247. How AI + One Key Role Will Systemize Your Entire Business - David Jenyns
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Transcript
Landscapers! Learn how to build a killer annual strategic plan for your business at our free web class on December 9. Spaces are limited, so save your spot now. https://trybta.com/CE-SPL-Dec9
Take our five minute quiz and get a free custom road map to growing your contracting business: https://trybta.com/DL247
To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here: https://trybta.com/EP247
Building systems is the key to scaling your contractor business—but let's be honest, it's time-consuming and tedious work that most visionaries hate doing.
What if there was ONE role that could build all your systems for you?
In this episode of Contractor Evolution, Systemology author David Jenyns returns to introduce his groundbreaking new concept: The Systems Champion.
This isn't an ops manager. It's not a COO. And it's not necessarily an integrator.
It's something different—and potentially more powerful—especially as AI transforms how we work.
David breaks down exactly what a Systems Champion is, who's the right fit for this role (the answer might surprise you), and how to create and fill this position in your business starting today.
If you've been stuck in the weeds building systems yourself, this conversation will change everything.
🎯 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
• What a Systems Champion actually is (and why it's different from other roles)
• The exact profile of who makes the best Systems Champion in your business
• How to create this role without adding massive overhead
• Why AI is making this role MORE important, not less
• Step-by-step process to implement a Systems Champion in the next 90 days
• Real examples of how this role transforms contractor businesses
👤 ABOUT DAVID JENYNS:
David Jenyns is the author of Systemology and the newly released Systems Champion. He's helped thousands of businesses create scalable systems without the business owner doing all the heavy lifting. His frameworks have transformed how contractors and service businesses approach systemization.
📚 Get David's new book: https://www.systemology.com/scbook/
🌐 Learn more about David's work: https://www.systemology.com/
🎥 Check out the last episode we did with David: https://youtu.be/eKNW3GQRM8M
More videos on systems building:
🚨4 Essential Business Systems Every Contractor Should Master (with Tony Fraser-Jones): https://youtu.be/4ljBnnHgHJE
🦾From Reactive to Streamlined: Cory’s Business Automation Journey: https://youtu.be/NykhB5J8cE0
💰This $10MM Accountability Systems Has Crews CRUSHING Their Goals (free web class): https://youtu.be/NvBjWbxXjcI
00:00-Intro
01:40-About Dave's new book: Systems Champion
05:38-How to know if you need a Systems Champion
17:16-Traits of a great Systems Champion
29:58-What does a Systems Champion actually do?
38:33-How to make your Systems Champion act as your AI Champion
46:02-How long do we have before AI takes over the trades?
53:37-Wrap up and final thoughts
Danny Kerr
Landscapers who have an annual strategic plan are making sixty nine percent more profit per year. That's why I'm gonna be hosting a free strategic planning web class to teach you how to put your vision on paper using our tried and tested template. How to set goals that your team is actually gonna buy into and hit, and how to set monthly and quarterly benchmarks to keep everything on track. Look, twenty twenty five may have been a bit of a slog, but twenty twenty six, it doesn't have to be. So register in the link in the description before space runs out, and I'll see you there. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Contractor Revolution, the podcast by Breakthrough Academy. Building systems in your business is arguably one of the most impactful things that you could do as a contractor. But it's also one of the most time consuming, onerous, and not always a visionary's favorite thing to do. In today's episode, we're gonna break down how to create systems and processes faster by investing in a single role. And it's not an ops manager. It's not a COO, and it's not necessarily even an integrator. We're talking today about the power of a systems champion. That's right. Systemology author David Jennings is back to talk us through this concept in his new book, Systems Champion. In our conversation, we're gonna be covering what a systems champion actually is and who would be the right fit for this role. The answer might surprise you. How to create and fill this role within your business and how the rise of AI is making this role even more important with every passing year. If you love business systems as much as me and David do, make sure you subscribe or follow for content like this every single week. Now let's dive in with David Jennings. You're listening to Contractor Evolution, the podcast by Breakthrough Academy, where we systemize contracting businesses for growth. Keep listening to learn how the world's top contractors scale their companies, build killer teams, and make more while working less. Mister David Jennings, welcome back to the show. You've got a new book. You've got a whole bunch more to talk about. Thanks for coming back on, my friend. David Jenyns
An absolute pleasure to be here. Danny Kerr
We've got, a whole another paradigm we're gonna look at. Before, we talked about systemizing your organization. Now we're gonna talk about bringing in a systems champion for your organization, which I hear from a ton of our members. So I'm stoked to get into it, but I guess I think the last time we had you on was early twenty twenty five. It's been just over half a year now. Curious to know in your world what's been going on since we last shared. David Jenyns
We started the year with a real clear vision of just three big rocks. So we've knocked two of them down with one to go. So we rebuilt some software that we work with just to store SOPs. We launched the book mid year, and then we've got a live event here in Melbourne in October. So it's been hectic, but, it's awesome seeing a plan come together. Just Danny Kerr
like the rest of us, man. We've been running around with too much going on. So that's good. You, you finished the book. So Systems Champion was the, was the addition from Systemology, I guess. What inspired you to write this? David Jenyns
This one really was everything that I learned from working with hundreds of clients directly, probably thousands indirectly to roll out systemology and a bunch of coaches and consultants who work with the businesses as well, and getting the feedback and kind of going, what are the leverage points? Where are people getting stuck? Why are they having trouble putting systems in place? How has AI completely changed the game? So I kind of took a step back and really realized of everything that I've come across, the biggest leverage point, the difference between those that really make systemization work versus those that don't, they all had this common element, this idea of a systems champion, someone in the organization who takes responsibility for building up systems culture, and the book is written for them. So there's a little bit of an intro at the start for the business owner, but it's more of a playbook that you give to that team member that says, here, this is your job, this is what I want you to do. Danny Kerr
I have seen this time and time again with our members. We bring them in, and they're often more visionary, aspirational minds that can't focus and can't stay focused for as long as we need them to to implement a lot of the program we have. And the saving grace is what we would call an implementer or you we're gonna get into it later, but, you call a systems champion. And when I see that person sitting on the other side of the Zoom call, I'm like, I think we're gonna be okay. I think we're gonna be okay. And when we don't have it, it's a massive uphill battle. And you're saying you see this too. This is, like, prevalent, I guess, amongst entrepreneurs across the board. David Jenyns
Yeah. Very common that the business owner has a picture in their head of what it is that they want the business to look like. But then bringing that into reality is very hard for them oftentimes because they start off on the tools, they're the technician, they know how to do the thing, and then they build a picture in their head of the business and the way that it works, but it's with them in it. And they're, that's all they know. That's the only picture they have in their brain. So it makes it very hard for them to build a business and get the picture right without them in it, where they're separate from the business and the business runs independently of them. So it's, very common for them to struggle at this just because they they can't get the picture right in their head of what they're trying to build. Danny Kerr
Hey, guys. Quick question before we continue the episode. If you could get a custom road map for growing your business in five minutes, would it be worth your time? After tracking the growth of over one thousand nine hundred contracting businesses since twenty fifteen, we've put together a five minute quiz you can go take right now that draws on a massive pool of data. You'll get instant access to a personalized report that's gonna tell you which one of the four phases of contractor growth you're actually in right now. How your company stacks up in the six core areas of business compared with industry benchmarks. And what to go do next, including customized resources, tools, and templates you'll have access to right away. No waiting around for an email or filling out a million separate forms. The link is in the description, so go check it out. Now, back to the episode. I I see members go some of them figure this out alone, some of them don't. Is it fair to say that, like, if you are a visionary minded person, it's the odds are stacked against you to actually systemize your business completely alone? Because I because I am one myself. Like, I I struggle with this a lot. And I I sometimes even question myself. Am I being stubborn by just saying I can't do this, or is that true? And at what degree does it become true? What degree should I just roll up my sleeves and get this done myself versus hire someone to help me with this? David Jenyns
I realized after I did a little project with Michael Gerber, who wrote the book called the E Myth and by many consider him kind of like the godfather of small business systems and working closely with him was a big realization when I realized he's not a systems guy. He doesn't write process. He's not really great at process, but he's figured out how important it is. He's a visionary. He creates in his mind and then brings it into reality. And then he surrounds himself with team members that are great with process. So it's very common for, especially in the trade space businesses for the business owner, that visionary, the person who gets the big business going to not be a systems person. And that's okay. As long as you kind of realize that systems are important, you can't grow a business without them, at least build the dream business that you want, that gives you the freedom you want without them. And if you're not great at them, then you need to make sure that you surround yourself with people who are great at them. So that's generally the first message I give to a business owner when they, about to make the leap. And sometimes down the road, when they do manage to get the business working without them, then some business owners do come back around and start to go to work on the systems again because they have space, and they're they're literally working on the business, not in the business. But it's at the start, when you're working in the business and you're not even a systems person and you don't really like it, then, really, you should probably try and avoid it. Danny Kerr
The deck's stacked against you. But, yeah, it's I've seen both, and that's why I was wondering. And it's it's sometimes in this world, we give the visionary too much of a break, and we just say, it's all good. Just, like, go get someone else to go do it. And it creates an element of laziness. And I'll even say that's been created in me a bit because my business partner is one of the greatest systems champions I've ever met in my life, and I've left so much up to him. It's created almost like a a weak left arm, if that kinda makes sense. Like, my right arm is I always use what I'm great at. I should use a little bit of what I'm not good at, but to a certain extent. And it's interesting you bring up Michael Gerber. I David Jenyns
I'll add one thing about Gerber, because he gave me one other bit of advice. Like, he gave me all of these nuggets that really influenced my work. The other one he said, and this was after he read the systemology book, he said, I love what you've done here, but you need to give the message to business owners to not let them off the hook. Mhmm. He said you do make it sound like in systemology that, you know, oh, just leave it to the systems champion and step away and let your team do it. And then he said the key is here, the business owner needs to lead it. So that means they need to be behind it. They need to understand it. They need to support it. They have to give it time, money, and resources. They don't necessarily have to hop in there and document the process, but unless the business owner is leading this, this will fail. So they've got to get behind it. Danny Kerr
It's it's fair to say they're in charge of how can we do this. It's not that you can or you cannot do this. It's that you need to figure out how. And how you navigate this is up to you, but to just say it can't be done because I don't do it is not gonna work. To say I can do it stubbornly and completely ignore what you're not great at is also potentially gonna lead into a lot of pain. But to be aware of how you can is probably a great place to start for questions for yourself if you're David Jenyns
Yeah. Yeah. It's I mean, this is the master skill of business, really, when you think about it. We're talking about capturing best practice and making it repeatable so that it can be delegated to typically less skilled, lower cost, and sometimes even robot labor. So this is business. Understand the it's the fundamental building block. So if you want to be a business owner, this is part of the process. Welcome. Danny Kerr
Welcome to the good parts and the and the hard parts. This for some David Jenyns
Yes. Danny Kerr
This might be the hard part. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we should define this. What is a systems champion? David Jenyns
So the systems champion is the person who builds a systems culture inside an organization, and they work on a few key pillars. They get the documentation down. They make sure that the right tools are in place and you're never more than one click away from a process. And they build the culture. They get the team on board, they keep it front and center and they constantly move it forward. Now this role, it's someone's job. If you don't have a systems champion, then it's probably the business owner that's wearing that hat and they're doing a crap job at it. Sometimes it's an operations manager and that's okay to get it started. They're usually going to be at least a bit more wide to it and have a greater affinity to it because they're operationally driven and they think in terms of process, especially in, the trade space businesses. That said, I, I still, I think you can start there, but ideally I think having a dedicated person with capacity, the issue sometimes when you're getting this off the ground, leaving it to the operations person, is they're busy with a truckload of other things. And sometimes getting in there and doing the documentation, isn't necessarily the best use of their time. So you can go a little bit quicker sometimes by getting even a junior person into that role, and their their job is just to extract and capture best practice. So and we can explore a little bit more. I mean, there's a difference between first capturing what you're doing and making it repeatable versus reengineering. Danny Kerr
You you had mentioned this when we were just getting prepped, but you had said, Danny, this is sometimes sometimes, not always, but sometimes different than what we would all know as, like, the integrator. What's different about this systems champion from being just a straight integrator of of all systems in the organization? David Jenyns
The big thing with an integrator is, they're kinda like your right hand man or woman, and they're really focusing on a whole range of different topics. Managing the team, sometimes they're getting clients that get escalated. They might be doing a bit of process. They're overseeing projects. They're talking to finance. They're like like they're doing everything. They're just as busy as you are as the business owner, and they're very capable and very skilled. So oftentimes it doesn't leave much capacity to really get in there. And we have a tremendous opportunity right now with AI and making sure that we get our processes down. And then we have a look at, well, how can we get AI to do it faster, cheaper, better, and that on its own is a full time job. So sometimes, you know, I often start with a junior apprentice trades person that's hungry and wants to learn more about the business. Oftentimes, they know how to do the technical work, but they don't know how to run a business that delivers the technical work. And you pair them up with the strongest team members in your business to go, what is it you're doing? Let's extract that IP. Let's get it stored into a central database. And they might grow into an integrator or an operations manager following that path because they become some of the most knowledgeable people in the organization because they've worked with all of your best team members. Danny Kerr
Right. So someone more junior, you're saying, not because there's some magical skill within them, it's because they have time. And having time and using tools like chat g p t actually might give them the back end brain they need to go and start building the things that need to be done in the organization and working with the right people. David Jenyns
Yeah. Yes. They're if you pick the right systems champion, they're curious, they, might be a bit younger, so sometimes they're more comfortable with some of the tech speaking exactly what you're saying to chat GPT. Like, you want someone who embraces these tools because a lot of what historically held people up when it came to systemisation is things like the documentation and finding that that there's some friction there. But if you get a someone who's comfortable with tech and they realize, ah, I can record something on my iPhone, I can get the audio transcribed. I can upload that into chat, CPT, and I can ask it to draft out the process, just being comfortable with that workflow, means that they can move incredibly quickly and they don't necessarily need the technical skills or the know how that they might historically have needed. Like, AI is empowering these team members, whereas previously, you might have had to have got a six sigma consultant in who, you know, is trained at the top level and probably charges like a wounded bull. But but now we don't need that. Like, with a few guardrails and pointing the right junior in the right direction, they can become one of the most valuable team members because of the tools, and and they have the capacity to focus. Danny Kerr
So I'd imagine even thinking about it this way, like, it wouldn't lower the barrier to entry for somebody having this this role in their organization. And I did have a question here when I first wrote this. I'm thinking about the size and complexity of an organization of when they could even afford this type of role. But given what you're saying, when is kind of the right time for business to say, hey. Let's get this role in place or at least somebody into this role to help with these things? David Jenyns
I think once you're at seven to ten staff, somewhere in there is and it doesn't need to be full time, but if you've got some subbies, subcontractors that you work with, you've got an admin person or two, you've maybe working with a marketing person, you got your finance person. Like, if you just got a handful of people where the business owner is still the center cog, and oftentimes, the systems champion for those more junior businesses can come before the operations manager. Because it can be a big jump for a lot of business owners to think, oh, what? I have to pony up with, you know, a hundred and fifty k or something like that to get someone great into that position? Well, maybe that's you know, the business is not quite ready, but don't let that stop you from systemizing and getting things in place So we can and who knows? If you pick wisely, this junior might grow into that role, maybe, maybe not. At the very least, you start to get this base set, which means when it is time and you can afford an operations manager, they've got so much more to work with. They come in and go, wow. You've already got a rock solid foundation here. Danny Kerr
K. That's good. Now my next question kinda leads into this, and I you can tell me which direction we should go in this, but I wanna know what traits make somebody great for this role. And I do feel like we are talking about two roles right now. We're talking about a junior to get the roll ball rolling, and then we're talking about, eventually, like, an ops manager or a COO. Is there is there a combination of traits between the two that's just, like, we need that type of person to have this type of trait, or is is one role very different than the other? Help me help me understand this. David Jenyns
I would start off focusing on the junior one, mainly because I've seen it work so well in trades based businesses. I've seen it hundreds of times. There's a client of ours, Ryan Stannard. He runs a construction, like, residential home building company in Adelaide, Australia. They're turnover about ten mil. And the his systems champion actually was his daughter. She came into the business, I think she's about twenty when she started. She came in as an interior designer, started documenting a bunch of the main interior designers work. Then within about a month, that it the main interior designer left. She stepped into that role, systemized it fully out, and then really found oh, I like this systemizing thing. You know, she was curious. She was, tech savvy, adaptable, could meet team like, great communication skills so she could meet people at different levels and feel comfortable to kind of talk to them and great attention to detail. And then she started working around the organization. And over the course of twelve months, you know, she'd meet with the different department heads and, you know, people were looking after things and would extract some of the key systems and organize them all into, system hub, like a central location. And it got to a point where Ryan, her dad, ended up taking six weeks off over Christmas, which for a lot of tradespeople, like, I mean, if you take the time off, the money stops. Like, if you're not on the tools, you're not making money. So he, she, stepped into the role and kind of oversaw things while he went away, and he's now grooming her to be that operations manager to run the business and have it function when he's not there and he's now setting up a new business. So I've seen that many times now. So some of the qualities like, I look at Aaron, and I've now interviewed a bunch of different systems champions, And then I took the transcripts and I fed it into chat GPT. And I said, tell me about all of the common elements that you can see amongst these systems champions. And it said, you know, organizational prowess and detail oriented, exceptional communication skills, naturally curious and problem solving, tech savvy and adaptable, got leadership potential. And these are the things that kinda just floated out of the conversations that I had with them. Danny Kerr
Kinda like like a organized leader. Is that kind of what we're we're talking about? David Jenyns
Yeah. And and they might not it might be leader potential. They might not even be there yet. It's just a young go getter who's hungry, who wants to kind of do well in the organization and is naturally organized. Like, you don't wanna push a square peg into a round hole. Find someone who already creates checklists and is organized, and that's just what they do. Danny Kerr
But They've got a lot of ambition, and they wanna do more. And they wanna see what they can they're made of. Yeah. Looking at, like, past experience, you had mentioned interior design, but what are some industries or past jobs where you start to see some themes? If I'm looking at posting on a, you know, a job a job ad or even just looking through resumes, is there anything I could look for where, like, oh, they've worked here or they've done this kind of role? What are some jobs or past roles that would would indicate this might be the right type of person? David Jenyns
He's like, for the real juniors, you don't necessarily need any specific traits or training from university or working in a particular role or job or, like I mean, I've seen it work where maybe you get a return to work mom or dad, and maybe they've worked in a larger organization, so they've already had exposure to process, and, they might have even done some process as part of their previous role. I've seen people get that person, to to step into this role, but the one that we're talking about here, the junior, oftentimes, they're just trained in the technical work, so that way you don't have to teach them the language, and they already kind of know a bit about how the business works, and the work that's being done for the client. And then more it's just those attributes that I'm talking about. So you try and uncover some of these in I mean, there's a handful of ways you can make yourself a magnet for these types of people where in your job ad, you, you might say, you know, we're a process driven organization and down in the, The footer, you, you say here are two or three processes that will be part of your role. Because what that'll do is that'll repel away the people who process doesn't click with them and attract those in where they're like, oh yeah, this, this is interesting. And you say, this is the type of role that you would be doing. And same in the interview process. Like you asked them. When was the last time you created a checklist? You know, tell, tell me a little bit about, you know, do you create checklists for anything for, at home for, for just day to day? Let them know that our company is committed to, systems and processes, and this is a big part of your role. You know, what, what appeals to you about working in an organization like that? It's just having the discussion. Whereas I think a lot of business owners, like I'd even be putting those things in just about all of your job ads, because then you find people that are going to fit in with your culture. Like there's no debate that systems driven businesses aren't better businesses. We know they are better businesses. And if you, you know, mister and missus business owner listening to this right now, don't see yourself as a systems person. So surround yourself with systems driven people, hire systems driven people. That that's actually the secret. I remember hearing some advice someone said, to some famous business guru, what's the secret of motivating your staff? And he said, hire motivated staff. And I thought, what's the secret of getting people to follow systems, Hire systems driven people. Danny Kerr
I I will say this from my own experience. I've noticed it's not necessarily an industry or even a specific job title, but people who have actually come from larger organizations that they've operated under these level of systems in the past and appreciated them, but want a better culture. They're like, the culture kind of was was or, like, I just wanna be a I wanna be a part of the change, and I wanna be able to feel like when I make change, I can just see it happen and not just be a number in a giant organization. But they you know, people who've worked for Apple, people who've worked for Amazon, people who've worked for some of these large, very systems driven organizations have seen it, and they they get it. Now they wanna go build their version of it in a small little petri dish like your company. That's where I've noticed a bit of it. David Jenyns
Love that. You you've hit the nail on the head. As soon as you said that, I'm like, I've got instant pattern recognition in my head of where I've seen that. I've the first one that came to mind, there's, an accountant in Mornington, a couple suburbs from me, and she's, we've done some great work together. She grew incredibly quickly, and Sharon Schmidt from, Smart Business Solutions, she her original job was working at McDonald's. So she saw a vision for what a systemised business looks like, and then she's brought that in. Her systems champion's actually her son, Ryan, who, equally was training to be a pilot before he came to work for accounting business. And being a pilot, there's process and checklist and everything. So he's already prebaked and programmed. So I think that's an astute insight from you there as yeah. Yeah. But someone who's already seen it, it makes it much easier. Because then you're just saying, let's recreate what you've already seen. Danny Kerr
And when you talk about the junior person, that is often the story. These are kind of like, I've seen it. I've been a part of it. I I just wanna build my version of it in a smaller like, and they're excited to kinda get there. Like, I've done I've I've hired some, like, really good recruiters actually in the past who are like, I've been a part of this massive recruiting organization, and I just wanna build mine now. And I kinda get exactly what it should be. And your company, it isn't five thousand people. It's fifty or it's ten. And then suddenly, it's like, I get to, you know, build something that's much more easy and quick to implement and malleable, but it gets to be my version. And they're very proud of that. You said, like, pride of in what they're doing. That gives them a chance to kind of make their mark on an organization. I'll just rattle off a few others that you were just kinda mentioning, but precision is a fairly obvious one. Someone who's naturally attuned to seeing things in a precise way. Passion for the organization, passion for the industry. They have to have some sort of passion for the thing that they're building. And then you had briefly mentioned it, but, like, some sort of, like, leadership or the want to be able to to be in front of others, the the want to learn to be a good leader over time versus being, like, a a Braveheart leader. They're more of, like, I wanna be a part of something with people, and I'd I'd actually wanna put myself out there to actually lead others. Is that fair to say? David Jenyns
Yeah. Danny Kerr
Alright. David Jenyns
Yep. Danny Kerr
All things I've looked at in the past too. Cool. So that anything else you wanna comment on this? I'm just trying to I'm trying to picture the person. Yeah. Does that does that help frame it? Is there anything else we should add? David Jenyns
Yeah. I think, you you you want and and I suppose it's whenever you're hiring anybody, you you want someone who wants this, and, there's a level of drive and, you know, just there's a little bit of that sparkle. Like, you you and you wanna get them early, as well, so you can help to shape and mold them in your organization within that culture. So so they I I think learning to spot these people, will be one of the most important skills you can do as a business owner. Like, really, that's what you want to do. You want to learn to spot these and then do exactly what you're talking about. We're kinda talking about pattern recognition. I'm going through my data banks in my brain going, what are all of these criteria? What are the common elements? What can I see? And then that way, in the real world, when you're in the moment, you go when when you see it, you go, oh, that's it. And then you you you lock that in early. I I think developing that skill is probably one of the best things you can do as a business owner because it translates to a whole range of different things. It's just about finding the right people. Danny Kerr
I think it's it's that's for almost every role in an organization, but I think this is one role specifically that unlocks the potential of an entrepreneur. I think if you only find other people that are like you, which a lot of us do because we're like, oh, this person reminds me so much of me when I was younger. It's like, no. No. No. It's like, probably someone that's a little different than you actually, but would really appreciate working with an opposite. You know, polar opposites, obviously, in business, in these in these instances often can do really well. And I found I've learned over ten years on, like, my biggest ability to do well is find great people who are very different than me, but share a common set of core values. David Jenyns
So one way to help accelerate this, you could also look at is in the way that I did it. I ran a Colby test. I mean, there's a bunch of different personality tests out there. One's called Colby that I've used in the past and I ran it on myself and then I did run it on my ops manager and I ran it on my systems champion. And the, the, the key difference between the two was me. I'm a quick start. I can get things up and running and off the ground and the systems champion and the ops manager, my best ones have high follow through. Right. So that's the way the wording that they use, but it's ability to take things through to completion is a real key part of this role. Danny Kerr
So I'm interviewing somebody. I'm asking about the things they've achieved and done, but looking more for the follow through than the actual, like, thing they've started or how many things they've started. How did they finish matters most. K. David Jenyns
Yeah. Danny Kerr
Let's get into a bit of the role itself. So when I'm looking at, like, their primary responsibilities or accountabilities, what is what is this person doing in their role, and what are they doing every day? What does this look like? David Jenyns
So in the original systemology book, I give this linear system, but building a business as we know isn't really linear, and it will depend on the organization and where the weak points are. And, there are certain things that need to happen in a certain order. The way I talk about it in the new systems champion book is there are three areas they need to nail you and it's documentation, tools, and culture. So documentation is the how to information. We want to remove the, I didn't know how excuse. So that is meeting with team members that are great at something, capturing best practice, centrally storing that knowledge and organizing it. That's documentation. Tools is, it addresses the I didn't know it was expected of me. So when I'm talking about tools, it's who does what by when. It's your project management or it's your jobs management platform. There's some performance management in there. It's how you're using your AI tools. There there's a a range of different things you can do underneath each of these pillars to strengthen each pillar. And then the last one is culture, and this is about how do we, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are a systems driven business. How do we plant elements and celebrate system wins and talk about it on team meetings and give out awards for people who've followed or innovated on process. And what we're looking to do there, that also has a lot to do with, you know, you recruiting and your onboarding. I put that underneath culture because you get the right people in. And then how do you enforce when someone doesn't follow process? Like, all of that fits under there, which helps to then address the, but I don't want to. So they're the three big excuses you've got to the systems champion really needs to solve and work towards. I don't know how I didn't know is expected of me and I don't want to. And we use these three pillars and a range of tools underneath each one to strengthen each of those pillars. And that's really the job of the systems champion. Danny Kerr
Beautiful. So they've got three things to do. Get get get it written, make sure there's a way to access it and use it every single day, and get everybody stoked about it. Is that fair to David Jenyns
say? Easy. K. Danny Kerr
Yep. Love it. K. So within this, I'm now the owner, and I've got this systems champion hired. They're starting to work on the documentation. They're starting to look at my project management software and how we can use the workflows, and they're starting to bring it into the culture so that we're all starting to use this thing. How do I coach them, especially if this isn't my strength? How do I how do I build and develop this person? David Jenyns
This is a hard one for me to answer without plugging a systems champion academy. So I recognize that the business owner is the worst person to be directing the systems champion on what to do because they don't know what it is that they want them to do. So, effectively, we've built a school for systems champions, and it takes them through that process. Either that or from your ops manager, but the business owner is usually not the right person, or even, I mean, I write books that are useful and complete. Just give them the systems champion book, and that alone, I mean, twenty bucks on Amazon, that that's enough. Like, that'll get you so far. So there's not I write books where I see there are holes and things that are not met or addressed, so a systemology was written for the business owner to give them the system to systemize their business. Systems champion is written for this team member because I don't see this work out there in the real world. So that yeah. That that's a hard one for me to answer without, you know, plugging the the program. Danny Kerr
But you should. Right? Like, you've built a whole business and a life around this, which is fair. And I think I feel even though I look at Breakthrough Academy, I'm like, what are we doing? We're filling a massive hole where organizations that are too small to get large scale consulting need help building organ their organization. And they kinda suck at it naturally. Right? And so they rent we call, like, renting, like, a COO's brain and using a coach and using a process to be able to get it across the line. You're doing the exact same thing, which I think is amazing. And there's nothing to hold up the book higher, man. It's like peep people need this. This industry needs this. And it's causing us more pain than good to not have some solution to it. Because most businesses aren't big enough to afford, like you said, the hundred and fifty thousand dollar a year salary, which was interesting because when I prepped for this, I was like, we're gonna talk about that person. But what you're giving me right now is is a solution past that. Say, hey. You don't need to worry about that yet. And there's so many businesses that I talk to that cannot afford a hundred and fifty thousand dollar a year overhead salary. That's barely what they're paying themselves. So this is valid, man. This is great. Yeah. Okay. So we shouldn't coach them. That's what you're saying, which is fine, because we're we're too lopsided in how we think we're gonna influence them and and wreck their ability to be the best version of themselves. Is that fair to say? Yeah. David Jenyns
Yep. That's pretty much it. Danny Kerr
Let's call it everybody listening then. That's fine. Good. Okay. So now we've got this kind of this person in. Maybe we've got them some support so they can kinda learn from some external source. Potentially, it's you. How do we actually give them the tools they need to create that change management in the company? Do we give them enough? Because, like you said, they could be a junior. So they're now telling somebody who's been around the company for ten years how to implement new processes and ideas, which can be a massive, you know, uphill battle. How do you help them with I guess you call it culture. How do you help them build the culture around us? David Jenyns
So this is one of the, the magical pixie dust that makes systemology unique from everything that's come before us. We focus on, at the start, for the systems champion, as capturing what they're currently doing, not what they would like to be doing. So all we're doing is capturing best practice. So this junior, effectively, when they're meeting with those senior team members who know how to do things, it's the mentor mentee relationship, and the mentor loves that. And then the mentee is effectively the systems champion And extraordinary gains can be had in a business just by making things repeatable and removing key person dependency, not necessarily re engineering the process. So we first start there, just go, what are you doing? Let's make it repeatable so we can delegate it and pass it around and move from tribal knowledge to this is how we do things here. And then beyond that, AI has created a window for the systems champion now because a lot of those senior team members aren't yet adapting to and comfortable with AI, and it just makes sense to them that a junior might have some insight there. And after they learn what the process in is being done, it's much easier for them to go, ah, did you know steps two and three? I can write this template for you and we can do a custom GPT and we can feed it in here and it'll speed up your process for writing a proposal tenfold. And it's much more accepted at that level. It'd be very hard. We always see this web, you know, some of the traditional methods, you know, with six Sigma and lean, they'll get a consultant in they'll rip up and start fresh and rewrite existing process. They'll give it to the and then the team resists. They're like, you've just come out of nowhere. You don't really know the business. You don't know how it works. You don't know my job. And then you're going, this is the new process. That that that's not how you get organizational change. Danny Kerr
Change management, I've noticed, even in our own organization, is one of the hardest parts of this whole thing that often almost gets left as, like, a an afterthought. It's like the big work is in the build. Right? And then we'll just get it in there. It'll just kinda, like, it'll work. But it's like, no. That is actually the hardest part is to get everybody to utilize this stuff. I love this stuff. So, you were just touching on AI, and I did have some questions on AI around this. So you'd you'd mentioned by them being the first line of defense for AI to go and play with these tools and then represent that to the company and say, here's some good things you could trial and use. Can you just give us stories on this or examples of this? Like, how does a systems champion bring AI into an organization in a healthy way? What are some good examples of how we how this has happened? David Jenyns
So I touched on that lady before Shannon Schmidt, who runs the accounting practice, and her son, Ryan. So they documented all of their processes, and Shannon had the experience at McDonald's, so she kind of get it. She gave Ryan the space, time, money, capacity to work on this because she valued the systems. He gets it all documented. Now Shannon is a smart operator. She spotted AI early and saw this as a huge opportunity and move. She ended up, initially working with a an AI consultant where the systems champion was basically feeding them, here's the process, here's what we're doing here. Can you help me reengineer this? And, one of the early processes she did, we she had an offshore assistant that was logging into the Australian tax office portal, which is our tax office here, every single week for every single client to scan and see, are there any news updates from the ATO that need to be fed through to the client? And then they would make that decision, collate it, write an email and send it to the client. I had this all documented very well because it was offshored. So it needed to be very meticulous. They went to the AI guy that they worked with. He built a little robot, using some AI and some automation stuff, logged into the portal, did the scan, fed it into a spreadsheet, using AI, drafted the email, left it for human in the loop, someone to review it right at the end, and then would hit send. Basically went from nine hundred hours over the course of the year for this task down to, like, a tenth of that. And that was just one of many processes she did. Now that's probably, one of the first ones where she got the consultant, but now she's trained the systems champion worked alongside the AI consultant, learned what they did, understood the thinking of the process, and now was able to start to reengineer a bunch of their own processes. So it's sometimes that's a great way as well. Like, you work with a consultant, you learn how it's done, you internalise that skill and capability, and then you run with it. And systems and AI are two skills you want internal, you don't want external. Danny Kerr
There's one thing I'm noticing that's coming a theme probably in the last two to three months, which is the ability to connect your own personal data to a a GPT is the one I use all the time, but you can do it with Google as as well. And, actually, specifically, Google Drive, the ability to just essentially hook up everything you have saved in Google Drive or Dropbox and use that data for creating new systems, for giving new insights, for helping us make strategic decisions. Have you seen an example of this where they've created we'll call it like a like a data lake, basically, like a internal company data is is synthesized and is categorized so that the rest of the company can actually start to self create its systems. Have we seen this before? David Jenyns
So the way that we teach our systems champions to do it, there's a couple of ways. Firstly, you you wanna be careful, what, feeding everything into AI, but but building little manuals that have certain key information in it that you might then feed into certain custom GPTs or a Gemini gem. Could be things like your, ideal client profile, a little bit about, your your products, a little bit about, your business, your sales process. You feed enough of the information to give the AI the context, and then the output can be significantly improved. And there are different tools for different outcomes. Like, again, we've gone all in just recently on Google. And for a little while there, we've kind of spread across a bunch of different tools, and then I just realized they have access to all of our data. They've already got privacy, security, everything all handled. So, started training up our team on they've got, Gemini Gems, which is like chat GPT, custom GPTs. They're about to launch a new product called Opal. It's in the US, but not here in Australia yet, which is like a workflow management system. Gemini is included in all of their tools. We've flipped over now to, Google Chat, and using Google Meet and recording our calls, and it's all getting you know, they have access to all of this data, and they the speed at which they're innovating and introducing different things, you we will get to a point where it's recording every meeting that it's having in our organization. It's saving it into a folder, and then the AI has access to that. So it has ultimate visibility on what's going on inside the business, and then that can be used to train the AI to give you insights. It's going to know more about your business than you do. Now I'm, we're already in Google. So I'm like, well, okay, well, let's go all in on there. I, I, maybe I'd be a bit more hesitant feeding all of this sort of stuff into chat, chippy tea, but I'm like, they they've they've got much stricter rules around privacy. So that's that's at least the way we're approaching it. Danny Kerr
You know, as we're talking, I'm just thinking about one of their trait for the systems champion, and it should be somebody that loves to play with AI. It likely should be. Because if you're talking about a young person who's going to make a big splash in an organization with not enough knowledge but access to the smartest brain on the planet, the craziest invention we've created in human history, they probably should have some experience or background or interest in exploring that element so that they can bring that to the organization and and basically give themselves a superpower from day one. David Jenyns
Yeah. When I was trying to pick the title for the book, the working title for a little while was actually systems and AI champion. And, in the book, there's a few chapters in here. I call them the systems and AI champion. And then I I realized because I'm like, I always try and write something and think, what's how is this gonna be relevant in five, ten years' time? And the way I see AI now is AI will ultimately be like electricity or the Internet. So we these days, we don't go, this is an iPad now with electricity, or this is an iPad now with the Internet. It's it's just in there, and AI will be the same. So AI is gonna be in everything, all devices, all machines, all everything. So right now in, you know, I think that if you recognize that and this trend, I think you're exactly right. Hire someone who loves and understands AI, because this, again, quite possibly will be one of the most important roles in the organization. The adoption of this is so critical because it's gonna be in everything. Danny Kerr
How long do you think we have? So there's companies that are listening right now that have, like, yeah, I've got a Cheggppity account, but that's about it. And they just use it to, like, ask random questions. How long do we have as a small business, let's call it one to ten million dollars a year right now, in trades, which, you know, we are protected from, like Yeah. I think it'll take us ten to fifteen years to get the labor force replaced. Right? But I think for the for the in information side of this to be competitive in our marketplace, how long do we have? David Jenyns
Initially, and the way I open the story in the systems champion book, I I have a fear in me, and that's got me to move faster than I've ever moved before, because when ChatChippity came out, I instantly saw, I was like, this is going to kill about a third of my business. I I had a part of our business where our systemologists would meet with clients, record someone doing a task, send us the recordings. We would document it for them, save it into the accounts, and then they would send it back to their clients. I saw chat GPT. And I thought, well, this is going to kill that business. What, what do I do? And then I was like, well, I'm going to have to show this to my, to the systemologist. Like they're going to find out anyway. So, you know, I shared it with them and literally within about sixty days, a third of my business disappeared. I had a team of just close to ten team members that were doing this documentation full time, and then the business dried up like that. And then over the course of the next year, I I tried to replace some of these team members and, as in, put them in different locations, but I slowly started to have to let go of team members because we're very clearly overstaffed. And I, yeah, ended up basically letting go of a bunch of team members and it got me to just sit there and rethink, what am I doing? What else is going to change in my business? Are there other areas I need to be concerned about? Fortunately, I've doubled down on systems because I know that regardless of what happens with AI, systems are still going to be relevant and process because the machines need to be told what to do. Systems and processes are just programming for the machines. So you need to get very clear on what these processes are. So as I'm going through all of this thinking, and then I'm thinking, how long do we have, like, I was right on the front line. I was hit like that. That's, what's got me to go, oh, I've got to start moving now because, you know, I I got hit within, you know, sixty days of this launching. But there are different roles that are getting hit at different times. Things are moving a bit slower. I mean, it's moving quicker than anything I've ever seen. And you look at someone like Elon, and he's coming out with his robots, and they're talking about these humanoid bots, which, I mean, at some point, they are gonna be building houses. I mean, that's why he's building them. He's building them because he wants to send them up to Mars before the humans get there, have them build everything. So by the time we get there, everything's done. So so he's that's what he's building. Danny Kerr
Have you ever heard of the company named Boxabl? I don't know if you've heard of them. They're they're in the United States. Company called Boxabl. I've been to their factory. Elon's invested in it, but, it's prefab homes on a mass, mass scale. They're in the desert in Las Vegas. Yeah. And there's disruptors coming even for this contracting space. And I think everybody feels a little bit protected because it's it's gonna be hard to replace a plumber. It's kinda like what everybody says, which I agree. But there's elements. Like you just said, there's little pieces that every year, six months are gonna change in how we operate. Is there any insight for the contractors for those listening? It's like or just even advice for things they should be focused on for this twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six year? David Jenyns
You you need to make a move on this now, and you need to make this a priority now. So I think you can start off thinking about a lot of the administrative tasks. That that's really easy low hanging fruit stuff, and getting very clear on your process. Because in a world where AI can do just about anything, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it. The people who are winning with AI are laser focused on their core tasks and what's important in their business and their doing, and then all they're doing is they're asking the question, how can AI help me do what I'm already doing faster, cheaper, and better? That's how you win with AI. Don't chase shiny objects. Don't get distracted. Just say, what are my core things? And let's now do it for a tenth of the price. And you slowly and systematically chip away at those, and that's where you get the extraordinary gains. Danny Kerr
I think there's something to be said about the creativity and the thoughtfulness and experience of the entrepreneur joined with a junior, like we just called, systems champion that can help with the implementation and the and the work through of a lot of this, and the third variable being AI itself to help supercharge the whole process. Is that is that when I just look at our whole talk today, I'm kind of thinking about those three variables and saying, like, let's put those three together. And right now, it's a lot of time the entrepreneur and this crazy tool called AI. It's like, just add a systems champion to help you move this a lot like, forward in a much more effective, efficient way at a lower cost option than a a massive operations manager. Like, we're talking about someone junior that can just work and and help move this stuff forward. David Jenyns
To get it done. That's right. Look, the other skill and why the visionary is so important in this piece is because AI is best when you know what it is you want to ask it, and and you ask good quality questions. For a little period there, I thought when it first happened, I was like, oh, wow, this is just gonna make all of our junior people, you know, really, really skilled and be able to operate at this top level, but they don't know what great looks like. And they don't know how to ask the questions and iterate because AI is great at just, you know, delivering something with confidence and then someone who doesn't know any better blindly accepts it. So it's actually a great magnifier for really skilled high level visionaries who can ask the right question because then they go, oh, that's not right. Tweak it. Oh, no. Okay. Let's readjust. It's not necessarily bringing up this lower level. So it is, it's the unison of visionary junior who can help get it done because the visionary oftentimes is so time poor that I don't have the space to do this. And the AI, that three together is a sweet spot right in the middle that is unique to right now. It's there's never been a better time to systemize and build a business than right now. There's never been more opportunity and more potential than right now for those who move quickly and take advantage of this first mover advantage, because this window will close. There are trades people listening to this who won't take action. There are trade people who aren't even listening to this and not even thinking about this and that they will move slower. I think there's a tremendous opportunity for the person listening to this right now. Danny Kerr
Amazing. David, this is good. This turned into a much, more advanced AI chat than I thought we were gonna get into, but I get it. And I get why we're here with this. So, any final thoughts? Just as when when you look at all this, just final, like, I guess, advice, words words of wisdom, anything else you just encourage everybody listening to, what would be their first step, their first thoughts? What should we leave doing from this podcast? David Jenyns
Get started. I I think about Shannon and that accountant I talked about a little bit earlier. She she just got started. She listened to a couple of webinars, watched a few extra videos, shared it with her team, raised the discussion. This is not going to happen overnight in your business. So you, you just know that this is huge trends. Start walking in that direction, read a little bit, watch a little bit, get your team on board, find people in your business who, who naturally gravitate toward this this. Don't try and push people who are sitting on the sidelines, who, you know, don't wanna embrace process or AI. Start with those who just get up and naturally do it, and they're the easy ones to work with. Then the other people can watch, oh, okay. There's a movement here and they're either going to get on board or they're not give them every opportunity to get on board. And then if they don't adjust, then maybe they're not the right fit for the direction on where you're headed, but you just have to start. There's a lag time between listening to this right now and getting your business to the level that you want it to be. So you you just have to start thinking about it and taking those first steps. Danny Kerr
Yeah. And I'm gonna say too, thank you for being vulnerable on this podcast. I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs that maybe haven't fully felt or or fearful or unsure of the impact of AI in their business, and thank you just for being real about it and speaking to it. And I think if there's one lesson that even comes out of it is don't wait until it hits. Get ahead of it so that when it does hit, you're already sailing on on that ship. So thank you for saying that. I appreciate it. David Jenyns
Yeah. Pleasure. Danny Kerr
K, David. Well, thank you for your thoughts. I, we have your book. I guess we'll put a maybe a link in the description. If people wanna reach out to you, what should we put down there for people to connect with you? What's the best way for people to reach out? David Jenyns
Yeah. Just go to systems champion dot com. In there there's links to LinkedIn and our YouTube channel. And I think the best place to start is Amazon and get the book, have a little bit of a read. If you're a business owner, maybe start with Systemology just to kinda get your head around it, and then move into Systems Champion. I think that's probably the best place to start. Awesome. Danny Kerr
K. Well, have a good rest of your week, my friend. And, for everyone listening, let's go rock and roll. Let's go figure out some of this stuff. Okay. Thanks, David. David Jenyns
Thank you. Danny Kerr
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