The Origin & Evolution of Marketing Automation

[00:00:00] Chris L. Davis: Welcome everybody to another episode of the all systems go podcast. I’m your host, Chris L. Davis. And today’s episode, everyone I know I may have said this before, but I just need you to hear it different to get a different level of excitement because the person that I’m going to be talking to on this episode is responsible, that his company is responsible for the adoption.

[00:00:28] Of marketing automation. I know that’s a big claim. And in some of you new marketers are like, who is this person? When you hear his voice, if some of you have already seen the name on the title but I am so excited today. I’m the bestselling author. Clate mask, who is an entrepreneur and CEO. And co founder of keep the leader in small business automation software keep is an eight time Inc.

[00:00:55] 5000 winner and is widely used by savvy small businesses to grow with automation. Clate’s passion for helping small businesses conquer the chaos and grow their business using the same. Six keys to success is what he is on a mission for and to do with his software. He is intimately familiar with the balancing act of entrepreneurs, which is what drove him to discover and teach the six keys.

[00:01:26] We’re going to talk about these six keys. Everyone. We’re going to talk about a lot [00:01:30] because success as an entrepreneur means having a great business and a great life. Those are Clate’s words, everybody. His words. I just read his bio, so I know it may have sounded like I said that. That’s all about Clate.

[00:01:42] Clate, welcome to the podcast. I’m so excited to have you on. How are you doing?

[00:01:47] Clate Mask: Chris, I’m doing great. It is so awesome to be with you. I’m pumped about the conversation we get to have and thank you for that kind introduction.

[00:01:55] Chris L. Davis: Yes, absolutely. Hey everyone. I know you’ve heard two words, come out of my mouth quite frequently on the podcast.

[00:02:04] Keep and Infusionsoft. They’re one in the same. I just want you all to know, but I understand that some people may be like, wait a minute, which one is which? I don’t see that software. When I go to that website, it goes here. So we have Clate himself here to settle the score for us, all of my listeners and in my community.

[00:02:23] You will get your clarity upfront and personal right now to forever understand. Clate, I know the history of Infusionsoft and the rebranding, but just talk, give the listeners a, some backdrop on what went into starting Infusionsoft. And then as. We fast forward to today.

[00:02:44] What went into the rebrand to keep?

[00:02:47] Clate Mask: Yeah, you bet. So great to be with you, Chris. And you as a marketing automation expert, the strategy that goes into it, you understand how to make it all work, which whichever platform you’re using. But in the [00:03:00] early days, there were no, there wasn’t a bunch of different things out there and it’s not, I’m not saying this to try to pat myself on the back, but We pioneered marketing automation for small businesses.

[00:03:12] I remember the day we decided to call it marketing automation and it sounded like calling a, it sounded like purple zebra as it came out of my mouth. It was like what is that? Like it wasn’t the thing. Nobody knew what it was. And we just said, we think that’s the closest way to describe what it is that we’re doing.

[00:03:32] And again, it sounds crazy to to think of it that way now, but that’s really, 14 years ago. That’s what it was. It was like, we called it marketing automation and we, we put, it was about 12 years ago that we created the campaign builder, which was the first of its kind drag and drop builder of campaign automation, totally new thing.

[00:03:53] Didn’t, I remember showing it to people and they were like, What is this? And it’s showing it to people that were actually in like mid market and enterprise that didn’t have this. And they were doing, these were people like Eloqua and silver pop, and, doing this for bigger companies and they’re like, you guys need to take that to the enterprise.

[00:04:11] And we’re like, no, we love small business. This is what we do. We’re doing this for small business. So long and short of it is infusion soft was marketing automation and we built the business that way for a long time. And what happened was we would constantly have people saying, Hey, can you create like a lighter version of [00:04:30] that?

[00:04:30] We want something that’s not, isn’t quite so much, a lot of people would call it confusion soft and they’d say, Hey, it’s, it’s too confusing for me. We need something more basic. So we came up with. A more basic approach to it. And we said, most people are going to start with that.

[00:04:46] So let’s, let’s have a different name for that because we need it to be more basic things. So that’s how keep the brand got created. It was like, Hey, this is the way that people are going to start. An interesting thing happened along the way. What we found was if you aren’t, if you don’t, if your business isn’t at a certain level of.

[00:05:06] Of maturity Automation actually is not the thing you need if you’re you know, and this is my perspective I’d love to hear yours a little bit But what we found was if you’re just getting started you actually don’t need automation yet You need to learn how to do it manually. You need to learn how to move customers through a customer journey You need to understand what that actually is before you try to automate it And so long story short, what we thought was going to be, let’s go serve brand new businesses, getting them going on key over time.

[00:05:39] What happened was we took the power of Infusionsoft and the simplicity of key. And we brought them together into one platform and we call it keep. And so some people will say I have the original edition of infusion soft or classic or whatever, they’ll want to call it. And we say, it’s all keep now.

[00:05:56] We, we had a series of a period of time where there was keep and there was infusion [00:06:00] soft. We brought that together. We call it keep because frankly, it’s a lot easier. It’s a lot simpler. And we wanted people to understand that the simplicity is there. And yet the power of what always was Infusionsoft is there.

[00:06:15] And it’s even greater as we’ll talk about today.

[00:06:19] Chris L. Davis: Man, that was so good. I, this is going to be a timeless episode. Everyone I’m claiming it now. So I want you to bookmark it. And when you have that new digital marketer that just graduated college, or maybe they’re starting in high school nowadays, make sure they listen to this because there’s two key words that, that Clateon mentioned, and I’m glad you did.

[00:06:41] Cause I actually forgot about one of them. He, they are the originator. Listen to me. They are the originator of the term marketing automation. It did not exist. They’re there. You all have to understand. Software was not. Use like this, the web. When I was in high school, we still had dial up where you had the, and people don’t know what that means.

[00:07:02] Your motor made a sound and that was the sound of connecting to the internet. We can all

[00:07:06] Clate Mask: hear that sound when you say dial up, we can hear it.

[00:07:12] Chris L. Davis: Yes. So there was no cloud. You went and you purchased Microsoft office and you installed it on your local computer. That’s how you got software in games. So the reason why the term wasn’t used because you couldn’t do it.

[00:07:27] There was nothing about marketing to [00:07:30] automate. So in comes this software and it’s wait a minute. There are now manual things that marketers have to do. That they no longer have to do. Let’s call it something. So now it’s just tongue in cheek, Clate. Marketing automation, sales automation, everybody just throws it out there.

[00:07:48] But I don’t think anybody knows the origination of, the origin of that term. And you also help me remember, there was no visual builders. No. There was not one. They were all like sequential, linear lists, weighted days and even with that, it’s not like there were a lot of options.

[00:08:12] You had some email marketing platforms and things of that nature. But yes, I remember discovering the decision diamond.

[00:08:20] Clate Mask: Oh, yes, that mind blower, right?

[00:08:24] Chris L. Davis: Yes, just change the game. So I would agree with you in the statement that you made earlier. I think the hardest thing to do right now is to get people to start and appreciate analog, like the manual doing, because that becomes the specs, the specifications for the digital doing.

[00:08:48] You’ve got to know what to do and you’re absolutely right. I think it, and now I’ll ask you if you’ve seen this, I think there was a time where marketing automation was so [00:09:00] hot that was the first thing that everybody wanted to look to do. Oh, let me automate this. No leads, no money, no anything. You just want to jump in and having a fully automated system.

[00:09:10] And now I think that Collectively, the space has understood that, you know what, there is a place and a time for automation there. And it’s okay to say that is we’re not limiting it. But if we want the biggest impact, it’s really after you have some proven processes in place that are worth automating, that are worth employing technology to take over for you so that you can operate more efficiently.

[00:09:44] Efficiently and quality consistently, right? And until you get to that point, the conversation should be very limited,

[00:09:55] Clate Mask: Yeah, because if you don’t understand what the actual journey of your customer is, if you don’t have some kind of a customer life cycle, but you understand Then going and looking at a visual drag and drop builder is not going to solve the problem for you.

[00:10:12] You have to understand that. In fact, I like to say you have to have experienced some of the pain of things slipping through the cracks. Yes. Because if you haven’t experienced that pain where things are slipping through the cracks and you’re not following up with prospects the right way, and customers are getting dropped and you’re getting egg [00:10:30] on your face, If you haven’t got to that point, then you don’t understand the magic and the power of what’s possible with the automation.

[00:10:38] And it doesn’t change your life yet. It’s and so because that’s the case, what we found was very early stage businesses there, by the way, there is an exception to this. The exception is a very process oriented thinker that has envisioned what the business looks like and they want to build it the right way the first time.

[00:10:57] But that is. As process oriented thinkers are not, is not the way you would describe most entrepreneurs. They’re usually just not thinking that way. And so while I, while there is an exception, I want to make sure that’s clear, most entrepreneurs. Need to get in and experience it and feel it and do it a little bit.

[00:11:16] They need to have those phone conversations and have the email exchanges and have the customer interactions where they realize, Oh, this is where the ball’s getting dropped. Or, Oh, this is where it tends to fall apart on my side. This is where the prospect is feeling like they didn’t get the information they needed.

[00:11:35] And until you get to that point automation tends to complicate things more than it helps them. And you said it, right? I think that we were as an industry reluctant to admit that. And I was, as a co founder in the space, I was reluctant to admit it. I wanted to believe, no, we can take this automation down to this new business that we can get them going on it.

[00:11:59] [00:12:00] And, frankly, just in all, full candor, we actually spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to do that, trying to go down market to that brand new business. And what we found was. It’s our strength is in the automation, we see serious automation for serious businesses That’s who we are when once they get to that place where they see the power of it that’s when we really help them.

[00:12:22] We had to get to that place. We had to own it We had to own that. Hey, there are things we can do to simplify But there’s also some realities that the customer needs to have been through in order to appreciate automation And so we are now very clear in the way that we take business automation to the world of small businesses.

[00:12:40] We didn’t move up market the way some people said we should. And we didn’t settle into a place where we would just do real basic, simple automation for early stage businesses. We said, no our spots in between that, where we are serious automation for serious businesses. And marketing automation, frankly, is just the tip of the iceberg.

[00:13:00] Chris L. Davis: Yes. Ooh, I’m glad you said it because. We’ve seen this transition and Clate. I get to kinda watch it and giggle a little bit to , prevent me from crying because now again, different audience diff it’s a different space different industry. Now there’s a lot of jargon. And a lot of words that people have learned to associate with certain things and don’t understand what those things are.

[00:13:29] Now [00:13:30] I see people say CRM and they’ll apply it to practically anything. Yeah. Sheets, project management software. This is that. And it’s I understand what you are trying to say, but that’s not it, nor should it be. But in that, what. I think is a glaring need is that no longer has automation been confined to marketing.

[00:13:58] It started there and then we started to see it seep out into sales and then it started to seep out into customer fulfillment. So I’m familiar, but I wanted you to share with the audience how you all have seen that expansion of adoption of automation. throughout multiple departments, not just marketing and how you’ve also decided to approach and provide a solution to that would keep as well.

[00:14:28] Clate Mask: Yeah, you bet. So here’s what happened. It’s a, it’s fascinating. I think you’ll appreciate this. Hopefully the audience will as well. Yeah. A couple of years ago, we were struggling in that place of trying to help brand new businesses get automation going. And we took a step back and we said, no, this isn’t it.

[00:14:47] It’s not where we’re at our best. We, and we looked at a bunch of strategic alternatives. One was to go more up market and we’re like, you know what? That’s not who we are. We are, we love small business. We are passionate about helping small businesses grow and [00:15:00] succeed. And so we didn’t want to move up market.

[00:15:02] And we saw going down market as solopreneur to provide a real basic level of automation. That wasn’t true to who we were. And we said let’s go look at our customers and our partners and the people who use this product to change their lives and their businesses every day.

[00:15:17] Let’s look at the ones who we, are the best use cases and let’s learn from them. And it was so interesting, Chris, because. It was like a revelation that we already knew about.

[00:15:30] And

[00:15:32] the, and it was this when we talked to them and we, when we interviewed them and we watched their, what they were doing in the product, they would say things like, it’s not just marketing automation.

[00:15:44] I use it to automate my entire business. They would say things like you guys call it marketing automation. I call it business automation They would say things like I came for the marketing automation, but I stay for the way it automates my entire business and we were seeing over and over very creative ways of stretching the capabilities that we had built in the software to go beyond marketing, beyond sales, to start to do all kinds of internal workflows and process automation that was really in the old world this old phrase of business process automation.

[00:16:20] And we were seeing our customers using this. Campaign builder, as we called it, which was designed for marketers to automate their [00:16:30] campaigns. And we were seeing them use it for all kinds of stuff, onboarding employees, hiring employees and onboarding them, managing their collections process in the back office, all sorts of things where they were using spreadsheets and.

[00:16:44] And, you know, manual processes to try to track stuff and they turn, we would see these ninjas of automation using our product to do all kinds of other stuff. And so about 18 months ago, after learning and seeing and hearing And we we recognized it. And when I say it was like a revelation that we already knew, it’s because if you came to our conferences over the years, you’d see people get up and they talk about all the ways they’re using our product that was, that went beyond.

[00:17:12] Beyond marketing. In fact, the original award was called the ultimate marketer. And then we started calling it something else because we’re like, Hey, they’re doing more than just marketing, but we never actually went in and extended the product and made the product more obvious and clear to customers.

[00:17:31] And so the truth was, if you wanted to use. Our product to do more than just marketing automation. You had to be a ninja. You had to know how to stretch it and how to do different things. And so the simple answer to your question is that a couple of years ago, we took a strategic step back. We talked and talked to and interviewed our customers.

[00:17:53] We saw what they were doing and we said, Let’s make that easier for everybody that wants to do automation [00:18:00] beyond just marketing. And so that’s how we started to go beyond marketing automation. We went from doing it accidentally with really amazing customers and partners to doing it intentionally with product design.

[00:18:13] And it’s, what I’m so pumped about right now.

[00:18:15] Chris L. Davis: I love it. And, There’s longevity has its place definitely in the tech space, because shiny object syndrome all over the place, people don’t stay with software, I believe long enough. You have one error, no software is perfect and they’re looking to jump to another tool.

[00:18:34] And it’s you realize your data is going to get lost every time you might write. And it’s more important than the little bitty pain that you felt. But more importantly, I think that. What I love is evolution not mandated evolution. This is not us saying you need to automate all of your business.

[00:18:54] The marketplace was given a tool to do a thing. And then the marketplace said, Hey, this thing actually works over here. And then it works over here, and then I’m using it over here which positions the company to say, wait a minute, hold on. I think there’s an opportunity here. Look at, we’ve been calling it this thing and they’ve been using it for all of this thing.

[00:19:15] And I think this may be the first time. Somebody is listening to this podcast. Maybe you don’t feel crazy anymore. Everybody, maybe that just put to rest what you feel like you’ve been doing. And nobody [00:19:30] has been. Speaking to it directly. So we see you and we’re here to tell you, you were a little early.

[00:19:38] You were just earlier to the curve now, language and all, and software and all of that is, is catching up. And I love it because I had a similar revelation. And it was, it’s like one of those threatening revelations until you realize it’s actually health, actually healthy. I can’t remember, maybe it was a few years ago.

[00:19:55] And I looked up and I realized, I said actually marketing automation is just for marketing. You would think that because we’re saying marketing automation, it becomes that, but it’s just like many words in the English language. You just use them. until you pause and say, why do we say that?

[00:20:13] Like, why do, so I stopped and I said, if I take the term literally marketing automation, I think I can remove marketing and put any department in front of it. I think I can have sales automation. I think I can have service automation, right? And that thought was threatening, Clateon, because I found the first time in my career and I found that I was using loose language.

[00:20:42] I was saying marketing automation as if it applied to every type of automation a business can do.

[00:20:48] Clate Mask: Yeah.

[00:20:49] Chris L. Davis: And it was not applying to it. And here was the freedom for me, Clate. When I said, okay, I could, it could be threatening and make me feel smaller. Oh, but I need [00:21:00] to be an expert in all of these things now.

[00:21:02] It was like no. You can, it’s okay to be a sales automation expert. Yeah. It’s just as valuable, right? Like my value didn’t diminish, but once I started to understand my core competence is really in, in marketing automation, here’s the secret I found, Clate, we’re marketing the leads, but we’re also marketing the customers.

[00:21:22] Exactly. So I felt, I realized I was more in need. Yeah. Because I knew explicitly where my sweet spot was and how to yield it or wield it in the business to get growth.

[00:21:37] Clate Mask: Yep. Exactly. And that’s what it’s about. It’s about growth. And what happens is it is, as it is tremendously challenging to grow a business When things are slipping through the cracks.

[00:21:50] Yep.

[00:21:50] And it becomes very obvious. And the reason why I think marketing automation caught hold for people is because it’s very obvious what’s slipping through the cracks in marketing. If you start spending money at the top of the funnel and you start to recognize, Oh if we follow up better here, then we’re going to make better, we’re going to get better conversion rates.

[00:22:09] And now there’s a, there’s an ROI case for it right away. It’s very clear. And it also tends, it also happens to be at the front of the journey of the customer. And so it’s just, it’s a really easy and natural place for people to jump onto and shoot, we did it. You did it. So many [00:22:30] people did it.

[00:22:30] But I remember the, the epiphany that you just described. I remember years ago, one of our our best sales person said this to me, And he, by the way, do you know Cody Jones? Does, do Cody, he went to Zapier and he was with us for years. Yes,

[00:22:47] Chris L. Davis: I do. Yes, I do. Yeah. I haven’t heard it.

[00:22:48] And Cody

[00:22:49] Clate Mask: said to me, when we were in the, when we were in the meteoric rise of marketing automation, which for us was when we introduced the draft, the visual drag and drop builder in 2012 until 2017, there was a very fast rise for those five years. And he said to me toward the end of that. Yeah. He said, we call it marketing automation, but we’re really just marketing across the entire business.

[00:23:13] So he said it a little differently than the way that our customers said it. But he said, we’re marketing across the entire business. And I remember him saying that I remember sitting in my office when he said that, and I said, you’re exactly right. Because marketing doesn’t stop ever. You’re always marketing.

[00:23:30] And so when he said we’re marketing across the entire business, the ironic thing is. He said that to me in about 2017, and it wasn’t until 2022 that we were doing research with customers and they said it a little differently. They said, it’s automation across the entire business. Yeah.

[00:23:48] Cody said it’s marketing across the entire business, but you could see how you put those together and it’s marketing automation across the entire business . So it’s pretty interesting how it [00:24:00] evolves. And I love the epiphany that you had, I. For us it truly was a matter of going and talking to our customers and hearing them say it And hearing them talk through it where we started to go.

[00:24:10] Oh, okay and you know It’s funny because last year when we you know We took all that research and we started to get really intentional in designing business automation for small businesses and one of the things that we did as we were as we started to put this in place was we changed the name of campaign builder to automation builder.

[00:24:32] And it was so funny because we had a bunch of customers and some partners and some of our best ones, the ones that I’m describing that kind of, gave us a bunch of flack for it. Cause they’re like, oh, you’re just changing the word. And we’re like, We just watch what we’re doing because we needed people to change their paradigm so they could get, they could see, no, it’s about applying automation across the entire business.

[00:24:54] Or if you want to say it’s about applying marketing across the. But that was one, that was just one of the beginning things that we did. Now, of course, people are starting to see more and they’re like, Oh, okay. Now I get what you’re doing with automation and building automation is same drag and drop paradigm.

[00:25:12] But a whole bunch of new capabilities and extending it so that it’s much easier for. Mere mortals to automate across their business instead of having to be a, a marketing ninja.

[00:25:23] Chris L. Davis: Yeah. Yeah. And I would say now, if any, is the [00:25:30] time to really hone in on your processes, everyone. We have software now that can, I don’t think there’s one area of business That cannot be touched effectively by software, right?

[00:25:44] Not a single area. However, no matter how great the software becomes, you still need to have. a good idea. I prefer a map of your process to where you understand this, and I’ll take it a step further. I have Brian, Brian was on, he’s the founder of puzzle app, and he’s got, it’s a charting software strictly for operations.

[00:26:13] And it took it to this level, Clate, it not just, are you laying out what happens? But you’re also assigning it to a person.

[00:26:22] Clate Mask: Love it.

[00:26:23] Chris L. Davis: And what I loved about it is it could be a person or it could be a tool. And I said, Oh, you got it. You, my friend, you have cracked it. You have cracked the code. People are starting to get it.

[00:26:38] There are, I don’t, this term, I threw it out a long time ago, full business automation because it gives people this idea that they no longer have to do anything in their business. And it’s if you built a business that you don’t want to do anything. Maybe you built the wrong business, right?

[00:26:58] Maybe we’ve got a different conversation. [00:27:00] What people are usually looking to is operate in their business the way they desire. They want that freedom, that agency. And because they don’t have things automated, That they have to do the things that they don’t want to do. So now when we talk about automating an entire business, we’re, and it’s subjective to the business, right?

[00:27:22] The business, the people in the business and their acumen, right? And ultimately the founder or the leadership’s team. Desire of operation. They may want to be hands on. That’s going to dictate the amount of automation you apply, but essentially now, what amount of automation can I apply across my entire business?

[00:27:45] We’re not trying to remove everything. We’re not trying to not have humans involved. But there are certain things, Clateon, that even if a person could do it, they shouldn’t.

[00:27:57] Clate Mask: That’s right. You

[00:27:58] Speaker 3: know,

[00:27:59] Clate Mask: unless it’s the thing they love doing, take Lamar Tyler, our mutual friend that runs TSP and does amazing things there.

[00:28:06] Lamar told me, look, I do my mastermind calls personally because I love them. And it’s, you’ve got to do those, but he, you could say you could have somebody else do that, but he loves it. He gets energy from it. It’s, it brings him fulfillment. And so I love what you’re saying because it is about freedom It is about I say if you just take a step back and think about growing a small business It’s [00:28:30] really hard because you’ve got leads and customers slipping through the cracks That creates a lot of chaos.

[00:28:35] Yes, and you end up doing a bunch of stuff that you don’t like doing But if you get your, if you get things mapped out, now you can automate and you can choose the things that you want to do. And you get, not only do you go from, you get out of the chaos, you get growth. You get profit because you’re doing it more efficiently and you get the freedom that you want as an entrepreneur.

[00:28:57] And we say, look, running a small business is hard because of all of the things slipping through the cracks, you got to map it and get it clear and then automate that, take your standard operating procedures, SOPs and turn them into SAPs, standard automated procedures so that you can get the growth, profit, freedom you want, and it’s not a pipe dream.

[00:29:16] It’s just that it takes a little discipline. It takes a little bit of a little bit of guidance You know when you try to do this I said i’m a software company ceo and I say listen if you just throw a piece of software at it Good luck. It’s that’s not the answer You got to have software strategy and services to be successful I say that all the time software plus strategy plus service equals success And when people will embrace that growth profit and freedom is not only possible It’s probable when you take when you apply software strategy and services and you turn it into no you’re going to get this we you and I we see it over and over People they fall short because they think they’re just going to get a piece of software or they think that You know all I can hand this over to somebody else.

[00:29:59] No, you’ve got to get [00:30:00] behind the strategy You’ve got to understand it And then you can get the growth problem free if you want.

[00:30:04] Chris L. Davis: Yeah, the young folks would say bars. That’s what they would say right there. Clateon just dropped some gems, everybody. And this is what I want you all to understand. If you’re not already appreciating this man’s wisdom, this is the grandfather, okay?

[00:30:24] There was no, and I’m not trying to like, Puff your head up like, Clate, I need your head to grow bigger and bigger. I’m talking historically, everyone. Historically, this is the founder, not just of Infusionsoft, now Keap, the founder of the marketing automation movement. Everything that he’s saying is from being on the battlefield from deploying weapons for those of us on the battlefield, right?

[00:30:55] Riding the, what I call the automation ambulance, but the medic kit for us who took these tools and hurt ourselves or our clients on the battlefield. So this man has seen a lot. And I want to say that because I just don’t want people to. gloss over, even when you say from SOP to SAP, I know it sounds good, but there’s a lot of experience behind that statement when he says possible to probable.

[00:31:20] These are things that there is so much data. I can’t quantify how much data you, you all have seen. across small businesses using the software. So I just [00:31:30] wanted to qualify everything that, that you’re saying for the listeners, because again, I don’t want to assume everybody just has this affinity and appreciation that I have for the software, because I’ve been in the space for over a decade and been using it and seeing it.

[00:31:43] I’m I wanna, I don’t want to end. I’ve got one more question because I want to, I think these are great and I think this is what I just laid down would be a great segue into this for people to appreciate what you’re about to say. But we’ve talked about software. We’ve talked about. The evolution of marketing automation and how businesses are using it and how they need to use it.

[00:32:07] Some keys and some pointers, but you also have these six keys to success and it just wouldn’t feel right to have you on the podcast and not hear it with your voice, the all systems go podcast about these six keys to success. I wanted to give you the floor for that one.

[00:32:27] Clate Mask: Yeah. Bye bye. Thank you.

[00:32:28] I I love entrepreneurship. I love helping small businesses grow. And, I’ve been doing this for over two decades. And like you, I’ve worked with a lot of entrepreneurs who on the surface, it might look like they’re successful, but there’s real challenges and major problems on the personal side of things.

[00:32:49] And I spent, when I originally wrote the book, conquer the chaos, it was ushering in the movement of marketing automation. But last year I decided [00:33:00] to revise the book and in doing so, I thought it was going to be like 20 percent new content because of all the things that have changed.

[00:33:07] And, but the basics were still there. And while it’s true that the basics are still there, I got, I actually got really passionate about the balance of business and work and what needs to happen in the life of an entrepreneur to have a successful business and a successful life. I’ve been living it for decades.

[00:33:26] I’ve been seeing it, working with it. And automation, as is one of the things that can bring. That balance because you can literally replicate. I mean you can you can clone yourself in many ways I love when I’m where when customers tell us. Hey, my best employee is keep I love when they say that.

[00:33:44] Yes Because it’s true. You’re putting technology to work for you, but I just saw way too many examples of Entrepreneurship that wasn’t working out the way we want it to work out and there’s a dark side to entrepreneurship that has You know, drugs, divorce, death, a lot of ugly things that go along with it.

[00:34:07] And it’s because it’s so there’s both a struggle to make it successful, to make the business successful. And there’s also when the business really is going there’s. Almost an addiction around it and a a way that it consumes people, whether it’s the businesses struggling or the businesses successful.

[00:34:24] So long and short of it is I got really passionate about writing that book and sharing what I’ve [00:34:30] seen and the six keys to success for entrepreneurs, where I define success as balanced growth in your business and personal life. And so those six keys, there are three personal keys and three business keys.

[00:34:44] The three personal keys are the mindset, the life vision. So not just the business vision, but the vision for your life personally as an entrepreneur. And then the third key on the bit on the personal side is what I call rhythm of execution. So how do you execute to that life vision fueled by this positive mindset.

[00:35:01] So mindset, rhythm, vision, or vision rhythm on the personal side and on the business side, it’s strategy, which is. Both company strategy and customer strategy so that you’re all the stuff that you know, around customer journey and driving that the right way. So strategy is key. Number one on the business side.

[00:35:17] Number two is automation. Doesn’t, shouldn’t surprise. And number three is leadership. Those are the six keys to success for entrepreneurs, mindset, vision, rhythm on the personal side, strategy, automation, leadership on the business side.

[00:35:30] Chris L. Davis: And as you, you all have heard, It is in the book. So if it was like, wait, Clate, go deeper, wait but I think that’s spot on because a lot of times I’ll say this, my driver, my, the appeal of automation and my driver has always been family.

[00:35:47] And to make sure I had that balance, I’ve been an engineer, a corporate worker 10 hour days where three of them are spent just getting ready and commuting. And then another [00:36:00] two or three dinner and kids with the homework. And it’s so late that they go to sleep and the daycare is practically raising your child at that point.

[00:36:08] They see more of them than you. So yes the thing that appealed to me, I remember reading Tim Ferris four hour work week. Clate, I had never heard of working four hours in a week. I it messed my brain wiring up because the only way I knew to get more money was to put more hours in. So when I saw that, it immediately was appealing to me, not for the sake of, Ooh, I can make more money and not have to do anything, but for the sake of, Hold on.

[00:36:41] If it takes me four hours in a week, that gives me hundreds of hours with my family a month, that I can spend being present. So I’m glad that you are addressing both because the truth is you bring your whole self. into your business and what takes place in your business often you bring to your personal life.

[00:37:10] That’s exactly right. So you have to be careful that you’re not trying to be this disjointed person. I’m this way at work, this way at home. You want to be able to create a lifestyle that blends the two and you’re harmoniously existing. And I think that’s a conversation that needs to be had more.

[00:37:29] Amongst [00:37:30] small businesses, especially when we’re talking about technology, because usually tech is connected to money, but what about peace of mind to be present with your family, and time to be there?

[00:37:42] Clate Mask: Yeah. Yeah, it’s exactly right. And I say all the time, one of my lines I say constantly is automation is the great game changer for small business.

[00:37:51] And the reason I say that is in small business most of us are trading hours for dollars in some way, and you can productize and start to get some benefits of, not trading hours for dollars. But even then you’ll get to a point where you’re trading your hours. You’re trading your employees hours.

[00:38:08] You get to a point where you’re just, you’re trading hours for dollars. And so you hit ceilings on how much you can grow and what you can accomplish. Automation changes that. It literally changes the math of our, that hours for dollars exchange and starts to put more hours on your side and you can do all kinds of things with automation.

[00:38:29] It’s obviously one of the important keys. It’s. It’s interesting because the business keys of strategy, automation, and leadership, as you practice those, they improve the personal side. And as you practice the personal keys of mindset, vision, and rhythm, they improve the business side.

[00:38:43] And in part, that’s because you do bring your whole self to both sides of it. And in part, it’s because as you get better at those keys, the benefits are across your entire life. They’re not just on one side of the ledger or the other. I go deep on this in my book. I’m super passionate about it.

[00:38:58] Obviously family is [00:39:00] everything for me. I’m both the grandfather of marketing automation for small business and truly a grandfather. I’ve got six grandkids with a seventh on the way. And so to me, family and having time is critical and how small businesses. unwittingly make sacrifices and trade offs that they don’t realize that end up costing them dearly.

[00:39:20] And that nobody, that old saying, nobody ever laid on their deathbed wishing for more time at work. It’s, they want more time with family and health and, those the well rounded aspects of life that are totally possible. For entrepreneurs, if they’re intentional about the six keys to success.

[00:39:38] Chris L. Davis: Yep. I agree wholeheartedly. Thank you for sharing that. Clate our listeners have been listening to us. expound on the history of marketing automation. Hopefully they’re re energized and revitalized and ready to get in the game. Where should they go if they want to connect with you, with Keep or whatever, to start their journey?

[00:39:57] What, where’s the best place for them to go after listening to all that they’ve heard on this podcast?

[00:40:03] Clate Mask: You bet. First of all, it’s been, there’s been so dang fun Chris, I’ve loved it. For people who are feeling that challenge of growing their business, because leads and customers are slipping through the cracks.

[00:40:14] There’s a way to address that. You can go to keep. com slash playbook. And learn about how you can address that. So keep. com slash playbook to learn how to address those leaks in your business that are causing the chaos that prevents you from getting the growth profit freedom you want. [00:40:30] If they want to learn more about the six keys to success, they can go to conquer the chaos book.

[00:40:34] com conquer the chaos book. com. And there’s a bunch of free resources on there. Not selling anything there whatsoever. It’s truly just a give back to entrepreneurs trying to help them to have the balanced growth in their business and personal life that they want. And if there were some way I could magically take a pill and distill it all down and put it into entrepreneurs, I would do it.

[00:40:56] But I think you got to read the book and understand those six, six keys to success. And I commend them to every entrepreneur out there.

[00:41:05] Chris L. Davis: If you are listening to this live and you’re trying to type and get it all, it’s in the show notes, just scroll up in whatever podcast app, click the links for those of you just like, just say it again.

[00:41:16] It’s keep k e a p dot com and again, all of the other links are below the show notes. Clate, I cannot thank you enough. I hope this is my hope is that every podcast, every feature, everywhere you go and speak, they truly do pay homage. To you and what you all have done again. We’re not here. We really are not here without you, without the vision, without the terminology.

[00:41:44] It truly created a space that I have no idea where I would exist in entrepreneurship without it. So I’m eternally grateful for it. I acknowledge it. I appreciate it. And I’m always cheering and rooting for you guys and the [00:42:00] success. So again, thank you for coming on to the podcast today.

[00:42:03] Clate Mask: Oh you’re so welcome, Chris.

[00:42:05] This has been awesome. I, it’s been fun to talk about and, we didn’t talk too much about what’s we’ve been doing over the last year or so and what’s coming, but at some point we should talk about that because. What we did for marketing automation is what we’re doing for small business automation right now, and it’s really fun It’s pretty awesome to see people as they start to go.

[00:42:24] Oh my gosh. I see it now I get it. I’ve been talking small business automation for about the last Six months or so publicly. And people are okay, and we’ve been rolling out these these features and capabilities in the software. And we’ve got more and more, the big reveal will be coming in November as we share some really cool, exciting things that are at our customer conference, but at some point I’d love to come back and we’ll talk more about, yeah,

[00:42:48] Chris L. Davis: it sounds like part two is in order for November.

[00:42:52] That’s what it sounds like. I would love it. I would love it. And I think that’s an appropriate teaser, everyone. And just understand this. You now have help. You’re hearing from the founder himself that this is the importance of having founders on the podcast so that they can hear your voice, catch your vision themselves, because there are some times where the founder should be the reason why you buy the software.

[00:43:18] If I’m being totally honest, if it can go the other way, you watch shark tank and they’re like, I’m not investing in the business. I’m investing in you because there are a lot. I’ve seen it time and time again. Where the founder, [00:43:30] he, the software could be great, but the founder just, he doesn’t have it.

[00:43:34] He doesn’t care for the customers like that. He’s not entrenched in the market. He doesn’t have as much skin in the game. So that’s totally different from what you’re hearing here. With Clate to everyone. And I am excited. I’ve already had some previews from some of the people that I know, they’re like, Chris, we’re using it.

[00:43:52] It’s different. Yeah. It’s a total different machine. That’s why I don’t have any problem not calling it infusion soft anymore, because it’s totally different. And I know you all are iterating by the day. So yes, I’m excited. There will be a part two everyone, and we’re going to, we’re going to use that time to dive deep.

[00:44:10] into the business automation that Clateon has decided to shift the business towards, we’ll have more case studies. Again, he’ll be, he’ll have unveiled it to the customers and everything. So I’m looking forward to it, man. I really am.

[00:44:26] Clate Mask: I am too. That sounds fantastic. Hey, just thanks to you for everything you do for entrepreneurs and teaching automation.

[00:44:32] You’re amazing. I love what you’re doing. Just grateful to be associated with you and what you teach at automation bridge. And. the way you help small businesses grow with automation.

[00:44:41] Chris L. Davis: Appreciate it. Clate it’s the gift that keeps on giving you guys started a movement and we’re a part of it.

[00:44:47] And as we move within it, we’re able to have impact and everything as well. Listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. Man this one, this. Out of all the episodes you guys have heard me record, this one has [00:45:00] really been heartwarming for me because it did. It brought me back to my humble beginnings all the way up to now.

[00:45:07] And I just would have never imagined having a podcast and the founder, the co founder of key being on the podcast. Cause I was just, a beginning marketer, man, just trying to scrounge up 300 bucks a month to stay in and get clients. So it’s been a real full circle moment for me here. So again, appreciate that listeners.

[00:45:27] Thank you all for tuning in and your continual support. Do not hesitate ever if you hear something on the podcast and it is resonating strongly with you and you’re like, Ooh, I need that. Just go do it. You can always pause and come back. Just click the link, go buy the software, check out, get the resources, whatever the case may be.

[00:45:45] Don’t let any grass grow under it. Take action. And again, spread the word. This one is timeless. I need you all to put this in as many marketers ears. as possible because they need to hear this. They really do. And then I need them to come back in November for some small some small business automation.

[00:46:02] All right. So until next time, I see you all online, everyone. Automate responsibly, my friends.