She's That Founder: Business Strategy, Time Management and AI Magic for Impactful Female Leaders

076 | How Smart CEOs Build SOPs Without Boring Themselves (or Their Teams)

• Dawn Andrews • Season 2 • Episode 76

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Let me guess — your team still pings you for every little thing, and that SOP you swore you'd write is still just a blank Google Doc mocking you from your drive.

This episode isn’t about operations — it’s about freedom. Because if your business can’t run without you, you’re not leading a business… you’re babysitting one. Today, I’ll show you how smart CEOs use SOPs that scale — without boring themselves (or their team) to death. And yes, we’re making SOPs sexy again. Let’s go.

In this episode, you’ll learn…

  • Why SOPs aren’t documentation, they’re delegation 
  • The 3-step founder-friendly formula to creating systems fast
  • How AI tools  can cut your SOP creation time in half

This episode at a glance:

[02:32]- SOPs don’t fail because they’re unimportant, they fail because founders write them like robots.

[03:43]- If your business can’t run without you, it doesn’t scale.

[13:51]- AI doesn’t replace your brain,it skips the parts that drain it

[15:04]- SOPs may not scream show me the money, but they absolutely help you keep the money.

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

Want to increase revenue and impact? Listen to “She's That Founder” for insights on business strategy and female leadership to scale your business. Each episode offers advice on effective communication, team building, and management. Learn to master routines and systems to boost productivity and prevent burnout. Our delegation tips and business consulting will advance your executive leadership skills and presence.

Dawn Andrews:

Let me guess your team still pings you for every little thing, and that SOP You promised to write to reduce the amount of things that they're pinging you for is still sitting in a blank google doc mocking you.

Dawn Andrews:

This episode isn't about operations. It's about freedom, because if your business can't run without you, it's not a business. It's a burnout trap.

Dawn Andrews:

Today I'm showing you how smart CEOs build SOPs that scale without boring themselves or their team to death. Let's get into it. Welcome to she's that founder the show for ambitious women ready to lead with clarity and scale with confidence.

Dawn Andrews:

I'm Dawn Andrews, business strategist and executive coach, and today, we're solving one of the most frustrating blockers between you and your next level, how to get what's in your brain out of your brain and out of your way and into your business if you're building big while dodging burnout. This episode's for you.

Dawn Andrews:

Do you have SOP shame? You know you should have standard operating procedures that they should actually be written down. Every business, book, podcast, every bro on LinkedIn says so. But when you sit down to write one, your soul quietly leaves your body. You tell yourself, I'll do it when I have more time. But you never do And meanwhile, your team still can't answer simple questions without slacking. You first, you're still stuck reviewing invoices or chasing updates, approving deliverables, like the human version of duct tape, holding it all together. And if that hit a nerve and you're tired of MacGyvering it, and if you get that reference, I love you.

Dawn Andrews:

It's good because you're not lazy. You're just missing a better way. Hey, founder friends, if SOPs have been sitting on your to do list for months, grab the AI for founders playbook. It's full of smart templates AI prompts and step by step workflows to get you out of the weeds and into real leadership. And it also includes several custom built AI agents that you can put into play right away. Head to the show notes or dawn andrews.com and get unstuck today.

Dawn Andrews:

Okay, let me set the scene for you a little bit. I was working with Emma, a powerhouse founder in video production. She's got dream clients, a rock star team, and yet she can't take a single Friday off. She also always has her laptop open on family vacations. Every single thing runs through her every damn time she told me, I've tried to write SOPs, but every time I start, I either get bored out of my mind or overwhelmed because I'm trying to explain every single detail.

Dawn Andrews:

Here's the deal. SOPs don't fail because they're unimportant. They fail because founders try to write them like robots instead of humans. You don't need to write the perfect document. You need to stop being the bottleneck. We all need to stop being the bottleneck, and that starts with one tiny mindset shift. So here's the shift ready? I'm rubbing my hands together because I'm so excited. SOPs are not about documentation. I know we all think they are right, we do, but that's not true. They're about delegation. They are not corporate red tape. They are trust on paper.

Dawn Andrews:

If you're having challenges letting things go, if you're having challenges with trust, with your team, SOPs are your way out. Did you know that teams with strong SOPs are 21% more profitable. That's not fluff, that is impact, and when done right, SOPs build confidence and autonomy across your team. They protect your time without sacrificing your standards, and they lay the foundation for the future. Because if you're not handling everything, you get to think about the possibility of everything. SOPs unlock scale.

Dawn Andrews:

And if your business can't run without you, it doesn't scale. Let that land for a second every time you avoid systematizing your work, you're choosing short term ease over long term freedom, even if the ease doesn't feel that easy, what you're saying yes to is more control, but you're saying no to scaling. So what do we do instead? Here is a founder friendly formula that actually works, record, refine, repeat. And I'm going to take a quick detour here, because I know someone listening is wondering, What does writing SOPs like a robot actually mean? Like, what are you talking about?

Dawn Andrews:

Here's what I mean. Writing SOPs like a robot, it means that you're writing like you're performing the act of creating an SOP for some imaginary operations overlord. Maybe you're trying to mimic like the operations manual for your Roomba, you know what I mean? We've been trained that operating instructions look like all of these ridiculous manuals that we can't stand anymore, and thankfully we can throw away because we could save the PDFs you don't need to write your SOPs for your company like that.

Dawn Andrews:

They could have joy and silliness and your own personal brand voice in them and write them like you're talking actually to one person, not in super hyper technical language. So you just need to make sure that whatever you write gets the job done for you. What it looks like when you're writing like a robot is you're over explaining every step. It's exhausting. You're probably using stiff corporate language, like utilize instead of use boring. Or you're trying to write it perfectly instead of just capturing what works, just the amount that works, which is overthinking and overdoing my friends, in your SOPs, you are teaching your team how to repeat something reliably.

Dawn Andrews:

So write like a human, talk like a human, talking to another human, build your SOP like a human. Now back to it. So I just shared that the three steps to creating a great SOP are record, refine and repeat. Super easy way to create SOPs. Step one, record. Don't write a doc. Just jump on Zoom or loom or tango and turn on your computer and record. I just did that on a call with one of my team members today. I was walking through our air table system. We were already in the middle of a conversation. I stopped recording the zoom that we were already in, started recording again and walked through airtable and then stopped the recording and returned to our conversation again. I did it on the fly, actually, as we were having a conversation.

Dawn Andrews:

So here's a simple way to record if you're not in a conversation with somebody else describing something, if you want to brain dump what it is that you already know about the process before you jump on Zoom and record it. That's cool. You have a little bit of an outline, but you don't even necessarily need to spend the time doing that. What I want to challenge you to do is open zoom or loom or Tango hit record, share your screen and do the task while you narrate it casually in real words, real speak, mistakes and all, I want you to share it like you're training a smart friend.

Dawn Andrews:

This is how I finally got past my own SOP block, because every time I tried to write one, I froze. In fact, the first time I did it with Tango, it actually kicked me out because I had done something that I thought was simple that turned out to be more than 100 steps. And it gave me a little message that said, Hey, girl, from our deep experience in creating SOPs, everything under 100 steps is usually more effective. I totally got shamed by Tango friends. In fact, I recommend 10 Steps. They may have some sub steps, but I recommend 10. So I had gone into so much detail that I broke tango and they told me to knock it off.

Dawn Andrews:

So this is how I got through my own SOP block. Every time I tried to write one, not record one, I froze. My brain would spin. What if I forgot a step? What if it's too long? What if they still do it wrong? What if I haven't given it enough detail, but once I just hit record and talked it out like I was talking to a smart friend ready to take on the task, it all flowed and the same for my team. Once they stopped trying to sound official like businessy business lady, they just talked like humans, and they got it done in half the time and sometimes even faster. So open your tool, hit record, share your screen, share the meeting.

Dawn Andrews:

The next step, and then refine it. Let me share the next step, refine. What I want you to do is take that video from loom, zoom, Tango, etc, send it to your VA, your admin assistant, your team lead, and have zoom or otter transcribe it with all the instructions transcribed and the video. Have the team review it and turn it into a checklist or a draft document, nothing fancy, just clear.

Dawn Andrews:

Have your team put the A and the A one and the B and the b1 and the 2b, two, etc, like, have them put that into the outline format for you, because not only will it help you clarify your thoughts to make sure you got everything out. They will learn just by editing that document. If you can give it to the person that will be responsible for doing the task, they can actually do the editing and learn while they're creating the SOP with you, which has another benefit of creating buy in, because we want people to use the SOPs.

Dawn Andrews:

So you can see how all this is starting to stack together, and hopefully you're feeling a little sexier about SOPs. I know that I am. I mean, maybe I'm just a nerd, but I'm hoping that's true for you. The last step we've got, record, refine, and then repeat. So repeat is where the magic happens. What you do next is you and your team or your team member walk through the SOP, live together every single line, every single step, find the friction, have them ask questions, clarify, add links and jus it up together.

Dawn Andrews:

This will smooth out the whole SOP process, because you'll find out from your team or the person responsible for the task what wasn't clear and what you shared, maybe where you over shared, so that the next one you create together will be even more refined and go even faster, because you're not just handing off a task. You're saying, Help me. Help you. Yes, that is a Jerry Maguire reference. Yes. I mean it. It is one of my favorite movies. Yeah. You or your team, walk through it, tweak it where it's needed, mark it done, save it where everybody expects to find it. And do quick links back to it as well.

Dawn Andrews:

And put shortcuts to it everywhere if you need to, so that people know where to look it up and what it's called, created, SOP, done. You don't need to be overly fancy here you're a founder of an early stage and growing and scaling company. You do not need to try and run it like it's a corporation. But if you create strong SOPs, when you scale up to those next levels, you can just roll this into your SharePoint or whatever other tool you're using for company information, knowing that you have clarity, confirmed steps, buy in and a place that people can find it easily, which is amazing.

Dawn Andrews:

If you're still tempted to include every single detail and edge case and contingency plan, here's your antidote. Stop trying to upload your entire brain into a document. Just make sure that it's the 80% that is repeatable, and you'll be able to figure that out when you go through it with your team. Teach the what and the how, and let your team grow into the why. You're teaching and your SOPs are the what and the how, and you're letting your team grow into the why. The folks that are responsible for the Why are your strategy people, usually your mid to higher level leaders, they can figure out the why and are learning both on the job and from you. But when it comes to SOPs, we just need to get stuff done. So stop making it so hard. Think of it like teaching somebody to cook your favorite dish. You don't need to explain the science of garlic. You just need to show them when to stir and how high to turn the heat up or down. SOPs aren't recipes for robots. They're invitations to autonomy for you and your whole team.

Dawn Andrews:

So let me take the food analogy one step further, because if you know me, you know I love the bear. Yes, chef, I do that show gets it. I mean, if you want a master class in creating SOPs, watch the bear in cooking, you can freestyle a pasta dish, no recipe, no measurement, just vibes, especially if you're cooking for one person, but if you're baking, or you're cooking for more than one person, you never wing it. Baking especially requires precision structure, a clear, repeatable formula, otherwise your cake is going to collapse.

Dawn Andrews:

So SOPs are your business recipes. They're not about stifling creativity. They're about making sure your business doesn't sink like a sad souffle. You can absolutely still be creative. You can be fun. You can put this in your brand voice, you can tell your stories, but your systems, they do need structure. My hope, my greatest hope, is that this already feels like a weight off your chest. Imagine how much lighter your week could be if you were surrounded by other founders walking this same path with you.

Dawn Andrews:

This is my little invitation to you to join the AI for founders community on LinkedIn. It's a private community where we're sharing real stories, real examples, real SOPs and giving feedback live. The link for the private AI for founders community on LinkedIn, is in the show notes. So come join us and with all of this, let AI help you. Let ai do the boring part. Seriously. So here's how we use it. We've already talked about using zoom or loom or tango, all of those. Have AI assist.

Dawn Andrews:

We've talked about using otter so that you can get your transcriptions without somebody having to listen back or read through closed captions. You can also use chat GPT or Claude or any of these tools to turn your transcript into a checklist. You can use tools like scribe to auto generate the step by step from the screen recordings. Tango does the same, and depending upon how much you're using these, you can decide which one is the best price point for you. And of course, you can ask AI to suggest steps you may be missing, or to suggest the outline for what it is that you're about to do before you even begin describing it. Ai doesn't replace your brain. It just skips the part that drain it. So let tech do the bullet points. You focus on the big stuff.

Dawn Andrews:

Sound good if this episode made you finally want to dust off those dusty processes and delegate with confidence, grab the AI for founders playbook. It's your shortcut to smarter systems, faster delegation and fewer quick questions. The link is in the show notes, so go grab it. Okay, here's what we covered today. SOPs are not paperwork. They do not have to be boring, and they can be done really quickly in the flow of your existing work, because they are permission slips. To scale, you only need three steps to create an SOP record, refine, repeat, use AI. It's your first draft co writer and also your quality control agent.

Dawn Andrews:

So this is your challenge. Start with just one process this week, the one that bugs you the most, the one that you're tired of, the quick questions, the one your team keeps pinging you about, use your voice, use your tools, build it like the awesome human that you are not a robot, and if you want some founders in your corner while. You're doing this. Come join us inside the AI for founders group. Because honestly, SOPs might not yell, show me the money. I know it's a Jerry Maguire reference, but there you go. But they absolutely help you keep the money we are making. SOPs sexy again over here.

Dawn Andrews:

Oh, my friends, if you got a few light bulb moments, or if this just helped you, exhale a little bit more. Do me a favor. Do me a solid hit that follow button. Leave a review or share this episode with a founder friend who needs it. If you want more. Tools like this, you can download 10 Ways AI will make you a better leader@freerangethinking.com or come hang out in the AI for founders community on LinkedIn. I would love to see you there. I'll give you a big Virtual hug, because you don't need a bigger to do list. You need smarter strategy and support that actually works, and we've got it for you in big old buckets. So until next time, get it done. Girl, okay, Big hugs. Bye. You.