You are listening to My Freedom Grove podcast with Gretchen Hernandez, episode 170.

Welcome to My Freedom Grove Podcast, your calm space for practical help to get your dream business up and running while being authentically you and taking care of your mental health. I'm your host, Gretchen Hernandez. I'm so glad you're here!

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 Hi, My Strong Friends.

 

 I am so excited about today's episode. 

 

We're going to talk all about Automation Hacks; all of the ways that you can get technology to do a lot of the work for you. So that your workload is a lot more balanced. And you have freedom to do more things both in life and with your business. 

 

So as I'm recording this, I'm just days away from the Small Business Expo. So by the time that you hear this, it will have already happened. But let me tell you the number of things that I'm working on all at one time. And all of this is possible because of Automation. 

 

So I'm working on everything for the Small Business Expo. I am also planning the Coaching Posse Networking Extravaganza for September 8. And I have multiple one-on-one clients, some of which are utilizing some extra help in creating their courses. Some are leveraging me for launches on their current products and services. I also coach in somebody else's program. 

 

So there are a lot of moving pieces for my business. Now, do I work 40 hours a week? No. I wish that I could. But life doesn't always allow us to work 40 hours a week, we have other things that pop up like kids, aging parents, things like that. 

 

So Automation is my saving grace. I like to leverage it as much as I can. And as you're doing your business, whether you're a solopreneur, or an entrepreneur with a small business, or even a large corporation, automation can help you. 

 

I'm excited to introduce you to my guest, Jesse Parker. 

 

Jesse Parker is an Automation and AI Coach and Specialist with a very long history and lots of experience in all of the tech things. So they're going to share with you a lot of great tips and tricks for all of the different things for what would be good automation solutions at different phases of your business, giving you some specific automation hacks that you can start using today. 

 

But also, I know a bunch of you are considering hiring VAs, this may be an eye-opening episode, so that you realize that there are some definite automation solutions that could help you. So you don't necessarily have to go out and hire a VA right now. Because you want to make sure that your business stays profitable. And it's pretty hard to support yourself while you're also paying for somebody else's services. So automation can help you there too. 

 

So without any further ado, here is Jesse. 

 

Hey, Jesse, thank you so much for coming on today.

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

All right. Can you introduce yourself, please?

 

MEET JESSE PARKER

 

Jesse Parker  

Absolutely. So my name is Jesse Parker. And I'm over in Seattle, Washington, but originally an east coaster. And I own a company called Life Coach operations where I help other life coaches leverage automation and AI to streamline their business operations and reclaim their time.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Such a needed thing, and I love this topic, but I'm not the specialist. So I am so glad that you are so glad that you're here. So can you describe what does Automation mean? Not everybody knows what it means. Can you tell us what that is?

 

SO WHAT IS AUTOMATION AND AI?

 

Jesse Parker  

Absolutely. So if you think about a process, which is generally two steps, you have a trigger or an action. So think of it as like an if then statement. So if this thing happens, then that thing happens. And you can do those things manually. But automation just makes them happen automatically. So I like to think of automation just as an automated process. So something where there's no humans involved in making sure it happens.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

One of my favorite things is trying to create a business on autopilot. Or sometimes we are a one person band in our business. And there's just so much to do. And so if there's anything that we can do, where there's automation, that computers are doing it for us, then all of a sudden it's like okay, I can breathe on my own. Let's say that someone doesn't know what AI stands for? Or that they're like AI in business? What? Huh? How do I do that? Can you tell us about us?

 

Jesse Parker  

Sure, yeah. Ai, ai stands for artificial intelligence. So it's essentially a computer that is trained to act and make decisions like a human being. And there are all kinds of, you know, areas with AI, you know, there's robotics and things like that. But I primarily work with the AI that's integrated in ChatGPT, and open AI and things like that. So interacting with, like a text based program to prompt it with questions,

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

A life coach, why would they want to use AI? What can it help them do?

 

WHY WOULD A LIFE COACH NEED AUTOMATIONS OR AI?

 

Jesse Parker  

Well, I think we have to go back to kind of what you were starting with, when you were talking about a lot of us are just, you know, one, one person businesses, we're entrepreneurs, we're solopreneurs. And when you are a solopreneur, and everything is dependent on you, you have to be really creative with how you leverage your time. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And I really believe that your ability to leverage your time is directly correlated to how well you're able to scale your business. And so if you don't lean on things like Automation and AI, you have to carry out every single thing yourself from the moment that you're trying to reach out and get somebody interested in working with you to going through the whole inquiry process, the sales, the onboarding, renewal, things like that, you are doing every single thing, and that is how you've chosen to spend your time. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But when you start looking at things like Automation, and AI, they are able to take care of the manual, time consuming tasks, anything where I like to say if you're typing, clicking, copying, and pasting, you're wasting. So if you have those activities, yes, if you're doing those activities, that's really an, you know, an opportunity for automation and AI to take over. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And, you know, if you think historically about things like specifically, you know, back, I think, to the Industrial Revolution, you know, when robots kind of started taking over jobs, everything just kind of became very, like repetitive. And so our history is that we have been trained to kind of do these repetitive type button pushing tasks. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But now that AI is in the mix. And now that automation is really accessible, we kind of get to put the pieces back where they have always belonged, we can swap things and we can have human beings working on those creative, innovative human tasks. Rather than copying and pasting things in and out of a spreadsheet, or, you know, manually sending emails to follow up with people, you know, on your list, you can actually leverage automation and AI to be creative and do those things for you, while still leaving the human touch on the process.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I love that you brought up about the human touch because with ChatGPT, I know a lot of people are using that for creating content, whether it could be blogs, some people are using it for their courses, some people are using it for podcasts, others are just using it for, you know, email subject line, or emails in general. And one of the concerns that I've heard some of my clients even bringing up is, that doesn't feel like me. It doesn't feel authentic, it feels like that would be bad. If I was to go do that. I'm here to actually be me––helping people. And this is especially when they're in the startup phase. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

So how does ChatGPT help someone to still be authentic and be them, but it's like giving that extra little help?

 

I DON’T WANT A ROBOT TO RUN MY BUSINESS!

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, for sure. Great question. So ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence, it’s job isn't to be you, right? You only you can be only you have that kind of context and experience. And really the stories of your life that only you can tell in your own way. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And so ChatGPT is helpful when you want extra brainstorming help or ideas, or you might want to see a different way to write something. But it's not supposed to be used as a direct replacement for you. And so if you give it a topic and you ask it to write a blog post, of course, it's just going to in the best way it knows possible based on all of the data that it was trained on, put together that blog post but it wasn't trained on you. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But what you can do is you can give ChatGPT, you can give AI examples of things that you've done. So if you haven't started a podcast or a blog yet, I highly recommend doing it. Even just as a way of getting the information out of your head and into some kind of format, because you can send those podcast transcripts, you can send those blog posts to AI and say, ‘hey, these are some things I wrote, can you please develop a writing style and a voice and tone that similar to the way that I write?’ 

 

Jesse Parker 

And then you can ask your prompt, could you create, you know, an email marketing campaign, you know, with a call to action speaking to this concept that I speak to? Or, you know, can you write a follow up email sequence to my clients, you know, based on these other things in the way that I speak, and you're able to get much better results that way. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But even when you do get those results, we still have to read through them and make sure: ‘oh, this is this is the way I really would say this, or I think, you know, the AI misunderstood this concept that I was really trying to kind of get across’. And that's when you can come in and make those edits, or even go back to AI and say, ‘hey, you misrepresented the thing I was trying to teach or you were a little bit too formal here, or this was way too casual, or this doesn't really speak to my audience. Let me tell you more about my audience, then you can get better results from it’. 

 

Jesse Parker 

So you know, it's kind of like just teaching a person really Yeah. Thinking it's like training an employee? Exactly. Yeah, they need the context to be able to learn and understand what it is that you want from them.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

So I like to have entrepreneurs put their mental health first. And so how could automation help people with their mental health?

 

YES, THIS CAN HELP YOUR MENTAL HEALTH TOO!

 

Jesse Parker  

Well, I think sometimes, you know, our mental health can be impacted from stress, and overwhelm. And those things can come from just having a lot to do having a lot to manage. And automation and AI are great team players to kind of bring into the mix, to take some of those things off of your plate. And what they do is they allow you to be really intentional with how you want to spend your time and your business, but how you want to spend your time in your life. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And so if you know mental health is something that you're looking to improve. I mean, there are a lot of ways to do that. But if you feel like your business is negatively impacting your mental health, it might be an opportunity to take a look at what are those things that you're doing every day that are stressing you out that you are dreading that you are overwhelming, and just breaking them down into a process? 

 

Jesse Parker 

Oh, okay. I feel really overwhelmed. Because every time I have a client meeting, you know, I'm spending all that time like 30 minutes after typing up a summary right now, what we talked about with some next action items. That's something I hear from coaches a lot when you could use like an AI notetaker, like Otter, or Fireflies.ai, to just come into the meeting.

 

Jesse Parker 

Of course, ask the client for their consent and say, Is this okay with you that I have this AI notetaker? It will help us summarize what we talked about, and send that to you. And then you could take that summary and automatically send it to them. 

 

Jesse Parker 

Or, you know, you could set up an automation through a service like Zapier to take that summary and pull specific information out of it. And then take your voice and tone to, you know, craft an email to send. And so it will eliminate that task for you right away. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And then you get that 30 minutes back in your day for each client that you're writing those summaries for. And then you get to decide how you want to spend those 30 minutes, maybe you don't want to spend them on another task, maybe you want to take a break, stand up, get a glass of water, go for a walk, right all the things that are important to support your mental health.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

So good. So good. I hadn't even thought about the notetaking part. So I'm so glad that you brought that up. Yeah, I could see that being very, very useful. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

So is automation applicable to all business industries for solopreneurs and small business owners?

 

Jesse Parker  

You know, I don't know all business industries well enough to say 100% Yes, but I can say that. I haven't come across an industry. In my experience, especially, you know, I worked at Zapier for nine and a half years. And through that time, you know, I worked with solopreneurs, all the way up to Fortune 500 companies on different areas of their businesses, all kinds of industries, all kinds of niches. And there was always an opportunity for Automation.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Nice and for anyone that doesn't know what Zapier is, can you explain what that is?

 

ZAPIER- A WORKFLOW SOLUTION

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, so Zapier is a workflow automation company. And so what they do is they allow any app that you're using, you know, as long as they support it on their platform, they allow you to transfer data from one app to another. So this essentially allows you to automate your processes. 

 

Jesse Parker  

So for example, if you run ads on Facebook. And people are submitting those lead ad forms and you want those people to go into you know, your CRM, you can set up an automation, which Zapier calls Zap, to automatically take the information, the name, the email address, whatnot from the lead ad form, and add it as a contact in your CRM. Again, one less step that you have to do. 

 

Jesse Parker  

So Zapier is like the glue that's holding it all together.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

And I love that I use that feature all the time, because I found that when I was doing Facebook ads and running them directly to opt in pages, that I would get lots of traffic, because I got pretty good at the ads themselves. But then they'd get to the opt in page and people wouldn't opt in. And I didn't know is it just that I'm not great at the copy on my opt-in pages, or what but either way they were stopping. I was like, well, what's the deal, but then when I switched over to using a Facebook lead ad, and so how those work is that people don't even have to leave Facebook, they can just put in their information directly into Facebook, they get whatever the freebie is, and then they can continue on their happy day more with Facebook, they don't have to leave at all. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

All of a sudden, people are signing up left and right. Same exact freebie, same exact copy. So it was like they just didn't necessarily want to leave Facebook. So that was all great. But then it would have all of the contact information stuck on Facebook. And so then I could download a CSV file uploaded into my website. But I decided that I didn't want to do that because I had an email sequence that I wanted people to get. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

So it was important for me that it goes into the CRM that's in my website, I use Kajabi. So it's all in one. And then it triggers that email sequence so that people are getting all of their downloadable stuff, but also all of the other things in the emails that I'm giving them. So yeah, Zapier was my thing. And one of the other things was with quizzes, because quiz funnels can be a really popular thing. And so I had tried to interact, create the quiz, but I needed a way for it to then send it over to my website that had all of the customized reports and the emails and everything, so Zapier,

 

Jesse Parker  

That was such a great use-cases. Exactly, and the quizzes as well, I hear that from coaches a lot. And quizzes are a great way to just take somebody through a flow and try to you know, categorize them based on what they want, and they need and then you can just use Zapier, like you said to just send them to your email marketing list and then tag them based on their answers and be able to, again, be more personal with the content that you're delivering them and speaking to them.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Exactly. And it made it so much easier for me. Yes, I had to do upfront work. But after I did the upfront work, everything runs on autopilot after that. And exactly, oh my gosh. So it's like I can go away on vacation. And meanwhile, everything's still working.

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, you don't have to worry about downloading CSVs and uploading them and all of that just automatically. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Okay, so I'm gonna ask you more specific questions on Automation. But before I do that, there are some people that are really uncomfortable with tech. So what words of wisdom would you have for them? Before we get into automation? If they're like, ‘Tech, Ahhhh’,

 

TECH TIPS FOR THE NON-TECH SAVVY

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah. I think a lot of folks have thoughts around tech that, you know, once you're good at tech, that things just don't go wrong. And everything is easy, right? I think there are a lot of thought errors when it comes to people like, I'm not tech savvy, yet, we all walk around with computers in our pockets, right? We have online banking, we have access to 10 different streaming services. At the same time, all of our televisions are smart, like our cars are smart, you know, keeping us in the lane for some of our switches. 

 

Jesse Parker 

I mean, there is Automation and AI, so integrated into our lives. And so when somebody comes to me, and they're like, Well, I'm not really tech-savvy, I like to offer them the opportunity to really question that thought. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And I will say that even though I have the experience that I have, I run into tech issues every single day. I can promise everybody that. And so it's about remaining curious and changing your mindset so that you're learning to just expect these things to come up. And then you just get really great at your skill of problem solving. I think that is what will take you to the next level. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But in order to get really great at problem solving, you have to be willing to actually experience problems and sit with them and figure out how to move forward. I mean, can you think of a time when you just were scratching your head for hours and you're like, I can't get this and then all of a sudden you tried the 15th thing and it was worked and you just felt that sense of accomplishment?

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Oh, yeah, yeah.

 

Jesse Parker  

And then you didn't have to run into that issue again. And you're like, ‘Oh, I figured this out, I can figure that out’. And so it's just it's being patient with yourself and staying curious and knowing that tech just comes with problems. That's just the way it is.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I think that is such a great point. Because one thing that I'll hear from clients that are feeling that tech overwhelm, and frustration, they make it mean something about them. And you've brought up that it's actually the tech itself. And that, yeah, tech can have some problems. And sometimes it's figuring out those problems. Sometimes it's just learning which button it was, but it doesn't mean anything about the human.

 

Jesse Parker  

Exactly, exactly. Think of it like when you're going to the grocery store, right? You have a list and you're like, ready to do all the stuff. And then I don't know, they're out of apples, or they don't have like the pancake mix that you wanted, right? Do you make it mean something about you that there's something you did wrong, and you didn't research? Your grocery stores? It's like, Oh, okay. Right. They didn't have apples, I'm gonna get oranges this time, or I'll come back next good, you know? ,

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. What a great analogy that is perfect. Perfect. So good. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

So I like to talk about things on spectrums, because we know that there's a lot of things in life that are on a spectrum, including businesses, like we start off as a beginner in business, a beginner in automation, and then there's also the advanced levels. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Have you ever considered anything with automation and business and where they're at in business as a spectrum?

 

WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO START USING AUTOMATION?

 

Jesse Parker  

Yes, I do. So when you're first starting out with your coaching business, I actually don't recommend diving into automation, unless it's more like, personal productivity related. So maybe it's like helping with managing the tasks on your calendar and getting things done. Because when you're first starting out, you're really developing your processes, you're trying to see what works and what doesn't, there's a lot of brainstorming, there's a lot of iterating, there's a lot of changing direction. 

 

Jesse Parker

And so if you bring Automation into the mix that early on, you're also going to have to take all those changes into whatever you have automated and it's actually going to put more work on your plate. And so what I recommend is like when you're a new coach, is like really focus on learning how to build your business, learn how to, you know, create a great offer, learn how you want to speak about things, learn about your audience, it's very much you're learning. 

 

Jesse Parker

And then as you're scaling your business, and you're getting to this point where you're like, Okay, things are going well, and like I'm making money, but gosh, like I'm working 60 hours a week, and I didn't expect to do that, right? That's really, I mean, hopefully, it's before you get to working 60 hours a week, but when you start to feel a little stressed and overwhelmed, you know, outside of, you know, the normal stress and overwhelm that comes with being an entrepreneur, that's a good time to look into, okay, what are these processes that are taking me a long time, what within that process is taking me a long time, and then you start using automation to solve the biggest, most time consuming, you know, operational pieces of your business? 

 

Jesse Parker

And so yeah, new coaches, not so much automation. You know, once you've got things rolling, yes, use automation to solve problems. But then there is like this other end of the spectrum that I don't think a lot of folks talk about, and that's when you are maybe at the seven or eight figure level, where like, you're like, okay, my processes are down, I've got all this, I've solved my problems. And now you're thinking of different launches and different ways to sell things and new offers. 

 

Jesse Parker

And then Automation for you, like your experience with Automation transforms from, you know, being primarily a way to solve problems, to now a way to enable you to create new things. So it becomes like an innovator in your business or an enabler of innovation in your business. And that's when you can create your own internal tools. And you get to be really specific and strategic with how you use automation at that level. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Oh, okay. Can you give us a little teaser? Because I'm going to ask you more about that in a minute. But just a little, little teaser of what's something that would be one of those more advanced automation things for a seven or eight figure business.

 

Jesse Parker  

So an example that I'll give is an app that I'm currently creating as a Client Accountability Tracker. That app is essentially built on AirTable and a whole bunch of different Zapier Automations. And I'm able to get to this point because I understand how automation works. I understand how relational databases work. I understand how those two things go together. 

 

Jesse Parker

And that came from solving so many problems and trying to overcome so many inefficiencies that now I'm like, wait a minute, I have this skill set. Now I can use it to create. And so I'm able to create a no code app. And I know that's going to be a new term for probably a lot of people in the audience, but it's essentially being able to create something without coding without having to be a technical developer. And so that's one way, automation can enable you to create and build new things once you have it as a skill set.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I love that. I love that. And yeah, cuz I'm thinking about as people coming in, and they have a new coaching business that yeah, you got to keep track of what your clients are doing, because that's one of the things we help with is accountability. coming back and checking, okay, what is it that they're working on this week? Is there any extra help that I might want to give during that time, and then following up with them the next session? And yeah, all of it could be really manual. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

In fact, I'm four years into it. And I still have it very manual, I have a spreadsheet workbook, that helps with a lot of it. But the concept of having it be automated is pretty cool. And so I know that some people will turn to existing software like Honeybooks that already has something in there, but it still doesn't quite fit, right. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

You know, it's like the glass slipper. And they are, you know, the step-sister, and they're trying to shove their foot in there. It's like this isn't exactly what I want, or they're trying to use click up, and they get in there. And they're just like, overwhelmed with Clickup stuff. And so they have like this huge learning curve. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

It's like now in the beginning, you can just start with this with this spreadsheet. Just make it easy. But yeah, as you go on. And that's, that's just like one of your natural things to do is keeping notes and everything. You're like, yeah, no, I actually want something that works for me. And maybe even if we have a couple teammates, what something that really does fit where it's like, no, it's a glass slipper, but my foot fits in that glass slipper. 

 

Jesse Parker

Exactly. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Apps are such a great thing. Let me ask you, are there are some things you'd mentioned for startup people, startup businesses, where it's more of like a personal productivity? And so for thinking about coaches? Are there any things where it's like a smaller entry level automation that would help them with a personal productivity thing?

 

TWO AUTOMATION TIPS YOU CAN USE TODAY

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, I think if you want to go super entry level, one of the ways that you could take advantage of
Automation and AI is through installing two Chrome extensions. 

 

Jesse Parker  

Okay, one of them, I like to use LastPass, that's a password manager, right? You probably don't, a lot of people don't think about this, you know, you get on the website, you type in your username and password. But it does take time and all that time adds up, and especially your birthday, trying to remember and if you're an entrepreneur or a solopreneur, you're probably bouncing back and forth between a bunch of different places different you know, Facebook groups or you know, client folders, different web applications you're logging into. 

 

Jesse Parker  

And so having a password manager that's able to save and autofill your passwords is one super easy way to get started with automation. 

 

Jesse Parker  

Another one is again a Chrome extension called Grammarly. And this has saved my life so many times. So Grammarly essentially just picks up on whatever you're writing wherever you're writing in your browser, and it says, ooh, you have an error there, it will underline it in red for you, or it will suggest better ways to phrase things. And so that's a way that I avoid any kind of grammatical errors when I'm communicating with clients or sending emails or whatnot. 

 

Jesse Parker  

So those would be, I think, the very most basic entry level automations, I could recommend to someone who's not used to it.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

That's great. And I'm also thinking about, like, calendar apps. Do you think that's an entry level thing?

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, I think, you know, for me, everything happens on my calendar. And generally when you're a coach, and you're kind of going through what seems to be the business model journey of the one on one coaching to the group coaching to the membership, right, you're starting with a lot of that kind of scheduling and planning. And so if you're not using something like Google Calendar, I highly recommend building that kind of habit because you're likely going to use something like Calendly and acuity that's going to help you automate some of the scheduling pieces with your availability and sending those reminders. Nice, nice.

 

AUTOMATION SUGGESTIONS FOR EVERY STAGE OF BUSINESS

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Okay, so now let's think about businesses that they've been established three to five years in, they've figured out how to get sales going. They figured out their processes. What would be some of those more intermediate levels of automation?

 

Jesse Parker  

So for this one, because there are just hundreds of areas, I think in a coaching business, where Automation could be applicable, I want to focus on the six core areas of a coaching business. 

 

Jesse Parker  

So I have a framework, it's called the ASCEND model. And essentially, it's designed specifically with life coaching business models in mind. And it distills the business into like six core areas where automation is going to be the most impactful.

 

Jesse Parker  

A Acquisition- being able to automate your client outreach and your marketing campaigns

S Scheduling- streamlining your appointments, and also managing your time efficiently

C Content- timely, how it is deliver, and the generation process

E Engagement- building and nurturing relationships with your clients with your leads with minimal manual intervention

N Nurture- deepening those relationships following up, and also getting feedback and testimonials automatically

D Data- harnessing the power of analytics, and reporting and having all that information, automated and creating automatic dashboards, without manually trying to pull numbers and put everything together.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Okay, the metric screen in me is like all excited about that one. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

All right. And so then, for businesses that have been around for longer than five years, like they're really established, they might be a seven or eight figure, and we talked about the app. Are there any other things that would be an automation hack for a company of that status?

 

Jesse Parker  

No, it's really, it's more difficult to recommend automation hacks to a company, I think at that level, because you have so many different things going on inside your operations. And you're also working with a team now of people and you might have, like, you know, many departments, and, you know, some coaches and people are going to have different skill sets than others. 

 

Jesse Parker  

So we might have a business that, you know, somebody in there is like, excellent at marketing and email nurturing, and they know how to set that up. And that's not their operational problem. Like it could be something else. And so yeah, when you get to that level, you've evolved your business to a point where it's not kind of like this copy and paste sort of service. And yeah, depending on what your offer is, how you operate, how you've designed your systems, from your own way of thinking and doing and your skill sets and the people you have on your team. 

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, it is hard to say, what automations could be a quick win, I do think that if there are things taking you a long time to do or your team a long time to do in regards to you know, maybe customer support or setting up a launch and you're finding that the tools that you have aren't working for you and there are other tools on the market that don't quite, you know, meet that need, then you might want to start looking into how you can build, you know, some kind of internal tooling, or hire somebody to build some kind of internal tooling to bring all those things in together for you so that you can, you know, click a button or, you know, type something in and make it all work. Okay.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Okay, so now I've got a question for you, that is about networking. So I know that you do a lot of stuff with operations. But networking is a little bit different than operations, because now you've got an individual going out into the world to go and meet other people. So they could be the business owner or maybe a representative of that business. And I know how to network with people and like, pass out business cards and stuff and just take notes. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

But is there a way to do some automation so that you can have even better notes and it's easier to manage?

SIMPLIFY NETWORKING WITH AUTOMATIONS

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, for sure. So I think that it's totally okay to pass out business cards, because it's something tangible someone can hold on to they can, you know, look at it while they're eating lunch and be like, oh, yeah, I remember I connected with that person. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But sometimes when we're at networking events, and we have all these business cards, it's like, oh, okay, well, next Tuesday is when I'm going to sit down and type in everybody's email and you know, reach out to them. And so what I like to do instead is, I don't know, I'm a little bit of a control freak. So I like to have the power over things. And so what I tend to do is I just have a QR code on my phone, you can even set it as like the background, you know of your phones, it's easy to just open up your phone, and it's there. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And, like the here's a really like, easy hack easy automation is have the QR code lead to an AirTable form where you collect their information, like your name, what's your email address? How do you want me to remember you or, you know, sometimes I just clicked name, email address, name of the business, you know, website, things like that. And then that AirTable form puts that person's information into AirTable for me. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And sometimes, like, at night, I'll go in there and be like, Okay, these are the people that I met today. And I wanted to remember, like, what I found, you know, special or meaningful from our conversations, and I can make my own little notes there. But the cool thing is that now that's it, that's an AirTable, we can connect to Zapier, and we can, we can create some automations. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And so an example of one would be okay, this new records now an AirTable, I would like to trigger an email automatically from my personal Gmail to this person, and address them by their name and say, ‘hey, it was great connecting today, just wanted to send over my information, you know, my name is Jesse Parker, this is my, you know, company Life Coach Operations, and have that in their inbox without me having to do anything’. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And then I could add another action onto that same automation that says, delay for two weeks. And then one more action from another personal email. ‘Hey, it's been two weeks since the conference, right? Just wanted to check in see how you're doing. Is there anything that I can help you automate?’ You know, as an example, and all of those things I just set up before the networking event? 

 

Jesse Parker 

And I don't have to worry about I just hold up my QR code and say, Yeah, scan it put in your information. I'll email you with my information right away.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Wow. Yeah, that Yeah, that does sound great. Yeah. Thank you for that.

 

Jesse Parker  

I like to do that's my, my preference.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah. Okay. So if a business is trying to figure out what automation they should try for, so maybe they're feeling like kind of overwhelmed. Do you offer any kind of automation assessment?

 

AN AUTOMATION AUDIT

 

Jesse Parker  

Yeah, so folks can contact me, and I'm happy to do an automation audit. And so we can go over some of the things that feel kind of hard. And I can recommend different process changes, or automations, or maybe different tools. So that's one thing I'm totally willing to do for people. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But to give folks some actionable advice that you can do without contacting me, is take a look at your schedule and not the schedule that you've like planned for yourself that you may be bowled those over or don't follow, but like, what is your week actually look like? What did it end up looking like? 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yah, not not what you planned. Yet reality?

 

Jesse Parker  

What did you actually do? And of everything you did that week in your business? What was the thing that took you the longest? And why? And is it a repeatable thing that you do every single week? Because sometimes, you know, we're gonna write a freebie or whatever. And, you know, oh, I set aside an hour, and it took me three hours. You know, maybe you're not doing that every week. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But what's the repeatable thing that you've done every week that's taking you the longest amount of time, write out the steps to that process, and then go to Zapier or come to me, right, I can tell you right away. What can I automate from this process? What can I take off my own plate so that I don't have to worry about this? And then you just go to the next thing next week? What was the second thing? You know, that took me the most amount of time? What was the third thing until you decrease the time you're spending on admin tasks, and then you can increase the time you're spending in other areas of your life or other areas of your business? 

 

Jesse Parker 

So that's how I always like to kind of start and do a little bit of a time audit. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Wow, that is a fantastic idea. I'm like, Who? Okay, what was it? What was it? And I'm thinking of ‘sales pages’. But I don't do that every single week. But yeah, that's one that someday I'll be a wizard at writing those, but I'm not yet.

 

Jesse Parker  

Well, this is so sales pages actually is a great opportunity for for Automation and AI combined. Because if you already know, the general layout of the sales page, and you want to pull from information that like you're teaching from all the time, like you could essentially, you could probably fill out information and an AirTable, right, just basic information, what's the offer, you know, what's whatever information it is, you know, and then you could send that to ChatGPT through Zapier and say, Hey, I'm creating a sales page. This is the format these this is the information that I have. Can you please write the sales page for me in this format, suggest 10 attention grabbing headlines for me. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And so all you're doing at that point is then submitting the ideas that you know. Then Automation and AI are working together to give you some templates, and then you can just edit the templates and tweak them to your liking. Wow, publish them. So it doesn't have to take that much time.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

I think I have to try that tonight.

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

So what are all the ways that people get to work with you?

 

WORKING WITH JESSE PARKER

 

Jesse Parker  

Well, I work with people one-on-one right now. And I do a three month program. And we essentially start to unpack some of the operational inefficiencies, the things that are taking a long time. And we work through them together. Because often what you think might have been the problem wasn't the problem, or there was an underlying problem. Or if you switch this one thing in your process, it ends up impacting 10 of your other processes.

 

Jesse Parker 

I like to work with folks one-on-one and do that together. So it's an opportunity for me to help but it's also an opportunity for you as a coach to learn and have that skill set to solve more problems on your own. Because I don't like to create any kind of dependencies. 

 

Jesse Parker 

But I'm also coming out with an Automation Foundations course. So if you're really big on Automation, or like, you're really committed to learning Automation, and you want to know like from the ground level, Okay, help me just understand how this works, I'm going to take you all the way back to the beginning, teach you all the prerequisites that you need to know before Automation, and then actually walking you through what Automation is, and how you understand it, and how you can use automation in the best, most effective, most efficient way. 

 

Jesse Parker 

Because sometimes, creating an Automation just isn't enough, because if you're automating an already inefficient process, or let's say like, your data is really messy, and you're like, Well, I'm automating all this stuff, but I just keep adding to my pile of mess, right, you're not really going to get the benefits from automation. So there's a lot of other components that come into play to making Automation work well for your business. 

 

Jesse Parker 

So that will come out, probably in about a month.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

That sounds amazing. And I ended up helping people with their business processes, like figuring out what they are, and actually pulling it out of them and mapping it all out. And so this is such a great thing that you and I know each other because then I can help them in their like experimenting through the step. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

But then as soon as they have it, then I can say okay, go see Jesse to go find out all the ways you can automate this. Exactly. This is perfect. So how do people find you?

 

Jesse Parker  

So you can contact me just by going to my website, lifecoachoperations.com, you'll be able to get in touch with me there. But if you want, you can also just send me an email [email protected].

 

Jesse Parker 

I'm also in the Coaching Posse. So if you happen to be in there as well, reach out to me ask me a question. 

 

Jesse Parker 

And then lastly, I have my own Facebook group called Automation Mastery for Life Coaches. And so if you're a life coach, and you want to learn more about this Automation stuff, please come in and join the group. I try to share as much of my expertise, tips and tricks, and offer free workshops for anyone who's interested in joining. All that happens within the group. So I'd love to have you there.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

And I've fully endorsed that I am a member of that group, I've already achieved really great success, there was an app that you had suggested for Tango. And Tango helps you to create SOPs automatically, especially if you're doing computer stuff. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

And I needed to onboard an employee to help me with some of my stuff. And I used that, all of a sudden, I had an SOP–– 86 pages long, because there was a lot of stuff we had to do. But it was done in 30 minutes. It was amazing. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

And yes, yeah, in my previous life, I had to create training manuals for software. And these things could be 300 pages. And so creating all of the screenshots and then typing all of this stuff out forever. You helped me to get that to half an hour. It is amazing. 

 

Jesse Parker  

I'm so glad. It really comes down to like, where are you spending your time? And how do you want to spend your time? And do you have to spend your time doing that? Or is there a tool or an automated way of having it done for you? Because I can't imagine how much time it would have taken you to document an 86 Page process for you.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Yeah, and that was just one of the SOPs that I needed to create. And I actually just needed the person to get up and running and get the stuff done. And so yeah, if I had said, oh, yeah, I'm gonna pay you to like be here and do stuff but you can't actually do anything because I don't have SOPs yet. Let me spend you know, the next three weeks trying to figure out how to write these, then nothing's gonna get done. So that helped immensely. 

 

Jesse Parker

So glad to hear it. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

So what is one final piece of advice that you can offer to entrepreneurs or small businesses around Automation or AI?

 

Jesse Parker  

My advice would be to invest time to learn this skill set, because I don't know any business that has been able to scale without automation. And if they have, it probably came with a lot of stress and a lot of overworking, which I don't think most people want to commit to, the only way to scale to that level to the seven and the eight figures where a lot of folks want to go is to make your business not dependent on you. 

 

Jesse Parker  

Because you are a person with 24 hours in the day, and eight of those hours you're sleeping. Or you're trying to, or you're trying to or you're spending time with your family and your loved ones and things like that. And so as human beings, we are always going to run into a time limit. 

 

Jesse Parker  

Automation and AI work 100% of the time, all the time around the clock. They can help you deliver value to your clients while you're sleeping. They are what allow you to have a limitless business in that way. So this is it's an invaluable skill set, especially if you you value your time, which to me, again, is the most important asset, I think that we have as people.

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Absolutely a huge return on investment to develop your skill set so you can do this amazing. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez

Jesse, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all this great wisdom with us. I really appreciate it.

 

Jesse Parker  

Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks so much for having me. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez  

Wasn't Jesse wonderful?! I get so energized anytime that I get to speak with them. And we're coming up with some really amazing projects to collaborate on. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

So I highly encourage you to reach out to Jesse, get that extra experience from them. Get that extra support. And all of the links so that you can get a hold of Jesse are going to be located in this show notes for this episode. 

 

Gretchen Hernandez 

Alright, my friends, find all of the ways to make your business super easy, so that you can actually enjoy it and your life. Alright, I hope you have a great week and I'll talk with you soon. 

 

Bye bye.

 

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