December 26, 2024 • 34 mins
What if transforming your business into a well-oiled machine was within reach? Join us for a revealing conversation with Brett Linnenkohl of Evergreen Strategic Systems as he unveils his journey from baseball camps to becoming a fractional COO. Brett shares his secret recipe for business scalability, emphasizing the power of turning grand ideas into scalable systems. Discover how identifying invigorating tasks and documenting processes, perhaps with the help of tools like Loom videos, can propel your business forward by cutting through inefficiencies and unleashing innovation.
Transitioning from a hands-on business owner to a systems-driven entrepreneur might seem daunting, but Brett sheds light on how to conquer this challenge. Drawing inspiration from influential books and software like Lucidchart, Brett outlines the transformative impact of creating Standard Operating Procedures and visually mapping operations to achieve predictable outcomes. His insights shine a light on how addressing bottlenecks—particularly in marketing—can free up time for strategic initiatives, leading to smoother operations and enhanced business performance. Don't miss Brett's unique take on visualizing business processes to identify root issues and foster sustainable growth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and Thankyou to your bottom line.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Today we're joined by Brett Linenkoll, the driving
force behind Evergreen StrategicSystems.
Brett is a fractional COO andintegrator who's mastered the
art of transforming big ideasinto scalable, repeatable
systems.
With a background in psychologyand leadership experience as a
former D1 athlete, Brett bringsa unique perspective to helping
businesses run like clockwork.
(01:13):
I can't wait to dive into hisinsights and hear how he creates
lasting impacts for his clients.
Brett, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, james, thanks for having me.
When you sent me the invite, Iwas like, yeah, I was really
excited, really excited to be onand I know you do amazing
things for your clients, soexcited to idea share.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Awesome.
I'm super pumped to have you on.
I think it was probably threeyears ago now when we first met.
I think it was in Chicago.
If I'm not mistaken, you werespeaking at an event.
We had a chance to connect andhear about what you're doing and
how you help make businessesjust run a lot smoother with
their systems and processes.
So I know a lot of our clientsand everyone listening can
(01:56):
benefit from that.
There's always bottlenecks tobe unsolving or bottlenecks to
be solving for, so I would loveto get into that how long have
you been in this space and whatgets you motivated about what
you do?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, well, loaded, big, loaded question.
By the way, three years, has itreally been that long?
I think so.
Yeah, I know it's nuts and, asI told you, I had twins and a
lot of kids.
Now, as I told you, I had twinsand a lot of kids, now four
total kids.
So it's crazy how fast timeflies.
But that aside, man, yeah, soI've been in this.
Oh, six years I've been doingthis.
(02:34):
I ran a business in my 20s.
So I was a baseball player, asyou mentioned, started a
baseball camp company, you knowand what.
I started renting camp spaceand filling it up with kids and
I'll just do that over and over.
Uh, and it turned into a nicelittle business, um, on the
ground and, um, the cool thingabout it after.
So COVID hit and it totallydestructed and I moved on.
(02:57):
Uh, but yeah, what was coolabout it?
When I found out my skill was itwasn't necessarily the baseball
, even though I was good at thatI had the business pretty much
systemized.
I was working like an hour aweek.
My team would come in, we'dtalk over issues and they would
go out, and what I mean by thatis like one hour a week and
stuff.
I hated doing Like I really hadto think everything else was
(03:19):
stuff I liked, and you knowthat's kind of my position.
I think everyone who runs abusiness, you, should be doing
the stuff that invigorates youand energizes you, because those
(03:41):
are the things that createinnovation, those are the.
Else, how can we just get itout of your head and and
document it so you can, uh, havethe team you pay actually do
those things?
Um, but that's that's really myfavorite part.
It's bottling up and extractingwhat's in the brilliant mind of
these, these crazies like uswho go out and try to start
business and make value.
(04:01):
Um, yeah, I just love that.
So hopefully that answers atleast a piece of what we're
chatting about.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah.
So every once in a while I'llspeak to someone and they're
like no, I'm good, I don't haveany bottlenecks in my business.
And you know I have a hard timenot laughing at that, because
every business, whether you'reAmazon or you're starting, you
know, as you're listening tothis, you have a bottleneck.
It's just a matter of what thatbottleneck is.
You were talking about figuringout what it is you love and
(04:33):
then focusing on that, and thenall the other pieces, getting a
system in place.
How should someone think aboutthat?
And even you know, take thetime to start documenting what
do I actually love doing and theother things.
How can I get a system in placethat is off of my plate?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah Well, all right.
So so starting somewhere.
Um, I think most entrepreneurscome to a place they're doing so
many things, uh, themselves andit just starts to hit ahead
when you're doing 60, 70 hourweeks and you still have things
to do and you're hating yourlife and everyone kind of
(05:09):
reaches that point.
So you hire help, right, butthen you start thinking they
don't know what I know andthey're not doing it right and
you've got to train them.
So you actually are taking onanother job, another role that
you have to train them and watchthem and qualify them.
Then they leave and someoneelse has to come in, train them
and watch them and qualify them.
Then they leave and someoneelse has to come in.
(05:31):
And, yeah, it takes getting beatover the head a couple of times
, I think, to get out of thatcycle and start documenting.
So the real yeah, the answer toyour question is definitely
documentation as the startingplace.
Boy James, I mean, you'reopening up a can of worms
because there's so many types ofdocumentation that you can use.
There's different processlayers within a business as you
(05:51):
grow that you have to be awareof and how to document those.
But the simplest way, if we'retalking about individual who's
like I, got too much crazy stuffgoing on.
Yeah, let technology be yourfriend If you're doing something
that you know you will have todo again.
Make a loom video, right, andsay this is what to do, here are
the steps to do it.
(06:11):
And then you know yeah, I meanit's not super complicated,
while some do make itcomplicated, but yeah, it's just
record it.
Record it, set it aside and letthat be your training for life.
Record it, record it, set itaside and let that be your
training for life.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Okay, perfect.
So really just keeping your,your SOPs and things up to date
on on the information you haveand just getting getting it out
of your head is what I'm hearing.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Getting it out of your head on a sheet of paper
somewhere for someone else torefer to it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, um,definitely, that is the starting
place.
So, um, look, I think theinitial place that we're kind of
it's a if you are in pain, ifyou're in pain meaning you're
doing things that you hate doing, that is the awareness that
(06:57):
should be the trigger, likeright now, if you realize, man,
I'm doing stuff I hate doing andsomething else, like the things
that liven you like I reallywant to play with AI.
I really want to try to, youknow, innovate something brand
new or talk to new clients.
Yes, you should drop everything.
You should focus on the thingthat you hate doing and say this
will be the last time I willever do it.
(07:18):
And again, either write it downthat is one way as an SOP, step
one, step two, just like bakinga cake, um.
Or the way I train my people todo it.
It's, it's just do a video,show me how to do it from the
beginning to end.
So, yes, definitely that, um,yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So perfect?
No, did you have another piecethere?
I didn't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, it's uh, so how my mind works, man, and what's
very difficult for me, it's likewhen someone's like, well, it's
just an SOP.
Yes, for individuals, where Ifind the most complexity and the
problems that business ownershave, once you have three plus
employees, three up to 30, right, right, it starts to become
(08:08):
this mesh of like, well, like,like, it just really starts to
get disorganized, right, and sothat's where I typically live
with clients.
It's in the science of processmapping the process mapping of
how each individual SOP getspassed to another person, that
gets passed to another personand how those flow to make up
the bigger picture, which is thereal magic that gets business
owners free and makes it so youcan sell and hand off and know
(08:31):
your team is taking the step bystep.
So, yeah, I mean I say a minorpoint, it's kind of a.
It's always one of the thingsthat triggers me to be like,
yeah, and.
But you know, yeah, yeah,that's fair.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
The minor point, but there's.
But you know, yeah, yeah,that's fair the mind the minor
point, but there's a huge.
You know, there's a huge rabbithole with it.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
The more you know, right, yeah, totally, yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Okay.
So for for those listening, inthe fractional CFO role, as as
you come in as a fractional COO,that that's not an easy
position to replace, right?
Most of the time, your clientsare hiring you specifically for
your expertise.
So what advice do you have onessentially replacing yourself
(09:12):
at that high, that high capacityposition that you know your
clients are looking for?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
So in that regard, it's allabout a framework, frankly, and
it's about the universe, whereyou can zoom out and see the big
picture.
You see the world.
(09:44):
You can zoom in and see thelittle atoms.
It's just about going down eachlayer and separating those into
different segments oftransformation, right?
So if you're a CFO and you knowyou're hiring me and I need
this result, well then you cango to the next level and say
what are the stages, what's theframework, the five steps, and
break those into their own Starthere and here, start here and
(10:07):
here, and then, from that,breaking those into minor boxes.
It's something I callinput-output chains.
At that level, it's like what'sthe input?
What is the recipe to transform?
What's the output?
What's the recipe to transform?
(10:43):
What's the output?
What's the next step?
Right?
So that's really the way fromthe tasks, just by going through
the process.
So yeah, our, our audit process.
That's basically how it worksSegmenting, different
transformation, and then whatare all the steps to make it
happen?
Yeah, so look, and you alsohave me ramped on caffeine this
morning, you know, you know hadhad some coffee, so hopefully
we're um getting some value here.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But no, this is great .
This is great.
So can you tell me about a timein your life or in your, your
entrepreneurial career wherethis maybe wasn't all figured
out and and once you did, like,how much of a shift that's made
for you?
I mean, you mentioned you justrecently had twins.
Before we started recording,you've taken some time off work.
(11:28):
I'm guessing all these systemsand the process you've put in
place allowed for you to havethat much freedom so you could
spend time with your new, yournewborn twins, with your family,
and things are still running inthe back end, so maybe walking
through what life was likebefore these things were put in
place and now what it's like onthe other side of the fence with
all that hard work put in soyou can reap the benefits of
(11:50):
having the freedom.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, no, for this business.
Um, I kind of came in, you know, knowing what's like what loops
would need to be closed and, um, building them as as I go.
I'll tell you, at the time whenI was running my business in
baseball, yeah, I remember.
So I was just pushing sales,you know, I would be throwing
email lists and gathering upcamps and yeah, there was a time
(12:16):
I just remember I had done likeback to back to back to back to
back, 10 hour days working withkids on the field, uh, putting
them in camps.
And yeah, I just rememberlaying down at the end of the
day and looking at the sky,feeling numb, uh, literally numb
, and and just thinking like man, this is this, this, there's
gotta be more than this, there'sgotta be something I can do.
But I didn't know what to do,uh, and there was really no way
(12:40):
out.
No one was going to replace mein filling these camps and
working with the kids andtalking to the parents and, you
know, lining staff and yeah, itwas just like it was keep going
or, you know, totally cut it off.
And that really wasn't anoption either.
And yeah, like, I think, thefirst book, like many
(13:01):
entrepreneurs, you pick upe-myth and you say, okay, yeah,
that makes a lot of sense.
And so I started just readingbooks.
One was, um, uh, sam Carpenteris an author that it's worked
the system.
That one was really influential.
Um, and there's also part of methat that, uh, especially
without kids, I was.
I just went like I would readinto the night and execute, you
(13:24):
know, and just drive.
So, um, very, very highlymotivated.
And at that time it was my firstforay into using virtual
assistants.
So research that I think fourhour work week kind of pushed me
.
Uh, I knew about them but thatwas kind of, uh, adopted some
systems from there.
Yeah, and long and short, justkind of develop my own way to
(13:44):
take tasks and hand off, yeah,so before it was that.
And then, within three years ofjust handing off and delegating
and fighting my way out, likeafterwards, like I said, one
hour a week is what I was downto of stuff I actually had to do
.
Everything else was clockwork,yeah, so reactivity, things
(14:08):
coming up and saying oh no, andwhat do we do?
Anytime those things happened,I would analyze it.
I'd say where did this comefrom and how could we have
prevented it in the first place,I would SOP a system and
delegate somebody to it on myteam and then we would put it on
a calendar so that they woulddo the checks.
That would have prevented thatand over time, just building
those up that's really what youknow got me free and yeah, the
(14:34):
feeling it's great, man, it'sjust.
It allowed me to focus justmore on higher leverage things
and running more campaigns andyeah, all the fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
That's awesome, that's cool, it's yeah, it's a
very motivating um thing thatyou've achieved and just knowing
like this is possible andgetting to that point where so
much is handed off and it's alldocumented, the there's not as
much surprise that could happen.
Everything's predictablebecause you have the systems
built out.
I mean that's not as muchsurprise that could happen.
Everything's predictablebecause you have the systems
built out.
I mean that's what everybusiness should be striving for
(15:05):
right.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Totally, yeah, and that really gets to, you know,
my passion, what I really, youknow, really really care about,
I got.
I like marketing in itself isvery subjective.
There's a lot of you know it'slike fishing you can't guarantee
always a fish.
So you got to, you know, playdifferent strategies and try
different things to get peoplein Operations is mathematical.
(15:32):
To me it's objective.
You can define and makedecisions and follow procedures
based on if this, then that, andso yeah, with enough time and
dialing those in, yeah, itreally should be thought of as
mathematical as numbers like aCFO deals with on a day-to-day
basis.
So, yeah, look, man, like,however deep you want to go, I
(15:58):
can go because it's very closeto my heart that mathematical
modeling of operations, okay.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So, and this might get too deep into a rabbit hole,
but is there any softwaresyou're using right now that you
couldn't live without that youwould recommend?
I mean, obviously, toaccounting and tax professionals
, but really just any businessowner who's looking to systemize
their business and have thingsrun smoother?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah, totally, you know the top one that I use,
that you know I highly recommendfor any business owner.
Again, it's two operations.
Yeah, so Lucid, lucidchart, areyou familiar with that software
?
And you could use Miro, youcould use Whimsical there's a
million out there.
(16:49):
But in my experience mostbusiness owners they think it's
too complicated to be mappingthings right.
But to me that is the matrixbehind the business.
It is the matrix behind thestep-by-step processes.
Matrix behind the business.
It is the matrix behind thestep-by-step processes.
So visually seeing things,visually mapping them out by
making shapes, you're actuallymaking math right.
(17:09):
They're enclosed systems thatyou can fit things in and define
things in and therefore, youknow, create that structured
flow.
And I've seen a lot of teamsthey live in either you know a
project management system orthey live in an Excel sheet and
they list stuff out, which isgreat.
But again, to me that'sskipping the work of really
(17:31):
laying out the depth and the 3Dyou know dimensions of how
something gets put in theirsystem and flows through to
transform into the outcome.
So yeah, if I had to pick one, Ireally, really would highly
recommend any business ownerwho's not afraid and is ready to
get out, get one of those.
Lucid is my favorite.
There's a lot of stuff we cando.
(17:52):
My process engineering teamalways loves that.
But yeah, any of these.
And the benefit of doing thatis AI.
Right, the outset of AI whenyou get your business defined,
you got a consultant foroperations in the backend.
You know that can tell youefficiencies and tell you but
yeah, that's what I wouldrecommend a hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Okay cool, that's awesome.
Yeah, I think, like anythingright, saying it's one thing,
but seeing the visual it it itreally completes the picture and
you know exactly what you'relooking at.
That's something that I'm I'mgoing to spend some time to do
because, like we have ours, youknow it's drawn out, it's in a
word doc or an Excel sheet or inhigh level on a workflow, like
(18:39):
you can see to a certain extent,but like the full picture of
when, right from when the leadcomes in up until the sale our
clients are making andeverything in between.
To have that individual wouldbe very beneficial.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Totally Well and like as you're saying it, I mean
we're on zoom, I can share myscreen right, like.
Let me show you an example.
This is one of my currentclient.
Here I got to.
Yeah, here it is.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Um, quick, the most.
Most of the time we're notputting the video out for the
podcast, but uh, I gotcha yeahno doubt.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Um, yeah, so all good , and maybe we'll have to do a
follow-up for anyone interested.
But there's, yeah, it's, uhyeah, with with no video, all
good.
Um, um, the long and short ofthis.
And to connect the ideas yousaid, no one has bottleneck.
Look, if you visually map outthe flows of your process and
(19:36):
you don't think you havebottleneck, I promise you you
will find so many insights.
You'll find gaps of one thingthat just doesn't quite connect
to the other, and you'll findways to organize information,
just like analyzing aspreadsheet, right Like in our
swim lanes.
We found that if we organizeswim lanes and for those that
(19:57):
don't know swim lanes, it's whois doing what, oh boy, it is
tough without visuals, isn't it?
And this is a perfect point, areason you should do it.
If't know swim lanes, it's whois doing what?
Oh boy, it is tough withoutvisuals, and this is a perfect
point, a reason you should do it.
If you Google swim lanes andlook it up, if you organize
those by labor, right by dollarsper hour, and you put on the
left the highest dollar per hourpeople, and then all the way
(20:17):
down by moving, by trying toactively move tasks that people
do to the right of the swim lane.
You know you're saving dollars,uh, you know you're saying
labor costs and that's, you know, on top of whatever
efficiencies and processes youfind.
So, yeah, highly recommend thevisual stuff.
Um and uh, yeah, for thoselistening that don't understand,
(20:40):
there you go.
That's why.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Well, and that's the thing, right.
Like it's what you're talkingabout, what I'm imagining in my
head is there's probably foreveryone listening.
Everyone has their own visionof what that looks like versus
what you would share on yourscreen of.
Like this is what it is, thisis how we can get you there.
As you're sharing your screen,this is great, but people like
the you need people like youneed to get it mapped out like
(21:04):
this and this is what yourpresentation was on, I believe,
back in Chicago of just showinghow things are mapped out and
where the bottlenecks weresolved, how it frees up that
bottleneck.
Now there's another one tosolve for, and usually that new
one you're solving for is a muchbigger payout Generally.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Once that you know and you just keep going and
going, yeah, Eventually, yeah,you get to a point where you can
proactively solve problems.
That would have been a headachefor you, uh, just by laying it
out and saying, okay, thatdoesn't match.
So, yeah, it's.
It's a fascinating science and,again, something that just, uh,
my passion for it is the thingsI find in there.
James, it's insane.
(21:42):
When I lay out a business'sprocess, yeah, it just always
blows my mind how deep it goes.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I got a couple more questions for you.
One how do you, for someonewho's going to get into this or
start or think, okay, I need torevisit this I'm sure it's
really easy to get, you know,super granular at the problems
what would you say to thatindividual?
Or, like you know, maybe justzoom out a little bit to think
(22:09):
of this from a bigger picture,because I mean, I'm just
thinking of it from themarketing perspective.
Okay, we need more leads, whileyou can go down so many
different avenues there of whyyou're not getting them.
What channel should I be on?
Where should I be spending?
Is it?
You know our content, is itlike?
But if you zoom out and justthink, okay, we need more leads,
what are we going to spend toget that, and then start going
(22:29):
down your paths, do you have anyadvice on that, or did I kind
of answer my own question?
Speaker 3 (22:35):
I think we need a visual for that and we can
discuss yeah Well, maybe nowthat you talked it like, like
you're saying, how do you usethat to make decisions that
affect?
Or maybe repeat it one moretime.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, it'll probably come out a little bit different
this time, but basically someonewho's thinking about all right,
I need to revisit this.
Let me think about where ourbottlenecks are.
Start mapping this.
It's very easy to get extremelygranular with it and you may be
even solving potential problemsthat don't really exist.
So how far back should someonego to see the bigger picture of,
(23:11):
okay, this is actually whatwe're looking to solve?
It's not that this copy on thisad because of something isn't
working.
It's like.
No, there is a bigger problemhere that needs to be solved.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah, yeah, I mean.
So one point you make on thatis like, where do you start?
I guess that's one of thethings like why would I do this
and where to start.
When we go into business,business is on fire and they
know these are the symptoms,this is happening, they know the
smoke, but they don't know howto dig down to the actual fire
that's causing that smoke.
And so you, as you said, ifyou're in marketing, what is it
(24:02):
that's causing this issue of menot getting leads in?
And, yeah, this process.
So if you know what you'retrying to solve, then you
identify that workflow.
And so for you it might be okay.
We have these three ways that wegenerate leads.
We're going to map out thewhole step, step-by-step of each
and by doing that right, theway we do it is, again, it's
(24:24):
like what's the input?
One information comes in.
What is the process right nowthat we do to get this output?
That then leads uh and matchesthat output to the next input.
That's a lot of words, again,without a visual uh, but um, but
yeah, it always like um.
It always starts with justmaking that list of problems and
then using that to explore Um.
(24:46):
So that that's one point.
The second point point whatyou're talking about is what I
call the hidden process,dimensions, right, and I akin it
to like a factory.
In fact, that's a book I havecoming out.
It's called the Factory Formulaand most business owners,
especially those that live intheir project management system
or Excel sheets and just listthat they're only living in one
(25:06):
dimension and when you come upwith problems and you try to
solve them, they get lostbecause you're you're looking at
one problem and, as Einsteinsaid, right, the, you can't
solve a problem at the samelevel, um and and so the visuals
allow you to zoom in and out.
So the factory formula.
I would.
I would give you this analogyUm, imagine your business is a
factory, imagine at the very top.
(25:27):
So the factory formula.
I would give you this analogyImagine your business is a
factory.
Imagine at the very top of thefactory there's a control room.
You can walk down the stair Inthe control you can see all the
assembly lines, right Bunch ofassembly lines.
You can walk down the stairs,stand on a perch and look over
an individual assembly line.
Maybe that's onboarding, maybeit's your marketing, maybe it's,
you know, fulfillment, and then, if there's issues.
(25:50):
You should be able to walk upto the individual stations and
look at that station and assessis this where the thing's going
out of whack, right?
So that ability to go all theway to the top, all the way down
, that's kind of the system thatwe use and we've developed to
be able to navigate it, but itis critical for anyone doing it.
(26:11):
It's like there are differentprocess dimensions.
The SOP is really just thatstation of the assembly line and
how that affects the whole isthe game right of fixing it.
So yeah, man, you know, the themore I do these, the more I
realize, like, shoot, we should,I should just, we should just
be video podcasting all day,because I feel like I'm you try
(26:34):
to explain, but, um, but, yeah,um, I mean, that's a great
visual though.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
thinking about, thinking about standing above
the assembly line, looking downand you know the the thing can't
get to the next piece, it can'tget to the next piece, it can't
get to the next line unless itsuccessfully gets through that
first one.
And looking down and seeingthat I used to work at Molson
years ago on on the assemblyline.
So that's my visual.
(26:59):
I'm thinking, you know, at thevery top all of the recycled
bottles are coming in and how itgets all the way back into a
packaged box of beer at the veryend, and where the breakdown.
So that's an awesome visual.
I hope everyone listening canhave their own visual assembly
line and think about where theirtheir gaps are.
My last question for you, brettthank you so much for sharing
(27:21):
that visual.
It's super, super helpful.
What?
What's one actionable itemsomeone can take today that they
can start implementing to?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
you know, better, better, systemize their business
yeah, um, well, well, oneaction item to better systemize?
Look, it's always hard for me,as an integrator, to answer that
question, and the reason is itdepends on your situation, and
that is the honest truth.
So, you know, I would retortand say you know, if you know
(27:54):
your clients well and you'vespoken with clients, what's a
typical thing?
You've heard that they're likeman, if only I think starting
there, and if I fill in that gap, what if you have people
problems?
You know management problems.
Uh, you do have output problemsor quality control problems.
This isn't the way I wanted it.
(28:14):
Um, it's just a slew of thingsthat really depend on, uh, you
know what?
What is each individual dealingwith?
Um, but, yeah, like, uh, I'llstart with this one.
This is a real simple one thatI always find helps, and it kind
of goes back to, um, the mystory of how I handed off
individual things.
So, so, for the individualstruggling and running those 60,
(28:34):
70 hour weeks, um, this is thisis what I would say.
Um, in my experience, there'sreally three types of tasks
tasks defined as something thattakes up your time.
There's really only three types.
There's what I would callnon-skill, there's semi-skill
and then there's skilled, right,and so it's a process of
(28:54):
peeling off those bottom layersof things that you don't
necessarily have to do to workto the higher layer stuff that
only you can do.
And while we're in the world ofanalogies, well, let's go over
to a surgeon's office and youthink of a surgeon's office,
really simply.
Well, you got the secretary.
She's doing very process, taskoriented stuff Doesn't take the
surgeon to come have her.
You know.
(29:15):
Ask a patient to sign theclipboard, you know, fill out
paperwork.
You have the semi skilled.
The semi skilled in this casemight be the nurse, right, or a
physician, tech or whatever.
Now, those people.
It does take some skill to go inthe room and set up the surgery
and set up the table and knowwhat the surgeon wants.
You can't have anyone doingthat.
(29:36):
However, that skill is prettyplentiful, right In the
marketing world.
It might be a website builder,right, somebody can build
websites.
I mean, there's a threshold,you need someone pretty darn
good, but you can find them.
You can find them out therepretty easily.
So there's non-skilled,semi-skilled and then the
skilled.
The best surgeon's office is asurgeon who can get up, come to
(29:58):
the office, put on their gloveseverything's taken care of and
they perform the most importanttask, which is fixing the client
right.
If they can focus on that, theycan go room to room and just
fix clients and make those cutsand trust their team.
And that's what I would say toanyone out there who this
resonates with and who isstruggling with time or fires or
(30:19):
can't spend time with theirfamily.
Just start by identifying inyour day have a notebook, I mean
, I still do this writing downstuff that is like that's a non
non-skilled, that's a that'ssemi.
I could find that, um.
And then eventually, when youget to the place where you're
like, how do I get myselftotally out?
Uh, for that you go hireanother surgeon, right, and the
(30:39):
good part is then you can maketheir life really easy, like
really, uh, get get good quality, because all they got to do is
come and do the cuts.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's awesome, that's so good.
Thank you so much for coming onhere, brett.
We were probably a little bitlonger than I originally quoted
for you, but I really enjoyedthis conversation.
How, how can people get intouch with you if they want to
continue this?
You know one-on-one or or haveyour team reach out and help
them in whatever bottlenecksthey're running into.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yeah, well, we're doing something really unique
that we haven't done before.
So our websiteevergreenstrategicsystemscom
Right now, for a limited time,we just put up my new book, the
Factory Formula Included with it.
It's the formula, it's a course, it's also there's an AI bot
that if you have chat GPT, youcan just ask it questions that
apply to you and some otherlittle stuff.
(31:32):
And you can go there, sign upand check out just my perception
and everything I've learned onthe hidden process dimensions
and how to make it work for you,and then, if you want to talk,
there's an opportunity we canschedule.
I do clarity calls, no cost, noworries.
Just tell me your problems, thebiggest issues, and I love
listening and helping Um and andif I can help, uh, then the
(31:56):
audit is is right up after that.
So evergreen strategicsystemscom.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
All right, I'll get that link in the show notes so
people can get in touch.
I highly recommend people reachout to you.
Um, yeah again, thank you somuch for coming on.
This was amazing.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, james, thank you and um always, always a
pleasure and appreciate you, man.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
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It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
(32:39):
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call it's time to positionyourself as the advisor your
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And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
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We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
(32:59):
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles, the secrets
behind success.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
In and leave a review orcomment to join the conversation
.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and Thankyou to your bottom line.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Today we're joined by Brett Linenkoll, the driving
force behind Evergreen StrategicSystems.
Brett is a fractional COO andintegrator who's mastered the
art of transforming big ideasinto scalable, repeatable
systems.
With a background in psychologyand leadership experience as a
former D1 athlete, Brett bringsa unique perspective to helping
businesses run like clockwork.
(01:13):
I can't wait to dive into hisinsights and hear how he creates
lasting impacts for his clients.
Brett, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, james, thanks for having me.
When you sent me the invite, Iwas like, yeah, I was really
excited, really excited to be onand I know you do amazing
things for your clients, soexcited to idea share.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Awesome.
I'm super pumped to have you on.
I think it was probably threeyears ago now when we first met.
I think it was in Chicago.
If I'm not mistaken, you werespeaking at an event.
We had a chance to connect andhear about what you're doing and
how you help make businessesjust run a lot smoother with
their systems and processes.
So I know a lot of our clientsand everyone listening can
(01:56):
benefit from that.
There's always bottlenecks tobe unsolving or bottlenecks to
be solving for, so I would loveto get into that how long have
you been in this space and whatgets you motivated about what
you do?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, well, loaded, big, loaded question.
By the way, three years, has itreally been that long?
I think so.
Yeah, I know it's nuts and, asI told you, I had twins and a
lot of kids.
Now, as I told you, I had twinsand a lot of kids, now four
total kids.
So it's crazy how fast timeflies.
But that aside, man, yeah, soI've been in this.
Oh, six years I've been doingthis.
(02:34):
I ran a business in my 20s.
So I was a baseball player, asyou mentioned, started a
baseball camp company, you knowand what.
I started renting camp spaceand filling it up with kids and
I'll just do that over and over.
Uh, and it turned into a nicelittle business, um, on the
ground and, um, the cool thingabout it after.
So COVID hit and it totallydestructed and I moved on.
(02:57):
Uh, but yeah, what was coolabout it?
When I found out my skill was itwasn't necessarily the baseball
, even though I was good at thatI had the business pretty much
systemized.
I was working like an hour aweek.
My team would come in, we'dtalk over issues and they would
go out, and what I mean by thatis like one hour a week and
stuff.
I hated doing Like I really hadto think everything else was
(03:19):
stuff I liked, and you knowthat's kind of my position.
I think everyone who runs abusiness, you, should be doing
the stuff that invigorates youand energizes you, because those
(03:41):
are the things that createinnovation, those are the.
Else, how can we just get itout of your head and and
document it so you can, uh, havethe team you pay actually do
those things?
Um, but that's that's really myfavorite part.
It's bottling up and extractingwhat's in the brilliant mind of
these, these crazies like uswho go out and try to start
business and make value.
(04:01):
Um, yeah, I just love that.
So hopefully that answers atleast a piece of what we're
chatting about.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah.
So every once in a while I'llspeak to someone and they're
like no, I'm good, I don't haveany bottlenecks in my business.
And you know I have a hard timenot laughing at that, because
every business, whether you'reAmazon or you're starting, you
know, as you're listening tothis, you have a bottleneck.
It's just a matter of what thatbottleneck is.
You were talking about figuringout what it is you love and
(04:33):
then focusing on that, and thenall the other pieces, getting a
system in place.
How should someone think aboutthat?
And even you know, take thetime to start documenting what
do I actually love doing and theother things.
How can I get a system in placethat is off of my plate?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah Well, all right.
So so starting somewhere.
Um, I think most entrepreneurscome to a place they're doing so
many things, uh, themselves andit just starts to hit ahead
when you're doing 60, 70 hourweeks and you still have things
to do and you're hating yourlife and everyone kind of
(05:09):
reaches that point.
So you hire help, right, butthen you start thinking they
don't know what I know andthey're not doing it right and
you've got to train them.
So you actually are taking onanother job, another role that
you have to train them and watchthem and qualify them.
Then they leave and someoneelse has to come in, train them
and watch them and qualify them.
Then they leave and someoneelse has to come in.
(05:31):
And, yeah, it takes getting beatover the head a couple of times
, I think, to get out of thatcycle and start documenting.
So the real yeah, the answer toyour question is definitely
documentation as the startingplace.
Boy James, I mean, you'reopening up a can of worms
because there's so many types ofdocumentation that you can use.
There's different processlayers within a business as you
(05:51):
grow that you have to be awareof and how to document those.
But the simplest way, if we'retalking about individual who's
like I, got too much crazy stuffgoing on.
Yeah, let technology be yourfriend If you're doing something
that you know you will have todo again.
Make a loom video, right, andsay this is what to do, here are
the steps to do it.
(06:11):
And then you know yeah, I meanit's not super complicated,
while some do make itcomplicated, but yeah, it's just
record it.
Record it, set it aside and letthat be your training for life.
Record it, record it, set itaside and let that be your
training for life.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Okay, perfect.
So really just keeping your,your SOPs and things up to date
on on the information you haveand just getting getting it out
of your head is what I'm hearing.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Getting it out of your head on a sheet of paper
somewhere for someone else torefer to it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, um,definitely, that is the starting
place.
So, um, look, I think theinitial place that we're kind of
it's a if you are in pain, ifyou're in pain meaning you're
doing things that you hate doing, that is the awareness that
(06:57):
should be the trigger, likeright now, if you realize, man,
I'm doing stuff I hate doing andsomething else, like the things
that liven you like I reallywant to play with AI.
I really want to try to, youknow, innovate something brand
new or talk to new clients.
Yes, you should drop everything.
You should focus on the thingthat you hate doing and say this
will be the last time I willever do it.
(07:18):
And again, either write it downthat is one way as an SOP, step
one, step two, just like bakinga cake, um.
Or the way I train my people todo it.
It's, it's just do a video,show me how to do it from the
beginning to end.
So, yes, definitely that, um,yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So perfect?
No, did you have another piecethere?
I didn't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, it's uh, so how my mind works, man, and what's
very difficult for me, it's likewhen someone's like, well, it's
just an SOP.
Yes, for individuals, where Ifind the most complexity and the
problems that business ownershave, once you have three plus
employees, three up to 30, right, right, it starts to become
(08:08):
this mesh of like, well, like,like, it just really starts to
get disorganized, right, and sothat's where I typically live
with clients.
It's in the science of processmapping the process mapping of
how each individual SOP getspassed to another person, that
gets passed to another personand how those flow to make up
the bigger picture, which is thereal magic that gets business
owners free and makes it so youcan sell and hand off and know
(08:31):
your team is taking the step bystep.
So, yeah, I mean I say a minorpoint, it's kind of a.
It's always one of the thingsthat triggers me to be like,
yeah, and.
But you know, yeah, yeah,that's fair.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
The minor point, but there's.
But you know, yeah, yeah,that's fair the mind the minor
point, but there's a huge.
You know, there's a huge rabbithole with it.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
The more you know, right, yeah, totally, yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Okay.
So for for those listening, inthe fractional CFO role, as as
you come in as a fractional COO,that that's not an easy
position to replace, right?
Most of the time, your clientsare hiring you specifically for
your expertise.
So what advice do you have onessentially replacing yourself
(09:12):
at that high, that high capacityposition that you know your
clients are looking for?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
So in that regard, it's allabout a framework, frankly, and
it's about the universe, whereyou can zoom out and see the big
picture.
You see the world.
(09:44):
You can zoom in and see thelittle atoms.
It's just about going down eachlayer and separating those into
different segments oftransformation, right?
So if you're a CFO and you knowyou're hiring me and I need
this result, well then you cango to the next level and say
what are the stages, what's theframework, the five steps, and
break those into their own Starthere and here, start here and
(10:07):
here, and then, from that,breaking those into minor boxes.
It's something I callinput-output chains.
At that level, it's like what'sthe input?
What is the recipe to transform?
What's the output?
What's the recipe to transform?
(10:43):
What's the output?
What's the next step?
Right?
So that's really the way fromthe tasks, just by going through
the process.
So yeah, our, our audit process.
That's basically how it worksSegmenting, different
transformation, and then whatare all the steps to make it
happen?
Yeah, so look, and you alsohave me ramped on caffeine this
morning, you know, you know hadhad some coffee, so hopefully
we're um getting some value here.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But no, this is great .
This is great.
So can you tell me about a timein your life or in your, your
entrepreneurial career wherethis maybe wasn't all figured
out and and once you did, like,how much of a shift that's made
for you?
I mean, you mentioned you justrecently had twins.
Before we started recording,you've taken some time off work.
(11:28):
I'm guessing all these systemsand the process you've put in
place allowed for you to havethat much freedom so you could
spend time with your new, yournewborn twins, with your family,
and things are still running inthe back end, so maybe walking
through what life was likebefore these things were put in
place and now what it's like onthe other side of the fence with
all that hard work put in soyou can reap the benefits of
(11:50):
having the freedom.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, no, for this business.
Um, I kind of came in, you know, knowing what's like what loops
would need to be closed and, um, building them as as I go.
I'll tell you, at the time whenI was running my business in
baseball, yeah, I remember.
So I was just pushing sales,you know, I would be throwing
email lists and gathering upcamps and yeah, there was a time
(12:16):
I just remember I had done likeback to back to back to back to
back, 10 hour days working withkids on the field, uh, putting
them in camps.
And yeah, I just rememberlaying down at the end of the
day and looking at the sky,feeling numb, uh, literally numb
, and and just thinking like man, this is this, this, there's
gotta be more than this, there'sgotta be something I can do.
But I didn't know what to do,uh, and there was really no way
(12:40):
out.
No one was going to replace mein filling these camps and
working with the kids andtalking to the parents and, you
know, lining staff and yeah, itwas just like it was keep going
or, you know, totally cut it off.
And that really wasn't anoption either.
And yeah, like, I think, thefirst book, like many
(13:01):
entrepreneurs, you pick upe-myth and you say, okay, yeah,
that makes a lot of sense.
And so I started just readingbooks.
One was, um, uh, sam Carpenteris an author that it's worked
the system.
That one was really influential.
Um, and there's also part of methat that, uh, especially
without kids, I was.
I just went like I would readinto the night and execute, you
(13:24):
know, and just drive.
So, um, very, very highlymotivated.
And at that time it was my firstforay into using virtual
assistants.
So research that I think fourhour work week kind of pushed me
.
Uh, I knew about them but thatwas kind of, uh, adopted some
systems from there.
Yeah, and long and short, justkind of develop my own way to
(13:44):
take tasks and hand off, yeah,so before it was that.
And then, within three years ofjust handing off and delegating
and fighting my way out, likeafterwards, like I said, one
hour a week is what I was downto of stuff I actually had to do
.
Everything else was clockwork,yeah, so reactivity, things
(14:08):
coming up and saying oh no, andwhat do we do?
Anytime those things happened,I would analyze it.
I'd say where did this comefrom and how could we have
prevented it in the first place,I would SOP a system and
delegate somebody to it on myteam and then we would put it on
a calendar so that they woulddo the checks.
That would have prevented thatand over time, just building
those up that's really what youknow got me free and yeah, the
(14:34):
feeling it's great, man, it'sjust.
It allowed me to focus justmore on higher leverage things
and running more campaigns andyeah, all the fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
That's awesome, that's cool, it's yeah, it's a
very motivating um thing thatyou've achieved and just knowing
like this is possible andgetting to that point where so
much is handed off and it's alldocumented, the there's not as
much surprise that could happen.
Everything's predictablebecause you have the systems
built out.
I mean that's not as muchsurprise that could happen.
Everything's predictablebecause you have the systems
built out.
I mean that's what everybusiness should be striving for
(15:05):
right.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Totally, yeah, and that really gets to, you know,
my passion, what I really, youknow, really really care about,
I got.
I like marketing in itself isvery subjective.
There's a lot of you know it'slike fishing you can't guarantee
always a fish.
So you got to, you know, playdifferent strategies and try
different things to get peoplein Operations is mathematical.
(15:32):
To me it's objective.
You can define and makedecisions and follow procedures
based on if this, then that, andso yeah, with enough time and
dialing those in, yeah, itreally should be thought of as
mathematical as numbers like aCFO deals with on a day-to-day
basis.
So, yeah, look, man, like,however deep you want to go, I
(15:58):
can go because it's very closeto my heart that mathematical
modeling of operations, okay.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So, and this might get too deep into a rabbit hole,
but is there any softwaresyou're using right now that you
couldn't live without that youwould recommend?
I mean, obviously, toaccounting and tax professionals
, but really just any businessowner who's looking to systemize
their business and have thingsrun smoother?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah, totally, you know the top one that I use,
that you know I highly recommendfor any business owner.
Again, it's two operations.
Yeah, so Lucid, lucidchart, areyou familiar with that software
?
And you could use Miro, youcould use Whimsical there's a
million out there.
(16:49):
But in my experience mostbusiness owners they think it's
too complicated to be mappingthings right.
But to me that is the matrixbehind the business.
It is the matrix behind thestep-by-step processes.
Matrix behind the business.
It is the matrix behind thestep-by-step processes.
So visually seeing things,visually mapping them out by
making shapes, you're actuallymaking math right.
(17:09):
They're enclosed systems thatyou can fit things in and define
things in and therefore, youknow, create that structured
flow.
And I've seen a lot of teamsthey live in either you know a
project management system orthey live in an Excel sheet and
they list stuff out, which isgreat.
But again, to me that'sskipping the work of really
(17:31):
laying out the depth and the 3Dyou know dimensions of how
something gets put in theirsystem and flows through to
transform into the outcome.
So yeah, if I had to pick one, Ireally, really would highly
recommend any business ownerwho's not afraid and is ready to
get out, get one of those.
Lucid is my favorite.
There's a lot of stuff we cando.
(17:52):
My process engineering teamalways loves that.
But yeah, any of these.
And the benefit of doing thatis AI.
Right, the outset of AI whenyou get your business defined,
you got a consultant foroperations in the backend.
You know that can tell youefficiencies and tell you but
yeah, that's what I wouldrecommend a hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Okay cool, that's awesome.
Yeah, I think, like anythingright, saying it's one thing,
but seeing the visual it it itreally completes the picture and
you know exactly what you'relooking at.
That's something that I'm I'mgoing to spend some time to do
because, like we have ours, youknow it's drawn out, it's in a
word doc or an Excel sheet or inhigh level on a workflow, like
(18:39):
you can see to a certain extent,but like the full picture of
when, right from when the leadcomes in up until the sale our
clients are making andeverything in between.
To have that individual wouldbe very beneficial.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Totally Well and like as you're saying it, I mean
we're on zoom, I can share myscreen right, like.
Let me show you an example.
This is one of my currentclient.
Here I got to.
Yeah, here it is.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Um, quick, the most.
Most of the time we're notputting the video out for the
podcast, but uh, I gotcha yeahno doubt.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Um, yeah, so all good , and maybe we'll have to do a
follow-up for anyone interested.
But there's, yeah, it's, uhyeah, with with no video, all
good.
Um, um, the long and short ofthis.
And to connect the ideas yousaid, no one has bottleneck.
Look, if you visually map outthe flows of your process and
(19:36):
you don't think you havebottleneck, I promise you you
will find so many insights.
You'll find gaps of one thingthat just doesn't quite connect
to the other, and you'll findways to organize information,
just like analyzing aspreadsheet, right Like in our
swim lanes.
We found that if we organizeswim lanes and for those that
(19:57):
don't know swim lanes, it's whois doing what, oh boy, it is
tough without visuals, isn't it?
And this is a perfect point, areason you should do it.
If't know swim lanes, it's whois doing what?
Oh boy, it is tough withoutvisuals, and this is a perfect
point, a reason you should do it.
If you Google swim lanes andlook it up, if you organize
those by labor, right by dollarsper hour, and you put on the
left the highest dollar per hourpeople, and then all the way
(20:17):
down by moving, by trying toactively move tasks that people
do to the right of the swim lane.
You know you're saving dollars,uh, you know you're saying
labor costs and that's, you know, on top of whatever
efficiencies and processes youfind.
So, yeah, highly recommend thevisual stuff.
Um and uh, yeah, for thoselistening that don't understand,
(20:40):
there you go.
That's why.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Well, and that's the thing, right.
Like it's what you're talkingabout, what I'm imagining in my
head is there's probably foreveryone listening.
Everyone has their own visionof what that looks like versus
what you would share on yourscreen of.
Like this is what it is, thisis how we can get you there.
As you're sharing your screen,this is great, but people like
the you need people like youneed to get it mapped out like
(21:04):
this and this is what yourpresentation was on, I believe,
back in Chicago of just showinghow things are mapped out and
where the bottlenecks weresolved, how it frees up that
bottleneck.
Now there's another one tosolve for, and usually that new
one you're solving for is a muchbigger payout Generally.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Once that you know and you just keep going and
going, yeah, Eventually, yeah,you get to a point where you can
proactively solve problems.
That would have been a headachefor you, uh, just by laying it
out and saying, okay, thatdoesn't match.
So, yeah, it's.
It's a fascinating science and,again, something that just, uh,
my passion for it is the thingsI find in there.
James, it's insane.
(21:42):
When I lay out a business'sprocess, yeah, it just always
blows my mind how deep it goes.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I got a couple more questions for you.
One how do you, for someonewho's going to get into this or
start or think, okay, I need torevisit this I'm sure it's
really easy to get, you know,super granular at the problems
what would you say to thatindividual?
Or, like you know, maybe justzoom out a little bit to think
(22:09):
of this from a bigger picture,because I mean, I'm just
thinking of it from themarketing perspective.
Okay, we need more leads, whileyou can go down so many
different avenues there of whyyou're not getting them.
What channel should I be on?
Where should I be spending?
Is it?
You know our content, is itlike?
But if you zoom out and justthink, okay, we need more leads,
what are we going to spend toget that, and then start going
(22:29):
down your paths, do you have anyadvice on that, or did I kind
of answer my own question?
Speaker 3 (22:35):
I think we need a visual for that and we can
discuss yeah Well, maybe nowthat you talked it like, like
you're saying, how do you usethat to make decisions that
affect?
Or maybe repeat it one moretime.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, it'll probably come out a little bit different
this time, but basically someonewho's thinking about all right,
I need to revisit this.
Let me think about where ourbottlenecks are.
Start mapping this.
It's very easy to get extremelygranular with it and you may be
even solving potential problemsthat don't really exist.
So how far back should someonego to see the bigger picture of,
(23:11):
okay, this is actually whatwe're looking to solve?
It's not that this copy on thisad because of something isn't
working.
It's like.
No, there is a bigger problemhere that needs to be solved.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yeah, yeah, I mean.
So one point you make on thatis like, where do you start?
I guess that's one of thethings like why would I do this
and where to start.
When we go into business,business is on fire and they
know these are the symptoms,this is happening, they know the
smoke, but they don't know howto dig down to the actual fire
that's causing that smoke.
And so you, as you said, ifyou're in marketing, what is it
(24:02):
that's causing this issue of menot getting leads in?
And, yeah, this process.
So if you know what you'retrying to solve, then you
identify that workflow.
And so for you it might be okay.
We have these three ways that wegenerate leads.
We're going to map out thewhole step, step-by-step of each
and by doing that right, theway we do it is, again, it's
(24:24):
like what's the input?
One information comes in.
What is the process right nowthat we do to get this output?
That then leads uh and matchesthat output to the next input.
That's a lot of words, again,without a visual uh, but um, but
yeah, it always like um.
It always starts with justmaking that list of problems and
then using that to explore Um.
(24:46):
So that that's one point.
The second point point whatyou're talking about is what I
call the hidden process,dimensions, right, and I akin it
to like a factory.
In fact, that's a book I havecoming out.
It's called the Factory Formulaand most business owners,
especially those that live intheir project management system
or Excel sheets and just listthat they're only living in one
(25:06):
dimension and when you come upwith problems and you try to
solve them, they get lostbecause you're you're looking at
one problem and, as Einsteinsaid, right, the, you can't
solve a problem at the samelevel, um and and so the visuals
allow you to zoom in and out.
So the factory formula.
I would.
I would give you this analogyUm, imagine your business is a
factory, imagine at the very top.
(25:27):
So the factory formula.
I would give you this analogyImagine your business is a
factory.
Imagine at the very top of thefactory there's a control room.
You can walk down the stair Inthe control you can see all the
assembly lines, right Bunch ofassembly lines.
You can walk down the stairs,stand on a perch and look over
an individual assembly line.
Maybe that's onboarding, maybeit's your marketing, maybe it's,
you know, fulfillment, and then, if there's issues.
(25:50):
You should be able to walk upto the individual stations and
look at that station and assessis this where the thing's going
out of whack, right?
So that ability to go all theway to the top, all the way down
, that's kind of the system thatwe use and we've developed to
be able to navigate it, but itis critical for anyone doing it.
(26:11):
It's like there are differentprocess dimensions.
The SOP is really just thatstation of the assembly line and
how that affects the whole isthe game right of fixing it.
So yeah, man, you know, the themore I do these, the more I
realize, like, shoot, we should,I should just, we should just
be video podcasting all day,because I feel like I'm you try
(26:34):
to explain, but, um, but, yeah,um, I mean, that's a great
visual though.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
thinking about, thinking about standing above
the assembly line, looking downand you know the the thing can't
get to the next piece, it can'tget to the next piece, it can't
get to the next line unless itsuccessfully gets through that
first one.
And looking down and seeingthat I used to work at Molson
years ago on on the assemblyline.
So that's my visual.
(26:59):
I'm thinking, you know, at thevery top all of the recycled
bottles are coming in and how itgets all the way back into a
packaged box of beer at the veryend, and where the breakdown.
So that's an awesome visual.
I hope everyone listening canhave their own visual assembly
line and think about where theirtheir gaps are.
My last question for you, brettthank you so much for sharing
(27:21):
that visual.
It's super, super helpful.
What?
What's one actionable itemsomeone can take today that they
can start implementing to?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
you know, better, better, systemize their business
yeah, um, well, well, oneaction item to better systemize?
Look, it's always hard for me,as an integrator, to answer that
question, and the reason is itdepends on your situation, and
that is the honest truth.
So, you know, I would retortand say you know, if you know
(27:54):
your clients well and you'vespoken with clients, what's a
typical thing?
You've heard that they're likeman, if only I think starting
there, and if I fill in that gap, what if you have people
problems?
You know management problems.
Uh, you do have output problemsor quality control problems.
This isn't the way I wanted it.
(28:14):
Um, it's just a slew of thingsthat really depend on, uh, you
know what?
What is each individual dealingwith?
Um, but, yeah, like, uh, I'llstart with this one.
This is a real simple one thatI always find helps, and it kind
of goes back to, um, the mystory of how I handed off
individual things.
So, so, for the individualstruggling and running those 60,
(28:34):
70 hour weeks, um, this is thisis what I would say.
Um, in my experience, there'sreally three types of tasks
tasks defined as something thattakes up your time.
There's really only three types.
There's what I would callnon-skill, there's semi-skill
and then there's skilled, right,and so it's a process of
(28:54):
peeling off those bottom layersof things that you don't
necessarily have to do to workto the higher layer stuff that
only you can do.
And while we're in the world ofanalogies, well, let's go over
to a surgeon's office and youthink of a surgeon's office,
really simply.
Well, you got the secretary.
She's doing very process, taskoriented stuff Doesn't take the
surgeon to come have her.
You know.
(29:15):
Ask a patient to sign theclipboard, you know, fill out
paperwork.
You have the semi skilled.
The semi skilled in this casemight be the nurse, right, or a
physician, tech or whatever.
Now, those people.
It does take some skill to go inthe room and set up the surgery
and set up the table and knowwhat the surgeon wants.
You can't have anyone doingthat.
(29:36):
However, that skill is prettyplentiful, right In the
marketing world.
It might be a website builder,right, somebody can build
websites.
I mean, there's a threshold,you need someone pretty darn
good, but you can find them.
You can find them out therepretty easily.
So there's non-skilled,semi-skilled and then the
skilled.
The best surgeon's office is asurgeon who can get up, come to
(29:58):
the office, put on their gloveseverything's taken care of and
they perform the most importanttask, which is fixing the client
right.
If they can focus on that, theycan go room to room and just
fix clients and make those cutsand trust their team.
And that's what I would say toanyone out there who this
resonates with and who isstruggling with time or fires or
(30:19):
can't spend time with theirfamily.
Just start by identifying inyour day have a notebook, I mean
, I still do this writing downstuff that is like that's a non
non-skilled, that's a that'ssemi.
I could find that, um.
And then eventually, when youget to the place where you're
like, how do I get myselftotally out?
Uh, for that you go hireanother surgeon, right, and the
(30:39):
good part is then you can maketheir life really easy, like
really, uh, get get good quality, because all they got to do is
come and do the cuts.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's awesome, that's so good.
Thank you so much for coming onhere, brett.
We were probably a little bitlonger than I originally quoted
for you, but I really enjoyedthis conversation.
How, how can people get intouch with you if they want to
continue this?
You know one-on-one or or haveyour team reach out and help
them in whatever bottlenecksthey're running into.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yeah, well, we're doing something really unique
that we haven't done before.
So our websiteevergreenstrategicsystemscom
Right now, for a limited time,we just put up my new book, the
Factory Formula Included with it.
It's the formula, it's a course, it's also there's an AI bot
that if you have chat GPT, youcan just ask it questions that
apply to you and some otherlittle stuff.
(31:32):
And you can go there, sign upand check out just my perception
and everything I've learned onthe hidden process dimensions
and how to make it work for you,and then, if you want to talk,
there's an opportunity we canschedule.
I do clarity calls, no cost, noworries.
Just tell me your problems, thebiggest issues, and I love
listening and helping Um and andif I can help, uh, then the
(31:56):
audit is is right up after that.
So evergreen strategicsystemscom.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
All right, I'll get that link in the show notes so
people can get in touch.
I highly recommend people reachout to you.
Um, yeah again, thank you somuch for coming on.
This was amazing.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, james, thank you and um always, always a
pleasure and appreciate you, man.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
(32:39):
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call it's time to positionyourself as the advisor your
clients need.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
(32:59):
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles, the secrets
behind success.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
In and leave a review orcomment to join the conversation
.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
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