IAN:

I wanna be more human

IAN:

With automation

IAN:

Automation

IAN:

Be more human

IAN:

We wanna be more human

IAN:

with automation

IAN:

Kay Peacey is coming on the show today

IAN:

To show us how!

IAN:

Welcome to episode 198 of the Confident Live Marketing Podcast.

KAY:

Automation is a tool that takes businesses from

KAY:

drowning an admin to serenity.

KAY:

That's its main purpose.

KAY:

And the bottom line is that many tools are better at getting stuff done.

KAY:

That's a repeating process.

KAY:

Tools are much better at doing that than humans, and that goes

KAY:

right back through history.

IAN:

In today's episode, we're talking about being more human with automation.

IAN:

I got a fabulous guest today joining me to talk about this subject, Kay Peacey.

IAN:

Let's get on with it right now.

Voiceover:

Welcome to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast with Ian Anderson Gray.

Voiceover:

Helping you level up your impact, authority, and profits through

Voiceover:

the power of confident live video.

Voiceover:

O-o-optimize your mindset and communication, and increase your

Voiceover:

confidence in front of the camera.

Voiceover:

Get confident with the tech and gear, and get confident

Voiceover:

with the content and marketing.

Voiceover:

Together we can go live.

IAN:

Well, hello.

IAN:

Welcome to episode 198 of The Confident Live marketing show

IAN:

as we march up to episode 200.

IAN:

In fact, we've only got one more show before that big event.

IAN:

And as I said last time, last week we're going to have a little bit of a holiday.

IAN:

So just to warn you, the idea is we'll have episode 199 next week, and then after

IAN:

that, what I'm going to be doing is some audio only extra episodes on the podcast.

IAN:

So if you haven't come across the podcast, you need to go to iag.me/podcast.

IAN:

You can follow and subscribe in your favorite podcasting app.

IAN:

So it is time to bring in my guest for today who is the fabulous Kay

IAN:

Peacey, who is a world leading email marketing automation expert with

IAN:

Ninja ActiveCampaign skills, years of email consultancy practice, and

IAN:

a lifetime of teaching experience.

IAN:

She's the founder of Slick Business and runs the ActiveCampaign Academy.

IAN:

Welcome to the show, Kay.

IAN:

There we go.

IAN:

As the crowds die down, calm down crowd.

IAN:

I know.

IAN:

It's exciting to have Kay here.

IAN:

Welcome to the show.

IAN:

So, you are dialing in from sunny Cornwall and we met back in November last year,

IAN:

and it was great to see because I've seen you around on the socials and whenever

IAN:

I do a little search for ActiveCampaign.

IAN:

ActiveCampaign is email marketing software, we can talk a little

IAN:

bit more about what that is.

IAN:

But every time I was searching for a question about it,

IAN:

your name popped up always.

IAN:

Then I joined your Facebook group.

IAN:

Just love what you teach there.

IAN:

So how did you get into all of this, Kay?

IAN:

Because ActiveCampaign has not been around forever.

IAN:

It's not been around for the whole of your life.

IAN:

How did you get into this?

IAN:

I'd love to know.

KAY:

Yeah, it definitely hasn't been around for the whole of my life.

KAY:

Like literally the internet wasn't around then.

KAY:

Or computers for that matter.

KAY:

So, how did it all happen?

KAY:

I started out as a teacher.

KAY:

So, I was a trained teacher and did that for a while.

KAY:

Then I had kids, and then in my mid forties, I was hanging out after school

KAY:

with my friend Melissa Love, who runs the marketing fix in the design space.

KAY:

And at this time, I hadn't seen under the hood of a website, I'd

KAY:

never heard of ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

Nothing.

KAY:

And literally Melissa looks at me over the table and says, "You seem

KAY:

like a smart person and I can't find anyone to come and work this bit of

KAY:

software for me called ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

Would you wanna run at it?"

KAY:

And I said, "Hmm, okay, that sounds like fun.

KAY:

Let's do it."

KAY:

And what happened was, it just turned out to be my happy place.

KAY:

Automation and email marketing sits in this sort of sweet spot where it's very

KAY:

human and it's about communication, but it's also problem solving.

KAY:

It's like picking away a puzzle.

KAY:

It's also great for people who like efficiency because if you are lazy and

KAY:

you want stuff to be done on autopilot, that really works in there as well.

KAY:

So it just really suited me like, duck to Otter.

KAY:

And then Melissa started hooking me up with other people who needed

KAY:

more help with ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

The demand was there.

KAY:

What can I say?

KAY:

I ended up teaching a lot of people how to use ActiveCampaign, and

KAY:

here we are five years later on.

KAY:

I live and breathe automation with ActiveCampaign to make email

KAY:

marketing work better for people.

KAY:

I don't honestly know what I would've been doing otherwise, so thank

KAY:

you after school Spanish Club for bringing that conversation to me.

IAN:

Isn't that amazing?

IAN:

I love to hear stories where people have found.

IAN:

Would you describe that as your purpose or it's something

IAN:

that definitely excites you?

IAN:

It's something that it is the right place for you.

IAN:

This is the

KAY:

right

IAN:

thing right fit.

KAY:

It's like a meeting of unicorn potential and the need for the unicorn.

KAY:

Honestly, the serendipity is astonishing to me and the privilege of having that

KAY:

happen in my life at a latest age in life.

KAY:

I'd already done raising my kids, life stuff had happened.

KAY:

I thought I was going to just sit around in Cornwall not doing much, and here

KAY:

I am, and I get to speak to people all over the world every day and work

KAY:

with them on their amazing businesses.

KAY:

It feels like a huge privilege and a huge piece of serendipity to me.

IAN:

I That's exciting.

IAN:

We're not going to talk about this today, but I've been feeling this for a while,

IAN:

that this is a topic that I want to bring some guests to talk about, which is

IAN:

there's this mistaken view that business or running your own business is for people

IAN:

in their twenties and thirties and if you're in your forties or your fifties,

IAN:

you're almost like you had your chance.

IAN:

But it's so wrong.

IAN:

You've missed the chance.

IAN:

I feel like now I'm starting to get somewhere.

IAN:

I feel like,

KAY:

Oh my

IAN:

know?

KAY:

Me too.

KAY:

For me, I was disabled.

KAY:

I'd had multiple bereavements in my family.

KAY:

I hadn't worked full-time for over 20 years, so this is not something I saw

KAY:

coming, but it is something you have to be open to when it presents itself.

KAY:

Because does require a lot of effort to push through that open

KAY:

door and make it happen as well.

KAY:

But yeah, definitely the possibility is there.

KAY:

And, of course, it's a lot to do with confidence as well.

KAY:

And it sounds like with you, that initially at least, that

KAY:

confidence didn't come from you.

KAY:

It came from an external person.

KAY:

And sometimes, we need to have people in our lives who believe in

KAY:

the potential that we have and can push us in different directions.

KAY:

That's certainly been the case for me and it's obviously

KAY:

been the case for you as well.

KAY:

Absolutely.

KAY:

And that's something I'm very interested in passing on as well.

KAY:

I've found myself now doing that for other people where you see the potential

KAY:

and you point them in the right direction and just say, "This is a possibility.

KAY:

Did you know about this?

KAY:

You can do this."

IAN:

Absolutely.

IAN:

So if you're watching or listening, if you're in your forties, fifties,

IAN:

sixties, or seventies, you're feeling a little bit fed up or low, you can do it.

IAN:

There's definitely so many people that I'm speaking to now who are starting

IAN:

later on in their lives and doing some really cool and exciting things.

IAN:

So we'll come back to that in the future.

IAN:

But first of all, I just wanna say, although I'm a massive ActiveCampaign fan

IAN:

and user, and Kay obviously is, if you don't use ActiveCampaign, don't worry.

IAN:

This is still going to be really useful for you.

IAN:

because we're going to be talking about automation in general,

IAN:

we might get a bit specific.

IAN:

So first of all, Kate, what is automation when it comes to our business?

IAN:

Can you give us some examples?

IAN:

And how can that actually help us?

KAY:

I started out with automation as what I think of as a generalist, which was

KAY:

looking at how can tech solve the everyday problems in a business in order to free

KAY:

up their time to enable them to give some brain space and energy to email marketing.

KAY:

That's where I started out.

KAY:

because there's this huge barrier in many businesses, which is that you

KAY:

are drowning in admin and daily tasks and just stuff that has to get done.

KAY:

And if you can't get yourself out from that, you don't have a chance really

KAY:

of reaching that serenity point where you are gliding along like a swan on

KAY:

the surface and able to spare more of your energy, your attention and

KAY:

effort for the strategic, interesting and human things in your business.

KAY:

So for me, automation is a tool that takes businesses from

KAY:

drowning an admin to serenity.

KAY:

That's its main purpose.

KAY:

And the bottom line is that many tools are better at getting stuff done.

KAY:

That's a repeating process.

KAY:

Tools are much better at doing that than humans, and that goes

KAY:

right back through history.

KAY:

If you wanna get a kettle boiled, you use a kettle that switches

KAY:

itself automatically off.

KAY:

You don't rely on a human to remember and go back, because if we do that, we end up

KAY:

with boiled dry pans and stuff like that.

KAY:

And it's a very trivial example, but you get my point, which is that humans have

KAY:

been using tools pretty much forever.

KAY:

Digital tools are just an extension of that, and it's because tools are

KAY:

better than humans at doing things repeatedly and doing things without

KAY:

needing a human to supervise them.

KAY:

For me, automation is about liberating your time so that you

KAY:

can give that time and human energy to other things that are much, much

KAY:

more interesting, fun and exciting.

IAN:

That's a really good way of describing automation.

IAN:

So for businesses who are just starting looking at automation, what

IAN:

are some examples that you could give that we could look at doing?

KAY:

That's such a great question because it starts always with the easy wins.

KAY:

You can't get on to doing bigger automation and more complex stuff

KAY:

until you free up some of your time and get away from the feeling of

KAY:

being deluged by these manual daily tasks that you are having to do.

KAY:

There are some really easy wins in automation land.

KAY:

One of the ones that's become really commonplace now, but I'm still

KAY:

seeing businesses not adopting, is using a scheduling tool to

KAY:

do your calendar management.

KAY:

For example, Calendly.

KAY:

It's the market leader on this.

KAY:

There's Acuity as well, but these are fantastic tools that allow someone

KAY:

else to book into your calendar, tell everyone what's going on.

KAY:

Anyone on either end of it can independently schedule or reschedule

KAY:

or cancel that appointment.

KAY:

You can define all sorts of boundaries around it, and then you can hook it up

KAY:

to your video conferencing tool, Zoom, or whatever it is you choose to use.

KAY:

This is a wonderfully fluent process that's very easy to access and

KAY:

that serves people on both ends.

KAY:

So it's serving the person who's making the appointment and the person who is

KAY:

delivering the appointment as well.

KAY:

So, it's a win-win all round.

KAY:

Everybody loves it.

KAY:

That's an easy place to start.

KAY:

So, do you have Calendly yet, Ian?

IAN:

Yeah.

IAN:

In fact, just before we started, my monthly subscriptions just come out,

IAN:

so I've been using Calendly for years.

IAN:

And it's part of my system.

IAN:

So, tools like Calendly, have worked really well.

IAN:

I've got a little bit geek and use tools like Zapier and this and that.

IAN:

And I love tools like that, but isn't there a dark side to automation?

IAN:

I'm old enough to remember the automated DMs on Twitter and I get the outreach

IAN:

emails asking me, I can't even remember.

IAN:

I lose the world to live when I see these emails.

IAN:

Let's talk about that a little bit because before we get onto

IAN:

the human side of things, I think we can maybe talk about that.

IAN:

There is a dark side too and what's your view on that, and does it not

IAN:

give automation a bit of a bad name?

KAY:

I think you could say that about any tool that humans can use.

KAY:

If you put the tool in the wrong hands, then people will do bad things with it.

KAY:

That's true of everything.

KAY:

And digital tech is no different to every other thing that humans have created

KAY:

and invented through their history.

KAY:

Bad people do bad stuff with whatever you give them.

KAY:

I think the benefits and advantages of automation so vastly outnumber that.

KAY:

There are a lot more good people in the world than there are the

KAY:

baddies, the skanky spammers who are sending stuff like that.

KAY:

I think it will be interesting to see how AI plays into this.

KAY:

But actually on the whole, I think that this is an even more of an

KAY:

opportunity to lean into your humanity.

KAY:

And what interests me most about automation is that it literally gives

KAY:

you the time and energy to do that.

KAY:

It's a liberation.

IAN:

Yeah, I think I love what you just said, that liberation.

IAN:

Because all of us have only got a certain amount of energy.

IAN:

I spoke to somebody earlier today who's got ridiculous amounts of energy and I

IAN:

just thought, oh, I can't do as much as that person, but then I realized actually

IAN:

with all the processes and the automation that I've got in my business, I am able

IAN:

to do a lot more than other people.

IAN:

And I think that is so important.

IAN:

And you're so right about tools can be used for good and bad, but what we must

IAN:

never do is just because a tool can be used badly doesn't mean that it is Yes.

IAN:

bad.

IAN:

Automation isn't necessarily a bad thing.

IAN:

In fact, it's a very positive thing.

IAN:

I can see Melis is saying, "I have separate email addresses

IAN:

for endless LinkedIn messages."

IAN:

But you can actually use automation to counteract that.

IAN:

That's why Filters in email are great.

IAN:

So, I never see any of these because I've got all the filters.

KAY:

Yeah, that's an automation.

KAY:

You're using a tool.

KAY:

And that's a really good example of how automation should work.

KAY:

How do we decide what to automate?

KAY:

That thing that you just said, too many LinkedIn cold call messages coming to

KAY:

your inbox, it starts with a pain point.

KAY:

The pain that you are feeling allows you to make a plan.

KAY:

How can I fix this pain?

KAY:

Then you can build a process.

KAY:

That will solve that pain.

KAY:

And you do that by looking around at what tools you have available.

KAY:

Maybe you've already got something like a filter in your email inbox system, so

KAY:

you already have the tech to do that.

KAY:

You just haven't used it in that particular way.

KAY:

You build a process, watch it do its thing, rinse and repeat, or relax

KAY:

and repeat because now you don't have to think about it anymore.

KAY:

Wow.

IAN:

Love that.

IAN:

I'm already excited.

IAN:

I knew I was going to be excited about this conversation.

IAN:

And one of the things that I've realized is I'm a geek.

IAN:

I love technology.

IAN:

I love automation.

IAN:

I love creating it, but sometimes I can get so into it

IAN:

that I forget about the human.

IAN:

And I will admit, I didn't necessarily think it was a great idea, but I just

IAN:

thought it was a really cool idea that if somebody followed me on Twitter back

IAN:

in the early days, we're going about 12, 13 years ago, maybe even longer.

IAN:

When somebody followed me, I would then get an automated message to send them and

IAN:

say, "Hey, thank you for following me."

IAN:

Like I think about that and I cringe, what a stupid idea.

IAN:

Because just because you can doesn't mean you should.

KAY:

Right.

KAY:

Tech should serve the human need.

IAN:

I want to ask you about the question that I get asked, and it got

IAN:

asked a few times before, when I was talking about the show coming out,

IAN:

which was, doesn't automation put a barrier between us and our audience?

IAN:

How can that make us more human?

IAN:

And I have to admit it, this is still something that I still hold onto.

IAN:

So what's your answer to that?

KAY:

Okay, I hear you.

KAY:

And I'm going to describe that as a fallacy, but I don't mean that in an

KAY:

insulting way because I think it's a very natural position to take in

KAY:

respect to automation, but I think it's completely the opposite of what

KAY:

actually happens in reality if automation is used to make your life easier,

KAY:

which is what it should be doing.

KAY:

So, automation can fill a number of needs.

KAY:

Its job is to remove some pain, and that pain could be effort.

KAY:

It could be errors because when humans do stuff, we get stuff wrong all the time.

KAY:

So automation can remove errors, it can remove cost in time and money,

KAY:

and it can remove frustration.

KAY:

Now in modern humanity right now, our culture, we are frustrated.

KAY:

We are time poor.

KAY:

We are often made to feel a bit stupid because we can't work something.

KAY:

Of automation, if it's doing its job, should be removing at

KAY:

least one of those pain points.

KAY:

Now, when you take frustration away, you take the time pressure away.

KAY:

What does that do?

KAY:

You are enhancing the space in which you can deliver your high

KAY:

value, incredible human touch.

KAY:

So automation used well does the exact opposite Of creating barriers.

KAY:

It is actually removing barriers to human connection and communication.

KAY:

I love it.

KAY:

It's not the tool that is the issue, it's how people approach and use the tool.

IAN:

So, I can get on board with that, but we talked about filtering email addresses.

IAN:

That's where automation, no-brainer as far as I'm concerned,

IAN:

Calendly or some scheduling tool.

IAN:

Again, no-brainer.

IAN:

Sending emails out to a segmented list.

IAN:

Again, no-brainer.

IAN:

Where it gets a little bit muddy in my mind is, for example,

IAN:

Facebook Messenger bots.

IAN:

What I'm thinking here is when the automation is human facing, if it is

IAN:

sending an automated message to somebody, I can see ways where that would be good.

IAN:

For example, I think I bought a product, but actually I didn't.

IAN:

I got distracted and it's still in my shopping cart and I get an automated

IAN:

message, an abandoned cart message.

IAN:

But do you see what I mean?

IAN:

There's a muddy area, gray area here when it comes to the human facing thing.

KAY:

Yeah.

KAY:

Now I think, again, many people consider automation to be an either or.

KAY:

You either automate it or you do it manually.

KAY:

But there's this amazing, wonderful richness in the grays in between where you

KAY:

do a blend, a hybrid, a mix of automating the repetitive bit and then using your

KAY:

human touch on the bit where it matters.

KAY:

So, I'm going to try and give you an example of that.

KAY:

So say someone lands in my messenger inbox.

KAY:

They don't get an automated reply, but what I do have is a whole selection

KAY:

of things stored that are the answers to frequently asked questions.

KAY:

I have them stored in a thing called text expander.

KAY:

And text expander allows me to type maybe maximum three or four

KAY:

characters on any device that I own.

KAY:

So I could be waiting to pick up my kid from band practice sitting in

KAY:

the car, or I'm at Tesco or whatever.

KAY:

I can type in just a few characters and it's going to unveil this paragraph of

KAY:

really rich information and I can then add my human touch to that, which is the bit

KAY:

where I communicate with the actual person who's asked me a very specific question.

KAY:

So, it's not either or.

KAY:

It's a hybrid.

KAY:

And that's where the real magic happens.

KAY:

You can use automation to just tap you on the shoulder and say,

KAY:

dude, you forgot to do this.

KAY:

Or, three weeks after an appointment, remember you were going to follow up

KAY:

with so-and-so, and here's the link and here's what they said in that call.

KAY:

It's like cloning yourself or serving future you as well.

KAY:

So automation can serve you, not just your customers.

IAN:

If it's just you or you've got a very small team, there's

IAN:

only so much you can do.

IAN:

And ultimately, we should be focusing on the stuff that we're really good at.

IAN:

And you might enjoy doing all those things, but it's probably

IAN:

not a good use of your time.

IAN:

And so I'm at the moment working on my processes.

IAN:

And I think in a sense that's partly what you're saying, but also templates.

IAN:

So I'm constantly sending the same emails.

IAN:

I do use text expander and I love text expander.

IAN:

The only problem I have with text expander is I forget what

IAN:

the shortcuts are sometimes.

KAY:

There's a thing you can do to bring up a list of the shortcuts.

IAN:

I'll have to talk to you about it.

IAN:

What do you do?

KAY:

Command backslash.

IAN:

Okay.

IAN:

I need to remember that.

IAN:

That's good.

IAN:

And I've probably got too many, but there's that, there's processes.

IAN:

What are your top tips and tools when it comes to automation?

IAN:

So, I asked you this question a little bit before, but I'd like to get maybe

IAN:

a bit more into the nitty gritty.

IAN:

We can get a little bit geeky now.

IAN:

What are the things that excite you or that really make a big

IAN:

difference in your business or maybe in some of your client's businesses?

IAN:

I'd love to know some of those things.

KAY:

Yeah.

KAY:

I could talk all day about this.

KAY:

I will try and keep it on point.

KAY:

I think every business has a different set of needs for automation.

KAY:

It's a really wide range, and one of the things that I've found the

KAY:

richest in running my ActiveCampaign academy is getting to have one-to-one

KAY:

conversations with people to really talk about what is going to solve

KAY:

the specific pain point that they have right now in their business.

KAY:

So, I think it always has to start with noticing what's causing you or your

KAY:

customer pain thinking, what could I do that would make this pain go away?

KAY:

And then creating that process and letting it do its thing.

KAY:

That's the biggest tip I can give you really is that's how

KAY:

you think about automation.

KAY:

And then everything else follows from that.

KAY:

Some of my favorite tools for automation, many of them are absolutely simple and can

KAY:

be done with any email marketing software, like showing someone their email address

KAY:

in the email when you send it to them.

KAY:

Because you know how we all have multiple inboxes and you go to log

KAY:

into something or go to buy a product, you can't remember which email

KAY:

address you use to log in to them.

KAY:

I have no idea.

KAY:

So just a simple thing, like being aware of that and showing them

KAY:

their email address is a little bit of syntax you type in there

KAY:

and it reveals their email address.

KAY:

Great.

KAY:

You've taken a pain point and frustration away from that person.

KAY:

Likewise, you can prefill things.

KAY:

If you are sending someone an email and you want them to go

KAY:

fill out a form, do not make them type their email address in again.

KAY:

Nobody likes that.

KAY:

who has time?

KAY:

So, you can prefill things using URL links.

KAY:

That bit is super clever.

KAY:

It's quick to learn and you can do it in any email marketing platform.

KAY:

What other favorites do I have?

KAY:

For me, the ones that really excite me are the ones that allow you to deliver

KAY:

that incredibly rich human touch.

KAY:

Bonjoro is a very exciting tool for me.

KAY:

It is an app that lives on your phone and you can use it to send a

KAY:

completely personal video to someone at any given moment that you choose.

KAY:

And Bonjoro has this incredible integration with ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

I'm going to give you a solid example here.

KAY:

I have my ActiveCampaign account watch to see if people are visiting

KAY:

my sales page for the academy.

KAY:

You can do that using site tracking in ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

It's just watching.

KAY:

And it's like this benign spying.

KAY:

Very clever.

KAY:

And it's in everybody's interest.

KAY:

There's nothing skanky going on, everyone's being nice people here.

KAY:

So, it watches to see how many times you visit the sales page.

KAY:

If you visit three times within a certain space of time, there's a little

KAY:

automation that fires off, that goes to Bonjoro, sends a little message to

KAY:

Bonjoro and says, Okay, tell Kay to send a personal video to this person.

KAY:

And I get a notification on my phone that not only tells me who

KAY:

this person is, where they live roughly, not completely stalking

KAY:

them, what they've been interested in before, how long they've been in my

KAY:

audience, what their business name is.

KAY:

That gives me all sorts of context right there and then on my phone so I can send

KAY:

them a personal video from wherever I am.

KAY:

Now, the sense of connection that unleashes, there's no way you could

KAY:

replicate that with pure automation.

KAY:

It's the hybrid model that makes that work.

IAN:

Yeah.

IAN:

Bonjoro is a great example of that because as you say, it's using that

IAN:

automation and the technology, yet it uses something that's very unscalable,

IAN:

which is recording a personal message.

IAN:

And I love that.

IAN:

When I think about it, I think surely, like if I send a personal message to

IAN:

somebody, "Oh, I see you living in Cornwall and you like cheese like me."

IAN:

That would freak them out.

IAN:

I don't know why I said cheese, I was thinking of something random,

IAN:

but that would freak them out.

IAN:

But it doesn't for me.

IAN:

It just makes me smile like, oh wow, that's really cool.

IAN:

There's something about it.

KAY:

You feel so special, it made so seen and heard, and that's what we are craving.

KAY:

I was just going to about replies to emails are similar.

KAY:

If you reply as a human to an email that's come into your inbox,

KAY:

people are just blown away by the fact that's not just an auto reply.

KAY:

If you can make the time to do that and text expander as a tool will

KAY:

help you do that because you can save some stuff, and get phrases out, but

KAY:

still make it completely personal.

IAN:

That's true.

IAN:

I know it's funny when I send my email newsletter, people feel almost shy.

IAN:

They don't want to reply because they think I'm not going to read

IAN:

it or I'm not going to reply.

IAN:

But I always try and reply.

IAN:

If I don't reply, it's because something's gone wrong and I've

IAN:

lost it or I've got distracted.

IAN:

But I always try and reply and people shocked almost that I have replied.

IAN:

"Oh my goodness!

IAN:

I didn't expect to reply from you.

IAN:

Why have you sent me an email?"

IAN:

But it's funny.

KAY:

I did have I did have someone once complain in my Facebook group that they'd

KAY:

received a robotic auto reply from me.

KAY:

And I was like, yeah, that was me for real . It was really funny, but it

KAY:

made me think, this is another reason we need to lean into the humanity.

KAY:

Because actually, if we talk about Cornwall and cheese and surfing

KAY:

and whatever it is we know about this person, if you feed that,

KAY:

you're mirroring back to them.

KAY:

They know for definite that you are not robo Kay.

KAY:

It's actually real Kay.

IAN:

Robo Kay.

IAN:

That's funny.

IAN:

Melis says she's lost the plot.

IAN:

So don't worry.

IAN:

I think with all of these things with automation and Kay would

IAN:

agree with me here, you gotta start simple and build it up over time.

IAN:

So, Melis says, "... Use filters, but prefer to delete

IAN:

as I scroll through emails."

IAN:

So there's no right or wrong way of doing your emails.

IAN:

For me personally, I get so much rubbish and clutter.

IAN:

It makes me stressed and a stressed Ian is not a good thing.

IAN:

So what I try and do is I've set up all these filters, so I only see the

IAN:

emails that I need to see, and that makes me feel happy most of the time.

IAN:

But if that works for you, Melis, going through and deleting as you scroll

IAN:

through, of course, the only downside with automation like filters and

IAN:

things is sometimes they get it wrong.

IAN:

And this actually happened.

IAN:

so when I was asked to speak for the first time at Social Media Marketing World in

IAN:

San Diego, the email from Mike Stelzner got filtered away, so I didn't see it.

IAN:

And so he had to send me a Facebook message.

IAN:

Thank goodness he did.

IAN:

So, do check your automations.

KAY:

That was going to be the next on my top tips list is test all the things.

KAY:

Automation is fantastic, but it does break sometimes.

KAY:

So even when something has been working steadily really, really well, some

KAY:

tech guy on the back end will have done something one day and it will stop

KAY:

working, because that's just how it rolls.

KAY:

So you do wanna keep an eye on any automation.

KAY:

Go and make yourself a Calendly appointment.

KAY:

Do the things and it's like you have to put a pretending customer hat on

KAY:

and go and pretend to be the customer.

KAY:

And then you see things really differently.

KAY:

And if you do that, that tests your automation.

KAY:

It is a very smart thing to do.

KAY:

I actually have a little army of test contacts.

KAY:

They're all called Horatio because there aren't that many Horatios, and

KAY:

I'm sorry called it Horatio and you're listening to this right now, all of my

KAY:

crash test dummies are called Horatio.

KAY:

And it means if I see one of them, I know it's just me testing something.

KAY:

And everyone in my world and in my academy knows if they see Horatio

KAY:

turn up in their system, that's me.

KAY:

That's Kay testing something.

KAY:

So it's really important to have those contacts and actually look at it from the

KAY:

inbox end as well with email marketing.

IAN:

You've given me an idea because I've done that in ActiveCampaign and I

IAN:

think I've called myself Ian 2 or Ian 3.

IAN:

And that's rubbish.

IAN:

I need to come up with a special name.

KAY:

I can't think of any of the silly ones.

KAY:

Every now and then, this comes up in my Facebook group and we have

KAY:

a discussion about what everyone's current range of test names are.

KAY:

They're always the most popular posts in there.

IAN:

That's funny.

IAN:

Well, if you're watching or listening, tell us what your test name is

IAN:

because I've never thought about that.

IAN:

I'm going to have to start thinking about what that's going to be.

IAN:

So we are almost out of time because I am trying to be good and we are

IAN:

trying to make these episodes a little bit shorter, more punchy, and

IAN:

you've definitely helped us, Kay, think a little bit more about this.

IAN:

Just final thing, ActiveCampaign.

IAN:

This is going to be a difficult question, and I didn't warn you about this,

IAN:

but I'm going to put you on the spot.

IAN:

Why do you love ActiveCampaign so much?

IAN:

And you can give us maybe one or two reasons, but why should

IAN:

we look at ActiveCampaign and why do you love it so much?

KAY:

ActiveCampaign is the biggest playground for automation for the

KAY:

price it costs on the light plan.

KAY:

On the lowest cost plan, you get unlimited automation, unlimited integration,

KAY:

unlimited custom fields, tags, and I know these are technical terms.

KAY:

If you actually want to know what they are, go visit my blog at slickbusiness.co.

KAY:

I'll tell you what they are.

KAY:

ActiveCampaign is a rarity in this space in that it doesn't put a fence

KAY:

around what you are allowed to do on the Lite plan, on the lowest cost plan.

KAY:

You can go for your life and you are limited only by your

KAY:

imagination and creativity.

KAY:

And don't ever let anyone tell you that email marketing and

KAY:

automation is not creative.

KAY:

It is the absolute definition of creativity.

KAY:

If you don't think outside the box and do that wild blue sky thinking of what could

KAY:

I do with this amazing tech that is at my disposal, you're not using it properly.

KAY:

So it's enormous fun to use.

KAY:

It has its flaws like any other tool.

KAY:

I can't see me moving away from it yet for a long time because it delivers so

KAY:

solid on automation and integration and just being an absolute delight for the

KAY:

processes that you can automate in there.

IAN:

That's a good answer.

IAN:

I'll allow that.

IAN:

It's great.

IAN:

I moved over to ActiveCampaign from MailChimp about nine

IAN:

years ago, maybe longer.

IAN:

I don't know.

IAN:

And there was a lot of learning.

IAN:

But now, it powers so much in my business.

IAN:

It powers all my courses, membership and everything, and it's

IAN:

amazing that it does all of that.

KAY:

Yeah, the scope of what you can do in there is incredible,

KAY:

but it is a learning curve.

KAY:

And this would probably be my final tip on anything related to tech and

KAY:

automation, is you really need to take the time, find the time, make some time,

KAY:

and know that you're going to need it to learn how to use the tech that you own.

KAY:

You are paying for the tech, or you bought a lifetime license, or you're

KAY:

paying for it monthly, that tech will be able to do stuff that you have not

KAY:

explored, like Ian not knowing the shortcut for the text expander thing

KAY:

to tell him what shortcuts there are.

KAY:

There will be stuff in there that you don't have on your radar and it's

KAY:

on you to go and learn to do that.

KAY:

And if you can find a great teacher, someone who's going to share tips

KAY:

into your inbox or on their social, so you can learn it by osmosis

KAY:

without too much effort, even better.

KAY:

But the onus is on you to go and learn how to use the tech and

KAY:

to figure out how can I get this thing or this collection of things.

KAY:

Because it's often more than one tool that you'll need.

KAY:

How can I put them together like a crazy jigsaw puzzle to solve

KAY:

this pain point that I've got?

KAY:

Make the time to learn.

IAN:

So true.

IAN:

Make that time.

IAN:

And if you're struggling or if you just really find this thing, you're

IAN:

not really into this but you know it's important, get some help.

IAN:

Depending on the type of automation that it is, get some help.

IAN:

And the other thing I would just add is with all of these

IAN:

processes and automations, record some videos of you setting it up.

IAN:

Get some documentation.

IAN:

I don't always do this, I'm starting to do that because the

IAN:

thing is I forget what I did.

IAN:

So yeah, that's another thing.

KAY:

Yeah, we could talk about that another time.

KAY:

Documentation's a whole other subject.

IAN:

Yeah, I know.

IAN:

You're going to have to come back on the show.

IAN:

It is so funny because when we were talking before, I was saying to

IAN:

you, Kay, there's so many different things that we could talk about.

IAN:

And so we had to pick one and that's what it was.

IAN:

And it's been a great subject.

IAN:

So I also wanted to say like, so last episode we had Phil Pallen on the show.

IAN:

We were talking about creating a professional personal brand, and we were

IAN:

talking about the best practices here.

IAN:

I have to say, Kay, your personal brand, your branding, your website,

IAN:

your photography, everything about what you do is amazing.

IAN:

So you need to check out Kay's website, which is at slickbusiness.co.

IAN:

I love the photography and the colors and everything and

IAN:

the font and all this stuff.

IAN:

I'm geeking out, Kay.

IAN:

And it really puts your personality and your profressionality all the way through.

IAN:

So, check out slickbusiness.co.

IAN:

It is awesome.

IAN:

I've also got a little button.

IAN:

You were tell telling me about this.

IAN:

So, tell us about this.

IAN:

This is an accelerated ActiveCampaign thing.

KAY:

Ah, yeah.

KAY:

It's a completely free course.

KAY:

It's a two week introduction to ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

And it's called Accelerated ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

And it does what it says on the tin.

KAY:

It accelerates you into ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

Because a lot of these tech platforms, it's all these words knocking around

KAY:

custom fields and tags and automations.

KAY:

You don't know what they are when you come in.

KAY:

ActiveCampaign onboarding will try and teach you that, but honestly,

KAY:

save yourself the trouble.

KAY:

Just do my free training.

KAY:

It's actually really, genuinely a lot better.

KAY:

Thousands and thousands of people have been through it.

KAY:

And here's the sweet spot, is that it sits alongside the free two

KAY:

week trial for ActiveCampaign.

KAY:

So if you wanna kick the tires of ActiveCampaign,

KAY:

run my course alongside it.

KAY:

It is designed to sit right alongside.

KAY:

And even if you've been using ActiveCampaign for years, Ian,

KAY:

I'm looking at you right now.

KAY:

You should go do that free training because there will be stuff in

KAY:

there that you have not found.

KAY:

You know I said make some time to go find what's in there?

KAY:

There is gold dust in there.

KAY:

There's some amazing toys to play with in ActiveCampaign that you

KAY:

will not know about, I promise.

KAY:

Go find them.

KAY:

I have taken everyone straight to the best cookies in the jar for

KAY:

free because I love and I want you to get the best of ActiveCampaign.

IAN:

Oh my goodness.

IAN:

That's all my time gone.

IAN:

I'm looking forward to that.

IAN:

It's because I love those little golden nuggets.

IAN:

So you're listening to the podcast, I'll give you the link to this.

IAN:

It's slickbusiness.co/accelerated-activecampaign.

IAN:

Do check that out.

IAN:

Well, thank you, Kay.

IAN:

It's been awesome to have you on the show.

IAN:

So if people want to follow you on the socials, where do you tend to hang out

IAN:

these days and how can people find you?

KAY:

My favorite place to hang out is LinkedIn.

KAY:

I'm doing more on LinkedIn.

KAY:

I'm learning to love LinkedIn as many people are.

KAY:

And that's probably where I have the wider conversations around email

KAY:

marketing and the bigger philosophical questions around humanness and automation.

KAY:

And then on Facebook, I run a free Facebook group for ActiveCampaign

KAY:

users called Automate Your Business With ActiveCampaign'.

KAY:

And I also like Twitter, so you can find me there too.

KAY:

Any of those places.

IAN:

Basically, pretty much most of the places.

IAN:

So that's awesome.

IAN:

That's great.

IAN:

Not necessarily dancing on TikTok, but apart from that.

KAY:

No.

KAY:

Not yet.

IAN:

You never know.

IAN:

Don't ever say no to anything.

KAY:

I'm not dissing it.

IAN:

No.

IAN:

Well, thank you, Kay.

IAN:

It's been awesome to have you on the show today.

IAN:

So, that is it for this week.

IAN:

We've got one more episode.

IAN:

Next week, a little bit more about that, later.

IAN:

But thank you so much for watching, and until next time, I encourage you to level

IAN:

up your impacts, authority and profits to the power of Confident Live video.

IAN:

See you soon.

IAN:

Bye.

IAN:

I wanna be more human

IAN:

With automation

IAN:

Automation

IAN:

Be more human

IAN:

We wanna be more human

IAN:

with automation

IAN:

Kay Peacey is coming on the show today