Funnel Series #18

What if your Instagram followers could automatically become leads without you lifting a finger? That’s the magic of ManyChat funnels, and today, we’re diving into how marketing assistants can implement them to generate leads, qualify prospects, and increase conversions—all on autopilot.

We continue our Funnel Series with Katy Widrick, a Fractional Chief of Everything at Make Media Over. She shines the light on blind spots for visionary founders and turns marketing pros into CMOs. Katy has spent over 20 years in marketing and revenue expansion, helping business owners recover their biggest expense (lost sales) by using simple, effective systems to increase conversions and decrease top-of-funnel costs. She’s worked with 7-, 8-, and 9-figure businesses to maximize impact, scale their offers, and drive top-line revenue. Now she’s here to show you how to do the same using ManyChat funnels.

Listen to learn more about:

• The simplest ManyChat funnel every service provider should set up for their business
• Katy’s journey from mommy blogger to accidental VA to high-level marketing strategist
• How to use ManyChat to qualify leads and avoid wasting time on the wrong prospects
• Why business owners are willing to pay top dollar for someone who can set up and manage DM automation
• How to track and measure ManyChat funnel performance (which helps to prove your value to clients)

Whether you’re a tech VA, social media manager, launch manager, or marketing assistant, ManyChat funnels could be your next high-value service. Want to see ManyChat in action? You can check out some of mine! Tune in to hear what keywords we use as triggers, then head over to my Instagram and comment on my latest post to experience an automated DM funnel firsthand.

Sponsored by Shana Lynn’s Cultivate Community Manager Course. Become an in-demand Community Manager! Learn how to build and nurture thriving communities for courses, memberships, and coaching programs—without the stress or overwhelm of figuring it out alone. You’ll gain valuable skills that make you indispensable to business owners. Use my affiliate link to enroll here and save $200 with the coupon code: UNICORN

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Check out Katy’s podcast: Hard Costs
• Join The Digital Marketer’s Workgroup: Are you already doing marketing work but need more clients and a stronger referral network? Join a tight-knit community of freelancers and get access to behind-the-scenes conversations, support, and troubleshooting that every solo marketer needs. Plus, you'll benefit from advanced trainings, networking opportunities, and exclusive job leads. Apply here!

Connect with Katy:

• Instagram: @kwidrick
• Website: https://katywidrick.com/ 

Connect with Emily:

• Facebook Community: Emily’s Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant Lab
• Instagram: @emilyreaganpr 
• Facebook: @emilyreaganpr

3 ways we can work together: 

1. Get on the waitlist for the Live Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School. My signature course on digital marketing implementation will give you the confidence and teach you HOW to do the work that’s in demand and highly marketable. This is the secret weapon to getting booked out. Or get started now with the Self-Study version of UDMA School here.
2. Got the skills but need help getting your digital marketing services business to take off? I’ve got an advanced tight-knit referral and networking community that can help and I would love for you to apply here for The Digital Marketer's Workgroup. You’ll get the latest updates and trainings, networking opps and job leads from online business owners who are looking to hire digital marketing implementers and assistants.
3. Looking for a fast way to get your foot in the door with up-to-date skills? Take my 2-hour Quickstart to Facebook Community Management workshop and learn how to help online business owners like course creators and membership site owners manage and engage their community

  >>> Download my Top Ten Most Requested Digital Marketing Tasks & Services 

Katy Widrick 0:00

If you can use this type of tool, and all of a sudden you're getting 10 leads in your inbox from every reel, or 50 or 100 or any number, regardless of how big your audience is, you're actually going to be in a better spot. So like, combine them, take great visuals, great content, stop the scroll. And this tool that actually gets people to do more than just like and share like, that's magic.

Emily Reagan 0:22

Hey, everyone. I'm Emily Reagan, and you've discovered unicorns unite. This is a podcast for freelancers, service providers, virtual assistants, and curious listeners who would like to experience the freedom and flexibility of working virtually for the magic makers, movers and shakers and the real people doing the work behind the scenes of online businesses. Welcome to Unicorns Unite.

and I have never looked back. And the fun thing about it is the variety, the way we can combine all of our skills and knowledge, even within the digital marketing space alone, and offer something unique. So we're here in the middle, near the end of our funnel series, where we're diving into different parts of a marketing funnel. So we know how to up level as marketing assistants get more involved in our clients making sales. Why? Because this is when we can charge more money. I'm feeling a little bit fired up right now because I was just in a big wigs Facebook group, seeing people, seeing business owners searching out VAs to do this work for dirt cheap. And so let's just face it, we're always going to have to compete over the overseas VAs who are charging to four or $6 an hour, the business owners who are cheapskates about it and don't really see the value. And my challenge for you is, how can we really, really stand out and look as professional and knowledgeable and as much as we can the expert in our field, so that we can ignore all of that BS happening in our space and work with the clients who truly value us have vetted offers, are making money and are doing the things in the online business world that allow you to do the work that you are meant to do behind the scenes, of course, because none of us wanted to be the face of the business. That's why we're here. That's why we're the entrepreneurs behind the scenes. Today, I have a special guest. Her name is Katy Widrick, and she started off like many of us, doing social media, doing air quote, VA work, and now she is a CMO, that's the chief marketing officer going into these seven and eight figure businesses, helping them fix their leaky funnels, finding the money they're leaving on the table. And Katy is really a go to strategist for visionary founders. And so she's really here sharing insight into many chat funnels, which are the whole automated DMS you're on Instagram, your favorite influencer, your woman over 40, fashion stylist, is showing you where she bought those really cute trousers. And all you have to do is comment trouser, and then she sends you all the Amazon links. That is an example of one of these smart marketing systems that you can build with many chat Katy brings 20 years of experience in marketing to this conversation, but also insight to what it's like to be doing the work behind the scenes, and so I really want you to listen in for Yes, automating client engagement, qualifying the leads efficiently. That's all things we can do with many chat any type of top of funnel project, how we're integrating social media and email marketing together in this episode, how we're driving the traffic to the top of the funnel, which is the problem we build the funnel, but the clients haven't really thought about how they're getting people to it, and then, more importantly, how we're evolving from assistant to strategic partner, back to what I was just saying. We're not the $2 an hour vas. We are providing marketing funnels that bring in leads and actually sell. And so we are expanding our role from task execution to strategic planning, and positioning ourselves as indispensable assets in marketing and in operations. This is how we fight that $2 an hour Bs is happening. This is why we're doing the funnel series. I want you to move out of the roles that can be automated. I want you to move out of the admin, which is lower paid, where you're treated more as a commodity, and really demonstrate why we can command these higher rates feeling really frustrated with these online business owners that underpay skilled professionals and it undervalues our expertise, and it also can lead to subpar results in this space, which give us all a bad name. And it's just not okay. It's not okay. So.

Us standing up for ourselves, having the boundaries, having the knowledge, the awareness of the work that we're actually doing behind the scenes, and feel freaking good when we send that proposal about the value we're bringing our work is worth it, especially when we're doing funnels. And so that's why I'm doing this series. I'm just feeling very, very frustrated at this. And hence, unicorns, unite. Let's link arms. Let's rally together. And I'm not saying go out there and overcharge for everything, but charge the worth of your work. Funnel work, funnel work. Okay, so let's jump into this episode with Katy. Thank you for my little soapbox moment.

I think you are really going to be motivated to go in there and do this for yourself. And if you're in the work group, we're going to have that get it done work session. So if you're not in the work group, and you are doing funnel work, and you're doing many chat funnels, if you're doing tech and email automations, if you're doing copywriting, if you're doing Facebook ads, if you're being a launch manager, you need to join us. There's an application. We'll let you know if you're let in. We only let in so many each month, and I would love to be referring you and encouraging you to increase your rates by giving you the clients that actually want to fairly compensate you, treat you well, value you and the ones that are going places that aren't just looking for something done subpar and dirt cheap. Okay, let's jump in.Hey, Katy, welcome to this show. I am so excited to have you here talking about many chat funnels, but also sharing a little bit of insight in your freelance journey. So tell everyone hello and how you got started in this business.

Katy Widrick 6:46

Oh my gosh, Hello, and thank you for such a warm welcome. I have to tell you, I think one of the things that was so magnetizing and attractive about this conversation is that I have always been referred to as a unicorn in my business and to like, feel seen and heard is so exciting, because what I do is both like very specialized and very specific in terms of fixing funnels, and also like very achievable for other people. And so I always tell clients when I'm working with them, especially when it's looking at their funnel and how they can convert better. Like I actually want to. I want to get myself out of this job. I want you to have the option of learning and using the systems and the processes so you actually don't need me anymore. You or your team is so empowered by this system that you're good or that you can kind of bring me in to do the next level. Because I think we all know like there's no end to tweaking and fixing funnels, whatever that looks like. So yeah, that's what I do. I have long called myself the Olivia Pope, or the fixer of people's marketing and tech stacks. And really the goal for me is about taking people's amazing stories, the work that they do, and making it not just more visible so it's getting in front of more of the right people, but actually getting the results that you want, and in many ways, that gets you your time back through systems, automations, and then you're really prioritizing the things that aren't scalable, that are going to help you get to the next level.

Emily Reagan 8:12

Oh, I love this. This is the dream for a lot of marketing assistance where they start. And we just had an episode before this one about insight into upsells and order bumps and conversion rates. So this conversation is going to be really good. Tell us. What do you call yourself?

Katy Widrick 8:27

Yeah. So at the moment, if we were to be in an elevator together, I would tell you that I am a fractional Chief of Staff and a fractional chief marketing officer. And really that is an evolution. It's actually still evolving, because really what I do is I step into high performing teams that are ready to get past their constraints, and so I work really closely with the CEO. That's where the Chief of Staff and the CMO position come. But really what I love to do is to let the CEO step into her full zone of genius and really help, whether it's team or systems or whatever else is in place, and really kind of take that over. So fractional Chief of Staff is like kind of the expansive version, because I'm pretty much working with people across all of the departments, but the marketing and marketing operations is really where I get most excited and have the best results for what I do. Isn't that funny how sometimes it kind of overlaps, like, I have a CMO client I'm working with now, and it definitely gets out of the just the marketing department, it kind of has to, I think, like, I really want, ultimately, to be the best strategic partner for my boss or my CEO partner, and really allow them to think about what's possible. Like, if there were no constraints, if I didn't have to figure out the how or the system, what would we do? And so a lot of that is just opening up the space and kind of facilitating that conversation. I will tell you, Emily, like, that's been an evolution for me. When I started really just doing like VA tasks, and then kind of evolving into online business, and then coming up through the ranks, I hadn't really earned the opportunity to have those, those conversations. I was a doer and I was like, the happiest Doer on the team. I love implementation. I love integrations. And that, I think does set me apart a little bit from other people who really come in and they're like, I just want to be the strategic partner. Have the rest of your people do it. The thing is, if I'm not getting my hands actively involved in the implementation, I will, I will insert myself anyway. And so I've had to really say, like, actually the zone of genius that I have, and the thing that lights me up is doing and executing, but the thing that allows me to feel like I'm really up leveling in my own business is adding on that strategic vision. So it's like, what, what could it be? No constraints. And then it's like, that's the a, b to Z is where I love to say, like, Okay, now let me walk away for a period of time, not usually very long, because, you know, CEOs love to, like, how quickly can we get this in place? But walk away and say, okay, B to Z is now ready for implementation. And that's where things like, you know, the funnels come in. And particularly with many chat and some of these DM automation opportunities, like, that's where you can have really fast results, even if you're still kind of like building the plane while you're flying it, which is a lot of what I do, too.

Yes, you and I are very much alike. I do the implementation. It's hard to get out of there, but when you know how it's set up, you're just even more stronger. Like, you know what to look for. I would love to invite you back into the work group to talk about this evolution with all of our members there, because we have people who are in that assistant role. We have people up leveling into management and strategist. And so I think that would be a fun conversation. But before we get into many chat funnels, could you just tell me? Could you just tease us a little bit. What was that moment for you? Or do you remember that moment where you realized you were just more than a VA or more than a marketing assistant?

Oh my gosh, what a thoughtful question. So I think what you probably need to know about me is I am an eldest daughter Enneagram One, human design five, one like I am a Fact Finder. To my core, I literally just did the Colby assessment. Because in addition to all these things, of course, I'm like, just cannot get enough of archetyping myself and figuring out what makes me tick and so all of these things, like, down to like, if you had met me at eight years old, you'd be like, Oh, that is an old soul. She's a Fact Finder. She doesn't like things to go unanswered. So I want to give you that foundation about myself, right, to show you that, like, most of my career has just been about being very curious and kind of getting to the end of the story. So when you ask, like, what was the moment? To be totally honest, I was coming up through what I thought was going to be a forever corporate career. I started my career in broadcast journalism, I worked in a newsroom. I was a producer. Side note, I became a producer, and that's I think, will absolutely resonate with the people listening to this. I became a producer because I thought I wanted to be on air, and I realized, like, those are not the bosses. I have so much respect for the people that show up every day, but the real bosses are behind the scenes, like the producers, the assignment editors, and I was like, that's where I want to be. That's where I want to be. And then beyond that, I realized the adrenaline rush that I would get when there was breaking news. Like, if I had a show that was going on in the air from five to six and it went exactly as planned in the nine o'clock meeting, that was great, but it was pretty boring. Like, what I loved was that, oh my gosh, it's 4:55 Our reporter has been sent in their package. So we've got to move the a block and B Block around. And, by the way, there's a car fire on the turn bike, and it's, you know, you know where I'm going. Like, the adrenaline rush of being like, there's more, I think all of that is like, led me to the moment where I had been doing this corporate role again. Like, just thought I was gonna have this stupid I never thought I was gonna be an entrepreneur. I'm like, never like, never wanted it, never like, never chased it. But what happened is, I was a blogger back in the day, so I'm gonna take you back just for a moment, because if you don't laugh at this, then I don't think we're gonna get along. My very first blog was called sillytatertot.blogspot.com.

So not only was it the most ridiculous brand, it was also on blogspot or Blogger, for those of you who are, like, really OG and I want to say when my first three posts were like, one was dissecting a Britney Spears music video. Another one was showing, like, the lunch that I ate, because I thought that's what bloggers did. You said, like, here's what I eat, here's what I do. And like, my lunches have always been very boring. And I think the third one was some, like, policy related tirade about charter schools. So like, this was not a good blog. Let's just be very clear, this is not a good blog. And so kind of, like, the same evolution, I actually realized where I would get really excited is my fellow bloggers who I'm now meeting and networking events and meeting online, they would say, like, Hey, Katy, I see that you've got a sidebar set up with, you know, a widget of your recent post. Like, how can I do that? So? Like, very quickly, just on the side, friends would ask me, and I accidentally became a little bit of a VA like, oh, I I'll just show you. Like, you want to pay me. 15 bucks, and I'll do 10 hours of work for like it was, it was crazy, but that's like I was an accidental VA while I was still working full time. I promise. I'll fast forward, because that just kept happening. And then all of a sudden, that side work had scaled to the point where it was actually outpacing my corporate job. I was making more money on the side freelancing at this point, I got a little bit smarter. I wasn't doing 10 hours of work for $15 but I was still kind of doing I was doing this right. Like I was the fixer behind the scenes, and that, like, that was, I think, the first moment when I was like, Okay. So the thing is, is that people are coming to me when something is broken, and I actually know how to prevent that from happening. So like, I remember a really important conversation when I was I was actually pregnant with my second daughter. We were moving. And I know you have a lot of experience moving and up people, but I was like, I have a choice. I can either move and find a new job and let go of this side thing, or I can say, like, Thank you universe. This is a time when, like, you're leaving this job, you're moving anyway. What if you went all in and I had a conversation with somebody, and she was the first person to hire me on a retainer basis, and she said, here's the thing, like, I want you in my back pocket, because there are always going to be things that I need from you. But actually, like, the real value is knowing that you're my partner, and you can see things that I need, and in the first few months of working with her and again, first retain her client. Like I didn't have a lot of experience with this. It wasn't like, you're the 10 things I'm asking you to do as a VA. It was like, come work for me and I will pay you, and we'll figure it out together. What happened is that, like the way that I felt really good about accepting that money, and the way that she felt really good about not micromanaging is that I basically told her what she needed to do every month. So that kind of widened, right? And it became more like, what if we reached out to potential, you know, Brand Partners, and what if I created a media kit and sent that out on your behalf? So it was like, it was kind of a stack, does that make sense? It was like that moment showed me, Wow, actually, where I can have the most benefit and like, be the most valuable to somebody that will pay me the kind of money in a role that I actually want, that will allow me to not get back into corporate, like, where I can provide the most value is to actually, like, be their visionary, like, look around the corner and then say, I think you should do this, and then I'll do it for you. And that is what the last 15 years of my career has been, just with, like, different and bigger and more and more projects, and, you know, levels of revenue for myself. Oh my gosh. I love that story, because I think there's so many assistants, or people using the VA title, who are leading their clients. I was in the same boat, and I actually did it accidentally, like you, and just naturally became a leader. And, like, looking back, I'm like, Who did I think I was, but I could just, I could see it, and I could see how bogged down they were. And my first project was actually a I had a small, like, retainer. I wasn't charging enough. I was writing press releases, but my first project was a media kit. Oh, see. Oh my, yeah. Me just going in there, and we didn't even have Canva, so I had to get a friend to design it for me. I had a pirated copy of Photoshop. It didn't work anymore, but I remember just getting in her Google Analytics being like, look at this traffic coming from Pinterest, like, what if we did this on purpose? And then boom, her business just blew up. And then I know people listening are having those moments where your clients are leaning on you, and that is the sign,

yes. And it's so interesting, because this is something I actually now like coach a lot. Even with my CEOs, who are like, seven figure CEOs. They still need coaching, right? They still need guidance. By the way, most of the people who have gotten to that stage of business didn't do it because it was hand, like, a successful business was handed to them, or they went to school for becoming a CEO. Like, I don't know if this is the case for you, but most of my clients are like, Oops, I accidentally just made a million dollars. Like, a how, right? Or, like, have it doesn't the number doesn't the number doesn't matter. I'm obviously rounding up just because it's easier to say, but I will say, like, the biggest shift for me, and I think this is really, really important, is that I became much more aware that I have to be thinking of myself as a value and not an expense, and I need to be thinking about like, if at any point my boss is looking at her expenses, and thinking like, which one of them actually generates me money? What I think happens is that even in the early stages of a service contractor business, myself included, we do what we're asked to do, and that's the value. But I now know like, how important is to attach, like, the revenue production to the work I do. So like, when you were talking about looking at Google Analytics in a media kit, what you're really saying is that the work I'm doing is actually likely to generate you much more than you're paying me, right? So like that shift mentally is probably the most important thing that I do, even at this level where I'm my rate to work with CEOs is, I mean, wildly different. Than it was 15 years ago, when I was doing 10 hours for $15 but I have never wavered from like, what am I doing today? That is revenue producing, even if it's literally like building a funnel or answering emails or tweaking an onboarding series, I have to be thinking about like, how is my boss going to see revenue in return or get their time back? That's the other thing, you know, more money, or time back so they can go make more money.

And hence, the reason we're unicorns, and we're owning that special like value that we bring is we all you know, you know about the unicorn marketer being like a full stack marketer, but it's also like knowing your extra pizzazz or whatever special sauce you bring to the table, because you and I come from a journalism background. We know PR like, we add that extra level of knowledge in there, and we're even more of a value add,

yeah, and acknowledging that we get it right. Like, I don't ever feel entitled to stay on a job. I always want my bosses to know that there are things that we do, especially in these roles, that that we're talking about, where it is a little bit less obvious. It's a little bit less direct. Like me setting up an automation or a DM funnel is ultimately, hopefully going to bring but like, just setting it up didn't bring in the revenue. But really acknowledging, like, I am aware that for my performance to be graded, a lot of it is going to come down to revenue. And so, like, I acknowledge it, and even that, I think, is such a critical piece where it's like, you know, I'm aware that you're running a business, and this needs to be a profitable business, and I'm going to make every effort to make the work that I do fit into that. And you don't have to tell me, because I know,

and that's why we're in this funnel series, too. So you can take it to the next level. And funnels are just a better, you know, value based pricing. Like, we can see the leads coming in, we can track the conversions and what you're going to teach today when it comes to many chat. Like, if our clients don't have that, we can come to the table and be like, Here, let's set that up and take the lead. Like, that's my goal for this funnel series, for people to see the value in their marketing services.

Oh, I love this. And I will say, as we're getting into it, what I love about many chat and certainly other systems, but particularly this one, is that the barrier for us to learn and understand it, especially since most of us already have that implementation brain, like we love to put the pieces together. So for us, the barrier to understanding is pretty low. Like many chat is actually quite user friendly once you get into it. But, and I'm not saying that, like, if my CEO friends are listening, this is, this is an active service. This is an act of love. But the barrier for CEOs to figure it out is actually pretty high, so it's like, huge return on our time. So if people are listening out and they're like, I actually don't know how to do this, great, I want to tell you, you would be able to figure this out and set it up and start deploying it quite quickly. And this is not something that your CEOs are going to want to take the time to do. So it's like huge return and very low effort on on the implementer side.

And I think a lot of the work comes in, the maintenance, the management, the checking in. I mean, I've got that I'm now the CEO, and yeah, I can build things and go down a rabbit hole, but I don't have the time to check in and make sure it's working and fix it and just oversight. And so that piece is always missing, too. It's like that ongoing support, which is what we want. We don't want a lot of churning clients like, I don't know about you, but the reason I'm a CMO is I want to go deep in somebody's business and really understand it, and not be constantly onboarding, like, I don't want a million VIP days,

100% and it's so funny. I again, like, I work with primarily people who have a scalable, let's say, group offer. Right for me, Katy, I love that model. I love helping people scale that model. But for me, the marketer I am, like, you, like, I actually don't ever want to market and sell if I don't have to. I want my roster filled up. I want long term clients. And thankfully, that's been the case, but it's exactly what you said. Like the unicorn status is just always being like, Oh, and here's what's coming up over the next few months. So don't even think about ditching me. I'm your I'm here for life.

Yes, no, I like that angle. Okay, so let's talk about many chat and just for somebody who's maybe new, can you explain what that is? Because I know we all have been playing now on Instagram and we see it, yeah,

so many chat is and we're talking about a very specific piece of software for what I would say is kind of a broader idea of automated DM funnels. Many chat is my particular platform of choice. It is probably the most commonly used and most popular, but broadly what it is is it's an automated DM funnel that is triggered by somebody on your social platforms, primarily Instagram. Although this works with Facebook very soon, in fact, maybe by the time people are listening. It might be working for Tiktok, which is rolling out and other platforms. But essentially, when a user, an Instagram user, does something, let's say, comments a specific keyword, or sends a direct message with a specific keyword, or drops a comment on a live that's the triggering event. What many chat does is it allows you to automatically respond to somebody. In the DMS of that same platform and lead them through all sorts of marketing messages. So example, you see fashion bloggers use this a lot, hey, like your five outfits, you know, comment links or comment Christmas, and I'll automatically send you the link. In my case, a lot of my clients will use it to drive people to a free lead magnet or to a particular podcast episode, or even just use it to trigger the first question in kind of a back and forth, and it basically cuts down on the response time. So these go out right away. You've got some control over how frequently, and we can get into that, but they're triggered 24/7 so if it's in the middle of the night and someone leaves a comment, they can immediately get their response from you in the DMS, which is done by many chat and then you can take it to be as complicated as you want, which I have a very, very, very complicated funnels in some cases, and extremely simple, where you're just responding with the comment or a link to get people what they want as quickly as they want. It

okay, And I know the pushback already when it comes to social media, we all have those clients. What kind of client is it right for? And I'm thinking of the people who don't always use social media effectively.

Yeah, yeah. It's a great question, I actually would say, and I am not usually like a blanket, like I again, like I do bespoke work, like my entire career is about like customizing and personalizing. So speaking as the no one size fits all person, in this case, it's actually hard for me to think of a use case or an example where it wouldn't potentially be helpful. Now, what I hear sometimes is that, well, all of my conversations are really organic, like I want to send a voicemail, I want to be great, then this still is a good fit for you, because number one, I think there is no person that wants to be waiting for a response. If you tell me to comment, you tell me to DM and I'm waiting until you're awake and the kids are in school and you've made your breakfast and you're responding like I've moved on, I've moved on, and I'm a patient person, right? But I think most of us kind of are, like, we expect that sort of immediate response. And again, what I find is that in those cases, a complicated funnel is not required, but it's almost like an auto reply in email, right? So, like, that's an example where you say, like, Hey, I saw this. I love this. Here's a quick response, and then I'm going to get back to you in the next 24 hours with next steps, right? So like I have used Money Chat to set up, let's see, for example, a registered dietitian who was promoting a workshop series. I have set this up for multiple business coaches who are driving either to free lead magnets specific podcast episodes, because you can get very granular with exactly what you send based on the keyword that is used. I have set this up for a running coach who wanted to ask a series of qualifying questions about an injury that you might have to direct them to the right piece of content or a blog post, trying to think, oh my gosh again. Like it's harder for me to think of people that it would not make sense for I mommy blogger. And again, I think that's probably an outdated term that just shows you back to my silly tater tot dot blog spot. When we all called ourselves mommy bloggers

Why Tater Tot? I mean, why Tater? Oh, because my name is Katy, and my husband, who I've been married to for almost 20 years, always called me Tater. And then it evolved into silly Tater Tot. And then it like, still, to this day, I'm actually still a silly tater tot in my house. It just maybe should not have ever, like, made the light of day in a blog URL, but all crazy. It's created great stories, but yeah, like, there's a parenting and lifestyle blogger who used it because she has a like, to know it account where she's generating revenue through commission and affiliate links, and she's able to like pre schedule her posts. We are able to pre schedule the many chat DM, and then it automatically sends someone right to the like to know it link that generates revenue, literally while she's sleeping or she's at the park with her kids.

I love what you mentioned about the response time, like this is your brand's first impression. Yes, you wouldn't do that in the inbox. Why are we doing it in social? And I know a lot of the you know more beginner or solopreneur clients, like, they're still doing a lot of those DMS themselves. And so this might be a good way to kind of help them release that, not maybe 100% but at least, like, alleviate the burden of responding.

I have a client who, like, really had an objection around doing this, and it was largely because she did not want her followers to think like she's a robot, right? She wants them to feel that high touch. And I said, Great, say less. And what we developed that felt really good for her and has been very successful for her in terms of the results. Is, in her case, this is not necessary for everyone. But in her case, we have the automated message say, like, hey, it's my bot who's helping me out, because I'm not always by my phone. Here's an answer for what you specifically were looking for, and then the next message you'll get is really from me. And so it's like the it was both of those things. And in her case, she just. Felt more aligned by saying, like, Hey, don't be surprised. Five seconds after you commented, it's me. No, I'm not. Like, stuck on my phone. In her case, again, this is where, like, some of the unicorn comes in. My job is to execute what the client wants, ultimately, right? But part of that conversation was to talk through it again. I had to remind her, like a lot of her brand, was about spending time with her kids, and I was like, there is no expectation that you were on your phone all the time, and we can actually use this to your advantage and say, like, Hey, I'm not on my phone right now. I'm probably out doing something with my kids, because my commitment is that I'm only spending, I think it was, like two hours a day on social but when I'm back in my window, I'll get back to you in the meantime, here's this thing that you asked for.

I like that that's so transparent and honest. Like, let's call it what it is,

100% that's not necessary for all of my clients. But again, it just shows you, like, how you can still make it very personal and on brand. And we can talk a little bit about, you know, how I developed some of that brand guideline and storytelling guideline. But again, there's, like, there's very little harm in this. And by the way, like most systems, you can always smash that disable button right? Like you can always say, Hey, I was doing this. I need a break. I don't like it. It's not working great. No harm, no foul. We literally just toggle the button off, and the next person that comments that keyword gets nothing, and you're back to manual, very low risk.

There's something that magical that happened for me with my social and I'm not out there killing it like some of the Instagram coaches, but once I had the funnel in place, I knew what kind of content to make.

Isn't that so crazy? You're like, oh, I actually, I've done B to Z, like we were saying earlier, I've got so I've got this beautiful thing now I just need to, like, only thing I need to do is show up and make content that will get people into this funnel that I just put together. And it's so beautiful and it's so effective. And by the way, again, for anyone listening, like, if you have your I've turned them off since, but I used to have, like, my stripe and my paypal notifications, and, like, every time it hit my screen, I was like, Oh, I got paid. Like, this is amazing. And it didn't matter how much money. The same thing I find happens for CEOs who all of a sudden they're like, Wait a minute. I, like, went to lunch and I came back and I got 20 DMS already answered. So there's like, an element of just like, hey, trust the process. Let's do one. And then when you get back and you're like, oh my gosh, my bot did all of this for me, and I didn't like that, almost like, opens the floodgates of like, okay, now I actually see how powerful this can be. Let's do more.

Yes, oh my gosh, I love that. And now your B roll, your random B roll can make sense.

Oh, exactly, exactly. That's why I'm like, always be, always be filming, always be rolling on that camera, because your Get Ready With Me is going to be a great keyword trigger for your next DM funnel.

Yeah. So what type of Freelancer do you think is the best fit to build these Money Chat funnels, like, obviously, the tech vas, social media strategist, social media manager, could do this too. Is there anybody else who this would be like a natural I always call it like the next step service, like, even if you haven't offered it yet, it makes sense with what you do. You could easily figure it out.

Yeah. So the first thing that comes to mind, and I'm biased, because this was my journey, is anybody who does email automations already, so if you are managing, you know, a CRM, email marketing operations, that type of thing, this, it's almost exactly the same skill set. I'm going to get just a little bit nerdy, because those who get it will get it. You know, many chat has the same principles of conditional logic. If this, then that when they do this with delay, add a tag, move them over. Here, it's like almost exactly the same thing as if you were building out an automation in any of the, you know, the CRM. So if you are doing kartra, if you're doing Kajabi, if you're doing, I mean, you need even like, Convert Kit, any of these things, right? If that is like your operation specialty, then many chat is going to be a very complimentary skill for you. And by the way, the other benefit it has in that case is that a lot of times what we're trying to do is use our many chat funnels to get our followers on social to get onto our email list. Not in every case. There are lots of different ways to use it, but for me, that's the primary goal, right? So if the North Star is, how many email subscribers do we have, and are we successfully marketing and selling them in the marketing operations that I've set up, many chat just gets more of those people, and it's like almost the exact same like visual build out, and it's very user friendly. So anybody who does that, this is a perfect parallel, because again, you're like, Hey, I've already built this thing out, and so when the email subscribers come in, we've already nailed it. But what if I did this over here and it worked the same way, and got more people into your marketing funnel, into your email marketing funnel? So that, to me, is a really, really clear one. The other thing, I would say, and this is maybe a little bit harder to track, but I promise you, it is anybody who is being graded or their performances based on specific KPIs. So for example, if you're a Podcast Producer, and again, I know there are different elements, if you're helping with the editing, you're creating the Social. You're making sure the clips get made. All of these things, many chat would actually be a really beautiful add on, because all of this work is in spirit of getting more downloads to the podcast or more x right? So I think there's a skill parallel for sure, like I said, with the email marketing. But I would also say I would expand people to really think about like, if so, like a lot of times my my performance, even at a retainer level where I am right now, I'm still being graded or judged on how effectively I've hit certain goals. How many new clients did we have come in? How many clients stayed? How many people did we get onto our lit? All of these things, right? And so adding many chat for me, is a skill set that actually helps me get to that North Star goal, because if I can drive more people from social to this other thing, then my job is going to be looked upon more favorably. So I would take those skills and really think, like, how could I simply apply them in here? But yeah, I think anybody who is like, naturally an implementer, whatever your current title is. Also, this really is a great skill for somebody who is currently a VA and again, is like, very good at details. This is not many chat is not one of those systems you're not coding, right? They're just some things that take, like, you have to become fluent in the language, right? Like that you're not coding really, it's like a drag and drop visual builder. And so if you have that skill set of being able to say, like, I know how to create a calendar for my boss that has no conflict, I know how to do x, y and z, then many chats actually going to be a great skill for you in that case, too. Okay,

I would like to add on there launch managers. Oh, to your launch event, getting more webinar registrations or challenge registrations, the follow up for the show up to those of events, I think that would be another smart one.

Yes. I love that

techie question. Yes. Speaking of tracking and our performance, how do we know how many people from many chat joined our list, like, what's your tracking chip?

Yeah, so I'm I'll start with the simple and then I'll just kind of show you a few more advanced things. The The great news is that many chat already has its own built in analytics. So right, when you create an automation, you will be able to see the exact con, not just the number, but the exact contact that came through it, and which trigger they use. So in some cases, you'll have one keyword. Let's say the keyword is podcast, right? And that's just, it's one keyword. They leave it as a comment, or they leave it as a DM, great. But you can have one funnel where maybe you've got five keywords, because you're actually testing different placements, right? So like in one reel, your keyword is podcast in a second reel, it's episode in the third one, it's Katy. All of those are actually going to the exact same funnel, but they're triggered by any one of those. And so what that would show you is how many people entered the funnel because of that specific keyword. So again, if you've got 20 people in the funnel, five came from this, 10 came from this, and another five came from this. You'll be able to measure that. So that's all like reported, right? In many chat, you literally don't have to do anything except for look at the screen. But beyond that, what I think is really helpful is that there are a couple of things, and again, I'll kind of lend to the email marketing operations brain, but I think this will track for anybody who's even not used to that type of system, once somebody enters the funnel, so I use a keyword, or I DM with a keyword, the funnel starts again. I'm tracked. You can see it right there in the metrics, right on the main screen. But once I have entered the funnel, or once the person has entered the funnel, you can do all sorts of things, including tag them. So as a rule, what I do is they leave the keyword. I send the first message and I ask them to do something. Typically, I'll ask them to do something. Hey, I just want to make sure you're in the right place. You're here because you're looking for this. If so click here and it's a button, they're still in the funnel. But I don't really take them to the next stage until they confirm right so when they click something, I tag them. Hey, clicked a link, or did x, y and z, so that, and all of that is also measured, right in many chats, so I can see how many people had a certain tag applied, right? So I can just kind of build like, what am I tracking and what am i Reporting? Ultimately, though, if the goal in, let's say specifically, is to get them into my email list, and that applies to what you said, too, like, register for a webinar, I'm capturing their information somewhere else, right? What I can do is either when they click a link, tag them. So again, if I was saying like, click here to get my freebie, if they clicked I could tag them as clicked freebie or downloaded freebie, right? But if I really wanted to make sure that they had actually downloaded it, they clicked it, they put their information in. There's one step further. This is on the advanced side. So just showing you what's possible, many chat integrates with most of the modern email service providers and also integrates with Zapier. Your audience probably knows Zapier is just middleware, right? If the two things don't connect, Zapier makes them connect right in the middle. And so what you can do, for example, which I'll give you a specific use case, I have a client who uses keep for her marketing. So we use many chat to drive people through. We ask a series of questions, we ask them to sign up for the thing, and we have it integrated into keep, so that when they fill out the form, or they use the link that we're sending them to sign up, they are tagged in keep. When they enter that form, they're tagged in their source, right? I'm getting into the weeds here, but we've got custom fields right in their CRM so we can see, and I will say, like, many chat or many chat colon freebie number one, many chat colon freebie number seven. So I'm able then to run the report back and keep and say, show me everybody whose source in that custom field is many chat, whether it's one specific one. So again, like I'm not saying all of those steps are necessary, I'm just showing you all of the steps that are possible. So for that client, every month, every week, I run reports, but every month I run kind of a holistic marketing report, and I'll say, Here's how many leads came in through many chat. Here's how many of those leads were unique or were new to the list, because obviously, sometimes they're already there, but we're re engaging them the freebie. So those two metrics are important, and then I'm able to take it even further and say they join the list on this time. And in general, the people who joined through many chat make a purchase within X days. We can compare that to people, right? So it's like all of the possibilities are there. Now, am I saying that that was the first thing I did? Absolutely not, right? Like we're building the plane as we fly it, which means we set up a many chat we test to make sure it works, then we bolt on the next piece and we bolt on the next piece. But those are all things that are possible. The simplest is that many chat has most of the data that anyone listening to this would need, and would need to report to, to their boss or to any stakeholders.

I love that. Thank you, because you can always start with it just delivering a link, right? Like, 100% thing is like, not have all that extra stuff. You could copy a funnel like you would for a Facebook ad, and you could track it that way, with a lean source tags.

And by the way, many chat does work with ads. I'll just add that on there is that I mentioned some of the triggers, you know, keywords and things like that. But with Facebook ads and Instagram ads, anything that's on the meta platform, you can actually say that this funnel is triggered when someone has done something with an ad, whether that's completed it or liked it. There are so many possibilities and so to your point, that really also, like expands. And you can show how effective was the ad, you know, with the ad spend, and how much return are we getting on it. And you can even do split tests. Here's the organic funnel, and here's the one that came through ads. And even if it's to the same thing, you can actually show which one is performing better,

yeah, which one actually has purchasers, right?

Exactly, exactly? Yeah, and I find this is not the case for everybody. But what's been helpful about that is, like in most of the cases that I can think of, it has taken longer for us to warm up a truly cold lead from an ad. But that's helpful for us to know, because I now know maybe it takes 30 days for an organic person to purchase, and it takes 60 for somebody who's coming through an ad, but we factor that into our funnels and how we take them through the whole buying process. And, like, obviously, try to speed that up, but I'm now quicker to, like, leave space for up to 60 days for that person to actually do something. I'm always trying to make it faster, right? Like, but we just have the data to say, Okay, we just know actually, part of this is that we're going to use these funnels to, like, really nurture them and help them understand because sometimes they've literally never seen my CEO until this ad hit, and they're like, ooh, that's cool. I'll sign up. And so we have to consider that, and having that in the funnels is really helpful.

Oh, my goodness. So what are you seeing with your current clients when it comes to many chat like, what's working well,

so in particular, I would say real. So if anyone listening, whether it's for their own content, or they're creating content on behalf of a client, or they're managing it, I think it's become more and more common that our reels on Instagram are being seen by people who are not followers, right? And that's the goal, obviously, but I will say many chat in particular, I have found really like speed up getting those people to do more than just like or laugh or share or drop an emoji. And so if the goal is to get more of the people who are not yet following you to interact with you and get into conversation with you having a very clear keyword, CTA, or call to action on screen and at the top of the caption has become more important. I have actually really had to shift this with myself and my clients. And even if it seems like it's not totally in alignment, again on screen the keyword like comment x and then we might still say like, go to the caption. But where I think a lot of people will like, want to give all because we're like, we want to teach, right? Like we want. We want to fulfill the promise. We want to do a beautiful, long caption with emojis, and then at the bottom, leave the keyword. What I am really recommending to people is that that keyword is right at the top, almost like a TLDR. Right? So it's like, if you're seeing this comment, such and such, and then you can drop the long caption below it, but that has become really, really effective to get people in there. I think the other thing that is that I'm seeing this has always been the case, but like, especially since the beginning of 2025, this has become more prominent looking at ways to qualify people in the DM so that you can give them a specific resource that meets their needs. It's like a quiz, right? Like we I love a quiz, but it's a longer build out. You got to get them to do the thing. Think of this as a mini quiz, and the intention is to get them only the thing that that they want. So again, I'm thinking of this business coach. In our case, we have three types of resources. One for somebody that is making less than $20,000 a month in their business. One, if they're making between 20 and 50, and then one for someone who is making more than 50,000 we serve them all. We love them all. But the resource that will get you to the next level really is dependent on that stage of business, right? We all know that. And so why would we give you a resource that's designed for somebody making 50k a month? If you're making 8k It doesn't make any sense, and that's not what we want for you. And so asking just a couple of qualifying questions that are, like, very curious. Hey, thank you so much. I want to send you this free resource, but first, which of these best describes you? Okay, great. And if you you know. And then maybe there's one more qualifying question, but just imagine you've got these three branches right. And then the outcome, again, very similar to a quiz, which I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with, is that you're saying, like, okay, great. Based on what you shared, this thing that I have is the best fit for you. And in this case, where I'm thinking of one is a downloadable resource. It's like a checklist of things that you can do to go from this to this. One is a podcast episode where it's a deep dive into a case study of someone who's just like them. And the third one is actually inviting them to a one on one discovery or a qualification call, because we know that we're a good fit for them with the high touch coaching service, but again, like if that would not make sense for the person who's not yet at that period, and also it wouldn't make sense for the CEO's team to spend time on a call with somebody who's not really ready. So that has become extremely, extremely effective, especially this year.

So is that original call to action on that reel for a specific freebie, or is this something that's a little more general? I'm trying to understand, like he thinks they're getting, yeah something, and they're not really good question, yeah.

So this is where I'm gonna answer your question. But I will also just back up and say this is where, like, going back to the unicorn status, what I would say is, like, sort of a traditional again, like, I'm saying this with love as a former VA, but sort of like traditional role would be like the CEO tells you what to build, and you build it. This next level of being a unicorn is really saying, okay, like, what do we want to talk about on social? Or, like, what do we have to offer? And then mapping so that the content is offering a promise that is fulfilled by the many chat automation. Because exactly to your point, if we said, like, Hey, I've got a free download for you, and then all of a sudden I'm jumping through hoops and now I'm being offered a call, I would feel pitch slapped as my friend Veronica Ronnie, right? I'd be like, No, that's not what I signed up for. So you're right, like, the initial call to action absolutely has to match the experience that is built in there, but in the case of this quiz, so what we do is we say, like we are on a mission to help more women make more money, because women who have money do good things with it, therefore, right? Like we have a curated resource just for you. Comment. I think the keyword is like, comment resource, and we'll ask you a couple of questions and give you the one thing that can help you shift your business today. So the call to action there is not your I want you to get this thing, and now all of a sudden, I'm coming over here and offering I really love that you flagged that that one's a more like, Hey, we are here to help you, and we actually want to curate this for you. Therefore, do this, and we will guide you through these questions. In other cases, you're absolutely right. It's one thing, and so we might say, like we have or we're hosting a workshop next week. This is, again, a real use case. I'm thinking of hosting a workshop. It's specifically for this type of person. If you want to be added to the list, comment this. What I will say is, in that DM funnel, we do often use a mini qualification, and that's just because, if you, again, are not at a certain income level, that workshop, you're welcome to come, but it's probably not going to get you what you want. So we, in that case, will still ask, like a branch, hey, this workshop is specifically for this type of person. If that's you, click here and I'll send you the details. If it's not, I have something that might be a better fit for you that's still going to let you experience, you know, a workshop with me, and in that case, we actually show them, like, an on demand thing that's a better fit. So we don't do that in every case. But again, like the goal is really like, how can we get people the outcome that they want, which is why they're commenting, but not get them? Into a resource that's just beyond because we do find that, like, you know, people will come in, and ultimately, the many chat is to help qualify the leads. And if you are somebody, we'll just pick a number. If you're somebody who's like, lowest investment as a coach is $5,000 that may not be within reach, right? So it's just like, it's, I find that it's helpful to at least give people an idea, so that when they come to the workshop or download the thing, they have an understanding of who it's for, too. And aren't surprised when the call to action in there is, like, you know, join my higher ticket offer.

Oh my gosh, yeah, my work group is a good example, because we don't take brand new vas, we don't and so if I could, I could easily add that to my many chat just to help people like with the right resource that will actually help them. So I know go like unicorns. Can think of ways to do that for their clients, and go ahead and plug in that, that vetting process without making it complicated. Yeah, many chat I'm really enjoying, and I should have looked up her name before this, but maybe you know her, but she would be the dream client, because she's so seamless at adding her call to action, and her reels will start with something completely hookable, but then end with the workshop, and it's that lady who's teaching you how to be a celebrity or have the celebrity energy. Do you know her?

Well, first of all, just us speaking, that probably means that her Instagram ads will follow us both after this conversation. That's, that's and I'm like, Oh, you got me again. You got me again. Meta, no, you have to send me and put in the show notes who that is, so we can all follow but, but, yeah, like, I think that's okay not to be the TV person again. But I love storytelling, right? Like, the way that you get somebody to sit through a 90 second package, or, like, a short story on, you know, like a housing crisis, or some really boring meeting, is that you have to make it exciting for them. So, like, the obvious things that you said, like, about, you know, a hook, or some type of, like, visually jarring stop the scroll thing. But the thing is, we're doing that. And okay, so, like, I love a vanity metric. I am not immune to being like, oh my gosh, this real. Just like, crazy. I love that too. Like, there's not a human alive that doesn't have some type of, like, adrenaline, dopamine hit when your stuff gets traction. But it's sort of like, here's an example. I have a friend who, if she listens to this, you know who I'm talking about. My friend, she's got a very, very large following. Like, the numbers are very high, but she is really trying to figure out how to take all of these looky loos who she's sort of like, primed to be freebie seekers too. Like she just has always post, you know. Like, she's now trying to take this authority and this influence and turn it into a profitable business. And that's actually proven to be quite hard for her, right? Like, she's already primed her audience to not pay and to not invest, and now she's shifting. She'll get it, but that's been a challenge for her, and her reels are like, you know, 50,000 would be like a bad day for her in terms of impressions. On the flip side, most of my clients that I work with are not nearly into like that multiple, you know, six figure following or seven figure following. They're smaller, but they're significantly more successful if you're just looking at revenue and profit, because they're using tools like this. So yes, like having all of those like stop the scroll, moments are so important, because if people don't, and that's why, again, I say like putting it on screen, putting it prominently at the top of the caption, I think that's really important. People's attention spans are so short, and if you make them work and search for it, they're not going to do it. But beyond that, this is where it's like, if you can use this type of tool, and all of a sudden you're getting 10 leads in your inbox from every reel, or 50 or 100 or any number, regardless of how big your audience is, you're actually going to be in a better spot. So like, combine them, take great visuals, great content, stop the scroll, and this tool that actually gets people to do more than just like and share like that's magic,

because you can study someone like that and copy the type of content, right? Like you don't reinvent the wheel,

yeah, 100% and again, it's like, I just think it's another example of how important consistency is. You know, just like continuing to show up and and the reason I like this as part of your overall strategy is that, again, it, it lends itself so well to the work that you're already doing. So you asked, like, what type of person is right for this? And I kind of said, like, everybody, I actually think too, like, this is helpful for almost every business model. I use it as a bespoke one to one service provider, and my clients use it for all the examples I shared again, including group coaching offers fashion like commissionable affiliate links, driving impressions to their website because they're monetizing based on page views in an ad network. Like, my gosh, my friend, like, runs a maintenance company and, like, deploys people to, you know, maintenance calls and sort of, like, manages the office. They're starting to use it because, if you're looking for, like, referrals, because your. Something is backed up, or whatever it is, like, you're probably out on social. And if you could just, like, drop a thing and get an automated response with, like, here's how to book, or here's the on call number. Like, you know, even for somebody like that, it's a very non traditional, non digital. It's like a brick and mortar, you know, blue collar type of business. And they're able to use some of these strategies.

Well, speaking of the service provider, what should our most simple many chat be for ourselves?

Oh my gosh, I love this, because I use mine in two ways again, like I build complex ones out for my clients, the ones that I use for myself are very simple. Number one, I have one for VIP days, right? Because, like, for me, that's still something I really love to do for the right type of client. And so I will create content about, like, what you can achieve in, you know, six hour VIP day, or whatever that looks like. So I have a very simple keyword trigger just with VIP. And all it does is, again, take people into the very basics of a qualification process. And frankly, I think actually the first thing it does is, like, gives them my form to fill out, just so I can capture their info. Hey, like, DMS, get really lost. I want to make sure, like, here's the link. It just asked a couple of brief questions about you. That's the place to start. I was just comment, you get this thing right? Yes. And then the other one is my podcast, yeah. The other one is my podcast, which isn't a direct relation to my service provider business. However, my best referrals come through listening to my podcast, so it is actually part of my sales funnel, and so in that case, I just have the word podcast, and the response in my many chat basically ask them two questions. Number one, you know, some beautiful message I'm sure says, like, Hey, thanks for listening. I can't wait for you to listen to the next episode of hard costs, which is the name of my podcast. Just a quick question, do you listen on Apple podcast Spotify or something else? And it's got three buttons, and based on what they say, it takes them directly to the link of their preferred platform. And if I can get them listening to my podcast and like following me there, then I've got a pretty good chance of warming them up and having them come to me when they are ready for a VIP day, or for another project that I'm offering as a service provider. And for those of you who are, you know, more organized than I am or not, the cobblers kid with no shoes like I am, you probably have some type of basic interest form, or a lead magnet, or a secret podcast, something that you can drive to that's a perfect way to capture the lead using many chat and then you can even redirect it Emily, like you can even say, after they do this, great. Here's my rate sheet, right? Like, it's just like, do this thing. Here you go. You don't even have to wait. I'm going to send it to your inbox. But also, here it is, right here, on a PDF that you can pull up right in Instagram, right in your inbox.

I love that. I think we need to have a get it done work session and work because it'sfree, right? Like,

oh yeah.

You don't need the paid version to even do the most simple one, right?

correct. Yep. And so that's once you get used to it and you start to use it, you will most likely want to upgrade. But again, at that point it's like, the money's coming in, but yeah, you can do you can do the free version of many chat it just limits how many triggers or funnels you can have active at any one time. But frankly, I have used the free version for a lot, and I just toggle them on and off as I need. And so I only have, you know, my limit active.

That's how I started to I think if I paid for it just because I had multiple reels like going out. And finally, it was only $50 a month too, yeah.

And it's it based on contacts, and you can always remove contacts that are inactive. So that's another piece of the work that I do. You were talking about maintenance. You know, setting it up is great, but honestly, a lot of the retainer work I do is for the ongoing reporting and also to maintain, not just to make sure the funnels are working, but to prune inactive subscribers and contacts in many chat it doesn't affect how they follow you or if you follow them on Instagram. It's literally only in many chats. So it's sort of like removing cold subscribers in an email list, and if they ever interact with you again, then they're back on. So it's not like you've lost them forever. Same with a you know, if you're removing an email subscriber, they ever signed back up in the future, you can come back on, but you're not paying for them in that case,

speaking of that, like, that's new to me, I actually don't know about that, but tell everyone the rule about engaging with many chat and I think is there still a 23 hour window?

Yeah, yeah. And it's a little it's actually feels more complicated than it is essentially what it what it means is that if someone has not interacted with you via the many chat funnel, within 24 hours, you can't continue to send automated messages. Every time they do something in your funnel, it resets, right? So, for example, if you say, leave me a comment and I'll send you a message. That's a comment reply, and you can delay it for as long as you want. For the most part, I like to send that first message right away. There's no expectation, right? You can delay it. But essentially, again, one of the main reasons that I like to have them do something in that first question. So again, like, Hey, glad you want to listen to my podcast just to check which one of these you use. Once they click the button, it basically resets the clock so you can send an automated message for the next 24 hours. If they interact with that message by clicking or, you know, then you can. Kind of keep resetting the clock, so that's kind of part of it. But yes, you're right. Is that if you have a long funnel and it's sending messages every X hours, if a person has not responded and kind of reset the clock during that time, then it will many chat, not Instagram, but many chat will not allow you to send those follow up messages. But to be honest with you that doesn't ever really bother me, because if they have not been engaging with the first few messages, or I haven't done something to make them take action and reset that clock, then the funnel is actually not performing. It's not spam from you know, like they opted in, but it just feels like you're chasing after somebody in the parking lot, and you're like, but wait, but wait. No, actually, like, I did not give them a reason to come back to me in the first place, so I probably need to rework the funnel. But there is definitely that limitation and a few others. But again, I don't find that they get in the way. If you've got really strong copy and you're really clear on the call to action, and that's up to us as unicorns, right? It's to figure out, like, what's actually gonna make somebody do the thing that they opted in for to begin with.

So what do you consider a cold contact with many jobs?

So I am very clear on, like, a traditional cold versus warm versus hot lead. Like, I do a lot of lead scoring, especially in email marketing, right? Like, okay, we are literally, like, adding points, stars, flames, whatever the system is. I don't know that I have that same worry in many chat and maybe that's naive. What I would say is that somebody who would appear to be warm because they're commenting on everything, and we've all got them right, like they are warm from a many chat and an Instagram standpoint, but they may not be like a warm, super qualified lead, if that makes sense. Like, the distinction would be, like somebody is literally liking and sharing and haha at every post, but they're not actually ever going to pay you money. I love that, like, don't I'm not trying to weed out people that think I'm funny and share my stuff. But ultimately, the reason I'm doing these funnels is not to be an entertainer again, in the rare case, maybe you're monetizing based on page views or something like that. But for I think most of the people that are listening now you're probably not right. You're leading to some other type of product or offer. And so somebody can go from cold to extremely hot in a second meaning that if they've seen the content, let's just use the example I shared there. See a real they're not following the call to action with the keyword is really clear. They comment. They're in my inbox. They're exchanging back and forth. And now they sign up for a lead magnet like the cold, the sort of traditional measure, I guess, would be somebody that is not following you, that engages with you. They become hot very quickly. But again, the nice thing about many chat is it really helps you figure out whether you actually have buyers in your current audience and if you can seriously activate them, right? So again, it's like this is a tool that gets people from being kind of passive reactors to your content to active buyers. And if you are doing that consistently, you may find that, like my friend, your audience of 400,000 maybe has like 4000 potential buyers, where your audience of 10,000 also has 4000 potential buyers. So it's just like it just kind of brings the buyers out of the woodwork faster, and I think, gives you more clarity on whether you have built an audience that really understands that you have something to sell and that you are the person to buy from, or if you need to shift your content strategy. And that does happen. Emily like, again, my friend, she's now really having to shift. She, I think, assumed, like, you sell it and people will buy it. I have this huge audience like, and that's just not been the case. And so it's, you know, it's been a tough adjustment, but really it's like, okay, so now, actually, my content strategy has to be to make people understand that I am now running a business, and I'm trying to sell and make a profit, and I can't necessarily go from A to Z, but I'm going to start using my content to prime people so that they turn into buyers. It might be a longer period of time, so even her, like hot audience of followers is pretty cold, but many chat will help warm them up.

Yeah, I think it really helps you cross average from social to email that we talked about, and that's so crucial, and that's so hard. I kind of had the same problem when I started my business with the messaging evolution and what I was doing, and that same problem with the quality of my own email list. So, yeah, I don't have that problem on Instagram. I don't have, you know, 100,000 followers, but this is a problem, and just kind of shines light on the fact that we have to be insightful as unicorns when it comes to the painkiller products, to be able to test them, to, you know, constantly be refining the messaging. And I call them the couch clickers. You know, they're like surfing and it looks good, and they never take action, for whatever reason. I'm not shaming anyone. But like, ultimately, we need, we need the buyers.

Yeah, again, it's like an empowerment, you know, whether you're the CEO or for us, working with the CEO. You know, I'm always happy to say to my bosses or my teammates, hey, we use this strategy to figure out whether people would respond, and they didn't, and it's not because the strategy wasn't there, like we did all of the things that should have woken them up. We actually just need to acknowledge like the buyers that we want are not in this audience, or we have not educated them enough about what we have, and so we've got to rethink our strategy, because otherwise you get so frustrated. You're like, I have this I have this big audience, and I have this thing. Why aren't they buying? And it just I find that it's more empowering to be like, okay, it is what it is. The data just showed us that despite all of our messaging, something is not in alignment. So we got to go back and we got to figure out what's the right messaging, and then we can start to figure out where the buyers are. And that does happen really quickly. Emily, like, if you can acknowledge right, like, it's not, it's not my audience, that's the problem. It's actually something earlier in the process. But you do kind of have to go through this to figure out whether that's the case or not.

Yeah, we don't always, you know, hit it out of the park with the first

I mean, I never do, like, and I I'm a perfectionist. I'm still like, Okay, you probably my third draft is going to be the one, yeah.

Well, with my client right now, our first lead magnet is a bust, and the second one, we just turned on the ads, and already, like, 99 cent leads, and it's just going crazy. And I like, like, you know, it would have been nice if we would have got it right that first time. But he's like, so happy. I'm like, I know it was just a matter of time and stuff. You have the time and the patience. And will you trust me?

yes, yeah. And again, the more you do this, like, just to go back to watch it, like, the more you do this, the more data you can bring and that, like, I will say to my I want to get you quick wins. My goal is to have you getting some type of result in this time frame. However, you should know, based on my expertise, it's actually probably going to be more like 60 days. So are you in? And I can do that confidently, because I can bring the data, and again, it's not, I'm not telling you that you're going to have to wait for 60 days to start seeing revenue or seeing lessons, but I don't want to enter into this agreement with you judging me in one week. It's not fair to me. It's not fair to you, and I won't do it. So trust me, because I can tell you the end of the story is this, and that's really empowering, but you have to use your actual experience to do that.

Yeah. How did you learn all this many chat stuff like, where did you say accident, just getting it there and doing it.

Yeah. I mean, look, if you have not figured this out, a lot, if maybe not, all of my career has been me saying a series of, I don't know, but I'll figure it out. So I told you I was, like, that curious kid, like, I don't like not knowing the answer. So there's just something innate for me. I'm like, I hate not knowing I'm gonna Tinker, not electronically. I'm not in like, spatial relations. Legos confound me. So it's not that type of tinkering, but it's like the mental tinkering of an automation but most of my career has really been that, right? And again, like it's a beautiful thing, because most of the CEOs I work with also have not done it right. So we're sort of like figuring out the next step to go. And that is, like, in the case of somebody who is now working on her first ten million year, like, she's still trying to figure out, like, what, how do I go from this to this? So we're both kind of beginners at one piece of it, and so that's how I don't know, but I'm gonna figure it out. How about this within the next X days? Like, I'm always, I try to be really clear on, like, here's what I'm gonna do. If you can give me X days, then what I will bring back to you is either telling you I can't do it, telling you I did it, or telling you some in between, which is usually the case, which is, here's how far I've gotten, and with another couple of days, I can have this active but that's how it's always been, always. No one ever taught me email marketing. No one ever taught me many chat I mean, other than, like, great tutorials and courses and things like that, but pretty much it's just been me getting in and getting my hands dirty, which is why, like I said at the beginning, like I'm just not I cannot only be a strategic partner. I've said for better or for worse, I've decided that's for the better. It makes me a unicorn. It really does, because a lot of people who call themselves fractional CMOS, and this is not wrong. It's just different. They will really just want to be the strategic partner and have the team do that's not me, and so I'm actually able to use that as, like, a real selling point. You actually get two for one with me. Like, you're gonna invest, you're gonna invest in me at a CMO level. Like, I mean, I'm not saying that to be obnoxious or braggy, like I've earned that right to work with that type of client that's paying me pretty Boku bucks to do what I do. But again, the benefit is that you're going to get all of the strategic partner work, and I'm also going to implement and execute, and that's why I asked the rate that I do, but you're probably not going to get that from most of the unicorn, you know. Like, that's what makes me a unicorn for my particular clients. And I, I kind of love bragging about that.

I love it. You're I mean, all my people are the same. We get in there, we figure it out. We say, Yes, we have these open, honest conversations with our clients. And it's so fun to see that that's possible. I don't know how many people are like, No, you have to choose. You have to be super niched, or you can't have your. Foot in two different worlds. And I love that you are evidence that you can do it. You can own your unicorn, you know?

And so can your listeners. You really can.

Okay, so how can weconnect with you? You're on Instagram and you have a podcast.

So, yeah, my my favorite platform is still Instagram. It's where I have the most fun. It's where I'm the most active. So it's at K with my first initial and last name on Instagram. And if you're listening and you come hang out with me, just tell me, because, like, I am here for my fellow unicorns. Drop me a unicorn emoji. Whatever it is that you want to do, let me know that that's where you found me. So Instagram is a great place. And I also do have a podcast, and really like, it's a passion project for me. It's called Hard Costs, and it's really like, goes back to my journalism background. It's storytelling with other entrepreneurs and CEOs and founders. And the reason I call it hard costs is it's because it's the costs that don't show up on a traditional profit and loss, you know. So it's everything from somebody who you know had to let go of their entire team because of a massive financial transition and really just talk about like, how hard that was to be a seven figure CEO who had to fire her whole team because she couldn't support them, somebody who put her business on hold because she was diagnosed with late stage cancer. You know, it's everything and in between. And so it's those stories that don't show up on your LinkedIn page or a P and L, but that are so resonant for those of us who are trying to run a business and be humans at the same time. So that's called hard costs with Katy Widrick, and it's on all the platforms, and it's my favorite thing to do and to share. And I would love if people listened.

Oh my gosh. I love that angle. I think we're all trying to balance life, balance our work, be the face of our business, do the client work, and no one's really talking about what's really happening,

yeah, and it's even small things, you know, we get into that. I'm a mom of two, you know, like, stuff happens your your kids are running around making noise, or, you know, you're trying to finish a project, but the softball game, it's all of these things that are, like, sort of mundane, but so, so relatable. And I just also want to kind of be a rational voice in the storm to say you can absolutely be an incredible entrepreneur, making a lot of money and still really struggle with some of the very everyday things that are like, what do you do when you get sick or, you know, you have a sudden move or whatever it is that it's disrupting in your life? So yeah, I'd love for people to listen to that.

Well, Katy, this has been such a pleasure. I'm serious about asking you back into the work group to talk about going from VA to cmo and kind of like a how you did it session. If you're cool,

I would love it.

Oh my gosh. Well, I'll touch base with you. So thank you so much. We'll see you over on Instagram and on your podcast.

Thank you.

okay, that was so insightful. I hope you're feeling motivated to jump in like Katy, did you don't need another stinking course. You can do it. Many chat is very insightful. I have done this for clients, the very simple link delivery ones, and you can actually go check out some of mine. I think the problem is I can never remember what my many chat funnels are. So if you could just be organized with your client, have a little cheat sheet. I think that would put you ahead of the game. But if you go over to my Instagram and comment ditch, you're gonna get my top three episodes that will help you ditch the title virtual assistant and start charging more. You could also comment on one of my posts apply, and I will send you the link to apply for our digital marketers work group, which we're taking applications. Now, I also have something else that I did in regards to a many chat related to one of my former episodes. So if you comment, raise my rates, we'll send you my exact script for increasing your rates with your current clients. Again, linking arms, helping you be better. Hashtag Unicorns Unite. No, just kidding. I have a few of these too, just to help deliver content. Amy Porterfield is really good about this. Every single episode she has on her show you, just comment 219 Episode 219 and she'll send you her podcast episode for that. And so my episode 219 is boundaries. So if you comment that, I'll send you the link to go listen to that. Because we know every single freelancer and people pleaser and somebody who really wants to do good work behind the scenes sometimes has boundary issues. I mean, we all have to enforce them as freelancers. So I do that. That's how I bring the podcast to the social to the email. I could always be doing better, but who couldn't, and then I love Katy's idea about doing this for yourself, like book, a call, link, I think that makes you look professional, and you never know who's gonna see that and be like, hey, hey, man, can you do that for me? We covered a lot today. Mainly, I hope you're walking away with how many chat can bridge that gap between social media and email and how you can step in, take on this work, be more than just doing the task. Think ahead. Think about the next step. Think about how can I help my client grow their email list, nurture their email list through the content they already have and their social media Following through the content they already have. Also we can make sales and please go check the show notes for how to connect with Katy on Instagram. Check out her podcast and give her a shout out. Build your network. I am inviting her back into the work group to talk about how she progressed to cmo and what she's learned along the way. I cannot wait for that conversation so you can skip ahead in your own journey, and that, my friends, is the end of our episode. If you're enjoying this tunnel series, please, please, please leave a review. I would love you forever. Also, next week, we're going to have our final episode and a big, big announcement. I'll see you then.

if you want to start earning income as a digital marketing service provider or digital marketing assistant, you only need your laptop. You can tap into what online business owners really need help with by downloading my top 10 most requested tasks. These are the services I did for years for my clients behind the scenes. You can take this download and apply it to your own business and start by offering these very same services if you want to niche down in digital marketing, this is your guide. Just use the link in the show notes, or go to Emily Reagan pr.com/services

Meanwhile, during this podcast, did you hear my kids screaming? Then they started calling me on the iPad?

Oh no, just like mom's working

On air. Why don't they see the On Air sign?