The Ops Authority

Are you interested in more profits in your business, but maxed out on the amount of hours you can work?

Today we are talking about money and financial impact to your business, and specifically about how to increase your earning potential by leveraging a profit share incentive model.

Profit Share Incentive Model

If you are a service provider on the operations side of a business, the most common ways to charge are either:

• flat fee/retainer wage: same fee every month for a specific deliverable
• hourly (check out Episode 85 which discusses moving from an hourly to a outcomes based model)
• project based model

Regardless of the way you are getting paid, what these models all have in common is a cap. Whatever you charge is the maximum you will earn for delivering the exact same work.

Our counterparts on the marketing side of the business are typically the ones who can earn commissions… it's standard for them to be able to earn commission, a percentage of sales, or even a bonus. This makes sense because their work generates sales, which brings in revenue to the business.

While the marketing side generates sales, the operations side is hard at work containing the expenses of a business, finding efficiencies, increasing productivity, optimizing the delivery of products and services, and managing the team. Both arms are needed for sustainable growth and scaling, but it's most common for the marketing arm to have the uncapped earning potential. There is really no risk for marketers to ask for an increase in compensation if they exceed their goals.

When I was working as a Director or Operations (DOO), I became resentful that the ability to earn more wasn't available to me like it was my counterparts on the marketing side... even though I worked equally as hard, drove results, and consistently worked more hours in the business.

One day as I was reviewing the financials for a client, I had a breakthrough. I realized that their profit margins continued to increase quarter over quarter since I joined the business as a Director of Operations. It changed everything for me... my excitement for my role, my commitment to my business, and it gave me the confidence to ask for what I wanted.

I've always found that I'm much more comfortable in conversation with leaders when I've had success in my performance and the relationship between me and the leader is productive and positive. Once I hit my groove, I am able to see myself as a valuable asset in the business.

How to Address Leaders

The biggest barrier that DOOs experience is how to address the leader, and there are ways to have this conversation with the leader so it can be a possible tool you can use for incentive pay and increased compensation.

Prework

1. Access to financials. If you don't have access to financials, this proposal isn't possible. If you don't have access yet, you will need to work to get to the point where you are a trusted business advisor.

2. Review the financials. Make sure there is a positive scenario that would support your request. If you've been in the business for a while and the profit margin has jumped around, I encourage you to look at it quarterly or in 6 month increments and to note traction and growth from your impact in this business. From the time you have shown up in the business, quarter over quarter can you see that there is growth and an increase in profit margins?

3. Model the percentages. For example, I've seen everything from 3-15% of profit share proposals. It depends on what the business looks like, revenue, and profit margins. In the DOO certification program, I've developed a detailed process for this.

The conversation

Make sure you schedule this meeting and put a lot of thought into it. Do not piggyback off an existing meeting. Be prepared to share the impact you have in the business and also what the impact of moving to a model like this would do for the business.

For instance, you will have a greater dedication to the business. Also there is no risk to the leader; if the profit margin doesn't increase, they won't be paying you additional money. It gives them the ability to incentivize you without cutting into the overall finances. Often service providers will want an increase after 6 or 12 months because of the outcomes they've achieved. You can do this in two ways:

• The safe way: a profit sharing proposal
• The risky way: a flat fee increase which they may or may not get a return from

Moving to this model allowed me to earn more, and be "all-in" in a business. Business owners are longing for service providers to be 'all-in' in their businesses."

It also kept me focused on one business, rather than having to serve multiple clients, which allowed me to focus on outcomes from a profit margin perspective. I was learning new strategies that would benefit the business, and I spent lots of time designing strategies that would show returns.

For example:

• I became extremely cautious with spending and became a trusted partner in critically reviewing purchases. I was all in to make sure we had a safe profit margin.
• I created systems to collect payments. When payments failed, I was putting processes in place to get that revenue back in the door.
• I looked at how we designed our pricing models.
• I created processes to make sure the team worked efficiently, which reduced overhead.

I was able to move from a flat fee retainer, to this creative and easier sell for the business owner because it was so low risk to them. Clients are frustrated with turnover, and they want you to be invested in their business for a long time, so this is a win-win solution that I hope you consider as you develop as an operator.

Weekly Ops Activity

Do you plan to incorporate profit sharing in your pricing model? Do you have a client that you can bring this to? If not, will you commit to developing your leadership skills so you're able to acquire access to financials?

Previous Episodes Mentioned

Episode 85: Up-level by Transitioning from Hourly to Outcomes Based Pricing

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

Website

Private Facebook Community

Facebook Page

Instagram

This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/86.

Do you feel stuck in an hourly pricing model? Are you ready to scale, but are unsure how to price strategically?

Since creating the Director of Operations (DOO) certification program, and leading and mentoring 140 women, I've learned exactly what types of pain points operators experience.

Today is dedicated to a pain point that occurs over and over again: "How do I switch from an hourly pricing model to an outcome based pricing model?" Once you figure this out, it will align you to serve a higher level of client.

Hourly vs. Outcome Based Pricing

It's totally normal to begin the pricing structure in your business by thinking about how many hours a task is going to take. But I want you to know that there are many risks with that mentality.

1. Scope creep: It happens so quickly. You may have done what the client is paying for a hundred times, but each client is unique and some will take a lot more time than anticipated. In that case, there are only a few things you can do:

• You eat it, which reduces your hourly compensation.
• You reach out to the leadership and ask for an adjustment in the pricing. In most cases you have already priced the project and that price is what they are expecting to pay. To go back and ask for additional compensation can be challenging.

Most often contractors don't address this issue, and chalk it up to another lesson... getting paid less for the same outcome.

2. Speed over quality: A business owner who looks for this type of pricing favors speed over quality. As the person who is delivering the work, it's advantageous for you to do the work faster. You will attempt to find efficiencies so you can be in search of a greater profit margin.

"Most of us want to be proud of the product we are delivering, and speed is not always the winner."

With hourly pricing, you can also cap yourself because you can only work so many hours. The logistics of managing this pricing structure is really laborious. If they are paying you for hourly work, they will expect hourly tracking, which takes additional time.

"When clients pay you per hour, they tend to obsess over what you are doing every hour instead of focusing on the net effect you are providing."

As a mentor to hundreds of women in this space, I've looked at the way we price, and compare it to the level of impact you are making in that organization. I'm a proponent of educating the DOO community about outcomes based pricing.

Outcomes based pricing is easier when you are contributing at a strategic level of the business, and I encourage you to listen to Episode 70 of The Ops Authority Podcast which details the four different layers of business functions: implementation, management, strategy, and vision.

The higher level you are delivering on, the more aligned you will be to creating outcomes for the business you are supporting. DOOs are taught to price this way because we are always working on that strategic level.

So how do you shift from charging hourly to outcomes based pricing?

Agree on the Outcome

Understand and agree on the outcome that the client is asking for. When you do this, the dynamic between you and the client becomes much less scrutinized and much more relational. You are seen more for the relationship effects you have in the business rather than what it is that you are doing. This opens up two-way communication, where both parties feel welcome to stand up and speak up, and to communicate differences and praise. When you do this you establish yourself as a leader, and create that "all-in" feeling that is coveted by your clients.

"If you want someone to be all-in on your business, you will never get that type of person with an hourly mentality."

What is the Outcome Worth?

Evaluate what the outcome is worth to the client. Determine what your good/better/best is in your revenue goal, then set the price. Be bold and look at this from the next level. What is going to allow you to get there? This is going to be a sliding scale that you revisit often to make sure you are feeling good about the income you are getting for the level of effort you are putting out.

Build and Communicate Your Authority

You do this by showing off your skill, education, experience, and expertise. You can show your authority in your social media, website, testimonials, and also by highlighting and quantifying the outcomes you've been responsible for over your career. A really creative way to do this is case studies. When you do visibility planning, don't forget to create a mechanism or process for making sure you show off how you are an authority in this area.

Another place to highlight your authority is during the discovery call. When you are on that call, I want you to listen intently to their pain points. Even if you have a script, the most important thing is to listen to what they are saying. They will tell you where their gaps are and if they don't you will want to continuously dig and ask good questions.

As they are telling you their pain points, you are assessing if you are the right person to join them. If you are, I encourage you to give them some value in the call. Show up, and show off your value. This gives them a taste of the strategic level they will see when they partner with you. If they can see that you are going to be a strategic partner, shifting from hourly to outcome pricing is going to be natural.

Educate About Pricing

Be prepared to educate the client on why you charge this way, because you may receive some pushback when you propose it. Most business owners are used to being changed per hour, especially if they have been hiring entry level talent and resources that focus on the implementation level. The more immature the business is, the greater the resistance is to shifting this mindset. This is your time to educate the client about how this is benefiting them, and how they are assuming less risk and getting greater outcomes. If your client shifts the way they are thinking about this, their businesses will reap greater benefits and it will allow them to scale even faster.

If you initiate this outcome based pricing, you will differentiate yourself from the competition who is most likely charging hourly. When you do this in an outcomes based model you are already propelling yourself to the strategic level.

"If you are charging hourly the mentality of the person paying you is that you are an implementer level."

If you want to get closer to working at a strategic level as a DOO, I want you to set up your systems in a way you can trust yourself and feel confident in charging for outcomes.

This will make you irreplaceable in the market and will set you apart, as well as saving you from scope creep. Are you willing to go all in to change your pricing structure from hourly to outcome based?

Weekly Ops Activity

Identify the outcome that you are most equipped to provide for your client. Think about the clients you are currently serving; what outcome are you getting them, and what is that worth? Let us know in The Ops Insiders Facebook Group!

Previous Episodes Mentioned

Episode 70: How To Avoid Settling in Your Ops Career

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

Website

Private Facebook Community

Facebook Page

Instagram

This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/85.

Have you been thinking about using your expertise to consult, and scale your business?

I am excited to share with you one of my dear friends and colleagues in the online space, Melissa Froehlich, as we discuss mindset and consulting.

Meet Melissa

Melissa has a corporate background, but had to give it up to follow her husband in his military career. She started as a virtual assistant in order to have the freedom to take her career with her wherever she went. From there she grew to be an online business manager (OBM) and eventually a business growth strategist and mindset coach.

Melissa is here to share something that is brewing inside of her that she has recently navigated, and today we are having a conversation about helping you understand what your greatest potential is in your journey as a leader for businesses.

"When we look back, we can see that this is exactly where we were supposed to be, but when we look forward, it looks very cloudy." - Natalie Gingrich

Project Based Business Model (Consulting)

Today's conversation is going to help you understand how you can navigate your next path by leveraging the skills you have, and upleveling them so that you are in the greatest alignment with where you are supposed to be.

As females, we tend to feel like we need to be implementers, because we can get stuff done. But I want more for you… I want you to get to the next level. I don't want you to stay comfortable, I want you to move out of the implementation and into the management/strategy. (Check out episode 70 for a refresher on the 4 different layers of operations.)

Today we are going to focus on the journey from implementation into strategy.

As I moved from implementation to strategy work, I had a lot of mindset blocks. Can you elaborate on some of the mindset issues we often have as we make that jump?

• We experience imposter syndrome and we aren't able to see ourselves as CEOs or leaders because we are coming from the mindset of an employee. We are trying to figure out a new space which is overwhelming.
• We don't know how to tap into our mindset issues, so we will often go to somewhere that is safe rather than take risks, largely due to scarcity mindset.
• We stay in the place of safety and we keep collecting skills, courses, trainings; we stay in the safety net of learning. We think we are buying confidence, but we forget that we are already coming with a lot of skills.
• We start asking "is there more?" but then you squash it because you don't want to rock the boat and fall into that scarcity mindset.
• Mindset is a skill that we need to devote to enhancing forever.

"I didn't know how to say, I'm the CEO of my business, and I can continue to take risks because I'm going to manage them appropriately…" - Mellissa Froehlich

"We think we are buying confidence but we're not… we're buying the ability to stay in this place that is safe in the space of learning."- Mellissa Froehlich

What are the different ways we use project based models as operators in business?

• As an OBM she had a full roster, but was feeling the itch to help women grow their businesses (and make more money.) She started to look for themes and validation that she could be a strategic partner in their business as a business growth strategist.
• Found that people loved having access to her to talk things through, gain clarity, and help them decide what their next steps were.
• When you start to notice a pattern in what people are telling you that you are good at, hold on to those things; they are your superpower.
• Used her Kolbe and Strengths Finder assessments to confirm her affinity for strategy
• Started offering a consulting model that would get results for people in a shorter duration that she could also scale .
• Started doing weekly calls with clients but found that they got overwhelmed..She helped them gain so much traction and they had so many action items, that they needed more time to implement between sessions. So she had to vary the contracts according to clients' needs.
• She was able to leverage natural strengths the way she wanted to work with clients and came into client's business as an expert, which finally felt in alignment.

What are you up to now, and how are you looking to serve those who want to move to the next level?

• She is building out an accelerator program. She gets lots of women who come to her who want "more," which means they want to work with clients in a more strategic way.
• The program focuses on a model that provides quick fixes, gives laser-focused attention, provides massive results, and a way to return when they need you later.
• The program will help women be able to market themselves confidently in a strategic consulting manner in their business. You already have the skills, but will gain skills to build the offer behind the scenes, and mindset work.
• Fits the needs of multiple business models, and will help you see yourself as the expert you are.
• If you want to work in a more strategic capacity and do less implementation.
• Have to be willing to market yourself in new ways.

"When you are a consultant, you bring your knowledge, skillsets and expertise, but you are also bringing your community, and that's really valuable." - Melissa Froehlich

Who is this for?

• People who love strategy and who are willing to market themselves.
• Those willing to commit to seeing themselves as an expert.
• Requires strategic leadership, independent thought, and the confidence to partner with people.

"If you are a leader, that means you are an independent thinker." - Natalie Gingrich

Is this a program I should do as a Director of Operations (DOO)?

• This could be a great fit, if you are drawn to the idea of being a strategic partner
• As a consultant you are there to guide, and deliver the options, but you don't make the decisions.
• How much do you love relationships? Do you want to love someone's business as much or more than they do? You have to be able to form relationships that are deep because that's where the transformation happens.
• Consider why are you drawn to this… do you want to leverage a different way of working with people?

About Melissa

Melissa Froehlich is a sought-after business strategist, mentor and mindset coach who works with established female entrepreneurs ready to own the role of being the CEO of their business with a rewired mindset to help it all stick. After leaving her corporate job to follow her active-duty Air Force husband across the United States, Melissa rapidly built a booked-out, multi 6-figure coaching business teaching women to create online businesses that deliver premium results.

Through her signature coaching and Mastermind programs, she mentors online service-based business owners to uplevel their services, embrace the mindset of a CEO, and stand out in a crowded marketplace by delivering an exceptional client experience.

In her spare time, Melissa enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter, and dogs while adventuring in the mountains or exploring a beach somewhere in Mexico.

Weekly Ops Activity

Come on over to the Facebook group and drop your questions about adding a consulting offer to your business.

Previous Episodes Mentioned

Episode 70: How to Avoid Settling in Your Operations Business

Other Ways to Connect with Melissa:

Website

Facebook group

email

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

Website

Private Facebook Community

Facebook Page

Instagram

This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/84.

What does success as an operator look like to you?

If you are on the journey of becoming an operations leader or are looking to get promoted in any capacity, I'm talking today about what full circle success looks like.

We have just started a new cohort of The Director of Operations Certification Program, and if you are thinking of joining us for the next round or would like to learn more, click here.

How to Achieve Full Circle Success

You can never control what the leader of the business is going to do, but you can control what you do. I'm going to give you some tips that have been very helpful for me as I've pursued full circle success in my own career path.

I believe it is 100% up to you to chart your own course, whether you are doing this in your own business and growing a team, or if you are selected to be a part of a team.

"It is 100% up to you to chart your own course."

Define Roles and Responsibilities

As you step into a position, make sure that your roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. This is a non-negotiable, and you should never even apply to a job that doesn't have these roles clearly outlined.

"Desperate people hire desperate people."

If someone is advertising for help on Facebook that's a red flag. This tells you that they have never taken the time to define those roles and responsibilities, which usually means they don't have a lot of clarity as a business owner. This is a no-win situation that will eventually catch up with you and cause agony while you are with them.

Identify Key Results Areas (KRAs)

KRAs refer to what is going to be accomplished in your role for the first 30 days, the next 30 days, and the next 30 after that (we call them 30-60-90s). In most cases if someone isn't familiar with hiring, they are going to skip this piece because they are so excited to get you through the door. But for you to be ultimately successful this is the most critical piece. If it's not inside your training, you need to be the leader and own this piece.

"Don't get past day 3 without asking what your goals are for 30-60-90."

How do you create these for yourself?

1. Look back at the job description so you understand what the owner is thinking about.

2. Have a dedicated one to one full hour talking with the business owner who you report to. Ask:

• How do you want to feel as the business owner? Now you start thinking about the actions you can take that align to the job description and start mapping a course for yourself. What can you do to make this person feel less overwhelmed?
• What needs to get done? Prioritize the projects that need to get done. It is impossible to get 10 projects done in the first 30 days. Get a sense of the scope of the projects and prioritize with the owner when it makes sense to begin.

3. Ask the business owner about profit producing activities that you can assist on. This is important so you can show your return on investment. Get closer to profit producing activities without being on the marketing side of the business. What are the things you can do to assist to help create greater profit? If you are an operator, make sure to check out episode 63, where we talk about the TIES method, which is critical for helping the business owner understand what can be done in those 30-60-90 days.

The advantage of creating the 30-60-90s?

Ideally the business owner creates these themselves but in many situations they aren't really prepared for you. So by leading this conversation you appear as a leader and this helps make yourself indispensable.

These also help you as the employer contractor because not only is the business owner less overwhelmed, but you are less overwhelmed because you have clear direction. You know what it takes to be successful or to pitch yourself for a raise/add a profit share. I want you to have a long healthy relationship with your client, and 30-60-90s are the key to making that happen.

Establish Meeting Cadence

Make sure you have a strong and certain meeting cadence established. If you haven't had a lot of direction, then you are probably going to continue onboard yourself. You need to ask them to determine how often you need to meet and what is expected in the meetings. Do you need reporting? I never want you to be in a situation where you are just meeting to meet. If you know what is expected of you from those meetings, you can have a more concise, powerful meeting,

Businesses who put off regular meetings are overwhelmed. If you don't have an existing meeting cadence established, your position is at risk. Ultimately what meetings are used for are two-way communication, which is one of your most important goals. What meetings are the most important? Who are the people you need to be talking to on a regular basis? Raise your hand and let them know that support you will need.

Over time as the owner starts to feel the relationship solidify, they perceive the two-way communication and they want to back off. Don't let the owner back off of these meetings! Their job is to lead the business, which means leading the team. If you as an operator are taking this off of the CEOs plate, you have to establish repeated meetings which are predictably scheduled, complete with agendas. Do not let this go by the wayside.

Ask for Performance Reviews

Make sure you get performance reviews. You understand what your responsibilities are, you know what your 30-60-90 goals are, you have regular meetings and open communication, so it should be easy to ask to set up a performance review.

You've done your diligence when you set up your 30-60-90 framework, which is exactly what you are going to use to determine if you are meeting your goals. If you have gone above and beyond the 30-60-90 goals or surpassed them, I want you to be able to note those every step of the way.

If you want to be indispensable, make sure to ask for performance reviews. Before you show up to that review you should have notes and be equipped with talking points about what's working and what is not.

Show Mastery

When you create something new, create and document SOPs. Often, we are so busy doing that we never bother to create an SOP. As a business owner, if I have someone in my business who is keeping a log of standard operating procedures that I've never even had to ask for… the value of the relationship is enormous.

If you have accomplished what has been outlined in your 30-60-90s, and your leader has reviewed it, given you feedback, and you've been documenting SOPs, you've reached the mastery level in that business. Time for a raise, title change, promotion or profit share! But you may have to bring it to the leaders attention, because they are so busy growing their brand they may not even notice mastery.

Show mastery in the role you have been hired for. This usually takes about 6 months, but when you get to the mastery level, you need to communicate it. The next piece of the puzzle is to begin training other people. Start to develop your next role in the business, and plan to train the new person coming in. When you can grow inside of a company to the next level and take the burden off the leader by training the next person to backfill the role you were playing, that is a huge win for the business owner and allows you to get the next level position in the company.

Weekly Ops Activity

Create your 30-60-90 day goal plan for your existing roles. Then share them in our FB group!

Previous Episodes Mentioned

Episode 63: The TIES Method: How an Operations Expert Shows Their Value

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

Website

Private Facebook Community

Facebook Page

Instagram

This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/83.

Does the mention of selling make you break out into a cold sweat?

Today we are talking about the emotions of selling as a service provider. I have five years of selling as a service provider under my belt, and have sold well over 120 women into my Director of Operations Certification Program over the last year.

I know a thing or two about selling, but that doesn't mean it comes natural or that it's exciting. In fact, it brings up a lot of emotions that can stifle me. I've had to do a lot of work around the selling process because it's uncomfortable… but it's part of business.

As a service provider, sales look different than in a product based business since buyers can't actually see or touch the product.

"When it comes to selling a service you need to be able to articulate that service with a ton of confidence. The ultimate goal is to be able to do this with ease."

When you are selling a service, it's less clear than when you are selling a product because you are selling a transformation, a solution, or intellectual property. It's not physical, and because of this there will be a lot more emotion tied into this. At the end of the day we are selling ourselves...people are buying you.

I mentor operations experts, and so often they are scared to actively sell themselves because service providers are selling services that come with a healthy price tag. And along with the larger price tag, comes the worthiness question. You think:

• Am I worthy of this?
• Should I be doing this?
• Should I really be getting paid for this?
• Who is really going to buy this?

As you step into your zone you will work with larger and more visible clients, and you'll start to question your genius… you worry about providing the outcomes that people may expect.

When sales and marketing slow you down from getting to the point of having a sales conversation, you don't generate the revenue you need that will make you proud of the work you are doing.

Is this something you feel like you can overcome? Are you ready to do the work to have sales come more naturally with you?

Preparation

Sales create emotional blocks for me, so I have to prepare myself. This is especially true when I do launches because I will be having a conversation with hundreds of people at once. When I am asking someone to partner with me, I have to look back at the transformation that I've had, and the transformation that I have helped others have in order to equip my emotions to be able to feel bold and confident to sell my offerings.

I ask myself:

• Am I addressing their concerns?
• Am I the right solution to their problems?
• Do I want to continue to do this work?
• Am I partnering with the right people?
• Am I selling this for the right reasons?

You may have different questions that relate to the service you are selling, so adjust as needed.

Once you interact and gather the information, the pitch comes. It is completely normal to stumble, to over-process, to overpromise, and to have awkward pauses… these are all reactions related to the fear that comes with selling and sharing your brilliance.

Tips For Any Selling Situation 1. Prepare for each and every sales call

Think like an athlete, and get in shape. You need to practice and do research. The more research and data points you have, the easier it is to have an organic informed call. At the end of the day you're looking to have a conversation, and you should mentally make the shift to thinking of it as a conversation rather than a sales call.

2. Ask a lot of questions

Questions allow you to understand if you are the right person to move forward. It also allows you to shine and offer solutions, whether they are going to buy from you or not. Guide them through a framework and provide value to them. Take leadership over the call and put yourself in a position to determine if you are the right person to work with them. If not you can redirect them to other service providers.

3. Map your process

What is your sales process? Whatever you are selling, have that process completely mapped out and be able to rattle it off as second nature. This displays confidence. Your gift is in process, and when you can couple that with your leadership and experience… you will rock a sales call.

"Selling is always about communicating the value, and anticipating their needs."

4. Create a Visual

A visual will give you confidence. Plus, people learn in multiple different ways. Sometimes it is difficult for people to imagine the process you are selling through verbal communication. If you can create a visual on a slide and then walk them through it, their ability to say "yes" or "no" will happen much faster. Make it crystal clear for them.

5. Validate Understanding

Validate that the potential client understands your service. If it has been a one sided conversation, expect follow up because both parties want to feel like they have spoken and been heard.

Ask:

• How does this feel to you?
• Do you have any questions?
• What are your experiences?

These are all questions to validate that they understand.

6. Only offer services that you fully own

Don't oversell, overpromise, or change your offer and couple it with things that sound interesting or that are in your wheelhouse. When you allow the client to create offers for your business, you'll find that the work is not exciting and it has a massive negative effect on the services you are delivering to them. Be honest if there is something in the role that you don't feel equipped for and understand that turning away people is healthy.

7. Model your solution in the sales process

If you are selling systems or processes, make sure they are buttoned up from the beginning. There is no better way to get buy in than to model it throughout your process.

8. Journal your emotional blocks

Listen to the blocks that come up, and equip yourself to overcome them. Take the negative emotion, journal on it and find the facts that supersede the emotion that is not rooted in any truth.

Weekly Ops Activity

Document your offer process. How do you do what you are selling? What are the steps? What are the outcomes that the buyer can expect? Put it into a list, then a visual, and practice it over and over again. Share it with us in the Facebook group!

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

Website

Private Facebook Community

Facebook Page

Instagram

This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/82.

Are you quick to make changes to the latest greatest tool or tactic? Do you suffer from shiny object syndrome?

Today we are going to talk about something that I've recently had to do some inner work on… how to process and deal with shiny objects. I've been looking inward to figure out what I need to incorporate into my business vs. what are the distractions that could derail me.

If you enjoy the Ops Authority Podcast, join my private Facebook Group, The Ops Insiders, where you can ask questions related to building an operations business!

How To Evaluate A Change

Recently I took some time off from my business, and as I found myself with some extra time, I noticed that I also picked up some extra habits that go hand in hand with scrolling… comparison and shiny object syndrome.

"Things that I typically block out were permeating me."

I ended up reconsidering the things that I was doing. Things that had been successful for me...

and I started to question my own strategic plan.

Today I want to spend some time talking about how I navigated that, and to help bring some clarity to help you the next time you find yourself in that vulnerable place.

There are going to be an infinite number of things that will come up in your business journey so the distractions are not going to go away. If it's supposed to be in our business, it has to be the right time and we have to have the right team to explore those new things.

"The more mature the business is, the easier it is to resist the distractions."

Just because the icons in your industry are doing it doesn't mean you should be doing it. You need to build a business that feels comfortable to you.

If you have a current tech stack or social media plan, make sure you optimize it. Then you want to test it and if it's not delivering, then you can think about changing it out. But I want you to give a dedicated effort to optimizing what is currently in the business.

Before saying yes to a change, here are some of the things I ask you to consider to make sure you are making a sound decision.

1. Evaluate Your Vision

Do the work to see your vision for your business. If everything went according to plan with your business between now and the next 3-5 years, what does your business look like? What kind of successes do you have? Where do you want to be? What kind of leader are you? What kind of team do you have? What kind of offers do you have? What kind of revenue are you generating?

Spend the time to get to that vision.

How does having a vision help? If you know where you are going and can see deeper, then it will help you in making a solid decision when navigating a new tool.

2. Create a Strategic Plan

How are you strategically going to reach the vision you've set for yourself?

I have licensed a model called the Strategic Mapping Model™. It is part of the Director of Operations Certification, and students are the only ones who are licensed to use this model. Directors of Operations (DOOs) can partner with visionaries to use this model to break down their vision and create a strategic plan. Then the DOO can manage that plan and create those changes.

3. Evaluate the need for change

What are the pros/cons between what you are using vs. what you could be using? Why do you need to make this change? This will take some of the emotion out of the decision. What are the risks and benefits?

4. Gather Facts

Gather a few facts. What is the actual cost of making a change? Think about it not just in terms of the financial considerations, but what is required of the team. How many hours will this take? Look at the deeper data: how much time will it take, what is the impact of experience on your customers or your team. There are a lot of soft costs in changes. Look at the return of investment, meaning how long will it take you to recoup the cost, time, and energy that you have put into making this change for you to break even. By gathering this data you will have more confidence when you move forward in this.

5. Evaluate Disruption

What will the disruption be to your business projects and customers? What kind of impact will it have on your business, client projects, or your client load? How will your customers be impacted? There is a lot of work to be done and if you are just trying to fit this in the limited amount of time you have in a day, then the morale, energy, and quality of what you put out will leave you questioning if this was the right path. Look at this through the lens of your customers, clients, or whoever you are working with.

6. Get Approval

Once you go through steps 1-5, I want you to get approval from your team, mentor, coach, or mastermind. By going through steps 1-5, you are essentially creating a change management plan, and I want you to present this to your team, a mentor or coach, mastermind or spouse… whoever helps guide your business. Ask them their opinion, give them real facts, and a picture of the impact. Make sure you get multiple opinions before you take action.

"When you are looking to make a change in your strategic plan, you need these vetted by people who have an interest in what you are doing and delivering."

7. Create a Project Plan

Create a project plan for this change so you can be strategic. Slowly think through all of the implications that a change will bring. For instance, I am currently in the process of changing my funnel software, so my team and I are thinking through how these changes will affect my customers, students and community.

"We tend to minimize how complex change is in a business."

8. Establish a Communication Plan

If you are going to impact your customers with this change, you will want to establish a communication plan for your customers and your team. Nobody likes to find out these changes after the fact. Get in front of the change and proactively communicate with the people who will be impacted. Allow them to be part of the journey, and you may be able to help someone make a solid (rather than a reactionary) decision. Let them know all of the steps you have gone through so that they know that things may look different. Give them the rationale behind the decision which will help eliminate the frustrations they may feel with the impending change.

9. Quality Control

As with any project, you will want to test and quality control the change before you put it out there. For example if you are moving off of a social media platform and will be engaging less on one platform vs. another, set a time parameter to test the impact. Are you getting the kind of data you expected?

It is impossible to be everywhere on social media or to leverage all of the tools that are out there. Before you make the switch official, test it and make sure it works for you before you go all in. This means you may be paying for overlapping services for a few months, but if you let the old one go too soon it creates too much risk in your business in the event that the new platform does not meet your expectations. You may want to keep the old platform for 6-12 weeks while you are making the switch to the new platform.

10. Switch

Once you have the data and feel confident, you can determine if making the switch will be beneficial to your business. If you don't go through these steps and shift your focus to something shiny and new you are going to miss something really big.

Remember there's not one way to do business and there's no straight path to success. There will be obstacles that will arise and have you rethinking yourself and your plan. Leverage the logical parts of your brain, but when it comes to change management I highly encourage you to be logical. If necessary, partner with someone who can help you be methodical in determining if making this change is right for your business.

Weekly Ops Activity

What's the last thing that had you considering a change? What is the last shiny object that you have experienced? Let me know if the FB group!

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

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This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/81.

Are you ready to increase your revenue this year?

Today we are going to talk about 8 ways you can skyrocket your business in 2021.

More and more people are leaving corporate and making the leap of owning their own business. As people transitioned to working from home thanks to the pandemic, working women saw the benefits of leveraging their skills from home.

"We are working from home and the world continues to find ways to do business in a bigger way."

Women are doing this by leveraging a digital footprint. This means that more digital products are being created, digital marketing efforts are being used more and more, multiple marketing efforts are being instituted for one product, and teams are being expanded.

You as an operations expert have more opportunity than ever before. This is the year you can skyrocket your business. This is the pattern we have been seeing, and in fact, I almost tripled my business in 2020!

1. Identify Your Gifts

What makes you special? Leverage the level you are at and stretch it to the next level. If you have been an implementer in a business and you have the capacity to grow, now is the time.

2. Nail Your Offers

Do what you are good at. What do you enjoy and that the world finds valuable? Dive into those skill sets, own them, and put them on display. Everything else needs to be taken off the table.

3. Understand Your Avatar

Understand every nitty gritty detail of this person. It may include getting on a zoom call with your ideal avatar, which may be uncomfortable... but this step is key. You need to understand them, otherwise you are not going to feel heard or seen, and you will have a hard time penetrating that audience.

Marketing your company is the only thing that will allow you to get to the next level. The more you understand your person, the easier it will be to have a conversation.

4. Price Your Offer Appropriately

Absolutely do not short change yourself. This requires confidence.

"Action creates confidence, and confidence creates cash."

Figure out what other providers who serve your clients are charging. Then charge 20% more than what your gut is telling you.

5. Communicate Unique Value

Clearly communicate your unique value in all of your marketing. What makes you special or different from a peer? Communicate that in every single marketing piece: website, emails, social media, sales pages, opt-ins, phone calls, etc. Spend some time working on your messaging.

6. Sales Calls Galore

You must get on the phone with your people. If you want to skyrocket your business, the easiest way to do this with a high ticket offer is to get on the phone. No matter how you create this conversion activity (phone/zoom/dm's)… you have to have quantity so you can see where you are hitting or missing the mark. This is the only way to get them to buy.

7. Pay Attention To Your Network

Go one level above who you are currently hanging out with. It's fine to have a mastermind of peers that you are comfortable with, but you have to go to the next level. I have always surrounded myself with people who are smarter than me, who have been in business longer than me and who have larger audiences than me. When you surround yourself with those who are on the next level, you naturally rise to that level.

8. Be Committed To Upleveling

Uplevel your growth and professional development. You never want to become complacent, and the easiest way to do this is to commit to growing and refining the gifts you have been given.

Continuously look to find out where your gaps are and find people who have gone before you. If you are selling products that come easily to you, this will allow you to fast track.

The Ops Authority's mission is to partner with operations experts to help them uplevel their income, avatars, and offers… and the best way to do this is to join the Director of Operations Certification Program. We will be kicking off Round 8 on February 1st. The application deadline is January 26th, so don't miss out!

Weekly Ops Activity

Of the 8 steps mentioned, which is the first one you will be committed to working on? Let me know in the FB group.

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

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This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/80.

Do you feel like you are doing this online business thing all wrong?

Today we are talking about the mistakes you are probably making in your business that are slowing down your success... and how to avoid them.

4 Common Mistakes That May Be Holding You Back

I've been in business for 5 years, and I've literally made all of these mistakes! What about you? Are you making any of the following mistakes?

Too Many Offers

As you set up your business it's so easy to offer too many things. Or have you said yes to someone who requested a service you don't offer? You say yes out of scarcity and find yourself having to create that product on the spot, and eventually you find yourself with multiple offers.

The more offers you have, the harder it is for you to create systems and be consistent in talking to people. You confuse the people you actually want to work with, and it makes your visibility confusing.

Are you getting in front of the people you really want to be in front of? If not, we need to revisit your visibility. How are you being visible? I want you to attract the right people so that you don't find yourself complicating your business and bringing in too many solutions for too many problems.

"If you aren't leading your company, yourself, or the conversation, you will end up with too many offers and people won't know what you're known for."

Think about the ways you want to help someone, and if there are too many things… trim it down.

Generalist vs. Specialist

If you're new to operations or online business in general, you are probably starting wide… serving as a "Jill of All Trades" of sorts. If you are doing all-the-things, it's a great way to start out to get data and intel… but you most likely won't want to stay in that position forever. Some people are made to be generalists and others specialists, but often we don't stand in enough confidence to identify exactly what we want to do.

"You could pick one piece of the operations puzzle, and come in and own it."

If you look deep and find the thing that fires you up most, you may be able to niche further down and become a specialist.

Copying and Pasting Other Influencers Models

You cannot copy and paste any one person's business. Businesses are built based on values and relationships. If you copy someone else's model, it won't be authentic to you. Which means you will face lots of obstacles and it may feel like cheating. That will slow you down and take away your power and confidence and increase your fear.

I want you to dive inside of yourself and assess what you are the best at. What gets you excited? What do you do better than anyone else?

You need to leverage the talent and values that make you unique. Review who you serve, what you like to do, and your values and choose a model that suits you. Also realize that business models will change as you gather data and see if it works… if it's not working, you have the liberty to change!

"Your brand does not hold you captive...it allows you to expand, grow and deepen into the areas that make you feel powerful."

Downplaying Your Genius

I am a perfectionist, and sometimes I minimize what I'm good at to feel safe. When I left a corporate executive job, I downplayed my skills when I started my own business. It didn't take long until I realized I had to stand in my own genius.

I reflected on my accomplishments in corporate and decided to stand in them. But I am constantly surrounded by people who downplay their genius.

"I promise, when you rise up everything rises with you."

People would often ask me how I was scaling my business so fast, and the truth is that I wasn't scaling; I was just charging my worth. I have continued to see my worth and where I stand out, and in the places where I don't stand out... I let them go.

"Scaling doesn't mean making a certain amount of money, scaling means showing up in your business and making money with greater ease."

Find your genius! Ask everyone you know and if what they say matches what you see in yourself… you've got the data to back it up!

Join the Free Masterclass

If you have a desire to earn more money in your operations business, join us in a brand new Masterclass on Jan 21st!*

This is a one day training that is full of action. It will allow you to leave the class with a real plan that looks at your financial goals, how you should position yourself, and where you should focus.

Sign up here for the masterclass: How to Earn More in 2021 Using Your Ops Skills… without sacrificing what's most important to you.

*Note date change from what is mentioned in the podcast. The masterclass will take place on Jan. 21st instead of 20th.

Weekly Ops Activity

What is your genius? What do you do better than anyone else? Take some time to assess yourself and survey others, then let us know in the FB group!

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

Website

Private Facebook Community

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This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/79.

Do you have a plan to meet your financial goals for this upcoming year?

We are going to kick off this year talking about what you should know in order to reach your financial goals in 2021. The new year is a time of dreaming and scheming, reflecting, and creating a plan for the upcoming year.

One of the most important items you need to plan for is your financial goals, and often we avoid it because of fear. Financials can seem super scary but we are going to get into the technical side of finance today.

Reaching Your Financial Goals

There are 5 steps you need to take into account for a solid plan.

Be Aware of Your Vision

Where do you see your business in 12 - 18 months? Take a few minutes to figure out what it looks like for you. What kind of products, services, or pricing will you offer? Think about who you are going to be serving… will that change? Do you want to niche down?

"It is not uncommon to have a brand new completely unrecognizable vision every 2 years."

Reflect on your Actuals

Pull out your spreadsheets and review your actual financials from last year. Look over revenue, profits and what you paid yourself quarter over quarter for the last year or so. The more data you have, the better. The reason we do this is because we are influenced by the people we follow and hang around… sometimes we allow their vision to become ours. I want you to have a firm understanding of your financials so you can analyze and be aware of your starting point.

Define Your Goals

What are your financial goals? As you develop your skills and refine your market, you need to know what your goals look like. I believe you need to reverse engineer from your goals to your pricing. It is tempting to shoot for a six figure number, but it may not be realistic.

Define your goals based off of your vision and your actuals. I use the good-better-best framework, by Todd Herman, to predict launches, revenue and more. Set a goal that is easy to attain, and then use it to set better and best goals.

Identify Your Gifts

My coaching and expertise help women uplevel who they work with, what their outcomes are, and how much income they bring in. This is about identifying your gifts. What is it that comes easiest to you? When you monetize the skills that come easiest to you, you are going to make money in the easiest ways.

"Natural skills monetize the easiest because it's what you have the most confidence in."

Make a Plan

Make a plan and measure it to make sure you are on track.

These 5 steps will allow you to know if you are able to reach your financial goals.

"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." -Eleanor Roosevelt

I didn't take the time to go through these steps during my first 3 years of business. I am 100% certain that the work I've done towards financial planning in the last 2 years of business have brought more than 7 figures in revenue over the past 2 years into this business. The first 3 years, I was doing it wrong! I was taking a lot of time to dream and wish but wasn't matching that by putting it into a plan of action.

If you are listening and are not taking action on these items, you are putting yourself at risk. If you want accountability in creating a plan that works for you, we have a brand new masterclass coming up on January 20th.

This is an interactive workshop. I have seen over 120 women come through my program and create financial freedom by leveraging the skills that come most natural to them. I want to help you create a plan that is feasible. This masterclass is tailored to operators at all levels of business.

Sign up here!

Weekly Ops Activity

Share the vision you have for your business in 2021. You don't have to give a specific number, but I want to know what you see your business doing this year. Will you be changing an avatar? Growing a team? Changing your services? Come on over and share in the FB group!

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

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Private Facebook Community

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This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/78.

How did your 2020 shape up in regards to your business?

Today I'm going to recap what 2020 looked like for my business, and I hope this gives you a glimpse of what a business can look like. I also want to model something for you that you can use in your business, called the reflection framework.

Reflection Framework

Take out a piece of paper, and draw a big "t" so you have 4 quadrants on your paper.

Now label:

• Top left as "Working"
• Top right as "Not Working"
• Bottom left as "Missing"
• Bottom right as "Confusing"

I use this simple framework all of the time. I'm going to use it today to reflect on 2020, but I have used this exact framework for masterminds that I have facilitated, performance reviews, 1-to-1's, and team meetings. It gives you the ability to collect a lot of info and gives structure to the conversation. It also serves as a documentation piece that you can look back on year to year.

What Worked?

This has been an incredible year. When we started I had 4 different products I was selling. I had been feeling the urge to niche down and understand where my greatest value was. By niching down, I could give more of myself by serving 1 audience. This completely changed the trajectory of the success of The Ops Authority. I am so grateful I had mentors encouraging me and helping me see where my potential was, because what was stopping me from niching down was scarcity.

If you feel like you have a knack for operations and are interested in becoming a Director of Operations (DOO), join us for our first round in our upcoming Director of Operations Certification Program in 2021.

Mentorship

I have spent thousands of dollars on different mentors, programs, and masterminds over the years, and this year I decided to go big with a next-level mentor. I joined the Unstoppable Entrepreneur with Kelly Roach. I joined the first weekend of March before COVID-19 hit, and I remember thinking about how our economy was shifting in a really rapid way, so I needed to put my money where my mouth was to level up. I found a program that I will be in for a very long time to come. It was a mindset shift for me, and I have been blessed for Kelly's mentorship, her supportive team and the peers in the group.

The Live Launch Model

I started to use this program that Kelly teaches. I started to pay attention to what she was doing and applied it to make my content work for me. My team and I worked to create my live launch The Scope Creep Solution. It is a topic that stands the test of time, and allows me to show up as myself and teach something I'm excited about.

Expanding my team

I decided to expand my team by bringing in qualified expert coaches into my program, which has completely upleveled the experience that my students have. They have allowed me to see an even greater vision than I did in 2020. We can now handle 2-3 cohorts of DOOs at one time.

My team

I want to give a massive shout out to my Director of Marketing, Esther Littlefield who is such an incredible support. She is the person I trust in the strategic department of marketing. It has taken a big load off of me, so I can show up as the lead coach.

We have been able to expand our hiring services big time. Diana Neff has joined us as our lead hiring manager, as well as Yolanda Rumpf. They are both DOOs and have strong competencies in hiring.

Abby Herman has supported us in the content strategy area to make sure everything is streamlined, and Holly Cain with Prosper Collective has helped take our finances to the next level.

Intellectual Property

I have developed more intellectual property which means we have more content to share with those of you who choose to trust us and learn with us.

Podcast Growth

The dedication to this podcast has paid off!

Referrals

We put a lot of hard work into our marketing efforts, but I'm never upset about referrals! We have been really grateful for strong referrals.

"Being reputable has made it very easy to expand our business through referrals."

What Didn't Work?

Technology

Our tech stack is going to be shifting in 2021. Our current stack includes Samcart, Clickfunnels, Thinkific, and Convertkit. I have hesitancy about each one of these, and we will be exploring our options.

Meetups

I am a people person, and without conferences and meetups this year I've been a little heartbroken, and have felt somewhat isolated. I miss the networking and having some time away to focus narrowly on my business.

Website content

Since I have decided to niche down, we have some work to do to make the site match the messaging for our niche audience.

What was missing?

An Operations Coordinator

We will be onboarding our 1st employee, Alex in January 2021. She will be able to fill in some of the gaps, where some of my other team members have been graciously filling in.

More hiring managers

We were so booked that we had to turn away business later in the year, so we are looking forward to hiring a few more people since our processes are so dialed in.

Content in The DOO Certification Program

We have been anxious to re-record the content for the DOO Certification Program. I'm ready to share new wisdom that I've gained over the last few years and I want to add some relevant examples. We have also hired an instructional designer who looks at how to piece together content so it flows better, how to be more inclusive to various learning styles, and the visuals and graphics that support the frameworks I teach on.

Accreditation

One of the first things I did when I created the DOO Certification Program was to look at how to get this program accredited. One of the pieces of advice I got was to have a good sample size. When you have enough feedback you have a more solid product. Right now we have 141 certified DOOs, and we are actively in conversations with some really exciting organizations to discuss accreditation.

"Whatever we can do to increase the impact, opportunity and income for natural born operators… I am here for it!"

Balance

Personally, when the pandemic became serious, I was really fearful of how it was going to impact my business, which led me to overcompensate for the lack of control and steadiness that I didn't feel.

What was confusing?

Whatever you write in this section, you need a strategy around it to address it. I leveraged people around me to help me with the confusing parts.

Mindset

I can be headstrong when it comes to abstract thoughts because I'm such an action-oriented logical, methodical person, so sometimes I don't think I have mindset issues. My mindset is very different now than it was at the beginning of the year and I attribute that to my mentors and friends. I also learn so much from my own people; from the gals who come through this program who allow me to step up. By coaching their mindset gaps, mine has gotten stronger.

"This is my year of transition, from baby business to big-girl business."

Financial Transition

There has been quite a bit of growth this year, and I needed some strategies on how to handle that. We have been able to reinvest money back into the business and I've been able to leverage experts to help me in this area.

Video Show

I take slow action, but I've been thinking of starting a video show. It's still not crystal clear.

Pinterest Strategy

Kate Ahl is a dear friend who runs Simple Pin, a Pinterest management company. She did a podcast with me where she did live coaching on my Pinterest strategy. I want to take Kate's thoughts and feedback and crystallize it in 2021.

I hope you have found this helpful and found some good nuggets that will help get your wheels turning as it relates to your own business!

Weekly Ops Activity

Create your own reflection framework for your business in 2020. Then come on over to the FB group and share with us what has worked for your business this year.

Previous Episodes Mentioned

Episode 23: How To Reflect On Your Accomplishments

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

Website

Private Facebook Community

Facebook Page

Instagram

This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/77.