Latest / MaxValue Podcast / Why procedure ain't standard Ft. Marie Mills

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Why procedure ain't standard Ft. Marie Mills · MaxValue Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine buying a car, but the car is super complicated to drive, but that's kind of what it would be like if you bought a business and it wasn't clear how to run it.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: How does what you do help a business owner increase the value of their business?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Businesses evolve over time and business processes evolve over time.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it was my job to sit with people in the business and collect their business processes.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: The whole point of capturing process is to say this is what we do, this thing exists, and when that person believes this is who is responsible.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's much easier when somebody else is asking smart questions and a smart person who isn't you.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Max Value, the show for business owners and their trusted business advisors who are looking to maximize their value with business valuation, exit planning, strategy, and maybe even some orienteering using your detailed workflow map.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Ben Town.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Today, we are joined by someone who has been doing something genuinely important for business owners for a dozen years.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's something most owners don't think about until it's too late, and by then, it's a crisis.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Marie Mills is the founder of Clear Solutions LLC.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: She is a business process documentation expert who helps companies retain critical knowledge, scale their operations, and near and dear to my heart, help prepare to sell.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Max Value, Marie.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and now that you're here, I really wanted to know how one become a business process documentation expert?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Great question.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say documentation, a process expert is partially born and partially made.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's a mindset, it's how you view the world.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I tend to view the world, I tend to organize the world in bullet points and outlines.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's just how my brain naturally works.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have some training doing business process analysis and also hundreds of hours of just real world capturing processes out in different companies.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So prior to starting Clear Solutions, I used to work as a business process analyst as a contractor.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I would be sent out to different companies, all different kinds of organizations.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it was my job to sit with people in the business and collect their business processes to document them and to map them out.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: And what I noticed time and time again is that there were these super smart people who were the only people in the company, or maybe one other person knew a really complicated detail process.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because of that, well, well, not only did they know it, but they only had it in their head, like it wasn't written down.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And because these processes were not more clear to other people in the companies, then what would happen is you'd have a lot of mistakes and waste and just misunderstandings.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved sitting with people and documenting their processes and their, I thought, you know, this is what the world needs, this is what I have to offer.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of really basic business problems would be solved if businesses were just more clear on their processes.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, that pattern recognition really is something so basic.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what our brains are are trained to do from a very early age.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, unless you have the right filter, like you did, the right background, and like you said, you know, you're born into it a little bit.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I uh dynafy with that a lot.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the fact is you don't see these things.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so you saw the same dysfunction playing out over and over across, you know, multiple companies.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: You said, I can, I can, I can fix this.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a that's a very cool kind of clarity.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's transfer that into kind of the the theme of the show before getting into anything, anything too technical.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: How does what you do help a business owner increase the value of their business?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: So related to what you do, so if a if a business is selling, right, if a buyer wants to buy a business, they want to buy a business that has really solid processes.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: They want to know that those processes are thought through and they're really solid.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have them written down, then it's very clear this company knows what they're doing, they have a set way of doing things, and the buyer can look over the processes.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this there's value right there, right?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's transparency about how they operate.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: It makes their operations very predictable, it makes the operations transferable and scalable and all those good things, all the things that a buyer wants.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking about like an analogy to this.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like imagine buying a car, but the car is super complicated to drive.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And instead of getting an instruction manual, the previous owner has to sit in the backseat everywhere you go and tell you how to drive the car because the instructions are not written down.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that'd be kind of a ridiculous scenario, right?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: But that's kind of what it would be like if you bought a business and it wasn't clear how to run it.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really good analogy, actually.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I like that a lot.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the predictability or ease of use, if you will, the user interface is what you create through documented processes, something that's referenceable.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're talking about a buyer, predictability is what we call lowering risk.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And lowering risk is directly tied to increased value.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So really kind of coming through it through that bucket of the valuation factors.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: You had you'd mentioned that knowledge of the business lives in other people's heads, your own head, other people's heads, depending on who we're talking about.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe talk a little bit about why that's a problem.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: To have the business, to have the knowledge live in other people's heads, right?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so businesses evolve over time and business processes evolve over time.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And generally, what happens unless there is a very clear effort to write down the business processes, then that knowledge of the processes, how the business runs, lives in the heads of certain individuals, can we call the keepers of the knowledge?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then the business is now dependent on those people showing up to work every day to have the business run smoothly.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing is, so so why is this a problem, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, mostly people show up.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: This is the problem.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: So mostly people show up and it lulls the owner into the sense of complacency.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not an urgent situation.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they, you know, yeah, we should write this down because maybe Joe isn't going to show up someday or whatever, right?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: But because they show up most of the time, we just kind of every day we kind of get by and get by, right?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because it takes time to write these down.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: In my case, generally what happens is that a business will go along until somebody gives notice.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then they call me and they're in a panic.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: And they've got less than two weeks to get all that knowledge out of the head of the people who are going to leave, right?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that's two weeks is not enough time when there's really deep knowledge.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to share a story here that is related to this.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: So there's an organization, and they had several revenue streams.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the revenue streams was a bowling alley, and the bowling alley sold beer, and that requires a liquor license.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And the liquor license has to be renewed every four years.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the person who was responsible for that, I think you know where this is going, right?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: The person responsible for that retired, and nobody took over that responsibility.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: So some time passed, the license expired, and they only found out when they went to buy additional beer and could not buy it because they did not have a valid license.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: So they had to start from scratch to apply for the license, which took a month.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: They lost customers because customers said, Hey, I like bowling, but I like drinking beer with bowling, and I'm not going to come here if there's no beer.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it took it, let's see, it took about a month.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: They figured it cost them about$10,000 in revenue.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Totally preventable if that person before they left had all their processes written down and they could be easily reassigned.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me ask about that example then.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: When when we're talking about a business case of, hey, when do we hire Marie and comparing that to$10,000?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's a relatively small case.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously a bigger company or or or something else could could have a bigger impact.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So how would you how would you right size that?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine that that wouldn't necessarily have to be a very complex thing that they would have had to document there in order to just head that off at the pass.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: So when people come, when I'm called in to document somebody's work before they leave, say before they retire.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: This person, they knew they were, he was going to retire, right?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: If they had called me in, the first thing I would do is I would look at like what are you responsible for?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And get the person to tell me.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then out of that, I'd created a map of these are all the processes this person is responsible for.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And this would just be one of them.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a process could be a half-page document.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be 10 pages long.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: The whole point of capturing a process is to say, this is what we do, this is why we do it, this is who does it, when we do it, how often we do it, this is how it works.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: This thing exists, this is who's responsible.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And when that person leaves, this is who is responsible.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very fundamental, very fundamental.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's just transparency, a lot of transparency and clarity about operations.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and a lot of times we're thinking about risk, you know, kind of only from you know something really bad happening, right?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like the whole getting hit by a bus example, or, you know, at least from the perspective of the business, somebody retiring is is often a you know kind of a bad thing.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Although it's nice that when somebody retires, you have plenty of time often to think ahead about processes and transfers of knowledge.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Not so much when you have that person who gives two weeks' notice and then isn't really that motivated to do any work for those two weeks.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's extra hard.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but a crisis can can come from even something fairly positive happening.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: For example, my friend Christiana, uh, an attorney, had a paralegal who went and won the lottery for herself, which was amazing.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Chris was happy, but then was immediately in panic mode.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that saved her law firm from kind of being in a in a crisis mode, thankfully, not wasn't in a crisis mode.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: That the paralegal, this person was an exceptional team player and you know really loved what she did.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so she gave a whole year's notice.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to ask myself, how long would one of my key employees give me if they won the lottery tomorrow?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to honestly say that as much as we have great relationships, I don't think anybody would give me a year's notice.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I would give anybody a year's notice either.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, in terms of retirement, you think, well, it's so obvious, you know, they're gonna retire and you're gonna know that ahead of time.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I was called in um in one situation.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, somebody already knew about me.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And 27-year employee, two weeks' notice, retirement, that's it.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's I'll I'll answer a few questions.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, once she was out the door, you know, her mind is somewhere else.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Good intentions, but it's not very realistic.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in some of the examples that we you we both just gave, sometimes there's time to document processes, and sometimes there's not.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly in that you know, extreme example when you get hit by a bus, no time left.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: But we push it off as business owners.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: We push off this idea that we need to document things.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh why is it not that feasible to have a business owner just say, Well, I will just have my own employees document their own processes?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's the obvious thing, isn't it?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: It is the obvious thing, and it would be a good starting point.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem is with any anybody who's really excellent at what they do, that you know, the doing and the writing about what you do are very different skill sets for one thing.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: So people can be really, really good at driving a car, an excellent driver, but they may not be the person you'd hire to write the instruction manual on how to drive a car.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very different skill set.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the subject matter expert, person doing the job all the time, has this very deep knowledge and is very common that they will forget what are the key points here?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: What do I know that other people don't know?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: What assumptions, you know, they'll they'll make assumptions, they'll use acronyms that aren't explained.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: They will only write down the, you know, this is when everything goes right, and they don't give you the other information.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: What do you do when things don't go exactly as planned?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And this is very, this is just very common.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's just part of being human, right?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: That we just it's we forget what how much we know.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like I was uh called in.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: There was an operations manager leaving after 15 years on very good terms, and she had written all her SOPs, and her manager called me and said, I don't understand them.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: I she's like, I read them, I don't understand them.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I came in, I'm objective, I'm neutral, I'm a fresh set of eyes, I know what a good process looks like, and I was able to work with her to redo the SOPs.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: She had done a lot of the work, right?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Which was great.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I just came in just to make sure all the details were captured, fill in the fill in the gaps, and also to word things, right?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: If I have a question, if I I don't understand that piece right there that you just wrote, somebody else is going to feel the same way.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's also the bit about how do you organize the information, right?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: How do you decide, well, this is an SOP and this is an SOP and this, how do you parse out the information and how do you organize it so that it's easy to use, right?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's not easy to use, people are not going to use it.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I like I liked your kind of making the uh analogy that sometimes the doer isn't the correct teacher.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, honestly, I've had different members of my team, including myself, you know, over the years, you know, try to document processes with varying degrees of success, again, including myself.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the success successes we've had is you know, when we're using uh video showing what we're doing instead of us trying to tell what we're doing through, you know, through uh written uh text, and a little bit through with now using AI.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, so far anyway, you know, really does take that smart human at the controls to really make sense of things in a way that another smart human needs to hear it or needs to see it or needs to consume it to have that understanding.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what about the current emphasis on AI that's affecting what you're doing?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so AI is a really useful tool to you know, you can braindump.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: You say, okay, here's everything I know about this process, and you can brain dump it into AI and have it organize it for you.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's a really helpful way to use it.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can also uh take multiple versions if you have multiple versions of an SOP that you're trying to sort out.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: You take that, like give me one version, combine all of these, make give me one version, and then you can look at that and it's much easier to clean up.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: As we know, AI is error prone, right?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it will leave out details, it can misplace details, right?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like it it needs a driver and it needs somebody who's really, really understands the process and can read it over and say, Yep, every detail I gave to it is still in it.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like I tried to use AI to map out a really simple communication map, four departments, who's talking to who.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Really simple.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Five tries, I gave up.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: I could have made it in half the time.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: They couldn't, it couldn't get it right.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: It just it was so simple.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Department A talks to department B, but not to C and not never to D.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, and I went through that and I just kept going and it always got it wrong.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it's good at some things at organizing big picture, you know, information.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when you get down the details, you really have to have a sharp eye in reviewing the output.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And and then to what you mentioned about the video, like video can be a great way to capture process documentation.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what I would say is that to use it like really short video clips are really helpful rather than try to stand and talk into a video for 10 minutes about what's going on here.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: That is a little harder to consume.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And also, if you want to make one edit, you have to redo the whole thing, right?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe you have better video skills than I do, right?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: But for the average person, the producer does.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: But if you don't want to spend a lot of time editing the video, so let's say you have a you how to pay a bill, right?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you have the written SOP that is, you know, gives the context, and this is the tools you use, and this is who does it, and this is how it works.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get down to like, here's how it works in the software.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can do a really short video clip that is just part of the steps that you click on, super helpful, right?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: No, no more screen captures and inserting those.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: We don't do that anymore, right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: We have video to help us with that.
• 16:51
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say, whatever gets it done, and uh, you know, up to and including video or AI, we're very pro AI.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And also we recognize, like any skilled artisan does, that a hammer's a hammer and a you know, screwdriver's a screwdriver, and we want to make sure that we're using the right tool for the right problem.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it takes one one of us to be able to tell the difference.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: One of the challenges that I and really most business owners has is that once you have your standards and SOPs or the the way, quote unquote, as you know, EOS might put it, yeah, whatever you call it, how do you get over the fact that now you have them, but people don't read them and let alone abide by them, but they don't even you know, don't even have the awareness that they're there.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: What how do you solve that?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a good point, right?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's the writing and then you got them, that's great, but is anybody using them?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: This can be a problem.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: So if they're not reading it, if they're not using it, if they're not following it, I always say there's a reason, so find out that reason.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, oh, I didn't know an SOP existed for that.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so there's the problem, right?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I knew and I couldn't find it, right?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: So now we got to make it more findable.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then I knew it existed, I looked at it, it was wrong.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't trust it, I'm not gonna follow it.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if one SOP is wrong and not kept up to date, every SOP will be questioned.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really important to keep these up to date.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then also uh SOPs are often used during training, and then you don't see anybody using them after that.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, as a manager, as a supervisor, you can model referring to the SOPs when it makes sense.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: So you okay, you've been trained on this SOP, and then time passes and a mistake is made or a step gets skipped or something goes wrong.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're having the meeting with the people working for you, you can model just pull up that SOP right there in the meeting.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's take a look at it.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Is this correct?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Do we need to change it?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: What happened?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you think we, you know, went off the rails here?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so you're modeling to use that.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people need to see modeling by the people who manage them.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Man, yeah.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think I've already touched on this, but you know, it's not enough to write SOPs.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: You have to have a system for managing them and keeping them up to date and storing them so they're easy to find.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like my system that I use with my clients, I use templates, I have a tracker so that you can easily get a sense of these are all the SOPs we have.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: These are the ones we have right now, these are the ones that need to be written, and then I have multiple ways to find the SOP because that really is the hardest one.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: How do I?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know where it is, and you don't want people copying it locally because then it's easy to find, right?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: You want one version.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, really, it's hard to get people to read it.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: You model it, you find out why they're not reading it, and uh have a system for managing them so they can be easy to find.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Quick pause for our segment discussing max value podcasts itself.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of becoming an SOP for this season.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Marie's point today is pretty simple and direct.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of what makes a privately owned business actually run lives inside the heads of certain people and not written down anywhere.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: The more the business relies on a key individual, the more that key individual is worth, which by nature means that the value is not contained in the business.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: So even if your business is making a lot of money now, but relies on your personal connections or Scotty knowing how to kick the regulator just right, the business may not have the transferable value you want and need.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Our company's program, Exit Builder, exists to address this.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: We can reduce the dangers associated with key knowledge being trapped inside the heads of a few people.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And to twist the phrase, knowledge is value.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: If unlocking that value sounds useful, start at townadvisory.com or reach out to me directly.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now back to Marie.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so we're gonna try a new segment here.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're calling it the dose of value vitamins.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to take a common situation here, uh, one that where there's a business owner who is just so busy that they don't have the time to write down all the practices and procedures.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you're the vitamin C solution to solve that all, and calling you is the right the right answer here.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: But even that does require some investment of their time, of course, and they have to make themselves available to you and to go through the procedures so that they can be properly recorded, stored, and proliferated.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, what prescription would you have to help them get over that issue, the lack of time really?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: So part of it's how you frame it, you know, it's like, oh, it's this huge, overwhelming task, and you know, we got better things to do.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: But one thing I I find is that people are they're busy because they're putting out fires.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: And why are they putting out fires?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: They're putting out fires because their processes aren't clear, aren't uh efficient, right?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it will actually add efficiency in the long run when you get them documented.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Doc, you know, writing down your processes is the foundation for improvement.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's very hard to streamline your operations if you don't have your processes in writing.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's very hard to improve things if you're just talking about them.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: You really need to be able to read them.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so the advice I would give is.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Don't wait because nothing happens if you just keep waiting.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: But if you start working on it, you just start and you carve out, like figure out how much time you can realistically carve out every week.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can do a lot in 10, 10 hours a month, 10 hours a month, or maybe even five hours a month is better than zero hours a month.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: You just start and you keep it going at a sustainable pace.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: See, it is a long-term project, and it's actually never completely done because even after you've got them all written, you have to keep them up to date.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's not a one and done.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's something you always do.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so you're kind of you're just carving out time and you're adding this new habit, which is we're paying attention to our processes, we're writing them down, we're managing them, we're making them better.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, I would bring in somebody like me.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's if you don't have a clear method, it can be very daunting.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: But so bring in somebody, at least initially, who can get you started and say, look, here's the system, here's how you approach it, here's how you prioritize it.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you're always working on the most highest priority process at any given time.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: And over time, just keep going, just keep moving it forward and you'll get there.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And what I find too is people, you know, they call me when they're just like kind of at the end of their rope.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I wish they had called, you know, called me earlier.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: But once we start working together, usually by the second or third meeting, they're just like, this is so great.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's so helpful.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because they see the system and they kind of see how it's going to start getting better.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I bet they wish they had called you earlier as well.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that that I do, which I couldn't do from day one, but as as things uh grew over time, you can delegate, you know, a little bit.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that that is very helpful.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I don't mind taking an hour of my time and talking with somebody through a project or through a process, it's much easier for me and it's less mentally taxing, frankly, if you are interviewing me about my process and getting it all out versus or one of my staff people or however that works, versus yes, sitting there staring at the blank slate, or even with you know, chat GPT or uh Claude uh as we use and you know trying to trying to walk through it there because you're not gonna naturally know how to to do that.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's much easier when somebody else is asking you the smart questions that a smart person who isn't you is going to.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: There and there is nothing more intimidating than a blank page, right?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like you're just staring at it.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Where do I start?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: What do I say?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so that I have a template which is is very basic, but it's just like it's kind of outlines of what you put where it's very helpful.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I think all a template is is your your own documented process for going through it, right?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we always do a little getting to know you segment at at the end here.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I want to know what's something that's not on your LinkedIn or your website profile.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty sure this is not on it, but I used to run a catering business.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: I used to own and run a catering business.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um I did it with a partner and I love to cook.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely love to cook.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: I've always loved to cook, love to cook for myself and for others.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that was uh that was a lot of fun.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hard work.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard working.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of work.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, anything in food is is incredible.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we're all trying to improve ourselves.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: What are you reading these days?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, what am I reading?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: I am reading, I'm not reading anything specifically business oriented, but I read a lot of nonfiction because I love to learn.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I read a lot of biographies because I really enjoy hearing people's stories.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how did you how did your life turn out?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like what are the decisions you made throughout life?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I just started a book called To Shake the Sleeping South.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, a little hard to say, but it's um a man, a true story man, 30 years old, and decided to quit his job being a lawyer and bicycle from Oregon State down to Patagonia and all the adventures that are happening there.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh of course, my process mind is blowing up like, why didn't you do this?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Why didn't you think this through?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: But is very interesting.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: I love adventure.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm big into taking adventure, going on adventures myself, and uh interesting to read about other people's adventures.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Are are those well planned adventures?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Is that my my adventures are very well planned because they often involve living out of my 17-foot kayak for two weeks with no resupply.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you you gotta you gotta do a lot of planning to do to be able to do that.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's wonderful.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't do that, but I I do love backpacking.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, we used to do a lot more of yeah.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhat similar, right?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's all on your you carry it, you plan it, you put it, put it all together, and then but then you have ironically, all that planning turns into complete freedom, right?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: It is, and you look at I just lived two weeks without this stuff.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Why do I?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: And you come home, you're like, why do I need all this stuff?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm usually pretty happy to come home, but yes, get it get a real power in.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, than my exact rest.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Marie, thank you so much for sharing all that.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you want to be found, where can people find you?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: So you can find me on LinkedIn, Marie C.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Mills is my LinkedIn page.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can find me on my website, clearsolutions by Marie.com.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I have a button on there for free consultation.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: I really um very open.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about processes or think you might need some help with your processes, set up a some time and I'd love to talk to you about that.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's there's certainly a lot of technique and a lot of technical issues that go into process documentation.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, it's all it's the thing that you know you have to do that you don't do it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So take your medicine, people.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, all right, Brie.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for joining us.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a been a real pleasure.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you so much.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's a wrap.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to Max Value Podcast.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if this episode provided any interesting information, hit that subscribe button, smash like, and drop a comment below.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Ben Town with Town Advisory, and I'll catch you next time.