884: The Summer of Systems: Inside Our Playbook Project for Peace & Clarity

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2:02We have this preconceived notion of like, you know what? It's just going to be faster for me to do it myself. I don't have the time to teach. I don't have the time to train. And I think that that thought, that mindset right there is absolutely holding all of us back from doing the most meaningful and impactful work in our businesses, but also for like having time to live our lives. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town, Minnesota with my family.

2:41Here we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered.

3:20This is the Gold Digger Podcast. Every single morning when I wake up my three-year-old, she'll say, Mama, Mama, is it summer yet? And we actually have a book that is titled, Mama, is it summer yet? At our lake house. And I always just smile and I say, it is so close. And oh my gosh, summer is basically here. Tomorrow, my eldest daughter graduates from kindergarten, which is something that I totally laughed at until I have a kindergartner and I'm over here on Amazon. Should I order this girl a cap and gown and a diploma? Because this is going to be the cutest thing of my entire life. I cannot wait for her little rising ceremonies.

3:57They call it a Montessori. And you better believe I'm going to be that mom that's whooping it up and cheering for my girl. I'm so excited. And with that comes summer and a total shift in her rhythm, a total shift as a family, having both kids at home all the time. I feel both excitement and trepidation about what this means for myself, for my work and for the business. But just like my past summers, we have created boundaries around what summer is all about. And instead of launching something new or even launching anything at all, we're really focused on this summer being the summer of systems.

4:32Now, this summer, I'm so excited because basically the last few summers, I've fiercely protected it with boundaries for myself, for my team, for my family around what was going to happen in the business. And this summer we chose a focus and it is all about systems and even deeper than just systems. We're talking about playbooks. I'm going to go deeper into what a playbook is, but essentially playbooks are clear step-by-step documentation that can make our business run smoother, that can poke holes in our processes, that can make things run with or without me in a better way. Now, I have talked about this book before on my podcast, but I was deeply inspired by Dan Martell's book called Buy Back Your Time.

5:14And then I was reignited with this passion around playbooks at a recent business event with an incredible woman named Stacey Tushel, who I know, who I love, who's been on the show before. And these two voices combined gave me the exact push I needed to really define what this summer was going to be about. Dan reminded me that real freedom comes from documented systems, not just delegation. And Stacey gave me a good kick in the butt and challenged us to not just build playbooks, but to take them to a whole new level, which we're going to talk about. So without further ado, let's dive on in to today's episode all about our summer of systems and why I believe our playbook project is going to give peace and clarity.

5:55Let's go. There's kind of this joke among my friends that like I never leave my house and it's honestly not even really a joke. It's the reality. I really like to be at home and I'm recording this looking out at my garden. My chickens are grazing nearby and we have a new sweet beagle puppy in my office. So if you hear any squeaks, it's totally him. And I just love home. I love home and I especially love being home with my family. And so a few weeks ago, I was actually convinced to leave home and I am so glad I did. So I went to Nashville and we basically threw together this very last minute girls mastermind when I found out that a few of my friends were all going to be in Nashville for all different reasons.

6:41And it was kind of like a spontaneous spur of the moment, book a last minute flight and let's make this happen. Now, on top of that, I got asked by one of my friends to speak at one of his events. And I said, sure, let's do it. Well, little did I know that speaking at that event would opened my eyes to something that I had been kind of ignoring in my business. So me and my girl, Amy Porterfield, did this really nice fireside discussion. It was super fun, super laid back, really casual. And then after we spoke, our friend Stacey Tushel took the stage. And this girl is a powerhouse. She is an operations genius.

7:17She's been on this podcast before. And as she was speaking, oh my gosh, was I taking notes. I felt like I was meant to be there not to speak, but to be a student. And as she was on stage, she was talking about having playbooks in a company, basically SOPs, which are standard operating procedures. And if your eyes just roll back in your head like mine used to, hear me out. This is going to become a whole lot sexier as we go through the story. And she was talking about just how important it is for business owners to document everything that they do in their business so that if and when they're ready to hire somebody, whether it's a virtual assistant or a copywriter or a team member, they have a documented system that they can hand over, which alleviates that concern that everybody has that training this person is going to take so much time.

8:01But on top of that, she was also talking about how creating SOPs or playbooks allow you to poke holes in where your business is inefficient. It allows you to set the stage for a team member so that they know if they're being successful in their role, if they're falling short. And so they have this step-by-step process that allows them to not come to you every time they have a question, but allows them to go back to the playbook. So Stacey's up on stage. I'm taking notes. This is fantastic. And she tells this story and she said, now, if you go to approach your team about playbooks and they freak out because they think that you're about to fire them, tell them this story.

8:39And she tells this story about how one of her team members had to get her appendix out and was like on her deathbed and she was panicking and she went to the hospital. And all of a sudden she just released all of the stress around work because she knew she had a playbook and she knew that the team could just pick up her playbook and complete her job role. Like the business wasn't going to crumble without her. And so this woman had to be rushed in for emergency surgery to the point where her husband had to text Stacey and say, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. This team member is out until further notice, basically.

9:11And Stacey was like, all right, we got this. And she's like, if you couldn't handle that in your business right now, you need to spend time creating playbooks. And I was like, okay, I'm sold. This is great. This is a good story. I'm going to tell my team this story. It's going to be great. This is the buy-in. She's like, playbooks will not only give you and your business the groundwork, the foundation necessary to make sure that everything is systemized, but it'll also give your team members peace of mind if there's ever a time where they want to take time off or if an emergency happens or if something in their family happens, they can step away and they know that their role is still going to be fulfilled.

9:47I'm like, great. I'm bought in. Okay. Notes are taken. I'm subscribed. I get it. Well, little did we find out like a week later, I didn't need Stacey's story because we were literally living our own version of it in my own company. So we're in the midst of our Pinterest launch all for our program, the Pinterest lab. And my team is just absolutely incredible. Like when I think of my team, I'm like all time rock stars. And there's one person on my team. She is absolutely one of the smartest people I've ever met in my entire life. And she manages all of the tech of our company. So from sending out and scheduling emails to linking up webinar software, like when it is launch time, she is the A player connecting all the different systems, all the different softwares to make a launch run.

10:37Well, the weekend before my live webinars hit, she is visiting a family member, falls down the stairs, breaks her ankle and needs to have surgery. Now, I have such a devoted team. I'm so lucky as a boss where she literally messages us and is like, hey, guys, heads up. I broke my foot. I'm probably going to need surgery, but don't worry. I'll figure this out around the launch. Now, as a boss, I'm like, girl, you need to focus on your healing. Like this is like, we're not carrying cancer over here. I wish we were, but we're not. But the reality also was, is that we had invested so much time and money into this launch that if we were to halt it at that point, we would be out.

11:18Like it would not be good for the business. And so I am both delighted that she is still, you know, focused on this launch, but I'm also like, this isn't the type of business I want to run where you can't untether yourself successfully. And so it was this huge eye-opening moment of like, we don't know exactly how this team member does all the things. If she has surgery during a webinar and we need to log in and like send out the emails, do we know how to do that? Now, here's the thing. There was a time in my business where I played every role, right? I have been the customer support person, the podcast producer, the course creator, like I've done everything in my business.

11:57But over the years, systems have gotten more complex and the way that we use things has changed and automation has shifted and all these different things. And so I'm over here like, okay, I don't even know how she linked these things up. Like, I don't even know how to get in there. I don't want to break anything she's done. And so we experienced our own moment of like, we need to document every part of the process. We need to have these playbooks so that other team members can step in and assist. And so that my team can step out if and when life happens and trust me, life is going to happen. And so it was just one of those things where it was such a serendipitous in a terrible way situation where I'm like, I don't even need Stacey's story.

12:39We're literally living it. And so the good thing was, is that we made it through a launch. My team member was absolutely incredible. We gave her a lot of time away. We were really, really flexible around what her needs were and able to step in and take care of a lot of the things, but it was a huge wake up call of like, wow, we can no longer ignore this. This podcast is brought to you by Mercury, banking that helps entrepreneurs do more with their money. Okay. I remember in the early days of my entrepreneurship journey, clients would literally mail me checks and then I would have to drive all the way to the bank to deposit them.

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13:50Visit mercury.com to apply in minutes. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. For important details, check the show notes. You know, I only share stuff I'm genuinely obsessed with. And so when I kept seeing Bolin Branch sheets all over Instagram, I was like, okay, are these actually worth the hype? Drew and I have been using their sheets and duvets for over a year now. And honestly, our bedroom feels like a completely different space. The moment you touch these sheets, you'll get it. They're incredibly soft to start, but they literally get softer every time you wash them. They're made from 100 % organic cotton, so they're super durable and they're breathable, which is perfect for piling on cozy layers without turning into a furnace at 2am.

14:34This is hands down the best bedding I've slept on and I'm so genuinely excited for you to try it. Start building your sanctuary of comfort this fall with Bowl & Branch. For a limited time, get 20 % off your first set of sheets plus free shipping at bowlandbranch.com slash golddigger. That's bowlandbranch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch.com slash golddigger to save 20 % and unlock free shipping. Exclusions apply. So what is a playbook? So when I'm talking about playbook, we are talking about essentially this comprehensive guide that documents a company or a role's processes, policies, and standard operating procedures.

15:16Basically, it is a clear roadmap for how the business operates. It's a central resource that outlines everything from the company's mission and values to the specific steps each employee takes in their role. It contains everything from processes to passwords, templates, and video tutorials on exactly how to complete every responsibility within a specific role. And yes, playbooks are so nerdy, but let me tell you, nerdy has become super sexy to me. So this is something that we actually started implementing, I would say probably over a year ago. And what's interesting is, is that there are different areas of my business that already have playbooks.

15:54And we have had roles shift or roles change. And we're like, okay, I need you before this role changes to document everything you do, how you log in, what you're looking at, how you format things, like basically everything. And so the cool thing is, is that we're not starting from ground zero, but there are specific silos in my business where I'm realizing, oh my gosh, there are total gaps here that we need to fill. And what's incredible about this is that when you go through the process of creating playbooks for your business, if you are a solopreneur, if you're doing all the things, you are able to see inefficiencies, you're able to see areas where you're like, wait, this doesn't even fully make sense.

16:36You're also able to see places where inconsistency lies. But also for your team members, they're able to document all the different things they do in the business. Like I think of one of my team members, she's been with me for seven years. She started just in email support as a VA, and now she does a million different things in the company. And we've never actually even taken the time to document all the different ways she supports the company from doing quality control checks to supporting students to getting people their logins. Like there's so many different ways she supports a business. And I'm like, this is a beautiful way for her to also take inventory and be like, here's the ways that I'm adding value to the business.

17:14So what's interesting to me is that for a very long time, I thought the idea of SOPs, again, standard operating procedures, basically just the processes that you follow each and every time to do one thing over and over and over again. I thought that things like this and playbooks were super restrictive. Like I am ADHD. I love having ideas. I love being creative. And so whenever I thought about things like this, they felt like super unnecessary admin work. Like to me, I'm like, what a waste of time and energy to document all these things, right? I wanted things to feel super creative, super flexible.

17:51And for me, systems felt like they would totally stifle that energy. But what's super interesting is as my life has gotten busier, as my kids have gotten older, as my business has continued to run and grow, systems are now like my favorite thing. To me, instead of feeling restrictive, they feel freeing, they feel empowering, they honestly feel sexy to me because systems free us up to be more creative. That's what I'm seeing is like, if you're being super creative in your work and you don't necessarily have a step-by-step process that you're following, you're using up all your creativity in a place where it doesn't need to be.

18:30And so for me, when we lean on systems and processes, it freezes up to be creative outside of them, which is where I think business owners should really be living. So after reading Dan Martell's book, Buy Back Your Time, I had a total mindset shift on this. I remember, so I actually listened to the audio book first and I sent the book to my team and I said, this is how I want us to operate going forward. It kind of felt like we were taking ourselves from this like informal cutesy business to like a real legit process based business. And what's interesting and what I really loved as a CEO and as like an owner is that Dan talks about the difference between$10 tasks and$10 ,000 tasks and how we cannot afford to spend our time doing work someone else could easily follow if we just took the time to document it.

19:20And again, I think for so many founders and business owners, it's such a double-edged sword because we have this preconceived notion of like, you know what? It's just going to be faster for me to do it myself. I don't have the time to teach. I don't have the time to train. And I think that that thought, that mindset right there is absolutely holding all of us back from doing the most meaningful and impactful work in our businesses, but also for like having time to live our lives. And so when you think about creating playbooks, you are creating something once that someone else could follow for months and even years to come.

19:55Now, again, I've done almost every single job in this business at one point, but that doesn't mean I should still be the one carrying those tasks out or even trying to figure them out again. Like I want to know that there is a clear playbook in place that anyone on the team could literally step in if needed, that we're not necessarily relying on memory or chaos. And honestly, this is just a smart move as a business owner in case you ever have turnover or a team member unexpectedly leaves. If you're listening to this and you've had somebody unexpectedly exit your company and you're trying to clean up their mess and you're trying to figure out exactly where they kept things or how they organized things or how they did things, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

20:39I recently had a team member who had let go of someone on their team and they went into their inbox and their process and they were so confused. They were like, I don't even know what she was doing. I don't know how she was doing this. This doesn't even make sense. It took them so long to recover. And so this is a way to add extra security in for yourself as a business owner, but also for your team members to really document, here's what I do for the business. Here's how I add value. Here is the process that I follow. And so this shift from it takes too much time to this creates total clarity has absolutely changed the game for me.

21:18And it's changed my perception of what this type of work and this type of project is going to look like in my business. So here's what we're focusing on building. And then the fun part is, is the part that comes after it's built. So as my friend Stacey Tushel was talking about, I learned that a playbook is not just done because it's created. I basically had team members create playbooks for different areas of our business. Like we have a playbook for the podcast and my team members have felt good about them, right? Like they're like, yep, got the playbook. I'm good. Well, guess what? Stacey was on stage and she said something that totally blew my mind.

21:55And I knew my team was going and be like, wait a minute, let me circle back on this. She said, you don't just want to build the playbook. You have to test it. Okay. So what does this mean? So once the playbook is built and the team member hands it over, that team member is going to step out for a day. Maybe we give them the day off. Maybe they step into another area of the business, but they have to be entirely hands-off and unavailable. Then we assign a totally different team member from a different side of the business to test that playbook. So let's say Christy, my podcast producer, is out.

22:27I'm going to ask Steph, my support person, hey, can you go in and do Christy's job for the day? And Steph cannot contact Christy. Steph has to follow the playbook. So I could say, Steph, I'm going to record a solo show. Can you make me a room in Riverside, please? And Steph has to do it. And so this is the level that we are going to this summer where we're not just focused on creating playbooks, we're actually going to test them. And I think that that step alone is the one that will provide really the desire as a team member creating the playbook to make it fully comprehensive, fully clear, entirely detailed.

23:04But also it'll be fun for my team members to see what different team members are doing, right? To experience, to walk a day in the shoes of somebody else. And so this is the plan for the summer is to not just create playbooks, but to test it. So I am so excited to do that because I think that that's exactly how we're going to figure out what's missing, which steps are unclear, what needs more support or detail. That part has been essential. So here's kind of how we're designing the playbooks. And I'm still in process in exactly how I want this to look for the business because I want these to be formatted super specifically.

23:41I want them to be laid out similarly so that at the end of this project, I have one master playbook for the entire business. And so there are different softwares that you can use to create playbooks. I remember Dan Martell talking about a certain software where you could like literally record your screen like you're recording a loom recording, and then it would document the process and type it out for you. So that's one option that we're looking into. Another option is, is that we usually use Google Docs and we love the new tabs feature to organize each piece of it. And so that's where we're probably going to start.

24:20That's where we've started in other areas of our business to document things. But essentially, I want it to be so clear of like, here's exactly how to do X, Y, or Z. And that way you can easily find that part of the document, et cetera. Now, the other step about this that I'm so excited about is once the entire company playbook is done, we can load this into AI like chat GPT. And we can basically have a place, a hub, a custom GPT where the playbook lives so that if anyone on the team has a question, they can go to that custom GPT or that GPT first and ask that question. And hopefully they can find their answer before they have to bother somebody else on the team or ping me in Slack.

25:04And so essentially it's also creating this extra layer of support where if you're a team member and you don't want to feel like an idiot and be like, I don't remember how to link this thing up, or I don't remember how to do the proper formatting on the blog. You can just type in your question into the GPT. And because the entire company playbook will live there, you will get your response without having to bother a team member and without feeling like an idiot. When we were young, we dreamed of castles and fairy tales. And as we grow up, those dreams might shift into building something real, like starting a business.