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What if doing less, not more, is what unlocks the growth you’ve been chasing?
In this episode, Samantha Riley is joined by systems strategist Melissa Morris to unpack how simplifying your business, not scaling your workload, is the real key to stepping into your CEO role.
It’s about doing less, smarter.
Melissa shares why the “just hire a VA” advice can actually backfire if you don’t have the right foundations in place, and how to start building systems that actually free up your time instead of creating more questions. You’ll learn where to find the biggest time leaks in your business, what to automate first (without overcomplicating it), and how to onboard clients so clearly that no one ever has to guess what comes next.
Together, Samantha and Melissa unpack how structure creates freedom, the kind that lets you stop operating like an employee in your own business and finally start leading like a CEO.
This isn’t just about saving hours. It’s about reclaiming your role as the visionary leader of your business.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- Why working harder isn’t always the answer (00:29)
- Why bringing on help too soon can make you busier, not freer (and what to fix before you even add a team member) (01:49)
- How to define and streamline your offers so every project runs like clockwork (05:25)
- The DISCO framework for mapping your workflows (07:19)
- How to document your processes in a way your team can easily find, follow, and own (10:57)
- Why clear communication up front protects your time, profits, and client experience (13:23)
- A candid look at ClickUp, Asana, and Trello (and how to pick the right one for your brain) (18:14)
- How to automate client onboarding with simple, smart automation tools (like Dubsado) (23:35)
- The one action step that builds your systems as you go (26:52)
Want alignment as you scale? Let’s chat.
RESOURCES:
Table of Contents
Stop Running Your Business Like an Employee
Streamline Your Client Experience
The Power of Simple Automation
Stop Running Your Business Like an Employee
If your business days feel like a blur of client calls, admin chaos, and never-ending to-do lists, here’s the truth no one likes to say out loud: you’re not running your business like a CEO. You’re running it like an employee.
And that’s exactly why you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and constantly behind.
So you’re probably thinking maybe it’s about time to start building the perfect team for your business. But then, the shift from operator to leader doesn’t start with hiring more people or adding fancy software. It starts with rethinking how your business runs at its core.
“Just Hire a VA”
When business owners hit capacity, the most common advice they hear is, “Just hire a VA.” But the problem is, if you don’t have the right systems in place, hiring someone won’t give you freedom. It’ll actually just multiply your stress.
Without clear processes, your VA or team members will constantly come back with questions such as:
“What do I do next?”
“Where do I find this?”
“How do I send that?”
And you’ll end up spending more time managing them than doing your actual work.
So before you ever think about hiring, you need clarity – on your offers, your client delivery, and the way your business actually runs day to day.
Define Before You Refine
Here’s a golden rule worth remembering: you can’t refine anything until you’ve defined it first.
You can start by mapping out your core offers:
What’s included?
What’s not?
What are the exact steps that happen from the moment someone says “yes” to working with you until the moment they receive the final deliverable?
Even if it’s messy at first, get it out of your head and onto paper. Then look for the repetitive tasks that could be simplified, streamlined, or templatised.
That’s where you start saving hours, not by working faster, but by removing decisions altogether.
Streamline Your Client Experience
Your biggest time leaks usually happen in client delivery. That’s where things get complicated – deadlines shift, expectations blur, and communication drags on.
The fix? Get your onboarding process tight. Right from the start, clearly communicate what’s included, what turnaround times look like, and how clients can expect to hear from you.
The clearer your boundaries and processes, the less you’ll find yourself answering the same questions or redoing the same work.
And don’t underestimate simple tools. A Google Drive folder, a checklist, or a few canned emails can go a long way in saving time.
Remember, systems don’t have to be sexy. They just have to be solid.
The Power of Simple Automation
Once your processes are defined, then – and only then – should you look at automation.
You don’t need to go overboard, though. A few smart automations can completely transform your business.
Think: scheduling tools that eliminate the email ping-pong game, client management systems that automatically send proposals, contracts, and welcome emails, or templates that take care of repetitive communication.
Keep in mind that the goal of automation isn’t to make your business feel robotic. It’s to make it run smoothly so you can step back and focus on growth, not maintenance.
Build As You Go
Building your systems doesn’t happen in one big block of time. You’ll never magically find a free week to “document your processes.”
Instead, build as you go.
For instance, the next time you do something you know you’ll need again, take an extra five minutes to capture it. Record a quick Loom, create a checklist, or drop it into your project management tool – do whatever it takes.
Over time, this small habit creates structure, consistency, and most importantly, freedom.
Step Into Your CEO Role
Being the CEO isn’t about having a big team or fancy title but about making decisions like one. It’s about creating systems that let your business run without you constantly being in the weeds.
When your systems are solid, your team knows what to do. Your clients know what to expect. And you? You finally have the space to lead, grow, and actually enjoy the business you’ve built.
Remember, you don’t need to do more. You just need to do it smarter.
ABOUT MELISSA MORRIS
As the founder of Agency Authority, a project management and operations consultancy for agency owners, I use my 10 years agency experience to help business owners maximize their team, increase their productivity, and grow their profits. Firmly committed to breaking the ‘long hours and bad pay’ stigma that plagues the agency world, my team and I help business owners and their team members do the work they love without sacrificing client satisfaction, the bottom line, or their own sanity.
WHERE TO FIND MELISSA MORRIS
- Website: www.youragencyauthority.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissavmorris/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youragencyauthority/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agencyauthority
CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
TRANSCRIPTION
Melissa Morris 00:00
The biggest time savings is always going to come in your client delivery. And what I often see happens is, as a business owner, starts growing. The next thing they know, they have clients pinging them at all hours, asking for things that aren’t included in the package or offer. The timeline for the project is dragging on. What should have taken 15 or 20 hours to complete is suddenly turning into a project that’s taking 40 hours to complete. And this is where we start getting really frustrated, because we think, Gosh, I’m working so hard and I’m just so busy and I don’t really feel it in my bank account. What has happened?
Samantha Riley 00:39
I’m Samantha Riley, and welcome to the business growth lab, where visionary entrepreneurs come to experiment, evolve and expand what’s possible.
Samantha Riley 00:53
Welcome to today’s episode of the business growth Lab. I’m your host, Samantha Riley, and I am very excited to have a conversation today with Melissa Morris, and we’re going to talk about how you can save five hours a week. And I’m guessing that’s just a starting point, right? Melissa, it is indeed. Let’s have this conversation. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about your backstory so we know where you’re coming from. I think that’ll set a really good context for this episode. Yeah. So I actually worked in advertising agencies for about 10 years, and then after becoming a mother and having my second baby, I really wanted more space, time and flexibility. I know this is common for a lot of women, a lot of individuals out there, really craving a little more flexibility. And so I started my own business, and just like many of you out there, started to gain clients, which was great, but then also was quickly feeling like, wait a second, I wanted flexibility and all this work life balance. Why do I feel like I’m Yeah, why do I feel like a dog chasing my tail? What’s going on here? And so I had to take a step back and work to really start taking a hard look at my business and some ways that I could implement some really smart automations, nothing too tech savvy. I don’t want to scare anybody off by saying that word, but where could I just be really smart and strategic and implement some real time savings? And it works. It works like a champ. So now I really love to share that message with others who are growing their business. Because, you know, sometimes the idea of hiring doesn’t really make sense yet. And so where can we really start getting a lot of extra time without looking to try and grow a team or get ourselves buried in and a lot of fees? Yeah, you mentioned then hiring doesn’t make a lot of sense. There’s something else that I see is that people think, oh my goodness, I’m chasing my tail, like you said, I need to hire, but they’re not ready to hire. And then what we see, and you are, yeah, by the look on your face, you know exactly what happens next. We see coaches, business owners that are actually busier because their assistant, their VA, is coming back and going, what do I do next? What do I do next? You’re like, oh my goodness, just let me concentrate, because they don’t have the systems and processes in place. So I think that this is a really good starting point, not just to save yourself five hours a week, but to prepare to move into that CEO role, where you do have a team, or even just a va, a lean team to help you so they can get out of those operator tasks and shift into that CEO role. Yeah, I think you really hit the nail on the head. And I’m so glad you brought that up, too, because that is a tendency, right? I’m really busy, and I think a lot of advice we hear in the online space. Or we hear people talking, and they say, Well, just hire a VA, and then you’re exactly right. I go, and I hire a VA, and then suddenly I just have somebody looking at me, asking me a bunch of questions. Or I’m I’m trying to dig up and show them where to find something, or how to work something. And then I see this cycle of they hire somebody, they’re working with them few months, and they say, oh, that didn’t work out. And then they’re beating themselves up, yeah, oh, it was a bad hire. I don’t know what I’m doing my business. And then they go along for and then they try again. And this cycle is expensive, it’s stressful, and then you just feel stuck, and you’re not really sure how to get yourself out of it. Totally. I remember having a conversation with a prospect. It was a good five years ago now, and she was saying that over, over the course of many years, she was hiring these people, and she’s like, I don’t know what’s wrong with the market, like with the job force, because every few months I’m hiring someone different, I have to keep firing them. And, like, straight away, the alarm bells ring. So I’m like, Yeah, you do every now and again you have a bad hire, but multiple so I sort of dived in a bit. And I was like, Well, you know, what sort of processes do you have? This conversation started to get she started to get really quite uncomfortable, I could tell, because there was nothing there and she was expecting.
Samantha Riley 05:00
Seeing an assistant to come in and actually run her business, and that’s it’s, No, you’re the CEO. You run the business. It doesn’t work like
Melissa Morris 05:09
that. It doesn’t, it doesn’t work like that, you know. And this isn’t to beat up on vas, I think you know, like you’re saying there’s a lot of really great ones via out there, but I’m here to tell you, none of them read minds like they just don’t. They don’t. They can’t come in and clone you and read your mind. And so we really need to equip them and have, like you said, some processes in place and some basic tools to support them so that, ultimately they can, they can really take some tasks off your plate.
Samantha Riley 05:37
Totally. All right, so if we’re talking to people out there right now that haven’t hired someone, but they’re starting to think potentially, I can see it in the the nearer future. Yeah, what do they need to start getting in place now? Like, how do they start? By saving the five hours a week. Let’s start there before we move into sort of where to go next?
Melissa Morris 06:02
Yes, great question. So the biggest time savings is always going to come in your client delivery, because client delivery is where you bump up against the variable of another human being, and they just like a VA cannot read your mind. And what I often see happens is, as a solopreneur, as a business owner, starts growing. They start getting that those referrals in right things start really moving along, and then the next thing they know, they have clients pinging them all hours, asking for things that aren’t included in the package or offer. You’re forgetting about invoicing. You’re forgetting when the project was due, the timeline for the project is dragging on, and then that’s when you are really getting yourself stuck in a vicious cycle, because what should have taken 15 or 20 hours to complete is suddenly turning into a project that’s taking 30 and 35 and 40 hours to complete. And this is where we start getting really frustrated as well, because we think, Gosh, I’m working so hard and I’m just so busy, and it’s not really showing up right on the bottom line, and I don’t really feel it in my bank account. What has happened? And so the first step is, okay, we need to take a look at some really clear scoping of your offers and really get clear on what your client delivery for your service offering looks like, then we can actually work to maybe streamline that, create a process, find a tool that could support that, so that ultimately we can, we can delegate that. So I always say we can’t refine anything until we’ve defined it first. So that’s the key there.
Samantha Riley 07:41
What’s your personal process for defining what that looks like? Is it just a brain dump? Is there a framework like, how do you help people go through that process?
Melissa Morris 07:53
So I have a disco framework, and this is how I work it through with my clients. And I’ve actually found what’s really helpful is to talk this through with someone who does not know your offers. Because what I see every time is the business owner. Because, of course, we want to start. Let me back up a minute. Of course we want to start with a bit of a brain dump. What am I going to do? When am I going to do it? What’s included? What do the steps look like? But oftentimes, as a business owner, we’re just so close to it, we just don’t know what the other people aren’t going to know. So what happens is, is when you start talking this process through with somebody else, and you say, I’ll, you know, be working with an agency owner, and say, Okay, well, tell me about what step one. Well, step one is, I go and grab the graphics. Well, where are the graphics? Oh, they’re in a folder on Google Drive. Well, what folder in Google Drive, right? You see how all of a sudden. But if I had just told a VA, well, first you do the graphics. Well, they don’t. They have all the same questions that I’m going to have. So I think it’s really useful to work through that process. So the disco framework we start with D is we’re going to define, and that’s what it looks like. It really looks like a brain dump. And I encourage you to have somebody to keep asking you, and then what happens? Where do you find that? What do you do next? Let them poke all the holes. And then once we’ve done that, we can identify, I identify opportunities to streamline to maybe it’s a canned email that we’re going to create to send a proposal. Maybe it’s a canned email or a template for our graphics and that we’re going to send off to get approval. So we’ve got to define it first, then we can move through and now start to identify and look for those opportunities.
Samantha Riley 09:39
Do you use, or have you used any AI tools to actually make that process easier? Where
Melissa Morris 09:46
I have found AI tools have been really supportive is in the processing and documentation after the conversation. So when I’m working with a business owner, we’re going to do this back. And forth, and we’re going to have this conversation, and I’m going to ask lots of questions, and we’re going to really dial in where things are. And then what I can do is I can actually take that transcript and put it into AI and say, Okay, now clean all this up and make us a nice step by step process. And that’s where it can spit it out really, really quickly. And then at that point, we just go back to it, we can look at it and clean it up. But that makes your documentation really easy, but I would really encourage you not to skip the step of really having that deep dive and exploring what each step of your workflow looks like.
Samantha Riley 10:36
Once you’ve identified what all of those pieces are and you’re talking about, I’ll just go grab that graphic and pop it in Google Drive, and you’re starting to get these processes down. How do you record these processes and where are they kept, so that people actually use them? Because I’m sure, well, you know, being an 80s girl, a 90s girl, you know, I remember being in my first jobs where the processes was in massive, massive, thick folders that were, you know, up on a on a wall somewhere that had a lot of dust because people didn’t go and look in them. But how do you create it so that when you do have that hire, because that’s what we’re preparing for here, so that they just know exactly where to go and get
Melissa Morris 11:19
- So I think that can also depend a little bit on where you are in your journey. So I would say if we want the most simple and straightforward approach, what I recommend is you have a Google Drive folder per service offering. So if I have Package A, I have a folder on Google Drive that says Package A, and within that, that’s where we’re going to have our documentation. So we may have a Google doc to carry our same example that talks about where we’re going to find the graphics, how many graphics are supposed to include. So you might include things like checklists. You might have something that feels a little bit more like a written SOP, particularly if you’re expecting a VA or someone supporting you to maybe come in and run some kind of report or go and gather certain data in a software program they may not be familiar with. And those instances, I think, like real point and click SOP can be really helpful. But I would also say, don’t underestimate the power of things like checklists, templated emails, templatize your proposals and your contracts, do you have a way to easily capture revisions that are coming through from clients and communicate back with them? So I even think starting with checklists and templates organized in a Google Drive can be a really simple but such a powerful way to start saving some time and then if you’re ready, if you’ve already been playing around in a project management tool, and you’ve got one going, and you’re feeling good about that, then I actually recommend you can start to drop things right in there. So what can be really nice then is if we have a task that says, go grab the graphics right inside that task, we have that checklist that we’ve talked about, maybe we have we’re pointing to some templates, or we’re pointing to some really good examples that they can look to. And then when VA assistant is on board, we just assign that task to them, and really the resources they need are right there in the task.
Samantha Riley 13:12
Okay, cool. Loving this. We did jump a little bit forward there. My brain just went, Oh my goodness. I took you over there, coming back for just a little moment you were talking about onboarding clients. So you were talking about getting really clear on what that task is, what are some of the tech assistance that we might need to be able to get these onboarding processes nice and tight? Yeah, so,
Melissa Morris 13:39
and the reason why I love looking to Client Onboarding first. So I had mentioned client delivery, which is actually the work that we’re going to do to fulfill the offer and to serve our client. But what can be really helpful too is to start to look at Client Onboarding first. Some people see that as separate. Some people don’t. So I like to make a point to talk about that distinction and the reason why getting onboarding really tight right out of the gate can be really powerful in terms of saving you time down the road is for a few reasons. As we talked about, you have clients saying, Hey, where’s this thing? Can I get this also, Hey, would you mind pulling this X, Y and Z for me, too. The reason they’re asking that I would suspect is not because they’re mean humans, but because they don’t have a clarity. I hope it’s not because they’re mean humans. I don’t think you know certainly there are some people out there who are going to try and take advantage. But I think a lot of times, and especially with the clients I’ve worked with, what we’re hearing is there’s not a real lack of clarity that the client has about what they’re getting when they’re getting it when that turnaround time is expected. And that’s all stuff that really should be communicated during Client Onboarding. So when we bring on a new client, and we do a really good job of laying some solid expectations, this is what our turnaround time will. Like this is when I’m going to be responding to you, and how this is how you can spot to receive the deliverables included in your program. And I’ve attached right very specifically what is included in your program. Let me know if you have any questions. This is a simple email, a simple kick off call, but what this does is this really makes it crystal clear what’s about to happen as they’re working with you. And then when we cut down on the tons of extra emails, the requests for work that they’re not really getting you’re not getting paid to do, because it’s outside of the package, when that really gets dialed back, it’s amazing how much time that you will save.
Samantha Riley 15:40
Yeah, and it creates a consistent process with your clients. And I think that’s just as important it it works well for us as the business owner, but it also gives safety to the client. And I don’t think that’s talked about enough, you know, you said, Oh, they’re not mean clients most of the time. They’re just, like, almost floundering, like, I don’t know, I don’t understand. And they can have things like buyer’s remorse or assume that you’re not doing anything and you’ve when they’ve paid, like, there’s so many different perspectives to take into account there.
Melissa Morris 16:16
Yeah, and I, you know, I think that’s exactly right. And so many businesses as they’re growing, referrals are really important. Repeat customers are really important. Those early testimonials are really important. And when you’re delivering a really great client experience, that’s really going to come back to you, right, like through referrals, through testimonials. And so it’s like you said, it’s really important there, and then as far as the client is concerned. You know, I have an example to share about the Hey, are you working? Are you getting anything done? I was working with a web designer, and just the nature of that work is, early on, there were a lot of calls and discussions, because we’re, you know, getting a mood board together, and we’re looking at what kind of copy we need, and we’re talking about pictures, but then they need to go dark. They need to actually build the website. This takes some time, but the client has been brought in. They’re meeting with you all the time. They’re getting all these calls. They’re getting either all excited and then radio silence, and then a few days pass, and then a week pass, and then two weeks pass. And exactly that they’re thinking, Oh no, what happened? What’s going on. And then they email their, you know, the web director, hey, I was just curious what’s going on. And then immediately the web developer and web designer was like, Oh no, this isn’t fast enough. They don’t understand, I need more time. And then they put this self imposed story they’ve taken, oh, my clients mad. They want me to do it even faster. I’m doing it as fast as I can. And the truth is, the client is just really confused. They don’t know how long it takes to build a website. That’s why they hired that’s why they hire you. So when we can give that clear, when we can say, hey, we’ve got all we need, I want to just let you know that it’s going to be a couple weeks. We’re working hard. We’re going to reach out to you if any questions come up, and we’re so excited to come back to you, and this is what we’re going to have ready, and this is what it’s going to look like. They are not going to sweat at all if they don’t hear from you for two or three weeks because you let them know, like you said, we created that safety for them, and now they’re resting easy and just sitting in excitement of when they get to see what you’ve been working on.
Samantha Riley 18:21
Yeah, I love that so much. You mentioned earlier project management tools. I’m a big believer that the sooner you start them and start practice using them, the easier it is to make that transition. I’d love to hear your take on this.
Melissa Morris 18:37
I don’t disagree. I actually do encourage people sooner rather than later, to start getting the hang of a project management tool, because it can really feel like a heavy lift when you have grown and I mean, I guess it depends too on how large you’re looking to get your team. But I can tell you, even if you have a VA someone doing some social media work for you, and then maybe, you know, a designer or tool you pull on and off the bench or something, it can get hairy quick. And when you have everything listed there, and you know who’s managing what, it will save your life. So the sooner you can get that going, I do agree. I think the sooner you can get things going, the better off you’ll be. There are 1,000,001
Samantha Riley 19:22
project management tools. What are some of the ones that you have seen clients really enjoy using and why?
Melissa Morris 19:30
I see a lot of people go to either clickup or Asana. I think years ago, it was heavy on Trello. I think some people still go the Trello route, but I do more and more see people moving into tools like click up and Asana. I will say both can have a bit of a learning curve. So give yourself some grace. Take some time to watch some tutorials. But my recommendation would be, is if. You are looking to have any sort of support in your business down the road, then I would go a click up or a sauna route versus Trello, because I have found that Trello works really well for solopreneurs a couple of assistants, but sometimes there are struggles. Now, of course, that’s, you know, I’m sure there’s somebody out there with a team of 10, and they’re wondering, you know, they’re using Trello beautifully, but I would say, like for a lot of use cases, there can start to be some friction points there. And so I usually move people in the direction of something like click up or Asana.
Samantha Riley 20:35
Yeah, they’re both fabulous tools, and I think it’s really important to try a project management talks, even though we’ve just talked then about some really good ones. It’s quite personal a project management tool. It is so personal. And definitely try them. But if it doesn’t feel like the way that you work, then definitely move on sooner rather than later, because it’s really hard once you’ve set one up, to actually make the switch. And I know for me, Asana is one that I did use early on, and it just, I just never gelled with it. We did go to Trello. We did try it. I think we got to about 17 members, and just went, No, I can’t do this. It’s just not robust enough for what we want, but it’s a really what I love about Trello is how visual it is. And if you’re someone like me that loves to put post it notes up on the wall, then moving to Trello makes it super easy, because it’s just post it notes on the screen, essentially, yeah, but oh my goodness, click UPS absolutely fabulous. I love click up.
Melissa Morris 21:38
My favorite. It really, it’s actually my favorite project management tool for a number of reasons, but you’re right. I think it’s not for everyone. First, that tool is not for everyone, right? And like we said, you know, I’ve seen and you experience yourself as teams start to grow. Trello can feel very confining, but there’s probably teams out there doing beautifully, and they have very large teams, and so that can make this process feel even more confusing. And so my tips for you there are, look at your workflow first, right, and really start to figure out what do I need? What do I need to keep track of? Because sometimes simple things are a big deal. So for example, unless it’s very recently changed. Monday.com. A project management tool, doesn’t have a recurring due date feature. Their recommendation is, once you’re done, you just manually push out the due date. So for a lot of business owners, if they have anything that’s sort of like maybe a social media company, a bookkeeper, anybody who’s working with a client on a fairly routine basis, and has things they want to send to them, maybe weekly or monthly, that could feel like a real sticky point where it’s not going to automatically update itself, and a simple little feature could mean the difference between this tool feels awful and painful, and this tool is changing My life, right because of, like, some very simple features. So having that in your mind of what are some features that feel really important to you can also help guide you in the right direction?
Samantha Riley 23:10
Totally. Okay, we’ve talked SOPs, basic, we’ve talked project management, we’ve talked onboarding. Where else can we look to save these five hours a week.
Melissa Morris 23:21
Yep. So I think even starting to introduce some basic automation can be really valuable. And some of the initial ones, I think a lot of people look to, and I think probably a lot have are like a scheduler, where I can send a schedule out to a client, they can find a time that works well for them and book that in. There’s also there are CRM So customer relationship management tools, these are what you would typically use to manage your onboarding for your client. So project management tool is usually where you’re managing the client delivery, although you can track steps for onboarding in there. But a CRM is oftentimes designed to handle onboarding a client, and so when I’m talking about onboarding a client, I mean things like getting that proposal out, getting a contract signed off on it, maybe you’ve got a new client questionnaire. I always recommend a welcome email, which outlines the number of things we talked about before, the boundaries what’s included getting really clear and letting your client know what’s about to happen. So getting a really solid welcome email in place so that can actually be pretty easy to automate once you get the hang of it. So a tool like dubsado, I think, is one I often recommend. I think it has a really powerful automation punch for not a heavy price tag, and once you can get that set up, onboarding can become as easy as clicking a button, and then they move through and your client will get their proposal, they’ll get their contract, they’ll get their invoice, they’ll get the welcome email, they’ll get their questionnaire, they’ll get a reminder to fill out the questionnaire, because we all know they never fill it out the first time. Yeah, get an email to schedule their first call, and all of this can happen just automatically with the click of a button so you’re not stressing out about it. And remember, we want Client Onboarding to feel really seamless and really easy, so they have a great experience. And when you’re stressed and scrambling to find, where did I send that contract last time. How do I copy and paste it into the new one? And you’re doing all of this, you know, at 11 o’clock at night, because you know that work life balance you thought you were going to have is out the window. What’s really great is when that just happens with the click of a button.
Samantha Riley 25:35
Yeah, totally, totally. I loved this conversation, Melissa, for people that want to stay connected with you or learn more about what you do. Where can they find
Melissa Morris 25:46
you? So I hang out on LinkedIn a lot, so you can find me over there at Melissa V Morris, so feel free to shoot me a DM, and if you’re having questions and wondering, is it time for me to maybe start automating? Okay, I’ve been on the fence about a project management tool for a long time, and you’re feeling swayed to pull the trigger, feel free to shoot me a DM. I’d be happy to answer some questions for you and help you get moving in the right direction. I love that. Just
Samantha Riley 26:12
to wrap this episode up beautifully for people that have heard this and they’re like, oh my goodness, I’ve got a million ideas now and now, my to do list is, you know, 2.5 million checklists long. What is the one thing that you would recommend people go away and do in the next you know, 24 or 48 hours?
Melissa Morris 26:29
Oh, that’s a great question. I think the most powerful thing you can do is that brain dump. Get really clear on your offer, find your spouse, your best friend, your significant other, attack your neighbor, whatever you have to do, find someone to talk this through and start getting that down. And then once you have that, what you have now is you, you actually have a really easy list of how to move through and what you need to create. Now, with that being said, That list could feel overwhelming. Build it as you go. So wherever you’re at in the process of package a right? Maybe I’m not up here at step one. I’m down at step 17. Just start creating the task in clickup for step 17. Add in the checklist for step 17 as you’re doing it. Build it as you go. And then finish it out. And then when that new client comes on board, and we’re going to onboard them cool. Now we’re going to start at onboarding, and we’re going to do steps one through 16. But again, like we can’t start to refine. We can’t build unless we’ve defined, unless we know what it is we’re trying to accomplish. I
Samantha Riley 27:33
just want to highlight how much gold you just gave there, because there was something in there that absolutely trips people up, and that was created as you go, because I think so many people try and put the time aside to create the systems or the processes, and the time never comes. Like you said, we’re doing things at 11 at night. We never get and they get pushed, and they get pushed and they get pushed where, if you create the system as you’re doing it, it just automatically happens. And so I highly recommend that you really take that seriously. What Melissa just said, because it is the only way that you’ll move forward. Because, you know, being a business owner, there’s so much to do so, Melissa, thank you so much for sharing your tips today. It’s been a pleasure. Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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