The grind culture is not an uncommon term, especially in today’s challenging market. Entrepreneurs work long and hard, determined to achieve their vision and goals for their businesses. But what if we tell you, you can actually work only 2 to 4 hours a day without compromising your business operations? That’s right, 2 to 4 hours! Joining us in this episode is Latrice Claiborne, the owner and founder of six-figure business Trinity Business Solutions and also a fully present mother of three for 11 years. Tune in as Latrice shares her experience and teaches other business owners how to attain the same freedom that she experiences daily!
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Moving To Millions In 4 Hours A Day With Latrice Claiborne
This episode is powered by Move to Millions Live. Our 2023 theme is sought after. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Can you imagine being sought after to the tune of millions of dollars? We’re going to be gathering some million-minded CEOs and million-dollar CEOs in the making altogether and we’d love to have you join us. Go to MoveToMillionsEvent.com to grab your ticket.
As always, every time I bring you a guest, I am bringing you a present. This episode is no different. My guest, Latrice Claiborne, is going to hip you to the game of how to be able to work 2 to 4 hours a day in your business. This woman has it down to a science. With three small children at home and a desire to be fully present for her family while building multiple six-figure businesses, learning how to move this business to the next level has been her mission. The cool thing is that she’s going to share with you many of the things that she does.
Latrice is the Owner and Founder of Trinity Business Solutions. As a tech tools fanatic, she is up to date on the latest tech trends and knows systems like the back of her hand. She has been able to scale her business to multiple six figures while at home with her three children and husband of eleven years. She is helping other business owners attain the same freedom that she experiences daily.
Latrice not only has the know-how to get your systems and automation running, but she also has the passion to help you grow and succeed with tech solutions and marketing automation at the same time. You are going to need to get a pencil, a backup pencil, and two pads of paper just to be on the safe side. Let’s jump into my conversation with Latrice Claiborne.
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Latrice Claiborne, I’m so excited to welcome you to the show. How are you?
I’m good. Thank you for having me.
I’ve been looking forward to this conversation. I love any time I get to spend time with powerful women that are helping everybody do the best in all areas of their life. There are so many things and so many different directions we can go in with you. We’re going to see what God does because this is going to be good. Before I get ahead of myself, take a quick moment and tell everybody who you are in your own words.
I’m Latrice Claiborne. I am a systems and automation strategist. My team helps business owners streamline how they work and earn in their businesses. What does that mean? We help them identify areas of things that they’re doing manually, things that are time suckers, and things that are inefficient. We figure out a way to implement technology, software, and automation so that it can do the heavy lifting for them and they can get back to revenue-generating activities.
You said something right there. The first thing that you said that I liked, and I want to give you props for this, is you said, “My team.” It wasn’t, “I.” It was, “My team does this.” I want to celebrate you because we’ve been working together for a couple of years. When people first start hiring you, they’re hiring you, but the goal of any CEO, especially a CEO that wants to make millions, is to get their team.
I just want to pull on that little tweak for the audience. Even before you have a full-blown team, get in the habit of talking about your team and saying, “We.” That is a training ground for when you are the true CEO of your company, not showing up every single day in the day-to-day. I love that. We got to talk about these time-sucking activities that prevent them from doing revenue-generating activities. I never like to take for granted that people know exactly what we mean when we say revenue-generating activities. Would you take a moment and define that based on how you see revenue-generating activities?
The sales, marketing, and content are something we try to shy away from a little bit, but we have to do. We have to create them. All the content we have to create, blogging, social media, the lives that we should be doing, the classes, speaking engagements, and podcast appearances like this are the things that help you to get new leads to generate new revenue. Talking to prospects, getting on those sales calls, and converting them from a prospect to become a client, especially when you’re starting out, depending on where you are with your revenue or that milestone, you should be doing that as a CEO.
You should be managing that area and creating the structure for how that works. You should be allowing all the backend things, admin stuff, emails back and forth, calendar management, inbox sales, and all those things to happen automatically without you having to sit in the driver’s seat and do those all day long. Most of the time, for a lot of us, we sit in that seat more than we do in the seat of the CEO. We’re wearing that hat and creating and being the visionary.
We don’t have time to think and plan anything because we’re ticking at this computer all day long, trying to finish projects for clients, trying to send invoices, and typing up emails. Lord knows we spend so much time in our email inbox alone. At the most basic level of automation, we spend more time in our email inbox than we spend in other places. It’s getting folks back to focusing on sales, marketing, traffic and lead gen, and not the admin stuff.
You said so many powerful nuggets. This is the Move to Millions. While we like to believe that everybody tuning into this show is making six figures, we know that for many, this show is aspirational. They’re not there yet. They desire to be there. I love that you took the time to break down some things that some of us are going to read and be like, “That’s elementary, but we know that not everybody understands what generates revenue.”
There are people who will tell you that some of the time spent in marketing will make you money. We know marketing doesn’t make you money. It makes people aware that you exist so that you can get to the money. One of the things you said a couple of times is we should be marketing and doing content. I like that little nugget as a reminder to everybody to get clear about the activities they should be spending their time in every single day, the activities that are going to move the business forward.
Latrice has already given you a powerful roadmap of at least a handful of things that need to be a part of your day if you desire to make money enough. It’s to be able to have teams to support your efforts so that you’re not doing the administrative things, those activities that are often busy work that prevent you from being able to do what you want to do.
One of the other things that I wrote down as you were talking, you didn’t actually say this, but what I heard was not understanding the significance of revenue-generating activity will have your head down instead of your vision up and moving your company to the next level. How did you come to this realization for yourself? I know you’re a mom of three handsome sons. How did you learn about the significance of spending time and energy on the things that are going to generate revenue, and bringing on a team early in your journey?
I learned through experience and getting hit over the head with burnout and overwhelm. I got to a place where I was like, “There has to be a better way. If there isn’t, this is not going to work. There’s no way this is going to work if I have to show up and do all of these things. Do you mean to tell me I got to wear all the hats at the same time?”
A lot of the time, people don’t understand or know that there is another option or another way. They’ve seen so many people shout from the mountain tops the hustle and going, “You got to do all this work. You have to do all these things. You have to never sleep. We’re team no-sleep,” and all these things. They don’t know that there’s another way for them to operate in easing their business and still be profitable. There is a way to still get to where you want to be and hit your revenue goals with the proper strategy using delegation and implementing automation.
People don’t understand having some type of system in place. They think, “This is the only way.” It took me experiencing that. I was like, “I need to figure out what I do here. What do I do? There has to be a better way.” It took research and me thinking, “Why am I doing this?” I had to sit and do an assessment of every task that I was doing. What am I doing that I don’t want to do? What am I doing that I don’t have to do? Let’s go ahead and get rid of the have-to-dos first because I don’t have to do these. Let’s get rid of that first and then let’s look at what I don’t want to do. If I can’t automate it and I’m not comfortable delegating it, let’s figure out a plan for what I want to do with this to eventually get me to a place where I’m comfortable getting rid of this responsibility.
I’m so glad you paused right there. That was so good. I want to pull it back. I want to make sure that everybody writes this down as an actionable item. At any point in time in your business, whether it is at the end of a year, at the end of a quarter, or the beginning of a quarter, ask yourself these questions. Doing an assessment, Latrice says there are two questions. One is, “What don’t I have to do?” That is so good. I could raise my hand for the number of times I sat in my office pushing papers back and forth, and being busy but not moving my business forward.
The second is, “What don’t I want to do?” If you don’t have to do it, that’s an obvious opportunity for automation. If you don’t want to do it, that’s an obvious opportunity for either delegation or automation. It’s being able to identify what it is first and then finding the tools that take it off your plate.
It depends on your lifestyle in the past. For me, I am the person who shows up. I am a person who does things. If somebody doesn’t know how to do it, you can ask me and I’m going to figure it out. I’m going to connect you. I’m going to figure out how to support you and how to help you out in whatever it is you’re doing.
That reflected in my business as I became a business owner. It was very hard for me to ask for help. It was also hard for me to trust somebody else with the thing that was so close to me. I was like, “This business is mine. I created it. Nobody can do it the way I can do it.” That’s a lie. We tell ourselves that oftentimes. It is a complete and utter lie. You can find somebody else who can do it.
If you have a proper system in place, you can train them to do it the way you want it done. They can come in and do it their own way, and their way may be better than the way that you’ve been doing it all along. It’s more efficient and more profitable for you. I had to overcome that obstacle and say, “It’s time for you to trust. Build some trust with other people. Trust yourself and the systems you put into place and now, go forth and prosper. Find somebody that can come in and execute this system that you put in place.”
We’re going to take a quick break. When we come back from the break, I want to pull on this five-letter word, which is trust. It’s been coming up a lot for me. I know that I’m not the only one who used to go to the “If you want something done right, do it yourself” university. We’ll be right back.
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You’re tuning in to Move to Millions. My guest is Latrice Claiborne. Before we went to break, I don’t know what she did for you but for me, she took me all the way back to that period of time in my life and my business when I thought I was the only one who could do it. I did not have anybody helping me because I convinced myself. Maybe it was because of my dad. He used to say all the time, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” It’s those little messages that get into our psyche. We buy into those beliefs and those lies. They are lies in belief. I was one of those people.
You said that for many of us, yourself included at one point in time, it was hard to ask for help and it was hard to trust others. How do we get over that enough to open ourselves up to bringing other people in to help us to move our businesses forward so that we’re free to do the part that no one else can do but us?
For me, it was therapy. Therapy was very helpful for me. I didn’t initially tie the two things together. I didn’t consider trusting. I was like, “They can’t do it like me.” It was a trust issue. It wasn’t the fact that I was the only one that could do this thing. I was like, “Nobody in the world could do this but me.” It was a trust thing, and I didn’t tie the two together.
I also didn’t tie together the fact that I’ve been the person to show up my whole life for everyone. I’ve always been the one to show up. I was tying that together. I was like, “That and trust, and then my business. What am I doing?” It was self-sabotage. I was not moving forward in my business because I didn’t want to trust anybody else to do anything, but I had all these plans, all these places I wanted to go, and all these things I wanted to do.
We are in this generation where everybody still feels like if you want something done, you need to do it yourself. It’s team no-friends. It’s that whole, “I don’t need nobody but myself. I am my own circle.” We need other people. No man is an island to himself. We need other people. We need to learn to develop trust. Start trusting people and start depending on other people to come through for us the way we come through for them.
No man is an island to himself. We need other people and learn to start trusting people.
I love all of that. I appreciate your transparency. It was similar to me. I have seven brothers and sisters on my mom’s side. There are four of us on my dad’s side, but my mom and my dad share three. I wasn’t raised in a household of trust. Trust amongst each other, trust in ourselves, and belief that we could do, all of that escaped me. I learned it through counselors and watching other people as opposed to getting it at home. I always used to say, “I got it, honestly.”
I don’t know if it was this way for you, but for me, it was like a badge of honor to be able to show that you did it all. It’s that Karyn White song from the ‘90s, I’m Not Your Superwoman. We all wanted to be the superwoman. That’s what we led ourselves to believe and for me until I got into entrepreneurship. I finally realized that trying to be all the things myself was keeping me from the things that I most wanted. I most wanted freedom. I most wanted more money. I was doing all the things.
I put a reel on Instagram that says, “I am customer service. I’m marketing. I’m sales. I’m service delivery. I’m client retention.” There was a point in time when I was all the things. I wore it like it was a badge of honor until I realized I was doing all the things and making no money. I was busy. I worked eight hours a day in my business. I had a business card that said I was the CEO, but I wasn’t CEO over anything. I was crippling us and keeping us from going to the next level.
When you said that self-sabotage prevents us from moving forward, I could feel that thing for real. I wonder how many people have told themselves they can’t hire. Cashflow is always a challenge, whether you have millions, hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands. It’s always cashflow. We always have to be looking at the numbers.
I’m sure there are so many people who are telling themselves they cannot hire. They cannot build a team or delegate. That is the reason why they haven’t been able to move their business forward. I’m grateful that you had that revelation and now you have a team supporting your efforts. Having this team, how has that freed you up? What are you now able to do with the time that you used to spend but you can appropriate to someone else? What have you gotten back?
I typically work 2 to 4 hours a day. I could work more, but I don’t want to. I enjoy being in charge of my time. Most of us, initially, when we take the leap and jump into entrepreneurship, that’s one of the things we say, “I’m going to be in charge of my time. I’m going to have all this time freedom.” We then get into business and that’s not our reality. We do not have all this time freedom. We are exhausted. You realize, “I don’t get a check every two weeks. I got to go out here, make it happen, and make money to sustain myself and my family. This is crazy. This is wild.”
We think we have all this time, but then we don’t have that. I am at a point now where I can work 2 to 4 hours a day, be comfortable, be fine with that, and be able to spend more time in my life and not spend as much time in the business. I know too many CEOs and business owners who spend their whole entire life all day long working 12 to 14-hour days to make money. They’re probably doing a lot of busy work and not making the money they want.
When I was working 12 and 14 hours a day, I was not making money. I was busy doing all of the things that I have other people for. I’m still working six or so hours a day. I usually get in my office around 10:30 AM or 11:00 AM and leave by 5:00 PM, so however many hours that is. It’s doing the things that I have to do. I’m writing a book, but I’m not necessarily taking sales calls. I’m not necessarily doing a lot of the other things.
I’m not at the point of working 2 to 4 hours a day. Even though I knew that about you, it hit my spirit differently. I wrote that down. I probably wouldn’t do two hours. I feel like that would be too little, but four hours a day, I could get behind that, even if it’s not every day. Some days are meeting days. Even if it was at least 2 or 3 times a week to work four hours a day. If I count the things that I am doing that only I can do and no one else does, I probably work about 2 to 4 hours a day, but I’m doing some other things. I’m constantly thinking at a higher level for the business. As a result of that and the fact that I’m a content girl, I’m always trying to create something.
She isn’t lying. Darnyelle is creating new courses. There would be a new module and I’m like, “How many courses do you have?”
It’s can’t stop, won’t stop. I know you said that for the audience, but I’m also taking that away for myself. What I wrote down is, “How could I further streamline to only work 2 to 4 hours a day?” This might become more important once I have little people around. I know you still have a little one that is right at home with you. That might become more important then. What I’m also hearing for myself is, “How do I begin to set the trajectory for that to happen now? What are some of the things that I can do?” This is the direction I want us to go in.
Thinking about our audience and assuming that our audience also has the desire to get to the point where they’re working four hours a day, can we create a roadmap for them of some of the things that they’ll need to learn how to delegate and take off their plates so that they can open up a space for that to become their reality?
One of the biggest things that I can’t run my business without is my executive assistant. I can automate all things. I can do all the stuff. It’s cute. It’s fine and fun, but I need somebody to manage me. It took me a little while to realize that. I initially did not have an executive assistant because I felt like there were other needs in the business. I was like, “There is other stuff. Somebody can manage operations. Somebody can do this and do that.” I needed someone to implement projects and stuff for clients. I didn’t have one person whose job was just to manage me. That’s it. That’s all.
Once I did that, it was a game-changer for me and the amount of space in my brain when I’m working those few hours a day. When I step away, I don’t have to sit and think about work all the time while I’m away from my desk because she manages me. We are on Voxer together. I will get a little Voxer chirp from her. She’s like, “You have this speaking engagement coming up. What do I need to do for this?”
I don’t have to look at the inbox. She manages the inbox. If somebody sends an email, she responds as me. She takes care of everything for me. She organizes everything. If I have a PowerPoint presentation that needs to be put together, she puts together the presentation. Every little thing that happens in the business concerning me, she takes care of it and takes on the responsibility of thinking about that.
That little small piece right there changed the game for my mental capacity. I’m not like, “Did I forget something? Did I respond to that?” I don’t have to think about that. She’s making sure everything is running. If I forget something like, “Can you communicate X, Y, and Z to this team member?” I send her a little Voxer chirp. She goes and takes care of it.
I love that. I agree. Shinika will come in here with her little papers and I’ll be like, “Lord.” I say things without realizing that by saying them, I’m asking myself to be managed. You’re right. I don’t know what I would do if she wasn’t my manager. I always say, “I just work here. She is the boss.” She thinks she’s slick. She puts stuff on my calendar that I happened to mention, things that I’m supposed to get done that day. I’m like, “Did anybody ask you that?” She’ll come in, stand in the corner and be like, “What are we working on today?” I’ll be like, “Nothing.” I know if I tell her, I’m accountable to spend my time on that. Maybe I want to work on some content or something else that wasn’t on my plate. It is a game-changer.
I want to make sure that for those of you who are tuning in, when you think about this one role if all you have is to hire one person, hire an executive assistant. The amount of things that they can take off your plate so that you can do the things that no one else can do but you will change the game. That was the first time I saw my income massively spike. It was when I brought on an assistant.
Unlike Latrice, I have a physical in-my-space assistant. Even when I first started way back in the day, 4 to 5 hours a day, I had a woman who was a stay-at-home mom. Her daughter had gotten to the point where she went to half-day kindergarten. She would work for me from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. Those four hours a day freed up so much energy for me that I could do some of the things that nobody else could do in the business. That can make a big difference as well. Is there anything else to get to 2 to 4 hours? I’m going to answer this question and you tell me if I’m wrong or if there’s anything I need to add.
The first step, even before hiring your EA, is to do that assessment you talked about. It’s, “What do I not want to do? What do I not have to do?” That will help you to get clear about what the steps are that have to be taken every single day to move this business forward. You then bring in an EA that begins to manage you for the piece that only you can do and start to do those things that are on that list.
One of the things I did with that assessment is I broke it down and looked at things that were repetitive first. Those were easy things that we can get somebody else to do. If it’s something that’s happening every week, every other week, or every month, I can easily give that to someone else. That’s easily a way to redeem a ton of my time because I’m doing that consistently every single week. Let’s go ahead and get rid of those.
I then identified what I don’t have to be doing that software or something can do for me. Everybody’s avoiding it because they’re like, “I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to set this thing up. I don’t have the time.” It may take you a couple of hours to then redeem six hours that month, and every month after that. It’s worth it.
On a Saturday morning, go to the library, get a free study room, sit there and designate that time to complete that one thing. When you’re done, you leave. That’s what I ended up having to do. I used to get study rooms at the library. I would rent a study room for four hours. During the week, when I am doing my assessment and looking at things, I’m like, “These are things that need to be done. I’ve been putting them off because I feel like I don’t have the time, but when am I ever going to have the time? I just need to do it.”
I dedicated time at a library study room to go on a Saturday when there were no clients emailing me. It was outside of business hours. I could go and get these things on this to-do list done, and when I was done, I would leave. I would do that every weekend for a while. It helped me to implement things and put things in place that otherwise I would be putting off because I didn’t have the time.
I love that. We’re going to take a quick break, but before we go to break, I want to noodle on this. I love that. By getting out of your regular space, you prevented additional distractions from jumping in, which is amazing. We’ll be right back.
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Welcome back. I am here with Latrice Claiborne. She is tipping us to the game about how to get to 2 to 4 hours a day. I’m excited about this. I’m taking notes as I hope you are taking notes. I want to challenge all of us, if you are in your office for 6 to 8 to 10 hours a day, to find at least one day a week where you are working 2 to 4 hours because you learned how to delegate and you learned how to hire people to support you. You trust them enough to let them manage you so that you could do only the part that you can do.
I didn’t know our conversation was going to go in this direction, Latrice, but I love it. You are the queen of systems and automation and getting your time back. When I think about your life and your journey, how you manage these three babies and your husband who works a lot and travels a lot, and how you make that whole thing do what it does because you figured out how to manage your time. You’re putting what needs to be first but not neglecting this call to have this business serving other people. I know that’s admirable. I know the audience will get a tremendous amount of value from that.
One of the things that I loved when I was participating in your summit, the Six-Figure Systems Summit, was how you were helping people to realize the systems that are available to them that can begin to take things off their plate. Would you do everybody a solid and share maybe 2 or 3 systems that any entrepreneur that has the desire to make millions in their business should have up and running because it will save them time to work on the things nobody else can do?
I always tell people to start first on that operational side. There are so many details that go into the operational side. A lot of the time, it’s fine to be a quick start. It is great to be a quick start, but sometimes, it can be messy depending on how you start. We want to be a quick start, and we get out here and it’s a mess. We don’t have things in order on the back end.
While we are sometimes getting those sales, there’s so much junk, clutter, and chaos in the back end. Don’t fool yourself. The mess on the back end will eventually start to show on the front end. The car can be clean on the outside, but when you go open that door and look inside, there are plastic bags and empty water bottles. The junk on the inside eventually shows on the front end. You can’t fool these clients for so long. They start to see how messy it is on the back end.
I always tell people to have their operational systems in order and make sure that it’s clean. You can quick start. You can jump to starting something and getting it done, but it’s going to be very obvious that this was not done with the level of excellence that it would’ve been done if you would have taken the time to plan everything out and think it through.
The other one that I always say is the client onboarding system. There should be some set-in-stone experience that every client who comes across your company will experience every time they come. Having it automated makes it better because there’s nothing different. There’s consistency. There’s nothing different that any client is going to get when they come now or when they come two months from now. It’s the same level of service, the same process, and the same system for getting them signed up, onboarded, and invoices paid. You’re collecting all the information you need from them and then getting them to the point where you can complete the project and off-board this client if you’re a done-for-you service provider. Those two systems are extremely important.
Most people feel like they can trust their brains to remember every little thing for them. That’s not the case. I never trust my brain to remember anything for me. I always document it somewhere and hold myself accountable for getting it done. I remember when I first started my business several years ago. Initially, it was not supposed to be this. It was like, “I’ll keep the kids home. How can I make the difference between saving money for childcare and what I am making at my regular 9:00 to 5:00? How can I make a little bit of money?” That was all I wanted.
I have no goals of even hitting six figures as a CEO. I was like, “I need to make a little bit and I’ll be fine.” I didn’t think about systems, software, and all the extra things that I could be doing and putting in place to save myself time, but I quickly learned with a newborn baby and a two-year-old at home. I was like, “Something’s got to give. We got to figure something out. I need to do something to become more efficient in my business.”
I was doing all those things by myself. If there was a new client, I’m like, “Where is so-and-so at? I wrote it down somewhere. It was on a Google document or something. I need to manually send her a contract. She signed. This person didn’t sign. They need to pay their invoice.” I was keeping track of all of that in my head and documented things on Google Docs as much as I could. It was a whole entire mess.
Did you have people that you never charged or you never got money from them but you were serving them? I did that.
I had because I had 90-day contracts at first. I was putting people in 90-day contracts and then didn’t set up recurring invoices. If you got it for 90 days, you should have a recurring invoice at least for those three months. People are paying late and I’m remembering a week later, “I didn’t send an invoice.” It was a whole entire mess because I didn’t know what to do. I was poking around trying to figure it out.
Another system that some people may say can wait but I don’t think it can is financial systems. You need to have some financial systems. You put in all this work and you have no idea what your profit margins are. You don’t even know how to look at a balance sheet or a P&L and how to even read them. Some people don’t have an accounting system. They’re using a spreadsheet.
If you have no system in place for your finances and then come time for you to file taxes, it is going to be a complete mess. Operations, client onboarding, and financial systems are just three. There are so many, but there are three that you need to start. You shouldn’t wait like, “I need to hit six figures before I do this.” You should start now. It’s so much easier to start now than it is to wait and have to clean up a mess.
I would even go so far as to say you might not hit six figures if you don’t put these systems in place. I talk about the whole seven of them. People are like, “Where do I start?” You’re going to start on all of them at once. When you’re focusing on operations, you’re going to be documenting what you’re doing operationally. When you’re onboarding or off-boarding a client, you’re going to be documenting what you’re doing with that client. When you’re looking at how much money has come in and doing your monthly profit and loss statement, you’re going to be looking at that system. This is a great list.
I love that you said, “I never trust my brain to remember anything for me.” I hope everybody writes that down. That was me too. I would be in the shower and God would say, “Latrice Claiborne,” or “Latrice.” I’d come downstairs and I would go look at your account because God said to. Let’s say we’ve been working together a whole year and we never charged you because I was the only one in the business and I thought I could handle it all.
I kept telling myself, “If I want something done right, I got to do it myself.” That’s why I had to change that story. I had to realize, “If I want something done right, I need to hire someone else to do it.” I’m scatterbrained. I am the quick start who is easily distracted and wants all the distractions. I used to have the little chime on my computer for every email. It didn’t matter what I was doing. I would stop and see. It would be a mess until I realized the importance of getting the systems done and leveraging the power of systems.
When you think about operational systems, client onboarding systems, and financial systems, to a certain extent, a lot of this can be done inside of your customer relationship management system. Especially if your CRM has eCommerce functionality, then it’s going to take your payment and it’s going to keep track of what came in. You can at least use that as a starting point to be able to see what is happening inside of your business financially.
It will manage your client onboarding and off-boarding processes. It will even allow for some of the operational things that need to happen on a consistent basis to get done. That’s a great place to start if you’re looking at software. When you think about these three systems, is there any other software that you would recommend that people take a look at?
You want something that is doing all of these things as far as collecting your leads like your lead can go and book an appointment. It can send a proposal or send them the Zoom link. It can automatically follow up with proposals for you so you don’t have to. It sends the contract, invoice, welcome packet, and all those things so you don’t have to. Dubsado is a great tool that a lot of people use because it does all those things efficiently.
If I sent a proposal, I don’t follow up with the proposal. I set an expiration date, and I can’t assume that everybody puts an expiration date on their proposal. You should be putting an expiration date on your proposal. When you set an expiration, Dubsado follows up based on the rules and parameters that you have set in the system. They will constantly follow up for you so that the person can go ahead and sign.
It can do different things based on if they signed the proposal or if they didn’t. If they go to the proposal and accept it, the next screen is their contract. The next screen is their invoice. Once they’ve paid, there’s a whole workflow that automatically happens that gives them access to a portal for them, a welcome packet, questionnaires, or whatever your process is on the other side of that. It sends them a scheduling link. They can do scheduling inside Dubsado. It has all of that in one system. All I did was send a proposal and the client has paid, signed a contract, and been onboarded. I just show up when they book their appointment.
That’s how you work 2 to 4 hours a day, people. That’s it right there. That is so good. We are going to switch gears a little bit. You guys probably don’t know this because I don’t think I said it yet, but Latrice is a second-year client in our Move to Millions mastermind. I would love it if you would take a few minutes and share your experience. What brought you to the mastermind? Let’s start there.
I’ve done a few different programs. They were more short-term programs. I was in a program and I liked it. The coach, at the time, was amazing. She’s still a friend of mine, but I outgrew where she was. I was praying, and that’s what the Lord showed me. It’s time to move somewhere else. I was like, “Where?”
I didn’t like what I was seeing. I was looking. I follow a lot of people. I read a lot of stuff. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I was looking at things and I didn’t find a program that fit me. It wasn’t that I didn’t like other coaches. It’s that their program didn’t fit my specific need at that time. I kept looking. I was praying about it like, “God, I need a coach. I have no idea where to find this coach because the programs I’m seeing are not appealing to me.” I had seen Darnyelle on Clubhouse in 2019 or 2020-ish.
It was 2020 or 2021.
I had seen you there when I was in a room. I was like, “Who in the world is this lady?” I went and I followed you, and then that was it. Months later, I was praying and I was like, “God, what do I do?” I get on Instagram and a Darnyelle ad pops up. I was like, “Are you replying? Here we go.” I clicked on it and it was an invitation to watch something. I don’t remember what it was. I made the decision that night. I was like, “Let’s get started then.” Clearly, I’ve been looking and I wasn’t seeing ads. I wasn’t seeing anything. I prayed and hopped on Instagram, you were the first ad that popped up. I was like, “That was a quick answer.” It has been so dynamic ever since.
You ended up renewing in your second year. What made you sign up again?
I got more than I expected in terms of the personal side. It’s very holistic. It’s not just, “I’m going to come here. Here’s the blueprint to X, Y and Z. Let’s do these things.” That is great. That’s wonderful. However, I didn’t realize that at that time in my life, I needed more than that. There was inner work that needed to be done. There were other things about me that were creeping in.
When I talked about trusting on the personal side, that was tied into the delegation on the business side. There were so many things that I did not realize that were impacting my business, my decisions, and how I operated in everyday life as a CEO. Being that the program is very holistic, it was able to help me to identify ways that I was sabotaging my own success, and how to correct those things personally, spiritually, and as a CEO.
There are so many things we may not realize are impacting our business, decisions, and how we operate in everyday life. Being in a program that’s very holistic can help identify ways that we are sabotaging our own success.
I love that we do the in-person masterminds once a quarter. I like that we can come and you can air out all your dirty laundry with no judgment. Everybody is going to surround you and swarm you with support, and give you actionable steps on what you can do. It is not to just fix things in your personal life but also to help you with the business strategy of what you can do to make money and make the move to millions in your business right now. It has been very amazing. It’s been so helpful to me in so many areas of my business.
I struggle with clarity. I struggled with trusting myself with making decisions in my business. It has helped me with my confidence and being able to make decisions. It has given me strategy, different tactics, and things that I would never in a million years have thought about. I did my first live event, the Six-Figure Systems Summit. Darnyelle’s blueprint for leverage and scale enrollment events is mind-blowing.
It’s so much. Watching the modules, I’m like, “I got to do this. What does she think of this? Why would we do this?” Things that didn’t make sense while you were watching them make sense when you get there and when you’re implementing and executing the thing. It has been a game-changer for my business and for my life. I could very well be working more if I wanted to.
One thing that I can say that you have also given me is permission. I didn’t always have permission. I never gave myself permission to do a lot of things. There are certain things that you’ve given me permission to do, own, and be fine with making that decision for myself. The whole 2 to 4 hours has been something that I’ve given myself permission to do.
I could work more. Could I make more money if I work more and do the right things with that time? I could, but I’ve given myself the flexibility and the freedom to show up in the lives of my children the way that I want to show up. That was more important to me than being exhausted in business doing something that I don’t want to do sometimes. As far as certain things, when I don’t feel like doing them that day, I’m like, “I don’t have to. I can get somebody else on the team to do them. I can enjoy my life.” This is giving myself permission.
What I love about that is the season that you’re in, you’re not going to ever get this season back again. Your boys are going to be this age for this period of time, and then they are going to be chasing behind some little girl. You’re then going to be telling me about something else. Sorry, but it’s going to happen eventually because your boys are cute.
In this season, to be able to be fully present for your family and be able to work enough for where you are and still have multiple six-figure businesses, so many people would love to be able to say that is their reality. When I think about you and what you’ve been able to accomplish, that’s inspiring for me that there is no one way to do it. You are creating your own journey and loving every single second of it, which is important. What would you say has been your biggest transformation since you’ve been in the mastermind?
I wanted to serve all the people and to do all the things, and that’s been something that I have struggled with. I’m shifting and making myself feel comfortable. I’m focusing on sales and profit and building a profitable business. I’m realizing that this is not a charity. I understand you want to help all the people. That’s fine. There’s a time, opportunity, and space for that. At the same time, here’s what you need to put in place if you want to make the move to millions. It’s understanding what it requires. Sometimes I think, “I’m going to get here in my business. My business is going to hit seven figures one day.” Understanding what it takes and seeing this in front of me has been both inspiring and also a wake-up call. It’s like, “You got to tighten up. There are some different things that you have to do.”
There are so many coaches in the online space who are talking about the things that they do. They’re talking about all the things they’ve accomplished in their business, but being able to see it firsthand has changed it for me because it has made it touchable. It has made it accessible for me. It’s within arm’s reach. It’s not something that I just see in pretty pictures of somebody getting out of a fancy car and flying on a private jet. It’s something that’s right in front of me. You’re telling us, “Here is the behind-the-scenes on what I’ve tried, what works, and what doesn’t. Based on your specific business, here’s the blueprint for how you need to get there.”
I love that. If someone was to slide into your DMs and say, “I’m thinking about working with Darnyelle,” what would you say?
I was telling someone who was asking about the Move to Millions mastermind. She was like, “How is it different?” That’s what she was asking me. I was telling her about how holistic the program is, but also the fact that I never not feel supported. I’ve been in programs where I don’t feel supported all the time. If I have questions, I know that I can always talk to someone. It’s structured in a way that’s not a heavy pull on Danyelle, yet somehow, we always feel like we always have what we need.
I’m here. I avail myself. I’m not untouchable. I will text you in a minute and be like, “What are you working on? What do you need?”
We also have the Facebook group at our disposal. I also told the person this too. I said, “It’s not just the level of coaching because it’s very high level. It’s not Google-able random things. It’s also the people in the community that you have access to that also can support you.” Darnyelle could always tell me something, but somebody is going to come in and help out as well. It’s someone in the community. I can very well ask anyone in the community and they could support me.
Everyone rallies around you to make you feel like you have what you need. They see to it that you are supported at all times, not just in business but also in your personal life. That takes it over the top for me. I was telling someone, “It’s next level. The coaching level is different from what you would experience in your typical mastermind. We’re not just coming together and thinking of ideas. We’re implementing the plan that’s on this blueprint that Darnyelle gave us based on where we are in our business.” I love how it’s customized. Your journey is customized based on where you are and what your goals and desires are.
I appreciate that. Before I let you go, I got to ask you our three closing questions. This is such a great conversation. I know so many people are going to hit you up. She has this amazing accelerator where she teaches you how to automate all the things. If you too are on a journey where you want to work 2 to 4 hours a day, Latrice can help you to get the systems and automation set up to be able to do that. It’s serious. It’s the real deal.
I was a part of her summit. I got to watch her in action. I knew she knew a lot, but you don’t know that a person knows a lot until you see them when they’re in their element. I was blown away by what she knows. If automation is what you feel like you need most in order to rein in the time and energy you’re spending in your business because it’s not yielding you the results, you want to make sure you get all of Latrice’s details. I know you said you don’t have any favorite quote in particular, but is there a quote that’s coming to your mind that you think would ground and round out this interview that we’ve had together?
I don’t have a favorite quote in particular. I’ll say I have a ton of Bible scriptures that I love. One that would work with this episode of the show and what resonates with me is a possibility and people understanding what’s out there, not knowing what could be possible for them or what they can have. It is, “God will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly before him.” I tell that to my children. I pray that over my children. That has been my life’s motto.
We’ve all had our slip-ups, but as much as I possibly could, I have lived an upright life according to God’s word. As I’m on this journey, I’m seeing the things that I’ve desired. My heart’s desires are coming to fruition. I can see them. They’re right there. We’re almost there. It’s a testament to that scripture. It’s not a quote, but I have a lot of scriptures that I constantly quote to myself.
Living an upright life according to God’s word can bring your heart’s desires to fruition.
That’s a good one. That’s one of my favorites too. What is one book that you have read that’s made a difference in your own move to millions?
I like Turning the Flywheel. There are a lot of great books, but Turning the Flywheel has been a good one. It is by Jim Collins. It relates to my life. From what I’m hearing from lots of people, 2022 has been turbulent for a lot of people. It’s been an interesting time. Turning the flywheel is about that. When turbulent times hit, figure out what your flywheel is and how you can turn it around. Build momentum in your flywheel to get you through that turbulent time and get you to your desired goal, whatever that may be.
I love that. I’m going to have to get that book. I’ve read The Flywheel, but I haven’t read Turning the Flywheel. I’m going to have to grab that. I know you’ve already given us Dubsado. If you have a different tool that you swear by that is making the difference, especially for you working 2 to 4 hours a day while also on the move to millions, what is that one tool?
The tool that I depend on the most outside of Dubsado, which I do use in my business, has been Kartra. It has all my landing pages and all my email automation and my products. It’s getting sales for me. It’s the tool that can help me to make the sleep money that people talk about. It’s the tool that gets me those things because my funnels are set up there and they’re working in the back end.
This is so good. This has been amazing. You gave a whole masterclass on how to learn how to delegate, let go, and allow trust into your business so that you can reduce the amount of effort while also increasing the amount of income. I know people are going to hit you up and say, “Thank you.” Hopefully, they’ll get into that accelerator that you have because it is amazing. It will help them to be able to experience the same. Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it myself.
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That was good. Wasn’t it? What was the nugget for you? Let me tell you what it was for me. I have to go to my notes because I was writing everything down. It is asking myself the question, “How could I create an environment where I could only work 2 to 4 hours a day?” In full transparency, I’m probably not going to try to get to the point where I work two hours, but I am committed to at least one day a week of only working four hours, and allowing my team and systems in automation to work for me.
I am already at the point where I’m only doing the things that no one else can do inside our company. There’s even some room in there. Latrice has helped me to realize that I can do some tweaking in my own strategy to continue to streamline. When she said that she realized that she should never trust her brain to remember anything, I felt like she was my soul sister from another mister. That used to be me. I think about the jankiness that was my business in the early years.
I would try to hopefully remember all the things and all the pieces to be able to move this business forward but was so unsuccessful. I’m grateful for not only people like Latrice but the systems, many of which she talked about in this episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, then you want to do yourself a favor and get all of the information about how to connect with Latrice.
She’s got a powerful Automation Accelerator that can help you to get all of this automation set up inside of your business so that you can experience more freedom and open yourself up to re-prioritizing key areas of your life while continuing to move your business toward the million-dollar mark. I’m excited for you and all that will come out of staying connected not only to this powerful show but also to Latrice.
While you’re here, why not do us a quick favor and rate and review this episode? I know it’s going to change your life as you get out there and implement it. I am so excited that I was able to get Latrice to stop by and share her secrets with us. We’ll all be working a little bit smarter in the next few days. I’ll see you next time. Take care.
Important Links
- MoveToMillionsEvent.com
- Trinity Business Solutions
- Dubsado
- Instagram – Move to Millions Coach
- Facebook Group – MOVE to Millions with Darnyelle Jervey Harmon, MBA
- Turning the Flywheel
- Kartra
- Automation Accelerator
