IAM066 – Consultant & Trainer Helps Organizations Overcome Struggles, Clutter & Tediousness in Operations

Alex helps those who do good work be able to work better! Her consulting and training services help creative, mission-driven nonprofits and small businesses to overcome the struggles, clutter, and tediousness of day-to-day operations. Alex understands that every workplace is unique in terms of its needs, history, people, and culture, and her job is to ask all the right questions and suggest solutions that address the challenges within that specific ecosystem.

Her mission is to help clients become as successful as possible by identifying the root of the problems provide customized, time-saving, and sustainable solutions that guarantee all work is performed in a deliberate, efficient, and effective way.

• CEO Hack: E-Myth / 3 roles: entrepreneur, technician and manager
• CEO Nugget: To thy own self, be true
• CEO Defined: Someone who is a leader and getting things done and getting things done in a creative way

Website: https://www.aiscollaborations.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-suchman-52909045/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dogoodworkbetter/
The Art of Figuring it Out Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheArtOfFiguringItOut/

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 0:27

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 Alexandra Suchman of AIS Collaborations.

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

Alexandra Suchman 0:38

It's great to be here. Thank you. I'm excited to talk with you.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

I'm excited to have you on as well. What I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Alex so you can learn about all the awesome things that she's doing.

Alex helps those who do good work be able to do better, work better. Her consulting and trading services help creative mission-driven nonprofits and small businesses overcome the struggles clutter and tediousness of day-to-day operations.

Alex understands that every workplace is unique in terms of its needs, history, people, and culture. Her work is to ask all the right questions and suggest solutions that address the challenges within this specific ecosystem. Her mission is to help clients become as successful as possible by identifying the root of their problems and providing customized time-saving and sustainable solutions that guarantee all work is performed in a deliberate, efficient, and effective way.

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

Alexandra Suchman 1:34

I am. Let's do this.

Gresham Harkless 1:36

Awesome. Let's do it. So first question I had was just kind of you can expound a little bit more upon your bio. Tell us about your CEO story and what led you to get started in your business.

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Alexandra Suchman 1:44

Yeah, I have always been a problem solver from a very young age. I was the friend people came to for advice and would lead teams in school projects. So when it was time to start my career, I thought, I love asking questions. I love figuring out answers. So I'll go into research and public policy and try to tackle some of the big societal problems that we're facing down the world. I moved down to DC and spent about 15 years working in nonprofits and small businesses and academic centers, dealing with mostly public health, but also the overlap between health and nutrition and hunger and education, housing, disability, employment, all the sort of social safety net support programs.

I was working with really brilliant, passionate, mission-driven people at really, really great organizations. But I noticed that the amount that they were able to accomplish, and their level of impact were really hindered because nobody was thinking about how the work was done. It was so focused on the big picture, but not about whether are things organized? Whether are there systems in place? Does everybody know what they were doing? Are things efficient and effective? That got really frustrating. As someone who likes to problem solve and likes to be efficient and effective, I started getting more involved in the operations and management side of things, and real and went back and got Project Management Certification.

But realized that a lot of the world of process consulting and business operations is very geared towards large businesses and high tech and manufacturing large scale stuff. And it really doesn't resonate with the smaller, more mission-focused, and creative workplaces. So I decided to make a change and try to fill this gap.

Gresham Harkless 3:37

I love that and I love the fact that a lot of times sometimes when people start businesses, they think a lot about, I have this big mission and goal that I want to accomplish, but you forget, like some of the processes and operations free you up to be able to go after and succeed and hit those missions. But a lot of people forget all those things. So I love how you're able to kind of create that balance and help people no matter how big or how small to help reach those goals.

What I wanted to do is drill a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about your product service and how exactly you serve the clients that you work with.

Alexandra Suchman 4:07

Yeah, I try to build the bridge between the more big-picture mission-focused, exciting aspects of running a business or whatever the work is, and connecting it directly to the operations and logistics side of what has to be done. And so I a lot of the people that I work with are way more visual visually oriented. So I've come up with a couple of different metaphors to describe what I do and one of them is a picture of a mechanic lifting up the hood of a car and looking at what's inside and, are all the gears aligned? Are there big pieces missing? Is there oil leaking out where it shouldn't be leaking?

So I'll come in and look under the hood of your team and your business and projects and see, you know, where are the what are the pain points what's happening and where could things be better. Another service area that I think of is like a closet organizer but for the business and making sure that your things people need to access resources that are being used over and over again, they're organized in a way that people can access what they need.

And they're not recreating the wheel and you don't have version control issues, things like that. And then the third one is like a personal trainer or coach for management skills. I think when people think about management, they just think about the supervising park, but managing is really making sure things get done in all aspects, of work. And so focusing on the other aspects of, you know, how do you set goals? How do you make sure that you're meeting quality standards? How do you motivate people? And all about the how-to.

Gresham Harkless 5:36

Yeah, well, no, it's insanely important. Because, like, again, like what I talked about, you know, speed, we're usually so mission-driven, but you forget that, okay, my oil is leaking. For example, I don't know what the issue is, and I need somebody to look at it. And oh, I think it might be that hole that I'm looking at directly. But if you really pop open the hood, it might be something that's completely different. And to have somebody that has that expertise to be able to look and see like, Hey, this is kind of like the thing that's happening, but why it's happening might be completely different. So to be able to kind of look at all that and put those pieces together is huge.

Alexandra Suchman 6:07

Yeah, exactly.

Gresham Harkless 6:08

Yeah. So what I wanted to do was ask you for what I call your secret sauce or something that you feel kind of differentiates you and makes you unique in your business.

Alexandra Suchman 6:17

Yeah, I think of myself as a translator between right brain and left brain ways of thinking. The people who tend to run these more mission-driven and creative organizations tend to be more right-brained, they're inspired by emotion and passion, and they think big picture. And they like to think outside of the box. And that's, that's really fantastic. But they don't always see the value in, looking at data or in coming up with systems to organize things or doing things in a particular order. Because that makes the most sense, and sort of breaking down what they're trying to do into small components.

And I'm very comfortable in both worlds, I grew up in a really artsy fartsy family. And so I identify as a right-brained person. But I'm also very organized and very methodical and have a research background. And so I think that I can come up with very visually visual, tangible, engaging, fun ways of making these left-brain principles palatable, if not totally exciting, but at least palatable to right-brain people.

Gresham Harkless 7:20

Yeah, that's huge. And, and, as you said, to be able to translate and kind of be able to kind of understand exactly the right brain, but also execute the left brain and vice versa. It's definitely a unique skill. And a lot of people wish that they could do one or the other. But it's great that you have that talent or that superpower to be able to do both. So I think that's pretty awesome. And what I wanted to do is switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this is one of the things that might be in line right in line with what you do. But it's those things that would help people to be more efficient and effective in their business. So it might be a book, it might be an app, but the idea is it helps business owners be more efficient and effective.

Alexandra Suchman 7:53

Yeah, one of the first books I read, when I decided to go out on my own, was the E-Myth, which is very common, lots of people have read it. And there's one of the principles from the book that really stuck with me. I think about it probably at least once a day, and that's the idea every business needs, there are three essential roles, you need the entrepreneur, the visionary, to have the ideas and to see opportunities, and do the creative big thinking. You need the technician and that's the person to actually do the work, to perform the services or to create the product. You need the manager to be the person in between to make sure that the vision is something that's actually doable and feasible and that the actual way things are getting done align with that.

I think a lot of people go into business, just wanting to focus on the entrepreneur and the technician part. But if you're not willing to be all three, it's gonna get really tough. So that's been really helpful for me in making sure that I'm covering all the bases, in terms of the types of activities that you need to do to run a business. And so sometimes I've say, Okay, today's my manager day, or, you know, these two days, I'm on-site with a client, I'm in technician mode. But that means, you know, Friday, I need to work on some of the big brainstorming and put on my entrepreneurial hat. So I found that framework really, really helpful.

Gresham Harkless 9:18

Yeah, and I think that's a phenomenal book. And I think that to understand that when you're going into your business to understand each of those different roles and how you can fulfill those roles, or even bring on people to fit in those roles kind of helps out a lot. Because I think just like you talked about with the example, it also starts out with a parable that makes it easy for people to understand exactly what that means and what that looks like. So I think that's a phenomenal book. And I swear by that book, and I know we talked a little bit offline about it, too. So I think that's a phenomenal CEO hack. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget and this might be a word of wisdom or piece of advice that you might have for entrepreneurs and business owners.

Alexandra Suchman 9:18

Yeah, I think it was Hamlet who said to thy own self be true. I think that to be an effective business owner or leader of any type, you really have to know yourself and be extremely honest with yourself, you have to constantly reflect on what works and what doesn't work. And what are your weaknesses? I mean, we were just talking about before, if you know that you are more entrepreneurial minded, you need to make sure that somehow whether it's you or somebody else, you're getting that management and technician perspective, to make sure you're doing all the things that you need to do and in the best way.

So being very willing to take a hard look in the mirror and, and figure out what works and what doesn't, and not just do exactly what somebody else did, you know, whatever the latest book or fad is, but to trust your gut and know your gut, because your flaws will get pointed out to you very quickly.

Gresham Harkless 10:52

Unfortunately, so very, very true. And yeah, I mean, we I definitely agree with that, you know, knowing thyself, and making sure that you understand your strengths and weaknesses and understand like how to put people in place if you are a very artsy fartsy, so to speak type of person, but understand, like working with somebody like you might help to kind of complement some of those things that they're doing.

Alexandra Suchman 11:11

Yeah, and one of the things that I've actually done with several clients is I tend to work with organizations that are growing, they've hit some type of period of growth or transition, and everything that was helping them succeed before is now not working and figuring out what team members you need to bring on. It's looking at, okay, what are all the functions that need to be done? What are the skill areas, the strengths, the talent pool, strengths, and weaknesses? And how do you bring in whatever you need more of?

Gresham Harkless 11:41

Yeah, that makes sense. And yeah, as you said, where you go might be different than where you started. So making sure that you have all those people in places is very, very important to kind of take a look at but also implement. So now I wanted to ask you what is my favorite question, which is kind of like the definition of being a CEO. We're hoping to have different types of CEOs on the podcast, but I want to ask you specifically, what being a CEO means to you.

Alexandra Suchman 12:04

This is the question I was actually most nervous about. Because I don't think of myself as a CEO at all. I never thought I'd be the type of person to start a business, I tend to think of business and especially the word CEO and a lot of the other business jargon as very, it's hierarchical and cold, and seeing people as just cogs and you know, being focused just on profits. And so I don't really relate to all that. And that's a big part of my business is trying to get at some of those principles, but in it from a very different angle. But I think the idea of a CEO is somebody who is a leader and who gets things done. But for me, it's getting things done by thinking creatively looking at every problem in every situation, through a brand new unbiased lens, building relationships, and inspiring those around you to do their best and be their best, and really work to make a difference.

Gresham Harkless 13:00

I love it. I love it. And that's why we say that question for lash just because I knew you might be most nervous about that. No, I think that was a phenomenal answer. And I love kind of like the perspective that you gave, you know, on being a CEO, what that means and, and just you know how that kind of fits into everything that you're doing. So I truly appreciate you Alex for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do was passionate Mike, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best they can get a hold of you.

Alexandra Suchman 13:27

Nothing else I can think of but yeah, I would love people if you're interested in what I do. I have a blog on my website, my websites aiscollaborations.com. One of the things I try to do in my blog to make these ideas of operations and systems more tangible, is I take pop culture examples of workplaces and workplace scenarios and look at them through a different lens.

So I have a couple of posts where I talk about the TPS report incident from office space and deconstruct why that's so uncomfortable. And you know, what was really happening behind the scenes I have another one where I talk about the famous I Love Lucy Chocolate Factory episode and, and illustrate the concept of quality control. So I really tried to take a different spin on some business principles.

So I'd love people to check out my website and check out my blog. I also have a Facebook group called TheArtOfFiguringItOut where it's talking about how to tackle these very common problems and challenges of running a business and being a person in the world. But through knowing what works for you and through that self-awareness piece, so check it out.

Gresham Harkless 14:30

Awesome. We'll have those links in the show notes so that everybody can check those out and learn more about Alex and everything cool that you're doing. So Alex again, I appreciate the time that you took and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Alexandra Suchman 14:42

Thanks so much, you too.

Outro 14:43

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.

Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless.

Thank you for listening.

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