Is it true that you can only be a creative or an operator, but not both? Are these two things mutually exclusive, and is it possible to be successful as an operator if you consider yourself a creative?
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Today, Regina Vigil joins us for a conversation. Regina came through the Director of Operations (DOO) certification as an employee, and is proof that you can be a creative and also excel at operations.
We are getting ready to launch the 19th cohort of the DOO certification program! If you are interested in joining you can learn more about the certification program and apply.
Meet Regina
Regina Vigil is the Operations Manager at David Peck, a women’s custom, ready to wear, and gifts boutique and atelier in Houston, TX. She is also the owner of Narwhal Sonata, through which she creates artistic pillows and textile sculptures. She has a background in operations management for arts nonprofits, including Lawndale Art Center and Writers in the Schools in Houston. She studied Creative Writing at the University of Houston where she helped found the undergraduate literary journal Glass Mountain and the Boldface Writing Conference. Her poetry has appeared in Indiana Review and Gigantic Sequins. She went on to study Fashion Design and her designs have been featured in several art galleries, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and she has won several awards, including the 2021 Fashion Group International, Dallas’ Creative Director’s Choice Award.
You have a creative background, but when did you start to see yourself as an operator?
- Very recently, and it wasn’t how she saw herself… she is an artist, and that is how she interacts with the world
- She had a plan to create her own fashion line, but her job with David Peck changed her course
- She had management skills from her previous employment, but it wasn’t her passion
- She started with David Peck as an unpaid intern, and within 6 months she was #2 in the company
- He needed help managing his own schedule and since she had a background in management she started doing it for him. it soon became obvious that she was doing more than managing his schedule
- He had some good structures to start out, but was too busy to teach anyone to follow them
- She was able to take things he’d wanted to do for years and implement them
- David was part of a mastermind group and heard about the DOO certification program and enrolled Regina in it
- She realized there were things that she had told herself for years that weren’t true, such as that she wasn’t organized, structured, or logical because you can’t be all those things and creative
- Her job now gives her the freedom to make her art without the pressure to market and sell it
“The things I learned and the little improvements that I was making just [in the DOO certification program] catapulted me into the next level.” – Regina Vigil
“When we are doing project management or coming up with solutions in a structure, there is an amount of creativity… I enjoy the creativity that comes from my operations manager duties.” – Regina Vigil
How did David do with adapting your new skill set into his business?
- Pretty well, although there may have been a tiny bit of reticence at first because he was used to leading everything
- Then there was a shift, because she really needed to lead on some things
- She instituted a weekly CEO meeting with him, and implemented KPIs and this is when her project management skills took off
- She ended up implementing departmental meetings for him, and now they take it seriously and a lot more is getting done
What does your role look like today?
- They went from 6 to 20 employees, have added two more departments and have set ways for them to communicate with each other
- She has been setting up SOP’s, and implementing and training on them
- They are growing a lot so she is helping to scale the business
- Scope creep is required of her; she wears a lot more hats because she has the ability to do lot of things in the company
- A solution to this is that David has put his foot down on “time creep”, so she has set hours that she works and does not work outside of them
How has the leadership and development piece worked within your role?
- It has been the greatest challenge for her and also the greatest learning curve
- People have different communication styles, and she is learning how to navigate these differences
- She has added a soft skills piece to the weekly meetings, and it is giving them a common language
“I am so project oriented and systems oriented, but the systems are made up of people.” – Regina Vigil
Where do you think your future will lead?
- David has plans to grow the company, so she feels like her future alongside him
- She’s excited to learn more leadership as they grow a bigger organization
- Continuing her art projects on the side
- Basically what she is doing now, but more, bigger and better
“The reason I was able to run with it [the program] so quickly was because I already had challenges I didn’t know what to do with and then I would go to my meeting and there were the solutions… the problems were already there waiting for the solution.” – Regina Vigil
Any advice for someone in your same position or a CEO considering the program?
- Absolutely do it immediately
- Start implementing as soon as you can because it really does make a big difference
- Strategic mapping helps create clarity instantly
If you are a CEO and interested in an employee going through this program or if you are an employee who would like to present this program to your employer, check out the DOO certification program as the next cohort begins soon!
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