Systems Set You Free | Kate Guillen | The Sean Trace Show

In this episode of The Sean Trace Show, I sit down with Kate Guillen, founder of Simplicity Ops, to unpack why so many businesses collapse under their own growth and how simple systems are the real secret to scaling without losing your mind. 

Kate breaks down how complexity quietly kills momentum, why your team's chaos is almost always a direct reflection of your own energy as a leader, and what it actually means to build operations that hold up even when your key people go down unexpectedly. We talk about the trap of chasing new technology and AI tools that feel productive but move no needles, and why doing fewer things exceptionally well will always outperform trying to be everything to everyone. 

Kate also gets real about her own season of unlearning, and why the most powerful thing she ever did for her business was walk away from it for seven days. 

What's the one system in your life or business that you know needs to be simplified?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I think one thing that people misunderstand about leadership in business, about leadership in general, let's just say about leadership, is that your business is a direct reflection of you. Your energy, the way you communicate, your discipline, your consistency, your ability to handle pressure, right? I was talking about the advisor with the veins popping out of his neck, right? You can only imagine the impact that had on everybody else around him, right? And so we often focus so much on improving our business that we forget to improve on ourselves. And if I've learned anything, it's that you literally cannot pour into others if your cup is empty. And so I have I have two young daughters and I often suffer from mom guilt, feeling guilty about taking time for myself and not spending time with them or whatever, you know, whatever. Um and I I've learned, I've flipped that mindset upside down, and it has benefited me so greatly because it's actually the most selfish thing I can do is continue to do the thing that's burning me out. When actually the most selfless thing I can do is take the spa day, take the day off, go on the walk, take some space, put myself in time out when I need some space. When you try to pour into others with an empty cup, you lack presence, uh, patience, kindness, empathy, all the things that people love about you start to fade because you aren't taking care of yourself. And when you operate from that place, that's when I find that chaos shows up. It's hard to bring calm when you are not calm. And uh one of the sayings I go back to a lot uh that I think about is you get what you give.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Welcome everybody back to the Sean Trey Show. I've got a really awesome guest with me today, would you like to tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, you bet. My name is Kate Gehan. I am the founder of SimplicityOps. Uh, I have been working in the investment management industry since the beginning of 2013, supporting financial advisors in an admin and ops capacity. Uh, I recognized through this experience that advisors are wonderful people, people, but have a really hard time designing systems and processes to execute on the vision for their companies. Um, and so after having worked in an RIA for numerous years and implemented systems and processes and workflows and technology, I watched it work. I watched it grow the business, I watched it improve customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. And we loved our jobs, we loved what we did, and the clients were very happy. And I thought, man, this could be a really cool business idea if I could partner with other advisors looking to grow and scale their business by delivering an exceptional customer service experience. Uh, and so I started what is now known as SimplicityOps, which we are an operations consulting company that partners with advisors to help them deliver an exceptional customer service experience uh at scale by leveraging technology.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

That's awesome. How did Yeah, you got you kind of dove in how you got started in that, which is awesome as well. But I've got a question because one thing that I'm fascinated with is systems. I absolutely love how systems can revolutionize things, revolutionize businesses, revolutionize everything from the most minor of things in our daily life to our entire experience of humanity, like functioning together. But you help businesses turn chaos into systems. And I want to ask you like, why do so many companies grow successfully at first and suddenly start feeling overwhelmed and disorganized and things start falling apart?

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah, I think this is a great question. And it happens, I mean, in every business. I specifically work with financial advisors, but I watch it happen even in my own business. Because in the beginning, I think you can get by, which is like the grit and the hustle. Um, you add a team member, and you guys are working so closely together that you're kind of like extensions of one another. And so, at least in my experience, we were almost kind of like one mind. She was my mind reader. She knew exactly what to do, when to do it, because it was just the two of us working side by side for so long. Um, but naturally, as the business grows and you add more team members and you add more uh technology and more clients, um, that communication starts to break down a little bit. And that's when you really need to rely on systems and processes and you know, it's SOP standard operating processes to um outline and dictate how to execute on whatever the various, you know, whether it's a service request or any sort of repeatable thing that you're delivering on, it becomes very important to have that documented to ensure consistency and to set very clear expectations. Um, because when those are not in place, I heard somebody say one time, um, if the expectation isn't set by you, it's assumed by them. And you and I both know what happens when we make assumptions. I think the saying is it makes an ass out of you and me, and I could not agree with normal.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

100%. I uh I do a lot of content for companies, and my my main business is making videos. And one of the things that's interesting is that um I have a great team, but uh when these systems and the structure break down, we get errors. And when errors start happening and we're not having the system kind of check them, those errors start to compound. And an error could be a mistake in a video, it could be a missed phone call, it could be uh, you know, some type of thing where a ball is dropped. And at the end of the day, those little things, it's like death by a thousand cuts. The business will start to fall apart if you have too many of those happening. And one of the things that I have been really working with my team on is re-getting back to the systems, getting back to the and finding out if people can match the systems or if the systems need to adapt to match where people are at. It's it's complex, but it's interesting because uh, you know, complexity creates stress. And you've talked a lot about that. You know, why do humans naturally make things more complicated than they need to be?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Oh man, I ask myself that question all the time. I'm in a season right now of undoing and unlearning, and it's ironic because I literally named my business Simplicity because simplicity gets adoption, simplicity scales, complexity does the exact opposite of that. And even me, somebody who strives for like the utmost simple systems, can find myself in the chaos of complexity. And I'm in it a little bit right now, and I watch it so often with the advisors that we work with. And I just think that um complexity feels productive. And especially right now, we're like technology is advancing so quickly and AI and this and that. And we're just like, oh man, if I'm not keeping up on all the all this stuff, I'm gonna fall behind and we get excited and it feels productive and it feels like it feels like we're doing the right thing. But at the end of the day, when you step back, are you actually doing what's moving the needle? Because doing demos of technology and vetting a bunch of AI products, is it actually making you any more money? Have you been able to serve any more clients because of it? And if the answer is yes, keep doing it. But I find myself babysitting automations, vetting technology, getting overly excited, and none of it's actually moving the needle, you know? And um I think when you when you when you start to feel the chaos a little bit and you're like, what am I supposed to be working on? Why, you know, are there communication breakdowns? Why does the system feel hard? That's your that's your indication that you need to take a step back. And you usually, at least in my experience, the answer is we've overcomplicated the system. We've piled on too much technology, too much automation, too much AI, and it's hard to manage. And we actually like need somebody on our team to full-time babysit these systems, which defeats the purpose, in my opinion. So we're in a we're in a phase right now where we're stripping back some of this stuff to simplify it because it worked infinitely easier, infinitely better when it was in its simplest form. Right. So I I take that, the, the chaos as the indicator that you've overcomplicated something.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

I love, absolutely love the original uh Craigslist. And actually, it still is pretty much in its original form. You know, you think about Craigslist, it is a simple, like waterfall type base thing that you know, around the world you can click in cars and you type the type of car, and the website has been kept as basic as it looked. Like, hey kiddos, uh, if you go on Craigslist now, it's the same way it looks when I was a kid. Like it is, it hasn't changed. It is it hasn't changed because it hasn't needed to. And you see things that the systems continue to evolve. I have a uh certain service that I use for recording podcasts uh that will go unnamed that has continued to roll out new features, and the features continue to complicate things. And one of the things is for a period of time, I had to stop using that service because they weren't recording podcasts well. My podcast kept dropping. And it's like when you get so much complexity in something and you lose focus of your core goal as a company, you can get you you have to have that, you know, re-evaluation moment of what is it that we're really trying to do and get back to the basics, you know?

SPEAKER_01 10:22

I could not agree more with that. And I think by nature, we're just excitable beings and we get excited about what's new. Um, but I liken it, I've had this experience a couple of times, um, where I start thinking about like, oh, well, we should be doing this and we should be doing that, and we should be doing this, and we should be doing that. And then I'm like, hold on a second. We're good. We're really good at one thing. Stick to your really the one thing that you're really good at and surround yourself with other people that are really good at all the other things to create a really well-rounded service offering, but you don't need to be masterful at all of it. And it reminds me of going to like um the Cheesecake Factory, and they've got like a 36-page menu. And it's like, there's no way in hell you're doing all of that well, right? And then you go to the mom and pop a ballion place and they've got like the four items on the menu, and they're exceptional. They're exceptional. And it's the place you tell your friends about. And anybody that comes to town, you take them there for dinner, and it's like any special occasion, that's where you're going. Um, and I think that's something when you're in a service-based business to keep in mind that like you don't need to be all things to all people. It's actually way more respectable to do one thing exceptionally well and be well connected so that you can solve all of the other problems that we need to create, you know, whatever the solution is, but you don't need to be the person to do it all.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

100%. I am fascinated by that as well. There is a restaurant right around the corner that I love to eat at. It's not a restaurant, it is a street stall, street food. It's a little cart, and uh, her name is Go Tiang. And Jiang sells the most amazing duck noodle soup. Ridiculously delicious. And she has three dishes. She's got duck noodle soup, she's got a vegetarian uh like herbal broth with um with uh noodles and veggies, and it's like Chinese medicine mix in there, like all these really healthy herbs. And then she has a right uh like a rice porridge with the with duck.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

That's all she's got. Three dishes. And she is slammed from morning to evening, and you know, she sells out of everything every day. Absolutely everything is sold out every day. And I reference it all the time because if she added 25 extra things to her menu, it would not have the same value. It would not be the same, it would not be as good. But instead, she's doing those things that she does extremely well. And I think that that's something we we are driven to do more. And people are told that you want to do this, you need to push harder, push further, go farther, go faster. And the reality is, is like, I think that we companies have missed it. And I think that these simplified systems are what it's really all about.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

You just said something really interesting. You're like, you know, people are telling us to push harder, this and that. I don't think anybody's saying that. I think you're saying that. I think we get in our own heads. Right. Because the the the stoop lady, okay, if if she started making 25 things, you start to question her sanity. She's someone who deeply knows her value.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

And if you deeply knowed your value, you would have the confidence to say no to absolutely everything else. And so I don't think it's so interesting we're having this conversation because I'm totally the pot calling the kettle black right now. And this is a very conversation to be having, even with myself, like I actually do know my value. I know what we do very, very, very well. And I'm letting society and social media and all the things get in my own head, saying that I need to diversify what we're doing. When in fact, we just need to stick with what we do best and continue to deepen that and go deeper instead of wider, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

I love what you're saying right now. Cause it to me is exactly what I what I'm telling myself, you know, but I as well feel the urge to kind of do more and let's let's let's offer more stuff. But like I want to ask you this. If someone who has no idea what this word means comes to you and says, what does operations actually mean? How would you explain that?

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Um, operations is how you get it done. And so uh how's it let's say I was talking to a fifth grader, okay? I would just I would liken it to something maybe that resonates with them. Let's say a lemonade stand.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

So we want to run a lemonade stand. What do we need to run a lemonade stand? Well, we need a, we need a table, we need a sign, we need a marker, we need lemons, we need sugar, we need water, we need a big, you know, uh container that we can with a core spout, we need cups. Okay, who has all that stuff? Okay, Sean, you bring this, I'll bring this. You know, there's some there's some organization, orchestration around getting the lemonade stand upright, right? We gotta, we gotta make the product, and then we have to sell it. Are we making signs and twirling them on the corner? Are we going door to door? Are we staying on a busy road? Like those are the operations that go into running a uh a lemonade stand. And so I mean, simply put, I just think it's how you get things done.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah. I um for a long time people ask me, what do I do with video content? Why, why am I different from someone else? And I said, I I've got one thing that I've learned over the years. I'm like, what's that? I said, I get stuff, I get stuff done. It gets done. Like, and I will put systems in place to get it done. And, you know, and the the system that worked yesterday might not work today. We might have to completely go back to the drawing board because, you know, the nature of what we're creating evolves, the nature of what we're doing evolves. And it's interesting because as a as a as a as a business owner and as a boss, it's up to me to make sure that I am preparing my teams for success. And you said many employees are thrown into jobs with almost no training. And I see that so often. But like, why do companies do such a bad job teaching people how to succeed in their company?

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah, this is a wonderful question and something that we are very actively working to solve. And I'll bring it back to just my personal example and uh pardon my French, but the story's funny. Uh, I was 23, 22, 23, when I got into the business. And um, I was hired because I had a strong administrative skill set and I knew the financial advisor's wife because we worked out together. And she said, My husband's looking for an assistant. I know you've worked, you know, in admin roles. You know, you should go meet him. So I met him. He hired me. I didn't know the difference between a stock and a bond. And he was like a traditional stock broker, okay? And I showed up day one on the job, and he was kind of a tough guy. Um, didn't mince his words. He was a real I grew to love him, but he was a little intimidating, um, big personality. And I showed up day one and he looked at me and he goes, Hey, welcome. Uh, so here's the plan. Listen, uh, I'm not gonna teach you shit. And I looked at him and I my heart dropped, and I thought, man, well, I don't know shit. Like, who's gonna teach me then? You know? And and he's like, You're gonna sit in on every phone call, every meeting, every appointment, you're gonna listen, you're gonna take notes, and you're gonna ask questions and you're gonna figure it out. And I thought, okay, well, I can do that. You know, luckily the industry is super interesting, and he was meeting, you know, we had lots of meetings, and so it was, it was um a heck of a learning experience. And at the time we didn't have things like ChatGPT, I had Investopedia. So when I didn't understand terminology or the language that was being spoken, I could go to Investopedia and I could educate myself. But I didn't feel like confident in my job for years. Like they probably didn't see a return on their investment for two years. And I was just limping by. And we were in a broker dealer, so there weren't other people that were willing to like share their knowledge with me because we were all technically in competition with one another. So it was not, it was not great. And, you know, I educated myself, I learned a lot, you know, I became a very good CSA. And I ended up moving to an RIA where I even deepened my education, but I had an advisor who like, you know, wrapped his arms around me and wasn't like, I'm gonna teach you the ins and outs of this business. He teed me up for success. But today, you know, almost 15 years later, um, it continues to be the most turned over position in investment management firms. Um, the advisors, I don't think that my advisor was a jerk. I just think he didn't know how to train me. I also don't think he was ever in my position. He didn't know what I did. He didn't know what went into to preparing custodial paperwork or what needed to happen in the back office to like execute on all the things he was handing to me. He just needed me to get the job done. And he was so busy doing his day-to-day, he didn't have the time or capacity or maybe even skill set to be able to um develop that for me. Um, and it wasn't until I joined an RIA where Brad really poured deeply into me that I got to get some of that training. But I was like, man, I have got to solve this for other advisors that um don't have the time or capacity to pour into their client service associate. And even more so, I talked to advisors that have a hard time finding somebody that has industry experience. And they need to be able to hire Kate at 23 and plug her in and give her, you know, the training and the education around just like how to speak the language. I call it speaking advisor, so they can actually like and understand the context behind what they're doing. And it's so interesting as we've been rolling out this training that I thought it was gonna be for, you know, eight that didn't speak the language as a kid, um, that needed to understand, you know, context. But now some of the students that are in our academy have been in the business for numerous years and still don't have the context. They still are like doing the work and executing, but don't understand the different types of accounts. They don't understand the different tax ramifications around, you know, what's happening and the impact if they were to move money out of the wrong account. They just don't understand the why. And that's why their job is stressful. That's why they don't want to hang out, and that's why the position turns over. That's why advisors are frustrated with them. Um, and so I really want to solve that for my four-year-old self and for all these advisors that are good people doing good work for good clients that just need rock solid support and they don't have whether it's the skill set or the capacity, we could argue about what that, you know, that is um to pour into and develop their client service folks.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

I love that. You know, it's like it's interesting too because um one of the things that I see is that there's a lot of business owners and people, just people in life who feel trapped by whether it's their business or some other uh situation, you know? And what do you think it is that makes business owners specifically feel trapped or feel free? You know, I mean, I guess it could apply to so many other areas of life as well, but let's focus on business for now.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah, I think this is a great question. I think it ties really nicely into what. We were just talking about those advisors that don't have capacity to pour into their new hire are exactly the people that are trapped. Yeah. Okay. And so I'll give you an example of an advisor that I worked with who um, man, his office was pure chaos. He was chaos. You could like see it in his neck, you know, like you could see the tension in the way that he carried himself day to day. Um and it was a result, the the trapped feeling he was feeling, the fire drills that were his office, the chaos that was his life was a result of having no structure.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

And I think that is true when I have felt the most at peace, when I have felt the most free in my life and in my business, is because I have very clear structure. Um, and what that looks like is um you have clarity around, I don't know why I use this analogy, the seats on your bus. You have a you have a small bus with limited seats, and and that bus is your business. And you're very clear on what those seats are and who you need to fill each one of those seats. And um when the bus, when the seats are clear and you have the right people in the seats, the business pums. And it's because everybody knows exactly what they're expected to do. They know exactly their role in the organization, and that level of clarity builds confidence. And confident employees don't quit. Confident employees like their job. We all show up every day wanting to do a really good job. Nobody shows up to suck. It sucks to suck, right? And it's really hard to do a really good job when the expectations aren't clear. And the best way to set expectations is to have systems and processes and workflows in place that say, hey, Sean, when I ask you to do this, this is exactly what I mean. Right? And it's not, we're not trying to create robots here. We're trying to help build your confidence so you feel really good about what you are doing. And the ripple-down effect of a confident team is confident clients. If you show up with confidence, your clients are gonna have more confidence in you. And in, you know, in the investment management world, we are running businesses solely built on trust. And the best way to develop trust and to deepen that trust and that connection is to deliver an exceptional customer service experience at scale across your entire team. And the only way that you can do that is with very uh clear systems and processes to articulate exactly how we want to run our client service experience.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

I love that. You know, and those systems are something that give that structure, they give that framework. Like a kid who wants to get, my daughter wants to get go to a good school. She's finishing up her, her, her level one school and like grade school, and she's getting ready for middle school. And it's really competitive. I didn't know it was so competitive for middle schools in Vietnam, but it's interesting because we've been trying to figure out what is the framework that that we're supposed to be using. Um because honestly, it is it's not clear. It's really not clear, and it's a little bit confusing at times as to how to proceed, you know, and one of the things that I think is is when you can get that clarity from the system, it makes it much easier for people to find that success. And you've worked closely with founders and advisors. What's something that people misunderstand about leadership and about success?

SPEAKER_01 25:57

It's a fabulous question. And uh I'm gonna I'm gonna get a little woo-woo here. Uh oh, go for it. Don't mind me. Um, I think one thing that people misunderstand about leadership in business, about leadership in general. Let's just say about leadership, yeah, is that your business is a direct reflection of you. Your energy, the way you communicate, your discipline, your consistency, your ability to handle pressure, right? I was talking about the advisor with the veins popping out of his neck, right? You can only imagine the impact that had on everybody else around him, right? Yeah. And so we often focus so much on improving our business that we forget to improve on ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

And if I've learned anything, it's that you literally cannot pour into others if your cup is empty.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

And so I have I have two young daughters, and I often suffer from mom guilt, feeling guilty about taking time for myself and not spending time with them or whatever, you know, whatever. Um, and I I've learned, I've flipped that mindset upside down, and it has benefited me so greatly because it's actually the most selfish thing I can do is continue to do the thing that's burning me out. When actually the most selfless thing I can do is take the spa day, take the day off, go on the walk, take some space, put myself in time out when I need some space. Um because when you try to pour into others with an empty cup, uh, everybody feels it. It's it's a lack, you know, you don't show up uh you you lack presence, uh, patience, kindness, empathy, all the things that people love about you um start to fade because you aren't taking care of yourself. Um and when you operate from that place, that's when I find that chaos shows up. Um it's hard to bring calm when you are not calm. And um one of the sayings I go back to a lot uh that I think about is you you get what you give. And so if you're giving chaos and nervous and burnt out energy, what do you expect to get in return? Right. And I learned this the hard way uh a couple of years ago, where I have a core team member who I absolutely adore, and she looked at me and she's like, um, hey, things run better when you're not here. And I was like, well, that stings. And I did some reflecting on it. I understood what she meant. I was, I was nervous, I was chaotic, business wasn't going very good. I had made some bad decisions, and I've been so conditioned by society or being raised by, you know, government employed and parents that like I thought that like the only way I was gonna turn this around was like having my butt in the seat in my office. And it was the exact opposite that actually helped me get out of that. And I had a great mentor at the time who said, you need to be doing anything except working, sitting in your office. The work you need to be doing right now is on yourself. You actually have all of the answers if you take the space to go think. So, where are you gonna go think? And I left my office for seven days and I sat in my backyard in beautiful, sunny Southern California in a hammock and got really comfortable not working. And I realized through that experience that that Catherine on my team was 100% right. I needed some space. I needed to give them some space, let them my nervous energy was really affecting all of them. And thank goodness she had the the the uh we had a relationship like that where she could tell me to go kick rocks and take some space because it it totally gave me the clarity that I needed to turn it around. So I think about that when you're in moments of like chaos or disorganization, that like maybe the most insane thing is to keep doing what you're doing. Isn't that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Maybe do the exact opposite thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Right, do the exact opposite thing and see how things change, see how it shifts.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Uh, because I think that like what's the worst case situation, you know?

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Right? You know, it's like it's seriously, like I have this one song that I had written for my wife. My wife is a famous singer in Vietnam. And it the song's called What If, What If. Okay, but this like the full lyrics are What If It All Works Out. Like that's the hook of the song. You know, I think we're so often preparing for things to fall apart that we forget that we can engineer systems to make them work out, you know. And uh you we are designing the system so often from a state of being mentally exhausted and going, I gotta fix it so that I'm not exhausted anymore. But when you're designing that system in that place, sometimes you're putting that energy in there, you know? And I want to ask you this. Yeah, you know, a lot of people feel mentally exhausted all the time, but how much of that comes from poor systems and constant chaos instead of just working hard, you know?

SPEAKER_01 31:28

I mean, I 99% of it. Yeah. I um I think back to one of the the um most free times of my life as a business owner was in November of this year. Um, I got to go to Hawaii with my family for a week and I did not bring a laptop. Um, and it was because I had full faith in my team. I had the right people in the right seats. My bus was was immaculate. Uh, we had workflows and systems in place. We had great clients, everyone, everything was humming. Um, and the same is true about the advisors that we work with. It's um the chaos is just a result of a lack of clarity. And um, the only way that you're gonna get that clarity is by having a clear vision on what the goal is, the why, why are you doing what you're doing? And you kind of like reverse engineer it and figure out, okay, so how do I do that? Who on who do I need to be able to do that? And what are they going to be doing? Um, and it really does it probably sound like a broken record, but it really does come down to structure. You need to have a clear structure in place for who you serve, what are you doing, who's gonna be doing it, um, and then documenting those processes so that everybody knows exactly how to operate so that the leader, so that anybody can take a break. Shoot, somebody on my team got really sick this year. Okay, she was in the hospital for 20 of 90 of the first days of the year. That there is, there is, there has never talked about breaking a system, okay? Having a core person on a small team be out unexpectedly.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

And so this is something that everybody needs to keep in mind. If you, if somebody on your team needed to be out for 20 days without any sort of like transition or handoff, could you do it? If the answer is even slightly no, your systems aren't that good. And we're the systems and processes people. And it took us numerous days, numerous days to be like, okay, we got this. We can pick up where she left off. That that does not feel good to a business, to anybody in the business, whether you're the leader of the organization or you're whether you're one of the uh team members. It's an uneasy feeling. And you know, lucky for me, I got a kick-ass team of people, and we're able to pick it up. Um, but it's something that everybody needs to ask themselves. I think that's a really important question. And if you waver or hesitate on that at all, it's time to assess your systems and make sure that they are absolutely dialed and buttoned in so somebody could leave unexpectedly and it wouldn't break. It wouldn't be a breakdown.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

I love that. You know, you talk a lot about structure and simplicity. And, you know, we we've been dancing around this, but why do simple systems often work better than complicated ones?

SPEAKER_01 34:24

I think it comes back to what we've been talking about. I think it's clarity. I think um people uh we tend to think that complexity means sophistication. Um, that, you know, there's more tools and more steps and more meetings and more process. Like, I just that that that complexity is what creates the friction, the chaos and things that we're talking about. The the businesses that can't operate without their leader, um, there's too much friction because it's too freaking complicated. And the friction creates inconsistency and the inconsistency creates stress. And like you were you were talking about earlier, um, that's when balls get dropped, that's when errors are made. And um, the simplicity removes that friction by removing unnecessary decisions and communication, and it just creates clarity around um what's expected of you and what needs to happen next. And it's easier for people to understand, which means you're gonna get greater adoption. And that's the whole point is mutual adoption of these systems to ensure consistency. And um I I I I just I just think you gotta keep it simple. I I I I don't know what how else to um I think we all know what it feels like to be part of a system that's over engineered and you're constantly asking, like, why are we doing this? Um and you know, when you start to feel that chaos and that feeling around um a lack of clarity, that's when you need to take a step back and assess what you're working on. And you know, you had said something earlier, like you need to be flexible and you need to, you need your systems need to evolve. But it's also it perfectly acceptable to go backwards. If the system evolves to fit and meet your needs at whatever phase of life you're at, great. But if it starts to break down after that evolution, um, it's perfectly acceptable to go back to the simple system in its original form and adapt from there.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

I absolutely love that. One of my favorite simple systems was something that I'm gonna date myself here. But um, Southwest Airlines when it first started getting going. Do you remember Southwest's original boarding stuff? They had the plastic tickets. And what you would do when you came to Southwest, this is a long time ago, and Southwest had these 737s where they had seats that faced each other. It was a really weird, it felt like a party bus. But what it was really weird. They had these seats, they there was one table, you got to sit and like stare at these other people on the flight for these short hauls, it was whatever, but there was like a little table in the middle. Well, they had this boarding method that was essentially you show up, the first person that shows up gets ticket number one, the second person ticket number two. And it was just the whole airplane. And when you got there, you got your plastic ticket. You lined up, and everyone had the plastic ticket. There was no cheating. You saw, oh, you got five, I'm six. And then boom, you just line up in order. And they they did it in sections, but like people would get there and they would get there really early, and there was none of this boarding this group, boarding this priority premium. It was the fastest boarding experience I have ever been on. And the wild thing is, is when you got on the plane, there was no assigned seats. You sat anywhere you wanted, and the whole goal was to get people to arrive early, and then they would be organized when they got on. There was none of this, like, some people run to the back, some people sit at the front, and the airplane. I still, in all my years of flying, and I fly a lot, have never had a faster boarding experience in my life. These plastic tickets, you come, you show up, and people were polite. They got there on time, and like then they they everyone had to start creating complexity in these systems. You know, oh, well, we've got this group. We need to have these, you know what? High-level business people and you know, your regular Joe, average Joe, were showing up at the same time and boarding quick. And that was beautiful. But I think that we get obsessed with more complexity thinking that it's better, but so often it is not.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

That's been my experience. I I just find that complexity, um, it just has the complete opposite effect. It it erodes the clarity, it erodes the trust, it makes it hard to understand, and people aren't going to be willing, people aren't going to buy into something they don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Yeah. Right? I want to ask you uh one more question. Um, if someone's listening right now, if someone listening right now feels overwhelmed, disorganized, or just constantly behind in life, what's the first practical thing they can do to regain control in their lives?

SPEAKER_01 39:30

We kind of talked about this earlier, but I just want to reiterate this. Stop doing whatever you're doing right now that isn't working.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Um take a step back and figure out how you can simplify things. Um, and ask yourself questions around are, you know, are you doing the high value work? Um, because I I often find when I when I'm feeling overwhelmed, I'm like sucked into emails or sucked into admin things that is not really the highest and best use of my tying. Like, why am I doing that stuff? Do I have a system in place to be able to delegate that to somebody else? Um, try to find, try to create more capacity for yourself. And it's a really, really hard thing to do when you're overwhelmed because you just feel like you're already bearing the weight of the world. And if you were to take a break, it's only going to compound. But what you're doing right now isn't working, and that's going to compound way faster than your email inbox if you take a break. And um we had talked about this earlier. Um, taking care of yourself. Do, you know, if if if sitting at your desk and doing the work isn't working, what do something that makes you happy? Go play pickleball, take the dog on a walk, uh play hookie and and go for a walk with your husband, you know, call your mom, like build yourself up, boost your confidence, do something that um, you know, how to do the opposite of whatever you're doing right now. I don't know if you if you follow their hermoses that I I uh saw something the other day. So I don't know if you watched the interview meeting he did with Tony Robbins, but like dude set insane goals for himself and it was like 10, you know, 10 million, 100 million, it's a billion, okay? And at every stage of success, he was more and more miserable. And like on the outside, he's got everything going for him. You know, he's running incredible businesses, he's, you know, um helping people. It seems like it's fulfilling, he's yoked, he's taking care of himself. And on the inside, uh, I think, I think Tony said something to him in the interview about like, well, like, what are you doing to like make yourself happy? He literally said, F happiness. And Tony's like, that's the problem. You're literally never gonna be happy because you never do anything for yourself to make yourself happy. And guess what? They're gonna have a baby. They did the exact opposite of what they've always always preached. They've always said, I'm gonna work 16 hours a day, or you know, 16 hours a day. You know, all we do is work and gym and work and gym, and this is how you crush your goals, and it's just all about hard work and grit and just, you know, you gotta just, it's it's all the grind. And you we don't have time for kids because it's about the grind. And that was not making them happy. And so they literally did the exact opposite of what they've been preaching, and now they're gonna focus on each other and their family. And I just think that is a perfect example of somebody who's achieved incredible success um and is still not fully fulfilled. And so if people feel that way, um, like I did in 2023, I did exactly the opposite of what wasn't working and I took space for myself to go sit in a hammock in the sun. So whether it's making babies or taking space to go sit in the sun in a hammock, do the exact opposite of what's making you feel overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

I love that. I absolutely love that. I think that there's so much to be learned from all this. And I think that, like, at the end of the day, you have to figure out what it is that is making all this important for you and worthwhile for you. I um the other day, uh we had an employee party. It was a tough week last week, and my workers we had set up this employee party, and I just wasn't feeling it. I had promised them all that we were gonna have this thing, and we finally, you know, I was like, all right, let's do this. And I wanted to have movie night at my office because we have this big white backdrop that we use for filming sometimes. And I said, I can make, I'm gonna get a projector, project stuff on the wall. We order popcorn, it's movie night at the office. You know, we got our own movie theater here, and everyone loved it, but I bought this this new type of projector uh that it just it's like so much better than all the old projectors. It's like 1080, super cheap, connects to Google, Netflix, it's like got Android on it. And it my wife and my daughter and I, we figured out that we can aim it at our ceiling, and now our ceiling, our ceiling has become like our movie theater. And we just lay up there, like my daughter started summer vacation and we've been watching movies every night. And that's that's it. Like, you know, and I I I'm doing podcasts right now, but I every time between each of my podcasts tonight, I ran up there and I laid down with my wife and daughter just for a couple minutes to stare at the ceiling and watch movies with them. And this weekend, I guarantee you we're gonna watch three or four movies together on our ceiling. And to me, like, you can have all the systems in the world, but if you don't have that why figured out, you you know, you're not gonna be really creating anything of meaning for yourself or anyone else, you know?

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Exactly. And it you're gonna be Alex Ramosy chasing billions of dollars and never being satisfied because it's not fulfilling. Uh so you got you gotta figure out the the the why behind it all. And it's unique to everybody, but I don't the the grind ain't it. You know what I mean? You gotta find a balance and a happiness between all of it and make it worth something.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Yeah, I love it. Where can people go to find out more about you and what you do?

SPEAKER_01 45:34

Sure. Um, I LinkedIn, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. I like to share my thoughts and things there. Uh I have a YouTube channel that's really fun. I have a personal YouTube channel that kind of just whatever I'm thinking about, kind of sharing my heart and my thoughts. I also have a we have a Simplicity ops business YouTube channel that's more uh uh educational, uh specific for financial advisors. Um those are probably the two best places to to catch us. We're active on you know uh Instagram and and Facebook and things like that. But I think for the most part, you know, reaching out uh on LinkedIn or on YouTube would be a good place to continue to uh stay connected.