In this episode, we dive into the transformative power of tech automation for online business owners. If you’ve been hesitant to introduce new technology because it seems overwhelming or you’re not tech-savvy, this episode is for you! We break down actionable steps that you can implement immediately to automate repetitive tasks, save time, and create an efficient, scalable business model. From email automation to scheduling tools, you’ll discover the must-have tech solutions that will take your business to the next level.

Key Takeaways:

1. Start small: Identify the repetitive tasks that consume time and implement simple automation tools.
2. Email automation: How using tools like Active Campaign can save you hours each week.
3. Scheduling made easy: Tools like Calendly can remove the back-and-forth and keep your calendar organized.
4. Map your customer journey before jumping into tech to ensure your tools support your business needs.
5. Tech should simplify your processes, not complicate them—focus on the customer experience.

Resources:

• Active Campaign
• Kajabi
• Calendly
• Google

About Me:

Hey, it’s your host, Tara Bryan. And I am on a mission to help more business owners learn to infinitely scale their businesses by leveraging the power of online without sacrificing the customer experience or results. 

I like to geek out on all things business strategy, marketing, interactive digital and user experience. This podcast is all about what is working, lessons learned and actionable tips to create and grow a thriving online business. 

Join us each week as we dive into different strategies, tactics and tips you can apply immediately to your business.

To learn more:

Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com

Here are two ways we can help you create, grow and scale your business:

1. Want to package or pivot your business? Download our free Step-by-Step guide to get the exact steps you need to create and grow an online business.

Step-By-Step Guide

2. ALREADY HAVE AN ONLINE BUSINESS & READY TO INFINITELY SCALE?

Download our free 50 Ways to Engage Your Customers guide or Schedule a 30 minute call with Tara to talk about our offers that will help you master the game.

Thanks for listening!

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Mentioned in this episode:

https://taralbryan.com/step/15-learn-to-scale-call

Tara Bryan: 00:00:05

Hey everybody, it's Tara Bryan and you are listening to the

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Course Building Secrets Podcast.

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: 00:00:10

Whether you're a coach or a CEO,

the success of your team and clients

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: 00:00:14

is based on your ability to deliver

a consistent experience and guide

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: 00:00:19

them on the fastest path to results.

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: 00:00:22

This podcast will give you practical

real life tips that you can use today

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: 00:00:26

to build your online experiences that

get results and create raving fans.

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: 00:00:30

Why?

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: 00:00:31

So you can monetize your expertise

and serve more people without adding

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: 00:00:36

more time or team to your business.

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: 00:00:38

If you're looking to uncover your million

dollar framework, package it and use

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: 00:00:43

it to scale, you're in the right place.

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: 00:00:45

Let's dive in.

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: 00:01:00

/

Okay, my friends, one of the biggest challenges or objections that I get

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around taking your one on one business

and moving it into a scalable online model

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is, how in the heck do you do the tech?

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So I want to talk about that today because

one of the, the best things that you can

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do for your business is to incorporate

technology, automation, AI, whatever it is

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that you think of in terms of technology,

it will change your business, it will

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change the way that you show up and

it will maximize your ability to serve

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without it taking up all of your time.

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So I wanna dive in to

that a little bit today.

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Even if you're not tech savvy, even

if you feel like you don't even know

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what the heck is going on, right?

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: 00:01:48

Like there are lots of people and teams

that can help you through this process.

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: 00:01:53

We are one of those teams.

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We have the ability to help you create

and optimize your tech stack in your,

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you know, whichever business you have.

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Primarily, we help, online businesses

create the tech stack that they need

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in order to maximize their ability to

serve their clients and engage them in

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: 00:02:17

the business, even if you don't have

a team, even if you don't have us.

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I wanna talk about a, a couple

of things that will help you as

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you are getting into this game.

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So, first of all just to qualify this a

little bit and I think I, most of you you

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who are listeners on the podcast kind of

know my background, but I literally have

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been , back in the day, I used to call

myself a closet computer nerd because

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that was like way before you know,

computers took over our entire lives.

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But but I, I have been building.

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In one way, shape, or form computer

systems, online learning management

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systems, learning systems, and all

sorts of other things for over 20 years.

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: 00:03:03

So, I've got a ton of tech experience.

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: 00:03:06

It's one of the things

that I'm passionate about.

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: 00:03:08

It's one of the things that I love.

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I have a You know, years and years

of experience, but I will tell you

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that, that over that, all of that

time, as tech has evolved and gotten

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easier, and there's, you know, all

sorts of, you know, visual tools now

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that, that help us so we don't have

to code and do all those other things.

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I will tell you that the one success

factor that has helped me and dozens

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of other people over time is that

you're not starting with the tech,

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and you're, literally, the tech is

a tool that helps you maximize what

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you have created, it is not the thing

that it's not like the driver, right?

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It's the, it's the thing that

helps to support what you're doing.

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So I will always, if you have a

conversation with me, the very first

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thing I'm ever gonna tell you, if

you ask me about a tool or you ask

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me about which one is the best or why

it's the best or you know, all of the

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things and yes, I can answer all those

questions because my depth of knowledge

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of all things tech is very, very deep.

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But before any of that, I'm going

to ask you like, what are the

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requirements that you have in your

business that require technology?

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And and have you map out

that whole process on paper.

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And, you know, if you are one of my

wonderful clients, you've heard me say,

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like, get a piece of paper, like get

off of the computer, the very, Like,

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worst thing that you can do is to open a

computer program, whether it's PowerPoint

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or Word or some sort of complicated

software, and go in there and look at that

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blank screen and start to build something.

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And I'm going to tell you that,

like, especially if you're not

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tech savvy, the people who are

tech savvy are not doing that.

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So if you're staring at a blank screen

and you're like, I don't even know

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where to start, this is so overwhelming,

I feel like You know, the, the tech

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is just way too complicated for me.

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Give yourself a break, go to a piece of

paper, open up your journal, do whatever

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it is that you want to do, and just

write out like, what is it that you are

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creating in terms of a customer journey?

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What are you creating in terms of what

you need to automate or you want to

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automate and write all of that out?

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What are your business

requirements for using technology?

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So an example of this is email, right?

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So I actually it is mind boggling to me.

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So if you are this person I, I do not mean

to To speak about this lightly, but there

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are a lot of people come to me and they

still do not have an email automation tool

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that they are using for their business.

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And to me that is table stakes.

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So if you are sending emails from your

personal email account or your business

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email account to each client and each one

is different, then you need to listen up.

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Because even if you do nothing else,

If you move to an email automation

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tool that allows you to, to send out

personalized emails to multiple people

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at the same time, your world will change.

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I remember back in the day that we

used to have a, you know, whenever

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we'd get a new client, my project

manager would literally write the

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email to every single new client.

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And we had a conversation and I was

like, well, so are you kind of saying

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the same thing to every new client

when you welcome them and get them set

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up in our project management system?

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And he was like, well, yeah, I guess,

yeah, it's pretty much the same thing.

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And I'm like, awesome.

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So let's draft that email and then we

can send out that email automagically

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to every single new client that we have.

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And they'll all get that message at

exactly, you know, the same time when

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they start and they'll know exactly

what it is that you want to say to

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them and It's going to take you, you

know, maybe two minutes instead of

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20 or 30 minutes to craft an email,

personalized email, custom email to each

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and every client each and every time.

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And he's like, oh yeah, that sounds great.

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So we did that.

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And literally he saved hours

a week just by that one email.

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And so if that's you and you're

like, Oh, I don't even know like

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how I would do all of this tech.

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It's so complicated.

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There's so many things.

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That's a like, start small, start with

the things that you're doing on a regular

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basis that are eating up your time.

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Another one That again, it always

surprises me when people don't have this

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yet, because I feel like once I had this,

my whole world transformed was we used

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to spend all of this time trying to get

meetings scheduled with our clients.

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We would be like, okay, so,

you know, when are you free?

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Monday, Wednesday and Friday at this

time, or this time, or this time?

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And then you would send an email

back and you'd be like, Yep, I can

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meet at this time and, but only

for the, do you know what I mean?

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Like, you would go back and forth

and try and schedule these meetings.

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Holy crap!

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Like, I can't, still can't

even believe that we used to

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do this on a regular basis.

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We would waste all of this

time trying to figure out when

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we can align our calendars.

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Using tools that allow somebody

to click on a link and then get on

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the calendar based on what works

for them is a game changer, right?

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That is a great tech automation that will

change your world if you're not using

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that yet, especially if you're still doing

one on one work, is instead of trying to

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coordinate all of that, send them a link

to your calendar, let them put themselves

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on the calendar when it matches their

schedule, and then byproduct of that is

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then they have a meeting request on their

calendar with the link to the calendar.

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You know, Zoom or Google Meets or

whatever you're using, Teams, and Then

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you also can schedule it where the

reminders go out to say, Hey, just

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a reminder, this call's coming up.

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Hey, just a reminder,

this call's coming up.

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Even when I'm scheduling doctor's

appointments or those types of

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things, it always is mind blowing

to me when the, you know, Medical

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companies don't have a way for me to

automatically get on their calendar.

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So again, huge game changer.

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So often when people are having

that sort of, I'm not tech savvy

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conversation with themselves, they're

thinking about like all of the things.

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And then of course,

everybody gets overwhelmed.

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And so, Map out your requirements.

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Grab some of those low hanging

fruit things that you could

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turn into a tech automation.

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Start there and then start to look at,

okay, so what else can I use in terms

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of technology to transform my business

and be able to serve my clients in a

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way that helps improve their experience?

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Maximize your time and add engagement and

interactivity and all of the things in it

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so that people can start participating.

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We have, you know, systems and core

platforms that we help our clients get

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into with all of, all of the, you know,

the tech, all of the big picture, all

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of the templates, all of the things.

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But the bottom line is, is that

you don't have to be tech savvy.

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to think about the experience that

you want your customers to go through

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and identify the things that you're

doing in your business that are taking

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up time that don't need, don't need

to be taking up time because there's

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probably an automation for that.

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And and so that is my advice for

you is if sort of the tech piece

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of this is your biggest hurdle and

challenge, Then start doing that.

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Just take a piece of paper and start

writing down kind of all of the things

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that you are doing that feel repetitive.

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And I bet there's a

tech solution for them.

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And then start thinking about your broader

platform of how do you take your one

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on one you know, services, how do you

package them into one authority model?

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And then how do you build

out your, your entire online,

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your scalable online business?

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That's going to be a progression.

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By the time you've built your core

online business, most often people

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have like 30 to 40 percent of kind

of the tech sketched out before

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they go into that bigger solution.

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And for goodness sake, do not go into

any tool, even if it's PowerPoint,

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and start with a blank screen.

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Map it out, draw Draw some some

mock ups on paper or in a different

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system and then start to apply it

when you're building out the tech.

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If you look at, and you can just Google

this, but if you look at technology

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companies who are building websites or

core platforms like we're doing or, or

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anything else, You can see that there's

they, they create mock ups first, they

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create prototypes first, like on paper

or on a program, and then they build

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it into the actual finished platform.

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Professionals who are doing this have

that sort of three step process that they

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take when they're building something,

They don't just go from a blank screen.

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They don't go into Kajabi and start

like putting stuff in there randomly.

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They have it all sketched out.

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They do kind of the testing and the

use cases and all of the things in the

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prototype, in the, even a paper version,

and then they create it into the tool.

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And so if you haven't had that experience

of working with a professional tech

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company, you know, you can, like

I said, Google it, see how people

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are doing this, but they're not

going in and just like randomly

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putting things together in a tool.

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There's a more methodical

process than that.

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So I do encourage you to do a little

research in that, but if tech is the

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thing that's getting you down, Start

outside of the tech and then slowly

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start adding it into your business.

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It will change the game for you.

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And if you do need help, give me a shout.

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Happy to walk you through the process

for how do you start looking at dialing

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in some of the opportunities that are

in your current business and then how

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do you start shifting it into an awesome

online experience that helps people get

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results faster and with more efficiency

for you and your time as you start to

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build out a scalable business model.

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All right, there you go.