Let me set the stage: It was 2024, which was also the summer of my content systems sprint (At least for me it was). And every single week I’d create or update 1 complete workflow. Throughout the summer, there were 17 systems in total that I prioritized.
It hasn’t been very long but these systems are already paying off BIG in terms of reducing the amount of time I need to make everything that has to happen in my business happen. I know you’ll find some ideas and inspiration for your own version of a systems sprint that will save you time too.
So in this post, I’ve giving you a complete backstage pass to the exact systems I worked on and how I worked on them.
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This year has been a bit different than others. I’ve been much more focused on ROUTINES over ONE-OFF PROJECTS. The way I reach my goals used to be all about projects and to do lists. But I wasn’t thrilled with the work-life balance that cornered me into. And so I chose instead to commit to recurring actions (à la routines) and to track those in my little by little pursuit of my goals instead. And I have to tell you, this won’t be the last year I take this approach.
One area I noticed needed some major TLC and attention was my operations. Through back-to-back project sprints and aggressive growth, things had become, for lack of a better word, messy. So much had changed in how I do things from the tools I use, to the processes I follow, the best practices that are working now, to the strategies I’m running, and I did a less than stellar job at keeping my systems up to date.
So instead of turning “systems” into an all or nothing project sprint, I decided to tackle it the same way I’m tackling most things this year – through a routine.
Every week, I picked one system to build out and focus on. I started on a Sunday (hereby known as SOP Sunday) and kept picking away at it until the following Friday. Some took a lot more work, while others were pretty easy updates.
Curious to know what systems I’ve worked—and which systems have made the biggest difference. Well, watch on friend.
Content Systems Sprint Area #1: Offer (Fulfillment) Systems
I started this routine in May and I wanted to get my program fulfillment systems in tip top shape to make sense my student and customer experience was seamless. Of course, there are sometimes hiccups (like the last week someone purchased the $10K Monthly Content System using the wrong email, but I want to be able to get everything sorted asap when these hiccups do arise).
I completed 4 systems in May including:
- #1 – My Monthly Program Updates and Emails: For each of my 3 main programs (The $10K Monthly Content System, Profitable Funnel Sprint and the Minimalist Content System), I hold monthly coaching calls, regularly add new bonuses and tools and send out a monthly email announcing these things. The system included the email templates and a step by step process for gathering the info from me so it can go out in those email on time.
- #2 were my Program Customer Service SOPs: The basic structure of this system was already setup but we’d changed course platforms and email platforms so they were horrifically out of date. So this week was all about updating the instructions and making sure all potential cases were covered. We also put a chat bot on the salespages for potential customers with questions on any of the products too. Here’s a little peek at what my customer service SOP looks like. My customer service team can quickly scan to see whether it’s an agency or coaching clients, a student, a potential student, a collaboration or interview request or something else. And then within each of those, quickly find issues, solutions and response templates for things that have come up before. We also have a NEW section so if something new does come up, I can come up with the process and response template once, then it’s added into our main customer service systems and I never have to be the one to handle it again (for the most part).
- #3 – Program Onboarding and Offboarding Systems: Next up was my program onboarding and offboarding system. When I decided to restructure my programs into 3 main group coaching programs (The $10K Monthly Content System, Profitable Funnel Sprint and the Minimalist Content System), I invested in a program from Ashley Pendergraft called Systems Over Stress. It helped me create onboarding forms, results clubs, offboarding systems and more. I set up these systems for each of my 3 main programs (as well as my coaching package) and it’s been a game changer for customer experience and giving us all the data we need at a glance to handle group call questions, support tickets and more.
- #4 – Hot Leads System for Main Programs: The final program fulfillment system I set up was a hot leads system for my main program. I spoke about it in THIS VIDEO but basically it’s an automation in my email service provider that tracks how many times someone clicks on one of the salespages for my offers. Then it adds them to fire emoji groups to indicate how interested they are in the program. It goes from one fire emoji all the way up to three fire emojis. Then we can use personal outreach and add extra touchpoints to spend our time and attention on the folks most likely to become customers to make sure they have all the info they need ot make the right choice for them on the programs.
Content Systems Sprint Area #2: Content Systems
In June, I switched gears to focus on my content systems. I tackled 5 systems in total this monthly, including:
- #5 – My Content Hub – I released my Content Hub product a little while ago (I’ll pop a link down below this video in case you want to check it out) but I’ve been using much longer than that. So I started by cleaning it up, making sure all my content assets were in there, creating a process for planning my content and restarting THIS YouTube channel.
- #6 – Next up, my my weekly content creation workflows. These needed a big update because I wanted to create the video first, then turn that into the blog and podcast. Plus a bunch of images templates had to be updated, video editing template to send to my editor (hi hi). This one ended up taking a week a half to get done but it’s been well worth it based on how consistently I’m able to get the content out with them in place.
- #7 – After that I documented the weekly content scheduling systems. How does everything we create get out into the world. I had a bunch of new tools I wanted to add into the workflow like repurpose.io and manychat for making sure people could easily grab the links to the videos and freebies. If you’re thinking about outsourcing, this is one of the best systems to start with.
- #8 – was my weekly story system. I have always struggled to stay consistent with stories but they’re one of my favourite ways to stay connected with my online community. Giving behind the scenes looks at the work, sharing glimpses of my garden and dogs but without a system, it felt like one more thing I’d never get to. So I created a weekly business journaling form, then a story grid template where I upload photos and added all of these to my Airtable Content Hub. And since it’s been in place, I’ve been sharing 3-4 stories 5 days a week pretty consistently and without any “will I, won’t I” get to it drama.
- #9 – The final system for this month was updating my monthly measure system. In addition to this system project, I also exclusively focused on my funnels instead of live launches. So my measurement systems needed to be updated for each of these funnels. So I updated our Airtable template, the visual dashboard and the processes for collecting and reflecting on those measurements.
Content Systems Sprint Area #3: Marketing (Traffic) Systems
Once I had my systems for fulfillment and content updated, I was ready to turn my attention to growing my audience with my marketing and traffic systems. I tackled in July and here were the 4 I updated:
- #10 – Weekly and Monthly Paid Ads System. I have the best paid ads engine running right now for my funnel and I keep expecting it to need attention but whenever I check on it, it’s still chugging along and haven’t really required any maintenance as of yet. But my system will let me know when it does. For this system, I actually brought in expect help through Zach Spuckler’s Not Your Average Marketer’s Membership which is probably the best ads program or membership I’ve ever done. The process he covers is simple and it works. So my work in this week’s system was to go through all the trainings, set up the ads and document our process for creating new ad campaigns (different types) and how to monitor, measure and maintain them.
- #11 – The second traffic system was our Weekly and Monthly Pinterest System. I’ve been on Pinterest forever but so much changes there every few months. So this week, I got all up to date with the strategies and updated our templates and processes accordingly. A big goal is to scale up our traffic and I see Pinterest playing a big role in that but I know I’m going to need the right system. So lots of tweaking and measuring happening behind the scenes!
- #12 – System 3 of this month was our Biz Bestie Club Systems (a.k.a. my referral/affiliate system). I run an affiliate program that’s just for past customers. They can earn 25% on all the sales they refer in cash as well as score 25% in credit to use on other products in the Content Empire Shop. I needed to update our tracking system for the credits, a monthly email system and a regular update system for adding new promo assets to the Biz Bestie Clubhouse.
- #13 – The final system this month was our Daily Engagement System. This is another one that I teach pretty regularly. But I like to get our connection routine down to 1-2 sessions of 15 minutes. Where I respond to all comments, messages and start 5 conversations. This is either done by me or my social media manager but updating the system for making it happen and tracking it was long overdue.
Content Systems Sprint Area #4: CEO and Strategy Systems
The final set of systems I’m focused on are my CEO Systems – basically the things that help me manage and monitor the business and our strategies. Under this CEO Systems umbrella, here’s what I’m documenting:
- #14 – Monthly Money System: Number one were my monthly money systems. I’ve been using Profit First forever and I cannot recommend it enough, however this year my %s needed to change so I updated those, updated our calculator and template and also did a double check on how I’m organizing the bookkeeping receipts and records.
- #15 – Quarterly/Monthly/Weekly Planning Systems: Next I updated my planning templates and checklists for the quarterly planning retreats I go on, the monthly planning session and weekly planning routine.
- #16 – Value Chain System: One of my favourite books is by Austin Netzley called the From 6 to 7 Figures (not a great name but the book is fantastic). It’s all about distilling your business down into marketing, sales and fulfillment and doing a weekly or monthly score card of these areas with small improvements for each of them. I used to do it religiously but fell out of the habit. So I’ve just updated those systems to my 2024 versions of them and have the routine in my calendar for Friday afternoons.
- #17 – the final system – which I actually have not completed yet but it’s coming next week is our Daily Admin Routine and Inbox Management system. I’m planning on building out more response templates and creating a recurring checklist in Clickup for this.
How I Documented New and Old Systems
So those are the exact systems I worked on (and truthfully, I can see this systems sprint routine being an annual thing so I don’t let things get so out of hand next time). Some of these systems, although they’re updated, are still technically in progress and here’s why.
My process for for documenting new and old system is pretty robust. Not all steps are needed for every system, but here’s an overview of my process:
- First, I free write about the system, braindump all of my notes, review the old system if I’m working from something already created and come up with ideas of new things I want to add.
- Then, I give myself a definite amount of time for researching, playing with different tools and making a decision on the tech stack for each system.
- Next, I’m ready to create my loose outline of the step by step process. This is by no means close to what it ends up as but it’s just a really good place to see the entire flow of the system.
- During that loose outline phase, I also identify the “extras” I need to have for the system – these are things like email templates, swipe copy, prompts, image templates, other templates. This is the most time consuming part of the process and it varies great from system to system. The one thing that helps is acknowledging that these systems are never 100% done and so I’m not pressured to have everything perfect and everything thought of right away. All I aim to do is identify the most used parts of the process and create tools for those parts that are going to save me and my team time right away.
- Finally, I’m ready to set up my system, add in all the links.
- I like to then test it at least 5 times and add notes everytime on things I’d like to add or changes I’d like to make.
- After I’ve tested it 5 times, I finalize the system, add any of those tried and tested additions and record a walkthrough using Loom or Zoom.
- All of my systems live in an ops manual tool called Waybook that I picked up forever ago through Appsumo.
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