Your Business Operations Are Broken. Here's the Fix.

You didn't start your business to live in your inbox. So why does everything still run through you?

Every decision, every approval, every client question, every fire, it all routes back to one brain. Yours. That's not a discipline problem. That's a design problem. And no amount of hustling harder is going to fix a business that's structurally leaking your time.

This week Stoy Hall, CFP® sits down with Claire French, Operations Consultant & Business Manager and founder of CECO. From Sydney, Australia, Claire builds the operational backbone behind creative, visionary founders so their business can grow without collapsing the second they step away. She meets founders in what she calls the messy middle, that point where you're so tired of wearing every hat you don't even know what's broken anymore.

Claire and Stoy get into the stuff nobody wants to admit. Why "just hustle harder" runs you straight into burnout. Why "just hire a VA" is not the answer when you actually have an operational leadership problem. Why systems don't kill the magic of your business, they're the only thing that protects it. And what the first 30, 60, and 90 days actually look like when someone finally takes the backend off your plate.

Her hardest truth: you still have to show up. Claire can run the operations, build the systems, and hold the vision with you, but she can't be the visionary. That's you. This one is for every founder who's been the manager, the HR person, the payroll specialist, and the salesperson all at once, and is finally ready to just lead.

Write it all down. Track your time. Then get the right help for the right problem. 

Connect with Claire French:
 Website: https://claireelizabeth.co/
Work with Claire: https://claireelizabeth.co/menu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claire.e.french

NoBS listener offer: Mention NOBS on a discovery call, or use code NOBS on a Clairety Catalyst for 10% off.

If this hit home, drop a comment. Tell me where you're feeling it most. I read every single one.

New episodes every week on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Subscribe so you never miss a real conversation.

Transcript

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The New Client Who Earned One of the First Seats

Claire 0:21

Graham, it's time

Stoy 0:30

Folks, okay? Typically, when we bring on a new guest, um, and I should say new collective member, uh, they have some type of background, something going on, something that they can help you with. No different with Claire. One caveat, I have to disclose this. She is a new client of mine, and so she gets preferential treatment, and so she gets one of the first episodes of this new go-around in the fall, so bear with us as we get through it. But without further ado, Claire is, um, how do I put this? The best thing you need in your business when you're trying to operate it, whether it's alone, whether it's you need some help, she's the one that's gonna connect all those dots, and it's way cheaper and better to do it when it's just a third party, someone like Claire, than trying to hire a whole full staff, deal with the taxes and payroll and benefits and all that. So I'm gonna get off of her high horse and let her jump on and tell you a little bit about herself. So Claire, without further ado, uh, tell us about yourself, where you're from, because they don't know where you're living right now, and, uh, more about your business.

Claire 1:34

Hello. Thank you so, so much for having me on. I am so excited, and now I'm honored and also even more nervous that I have one of the first spots of the new season. No pressure. Thank you for not telling me that before. Yeah. Um, I am originally from California. Now I live in Sydney, Australia with my husband, who is Australian, so that's why I'm here, chasing a boy who ended up being my husband. So it all worked out the way that it should. I started my own business in 2019, and I started it as a VA. So I was just doing task, very entry-level things, very much the repetitive stuff that you didn't wanna do in your business, and now it's grown into so much more. We're an operations and admin consultancy. We run a full team that helps with visibility, um, back-end support, and the day-to-day operations. So we have like, it's called pod support. So we have me as a consultant and business manager, then you have implementers and tech support. We have an Instagram team and a marketing strategist, and we kind of all put it together to run the things that you don't wanna do in your business besides be the CEO and be the business owner.

Stoy 2:51

What's great about it is in like knowing you, we know you from Christina, and obviously she wouldn't care us talking about that. But it's like when everyone thinks about what Black Mammoth does at, at, at our firm of being the modern family office and connecting all the other pieces when it comes to everything else financially, like you plug in to do everything in the back office, in the backside, like not the CFO work, but all of the marketing and all of the inter- um, intercommunications, those types of things, which is really cool while it comes together full circle. So folks- Yeah this is why she's part of the collective members, not because she's a new client of ours, but because like she adds this element that as our Nobias collective, we don't, we don't have. We never answered that. Um, and I know there's a lot of businesses out there that there are business owners right now, including myself, um, before my wife joined the firm, is I have a lot of hats to wear, right? Mm-hmm. Not only do I have to run payroll and deal with my financials, I'm the salesperson, I'm the contract person. Uh, if you have employees, you usually are the, you're not trying to be, but you're the HR person, right? On top of your emails. I am guilty in it myself. I let my emails go to about 1,300, and then I freak out and I get them back to zero. Oh my God. Don't worry, my max, my max is only 6,400, okay? So

Hustle Harder Is a Lie. Here's What Burns You Out.

Stoy 4:07

we don't need to talk about that. But I know there's more people out there like that, right? Yeah. So when that comes across, like how do people find you, one, right? And then what is their emotional state when they are reaching out? Because there's no way in my mind that a new business owner's like, "You know what? I have a solution before I even get into the problem. And that's, you know, I should hire Claire well in advance."

Claire 4:30

Yeah. Usually when founders come to me, they are already, we call it like operating in the messy middle. And that's our favorite place to meet our founders is when they are so tired of wearing all of the hats, and it really is weighing them down that they just don't know, they don't even know what's broken anymore. A launch didn't go well, but they don't know why. They are having trouble with their client experience, but they don't know why. They have this idea for an offer, but it's sat in a notebook or on a Post-it note for months with no movement, and they don't know why. So it's all of, we're helping solve that gap of the action to implementation to ideation. So taking it from your Post-it notes into an actual paid offer. Taking it from your drafts into an actual sent email or posted post. And that seems so simple in the moment when you are fresh and you are feeling motivated, but business is rarely based on motivation, I've found after six years of doing this. And that's kind of where we pick up is like where that motivation ends for you, it's probably because you don't like doing that thing. Nobody likes going through 1,300 emails. Nobody... Well, I do. I do like going through the emails. I do like creating a system for that stuff, but I know that is a very special case, and not everybody likes to sit there for 30, 40 minutes, hours going through and creating a system for that stuff. Those are the things that we do. Nobody enjoys sending the same email again and again and again, and that's why we would automate something like that. So we basically look at what is the gap that you're experiencing in business and where, what can we do to fix it? And Stoy, you and I talked very early on when I was coming on about when you were like, "What do you do?" And I was like, "Well, it's what do we not do," basically. I think the only thing we don't do is like financial support really of that piece of it. But I could find somebody that does that. And that is where we're, we're very similar when clients come to me and they're like, "I need this, this, and this," and I'm like, "Yeah, we can f- we can figure that out." And that's the- The positive of having somebody like me come in that runs a consultancy, that you are hiring one person and one team instead of peacemaking all of these different people together that have different professions or different expertise, and then having to manage them, and then you're adding manager to your list, and then you're adding HR person, and then you're adding payroll specialist, and you're doing all of these things. You just have one person that comes in, runs the team for you, meets with you weekly or biweekly or whatever it is, and then is able to kind of meet you where you are and take you out of that messy middle and into something that actually makes sense and makes progress

Stoy 7:17

Yeah, but Claire.

Claire 7:18

Yes.

Stoy 7:19

You're in Australia, right? Yes. I'm in the middle of the United States in Iowa, which this place is something else. How, how do business owners get over that part of it, right? 'Cause time is an issue, one, but two, virtual, right? Yes. Like, I know we're in this new day and age after COVID where, like, virtual's kind of the thing now and we all can do it. But when you're talking about what you do specifically- Yeah a lot of that is high touch. You need to be able to essentially be their right hand and their right brain and, and make moves with them and before them, before they even know it. How can you achieve that in a different, well, time zone, and two, in just an entire different place virtually?

Claire 7:59

So, I think that what I-- It's funny because I don't think about that anymore as an objective because I've been doing this for so long. I was working from home in, like, 2018 for a recruiting firm. So I've worked from home for years and years and years. And th- this is just like second nature to me now. And it's funny when I feel like people are like, "I need somebody in person." Well, you, you don't. Like so- like mom and pop shop, something that is in person, something that is physical maybe, but I've supported businesses all over the globe and been in sync with them even with a time difference, even being in a different country. And it really comes down to how we organize ourselves and how we communicate, number one. But also the thing that I like about being in Australia is that I'm a day ahead. So anything that you are working on and you are exhausted at the end of your day, I'm waking up and it's the perfect time for you to be like, "I need to stop where I am." And then, "Claire, here's what, here's where I left off," and I take that over for the day. And then I'm able to get it done. I start my day on traditional Sunday. It's Monday for me 'cause I'm a day ahead. So I'm looking ahead of the week before you're even letting the Sunday scaries settle in. I've already looked ahead at the week and been like, "Great, this is what we need to do. This is what's on calendar. This is prepped for you when you're ready to clock in on Monday." Um, I really only sleep maybe five to six hours. So I, I, and I, even with that, I have a team that covers time zones. My goal is to have a team member in every time zone. I'm relatively close right now. I know there's a million time zones, but we cover the bulk of them. Um, we have a team member in the UK. We have a team member in South Africa. We've got team members in India and team members in the States and in Canada. So we have a majority of time zones covered that even if I am asleep, the team is across it and knows what's going on and can tag in if needed. It is very rare that there's an emergency that happens while I'm asleep. So- After seven years, I would hope that's what we could do. But yeah, it's very rare that we have something that comes up that either a client isn't already prepped to handle that we've trained them on it, or a team member isn't trained to handle it. So I tend to be very in sync with clients that way.

Stoy 10:28

That's good. That's good. Here are some, uh, maybe misnomers, maybe they're true. Okay. Maybe they're just noise. I don't know. You're gonna answer this, okay? So- This is one of the ones that I had looked up and just, I, I use the Google machine, you know, the AI now at this point to say, like, "What are the top things that people reject to and, and talk about within your industry?" Um, outside of my own personal opinions. Um, instead of hiring a Claire or hiring a staff member to help off-plate whatever issue, whatever thing is, and we're gonna get through more about your services because, um, I think it's important. But thing is, you just need to hustle harder. I hear that all the time. Just hustle harder, do more, do better, and you'll be fine. What do you say to those business owners that have that mindset of like, "I don't need someone like that because I can just do it. I'll just double down. I can do more. It, it's better if I do it. It's faster if I..." You know, that type of scenario. What do you say to that?

Claire 11:27

I am so anti-hustle because it is not human, and Ceko is a human first consultancy. So we really look at the whole of who you are as a person outside of business when we are helping you run your business. If you're telling me, "Oh, I wanna launch and I wanna launch back to back to back," I'm really gonna sit there and be like, "But capacity-wise and personally, you wanted to go on vacation that month. Your kid is going back to school or they're coming out of school, or your husband, it's your anniversary." Like, those are things that we're looking at when you're telling me, "I wanna, I wanna hustle," basically. There's a time to lock in and there's a time to sprint and there's a time to kind of jog back and let everything kind of catch up. This kind of goes back to what I was talking about with motivation. You are going to burn out if all you are doing is hustling, and you are going to get to a place where you hate everything, and that's where the motivation ends and where it just becomes more of a chore to run your business. So I don't believe in hustle. I think it is so detrimental to your business because it takes a human out of the business. It is not human to hustle all the time. And the hustle culture is just so toxic, whether you feel that internally or you're around it, whether that's all you see on social media, 'cause it's very trendy on social media, and it just, it doesn't get you anywhere. It just hustles you straight into burnout. And once you reach that point of burnout, we've seen a lot of business owners close their doors or just give up or have to completely pivot because they ran themselves into the ground. So we are just very anti-hustle. And there are things that when you started your business, you didn't start it to do every single thing. And I know that there are solopreneurs out there, and I know that there are people that are successful solopreneurs. However, there will become a point where you need somebody to step in and either create a new system for you or help guide you through the next level of business, 'cause whatever got you to the level you're at now is not gonna be the same work or support that gets you to that next level. So that is That's the main difference of it. You're gonna reach a point where it just is not feasible anymore. I used to work nights. I would be up... I would probably work 11:00 PM to about 3:00 or 4:00 AM when I first started because of the time difference, because I was figuring it out. And now I, I go to bed at 11:00 or midnight, and that's the way it looks. It has to change, and you will burn out, and it just, it doesn't, it doesn't work. You started your business to figure out the finances and help people. You started your business to be a photographer, to be a copywriter, to be a brand designer, to be a social media agency. You didn't start your business to do HR and admin and check your inbox and be the leads

Systems Don't Kill the Magic. They Protect It.

Claire 14:22

person, and all of that stuff can be taken off your plate. And that is, that's why I don't believe in the hustle. It's not necessary.

Stoy 14:29

You had brought up systems, and this is actually legitimately right to the next point. I have a client who is k- somewhat... It's funny. He's somewhat old school, but not. And I mean this in he doesn't wanna do things in the corporate traditional mindset. He wants to kind of be a more of a free spirit, and as it comes up, deal with it, right? So this one is systems kill the magic of being an entrepreneur and, and dip diving, ducking, going all over the place. What do you have to say to those business owners that are like, "No, I don't want a true, like rigid system or policy or whatever. I just wanna go against the norm and do what I wanna do when it pops up"? What do you, what do you say to those business owners?

Claire 15:14

I was in corporate for years. I started in a law firm when I was 17, so that is my background also of this is the way it's done, this is the way it's always been done, and there's reasons why this is what it is. And I quickly realized it just was not for me that business runs that way because there is always, especially with the introduction of AI, there's always a easier, more seamless way to do something. There's always going to be a new way to do it. And where I believe systems are the shortcut to success is when you find something that suits you. We have clients that are able to completely automate start to finish their onboarding. We have other ones that we need to manually reply back to something or send out a certain questionnaire or whatever. Those are two different systems, but they're solving the same problem. So your client experience and the way that you run your business on the back end is unique to you, and you deserve to have a little bit of magic in that. But Your-- where you bring in your expertise is in what you know how to do. So when we have clients that are-- We work with a lot of creatives, creatives being like social media agencies, copywriters, brand designers, photographers, people that their brain is always on for new ideas and creativity, but maybe isn't always on for like, how does that actually run? What does that structure look like? So when they come to me with this new idea of like, "This is what I wanna do," I, again, focus on, "Love it. I think that's great, and I think it's gonna really help your offer ecosystem, but how does that run in theory, client-facing wise? How does that feel to run it? How does it feel for your client to purchase something like that?" So we really look at when you get to put your magic into it is when it's, that boring part is done. When the contract's sent and the invoice is paid, then you get to put your special touch on it. Don't get caught up in a system that needs to be there. It has to be there. There is a way to put in a system that holds the business together, but doesn't deter it from becoming what it is, and that is, that's the magic of systems. That's my creativity. That's what I love to do because there's a way to be like, "Oh, we could automate this so that you can do this piece of it. We can automate the contract being sent after the invoice so that you can send them a gift, or you can send them a coffee on the day, or you can send them a personal thank you on Instagram or send them a shout-out on your stories or whatever." We take care of that. The system piece takes care of the stuff that you don't wanna do anyway, so that you can put your magic into other places. So systems are a shortcut to success. You need them in order to be successful, and that's not to say that-- But it's, it's a gray area. The system, again, has to change as your business changes. I have done things differently from when I started six or seven years ago to what I do now, and that is purely based on offers changed, clients changed, teams changed, so the system changes. Just because you make a system does not mean it is rigid, unable to be changed, and I think that's the main difference between corporate and when you run your business, is that you always have to be willing to try new things and trial new software and ask new questions, and that's what keeps business owners, like, fresh and at the front of what they're doing.

Stoy 18:52

Next one we get into is kind of like just talking about how you operate with a client. Like talk us through that. So talk us through a- a- after someone's like, "Yeah, I wanna sign on," they sign on, we go, we get to onboarding. Like, and I know every client's different 'cause they all have different things that they need, but typically, what does it look like for someone, say, in that first 30, 60, 90 days with you, both like physically what you're doing and then like what you see emotionally out of them from those timeframes?

Claire 19:21

So we have a methodology that we have at the back of C Code that is basically based, it's a methodology based on the Goldilocks principle. So we're looking at not too much, not too loose, somewhere right in between and what that looks like for you. So we start first with the 30-day audit, and this looks like I am in your inbox. I am in your-- I'm on team meetings if I'm helping with team management. I am meeting with you weekly, sometimes twice a week. I am becoming and integrating myself into your team or your business, trying to figure out what it is that makes it work, trying to figure out what it is that you're missing, where those gaps exist. And this really does take me back to when we were first talking about it, because you're not seeing those things when you're too in the business. You're not seeing like this email that you send every single day or every time you onboard somebody can probably be automated. You've just always done it that way, so you default do it that way. You're not seeing the questions that your team is asking you is actually a pattern of misdirection or misalignment. They need something from you that you're not giving them, but you just think you're answering the same questions over and over again. You're not seeing the day-to-day because you're too, you're too in the day-to-day, so you're not really seeing the bigger picture of what's going on around it. That's what that first 30 days is dedicated to. What software are you using? How is it connected? Is there an automation somewhere that is not working anymore but could be potentially working for something better? Is it-- This is usually when clients are like, "You know, I've used this 'cause this is what I've always used, but maybe I'd like to switch to a different platform," or, "Maybe I would like to consider this." So then we're doing research on what that would look like in practical use and how that would actually be beneficial. So the first 30 days is just me and you as a business owner What, what do you need? Where, where is the pain point? And we're getting directly into it. At the end of that 30 days, we get on a call, and we basically plan out the next 90, and we go through, "Okay, this is what I've discovered. This is the solution to these things that we can go through. Now, what do you wanna focus on? What is priority for you?" Month two is usually based on admin and the operations part of it. This is usually where we realize either you have systems that run your business or you have systems that run your business that you don't realize is a system. Those are things that you're doing over and over again, always the same way, but they're not written out anywhere. Um, or you have things that are out of date, and they're really detrimental to what you're doing. So in that second month, we're really focusing on what is the foundation of your business base- based on, based on the audit that we just did together. Um, by the time we get to the third month, it's usually very day-to-day is taken care of. SOPs are pretty much updated at that point. Um, we're in the middle of projects, so software transfer or a launch or whatever. This is also typically when, if you want social media, I bring in a social media team or a marketing strategist, and we start focusing on visibility because you can't be visible with a broken back end. There just is no way to successfully increase your capacity if your capacity is already maxed and you don't know why and everything is broken on the back end. Even if you think, "Oh, nobody sees that 'cause it's just me that deals with it." No, we see it. You-- It comes out in your marketing. It comes out when you talk. It comes out when you launch an offer and you only talk about it once. It comes out in some way, shape, or form that, oh, this business is not running the way that it should. And that's why at the end of Like even at the end of 30 days where we do an audit, we notice clients start to take time off. They're not working on the weekends anymore. They're not on Slack anymore. Um, we have clients that have like a brick where it like blocks your phone from certain apps, and they are using it all the time because they know that it's, they don't need to be in their email every single day. They don't need to be checking Instagram every single day. They don't need to be checking Slack every day. And they start to really see themselves as an actual business owner, even in that first 30 days when they see like, "Oh, the problem isn't me. It's not a mental thing. It really is this thing that we can pinpoint and we can fix it." Um, at the end of 90 days when we start getting into visibility, you can see that confidence kind of come back where they're showing up differently. They're proud to talk about their offers again. They're showing up online. They are... Their leads start to increase. They are really just getting back to what they love to do. And because they've been taken out of all of that backend stuff, because they're not wearing all the hats anymore, we see them start to have new ideas. They have new offers they wanna create. They have new, um, they have a new direction they wanna go in. They wanna rebrand. They want a new website. They really start to show up for themselves in ways that they probably haven't been able to because they've been showing up for everybody else or because they've been so stuck in stuff they don't enjoy. So, and that's only 90 days. You know, we do six months of work, and at that end of six months, it is like a completely, it's a completely new business sometimes to see where they started, where they never took a vacation without their laptop, or they never took a weekend off, or they worked all the time, to then seeing them spend more time with their family or launch an offer that they've been sitting on forever or finally feel a little bit of clarity in what they're doing. And that's, it's really the best feeling at the end of that.

Stoy 24:59

What would you, what do you s- what's one truth, hard truth? Like, you, you, we're very transparent people, right? It's very blunt and honest that you tell every one of your, your business owners that you work with. What is one thing that you just always tell them no matter what?

Claire 25:13

You have to show up Like, you ha-- it's your business. It is your business at the end of the day. I am there to help you run it, but you have to show the fuck up. Like, you cannot just be like, "Great, now it's yours. You tell me what to do." We do that in consulting. There is an offer for that where we tell you what to do based on what you want to do, but you have to want it first. You have to be the visionary. And that is, like, if you've... There's a book about it, about the visionary and the implementer. Um, I think it's called "Rocket Fuel." Every good visionary needs a good implementer, and that's basically what we're doing, is we're helping you hold that vision. And we run on the basis of, like, your big three. So if you, or if all you did were the big three things you wanted to do, content creation, financial planning, podcasting, those were your big three. Anything else, we would be like, "Great, you need to get out of your inbox. You need to get out of doing the admin. You need to get out of whatever it is." That is what we focus on, but you still have to show up in your business. You still have to be the one that is bringing the magic in to your clients and bringing that expertise. I can't do the financial planning. I can't take pictures. I can't build a website. But I can help make that easier for you to do your job. And this is a huge make or break. Clients really... This is how I always know, like, if they're gonna be good or not, is when I say something like that and they realize, like, "Oh, maybe I, maybe I don't wanna do that. Maybe this isn't what I actually wanna be doing." And it is a big, like- I don't know, come to Jesus moment in business of being like, "Is this really what you wanna do? 'Cause we can make it so this is what you wanna do. And then when you get there, is that, is that really it?" And I, I'm kind of going through this myself because we've restructured the business so much and we're getting into consulting. I love consulting, but I love seeing it come together. I love being part of the action. And I had one of those moments this week where I was like, "Oh, is, does this mean I'm not a good consultant? Does this mean I suck at my job? Does this mean, like, the direction that I've spent six months rebranding and building and hiring for is wrong?" And it was hard for me to be like, "Well, I am good at consulting. I love it, but I also love the action and the implementation of it." And that is one of the things I was like, "Great, so now how do I restructure the system that we've created so that I can do the action im- and implementation and still be present for consulting?" And that, like, those are the things that I love. We've had clients that we've been like, "You still need to show up," and they don't show up, and they end up closing their business. And that's always so hard to see. Or they pivot extremely, extremely. Like, we've had clients that are photographers go into coaching because they realized, like, when we gave them the time to actually show up and actually photograph and we organized their schedule, they didn't, they didn't wanna do that. They wanted to be on the back end. They wanted to be at home with their family. They wanted to be teaching other people how to do it. They got the joy from seeing other people be successful. So it was a huge, massive pivot, and we made it work, but it's, like, one of those things that you don't know until you're in it. You don't know what you don't know, and you have to be willing to show up all the time and meet us halfway. We, we're not the visionaries.

Write It Down, Then Get the Right Help

Claire 28:40

It's your business. We could never love your business more than you. You still have to show up for it.

Stoy 28:46

So show up, right? Yeah. Everybody- Period gotta show up. Um, as we get to the end of the episode, we always leave everyone with, like, a, a plan or at least some thoughts that they can implement, like, right now, like right fucking now. Like, right after we get off, they go, "Oh, shit, I can do that." So it's a, it's a two-parter question really, but we'll start the first one is: What is something that a listener can do right now, today, as they get off of listening to us, that they can start to implement to guide them to, to the next step in their, their business?

Claire 29:20

If you feel like everything is a mess, like, if you are listening to this and you're like, "Oh, I think that's me," like, "She's definitely calling me out," write it down. Like, start writing everything down that you do. Start... If you are not already writing it down, if you're not tracking your time, start tracking your time, start writing it down. See where you're really spending time on what you enjoy doing and what you don't enjoy doing. And what are you actually, what are you actually doing? Are you... Like, literally just write it down. This is, like, the, what we say when people come to us and they're like, "I think I need help." What do you need help with? And that is the first step that I always say is, like, spend a week or three days or whatever, write down everything that you do and how long it takes you, and figure out where are you actually spending your time. And where are you, are you spending your time more in what you don't wanna be doing, or are you actually spending your time in what you want to be doing? And then go from there. And that's the first thing. Do it today. Start writing everything down. Start tracking your time. Start to be very aware of where everything is going for you.

Stoy 30:30

Okay, so they've done that, right? I said it was a two-parter- It's a two-parter and you walked right into it, so it's great, uh, for the content perspective. So they've done that, right? Now they've written everything down. What is the next step or the first thing they can do to start to take things off of their plate, right? We've recognized it. Now what is the first step to actually taking those things off of their plate and onto someone else like you?

Claire 30:51

Um, find me on Instagram and we can have a conversation. Um, I would really look at the... If what you're finding is you're spending too much time on the social media part, but you wanna be spending more time on the client work piece of it, start researching or start asking questions about is there somebody out there that does this piece of it? If what you're doing is spending so much time reorganizing your inbox, getting back to clients, putting things on your calendar, rescheduling, all of that admin kind of stuff, and you're like, "Oh my God, there has to be somebody out there that does that," there probably is. Start doing your research. Um, start doing your research on it. That is the best place to start, and start asking questions of like, "Is there somebody out there that can fix this?" On Threads we see all the time people that are like, "Does somebody do this?" And you'll have one million different recommendations of people that are like, "Yeah, I can help you with that," or, "No, I know somebody that does that though." So that is where I would take it. Once you've written it all down, you've realized, "Okay, this is what this process is," or, "This is what I want this to look like. What do I do with this now?" Get the right help for that problem. Research, ask questions. Um, if you work with Stoy, he has a great collective of people that he can recommend for you. Um, check Instagram. Just really do your research on getting the right people in. Always interview more than one person. If you decide you do need help, always interview more than one person. Even if the first person you talk to is amazing, just to set a baseline, talk to somebody else just to get an idea. Um- And yeah, also start to be okay with letting those things go. Imagine what it would feel like to not have to spend that time. Really sit with, like, "If I didn't have to do this, what else could I be doing?" And I think that's the final push of, like, if I wasn't always so stressed out about what to post on social media, I could be more in the client work. Or if I wasn't so caught up with checking my email or getting back to these things or rescheduling or whatever, I could actually spend my time doing more of what I wanted, and that's kind of the last make or break of, like, it's time to get somebody else to help mitigate and get that off your plate.

Stoy 33:00

Okay, folks. You got your plan, right? First, write everything down, figure it out, and then start to research what you can take off your plate, whether it's through our collective, right? Everyone, go to nobswealth.com. It'll be everywhere. Come be a part of that. You can reach out to any one of them. They're, we're ready for you, right? Um, by the time this comes out, hopefully Claire's page is updated so you actually have her out there. If not, she's on Instagram. We'll have her stuff all over, um, this podcast anyway. And do reach out, right? At the end of the day, we talk about this on every podcast, is we're here to help you, and we only can help you if you ask, right? We, we can't be in your brain. We can't figure things out for you unless you're willing to have help and ask. And so we just say reach out. Comment, DM, I don't care. Figure it out. Reach out to one of us and we'll get those things done. Claire, first of many, by the way, coming up for you. Um, but, uh, welcome aboard.

Claire 33:53

I am so happy to be here. This was so fun.

Stoy 33:56

Awesome. All right. Well, till next time, everybody.

NoBS Wealth 34:13

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