Have you ever looked at a successful business and wondered how all their moving parts just seem to flow, effortlessly? Well there is effort involved, but it’s not an overwhelming process. Our guest, Yvonne Heimann, shares a wealth of information on how many successful entrepreneurs like herself streamline their business. Yvonne is the CEO of Pacific Crest media. She knows what it takes to make a business thrive and wants to share that knowledge with us today. Tune in!

Hello, everyone! This is Tonya Dawn Recla, your Super Power Expert and I am just giggly inside because I can’t wait to share this woman with you. Yvonne Heimann is actually just a trip. You’re going to really appreciate her. She has absolutely mastered the art of like, laser focus into things and I really appreciate her energy around the business, specifically and how she helps people. She is the CEO of Pacific Crest Media, which you know on the surface you’re like, OK great. Like so she does media and Web sites and social media stuff like that. But as with a lot of our guests that we attract here to the show, the purpose and the mission and the strength behind it is all much bigger than that and it’s huge, hugely needed in that entrepreneur and business space right now and so. So we’re going to talk to her today about how successful entrepreneurs’ streamline. If you don’t know what this means and you’re running a business or you don’t outsource or you don’t have processes and automation and systems, trust me you’re going to want to pay very close attention to this conversation because it will impact the growth of your business. So without further ado, please join me in welcoming me Yvonne Heimann into the show. Welcome, Yvonne!

Hi Tonya! Thanks for having me.

Absolutely! Well, I guess that I’m so delighted. Let’s just jump right in and say, what are your superpowers?

My super power is being OCD.

I would say my superpower is actually being OCD. I am so into making sense of things and it is focused on saving you time, to a point where my boyfriend is joking about me having one way of putting the knife into the dishwasher.

It cracks me up but I could only laugh about it because you know, I’m sure with my husband listening to this show he can absolutely relate to that. You know, the right way or his way you know, or the other ways so, very cool! So you mentioned that as a superpower and I know you and I talked about it a little bit before the show and if anyone’s is listening to any of our shows they know that you know my opinion is our superpower started off as challenges. And so what happened to you where you realized – one, you were even able to identify that this was a skill set that you had, and move it from being a detriment into being a really positive attribute.

Well, as we all know it can really hurt you. There are people out there who are really struggling with getting into things that you can’t turn off and it can really be a bad thing. To me, I turned it around after losing my husband to cancer. And I always hated wasting time. So after losing him, time to me became even more precious than it already is before, and I started realizing that I’m using that focus, that wanting to make sense of things and streamlining things and making it work by themselves for my business. Just from putting processes into a place where I need to do certain things over and over and over again with every single client a day. Why am I reinventing the wheel every single time I take the trend on? There’s a given process – write it down, have it ready, have the questionnaires’ ready and send it to the desk. Suddenly, I take myself two hours off time with every single client.

And I really want to highlight that piece really quickly because, people, for those of you listening who are entrepreneurs, this is, in my opinion, one of the single biggest contributors to whether or not your business is going to be successful. Are you able to see those processes, those ways that you’re spending time day in and day out? And if you are, because sometimes we can’t, right? We’re so close to it. Like, like even myself like me and you are very similar in that regard. But when it comes to my stuff and the stuff that I’m doing over and over again I’m not always the quickest at picking up on those processes. Then outsource that! Find somebody who can do that, who can identify those things for you. Because it truly does make or break your business. I mean is that am I overstating that at all?

No. Not at all. And when it comes to processes I also realize that clients of mine, they didn’t even pay attention to it so they didn’t even see those processes. Once I pointed it out to them they started paying more attention to the work that they kept repeating and suddenly they started seeing processes.

Well, it’s funny in our business I didn’t realize this until we started really outsourcing and trying to find all the ways we could outsource. And it dawned on me, you know, “Hey, one of our businesses is a due diligence business, right?” We run a corporate counterintelligence firm and so we advise businesses on risk mitigation and all that good stuff. And so but one of the things we see over and over and over and over again where people get messed up in the B2B transactions where they’re hiring somebody to come in is that they’re abdicating some aspect to their business because they haven’t gone through what you’re talking about which is – what are the processes, what are the steps, what are you really asking for, what is essential and then how do you manage somebody else doing that process. And it’s not like, oh just hire this person and then everything is great!

Like not when you’re running a business.

And you need to train them like you are bringing somebody new in. It’s kind of like bringing somebody into your house. If you don’t guide them around where which room is and where the bathroom is, you’re going to have an accident sooner or later.

That’s a great analogy.

I have worked with big companies where they are suddenly mad at their employees because they broke a conversation rule that-

Nobody can crawl into your mind.

With another client, only that person is allowed to talk and you’re just allowed to say this. But they didn’t have a handbook for that. They didn’t have any processes in place that says you are allowed to do this and you’re not allowed to do that. Nothing of that was in place and suddenly they are blaming the employee. So, you just need to have your rules down no matter if it set up processes or what’s supposed to get done. Nobody can just crawl into your mind and read your mind and see get out quite unsolved.

Well, and it’s so fascinating too. I love the connection between this and of course, we attract a ton of entrepreneurs. Because of most of the change agents of the world’s most. Most of the people heard the calling that they were here to have an impact, move into entrepreneurship. But it’s not just for those of you who are in business. What I see what she’s talking about I see this over and over and over again in that quest for mastering your personal power which is, you know Super Power experts. We talk about the first step in really being able to use your superpowers is mastering your own personal power first and you can’t-do that if you’re abdicating, If you’re blaming, If you’re not willing to look at where it is that perhaps you’re falling short. Where you’re perpetuating something or asking for people to project something to you and you’re not willing to look inside yourself and alter that. And that, just like with the streamlining and the process uses an indicator of business success. What Yvonne’s talking about here is an indicator of your success in using your superpowers. If you’re not willing to take a hard look and say, OK where did I perhaps not communicate, where am I not being honest with myself? Where am I asking others to kind of step in where I’m not even willing to go for me, then you don’t stand a chance in moving into that full autonomous space and really being of hugely valuable service to the world. So, don’t disregard this information if you don’t have a business. Like, this is true across the board, I guess is where I’m going with that statement.

And unlike the coaches in specific are the best example for how your disadvantage is an advantage. The best coaches have gone through trouble and hardships and those are the exact topics they are coaching us on. Because they’ve been through because they’ve overcome it. They know how to deal with it. Unlike, on the other hand, you see business coaches that never ran a business. How does that make sense? So, just for us, our downfall is our advantage, that’s our superpower, that’s where we can change the world.

See, I’m laughing myself. You know and it’s so interesting that again you’re giving voice to that crossover. And I really appreciate that because it’s not – you know, over in the due diligence at the house that’s another crucial piece of it is make sure that the area where you’re falling short or where perhaps you have a blind spot, you’re bringing on people who have worked through that blind spot. Not necessarily that they never had that blind spot, sometimes that could be beneficial. But I think, the really powerful coaches and guides and mentors and consultants are the ones who have had the same blind spot and maybe they had a coach to help them work through it or they were able to kind of work through it themselves. But they can at least get into that worldview with you and pull you into a different space. Which is so incredibly crucial. Well, I love all this. We’re going to take a quick break and then when we come back I want to talk to you about your experience and how you were able to tie all this together, the time sensitivity and everything else. You know through that experience of losing your husband and where that opened you up to further expansion.

So stick with us and we’re going to be back with Yvonne Heimann and we’re talking today about successful entrepreneurs’ streamline. We’ll be right back.

Visit SuperPowerExperts.com/theNET for more!

Awesome! We’re back! Thank you so much for joining us again. You’re listening to the Super Power podcast. We’re with Yvonne Hyman today talking about how successful entrepreneurs’ streamline.

So Yvonne you mentioned earlier about your appreciation for streamlining and being sensitive to you know where you’re wasting time, where others might be wasting time really, came from an appreciation I guess for life following losing your husband to cancer. Can you talk with us a little bit about that situation and how coming out of that illuminated this concept for you?

Saving people’s time.

So, it actually already started throughout those two years. From him getting diagnosed to him passing away, I had to slow down and step away from my business more and more to a point of completely stepping away from it. So, for me streamlining your business doesn’t just mean getting processes into place but also automation. So looking back at those two years I luckily already had some automation in place and some things that over the months and weeks kept bringing in small amounts of money to me so I could survive. There was no business going in, it was literally no new clients and no physical worker. And I’ve done that no-work thing for about a year. So I got lucky. No big bills left. There are other people who had to deal with way more going through something like that. I got really, really, really luckier. And after that, just refocusing I literally sat down after everything was done and I sat down, and like, Okay, what am I doing with my life? I love what I do with the media agency. I love building websites. I love getting people out there and get their business going online and get that conversation going. But I’m sitting behind a screen. I just have so much interaction with the client and suddenly I realized I’m like, I’m not just building websites for them! For the last eight years, I’ve been doing this. I have guided them through their business because they came suddenly to me with, “I want this to work like that or can I connect this or can I do something when this happens there, that happens here or is there a way to make this easier?” And I’m like, “I’ve been doing this for them just by building a website for them”. Why isn’t it that something in itself? And that’s when Pacific Crest Media really became the media agency and Ask YVI became my consulting business. Where my passion really comes out in saving people’s time and finding that work-life balance between working for retirement and getting savings are also living now and getting some extra time in your life whatever that means, that means you want to expand your business and outsource things or growing your business or start another business.

Spending more time with your kids.

Or it means spending more time with your kids, going on a vacation and just taking a time off. That is totally up to you. My job is, to just get you that time back and not have you sitting at a computer for 24 hours a day and feeling stressed with things that we easily could put into processes and automate.

That’s such a cool story. And you know you call it being lucky I call it divine intervention from the sense that, looking where that led you to you now and in retrospect I think we can always look back and go, Wow, and just kind of marvel at the situations. Have you not had the circumstances within your business during that time with your husband you would never be able to see just how valuable those processes were and then of course with our superpowers a lot of times they’re happening on autopilot and we don’t even know what they’re crafting for us and what they’re creating.

And we’re so busy calling about for being bad things that we don’t realize the brilliance of what we bring into situations. And so that’s a great example of how something that’s really natural to you, and transformed your existence. And because of that, and because you were willing to take a look at it and really honor for what it is you’re able to then do that for other people. And I think that’s huge! The automation part is scary, right? It’s like letting go of control to all these other things. Can you share with our listeners some stories or maybe how you helped business owners’ work through this or maybe like some of the worst, like fear of automation-kind-of-stories that you have? Could you tell us a little bit about that?

It’s usually funny. When you bring automation and you bring programs, and often enough if things happen double and he got a task and suddenly something happens that you didn’t plan that way. It’s always, it’s always a good laugh. I actually had a really great call with a client of mine yesterday. She’s a coach and has a lot of online scheduling. This is a huge time sucker for a lot of people that have not implemented the scheduling software yet. You sent for and that emails, 5, 6, 7 e-mails with a client just to schedule a 15-minute call and like, just get a scheduling software. Her problem was multiple calendars and multiple programs and cooperate and personal and all of that. So we just spent, who we had to invest about an hour yesterday to go through those different programs and see how they work with each other, how things are set up. I had to get my note out and figure out how things were set up. But after these hours, we were able to save her about at least an hour a week by combining those and connecting those, because she suddenly didn’t have to go in anymore and block out times. We just connected our calendars, make them all talk to each other, make sure her corporate calendars getting updated live. And now people can schedule their appointments around, even her personal appointments without them seeing the information. But she doesn’t have to go in weekly or monthly to block out times where they are not supposed to be able to schedule.

So I can absolutely attest to what Yvonne’s talking about it here. So, once I started moving into automation and you know I talked a lot about how my husband and I are phenomenal business partners together and the systems and processes to arenas and he always finds me a solution when once I’ve identified that a process is happening with or without my consent, and really choose to raise it then, he’s the guy that goes and finds the system for me.

But when we really started embracing that, we took the podcast from you know, kind of getting gas and all you know, kind of the slow – scheduling the interview and then going you know, doing the audio at it, this just a laborious process. But we took it from that early, early on into now, where we’re you know booked out on weekly guests until the end of next year and we’ve got two other shows that we’re able to bring on. We already brought on our daughter shows, Super Power Kid and everything’s systemized and automated. It’s not completely perfect just yet but it’s so close and the foundation was exactly what Yvonne’s talking about. It had to be automated, it had to be systemized, and otherwise, it was consuming me. Like there, it was like, my life, like everything, 24 hours a day I was eating, breathing and sleeping. The podcast and there was no way to grow the business or the podcast that way and to really serve our coaches and our members and everybody else in the process.

And so, you know what she’s talking about is so crucial and I think if I can recall it started with a time scheduling software, which was super frightening. It was like, wait! Oh, my gosh, people are going to have access and things just kind of pop up on the calendar. But I will tell you, if you’re sitting in that space it was by far the most liberating thing I’ve ever done. And now, I love the fact that I don’t really have to pay much attention to my calendar until the day before that I look. I’m like, Okay, what do I have going on? And I trust that the system is working. And it’s pretty remarkable. And so it allows us to go off for you know weeks at a time and I can block this out or go to a business conference and block out different time and work with my clients and they’ve got it different link. And it really has changed everything about our business.

And you just grow it from there. That then feeds into your client retention management system. With your email follow-up, you can set up emails each year, to automatically go out to your client to say Happy Birthday! This is really just a starting point. You can pull all of this into social media marketing, where if it isn’t an amazing program. If this happens then do that, which connects a whole bunch of applications and programs. There is just so much out there where you can automate and streamline your business where you do not have to sit here and do it yourself. But again, as being a control freak as I am, letting go of that control is not easy in the beginning.

No, it is not.

It’s like, somebody says, hey when can I call you? I need you for a half an hour just to check. I’m like, I don’t even know my calendar. Here’s the link, go schedule it yourself.

It’s an ebb and flow.

Yep. The biggest challenge for me was when I send out to others the link and people like there’s no time until January of next year and I’m like, AHHHH! So then I had to make like new links that, you know. So, now there’s like the super-like that phone link that’s like the emergency link for situations like with my clients and staff where they have to be able to get in on my calendar. So there are like it’s an ebb and flow. You know because this begets this begets this.

But it’s so much fun like we just turned it into a big game and you know it’s like with outsources, like what else can we systemize and outsource, you know, what else can we automate and we love it! And for us, we’ve chosen to use that time for expansion. And so it allows us to grow our businesses faster. That’s what allows us to run two distinctly different businesses and manage our daughters’ business. And it’s because we have huge teams behind us. But more importantly, we’ve got a lot of systems and automation and software and apps that are working when we’re sleeping. And so it works out really nicely. What would you say, other than the streamlining and automation piece, what would you say is the biggest determining factor about being a successful entrepreneur or the contributing piece to be a successful entrepreneur?

Determination.

That’s a good one.

As you’ve just mentioned, it’s an ebb and flow. You have wattage where your phone doesn’t stop ringing. New clients are coming in and everybody is paying before the due date on your invoices. Everything is awesome! Those things are easy. But you also have bad days, especially if you are changing your focus. If you are suddenly going after to a new dream, you want it to a different part of your business. And you look back at where you started 2, 3, 5, 10 years ago with your first business. You are new, you are questioning yourself, am I doing the right thing? Should I put this money in? That is when determination comes in where you like, you know what? Shut up stupid great! I can do this. I’m doing the right thing. This is what I love doing and I will make it happen, period. Truth is, that to me is a big determining factor if you don’t have the willingness to do whatever it takes, you’re not going to get to those some phase.

I can absolutely attest to that and it’s so fascinating how that evolves and in life that you’re giving voice to the fact that you know you may have had successes in certain areas. But every time we move into new spaces, if we launch a new venture, if we expand the business into another space, that’s no different than the personal power journey that we spoke about every time we move into new spaces. It feels like the first time. And if you can recall the success that you’ve had any kind of pull in that cellular confidence from times before it makes the transition so much easier. But you can only do that if you’re determined to push through it no matter what. And you know we had many like gut check moments with our businesses, in fact, I remember distinctly at the end of last year, all of a sudden both businesses just grew like exponentially and it was like whoa, what just happened? It just worked. Also, everything just kind of fell into place and we sat and looked each other were like, what are we doing? Like this is nuts! Like, we can’t possibly keep up with both of these businesses. We have to do something and so, we were like well maybe we need to sell one off, maybe we need, and we kind of went down that trajectory and we you know sat and looked at one like OK maybe we should sell this or close it down or something. And I was like, No, like this is what we’re doing here and we see this and this is working. And this serves a good in the world. And we’re like, OK well that was fine. So then let’s look at this one. We need to do something with this one and we finally realized like it was a test and it was like we’ve been given this information and the opportunity and the ability to do this. We just need to up our game. Because ultimately we came down to we didn’t want to get rid of any of it. We wanted the experience of watching their growth and being a part of it and guiding them. And so you know much like with children, it’s like you know when kids hit the teen years you don’t just you know sell them off you know, so it was like you know so we were able to really sit in that space and realize that it was a challenge for us to up-level. And once we were determined about that, then we saw solutions. Then we saw ways to make it happen. But I’d be honest like in the midst of that I kind of picked a solution out of the crowd like there was no way it was like, oh! I was like the world was coming to an end!

And that’s what to me the difference between an entrepreneur and an employee. There are parts for everything. I have friends that are as happy as a clam in the jobs they have. It fits them perfectly. I wouldn’t survive it but for me is this, I have to keep going. After Pete died, I could have given up. I could have just gotten a job somewhere and have somebody tell me what I’m supposed to do every day and go home at 5 and be done. I chose not to. I chose to call it ego. Now it’s my turn. How old was I? I’m 33 at that point it’s like, I’m not at a life’s end yet. I’m not giving up. I watch a lot of other widows who struggle with that of survivor skill of going on out dating, of doing things. And I think that completely straight up transfers into entrepreneurship. Things do not come and go right. You’ve got to get back up and feel sorry for yourself for a few hours and then go start kicking somebody again. Go, start doing things. And life happens to us. It doesn’t even have to be a wrong decision for yourself. Again, like was, Pete dying, life happened to me. I could have just said, you know what, I quit and I’m done.  I just, taking up for the last two years and didn’t take care of my clients. Associates did that for me. They are off. I don’t have anybody. I’m just going to go get several jobs. Could have done that. But I didn’t. And that to me, that is where the entrepreneurial spirit is. We just don’t.

Well its funny people ask me all the time like how do you how determine if somebody has that or if they’re going to push through. I worked with so many people in the Superpower arena and I will tell you that I went through a phase of wanting to be able to call out and say, OK these people just aren’t going to push thru, this person is not going to do that but I will tell you where I sit now is stuff is that every single one of us has the opportunity to and every single one of us is well armed with everything we need to push through. Truly my job is to hold the space and to hold the vision and to hold that hope for people when they don’t see it for themselves and assure them that they absolutely can. But ultimately it’s a very personal decision. Are you going to? Do you want to? And for sure at points in my life, I chose not to. I remember very distinctly when I first left government, I went into an entrepreneur sector and things did not go the way I anticipated. And shockingly, and I remember about five months into it where I had spent tens of thousands probably hundreds of thousands of dollars actually. And had the business venture didn’t quite go, so I didn’t realize it was spiritual personal growth journey that I was on as opposed to a business growth journey. And I remember very distinctly lying on the floor of my apartment that I was about to get evicted from. And I felt two very distinct aspects of myself, like battling it out inside of me and I just remember that moment going you know what I don’t care, I give up. I give up. And I did I gave up and I was like I don’t care which one of you wins. I’m done I can’t-do this anymore.

And of course, now I can frame that and say well you know you want to talk about the ego in this so we’re kind of battling out and I chose the ego. I chose the fear piece because I was too tired. I just didn’t have it in me anymore and went back in the government. And of course that’s where I met my husband and the rest is kind of history. But I remember making that choice very consciously. And I remember the second time that situation happened and come hell or high water, I was not going to make the same decision and it was so powerful to see the juxtaposition of those two moments. But that second time when I said you know what? No I do care, what comes next. I do care where I’m operating from and I am going to have that determination to see this through. And it was so recognized folks that, sometimes we don’t use that sometimes we do take a breath, sometimes we do choose the easier path for a minute and that’s OK. You know just to be clear on what you’re doing and why. And know that there will be another opportunity. There always is. I love everything that you’re talking about.

Though you know determination to me doesn’t necessarily mean fighting through and sticking with your business. You have the determination to get your life in order and do whatever it takes. And it meant at that point, going back into a job and had it squeezed me. You met your husband. So determination to me means, just doing what needs to be done at that moment. If that means, I need to get a second job and go clean toilets to pay the bills I will do that. That just becomes my side job. To allow me to follow my dreams and do what I need to do to get my own business and my own dreams where I want them to be.

I agree and I do think that in the entrepreneur world we kind of have this running bias that if you have to go get a job or something like failed in some capacity and you know folks, there’s an ebb and flow to all of this. I think that’s been kind of the common theme. Successful entrepreneurs will do what it takes and sometimes what it takes is making sure that you’ve got food on the table making sure that you can pay your bills because it’s very difficult to create success when you don’t know how you’re going to survive. And that’s a challenging vibrational frequency to operate from. And so sometimes it is, just pulling on your boots and getting serious, like you said going and cleaning toilets and doing what it takes to make that happen for you and your family and then building on that foundation. But I agree, that’s the determining factor between successful entrepreneurs and those that will fail repeatedly, is the willingness to kind of be where they’re at and say you know what, I’m just going to accept this right now and pull myself out of it. But sometimes that’s not going to look like what you expect. So Yvonne, I get the feeling that you and I could probably talk for days on this. We feel like soul sisters in this capacity. But I know other people are going to want to know more about you. Where can we send them to find out more?

So the easiest way to find me and all of my social media stuff and everything, it’s over at askyvi.com. We got all the social links there, you’ve got everything I’m doing. And if you want to start streamlining your stuff, there’s also an awesome planner that I developed out of all of this. So yes, just head on over. askyvi.com.

Very cool! Thank you so much for joining us on the show! I really enjoyed our conversation today.

Thank you so much for having me.

Absolutely! And to all of you out there as always, we appreciate your loyalty, and until next time, go out uncover your superpowers and change the world. Take care, everyone!

To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.