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Episode 138 - Lead generation Automation - Amanda Rae 17hats
95 Plays6 months ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays! I've been using 17hats for over a decade to manage my business. They help me stay organized and get paid.
Amanda Rae is the CEO of 17hats and host of the HatsOff Podcast. Amanda is known for the insights, candor, and hard truths of the small business experience.
Amanda reminds us that you can be the best photographer on the earth, and still make no money. She also reminds us to shine light on what actually makes money in business.
Hot Topic
Lead generation Automation
Connect with Carissa
https://instagram.com/carissawoo
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17hats.com promocode heckyes to get 50% the entire year.
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Transcript
Rebranding and Cohesive Messaging
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi everyone, it's over the hump day, woo Wednesdays. So the economy supposedly sucks right now and leads are down. So it might be a good time for you to do a rebrand of your company. Let's make your brand message air quotes copy
00:00:16
Speaker
Super magical and the homepage of your website your sales at your marketing all cohesive and your Instagram, of course DM me the word coaching and I will send you a 20-minute demo training on how to get 10 to 15 quality leads in your inbox a month so I literally pinched myself every day because 17 hats sponsors my podcast and
00:00:39
Speaker
I think I found them through a Facebook ad 10 years ago and has truly streamlined my photography business and now my coaching business.
Introduction to Amanda Rae and Podcast Focus
00:00:49
Speaker
Go to Seventeen Hats and use my code HECKYES to get 50% the entire freaking year and it's so affordable.
00:00:58
Speaker
So today I have the CEO of Seventeen Hats, Amanda Rae, in the house. I love how her brain thinks big vision and milestones to get there. Today we talk about her journey to finding what success looks like to her and automation. Be sure to find her on her podcast called Hats Off. This is one of my favorite episodes. Enjoy!
00:01:26
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding
Amanda Rae's Background and Work Ethic
00:01:48
Speaker
back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise, some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:55
Speaker
time-packed because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon!
00:02:18
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Get It Heck Yes with me, your girl, Carissa Wu. I am so excited today. I haven't been this excited for so long, but Amanda Rae is in the Heck Yes house. She is the CEO of Seventeen Hats and host of Hats Off podcast. I love this podcast. Amanda is known for the insights.
00:02:39
Speaker
candor and hard truth of small business experience and you know me 17 hats. They are the sponsors for this podcast. I've been using them for I don't know over a decade. I've been telling people about this
00:02:56
Speaker
company for years and people are like, why are you being so annoyed about 17 hats? And I did not get paid for that. Literally my friends like, why are you texting me about 17 hats? So I'm so excited to have you on Amanda. Welcome.
00:03:11
Speaker
Thank you, Chris. I am excited to be here. And I love your enthusiasm for 17 hats as well. That's amazing. Thank you for that. No, my literally my wedding planner friend, Jenny Chloe, but she was literally like, Why, why are you so crazy about 17 hats? Like,
00:03:27
Speaker
like, this is kind of odd. I was like, you have to you have to sign up, blah, blah, blah. It's so easy to use. I forgot what I was using back in the day, but everything was seamless. I couldn't wait to hop into the tutorials, you know, back before kids and I could actually spend time like learning the system. Before kids, all the things we did, right?
Journey to Seventeen Hats and Personal Success
00:03:50
Speaker
Exactly. So I'm just so stoked. So today we're going to talk about automation. But before that, Amanda, let's go into young Amanda, where you're from, what you're like, up and anything you want to share with the audience.
00:04:06
Speaker
Oh man, young Amanda. I haven't thought about that in a while. That's really crazy. Um, you know, I grew up in a really small town, like super small town, whatever you think small town is like go smaller, um, way out and outside of Houston, like, um, probably a good hour outside of Houston. Um, we might, you know, my family, my grandfather was a rice farmer. My father's a rice farmer. My brother's a rice farmer now. And
00:04:33
Speaker
I think people ask me all the time, they're like, where did you learn to work hard? And where did you learn to push yourself in grit and perseverance? And I was like, that was all from my grandfather and my dad watching them nonstop, persevere through that. But I was just a normal kid. We lived in a small town. I was surrounded by family and friends. I grew up
00:04:59
Speaker
just loving challenges and loving to fix things. I was a fixer, right, with things. I'm the youngest. So I was also the one that was picked on the most. And I was the youngest of all the grandkids. So I was definitely tortured and tormented as a child from my cousins and my sisters and my brother. But yeah, I just grew up just small town life, which is so contrasting to what I live now in LA.
00:05:29
Speaker
Wow. So did you live on a farm? I didn't necessarily live on a farm per se as like what you would think as stereotypical Texas, right? But my family did. We lived in the town I grew up in. It was one mile all the way around. We had big property lots. And so yeah, my mom had chickens. We raised animals for the fair. We
00:05:50
Speaker
Um, you know, surrounded by rice fields. And so I wouldn't say it wasn't like a ranch or a farm per se, but you know, we definitely had the tractors and the barns and the combines and all, all the jazz. That's awesome. What was it like? Like, what was the lessons that you learned being the youngest and being kind of picked on and tortured and how did it kind of shape you too?
00:06:12
Speaker
being the CEO boss lady today. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because, oh gosh, I remember this one time they like put me in an elevator and like pushed all the buttons when my grandmother was in the hospital. So all I did was go like up and down. After watching Children of the Corn, we went out into a cornfield and they left me, right? So like, yeah, tormenting things. They wonder why I have anxiety now. But you know, I think a lot of it is you learn to not take things personally.
00:06:40
Speaker
And I think when you are in business, you run a company, it doesn't matter how big the business is, you have to remember that some things are just, you can't take it personally. You have to deflect that almost.
00:06:57
Speaker
and realize they're not attacking you, your character. At that point, it was just fun and games. It was okay. It's not like they hated me. That wasn't it, right? And I think it goes the same thing with business, right? Sometimes business is just business. It's not personal. It's just the way it is. So I think that's one really big lesson growing up. And then I also just think coming back to the table constantly.
00:07:25
Speaker
right? Something happens and you come back to the table, you come back for communication. You get frustrated, but you show up the next day, right? That is, I mean, that's business in a nutshell. It's never going to go as planned. It's going to constantly have
00:07:43
Speaker
ups and downs and frustrating points, but you have to come back to the table, right? You have to keep going. And I think that's another, you know, looking back, it's another huge part that I think in childhood, I tried to instill my daughter with some of those same things to help shape her as well.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, I don't read, but I know the four agreements,
Challenges and Restructuring at Seventeen Hats
00:08:06
Speaker
the book, one of the agreements is don't take things personally. You can't because otherwise you just feel attacked all the time, right? And you're never going to rise. You've got to let it slide off your back.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think I've been learning that recently because sometimes I would get triggered by something that happened. And then I did a lot of inner work this past year. I did like Reiki and self-help seminars. And I was like, I was really taking on the energy of people. So if I got like an email about like a student saying all this stuff, it's like their anxieties, I would like take that on, but it like has nothing to do with me.
00:08:49
Speaker
So I would like take it kind of like as a oh shoot, like am I not doing my job because they're not getting leads. So I really had to learn to kind of like deflect the negative energy and like stand in my own presence. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, I think especially with coaching, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.
00:09:10
Speaker
Right. So you can do everything you can possibly do, but you can't, I mean, there's no silver key. There's no, there's, you know, you, you have to put the work in and if you don't choose to put the work in, things aren't going to happen. So yeah, I think it's hard to be a coach because you do get those people that project their fears and their anxieties onto you.
00:09:32
Speaker
And yeah, to
The Role of Automation in Business
00:09:33
Speaker
be able to separate that out and say, okay, no, we're not, I'm not going to allow this to interrupt my day. Um, I can look at it and see what I can do strategically better. Um, but emotionally, you know, you gotta cut that off. Well said. Let's fast forward to Amanda Ray as high school or college. What were you like? Um, what kind of opportunities did you have?
00:10:00
Speaker
You know, high school, again, growing up in a super small high school, I'm very sports oriented. I unfortunately had some injuries early on, so I had to kind of get out of sports before I would have liked to. But I really found my love in journalism.
00:10:20
Speaker
Our yearbook, our yearbook teacher, Miss S, which I love and adore still to this day, you know, she created the most award-winning yearbook in the state of Texas, like just amazing, beautiful, beautiful publication.
00:10:38
Speaker
And I found yearbook, my sophomore year, and I will say that really is what sparked my creative side. It's what sparked me and introduced me really to design. I always was an art person. I was always drawing on the outside or, you know, as for fun.
00:10:57
Speaker
I would draw, you know, when I was in junior high, I would draw Disney VCR covers. That's what I would do for fun, right? And so this just took my artistic side to another level, but also introduced journalism to me, writing. And so this really photography as well. So this really opened that world to me that I had never seen. I'm so grateful that we had
00:11:22
Speaker
a fabulous journalism department in our high school because I don't know that I would have ever found it without it. And so that, you know, three years of being in journalism, my last year being a co-editor, my senior year, really is what led me on the track going to college into graphic design with an emphasis on oil painting. So I did oil painting, photography.
00:11:46
Speaker
jewelry making, ceramics, like all of that. But that, you know, creativity portion of it is what led me to photography, which eventually opened up. I started teaching right out of college. I actually went back and got my teaching degree. And then I eventually started my own photography business and left teaching, which then eventually led me to Seventeen Arts. Oh, cool. So what kind of photography did you do?
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, in Texas, high school senior portraits are really a thing. And I love them. Coming from high school, I taught high school AP art history and AP art. And so coming from teaching, advanced placement, working with juniors and seniors in high school, I really wanted to continue my work with that specific grade level. And so I really focused on high school seniors. However, like most photographers, you kind of start off doing everything. You took some family photos. You did some weddings.
00:12:45
Speaker
But my main focus was high school seniors. Cool. Cool. You mentioned you had a daughter. How old is she? My daughter's 12. Oh, wow. You look so young. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. When you said journalism and actually was getting this inspiration in my head, I should push my daughter to get into that too. Wow.
00:13:06
Speaker
It's a great, I mean, there was so much to learn. You learned hard work, you learned deadlines, you learned writing, you learned composition, working as a team. There was so much that we learned in those three years together that really translate it into the adult world. I mean, more than any like science or physics that I ever learned in Iceland. That's so cool. This is kind of a broad question, but what was the biggest lesson you learned when you're senior portraits business?
00:13:38
Speaker
Oh, my biggest lesson from when I was shooting photography.
00:13:46
Speaker
I think it had more to do, I don't know if it's lesson, but I really learned who I was, right? Because I think coming out of high school and in high school, your parents are still molding you a bit, right? And you're still taking on all of their beliefs. And then college, you start to break away from that. And I am a little bit of a rebel, so
Marketplace and Sharing Business Practices
00:14:08
Speaker
I kind of went opposite, right?
00:14:12
Speaker
I actually got married right out of college because it was like what society tells you to do type thing. And then we divorced within a year because after that year, I was like, what did I do? This isn't what I wanted my life to be. It was what everybody was telling my life should be.
00:14:32
Speaker
And so when I got divorced and really started to go into photography on my own, I really started to push myself to the boundaries, started to go to places.
00:14:48
Speaker
you know, in myself that I never knew I had before, right? When it comes to strength and courage, using my voice, standing my own two feet, pushing myself, pushing my boundaries and seeing what I could do, not with the help of everybody else, but me, right? And I stopped looking for the silver bullet and I stopped looking outward for success and I started looking inward for success.
00:15:17
Speaker
And that was a really pivotal moment, I think, in my life. It's helped me get to where I am, but I had to go through that kind of inner work as well. Wow. I think that was pretty mature of you even to, you know, stand your ground and get divorced. That took a lot of strength to know that you weren't in the right situation. So, and saying that, like, looking inwards, I think for me, it didn't
00:15:44
Speaker
It took me maybe 10 years down the line in my life, but it's like when you were always looking for outside for what is successful, it kind of, this is a creative topic, but it kind of makes us never satisfied. Never.
00:16:02
Speaker
Yeah, tell me tell me a little bit about that. Like, maybe it's easier to articulate now, you know, looking backwards. But what was it like, what do you mean when you say like looking inside for what success means to you?
00:16:16
Speaker
Pardon this short interruption, but guess what? I have a new program. It's for all wedding professionals. It's called The Triple Threat.
Advice for Wedding Professionals
00:16:26
Speaker
We redo your brand messaging, the homepage of your website. Part two is we do all your marketing.
00:16:33
Speaker
create a beautiful brochure so you could start getting on Prefer venue vendor list and we do all your sales so we actually make you a sales presentation leading your client to the heck yes so you get paid. I have a free 20 minute demo training. It's only 20 minutes. Go to my Instagram at Carissa Woo.
00:16:56
Speaker
and DM me the word DEMO. I will send it right over. It's how to get 10 to 15 quality leads in your inbox per month. Enjoy, guys. Krista Wu is a LA-based wedding photographer who's actually turning business coach. She helped me grow and change, and I'm so proud to call you coach.
00:17:19
Speaker
Tell us how you're feeling. I want to just know a little bit more about your thoughts. It's beautiful and you're awesome. It's beautiful. I'm speechless. I just like the fact that it feels like myself. I feel myself when I see this. Oh, man. Well, you got me pumped and excited for this. Carissa, thank you. Yeah, I think that when you're growing up,
00:17:45
Speaker
I love my mom, you know, very close, my mom, my sister, of course, I was the youngest. And so a lot of it was just following in the footsteps of my siblings, right? This is what your sister did. This is what your brother did. This is what your cousin did. Of course, being the youngest of all the cousins too, of a very, very small town, right? So I was just one of the last name.
00:18:09
Speaker
right? You really didn't have your own identity because you were just a part of this really big family that everybody knew. And so you just had to continue that. And it wasn't really about, you know, my mom wasn't forcing it on me. It was just kind of the easier path to do. This is what my sister did. This is what my brother did. So I never really got to say, hey, this is what I want to do.
00:18:37
Speaker
So, um, have you ever watched the movie, the runaway bride? Yeah. Okay. So do you remember when she eats like every single type of egg to figure out which egg she actually likes because she always liked the egg of whatever partner she was with? I don't remember, but that's really cool. Yeah. So she like sat down and ate
Balancing Work and Family Life
00:18:55
Speaker
every single type of egg to figure out which egg did she actually like? Right. And I think a lot of times that's what we do. We just like what other people like because those are the people that we're surrounded by.
00:19:06
Speaker
Interesting. Right. We follow, which isn't bad. I'm not saying that was bad, but it wasn't working for me in my life. Right. I need it to not get the good job and feel successful. I needed to feel successful from the inside and feeling successful from the inside meant that I had to figure out what I liked and what I needed to do. And, um, you know, at the end of the day, you only have one life. And unfortunately this life is really, really short.
00:19:35
Speaker
And so I really had to go in and say, you know, what is it that I really want to do with my life? What do I really want to work with? Because growing up in a small town, it's like, oh, you're going to be a teacher or you're going to be a this or you're going to be a this. And it's like, well, hold on. There's a lot more options out there. So I had to go back and get to know me for who I was versus what everybody told me I was. Oh, shoot.
00:20:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's so insightful. I want to go so deep, but I can't. I know. It's just like a TED Talk in itself. But let's get into how you started Seventeen Hats with your hubby. Yeah. It's really interesting because my husband had started Seventeen Hats prior to meeting me. So actually Seventeen Hats is in its 10th year. We have our 10-year anniversary coming up in October.
00:20:30
Speaker
which is really, really amazing. And I actually came in in 2017, as a photographer, I was looking for a studio manager, I'd been through a few of them that did not work for me for a variety of different reasons, either
00:20:45
Speaker
it was just too difficult or it was too much. I was like, I don't need all of that. It was too overwhelming. And that's when I was introduced to Seventeen Hats. And it was 2017. We were just a few years, Seventeen Hats at that point was a few years into business. I was sold Seventeen Hats by the Seventeen Hats team at Imaging USA, which was in January. And I had told them
00:21:09
Speaker
point blank of, you know, I'm about to go into my busy season, like super, super last rush of senior portraits. Like I have to get this done this weekend. Like this has to work and I have to set it all up in a weekend. And they were like, yes, you're good. Go for it. So I purchased and when I got home, I had met Donovan, which is my now husband.
00:21:29
Speaker
I had met Donovan there and I had received
Social Media and Podcast Promotion
00:21:32
Speaker
a few people's email address from Seventeen Hats because they were like, if there's an issue, just email us. And I was like, okay, cool. So I got home and it didn't work.
00:21:43
Speaker
I logged in and, um, it didn't, it didn't work. I couldn't, I couldn't get in. I couldn't get the password didn't work that I was given. And so I emailed the support team at that time or like chatted into the support team and said, Hey, like I can't get in. And they're like, well, you know, you're up most priority. We will take care of that. And then days went by and I still couldn't get in.
00:22:10
Speaker
And so me being me, um, found the email addresses that I was given and I emailed them all and I said, can you please give me a refund? I was promised this was work. I copied and pasted the, um, you know, took screenshots of all the support conversations and sent that in. Well, then Donovan, my now husband.
00:22:28
Speaker
um, contacted me and was like, this is absolutely insane. I'm so sorry for this. Can you help me figure this out? So what was going on in 2017 was at that point we were outsourcing our support. Um, and the, the, which is very normal in the tech world. Um, however, the place we were outsourcing it to just picked up Uber as a client.
00:22:52
Speaker
Oh my God. So they were like, screw all of you people. We're only focusing on Uber. Wow. Right. So that's how Donovan and I really started talking and connecting. That's so crazy. So crazy. I'm connected to the word, the name Donovan too. Donovan.
00:23:10
Speaker
the email threads like Jonathan, you know? Yeah. So that is how we connected and started talking. And then in, we're also, we were also venture capital backed. So the other thing that kind of happened in 2017, 2017 was a very pivotal year for so many ads.
00:23:28
Speaker
What also happened with Seventeen Hats in 2017 is that our venture capitalist who owed us a large amount of money kept saying, go, go, go, go, go, go, keep going. And then they come back and say in June, they say, we're sorry, the money's not coming.
00:23:48
Speaker
So I came on, Donovan had me come on to take it profitable, take the company profitable. And so I came on to rebuild and restructure the 17 Hats business, which is how I ended up where I am today.
00:24:06
Speaker
I just, I want to like laugh because this story is kind of funny. It's crazy. Crazy. It's crazy. And there's so many like missing parts of this because it's like, how did you guys get married? I know. There's a lot. There's a whole, whole nother podcast in its side. But yeah, it was just a really, really interesting time in my life to go from that, go from shooting photography,
00:24:35
Speaker
I did a lot of restructuring. Again, I said at the very beginning, one of the things that I love to do is fix things, right? Like that's always been my passion and something that I did in and out of like working even in schools that I worked at. So to be able to come in and really strip 17 hats down starting in 2017 and rebuild and restructure has been a journey, a feat.
00:25:01
Speaker
We are in a fabulous place now. I love where we've come from, the journey that we've been on, and where we're going. It's very, very exciting. You probably restructured it, but the interface has always been so user-friendly, and I've referred my realtor friends and my lawyer friends, and they're still like, so many things, how'd you refer me?
00:25:23
Speaker
Yeah, I still remember. But yeah, I keep improving with automation. So guess what, guys? Hot topic today. What is our hot topic today, Amanda? Why is it so hot? We're gonna talk about automations process. I love it. It has been something that's been near to dear, near and dear to my heart since the beginning. Gosh, process just makes everything better.
00:25:51
Speaker
right? And you can't have automation without process. You know, when people come in and say, you know, my business is not growing, or my business is not doing what it seemed to do, I need to market. My first question is, well, do you have a leads process?
00:26:10
Speaker
And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, do you have lead automation? I'm like, what do you mean? I don't need that. How can I have that if I don't even have any leads? And I'm like, why put in all the work? And I see people do this all the time. They put in all the work and all the money. They throw a ton of money at marketing, but they don't have the process or the automation once a lead actually contacts them to close the deal. Oh, okay. Let's talk about this. Okay. So now we know what we're going to talk about. So let's just kind of dig deep into lead automation. What does that even mean?
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, so when a lead contacts you, what happens, right? So the email that was very traditional for a while of, thank you for contacting me. I will respond to you, email you back or call you within 24 hours. That doesn't cut it. You can't have that anymore.
00:26:57
Speaker
Right. Our world is very instant gratification. Consumers want information quickly. They want information now. They're typically contacting service providers on a whim, right? They're sitting down watching TV, doing other things. They're in their car waiting for their kids to get out of school. They're doing it very quickly. Yep. Right. So if you don't answer them very quickly,
00:27:22
Speaker
and meet their needs very quickly, their attention is now gone. They're moved on to other things. And what was once a priority right now, 24 hours later, is no longer a priority. Yeah, you're not hot. It's not hot. You're not hot, right? Also, when they're contacting you, they're probably contacting two to three to four to five other people at the same time. Unfortunately, yes. Right?
00:27:43
Speaker
Another factor that I think we're not talking about enough right now that I think we have to talk more about is that now in 2024, consumers, basically all consumers have been jaded by a solopreneur at least once or have heard a horror story. So if you go back to 2000s, 2010, solopreneurs were a thing, but there wasn't the ton of them like they are now.
00:28:12
Speaker
Now with the immense amount of education for YouTube, free videos, podcasts, all that, everybody thinks they can be a photographer, thinks they can be a wedding designer. So you have a lot of hobbyists kind of
00:28:28
Speaker
looking like professionals. Does that make sense? Yes. And so now the consumer even more than any time that we have seen in the past truly needs to know you are a professional. You know what you're doing. You have your shit together. Can I say that on this podcast? You have it together and you are responsive and communicative because they're
00:28:54
Speaker
coming in with baggage already from, from probably another solopreneur or another service provider that has not been communicative, who has not been professional, who took money and ran away, right? So by having a lead automation that is meeting their needs, engaging with them, communicating with them, now your marketing dollar is going further.
00:29:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I was just listening to the vendor pod this morning. They just started listening to them. Um, and they're saying like, I think they're called like the pinkers on YouTube, but people are like stealing their work and, um, booking weddings with their photos and then taking the money and running. Yeah. Um, so that's crazy.
00:29:50
Speaker
I'm excited to share with you all about our first get a heck yes sponsor, Seventeen Hats. I've been using the CRM company for over a decade and I've been referring them to all my frienders for all this time. I always know when I'm going to get paid and most importantly, I get paid. So here is a question. What is holding you back? What's keeping you from finding success as a small business person?
00:30:16
Speaker
It's not passion. The fact that you're listening to my podcast shows that you're eager to learn and get better. Know what holds you back
00:30:23
Speaker
is all the chaos of business, paperwork, mailed invoices, and no system to handle at all. That's where Seventeen Hats comes in. Seventeen Hats is a better way to manage your small business. It's an all-in-one platform that streamlines everything from lead capture to client communication to clicking your done automated invoices. Seventeen Hats paves a way for success you deserve.
00:30:49
Speaker
by giving you back hours in your day. Find what success looks like for you with 17 hats. Get started for free at 17hats.com and use my code, heck yes, and it's gonna give you guys 50% off your first annual membership. How amazing is that?
00:31:09
Speaker
So now that you're all organized in 17 hats, I have one more quick commercial, but this is really going to change your life. And it's with Kickstart Accounting. Go to episode 131. Check out the podcast all about how to change your finances.
00:31:26
Speaker
So yeah, ever since the podcast, I signed up for Kickstarter Accounting and wow, so much peace of mind in my finances. So if you are a wedding pro looking to streamline your financial processes and gain clarity on your business financial health, I have the perfect solution for you. Kickstarter Accounting Inc. offers specialized bookkeeping services designed by entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
00:31:52
Speaker
Their services are tailored to woman-owned businesses, focusing on providing clear, accurate financial records, allowing you to focus on what you do best, growing your business. I invite you to book a discovery call with Kickstart Accounting. The link is in the show notes. Mention, heck yes. And yeah, they are going to get your finances in order so you can continue to scale and succeed. Back to the show.
00:32:22
Speaker
It's a thing, it's a thing. And I think, you know, in today's world, instant gratification, we have to be, we have to level up that professionalism more than what we've ever done. So when we start looking at lead automation specifically, you know, I don't want to dive into 17 hats too much, but which is giving you a little bit, no matter what platform you use, I'd prefer you to use 17 hats, but if not, you know, finding a way for the moment
00:32:50
Speaker
they contact you through lead capture form, you are responding to them automatically, but also responding with them in an engaging way, in a personalized way. So a lot of times when people think automation, they think, oh, it's not personalized. I don't want to be not personalized. And I think that there's a balance there.
00:33:10
Speaker
Um, you can be a little bit personalized with your automation for sure, especially if you're using 17 hats through the tokens and how you set things up. Um, but I mean, at the end of the day, what does your consumer want? Do they want quick or do they want personalized? Yeah. So I'm thinking like, um, the email could have maybe some videos about you or like a welcome introductory video. Are you talking, um, some links to galleries, um,
00:33:40
Speaker
Just something like, yeah, instant gratification, something they could click on while they're at that stop light. Sure. I mean, I take it even like a step further. The people that I've set up, sorry, I'm playing with my little squish ball too. I love it. The people that I have set up on Seventeen Hats who have had the most success, right? We're sending them down a complete path.
00:34:02
Speaker
So the moment they say, I'm interested in, and they can select from your revenue stream. So if you're a photographer, family portraits, a specific mini session you're doing, a wedding you're doing. So, you know, the moment they say, I'm a photographer, and I'm interested in your, you know, senior portraits, an email sent off to them that says, Hello, with their name. Thank you for your interest in our senior portraits. Here's a little bit of what we do for senior portraits.
00:34:30
Speaker
Here's our average sell. And by the way, fill out this questionnaire. I give them a five question questionnaire. And I'm a big, big believer in the number of five. Anything more than five is overwhelming for people. So you shoot them back a questionnaire because other than instant gratification, what's the other thing people love the most? They love to talk about themselves.
00:34:53
Speaker
Right? So you're not giving them everything about you per se, because they probably have done a little bit of research. They know enough about you to contact you.
00:35:02
Speaker
but now you're gathering information about them. Why do you wanna do this? What is most important to you? What do you look forward to? Why did you choose me? Why did you contact me? But you're giving them the ability to gush about their needs and what they want. So think about it. If you're a consumer,
00:35:27
Speaker
And you are sending a, you know, reaching out to a variety of different, um, leads, not lead, sorry, a variety of different services and service one, send you an email that says, I'll email you in 24 hours. Um, service two, send you an email. That's all about them. And service three, send you an email. That's all about you. Wow. Which one are you going to choose? Yeah, it's all about you. Right.
00:35:54
Speaker
So that's the type of, when I start looking at automation and lead automation in order to close that deal, if you look at the marketing funnel, right, to take them from, you know, interest or consideration to conversion, you have to have, what is that thing that is actually going to convert? Right. And a lot of times it is giving the, giving them the ability to gush.
00:36:17
Speaker
And again, if you do this, it's no more than 5 questions, right? No more than 5 questions, that's my rule. Because you give them that, they're already engaging with you, and people in today's world, they want to engage, they want to connect, especially after COVID, people feel more isolated than ever. So they want to connect, they want to engage, and you're giving them that ability. So therefore, they already have heartstrings to you.
00:36:43
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just thinking of my past career and it's like people, even for family shoots, they want to tell you like, you know, someone's sick or like, um, someone's coming from out of town or, you know, this is a special graduation or just, you know, they want us to build their guts of what they're going through. Cause this is like a special time and they want that those photos taken. Um, so.
00:37:05
Speaker
Yeah, this could be game changer in your business. And it's automated. And it's automated. And I think the reason why they spill their guts is because they want you to understand this is important to them. And I want you to take it important. I want you to understand this is important to me. So I want you to look at this with importance as well. So if you think about it, you get that questionnaire. They send that questionnaire back, and it has all of their information on it.
00:37:32
Speaker
You give them a call and you meet their needs with every question. You're worried about X. This is how we're going to meet your needs with that.
00:37:39
Speaker
you want to do this, this is how we're going to amplify it. We're going to do this, this is how we're going to do this for you, right? So you get this questionnaire and you can boom, boom, boom, right back to them on a phone call, which can be the next day or an hour later or whenever. I don't recommend more than a day, but you just pop back on them and tell them how you're going to meet their needs of everything on that questionnaire and how you're going to get that done. Now you are miles
00:38:05
Speaker
ahead of all of your competition. And most importantly, they trust you. So if they trust you, they're going to spend more money with you. Yeah, it's also very impressive. I was on the call with my coaching student yesterday and he's like, Oh, like your 10 minute introductory call, like one time I followed it and I booked it and then another time I didn't follow up and I didn't book it. So I was like, these
00:38:31
Speaker
this 10 minutes is five minutes these five questions that you ask like the type of questions you ask is make or break because for me as someone trying to sell me I'm kind of like hey I want them to ask me the right questions I want them to lead the call you know like I want them to establish authority so this is all kind of
00:38:51
Speaker
really mind blowing to me. That's good though. Um, but I think it is, you know, I think another thing too, when you are a service provider, if you let the client take the reins right from the beginning and control the conversation, now they end up controlling the whole experience.
00:39:14
Speaker
So when you take the reins from the beginning and you start to control the conversation and control the questions, the answers, you know, you're very proactive in your communication. That's how you control the conversation, right? And control the journey is by being very proactive. So when you start to do that, you start to push them down and experience or a journey, a client experience, client journey that you have handcrafted.
00:39:44
Speaker
which also then becomes repeatable. And when it becomes repeatable, it becomes referable. And when it becomes referable, your business grows. So, you know, a lot of people like to try to go off and say, oh, I need to spend so much money on Facebook and I need to do this and I need to do that and all this marketing. And again, my first question is, is how are you taking care of your client, your clients that you have now?
00:40:07
Speaker
Totally. And I get that when you don't have any clients. Yeah, you got to do some marketing there. But how are you taking care of your clients now? Because if I do an awesome job for client A,
00:40:22
Speaker
And client A refers me to client B. And when client B comes to me, I'm not, my life is kind of, you know, a mess and chaotic. And I don't have any automation and I don't have any process in place. And I don't deliver on time to client B and I don't do a really good job for client B. Client B is going to go back and tell client A. And now client A is not going to refer me anymore. Yeah. And then if you do a good job, then it's compound pounding, snowball effect. Exactly.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, I have some automations and 17 hats where like they get automatic like email, like welcome email, like engagement session, preparation, three months before the big day, week before the big day, and then especially during COVID.
00:41:05
Speaker
people are like, Oh, like you're like the best vendor, you know, the most easy to communicate with. And I'm like, I didn't really even do anything. I can hop down like one call with them. But I think the automation emails are just like, okay, she knows what she's doing. She's giving us valuable information. And just these small automations like could kind of give you this longevity of business. I mean, they always say like, it costs
00:41:31
Speaker
more to like get more clients and to like just repeat. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, trust is huge. I think we forget how much trust plays a part. And if they purchase, if they refer, if they come back, how much they spend as well. And trust comes from actively communicating. The only way you can actively communicate
00:41:57
Speaker
with the amount of clients that you have going, you know, you're juggling in your business is through automation. Yeah. And then I guess talk a little bit about the marketplace. I am a contributor. I process of making a questionnaire. But yeah, it's exciting. The marketplace is a newly launched kind of portion or section of Seventeen Hats. One of the things that happened during COVID, I feel like is everybody kind of became
00:42:27
Speaker
educators, people were looking for different ways to make money. Let's put it that way. And so I was like, Oh, let me become a coach. Let me become an educator. Let me sell stuff. And so, you know, a part of my job is to do research on the industry of solo business, solo service providers. And so I went out and bought some of this stuff and I'm going, Oh my gosh, this stuff is so bad.
00:42:47
Speaker
It's so bad. And we're just leading people down a wrong rabbit hole. And so with the marketplace, what we wanted to do was to be able to connect consumers with verified what we're calling partners. So these are people that we know run successful businesses.
00:43:10
Speaker
There are people that we know use what they are providing per se. So you should be able to come to the marketplace and know with certainty that you are getting something that is good, right? That has helped them in their business and they are now providing it to you because there's no reason to reinvent the will in business.
00:43:33
Speaker
There is enough consumers for all of us to be successful. There truly is. And so our marketplace partners, and as the marketplace continues to grow and we add more partners, we are looking for real business owners, people who have found success, whether that's financially. There's a variety of different types of success there.
00:43:54
Speaker
um, and who are willing to share kind of their secrets, um, and what they do and how they do it with our base so that we can all just become successful together. Right. And that's the goal. Like I said, there's enough consumers out there to do that. Yeah. And it's something like so basic, like I have a gun, I'm going to have a questionnaire on the,
00:44:15
Speaker
marketplace. But just this questionnaire that I send out maybe like three weeks before the wedding that says, Oh, make sure like the room is clean, and you have three rings together, I'm going to bring the ring boxes. But if you have anything lying around, like bring it for the flat lay. You know, you are able to communicate anything to me throughout the whole day. But trust me, I know what I'm doing, you know, like stuff like that, like, it's so basic, but it's game changer, like it can make them completely trust you'll be like, Oh, Chris's
00:44:43
Speaker
Chris will know what she's doing and she's about you. Yeah. Hey there wedding pros. I want to tell you one more thing about a company that has changed my life. Strategic Assistant Staffing or SAS for short are your go-to virtual staffing service based in the Philippines who can give you that extra hand when you need it most. Picture this, reclaiming at least 20 to 30 precious hours of your life back in every week.
00:45:12
Speaker
Yep, you heard that right. They are a fraction of the price and so efficient at what they do and so talented. It's like $7 an hour. Super crazy. So after understanding my needs, I was paired up with a personal VA and he is amazing.
00:45:28
Speaker
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00:45:58
Speaker
www dot strategic slash assistant dot com. It's in the show notes. Make sure you use my promo code back to the show as I head to the beat. See ya. She's on it. I mean, that is the number one thing we want our clients to know throughout the whole experience. We never want them to question our professionalism or if we have our shit together. Right. Like we want them to know she's on it. She has it covered. We're good. I don't have to stress about this.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah. And it's, you laugh, right? But we know that that's a true thing. We know that people get the money and they don't show up for the wedding. This is a thing that's happening. Um, so to be able to give that peace of mind to your clients and proactively communicate with them,
00:46:48
Speaker
And just to let them know your expectations, too, I think we forget that a lot, is that because we do this every day, right, we know what we need to do. We sometimes start to assume the client knows what they need to do. Right. And so if we don't,
00:47:09
Speaker
They don't. So if we can be proactive in that communication and onboard them, this is what I call onboarding, and onboard them to what they need to do, and you can give them information about what you're doing, and then both of you can show up your very, very best on the day of the service so that it can be the best service possible, right? If only one of you shows up prepared for the service, it's not going to be the best service possible, right? Both of you have to show up prepared, and that is the client
00:47:39
Speaker
and the professional. Okay, I love that. I love that. You're kind of alluding this before Hot Topic, but what is like 17 apps look like today? You know, after 2017 and coming on and becoming CEO, like what does it look like? I know you're doing so many like wedding
00:47:59
Speaker
big wedding exhibitions, and you're speaking a lot. So yeah, it's great. Our vision and mission has not changed. We want to help solopreneur succeed, and we want to help as many as possible. But obviously, as time grows, as we grow, as time goes on, how we help them changes depending on society and the industry in general.
00:48:26
Speaker
You know, I think we're still very true to our core mission of keeping it simple. We want it to be easy to use. We do not want to bloat the platform, meaning provide you with every single little thing under the sun so that you get super overwhelmed about what do you need to do. So we're still definitely sticking with that core mission, keeping it easy to use. But of course, making sure the depth is there. So easy to use doesn't mean that it's not robust.
00:48:55
Speaker
right? Our every time I go to design a future feature, it is how do I make this easy to use, but allow it to still have the robustness and the completeness that we want it to be as well. So we will continue on that path. And then again, just finding other ways to help our members succeed within the platform and even outside of the
00:49:19
Speaker
Yeah, it definitely is very simple. I got to give you guys that. I always ask this question. You were a photographer. Now you're a CEO, but you talk to wedding professionals all the time. So talk to the hearts of wedding professionals, maybe struggling to get things off the ground or maybe they've been in business for a long time and they just
00:49:42
Speaker
don't see the leads coming in. Um, and they're, they're feeling kind of defeated. Like what advice would you tell them today to get out the phone? Oh, you know, I think it is a few things, right? Things aren't going to go right the first time ever or the second time or the third time. Sometimes it's the 10th time before it goes right. But I also think it is, um,
00:50:09
Speaker
it to not be too cheesy, it's the hat that you wear, right? So if you want to succeed, you have to put your success hat on and you have to, you know, my mom always used the phrase of like, you know, put on your big girl panties, right? You know, you have to really step into that role, right? And say, okay, if I'm going to be successful,
00:50:34
Speaker
What do I need to do? What changes do I need to make to be successful? It all starts with you. It doesn't start with anything else. It starts with you, right? Do I need to just get tougher? Do I need to put in more work hours? Do I need, like, what do I need to do? I need to believe in myself maybe, right? And then start looking at going, okay, after I have my belief and my stance and what I need to do and what, what,
00:51:02
Speaker
You know, success pulls out different things from you every time. Every time it's going to pull out a person, different, different trait of you. So when you step into that role of, I am going to be successful and I am going to make this work and I am going to figure it out and I do believe in myself to do this, then you start looking at the whole picture and go, okay, what do I want to be successful in? What does success look like for me? A lot of times we're just in it and we're doing and doing and doing and doing and doing.
00:51:31
Speaker
And we never look at the bigger picture. So if you can just raise yourself above and look at the bigger picture, what does success look like for you? And aim for that. You don't have to hit success in 30 days or 60 days or 90 days or in a year. There's a reason why when you look at vision for your business, any, you know, vision's a thing for business. Your vision might not be today or tomorrow. It's 10 years down the road. And Hal, you might not ever hit your vision.
00:51:58
Speaker
But the other part you got to look at is what are the milestones towards that vision? And this is the part I think people skip. They think about vision and where they want to go, but they don't say, what is the first milestone for that? And it doesn't have to be a huge milestone, right? What is the second milestone? So usually when you do vision, there is a one-year plan, a three-year plan in vision.
00:52:22
Speaker
Right? So if you haven't done your one-year plan, your three-year plan and vision, I would totally do that. That is what I would recommend doing. Pull yourself above and then go, okay, if this is my one-year plan, what are the actual tactical things that need to be done to hit that one-year plan? And start there.
00:52:42
Speaker
That's really good. I wish I heard that when I started my coaching business because I was miserable for a year straight. I wake up in the middle and I'm like, wow, is it worth being miserable?
00:52:56
Speaker
It's like, it doesn't happen, you know, all of a sudden in like a year or two, but maybe that third year. And like, like you said, like the vision and these milestones, but if you're hitting those milestones, you know, you are going to get to the big vision in two, three years. So I think that's a really good mindset.
00:53:15
Speaker
Yeah. I think the other thing you have to remember too is I think social media has kind of warped our perspective on this is that, you know, you usually come to a social media account and see them when they already have a hundred thousand followers or plus or whatever. And then in your mind, you're like, Oh, that took them no time. When you've never actually seen how many years before they've been putting in the work, right? Um, anybody who is successful, there is years.
00:53:39
Speaker
of work that has been put in to be successful. Um, so it doesn't happen overnight. And I think with our instant gratification world that we live in, we want it to happen overnight and it's just not, that's not how it works. You have to put in, you have to put in the work.
00:53:54
Speaker
Yes. I mean, I didn't get you guys to be my sponsor till over a hundred episodes or any sponsor. And I put in all that work and, you know, over like a year and a half to get my first sponsor. So I can't thank you enough. And it was my favorite, like number one top choice sponsor. Cause I've been using you guys for forever. Um, but yeah. Um, rapid fire questions. What is your biggest mom hack or time hack for, for you being a CEO of a, of a huge business?
00:54:23
Speaker
I just did, my Mother's Day podcast was kind of about this that we just launched last week or this week.
00:54:33
Speaker
joy in the little moments, right? Your kids don't need a whole like extensive thing, but they need you to show up for them. And that showing up can only be five minutes or 10 minutes. And so there are specific things I do with my daughter and even my stepson to make sure that we still have a strong connection. They could walk to school every day, but I drive them.
00:54:58
Speaker
right? Because that is five to seven minutes that I get with them. One on one, we are talking, we are communicating, we are going through, you know, they have a test that day or whatever, how do you feel you're gonna, you're gonna do great? Like, you know, so I'm working with them through that and showing up and communicating with them through that. So, you know, show up for the small things.
00:55:19
Speaker
Right. It's, it's those times right before going, you know, going to bed, um, dinner time, put your phone away, talk to them, communicate with them because showing up for your kids is I think the most important thing. It doesn't mean showing up to every sports game, but it is showing up forever emotion. I love that. I literally had to train my brain to like, when I wake up not to work and just to focus on family until I drop off the kids. Like I literally had to like. Restructure my brain because
00:55:49
Speaker
Right. When I woke up, I'll be like, what do I post? Like, no, like family take that time. It's so special. They need me. So. And I think the other thing too is just communicating with them. Like if I have a big project or I'm working on something, I'll let them know, Hey, I have 10, I need 10 minutes. Right. Instead of them coming back and forth and me feeling guilty and them getting upset.
00:56:10
Speaker
I need 10 minutes. I need an hour. I need two hours, like whatever it is, just being very clear with them on the boundaries too of this is what I'm doing and this is what I need this time for. And then once this time is done, we can do whatever and holding in, holding truth to both of those using your time. But then when that time is done, you know, working with them. Totally. Biggest, uh, social media hack. Oh, I'm not a social media person podcast growth hack.
00:56:39
Speaker
I am not even that person. That is my team. I wrong person to ask. Okay. I guess last question. How do you get your best heck yes. What's your biggest to pick that anything heck yes related? Heck yes, man. Gosh. You know, I think
00:57:06
Speaker
The biggest heck yes is when, you know, everything works flawlessly because of the process that you don't even realize is there. Does that make sense? Yeah. And you're like, Oh yes, this was amazing. And then you're like, Oh yeah, that was amazing because we have developed this process to make sure it was amazing every single time. Oh, that's so beautiful. It's like a,
00:57:35
Speaker
breath of fresh air. There you go. I guess you guys use my promo code heck yes to get 50% the entire year 17hats.com or 17hats on Instagram.
00:57:51
Speaker
One little story is I've worked with like different photographers and wedding pros, but I've worked with people that's been in the game for a decade and they don't have any CRM, which is crazy. So you don't even know if people like page you or how much you're going to make like next month or how much you made like in a year or quarterly. So it blows my mind. So start now if you're listening, if you're new.
00:58:14
Speaker
get on it right now. It's very affordable, very affordable. And get your life straight, get some automations in place. It is the most liberating thing ever. Take one day, lay in your bed and start watching a couple tutorials, making some questionnaires.
00:58:30
Speaker
your contract checking on the marketplace, just learn about automation, it's going to make your life so much easier and it's going to make your business so much more seamless and flawless and enjoyable so you don't resent your business. So hop on it and then
00:58:45
Speaker
Amanda, tell everyone about your podcast. Yeah. And so they could start engaging and following you. Absolutely. So my podcast is Hats Off. And so we dive into real world business talk every Tuesday at drop. So wherever you listen to podcasts, that is where you'll find it. It's on YouTube as well. But man, I just share my experiences, my experiences, our customers' experiences, how do you utilize 17 Hats Better, but it's real just we dive in everything business.
00:59:16
Speaker
Go at it. Yeah, it's so good. Check it out, everyone. Thank you, Amanda Ray. This is a conversation. All right. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on, Carissa.
00:59:30
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros!