Behind the Scenes — What I'm Actually Building

Hey Bestieee!

You asked. Well.. kinda.

You've been sitting with me every Monday while I talk about deals and mindset and the climb..

but not many of y'all have seen what's happening on the OTHER side of the curtain.

The unglamorous side. The side that makes everything else even possible.

TRUST ME.. this is the part I wish someone had shown me 3 years ago.

Reactive was killing me…

For a long time ya girl was OPERATING reactive.

Deal comes in - react.
Investor asks a question - react.
Team hits a problem - react.
Bills, taxes, contract deadlines - react react react react.

And I be sooo over it honestly! Because reactive mode is not how ima build a $100M anything.

Reactive mode is how you build a job that owns you back.

The shift I been secretly trying to change this.. I want to make this year the year of improvement. and it def hasnt happened overnight..

But I guess its like breaking an old bad habit.

Going from reactive to PROACTIVE is not an easy task.

That's what I've been quietly working on.. and building internally.

What's actually behind the curtain… 🥁🥁

Three layers.

Every one saves me hours a week (and prevents things from breaking):

1. The investor comms system

Now I know I can't be the only one.. Most operators lose investor trust not because a deal goes bad, but because the COMMUNICATION goes bad. Silence = suspicion.

And I'm learning as I go how to be the best leader + operator I can be…

So over the past 6-7 weeks I built a new cadence that includes a:

Monthly portfolio letter (numbers + narrative)
Same day update anytime a deal hits a milestone (closed, refi'd, exited)
Quarterly Zoom for anyone who wants face time with me or the team
Everything through a hub so nothing rots in my personal inbox

2. The team playbook aka SOPs → STEPS to ACTION!!!

This one was a game changer. For years my team had SOPs on paper..

That nobody actually followed. Because SOPs are theory. What people need is STEPS.

The rewrite:

Every SOP became a numbered checklist
Every checklist has a "definition of done"
Every task has an owner + a deadline + a "who to escalate to"

Sounds simple. Reduced my "wait what should I do?" Slack messages by like.. 80%.

3. The AI layer (shoutout Amber for putting me down this rabbit hole)

Amber told me for the past year - "you HAVE to go all in on AI or you're going to fall behind." I side eyed her at the first time or ten (bc I was already stretched too thin to learn one more thing 😂). Then I actually did it. I immediately traded my old 2017 Macbook in for a new one LOL.

Now AI is helping us run:

• My first pass for deal underwriting (5-min screens instead of 45-min)

• My investor prep briefs before every call

• My newsletter research (the one you're reading right now.. for real) Now I get weekly news articles, trends, and what people are talking about on SM. Before I was manually having to research aka why it was HARD to show up here every monday

• My weekly team prep

TBH, the list goes on but the best part for me (and YOU) is NONE of these are "AI" you have to be a tech person to use. If you can text.. you can use these tools.

The free thing I want to give you…

Since you've been rocking with me through all the noise, I want you to walk away with something REAL.

Reply to this letter with "YES SEND IT" and I'll send you:

The 5-Minute Deal Score - my AI-powered checklist to kill bad deals fast = its basically what I have done in a excel sheet for all these years but SO much faster.

That's it. No opt-in form. No spam sequence. You reply to this email, I will send it.

Why any of this matters for YOU…

If you're an operator, an investor, or maybe building something quiet in the background - learn from me because the shift from reactive to proactive is the ONLY thing that scales.

Systems > hustle.

Team > you doing everything.

AI > staying stuck in 2019.

We have a lot to catch up on friend.. and I promised you I'd start pulling back the curtain.

This is the first of many.

Next Week: How I structure investor updates (with the template deep-dive)

xoxo,
Brittany Bell - your investor bestie
@itzbrittanymarie

P.S. Talk to me. I Reply and I read every one :)