The Value Of The Right Systems

Please note: As I head out on vacation, returning on July 8th, my posts will be on pause. Until then, let me leave you with this new version of a an important idea to build your authority…

You might say my love for systems was sparked at 16, when I started flipping burgers at McDonalds.

They had a system for literally everything. Each station had a checklist for opening the store, closing the store and cleaning the equipment.

Before they let me touch the grill, I had to memorize (and can still recite today) the 10 ingredients in a McDonald’s hamburger. I couldn’t solo without proving I knew their system to produce the perfect burger.

Systems are decisions you don’t have to make because they’re on autopilot.

Think of it like Steve Jobs wearing a black turtleneck and jeans every day so he didn’t have to spend time deciding what to wear.

Systems allow you the luxury of handing off tasks, so you can leverage your time, which let’s face it, is the only thing you can’t create more of.

Here are a few examples of where the right systems can accelerate your authority building:

• Setting up automated email sequences to build your digital list.
• Developing WRITTEN procedures (or a checklist) for any part of your business that is repetitive. Think blog posts, broadcast emails, recording and distributing podcasts or videos, setting up conference calls or zooms.
• Investing in electronic ways to manage your front/back office: sales/lead management, product/service purchases, online calendars, email filtering (I’m a fan of SaneBox), client billing, accounting.

I have clients where getting a request to speak triggers a procedural checklist (that their VA translates to their calendars), in one case right down to what goes in their suitcase (now THAT’S a system).

The beauty of systems is this: once you have a plan to tackle the repeatable parts of your work, your mind can focus on the break-throughs that only you can deliver.

So why not try it? Pick one thing that is routinely annoying you that a system could fix—and attack it with all you’ve got.

And if you’re feeling generous, share it with me here.

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