Iva 1:12

This week we are covering everything about automation versus delegation. And we have Patty Rogers with us, who is going to give us all her expert insights and knowledge on this very important subject, especially now that everybody's sort of moving digital.

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Desiree 1:34

Patty is in Tennessee in the United States, and she is a mom of three, she's got a 13 year old. And then also, twins that are 10 years old so, wow, we need to talk about that later that's amazing. And Patty ditched her monotony of corporate America, to create her own definition of personal freedom. Her goal is to help small business owners, such as yourself, create more effective and consistent sales through marketing and automation, Patty, we're so excited to have you here with us today.

 

Iva 2:11

Welcome,

 

Patty 2:12

So excited for being here. Thank you for having me.

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Desiree 2:16

We just can't wait to dive right in and tell us sort about your personal journey and how you got to where you are today.

 

Patty 2:36

Okay. It's been it's been a journey, as I think most Mom Bosses will experience that it's a road that is not always flat and steady, there's definitely peaks and valleys that's very, very common. And my journey started we talked a little bit, just a moment ago about my children. So, I have a soon to be 13 year old and twins who are 10 right now soon to be 11. And that's really what my journey started so I started out as a virtual assistant, way back, like 12 years ago, when nobody really knew what that was, that was not a household term. So nobody knew what a virtual asistant was because there weren't a lot of online businesses at the time. So I happen to meet someone who needed someone to fill that role. And I started working with him and, you know, fast forward a few months, and a lightbulb moment happened. Same very similar to the typical entrepreneurial journey. Wow, is this one business owner needs my help, there must be others out there in the world who need this type of a service, so that is literally how my first business while it was technically my second business was born. And I started my virtual assistant company. I will pause here and touch on my first business just because it's important to note, I mentioned I have three kids.  At the time I lived in California. California is has a very high cost of living, as we all know, and so, therefore, childcare in California was very expensive, and I have three children. So, I knew that I wanted to stay home with my kids, but I also knew that childcare, you know that we needed an additional income. And so I did what I thought was a logical thing and I opened in-home daycare.

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Desiree 4:31

Oh wow, that's so interesting,

 

Patty 4:33

Which it is interesting. And what happened was, and what I've learned about myself throughout that process was, I was very interested in the back-end part of the business. Like, I love my kids I loved, other people's kids but where I excelled, was the actual running of the business and not necessarily like the hands-on caring of the kids, like the marketing of the business and the sales, and all of the things that come

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Desiree 5:07

the organization of it all. Okay.

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Patty 5:08

That was my sweet spot.

 

Iva 5:08

And isn't it funny how sometimes we feel that we are not doing something that feels aligned with us but within that same experience we're able to find out exactly what it is that we're fully aligned with right through that experimenting and saying, ‘Oh you know what, this, this has the best of intentions, but when I am really, really thriving, is when I am doing this type of work.’

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Patty 5:42

Yes, and that is so key, I cannot tell you enough because I always worked. I always worked. And so, when the idea of being a stay-at-home mom, which I did for a short period of time, I was a stay at home mom, and I have the utmost respect for stay-at-home moms, But for me personally, I didn't feel fulfilled. I needed something else to my life so that I could be the best mom and wife and just human like I needed something in addition to being a stay-at-home mom, again, this takes nothing away from the stay at home moms world, Because it's an incredibly important and difficult job 

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Desiree 6:25

It is but we totally hear you on that. Totally, yeah.

 

Patty 6:30

So that was actually my first business was the daycare, and then I, I think this is interesting, it's important for this group of women to talk about it to here. While I was running the day-care is when I started the virtual assistant business, so I was overlapped with someone running the front end of the day-care. I was running in the back end, and I was also working as a virtual assistant. So, when our twins actually arrived because I was pregnant during that time, when our twins arrived I knew that was a clean break for me to close the day-care. I knew it wasn't something that I wanted to do anyway. And at that point, like my own kids ate up a bunch of the income out of the day-care anyway, 

 

And I ran my virtual assistant company for a long time actually several years. And the first business owner I worked with used a software at the time it was called Infusion soft, it is now called KEAP. And so, I worked with him on that side of the business for quite a few years and probably about eight years into my journey I decided that I was wanting to become certified with that software, become a Certified Partner which basically just means I go through their process to make sure that I know what I'm doing and I can resell it. And my plan was to run my virtual assistant company and my certified partner company parallel because I knew they would [muted]. I knew the same types of people need a virtual assistant, and they would need a marketing automation software CRM platform. And so, it didn't take long for me to realize that I was over-complicating my life. I have three kids at home. And so I, you know, let me just take a step back and kind of evaluate. And what I really love to do is I loved the strategy, because at this time, all the moms out there, there was a boatload of people working to become a virtual assistant, which is great, which meant that online businesses were growing, but I knew that I had something different to offer. And so when I put that little step back and really started to evaluate where I excelled and what I loved doing it was all based around the strategy of marketing, and using automation to propel our businesses forward, and then build sales without having to be on the phone and having to you know do like cold prospecting and all the traditionally salesy things that’s when I went all in on the automation, and that marketing strategy around to building an online business. So that is a long, long answer, 

 

Iva 9:36

But this is fantastic! Yes. And I guess that we can seek writing to into this story of yours, where you absolutely ran parallel to each other as you said, the virtual assistant aspect but also the marketing and the automation aspect. And I think that there's a there's a bit of a question for mompreneurs that are starting out with their businesses, or that they are at that level where they want to take that leap and say I want to scale this but I don't know how, because there might be still some confusion as to when do you go into automation, versus when to go into delegation of a task in which probably a VA would come into the picture, so to speak.

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Patty 10:30

Great question, great question, and I love talking about this. So, there's the short answer that I'll give you and I will expand on that a little bit is, it's never too early to start to implement automation into the business. And this is the reason why most entrepreneurs start with delegation, they're growing, they're feeling that overwhelm of doing all the things. And when I say we're doing all the things, I touch a lot, and I talk a lot about- most entrepreneurs get into to becoming an entrepreneur because they're very passionate or they're really good at one thing, they're really, really good at that one thing that what happens is the business of running the business gets in the way. Right. We have some foundational pieces, they all need marketing. They all need sales, and they all need fulfillment or operations. And so, where I see so many entrepreneurs get stuck, and especially female entrepreneurs, which is so fascinating to me, maybe it's because we're moms or we have these other roles in our lives, or it's that ingrained, nurturer, in us- I haven’t quite put the finger on it, but it's a little bit of all of those things. 

 

We, we start on one, like we'll do really, really great at the marketing, which is what we should be doing right, that's how we drum up business, we generate interest all of those things so we are killing it on the marketing. And then what starts to happen is it works, and now we're transitioning into sales mode. So, we need to close that business so that we have the revenue, which is fantastic. So, at this point, we're all sales mode which means we've dropped off at the marketing, right, because we don't need more sales, we need to close the people that we do have. We're closing the business. Now we switch over to operations or fulfillment. So at each stage, we're letting off the gas, so to speak, on the previous stages. And the problem with that, is a direct link to the feast or famine, that so many business owners struggle for operations, slash, fulfillment, we're not marketing which means that now our lead

 

Iva 13:01

is drying up hurt right. You have to start again or they

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Patty 13:10

We just go right into that cycle and it's like we do it to ourselves, happens all the time. And so our main, our brain immediately goes to: I need another person on my team to help out, I need to delegate some of these tasks. Exactly, it's not. Which is not wrong. It's a good thought to have, however, go ahead. Do you have a question?

 

Desiree 13:34

No, I mean, I was like cringing just now when you were saying all these things because I find myself in that exact same situation now with my oil essentials business where I was working so hard and so much on the every day, like, running the business but I wasn't working. I was working in my business but not on my business to constantly grow it and scale it and I felt like, I don't have time now to jump back in the marketing because this and this is ongoing, I have to make sure, right. That's why I'm so resonating with what you're saying just now and I've just recently hired an amazing VA, who is now helping me do all the things that I actually personally super enjoyed doing but they are time consuming, and that time, it's time that frees up from me to work on other things that are more important than that will help me grow. It's helped so much and it's just a key of scaling your business

 

Patty 14:31

It really is it really, really is. I'm not knocking delegation, by any means because it's absolutely important. And some people are really, really good at delegating certain tasks whether they enjoy them or not is kind of irrelevant. Some people are really, really good at that, like they have their processes down, they know what needs time, it's all documented so it's very easy to hand it to someone and say, ‘Here you go take the ball and run with it’, where people struggle is one, if they don't have those things worked out and two, it can be very difficult to now add managing of another human being into the mix. 

 

Some people just don't do that well. Some people do. Some people come in and they can manage people, very easily, but for some people, it's incredibly difficult and it actually ends up making them go backwards. And so, when I talk about automation versus delegation, sometimes they can work in tandem. Because I am a big believer that automation has to have a human interaction. Yeah, if you do not fully automate your business and anybody, anybody who's in the industry like really in the industry will tell you that. There are people that will say, Oh yes you can automate the heck out of everything. Well, that's not actually true. Every business needs a human interaction in there. But you can automate a whole heck of a lot. Yeah.

 

Desiree 16:13

One more thing, now. When you think about that whole automation process right, so like I am the biggest fan of automation, I love it and I'm so like into diving and all these things and systems and processes, I mean, ask Iva as we were setting up now for season two, and this whole process of getting our guests right with the intake and

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Iva 16:36

Desiree is the queen of the automations right now,

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Desiree 16:37

but I love it right? It's so my thing as well. That's why I'm so excited to talk to you today, Patty, but one thing that always concerns me though is, okay I've got these in these steps, automated. But what if I have people slipping through the cracks. Like what if I have clients on the way like I feel as the more it's automated, the more personal control you can also lose and things may get lost. So, what do you

 

Iva 17:09

At least that’s the fear that we have at the back of our minds with regards to automation.

 

Patty 17:17

Yep 100%. And I completely understand that. Obviously, not knowing the backend of how things are set up for you, that's a big part of it. Is making sure that that we have tested the heck out of everything. Most automation and depending on what type of automation you're using. If you have different trigger points right, or different ways that people go, basically, if, if this happens, then they go there. If that happens, then they go here. Right. I always, always, always recommend that anybody who's implementing automation, just test the heck out of it and run yourself through it ,run your friends through with different situations and at different times because at the end of the day, it is technology, and to put automation in place and never look at it and never touch it or test it again, is a problem. Like we as a business owner, we have a responsibility, it would be the same thing as like, you know, setting up QuickBooks once and never looking at it again. That would be

 

Desiree 18:31

Right, and also and also to be ready to kind of to tweak it here and there when you feel like something is not working right, to make sure you tweak it or you just changed the process a little bit.

 

Patty 18:45

Yeah, because you mentioned slipping through the cracks, and I, that's a big topic that I touch on, especially with leads. Because with automation, we can really skyrocket, our lead to conversion numbers and our percentages. Most people in the online space know or have heard that it takes seven to 13 touches to go from prospect to client seven to 13. So let's just do some rough math for a second, right? If you have, and again I'm using basic numbers, because most like service providers coaches, they don't need 50 clients a month, they need a couple honestly right because they're probably at least $1,000 a month, maybe more. So let's say that you have 10 leads a month that come in, and we're going to go with the bare minimum which is seven touches. So that's 70, individual reaches, right? Phone call, text, email, however you want to do it. That's 70 individual touches, just to get the minimum number for those 10 leads, generally, times seven touches per person. And I don't know about you, but I do not have time in my day, week, month to send 70 individual touches to people manually, and I can't do it

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Desiree 20:10

Especially with kids at home and being a busy mom

 

Iva 20:13

Or home-schooling

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Patty 20:16

Yes, yes, that's where the leads, slipping through the cracks really happens. It's not that your automation breaks, it's when we try to do it and remember it up here, or on a post-it note or a notebook or whatever platform we use. That's where the real things slip through the cracks. When we rely on our brain, instead of having systems in place that are doing it and running back here. We don't have to think about it. Right, right, it's like running your Roomba-right like do you guys, I just got a Roomba but sort of like, it's so exciting, but I don't have to think about it, like, I just set it and it goes.

 

Yeah, my Roomba is just going to clean up all the kids crumbs in the kitchen, it's just gonna happen, so I don't have to think about it anyway.

 

Desiree 21:09

Wow, that's so cool. I should get one. 

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Iva 22:04

And Patti, going back to what you were saying, I also feel that there's this element, a bit of fear when it comes to thinking about all these automations and how sophisticated it can get. Because obviously there are some businesses that require a little bit more steps, others that are more straightforward as you say. But at the end of the day, one of the main concerns also for entrepreneurs that are starting out is price and cost and investment right into, well maybe I will just keep all this post-it notes in handy because right now it feels like I cannot afford to get into this automation world, which might become very, very costly or it's going to require a very, very big investment on the front end and I don't know how that is going to go. So, with that fear in mind, what can you know reply to this to these moms that might want to get their feet wet, but they're still really struggling with the idea of how do I wrap my head around costs and investments?

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Patty 23:21

Yeah 100% Great question. So, one of the first things that anybody should do and it's actually free is, if you do not have an automated scheduler, a calendar link in your business, that is the very first thing that you should do that is going to save you, numerous hours, and just back and forth on emails. So there's, I know one free one right off the top of my head is Calendly, there are probably a zillion others. But that's a really easy way that you can implement just a tiny little ounce of automation, so that people can go to your booking link, they can choose a time that works for them, they get an automatic email that their meeting has been booked, you get the same email, it shows up on your calendar, it sends them the link and sends them a reminder that is like the first little dip your toe into automation that every business should have in place, because it's free and it's easy. 

 

And then beyond that, really what it comes down to, is making sure that you have some sort of a CRM. So again, there are very very cheap ones all the way up to very sophisticated and pricey ones, the one that I use, keep KEAP, there are different price points. So from kind of like baby brand new entrepreneur, all the way up to major like I need a battleship type of situation of working for me and my business. And the price is built out accordingly. It grows with you in terms of the number of contacts you have in it. And then you can start out with some really easy automations, right, just very, very easy, very simple to use. It is built with the small business owner in mind….very intuitive. It's literally like the next step. Like, you add a contact, what would you like to do now, would you like to send an email, would you like to introduce yourself? It walks you through, step by step, and I have a link for anybody who is just mildly curious to go through a free trial and I goes.. but there's a whole process where I take people through, like just some things that they can start to do to start utilizing and seeing how automation works in their business over 14 days.

 

Desiree 25:57

Yeah, that's really good and like you mentioned with the sort of the paid versions of some of these a lot of them you can start out with free versions. And then as you're growing or as you're doing more and probably, hopefully, they're also starting to monetize, like your business, then you can go in like the beginning plans and then like level up into the pro plans the premium plans and all of that. So I really like that as well, about all of these platforms that are now available you can literally grow with them. And, yeah, definitely. So what are some, you've mentioned a few, but what are some of the like apps or software's that you absolutely cannot live without? Can you give us a small personal list of yours?

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Patty 26:48

Sure, sure sure. Well, I’ve said it a few times you know, I use KEAP because that's what I'm good with. So it's KEAP and is the reason that I'm so passionate about it like, I partner with them, so that's part of it that's just a no brainer. Just because I'm talking to female entrepreneurs, I have to put it out there. We have a huge partnership like our partner community, a ton of us are women and moms, and there are not a lot of women in technology, in this tech field. It's a very heavily male dominant. Just sector of business. And so, it's very refreshing to see so many women, so many of us are moms whether our children are a little bit older, I know several partners that have toddlers, I know one that's pregnant right now, the CEO of Keap is very pro women- his mom was an entrepreneur, so he loves our female partners, he loves that we have so many mompreneurs that are our customers. So, and it's just it's a great all in one platform, because that's the other thing about once you start getting into this world of online business, and using the different tools, even though tools are free or you can get in at that starter level, once you start using one for your calendar, one for landing pages, one for your CRM, one for this one for that. Then you get into a situation where you're now paying maybe

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Iva 28:36

Yeah it all adds up,

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Desiree 28:38

It add adds up

 

Patty 28:38

Very very quickly. So that's the reason why I'm so passionate about Keap is because it really is as close as I have found to an all in one platform, because the calendly is integrated, the e-commerce, the affiliate, the landing pages is integrated. Email marketing is integrated. It's all in there, natively, and it's so easy to use, and then you don't have to have 50 tabs open to go to another 

 

Iva 29:11

Yeah that’s my story over here I have, I think I have. I know, five rows of 30 tabs open on my computer at any one time. Yeah it's also very distracting.

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Patty 29:31

Yes, yes. So keep in mind. I use Teamwork, for that's really for my team in terms of our it's, it would be similar to like a Slack, or, Asana type of project manager. So I didn't use that until I had a team that I needed to communicate with and have projects that we could collaborate on. So I use Teamwork for that. They also have a free version. I think most business owners probably need Zapier, Zapier acts as a bridge, so platforms that don't communicate natively Zapier works as a bridge and so it has software A communicate with software B. And then, you know all the ones I feel like it's all the ones that everybody else uses right Canva. You know, all those,

 

Desiree 30:30

All those yeah designing ones around there as well. No, but that's really, really interesting, and we'll definitely put some more information about KEAP, and all of your links as well as the show notes for that for those moms who would love to find out more about these kinds of all in one platforms because it's definitely a great way to start. 

 

Iva 30:51

And speaking of getting started, Patty is also offering a freebie that you can grab, which is a mini- video series called Automate to Scale, and we're also going to post a link in our show notes and Patty if you want to just briefly explain a little bit what it is about and, and what are the benefits of getting into the into this freebie right away.

 

Patty 31:16

Absolutely. So I created this mini-series it's a, it's a mini video series, because I know that this topic of automation/delegation scaling, all the things we've been talking about today, are and can be scary, it's like, where do I start, it's almost like you're staring into an ocean and you're like, What do I do? Like okay, yes we've talked about automation but what the heck do I automate and how is it going to serve me and my business to grow and scale? Which ultimately is what we all want as business owners right we want to grow and scale our organizations. So, this video-series is little teeny bits and pieces dripped out, so that it's easily consumable, right, for the business owner to kind of take the idea of automation and put it into real life tangible examples which was the whole goal for me. So, I go through and we talk about what the topic is and then I give exact examples of how you would implement that in your business, whether you're online business or brick and mortar, it really doesn't matter. It's just figuring out how to take the broad ideas and implement it into your business. That's what it is. 

 

Desiree 32:44

Yeah, I've just signed up for it actually and completed day one,

 

Iva 32:49

And I love that, as well. Yeah, because I need this in my life.

 

Desiree 32:53

Like you said, it's bite sized pieces right? We're busy. We already have so many things we want to organize but then all of a sudden we have someone to guide us along the way but you do it in such a concise manner. So, this is really great. We'll definitely recommend that

 

Iva 33:11

As busy moms, we take a look at how long things are right? And if we see something that is beyond a certain amount of time we're like oh my god this is, this is too much of a time commitment like I can do bite size but, but we thinking differently, right, like we really as moms and busy mompreneurs we really think of time differently of how we want to consume it as well. So this is fantastic. 

 

Patty 33:33

We do, yeah I think was just about to touch on, I, I think that they are between like three and maybe the longest is 12 minutes, maybe, but it's probably more like in the three to nine minute range which is doable. 

 

Desiree 33:49

Exactly, exactly. And you are also part of a book anthology, And you're launching a book soon I would love to hear a bit more about that too.

 

Patty 34:01

Yes, thank you so much. So this is the start [inaudible] this is The Female Entrepreneurs Playbook. So it is a group of 20 fabulous women. And we have all written a chapter in this book, basically about how we built our business, how you can build a business that you love and get paid for it. Which is what we all want 

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Desiree 34:28

I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

 

Patty 34:33

Well, we're, we're going for bestseller. We're going for the big boys bestseller, not just Amazon. So, I think we’ve already hit number one on Amazon, so make sure you have the link right now, we're doing pre sale is only nine cents. Honestly guys, just to for the pre-sale, all of the proceeds are going to charity, we're not actually taking any of everything goes to charity, and it's for us to give back to fellow entrepreneurs for budding entrepreneurs, and of course for us to grow our businesses in different ways whether we want to do speaking engagements, or get on different interviews, you know, but again, it's the proceeds 100% goes to charity. 99 cents to pre order and we would love everybody's support and it's just, Oh,  I forgot one major component, all of us, all of us 20 Women have put together a bonus, so that when you do the pre-order, you get over $1,500 worth of bonuses that we have all put in place. 

 

Iva 35:40

That's the power of collaboration and I love it. I love how you know it's not a competition, it's a collaboration, and the more that we're able to, to make it bigger and wider, I think that we are really going to see amazing changes coming up for our daughters, and the new generations of women that are coming, you know, after us, and seeing how we are able to collectively have such a big impact in the world.

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Desiree 36:12

It was so awesome to chat today. I mean we, as as busy mompreneurs as well, automation is one of our favorite topics especially now when you're scaling right and it's it's  really great and the whole delegation part I mean, I can only attest to that what a difference it just makes right? Delegation is not a weakness at all it is a strength. At the end, because you will get more done you will be, you know, being able to act in your own zone of genius, a little bit more. So, thank you so much for sharing all of your very valuable insights today 

 

Iva 36:54

Thank you so much Patti for chatting with us today. If you want to connect with Patty, you can find her on Facebook, and we are putting all her links on our show notes. And also, we are sharing her link to her LinkedIn profile as well. So, you can go and sign up for the course waitlist, and the website as well. So that's where you can find Patty and all her amazing wealth of knowledge and expertise that she's happy and delighted to share with all of us. 

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RESOURCES

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FEATURED GUEST

Patty Rogers

Patty ditched the monotony of corporate America to create her definition of personal freedom. Her goal is to help small business owners, such as yourself, create more effective and consistent sales through marketing and automation.

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pattymrogers/   

Website https://b2bdigitalassistance.com/

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FREEBIE

Automate to Scale mini-video Series