How can you have a bigger impact in your own business?

I’m excited to bring Alexys Bartok from Process to Profit onto the show. Alexys is one of the most natural operators that I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and we geek out like crazy in this episode.

Learn some actionable steps you can take to implement easy operational upgrades to your own life and business in this packed episode.

If you’ve ever wondered how much of an impact having an operator on your team can make, be sure to give this episode one (or more) listens!

Follow Alexys on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexys.bartok

Process to Profit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2779269962367178

Learn more at https://www.adamliette.com

Discover how to work with me: https://www.adamliette.com/work-with-me

Transcript

Adam Liette
What's up smooth operators, welcome to Friday's episode of the show, you know, it's Friday, everyone's favorite day of the week and my favorite day, because we get another interview with an amazing person that I met I geeking out about bringing this person on to the show, because we found each other on Facebook somehow, I don't know who found who but either way, we became Facebook friends. And I started reading your posts. I'm like, Oh my gosh, like we're the same person. Like everything she's saying, I'm like, yes, so much. This is great. And just on the same way of like, I think when you meet people like that, like you just got to reach out like, yes, we got to talk, we got to network, because networking, this space is lonely guys, I don't know if you've experienced that yet. But getting out there meeting people forming relationships. It's not just about the Facebook ease. It's also about actually getting on Zoom calls collaborating. And there's so much to be gained from that. That being said, I'm already talking way too long, because I want to bring on Alexis Bartok, She is the CEO at process to profit. She's an operations nerd, just like all of us. So she's going to get in the weeds on our favorite topic, really what it means to build the machine that runs our companies. She primarily works with coaches and agency owners to help them build that structure, build those processes, all those things that we know, make it worth it, make that company shine, and bring us to that next level of growth. So let me go ahead and bring on Alexis, thank you so much for joining me today. How's everything going?

Alexys Bartok
Thanks, Adam. I'm absolutely psyched to be here. It's a cold day, and I'm pumped to warm it up talking to you.

Adam Liette
Anti Fantastic. Well, it's colder here. But we can have that contest. always win. Yes. No win. Yeah, absolutely. So we were sharing a bit before we we kicked off here and I I love origin stories. I think it's so interesting how we all came to this place and like found this natural thing inside of us. We're Oh, that's why this makes sense. So I'd love to hear more about what brought you here and how you became the operator that you are.

Alexys Bartok
Yeah, I mean, I think most of us that are integrators, operators, we've had this type A personality most of our lives. And so there's a whole type of background with it in terms of, you know, creating systems in childhood and all of that, but professionally, I actually started as a VA at a digital marketing agency. And that really opened up as you were saying Pandora's box of what it meant to work online, I just didn't even know that existed until then. And through that I got a lot of the amazing experiences that I use today in terms of what processes are, because I think agency owners experience it on a whole different level than anyone else in terms of service providing. So really, within a year and a half working there, I was promoted multiple times and offered a position of CFO ended up turning it down because I just like I get bored. And I wanted to try out my own thing. So I was doing some freelancing, and then COVID hit. And with COVID, I think a lot of us just crave stability. So I ended up hopping back in as an executive assistant at another online business. And within four months there, I was actually offered the CFO position. And I was like, Okay, I think there's some operations in me that I just can't get out. So that was an amazing opportunity. Again, that CFO position, I actually only stayed at it for about a week because I have a core value of whoever you're working with, you should be wanting to be there for three 510 years in the future. That's just my own personal core values. And I realized that I really wanted to go out and help more people on my own. So back in May of 2021, I launched my own business, and here we are.

Adam Liette
That is so cool. I love that ascension and something I teach people all the time. Like you hire with the intention of ascending people and bringing them to that next level in your company. And if you're not hiring, like you might want to relocate your hiring process. But yeah, I think there's gonna be a whole bunch of like virtual nods out there but as operators we live with process and so like outside of the business like where do you have processing even in your own life? Oh,

Alexys Bartok
that's so fantastic. I'm laughing because you're gonna laugh at me. So actually, in the past month, my boyfriend and I decided to move in together, which was very exciting. But when we sat down to do it, he goes, Okay, if we do this, can you systemize our life? And I was like, Do you know who you're talking to? And so we actually sat down created a plan of like literal home processes of who does cooking, who does shopping, who does all of that we have a schedule, like I've set up a notion board. This love for order and process is not just business that is all around. It's a lot of fun. And I'm very lucky to have a partner who loves that part of me and uses it to his advantage.

Adam Liette
I love it so much. I actually, I live in Asana. And I even have like my daily morning checklist, my all my Everything's in there. And I joked with someone, I love sports, but I hate commercials. And I hate. I optimize even my sports watching experience. So I will record the game, and start watching it halfway through. So I catch up by the end. So it's these little stupid things we find in ourselves, because we're always optimizing our life. It's this this crazy thing. And one of my mentors called it operation operator personality type, and we are definitely geared towards it. Have you done a DISC profile or anything like that? Do you do any of those kind of assessments?

Alexys Bartok
I have, I haven't done a disc in a while. So if you asked me my results, I couldn't tell you right now. I do use the Enneagram pretty often, specifically for hiring processes. And so I'm an Enneagram. Three, which probably makes sense as to why I had to keep jumping around until I launched my own business. But yeah, what about you?

Adam Liette
Any gram? I think I was for once I I'd have to check back. It's been a while. Disk I'm of super high D, like ridiculously high D. Yeah. Which you are too,

Alexys Bartok
if I'm sure. I'm sure I think I was when I did it, which again, was years ago. So I probably would have been different now. But I was high in C as well. And a lot of visionaries are low on C. So absolutely, yeah. Yeah.

Adam Liette
That's my adaptive actually, my adaptive see goes up to the roof to

Alexys Bartok
Yeah, we're usually quite like operations or is very cautious. We like being stable. Stability is really important to most of our personalities, which is also something I try to let clients know is that, you know, we need stability, which comes with us creating the processes, and not jumping from place to place. So Yeah.

Adam Liette
Fantastic. So you mentioned that this is a good segue, because you mentioned using anagrams in your hiring process. I know that's part of the service you offer is like you actually hire people for your clients. Is that correct?

Alexys Bartok
Yeah, it depends on the level of client and what they're in need of. I have like a recruitment system that I can can be done with you or done for you. I'm definitely not a recruiter. In terms of hiring sea level I have people that I would suggest out. But similar to what you mentioned in the beginning, I really believe most people need more of an entry level executive assistant or account manager and I use any organic hiring method to source their community that they already have to find someone that's already committed and obsessed with their vision maybe has been following them listening to their podcasts for a while and we'll just come in with the proper SOPs and training can just love it and really have that ascension plan over the next few years to go from similar to how I did executive assistant to project manager to whatever feels right for the business.

Adam Liette
I love that sourcing from within it's like the like if you have a following you have your hiring pool ready for you because I was former director of operations at this company that I used to work for and the person that replaced me was hired as a tenant 10 hour a week assistant and within a year and a half was the director of ops because yes, she came in and there's so much to be said about culture and already having buy in on the vision and the purpose of the the organization I think there's that's a hidden secret that should be more professed. We should make a Facebook post about that. Like your one the other day.

Alexys Bartok
Oh, I know. But yeah, that's kind of a big going back to the whole core value of someone that's gonna want to be there for a while. I mean, if you come in sometimes you come in as an assistant like it sounds like we maybe both had come in not knowing what you're going to be but you fall in love with the vision, phone vision, fall in love with the clients and everything. met is happening in the business, you already know the processes. So it's so much simpler to optimize. So yeah, for clients, I usually suggest hiring from within. However, there are plenty of times when it's like, you should just hire an operator or integrator. But for that I usually source from my rolodex of people.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. So what is the hiring process look like for you? Because I see. I mean, we've all seen it, the person that just posted in a Facebook group, hey, who's got recommendations, which I'm like, Oh, what are you doing? But what does the hiring process look like? When you're when you're bringing someone on?

Alexys Bartok
Yeah, there's a lot of prep work that goes into hiring and I've been with I worked with clients, I've been when I worked in companies with client, I'm sorry, in companies, where they just were those ones that posted and said, Hey, looking for a VA looking for this, and there's no actual information, which nine times out of 10, when we go to hire, we're doing it out of stress instead of actual planning. So I would say you're not ready to hire until you have everything prepared. So typically, for me, that's three phases. That means we need to audit whatever's going on, we need to optimize, which is going to be you know, all of the schedules, the actual scorecards, everything like that, and then we need to replicate. And that's going to be the SOPs, that's going to be actually basically, I like to say, we're cloning you, the business owner out of the day to day operations. So getting the SOP set up for that, and then you expand, which is where you post your hiring post and start the interviewing process and all of that. So there's like a whole level before we even get to that post. And that post is very specifically laid out in a way that it's leveraging the core values, and the expectations of the post of the position. Because really, in the end, you are just like you would sell a client, you are selling to your team. And your team needs to come in, be super excited by the vision be super excited about the position. And when they read when someone reads the post, they should be like, that is what I've been looking for.

Adam Liette
I love it. I love it, because it sales. That's something I teach as well like you. I just need a post, maybe you need a landing page. Why not? I've included social proof on on job specs before because that's amazing. Because it builds excitement and makes people go, Hey, I really want to be involved with this. And what are you doing that I mean, you're attracting your A players, like you're making them want to work with you not just because it's a gig. But I just genuinely believe it's so easy to say, Oh, I'm just gonna work for money and whatever, like I want to work for, I want to live to work as well, like I want to come to work and be excited to be here not just to punch my clock until I get out for the day. Yeah, life's too darn short.

Alexys Bartok
It is. And I think you know, for the operators that are listening, it's important to figure out what your core values as a human being are. Because then when you're looking at the different jobs, it's not necessarily just about salary and day to day, truthfully, in the next three to five years operators are going to be more in demand than anyone else in the industry, especially with AI and everything else that has come out. Nothing can replace a project manager, a planner like you have, that is really what creates the machine. That's what makes a business grow. So when you're looking at different businesses and saying Where do I want to spend the next three 510 years if you can think that far, which can be scary. But if you can think that far ahead. I always look like you mentioned I look at people's testimonials before bringing them on as clients like are they really making an impact? How can I make an impact? So if you're coming in as a full time operator, and like you are signing on with this business, you will take this business and scale it 100% So it's a big responsibility, but it's also very exciting.

Adam Liette
In shivers love it. And I agree I think our role is it's I've seen firsthand, and secondhand. I mean the value that a really solid operator can have on a business and just enabling that visionary to be what they do. You're gonna be visionary. Let us let us handle this. We got this you stay over there. So what are some of the skill sets that we can develop? To be better operators to run the businesses better? And like how, how are you continuously leveling yourself up?

Alexys Bartok
Such a good question, two parts to that, the first would be a really important part of being an integrator or an operator, like a right hand to a CEO, is you have to have a lot of confidence. And I don't think that's talked about a lot in the operation space. But often, a lot of us, I'm actually not introverted. I'm quite extroverted. But a lot of us are typically a little more shy, a little more specific in how we like things. And to be really good integrator, or operator, you should be confident to say no to your boss, quote, unquote. So you should be able to say, hey, that's awesome. But if you want to launch that thing next week, that's going to push these three things off. So which one do you want. And so there has to be a level of certainty and clarity in not just your role, but yourself and where the business is headed. In order to be, I would say, really, really owning your role in order to really step up as someone that's going to help scale the business. In terms of what am I personally doing, I love reading books I love the more clients I work with, the more I level myself up. And quite honestly, the thing that's pushed me the most has been stepping into more of a visionary role for my own company. It was very difficult to, you know, I think sometimes as operators, we start to have this belief that it's easy to run a business because we run the back end. And so we're like, I don't get why this this and this isn't happening, because this isn't this is happening. And it's difficult as the business owner at times, and it can help to understand coming from this angle, that business isn't always linear. And when you think so process oriented, you're like, This is how it works. But recently, it's been much more personal development, self development, and putting myself out there, that has caused me to level up more than anything.

Adam Liette
Hmm. I love that so much. And historically, I'm like, I can't get enough of like reading the old books. And like, there's a lot of inspiring stories now. But like, Roy Disney and Walt Disney, yeah, study that relationship. There's been movies made about a books made written about it. Walt drove Roy absolutely out of his mind, because Walt was just Walt, and almost bankrupted the company eight times and really stuck in the story. I don't want to give it all I got you guys got to do some work to read, read about Roy Disney. But then at the end of his life, after Walt died, Roy took over. And we have Walt Disney World because of Roy Disney, Walt died after he announced it. It's crazy how Roy was able to flip that switch and make my children very, very happy in my bank account a lot less.

Alexys Bartok
Such as it's true. And I think even just reading that is something that has shifted for me as well as when reading stories like that. And like recognizing how much failure both of them had to go through in order for what's created today. And sometimes, like I mentioned, as operators, we have this, like, such a linear process driven thought. It's like sometimes you have to go through the hard stuff in order to really enjoy and create the vision.

Adam Liette
It's powerful. Love it. Although failure sucks, but like, how are we approaching failure? What are we taking from it? And sometimes it just requires walking, going through a walk in the woods. I did that this weekend, I sat in a tree stand for two days. Why? Because just being with ourselves and like, reflecting is just so powerful.

Alexys Bartok
It's huge. And I would also venture to say that failure doesn't suck. Failure. We have been trained to believe and associate failure and discipline with a negativity and really a failure as a celebration because we tried and quote to put on my wall Lex love it. But I will say mentioning what you just mentioned is a game changer. And it's thinking time. And this is from the book essentialism, where in the last 50 years, it's the first time that human nature we've ever had too much to take in too much to deal with where now we have decision fatigue and analysis paralysis where it used to be kill, eat. That's it, sleep, stay alive. And so with that, especially with social media is massively massively underrated, to shut everything off and take time for thinking to disconnect. And I think as operators, that's a huge deal for everyone, not just operators or visionaries or anything, but to once a month, take two days with no phone. And once a quarter, I try to take at least a week, a long weekend with no phone. And it's scary and good. And yummy.

Adam Liette
Oh, that's so good. And so needed, because we need to unplug. And I'll tell a funny story about myself we were getting, I was taking my children to Walt Disney World. And they, the kids were determined I was not working on this trip. And so as we're packing the car, my eight year old kept a look on my laptop and made sure it stayed where it was.

Alexys Bartok
My boyfriend says that. But I do think that's a really interesting point. And I was just on a call before this talking about this, that oftentimes as operators and in the industry, we only talk about making sure that the visionaries are the CEOs take their time to not be in the day to day so we can take it on. But it's so important to have a backup plan. So that way, if you're an operator, you also take the time, and you're not always working, which means that you need to create the scorecard and the SOPs for your work. Because if all you're doing if it's all just in your brain, then there's no way out. And you've actually just taken on what the issue was for the founder. So it's still not a machine, you have to create the machine, you can still be the one running it. But you should be able to walk away whether you're the Director of Operations, or an assistant.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. And that's a good segue, because that requires a couple of different things, you know, SOPs, I know you have a great guide on SOP creation, which I can, maybe it's in your Facebook group, right? So I'll link to your Facebook group. But a group requires even us to be able to delegate, which is that word that no one wants to talk about? And you start saying delegating Oh no. So how have you found success even when we need to delegate or helping clients delegate, because it's a hard thing for people to let go of it is,

Alexys Bartok
I could get real technical. So I'm going to stay a little high level. The first thing to recognize is, this is going to sound a little woowoo. But it's how much we wrap up our identity and our ego in our work. And so a lot of times when we don't want to delegate or we're afraid to delegate, it's because we believe that we are the best at what we do. There is no possible way that someone else could take this on. And then really, if someone else could take this on, how does that affect your ego? Like how if someone could run my entire business, my business is my worth. And what's going to happen to me. And so even as operators like I this was something I really struggled with when I was working in the businesses was that it made me feel really good. And really important to be the one that was the fixer. That was the one managing and running things. And so to delegate felt like oh my gosh, what's going to happen if I'm not needed anymore? Like what about my job security. And so a lot of times operators don't actually want to write their SOPs and their scorecards, because they want that job security. And that's, again, going back to the company with the vision and everything is like it shouldn't be about that. So first part is actually dealing with your inner stuff, which is continual. But if you can't do that, then the tactics won't matter. Right. But in terms of the delegation, tactically, the there's even more there, but we'll start really simple, which would be the three steps where you would want to define the task, you'd want to extract the task. So I'd say the fastest way to extract something is just record a loom video of you doing it. That makes it super simple. And then you don't have to spend a bunch of time creating the SOP, which you can, but really, you should either outsource that or have one person on your team that's responsible for all SOP creation. And then it's actually assigning so we defined we extracted and then we assign and in the Assign, that's where you communicate it to the team member create, you know, hey, this is the task this is I'd love to have it done by Friday at two that way I could review it and be open for feedback Friday at four before we head off. So super specific executive communication. So now it's easy guys, you can do it. I can go into a whole nother level of it, but we'll leave it at that and maybe do another episode another time. based on just delegation,

Adam Liette
for sure. And I mean, you're right. It's scary. Like I offloaded. I was our email, I did all the email stuff, all the under the hood automation. And I'm an Infusionsoft nerd. I love it. But it was like, I had to offload it. And I did it in about 60 days, which is crazy. The number of things I had to build, but like it is possible. And I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. When we get to the other side, it's like, oh, this is nice. I was afraid of this. And it's actually really nice. When you

Alexys Bartok
get to the other side, you don't know how you did it all. And right now you're not really doing it all. You're doing things just to get it done. Whereas I like to use this analogy of the entrepreneurial ascension ladder. And it's true for both entrepreneurs and operators really, for anyone. Where in order to scale, whether it's scaling the business or scaling your job, your salary, your responsibilities, your tasks, and the responsibilities that you have must grow up the ladder. So if you are stuck on the lowest rung of doing inbox management, or sending an updating spreadsheets, that is a certain level task. Whereas if you can get 1015 20 hours off of you right there, we can get you up a few rungs. Now, you're more an operations manager, director of operations role. So it's seeing how freeing things up really supports the business and you in the long run.

Adam Liette
And it's following a model which makes us happy anyway. Can you tell him an operator? Yes, I guess, models, roadmaps, ascension, pas Prosit, like all these things give us clarity, they give us support, they give us that little foundational stability that we need to have the courage, the clicks end, and to move ahead with anything. So the more I think you create those in your life and your business with your team, like the more you're just setting yourself up for long term success, and like everyone loves to be to feel like they got like, my team members called it the I feel like you got an operator blanket around all of us. is protecting us. Yeah. And then really what that enables us to do, I mean, there's a certain flow we need to be in to really do our jobs and to really be able to manage everything. If you're not doing everything, right, you know, you're doing everything you're managing now. Like how do you get in the place you need to be to be the rock solid operator, you are?

Alexys Bartok
On a personal level,

Adam Liette
or on a personal prefers personal and professional? It's definitely both.

Alexys Bartok
Yeah. I think oftentimes, in this space in this industry, we focus so heavily on the business. And we focus so heavily on our careers and what we're doing and where we're going, that we forget to take time and recognize that there's like five other areas of life. And if you're only optimizing for the one, others are struggling. And so that was another thing, when you asked earlier about leveling up is I've been so much more intentional in the last year to support all areas of life, and really choose to each quarter to focus on. So like, for instance, next quarter, q1, I'm focusing on business and health, and getting back into my health routines. So for me, even just having bind down routines, and routines to like at the end of the day, I'm stopping work and the way that is proven is that I go for a walk. And that means I'm done. And it's off. Or you know, at night I'll read a book 30 minutes before bed, so no phones, no anything. Like all that stuff that we hear we should do. And we're like, that sounds nice, but just do them. But there's also a flow to it. I think as operators we live in our masculine energy a lot like we really like processes, checkboxes, everything. And a lot of times it's like what do I need today? And is that a walk is that a book? Whatever it is I need today it's to focus on that and recognize that stress and overwhelm are just a feeling and they're a choice and you get to choose to feel them which means you can choose to not feel them.

Adam Liette
Oh my gosh

Alexys Bartok
I think there's more to that and that's been a big has been You know, there's this association that high achievers should be stressed out and should be overwhelmed and are constantly running around and are busy. And I think as operators like, when I was working for the multi seven, seven figure business, and I was the director of operations there, that was kind of how it felt. And it was just because that was the the culture that was created. And without meaning to, we can recognize it as operators, we actually create a lot of the culture. And when we recognize like, being anxious, being stressed, being overwhelmed, has no correlation to success. And we get to decide how we feel, and how we make others feel.

Adam Liette
And that's the big one, because whatever we're feeling, and we're putting out, is what the team is going to internalize like, our team is, our teams are looking at us. And they're modeling after us in a huge way. So like, what energy are you putting out? These are the mirror, these are the mirror moments, guys.

Alexys Bartok
I just saw on your face, you were like, Oh, no. It's true. It's true. And I think, you know, you also as an operator, you cannot play a victim and the CEO or they are known for jumping around from idea to idea. And that's okay, as long as make others around you feel at ease.

Adam Liette
So big O huge with that, man. Okay, I don't want to go too far down that rabbit hole, because that's a that's a big one. But I think, yeah, there's just so much to take away just from taking care of yourself being having intention. And I just went to a forum the other day where we looked at, it's called The Life circle and evaluate the strength of every aspect of your life. And so what you said, just really hit on that it's like, all these things play into each other. And they're always influencing influencing each other. So even just improving your health does improve your business. It just does. Because you are able to show up in a different way, which is why I was up at four o'clock this morning to go hit the iron before coming to work, because that's something I need to do. I mean, it's just part of what gives me strength when I show up to work.

Alexys Bartok
Not me, but I'm proud of you.

Adam Liette
Well, in fairness, I mean, I did like 12 years in the military. Yeah, that helps. It's kind of ingrained now, or it's like, part of my identity. I'm not there.

Alexys Bartok
Impressed.

Adam Liette
Although my we used to do like three and a half hour long workouts, those are gone. I can't do that anymore. That's insane. So when working with one thing, I, before we ran out of time, I want to circle back because you mentioned like, you need to have the confidence to tell your CEO No. You have to have the confidence to your team members know, right, just being able to say no. Yeah. What type of resistance Have you seen from CEOs when they bring in an operator role? And and how do we best overcome those as operators to get the CEO to trust us and work with us?

Alexys Bartok
That's a really good question. Truthfully, I think sometimes a business isn't ready for an operator, and they bring it in. And that's where this type of intense resistance can happen in that, sometimes they need someone more entry level that will ascend, not necessarily an operator. If it's a business that is like 100%, ready for an operator, they're excited to have this like, almost executive level person coming in to be managing things. One of the important aspects is how open to change the CEO is and also the understanding of what that relationship is, because I think from an operator standpoint, we have a job to do. But it's also that the operator and the owner are going to be close. They're going to be talking building ideas off of each other. And it should be very comfortable to push back, both of them. So that's kind of what I mean in terms of the confidence of you have to not be worried about job security. You should actually bring bringing security to the company. And I think what I hit on earlier of the identity and ego and everything is like, if you are a really good operator, you know, you're a good operator, and you are excited to put in the time with this company, get the processes all of that, then there's really never a concern, because like I mentioned, operators are always in high demand. Yeah, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be obviously committing to the long term vision of this company. It means your vision, you know, what your mission is, as the operator, you know what the outcomes of your KPIs are. And you are committed to that same way that the owner and founder is committed to growing and scaling everything. So if you're both committed and aligned with the same vision, there's gonna be tension, but it's going to be healthy tension, kind of like a marriage, it's very similar to a marriage, not that I'm married. But I like that analogy. Of like, if you guys are committed to the same vision in life, long term, there's going to be disagreements, but they're going to be for the best.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. And it is like a marriage. I'm married. So I can't speak on that. No, actually, I found just reading. What's that book about? On the seven love languages? Like, stuff like that can really help that relationship as well. Because the CEO operator relationship? I mean, you know, as well as any it's, it's tight. And it is there is friction. But what do we do when we hit friendship, friction? Do we run from it? Or do we lean into it and figure out figure way through it? You know, it's definitely the latter, for sure.

Alexys Bartok
Go ahead. No, go ahead. No. We're both too polite. I just agree. I think that there's a lot I do agree at sounded like I disagree. But it said, I just agree. There's so much love and support given to each other. And I think mentioning what we said about the culture earlier, where a lot of the culture is created from the operator, because you're the one doing the one on ones with the team and checking in and everything. And so it's like, when we're going back to the psychology of operations, when we're so embedded in safety. It's bringing that safety and comfort and deadlines with processes to the team at the same time. And so like, our vision is a little bit more team process oriented, where, obviously the founders is going to be a little more revenue and sales. So it's not getting lost in either one. But being able to see everything as a whole as a whole as well.

Adam Liette
I love it. This one's full of nuggets. It's gonna be fun cutting up for Instagram rails.

Alexys Bartok
I can't wait. Yeah.

Adam Liette
So before we run out of time, if you could go back in time, get into your DeLorean. And go back to three years ago, Alexis? Like, what? What have you learned since then, that you wish you would have known back then?

Alexys Bartok
It's really interesting, because I think you know, what's so interesting is that I was preparing a end of year review for a client, for the client to be hosting the end of your reviews. And I found mine from when I worked at one of these companies in 2019. And I was reading it. And I, the company was great. They asked all the questions that I would have had, I had my client ask. And I think the biggest thing back then was that I wasn't happy in my role. And I was afraid to make a change, because I didn't see my worth. And I also had this weird association that operations like boring, or lame, and it's like, not what I should spend my time in. And a mentor said to me, and he was like, why don't you just spend some time doing what you're good at? And see how you feel about it a year later. And that changed my life because I realized I actually love operations. And I found my worth in it. And obviously, I'm worthy more than just that, but I found the impact in it. And so if I was talking to three years ago, me I would probably say to not be afraid to do the boring things. The lame things, the things that I find exciting, and to just go all in, and help as many people as I can and soak up all the knowledge.

Adam Liette
I'd love it. I love it because it's about embracing who we are. And like, what everyone else thinks is nerdy. I mean, for God's sakes, I majored in classical trumpet. I mean, let's talk about nerdy. But when we're from that place of just fulfillment, like everything else comes in this really beautiful way. And, and that that that is what makes you an inspirational leader. That's what makes people follow you. Because Leadership isn't about ordering people. It's about inspiring them to follow you. And there's just so much to be taken from that. That's these. For those of you listening, these questions were not given to Alexis in advance. This is on the fly. So she says she's an awesome interviewee. So this is great. Thank you. And last question, before we wrap up, you mentioned one book, but I'm a huge reader as well. And I like to always ask, what are some good books you would recommend for operators to continue their their development?

Alexys Bartok
Yeah, I think Profit First is a must. Even just for your own personal life, but business and same author, but clockwork clockwork is probably the first operations book, other than traction or rocket fuel, that may all piece together. And I think clockwork is something that you should read, just be able to, to understand, like what we're talking about delegation, there's a big difference. And again, this could be a whole nother podcast episode. But there's a big difference between just decision making, and delegation. And a lot of times what we think is delegation is giving someone a task, and then they you still have to be the one to make the decisions. True delegation is when someone completely owns that task 100%, you're not involved in it at all. And that is rare. And that is actual growth. And I learned that through clockwork. So I think there's a endless supply of knowledge. The issue is, a lot of times we read a bunch of books, and then we get overwhelmed by all the opportunities and all of the systems we could put into place. And so from a personal development standpoint, I would also suggest reading the Go Giver was really, really a big one that I've read like eight times, the last two weeks. Because I think, if you're going to dive into reading books, read a book, sit on it, read it again, and see how to implement and make it your own.

Adam Liette
Yeah, love it. Well, what I would recommend to you and I recommend it to a lot of people is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, so it's super small. Yeah, but like each reading is only like two pages. But it talks about the resistance and that resistance that we feel so yummy. It's so good. When you read like two pages, and I just want to go beat down a wall. Yeah, amazing.

Alexys Bartok
Definitely add it to the list.

Adam Liette
Fantastic. And it's one of those books like you're never gonna read it straight through. But anytime you're feeling resistance, this for all you listeners, too, by the way. Anytime you're feeling resistance, take that two minutes, read a page, and you're like, Oh, it's good. It pumps you up in this weird, super nerdy way, which I'm now everyone's gonna love. Fantastic. Fantastic. It's been fun. Yeah, we're definitely gonna have to circle back and do another one of these because we could talk all day. But we have schedules because we're busy operators. Where can listeners find out more about you?

Alexys Bartok
Probably the best place would be following me or friending me on Facebook. I post a lot of stream of consciousness. I obviously have a group as well. It's called process to profit on Facebook. Yeah, you can even send me a DM if you have any questions. And of course, Adam here is the best when it comes to speaking to operator to operator so

Adam Liette
yeah, fantastic. And yes, her Facebook posts are ridiculously awesome. She's one of the best organic Facebook posters I've seen. I don't think she's even trying. She's just doing Alexis which is awesome. So I always enjoy when you show up on my feed, and I might seek it out every now and then. So it's been so much fun. I am just so I'm happy that the universe found a way to connect us together somehow how they happen, I don't know. But that's the fun thing about life. And I look forward to staying in touch. And just it's, it's so cool to meet like minded people and geek out and find out that we are not alone in this world. And there are people that are there to support us and inspire us even again.

Alexys Bartok
Absolutely incredible. Thank you so much. And one last thing for anyone listening, if you made it all the way through the podcast, if you heard it all, and you didn't get oh, too overwhelmed and you got excited, you should feel really proud of yourself, because there's a million intent things you could have been doing with this time. And you took the time to listen, to learn and to get inspired, hopefully, and invest more time and energy into Adam. So thank you.