Years ago I coached a martial arts school owner who could run his intro class in his sleep. I asked him to write out exactly how he did it, start to finish, so his new instructors could copy it, and he could streamline.
He looked at me like I'd asked him to de-classify the Epstein Files.
Three weeks later, still no SOP (Standard Operating Procedure= Systems). He just kept doing the thing, badly explaining it to whoever he hired next, and hoping it stuck.
That's the whole SOP problem in one sentence: writing it down is harder than doing it. It feels like such a monumental task.
But recording it isn't. So stop delaying writing it down, you don’t have to anymore.
You don't write SOPs anymore. You record them.
I call this this the Mic Method:
Open your Voice Memos App on iPhone or Recorder app on Android. Hit record. Do the task exactly like you always do it, no script, no cleanup.
Talk while you work. Narrate the why, not just the what. "I check this first because I don’t want to ask customers any questions they have already answered"
Get the transcription directly from your app (here’s the directions on how to do that)
Ask your favorite AI to turn it into an SOP for your business. [reply “prompt” to this email and i’ll send it to you for free]
Read it once. Refine whatever you think needs fine tuning. Done.
One of my clients did this. He recorded himself answering his team's most annoying questions for two hours straight on a random Tuesday. Fed the whole thing to the SOP builder i’m giving you.
Sixteen finished procedures. Five minutes of AI time for two hours of just... talking.
Here's how to use it today: pick the three "how do I..." questions your team asked you most this month. Record yourself answering them, no script, just brain dump. Feed it to AI. Save your SOP, and now you have a documented system to whoever asks.
Now, you don’t need to feel guilty about never finishing that google doc about how to schedule an email in your CRM ever again. Try the Mic Method now.
Your business AI guy,
Matthew Brenner