Scaling Success: Mastering Delegation and Processes with Brittney Bogues

In this episode of the Beyond Normal Podcast, we chat with Brittany Bogues, Cheif Innovation Officer at Bogues Group. We dive into her methods for growing her business using smart delegation and strong processes. Brittany talks about her journey from her early career to starting her own business, and she shares tips on using standard operating procedures (SOPs) and putting the right people in the right jobs to help her business grow.

Learn how Brittany’s focus on systems and automation has made her operations smoother and helped her company succeed in tough markets. Whether you’re starting out or you’ve been in business for a while, this episode has useful advice on creating a business setup that grows and adapts well.

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Transcript

Kenny: 0:33

welcome. Welcome to another great episode of the Beyond Normal podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Groom. I have a very special guest here by the name of Brittany Bogues. She is the founder and chief innovation officer for Bogues Group. They're doing some amazing things in the Charlotte area. As you know, this season we are focusing on, The founders in my very own background, being Charlotte, North Carolina. I thought, why not have this incredible founder on to tell us a little bit about their journey in starting their own business. So without further ado, let's bring Brittany to the page. How's it going, Brittany?

Brittany Bogues: 1:13

It's going well today. Thank you so

Kenny: 1:15

for sure. For sure. I'm glad you could take a little bit of time with us here. lots going on in the world. everybody knows this what's been happening in terms of, the environment around us. it's a hot season, whether you're looking at it from a political standpoint or even just Mother nature giving us signs right at this time. So appreciate you being able to Join us today. Can you start us out by telling us a little bit about your journey? into even before you Founding a business, having something of your own. Like, what were you doing before that? Like, tell us a little bit about Brittany prior to starting the Bogues group.

Brittany Bogues: 2:00

Sure. So, when I in college, I want to say my junior year, I discovered the world of PR and event planning. I didn't even know it existed. and so doing an internship with the nationally syndicated radio station, showed me that if nothing else, I definitely want to be in this field. so before. I officially launched my company. first company. I worked in D. C. With Swanson Communication on their main client was Floyd Mayweather. So it was a beautiful experience because I learned a lot about different sport. I had no clue about. I learned a lot about the foundational tactics and strategies you need for public relations. But I also got to work with a woman founder. And so seeing how she had to move and operate, you versus her male counterparts was a really great lesson for me. And so after that, I launched my own business. know, I was young. I thought it would work out. It did not. So I use those experience to parlay myself into a job with a couple of nonprofits. And I learned some really good, hard skills there, like fundraising, how to be an effective leader and the importance of SOP standard operating procedures, and was able to now use that in my business that I have. Books group. which has been around for almost

Kenny: 3:19

Nice. you really painted a whole picture there. I'm curious, like what prompted you, like, what, what were you seeing when you, you first started your, your very first business site? Like, how are you, like, what was your, your life like at that time when you said you wanted to take that gamble on yourself?

Brittany Bogues: 3:44

Yeah, I mean, I was definitely my first business. I was young. I was hungry, hustling, by any means necessary, making things happen. I feel like, honestly, it was like such a cool time. I didn't know if I was doing something right or wrong, but it was all about failing fast and failing hard. so I can learn from those, those mistakes. opportunities and make them opportunities instead of calling them mistakes. So, I'll definitely say that was

Kenny: 4:15

Got it. there, there is something about, like, the, the spirit of, of, of usefulness, right? Like, being in that, that, that space where You're okay with, maybe even like, for me, when I was like, 22, 23, I ramen noodles, right? Because I wanted to have these experiences and be out and about with life. There is an advantage to that, I think, and so it's really cool to see you actually take that gamble on yourself at a young age. I'm curious, like, what was. What was the most painful kind of experience with that first business? Like, what was that? I had a kind of that that thing that you experienced that you will take with you to this day.

Brittany Bogues: 5:02

Oh my gosh. One of the biggest, I would say it's probably two things. Making sure you have the right people in the right seats at the right time was one of the biggest and best lessons I learned. and then also I really learned and I still carry it on very much today. Like that lesson is the power of automation and having systems in place. systems and processes. I feel like my first business we tried, but we really lacked those, S. O. P. S. And in this business, like we stand by them because when you're trying to grow and scale, it's all about how can I repeat this experience and make sure it's a great experience each and every time. And that's what I feel like. experiences taught me and it showed me that it really does work when you have the right

Kenny: 5:51

Mm hmm. I like that. I can imagine, with me even starting beyond normal media, there was no, there was no, SLPs in place, standard, You know, practices, there was nothing docented. I was just going with it, figuring things out, whatever revenue I could get early on. I was willing to take that gamble. And so I can imagine, like, you know, the conversations that you're having with some business owners. Now, you're probably opening up your eyes a little bit right to the value and having process and just like a rhythm and routine. because that is kind of something for whatever reason, the way that entrepreneurship and startup life is really portrayed to the world. That's something that's like the antithesis right of the startup journey, but businesses that grow and scale have those things in place. well, it seems like a no brainer, like for you to offer that type of solution to business owners now.

Brittany Bogues: 6:56

For sure. And so, like, that's actually why we created our course, because most of our main clientele are established midsize businesses that are looking to increase their visibility, increase their name recognition and various spaces. However, I know that. value of having a strong brand, having, PR, having templates for those efforts as you're growing your business, because you will eventually get to the place that you can hire someone like myself. And so my team and I, we are a champion for small business owners and entrepreneurs. So we created a course that does just that. The course outlines the color psychology, about, Creating your logo, how to create a cheap and free website, how to apply for awards, but also what are all the templates that you can already have in place that you can reuse for yourself so that you're you're creating your own S. O. P. S. In a way.

Kenny: 7:52

Tell me a little bit about. I talked a little bit about the bad that goes along with being a startup founder, right? But there's also good. There's things that excite founders, owners of businesses, such as yourself, like, talk a little bit. Like, what's that? What was that? one of those first moments or one of the lasting moments where it felt good to offer the solution that you're offering to the world.

Brittany Bogues: 8:18

When I started actually folks group, started because I was not gelling with the leadership at the nonprofit that I was at. And I just knew that I couldn't grow in this space and it wasn't really good for my mental or physical health. So just took a leaf of faith and. Learned all the things for my first business and applied it to this one. And so I think the biggest thing that resonated with me was trusting myself, relying on faith and getting that first client. I mean, it was exciting and it was actually someone, it was a. She's a female real estate developer in Dallas, she was all about creating brand visibility. And I was so excited that our company could do that for her.

Kenny: 9:03

Yeah, that that is, that first, like you mentioned that first customer is just like always a lot of founders tell me about that, right? When I have them on or I'm just having dialogue, just that first customer in that aha moment, the idea that you had, it's like coming to fruition, like having the first, that first check come in. It's just, oh, my gosh.

Brittany Bogues: 9:28

Yeah. Cause it's all about finding your niche. When I started my first business, I thought athletes were a no brainer and they would be my target audience, but I quickly realized, Gosh, like that's a lot of competition. There aren't that many athletes. A lot of them are already assigned to their agents, and with that, a lot of them believe that their agent does public relations. So there's a lot of education. There's so many different hurdles that come with that. So really reassessing who is our true niche audience and who can really benefit from our services, and that's what. We came up with those small business owners that are making, you know, 10 to 20 million a month. I mean, a year or those mid sized companies that want to be seen like the big boys or big girls in their industry. That's our sweet spot. We help them get

Kenny: 10:15

So I'm curious, you mentioned their five companies. typically like, this excites me, right? The reason why, I think there, you know, I said this on quite a few episodes of the podcast. I don't think there's enough black business owners in the B to B space, like serving other business owners. And, there can be instances where the way that you add value the most, it aligns with what people are willing to pay versus in, I think, B2C, it's a little bit more commoditized and, you may not always have, you may not always get the value that you bring, right, fully, but I see that businesses, right, if there's a value to, adding a solution, adding a software, right. A lot of times they're just willing to pay it because you're saving up time. Like you're doing something for their business they do not want to do. And so that's where I think the B2B, just with the skill set that I see black founders have, I think there's a ton of value there, but I'm curious, like with you going after, like you mentioned, medi sized businesses and even large enterprises as well, like, what is the, how long does it take you Some of these customers,

Brittany Bogues: 11:39

Yeah. So the procurement process, or the life cycle. Is it's a lot longer with, bigger retainer clients. So I would definitely say it's anywhere between three to six months, to really do that process, go through all the different decision makers, because as you know, in midsize companies and larger, there's typically between five to eight decision makers and buyers that have to really, you know, buy into what you're offering. So it's definitely a lot, a longer lead time.

Kenny: 12:10

I'll be honest, hearing procurement. I feel, I'm in, I'm in tech for my day job procurement. it's like my kryptonite at times. I'll be honest. because you can get to the sale. Like you talked about earlier, that first sale was in procurement is like, wait, wait, hold a minute. Oh, let's. Through some of these, hoops and hurdles, but I could see like the value, right? If you're coming in your businesses like SOPs, like you understand why some of these things are in place, so I'm pretty sure you have an appreciation for them. Let's go back to SOPs a little bit. Let's, let's break this down in terms of like elementary, somebody who's new to the topic. Can you break it down fundamentally? what is the, m, Yeah, just like in terms of, like, the general elementary version of this,

Brittany Bogues: 13:09

Yeah. So S. O. P. S. R. Your standing operating procedures. So each businesses will look different based on your industry and everything like that. But essentially it is your guide to all the various tasks of your role. So you're supposed to look at it and think of it as. I came to your job and I didn't know anything about your job at all, but you gave me this docent or video or whatever platform you want to present it, I should be able to take your S. O. P. and do your job based on that docent. You're at your standard operating procedure. I should be able to walk through the objective. The SOP should have all the software login information. I would need to access it. And then it then would tug, take me through each step of how to do said task so that once it's done, it should give you a similar replica, if not the same thing as if you were doing it yourself, because the reason why companies and everything. Scale and grow so quickly is they found a way to multiply themselves. They found a way to jot down those steps so specifically that anybody can follow them and give them the same quality product as if they were to do it themselves. So I hope that helped.

Kenny: 14:29

definitely does. I appreciate you breaking it down at that level for someone such as myself again, when I hear some of these terms, I get a little anxiety, but that definitely that definitely can definitely help me out. I'm curious, like you mentioned, you're going after medi size, maybe even larger enterprises. Like, what's something like, what's an easy 1st. Of say, small business, like what does that look like if you're, you're multiple hat, you got one or two people are on your team, like what is the first version of that look for some, some of the smaller entities out there.

Brittany Bogues: 15:09

So typically for smaller companies, you are the you're the salesperson, you're the content manager, you're everything. So I think it takes a little bit of self awareness. You have to figure out, okay, like out of all the things that I do, what are things that I'm really good at? What are things that I don't really love to do but have to do? and then figuring out from that list of what are the things I don't really love to do? and figure out, okay, which So Out of these tasks, can be delegated to somebody else to increase my time to do the things that I'm good at and also bring us in business. So an example could be, how you like your calendar managed. you know, do you want breaks in between your meetings? Do you want, to block off Fridays for only doing your content creation? Whatever kind of schedule you're adhering to now. that and S. O. P. And then once you are ready to work with a, say an assistant or something like that, that is something you can easily delegate that, you know, is very important, but you already have a really clear process for yourself that the admin can easily come in, view this and be able to help you and gain, give you back time and

Kenny: 16:24

I like that. I'm curious, you were talking about, setting these up, noticing like what you're good at. And then just making sure there's a process in place just in case someone comes along and add someone to your team where you start delegating. for me, I get excited, but I think others may not. I think of FOPs and then I say, hey, can I feed this to AI and it does some of my job for me?

Brittany Bogues: 16:55

part.

Kenny: 16:56

are your thoughts on, yeah, what are your thoughts on, how AI factors into some of this? Like, is it, does it scare you? Like, what do you see it as an opportunity?

Brittany Bogues: 17:11

I am. I embrace technology. I love it. I'm all for work smarter, not harder. So whatever tools that I can utilize to make my work faster, still amazing. and high quality. I will do whatever can save me time. Whatever is more efficient. I think what you can and you want to avoid in the communication space is just relying on whatever, you know, copy or whatever content that they've created. Still use your expertise to fine tune it and craft it, but definitely use it for research and other base fundamental building blocks that you need to do the work that you already do

Kenny: 17:54

We're a big fan of that, Raquan. I appreciate that. The robots are coming, so we just got to figure out how to work well with them at this point. I want to go back to something you mentioned in terms of recognizing what they're great at and other areas where there's opportunity. Like, what's an area of your business now that you've been running your business for what you said, seven years now? What's an area where you may have not had that experience previously, but you knew you had to spend a little bit more time there or maybe even go out there and get an additional resource? Sure. I'll give my example first, anything accounting It scares the crap out of me. And so I'm always going to go to somebody when it comes to paying taxes and things like that, because I don't ever want to owe Uncle Sam any money. So that's my example. I'm curious.

Brittany Bogues: 18:43

Yes, I mean, we have a similar example. I know that I'm a very forward thinking, big picture, kind of gal. So when it comes to, as I grew my business, I realized the importance of admin. Administration task. You know how important it is to file things in the right places. How important it is to make sure that your task assignment tool is updated and everything's in the correct place. And so I similarly realize that I am not good at those things, but I know how important they are to a business. So how can I delegate this to someone? and that's exactly what I've done. really work with an admin that can utilize all the. S. O. P. S. And experiences that we're sharing, but also she's an expert in her space, so I don't really need to worry because it's allowed me more time to be an expert in the space that I am an expert in

Kenny: 19:41

You know, with that admin, I've heard a couple of founders, have that very, same reaction to having an admin, having someone who knows how to navigate scheduling and just all the. Things that come along with supporting a business owner. I'm actually seeing some elevation of like the role of an admin, right? I know some companies have it. It's like the chief of staff or somebody who's like, kind of making sure things are flowing in the right direction. So that admin can at times, that's an underrated person to add to your team, even early on, right. To free you up to do some of the activities that I think are more core to being a bit, a business owner, a founder, right. You're always going to probably own selling, delivering bad news. If I can say that that's a functioning of itself, right. but those are some of the functions you can't get rid of. So figuring out some of those areas where you have somebody come in and I like what you said. They're really great at that. Like a great, yeah. Great admin is worth a lot of money.

Brittany Bogues: 20:50

It really is. And it, like, as hard it is, as hard as it is to part with your money as a new business owner, you will realize that by identifying the things that you're not good at and somebody else is an expert in, It will give you more money. You will make more money from that because you've invested in yourself by giving your time back to yourself to focus on the things that you've seen drive business, drive activity, and also you're able to have support from someone in an area that you know that you definitely need support.

Kenny: 21:26

So how has it been building out your team? Can you talk a little bit about that? Just the team that, that, that you work with, like, how has that process been finding the individuals that compliment your skillset?

Brittany Bogues: 21:45

so, This is, I recently, I guess in the last, like probably three years or so, I've been doing a lot of like leadership development and I realized, and also reading the book traction, I realized that you really need to have company values. once you have company values set, then it helps you guide how and who you hire. so yes, you're going to make some mistakes while you're hiring and building out your team, but at least you get closer to the mark of figuring out who a person is. If you have some guiding core values to lead during that interview. Look at their responses based on the things that you said. So, for instance, like, 1 of our core values is accountability. and also a core value is passion obsession. How how do we translate that? We've seen in the type of work that we do. requires a sort of obsession or passion. And so we typically ask somebody, okay, what are you obsessed with? What are you passionate about? my, me personally, I love true crime anything, and I also collect glass figurines, but you know that I'm passionate about something and it does translate into work. So we often use questions like that to help us guide. You know, who would be a right fit for us? If they say, Oh, I don't have one, then it's like, you know, this person might not be our, a fit for us.

Kenny: 23:16

Interesting. So you want to know. how they like what they spend their time on outside of work. Like what? Like you said, that's an interesting question. I like that.

Brittany Bogues: 23:29

It's multiple. Of

Kenny: 23:30

Yeah, for sure.

Brittany Bogues: 23:31

than that. But your point, I want to know how you are outside of work because, you know, what you are outside of works really does blend into your work. I mean, most people are at their jobs enough that, like, it's more than they're at home. So, you know, there's certain traits that are transferable. And I think that's like, 1 of those.

Kenny: 23:51

I like that. I like that. getting to know a little bit about your team for sure. I think that can be overlooked for a lot of founders, right? Because you're so like, tunnel vision on the product and. And in the 1st couple contracts, making sure you have the money to pay for the bills, right? You know, keep the lights on. I think that's important. But like you said, the team dynamic, getting to know the people that are going to be working with this. It's just as valuable for some of those other pieces.

Brittany Bogues: 24:22

Well, because you're leaning on them, you're trusting them. And also, if you're if you really have a commitment to excellence, which is one of our values. If you already exhibit that, then we can trust and know that whatever piece of work or collateral you come up with, you gave it your best and you were committed to making it excellent. And so it's a lot of traits and values like that that we look for, because we know that Our leadership, we we're, a lot of us are one on the Enneagram, so we do an Enneagram test, a disc test, different assessments to figure out what's the best way to communicate with you and how does this align with the role that we're trying to put you in.

Kenny: 25:02

I'm curious. One of the things I noticed when I was looking at your website, There's a call out for your board of advisors. I'm curious like you mentioned building out your team Like what do you look to those individuals for that's? different than You know, the, the people that you want to join your team and build out the product day to day,

Brittany Bogues: 25:24

Sure. So they say that you should never be the smartest in the room, and they also say that. You should connect yourself with people that are in places that you want to go where you're not at just yet, but where you want to go. And so that's how I look at our board of advisors. Each of them have their own skill set and are in a place that we're hoping to get to. And so they give us great advice, great advice and sound advice to figure out what is the next move for strategic planning and the next phase next look at the business life cycle.

Kenny: 25:55

it's important to have somebody there. I think we all have, I call them OGs. Like we all have some OGs, right? They have, they have no idea. What our career, like our core, like what we do day to day, but I just do it. There's certain people you can go to for advice. Right. And it's like, they're going to give it to you real. They're going to make sure, Hey, I keep your eye on the prize at the end of this. Right. This isn't a sprint. This is a marathon, you know, like they'll ask you little questions. Usually my OGs, I go to them and it's something, something with life that's stressing me out and juggling family and business and all these things. And they just like, they asked a question. And then it forces you to be like, oh, okay, I can just do this. Like it just calms it. And I think of advisors in that way. Right. In terms of advisors for your business, there's advisors for your life. They do some things in parallel, you know, similar things from what from what I what I've heard other founders tell me about having.

Brittany Bogues: 26:55

No, I totally agree with you. And I also have been really fortunate to have several different mentors in my life. and that I call, like you said, my life board of directors. And so in being able to, confide in them and seek their advice, if they do what I love about my mentors is that they don't try to, like, give me quote unquote, the typical advice. They give me more credit experience or life experience, giving me concrete examples of like when they did something and how it turned out for them. And I, and I love that because it's one thing to like have someone give you like straight up advice, but it's another, when they're able to do a life experience share that is truly applicable to what you're trying to problem solve.

Kenny: 27:41

Yeah, I can see the value in that. I am a, I am the parent of a 3 year old father. and so I have to catch myself sometimes like, don't do that. And then I think back or like my mom will tell me it's like you were doing the same thing at their age. Like, what are you talking about? Leave them alone. so it's good to have somebody who can, like, give you those experiences, like you said, to go along with the lesson that they're trying to maybe convey. there's very, there's, there's, there's power in that, that ability to tell those types of stories for sure. so. We touched on a lot. Like what is, what is the, what is the next couple of years for your business look like? Like, what are some, what's those, what's the big outrageous goal that you have for the business?

Brittany Bogues: 28:36

so we are, we're working on restructuring and scaling up, so that we do eventually, reach that mark of a million in annual sales. And so that is our big, hairy, scary goal that we're working to get to within the next 2 to 3 years. so we're really excited. And then also a really big goal of ours is to help. At least 500 new entrepreneurs, with their businesses through our courses and really see them not only increase their sales, but increase their visibility and structure of their

Kenny: 29:10

So how can folks, stay connected, whether they want to leverage your service, your services as one of your target customers, or even that initiative that you just did, the 500, small business

Brittany Bogues: 29:26

Sure. So you can find us on the internet at Bogues group. com. or you can find us online at Bogues group across all channels. And then my personal handle is

Kenny: 29:36

got it.

Brittany Bogues: 29:37

Bogues.

Kenny: 29:37

You got both on lock. That's good. I want, I want, I want to for coming on and sharing a little bit about your business. it really excites me seeing someone such as yourself doing what you're doing, B2B is where it's at. I'm going to, I sound like a broken record from my listeners. but there's tons of value to be unlocked there. so I want to for coming on the platform and the last thing we're, I want to pass it back to you. what's the last thing that, what do you want our listeners to take away from this conversation? Now that you shared about your journey and the entrepreneurship and what you see in the future for your business, like what's that key takeaway?

Brittany Bogues: 30:22

Sure. I would say the key takeaway is bet on yourself and it's okay to have a little bit of fear, but don't let that fear hold you back from making major moves that you want to

Kenny: 30:32

Mike drop moment. thank you, Brittany, for joining us and for those listening in. Thanks for tuning into another great episode of the beyond normal podcast. Peace.

Brittany Bogues: 30:46

Thank you.