Hi, it's Samantha Hartley of the Profitable Joyful Consulting podcast and I'm welcoming you back to season two. And today, what I want to talk to you about is a signature system, which can be incredible for helping you to grow your business, even grow in passive ways. One of the best things that it does for you is it helps you to bring your IP, your intellectual property, to your clients, charge for that through the curriculum or just the value of your process, and therefore be more profitable. These are my goals for you, having specific and clear ways to grow your business that don't just require you working more.

I want to begin with this quote, ‘The sign of a first-rate intelligence said F. Scott Fitzgerald is the ability to hold two opposing thoughts in your mind and still function’. So basically, I say this because, first of all, it comes up so often in my business that I tell someone something and it's like, well, but didn't you say that before? I'm like, yes, but two things can be true. So I can love my work, but I can also love Fridays. I know parents love their children, but they also love bedtime. So in our work sometimes two things are true, process, nobody cares about the process. When you are talking to your clients and your message, they care about what their problem is and the outcome, can you get them the outcome?

So in our messaging, we don't spend too much time talking about the gory details of how we help them to solve that problem. However, process is incredibly important. You can actually have a signature system or a proprietary approach, market that in your outreach to clients and create a competitive advantage for yourself by having a signature approach. So it's true that nobody cares about the process and it's also true that your process can create a competitive advantage for you. So that's what we're going to talk about today, yes two things are true.

I remember when I first started working on this, it was very early, still my consulting career, I remember I sat down to prepare for a meeting 2, with a client. And I thought, well, I know what I did in the first step. What do I do in my second meetings? And I thought I don't know let me look back at the last client that I met with and I looked at those notes and I thought oh okay, in this meeting, I asked about these things. And that was my first beginning glimmer of a light bulb moment to say I have a process. I intuitively am following it and yet it isn't outside of myself written down so, it's easy for me to follow.

And that's what I find happens with so many consultants, like they show up for the client and the client tells them something and then they react to that. And then in the next meeting, they go in and they have some feedback for the client like there's a little process that's going on. But it's not necessarily the consultant leading them, even though they have inside of themselves a way of doing things that they haven't yet codified, they haven't yet set it down into a system. And what happened for me was a little while after that, I went through someone's training, you know, one of these internet courses. And I was going through the training and I realized there were seven steps and I thought, well, what are my seven steps? What's my version of this? And as I went through it, I thought, well, my step one would be this and my steps two and three. And I thought, oh, wow, that's so interesting I do have a process, I actually do have one. And from that, I went on to create my own signature process, it didn't necessarily have anything to do with that one but it was this structure, the shape of it, the kind of, the idea of going through seven steps really helped me to create my own thing.

I have since created many, many signature systems. I have, you know, I'm a teacher archetypally. And so when I see a squishy process, I want to organize that into teaching points and then give that to someone and give that to my clients. So you may also have this. It's not necessarily I think, there’s a right way to do it, the only right way to do it. But I have the way that I think is the better way for me and my clients. Sometimes I think there's a right way.

So this is your chance to say, how would I do it ideally? When you're looking at somebody else's approach, whether you're reading it in a self-help book like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, what do you think are the seven habits? What if it's the ten ways of doing so and so? What do you think are the ten ways or for your process, what are your ten ways?

In almost every case that I've ever seen, someone has it inside them, they just haven't brought it to their own consciousness. So from that original seven-step program, I actually created my program. I called it Create Jaw-Dropping Client Getting Messages. I still teach it to this day. I've created e-learning out of it. I do it live as am doing with your workshop and that name I trademarked. So I have an asset in my business that is created from my intellectual property that has a registered trademark for, so you could hear that there's value in taking the thing that I was doing kind of intuitively with clients as they showed up. And by making that into a specific system, it turned it into an asset. So that's what I'm looking for you to be able to do. For consultants, we don't have that many assets in our business, you know, our IP, our client list, like when we end our work one day, most consultants won't be able to sell our business because it's a practice. It revolves around us but if you can get this IP out of yourself, you begin to create sellable assets, things that can be earning money that don't require you.

Why is it important for you to create a signature system? The first thing, as I alluded to earlier, is that it creates ease for you. You don't necessarily have to be thinking every time you're starting with a new client, okay, well, I wonder what I'm going to do, I wonder what they're going to say. You can lead those as process because you already know that you have a structure that is going to get you a specific result. That's the beauty and value of our experience. I have seen with most of my clients who are kind of new about the third year of work, they begin to say, ok, I know, I see my system, I come in they say these are the problems. I do this and this and we start to get this result. So here is one and two, they're kind of understanding the landscape of why people bring them in, they're seeing I don't want to do this kind of thing or this is really my joy and genius zone over here. That is where you want to begin to create your signature system around those things that you're like, this is the work that I want to do in the world, I want to do it repeatedly. This is my favorite stuff, let's standardize this.

The second thing that a signature system does is it creates trust for your clients. I've talked about the cookie cutter, people always want to do custom work. A cookie-cutter gets a consistent result, so when you go in and you say, I have a process, the client goes, oh, thank goodness she's done this before. She knows how to get this result. She can tell us stories of how it's worked for others just like us. She knows how long it's going to take approximately when you have all of that information for them, the client goes, ok, we can relax. We don't need to take this process over, they trust you, it's likely going to get you a higher investment from the client. They'll pay more for that level of trust and that level of experience and expertise that you're bringing, that's coming from you being able to explain that signature system.

You can also get efficiencies in delivery by bringing in subs. When people say I'm writing down my signature system, the first reason you write it down is for yourself so that you know what that system is. The second one is when I ask people to codify that system and begin to write down the steps. I'm like, write it down as if you're writing it for someone else, as if you're teaching someone else to do it. And they're going to have that on paper and they're not going to be able to ask you any questions, would they be able to do it? So I always think of it as if you have a recipe, can I write down like my pancakes recipe for somebody else so that they could follow it and get 99.9% of the same result as I get when I do it? That's the way you want to write your signature system so that others could do it. Here's why, because when you do, you can get subs. I had some clients who were exhausted because they were doing the core of their signature system as a training that they would do on-site with the clients. And they were just getting exhausted from flying and traveling and having to do that, they had small children at home, they wanted to be home with them. What do we do? Well, you find trainers or subcontractors, you find someone else who wants to fly in and do that work. There are two kinds of people in the world, there are people who have IP within them and want to get that IP out of themselves. And there are people who do not have IP and don't really think that way. And what they excel at is taking other people's IP and bringing it to life. So remember, when you're creating your IP, there are people out there who will do this for you, who will implement your IP for you, but they can't do it while it's stuck inside your head. So when you create a signature system and you teach it to someone else, then they can deliver it to your clients. And that creates a lot of leverage for you in your business very often at the same value. If you're looking to replace yourself if only in a few areas of your business, you need to be able to codify your work so you can teach it to others.

Next, you can teach it as I mentioned last time, a way to reduce the effort of delivery is to teach things to your client. If you have a signature system, you can hand it to them and they can be working through the workbook. They can be working through the process and you don't have to be doing everything. I mentioned that I had a community bank that I worked with and that I took them through my marketing process and they wrote the brand and marketing materials. And then there was a teller who wrote basically an ad that was better than anything I'd seen an ad agency write and I thought this is stunning, I mean, she is obviously a bright person and she was able to take this process and turn out this kind of material. So a girl with a bright future and also a signature system that is able to allow the smart people at your client to do really great work that you don't have to do.

Okay, last thing is Licensing. I want to say this for last because this is super powerful. You can license these materials, train other people. When you have a system that gets consistent results, you can train that to other people, I mean, I'm sure you've met licensed trainers before for the Franklin Covey process. I've been through Myers Briggs training with licensed MBTI facilitators. There are people out there who want to learn, who want to get licensed in other people's systems, and your system might be one of those. So keep that in mind when you're creating this. Like this thing could have legs beyond you and I have a client who has a signature system that she has finally gotten down and licensing from the very beginning has been a gleam in her eye. And she wants to have a whole army of trainers who are going out and taking this work to others because she has a huge mission, right? If you want to change the world with your work, get that work out of yourself, it’s like one you cannot change the world, but one you can get your ideas out into people. Train those ideas in other people, and then send them out and change the world.

So those are the whys of why we want to do this and you can hear why I'm so excited and passionate about signature systems because they help you to magnify your impact so much. So how do I do this? How do I make a signature system? The signature system is about codifying your IP. So it's this squishy stuff that you feel like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just into it or I'm sure you know what you're doing but for many people, they'll say it doesn't feel like there's like a seven-step structure, I'm not sure I'm doing the steps. Once we start digging around in it, then they begin to emerge. So a lot of times it's just about bringing it to your consciousness. The first thing you do is ask yourself, do I have a process? Look back through your notes, within your work with past clients, like what did you do in the first meeting, the second meeting? Or observe yourself the next time you have a new client. I want you to observe. What are you doing in that meeting when you have an onsite with a client where you're going to be there all day, what are you doing? And if you let's say you get sick and broke your leg and you had to send someone else to do that, what would you tell them to do? What are the instructions that you would give them? There are really two kinds of signature systems. The first one is a step by step sequential process, it's like a recipe. You have to do the step first and then you do this step and then you do this when and if you do them out of order it's a mess. Like it has to be done in sequence. And I've had other people come to me and say it's not really sequential, well that's what I would say about my profitable joyful consulting methodology. It's not necessarily sequential, when someone comes to me, they may have these three things really in order, great, but they need these two elements to be able to grow the business successfully. So one of my clients may start with messaging, whereas another one might start with scale because they can't receive any more clients until they get more efficient in delivery.

So in my case, that's a pillar system like here are the pillars of the work. And you start with the one that is most urgent or lays the groundwork for you to then go and do the other ones. So you can hear some are sequential and some are more kind of pillar based. Think about what's true for you. Is it going to be sequential or does it not really matter what the order is? It matters much more where someone is right now and where they want to go.

The difference between a really effective, really good signature system and one that is not all that good is basically effectiveness. Does it allow the learner or the client to be able to get a result consistently? Basically the most skilled person and the least qualified but still qualified person, can they get the same basically ballpark of results from going through your system? It can't be too hard. It can't be too complicated. One of the things that I'll share with people when they're working on a signature system is that we are all so passionate about our work. And we're geeked out on all of the details and things like that. But that's not what the learner needs to know from us. All of these details are not the things that get the results, and indeed, the dummies series of books like Computers for Dummies or Social Media for Dummies, you know, that series? And that series of books, at the end of chapters, they'll have a little thing, a little paragraph summarizing the chapter and it's called ‘The Least You Need to Know’. And I've always thought that it's important for us, especially those of us who are such deep experts and so passionate about what we do and we love all these details. It's really important for us only to teach the least they need to know in order to be effective. If they want to know more they'll go on and get a graduate degree in it or they'll come to us for more work. They can always learn more later but in order to get this specific result that they're coming to you for, whether that is a new company culture or a marketing message or a better marriage, what's the least they need to know in order to do that? What you'll find is if you feel like your process has 27 steps and then I say, what's the least they need to know in order to be effective, then suddenly you're down to those core 7 or 10. I want you to imagine as you're codifying, as you're writing this out, imagine, can they do it without me? You're not there to teach them. I have a branding process that I do and, you know, all of us has a certain magic trick that we do with it. People are like, oh, my gosh. Well, how did you know that? Or how did you come up with that? Oh, I can't believe you just did that right. You have the magic trick that you do when you're with your clients. How did you so quickly diagnose what was going on in that situation? That's the magic trick. And that's the thing that we're probably not going to be able to teach. But can you get 99% of the way there by teaching them all of the things that you're considering? Well, I don't know what I 'm considering. I just do it at the moment, yes sure right? Now, ask yourself, what do I say ok, I've just been in the situation, now what are the questions I'm asking myself? I'm saying what was the dynamic? I'm saying what did he bring to it? What did she bring to it? You have the things that you've learned over the years, your expertise. If you can describe to someone the questions or the process that you're going through in your mind, they can get an approximate result to that. If it's just the kind of thing where you have to come in and you do the final magic trick, then you can still take them through absolutely everything. Schedule a single session with you instead of you having to spend, you know, nine weeks in this process or a year in this process, you can schedule it to where you come in. You look at the facts on the table and in an hour you go there. There's the magic trick I've just told you, here's your key differentiator, here's your essential gift, here's your core mantra that's going to help your parenting skills, be perfect, etc.. Like, whatever that is, you can do everything but the magic trick. So remember, what's the least they need to know to be able to get a consistent result?

Many people, when they hear about a signature system, immediately think of online training, e-learning. Here are the steps that you have to have first. You first have to document what's going on in your process and once you document it, you want to basically codify that into a system. So, as I said, it might look like it's 27 different things in the beginning and some of which aren't like actual processes, some of which are magic tricks, you do. Once you get that codified, you're going to turn that into a system, a system that you want to test out.

So have some beta groups test this out on a few clients. The next time you go into your client, instead of you doing everything for them, you say, great! So I have this process that we're going to follow and I'm going to give everybody a workbook and we're all going to work through that. And so what I'll do is I'll lead the meeting and then you'll have some things that you'll do on your own. We'll debrief that in our next meeting and then we'll go from there. That's how you can kind of gut check or beta-test your system. So then it becomes like a system, there is this specific 10 steps that you're doing. Only once you have a system can you automate something. You can't automate it unless you're 100 percent sure what's going on in every step of that. And once you automate it, it can be an online learning or e-learning, or whatever you want it to be. How long do those kinds of things need to take? How long does the process take? I think if you're thinking in terms of what's the least people need to know, and you're also thinking in terms of what is going to be effective at getting them a result every time, you have to think about what kind of sustainability or stick-to-it-ness, your learner is going to have. To me if there's a six-month program, it's got to be woven into their lives. It's got to be like five minutes a day, something like that. It's going to be really difficult if you're going to be doing an eight to 12-week program, you can look at something like an hour a week. But most people who are in corporate America or who are business owners, they just don't have what we have, when we're in grad school or college. These kinds of hours and hours and hours to dedicate to things.

So keep that in mind and be compassionate to your learner. A lot of us again, as much as business is a learning curve, a lot of people are out of the habit of learning new things when they're working. So what's the least they need to be effective? And how can you break it down into chunks that are 5 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day, an hour a week? That kind of thing. So there are many ways for you to grow your business with signature systems. You don't have to have just one signature system. You can have multiple of them but when you create them, you're going to find out that intellectual property turning it into an asset for your business is going to be a competitive advantage for you. You can use it in your marketing, you can use it in your selling process when you're consulting with a client and letting them know what to expect, especially if you have a process that is getting for your other client's consistent results. Consistent results that you can tell your other clients about. So if you'd like to know more about creating a signature system, feel free to get in touch with me. This is something that I help my clients to do, and it will help you to have a more profitable and joyful consulting business. So I'll see you next time.