← The Mindful Marketing Podcast (Formerly Known As The Savvy Social Podcast)
The Mindful Marketing Podcast (Formerly Known As The Savvy Social Podcast)
From Tech Overwhelm to Streamlined Systems with Kronda Adair
00:35:28
Ready to stop drowning in tech and start working smarter? Kronda Adair has the tools and strategies you need! In this episode, I chat with Kronda about how to streamline your business operations with systems and automation. Kronda shares her journey...
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- [00:01]
Andrea Jones
If you are constantly getting lost in the tech of it all, today's guest, Karanda Adair is going to help clarify things. Plus I'm going to get super nosy about her own marketing. But first, a word from our sponsor. I've recorded over 300 podcast episodes. Yeah, it's a lot of podcast episodes and I've tried a lot of different virtual recording studios, but my favorite is has been Riverside. Riverside makes their virtual recording studio look so profess. My guests love it. Plus I also low key love recording YouTube videos in here as well because it's so easy to use. My team also loves Riverside because it spits out separate audio video tracks, making editing easy breezy lemon squeezy. And if you want a little magic, they've got this tool called magic clips which uses AI to take your video and turn it into perfect social media sized videos. I'm talking vertical videos for TikTok and Instagram, Facebook reels, all the places you can post these videos with the captions included and you don't have to hunt and search for that perfect clip. So if you want to try this out for yourself, click the link that goes with this video or if you're listening to the audio on the podcast, it's in the show notes. Okay, click that Link, use the 15% off coupon code. It's DREA D R E A. And try Riverside for yourself. Thank you, Riverside. Welcome back to the Mindful marketing podcast where we help you connect more, scroll less and grow together. I'm Andrea Jones and I'm excited to introduce you to Karanda today. Karanda, welcome to the show.
- [01:38]
Karanda Adair
Thank you so much.
- [01:40]
Andrea Jones
I'm excited to chat with you because as we kind of connected on earlier, we've been orbiting around each other professionally for a while and I'm like, how do I not know you? So this, this episode is like my excuse to just pick your brain about your brilliance even more.
- [01:55]
Karanda Adair
So.
- [01:55]
Andrea Jones
Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. First though. Yes. I would like to start with your journey. How did we land on like systems and tech and automation? Give us the background.
- [02:05]
Karanda Adair
Yeah, so I started out almost 12 years. By the time you'll listen to this, it'll be 12 years ago making $500 WordPress websites. I was a web developer and, and I figured out pretty quickly that that wasn't really helping too many people and figured out how to charge more make better websites. And you know, the thing that makes a website valuable is that it's a marketing tool. So I was studying marketing and learning about, you know, lead Magnets and all email marketing and all the things. And when I would talk to some of my web development clients about that, they were like, just, just build the website. You know, kind of like, I'm just paying you to do the tech. And I got super frustrated with that because I knew, you know, there's no, if you build it, they will, they will come, right? You have to have a plan. And so in, at the end of 2018, I decided to stop making websites and I started content boot camp. And that was a 10, eventually 12 week coaching program literally to teach business owners how to market online, how to use content marketing. I called it teaching them how to be people online. So I started that in 2019 and had a year under my belt by the time 2020 hit and everybody had to go online whether they wanted to or not. So that worked out really well. And within nine months of starting that program, my clients were pretty much begging me for help with their tech. And so I was like, okay, let me not, I didn't want to go back to selling websites. So I'm like, let me just figure out a retainer and I'll just put everything into it that y'all are struggling with. And so we would do almost everything except social media. So websites, email marketing, course platform building, that kind of stuff. So that was going really well. I did that for two, three years until economy changed or market changed. And then I had to figure out, okay, what do people need right now? And so I pivoted to really focusing on marketing automation because I started auditing specifically what people. I would be like, hey, give me $500 and let me get into your activecampaign and see what you're doing. And it wasn't. Most people were in there, you know, just sending their broadcast their monthly or you know, bimonthly. And I'm like, wow, you've got this Ferrari and you're just using it to like drop your kid off at school. Like, what are we doing? So I created an offer called CRM to sales and launched that to just a really small part of my list and some past clients and they ate that up. And so I did that for a while and then we had to really expand it because it's not just like there's more to automation than marketing automation. And we were doing back end stuff. We were doing airtable builds, we were doing, you know, automating, onboarding and offboarding and all these things. And I'm like, this offer does not really speak to everything that we're doing. And Everything that we're capable of doing. And so that's how we ended up on Million Dollar Systems. So that's our current offer. And there's basically two ways to work with us. Million Dollar Systems and Automation Club, which is my membership. And so we got here because your marketing can be as great as it wants to be, but if you can't deliver on the back end, then you're just going to be stressed out and you're not going to sell. And so, you know, people don't understand that sometimes when you feel blocked in selling, it's because you know how much work it's going to be to deliver because you haven't systemized and you haven't automated and you know, things are not efficient. So that is how we end up here.
- [05:37]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, I love what you said about, you know, when we're looking at the tech and the automation of it all, like it has to match, match the marketing. Like people can't come into your world, into your orbit and be like, wowed by the shiny marketing. And then they get inside and they're like, this is it. You know, I love that.
- [05:54]
Karanda Adair
And I think we've both been in those, those situations where we're like, oh, great marketing, not so great on the inside.
- [06:00]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, yeah, it's the worst feeling ever. But also I'm thinking about like, you know, the business owners who are there, they're like, okay, so now what? So if someone's looking at their systems, their automations, where do we start? Like, what are the questions we ask? And I'll say this too. It's like, total aside, y'all. What I love about your marketing and your social media is that I know you're not gonna just go, oh, kajabi is the answer to everything. Because it just feels like a lot of these, like, experts, those are air quotes for those listening experts. They already know the tool, the one tool to rule them all. And then they just like shove people into the tool. And what I love about your marketing is they're like, well, let's dig a little deeper, right? So as we're going on this path of figuring out what to systematize and what to automate, what are some of the early day questions we should be asking ourselves?
- [06:50]
Karanda Adair
Yeah, so I'll, I'll give two answers to this. One is if you're, let's say like a new business owner and you're like, oh, I barely have, you know, I'm getting started. Like, what should I automate it? So that answer is always the same. You're scheduling. Get a calendly account for the love of kittens. And please do not do the email back and forth. Trying to schedule with people just makes you look like a rank amateur. So that would be like if you're just getting started, if you've been going for a while and you've got, you know, a mature business, you've got systems, you're like, hey, this train is going. But things feel, like, really chaotic. Where do I start? I always like to start with onboarding. All things being equal, like, that's the first impression that your client's going to have after they give you money. And that is like a fork in the road that can go very, very right or very, very wrong. So making that good first impression, I think counts for a lot. And that's a really good place to start if you're like, I don't know, I just gotta pick something that's a good place to start.
- [07:51]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, we all get buyer's remorse sometimes too, when we buy things. So having that onboarding process can really, like, smooth out that entire, that entire thing. So when we're thinking about systems and automation, can you define how those two things are different?
- [08:06]
Karanda Adair
Oh, yes, thank you for asking this. Okay, so, yeah, because people think tech is systems and that is, that cannot be further from the truth. So a system is, is just a series of steps that lead to an outcome. And so every single thing in your life is a system. How you brush your teeth is a system. How you get ready to take your dog on a walk is a system. Like, everything is a system. And so what we do with our clients is we, you know, like if someone comes into our retainer, the first thing we do is have a 90 minute strategy call where I'm saying, hey, okay, how does this thing happen? And then what? And then what happens? And then what happens? Like, if you want to know the question to ask yourself, it's like, what's the trigger that starts this process? And then what happens? And you keep asking that question and better yet, have someone else ask you that question until you have it all laid out and you will like, people are shocked. I ran, I did a workshop helping people map out their systems. And then, you know, we do hot seat. And they'd be like, yeah, and then the sales calls happens. And I was like, and how do they get to the sales call? You know, it's just like, we're so easy to skip over the things. So asking what happens next and getting that down, like, document. We haven't even talked about documentation yet. But that is a huge part of what we do and a huge part of really what makes us different from a lot of other agencies is the level and the detail of documentation that we do.
- [09:32]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, yeah. This is something that was like a must for me when I was running my agency is that especially when I was trying to teach people to do what I do, there are so many things that we discredit in this process where we're like, oh, well, we just, you know, well, oh, we just did this, we just that. And really there's like 10 steps involved in that process.
- [09:50]
Karanda Adair
So once you have the system and it's laid out, I'm always telling people, it's like, step away from the technology. Once you have actually laid out what happens? Then you can apply technology to parts of that system. Right. We're not trying to automate every single thing. But you can ask like, hey, could the robots take care of this? If it's repetitive, if it has a consistent data input and a consistent data output, that's a great case for automating that step. And one of the things I always say is stop buying technology and start hiring technology. And so we literally sit down and say, okay, you have this job that needs to be done. What are some of the tools that could do this job? And it's going to narrow if, you know, if you feel overwhelmed about, like, oh, there's all these tools, which one do I choose? If I see one more person, like, on social media, like, what's the best CRM? Like, step away from the technology and go figure out what you want it to look like. And then you can see which tools.
- [10:46]
Andrea Jones
Are going to help you do that a hundred percent. And I think that because there are so many, it's like overwhelmed with how many there are. And you can go down the YouTube review rabbit hole of like, should I do all of. I had a client once who was like this with project management tools. I mean, we went through all of them. Asana Basecamp, Monday Trello. Nothing was happening, except we just kept moving all of our projects from tool to tool. And so I think. I think we've all had those experiences where we're like, well, this. The shoe's not fitting here. So how, like, once we do have the job assigned, I mean, how do we find the right tool? Is it preference based or is there like a recipe to this?
- [11:27]
Karanda Adair
It's a little bit preference based. Right, but whose preference? Right. So if you're the CEO and you're like, I'm going to micromanage the, you know, choice of project management tool. Are you the one as the CEO that's going to be in the project management tool every day? Like, and you have a team of five people? I think not. Right. So who is going to be using the tool and really in the tool every day? So there is a level of preference. First there's though, can it do the job? Right, can it do the job? And then second, and almost as important is does it play nice with the rest of the team? Because if you could be the most amazing tool in the world, but if it's a black box and it doesn't integrate with anything, it's a non starter. Like there is no automation without transfer of data. So these all in one tools that are like, oh, we can do everything. You don't need anyone else. Like that just feels like an abusive relationship to me. I don't know, shots fired. But it's like no one tool can do all the things and these all in ones, two things. They don't tend to integrate well with everything else and they tend to want to trap your data. So this is the other question I ask when I'm looking at technology is what happens when I want to pick up my tools and my toys and go home. Right. So can you export your data? And I cannot tell you, like I've just learned to scroll past when people are, you know, like, oh, I need to escape Dubsado, but I can't get my stuff. I'm like, yeah, good luck. Like you're going to have to, you know, hire a VA from off upwork or whatever to manually copy and paste your five years of contracts or whatever data. And it's like, you know, if you know that going in and you want to make that decision and then you want to back up things as it's going into this black hole. That's, that's one thing. But people don't know and they, they generally won't do that.
- [13:17]
Andrea Jones
Okay. I feel personally attacked because I just got off Dubsado last year as a Dubsado fan too. I was like, why is this so challenging? Um, and also I will, I will also say people rave about Kajabi and like I've tried it multiple times and I just cannot get into it. I don't know.
- [13:37]
Karanda Adair
Kajabi's on my. I have a blog post that's like, these are all the tools that are stealing your productivity. And Kajab is high on because again, they're trying to do everything. And you know, as a Student. I've been in Kajabi, you know, and it's, it's fine. But like, for integrations, if you want to track your sales and you have a membership, are you doing like, you know, multiple payments? It's not great at tracking that kind of thing. Email marketing. Get out of here. Get out. Like, just do not. I had somebody who wanted me to help them kind of troubleshoot their email marketing. Look, the analytics. You cannot export marketing performance out of Kajabi. You have to literally click each time on one email and go, oh, show me how many clicks. Show me like, what year is it? No, absolutely not.
- [14:25]
Andrea Jones
Yeah. Okay.
- [14:26]
Karanda Adair
I'm helping someone break up with Kajabi right now. And she's like, oh, it's been five years and I've got my hoodie and my butt. I'm like, you know what? This is like the end of, you know, wicked part one, where they, they, they love each other but they have to go their separate ways. Yes.
- [14:43]
Andrea Jones
Oh my gosh, the references. Okay. I've totally like, I love this and I feel like we all learn this lesson so many times over the years. And so are there any tools where you're, you're championing them? You mentioned calendly. Are there any other tools where you're like, yes, this is, this is great.
- [14:59]
Karanda Adair
So here's the thing. Like, I, I'm about to make an update to my podcast episode on choosing your tech stack. It's, I think it's like two years, two or three years old. And I'm about to make an update to it because I've had a couple of major changes in my tech stock for the first time in like 10 years. So when I get on a tool, like I stay, I stay on a tool. Like I want things that last and that's what I try to put people on, is things that'll last them the next 5, 10 years of their business. So if I had to say right now airtable is a must. I don't think anyone should be operating in business without using airtable as like the repository for your, your data and organizing your data. And in combination with that, Fill out is a third party form tool that has replaced Jotform for me. I'm not mad at Jotform, but fill out is just better. It integrates really well with airtable where you can connect your airtable base and then drag the, the fields that you've already created out into it to make your form and then everything goes back to airtable. So I just did a really great power hour with someone. And she's like, I want people to be able to nominate these dogs for awards and then we have to look at them as a committee and vote on them. And so she came to Automation Club office hours and she's like, how do I get these dog people who don't know the Internet to be able to look at this information and then add their own notes without they, they can't log into Airtable? Like, that's not happening. So I was like, okay, so basically using Airtable and fill out, I gave her that solution in 13 minutes.
- [16:31]
Andrea Jones
Nice. Beautiful. I love it. I'm an airtable girly as well. Someone else tried to get me on Notion and I was like, it's not, it's not the same. We're talking two different languages here.
- [16:40]
Karanda Adair
Yeah, I mean I, I love notion and I, I really would love to have a use for notion. I've dabbled with it as sort of a life organization tool, but when it comes to like just managing data and automating that data, like there's. Yeah, there's no comparison.
- [16:57]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, worlds apart. Worlds apart. Okay, so here's a part of the show where I want to get a little nosy about your own marketing because one of the things that stood out to me is this idea that you don't use freebies anymore. So tell me how we got to this idea and then I have more follow up questions.
- [17:14]
Karanda Adair
Okay, so how we got here? Well, Danielle Gardner, who's the quiet marketer, is one of the main inspirations for this because she did this years ago and she has a post, you know, kind of detailing like, oh, my sales tripled when I stopped giving it away for free, basically. And so there's a few things and I'm kind of kicking myself that it took me so long to do this. But one is, as a black woman, like, people are super quick to try not paying you. Like, I have, you know, and I have experiences where even people who are already clients are trying to get more out of me without paying. And so I think that's just in the DNA of, of our society. And so it's like, if you want help, come get help. You know, like, let's not sit on the email list for five years first. Like, what, what good is that doing anybody? Right? So that was one of the impetus. And then it's like, I just, I, like I said, like, when people actually let me help them, I can solve the problems really quickly. So that was really the catalyst. And so it's, it's early days and it's an experiment. The other reason is that I, the offers I have now, I have digital products. I have, you know, people can join automation club for free for 30 days. Like I have things low risk, you know, no risk ways for you to come and try us out, get to know us. You know, I have a, I have 12 years worth of content, you know, so it's like, you don't have to get on the email list. You can go on my YouTube channel, you can go listen to my podcast, you can go read my blog post, you can go figure out if I'm the person to help you and then come when you're ready for help.
- [18:47]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, okay. I love this because I do feel like there is so much free information just readily available and I'm still a huge proponent of like the Costco sample. Like, here's a little slice of cheese. Now buy the whole thing. I love that. And I feel like there's other ways that we could do this. Like, I don't know if we're. If like the traditional lead magnet model is just going to become less appealing over time. But I know for me personally, when I find someone that I connect with, I like their vibe. I end up like listening to podcasts and then buying something. Maybe I'll sign up to their newsletter if there's like different content there. But lead magnets just don't do it for me anymore. I don't know. Yeah, I find it interesting. Yeah.
- [19:31]
Karanda Adair
I think the people who make the best clients and the people I want to work with are the people who want it. You know, there's like, I don't want someone who's like, oh, I'm doing this because I've been told that I should. Right. Like, what's more uninspiring than someone who's like, yeah, I know I need this and getting systems together. So okay, let's do like, no, like, I want people. I literally had a sales call and then I sent a follow up email and didn't hear back. So I checked in a couple days later and she was like, oh, sorry, I ghosted you. I was busy binging your content. She's like, I love everything that I. Like, I will be back, you know. Yeah, that's what I want. I want you to be able to just go. And that's how people like to buy. If you think about it, anytime you're going to make a large purchase or something that's really important to you, you're going and you're researching that Thing or that person or that program. And so what I want to do is put out a lot of content that shows people what is possible. Because people don't know what's possible. People don't understand that. Oh, I saw, I saw a thread actually, just last week where it's just like, somebody was like, okay, I understand Asana and ClickUp and all that, but what about airtable? And people were like, oh, airtable is just colorful spreadsheets. And I was like, excuse you. No, I don't. I do not think. I'm like, we just save this company 15 hours a week using Airtable to automate their entire onboarding process. And it's one of the most complex systems that we've built. So color? No, I think not.
- [20:56]
Andrea Jones
Yeah. Okay. I love this. And I think what I'm curious about too is as, like, when did you implement this and what are some of the results that you've seen so far from it? Because you've already mentioned, like, better quality clients. But what else?
- [21:10]
Karanda Adair
I like, this is new. It's new. Like, as we're talking, it's probably been a month that I actually like that I actually did it where I took. I took my lead magnet page and I redirected it to the homepage or I think to the homepage. I don't know what I did with it, but I was like, yeah, you got to buy something. Yeah, go, go buy something. Like, here, go try the pot of gold. Airtable content marketing database. Go, come join Automate. Like, come get some help. I'm right. I'm right here. We can do this. And I, yeah, I think it keeps the people who would buy something and then that the, the fact of the purchase would make them feel like, oh, I did something right, and then they don't actually do it. I think it's going to keep more of those people away and it's going to bring more people who are like, yeah, let's do this. So I think the. Probably the clients we have now are the best that we've had in, you know, probably two years. Just because I got clear, I kind of. I'm at the end of a pivot where we've. I've landed on like, okay, this is what we're doing. So I think I'm more clear. And then also putting out the content that's like, hey, did you know airtable could do this? Did you know there's this mapping tool that, you know, could change your whole life? You can actually see what's happening with your business and your systems and your marketing like actually putting those videos out and people going oh yeah, okay, that looks cool, I need that, you know. Yeah, it's easier for people to conceptualize and see themselves like in that system.
- [22:38]
Andrea Jones
Yeah. And so when you say putting content out, I know you're on YouTube, TikTok. I see your stuff on Facebook all the time. What are your like go to platforms for creating content. You mentioned the podcast too.
- [22:49]
Karanda Adair
Yeah, so I'm really trying to, to go, you know, long form evergreen. So YouTube and podcasts are definitely going to be my mainstays. I, I got into TikTok late and I'm so mad because I'm like, are we still gonna even have TikTok? I know because it this beautiful. I think I, I, I had a business account and then I realized you couldn't get the cool, cool sounds like the music and I was like, oh, I gotta go back because so if you go to my TikTok like you'll get equal parts like me talking about whatever automation and me like duetting. What is this feeling from Wicked. So just get into it. Like it's, I mean that's very much range to follow me on TikTok.
- [23:36]
Andrea Jones
Well, it's, it's the vibe, it's the vibe on TikTok.
- [23:39]
Karanda Adair
Like so I like threads, I've been really liking threads. So I, I get around, you know, I'm putting, I'm putting my stuff out but I really want, I, we had a, we have a client who's off boarding now. They've been with us a year and he found me on YouTube and he binged a bunch of my YouTube videos and he became a client five days later. So I am all about like just be bingeable. You know, people are like, I don't know what content creator. I don't like creating content and I'm like, well do you like like chasing after clients every month? Because that's, that's the alternative, you know, I want people to be able to find me and go, oh yeah, this seems to know what she's doing. Like let me go check this out.
- [24:18]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, same same. I love that. So would you say that like as far as like attracting new, new people to you, is YouTube the main way that people find you or what are some of the other attraction strategies that you use?
- [24:31]
Karanda Adair
I think YouTube. And right now I would say I'm actively working on it being referrals actually because we had, we had about an 18 month period where we had some clients that were actively harmful to have as clients. And I won't go into the details, but I was like that. That's why I started Automation Club because I realized before when I had content boot camp, I was coaching those folks and they were getting results and then they asked me for tech help. And so the, the done for you side was really kind of a secret menu, you know, back end thing. And then when I flipped that and I had done for you as like a, you know, flagship service, that meant anybody could, could come and you know, hire us, but they didn't necessarily have the relationship and the trust to allow us to get results or give us the time to help them get results. And so I was like, oh, I need a community component where people can come and like get to know me. Like, yes, I want new people. But you know, if we're going to sign up for a six month retainer, which isn't like, that's not like a huge amount of time, but for some people it's a big commitment. And so if we're going to do that, like you need to be sure. So like come hang out, come, you know, get some pro, come ask your questions, come peruse the con, like do whatever you need to do to be sure so that when we do make that commitment we can actually move. And so I've just had clients that really have, they, they're ready and we do some really amazing things incredibly quickly.
- [26:05]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, I think the beautiful thing about what you just said too is having referrals because I think a lot of marketing feels very external. Like we're always trying to get new people, calling new people, bring new people into our world, which is lovely. But I think the most powerful form of marketing is still word of mouth marketing. And to do word of mouth marketing you have to actually like do good work. And so that's what I do a good job to get people to refer you, I mean just one on one. Right. But I am curious, since you are like a systems automation person, do you have a way of, of prompting your clients, current past clients, to send you more business?
- [26:47]
Karanda Adair
I'm working on it. You know, it's a cobbler's kids situation over here right now, I'm not gonna lie. So I'm actively working on that system because it has been one of my weak points and because I've been, you know, I'm not the marketing automation girly. And so I've been in the world and steeped in like funnels and you know, sequences and all those kinds of things. And so I just need to Apply that knowledge and those systems to, you know, marketing to clients and past clients. And that's something that I have been talking about. Like even when someone has purchased your thing, especially if you're a service provider, you still have to sell them the thing. You know, you have to keep selling the thing. Because even my clients, I'm like, hey, did you know like we could do this for you? Did you know that we could do this for you? Did you know that this resource is waiting for you in the resource vault? You know, so it's not. Just because people buy the thing doesn't mean you're done selling them the thing. You have to remind them like, especially something like a membership. It's like getting people to keep engaged and you know, come to office hours and things like that. So I'm actively shifting my marketing over to my clients and I think that's going to make a huge difference.
- [27:58]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, 100%. I think I like to call this internal marketing versus external marketing. I just think we don't spend enough time like with our, with our people, with our community. Especially now like this past year like 2024 was terrible for a lot of online business owners. And I think part of the reason is that we don't spend enough time with our, with our people. We spend so much time trying to bring in new people, new, new, new all the time. When we have a group of people who are like I'll you put out.
- [28:24]
Karanda Adair
Like, you know, like let's pay attention.
- [28:26]
Andrea Jones
To that group, you know. Okay, last question for you is kind of like a open ended question. I would love to know a marketing system or automation that you've implemented recently for yourself or for a client that you just loved.
- [28:42]
Karanda Adair
So I'll talk a little bit more about. We did what we did that saved our client 15 hours a week. So this is a Dog Adventures company. So they take dogs out on two hour hikes. It's, it's a company we use. I have two very active docs and so they were doing their, their onboarding everything manual and there's one main operations person that kind of runs the day, day to day of the business. And so we first kind of downloaded like everything that we're doing. And it's, it's a complex business model because it's contractors who are doing like all of the work and taking the dogs out and stuff. But they're independent contractors. So if someone sends a request in, they have to say, hey, who wants this job? And then a bunch of people raise their hands and then they choose the person who has the most longevity with the company and the most credentials, like certifications. So they have this score based on these two things. And so they were literally doing all this manually, like, oh, let me go see who's, you know, and we automated everything. So like someone sends a request, it automatically notifies the operations manager. She chooses which group of contractors. They instantly get the email. They can click through to a form and see all of the information about that client and say, yes, I'm interested. And then after like a couple of days, the system then says, okay, who has the highest score of the people who are interested? Okay, you win. Everybody else gets notified that, that they didn't get that client. And then the meet and greet process happens and we put in reminders to make sure, like, hey, did you schedule your meet and greet? They have to go and say, yep, it's scheduled. They have to fill out a form. So instead of, you know, Kim having to remind them and keep that all in her head, like, oh, did so and so reached out to the client. Because if your contractor doesn't reach out to the client now, that's your reputation as a company that suffers. And so we've just taken that, all of that out of her head and put it all into the robots where they are saying like, hey, go do the thing, go do the thing. Oh great, you did the thing. And now it notifies the client, hey, your meet and greet is scheduled for this. It's going to be in this location. Like we just took that all away from them and just put it and we did it all with airtable and fill out.
- [30:55]
Andrea Jones
Okay. I'm obsessed with that and that sounds amazing. I feel like more people just need to get on this automation train because not only does that sound like it's better for the business, but it also sounds like it's better for the clients as well. Like they're getting a much smoother experience all around with like all of the reminders and notifications that their dog walker person is getting. So I love that, I love that and this.
- [31:20]
Karanda Adair
And it's better for the contractors too.
- [31:23]
Andrea Jones
Yeah, keep your contractors for longer too. We all know finding good help is hard. It's hard. Okay, so this leads me to Automation Club because after hearing all this I'm like, shoot, I gotta try this 30 day trial. So tell us more about Automation Club and what we can expect.
- [31:39]
Karanda Adair
Yeah, so Automation Club, it's hosted in circles, so there's a community that you can go into, you can meet, you know, other people in there. The backbone of Automation Club is the co working. You know, all the, all the business girlies out here have ADHD now and nobody can get anything done unless they're body doubling. And you know, I was like, people don't need more information, they need to actually get the shit done on. And so we have two two hour co working sessions every month and the show up and we have four 25 minute sprints. So you like, what are you working on? Great, let's do it. I set a timer and then we check in after each sprint and then if people are struggling with anything, whether that's like a technical issue or strategy or they just have a question, we can hop into a zoom breakout room and we can sort that out. We usually can sort that out in 15 minutes, minutes and then, and like keep them moving. So if you, if you think about the times where you've been like, I'm gonna do a thing and then you hit the speed bump and then that takes you off into a black hole of YouTube University or the comment section of Facebook or whatever, you know, you find yourself about to say like, what's the best? Like whatever on a social media, that's a sign you should get in here because you can literally get advice from an expert. Like when I had my original retainer, it was 5k a month, like to get the advice that I'm giving out for, you know, like a hundred bucks and change a month in automation Club. So, and then the 30 day free trial is just, that's just me saying, rip your excuses. Like, come on, you know, like you come in, you could come to, you know, a couple of co working sessions, you could like, like, what is your excuse? Literally? So I really resolved like I'm not getting involved in any of those tool discussions on social media because this is where I dispense my expertise and I want us to normalize. Stop asking the masses for this expert advice and start asking people, who should I talk to? Who's the expert I should go to for social media, for automation, for whatever it is, like, who's the qualified person that I should be asking this question? Not just like letting any old person on threads, you know, make your business decisions. Like, come on. So that's, that's it in a nutshell. It's just where I show up and I just help you get this done.
- [34:12]
Andrea Jones
Oh my gosh, I love it. And if y'all see me in there, you'll know why, because I went down a Google rabbit hole. So join, join the Automation club. The link link for the 30 day trial is in the show notes onlinedrea.com 340 and all of the links that we mentioned today. Thank you so much for being on the show. This was so fun.
- [34:31]
Karanda Adair
Thank you so much. I feel like it's like I hit a milestone. Like I made it.
- [34:36]
Andrea Jones
I love it. I love it. And thank you, dear listener, for tuning in to another episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. Coming up next in the lab we have our LinkedIn challenge. Jan. 27 through the 31st. We are doing our seventh annual LinkedIn challenge. Join us because this year I'm switching it up, doing something a little different with my little characters. Y'all know I love to do little characters. I'm having too much fun with it. So join. It is free for a limited time. If you are in the lab, of course, we have way more support for you in there as well. I'm doing audits of every single lab members LinkedIn account. Last year it was over 30 and it took me a very long time and I'm hoping for more this year. So join me there. That's all for today. I'll see you next week. Bye for now.