Welcome back to The COO Solution Podcast! In this episode, host Derek Fredrickson interviews Lucy Rayden, founder of InTech Search, a global recruitment firm specializing in deep tech industries like semiconductors, photonics, and electronics.
Lucy opens up about her journey from burnout to breakthrough and how bringing in a fractional COO helped her regain balance, reclaim her time, and transform her business operations for sustainable growth.
She shares the pivotal moments that led her to step back, invest in the right support, and rebuild her company into a stronger, more systemized version of itself. This conversation dives deep into leadership evolution, burnout recovery, team accountability, and the powerful mindset shift from doing it all to leading intentionally.
In This Episode:
[01:00] Lucy’s Turning Point – The moment of burnout forced her to reevaluate how she was leading and living.
[02:40] Hiring for Experience, Not Just Skills – Why bringing in a seasoned second-in-command changed everything.
[06:00] The Power of Letting Go – How releasing control led to clarity, alignment, and stronger systems.
[10:00] Real Change in Action – From chaotic communication to streamlined operations with structure and accountability.
[16:00] The Marketing Breakthrough – How a fresh approach simplified execution and reignited visibility.
[22:00] “Who, Not How” – Finding the right people accelerates results more than doing it yourself.
[28:00] Leadership and Lifestyle – The lessons Lucy learned about rest, self-care, and redefining success.
[35:00] Ego and Self-Awareness – How great leaders get out of their way and build more innovative teams.
📌 Why This Matters
Lucy’s story is a powerful reminder that success doesn’t come from doing more — it comes from building a business that runs without depending on you. When you invest in systems, support, and the right people, you buy back more than your time — you buy back your life.
✅ Action Steps for Listeners:
- Audit your leadership habits — where are you still holding on too tightly?
- Identify one area where an experienced second-in-command could help.
- Simplify communication: one system, one process, one point of truth.
- Schedule time to rest — not as a reward, but as a requirement.
Resources & Links:
👉 If Lucy’s story resonated with you, share this episode with another business owner ready to scale smarter, not harder.
Transcript:
Derek Fredrickson
00:02
I’m really excited to welcome today’s guest, Lucy Rayden to the show. Like recent guests who are clients of the COO Solution, Lucy is a current and relatively new client of the COO Solution and someone I’ve had the pleasure of supporting as she grows her business and leads with intention. Lucy is the founder of Insight Technology Search, a specialist executive search firm that recruits for deep tech companies globally. Based in Grenoble, France, Lucy and her team have been delivering exceptional results for their clients since 2017, balancing precision, efficiency and a deep understanding of what it means to find the right people for high-stakes roles. What’s powerful about this conversation is that Lucy is still in the early stages of working with us, but even in just a short time we’ve seen huge momentum.
Derek Fredrickson
00:59
From sales systems to personal clarity to long term planning, this episode is all about what becomes possible when you commit to doing things differently and smarter. Let’s dive in.
Main Episode:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to The COO Solution podcast. I am your host, Derek Fredrickson, and very excited to welcome a very special guest today, Lucy Rayden, who is a current client, relatively new client of the COO Solution. Welcome, Lucy. It’s great to have you on the show today.
00:20
Lucy Rayden
Thanks, Derek. I’m excited to be here.
00:22
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah. So we’re going to share a little bit about Lucy’s story, part of our work together, and some insights that Lucy’s got to share about team and team culture and hiring and maybe a little bit of sales and how to avoid burnout, which is something that I think is really important for all of our listeners, whether you’re a business owner, a visionary and entrepreneur. So we’re going to dive in, and yeah, it will be a great conversation. And also, Lucy and I have something in common because we’re both in France, but we’re both not French. So I’m in Paris. And, Lucy, where are you in France today?
00:53
Lucy Rayden
I’m just outside Grenoble, so in the French Alps, just in the mountains with mountain views. It’s very warm, very beautiful. But, yes, I’m a Brit, an expat or immigrant, whichever you prefer to call me, in France, and have been here for 10, 13 years, actually.
01:10
Derek Fredrickson
Wow. Wow. So a little bit more. Yeah, a few years more than I have been here. And I’m a bit jealous because, as you probably know, I love to ski. And so I love the area where you are, Grenoble, with the mountains in the background. Summer is nice, but my preference would be there more in the winter to be able to ski. But that’s for another. Maybe another episode, another conversation. And as I mentioned earlier. So, Lucy, you’re a relatively new client with the COO Solution. It’s only been a few months, Before we got started, tell us a little bit about what was going on in your business. You’ve been in business for quite some time. It’s been very successful. You’ve had great momentum.
01:49
Derek Fredrickson
But what was going on in your business before we started to work together, and what were some of the signals or kind of downloads, if you will, to say, I think I may want to explore getting some additional support. What was that conversation in your head? That was about that.
02:06
Lucy Rayden
Yes. Well, so we’ve had the business now for about 10 years, and we’ve kind of grown organically, and we’re not huge. We’re small. We’re a team of, I think, eight or nine people at the moment and the business had always been on the up. For the first sort of probably seven or eight years. We were always on the up and everything was good. But as I learned actually from doing Fabienne’s course, I was not necessarily in my area of unique brilliance. And I actually got burnt out, really burnt out, where I had to completely put down everything for three weeks because I was having weird night tremors. And I realized that I couldn’t go on at the pace I was going on. I was doing kind of everything, but I was doing a lot of stuff that I hated doing.
02:55
Lucy Rayden
I mean, really hated doing. Wasn’t my strength at all, but I was doing it because there was nobody else to do it. First of all, I hired someone who’s a friend of mine in an operations role. And I hired for skills rather than experience. And she’s absolutely brilliant, and she took on a huge load off my shoulders. But a couple of years later, I got sick for a while, actually, and I’m fine now, but I took some time out and I realized I was still very much involved in a lot of elements of the business that I didn’t want to be, that I didn’t enjoy. I was involved in lots of detail, lots of decisions that I didn’t think I needed to be.
03:40
Lucy Rayden
And although we thought we had some great processes and great systems in place, there was a lot that wasn’t getting completed. I am a terrible person for coming up with too many ideas and throwing them at everyone and scaring my team.
03:53
Derek Fredrickson
Well, don’t say we’re terrible. That’s actually one of your gifts, is to be able to come up with lots of ideas. I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I wanted to just reframe. That’s what actually drives the business. But continue. Go on. Yes.
04:03
Lucy Rayden
But I don’t know how my team feel about it, because I would say, oh, we need to do this and we need to do that. And I would start things and I would not always finish them. And I realized that although my operational team were good and strong, I was too much involved still. And there was a lot of elements of the work that were draining me. And I think our processing systems were getting there, but weren’t fully implemented, some of them. So were kind of, like, not quite getting over the line with certain things which I knew were important. And I came to the realization I took some time out this year. I went over to Costa Rica and took some months out. And I just realized we can’t go on like this and actually the business took a hit.
04:50
Lucy Rayden
The markets were not so good. Whilst I was ill, we. Our revenues dropped by a third. My. My husband and business partner was taking up my role as well as his and trying to do the sales. It was all too much. And I realized that I couldn’t go back into the business in the same capacity I’d been going in. And we didn’t want the business to fail and fall apart. We wanted it to carry on. We had some good foundations, we had some great people. And I thought, I can’t let go of this. I want this to keep going. But my focus became my health as number one priority. And I wanted the business to still be able to thrive. And I thought, if I’m not there 100% of the time, it’s not going to thrive, so what needs to happen?
05:37
Lucy Rayden
So I realized thatI needed somebody who was another adult in the room in terms of, you know, looking at where does the business need to go? Right. So. And when I looked at that, I thought, okay, well, I’ve hired for skills, but I haven’t hired for experience. I need experience. I need someone who, when I chuck these ideas out, they go, oh, yeah, I’ve done that before. I know how to do that. Rather than, oh, I’ll go and figure it out. And it might take me six months or we might not quite implement it. Right. So that’s when I came to the conclusion that we needed some. Some more experience on the team.
06:13
Derek Fredrickson
And thank you for sharing. I know that, you know, what you. What you’ve just shared about kind of taking a step away from the business, whether it was due to health or, you know, a little bit of burnout and having, you know, in that kind of, I would say, like a negative period. But the awareness of saying, okay, if I step back or when I come back into the business fully, I can’t be the same version of who I was before because that might lead down to a similar path. And not suggesting that’s what we would have intended, but I appreciate the vulnerability in sharing the awareness, whether it’s from, you know, taking an exit from the business for a bit or during health reasons or personal reasons and kind of getting the clarity.
06:55
Derek Fredrickson
This is one of the things I really appreciate about what you’ve shared with your story and others, is that there are many entrepreneurs that I think have the awareness of things may need to be different or I may need to change, or I’ve done things in the past and it’s more of the same as more of the same. And in some cases, we get the awareness and then we discount it and we don’t take any action of doing things differently. Others, like yourself and other entrepreneurs, get the awareness and say, okay, I need to make a decision to do things differently in order to still grow or scale my business. And there’s a different reflection in terms of like which path. It’s like you want to take the red pill or the blue pill.
07:33
Derek Fredrickson
And red pill might be more of the same and there’s nothing wrong with it, but another one, I’m not sure which one is the right pill, the red or the blue. But you know what I mean, like in terms of doing things differently, not only in getting the support, but then allowing you to be different in the business and feeling more aligned in what your unique brilliance is and being able to be more in that zone of ideation and having somebody to, you know, finish the projects and move things forward. So what was the inclination to say? Okay, but I need a second in command, I need a coo. I need that trusted thought partner that is again, like not just with the skills but also the experience. Somebody that’s done that has run multiple seven figure companies.
08:12
Derek Fredrickson
What was that kind of decision point for you?
08:17
Lucy Rayden
Yes I think I’d done Fabienne’s course and there was so much great stuff that came out of that, but I realized I wasn’t getting a lot of it over the line. I would start, finish, etc. Etc. And I remember coming across you, Derek, as the kind of hogs behind Fabienne’s business. And I remember thinking, this business runs really well, it’s sleek, things happen, emails come out, everything is happening really really quickly. And I would love for my business to run in this way. Things happening without people having to constantly be thinking about it. The sort of systemization of different elements of the business. And I remember thinking, wow, that works like a well-oiled machine. And I loved it. I thought it was brilliant. You know, I thought Fabienne was brilliant and I thought you in the background were brilliant as well.
09:05
Lucy Rayden
And you know, I kept an eye on what you were doing. I saw your posts on LinkedIn And when you started the COO business yourself, I thought, I’m going to keep an eye on that. And there was just this point while I was away and I thought, you know what, I need to get in touch with Derek because I kind of feel like I need another person to keep all of this back end work going and running. And I don’t want that to be me. I’ve got other things to be doing each time I get sucked into it. I think we had someone resign while I was away and I took this stress upon myself so much and I didn’t need to actually. We just needed better systems and processes in place.
09:52
Lucy Rayden
I didn’t need to kind of absorb that stress. And I thought, I don’t want to keep absorbing this stress. I want better systems and processes so that we just move on quickly. And I don’t really worry too much when that happens.
10:05
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
10:05
Lucy Rayden
So I just decided if, if I can get back into my business on a more of a part time basis so I can also prioritize my health. And I have great, a great team. I want to keep them in jobs, I want to keep them public. I know I have some good people. Right. So I know if they’re working well and I’ve always known in the right place and they collaborate well, we’ve got a brilliant organization. But I did feel sometimes like everyone’s jelly together in some way and I, I needed to bring that forward. And I think I realized that when I looked again at my kind of unique brilliance, you know, I really, I came to the realization that I don’t necessarily love the management of people. I love people.
10:53
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
10:54
Lucy Rayden
But I’m really terrible at, well, we can set up together. But then I’m really terrible at following up.
10:59
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
10:59
Lucy Rayden
Making sure that they’re doing that stuff. It’s just not me and it’s not my husband. I’ve already moved on to the next thing. I’ve got my ideas, my head, you know, it doesn’t work that way. And I thought continuity, consistency is the key to a strong business. Following up is the key to strong sales. So all of these elements that I know need to happen are not necessarily my core strength. Yeah, I need somebody who has that core strength. And that’s when I thought, I need to reach out to Derek. Yeah, I did.
11:31
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, I, I appreciate that. There’s a lot I could say about that. But I feel like, you know, in some respect it’s, I love what you shared. Like looking at what we were doing with Boldheart and how things were running and you know, again, the awareness and tapping into that to say I want that’s what I want. But I don’t want to be the person to have to be setting it up. Right. And knowing that again, I have my zone of genius, my unique brilliance. I add value to the business in this way and I know that’s what I need in terms of the systems and the process and the structure. But I don’t want to be the one to try to set all of that up.
12:09
Derek Fredrickson
It’s going to feel like pushing a boulder up the hill and kind of getting the awareness of having somebody who is wired to finish things, who is wired to follow through, who craves being in that kind of second in command position to help lead, manage and hold accountable teams and everything. And you’re in the people business. Right. But it doesn’t mean, you know, in your role, it’s the relationship of people and the cultivation of people and the connection. Maybe not more of the did you get this done? Where are we with this? But you want that and you need to have that in place, but not be the one to do that. Which is great because, you know, we brought in, you know, a great fractional COO who’s working with you and with Chris and myself.
12:47
Derek Fredrickson
And so what are some of the shifts that you’ve seen happen? Again, it’s only been, I think about two and a half months. And so what are some of the shifts that you’ve seen in whether it’s your team, your systems or just individually, you and, or Chris, your partner who is a key component of the business, what have you seen has transformed in these short couple of months?
13:08
Lucy Rayden
Yeah, you know, it’s interesting because sometimes it’s the smallest tweaks that you don’t even think about yourself. Right. So often when we were communicating, we’re using Slack, we’re using email, we’re using WhatsApp and then documents kind of all over the place. Some people would be messaging on Teams that I never even looked at those messages because I was like, oh, too many things everywhere. And one of the first things that Mary Alice said was let’s get everything down in channels on Slack. So all internal communication is going through Slack. And you know, and it’s interesting because I had emails I was responding to and then people would respond and I would straight go back and put it on Slack. And they’d be like, well, she’s a bit strict. And I was like, I need to be strict, guys, because we all move into that line.
13:56
Lucy Rayden
Right. You know, and it’s a little tweak and changes but it’s great. I love it. I don’t have to be in my emails for the internal work. I can look on Slack, I can see where things are. I’m starting to use the little symbols. I can say things I need to do. So that sense of organization for me was like number one. Number two was having Mary Alice talking to the team on a weekly basis and keeping them accountable for what they said they were going to do. She’s very direct, she’s very to point, but she’s warm as well. And I’m always. I’m a strong believer in working with people you like. I don’t, I’m not interested in working with people I don’t like. And I liked her from the minute that I started talking to her.
14:46
Lucy Rayden
She was directing to the point she knew how to do things. She understood what I was saying very quickly. You know, she’s coming to our business not having worked in our sector before. And there’s a lot to understand, there’s a lot to it, but she’s picking it up like this. I mean, it’s no issue for her. She gets it. So that was one of the first things that I thought was really good. The other things were, I mean, the team becoming more. Taking more accountability. I’m definitely getting less constant kind of questions about this and what about this? And you know, and things just getting over the line. Like we had a half done brand voice, you know, understanding how we wanted to sound. But it wasn’t ever completed. People were still posting randomly. The things looked different and it drove me insane.
15:41
Lucy Rayden
But I didn’t know how to fix it. I could say to the guys, use this, use that. And then it just wasn’t happening. And she’s just managed to get these things in place. So they’re working. The other thing is definitely the marketing. I mean, marketing has been the bane of my life, my whole entire career. Because I have denied for many years about the kind of person that I need to get the marketing off the ground because I’m a salesperson, a direct salesperson. It’s how I’ve always worked. Picking up the phone, speaking to people. And that’s how we’ve done our business, which has been effective. But it’s bloody hard work, right?
16:18
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
16:18
Lucy Rayden
And marketing is a tool to enable your business to be known about, to be heard about, to talk about the great things that you’ve done to. And we just hadn’t managed to implement anything on that because I hadn’t taken a decision because I was like, do I take a sort of a marketing person on? And then I’m like, then I’m gonna have to tell them what to do when I don’t know what I’m telling them. And I don’t understand the website and the SEO and etc. etc. So it’s like people talking Chinese to me, you know? So I want someone that gets it. And when Mary Alice came in, she just was like, oh, yeah, we can set this up and we can set it at that. Oh, yeah, I’ve done that before.
16:52
Lucy Rayden
And I was like, yes, because I know I’m afraid I need to start writing content and I take the dog on a walk and I have all these great ideas of content and I come home and then I don’t do it. Whatever reason, I don’t do it. I don’t know why I don’t do it, but I don’t. And that doesn’t get you anywhere. You can have the ideas, but if you don’t put them into practice. And one of the best things Mariana said to me was, okay, how much involvement do you want in the marketing? She said, you can have maximum or you can have minimum. And I said, minimum, please. And I said, what does that mean?
17:25
Lucy Rayden
And she said, well, if you either come up with ideas or I can ask you questions, you can record a voice note with the answer and I’ll create the rest and I’ll post it and I’ll get everything done.
17:36
Derek Fredrickson
And I was like, oh, I love that.
17:39
Lucy Rayden
Dream come true.
17:41
Derek Fredrickson
I love that.
17:42
Lucy Rayden
Talk about things.
17:43
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, I love that. Because. Especially with the marketing, I believe, and especially for your business. But I believe in every business, the biggest driver is marketing. And in most cases, in my experience, the visionary, the business owner, it’s not their jam, it’s not the thing that they thrive in. They thrive in relationships, they thrive in the vision, they thrive in the sales element because they’ve got a big picture of what they want that business to look like. But the catalyst to get that in place is marketing. But marketing is done the right way in terms of.
18:20
Derek Fredrickson
We could do a lot of things with marketing, but for Lucy and for Chris and for your business, what are the things that we should be doing from a marketing perspective that’s going to drive the result, but in a scalable way that doesn’t involve more stuff for you to do or more stuff for the team to have to do? Of course, there’s things that need to be put in place, but we’re doing it strategically and thoughtfully based on what’s actually going to be the driver for your business in terms of marketing and what’s your involvement? I love the kind of ordered at a restaurant. I would like the maximum or like the minimum or somewhere in between, or I’d like to start small and then see it. That’s all part of the process.
18:53
Derek Fredrickson
The other thing I’ll share, which I’d like to highlight for those that are watching or listening, is that, you know, sharing what you were sharing about Slack, just as an example. And I know that some people might be listening to, like, oh, it’s just, you know, just shifting how we do communication in one way or the other. Yes. In, in that form. It’s simple, but it’s oftentimes the small things that get in the way of the big things. And we know that in our work with the clients and we’ve talked about this with you and your business. Like, I think Mary Alice was sharing, like, there’s emails over here and then people are asking on Slack, did you see the email? And then there’s something on teams, and it’s like, whoa, whoa.
19:31
Derek Fredrickson
And there’s this operational efficiency in terms of how we collaborate and how we communicate. That’s really important. I know it doesn’t sound sexy in the beginning, but it’s actually the things that make things more fluid. And especially for you’re like, okay, I just want things organized. I just want, like, one place I know where to go. I don’t have to go and chase and look in different areas because that’s, it’s the small thing that trips up some of the bigger things. So I can appreciate whether it’s the organization or just the structure or just the simplicity of how we’re getting stuff done and how we’re communicating, that is actually small in description, but, like, huge in terms of impact because it actually simplifies so many things.
20:11
Derek Fredrickson
I often say if a business is complex, like, you can’t scale complexity, but you can scale simplicity and structure and process, which, again, I know is not sexy, but it’s actually the thing that gives us so much momentum. So what’s it like working with Mary Alice? You shared a little bit before, but what else is that she brings to how you are operating in the business or how you are showing up and kind of knowing that you’ve got that. I often say that trusted kind of strategic thought partner now, I mean, get stuff done. Yes. But also somebody to lean on in order to kind of help you at this level where you’re focused on the vision and scaling the business.
20:48
Lucy Rayden
Yeah, right. Like I said, I have millions of ideas and she has a way to funnel my ideas via Asana into potential projects and then to help decide which ones we prioritize. Which again, helps because sometimes when you’re someone like me, that the kind of prioritization can be complicated because you’re coming up with so many things that you want to do. You want to do them all now. Because if you’re. Again, if you’re anything like me, you’re impatient, you want to make change happen. And that’s how I. I feel good. I feel good. when progress makes me happy. Improving things makes me happy, you know, and doing great job for my clients makes me happy. And having my. My team doing a great job for my clients makes me happy. Right.
21:36
Lucy Rayden
So all of these things that create my own personal happiness and keep the team buzzing as well. They need some backend work because you. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes. And the better you make your product, your service, the way you deliver your service, the more people will buy from you because they’ve enjoyed that whole process. And we’ve always been big on this thing. So I would say the process we’ve had with our clients has always been pretty good. But in my mind, we can always make it better. And I will have ideas on how to do that, and I can run them past Mary Alice, and she can help. Look at that.
22:15
Lucy Rayden
And it’s also the focus, you know, having a account list, like which of the clients that we’re most interested in working in and why, and really honing in on that, and how do we organize that information, how do we use that information, how do we target those people? So all of that has been brilliant. And just having her there, we have a weekly call and she talks me through everything that she’s been doing. And then if there’s anything that I’m thinking of, I will kind of let her know about how she may have some ideas about that. And often she’ll say, oh, I’ve done something like that for a client previously.
22:49
Lucy Rayden
And I’m like, you know, and I’m thinking, wow, I don’t even have to think about how I go about doing this because it’s often then you can have the idea, how’s that going to happen? And I remember, I don’t know if it was on Fabienne’s course or maybe it was on in a book that I’ve read, but it was. It’s not thinking about the how, it’s thinking about the who. Who can do this for me, because we can’t do everything. We’re not wired to do everything. And, you know, I guess I wish I’d. I’d spent more money earlier in our business. Rather than thinking, oh, we don’t want to spend on that, or we don’t want to spend on this, we want to be careful with that.
23:29
Lucy Rayden
Because there’s things that I did earlier in the business that literally almost killed me doing the PR work, trying to do it myself, I. I never again, like, touch that stuff, you know, and then we paid someone else to do it, thank goodness, because I absolutely hated it. I spent hours, you know, going through documents that was just killing me. It was painful. Uhm And I think once I realized that the sooner you can bring experts into the business, the more money your business will actually make. So it’s a difficult choice because you’re thinking, oh, should I be spending this? But actually, yes, you should. And it might be hard. You might think, oh, that’s a lot of money. But it frees you up to make more money. That’s what it does.
24:18
Lucy Rayden
It puts better processes in place so your business can run more smoothly and you can make more money. So you have to invest in the right people and good people. And Mary Alice, I mean, she’s absolutely brilliant. I love the way she works. I love how efficient she is with her time. You know, I’m a talker and I have to rein it in, but we get stuff done. And already I’ve noticed a difference with how uhm Chris, my husband, is working in the sales side of things. He has somebody helping him, uhm his assistant. And Mary Alice helps to get her organized so that she’s taking on more and more of the work that pulls him down. You know, his brilliance, his relationships is talking to people. And I’ve always said if he just spoke to people and met with people and did nothing else.
25:09
Lucy Rayden
Yeah, this business would go boom.
25:13
Derek Fredrickson
Exactly.
25:14
Lucy Rayden
Right?
25:14
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
25:15
Lucy Rayden
And I’ve done it for years and I’m maybe a bit more tired of doing it, but I still enjoy doing. I still enjoy that customer contact and those relationships. But. But you need all the back end stuff to happen rather than you to be pouring over contracts.
25:28
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, yeah.
25:29
Lucy Rayden
Mary Alice is just making sure things are moving, making sure they’re happening.
25:33
Derek Fredrickson
So, yeah, I love what you shared. Thank you, Lucy. I think especially for this idea of, again, awareness. Right. And not discrediting it, but kind of taking the insight from it and then what’s the action? But in this case of knowing, like Mary Alice is the who for the things that you’re not wired to do the how. And that’s a really big distinction because as you’ve experienced and as most entrepreneurs have experienced, especially as we are growing and then scaling our business, we’re inclined to believe it’s like the false mindset that I should be the one to be capable of doing everything. Because in the beginning we were doing the marketing, we were doing the sales. And as it evolved we kind of peeled away some of the layers and say like, you know, marketing is not my jam. Managing the team’s not my jam.
26:22
Derek Fredrickson
Operations is not my jam. What my jam or my brilliance is more of the sales or the relationships or the connection. But we can’t let those things fall by the wayside. Especially as you’re getting to a seven figure business level. It’s the structure and the system and the team and the operations. So being able to say I’m not the one wired or it’s not my brilliance to figure out how to do these things that are no longer in my lane, but I know I need the right “who”, who is wired to take those and move them forward to completion. This is what I love about this kind of partnership, which is, you know, individuals like Mary Alice and some of our fractional COOs, they’re wired to finish things.
27:02
Derek Fredrickson
They love to kind of take the idea and be like, okay, what’s the plan? Or here’s the plan, here’s how it’s going to happen. Your job is make it up. Her job is to make it real, to make it happen. And then we get the right people and the right processes in place to have them get in line in this way of working. So it continues to grow and scale in that format. I love that. So a question about, I want to ask some questions about you and your thoughts on how you’re doing, what you’re doing in your business because you have some really good insights about whether it’s team and kind of self awareness and even like avoiding burnout, which I know is something that you mentioned.
27:36
Derek Fredrickson
But in terms of the work that we’ve been doing together and again like I mentioned earlier, you know, I could tell people all day long about how a fractional COO is going to help really drive the business. But if somebody’s watching this and thinking, you know, should I be thinking about bringing on a fractional COO? What would you say to them? What are the things that you would encourage them to reflect on, to help them in that decision and with no attachment, right. Whether it’s with us or any level of support. But like how would you position that to them for somebody who’s thinking about in the same way that you were.
28:09
Lucy Rayden
Your life will get a lot easier once you do this. A lot easier. And the favorite thing that Mary Alice said to me, I was on a call with her a couple of weeks ago, and she was talking through all the things that she was moving forward – this marketing, the team management, their job descriptions, the accountants, all these things that hadn’t quite got over the line. And we got to the end of the hour and I said, so what do you need from me? And she said, oh, nothing. And she said, I see my job as making sure you can take as much holiday as you want and everything keeps running. And I was like, oh, my God. And I walked away and I could breathe. And I just was like, wow, this is kind of weird.
28:53
Lucy Rayden
I was walking around the garden like, I’ve got some time. What am I going to do with myself? And it stopped me feeling guilty about doing everything myself. Right. I think a lot of us, especially entrepreneurs, are hardwired to feel this feeling of like, if we’re not working, then we get this guilt. It’s like, I’m not doing enough. We’re always feeling like there’s more to be done, there’s more that can be done. And I think I’ve had to learn to let go of that a bit because actually, sometimes doing less more happens because other people can do it. And especially as women. I know this is a weird thing to say, but the world is a complex place at the moment, and women have a lot on their shoulders. You know, men, everyone does.
29:36
Lucy Rayden
But as a woman, when you are working, you still bear the majority of the children elements, the house element. Not always. I mean, there are men that are doing more and more, but there’s so much that women are thinking about, you know, what are we eating for dinner? What am I feeding the children? And then you’ve got the business on top of that, and then you’ve got the trying to look after yourself. You know, I mustn’t get old, I must exercise, I must look after myself, I must dye my hair. All of these things that load up and load up on women. And I think that it’s a huge amount of pressure on women. We feel like we’re never doing enough. We feel like we’re trying to perfect every element of business, of our lives, of our children’s lives, everything.
30:23
Lucy Rayden
And it’s exhausting to me, I see a big issue with this, with women getting burned out, with women getting diseases, all sorts of things, because we don’t take the time to rest, to breathe. And I’ve had to retrain myself, which I’m still in the process of doing over the last year because I didn’t want to get. And I don’t want to get sick again. But I’ve had to retrain myself to say it’s okay to take days off. You know, because I was taking at the beginning, I was taking Wednesdays off because school is not on a Wednesday. So I was taxi-ing, driving for my daughter and I was like, this is not a day off. I am taxiing my daughter around. I am doing the weekly shop. I am preparing meals. It is not a day off.
31:08
Lucy Rayden
So there’s me thinking, oh, I only work four days a week. No, I don’t.
31:11
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
31:12
Lucy Rayden
Doing the different type of work. So then I realized when is my time to rest and to chill out and to go for a walk and to exercise without the pressure of, oh, I’ve got to start a meeting, you know, when is my time to.. exhale
31:26
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
31:28
Lucy Rayden
I now take Fridays as my day and I don’t feel guilty about it anymore. And I think having the right team in place will allow you to do this. And we need it. Our bodies need it, our minds need it. And the more you do this, whether you. You like meditation, yoga, the more you look after yourself, the better you can show up for everyone else. But you need the right team about you. You know, I’m 50 years old. I have worked my butt off since I was younger than 20 years old. And it’s exhausting and it’s also unhealthy. And I think that we have to say this is too much now, I take time for myself because if you don’t have your health, you have nothing.
32:16
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
32:16
Lucy Rayden
And if you build the right team about you get the right support, you can do all of this stuff. But if you try and do everything, you will burn out. You will be exhausted. And I’m sure if there’s other women listening to this, Every woman I know is in the same boat.
32:32
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
32:33
Lucy Rayden
And you see, like, the world the way it is when, how much time are you making to see your friends? Oh, you’re too busy because you’re doing this, and we need that, especially women. We need that sense of community. So I think get the right people in place who can help you move the business forward, and you will not ever ever regret that decision.
32:55
Derek Fredrickson
I love what you’re sharing. That, that right there was. It was really impactful on so many levels. I’m just going to add a little bit of levity just because I feel Like, I don’t know if you heard this expression, but with our children, sometimes when I’m going to come back to what you said, but I think this is interesting. I’ve heard this expression when like a child is listening to one of their parents, like, give great advice, great insight, great reflection and everything else. They call it lore. So that right there was some amazing, Lucy Lore on everything about getting support and how women, how a woman should be showing up in their business, taking time away, their health, avoiding burnout.
33:34
Derek Fredrickson
That was really impactful for you to share vulnerably because I know you’ve had experience with that and I am sure women and or men listening to this can reflect to the voice that’s probably in their head saying, I’m like, I’m really exhausted in my business. I’ve got so much on my shoulder. I hear this all the time, Right? And so being able to have somebody else kind of express this is why it’s important from a personal experience perspective is really important. So thank you for sharing that.
I heard this expression the other day and it really landed for me. And I want to share because I think it echoes exactly what you’re saying. As an entrepreneur, taking time off from your business is a requirement, not a reward. It’s a requirement, not a reward.
34:19
Derek Fredrickson
And when most entrepreneurs think of it as a reward, I’m going to get all this work done, I’m going to bust my hump, and then I’ll take some time off. But guess what? Then I take time off or take time away is like the sun’s… like the horizon. It’s like, it’s always ongoing. You’ll never really get there because there’s always the next thing. And it’s a mindset shift, it’s a practice. When you diligently say, I’m going to take this time away, it’s a requirement for me to feel recharged, relaxed, rejuvenated. So when I come back and I’ve got the support, right? You can’t just walk away from the business when it’s in shambles. You need the right people in the right seats and the right culture to move things ahead.
34:57
Derek Fredrickson
But when you realize that it’s a requirement for you to take time away from your business, whether you’re taking a holiday, whether you’re doing meditation or yoga or the things that really bring light to you when you come back into the business, you’re a much better person for the business, but also for yourself. You feel more aligned. You feel more impactful. So I really appreciate what you’ve shared there, Lucy. That was very, very special.
35:21
Lucy Rayden
Any one more thing on that, Derek, that I think is important actually with leadership as well. And you know, I speak to a lot of leaders in my role. And the things that I’ve realized, it’s interesting, is I watch businesses, some of them doing well and some of them not doing well. And one of the other issues for legal leaders is self awareness, actually, and ego. Ego is the enemy. Because I see people feeling like I said, that kind of guilt if you don’t work enough, if you’re not working into the evening, you stop too early, you’re having this guilt. And that’s what we’ve got to lose. Right. Because it’s your ego telling you’ve got to do more, you’re not doing enough. Right. And it’s also telling you need to know everything.
36:09
Lucy Rayden
And as soon as you drop that and you go, you know what, it’s okay to not know. It’s okay to not know this, that the other, it doesn’t matter. And you’ve got to not be embarrassed for not knowing everything because there’s so much information in the world. We’re all on information overload. We cannot keep up with everything.
36:27
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
36:27
Lucy Rayden
And as a leader, you’re trying to pull out what are the most important things for me to keep up with. But your ego, if you let it get on top of you, it will tell you, you have to know everything. You have to know everyone. But my view is. And you know, it’s taken time to learn this over the years. The best leaders can get their ego under control and say, I actually need to hire people that are smarter than me at the things that are not my brain. And as soon as I can say, I’m going to listen to what that person is telling me because they know that stuff and I’m going to gradually understand a little bit of it. I don’t need to understand it all. I just need to understand a little bit of it.
37:12
Lucy Rayden
The more you do that, the more you build a strong team of smart people around you and you listen to them, everything gets easier.
37:21
Derek Fredrickson
Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thank you, Lucy. There’s some real gems in this conversation. I appreciate everything that you’ve shared. For those that are watching or listening, where can people find you? We’ll have obviously your link and bio and everything, but where can people find you? Online, your website or on LinkedIn?
37:38
Lucy Rayden
So I’m on LinkedIn mainly, that’s the main area that I hang out is on LinkedIn or my website, which is in intechsearch.com. You know, we recruit for deep tech companies, semiconductors, photonics, electronics. But I’m also very interested in business and businesses in general. And I’m a board member for an organization that helps businesses and collaboration of leaders. And that’s super interesting as well. So if anyone wants to find me, wants thoughts, advice, help on things, I’m always open to have conversations to connect. If I can be of assistance with things, then I will.
38:23
Derek Fredrickson
Well, thank you, Lucy. That’s very kind of you. Thank you for the offer and amazing conversation and yeah. So thank you everybody for watching or listening today’s episode. Thank you, Lucy, for being a guest. I really appreciate your sharing your story. You had some amazing insights. Lucy Lore, as I like to call it, some gems in there. So thank you so much and we’ll see you next time on the COO Solution podcast. Thanks, everybody.
38:48
Lucy Rayden
Thanks, Derek.
38:49
Derek Fredrickson
You’re welcome.