00:00:39All right. We did it. We did it.

00:01:09Getting out. And about, we had a wonderful panel yesterday and amazing people showed up for it. So, I, that was exciting. Tell you, I don't mean to brag. I was one of those people who you absolutely where you were one of those people write their top Center. So we love that. So people, if you haven't seen it, make sure you go. Check it out. We talked about markings. Well, they say I should said they cuz I wasn't able to be there, but they talked about marketing strategies for 2022, really important stuff. And we'll make sure to put that link in the show notes so that you can go and check out all of the great marketing experts in the advice. They offered an especially Jen.

00:02:50And I know that Shelly knows because she's been, you know, streaming on Amazon. And last week we talked about things like shoppable posts, which means, you know, people can interact with my post that you have are they can shop in a while you're talking on whether it's Pinterest TV or, you know, any, any of these different platforms, you know, Amazon in the different platforms. And the reason why we talked about all of that stuff, is because we have had explosive growth in how people do Commerce since covid. I mean, have you seen it Shelly? Where how we, how we buy things, how we engage with companies? There's been a significant shift in that just since 2020, he got on us. He's on Amazon Prime. He's on the Walmart, you know, you pay once a year for all of your deliveries and he orders almost everything to come delivered to his home.

00:04:49Absolutely, and and so what we have seen and then we take it into the small business context is like what how do you you can't really compete with Amazon in that? You're not a huge Fortune, 500 company. So that's one of the challenges that you have and yet as we have seen and digital marketing digital transformation, how we buy things, which is really the context of of that of those words. Right now has shifted so much whether it's how you, how you interact with a local restaurant or, you know, how you get goods and services, how you get your groceries, all of that. If you look as a small business owner at that, you can see that it has changed significantly.

00:05:49When everything shut down originally, everybody was like, okay, I do and they're all these plans. Like one day. I'm going to, you know, this was Fortune, 500 companies, that's part of why we saw it shifts so quick. They had all these plans for things that they were going to do in the future. Like. Oh the future is today and they started doing it so that accelerated it initially, but now I think the one we're looking at shopify's report, what we can see is it has now come into our space which is more of the small to medium-sized business space and we're like, okay, what are we did? And so I will tell you, and I have the report at will put the link to the report in the in the notes as well.

00:06:53how to respect a patient's have changed. So when you say an eighty-year-old, Shelly can go out and they're going out, they feel comfortable to go online and buy stuff. Then why wouldn't your customers who are likely not in the 80-plus demographic? Why would you not offer the same thing to your customers?

00:08:14I think, you know, a lot of times people have they get a quote, or they need to schedule something for me when I go to interact. If I'm going to a new service. I mean, I'm I'm lazy. I don't want to call you and schedule an appointment. Let me schedule online as you don't find your scheduler, providing some sort of framework of the quote, you know, and then you're capturing a name and email address and then you can follow up with that person. And really when we talked about like how people buy from you online. The thing that I tell people over and over again, is your website isn't a treasure map, the treasure map, you tell them the treasure for every page. It's not a scavenger hunt meaning that you're not, you know, like like Shelly. You do like geocaching and finding treasure. Your website. Absolutely. Should not be like that experience. I have the patience for that people have.

00:09:59Yes. Yes. Absolutely. It's not only the most important thing is that thing that you got to focus on it? Because it's the one thing that's going to keep bringing people back. You want to retain, you want to nurture, you want them to keep coming back so that you can develop a relationship with those people and that trust. So then they want to spend money with you. They want to spend time with you. They want to know more about you and your business.

00:10:55And then it just fell off a cliff, it is about like, what happens next. And so those are some of the basics, what Shopify really goes into your kind of the statistics. So if you need proof, that people are buying online and you need to see what they're projecting based on hundred thousands of transactions. Hundreds of thousands of customers at all of that. Then I really encourage you to look at the report. They talked to go in-depth around. You're the future of retail. It's interesting how the future of e-commerce. If you're building an online business and then to your point Shelly. They're also talking about the shipping challenges that are occurring now and that those may continue into the future and then how you you as a small business owner can navigate that as well. And did you have a graph for that that you wanted to share? Is that for later? See?

00:12:54Really facilitate navigating this really uncertain world. So, I would say anything that you implement be prepared to make a shift on that and that will really help you in the long run. But yeah, they go into, you know, so then you can break into each of these. One of the things that I thought was really interesting because we talked about it last week is, if you look even just this little detail here on the future of e-commerce, they talk about, you know, deepening relationships directly with customers, and then using things like live shopping, which is what we were talking about. Last week with Pinterest TV, Amazon live in your Amazon live, streamed it that you and Toby do. And you don't even going into a lot of different ways that you can really engage with people. And I think that one of the things that is really important, and I think that you can, you'll agree with me to Shelly, is the idea that

00:13:59World.

00:14:55Yeah, I mean you do these things don't have to be hard or complicated. One of the reasons why I took Shelli up on the idea to do a live stream at the same time that we do a podcast is because I think it's a way for people to engage and ask questions which, by the way. Hi. Yeah. I haven't gotten any questions yet, but maybe maybe they're coming, but it's a way to cut him. Deep in these relationships, going online, doing live video, really talking about things and, and engaging with people, that's one of the ways to really that I wanted to deep and my relationships with people, not just Shelly but like everybody, you know, and I really speak to people. So that's one of the things that I'm really excited about. As one of the things I really encourage people to do and I think that one of the things that both Shelly and I believe is it doesn't have to be hard.

00:16:05Baby stops man. I'll just baby steps and getting support and collaborating with people who can help you. And that's I think that's really important to so, you know sign people that you appreciate and trust and and do things with them. And it's really important to get out there and do that makes it more makes life, more fun makes the journey more worthwhile. So that is our breaking news that went on, for a long time. Sorry about that. But, this is a really shifting Market. Things are changing all the time and it's probably something we'll talk about a lot.

00:17:47Your website to make it user-friendly and you can outline the steps that I take people through that journey and keep it very simple and that's going to help your customers not to feel overwhelmed and confused. And and the confused person never buys anything. So the big big companies. Do you have a disadvantage that you can take advantage of? Absolutely. And yeah, I was going to call the Winchester House glad that you like that. So there was this lady in San Jose and she just kept adding and adding and adding on to her house and their doors, that led nowhere. And when I worked in, you know, when I worked in Tech in building applications, we had one application that we all thought was just Winchester House. He couldn't get in and out of things easily and it was really hard for the people who worked in customer service. And so,

00:19:20Looking for, I think.

00:19:40Ready for it. They were talking about marketing automation, which is one of gems.

00:20:49You know, or and this is one of my least favorite things and yet I see a lot of people do it. That people do often times is they go out on social media and they asked like the hive mind. But yeah, what are you do? And they get a lot of

00:22:10And I did this at scale at an enterprise-level and basically people like things aren't working, right, make it better. Jen. And I spent a lot of time. I was like that Tech translate rich. People are like this is broken. And then I go back to the developer and be like, okay, so they're saying that this is broken and we need to fix it and they're like, well, they should just hit this button and I'm like, no, they're not going to hit that button. So like let's make it better. That's the background in. This is you know, kind of understanding business problems and knowing that things can be resolved and I can tell you from all of my years of experience that when we talked about things at Big Business levels, they're not necessarily going out and asking the Facebook like how to find the best program. That's just not happening. We make all other business. Entities are other jurisdictions if it's a it's a governmental thing, but a lot of times what organizations that are successful they're doing is they're looking inward. It was not working and they're getting

00:23:33then you don't have to go into this Awful Truth, which is really that software is not going to save you or your business. So I'm going to save you time to save your marketing. Its and I hate to say that but it's actually the truth software. Is it going to make it better marketing tools alone? Don't make it better. Marketing tools are like a support system. Underneath your, your goals that really help you towards your goals.

00:24:06The other thing that's the whole Miss system has broken down. So you really have to understand, you know, your industry and your ideal, customer. You have to know where they are, where they hang out. And then start to really dive into a lot of what's going on in terms of what the problem is and how you solve it. It may not sound. Like like this doesn't sound super sexy in your leg. What does this have to do with marketing tools? And the reason is if you don't know what your products and services are and you don't know what it is, that you're selling who the people are and even like where you want your Revenue to come from, like the tools are just going to suddenly materialize out of nowhere because all of the marketing tools are built for different Industries. They are built for different purposes and you know, so for example,

00:25:54It wasn't built for you or your business. So you have to be really clear about.

00:26:23Right, right. So, so the first step really is to get really super clear about your own business and what your goals are. You know, how do you want to deliver the services? And then also look at your past and forecasted growth. Like how much are you going to grow? Because and what are your three to five your business goals? Because all of that really feeds into the types of tools that somebody like me could recommend, you know, and it's because against offers created specifically for a certain industry, a certain customer type different business sizes, and revenue and business models, you know, there's no reason for someone to pay for HubSpot, unless they are a medium sized business, approaching a large Enterprise business. If that's not in your goals, then HubSpot is like to overpriced really, for what it is. It's a great marketing tool.

00:28:23And Implement and why would, why would that be there? First thing there first thing? So the reason we look at things like goals, the three simple steps are goals budget and business needs. So it's important to make sure that you're clear about your business schools. But then you have to also look at your budget because those two things really dictate what the first automation really is. So to me as I am and I have colleagues who say the same thing, you know.

00:29:54Software is a lot different. However, will say that for most small businesses, most of the people listening or watching it would be, you know, MailChimp is a really solid Choice, activecampaign really, solid choice. You want to find something that integrates with all of the tools that you're using and and use something that is big and established. A lot of people want to use things like flodesk or they want to use even mailerlite, you know, these are good products, but they're not as well as stablished. It's especially for people who are maybe not super text, Abby, you know, you want to find something that's just going to work with everything so you don't have to

00:30:41So I think the first thing is make it easy for people to schedule with you. Make it easy for people to subscribe to your email list. Those are your first automations and then you can start to get a little more dynamic.

00:31:58The paint work and is going to grow with you and MailChimp will do that. MailChimp. Will ya and get responses? Great to. It just depends on if it works with everything else and for you, it does so. So that means it's a good choice, you don't. And that's the thing people get all wrapped up and like all of that, and it's like, if it works for you, then it's a good choice. Desk in Miller. Lites were streets. A good choice. I'm not trying to talk. Not trying to dissuade you from it. Unless you have a problem that needs to be soft. And that's that's that's what this is. So from a, you know, when you know anytime you can get enterprise-grade products that are also built for small business. That's a good thing. And that's one of the things about MailChimp activecampaign some of these some of these tools. Is it there while establishing they've been around the thing that you mentioned that I think is really important is when you talk about a budget, I think it's important that you not just look at it from a

00:33:00Level, I think every business, no matter how big or small you are. You need to have some sort of marketing budget. And even if that budget is zero, at least you've established. And that's that's so important. Like the reason MailChimp comes up is because it's free.

00:33:42And how much do you charge per hour? If you're actually helping clients? Yeah, you're spending money right now. Even if it's only quote, only your time, you're spending money right now and you have a marketing budget. And what I tend to do with clients a lot is we go through credit card statements PayPal accounts, and we try to evaluate where all this money is going and save people money. So I heard you to go through your statements yourself quarterly so that you can save yourself some money. Have that honest talk with yourself about what it is. You're not using any more important thing about, for instance streamyard. We are with stream yard because it offers a certain set of

00:35:11Yeah, and that's and that's the thing. You know, when you find the things that work when you come up with the system, then it's really important to not get distracted. And honestly like confession time, as somebody who loves software. This is like, my downfall isn't like it's it's avoiding that fomo of that's probably better because every time you

00:36:36And then the third thing is really identifying, your business needs and this is another step that people tend to really Overlook. And I think it's overwhelming people sometimes because they're like, well, I don't know, the techie words for what it is, but I need. And that's the key is the good software companies, the good marketing tools. The good sales people are marketing consultants. They don't need to hear you use text speech to help them. Help you.

00:38:15Because you don't want to fix something that's broken and then break something that was working great. So, you know, it kind of has to balance out at one of the ways that we, as business owners can really save ourselves, a lot of headache and partake in Castle is take the time. Even if you think you don't have it to really communicate with a software company before you really make a commitment. Take advantage of the free trial, ask a lot of questions upfront. Even if somebody has recommended it to you or maybe especially if somebody's recommended it to you, take the time before you invest everything into it or migrate all your data or update all of your systems and how everything talk to each other. Ask a lot of questions, test out the software. Is it easy for you to use? Is it easy for you to pass off to somebody else? Is it used enough that you could hire a VA who already has that skill set or a marketing person? You

00:39:23Thousands of hours and many sad tears is working for you is the right tool.

00:39:44you know, there's certain things that we approach in our business and that make us happy and there are certain things to be approached with a sense of dread and anything that

00:40:45In a client onboarding, I work with a lot of service providers. So if people are coaches are Consultants, you know, and they're like Blair has to be an easier way. I have to go into like three programs to like send out emails and get clients on board.

00:41:17All right. Well, yeah. In and sometimes it takes somebody who is not inside the business to be able to put eyes on something and say, will you here here are the different. Here's what I'm saying in your business, you have this activity and then you have disliked tivity. And then you have this activity is, you know, how are each one of these working for you. It, where is the bottleneck? Where are you having issues? And then they can they can really hone in on what's not working. In the end. How do we fix that?

00:41:55That most of your dreams can come true, making your life easier with marketing tools, so we can make your light. You can, we can make your life easier. We can make your dreams come true, but it comes down to how important is it and how much money do you have them? Because anything is possible. It's just about the budget and, and how is it just a bell and whistle? Or is this an actual like core function that you have to somehow overcome make easier for yourself. And that's why it's so important to really, as a business owner stand tall, and, and firm in, you know, what your goals are, what it is that you need, and how much money you have, because the truth is working with people, like me, we can, we can make everything talk to each other, automate, a lot of stuff, but you don't just automate for automation sake, you do it for a purpose, you know, and you

00:43:04You can save yourself a lot of time and increase your productivity, always important. Saving Time, increasing productivity, bring you up for the things that you loved where maybe that's working with clients and then helping them to have success. And the more more time you can free up from, you know, the drudgery of the things you do not like and and you can automate in the more time you have for the things you do like. That's right.

00:44:33Finding the right marketing software for your business. I need to

00:45:21So do we want to move in The Tweak of the week? Sure. What you got me?

00:45:35I I don't really have anything specific for tweak of the week. I am I I have kind of a thing that bleeds into the next part which is being its formation or do you have a software or technical tweet before I move into that?

00:46:50Things in this one Hub and then also have things like your clients in your client notes in there. So I'm interested in that just because it seems like it could be pretty cool. I don't know. Some learning about that I've heard of it. So it has been around for a little while long enough for me to hear of it. Alright, and my old week is like I said moving into the also the inspirational end of things. It's more of a a spot to eat, you know things you can think about and align align yourself up for the next week and that is concerning the law of reciprocity. And the law of reciprocity is one of those universal laws that we kind of know it it's there but we don't think too much about it. It's not as prevalent in our lives as gravity, you know, you drop something and it falls but it does exist. It is there. And when we

00:48:02What can I give? What am I good at? What, what would be helpful to others in my world? Like, when I asked Jen, can I help you? Get your podcast going again? Because I enjoy her podcast. I want that information. You know, I love it. So I pull it out of there early. So what can I get? I can give you the production half of that. I can give you the motivation. I can give you the support in the friendship, that it takes to be here every week to make it a priority in and get it done. And what she brings to me in return, is so much more because all I had to do was offer what I could do, what was easy for me, but I enjoy, and then she can respond with that reciprocity. So who in your life, I think about who in your life, can you

00:49:44So true. Thank you. Yeah.

00:50:24And I have our closing video coming up.