Keap Insights: Latest Updates and Features You Need to Know About 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 sale systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris 0:32
Welcome everyone to another episode of The all systems go podcast. I’m your host, Chris L. Davis. And in this episode, we we have a guest that is no stranger to the show, needs no introduction, but I will introduce her for those of you who are new and may not have listened to the previous episodes. Today. Today, everyone, we have Samantha pointer to talk to us about keep all the updates and everything that we need to know, just as we have K who comes in and keeps us up to date with all things Active Campaign. So the official intro is Samantha pointer is a certified automation service provider. That’s here at automation bridge. And the owner of Samantha pointer enterprises and the founder of Sam’s Tech Academy, she helps small business owners and CEOs who need their marketing systems automated, but don’t want to touch their tech or do it themselves from her audit to automation, service connect strategic planning process documentation, technology, automation, implementation and data to help organizations optimize and grow. And again, she’s here to tell us and keep us up to date with all things keep Samantha welcome to the podcast. Glad to have you back. As always, how are you doing?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 2:04
I’m doing great, Chris, thanks for having me on your podcasts again. Yes, yes. Anybody here? Yes, get used to the to the name and face. Samantha has been with me for so long. It’s just your face is like a logo in the members.

Chris 2:22
area. So I was pleasantly surprised because I’ve been actively looking. And by the way, if you’re a listener and you’re a

Chris 2:31
if you specialize in a particular tool, kartra, Ontraport,

Chris 2:37
MailChimp, any of the email marketing platforms, please let me know because I would rather have someone agnostic, and objective to come and help us understand what the platform is doing things that we can be looking at looking forward to. And that’s what Samantha’s here today to do. I reached out to her and I was like, Hey, wait a minute. She’s like, Oh, I’m at the key partner conference. And I was like, Hey, hold on.

Chris 3:03
Would you do you want to represent for the community, the software key, and she accepted my invitation. So we’re here today to keep every key to get everyone up to speed with the platform, and what they’re up to things that are publicly shareable. And just to start from scratch. If you I’ll start with a little bit of history, Samantha, then I’m going to hand it okay.

Chris 3:31
You’ve got to go back everyone. Some of the new marketers, you’re too wet behind the ears to understand this history. But there was a point in time where there were only two marketing automation solutions for small businesses. And it was Infusionsoft the other one was office autopilot. Now you fast forward about 10 years plus, Office Autopilot is called Ontraport. Infusionsoft is called keep keep has been, of course,

Chris 4:00
seeing a lot more competition these days than previous and has been faced with their own challenges over the years just trying to stay relevant and stay on the tip of the tongue and on the top of the minds of the small business,

Chris 4:15
small business space. And they have they’ve been making some tweaks and adjustments to make things more competitive. So that’s the background. Samantha, what was it about keep for you, that started to attract you and say, Hey, wait a minute. I think I really need to start to dive deep in and own this platform.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 4:39
Well for me, you know, of course, I’ve been through all of the email marketing platforms out there. And of course keep when he was Infusionsoft was like one of the major players you know, back in the day, so

Samantha Pointer Foxx 4:57
I had a love hate relationship with it.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:03
with some of my clients just working in the back end of it was, I hated it, I really hated it. So

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:12
when I had someone reach out to me about looking into becoming a partner, that’s when I went back in and saw that, Oh, they’ve upgraded to keep now and it has a whole new interface that isn’t that clunky back in that we were used to.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:31
And just the flow of everything in the background to me made more sense and aligned.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:39
As I delve deeper into them, with becoming certified, just it align more with what you teach us about the significant six, like

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:51
the whole, whole business automation, and not just certain parts, those messaging is aligned for me. And that’s what made me want to dive deeper and to learn more, and to see how this tool actually helps. Because of course, we preach is not about the tool, because it’s not, but

Samantha Pointer Foxx 6:12
like their alignment with the messaging of, you know, the whole lifecycle customer journey, where you need to be looking and not just

Samantha Pointer Foxx 6:26
focusing on one thing. So that’s what drew me into it. And then as I dug deeper into the software itself, and how, you know, easier it was to navigate.

Speaker 1 6:39
That’s why I was like, Well, let me jump in further and really bring this tool back out to the masses. Yeah, and everybody, I’ll add, I’ll add some some color here. Because

Chris 6:55
back in the day, they earned a name that I won’t say, I’m not gonna say the name, but it started with a C and rhymed with Infusionsoft. And primarily, it was because the the software and this is the beauty of software, you develop it for one audience, and you never know one what that audience is going to do with it, too. You never know what other audiences are going to adopt it. So Infusionsoft in its inception was never created specifically for internet marketers, coaches and consultants, things of that nature, definitely not SAS or E commerce. It was service based insurance, I think it was real estate and insurance, something like but service based businesses, email lists of under 10,000, contacts, pipeline management, all of that, that’s what the initial vision was, we got to have clay mask or Scott Moran back, Scott Martin all back on and give us the full.

Chris 7:54
But since then, since again, it was the only alternative it was the only options. You’ve got everybody using it. So then they’re like, hey, it needs to do this, Hey, it needs to do that. And before you know it, you have this Frankenstein software, which I don’t think, I don’t know, many platforms that haven’t suffered right from that. So then it becomes okay, how do we realign ourselves and I’m speaking on behalf of this company, but I’m just saying how do we realign ourselves with the market? And what I’m hearing from you, Samantha? Is that a lot of the back in real hard technical stuff because they had legacy Infusionsoft then they had a new Infusionsoft, which had a whole new campaign builder. Now it’s. So for those of us who have been with them for years, it’s just kind of like what’s going on?

Chris 8:43
To hear you say that they’ve taken a more full business automation approach, where they are focusing on the systems in the life cycles. And from what I’ve experienced, and even talk to some some some of the players over there is that it’s almost like a choose your own adventure experience now very human, where it’s like, hey, what would you like to do today? And you asked a question, and it’s creating recipes and automations for you on the back end, and then presenting you with a more simplified interface. Is that has that been your experience thus far as well?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 9:21
Yeah, and also there. So before where it was just software driven services driven, there, they have realized the missing piece of strategy where these companies were having a hard time with it because there was no strategy behind it. And we all know if you don’t have a strategy with technology, you you just got a bunch of nothing.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 9:47
You got up from two to two to two. So now they’re marrying the software, the strategy, the services so you can be successful with their software and to be successful in your business. So

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:00
So where partners like me come in is we can sit down with you, and help you map all of that out. And, like,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:12
shoot out prebuilt solutions for you and your company using their tool and not just under the mask of marketing automation, or sales automation, but your services, automation, your operations, automation, because that they’re quite new thing is small business automation. So that’s where you’re gonna start seeing key really hit hardest small business automation, automating the whole entire business,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:44
you know, onboarding, hiring, you know, what can their tool do to help with that,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:51
and have a solution pre built and pushed out to you to help with that. So that that is kind of where they’re heading, and where they’re hanging their shingle in not just being typecasted into marketing automation, but self.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 11:10
Because, again, you have the 678 figure businesses, yeah, you’re making money. But the owner don’t want to be in the background, trying to figure out how this tool works, or piece mill and all these different tools together, or, you know, so that that’s where they’re heading. And

Samantha Pointer Foxx 11:31
that’s where we come in to help with that help you with the strategy piece. So you can you know, get these things pushed out quicker and implemented in your company with your team and everything.

Chris 11:42
Yeah, that’s really refreshing to hear that there’s more of a strategy focus there. And you know,

Chris 11:51
you have to evolve. And that’s for all of us, right? Yeah, you’re a Certified Partner of both keep and here at automation bridge. And being in tune with the market, you see these shifts, and one of the shifts that I’ve been noticing, and you just spoke on it, is this this larger focus on ops? Yes, there. Used to, we’ve talked about this, we’ve talked about this, if you if everybody’s listening, like hey, where What do you mean, you talked about this, in the members area

Chris 12:29
where we talk daily, literally daily discuss these things.

Chris 12:34
And ops used to be attached to things marketing, ops, sales, ops, you know, all of the revenue ops, but now we’re starting to see ops stand alone. And and we’re starting to see these pockets of people and professionals and software companies acknowledging that, hey, we really need to streamline and automate operations, right? So they hear hear the I’m hearing good things. So everybody, I’m not playing dumb here. I literally made it my business not to dig deep on these platforms like I usually do. So I could be in the listener seat like you all and learn about what’s happening. And what I’m hearing is that key has been listening and paying attention to some of these market shifts, and is responding accordingly. And to me, that makes sense, especially if you’re going to go through the whole big rebranding. Yeah, don’t don’t build a new website, or the website and logo. And then you log in. And it’s the same thing. And I think for a while people were feeling like that. And that’s why it was so hard to not call it Infusionsoft. Right, right when you log in it is now I haven’t logged in in a while. Tell us about that for those of us who our previous Infusionsoft users in early keep where it was still kind of very similar on the backend, right, has the back in UI been updated and things of that nature? Oh, yeah. So of course, the highest level of key that they had that that most companies had where everything was compartmentalized and is still set in Fusion saw that’s becoming keep ultimate and it’s going to start looking like keep Pro and

Samantha Pointer Foxx 14:31
see keep Pro. They’re trying to bring it all under one thing right now there’s like three levels. So when I came in, it’s keep Pro. I’m on the Keep pro level, but also have keep ultimate which is what they’re owed. Infusionsoft is becoming its keep ultimate and they’re, you know, for companies that have been on keep 10 plus years. It’s going to take a little adjustment so they’re right

Samantha Pointer Foxx 15:00
If you can turn it on and off right now give you time to migrate some things over and get used to the new UI. But the UI is very much more streamlined. You’re not hunting for stuff, like what you have the buckets, like it’s really sexy background, because that matters when you’re wanting to be in it.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 15:25
So that that’s really where they’re trying to go is. So you don’t have to have three or four different things that you’re logging into. Like they’re really bringing it cohesively, and branding it as key, you know, the whole thing. So the background,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 15:46
the UI, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you’re in there. So if you bet, if you’re if you’re on the old version of infusion staff that had that bigger companies had,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 16:00
you’re going to be pleasantly surprised with what it looks like.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 16:06
You’re still going to have the things you’re used to, but it’s going to look better and more less confusing.

Unknown Speaker 16:15
They’re

Chris 16:19
inside, right? Yeah. So from from there, in my head, I’m in I’m envisioning an avatar in a business type. From from the information that you have and that you’ve you’ve ingested, and just your experience, actually, the information is a small point, I, I trust more so your experience with clients, the space of automation? Are you seeing that this tool stands out more for a particular audience than another? Yes. Yes. So it’s gonna be for those higher in businesses don’t want 678 figures? Who are doing serious

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:04
business, not just hobbyist or solopreneurs. That’s not. And we’ve seen this with other software. Yeah, we’re, we’re targeting small businesses, but

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:17
it’s a small business that’s doing big business numbers, basically, because that’s the only way it’s going to make sense to you to pay for the tool to pay for that.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:31
The coaching and consulting that comes along with it, the the integration, you know, the integrator, you know, and having someone really managed this for you, that’s gonna make more sense to you than if you’re just a business that where you’re still the one doing all the things, you know, I’m saying

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:54
they’re definitely targeting, I wouldn’t say, enterprise level. But again, that 678 figure,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:04
business Mark, who know, hey, I want to

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:09
know the value of automating all areas of my business, I know, this is gonna help me grow and scale and give me more freedom as the business owner. So that’s really what they’re pushing, who they’re targeting.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:25
And yeah, but not necessarily the solopreneur. Not if you’re a solopreneur. Can you use this? Yeah. If you see the value in it, yeah, you know, there’s solutions for you there. But it’ll probably make more sense to you.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:43
The higher up you’re getting with the email management with

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:50
the operations, hiring all that you’re gonna, you know, of course, if I’m doing hiring, if I’m hiring team members on board and things of that nature.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 19:03
You know, it makes more sense for you. Yeah.

Chris 19:07
I hear as I’m piecing it together with a, and it’s

Chris 19:13
this group of people didn’t exist at the mass that they do now. Right, but I do have this sweet spot of maybe five to 10, no more than five to 10 people on your team majority of freelancers, maybe one or two full time if that and pushing really big numbers. Right, right, not necessarily enterprise. So right we’ve seen with like HubSpot, their competition. By the way, if you’re listening and your HubSpot specialists, let me know we’d love to have you on and let us know about HubSpot. But what HubSpot did is they really broke off the marketing broke off the sales broke off the customer service and all of that, and then

Chris 19:58
it allowed you to

Chris 20:00
Get in at a much lower cost. Now write the membership. You’ve heard us talk about my community membership often. Well, membership has its perks because we just what was this a couple of weeks ago, I launched a email marketing pricing guide. Visual one, by the way, not one where you have to read. And it shows you the chart of how the price goes up with contacts. And I’m not gonna give away any info because you know, membered members only, but you will be surprised that at 20, under 2500, contacts how competitive HubSpot is. And then you’ll also be shocked at how non competitive it is.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 20:49
All right.

Chris 20:51
But I say that to say I’ve seen HubSpot adoption really grown. And I think Samantha I think it’s because of that vacancy of hey, look smaller team but pushing big numbers, right? You don’t want to go up to Salesforce, right? Maybe it definitely something like MailChimp is too rudimentary because you’ve got sales pipelines, you’ve got other needs, right? Email. So then it’s like, well, what do I choose? And themes like Keepa, saying, hey, moneymakers, six, right eight figures, your art, you already know the value of your processes, you already understand your time is valuable, you know that it takes a team and you need a software that can come in and just help you scale from there? Well, if I’m hearing you correctly, there’s also this partnering of strategy with like, these calls and everything. So yeah, these are not gonna be just platform focus these

Samantha Pointer Foxx 21:51
tools, yeah, you’re gonna have

Samantha Pointer Foxx 21:55
they’re bundling it basically all together, not just the software, so you, so you won’t just get software and like, hey, figure it out on your own good luck with that.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 22:07
It’s gonna be bundled with strategy with an implementer with, you know, you’ll get partners like me, who can, who’s going to be walking you through everything, and really helping your company, you know, implement this and launch it, you know, basically. So you’re just not out there with the tool by itself. And, and also,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 22:35
not everything, like you, this won’t be the only tool you have to use, you know, we’re going to help you integrate with other stuff, you have other technology tools, you have put putting all that together, again, based around the strategy.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 22:54
That that’s the whole thing. And, you know, when we talk about pricing for a while, they were not priced competitively, of course, but like all companies, they, they are pushing a price increase, of course.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:14
And there will be advantages for coming through a partner like me with your pricing.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:23
So where you get like a bundle situation, so.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:29
But again, just seeing, you know, clay just wrote this book, where he updated his book from years ago,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:39
laying out the whole small business automation and the strategy and how important that is. And

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:50
I don’t even know where I was going with it. But

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:53
you know, just harping on how important it is to clear out that chaos out of your business, because you don’t have no strategy. You don’t you got all these tools, you don’t know what to do with the tools, you don’t have time to figure out the tools.

Chris 24:12
And just again, that that’s basically where they’re trying to hang their head and fill that gap and fill that space. because not a lot of people are there not a lot of companies out there they just there with their tool. You know, yeah, it you I see I see the collective strategy from afar, just hearing this, you know, for the first time and the fact that you the partners are incentivized or enabled I should say they’re, they’re equipped with everything, to successfully bring somebody on strategically and then match the software with it.

Chris 24:55
Being giving that different or special bundling to

Chris 25:00
To the partners is great because now we don’t have cannibalizing efforts where you can sign up directly for us or our partners and people. Which one now it’s more of a no brainer. And I have to say this everyone, I, we’re all about responsible automation, of course, right automate responsibly.

Chris 25:23
You this, Samantha is telling us how much straightforward in easier the tool is to use.

Chris 25:33
That does not alleviate the difficulty of knowing what to do, you still

Chris 25:43
have to know what to do. You’re gonna get in there and be like, oh, there’s so many things. Yes, yeah. So you still have to know what to do, you still have to have the time to do it. And there’s still going to be learning curves. And I’m saying this to say, leave it up to the specialists. Okay. If you are, I’m going to use any opportunity in every podcast moving forward, to tell the people who shouldn’t be touching the tech to stop touching the tech. If you’ve got companies literally saying, hey, look, let me go train you on our software, and put the partner tag on you so that you can go out on our behalf. And now let me also defend the partners. Listen, if you’re thinking that just because there’s a badge of partnership or certified, that everything is going to be all good. Don’t lie to yourself that we’re still humans still trying to figure out the best solution for your business. And as long as you can clearly communicate what the thing is that you need, and you don’t even have to know, you just have to be willing to answer the question to someone like Samantha would ask you. And here’s the big piece. It was like, Yeah, I can answer questions, then release. Right, you’re gonna have to trust us. You see, like, you have to be everybody, my programs and training. So you have somebody like Samantha, who certify, I’ve been teaching this, but what I’m saying is, I’m one person with one company, when you see the larger software companies starting to acknowledge, wait a minute, they need more strategy. And as a company, we don’t want to take on that whole burden. Ah, partners, listen, Let’s equip them, let’s get them ready. And then on our behalf with our new software and our new vision, they can help piece it all together. So with that being said, I’m I’m like projecting a whole lot on

Chris 27:45
that I’m looking for you to validate is that the more expected approach to key is say, hey, get a partner, which they’ve always been partner friendly and partner heavy. So yeah, I was certified. I really enjoyed that process. But more so now, not just for the software, though, for strategy holistically your business to hit, yes. Automation, yes. Because they see themselves. The company itself is just generalists.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 28:17
But they want to bring all the partners as the specialists, like you need the specialists to, to be very successful with to

Samantha Pointer Foxx 28:27
it. I wrote down like, it’s the whole thing where we talk about hiring technology, hiring technology, keep it’s just the tool, but you have me a partner with the we bring the strategy piece, we bring the implementation piece, and then that means you as the business owner to see oh, can provide the service can be the visionary. That’s how you, which is what you love to do anyway, which is what you’re an expert in, you’re not the expert in the tool, you’re not the expert in the strategy. So it lets everyone play nicely together and, you know, work together to bring out your business’s ultimate goal. So that’s kind of how I look at it.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 29:16
And if more software companies would embrace strategy, you know, we wouldn’t have so much

Samantha Pointer Foxx 29:23
confusion and total happiness we do now.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 29:28
Because

Samantha Pointer Foxx 29:30
people usually get a technology tool, and, you know, go a couple of hours trying to figure it out and get frustrated and say, Oh, it didn’t work. Well, no, it didn’t work because you didn’t have the strategy behind it of why you need it in the first place. Or even if you need it that you just went off of a recommendation for somebody in the Facebook group or random person who that’s not their thing. So I think more more software companies should adopt that attitude of how important

Chris 30:00
strategy is, you know, to make these tools successful. Yeah, yeah. You know, no strategy, no software. And

Chris 30:09
let me ask you this because how you’re describing the the approach, and then you said the words. They’re also working at, you know, integrating with other tools. Are they not? Everybody again, I don’t want to assume intelligence here, but we’ve come a long ways Zapier. Believe it or not new newer uses of Zapier. It’s a third party integration software that allows you to pass data between software’s that don’t already connect and integrate. But there was a time where Zapier used to be ones that one action.

Chris 30:47
Right? It’s like, whoa, how’s that even possible? Who would use it, but it was really next level to be able to tie tools together that because otherwise, you’re just waiting for the tool, like OneDrive to integrate with my favorite software. So the first version of Infusionsoft was not built with that in mind. Right, you know, like, it was more of an afterthought. The

Chris 31:11
the integrations, the integration side, yeah, an afterthought. But now, it seems like this is this is not just an afterthought. This is a core focus. They’re looking and saying, wait a minute, we want to build this thing and make sure that other people can play nicely with it. Yes, yeah. What you’re seeing is well, that we’ll see a more open platform and not just all in one, we do everything we can do as much as you would like us to do because I know they still have payment processing, sales, marketing, and they have to pay everything. Yeah.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 31:47
Yeah, they are actually have a

Samantha Pointer Foxx 31:52
a tighter integration with Zapier now, like they really built out more stuff with Zapier, of course, you know, there’s make and everything that you can do things with also, but they,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:05
instead of it being an afterthought, they have really

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:10
started to focus more on those things. Because they know, hey, yeah, we have a built it in calendar, you can use but you might like camellia, you might like this, you might like that. So here’s the APR or whatever, to play nicely, and still see it within keep

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:31
two way text messaging just got rolled out.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:35
Before it wasn’t.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:37
They have email health with it now. So you can, you know, with this new deliverability change, and the Google and all that they’re putting it where you can see it inside keep, and you don’t have to try to figure out how to stay on top of your email opens and things of that nature.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:58
The campaign builder we all know, I have a love hate relationship is now the automation builder. And I’m actually beta testing, you know, upgrades to that experience to

Samantha Pointer Foxx 33:16
have an AI content, you know, to help, you know, we’re seeing more people integrating AI to help you write these emails to help you write these landing pages to help you right. So these are things that they’ve been rolling out slowly, that you’re going to see more.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 33:35
And, of course, with more things you can do, again, you’re gonna need help strategy like how can I use this best in my business?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 33:45
How can I integrate this with? If I’m someone who use proprietary software? How can I integrate this with the keep and have a cohesive experience? So

Chris 33:56
those are all at the forefront with them. Now, instead of again, that afterthought and thinking I’m the end all be all too, you know, you got to learn how to play nice with other tools, because different companies are using different things. And that’s the thing, Samantha if if you think about it, I’ve traditionally had a bad experience with all in one software, when it comes to needs outside of all of the that they provide. Right? Right. But the solution in the past the solution has been more so we’ll just use another platform and that’s where active campaign came in really took off. We played with anything, right? If we keep our mind open and don’t prescribe that that’s the way to go. And we say hey, wait a minute, all in one isn’t all in one in itself is not what made it bad. What made it bad or unpleasant, was the fact that I couldn’t easily tie into the all in one or

Unknown Speaker 35:00
I

Chris 35:01
place. But in today’s

Chris 35:05
technological landscape, you’ve got to be able to allow people to easily Samantha, easily integrate and get the data out. All in ones, the cardinal sin that they would create would be housing, just strong arming your data. Right, right all in the system. And they’re like, as long as you keep it here, we’ll do right by you. And this is the best place that could ever be. And now we’re saying no, let me pull that data and send it somewhere else. And let me write other things with it. So I am not against all in one. I think that all in one has needed integration. So it’s good to hear that. But I’m also sensitive that most people are extremely overwhelmed with technology, even if they’re technologically inclined. All right.

Chris 35:54
Samantha, you’re a witness. It’s taken me all of the last year to wrap my head around AI and automation.

Chris 36:04
What what does one do? How do they connect? what systems do you build? I’m just now getting to that point where it’s like, Oh, I get it now. Right? I’m tech savvy. So imagine other other people who aren’t asked. So I like software being more simple, but never at the expense of my data and ease of access to it and use. As long as you can check those three boxes, simple. access data, and use data make that easy. You got me, you got me the rest is just a matter of, hey, what stage of my business Am I in? Does this tool fit with it? Anything else, Samantha, any other updates, features? Anything that gets you excited that you haven’t shared yet that you’d like all the listeners to know?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 36:59
No, that’s as much as I can share right now.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:05
Because they did have a signed NDA. But if you’re interested in becoming a partner,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:12
get at me, because I think one thing that they’re going to be pushing out soon to help partners,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:22
you’re going to want to be, you’re going to want to be on that train, don’t they say? Because it’s left the harbor. So

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:32
but yeah, I really like where they’re going with things.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:38
The messaging, again just aligns with as a certified automation service provider, it aligns with the significant six, it aligns with what we’ve been preaching about her and technology. And not just focusing on one area of your business, but the importance of

Speaker 2 37:58
home business out of automation. And, you know, making their life easier. As a business owner. So, right. Great. Well, listen, I’m, I’m excited to see, we’ll have to have you back on when that you can’t talk about you can talk about yes and get

Samantha Pointer Foxx 38:17
in about another month or so.

Chris 38:20
Okay, well, great. So you’ve got everybody up to speed maybe even excited now. Like maybe this is what I’ve been missing. How can people get in touch with you? Where can they connect with you?

Speaker 2 38:33
They can go to my website organizing guru.com. If you scroll down, you’ll see a form that says if your keep user Infusionsoft want to learn more, fill out that form. And I will be in touch with you. And we can talk about how this solution can help your business. Great, everybody. Don’t worry if you fingers couldn’t type fast enough organizing guru.com. The link is in the show notes right now. You can click it, go directly to the website and take the steps that Samantha outlined. Samantha, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast again. And enlightening us. I look forward in about a quarter. How about that? I’ll give it a quarter. Yes, yes.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 39:19
I can show you some stuff.

Chris 39:24
Those of you who are in the community, don’t worry. We have Samantha at our disposal if you ever want to see anything screenshots or if you want to do a walkthrough I know she’s willing to do that. Those of you not in the community don’t have a membership which weighed in on come on join us.

Chris 39:43
Listen, we got some stuff. You know, I will let me admit. I don’t do my own self justice. Right. I mean, we’re we’ve got some really critical conversations, right?

Chris 40:00
We’re assessing all types of software and finding all different types of use cases. I mean, just I think last month, you found a new webinar software, to great WordPress, and a lot to

Chris 40:15
Samantha, these findings and just the strategy and just the in the know, helps, it helps me like the email app that I’ve created this does pricing helps me sometimes I’m like, why would I recommend get response over Aweber. And I look at the price to try and say, Oh, wow, this is when I would stop recommending this is when I heard, things like that. They’re extremely hard to just put out in the public and let people abuse and use at their own peril. But when it’s in a combined container with everyone, with an aligned focus, it just things happen so much. So anyways, enough about that. But thank you again, Samantha for jumping on. I feel very much well informed with the upcoming changes and even how to be thinking about key. Yeah, you’ve helped me it would be ridiculous if MailChimp and keep wearing the same sentence now understanding

Chris 41:17
what I’m saying so now somebody’s like, Hey, we’re using keeping we’re thinking about going into MailChimp, they either don’t understand the platform itself, or maybe their needs were a lot more simplified and somebody just tried them too much right. But right now after this podcast, I at least have that understanding our listeners do as well. So appreciate that. Listeners Thank you like always, as always for for tuning in and listening to another episode. I can’t thank you all enough. And until next time, I see you all online. Automate responsibly, my friends. 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, and 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 sale systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris 0:32
Welcome everyone to another episode of The all systems go podcast. I’m your host, Chris L. Davis. And in this episode, we we have a guest that is no stranger to the show, needs no introduction, but I will introduce her for those of you who are new and may not have listened to the previous episodes. Today. Today, everyone, we have Samantha pointer to talk to us about keep all the updates and everything that we need to know, just as we have K who comes in and keeps us up to date with all things Active Campaign. So the official intro is Samantha pointer is a certified automation service provider. That’s here at automation bridge. And the owner of Samantha pointer enterprises and the founder of Sam’s Tech Academy, she helps small business owners and CEOs who need their marketing systems automated, but don’t want to touch their tech or do it themselves from her audit to automation, service connect strategic planning process documentation, technology, automation, implementation and data to help organizations optimize and grow. And again, she’s here to tell us and keep us up to date with all things keep Samantha welcome to the podcast. Glad to have you back. As always, how are you doing?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 2:04
I’m doing great, Chris, thanks for having me on your podcasts again. Yes, yes. Anybody here? Yes, get used to the to the name and face. Samantha has been with me for so long. It’s just your face is like a logo in the members.

Chris 2:22
area. So I was pleasantly surprised because I’ve been actively looking. And by the way, if you’re a listener and you’re a

Chris 2:31
if you specialize in a particular tool, kartra, Ontraport,

Chris 2:37
MailChimp, any of the email marketing platforms, please let me know because I would rather have someone agnostic, and objective to come and help us understand what the platform is doing things that we can be looking at looking forward to. And that’s what Samantha’s here today to do. I reached out to her and I was like, Hey, wait a minute. She’s like, Oh, I’m at the key partner conference. And I was like, Hey, hold on.

Chris 3:03
Would you do you want to represent for the community, the software key, and she accepted my invitation. So we’re here today to keep every key to get everyone up to speed with the platform, and what they’re up to things that are publicly shareable. And just to start from scratch. If you I’ll start with a little bit of history, Samantha, then I’m going to hand it okay.

Chris 3:31
You’ve got to go back everyone. Some of the new marketers, you’re too wet behind the ears to understand this history. But there was a point in time where there were only two marketing automation solutions for small businesses. And it was Infusionsoft the other one was office autopilot. Now you fast forward about 10 years plus, Office Autopilot is called Ontraport. Infusionsoft is called keep keep has been, of course,

Chris 4:00
seeing a lot more competition these days than previous and has been faced with their own challenges over the years just trying to stay relevant and stay on the tip of the tongue and on the top of the minds of the small business,

Chris 4:15
small business space. And they have they’ve been making some tweaks and adjustments to make things more competitive. So that’s the background. Samantha, what was it about keep for you, that started to attract you and say, Hey, wait a minute. I think I really need to start to dive deep in and own this platform.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 4:39
Well for me, you know, of course, I’ve been through all of the email marketing platforms out there. And of course keep when he was Infusionsoft was like one of the major players you know, back in the day, so

Samantha Pointer Foxx 4:57
I had a love hate relationship with it.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:03
with some of my clients just working in the back end of it was, I hated it, I really hated it. So

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:12
when I had someone reach out to me about looking into becoming a partner, that’s when I went back in and saw that, Oh, they’ve upgraded to keep now and it has a whole new interface that isn’t that clunky back in that we were used to.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:31
And just the flow of everything in the background to me made more sense and aligned.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:39
As I delve deeper into them, with becoming certified, just it align more with what you teach us about the significant six, like

Samantha Pointer Foxx 5:51
the whole, whole business automation, and not just certain parts, those messaging is aligned for me. And that’s what made me want to dive deeper and to learn more, and to see how this tool actually helps. Because of course, we preach is not about the tool, because it’s not, but

Samantha Pointer Foxx 6:12
like their alignment with the messaging of, you know, the whole lifecycle customer journey, where you need to be looking and not just

Samantha Pointer Foxx 6:26
focusing on one thing. So that’s what drew me into it. And then as I dug deeper into the software itself, and how, you know, easier it was to navigate.

Speaker 1 6:39
That’s why I was like, Well, let me jump in further and really bring this tool back out to the masses. Yeah, and everybody, I’ll add, I’ll add some some color here. Because

Chris 6:55
back in the day, they earned a name that I won’t say, I’m not gonna say the name, but it started with a C and rhymed with Infusionsoft. And primarily, it was because the the software and this is the beauty of software, you develop it for one audience, and you never know one what that audience is going to do with it, too. You never know what other audiences are going to adopt it. So Infusionsoft in its inception was never created specifically for internet marketers, coaches and consultants, things of that nature, definitely not SAS or E commerce. It was service based insurance, I think it was real estate and insurance, something like but service based businesses, email lists of under 10,000, contacts, pipeline management, all of that, that’s what the initial vision was, we got to have clay mask or Scott Moran back, Scott Martin all back on and give us the full.

Chris 7:54
But since then, since again, it was the only alternative it was the only options. You’ve got everybody using it. So then they’re like, hey, it needs to do this, Hey, it needs to do that. And before you know it, you have this Frankenstein software, which I don’t think, I don’t know, many platforms that haven’t suffered right from that. So then it becomes okay, how do we realign ourselves and I’m speaking on behalf of this company, but I’m just saying how do we realign ourselves with the market? And what I’m hearing from you, Samantha? Is that a lot of the back in real hard technical stuff because they had legacy Infusionsoft then they had a new Infusionsoft, which had a whole new campaign builder. Now it’s. So for those of us who have been with them for years, it’s just kind of like what’s going on?

Chris 8:43
To hear you say that they’ve taken a more full business automation approach, where they are focusing on the systems in the life cycles. And from what I’ve experienced, and even talk to some some some of the players over there is that it’s almost like a choose your own adventure experience now very human, where it’s like, hey, what would you like to do today? And you asked a question, and it’s creating recipes and automations for you on the back end, and then presenting you with a more simplified interface. Is that has that been your experience thus far as well?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 9:21
Yeah, and also there. So before where it was just software driven services driven, there, they have realized the missing piece of strategy where these companies were having a hard time with it because there was no strategy behind it. And we all know if you don’t have a strategy with technology, you you just got a bunch of nothing.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 9:47
You got up from two to two to two. So now they’re marrying the software, the strategy, the services so you can be successful with their software and to be successful in your business. So

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:00
So where partners like me come in is we can sit down with you, and help you map all of that out. And, like,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:12
shoot out prebuilt solutions for you and your company using their tool and not just under the mask of marketing automation, or sales automation, but your services, automation, your operations, automation, because that they’re quite new thing is small business automation. So that’s where you’re gonna start seeing key really hit hardest small business automation, automating the whole entire business,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:44
you know, onboarding, hiring, you know, what can their tool do to help with that,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 10:51
and have a solution pre built and pushed out to you to help with that. So that that is kind of where they’re heading, and where they’re hanging their shingle in not just being typecasted into marketing automation, but self.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 11:10
Because, again, you have the 678 figure businesses, yeah, you’re making money. But the owner don’t want to be in the background, trying to figure out how this tool works, or piece mill and all these different tools together, or, you know, so that that’s where they’re heading. And

Samantha Pointer Foxx 11:31
that’s where we come in to help with that help you with the strategy piece. So you can you know, get these things pushed out quicker and implemented in your company with your team and everything.

Chris 11:42
Yeah, that’s really refreshing to hear that there’s more of a strategy focus there. And you know,

Chris 11:51
you have to evolve. And that’s for all of us, right? Yeah, you’re a Certified Partner of both keep and here at automation bridge. And being in tune with the market, you see these shifts, and one of the shifts that I’ve been noticing, and you just spoke on it, is this this larger focus on ops? Yes, there. Used to, we’ve talked about this, we’ve talked about this, if you if everybody’s listening, like hey, where What do you mean, you talked about this, in the members area

Chris 12:29
where we talk daily, literally daily discuss these things.

Chris 12:34
And ops used to be attached to things marketing, ops, sales, ops, you know, all of the revenue ops, but now we’re starting to see ops stand alone. And and we’re starting to see these pockets of people and professionals and software companies acknowledging that, hey, we really need to streamline and automate operations, right? So they hear hear the I’m hearing good things. So everybody, I’m not playing dumb here. I literally made it my business not to dig deep on these platforms like I usually do. So I could be in the listener seat like you all and learn about what’s happening. And what I’m hearing is that key has been listening and paying attention to some of these market shifts, and is responding accordingly. And to me, that makes sense, especially if you’re going to go through the whole big rebranding. Yeah, don’t don’t build a new website, or the website and logo. And then you log in. And it’s the same thing. And I think for a while people were feeling like that. And that’s why it was so hard to not call it Infusionsoft. Right, right when you log in it is now I haven’t logged in in a while. Tell us about that for those of us who our previous Infusionsoft users in early keep where it was still kind of very similar on the backend, right, has the back in UI been updated and things of that nature? Oh, yeah. So of course, the highest level of key that they had that that most companies had where everything was compartmentalized and is still set in Fusion saw that’s becoming keep ultimate and it’s going to start looking like keep Pro and

Samantha Pointer Foxx 14:31
see keep Pro. They’re trying to bring it all under one thing right now there’s like three levels. So when I came in, it’s keep Pro. I’m on the Keep pro level, but also have keep ultimate which is what they’re owed. Infusionsoft is becoming its keep ultimate and they’re, you know, for companies that have been on keep 10 plus years. It’s going to take a little adjustment so they’re right

Samantha Pointer Foxx 15:00
If you can turn it on and off right now give you time to migrate some things over and get used to the new UI. But the UI is very much more streamlined. You’re not hunting for stuff, like what you have the buckets, like it’s really sexy background, because that matters when you’re wanting to be in it.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 15:25
So that that’s really where they’re trying to go is. So you don’t have to have three or four different things that you’re logging into. Like they’re really bringing it cohesively, and branding it as key, you know, the whole thing. So the background,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 15:46
the UI, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you’re in there. So if you bet, if you’re if you’re on the old version of infusion staff that had that bigger companies had,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 16:00
you’re going to be pleasantly surprised with what it looks like.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 16:06
You’re still going to have the things you’re used to, but it’s going to look better and more less confusing.

Unknown Speaker 16:15
They’re

Chris 16:19
inside, right? Yeah. So from from there, in my head, I’m in I’m envisioning an avatar in a business type. From from the information that you have and that you’ve you’ve ingested, and just your experience, actually, the information is a small point, I, I trust more so your experience with clients, the space of automation? Are you seeing that this tool stands out more for a particular audience than another? Yes. Yes. So it’s gonna be for those higher in businesses don’t want 678 figures? Who are doing serious

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:04
business, not just hobbyist or solopreneurs. That’s not. And we’ve seen this with other software. Yeah, we’re, we’re targeting small businesses, but

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:17
it’s a small business that’s doing big business numbers, basically, because that’s the only way it’s going to make sense to you to pay for the tool to pay for that.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:31
The coaching and consulting that comes along with it, the the integration, you know, the integrator, you know, and having someone really managed this for you, that’s gonna make more sense to you than if you’re just a business that where you’re still the one doing all the things, you know, I’m saying

Samantha Pointer Foxx 17:54
they’re definitely targeting, I wouldn’t say, enterprise level. But again, that 678 figure,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:04
business Mark, who know, hey, I want to

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:09
know the value of automating all areas of my business, I know, this is gonna help me grow and scale and give me more freedom as the business owner. So that’s really what they’re pushing, who they’re targeting.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:25
And yeah, but not necessarily the solopreneur. Not if you’re a solopreneur. Can you use this? Yeah. If you see the value in it, yeah, you know, there’s solutions for you there. But it’ll probably make more sense to you.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:43
The higher up you’re getting with the email management with

Samantha Pointer Foxx 18:50
the operations, hiring all that you’re gonna, you know, of course, if I’m doing hiring, if I’m hiring team members on board and things of that nature.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 19:03
You know, it makes more sense for you. Yeah.

Chris 19:07
I hear as I’m piecing it together with a, and it’s

Chris 19:13
this group of people didn’t exist at the mass that they do now. Right, but I do have this sweet spot of maybe five to 10, no more than five to 10 people on your team majority of freelancers, maybe one or two full time if that and pushing really big numbers. Right, right, not necessarily enterprise. So right we’ve seen with like HubSpot, their competition. By the way, if you’re listening and your HubSpot specialists, let me know we’d love to have you on and let us know about HubSpot. But what HubSpot did is they really broke off the marketing broke off the sales broke off the customer service and all of that, and then

Chris 19:58
it allowed you to

Chris 20:00
Get in at a much lower cost. Now write the membership. You’ve heard us talk about my community membership often. Well, membership has its perks because we just what was this a couple of weeks ago, I launched a email marketing pricing guide. Visual one, by the way, not one where you have to read. And it shows you the chart of how the price goes up with contacts. And I’m not gonna give away any info because you know, membered members only, but you will be surprised that at 20, under 2500, contacts how competitive HubSpot is. And then you’ll also be shocked at how non competitive it is.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 20:49
All right.

Chris 20:51
But I say that to say I’ve seen HubSpot adoption really grown. And I think Samantha I think it’s because of that vacancy of hey, look smaller team but pushing big numbers, right? You don’t want to go up to Salesforce, right? Maybe it definitely something like MailChimp is too rudimentary because you’ve got sales pipelines, you’ve got other needs, right? Email. So then it’s like, well, what do I choose? And themes like Keepa, saying, hey, moneymakers, six, right eight figures, your art, you already know the value of your processes, you already understand your time is valuable, you know that it takes a team and you need a software that can come in and just help you scale from there? Well, if I’m hearing you correctly, there’s also this partnering of strategy with like, these calls and everything. So yeah, these are not gonna be just platform focus these

Samantha Pointer Foxx 21:51
tools, yeah, you’re gonna have

Samantha Pointer Foxx 21:55
they’re bundling it basically all together, not just the software, so you, so you won’t just get software and like, hey, figure it out on your own good luck with that.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 22:07
It’s gonna be bundled with strategy with an implementer with, you know, you’ll get partners like me, who can, who’s going to be walking you through everything, and really helping your company, you know, implement this and launch it, you know, basically. So you’re just not out there with the tool by itself. And, and also,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 22:35
not everything, like you, this won’t be the only tool you have to use, you know, we’re going to help you integrate with other stuff, you have other technology tools, you have put putting all that together, again, based around the strategy.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 22:54
That that’s the whole thing. And, you know, when we talk about pricing for a while, they were not priced competitively, of course, but like all companies, they, they are pushing a price increase, of course.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:14
And there will be advantages for coming through a partner like me with your pricing.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:23
So where you get like a bundle situation, so.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:29
But again, just seeing, you know, clay just wrote this book, where he updated his book from years ago,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:39
laying out the whole small business automation and the strategy and how important that is. And

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:50
I don’t even know where I was going with it. But

Samantha Pointer Foxx 23:53
you know, just harping on how important it is to clear out that chaos out of your business, because you don’t have no strategy. You don’t you got all these tools, you don’t know what to do with the tools, you don’t have time to figure out the tools.

Chris 24:12
And just again, that that’s basically where they’re trying to hang their head and fill that gap and fill that space. because not a lot of people are there not a lot of companies out there they just there with their tool. You know, yeah, it you I see I see the collective strategy from afar, just hearing this, you know, for the first time and the fact that you the partners are incentivized or enabled I should say they’re, they’re equipped with everything, to successfully bring somebody on strategically and then match the software with it.

Chris 24:55
Being giving that different or special bundling to

Chris 25:00
To the partners is great because now we don’t have cannibalizing efforts where you can sign up directly for us or our partners and people. Which one now it’s more of a no brainer. And I have to say this everyone, I, we’re all about responsible automation, of course, right automate responsibly.

Chris 25:23
You this, Samantha is telling us how much straightforward in easier the tool is to use.

Chris 25:33
That does not alleviate the difficulty of knowing what to do, you still

Chris 25:43
have to know what to do. You’re gonna get in there and be like, oh, there’s so many things. Yes, yeah. So you still have to know what to do, you still have to have the time to do it. And there’s still going to be learning curves. And I’m saying this to say, leave it up to the specialists. Okay. If you are, I’m going to use any opportunity in every podcast moving forward, to tell the people who shouldn’t be touching the tech to stop touching the tech. If you’ve got companies literally saying, hey, look, let me go train you on our software, and put the partner tag on you so that you can go out on our behalf. And now let me also defend the partners. Listen, if you’re thinking that just because there’s a badge of partnership or certified, that everything is going to be all good. Don’t lie to yourself that we’re still humans still trying to figure out the best solution for your business. And as long as you can clearly communicate what the thing is that you need, and you don’t even have to know, you just have to be willing to answer the question to someone like Samantha would ask you. And here’s the big piece. It was like, Yeah, I can answer questions, then release. Right, you’re gonna have to trust us. You see, like, you have to be everybody, my programs and training. So you have somebody like Samantha, who certify, I’ve been teaching this, but what I’m saying is, I’m one person with one company, when you see the larger software companies starting to acknowledge, wait a minute, they need more strategy. And as a company, we don’t want to take on that whole burden. Ah, partners, listen, Let’s equip them, let’s get them ready. And then on our behalf with our new software and our new vision, they can help piece it all together. So with that being said, I’m I’m like projecting a whole lot on

Chris 27:45
that I’m looking for you to validate is that the more expected approach to key is say, hey, get a partner, which they’ve always been partner friendly and partner heavy. So yeah, I was certified. I really enjoyed that process. But more so now, not just for the software, though, for strategy holistically your business to hit, yes. Automation, yes. Because they see themselves. The company itself is just generalists.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 28:17
But they want to bring all the partners as the specialists, like you need the specialists to, to be very successful with to

Samantha Pointer Foxx 28:27
it. I wrote down like, it’s the whole thing where we talk about hiring technology, hiring technology, keep it’s just the tool, but you have me a partner with the we bring the strategy piece, we bring the implementation piece, and then that means you as the business owner to see oh, can provide the service can be the visionary. That’s how you, which is what you love to do anyway, which is what you’re an expert in, you’re not the expert in the tool, you’re not the expert in the strategy. So it lets everyone play nicely together and, you know, work together to bring out your business’s ultimate goal. So that’s kind of how I look at it.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 29:16
And if more software companies would embrace strategy, you know, we wouldn’t have so much

Samantha Pointer Foxx 29:23
confusion and total happiness we do now.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 29:28
Because

Samantha Pointer Foxx 29:30
people usually get a technology tool, and, you know, go a couple of hours trying to figure it out and get frustrated and say, Oh, it didn’t work. Well, no, it didn’t work because you didn’t have the strategy behind it of why you need it in the first place. Or even if you need it that you just went off of a recommendation for somebody in the Facebook group or random person who that’s not their thing. So I think more more software companies should adopt that attitude of how important

Chris 30:00
strategy is, you know, to make these tools successful. Yeah, yeah. You know, no strategy, no software. And

Chris 30:09
let me ask you this because how you’re describing the the approach, and then you said the words. They’re also working at, you know, integrating with other tools. Are they not? Everybody again, I don’t want to assume intelligence here, but we’ve come a long ways Zapier. Believe it or not new newer uses of Zapier. It’s a third party integration software that allows you to pass data between software’s that don’t already connect and integrate. But there was a time where Zapier used to be ones that one action.

Chris 30:47
Right? It’s like, whoa, how’s that even possible? Who would use it, but it was really next level to be able to tie tools together that because otherwise, you’re just waiting for the tool, like OneDrive to integrate with my favorite software. So the first version of Infusionsoft was not built with that in mind. Right, you know, like, it was more of an afterthought. The

Chris 31:11
the integrations, the integration side, yeah, an afterthought. But now, it seems like this is this is not just an afterthought. This is a core focus. They’re looking and saying, wait a minute, we want to build this thing and make sure that other people can play nicely with it. Yes, yeah. What you’re seeing is well, that we’ll see a more open platform and not just all in one, we do everything we can do as much as you would like us to do because I know they still have payment processing, sales, marketing, and they have to pay everything. Yeah.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 31:47
Yeah, they are actually have a

Samantha Pointer Foxx 31:52
a tighter integration with Zapier now, like they really built out more stuff with Zapier, of course, you know, there’s make and everything that you can do things with also, but they,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:05
instead of it being an afterthought, they have really

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:10
started to focus more on those things. Because they know, hey, yeah, we have a built it in calendar, you can use but you might like camellia, you might like this, you might like that. So here’s the APR or whatever, to play nicely, and still see it within keep

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:31
two way text messaging just got rolled out.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:35
Before it wasn’t.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:37
They have email health with it now. So you can, you know, with this new deliverability change, and the Google and all that they’re putting it where you can see it inside keep, and you don’t have to try to figure out how to stay on top of your email opens and things of that nature.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 32:58
The campaign builder we all know, I have a love hate relationship is now the automation builder. And I’m actually beta testing, you know, upgrades to that experience to

Samantha Pointer Foxx 33:16
have an AI content, you know, to help, you know, we’re seeing more people integrating AI to help you write these emails to help you write these landing pages to help you right. So these are things that they’ve been rolling out slowly, that you’re going to see more.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 33:35
And, of course, with more things you can do, again, you’re gonna need help strategy like how can I use this best in my business?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 33:45
How can I integrate this with? If I’m someone who use proprietary software? How can I integrate this with the keep and have a cohesive experience? So

Chris 33:56
those are all at the forefront with them. Now, instead of again, that afterthought and thinking I’m the end all be all too, you know, you got to learn how to play nice with other tools, because different companies are using different things. And that’s the thing, Samantha if if you think about it, I’ve traditionally had a bad experience with all in one software, when it comes to needs outside of all of the that they provide. Right? Right. But the solution in the past the solution has been more so we’ll just use another platform and that’s where active campaign came in really took off. We played with anything, right? If we keep our mind open and don’t prescribe that that’s the way to go. And we say hey, wait a minute, all in one isn’t all in one in itself is not what made it bad. What made it bad or unpleasant, was the fact that I couldn’t easily tie into the all in one or

Unknown Speaker 35:00
I

Chris 35:01
place. But in today’s

Chris 35:05
technological landscape, you’ve got to be able to allow people to easily Samantha, easily integrate and get the data out. All in ones, the cardinal sin that they would create would be housing, just strong arming your data. Right, right all in the system. And they’re like, as long as you keep it here, we’ll do right by you. And this is the best place that could ever be. And now we’re saying no, let me pull that data and send it somewhere else. And let me write other things with it. So I am not against all in one. I think that all in one has needed integration. So it’s good to hear that. But I’m also sensitive that most people are extremely overwhelmed with technology, even if they’re technologically inclined. All right.

Chris 35:54
Samantha, you’re a witness. It’s taken me all of the last year to wrap my head around AI and automation.

Chris 36:04
What what does one do? How do they connect? what systems do you build? I’m just now getting to that point where it’s like, Oh, I get it now. Right? I’m tech savvy. So imagine other other people who aren’t asked. So I like software being more simple, but never at the expense of my data and ease of access to it and use. As long as you can check those three boxes, simple. access data, and use data make that easy. You got me, you got me the rest is just a matter of, hey, what stage of my business Am I in? Does this tool fit with it? Anything else, Samantha, any other updates, features? Anything that gets you excited that you haven’t shared yet that you’d like all the listeners to know?

Samantha Pointer Foxx 36:59
No, that’s as much as I can share right now.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:05
Because they did have a signed NDA. But if you’re interested in becoming a partner,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:12
get at me, because I think one thing that they’re going to be pushing out soon to help partners,

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:22
you’re going to want to be, you’re going to want to be on that train, don’t they say? Because it’s left the harbor. So

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:32
but yeah, I really like where they’re going with things.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 37:38
The messaging, again just aligns with as a certified automation service provider, it aligns with the significant six, it aligns with what we’ve been preaching about her and technology. And not just focusing on one area of your business, but the importance of

Speaker 2 37:58
home business out of automation. And, you know, making their life easier. As a business owner. So, right. Great. Well, listen, I’m, I’m excited to see, we’ll have to have you back on when that you can’t talk about you can talk about yes and get

Samantha Pointer Foxx 38:17
in about another month or so.

Chris 38:20
Okay, well, great. So you’ve got everybody up to speed maybe even excited now. Like maybe this is what I’ve been missing. How can people get in touch with you? Where can they connect with you?

Speaker 2 38:33
They can go to my website organizing guru.com. If you scroll down, you’ll see a form that says if your keep user Infusionsoft want to learn more, fill out that form. And I will be in touch with you. And we can talk about how this solution can help your business. Great, everybody. Don’t worry if you fingers couldn’t type fast enough organizing guru.com. The link is in the show notes right now. You can click it, go directly to the website and take the steps that Samantha outlined. Samantha, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast again. And enlightening us. I look forward in about a quarter. How about that? I’ll give it a quarter. Yes, yes.

Samantha Pointer Foxx 39:19
I can show you some stuff.

Chris 39:24
Those of you who are in the community, don’t worry. We have Samantha at our disposal if you ever want to see anything screenshots or if you want to do a walkthrough I know she’s willing to do that. Those of you not in the community don’t have a membership which weighed in on come on join us.

Chris 39:43
Listen, we got some stuff. You know, I will let me admit. I don’t do my own self justice. Right. I mean, we’re we’ve got some really critical conversations, right?

Chris 40:00
We’re assessing all types of software and finding all different types of use cases. I mean, just I think last month, you found a new webinar software, to great WordPress, and a lot to

Chris 40:15
Samantha, these findings and just the strategy and just the in the know, helps, it helps me like the email app that I’ve created this does pricing helps me sometimes I’m like, why would I recommend get response over Aweber. And I look at the price to try and say, Oh, wow, this is when I would stop recommending this is when I heard, things like that. They’re extremely hard to just put out in the public and let people abuse and use at their own peril. But when it’s in a combined container with everyone, with an aligned focus, it just things happen so much. So anyways, enough about that. But thank you again, Samantha for jumping on. I feel very much well informed with the upcoming changes and even how to be thinking about key. Yeah, you’ve helped me it would be ridiculous if MailChimp and keep wearing the same sentence now understanding

Chris 41:17
what I’m saying so now somebody’s like, Hey, we’re using keeping we’re thinking about going into MailChimp, they either don’t understand the platform itself, or maybe their needs were a lot more simplified and somebody just tried them too much right. But right now after this podcast, I at least have that understanding our listeners do as well. So appreciate that. Listeners Thank you like always, as always for for tuning in and listening to another episode. I can’t thank you all enough. And until next time, I see you all online. Automate responsibly, my friends. 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, and 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