The Systems Behind 25 Days Off (Daisy Raudales​​​​​​​)
 

Chapter 1: Introduction: 25 Days in Europe

Jesse [0:05]: Hello and welcome everyone to Leverage for Growth podcast. Today I'm here with Daisy Raudales, founder of DRPR. And Daisy, you went viral recently. Why?
Daisy [0:15]: Yes, I did. So I spent 25 days in Europe and my business did not fall apart in that time.
Jesse [0:23]: Yay. Oh man, we could probably talk about all the places that you visited, but I'm assuming that anybody listening to this is most likely thinking, how the heck did you do that? So can you talk through some of the things that you did right before going on that trip to set up for your absence?
Daisy [0:41]: Definitely. Yes. So a lot of the growth to where we are now has honestly been on the operational side over the past couple years, which is one of the most essential parts of your business — really, the efficiency of your business. Are the tools and systems you're using correctly in place? Are they working for you? Do you have systems that are automating a lot of the tasks versus manual? Over the course of my time in this program with Niche in Control, I've been able to scale our business on the operational front — that was the biggest hurdle for me ever since I started. I've now been six years in business, and I'd definitely say the first four years, a lot of our struggle was actually just the operational side. We had referrals coming in and out, we had really good connections with partners, but our struggle was operational efficiency. Not knowing which tools to use, not using AI to the best of our ability, not having SOPs in place to share with our team and partners. So a lot of our growth over the last year and a half has really been immense on the operational side. Having SOPs in place, having a tool that's great for task and time management and lets our clients be a part of that too. Having an onboarding system that works, an offboarding system that works. A lot of those things have put us in a position where we're ready to scale, ready to continue to grow, and we have the tools in place to do that.
Jesse [2:33]: What does that do? A lot of times people think about systems as something they have to do, or a necessary thing, but "I'll do it tomorrow" and tomorrow never comes. What made that an urgent thing for you, and then what has that done for you — like, the feeling of the business? Any feelings or clarity — what is that doing for you?
Daisy [2:57]: I'd say I noticed it when I was working more than 10 hours a day in my business. I was really the bottleneck of my business, and I knew I was never going to be able to grow if the business solely relied on me. I was getting to that stage of burnout, that stage of overwhelm, not spending enough time with my family. Really, the business was taking over my life — the business was first and everything else was second. And I hated that. That was a part of myself that I was like, I need to change this, this can't be it. This is not the reason we started a business in the first place. The reason was for freedom, the reason was to take back our time. And I felt like I was going the opposite direction. When I met you, Jesse, and I was in this program, I knew that was the primary focus for me — I need to be in a position where my business does not rely on me, where eventually I can actually sell this business. Having a lot of the coaching, the mentorship, the tools in place, as well as hearing from other founders who are in that position, was really eye-opening — showing me that the first step to success is making sure you're not the sole person in your business, that you can step back, you can have a team that can actually take over. And having the reflection of thinking about 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now — where do I want my business to go? Inevitably, for me, it's eventually being able to sell it. So I never had that clarity before, never had the accountability, never even had the direction. So this is a huge part of my growth — really, the Niche in Control program and the systems that have been put in place for me.
Jesse [5:01]: That's awesome. Sometimes we as founders take our business as, like, by default — based around circumstances, "this is how I need to act." A lot of times it's this unconscious thing that you didn't consciously choose, but it's something they've kind of embodied in some form. Kudos to you for being able to lean into looking for the clarity and a way out of those 10, 12-hour days. And if I remember correctly, when we first started working together, were you engaged at the time, or —

Chapter 2: 100 Hours Saved and a Wedding

Daisy [5:41]: — were about to get married? Yes. So I was engaged, I believe, just when I started the program — if not, it happened just a month or two after — and then I got married. During that entire time I was in the mode of, okay, before I get married I want to have the operational efficiency at like 100%. And that was my goal, and we achieved that. Even getting married, going away for a couple weeks, coming back, I was still able to keep the operational side flowing and growing, and our team knew what they were doing — they were getting better and better at knowing the systems. That put me in a position of, wow, okay, now the business doesn't need to rely on me — if anything, I need to go out there and continue to scale, continue to focus on growing the business through lead generation, networking, outreach — all the systems I never had time to focus on before because I was doing everything myself.
Jesse [6:42]: It's funny — before this, in preparation, I was reviewing your client story from right before you got married, in the first part of working together, and you talked about saving — was it 100 hours a month?
Daisy [7:05]: Yes, it was 100 hours a month. It was insane. I didn't even know that was possible until I did the time logs and looked back — wow, I scaled down more than half. I was working 12-hour days, maybe even 15-hour days, down to four hours a day. It was insane.
Jesse [7:31]: Which also allowed you to plan a wedding. And if I remember correctly, that freed-up time allowed you to be a professor.
Daisy [7:42]: Yes. Yes. Oh my goodness, yes — I actually totally forgot about that too. That was all in the same year, that's so true. I did get a position to become a professor at the same college I was a student at, like 8 to 10 years before that, and I said yes. And I realized I can do it — I have the operational side working for me, and I don't need to be in the business every single day, every single hour, on the computer. I can really choose my time and control my time. That's actually what I was able to do — during that time it was once-a-week teaching, but I had pretty much the whole day booked off to focus on commuting, getting back, grading. It was incredible. I think just how much your time opens up for you to see all the opportunities and things you can do to scale. Before that I didn't have that clarity. I think as a business owner we're so stuck thinking we have to do everything, and a lot of that has to do with mindset. Once you let go of control and start to realize, I need to do this the way another expert has done it, I need to let my guard down, allow others to teach me, to implement, to start activating those systems and tools and processes — then you can be on the other side. Now you can be the one to grow your business, to focus on growth strategies versus every day working on the work, which is not the reason we have our business.
Jesse [9:31]: It's really cool — so now I'm understanding the stack. So you went from 12-hour days to four,

Chapter 3: Doubling the Agency in Four Months

and then you went from close to burnout to having a lot of time to plan a wedding, to be a professor. And people would typically look at that and think, okay, maybe the revenue wasn't good. But if I remember correctly, you also doubled the PR agency within four or five months of doing that. Is that correct?
Daisy [10:04]: Yes. After about four to five months of being in the program and implementing the systems to get our operations going, I managed to land a really big client — honestly, kind of a dream client — and that catapulted my business. Everything was working for me: the systems in place, the team in place, clients closing, and attracting the right people. And it was interesting because that client had found me. So the growth strategies we were working on were actually bearing fruit — we were seeing the results on the other side. It was incredible to see how step one is really making sure your operations are ready, so that when you get to the scale-and-growth stage, it works for you and doesn't break.
Jesse [11:04]: What's really cool — a lot of what we're talking about is foundational work, because as your coach, I think about how the first time you had to take a break from the business was a life event. Typically people have — they have a new baby, or they're getting married or something — some life event that forces a need for change. That's more of a reactive thing. What's cool to me about this Europe trip is: were you forced to take it, or was it something you just decided?
Daisy [11:48]: Not at all. It was actually the fact that my husband and I — we're almost a year now of being married — we both had time. Summer was just starting here, at least in Canada, so it was a sweet spot to go before the full summer break. My clients were handled properly, my team was able to manage the work we're doing for them, and he also had time he could take off. So we said, you know what, and it was a very fast, spontaneous decision — I think within three weeks we decided, let's do it. And once we got there we said, let's just figure out where we're going, make the list, do the research, ask AI. We were able to do it. Before, I really had a mentality of "no, I can't — there's no way my clients aren't going to notice I'm gone, they're going to bother me, and I'm not going to be able to deal with the team." I would always overthink it, and it was because I wasn't confident enough in the structure of our business and the framework and growth of our business. Now I'm at a stage where I am confident in the growth of our business — confident enough in the structure that I know it's not going to break, and that's the most important part so we can continue to scale and grow. When I came back, nothing changed, nothing happened — if anything my clients respected my time away, and the work got done, same as before. When I came back it was just, "hey, welcome back." So I'd tell other business owners: once you have this in place, it really grows your confidence to another level, and your knowledge as a business owner to another level. I'm now seeing that reflected in everything else I'm doing, where I have the confidence to say, "yes, let's go, let's do it," where before I think we hold ourselves back.
Jesse [14:00]: What a transformation we've talked about so far.
Daisy [14:07]: Yes, we're only halfway done.
Jesse [14:10]: So much in so little time.
[Ad read] If you run an agency, you know the grind — every client a custom proposal, you're positioning all over the place, and there's no clear way to scale. I built the Scalable Agency Accelerator to fix this. It's a seven-step proven system I've used with over 500 agencies to clarify their niche, sharpen their offer, and grow. Right now you can get step one for 7 days — you'll define who you serve and lock in your positioning with no guesswork. Start your free trial today, link in the show notes.
Jesse [14:48]: When people think about time freedom, it's kind of a word that gets used a lot, or "lifestyle business" or whatever. I think one of the most important things is that you just have the ability to choose — where maybe before you didn't feel like you had that ability, especially working 10 or 12-hour days when the business was even smaller. You get to a place where you start making excuses for why you can't do things. And now you get to a place where, spontaneously, within three weeks, you decide you're going to go for 25 days in Europe and you're able to do that. I honestly think in other programs that aren't leverage-first, it's more about growth for growth's sake.
Daisy [15:38]: Yeah, in our program our main metric is the ability of having founder independence and the ability to take time away from the business, and being able to do that in a way where you get the choice — working in the business when you want to, selling it, or scaling it. That freedom aspect is actually the biggest test of all the infrastructure and systems you built in the beginning. Sometimes it's based around an example like a life event, where you're getting married and everybody paves the way for that. But the actual ability of choosing and having the freedom of choice is what I think a lot of people are after, and they don't really know how to get there.
Jesse [16:21]: Yes. So if I gave you the opportunity to speak to one of those agency owners who might be where you were before, and talk through some of that initial stuff to help them understand how to create that freedom —
Daisy [16:38]: I want to start by saying I think we're actually taught a lot of wrong things in life, even as a business owner, and sometimes it just takes having a mentor and an expert to share with you how they've done it. That really helped me — being in this program, being with a bunch of other marketing experts, founders, agency owners who have done it and are scaling just as much as we are. For me, I think I always had a misconception that you need a lot of lead generation, that you have to focus on that and only that. We're all bombarded by spam emails every day from agencies telling you that you need more leads, you need to cold call, you need to do this and that. But the truth is, even if you went full force with that, if you don't have the foundation in your business — if the operational side isn't working — it's going to break. You're not going to be able to manage all those leads and clients and deals, and maybe your onboarding process isn't even strong, or the process of working with clients and your team isn't strong. So I think that's where a lot of failures come from — not having the foundational side working for you first. In my experience now, the most important thing is making sure your business has a foundational structure to survive, and that includes building out SOPs, finding the right team to hire — a strong set of team members who are strong in the skills and experience so you can also learn from them. I'd also say having the right tools and systems in place to automate a lot of those tasks, but that you can also teach and have working efficiently for you and your team. I've learned a lot about AI through this program too.

Chapter 4: AI Tools and the Offer Triangle

We've now shifted from ChatGPT to Claude, and I can't even tell you how much Claude has saved me — thousands of hours in our day-to-day and over the months. It's insane the amount of efficient tools you can use — you just need to be guided on the right way to learn and implement them into your business so you can save hours of time, teach your staff the right way, and save money. When you have these tools and systems and software in place and working, you're actually saving a lot of money because you're using things the right way. And that flows into everything else — the minute you have more time for yourself to scale back as a business owner, to have your team lead, and to work on your business in the time you want, you're able to scale and grow. You're in a position where you're ready to go full force with lead generation, full force with all of those exterior tasks, because your team is there, you have the systems, so you're not afraid of growth. I think when you're starting, it's actually a fear of "I'm scared to grow because I don't have the systems in place." That's exactly how I was thinking for three or four years — I can't grow this, because if I do, I'm scared everything will fall apart. So make sure you're making time for the foundational process and the foundational aspect of your business — it's the most important part.
Jesse [20:31]: It's like music to my ears, Daisy.
Daisy [20:38]: I've learned all of that through this program, I really have. It's been so incredible for our agency, and continuing to see where we can scale. I even see myself in a different light through all of this — I see myself now ready for growth, ready to scale to those goals I've always set for myself, where before I had that hump, that hurdle of "if I take a step forward, I'm going to take a step back." Now the process is built, so it's really just, how far are you willing to go now to continue to scale it?
Jesse [21:19]: For anybody listening right now, I'm going to take what Daisy just said a little further, just to hammer this in. If you're in the same spot Daisy was, working 10 or 12 hours a day, and you start taking on clients — if you don't set up the foundation, the more clients you take on, the more hours you're going to have to work, which means you're going to naturally hit some type of burnout. For anybody who's experienced burnout, it is literally like the death of a founder and a death of a business, because you lose all vision and start resenting it. It's a really crappy scenario. And it's not always about the number of hours worked, but hours worked in excess over a period of time will eventually lead to burnout. One of the ways you get that foundation correct — and if you remember, Daisy, one of the first things I had you do was a time log. It's what everybody dodges as much as possible, I think because it's the most effective thing — they know it's going to work, and it means they have to change. But you use the time log as an understanding, a current-state assessment of time use, and from there you realize time use and mindset are connected. When you start to understand the use of time, there's an opportunity to start systemizing or standardizing certain things, eliminating others, automating others. From there, your process of looking from the inside out is how you feel more fulfilled by the business. What's cool about this one, and different from your client story a bit ago, is that it was by choice that you went to Europe — it was spontaneous, which means you had the freedom to choose, based on when your husband was freed up, and you were able to do it. And third, you're now getting to a place where you realize the time away from the business unlocks something — that you could grow and keep time freedom. I think that's the cool thing about unpacking these strategies and milestones along the way, because entrepreneurship and being an agency owner is very lonely — you feel like you're running a race that never ends, and you can't share it with anybody. If you have a win, you don't know if you can recognize it. To be able to lean into the community, lean into a proven process, and celebrate that you took 25 days off the business — "heck yeah, Daisy, let's make it 30, or when's the next one?" —
Daisy [24:10]: — I think, yeah, at the same time as being able to grow the business. I think that encapsulates what's really cool about the application here. And you said it perfectly — the time log was starting point number one, figuring out how many hours you're actually utilizing in your business. It scares you, but it's the truth, and it's the thing we need to do to see the truth and reflect on it and say, this is absolutely ridiculous, we need to scale these hours at least in half. That was the realization for me — also seeing the things you're doing in the day that aren't actually efficient for your business. So it opens up two things: knowing what you're doing wrong that needs fixing, and being able to measure the hours — does that actually make sense with your offers? If it's not making sense, that's another window opening for you to realize something. I'd also say one thing that really supported me through the program was doing our Offer Triangle — figuring out what your strengths are as a business, what are the three problems you absolutely solve, and how can we package that into an offer. One thing that really changed my mindset was looking at how you can put offers together that show the value of your work versus offers for tasks — because a lot of times we price based on the hours we think it'll take to execute a package or task, but if it's a value to them, you have to show them what that value is, and that's how you come up with the offer. I even learned that I was undervaluing — we were undercharging, and I didn't know that until I created the Offer Triangle and started speaking to other business owners who were doing the same but packaging based on an ultimate offer that showed the value. That was a huge eye-opener for me — how do we position ourselves here, instead of positioning ourselves in a very low state? And that leads into shifting your mindset completely. So a lot of it goes through the stages of the time log, the Offer Triangle, then creating the irresistible offer, bringing it to market, and then implementing growth strategies. I'd say we're now in that third-to-fourth step. I'm excited for all the growth to come and implementing these growth strategies.
Jesse [27:08]: I'd say to anyone — just go for it. Go for a program like this that's going to position you for success with the foundational side, and lead and guide you through every other step after that. I'm excited for the next podcast we have with you in about six months, and we'll keep tracking these milestones.

Chapter 5: What's Next

Daisy [27:34]: I'm excited too. In six months, so much can happen. I'm here for it.
Jesse [27:39]: Awesome. Well, Daisy, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast today and sharing your story. Congratulations on 25 days in Europe without the agency failing, and I'm excited for this becoming more of a repeat kind of thing for you, alongside growing your business. Thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Daisy [28:01]: Thank you, Jesse. This has been so much fun, and I'm so excited to continue to see our growth. I'm very grateful for everything.