Nov. 4, 2024
Work Smarter, Not Harder: How Systems Save You Time with Aaron Gorrell
What if you never had to sacrifice family time to achieve professional success? Aaron Gorrell, the visionary behind Justice Clearinghouse, walks us through his journey from military service to becoming a leader in criminal justice technology consulting. He opens up about his personal milestones, such as a 30-year marriage and raising three boys, while sharing strategies for working smarter, not harder. Aaron's insights into building efficient systems will offer you new perspectives on leadership and productivity, helping you redefine success on your own terms.
Discover the power of strategic hiring and the role of technology in amplifying business efficiency. Aaron shares transformative stories, like that of Christina McHale, whose growth from content writer to a key player at Justice Clearinghouse illustrates the importance of hiring for potential and personality rather than just skills. We explore how the right team and technology can create synergy, allowing you to manage responsibilities effectively while maintaining personal balance. Aaron's experiences shine a light on using automation to streamline processes and foster a harmonious work-life dynamic.
Embrace technology as your ally in navigating the entrepreneurial landscape. Aaron dives into the essentials of building sustainable business models through automation, the gig economy, and leveraging cost-effective tools like AI. His candid advice on documenting processes and experimenting with technology reveals how even basic tech understanding can empower you to make informed decisions and optimize business operations. Whether you're taking your first steps as an entrepreneur or optimizing your existing systems, this episode is packed with actionable insights to unlock your business's full potential and spark innovation.
--------------------
Are you into personal development and want to grow exponentially as a team?
Sign up and get access to our FREE business leadership bookclub at https://www.modernleadership.us/podcastbookclub where we choose various business books to dive into as a team and help each other take our growth to the next level!
Chapters
00:00 - Productivity & Success Strategies for Leaders
06:10 - Scaling Success With Strategic Hiring
11:22 - Building a Sustainable Business Through Automation
17:55 - Maximizing Technology for Business Efficiency
25:40 - Leveraging Technology for Business Efficiency
35:19 - Embracing Technology for Business Success
42:21 - Harnessing Technology for Business Success
Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.501 --> 00:00:09.730
So how can you work smarter not harder, meaning what is a way that you can get more done in less time and really without you having to do it?
00:00:09.730 --> 00:00:12.589
That is what today is all about.
00:00:12.589 --> 00:00:23.670
We are gonna be talking about some powerful systems that you can implement not only in your business also in your career but also in your personal life, to make sure that you get the most out of every single day.
00:00:23.670 --> 00:00:25.365
That's what today's call is all about.
00:00:25.365 --> 00:00:35.530
We have a expert who's gonna be here sharing some of the strategies that he has done to successfully not only build an incredible business but also create a deep connection at home with his family.
00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:48.750
So if you're someone who runs out of time and you're like I don't know how to generate more time in my life while still being able to make the progress that I truly want to in my business and my life, well, stay tuned, because that's what we're doing today.
00:00:48.899 --> 00:00:49.441
So let's go.
00:00:49.441 --> 00:00:52.186
It's time to redefine leadership.
00:00:52.186 --> 00:00:55.462
Welcome to Modern Leadership, where we see things differently.
00:00:55.462 --> 00:01:01.924
Our podcast is all about empowering entrepreneurs like you to achieve the next level of success in business and life.
00:01:01.924 --> 00:01:08.409
We believe that you can create a massive impact in the world without compromising your personal life or family time to do so.
00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:13.614
We're committed to providing you with actionable tips and strategies weekly to make that possible.
00:01:13.614 --> 00:01:22.524
So if you're ready to become a modern leader and make a lasting difference in the world, consider subscribing, turn on notifications and dive into our community.
00:01:22.524 --> 00:01:27.612
We want to thank you for being here, because the world needs your leadership now more than ever.
00:01:27.612 --> 00:01:28.555
Let's go.
00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:34.847
Let's go, everybody, let's go.
00:01:34.847 --> 00:01:40.612
So we're going to start off by introducing our guest star, which is totally weird because this is always in reverse.
00:01:40.612 --> 00:01:42.924
So this is Aaron Gurel.
00:01:42.924 --> 00:01:45.368
He is the creator of the Justice Clearinghouse.
00:01:45.368 --> 00:02:22.306
It is a really powerful business that helps make a huge impact in the criminal justice world, and what I say in reverse is normally he's the one who's introing me to all of his people, and I asked him, because of the powerful, not only systems and structures that he has in place, to be able to run such an impactful organization with very few people, but also because you're going to hear today like some of the things that he does is next level, and I really wanted to bring you guys an expert, so that it was both me and Teresa being able to chime in, but also having someone who has a different level of systems, of skills in place, that really helps him get more stuff done in less time.
00:02:22.306 --> 00:02:26.783
So, aaron, welcome to the call and it is so great to be able to intro you for once.
00:02:27.425 --> 00:02:29.032
Mark, thank you so much.
00:02:29.032 --> 00:02:31.158
It's a real honor to be here.
00:02:31.158 --> 00:02:37.432
You've grown an amazing consulting business and personal coaching business and I'm just you know.
00:02:37.432 --> 00:02:49.806
My hope today is that I can provide some little bit of insight for your folks, for your audience, that helps them take their business to the next level, and maybe you'll learn something too, Mark I don't know, probably not.
00:02:50.161 --> 00:03:01.182
I've got my notepad over here ready to take notes because every time I have a conversation with you even though I'm the one who's normally doing the teaching when it comes to doing the JCH webinars I always learn something from you in those Q&As at the end, in those Q&As at the end.
00:03:01.182 --> 00:03:10.050
So, first off, I know that not everybody here knows you, but we want to give you an opportunity to kind of introduce you to the team here of Modern Leaders.
00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:12.187
So could you tell us a little bit about you?
00:03:12.187 --> 00:03:16.847
Maybe your family and your business Give them a little bit of idea of your behind the scenes.
00:03:17.489 --> 00:03:20.343
Yeah, absolutely so.
00:03:20.343 --> 00:03:22.189
I'm married to my wife Ellen.
00:03:22.189 --> 00:03:26.611
We actually just celebrated our 30th anniversary, so congratulations.
00:03:26.611 --> 00:03:33.189
Although some of the people at our church they're like those are rookie numbers, so I'm not sure at what point it stops being rookie numbers.
00:03:33.189 --> 00:03:36.688
And then I'm father to three boys.
00:03:36.688 --> 00:03:38.606
The youngest is 18.
00:03:38.606 --> 00:03:49.503
He's off at CU Boulder right now and the other two are in the workforce doing their thing, boulder right now, and the other two are in the workforce doing their thing.
00:03:49.524 --> 00:04:00.860
A little bit about my background and I promise I won't go too deep into it, but I think, as I was preparing for this, thinking about what are some of those critical points in my life that kind of led to where I am today.
00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:12.219
I went through college actually on an Army ROTC scholarship and ended up being commissioned into the military police, so that was kind of my touch point for criminal justice.
00:04:12.219 --> 00:04:13.062
Quite frankly.
00:04:13.062 --> 00:04:14.664
It's what kind of got me intrigued.
00:04:14.664 --> 00:04:24.129
But I found out very quickly that not only did I not like it, I didn't like the structure, I didn't like it.
00:04:24.129 --> 00:04:44.584
So it's very big on structure and and and levels, but I also, I just personally didn't like it, I didn't enjoy it, and so I fell back to my college degree in accounting and even faster than I realized that the military wasn't for me, I found out accounting wasn't for me.
00:04:45.026 --> 00:05:05.488
It just was no bueno and I kind of fell into, quite honestly, a position as a financial advisor, working as a junior partner to a more senior person, and in that it was formulated because, first of all, I saw what a really amazing boss was.
00:05:05.488 --> 00:05:18.586
One of the things that he told me, ironically, given the business we're in, is that the best kind of business to be in is one where you're making money at night Because you can only work so many hours a day, you can only charge so much per hour.
00:05:18.586 --> 00:05:29.680
Yeah, and then you know, I got to say it took me about 15, 20 years to figure out what that business model is, but I finally accomplished it with Justice Clearinghouse.
00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:35.012
I went back to college, essentially got a second degree in information technology.
00:05:35.012 --> 00:05:47.093
I worked at a couple of companies FedEx, worldcom and then about 20, it was about 25 years ago I entered the world of criminal justice technology consulting.
00:05:47.093 --> 00:06:00.053
We work all throughout the country with law enforcement courts, probation and essentially help them work on developing their systems, developing their processes and automating.
00:06:00.074 --> 00:06:02.317
That's awesome.
00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:06.490
I'll go into this a little bit more, but I founded justice clearinghouse.
00:06:06.490 --> 00:06:10.088
This is actually our 10th anniversary, so we founded it in 2014.
00:06:10.088 --> 00:06:20.084
In the summer we started off with, I think, we had two attendees and I'll be honest with you, mark, it was terribly embarrassing because I was leveraging my contacts in the field.
00:06:20.084 --> 00:06:26.053
I thought, oh boy, you know, I've got, I've got folks at the fbi presenting here.
00:06:26.053 --> 00:06:29.425
This is going to bring them in by the bear.
00:06:29.425 --> 00:06:31.970
Nothing could be further from the truth.
00:06:32.211 --> 00:06:54.069
It had two people with it, so well, I'm curious, what did you do with that the fact that you had two people, but you continued on to get to where you are now, where we have like 1800 people registering for a webinar, right, and hitting that 1000 max, but you're like I can't have anybody else on Zoom, right, it's like night and day, but I'm sure that that happened overnight, right, like you just flipped a switch and then 1000 people.
00:06:54.980 --> 00:06:56.728
It's definitely not overnight.
00:06:56.728 --> 00:07:02.360
So I was trying to do Justice Clearinghouse at the same time I was doing technology consulting.
00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:07.528
I was traveling two to three weeks a month at the same time I was doing technology consulting.
00:07:07.528 --> 00:07:20.065
I was traveling two to three weeks a month and, you know, if I got two webinars in in a month, it would be a good month, quite honestly, because there's, as you know, there's a lot that goes into producing these programs and finding the right speaker and finding the right format.
00:07:20.065 --> 00:07:23.528
I was very fortunate.
00:07:23.528 --> 00:07:40.221
I used a site called Upwork I don't know if you're familiar with it, yeah and I ended up connecting with Chris Christina McHale, who is I would say she's my number two person, but that would imply that she reports to me and I don't know that that's so true anymore.
00:07:40.221 --> 00:07:43.005
Honestly, she was phenomenal.
00:07:43.005 --> 00:07:46.591
I mean, within months.
00:07:47.112 --> 00:07:49.923
We were booking one a week, two a week, three.
00:07:49.923 --> 00:07:52.148
We ended up having to add a second slot.
00:07:52.148 --> 00:07:56.665
We used to just be one time a day and then we went to two webinars a day for a little bit.
00:07:56.665 --> 00:07:59.413
We went to up to six webinars a week.
00:07:59.413 --> 00:08:04.047
That burned us out, but that was really critical.
00:08:04.047 --> 00:08:11.949
Having the right person that could essentially help build our calendar our webinar calendar.
00:08:11.949 --> 00:08:18.149
Having the right person was absolutely critical because I couldn't quit my day job.
00:08:18.149 --> 00:08:28.990
I couldn't quit the consulting business until it was 2019 before I could even start backing off of the consulting, because Justice Clearinghouse was burning a fair amount of cash.
00:08:29.600 --> 00:09:11.671
Yeah, yeah, I love that, especially like how we're actually leaning into like systems and technology here today, because sometimes, like finding that one person is not only such a relief because we have him too and his name is Kurt he's normally on these calls but he couldn't make it today but, like, when you find that person who is strong where potentially we are weak, right, it just totally changes the game because it's leveraging everybody's strengths and instead of getting people to do things they're not good at or don't enjoy, right With that kind of like energy, if you find that mixture of like this beautiful place in the synergy where everybody's like leaning into their strengths and it shows, it shows in the videos, it shows when I show up on webinars because that's how you guys run it Right.
00:09:11.671 --> 00:09:13.443
So, um, I love that you were able to do that.
00:09:13.443 --> 00:09:14.727
I'm also glad that you found it.
00:09:14.727 --> 00:09:15.429
Did you find her, the?
00:09:15.429 --> 00:09:20.408
Was that the first hire that you actually had, or did it take some time before you found Chris?
00:09:21.048 --> 00:09:32.913
She was the second or third and I actually brought her on as a content writer and you know, it was within days that I was like she is so much more than just a person who could create.
00:09:33.921 --> 00:09:44.010
She has so many capabilities and I allowed her to grow into the areas that frankly she wanted to, that she was comfortable with um.
00:09:44.010 --> 00:10:02.052
I'll tell you, um, the first webinar that she had to do completely on her own, that she had to do solo, was because I was in a meeting and I couldn't get out of it a consulting meeting and she called me up after and said I'm never doing another webinar again and so I that would be.
00:10:02.052 --> 00:10:15.326
The other thing is finding people that, um, maybe have more capabilities than they're even aware of, that are willing to grow with you, that have that, that have kind of the willingness to grow.
00:10:15.326 --> 00:10:18.190
I think is is a really critical part to 100 percent.
00:10:18.269 --> 00:10:40.881
Yeah, we were actually talking about that because, like, you have the skills that you've learned and develops along the way, but like I really I think we hire more for personality than necessarily for skills, because you have somebody who's eager, hungry to grow that's our Kurt, really and and he's like willing to learn things and lean in and become the best in the world at that stuff, right, so it's, it's powerful when you hire for that versus just hiring for the skill.
00:10:41.042 --> 00:10:45.876
And then you know that person doesn't want to learn or add anything, anything else to the repertoire.
00:10:45.876 --> 00:10:47.259
So, um, okay.
00:10:47.259 --> 00:10:50.113
So I mean, I guess this is a really great intro into what we're doing.
00:10:50.113 --> 00:11:00.620
But let's kind of like tap into like technology and systems, et cetera, because that's something that you had to do working full-time still, and then creating this justice clearinghouse, doing all these webinars.
00:11:00.620 --> 00:11:02.912
I'm sure that that took a lot of systems to put into place.
00:11:02.912 --> 00:11:17.542
So I'm curious, like just starting off with the basic stuff, like thinking about like how technology and systems could help entrepreneurs so they can accomplish more in less time, especially not just in business but in their personal life Like how, how does technology help?
00:11:18.205 --> 00:11:22.240
Yeah, absolutely, and I kind of touched on this a little bit earlier.
00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:33.221
I, very early on in my 20s, developed that audacious vision of having a job that doesn't control my life, that gives me the flexibility to kind of work where I wanted it, when I wanted it.
00:11:33.221 --> 00:11:47.278
I got to tell you the technology consulting wasn't it, it definitely wasn't it, but it of course created a really important foundation and helped me develop really deep context in criminal justice.
00:11:47.278 --> 00:12:06.399
So one of the things that I set out, especially as I started working down this, working through this, developing this business model that I have with Justice Clearinghouse, is making me the least important person in my business, that it doesn't revolve around me.
00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:16.926
You know, the show can and will go on, even if I'm on vacation, if I'm sick, if I'm up in the mountains working those kind of things.
00:12:17.770 --> 00:12:24.384
And I've got to say the first critical path, the most important thing I think, to accomplishing that is a really simple one.
00:12:24.384 --> 00:12:26.938
It's writing down your business processes.
00:12:26.938 --> 00:12:30.292
Really simple one.
00:12:30.292 --> 00:12:36.592
It's writing down your business processes and it sounds like such a simple thing but you feel when it, when it's a solopreneur, when it's just you, you feel utterly absurd documenting this stuff.
00:12:36.592 --> 00:12:39.719
But as you're documenting it.
00:12:39.719 --> 00:12:54.278
One of the really empowering things is to think, is to know that someday someone else is going to be doing this work or some other system is going to be doing these work, and there's there's a lot of things that we've automated.
00:12:54.278 --> 00:13:01.991
I feel like we've gotten to the point where automating much more is going to be a diminishing returns kind of situation.
00:13:01.991 --> 00:13:04.615
But there are amazing people.
00:13:04.615 --> 00:13:10.592
You know this is the gig economy and I highly encourage people to take to take advantage of that.
00:13:10.592 --> 00:13:14.813
I mean, chris and I are full-time justice clearing house, but I've got a whole staff.
00:13:14.813 --> 00:13:16.899
You know another four people behind desk.
00:13:16.899 --> 00:13:19.513
They're part-time and every one of them is a contract.
00:13:22.018 --> 00:13:44.456
I really love like starting off with those, the basics right, starting off with writing down the tasks, the systems, the processes that you put in place, because I also think it's like that awareness piece too, cause when you can see that on paper you can go well, maybe I don't have to do this, maybe a system or something else and some automation, a, maybe a CRM or even a human another human can do this, like maybe even better than I can, and it's that awareness piece.
00:13:44.456 --> 00:13:56.273
Um, I'm curious do you have like a maybe potentially a story of how technology systems have like have maybe helped you overcome, maybe a challenge that came up while you were trying to grow Justice Clearinghouse?
00:13:56.934 --> 00:14:13.003
Yeah, certainly the websites again, ones like WeWork although I've noticed lately it's a little hard to find really good talent on there but other ones, for even though my background is software development, there's some other sites out there.
00:14:13.003 --> 00:14:16.480
The one I use right now is Codable and you have access.
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:25.445
The guy who is actually working with me right now on improving some aspects of the website he's from I never even heard of it.
00:14:25.445 --> 00:14:30.537
It's like part of the former Czechoslovakian Republic, it's like CzechSec or something like that.
00:14:30.537 --> 00:14:31.738
I couldn't pronounce it.
00:14:31.738 --> 00:14:37.265
So that's been really, really important throughout the growth.
00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:52.616
A website that was hosted on Wix I don't know if you're familiar with Wix.
00:14:52.616 --> 00:14:53.239
It's a great turnkey.
00:14:53.239 --> 00:14:56.168
You can drag and drop your way, have your website up in about an hour.
00:14:56.168 --> 00:14:59.034
But technologically it's a dead end, it just is.
00:14:59.034 --> 00:15:01.221
There's not much more that you can do with it.
00:15:01.221 --> 00:15:29.009
You have to work and play within their ecosystem and I ended up, after some research, discovering WordPress no-transcript.
00:15:29.009 --> 00:15:35.956
One of the critical moves that we did was hiring a guy to build us a WordPress site and then creating some custom functionality.
00:15:35.956 --> 00:15:37.741
That was kind of the beginning of our automation.
00:15:39.051 --> 00:16:11.705
Let me ask a follow-up question to that, and that is like how did you get yourself, when you know you have this website that's designed, that's ready to go, but there's this other thing that could help you in the future right, Maybe not necessarily right now, but it's something that you know is going to be investing in your future how did you get yourself to say you know what, even though we still have this thing and it's working, how do I make this pivot and not only like pay money and find somebody and try this new technology, because we all love change, but what do you think it was that helped you to lean into that, so that you could actually have that more advanced technology and protect your future?
00:16:11.745 --> 00:16:19.736
basically, Well, I don't know that it's a great answer, because a lot of it was.
00:16:19.736 --> 00:16:35.955
Given my background in technology, I've always been very comfortable with technology, with playing with it, with blowing sites up and making mistakes with it, and I think that when you get into technology, you just have to develop that comfort, even if it's just a little bit.
00:16:35.955 --> 00:16:36.316
You don't?
00:16:36.316 --> 00:16:46.111
You don't have to be a coder, you don't have to be a software developer for 15 years in order to implement your own technology, but you do have to be willing to experiment.
00:16:46.111 --> 00:16:50.552
You have to be very willing to fail a lot, yeah, yeah.
00:16:50.731 --> 00:17:03.296
And in that willingness to lean in, to learn a little bit about it, and I agree like if I take it on myself and I learn a little bit about it and I find out that it's not in my strength zone, at least I know a little bit about it.
00:17:03.296 --> 00:17:06.997
So when I pass it on, I know whether the people are actually doing it well or not.
00:17:06.997 --> 00:17:08.983
Doing it well versus just like giving it away.
00:17:08.983 --> 00:17:09.286
Right.
00:17:09.567 --> 00:17:10.430
That's exactly right.
00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:28.255
I mean, I think one of the things I learned in the software development business is that in the bulk of software developers the bulk of developers are actually kind of they're kind of lazy people quite honestly, and they will.
00:17:28.255 --> 00:17:48.045
They will find every reason why a task is going to be a problem and, if you're paying them by the hour, why it's going to take 10 more hours than you thought, and so you just have to kind of you know, getting that second opinion talking to a friend, talking to a resource, I think is really important to be able to make sure that you're going to get what you want at the end at a reasonable cost.
00:17:48.045 --> 00:17:58.830
I know people that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on systems, and it was probably by magnitude of 10 too much.
00:17:59.532 --> 00:18:01.096
Yeah, 100%.
00:18:01.096 --> 00:18:14.157
I think what you said in the beginning, where it's like writing down your tasks and your processes, helps make sure that you can look at that task list and that you're not adding things that are like actually things that maybe you need to do in the future but you don't have to do now and you're paying somebody to do it.
00:18:14.157 --> 00:18:18.441
Even though it's not necessarily moving the needle, you can actually see what it is that you need to do right there.
00:18:18.441 --> 00:18:21.732
So I love that being able to tap into that and then start.
00:18:21.732 --> 00:18:25.057
You know, using your technology to be able to create more in less time.
00:18:25.057 --> 00:18:26.679
But I think Teresa has a question for you now.
00:18:27.118 --> 00:18:40.121
More about like wasting time, yeah because time is our most valuable asset, right, and I think that a lot of times we put these systems together because we want to spend more time on other things, right?
00:18:40.121 --> 00:18:49.423
So what do you think is like the biggest time waster that you see in business, and how can technology actually eliminate them?
00:18:50.190 --> 00:18:50.951
Yeah, it's.
00:18:50.951 --> 00:18:59.951
I call them technology dead ends, or process dead ends, where it can never lead to something else.
00:18:59.951 --> 00:19:01.214
You can never build on it.
00:19:01.214 --> 00:19:03.559
I talked about that Wix website earlier.
00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:06.715
It was a great place to start, but we couldn't build on it.
00:19:06.715 --> 00:19:08.441
We couldn't do any automation with it.
00:19:08.441 --> 00:19:30.832
It was a great place to start, but we couldn't build on it.
00:19:30.832 --> 00:19:31.244
We couldn't do any automation with it.
00:19:31.244 --> 00:19:32.894
But you know there's a lot of other dead ends and I know there's probably a lot of podcasters out there and it certainly has a place.
00:19:32.817 --> 00:19:37.181
But I've always had a couple of key problems with the whole podcasting business model, and one of them is you don't own the platform.
00:19:37.181 --> 00:19:38.756
You know you could be deplatformed, you can.
00:19:38.756 --> 00:19:41.234
You know they can change the algorithm and suddenly no one can find your site.
00:19:41.234 --> 00:20:03.508
But I think the biggest one is you're completely dependent on that platform for being able to talk with your customers if you're potentially and so I think, while they're a great place to start, I think to avoid wasting time with them, you have to be able to see the end goal.
00:20:03.508 --> 00:20:06.444
You have to begin with the end in mind, as Steve Covey said.
00:20:08.316 --> 00:20:14.019
So it's why, when we did webinars, I actually considered making it a podcast initially and I said no.
00:20:14.019 --> 00:20:20.522
If I want to make it a podcast, I can extract the audio from one of these things and there's my podcast show.
00:20:20.522 --> 00:20:22.560
But now I can put it on YouTube.
00:20:22.560 --> 00:20:38.679
I can put it on my own site, which is what our, our first business model was was to take the webinars that from our expert presenters like you, mark, and to be able to put them behind our paywall and generate revenue from, from our membership that.
00:20:38.679 --> 00:20:39.883
Who can access that library?
00:20:39.883 --> 00:20:40.945
Kind of like a YouTube bot.
00:20:41.474 --> 00:20:53.386
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, it totally makes sense there there, um, actually was like uh, yesterday I was talking to somebody about some of the technology that actually prevents you from wasting time and actually takes you through.
00:20:53.386 --> 00:20:56.340
Uh, it prevents you from from going down some of these dead ends.
00:20:56.340 --> 00:21:07.809
Um, one of them I forget the name of the actual app, but it's an app that you load on your phone and you basically say, between these hours and these hours, I can't use these specific apps.
00:21:07.809 --> 00:21:20.226
And in order for you to use one of those apps within that time frame like, let's say, you're like I absolutely have to go on Facebook or whatever you have to tap this button 100 times to unlock the app.
00:21:21.576 --> 00:21:30.343
And what he said is like you get to about 30 or 40 and you're like this is a waste of time, I'm going to go do something else, right, and it's like it holds your browser.
00:21:30.343 --> 00:21:32.000
It holds like something.
00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.598
It prevents you from going down any of these rabbit holes that we could potentially go down.
00:21:35.598 --> 00:21:45.940
But you're right, like building on a space where you control, you own it and if something were to go down, you could take it somewhere else.
00:21:45.940 --> 00:21:46.481
I mean that is so critical.
00:21:46.481 --> 00:21:56.847
I mean it's something that early on, like even the business model that we were a part of, it could very easily be changed in a second if you're working for somebody else versus you know, owning your own stuff.
00:21:56.867 --> 00:22:06.862
And there's nothing wrong with doing some of those things you got to plan in advance, like, ok, if something were to happen, how am I going to make sure that I protect what it is that I have?
00:22:06.862 --> 00:22:08.329
Right, and there's a lot of technology that can actually help you do that.
00:22:08.329 --> 00:22:08.813
You can create your own.
00:22:08.813 --> 00:22:18.722
I know we have our own app right that we can actually take people into the mighty networks and be able to have like environments like that where we pay for it and Facebook can't decide if we're going to join it or be shut down.
00:22:18.722 --> 00:22:20.586
So I really, really love that.
00:22:20.586 --> 00:22:29.155
But so I we have a lot of people who were here who might just be getting started when it comes to like business and technology and using this kind of stuff.
00:22:29.155 --> 00:22:38.166
So if we were to take this back at its most basic level, like, what are maybe for those people just getting started, what are some quick wins that they can actually get with technology?
00:22:39.394 --> 00:22:41.696
Yeah, really, really great question.
00:22:41.696 --> 00:23:14.559
This is probably a question that I was most excited about, so I talked about we could find them, but they very rapidly turned into infomercials and so then we moved to this membership model where we would make the revenue from a membership, and that worked well.
00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:31.317
But in 2019, we started to pivot a little bit to developing online courses and, to answer your question, we used a tool called Articulate Rise to develop those online courses, and there's a couple of things that I love about Articulate Rise.
00:23:31.317 --> 00:23:33.040
It's an expensive platform.
00:23:33.040 --> 00:23:36.756
I think it's still about $1,100 a year, so it's not cheap.
00:23:37.436 --> 00:23:44.828
But what you get out of that is a product that you can drag and drop your way into a course.
00:23:44.828 --> 00:23:58.567
It's very, very easy to use and very, very straightforward and simple to use, and what it churns out is a course that you can implement on a lot of different websites and a lot of different platforms.
00:23:58.567 --> 00:24:13.561
So you can use a platform like Thinkific, which has some great traffic, but the reality is that traffic probably isn't going to find you in all reality because there's 100,000 other developers on that platform.
00:24:13.561 --> 00:24:21.567
But whatever you develop, this and this goes back to that technology dead ends whatever you develop in Thinkific you can't use anywhere else.
00:24:21.567 --> 00:24:28.906
If you want to put it on a different platform, you've almost got to start off from scratch and using a tool, a third party tool.
00:24:28.906 --> 00:24:41.424
If you would like our particulate rise, you can use a protocol called SCORM Don't ask me what that stands for, by the way, as SCORM, which is a very standard way, no.
00:24:41.525 --> 00:24:43.729
I was going to ask you what does that stand for?
00:24:44.655 --> 00:24:49.326
Yeah, I can make up something, but I probably wouldn't even get the spelling right.
00:24:49.326 --> 00:24:54.907
So I think that has been a critical platform.
00:24:54.907 --> 00:24:56.531
There's another example.
00:24:56.531 --> 00:25:07.422
I literally, the way I was found out about Particulate Rise was a friend that worked on the courts and she told me that she spent 50.
00:25:07.422 --> 00:25:11.934
She does it's kind of ironic, she does kind of financial management coaching.
00:25:11.934 --> 00:25:17.228
She spent $50,000 getting training for Articulate Rise.
00:25:17.228 --> 00:25:21.826
My mouth dropped open because I spent zero.
00:25:21.826 --> 00:25:29.801
And Chris, as the majority of our technology, of our course development, she doesn't have a technology background and so it's.
00:25:29.801 --> 00:25:43.598
You know, your own education is really really important, but also just experimenting and playing with it, find out what works and what doesn't, is really important too works and what doesn't, is really important too.
00:25:43.618 --> 00:25:44.522
Yeah, 100%, 100%.
00:25:44.522 --> 00:25:47.315
And thinking about the universal principle that you kind of just talked about is I mean, for example, you're trying to expand, right?
00:25:47.315 --> 00:25:54.689
So your problem is, I want to be able to create courses in a way that it's my content and it's not something that can be taken away from me and I have the full control.
00:25:54.689 --> 00:25:58.838
So what is a system that I can lean on that can help me through this process?
00:25:58.838 --> 00:26:08.781
Because you probably didn't want to do all that stuff yourself and a system like this can help make it look professional, can help make it resellable so much easier because you're leaning into the system.
00:26:08.821 --> 00:26:12.700
So I know somebody asked in here is, like, what automation should I choose to use?
00:26:12.700 --> 00:26:18.960
And when I think about, like, what automation I should choose to use, it really depends on, number one, where you are in business.
00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:30.916
But, like we always got to ask ourselves, we've got to begin with the end in mind, like, what is our goal right now and what is maybe a problem that we're in terms of like what some of the processes that we're doing that is taking us the most amount of time.
00:26:30.916 --> 00:26:35.188
So for us, one of the things that we do is we never edit any of our videos.
00:26:35.188 --> 00:26:37.759
We never do any of our podcast editing either.
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:40.884
We don't do any of that because it would take us so much time.
00:26:40.884 --> 00:26:42.267
It would take us out of what we do best.
00:26:42.307 --> 00:26:46.595
Well, we did at one point and we realized that it was a waste of time 100%, 100%.
00:26:46.615 --> 00:26:51.121
That was a process that I was like, yeah, if we could get this off of our plate, it would save us about five or 10 hours.
00:26:51.121 --> 00:26:58.022
And then you ask yourself, what is a system, some technology that I could use that could potentially even make this better than me doing it?
00:26:58.022 --> 00:27:05.788
It or even at least just speed up the process for me doing it, so that I don't have to be handcuffed to doing this thing all the time.
00:27:05.788 --> 00:27:11.246
Right, whether that's a person or an automation or a system, if it's something like that, you can look at the things that you're doing, like writing out your.
00:27:11.246 --> 00:27:13.384
This is what I do every single day, right?
00:27:13.384 --> 00:27:20.006
So, marie, if you wrote down, these are the activities that I take every day, this is the process that I take people through and then look at that and go what people through?
00:27:20.006 --> 00:27:34.942
And then look at that and go what of these things could be automated so we can open the door for me working on other things, right, we call it like working in the business versus working on the business, right, and the less that you can work in the business, the more you can work on the business and like create those systems.
00:27:34.942 --> 00:27:35.525
Does that make sense?
00:27:35.525 --> 00:27:38.556
Yeah, so I really love that question.
00:27:38.556 --> 00:27:39.817
I really love that feedback.
00:27:40.739 --> 00:27:41.941
One thing that I do want to share too.
00:27:41.941 --> 00:27:47.915
I know that you and I were talking offline about this too, aaron, and that is like chat GBT, right?
00:27:47.915 --> 00:27:53.827
I cannot tell you how much time that has saved me.
00:27:53.827 --> 00:28:03.022
This morning I'm redesigning a program that we have, and normally what I would do is I would try to grab all of the copy that I've ever written and I would try to see what it is.
00:28:03.022 --> 00:28:12.000
And literally what I did is I copied and pasted the copy, the old copy, and I said, hey, this is what I want it to sound like and this is the changes that I want to make, and this is what the price is going to be.
00:28:12.474 --> 00:28:28.281
And it spit out like this beautiful thing that I had to make a few adjustments, but I'm like this literally took me 10 seconds to do, right, I mean, it writes the copy for these videos, it comes up with some of the questions of these, and it's one of those technologies where a lot of people are afraid of it.
00:28:28.281 --> 00:28:42.243
But I'm like, if you're trying to, even if you're having a conversation with somebody, right, and you're like I don't know how to answer this you could literally copy what they said, put it in the chat GPT and say how can I respond to this, and it will help work through so many different things.
00:28:42.243 --> 00:28:46.549
So if your thing is, I need to get more creative, I need to be able to put together stuff like this.
00:28:46.549 --> 00:28:54.963
I would ask you are you using some of the technology and tools like ChatGBT, something that's super readily accessible, but I still don't see a lot of entrepreneurs using it.
00:28:54.963 --> 00:28:56.300
So what do you think about that, aaron?
00:28:58.641 --> 00:28:59.604
I couldn't agree more.
00:28:59.604 --> 00:29:13.795
I will tell you that the kind of software development that I did was procedural programming do A, do B, do C, that kind of thing.
00:29:13.795 --> 00:29:21.461
Ai is very foreign to me because it's generative AI.
00:00:00.501 --> 00:00:09.730
00:00:09.730 --> 00:00:12.589
00:00:12.589 --> 00:00:23.670
00:00:23.670 --> 00:00:25.365
00:00:25.365 --> 00:00:35.530
00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:48.750
00:00:48.899 --> 00:00:49.441
00:00:49.441 --> 00:00:52.186
00:00:52.186 --> 00:00:55.462
00:00:55.462 --> 00:01:01.924
00:01:01.924 --> 00:01:08.409
00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:13.614
00:01:13.614 --> 00:01:22.524
00:01:22.524 --> 00:01:27.612
00:01:27.612 --> 00:01:28.555
00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:34.847
00:01:34.847 --> 00:01:40.612
00:01:40.612 --> 00:01:42.924
00:01:42.924 --> 00:01:45.368
00:01:45.368 --> 00:02:22.306
00:02:22.306 --> 00:02:26.783
00:02:27.425 --> 00:02:29.032
00:02:29.032 --> 00:02:31.158
00:02:31.158 --> 00:02:37.432
00:02:37.432 --> 00:02:49.806
00:02:50.161 --> 00:03:01.182
00:03:01.182 --> 00:03:10.050
00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:12.187
00:03:12.187 --> 00:03:16.847
00:03:17.489 --> 00:03:20.343
00:03:20.343 --> 00:03:22.189
00:03:22.189 --> 00:03:26.611
00:03:26.611 --> 00:03:33.189
00:03:33.189 --> 00:03:36.688
00:03:36.688 --> 00:03:38.606
00:03:38.606 --> 00:03:49.503
00:03:49.524 --> 00:04:00.860
00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:12.219
00:04:12.219 --> 00:04:13.062
00:04:13.062 --> 00:04:14.664
00:04:14.664 --> 00:04:24.129
00:04:24.129 --> 00:04:44.584
00:04:45.026 --> 00:05:05.488
00:05:05.488 --> 00:05:18.586
00:05:18.586 --> 00:05:29.680
00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:35.012
00:05:35.012 --> 00:05:47.093
00:05:47.093 --> 00:06:00.053
00:06:00.074 --> 00:06:02.317
00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:06.490
00:06:06.490 --> 00:06:10.088
00:06:10.088 --> 00:06:20.084
00:06:20.084 --> 00:06:26.053
00:06:26.053 --> 00:06:29.425
00:06:29.425 --> 00:06:31.970
00:06:32.211 --> 00:06:54.069
00:06:54.980 --> 00:06:56.728
00:06:56.728 --> 00:07:02.360
00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:07.528
00:07:07.528 --> 00:07:20.065
00:07:20.065 --> 00:07:23.528
00:07:23.528 --> 00:07:40.221
00:07:40.221 --> 00:07:43.005
00:07:43.005 --> 00:07:46.591
00:07:47.112 --> 00:07:49.923
00:07:49.923 --> 00:07:52.148
00:07:52.148 --> 00:07:56.665
00:07:56.665 --> 00:07:59.413
00:07:59.413 --> 00:08:04.047
00:08:04.047 --> 00:08:11.949
00:08:11.949 --> 00:08:18.149
00:08:18.149 --> 00:08:28.990
00:08:29.600 --> 00:09:11.671
00:09:11.671 --> 00:09:13.443
00:09:13.443 --> 00:09:14.727
00:09:14.727 --> 00:09:15.429
00:09:15.429 --> 00:09:20.408
00:09:21.048 --> 00:09:32.913
00:09:33.921 --> 00:09:44.010
00:09:44.010 --> 00:10:02.052
00:10:02.052 --> 00:10:15.326
00:10:15.326 --> 00:10:18.190
00:10:18.269 --> 00:10:40.881
00:10:41.042 --> 00:10:45.876
00:10:45.876 --> 00:10:47.259
00:10:47.259 --> 00:10:50.113
00:10:50.113 --> 00:11:00.620
00:11:00.620 --> 00:11:02.912
00:11:02.912 --> 00:11:17.542
00:11:18.205 --> 00:11:22.240
00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:33.221
00:11:33.221 --> 00:11:47.278
00:11:47.278 --> 00:12:06.399
00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:16.926
00:12:17.770 --> 00:12:24.384
00:12:24.384 --> 00:12:26.938
00:12:26.938 --> 00:12:30.292
00:12:30.292 --> 00:12:36.592
00:12:36.592 --> 00:12:39.719
00:12:39.719 --> 00:12:54.278
00:12:54.278 --> 00:13:01.991
00:13:01.991 --> 00:13:04.615
00:13:04.615 --> 00:13:10.592
00:13:10.592 --> 00:13:14.813
00:13:14.813 --> 00:13:16.899
00:13:16.899 --> 00:13:19.513
00:13:22.018 --> 00:13:44.456
00:13:44.456 --> 00:13:56.273
00:13:56.934 --> 00:14:13.003
00:14:13.003 --> 00:14:16.480
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:25.445
00:14:25.445 --> 00:14:30.537
00:14:30.537 --> 00:14:31.738
00:14:31.738 --> 00:14:37.265
00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:52.616
00:14:52.616 --> 00:14:53.239
00:14:53.239 --> 00:14:56.168
00:14:56.168 --> 00:14:59.034
00:14:59.034 --> 00:15:01.221
00:15:01.221 --> 00:15:29.009
00:15:29.009 --> 00:15:35.956
00:15:35.956 --> 00:15:37.741
00:15:39.051 --> 00:16:11.705
00:16:11.745 --> 00:16:19.736
00:16:19.736 --> 00:16:35.955
00:16:35.955 --> 00:16:36.316
00:16:36.316 --> 00:16:46.111
00:16:46.111 --> 00:16:50.552
00:16:50.731 --> 00:17:03.296
00:17:03.296 --> 00:17:06.997
00:17:06.997 --> 00:17:08.983
00:17:08.983 --> 00:17:09.286
00:17:09.567 --> 00:17:10.430
00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:28.255
00:17:28.255 --> 00:17:48.045
00:17:48.045 --> 00:17:58.830
00:17:59.532 --> 00:18:01.096
00:18:01.096 --> 00:18:14.157
00:18:14.157 --> 00:18:18.441
00:18:18.441 --> 00:18:21.732
00:18:21.732 --> 00:18:25.057
00:18:25.057 --> 00:18:26.679
00:18:27.118 --> 00:18:40.121
00:18:40.121 --> 00:18:49.423
00:18:50.190 --> 00:18:50.951
00:18:50.951 --> 00:18:59.951
00:18:59.951 --> 00:19:01.214
00:19:01.214 --> 00:19:03.559
00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:06.715
00:19:06.715 --> 00:19:08.441
00:19:08.441 --> 00:19:30.832
00:19:30.832 --> 00:19:31.244
00:19:31.244 --> 00:19:32.894
00:19:32.817 --> 00:19:37.181
00:19:37.181 --> 00:19:38.756
00:19:38.756 --> 00:19:41.234
00:19:41.234 --> 00:20:03.508
00:20:03.508 --> 00:20:06.444
00:20:08.316 --> 00:20:14.019
00:20:14.019 --> 00:20:20.522
00:20:20.522 --> 00:20:22.560
00:20:22.560 --> 00:20:38.679
00:20:38.679 --> 00:20:39.883
00:20:39.883 --> 00:20:40.945
00:20:41.474 --> 00:20:53.386
00:20:53.386 --> 00:20:56.340
00:20:56.340 --> 00:21:07.809
00:21:07.809 --> 00:21:20.226
00:21:21.576 --> 00:21:30.343
00:21:30.343 --> 00:21:32.000
00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.598
00:21:35.598 --> 00:21:45.940
00:21:45.940 --> 00:21:46.481
00:21:46.481 --> 00:21:56.847
00:21:56.867 --> 00:22:06.862
00:22:06.862 --> 00:22:08.329
00:22:08.329 --> 00:22:08.813
00:22:08.813 --> 00:22:18.722
00:22:18.722 --> 00:22:20.586
00:22:20.586 --> 00:22:29.155
00:22:29.155 --> 00:22:38.166
00:22:39.394 --> 00:22:41.696
00:22:41.696 --> 00:23:14.559
00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:31.317
00:23:31.317 --> 00:23:33.040
00:23:33.040 --> 00:23:36.756
00:23:37.436 --> 00:23:44.828
00:23:44.828 --> 00:23:58.567
00:23:58.567 --> 00:24:13.561
00:24:13.561 --> 00:24:21.567
00:24:21.567 --> 00:24:28.906
00:24:28.906 --> 00:24:41.424
00:24:41.525 --> 00:24:43.729
00:24:44.655 --> 00:24:49.326
00:24:49.326 --> 00:24:54.907
00:24:54.907 --> 00:24:56.531
00:24:56.531 --> 00:25:07.422
00:25:07.422 --> 00:25:11.934
00:25:11.934 --> 00:25:17.228
00:25:17.228 --> 00:25:21.826
00:25:21.826 --> 00:25:29.801
00:25:29.801 --> 00:25:43.598
00:25:43.618 --> 00:25:44.522
00:25:44.522 --> 00:25:47.315
00:25:47.315 --> 00:25:54.689
00:25:54.689 --> 00:25:58.838
00:25:58.838 --> 00:26:08.781
00:26:08.821 --> 00:26:12.700
00:26:12.700 --> 00:26:18.960
00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:30.916
00:26:30.916 --> 00:26:35.188
00:26:35.188 --> 00:26:37.759
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:40.884
00:26:40.884 --> 00:26:42.267
00:26:42.307 --> 00:26:46.595
00:26:46.615 --> 00:26:51.121
00:26:51.121 --> 00:26:58.022
00:26:58.022 --> 00:27:05.788
00:27:05.788 --> 00:27:11.246
00:27:11.246 --> 00:27:13.384
00:27:13.384 --> 00:27:20.006
00:27:20.006 --> 00:27:34.942
00:27:34.942 --> 00:27:35.525
00:27:35.525 --> 00:27:38.556
00:27:38.556 --> 00:27:39.817
00:27:40.739 --> 00:27:41.941
00:27:41.941 --> 00:27:47.915
00:27:47.915 --> 00:27:53.827
00:27:53.827 --> 00:28:03.022
00:28:03.022 --> 00:28:12.000
00:28:12.474 --> 00:28:28.281
00:28:28.281 --> 00:28:42.243
00:28:42.243 --> 00:28:46.549
00:28:46.549 --> 00:28:54.963
00:28:54.963 --> 00:28:56.300
00:28:58.641 --> 00:28:59.604
00:28:59.604 --> 00:29:13.795
00:29:13.795 --> 00:29:21.461