Nov. 2, 2021

Episode 57 - How To Get Your Time Back With Systems Feat. Connie S. Falls

Special Episode Alert!!! Go grab all your entrepreneur friends and let them know Episode 57 of Nicky and Moose: The Podcast features none other than Connie S. Falls! The “S” is for “Systems”!!!

This episode is absolute fire as Connie gives us the game on the importance of systems in our brands and businesses as well as an inside look into how she got started in her 14-year reign as the Systems Queen working with top companies like Dell and top influencers like Alix Good Energy and Wall Street Trapper!

But what got this systems tycoon into this field in the first place? How does she do it all as a mom and business owner? Tune in because you won’t believe the answers if I told you. Get your pen and paper or favorite device and join the conversation.

What You Will Learn:

  • Common sense is not common, documentation is.
  • What operational systems are and how they benefit your brand or business
  • When a personal brand should start implementing systems
  • The importance of sustainability
  • The difference between growth and scaling
  • The importance of delegating
  • The need to invest in your systems

 

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Transcript

Nicky Saunders  0:00  
Whats poppin whats poppin was poppin welcome to nicky and moose I'm Nicky that's moose whats up moose And welcome to Episode 57 and this one is a little bit special. Um, I had to bring in a friend, right? We've talked about teams, we've like hinted at systems but for sure we've talked about how to make a business to be successful. And I had a call on my friend because I still the running joke is I still don't know what you do I just know you do something with systems and you work with a lot of like really important brands. But I don't know what you do so right so if you guys don't know who I'm talking about, because you wouldn't connie falls and moose how you feel about this episode.

Mostafa Ghonim  1:03  
Hey, man, I'm always excited to talk systems and such so this should be good I was watching the interview that she sent me her and I Oh, she said Don't forget to s because the S if for system some Okay, gotcha. Gotcha. So, yeah, when we say the name, okay, but yeah, now this is gonna be good.

Nicky Saunders  1:21  
So this is getting this intro

Jaymie Jordan  1:25  
two kids from Queens. Cut from a different cloth. Now joining forces helping you to elevate your personal brand. Yeah, I'm talking about Nicky and Moose, bringing you a never before seen perspective into the mindset, the mentality, the behaviors, the driving force, more importantly, the stories behind the people and brands that you know, love the most.

Nicky Saunders  1:54  
So you already know what time it is. It is the review of the week. And this one says nothing but gems or diamonds however you feel like doing this. I started listening slash watching watching watching. Wow, watching Nicky and moose a month ago. In every episode, every there is always some nuggets dropped, that every person slash brand can utilize. The strategies are tangible, and easy to execute and implement. And the lives are fire. Thank you. They have become one of the top podcast slash YouTube lives Id never miss. We are here. So that's the first review that talks about the live I feel very good

Mostafa Ghonim  2:49  
Yeah that’s real mentioned both of them. That's right.

Nicky Saunders  2:53  
So continue to leave a review on Apple podcasts and pod chasers. We love you, we appreciate you and shout out to all our audio listeners and YouTube viewer views. I can't even talk to them. What's wrong with me isn't different. But it's all good. So before I bring this lovely individual in, I'm just going to let you know this is going to be a different type of podcast. Because there's going to be a lot of a lot of conversations it's not going to be normal interview back and forth. We're gonna we're gonna talk to this human being because I talked to her all the time. Moose is gonna get to know her. There may be some jokes. I'm just saying, you know, we're gonna be talking to Connie.

Connie S Falls  3:53  
Hi, how are you? Nicky? I'm doing awesome. I ain’t gone forget about you moose, hey moose?

Mostafa Ghonim  4:01  
What up? What up? What up? 

Nicky Saunders  4:03  
anyways? Can you let? Can you let the people know who you are, ma'am.

Connie S Falls  4:11  
Absolutely, I am Connie s falls and the S is for systems. I spent the last 14 years creating operational systems for creative entrepreneurs. What does that mean policy process procedures where you know all that stuff on the background that helps you sustain your business. I create all of that. So that's what I've been doing for the last decade and some change. 

Nicky Saunders  4:37  
Can can we flex on them a little bit? Just a little bit. I know. I know. I didn't say I say nothing about your materialistic stuff. I ain’t say that. I say I meant I meant the clients can you name some of the clients that you have.

Connie S Falls  4:57  
I've had some pretty dope clients over the years. So We could go all the way back to creating $100 million program for Dell to the Department of Interior Department of Justice. If you're thinking of people that you're used to seeing online you may know Mrs. Two weeks out who is Kalani Lovedale with her brand body envy, you know Alex good energy, probably know wall street Trapper. I mean there's, there's a whole bunch of really, really dope people that I have an opportunity to work with because they trust the fact that I care about their businesses and making sure that they're sustainable when it comes to systems.

Nicky Saunders  5:33  
Since this is all about systems Moose start it off!

Mostafa Ghonim  5:38  
yeah, no, I mean, it's dope I was telling. I kind of set it on the intro Lokhande I was watching an interview I think you did with a young lady. Her name was Christina I believe and I was just kind of listening to you know, of course your story and how you got into it. And I had I actually met you for the first time we probably connected I'm sure online over the years but I met you in person in Atlanta when we were down there last month. And and you walked in with your daughter and I kind of really appreciated like the dynamic it was, it wasn't a typical like mom daughter relationship it was almost like a friend to friend relationship and you were really treating her like a business partner. So you know, before we jump into it, just talk to us about you know, maybe a little bit of your story, your why but more importantly, like your why why systems.

Connie S Falls  6:27  
So my daughter actually is my business partner, she is the Vice President of our company. That part is very important. So when we go to events like that, and by the way, my daughter's 11. So let's put that make sure that that's that. She's She's rolling with me since,

Nicky Saunders  6:45  
Wait, 11 Okay, all right. Go Ahead

Mostafa Ghonim  6:54  
Her daughter is younger. Yeah, I'm not saying like, yeah, her daughter is, you know, 20 some Yeah, indeed. Okay. Yep, there you go.

Connie S Falls  7:02  
So it's important that I bring her to these kinds of events. Because of me growing up, especially where I'm from, I'm from Fresno, California. In my city, we had 17 black students in my high school, right, we graduated 17 of us in my class. So for me to be able to now be in an environment where I'm surrounded by amazing minority, black owned businesses, women owned businesses, it's something I didn't see growing up. So it's imperative to me that when I'm talking about generational wealth, and building something that's going to outlive me that my daughter is able to see it real time. So for me, bringing her to events like that, being able to see the number one speaker in the entire world stand on stage, and not just speak, but also pray over people, that part is imperative to me, to me, and her to be able to see that the clients that we work with, they're on stage, they're working there in the background, I work with Ryan with real design, like that's important that she's able to see him actually working and doing what he does. So all of that comes together when we get to go to these live events. So absolutely, it's imperative that I have with me and the reason that I got into systems are going to keep going on and the reason why I got on top operational systems is one that's I've always struggled with ADHD so I am the little Adderall kid that would bounce off the wall and it's always running around and super excited all the time. It's kind of trying to be calm right now. But um, I was that kid very much so and I remember struggling with knowing what to do when I woke up in the morning. And I mean that's still happened some days now and I know a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with that same thing. So me not knowing one of the one of the side effects of having ADHD is a struggle with prioritizing. So you wake up in the morning you don't know what tasks to do first, you can't figure out who should be responsible for what you feel all the onus on your on yourself of every task that goes on in your business. What ends up happening is that we get overwhelmed so when we're overwhelmed we have struggles with hiring when we hire people, we hire the wrong people and then we end up hiring the wrong people and then we fire them because we didn't leave them in the right way. So the only correlation for me was how do I help people with my deficit? So since I have a struggle with organization that's in my own head what I decided to do was create a business that helped and filled in that blank. So if I'm able to create the processes for the business, it's something that my clients are able to duplicate and therefore delegate so that's how I actually started in the system space.

Nicky Saunders  9:36  
Expect a lot of air horns people I'm sorry in advance yummy. I'm sorry in advance. Okay. So here's my question, right? If, if you struggled with organization, like in your head, like I've seen you like just walk up and like I'm going on, I'm going on vacation. I'm going here, I'm going there. But how do you how are you so structured? But you can't organize stuff. I'm so confused. I want to know more. I just how did you get here?

Connie S Falls  10:15  
So let me explain operational systems to you because there's a difference between the operational digital so what I do is the operational side, right? Because I don't want to work hard. I've done all the grinding and hustling, and I've stayed up all night long, and I've done all that grinding and stuff, I've grinded myself into the ground, I'm grinding myself into anxiety, I've hustled myself into depression. I've done all of that crap before. I'm a whole grown person, I done work my ass off for many years. So my goal now is to figure out how do I get the most done with the least amount of effort. The only way I can do that is by taking everything that's in my brain and documenting it on paper. So that way, I can give it to somebody else, so they can go do it. So I can go on vacation. So I don't know what people are saying right now with the social media thing because I mean, for this to be your 14, the last two years is the first time you'll see me publicly talking about what I did. This is the first time people really even though what I do just like with you, I'm Tommy im the, you know, job, right, so nobody's known what I did. And that was intentional, because I love the fact that you had to be referred in order to come and work with me that way I cut back on chargebacks I cut back on people knowing that people that were coming to me, they had me in their budget, I know that I was needed in their life and they were overwhelmed and ready to make a change. So for me to be able to have only referrals for my business. It was great. But also understand that there are masses out there that actually need these services. People look at my social media now and they're like, oh, Connie drinking champagne out the bottle on a yacht. Yes, because I've worked for a whole lot of years I worked for a decade to make sure that I was putting processes on paper so that way I can delegate them to somebody on my team so that way I don't have to do it. So yes, you're gonna see the yacht Yes, you don't see the champagne Connie out here in the streets. Yes, I'm having the time of my life now, because I invested the time early to make sure that I was documenting my processes and my systems so that way somebody else can run my company for me.

Nicky Saunders  12:17  
Hmm Can I follow up? Can I ask follow up Moose? real quick? Please do okay. I'm like there's no jokes yet. We only we only a few minutes in Don't worry. I'm right. So this this may be me going a little bit ahead. But with the champagne and yacht lifestyle, right? Do you use that as a tactic to get clients as far as like, yo, how did you get on that? Well, I have systems Nope. You just show you praise God. She's shaking her head. No people for all our

Connie S Falls  13:03  
Yeah, absolutely not. So I am very much a private person when it comes to my regular life. But I also know that there are folks out here especially those that struggle with anxiety, depression, ADHD that have kids that are single moms that are mompreneurs I know that there are more people that are like me than not. So for me to be able to say Hey, it's me from the little country town that I'm from that grew up in the hood that's been through more trauma than the average human. If I can do it, so can you this isn't a Hey y'all look at my Fendi bag. Don't feel like purses. Don't you want to be on a yacht? You took and have a yacht? No, here's what you can have peace of mind. What I'm showing you is that I can sit on a beach and I can just be quiet without my thoughts racing without me being worried about if my business was going to tank without me wondering if invoices are still going to get paid without me worrying and having an anxiety attack that every time I leave the house without a laptop. I'm showing you my journey so this isn't a sales tactic for me this is really my real life that I busted my ass to be able to get to. So I understand that there's lifestyle marketers and people that do like that's not that's not my thing. My thing is I want everybody is really Lowkey selfish I really want everybody to go get system so that way everybody can go and play with me. Like I don't I don't need Nicky behind the camera. I don't need Nicky doing all this hard work. I need you to hire somebody to go do your job so that way you can come and hang out with me Hello selfish

Mostafa Ghonim  14:38  
champagne Connie Yeah. I love the champagne Connie. That's what's up. I love it. I love it. Hey, take us into your process a little bit, Connie because I think that part of the reason why people don't have systems right and I think this stuff to me comes natural. So maybe for individuals like you and I it's a little bit natural, so we tend to downplay how It works. But I think a lot of times people don't really hire a professional to help them put these things in place. It's because they don't really know what a right set of procedures should look like, or what the standards are, you know, when we say SLP, they don't even know what that really looks like when it's complete when it's done right when it's working for you. So they think that what they have is is right, it's like, No, no, I've got it like, Don't you mean that they got to call me? And I got to say yes. And then they go and do it. That that's, that's a procedure right there. What was that? So talk to us a little bit about that process to kind of give people almost like, a cheat sheet, right? Something to work off of that lets you know, oh, yeah, no, not that you, you might need to go ahead and hire professional for this.

Connie S Falls  15:46  
So systems is a new word in our community right there. If you look back a few years, you won't see anybody online talking about operational systems. And I know and I'm grateful to be a leader in this space when it comes to the operational side. Because everybody's excited about the tools I want to do at that I just found out what a CRM is, I just want to you know, do Facebook and Instagram ads, they're just learning all these words, because we're just learning how to create businesses in the first place. Most of us are first generation entrepreneurs. So I know the struggle. So one, because I know how scary the word systems is. Because normally, when we think of system, we're thinking of something digital. We're thinking about TVs, we're thinking about robotics, we're thinking about the tough, scary things, why I my page is light why, it's fun. It's not just here, standard operating procedures, but because it scares people away. The easiest way to think about systems is the way you want your business running. Your business is a system, how does it run? What are the steps that need to happen in order for your business to run? Right? That's the that's the big scary thing, taking systems down and being able to say, it's just how it runs. Right? So we're talking about first steps for people and I know it's gonna sound crazy and folks me like, especially in clubhouse I remember the clubhouse days back in the beginning, maybe like dropping gym cutting dropping down. Yeah. And I'm like, they loved it. I'm like, Oh, God, but guess what? I would say, write it down. Write it down. Hey, you're having trouble trying to figure out how to hire somebody? Okay, what did you tell them to do? Yeah, well, I just tell them, okay, was it? Was it written down? No, I mean, they should write it down. I don't care what job you get hired it, guess what you're gonna get an employee handbook. Guess what, you're gonna get the operational playbook on how the business operates. You're going to get documentation in your hand on your email in a CRM, you're going to get documentation that tells you how to run these folks business. I don't care if it's McDonald's, right? So the steps that are super, super easy to be able to do in order to start the system's journey. Write it down, find one task that you tired of doing,that you don’t want to do no more. Give me just one thing, let's say for example, with social media management, because everybody hates doing social media don't nobody want to post all day. Nobody wants to do reels and do it all. Nobody wants to do this. So guess what? You can actually hire somebody else to do this. But I can't just call and be like, let's say Nicky does reels and she does reel so people we know you don't do that, Nicky, so don't don't cuss me out. So let's just pretend pretend this person named ticky. Does reels for people. If I say hey, ticky? I need you to create a reel for me. And then I hang up the phone. Did you give any instructions? Now what if this imaginary person I'm ticky? Does real is different than the way you want it done? Did you give them any direction? No. So you still have to get people steps? Let's make it even easier. Let's talk about babies. Because everybody thinks their businesses their baby, and it's not. And that's a whole different conversation. Now I'm gonna hurt somebody's feelings today. So because your business is not your baby, let's just pretend like it is for a second. How many of us have a newborn baby? You get the baby. You're like, Oh, this is so cute. I love it so much. And somebody says, Hey, can I watch your baby? And you just don't give it time? And you walk out the door? No, that's not that's not the way we take care of your baby. You give them very, I don't care. I don't care how many children you've ever watched in your entire life. There's no way I'm going to hand over my baby. And just let you do with it the way that you will. You no, you're going to follow the directions that I give you because I know how my baby needs to be taken care of. We have to use that same process when it comes to our back to our business. So if I hand you over my baby and I say hey, I know you've been taken care of businesses. I know you say that you know how to do reels . I know you know how to do marketing. I know you know how to do email management. But here's what I need from you. And here are the steps I need for you to be able to do it. Step one is I need you to go to Gmail. I don't use Microsoft Outlook. Guess what I know your last employer use Outlook that's not what I use. I need you to go to this email. I need you to use this password. I need you to login to this piece. Like all of these are the steps that go into teaching somebody how to take over the task. that are in your business. So that way you can focus on the impact in your business.

Mostafa Ghonim  20:05  
Man, that's good.

Nicky Saunders  20:10  
Follow up, I don't know if

Mostafa Ghonim  20:12  
very nicely I you know what, let me ask this real quick then Connie . If you go there, how do we how do we get people to, to actually buy in and and follow them? You know, I'm saying because I feel like there's somebody out there listening like okay Connie Hold up, but I tried that, but they just never read them or they don't do it, you know, like, Is that part of the process to talk about that a little bit?

Connie S Falls  20:36  
First of all, no they didn’t they didnt write them down? First of all that, first of all, first of all, no, they didn't think they definitely didn't write it down. I have done this for 14 years, and there has only been one company that has come to me to update their operational systems. And that was key on a smoothing groove. He's the only company in 14 years that already had documented operations on how every step of their company ran. He just came to me for that accountability for it. And I'm talking about 1000s of companies I've gone from, I've done strip clubs and record labels all the way up to Bill, everybody that's in between those two places, everybody between a billion dollars, and no notice, has not written it down except for one single company that I've worked with ever. So first of all, no, they don't have a written down. Secondly, if you did write it down, that means that you took the time to realize how hard it is to do something that you think is simple. There's an exercise I do in my workshop, where I have people give me the directions on how to open a car door. I say, you know what, we're gonna free car, if you can give me the instructions from inside this building to turn on your car. 99% of the people skip the fact that I said inside this building, they don't talk about walk into the door. They don't talk about opening the door. They don't talk about what's books and stuff. And they don't talk about if I say get into the car, do I get in the backseat, the front seat, the passenger seat, Miss all these steps, because what you think is common sense it's not common. Common sense is not common documentation is there's no question on what this paperwork says. Common Sense. One, all of everybody in the whole black community ruined everybody. Because what we think is common sense is not common to everybody else. If it's not documented, that doesn't, it doesn't matter unless it's on paper. If there's no rules, there's no rules. So one, I know people didn't write it down, too, if you did write it down, you would have taken the time to realize how hard it is just to complete one simple task, right? And once that one simple task is done, and you understand the complexity of something as easy as answering the phone, or as complex as answering the phone. When it comes to you teaching somebody else how to do it, you do with more reverence and more respect, right? When you think about when you think about companies like McDonald's, McDonald's takes one hour to train employees. McDonald's is an international billion dollar company. And they're allowing 17 year old kids from urban neighborhoods to run and manage their billion dollar company. Why? Why is it so easy for McDonald's to have the highest turnover rates in the restaurant industry, and they're still letting kids from urban neighborhoods who had nobody but they Mama, tell them what to do in their entire life. It's because they perfected a system. And if you watch the movie founder, you'll be able to see why that process started, why they started creating these operational systems. Why when you open get the fries out of the fryer, use your right hand to your left hand, because most people in the world are right handed. So we want you to use your strongest hand to lift the fries out of the grease. Most people are not left handed, we want you to use your weaker hand in order to shake the salt on there. Those are all processes that fall underneath your system. Right? So if McDonald's knows well enough, I only got an hour to train these kids because you know what? It's expensive training people. So we're going to create what's considered work instructions. So that's the other part about helping people create operational systems that are simple. They're called work instructions. work instructions are simple bullet pointed instructions on how to take care of a task. So guess what happens McDonald's it's been dollar company there's a 70 year old kid up here that's behind the register talking about what sir welcome McDonald's shop. Right? what I'm saying. Let me get it right guess who’s on the other side on that register the picture of number one, number one, and a Big Mac. And if I say let me get on extra pickles on their guess what’s on that register. It's a picture of a pickle. And if I push it twice, it's gonna be double pickles. Those are work instructions. They've made it so simple because they know that the seventeen year old kid , they only gone be here for two months or less. And I can't take more than an hour to be able to help them do something for this task. So for these black owned businesses where we love the customer service of places like a chick fil a, we absolutely adore my pleasure and all smiles and all that great customer service. But we don't implement those same kinds of operational systems in our business. That's what we're lacking. So the easiest way for me to encourage people to start making sure that they're implementing these systems is to look at what they're taught. Look at what are you tired of all these black owned businesses that you despise? You can't wait, I don't want to spend money with them, because they don't know how to , why what is it that they didn't do, they didn't have a system in place. Also, they didn't open at 10 o'clock when they said that they weren't on their documentation. That's a broken policy. Oh, they didn't give you the right amount of food. That's a break in their system. So all of this goes back to again, is a system. It's just the way your business runs. So I try and make it easier for people to understand, because I know it's scary, but it's necessary.

Mostafa Ghonim  25:54  
I love it.

Nicky Saunders  25:58  
So we normally talk to personal brands with this whole podcast right? Now. Let's say we have somebody who's like, Okay, I'm ready to take my personal brand serious, like a mile. See, I got, you know, this webinar coming out, I got all these things. I got the product, I'm good. When should someone start considering putting systems in place? And maybe later down the line? hit you and your team up?

Connie S Falls  26:35  
Yesterday? started yesterday? Because he Okay, let's let's talk about you guys. Right? So this amazing

Nicky Saunders  26:49  
go?

Connie S Falls  26:50  
Yeah, let's but let's let's talk about y'all. So when you first started creating this podcast, one of the things that you talked about on your live was that what are you going to do with this entire journey that you're on with creating this podcast? You said, I'm a document it that I'm gonna show you I every step that I'm going through, I'm gonna show you all the struggles that are happening on the back end, I'm going to tell you exactly what what tools I'm using, what cameras I'm using, how I'm using them, how am I getting the appliance in the background? How am I using the literally, you documented the process of how you created this podcast? Now what happens to the people that are in your crew, they can go and do the exact same thing, because you created steps for them to be able to accomplish the same result of creating a podcast now Are they able to do all the tech stuff that you guys are able to do? No, because it's what you do for a living. But they're able to do every single thing that you've done on that list. And I've watched your journey, I've watched what you guys have built over this time, I watched the amount of time that you spend into an a guest what you do in your community, in your community, you tell people, this is how many times you need to post, these are the real types that you need to create this has been another and here's how you create them. Right? So if we're talking about a personal brand, even if it's a personal brand, there's a way that you do it, Nicky, and Moose is a personal brand brand. You see what I'm saying? And if you're trying to tell somebody, this is how you create a personal brand, you can package this and go and sell it to somebody else you could because investors invest into systems. So if some of the larger company came to you guys and said, Hey, I see what you guys did. I've watched this journey that you've been on, I want to invest into your company, and I want to scale it right? What is it going to take to scale your company, it's going to take people, right, it's going to take more than whoever is running the background of the podcast is going to we're going in and showing it to a bazillion people. And now we want to have 100 hosts per guest per week, it's going to take more people. And if you can't tell them exactly how things are supposed to run, they can't help you. So what will you have to do, you'll have to document here's how you set up the camera and every guest house, here's how you set up the lighting in every house, here's how you do every single task that goes along with creating this podcast, even help on your own. So that way they can duplicate your success. So even with personal brands, it's still something that's imperative when it comes there, you still have business. And if you want investors to come in, you want to be able to scale you want to be able to grow. Like that part is important. Because again, if you're not documenting it, nobody can help you. I don't care if you just need to admin, you guys understand how editors are supposed to edit these videos, right? You understand exactly what tasks needs to happen in order for it to happen. But guess what? Somebody used to work with another speaker, right? And they're like, yeah, yeah, no, no, I done a podcast beforehand. We know how to do that. And they will set all your stuff up Wrong, wrong in your eyes, but because you didn't train them properly, because you had no documented processes, what ends up happening, they set it up the way that the last person that they work with. And that's not the way that you work. That's not how you take care of your baby. That's why even as a personal brand, you have to document the way you want your business run. I don't care if it's a virtual assistant If you hire somebody just to check your emails, how many times do you want your emails checked? What what emails should go to spam folder? Should they go to all of this? I don't want it to sound super complicated. People understand that this is, this is something that that we do every day, whether it's how we brush our teeth in the morning, whether it's how we get in our car and start our car in the morning, everything involved in the process, even when it comes to personal brands.

Nicky Saunders  30:28  
Did you see?

Mostafa Ghonim  30:32  
Yeah, no, for sure. Hey, hey. Okay, I love it. Now a. And just so that, you know, people understand that you're a real person, right? You mentioned ADHD earlier, talk about just some of the struggles. 14 years is a long time, right? Like, I don't know, that people really recognize because I think now that you, as you mentioned, like now that entrepreneurship is being almost glamorized, it's becoming a new popular thing. People are expecting that the lifeline or the, the, the climb to the top is a couple of months. It's a couple of weeks, maybe it's a year, right. So 14 years, talk about some of the lessons and maybe the just the big challenges that you've kind of encountered along the way. I'm sure they've, you know, contributed to where you are now, but but give us some of the ones that stand out. Like then when I look back on my journey, 14 years? Yeah, that's a lot. But this one here, yeah, this was big.

Connie S Falls  31:30  
So I think there's a lot I've done a lot over the years, and 14 years, is a lot. So thank you for saying that. Because most businesses fail within 70% of businesses are done within 10 years, you're just out of here. And when they use those stats, just as a sidebar, when they use the stats of small business, they're not talking about businesses that are making 100,500 and $900 million, they're talking about businesses that make less than $30 million. That means if you make $29,999,999.99, you're considered a small business. So when we see those stats about Oh, small business success and failure, if you make under $30 million, you're still considered a small business. So understand that businesses even making $29 million in revenue are still failing at 70 70% by the year 10. So I'm very grateful and blessed to be able to have made it this long. And then talking about some of the struggles that I've had our I think the first one was self doubt, and, and really being nervous about talking about what my skills weren't talking about what I was good at, I think analysis paralysis, which is when you just think so much on nothing. Like when you just sit in bed, those days where you wake up, and you're like, Oh, my God, I have so much to do, and then you just don't do nothing at all those days. That's analysis paralysis, I think that hurt me a lot, especially in the beginning, because I knew what I was doing. And I knew the amount of people that I had helped. But I still was so nervous about taking action. That's even the same reason why it's taking me so long. When it came to my course, I really wanted to make sure that it was all inclusive, but it was really great that I've sat on it for years, and I'm sure that I'll be disappointed if I don't bring out something that God put on my heart to be able to do. So then analysis paralysis really worked on it. And one of the solutions to that was therapy, going and talking to somebody other than myself, because you know, we'd be at home convincing ourselves all kinds of stuff, right? Because we don't, there's nobody that we talk to more than we talk to ourselves, whether we say it out loud, or it's just internal. So having therapy and going and talking to a therapy that really believed in me and the journey that I was trying to build and encouraged me to be able to step out and gave me actionable steps. That really helped me especially in the beginning, and even to this day. Another big issue that I ran into was comparison. Right? So especially when I when you know, I got into year six or seven, I didn't call myself a consultant until about year seven. So by then I've worked with Bill I've worked with, I have a government contracting company that functions on its own. So I'm working with the Department of Justice Department of Interior Department of Indian Affairs, I'm working with all of these government agencies. And I still, like I would, I was just nervous, you know what I'm saying? So trying to talk myself out and understanding that when I walked into a room, I was the only woman and I was the only black person. So I was 100% the only black woman in many of the rooms that I would go into. So me going to these conferences, and it's all white men 56 and above your old white man, and it's just me as a black girl. Building all these million dollar contracts run along with y'all. Hey, how you doing? And they would ask me, oh, well, where's your boss? Right? So that feeling of comparison and feeling like maybe I wasn't good enough and I couldn't do it made me self doubt. Right. So that was one of the issues that I had. And what I had to realize is that I was supposed to be in those rooms. I'm the apple of God's eye. I'm just as awesome and amazing. I made a mistake. And I had to make sure that I remembered that during those moments where I didn't feel like I fit into the room, I had to realize that you know, I'm supposed to be here, that's something trapt is talking about the other day, I am supposed to be in this room, maybe y'all shouldn't be here. I'm the one that's bringing more people along that look like me. I'm hiring minority owned veteran owned women owned companies to come and subcontract with me, like that part was important to me, in that recognition of fear, versus I'm supposed to be here. And then the one of the last things that I really recognized was my biggest problem was my time. So for as great as I am at telling everybody else what to do, I was not managing my time well. And what ended up happening was, I was making a ton of money, I was doing extremely great financially. And it wasn't until I was literally sitting on my own because again, I'm a little ADHD kid. And so is my daughter, I'm surprised I haven’t walked off in the middle of this interview, because my attention span is very short. But my daughter's five, between four and five years old. And we don't ever sit down. We're like, you should see the house half the time we just tear it all up. We just have all the fun. And she's sitting on the couch next to me, and I'm bidding on contracts. I'm doing my thing, right? And she's not she's just sitting there and I'm like, what, what's wrong? Like, oh, I said anything wrong? She's like, yes. What's wrong? He's like, well, we always tell the truth, right? Which is our agreement? I said, of course, like, Whoa, I was wondering, do you love your business more than you love me? So as you say, what

do you do you love that as she points to my laptop that's in my lap? More than you love Ashley. And I was like, No, why would you think that? Like, well, you hold your phone and that more than you hold ashley. And as I'm holding my phone with my laptop in my lap, looking at my child's face, I realized that she was right. I was showing her that I love this. More than I loved her in action. Feeling I'm doing this for her. I'm hustling for her. I'm doing everything else here. I'm making this money for her. We're going out. You can go anything, you can buy anything you want to. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that when I talked to her, I talked her over my phone. When I replied to her, I replied to her over my email. But I replied to that email before I replied to her. And that's embarrassing. And it hurts me to even say out loud, and I hate that story. But I do understand my life is for testimony. On that day, I apologized, because I believe in apologizing to children, because I was wrong. And I told my daughter that I was sorry. And I would never let that happen again. And for the first time, in all of my business, I turned my phone all the way off, not turn the volume off, I powered my phone off, I closed my laptop, I gave her a hug. We prayed and we went to the zoo actually have that picture that's on my Instagram. We went to the zoo, we had a wonderful time. And the whole time we were walking around, she kept grabbing both of my hands. He said you no have your phone you no have your phone and I was like look at the impact. Look at the impact that this has had on my child at four and five years old, that she knows that I don't go anywhere without my phone in my hand. How many days has she been thinking about this? How many years and she looked at me and said, I wish you would hold both of my hands. That affected me more than any other thing I've ever done. On that day, I took her home, put her in the bathtub, put her in the bed, and I bawled my head off. Like I bawled hysterically in the kitchen on the floor like that heaving ball. And I was like God, I'm sorry, I was I didn't know what to do. And I would pray and I was like, oh, what am I supposed to do. And it was like you need help. And I was like I'm in therapy more what else you need, because I know you need help. So for as much I was, I was a hypocrite in that space. Because for as much as I hire for other people. So as much as I help other people require other people to be on their team, as much as I invest into other people's businesses to make sure that they had an amazing group of people that were supporting them, I hadn't done it for myself. On that day, I shut down four of my businesses, which I was running five to six at the same time at the time, I shut down four of them. And I was like, I'm going to focus on downloading everything that's in my brain. And for every task that I don't have to do that I'm not called to do, I'm not going to do it, I'm going to delegate it to somebody else, but I have to write it down because nobody can do it like me. If I don't tell them how to do it. And that's one of the problems will create as if they feel like nobody can do it like they do. But somebody can you just have to teach them how to do it. So for me that moment with my daughter was the most pivotal part of my business and it really made me realize how important family is because what happens with especially with a lot of minority owned businesses is that they get so tied up in the hustle. They get so tied up in the money they get so tied up in being able to see people see them and they have things they get excited about the cars and the houses and the And all this other wonderful stuff, they get excited about seeing that. And they forget that they got kids at home, they forget that they have a spouse at home, they feel that they have aging parents, they forget that they're aging themselves. And they're so focused on the hustle and grind of it that you're not actually living and enjoying your life. COVID showed us that we cannot count our own days we can't. And if we aren't documenting it, how can we have somebody else help us so that we aren't missing out on our lives, I missed weddings, birthdays, funerals, in the name of the hustle in the name of entrepreneurship, I missed all of that I missed some of the years of my daughter's life. She had a fade one day the next day, she had a ponytail. I don't even remember when that happened. Because I was so busy in this hustling grind. So I'm trying to build for generational wealth. But that's not what generational wealth is. generational wealth is creating something that's going to be sustainable, that lasts the generation after you and those that come after, I will not I will not die on this earth. Knowing that I haven't left anything that's going to be left for my daughters, daughters daughters, I'm creating a name for myself, my great great, great, great grandchildren will know my name because I built a legacy for my family's name to stand on. And because of that they were my daughter was transparent enough to save how I was treating her as a child. The fact that I wasn't giving her enough attention. That was the pivot. So my goal was for other people to understand the importance of sustainability making money as dope right now sustainability is even more important.

Mostafa Ghonim  41:37  
There you go.

Nicky Saunders  41:42  
I don't I don't mean, you see me stuttering. I don't even know if I say anything else. But I will. Um, okay, here's where here's where I send my do the jokes, but not really, right. So what else saying names? Right? What else saying names? Give the people an example of have a client that swore up and down that this particular part, didn't need your help. And then later on was like, Hey, hey, the system thing that that thing you were trying to show me that, like, explain this? Because I believe it happened? Not me. No, didn't happen to me. Nothing happened. Okay. But explain that scenario, it had to happen it had to.

Connie S Falls  42:43  
So first of all, that happens more often than it doesn't. that most people they like, oh, Connie, what do you do I explain exactly what I do. Because they don't. Okay, let me be clear on the front end. The people that come to me, aren't coming to me because they aren't doing well. They're coming to me, because they're doing extremely well. They're coming to me, because they have done something that they didn't know what's even possible. And now it's growing exponentially. They're out of the growth phase, and now they're in the scaling phase. And my D explains that the best of the difference between growth and skill growth is when your money goes up, expenses go up. Scale is when your money goes up, but your expenses are leveling out. So most of the people that even come to me it's not because oh my god, I need help. I don't know what I'm doing. They're coming to me, because they're like, Oh, my God, this is so great. Please help me get organized because I'm overwhelmed. And so because we talked about it publicly, and only because she shares I'm actually going to talk about who one of the people who Mickey is probably talking about right now, which is Kalani, who I absolutely love and adore.

Nicky Saunders  43:46  
And she needs to come on the pack and know that

Connie S Falls  43:51  
you absolutely. I let her know because and I absolutely love her. And I also want to give a shout out to her husband Jason LaBelle, who's Mr. Two weeks out on Instagram, because he came to me the November of 2019 before I even started working with her. And he said, Look, Kalani is about to start working on a brand called body envy. I know she's on these systems. I know the importance of it, but Kalani is not an entrepreneur like that she is corporate, if you don't know she's one of the first black female Fire Chiefs in the state of Georgia, which is a huge deal. So when it comes to structure and understanding standard operating procedures, she understand that thing, because for her it's life or death, right? So she has an understanding about why standard operation standard operating procedures are important. But for her in her mind when she first started it. It was just a hobby, which for me is fine for those new guys that are saying oh my god, I don't need systems. This is just a hobby. Cool. I'll see you in a couple of years when it takes off or I won't because it doesn't. So her coming to me that the or Jason coming to me at that time. He was like look, this is the mindset she has. She doesn't have the entrepreneur mindset but let me tell you man I know it's gonna blow up, she's gonna need your help. But you don't have to help me convince her. I was like bet. I don't convince nobody. However, comma, when they're ready, people come and find me. They get referred to me. I don't beg nobody for nothing. So months ago by probably around February kalani , Jason hit me up and I'm like, Hey, how you doing? She's like, Hey, you know, I talked to her about everything that's going on. And if you know her in her heart, she's so amazing. It's so dope, but she's very stern. She's like, okay, but these prices a little high. Like it, it is what it is, the price is the price. So she's like, I don't think I need it right now. Because it's just a hobby. Cool. Absolutely no problem. And this is a story for many people. So don't feel like it's just her. About around November is right after Black Friday, and I'm sitting in California sitting on my best friend's couch just to eat all the leftover turkey with the itis. And I look at my phone and who do I see on there? I said, there she go. Come on. Come on in girl. I know we're exam fingers. Come on eating 

Craig, James, come on in girl. And I got on the phone. She was like Connie, I accidentally made a million dollars. And I don't have any systems. I said, I know honey Let's get started. And we started to work together. And I can't even tell you what she's on track to make this year. But when I tell you she was one of my favorite clients that I've ever had, she's been so phenomenal. Her mind was open. And I think one of even with even outside of the financial part, the biggest part for me was watching her change her mindsets. Where now she has her own boss university where now she's bringing people in and helping them change their mindset and being able to watch that transition. I once heard her house when we first started and I sat on our couch with her and Jason sitting across and he was quiet, which I'll know for Jason to be quiet. He really and I tell you somebody love they wife that dog on Jason Love him some kalani right? So he's sitting on the couch and he was like, just, you know, just rock with her. You know, she finally brought you in. Let's do this. So he's sitting there quietly and I asked her what she dreamed about she said Connie I don't dream. Like what do you mean you don't dream? She said I don't dream she  said if it's not. It has to be reality. Like I don't dream as a firefighter, especially as a chief you don't get a chance to just dream about things this is reality it's really life or death. So I've never dreamed before. I was like oh honey well you were about to drain now. So I gave her an assignment to write every day in a journal about what her thoughts were about what she wanted about you what she wanted to leave her kids about what you want to Riley and cane to be able to have about what she wanted body envy to be and every single day she would sent me a picture of it though I was her accountability partner as well as our operational systems manager. And every single day, the journal got longer, the paragraphs got longer, the pages got longer. And now she actually has her own journal out so watching that journey from beginning to from beginning to year two, I am beyond proud beyond proud of her journey she talks about it often she talks about it at the conference we did together she talks about her lives all the time, which is why I'm okay with sharing it because otherwise all the stories of people especially when you see people with larger names and clients that I've had that people know publicly that's everybody's story and I get the late my calls I get the six months later I get the three four year later calls because it's never a rest for me my company isn't going anywhere. The goal is to get everybody else's company to still be sustainable just like mine has been. So that's everybody's journey and the crazy thing is and I'll be doing a post to kind of talk about some of my clients that you guys that social media knows 90% of my clients you'll never see 90% of my clients will never know who they are that 10% that you see because you know Instagram you know they have large followings and because they talk about me on their lives and they talk about me and they refer people to me that 10% you'll see absolutely love them the other 90% are those that come in because they already know what they need. They come to me straight and direct Hey, I heard you're the best at this or I need you to do x y and z so it's it's been a great journey and Kalani is one of the many clients that have done that same I’m Okay, I don't need it right now. And they were Hey, big head 

I love a good Hey, big head text cause that doesn't mean that they was thinking about me and they miss me.

Mostafa Ghonim  49:39  
man? Nah, I mean I think this was great. Connie, I definitely appreciate the just the mindset the mentality and I think the the confidence that you speak from about the importance of what you do right and and you could tell somebody is really walking it because they're not desperate, right? So I definitely just I guess my way I've seen Thank you. And from what I'm seeing, I think it's really dope to see you do what you do. Lastly, you know, of course, as a person of faith, I liked your favorite scripture, there was the interview that I was watching, and you talked about your favorite scripture, and you talked about how, you know, people typically just use the part that's almost convenient for them, but they don't talk about that final piece. So just as you close out, you know, maybe talk about your favorite scripture, and give us some words of wisdom.

Connie S Falls  50:29  
Absolutely. And thank you for asking, I'd love to talk about that scripture, because it's important to me. And it should be important to everybody else, because if it was written again, the Bible was meant but a bit Oh, SOP, a big ole  standard operating procedure, here's how you do X, Y, and Z to get to X amount of I digress on that. So my favorite scripture, my favorite scripture is have a good to to have a good tutu. And it's one of those scriptures where people love to pick it apart, just like the one about grass, and everything that comes from Earth has got yet that same kind of thing. But it's one of the ones that people pick apart, but they never follow through. So the part that we're familiar with is the write the vision and make it plain. Right? We know that write The vision and make it plain. It's the second part that makes a big difference. It's the so that those that come after you may run with it. That is exactly what documentation means. What you're doing today has nothing to do with you. Everything that you're writing and documenting has nothing to do with where you're going, it has absolutely nothing to do with you. It has to do with those that come after you. If we're looking to build something because generational wealth is such a crazy word right now everybody's talking about a generational wealth inside. It's like back in the day, everybody was a coach, right? So generational wealth is one of those words that you just throw around all willy nilly. But with you cannot create generational wealth without generational documentation. You cannot create generational wealth without generational documentation, because what are you passing down? Your thoughts, your memories, your ideas, you can’t past that stuff down, you can only pass down whats documentedYou can only continue and have a sustainable business by what's documented. So my goal is for people to understand them, both parts of that scripture are important. Yes, I need you to write the vision. And I need you to make it plain. But I need you to understand that what you're writing isn't for you. That takes us back to the conversation about common sense. Common Sense isn't common documentation is. So if you are writing things down, based on what you think is common sense, you're not really writing for somebody who will never meet you. My business can run literally my everything that I document I have my daughter read it, what does this mean to you? Well, that means that if they take this step, then they should do this one Next, I'm documented so that way, the generations that come after me, they can run with it. I'm already running. I'm already running, I'm flying out here. But it's the generations that are coming after me and the generation after that, and the generation after that, I don't think people realize how far in advance generations, are generations aren't just your kid. It's generational wealth. So we're going to create something to last beyond us, we have to document it for the future, we have to document it for our businesses growing to we have to think with the mindset that God had when he set out here and told us all the stuff we supposed to do if we want to follow the Bible, the Quran or whatever you're following, it's still documented. You're still reading it from somewhere, you're still having to look at what the processes are that they're telling us a process is the big picture. Right? How does this thing work? Your procedure is a breakdown for every single step from Okay, what's step one to get this process done? What's step two to get this process done? You say you want to go to heaven? Okay, great. Heaven is the process you so how do we get there? Okay, you got to accept Jesus Christ. All of these are procedures that go into the bigger picture of it, right? And then what's the policy? The policy is the rule that governs the processes and the procedures. Those are the things with the if, and then if you do this, and then this is gonna happen. If you don't do that, then this is gonna happen. That's exactly how it works. So if we're not creating those processes, policies and procedures, in order to create something that's sustainable, we'll never have the generational wealth, your business will die with you. Because one thing I know for sure, is that one day, I'm not going to be here, but my name will. And that's more important than anything that I'm doing right now for me, because everything I do is based on the generation after me.

Nicky Saunders  54:46  
Moose i don't i don't think you left the final word for me. I don't think you I don't think you did that. So first off, I can't even get too much jokes out of this because I'm You were so fire I can’t stand you. I just want to put that out there I can’t stand you, you're beyond dope but it was important. This is my way of saying thank you for how dope you are. And I'm really big and Moose is huge on this too for showing people who work more behind the scenes of the talent, like the talent always gets, you know, praised and we dissect them and all the lessons but it's really the people who are behind the scenes that need to get all the praise because they're the reason why certain brands are, you know, as successful as they are. And that's why we wanted to bring you on here to give you your flowers and praise while you're living. Do me a favor, talk to them real quick about the book. I heard there is a course coming soon. You know, around Black Friday, depending when you hear this of 2021 I don't know when you guys are gonna hear this right? Um, but talk to them about that and then have we normally end it with Moses final words, but give the person the people maybe one more bar just one more bar just one more so they know where you they can find you. And just one more gem

Connie S Falls  56:31  
awesome thank you Nicky I appreciate y'all and these amazing flowers im so happy so you can find me at Connie s falls systems you don't forget the Z and Jay Z Don't forget the s and Connie s falls two social once you gotta say yes, I'm saying that. Yeah, no,

Nicky Saunders  56:49  
I can't do jokes in this one. I can't you're not leaving room for me to even crack on you. Okay, so

Connie S Falls  56:57  
I just know they're gonna gross me the whole time. So you can find me anywhere in Connie s falls? The course, it's, it's been a long time coming. And I'm only doing it because I did ask, did people want it? And they did ask and and, and I know how important it is. I've prayed and 2020 about why people don't understand why this is so important. Why don't they understand why the operation? I know it's not fun. There's nothing sexy about operational systems except for me. There's nothing out here that makes a sound cool writing standard operating procedures.

Nicky Saunders  57:33  
You're not doing

Connie S Falls  57:40  
nothing fun about it. I'd like what I do is super boring. Like it's standard operating procedures, policies, process workflows. Nobody cares about that. It's not fun. But it's imperative. Right? So when I prayed about it, he was like, yo, why aren't you telling us? You want me to go out here and talk to people? Like, yeah, you don't want to know. Okay, but you know, my anxiety and ADHD my mind be everywhere. But it's what I'm called to do. So I have to do my part, I have to put out this course, I'm going to make sure that it has every single step that you need in order to build out the operational systems for your business, which is why it's taken a long time to be able to create, but it's something that whether you're just starting up, or if you're already established that you'll be able to go step by step and be able to get it I'm super excited about the course, plan for it to be out for Black Friday 2021. So that way, you guys can go into a new year with a fully systematized business. The last thing that I want to leave with you guys is that not only can you not create generational wealth without generational documentation, but this is our only life. This is all we get we don't get to do over, we don't get a chance to come back and try things a different way another time. This is really really, really important to me. I want to make sure that especially when you're talking about women, minorities or veterans, that we're creating something that will last forever. The fact that Nicky even had to stop and say I don't know when you'll be listening to this is because she has a system in place with this thing is going to be able to be automated, you cannot automate a mess. So the fact that this is well put together this is organized is because she has a system in place to make sure that whether it's 2021 or 2020 2030 this podcast will still be around right? So my my goal and the last thing I'll leave you guys with is to make sure that you take time out to invest in your operational systems. If you want something that's going to outlive you please make sure that you're investing in that because you don't get another cookie. You don't get not one cookie for working yourself self to death. You won't get a cookie you don't get an extra you know you don't get a trophy. You don't get a participation. You don't get a hustling grind trophy because you've worked yourself to death. And if you Never set bedside with someone as they're giving their dying words telling me how their business should be run so that way their kids can keep running it. You won't understand the importance of what I'm saying today. So what I'm asking you is understand that trophy not coming, stop working yourself to death. Go and live your life and enjoy being an entrepreneur and then go from entrepreneur to CEO.

Thank you guys!

 

Connie S. FallsProfile Photo

Connie S. Falls

Business Development Consultant

And the "S" is for Systems

Meet Connie S. Falls of Entrepreneur Life Global! Connie has created over 100 businesses in the United States. Her first book, titled Scrambled Eggs: The Must-Have Playbook for Organizing an Entrepreneurs Brain, is now available at www.scrambledeggstheplaybook.com and on Amazon. The book has quickly become a founder favorite and her expertise is highly sought after in the entrepreneur space.

The demand pushed Connie to found the Entrepreneur Accountability Program (EAP), an exclusive membership program that helps propel business owners to the next level of creativity, business systematization, and profitable productivity. In addition to EAP, Connie developed the Entrepreneur Think Week (E-Think Week) in 2019! E-Think Week is a quarterly international think tank of 20 high functioning Entrepreneurs, coming together to solve problems within the minority, women-owned and Veteran-owned small business communities.

Connie was honored by Dell with creating and developing The Regional Ambassador Program. This program was part of the Dell Innovators Credit Fund as a commitment of up to $100 million dollars to fuel entrepreneurial success in the global marketplace.

Over the years, Connie diversified her offerings and expanded into the federal sector with a Government Contracting division. Providing services for various agencies including the Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, and Army National Guard, just to name a few.

Connie's … Read More