From Chaos to Clarity: Systems That Save You
This podcast episode tackles the common struggle many entrepreneurs face—feeling overwhelmed and stuck in constant chaos. We talk about how endless to-do lists and the pressure to stay busy can actually hurt productivity and well-being. Instead of getting caught up in the noise, we share simple, repeatable strategies to help bring order to your day-to-day tasks. By pinpointing key problems and creating clear systems, you'll learn how to work smarter, not harder. The goal is to help you take back control of your time and enjoy your work again. From Chaos to Clarity: Systems That Save You.
Check out the full podcast episode here
Chaos is a common struggle for many entrepreneurs and professionals, turning each day into a constant battle to keep up. This episode opens with a relatable look at a hectic morning filled with emails, deadlines, client demands, and personal tasks—all creating a sense of overwhelm. Living in this state of constant busyness can be exhausting and frustrating, making it feel like you're always behind, chasing a finish line that never comes.
To break free from this cycle, we introduce a powerful solution: creating simple, repeatable systems. Whether it's for onboarding clients, managing emails, or producing content, these systems bring order and clarity to your daily routine. They help you save time, reduce mistakes, improve consistency, and make delegation easier. More importantly, they give you back your peace of mind and the joy of doing work you love. This episode walks you through practical steps to identify your biggest challenges and start building systems that truly support you.
Takeaways:
- Chaos in our daily routines often leads to a feeling of being overwhelmed, preventing us from achieving meaningful productivity.
- Implementing simple systems can transform our approach to managing tasks, offering clarity and control over our daily operations.
- By establishing a structured process for client onboarding and offboarding, we can significantly reduce chaos and enhance client satisfaction.
- Effective email management requires a systematic approach, including setting designated times for checking emails and utilizing the two-minute rule for immediate responses.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Grit and Growth Business
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00:00 - Untitled
00:02 - The Chaos of Morning Routines
04:58 - Transitioning from Chaos to Systems
08:38 - Breaking the Chaos: Effective Client Onboarding
18:01 - Systemizing Actionable Steps for Clarity and Control
22:37 - Documenting and Optimizing Business Processes
33:03 - The Power of the Pause: Embracing Intentional Rest
Speaker A
Okay, let me paint a picture for you.
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It's the morning your alarm goes off and before your feet even hit the floor, your mind is racing.
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You've got those emails, those deadlines, those calls to return, those client requests, marketing ideas, bills to pay, the kids schedules, that thing you forgot yesterday.
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If you're like me, it feels like you're constantly putting out fires, isn't it?
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Maybe.
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Like a lot of people, you feel like you're just chasing your tail.
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You're running in circles, just trying to keep your head above water.
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And you promised yourself you'd get organized, you'd be more productive.
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But every single day feels like a mad dash, a reactive scramble from one urgent task to the next.
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Yeah, yeah.
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You start with a plan, but by mid morning, it's already derailed.
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Hey, that train has wrecked and the day exhausted.
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But this is nagging feeling that feeling that you really didn't accomplish anything truly meaningful.
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It's a chaotic dance, isn't it?
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It's a constant state of overwhelm.
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And let's be honest, it sucks that remaining joy right out of your work and often out of your life too.
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That feeling of being forever behind is soul crushing.
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Today we're going to talk about how to stop that madness.
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How to get off that digital hamster wheel we discussed last week where talking about finding peace in the middle of your busy, ambitious life through something deceptively simple.
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Systems.
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I'll talk about what they are here in a few minutes.
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But we're going to go from chaos to clarity.
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So stay with me today because this isn't just about your business.
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It's so much bigger than that.
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It's about your peace of mind.
Speaker B
Running a business isn't easy.
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It's long hours, tough calls and relentless pressure.
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No shortcuts, no handouts.
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Just grit, grind and the will to keep going when most would quit.
Speaker B
Welcome to Grit and Growth Business.
Speaker B
The show for entrepreneurs who know success is built the hard way.
Speaker B
Hosted by Ralph Estepp Jr. A seasoned business coach, accountant and fellow fighter in the trenches, each episode brings you real talk, proven strategies and the unfiltered truth about what it really takes to build something that lasts.
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Because if you've got persistence, perseverance and determination, this is the place for you.
Speaker B
This is grit and growth business.
Speaker A
Hey, welcome back to Grit and Growth Business.
Speaker A
I'm Ralph Estepp Jr joining you again for another episode of how to take your business to the next level.
Speaker A
Now, if you missed last week's show, I I'm encouraging you to go check it out.
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But we had a crucial conversation about shifting our focus from those feel good followers to real revenue.
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Yeah, we talked about dispelling all those myths of those YouTube likes and those followers and really looking at the bottom line and that real revenue.
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And I also hope that you downloaded last week's action plan sheet.
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You can do that by going to gritandgrowthbusiness.com action because listen, that's a game changer for really focusing your efforts.
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But today we're going to kick it up a notch.
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We're talking about another silent saboteur of success, something that impacts every single one of us.
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And I don't care who you are, whether you're running a thriving small business, maybe you're managing a side hustle, or maybe you're just navigating demands of modern life.
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And that one word is chaos.
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It's that feeling that you're constantly reacting, constantly putting out fires.
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You feel like a full time fireman.
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And if you're like me, you're always busy, but not always productive.
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It's that feeling of overwhelm that.
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We talked about this a few minutes ago, that digital hamster wheel.
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And if you're like most people, you start off the day with good intentions.
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Yeah, you're dedicated, you work hard, you work really hard.
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It often feels like you're just running endlessly and you're getting nowhere, anywhere meaningful by the end of the day.
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And I remember many times looking at my desk covered with papers, the inbox overflowing, and then I just had to sit there and I felt this feeling of being completely paralyzed.
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And I was working 12, 14, 16 hour days.
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But when I look back at it, it was like I wasn't even making a dent.
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And the problem is there's a much deeper cost to this.
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See, this isn't just about productivity.
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That's one part of it.
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But it's about your mental health, your spiritual well being and your relationships.
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Yeah, hear me on that one.
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Mental health, spiritual well being, your relationships.
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I think those are pretty big things.
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And when chaos reigns, when chaos is in control, it steals your joy and it steals your peace.
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But I've got a solution.
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It doesn't have to be this way.
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And the secret isn't working harder, but it is working smarter by implementing simple, repeatable systems.
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That's exactly what we're going to talk about next.
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So now you might be saying, Ralph, what in the world are you talking about?
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What are systems?
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You lost me already.
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What do I mean by a system?
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I mean it's a simple, documented Process.
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Don't think any bigger than that.
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Just a step by step method for completing a task or achieving a goal.
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Think about it like you're in the kitchen.
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It's a recipe for repeatable success.
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Things like how to onboard a new client, or maybe how you manage your daily emails.
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For you, maybe it's how you plan your social media content or how you handle customer inquiries.
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And for some of us, it's even how you prepare for your workday.
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And why are these systems so important?
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Why do they matter?
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The save you part is the big thing here.
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They save you time.
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You stop reinventing the wheel every time.
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Less thinking, more doing.
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It reduces that decision fatigue.
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So many of us suffer from that decision fatigue.
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Like we just don't know what to do next.
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Because you don't have a system in place.
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And when you have that system, you don't have to remember every single step, every single tiny step.
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And when you can break free of that, it frees up your brain for creative strategic thinking.
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I also think it improves your consistency and quality.
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I just think that's part of what it does.
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By having a system, your tasks are done the same way every time.
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And in a business, that leads to predictability and high quality results.
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Here's another great benefit of systems.
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They reduce errors.
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See, when you've got a system, there's less room for mistakes.
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When you follow a checklist, that checklist becomes the way to double check the qa, if you will.
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And it also helps you enable delegation.
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When you have a system in place, you truly can hand off tasks to others without lengthy explanations or feeling like you gotta have just another meeting to go over something and you know it's going to be done right, because there's a system in place.
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It also provides a great deal of clarity because you know what needs to be done, you know when it needs to be done, and you know how it needs to be.
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A no more guessing games.
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And the Big One kind of alluded to this at the beginning.
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It provides peace.
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Why?
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Because it replaces that feeling of chaos with control.
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Hey, that's what we want to do.
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We want to move beyond chaos and get back into control of our business and back in control of our our lives.
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And it just gives you this overwhelming feeling of calmness because there's a system in place.
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It gives you back your time and it gives you back your peace of mind.
Speaker A
Well, let's talk about some of the most common areas where I think you can really put systems together to truly take your business to the next level.
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The first one.
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And I use this in my own practice.
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Client onboarding and client offboard.
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Hey, nobody wants to offboard clients.
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But guess what?
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If you're in business for any length of time, it's going to happen.
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So let's start talking about that chaos in the onboarding and offboarding process.
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Think about it yourself.
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Your, your new client signs up.
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You're, you're so excited.
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Hey, I got a new customer.
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Maybe you were really working hard to get that.
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But then you're scrambling to send them the right forms.
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You're trying to figure out what accounts to set up, you're trying to explain the next steps.
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That's just chaos right at the beginning.
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So how do we break that?
Speaker A
Well, we create a checklist for every step from client signing to first deliverable.
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You have a plan in place, you're intentional about it, and built into that is a welcome email, maybe some scheduling tool, some resource sharing.
Speaker A
Let me give an example.
Speaker A
When I have a new coaching client, join me and if you're interested, I do coaching.
Speaker A
If you're interested in finding more, go right to the show notes or you can, you can go right to the website gritandgrowthbusiness.com and book a call with me right at the top.
Speaker A
We'll do a 15 minute discovery call.
Speaker A
But anyway, let me get back to what I was talking about.
Speaker A
So when I onboard a new coaching client, I've already got a pre written welcome email sequence.
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I'm going to bring them on.
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I'm going to talk about all the things that I do.
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I've got a shared folder template and I got a clear getting started guide that goes out automatically.
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See, there's a system in place.
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I worked really hard to get that person on board to do some business coaching to show them how to take their business to the next level.
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The worst possible thing I can do.
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Hey, if I'm trying to sell them a product that helps them be more efficient, I've got to show that efficiency myself.
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And in the end, that program saves me hours and makes that new client feel instantly valued.
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Hey, Ralph's got this whole thing in place.
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Wow.
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I just signed up today.
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I've already gotten this email.
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I've got a how to get started guide.
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I've got all those things in place about how important that is for that onboarding process.
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Another area I think there's a great deal of room for is content creation and marketing.
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Think about the chaos for a second.
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You wake up asking, what should I post today?
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Hey, we did a show about this.
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A Couple weeks ago.
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There's no reason you can't plan that out.
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Or maybe like a lot of people, oh, wow, I got to get this out, Ralph.
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I said I had to post something today.
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You're just rushing to create a blog, last post at last minute blog or record something real quickly to put out on social media.
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But the problem with that, it ends up being mediocre because you haven't put any time into it.
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You haven't thought through the process.
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So one of the ways that you can find clarity is plan content, themes quarterly, map out your topics monthly, and then batch create those things weekly.
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There's great templates out there for social media posts, for blog outlines, but again, it comes down to being intentional and planning those things out.
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Like, for example, this very podcast.
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I've got a system in place.
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I've got a theme for the month.
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Then I break it down into weekly episode topics.
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Then I do an outline.
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Hey, then I'm right in front of you.
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Recording.
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By doing that, it keeps me consistent and it reduces that last minute stress.
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I'm not fumbling when I sit down at the microphone here and say, hey, what am I going to talk about today?
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That wouldn't be beneficial for either one of us.
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So that's where these systems come into place.
Speaker A
Hey, as an accountant, the next one is huge for me.
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And that's financial management.
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This is things like invoicing and bill pay and bookkeeping.
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See, because absent this, you live in this chaos.
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You, you send invoices late, the bills pile up, Tax season is a nightmare.
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Trust me, I'm on the other side of desk with that.
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People come to me.
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You laugh about this, but it's the truth.
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I've got clients coming with shoeboxes just full of receipts.
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That's a nightmare.
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And it's, it's completely preventable.
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It's absolute chaos.
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And here's the thing, if you think that's chaos, this business owner has no idea what's going on with their business throughout the year.
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They're just, they're just scraping at that last minute right before the tax deadline.
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Oh, Ralph, I got all these receipts.
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What do we do?
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So in order to break that chaos, one of the things that I recommend all the time to my clients is schedule dedicated times for invoicing.
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Maybe it's a Friday afternoon or a Friday morning thing.
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Another thing.
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And a lot of clients are hesitant when I tell them to do this, but automate bill payments, hey, the worst possible thing you can do is start getting behind on your bills.
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You can automate that.
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And another big takeaway is use accounting software to track expenses daily, weekly, right at the point of when they happen.
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I don't know how many times I've worked with clients, their stuff was complete chaos and they onboarded with us.
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And just after a couple of days, yes, a couple of days, they'll say to me, ralph, I don't know how I ever got by without you.
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I don't have I ever got by without this tracking mechanism.
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Man, I know exactly where my things are.
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I remember when I first started my practice, I used to dread invoicing.
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I hated doing this.
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But now I have a set schedule.
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It's done the same day every month and it's just, it's just set it and forget it.
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Everything gets sent out on time and my mind is clear for the, for the weekend.
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After that it gets out there, it gets into the client's hands.
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Because here's the truth.
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If you're not sending your invoices, your customers aren't going to pay you because they don't know to pay you.
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Here's another one.
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I'll tell you what, this is an area where I think a lot of small business owners could really find a way to break that chaos.
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And that's the email management.
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Hey, it's like the bane of our existence anymore.
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I open up my inbox and it's like a black hole.
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Somebody will say, hey, did you get that email?
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Immense.
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How many?
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Hundreds others Now I've got a system in place to beat that.
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But for most people, they've got one email account and it just piles up and piles up.
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And the problem with that is there's no differentiation.
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The important emails just get lost in the shovel with everything else.
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And then when you finally sit down to start looking at these things, you're overwhelmed by the notifications.
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Ding, ding, all day long.
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That is such a distraction from your work.
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Hey, one of the ways I think can really beat this is what I'm going to call the two minute rule.
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And just get a timer, simple timer work.
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Put it on your desk, set it for two minutes and then set specific times to check your email and only dedicate two minutes to it because you can get lost in that.
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It's kind of like that death scroll on social media.
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But then I'm going to encourage you.
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Take your email, whatever email client you're using, set up folders, set up labels, set up autoresponders for common queries.
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Hey, listen, unsubscribe to stuff you don't need to see, see, I have this one touch rule and it works like this for me.
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If an email takes less than two minutes, I deal with it immediately.
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I don't look at it and say, yeah, I'll get back to that later.
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Hey.
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I try to touch every single thing.
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When I one time or I put it into a folder and say, hey, this is flagged for my dedicated email hour later in the day.
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Because I also carved out time to handle those things at the end of the day.
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And for me and for a lot of other small business people, it transformed my inbox from this monster.
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And it was a hairy beast of a monster, just constantly filling up with more garbage.
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But I was able to transform that from a monster to a tool.
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Here's another one that I think we really need to focus in on and that's meeting preparation and follow up.
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I don't know.
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I just had a meeting with a person the other day.
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Here's a great example of this.
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Somebody was trying to sell me some services.
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We had the meeting scheduled several days in advance.
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I get to the meeting, this person is completely unprepared.
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They didn't have any discussion points.
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They're like, raph, what do you want to talk about?
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I'm like, you're the one trying to sell me something.
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There was no clear action.
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There was no clear, no plan, there was no preparation.
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That's complete chaos.
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And we got to the end of meeting, I said to him, what's the next steps?
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He goes, I got to think about that again.
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You're trying to sell me professional services and you got to think about it.
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That's insanity.
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How do you get past that?
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I got a great idea for you.
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Create a simple template for meeting agendas.
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If you're routinely doing meetings have an agenda.
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Listen, I do a staff meeting with, there's just three of us in my office.
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But every week in our staff meeting, we have an agenda.
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We have discussion points.
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We talk about where projects stand.
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I also have a system for capturing notes and signing action items immediately after the meeting.
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In my particular case, I take AI notes.
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Those AI notes get compiled.
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They get sent to my secretary.
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My secretary then reads through them.
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She sets up to do items.
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She sets up follow up items.
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She follows up on all those things.
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I'll give you an ex a great example of this.
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Even for quick calls, I do a 15 minute discovery call.
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And like I said at the beginning, if you're interested in getting on a call with me to tell so I can tell you how to take your business to the next level, just go to gritandgrowthbusiness.com and right at the top, book a call with Ralph.
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But anyway, so even for those quick calls, I got a tiny checklist that I put right in front of me when I go to make that call.
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Starts off with something simple.
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What's the goal?
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What's the goal of the call?
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What's my one or two key messages I want to convey?
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And at the end, what are the next steps?
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And if you put that in front of you, if you have that as a cue card in front of you, it keeps the conversation focused and you keep from rambling on.
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That's one of the most annoying things that I've.
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Listen, I've been doing this for a long time, been in a lot of meetings.
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I get so frustrated.
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You're probably thinking, I agree with you on this one.
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I get so frustrating when there's, when there's no program, when there's no protocol, there's no agenda because things just spiral out of control.
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There's nobody to take the reins and there's no follow up.
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There's.
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There's no way to keep that conversation focused.
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So I've given you some great ideas, but now I want to talk about how to start systemizing these actionable steps.
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Because I bet right now you're probably like, Ralph, man, you, you hit, you nailed it.
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A bunch of those.
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I'm sitting here, Ralph, I'm, I'm nodding my head right now.
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Maybe you're feeling a little exposed too, like, wow, I never thought about it like that, man.
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I waste a lot of time doing that.
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But I'm hoping you also felt this spark of hope because guess what, you're in the right place.
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And it's time to stop letting chaos run your life.
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Stop living in that chaotic putting fires out situation.
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The minute your feet hit the floor in the morning, morning, it's time to start building the clarity and the control you deserve.
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So here are some concrete actionable steps that you can take today, this week, to begin systemizing your business and your life.
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First thing you're going to do, big hairy, audacious goal for this week is identify your biggest pain point.
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I want to encourage you to start small with this.
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You don't want.
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Hey, I hate everything about my business, Ralph.
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That's my biggest pain point.
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No, that's not what I'm talking about.
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You cannot try to systemize everything at once.
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That right there, you talk about a recipe.
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That'll be a recipe for overwhelm.
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Let's start Small.
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Ask yourself this and really think about this.
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Be honest.
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What task or area in my business or my life causes me the most frustration, the most stress or the most wasted time?
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Repeatedly, because all those things are important.
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Frustration, stress, wasted time.
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Is it client inquiries, Ralph?
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I feel like I can't get anything done because I'm always answering the calls from clients asking simple questions.
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But those simple questions, Ralph, they take me on tangents.
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I get distracted.
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I don't know what to do by the end of the day.
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That's one.
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How about those daily social media posts?
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You say, oh, you know, I made a commitment, I'm going to post on social media, which isn't a bad thing.
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I covered that last week.
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I've got some constructive things you can do about that.
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I would encourage you to check it out if you missed it.
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But maybe that becomes this sucking sound of frustration and stress because you haven't thought that through, you haven't planned it, or maybe you're one of those folks.
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Listen, I got a lot of small business clients, they just don't want to send out their invoices.
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I guess they don't want to sit down to do it.
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That's a, that's a point of stress for them.
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So as I said, just pick one thing, just one thing.
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And for me, like I said, for me it was always invoicing.
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That's where, that's where I wanted to start.
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So that's where I started.
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So that's the first thing.
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Pick that frustration point.
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Pick that thing that causes you frustration, stress or wasted time.
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Just one.
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And like I said, keep it small.
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You don't want that recipe for overwhelm.
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You don't want that cake that's overflowing the cake tin when you put it in the oven.
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And then the second part of this document, your current process.
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You know the how you do things, grab a notebook, open a Google Doc or even record yourself.
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Take, you know, talking yourself through it.
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I think that's a great idea.
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One of the things when I first started my career, and this is going to age me, right, it's going to tell you how old I really am.
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Used to have one of those tape recorders, they call it a micro recorder and had them them small little reel to reel cassettes.
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I say reel to re, but you know what I'm talking about little cassette tapes, they weren't the standard and some people listen probably what in the world, Ralph, is a cassette tape anyway, it's a little tape.
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So they had these micro recorders and I Used to keep that thing I carried around with me all the time.
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And as something came to mind, I would talk into it.
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Then at the end of the day, I kind of unwind.
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There's a lot of better things for that.
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Now there's a whole bunch of AI note takers, but you don't need to go that fancy.
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Just write it down.
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So document how you're doing things every single step.
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Step one, we do this.
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Step two, we do this.
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Step three, we do this.
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Every single piece that completes that one painful task.
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Don't skip anything, no matter how small it is, no matter how frustrating.
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It's like, I really hate that part.
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Ralph, write it all down.
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Because once you do that, you're going to see the inefficiencies and you're going to identify the missing steps.
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For example, talk about my invoicing again, it might be here.
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I'm going to invoice somebody.
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Open a spreadsheet, find the client, check their outstanding projects, pull the rates for those things, calculate the total, open the invoicing software, input the data, attach details.
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Now listen, I'm going through this long explanation.
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Some great systems out there to do it, but anyway, so I get to the point, I input the data, hit send, mark it is set in a spreadsheet, every tiny step.
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Now there's a lot of inefficiencies there, but just listen to me for now.
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Document it step by step.
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So once you've identified the thing, you've documented a thing, then we're going to talk about how to make it work.
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We're going to optimize and simplify.
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We're going to talk about that big why of it.
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I want you to look at your documented steps, every single step and ask yourself these questions.
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Can any step be eliminated?
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As I'm looking at this, I'm thinking, do I really need to do this?
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Is this really necessary?
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Then ask yourself this next step.
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Are there steps that can be combined together?
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Hey, you know what I notice?
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I do this, I do this.
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Oh, I can combine those two things and save myself some time.
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Hey, time waster.
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Perfect.
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Ask yourself, can any steps be automated?
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Maybe like I talked about there a few minutes ago, use software, use QuickBooks online.
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There's a whole bunch of systems that are already pre designed templates, all those kind of things.
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And ask yourself finally if you're going to be effective in business.
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One of the things, and it's been a struggle for me because I'm a control freak, that's what my wife says all the time.
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Ralph, you got to be in control of everything.
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But ask yourself, can any steps be delegated?
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Now, we'll talk in another show down the road about effective delegation, because you can may say, well, I'm going to delegate something if you don't know how to delegate it, right, Making a nightmare for yourself.
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But at the end, the goal is to make that step by step process lean, make it efficient, and honestly make it as simple as possible.
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So for example, maybe I can connect my project management tool directly to my invoicing software or use a preset template.
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See, those things will cut two manual steps right there.
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All right, so you've decided on the thing that's annoying you.
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You've stepped out the different pieces to it.
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You've looked for optimization and to simplify it.
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And now what you're going to do is create your own system.
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Create a new system.
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The what?
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So you flaunt.
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You made a lot of notes on the side of this, probably, but now I want you to just go back and write down that optimized step by step process.
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Clearly, if you want to be real effective, I think you make it a checklist or maybe a simple flow chart or even a bulleted list.
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Now look, that's part of it.
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But then put it somewhere where you can get to it.
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Make it easily accessible.
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Maybe Google Docs or Trello or some physical binder.
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Hey, when we first started our practice, we had a physical binder of.
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Okay, when this happens, go to the binder.
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Here's how you handle that.
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What is it?
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Think about it for a second.
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It's like my wife, my wife loves to cook.
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Well, she's got recipe books.
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It's the same thing for your business.
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You have a recipe for each of these tasks.
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That way, if you want to show somebody else how to do it.
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Oh, I got a recipe for that.
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Oh, you want to show, you want to show somebody else how to make it more?
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Oh, I got a recipe for that.
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And getting back to my invoicing system, it might be just three steps.
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Review open projects and software, auto generate the invoice, send and mark paid.
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It's done.
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So document the new process.
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And then finally, once you've documented it, I'm going to encourage you to do this last step.
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Test, refine and automate.
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Because listen, if you're in business, one of the things you've got to embrace, and a lot of business people don't understand this, they do it one time like, hey, I got this solved.
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No, that's not going to be effective.
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For long term business thriving.
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It's all about continuous improvement.
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So you've built this system.
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Use your new system for a week or two, or maybe three weeks, and then just do an audit of it.
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Ask yourself, does it work?
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Is this an easier process?
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Are there still pain points?
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Hey, if you just build a new system and you're like, ralph, this system is worse than the other one.
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Obviously you haven't solved any problems.
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There's still pain points.
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So tweak it.
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You don't just have to set it and forget it.
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These systems are living documents.
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They change, they evolve.
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Because, listen, the way we do business now is not the same way we did business a year ago, five years ago.
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And guess what?
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It's not going to be the same way we do business 5, 10, 15 years from now.
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And I'm going to encourage you while you're doing this, look for opportunities to introduce automation tools.
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Maybe calendar reminders, autoresponders.
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We use a product called Zapier.
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You can integrate it with a bunch of software and it lets things talk to each other again.
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If you're a small business person, you're looking for somebody to help you navigate those things.
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Book a call with me.
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The goal at the end is to take more off your plate.
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See, in my example, after a few tries, I realized I needed a step to follow up, if not pay within seven days.
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It was great that I was sending out those invoices.
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Yeah, I was making sure I was billing them, I was marketing sent.
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But hey, was anybody following up to see if they actually paid me?
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So what did I do?
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I added that to the system.
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Again, I'm using software that does that.
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But again, I've got a lot of clients out there using QuickBooks Online, and they never look at their accounts receivable report to see who owes them money.
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I said, well, do you realize this person owes your money?
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Well, I didn't get around to looking at that.
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You got to look at these systems, build the systems, check the systems, and then go back and refine them and make sure you haven't missed something.
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My friend, the relentless pursuit of hustle, that glorification of busyness, is a trap.
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Listen to me loud and clear.
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It's a trap.
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See, a lot of people just work.
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Oh, I'm gonna work really hard, Ralph.
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I'm gonna stay busy, you know, head down to the grindstone.
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But they're not getting anywhere.
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They're on that digital hamster wheel.
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They're busy, sure, but they're trapped in that.
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And when you're like that.
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It keeps you overwhelmed, it keeps you exhausted.
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You never get past that exhaustion.
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And often, many times, you stay stuck in the mire of where you are.
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But there's a better way.
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By embracing simple, smart systems, you're not just building a better business.
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And hear me on this one, it's not just a better business.
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You're building a better life.
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You're reclaiming your time.
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Hey, you only got so much time on this earth.
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You're reclaiming your energy.
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You only got so much energy in the day, too.
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And if you're exhausted, you're not going to.
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Your business isn't going to improve.
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And the big piece of takeaway, as you build these systems, you're building your peace of mind.
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See, this isn't about being rigid.
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Real good business owners are not rigid.
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They're flexible.
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But it is about becoming free and growing into freedom.
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When I started this show a couple weeks ago, I said one of the things I wanted to really nail was how to make your business serve you instead of you serving it relentlessly.
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And that's what we're talking about today, is how to transform your journey from this point of chaos.
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Listen, if you're listening right now, my guess is there's a lot of chaos going on.
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There's a lot of those pain points, a lot of things that are driving you absolutely crazy in your business.
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I meet with business owners every day.
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Chief complaint.
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Ralph, I really hate this business.
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They didn't start off that way.
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They started with a passion for it.
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But unfortunately, nine times out of 10, when I talk to those people, it's because their systems are lacking.
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Yeah, they hire employees to do stuff, but there's no system in place to show their employees how to do it.
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Yes, they're bringing on new customers, but there's no system in place to onboard those customers.
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Maybe they're losing a customer.
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And guess what?
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There's no system to offboard.
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I was meeting with a client a couple weeks ago, and he pays money for each of his clients.
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He buys some.
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Some compendium software, some.
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Some subscriptions he had to have.
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And I said to him, I said, hey, when's the last time you looked at that invoice?
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Oh, Ralph, that's a really good point.
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Well, guess what?
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He was paying for subscriptions for customers he's not had for two years.
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Why?
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Because there's no system in place for offboarding.
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See, the onboarding is just as important as the off boarding.
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But I really want to help you.
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So I've created a simple Systemization starter sheet for this episode.
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It's all part of those action plans.
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And this free downloadable sheet will guide you through identifying your biggest pain points.
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We talked about that.
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Today.
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I'm going to help you find those things.
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I'm going to help you document your current process and help you create your first optimized system.
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I'm going to give you a practical tool designed to give you that immediate win.
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Hey, listen, as a business owner, we love those wins.
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I want to give you that first taste of control and that first taste of breaking out of that chaos.
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And you can download it right now by visiting our website.
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That's@gritandgrowthbusiness.com action.
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Again, that's gritandgrowthbusiness.com action.
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Hey, I got another little bonus for you.
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You probably didn't know this.
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Once you go there, you can go see all of my action sheets from the previous episodes.
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But I really want to encourage you today to download that systemization starter sheet and start bringing order to your world today so that you can get out of bed tomorrow morning.
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Maybe it won't happen tomorrow.
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Within the next couple days, you don't feel like you're putting out fires.
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You're not living in that chaos.
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Listen, I want you to remember this.
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Your efforts are valuable, but you need to understand that your time is finite.
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Like I said a little while ago, you've only got so much time.
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I'm just going to encourage you today.
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Don't let endless tasks consume you, because they will consume you.
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They will eat you alive.
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You will end up down at being completely broke down and completely drained by your business.
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But there's a better path today.
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Choose clarity.
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Choose peace.
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Choose to work smarter.
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Because I know it.
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You've got the grit to build something amazing.
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Now build it with efficiency and build it with grace.
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Because you've got this.
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And I'm here walking alongside you every step of the way.
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I just want to thank you for joining me today on Grit and Growth Business.
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As always, I'm committed to bringing you honest conversations and practical strategies every single week to help you build your business the right way.
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Not the easy way, not the shortcut way.
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Not the way that you're constantly working and you feel like you're not getting anywhere.
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The right way.
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Now, next week, we're going to discuss a vital topic that underpins true financial freedom and true financial peace.
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Ready for this one?
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I'm calling it the Power of the Pause, Rest, Reflection and Re Engagement.
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We're going to explore why intentional rest.
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Listen, it's not a luxury, but it is a non negotiable strategy if you really want to live in your business and see long term success and have spiritual well being and and emotional well being.
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And listen, you want to save your relationships, you better tune in next week.
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And again, don't forget to download your free systemization starter sheet for this episode.
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Again, that's@gritandgrowthbusiness.com action.
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Now as I always end this show, intentions are great, but you got to put this stuff into action.
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So go put it into action.
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God bless you and you have a great week.
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RA.
