How to Build the Business, Not Be the Business with Chris Ronzio: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Light that spark fire nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Billion Dollar Moves. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to build the business, not be the business. So drop these value bombs. I brought Chris Ronzio into EO Fire Studios. Chris is the founder and CEO of Trainual, a platform for entrepreneurs to get their business out of their brains by documenting and delegating the systems and processes in their company.

0:32You can learn more at chrisronzio.com. And Fire Nation, when you're micromanaging, it's because you don't trust someone to get the results done. Don't micromanage. Most entrepreneurs that are getting started, they're doing everything in the business. But believe me, you can't do everything if you want to win. You must build a culture where you're documenting your processes, your tasks, and how things work. And we'll talk about that today when we get back from thinking our sponsors. Hustle and Flowchart, hosted by Joe Feer, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

1:03Join Joe as he discusses systems, mindset tweaks, reframes and strategies to help you build a business that gives you freedom and fuel for your life. A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must listen. Listen to Hustle and Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts. Chris, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Fire Nation, amazing to be back. If you want something done right, don't do it yourself. Train someone else to do it or you'll be stuck doing it forever. We're going to be getting into that Fire Nation because our episode today is about your business, which has 99 problems, but a playbook, Fire Nation, ain't one.

1:48So Chris, let's just dive in, brother, because I want to know what the heck is a business playbook. And even more specifically, when do we know when we need to create one? A business playbook pretty simply is just the owner's manual for your business. It says, who are you? What do you do? And how do you do each of those things? So this was a term we saw popping up over and over online. And we just thought we've got to define it. We've got to make this simple. So the way a playbook works is it's got the profile of your business, just like an online profile. Who are you? What do you do? What are you all about?

2:19Your values, your vision, your mission. Then there's your people. Who are the people that work there and what makes them unique and special? Then every business has policies. What are the rules of engagement at work. And every business has processes, which are the how to's. And so you stitch all those things together, the profile, the people, the policies, the processes, and that is your business playbook. But when, when do we know when we need to create one? When to create one is when you're doing things consistently in the business. If you're just getting started out, if you're still experimenting and throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, then it's not time to write something down yet.

2:56You know, you, your listeners may have heard to write down their SOPs, their processes, and then they end up changing them a week later because they feel out of date. So if that's you, if you're listening to this and you're still trying to figure out what works, then don't waste the time yet. But if you've got something repeatable, you're doing it over and over and over the same way. Now you can show someone else how to do it. So that's when to write it down. So Fire Nation, this brings me back to when I launched Entrepreneurs on Fire. I was trying everything. I was literally a jack of all trades, but I was also a master of none of those trades.

3:27I mean, I was throwing so much spaghetti against walls. I was just trying to figure things out. And I was just like, hey, this worked, this didn't, this might work again, this might not, this is repeatable, what it might look like. But then over time, just like Chris was kind of insinuating, things kind of started to settle in. I started seeing systems and processes that I was personally doing over and over and over again. And I'm like, there's a better way to do this. So let's talk about the importance, Chris, about documentation. Let's talk about the importance of consistency. How can our listeners, Fire Nation, create a culture in their business, in their life that includes both of those, documentation and consistency?

4:09Yeah. So to grow a business, things need to happen consistently. If you were scattered and things were done differently every day of the week, then you just wouldn't get good customer reviews, you wouldn't build something that could actually scale and you'd be stuck in the grind every day trying to figure it out. And so beyond just writing things down and making it a one-time exercise, you want this to actually live beyond you and become part of your business's culture. So the first step is don't try to delegate tasks. You want to delegate responsibilities. In the business, there are different areas of responsibility that your team can actually take ownership of.

4:43And if you stop delegating tasks like the ping pong balls back and forth and actually delegate areas of the business, then you can hold people responsible to making sure that there's consistency in those areas of the business. So the first step is delegating responsibilities, not tasks. The next thing I'd suggest is you want to review and revise your playbook pretty often. So depending on the size of your company, if you're listening to this, you might only hire a few people per year. And in that case, I'd say, let's make this an annual exercise. Let's go through how we do what we do and make sure it's up to date every year or maybe each time you hire and bring on a new person.

5:19If you're bringing on 25 or 50 or 100 people a year, this may become a quarterly or a monthly exercise. But the good news is that you've delegated so much of those responsibilities that your team is actually the one keeping this up to date. And then you want to review, like I said, each time you're bringing a new hire on, if you're the hiring manager, you're the one they report to, just take a quick pass through what you're going to be assigning to them for their training so that you make sure it's up to date, that you didn't miss anything. And then the last thing I'd recommend is anytime you find yourself repeating yourself, saying the same thing over and over and over, you want to call that out.

5:54You want to have a little fun with it. So at our company, of course, we use our own system. So we say, you know, make a train you all for that. Or is there a train you all for that? And it's a language that's just become part of our culture. That way, if there is a meeting or a question that's happening over and over, there's an assignment of, hey, can you write that down for everyone else? I'm loving all of this and Fire Nation. What I really like is that Chris is, just like Google, kind of made their word a verb of like, yeah, just go Google it. Or yeah, I need to get a ride to the airport. Let's Uber it.

6:23Let's make a trainual. Let's make a trainual. I think that's just kind of a little side note of like something that you should try to be doing with your brand and your business, making that a verb, making that something that people are using on a day-to-day, month-to-month, year-to-year basis. And reviewing and revising, I'll tell you personally, Fire Nation, we're doing this on a monthly basis. We're a very small team, but we get together every single month. And I have a certain number of things that we're going through to make sure that our delegation is in the right place, that our documentation is in the right place, that we're being consistent with everything that we want and need to be consistent with.

6:56And this is the time that I love having my virtual assistants, my employees, bring up things that they've been noticing over the past month, trends that they've either liked or disliked or ideas that they've come up with because guess what? They are in the trenches. So that's why these are so important to have and I love that you brought that up. Now, Fire Nation, we're going to be talking about ops. We're going to be talking about HR. We're going to be talking about just the overall business playbook bible when we get back from thinking our sponsors. Every entrepreneur knows that growing a business is hard.

7:32Trying to figure out which software to use, when, and for what purpose can be frustrating. You've got your email marketing system, your payment software, your CRM, your content tools, your email tools, your tools to retool your tools. It's chaos. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a single platform to handle all the tough work of growing a business? Great news, Fire Nation. There is. HubSpot is the customer platform for marketing, sales, service, and most importantly, growth. They've got something to help everyone on your team excel, including more personalized campaigns and improved workflows to help your marketing team generate better leads, revamp pipeline management so your sales team can build better relationships and close more deals, and service teams that can scale everything they do, all while serving your customers better with tools like HubSpot's AI chatbot and knowledge base.

8:15Stop spending more time managing tools than connecting with prospects and customers. HubSpot's customer platform is a smoother, more effective way to grow. Suddenly, work feels like no work at all. That's the power of HubSpot. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more.

8:56trauma. It can be incredibly helpful when it comes to learning how to set boundaries, leveraging your time most effectively, and getting back on track with your goals. Not sure where to start? Give BetterHelp a try. It's not only super convenient and flexible, it's also easy to dive right in. Just fill out a brief questionnaire online and get matched with a licensed therapist. Take a moment. Visit betterhelp.com slash fire today to get 10 % off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash fire. So Chris, as I mentioned before the break, we're chatting right now about ops. We're chatting about HR.

9:32We're chatting about the intersection of those two. How do top entrepreneurs thrive at that intersection of ops and HR? Well, they're two so crucial components to building any business. And I think when you're just getting started, you may be more focused on the operations, on how things actually work. Are our customers happy? And at some point in building a business, you change your focus from your customer experience as the primary thing to now starting to put attention into your employee experience. Are our people happy? Are we attracting great talent? Are we retaining that talent? Do they have opportunity to grow here in the business?

10:10And the reality is these things are so intertwined. And so everything that we've talked about so far is really just who does what in a business. That's the HR side. And then how do you do each of those things in the business? And that's the upside. And so this fusion, this idea of a business playbook is addressing both of those things. So first on the HR side, when people get hired, they look through a job description, a job posting, and they might see a bulleted list of responsibilities. That is you communicating to potential candidates. Here's what I expect of you. Now, when I was consulting and going into businesses, I saw that those expectations dramatically change over time.

10:49You take on so many new things as you're helping a small business. You wear all these hats. And if you were to compare your job description at the time you were hired to what you actually do today, there may be a huge mismatch. And if that mismatch exists, there may also be a little bit of dissatisfaction with your happiness at work. And so the idea of who does what the HR side is making sure you're setting clear expectations about here's what we as a business expect of you. And is this the best use of your time? Is this something that makes you happy and fulfilled as an employee that works here?

11:24That's what the HR thing is all about. It's employee engagement, employee experience, and it's leading and building a people first culture. And then on the flip side, the operations side, you're always addressing the how because you're always looking to make your business more efficient, more productive. Is this the newest and best way to do this thing? Or is everybody still saying, well, I don't know. We've always done it that way. That's how it's always been done. Great businesses operate like yours does. And every month they're going through and sourcing best practices, new ideas from people to constantly make their business better.

11:58So it's at that intersection of HR and ops that real entrepreneurs thrive. I think that's one question that I want to reiterate that Chris shared, which is asking yourself, Fire Nation, are you building a people first culture? Such a critical question that very few businesses are asking on a regular basis. And if you are, you're bringing up the right things to talk about. And I specifically left a lot of time here at the end of the interview, Chris, to talk about the business playbook. This is actually a book that you wrote about how to document and delegate what you do so your company can grow beyond you.

12:37Think about that, Fire Nation, how to document and delegate what you do so your company can grow beyond you. Talk to us about this book. Let's kind of dive into some of the specifics. And of course, we have for you, Fire Nation, an irresistible offer. Take it away. Yeah. So the idea of the business playbook, like I said, it's the culmination of all of these colliding ideas about how do you build a people centric people first kind of culture? How do you run your business like a machine with standard operating procedures and fine tuned how to's for everything in the business? And so it all came together as this book, but it really started years and years ago at the beginning of my own entrepreneurial career when I read The E-Myth by Michael E.

13:20Gerber. And I'm sure a lot of your listeners have read that book. What I learned from that book is that you've got to work on the business, not just in the business, right? Like it's the most cliche thing he says. I think everybody has said it in hundreds of books since. And I was so fortunate to have Michael himself write the foreword for my book because by working in your business, you learn how to make the business better. By working on your business, you're now fine tuning it so other people can work in the business for you. One of the things he always recommended was an operations manual.

13:51And so I set out to define how you actually create one of those in your business. And that's how we arrived at the business playbook. And that is what this book is all about. It is a guide to capturing the knowledge, the best practices, the policies, the culture that exists, that already exists in your business, not creating it from scratch, capturing it, crowdsourcing it, getting your team to contribute so that you have now that owner's manual for who does what and how you do each thing. And you can get any new person up to speed and make sure your existing team is happy, productive, and helping you grow the company toward your vision.

14:28So if Fire Nation gets this book, let's talk specifically about how you best think that we can approach this? How can we apply it? Is it just read the whole book once and then go back and just implement step by step? Is it in some kind of sequential order or what is the best way to tackle the business playbook? So first it's a book you can read with your team and then sort of divide and conquer. It's divided into those four P's that I mentioned earlier, profile, people, policies, processes. And so it'll go through and teach you why you need those things, what the basics are that we've seen at Trainual, thousands and thousands of businesses, document around the world.

15:06And then it'll have checklists that you can actually implement for your own business with tons of guides and resources. So I would say first read through it on your own. It's a short book. It's easy to scan and read through. And then you can actually assign out different areas of the book to the people that will be working on this with you. It's meant to be a super practical how-to guide so that you can actually have one of these playbooks in your company. Now, what is that irresistible offer that I've been teasing Fire Nation with? So the offer doesn't get much better than this. If you visit trainual.com backslash EO fire, you put your information in and we will send you a free copy of the book, shipping included 100 % free as soon as it comes out.

15:49So we appreciate so much what you've done in delivering value out to the community that we wanted to give copies of this book to all of your listeners. So if you're an avid listener and you're listening to this, please go to trainuel.com backslash EO Fire and get 100 % free copy of the book. Fire Nation, this isn't 10 % off. This isn't five bucks off. This isn't a free plus shipping, which happens to be$12.99 offer. No, this is, you are going to fill out some very simple things and you're going to get this book delivered to you for free. 100 % free, not a single penny out of that pocket. Trainual.com slash EO fire.

16:30That's train, T-R-A-I-N-U-A-L.com slash EO fire. And again, this is the business playbook, how to document and delegate what you do so that your company can grow beyond you. Now, Chris, you dropped a ton of value bombs. Give us the one takeaway you want to make sure Fire Nation really gets from our entire conversation today. and then we'll say goodbye. I started this off saying, if you want something done right, don't do it yourself. It's funny how often in our ads online, people say, oh, I've tried hiring people. It didn't work out. I'm just gonna do everything myself. What I would leave people with is if you have that mentality that you're just gonna take everything under your control forever, then that's the ceiling on your business.

17:16Whereas if you can learn this skill to document, to delegate, to empower other people, then the sky's the limit. So I encourage everyone to download the free book and hopefully it opens up a ton of opportunity for you. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with CR and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And of course, head over to eofire.com, type Chris in the search bar and the show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about here today. Best show notes in the biz, but your direct call to action, trainual.com slash eofire.

17:51100 % free, the business playbook delivered to you. Chris, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks so much. See you next time. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Chris and Fire Nation. Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 3 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and your fulfillment. And I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success.

18:26It's been personally endorsed by Seth Godin, by Gary Vaynerchuk, and so many others. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need, Fire Nation, to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit uncommonsuccessbook.com. Order your copy today, and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Hustle and Flowchart, hosted by Joe Feer, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Join Joe as he discusses systems, mindset tweaks, reframes, and strategies to help you build a business that gives you freedom and fuel for your life.

19:00A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must listen. Listen to Hustle & Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts.