The Enemy of Automation

Narrator  0:00  

You’re listening to the All systems go podcast, the show that teaches you everything you need to know to put your business on autopilot. Learn how to deploy automated marketing and sale systems in your business the right way. With your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris Davis  0:31  

Welcome to the All systems go podcast. I’m your host, Chris l. Davis, the founder and chief automation Officer of automation bridge, the place online the place, the number one place to learn about small business marketing automation, where we focus on turning digital marketing professionals into automation service providers. And that means we specialize in taking your profitable marketing efforts and scaling them. Okay, scaling them consistently and predictably. So if you want to learn how to do that, how to take those digital marketing efforts of yours and scale, make sure you visit automationbridge.com/ASP to get connected and take the next steps. In this episode, what I want to discuss is the enemy, the enemy of automation, you know, as much of as as much as much as a superpower that it is okay, for your business. It can be defeated, alright, the Cape of automation can be removed and thrown in the trash. And you want to make sure that that doesn’t happen to you. So listen and take notes. So you can ensure that you’re not the one you’re not the one responsible, or your client for holding kryptonite to your marketing automation efforts. All right. So before we jump into it, if you’re new to the podcast, make sure that you join and follow the podcast. After you have listened to this episode in its entirety. I like for you to get a good feel of what you’re getting into before you say yes. All right, so date me first before you try to put a ring on it. Right? This is just one time. That’s all I need. Give me your ear for one episode, I promise you, I’ll make it worth it. For those of you who have been listening and have not joined or followed the podcast, make sure you do so we’re an apple podcasts, Google podcasts, you can even subscribe on YouTube. Okay, and while you’re at it, make sure you leave a five star rating and review as it will be greatly appreciated. And if for whatever reason you’re trying to figure out Chris, how and where do I leave a review, I just can’t figure it out. While you’re listening right now you can just go to automation bridge.com, forward slash review. Leave your review there. And we will handle posting it to the appropriate platform and making sure that we keep it internally so that you know that your review is being valued. All right. So let’s let’s jump into it. Um,

Chris Davis  3:03  

let me start by saying this. I guess this goes without saying honestly. But automation is great. It is when applied correctly. Alright, longtime listeners, you know that this podcast exists to help you understand how to apply automation responsibly, right, automate responsibly is what I tell you. Okay, so when done correctly, automation is great, right? You also may have heard me mentioned the purpose of marketing, and that is to supply sales with the highest qualified leads. We don’t blame the two, we don’t treat marketing as sales. And we don’t treat sales as marketing. We understand that marketing and sales alignment means that my marketing knows the needs of my sales, and delivers leads that meet those needs. Okay, whether the sale is being made by a human or by a web page, we make sure that our marketing only sends the highest quality of leads to our sales person or system. Okay, but with that with those two, you may not have heard me mentioned the primary output of automation. I asked this question a few years ago, well, actually I didn’t, I was in a Facebook group. And they asked it, and everybody went to like the benefits of automation. When you talk about what’s the primary purpose, what’s the output? What’s the outcome of automation, everyone’s like, more money, less time? Do this do that all of these canned responses that you’ve kind of heard digital marketers use in their marketing and sales and blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, the primary output of automation is to increase the efficiency of the operational assist the operational system, it’s applied. I’m gonna say that one more time, the primary output of automation is to increase the efficiency of the operational system it’s applied to. There are about eight operational systems in every business. We talk about the six systems

Chris Davis  5:00  

In the six, the significant six deal with them your marketing, the fundamental systems in play for your marketing and sales. Those are just two systems of the eight operational systems for every business. So automation applied to any of those areas of operation should increase efficiency. So simply put, whatever is working starts to work better, longer, whatever you’re currently generating, you’re able to generate more.

Chris Davis  5:31  

Okay, that is because responsible implementation of automation magnifies the good and minimizes or eliminates the bad.

Chris Davis  5:44  

Okay, what is the good, profitable processes? it to take your profitable processes and scale them? Right? What’s the bad, unreliable people and or technology? Okay, so automation is great when it’s applied correctly. All right, the purpose of marketing is to supply quality leads to your sales. So we’re applying automation correctly to marketing, which is automatically applying quality leads to my sales. And it’s doing it at the most efficient rate possible.

Chris Davis  6:17  

This is why automation is so powerful. Everybody done correctly leveraged correctly. Okay.

Chris Davis  6:26  

See, follow me, you still you still here. That’s just the intro. This is just to catch everybody up to make sure we’re on the same page, you all are listening and you’re up to speed. For my first time listeners, if this is your first one, you may need to pause here and jump back into some previous episodes. More importantly, the significant six at a minimum, right, make sure you’ve got access, you’ve listened to that one. Because there is a step before all of this everything that I mentioned, there’s a step before this, that you must be mindful of Okay, and not taking heed to this, it will cripple or cannibalize all of your your automation efforts. I’m not trying to scare you, like this is real. This is real stuff. And this is the purpose of today’s episode. And it needs to be documented for both consultants and owners, you know, CEOs who are hiring people to do it for them. The enemy of automation is random and or inconsistent action.

Chris Davis  7:29  

Too many variables. Right. streamlining and structuring is the key, the preparatory key to having success with automation. So everything that I just named off Oh, it’s great when it’s applied, and at the same quality leads and increase your efficiency and increased efficiency means increased revenue, all of those things are after, we’ve assumed to this point that you’re not committing the cardinal sin of automation, which is random or inconsistent actions, right? You just introducing variables. Right. So your goal, when when we talk about variables, in the planning phase, your goal is to either eliminate variables or turn them into controls. Now, maybe it’s the engineer and me I’m speaking on scientific terms, this is all common knowledge to me, but I don’t want to assume it make you feel like you need to be smarter than what you are to grasp this. And really put it into place. What a variable is, is something that’s changing, always changing. Okay? A control is something that does not change. So when I say your goal is to eliminate variables or turn them into controls, it means take this randomness, and turn it into something consistent. Remove the eye in, in front of inconsistent, that’s, that’s what eliminating variables does, and then turning them into control. So if you have processes that are always changing, and that’s considered a variable, if you’re always launching new products, that’s considered a variable. Can I submit to you that most people just don’t market one thing long enough to get good at it?

Chris Davis  9:23  

I talked about this in the creators curse. You’re so busy create new create and more. That you’re you’re never still enough to really sharpen your marketing. Because marketing if marketing doesn’t perform well with variables, it just doesn’t. And definitely automation. Oh my god, automation can do nothing. If you’re always changing, because what is automation gonna do? It’s gonna do exactly what you told it to do last time. So why you’re changing? Why you’re making all of these updates. Guess what? automation is still doing what you told it to do. Hey, you told me To send an email every Monday, I didn’t know you’re going to send one on Thursday and Saturday night. How do I know? You need to come up? date me? Okay, I need to update my autoresponder, Monday, Thursday and Saturday. And then you start sending on Monday on Wednesday. Like, look, man, I can’t keep up with you. And neither can you keep up with having to always update the automation, what that’s called is premature automation. You need to figure this stuff out manually. Just figure out what you’re doing with your life. Right? Like what processes are required and needed, what what are the necessary processes in generating the revenue that you need? Right. So if you are operating randomly when posting on social media, or sending an email that becomes a variable in variables introduce randomness and inconsistent consistency, which eliminates the true impact of automation. I want to share with you a story here.

Chris Davis  11:03  

I have I know a consultant. And we were talking, we were collaborating, I do this often if you’re working with a big client, and that big client has demands, a lot of times what what I found is that the the digital marketer working with the client is often overwhelmed. But they can’t tell the CEO, right, the business owner, because they need to show up strong. But they have questions. They’re shaky in some areas. And a lot of times, you know, you’re dealing with that alone is one of the reasons why I created the the community, the automation bridge community, so that you have a place to go where you can ask questions, get issues solve regarding your client, so that when you’re in the meeting, you’re still showing showing yourself strong, right? So when I can when I can, and I can connect with a marketer who’s got a high profile client, I’ll do so as a favor as a favor. And to show my commitment to the space, you don’t always necessarily have to be in my program. It works better if you’re in a program. But for this one is just kind of like, hey, look, let me help you out. It’s my goodwill, and good service to you to make sure that you have everything that you need, right. So they had a high profile client and this client, what the consultant was good. I mean, their data mining and getting the segments in place, trying to identify patterns and everything and sales. And guess what kept hurting. I mean, we were on the phone for moving on the zoom call for maybe an hour. And we just could not crack the code. I’m like, it’s not supposed to be this hard. Well, the reason being is because every time I would ask a question for something consistent, okay, so when are they posting? Okay, so when do they send an email? Let’s look at the pattern is that every Wednesday is that every this? Nothing was consistent? Nothing. I was like, okay, so when do they go live? He’s like, Well, sometimes Tuesday, but yesterday went live on Sunday. And it was just like, everything was a moving target. And I just had the level with them. And I said, You know what, there’s no way, there’s no way you’re going to be able to produce a sizable result, consistently, without introducing and demanding a consistent and structured mode of operation. Now, some people do not do well in those environments. So I said, Look, you may not be able to dictate everything. But there needs to be some form of structure around emailing and posting at a minimum, maybe there’s some random posting, but you’re saying, hey, look, I’m taking the Thursday posts or whatever you’re doing randomly commit to at least making sure one of that random happens on Thursday. And what it did is it became an art of creating structure in the midst of chaos. And what people the error that people often make is, they try to control all of the chaos. You don’t need to control all the chaos. You just need to identify what areas you can, you can’t control and start to build from there. Because Because here’s what happens. Once that CEO starts to see the benefits and the fruits of automation. Now you have their ear to be be less chaotic. Now whatever frustration is the frustration that you had, you’re now transferring over to them, so that they’re like, Man, I’m getting frustrated that we can’t do more. Well, if you want to do more, you just have to be more structured. Are you ready? Okay, let’s talk about this. Okay, so I’m kind of blending two in one is like how to operate in negotiating and transact with business owners as a consultant. And two is how to make sure that your preparatory work positions you for success with automation, because I’m telling you this and if you may be your own client and your own owner, if you’re doing things randomly you There’s no way that you can create a baseline for an accurate projection. It’s just not the key, one of the first things I do in planning with any business owner is making sure that I understand your your cadence of sending prior to me, and making sure that we commit to one going forward, some form of engagement has to be consistent, because now we can start to trust the data. And I need to trust my beta, because my data determines everything, not me, the data. But if you’ve got too many variables, things are always changing, you’re always launching something new, you’re always doing something new, doing something different. You’re, you’re you, you’ve got too many variables and your data becomes inconsistent. Okay, and you’re at fault. Okay, you you are at fault. Remember, as a marketing automation professional or consultant,

Chris Davis  15:56  

anybody who would like to become an automation service provider, your first job is to get the business owner to commit to some level of consistency. You have to restore order and create it where there is none. You have to, it’s your job. So now now maybe I shed some light on some of the frustrating elements of being an entrepreneur. You may love the technical side, you love the automations and the tools and integration. But what about this? What about transacting with the business owner, and structuring streamlining what they’re doing to in inject consistency within their chaos? Those of you that don’t do this, you’re feeling you’re feeling it? Because it’s just it’s like a never ending task of things to do. Everything is so random, and you get so exhausted. But guess what you need that check. You need to you need that invoice paid. So you put up with it. And in that situation, neither one of you is winning, the owner is not winning. And you’re definitely not winning. So what you need to do is get by and for consistency by producing results, how do you do that you need to create some form of structure within the midst of the chaos to produce a consistent output. Once they see that, and it’s got to be revenue base for, for a business owner, just know you’re not going to be able to be like, Look, we just cut down our time to send emails or create landing pages by three hours this week. Oh, that’s good. They’ll keep they’ll keep operating how they’ve been operating. But if you say, hey, look, we’ve three extra revenue this this month. And that was just by sending emails on Thursday, consistently. Do you want to send consistently another day of the week? I guarantee you, the conversation will go something like this. Yes, yeah. What What day did you have in mind, I guarantee it will be a conversation of that variety. And some of you just laughed along with me because you’ve done that exact thing before. It happened just like that now we’re mailing multiple times a week and they’re making more money than they could count. Now comes other issues while you start to scale their profitable marketing and put some structure in place. Now see, now you’re looking at your pay my column, maybe this retainer isn’t enough for all that I’m helping this client achieve. And client, listen, you need to be mindful of that too. Okay, and be willing to invest in the person that’s building your system that’s going to work consistently in an ongoing fashion, with minimal human human engagement depending on you know, your industry, okay? So remember this everybody, technology does not work well with random, it performs best in a controlled environment. Are you intentionally controlling the environment in which your marketing is being executed under? There should this is another reason why I don’t teach multiple lead magnets multiple funnels, you just need one. There’s enough work to get one functional flow. From question mark to customer in place. There’s enough variables to turn into controls. There’s enough decisions to be made, there’s a must there’s enough strategy to be identified. There’s enough technology to be covered with that strategy. Your hands are full with just one.

Chris Davis  19:30  

So if you’re not profitable, and you’ve got multiple lead magnets, multiple funnels, you’re doing it the wrong way. You’re doing it the long way and that way, leads to exhaustion before it leads to profitability. Okay, so when we control the environment when we stay focused, this is where terms like consistent and predictable start to come into the to the frame when we talk about what automation can do for you. It’s not it’s not a snap of the fingers. It doesn’t just happen magically everybody and I want you to

Chris Davis  20:00  

To know that in my job is whatever capacity you’re connected with me, and my company, is to ensure that we’re providing the ultimate level of clarity on how automation works, and how it can work for you. That’s the goal. So So who needed to hear this? Who is the most random, disorganized, inconsistent business owner that, you know, let me tell you, who’s the who are the ones that are at most risk, who’s the profitable, random inconsistent business owner, they’re the ones because I can tell you, they’re probably driving people on their team crazy. I know, their automation isn’t working. So if they can just buy into some structure, and along with their buying, of course, consultants, you have to be willing, you have to be proficient in creating that structure. Right? They are going to experience the biggest result fast. For people who are random and inconsistent, and they’re not profitable, they may not have enough hurt, to really change their ways. Okay, so share this with your, your, your local, you’re friendly, you’re, you’re you know, close to or connected to business owner. That is that’s random. They just, you know, it, you know, you talk to them and stuff changes by the day, almost, they’re always doing something new, they just can’t sit down, share this with them. And I guarantee though, I’ve said something, this is going to open their eyes, and hopefully they share with their team. And they get on the same same accord to truly leverage the power of automation and not be an enemy of it. Okay, so if you found today’s episode, useful, make sure you share it and that you have joined the family of all system, go podcast listeners, again, by by clicking subscribe or join whatever the button, say now, in Apple podcasts, Google podcasts on YouTube, those are the primary means but wherever you get your podcast, we’re there. And for my first time listeners, that’s for you that invitations for you, while you’re at it, please leave a five star rating and review. Because here at automation bridge, we’re dedicated to training digital marketing professionals to become automation service providers, you may not have heard that term, I created it. And it’s because marketing automation is different than digital marketing. The skill set required the acumen to be successful, is much different. Okay? And we’re create we’re training. When I say we I’m talking about me and my team, we’re training an army of digital marketing professionals who have raised their hand and said, You know what, I want to specialize in scaling profitable marketing efforts. I want to do that. And I want to do it in a way that doesn’t require a higher a bigger staff and a larger payroll, small businesses are in dire need of that. Right? Take my marketing strategy, help me with that. And all the technology that’s out there, put it together and create automated systems for me for my rapid growth. If that’s something you want to do, you know, you be good at it. If you’re a digital marketer, that’s being profitable right now, you just don’t know how to scale those efforts. Automation is the key, but you have to learn how to do it right. So I want you to go right now. Automationbridge.com/ASP, there’s a few steps that you could take to properly route you to what the best next option for you is, it may be a call with me or my you know, someone on my team about one of our program offerings, or it may be something else. But start there. Remember, success follows the feet of the Swift.

Chris Davis  23:51  

Okay, so move quickly. This podcast will still play in the background of your device as you go to that website.

Chris Davis  23:59  

And we’re also accepting guest for the podcast, please refer people to the podcast everybody. Have you not enjoy the guests that had the prior what 10 episodes that you just listened to for for my family? Did you not enjoy those guests. And you see that I’m being very dynamic in my choice. It’s not just one dimensional. If you know somebody who’s got great software, in marketing or sales or just has a great story for entrepreneurs, please refer them. I can’t tell you how many people enjoyed my interview with Stanley Stanley tait the attorney because you see automation in different industries. When you see the same principles it just helps you understand it better. So So share tell them to come on and if you’re a marketing automation consultant yourself Come on, come share your success with the collective audience, send them to or you go to automation bridge comm forward slash guessed the time is now I need you to feel the urgency here. The opportunity to establish yourself as an added marketing automation professional,

Chris Davis  25:12  

a automation service provider is now move swiftly. If when you listen to these podcasts, it’s like I know you. It’s just like How does he know this there’s a good chance that you’ve been listening long enough and you need to take action. You need to invest in yourself. You need to invest into a faster path to success. You can do that at automationbridge.com/ASP. All of the show notes and podcasts are accessible at automationbridge.com/podcast. You can subscribe there and listen to other episodes at your leisure. So until next time, I see you online. automate responsibly, my friends