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EP367 Your Business Can't Run Without You? Here's What's Missing · Profit With A Plan

• 0:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Your business may have a team, systems, and plenty of growth, but if everyone still comes back to you for answers, approvals, or corrections, you may not have built a business that can truly operate without you.
• 0:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The problem is not always, do you need more SOPs? Sometimes, the real issue is that too much of how the business works still lives in your head, and too many decisions still flow through you.
• 0:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: On this episode of Profit with a Plan, we're talking about how to spot where your business is still overly dependent on you.
• 0:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Why documentation alone does not solve the problem, and what has to happen before your team can confidently make decisions and keep the work moving without you in the middle.
• 0:56
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Because growth shouldn't give you more capacity, or should give you more capacity, not just more people who need your attention.
• 1:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey, entrepreneurs. Are you working for too little profit? Well, welcome to Profit with a Plan podcast, the podcast where we help business owners grow smarter, increase profitability, and build a company that's worth more, whether you plan to keep it or sell it.
• 1:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I'm Marcia Riner, business growth strategist and the profit booster behind Infinite Profit.
• 1:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Each week, I bring practical strategies, expert insights, and real-world steps to help you grow revenue, improve margins, and build a stronger business.
• 1:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Today's episode is brought to you by Infinite Profit, where strategy turns into profitable growth.
• 1:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But before we jump in, I have something special for you.
• 1:46
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If your business is just doing okay, but you know it could be growing faster or producing more profit, now's the time to grab your free Profit Booster Growth Map. In just a couple of minutes, you'll uncover what may be holding your growth back.
• 2:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Where that profit may be slipping away, and your best opportunities, where those are to make more from your business that you've already built.
• 2:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So go grab it after the show at ProfitBooster.biz. It's quick, it's easy, and there's no sales call required.
• 2:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: All right, let's get on with today's conversation. Joining me today is Dr. Rhonda L. Simmons, a leadership formation advisor, executive consultant, keynote speaker, and an author with more than 30 years of leadership experience.
• 2:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: She is the creator of the Leadership Authority Architecture, and helps leaders build stronger teams, make better decisions, and create organizations that are less dependent on the one person that seems to be holding everything together.
• 2:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: She's also the author of My Team is Growing Because I Lead Them.
• 2:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Dr. Rhonda, welcome to Profit with a Plan podcast.
• 2:59
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Thank you so much for having me on your show today, Marcia. Glad to be here.
• 3:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Me too! I'm excited for this. We become, we become friends, so quickly on here, so I'm glad to have this conversation and show the audience, some different ideas on leadership and the ways to make it simpler, because
• 3:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: We're crazy when it comes to business, especially us entrepreneurs type like we carry too much load on our back, and I think it's time to start shedding that, especially as we get ready to close out the year and build something great for for next year. I can't believe it's
• 3:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Already.
• 3:35
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yeah, here we are, here we are. No.
• 3:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: No kidding, no kidding. So how did you get into leadership? I know that that's something that you know. People don't usually come out and go yes.
• 3:49
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Well, without sounding.
• 3:53
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: I guess I would say braggadocious. That's the first word that came to my mind.
• 3:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's a good one.
• 3:58
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: I really believe I was born to lead. As I look back over my life, even from childhood, everything I got involved with.
• 4:08
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: It just the leader in me just emerged. And for example, when I started teaching, I knew from day one I wanted to be a principal. That was the plan. There was no confusion. I wasn't haggling over the decision. It just comes naturally to me.
• 4:28
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And so what I did not anticipate was all of the learning along the way.
• 4:36
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: to get me to being in leadership roles, not only in education, in ministry, in business, and because I have such a diverse background between, entrepreneurship, and I also founded a nonprofit, and ministry, and education.
• 4:57
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: I get to see the through line.
• 4:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: between…
• 5:00
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And so even though they sound very isolated, very different, for me as a leader in all of those roles, I began to see similarities in how the same principles and concepts and constructs exist.
• 5:15
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: applied in all the areas. And so that's how I started developing kind of at an accelerated pace because I was able to take what I learned in ministry.
• 5:25
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: apply it in education. And no, that doesn't mean I went on my campus and started preaching, but it taught me how to be sensitive to people.
• 5:36
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: It taught me how to
• 5:38
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Denise R. say the same message in different ways, because everyone's personality is different. And so I can't always barrel over the shy person in on my team.
• 5:52
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: But I still need to say what needs to be said, and so, ministry helped me, with my language and my communication skills and being able to reach different people with the same message in different ways.
• 6:07
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And education taught me how, to differentiate my instruction, you know.
• 6:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 6:15
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Because not everyone learns the same. And so when I moved over into entrepreneurship and with my nonprofit and I started working with a team, I began to see that same pattern. You know, not all members of my team are grasping it the same way.
• 6:34
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: How many different ways can I say the same thing, not, you know, from a place of sarcasm or arrogance, but…
• 6:42
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: as a way to communicate better, so that everyone walks away with a clear understanding. And so, that's the through line that I started seeing in my own leadership, and I began to realize.
• 6:56
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: That is my responsibility as a leader to grow my team no matter what role I'm in, what circumstance I'm in. That's why my book is called Is My Team Growing? Because I lead them.
• 7:09
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Not are they doing it themselves, but am I having the impact that I think I am on my team's growth and development because that responsibility rests with me.
• 7:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Wow.
• 7:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, it is so true that so many people have different learning styles and communication styles, and when we are leading.
• 7:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: we have to be able to bridge that gap between you and me, and not only you and me, but maybe even teaching them how to have that bridge, that gap between each other, right? And, I love that communications is such a…
• 7:46
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: an essential part of leadership, and it's often overlooked, because
• 7:52
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: the previous generation ahead of us, or ahead of us, behind us, the ones that came before us, right? I mean, they were in a, it's my way or the highway, you just do it, right? You know? And now we're in this environment in this day and time where we have to be conscious, we have to be careful, we have to be
• 8:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: supportive. We have to be all these things. And that's there's another 57 hats that you have to wear as a leader and not just a business owner on top of that. So interesting.
• 8:20
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, Marcia, I was just talking about this example on my own show the other day, and I remembered an experience I had with my eighth grade advanced algebra teacher.
• 8:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: When you were in school, or when you were running as a principal?
• 8:40
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Good question. When I was in school, when I was in eighth grade. Yeah, good question. And just to give you a picture, I'm 5'9", and I've been that height since I was 14. And my teacher was about 5 foot, if that.
• 8:56
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And so I'm literally looking down on him, exactly, and
• 9:01
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And he had taught something and math was never my thing.
• 9:06
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And I had questions and I asked him why he taught something and I asked him why.
• 9:13
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Well, you talk about previous generations. He looked up at me, looked me dead in the eyes, and he said, yours is not to reason why yours is, but to do or die. Yeah.
• 9:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, get out!
• 9:25
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: That is what he said to me. And two takeaways I have from that experience. Did it help me learn the concept? Of course not. I still had questions. His response did not answer my question. But the second takeaway is that.
• 9:41
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: I'm still talking about that incident decades later.
• 9:45
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: It impacted me.
• 9:47
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And so that is why communication, whether good or bad, is so important because you are impacting the people that you're listening to. And it didn't work, you know, the whole threatening.
• 10:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know that could have had two ways to it. You could have gone and sat in the corner and went oh my gosh, I'm going to keep my mouth shut for the rest of my life. Or you could go oh heck, no, here we go. Yes.
• 10:14
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yes, absolutely.
• 10:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's my answer, mister. Absolutely.
• 10:17
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Absolutely. And I have no idea who heard that exchange around me.
• 10:21
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Who also might have decided, you know what, if he said that to her, I'm going to shut down. I'm not safe to ask questions. And as leaders, we have to create a culture where people can respectfully ask questions.
• 10:37
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You know, if they don't understand, and what we may find is that their questions will reveal some gaps.
• 10:44
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: in our communication, some gaps in our instructions, some perspectives we have not considered, you know, because if they're having these questions, there's a reason why, and especially if more than one person has the same question. That's speaking volumes, not about them, about me.
• 11:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes.
• 11:04
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: When I talk about leadership behind the scenes, I'm talking about putting up a mirror so that you can see yourself. We can get the job, the title, the office, the paycheck, and the staff.
• 11:17
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: But if we have not created the formation architecture within us, then we're not going to be an effective leader, at least in the way that we think.
• 11:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: No. Very, very insightful, and I'm thinking this is… this is really, truly what leaders have to understand when they're here. Whether you're speaking to your kids, your spouse, your clients.
• 11:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And your team members, right? I mean, this communications, skill has to be across many levels, and I think the better we can learn to communicate, and today's generation cannot. I mean, my kids, they were… had their nose in the computer the whole time. They don't know how to communicate.
• 12:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I don't know how many times I've told my son, if I heard you talking to me like that, I'd kick your behind, right?
• 12:07
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Okay.
• 12:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, it's like, that's not the way you talk to people, and I think that, you know, the generation, the younger generation that's going on right now really could use these kind of skills.
• 12:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So let's, let's talk a little bit about business.
• 12:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, we're talking a little bit about
• 12:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: the business owner kind of keeping everything up in their head, and how can we tell if, as business owners, the difference between having that growing company and simply having a bigger company that still depends on me for everything? Where's that fine line?
• 12:44
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Interestingly enough, that fine line is really about communication.
• 12:50
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Like we've been talking about because as a leader.
• 12:55
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You know, if we're not careful, we will take the fact that we are the leader and we'll be doling out assignments and tasks and all that good stuff.
• 13:07
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And walk away thinking it'll get done.
• 13:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: -
• 13:12
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Exactly. Did you…
• 13:15
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Define for your team, what does success look like? How will they know they've got it right?
• 13:22
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You know, you'll hear me talk a lot about my experience as an educator, and when I was a teacher, especially my favorite grade to teach was 8th grade, and I taught English language arts, I taught my students
• 13:35
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: how to self-assess themselves through rubrics. And I taught them how to read the rubric and what it all meant. And, you know, the first time I taught it to them, it was a hard pull, until I said this to them.
• 13:51
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: I am telling you, before we start this project.
• 13:55
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: What my expectations are, and you get to pick what grade you're going to get.
• 14:03
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You get to see.
• 14:06
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Where is my grade going to fall? Because I'm telling you everything that you need to do in order to get an A. Now, I'm not going to teach you how to fail, but I'm telling you, if you hit all of these criteria in this A column, you will get an A.
• 14:24
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And I'm telling you upfront. And you know, you might think, well, that's a middle school thing. That's fine. I had so many of them email me once they got to high school saying, oh my God, Ms. Simmons, I'm so glad you taught us that because we're faced with rubrics all the time.
• 14:39
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And so transfer that into business and to corporate. When you tell them ahead of time, this is what success looks like.
• 14:47
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Now they know what to do!
• 14:50
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And now that… well, they know what the end result should be.
• 14:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: endings.
• 14:56
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And assess themselves, does mine look like hers?
• 15:00
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: No, before I even give it to her, you know, I, I gotta make this right. And so that gives them the power back.
• 15:09
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: to self-correct.
• 15:11
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: without you having to have that one-on-one conversation, and they're feeling like it's a gotcha. You know, there are so many things a leader can do before you get to the gotcha conversation, you know, and if I were in HR, I'd want to know what are all the things that you have done to help this person be successful.
• 15:31
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: What was your level of communication? And so.
• 15:34
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: As a leader, especially if we've been doing it a long time, we've got these strategies and these steps in our head that are as natural as breathing.
• 15:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We've got a thing in our head. I wouldn't call them steps and standards and everything. It's usually just this kind of like natural remote thing that happens. Kind of like you don't think about how to brush your teeth, you just brush your teeth. Right.
• 15:59
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Right.
• 16:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: There's a huge difference.
• 16:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: in what's going on, and stuck in the business owner's head, and that expectation of just figure it out and do it, right? Rather than going, okay, let me think about how I would like to see this back, this document or this project back, or how would I like my
• 16:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: my team to speak to the customers, right? You know, I think there is still a really big difference from the today's business owner and what's in their head.
• 16:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And those expectations that are hardly communicated.
• 16:34
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yes, and that's why I call it the undocumented organization.
• 16:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: laughter.
• 16:40
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yeah, because it's not that we're without plans, it's that nothing is written down. So, how does a new hire get to know how we do things around here? There's nothing written down. You have not set the person up for success.
• 16:58
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And so you're walking around with all this knowledge and all of this wisdom, and nobody knows it but you.
• 17:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly.
• 17:06
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: What if you're called away? Let's keep it on the lighter side. What if you're called away to a conference out of country and you can't be contacted? Should the work stop?
• 17:16
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Should business stop?
• 17:18
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: No, we're expecting revenue every day.
• 17:22
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Well, I think…
• 17:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I think there's… that's a really good point, but I think there's something even more. And it's funny, I wrote about it in a blog I wrote, just this week, and it was talking about the… the… the tax of… of, you know, making mistakes, or whatever it is, but I… I'm thinking along the lines that if…
• 17:42
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If I don't have my… business documented, right? My procedures. This is how I want
• 17:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: the customer experience to be. This is how I want the delivery of the product or the service to be. This is how I want to read my financials each month when the accounting team delivers it to me. If I don't have that in some sort of
• 18:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: system that's standardized.
• 18:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: then I'm wasting a whole lot of money because they're trying to do it their way. And if John does it his way, and Sue does it her way, and Bob does it his way.
• 18:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: They're not the same ways, and therefore the customer's getting three different experiences. I'm getting three different reports that still didn't tell me what I wanted to know, right? Absolutely. I mean, there's, there's numerous examples we can give when the employee does it their way and not doing it my way, or even better our way, right?
• 18:42
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Absolutely.
• 18:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That we found a combination. And I think that's terrible, but it, it, that I see more.
• 18:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: than the fully documented or undocumented, I just see… I see messes.
• 18:55
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Well, I tell you, you have nailed it on the head with that. It's just a mess, or as I like to call it, a hot mess.
• 19:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, it's hot. It's steamy and going. Yeah.
• 19:07
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yes, yes, yes, and so it's so important that
• 19:13
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: We don't assume people know what's in our brains. Here's what happens when you document a process.
• 19:21
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Not only are you documenting the steps.
• 19:25
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: But you're helping your team understand you better as a leader.
• 19:30
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You're helping your team know how you think, or as we said in education, you're making your thinking visible.
• 19:39
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And so they get to know the real you and what your expectations are. And so that is the power of documenting it. And in this day and age, there is no excuse. I'm sorry, I'm not going to.
• 19:53
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Be soft on that one. There is no excuse to creating documentation. You know, put AI to use. That's what I mean.
• 20:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I was gonna say it's so easy in today's time that you can say, one of my guests a couple of years ago said this, and I just loved it.
• 20:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I think I know what the process is, but I haven't done it or set it up in years, right? And I've got team members that are doing it.
• 20:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Pay your team member an hour on a Friday afternoon to document their process.
• 20:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And they're gonna tell you what they're doing, and you go, oh, that's good. Or, oh, what if we did this and this, right? And then you had this collaborative thing that they're owning, rather than dreading doing because, you know, it's learning a new system or process, which is a whole other can of worms.
• 20:43
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Well, you got me so excited right there if I can just add on to what you just shared because when I created my one SOP starter, the exciting thing about it is it takes one part of your job, not every single thing. You take one process that you do.
• 21:02
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And, you work with AI just answering questions.
• 21:06
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: At the end of it, not only will it produce.
• 21:11
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: a full SOP, Standard Operating Procedures, document for you, but here's where it takes
• 21:19
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: the takes it to the next level. Your job then is to hand that SOP to one of your team members.
• 21:29
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And tell them, okay, this Friday, we are exchanging SOPs.
• 21:35
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You know, where everybody has created their own SOP for how they do their jobs, and then they exchange the SOPs, including yours, and you get to be that person for the day. You cannot ask the person any questions. You cannot ask for clarification.
• 21:52
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: work the SOP, and that will help us see, hey, this worked really well.
• 21:59
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: I think this would have worked better if this one extra step could have been there. It'll help you see where the gaps are, where the wins are, because a lot of times, because it's in our head, it's running so smoothly, we got this down pat, it's like muscle memory.
• 22:17
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yes. But when you hand it to someone who does not know your job and what you've been doing, and basically it's up to how well they can read and understand what you wrote.
• 22:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly!
• 22:30
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: That changes everything.
• 22:31
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Completely, and if you think about it.
• 22:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If you did this, obviously we're talking about from the leadership down kind of role, but if you're asking your team members to give you an SOP.
• 22:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: they're going through the same thing, right? They could use these skills of going, how detailed did I make that? Because it is… I'm brushing my teeth every day doing what I do, because it's… it's muscle memory, rather than, did I really think and… and see every step in there when you give it to somebody else? Or…
• 23:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Two, where are the gaps that we can improve, right? When we're looking about profitability, how can we innovate our existing processes
• 23:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: to make sure that I could do it faster, cheaper, better, you know, less, you know, less time, you know, what can I do to improve that? And you can't do it if it's up here.
• 23:29
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, people move on. People change jobs. They get promoted. They leave. And let me tell you something. When I left my job as a school principal.
• 23:44
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: I was replaced, much to my shock. I thought, you know, I didn't think I was irreplaceable. I did not think I was irreplaceable, but I was replaced in two hours.
• 23:57
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Literally. So don't think that you've got the market cornered on your job. You know, don't think that. Because the bottom line is for every business, no matter what it is, the show must go on.
• 24:11
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You know, and if we have our processes documented and standard operating procedures.
• 24:18
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Then it can, you know, we just hand it on to the next person and I'm not saying that our team members are not valued and, and that we don't appreciate that, appreciate them, I'm not saying that at all, I'm just saying that when life happens and it will.
• 24:34
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: We can keep going.
• 24:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: have.
• 24:36
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: To keep going and so I believe that one of the greatest legacies.
• 24:42
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: For a leader is to be able to duplicate himself.
• 24:49
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You may not always do things the way I do them, but if we can arrive at the same goal, at the same endpoint, and work together to tweak the process as we go along, then, you know, your success is my success.
• 25:06
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Exactly. And so I feel that that is such a missing link in leadership today because everyone's looking at the bottom line. No one wants to be in the red. People have been, you know, companies have been ramping up for Black Friday all year.
• 25:20
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You know, and here we are, just weeks away, you know, everyone's looking at the numbers. Okay, have we looked at the process?
• 25:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly.
• 25:29
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Do we have this down pat? Does everyone know what needs to be done? When, where, and how, and by whom? And there's one more thing.
• 25:38
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: I get it so excited and passionate about this Marcia there's one more thing with the SOPs
• 25:45
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yes, I can give you an assignment. I can tell you exactly what needs to be done, step by step by step.
• 25:52
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: But if the leader does not transfer the authority that goes along with it.
• 25:59
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Then, all you have is a worker bee, and a drone.
• 26:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes.
• 26:04
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Questions are still rolling back on you, and you can't get your job done for trying to answer questions that they could have been empowered to answer themselves.
• 26:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I was just gonna ask that question about making decisions, right? Where… when you've got that standard operating procedure, and you've got the execution on there, if you give them authority to make decisions at a certain level, right? Not CEO-level decisions, but…
• 26:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: yes, I'll refund their money because we made the mistake without having to go ask me, can I refund Dr. Rhonda her money, right? Then those are things that get the business owner out of the… the…
• 26:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The…
• 26:49
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: the.
• 26:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: What is it? The grind and the funnel, the blockage, the track, right? My word went away, so it was sad. It was a good word, but it went away.
• 27:01
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So how does the business owner start to give up that authority, that decision level? Are there any things, that they can think on, or, like, what's the first move on that?
• 27:13
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yes, they need to…
• 27:16
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Specifically articulate what that authority is, what are the boundaries, like you said in your example, yes, you are authorized to give a refund.
• 27:30
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Okay, does that mean up to $10,000 or up to $100?
• 27:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Ha ha ha.
• 27:36
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Huge difference. Yeah.
• 27:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Rinse.
• 27:38
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yeah, and so you need to articulate the boundaries of the authority, how far can they go before seeking higher, I want to say higher advice.
• 27:52
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: They… the leader also… needs to articulate
• 27:58
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: when there's a risk situation? Is this just a matter of, oh, she wants her money back, or is there a compliance issue involved?
• 28:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right.
• 28:10
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: You know, are there legalities involved? And give specific examples of what that would look like so that they'll know, okay, this is a different example. For example, I tell you.
• 28:23
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: In your scenario about the refund, the person who made the original purchase unfortunately has passed away, and you're on the phone with
• 28:33
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: a person who identifies themselves as their spouse. You have no way of knowing. You obviously can't refund the original purchaser. Where does that money go? Well, that's a boundary that needs a higher authority.
• 28:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, you're setting and if you don't walk through a typical example of how you the leader would make those decisions.
• 28:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And teach your team how the decisions I would normally make, and here's the process I would go through.
• 29:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Then they're not going to be able to make them, but if you do do that.
• 29:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you're also again finding opportunities and gaps to improve your situation and make sure that you're giving your team that authority in the right level. I think that that's really important, because that's I mean, how often do you think? Oh, my gosh! You know.
• 29:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Mrs. Smith passed away, and Mr. Smith's asking for a refund, and how do I know this is Mr. Smith, and the card doesn't match? You know, I mean, there's a whole bunch of different scenarios that can go on. I think these are really good things, and
• 29:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And again, it all goes back to documenting what you want to happen with given situations, and when something new pops up, it's a new opportunity to document that, so that when it pops up again, you've already worked through the thought.
• 29:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And now you have it already built. And so here, just follow this. And when you hit this number, come see me. Right?
• 30:01
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And you know, one other thing, Marcia, and I think I've said that a couple of times already.
• 30:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, we can want everything all day long. So.
• 30:11
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yes, yes, one other thing that I find with leaders.
• 30:16
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Is that they tend to give just enough information.
• 30:21
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Without helping their teams understand why the work matters.
• 30:27
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: What is the impact of what they're doing on the bigger picture?
• 30:33
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: What happens if they don't do it, or if they mess it up? They need to understand why the work matters.
• 30:42
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And…
• 30:42
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: that's.
• 30:43
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: All a part of the communication. And it is so important that they share the bigger why with their team, because once they know that.
• 30:53
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: That leader is going to see a higher level of performance out of their team because now they realize.
• 31:00
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Oh, this matters. If, if I don't do this correctly, there'll be a whole lot of people, you know, without a job or without getting their, their, their social security check this month or, or something. They, they realize the full impact.
• 31:15
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Of what they're doing. You're not just handing out assignments.
• 31:20
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: The work matters. And it will only matter if we create a culture in which that it can matter.
• 31:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love this.
• 31:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Dr. Rhonda, we can talk about this subject for a long time, because we're both passionate about documenting, making sure that, you know.
• 31:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: that the leadership and the team understand what each other want, right? And they're having that level of communication. We're putting expectations out there, and so that.
• 31:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you know, here's your why, so that, you know, your customers can be served the same way, so your delivery can be done in the most expedient way, that you're not wasting or losing opportunities. And I think that's where the biggest miss seems to happen, is that they just
• 32:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Keep it up here and forget about it, and keep going on.
• 32:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So… so with all that, and again, we could probably have 3 more shows on this, just on this subject, but where can listeners find out more about you, more about your architecture, the way that you do things, and to lean in a little bit more to the way that you think about leadership?
• 32:30
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Yes, I can be found at Dr. Rhonda, R-H-O-N-D-A-L, as in the letter, Simmons.
• 32:40
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: S-I-M-M-O-N-S dot com.
• 32:44
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: slash SOP and that's just the acronym for standard operating procedures so that's Dr. Rhonda L Simmons dot com slash SOP.
• 32:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And what are they going to get with that SOP?
• 32:58
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Oh my goodness, it's a free download. They will get the tool that they they'll need to simply upload it into whatever AI platform they choose to use, and they'll say one sentence, run the system in the attached file.
• 33:16
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And once they hit enter, it'll take over, and it'll start asking them questions one at a time that they can answer however thoroughly they choose to, and it will walk them through the steps to get a completed SOP that they can then give to someone else to work.
• 33:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Wow, that's amazing. And using AI to make it super simple for you and getting it out of your head and into a system that you can start working. I think that's the hardest part most business owners and everybody has is like, ugh.
• 33:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, I have to think about everything, though. And wait, what if I, you know, oh, it's just gonna take too much. I'll do it later. And it never gets done. So this is the easy way to do it. And I always like to give the… give the Friday afternoon, you know, idea of, hey, take an hour each week.
• 34:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: on Friday afternoon and document an SOP, right? And pretty soon, you've got a whole book of them, right? Or a whole computer file of them. And then you can play that game where you switch and do all that other kind of stuff. I think that's fun. But, you know, the hardest part is, is that first step.
• 34:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Getting it done, or getting it out of your head, and what a great way to…
• 34:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: to be able to get it out of your head by using AI.
• 34:33
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I hope that, our viewers and listeners will take advantage of it. And we're I'm not trying to get you to do your entire job. Just take one process that you do.
• 34:46
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Exactly. It will… you'll be amazed at how easy it is.
• 34:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 34:51
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: And.
• 34:52
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, then it becomes something that you can just chip away at, and get one today, and one next week, and, you know, keep moving.
• 34:59
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Absolutely, and you don't even have to type your responses, you can just hit the little microphone and talk!
• 35:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it. I love it. Amazing. Okay, that's definitely the way to go these days. I love it. Okay, so hey, listeners, thanks for tuning in today. I hope you're walking away with some practical ideas that you can put to work right now to make your business more profitable and valuable, and documenting those systems and those things that you want to do.
• 35:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And to make your business run smoother, make the team happier, creating that environment and the culture that you want because you're setting your expectations and what I want to do.
• 35:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you may even be able to take a couple-week vacation, right? Because you've got them able to work without you, so I love it. Go get Dr. Rhonda's SOP prompt by going to her website and the forward slash SOP to get that.
• 35:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And before you go, now's the time to grab your free Profit Booster Growth Map. My mouse stopped. In just a few minutes, you'll be able to see your best opportunities to grow revenue and improve profit. And creating SOPs just might even be one of those.
• 36:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Go get yours at ProfitBooster.biz, and of course, no sales call is required. And if this episode, brought you some value today, which I know it has, it has for me, be sure to subscribe and share it with other business owners that may need to hear it.
• 36:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And I'll see you on next week's show with more strategies to help you grow smarter and profit stronger. So until then, make your plans and profit with them. Thank you so very much, Dr. Rhonda.
• 36:39
  Dr. Rhonda Simmons: Thank you for having me on the show. This was exciting. Wonderful.
• 36:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Good.