January 3, 2024 • 35 mins
Ready to unlock the secrets to a phenomenal 2024?
Pip and Georgia are laying down the game-changing habits that have transformed their businesses and lives. These aren't just any habits; these are the seven gems that make success and joy your new normal.
We want you to build a business that gives you the freedom AND success you desire so these habits are a great start.
Curious? Tune in to discover the habits we swear by!
But remember – these aren't one-size-fits-all. Take what resonates, adapt them to your style, and don't be afraid to shake things up.
We’d love you to share your favourite hacks and habits.. Drop into our DMs and let's swap success stories!
✨ Ready to set yourself up for a dream 2024? Book your spot for our Scaling Simplified Day in January. Let's craft goals that align with your 5-year vision and set the stage for a transformative year!
https://www.georgiafitzgeraldcoaching.com/SS
🚀 #ScalingSimplified #Goals2024 #BusinessStrategy #7habits
Connect with Us:
Share your thoughts on this topic with us on Instagram @pipharland and @iamgeorgiafitzgerald. At Scaling Simplified, we're dedicated to supporting fellow female business owners on the exciting journey to seven figures and beyond and we always love to hear from you. 🚀💼
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pip (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Scaling Simplified podcast.
We are heading into a new year,which means new habits, new goals,
and so much more excitement.
So what are we going totalk about today, Georgia?
Georgia (00:16):
Yes, this is a great topic.
So, yeah, new year, new goals.
Let's think about some of the,the great habits that we want
to take into this new year.
And I think it's really around if youwant to build a business that gives
you freedom, that allows you to do allthe other things that you want to do
in life, you've got to be intentionalabout how you're running your business.
(00:37):
Because otherwise, you're just going to bein the thick of it, juggling everything.
And that's not what we want.
So today we're going to be sharing ourfavorite hacks and habits and just the
little things that we do within ourbusiness that has allowed us to create
way more freedom on a day to day basis,but also that's meant we can scale
(00:59):
in a way that doesn't require us towork harder and harder, you know, the
old adage work smarter, not harder.
Um, so some of these tipsyou might find useful.
Some of them you might find reallyhelpful, but this is just a reminder,
take what you need and leave the rest.
There is no such thing as aright or wrong way of doing this.
(01:20):
It's the right way for you.
And some of these might inspire youto adapt them in some and take some
little trinket into your business.
Okay,
Pip (01:30):
let's not hang about.
Let's just jump straight in.
So the first tip we haveis to plan in fun first.
Now, I actually think this is reallygood that this is tip number one,
because I think this is actuallythe most important thing you
should be doing in your business.
Really the reason behind thisis because anything that you do,
you will take as much time asyou are given to do that task.
(01:54):
So it's that sort of theory that tasksexpand to the time given to them.
So if you don't actually go ahead andplan in your fun first and prioritize
it, you'll end up actually not having anytime for fun, or you'll be so exhausted
at the end of the week that actually thelast thing you want to go do is go out
and have some fun because you've just.
(02:15):
Tied yourself and burnyourself into the ground.
So the first thing you needto do is really think about
putting that fund in first.
And I think what you also need to dois be conscious as, as your business
is scaling, you're going to get moreand more tasks that come your way.
And you're going to getmore and more difficult and
harder things to think about.
And you're going to find it's more taxing.
(02:35):
So unless you are being strategicabout your time out, you will get.
To the place of burnout.
And nobody wants that.
And the whole point of building yourbusiness, right, is to live your life.
Like we're not here to work all the time.
We need to really make sure that wehave a fun life in inside as well.
I can't get my words out today.
(02:55):
We really need to make sure that webuild in the fun to our life too.
Otherwise, what is thepoint of working so hard?
Absolutely.
Georgia (03:02):
And I would like to use you actually as a shining example of this
because am I right in thinking thatyou have managed to travel for about
four and a half months this year?
I
Pip (03:15):
have.
Yeah, so actually planning funfest Ifeel is like something that we share a
lot in common is our like Top priorityin our business, but I have I've taken
off four and a half months to travelthis year There have been times when
i've not worked at all when I traveledand there's been times when i've worked
A little bit to keep things running whenI traveled and it is completely possible
(03:37):
to run a successful business And havea team as well and to take time off and
travel and do what's important to younow for me That's traveling for you.
It might be time with yourfamily or time with a partner
or just Peace and quiet time.
Time to yourself to go and dowhatever hobby you love doing.
But I think the most important thing isto understand that everything is possible
(03:59):
and you can figure any of this out.
You just have to makethe decision to do it.
So going into next year, I've alreadygot another three or four months of
travel already planned, and I knowthere'll be more that comes in during
the year as opportunities come up.
But I've already put that on my diary.
I've let my team know.
Sometimes you've already got thosestructures in place to, to know what
to do when I'm working on a differenttime zone or I'm out of the business and
(04:22):
other times I know I'm going to have tofigure that out before we get to that
stage, but it's completely possible.
All you need to do is justbelieve that it's possible
and then you'll figure it out.
Yeah, I
Georgia (04:32):
love that.
And I think this leads actually nicelyinto point number two, which is, um,
really get clear on your bigger picture,but then plan it out into 90 day sprints.
So, if you look back on the yearwe've just had, I imagine everyone is
saying, , how on earth are we at thispoint again, like time has gone so fast.
(04:54):
So, if you're not intentional aboutwhat you want to achieve, it's
quite frankly never going to happen.
So we've talked about this in previousepisodes in terms of setting goals, but
get clear on that bigger picture vision.
So that is really thinking about,actually, in an ideal world, where
do I want to be in five years?
So where do I want to be in three?
So where do I need to get to by theend of next year to make that happen?
(05:16):
And that could be business related, butit could also be personal related as well.
Because remember, if you focus tooheavily on the business, your personal
life will just go bust as well.
And those goals that you had.
Those trips you wanted to make beforeyou had a family or the things that
your places that you want to visitor the things you wanted to do will
disappear so you've got to makesure that you're scheduling it in.
Pip (05:39):
Georgia.
I completely agree that you need to plan,get clear on that big picture and then
focus it down into manageable chunks.
So I know we've covered more ofthe details of how to actually
operate a 90 day sprint.
On previous episodes, but can youjust give us a quick recap of like
the highlights of how to do this?
Georgia (05:58):
Okay, amazing.
So perhaps you think there's a coupleof things you really want to achieve
this year and that's brilliantthat you've got those big goals.
But we also want to make sure thatyou're not going to get held back by
getting stuck in the day to day of stuff.
So I want you to think about,okay, what is that big thing?
Say you are building out a new programor perhaps you're launching a new
product or building out a new funnel.
(06:19):
So you're thinking of the endresult and you're working backwards.
So this is going to helpyou break down those.
So you can actually movein the right direction.
So say you want to launch thatfunnel at the end of March.
What do you need to be doing by theend of January, the end of February, to
get to that point at the end of March?
So break that down.
(06:39):
Well, maybe the funnel is somethingthat's going to take six months.
So again, break that downinto 90, 90 day sprints.
So it might be the first 90 days isaround generating new leads, building your
profile on social media, like creating.
A bigger, um, area thatpeople might see your funnel.
And then the next 90 days is reallyhoning in on those people that were
(07:01):
originally interested in seeing,are they actually my ideal client?
What do I need them to do by this point?
Then let's say you're, for each 90day sprint, you're going to pick maybe
five KPIs that are your needle movers.
And only focus on improving those.
It's really easy to get sidetracked.
And the whole point We're kind of planningout the big vision is we don't get to
(07:25):
every crossroad and be like, Oh, bothdirections look really interesting.
Maybe I'll try and do both of these.
And then before you know it, you'vecompletely overloaded yourself.
So we know where we're going to.
We're working backwards and we're workingout what's going to tell us that we're
on the right track, whether that isthe number of new leads coming into our
funnel, whether that is, um, Some tasksthat we've set for our team members to
(07:48):
make sure that they are moving forwardfast enough to launch day and we don't
suddenly get to a week before our big goaland realize that nothing's quite ready.
You know, we're always staying atop of it.
The other thing that I find.
This really helps with is it meansthat you stop procrastinating on
stuff because you've got really cleardeadlines, which you've broken down into
(08:09):
small elements when I'm working withclients and they, and they get stuck
or they're procrastinating on stuff.
It's normally becausethe project is too big.
They don't know where to start.
Whereas when you've broken itdown into really easy manageable.
Steps and you're like, okay, thisis what I need to achieve here.
These are the five things thatare going to show me I'm on track.
(08:29):
You know what you're doing.
You don't need to procrastinate anymore.
Also, it becomes much easier todelegate it to someone else when
you know exactly what's happening.
So it means that your, your teamalso, they're really keeping
clear on those priorities, whichis kind of essential because.
If you're anything like me, I come upwith a lot of different ideas and I'm
(08:50):
always like, Ooh, we could do that.
And that would be exciting.
And what about this?
So I might be meandering around the mainplan, but as long as I've set a really
clear plan for my team, it means they'realways going to be on those priorities.
And then we can decide if thereis time or space to fit in one of
my other wild side ideas or not.
Pip (09:13):
You know, it's funny, this habit has probably been the single
biggest game changer in my business.
I think the first habit, obviouslyplanning and fun first has been
good for my own work life balanceand enjoyment of my business.
But in terms of scalability of mybusiness, this has been like the one.
And for anyone that is interestedmore in kind of the thought process
(09:34):
behind that, there's a really goodbook by Gino Wickman called Traction.
, and basically it talks about theentrepreneurial operating system.
And if you are somebody that likelikes the big picture, but needs to
break it down into manageable chunks, Ireally recommending reading that book.
Cause it completely changed myperspective on how to run a business.
And honestly, that habit that I've takenfrom this book has changed the game for
(09:56):
me, and I'm sure it will for you too.
Okay, so habit number threeis really keeping focused.
Now this, I'll be honest, issomething that I struggle with.
And so it's a really good reminderto take this habit into 2024.
And I think as entrepreneurs, We arejust so used to, , moving constantly on
(10:18):
to the next thing and looking for theopportunity, , and potentially having
shiny objects syndrome or jumping onnew opportunities that it's really hard
sometimes for us to stop and go, hangon a minute, we're not trying to do
everything, we're trying to do one thingand we're going to try and do it well.
And especially in the current economicclimate and with All the noise that
is out there on social media is reallyimportant for us to just stay in our lane
(10:42):
of what we're doing and be like, I'm clearon what I'm doing, who I serve, who my
customer is, you know, what service I'moffering or what products am I selling,
and just focusing on getting that good.
If you try and do everything, youare going to be the master of none.
And I don't think.
We're living in an age where youcan be the master of all things
at the moment, unless you have amassive team and let's face it, if
(11:03):
that's the case, brilliant, do it.
But most of the people listeninghere, I think are probably thinking,
I already have too much stuff to do.
I don't need to add more to my plate.
So one of the ways in which I dothis is to always have a parking lot.
And this is basically just like alittle area of my notes, , where I
just dropped down all my ideas and thenI know that there's somewhere safe.
(11:25):
But I know if they're not on my 90day sprint, then I don't need to
distract myself with doing these now.
And it really just helps me keep thosegood ideas as they come up somewhere that
I know I can access them in the future.
But it kind of helps me extractthose thoughts from my brain
so I don't keep coming back andruminating on, Oh my goodness, this
project could then be this and this.
And actually then I getcompletely distracted from
(11:47):
what am I doing in the day.
And I also find that, , my team, likeintroducing this into my team has made
a big difference because they oftenalso have really amazing ideas that
come up as they're working on something.
But again, if they're getting distractedby something that, you know, we've not
made a conscious effort to work on,we're then not actually delivering what
we said we'd deliver in this quarter.
(12:07):
So having that place whereyou can write down your ideas.
really, really helps.
And removing those distractions,honestly, again, is really the
key to scaling and scaling in asimple, easy, stress free manner.
It's all about keeping that laser focuson one thing and just committing to that.
(12:28):
I think you can
Georgia (12:28):
really pull that down to the micro level as well.
And I think anybody that For us, it'sreally usual to be working from home,
but I think for loads of people thatwere working in the office in corporate
and then started working from home,this distraction of trying to stay
in your own lane is really difficult.
So even thinking about theparking lot, we've got parking
a lot for business ideas.
(12:50):
I also encourage people to havea distraction list on their desk.
So if you're suddenly like.
I've got to put the washing on,or I need to order this, or I
must remember to message someoneabout this thing that's happening.
Just put it on your distraction list andactually put time in your diary to deal
with the, the life admin, the distractionstuff that comes up on that list.
(13:12):
And even thinking about that micro level.
With that, you know, we've talkedabout big plans and 90 day sprints and
all the rest of it, but I literallydiarize everything in terms of tasks.
So for example, I would put in recordingthis podcast, I would put in 30 minutes
around prepping a certain episode.
I would put in 30 minutes aboutremembering to think about
(13:36):
social media for something.
I might put in 30 minutes to writenotes around a coaching call.
Like, Put everything in and alsoput in some, some buffers, you
know, you've got to have some spaceto deal with those emergencies.
Those life emergencies,like your kids are sick.
The washing machine brokedown, your car blew up.
(13:58):
There's a hole in the kitchensink, you know, whatever it might.
be, you've got to be able to likedeal with those different things.
I'm laughing to myself because Pipactually has a hole in the kitchen sink.
Pip (14:10):
I just love this.
It's so funny you say this because, , II'm so with this diarising everything.
I washed my hair this morning and hadto put half an hour aside because I kid
myself that I'm going to wash my hairin five minutes, but let's face it.
Who washes their hair in five minutes?
DM me with your secret to how youcan wash your hair so quickly.
But it is true.
You do need.
(14:30):
If you put everything in your calendar,including that fun time, and then you
give yourself that space, it meansyou can just do so much more, right?
Yeah,
Georgia (14:39):
absolutely.
It also means then you protectthe important stuff because
you put it in the calendar.
You don't get to the end of theweek and be like, oh my gosh,
I never made it to the gym.
I wonder why?
Because you blocked out your entireweek from seven in the morning
until midnight doing work tasks.
Which kind of brings me on to Numberfour, which I think is such a good habit,
(15:00):
particularly for those of you listeningto this podcast, because you are going
to be at a certain stage in your businesswhere this really starts to apply.
So don't hang on to thingsthat don't need to be you.
Okay.
Remember all the other things we've talkedabout, putting fun first, like all the
different things you want to achieve.
That is not going to be a, that'snot going to happen if you hang on to
(15:23):
every small detail of your business.
So I want your new mantra to be,I've got big plans for the year.
I'm going to act like it.
Okay.
So sometimes it can feel abit catch 22 with budget.
You're thinking, Oh, but I've got thesebig plans, but am I ready to invest?
The sooner you can invest andhelp the better, scale it up.
(15:43):
That is fine.
Then I want you to work on what Icall the Trash Transfer Trim Take On.
So the way that we're doing this isyou're looking at that to do list and
we've all got this, we've all got taskson our to do list that make it from
week to week to week to week to weekand for some reason they never get done.
At that point, I would suggestthey don't need to be done.
(16:05):
If you've got three weeks in,you haven't done them and the
business hasn't fallen apart.
Cross them off, they're trash.
So there will be other things on thatlist that you're hanging onto that you
feel like you should do, maybe becauseyou saw an Instagram Reel and someone
suggested that that was something thatyou needed to do in your business and it's
made it onto your to do list every week.
Just trash it.
If it's not right for you, don't do it.
(16:28):
Then I want you to think, okay, whaton that Definitely doesn't need to
be me, and who can I transfer it to?
Start with like, the easiest task first.
Even if it's just around, and we'vesaid this before, if it's around helping
you out in your house, you know, orhelping you out with the school run,
or anything that it might be, canyou transfer that to someone else?
(16:50):
Where's the lowest, the lowest costthings to transfer, in terms of paying
someone, and also in terms of like,
So then you should be left with thingsthat probably do need to be you.
And even those things that you'retransferring, if money is tight, you're
thinking, okay, how can I trim this?
Like, does this process need tobe as lengthy as I'm making it?
(17:12):
What is the actual needlemoving part of this process?
How can I get to the point quicker?
So it's either cheaper to paysomeone else to do it or quicker
for you to still be doing it.
And then you've got the taskthat you 100 percent have to do.
take on.
They have to be you.
That is usually, , you know,around the strategy for the
business or your zone of genius.
(17:33):
I would say there's actually somany more tasks in your business
that don't need to be you that youthink need to be you at this point.
And if you're confused about whatthose are, drop me a DM and I will,
uh, help talk that through with you.
So trash transfer, trim, takeon, but a word of warning.
Absolutely, don't transferand then just run away because
(17:56):
that is never going to work.
It will come back to you andit will probably come back to
you like three times broken.
So if you are transferring,you need to make sure that
you're giving a good handover.
And when I say a good handover,we're just being really clear
about what we're handing over.
So another little acronym foryou that I like to use is IPO.
(18:18):
We're going to give all the informationthat we need to give on the, on the task.
We're going to give all thepermissions that we need to give.
These are the things I'm happyfor you to take the decision on.
This is the budget I'm happyfor you to spend up to.
This is, uh, you know, the decisionsyou can make in the process.
These are the things that I need you tocome to me about for permission on, and
(18:42):
try and keep those as small as possible.
And then we're talking about the outcome.
So information, permission, outcome.
What is the outcome of this task?
What does doing this task look like?
Well, what does succeedingin this task mean?
And then you can either put together aquick video where you're just downloading
what needs to happen in this task, oreven better, IPO and then ask your hire to
(19:05):
interview you with any questions that theymay still have on how that should happen.
They can record it, they can listenback to it, they get a really
good understanding of how youapproach a decision and how you
would make decisions going forward.
Pip (19:19):
I really love the idea of getting somebody to
interview you and recording it.
And then you explaining your thoughtprocess on how to make a decision.
Because I think that's the hardestthing with teams is to download
the way you think about somethingand the way you approach something.
With your team and essentially agood team member will be able to
(19:40):
do that automatically for you.
They'll go, Oh, I knowwhat Pip's thinking.
She would approach it in this way.
So if I approach it in the sameway, I know we're going to come
with a relatively similar outcome.
So therefore she's probablygoing to be happy and you save
yourself so much time in that.
And that really leads on sonicely to habit number five,
and that is document as you go.
(20:02):
Now, I know you see all the time SOPs,playbooks, document your life, document
your business, but I think it's reallyeasy to either feel completely overwhelmed
and be like, Hi, I'm not documentinganything because I do not have the time.
Or to be, you know, Little Miss A starand go, I'm going to document everything
(20:22):
perfectly and it's going to be in my brandcolors and it's going to be beautiful on
Canva and so well organized and actuallyin three months time, the whole system
or process has completely changed, butit doesn't matter because you have a
really good SOP for what was happeningsix months ago, , it looks really pretty.
So I think you really need tothink about your documents and
your standard operating procedures.
(20:42):
As a working documents, they aremoving and living and breathing
with the company as you change.
And actually, if they're notchanging very often, maybe you
need to think about why that is.
Are you missing opportunities to speedthings up and make processes better?
So whether this is you or whetherit's your team members, and if you
have a team, I really encourage youto get your team to own SOPs relating
(21:06):
to their tasks within the business.
And for them to maintainthese and update these.
They go, but you cando this really easily.
So, you know, have Google sheets,have a Google doc that you're
typing into that multiple peoplecan add to record videos using loom.
So literally if I'm doing somethingnew, I will just hit loom and I
will record my way through it.
(21:26):
And the great thing with loom isthat it provides you a transcript.
It provides you an AI.
summary of it all now.
Like it's amazing what the softwarewill do and what the various
pieces of software will do.
And it then just means that Ican pass that to somebody else.
And coming back to the piece youwere talking to about helping
your team understand yourprocess of making decisions.
(21:46):
I talk out what I'm doing andwhy I'm doing it as I'm recording
that video, because it helpssomebody get into my mindset.
And say you have A customerservices rep, and they're answering
customer services queries.
They could then have their SOP.
So a whole list of answers, youknow, tried and tested answers.
So they can copy and paste theanswer and then tweak it for the,
(22:08):
whatever the query is that's come in.
But then if you get them to explain whenthey're making changes, what those changes
are here and there, if somebody new comesin, they can then very quickly understand
like what the general approach is inthe way that works for your business.
So make sure that you'redocumenting as you go.
Don't waste loads of timemaking things look pretty.
(22:29):
You just need them to be functioning.
Make sure that you store these somewherethat's really easy to access, so whether
that's a shared drive, , I like touse Notion and have a bank of SOPs.
I know other people that have themall in Asana as various tasks, but
then you just don't click do with thetask, you just click into the task
and you've got all the information.
Whatever works for you, I'm sureGeorgia's probably got loads of really
(22:50):
good ideas on how to manage your SOPs.
But doing something that reallyjust It tracks things as it goes.
It will save you so much time.
It will allow you to much more quicklybring on new team members, which
is going to help you scale faster.
And also, it's just going to takeaway that, like, the busyness from
your brain, because if you downloadedall that information of how to do
(23:12):
something and you put it on paper,Then you can stop thinking about that.
It's similar to the parking lot idea.
You remove that information fromyour brain, you compartmentalize
it, and it opens up your brainto focus on the bigger, more
important strategic questions.
Georgia (23:25):
Yeah, that's amazing.
And I, it is really important to documentstuff, but I love that you said that it
doesn't need to be perfect because itis much better to just have a quick base
point that someone can go from and theycan always then interview you and find
out why you've done things to it thatway and build on it because ultimately
want to hand it over that process.
So it's going to becomesomebody else's to manage.
(23:48):
Okay, so number six, pressgo before you are ready.
Now, I know that there are somepeople listening to this that pride
themselves on being a bit of aperfectionist, and I want to say stop.
Perfectionism is procrastination.
When you get to 80 percentready, just go for it.
Okay, like I know that I am somebody thatprobably goes for it at 70%, so I could
(24:12):
do better with waiting till I get to 80%.
But if you have an idea, if you've gotto the point where you can roll it out
as a basic first draft, then just do it.
Because you really don't know ifsomething's going to work, if people
are going to be interested, if, ifsomething is going to appeal to the
masses, until you start moving with it.
(24:33):
Or until you know.
And have tested various aspects,like what works, what doesn't work.
So just go for it, release a newproduct, have the new service.
Think of it as a first draft, getfeedback, tweak it, relaunch it.
As business owners, this is actuallysomething that we are really good at.
We're really good atlearning from our mistakes.
(24:54):
Otherwise, we wouldn't stillbe here in our businesses.
We would have gone bankrupt ages ago.
So you are good at refining whatyou do, but just put it out there.
Don't overthink it because it might besomething that actually nobody wants.
So just try it, try it first.
And I think this is the same interms of bringing in team as well.
(25:15):
Press go before you're ready because.
you will get to a point where youare so maxed out that you don't
feel like you have the time tofind, hire, and onboard someone.
We're saying that training iseasy, it doesn't take long, but it
does take some time and thought.
And if your brain is maxed outby your to do list, you are never
(25:36):
going to feel like you can findthat time to bring someone on.
So as soon as you get some momentumwith something, even a tiny bit before
you're ready and you think, do youknow what, there are definitely tasks
in here that I could hand over tosomeone else, do it, start doing it.
The same as like launching a new funnel.
It doesn't need to be perfect beforeyou press go, but you need to try
(25:56):
this stuff out and tweak it, see whathappens, see what results you get.
So 20 percent of what we do createsan 80 percent of our results.
So get clear on the 20%, i.
e., you know, putting the rightinfo or link in a funnel is way more
important than choosing the perfectphoto or aesthetics, you know, think
(26:18):
about what are the bits that arereally going to move business along.
You can make that website lookso beautiful, but if you don't
put a link in to buy the product.
What's the point?
Like, get that first sentence rightand get that link in and see who's
interested, you know, build from there.
I
Pip (26:34):
love the 2080 rule.
I think it's so important thatwe like keep coming back down to
like 80 percent of the resultsare created by 10, 10, ideally 10.
But mostly 20 percent of the workand then really diving into that and
making sure that's what we're focusingon because ultimately that's what
gives us more time and freedom back.
, And really that really nicely leadsus into our final habit, habit number
(26:57):
seven, which is simple equals scalable.
So it's really natural as you grow andyou add more products, you add more
services, that your business becomesmore and more complicated and there are
more moving parts and spinning plates.
You're trying to make things talk to eachother and work and fit around each other.
And one of your jobs.
(27:19):
As CEO, as you are scaling yourbusiness and you're really taking
it to the next level is to ensurethat it remains manageable and it
doesn't become this machine thatyou've built, which is out of control.
You are the captain of the ship,remember, and you have to make sure
that you're keeping the ship movingin the right direction before it's
going full steam ahead at the iceberg.
(27:39):
So you really need to think about.
If things become too complex, they'regoing to take you more time to manage.
It's going to take longer for you totrain your team up to understand all
the nuances around that complexity.
It risks things going wrong.
You know, if it's more complicated,there are more points in which
something could go wrong.
And then figuring out what went wrongis so much harder because you've got
(28:02):
to look at all the little touch pointsrather than the, the one touch point.
And that generally meansthere's so much more reliance.
on you as the leader to figurethings out and keep things moving.
And one of the things as we scaleis we want to be stepping away
from working in our business andstart working on our business more.
So there's more reliance on you forkeeping everything running smoothly.
(28:23):
That's going to become harder andharder for you to step away so you can
really think strategically and help thebusiness move in the right direction.
So I think with this, some of thesort of really tangible things
that I think about when it comes tosimple equals scalable is working out
which KPIs are actually important.
You know, we can track everysingle metric in our business.
(28:44):
And as a data person, Ilove to track a lot of data.
However, There's a lot of data youcan be tracking, which actually for
you doesn't make any sense to trackor doesn't matter because if you're
not going to do anything with the datayou're tracking, there is actually no
point in wasting your time tracking it.
So think about those three to five KPIsthat are really important for you and
(29:05):
that align with the goals that you'retrying to achieve, and then focus on
improving those every single week.
I think we can also take theidea of simple, equal, scalable
just into our daily routines.
I personally do not agree with the like,5am, 19 step morning routine, you know,
the ice bath, the avocado on toast,the meditation, the red light therapy,
(29:27):
and all this, that, and the other.
Great if you have time to do that,but no And I'm gonna, you know, be
a little spicy here, but no realentrepreneur has time to be doing that.
If you're a real entrepreneur growinga real business, you need to be
working in a grainy business, notsitting in the sun for too long.
, and yeah, sorry if I've offendedyou with that, but it's the truth.
, so you really need to justthink about what works for you.
(29:49):
You know, moving your body,getting some fresh air, eating
healthily, drinking water.
You don't need to have a million thingsto do to like be quote unquote successful.
Just have something simple, asimple routine that works for you.
Stick with it.
Okay.
If you love to run as your form ofexercise, there is no point in you
(30:09):
thinking I'm going to become a bodybuilderbecause you're not going to stick to it.
And that's kind of likethe point about this.
If you don't like working in the mornings,there is no point trying to wake up at
5am to do your best work in the morning.
However, if you can't work pastfour o'clock, there's no point in
wasting your whole money or morningdoing things which aren't useful.
You might as well get up early anddo the really key strategic work.
(30:30):
So it's about knowing yourself andfinding that simple routine for yourself.
I also think that you don't need toworry about all the tech and software
and AI and all the things that, , arebeing flashed at us across social media.
, all these new things thatwe can use in our business.
Ultimately, you don't need a whole seriesof really fancy pieces of software and
(30:52):
systems to make a successful business.
You don't have to have a million differenttrackers and documents to update.
You just need one or two reallysimple things that work for you.
And if you feel that it's not as fancyas it should be, do not simple is great.
You're doing really well.
If the more software you have,the more things can break.
So do not think that you're notrunning a good business because
(31:13):
it's not all fancy in some light,nice, shiny, new piece of software.
It probably means that you'redoing things really well.
So I think the key thingsto this is just keep.
things simple.
And as soon as you start to feellike you've got a million plates
spinning or you're trying to struggleto keep all the balls up in the air,
whatever the, the metaphor is, I'mclearly just butchering right now.
(31:34):
Just step back, strip it backto what are the basic things,
what's bringing you money.
Keep focusing on those products orservices, which are bringing you revenue.
What's bringing youenjoyment in your life.
Continue to do more of those andremove the things which aren't.
And what is keeping everything runningand all the little extra things that
you're wasting your time and all theextra admin, get rid of it and really
(31:56):
just focus on what you really haveto do to keep things moving forwards.
I love that,
Georgia (32:00):
but I did also have to put myself on mute for a second
because I was really laughing.
I had a vision of you with one ofthose, um, morning light things,
eating your avocado on toast,like doing your meditation.
I agree.
It's all about, let'skeep it simple, like.
You know, we have, we're not getting upat 5 AM to do all these different tasks.
Let's be realistic.
(32:21):
And also I would rather keep businesssimple and have time for the other
things I love to do, which is gettingoutside, doing some exercise, seeing
friends, like reading interesting books,listening to podcasts, whatever it might
be, and all of that is going to helpyou come up with new ideas and create
different directions in your business.
We don't have time for all of it.
(32:41):
You can't do a six hour morning routine,plus the day, plus then take four and
a half months off to go traveling,or in my, you know, part, like ski
three days a week in the winter, sowe have to be realistic about it.
So, seven habits that we aretaking in to the new year.
Let's recap what we said.
Number one, plan the fun in first.
(33:03):
Really important.
Be intentional about it.
Otherwise it won't happen.
Work in 90 day sprints.
So thinking about those big goals,breaking it back into those 90
day sprints, and setting the KPI.
So you know, what are thesteps that I'm moving towards?
How do I know I'm on track?
Always have a parking lot.
So for those of you, particularly likePip and I, that come up with lots of
(33:24):
different ideas, know what your mainideas are, and then have a parking lot
for other things that you might liketo do at some point in the future.
Might be this year, if you havethe time, you'll know because
you'll have set the KPIs.
, it might have to be a year or two downthe line, or you might have changed your
mind in six months time, to be honest.
, If we are going to achieve all of thesethings, then the next one is around Trish,
(33:47):
, Trish, trash, transfer, trim, take on.
So think about what actuallyneeds to be you in the business.
What can you delegate to other people?
And then when you are delegating,we're thinking about documenting
everything as we go so we can handthings over seamlessly and other
people can take on the responsibilityfor those tasks and outcomes.
(34:10):
Number six, always press go before you'reready on everything, press go on new
funnels you want to launch, new productsyou're bringing in, hiring team, all
of it, press go before you're ready.
And finally, number seven, keep it simple.
The more simple it is, the more scalableit is, and the more fun, success,
life you can have outside of work.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Scaling Simplified podcast.
We are heading into a new year,which means new habits, new goals,
and so much more excitement.
So what are we going totalk about today, Georgia?
Georgia (00:16):
Yes, this is a great topic.
So, yeah, new year, new goals.
Let's think about some of the,the great habits that we want
to take into this new year.
And I think it's really around if youwant to build a business that gives
you freedom, that allows you to do allthe other things that you want to do
in life, you've got to be intentionalabout how you're running your business.
(00:37):
Because otherwise, you're just going to bein the thick of it, juggling everything.
And that's not what we want.
So today we're going to be sharing ourfavorite hacks and habits and just the
little things that we do within ourbusiness that has allowed us to create
way more freedom on a day to day basis,but also that's meant we can scale
(00:59):
in a way that doesn't require us towork harder and harder, you know, the
old adage work smarter, not harder.
Um, so some of these tipsyou might find useful.
Some of them you might find reallyhelpful, but this is just a reminder,
take what you need and leave the rest.
There is no such thing as aright or wrong way of doing this.
(01:20):
It's the right way for you.
And some of these might inspire youto adapt them in some and take some
little trinket into your business.
Okay,
Pip (01:30):
let's not hang about.
Let's just jump straight in.
So the first tip we haveis to plan in fun first.
Now, I actually think this is reallygood that this is tip number one,
because I think this is actuallythe most important thing you
should be doing in your business.
Really the reason behind thisis because anything that you do,
you will take as much time asyou are given to do that task.
(01:54):
So it's that sort of theory that tasksexpand to the time given to them.
So if you don't actually go ahead andplan in your fun first and prioritize
it, you'll end up actually not having anytime for fun, or you'll be so exhausted
at the end of the week that actually thelast thing you want to go do is go out
and have some fun because you've just.
(02:15):
Tied yourself and burnyourself into the ground.
So the first thing you needto do is really think about
putting that fund in first.
And I think what you also need to dois be conscious as, as your business
is scaling, you're going to get moreand more tasks that come your way.
And you're going to getmore and more difficult and
harder things to think about.
And you're going to find it's more taxing.
(02:35):
So unless you are being strategicabout your time out, you will get.
To the place of burnout.
And nobody wants that.
And the whole point of building yourbusiness, right, is to live your life.
Like we're not here to work all the time.
We need to really make sure that wehave a fun life in inside as well.
I can't get my words out today.
(02:55):
We really need to make sure that webuild in the fun to our life too.
Otherwise, what is thepoint of working so hard?
Absolutely.
Georgia (03:02):
And I would like to use you actually as a shining example of this
because am I right in thinking thatyou have managed to travel for about
four and a half months this year?
I
Pip (03:15):
have.
Yeah, so actually planning funfest Ifeel is like something that we share a
lot in common is our like Top priorityin our business, but I have I've taken
off four and a half months to travelthis year There have been times when
i've not worked at all when I traveledand there's been times when i've worked
A little bit to keep things running whenI traveled and it is completely possible
(03:37):
to run a successful business And havea team as well and to take time off and
travel and do what's important to younow for me That's traveling for you.
It might be time with yourfamily or time with a partner
or just Peace and quiet time.
Time to yourself to go and dowhatever hobby you love doing.
But I think the most important thing isto understand that everything is possible
(03:59):
and you can figure any of this out.
You just have to makethe decision to do it.
So going into next year, I've alreadygot another three or four months of
travel already planned, and I knowthere'll be more that comes in during
the year as opportunities come up.
But I've already put that on my diary.
I've let my team know.
Sometimes you've already got thosestructures in place to, to know what
to do when I'm working on a differenttime zone or I'm out of the business and
(04:22):
other times I know I'm going to have tofigure that out before we get to that
stage, but it's completely possible.
All you need to do is justbelieve that it's possible
and then you'll figure it out.
Yeah, I
Georgia (04:32):
love that.
And I think this leads actually nicelyinto point number two, which is, um,
really get clear on your bigger picture,but then plan it out into 90 day sprints.
So, if you look back on the yearwe've just had, I imagine everyone is
saying, , how on earth are we at thispoint again, like time has gone so fast.
(04:54):
So, if you're not intentional aboutwhat you want to achieve, it's
quite frankly never going to happen.
So we've talked about this in previousepisodes in terms of setting goals, but
get clear on that bigger picture vision.
So that is really thinking about,actually, in an ideal world, where
do I want to be in five years?
So where do I want to be in three?
So where do I need to get to by theend of next year to make that happen?
(05:16):
And that could be business related, butit could also be personal related as well.
Because remember, if you focus tooheavily on the business, your personal
life will just go bust as well.
And those goals that you had.
Those trips you wanted to make beforeyou had a family or the things that
your places that you want to visitor the things you wanted to do will
disappear so you've got to makesure that you're scheduling it in.
Pip (05:39):
Georgia.
I completely agree that you need to plan,get clear on that big picture and then
focus it down into manageable chunks.
So I know we've covered more ofthe details of how to actually
operate a 90 day sprint.
On previous episodes, but can youjust give us a quick recap of like
the highlights of how to do this?
Georgia (05:58):
Okay, amazing.
So perhaps you think there's a coupleof things you really want to achieve
this year and that's brilliantthat you've got those big goals.
But we also want to make sure thatyou're not going to get held back by
getting stuck in the day to day of stuff.
So I want you to think about,okay, what is that big thing?
Say you are building out a new programor perhaps you're launching a new
product or building out a new funnel.
(06:19):
So you're thinking of the endresult and you're working backwards.
So this is going to helpyou break down those.
So you can actually movein the right direction.
So say you want to launch thatfunnel at the end of March.
What do you need to be doing by theend of January, the end of February, to
get to that point at the end of March?
So break that down.
(06:39):
Well, maybe the funnel is somethingthat's going to take six months.
So again, break that downinto 90, 90 day sprints.
So it might be the first 90 days isaround generating new leads, building your
profile on social media, like creating.
A bigger, um, area thatpeople might see your funnel.
And then the next 90 days is reallyhoning in on those people that were
(07:01):
originally interested in seeing,are they actually my ideal client?
What do I need them to do by this point?
Then let's say you're, for each 90day sprint, you're going to pick maybe
five KPIs that are your needle movers.
And only focus on improving those.
It's really easy to get sidetracked.
And the whole point We're kind of planningout the big vision is we don't get to
(07:25):
every crossroad and be like, Oh, bothdirections look really interesting.
Maybe I'll try and do both of these.
And then before you know it, you'vecompletely overloaded yourself.
So we know where we're going to.
We're working backwards and we're workingout what's going to tell us that we're
on the right track, whether that isthe number of new leads coming into our
funnel, whether that is, um, Some tasksthat we've set for our team members to
(07:48):
make sure that they are moving forwardfast enough to launch day and we don't
suddenly get to a week before our big goaland realize that nothing's quite ready.
You know, we're always staying atop of it.
The other thing that I find.
This really helps with is it meansthat you stop procrastinating on
stuff because you've got really cleardeadlines, which you've broken down into
(08:09):
small elements when I'm working withclients and they, and they get stuck
or they're procrastinating on stuff.
It's normally becausethe project is too big.
They don't know where to start.
Whereas when you've broken itdown into really easy manageable.
Steps and you're like, okay, thisis what I need to achieve here.
These are the five things thatare going to show me I'm on track.
(08:29):
You know what you're doing.
You don't need to procrastinate anymore.
Also, it becomes much easier todelegate it to someone else when
you know exactly what's happening.
So it means that your, your teamalso, they're really keeping
clear on those priorities, whichis kind of essential because.
If you're anything like me, I come upwith a lot of different ideas and I'm
(08:50):
always like, Ooh, we could do that.
And that would be exciting.
And what about this?
So I might be meandering around the mainplan, but as long as I've set a really
clear plan for my team, it means they'realways going to be on those priorities.
And then we can decide if thereis time or space to fit in one of
my other wild side ideas or not.
Pip (09:13):
You know, it's funny, this habit has probably been the single
biggest game changer in my business.
I think the first habit, obviouslyplanning and fun first has been
good for my own work life balanceand enjoyment of my business.
But in terms of scalability of mybusiness, this has been like the one.
And for anyone that is interestedmore in kind of the thought process
(09:34):
behind that, there's a really goodbook by Gino Wickman called Traction.
, and basically it talks about theentrepreneurial operating system.
And if you are somebody that likelikes the big picture, but needs to
break it down into manageable chunks, Ireally recommending reading that book.
Cause it completely changed myperspective on how to run a business.
And honestly, that habit that I've takenfrom this book has changed the game for
(09:56):
me, and I'm sure it will for you too.
Okay, so habit number threeis really keeping focused.
Now this, I'll be honest, issomething that I struggle with.
And so it's a really good reminderto take this habit into 2024.
And I think as entrepreneurs, We arejust so used to, , moving constantly on
(10:18):
to the next thing and looking for theopportunity, , and potentially having
shiny objects syndrome or jumping onnew opportunities that it's really hard
sometimes for us to stop and go, hangon a minute, we're not trying to do
everything, we're trying to do one thingand we're going to try and do it well.
And especially in the current economicclimate and with All the noise that
is out there on social media is reallyimportant for us to just stay in our lane
(10:42):
of what we're doing and be like, I'm clearon what I'm doing, who I serve, who my
customer is, you know, what service I'moffering or what products am I selling,
and just focusing on getting that good.
If you try and do everything, youare going to be the master of none.
And I don't think.
We're living in an age where youcan be the master of all things
at the moment, unless you have amassive team and let's face it, if
(11:03):
that's the case, brilliant, do it.
But most of the people listeninghere, I think are probably thinking,
I already have too much stuff to do.
I don't need to add more to my plate.
So one of the ways in which I dothis is to always have a parking lot.
And this is basically just like alittle area of my notes, , where I
just dropped down all my ideas and thenI know that there's somewhere safe.
(11:25):
But I know if they're not on my 90day sprint, then I don't need to
distract myself with doing these now.
And it really just helps me keep thosegood ideas as they come up somewhere that
I know I can access them in the future.
But it kind of helps me extractthose thoughts from my brain
so I don't keep coming back andruminating on, Oh my goodness, this
project could then be this and this.
And actually then I getcompletely distracted from
(11:47):
what am I doing in the day.
And I also find that, , my team, likeintroducing this into my team has made
a big difference because they oftenalso have really amazing ideas that
come up as they're working on something.
But again, if they're getting distractedby something that, you know, we've not
made a conscious effort to work on,we're then not actually delivering what
we said we'd deliver in this quarter.
(12:07):
So having that place whereyou can write down your ideas.
really, really helps.
And removing those distractions,honestly, again, is really the
key to scaling and scaling in asimple, easy, stress free manner.
It's all about keeping that laser focuson one thing and just committing to that.
(12:28):
I think you can
Georgia (12:28):
really pull that down to the micro level as well.
And I think anybody that For us, it'sreally usual to be working from home,
but I think for loads of people thatwere working in the office in corporate
and then started working from home,this distraction of trying to stay
in your own lane is really difficult.
So even thinking about theparking lot, we've got parking
a lot for business ideas.
(12:50):
I also encourage people to havea distraction list on their desk.
So if you're suddenly like.
I've got to put the washing on,or I need to order this, or I
must remember to message someoneabout this thing that's happening.
Just put it on your distraction list andactually put time in your diary to deal
with the, the life admin, the distractionstuff that comes up on that list.
(13:12):
And even thinking about that micro level.
With that, you know, we've talkedabout big plans and 90 day sprints and
all the rest of it, but I literallydiarize everything in terms of tasks.
So for example, I would put in recordingthis podcast, I would put in 30 minutes
around prepping a certain episode.
I would put in 30 minutes aboutremembering to think about
(13:36):
social media for something.
I might put in 30 minutes to writenotes around a coaching call.
Like, Put everything in and alsoput in some, some buffers, you
know, you've got to have some spaceto deal with those emergencies.
Those life emergencies,like your kids are sick.
The washing machine brokedown, your car blew up.
(13:58):
There's a hole in the kitchensink, you know, whatever it might.
be, you've got to be able to likedeal with those different things.
I'm laughing to myself because Pipactually has a hole in the kitchen sink.
Pip (14:10):
I just love this.
It's so funny you say this because, , II'm so with this diarising everything.
I washed my hair this morning and hadto put half an hour aside because I kid
myself that I'm going to wash my hairin five minutes, but let's face it.
Who washes their hair in five minutes?
DM me with your secret to how youcan wash your hair so quickly.
But it is true.
You do need.
(14:30):
If you put everything in your calendar,including that fun time, and then you
give yourself that space, it meansyou can just do so much more, right?
Yeah,
Georgia (14:39):
absolutely.
It also means then you protectthe important stuff because
you put it in the calendar.
You don't get to the end of theweek and be like, oh my gosh,
I never made it to the gym.
I wonder why?
Because you blocked out your entireweek from seven in the morning
until midnight doing work tasks.
Which kind of brings me on to Numberfour, which I think is such a good habit,
(15:00):
particularly for those of you listeningto this podcast, because you are going
to be at a certain stage in your businesswhere this really starts to apply.
So don't hang on to thingsthat don't need to be you.
Okay.
Remember all the other things we've talkedabout, putting fun first, like all the
different things you want to achieve.
That is not going to be a, that'snot going to happen if you hang on to
(15:23):
every small detail of your business.
So I want your new mantra to be,I've got big plans for the year.
I'm going to act like it.
Okay.
So sometimes it can feel abit catch 22 with budget.
You're thinking, Oh, but I've got thesebig plans, but am I ready to invest?
The sooner you can invest andhelp the better, scale it up.
(15:43):
That is fine.
Then I want you to work on what Icall the Trash Transfer Trim Take On.
So the way that we're doing this isyou're looking at that to do list and
we've all got this, we've all got taskson our to do list that make it from
week to week to week to week to weekand for some reason they never get done.
At that point, I would suggestthey don't need to be done.
(16:05):
If you've got three weeks in,you haven't done them and the
business hasn't fallen apart.
Cross them off, they're trash.
So there will be other things on thatlist that you're hanging onto that you
feel like you should do, maybe becauseyou saw an Instagram Reel and someone
suggested that that was something thatyou needed to do in your business and it's
made it onto your to do list every week.
Just trash it.
If it's not right for you, don't do it.
(16:28):
Then I want you to think, okay, whaton that Definitely doesn't need to
be me, and who can I transfer it to?
Start with like, the easiest task first.
Even if it's just around, and we'vesaid this before, if it's around helping
you out in your house, you know, orhelping you out with the school run,
or anything that it might be, canyou transfer that to someone else?
(16:50):
Where's the lowest, the lowest costthings to transfer, in terms of paying
someone, and also in terms of like,
So then you should be left with thingsthat probably do need to be you.
And even those things that you'retransferring, if money is tight, you're
thinking, okay, how can I trim this?
Like, does this process need tobe as lengthy as I'm making it?
(17:12):
What is the actual needlemoving part of this process?
How can I get to the point quicker?
So it's either cheaper to paysomeone else to do it or quicker
for you to still be doing it.
And then you've got the taskthat you 100 percent have to do.
take on.
They have to be you.
That is usually, , you know,around the strategy for the
business or your zone of genius.
(17:33):
I would say there's actually somany more tasks in your business
that don't need to be you that youthink need to be you at this point.
And if you're confused about whatthose are, drop me a DM and I will,
uh, help talk that through with you.
So trash transfer, trim, takeon, but a word of warning.
Absolutely, don't transferand then just run away because
(17:56):
that is never going to work.
It will come back to you andit will probably come back to
you like three times broken.
So if you are transferring,you need to make sure that
you're giving a good handover.
And when I say a good handover,we're just being really clear
about what we're handing over.
So another little acronym foryou that I like to use is IPO.
(18:18):
We're going to give all the informationthat we need to give on the, on the task.
We're going to give all thepermissions that we need to give.
These are the things I'm happyfor you to take the decision on.
This is the budget I'm happyfor you to spend up to.
This is, uh, you know, the decisionsyou can make in the process.
These are the things that I need you tocome to me about for permission on, and
(18:42):
try and keep those as small as possible.
And then we're talking about the outcome.
So information, permission, outcome.
What is the outcome of this task?
What does doing this task look like?
Well, what does succeedingin this task mean?
And then you can either put together aquick video where you're just downloading
what needs to happen in this task, oreven better, IPO and then ask your hire to
(19:05):
interview you with any questions that theymay still have on how that should happen.
They can record it, they can listenback to it, they get a really
good understanding of how youapproach a decision and how you
would make decisions going forward.
Pip (19:19):
I really love the idea of getting somebody to
interview you and recording it.
And then you explaining your thoughtprocess on how to make a decision.
Because I think that's the hardestthing with teams is to download
the way you think about somethingand the way you approach something.
With your team and essentially agood team member will be able to
(19:40):
do that automatically for you.
They'll go, Oh, I knowwhat Pip's thinking.
She would approach it in this way.
So if I approach it in the sameway, I know we're going to come
with a relatively similar outcome.
So therefore she's probablygoing to be happy and you save
yourself so much time in that.
And that really leads on sonicely to habit number five,
and that is document as you go.
(20:02):
Now, I know you see all the time SOPs,playbooks, document your life, document
your business, but I think it's reallyeasy to either feel completely overwhelmed
and be like, Hi, I'm not documentinganything because I do not have the time.
Or to be, you know, Little Miss A starand go, I'm going to document everything
(20:22):
perfectly and it's going to be in my brandcolors and it's going to be beautiful on
Canva and so well organized and actuallyin three months time, the whole system
or process has completely changed, butit doesn't matter because you have a
really good SOP for what was happeningsix months ago, , it looks really pretty.
So I think you really need tothink about your documents and
your standard operating procedures.
(20:42):
As a working documents, they aremoving and living and breathing
with the company as you change.
And actually, if they're notchanging very often, maybe you
need to think about why that is.
Are you missing opportunities to speedthings up and make processes better?
So whether this is you or whetherit's your team members, and if you
have a team, I really encourage youto get your team to own SOPs relating
(21:06):
to their tasks within the business.
And for them to maintainthese and update these.
They go, but you cando this really easily.
So, you know, have Google sheets,have a Google doc that you're
typing into that multiple peoplecan add to record videos using loom.
So literally if I'm doing somethingnew, I will just hit loom and I
will record my way through it.
(21:26):
And the great thing with loom isthat it provides you a transcript.
It provides you an AI.
summary of it all now.
Like it's amazing what the softwarewill do and what the various
pieces of software will do.
And it then just means that Ican pass that to somebody else.
And coming back to the piece youwere talking to about helping
your team understand yourprocess of making decisions.
(21:46):
I talk out what I'm doing andwhy I'm doing it as I'm recording
that video, because it helpssomebody get into my mindset.
And say you have A customerservices rep, and they're answering
customer services queries.
They could then have their SOP.
So a whole list of answers, youknow, tried and tested answers.
So they can copy and paste theanswer and then tweak it for the,
(22:08):
whatever the query is that's come in.
But then if you get them to explain whenthey're making changes, what those changes
are here and there, if somebody new comesin, they can then very quickly understand
like what the general approach is inthe way that works for your business.
So make sure that you'redocumenting as you go.
Don't waste loads of timemaking things look pretty.
(22:29):
You just need them to be functioning.
Make sure that you store these somewherethat's really easy to access, so whether
that's a shared drive, , I like touse Notion and have a bank of SOPs.
I know other people that have themall in Asana as various tasks, but
then you just don't click do with thetask, you just click into the task
and you've got all the information.
Whatever works for you, I'm sureGeorgia's probably got loads of really
(22:50):
good ideas on how to manage your SOPs.
But doing something that reallyjust It tracks things as it goes.
It will save you so much time.
It will allow you to much more quicklybring on new team members, which
is going to help you scale faster.
And also, it's just going to takeaway that, like, the busyness from
your brain, because if you downloadedall that information of how to do
(23:12):
something and you put it on paper,Then you can stop thinking about that.
It's similar to the parking lot idea.
You remove that information fromyour brain, you compartmentalize
it, and it opens up your brainto focus on the bigger, more
important strategic questions.
Georgia (23:25):
Yeah, that's amazing.
And I, it is really important to documentstuff, but I love that you said that it
doesn't need to be perfect because itis much better to just have a quick base
point that someone can go from and theycan always then interview you and find
out why you've done things to it thatway and build on it because ultimately
want to hand it over that process.
So it's going to becomesomebody else's to manage.
(23:48):
Okay, so number six, pressgo before you are ready.
Now, I know that there are somepeople listening to this that pride
themselves on being a bit of aperfectionist, and I want to say stop.
Perfectionism is procrastination.
When you get to 80 percentready, just go for it.
Okay, like I know that I am somebody thatprobably goes for it at 70%, so I could
(24:12):
do better with waiting till I get to 80%.
But if you have an idea, if you've gotto the point where you can roll it out
as a basic first draft, then just do it.
Because you really don't know ifsomething's going to work, if people
are going to be interested, if, ifsomething is going to appeal to the
masses, until you start moving with it.
(24:33):
Or until you know.
And have tested various aspects,like what works, what doesn't work.
So just go for it, release a newproduct, have the new service.
Think of it as a first draft, getfeedback, tweak it, relaunch it.
As business owners, this is actuallysomething that we are really good at.
We're really good atlearning from our mistakes.
(24:54):
Otherwise, we wouldn't stillbe here in our businesses.
We would have gone bankrupt ages ago.
So you are good at refining whatyou do, but just put it out there.
Don't overthink it because it might besomething that actually nobody wants.
So just try it, try it first.
And I think this is the same interms of bringing in team as well.
(25:15):
Press go before you're ready because.
you will get to a point where youare so maxed out that you don't
feel like you have the time tofind, hire, and onboard someone.
We're saying that training iseasy, it doesn't take long, but it
does take some time and thought.
And if your brain is maxed outby your to do list, you are never
(25:36):
going to feel like you can findthat time to bring someone on.
So as soon as you get some momentumwith something, even a tiny bit before
you're ready and you think, do youknow what, there are definitely tasks
in here that I could hand over tosomeone else, do it, start doing it.
The same as like launching a new funnel.
It doesn't need to be perfect beforeyou press go, but you need to try
(25:56):
this stuff out and tweak it, see whathappens, see what results you get.
So 20 percent of what we do createsan 80 percent of our results.
So get clear on the 20%, i.
e., you know, putting the rightinfo or link in a funnel is way more
important than choosing the perfectphoto or aesthetics, you know, think
(26:18):
about what are the bits that arereally going to move business along.
You can make that website lookso beautiful, but if you don't
put a link in to buy the product.
What's the point?
Like, get that first sentence rightand get that link in and see who's
interested, you know, build from there.
I
Pip (26:34):
love the 2080 rule.
I think it's so important thatwe like keep coming back down to
like 80 percent of the resultsare created by 10, 10, ideally 10.
But mostly 20 percent of the workand then really diving into that and
making sure that's what we're focusingon because ultimately that's what
gives us more time and freedom back.
, And really that really nicely leadsus into our final habit, habit number
(26:57):
seven, which is simple equals scalable.
So it's really natural as you grow andyou add more products, you add more
services, that your business becomesmore and more complicated and there are
more moving parts and spinning plates.
You're trying to make things talk to eachother and work and fit around each other.
And one of your jobs.
(27:19):
As CEO, as you are scaling yourbusiness and you're really taking
it to the next level is to ensurethat it remains manageable and it
doesn't become this machine thatyou've built, which is out of control.
You are the captain of the ship,remember, and you have to make sure
that you're keeping the ship movingin the right direction before it's
going full steam ahead at the iceberg.
(27:39):
So you really need to think about.
If things become too complex, they'regoing to take you more time to manage.
It's going to take longer for you totrain your team up to understand all
the nuances around that complexity.
It risks things going wrong.
You know, if it's more complicated,there are more points in which
something could go wrong.
And then figuring out what went wrongis so much harder because you've got
(28:02):
to look at all the little touch pointsrather than the, the one touch point.
And that generally meansthere's so much more reliance.
on you as the leader to figurethings out and keep things moving.
And one of the things as we scaleis we want to be stepping away
from working in our business andstart working on our business more.
So there's more reliance on you forkeeping everything running smoothly.
(28:23):
That's going to become harder andharder for you to step away so you can
really think strategically and help thebusiness move in the right direction.
So I think with this, some of thesort of really tangible things
that I think about when it comes tosimple equals scalable is working out
which KPIs are actually important.
You know, we can track everysingle metric in our business.
(28:44):
And as a data person, Ilove to track a lot of data.
However, There's a lot of data youcan be tracking, which actually for
you doesn't make any sense to trackor doesn't matter because if you're
not going to do anything with the datayou're tracking, there is actually no
point in wasting your time tracking it.
So think about those three to five KPIsthat are really important for you and
(29:05):
that align with the goals that you'retrying to achieve, and then focus on
improving those every single week.
I think we can also take theidea of simple, equal, scalable
just into our daily routines.
I personally do not agree with the like,5am, 19 step morning routine, you know,
the ice bath, the avocado on toast,the meditation, the red light therapy,
(29:27):
and all this, that, and the other.
Great if you have time to do that,but no And I'm gonna, you know, be
a little spicy here, but no realentrepreneur has time to be doing that.
If you're a real entrepreneur growinga real business, you need to be
working in a grainy business, notsitting in the sun for too long.
, and yeah, sorry if I've offendedyou with that, but it's the truth.
, so you really need to justthink about what works for you.
(29:49):
You know, moving your body,getting some fresh air, eating
healthily, drinking water.
You don't need to have a million thingsto do to like be quote unquote successful.
Just have something simple, asimple routine that works for you.
Stick with it.
Okay.
If you love to run as your form ofexercise, there is no point in you
(30:09):
thinking I'm going to become a bodybuilderbecause you're not going to stick to it.
And that's kind of likethe point about this.
If you don't like working in the mornings,there is no point trying to wake up at
5am to do your best work in the morning.
However, if you can't work pastfour o'clock, there's no point in
wasting your whole money or morningdoing things which aren't useful.
You might as well get up early anddo the really key strategic work.
(30:30):
So it's about knowing yourself andfinding that simple routine for yourself.
I also think that you don't need toworry about all the tech and software
and AI and all the things that, , arebeing flashed at us across social media.
, all these new things thatwe can use in our business.
Ultimately, you don't need a whole seriesof really fancy pieces of software and
(30:52):
systems to make a successful business.
You don't have to have a million differenttrackers and documents to update.
You just need one or two reallysimple things that work for you.
And if you feel that it's not as fancyas it should be, do not simple is great.
You're doing really well.
If the more software you have,the more things can break.
So do not think that you're notrunning a good business because
(31:13):
it's not all fancy in some light,nice, shiny, new piece of software.
It probably means that you'redoing things really well.
So I think the key thingsto this is just keep.
things simple.
And as soon as you start to feellike you've got a million plates
spinning or you're trying to struggleto keep all the balls up in the air,
whatever the, the metaphor is, I'mclearly just butchering right now.
(31:34):
Just step back, strip it backto what are the basic things,
what's bringing you money.
Keep focusing on those products orservices, which are bringing you revenue.
What's bringing youenjoyment in your life.
Continue to do more of those andremove the things which aren't.
And what is keeping everything runningand all the little extra things that
you're wasting your time and all theextra admin, get rid of it and really
(31:56):
just focus on what you really haveto do to keep things moving forwards.
I love that,
Georgia (32:00):
but I did also have to put myself on mute for a second
because I was really laughing.
I had a vision of you with one ofthose, um, morning light things,
eating your avocado on toast,like doing your meditation.
I agree.
It's all about, let'skeep it simple, like.
You know, we have, we're not getting upat 5 AM to do all these different tasks.
Let's be realistic.
(32:21):
And also I would rather keep businesssimple and have time for the other
things I love to do, which is gettingoutside, doing some exercise, seeing
friends, like reading interesting books,listening to podcasts, whatever it might
be, and all of that is going to helpyou come up with new ideas and create
different directions in your business.
We don't have time for all of it.
(32:41):
You can't do a six hour morning routine,plus the day, plus then take four and
a half months off to go traveling,or in my, you know, part, like ski
three days a week in the winter, sowe have to be realistic about it.
So, seven habits that we aretaking in to the new year.
Let's recap what we said.
Number one, plan the fun in first.
(33:03):
Really important.
Be intentional about it.
Otherwise it won't happen.
Work in 90 day sprints.
So thinking about those big goals,breaking it back into those 90
day sprints, and setting the KPI.
So you know, what are thesteps that I'm moving towards?
How do I know I'm on track?
Always have a parking lot.
So for those of you, particularly likePip and I, that come up with lots of
(33:24):
different ideas, know what your mainideas are, and then have a parking lot
for other things that you might liketo do at some point in the future.
Might be this year, if you havethe time, you'll know because
you'll have set the KPIs.
, it might have to be a year or two downthe line, or you might have changed your
mind in six months time, to be honest.
, If we are going to achieve all of thesethings, then the next one is around Trish,
(33:47):
, Trish, trash, transfer, trim, take on.
So think about what actuallyneeds to be you in the business.
What can you delegate to other people?
And then when you are delegating,we're thinking about documenting
everything as we go so we can handthings over seamlessly and other
people can take on the responsibilityfor those tasks and outcomes.
(34:10):
Number six, always press go before you'reready on everything, press go on new
funnels you want to launch, new productsyou're bringing in, hiring team, all
of it, press go before you're ready.
And finally, number seven, keep it simple.
The more simple it is, the more scalableit is, and the more fun, success,
life you can have outside of work.
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