Decisions to Delegation with Krista Fairchild

In this episode, Pete Mohr sits down with Krista Fairchild, a second-generation dance studio owner, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of transitioning from decision-making to delegation. They dive into the importance of process, communication, and accountability, offering actionable advice for business owners looking to elevate their operations. If you're stuck in the day-to-day and want to move from detail to dashboard, this episode is for you.

Here are a few things Pete covers:

• The journey of Krista Fairchild, a second-generation dance studio owner.
• The importance of process and communication in business.
• How to transition from being a decision-maker to a delegator.
• The concept of accountability and how it can transform your business.
• Real-world advice on how to start delegating tasks effectively.

It's Time to Take Action:

After listening, your next step is to identify one or two small accountabilities that you can delegate right now. Don't wait for the perfect time; make the time. If you've been holding back, this is your sign to take action and empower your team. If you’d like to find out more how Pete can help your business book a chat at www.speaktopete.com

Are you looking to make some changes in your business and your life in 2024?  Head over to speaktopete.com and book a chat with me to see if we're the right fit!

Transcript

Pete Mohr: 0:35

Are you ready to move from operator to owner? Well, decisions in your organization should be made at the lowest possible level of your business. Every day. There is a framework that can help and it's called the five P's. Understanding your promise, aligning your product process and people to it will generate the most amount of profit. And that's when the freedom comes. Freedom from the day to day management and freedom to start doing the things that you want and deserve to do. Inside and outside of your business. No one ever said it was easy, but it's time to start the process on the business owner breakthrough. If you'd like to chat with me about helping you break through in your business, simply go to speak to p two.com. That speak to pete.com to book an appointment and to see if we're a right fit. Hey, Krista, it's so great to see you again.

Krista Fairchild: 1:36

It's so good to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation.

Pete Mohr: 1:39

Yeah, you know, we met at REI gold's dance conference, which was so awesome down in Las Vegas, three days of dance school owners coming together talking business talking program. You know, it was really good. We had a few hours together at one of the sessions that we did, and reached out and said, Hey, listen, would you like to come on the show? It's been a while since I've had some guests on the show. And I want to reopen this door. And as I said, before we hopped on, you're my guinea pig here, Krista, you jump back in because we're gonna do a little live coaching today and get some ideas out around your business and how you want to structure your business. Moving ahead, why don't you tell us a little bit about you and your business, how you got here, and how you got to sit in the seat that you're sitting in right now.

Krista Fairchild: 2:28

Okay, so I'm Kristin Fairchild, I own energy arts dance in Marysville, Ohio. It's a little suburb outside of Columbus. And this is our 33rd Season dance. My mom started the business in 1990. So I am a second generation owner. And I started teaching for her right out of college, and bought this studio in fall of 2019. So my first full year business was COVID, we just expanded into a second location in our town. So we have grown quite a bit since 2020, which is good and nine employees. And one of them is my mom. Yeah. And so I'm excited to kind of learn more about how to strategize so that I'm not making every decision in the Business Daily, but to empower my employees to start in that leadership kind of role.

Pete Mohr: 3:24

You know, I do a lot of work with people who are transitioning from we call it next generation. So the next generation like yourself taking over whether the next generation is taking over from your own parents, or whether like, most people that are listening to the podcast here know that we have shoe stores. Well, I took over from an existing business owner, a couple of these shoe stores, two out of three, I took over from existing businesses and one that I just opened myself. But there's differences there. And when we put our own leadership spin on things, and we have a clarity of what we want out of this. There's process there's communication, there's accountability, there's things that change. And one of the things I'm seeing a lot with these days is that this generation who are taking over business, as baby boomers are, are leaving businesses in droves these days, don't necessarily want to run business the way they did. And there's so much out there now to help us write all the different process management tools and tips and computerized things that that give us our time back. And what I find with a lot of owners is that they even though they they have expedited a lot of this stuff through point of sale systems and communication systems, and a lot of these things that do give you your time back, you don't actually take the time, right reallocated into into more things to do. Right. You know, it's really interesting, when you reach out and you said, you know, I want to start to have some other people rise in the ranks. Do you have credit, especially now with this new opening? Because you can't be in two places at once. It's, it's now physically impossible for you to make every decision and the physicality of that sometimes is needed. Because one one of the things I'll recommend to a lot of people when they're looking at starting to release, some of the accountabilities ask your team if I wasn't here, what would you do? Now you can live it because you've got your attention, right? But for those that are listening, that only have one business, or one one location and you're there most of the time. If you're thinking these questions around this idea around like they should know ought to do now they've been with me for six years, or three years or, or 10 years, whatever the case is, or your mom's case, she founded it. You know, she didn't know what to do, why she asked me this, like, you could say, well, what would you do? If I wasn't here today? If I was away on vacation, or if I was at the other location, wherever the case is, the hard part is sitting in waiting for them to add, I think the biggest thing around that is, don't cave in. Just wait for them to answer because 90% of the time, if they know your promise, and they understand what you're all about, and they've been with you that long, they already have the answer. The difference is for a lot of small business owners is they haven't actually allowed them the end, given them the authority to make it. So when we look at the transfer of accountability, and you know, because you were at one of the are a couple of the different things that they put on, but the idea of having an accountability chart, and for those of you who are listening, and accountability chart is looks on paper, it's similar to a organizational chart. But the idea around accountability chart is really, what are the accountabilities not just the titles, but what are you responsible for? Right. And when you start thinking about this stuff from your business, like, give me one of the accountabilities that you would like to shed and that you think, and you don't have to give me a name of who is going to but you're thinking right now, this person could probably do this,

Krista Fairchild: 6:55

right. So one of the systems that we'd like to put into places, and we'll head over each of our departments like preschool, or competitive team, our recital program, and so one of those would be responsible for all the curriculum and the themes each month for preschool classes. And right now, I am basically have done all those, but I know I have identified employees, I think would be really good in those roles. And now it's just a matter of getting over the worry, I think, right? And ambience, my mom always did it all. So I sometimes feel a little bit of that pressure to, to do that. And guilt. And I don't know that I'm the one, I'm not necessarily the one that might be the best one for that either.

Pete Mohr: 7:44

That's an interesting piece right there. Because we aren't our parents, right? And we are to our previous business owners, if we bought your business or if somebody else, they may have had specific, unique qualities, and they did have any sort of cific unique qualities that made them different than you. And that's okay. And they may have had a different outlook on what they wanted out of their business in their life. And hence, okay. And I think when I look at this stuff, Krista, because you got it, you took over this business, you bought this business from your your mom, not only because there's some legacy there, and it's family and all that kind of stuff, but because you thought it would bring you a better life, right? It's like, yeah, this, I do have an option of going to work for somebody. Right? But when you think about that, and if you sometimes we reel back to 2019, before all the COVID, mass and all that sort of stuff, when that wasn't even in the picture, sometimes we need to roll back to when we first got into business and think a little bit around the fact that hey, if I buy this business, off my mom or off whomever, what will this bring me in my family? What kind of freedoms Am I looking for? And those frames, like I said, are a lot times different for this generation than they maybe were for the generations before us. And that's okay. Right? And so, but what with clarity, what does that look like? And I think doing some journaling on that kind of stuff is really, really interesting, because it'll help you guide you through some of these accountabilities, that you want to set up with all the different structures within your dance school. And within the two different dance store, like the dance studios, right? You got two different ones, and there's going to be people involved in those. But the next piece that is, do you have clear and effective process in place, so that because one of the words you used was trust, I'm not sure whether I'm ready to release, you know, which a lot of people will say I don't trust them quite yet. A lot of times around the trust idea, it's not necessarily do we trust the people it's around? Do we trust the process in place? Right. And so when we look back at taking that up a step, that step is, I really need to hone down this process so that I feel confident that I can just hand it over, and knowing what they know, and knowing that they're part of the culture and all that kind of stuff. Because most of the people that work for us, let's face it, get that side of it. If they don't, they shouldn't be working with us. You know, so what is it that holds you back from releasing? Do you think, Krista,

Krista Fairchild: 10:11

I do think that it's probably not having a process in place, and a lot of those that that will allow me to, and I definitely trust the employees in place. Yet. It's more like my worry and fear of and I need to get over that. But then it may not happen just the way I pictured then in my head, but honestly, the big picture of it is, it doesn't have to look like what I think it needs to look like. Because they may do it in a totally different way. And I'm always surprised, because some of my employees, when I, when we do do some of these visionary things, they, they'll come up with things that it has never even occurred to me to look at it the way they look at it.

Pete Mohr: 10:57

And I've loved this.

Krista Fairchild: 11:00

And I think that that's why, because we have the people in place, now I need to, I need to get myself on track, to give them more responsibility, because I think that that will be more fulfilling to them as well, to realize that they they have a vested interest in growing their own program or within the business that they have a little bit of vested interest in that and said,

Pete Mohr: 11:24

I love that you just said that, that because it's my feeling that our employees do want to take ownership in parts of their job. And in that does help them the whole culture, the whole belonging, your team will notice it, your students will notice it. I mean, everybody notices that when that sort of the culture of everybody's in. And the bit. The biggest thing with this kind of stuff I find, Krista is that a lot of times people procrastinate, because they find that it's just too overwhelming to start releasing one of my suggestions to you for this upcoming season, because as we're recording this, you know, September is pretty close now. So for this upcoming season is what are one or two small things that you can release, as opposed to the bigger things. And we often you know, as business owners think about, oh, I just need to get rid of this big thing. And I'll be good. But that's the hard stuff. So starting with something that's maybe a bit smaller, as opposed to releasing, you know, let's say costuming or something like that, it's like, that's a big one. So what are two or three of the small things that are on your accountability plate right now that you do think you have process pretty good, but you might need to tweak it just a little bit to finish it off for you to feel confident about, I can hand this over now. Right. And then when you're handing it over, people learn in different ways. So you're handing them the process, essentially. And that should be in sort of a written format of some sort of way of this is the process, this is the way and then if you can, in a video format is really good for a lot of people learn better on video than they do reading something. And then of course, the training side of things when you're training them along the way. But once you have some of this process piece in place, then you as the business owner, even if they get this stuff 80%, right, you're releasing 80% of that accountability that used to be 100%, yours, and the coaching moments for you or that other 20%. And so if you need to tweak the process a little bit, because it wasn't perfect, you tweak it with that other 20% of your time, you have a conversation with whomever is now accountable on that particular piece of the puzzle, that program that you know, whatever it is, you know whether even down to answering the phone or doing the book or fortnight or doing the marketing or the Instagram or any of this other stuff. It's like this is the way and if you veer out of that way, then we need to have a conversation but you as the owner come in, that's where you have the conversation as opposed to you trying to dream everything up and do everything and be accountable for everything and everybody else is sitting there twiddling thumbs because you're making all the decisions, and they actually want it right. From this side of things. If we pull it into this new season. What do you think are probably the two things that are low hanging fruit that are like 90%? Ready, but you haven't actually pulled the trigger on yet to release accountability so that you can free up some of your time?

Krista Fairchild: 14:24

That's a great question. I think probably the one that we're closest to. And honestly, I could do it pretty much like this week if we needed to. So I've just recently put a my first employee like on a on a salary, which was a big step and so they have one now on Zapier, which is awesome. And she's the one that will then take on some of this responsibility, but probably the monthly curriculum and themes and oversight into our two bigger programs, which is our preschool program, and then our primary program. So there's like five, eight year olds, and so the planning of implementation, and that honestly is just have been holding off on a disparate, like time issues, thinking that I don't have time to really put a process in place, but I think it looks I think just after hearing me talk, it could be even just a month long, like we put it onto paper and then I kind of mentor that for a month or two just making sure that our boxes are getting checked and then I think it will be able to flow Great, so my HOA probably would flow fine without me just write this stuff.

Pete Mohr: 15:39

Like in 15 minutes, we're releasing some accountability here, right. And so this is what the goal is Kristen. So as we wrap this sort of conversation of my goal for you today is to spend the next half an hour, and write down how this can actually transfer for this season, not for a season in the future, this season happening now. And we like it or not, right. And for you, when you look at if you don't do this, now, you've got another season to wait, that. And so I want to raise the sort of fire a little bit here in your gut to say, I want to try this, I want to, I want to actually do this, especially now that you have a salaried employee, this is a great opportunity to make this happen. And this is one of those low hanging fruits that you're almost there. But it's been sitting there for such a long time. And my suggestion to you is, you need to find the time to finish this so that you can release it because it will never be there time is always taken up by the daily events of life, hey. So if you ever want more time, you need to do even more of this kind of work. So you can release more accountability and live the way you want to live, especially now that you have two stores, you can't be at two places at once. Right? So when you have two locations, it's impossible. And if the process around that, and if there isn't clarity in the communication of who owns what pieces of these two locations? And who do I go to as as a junior staff member? Who do I go to when I have a problem? And what is the system of communication? And who How can I get my answer, then these are where our customers feel pain, these the areas right, then customers are let down because nobody else has the answers for stuff that needs to be answered. And as you start rolling through some of these minor process pieces, you're going to feel the excitement about what else can I offload? And I sense that, that's fun. And you know, when you start thinking to yourself, who else can do this? Cuz we talked about the fact that they do want to do it, and most of them do. And it's, it's super fun. So will you commit? And I'd like to follow up with you. Would you commit to saying I'm going to get this done for this season? And I'm going to coach this new person that has the accountability as the owner of the business as opposed to take on this accountability this season?

Krista Fairchild: 18:09

Yeah, I do want to commit to that, for sure. Yeah.

Pete Mohr: 18:12

Good. I mean, I'm excited for you. Because as you start moving through this journey of accountability, you know, communication process and accountability, the CPA that we talked about a lot, it becomes really engaging not only for you, because you can start seeing other things out there that you never thought you had time or the energy or the passion for because you were powered down in the decisions, the smaller level decisions in your business. Now, as you move up that totem pole, you can look at some of these bigger things, and other people are moving up to and that's exciting for them.

Krista Fairchild: 18:47

growth for them, too. Yeah, for sure.

Pete Mohr: 18:50

Everybody wants to grow in their business. Right? Why in their job, and we want to feel as though we're we're contributing and making a making a go at whatever it is we do. We want to feel that that passion and that reward, or else 10 People tend not to stay. And as small business owners, we need people to stay.

Krista Fairchild: 19:09

We want them. They're the most important part that

Pete Mohr: 19:12

mean the right people anyway, right? Yes. Do you have any last minute findings? What was your biggest takeaway here today?

Krista Fairchild: 19:19

Besides the fact that it's time to do it is that I'm just not devoting the time to actually put it in place. And I think that that's sometimes one of the hardest things about being a small business owner, you tend to be super busy, so you don't devote the time that you should devote. And then it just becomes excuses. And I usually try to do some self focus things like what am I actually falling down in? In my business, like constructive criticism type of things? And my Am I really too busy to do that, or do I just not want to spend the time that it takes to put it in place? Yeah. And that for me is for sure. One of my weaknesses. And my biggest takeaway,

Pete Mohr: 20:05

I think, the big the biggest thing there too, is just the understanding that that is one of your weaknesses. When you we understand. And I don't even call it weakness, really, it's just the way you are, you know, and we are who we are, and that's okay. But understanding who we are and allowing ourselves some grace around that is okay. But there's also time where we just have to get to it right. And I like that and just do it. Yeah. Well, it's been cool. Thanks so much for spending some time with me here on the business owner breakthrough today. I've enjoyed our conversation and would love to follow up with you here in the near future, how the seasons going, how the accountability is going, and we will touch base in the near future.

Krista Fairchild: 20:47

I really appreciate the opportunity and thank you so much for all your time. Yeah, and I definitely want to touch base.

Pete Mohr: 20:53

Cool, make it a great day. We'll talk soon.

Krista Fairchild: 20:55

Thanks so much.

Buzz Burbank: 21:02

And ironic media production visit us at ironic K media.com.