April 27, 2025 • 32 mins
Tired of reinventing the wheel every time you tackle the same tasks in your business? In this episode, Lauren transforms those boring Standard Operating Procedures into magical Sacred Operating Pathways that will revolutionize your workflow, protect your energy, and bring more flow to your business.
In this episode...
🪄 How to shift your mindset from seeing SOPs as dusty binders to viewing them as your personal business grimoire
😌 The nervous system relief that comes from getting processes out of your head and into tangible form
❤️🔥 Why SOPs are actually the "manual side of automation" and how they create more space for your creativity
💫 Creating rituals and pathways that make your unique magic repeatable without draining your mental energy
🗝️ The secret to building a scalable business that maintains your essence even as you grow and bring on team members
📖 Practical steps to create your first SOP and begin building your business spellbook today
This episode is perfect for spiritual entrepreneurs who resist structure but crave more ease in their business. Learn how creating Sacred Operating Pathways can be a magical act of self-care that honors your time, energy, and vision while making your business processes more efficient and enjoyable.
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🎙️ Brought to you by Lauren Poppins Raye
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Find out your Money Attachment Style: cosmicb.link/quiz
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Connect with Lauren on Instagram: @laurenpoppinsraye
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This isn't just business, it'srhythm and flow, a living system
(00:03):
where momentum can grow.
You've heard it as SOP, allstructure and steps, but here
it's a path that maps what youdo next.
Not rules in a binder collectingsome dust, but rituals spelled
out to anchor your trust.
Your sacred operating path makesit clear, the steps to success
are already here.
It's step-by-step wisdom, a soulcoded map that frees up your
(00:27):
brain from the energy trap.
For witches and weavers withvisions to form, these spell
books bring structure wheremagic is born.
So gather your tools, a pen or ascreen, and write down the magic
that lives in between.
Because power is process, notsomething you solve, and it's
shaped as you grow and designedto evolve.
(00:47):
In case you've never heard of anSOP, it classically and
traditionally, and actuallystands for Standard Operating
Procedure, and this is somethingthat I geek out on so hard.
I'm actually fresh out of arework with my podcast workflow
(01:09):
SOP I was feeling especiallyconnected to the magic around
it.
And that is why this episode isborn today because just like how
I teach people to be inrelationship with their money in
a way that feels very alignedwith their magic essentially,
(01:32):
and those deeper unseen layersthat animate and inspire us, so
that they're able to overcomeresistance that many of you have
before coming to me around yourmoney stuff, right?
Because you see it as this verylinear, logical, boring side of
(01:54):
business, and one that you haveto do.
And so a lot of my work and yourwork when you work with me is to
reframe and reposition yourselfso that you can have a different
relationship with money thatactually feels aligned with all
the parts that you like bestabout business and life in
(02:16):
general.
And that is what this episode isaimed to do today for you if you
don't already love and have andmaintain SOPs.
So basically they are a guide ofsorts, and I'm still for a
moment here gonna speak to thetraditional language to anchor
(02:37):
into what you likely alreadyknow about them, before we
transition to the reframe that Ihave for you today around them.
And so traditionally,classically, the way that you've
probably heard them talkedabout, they're a set of rules,
boundaries, steps, protocols.
(02:57):
It's like a list of for all thethings that you do in your
business that are repeatable, orthat other people do for you in
your business if you have ateam, it's a list of the steps,
right?
It's like a quick reference ofexactly.
What your expectations are,exactly what you want done for
any given task.
So if this is how you learnedthem, you likely have a very
(03:22):
common aversion to them becausethat doesn't sound fun.
That literally, as a callback tothe wrap that you just heard,
sounds more like a stuffy, like,you know, a binder collecting
dust.
When you think of this maybe forsome job that you worked for,
right?
That had this manual that youhad to study and learn and
(03:43):
reference, or likely it wassomething that existed that
nobody actually even looked at.
It was a dead document,collecting dust, dying in a
binder somewhere.
Why would you want to embraceand engage that in your own
business?
That sounds awful and pointlessand like there's a million other
things that 1, you would ratherbe working on and putting your
(04:05):
attention toward, and 2, thatare gonna move the needle
forward.
And so because this is aprevalent attitude, just like
how it is my pleasure and mysacred service to support people
in rewriting their relationshipwith money, to actually embrace
and engage the pieces that areyour role to be able to maintain
(04:27):
a sustainable channel ofabundance, so too are SOPs
critically important for thesuccess of your business, for
you being able to scale for yougetting to work with a team,
which is such a next levelexperience as a business owner,
makes it so much more fun, and amillion more benefits that I
(04:49):
will continue to speak of inthis episode.
But for all these reasons thatyou might not even be aware of,
of this huge gaping hole missingpiece, if you don't have living,
breathing documents that areyour SOPs, I am here to reframe
them so that you are biting atthe chomp to create your first
(05:10):
one after you listen to thisepisode.
With that, I have the reframe...
Firstly, let's just switch theacronym to a whole new way of
thinking about it.
A whole new name to anchor inthis new way of thinking about
it, and that is Sacred OperatingPathways.
I love this because in areductive way it really does say
(05:31):
it all, but of course we aregoing to unpack it further.
If you thought SOPs were boring,I want to also offer the reframe
of a new definition, which isthat they are enchanted
instructions that make yourmagic repeatable.
They're how you don't have toreinvent the wheel every time
(05:52):
you do something.
They're how you're able to trackand document what has worked so
that you can do it that wayagain next time without having
to expend precious mental energyto remember and re-figure out
what that way was that workedfor you last time.
You know how it goes when you'rein the flow, which doesn't
(06:12):
happen every time that you workon something, but when you do
get into the flow state with atask, you end up doing things in
ways that just are timeefficient in almost a magical
way, right?
They warp time.
It's like a quality piece thatmakes the quantity of time it
takes you totally shift.
(06:33):
They aren't things that wereally think about them with our
brain, but it's more like youcome across them, right?
Again, when you're in the flowstate, you just notice yourself
doing things in a way, just likewhen someone's in flow playing
an instrument.
Everything just works and fitstogether, and often when you
have that experience, you'veprobably told yourself,"oh, I
need to remember that.
(06:53):
I need to do it like this nexttime".
And you probably have lots oflittle versions of those, when
things click into place.
Your SOPs are like a grimoire ora spell book to hold all of
those.
So just like a spell book, whereyou are tracking and documenting
what works...
Think of it, it could be likeyour recipe book, right?
The recipes or the, measurementsthat made it just, ah, chef's
(07:16):
Kiss, right?
Or whatever those pieces arewhere you're like,"that's the
way".
And it ends up being thisliving, breathing, evolving
thing.
It's not like all of a suddenyou get the download of
everything that's going to makethat workflow work best.
You get it in pieces.
And so having this place, whichby the way, I recommend using
(07:37):
Google Docs, it's such a greatway to organize and especially,
lately, with their new featureof being able to have multiple
tabs in a document, you canliterally have one SOP document,
and a tab for each workflow toput your SOPs into.
I'll circle back later to somereally specific, practical
(07:57):
advice on how to structure theseso that they work really well,
but the point is you are gettingsteps, procedures, processes,
pathways, details, differentpieces, links.
Oh my gosh, having to go andsearch for a link when you need
it, right?
You're getting everything thatyou need and need to reference
to be able to complete a taskwhere you don't have to think
(08:20):
about any of that stuff becauseit's right in front of you, and
so you get to focus on thecreative piece or the genius
piece or whatever the actualtask it is you showed up for,
without having to bog yourselfdown with all of those other
details of trying to re-figureout or re-remember what you're
even doing in the first place,or how you're doing it.
(08:43):
So you get this stuff out ofyour head and onto paper or a
screen, I highly recommend, butyou get it into form, physical,
tangible, something you can seeand look at and reference and oh
my goodness, I cannot even tellyou.
The nervous system regulationthat this is for a business
(09:04):
owner of knowing that you don'thave to worry about thinking
about these things, or trying toremember them ever again is one
of the biggest mental loads youwill take off of yourself.
You can't even imagine what therelief of that is until you
actually put these systems inplace.
You're getting this stuff out ofyour head and into tangible,
(09:27):
physical, referenceable form.
This is such a big use case forvisibility is power.
Having this stuff in your headand not being able to see it in
front of you is not only a hugemental load that you should not
be carrying, and you shouldabsolutely be offloading.
Another reframe that I want toadd to this or sort of encase
(09:50):
this inside of, that is alsogoing to be super helpful for
you to embrace something elsethat you may have resistance to,
which is the idea of automation.
So typically when we think aboutautomation, we think about tech
tools, right?
I want to make the connectionfor you that SOPs are like the
(10:14):
manual side of automation, ifthat makes sense.
And it probably doesn't, so letme explain.
Automation is a complimentarystep, but it's kind of a next
step too.
So a lot of the process thatwe're talking about here with
SOPs is getting your process,your magic, the method of your
madness...
out there, something tangiblethat you can see and tweak and
(10:37):
share, so that you can make itmore efficient.
And a lot of times the step toefficiency is you see, oh, I
could automate that.
That's a topic for another time.
But I want you to know that thisis absolutely in tandem and an
integral part of automation, notjust because it makes the actual
(10:58):
automated steps possible,because you can see where to put
them, which ones would besupportive for you, but also
because it's the exact samemindset.
It's the idea that we don'twanna have to repeat anything,
really.
Anything that's repeatable, wewant to automate.
And the way that we automate forthe tasks that we actually have
(11:20):
to do manually, is by creatingan SOP and following it.
So just like how we can give anautomation tool a script
essentially, and say when thishappens, I want you to do this.
We are doing the same forourselves with SOPs.
We're doing it for our brain.
We are telling ourselves, when Iwant this outcome, I'm gonna do
(11:40):
this, this, and this.
And then we are able to show upin an automated way to achieve
that outcome.
So think of the umbrella term asmore like automatic.
So whether it's actualautomation with tech, or it's
SOPs with you and your workflow.
We wanna make the what to do asautomatic as possible, so the
(12:00):
how you do it, has even morespace to fill the room.
When you're able to see it alltogether instead of having these
various thoughts come and go,and pass through your awareness,
you can see it all in one placeand it becomes this superpower
where naturally and effortlesslyyou can see things to tweak.
(12:21):
You can see what's not asefficient as it could be.
You can see where there's energyleaks and where there's things
you can refine in that workflowto start to tweak and play with
and experiment to make yourworkflow even more efficient.
This reframe is to think of yourSOPs, your Sacred Operating
Paths, as spells that groundyour vision into something real,
(12:47):
empower you to be even moreefficient and to be able to
focus on what you're actuallypassionate about, and ultimately
to protect your energy and yourtime.
It's how to make your magicrepeatable.
It's how to take something thatis just part of your inner world
in the dark, invisible places ofyour mind and make them
(13:07):
tangible.
And turn them into a formatwhere your magic can be
repeatable, where you caniterate on it effortlessly.
Just like a spell, it's a listof ritual steps and resources,
remember putting links in thereis so helpful, to summon your
desired outcome with clarity.
(13:28):
It's not like doing the samething and expecting different
results.
It's doing the same thing andknowing that you're gonna get
reliable results andconsistency.
It ends up, again, the nervoussystem piece.
You can just chill out knowingthat you have what you need that
is essentially your essencecoded into something that you or
(13:49):
other people can see and followas well to be able to achieve
the goal of your repeated tasksover and over and over, without
any stress or, I don't knowabout you...
i'm a mom now.
Mom brain is real.
I loved SOPs before becoming amom, but they have become
straight up necessary now.
(14:11):
The mental bandwidth that ittakes for me sometimes to
remember something that I didn'ttake note of is extreme.
Also, knowing exactly where toput things when I get that
inspired idea, right?
So I'm not just dropping it in amessage to myself or a note that
maybe will make it into practiceso that I can actually implement
it, but probably won't.
(14:32):
Having these SOPs in place, Iknow exactly where those gems go
for each of my task sets orworkflows.
Just like how a spell loses itspower if you forget the words,
your workflow loses its power ifyou forget the steps, or the
links, or the little detailsthat make everything flow so
much more smoothly.
(14:53):
So think of SOPs as a way toexternalize your magic so that
everything's not trapped in yourhead.
Now we've been talking about thevalue of this for yourself.
It is absolutely invaluable tobe able to see your processes in
front of you, to be able totweak them to be guided by them,
but it's also an absoluterequisite, a total must if
(15:16):
you're gonna build a team.
But here's the thing...
even if you don't have a teamnow, you should be doing this
for that cause, because thenwhen the time comes where you
wanna start bringing someone on,you don't have to worry about
the stress at all of creatingthem then.
You already have them.
It becomes so easy and seamlessto transition into bringing
(15:39):
people on.
I mentioned that what inspiredthis episode is that I just went
and did a pass on my podcastworkflow SOPs to support
bringing on a new team member.
And let me just tell you from myexperience and example how this
process has gone down.
And I actually had a really goodfriend, a business bestie...
(16:01):
I was telling her about myinitial process with this, and
she was so inspired by how muchI prioritize my time and energy
through these things that I'mtalking about right now.
By taking the time to do this, Iam ensuring that my energy and
my time is honored as much as Iam capable of honoring it.
(16:24):
And that is a whole nother levelof self-trust than most business
owners know.
Knowing that you've got yourselfbecause you're doing these
things to make sure that yourtime and energy is as precious
and protected as possible, is agame changer when it comes to
how you feel inside yourbusiness.
So it started out with season 3of the podcasts coming into
(16:50):
form, and I had all of these newideas of the structure of the
episode, how I was gonnarepurpose content.
After taking a long break fromthe previous version of the
podcast as Boss Cosm, it wastotally back to the drawing
board, right?
I started over and created awhole new workflow, got back to
(17:10):
that visionary space of what waspossible.
And as I did, I had this living,breathing Google doc that was
the SOP for all of the differentpieces.
And let me tell you, besides thespecific more nuanced benefits
that I've been talking about,that are made possible by having
SOPs in place, there's also justsomething so powerful, it
(17:32):
reminds me of when you have anew idea to start a new business
and you make the website.
All of a sudden, it's real.
And your relationship to itchanges.
It almost takes on a life of itsown.
It becomes an entity.
It becomes a thing because youmade a website for it.
I feel like SOPs are that in abig way.
I had this inspired idea andyes, of course I made new
(17:54):
graphics and there was newpublishing on my platform.
But for me, the biggie for this,because it was so workflow
intensive to maintain it, wasthe visionary space around this
workflow that I was creating.
And the SOP was this version ofit, this asset that I created
that made it real, and that gotme really excited in the way
(18:17):
that a website does for a newbusiness venture.
Okay, so I made the SOP to seeand get out of my mind what I
was envisioning all the pieceswere that I was gonna repurpose
it into and then what I was ableto do next, because again, I got
to this place of efficiency.
I knew that I was gonna be ableto be as efficient as possible.
And so from that place, the nextstep was to start timing myself.
(18:41):
I wanted to see, I startedlogging hours, to see exactly
how much time it took me toprocess an episode, following
the steps of this new SOP.
That in of itself was so fun.
I love that process.
Moon's in Virgo.
If you haven't been here long,you might not know that about
me...
a big part of where this part ofme comes from that nerds out on
(19:02):
all of this.
What came next felt reallyobvious of okay, now I'm ready
to hand this off to somebodyelse.
And I kind of knew that from thebeginning that this was gonna
prepare me to do that, but Ididn't realize how aligned that
would feel as soon as I got to apoint where it evened out.
At first, it took me a littlebit longer to get the hang of
it, but then it was smoothrepeat, taking about the same
(19:26):
amount of time every time.
And I was like, okay, now that Ican see.
See it first, I could see thesteps and I was able to easily
repeat it.
Then I could see how long it wastaking me, and then it was
obvious of okay, well how muchwould it cost me to pay somebody
else to do that?
And does that make sense rightnow?
The empowerment around makingbusiness decisions and business
(19:46):
moves, through prioritizingthese things is also just
unparalleled.
So remember when you're makingthese, that you're absolutely
making them for your future selfto either maybe follow them, but
definitely iterate on them andrefine them, but also you're
setting these up eventually forfuture team members.
(20:08):
So wherever you are on yourtimeline, whether it's to
relieve your time and energy bymaking your processes more
efficient, or eventually todelegate and hand off the tasks
altogether to somebody else, itis all for the cause of
protecting your time and energy.
The piece about being able tosee it and return to it and
(20:28):
refine it....
I have to point to my Virgobecause I feel like this is such
a big part of my creativeprocess in general, is I've
always been a little bitintimidated by a blank canvas,
right?
You've heard of blank canvassyndrome?
If I see something that'salready done, I can see
immediately exactly what I wannado to tweak it to be more ideal.
(20:50):
This is the Virgo superpower oflooking at something, but that
something needs to exist, and beable to see the gap between what
that next step is to bridge thatgap.
So it's why Virgos are suchgreat editors, right?
We see something and we're like,no, that's not right.
That's not right.
That's not right.
And it's also why"done, notperfect," it's such a good idea
to make the first version ofanything, just put it out there,
(21:13):
and know it's gonna suck becausethen you have something to look
at and iterate on and edit andrefine and get closer and closer
to perfection.
SOPs are such an incredibleplace to show up for that kind
of creative process, because youget to refine the spell every
time you look at it, and ifyou're using that as a guide, if
you don't have a team yet andyou're the one following that
(21:36):
SOP, literally every time you dothe task, you're going to refine
the spell and get better andmore efficient at it for every
future time.
And this is the part where, ifyou thought about it as being
boring or a chore to have to dothis, when you actually engage
it with this mindset and engageit regularly and understand what
(21:56):
it's for, the purpose that it'sserving for you, it is
absolutely not a chore.
It is a creative act every timeyou look at it, and it actually
inspires and opens yourcreativity to engage it.
We're talking legacy stuff here.
This is a living, breathing,evolving spell book of your
(22:16):
magic inside your business, thatgets more and more awesome the
longer you're in business.
On the topic of bringing peoplein and bringing on team members
to eventually have this spellbook to be able to step inside
of your business...
people talk about the keys ofthe castle.
It's not giving people logincredentials to your apps.
(22:37):
It's your SOPs.
And not only does having themmake the onboarding and scaling
and bringing on a team superseamless, when you have enough
to worry about like meeting andvetting new people, you're not
at that time gonna want tofigure out creating SOPs for
them.
Not only that, though, once youactually bring them on, it
(22:57):
empowers them to be able tosucceed in your company without
you having to constantlysupervise them or micromanage
them.
You've already created the stepsfor success and your
expectations in a way that theycan reference without having to
constantly come to you.
And that is the differencebetween bringing on team members
taking you 10 steps back or 10steps forward.
(23:20):
This is some of the most magicalkind of structure that I know.
So much of what we do is takingthe invisible visions that we
have and making them tangible,bringing them into form through
our offers inside of ourbusinesses.
This is the backend version ofthat.
This is taking your inspiredvisions and ideas for what's
(23:44):
possible with how you moveenergy and manipulate and use
time well.
Some of the most fertile spacesfor your magic and innovation to
be applied.
This is how you do that samemagic, bridging the invisible to
the visible, the formless to therealm of form.
(24:06):
This is how you do that in yourinternal systems, your business
backend.
And this is how you make yourbusiness something that you
actually want to show up for andinside of every single day.
SOPs are like scaffolding foryou to lean into and grow and
climb up, up and rise higher.
It truly is what you build ontop of the foundation of
(24:29):
establishing your businessentity.
This is the inner workings.
This is the machine that youliberate yourself to drive like
the ghost within it.
I mentioned the mental load thatthis offloads.
It is a whole new world when youdon't have to constantly be in
(24:50):
decision fatigue, because youknow exactly what to do and lean
into next.
You know exactly what tab toopen.
You know exactly what to click.
You're not constantly secondguessing yourself.
You know confidently what thatnext move is to make, which
ultimately reduces thepossibility of overwhelm.
Those little micro fatiguingmoments that happen throughout
(25:13):
your workday.
Those create momentum.
And a lot of times those arewhat ultimately add up to the
experience of overwhelm orburnout, whereas the absence of
them, because you've createdthese guides, not only created,
but continue to maintain andevolve these SOPs, these Sacred
Operating Paths, so that youalways have that tangible, clear
(25:36):
guidance for you or your team,creates an environment in your
business where overwhelm isactually really uncommon.
The other thing is, it makesyour business scalable, both
through your ability to show upmore efficiently, through your
being able to eventually bringon a team, and to continue to
free you and those team membersup to be able to make an even
(26:00):
bigger impact without making itsoulless.
And here's why it is importantthat you start SOPs right now,
no matter where you are in yourbusiness.
Because you want those SOPs tobe a reflection of what matters
most to you, of that creativeprocess, of you and your essence
(26:21):
infused into your workflows.
Now, wherever you are, whicheverones you have, because that will
continue to grow and evolve intothe scaled version of your
company.
It's almost like infusing theseed of your essence into
whatever else it will become, nomatter how big it gets.
(26:41):
So you get to be the spellcasterand the system designer from day
one, or day whatever this is foryou.
Okay, at this point I'm sure youare dying to go create your
first SOP, so let me give you alittle practical guidance to
take your first baby step inthis direction.
Pick one task that you do overand over, something that you do
(27:03):
weekly or at least twice amonth.
The next time you do it,document the steps that you take
as you're doing it.
Do it in a Google Doc.
And as you are documenting thosesteps, if there is a link that
you have to access, drop it inthere.
If you made a graphic for it,duplicate that graphic.
(27:23):
And make it a template version.
So for example, if you had atitle in it, replace the title
with the word"title".
Basically make a placeholderversion of it that you can
access next time to make anotherversion of it.
And then either put a link tothat in that SOP and/or you can
(27:43):
also put the actual picture.
I like to make my SOPs look asbeautiful and as aesthetically
inviting as possible, just likeI do with my journals.
You also might wanna addscreenshots from various parts
of the process.
Really be keeping in mind a lotof what we talked about.
This is for you.
This is also potentially forsomebody else to be able to
(28:05):
retrace your steps.
That said, the simpler thespell, the more likely you are
to reuse it.
So don't go overboard.
You're gonna find that sweetspot that really works for you
of how much do you put into itto make it full and complete and
beautiful, but how little do youput into it to make it really
(28:25):
simple, and easy to follow as aguide..
That's your first SOP.
And then next time you go to dothat same step, follow your
guide, pull it up.
You can even do a split screenso you're looking at whatever
you're working on and your SOPat the same time I guarantee you
are going to have some ideas ofhow you could tweak things to be
(28:46):
a little bit more efficient,feel a little bit more aligned
for the way you like to work,and make those edits as you go.
If you do have a team and you'regonna wanna be passing this on
to somebody else, I would alsorecommend eventually making a
Loom video.
Where somebody can watch for thefirst time and actually see you
go through the process and thenhave that more written version
(29:08):
as like TLDR easy reference.
That said, I recommend doing itat least three times, because
you will go through a creativeprocess of making it better and
better.
Get to a point where you reallyfeel like it's in its best
current form.
Then go record the Loom, becauseyou won't wanna have to go
rerecord that.
And when you get to that pointtoo, please reach out.
(29:30):
By then, you will surely haveconnected with the magic that is
SOPs, and I would love to hearyour experience around this.
I.
Share this episode with afriend.
Anyone that you've heardcomplain about stress or
overwhelm or burnout insidetheir business, that are
magically thinking people sendthis to them so they too can
(29:52):
reframe their relationship tothis critical piece of business
that is actually one of the mostfun to maintain and continue to
evolve and show up for as partof the magical evolution of your
scaling and growing business.
This isn't just business, it'srhythm and flow, a living system
(00:03):
where momentum can grow.
You've heard it as SOP, allstructure and steps, but here
it's a path that maps what youdo next.
Not rules in a binder collectingsome dust, but rituals spelled
out to anchor your trust.
Your sacred operating path makesit clear, the steps to success
are already here.
It's step-by-step wisdom, a soulcoded map that frees up your
(00:27):
brain from the energy trap.
For witches and weavers withvisions to form, these spell
books bring structure wheremagic is born.
So gather your tools, a pen or ascreen, and write down the magic
that lives in between.
Because power is process, notsomething you solve, and it's
shaped as you grow and designedto evolve.
(00:47):
In case you've never heard of anSOP, it classically and
traditionally, and actuallystands for Standard Operating
Procedure, and this is somethingthat I geek out on so hard.
I'm actually fresh out of arework with my podcast workflow
(01:09):
SOP I was feeling especiallyconnected to the magic around
it.
And that is why this episode isborn today because just like how
I teach people to be inrelationship with their money in
a way that feels very alignedwith their magic essentially,
(01:32):
and those deeper unseen layersthat animate and inspire us, so
that they're able to overcomeresistance that many of you have
before coming to me around yourmoney stuff, right?
Because you see it as this verylinear, logical, boring side of
(01:54):
business, and one that you haveto do.
And so a lot of my work and yourwork when you work with me is to
reframe and reposition yourselfso that you can have a different
relationship with money thatactually feels aligned with all
the parts that you like bestabout business and life in
(02:16):
general.
And that is what this episode isaimed to do today for you if you
don't already love and have andmaintain SOPs.
So basically they are a guide ofsorts, and I'm still for a
moment here gonna speak to thetraditional language to anchor
(02:37):
into what you likely alreadyknow about them, before we
transition to the reframe that Ihave for you today around them.
And so traditionally,classically, the way that you've
probably heard them talkedabout, they're a set of rules,
boundaries, steps, protocols.
(02:57):
It's like a list of for all thethings that you do in your
business that are repeatable, orthat other people do for you in
your business if you have ateam, it's a list of the steps,
right?
It's like a quick reference ofexactly.
What your expectations are,exactly what you want done for
any given task.
So if this is how you learnedthem, you likely have a very
(03:22):
common aversion to them becausethat doesn't sound fun.
That literally, as a callback tothe wrap that you just heard,
sounds more like a stuffy, like,you know, a binder collecting
dust.
When you think of this maybe forsome job that you worked for,
right?
That had this manual that youhad to study and learn and
(03:43):
reference, or likely it wassomething that existed that
nobody actually even looked at.
It was a dead document,collecting dust, dying in a
binder somewhere.
Why would you want to embraceand engage that in your own
business?
That sounds awful and pointlessand like there's a million other
things that 1, you would ratherbe working on and putting your
(04:05):
attention toward, and 2, thatare gonna move the needle
forward.
And so because this is aprevalent attitude, just like
how it is my pleasure and mysacred service to support people
in rewriting their relationshipwith money, to actually embrace
and engage the pieces that areyour role to be able to maintain
(04:27):
a sustainable channel ofabundance, so too are SOPs
critically important for thesuccess of your business, for
you being able to scale for yougetting to work with a team,
which is such a next levelexperience as a business owner,
makes it so much more fun, and amillion more benefits that I
(04:49):
will continue to speak of inthis episode.
But for all these reasons thatyou might not even be aware of,
of this huge gaping hole missingpiece, if you don't have living,
breathing documents that areyour SOPs, I am here to reframe
them so that you are biting atthe chomp to create your first
(05:10):
one after you listen to thisepisode.
With that, I have the reframe...
Firstly, let's just switch theacronym to a whole new way of
thinking about it.
A whole new name to anchor inthis new way of thinking about
it, and that is Sacred OperatingPathways.
I love this because in areductive way it really does say
(05:31):
it all, but of course we aregoing to unpack it further.
If you thought SOPs were boring,I want to also offer the reframe
of a new definition, which isthat they are enchanted
instructions that make yourmagic repeatable.
They're how you don't have toreinvent the wheel every time
(05:52):
you do something.
They're how you're able to trackand document what has worked so
that you can do it that wayagain next time without having
to expend precious mental energyto remember and re-figure out
what that way was that workedfor you last time.
You know how it goes when you'rein the flow, which doesn't
(06:12):
happen every time that you workon something, but when you do
get into the flow state with atask, you end up doing things in
ways that just are timeefficient in almost a magical
way, right?
They warp time.
It's like a quality piece thatmakes the quantity of time it
takes you totally shift.
(06:33):
They aren't things that wereally think about them with our
brain, but it's more like youcome across them, right?
Again, when you're in the flowstate, you just notice yourself
doing things in a way, just likewhen someone's in flow playing
an instrument.
Everything just works and fitstogether, and often when you
have that experience, you'veprobably told yourself,"oh, I
need to remember that.
(06:53):
I need to do it like this nexttime".
And you probably have lots oflittle versions of those, when
things click into place.
Your SOPs are like a grimoire ora spell book to hold all of
those.
So just like a spell book, whereyou are tracking and documenting
what works...
Think of it, it could be likeyour recipe book, right?
The recipes or the, measurementsthat made it just, ah, chef's
(07:16):
Kiss, right?
Or whatever those pieces arewhere you're like,"that's the
way".
And it ends up being thisliving, breathing, evolving
thing.
It's not like all of a suddenyou get the download of
everything that's going to makethat workflow work best.
You get it in pieces.
And so having this place, whichby the way, I recommend using
(07:37):
Google Docs, it's such a greatway to organize and especially,
lately, with their new featureof being able to have multiple
tabs in a document, you canliterally have one SOP document,
and a tab for each workflow toput your SOPs into.
I'll circle back later to somereally specific, practical
(07:57):
advice on how to structure theseso that they work really well,
but the point is you are gettingsteps, procedures, processes,
pathways, details, differentpieces, links.
Oh my gosh, having to go andsearch for a link when you need
it, right?
You're getting everything thatyou need and need to reference
to be able to complete a taskwhere you don't have to think
(08:20):
about any of that stuff becauseit's right in front of you, and
so you get to focus on thecreative piece or the genius
piece or whatever the actualtask it is you showed up for,
without having to bog yourselfdown with all of those other
details of trying to re-figureout or re-remember what you're
even doing in the first place,or how you're doing it.
(08:43):
So you get this stuff out ofyour head and onto paper or a
screen, I highly recommend, butyou get it into form, physical,
tangible, something you can seeand look at and reference and oh
my goodness, I cannot even tellyou.
The nervous system regulationthat this is for a business
(09:04):
owner of knowing that you don'thave to worry about thinking
about these things, or trying toremember them ever again is one
of the biggest mental loads youwill take off of yourself.
You can't even imagine what therelief of that is until you
actually put these systems inplace.
You're getting this stuff out ofyour head and into tangible,
(09:27):
physical, referenceable form.
This is such a big use case forvisibility is power.
Having this stuff in your headand not being able to see it in
front of you is not only a hugemental load that you should not
be carrying, and you shouldabsolutely be offloading.
Another reframe that I want toadd to this or sort of encase
(09:50):
this inside of, that is alsogoing to be super helpful for
you to embrace something elsethat you may have resistance to,
which is the idea of automation.
So typically when we think aboutautomation, we think about tech
tools, right?
I want to make the connectionfor you that SOPs are like the
(10:14):
manual side of automation, ifthat makes sense.
And it probably doesn't, so letme explain.
Automation is a complimentarystep, but it's kind of a next
step too.
So a lot of the process thatwe're talking about here with
SOPs is getting your process,your magic, the method of your
madness...
out there, something tangiblethat you can see and tweak and
(10:37):
share, so that you can make itmore efficient.
And a lot of times the step toefficiency is you see, oh, I
could automate that.
That's a topic for another time.
But I want you to know that thisis absolutely in tandem and an
integral part of automation, notjust because it makes the actual
(10:58):
automated steps possible,because you can see where to put
them, which ones would besupportive for you, but also
because it's the exact samemindset.
It's the idea that we don'twanna have to repeat anything,
really.
Anything that's repeatable, wewant to automate.
And the way that we automate forthe tasks that we actually have
(11:20):
to do manually, is by creatingan SOP and following it.
So just like how we can give anautomation tool a script
essentially, and say when thishappens, I want you to do this.
We are doing the same forourselves with SOPs.
We're doing it for our brain.
We are telling ourselves, when Iwant this outcome, I'm gonna do
(11:40):
this, this, and this.
And then we are able to show upin an automated way to achieve
that outcome.
So think of the umbrella term asmore like automatic.
So whether it's actualautomation with tech, or it's
SOPs with you and your workflow.
We wanna make the what to do asautomatic as possible, so the
(12:00):
how you do it, has even morespace to fill the room.
When you're able to see it alltogether instead of having these
various thoughts come and go,and pass through your awareness,
you can see it all in one placeand it becomes this superpower
where naturally and effortlesslyyou can see things to tweak.
(12:21):
You can see what's not asefficient as it could be.
You can see where there's energyleaks and where there's things
you can refine in that workflowto start to tweak and play with
and experiment to make yourworkflow even more efficient.
This reframe is to think of yourSOPs, your Sacred Operating
Paths, as spells that groundyour vision into something real,
(12:47):
empower you to be even moreefficient and to be able to
focus on what you're actuallypassionate about, and ultimately
to protect your energy and yourtime.
It's how to make your magicrepeatable.
It's how to take something thatis just part of your inner world
in the dark, invisible places ofyour mind and make them
(13:07):
tangible.
And turn them into a formatwhere your magic can be
repeatable, where you caniterate on it effortlessly.
Just like a spell, it's a listof ritual steps and resources,
remember putting links in thereis so helpful, to summon your
desired outcome with clarity.
(13:28):
It's not like doing the samething and expecting different
results.
It's doing the same thing andknowing that you're gonna get
reliable results andconsistency.
It ends up, again, the nervoussystem piece.
You can just chill out knowingthat you have what you need that
is essentially your essencecoded into something that you or
(13:49):
other people can see and followas well to be able to achieve
the goal of your repeated tasksover and over and over, without
any stress or, I don't knowabout you...
i'm a mom now.
Mom brain is real.
I loved SOPs before becoming amom, but they have become
straight up necessary now.
(14:11):
The mental bandwidth that ittakes for me sometimes to
remember something that I didn'ttake note of is extreme.
Also, knowing exactly where toput things when I get that
inspired idea, right?
So I'm not just dropping it in amessage to myself or a note that
maybe will make it into practiceso that I can actually implement
it, but probably won't.
(14:32):
Having these SOPs in place, Iknow exactly where those gems go
for each of my task sets orworkflows.
Just like how a spell loses itspower if you forget the words,
your workflow loses its power ifyou forget the steps, or the
links, or the little detailsthat make everything flow so
much more smoothly.
(14:53):
So think of SOPs as a way toexternalize your magic so that
everything's not trapped in yourhead.
Now we've been talking about thevalue of this for yourself.
It is absolutely invaluable tobe able to see your processes in
front of you, to be able totweak them to be guided by them,
but it's also an absoluterequisite, a total must if
(15:16):
you're gonna build a team.
But here's the thing...
even if you don't have a teamnow, you should be doing this
for that cause, because thenwhen the time comes where you
wanna start bringing someone on,you don't have to worry about
the stress at all of creatingthem then.
You already have them.
It becomes so easy and seamlessto transition into bringing
(15:39):
people on.
I mentioned that what inspiredthis episode is that I just went
and did a pass on my podcastworkflow SOPs to support
bringing on a new team member.
And let me just tell you from myexperience and example how this
process has gone down.
And I actually had a really goodfriend, a business bestie...
(16:01):
I was telling her about myinitial process with this, and
she was so inspired by how muchI prioritize my time and energy
through these things that I'mtalking about right now.
By taking the time to do this, Iam ensuring that my energy and
my time is honored as much as Iam capable of honoring it.
(16:24):
And that is a whole nother levelof self-trust than most business
owners know.
Knowing that you've got yourselfbecause you're doing these
things to make sure that yourtime and energy is as precious
and protected as possible, is agame changer when it comes to
how you feel inside yourbusiness.
So it started out with season 3of the podcasts coming into
(16:50):
form, and I had all of these newideas of the structure of the
episode, how I was gonnarepurpose content.
After taking a long break fromthe previous version of the
podcast as Boss Cosm, it wastotally back to the drawing
board, right?
I started over and created awhole new workflow, got back to
(17:10):
that visionary space of what waspossible.
And as I did, I had this living,breathing Google doc that was
the SOP for all of the differentpieces.
And let me tell you, besides thespecific more nuanced benefits
that I've been talking about,that are made possible by having
SOPs in place, there's also justsomething so powerful, it
(17:32):
reminds me of when you have anew idea to start a new business
and you make the website.
All of a sudden, it's real.
And your relationship to itchanges.
It almost takes on a life of itsown.
It becomes an entity.
It becomes a thing because youmade a website for it.
I feel like SOPs are that in abig way.
I had this inspired idea andyes, of course I made new
(17:54):
graphics and there was newpublishing on my platform.
But for me, the biggie for this,because it was so workflow
intensive to maintain it, wasthe visionary space around this
workflow that I was creating.
And the SOP was this version ofit, this asset that I created
that made it real, and that gotme really excited in the way
(18:17):
that a website does for a newbusiness venture.
Okay, so I made the SOP to seeand get out of my mind what I
was envisioning all the pieceswere that I was gonna repurpose
it into and then what I was ableto do next, because again, I got
to this place of efficiency.
I knew that I was gonna be ableto be as efficient as possible.
And so from that place, the nextstep was to start timing myself.
(18:41):
I wanted to see, I startedlogging hours, to see exactly
how much time it took me toprocess an episode, following
the steps of this new SOP.
That in of itself was so fun.
I love that process.
Moon's in Virgo.
If you haven't been here long,you might not know that about
me...
a big part of where this part ofme comes from that nerds out on
(19:02):
all of this.
What came next felt reallyobvious of okay, now I'm ready
to hand this off to somebodyelse.
And I kind of knew that from thebeginning that this was gonna
prepare me to do that, but Ididn't realize how aligned that
would feel as soon as I got to apoint where it evened out.
At first, it took me a littlebit longer to get the hang of
it, but then it was smoothrepeat, taking about the same
(19:26):
amount of time every time.
And I was like, okay, now that Ican see.
See it first, I could see thesteps and I was able to easily
repeat it.
Then I could see how long it wastaking me, and then it was
obvious of okay, well how muchwould it cost me to pay somebody
else to do that?
And does that make sense rightnow?
The empowerment around makingbusiness decisions and business
(19:46):
moves, through prioritizingthese things is also just
unparalleled.
So remember when you're makingthese, that you're absolutely
making them for your future selfto either maybe follow them, but
definitely iterate on them andrefine them, but also you're
setting these up eventually forfuture team members.
(20:08):
So wherever you are on yourtimeline, whether it's to
relieve your time and energy bymaking your processes more
efficient, or eventually todelegate and hand off the tasks
altogether to somebody else, itis all for the cause of
protecting your time and energy.
The piece about being able tosee it and return to it and
(20:28):
refine it....
I have to point to my Virgobecause I feel like this is such
a big part of my creativeprocess in general, is I've
always been a little bitintimidated by a blank canvas,
right?
You've heard of blank canvassyndrome?
If I see something that'salready done, I can see
immediately exactly what I wannado to tweak it to be more ideal.
(20:50):
This is the Virgo superpower oflooking at something, but that
something needs to exist, and beable to see the gap between what
that next step is to bridge thatgap.
So it's why Virgos are suchgreat editors, right?
We see something and we're like,no, that's not right.
That's not right.
That's not right.
And it's also why"done, notperfect," it's such a good idea
to make the first version ofanything, just put it out there,
(21:13):
and know it's gonna suck becausethen you have something to look
at and iterate on and edit andrefine and get closer and closer
to perfection.
SOPs are such an incredibleplace to show up for that kind
of creative process, because youget to refine the spell every
time you look at it, and ifyou're using that as a guide, if
you don't have a team yet andyou're the one following that
(21:36):
SOP, literally every time you dothe task, you're going to refine
the spell and get better andmore efficient at it for every
future time.
And this is the part where, ifyou thought about it as being
boring or a chore to have to dothis, when you actually engage
it with this mindset and engageit regularly and understand what
(21:56):
it's for, the purpose that it'sserving for you, it is
absolutely not a chore.
It is a creative act every timeyou look at it, and it actually
inspires and opens yourcreativity to engage it.
We're talking legacy stuff here.
This is a living, breathing,evolving spell book of your
(22:16):
magic inside your business, thatgets more and more awesome the
longer you're in business.
On the topic of bringing peoplein and bringing on team members
to eventually have this spellbook to be able to step inside
of your business...
people talk about the keys ofthe castle.
It's not giving people logincredentials to your apps.
(22:37):
It's your SOPs.
And not only does having themmake the onboarding and scaling
and bringing on a team superseamless, when you have enough
to worry about like meeting andvetting new people, you're not
at that time gonna want tofigure out creating SOPs for
them.
Not only that, though, once youactually bring them on, it
(22:57):
empowers them to be able tosucceed in your company without
you having to constantlysupervise them or micromanage
them.
You've already created the stepsfor success and your
expectations in a way that theycan reference without having to
constantly come to you.
And that is the differencebetween bringing on team members
taking you 10 steps back or 10steps forward.
(23:20):
This is some of the most magicalkind of structure that I know.
So much of what we do is takingthe invisible visions that we
have and making them tangible,bringing them into form through
our offers inside of ourbusinesses.
This is the backend version ofthat.
This is taking your inspiredvisions and ideas for what's
(23:44):
possible with how you moveenergy and manipulate and use
time well.
Some of the most fertile spacesfor your magic and innovation to
be applied.
This is how you do that samemagic, bridging the invisible to
the visible, the formless to therealm of form.
(24:06):
This is how you do that in yourinternal systems, your business
backend.
And this is how you make yourbusiness something that you
actually want to show up for andinside of every single day.
SOPs are like scaffolding foryou to lean into and grow and
climb up, up and rise higher.
It truly is what you build ontop of the foundation of
(24:29):
establishing your businessentity.
This is the inner workings.
This is the machine that youliberate yourself to drive like
the ghost within it.
I mentioned the mental load thatthis offloads.
It is a whole new world when youdon't have to constantly be in
(24:50):
decision fatigue, because youknow exactly what to do and lean
into next.
You know exactly what tab toopen.
You know exactly what to click.
You're not constantly secondguessing yourself.
You know confidently what thatnext move is to make, which
ultimately reduces thepossibility of overwhelm.
Those little micro fatiguingmoments that happen throughout
(25:13):
your workday.
Those create momentum.
And a lot of times those arewhat ultimately add up to the
experience of overwhelm orburnout, whereas the absence of
them, because you've createdthese guides, not only created,
but continue to maintain andevolve these SOPs, these Sacred
Operating Paths, so that youalways have that tangible, clear
(25:36):
guidance for you or your team,creates an environment in your
business where overwhelm isactually really uncommon.
The other thing is, it makesyour business scalable, both
through your ability to show upmore efficiently, through your
being able to eventually bringon a team, and to continue to
free you and those team membersup to be able to make an even
(26:00):
bigger impact without making itsoulless.
And here's why it is importantthat you start SOPs right now,
no matter where you are in yourbusiness.
Because you want those SOPs tobe a reflection of what matters
most to you, of that creativeprocess, of you and your essence
(26:21):
infused into your workflows.
Now, wherever you are, whicheverones you have, because that will
continue to grow and evolve intothe scaled version of your
company.
It's almost like infusing theseed of your essence into
whatever else it will become, nomatter how big it gets.
(26:41):
So you get to be the spellcasterand the system designer from day
one, or day whatever this is foryou.
Okay, at this point I'm sure youare dying to go create your
first SOP, so let me give you alittle practical guidance to
take your first baby step inthis direction.
Pick one task that you do overand over, something that you do
(27:03):
weekly or at least twice amonth.
The next time you do it,document the steps that you take
as you're doing it.
Do it in a Google Doc.
And as you are documenting thosesteps, if there is a link that
you have to access, drop it inthere.
If you made a graphic for it,duplicate that graphic.
(27:23):
And make it a template version.
So for example, if you had atitle in it, replace the title
with the word"title".
Basically make a placeholderversion of it that you can
access next time to make anotherversion of it.
And then either put a link tothat in that SOP and/or you can
(27:43):
also put the actual picture.
I like to make my SOPs look asbeautiful and as aesthetically
inviting as possible, just likeI do with my journals.
You also might wanna addscreenshots from various parts
of the process.
Really be keeping in mind a lotof what we talked about.
This is for you.
This is also potentially forsomebody else to be able to
(28:05):
retrace your steps.
That said, the simpler thespell, the more likely you are
to reuse it.
So don't go overboard.
You're gonna find that sweetspot that really works for you
of how much do you put into itto make it full and complete and
beautiful, but how little do youput into it to make it really
(28:25):
simple, and easy to follow as aguide..
That's your first SOP.
And then next time you go to dothat same step, follow your
guide, pull it up.
You can even do a split screenso you're looking at whatever
you're working on and your SOPat the same time I guarantee you
are going to have some ideas ofhow you could tweak things to be
(28:46):
a little bit more efficient,feel a little bit more aligned
for the way you like to work,and make those edits as you go.
If you do have a team and you'regonna wanna be passing this on
to somebody else, I would alsorecommend eventually making a
Loom video.
Where somebody can watch for thefirst time and actually see you
go through the process and thenhave that more written version
(29:08):
as like TLDR easy reference.
That said, I recommend doing itat least three times, because
you will go through a creativeprocess of making it better and
better.
Get to a point where you reallyfeel like it's in its best
current form.
Then go record the Loom, becauseyou won't wanna have to go
rerecord that.
And when you get to that pointtoo, please reach out.
(29:30):
By then, you will surely haveconnected with the magic that is
SOPs, and I would love to hearyour experience around this.
I.
Share this episode with afriend.
Anyone that you've heardcomplain about stress or
overwhelm or burnout insidetheir business, that are
magically thinking people sendthis to them so they too can
(29:52):
reframe their relationship tothis critical piece of business
that is actually one of the mostfun to maintain and continue to
evolve and show up for as partof the magical evolution of your
scaling and growing business.
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