Q&A With Pro Group

To the cloud.So the primary goalis to uncover problemsthat you're havingright now for usto create topics for February.And also, I'm goingto start creatinga follow up sheet ofthe top three questionsfrom our Q&A calls like this.And underneaththose questions, Iwill give you referencelinks for videosthat already exist for youto watch on your own time.OK I hope that's somethingthat's going to be helpful.But with that said, goahead and raise your hand.If you have aquestion, jump onlineand we'll workthrough it together.We pull up theparticipants feed.OK, boss.Yeah, hey.I actually don'treally have a question,except for that I sawthe video from Joanna.And that was justthat blew my mind.And I was wondering,you know, thiscould be a topic forFebruary for sureto just go in a littlebit deeper into howto set up a funnel like that.And I don't know if it'sthe same for other people.Can you hear me properly?By the way, I thinkthis microphone sucks.No, we can hear you perfect.What about whatabout Joanna's video?Oh, she's online.What's up?What about her videopeaked your interestand what do you wantto learn more about?And if you can phraseit in a question,we could probably dive into ita little bit since she's hereand Henry is here as well.I know he has some heavydepth expertise in that quote.There are two things,actually, because Iwatched the videothree times now,and at first I thought it was.I mean, it was veryinteresting to see the process.I don't knowanything about Zapierand I don't have Pipedriveand all those things.So all the automationpart is interesting.So I guess thequestion would be.How could we automateour workflow better?That would be the question,then I watched it againand I realized that, she said.We are actually a design agency,we do all kinds of things,but we made this thingnext to it, whichis just the branding site.So she how do yousay that niche down?All right.Is that is that the wayto say it, so special?Yeah, yeah, actually.Well, yeah, you havethe company yourselfand just do all the thingsthat you do and then youcreated a separatecompany next to itthat just focuses on branding,I thought is pretty smart.I guess this is all aboutpositioning yourself.So I should look at thosevideos, which I haven't yet.So I think there'smultiple questions there.I do want to talk aboutthis first one, especiallysince she's onlineabout better automatingthe workflow for basicallybettering your business.Would you mind talkingabout that a little bit?Yeah, of course.Also, I'm going to goon maternity leave,so I have no choice butto be off the business.And that's pretty scary.Even though I've got a managerdoing all of the things.My main thing is, how can Iautomate the sales process?So it's the salescalls can be shorterand can be taken by aless qualified person.Right now, my sales callsare very much either whatChris teaches or I end updoing some sort of consultingon the call.And so my first thingis like, how can Iautomate sort of like everythingI tell them on the call?But through either alanding page email sequence,all of that, then it's how canI automate the tasks that wehave to do every single time?An email comesthrough Pipedrive.We've we've had fora couple of months,and that's just I don't knowif I forgot who mentionedthat pipedrive, like, has notbeen good for their business,but we just use it to keeptrack of all our leadsto make sure that no leadsfall through the cracks.And basically, wejust see like, well,how many people have inquiredhow many people of thoseactually booked a call?Let's chase up, and sometimeswe chase up leads upto months later and theysay Yes out of the blue.So I mean, you could talk aboutthis for hours, just like what?What specifically aboutautomation is helpful.Oh, I don't know, Ihave nothing automated,so I guess everything.So maybe to narrowit down if youwere to speak to someone thathas no automation at all?No funnel.Joanna, what wouldyou recommend?Be there first step intoautomating their business?OK, the first step I'd saysomeone do is like, do?And some of mybusiness coaches haveasked me to do this is do aweekly log of everything youdo.One coach asked me todo it every 15 minutes,but I thought that was extremefor like every half an houror something.So you can see howlong do you spendon administrative tasksversus creative workand out of those tasks, whatdo you find yourself repeatingthe most?And then maybe like if Iwas thinking about thisthrough a content perspective,like a video for the future,I'd just be like, I would writethe top things to automate.So the first thing wouldbe cowardly for meetingsor something like that, right?So there's no thatback and forth,like when you're availablefor a call, et cetera, thenit could be a cowardlyZoom integration so youdon't have to afterthe calendar eventand is just there nodding.So I guess I would justgo through like the top.Automations forcreatives like us.One of the thingsthat really helped uswas to productizesome of our servicesand to templatesas our contracts.So now a brandedentity contract,we timed it the other dayand it takes us five minutesto send to the client.We just have tolook at the calendarand put the datesin the contractof the deliverables done.That's pretty cool.I'm just curious how many peopledo actually fill out this formbecause this is just recentlythat you set this up, right?Yeah, but we've alwayshad a form in our websiteand it asks similar questionslike what's your budget?How did you hearabout us all of that?And how many?Well, all of our clients havebeen through forms like that.And then what has happened untiljust this week is my projectmanager would get theemail would manuallyput it in Pipedrivewith manually emailthem would manually onceit's set on currently,create the Zoom linkand all of that.So I've just been tryingto save her a ton of timeas well since she'sgoing be doing my job.Um, but the form has workedfor us for five years,we've been doing this.That's awesome, I'mgoing to do that.Wonderful thanks, Joanna.That's quite the link isin the Facebook group.I'll tag you.Oh, also, could you maybe putthe PDF that you have also,because I don't want to putmy name into your thumbnailto do a video for meand then that's it.I'm going to leave you alone.I'm going to be like,hey, boss, Thanks.I saw you didn't book a call.OK, I'll do it.Then I'll put it here.So I want to check the pulseof the group is funneling,particularly I wantto use this term.Are automating your business.Is that something we wouldlike to delve deeper into?Maybe next month, maybejust nod your headsbecause I can see all of youare like, OK, that was funny.Everyone just raved.Built to sell has been thebest book I've read four times.We built to sell, built to sell.And it's all abouta design agency.It's really good and it'snot about selling it,it's just about makingit run really smoothly.Love it, and I'm glad youbrought this to the attention.That's the power of the groupis because some people areat different stagesin their business.And this is a thought thatwouldn't have even crossedtheir mind becausethey're so busy and doingthe work that the management ofthe business doesn't come up.So when you bring it totop of mind like that now,people are inspired toautomate their business.So thank you for beingthe catalyst for that.Of course, even ifyou're a freelancer,just imagine if you couldshave off one hour a dayfrom automating acouple of things.So automation, you're probablygoing to get some sort of DNAfrom me, hopefully beforethe full pregnancy.I don't know.We'll see.We'll see.We'll see.See you later.Your call?OK, you want to.I think you werenext with a question.I'm sorry this ispressing, since it'sgoing to sound a bitweird because I reallydon't know how to put itsince I joined this group.There is indeed somuch to consume.I know you guys tried yourbest to tackle this problem.But I feel there is a disconnectbetween asking and getting helpbecause my most pressingproblem has been since a yearago and now and it'sbecoming so acute,we actually just need work andI do not know the quickest wayto get it, or even theway to ask for someonethat can help me get work.And the disconnect happensbecause everyone is so verynice, everyone is trying to helpwith everything they know best,but I'm not getting actual help.So if I complete my smartgoals, if I get my site up,if I get the social media point,I still do not have work nowand it's very depressing andthere are posts coming up.Don't ask directlyfor what you need.It's not OK.Don't go and askthat person directly.I don't know how to do it.Where to go.So what do I do?Because I feel like I'm stuck,although I love everythingthat is happening in hereand I'm finding support,but I can't find work.You want to?Thanks for Thanksfor bringing that up.I am very empathetic andI know how frustratingit can to be in aplace where it's famineand you need that work nowand you need to pay the Billsand how stressful thatis on your mindset.And I know many peoplehave experienced itand many people areexperiencing it right now.It sounds like prioritynumber one for you is to getis to get work and get paid.Right now, that's a lotharder than it sounds.So to contain thisquestion, because there'slayers to the mindset, there'slayers to the strategy,there's layers to the execution.I'd like for somebody that'sbeen in this place beforeand has been able toturn it around quicklyto give you want anactionable step that shecan focus the majorityof her efforts onto get the most reward.So if you think you're thatperson, please just unmuteand jump on.You're not going to likewhat I'm about to say,but I'm going to say it.I was in a very similarsituation a couple of yearsago.And I was in dire straits.And I became a fiber designer.And I just I just designed onfiber until I lost all my hair.I'm kidding.No, I became a fiberdesigner and just got enough.Well, something happenedthat really made me say,OK, I can't do this anymore.I had this woman paid $5 fora double side of business carddesign and made medo it for six hours.So do the math on that.That's how much I got paid.And that was heartbreaking,and Oh my god, I mean,I wanted to do horrible thingsto myself because of it,but I said to myself,this is temporary.I'm going to get through this.It's not fun, butI have to do whatI have to do to keep the lightson and to support my family.So I mean, five hoursthe quickest wayto actually get moneyin your bank account.It's not fun.It's not sexy.It's not exciting at all.But if you're inthat dire straits,then that is the quickest waythat I experienced to just getthat money coming in.And then working myway out of that mess.OK, Henry, I started with five.I couldn't take it anymore.Everything it took all my time.I had no weekends, nothingfor $5 for when it started.It killed me.I am also on Upwork is justthey're not working anymore.I can't get jobsfrom there either.Real quick, can you telleverybody what you do,so we have a better.We do packaging designand a lot of other stuff,but that's what we like to do.So packaging, designand illustration, Istarted by doingcommissions with portraits,you know, like almost hyper,hyper realistic portraitsfor $5 that took me sevenhours or eight hours to do.So I know I knowwhat that is, but Ijust I don't have thehealth and the timeand the mindsetto do it anymore.It's no longerwithin my wheelhouse.I will collapse altogether.If I go back to fiber.What about doingsomething outside?I know when I wasin grad school,man, I waited tables, man.That was a quick wayto get some money.And I think it helpedme in my business skillsbecause I startedbeing very empathetic.People's water wasdown, you know,it's like totallyusing somethingand you get acheck, not a check.I mean, your checkslike super terrible,but in America, it'slike $2.12 an hour.So that's nothing.But you get tips and you takeon those tips every night.And I would bring home, I don'tknow, 405 $100 in a weekendand that was good.And then my brain I could use.To do projectsthat I wanted to dothat I was if it was packagingand then I would focus on that,I know that when you doself initiated projectsand you do it for maybe30 days at a time,you did a different packaging.I've seen where it's noteven real projects, you know,it's just me puttingstuff on mockups.I mean, that stuffreally, it gets traction.And, you know, maybe it'ssomething that we allcould do together and somethingthat we could as because again,more people that aredoing something with youcreate some traction in that.I think that thisis a long game.It's not like, hey, I cannotgo out and run a marathon.I mean, me and Mo haveeaten lunch together.He's going to beat me backto the car, you know, like,he's in much better shape thanme, but that unfortunately,this is a long game and I'msuper at me and my heart goesout to you because I've.I've always had that second job,you know, like I've always had,I'm a teacher or I do design andthen I do something on the sideand I was talking tosomebody yesterday.You know, sometimesyou have to go backto something youdon't want to do,but you have to have an end out.This is not the end.You are going to dothis for a time periodtill you get towhatever amount of moneyyou need to be able to becoming in on that side gig.And if you're just tappedout creatively or whatever,Mo wants to say some go, buddy,no, no, no, no, I'm listening.I'm listening, please.You know what I mean?Do you know whatI'm talking about?Is that no way.I hear you perfectly, but I alsohave a lot of health issues,so I don't know if Ican do a full day workand actually be of useto anyone you want to.You want to.Diane, can I jump inhere really quicklyto make time for the other hand?Joanna, you you keepunmuting your mic.Please show what you want tosay and I want to follow upand then I want to.I want to move onand you want to.I want to.I want to touch basewith you privatelybecause I've heardyour story, but Ihaven't connected with you.So, Joanna, please?Yeah, I had a coupleof things to say,but also I unmutemy mic, because Ihave a bug on Zoom that meetseveryone else when I'm on mute,so I have to keep doing that.But like I hear where you'reat and it feels awful.At two years ago, I hadto fire three of our staffbecause I was just notbeing able to find the work,and I was having a lotof health issues for mebecause I couldn't, Icouldn't make sense of it.It's like, well, wehad a lot of workthen we don't have work likewhat changed our portfoliosto look the same?My network still the same.And I'm a big advocate thatwhen times are like that,then I go all in on my mindset,like I go all in on meditationand I go all in onaffirmations, and Ihave to put my mindsetback into a positive placebecause if I keep sayingour sales are down,I'm going to haveto fire more peopleand I believe I'mgoing to attract that.So that's like my two to use.Like I hear, it's so hard.I hear it's hardwhere you're at.But I was like.I was throwing up3 times a week.In retrospect, it was alsobeing caused by the stress of itall had a bunch ofallergies and justlike I was able to slowlyturn it around with mindset.So one cool book isBecoming Supernatural.It might be a guy who likea little bit too far afield,but I know that onceI was able to do that,I was able to have ideaslike, oh, I could reach outto this person.And I could post on thisplace and and suddenly,like the ball is rolling again.Thanks to your workis really great.Yeah, you I want towith all respect,I want to end it herefor the sake of the call,but I do want to say something.I was also like thethree people thathave spoken up in theexact same place you are.It can be very frustratingto be on a callwith a bunch of fellowcreatives that are in a spacewhere you hear the wordsvalue based pricingand you hear the figures of10 k, 20 k, 30 k, 50k and Bneeding to pay a bill.That's $200.I get it and I getthe frustration thatcomes from hearingwork on your mindset,even though everyoneis going to tell youthat though you may not be in aspace to believe it because youneed to work on your mindset.However, that aside,there is work out therethat you need to go and grab.You are not in a position rightnow to play the content game,to play the inboundgame, to play the settingup your website game.You need to be dedicatinghowever much timeyou can allocate in your day.If you can't allocate a fullday because of your health set,you have three hours thatyou can allocate healthilyand still sleep at night.You need to be researchingpeople in your vicinityright now.Right now, calling themand telling them my nameis, you want to?I do package design.I saw your website.I have some great ideas.It would be.It it would.It would be a freeconsultation, and the minimumyou would pay with me issomewhere around $200.Just give themeverything they needto know to be ableto make a decision.But you have to dedicate thosethree hours or whatever timeyou have to literallygoing out and getting it,though there's a lot ofpeople in this group thatcan potentially give you work.The action steps that youhave to take right now is justgrabbing the shitout of that workthat's out there because peopledon't know that you existand people don't thingsthat they may be needing.I want to leave itat that, and then Iwant to touch base withyou in a DM becauseand Diane said she wantsto touch base with you aswell because there's a lot of.Things layers that wecan overcome togetherfor you to makethose action stepsand make them effectively OK.OK, Mo, but tell me,appease me and tell me, OK,and then we can justlike I would be canI say one more thingwhen you guys say,give me a goodprompt, not everyonehas the courage orthe skill to do that,and it puts a lot ofpressure and some people mayfeel they're neverworthy or they will neverhave the courage to do it.If there is not a spacewhere everyone can actuallytry and do it, nomatter how bad it sucks.You encourage failing.But I rarely start seeing ithappen because of course youwant content and youwant the best prompt,but that neglects allthe people in the group.Does that help?Let's talk more one on one.OK thank you very much.Thanks, Joanna.OK, Henry.Yeah one thing I want tosay before I get started,I encourage you to diveinto Joanna's funneland feel out every aspect of it.I do this constantlywith my competitionand I learned so much from them.So like, don't feel likeyou're going to clog or funnelbecause you're notlike, go in thereand explore how that feels.And take what you have.I've actually beenon it all day today,and I've completelyredesigned my own site.It's going to happen.Yeah, you get so muchinspiration from then.Very good.I just want toencourage that because Iheard what you said before.I was oh, no bars,do it, do it, do it.So what?What I'm really strugglingwith is really not a struggle.I don't like lookingat things as struggles,but I look at themas opportunities.And so one of the thingsthat we found out todaywas creating desire inwhat it is that I do.And I had a conversation witha fellow pro member yesterday,and there was anissue on my end whenit came to creatingenough desireon each level of the funnel toget them to actually say, wow,I really, reallyneed this and Henry'sthe guy to help me do this.So the opportunity to I'mseeking is creating more desirefor my audience, forthem to say, wow,I may not be able to maybeafford his higher end stuff,but maybe getting it to hismentorship program or thingslike that would beadvantageous to me.So maybe it'spiggybacking off of whatwe talked about last week wassoft selling in the contentmarketing.I don't know.I want to take it a littlebit step further todayand say, how do we allcreate more desire?For our audience to saythis is what I want,this is what I need,and you're the personthat's going to help me do it.How some people inthe group createddesire for what it isthey do professionallyfor people to seek you out.OK, so clearly, we haveto have a call about this.That's a tough one.OK, so let me ask this question.Let me ask this question.I'm struggling with thisrecently because it makes mefeel like my work isn't.Value enough, like my biggestfear is for somebody to sayis the overpriced guy, Icould get this a lot cheaper.And you know, I regret payinghim 50 grand for this project.And the only reason whyI say this is because.I'm seeing a couple projectslike finish and complete.But like in my gut, I'm nothappy with how it ended.Like, I just theproject finished.It was great.There is no hiccupsalong the way, but.There's AI have afeeling that theydidn't get the value thatthey were looking for,and here's why.So we design thisbeautiful brand for them.I take them throughthe strategy.They absolutelyare, are ecstatic.We build that.And then we say, OK, this is thenext steps, we're not an ad manand we're not anads manager, so I'mgoing to give you my Rolodexand you can interviewand I'd be happyto jump on the callwith you to interviewwith these folks,to help you run traffic toyour brand, to your funnel,to your website.But that's not whatmy agency does,and we're not strong at it.So I'd much rather give yousomebody that does that.Then what happens is they goto that person of their choice.And what happens is theystart split testing.This may be foreignto some people,but they start split testingthe funnel and website,and they completelydestroy our workbecause they'reredesigning their frickin'change in fonts and images.And they completelybastardized the artwork.And then I getdiscouraged because Idon't want to use themas a case study anymore,because that's notmy work anymore.And I feel likethis whole projectwent to hell in a handbasket,and it's so discouraging.And then, you know, weeks later,I get an email or, you know,I just get thisfeeling like theyfeel like, damn, I didn't getthe true value out of Henry.And that's just likecrushing for me.Henry, what I'vedone in my contractsis I put a clause in thelicensing and copyright sectionthat in addition tothe exclusive work,exclusive licensingthat they have,they are not allowed toedit, change or do anythingto the work thatwe've given them.So for us, that'sin the video world.They're not allowed to like,take the video re-edit it,re audio it all that kindof stuff in your world.It sounds like it'smore the website.So I would want to add thatclause if it's not there.And I'm sorry if I'm beingpresumptuous just in case.But the second thing is, Iwould maybe at the follow upat the end of the engagement.When you have your call of like,how did how did everything go?Where can we have improved?Where did you findthe most value,all of that kind of stuff?The exit call, you shouldadd a refresher like,hey, please note for yoursite to work effectivelybased on our strategy.You will need this,and I advise that youhave us come in as aconsultant to guide whoevertakes on the media stuff.So everything is in linewith how we helped you.So your hands are stillon it, and it's almostlike a management process.It could be a 90 daymanagement processas you transitionwith a new agencybecause you don't do paid mediaversus you just passing it off.And then them having to dealwith all the consequences.That would be the recommendationbased on what we do.So there's atransition period wherewe can serve as an advisor towhoever is taking the contentand using it fortheir marketing work.OK, I may have answeredmy own question.I do have a maintenanceprogram and I justhaven't been good atnot pitching it to them,but offering them thatmaintenance program.It sounds like such a drop ofthe ball on my part and it is,but I think maybethat's somethingthat I can offer them to say.Listen, I don't want tosee this happen to you.Let us.It's a fraction of the cost,too, of what they initiallycharge, right?So giving them that,that offer and saying,hey, we'll stay with youon a month to month basisto keep you, keepyou, keep you brandedand keep you on the track.Yeah James said.James said somethingvery similar.Paul is sayingwebsites are very fluidand it's pretty typicalfor them to change,but you can eliminate themchanging Superbad for the worseand that maintenance period.So but Henry, whenyou said you don'twant to be the overpricedguy because theycould get it cheaper?I would.I would say that'sa mindset thingbecause they'repentagram is charginghow much for a design identity.Like, that's bullshit.It's just like ifthey're complaining,they're not for you.I've had clientswho have complained,they're not gettingthe most out of it.For six grand.I have got clients who we did 15grand Brighton identities thatdidn't even care.They're just like, great,this is what I needed.OK, but yeah, Yeah.I remember talkingto Chris about this,and he was like, this is notthe weight that you shouldbe putting on your shoulders.And I think that's it's justa reminder what you justmentioned their problem.That's right.It's you can't take on thatburden as long as you dida great job and delivered thebest that you can and you coverit all and dotted yourI's and cross your T's.Like, you can't be responsible,like again, I think of this.Now, when you go to Mercedesand you buy a Mercedes Benzand you take it home and youput these ridiculous rims on itand you like, paint it, aweird color like Mercedesis not going to bring youback to the dealershipand say, take that all off.Like, so I just answeredmy own question.And you're notgoing to go to themand say, hey, I could buya cheaper car elsewhere.Boom OK, let's bring it back.I think it's Osha then.Martha and then Diane.Yeah, I saw you raise your handand Laura, Diane, I'm sorry.I was going to say something,Henry, but it's OK.Oh, please do.And then we'llpass it off to ash.So just think you could also dopartnerships with those peopleif you don't really wantto do that grunt workor that themaintenance stuff, whydon't you partner withthree firms and thenthey understand your point.And what you can do, andthen they will send people toand you will sendpeople to them.They value you.They aren't going to they aren'tgoing to tear down your stuffand then you're workingas a partnership,but you don't have todo that maintenance.Do you know what?Probably why you haven'tbeen offering the maintenancebecause you don't wantto do the maintenance.So why don't you?You can either have a projectmanager that you bring onor you just have a partnership.You seem like everytime I've come on,you do have so much energy youseem really easy to talk to.You seem really ignited.And one of thethings that when Ihear like MichaelYanda or something,he told me, he's like, oh, ifmy client needed me to plungetheir toilet, I would.And so it seems like I agree.I think there's somemindset issues for sure.We all have them.It's not like we're alien.But I think that,you know, you havethat because you'reempathetic to them,and maybe it's not aright fit, but if youhave a partnershipwith another company,then they willalso continue whatso that your clientdoesn't alwaysknow what is best fortheir brand or whatever.So now you can leadthem with someonewho's not going to take the$150,000 that they alreadyspent and just throwit down the toilet.The thank you so much forthat, I appreciate that.I was going to saythe exact same thing.Thank you, Diane.Create strongerstrategic partnershipswith mutual respect so thatboth respect each other's work,and they and theywork in similar wayswith similar mindsets.Not every ads person iscut from the same cloth.So yeah, that's.I've missed you, Diane.I'm OK.OK, we're moving along.Asha, you have novideo, so I justhad to shame you forthat for just a second,but please hop on.Hi, can you guys hearme loud and clear?OK, perfect.My question was if I'm doinga strategy for the new productlaunch company and theydon't have any user profileor they don't knowtheir consumer yet.So as a strategist in a strategysession, how do I handleand how do I createthe user profile?Can you guys hear me?Yeah, Yeah.I'm waiting for people.I'm waiting for people to takethe second to choose to speak.I was going to avoid speakingup and let someone else answer.Rachel, I have a real life.I have a real life experiencethat it involves you.So can I give her thequick answer on it?OK Asha Rachel ran strategyon my company last year,and my company had no idea whotheir ideal client was at all.So we walked in completely.We walked sorry, wewalked in completely blindand we couldn't give her anyanswers to our ideal clientbecause we didn't know them.So the first thing shedid was create a profileon the existingclients that we've hadand what that profile.But you have to say it again.My my client don'thave existing clients.They're coming firsttime in the market.There are new launcherslike they've notbeen in the foodmarket, but theyhave created nowthese new productsand they're coming forthem in the market.So they don't have anyexisting plan or idea.At that point, what problem?In that case, youlook at the product,who's the product created for,what problem is it solving?Who has that problem?You mean competition?So what's the productas a food source?I cannot say stillthe name right now.OK but it's a sauceproduct, and she's a chefand she's launchingfirst time in the marketand they don't want togo in the retail spaceand slowly approachingthe bigger scale.So I'm going to I'mhappy that I gotthe strategy session scheduled.That's my first crack,but I'm confusedhow to handle the user profilefor them because I don't knowtheir target audiencewhere they wantto sell, who will be the targetaudience for them perfectly.So how do I find that.And what do I runin strategy session?There's a comment herethat just came throughthe I know you're onmobile, so it mightbe hard to see the comments.So one of the comments iswho are their top threefavorite companiesor competition?Create a profile around other,like other people's audiences.The other thing,too, is I'm hearinga little bit of language thatimplies that you're thinkingyou need to know whotheir audiences in orderto create profiles with them.You don't necessarily need toknow who they want to serve.You can ask her.What inspired her to makethis in the first place,you can start askingquestions about the back storyto this whole ideathat's going to give yousome insights intowho you should start,who you shouldprofile and rememberthat profiles are always tests.So you're goingto do at least 3.And you're going to pick thefirst one to kind of testand it's going to be arevolving process, especiallywhen they're just starting out.Some of them they mightthink are a good idea,they'll test them forsix months and it's notgoing to be the best one.So remember that there are testswhen you're just starting out,you are going to be making someguesses and some assumptions,you're going to getinformation from the back storyof the inspirationfor the product.Uh, let's see, andyou can also lookat products thatare similar and lookfor clues in who isbuying those products.OK Yeah.No, she gave me the story.Background I'm just alittle nervous to findthe right audience,but I like your idea.The first six months, it'sgoing to be test profilethat how consumer isadopting the product,you're going to be validating,you're going to make profilesand you're going tovalidate host wiseand then you help them.You can build into yourprocess that you'regoing to check backin with her and you'regoing to see how theseworked and help tweak them.You can build that into yourprocess and kind of stickwith her work, continueto work on these.If she's literally startingfrom like ground zerowith no idea who shecreated this product for,which is nearlyimpossible situation.There's always something,something she's experienced,I think, and theproduct looks promising,but that's a very newproduct, although I have notseen much that kind ofproduct in the retail space.So that made menervous that maybe wehave to create thenew consumer type.Our approach andtest drive, I thinktesting is the best partof this project, I think.I think Chad and Paulmay have somethingto add for you, Ashley.I think Paul'sfirst and then Chad.Share, please.Hi, Yeah.About the product itselfjust building on what'salready been said.You look at things likethe price from profit.So for example, if you'reselling one of those Martinisthat got gold leaf on andyou're unlikely to be sellingthat sort of Kmart store,you're likely to beselling that at high end.So that can improveyour personas.I just wanted to add that.Oh, OK.Yeah I'm not sure if Iunderstand correctly, you mean.The sauce itself will havesome ingredients in it,and they'll have an ideaabout the costs involvedin making that sauce,so that will probablyinfluence the kind ofmarket that they'regoing to sell that source to.If it's a reallyhigh end product,then the kind of personasthat you want to makewill come out of that.There'll be the kindof high end peoplethat be very professionalpeople with moneyto spend that kind of thing.Whereas if it's not, if it'saimed at a very lower endmarket, then the personaswill be everyday peoplethat are on the street shoppingin mass market retailers.So, so coming just fromthe ingredients itself,you should be able to havesome clues about the kindof research that's helpful.That's super helpful.I got the vision whom I had.Yeah, that's super helpful.The price point I can see it'sa mid-level day to day 9:00to 5:00 world marketkind of a place.OK, that's great.Thank you.Awesome OK.Chad actually had a question.Chad, I'm alwaysjealous of your setup.Oh, I think it's.Hold on.Hold on, Chad, I think also,we move on because I think.OK, perfect.By the way, is thatare you in your tesla?See, I'm going for kids filter,but I don't want to miss this.So I'm outside theschool sitting here,but this is helpful.Thank you.Awesome Thanks.I was like, if she hada spaceship because Iknow her Tesla is nice route.It's nice.Yeah, I wish I was doing OK.OK, Chad hit us, hitus with the question.I would just like to know howmany in the group are actuallyusing a CRM for their business.I appreciate thisquestion because I'mgetting a theme for February.The first question wasautomating the sales process,which is the beginningof an engagement.Then there's an end to theengagement people like Henry.And then how do I create desire?So this question is kindof the all encompassing.How are you managing yourbusiness and client basewith a crm?So has anyone used the CRMand do they have any insight?And I would like to knowif anybody's actuallypaying for HubSpot.Not not the free version,but the $800 a month version.And I'm kind of someof the strugglesthat I'm having are kind of likeHenry's, where we're brought into do some design work, maybedo some digital marketingfor them.But when it actuallywe're bringing trafficto their websiteand they're gettingnew leads, what are theydoing with those leads?A lot of the times,they don't evenknow they're nottracking it, so theydon't know what theirreturn on investment is.They just know theyspent some money with us.Sales didn't increase.Where is the breakdown?So our agency is looking atCRM and we're looking at thembecause we feel likeit'd be beneficialfor our clients to be in ECRM.So I'm wondering, likewhat other people doingfor themselves and then whathave they learned from that?And they've been able totake that into their clientsas well.And I wonder if Chris Christielooks at the futures CRM,or is that somethingthat he stays out ofand he has people thatmanage that for him?We may.I think I'm going to getBen because he's their CEOand he's dealing with allthe back end operation stuff.And I'm sure if theyeven have a CRM systemthat he could lead a callon how he's managing that.And I think it wouldhit a lot of the marksthat they were talking aboutit the other day on Facebook.They made a whole video.There's a whole video call,apparently on HubSpot.Really? are they arethey using hubspot?Sorry the other thing you saidthen the CR oh, like a CRMor like a yeah, the other brand?I don't know.Oh, OK, OK.Yeah I was on Sean about that.Yeah, I was on Sean's callyesterday, Butler branding,and he shared alot of his process.It was a great, great call.But he said he's notusing a CRM currentlybecause he can manage it.You know, he canmanage leads right now.He can do that personal followup, and he even likes to,you know, this is helikes the face to face.He meets with peoplebefore he evenknows if they're a good fit.I don't know how hedoes that, actually.I'm just too busyto meet with peoplethat aren't going tobe, you know, a good fitfor our agency.So, yeah, he's not doing one.I know a lot of peoplearen't doing one.It's a big investment,and I'm wonderingif I'm getting to toomuch in the weeds.You know what?What's the problem that theCRM is meant to solve for you?The CRM would befor me, I mean, it'sall about marketingautomation moving forward.I feel like as myagency has evolved,we've always gotten into newtechnology and new things,mostly for our clients, butthen also for ourselves.But I'm hoping to be ableto do more inbound marketingand that involves generatingcontent and positioning.But then when those leadscome in, be able to nurturethose leads over the courseof six months or even years,and the CRM wouldkeep all of thatin one place, one dashboard.Instead of scraps, scrapsof paper on my desk,I don't have everythingin one place,but I use the multiplethings and then just Zapierto connect it all, and it works.Zapier Yeah.There's also with the CRM,it offers a lot of tracking,you send them an email, youcan see if they've opened it,you can see if they've thenclick through to your site.You can see the pages on thesite that they've visited.You can reach out to themat that time, you know.So lots of marketing,automation type stuff.If I'm using thatterm correctly.Chad, would you sayI'm just taking notes?Would you say thatthe main problemyou're trying tosolve using a CRMis managing yourmarketing effortor managing theengagement with the clientfrom before theyfind out about youthroughout the whole process.What's your what is your hope?Because you saida lot of things.I just want to.Yeah, yeah, I did.I guess my main goal is toprove Roi for my clients.If I could get them into a CRM.So you want to be ableto learn about a CRM,then sell it to your clients?Yeah yes, I thinkthat's where I'm headed,but then I don't useit myself currently.Now I'm not gettinga lot of leads.I can like Sean, I canhandle those leads manually.But I know as I startto position myselfas an expert in my field andI'm getting more inbound leadsthrough inbound marketingthat I'll need a systemto manage those as well.And for the client,when you sell this,what are you hopingto help them achieve?That's that's a good question.I mean, ultimately, Iwant to see them succeed,but I also want tohelp them improvetheir internal processes.We have a lot of clientsthat don't reallyknow what happensto the leads thatcome through their website.If it's a phone call, maybesomeone takes the message.And it's not followedup on or whatever.We do CEO, so I knowI can, you know,through analytics, Ican see that their sitetraffic is increasing.But that's all they hiredus for at that point.The rest is on them andmore times than not,they drop the ball.Got it.So you want to beable to help them,even past them updatingtheir CEO for the lifelineof the clients they'regetting and youthink that CRM is an optionto manage that things for now?Yeah I feel like it'sthe next logical step.Or maybe I'm getting.Too much in thedetails, too muchin the weeds, and Ineed to just do my pieceand then hands off after that.Well, there seems to be arecurring theme in this call.It's like after wefinish our work,how do we properly managethe client after we'redone for them to be successful?And it seems likefor Henry, it's this.How do people not demolisha website for you?It's like, how do theymake sure that the CEO isy positive for them.And you're not just givingthem little bits of workthat they don't know how to use?So I think overall, if we canlearn how to better manageour client engagementinternally,then we can translate them,translate that for the clientafterwards and tellthem, hey, thisis an option that you cantake after we give youwhat we've agreed on to deliverfor you to maximize whatit can give you afterwards.Does that soundabout right to you?Yeah, it sounds right.Cool dude, awesome question.I don't have I don'thave an answer,I'm just distilling it so wecould create a call around itand get the rightpeople to talk.Yeah well, Thanksfor hearing it.Yeah so are youlooking for a crm?I am currently, Yes.OK all right.I think people are targetedtowards smaller businesses.I guess HubSpotis one Pipedrive.I saw someone posta video on that.Yesterday is one.There's one, there's a couple.I was researching this recently,so maybe I'll post them,but it's definitelyone that's targetedtowards smaller companies versussomething like Salesforce.But then anythinglike, I don't thinkit matters all that much becausewhat you're talking aboutis just tracking leads from thewebsite and pretty much in ECRMthat you get, youknow, you'll beable to do some kind ofintegration with that.So yeah, I'm lookingat sharp spring.I've had a demo bythem, but I mean,there's no way to try it out.There's $2000 ononboarding fee, actually.I think it's 2,400for the first month.So I mean, for me,that's a big investmentto try something out.Was that called againsharp spring start?I look them up.Yeah, sure.Spring yeah, theircompetitor is Hubspot,but the pricing modelis a little different.It's month to month.HubSpot is for the year,so that's one reasonwhy I'm looking at them.But OK, I want to open thefloor as we reach the end hereto anyone who may havenot spoken up to anyonethat hasn't asked a question.I want you to feel thisopportunity to just speak up.It is always safe space.And this is yourmoment to do so.So please, if youhave a question,if you want to add value.Unmute and jump on.I'm getting better atthe silent thing, guys.I would have brokelike 40 seconds ago.I just want to highlightthat I have one.So in case studies, peoplesometimes post the results.How do you actuallyask the peoplethat you work for thatthey give you the results?I will date how doyou make them tellyou have your salesincreased by how much?How has this improvedyour business?It's a good question.I think some of that has to dowith relationship managementwithin the client,so maybe that'ssomething we could talk about.Yeah, I think I mean, Ithink I've had clientsfor like 15 to 17 years,like the same client,like we've done threewebsites, you know, likeand but they feel likeyou're part of the team.How do you get that feeling.So that they want totell you because theyfeel like that's going to help?You know, hopefullythey're not so close mindedabout this stuff anyway.Maybe that's somethingwe could talk about.And also what we do.So I haven't donea case study yet,but what we do before westart the work with the clientis like.So I'd love to know whereyour metrics are at the momentand where you'd like to go,because I believe design ismore than making things pretty.We want to getresults and we wantto be able to measure them.So I ask them, like, howmuch traffic are you gettingor how many?What's the percentageyou're converting if e!Commerce all of that?I get all of that informationbefore we start the project.And then before weend the project,I'll be like, oh, so I'llbe circling back in 60 daysjust to see how you'redoing, and then we'llschedule a call forthem and do it that way.Y'all are awesome.There's already there's alreadylike answers to the question,setting expectationsup front, making surethat they're clear on whatthey want success to look likeand then putting in a timelike you said, Joe, where hey,I'm going to revisitso we can assessthe work we've already done.And then at the end, this iswhat it looks like for thisto be successful.This is what we can do.This is how I'd like to guidewhoever is in partnership.And I think it wouldbe best to just includethat in whatever theproject is, if it'scontinued to be a hassle foryou throughout your engagements.You know, one thing I thinkJoanna is doing so wellis that she's comingin as a partnerand as a business entrepreneur.She's not just lookingat it like, how can wemake something pretty?And I think that is key.So I think she's comingin as that, that expert.But also.Anyway, you'rejust doing awesome.You need to ask Joannamore questions, Mo.Thank you, dad.I agree I have nothingelse to add to that,I agree wholeheartedly.OK this has been this.I feel that this is accomplishedexactly what it was set to do.I'm glad that we gotthis call in the booksbecause at the end ofthe day, the topicsare based on what we need.And I think a bigpart of these callsis some of you have not hadthe opportunity to connect oneon one when you meetpeople on these calls.I highly, highly encourageyou as a fellow peer,as someone who's donethis to DM peopleand just say hello, lovedwhat you said on the callwould love to connect.I have learned so much outsideof just Chris from people here.I've hired peoplefrom this group.These people have improvedme as an entrepreneurand have improved mybusiness and their friends,family, colleagues.But I highly recommendthat because someof the conversationscan't alwaysbe had on the call when there's40 to 80 people because wewant to be respectful ofthe group's initiative.So you can take that time in theDMs to have a very long thoughtout, nuanced conversationand get really nitty grittywith each other.OK other than that, Alex,this is the end of call 139.I'm stopping recording.