“A system is … a vehicle for everybody involved in the ecosystem to make a decision. Whether that is me as a business owner, whether that is a member of my team, whether that is a client that I am working with, whether it is a member of my audience that is not yet a client or may not ever be, the whole goal here is how do we make decisions? That's it. Full stop.” - Nikki
Who hasn’t set up a system (or hired someone else to do so) that seems to make your efficiency dreams come true….
But then you spend more time fixing the automations than marketing your business
You cringe when you realize you paid an annual fee for a tool that was such a “good deal” at the time and now it’s collecting dust
An algorithm change breaks your flows, and you have nothing else to replace it
Or the worst? Who you hired either won’t give you the keys, didn’t deliver results (while still charging that monthly fee) or has left you with tech and tools you don’t know how to use.
“I can't tell you how many people have come to me after having worked with another firm and been like ‘I don't even know what they did, but they charged me this many hundreds of dollars a month. And now they either own my website, I can't get access to my website, or they said that they optimize it and I'm afraid to touch my website without them getting mad at me.’” - Meg
The alternative? Embracing Simplicity over Systems, another core Aggressively Human pillar. How can we be thoughtful about where and how we use systems to be in service, instead of just buying systems as a service.
And who better to bring in our episode is fellow Ops friend Nikki McKnight. Nikki McKnight (she/her) is an operations and systems strategist for creatives who want to develop operations & systems that create industry-leading experiences for their clients. And yes, she’s also Meg’s co-host on the romance podcast First Dates and Soulmates - because successful millennials need hobbies too, right?
In today’s episode, hear our discussion about the role of systems in an “aggressively human” business
The definition of “systems” you hear 99% of the time and why that’s one of the biggest myths we’re busting
Why a fully automated customer journey might be the worst thing for your business
The systems investments we regret and the tools we couldn’t run our businesses without (including Nikki’s “must have” Dashboard)
Why all three of us embrace a “tool agnostic” approach in how we talk about systems and automations with our clients (and why that helps both our clients and us!).
How to avoid giving away power - in all its definitions - to software, contractors, or algorithms and keep agency over your business decisions.
Ways to use automations to prevent (or in some cases add) friction to improve your client experience… but only if you know where and why that’s happening
“We gave our power to the algorithm and we gave our power of customer discovery to a billionaire who can change it at a whim. So we're giving up power in multiple ways when we don't know the fundamentals of how our business runs.” - Jessica
About our Guest
Nikki McKnight: http://www.theopsshop.biz/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkimcknight/
Subscribe to FAFO: the systems newsletter for creatives who hate 'em: https://theopsshop.biz/fafo/
Resources Mentioned:
Donella Meadows - Thinking in Systems
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