Are you curious about the Director of Operations (DOO) certification program, but would like to hear more about the experiences of other students who have come through the program?
Subscribe to the podcast here
Today, we have an amazing student who recently went through the program, Stacy Norris. She will be talking about her experience before and after coming into our community of Director of Operations.
Meet Stacy
Stacy Norris is a wife, a mom of three, a team mom to many, a business owner, and a small business advisor. She is passionate about helping fellow parent service entrepreneurs find more freedom, grow their business, and make an impact in the world. As a Certified Director of Operations with over 20 years of organizational experience, Stacy excels at solving problems and integrating strategies, systems, and support. She brings big-picture thinking, a family-first approach, and genuine excitement for helping her clients optimize their way to success. By staying curious and continuously learning, Stacy helps her clients discover new possibilities and reclaim flexibility and joy as a parent business owner.
What were you doing before you found The Ops Authority?
- She had been in her own business for over a year doing general admin, and had three retainer clients
- Doing calendar management, project management, was becoming a sounding board for the CEO’s she was serving
- She started to feel like work was taking over
What was your previous professional experience?
- Started out in an orthopedic clinic
- Her roles were clinical support, telephone triage, and surgery scheduling
- Moved into a clinical supervisor, and then a practice manager role
- Took a break from work for two years, then was asked specifically to come back to work to assist one of the specialty surgeons
- The position evolved into a chief-of-staff type role
- Knew early on that she wanted to be in the medical field
- Jumped into entrepreneurship by becoming certified to teach children’s etiquette, and started teaching it on the side
- Moved into personal concierge services, and started to get requests about helping businesses
- Decided to move into virtual services because she wanted location flexibility
“We leverage what we are passionate about and then look inside ourselves to see if we have the skills, or we invest in it and start to build out of that passion.” – Natalie Gingrich
How did you find out about The Ops Authority & the DOO certification?
- She is a fact finder, and does a lot of research
- She was looking into Online Business Management (OBM), but didn’t feel aligned with it
- Started looking into operations, and signed up for the Scope Creep Solution
- Decided to get certified to get the confidence to uplevel, and wanted to have the credential
“My goal was to keep my income, but work less… and I felt like the [DOO certification] program would do that for me.” -Stacy Norris
What was your experience with the DOO certification?
- It was transformational
- She gained more confidence; it helped her get back to the professional she was before she was in the entrepreneurial space
- It deepened her knowledge of some things, and she learned lots of new information as well
- The weekly calls, and accountability calls were great for moments of clarity
- The community afterward is amazing, and she has found accountability partners through it
“It [the DOO certification program] changed me as a person, as a service provider, and as a business owner.”- Stacy Norris
What does your business look like today?
- Currently has 2 retainer clients
- She has upleveled her title, compensation and responsibilities with one of the clients
- She has recently added some strategy and consulting opportunities
- She feels a need to help an those who are like an earlier version of herself, and feels she can do that with some strategy session options
- Does strategic mapping with an option to stay on board as an advisor
“The process of learning [the Strategic Mapping Model™] early on in the program changes how you think and what you see.” – Stacy Norris
What is the biggest change that the certification has made in your business?
- It boils down to how she has restructured her business model and created that extra time
- It has created the mental capacity to allow her to be present with her family
“I’ve created a business for myself that allows me to have a firm line between when I’m working and when I’m with my family, and the lines aren’t as blurred as they used to be.” – Stacy Norris
Weekly Ops Activity
What is your biggest takeaway from this episode? Let us know in the Facebook group!
Connect with Stacy:
Stay Connected:
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
Join the Ops Insiders Facebook Community:
Share with your biz bestie