring + firing that accompanies it
• Trusting the process + taking action
• Not falling to the pressure to rush through things
• Stop seeing time as your enemy instead of your ally

Véronique dropped so many truth bombs + nuggets of wisdom in this conversation that apply to both life + business! We would love to hear your biggest takeaways! Tag us on Instagram @rlclockwork and @veroniquedesnoyers

If you'd like to Clockwork your life + business and build the plane while flying, we'd love to work with you and your business. Apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

This week we kick off a series about Clockworking Your LIFE. The beautiful thing about Clockwork is that it overhauls your team + systems to become efficiency machines that run themselves. But the side effect is that the same efficiency principals can positively impact all areas of your life.

In this episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Emily, Erica + Gabbi of Team RLC dedicate this episode to all the parents juggling e-learners + navigating childcare (or not), care-takers, and anyone with dependents vying for their energy + attention. Your life is not a distraction. They share helpful strategies to use at work + home to help you be more efficient with the time you have working and with family.

Topics Emily, Erica + Gabbi cover in this episode:

• 3 strategies to use with your team to improve communication around boundaries + availability
• The power of time blocking
• The mindset shift away from perfectionism and towards grace
• How to balance boundaries and flexibility at home and work

What Clockworking really comes down to is helping you take more time off to do the things you love the most with the people you love.

We would love to hear which tip(s) you found most helpful. And if you've got a great tip, share it with us! Tag us on Instagram @rlclockwork or share inside our free Run Like Clockwork Facebook Community.

CTA: If you're ready to Clockwork, we'd love to work with you and your business. Apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

When you hear the term leader, as the CEO, you might only think of yourself. While you are one leader of your organization, you have to also be developing leaders on your team if you want to clockwork your company, continue to grow, and have your business operate without you.

In this episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Adrienne + Danielia dive into 3 ingredients that every strong leader needs: candor, creativity + curiosity. While this is not an exhaustive list for strong leaders, these ingredients are not so commonly talked about and are vital for you as a leader as well as developing leaders on your team.

Topics Adrienne + Danielia cover in this episode:

• Radical Candor: where are you on the candor spectrum?
• How being direct is kind + is a skill that can be developed or refined
• Creativity as an efficiency tool for building a clockworked team
• Encouraging creativity + creative solutions in your team
• Curiosity: leading with questions + the role tone plays

These 3 ingredients that we discussed can be things you begin to develop within your team leaders as well as yourself. Developing leadership skills is the ultimate form of continuous improvement.

We would love to hear your biggest takeaway from this episode! Which of the 3 C's will you be working on first: candor, creativity or curiosity? Tag us on Instagram @rlclockwork or share inside our free Run Like Clockwork Facebook Community.

If you're ready to Clockwork, we'd love to work with you and your business. Apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

Do you ever feel like you're running your company and doing all the business things, but it just feels like something is missing? A piece that pulls things together, a role you need to hire, a system that makes your process clear and cohesive… that thing that makes it all feel real.

Our guest on the Run Like Clockwork Podcast is Clockwork student, Julia O'Grady, Founder of ITM Events. Julia shares how Clockwork helped her shift from going through the business motions to now feeling like her company is real. Julia scaled back her business to give herself space to heal, then stepped into Clockwork when she was refreshed and ready to grow in a way that supports her and your clients well.

Topics Julia + Emily discuss on this episode:

• The two sides of continuous improvement
• The missing piece Julia hadn't shared with the team until Clockwork
• How Clockwork gives confidence at networking events
• The value + importance of redefining success for yourself

Maybe, like Julia, you woke up one day completely burnt out and realized the business you built is not serving you nor your customers to its fullest potential. Maybe you just can't put your finger on what's "missing." Clockwork will help you identify that piece and create better systems that give you immense clarity to grow efficiently.

Would love to hear your biggest takeaway from this episode! Tag us on Instagram @rlclockwork or share inside our free Run Like Clockwork Facebook Community.

If you're ready to Clockwork, we'd love to work with you and your business. Apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

Once you determine the role you really need to hire, what do you look for most? Do you look for someone who is an expert in a certain skill set? Or do you hire someone for their strengths and how they'd fit in your company culture?

Our guest on the Run Like Clockwork Podcast is Clockwork Superstar, Alyssa Lang, CEO of Workflow Queen and a certified Asana expert for accountants. Alyssa shares how defining her Queen Bee Role (QBR) in the Clockwork Accelerator clarified who she needed to hire and what qualities the hire needed. Alyssa has gone from startup to hiring 2 "unicorn" team members who embody her QBR of Support Cheerleader in a few short months!

Topics Alyssa + Emily discuss on this episode:

• Using the Queen Bee Role (QBR) to inform hiring
• Where your next hire is hiding
• Hiring for cultural fit vs learned skills
• How Alyssa's QBR helped her attract her ideal team member

If you're not familiar with the Clockwork concept of the Queen Bee Role or need a little refresher, check out this episode.

Alyssa and her namesake team member, Alyssa, truly embody their QBR and are a fantastic example of putting your QBR into practice and the magic and clarity it creates inside your business + in hiring. We know you are going to love the conversation and lively energy of this client spotlight episode!

Now that you're refreshed on what the Queen Bee Role is and how powerful it is in action, we'd love to hear what your company QBR is! Or if you're working on it and would like some help with it, tell us that too over on Instagram @rlclockwork!

If you're ready to Clockwork and want support clarifying your company's Queen Bee Role (among many other things), we'd love to work with you and your business. Apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

Do you have enough money in your business to actually solve your problems? Oftentimes, cash flow is a symptom of another bottleneck. So which bottleneck do you solve first? This episode will help you clarify that!

In this episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Adrienne dives into the final bottleneck in our ACDC bottleneck framework: the Cash Flow bottleneck. This episode will shed light on signs you may have a cash flow bottleneck and ways to solve it with data-driven solutions.

Psst: If you haven't listened to the last 4 episodes introducing bottlenecks, and the Attract, Convert, and Deliver bottlenecks, listen to those first.

Topics Adrienne covers in this episode:

• Indications of a cash flow bottleneck
• Capacity, profit margins, client payments, debt, cash reserves: we cover it all!
• The importance of getting clear on the metrics for data-driven solutions
• Caveat of when a low profit margin is valuable

Now that we've covered all 4 bottlenecks in this Busting Bottlenecks series, what bottleneck do you think you have right now? Do you have questions about it? Let us know on Instagram!

If you'd like help busting your business bottlenecks, we'd love to work with you and your business. Apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

Are you growing at the cost of your current customers? If you cannot continue to scale and deliver on your product or service with excellence, then you may have a Delivery Bottleneck. Businesses of integrity will not sacrifice quality for quantity.

In this episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Adrienne dives into the Deliver or Capacity bottleneck as part of the bottleneck series. If you haven't listened to the first episode introducing bottlenecks, and the last 2 week's episodes about the Attract bottleneck and the Convert bottleneck, listen to those first. This episode will shed light on why it may feel like growth is breaking your business.

Topics Adrienne covers in this episode:

• Questions to ask yourself to determine if you have a deliver bottleneck
• Indicators + metrics of a deliver bottleneck
• What to do if you are able to grow while maintaining the quality of service
• Several ways you can solve a delivery bottleneck

You would think that growing quickly would be fantastic! And sometimes it is. But many times, fast growth breaks a business and creates a delivery/capacity bottleneck. Through Clockwork, we help you identify your bottleneck + create a solution based on your metrics so you can grow, scale and serve with excellence at an even higher capacity.

Based on what you learned in this episode, do you think you have a Delivery bottleneck? Or do your metrics indicate an Attract or Convert bottleneck? Let us know on Instagram! And make sure to tune in next week for the last episode in the series about the Cash/Collect bottleneck.

If you want our support on busting your business bottlenecks, apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.

A lot of times we're putting in focus + effort into improving our business, but it's pointed in the wrong direction. This episode will help you decipher if you have an Attract or Convert bottleneck (or neither) so you can efficiently focus your effort to improve business growth and profit margins.

In this episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Adrienne dives into the Convert bottleneck as part of the new bottleneck series. If you haven't listened to the first episode introducing bottlenecks, or last week's episode about the Attract bottleneck, listen to those first.

Topics Adrienne covers in this episode:

• Questions to ask to find industry-average conversion rates + your rates
• Does your data point to a Convert bottleneck or Attract bottleneck + how to know.
• If you converted at an average conversion rate, would you hit your revenue goals?

Do you have enough sales coming in to hit your revenue goals? If not, and your conversion rates are below average, you may have a Conversion bottleneck. If your conversion rates are average or above-average you may really have an Attract bottleneck. This episode, along with the next 2 in the bottleneck series, should bring you some clarity!

Based on what you learned in this episode, do you think you have a Convert bottleneck? Do you know your conversion rate as well as what is industry-average? What is your data telling you? Or if you have bottleneck questions, let us know on Instagram!

If you want our support on busting your business bottlenecks, apply for our Accelerator program. You will also get instant access to a free, private training all about "How to take your 4 week vacation in the next 12 months" which dives deep into how to design your business + team that runs itself.