Note: this transcript was generated automatically. It’s accuracy may vary.

[00:00:00] What do most people in business need more money and more time. One powerful way. You can get more of both in your business is with the power of automation. So if you want more time and more money in your life, this is for you. In this episode, I interview the queen of automation, Alex, O’Neil welcome to magnetic pod.

[00:00:20] If you were looking to attract your sole clients while doing the work you love, this show is for you hack I’m Olivia to SU. I’m a podcast manager and [00:00:30] content repurposing specialist. The magnetic pod show is about attracting your sole pod of clients through podcasting. It will also include things that can be applied to other areas of your marketing strategy, too.

[00:00:41] Hit subscribe to join me in calling into people. We are here to help. Let’s make a massive impact. I am here and I’m ready to be brave. Cannot miss me. I’ll stand on every stage I’m available for, [00:01:00] to. Hey friend, before we dive into today’s episode, remember to hit subscribe. So you don’t miss any of the tips we share in magnetic pod on podcasting lead generation and business boosting ideas.

[00:01:13] And remember if you have, or you are thinking about starting a podcast, head over to my website at living music, media.com Ford slash freebees. I have loads and loads of free resources and templates that will help you get started. The link is in my show. Now here’s your show. [00:01:30] Hello, Alex. Hi, um, welcome to magnetic pod.

[00:01:35] Okay. So I will introduce you. Uh, Alex O’Neil is a tech and automation strategist who helps online based businesses save time and sanity as well as adding in ways to make extra income and who doesn’t need that. Welcome, Alex. Thank you. And thank you for having me here. I feel privileged. Ah, such a pleasure.

[00:01:58] Okay. So tell [00:02:00] me, how did you get to be doing what you’re doing now? It’s been a journey. I’m not gonna lie. It’s been a very long journey. I actually started at 14 years old and I wanted to be a computer science and a business studies teacher for 11 to 16 year olds. Wow. So that’s where I started. and then I went into teaching and I hated it.

[00:02:26] Not the teaching, not the students, but the [00:02:30] politics, the politics of being in a classroom and being a teacher just didn’t pass the vibe check, shall we say really didn’t pass the, so I decided to quit because it was just, it was not doing my mental health. Any good. So I did some jobs. So I became like a project manager, project coordinator for some big companies, facilities management companies, and a lot of their subcontractors were going, I wish I had someone like you that could help me set up this system.

[00:02:59] I wish I had someone [00:03:00] like you that could help me with this. I wish I had someone like you that could help me with that. And one day I. I can do that. And they were like, really? So I started doing odd jobs, helping those subcontractors set stuff up in their business. And I found that I loved it. So I was like, do you know what sod?

[00:03:18] So I was handed my notice in. Literally December, 2019 I had three, I had a three month period where I had to [00:03:30] hand over to a new member of staff. So my period of like finishing work was March, 2020. So just before the world went nuts. Yes. But for me it was perfect because yes, I would think so actually it what you do, so, so perfect for what I do.

[00:03:51] Um, I was really lucky that I got got. One really big client from those subcontractors that needed help. And he [00:04:00] basically supported my business and me kept a roof over my head here by myself, um, and allowed me to explore tech, which is what I really wanted to do. And it allowed me to grow that other side of my business.

[00:04:14] A safety net as such. And I found like when I was learning about tech now I’ve been learning about tech and I have been in love with tech probably since I was a 10 year old little girl. And I was told once that as a woman, I would fight 10 times harder than [00:04:30] any man to work in the tech industry. And they’re right.

[00:04:35] Really, really you have to fight so much harder cuz your voice is really not heard. Over anyone else. And, um, when I were told this client what I wanted to do, they were like, are you sure you wanna do that? And I was like, yes, I do. And when I started sharing my journey of opening my business on the tech, I was using other people really got interested in it.

[00:04:58] And that [00:05:00] is what really triggered this. I can help you save time and money and I can give you sanity. And it has been. A fantastic journey, just supporting all of those businesses with the knowledge that I’ve gained by messing around. So, so you couldn’t get. Too far as a career when you’re working for somebody else, you found that you had, but you could have your own business and that worked for you.

[00:05:27] Wow. Yeah. So yeah, when I was in my [00:05:30] last job, I asked for a promotion because I was doing everything in that role. Apart from traveling to site was doing absolutely everything in that role, but I couldn’t do it because the men were doing this and the men were doing that. I wasn’t allowed. I was just the admin girl in the office.

[00:05:49] wow. So I went, I mean, is that actually, was that deliberate or is an unconscious thing that happens, do you think? Um, it, I think it’s very an unconscious thing that happens. I think we don’t [00:06:00] realize that that is the way the world is set up the world. Isn’t set up for us as women to be able to strive and really go high in our careers.

[00:06:11] Unless you are very, very, very lucky and it’s very slim pickings. Mm-hmm . If you’ve got men at the top, it is very likely that they’re gonna keep you underneath them. Mm-hmm and I’ve seen that in every single one of my jobs. Wow. So I said, so I won, be my own boss. fair enough. [00:06:30] Go build your own. So can you explain a bit more detail what it is you do?

[00:06:34] How do you help people? So I help people by having a look at what they do in their business. So it takes. Having a look at their ideal client, what their product suite is, what software and tech that they’re using in the back end of their business. And finding ways that we can add automations into that, because you’ll find that you are doing three or four [00:07:00] repetitive tasks in your business manually.

[00:07:03] And actually by making that small change, you can take those tasks off the table. They’re done without the human error. And you can just sit back and smile as you just see the tasks, do things for themselves. And that is that’s brilliant. It’s it’s amazing. Um, okay. We do lots of different things here from email marketing, project management, launching client [00:07:30] relationships.

[00:07:31] It’s I. If there’s a part of the business behind the front, behind the store, front behind the social media, everything behind that I help with in whatever shape or form that is. So what kind of things are people wasting their time on that could be automated transferring data. So say for example, you have someone that books a one to one discovery call with you.

[00:07:58] They book it in [00:08:00] something like Calendarly. Or tidy or book like a boss, and then it just goes into an email to just sat there. And then you got search through all your emails to find all the answers and what do they reply to your questions? And that takes time. So you can set up an automation via something like zer that literally adds all those answers into your project management system.

[00:08:22] So you could literally open up the list. Go. Cool. What cause have I got today? Oh yeah. That’s so, and so they’ve got this problem. That’s so, and so, yes, we’re talking about that today and [00:08:30] it just. You’re not searching through everything to find the answer. It’s just there, plain and simple. Nice and easy. Wow.

[00:08:39] So does stuffy is your mind of distraction? Yeah, it is like even this call, for example, it landed in my calendar as I added it in it, put it in my project management system this morning told me all the tasks that I had to do today, and this was on my list and I didn’t touch it. [00:09:00] Wow. So it just landed in.

[00:09:02] Yeah, because it knew . Uh, and what project management tool do you use? So it, for me, I use click up. I like it because it is very, you can see the whole broad picture at the top. But you can also see down right. In a list right at the bottom. So it depends on like what your perspective is for that day. It could be, you wanna look at one particular client’s work.

[00:09:27] You wanna look at all the client’s work. It may [00:09:30] be, you wanna look at your social media and your marketing, and, but you wanna look at everything. And I, I really just like the way that you can break it down and go to those different levels. So, yeah, really? It’s my favorite I have heard really good things about it.

[00:09:45] And I recent recently signed up and to be honest, I haven’t got it all figured out. So, so you’d be the person to support. Yeah. My suggestion, if anyone is starting with click up, don’t go for getting it all done in one, go pick [00:10:00] one section of your business. So say for example, you wanna tidy up and look after your social media.

[00:10:07] And your marketing do that first, then later on, once you’ve got that nailed add in your client work. So a folder for them and breaking that down. If you try and do all of it at once, you’re just gonna overwhelm yourself. So take it in small little chunks and build it up. And you’ll eventually over a few months build this incredible system because you’ve taken it slow and steady rather [00:10:30] than trying to do it all.

[00:10:30] And months later, you’ve got nowhere. That’s a good tip. That’s a good tip. That reminds me my brother’s good. Like that. He’s a Virgo. If that’s got anything to do with anything, he just plots along, chipping away at things and then used outta the track, like into music and he is recorded all of his hundreds of songs and they’re all on Spotify.

[00:10:51] Like just little bit at a time. Yeah. I. Good advice, slow and steady wins the race. uh, okay. [00:11:00] So what about, uh, things like you’ve mentioned making money? What are some things that can make money for you with the automation? Let’s say, for example, Oh, you’ve probably I’m thinking for example. Okay. I’ll talk about podcasting.

[00:11:14] So someone’s got a podcast and they’ve mentioned some, some lead make that they’ve got, like, you can download my, how to plan an episode thing or whatever. How would you automate it all from there? So I would have, and this is something I [00:11:30] teach quite often. It’s called how to get your lead magnet in the world and then make money

[00:11:35] And so obviously you set out your initial lead magnet, you’ve got your landing page with your form. They enter their details in the form. They land in your email market in automation, and you give them over. What it is that you’ve said, you’re gonna give them as your lead magnet, whether that’s a mini or, or download, whatever that is.

[00:11:51] Then what I always suggest is having, you can do this two ways. So you can do an instant trip wire, which is the idea is, is you wanna trip them [00:12:00] up as if they’re tripping up across the road and wanna instantly trip them up. What you can do is in that, thank you. You can already have a paid product in there.

[00:12:08] Now. It might be a really small 10 pound thing that say you’ve done a masterclass before. And you just give access to that masterclass, which you’ve already pre-recorded, you’ve already done all the hard work for a 10 mm-hmm you sell it for a tenor. And if you have 30 people going through that lead Magna and three of [00:12:30] them decide to pick out that’s an extra 30 quid.

[00:12:32] on that run of that lead magnet. So that’s one way. So that’s a trip wire straight over. You can then also add a trip wire into your automation sequence. So I always suggest when you are doing a lead magnet, you have your delivery, you have a survey to see how they’re doing, how they finding that lead magnet also gives you feedback to make improvements on your leaf magnet, which is always very handy.

[00:12:55] And then an email after it. Like if you’ve learned from this, I can also help you. And [00:13:00] again, that’s another space that you can create another page for them to go and buy something else. And everyone knows if they’re going for a leaf magnet, at some point they’re gonna be sold to . Another way you could do it is you could also then send them into an up a full blown up cell funnel.

[00:13:19] So that’s gonna be closer to more of like your mini. Which you’re probably looking at like three figures, like your 2, 300, 400, 500 pound course, but in between your [00:13:30] lead magnet, and that course you’re gonna want more of a nurture sequence. So they get to know a bit about your business. Why they should work with you, a previous testimonial of someone that’s done that course at the end and how it’s helped them with those pain points.

[00:13:43] And you wanna nurture them into that upsell. So a trip was nice and quick. It’s a quick trip. Mm-hmm um, whereas upsell is it’s your selling to them on a up would pass you’re going up to them to get them to purchase from you. Okay. So it depends on it’s taking them on [00:14:00] the journey. Yeah, up, up to the sale and I guess, or if you had something that you were selling that you sort of, you know, that something else makes sense that they could get as an extra bonus and that kind of thing you could, you could automate that too.

[00:14:16] Is there any particular platforms that are better for all of this? I think it, there isn’t really, I think all of them are great in their own ways. And I think it also really depends on your setup. I say I’ve worked with about 50 different businesses [00:14:30] now and not one setup has ever been identical. Not one of them.

[00:14:34] They’ve all got a different platform that they’re using in a different way. So it is really about understanding what you’ve got in your, your arsenal to be able to use, um, a lot of like learning management platform. So I’m talking teachable, podia, Kajabi. Kartra a lot of them have got like inbuilt ups selling and inbuilt.

[00:14:59] Um, [00:15:00] downselling as part of their mechanics in the background of that platform. So if you’ve built those things in the platform, it will automatically try and help you and assist you in making more money. Wonderful. sounds good. So, um, So it sounds so you a actually do the things because when I was looking in your website and looking what you do, you do some mentoring.

[00:15:25] So how much of it is, is it mentoring or hands on doing or a [00:15:30] bit of a combination of, so we don’t really do mentoring, um, in the sense of like mentoring. So we’ve got two sides of the business. I’ve got what I call the done for you. And I’ve got the done with you. OK. Done for you are for people that literally don’t have the time don’t wanna fast.

[00:15:47] Don’t wanna learn about it. They just want someone to build it, come back to me when it’s done and hand it over to me. Mm-hmm um, and a lot of the time I say you get your copyright in your content, so your images and all of that come to me and we’ll build it. I [00:16:00] do quite a few launches with people. So when they’re doing like a signature.

[00:16:04] Launch or a membership launch. We make sure that everything through that sales process is built. All the assets are built. All the emails, the landing pages, the Facebook groups, all the different bits are built into that. Or an email marketing. We do a lot of builds for email marketing, nurture, welcome sequences, lead magnet, lead, lead magnet pages and all that kind of stuff that goes [00:16:30] with that.

[00:16:30] So that’s like the done for. Give it to me, I’ll, I’ll get it to work and land it back. And then the done with you is our take it together, membership and the principles behind that is. I want people to be able to learn how to use the tech with confidence and without fear that they’re gonna break it. So I’m there four, four hours a week.

[00:16:53] Every week they can come with their question, no matter how big or how small, how you might feel like it’s a really [00:17:00] stupid question, but I can fix that in 10 minutes, rather than you wasting a whole trade day with Dr. Google trying to get it to work. And that’s the real big theory behind it is working together.

[00:17:14] We can get you through the things. Um, we do the launch stuff in there, so I will help them go through all the different stages. I’ll keep them on track as they’re implementing all the different bits. I’ll be their wing woman inside their group, as they’re doing their masterclass, I’ll test [00:17:30] it out. And if something’s going wrong, because I’ve helped them through that whole journey, I can be there like, oh, by the way that email sent out the links broken and they can go in and fix it.

[00:17:39] because I’m there keeping an eye and just, just being there with them, um, all the time. So, yeah. So yeah. Done for you and done with you. I love that. That’s kind of similar to, with my. Uh, approach with, with podcasting is, is doing it for people. Cause I find there’s a lot of people in my world, in my feed, I [00:18:00] guess that might be coaches and mentors, which is great.

[00:18:02] You need people to bounce ideas off and get clarity with and all of that. And, but sometimes it’s like, yes, I, I, but I want someone to actually do the things and do the things please help. So I love that. Uh, so what’s the biggest problem your clients face? Confidence. It is confidence in what is out there and what should I use?

[00:18:26] It’s the biggest one. And am I gonna break it? [00:18:30] I think that so often if I change X, I’m gonna break it and I’m worried about breaking it and it not working. No, no one wants to no one wants to break it. No, exactly. Although I go in and I actually break it and they’re like, you’re broken it. I’m like, yeah, but you’ve gotta break it to fix it.

[00:18:50] Sometimes. Sometimes you’ve actually got to break it to fix it. Otherwise it doesn’t work. And they’re like, and I’m [00:19:00] like, it’s OK. I was ask, I was also thinking before I asked you about making money from automation and your eyes lit up. And then I, I asked a question about, I gave, I gave the example of a lead magnet, but I was just wondering, going back to your eyes, lighting up was there anything else that you wanted to say that I, that I, that we might have missed because I took you yeah.

[00:19:24] That. I just think it’s making sure when you wanna make more money with your tech [00:19:30] is having a sequence of assets ready to be able to do those things. Like I said, with your lead magnet, it’s making sure that your business has got a really small, so you’ve got your free offering, small offering, and then like a small little level of offerings.

[00:19:46] That lead people through to that big signature, whatever it is that you are selling, because I find so many people want to make money, but they’ve only got this big 900 pound course, [00:20:00] but people, where are people going in the middle? They’re going from north to a hundred. Whereas if you’ve got those tiny little things in the middle that you’ve created, and it might be, we’ve done a couple in the tech together membership, like they’ve got something that they’ve created to use for themselves and I’ve gone make it a template, sell it for a 10 and they’ve come back a week later and they’ve sold a hundred pound of they’ve sold 10 of them and made a hundred pound in a week because it taken a template that [00:20:30] they use.

[00:20:30] And they’ve just sold it. That’s the thing. We use things for ourselves. We just used to get by and get our job done. And sometimes we can’t see. The wood for the trees and yes, I do believe as there’s something in building up to the big sale. It’s uh . Yeah. Um, I dunno if this is, uh, inappropriate, but I have a friend who says it’s like, you can’t just ask for sex on the first date.

[00:20:56] it’s. Exactly. And do you know what that’s exactly [00:21:00] it. When you’re asking for the sale and looking at the tech that you kind of used to build with it, like you are not gonna turn up and go, come on in less guy.

[00:21:13] No. I, I mean, there might work for some, but I mean, anyway. Yeah, but you are not even then you don’t, you do go to the pub first and have a drink and have a chat and get to know one another, and then you have a dinner and you get to know each other a little bit more, and then you kind of go for a walk along the beach or in woods, [00:21:30] and then you kind of bring it in.

[00:21:33] And I think working with people it’s very much the same, like having that, I think there’s a proper for, let me think of it’s an Ascension model. You want them. Send through the different bits. So again for free, just going for a walk long beach, 10 pound, having a wine together, 25 pound dinner, next one hotel room somewhere before you back to house.

[00:21:56] Do you know what I mean? Like you do bring them through that model [00:22:00] in your business and yeah, like working, I have seen that a few times lately. When you build a relationship in a business, it’s the same as building a relationship in life. You’ve gotta get to know one and another. That’s beautiful. So we unmatch makers have we

[00:22:22] So is there any key takeaways or advice that you have for people? Yeah. So when you are doing [00:22:30] anything with tech. As I said before, break it down into smaller plants and plan it bit by bit. And I always say, whenever you are planning anything, especially like a big workflow where your clients are having to go on a journey to get to that buy at the end, whether it’s a lead magnet or a launch or anything like that, plan it out.

[00:22:52] I actually still get my. Post it notes out and on my door, I will post it, note all the [00:23:00] spots that my client is gonna have to hit. So whether it’s a landing page, whether it’s an email, whether it’s a form or a cart, I plan out what my client, if they’re going on, that journey is going to hit. And then I build it.

[00:23:15] I never just build it. Like now I’m just gonna build it. Plan it out and then build it. I’m lucky this far along the line, I’ve got about 20 or 30 different plans because I’ve built quite a few over time and I can pluck one out and go, cool. I just [00:23:30] need to adapt you now, but yet, if anyone is ever building anything, plan it first, don’t jump in with two feet because what you will find, and I’ve seen this quite a few times is you will miss a.

[00:23:42] And when you miss a step and you then realize and go and build it, build it in, you then can crash the whole rest of your workflow and you’ve then gotta spend time rebuilding it because wonder people get scared.[00:24:00]

[00:24:00] Yeah. Always say, get you post-it notes out and a pen or a whiteboard or anything like that. Plan, plan, plan, plan it twice. Make it once. I love that you plan it on post-it notes, miss tech, he gets the post-it notes. yeah, I’ve got pictures of my door where I’ve literally got post-it notes with landing page and the platform.

[00:24:23] It is. Email platform Z connect this way. I’ve just planned it [00:24:30] all the way down my door. wow. You need, you need a lot of door on wall space then. Yeah, sometimes I do sometimes it’s pieces of paper across the floor, depending on what I’m doing, but I’ll convert that into a digital version. And, um, all my clients get digital version when we finish of their workflow and how the clients are going through all the different parts of the tree.

[00:24:52] That makes sense to be, you can move it around with bits of paper and then yeah. And then make it pretty and on something digital whiteboard or something, I guess. [00:25:00] Yeah. Awesome. Perfect platform. Uh, okay. So is there anything else we haven’t covered before we wrap up that you’d like to share? No, I think everything, I think it is just be confident and make small changes, small changes once a week.

[00:25:16] Every week, rather than sitting down to nail it all in one weekend, small manageable changes make one automation a week, take one task that you realize you’re doing every week and make that automated. [00:25:30] And they will add up over time rather than trying to nail the whole lot in one go. Wow, slow and steady.

[00:25:36] I love that. Okay. So how can people reach you? So you can find me on either the, or the together Instagram pages. Um, you can also find me on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok. I’m kind of a bit of everywhere now, bit everywhere. Uh, and that would be by searching. Both of those [00:26:00] names. Fantastic. So if you search the did plastic, you’ll probably find me everywhere.

[00:26:05] Right. And we’ll put it all in the show notes. Well, yes. So thank you very much, Alex. You are very welcome and thank you for having me today. Pleasure. So what were your key takeaways from today? Did it raise any questions? What would you like to know more about? Let me know you can contact me via social media or email or join my free Facebook community magnetic pod.

[00:26:26] I don’t care which way you use. Just reach out to me. I’d love to [00:26:30] chat with you and remember you can get access to lots of free podcast resources. That’ll help you get started or help you improve your podcast at livey music, media.com/freebees. Hit subscribe, cuz I wanna see you again for now. Go forth. Be the awesome person you are live the life you want to live and have fun.

[00:26:51] You’ve got this. See you next time[00:27:00]

[00:27:13] to reach my people.