2446 -Unlocking Founder Freedom Through Operational Systems and Smart Processes with Heather Hargrove

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0:46Visit podverify.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. With us right now, my good friend, Heather Hargrove, who is actually an Orlando native. We've actually done projects together in the past. And Heather, you are an operational leader and consultant. You are found on the web at heatherhargrove.com. Heather, it's great to have you. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to this. It's so different being on the other side because when we've worked together, it's been on the other side of things. So I like seeing this way because I also I love how you work.

1:25So thank you for having me. You you. So on behind the scenes, you're as you know, an operational leadership. You actually we've we've launched over 300 podcasts and you were instrumental in many of those. So thank you so much for that. So now you are the guest, my friend. And you've got an incredible roster of clients that you serve as well. Before we get into all of your work superpowers, I always love hearing from eye-level leaders, you know, what they do for fun when they're not at work. You and I jealously guard our downtime, I know, because we were just talking about that. And you live here in beautiful East Orlando, and there's good biking, if you know where to look.

2:07I know that's something that you've been doing. Sorry, I kind of stole your thunder here. Heather, what do you geek out on right now? Let me ask it that way. Yeah, no worries. You hit it on the nail. I spend or, you know, we spend a lot of time online and I've been doing even more of that, like, you know, now that I've been able to build and grow things on my own. So I've been spending time outside of the house as much as possible, whether it is biking or just sitting outside on the patio and reading a book, just getting away from my laptop and getting off of my phone. Like there's times I have no idea where my phone is that later on when I get back into the house or I start going away from it, I have to like try to remember where I put it.

2:49But just getting out, being in Florida, it's really hot for biking right now. So I picked a really good time to get that, you know, going again. But I'm really enjoying it. And I'm very glad that I was able to pick it back up again. It was either that or rollerblading. And I went with the safer bet of those two options. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Be careful. But yeah, you're right. You know, for biking here now, you know, as of when we're recording this, you pretty much have to get out as early as possible. That sun ain't going to mess around. You know, I'm recording right now. It's 92. And, you know, of course, humidity, typical humidity we got here.

3:28And Heather, I know you also have started reading books of movies that you've enjoyed, which I think that's kind of cool. What's been your experience with that? What have you read? And then what have you noticed? Because you always hear the old trope is like, oh, the book is better. Are you finding that to be the case? Back in the day, I used to actually avoid doing both because I didn't want the comparison. But then Project Hail Mary came out or was coming out. So for that one, I actually enjoyed the audio book before the movie. So I made sure I got through the audio book before I saw the movie.

4:05And I found when I was sitting there watching the movie that I was enjoying. it was almost like the book was going through my head at the same time and I could notice when there was deviations and it was just nice to see the way that they captured it and then also trying to notice what they added in the movie and also what they left out from the book trying to you know try to see if there was any kind of decision making process there I know they have like get it toned down but it was a nice way to kind of see it in two different developments one that was you know specifically for the readers having them go on that journey and then for those that are watching, knowing that they're only gonna be able to watch it for so long, go through so many things and seeing that.

4:43And then from there, I went to Crazy Rich Asians because many times with my teenage daughter, I didn't even know that there was two more books, which I was very upset about. So then I went to the bookstore, got that. My son has The Martian. So I'm going to be, I'm getting that as well. And I'm just going on this journey. Like even there's just like running through like i've never done any of like the longer series um like lord of the rings or anything like that i'm debating those after this to kind of see if it's something that i want to go through yeah that's an investment that's an endeavor yes yeah i like the comparison right now i really like going through it because when i used to read dan brown books um when i did see the movies back in the day when tom hanks came i was like this just does not feel like the actor for me and i was very upset.

5:33I was very upset. I was like, I just can't do this anymore. And I walked away from doing the comparison. Andy Weir, I've heard The Martian on audiobook is incredible as well. If you get a chance, if you like Andy Weir, he has a really, really short story. It's called The Egg. And just knowing that I think you appreciate some of the existential, but it's a really interesting short story. And you can find it on YouTube where it's like they turned it into like a little eight minute video or something like that. I just came across that and I'm like, Oh, that was nice. So anyway, it's called the egg.

6:06You can search it. Uh, Andy, we are the egg. You can search on YouTube and just listen to it. I appreciate that. I will have to check that out. Well, Heather, tell us about, um, your work. Um, and we're going to be talking about systems, uh, and, you know, just maybe just start with like your view of why systems are so critical for nearly everything we want, founders? I come in with a different angle on it. It was weird, but I got thrust into building systems. I was never a techie person and everywhere I was working just kind of didn't have it, but I didn't even know what the possibilities were.

6:44Right around 2019, I had to quit my job because I just couldn't keep working a regularly scheduled day. Like most other people, I'm prior service i have disabilities from the military and my body would just kind of start shutting down and as i started business on my own and just hanging around with other business owners i saw a lot of them were doing a lot of extra work that in my mind just didn't make sense or things that they were doing that was creating five steps where there could be two and as i started exploring into technology and not even just the technology just the the way that we do things in our life on a daily basis, you know, how we communicate, all these things are different systems.

7:26I just found pathways that just seemed to alleviate a lot of the stress and help people maneuver through it in a way that just to me made more sense. It kind of became my superpower. I'm like, I'm not good at singing, drawing or any of that stuff, but like seeing something mapped out in my head is clear as day and I can sit down and kind of like bring it to life. And for me, That's just always been what it is. And the more that I've been able to work with businesses that are scaling and developing, the more I would see you'd have two different sides. The one that would actually step into growing systems and developing these things within their back end, they would start to actually create them in a fun, joyous way that they actually were like, I can see myself actually doing this in 10 years.

8:12And there's other ones that would be like, I'm doing great and I just want to burn it all the ground. And they just walk away and completely shut their doors because they didn't see what they should be doing on the back end of their business. They can only see the front sales leads. And once that was there, everything behind was just absolute chaos. us. Well, give us a quick 101, if you could, Heather, when you talk about systems, I mean, some people's brains are immediately going to AI, some brains are immediately going to like people leadership. Could you define this for us? And then maybe if you could just go ahead and launch into some best practices, I want to feel like our friend that's listening, you could maybe surface us a few things that they could maybe get a little bit introspective or curious about, you know, their own operations?

9:05With anything, I say start very simply. A majority of people, like you're saying, are looking, the first thing they want to do is what excites them, the building. So they want to sit down and get, you know, a platform or AI or start this massive project to create something that they think that they need to run, you know, their business or their life. The goal here is what do you do on a daily basis? What is it that you do when you sit down on a regular day? What is it you're doing and actually just start writing it down? I generally love it just even if they just do a notepad and pen and just say, hey, every day when I wake up, I sit down, I open my, you know, my calendar, my calendar gives me access to this.

9:44Like, what does that look like? That's a system. Like the way that you're moving through your day are these little pieces, these little nuggets of who you are, how you like to work. And the way that you work is going to be different than the way that somebody else works. The way that you communicate with people, right? Whether you have a team or you don't. If you are running ads for your business, that's going to be completely different than if you need to show up on LinkedIn and have conversations and then move people from a LinkedIn conversation to a sales page. all of these different things work in different ways to me putting it into the actual tech is like almost one of the final things that you do and that's going to save you more headache than anything because I know a majority of you listening probably build like 10 or more things and by the time you got done with it you just trashed it because you're like I don't even use it and I don't even want to do it anymore or something new came out and you're like now I just want to build that and you're completely avoiding organizing the things that you need to do in your business on a regular basis.

10:45So my brain, you know, automatic, when I think of systems, I start thinking of technology. And obviously, technology is a part of this. Do you mind maybe just kind of addressing that side of it? On the technology side, more for, like for you, so when you're thinking like lead gen, like how are you generating leads, conversions? Like how are you serving your clients technology? Or you want more granular, like a CRM, a customer resource management or using AI or vibe coding? Like what do you like? Yeah. What comes to mind for you? Where do you end up when it comes to technology with your clients?

11:21Is there a couple of areas that you find yourself, you know, kind of moving toward because most businesses are, you know, they're underwater, like they feel underwater. They're not keeping up with what's possible. Because again, I know everything we're talking about is it's kind of this confluence of people and technology together, working together and AI now being a big part of that. So yeah, let's kind of move more in the direction of technology and then hint, hint, the next question is gonna be AI. So if you just wanna hit that. No, you're good. Yes, so a majority of my clients when they first come with me, it's about the people they're serving, both their team and their clients.

12:08So we're looking at how are you delivering the thing that you're doing to those people, whether it is once again, your team or your clients, we're looking at what are the touch points? What emails are they getting? What information do they have access to? Where can they search for it? So majority of that's going to be in a couple of different places. So you need a repository for your clients. You need a place where all your client information is going to live. So that way, when one of your team members comes in, they can access the same information as somebody else. And we need to see the touch points.

12:38If somebody hasn't logged into their platform in a week, I want to know because that means the client isn't using the thing that we're providing them. We need to make sure we're adding value. We need to make sure that there's some sort of internal thing that is easily notifying the team so they don't even have to think about it, that something is off with this client, that they're not doing something. They haven't submitted something. They haven't taken a step. They haven't shown up, whatever that is. And then ideally, depending on what that is, as far as the flow, the team member could click on the client and say they haven't done this.

13:11Here's the process to reach out to them, the workflow, the touch point. So everything kind of gets built in on the retention and delivery side. Using AI, what I have found, I am migrating more towards data, dashboards. A lot of the systems that are currently out there and that my clients are missing is actually being able to see the data from everything that they're using, all these different connection points in a way that they need to see it, right? I have one client, she gets about a thousand new members to her Facebook community every single month. These are a thousand people that we need to make sure that they get invited to that first entry point that we have built and set up within that first month.

14:01That first entry point then leads to a low ticket item that they get to experience her more that then leads to her high ticket program. So on this dashboard, we're able to see all the data of how many people came in this month out of how those people who signed up for the entry point from those people who then signed up for the next step. And we can see those touch points. And then if they're submitting, let's say somebody signed up for the first touch point but didn't upgrade. We're later able to see when they take another action, like submit a form to get access to something else. So we have direct input of like, who are the main people that we want to reach out to?

14:40So that way, those people that are showing up and saying, hi, I'm here. I need information. I need your help. Out of the thousand that are coming in every month, she can really focus that in and we're able to build that directly. And that's, that was done just through vibe coding. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. You know, what what do you see in the I mean, I've interviewed a lot of operational leaders, consultants, you know, fractional COOs. And I really love this question and answer. And that is, what's the transformation that you see when you are able to step in as that founder or that CEO's right-hand person and say, listen, let's get the operations locked down.

15:30Let's build the systems to support that. The transformation that you see in the founder, what have you observed? First of all, it's relief. I've had people cry on calls with me just because they're so exhausted. And they feel bad because they're running their business, their kids are at home, they want to spend time with their kids. And then I've had people that have been able to plan lives. one of my clients was actually able to plan having her first kid after we'd already been working together for a year and a half. She was able to make decision with her husband. They've decided, you know, once they were, yes, they wanted to expand the family, did that, was able to go on maternity leave for three months and her business was still running without her and then come back into it just the way that it was.

16:18So they're able to grow something that still gives them space while they're supporting the people that they want to support and living the life that they want to live because a majority of them, yes, they love what they do, but they also want to love living their life and they want to be able to step away from it. So it gives them that opportunity. And my favorite part is eventually when even their team members no longer have to go to them to ask them questions about things that are going on, because once it takes time to get into a company. You have to get to know them. It's like a long-term relationship.

16:52You don't just go on a first date, spend a little bit of time. The more time you spend inside of a company on that operational side, the more you're able to see the way that they work, see what they've created, and then build it out from there. There are certain points where I've had people tell me, they're like, Heather, you're never going anywhere. You're in my budget all the time because you just have like, you are in here. My team comes to you. They ask you questions. They'll know where it is. I don't even have to do that part. I just literally just get to show up and serve. And that's what I enjoy doing.

17:27So they get to choose how they want to show up. So if it's showing up as their marketing side, great. If it's the coaching side, great. If they're showing up as doing, you know, I have some agency owners that they love building the things, then we build everything else that allows them to focus their time just on building the thing. So they get to enjoy each day that they go to work. Yeah. And as well, you should. Otherwise, go get a job. You started this. And Heather, I come from a place of empathy because the business, our businesses have an unquenchable appetite for our attention. There's never enough time to get everything done.

18:07You're probably never going to be fully caught up as a founder. And, and, you know, for those of us who like to close tabs, and we like to feel like we're checking things off the list, you know, it's just, but that's kind of what we sign up for. So it's really nice to share that leadership burden with an operational leader, you get to be the, you know, the Roy Disney to the Walt Disney's out there, I guess. So, well, Heather, I know you've got some free resources. Your website is heatherhargrove.com, which we have all linked up to our friend that's listening right now. And maybe they'd love to just kind of get to know you a little bit more.

18:44Where do they go from here? So there's a couple of places I recommend. One thing that I always tell people is, you know, right now you can be listening, you're gonna be thinking, you know, yes, my business looks great on the outside, but it's actually absolutely chaotic on the inside. Well, that's what we fix, right? Like I fixed the inside of the businesses. So what we created is something called the inside look. If you go on the website and scroll down the main page, you'll get to a little diagnostic. It'll take you through that. It'll kind of let you see what is missing on the inside. So answer a few questions that'll be there for you.

19:16One thing I always like to plug as well, if you, you know, you and I, Josh, are, you know, both veterans. I do have Project Vets. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, if you know of any veterans organizations nonprofits anything like that anytime a company brings me in to speak or serve they are also donating to a nonprofit veteran organization so if you know of anybody at Project Vets you can just go in there and send them the link to get added as a partner which basically means that if somebody comes in and you know brings me in to talk, they're on the list of organizations that I can come into for free and help out.

19:58As far as sitting down, taking a look at the inside, really seeing where their members need support. I also work with universities and stuff along that line. So that's where I would kind of take a look. I love to always do like, hey, this is for you. But if you want to get back at all, Project Vets is there for you to look at as well. Heather Hargrove, thank you so much for joining us. Again, your website is heatherhargrove.com. Thanks, Heather. Thank you.

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