As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Sandy Moll | From Chaos to Clarity

• Ken Joslin

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Ever wonder how some entrepreneurs manage multiple successful businesses while maintaining balance in their lives? Sandy Moll, who runs five thriving companies with her husband while working just 15 hours a week, reveals her secrets in this transformative conversation.

Sandy shares her journey from being an overwhelmed single mother entrepreneur to discovering the power of stillness in business leadership. "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10) became her guiding principle, transforming not just her spiritual life but her entire approach to entrepreneurship. After what she calls a "business plan burning party" where she abandoned conventional wisdom to follow divine guidance, her company has consistently grown 25% annually—while she works fewer hours.

The heart of Sandy's approach lies in creating clear, simple systems that solve real problems for clients. Rather than complex technological solutions, her team focuses on documented processes that prioritize communication and accountability. Her client touchpoint system ensures regular contact through various team members, yet remains flexible enough to accommodate individual preferences. This balance between systematic processes and personalized service forms the foundation of her business model.

Most powerfully, Sandy challenges the entrepreneurial narrative that success requires constant hustle. "God doesn't reward hustle; God rewards faithful management," as host Ken Jocelyn summarizes. This perspective shift—from frantic activity to intentional, purpose-driven leadership—creates space for both business growth and personal fulfillment.

Whether you're struggling to manage one business or dreaming of expanding your entrepreneurial portfolio, Sandy's insights on faith, clarity, and systems thinking offer a refreshing alternative to burnout culture. Tune in to discover how stillness might be the missing ingredient in your business strategy.

What systems could you simplify in your business today? Share your thoughts and subscribe to hear more conversations with faith-driven entrepreneurs who are redefining success on their own terms.

Welcome to the ATLG podcast I am your host Ken Joslin, former pastor turned coach & host of CREATE, the #1 Faith-based Entrepreneur conference in America. My mission is to help faith-based entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves by growing in our Core 5: Faith, Health, Relationships, Business & Finances. You can get more information as well as join our FREE Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/676347099851525

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of as the Leader Grows. I am your host, ken Jocelyn, and I've got a special guest with me today, all the way from the Kansas City area suffering through a hundred gazillion degrees worth of heat. As we were talking offline, sandy Maul, I heard her husband own five businesses and really specialize in clarity and how in the world, because this is my question. Before we jump into the question, how do you function operating five businesses? I know a lot of you guys out there in the audience you're like I have problems with one. How do I do five? We're going to talk about that today. Sandy, thank you so much for being a part of our podcast today and I'd love to take a couple minutes and tell the audience a little bit more about you before we jump into the how-to on the business side.

Speaker 2:

Well, primarily on the earthly side, I am a wife, a mother and a grandmother of seven.

Speaker 2:

My husband and I have four kids and we have started businesses, been entrepreneurs for many, many, many years and I spend most of my time primarily in one that is a consulting business for small and medium companies, and probably about 70% of our revenue comes from the financial service industry.

Speaker 2:

So I deal a lot with bankers type people and what I found over the years is when I deal with whether it's a banker or a smaller medium business person or it's one of our clients in our other companies is there's a lot of noise or a lot of confusion about what people are passionate about. And I'm one of those big believers that God did put us all here and make us all very special. I have different gifts than Ken does, and Ken has different gifts than I do, and we sometimes make it really hard to get clear on what those gifts are, and a lot of that is the noise and I'm a big believer in. You know, psalms 4610 is a big, is one of my favorites be still and know that I am God and we all need to be still, and then clarity comes from that. So you know it's funny.

Speaker 1:

It's funny you said that at my conference. Every year I host the largest faith-based entrepreneur conference and I've got some amazing friends that come in. This year before John, john Maxwell's opened four out of the five years for me before John opened on faith, and then I would close the faith component of our core five areas. I get up for about 10 minutes to just kind of do a state of the union. Hey guys, welcome to create. This is what it looks like for the next two days. You know, usually we have about a third of the room or you know, 40% has never been there before.

Speaker 1:

And I said I'm going to ask you guys to do three things at the end of each of our core five areas. The first one is going to seem counterintuitive to you and is going to seem counterintuitive to you. And when I say that, on the big LED panel wall behind me, the team puts up Psalms 4610. I'm going to ask you to be still, I'm going to ask you to listen to God and I'm going to ask you to write the vision down God, what do you want in my life? What's the vision for each of these core five areas? So when you say Psalms 4610,. I just got off the phone with a client. It's exactly what we talked about. Where did that come from for you, sandy? When was that moment you realized? Because, as an entrepreneur, we're go, go, go, go go.

Speaker 2:

Yes, but it's very hard to go. I went through a period of life where I was actually a single mom of three my husband and I are a mixed family and when you're a single mom of three and an entrepreneur and trying to make sure that you can put food on the table for your kids, the natural default is to go, go, go, go go. But that, I think, is where I was tested most of really just having the faith that God's got it. God has a plan and he has a master plan and I just need to sit and listen to God. And that is hard. That's hard. You know, as my kids have grown, it's still hard, even though I'm in a different stage in life now.

Speaker 2:

But I spend a lot of time in silence every morning and it's like, okay, Lord, I have a to-do list, but what's your to-do list for me today? And sometimes it's sitting there for just five minutes and just not just trying to still my mind and just wait for his download. Sometimes it's picking up a pen and a journal and saying, okay, Lord, what is it today? And just journaling everything that comes to my mind. It's amazing to me because when we started the ABS, which is Advanced Business Solutions.

Speaker 2:

It was a little bit of a different company than we'd ever started before, and so I had a little bit of a slide back, my husband says, because I thought, all right, I need to talk to all these experts, I know about this and do what they tell me. Well, for the first two years I was miserable and then it was like wait a minute. God put this in my heart and God is really the one leading the company, not me. So let's have a business plan burning party and let's just follow God. And we have grown by 25% every year since, had our best year ever last year and we're on target now to probably increase about 40% over what we did last year on revenue.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I'm working fewer hours.

Speaker 1:

We're going to get to the whole work in few hours thing with five businesses on your, on your ability for systems and processes, which are you know I've said this even when I pastored for a long time is growth in your church. Growth in your business will always expose your systems and your processes. It will show you where the lowest hole in the bucket is, if you will. So your slow time, your quiet time, getting before God and just really getting still is that something you calendar every day? Is that part of your morning routine? What does that look like, sandy?

Speaker 2:

It is a routine, it's the first thing I do when I get up in the morning, and sometimes it starts before I even get out of bed and it's reading scripture, it's doing a Bible study if I'm doing one at that time and it's just really sitting there and saying Lord, thank you for letting me wake up. And thank you for ABS and DSM Holdings and Brickhouse Brickhouse 117 in the studio. Thank you, thank me for, thank you for all these things. How can I serve you today? What do you want me to do? And I will tell you. Some days it's hard because some days it's like okay, I'm sitting here and I'm not getting anything, I'm not hearing anything, I'm not getting it, I'm not getting it.

Speaker 1:

God.

Speaker 2:

And so sometimes it's like God, I you know, please help me receive. And if after a while, I'm still not getting that what I feel confident in, yeah, then I get up and maybe go outside for a while. We live on an operating farm, so I may go outside for a while and just spend some time outside, and then usually by the time I'm at my desk. If coming upstairs to my office, I'm still going, don't know what God wants me to do today, by the time I sit down at my desk, the right things come to me and I just had you know it's having the faith that he will guide you if you let him that we have a sense to have control and we're we're not in control anyway, so we need to just learn that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we, we, we love, we, we, we love to think, because even when we think we're in control, we're still not in control. And I think, as a faith-based entrepreneur, it all starts with that whole. Psalms 4610, be still, listen to God and write the vision down. Habakkuk 2.2, write the vision down and make it plain, like when you write the vision down. My entire life changed when I learned that principle in about 1997, 1998, about writing the vision down, about BHAGs, about okay, god, what do you have for me? I want to jump, I want to kind of fast forward into. You talked about business growth there. You guys have five businesses and I know your work week is a couple hours, two or three hours a day.

Speaker 2:

I try not to work at all on Mondays and Fridays.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Now I try not to work at all on Mondays and Fridays.

Speaker 2:

Okay, now, there's exceptions, like this this Friday I have one of our cap, a capital company that we own. There's a, there's a planning call that I'll be on. But normally Mondays and Fridays, those are my times to just kind of slow down and just say, all right, god, this is my time with you. You know, maybe it's I get my haircut, maybe it's I do, but and then Tuesdays, wednesdays and Thursdays, it's usually a 10 to 3 or a 10 to 4. And there's, there are things that are routine for me. You know. It's checking in with our teams, seeing what pain points they may be having on on any of our systems or processes, and if there is one, we quickly address that and somebody takes ownership of it. And I'll spend a little bit of time each week with clients, just because they're my passion too, and it's really just a matter of all right. What do you want me to do next? To help our team and our clients and serve you?

Speaker 2:

This week has been an interesting week because we've had several touch points with clients and we never ask for business, but we always remind them that we're here to serve them. And we've picked up five new engagements this week and all from existing clients, and that, to me, is very important because I don't want to have to go out and get new clients until I am fully serving the clients we have. But it truly is systems, processes and communication. The goal for me has been I'm going to start slowing down and the company needs to continue to run without me. They have the vision that we've set since we started the company gosh almost 20 years ago and all of our companies, we. We know what our vision is and it can change a little bit over time, but we really focus our systems and processes on all right. What do we need to do to get to that vision and keep it simple? You know, somebody said well, you must have all this technology, and I'm like we actually don't have a lot of technology. We do things very simple.

Speaker 1:

So let's do this. I want to break down because, as business owners, we have a lot of faith-based entrepreneurs that listen to this show. Everybody hears systems and processes. So, number one, I want you to tell me a specific system or process you have in your business and how did you go about creating that?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'll take one that's probably the most impactful. But also people say well, that's so simple, it's our touch points with our clients. So let's start with it's an existing client. We have a system where they are touched, reached out by me to. I reach out to them at least once a quarter and that's a face-to-face video or in person. We I check on service, check on blah, blah, blah. Whoever is the lead with that client, meaning the person doing most of the work they have touch points with them weekly.

Speaker 2:

Our admin backroom people that handle all of our contracts and scheduling and everything they touch base with them at least weekly. It's a lot of that touch points communication. We have a standard set of all right here's questions. We kind of have a foundation of questions that we always ask. They can be tweaked depending on the answer. And then once we if, for example, I had a touch point last week with a client and through that he said you know, I think I need this, this and this and I know you guys can help me, so I immediately notified our admin group. They set up calls with the appropriate people. We had a Zoom call with the appropriate parties on the client place. On that they solidified. They want another engagement. We got the engagement process to them. They signed. We have a kickoff call to get it going and it's down the road Sounds like a lot of steps, but really it's not.

Speaker 1:

Let me ask real quick. So, like on this specific one on your touch points, is this did you guys sit down and go? Okay, what do we want the touch points to look like? Let's put this in a document. Yes, Is it in a document? Is it a Google folder? Is it on a video? Is the process automated?

Speaker 2:

Help us out a little bit there.

Speaker 2:

It's just a Word doc that looks a little bit like a flow chart. We keep things very simple. I mean, we have used very expensive CRMs in the past and then we were paying a lot but not fully utilizing them. So we, we are a Microsoft shop, we use Microsoft. We went back to just our CRM. Now is an Excel spreadsheet on teams and it's. We keep it very simple and there's a lot of client notes and everything on there, but it works for us. Now I do have a demo. I'm looking at another system potential CRM system after this but it's going to have to be something that fits into our processes. We keep things extremely simple. We think the biggest thing that we can do for our clients is listen and communicate to each other, and that's where everything starts with. So, yeah, we sat down one day and said, all right, how do we want to make our clients feel? And so we kind of put a little flow chart together on touch points.

Speaker 2:

And then we sat down with a couple of our good clients and said, hey, is this too much, is this not enough? And the first pass we went through it, he goes I don't want to talk to you guys that much and I'm like okay. So then we sat down with another client and they're like no, this is perfect. So you have we. We do tweak it a little bit by client.

Speaker 2:

You know, we have a client on the East coast that I have never met face to face and they've been a client of ours for 18 years and their philosophy is when I, when I do my touch points with them, like Sandy, we promise we'll call you if there's an issue or if we need anything, and they do so. We respect and honor what they want, but we do. You know, ken, to your point, we do kind of have a documented process that we kind of all, on a on at least an annual basis, kind of walk through and then every quarter when we have our quarterly updates with all the team, sometimes we'll touch through, we'll talk through that and one of the team members may say, hey, we need to probably add this to the quarterly touch points and take them off, because we do different for each client, depending on where they're at.

Speaker 1:

So I love how you put the human factor in there, because some clients, like I, do 30 minute one-on-ones with all the guys that are in my corner. I've got seven companies, 5k a month, and so I do a 30 minute and some of them don't want 30 every week, they want every other week. Or, like it's crazy, because sometimes I'll talk about business, sometimes I'll talk about the relationship with their wife. It's completely different and it depends on who the individual is. So when you guys, how did you decide, sandy, which operating SOPs we'll just use that for short how did you decide which SOPs to create first?

Speaker 2:

Based on the need, we looked at where we had holes. So an easy example is 16 years ago or so we noticed that one of our clients was using a different vendor for something we could have done, and so we thought we called that client and I said hey, tim, you know, just curious. I understand you're using this company, just curious as to why you didn't call me. And he goes that's a good question, sandy. I kind of forgot you guys even did that. I went okay.

Speaker 2:

So that's when our touch point we call it our touch points flow and SOP kind of came about. It's like all right, we were getting way too focused internally and forgot the external focus. So we've developed SOPs based on just the communicating of. When I talk to the head of our divisions, it's like all right, what's your biggest problem right now? You know and let's see. And then we look at commonalities and we see if that's something that we need to develop a system, a process, if it's a technology fix, if it's just a one off. You know, we it's. It all stems by communication and serving others.

Speaker 1:

How can we?

Speaker 2:

serve. How can we serve our clients and each other better?

Speaker 1:

I absolutely love that, and I'm sure once you got, once you guys started implementing these SOPs, the rest of the team was like, yes, they loved it because it just makes everybody's job easier. And we talked about clarity off air, so we're going to talk about clarity in just a minute. But it gives clarity, yeah, like people understand exactly what the roles are. So when you do an SOP, you guys get together, figure out what it looks like and then, even when you have your annual reviews, you look at the SOP and say where does this need to be tweaked? And then you assign that SOP to somebody on the team that oversees that.

Speaker 2:

We actually have an admin administration, a back office group. They actually take the lead on all those because all of our people that are in the field their focus really is touch point with clients.

Speaker 2:

So, they know. Okay, if I see an issue with this client, I need to report it to admin because it may need to tweak an SOP. So our admin group is kind of the keeper of all of those and we don't review them just annually. We are constantly looking at what can we do better. What can we do better. So prime example is yesterday I had a video. We had a video meeting with a client and, simple thing, we have an SOP on when you have a new person coming into the team to work with the client.

Speaker 2:

You always do an intro. You always, you know, put the person, you put the personal touch on it. So you do, you know, five minute max, usually three minutes of the intro of who's on the call. Well, yesterday I dropped the ball on that one but luckily Megan, who is on our team, was on. That she goes. Wait a minute, sandy, we need to do the intros real quick. Well, I knew everybody on there and I knew what the focus was. So my mind was already down to the end of the call and we hold each other accountable to bring it back to say no, this is important. The people aspect is important.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Make sure they work. For me hearing you say that and then hearing you say earlier about how is this affecting our customer Are we taking care of our clients? Because most business people fall in love with their product and they totally forget that it's not about my product. I need to fall in love with my clients and make sure I'm, because I heard Grant Cardone say this five years ago money exchanges hands when problems are solved and our job is we solve problems. That's what we do as entrepreneurs, so I love that. When you guys started doing the SOPs and then it started to bring clarity in your team, explain clarity to our audience the way that you see that, sandy, and the way that clarity is giving you the ability to have five companies and work 15 hours a week.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think there's different levels of clarity. There's a clarity in your purpose and there's a clarity in what I'm going to do today and how I'm going to serve, and there's a clarity in a process. So clarity is looks may look a little different depending on the situation. You know, clarity in the SOPs is really making sure everybody knows our number one job is not to make money, it's to solve problems. Exactly what you said. If you focus on really listening and looking at what the world needs and what problems need to be solved, the money comes. The money is just a green thank you. God takes care of all of that. We are here to serve and solve problems. And if you focus on just serving and the solving of problems, everything else falls into place.

Speaker 2:

So, but if you're not clear on what the problem is, or if you're not clear on how the best way to serve solving that problem, then you can get anxious. Things won't get done. Things just will not get done. So for me, the SOPs really not only give you clarity and we don't hold people and say you have to do it exactly this way. We have them pretty. These are guidelines. These are guidelines on when you're checking in on a client If you're not sure what to say. Here's some. Here's some reminders. But be your authentic self, and that's more important than following a script.

Speaker 2:

Yeah so it really gave us, like all of our clients. You know, bank president, I was talking to Monday. He said well, yeah, I talked to Teresa and it's it's interesting to me that you guys, you ask the same questions but you ask them different ways. And he's been a client of ours for years. And I said and you probably answer them differently depending on how we ask it or who's asking it and he goes you're right, I do. I said well, then we take that data and we talk and we say, all right, this is what Tim's problem is right now, so let's keep it simple.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think the whole thing when you say clarity, it's not just your SOPs, it's in how you guys keep your database on an Excel sheet. It's simple. And again, I'm not advocating nobody uses a CRM, because we have a massive CRM with about 12 or 13,000, actually about 14,000 clients in it. But for you guys, your pursuit is clarity, because that in turn helps you take care and solve the problems of your clients.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love Jim. My favorite Jim Rohn quote is speed increases focus. It's my favorite one because, like, the faster you move in the direction you know you're supposed to go, the more things become clear.

Speaker 1:

And as entrepreneurs, I think sometimes and I think even as faith-based entrepreneurs like we we it's almost like all of a sudden, our faith is gone and we're afraid to take steps. When I said this last month in our calls for our Circle and Corner members, our whole month was on finances. So it's called the stewardship shift and I talked about how we don't have a money problem, we have a management problem. God doesn't reward hustle, god rewards faithful management and if I steward well, god will send me more. So that means it's my job to be obedient, it's God's job to build my business. So how much? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, 100, 100, real quick, tell me, what have you, what's? What do you guys have coming on the horizon? Obviously you've got five companies.

Speaker 1:

Now tell, tell me something exciting. What are you excited about right now, sandy, in your entrepreneurial journey? Thank you, yeah, I used to. I used to tell my church. I pastored for 13 years and every time I went I've led missing trips to Guatemala, haiti we still do a lot of stuff in Haiti, columbia and South America is every time you go on a missing trip, you think you're going to help the people, but the biggest change happens in you every single time. Every single time I see it, sandy.

Speaker 1:

Last thoughts, final thoughts for our audience today. That's exactly Okay, okay, okay, mm, mm, mm. That's awesome. Makes you feel good, doesn't it? Yeah, yes, yes, we are Well, sandy, where's the best way that our audience can find you, connect with you, learn more about you? Okay, okay, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I was about to say that sounds like a gym promo there. Girl, I love it, love that. I love that. I love that. Thank you so much for joining us today and look forward to getting this episode dropped.

Speaker 1:

Guys, thank you so much for joining us on another episode of as the Leader Grows. I am your host, ken Jocelyn Sandy Maul. Guys, go check her out, learn more about what she's doing, follow her and just really lean into. Guys, sandy, I don't know if you've read Dan Martell's book. Buy Back your Time. Yeah, dan's a dear friend. Spoke at my mastermind last year in Salt Lake City and a lot of what you talked about today. Dan really unpacks in that book. So if you need some help on SOPs, guys reach out. Sandy, follow her. Dan Martell's book, buy Back your Time. Phenomenal, especially the Audible, because at the end of each chapter Dan spends about three to five minutes really doing a deep dive explaining that chapter. But thanks, we'll see you next week on Athlete Review.