From Burnout To Breakthrough: Improving Business Processes With AI

Tessa Burg: Hello and welcome to another episode of “Leader Generation,” brought to you by Mod Op. I’m your host Tessa Burg, and today, I am joined by Alane Boyd. Alane is the co-founder of Workday Ninja and she has deep experience as a serial entrepreneur and seeing the inside-out of businesses, trying to improve their processes to improve efficiency, lead digital transformation projects, and ultimately, grow and scale their company. Alane, thank you so much for coming. We’re excited to have you.

Alane Boyd: Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Tessa Burg: So before we hit record, the one big question I had for you was who do you sell to, who’s your customer? Because I am so excited about your area of profession. We are going through change management. AI adoption requires change management and relooking at the processes. We all want efficiency. And the answer you gave kind of surprised me, and it’s the COO and the CTO and sitting here at a marketing company, I asked, “But what about the CMO? “Why isn’t marketing the department “that has so much to benefit from AI and AI adoption? “Why aren’t they looking at operational change “as a means to increase their AI adoption “and ultimately, growth?”

Alane Boyd: And it was surprising and when I first started the company, we weren’t really sure who we were gonna sell to. And I had to try a bunch of different things, ’cause I thought CMOs and CROs would be the people, ’cause they’re the ones that are selling, creating assets, needing case studies, there’s so much operational parts to it. And they liked the idea but they didn’t have the time in their day, the resources to jump in and do it. And we found that the CTO, COOs, those are the ones that are in it every single day. They’re looking for the technology to be used, what their organization’s gonna use, how it’s gonna improve operations. And when we were starting out, we didn’t go after them, ’cause we thought they were gonna think we were competing against them or trying to take away their jobs, and we were so wrong, because they saw us as somebody to bring in, because they’re already busy in their day, trying to take on a project to build out workflows, processes, use their project management system, utilize across the company. It was too much for them to take on, and so it actually was complimentary to what they did. And we are experts and certified in a bunch of different platforms, so they didn’t have to spend time learning every nuance themselves. We could train them, and they could fast forward something that could take ’em six months, we could do it in a month.

Tessa Burg: I love that, and that really resonates with me because I know here at Mod Op I see our client managers and our marketing strategists just living and breathing their client’s business. That is what they’re focused on. Their priority is how do I grow and scale my client’s business? So, the more I thought about it, it’s like I don’t even know if internal efficiency here is top of mind. And then when I think about our clients, it’s the same thing. A lot of our, all of our clients, I mean, we’re all selling to someone, so whether you’re in CPG or hospitality, you’re constantly thinking about the consumers and the customers and how to improve the experience for them. And marketers on B2B are really thinking about leads and how do I make a message or an experience resonate with them better. And I feel like conversion and revenue are really those top two metrics. So if the marketers are so focused on that, when do they enter the equation, when do they find out about these change processes that can also help them meet those same goals and metrics?

Alane Boyd: So when we start working with a company and what we do is we’ll send out a Priority Impact Survey. And some of them are in-person interviews, some of ’em are just a form to fill out depending on how the company wants to structure it, and we get all the information from the employees that are touching that department or touching the entire org, depending on size. And we can start to see very big trends and we can say, “These are the priorities at your company.” Marketing and sales are always at the top two, because they are the ones leading everything else. And so we’re able to say, “Okay, these are the departments, these are the teams “that we need to start focusing on first,” and then we get looped in with them. And most of the time they’re really excited. They’re scared at first, because it’s a lot of unknowns. There might be an introduction of a new software, but when they find out, oh, we won’t be, on the marketing team, we won’t be the last to know about something, or we’re not gonna be told we need this today, and I’m actually part of the process, then the whole dialogue changes within the company, and people get excited and we get champions.

Tessa Burg: That is good to hear, because I think whenever stuff comes from IT and operations, it is a bit scary and feels like you don’t have control. But there’s, for sure, an opportunity for marketers to be more proactive in that. I know we have interviewed a lot of successful marketers who are testing AI and processes using apps to make their jobs easier, better. Before we got on the call, you were saying you use AI in your process as well to make it more efficient. But one piece of feedback that’s constant is, “But why aren’t I seeing improved margins? “Why aren’t I seeing increased scale?” And it’s because marketing departments have not truly gotten to the point where AI has been adopted in a way that is reinforced, is building skills consistently. All of the marketers and its team might be using AI, but are they maximizing the use of the tool? Are the outputs being measured? Do you even know what they’re doing with the extra time they’ve saved? Is that against priorities that you have for the business or department? And that truly requires a change management process and starting with process management. So, there’s a real opportunity for marketers who are asking themselves like, “How can I get more value out of AI? “How can I get my whole department using this AI app? “Why aren’t I seeing these results?” To tap their partners in technology and operations and ask for that operational help. And how are some of the ways, because you said they get excited, how are some of the ways that you’ve built that trust between operations and marketing, especially when, and I’ve been in this experience, where like the marketers are coming in last? They weren’t involved in the selection criteria of the partner, they didn’t have a say in the technology, so how do you build that trust with them?

Alane Boyd: Yeah, and oftentimes, they probably don’t have a say in the technology being used. And so that is a part where we are coming in saying, “This is what the company’s using,” whatever it is. But the biggest piece is that they have to be part of the process, because they are the process. And so when they realize that it’s their voice, and what we do is we start with building a current state, which is just what do you currently do for the process? We’re not making any changes yet. Just tell me what your process is. And you have to have those key stakeholders, because otherwise you don’t get the actual process. You’re gonna have broken processes, errors happening. You can’t automate things that you don’t have a true insight into or it’s not gonna work. And so when they realize, oh, I am part of this process. And then so we get their current state, and then we build out their future state. Where are the opportunities for AI? Where can things be automated? And sometimes an automation isn’t even that fancy. What could we build a template for, a template with checklists? So if you’re gonna do a case study, the case study is consistent, every single one, so everything happens, and you’re not trying to, “Hey, can I jump on a quick Slack with you, “or a quick Zoom with you? “Can I ask you some questions?” No, they can just get their job done and be done with it. And so that’s when we start really building that rapport with them, and they’re seeing like, oh my gosh, things are actually gonna get better, and I can do a better job. And you mentioned, where marketing, the expectations for output got increased when we’re talking about using AI. And I think that was the wrong message that AI sent early on, because yes, you could write four blogs in a day using AI, where it might take you a whole week beforehand. But the idea isn’t necessarily let’s just 4X our output, it’s let’s make it even better than it was. Let’s take that extra time to be creative and strategic to make it better, focus on the things that we really enjoy about being in marketing versus, oh my gosh, I’ve gotta check this and do this and do this and do this, all those tedious things that could be alleviated with some automation and maybe some AI and then they get to actually create a better output versus four mediocre outputs,

Tessa Burg: Right, yeah, there’s definitely a lot of pressure and emphasis on increased production, but what we’re finding is one, there’s also increased cost. So if you do have something that can be automated, and you’re using software technology to do so, you’re investing in that software and technology. And so if quality isn’t a measure and if it doesn’t stinkin’ wow the client, then you’re not going to get a higher margin, because before it just could take you longer, which is a cost. Now you’re licensing something or you stood up software yourself, which was an investment and a cost, so it’s so important to really take a step back and look at that process. What common challenges have you seen across businesses that you’ve worked with and getting to that point where they have that aha moment of like, “Okay, I see that output is not the only metric. “I see that process first, improving that process “is what’s gonna get me to growth and scale.” How has that played out or has there been some consistent challenges or sticky moments that help people shift their mindset?

Alane Boyd: Yeah, I mean, there’s always a moment where, because it takes a little while to build, especially depending on the workflow that we’re working on with the client, that it takes time. Some of ’em can take four weeks to put together, ’cause it’s a huge process that covers multiple departments. And so it starts to feel like, oh my gosh, this is more work than just keeping things as is, right? But once we get them trained on the new process, and they start seeing it work in real time, that’s when the change really starts to happen. Like, oh my gosh, it’s working. We’re not having to jump on 80 huddles in a day. They’re excited, ’cause people, even executives that work a lot, they want to leave work. They don’t want to have to put in extra time, work on the weekends, work late at night, answer their emails. When you start to see the time of your day be alleviated, that’s when people are like, “Oh my gosh, this is super cool.” “I’m really excited about this.” And then something magical happens, they get more ideas on where process improvement could be made, and they don’t need us to do that. We’ve trained them along the way. They can be their own champions to create templates, to create workflow automation, where could AI be used, all of the different things, and that’s when you just wanna be cheerleading for them.

Tessa Burg: So it sounds like the benefits of that really impacts the way people even show up to work. Have you seen this have an impact on culture or even employee satisfaction and retention?

Alane Boyd: Oh yeah, one of the companies that it was… They had a really poor company culture there. When we looked at the data, their average employee stayed with them for six months. When you have an employee turnover, that is the most expensive resource on your team. Software is not expensive when you’re talking about people. So when you have people leaving with institutional knowledge, then having to retrain somebody that is crushing your whole company growth. So we started working with them. They had complete chaos. Every team across the United States had their own way of doing things, so if you switched teams, you had to relearn everything, and so burnout. And we’re all in some way burnt out because of the amount of things that we have in our lives now. And so, the company culture piece, when you start seeing these things in place, people started staying longer. And so we worked with them for about 12 months, and what we started to see is people were staying for the entire 18 months that we had… Or they had started, they were six months in, and they were still there after we were done. And so that employee longevity was increasing every single day, and that is a huge resource and improvement. But then when you start seeing that, then employee retention or client retention stays on. The lifetime value of that client starts to go up. So then, you’re not always turning and burning clients. Your employees, again, are happier, because they’ve got consistency with who they’re managing from a client perspective, and then clients start spending more money with you, which is the ultimate goal, right? You bring on new clients and you sell more to your current, and you keep them on longer, and so those revenues start increasing, the profit margins really start increasing.

Tessa Burg: Yeah, and with the marketers I’ve talked to about AI, AI adoption, impact on job, it’s interesting that burnout comes up a lot, and it’s because they’re trying to figure out how to get more value and value equals output. And so I feel like this conversation gives marketers a different step to take than, okay, I’m gonna issue a bunch of licenses to this app, and I found this app that could save time in editing or saves time in writing or whatever the manual task is. Before you start just looking at tasks to automate, tap a partner who’s gonna help with transformational change, because that’s what AI is. And I feel like maybe, marketers do a lot of change, but it is always very specific. I would say it’s not as transformational, but AI is like the internet. When the internet came, it completely changed the way we communicate, work, gather information, research, and AI is the same. And so a starting point is more tap the COO, tap the CTO and take a step back and get a change process in place across and know that you’re gonna be prioritized, because I love what you said, you are the process.

Alane Boyd: And AI gets things wrong, so the human element is so important if you’re using AI. I mean, I use it every day. I love it. It’s a part of some of our automation sequences for ourselves and for our clients, but it doesn’t erase the value that we have as people, that we still need and still needs to be a touchpoint. Because if you just copy and paste what AI has, it doesn’t mean that it’s true, and it doesn’t mean that it’s good. So from a marketing standpoint too, I think it’s great to embrace different technologies. And what I often see is technology that they already have in place is extremely underutilized. They don’t always need to have a new technology added, and AI is so ingrained in so many technologies now. If you’re a company that utilizes tech, there might already be a solution in place, or there’s great ones for all different types of marketing, having a podcast, using a solution that helps do the transcript, break it up into chapters, do a summary, do all the things, man, that alleviates hours of work from somebody’s job, and it’s less than $100 a month, great. Let’s test it out, see if it works, and everybody that that process touches needs to be trained on that software and have some type of process in place so that they’re trained on it. If you put a process in place or a software, sorry, a software in place and you don’t train, no one is gonna be using it the same way, and you’re gonna have huge gaps between your top performers that use it really well, and most of them are gonna be barely using it at all and not doing a good job of it. And AI is the same way. If you’re writing prompts, you’re gonna have people that were trained or creative or doing their own research for how to write a great prompt, and then other people aren’t gonna be great prompt writers. Well that means you’re not gonna get a great output from AI.

Tessa Burg: Yeah, we have seen that so much and especially because apps are so accessible. And you know what, software as a service companies, they have great salespeople. And so you get on the phone with them, and they do sell to marketers. They sell marketing technology to marketers. And so there’s this knee jerk reaction to, if we had this platform, if we had this app, it would do X, Y and Z. We get it, it’s underutilized. People are not trained. So they went to the demo, they saw it, but they might be using, I think I saw a stat, at most 10% of the capability of the full platform, but you’re paying that full license for it. So, I think that there is tech being bought. There is change happening in marketing departments, but it has to, I love what you said at the beginning, it starts with the COO and CTO, because that is their focus, that’s the focus of that department. And it has to be processes that are enterprise wide and not team and department-specific, because then it is more efficient, and it is easier to plug and play the different tech underneath that process and that service layer. And when we have too many different tools, and obviously, I’m the CTO at Mod Op, so this is me coming at it from this angle, it is hard to secure, it is hard to manage, it is hard to measure, and we want all of those things as we look at advancing AI in a responsible manner. And that is how people will elevate to that more strategic mindset is when those skills are reinforced. But if you just give someone an app or if you just license a tool, you get maybe some additional output, but you’re going to also get the burnout. You’re not gonna get the margin, and you’re not gonna get the growth.

Alane Boyd: No, I mean, part of what I do, I was really kind of naive in so many moments of my business journey, but I’m always like, “Do people care about this? “Do they need this?” and so I test it out. And last year I was on an AI panel with Goldman Sachs, and I thought what we were talking about was so beginner level and I was… But when I was noticing the comments that were coming in, I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m so far ahead, “and these business owners “or these executives really don’t know.” So I just started putting in some ideas that they could use and some of the software platforms that I like to use AI for, and they were just eating it up and I was like, “Oh my gosh, okay, so maybe they need some AI workshops.” And so I sent an email out afterwards and said, “I’m available for training AI workshops for your team.” And I couldn’t believe how many customer or clients that I got from just doing that, because what I realized is that there might be some executives that know they need to be using it, but maybe they don’t know how, or they don’t have the time in their day to do the research to figure it out. But most importantly, they need their team using it and need to be using it correctly. And so one of my favorite things I do is I’ll come in and train them on how to use AI, how to use prompts, what technology for AI, like is it Jasper, is it Decipher, which ones would be good in your workflows to start utilizing, and I’ll do training on those platforms too. Because your team’s not gonna use it if they don’t know how to use it.

Tessa Burg: Yeah, and that very much parallels our own journey. We actually had some incredible clients that, it was during the pandemic, saw that they needed a platform to distribute training in a way that helped them measure, are people actually getting it, how are they using it, and then rewarding them. And so we started doing that for ourselves. So as we’re rolling out, we’re pairing the training with applications right in the same platform and then tying to rewards for things that people care about. And we talk about the cultural impact, it brings people together. We now have something to rally around. I love this so much I’m wearing my company’s branding. But I give our clients that did that before AI even was on the scene, that is so fundamental. What is fundamental to change management in the past is still so fundamental and even more important now with AI because when you see learning reinforced, you see more strategic and creative thinking. And if you do it through a shared space, a shared platform, then you can measure it.

Alane Boyd: Yeah, well you know, what you were just saying reminded me too of on how important idea sharing is in this, because people are gonna be more creative than you or other people in your team, and everybody’s gonna come from it from a different perspective. Having a place that they can put their idea and what their outcome, like, “Hey, I just tried this, “and I got this, and it’s freaking amazing.” Like, you could have a Slack channel, and it could be just your department where you’re sharing these ideas that you used AI for or that you built a template in ClickUp or Monday or Asana or Jira or something, you know, “Hey, I just did this, and it worked, and it was awesome.” And then to just keep going down that path. Sometimes I’m like, “That is a really good idea, “I wanna do that,” and then I’m like, “Can you record a Loom of what you did, “so I can make sure I can replicate that?” And then everybody else benefits from that shared knowledge. You can store that in other places as part of your training and onboarding and retention. You need them to retain that information, so the way that you’re doing that is awesome where they go through a training and then they have an activity to implement or use that knowledge so that they can retain it and then actually go back and look at it if they can’t remember having that single source of truth where there’s a knowledge base where they can go say, “You know what, I can’t remember exactly how to do this, “but I remember that there is something about it, “and I know where to go to find it.”

Tessa Burg: Yeah, and marketers are some of the best storytellers and thought leaders, and so by doing that, taking it from idea to training, you’re really democratizing how you can translate thought leadership into true, productive learning for the rest of your team, and it’s coming from all levels. It’s not coming from top down or just specific people, so I love that.

Alane Boyd: I need my team to gimme the good ideas.

Tessa Burg: Yeah, well and it too, because especially when it’s across company, and again, this is the importance of having these enterprise initiatives, and people are seeing it from different angles, different viewpoints, and your team’s in it every single day.

Alane Boyd: That is a big difference. When they’re in it every day, and you’re three levels away from that, then you’re not gonna have all those ideas, so getting it from them is great.

Tessa Burg: Well, we are at time. This has been an amazing conversation. So thank you so much, Alane, lots of awesome insights. I would say that this is really a great next step for marketers to take, is to engage your partners who are focused on operations. And it’s not because marketing can’t lead change or do change, it’s because marketers are simply way too busy focusing on how to please our customers, create amazing experiences and bring in more leads and clients. If people have questions for you, Alane, where can they find you, how can they reach out to you?

Alane Boyd: I am very active on LinkedIn, so you can find me, Alane Boyd on there, shoot me a message. And then my website’s workdayninja.com, and we have a couple of free tools to use if you’re thinking about automation, if you wanna see what could be automated, what could be using AI, we have a quick, it takes less than two minutes. And you put your software platforms that you currently use, and it’ll email you a report within two minutes, so it’s super quick, and there’s a booking link if you wanna chat with me after you fill that out.

Tessa Burg: Fantastic, well thanks again for being a guest. And if you wanna hear more episodes of “Leader Generation,” you can visit modop.com, M-O-D-O-P dot com, and on the website you can also check out some new announcements that we have in our own AI space and from the innovation team. And, Alane, we look forward to talking to you again soon. Thanks for being a guest.

Alane Boyd: Thank you, Tessa, bye.