Welcome to the The VICI Code, where we unlock real stories of small business owners who've battled chaos, crushed doubt, and conquered their challenges. Faith, family, and finances. No fluff, just raw, honest conversations that decode the path to victory, one story at a time. All right, hello, hello, and thank you for joining us as we explore Reclaiming Time, the Breakthrough of Operational Clarity for Visionary Founders. But first, I just want to mention to listeners the new AG1 Ambassador Program that I'm very excited to be a part of. I've been drinking AG1 for several years. AG1 Next Gen has become a key part of my daily routine. Every morning, I start my day with a scoop of AG1 Next Gen, which is a clinically studied daily health drink that combines multivitamin, probiotic, and blend of superfoods into one scoop. It is packed with over 75 high-quality ingredients that have been clinically shown to improve gut health and close common nutrient gaps. As a longtime AG1 user, they have offered me a special deal to share with our community. If you're interested in trying AG1 yourself, you can use my ambassador offer found in the show notes. With your first order as a new customer through my link, you'll get a free one-year supply of D3K2 drops, 10 free AG1 next gen travel packs and a free 30 day supply of omega-3 pills. That's $130 value. It's hard to, it's free. Just, you know, find the link and, you know, give it a shot. But enough of that, let's move on to the main event. I'm very excited about today's guest. So operational clarity is often the ultimate breakthrough for a scaling business. The virtual integrator offers COO level consulting to help visionary founders scale with operational clarity and confidence. With an MBA, PMP certification, and Lean Six Sigma, Greenbelt, our guest today brings over 15 years of expertise in business operations, project management, and systems to help business streamline processes, align teams, and reclaim time. I'm talking about the one and only Kelsey Daingerfield, not spelled the way you think it is, D-A-I-N-G-E-R, Field. Kelsey is yet another rock star from the Dan Martell Elite Mastermind Group. She and I connected when I put out a call to action on an internal message board looking for guests. When I realized that she does what she does, and I'm excited for her to talk about it, I was like, her purpose-driven story has got to be on Vichy Code. I did a little background on her and her business, and she's definitely mission critical for our audience and small business owners. I also found out that she is the wife of a Marine veteran, so I'm Absolutely. Like all of our episodes, we love starting with the nitty gritty, the origin story, you know, where we start. With 15 years of expertise, you've seen business operations from every angle. What was the defining moment or the biggest pain point you observed in the corporate or consulting world that made you decide to create the virtual integrator? Was there a specific pattern of operational chaos or a roadblock you were trying? Are you tired of seeing visionaries run Great question. It really, it kind of started as like a little bit of like a snowball and it just got bigger and bigger. Like you mentioned, I have a background in a lot of different industries, but at the end of the day, everybody has a process and a routine on how they get things done. And one thing that really kind of really took place was I went on maternity leave with my daughter, my second child, and my boss left the company I was at. And he was very much that visionary mentality and I was his integrator. And he was really the person that pushed me and supported me and allowed me to take those huge steps when other people didn't. At the time I was in higher ed and higher ed, some people may be familiar with, it's a little bit stuck in old ways. And so while I was on maternity leave, I just started getting the itch of like, what's next? Like my mentor is leaving, like what do I want to do? And I pivoted departments. I went from being a director of admission systems in Salesforce to project management. And I just, it just felt like I was being placed in a box that I would never be fit inside of I've always was somebody that bridged into different areas and different facets and I was like you know this just doesn't feel right and the environment. It was my favorite challenge because at higher ed, I mean, we're shifting in higher ed and how things are being done. And it just didn't feel I felt like I was losing myself a little bit. And my husband was actually the one that pointed it out. He was like, hey, you're not happy. what would make you happy? And I was like, helping people run their businesses. I was like, I truly don't believe you have to work 40 hours a week because I can get my job done in less than 20. And he's just like, okay, how do we do that? And that really propelled me to just push the envelope and just go all in and I love it, I love it. You bring serious certifications like PMP and Lean Six Sigma to the table. How did your experience in large-scale project management become the fuel for the purpose of helping Okay, I'm gonna... quickly pivot the very beginning of that answer to project management, the PMP, Lean Six Sigma. I like to say before I got certified, I was table, table, like dinner table certified. So when I was growing up, my dad did these things and he was an oil and gas. And I would often talk to him about routines and processes and help him with PowerPoints and all those things. And then I quickly realized how project management, process improvement, these buzzwords are really things we do. at our entire day, business owner, W2, whatever it is, we all have them. And once I went through those certifications, I started to truly put all of it together. When I was at Starbucks, I realized, hey, this is a Lean Six Sigma environment. It may not be a manufacturing plant, but it's still an assembly line. And then when I moved into higher ed, I looked at it that way too. And then now I do, I do higher ed consulting for a tech company. And I realized that so many people, large companies are like, oh yeah, like Lean Six Sigma, process improvement. They all understand the buzzwords. But when you get down to those smaller mid-sized companies to starting out companies, those are really intimidating words. And they may not even know what all of them are. So one thing I started kind of adjusting in my conversation with people is, what's your routine? Like, how do you do it? It's not as scary as you think. Like, do you drink coffee? Yes. How do you like to make your coffee? Cool. If you told your husband how you like your coffee made, do you think he'd be able to figure it out and start making it? Yes. That's process. So really, I And sorry, I got a little off on a tangent about that. But that is one thing is I think process improvement, project management can be very scary. But at the same time, it's very welcoming if you just peel back the layers and realize you're doing it all the time. And in a small business, having somebody that you can really talk through everything that you're doing can really help you identify some of those processes. Sometimes when we're getting started and we know we have to document, we don't even know Yeah, I can relate. My other life, I had a small startup meal delivery business and you know, they call it a scheduled process where you document, you, you think, you know, you're following a recipe, but when you look at a scheduled process, I mean, it is so granular and detailed. And that was like my first introduction to how to really dial in how it kind of remind me of like this, this thing we did in like elementary, where they, they asked you to, you know, teach, it was like a writing exercise, teach an alien how to make a PBJ sandwich. And you take for granted how much, you know, somebody knows and you're like, oh, well, they don't know what a knife is. They don't know what bread is, you know, you got to kind of go into extreme detail, all that. So yeah, no, there's a, there's a lot, but once you've figured it out and you've dialed it in, you know, and you go into, you know, to, into the, into the nitty gritty with your clients, you get to know them on a very, very personal level. That example that you were saying about the coffee, getting to know your clients and how that resonates and how you can relate to them is so important. I see a lot of founders with really good success when they approach their clients that way. You mentioned that a key part of your job is to hold your founders accountable, you know, and reel them in when they begin to deviate from the plan. That takes purpose and conviction. Can you share a challenging client scenario where the founder was brilliant, but constantly sabotaging their own process? You know, what breakthrough tactic or mindset shift did you use to get them back on track? And A lot of ideas and stories come to mind about this one. For me, it's when we're working together, we first kind of come up with like your blueprint. Where do we want to focus in your business? What are the challenges? Are we looking at team utilization? Are we looking at systems? Are we looking at your decision bottlenecks? And really where they want to go and how we're going to get there and what I really like to push founders to do when we're first starting out is what are the projects that are long term that we're going to chip away at behind the scene. What are the things that we're going to get done we're going to start and finish start and finish and make those checklists it's the. Oh my goodness, what do I just completely forgot what I always say it's like not right now like we got to do this right now, not right now, like just two little different buckets and need to have nice to have. And so when I have founders I have one who He is amazing. We've been together three years now. Yeah, I think we just hit our three year mark. And he has such a beautiful mind of ideas. And one of his things is he'll throw an idea out there, and then we'll start working down that path. And then he's got another one. And he's got another one. And I'm like, hey, We need to focus here, which one, like we already assigned the team to focus on this initiative. The second one that you want to do is going to derail that. So you need to make a decision. So I do force them to make that decision if it's something that is really conflicting. If it's an idea where I'm like, that's cool, but this is our priority and I feel confident enough to be like, no, we're not, we're not going with that. I tell them to put it in the parking lot. And I'm very much in somebody who will say, cool, love the idea. Let's table that. And when do you want to come back to that? Are we thinking like that's a Q1 initiative? Because now we're looking at Q1 for FY26. And it's like, ah, yeah, you know, that's right. Q1, like, OK, cool. It's going to go over here in this bucket. We'll come back to it. We're not going to forget it. Okay, okay. Yeah. Entrepreneurial curse, right? It's like when you start finding success, you're like, well, what else can I do? And the one thing I learned is just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Cause you can really overwhelm yourself and get yourself into more than you want to. And that's something that's hard, you know, you know, kind of like learning how to say no is hard. So, yeah, I understand that. We see that all the time. You don't offer another course or coaching session, you offer execution. Why is the done-with-you or done-for-you model the Because I find that even, I mean, I'm a business owner too. I'm essentially a founder of my own business. And we all get this high when we come up with an idea and we start executing the plan. And then something happens and like two weeks from then the excitement and like the thrill starts to die off a little bit. So one thing that within the support that I offer depending on where you go is holding your feet to the fire to that like we cannot lose the momentum, so we have to continue with the execution because you'll have 50 different projects that are half started. And we start closing the loops on our initiatives and our projects. So really having that person to walk alongside you makes a difference. And I find the most success is when you have a business owner who has a lean team. It could be them and an assistant. It could be them and maybe a couple of team players. I see more success with is when I work with the founder, understand their vision, their goal, where they want to take things. And then I'm like, okay, let's talk about definition of done. What does success look like? What's the ownership roadmap? Who does it start with? Who works on it? Who takes over? And then I take it from them. And I go, okay, now I'm going to bring it to Joe. There's a game plan, the founder may be in the room, we're gonna talk about this project, you're gonna be leading it. Walk through that game plan. Joe asks questions, make sure that he understands everything. And then I help facilitate those working sessions. I help answer his questions for clarity so that the founder can essentially release it. And then be brought back in as like a guest appearance to give that feedback. Like, you know, Dan Martell's process of 108010. It's very, very similar to that. 10% brain dump, we put together the documents, the person can execute 80%, and then we refine the final 10. And I find that is a weight lifted off the person. That's where I come in and just say, hey, this is the project that Joe's working on, this is where we're at. And then they can say, okay, cool, and move on with their day. So that's Yeah, which they can repeat that process. That's a learned behavior they can take away and use in other projects and areas. You mentioned clarity. Your ultimate goal is to provide operational clarity and confidence. How is operational clarity directly linked to a founder's personal purpose and mental health? What happens to the visionary when For me, it's like you're able to actually close all the tabs on like your browser. I feel like everybody, you're wearing so many hats. I don't care if you organize your tabs into groups or if you have them as individuals, but it's a sense of relief and that you can breathe again. And I find that you can feel that shift in the founder's energy. at work and at home. And I think that's the most important part is we all start businesses because we want to change it up. Maybe we did this our entire life. We came out of a W-2. Everybody has a different roadmap. So what was your original purpose? And And I find a lot of my clients, um, they actually tend to be men. I will say that it's been really interesting. And it's a lot of men that are, they want time back. They want to build memories with their kids because maybe their parents weren't able to like, I know my dad traveled 90% of the time. I saw maybe two days every other week. And I look at it as like, I want to put a stop to that. Cause you, I don't think you have to do that anymore. And I find that a lot of the founders, we work through their systems so they can release. They know that if they're doing the 108010, they're delegating out the work appropriately. They're leveraging the one-three-one method where somebody has a problem, they come to you with three solutions and which option they recommend moving forward with. Really giving that empowerment back to the team allows for the founder to free up that mental space. It gets them utilizing their team better. They're not the decision bottleneck anymore. So that stress is gone too. So their work life blend works in a way that they need it to, because at the end of the day, you may need to be home for a reason. You may need to focus on your business for a reason. So you have to be able to shift with the flow. And I think when you get that clarity, you're able to see where you really are needed a little bit more and you're able to live your life Yeah, you can really hyper focus on the areas that you're needed. You know, you're confident when you do leave work. And you know, you're you're fulfilling your purpose. And, you know, it that these are all really good ingredients for It is. I had one client, when we first got started, we started in the fall, and then he went on a two week trip with his family. He took them to Europe, right around the holidays. And he was just like, I'm gonna take them. I was like, okay, what do we need for you to feel confident? And he was like, okay, I need this, this. I'm like, okay, then let's go do that. Let's build this. And it was something as simple as taking a Google sheet, putting in all the clients' names that we have, which contractors supporting them and what service are they supporting, and just creating like a hub, just a little hub that used to live in his brain to where everybody knew where to get everything. And it was something as simple as that to where he could be like, I feel better and just something so simple. And then he went on a two week trip, was able to go away with his family. Of course he would check in every little bit, but it was like five minutes. Hey, how's it going? That's Yeah. You know, I think we overcomplicate things for sure. It says a lot easier. So that's why it's always good to have someone looking over your shoulder and high level saying, Hey, like this is what we should really be spending time on. Let's pull ourselves out of the weeds a little bit. I do want to talk about your, your ops blueprint. You know, it's a 90 day roadmap that helps founders reclaim not just their time, but you'll like this one. Also their Vichy code, vision, integrity, Yeah, that 90 day blueprint is literally, it embodies the Vichy Code because you are getting clear on your vision and you are able to brain dump everything to me. I am very much somebody that loves when people can just brain dump everything that's going on in their business. And then I process it, like I'll just be kind of quiet for like a day and I think, and I come up with all these ideas. And I take your chaos and I put together like a puzzle of how we're going to get to where you want to go and focus. And we take your vision and we take your why, why you're building this business. What's that end goal? And the 90-day blueprint, that's where we map it out. And you get clear because you realize you don't have to do everything. We can delegate it out to team members. We can leverage our group better. And I will push back on you on some things if you're like, hey, I want to do this. And I'm like, that's cool. But why? Where does that line up in your vision? What's the goal? And with the 90-day blueprint, I think the part that I like the most is, yes, you brain dump. Yes, I take everything in your mind. But I also meet with your team. And I send out surveys to the team. And then depending on the hierarchy of your business, I might meet with one or two people for a quick 30-minute session. And I ask them questions based off of all of the inputs that I got, yours and the team, to help bridge the gaps between the vision, the projects, where we wanna go and build that roadmap alongside them so that when we are going through that ownership profile and defining the 108010, we know who's doing what and why. We know when we're gonna transition it to somebody else and why and what that looks like, what that definition of done is to know when that transition takes place. So at the end of the blueprint, the founder can open it and it's almost like a little playbook. You can say, okay, we're going to talk about, we'll go with delegating at your inbox because we're Dan Martell people. Five step, five, just a step back, this, this, this. And the person, they don't, the definition of done is already in there. What success looks like is already in there. So that delegation is pretty much mapped out for the founders. They don't have to think about it because we already put it together for them. And that lets them free up their time, have more integrity and be proud of what they're doing, know their vision and be clear and have just clarity Yeah. feels so serene when you can, it's like cleaning your house, right? You know, having a blueprint, you know, you start here, you go here, do this next, you know, we've all cleaned, well, hopefully most of us know how to clean our house. We usually have a system and that's kind of sounds like what the blueprint is and the same output. the same outcome is that sense of serenity of like, things are done, things are good, we followed it. Yeah, I mean, I'm a good avatar for you. I mean, we have a pretty good system internally, but we're constantly, we call it relentless, striving for, get to be better. So I think we'll definitely have you step into the Vichy office and see where we can improve things. Going forward thinking, reclaiming your time, your work essentially helps founders reclaim their time. Once the systems are built, what is the most powerful or rewarding thing you see founders do with the time or mental space they've gotten back? Does it fuel innovation, family time, or community focus? Oh that's a good mix um first I see them kind of having like this oh I do like I should I should be doing something i'm not doing something. And then we refocus them back into what their original goals were when we got started because that's part of the questions when I start working with you it's like. If you could wave your wand, what would you want to be doing for fun? What would you rather be focusing on? Some people would be coming up with new ideas. Some people, it's, hey, I really want to join a board and get involved in my community and start giving back. I had one client who was like, this is awesome. I now have to only work four to five hours a week. I'm going to start another business. OK, how are we going to do that? So you're not working like 70 hours a week. And he's like, OK, let's map that out. So he reinvested right back into his business. And now he has like a marketing agency with a network connected to it for three quarters of his clients. I have another client, he does meal prep, who we are really expanding, not just providing meal preps like macro-based for one-on-one for like a UNME, but now we're looking at, he's looking at partnerships. How can he help serve different businesses so that they can provide healthy solutions for their employees and be able to use that to help take care of everybody? So it gives them that freedom. And then I've had clients who, when they first started, they were like, I want to get married. I want to have the baby. I know who I want to marry. I want to get married and I want to build a family. And I want to make sure that we can do that. And now they're, they have that they're building a family and they're building memories and they're making it work around the schedule that they need. So everyone's a little bit different, but I it's exactly, you just said people will reinvest into their business by scaling it, maybe making another one or I know, it's so entertaining. I have one person who loves to draw and will send me just like artwork. I'm like, wow, that's what I did last night. I'm like, you know, good for you. And when you think about that, allowing yourself to just sit there and draw, you're letting yourself be creative. You're letting your walls and your stress come down. Now it's like being a kid again, but you're just better at drawing. You Man, it's obviously an outlet, right? And there's a mental health aspect of that release as well. What's the next big challenge facing integrator and the COO space right now? What's your vision for the The vision is really leaning into either one on one coaching with a small owner like small teams or it's like one or maybe an admin and we do like a monthly really alignment call where I help you get focused and then the other one is where it's me. the founder and team, so one-on-team. And that's one where we're doing that execution where I'm helping facilitate. So those are my two focuses right now because I find the more people I talk to, there are three areas that everyone seems to be kind of struggling in and they all seem to be taking place at the same time. It's team utilization. I have a team or I have maybe one person And I feel like I'm still in the weeds and I'm doing too much. So it's assessing your current team before hiring new, utilizing your team correctly. Simple systems. So many people have way too much tech. I was somebody that did this too. I had Dubsado. I had ClickUp. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. So it's just simply coming in and just looking at your tech stack. Like, what can we simplify here? And then decision bottlenecks. And that's where having, again, that advisory support is where I help you train yourself. And we train your team to start making the decisions, start being more empowered in the business and leveraging tools and better communication tactics so that you get your time back, you get your freedom and you're still able to grow your business and do what you love. So those That's awesome. I'm so excited for you. And you know, We talked about this before we actually came on, there's a lot that goes into owning a business. There's a lot of people that are very skilled that just, they missed the mark a little bit on running the actual business. So I just wanna go over some key takeaways here. There's a link between operational systems and personal confidence. there is this idea that, you know, people over system, system, both can coexist. And quite honestly, one helps the other, you know, having good, strong systems frees you up to do more of that, getting to know the team and, and focusing on each other and focusing on the people. And then when you have that, you have the confidence, not only in the business owner, but also in your team, people are walking around confident that they have these systems in place and the communication required to build those systems. really creates a more cohesive culture. And then there's the necessity of accountability, right? You come in with this accountability, this like, hey, bird, no, wait, focus here. And you get them through the finish line so they have these systems so they can make these make these changes that they can actually reuse. You teach them a system to build the system, and then they can use to multiply other areas of the business. And then bringing structure to your vision. I know a lot of founders are just really messy. I'm sort of messy in a sense that I like to be creative. I like to just be all over the place. And I lean on my team. We've kind of built that structure internal like that. Okay, we got to reign it in. We got to have systems. We got to process. Let's have certain times where we can bounce off the walls a little bit and your company brings all of those takeaways in. So I highly recommend if you're thinking about it, adding this level to your business. This is not just taking your business to the next level. It's really a foundational piece to enable you to scale. So you should be doing this before you take your company to the next level. Kelsey, thank you so much for sharing your practical expertise. I do want to just remind everybody, the Virtual Integrator offers COO level consulting. to help visionary founders scale with operational clarity and confidence. You can learn more by visiting Kaylee's website at kelseydangerfield.com. I will spell that all out. K-E-L-S-E-Y-D-A-I-N-G-E-R-F-I-E-L-D.com. Also, if you are interested in following Kelsey and her personal journey, it's at Kelsey Daingerfield for Instagram and LinkedIn. Thank you so much for listening to the VG Code. Join us next time as we continue to explore the journey of purpose-driven leaders. Thanks for tuning in to the Vici Code, where the underdogs rise and the numbers finally make sense. If today's story hit home, share it. And remember, faith fuels