Online entrepreneurs often focus on automated sales funnels, lead magnets, and email campaigns, believing they are the only keys to success.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello everyone. Today we’re gonna talk about automation. I’m Marisa Shadrick, online marketing coach and certified copywriter. And automation is a wonderful thing. It helps us be able to maximize our time. It keeps systems on the back end, but should we automate everything? Are there some things that we shouldn’t automate? So today I’m gonna talk about 12 non-automated activities that can help you grow your online business here on the Resilient Faith Online Show. Welcome. I’m Marisa Shadrick, host of the Resilient Faith Online Show. I’m an online marketing coach and certified copywriter. And in this podcast you’ll find a different perspective on the external and internal challenges we face as online entrepreneurs. Join me for some inspiration and practical tips as we create positive change in the world. To continue the conversation, join me in my private Resilient Creator Community. Go marisashadrick.com/community.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yes, yes, yes. The podcast is now on YouTube as well. So this is the second recording of having the Resilient Faith Online Show on YouTube as well. So now you get to listen to it on your favorite podcast platform or you can watch it on YouTube as well. And I’ve got some great guests coming up, really excited about season two and just getting certain things automated, which is the topic of our conversation today. But there are some things that maybe we shouldn’t automate. And I think, I think everything that happened in the last few years made us realize how much we need connection. And although automation is great, we are in the people business and I feel that more people are getting back to that connection, building relationships, talking to people, just not leaving machines to run everything, right? Because we’re in the people business.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
So this podcast is gonna be fairly short. I’m gonna share 12 of the activities that should not be automated, the non-automated activities to help you grow your business. And let’s see if you agree. Now I’m gonna give you a little warning. It’s gonna feel counterintuitive. It’s gonna feel like something that you can’t scale. But I’ll tell you these tips, although they may feel that they’re not scalable, when you implement some of these tips into your routine and you realize the importance of it, some of these can really catapult your business forward in a short amount of time. So just trust the process, trust the system, enjoy the journey. And I’m gonna give you these, these tips. So the first one, number one is to get up early, get up early. Yes. And I know for those of you that maybe are night people, this may be a struggle, but there’s something to be said to have that morning ritual, that morning time, whatever you wanna call it, to be able to collect your thoughts and start with a clean slate and give yourself time to be able to take care of those things.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
That will fill you up as a person, as an entrepreneur, before you start your day, before you hit emails, before you begin to serve clients. So I get up early in the morning, uh, I’m not gonna tell you what time cause you’re gonna think I’m insane, but I really enjoy that that time in the morning. It’s a time that’s quiet, it’s a time where I can think it’s a time that I can journal and so many ideas, so many things come forth from that time. So what do I need to do? I have to go to bed early. So if that’s not possible for you, okay, we can make allowances, right? None of this is in stone, but getting to bed on time or getting to bed earlier helps me get a good night’s sleep. Now sometimes I can do and sometimes I can’t. So on the days that I can’t go to bed early, I’m not gonna get up as early because I need my sleep.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
But typically that is my goal, to be able to go to bed early and get up early so I can get a jump on the day and just feel like I’m ahead and not just trying to catch up right and survive. So that’s my tip number one is to get up early and just set yourself, put yourself in a good place where you can begin the day slowly, thoughtfully, intentionally. And that is going to be amazing. Cause oftentimes I can get double or triple the amount of work done in the morning than I can in the afternoon. Now tip number two is create healthy habits. So a lot of these tips that I’m gonna give you, you can create a habit and I’m trying to create some new habits. I’ve been doing some more health things. I’ve been trying to go bike riding at least once a week cause it’s cold outside.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
But I go to the gym, I try to do things that are going to help my body and support my body. Sleep is part of that, being able to rest my mind and do something that’s totally different than what I do every day at work. So I have to find something that’s going to distract me from thinking about work or thinking about the things I need to do. So those healthy habits can be a myriad of things, but you find the things that are going to help you move forward. So one of the things that I implemented recently is to get prepared at night before I get up in the morning and just have everything ready and prepared so I don’t have to make a lot of decisions. I can just get up, get moving, do my quiet time and that that helps. So consider what habit do I want to implement?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
And a lot of great writers have talked about habits and how great they are and how they actually help you grow your business. When you’re an entrepreneur, habits are incredible and it takes a shift in the way you think to develop habits because we find ourselves in this default mode. And when we’re creating a new habit, it’s difficult in the beginning because we’re familiar with the default. And so it’s change, right? It’s change and it makes us uncomfortable and it’s easier to just default to what we’re familiar with. But these habits will serve you well. So you don’t have to pick a lot of habits, just one, whatever it might be, whether it’s health-wise, whether it’s not to maybe look at your emails first in the morning, but use that for creativity time. Whether it’s to stop work at four o’clock in the afternoon and enjoy the evening with your family.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Whatever that habit is, figure out what is it that you need to implement in your day-to-day activity. That would be a good habit. So number one is get up early. Number two is create healthy habits. Number three is build authentic relationships. We are in a business, especially in the online space, there’s so much activity going on, there’s posts going on, there’s email campaigns, there’s all of these things going on. But in the midst of that, we can create some great relationships. We can actually take time to have either a call, phone call or a zoom call with peers, with prospects. And it doesn’t have to be to sell or to get something out of it, but just to build those healthy relationships because we’re behind a computer screen all the time. But we’re in the people business and those relationships are really valuable. It’s amazing the insights.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
I had a conversation today to someone that reached out to me from LinkedIn and we had a wonderful conversation. Oh my gosh, the things that we had in common, the things that he was sharing, I, we were totally open, vulnerable, just sharing from the heart. It was beautiful. Nobody was hiding anything. He wasn’t pitching to me, I wasn’t pitching to him. And yet we felt like we wanted to collaborate together in the future. So that was uh, a friendship that was being developed right away from just taking a moment and allowing, giving yourself space to have those conversations with people. And sometimes those connections can lead to an opportunity that can just organically grow your business without having to be pitchy or without having to ask people for things or stalk people for things. You can organically create these wonderful relationships. So make it a point.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Maybe it’s just once a week that you reach, reach out and you wanna make a connection. Or maybe it’s twice a week. You don’t have to add more to your to-do list. But keep this in mind. How can you build these healthy relationships? Number four is invest in yourself. You need to invest in yourself because we are too close to our own work and we need other people to speak into our lives and to see things objectively. So when you invest in yourself and you are learning and you have a mentor, you have someone that can speak into your life or look at things objectively, it’s so helpful. I am a mentor to people but I also have a mentor. Actually I have two mentors and at times I’ve had one at times I’ve had two. You know, I never go without being inside of a program where I’m gonna learn from people that know more than I do.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
And so it’s very important to invest in yourself. And now I’ve invested in a story coach who’s gonna help me with some of the talks I wanna prepare. And I think I mentioned that in a previous podcast. I wanna sharpen my speaking skills and so I’m aligning myself with a story coach to be able to present better. And so it’s always good to invest in yourself because you will sharpen your skills, you will have insight, you will see what you can’t see by yourself, <laugh>. And that’s important. That’s very, very important. Number five is to outsource the things that you’re good at but you shouldn’t do or you hate to do. You need to outsource it. Now I started small, you know, outsourcing some things and I recently um, hired someone. I outsourced some of the post-production work that needed to be done for my podcast.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
It was a long search cause I was trying to find the right fit. I was trying to find the right person and I didn’t have time to really look right and this just kind of organically happened and it’s beautiful. Oh my gosh, she’s a lovely lady, love her to pieces and it’s just gonna be wonderful and it’s such a relief for me, right? And so I think it’s important even if we can’t do it right away, to have it top of mind. Cause I had been thinking about this since last year and thinking, you know, if I was able to outsource something, what would it be? What would I outsource? What would be something that would give me that extra time? And the reason why I need the extra time is because I wanna write the darn book I’ve been talking about. I wanna finish that book.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
So now if I free up four or five hours a week, I can dedicate that time to write because sometimes we keep adding and adding and adding at the cost of our health and we need to realize if we’re gonna add something, then we need to figure out what do I need to take away to make the space to be able to do that. So outsourcing is important. So number one to recap is get up early. Number two, create healthy habits. Number three, build authentic relationships. Number four, invest in yourself. Number five, outsource the things that you’re good at but you either don’t like doing or you hate doing or is too or you shouldn’t do. All of these things are the things that you can’t automate. We’re talking about automation, you can’t automate these things. You can’t. And the number six is talk to people one-on-one virtually or in person.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
That kind of goes with the building the relationships. But it’s important to intentionally talk to your clients, talk to prospects, even on your email list, reach out to them. During the summer I reached out to some of the um, people that were part of my email community, just noticing which ones were opening emails and just wanting to reach out and have conversations with them and taking that time to listen and to hear what it was that they were saying. Very, very valuable. So take time just to be able to serve. Maybe it’s not gonna lead into, you know, selling them some kind of product and it may not be a peer-to-peer relationship, but you’re gonna find out so much about your market and your content is gonna be more spot on because you’re going to listen to the things that they’re saying and it’s gonna help you develop the right content, the right products, the right services, the right things that are really gonna serve your community.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
So that’s important too. Number seven is attend events for networking purposes, right? We attend events because we love to learn and it’s exciting, but it’s such a great opportunity to be able to meet other people, other business people and to make those connections, right? Building those relationships. So those events are very helpful and I am already planning some events that I’m going to um, my calendar’s already getting booked up at others. One event that I’m planning on going to in July and it’s a NSA event. So I haven’t been to one of those, but I’m thinking seriously thinking of attending that. And it’s a way to meet a whole another group of people cause sometimes we feel like we’re meeting the same people. We’re in this, even though the the globe is big, right? The world is big. You feel like you see the same people.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
And so this is an opportunity again to hear some amazing speakers when it comes to public speaking and presentations. But also to meet a whole network, a whole new batch of people that I can network with and and maybe collaborate with in the future. So attending events is very helpful again, to learn but also to network with people and meet new people. Number eight is do what’s right and not what’s convenient. Do what’s right and not what’s convenient. That goes across for everything. Everything that we do, how we serve you do what’s right and not what’s convenient. No shortcuts, no skimping here and there. No this is just good enough. We really look at things and if we have to do something over and it’s the right thing to do, then we do the right thing. So this is something that I think we can weave into our everyday life is doing it right and I think it forces us to slow down and think through what we’re doing so we don’t have to redo it.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Cause that’s one of the things I don’t like. I don’t have to redo something, but it will cause me to be a little bit more attentive the first time out so I don’t have to redo it but do what’s right and not what’s convenient because it really is all about serving others. Number nine is take the high road when you face conflict. Now that’s not always easy. Take the high road when you face conflict, there will be conflict, there will be tension in some areas. But if we take the high road and we just own it and we just try to understand even if we’re not at fault or even if, if you know it was totally unreasonable, it’s okay, we can take the high road and we can when we do that, there’s such a peace to be able to say, you know, it’s not any skin off me.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
To be able to do that and take the high road or apologize if someone misunderstood something and really mean it and say I apologize if I miscommunicated that that was not my intent. And really taking the high road. And if you take when you do that, whatever the climate is at the moment, all of a sudden calm you, you simply breathe calmness in the situation and you feel better because you’re not letting your emotions take over and rule. And at the same time it diffuses whatever is trying to escalate. So take the high road when you face conflict. Number 10 is be prepared for unexpected opportunities. That is something that’s so important. It happened to me years ago and I always teach this in my mastermind and in my intensive that I teach my 90 Day Intensive. Be ready, be prepared. You never know when there’s gonna be an opportunity to speak at a workshop, to be on a summit, to be a guest on a podcast.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
What are you gonna say? You know, do you have everything in place? Are you ready? Do you have a lead magnet? Do you have something that you can offer? Be ready. So when opportunity knocks, you’re prepared, you’re ready, you’re not stressed and you can focus on the content and the delivery to those people that you’re going to serve. Be prepared. Um, let’s see. Number 11. We’re almost at the end. Serve everyone well. Simple, serve everyone well, it doesn’t matter who they are. Um, just treat everyone well and serve them well. And the last one is very similar and it is simply practice courage and kindness. Because being online, when you have an online business, you will be face to face with every deficiency that you have. <laugh>, you’ll see all your lack <laugh>. So you give yourself grace, you go forward with courage and you’re kind not only to others, but be kind to yourself as well, right?

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Be kind to yourself as well. Cause I’ll tell you there’s, there’s not one person that doesn’t make a mistake. Not everybody, other people, you may look at other people and say, oh, they know so much. Everybody doesn’t know everything, right? And everyone has something to contribute. So just practice courage and kindness. So here are the 12 that you cannot automate. These are the things that will make the day-to-day experience great and will also help you grow your business. And it’s not, doesn’t feel intuitive, but it works. So the first ones get up early. Second one is create healthy habits. The third is build authentic relationships. The fourth is invest in yourself. Number five, outsource the things you’re good at but maybe you shouldn’t do or you hate to do. Number six is talk to people one-on-one, virtually or in person. Number seven is attend events for networking purposes.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Not just to learn but to network. Number eight, do what’s right and not what’s convenient. Number nine, take the high road when faced with conflict. Number 10, be prepared for unexpected opportunities. Number 11, serve everyone well. And number 12, practice courage and kindness. There’s a place for automation but human-to-human connection matters even in a virtual world. So I hope that helped today. This originally was a post that I put on LinkedIn, but it’s something that I realized more and more. We are always trying to think of how am I gonna automate, well what funnel am I gonna create? How many posts I’m gonna put out? And it’s all about all of these things that we do and we ship it out and we send it out and we’re trying to create connection and engagement, right? And sometimes we need to maybe do it the old school way and do connections a little bit differently and really grow that way.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
I’m not saying don’t do the automated things cause those are helpful. But look at the people, not just the email, right? Because there’s a real person behind that email address. A real person that has um, dreams, ambitions, hopes, talents, things that they wanna accomplish. They’re more than just an email. They’re more than just a little face, a bubble that you see on LinkedIn or on Facebook or on Instagram. These are people that have families. These are people that are trying to do the same thing you’re trying to do and grow their business. And so connections is a great way to not only meet new friends and possibly find opportunities, but it’s just a really great way to live your life and be able to pass each day that you’re working with someone that you meet and someone that’s gonna put a smile on your face and somebody maybe you can serve and make their day. Even for introverts, cause I’m an introvert, it’s a great way to just connect with others. And I think we need to, we have that responsibility as online entrepreneurs to take advantage of the Internet where we can talk to anyone all around the world and be able to have a conversation. And that’d be great to have more conversations. So that’s what I have for you today. Thanks so much for listening and I will talk to you soon. Bye.