Artwork for podcast Your Systems Friend
8: Choosing a Tech Stack That's Scalable for Your Online Business with Kronda Adair
Episode 814th September 2023 • Your Systems Friend • Ashley Rose
00:00:00 00:34:47

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When it comes to scaling, most business owners focus on sales and marketing, and they don’t realize how much their tech stack influences whether or not they can effectively and sustainably scale. 

But your tech stack is the very thing that can show you how effective your sales and marketing is. It can show you what’s working and what’s not. It makes it possible to enroll more clients. It’s what helps get clients better results and increases resigns and referrals. 

Kronda Adair, a digital marketer and Certified Automation Service Provider™, and Ashley share how to think about your tech stack, even if you’re not “techy” so you can ensure it can scale with you and why Airtable is at the center of scalable systems.

06:11 — What is Airtable? 

08:11 — The decision to offer done-for-you agency services

10:26 — How Airtable make it possible for you to make quick, data-informed decisions that help you scale  

12:52 — You need to be able to easily have access to any data you want 

14:59 —  Understanding open systems vs. closed systems and how to evaluate if your tech stack is scalable 

18:17 — The best software to use with Airtable to centralize your data into one place

24:16 — 💻Screenshare: Comparing community platforms to show how to evaluate your tech to determine what will be most scalable 



👋 CONNECT WITH KRONDA ADAIR (SHE/HER)

Kronda Adair is the founder of Karvel Digital, an agency that provides marketing automation for mission-driven service-based businesses that want to create a predictable sales pipeline.


She is a digital marketer and Certified Automation Service Provider™ who helps her clients make sure that no lead slips through the cracks and that every piece of email marketing content you create is used to its fullest potential. She created CRM to Sales to help overwhelmed and overworked teams use Active Campaign as the foundation for building a system that helps you save time and increase revenue.


Website https://karveldigital.com

Power hour: https://karveldigital.com/power-hour

Instagram: https://instagram.com/karveldigital

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krondaadair

Begin as you Mean to Go On podcast: https://karveldigital.com/podcast


WAYS TO WORK WITH ASHLEY:


⚡️ JOIN OUR SET UP YOUR SALES HUB WORKSHOP ON 9/25

In this hands-on, 3-hour workshop, you will set up a super simple but POWERFUL Sales Hub in Airtable that can be customized to your business.

You'll have the financial data about your sales, offers & upcoming client payments completely up-to-date so you always know how your business is doing.

Airtable is the best software to create an automated sales hub system. You'll never have to update a manual spreadsheet again.

It's just $147. Save your spot HERE: https://systemsoverstress.co/sales-hub-workshop


⚡️ SET UP CLIENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN OUR DIY GROUP PROGRAM:

In our 12 month group program, you'll automate the onboarding, offboarding & client results tracking systems process of your signature group coaching or 1:1 offer in just 30 days and add student support features that will help get your clients better results, faster.

Learn More & Join Here: https://systemsoverstress.co/sos


⚡️ APPLY TO WORK WITH US TO SET UP YOUR SYSTEMS FOR YOU:

We take on very limited Done-For-You Airtable Builds for coaches.

Learn more & book a sales call: https://systemsoverstress.co/systems-speed-dial


⭐ APPLY FOR THE SHOW YOUR RECEIPTS CLIENT RESULTS VIP DAY

On our VIP Day, we help coaches create an automated client results system that clients actually fill out & proves your program works.

Apply for the Client Results VIP Day


🤓FREE MASTERCLASS: The 3 Systems You Need Before Your Next 6-Figure Group Program Launch

Register for the Free Masterclass


👋CONNECT WITH ASHLEY

Website: https://systemsoverstress.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/systemsoverstress/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJJ01c-NTjI8eZzp2wwO7GA

Transcripts

Speaker:

I have an Airtable and I have the interface where we can go and just say,

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show me all the sales from August of 2022.

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And then you can flip a button and see August of 2020, and my clients

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don't have that and I, it's really frustrating because the work that

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we're doing on the marketing side is we want to see are you getting results?

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Are you getting increased sales?

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Are you getting increased leads?

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And they don't have a hub to be able to see, like, All these things in one place.

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They're like, Oh, let me go log into ThriveCart And let

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me go log into QuickBooks.

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And then it's again, it's it's not the 18th century.

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Let's collect all this data in one place.

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Welcome to Systems Famous, the podcast where we're revolutionizing the coaching

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industry by putting client results first.

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I'm Ashley Pendergraft, a systems and automation expert with over five years

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of experience in the coaching industry.

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Let's get into the show.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Hello friends, I am so excited to be popping

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into your podcast feed today.

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I hope you're having an amazing day.

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I am going to be sharing with you a replay of a live stream

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I did with my friend Karanda.

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She is an incredible active campaign expert, email marketing expert.

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We went live and we talked all about super nerdy tech stack things.

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Why you should make the switch to Airtable, why you should switch

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platforms at all, how to build a tech stack that is going to grow with you.

Ashley Pendergraft:

There's so many amazing gems in this live stream I had to put it on the podcast.

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So I hope you enjoy and we're just going to head right into the replay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

this is Karanda Adair with Karvel Digital.

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If y'all don't know me I founded Karvel Digital back in

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2013 making 500 websites, and

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I will skip the long journey to now where I'm a certified automation service

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provider and we help mission driven service based businesses to build

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marketing systems that can allow them to scale without burning out in the process.

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And I am here with Ashley Pendergraft from Systems Over Stress.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And Ashley, I'm going to have you introduce yourself, but I want

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to just tell the story of how I came into your world and I think

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we met inside of a mastermind or we were like in the same circles.

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And I had discovered Airtable and I just came to know that like you were

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the Airtable queen and you were still operating under do the damn thing.

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And I was like, let me go see what she's doing with Airtable.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Cause I'm pretty good with Airtable and we have the whole pot of

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gold, which is our system for managing and repurposing content.

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And I was like, I feel pretty good about my Airtable skills.

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And.

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So then I went and I saw what you were doing with air table and I was like,

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okay, yeah, no, maybe I'm not the one.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I remember the specific email.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So you have systems over stress, which is your group program for

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helping people like manage their group programs with air table.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I remember the specific email that you sent where I was like,

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shit, I'm joining that program.

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I was like, all right, just let me know when it's open.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And it was You sent a whimsical, it was a preview of a whimsical board.

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Of how you like document all the systems that you're building.

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And I was like, yeah, that's it.

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And I'm done.

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So then, yeah, I joined systems over stress.

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We've implemented, the sales hub, the launch hub, the group program hub.

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We've implemented those things, for ourselves.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I was running a group program at the time content bootcamp.

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And it's been great.

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And then I realized like so many of our clients need what you were doing.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And the last launch that you had for the group program, I was

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literally like, I was on Instagram.

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I was putting it in stories.

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I was emailing, I was like messaging clients directly and being like,

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you need to go get into this thing so that you can have these bases

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and then we'll set them up for you.

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And then you started an agency and I was like, great here, just take it all.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So that's like our kind of introduction to, but introduce yourself and tell

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the story of how you got to where you are now on, on what you're focusing on.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So my name is Ashley.

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I've been in this.

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world, I guess three, almost four years now.

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And I started as like a general systems expert.

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My first like little baby course was called Be Your Own COO.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And it was like inbox management and file management.

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And it had a couple Airtable templates in it.

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And I have ADHD and I had never really understood.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I didn't know at the time I had ADHD, but I was like hyper focused on Airtable.

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I was like, All I want to now talk about is Airtable.

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I was like, I was just obsessed with all of the things it could do

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and it really felt like I have done like I've been an event producer.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I run systems and ops for like nonprofits for rock bands, all these things.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I just wish I had air table back in the day.

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Like I hated spreadsheets.

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Air table was like the magical new thing.

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And I re this was in 2019.

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And I was like, all I want to do is talk about air table.

Ashley Pendergraft:

What if I did an air table one on one workshop?

Ashley Pendergraft:

And like my mentors were like, nobody cares about a software.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like they just want like the transformation.

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I was like let me just try.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I did like an air table one on one workshop and it was like the

Ashley Pendergraft:

most signups I had ever gotten.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And my like big thing that I was selling, I was like, send me your

Ashley Pendergraft:

spreadsheets and I'll just show you how they could be better in air table.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And that really started my journey.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So 2020 on, I have been like the internet's air table girl.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I can build absolutely anything in air table.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I think every business owner, it's like an absolute requirement of their tech stack.

Ashley Pendergraft:

But when I'm in the coaching world and like in the online course creator

Ashley Pendergraft:

world, Airtable is great for so many things, but it's so great for managing

Ashley Pendergraft:

your group programs and scaling those group offers and enhancing your program

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so you get better client results.

Ashley Pendergraft:

There is so much, which I'm sure we'll get into, but so I've really just pivoted.

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I've been systems the whole time and then I was Airtable and now I've just

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really niche down into supporting course creators and online group program

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founders to manage the delivery and the operations and the onboarding,

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offboarding and re sign of their group programs all inside of Airtable.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Okay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And of course I skipped a big step and I would like to hear

Ashley Pendergraft:

your explanation for this.

Ashley Pendergraft:

When people ask you, what is Airtable?

Ashley Pendergraft:

How do you explain it?

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Yes.

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So how I explain it is.

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At its core, it is a database.

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And if it depends on if that makes people like scratch their head, I

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step back a little bit and I'm just think about your most organized

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spreadsheet and also how, like how bad it is to be in that spreadsheet,

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even when it's like at its peak.

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And how I really describe it is that Airtable becomes the source of truth for

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your business, for your group program.

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So that's what a database is.

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It holds everything about your students.

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Like their forms, I like to say you have spreadsheets and you have Google forms.

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Those don't really talk to each other.

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So you just have floating data all around your Google drive.

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Airtable as that source of truth can help you bring it all together.

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So you have one central place to look, one central place to train your team.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So that's how I describe it in a nutshell.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

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And when I get new clients and they have spreadsheets and they're showing me and

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I'm going to look at the minute I want to just take a column and just drag it over.

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So it's next to something else.

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And I'm just like, Oh, I can't, a client of mine, one of my favorite things, a

Ashley Pendergraft:

client of mine A contract of her sent her a spreadsheet and she just responded

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like it is not the 18th century, like we work in Airtable, like this needs

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to be in Airtable like tomorrow.

Ashley Pendergraft:

It's like it's working because once you're in it you're like realize

Ashley Pendergraft:

wow like spreadsheets are not it like let's move this all into

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Airtable so that's really fun.

Ashley Pendergraft:

100%.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Okay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So you, I have watched it's been really a pleasure to watch your journey and

Ashley Pendergraft:

watch your messaging change because you went from, okay, I have a group

Ashley Pendergraft:

program and I'm going to teach you how to do this, which is fine for me.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Cause like we tech for a living, I can go in there and like

Ashley Pendergraft:

tech with the best of them.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I literally said to clients, I'm like, Just go join and we'll set up

Ashley Pendergraft:

your bases, but then you'll have the support when you have the questions.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And now you've moved into being an agency where you're doing VIP days

Ashley Pendergraft:

for people, talk about that transition and like, how did that come about?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I did VIP days at the start when I be started becoming the

Ashley Pendergraft:

air table girl, I did VIP days.

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That was my main.

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Then I wanted to scale.

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So I went into a group program and VIP days just inherently

Ashley Pendergraft:

weren't scalable for me.

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And I was like, I'm never going to do these again.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then when I, what happened was we did a launch of systems over stress, the

Ashley Pendergraft:

group program, and our pay in full bonus was, we'll set up your sales hub for you.

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And my operations manager, my, my delivery assistant, she set up 30 sales

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hubs by herself during the launch.

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And I was like.

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Did we just become an agency?

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Like other people can set this up for me.

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I had no idea.

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It was just like a happy accident that I was like, Oh, she can set up bases.

Ashley Pendergraft:

This could be an agency.

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We did all of those for free.

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That was just like included in included in the group program.

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And so once that was shown to me and I, my coach is like very pro agency.

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I decided to try it.

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It's been a huge, learning curve.

Ashley Pendergraft:

There is so much that your table can do.

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And there is just that balance of wanting to set things up

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without overwhelming people.

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And I think as like tech specialists, that is the delicate

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balance of yeah, we set it all up.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And they're like, I don't know how to use any of this.

Ashley Pendergraft:

This is horrifying.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so that is that's the things that we have to navigate.

Ashley Pendergraft:

But people were just, once I got rid of the VIP days and started the

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group program, people were asking me, will you set this up for me?

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I'm like, no, you should go through the program.

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Everyone can do it.

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And I think we have to like, step back and be okay with not everybody can do this or

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wants to do this or has the time to do it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So you can pay me and my team to set it up for you.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I had to get out of my own way and allow people to

Ashley Pendergraft:

pay us to set it up for them.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I so relate because I went through a whole phase where I spent, I probably spent

Ashley Pendergraft:

a good three months building a course.

Ashley Pendergraft:

To teach people how to create their own WordPress website.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I was like, it's drag and drop.

Ashley Pendergraft:

It's fine.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You can do it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And it's no, some people just cannot do it and they should just pay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So talk about some of the results that like the before and after of cause I mean,

Ashley Pendergraft:

I'll start actually, because I know that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Now, one of my big frustrations is that we have a sales hub.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So like I have an Airtable and I have the interface where we can go and just say,

Ashley Pendergraft:

show me all the sales from August of 2022.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then you can flip a button and see August of 2020, and my clients

Ashley Pendergraft:

don't have that and I, it's really frustrating because the work that

Ashley Pendergraft:

we're doing on the marketing side is we want to see are you getting results?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Are you getting increased sales?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Are you getting increased leads?

Ashley Pendergraft:

And they don't have a hub to be able to see, like, All these things in one place.

Ashley Pendergraft:

They're like, Oh, let me go log into ThriveCart And let

Ashley Pendergraft:

me go log into QuickBooks.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then it's again, it's it's not the 18th century.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Let's collect all this data in one place.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So just talk about some of the transformations like from your other

Ashley Pendergraft:

clients and what that's been like.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I think the biggest thing is just the speed in which you can make decisions

Ashley Pendergraft:

when everything is in one place.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So exactly what you're just talking about, like if you are on a call

Ashley Pendergraft:

with your coach and they say, how much money did you make last August?

Ashley Pendergraft:

You could be like, Oh, hold on.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Let me pull up Stripe.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then let me pull up Dubsado and then let me pull up Thrivecart

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and piece them all together.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then that reporting would be out of date the moment you

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create, you export the CSV.

Ashley Pendergraft:

But when we bring everything into one central source of

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truth inside of Airtable.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Then all of that data is live.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So you can answer any question you have is about your business whenever you want.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I think that is something that is so powerful.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And also when all the data is in one place, like you can see,

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we're talking about the sales hub.

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Every product is inside of your sales hub.

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Every sale is, so you can see.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Whoa.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like this product that I spent zero time making this 19 product

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has brought in 20, 000 in revenue.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And this thing that I like spent so much time on has barely brought in anything.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And it helps you make those like data driven decisions without the

Ashley Pendergraft:

pressure of having to like make all those reports have your VA make

Ashley Pendergraft:

all those reports and all of that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I see that Chris Davis is watching live Hey, Chris And I remember him telling

Ashley Pendergraft:

a similar story in one of our weekly calls that like he just got the inkling like oh

Ashley Pendergraft:

Maybe I need to change this up and then he looked at the data and it was like, oh

Ashley Pendergraft:

no You need to do you need to keep going?

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I want to talk about Well, okay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

There's a couple of things.

Ashley Pendergraft:

One is we're talking a lot about data, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Airtable is a database.

Ashley Pendergraft:

We're talking about creating a central source of truth.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And creating that source of truth requires automating the movement of data.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I think...

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like in my work with clients and just in looking at the, the conversations

Ashley Pendergraft:

I have with other entrepreneurs, I think a lot of business owners do

Ashley Pendergraft:

not understand how important it is to be able to move their data around.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Can you just talk about that for a second?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yes.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Not like I, you should be able to export your data whenever

Ashley Pendergraft:

you want, however you want.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Dubsado, I'm coming for you.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You can't export shit out of that thing.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And it's so frustrating, and what's really the biggest thing for Karanda

Ashley Pendergraft:

and I is we love the central source of truth, but not all softwares are created

Ashley Pendergraft:

equal when it comes to automations.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So there's like literal platforms where you can't.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Get like you can't set up a zap to add them into your air table

Ashley Pendergraft:

base, or you can't when there's a failed payment update that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Whenever I'm looking at a new software, I don't look at the pricing page first.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I don't look at anything.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I go to Zapier and see if it has Zapier integrations.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And that really helps me like lead my decisions.

Ashley Pendergraft:

If there's a new sexy platform on the market, yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And it's, half the cost of something else, but it doesn't have Zapier automations.

Ashley Pendergraft:

It's going to cost me so much more time in manual work and

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labor and all of these things.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So it's just not worth it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So the, like creating the unified tech stack and making sure that tech stack

Ashley Pendergraft:

can scale with you is super important because you realize, you set something up.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You're like, yeah, it worked for now.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Oh, let me try to pull this data.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Let me try to move it around.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And you just can't.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And it's a really, it's a really like binding place to be.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I always liken it to, going into a relationship that

Ashley Pendergraft:

seems good at the beginning.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then you find out like, it's not like you're trapped basically.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And, Dubsado is.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah, Dubsado is definitely on my list for that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I think the, if you're watching this and you're not, technical and you don't

Ashley Pendergraft:

tech for a living, and you want a way to think about this, really, I think about

Ashley Pendergraft:

it in open systems and closed systems.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So there are, there's software out there that are open systems, which means they

Ashley Pendergraft:

make it easy for you to export your data.

Ashley Pendergraft:

They connect with things like Zapier or they have native integrations to connect

Ashley Pendergraft:

to other apps because they understand that you need to move your data around.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then there are closed systems that have really great marketing

Ashley Pendergraft:

and really great user bases.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so I'm always saying please don't take tech advice from your

Ashley Pendergraft:

coach unless your coach is Ashley.

Ashley Pendergraft:

It's like the coaches are all just Oh yeah, we use Kajabi,

Ashley Pendergraft:

everybody should use Kajabi.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And it's they're not technical.

Ashley Pendergraft:

They're just using what their coach told them to use.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so I'm always trying to get people to take this seriously in terms of

Ashley Pendergraft:

you, you need to start thinking about, especially if you're, let's say you're

Ashley Pendergraft:

at the, two 50 mark in revenue and you want to scale, you need to start

Ashley Pendergraft:

thinking about an integrated tech stack and not just like going on Facebook

Ashley Pendergraft:

and saying what's a good tool for X.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I've been seeing this more and more.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I hate those posts.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I hate them so much.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I think something else I want to just add to this is I like to give people like

Ashley Pendergraft:

agency and say you can't if you stay in Kajabi, here's what that means for you.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You can't really easily do projected payments, kick people out.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like you can't like here are the limitations and some people to do decide.

Ashley Pendergraft:

My budget is at a place where I can't like my budget or my timeline, or I'm willing

Ashley Pendergraft:

to have a team member do manual work.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I don't have to do that migration.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I'm like, great as well.

Ashley Pendergraft:

It's almost like a disclaimer.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I was like, as I, I understand that things will be harder if I use this software.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I'm like, cool.

Ashley Pendergraft:

As long as when you feel good about that decision, keep cruising.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And we can do as much as we can, but.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I do want to make I want people to be, like, as informed as possible.

Ashley Pendergraft:

If you want to scale and automate to the gills this isn't it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And that same, it's like the, my problem isn't that people use the tools.

Ashley Pendergraft:

It's that they don't know what they're getting into when they make the decision.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so that's my beef.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And that's why I'm on the soapbox of look, you're going to go into this thing.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And if it's like a, for now, this is what you can handle.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You're a baby business owner, whatever.

Ashley Pendergraft:

That's fine, but understand what you're giving up and just know,

Ashley Pendergraft:

like, when you get your glow up or you outgrow this tool, this is what

Ashley Pendergraft:

you're going to be facing, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

And that's the same message that I'm trying to get out to people

Ashley Pendergraft:

is just know before you go, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah, and I think active campaign is such a interesting example of that because

Ashley Pendergraft:

I only, and you'll probably kill me through this, only recently am I looking

Ashley Pendergraft:

at, can I export all of my campaign metrics and just pop them into our table?

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I'm like, ConvertKit can't do that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Kajabi can't do that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like all, like all of them at a time.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I was like, can ActiveCampaign?

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I was so grateful to see yes, ActiveCampaign can do it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like it is, and it's possible.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so that was just even understanding those things.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I talked to a friend, I was like, don't use Kajabi because

Ashley Pendergraft:

the click rate, the click rates don't like do the reporting.

Ashley Pendergraft:

She's honestly I'm not going to be looking at reporting probably for

Ashley Pendergraft:

the next six months in my business.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I just need to make this decision.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So this is the path I'm going to go down.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I was like, okay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So it just, it really depends on where people are at.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah, totally.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Okay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I've got a hit list of things that I just steer people away from

Ashley Pendergraft:

as far as closed net networks.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I put a post on Facebook once and it just.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So an escape room, but for people trying to leave Dub Sado

Ashley Pendergraft:

and that thing just blew up.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So Dub Sado mighty Networks, Kajabi, those are the, Kajabi, I think not

Ashley Pendergraft:

as bad as some of the others, but definitely don't use it for email.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So let's talk about the other side of that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

What are some things that you're like.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Oh, this is juicy.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You should definitely use this because we can suck all the data out of it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And we can put it into our one source of truth.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yes.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I will say I like the, like all in one platforms are

Ashley Pendergraft:

lying to you all of the time.

Ashley Pendergraft:

There's not, there is not one all in one platform that can do everything.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And some of those all in one platforms can do one thing really well.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I will, I personally still use Dubsado only for contracts and

Ashley Pendergraft:

invoices, absolutely nothing else.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I'm on Kajabi only for the course platform.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so it's really like understanding, I'm not like totally anti these things, but

Ashley Pendergraft:

it's understanding how can they fit into a fully like optimized scalable tech stack?

Ashley Pendergraft:

But things that I really like, I mean, I do not know of a better

Ashley Pendergraft:

checkout platform than Thrivecart.

Ashley Pendergraft:

The things you can do with that thing, like.

Ashley Pendergraft:

The automations and just there's so much robust data you can pull out of it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You can't pull on a lot of robust data with learn, which is their

Ashley Pendergraft:

course platform, which that's, they've closed that network.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like they're like, we don't want you to automate because we want you

Ashley Pendergraft:

to thrive part and learn together.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And that's frustrating to me.

Ashley Pendergraft:

However, there are workarounds that I think thrive car is thrive.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Car is huge, obviously air table.

Ashley Pendergraft:

What else have I been into?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Vimeo.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Vimeo is huge because of the ability to like, once you're done with the Zoom

Ashley Pendergraft:

recording, it can just like automatically go to Vimeo and there can be a zap

Ashley Pendergraft:

integration that like sends it to a call, like recording database in your air table.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So that's a really nice loop.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So that's my favorite, yeah, I only learned about that Zoom to Vimeo thing

Ashley Pendergraft:

about a year ago and I was big mad.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I was like, wait, how come nobody told me about this?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah, and it's great because you can set Zoom cracked down on the recording limits.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I don't know if y'all back in the day, it's you've used 4000 percent of your

Ashley Pendergraft:

Zoom recording limits, but we don't care.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then they finally were like, we really do care, actually.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You can now set it up.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So like they go straight to Vimeo and you can auto delete them from your

Ashley Pendergraft:

like cloud storage in in, in zoom.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so that was like a really great workaround.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I don't have to think about it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like it can, I can keep my low storage limit and zoom it's

Ashley Pendergraft:

in Vimeo and it's all chill.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I would say that definitely all of those that you named and I know

Ashley Pendergraft:

you have a whole podcast episode, so we have to give a shout out to

Ashley Pendergraft:

your new podcast, Systems Famous.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Which I listened to every episode

Ashley Pendergraft:

and you recently were on there with Damaju talking about Thrivecart.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Definitely go check out Systems Famous podcast and that episode in

Ashley Pendergraft:

particular one of my, you talked about learn not being so friendly.

Ashley Pendergraft:

One of my learning management tools that I'm ride or die for is Member Vault.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Member Vault is very friendly when it comes to, connecting really deeply with

Ashley Pendergraft:

your email platform so that you can know Oh, somebody finished this course and you

Ashley Pendergraft:

can, or this module or this lesson and you can do cool gamification things and you

Ashley Pendergraft:

can unlock surprises for people based on their engagement and all that good stuff.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So that's definitely one of my, one of my go tos.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I want to make a plug too For if not active campaign, some kind of CRM

Ashley Pendergraft:

because, in my world where we're really focused on building the marketing

Ashley Pendergraft:

system and being able to do automation that reacts to what the subscribers

Ashley Pendergraft:

are actually doing, like the behaviors and the actions that they're taking,

Ashley Pendergraft:

it's really important that all CRM.

Ashley Pendergraft:

The progress that people have inside your course or them visiting your sales

Ashley Pendergraft:

page a bunch of times, but not buying or, things like that, those are the

Ashley Pendergraft:

things that we want to be able to either capture or monitor so that we can set

Ashley Pendergraft:

up automations that can be like really a little digital salesperson for you.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I'm going to give a plug for active campaign for that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Any others?

Ashley Pendergraft:

What else am I into?

Ashley Pendergraft:

I'm trying to keep my tech stack pretty lean.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I really like softer softer.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I've been a huge fan of just for how easy it is to integrate with Airtable.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So we have a community platform.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So We don't use circle.

Ashley Pendergraft:

We don't use mighty networks.

Ashley Pendergraft:

We have like support ticketing database inside of my group program.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And we just have these different things features in the program that

Ashley Pendergraft:

are powered by air table and software basically lets us build like a custom

Ashley Pendergraft:

membership platform for our own Programs.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So we have a custom app for our students.

Ashley Pendergraft:

We also have a custom app for our one on one clients.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So on the back end of air table, we have our clients and their projects,

Ashley Pendergraft:

and we also have all their recordings.

Ashley Pendergraft:

We just we just.

Ashley Pendergraft:

The uploads are automatically added to the back end of Airtable and

Ashley Pendergraft:

the front end of Softer has this beautifully branded portal for them.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So that's been really fun to play with.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And another amazing form builder I've been using is called Fillout.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Fillout is the best form builder.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Get out of here type form.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Get out of here.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Anything else.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And one of the reasons I love it so much is that you actually you create

Ashley Pendergraft:

the fields inside of your air table first and it automatically integrates

Ashley Pendergraft:

inside outside of inside of fill out.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So you aren't creating the form and then auto mapping like manually

Ashley Pendergraft:

mapping them into air table.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You're actually starting with air table first.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Forms for the Airtable fields first.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so it's just a really like seamless loop that you can do multi pages.

Ashley Pendergraft:

You can there's just so much you can do.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So if Airtable forms have ever been limiting to you or if Typeform has

Ashley Pendergraft:

been too cumbersome, fill out is like a really great alternative.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I'm so glad you said that because I did notice, I went to one of your pages and

Ashley Pendergraft:

I was like, what is this fill out thing?

Ashley Pendergraft:

dived into it, but I definitely need to.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I'll have to go check out like what other integrations.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I want to do a little show and tell before we wrap it up, because just to

Ashley Pendergraft:

bring home the idea of closed system, open system and the limitations, so let

Ashley Pendergraft:

me see if I can share my screen, here we go, present, and we're going to go here.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so I actually went to Zapier and I looked at.

Ashley Pendergraft:

All of the integrations and like triggers.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I know.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Aren't you proud?

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I was like, I want to know what the triggers and the actions

Ashley Pendergraft:

are for, like mighty networks.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I was looking at mighty networks and circle and member vault.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And not just the number, so you can see like mighty networks

Ashley Pendergraft:

has the least number of triggers and the least number of actions.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And this is.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Member vault.

Ashley Pendergraft:

This is the zaps in this third column versus the native actions of

Ashley Pendergraft:

connecting with your email platform.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So not only can you see the number, but then it's like, what

Ashley Pendergraft:

is it that you can actually do?

Ashley Pendergraft:

So those are connected to, if I say I want to see, oh, it's Matt.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Okay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I want to see mighty networks triggers.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so now this list will go down and see what the trigger actually is, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

So not only have a number small, but then the actual things that you can

Ashley Pendergraft:

do are just not that useful, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then this one over here is connected.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So you could say, okay, we'll show me circle and show me zap triggers.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And now you can have a direct comparison so that you can make an informed

Ashley Pendergraft:

decision about, am I willing to limit myself to just these things over here?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Or am I like, is my imagination suddenly going wild with.

Ashley Pendergraft:

All the things that you could do with this other, this is so cool.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I'm working on some long form content around this because I just,

Ashley Pendergraft:

I don't want clients showing up.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I hate having that conversation where they're all excited about their

Ashley Pendergraft:

thing and you have to tell them like.

Ashley Pendergraft:

This isn't the thing that's going to take you where you want to go.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So this is my attempt, creating more content around this.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So that you can, so like people can be educated more like as they're coming in

Ashley Pendergraft:

to know okay, I know these are the things that I call it tech sadville, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

These are the things that are going to take me to tech sadville.

Ashley Pendergraft:

These are the things that are probably going to, take me to my million dollar

Ashley Pendergraft:

business or wherever you want to go.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I hope this has been informative for y'all.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I always have so much fun just I do miss the group program and the calls

Ashley Pendergraft:

and just being able to like nerd out every week and do show and tell.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I need to get back into the community.

Ashley Pendergraft:

But two things.

Ashley Pendergraft:

One, let me pop your website up here.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So if you are if you are wanting to know more about Airtable, if

Ashley Pendergraft:

you're a group program founder or you have a course and you want to

Ashley Pendergraft:

get your systems life together.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I don't think you understand Ashley, like how often I say your name to people.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Do you, because this is going to become the industry standard y'all.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Okay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like I can tell when I go into a program, if they've worked with

Ashley Pendergraft:

Ashley or they haven't, and that's going to become like, it's true.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And that's going to become more apparent.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So if you want to get on the train now and get your stuff together.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Head on over to systems over stress and check out her offers.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And you're revamping the group program, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

So maybe you want to, put your VA or your OVM through systems over stress and

Ashley Pendergraft:

have them create your systems, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

That's a fine way to go.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then if you are feeling like, Oh, okay, now I understand that I

Ashley Pendergraft:

need to get my tech stack together.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Or I'm not sure, how to do that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I have a power hour.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I'm going to put this up.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And this is just something like I I've had it on the sly.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I haven't really publicized it, but I'm starting to realize people

Ashley Pendergraft:

actually really need this, just someone who has the expertise to come

Ashley Pendergraft:

in and look at what you are doing and say, okay, this part is good.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like these things are going to play together.

Ashley Pendergraft:

This one, not such a great team member.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Let's replace that and really help you design.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And so if you book a power hour.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Then you get an hour with me and we go through and we look at

Ashley Pendergraft:

everything that you're doing and all the processes in your business.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And we really designed that integrated tech stock.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And the nice thing is, you'll get an air table with all of my suggestions,

Ashley Pendergraft:

including referrals for, if you need web developers, if you need like.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Other kind of other professional folks.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And I have those people in my network, then you'll get that list.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then, you have it in your pocket.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Maybe it's not something that you implement on, right away, but at

Ashley Pendergraft:

least, and you no longer have to go into Facebook groups and say,

Ashley Pendergraft:

Oh, what's a good CRM, right?

Ashley Pendergraft:

Because you're like, you're not going to get great advice from doing

Ashley Pendergraft:

that because those people don't know the specifics of your business.

Ashley Pendergraft:

They don't know the tech expertise on your team.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like it's just a, it's just a bad thing to do.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I have had so many people come to me in my career, especially as a web developer,

Ashley Pendergraft:

having wasted easily 25 K or more, hiring the wrong web developer or the

Ashley Pendergraft:

wrong designer, getting a website that actually wasn't going to work for them.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So a little bit of investment up front can save you from all of that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And Chris actually told us a story this week that he saved a company 8, 000 a

Ashley Pendergraft:

month, just from getting them on the right plan for a piece of software.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So it's really important.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Something I love about, I'm so happy you're doing this and operating

Ashley Pendergraft:

this is you talk a lot about considering your tech as team members.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So imagine having a VA that like.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Is fine.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And then you like four months in realize, Oh no.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Like the thing that they just built, I have to tear up and start over again.

Ashley Pendergraft:

That's what you're doing when you pick some of this software

Ashley Pendergraft:

that isn't the most scalable.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And like Karanda said, it.

Ashley Pendergraft:

It's a waste of time to go into a Facebook group and ask what's

Ashley Pendergraft:

the best email marketing platform because there is so much context.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And how do, how does that play with the other things that you have?

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I have had friends in my box being so overwhelmed with the tech

Ashley Pendergraft:

decisions that like, they don't launch their course because they don't know

Ashley Pendergraft:

which course platform to go with.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And like that can, if you're really stuck in that place, just get the power hour.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Make the decisions and then you can trust that you are building your home

Ashley Pendergraft:

on a really like strong foundation.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Yeah.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And one of the things I'm most proud of just in my career in general is like

Ashley Pendergraft:

when I go back to clients that I've had a year ago, two years ago, six, seven

Ashley Pendergraft:

years ago, they're still using the things that we put them on and they've been able

Ashley Pendergraft:

to change and grow with their business.

Ashley Pendergraft:

So I'm going to ask you and I'm going to recommend things like for right

Ashley Pendergraft:

now, and I'm going to recommend things that, we'll take you into the future.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Ashley, thank you so much for taking the time.

Ashley Pendergraft:

I'm I'm always so excited to hang out together.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Thank you for all the folks who are watching live and all the folks

Ashley Pendergraft:

who are hitting up the replay.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Be sure to put your questions in your comments.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Tell us what tech you're using and tell us what tech you're going

Ashley Pendergraft:

to leave now that you saw this.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And definitely go check out Systems Over Stress, definitely go book

Ashley Pendergraft:

the Power Hour if you need that.

Ashley Pendergraft:

And we will see you on the internet.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Bye.

Ashley Pendergraft:

If you are committed to getting your client's results and creating

Ashley Pendergraft:

the go-to coaching program in your industry, we want you to join us.

Ashley Pendergraft:

Click that subscribe button on your favorite podcast app or YouTube

Ashley Pendergraft:

to see all the system strategies and behind the scenes stories of

Ashley Pendergraft:

what it takes to create the most impactful coaching program you can.

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