Start With A Win - Developing Effective Systems and Processes with Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual

Episode Date: August 12, 2020

In this episode of Start With A Win, Adam is joined by Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual, a software that allows businesses to document their policies and procedures. Chris started his first business – a video production company – when he was 14 years old and sold it a few years later. By that time, they had contracts to produce videos for athletic groups all across the U.S. He was able to manage this business remotely because of his established and articulated processes and systems. After he sold this company, he was asked by several of his friends and colleagues for help with creating and documenting their businesses’ policies and procedures, so he launched a consulting firm that offered this service.In 2017, Chris realized many people who were contacting him about his consulting services were really interested in the software that had been developed to support the creation of procedures and training practices, which was called Trainual. He transitioned his business to being solely focused on Trainual at that point. The software is now used by over 10,000 clients. Over the years, Chris has found the reason most businesses don’t have documented processes for business operations and training is that they are inconsistent. There is no uniformity in onboarding, continuing education, soft skills training, sales, client communications, follow up, and so on.Trainual helps business leaders figure out the processes and systems they want to have in place. For example, it helps with documentation and delegation. Delegating to other team members enables them to focus on other projects. It is difficult for everyone to delegate, but if you hire the right people and provide them with the right information, you can empower them to perform. This software can be used for employee onboarding, as well as communicating updates to all staff in real-time. The software is continually being improved based on feedback from its users.Connect with Chris:https://trainual.com/https://twitter.com/chrisronziohttps://www.instagram.com/chrisronzio/https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisronzio/Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. And coming to you from Start With A Win Studios, Adam Cotto, CEO of Remax with Start With A Win. Producer Mark is in studio in house, wherever his house is right now. How are you doing, buddy? So good. You're, uh, you're in Brand Viva Studios right now, right? That's right. The Brand Viva Bunkers, as I like to call them. The Brand Viva Bunker. I love it with your purple backlighting.

That's right. And the guitars hanging on the wall. We got a really cool guest today, don't we? Oh, yeah. Really cool guest. I'm looking forward to this. This is a business partner of Remax and somebody that we really, we love his backstory and where he's come from, Chris Ronzio. He's the founder and CEO of Trainual, which is a software tool that helps fast-growing businesses automate their onboarding and training by documenting any processes, policies, procedures, things like that. Because realistically, the key to building a great relationship with a customer is to

have a process to get there. And I keep saying process. Chris is also the host of Process Makes Perfect podcast, and he's the author of 100 Hacks to Improve Your Business. And he's also an Inc. Magazine columnist. Chris, welcome to the show, buddy. Thanks for having me. I'm logging in from mom's basement studios outside of Boston right now, visiting family. So that's where I am. I love it. Where do you hail from originally? Scottsdale, Arizona.

Oh, wow. It's a little warm there right now, isn't it? Yeah, a little warm and a little full of COVID. So I'm on the East Coast at the moment. Oh, a COVID escapee. I see. All right. You got out. Right on, man. So Chris, give us a little background on yourself. You're an entrepreneur. You are really involved in media delivery and creation and things like that as well. We share a lot of the same traits here. So give us a little bit of background on yourself. Where do you come from? Yeah, sure. So I'm originally from the Boston area, kind of where I am right now.

I grew up as an entrepreneur, started my first company when I was 14, and it was a video production company. So out of the gates, we did a little of everything, music videos and bar mitzvahs and weddings. I actually did virtual home tours for a few summers. And then the business scaled around doing youth sporting events. So what we did was we had hundreds of videographers around the country. We'd partner with big organizations like U.S. Figure Skating for everything up to the Olympics and USA Swimming and just different sporting events. And we dispatched the crews to all these cities to shoot the events, live stream them, sell copies. And so, so much of that business was about how we pulled that off. Like, how do people represent us when they're out in the field? How do they deliver the same experience to a parent that high school to college, set up an office in Boston,

set up a West Coast office in California, and ran the whole company from Arizona remotely. And so it was all about the systems and the checklists and the SOPs and just how we did what we did. I love that. So we talk a lot about these words, process systems, habits, checklists, whatever it might be. Our listeners here might have something in mind when it comes to those words, but give us your definition of what is a process and what does that mean to your business? A process is a repeatable way to do something. So it's that simple. When you're growing a business, you start off experimenting, figuring it out. You don't know how to do it, but then as soon as you land on the consistent way to do something and you want other people to help you do it, you've

got to train them on how to do it. And so process is kind of that point in time where you say, this is how we do it. Let's write it down. Let's memorialize it and let's get some other people doing it. All right. And you also use the word systems a fair amount. Give me your take on systems. There's such buzzwords. There's such buzzwords. So, you know, people say systems and processes. I flip it around. I think it's processes and systems because you've got to have a way you do something and then you go find the tools or the technology to facilitate doing it better. And a lot of people hunt for the right software, the right tools before they've figured out their process. And then they end up adapting to how the

software works. And so, so the analogy I give is like, if you were to make a highway, you wouldn't just randomly pick point A to point B, it would be a well-traveled path, right? Like there's a reason to build a highway because you need volume to go from point A to point B. It's the same in your business. You build a process. And then as you've got more traffic, more customers, whatever it is, you get tools and technology, the systems to help support the process. So, I mean, this is really a cool concept when all listeners take a step back and look at what we're designing here. So, what we're designing is a way for you to efficiently and consistently get business done. I mean, that's kind of what I'm getting from this whole thing.

Is that kind of the end game here, Chris? Absolutely. And as a franchise, a system, you're built on systems and processes. So many businesses aspire to that, and you guys are really leading the way. What drew you to this? I mean, was it just, was it how you were brought up or your, did your parents put you into systems and processes? I mean, what, what got you here? You know, it goes back so early, like in the lemonade stand days, my little brother and all his friends are like, you know, slinging lemonade on all the corners of our neighborhood. And it all came down to, well, how do you do it over there? And how do you do it on this street? And do we all have the same pricing and the same sign?

And so as a business owner matures, you want to have something to show for your business. You want to have the way you do things. So if you've got multiple locations or multiple employees, there is a way so that people know that you're you. And I was always drawn to that. Let's dive into your business then. Where did that come from? Train you will. Tell us, what was the goal of this? You're sitting around with some buddies or something like that, or having a beer or looking at the wall or whatever. And you thought, I need to make things better for people. How do I come up with this? Where did that come from? So it was pretty organic. I sold my video business in 2013 and I was instantly, all my friends were hitting me up and saying,

can you help me with my company? Can you come in and build some systems for my business? And so I just started going industry by industry, business by business. And I'd interview all the employees and I was mapping out workflows. Like, how do you do what you do? How do we make it more efficient? And as we would introduce new technology or whiteboard something out, there was always a training. It was like, you do a training day in front of the team or you shoot screen recording videos and send them out. And it was like, we want to do things better. Here's the new way. And now we've got to communicate that. And so I thought it was crazy that people are mostly doing that with Word docs and emails and Dropbox folders. And I wanted there to be a simpler way, a place where you could centralize all that.

So initially, Trainual was a product of my consulting company. I'd built up this little consulting firm. We just did it for our clients. And then a few years into it, I was getting requests from people that didn't want the help. They didn't need the consulting. They just wanted the tool that their friends were using. So Trainual became a business a few years in.

And it was really that. It's like, I want the playbook for my company, the training manual, the operations manual, the SOPs, whatever you call it. It's the policies, the procedures, how you do what you do. And that's where the idea for Trainual came from. So how long has Trainual been around? As its own business, it's been around for just under three years, actually. And we've got over 10,000 businesses using it. But as a software, it's been around for, I guess, about five years. Okay. So what are the biggest challenges companies face when they jump into something like this and how can Trainual easily... Because I'm a fan of pushing

people through this process of, all right, here's a challenge, here's a solution, and why do this? We're talking about that when it comes to starting a business you know you they need to memorialize document consistently do things but i mean what are the biggest challenges they face when it comes to doing that it seems like you know very few businesses they have great ideas but very few make it anywhere and that's that making of that mix that you know making the the salad or whatever there is where they stop. What's going on with that? Well, here's the problem.

Most businesses, they're inconsistent in how they do things because they're adapting to every customer and trying to serve everybody. And so if you're changing how you do things all the time, then you can't concretely hand that off to someone else and say, here's how you do it. You know, a lot of people try to delegate away responsibilities before they have a process a crystal clear way that they do it. Or they try to write down the steps of of what they do, they try to document before they've figured it out, and they end up just

wasting a bunch of time. So the the sequence is you figure out how to do something consistently. And then you say, okay, I'm going to work on other stuff. So I need somebody else to take this over. Documenting is your path to delegation. It's how you enable other people to meet your expectations. And so if you can follow that, if you figure something out, you get it dialed in, it's consistent. And then you clearly hand it off to someone and say, here's how you do it. Here's how I did it. Then it's a better recipe for success. Okay. You touched on a couple of things that really kind of sparked my interest here. And I think this is important for everybody to hear. And I know you're an expert on so many aspects

of these processes. You said delegate and pass off things to people. But if you're not able to articulate them properly of how somebody should do something, or you're just emotionally unable to let go of things, you can't pass that off. I see that as a challenge for leaders. Do you echo that remark? 100%. How do we overcome that? Yeah, 100%. Delegating is the hardest thing for leaders, for entrepreneurs to do because you're great at whatever it is you're doing or you wouldn't have been doing it.

You grow a business because you're an all-star. You're good at things. And so handing those things off is really like your ceiling to growth. And so you've got to empower your people. And that's why I'm such a fan of instead of tracking and micromanagement, just train people, empower them, teach them how to do something, and then let them perform. And you don't have to hover over them. So it's a big passion of mine. I think you hit on some key points there. I hope people are taking notes here. There's some gold in this. points there. I hope people are taking notes here.

There's some gold in this. You've got to empower people and you've got to let go of it and let them do what you've been doing. Because the business owner, small business owner, they build the process, they build the steps, things like that. Unless they have a franchise brand, which we work with you in order to bring in a lot of these things. But ultimately people go, tell me what to do and let me hand a book or hand a login

to one of my employees that tells them what to do. What does that training consist of? You've got a video production background. I would assume it has to do with that. But tell me about the mix of how do we get people to do these things now that we tell them what to do? How do we get them to do these things and we check in with them? So it depends on the content.

It can be video. It can be like us talking with a camera. That's great if it's just personal. Like if you want to introduce someone to the culture of your business and talk to them about that, video is great. Screen recordings are great. If you're walking someone through how to use your CRM

or how to do something on a computer, text is good for detailed policies, processes that they want to reference on the go. With Trainual, we've got the iOS and Android app and desktop. So you can really pull things up from wherever you are to just see that best practice, that way to do things. So the way you communicate depends on the thing that you're trying to communicate and what's easiest for you. But one thing you mentioned is, you know, as a franchise brand, you support people a lot in here's what we're doing, here's how to do the base thing. But beyond that, companies are training, you know, broker owners train on their culture, their community, their neighborhood, like how do you get up to speed

in their business? And so there's all of this stuff that they know, this inherent knowledge that they've got to communicate to get agents up and going. Wow. So there are obviously several layers deep to this. It's important that you care about the learning capabilities of your employees. I mean, we have this, the curse of knowledge is what I'm looking for here. It seems like as business owners, we end up with the curse of knowledge relatively quickly. I mean, do you deal with that a fair amount where the business owner thinks that people should know what they know? Is that common? Yeah. And if you haven't set the correct expectation, like if you've got a performance

issue, it's more likely an instructions problem than it is a performance problem. You know, like you haven't set clear expectations. And so what I think is the ability to train and to show someone how to do what you do produces your ability to grow in an organization. So whether you're a team leader, a region leader, or a broker owner, if you want to get further away from the day-to-day, you have to have other people that you train into what you do. And if someone at the ground floor of the business wants to progress through the organization, they've got to train someone on the stuff that they're letting go of as they grow. So it's a cyclical thing. That's awesome. So let's dig a little bit deeper into Trainual real quick. What's the sales pitch for your company? I just got in an

elevator with you. I'm CEO of an international company and you're the CEO of Trainual. I look at you and I go, hey, what do you do? I mean, what does that sound like? Yeah, sure. So we automate the onboarding and training of your new hires and keep everybody up to speed on the best practices in your company. So as a business, you want everyone performing their job as quickly as possible from the day you hire them. And so that encompasses a great orientation process, get them up to speed on your culture, who does what in the company, and then what they're responsible for so that they get to

productivity. But then long term, you want everybody in the loop on the newest way to do things. So as you roll out new policies or new best practices, new scripts, new software, you update it in the system and it automatically keeps everyone up to date so that they log, they log in, they know they're at a hundred percent. They've seen everything they need to know. I can't stress how important this is to business leaders listening to this. You have to be able to train consistently and check on people to make sure that they're learning and updating people in your business. I can't say that enough. This is a key business aspect and one that, frankly, when I see businesses fall down, small businesses fall down, it's because they don't onboard employees well enough and then those employees don't carry that culture

and that deliverable of that business to the customers appropriately. So that's where things start falling apart, in my opinion. So this is incredibly important for everybody listening. So thanks, Chris, for covering that. Now, I have one final question for you here. Chris, you're giving a lot of great advice to people, but we want to know what drives you. You've been an amazing entrepreneur over the years. You've built several businesses and you help build businesses. We like to pride ourselves on the fact that Remax is a business that builds businesses. Well, guess what? So is Trainual. And I love that. So how do you build yourself? How do you start with a win, Chris? Because all of our listeners want to know what's in your head. I love that. I want to know what's

in my head. So honestly, that's what I start with is when I wake up in the morning, I have so much flying around my head that every morning I do a quick 10 minute meditation. I take out my iPad and I write down all the random thoughts, everything that's popping into my head, ideas, tasks, things I got to do that day. And I just unload it onto paper because it helps me be more intentional the rest of the day. So kind of in the same way that trainual gets your business out of your brain, that's my go-to every morning. That's a new, I have not heard that one. I love that. So 10 minutes of meditation and then unload your head because there's a lot that shows up during that meditation. It's like when you're on the treadmill, you're on the Stairmaster, or you're standing

there in the shower, or you're just sitting there in peace and tranquility and thoughts start bouncing around. You got to do something with those, right? So that's a really good idea. Thank you for sharing that, Chris. You got it. Also, thank you so much for being on Start With A Win. I've learned a lot today. I know our listeners have. Be sure to check out Trainual. Chris, where can we find you online? Yeah, you can learn more about Trainual, trainual.com slash Remax, actually. We've got some special resources there.

And you can find me at Chris Ronzio on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, all the social platforms. Awesome. And don't forget your podcast. Where can we find that? Process makes perfect on anywhere you listen to your podcasts. Awesome. we find that? Process makes perfect on anywhere you listen to your podcasts. Awesome. Check it out, everybody. Chris Ronzio, the founder and CEO of Trainual,

a software tool that helps fast-growing businesses automate their onboarding and training by documenting every part of this. Thank you so much, Chris, for being on Start With A Win. Thanks, Adam. Hey, and thanks so much for listening to Start With A Win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question or potentially be on our next episode give us a call and leave us a message at 888-581-4430 don't forget to go onto iTunes and subscribe write a review and rate the show

for more great content head over to startwithawin.com follow Adam on Instagram Facebook and Twitter and remember Start With A Win Facebook and Twitter. And remember, start with a win.