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