How much of a difference can having a second in command have in your business?

While many that listen to this podcast are the operator or already have an integrator/operator in their business, many haven’t made that jump just yet. And part of that is there’s some unknown about how to utilize an integrator or where to find them fully.

Which is why I’m super happy to speak to Olivia Clare. She’s a professional integrator, the founder of the integrator agency, and the host of The Crystal Vision podcast.

Discover:

1. How the chaos around 2020/2021 helped to cement her role in the world and discover her superpowers

2. Why learning to handle the small problems builds us up to tackle bigger problems as you scale

3. How your vulnerabilities will be exploited and exposed during times of immense stress and how to guard ourselves from this

4. That having a strategic and tactical orientation to our thinking is a superpower which can propel things forward

Finding an integrator can be difficult, which is why Olivia has set up an agency to help align visionaries and integrators.

If you’re ready to take this jump, I recommend reaching out to either of us to get started.

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, we made it end of another week. And you know what time that means it's time for another interview on the show, you know how much I get like, I get geeky excited, every time I get to do an interview, because I don't know. Like lately, I just had interview with after interview with amazing people. Well, you know, you've heard the interviews, what am I telling you for? If you haven't heard the interview as well, you know, we got this thing, like, you can go back and listen to old podcasts. And while you're there, leave a rating, you know, all those things. That's the great thing about podcasting. It's so evergreen. But anyway, that's not the topic for today. The topic for today is the role of the integrator in your business, and how much that second command can make a difference. I know this from both sides of the house, having been the second command of the business. And now as the head of my own business, and I have my second command, like I know, that relationship, how special it is between the visionary and the integrator, and how man, you want to superpower your business overnight. You hire one of these super nerds like me, or like my special guests, because we will put a rocket fire under your business and help you achieve more faster because that's what we do. And that's why I'm so excited to welcome from the other side of the pond. Olivia Claire, Olivia. Claire is a professional integrator. She's the founder of the integrator agency. And so what she does at the agency, she actually helps hook up visionaries with their integrators. So hey, if you're having trouble find one. Check out Olivia. All the contact information is in the show notes. In addition to all this, She's the host of the crystal vision podcast. And I'm so excited to geek out on not only that second command role, what they can do for your business, but operations, marketing, and just all the things that go into this. So Olivia, so happy to have you today.

Olivia Clare
I'm so good. Thank you for that introduction. And like blushing a little. I'm very, very excited to be here and have this conversation with you. We already spoke for 15 minutes before this just because we can't help ourselves when it comes to this topic. So absolutely cannot wait and ready to just jump right in.

Adam Liette
Love it. Olivia, let's just start off with some of your backstory. Because how we all got to this place is like no one ever grew up in school with the teacher saying what do you want to be when you grow up? And I said, I want to be an integrator. Yeah, we find ourselves in this role, because there's something so beautiful and natural to our personalities on how this works. So what drew you to this line of work? How did you end up here?

Olivia Clare
Great question. I, I grew up and I was going to be a writer. So I was going to write books and write for a beauty magazine and live in a high rise building in the city. And that was my plan from when I was about 11 And I was just a crazy child so organized I had two planners, I had a personal planet and and a School Planner actually use both of them. It's so embarrassing. And I actually fell into the business world and it's it's funny both of my parents growing up they own their own businesses and being so type A the way that I was so organized such a high achiever. I don't know how I didn't discover business. Before I did, but I did really well in school, I taught my class and so I became a tutor. And then the tutoring company that I was working for had an internal role going for an inquiry, inquiries, assistance. So essentially, doing sales, doing administration, emails, working with CRMs, things like that. And it was completely unlike anything I'd ever done or ever studied. But I was obsessed and took me about three months to get my head around everything. I asked a million questions as I still do, but um, I don't know if it's a me thing. I have a feeling. It's an integrator thing where you ask a billion questions, it takes you a while. But once you get your head around it, you've mastered it, and you can delegate it, you can do it forever, do it back to front, and you're better than anyone else. And so that's what I did with that role. Within three months, I was promoted to inquiries manager, and then within a year I was promoted to executive manager working with over 200 subcontractors and really leading the business leading it through COVID. And after COVID, I'm sure as a lot of people did, I had a big spiritual awakening, and decided to start my own business and just kept trying and failing, failing and testing and yet trying different things, trying drop shipping, training, coaching, training, influencing all those things, until I really decided that what I love to do is just use my brain in this way it comes natural to me, talk operations, marketing, management, high level stuff, and collated a team to help do the action with me and for my clients so that I can stay in my zone of genius, high level strategy, and my clients receive action and task based support for not the highest strategy price, which you sometimes find with integrators. And that's, that's sort of ended up where I am today. That's my big, my big story.

Adam Liette
I love it. Man, that brought back some memories, like you mentioned, like going through COVID. And like having to, like there were some moments during that time period where like we realistically looked at the business saying, are we going to make it? And so that role being the integrator, there's a lot of it's like stress is coming from both sides of the equation I found where you get the top down stress, but also the bottom up stress is that you're similar to your experience.

Olivia Clare
Yeah, it was interesting, I think, in my particular niche, there was a lot of luck that the subconscious subcontractors that we had the tutors in Australia, they were able to receive government assistance. So that was okay. But top level, it was just a matter of, you're going to have less hours, we're going to try and make it through, we were really lucky that the majority of our business was already online. So the core team were already remote. But you know, I watched, you know, fellow staff members get let go and not come back. And I watched inquiries, you know, dropped to 10% of what they were before. And, you know, everyone sort of sitting at home, it's kind of like, you know, you're laying under the covers, you've got like covers over your head and just like peeking out, like hoping that this is going to end soon. And that's what we really did. But the business survived COVID. And yeah, continued to profit for a couple years until it was sold. And I did this journey. So yes, there was definitely pressure from everywhere. And it's it was one of those tricky things where there's not much you can do either. So you can only push so much or market so much in an industry that had some face to face aspect to it as well. So yeah,

Adam Liette
absolutely. And you mentioned very much the spiritual week, and I feel you on that one, it was really profound from from myself. And that helped deal with a lot of the stress yield a lot of the pressure that we weren't feeling like the role requires being able to handle yourself in those situations. So like, what are some of the tactics and strategies that you found to be effective to regain your sense of control your sense of self during those moments? Yeah,

Olivia Clare
this is a great question. This is something I really, really struggled with, until about 2021. When I actually got a therapist, I had a big fear of failure. I was such an overachiever that failure didn't even exist. In my mind. I was like, what is that. And when I had all these fears, and all these feelings of failure, I had all this anxiety around my work. So I actually got to a point where I wasn't even able to, like leave my bed because I was so stressed about doing something wrong, or potentially failing or letting someone down in this business. And what was really, really important for me was learning techniques to process my emotions, to feel my feelings and to let it all flow out. And that really helped me to manage my anxiety. And I completely worship my therapist for that, because I seriously would not be here in my own business if I had not learned how to regulate my body and my emotions. So you might think emotions have nothing to do with the logic of business. And you know, it's all about numbers and you just come to work and get it done. And that's how it is but it will catch up with you if you do not learn how to manage your stress now, and in fact, you cannot experience any growth if you cannot rise to a level where you are able to solve more problems and handle bigger and bigger problems right. So if you cannot handle the stress To have a refund, for example, whether it's in your own business or someone else's, how on earth you're going to handle a quote unquote, failed launch or deleting an entire funnel or whatever problem it is that you may come up against in your business, you won't survive it. So you are only able to grow to the capacity with which you can emotionally regulate yourself and handle more stress and more problems and more complexity. So I would definitely start there. It doesn't have to be a spiritual practice, it just has to be a an awareness and some sort of practice. So I journal daily, I feel my feelings, I talk to myself in my head. So you that may be exercising, or going for a walk or meditating or whatever, could be a whole array of things, but it's just having some time to not, I mean, we live in a time where we can avoid our feelings more than ever. I feel fear, I don't want to deal with that. Let me just scroll on Instagram, I feel nervous, oh, I'm just gonna check my emails instead of deal with the problem that is at hand or, you know, respond on Slack. So I think creating space might even just be 15 minutes while you're washing the dishes or filling the dishwasher, or having a shower. But notice what is coming up for you and feel it and say I am feeling fear. And it is temporary. And I can move through that. And it won't stop me from making the changes that I want to see in the world. So emotional regulation has to be my number one tactic forever.

Adam Liette
I love it so much. And thank you so much for just for saying that. And to some of sharing some of the strategies you've taken because we are type a high achiever personalities, this is difficult for us to admit vulnerabilities. But we all have them and your tiniest vulnerability is going to be exploited and expanded during times of duress. So finding whatever outlet it is, and like I definitely have the areas I lean on. I'm huge into some of my self care routines. And whoa, I know when I'm not doing them, because I feel it. Everyone around me does too. So yeah, but that's so much of being an integrator where you you're like, you're the person on the team and the team is looking to you often do to be that rock. And so like, you're not doing it for yourself, do it for your people. Like they need it. They need you,

Olivia Clare
right. Yeah, I love that. Love that perspective as well. It's not just about you, but your whole team. And you know, you've got to step up. That's honestly the only way and sometimes we think stepping up is doing more, but it's really just expanding our capacity to feel more and to be more in the moment. And to not muddle things up and avoid it really?

Adam Liette
Yeah. For sure. Awesome. So I have a question. It's a loaded question. Because I've been exploring this for like three to six months. Because the integrator by its very nature on the org chart is second command, you're right next to the CEO, visionary, which we've all settled in nicely on CEO being the title of that top person, right. There's like 17 different words for that second command integrator being one of the more prominent ones. So just to clear the air here. If someone's hearing this, it's like, oh, well, I don't have that I have an OPM, I have an executive assistant. Like, what exactly do you define as an integrator, just so someone's hearing that they're going, Oh, my gosh, I do have an integrator. I just call them this. So yes, your your definition?

Olivia Clare
Of course. So the term integrator actually comes from Gino Wickman. And his book traction or rocket fuel where he defines the Entrepreneurial Operating System as having a visionary and an integrator. And so in, you know, a small business, we can look at that as a sorry, in a bigger business, like you said, we have the CEO or chief executive officer, and you might have a CEO or a chief operations officer, that would be your integrator. In a smaller business. When I was an executive manager, I was an integrator I had the founder to answer to and their only role in the business I didn't find sometimes in some businesses you don't like CEO is the integrator because you might be commanding to a founder or to an investor potentially. And so when I was the executive integrator of this tutoring company, I was answering to the visions and the requirements of the founder. And so yeah, we can use a million different times executive assistant, again, depending on how big your business is. We have even Chief Marketing off CSR operations manager can be really anything but what, what an integrated does is they take your vision, and they create the action steps for it. And then they either do those action steps so the work gets done, or they will assign the action steps and delegate the action steps. So they might even delegate it to you, right? I could be your integrator and come in, and you can say to me, Olivia, I want a six figure launch. And I say, Cool, this is exactly what you need to do. In order to get your six figure launch of setup all the tasks on Asana for you, off you go, I could still be your integrator with literally that much level of involvement. And so it really is, yes, someone who integrates the vision into an I really love using the word translator. So they translate these big picture visions, into actionable steps into this actual strategy, and the tactics and the to do's in order to make that vision happen. They are part of the reverse engineering process. So I hope that clears the scary word integrator up a little bit. It's not always tech involved. I think we hear integrator we think, Oh, tech techie, but not always.

Adam Liette
That's what I get. That's the question I get a lot when I say integrated, like, oh, the person that put the Zapier guy, I'm like, no, yeah. No,

Olivia Clare
not even close, sometimes.

Adam Liette
times. But I love you pointed out that just because you're that supporting role, and you're the translator, Domina. That's a good one. I like that one, by the way. So often, that requires you to assign sub task and full tasks to the CEO, which correct feels like a scary thing at times. But like, that's part of your job is that CEO, so many of them. I love visionaries, I definitely have that part of my personality that is a visionary. And I need that for my visionary side needs someone to tell me what to do. Like they, I need that. And so if you're, if you're already an integrator, and you're feel sheepish about telling your CEO what to do, they need that from you, they will crave it, just do it the first time. And they're going to give you that look on the Zoom call, like what the heck is going on? But that's okay, because they're gonna go do it. And they're like, Oh, I'm so glad that happened. So that's really cool.

Olivia Clare
Yeah, 100%. And there's a term for that. It's called Managing Up. And so many visionaries literally just want you to come in and tell them what the heck to do. So that they can move towards it and don't have to think what to do for themselves. Once you can get someone to think for you in your business, you really start to move from that, you know, I guess employee role to almost an investor role, and you can move less and less and be less and less than that to do. At the moment I've fully off boarded. That's an onboarding, I've handed off the growth tasks to someone and they completely miss, I don't even have to step into my business and it grows. And that's what happens when you hire an integrator is they help you do the thinking you have someone to bounce ideas off, you have someone to who's really in this with you, and not just, you know, sitting on the other end waiting for a to do list for Thursday, you know, they are creating the tasks with you. So you don't have to think about it. And the other thing that I just want to say, because you mentioned it is I also feel like I have a little bit of visionary in me. And if you're an integrator don't think that having a little bit of visionary or, you know, being able to think both ways is a detriment, it's so so helpful, because it helps you translate even better, because you can understand exactly where the visionary is coming from and say, Okay, I get that. And my integrator brain is saying we need to do it this way. So it I find it makes you really, really amazing integrator, if you can think both ways.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. 100%. I'm glad you mentioned that, because like that is that allows us to see the full picture where our visionary doesn't. It's that ability to see both sides of the coin. And one little tactic I've use, which which I'll share here is if I'm in one of those kinds of meetings where we're working on high levels, strategic stuff, I'll like purposely stay in strategic role during that meeting, and then watch the replay with my integrator hat on so that way I'm fully present in both of those situations. And that allows me to like do the whole thing because otherwise, I start hearing the vision and I'm immediately like, Okay, well we got to do this. Where's my checklist? I need this. Like, I gotta start thinking about the steps here. Let's work backwards. But which oh my gosh, like don't do that. Everyone, like for real? Like stay in where you need to be at the time because your your your presence is so needed at that moment.

Olivia Clare
So true. Love that what a good tip. I'll test that out. Sometimes my integrative brain just takes over. I'm like, All right, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. I'm not finished.

Adam Liette
I've heard that before. Yes, I resemble that. So so much of this requires that the relationship between the two of you, I think it's the one of the most close knit relationships outside of a marriage or committed relationship of that romantic relationship. How do you recommend really cementing that relate that, that that bond that you need to have with your counterpart? Are there certain things that you you've done that have really helped or, I mean, we're most of us are in virtual environment. So we can't really always go on a retreat or something crazy like that. But like, what are some steps that you found really work? Well? Yeah,

Olivia Clare
first of all, I definitely recommend having a weekly meeting. So if you are even having fortnightly or monthly always have a weekly meeting, even if it's just 15 minutes to see each other's faces. And to have that connection, I've found that that helps bucket loads. The other thing that is a really small thing to do that I think brings virtual teams so much closer, is just having a rule of thumb, where at the start of any meeting, you ask each other personal questions for the first few minutes. So you say how are you? How's your day been? How's the wife? How the children? How was that thing you did last week? Keep up with their social media, pay attention to their personal lives, because we don't have water cooler chat, right? We're virtual we, it's so easy to jump straight in and be like, Okay, I've been thinking about 7 million things we need to sort this out. This problem is really pressing, but choosing to slow down and say, how are you? How are things going? What's the weather like there is so important, and really easy to forget to do. So. Anytime I have a team member log on, I asked them how their weekend was? Are they excited for the next coming weekend? How's the weather? If I see them in person, same thing. What did you get up to being genuinely interested? Oh, you saw this person in concert? How was that? Or oh my goodness, this person is coming to visit you how exciting what have you got planned, make such a huge difference. So whether that's you know, visionary, integrator relationship, or other relationships in the team, just try all that out and explain that to your team and explain that you want to have a deeper connection with the people that you're working with, with that small bit of small talk. And watch what you guys get close. I really,

Adam Liette
for sure. I love that I've used that same method. And I knew we were winning. When my British counterpart asked me how my American football team did over the weekend.

Olivia Clare
Like, there we go. I got goosebumps, it's that that makes the biggest difference.

Adam Liette
Yeah. Although they didn't they, they they confided in me later. It's like, I still don't understand football. Like, why do you guys like this so much, Mike. Well, that's okay. All of us here in America. Well, not all of us anymore. 75% of us here in America say we don't understand this thing you call football. So you know, it's okay. And we can have even in a zoom environment. I don't know if you've ever done this. Have you ever done happy hour over zoom?

Olivia Clare
I haven't done it. I have been invited to it. But I haven't actually hosted one or attended one. But I think it's fun. It's just important to have a non work, you know, lunch hour or happy hour or Yeah, like you said,

Adam Liette
I may or may not have gotten downright silly. On a happy hour once because I got into some bourbon. It was really, really good. And we were celebrating, so yeah. Yeah, the team saw a different side of Adam, that.

Olivia Clare
And I'm sure they loved it and humanized you even more. They're like, Oh my god, he gets silly on bourbon, too. You know, especially when you're dealing with your superior to a lot of people it's so important for them to see like you make mistakes. You're human to you get silly. You have interests outside of work. All of that is so important.

Adam Liette
100% Yeah. And it's all they talked about for like the next two months. Like, I remember when I went in and I found the cloud recording before they did and I deleted it because I'm like, Oh

Olivia Clare
I love that. No one's safe from the cloud recording.

Adam Liette
No, no one is indeed. So if we have a visionary out there that's listening. And they're like, Wow, this sounds interesting. Like, I want to get Any one of those integrators? Like, how do we go about finding one? I mean, obviously, you have an agency, you help hook people up with an integrator, but apart from agencies, like how do you just find an integrator? You just go on Upwork and search for integrator? Or what do you recommend? Yeah,

Olivia Clare
good. Good question. So this was part of the reason why I started my agency, or I guess, really, I was doing this freelance and having a team and it took me a few months to figure out that what I was doing was actually an agency. And when you try to Google on the internet integrator or find an integrator, nothing can comes up, there's no unless you type in someone's name next to it who's known as being an integrator, there's really no platform that is specifically dedicated to integrate it. So I feel like that's part of what I offer. But freelance websites are fantastic. So I love Upwork. I think there's also one called freelancer.com, you can use Fiverr. And yeah, you can search integrator. Usually, that's a good place to start if you want someone who's very familiar with ELS, however, again, you can interchangeably use terms like OPM on a business manager, team manager or team leader. And again, depending on what your focus is, maybe you want marketing manager, or executive assistant. The other thing that I will say is, don't just you don't have to rush into getting an integrator, you can hire someone to work with you on a specific part of the team. And then they can work their way up, or you can train them to being an integrator as well. So yeah, I love Upwork, you can always put a post up on websites like that as well, platforms like that, requesting an integrator. And, yeah, again, you can use a lot of the terms interchangeably. So really think about what it is that you're looking for, specifically, with, like having in mind that you can always train someone for the role that you eventually want them in as well when you've grown to that point.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. And actually, that's how I ended up in this line of work. I thought I wanted to do marketing. And I found a gig on Upwork to be a marketer. I was moonlighting because I was still in the army. So I was moonlighting as a social media marketer, and operations manager turned into me, just one of those rabbit holes, you fall down it and you're like, Oh, this is cool. Like this.

Olivia Clare
Yeah. Yeah. And it's good when it comes by accident. So don't definitely don't try and force anything, definitely try and hire for culture first, you know, if you've got someone there who's can answer all the questions about being an integrator and has all the experience, but they're not coachable, or they're not looking to really grow. Like, you need to work on culture first. So yeah, I use Upwork all the time. I love Upwork. So

Adam Liette
there's some gems. I tell you what, there's little tricks to make sure you're to weed out people like 111 thing I use is I'll drop a keyword into the job spec.

Olivia Clare
Yeah. Oh, it's fantastic. It. Yes, yeah. No, it's so true. Suddenly, like 90% have left the building like, Oh, this is great.

Adam Liette
Yeah, because otherwise, I mean, we can do country only. Like, for me, it's my option is us only but do you have like an Australia? Only option? Is that a thing?

Olivia Clare
I'm not sure. I think so. Probably, yeah, you can do locations that you prefer. Yeah.

Adam Liette
But I never like to start there. Because I've, I've just found some amazing employees in third, third world and developing countries that just happen to live there. It doesn't mean anything. They're they're so capable of what they do.

Olivia Clare
Yeah. Yeah. When you have an online business, you know, trying to limit like, Why limit yourself to a location if you've virtual anyway, or, you know, working with people in international time zones anyway, it's just yeah. And then you get more like a more talent field, if you will. So get you better off using a key word. I love using the key word. Try it out if you haven't already.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. The one thing at a time, it almost backfired on me because I was working for a music company. And we put put the word trumpet into your, your, your cover letter. So someone said, Well, I'm a Trump and I'm like, Oh, you're just trying to butter me up. Now. Turns out she was a trumpet player. So it's kind of cool. I'm a trumpet player. So it's like, immediate geek out. We ended up by Are you here, but not because he was a trumpet player? She was the most qualified. And she did.

Olivia Clare
I love that.

Adam Liette
So this this is for both of our visionaries and our integrators. Because we know visionaries, they got that thing they want to hold on to, like, what is have you found to be hard to get visionaries to let go of for and for integrators to take it over? And, and and how can we go about like convincing? Our CEO? You got to let go that let me take take control that for you?

Olivia Clare
Yeah, good question. I find that it's with the people that I've worked with, at least by the time they're ready for someone to support them. It's not about letting go. It's about getting them to slow down. So you know, the thing that I find visionaries do a lot, which I absolutely love about them is the way that they have this 10 year plan, 20 year plan, they know exactly what it's going to look like and what it's going to feel like, and I see that with them. And then I say, Okay, can we just take about 30,000 steps back? And look at what we've got to do for the next three months? Right. And so I think that is the main thing, that I wouldn't even say it's difficult, but one of the most essential parts of working with a visionary is being that sounding board for them. And sometimes it's difficult because you don't want to say to someone, you know, it's their dream, it's their vision, it's, you know, their baby in a way that energetic baby. So how do you tell someone that they need to, you know, not conceive that baby just yet, if that makes sense. Like, we've got to build the room. First, we've got to make sure we set up the Ikea furniture for this baby, before we bring it into the world. So I think that would be maybe the most difficult or challenging aspect of working with a visionary is just coaching myself that it's okay. And it's part of my role to help them slow down and focus more on the present, or, you know, the three months one year plan versus the 20 year plan, and letting them have full control over that 20 year plan. But making sure that the action steps that they're taking now is in relation to our goals for the year or the quarter.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. And 90 day sprints like yeah, those are the lifeblood of scaling your business like you can't, especially when you're like in that growth phase two years feels like a long time. One year feels like oh, yeah, time, 90 days, oh, we're gonna conquer the world, baby. We got 90 days. Yeah, yes,

Olivia Clare
it's true. And in the marketing world, online business, digital marketing. Two years means, you know, there's Tick Tock 3.0, or some other new platform that we're using for social media strategy or other like we just we literally, we have seen how fast technology has moved, we have no ability to conceptualize what two years looks like. So it's a lot easier to hone in a strategy for every quarter. And know that you can at the next quarter reevaluate and see if the market has changed and pivot towards that otherwise creating a two year plan with a budget trying to stick to it. When you know, like I said, if if someone had created a two year plan, four years ago, and Instagram was their main marketing strategy, they would have fallen behind because they would not have adapted to tick tock. So you just you just got to look a little bit smaller, a little bit closer in terms of time, it's simply because the way that the online market is nowadays.

Adam Liette
Absolutely. So you shared a saying with me in our in our pre interview, and I want to I want to dive into this because so often I talked to visionaries, and when we do I do strategy sessions with them. And they think when I'm talking about scaling, they think this like, really complex thing I like know everything, it's a whole lot simpler. And that's actually one of your sayings is scale through simplicity. So I'd love to dive into what how you make things simple, how we can slow things down and make things easier as we are indeed scaling and becoming a bigger organization.

Olivia Clare
Yeah, there is no way to scale through complexity. It's impossible. And just saying that makes me have a little giggle because the only way that you can do more of the things that are working is if you really hone in on those things. So I guess the best example that I could give is, again in this online market, if we talk about marketing we have so many different ways we can we reach new people we can and posts on Instagram, repurpose that for Tik Tok repurpose that for YouTube shorts posted a vlog version of our podcast episode. And to be honest, I do all of that. But my best suggestion is to not start out doing everything, but really hone in on one aspect and make it really, really good. And maybe that's email marketing for you, you can be the best in email marketing, and just hone in as that you sort of niche of digital marketing, all of that energy will really compile into getting your results versus spreading yourself very thin across, you know, five different platforms or seven different offers and not really being good at any of them. So scaling works the same way you can't scale by adding a new offer. And I see this all the time is that something is working. And entrepreneurs love to burn down the building and create new things. That's what they're really good at. They love creating new things. But that is not how business really works. This is what I see a lot with the visionary integrator relationship as well is that something is working. And the visionary says, excellent. How can we make it better? And the integrator says, excellent. How can we do more of what is already working, because sometimes when you try to fix something, when you're trying to fix something that's not broken, you'll end up breaking it. So rather than making it better, and you know, I'm not talking about, you might film a new video for your program in a year's time, or update the email marketing or whatever it is. But like, if you get 10 sales on your course, and you say, Now I want to make it even better. Like no, just leave it, let it work, let it continue to do its thing and see how you can get make more of it. So more people in the funnel more leads coming through to consume the content that you know, is working. And so I forget now what your original question was simplicity. So that is part of how you make it simple is not trying to, like I said, fix something that's not broken, it's just making your job a little bit easier. Because in like naturally, when you have more clients more money coming in more employees to manage those clients, it will be more complex. So adding more complex offers more complex systems and structures will just create an absolute disaster. So you want to make sure you're very clear on what it is that you offer, who it is you offer it to and what their experience is coming through. So what those systems and structures in your businesses. And if you are confused about any of those things, it is going to be impossible for you to bring more people in because you don't know what you're bringing them into. So hope that answers your question.

Adam Liette
Yeah, absolutely. Because it's so I've heard that same thing, you know, and I've thought that same thing to, oh, I got to do this now. But if we look at, I love to study the old guys, like all these marketing books from 1930, and 40, and 50. Like, there's some, like, timeless wisdom in some of the old literature. And a lot of times what they'll talk about is just like making incremental improvements, like if you just improve 1% here, 1% there. And so I think of like any kind of process improvement as the 1%, I'm just going to hone in on this one thing, and just fix this part of the process, instead of trying to create a whole new one. That's Yes. Like, what you want to create a new one, but like the real world, yeah, 1%.

Olivia Clare
And you get caught in shiny object syndrome, which is, oh, there's a new technology that can completely revitalize the way that I do my business. Let me implement that. Oh, wait, now everything's broken, no one's getting their emails and my sales are starting to drop off. That's what happens. And entrepreneurs, visionaries, they want to be excited by their work. And business, in and of itself is actually very boring. It's the same thing over and over again, when you think about McDonald's, what do they do? Every single franchise, they make the burgers the same way over and over and over again. And that's why it works because there's a quality assurance that people know exactly what they're getting. Imagine if every single month McDonald's scrapped their entire menu and started again, it would cost way too much time, energy and effort to the organization and they would fail. So that's why I always recommend just figure out what what what like figure out what works and just keep doing it over and over and over and over again. Because the time and effort and energy that you put into repeating a process actually gives you more space to let more people in, if that makes sense because you're not using all your energy to scrap it and start again.

Adam Liette
Absolutely Wortley Whoa, I love that so much. let more people in. That's, that's genius right there, let more not only on the outside but on the inside as well. You're able to even internally let more people in because it is a system. It's it's a machine works. And you give people a system a machine, what can they now do with it, they can approach it with confidence, right? And

Olivia Clare
exactly. They don't have to relearn how to make this new burger every single month. No, they just a lot of employees want that consistency as well. I don't love doing the same thing every day. But I have people who work for me who love that. And I'm like, great, because I need something else to like, keep my mind active. So it's it's not about you know, what's right or wrong. Or, you know, you might be listening to this and thinking, I can't do the same thing every day like does that mean my business is going to fail? No just means you hire someone or bring someone on who knows that a business is meant to be boring and repeatable. And then you can go and take all your time to create the new visions that will come in over time, just not every single month or every single launch, if that makes sense. You know, you see people trying a launch. And then they're like, Okay, well, that didn't work. Now, let's do it a completely other way. But like you said, you need to do those little tweaks, let me just change which platform I promoted on and test and see how the results are otherwise, you basically have no idea what's working, what's not working. And the whole point is to try and get it working. Create a system, a process, a machine that makes money for you, and use your time and energy to go and live out your passions and do something that's not business. If business is boring, do you eight hours of work and then go and live you live? Yeah.

Adam Liette
I love it. Like, well, the webinar didn't work. Let's do a five day challenge. Stop. Yeah, let's not do that. Right. It's so cool. Yeah, that's really profound. And it's, it's something that you listening, like, I know, you've probably heard it before, but there's a reason we're repeating it. And part of it is because we have to hear it again. And again, a part of it is we're telling ourselves reminding ourselves to do it. Right. So much of

Olivia Clare
this no one's except, yes, exactly. No. Okay, in my head every single day, guys, I have to sit down and say to myself, what is working? And how can I do more of it not? Oh my god, I really like the idea of doing this. Should I go and try that instead? Or maybe I should incorporate this aspect to my into my business as soon as my brain does that. My integrator reels that back in right, I've got both of them happening in my brain. And so stop what is working? And how can you do more of it, don't fix what's not broken. It's like a mantra.

Adam Liette
Like this, I have this little card I keep on my desk for a reason, because I need it every now and then.

Olivia Clare
Do the fucking work exactly. You it, there's no getting out of it. You just have to do it. I did this today. Actually, I have to mention this because I just came up with this yesterday, I have a habit tracker that has absolutely changed my life in the past couple months. And just yesterday, there's been this work that I've been putting off. I was meant to have it done last week, probably Thursday, and it's Tuesday for me now and I still hadn't done it. So I was like, Okay, this is obviously a bad habit of mine. So on my habit tracker, I've now got every single day to do some deep work, whether it's 30 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half of work that I do not want to do. So I just get used to just fucking doing the shit that I do not want to do, because that's the only way it will get done. That is business, you're not always going to be able to do everything you love every single moment of every single day. So maybe try that out as a habit every day do something that you just don't want to do.

Adam Liette
Yep. That's the reality of it. That's what makes us professionals. That's the difference. Right? That's Steven Pressfield talks about that in the War of Art. You know, the amateur does the work when he's inspired. The professional does it anyway.

Olivia Clare
Yeah, I love it. So keep

Adam Liette
that book on my desk for a reason. I need it at least twice a week. With that, Olivia, I know you're a big reader and I follow you on the Instagram. And you were you were you just had a post out the other day about favorite books and last year, so I have to. I'm a big reader too. I'm a super book nerd. I think like three books a month as I'm averaging right now. Nice. Before we wrap up, what are some books that you would recommend to the audience? Obviously we cover traction, we covered rocket fuel. What are some other books we can help not only in our professional lives, maybe maybe in our own personal lives? Yes.

Olivia Clare
My number one would have to be the alchemist. I think this is great whether you're a visionary at heart, whether you're super rational and logical, it's I just could not put it down. It's told in such a beautiful parabola ik way. And it's a story of someone following their heart's desire. And it's just so beautiful. And it's actually something that I want to read once a year, if not more, because, and I've got a quote in there that I write down as part of my affirmations every day, which is when you desire something the entire universe conspires to make it happen for you. And it will really just, if you haven't had a spiritual awakening before, if you don't understand that the universe is conspiring for you, and that you can have anything that you want, this book will really help you to perceive that. It's magical. So I would definitely recommend the alchemist. It's not a business book. It's, it's actually in the fiction section, I was looking for it at a bookstore. It's in the fiction section. I'm like, You joking. This is like gospel. And I'm just trying to figure it out, because I'm like, Oh, I love the alchemist. I think Brene Brown is a really valuable, valuable writer, she talks about vulnerability, which has been very impactful for me. She also talks about the role that fear and shame play in our lives and how it can hold us back from living, really joyful, really freeing, vulnerable lives and vulnerability is the basis of all human connection. And, again, more than ever, it's easier for us to avoid that emotion and stick to surface level and not get deep with one another because we're scared. So anything by her is amazing. Rising Strong, is really good. So I love her work. She's an actual researcher as well. So if you are like, Oh, this is all a bit fluffy for me, all of her work is grounded in experimentation theory science. I'm just trying to think I read some good ones. I I would just start with those to start with those two. And then if you're looking for more if you've read those, and you're like, Oh, she had good recommendations, message me at Olivia, the integrator on Instagram, and I'll give you some more because I read you know, financial books and personal development books and business books and strategy books. And so they're probably she's my top all thought and that's probably just my top overall book. But I read a lot so I can give you some more personalized recommendations if you reach out to me.

Adam Liette
I love that. I asked that question a lot, because it's so funny. Like the different answers you get and like your was the answers like, totally Olivia. Like, that's what? I love it. Yeah, perfect.

Olivia Clare
Have you read either have you read the alchemist or anything by Brene? Brown?

Adam Liette
I haven't. But in a previous conversation, you had mentioned the alchemist to me. So now it's it's on the way I ordered it.

Olivia Clare
Yes. It's because

Adam Liette
I don't do the Kindle books. I'm more. I can't do digital books. I need hardcover books. I don't know why it's that physical connection. So I have to wait a little bit to get it but it is on the way.

Olivia Clare
So please tell me yeah, how you go, because I'm obsessed.

Adam Liette
That's awesome. And then before you know it, I'll be like, yep. And I read it every year too. But

Olivia Clare
yeah, it's good. Brene Brown reads the alchemist every year. I've read it. And then I read one of her books right after and she said that, and I was like, Well, I guess I'm reading it every year too. So it's actually a personal favorite book as well. So yeah, you'll love it.

Adam Liette
Oh, it's so cool. So much fun. Olivia. We could chat forever. But I know we do have to get on with our day. Where can the listeners find out more about you and discover more of what you have to offer? Yes,

Olivia Clare
so I am on Instagram at Olivia the integrator I'm also on tick tock. You can listen to me blab on all day long about this. If you haven't had enough yet already at the Crystal vision podcast. It's on Spotify Apple podcasts are the places My website is currently my pick up by the time this episode comes out. So you will either potentially have a link in the show notes for my website. I'm sure it will be up. Hopefully, I'm working really hard at it. Or otherwise there's a link to have a strategy call with me. If you want to learn more about what it is that I do, how I help people or if you just want an integrator and to delegate to someone in 2023 Me gal so you can find me at all those places also just come chat with me like I am a normal human being so you can just be like hey, you're cool. And I would be like oh my god. Yeah, you're an online friend. So yeah.

Adam Liette
Well, we're we're like normal for non normal people. Right? Isn't

Olivia Clare
it true? I know people would listen and they're like, What the hell are you talking about? Why do you get so excited about software and strategy and like I said to planners from the time I was 12 like that is abnormal, but I know there's people listening like me too. And you're my type of people.

Adam Liette
Love it. Olivia. This has been so much fun. Thank you so much for joining us. I hope everyone got a lot out of this I know I did. It's it's always great geeking out with someone else has been down this rabbit hole. And the various things that we shared and different things I'm sure we learned from each other. So it's it's awesome to to explore.

Olivia Clare
Yes, thank you so much. Thank you.