IAM024- COO Turned CEO Helps Organizations Achieve Operational Excellence

Bonnie Ortiz formed O2 Consulting Group, a premier professional services firm, in 2017 after spending almost a decade as the Chief Operating Officer for The Partnership Federal Credit Union. A recognized expert in strategy formation, process improvement and project management, Bonnie now provides her clients with a comprehensive operational toolkit, aligning people, process and systems to corporate goals.

She has worked with commercial for-profit and non-profit entities across numerous industries and has managed substantial budgets and staff as a leader within organizations of various sizes, from start-ups to multi-billion-dollar firms. Bonnie’s expertise is rooted in the achievement of operational excellence, focusing the organization’s executive team on advancing their priorities and achieving their desired results.

Bonnie currently serves as the Commodore of the Herring Bay Yacht Club and as the Vice Chair of the Dream Queen Association Board of Directors, giving her time and expertise to cultivating the next generation of leaders.

• CEO Hack: Mission Control (how to set appointments in your calendar) and Crucial conversations
• CEO Nugget: Avoid Burnout by creating a balance (e.g. going to the beach, volunteering, etc.)
• CEO ReDefined: Both develop the vision and execute it

Website: http://o2consultinggroup.co/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/O2-Consulting-Group-301747406986921/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnie-ortiz-00a59723/

Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:28

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Bonnie Ortiz of O2 Consulting.

Bonnie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Bonnie Ortiz 0:37

Thank you, Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 0:38

Awesome. Well, what I wanted to do was read a little bit more about all the great things that Bonnie has been able to do and accomplish so that you can learn a little bit more about her.

Bonnie Ortiz formed O2 Consulting Group, a premier professional service firm in 2017 after spending almost a decade as the Chief Operating Officer for the partnership Federal Credit Union, a recognized expert in strategy formation, process improvement, and project management.

Bonnie now provides her clients with a comprehensive operational toolkit, aligning people processes and systems to corporate goals. She has worked with commercial for-profit and not-for-profit. It's used across numerous industries and has managed substantial budgets and staff as a leader with organizations of various sizes from startups to multibillion-dollar firms.

Bonnie's expertise is rooted in the achievement of operational excellence and focusing the organizational organization's executive team on advancing their priorities and achieving their desired results. Bonnie currently serves as the Commodore of the Herring Bay Yacht Club and as the Vice Chair of the Dream Queen Association Board of Directors giving her time and expertise to cultivate the next generation of leaders.

Bonnie, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Bonnie Ortiz 1:54

Sure am

Gresham Harkless 1:55

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, the first question I had was just if there was anything additional, you wanted to kind of let us know about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

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Bonnie Ortiz 2:02

You know, I think that the only thing that I would add Gresham is that over the years, I have worked with some incredible CEOs. And all of those CEOs have had a vision, creativity, and a passion for the businesses that they were in and the goals that they wanted to achieve.

I find myself in the best situation ever, when I can partner with those CEOs to help them execute that vision and to realize the passions that they have.

Gresham Harkless 2:29

Awesome. And that's really great because you get the opportunity to kind of leverage your strengths, so to speak. So could you I guess, talk a little bit more about like how you get to partner with those CEOs and how you kind of help out the clients that you work with?

Bonnie Ortiz 2:39

Sure. Many years ago, I realized that my organizational skills and my passion for details made me the perfect candidate to really develop an operational plan and execute that plan in the timeframes that my boss's supervisors had desired. And as I progressed, in my career, I found myself being partnered with folks who were leading efforts around growth around process improvements, and around projects.

So I have, from time to time, been placed in situations where I've been called upon to give my expertise to the leader of the group. Always it has been because of the ability to build and execute those operational plans. In the early 80s, I became a certified Project Manager, both domestically and internationally. And so many, many, many times as a project manager, I find myself teamed with very senior executives and companies as large as TNT and as small as some of the smaller credit unions in the industry today.

Gresham Harkless 3:47

Awesome. In a year, that's obviously something that is not sometimes realized, from a business standpoint, just how important operations are, and how that makes everything kind of flow and go smoothly and helps the business to kind of run efficiently.

I wanted to ask you what you feel makes your business and organization unique?

Bonnie Ortiz 4:06

O2 Consulting Group was formed out of my own passion to support others as I was supported when I was coming up in my career. As a result, I absolutely love to come into an organization and roll up my sleeves. So I'm not a consultant that comes in meets with the CEO conducts a gap analysis and presents a report that costs a tremendous amount of money and really doesn't tell you how to do it. Rather, my differentiator is in my ability to be able to execute the recommendations I make.

So discovering and data gathering and making recommendations that are doable in a realistic time period, and that is accompanied by training, coaching, and mentoring for the staff who will end up doing the job when I leave. I've always believed that as a consultant, it's not my responsibility to stay and become a part of the organization, it's rather my responsibility to teach a man to fish and let them go.

Gresham Harkless 5:10

That's powerful and huge because a lot of times, you sometimes have consultants that say, Okay, this is what I think is wrong, this is my diagnosis. So you hear you try to fix it, but you give them the information on and the tools really to kind of make sure those solutions are taken care of. And they're also able to kind of continue on and be more efficient and effective. Also, when you leave, as well.

Bonnie Ortiz 5:33

That's correct. I've actually developed an operational toolkit that you referenced in my bio, and every piece of that toolkit from the project plan to the communication plan to the risk plan to the quality plan to the test plan is left behind as a template for the folks who are in those positions to follow them to be able to use them over and over again, with a small amount of tailoring.

Gresham Harkless 5:57

Awesome. I love the concept and the idea because, again, as you said, teaching a man or a woman to be able to kind of fish for themselves is insanely important and a lot of times why do people go into business anyways or start their organization anyways.

I wanted to kind of switch gears a little bit. One of the things that, you know, I'm excited about getting the opportunity to ask you about is a CEO hack, and that might be a book and might be an app. But the idea is something that you use on a regular everyday basis that makes you more efficient and effective as a CEO.

Bonnie Ortiz 6:28

There are actually two tools that I use every single day. I learned them and adopted them very early in my career, when I was working for another consulting firm in the public healthcare space, what is called Mission Control. Mission Control is actually the technique to place every one of your appointments, whether they're personal, professional, or otherwise, into your calendar. That includes not only just meeting with people and calling people but also the work you have to do. So the deliverables that are required after those meetings are over.

While my calendar looks like a chaotic mess, every single day, I know exactly what I have to accomplish, and how I need to move those throughout the week to be able to be completely successful. And the end of the week, every single Friday, I look at that list, I determine whether or not I need to move things to the following week, to work just a little bit more over the weekend to complete some really critical things or if I'm on track, and it gives me an opportunity to be able to balance my professional and my personal life.

The other tool that I have used for a long time is something that I learned through a Vital Smarts course called Crucial Conversations, in which conversations really allow you to be as straightforward and honest as you possibly can in maintaining a safe space for you and for the person or persons that are talking to you always allowed me to sort of cut through all of the crap, as you might say, we often do these political dances and I just don't think that we have any time for that in today's fast-paced world.

The particular program has taught me how to not only be straightforward but not blind and to do it with a heart to really provide an opportunity for individuals that are working alongside you to know that you have integrity and to be consistent in the way that you talk with them all the time. So it engenders loyalty and engenders teamwork, it really builds on relationships and it's allowed me to maintain some really significant relationships for many years.

Gresham Harkless 8:40

Awesome. Yeah, those are definitely two great tools especially with the mission control. I think sometimes and often most entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs have so many different things going on, and that you know, you have 100 things to do, but you have no idea what they are, but to be able to kind of map it out and play it out and plan it out, I should say kind of helps take that burden off because you kind of have a little bit more in control.

One of the next things I wanted to ask you was for a CEO nugget. This might be a word of wisdom or piece of advice that you might have for other entrepreneurs and business owners. Do you have a CEO nugget you can probably provide for us?

Bonnie Ortiz 9:13

You know, I probably have so many of them that it's ridiculous. But when I was thinking about this, the first thing that came to my mind is that burnout is so easy to get yourself to especially when you are an entrepreneur and you want to do it all, you have great ideas and a strong vision and you can execute fast and furiously. I think the tendency sometimes is to take on way too much in a short period of time and you either end up only living in a professional world and not getting an opportunity to go off and smell the roses.

So as you can see behind my bio I have deliberately begun engaging in a lot of outside activities, such as the Yacht Club, I still can provide leadership thereby being the President and Chairman of the Board of the Dragon Queen Association where I get an opportunity to work alongside adult and teen girls that are looking for that mentoring and leadership that they often need to gain their confidence in a secure path for themselves.

And so I would say to every CEO, especially those who start out late in life and want to have their own business, you have to create a balance. That balance can come in a lot of forms, it doesn't necessarily have to be sitting on a beach reading a book, it can be using your strengths, and opportunities in ways that remind you of what you're most passionate about. But it gives you a different avenue, without the stress of your everyday job and building your own organization.

Gresham Harkless 10:48

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And you know, sometimes you forget, in the day-to-day minutia, that why you're doing what it is that you're doing. And like you said, your organization that you're able to kind of be a member of and play a pivotal role in, it kind of helps you remind you of exactly why you're doing, what you're doing, and what your strengths and how you can kind of contribute to the overall society.

One of my favorite questions I should say is, I'm getting the opportunity to figure out what being a CEO might mean to you, because we have different types of, quote and quote CEOs on this podcast, and we're gonna have different types of guests from different roles and kind of business walks of life, I wanted to ask you specifically, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Bonnie Ortiz 11:26

Being a CEO to me means the freedom to develop both the vision and execute. It gives me the opportunity to become visible among an organization of fabulous individuals, whether it be in the healthcare industry, the telecommunications industry, the financial industry, network alongside them, gather ideas and collaborate at a level that I can then bring back to my own organization.

And because I have always been more inclined towards the Chief Operating Officer role, and the execution of the CEO's vision, this is the first time that I have had an opportunity to take my own vision, and then execute it. I think it's going to be very interesting over the next few years to watch that grow, and to see how it can expand. So instead of fulfilling someone else's vision, I'm getting an opportunity to fulfill mine.

Gresham Harkless 12:31

Awesome, yeah, I love that perspective. Then you also obviously have the experience and tools to understand, from an operational standpoint, exactly how to execute that. So being the CEO and having the kind of the technician skill set, as well, too, is a good mix to have and how to execute and carry out those visions that you have.

Bonnie, I truly appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule, what I wanted to do was give you the mic, so to speak one more time to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and then also to like how best people can get a hold of you.

Bonnie Ortiz 13:03

Sure, thank you. I think finally, what I would say is that throughout my entire career, I have always placed a tremendous amount of emphasis on people and on the relationships that I build and the way you give back. Paying it forward is an incredibly powerful concept.

I know that I cherish all of the little notes and emails that I get from younger folks who are just starting out in their career or people that I have mentored. And as they've retired and are looking for opportunities in consulting, they come back around to me and still end up seeking my advice. So I would just say that we should never lose sight of the fact that even though we're in a world of automation, we're in a world of social media, and the person and the contact with the person is really still the most important thing.

Gresham Harkless 13:56

Awesome, vital, and very strong words, and for those people that might be listening to this, what's the best way for them to get a hold of you, Bonnie?

Bonnie Ortiz 14:03

Well, they can either call me on my office line, which is 571-334-9185. They get it by website at www.o2consultinggroup.co. Or they can email me at bonniesortiz@gmail.com Or @o2consultinggroup.co

Gresham Harkless 14:26

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much again Bonnie for all the awesome things that you're doing, all the things you're doing to kind of impact obviously from a consulting standpoint, but also from a giving back and paying it forward standpoint.

So I appreciate you for everything you do and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Bonnie Ortiz 14:42

Thank you so much, Gresham, thank you for having me.

Outro 14:45

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

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Thank you for listening

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