We help companies eliminate waste.

We recently interviewed our client, Robin, CEO and Wealth Strategist at Wealth Progression Group.

Here’s what Robin had to say about her company’s challenge, the CTC solution, and the results:

Challenge:

I felt I was working in the day-to-day of the business too much, and I wanted to elevate myself out of that role. Being the CEO, I felt too much of my time was being taken up with double-checking others’ work and putting out fires.

In search of some support, I hired a few new team members to address this issue, but I found that, as a whole, we were even more inefficient than we were before. Our team lacked the clear processes and tools to manage our work and onboard new team members properly.

The phrase “too many cooks in the kitchen” comes to mind in this situation. The more people you have involved in a process, the more things tend to fall through the cracks, and that’s exactly what was happening to us. With a lack of clear processes and the proper tools, our productivity only continued to get worse.

Solution:

I decided to reach out to CTC Productivity for help.

I had heard about Jan’s coaching programs and also knew that CTC Productivity’s team are experts in Microsoft 365 (a tool that had been approved by our Broker Dealer, meaning we were free to use it.)

We had previously invested in Microsoft 365 and were hoping it might be something we could explore to improve the way we work. However, we had no idea where to begin as we had never been trained on how to leverage the software to improve our productivity. We needed to bring in an expert.

I started working with Jan in a coaching capacity so she could help me with my personal productivity and help me elevate myself out of the day-to-day work. Like with every coaching assignment, our work together gave Jan the opportunity to clearly see where I was spending my time. It also helped Jan see clearly where there was time waste within our organization.

Jan found many areas of improvement for us, but one of the biggest areas of concern was the amount of time I was spending double-checking my team’s work.

Jan helped us identify the fact that we didn’t have a good system in place for tracking the status of our customers’ activities. Our CRM, Redtail, did not have sufficient reporting to help provide quick status updates.

Tracking alternative investments, in particular, has always been a nightmare for us because, like many customer activities, they require multiple steps (i.e. get the trade, start the paperwork, send it to the client, get it back from the client, get it to the broker, etc.) These items are constantly in motion with multiple people needing to see their status in order to ensure everything is completed in a timely and accurate manner.

This is a huge area of exposure for us, so it needs to be closely managed. I, alone, would spend roughly 10 hours each week just asking for updates from my team and triple-checking to make sure things had been done correctly. We needed a better way of tracking everything in real-time.

Our CRM, Redtail, is the best in the financial services industry, but like many tools, it has some major limitations. Here were the main challenges we faced with it:

• Limited transparency
  • Redtail did not provide any way of seeing a birds-eye view of all of our statuses. We had to click into each workflow and read the details to see each status. It was a huge waste of time.
  • After due dates passed, the activity would disappear from view, which was very problematic.
  • There was no clarity on how long projects had been stuck.
  • It was not easy to spot issues.
• Redtail, like most CRM’s, has workflows. This helps because workflows populate all future steps. The problem is, there are also many challenges with workflows:
  • They are difficult to set-up.
  • It is overly complicated to make simple changes to existing clients. For example, changing an address.
  • Workflow reports are not easy to pull and read.
  • While you can filter by client status, Redtail doesn’t tell you if there are open workflows.

We tried to use a spreadsheet to track everything, but it was not sufficient for our needs. Jan recommended that we instead leverage SharePoint to build out a solution to supplement our CRM.

We learned that SharePoint is a powerful tool that can be used to fill in the gaps where other software (like Redtail) has limitations. Jan proposed that we build out a new tool that would give us much more transparency into our

customer activities. She also said our team could be trained on that tool so we would not be dependent on CTC for ongoing maintenance.

In addition, Jan suggested that we start leveraging the Microsoft Teams communication platform (Chat and Channels.) This would help to improve our internal communication and collaboration because our team communication was getting lost in our inboxes.

Results:

New SharePoint Solution

Our new SharePoint solution has been an absolute game changer! We now have the perfect tool to answer our questions quickly, rather than facing a constant struggle with our technology.

I’m now confident enough in my team to step out of the day-to-day business. I trust my team to execute tasks efficiently because I know they have the right tools to stay on top of their work.

I also no longer need to ask my team members for the status of a client’s workflow because I can quickly look at the system to get answers. It is always current–24×7.

The team also added historical data to the new platform and we now can sort by client and see exactly what trades the client has done that year.

Here are some of the other amazing benefits we’ve seen from our new system:

• We have better vision and clarity on the many moving pieces we need to track each day.
• Team members can now group things and batch their work. For example, they can see which clients have transactions on hold as they wait for compliance approval and can now make one call to discuss all outstanding work in that one area. A much more efficient use of their time!
• Everyone can filter the data however it best works for them depending on their needs.
• We can now sort by product, amount, or any other key field with just one click.
• Our notes move with the status which makes things easier to reference.
• Our accuracy has drastically improved.
• The system is flexible and can be used for all different types of transactions, like insurance and annuities as well as administrative updates like beneficiary or address changes.
• Happiness has also been a big benefit from this switch. We now have peace of mind knowing where everything stands without having to double-check it. It’s a much easier process to manage now. Before the change, it was all very random and frustrating.

We are incredibly happy with this transition. Redtail doesn’t do what SharePoint can do. SharePoint is lightyears ahead of that workflow and we are thrilled with it.

Leveraging Teams for Communication

Using Teams Chat and Channels has been much more efficient for our internal collaboration. Before the switch, quick interoffice discussions were getting buried in our email inboxes.

Jan and the CTC team educated us on how and when to use Channels versus Chat, and that made a big difference for us. They also helped us learn how to keep things out of our email inboxes so they wouldn’t get lost in the mix.

In addition to keeping internal communication out of our inboxes, we have also noted these benefits from the switch to Teams:

• We learned how to do simple things like share our calendars. This was a game changer for us. We had no idea that this feature was available to us, and apparently could have done it many years ago!
• We moved all of our files into the Teams environment, meaning we can now access them inside Teams as well as outside that environment.
• With all of our tools now within the Microsoft 365 platform, we can easily check on everything even when we are out of the office because Microsoft 365 can be accessed on any device at any time.
• It’s a huge win to now have all of our data on one specific platform–one place where the team can go to see a status, find forms, and attach those documents to that file so it is all together.
• We can now see our commissions all in one place. We were able to create a tab in our Team environment that says Commissions (this is so helpful because we have a lot of products.)

Another key benefit of working with the CTC team was realizing how flexible and adaptable CTC was to our needs. CTC listened to our industry constraints and was able to adapt the approach–they didn’t try to push a square peg into a round hole, they worked with us to find a solution that worked for us.

CTC also made sure our team was properly trained and had the skills to support the system long term so we would not be dependent on them going forward. Our team is now able to continue to modify the system as our needs change.

Getting our team set up and using Teams properly was such a small investment for such a huge perk!

ROI:

Total Investment (Executive Coaching, SharePoint Solution, & Microsoft Teams configuration and training): $10,325

Ongoing Cost: $0

Calculated ROI: Robin and her two team members are saving approximately 10 hours/week each which equates to saving .75 of an FTE (Full Time Equivalent) annually.

We recently interviewed our client, Nick, a Multiple Office Agent (MOA) at State Farm.

Here’s what Nick had to say about his challenge, the CTC solution, and the results:

Challenge:

I am a State Farm agent running multiple offices. In the State Farm world, we call that an MOA (Multiple Office Agent). I have a solid vision for my business and I see myself as the CEO of a company versus just “an agent”. Business is thriving–I’m one of the top agents at State Farm, sitting in the top 1%–but I knew we could be doing even better. That’s when I decided to reach out to Jan Lehman.

Jan told me that one of her favorite things to do is coach successful leaders and help them to reach the next level of performance, which is exactly what I was looking for.

We started our work together with Jan asking me to share my overarching goals and the issues that were getting in my way of reaching those goals.

My goals were to:

• Create a structured schedule for myself and add more margin in my day. I am a creative person and setting time aside to dream is important to me.
• Create a team of “productivity ninjas” that don’t wait for me to guide them.
• Have as many offices as State Farm will allow–even if that would require me to jump state lines.
• Show up to the office and get a briefing on where we are, who is doing what, and what areas of growth we are focusing on.
• Have a training block on my calendar once or twice a week.
• Create productivity/execution processes as if we have 40 people working for the organization & 250 calls coming in per day. In other words, create processes that would support rapid growth.
• And finally, my team schedules me for big conversations around investments, life insurance, health insurance, or to meet with business owners. I need clarification on who the customer is and when it makes sense to bring me into those calls.

Items getting in my way of achieving these goals:

• Being pulled in every direction and therefore being unable to complete tasks of any real importance.
  • Unscheduled stop-ins to my office
  • Interruptions while meeting with other team members–there is an assumption that if I am not at my desk, I must be free and available to talk
  • Team members approach me with problems, but wait for me to provide a solution even though they already know the solution
• Emails–I try to zero out my inbox, but I don’t achieve that very often because I leave unimportant emails in there for later “when I have time.”
• Not focusing on money-making activities like being able to prospect high profile clients.

Once my goals and obstacles were identified, Jan then asked me to prioritize the areas I’d like to work so that we could ensure we were working on the most important areas for me and my goals.

My top three priority areas were:

• Effective delegation for all team members, but especially for my officers.
• Resourcefulness training & getting the team to believe in their solutions.
• My calendar and email.

During my first coaching call with Jan, we dug deeper and got into the specifics. We touched on some additional pain points in order for Jan to come up with a game plan moving forward.

I shared that a large frustration was that my team members would say “I’m slammed today,” but I had no idea what they were slammed with or how I could help them.

We discussed the fact that my frontline service folks (the ones that were saying they were slammed) felt that they didn’t have the time to talk more with the customer after a service issue had been resolved because they needed to quickly get on to the next service task. I felt they were throwing away an amazing sales opportunity–the customer was already on the line and in the mindset to be talking about insurance, but they were ready to move on to the next task.

Jan agreed that we needed to help the service team members make room for that sales opportunity and we needed to help them understand the importance of it.

Solution:

Jan spent the next 6 months (the standard coaching timeframe) coaching me on all the pertinent areas where I needed help.

Some of the most interesting changes and powerful results we saw came from leveraging Focus Time within our organization. Jan introduced the concept of Focus Time in our coaching and I knew it would be a great solution for me.

What is Focus Time?

Focus Time involves blocking your most productive time of the day to do your most important work–work that requires deep focus and a sharp brain. Often, this time is spent thinking strategically about how you can run your area more efficiently or how to strategically grow the business. This is the time you work on things that don’t have deadlines, but are equally, if not more, important areas for your focus.

After Jan introduced me to the concept of Focus Time, I made the decision to roll it out to everyone on my team, including all of the service people. I believed strongly that Focus Time was an important strategy for everyone. By allowing them all the same luxury of having Focus Time, I saw some amazing results across the whole team.

For me, the use of Focus Time centered around two key areas:

• Strategizing on growing the business and how to get the team to work together most effectively.
• Leveraging time to get a task done that I dreaded. That included studying for my SIE (financial licensing) test, which I had been procrastinating on for some time.

It was critical that I do this during Focus Time. Because Focus Time is set during the time of day when you have the most energy and are more likely to be successful doing tasks you dread, it helped direct my focus to the task at hand.

Focus Time is also a set amount of time each day, so it makes tough tasks feel less daunting because you know you are only going to spend an hour on the dreaded task. Bite-sized chunks are easier to swallow.

The service team worked on the following during their Focus Time:

• Instead of focusing on checking things off their to-do lists, they took the time to look at how they could improve the way they work. They thought more strategically about how to run their areas.
• During this time the service team also created an Accountability Measurement Tool. The tool was meant to do two things:
  • Keep track of where they stand with all of the demands on their time so they could work more efficiently.
  • Have a dashboard so I could see their progress. Without the dashboard they found themselves just saying “we are so busy,” but had no tangible way of showing me that they were working smart and making progress. The dashboard facilitated a discussion between the service folks and myself, where I could tangibly see their progress and share my praise for their hard work.

The Accountability Measurement tool became a great motivator for the team, and we eventually included the sales side of the team in the use of the tool–it became a full team dashboard.

The Accountability Measurement tool is color-coded, so everyone can quickly see areas of risk. Green means that all is well, yellow means a team member needs to spend Focus Time strategizing on how to fix a problem, and red means that an area needs double the Focus Time. We review it as a whole team each week.

I found that once the team had a way to show me that they were working hard and making great progress, they felt more comfortable slowing down and talking to each client to continue to build strong relationships and ask for the sale. They were no longer rushing their calls so they could get to the next task in order to show me that they were busy.

The Service team is also using Focus Time to evaluate tasks that can be eliminated. Again, thinking strategically about how to continue to improve their area. Rather than just checking things off their never ending to-do list, they are stepping back and evaluating how they can work smarter. You need time to do this and Focus Time was the perfect vehicle to help.

• For example, the service team uses it to track underwriting email follow-up items. In this way, they can batch their work and call underwriting one time for a list of related tasks.

The head of sales now also uses Focus Time to strategize on ways to help the sales team be more effective.

I believe the key for us was all being on the same page and holding each other accountable. As we were rolling out these new tools, Focus Time was still being taken over by what folks “wanted” to do. So now we are crystal clear that there are to be no sales calls made during Focus Time. My top salesperson pushed to have both Focus Time and a Call Hour for everyone each day. That adjustment has helped a ton. Call hour is finally being accomplished by those that never used to make the time to do it. There was immediate success with it!

A Note from Jan:

“One of the traits we see in successful business leaders is when the leader is willing to be vulnerable and admit their faults. It was wonderful to witness how Nick exemplified this. He would have honest discussions with the team and they were not afraid to share their struggles because they knew he struggled, himself. This allowed them to work together more effectively as they could problem solve together.”

I loved the additional strategies that Jan introduced as well, like “Delegate What You Hate.” This specific strategy empowered me to ask others who excelled at certain tasks to do the items I struggled with. It ultimately released the floodgates of progress so I was no longer procrastinating the tasks I hated and instead I was able to count on members of my team to help out. It freed up my time to focus on more important tasks.

Leveraging Technology:

With multiple offices and a growth strategy, I needed ways to be available to all. With Jan’s help, we leveraged the power of video to help me capture my thoughts and share them with the team in all locations. This also allowed me to be able to share those same thoughts with new team members without spending any more time on it.

I was already using video to capture processes and to streamline training, but I had not thought of it as a vehicle to also help continually instill my vision in the team. The “why” behind what they do is key for keeping the team motivated and working with a purpose. I find that my presence, like any leader, really makes a difference in the motivation levels, but since the business was expanding, I was having trouble being ever-present.

Results:

I was thrilled with the work that Jan and I did together, and continue to see positive results on a daily basis.

Here are just a few of the benefits I’ve seen:

• I have more margin in my day.
• My team is empowered.
• There is more structure to how we work together as a team.
• Focus Time across the team is working.
• My team is now super resourceful and I see them as “productivity ninjas” where they are seeing opportunity for improvement and they are initiating it. They see the value of continually improving their work environment and the benefits it can have.
• My email is now under control.
• I am able to focus on where the money is.

Nick’s LinkedIn Testimonial:

“I first read Jan’s Amazon Best Selling book called Work Smart Do More. I was hooked and I had to meet with her. We proceeded to spend the next 6 months developing productivity in my organization.

We developed productive clarity for myself as the CEO of my organization. What should I be focusing on, what should be automated, and what should be delegated? We fit my sharpest time of day around my strengths using Focus Time.

Jan empowered me to become a more efficient delegator and put rules in place for myself around delegation. I now have more control and more margin in my day to focus on the mission critical activities that my team needs me to be doing.

Next, my team has been owning their day, respecting my time, and each other’s time, making us more productive as a team. We now have rules set in place that have diminished the ever so disruptive knock on your office door and the question “Do you have a minute?”.

We have broken office records over the last 3 months and are looking to have a record-breaking year.

Apart from the processes and strategies, Jan really helped with the psychology of delegation. My role in our organization has changed quickly to a CEO role and in some areas, I was still stuck back in the early days feeling as though I needed to handle certain tasks even when I know my team is awesome and can do it at a high level. Jan helped me process that mentally.

In all, Jan changed our organization in so many ways that cannot be put into 1000 words. She is the leader in productivity, but most importantly she is an amazing person and friend!”

A Note from Jan

“The goal of coaching is not just to solve today’s problems, but to help leaders understand how they think, where they normally get stuck, and what strategies and concepts work for them. We say these are lifelong lessons, as the goal is to continually go back to them to solve future problems. Nick learned a lot about himself during our coaching sessions and proved that even the very best can and should continue to strive for even higher levels of performance.”

We recently interviewed our client, Joe, the CEO & President of his family-owned business, States Manufacturing. 

Here’s what Joe had to say about his challenge, the CTC solution, and the results:  

Challenge 

I was the CEO and president of a family owned business that has been in my family for many years. At the time that we started working with CTC, I had wanted to retire in the next 3-5 years. My goal was to start slowly stepping away from the day-to-day operations over the course of a few years while I ensured that the leadership team was in a good place to take over. 

I didn’t feel comfortable stepping out of the daily business right away because we were in high-growth mode and I felt things wouldn’t run smoothly without my daily involvement. 

One of my children, Wyatt, was working in the business at the time, and he was doing a very good job. My ultimate goal was to elevate Wyatt to manage the day-to-day operations, however before we started working with CTC, I didn’t feel it was the right time to take that step. 

One big issue we were having was that my leadership team was not working as a cohesive group. We had tried a few different tactics, but nothing was working for us. We found that people were running in completely different directions and there was a “me first” attitude in every department, rather than an attitude of teamwork and collaboration.

In addition, like any new leader, Wyatt needed some additional development to make sure he was ready for this big step before I would feel comfortable making the transition. 

I had previously seen Jan present to a leadership group, and she had talked about Creating a Culture of Productivity within organizations by improving your Time, Talent, and Technology. It caught my attention and I thought she might be the one to help transform the organization. 

Upon starting our work with CTC, I filled out CTC’s Company Productivity Assessment survey (keep reading for more on this) and the results indicated that we were leaving over a million dollars on the table with lost productivity. The biggest issue I listed for our company was: people. 

Solution: 

Jan coached me to help identify how to effectively delegate my responsibilities and improve the communication and collaboration of the leadership team. I saw benefits from the coaching and decided to expand the coaching to my leadership team.  

The first of the team to receive coaching was Wyatt, who was the logical person to step into my shoes. He had shown great talent within his department, so we now needed to make sure Wyatt was ready to take on a bigger leadership role in the company.  

Jan coaching Wyatt was the catalyst that got us started with transitioning the leadership team to be more effective.  It also gave me the opportunity to see Wyatt grow in his role, which was very rewarding.  

Jan then went on to coach the rest of the leadership team.  During that coaching, Jan worked on their personal productivity and how to help them be more effective leaders. A big goal was to focus on getting them to delegate and develop the staff so they could step out of the day-to-day and be ready to take on bigger responsibilities as I transitioned out of the organization. It was wonderful to see everyone elevate to a higher level of performance and leverage the talent on the team.  

One of the great things about coaching a leadership team at the same time is that interpersonal communication and coordination challenges can be addressed to help improve the way leaders work together.    

Another benefit to 1:1 coaching is that it gives you first-hand exposure to exactly how someone works and where all the time waste is hiding.  Jan identified areas where leadership could be leveraging technology more effectively to streamline workflow and free up their time.   

Here are two case studies for more details about how we leveraged technology and the benefits it had on individual productivity and the bottom line.  

Case Study #1 

Case Study #2 

Results:   

It is clear now that the company is no longer dependent on me being involved in the day-to-day operations. The sales leader recently commented that “the company is not as dependent on Joe as it was two years ago”.  CTC was instrumental in this change in our company. 

We have continued to have outstanding growth: 

• 46 employees, March 2021 
• 57 employees, March 2022 
• 74 employees, March 2023–a 30% body count increase in one year   

Without the leadership coaching and technical solutions CTC developed, we would not have been able to effectively manage the growth. I reached my goal and feel the groundwork has been laid to allow me to retire.  Wyatt was promoted to President, and the rest of the leadership team were promoted to VP positions. My plan is to semi-retire next year.

It’s comforting that everyone in the company knows the doors will not close when I’m not there anymore, as they all have confidence in the leadership team.  I filled out the Company Productivity Assessment again after our work with CTC was completed, and the results showed significant improvement and less waste left on the table. The biggest issue now is no longer people, but managing growth–a great problem to have! 

The CTC Company Productivity Assessment 

 The CTC Company Productivity Assessment is a subjective survey that measures the criteria listed below, and determines how much money is left on the table. In other words, it provides a dollar value for the time waste within an organization. 

The client answers the following questions using this scale:  

Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, and Strongly Agree 

Here are the before and after results of working with Joe and his team:   

1. Our employees effectively manage their time, aren’t distracted and stay focused on their top priorities.

• BEFORE: Disagree
• AFTER: Agree

2. Team leaders effectively manage people and keep them accountable

• BEFORE: (not evaluated, as it was not part of the survey at the time)
• AFTER: Agree

3. We fully leverage technology. Training is required on all systems and we constantly reevaluate new software features.

• BEFORE: Neutral
• AFTER: Agree

4. We streamline our workflow and have clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

• BEFORE: Neutral
• AFTER: Agree

5. We communicate well. We have effective communication guidelines, methods, and tools (i.e. effectively run meetings).

• BEFORE: Disagree
• AFTER: Agree

6. What are some of your biggest challenges?

• BEFORE: People
• AFTER: Growth

The survey then calculates how much money is left on the table based on these survey results and assuming a typical annual salary for the workplace. 

Projected Savings Results: 

 Money left on the table:  

• BEFORE: $1.273 Million
• AFTER: $424k 

Annual projected savings: $849k 

Here is the link to the survey if you would like to take it yourself!