Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Maximize Your Day podcast, a place for entrepreneurs who are building their business in pursuit of freedom and flexibility to do the things they love. I'm your host, Jessica Rosario. I'm a New Yorker turned Floridian who knows a thing or two on how to effectively manage your time while juggling multiple priorities. I'm an ex-corporate leader who walked away from my nine to five-ish to launch and grow my business. In this podcast, I share insights on mindset, business productivity, habits and strategies to help you take control of your to-do list and maximize your day, which will help you feel more confident and less overwhelmed and getting more done in less time. I'm so excited you're here. Go ahead, listen in. I am so excited you're here, go ahead, listen in. Hey guys, welcome back to the show.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 0:55

I am thrilled today to chat a little bit about optimizing your operations, and one of the things that I discovered in the last few months by running my Boss Mastery Group coaching program was that there's the thought of optimizing operations is overwhelming or it needs to be this huge thing, but the reality is that it's an opportunity to help business owners and entrepreneurs just to streamline their growth. That I've seen is that we tend to want to do what the industry or the market is doing, and the reality is that just because a specific process or a specific optimization or automation or workflow works for one person doesn't mean that it works for me, and so adapting ourselves to the things that we want to see in our business is critical. So this is why I take my clients to a process map. Understanding process mapping in my own business and how I want my clients to experience working with me is critical. The reality also is that in the event that this other person that we're comparing ourselves to has a whole team five, six people on their team, then clearly they have a lot more support when it comes to building processes and optimizing operations, whereas we, with a smaller team or a solopreneur, might not have those resources easily available. And so I wanted to chat with you guys a little bit on the importance of optimizing your operations just to help you streamline the growth in your business, and I want to focus on three specific areas. One is the cost of inefficiency. The second one is truly identifying the bottlenecks in your business which I hate to break it to you guys, but sometimes it's ourselves and then, lastly, is really creating efficient systems to help you grow your business and move forward.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 2:54

And so let's jump into number one, which is the cost of inefficiency. When it comes to looking at inefficiencies in our business, many times we don't realize that it's costing us more to do things a certain way. An example of this could be utilizing a free platform just because it has some great features, but if it's still consuming a lot of your time, that additional maybe $10, $12 a month that you're paying for a subscription just to help you automate processes in your business is so worth it. When you compare your time the time that you use in investing in trying to figure out a new platform or trying to create some processes that are manual we don't realize that there's some hidden cost in that and we don't see it in that moment, but we begin to resent the fact that it's taking us too long. We begin to resent the fact that we're not an expert in all the things. Just this morning, I had a coaching client that reached out to me and said I feel like I've hit a roadblock. I had a coaching client that reached out to me and said I feel like I've hit a roadblock, and that roadblock is because I can't get the automations and workflows inside of my landing page to work the way I want it to. Well, the reality is that that is not her expertise and so, accepting that, yes, of course you will hit a roadblock because of course this is not part of the services that you offer. And then understanding what is the value of my time to truly help me be more strategic when it comes to working my business, and also it also helps me in reducing costs and increasing revenue for my business overall. If I can invest in hiring someone that can build those processes and automations and workflows while I can be coaching or doing something else that are income producing activities for me, then I you will start to identify that there is huge cost in efficiency.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 5:05

Another thing also when it comes to cost of inefficiencies is time. Many times I'm working with a coaching client and they didn't get to do things in the time frame that they wanted to, and so my next question is always well, what did that cost you? I see that often also in over-commitments. So we over-committed in doing something. The people that we loved usually suffer from over-commitment, and so what is the cost of it? So we're not managing our time efficiently and effectively in order to be able to really drill down in the cost of inefficiency. And so, like I said, that can look different to different people, it could be in systems, it could be in software, it could be in time, but most importantly it's what are we doing with our time? How are we measuring costs and inefficiencies in our business?

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 6:00

And so the next one is identifying bottlenecks, and you'll be surprised that when you start to really drill down and brainstorm on what are the bottlenecks that I'm experiencing in my business there's no shame in that. I can proudly say that every single time I've identified a bottleneck, I've reached out to a member of my team and she's always bringing it back to me. Well, I told you so. I told you we could create this, and I think we can streamline that. And so it's helped me understand now that when I hit a roadblock, I don't get stuck there. I immediately start to figure out okay, what are the resources that I have available? What are some of the real life examples that I've been experiencing lately? That's perhaps slowing the process, that's leaving opportunities on the table and that's really unclear on moving forward. So, inside of my Boss Mastery program, I absolutely love to offer, like the step-by-step approach to really help you identify bottlenecks, and one is process mapping. I actually love process mapping and so I introduced some of my clients into process mapping recently and they were like, oh my gosh, where has this been all my life? Because the reality is that we tend to want to build processes because of the way other people are doing it, rather than truly sitting down and understanding your client journey and how you want your client to be able to experience again working with you.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 7:40

Another area of bottlenecks is monitoring your time and, guys, you guys know by now that I am a huge proponent for time blocking. The biggest challenge when it comes to monitoring our time is truly doing that self audit, and in the self audit you get to, it doesn't have to be, for, you know, a month. You just take the this upcoming week after you listen to this podcast episode, or even just do it for a day and audit where your time is going in specific chunks of your day. Have you ever finished a day feeling like, oh my gosh, I don't even know what I did today? I did so much that I just don't remember, and so part of that is really truly honing into your time so that you can understand what type of bottleneck is this creating when you either over even from your clients that you're taking through, perhaps your coaching experience, or someone that you just booked recently into your program, are you asking them for feedback in order to see the full picture what worked, what didn't and what can you do better. And so that's the beauty of a debrief, but it's also the beauty of gathering feedback from others, because many times when we are in the process, we cannot see the process, and so it makes it difficult for us to continue to build more efficiencies if we don't gather feedback.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 9:18

And then our last one is all about creating efficient systems. I will tell you, guys, this is a struggle for a lot of startup entrepreneurs. I work with clients and they want to use the latest gadgets and the latest software and the latest systems, and I'll be honest with you the best efficient system is the one that works for you. I had a client recently who shared with me she was really trying to learn all about a project management tool, and she just had the biggest technological hang up. She went up, went on her dry erase board, created a Kanban board where she had certain categories of to do in progress pending and completed, and that was all that was at four columns, and you'll be surprised what that did for her efficiency. It really helped her look at her business from a more strategic view and not get so bogged down in trying to learn a system.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 10:18

Another client didn't have a calendar link. She thought it was impersonal, but in that impersonal process she kept leaving money on the table and missing out on opportunities, because now she's going back and forth with too many options or limited options for booking a time. And when she started to find that she wanted to set some reminders for her clients that she wasn't doing currently in her business and eliminating or reducing some of the no-shows, she invested in one of the calendar platforms and it wasn't that expensive for her to do. She creates some automations and all of a sudden, voila, all of her calendars are syncing, she's not overbooking, she's not underbooking and everything was working seamlessly. And so that's why process mapping as I shared A moment ago in identifying bottlenecks process mapping is really important because that will help you see the gaps inside of your business, which leads you to creating efficient systems.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 11:22

A recommendation I have for you guys when it comes to identifying areas in your business that you can improve. The top two that come up often are your client onboarding experience and your marketing systems. Take a look at those two areas. You don't have to do anything too elaborate, but if you take a look at those two areas, on identifying that client onboarding, what is that process? What are they feeling from the moment they book the call to the moment they arrive at that call, and what is the process after that call? And just take them through that journey so that you can identify if there are any inefficiencies inside of your business. And then, on marketing systems, what are some things that you can do to automate your social media content? Are you repurposing your content or are you constantly in content creation? What systems are you using to keep your graphics in a container? Are you reusing some of the graphics? Are you in a great branding style type of messaging when it comes to social media and your social platforms, or are you posting nilly willy Right? So those two are the main areas that I always encourage my clients to start with, take a look at your client onboarding and then also take a look at your marketing systems, and so that is the main focus of my Boss Mastery program.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 12:49

So, as I wrap up today, I wanted to remind you that operational efficiency isn't a one-time fix. We don't just arrive, we don't just become. We are constantly in a process of reviewing and ensuring that our things are working efficiently, without bottlenecks, and seamlessly to the people that we serve. Without bottlenecks and seamlessly to the people that we serve. You can make small improvements when it comes to identifying your operational efficiency. I love taking the participants inside of my Boss Mastery program through truly optimizing their operations, their client experience and their marketing system, in order for them to feel like they are running their business like a boss, and so, with that, I cannot wait to continue to share with you guys what have been some of the other aha moments that have come up in the Boss Mastery Program, because the reality is that all of these areas that I shared on understanding the cost of inefficiency and identifying your bottlenecks and creating efficient systems are just three ways that you can start to taking a look at your business from a different angle.

Jessica Rosario, Executive Coach: 14:07

So, with that said, I'd love to hear your thoughts. If any of this resonated with you, please take a screenshot. Tag me on social media. I can't wait to hear how this episode has helped you optimize your operations, as always. Thank you so much for listening in. Don't forget to subscribe to the show to be notified the second a new episode is released and share with your friends who believe could benefit from listening. Or, even better, just post a screenshot of the episode in your stories and tag me on Instagram or Facebook. I would love to hear your feedback, answer questions, and I'm always open to your topic suggestions, so you never know if your topic will be next. So then, until next time, go ahead, maximize your day and own it.