From Systems to Strategic Partner [with DOO expert coach Amy Lockrin]

What is the best business model for your Director of Operations (DOO) business?

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Today on the podcast, I have one of my expert coaches Amy Lockrin, a business practices expert. She has many years of experience as a DOO and has gone through several business models while growing her own business.

Amy is a Business Growth Consultant and CEO of The Operations House, and implementation and integration agency. She partners with female entrepreneurs that are ready to thrive in their business and leave behind the overwhelm of “to-do’s.” Amy makes things happen in your business so you can go back to being creative through consulting, system set ups, and strategic planning sessions. She focuses on growth and systematic scaling to guide business owners to the next right step in their business, all while making it fun!

Amy Lockrin

Amy went through the 1st iteration of the DOO Certification Program. She has been selected to be one of the expert coaches in this round of the program, in the area of business practices.

When you look at the past roles you’ve had, where do you see the different parts of operations popping up?

Everywhere: for someone who is operations minded, it showed up in everything she did
- From her first job at Old Navy, she took such pride in organization, and breaking down goals.
Worked in both corporate and non profit and realized she was different in that she loved focusing on the processes leading up to the goal.

Do you consider yourself a creative?

Not a stand-alone creative.
She is creative in the way that she is able to bounce ideas back and forth off of creative leaders and thrives in suggesting new ideas as a result of these exchanges.
When she does this solo in her own business it doesn’t work as well .

A lot of us consider ourselves the right-hand of those we support. How does this operations right-handedness play into or limit your ability to step into full leadership as a CEO in your own business?

Originally it was a hindrance: when you are a right-hand person you see a lot of the things and are also in charge of a lot of the stop functions in a business; not necessarily the fun stuff, but is eye opening in terms of what needs to get done to build the type of business you want.
It was a very eye opening experience because she knows so much and can apply lessons from years in corporate to her own business.

“You can look back on your life and really see how you were an operator for your entire life.” – Natalie Gingrich

At what point did you really start to zone in on operations?

Probably when she started talking to Natalie as she was starting to create the DOO program.
The conversation started to shine a light on what she was already doing in the back end of people’s businesses .
Realized what she was doing in the back end of the business was really strategic and valuable, more than just coming in to keep things clean and orderly.
Learned she was meant to be able to help people grow their business in a way that works for them.

Share all of the different ways you have built your business and what has been easy or difficult.

Retainer based business: clients bring you on and you are a long term asset to them.
- You have recurring revenue and you’re invested into their success.
- A great place to start and gain traction, and you have the opportunity to learn and figure out what you like.
Product based business: what you are doing for your service that you create for somebody. You can scale this in a “one to many” model.
Project based business: good if you have a specialty or a niche. It has a specific start and end date and a set price point where they know exactly what they are getting in the outcome.
The DOO Certification Program can help by giving you the insight to work with people, how to work in the back end of the business, and what it can do for the profitability of the business.

What parts of the certification are still present in your business?

Strategic mapping: she doesn’t onboard anyone without doing it first
KPI’s for each individual business
Built her skillset on how to manage up. This has also been beneficial for her peer and family relationships, and she focuses on communication patterns and what she can control.

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Weekly Ops Activity

Listen to the various types of business models mentioned by Amy. I want you to come into the Facebook group and share with us which one of the paths that you are currently on.

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