The CEO Help Desk from Run Like Clockwork

"I knew that in order to grow, I'd have to release most of the things, which felt really scary and it took awhile, but with Run Like Clockwork, everything changed and shifted." Lexi D'Angelo

Leadership within Clockwork looks like doing less, not more. Releasing control and allowing other people on your team to do things you may be really strong in (or not) frees you up to really lead in your position as the visionary of your company.

On this week's Team Takeover episode of the Run like Clockwork Podcast, RLC Lead Coach, Emily, talks with Clockwork superstar, Lexi D'Angelo, about her business journey with Clockwork and how it's impacted her leadership growth. Lexi shares how to allow your team to take the lead with implementation of the Clockwork principles to unlock the next level of growth and fulfillment.

On this episode Emily + Lexi discuss:

• The importance of being aligned with your Clockwork Why
• How to get out of the trap of grinding for money without fulfillment
• Which hire Lexi needed to be the bridge between the Visionary and implementation
• How to allow your team to implement Clockwork
• The rose + thorn of Clockworking

Lexi underwent a huge business + leadership shift through the process of Clockworking the TabWoo Institute and Integrative AlchemyTM Practitioner Certification. Through her fully trusting the Clockwork process, her company has experienced rapid growth (in team + revenue) and says "Clockworking is opening up so many more options and changing the timeline of what is possible."

Want to start getting the most of your team, tools and talent... today?!

Join our Clockwork Your Business: Delegate to Accelerate Bootcamp

This 5-Day business bootcamp intensive is designed to help you focus on creating the business of your dreams, (one that outlives you) by working smarter and not harder!

JOIN THE DELEGATE TO ACCELERATE BOOTCAMP

Where were you and what were you doing when the idea for your business came to you?

Origin stories are so fascinating and give such fun insight into how businesses + non-profits came to be!

On this week's Team Takeover episode of the Run like Clockwork Podcast, Clockwork superstar, Evan La Ruffa, shares his origin story for founding his non-profit, IPaintMyMind, which is making an incredible impact in Chicago, IL. He takes an entrepreneurial approach to non-profit work and shares how Clockworking his non-profit increased efficiency + impact.

Topics Evan + Emily cover are:

• The similarities between a small business and non-profit organization
• How to increase revenue to directly increase impact + deliver on the big promise
• A misconception of how non-profit organizations can generate money
• How to hire + delegate so that you're in a position to provide at your highest value level
• Hiring to serve the QBR (Queen Bee Role) + using the "S Curve"

Evan embodies the core of the QBR + mission of IPaintMyMind: fun + professional! We know you will enjoy this episode and would love to hear what valuable take-aways you get from it! Tag us on Instagram @rlclockwork and @ipaintmymind to let us know you listened!

If you are a non-profit business (or would like to nominate one), our scholarship application for non-profit founders to join our Accelerator program is open now through Aug 28th! The winner will be chosen and announced no later than September 4th.

APPLY HERE FOR THE NON-PROFIT SCHOLARSHIP

Non-profits operate just like businesses, except with much smaller operating budgets and they need operations support. If you run (or support) a non-profit business, it's even more vital to Clockwork the business to efficiently utilize the limited resources to maximize impact.

This week on the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Clockwork superstar, Steve Lucin shares about his experience Clockworking his non-profit. Steve Lucin is a creative entrepreneur at SteveLucin.com and stakeholder of several businesses, including the non-profit, Support Creativity. Steve was the recipient of the Clockwork Accelerator scholarship last year and has since joined Continuum. So honored to have him in our Clockwork circle!

Topics covered in this episode:

• How to be creative with resources when running a non-profit organization

• Balancing + prioritizing multiple businesses along with a non-profit

• March: the beginning and ending of so much in business + life

• Taking a 4 week vacation / paternity leave

• How to leverage a love/hate relationship with time-tracking

• Implementing Clockwork through the Accelerator and Continuum

Steve shares so much valuable experience and perspective on what it's like to Clockwork a non-profit as well as support non-profits through other business services. What a great example of generosity!

Non-profits are such an incredible contribution to our communities and world! Run Like Clockwork proudly supports non-profits through financial support as well as giving scholarships for non-profits to join our Accelerator program, so we can give back and create a ripple effect with our impact.

If you are a non-profit business (or would like to nominate one), our scholarship application for non-profit founders to join our Accelerator program are open now through Aug 28th! The winner will be chosen and announced on Sept 1st. Apply here.

The two concepts of efficiency + excellence can feel like opposing forces. Thankfully, they do not need to be mutually exclusive, and actually can work beautifully to balance each other within your business. That development of each + balance begins with a mindset shift.

On this episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Erica + Emily from Team RLC talk about the mindset of efficiency + excellence and give tangible action steps you can take to balance the two so that you can improve your business operations and deliver on your big promise to your clients + customers.

Topics Emily + Erica cover in this episode:

• The mindset of efficiency
• Two key efficiency principles
• The power of creating false deadlines
• Why automation is not efficiency
• The mindset of excellence
• The difference between excellence and perfectionism
• Two actionable steps you can take for excellence in your business

Why is it important to improve both efficiency + excellence to work together? Because it doesn't matter how efficiently you do something if it's wrong.

Next step solution: identify your current bottleneck [for an in-depth look, check out a free Bottleneck Training Adrienne did: www.runlikeclockwork.com/bottleneck-training]

And as always, we're continuing the conversation over in our free Run Like Clockwork Community! We'd love to hear your Clockwork questions!

JOIN THE CONVERSATION INSIDE THE COMMUNITY

Vision + values can often feel like "nice-to-haves" or something big companies have and seem like "maybe somedays" for small businesses. In reality, creating + articulating vision + values are essential to Clockworking your business as they are really the foundation to giving your team members agency in decision making.

In this episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Adrienne shares how to use your vision + values to Clockwork your business. As the visionary of your business, it is your responsibility to set your team up for success by communicating your vision + values.

In this episode, Adrienne covers:

• How communicating your vision + values creates autonomy in decision making.
• The benefits of communicating your company vision + values on your team.
• How to define & communicate your vision, logistically speaking.
• How to create a BIG vision without getting distracted by all the ideas.
• Signs your vision may not be clear to your team.

One of my favorite quotes by Jack Welch, which we cite often inside the Clockwork Accelerator program, is "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." Leadership begins when you step up as the visionary to create a compelling vision + communicate in a way that empowers your team to grow and run with the vision.

In September, I'll be doing a masterclass on Supercharging Your Vision. I'm super excited to help you dive deeper into cultivating + communicating a vision that moves you, your team, and company forward. Be on the lookout for more information coming soon!

As always, we're continuing the conversation over in our free Run Like Clockwork Community! We'd love to hear your Clockwork questions!

JOIN THE CONVERSATION INSIDE THE COMMUNITY

When your drive for achievement is strong, your celebration needs to be strong, too!

At Team Run Like Clockwork, we are big on goal setting, metrics to keep us on track, and celebrating wins along the way. We know as business owners, it's easy to get caught up in the inertia of the day to day or else fixated on the huge, visionary goals.

On this week's Team Takeover episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Emily, RLC Lead Coach and Director of Programming, and Laurie, RLC Coach and Profit First Professional, celebrate some incredible testimonials from clients who have completed a year of Clockworking inside our Accelerator + Continuum programs! So much to celebrate...and so much for you to look forward to in your business when you Clockwork it!

In this episode, Emily + Laurie talk about personal + professional wins to be celebrating in a year and the different ways you can win with Clockwork. They highlight 4 business leaders who have a whole lot to celebrate: systems, team, goals, communication skills, and a whole lot of vacations happening!

What will YOU be celebrating in a year?!

If you haven't yet, join our free Run Like Clockwork Community along with hundreds of like-minded business owners all working towards the same goal: to design a business + team that runs like Clockwork and to take a 4-week, completely unplugged vacation - like a BOSS!

You can join at www.runlikeclockwork.com/community

If you have taken your 4-week vacation, we want to know! Go to www.runlikeclockwork.com/4-week-vacation , fill in the form and give us all the details on how your 4-week vacation went… we have something special to send you to congratulate you on all your hard work!

So much to CELEBRATE!

Today we're doing something fun! We're answering your community questions! If you're not yet inside our new, free Run Like Clockwork Community, what are you waiting for?! When you join, you also get a Clockwork Roadmap Trello board that takes you step by step through the Clockwork process.

A few weeks ago we had an "Ask Anything" inside the community and some great questions were asked, so I'm answering them right here, right now.

Questions Adrienne answers are:

• Some things in the business seem awfully sensitive to share, how do you decide who to share them with, especially when preparing for and during a 4-week vacation?
• Has anyone hired during COVID? We are looking to bring on another developer, but for now are all working from home. Eventually we will all be back in the office... but how are you interviewing? Face to face? Video chat? This is new territory for us all!
• If our brand promise is in the ballpark but is not a homerun, we will be using our resources and everything to protect a QBR that delivers a promise that may not be one that adds the most value to customers. Any comments or advice on revising the brand promise?

I hope that the answers I give to these questions is helpful for you, too. And if you have more questions, join us inside the Run Like Clockwork Community!

"You cannot clockwork if you cannot delegate. And you cannot delegate if you cannot communicate."

Effective communication within your team is vital, no doubt about that. Team RLC has found the Enneagram to be an incredibly helpful (and fun!) tool for better understanding team members and communicating more effectively. It adds a layer of depth to connection + communication, especially during this time of distance-everything.

On this Team Takeover episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Emily, lead coach and program director, and Erica, contest strategist + creator, share 3 ways to leverage the Enneagram on your team.

Ready to leverage the Enneagram on your team?

• Take one of the many free or paid Enneagram tests
• Check out one of our fave IG accounts: @Enneagramandcoffee
• Steal our Top 4 Tips for Effective Communication + Delegation www.runlikeclockwork.com/4-tips

When was the last time you took a real vacation from your business?

I know vacation feels like a thing of the past as we're in a global pandemic, but I don't want you to put your #operationvacation dreams aside just because of what's going on in the world. This is actually the perfect time to prepare your business for a 4-week vacation.

In this episode, Adrienne shares:

• The two responses I get when I talk to business owners about vacation

• The mindset that may be keeping you procrastinating + resistant
• Why the 4-week vacation is about so much more than a vacation
• What makes the 4-week vacation the ultimate litmus test
• The benefits for your team of you taking a 4-week vacation
• How "vacation" looks different for everyone (no beach + palm trees required)
• What things to expect to change after taking your vacation from your business

If you've been on the fence about taking your vacation or you find yourself procrastinating on it, we would love to support you inside our Clockwork Accelerator program: www.runlikeclockwork.com/vacation

You can also join us within our free Run Like Clockwork Community.

If you've already taken your 4-week vacation, we want to know about it! We have a gift to send you! Fill out this quick form: www.runlikeclockwork.com/4-week-vacation

If your previous quarter was a bit of a curveball (hello, 2020!), then planning your next quarter successfully is especially important. Of course, if the previous quarter was a breeze, successfully planning the upcoming quarter is still super important as it is a core activity of running + scaling a business.

On this week's Team Takeover episode of the Run Like Clockwork Podcast, Emily + Laurie are back to go over 6 important components of successful quarterly planning.

Here are the 6 components that we cover in more depth in the episode:

1. Take the time to review + revisit your Big Vision
2. Identify your current bottleneck [for an in-depth look, check out a free Bottleneck Training Adrienne did: www.runlikeclockwork.com/bottleneck]
3. Decide on your strategies for fixing the bottleneck
4. Capture lead + lag metrics
5. Capture systems
6. Review, adapt + nurture both the strategies and your team along the way

Bonus: Use an ideas Toy Box

As always, we're continuing the conversation over in our free Run Like Clockwork Community! We'd love to hear your quarterly planning ideas, answer questions on these 6 planning tips, discuss bottlenecks, and help make this next quarterly planning be the best yet!