C (2:53)

I think it's great. I think it's five key things. I touch almost every client I'm with.

B (2:58)

It's great. Easy, easy, easy. And would you say it's even like, do you have these five things or do you have smooth paths to run these five things? And if not, this is what I would start working on, probably even in this order at some level, because this is what's going to really help you, like, cut the noise, right? Because that's what all of us want that are running Ops, right? How do I cut the noise? And those of you know, like you, if you're running alongside of a high powered visionary, it's a lot of noise. There's a lot of noise because they've got so many big ideas in their brain and it's hard to like, how do I lift up out of the clouds? I love that when I'm flying, when I can just lift up out of the clouds and it's like sunshine, bluebird skies. How do I lift out of the noise, up into the, up into the upper stratosphere and just see blue sky, sunshine.

C (3:39)

Mm, yep.

B (3:40)

Okay, so, Taran Turner, where would you start us? And what's one of the things OPS should own?

C (3:45)

You know, a big one every time we come into a client is what are my numbers, where I'm at, how come I can't see anything? You know, I've got I got a meeting with the bookkeeper, CFO maybe once a month. I've got a meeting with somebody else maybe once a month. Everything's all scattered about. How do I know if somebody's doing what they said they're going to be doing on a very metric basis, you know, are there KPIs being tracked? And so that brings us into metrics and visibility. I mean very easy way just to be able to have a snapshot, a scorecard, as we've said all the time of here's where the business is at, broken down into different areas, one place to go, many people owning numbers, reporting on it, being responsible for it, and just a quick check in. He can get his questions answered either by looking at it and just saying okay or looking at it and asking the right person the right question if it's not okay.

B (4:37)

I think every operator loves spreadsheets, right? But like your visionary does not like them, period. Like that's just how it works, right? So how can I give them something that's pretty to look at, a dashboard that gives them the exact numbers from my spreadsheet? Keep doing your spreadsheet. Your spreadsheet's awesome. Your spreadsheet's bitching. It's just not what the visionary, it's not his speaking his language, her language. So how do I take key metrics from here? Roll them up into a dashboard that scratches the itch. Because what that's going to keep it from happening is visionary reaching out, continually saying, hey, where are we at with this? Hey, how are we doing with this? Hey, where are we at with that? And man, especially during a launch time, right? You're in a launch season, they're going to want to know like what do we turn, what's the roas, how we turn on ad dollars? Like how many opt ins have come in? How many of those people have turned into buts and seats they're actually attending? How many of those people have actually converted into purchasers? How many people have we upsold? Where are they at in the pipeline? How can I create a dashboard? A metric that we all can work from, that's the Bible and it can answer visionaries questions and, and leave you some space, right? We're talking about cutting the noise. Let's cut down on the chatter from visionary blowing you up all day long and wanting to jump on the call or leave you a bunch of text messages. Create a dashboard, get clear on your metrics. It's the best way to start. So that's number one metrics and Visibility good one. Taryn Turner, what would you say is number two?

C (5:50)

Wow. Easily task project management.

B (5:55)

Yes, yes, Taren, now we're talking. Now this is language that every operator, every integrator loves to speak. Now I will say there's diversity of opinions on this topic. Like some people love Monday.com other people love asana. I sat down with Joe Johnson from Life Surge at Pete Vargas's Mastermind. I got to have, I got to sit right next to him at dinner and he turned to me and he said, well, pro, what project management software do you like? And I'm like, dude, visionaries never asked me this. This is exciting. I'm like, okay, so here's the thing is I know a lot of people say this. I'm going to say I, I really like asana. I really like building out asana. He goes, dude, that's what I've been trying to tell my team this whole time. I love asana. So it was like, oh good. Because Joe Johnson is one of those kind of guys that likes to build with structure. Asana is something that we advocate for here a lot. 15 free seats. How can you beat that before they start charging you? Taryn Turner, talk to me about task project management.

C (6:46)

Yeah, you know, we kind of fill our minds with a lot of things and one of them shouldn't be just remembering to do something. You should be filling your mind with how to do something or to do something, not remembering to do something. So it's just a great way first of all to just assign end over end tasks. A lot of times it's really easy to set tasks as reoccurring. So what's going out every week? You have a newsletter going out. That's a task. Somebody owns that task, they don't have to come back and say, oh my gosh, I've been so busy I forgot because it's on their task list every time it's due. They go, okay, I have to do that today. And if they're forgetting at that point, then there's a deeper issue. But end over end tasks in a task management system is so nice. I don't have to think about things anymore. I just have to think about doing them when it says I need to do them and then assigning tasks for other people, I mean, instead of just shooting them a slack message, an email, a text that can get lost easily, it's hey, I assigned you a task. Here's the link to it. Let me know if you have any questions. You know, I put everything you need in the description. We can chat about it in the comments.

B (7:55)

That's right.

C (7:55)

It can be part of a bigger project where you're assigning tasks to multiple people. So it all lives in one spot. You can see whether you forgot any tasks. So it's just another great way to be more efficient with your team too, especially as an operator level. If you're assigning things to people, that's the first place you want to be.

B (8:12)

I think that the greatest thing for me about project management software, whatever it is that you use, teamwork, Monday, Asana, ClickUp, whatever you fancy. I personally don't think it matters what you use. I just think it's important that you use, you know, something that can keep track of it for you. One of the biggest things I'll tell people is don't expect your visionary to live in there. This isn't for the visionary world. Like, visionary is never going to get in your project management software. But create a space where visionary can just drop his stuff and walk away from it and you're going to grab whatever it is that he's dropped. You can tell him or her, yep, on it, right? That's all they want to hear. Let me give you like $100 worth of wisdom in just five quick seconds. Just tell them, Roger. Just tell them. Got it. Just tell them on it. Like, and I've noticed if you want like a, a twofer out of this special deal I'm doing for you right now, the twofer is, Roger, I'm on that, I'll have that done by this time or day because then you don't have to dick around with them asking you when it's going to be done. They know it and a lot of times they don't even care. They just want to know that it's going to get done and they don't want to have to think about it again. If you've just told them, yes, I'll do it and, and I'll have it done by this date. Those are the two key things you need to put straight into your project management software that's going to help you stay on point. And then you can assign it down to team, break it into 10 different pieces, but keep that key date in there. And this is where it lives. And then that way if you are asked about it, you can say no, no, this exactly where it is. They pull it up for you. They didn't. Once they see it, they're going to be so overwhelmed by it anyway. But just to see, oh, look how organized they've got that. Wow. They've been tracking my ideas. Oh my gosh. They've got all those assets. Oh, it's all in one simple spot. And all of us love being able to very quickly get to whatever it was somebody asked us about. Right. This way to do that is stay out of Slack with all the different assets and stay in the project management tool. All assigned to one project.

C (9:55)

Yeah. And it may take, you know, depending on how much trust you've lost with your, with your entrepreneur boss, CEO on if things have been getting accomplished. But it may take a little bit for him to trust that the task is completed. So he might ask some follow up questions. Hey, was this completed? Until he realizes, okay, you guys are on your stuff. You are actually getting done what you said you'd get done now that you're in a good system.

B (10:20)

I love it. I love it. Taryn. Right after that though, I mentioned Slack and I gave people kind of a little heads up, little peek, a little peek around the corner, a little wink. What do you think is next to the things that operations should, man? Make sure you have a clear framework on this. Make sure it's tight. Cause this is what's going to lift you out over the clouds.

C (10:35)

Well, Aaron, I have the list right in front of me here, so I don't even have to guess what's next. I know for sure it's internal comms.

B (10:40)

Internal comms, baby. And Taren, are your thoughts. We should just be doing that, that everywhere, all the time.

C (10:46)

Yeah, the more avenues the better, obviously, man.

B (10:51)

Because that's the best. Especially when Visionary is pissed and wants a quick answer. I love having to try and figure out did that come by email? Did that come by text? Was that in Slack? Was that. And did I get that in WhatsApp? Where did that? Oh man, did that. Somebody send me that in Voxer. So Taryn, what is your bible when it comes to internal comms?

C (11:07)

First of all, when it comes to internal comms, the Bible creates the process for your team. It doesn't matter what it is at first. Just create a process for people to follow. Just tell them what the system is, tell them what to do, reinforce it once it's implemented. You know, be reminding people they're going to take some reminders. What is it like seven reminders before they get it, you know, but just create something, you know, the easiest thing we do. And it was Kimberly, Kimberly's little moniker that is stuck in my head forever. And it's Slack for asks and Monday for tasks and that's what they used. So we love keeping project comms in the task. If you can be specific so you can review the comms, see where everybody's at, somebody else can jump. But if you just need a quick like, hey, I pinged you. Go check this out or I've got some urgent. It doesn't really have a task. It's just something that just came up. I just received this email from so and so. Can somebody respond? You don't really know who to send it to, but you need multiple people to look at it. That's kind of a Slack thing. But yeah, just create the process that works for you guys. You know, we use Voxer at Clap Team just because it's a great collaboration vocalization tool. As you can tell, we're big speakers here. We speak all the time and so it's just a great way to.

B (12:29)

All we do is chat. I love it. I think too, Taryn. I think we actually have an asset that we could give people if they wanted to reach out on it. And maybe it's like internal comms bible. I forget what we call it, but it's like we have an actual SOP around internal comms. I would love to give away to people if they just want to reach out to us, maybe they could just check it out. Maybe it's. Maybe we call it comms thecollabteam.com if maybe they went to comms.thecolabteam.com we could give them this free asset that would be such a great thing for them. But I think if you're looking, it's just a visual and it kind of lines out. Something you can hand off to your team and say he as a reminder, this is the way we do it. Maybe pin that to the top of your Slack channel. If you use Slack. So it's a reminder for everybody. And then the thing I always try and think through is listen, I am is exactly that instant message. It's not intended to be lm. I don't want it to be like lazy messaging, right? Where people are like, I don't know where to find this because somebody. And it's like they're wandering or they're like, I'm just gonna drop this into this big old group with 35 people into it. And I'm hear everybody. It's like 35 people are like only two people in that whole group needed that. But you just busied 35 people's minds with wondering should I be thinking about that? Is that important to me? Where should I Be using like no, no, no. Like create lanes, clear lanes. This is how we communicate this. This is how we communicate this. This is where we go. This is what time is permittable to be communicating. It's not okay if you'd be messaging people all the way up until midnight on these certain mediums. It's not okay for you to be texting people's personal phones until midnight. That's not cool. That's not a good thing to do. So I think thinking through what's the bible on internal comms, if you want the free asset comms.thecolabteam.com and we'll get that over to you right away. Taryn, what would you say the fourth thing is, Taryn, as we kind of get close to winding things down here.

C (14:13)

Fourth thing is hiring slash onboarding, which you can put either way. You can onboarding slash hiring or hiring slash onboarding. Personally, I like to multitask when it comes to accomplishing things. So I might work on an onboarding setup and process as we help a client hire them for the first time. I can gather some things initially before that, but I'm going to spend the bulk of my time building it as I do it in this situation. So we're going to hire, we're going to onboard and I'm going to set up the process for it at the same time.

B (14:45)

I think, man, I think this is a great spot where your project management tool can come into play is create something that's end over end repeatable. You know you're going to give the same forms to the same people every single time. You know you're going to want them to watch the same videos every single time. If you haven't created videos, create the videos, man, for this next hire that's coming on and use it every single time. Get people, give people something to get them excited for working about you instead of just bringing them in the door and being like first day, here's a bunch of shit I'm just going to like push at you and like trust that you're going to be able to triage through it or try and understand how it all is supposed to come together. No, no, no. Make it look super dialed in. No, they want to work here. Wow, this is exciting. Look how deep this stuff goes. Look, they've got a good system for everything. You know, I think, really think through how you're hiring and then how you're onboarding people because that's what's going to make people sticky. That's what's going to make people want to stay with you is when they see you've got good systems and you're bringing them on in a way that's going to make them want to stay. Nobody likes coming into a place of overwhelm. Nobody. Nobody likes getting hired. And then they walk in the door and they're like, oh my gosh, this place is a mess. What did I just say? Right? Nobody feeling of that. So be thinking through hiring, be thinking through onboarding. That's absolutely something that is going to help your life get better because that's the first place you're going to need to go. Once you realize we're at. We're redlining, we're maxing our current capacity. We need to go higher. And how can I make that as effortless as possible? That's something we love doing here at the collab team. If you ever need help with hiring, just know that we always help, love help hiring and onboarding people. Terry always say the fifth thing is that ops should keep it tight.

C (16:17)

I would say the fifth one is ice cream socials.

B (16:20)

Ice cream socials are legit. They're a legit thing. Darren, of the ice creams, what would you say is your favorite flavor though?

C (16:27)

Cookies and cream.

B (16:28)

Stop it. You like cookies and cream best of all the flavors?

C (16:31)

Yeah, it's probably the only one. I can eat a tub of, you know, Oreos.

B (16:34)

Dude, you're all about. See, I would say like mint and chip. I can, I dig mint and chip.

C (16:38)

Pretty.

B (16:39)

Yeah. See, people either love mint chip or hate mint chip. So I get it. I get the response. Okay, what's the real fifth thing though? Not ice cream socials. As legit as ice cream socials are.

C (16:47)

I would say fulfilled it. And this one might come as a shock to you, but I think we end up in fulfillment pretty quickly in companies. And one of the reasons why is there's just been a disconnect between departments. Marketing, selling a product or creating the visuals. Sales of selling a product. The owner of the company had an idea, customer supports fielding inquiries from people. So it's just one of those areas where it's just. You find departments and people are just lacking in their communication and follow through and expectations and who was supposed to do what and is this event really happening? Who needs to put it on the owner's schedule? We need to talk to now the executive assistant to make sure we can get a schedule. And so it does end up being the kind of this black hole of we sold a product and now we're Trying to fulfill a product. And so that tends to be the best place we can help bring people together in the company. Being like, okay, let's figure this out. Let's create the systems so that fulfillment is no longer a giant headache of wishful thinking and just responding to pissed off customers.

B (17:53)

And I'll tell you what, Taren, this is one of the ones where it's like, visionaries love to sell, right? Visionaries love the feeling of dollars coming in. Right. And they hate the feeling of once they've sold something, it's not fulfilled well. But usually they don't have a ton of energy for fulfillment. Right. So it's like make it as easy as you can for your visionary to get in and get out. Right? Like is what fulfillment. This is all we need from them. Record these few videos, like show up this one time a month or this one time, whatever the fulfillment cadence is. And then once you have those assets, operations takes it on to make sure. Okay, so is the line of like, they make the purchase, the downstream is all going to work, Right? Right. They make the purchase, the cart's going to push them into access. This access is going to be easy to follow. When they get inside there, what do they see and how are they trekking through it? And maybe that's your customer service department, maybe that's your fulfillment department, depending on how big the company is. But think through the roadmap that you want people to see. I know Darius Daniels has a great roadmap that when you get into his program, he's like, this is where it goes. And then you go to this next. And then you go to this next. Think about what do you want ideally from your customers because the better your experience for their first purchase and fulfillment, the easier your second. Yes. Is going to be, right? Yes. I want to uplevel with you because my fulfillment on the first thing was so good. So I think how can we keep the water in the bucket, man? Make sure you plug those holes. Make sure we're not losing people because bad customer experience. Because really, like, it's very easy to lose people between sales and then customer support and then fulfillment and who's going to actually navigate them through it. And then all the moving pieces of the technology. A lot of that's technology. A lot of people are being fulfilled on learning platforms these days. So whether it's works or it's school or it's kajabi or however you're using, whatever the platforms are that you're using, it needs to be orchestrated, it needs to be architected. And that's really an operations function.

C (19:38)

Yeah. And that onboarding roadmap was an absolute time saver with people. I mean, we had easily tons of FAQ set up and a support site. People can get their own answers and all this stuff laid out, but people just don't want to read. So they just turned the exact same info into a pretty one page picture with a little road and little points and describing things and when you'll get this and how to get this and this time time so that every time new people are coming into the community, they can get their answers, their questions answered in just a better format that appeals to them in a greatly reduced, you know, volume of requests from new members.

B (20:17)

Well, Taryn Turner, man, we go over each one of these things. Ops Experts, if you have enjoyed our show today, we go over each one of these things at length and detail in Ops Experts Academy. If you've never checked it out, opsexpertsacademy.com It's a great spot for us to. If you're wondering, well, how would you do this? And how would you do this? We take deep dives in each one of these topics and really flesh it out over several different episodes. There's beginner level, intermediate level, advanced level on each one of these things. If you're interested in them, we'd love for you to go there. And if you really like the idea of my, what I call it, communication bible. If you go to comm. C O M N dot Experts Academy. Oh, the collab team. I put out the collab team com dot the colab team dot com. Then we'll make sure we get that asset out to you as well.

C (20:59)

So is it comm? I thought it was comms.

B (21:01)

Comms with an S. Comms then comms with an S with two M's, Two M's and one S. Okay, I gotta.

C (21:07)

Go build this guys, before this goes live. So this is part of fulfillment.

B (21:12)

This is part of fulfillment. This is not the way you want to do it, but this is exactly how Visionary usually has it done. So actually Taryn, can we do this? Can I just do a reset and just say comms with an S, C o m m s.opsexpertsacademy.com is where they can find that asset. Is that good?

C (21:28)

Yeah, unless they only listen to half of it.

B (21:30)

If they only listen to half of it, you're going to get lost. So. But you're not going to know how to spell calm and you're not going to remember there was nests on it. Ops experts, thank you for joining us today. I hope the end of this episode didn't just discourage you from ever working with us. But we appreciate you, Taran Turner. You are a scholar and a gentleman, and I appreciate you.

C (21:46)

Yes, sir. See ya.

B (21:47)

See ya.