Tech Talk: CRM software, Airtable Automations, AI, and more feat. Samantha Pointer Foxx

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 sell systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris Davis 0:32
Welcome to another episode of The all systems go podcast. I’m your host, Chris L. Davis. And today, listen, everybody, today we get to talk about tech. All right, I’ve got my very I say my because Samantha pointer Fox is a certified automation service provider, she has gone through the rigors of my program, and has come out tested, tried and true. And who better than one of my own trusted people to talk about technology and how to leverage it, we’re gonna this is going to be a recurring theme, we want to make sure that you all have a good understanding of the technological landscape is always changing so fast and so frequently. So she’s going to jump on and talk to us about some of the apps that are out there that she’s looking at our ad, some that I’m looking at how you can be looking at leveraging them, and just give you a good lay of the land. So for those of you who don’t know, Samantha has been on the podcast before, she’s the founder and owner of Samantha pointer enterprises, and Sam’s Tech Academy. She helps small business owners and CO CEOs who need their marketing systems automated, but don’t want to touch the tech or do it themselves. That’s extremely important. Okay. When you don’t want to touch the tech, there’s, there’s a place for you to come. All right. Her audit to automation service connects strategic planning, process documentation, technology, automation, implementation, and data to help organizations optimize and grow. Samantha. Welcome back to the podcast. Glad to have you on how are you doing? I’m doing good. Thanks for having me again. Yes, yes, yes. So I’m spoiled everybody. I get to engage with Samantha and a plethora of other super sharp marketing animators. They keep me honest, by the way. So I, a lot of times on the podcast, I speak about things, as you know, from the experts position. But listen, we need help, too. We need we need our sometimes our North Star gets a little off. And furthermore, I my eyes, just that as good as they used to be Samantha, there’s technology just evolving and coming out so fast. Even I can’t keep up with this. So let me start off by saying let me start off by asking you this. Samantha, what CRM software? Are you preferring these days?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 3:13
Well, I’m still on active campaign, still love Active Campaign. Also have keep too, but I’m really liking an Active Campaign.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 3:26
Because it just it does everything. So that’s what I’m using. Of course, I’m using it in conjunction with a lot of other software out there. So I’m not just stuck in one place. That’s where my main hub is.

Chris Davis 3:45
Yeah. And I’ll second that, everyone. Yes, I am still in active campaign. A lot of people. They heard my go the high level podcast. I got a lot of response. We were like, Hey, you can do this? Hey, it’s ready. That’s available. And I know they’re probably wondering, and Samantha, who knows, by the time that this podcast is actually released, you’re gonna have to check in on me. See if this is still still the case. And why am I saying that? I’m saying it because this is what I’ve realized has changed in the CRM landscape is that when when we first came out, Office AutoPilot, Infusionsoft for the primaries, and if a small business wanted to do automation, it was done with those tools. There was no native automation and no other tools. I remember using the Trello everything was manual. Trello said like a turbo pack or something like that, remember. But still no real automation. I remember using the sun and all of that. Well, fast forward. I’m not going to belabor everybody with all the details. But fast forward to now what will let me not fast forward to now there was a transitional time where, you know, active campaign came To the spot and their whole thing was look at how integrated we are. We can vary with any and everything. So now people are starting to become familiar with the Zapier is out there and maybe in the Integra mats and all of that. And then what happened is, I feel like the software companies were like, Hey, you don’t need them to integrate with us. We’ll do automation within our platform. So you don’t have to rely on Zapier and all of these other things. And yes, it’s beautiful. I remember, I’m just watching it take place, I’m like, Yes, more automation, more automation. And then you look up fast forward to right now. And you look at your CRM software, and you’re like, you know what, I’m actually doing automation in you. And here and here, and here, and here and here. So the dependency, let me say, maybe for experts, I don’t want to say for the marketplace yet, but for those who are savvy, the reliance that we used to have solely on CRM software is no longer there. So once you start to identify your needs, as a business, like, Okay, this is what I need a CRM to do. You may you may be able to pull that off with a airtable combo and something else in subminimum, email sending, I’m not telling you to stop using your CRM software right now, everybody, I’m just saying, you never know the landscape is evolving. So so with that being said, I want to ask you about one of the core things that you do a lot. And that’s organization, you are you are the organizing guru, by the way. And she does own that website.com. But the thing that I want people to understand is that you do it in a digital way. So it may be manual, where you’re coming in helping them organize, but then you have these tools that allow you to do that. And of the three that I know I’ve worked with you with our Zapier make, and Padley to kind of move stuff around create files, and Dropbox, drive and all of that just give us a little insight on ways that you’re using those tools or other tools to do some digital management.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 7:14
Well, as far as Zapier and make, I was using those to actually like, create documents, and upload them where they need to go. Especially wanted to an air table, moving stuff in the air table, but now air table has its own automations that have grown even since we first started, you know, last year, and I’ve actually been using air table automations to send out weekly updates to my clients. Because I can just type in a little air table field when I need to and hit a button, and it sends it out through my Gmail account. Google account, you know, I don’t need Zapier or make or Pavley for that anymore. Whereas before I would have to connect that up. So as these as more software are getting on the bandwagon of hey, native automations you know, there’s gonna be so much more you can do and and like you said, not having to be dependent on one thing. I don’t, I don’t like being stuck one place, you know, I’m saying, as your business grows, as you get more clients, that’s that’s gonna be just crazy. Tried to if you ever want to move to something else trying to move all that information. So it’s great to just have stuff. Redundant backups, basically.

Chris Davis 8:54
Yeah, yeah. redundancy is huge, repetitive. NIS in marketing is huge redundancy and automation. So you need both of those Rs, everybody, and you mentioned something, Samantha, you talked about sending emails from airtable. Some people don’t realize you can do that. And now, we’ve been when I say we us in the community, we’ve been doing this for a while, because this is where you learn how to find how to do all of these strategies. But I found that to be one of the most small but effective features of air table. And when I found it out, I immediately implemented it in my podcast, air table where I manage everything. And now when I want to invite somebody to schedule this literally just a custom field, change the status from potential to invite to schedule and it sends out the email and it does it everybody on your behalf on behalf of your Gmail account so you don’t don’t misinterpret what I’m saying? then you can use air table as an auto responder to not one to many communication. Okay, it’s not that’s not what it is. That’s not what it’s for. That’s not what it will ever be. But for those one to one specific use cases where you can automate that sending absolutely a great. And then speaking to airtable, in an organization, I found that I’m pretty much using now maybe, maybe there’s an argument. And this is probably specific to like what industry you’re in between notion as your wiki and the like, single source of truth. And airtable, perhaps is just my inability to grasp my mind, wrap my wrap my mind around notion and really configure it in the way that it’s quote, unquote, supposed to be. But I just keep going back to airtable.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:54
So I use both All right, all right. I have a business hub, and a personal hub and notion. Of course, I bought plates. So I’m not having to go from scratch, because that’s the hardest part. I rather hate somebody who’s already got everything linked up higher needs to be. And because I can embed stuff into notion, I embed my airtable databases. So if I need to see something quickly, I embed my click up task if I need to see something quickly, because even though you can do tasks in motion, I still Still, I don’t like it. Yeah, because yeah, checking it daily. Yeah, you can set reminders. But if you’re not going in there, it’s just not as intuitive to me as click up. So I rather just keep everything and click up as far as that. But I can invent my air table stuff. So if I’m using it like a client portal, if I have their information or their database that I’m because I organize my clients, CRM, Active Campaign, keep whatever, in airtable, I can embed that right in their thing in notion. So that way, you can use it to use both, but I still keep all my content, social media, stuff like that, in airtable, because it’s just easier. It’s easier. It’s more I’m very visual. So the UI is better to me. And it’s click around didn’t it didn’t do what I need to do where, you know, notion, I love notion, but there’s still some things, you know, that is still working on. So that’s how I use both of them together. So I can always see my information, no matter where I’m at, which one I’m in at the time. But like a content hub, that’s easier to share with my BA from airtable, she can go in and do what she needs to do. And then I don’t need to share my notion. information. So yeah.

Chris Davis 13:17
And I’ll and I’ll say, as you were mentioning that one of the cool things about these tools is that there is some connect, plug and play. Yeah, right. So you can keep things in air table and still embedded in notion to get the best of both worlds. I find in there improving on it notion is improving on it. But I find that I lean to airtable More and more, of course over time, because of their ability to integrate, right, they integrate with so many tools that I already use. And then another shout out to another ASP program alumni Alicia, when she showed us how to do web hooks, or scripts out airtable anytime and then I can put information anywhere. Now to do that, I’ve got to catch it, you know, I need to catch it with like maker or Zapier or something like that. But still, it unlocks such a world of possibilities. And by the way, every one year, this is what I will call a certified conversation. So these a lot of the insight that you’re hearing Samantha and I talk about just kind of like Oh yeah, and then we do this. Well, this is this is a little bit of a higher level of a conversation. industry that we’re in on purpose, it’s intentional. I don’t want to leave you out. Those of you who are just getting started. When you listen to podcasts like this, there shouldn’t be a little bit of overwhelm. We’re just helping you see bigger and what’s available and what’s out there. By no means are we telling you to go about this alone or Right. This is why we’re here.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 15:05
Want You to Know what’s available? And

Chris Davis 15:07
yes, yes. And speaking of which you mentioned clickup. One of the reasons one of the ways that I found clickup to be more useful for me. So first off, as I’m realizing something, Samantha, and their software of a Certified Partner of Morgan, Morgan Edwards, recommended, I think it was son summer, I think it’s maybe saying it wrong or right. But yeah, and essentially, it is software dedicated to the founder, the CEO, right, because you may have multiple businesses you that your view of the business may be different than kind of like the project management view. And that’s what I find myself doing is that clickup is great for all of my team to get in and keep tracking if I need to, I’ve had my operations manager, create dashboards and quick links to stuff that I need to see. But overall, my experience with clickup is overwhelming. Like it, it just overwhelms me, it slows me down. There’s too much going on, even when stuff is hidden. Because I may need to find some, then I click on something and like all these tasks, I’m like, Oh, my God, what is that? So what I found is this son sama is kind of like the version of a project manager that is very high level, it can get down to the nitty gritty of the task and everything. But you I found that clicker works really well for collaboration, where as notion could write like, I can assign tasks there. But click up I can attach loom videos, I can do all kinds of automation within there, and around tasks. So you know, no, I think for anybody to truly unlock the true potential of notion. I believe you need to have somebody that knows what they’re doing. Is that right? Like either buy a product or hire somebody to come in,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:02
already built out? There you go, you’re not starting from scratch. If you tried to start from scratch, you will be over? Overwhelmed. Seriously. Another thing I like to do in notion is embed like the whimsical maps and stuff, because it just shows up nice

Chris Davis 17:19
whimsy. So So embedding maps

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:23
up to in their documents about travel. I would love to see how it looks in 3.0. But what won me with notion is, if the person I’m sharing it with with click up is not a guest, it’s like it shows up weird. It doesn’t show up as cleanly. Again,

Chris Davis 17:52
yeah. And speaking of which, at the time of recording this clickup 3.0 is not out. It’s been announced. Let me say this. Let me let me just pause. Let me talk about clickup. Real quick. First off, sometimes I get confused, whether they’re a project management software company or an entertainment company, okay. Oh, I get trust me, I get the performance. And I think they have an album, they drop the album. I like all of it. Samantha, I’m not talking bad about any of that. Here’s my issue. You’ve been talking about 3.0 for over a year. Okay. The last thing I want to hear and see is a rap album. Or I want 3.0, because you’ve been talking about it for so long, is different if they never mentioned 3.0. And they were like announcing and then it came with all of the performance and all of that. That’s exciting. And then you delivered on it. But we’re supposed to have that last year. Early last year, now watch this about that. I get the production, I get the album, I get all of that. If 3.0 flops, it means nothing. If I got the click of album, I may just throw it away. I’m not I’m not listening to that.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 19:22
That direct, you get

Chris Davis 19:23
what I’m saying. So that’s my only thing is stay true to who you are. I’m not against all of the extra stuff, but deliver the primary first. So again, at the time of recording this, it has not dropped it’ll be out by the time this episode is out. And we’ll we’ll talk about it. Now. If you’re in the community, you’ll know my feedback live right. You don’t have to wait. There’s a delay between when we record and when we produce so make sure you join the community. But I am rooting for clickup Honestly, everything that they said that would be available in the app. I’m like like yeah Yes, this is great. This is exactly the things that I, this is what I want. So if they pull it off, I’ll be a proud clickup user and have a new album. Right? If I haven’t listened, I haven’t listened to any of the songs like when I scroll through LinkedIn and my other social platforms, I never have the sound on. So I’m always just looking at they’re like that’s all I see. And I’m like, it sounds like they’re really into whatever they’re saying. So I’d never have heard it personally. So anyways, so you mentioned mapping. Now this is Oh, my heart, my heart leaps with the joy of the many maps and many ways that you can map what software what software are you preferring the most and for which applications because everybody as automation service providers, we’re not never limited to one software, we usually have multiple use cases. And each use case requires a different software. So where are you at with your your mapping spec?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 21:05
Okay, so when I started, of course, it was Lucid Chart. It was a bit overwhelming. It just too many clicks to do things. Yeah. Then I went to Miro, which I still love Miro. But again, it’s overwhelming with all that you can do with it. I agree. I agree. And then we were introduced to whimsical. So now I’m a proud paid member a whimsical because it’s just easy for me to get in and get out. And especially if you’re new to mapping, I would start with whimsical first because it’s just clean, there’s not a whole bunch of stuff to distract you your main reason of being there, or it’s too many options. So that that’s where I’m at now is whimsical, I still do have a paid mural account. Because mural is good for brainstorming which team you can actually import maps that you’ve done in Lucid Chart into whimsical and get the whole shape colors and all that nice. Into Miro. Yeah, from Lucid Chart into Miro, which, if you’ve done a lot of maps in Lucid Chart, that’s great. So you don’t have to try to rebuild it from scratch. As of right now you would have to rebuild it and whimsical. But hopefully they’ll get that feature going soon. But yeah, I just love how quickly that I can have so many different things in whimsical. And just, you know, map out the process, do different kinds of maps, logic match process maps, brainstorming, and share it easily quickly, you know, and it’s just the clean UI. So that’s my, what I’m in love with right now is whimsical.

Chris Davis 23:10
Yeah. And another shout out to another student alumni Blair, who introduced us all to whimsical. So listeners, do you see I am who I am because of who I’m connected with? No, nobody, nobody achieves and goes about this stuff on their own and alone. So what I liked about whimsical was it protected me from myself. I was a lucid charter. And I’m used to the multiple clicks in configuring every little piece. And whimsical came in and said hey look, man, here’s your shapes. Here’s your here’s your arrow. What else do you want from me? And I’m like I want more colors. I want more customization. I say well wait a minute hold on do I actually need that so it’s really helped me not get ahead of myself. And one of the one of the things that I really like about whimsical is the sharing the ease of sharing and collaboration. Samantha let me give you some insight as I give everybody some insight. So I in my program, it is an official program. I don’t call it a course of program. This is a program where you fill out information we store the information that is referenced you take an assessment along the way it is a full out program comes with coaching calls and all of that so part of it was you get a template from Lucid Chart and you submit it and people will be leaving comments I will be leaving comments and it was so hard to find. I liked it Lucid Chart totally overcomplicated the sharing and collaboration part of flowchart. So here comes whimsical Oh my gosh. It looked like Active Campaign when there’s a comment. It’s like red dots. Yeah, you know on the specific action and it’s just so much easier. So I think they’ve done a great job making it comprehensive. I’ve got to give them a knock for this. This drives me crazy. This is part of my object alignment. Add. Okay, no OCD, OCD object alignment, OCD. Sometimes even the with snap the grid, the arrow, the line between it is jagged. And I’m like, why is it not a straight law? Crazy. I can forgive them for that I’m proud paying user. One thing that I mentioned is they now they launched their AI, which is which works with their mind map. Yeah, which works pretty well. So you know, if you just kind of want to get some ideas, and then what I would do is I take those ideas and put them into like a real AI writing platform or something like that. And, but for Mind Mapping I wanted to throw out there, I for my map I use I like a tool called Mind Meister everyone and that just helps me create my thoughts, get them down, organize them easily shared with my team. There’s an old there’s an OG my map software that just moved to the cloud after like three years. And now nobody’s really excited because they missed their moment. But maybe they’ll come back they’re resurface. Caught X mind, they were actually my first one it was all local on my on my computer and I couldn’t share it. But now they’re in the cloud. So I’m hoping they re emerge as a bonafide offering there. And then there’s a couple other I’ll save I there’s a tool that I use for mapping out airtable databases, forms and all of that. So we do mapping everybody this is this is core and fundamental to everything that we do. And sometimes sometimes I have to catch myself, I’ll be building I’ll get an idea. And I’ll go right into the app. And I have to pull back so much. So I’ve been you’d be proud of me Samantha that remember everybody we’re talking to the Organising guru here. So I will have even started pulling back before I create like a web page. And I put it in I don’t use notion or anything, but I put it in like airtable so that I can keep track of all the pages what they’re used for the links, the rails and all of that to easily access them. And it’s been just small things like that are like huge benefits huge benefits to you as you start to grow your company and you no need to keep track of things more easily. But we did mention AI Yeah, but by the time somebody listens to this, hopefully the AI landscape will be that much more is there’s no hopefully take that back it will be these apps are dropping like crazy. Everybody who’s familiar with the space got exposed to it primarily through Chet GPT what what AI software tools out there you using Are you liking Are you keeping an eye on what’s got your attention.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 28:10
So of course my mind was check GPT I’m also in the playground, because it does different as the native of of chat GPT it’s the native playground so you can do a little bit more it just isn’t fancy looking. But you can you can do more and then of course notion AI which I think is pretty I really love notion AI because it kicked out the light they were on it yeah Canva I’ve played around with Canvas AI which is in their docs. It’s okay, I’ll say it’s okay. But it’s okay. So I’ve been you know using it to generate ideas to analyze you know, web pages to that’s one thing I was using notion for is to dump that in there when I get an idea I can dump it in there. Keep track of all that in generate more ideas and then hop back into whatever tool I’m going to use for like social media stuff like that. I’ve been playing around with tailwind. Ai now and social V has AI to help you which social be Until when are like social media schedulers, so they help you schedule your social media, okay. So it can help you write those captions and you know, tell when is really, really Good, they actually have like a little bubble that sits in your browser tray. So whatever site you’re on, if you want to hit, hit it and get like a, share it, but also get the wording to say to it, it’s right there. So I’m really liking it. And all these you can use for free. You know, of course you got limits on how much you can get. But, you know, when you’re posting social media, that’s kind of the hardest part is, what do I say what I say? Saying more and more of these apps are having built in AI tools to help you with that, especially these social media apps. So that’s what I’ve been really playing around with bulk creating, and Canva. Once I get my information out of chat, GPT like, I’ve just been immersed in the AI world for the past month or so, just with all of the possibilities, and not to just swipe what it spits out and post it because that would be dumb. But you know, just to get your brain going like, Oh, I didn’t even think about that. Oh, I should expand on that. Even my old stuff, dropping it in there, like how can I receive this? How can I reword this? What can I glean new? The possibilities are endless with and you know, I don’t people are like scared Oh, it’s gonna put copywriters out. And this and that. No, it’s not, because you still need a human, you still need a human, you still need a human to go through. And again to put your voice on it. And that can never be replicated to me. So just use these tools to help spark your imagination, the possibilities that’s already in you and put your spin on it to help you think outside of the box and not be so narrow. And, you know, this is how I’ve always said this just expanding on stuff a new way that to me, that’s the best way to use AI to help broaden your mind and say things differently in a different way, especially here in the technical space. Because you can ask it to reword it to like a seventh grade level. I’m not doing tech speak all the time. And you know, class like, Huh?

Chris Davis 32:32
Yeah, I have to say. So I’m aware of Jasper AI not used it. I’ve been following them for a while. And one could argue I had an opportunity to jump on, you know, many moons ago. And I should have because now it’s really kind of taken off and everything. But this, I mentioned that because what I’m about to say is probably done in that platform the same if not better. But I was in notion and notion AI what I found works the best if it’s like document creation, if you’re writing a document or something, if you have an outline. If I have an outline, and you go up to the top and you’re like right in the overview, and you literally you hit spacebar This is how easy it is. And a prompt jumps or window jumps up and says would you like I think it’s like summarize are finished this or something like that. You click the button and it will look at your outline what you were going to talk about, and what the heading is of what you are writing about. It’s its output is very contextual. And that surprised me because I didn’t realize how many times I kind of get stuck. And I’m like, Man what to say. I’m so used to not having AI that I don’t even lean on it. And then what I do is like 80% of what he puts out is pretty good. And I just need to tighten it up some and I think that you know it’d be interesting to see what it does in the podcast space right now. I’ve tried a couple podcasts AI tools they’re not really there yet. I don’t there’s none that I will put my stamp on just yet but there’s promise but shout out to another Certified Partner carry he I can’t remember the AI toy was for video though. But this tool would transcribe and timestamp based on topics like when you change topics. And thinking about that and how you can now use that in conjunction with publishing on YouTube is next level because Samantha i Let me tell you, I’m spoiled. I do a lot of YouTube now I do a lot of YouTube. I’m always looking on YouTube trying to find something out or learn something new. And if you don’t have chapter markers, I find the probability of me watching your video and scrubbing through very low when I can go watch somebody on the same topic. Who’s got nice little chapter markers and quiet His kept is not that hard. As long as you have timestamps right in in the description, you know, a number colon number two will do the heavy lifting and actually link to that appropriate space. So, AI is one more, I believe it’s called Placide. I believe we have to check in the community but PLAs it allows you to generate Canva graphics from like, airtable. So for me, I have I’m gonna give you a workflow, my podcast manager, shout out to Cassie, he does an amazing job extracts quotes from every every podcast episode, and stores them in air table. Now that they’re an air table, I can click a button, and it will send every one of those quotes to a template that I’ve chosen in Canva. And create those quoted images. For me. Yeah, yeah, this this. Now, you mentioned replacing a person. This doesn’t replace a person, but this replaces a function of the person. So now that my social media manager doesn’t have to worry about that. I can now get them to focus on something else, not replace them. I can enhance their quality and value to me and my business. That’s what I think I saw on Facebook. Somebody was like, AI is not replacing your pilot. It’s your copilot. Yes. Yeah, that’s good. That what he said what he said right there. So yes, so let’s see if I can I can keep going. And you’ll be back. And we’ll talk about some more tech. And we’ll mix in some workflows. If you are, oh, yes, go

Samantha Pointer Foxx 36:51
look for everything that we’re saying. And that we use, I don’t want business owners to feel like they have to have all these things. It’s our business, to play in all these spaces and have all these things that I don’t want people to be like, Oh, I can’t go with you, because you use this software that the software is based on what your business needs. So we’re paid to play with it all. To be on top of it. So don’t get overwhelmed by that.

Chris Davis 37:25
Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s a that’s a great point. That’s a great point to mention. Because what it’s like this, let me let me just bring it all down to you all. I own a hammer. I own a set of tools or ratchet, I own all the basic tools to fix anything that needs to be fixed around his house and in my car. Basic. If, in my new car, I have to replace the radiator. Yes, I can go on YouTube. Yes, I can figure it out. But guess what, watch this, Samantha, I may not own the tools to do that specific thing. And here’s the second part, I may own the tools, and I don’t know how to use them effectively. There’s no difference in the tech space, you may have that CRM software, you may have that database software that form software, which we didn’t touch on, we would jump on form software next time. But you may not know how to do it. You may not know how to use that tool. So how foolish would I be? If I’m trying to replace a spark plug in my engine? And I need a deep socket? And I don’t have one that I throw out my ratchet. Yep, I just throw the whole tool out because I didn’t have the correct extension. to relay. It’s the exact same thing. So some of you yes, you’re using the right technology. Some of you are not. But what we’re seeing is you need somebody looking over your shoulder sometimes, but most of the times walking in front of you, or that has already walked the path that you’re going on to help recommend that software. I’ll be honest, Samantha, I think it’s one of the most undervalued skill sets in today’s society is somebody who can assess technology that is relative to your business strategy, and fits your business use case. And the reason being is because there’s just not a lot of tinkerers with marketing acumen. When I play with the tool, I’m thinking of all of the marketing use cases and I’m breaking it for those use cases. So when I know it works, I’m like, okay, use this tool. There’s just people are just picking stuff up getting a quick win and then recommending it so I can’t stress it enough. And lastly, before I give you the floor, to say to say your final fair, farewell here. Listen, listen, listen to me and listen to me. Good everybody. Stop touching your tech. Okay. Okay. Let me let me tell you something. Okay? Would you when the doctor is performing surgery? Let and let’s go deep Samantha open heart surgery. Okay, you’re wide open here, let’s just say you were woke? Would you dare take this the scalpel? Would you dare say Hey Doc, I got to hold on hold that mirror up. Yeah, that artery right there, right like nobody in their right mind would even think about it yet, when it comes to technology somehow some way and I get it, maybe there’s a pride piece to it, people have an expert at their disposal, and they still choose to try to touch on the tech, the only thing that your touch can do with the tech is breaking. That’s every in its it may not be broke right now you may be like no, I go in here all the time, let’s see is just a matter of time, you just haven’t, your business hasn’t grown to the point of where that touching is going to break it. But trust me is common. So stop, stop pitching the tech, there’s no rewards, I don’t know, if you’re doing it to get a pat on the back or somebody to tell you how great it is, is really a fairly reward plus industry.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 41:24
relinquish control, it’s okay.

Chris Davis 41:28
So you’re not gaining anything. For us. It’s a big part of what we do holistically. And what we get out of it is that your business is growing? Continually it’s converting and revenue is coming in. So anyways, all right, Samantha, before we before we go give everybody your where they can find you what you’re up to what they can connect with you with on? Is it an audit? Is it a new course? What do you got in the pipeline to give to our folks?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 41:57
Well, I have my from audit to automation, where I set up, you know, the foundational six systems we talk about all the time in our community, getting that set up in your business, every business needs it, you can go to organizing guru.com, forward slash 15 to jump on a call with me. So we can talk about that more. I also have monthly if you again don’t want to touch a tech and you know have either active campaign or keep I can help maintain that for you on a monthly basis, CRM maintenance package. So definitely, again, go to organize google.com Organizing guru.com Ford slash 15. And we can jump on the call. So you can learn more about that. All of my services come with a comprehensive tech knowledge assessment of everything that’s going on in your business of your processes. And yeah, so that’s you can find me on all social media. Just typing Samantha point of Fox, I’m on every platform, basically. So yeah, just connect with me.

Chris Davis 43:10
And I’ll say this everyone, you you are amongst experts in our specific domain. So at a bare minimum, go visit the website and just get an assessment. Hey, this is what I’m doing. Is this the right stack? Is there any other recommendations? And come with an open mind and change everyone? Come with open mind to change? We’re here to help. Samantha thank you so much for coming back on to the podcast. Can’t wait for the next episode where we continue this talk. Listen, if you all are enjoying this, let us know. Let us know. You can always send an email you can always leave a comment in the in the Apple Google sphere wherever you subscribe. And you can always join the community to link has been displaying on the podcast if you’re listening. It’s automation bridge.com forward slash community I believe. And yes, so Samantha, thank you again, greatly appreciate it. I know our listeners do as well. So thank you. Thanks for having me. All right, I’ll see some hands I’ll see you in the community. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The all systems go podcast. If you enjoyed it, make sure that you’re subscribed at the time of recording the all systems go podcast is free to subscribe to end it can be found in Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts new episodes are released every Thursday. So make sure you’re subscribed so that you don’t miss out and while you’re at it, please leave us a five star rating and review to show some love but also to help future listeners more easily find the podcast so they can experience the value of goodness as well. We’ve compiled all resources mentioned on the podcast as well as other resources that are extremely valuable and effective at helping you grow your marketing automation skills quickly, and you can access them all at all systems go podcast.com Thanks again for listening and until next time, I see you online automate responsibly, my friends

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 sell systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris Davis 0:32
Welcome to another episode of The all systems go podcast. I’m your host, Chris L. Davis. And today, listen, everybody, today we get to talk about tech. All right, I’ve got my very I say my because Samantha pointer Fox is a certified automation service provider, she has gone through the rigors of my program, and has come out tested, tried and true. And who better than one of my own trusted people to talk about technology and how to leverage it, we’re gonna this is going to be a recurring theme, we want to make sure that you all have a good understanding of the technological landscape is always changing so fast and so frequently. So she’s going to jump on and talk to us about some of the apps that are out there that she’s looking at our ad, some that I’m looking at how you can be looking at leveraging them, and just give you a good lay of the land. So for those of you who don’t know, Samantha has been on the podcast before, she’s the founder and owner of Samantha pointer enterprises, and Sam’s Tech Academy. She helps small business owners and CO CEOs who need their marketing systems automated, but don’t want to touch the tech or do it themselves. That’s extremely important. Okay. When you don’t want to touch the tech, there’s, there’s a place for you to come. All right. Her audit to automation service connects strategic planning, process documentation, technology, automation, implementation, and data to help organizations optimize and grow. Samantha. Welcome back to the podcast. Glad to have you on how are you doing? I’m doing good. Thanks for having me again. Yes, yes, yes. So I’m spoiled everybody. I get to engage with Samantha and a plethora of other super sharp marketing animators. They keep me honest, by the way. So I, a lot of times on the podcast, I speak about things, as you know, from the experts position. But listen, we need help, too. We need we need our sometimes our North Star gets a little off. And furthermore, I my eyes, just that as good as they used to be Samantha, there’s technology just evolving and coming out so fast. Even I can’t keep up with this. So let me start off by saying let me start off by asking you this. Samantha, what CRM software? Are you preferring these days?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 3:13
Well, I’m still on active campaign, still love Active Campaign. Also have keep too, but I’m really liking an Active Campaign.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 3:26
Because it just it does everything. So that’s what I’m using. Of course, I’m using it in conjunction with a lot of other software out there. So I’m not just stuck in one place. That’s where my main hub is.

Chris Davis 3:45
Yeah. And I’ll second that, everyone. Yes, I am still in active campaign. A lot of people. They heard my go the high level podcast. I got a lot of response. We were like, Hey, you can do this? Hey, it’s ready. That’s available. And I know they’re probably wondering, and Samantha, who knows, by the time that this podcast is actually released, you’re gonna have to check in on me. See if this is still still the case. And why am I saying that? I’m saying it because this is what I’ve realized has changed in the CRM landscape is that when when we first came out, Office AutoPilot, Infusionsoft for the primaries, and if a small business wanted to do automation, it was done with those tools. There was no native automation and no other tools. I remember using the Trello everything was manual. Trello said like a turbo pack or something like that, remember. But still no real automation. I remember using the sun and all of that. Well, fast forward. I’m not going to belabor everybody with all the details. But fast forward to now what will let me not fast forward to now there was a transitional time where, you know, active campaign came To the spot and their whole thing was look at how integrated we are. We can vary with any and everything. So now people are starting to become familiar with the Zapier is out there and maybe in the Integra mats and all of that. And then what happened is, I feel like the software companies were like, Hey, you don’t need them to integrate with us. We’ll do automation within our platform. So you don’t have to rely on Zapier and all of these other things. And yes, it’s beautiful. I remember, I’m just watching it take place, I’m like, Yes, more automation, more automation. And then you look up fast forward to right now. And you look at your CRM software, and you’re like, you know what, I’m actually doing automation in you. And here and here, and here, and here and here. So the dependency, let me say, maybe for experts, I don’t want to say for the marketplace yet, but for those who are savvy, the reliance that we used to have solely on CRM software is no longer there. So once you start to identify your needs, as a business, like, Okay, this is what I need a CRM to do. You may you may be able to pull that off with a airtable combo and something else in subminimum, email sending, I’m not telling you to stop using your CRM software right now, everybody, I’m just saying, you never know the landscape is evolving. So so with that being said, I want to ask you about one of the core things that you do a lot. And that’s organization, you are you are the organizing guru, by the way. And she does own that website.com. But the thing that I want people to understand is that you do it in a digital way. So it may be manual, where you’re coming in helping them organize, but then you have these tools that allow you to do that. And of the three that I know I’ve worked with you with our Zapier make, and Padley to kind of move stuff around create files, and Dropbox, drive and all of that just give us a little insight on ways that you’re using those tools or other tools to do some digital management.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 7:14
Well, as far as Zapier and make, I was using those to actually like, create documents, and upload them where they need to go. Especially wanted to an air table, moving stuff in the air table, but now air table has its own automations that have grown even since we first started, you know, last year, and I’ve actually been using air table automations to send out weekly updates to my clients. Because I can just type in a little air table field when I need to and hit a button, and it sends it out through my Gmail account. Google account, you know, I don’t need Zapier or make or Pavley for that anymore. Whereas before I would have to connect that up. So as these as more software are getting on the bandwagon of hey, native automations you know, there’s gonna be so much more you can do and and like you said, not having to be dependent on one thing. I don’t, I don’t like being stuck one place, you know, I’m saying, as your business grows, as you get more clients, that’s that’s gonna be just crazy. Tried to if you ever want to move to something else trying to move all that information. So it’s great to just have stuff. Redundant backups, basically.

Chris Davis 8:54
Yeah, yeah. redundancy is huge, repetitive. NIS in marketing is huge redundancy and automation. So you need both of those Rs, everybody, and you mentioned something, Samantha, you talked about sending emails from airtable. Some people don’t realize you can do that. And now, we’ve been when I say we us in the community, we’ve been doing this for a while, because this is where you learn how to find how to do all of these strategies. But I found that to be one of the most small but effective features of air table. And when I found it out, I immediately implemented it in my podcast, air table where I manage everything. And now when I want to invite somebody to schedule this literally just a custom field, change the status from potential to invite to schedule and it sends out the email and it does it everybody on your behalf on behalf of your Gmail account so you don’t don’t misinterpret what I’m saying? then you can use air table as an auto responder to not one to many communication. Okay, it’s not that’s not what it is. That’s not what it’s for. That’s not what it will ever be. But for those one to one specific use cases where you can automate that sending absolutely a great. And then speaking to airtable, in an organization, I found that I’m pretty much using now maybe, maybe there’s an argument. And this is probably specific to like what industry you’re in between notion as your wiki and the like, single source of truth. And airtable, perhaps is just my inability to grasp my mind, wrap my wrap my mind around notion and really configure it in the way that it’s quote, unquote, supposed to be. But I just keep going back to airtable.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:54
So I use both All right, all right. I have a business hub, and a personal hub and notion. Of course, I bought plates. So I’m not having to go from scratch, because that’s the hardest part. I rather hate somebody who’s already got everything linked up higher needs to be. And because I can embed stuff into notion, I embed my airtable databases. So if I need to see something quickly, I embed my click up task if I need to see something quickly, because even though you can do tasks in motion, I still Still, I don’t like it. Yeah, because yeah, checking it daily. Yeah, you can set reminders. But if you’re not going in there, it’s just not as intuitive to me as click up. So I rather just keep everything and click up as far as that. But I can invent my air table stuff. So if I’m using it like a client portal, if I have their information or their database that I’m because I organize my clients, CRM, Active Campaign, keep whatever, in airtable, I can embed that right in their thing in notion. So that way, you can use it to use both, but I still keep all my content, social media, stuff like that, in airtable, because it’s just easier. It’s easier. It’s more I’m very visual. So the UI is better to me. And it’s click around didn’t it didn’t do what I need to do where, you know, notion, I love notion, but there’s still some things, you know, that is still working on. So that’s how I use both of them together. So I can always see my information, no matter where I’m at, which one I’m in at the time. But like a content hub, that’s easier to share with my BA from airtable, she can go in and do what she needs to do. And then I don’t need to share my notion. information. So yeah.

Chris Davis 13:17
And I’ll and I’ll say, as you were mentioning that one of the cool things about these tools is that there is some connect, plug and play. Yeah, right. So you can keep things in air table and still embedded in notion to get the best of both worlds. I find in there improving on it notion is improving on it. But I find that I lean to airtable More and more, of course over time, because of their ability to integrate, right, they integrate with so many tools that I already use. And then another shout out to another ASP program alumni Alicia, when she showed us how to do web hooks, or scripts out airtable anytime and then I can put information anywhere. Now to do that, I’ve got to catch it, you know, I need to catch it with like maker or Zapier or something like that. But still, it unlocks such a world of possibilities. And by the way, every one year, this is what I will call a certified conversation. So these a lot of the insight that you’re hearing Samantha and I talk about just kind of like Oh yeah, and then we do this. Well, this is this is a little bit of a higher level of a conversation. industry that we’re in on purpose, it’s intentional. I don’t want to leave you out. Those of you who are just getting started. When you listen to podcasts like this, there shouldn’t be a little bit of overwhelm. We’re just helping you see bigger and what’s available and what’s out there. By no means are we telling you to go about this alone or Right. This is why we’re here.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 15:05
Want You to Know what’s available? And

Chris Davis 15:07
yes, yes. And speaking of which you mentioned clickup. One of the reasons one of the ways that I found clickup to be more useful for me. So first off, as I’m realizing something, Samantha, and their software of a Certified Partner of Morgan, Morgan Edwards, recommended, I think it was son summer, I think it’s maybe saying it wrong or right. But yeah, and essentially, it is software dedicated to the founder, the CEO, right, because you may have multiple businesses you that your view of the business may be different than kind of like the project management view. And that’s what I find myself doing is that clickup is great for all of my team to get in and keep tracking if I need to, I’ve had my operations manager, create dashboards and quick links to stuff that I need to see. But overall, my experience with clickup is overwhelming. Like it, it just overwhelms me, it slows me down. There’s too much going on, even when stuff is hidden. Because I may need to find some, then I click on something and like all these tasks, I’m like, Oh, my God, what is that? So what I found is this son sama is kind of like the version of a project manager that is very high level, it can get down to the nitty gritty of the task and everything. But you I found that clicker works really well for collaboration, where as notion could write like, I can assign tasks there. But click up I can attach loom videos, I can do all kinds of automation within there, and around tasks. So you know, no, I think for anybody to truly unlock the true potential of notion. I believe you need to have somebody that knows what they’re doing. Is that right? Like either buy a product or hire somebody to come in,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:02
already built out? There you go, you’re not starting from scratch. If you tried to start from scratch, you will be over? Overwhelmed. Seriously. Another thing I like to do in notion is embed like the whimsical maps and stuff, because it just shows up nice

Chris Davis 17:19
whimsy. So So embedding maps

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:23
up to in their documents about travel. I would love to see how it looks in 3.0. But what won me with notion is, if the person I’m sharing it with with click up is not a guest, it’s like it shows up weird. It doesn’t show up as cleanly. Again,

Chris Davis 17:52
yeah. And speaking of which, at the time of recording this clickup 3.0 is not out. It’s been announced. Let me say this. Let me let me just pause. Let me talk about clickup. Real quick. First off, sometimes I get confused, whether they’re a project management software company or an entertainment company, okay. Oh, I get trust me, I get the performance. And I think they have an album, they drop the album. I like all of it. Samantha, I’m not talking bad about any of that. Here’s my issue. You’ve been talking about 3.0 for over a year. Okay. The last thing I want to hear and see is a rap album. Or I want 3.0, because you’ve been talking about it for so long, is different if they never mentioned 3.0. And they were like announcing and then it came with all of the performance and all of that. That’s exciting. And then you delivered on it. But we’re supposed to have that last year. Early last year, now watch this about that. I get the production, I get the album, I get all of that. If 3.0 flops, it means nothing. If I got the click of album, I may just throw it away. I’m not I’m not listening to that.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 19:22
That direct, you get

Chris Davis 19:23
what I’m saying. So that’s my only thing is stay true to who you are. I’m not against all of the extra stuff, but deliver the primary first. So again, at the time of recording this, it has not dropped it’ll be out by the time this episode is out. And we’ll we’ll talk about it. Now. If you’re in the community, you’ll know my feedback live right. You don’t have to wait. There’s a delay between when we record and when we produce so make sure you join the community. But I am rooting for clickup Honestly, everything that they said that would be available in the app. I’m like like yeah Yes, this is great. This is exactly the things that I, this is what I want. So if they pull it off, I’ll be a proud clickup user and have a new album. Right? If I haven’t listened, I haven’t listened to any of the songs like when I scroll through LinkedIn and my other social platforms, I never have the sound on. So I’m always just looking at they’re like that’s all I see. And I’m like, it sounds like they’re really into whatever they’re saying. So I’d never have heard it personally. So anyways, so you mentioned mapping. Now this is Oh, my heart, my heart leaps with the joy of the many maps and many ways that you can map what software what software are you preferring the most and for which applications because everybody as automation service providers, we’re not never limited to one software, we usually have multiple use cases. And each use case requires a different software. So where are you at with your your mapping spec?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 21:05
Okay, so when I started, of course, it was Lucid Chart. It was a bit overwhelming. It just too many clicks to do things. Yeah. Then I went to Miro, which I still love Miro. But again, it’s overwhelming with all that you can do with it. I agree. I agree. And then we were introduced to whimsical. So now I’m a proud paid member a whimsical because it’s just easy for me to get in and get out. And especially if you’re new to mapping, I would start with whimsical first because it’s just clean, there’s not a whole bunch of stuff to distract you your main reason of being there, or it’s too many options. So that that’s where I’m at now is whimsical, I still do have a paid mural account. Because mural is good for brainstorming which team you can actually import maps that you’ve done in Lucid Chart into whimsical and get the whole shape colors and all that nice. Into Miro. Yeah, from Lucid Chart into Miro, which, if you’ve done a lot of maps in Lucid Chart, that’s great. So you don’t have to try to rebuild it from scratch. As of right now you would have to rebuild it and whimsical. But hopefully they’ll get that feature going soon. But yeah, I just love how quickly that I can have so many different things in whimsical. And just, you know, map out the process, do different kinds of maps, logic match process maps, brainstorming, and share it easily quickly, you know, and it’s just the clean UI. So that’s my, what I’m in love with right now is whimsical.

Chris Davis 23:10
Yeah. And another shout out to another student alumni Blair, who introduced us all to whimsical. So listeners, do you see I am who I am because of who I’m connected with? No, nobody, nobody achieves and goes about this stuff on their own and alone. So what I liked about whimsical was it protected me from myself. I was a lucid charter. And I’m used to the multiple clicks in configuring every little piece. And whimsical came in and said hey look, man, here’s your shapes. Here’s your here’s your arrow. What else do you want from me? And I’m like I want more colors. I want more customization. I say well wait a minute hold on do I actually need that so it’s really helped me not get ahead of myself. And one of the one of the things that I really like about whimsical is the sharing the ease of sharing and collaboration. Samantha let me give you some insight as I give everybody some insight. So I in my program, it is an official program. I don’t call it a course of program. This is a program where you fill out information we store the information that is referenced you take an assessment along the way it is a full out program comes with coaching calls and all of that so part of it was you get a template from Lucid Chart and you submit it and people will be leaving comments I will be leaving comments and it was so hard to find. I liked it Lucid Chart totally overcomplicated the sharing and collaboration part of flowchart. So here comes whimsical Oh my gosh. It looked like Active Campaign when there’s a comment. It’s like red dots. Yeah, you know on the specific action and it’s just so much easier. So I think they’ve done a great job making it comprehensive. I’ve got to give them a knock for this. This drives me crazy. This is part of my object alignment. Add. Okay, no OCD, OCD object alignment, OCD. Sometimes even the with snap the grid, the arrow, the line between it is jagged. And I’m like, why is it not a straight law? Crazy. I can forgive them for that I’m proud paying user. One thing that I mentioned is they now they launched their AI, which is which works with their mind map. Yeah, which works pretty well. So you know, if you just kind of want to get some ideas, and then what I would do is I take those ideas and put them into like a real AI writing platform or something like that. And, but for Mind Mapping I wanted to throw out there, I for my map I use I like a tool called Mind Meister everyone and that just helps me create my thoughts, get them down, organize them easily shared with my team. There’s an old there’s an OG my map software that just moved to the cloud after like three years. And now nobody’s really excited because they missed their moment. But maybe they’ll come back they’re resurface. Caught X mind, they were actually my first one it was all local on my on my computer and I couldn’t share it. But now they’re in the cloud. So I’m hoping they re emerge as a bonafide offering there. And then there’s a couple other I’ll save I there’s a tool that I use for mapping out airtable databases, forms and all of that. So we do mapping everybody this is this is core and fundamental to everything that we do. And sometimes sometimes I have to catch myself, I’ll be building I’ll get an idea. And I’ll go right into the app. And I have to pull back so much. So I’ve been you’d be proud of me Samantha that remember everybody we’re talking to the Organising guru here. So I will have even started pulling back before I create like a web page. And I put it in I don’t use notion or anything, but I put it in like airtable so that I can keep track of all the pages what they’re used for the links, the rails and all of that to easily access them. And it’s been just small things like that are like huge benefits huge benefits to you as you start to grow your company and you no need to keep track of things more easily. But we did mention AI Yeah, but by the time somebody listens to this, hopefully the AI landscape will be that much more is there’s no hopefully take that back it will be these apps are dropping like crazy. Everybody who’s familiar with the space got exposed to it primarily through Chet GPT what what AI software tools out there you using Are you liking Are you keeping an eye on what’s got your attention.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 28:10
So of course my mind was check GPT I’m also in the playground, because it does different as the native of of chat GPT it’s the native playground so you can do a little bit more it just isn’t fancy looking. But you can you can do more and then of course notion AI which I think is pretty I really love notion AI because it kicked out the light they were on it yeah Canva I’ve played around with Canvas AI which is in their docs. It’s okay, I’ll say it’s okay. But it’s okay. So I’ve been you know using it to generate ideas to analyze you know, web pages to that’s one thing I was using notion for is to dump that in there when I get an idea I can dump it in there. Keep track of all that in generate more ideas and then hop back into whatever tool I’m going to use for like social media stuff like that. I’ve been playing around with tailwind. Ai now and social V has AI to help you which social be Until when are like social media schedulers, so they help you schedule your social media, okay. So it can help you write those captions and you know, tell when is really, really Good, they actually have like a little bubble that sits in your browser tray. So whatever site you’re on, if you want to hit, hit it and get like a, share it, but also get the wording to say to it, it’s right there. So I’m really liking it. And all these you can use for free. You know, of course you got limits on how much you can get. But, you know, when you’re posting social media, that’s kind of the hardest part is, what do I say what I say? Saying more and more of these apps are having built in AI tools to help you with that, especially these social media apps. So that’s what I’ve been really playing around with bulk creating, and Canva. Once I get my information out of chat, GPT like, I’ve just been immersed in the AI world for the past month or so, just with all of the possibilities, and not to just swipe what it spits out and post it because that would be dumb. But you know, just to get your brain going like, Oh, I didn’t even think about that. Oh, I should expand on that. Even my old stuff, dropping it in there, like how can I receive this? How can I reword this? What can I glean new? The possibilities are endless with and you know, I don’t people are like scared Oh, it’s gonna put copywriters out. And this and that. No, it’s not, because you still need a human, you still need a human, you still need a human to go through. And again to put your voice on it. And that can never be replicated to me. So just use these tools to help spark your imagination, the possibilities that’s already in you and put your spin on it to help you think outside of the box and not be so narrow. And, you know, this is how I’ve always said this just expanding on stuff a new way that to me, that’s the best way to use AI to help broaden your mind and say things differently in a different way, especially here in the technical space. Because you can ask it to reword it to like a seventh grade level. I’m not doing tech speak all the time. And you know, class like, Huh?

Chris Davis 32:32
Yeah, I have to say. So I’m aware of Jasper AI not used it. I’ve been following them for a while. And one could argue I had an opportunity to jump on, you know, many moons ago. And I should have because now it’s really kind of taken off and everything. But this, I mentioned that because what I’m about to say is probably done in that platform the same if not better. But I was in notion and notion AI what I found works the best if it’s like document creation, if you’re writing a document or something, if you have an outline. If I have an outline, and you go up to the top and you’re like right in the overview, and you literally you hit spacebar This is how easy it is. And a prompt jumps or window jumps up and says would you like I think it’s like summarize are finished this or something like that. You click the button and it will look at your outline what you were going to talk about, and what the heading is of what you are writing about. It’s its output is very contextual. And that surprised me because I didn’t realize how many times I kind of get stuck. And I’m like, Man what to say. I’m so used to not having AI that I don’t even lean on it. And then what I do is like 80% of what he puts out is pretty good. And I just need to tighten it up some and I think that you know it’d be interesting to see what it does in the podcast space right now. I’ve tried a couple podcasts AI tools they’re not really there yet. I don’t there’s none that I will put my stamp on just yet but there’s promise but shout out to another Certified Partner carry he I can’t remember the AI toy was for video though. But this tool would transcribe and timestamp based on topics like when you change topics. And thinking about that and how you can now use that in conjunction with publishing on YouTube is next level because Samantha i Let me tell you, I’m spoiled. I do a lot of YouTube now I do a lot of YouTube. I’m always looking on YouTube trying to find something out or learn something new. And if you don’t have chapter markers, I find the probability of me watching your video and scrubbing through very low when I can go watch somebody on the same topic. Who’s got nice little chapter markers and quiet His kept is not that hard. As long as you have timestamps right in in the description, you know, a number colon number two will do the heavy lifting and actually link to that appropriate space. So, AI is one more, I believe it’s called Placide. I believe we have to check in the community but PLAs it allows you to generate Canva graphics from like, airtable. So for me, I have I’m gonna give you a workflow, my podcast manager, shout out to Cassie, he does an amazing job extracts quotes from every every podcast episode, and stores them in air table. Now that they’re an air table, I can click a button, and it will send every one of those quotes to a template that I’ve chosen in Canva. And create those quoted images. For me. Yeah, yeah, this this. Now, you mentioned replacing a person. This doesn’t replace a person, but this replaces a function of the person. So now that my social media manager doesn’t have to worry about that. I can now get them to focus on something else, not replace them. I can enhance their quality and value to me and my business. That’s what I think I saw on Facebook. Somebody was like, AI is not replacing your pilot. It’s your copilot. Yes. Yeah, that’s good. That what he said what he said right there. So yes, so let’s see if I can I can keep going. And you’ll be back. And we’ll talk about some more tech. And we’ll mix in some workflows. If you are, oh, yes, go

Samantha Pointer Foxx 36:51
look for everything that we’re saying. And that we use, I don’t want business owners to feel like they have to have all these things. It’s our business, to play in all these spaces and have all these things that I don’t want people to be like, Oh, I can’t go with you, because you use this software that the software is based on what your business needs. So we’re paid to play with it all. To be on top of it. So don’t get overwhelmed by that.

Chris Davis 37:25
Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s a that’s a great point. That’s a great point to mention. Because what it’s like this, let me let me just bring it all down to you all. I own a hammer. I own a set of tools or ratchet, I own all the basic tools to fix anything that needs to be fixed around his house and in my car. Basic. If, in my new car, I have to replace the radiator. Yes, I can go on YouTube. Yes, I can figure it out. But guess what, watch this, Samantha, I may not own the tools to do that specific thing. And here’s the second part, I may own the tools, and I don’t know how to use them effectively. There’s no difference in the tech space, you may have that CRM software, you may have that database software that form software, which we didn’t touch on, we would jump on form software next time. But you may not know how to do it. You may not know how to use that tool. So how foolish would I be? If I’m trying to replace a spark plug in my engine? And I need a deep socket? And I don’t have one that I throw out my ratchet. Yep, I just throw the whole tool out because I didn’t have the correct extension. to relay. It’s the exact same thing. So some of you yes, you’re using the right technology. Some of you are not. But what we’re seeing is you need somebody looking over your shoulder sometimes, but most of the times walking in front of you, or that has already walked the path that you’re going on to help recommend that software. I’ll be honest, Samantha, I think it’s one of the most undervalued skill sets in today’s society is somebody who can assess technology that is relative to your business strategy, and fits your business use case. And the reason being is because there’s just not a lot of tinkerers with marketing acumen. When I play with the tool, I’m thinking of all of the marketing use cases and I’m breaking it for those use cases. So when I know it works, I’m like, okay, use this tool. There’s just people are just picking stuff up getting a quick win and then recommending it so I can’t stress it enough. And lastly, before I give you the floor, to say to say your final fair, farewell here. Listen, listen, listen to me and listen to me. Good everybody. Stop touching your tech. Okay. Okay. Let me let me tell you something. Okay? Would you when the doctor is performing surgery? Let and let’s go deep Samantha open heart surgery. Okay, you’re wide open here, let’s just say you were woke? Would you dare take this the scalpel? Would you dare say Hey Doc, I got to hold on hold that mirror up. Yeah, that artery right there, right like nobody in their right mind would even think about it yet, when it comes to technology somehow some way and I get it, maybe there’s a pride piece to it, people have an expert at their disposal, and they still choose to try to touch on the tech, the only thing that your touch can do with the tech is breaking. That’s every in its it may not be broke right now you may be like no, I go in here all the time, let’s see is just a matter of time, you just haven’t, your business hasn’t grown to the point of where that touching is going to break it. But trust me is common. So stop, stop pitching the tech, there’s no rewards, I don’t know, if you’re doing it to get a pat on the back or somebody to tell you how great it is, is really a fairly reward plus industry.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 41:24
relinquish control, it’s okay.

Chris Davis 41:28
So you’re not gaining anything. For us. It’s a big part of what we do holistically. And what we get out of it is that your business is growing? Continually it’s converting and revenue is coming in. So anyways, all right, Samantha, before we before we go give everybody your where they can find you what you’re up to what they can connect with you with on? Is it an audit? Is it a new course? What do you got in the pipeline to give to our folks?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 41:57
Well, I have my from audit to automation, where I set up, you know, the foundational six systems we talk about all the time in our community, getting that set up in your business, every business needs it, you can go to organizing guru.com, forward slash 15 to jump on a call with me. So we can talk about that more. I also have monthly if you again don’t want to touch a tech and you know have either active campaign or keep I can help maintain that for you on a monthly basis, CRM maintenance package. So definitely, again, go to organize google.com Organizing guru.com Ford slash 15. And we can jump on the call. So you can learn more about that. All of my services come with a comprehensive tech knowledge assessment of everything that’s going on in your business of your processes. And yeah, so that’s you can find me on all social media. Just typing Samantha point of Fox, I’m on every platform, basically. So yeah, just connect with me.

Chris Davis 43:10
And I’ll say this everyone, you you are amongst experts in our specific domain. So at a bare minimum, go visit the website and just get an assessment. Hey, this is what I’m doing. Is this the right stack? Is there any other recommendations? And come with an open mind and change everyone? Come with open mind to change? We’re here to help. Samantha thank you so much for coming back on to the podcast. Can’t wait for the next episode where we continue this talk. Listen, if you all are enjoying this, let us know. Let us know. You can always send an email you can always leave a comment in the in the Apple Google sphere wherever you subscribe. And you can always join the community to link has been displaying on the podcast if you’re listening. It’s automation bridge.com forward slash community I believe. And yes, so Samantha, thank you again, greatly appreciate it. I know our listeners do as well. So thank you. Thanks for having me. All right, I’ll see some hands I’ll see you in the community. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The all systems go podcast. If you enjoyed it, make sure that you’re subscribed at the time of recording the all systems go podcast is free to subscribe to end it can be found in Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts new episodes are released every Thursday. So make sure you’re subscribed so that you don’t miss out and while you’re at it, please leave us a five star rating and review to show some love but also to help future listeners more easily find the podcast so they can experience the value of goodness as well. We’ve compiled all resources mentioned on the podcast as well as other resources that are extremely valuable and effective at helping you grow your marketing automation skills quickly, and you can access them all at all systems go podcast.com Thanks again for listening and until next time, I see you online automate responsibly, my friends