Latest / The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners / 195: Project Management vs Client Tasks with Guest Lauren Hong

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195: Project Management vs Client Tasks with Guest Lauren Hong · The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Getting organized once and for all is one of the most common goals listed on the intake form for our group coaching program.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I get it, and if that's you, you're not alone.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: So how do you get all of these ideas that you have for your business out of your head and into some sort of actual system that allows you to manage projects and those bigger visions that you have for your business?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Do I use my CRM?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Do I use a task management tool like Asana or ClickUp?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Which do I use for which tasks?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: What if it's a team collaboration or I'm using an outside vendor?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Today we are answering the age-old question of how do I organize all the things in my financial advisory business.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: In today's episode, my guest, lauren Hong, breaks down how to use a project management tool inside of your advisory business, and you'll hear me have the aha moment of the episode.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: So I love when a guest gives a little nugget that I can latch onto.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: As you know, this is the tactical takeaway for this episode, and for me that was differentiating.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: When do you use your CRM to manage tasks versus when do you use a project management software tool?
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: So I thought that was exciting, so let's dive in.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I've got a little coaching nugget here for you from my coach, so it dawned on me earlier this week that I've never mentioned this on the podcast episode before, but I wanted you know.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to your groups, your companies, your teams, et cetera.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I do a ton of virtual and live speaking events and, honestly, giving a keynote is probably my favorite thing that I do in my business.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So if you're with an RIA looking for speakers, or with a broker dealer that hosts conferences or events, or with an organization like FPA or XYPN, I want to talk to your group.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Uh, you can check out the outdated speaking tab of my website.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I promise an updated tab is coming this summer with the updated keynotes and all the things, but there is an inquiry box that you can fill out and I would love to talk about being a speaker at your next event.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: So this is where this nugget comes in.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I wanted to share this because I think this might help you.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I was working with my coach and mentor and she asked me what I was enjoying the most in my business and I was sharing about all of the speaking that I've been doing and how much fun it is and how much joy it brings me and how much I love, whether it's virtual or especially in person, how much I love it.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And so she asked me this, and this is what I think will be helpful.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: She said, okay, if you want to do more speaking in 2025, how much of your content is speaking related?
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: And I said zero.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: And she said, how many times have you mentioned on the podcast that you do speaking?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And I said, uh, zero.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: And she said, well, how are you getting speaking engagements?
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: And my answer, which every coach loves to hear, well, I don't know, I have no idea.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: People just reach out to me, right?
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Not a great answer.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So I feel really lucky and really fortunate that people have been reaching out to me on my website and, you know, doing an inquiry.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Um, so here I am doing it differently, right?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: So, same way that I speak into people's businesses, and this is why I say, like, seriously, everyone needs a coach, right, you need people that can speak into you, point out inconsistencies and, honestly, just zoom out and help you be a thinking partner in your business, because sometimes you're just too close to us, just close to close to it, right, you're, you're in it.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: So it's sometimes it's hard to see it from a different perspective or a different angle.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So I just wanted to share this nugget, because if you're talking about wanting to get more referrals or do something different inside of your business, I'm going to ask you well, how much time and effort are you putting towards that thing?
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Is the content or whatever you're producing and putting out into the world related to the thing that you want to do?
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: So the group coaching program is my baby.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: This is my favorite thing that I get to do that, like lasts all year long.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: But I really genuinely get a lot of joy and excitement from doing keynotes.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: So if I want to do more of those in 2025, I need to be intentional about saying hey, I'd like to do more of those in 2025.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So I would love to join you and your group, if possible, for a speaking event in 2025.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, so enough of that, but I just wanted to share it because it might apply to you too.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And if you're new to the efficient advisor and this is your first time listening, what's up?
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're here.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I'm Libby Grayley and I started, built and sold by 37, a 100% referral only planning practice that I grew to seven and sold by 37, a 100% referral-only planning practice that I grew to seven figures as a solo advisor, all while working just three days a week and taking off 14 weeks a year to lean into being a mom, a wife, a friend, a sister, a daughter and, frankly, a travel-obsessed human who loved taking vacations.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: And I'm here just to walk alongside you and to show you how to do the exact same thing and how to take immediate action on the most important strategies for scaling, organizing and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: We are here to be efficient, effective and to make sure that our business is enjoyable.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: So we're about to transform your practice.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: So move over exhaustion, get out of the way.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Advisor ADD.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: It is time to take that one right next step to build a business and a life that you love.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: So let's get into this conversation with Lauren Hong all about organizing tasks and projects.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: All right, lauren, I'm excited for this conversation.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I, as you know, I'm obsessed with all things organization, task management, systems, processes, all things efficiency.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: So I'm super excited that you are here to unleash and just bless us with all of your project management knowledge and expertise.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So thank you so much for being here.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Well, libby, thanks for having me.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to get into this conversation as well, so I like to nerd out on these kinds of things too.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah and so.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: So, as you know, I love having experts on the show that are specifically in financial services, helping financial advisors not, you know, just doing all the things for all the people, but do actually work in this space.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited you're here.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up working with financial advisors for task management.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I, 11 years ago, started out and, about communications, a digital marketing agency, started it myself, you know, totally entrepreneur, like, I think, of many listeners probably right Like getting out there, you know, boots on the ground, selling, getting to know people, and over time we built a team and really have like deepened our roots into working with the financial service community exclusively and about 70% of our active client base is RAA firms.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Our team size are about 30 folks right now and we're broken out into three departments.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: So we have a director's, more strategist team, we've got a management team and then we have an implementation team and along the way, probably like a lot of folks, you realize that in order to be able to scale, you've got to have systems, and systems there's like a direct correlation between really solid systems and exceptional customer service, and systems also help us to be able so that we can kind of set it and forget it, so that we can put more of our effort, you know, relationships and energy on our clients.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: So I've had my hands in the weeds in a lot of systems, tried out things along the way, tons of lessons learned, you know, poured into them and the firms that we bring aboard.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: We actually set up an Asana account for them, which I can get into a little bit more in detail, but Okay, I love that.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: So something you said that totally stuck out to me that I just want to make I make sure I kind of pause and call attention to, was this idea that there is a direct correlation between customer service and systems.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Tell us more.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: So I'm sure, as many people know, you are going about your day-to-day and you learn these things and you're like, oh my gosh, I should have done this, I should have sent this email.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: If I would have checked, you know, made this little step along the way, we would have been able to prevent that error.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: And you can keep tripping over your own two feet or you can create essentially like.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I feel like systems are a reflection of a lot of lessons learned along the way so that your output, the quality of your output, gets stronger and stronger and stronger.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: And so I feel like, if it's your system in your CRM, if it's a system in a project management tool like Asana or another platform, what it is is it's basically the framework so that you can take all of that knowledge and you can build it around your particular business to make sure that it's exceptional, so that the end product gets to your client as you would like it to, not in like a half-baked form.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: So that's what I always joke that like, yeah, I do.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I always joke that every system in our business was built out of me looking like a bonehead at some point.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And it was really just like okay, how do we make sure I don't look like an idiot again?
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Like, how do we, how do we build a system to make sure that thing happens?
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of the the core desire for me of where some of these systems came from.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: But I love what you said about tripping over your own two feet and and everything living up in our heads and in our assistants heads.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And then when we get busy and we kind of get stuck in that tornado of the business, then we tend to skip steps or we, you know, forget to.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Uh, when we hire someone, we forget to tell them like hey, here's that thing that makes it run a little bit smoother, or here's what I learned.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Or we tell them and we are shocked that they don't have it memorized.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: You know, 47 seconds later.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: So okay, so, so okay, so I love that.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: So when we're talking task management tools so you mentioned Asana tell our listeners.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: So all of the time I, I, we have listeners who are super just getting started, like still, you know, just trying to get their head above water when it comes to how do I manage tasks.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: To folks who are kind of trying to figure out how to use their CRM for task management or really just trying to figure out how do I move away from to-do lists and using my email as my giant checklist.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: To advisory firms that have great, you know, written procedures and manuals and all the operational stuff.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: So task management, when you say task management software, tell the person listening who's like I?
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not really a hundred percent sure about.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: What is that?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, my goodness, okay.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: So essentially it's a place where you can create workflows so that all the tasks that you need to do as an individual in your team need to do orchestrate in a like a unified, you know, in harmony.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Essentially that's, like I think, kind of more or less the end goal, and you know you have to be able to pick a system for the end outcome that you're wanting to be able to get or for the purpose of it.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: So like a CRM where you're managing contacts is a totally different thing than a project management tool where you're managing checks and balances of projects along the way.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they claim that they can kind of do the same thing.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Where you're managing checks and balances of projects along the way, sometimes they claim that they can kind of do the same thing, but you're going to get to a place where you're going to outgrow one of them, like it might be able to do it for a little while, but you're going to outgrow it.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: So for us in the marketing seat, we recognize that we're managing projects all the time.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: So we originally started this was like probably about eight years ago we were trying out different systems, like literally like trying it out, like onboarding and getting people on.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: We tried out Wrike, we used Mavenlink for a while Both systems we probably used for over a year but something wasn't right and I think that it wasn't because of what the system can do at large, all the systems can pretty much do the same thing but it was a user interface.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: It was literally like someone could log in and it just was easy, like I'm like, okay, there's a big check mark, it can do this.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: You know, I it just it felt simple, like it was very intuitive, and so why we ended up going with Asana was because it was so intuitive and it felt like it was 10 steps ahead of where some of these other tools were then at the time, and so then we got to really know and learn about those tools.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: And then we've basically took all of this kind of like wire framing that you do and all of your workflows and we built it into this particular project management tool.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: So Okay, so high level, what so?
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Let's just go with Asana.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: So like we use ClickUp you know we've tested which maybe maybe, after we get off, I'll ask you about kind of ClickUp versus Asana.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Maybe I can, I can be convinced because yeah, anyway, that's a separate conversation.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: But what?
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: What?
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Can an advisor use a task management software like Asana?
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: What can it do?
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, so um, I know that's like a big giant loaded question.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Um, I think the biggest thing, in a simplified way, is all the stuff that you've got in your brain.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: It basically has a place for it to live, so it gets all that out of your head.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Also, you probably have Post-it notes or things everywhere and it just basically puts it all into the system and you can create automation for due dates, for workflows, for assigning tasks to different people.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: But beyond that, just for an advisory firm, it's great for compliance because it's got like everything in there.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Everything's logged.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: You've got all the history.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: If you're using cloud-based tools like Google Docs or things like that, it even goes beyond that.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: So you've got everything all logged in there and it's really nice.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: If you've got someone that leaves, they've got all the history of everything that you've ever done ever since you've been in that platform form.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: So for an advisor, it's just like a very transparent tool that's very compliant, friendly and it's got great archiving.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: So those are some of the like reasons why an advisor might want to use a tool like this, versus just like it being stuck in your email or stuck in you know, I don't know sheets or something like that.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, I love it.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, that's probably where I would guess that most advisors are at.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I know that's where I was certainly at for like ages and ages and ages and then kind of restarting this business, wanting to get that whole like okay, how do I get all of my ops super organized, hyper organized, but trying to figure out like, okay, how do I coordinate all the different systems Right?
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: So an advisor probably has the CRM.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: They probably have like a Dropbox or a OneNote where stuff is living.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: They might be using Google docs, they have Canva.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: They have stuff on their own hard drive, which makes me completely insane, but I see it all the time Right and where it's not living and breathing, where everybody can access it and see it.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And you brought up a really great point that I hadn't thought about was if somebody leaves the business, having all of that documentation and understanding where they're at on all of the projects too, I think is really, really important.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: So, okay, okay, so.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: So tell us about.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: So, just tell us about Asana, you know, are we doing the free one?
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Do we need to do the paid version with all the cool bells and whistles?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Give us kind of the scoop, you can start with the paid version and see or excuse me the free version and see if you need to get to the paid version.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I think the more important thing is just being able to slice off what you're actually going to use that platform for.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: So I found for advisors it works really well for marketing, obviously, but I think also for operations is another great.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: You know, those are both project-based sorts of things that you're typically working on.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: So I think that before you even kind of like get into the tool or you could just start with a free version.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: But I think the important thing is like identifying what projects you actually want to be able to manage in there, who you want to be able to get in there, and then you can kind of build your systems and your I guess your workspace around that.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: So I'm happy to get into that a little bit more, because I know I'm talking pretty high level here.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, get the more detail, so, like.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: So my people are like okay, give me the thing, tell me exactly what to do.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Like, if I want to be able to, like, I would love for someone listening to be able to set up a sauna tomorrow and go, okay so.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I have a marketing project and I'm going to do bang, bang, bing, bong boom and I'm done, Okay.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: If they have a marketing project.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: That's the key.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: They have to be able to have clarity on what they're inputting.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: So for you to open up a project management tool, you've got to have clarity on the bigger picture strategy.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: So if you have a marketing strategy in place like this is the efforts that I want to go after.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: I want to set up a webinar campaign, or I just know I need to have my email that's going to go out on a regular cadence, or I know I want regular social media or whatever it is.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: You need to kind of have your big picture in place.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: That doesn't even live in a project management tool at all.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: So you basically have your strategy, your game plan, what you want to do, your high level buckets, and then it's going to allow you to go in and be able to, let's say, you start up a free Asana account tomorrow so you can go in there and you can create what are called projects and you can actually break out your projects.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: We break them out by other active projects or archive projects, but in this case you might want to break out your projects by something like webinars, social media, you know emails or something like that, and then a project is basically like a folder and inside of that you've got all of your tasks and so your tasks can have section headers.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: So let's just take like a webinar, because that's kind of a complex process, right?
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: So you could say, okay, well, I'm going to take, I'm going to open up Asana, I'm going to create a webinar project and I'm going to use this to manage my whole webinar process.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: So you can start with a section of like oh, these are all the pre things that I need to do before I actually kick off a webinar.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: So maybe the section is like free webinar kickoff and then you create all of your tasks that need to be able to go into that thing.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Like you can just literally brain dump Like these are all the things I need to do.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Or maybe you're working off of a checklist somewhere and you can just input all of that and then you're going to have all your pre-webinar.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: You know, like your, your, you know like you're, you're.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: You know, two weeks out, a week out, post webinar, 24 hours, what's going to happen after that, and you can have these section headers and all the tasks and the things that you need to do along the way in order to actually make that happen from end to end.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: So it's basically you kind of need to have the bigger picture before you even get in there to get it going.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's, so, let's get.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I I'm going to guess that almost every advisor listening has a social media strategy of some kind.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to guess most of them are were like me, where they're like I want to do social media and that was like the extent of it, right, and it's kind of this just in time, like, oh crap, we need to create some stuff.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe we've got some corporate canned stuff that we can use from hearsay or whatever.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: We're just going to throw it out there.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: What like?
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: So when you're sitting down with an advisor and you're like okay, let's create a campaign, and the advisor's like okay, here's what I want to do, here's the themes I'm going for, I'm going to like, and they actually have like create this, this, like how do you organize that for an advisor?
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I know that's a big question.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I know it's hard because we're talking verbally versus like looking at the tool itself but like yeah, okay, so, so you can do, shoot by the hip, I want to be able to do all these things and you can throw those tasks in there like a brain dump.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: You can do it that way in Asana so you're not forgetting things almost just like a bunch of lists off.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: So I think the more interesting conversation is being able to take a step back and advise her, to say I have a billion and one questions, but who's actually my target market and where do I want to put my efforts and energy?
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: And then I connect that actually to my task activity.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: So I see Asana very much as like a task oriented get things done.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: But it's only so valuable as the bigger picture input that you're going to have.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: That's like the prerequisite to actually put in the inside of the platform, if that makes sense at all.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: So if there's an advisor, that's like I just want to.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've got a billion and one things going on for social media and I've got all these ideas.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: By all means, open up an Asana project and just call it like social media ideas and just start brain dumping, because sometimes you need a place just to be able to even brain dump or to be able to like organize thoughts and then, when you're ready, you can prioritize those and then kick those off accordingly.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: If that's kind of like the working kind of like motion that you're in, and I think we all know, if we just try to brain dump between, like I don't know, drafting an email and saving it or sending it to yourself, and like sending it on a Google doc, and then it's over here and it's in your head like that, I'm guilty of that too.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: It's really helpful, though, if you can kind of have a collective way where you're putting like things together, so then when you're ready to actually kick off the project, it's ready, it's ready to take flight.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's say I'm an advisor, I have a social media strategy that I'm aiming for, I've brain dumped, I'm organized, I know my who, my ideal client avatar is, and we have little scripts written and posts made and maybe it's clip video clips.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: How do I organize that?
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Or like gives, give us like an image or like a visual of like what Asana can do and how you can organize it in there.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Is it each day of a post is its own task.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Like I cause what I think.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I see where you're going with it.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: You're now you're getting off to the side, okay.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: So, um, I'll tell you how we do it.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: This might make sense, okay.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: So if we're working with a firm, what we do is we open up in a Nassana project and we say we've got our social media campaign strategy.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: So what we do is, let's say that let's just do like a.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Let's say, an advisor is hiring Okay, it's not just.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And we want to put out social media posts about this job opening or something.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: What we do is we take it in our internal Asana.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: We have a Google doc that we open up and we have a whole list of like, the like, the whole cadence that would go into like okay, we want a post to go out on this day.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: This is what it's going to say.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: This is going to be the images, the whole thing.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Before we even get to that point, it's kicked off by a project manager.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: A project manager sends it to somebody who actually gives that kickoff.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: It's our content director.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: It goes to a copywriter who writes it.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: That then goes to an editor.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Then we have someone who's doing the graphics and then it, and then we schedule it out.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: We use Plannable as a scheduling tool, which is like you can see the whole cadence.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Then it swings back to the advisors, asana.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: They get a solo task that says, hey, we talked about hiring, here's like you know, all the posts are they approved?
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: And you can go and edit inside of Plannable and then, if they're approved, then we go ahead and schedule those out accordingly.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, I love that.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: So it all lives in this big Google doc.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: It lives between a Google doc usually.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: To start off, we run it through our Asana workflow and then, after we complete that, we schedule it out and then it goes to the advisor.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: So the advisor doesn't see all the behind the scenes.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: But if they wanted to, they could create a behind the scenes for themselves, for an internal workflow of sorts, to be able to do those checks and balances.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: So I could create a Google doc.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: This is kind of what I'm picturing.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I'm picturing this Google doc where I go in and here's like okay, this date, this date, this date, somebody.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Then the copywriter is going into that same Google doc and actually creating the copy.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Then the graphics person is going into that same Google doc and dropping the graphics.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Somebody on my team could go in and say okay, if we're not using a company like yours that's doing plannable and stuff for me, we could go in and say, okay, I can take all these things.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: So same thing for a webinar or any other kind of project.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: We can have one living webinar or any other kind of project.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: We can have one living, breathing document that all the things are in and then get each little chunk deadlines and tasks.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: That's right, kind of like what I think advisors are used to, that CRM, being able to create a task with a reminder, but we can kind of the same thing within a task management tool.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Yep, that's exactly right.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: So an advisor could work with a firm like ours where they're just literally handed the task from the high level strategy input for review, compliance, approval, so on and so forth.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: But they're not seeing all that behind the scenes of the checks and balances, of the workload that's gone on, that are basically like they're like literally all the lessons learned over the years.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Like that typo went out, like that shouldn't have not gone out, right, but if we had, if we had a copy editor, review it.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: You know, make sure it's aligned with the voice and tone, make sure it's aligned with the big picture.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Are the dates off?
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Like there's so many hands.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: I know that might seem like it's like an overdone process, but we've just seen that, like over the years, you just have to have checks and balances in place in order to have quality output.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: So give us an example kind of that same like okay, so we talked about social media through the marketing lens.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Give us like an operations example of a way that an advisor could use a tool like Asana as opposed to the CRM.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: So having worked with ops teams before, usually I see them pretty instrumental in the larger business pitch or strategy of major initiatives that are going on, kind of cross company.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: So usually those conversations are happening at off sites.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: They're happening not before you even get to a CRM or search project management tool.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: So kind of same thing like marketing.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Once you have that bigger picture like these are our projects that we've got in place, some advisors might use like EOS as a platform or they might use other systems that help to kind of tell a timeline and that are prioritizing what those major initiatives are.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Same kind of thinking.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: So you're going let's think of like a big project, like a big ops project might be to create like a onboarding, training for a new hire, something like that, just throwing like a random thing, perfect.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Sort of onboarding training, right, yeah, so you know, a CRM is meant for managing contacts and staying on top of those relationships.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: A project management tool is like okay, I got this big old hunky onboarding training.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: So there's a billion and one things are going to have to happen from here.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: So what we're going to do is we're going to create a specific Asana project and same kind of thing like that webinar workflow.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I'm going to create section titles that are going to give maybe even those bigger picture projects or even break them down within tasks.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: So you might break it down into things like okay, I got a big somebody, what does the whole interview process look like?
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Making sure that's an exceptional experience, right, follow-ups.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Then there's all the paperwork that have to happen after you onboard someone, and then you probably got to get them technology, and then you've got to get them, you know, maybe a welcome gift, and then you bring them on.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: How do you really kind of embrace them, take care of them?
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: What does that whole training whole thing look like?
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: So, in Asana, one of the things we've actually used for our own training is we have like crazy amounts of training inside of Asana for our new team members that come on.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: So we have and again it's like tons of lessons learned.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: So we literally have someone comes on, we duplicate a project and they go through tons of trainings related to.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Some of them are out marketing, but a lot of them are financial services, because that's the space that we work on, sometimes just our own way of doing business, and so we literally have this whole archive of somebody comes on and then they can go through these training processes, but they can also work with someone along the way, so that's like a one-on-one relationship.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: So it's not sort of like a cold transactional component.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: So that's a way that you can use Asana to manage an onboarding project but then also templatize an onboarding as an example and then essentially templatize that and replicate it for new team members that would come on.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: So do you see a CRM and a project management tool like Asana living in tandem?
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Right Like so, when you're working with advisory teams, are you having them?
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: And I know you focus mainly on the marketing side.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: So we're going to use a project management tool, but I'm going to guess that you're saying like use for anything contact related.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Uh, like reminders to schedule a meeting with the Smiths or whatever.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: We're using the.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: CRM.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Right, okay, cause that's where.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I think advisors get stuck as they're like okay, well, like all that information is already in there, Do I have to re-put that into Asana?
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Is that going to be a compliance concern?
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: So anything client specific, we want it to live inside of there.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Relationship specific.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: So you're talking like when you, as CEO of your advisory practice, are sitting down and you're like, okay, I want to build an onboarding process for new employees, or we have this big picture, we want to build out our financial planning process and it's going to require us to sit down and do all of these things.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of when, when Asana would come into place with two of them, kind of they don't necessarily integrate, or do they integrate Some of them integrate depends what your CRM is Like.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: For example, if you're using HubSpot, there's an integration between HubSpot and Asana, but I think the key is like, how do you want them to integrate, you know, and what were they actually integrating for?
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: So it just it depends on what your CRM is.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: So it's, you know.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: I think the truth is, is that the real integration?
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: I think the magic of it is like if there's an action from the CRM that would then trigger something that would require more of a project-based task that needs to be completed, that would kind of make sense for the integration to happen.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: But it's not.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Like HubSpot is not, it's not a project management tool.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Like we've worked with teams sometimes where they feel like they can use like a HubSpot or a Salesforce for project management and I would say like you can use it, but you're going to outgrow it and it's going to be really frustrating because that's not what it's designed to be able to do, like aces in their places, kind of thing.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: So I think that you can make the two talk, but it's like usually it's clunky and you have to figure out what you actually want the two to talk to or why you want them to talk.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, I love that.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: So basically, an advisor would have their projects living in one space, all their client specific stuff living in another space, and we'd all just have to get into the habit of checking both, right.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but usually if you're in like an advisor in a sales seat, you're probably going to be in your CRM a lot more, you know, just because you're doing the relationship stuff.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: And if you're in an op seat a marketing seat, if you're doing training something like that stuff, and if you're in an op seat a marketing seat, if you're doing training something like that, you're probably going to be in like an Asana more.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: But it's making sure the two talk to each other.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, perfect.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: So who on the team needs to be in Asana?
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: And then, how do I get my team into?
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Asana.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, usually you're going to have the like, the person that's like boots on ground, like managing and reviewing the task.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Usually it's a chief compliance officer.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's a CEO, but it's not.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Usually maybe an operations person, but it's going to be somebody who's actually going to be reviewing the task and who's going to be involved with it.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Oftentimes we feel like, depending on the size of the firm, it's just too much noise to have the CEO involved.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: So we often say like, hey, stay off, We'll email you, we'll email you and we'll reserve email for, like, more higher priority things that need your attention.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: But we're going to have your COO and your chief compliance officer are going to usually be, you know, your COO and your um, your chief compliance officer, are going to usually be the ones that are in Asana, maybe an administrative assistant.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, so let's talk.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: So I know like we're we're getting ready to do an episode on all things like AI and how advisors can integrate AI, and I know a lot of these project management softwares have AI integration and one of the things that has continued to come up.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: So inside of our group coaching programs, I'm always asking them like, okay, I have this guest coming up, what?
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: do you?
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: want to know, and one of the big questions I get it feels like almost about everything that's an outside vendor or an outside tool is tell me how it works for compliance.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: What is the security piece, you know, with AI, with Asana, with like other tools that we're utilizing?
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about compliance and how that works with Asana.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Um, from a security standpoint, I mean you've got to be able to log in with your email and if a firm can actually open up their own Asana or we could open it up for them and then transfer it over to them.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: As far as like ownership goes, I mean, I think it also depends on the fine print of all the legalese that are signed initially, you know, and just the non-disclosures.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: I mean that impacts things as well.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: And then I mean, like I said earlier, like there's full transparency with everything.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: So it's not.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: I think that's actually way more transparent than like email would be or kind of sometimes even other platforms.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Like we've worked with a firm where previously they were in Salesforce, but the checks and balances they had to do to make sure that we were not having access to all the stuff, because we shouldn't have access to all the other stuff, was a huge lift all into itself just to be able to utilize Salesforce, and we ended up even moving to Asana as a platform, like longer down the road.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: So I think that like I guess I see it less of a compliance concern because of the volume of transparency and more around a workflow and transparency, kind of like value add.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: So yeah, and I guess, in the way that you're kind of talking through it too, we're not really putting client information per se into Asana.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: It's more project oriented versus, like yeah it's not going to say, like Jim and Jan Smith, account number 46244, you know that we're reserving for the CRM or for your email marketing platform.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: So okay, Okay, well, what else would?
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: And I know you did a post on LinkedIn, you know, building up for this episode, asking advisors what they would want to know.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: What else do you think is important for someone who's kind of debating?
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, I have projects like marketing.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: I have these webinars I want to do.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: I have these big picture things that I'm dreaming up as CEO of my business that will help things work smoothly.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: And I hear Libby talk about all these systems and processes that we need to have.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Like, where on earth do we make them all live?
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: What else do you think is important for advisors to know about project management?
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: I think just to reiterate that project management is only as valuable as the bigger picture input and as CEOs, especially as of a growing firm, it's very easy to get shiny object syndrome and I think for better or worse, marketing kind of does a not so great job of saying that you can do things like that overnight.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: You know if it's a website build, if it's a this and that, and good things never come quickly.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: And that's the same thing with a project management tool.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Most firms have built out a CRM.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: You know that doesn't come up like overnight as well.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Like it requires like like blood, sweat and tears of learning and being able to make it sharper and really fit for your business and your kind of value prop.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: So I think that part of it is for an advisor is a great starting point is, if you just feel like you've got pieces kind of everywhere and you need a system just to be able to dump ideas into, I feel like that's like a some tool that you could use it like for here and now.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: But if you've just gone through an exercise where you've got like more or less like a bigger picture, sort of projects that you're ready to execute.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: This is a tool that you could potentially use just to be able to, kind of like, push those projects off the ledge and to be able to get collaboration and get teams into them so that it's a hub to make everyone's lives easier, and to be able to create transparency and keep it out of email and keep it out of the CRM too.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you said keep it out of the email.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit more about that.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: What do you see as far as a big gap for advisors when it comes to using email?
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think sometimes, like tools like ClickUp or Asana or Mavenlink or whatever it is, can be kind of intimidating, because it's like another thing to learn, which is why I think the user interface is so important.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: But I think that we're all guilty of emails where it's like it turns into like one thing and then you were like, oh my gosh, this email is 15 emails long and there's like five projects in there, like six things that were talked about, and so what a project management tool does is it creates swim lanes.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: It's like this is exactly what we're talking about.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: This is related to this.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: It's like Robert's rules it just keeps everybody in order, you know.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: And so then you can really say, okay, email is like our safe spot for like emergencies, or it's our place just to be able to dialogue with clients, like it literally has like a defined home, like there's power in definitions, right, so there's like a defined home for how you use certain platforms.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: So that's like really valuable.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: Another thing I love to do I'm sure other project management tools have this too, but Asana has a feature where you can get an email that's connected to a specific project, so you can be like I don't want to forget to do this.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Send it to this Asana email and it's going to drop into a project.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: You can create automation rules, so then it's specifically assigned to you for the next day, the next week, like whatever.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: The default, you know, conditional logic is that you set up in there.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: So it's like I get it out of email, I get into my task list, or if I'm running around and I think of something, I can literally email this email and it like literally assigns it to me.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: So I have like all my checklist right there.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: So it just it like it just keeps it clean and it keeps the platforms clean for what you want to do with them.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so when I heard you saying kind of like emailing back and forth and there's all these projects, so what I think we're saying is that, asana, you can basically have this back and forth inside of the Asana platform where it's all captured, as opposed to having it inside of your email and then having to like take it over to.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Asana.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: So I don't want it to be lost on people listening that it's also a communication tool and I know it sounds like okay, well, now it's like all the like, all of these things, but we can keep it in its own little bubble related to a project and everything lives over there, versus having to do that.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, some stuff's over here in Salesforce, some stuff lives on our Google drive, some stuff is in word and we can connect it all to one place.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: It can still be a Google doc, it can still be a word doc, it can still have all of the things, but it can live in one little home.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: You just order it, yep, you give it its home, like you give it its swim lane.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: You're like these things are related inside of this specific task, so they're not like you know one email with like 10 different things on them.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: So cause that's?
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: We're all guilty of that?
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Like it just, it just happens and it just keeps, it keeps it nice and clean.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, so for someone who's like, okay, that sounds amazing, I would love to get started Like what would be the kind of the simple, like what would be Lauren's like easy guide to starting to use Asana, like what would be a good project or a good way to get going without worrying about like, oh my gosh, there's so many, because the downside is is there's so many things that it can do.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: The upside is, is that there's so many things that can do.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: So where does one start to kind of like start building their acumen?
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: We have a like quick start guide for our clients when we work with them.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: So what we've done is we've created like really simple rules.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: So I'll just give them some, some of them to you for kind of first lap, for simplicity, like quick start guide.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: So an account's opened up and we have an active account which is all our active things we're working on, and we have an archived project.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: So it's like all the things that are done, they've completed tasks.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: You have them there for compliance purposes.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: So two projects, active and archived.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Then just simple rules.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: We have stuff like we tell everyone you never complete the task, you just pass it back over to the project manager because that way we don't forget it.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: We're responsible for, you know, completing the task.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: We have stuff like the description.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: There's a description up at the very top and we reserve that space.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Our definition for it is it's the active stuff that's going on that you want to review.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Everything related to that description.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: You keep in the comment section.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: There's a whole comment section where you can go back and forth.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: That way the comments doesn't get all messy.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: We just have all the stuff to review in our specific description spot.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: We will put due dates.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: So if there's a specific due date, we'll go ahead and assign that if it's important.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: We have rules like labeling rules.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: So if it's like related to a social media post, we'll usually put like social media colon, whatever the specific thing is blog colon, you know the title of the blog post.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: So we have labeling rules.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: It's just like it's maybe like five really simple rules that once you get in there it's just cake and it just, you know, it takes like a round or two and you're like okay, got it, this is simple.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: I'm good to go.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: But I think, having like a starter set of simple rules, you could apply those to your company, like labeling rules, project titles, you know who owns the tasks for assignee, those things you could all apply to just not overdo it.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: And then I think, as you slowly learn the system and how it works for you, then you can adjust it to your company's teams and your you know for you.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Then you can adjust it to your company's teams and your, you know your roles accordingly.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: So, okay, perfect, I love that.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Well, good, well, tell us before we go, tell us a little bit about what you do for advisors and I know I'm totally putting you on the spot because you said don't worry about that, but I do kind of want to know.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: So so, share a little bit more about what you do and how you help.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, we, um, we work in two capacities.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: We work in as like an outsourced marketing team, so a firm that goes okay, you know we're not ready to have like an in-house marketing, like VP of marketing or we may have them, but we need more arms and legs, support.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: We'll come in, we will help to put together a marketing strategy and then actually implement that.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: So it's stuff like email marketing, social media, website updates, the lead funnel activities, webinars, podcasts, these kinds of things.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: And we also work in a project-based capacity, which is like a firm that may say okay, I need a really great like brochure and I can't just have like a brochure that's off the shelf, but I really need like thinking, strategic thinking and amazing design that's behind it.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: That's a great project.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: Another project might be a website design and and design.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: We have firms that come to us that are like we've hired recruiters but we're just not finding the right talent to be able to join our team.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: There's got, we've got a culture problem and that's related to marketing, like how do we project our culture externally?
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: And so we'll come on, we'll put together, you know, a strategy that you know what that could look like, and we'll help to actually implement those various tasks, tactics that we've we've agreed upon.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: So those are just some of the examples of the things that we do, but essentially an outsource marketing department for for firms.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Perfect, well, good, and I will put all the links in the show notes of how people can find you.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: And before we go I always ask every guest who is a business owner, and you're not allowed to say Asana, okay.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: But I always ask, like, what's one or two things that you have kind of found over the years as a business owner that helps you work more efficiently?
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: So it could be a mindset thing, it could be a tool, it could be a software, it could be just kind of a little system you've built for yourself.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: What would you share with people like as a?
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, this has totally made a huge difference for me.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: One of the tools I use.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: It's called Write Inbox and there's another one Boomerang, and there's even free ones built into email now where it just it allows you to do email reminders that come back into your inbox.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: I like to keep a really clean inbox.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: You can see my like OCD side coming out right when I'm like I want everything clean and nice and just really tightened up.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that side of things.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: So I like to be able to have those emails that will remind me to come up and, you know, to respond back in a week or to not forget about something.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: So I do pre-schedule emails for myself and I like to be able to say forget it, it could be a week from now, it could be literally like a year from now, but that's something that I found to be really helpful for me to get that leverage and so I can just make sure that my energy is not spent with like my day-to-day isn't spent with clutter, but it's like clean for what I need to focus my energy on.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, perfect, okay, so and I'm going to follow up on that because I think that's really interesting is do you organize your day in a way, like in any special way that helps you kind of get to that inbox zero, or to kind of help you with?
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Your own like when you're doing things that's been successful for you In all transparency.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: I've attempted that, but I feel like I have to.
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: Well, the best thing that I've done for myself is I blocked off focus time, so I literally just have blocks on my schedule that are for focus time or for different activities, and so I I'll put like hold okay to schedule over, so like if I need to have meetings or that sort of thing, um, but having that dedicated time, because one of the things I've learned is that you know your schedule can fill up with all kinds of things and then you have no time to work on anything.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: So I've really found that there's like certain days of the week, like usually Mondays and Fridays, I can like get tons of stuff done, but those like Tuesday, wednesday, thursday tons of meetings or you know what have you.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: So I think it's like I try to block off the time and then, when I do have scheduled meetings, I try to do them more or less back to back so I can do things in chunks.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: And those two things I found to be really helpful.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: I know somebody listening is going to go oh my gosh, why did I know this thing existed before?
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know I love it.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I encourage you to like.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: Asana might not be the right platform for everyone.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's really the platform.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: Clickup could be great.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Mavenlink there's so many good tools out there.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: I think it's just more that you can get to a place to have that clear mind, to be able to have priorities, like your task in a safe place and prioritize.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: But that again is like it's really driven by the bigger picture strategy.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: So you've got clean input.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: It's like it's garbage in, garbage out, right, if you've got clean input in, you're going to have a clean output.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: So I think just starting simple is a great place to start.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: And then you can kind of take it from there.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know there's somebody listening who's like, oh gosh, she just totally saved the day.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: I think that clarification between like projects and CRM relationship stuff I think is going to make a couple of people I can think of a few advisors, like in our group program right now that I'm like, oh, they're going to hear this and be like, yes, that's the thing that I've been looking for, like where do I store all the thoughts, all the things, the processes that don't necessarily impact specific clients but are bigger picture like business, business, you know, wide initiatives.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: So thank you so much for your time and your generous sharing of your expertise and I'm so grateful to have you on the show.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate your time.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for putting this together.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: So you heard my big aha today in this conversation and for me it was really delineating that you can use your CRM for client tasks and operational workflows and then use a task management system like Trello, ClickUp, Asana, et cetera for your projects and you know, the stuff that's not tied to client work and doesn't really need to be documented for compliance.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: But then she also shared that there's ways to kind of like do all of the above right.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: So she talked about having a really, really good brain dump and you've heard me preach about this before.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: I love me a good brain dump and then I love coming back and revisiting it quarterly when I do my CEO days.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: So here are kind of my three tactical takeaways from this convo.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: One, do a brain dump to create structure for task management inside your CRM for all things client related.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: And if you're like I don't have a lot of structure, Awesome.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Join us in August for the group coaching program Um.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: I have the wait list link, you know, so you can be first in line to get information and maybe quite possibly a deal on the coaching program Um.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: But we can get that side of your business figured out and what you want to have happen for your clients experientially and then get that input into your CRM.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: And the third thing would be creating some structure in a project management tool to organize everything else, the relationships that you have with your vendors.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: Um, if you're doing collaborations with your team on bigger business ideas, if you just want reminders of, like, hey, CEO, you're supposed to be doing X, Y and Z to move your business to the next level, this is a great place to capture those things and to be able to create tasks and reminders and upload documents and all of the cool stuff that these softwares do.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: I'm going to share quickly just some ways that I personally use my ClickUp.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: So I use it for my business, for, like, all the things.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: So, for example, when we have a podcast guest right, my assistant will send them this email and saying, hey, here's the link to book the show.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Here's a Google form for you to fill out.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: We want all this information from you.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Talking points, uh, whatever links you want us to use, like gathering all of the data.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: And then there's a workflow that comes out of that right when Francesca will then follow up with them if they haven't booked their podcast and then she'll follow up with them if we haven't received that Google form.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: And then she has reminder email that goes out X number of days before we record the podcast, reminding them of a couple of things, and then she has a task in there to send me the things that I need to prepare on my end for the podcast.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: So that's an example.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: I also use mine personally for like literally everything, so reminders to pay my quarterly taxes right To follow up on things.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: So, for example, we had furniture break after we bought it and I had to file a claim and, yada, yada, they were ordering the part and I had gotten my work off the to-do list, Right, but I'm waiting for them to do their part.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: So I would set a reminder like a month from now to follow up on the furniture part and see if that's come in yet and what I need to, you know, to keep things moving along.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Um, I have a monthly reminder in there to check the dang water softener salt levels, because you know I am a homeowner as a single mom now and I never had a water softener before, so that stuff I'm not used to doing, so I like to have a reminder in there in order to help me create a habit around some of these things.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: So those are just some silly examples, but different ways that you can utilize a project management software like ClickUp, Asana, Trello.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: There's like a gazillion of them Monday.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: There's a bazillion of them out there.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: I'll link a few for you in the show notes.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: Anyways, hope you guys found this conversation valuable.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Let me know if you have any questions and, as always, I hang out in the Efficient Advisor community over on Facebook and you can find me on LinkedIn.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much and have an amazing rest of your week.