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and I mean and we work on getting people a holiday
but the holiday is never really the ultimate thing
it’s the ability like that’s the test
can you step away from your business and everything doesn’t collapse
that’s our ultimate measure of success when it comes to business
so yeah
getting some of the people that we’ve worked with
maternity leave when they run their own business
completely unplugged time off
and then also supporting them to do
you know more bird work
we’ve got someone who wants to do more speaking gigs
cause she wants to get her message more out there
so now she travels more
cause she doesn’t have to worry about being on the ground
running her business
Hello and welcome to the Healthy Business Lab
where we interview allied health business owners to share insights
learnings for others in the space as well
and we’re also interviewing
coaches who work with business owners in the space as well
and today I’m super excited to have Alexandra Sim
from The Efficiency Lab on the call today
who spans both those backgrounds
welcome to the call today
thank you for having me this is exciting
it is indeed and I’m super excited to share your insights again
we’ve known each other for a number of years now
and first off as a allied health practice owner
and more recently now you’ve moved into consulting space
I’d love for you to share with the listeners a bit about your background
and your journey and your evolution in this space
so what do you start from the front to the back or back to front
so currently I run The Efficiency Lab
we’re working with small businesses to improve efficiency
in their businesses so primarily health businesses
like you said not always
but usually it’s outside health
but with the idea that yes
automations and systems and all that is a lot of what we do
but there’s usually
some sort of passion or vision behind every business right
so if sort of backtrack I’ve been in the chiropractic profession for
I think we’re on 19 years now
you lose track after a while right
I’m not a chiropractor
so I specifically took the role of border practice and built it up
brought in associates brought in teams
so
I really spent a lot of time making sure our team were really happy
that I really supported the structure of the business was there
so that I didn’t have to be on all the time
and I did that at a point where I had young children
the things that so many people do
and they realise they want something different in life
so that’s sort of what made what got me along that path
and then I end up building up practices and selling them
then I got to this point
I said I’m going to help other businesses
make sure they’re running really successful practices
so it did start with chiropractic practices
but now it’s expanded out to consulting
people in general that are passionate and happy and healthy
business owners that want more
I love that and again so many a multifaceted background again
when you’re spanning 20 years
it’s bound to be a number of different things that we can tap into
but I guess even as you touch upon there
wearing the many hats of business owner
mum, household, businesses
and running all those spinning a lot of those plates on
as you’ve gone I’d love for you to sort of just delving to
always like to share with people
things that have worked
or as far as just looking after ourselves in those times as well
and again we will obviously
talk a bit more about how I got systems and processes
and the like especially from the business angle
but I love you just to share the things that you’ve done
or tried over the years
that is sort of just help you look after yourself as a business owner
in living a hectic life
yeah well
I mean it’d be really silly of us
if we didn’t lean on what we’ve got immediately available to us right
so chiropractic obviously has been a huge
thing in terms of health support and looking after my body
I think though often the biggest challenge is that mental challenge
and realising you don’t have to do it all
which sometimes is very confronting for a lot of us
we’d often use the analogy of
if you think of your business like a bus
say we’re going to help people get people in the right seat
so you get the right people on the bus in the right seats
but you have to have someone driving
so really having to step out from the business owners
who’s trying to go and sit in all the empty seats all the time
you’ve got to get to the front of the bus
see what you can see and make sure someone’s actually leading
directing where you’re going right
and so it’s really that mindset of going okay
hang on I’m going to sit back for a second and go
what has to have to relieve the business of me
whereas often we get the other way around
we get to the point of like burnout and all these things and then go
I don’t know where to go from here
I think ultimately we have to see that in the first place
and back to your question in that case
it’s the people around you right
it’s the community it’s the way that you’re looking at the world
it’s being able to call you up
for example
so you’re one of the people that I lent on it that time
I said like help me get my finances in order
you know
like I can’t do everything and I need that support to bring in
so I think that’s probably the most important thing yeah
I love that
and I’m hearing a lot of that idea of giving time giving space
and by doing that you’re getting out of
the seats at the back and you sort of putting yourself at the front
but again by doing that
it gives you that space to see things better open up
but I do want to sort of touch back to that idea again
that it’s not just cross over
the chiropractic stuff of doing things to look after ourselves
cause whenever I think of chiropractic
and having access to chiropractic work over the years that
and you touch you said the mental challenge you got
I always sort of equated to well
my chiropractic helps make sure that the mental work that I’m doing
transmits throughout the body
so I love for you to sort of talk to that a little bit
as far as
plug the expertise and the background that you’ve learnt from you
managing chiropractic businesses and the like
and no doubt you’ve had plenty of
business owner clients in that space as well
by helping them in that space
it’s actually flowed on to them looking after themselves better
their bodies being better
their mind being better
love for you to share some of the benefits that you’ve seen from that
even process
yeah I think that’s probably the most important thing
and maybe even the simplest thing that we often overlook
so I listen to a
podcast she did with another chiropractor recently
and she was talking about in chiropractic
we’re talking about
making sure the brain and the body are talking to each other
so if we can look at a business and say alright
if that’s how you see the world
like back to the bus analogy
you’re looking out this is the what you’re seeing
this is the lens that you see the world through
and that’s what you’re doing with the people that you see
in practice then
how do we bring that philosophy into the business
so that it makes it so much easier
cause you’re just now looking
at one set of philosophy
you’re not trying to run your business differently
to how you’re running that
the way that you’re looking after your people that you see
I often say people that you see cause we don’t say
I don’t say patience and then it gets really confusing for people
that’s what I’m referring to
I think going alright at the brain and body communicating well
how do we pick that concept up and put it into business
so that it’s really easy at the vision and strategy of the business
flowing through to our team
for example in chiropractic as well
there’s this idea that the body is intelligent
knows how to heal itself
and a lot of allied health practitioners see health the same way right
so if we take that and we apply that to our businesses again
we’re not having to change the concepts that we’re using in practice
and then putting something different into business
we can say alright if that’s the case
then we also have to assume
every one of our team members are intelligent
and go alright
so everything they’re doing
you know
they’re doing it for a reason they’re doing it body has homeostasis
it’s trying to rebalance recalibrate all the time
what are your team doing like maybe you
see the symptoms of a problem that they’re coming up with
and you know
you’re banging your head going
that’s not what I wanted you to do
but you take that same concept and say
hang on a second they’re doing this for a smart reason
I may not understand it yet
but they’re trying to recalibrate
they’re trying to do what they can with the best knowledge they have
so yes back to your question
in terms of the way that we see the world
through the chiropractic lens is
it’s just taking these basic health concepts
and then bringing it back into your business
actually makes life a whole lot simpler
and it’s the same with any other business
so you speak to I’m working with
like a martial arts studio at the moment
so how do you see the world
like what’s your philosophy behind what you do
so we bring those concepts that he’s teaching his students
back into the business and all of a sudden
business becomes a whole lot easier
so yes I love chiropractic
and like that’s like my life is chiropractic
like I said my
everyone of my family the people I consider family
all my friends they’re in that
within that profession but it’s
cause it’s easy right
we’re aligning values I love that and
and I love that that notion of again
it’s just then plays forward into how do you see the world
which is great and I
love you’re referencing
I think Doctor Amy Norman was probably the episode that you
touched upon that there a little bit before
highly recommend people checking that one out as well
but what I’d like to sort of transition now into
you touching on some of those business side of things
I love to sort of
we always love to talk experiments here and I love
your business also has a bit of a lab in there
we’ve got The Healthy Business Lab
you’ve got The Efficiency Lab and I know that you know
you’re always looking at things differently
you’ve already touched upon that a little bit already
but in all your time in business
from both the chiropractic side and the coaching side
some of the experiments that you’ve done over the years
that you’ve got plenty of learnings from
I’d love for you to share a couple of those yeah
and I’m sure with you the lab part is quite intentional right
cause you want it to be an experiment and you don’t you
you want it to come to these different outcomes
that you didn’t think might be possible right
usually the best ones yeah
100% and
you hit the nail on the head as far as yeah
the lab for I say again I love language
and the connotations of experimenting in business
cause I know when I didn’t think of business in that
way I got sort of hung up on all it’s not right or wrong
and as I’ve basically eradicated those from my vocabulary
the right and wrong is just it’s trying it’s experimenting
it’s doing these things
and therefore then it just tweaked my mind to go okay
it’s not a yes no right wrong good bad
it’s not these things
it’s just like an experiment that I can evolve and even
some of the historical stuff
I’m interested in your insights to the it’s like test and measure
it has connotations that are similar to experimentation
but I always struggled with that test and measure
it sort of played to my financial stuff
I kind of get the numbers and the measurement
cause I do encourage that in a certain way
but it still felt a bit rigid
so love for you to talk more to that and along with
sharing some of your experiences
well of course
depending on how you view of had epic fails as well
you know
that’s the whole part of experimenting but at the end of the day
you go well
we learn from that you blow up the test tube and yeah
that’s right you blow up the test tube and yeah
that’s what happens yeah I think
there’s this when you have an idea right
you go forth and you do it and it is an experiment
but also I think if you have the grounding to fall back on the data
then that adds that level of stability
without feeling like you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall right
and so that’s often sort of the balance that we’d take is to say okay
so if we’re doing a time tracking
for example there’s no right or wrong how you’re spending your time
we’re not doing it to micromanage you or your team
like we just want to know how you’re spending your time
you get so much resistance with people time tracking
as you would with people going through bank accounts like
but you know we look at the data and we go okay
well this is what it’s telling us
and that gives us a stable foundation
and kind of a baseline to then go alright
when we experiment and we come back and look at this
we get to see what’s changed
so we can’t really label it as that failed
or that worked it’s like what did it change
did it change the things that we wanted to right yeah
and I think the other thing then with experimenting is
it depends on what question you’re asking every single time
and often with health professionals
the thing that they are amazing at and
it sort of sets them apart is asking question like
what more can I do for my people
like there’s they’re all in on service
and I think you have to switch that question
if you want to scale or grow your business
and sometimes we forget to do that
so instead of asking if you flip that on your head and say okay
what does my team need to be able to serve the people really well
is very different to what do I need from my team
so I can serve the people very well
and so I think if we change the questions we’re asking
we start to then experiment so if we’re saying alright
well actually
what does my team need for people to be served better
and more people to be served better
actually have to then experiment with that so if I give them
more nurturing if I give them more procedures
if I give them more communication or time or less like
do I need to step back a little bit
and that’s probably the biggest learning we’ve had
is that managing team, team happiness
business culture I think the biggest experiment I made
and it thankfully paid off
was I stepped out of all of the day to day of the business
so I was still doing a lot of support work within the business desk
work reception sort of stuff as well
and it seems expensive to hire someone else to do that
and it was absolutely terrifying
but instead I thought
I’m going to what’s the highest quality use of my time
is actually then really nurturing
those team members and it seems like overkill
cause so many businesses go
I don’t want more meetings
you know I didn’t do this to manage people
but if I can get someone else to do a 4 hour shift
and I spend one hour like after the shift debriefing with them
and that’s only to start with right
like eventually you build those foundations
and I’m not spending an hour a day with anyone anymore right
and so I think being able to just ask a different question go
now I’m going to test it you know
do they need 10 minutes of my time
do they need a debrief do they need a before shift sort of setup
like what tools do they need
I think that’s kind of the biggest shift we made
I love that and where my mind’s just coming back to
the changing the questions and by the sounds of that
it’s also just playing with some of those questions in a way to go
which questions are going to work with which people as well
so even going back to the micro components of that
you’re experimenting with the questions or the phraseology
or the way that you’re going about that
or even the perspective that you’re looking at it with
to end it up getting the outcomes that you’re seeking for the
being in your example there
been out of step out of the day to day
so I love
you sort of
even just go down into that little bit more detail there
of how do you go about framing your questions in relation to
you know the bigger picture of what you’re trying to achieve
do a little background so Profit First was written by Mike Michalowicz
he also has a book called Clockwork
which I can see on your shelf right behind you
you can be a certified Clockwork professional similar to Profit First
I’m one of those
I’m the only one in Australia at the time of this recording
and one of the concepts that we
use in Clockwork is about stepping out from the day to day
so when we look at Clockwork
one of the concepts we use is called the QBR I’m not going to go into it
but it’s basically like what does your business do
above and beyond what every other sort of standard be
like what sets you apart basically
this is the question it’s asking
in one of our chiropractic practices that I used to learned
our QBR like
our thing that set us apart was the quality of questions we’re asking
wasn’t about chiropractic or anything like that
like our main thing was how do we ask the best quality questions
and so ultimately we came up with a document of
what does a good quality question look like
and so it’s funny you ask that because we
have that very well documented however
to quickly summarize it’s going to be different for everyone
we ask questions without concern for the answer
so it’s not so much about the answer
it’s about the thought process
we ask questions without expectation
because sometimes we can assume someone’s going to give a certain answer
which means we don’t remain curious
we ask a question that someone wants to answer
so if we are not truly connecting with people
then we can’t understand what they might need to hear
or need to answer or need to be asked
so that’s by default you have to have better connections
with people to know what they might want to answer
so there’s a few things but yeah
I think the ability to ask quality questions is just so huge
in business in practice yeah
I love that you’ve gone there and not knowing that detail again
having read some books on questions
and I’m obviously doing podcast where I gotta ask questions
and I’m trying to improve that process again
experimenting as well I love the fact of what’s the one thing again
being familiar with Clockwork and the QBR my perspective perspective
I wouldn’t have thought that
was one of the first things that pops to my mind
as far as where that goes
but when you sort of highlighted that
it reminded me of again
what’s a one key measurable and if you’re using that
then it shows a business and a practice that is super inquisitive
which again in the health space
there’s so
much knowledge to be gleaned from asking brilliant questions
I love you sharing that and even as you talk them through and
I’m making the notes it was also
even the last one there of a question that people want to answer
and if I relay that to the home front where I got my kids out there
the first thing that I said I just popped in my mind is okay yeah
I’ll always gotta ask better questions with the kids and you know
not leave them as open ended with the way that they think in the world
and it’s just like yeah
quite often that’s the big one
do they want to answer that question
quite often it’s no and you get and so again
it’s much easier to see with our kids
but if you transfer that to the workplace
it’s a bit harder to see that you might get a feeling but
it’s being aware of that and that’s feedback at the end of the day
isn’t it
and the whole idea of communication and feedback is so paramount to
the idea of having system’s process is being out of
step away as the business owner
and the life
I think the buck always stops with us as a business owner
and so the ability to step back and say okay
I asked a question
didn’t get the response that seems productive to this conversation
you have to step back further and psycho
how could I have asked a better question
and maybe and and again
we’re still doing it without assumption or expectation
but how can I help that person better
by kind of reframing what I’m saying
and sometimes they don’t even give you an answer
so it might be what if you notice since you started care and I go
I’m not really sure
maybe they’ve had these amazing results and they can list them
but often people are in the moment and they’re thinking
and then they come back the next time and say
oh my gosh I noticed that I can bend down with my kids more
which I couldn’t do before
and they’ve had a chance to reflect afterwards
so a question isn’t a one and done thing
the thought process continues if you can do an open ended question
yeah and I love that again
as you sort of all
the three key ones that I’ve put down
is obviously about the thought process that underpins it
which is something which I try to do with something called
is to delve that little bit deeper so that you can understand
because the more we understand that actually
that’s the process that people have gone down
to come to their decision
the way it’s done or how it’s done
I think back to the year 8 mathematics
where you had to show your workings and the like
it’s not because it’s they don’t really care about the answer
you can still get 9 out of 10
if you just showed how you’ve actually done it
and if we can think about that with
breaking down all the parts of our business
and again we can’t do it all at once
but each component at a time and break that down and
we’re going to know the processes
like you’re talking about what you work on with people
we’re going to know that it will lead to the outcomes that we’re after
again
if we’ve put it into the whole bigger picture of a wider experiment
we’ve put a and going back to the very initial question
the theory or the hypothesis that we might have let’s
we’re going to have something ’cause you need to anchor it to something
so going back to there now that I’ve actually just thought of that
how do you work through that idea
you have the initial idea
and then how do you go from idea to execution
I think that’s the process of having a really clear filter
so does it align with our QBR again
that concept, so yeah
having that which basically it’s smaller than a
so you’ve got a vision and a purpose right
and that’s kind of
you have your values plastered on the wall and all that sort of stuff
but it’s like how do you meet that
that’s what the QBR is it’s like
how are you doing that and so
always having that filter
that every single one of our processes
and procedures and ideas run through
gives us the ability to go okay well
we’ll weed that one out
we won’t weed that one out but the other thing is
which I know you would understand the shiny object syndrome
and every idea is a great idea for a business owner right
100% exactly something like a toy box where you go okay
every idea that comes in
I’m going to put it in my toy box and if it’s an amazing idea
it’ll still be there to play with later
the other ones will fizzle out
so just having the discipline to be able to go
I’m putting it there if it’s worth it
it’ll stick cause it’s easy to go
I’ve got an idea I’m going to do it wait
one of the focuses as well
that we do when we work with businesses
is actually having happy teams like
it’s about team culture right
and so the two most frustrated things that team members like
are like ah
is the continuous changing of direction from the business owner
so it is the all those ideas and it’s low communication
poor communication so they’re
like the two main things that annoy any team and disrupt culture
and so we can stop one of them by having a toy box right
park the idea if it’s good
it’ll be there still
that is such a brilliant experiment
that’s an experiment that I am enacting straight off the back of this
so I’ve often thought of again
I am 100% got million ideas and all the rest of it
and I’ve typically used the “as a parking lot”
and even our approach to doing things of learning from a mentor
even a month ago was ideas cards
and then using that to help prioritise and frame our certain things
but I just love that analogy of the toy box
it’s so so true and again
it’s just that little tweaking thinking
and I will 100% be experimenting with
let’s change my phraseology with the idea of hey
it goes in my toe box and yeah
if it does sit at the bottom of that for a fair while
and it’s a way to have a bit more fun
as well as it’s far more fun than a parking lot or a whatever
which means I’m more likely
the way my brain works is to engage with that idea and go awesome
I’ll put that into the toy box
and we’ll see whether it comes back out at a later date
and again I love hearing the way that you’ve talked through that
it’s just interesting to hear how that steps through
which ties into then how do we have happy teams
and if we have the happy teams
and they feel as though they’re getting dragged away
because of these ideas which 100% comes
I know when people get
the owner is going on a conference and it’s like
oh no here we go when they come back
they’re going to have the million ideas and all the rest of them
and you know it’s this idea of them being out of well
let’s park that
let’s put that into the toy box and it’ll work out
so I love that can I touch on something you just said as well
when you said checking in with like your coach or mentor whatever
I think that’s probably the other thing is like
have we got because it often running a business is isolating
it’s kind of can be you know
the old lonely at the top thing
so having
I know some people refer to it as like their own personal board table
like who do you have
and we talked about this at the start like who can you lean on to say
hang on is my idea even good
like how I have people to bounce off
who can I consult on my you know personal board table
it’s imaginary can I run it through these filters
these people that have different areas of expertise
does it match my finances
my financial goals does it match my ultimate vision
and is it congruent with me what I want to do ethically
so I think having those people to lean on makes a huge difference too
in filtering ideas yeah
so cool and even if you’ve popped in that again
another idea of experimenting with people that
I’ll take your little snippet there of the imaginary board
at a certain point
at least just having that because by doing even that thought process
is you stepping outside of yourself notionally to go well
what how does your board operate
a board would look at this in a different way
and then yeah as you and I are both very much aligned the idea
and I know that you’ve worked with multiple people
and had different people at party teams
at different times
right people for the right seasons or stage or whatever it is
we highly encourage people to have physical teams as well
but again in the modern world
there’s different ways of leveraging that
the idea of it you’ve touched upon for imaginary sort of board
there’s even sort of
you could have AI sort of generated conversations can get
give you that different perspective
and then again as human beings
we always want the personal touch again
who other than physical people that can be those
sounding boards
and anchor points at the different stages and phases of business
so many I got a page full of notes here already that again
I’ve already plucked out a few of the
some key takeaways that I’m personally going to be taking that
that’s been absolutely brilliant
but I’d love for you to again
we always want to share that’s been some of
the experiments and the theory behind some of those
I love for you to share
some of the transformations
you’ve had with the coaching
and helping people put some of these things actually
into action
I think like I said at the start
ultimately want people to be able to step out of their businesses
right and so every one of our like massive wins has been
how have we helped someone do that
in a way that is aligned with their vision
so I met with
a couple last week who run a business
one of them wants to do more board work
and one of them wants to help
mentor more students coming through the profession right
and so there’s we’ve always got these people in businesses that
they don’t just want to be their business
they’re doing their business
cause they absolutely love it and they don’t want to stop doing it
but they also want more
like there’s something they want to make a bigger contribution
a bigger impact
they’re the biggest wins but
my absolute favourite is because this is kind of been my world
for a long time as well is getting women in business to a point
they can take time off to have their babies
getting businesses to a position
that women don’t feel like they have to sit there
and run their business or process
pays or edit or whatever
why they’ve got a Newborn sitting in their arms
and so that’s what we’ve been helping people do
and I mean and we work on getting people a holiday
but the holiday is never really the ultimate thing
it’s the ability like that’s the test
can you step away from your business and everything doesn’t collapse
that’s our ultimate measure of success when it comes to business
so yeah
getting some of the people that we’ve worked with
maternity leave when they run their own business
completely unplugged time off
and then also supporting them to do
you know more bird work
we’ve got someone who wants to do more speaking gigs
cause she wants to get her message more out there
so now she travels more
cause she doesn’t have to worry about being on the ground
running her business
so good and again
I can just picture those and got listen
little goosebumps happening on the arms as you sort of mentioning that
again knowing that power of
because knowing working with business owners
and no doubt you’ve done it as well
you’ve worked with the business owners
who are working during that time of just
had a bar but still need business to take over and do certain things
because you can’t run without them at that point
and that’s tough
that’s hard for anyone and again
being parents as we both are it’s like
you know how hard that is
you know the mental the physical strain that can put on anybody
is just a tough ass so
been out of
set things up so that people don’t have to worry about that
and the words you use there are totally unplugged
that is transformational it’s a huge change for anybody
as well in health practices
we’re looking for those small changes all the time right
and so it’s the same in this like
guess I got a call and like me and this person
both getting teary cause she said
I actually went to my daughter’s gymnastics competition
on the weekend and usually I’m trying to work on the weekend
and I went and I watched I sat there
I didn’t take my laptop you know
so we’re getting like emotional going
like that’s such a huge thing in a family’s life so yeah
the things that keep you going right
it is 100% and that’s why we’re here
if you want to share stories like that of seeing transformation
what is possible it has happened
you help people do it day in day out and for that we thank you
and we want more awesome allied health practices out there
having these sustainable businesses that do enable
the business owner to be able to step away from that business
so that they can do these other
no doubt amazing things they want to do
whether it’s family related
whether it’s impact related
whatever it is and so really
really appreciate you sharing what you’ve shared today
time has flown
and so many gold nuggets there
so thank you again Alexandra for your time in sharing your insights
thank you so much for having me
I’m sure there’ll be plenty more chats between us
yeah I was about to say
we have plenty of chats we’ll continue have more chats
and as this experiment of this podcast continues to evolve
I’ve already got plenty of people including yourself
I’d love to have back for multiple chats
because there’s so many different avenues and
tangents that we can go down
but in the meantime while people wait for the potential next episode
that we might do together
where’s the best place
for people to find you and connect with you
our website is www.theefficiencylab.com.au
I’m on LinkedIn just as Alexandra Sim and Instagram
The Efficiency Lab
Awesome
as always we’ll pop those links into our show notes
so that people can connect from there
but I do highly recommend having a chat with
I should be able to
understand even going back to asking better questions
and finding ways to be able to help that
to leverage that opportunity
to then step outside of the business more and work on the business
rather than in the business
and as you alluded to jump on and check out the Clockwork Book
it is a brilliant book to start
a little bit of a stepping stone to that as well
so that’s it over and out
from The Healthy Business Lab podcast for another amazing episode
my brain’s ticking over and that’s where I’m sort of processing
is there any more gold nuggets you need to drop there
but again make sure you like
subscribe so that you don’t miss out on hearing
the great insights that we have from our amazing guest
so one last time Alexandra
thank you very much for joining us today
thank you Craig