181: Automation Magic: Turn Your Business into a Well-Oiled Machine

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Before we dive into today's episode, I want to ask you an important question. Are you wondering why your hard work isn't reflecting in your bank account? If so, I've got something that could change the game for you. With my Digital Product Accelerator one on one coaching program, I'm on a mission to help entrepreneurs like you bank consistent revenue without sacrificing your time, time or sanity. Imagine shifting from 90% client facing work to enjoying consistent revenue from your digital products, all while reclaiming your time. You already know that you don't need another course and a one size fits all approach isn't going to cut it. What you need is a strategic long term plan tailored just for you. So if you're ready to build the profitable, freedom giving business you've dreamed of, apply to work with me by going to destinycop.com apply. I cannot wait to learn more about you and your business. Welcome to the Creators MBA Podcast, your go to resource for mastering the art.

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Need to be glued to their desks, constantly live launching or worrying about the social media algorithms.

I hope you enjoy our episode today and my special guest today is Elizabeth Newman. Elizabeth is a funnel strategist and tech automation specialist and she supports driven coaches and course creators with their tech and automation strategy and setup so they can move their business forward, avoid tech fails, and focus on serving their audience and clients. And Elizabeth, I am super excited to jump into this topic with you. I'm a little bit, you know, tech is one of my favorite subjects to kind of dig into and I know that you're an expert here, so I have a ton of questions for you. But before we get into all of those, can you tell the good audience just a little bit more about you and how you help people?

Sure. And thank you so much for having me on your podcast. I'm excited to be here and talk about tech and automation and all the things that go into that when it comes to online businesses. So as you mentioned, I'm a funnel strategist and tech automation specialist. I've been online since 2016 when I left my full time job and kind of did almost everything related to online business at some point or another and then over time I always had the tech and automation piece and then just narrowed down to that area, which is an area that I really love and I find that it's an area that comes easier to me and it's almost like that zone of genius that I finally figured out right from the. The book, right of the. I forget the name of it right now. The Big Leap.

Well, we're going to put that link in the show notes so everybody can check it out.

Yeah, for sure. And so I am located in Canada. I'm right outside Toronto in Ontario. And I mostly do end up working with clients in the US has been what has mostly happened. So it's been really cool to, to see and understand and travel more to the states and, and learn about all the different states where they're located and things. And most of the tech and automation that I do work with tends to be more around marketing and sales. Sometimes touch upon a bit of like administrative or operations within that. But that does tend to be more around funnels and just making sure that everything is set up and automated as best as possible so that it's working as efficiently as possible and, and having that great experience for my clients. Clients.

Well, Elizabeth, you're definitely in the right place because I know a lot of people who are listening to this podcast. They are all about tech, right? They need to set it up for maybe their trip wires or their evergreen sales funnels or set it up for much that they're doing. But let me ask you this. Before people start kind of picking their tech tools or mapping all of this out or trying to figure out how, how the heck do I even go about doing this? What is one of the first things that you recommend that they do before they get started?

So, I mean, everyone's in a different spot, right? Like I, some people are beginning with their tech, others are a bit more advanced and they're migrating to new tech tools. What I always regard where anyone is at with their business or any of their tech and automation setup, I always talk about doing their strategy first and their planning. So whenever I work with clients, that's my first stop. Like my first step, I should say. And so we start off with doing that because it helps avoid more expenses. Because I have found through client work and talking with lots of different entrepreneurs over the years that sometimes there may even be like a duplicate of the same tool just because one had like a feature that the other one didn't and then, but now there's like a change to that tool. And so there's like always changes happening. And I just find that it's better to do an overview of everything that's there. What it is that the goals of the business or what it is that they want with their tech and automation and start off with like the mapping of it and planning. Then once that's clear and how it supports the business, then it's good to move forward with the actual build or implementation of that. So I always think it's better to do strategy first and then do the build of the tech.

I love that. So kind of looking at and figuring out, you know, what do they want to accomplish, what tools do they have today, trying to figure out where there may be overlap. I think that's a really good strategy. Let me ask you this. I know a lot of people out there, you know, the tech is just not their zone as genius. Like it is yours. Right? You definitely have found kind of your niche, what you're really good at. But for a lot of us out there, it is like on the other spectrum. If you would, can you walk us through when clients come to you and they just have this kind of mindset block, if you would, about tech, and they're like, oh, I just can't. I don't know what to do. I just get so confused. What do you generally say to them?

Well, I do find that that's a very common feeling. And because tech is tech and things can happen, there is sometimes like a bit of that fear that, like, tech is scary or that they can't figure it out, or they have it set up and then something has gone wrong with it. And they've had like, there's tons of launch stories and all these things that have happened. And so I just always acknowledge and recognize that that's normal. I find that's very common among a lot of people. And the important thing is that if they are having someone take care of the tech for them, then that takes that load off them. And it's more about having that conversation to always make sure. I find that it's important to always make sure that someone is knowing what is going on in general with their tech. It doesn't mean they have to know all the details, but just an idea of what's happening with it is always good. And so when I work with clients, I want to empower them to have that understanding and work through it and be able to take questions from them. And being able to do that so that they're able to understand what's happening in their business a bit more. And I. It's like an open conversation. And I just find that having those kinds of feelings towards tech is normal. And that's really what I want people to know, that it's okay. It's we're, we're good and we all have different, like, strengths and gifts and everything like that. And like, copywriting for me is not a gift. And so I always admire people that can do copywriting. Right. So I may have the tech side of it. Other people have other parts, so we all have something. And so that's just the way I feel about that and other things too.

And I know when people come to you, they're, you know, know wanting to either set things up or make things more simple, but really, truly they're also interested in automating their business. And I know that you're all about making your, you know, making your tech very simple to set up, making your business set up, having everything automated. Can you walk us through what exactly do we mean by that when we say, you know, I want an automated business? You know, I know there might be some connotations or people out there like, I don't want to automate because I want to have that personal connection. But we can still automate and still have that personal connection. But can you walk us through what your philosophy is on that?

Yeah, and definitely I do feel that it's important to automate as much as you can because it does save that time and it also can save money. In the end, if you're having your team, then be able to work on other parts that can't be automated or maybe you don't prefer to automate certain areas. So that's where I feel is important, to always know where the client is coming from. From that perspective, I also think that automating is having like a step by step process that's like working automatically in the background so that things are happening when the client or the team may be sleeping, for example. So that automation allows someone from a different time zone or someone that's awake in the middle of the night to make a purchase or to sign up for a freebie or a lead magnet or something. And so that's where the automation helps to have a better client journey for that client that's coming and interacting with your business. And I always find too that the more you can automate, then it does leave that space to do the parts that shouldn't or can't be automated, like interacting with your audience, being able to do zoom calls, getting out there and doing marketing activities, or going to live events or things like that. And so knowing that these other parts are being automated and working in the background, I think just helps give that bit of mental freedom to know that your business can be running as you're doing other things. And then you can focus on reaching out, whether it's a DM or anything like that, that you may want to do manually with someone and being able to keep those connections alive with your audience or clients.

So let me ask you this. What are, let's just say three automations, if we are interested in exploring this and we want to set these up in our business, what are the three main automations that you would suggest that an online business owner has set up in their business?

So obviously that can depend on the business and where someone is at. But right when you said that, there's like three that come to mind. One I would say is to have an automated appointment booking system so that it's a lot easier to be able to have that set up and you give someone the link they like, find a time based on your availability that you put into the system for them to book a call with you for any reason. Whether it's a coffee chat so you can get to know other entrepreneurs online, or it might be a sales call call, or whatever those calls may look like for your business. There's usually some kind of need for a call and I just find that that works a lot better. And then you can also have it appearing integrated with your Google Calendar if you wish. And then it just keeps things more organized. And then you know that it's available for someone to come book a call with you for all those different reasons. So that would be the first one that comes to mind. The second one that comes to mind is around your sales process being able to obviously make it as easy as possible for someone to purchase something from you, especially when it comes to an online or online digital product or anything like that. And then being able to have an order form. If you don't have a sales page, that's fine for now, right? Because you sometimes like people think of the sales pages and they get caught and they don't end up actually automating a lot of that. And it's better just to go with an order form, have their thank you and then get the emails going out to them automated when they purchase. And then you can always add on the sales page afterwards if that's what the case. Or you can start with the sales page. It just depends because I always try to think of like how can we make it so that you get these pieces in place that you can always be expanding on later. And so that would be like the second one, just having an automated way for someone to purchase whatever it might be that you're selling. And the third one that comes to mind is actually more of an admin task actually. But it's one that I find helps a ton to have this automated. It's being able to get your like zoom recordings to automatically be added into Vimeo or be added into a Google Drive or wherever it is that you may store store them. That just saves a lot of time from your team or yourself from having to like download it onto your computer, then upload it. It's better for it just to appear in your Vimeo or wherever. So that way you can then get it out to your course like clients for example, or course members as a replay or put it into their portal a lot easier. So it's just these little things that can save time or it can also like just, I don't know, people's minds can then be used to do other things instead. So those are like the first three that really came to mind when you asked that. Just kind of hitting on different spots of the business but being able to just make things easier for yourself, the team and of course clients that come in.

And I just said three. But if you have others you want to let us know about. As you were going through that list, I'm like, okay, I'd like to hear more about that.

Yeah, there's always a ton more. Right. I find it fascinating all the things that can be done and I've sometimes, you know, the client may be asking that they want this to be done and. But there's sometimes ways around things. Right. To make it happen. And I really like Zapier. Right. As a third party tool that can connect a tool with another. So yeah, it's just about also keeping up to date with all the different tools that are out there and seeing what they can always do because there's like updates happening on a regular basis. And so that's always something too when it comes to all the tech and automation.

And that really just kind of brings me to the next question because I always like to kind of go behind other people's businesses. Right. I think we're all a little bit nosy and I'm just curious as to either what software you use personally in your business or the main kind of stack, if you would, that you generally recommend for people.

Yeah. And this obviously can be like when it comes to recommendations, I usually talk with the business owner and see what they have, what they're looking for, what's working, what's not like. So it's like bit of more of an audit in that case. But so I do want to say that this is personalized. Each business I work with a lot of different tools and like platforms and what I've actually been noticing seen in the last maybe year and a bit is people are moving, I find a little bit more towards like High Level or one of like the white label versions of High Level, which actually works pretty well for me because I've actually been using FG Funnels, which is a white label version of High Level since almost the beginning when they created which I can't remember if it was 2020 or 2021. And over time I do say that there is a learning curve with it for sure, but I'm very impressed with all the different things that you can do with that. So I've used that and continue to use that in my business. So it is an all in one. And I know there's different feelings around that, but I do keep up my knowledge when it comes to other places to host courses or to do like funnels or to do email marketing because I think it's important to do that because of the variety of different tools out there. The most common ones I work with and have come across when it comes to email marketing would be ConvertKit activecampaign campaign. I would say those are the most common. And then for like another all in one Kajabi is one that comes up quite a lot too. And then when it comes to course platforms, I would say thinkific teachable. And then there's Thrive Cart as well. Right. For funnels and some people use it for their courses as well. And I've been seeing that kind of grow as well. And so I don't. I like all of them in their own way, but I've been really enjoying the high level platform and everything that they're always coming up with and different things to be able to eliminate other tools by using theirs.

And thank you for that because I was definitely being a little, a little bit nosy there because I'm always interested in what other people are using. I use in convertkit, Move into Kit and leadpages. I used to use Kajabi and then moved everything over to ThriveCart and ThriveCart learn. So Elizabeth, before we wrap it up here, any last minute tips for the audience?

I mainly would think that it's important to prioritize the different things that you want to automate in your business because I find that usually when I'm working with clients they have a long list of different attacker automation steps that they want to do. But out of those, there are some that are a bit more priority because I always look at what is the experience that a client or customer is having with your business as they're coming in to sign up for something or purchase something. And we want to make that as seamless as possible and also the best experience possible for them so that when they sign up for something or they purchase something, they're getting what it is that they're expecting, whether it's the emails or access to something, and they're getting it in a timely manner. And so I tend to prioritize those over some other things that are maybe a bit more like, important, but not as important. So I think it's always good to keep that in mind. Also, I find I do a lot of migrations from tools to tools as people are looking at different things to. To do in their business. And I think that's also good to keep in mind when you're looking at prioritizing and what's really important. Because switching platforms constantly is not the best thing, I think, when it comes to time and efficiency and then having to get set up everywhere again. But I do believe it is important at times to do some of those migrations. It's just that sometimes I find it's a bit of that shiny object syndrome of wanting to switch platforms constantly. And so those are just. It's almost like, again, like what I was saying at the beginning, like, taking that step back and looking at it from, like, a strategic planning perspective first before jumping into, like, the latest tool or what may be the case. I've had clients sometimes where they went and did a different tool, like they moved or they bought another tool and then not realizing that the one they had actually did something similar already, just because there's like, a lot of updates happening. And so I'm always conscious of looking at keeping those expenses as low as possible, but still having everything there that's needed for that business to keep growing.

And I think that's so smart, kind of looking at the process that it would take to migrate, because I know when we did the Kajabi migration a few years ago, we migrated over 10,000, maybe 12,000 students during that process. And that was a huge deal. And I really don't, quite frankly, want to do that again. I definitely hear what you're saying there. Now, Elizabeth, can you let folks know where they can find you? And I think you have a free gift for them also.

Yes, and exactly. And talking about tech migration, I do have Master your Tech migration checklist, and it's about touching upon these points exactly, is how to create that plan ahead of time so that you're doing the migration in the proper order. Because I've also have had people explain how they do things and then there's like some emails going out the wrong way. Students aren't in the courses. Whatever may be the case, whenever I do migrations, I always go through this planning and checklist myself and make sure that everything is set up and doing it in the right order. And so that is is in. I know it's in the show notes. So that would be a checklist that you can always download if you're looking at doing a migration, just to help you with that part as you're planning for it. And then I connect quite often on LinkedIn and so you can always. I'm always happy to connect with anyone over there too.

And we will definitely make sure that all of those links are in the show notes. And Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining me today and walking us through all the, you know, tech things that we need to consider in our online business.

Yes, for sure. It was great being here and thanks again for having me.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love the show, I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.