When you are on the cusp of scalability, CLARITY is essential.
Yesterday I conducted a three-hour onboarding session with my newest team member where I gave a detailed overview of my entire business, including live demos of the business eco-system and all the documentation to support it. I recorded it so she could just be with the information and not feel like she needed to take a bunch of notes.
It was exhausting. And wonderful. And perfectly timed for my rapidly-expanding business.
In our session, we reviewed all the details including:
Brand
Models
Avenues of income
Target market
Offers
Marketing plan
EOS-inspired strategic plan including my 10-year vision, 3-year milestone, 1-year goal, 2023 quarterly objectives, monthly company health, and weekly goals. All with numbers and priorities. Thanks, Gino Wickman, for Traction!
Business operational system, including over a dozen integrated modules hooking to the all-important Zoho CRM. Thanks SpeakerFlow!
Content development and productivity tools like Wix for website and blogging, Loom for video mail, Canva for design, and Talkadot for event survey.
We went through everything. All of it. Every last important nuance. From the 10-year vision down to the fields in the CRM that impact it, her constant smiles and nods showed me that she was very appreciative to have a clear picture of what my business was and how she fit into it. Not everybody does that. Most overwhelmed, unclear thought entrepreneurs (myself included many years ago) just throw spaghetti against the wall and hope it sticks.
This investment in onboarding isn’t just about carving out a few hours to give your new hires a “snapshot” of the business and hope they'll learn the processes and systems "on the job". (They won’t. At least to the degree that you want them to. And they won't know what your expectations are either.)
It’s about first doing the hard internal work of figuring out the whole dang thing. It's not enough to Crystallize Your Brilliance by creating a one-of-a-kind model; you also need to Crystallize Your BUSINESS if you want to have a lasting, sustainable, profitable practice.
My ability to have a smart, strategic, efficient, crystal clear onboarding session with a new team member was nine months in the making (OK, so maybe it doesn’t need to take that long — I did throw in a cross-country move in there too.) It took me that long to set up the foundation for my business, create the content and marketing copy to support it, integrate the systems, and do the oh-so-fun job of documenting it all to share with another. Only after all of that happened — hundreds of hours invested in getting clear, established, and implemented — am I able to confidently, competently bring others with me on the journey to scalability.
If you are a thought leader or transitioning executive who wants to use your expertise in speaking, coaching, retreats, or any other vehicle for your Brilliance, ask yourself if you have Crystallized Your BUSINESS as well. Are you crystal clear on the answers to all the questions above? Can you convey the same insights and priorities across your ENTIRE team in a consistent and comprehensive way? What are the metrics you're using? Do you intentionally manage your company's health from the 10-year view down to weekly progress? By doing so, you’ll finally have CLARITY around The Processes, The Systems, and The People you’ll need to scale your business in a joyful, easy way.
Crystallization Creates Contentment.
Ahhh… exhale.