January 24, 2025 • 49 mins
In this episode, I talked to Cody Hallow, founder of Phantom Marketing, to discuss the ins and outs of getting started with automation in business. We discussed about how to pick the right tools, set up clean data, and still keep a personal touch in your customer interactions. Cody also shares a story of how a few automated messages turned into a six-figure project, and offers practical tips for saving time, improving customer relationships, and growing your business quickly.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to decide on your business objectives before you automate
- Why automation can actually create growth and efficiency—rather than replace jobs
- Why well-organized data is key to making automation work
- How to avoid sounding robotic while automating repetitive tasks
- Beginner-friendly options like MailChimp and Active Campaign
- Ways to use AI for idea generation and personalized messages
- How to start small and then build up your automation once you see results
Be sure to check the webpage of Cody at the Active Action Podcast Website to learn more about Clifton’s work, his foundation, and ways to connect with him.
Listen to and follow my podcast for new content every week:
Spotify | Amazon Music | Apple Podcast | Youtube | RSS | Website
Become a supporter! Access premium contents and exclusive features & discounts: www.activeaction.fm/supporter
Buy Active Action Merchandise at a low price: www.activeaction.shop
Advertise at Active Action Podcast: www.activeaction.fm/advertise
Be my Friend:
Facebook Page: @ActiveActionPodcast
Personal Facebook Page: @Dr.Nazif
Instagram: ActiveActionPodcast
Request to be a guest using this FORM.
Email: podcast@activeaction.fm
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're tuned into the Active Action podcast.
(00:03):
Step into a world of engaging conversations with leading experts,
where every episode is your chance to learn, grow, and stay inspired.
Hello, welcome and welcome back to another episode of the Active Action podcast.
It's me, Dr. Nazif, with you as always.
And today I have a wonderful guest with me.
Before just delving into that, I really want to thank and appreciate all the audiences
(00:28):
to keep supporting us. And we have been growing beautifully.
Our streams are going up and also our reviews as well.
I really want to take this opportunity to appreciate all our audience.
So without further ado, I want to introduce today's our very special guest, Cody Hallow.
(00:49):
Hello, good evening, Cody.
Hey, how are you?
Yeah, I'm doing wonderful. Thank you so much for asking.
How are you doing yourself, Cody, today?
Oh, I'm doing super good. I'm super excited to be here and, you know, just just excited to chat.
Thank you so much, Cody.
Our topic for today's podcast is getting started with automation in business.
(01:12):
And we have our wonderful guest, Cody Hallow, who is the founder of Phantom Marketing.
I just want to like begin by asking, Cody, if you want to like
let our audience know who you were and where you're from.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, like you said, I'm the founder of Phantom Marketing.
Basically, we we kind of do everything digital.
(01:37):
So anything from ads to SEO, really the big thing that we love to focus on is automation
and just different automatic workflows that help people either do their jobs better
or help them run their businesses better.
So like that's something that I'm super passionate about.
And I spend a lot of time doing it, obviously.
(02:00):
I'm based in Phoenix, Arizona, and I love to travel.
So those are kind of the two things that are always happening.
If you ever hop on a call with me one day, I'll be in Arizona and then the next I'll be somewhere else.
Every time someone hops on a call, almost the first question always is, where are you at this week?
(02:22):
That's wonderful. I also like to travel a lot, Cody.
And so that's one thing in common. Today, dear audience, like as we mentioned,
we'll talk about automation in business.
And, you know, like as in like in today in 2025, the year we're advancing, the business is advancing,
the sector is growing, and there is like very new innovative things coming in the business.
(02:45):
You know, how you can profit from it, how we can utilize that.
We know about like artificial intelligence. We know about different aspects that can enhance
and grow your entrepreneurship ventures or business.
And this episode would provide you with some sort of value,
especially a lot of you who are looking into business aspects or entrepreneurship.
(03:06):
So, Cody, the first question that I wanted to ask you is,
can you start by explaining what business automation is and why it's becoming increasingly important for companies?
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, initially, business automation, I mean, really just comes down to
making it possible for technology to do repetitive tasks.
(03:30):
So if there's anything that you're doing over and over and over and over again,
lots of times there's a technology out there that can do it for you.
And so why is it becoming important?
I think the big thing is there's a big time saving aspect to it.
So instead of having a human sit there and copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste, you know,
(03:53):
hundreds, if not thousands of times a day, technology can do that and it can do it faster
and a lot more accurate than a human can. Right.
And that's an important aspect for businesses because copying, pasting that data may be important,
but it may not be making you money. It may not be something that's growing your business.
(04:14):
It may just be an administrative task.
So by implementing some of this automation, you're able to focus on the important parts of your business
and the things that are going to make you grow. But the repetitive tasks are still getting done.
I want to know a bit about your interests, like how you actually got to know about automation
(04:35):
and how actually you are utilizing it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my background has always been, you know, some type of entrepreneurship
or marketing or sales. That's kind of where I've always spent my time.
And I would describe myself as a relatively lazy person.
Like, I don't like to work. I don't like to go, you know, do hard things.
(04:59):
But that's also part of what has got me onto this path because, OK, well, this has to get done.
So how can I use technology to do it?
Yeah, that's a wonderful idea.
Exactly. Yeah. And so that's kind of what sparked it.
And then as I've kind of just gone down this path, you know, different companies I've run, different jobs I've had,
(05:23):
I've really gotten into processes and systems. And how do I make this super efficient?
I'm not a very organized person, but my brain does work in a way where it's, OK, if we do this step,
then this step, then this step, it saves everyone time. And then by breaking it down, it's cool.
Where do we need people and where do we need technology?
(05:45):
And so just kind of doing it over and over again has always just kind of been part of figuring it out.
And I'm super curious by nature. So it's like, oh, man, you know, if I hear someone complain about, oh, I don't want to do this.
Cool. Let's see if we get technology to do this for us. And there's some things technology does that isn't the best.
(06:10):
Like if you've ever been on an automated phone system, sometimes those are terrible.
You like talk to an agent and it's like, did you want to, you know, a car loan?
And you're like, no. So by no means is technology the answer for everything.
But yeah, that's kind of how I got into it was definitely from my background of just being curious,
(06:31):
wanting to optimize processes and then kind of combining those into figuring out how can we do this all in one go.
OK, yeah, I completely agree with you, Cody. And also at this time, everyone wants to do like, you know, like less work, but maximum output.
And in in that aspect, automation can be a really, really important and effective tool as well.
(06:58):
So I just want to ask you, like, can you tell me, like, what are the first step a business owner should take when considering like implementing automation in their operations?
Yeah, so this is a great question because I get this all the time. So as I'm talking to business owners, even just individuals who are getting into automation,
(07:22):
the very first step is is looking at the end. So like, what's the outcome? What do we want to achieve with this?
Like, are we automating it just to automate it or are we automating it because we want to save time?
We want to make our employees more efficient. So like, what's what's the goal? That's that's kind of where we start.
And then once we know the goal, then we have to systematize it.
(07:45):
We have to turn it into a process that people can follow and then we can start adding in the technology part to actually create the automations itself.
So I think those two things kind of go hand in hand for the first step, which is you kind of what's the goal, what's the outcome?
(08:06):
And then the other part is what's the process behind what we're trying to automate?
So, you know, as an example, something might be sales follow up. So I have a phone call with someone and I need to do follow ups.
So that's a great, great automation to create that creates lots of good goals as far as, you know, we're working with someone currently who like I am on back to back to back to back sales calls all day.
(08:35):
I do 10 to 15 sales calls a day and I don't have time to do follow up. So like, that's a great goal.
I want to save time and I want to stay in touch with my customers.
And then the process for that is after my call, I have to review the call I have to write the email I have to send the email I have to see if the customer responded.
And now with that those that process now we can figure out where technology fits in. And also, I want to like, ask you, Cody, like, do you think automation is expensive for business.
(09:09):
No, I think automation, I mean, automation is still very much in its infancy.
But it is far enough along to where it's affordable.
There are, you know, depending on what you want to automate you know, things like a simple in businesses, sending email campaigns.
(09:31):
You can get started for as low as 10 1520 dollars a month.
So it's really not a big entry.
Now, that's not to say it's not expensive because there are custom projects we do where someone's like, I want to automate something that there is no currently built technology for.
(09:52):
And we have to kind of create it and yes that can get very expensive.
So say for probably 80 85% of what most business owners want to automate. You could probably automate a majority of your business for less than four or $500 a month.
Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, so it's it's fairly affordable, especially if you're doing it yourself you take the time to learn the skills and create it yourself.
(10:20):
Automation can be a really affordable tool, and the return that you get on it is very high.
Yeah, go ahead. No, no, I completely agree with you Cody, you want to make bucks, then you have to like invest in something that actually helps you making that and also like decreases like your effort while doing it and so that you can focus on other
(10:44):
of your priorities but you can go your business as well so my next question to you, Cody would be, what are the like common misconceptions or fears that business owners like have about automation and how do you kind of address them.
Yeah, so there's, there's a handful out there. I think the two big ones are the kind of afraid that automation is going to like steal jobs, or, you know, it's going to be, you know, not not great for people.
(11:14):
You know, or that there's not like a human touch to it.
Having been in it I don't necessarily see that. From my end, we've, we've grown from basically myself to we now have about eight to 10 employees right now.
And we've really kicked off our business in the last four or five months, like I've been doing this in my career for a long time but me branching out and doing this on my own has been about four or five months.
(11:45):
And so, like, I can say that my business has created more jobs and it's taken away.
And the people I help have, and the people I help have created more jobs.
You know, like I work with a
car detailing company, I can't.
(12:06):
I forgot what it was called but we work with a car detailing company where it was just him.
And so we set up the system for him. And again it's fairly inexpensive he pays about $300 a month.
And this kind of just runs on its own in the background. And now he has three employees full time who work for him.
So, we didn't take away any jobs we helped him add three more jobs.
(12:31):
You know so I think that misconception is, you know, a little outdated I think what, what automation does is it definitely helps your employees be more effective, which means you might not need as many employees.
You know, so like in our case, if I have my automation doing follow up, I can handle more sales calls so instead of me only being able to manage five sales calls a day. Now I can take 10 sales calls a day.
(13:01):
And in the past I would have had to hire two people for that so I think that's where the misconception comes from but I think in reality, you end up being so much more effective and productive, and the amount of money you make in return is so much more than what you
spend that you can then go hire more people.
Yes, Cody, you say like a very on the point thing that that many of the business owners, and even not the business owners themselves but many of the employees that they were looking for work the thing that automation will like take up their jobs and misconceptions
(13:37):
and that and I think that's the same case for AI as well like with the introduction of Chan GPT and the other AI tools that these automation tools are even like this AI tools would take or take their job away.
But I think the important consideration is would be like how we can utilize that to streamline the business but even to create like more opportunities you know I think there is a lack of understanding, maybe due to lack of resources, maybe
(14:05):
like not knowing where to find these resources, I think automation is for sure.
And excellent thing that if you are looking to grow your business, but also to learn how to effectively use that to your benefit and the benefit of for your customers as well.
Can I ask you like, how do you determine which process within a business is best suited for automation.
(14:30):
Yeah.
So I think the, the way that we approach it is we really try to start with what processes have the most repetitive tasks. So what process are you doing that is just, you know, the most mind numbing most, you know, over and over and over again process that you have.
(14:53):
And that's where we tend to start.
And so a lot of that tends to be in a business standpoint that tends to be on the communication side with a customer. And so that tends to be with email text messages and things like that.
And another kind of point to that also tends to be like note taking and meetings like those tend to be the two places that almost every business spends at least one to two hours a day dealing with.
(15:27):
Like those are areas that have been like, those are kind of been the first areas that automation tools have tried to go after and solve. And so like if you use tools like a MailChimp or active campaign, or things like that, you'll notice that those tools are focused
almost solely on email follow ups text message campaigns and things like that and it's because as humans we spend a lot of time communicating with people. And so being able to have tools and automations that can kind of help the human do their job and follow up
(16:03):
better is like a very easy step one.
Like you mentioned about like, you know, taking care of the back end process, even like taking like meeting notes and things like that. We know like there are like integration of tools that can take meeting notes for you, you don't have to have another person
or a dedicated person to do that, but better utilize their time to do something else to better like efficiently utilize that resource. Yeah, that that's I think a very important consideration to make the determination that we're actually in your business
(16:37):
would you like would like to include automation if there is scope and a way for you to do that so that that can that can help grow your business for sure.
So, based on your experience, Cody, you know, I wanted to like, ask you for the benefit of the audience you know like what advice would you give to businesses that are hesitant to invest in automation due to budget constraints and uncertainty
(17:03):
about benefit, what is your advice, Cody, regarding that expense.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I love the way that the question is written because it's hesitant to invest. And I think that's a big thing that I run into as I'm talking to people, the people who have the mindset of, I'm investing in a new technology.
(17:25):
I'm trying to figure out how this fits into my business. Those are the people that see the biggest return versus the people that are like, oh, this is an expense. Why do I pay so much like those are the people that don't have very good experiences with it.
And so I guess the advice I have would be one just taking a look at, even from like when you started your business, you had to invest in it you had to invest in the tools, you had to invest in training you had to invest in all these different things to get started.
(17:57):
You know, even here with the podcast you know how much did you invest in the equipment, and you didn't know if you're going to make money on this or not right like right exactly you know and so that's with any business you start not knowing if it's going to work.
And some people will spend 1050 100,000 million dollars on their business and never make money out of it. And then you go hey automation costs $300. And it's like, oh my gosh I can't do this.
(18:26):
It's the end of the world and it's, I understand it. But at the same time, it's the same principle you're investing in something, and you're trying to figure out how do I make this work so I make more money in return.
Like, you know, you have to like I think it's important to see like the bigger picture. And if you have like a, you know, like clear vision on how you can utilize this tool and I think one of the most important aspect is like to have a goal.
(18:53):
If you have someone doesn't have a goal, and then where he why he's investing that what is the return of an investment like he wants to get back. So if these goals are not clear the direction would not be clear in the business as well.
So it's important to understand how to how you can use automation in your business, just to understand how you can, you know, get back the benefit and just streamline everything in that way to get the most out of that.
(19:23):
And I would like to like, ask you, Cody like, what do you think are some of the essential tools or platform for businesses, you know just starting with automation or thinking about like having automation.
And those tools are more like the the MailChimp's active campaigns, things that kind of focus on email and text message I think those are kind of like, let's get started let's dip our toe in the water price points going to be under $100 a month.
(19:58):
And those are going to be the biggest returns because the number one thing I see, especially in small businesses is they get a lead. They call the person or they talk to them, they don't purchase and then they throw the lead away and say, well they're not worth anything.
Let's get another lead.
And, you know, that's great. That's what lead gen companies are there for.
(20:19):
But a lot of times, you generate a lead, and it's more than just, do you want to buy right now it's hey let's develop a relationship. Let's get to know you.
And then, three, six, nine months down the road.
And then I'm actually ready to work with you and now you've spent $50 nurturing this lead and you got a $1,000 deal out of it. That's worth it if I told you hey, give me $50 and I'll give you $1,000 job, you would do that 10 out of 10 times.
(20:51):
Yeah.
So I think that's the those those kind of tools are the good starting place. And then as you kind of move up and are more comfortable with it I think tools, you know you can kind of start moving into tools like keep or HubSpot.
We actually have our own tool that that we set people up with when they work with us we call it the phantom automated desk. And it does those those initial things, as far as email and text messages go but then we also have like business operations
(21:24):
that we can start to automate so it's, hey, how do we assign tasks to people and how do we, you know, do different alerts and how do we get paperwork over to the right person.
So, you know, as you start to move up those are tools that start to cost three four $500 a month.
(21:46):
And then, kind of beyond that is where you kind of get into different things like Zapier or make.
And those tools and those tools are really useful for either things that don't always work together really well and you kind of use those tools to make them work together, or you use them to kind of create some more custom automation.
(22:07):
And those tools themselves aren't very expensive but they have a high setup fee, because it takes a lot of just technical knowledge and work to kind of go through and break things and force them to work together.
So I think definitely the audience would find value to it and also there would be like deep dive to getting to know all the automation tools that are available with like some things that you spoke of Zapier and others, I do myself, actually use a few of the automation
(22:39):
tools myself.
Even you know like the one you she deal this recording with the title and some of those other calendar schedule or so, those actually like you know, help me save time so much like she dealing and sending links.
Yeah, information so just a very good example what automation can do. You did mention about, about like the Phantom automated desk Cody so at this point I just wanted to know I wouldn't like, let our listeners know, can like speak a bit about
(23:08):
like what Phantom marketing does. And what does your company do. Yeah, yeah. So, um, yeah so kind of like I referred to in the beginning we, we really try to focus on helping our customers monetize their leads and their customers like that's kind of like what
we approach people when we talk to them so it's, hey, we can either help you bring in more leads if that's the real problem you have, or you're bringing leads in.
(23:39):
How do we help them become customers, or you have a big list of customers. How do we make them purchase again.
So, yeah, so those are kind of the three different areas that we work on so we either help you get more leads. Turn your leads into customers and then turn your customers into repeat customers.
(24:01):
And so a lot of that we do through automation but that's kind of like our number one tool that we use. But then we do also do things like Facebook advertising Google advertising, kind of more of those traditional, like digital marketing
type type services.
But I will say the customers that we work with that see the biggest return, implement automation into their system in some capacity.
(24:32):
And, and if you let me share, we actually had a customer had a talk to them I think like two, two weeks ago, and we set up a, a basically a relationship nurture automation so every morning, this business owner would get up at five in the morning,
and he would get a list of about 1000 real estate agents, and he would text them every morning.
(24:57):
And he would pick like 510 of them, me text them, you know, hey, you know, whatever your name is.
This is, you know, me, and I just wanted to see how things are going. Every morning he would do this. And so when we started working with him I said hey, we can automate that initial message I don't want to automate all of your messages, because we still
(25:21):
have that element. But that way you don't have to wake up at five in the morning and spend 3040 minutes of your time every morning doing this, I can automate this for you. So that's what we did we set this up.
And we had it send that at a better time so it's not five in the morning it's sending now at eight nine 10 in the morning. And it's sending the same exact message he was sending.
(25:44):
Hey real estate agent.
How's business going how can I help you.
And through this, he spent a total of, I think it was like $37 on on these messages. And through this he had someone come back and say hey things are going great.
I actually wanted to ask you a question. My husband is having issues, and he needs your services.
(26:12):
And he's like, oh, that's awesome. I'd love to come out and look so he goes out there quotes the job. It was $140,000 job. Oh wow he spent $37 on these messages and got a job worth $140,000.
Now that's obviously not normal and not typical. But the idea of it of, hey he was doing something every morning like clockwork, we came in automated it so he went off and did something else.
(26:42):
And then when someone replied then he would jump in and answer back. And that turned into $140,000 job for him.
What a wonderful example, Cody and even for the audience is like if when you're listening to this maybe you just got a real life example, how automation can get you like big deals even like after investing a very very small amount.
(27:05):
Thank you so much Cody for sharing that.
You are listening to the Active Action podcast.
Visit activeactionpodcast.com to explore all episodes.
Active Action podcast.
I want to ask you again like, how do you ensure that automation effort aligns with the company's overall business goal and strategies.
Yeah, so, you know, whether you work with someone like myself or you do it on your own.
(27:32):
The number one thing that we do before we even start before we build anything before we touch any tools is we sit down. If you work with me we usually have about two or three meetings before we ever build anything.
And those two meetings are all about what is your business do. What do you guys want to achieve. What are your long term goals because we don't want to build an automation that in six months you're going to have to redo so it's, what are your long term goals.
(27:58):
And then, and then we start breaking into what processes and what systems do you already have in place in your business.
Before we ever touch anything those are the things that we go over. And that's what I would encourage anyone to do.
I actually have a meeting next week with someone, and they're like hey we want to do all this automation they're like super yeah let's go let's go let's go. And I told them hey before we hop on this meeting, I need you to sit down and tell me what do you want your
(28:28):
customer to experience as they go through this. So I'm not building anything on this call we're going to sit down and be like okay, they see your ad on Facebook or they call your business or this is what they do.
What do you want them to see what action do you want them to take. What does the purchase process look like.
You know how do they get the product or service and what are all the steps that your customer touches. And that way as we're building we're staying in line with the business model that you've built, because we don't want to come in and tell you hey change
(29:03):
your business model to match our automation. It's our automation needs to change to match your business model. What do you actually want in your business to have to have that vision is very important you know just and having all those things like laid out
and strategizing is very important. Yeah, exactly. Can I ask you, like, you know like what role does data can play in effective business automation, and how can companies leverage like their existing leads or data to enhance their automation strategies
(29:32):
if it can. Oh man, I love this question.
I love data, I love numbers I love, I love all of it and I know not everyone does.
But automation isn't effective without good data so if your data is bad your automations are going to be bad.
(29:55):
And the other thing we do before we start is we actually dive into our customers data to figure out is your data good. If it's not how can we fix it. And so, actually our team is currently working on on a build where we're building out a full
business marketing onboarding automation for a company. And on, on one of our first calls we asked them, hey so how's your data and everyone on the call went silent and they're like, it's, it's not very good.
(30:27):
And so, you know, I was like, great I appreciate the honesty. How can we fix this and so as we're building we're actually building in data structures to help keep track of their data as they generate it and actually the last step of this project
with them is going back into all their old data and updating it to match the data of the new system.
(30:53):
So, my recommendation to everyone is, keep your data clean, if it's not clean, it's never too late to go back and clean it, it takes. It takes a lot of time it's hard.
But if you're if you're serious about automation.
It's going to make a world of difference because I think that's another thing especially small businesses miss is they come to automation they say hey I have this customer list.
(31:20):
And they ask, well what kind of products that they buy.
We don't know. Yeah, what. When did they buy, we don't know.
So having as much data as possible is is awesome.
Ask a follow up question on that code, there might be no straight answer for this. How do you understand a data is a good data. Yeah, that's that's actually really good question.
(31:45):
I don't know that there's a clear definition of good data and bad data, I think it really comes down to.
It's good data, if you can use it.
So, from an automation standpoint, a good example of this is we have a med spa that we help.
And they sell different services they sell facials and Botox and things like that right.
(32:12):
And so when someone makes a purchase. We tagged them with the type of service that they did. And now in our automation we can follow up and tell them, hey, how was your facial and all of our messaging can now focus around the type of service that they got.
But if they didn't have that data structure, we would just see this as a customer. And now we would send really generic. Thanks for being a customer messaging, and that's obviously not going to resonate.
(32:43):
It's not going to stick as much it's not going to be as effective.
You know, like same, same with us here like if after the podcast, you send me a message that just says, hey, Cody, thanks for chatting.
That's not that great of a message but if you go Oh hey thanks for talking on the podcast about business automation, and you know all this because you have the data organized to know that hey Cody was on the podcast talking about data or automation.
(33:12):
Now you can create these beautiful messages that are super personalized, and you can create flows of. Hey, if someone is on the podcast, like let's send them this type of messaging and let's do these special things for them.
So, so yes that's, that's how data, I think is considered good is when it becomes useful, because you're right there are people who have a lot of data, but you can't use it, it doesn't do anything.
(33:42):
So, I think that's how I would define good data it's useful data. I think the simple thing that Cody mentioned is if you have to determine if you are able to use that data to your benefit.
I wanted to like, ask you for businesses like worried about the complexity of setting up the automation system. What tips or best practices can you share to simplify this process.
(34:07):
Yeah, no if you're if you're serious about getting into automation but you're kind of just stuck on. Oh man this is too complex this is too hard.
I think the biggest piece of advice I can give is start small. So pick, pick one thing, and it could be a small thing hey on someone's birthday, we're going to send them an email.
(34:29):
That's a super simple automation, your data is going to be their name, their email, and the birthday, that's all the data you need for that type of automation.
And in something like MailChimp, or, you know, the phantom automated desk.
It's real simple on their birthday, send an email, and then you would pre write the email of, hey, customer first name because we're going to pull that data.
(34:56):
We hope you have a great birthday.
Here's, you know, here's a little birthday party for you, you know, send it off, and you automate that and you just start small. And then, you know, now you might follow up with.
Hey after a sales call I'm going to click a button, and we're just going to send an automated message that says, hey, thanks for being on the sales call with me.
(35:19):
Again, something super simple and start there and start to get comfortable with it.
I have a wonderful example Cody. When we look ahead. So what trends do you actually see, you know, shaping the future of the business automation and how should you know call pennies like prepare to stay ahead of the curve.
(35:42):
Yeah, I mean, as far as trends go.
There's two sides there's the automation side and then there's the AI side, because AI and automation really work very close together.
And a lot of people are really afraid of AI.
And I can get into that a little later but on the automation side specifically.
(36:04):
I think sales and marketing is an area that's kind of been focused on. And I think as we continue to move forward in business specifically we're going to see a bigger movement towards operational automation.
You know so instead of sending internal emails and project management type things and invoicing, I think we're going to see a bigger shift towards automation in in the operational and administrative side.
(36:35):
And I think that's going to be very closely tied to the AI piece of. Hey, this is my pricing structure. I just give it a few key points and now AI can generate a whole invoice send it off to my customer for me, and I don't have to spend the 2030 minutes
writing an invoice.
And there are many entrepreneurs who look for automation in their business or maybe were even thinking of automating, but doesn't know that even the exact time automation but they're thinking the process.
(37:06):
This is how you know my time would be of like more efficient use. So, can I just ask you a quick question regarding that.
For me suppose if I today, Dr. Nazif like wants to look at automation. Yeah, and I want to understand how automation can help my business, you know, like, what should I do as a like a lame person who doesn't know.
(37:31):
Yeah, yeah, so this is a great question because people ask me all the time well what can I automate, and I'm like, that is such a hard question to answer because I don't know your business I don't know what you do.
Unfortunately, I can't think of every single scenario that exists.
And so, my answer to you is everything can be automated. It's what should be automated. Right, so this whole podcast between me and you could be automated we could make it so you don't even have to be here.
(38:05):
I can make you a little avatar who asked all the questions. Obviously that takes out the human in it so that probably shouldn't be automated but it can be automated so what I would do is I would say, what are the areas of my business that I need to work on to grow.
And those are the things that you should be doing.
(38:28):
And now, everything that isn't in this growth section, then that's where we start looking at. Okay.
Is sending this email growing my business.
No. Okay.
Let's let's look at can we automate this, or at the very least can we delegate this.
And that's kind of how I move through things so like, as an example, I'm fairly active on social media on on my Facebook and LinkedIn, and I really struggled to create content, like, I'm really good at this and I love talking about it, but I really
(39:05):
struggled to make the content. So, what I do is I use automation to create the topics, and to give me a starting point.
And then, once I have a starting point then I go in and I update it and I, you know, personalize it and make it human.
But I use AI and automation to give me the starting point.
(39:27):
So, for you that might not be an issue maybe you're like, I'm super creative I can make content.
No big deal, but for me that's something I struggle with so that's what I would do is I would look at, you know, what do you need to grow.
Do those things automate the rest of it and then what areas do you struggle in.
And how can we either use automation or AI to help you overcome those struggles.
(39:52):
And that's really where I would start so and again that's why I think a lot of people are focused on the sales and marketing side of business is because sales and marketing are two pain points for just about every single business out there everyone
to make more sales and everyone struggles to market effectively.
And so automation can really help those, those two.
(40:14):
But there are other parts of your business there's operational things payroll, you know, all those things accounting all those things can be automated and if you're not good at it.
Totally.
Look at automating.
Can I ask you, Cody, like you know we talk, we talk about AI and automation so can I like, ask you what do you think the differences between AI and automation.
(40:39):
And you know like how can these two like work hands in hands. Yeah, so I mean, AI is great.
It still has a way to go.
But I think when you use it to enhance what you're doing. I think that's the level of AI that we're at. So, you know, like I said, me, I use AI to help me create ideas for my content.
(41:07):
And then, then I step in as the human and I make the content mine.
And, but I use AI to kind of kickstart that and I have an automation setup, where basically I just click a button.
AI goes, you might my automation trigger tells AI hey go go make some content ideas, and then I can go check it and that all happens in seconds.
(41:31):
So I don't have to do any brain power thinking about what do I want to write about this week, you know, AI kind of helps me with that and it's done in an instant because if I had to sit there and think it would take me two hours to come up with topics,
and literally in 10 seconds I have a list of ideas.
Yeah, for sure.
(41:52):
So yeah, that's that's kind of where I would start. And I think the big difference between them is automation, it's just the technology to do the repeatable tasks.
AI is a little more.
I don't want to say brain power but it's a little more on like the research and communication side.
(42:13):
AI won't necessarily do the automation, it'll more enhance the automation. If that makes sense. So my question to you is, what are some of the common pitfalls that businesses should avoid when implementing automation and how can they navigate these challenges.
Yeah, so I think the biggest pitfall is they just rush into it and they build something, and they don't have proper setup.
(42:43):
That's probably like the number two big thing I see is, is we do quite a bit of audits where people go, I set up all this automation.
Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, or it's not the greatest, but they really want it to work so they come to us and they're like hey can you take a look at this.
And when we start asking questions it's really easy to see that they just started building without any direction without any goals.
(43:10):
And so I think that's probably the biggest pitfall that I see businesses make is rushing into it, like really taking time to plan things out, making sure everything is set up according to your goals, and really just kind of following that framework that we set out earlier.
(43:31):
Because if you rush into it, you're going to have bad data, your automations aren't going to work right, and you're just going to have an overall bad experience.
I want to like, talk to you a bit about the balance between automation and personalization.
So can you like, you know discuss the balance between automation and personalization in customer interaction, and how businesses can maintain a personal touch while automating the process. Yeah, no, I.
(44:01):
That's, that's an awesome question.
So I think a lot of people have the perception that automation is not personable, because they get a ton of these, you know, calendar, you have a meeting coming up in 60 minutes.
And those are great automations.
And they're not meant to be personalized automations.
(44:24):
I'll tell you right now I have tons of automations that I use that people don't even know are automations they think I sent them that email.
And really what. Yeah, and really what it comes down to is keeping good data because again if I know when your birthday is if I find no details about you.
(44:45):
I can use automation and more specifically I can use AI to enhance that automation to make what I'm doing more personable to my customer or my leads, and they have no idea that it's, you know, automation or AI generated.
So, you can definitely create personalization in automation and you know kind of going back to that example of, of our customer who created that $140,000 job opportunity.
(45:18):
Every single one of those people thought that they received a message from him that's why they answered him that's why they gave him a job is because they thought he was the one sending it.
And that's another way to go about it is you don't have to automate the whole process. You can automate the start.
You can automate the middle part you can automate the end part you don't have to automate the whole thing.
(45:44):
And I really appreciate like your words of wisdom, and the wonderful insights that you share with our audience about like how we can utilize automation in business like some of the fears, the businessman or the new entrepreneurs have, but how to overcome
that fear but also to have like a very focused strategy on, and also clear understanding like how you want to utilize automation or what you want to get out of that automation that can enhance your business and experience, you want to connect with
(46:18):
your customers if you want more if you want to know more about him. You can do that by going into our website in active action.fm. I just put the link the video itself so if you're watching that in YouTube you'll see that in the video.
And for those of you who are watching this one so is hearing it in the audio it's www.activation.fm slash person slash Cody dash how well that's C or D y dash h o w, e double l.
(46:50):
Thank you so much for they really appreciate your wonderful time that you provided to me and my audience in this podcast. So just wanted to let ask you if you had any last words before we close.
Yeah, I'm just excited we had this time to talk and I really hope the audience. Get something out of this I would say, I always love to leave people with action items.
(47:13):
So I would say for anyone listening.
You know the next steps I would take would be sit down and just try to find one or two things in your business that you feel like would either save you money or make you more money if you were able to automate it.
And then start start researching how to automate it. A lot of times you're going to find it's going to be sending customer communications and just staying in touch with past customers more often.
(47:41):
So I would say, you know, spend some time researching that, and then sign up for one of those tools. You can sign up for MailChimp, things like that.
And, you know, if you want to kind of move into more, you know, definitely reach out I'd be more than happy to help everyone so dear listeners and thank you again for listening to this episode.
(48:06):
This episode was about like getting started with automation in business. And so if you have any questions, or do you have you want to like know more about Cody, like I mentioned you can go to the web page and search information about them over there,
there is that all the social media links are also included over there.
So, thank you so much again for joining in, and also just lastly wanted to like mention that if you do find value in our podcast, please support us by going to the active action.fm slash donate so if you think our content has any value to you and also,
(48:46):
even if you can kind of like leave a review in our website, or in the platforms, and also if you can kindly share this episode with anyone who is looking into a business and automation and that kind of thing that you define might be a value.
If you shared that I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining in today again, and I wish you a very best of luck and we'll chat soon for sure.
(49:13):
Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, best of luck.
Thank you for joining us on the active action podcast. We hope today's episode gave you some entertainment, fresh perspectives, and a little extra motivation to take action in your own life. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you enjoyed the show, share it with someone who might love it too.
You're tuned into the Active Action podcast.
(00:03):
Step into a world of engaging conversations with leading experts,
where every episode is your chance to learn, grow, and stay inspired.
Hello, welcome and welcome back to another episode of the Active Action podcast.
It's me, Dr. Nazif, with you as always.
And today I have a wonderful guest with me.
Before just delving into that, I really want to thank and appreciate all the audiences
(00:28):
to keep supporting us. And we have been growing beautifully.
Our streams are going up and also our reviews as well.
I really want to take this opportunity to appreciate all our audience.
So without further ado, I want to introduce today's our very special guest, Cody Hallow.
(00:49):
Hello, good evening, Cody.
Hey, how are you?
Yeah, I'm doing wonderful. Thank you so much for asking.
How are you doing yourself, Cody, today?
Oh, I'm doing super good. I'm super excited to be here and, you know, just just excited to chat.
Thank you so much, Cody.
Our topic for today's podcast is getting started with automation in business.
(01:12):
And we have our wonderful guest, Cody Hallow, who is the founder of Phantom Marketing.
I just want to like begin by asking, Cody, if you want to like
let our audience know who you were and where you're from.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, like you said, I'm the founder of Phantom Marketing.
Basically, we we kind of do everything digital.
(01:37):
So anything from ads to SEO, really the big thing that we love to focus on is automation
and just different automatic workflows that help people either do their jobs better
or help them run their businesses better.
So like that's something that I'm super passionate about.
And I spend a lot of time doing it, obviously.
(02:00):
I'm based in Phoenix, Arizona, and I love to travel.
So those are kind of the two things that are always happening.
If you ever hop on a call with me one day, I'll be in Arizona and then the next I'll be somewhere else.
Every time someone hops on a call, almost the first question always is, where are you at this week?
(02:22):
That's wonderful. I also like to travel a lot, Cody.
And so that's one thing in common. Today, dear audience, like as we mentioned,
we'll talk about automation in business.
And, you know, like as in like in today in 2025, the year we're advancing, the business is advancing,
the sector is growing, and there is like very new innovative things coming in the business.
(02:45):
You know, how you can profit from it, how we can utilize that.
We know about like artificial intelligence. We know about different aspects that can enhance
and grow your entrepreneurship ventures or business.
And this episode would provide you with some sort of value,
especially a lot of you who are looking into business aspects or entrepreneurship.
(03:06):
So, Cody, the first question that I wanted to ask you is,
can you start by explaining what business automation is and why it's becoming increasingly important for companies?
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, initially, business automation, I mean, really just comes down to
making it possible for technology to do repetitive tasks.
(03:30):
So if there's anything that you're doing over and over and over and over again,
lots of times there's a technology out there that can do it for you.
And so why is it becoming important?
I think the big thing is there's a big time saving aspect to it.
So instead of having a human sit there and copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste, you know,
(03:53):
hundreds, if not thousands of times a day, technology can do that and it can do it faster
and a lot more accurate than a human can. Right.
And that's an important aspect for businesses because copying, pasting that data may be important,
but it may not be making you money. It may not be something that's growing your business.
(04:14):
It may just be an administrative task.
So by implementing some of this automation, you're able to focus on the important parts of your business
and the things that are going to make you grow. But the repetitive tasks are still getting done.
I want to know a bit about your interests, like how you actually got to know about automation
(04:35):
and how actually you are utilizing it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my background has always been, you know, some type of entrepreneurship
or marketing or sales. That's kind of where I've always spent my time.
And I would describe myself as a relatively lazy person.
Like, I don't like to work. I don't like to go, you know, do hard things.
(04:59):
But that's also part of what has got me onto this path because, OK, well, this has to get done.
So how can I use technology to do it?
Yeah, that's a wonderful idea.
Exactly. Yeah. And so that's kind of what sparked it.
And then as I've kind of just gone down this path, you know, different companies I've run, different jobs I've had,
(05:23):
I've really gotten into processes and systems. And how do I make this super efficient?
I'm not a very organized person, but my brain does work in a way where it's, OK, if we do this step,
then this step, then this step, it saves everyone time. And then by breaking it down, it's cool.
Where do we need people and where do we need technology?
(05:45):
And so just kind of doing it over and over again has always just kind of been part of figuring it out.
And I'm super curious by nature. So it's like, oh, man, you know, if I hear someone complain about, oh, I don't want to do this.
Cool. Let's see if we get technology to do this for us. And there's some things technology does that isn't the best.
(06:10):
Like if you've ever been on an automated phone system, sometimes those are terrible.
You like talk to an agent and it's like, did you want to, you know, a car loan?
And you're like, no. So by no means is technology the answer for everything.
But yeah, that's kind of how I got into it was definitely from my background of just being curious,
(06:31):
wanting to optimize processes and then kind of combining those into figuring out how can we do this all in one go.
OK, yeah, I completely agree with you, Cody. And also at this time, everyone wants to do like, you know, like less work, but maximum output.
And in in that aspect, automation can be a really, really important and effective tool as well.
(06:58):
So I just want to ask you, like, can you tell me, like, what are the first step a business owner should take when considering like implementing automation in their operations?
Yeah, so this is a great question because I get this all the time. So as I'm talking to business owners, even just individuals who are getting into automation,
(07:22):
the very first step is is looking at the end. So like, what's the outcome? What do we want to achieve with this?
Like, are we automating it just to automate it or are we automating it because we want to save time?
We want to make our employees more efficient. So like, what's what's the goal? That's that's kind of where we start.
And then once we know the goal, then we have to systematize it.
(07:45):
We have to turn it into a process that people can follow and then we can start adding in the technology part to actually create the automations itself.
So I think those two things kind of go hand in hand for the first step, which is you kind of what's the goal, what's the outcome?
(08:06):
And then the other part is what's the process behind what we're trying to automate?
So, you know, as an example, something might be sales follow up. So I have a phone call with someone and I need to do follow ups.
So that's a great, great automation to create that creates lots of good goals as far as, you know, we're working with someone currently who like I am on back to back to back to back sales calls all day.
(08:35):
I do 10 to 15 sales calls a day and I don't have time to do follow up. So like, that's a great goal.
I want to save time and I want to stay in touch with my customers.
And then the process for that is after my call, I have to review the call I have to write the email I have to send the email I have to see if the customer responded.
And now with that those that process now we can figure out where technology fits in. And also, I want to like, ask you, Cody, like, do you think automation is expensive for business.
(09:09):
No, I think automation, I mean, automation is still very much in its infancy.
But it is far enough along to where it's affordable.
There are, you know, depending on what you want to automate you know, things like a simple in businesses, sending email campaigns.
(09:31):
You can get started for as low as 10 1520 dollars a month.
So it's really not a big entry.
Now, that's not to say it's not expensive because there are custom projects we do where someone's like, I want to automate something that there is no currently built technology for.
(09:52):
And we have to kind of create it and yes that can get very expensive.
So say for probably 80 85% of what most business owners want to automate. You could probably automate a majority of your business for less than four or $500 a month.
Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, so it's it's fairly affordable, especially if you're doing it yourself you take the time to learn the skills and create it yourself.
(10:20):
Automation can be a really affordable tool, and the return that you get on it is very high.
Yeah, go ahead. No, no, I completely agree with you Cody, you want to make bucks, then you have to like invest in something that actually helps you making that and also like decreases like your effort while doing it and so that you can focus on other
(10:44):
of your priorities but you can go your business as well so my next question to you, Cody would be, what are the like common misconceptions or fears that business owners like have about automation and how do you kind of address them.
Yeah, so there's, there's a handful out there. I think the two big ones are the kind of afraid that automation is going to like steal jobs, or, you know, it's going to be, you know, not not great for people.
(11:14):
You know, or that there's not like a human touch to it.
Having been in it I don't necessarily see that. From my end, we've, we've grown from basically myself to we now have about eight to 10 employees right now.
And we've really kicked off our business in the last four or five months, like I've been doing this in my career for a long time but me branching out and doing this on my own has been about four or five months.
(11:45):
And so, like, I can say that my business has created more jobs and it's taken away.
And the people I help have, and the people I help have created more jobs.
You know, like I work with a
car detailing company, I can't.
(12:06):
I forgot what it was called but we work with a car detailing company where it was just him.
And so we set up the system for him. And again it's fairly inexpensive he pays about $300 a month.
And this kind of just runs on its own in the background. And now he has three employees full time who work for him.
So, we didn't take away any jobs we helped him add three more jobs.
(12:31):
You know so I think that misconception is, you know, a little outdated I think what, what automation does is it definitely helps your employees be more effective, which means you might not need as many employees.
You know, so like in our case, if I have my automation doing follow up, I can handle more sales calls so instead of me only being able to manage five sales calls a day. Now I can take 10 sales calls a day.
(13:01):
And in the past I would have had to hire two people for that so I think that's where the misconception comes from but I think in reality, you end up being so much more effective and productive, and the amount of money you make in return is so much more than what you
spend that you can then go hire more people.
Yes, Cody, you say like a very on the point thing that that many of the business owners, and even not the business owners themselves but many of the employees that they were looking for work the thing that automation will like take up their jobs and misconceptions
(13:37):
and that and I think that's the same case for AI as well like with the introduction of Chan GPT and the other AI tools that these automation tools are even like this AI tools would take or take their job away.
But I think the important consideration is would be like how we can utilize that to streamline the business but even to create like more opportunities you know I think there is a lack of understanding, maybe due to lack of resources, maybe
(14:05):
like not knowing where to find these resources, I think automation is for sure.
And excellent thing that if you are looking to grow your business, but also to learn how to effectively use that to your benefit and the benefit of for your customers as well.
Can I ask you like, how do you determine which process within a business is best suited for automation.
(14:30):
Yeah.
So I think the, the way that we approach it is we really try to start with what processes have the most repetitive tasks. So what process are you doing that is just, you know, the most mind numbing most, you know, over and over and over again process that you have.
(14:53):
And that's where we tend to start.
And so a lot of that tends to be in a business standpoint that tends to be on the communication side with a customer. And so that tends to be with email text messages and things like that.
And another kind of point to that also tends to be like note taking and meetings like those tend to be the two places that almost every business spends at least one to two hours a day dealing with.
(15:27):
Like those are areas that have been like, those are kind of been the first areas that automation tools have tried to go after and solve. And so like if you use tools like a MailChimp or active campaign, or things like that, you'll notice that those tools are focused
almost solely on email follow ups text message campaigns and things like that and it's because as humans we spend a lot of time communicating with people. And so being able to have tools and automations that can kind of help the human do their job and follow up
(16:03):
better is like a very easy step one.
Like you mentioned about like, you know, taking care of the back end process, even like taking like meeting notes and things like that. We know like there are like integration of tools that can take meeting notes for you, you don't have to have another person
or a dedicated person to do that, but better utilize their time to do something else to better like efficiently utilize that resource. Yeah, that that's I think a very important consideration to make the determination that we're actually in your business
(16:37):
would you like would like to include automation if there is scope and a way for you to do that so that that can that can help grow your business for sure.
So, based on your experience, Cody, you know, I wanted to like, ask you for the benefit of the audience you know like what advice would you give to businesses that are hesitant to invest in automation due to budget constraints and uncertainty
(17:03):
about benefit, what is your advice, Cody, regarding that expense.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I love the way that the question is written because it's hesitant to invest. And I think that's a big thing that I run into as I'm talking to people, the people who have the mindset of, I'm investing in a new technology.
(17:25):
I'm trying to figure out how this fits into my business. Those are the people that see the biggest return versus the people that are like, oh, this is an expense. Why do I pay so much like those are the people that don't have very good experiences with it.
And so I guess the advice I have would be one just taking a look at, even from like when you started your business, you had to invest in it you had to invest in the tools, you had to invest in training you had to invest in all these different things to get started.
(17:57):
You know, even here with the podcast you know how much did you invest in the equipment, and you didn't know if you're going to make money on this or not right like right exactly you know and so that's with any business you start not knowing if it's going to work.
And some people will spend 1050 100,000 million dollars on their business and never make money out of it. And then you go hey automation costs $300. And it's like, oh my gosh I can't do this.
(18:26):
It's the end of the world and it's, I understand it. But at the same time, it's the same principle you're investing in something, and you're trying to figure out how do I make this work so I make more money in return.
Like, you know, you have to like I think it's important to see like the bigger picture. And if you have like a, you know, like clear vision on how you can utilize this tool and I think one of the most important aspect is like to have a goal.
(18:53):
If you have someone doesn't have a goal, and then where he why he's investing that what is the return of an investment like he wants to get back. So if these goals are not clear the direction would not be clear in the business as well.
So it's important to understand how to how you can use automation in your business, just to understand how you can, you know, get back the benefit and just streamline everything in that way to get the most out of that.
(19:23):
And I would like to like, ask you, Cody like, what do you think are some of the essential tools or platform for businesses, you know just starting with automation or thinking about like having automation.
And those tools are more like the the MailChimp's active campaigns, things that kind of focus on email and text message I think those are kind of like, let's get started let's dip our toe in the water price points going to be under $100 a month.
(19:58):
And those are going to be the biggest returns because the number one thing I see, especially in small businesses is they get a lead. They call the person or they talk to them, they don't purchase and then they throw the lead away and say, well they're not worth anything.
Let's get another lead.
And, you know, that's great. That's what lead gen companies are there for.
(20:19):
But a lot of times, you generate a lead, and it's more than just, do you want to buy right now it's hey let's develop a relationship. Let's get to know you.
And then, three, six, nine months down the road.
And then I'm actually ready to work with you and now you've spent $50 nurturing this lead and you got a $1,000 deal out of it. That's worth it if I told you hey, give me $50 and I'll give you $1,000 job, you would do that 10 out of 10 times.
(20:51):
Yeah.
So I think that's the those those kind of tools are the good starting place. And then as you kind of move up and are more comfortable with it I think tools, you know you can kind of start moving into tools like keep or HubSpot.
We actually have our own tool that that we set people up with when they work with us we call it the phantom automated desk. And it does those those initial things, as far as email and text messages go but then we also have like business operations
(21:24):
that we can start to automate so it's, hey, how do we assign tasks to people and how do we, you know, do different alerts and how do we get paperwork over to the right person.
So, you know, as you start to move up those are tools that start to cost three four $500 a month.
(21:46):
And then, kind of beyond that is where you kind of get into different things like Zapier or make.
And those tools and those tools are really useful for either things that don't always work together really well and you kind of use those tools to make them work together, or you use them to kind of create some more custom automation.
(22:07):
And those tools themselves aren't very expensive but they have a high setup fee, because it takes a lot of just technical knowledge and work to kind of go through and break things and force them to work together.
So I think definitely the audience would find value to it and also there would be like deep dive to getting to know all the automation tools that are available with like some things that you spoke of Zapier and others, I do myself, actually use a few of the automation
(22:39):
tools myself.
Even you know like the one you she deal this recording with the title and some of those other calendar schedule or so, those actually like you know, help me save time so much like she dealing and sending links.
Yeah, information so just a very good example what automation can do. You did mention about, about like the Phantom automated desk Cody so at this point I just wanted to know I wouldn't like, let our listeners know, can like speak a bit about
(23:08):
like what Phantom marketing does. And what does your company do. Yeah, yeah. So, um, yeah so kind of like I referred to in the beginning we, we really try to focus on helping our customers monetize their leads and their customers like that's kind of like what
we approach people when we talk to them so it's, hey, we can either help you bring in more leads if that's the real problem you have, or you're bringing leads in.
(23:39):
How do we help them become customers, or you have a big list of customers. How do we make them purchase again.
So, yeah, so those are kind of the three different areas that we work on so we either help you get more leads. Turn your leads into customers and then turn your customers into repeat customers.
(24:01):
And so a lot of that we do through automation but that's kind of like our number one tool that we use. But then we do also do things like Facebook advertising Google advertising, kind of more of those traditional, like digital marketing
type type services.
But I will say the customers that we work with that see the biggest return, implement automation into their system in some capacity.
(24:32):
And, and if you let me share, we actually had a customer had a talk to them I think like two, two weeks ago, and we set up a, a basically a relationship nurture automation so every morning, this business owner would get up at five in the morning,
and he would get a list of about 1000 real estate agents, and he would text them every morning.
(24:57):
And he would pick like 510 of them, me text them, you know, hey, you know, whatever your name is.
This is, you know, me, and I just wanted to see how things are going. Every morning he would do this. And so when we started working with him I said hey, we can automate that initial message I don't want to automate all of your messages, because we still
(25:21):
have that element. But that way you don't have to wake up at five in the morning and spend 3040 minutes of your time every morning doing this, I can automate this for you. So that's what we did we set this up.
And we had it send that at a better time so it's not five in the morning it's sending now at eight nine 10 in the morning. And it's sending the same exact message he was sending.
(25:44):
Hey real estate agent.
How's business going how can I help you.
And through this, he spent a total of, I think it was like $37 on on these messages. And through this he had someone come back and say hey things are going great.
I actually wanted to ask you a question. My husband is having issues, and he needs your services.
(26:12):
And he's like, oh, that's awesome. I'd love to come out and look so he goes out there quotes the job. It was $140,000 job. Oh wow he spent $37 on these messages and got a job worth $140,000.
Now that's obviously not normal and not typical. But the idea of it of, hey he was doing something every morning like clockwork, we came in automated it so he went off and did something else.
(26:42):
And then when someone replied then he would jump in and answer back. And that turned into $140,000 job for him.
What a wonderful example, Cody and even for the audience is like if when you're listening to this maybe you just got a real life example, how automation can get you like big deals even like after investing a very very small amount.
(27:05):
Thank you so much Cody for sharing that.
You are listening to the Active Action podcast.
Visit activeactionpodcast.com to explore all episodes.
Active Action podcast.
I want to ask you again like, how do you ensure that automation effort aligns with the company's overall business goal and strategies.
Yeah, so, you know, whether you work with someone like myself or you do it on your own.
(27:32):
The number one thing that we do before we even start before we build anything before we touch any tools is we sit down. If you work with me we usually have about two or three meetings before we ever build anything.
And those two meetings are all about what is your business do. What do you guys want to achieve. What are your long term goals because we don't want to build an automation that in six months you're going to have to redo so it's, what are your long term goals.
(27:58):
And then, and then we start breaking into what processes and what systems do you already have in place in your business.
Before we ever touch anything those are the things that we go over. And that's what I would encourage anyone to do.
I actually have a meeting next week with someone, and they're like hey we want to do all this automation they're like super yeah let's go let's go let's go. And I told them hey before we hop on this meeting, I need you to sit down and tell me what do you want your
(28:28):
customer to experience as they go through this. So I'm not building anything on this call we're going to sit down and be like okay, they see your ad on Facebook or they call your business or this is what they do.
What do you want them to see what action do you want them to take. What does the purchase process look like.
You know how do they get the product or service and what are all the steps that your customer touches. And that way as we're building we're staying in line with the business model that you've built, because we don't want to come in and tell you hey change
(29:03):
your business model to match our automation. It's our automation needs to change to match your business model. What do you actually want in your business to have to have that vision is very important you know just and having all those things like laid out
and strategizing is very important. Yeah, exactly. Can I ask you, like, you know like what role does data can play in effective business automation, and how can companies leverage like their existing leads or data to enhance their automation strategies
(29:32):
if it can. Oh man, I love this question.
I love data, I love numbers I love, I love all of it and I know not everyone does.
But automation isn't effective without good data so if your data is bad your automations are going to be bad.
(29:55):
And the other thing we do before we start is we actually dive into our customers data to figure out is your data good. If it's not how can we fix it. And so, actually our team is currently working on on a build where we're building out a full
business marketing onboarding automation for a company. And on, on one of our first calls we asked them, hey so how's your data and everyone on the call went silent and they're like, it's, it's not very good.
(30:27):
And so, you know, I was like, great I appreciate the honesty. How can we fix this and so as we're building we're actually building in data structures to help keep track of their data as they generate it and actually the last step of this project
with them is going back into all their old data and updating it to match the data of the new system.
(30:53):
So, my recommendation to everyone is, keep your data clean, if it's not clean, it's never too late to go back and clean it, it takes. It takes a lot of time it's hard.
But if you're if you're serious about automation.
It's going to make a world of difference because I think that's another thing especially small businesses miss is they come to automation they say hey I have this customer list.
(31:20):
And they ask, well what kind of products that they buy.
We don't know. Yeah, what. When did they buy, we don't know.
So having as much data as possible is is awesome.
Ask a follow up question on that code, there might be no straight answer for this. How do you understand a data is a good data. Yeah, that's that's actually really good question.
(31:45):
I don't know that there's a clear definition of good data and bad data, I think it really comes down to.
It's good data, if you can use it.
So, from an automation standpoint, a good example of this is we have a med spa that we help.
And they sell different services they sell facials and Botox and things like that right.
(32:12):
And so when someone makes a purchase. We tagged them with the type of service that they did. And now in our automation we can follow up and tell them, hey, how was your facial and all of our messaging can now focus around the type of service that they got.
But if they didn't have that data structure, we would just see this as a customer. And now we would send really generic. Thanks for being a customer messaging, and that's obviously not going to resonate.
(32:43):
It's not going to stick as much it's not going to be as effective.
You know, like same, same with us here like if after the podcast, you send me a message that just says, hey, Cody, thanks for chatting.
That's not that great of a message but if you go Oh hey thanks for talking on the podcast about business automation, and you know all this because you have the data organized to know that hey Cody was on the podcast talking about data or automation.
(33:12):
Now you can create these beautiful messages that are super personalized, and you can create flows of. Hey, if someone is on the podcast, like let's send them this type of messaging and let's do these special things for them.
So, so yes that's, that's how data, I think is considered good is when it becomes useful, because you're right there are people who have a lot of data, but you can't use it, it doesn't do anything.
(33:42):
So, I think that's how I would define good data it's useful data. I think the simple thing that Cody mentioned is if you have to determine if you are able to use that data to your benefit.
I wanted to like, ask you for businesses like worried about the complexity of setting up the automation system. What tips or best practices can you share to simplify this process.
(34:07):
Yeah, no if you're if you're serious about getting into automation but you're kind of just stuck on. Oh man this is too complex this is too hard.
I think the biggest piece of advice I can give is start small. So pick, pick one thing, and it could be a small thing hey on someone's birthday, we're going to send them an email.
(34:29):
That's a super simple automation, your data is going to be their name, their email, and the birthday, that's all the data you need for that type of automation.
And in something like MailChimp, or, you know, the phantom automated desk.
It's real simple on their birthday, send an email, and then you would pre write the email of, hey, customer first name because we're going to pull that data.
(34:56):
We hope you have a great birthday.
Here's, you know, here's a little birthday party for you, you know, send it off, and you automate that and you just start small. And then, you know, now you might follow up with.
Hey after a sales call I'm going to click a button, and we're just going to send an automated message that says, hey, thanks for being on the sales call with me.
(35:19):
Again, something super simple and start there and start to get comfortable with it.
I have a wonderful example Cody. When we look ahead. So what trends do you actually see, you know, shaping the future of the business automation and how should you know call pennies like prepare to stay ahead of the curve.
(35:42):
Yeah, I mean, as far as trends go.
There's two sides there's the automation side and then there's the AI side, because AI and automation really work very close together.
And a lot of people are really afraid of AI.
And I can get into that a little later but on the automation side specifically.
(36:04):
I think sales and marketing is an area that's kind of been focused on. And I think as we continue to move forward in business specifically we're going to see a bigger movement towards operational automation.
You know so instead of sending internal emails and project management type things and invoicing, I think we're going to see a bigger shift towards automation in in the operational and administrative side.
(36:35):
And I think that's going to be very closely tied to the AI piece of. Hey, this is my pricing structure. I just give it a few key points and now AI can generate a whole invoice send it off to my customer for me, and I don't have to spend the 2030 minutes
writing an invoice.
And there are many entrepreneurs who look for automation in their business or maybe were even thinking of automating, but doesn't know that even the exact time automation but they're thinking the process.
(37:06):
This is how you know my time would be of like more efficient use. So, can I just ask you a quick question regarding that.
For me suppose if I today, Dr. Nazif like wants to look at automation. Yeah, and I want to understand how automation can help my business, you know, like, what should I do as a like a lame person who doesn't know.
(37:31):
Yeah, yeah, so this is a great question because people ask me all the time well what can I automate, and I'm like, that is such a hard question to answer because I don't know your business I don't know what you do.
Unfortunately, I can't think of every single scenario that exists.
And so, my answer to you is everything can be automated. It's what should be automated. Right, so this whole podcast between me and you could be automated we could make it so you don't even have to be here.
(38:05):
I can make you a little avatar who asked all the questions. Obviously that takes out the human in it so that probably shouldn't be automated but it can be automated so what I would do is I would say, what are the areas of my business that I need to work on to grow.
And those are the things that you should be doing.
(38:28):
And now, everything that isn't in this growth section, then that's where we start looking at. Okay.
Is sending this email growing my business.
No. Okay.
Let's let's look at can we automate this, or at the very least can we delegate this.
And that's kind of how I move through things so like, as an example, I'm fairly active on social media on on my Facebook and LinkedIn, and I really struggled to create content, like, I'm really good at this and I love talking about it, but I really
(39:05):
struggled to make the content. So, what I do is I use automation to create the topics, and to give me a starting point.
And then, once I have a starting point then I go in and I update it and I, you know, personalize it and make it human.
But I use AI and automation to give me the starting point.
(39:27):
So, for you that might not be an issue maybe you're like, I'm super creative I can make content.
No big deal, but for me that's something I struggle with so that's what I would do is I would look at, you know, what do you need to grow.
Do those things automate the rest of it and then what areas do you struggle in.
And how can we either use automation or AI to help you overcome those struggles.
(39:52):
And that's really where I would start so and again that's why I think a lot of people are focused on the sales and marketing side of business is because sales and marketing are two pain points for just about every single business out there everyone
to make more sales and everyone struggles to market effectively.
And so automation can really help those, those two.
(40:14):
But there are other parts of your business there's operational things payroll, you know, all those things accounting all those things can be automated and if you're not good at it.
Totally.
Look at automating.
Can I ask you, Cody, like you know we talk, we talk about AI and automation so can I like, ask you what do you think the differences between AI and automation.
(40:39):
And you know like how can these two like work hands in hands. Yeah, so I mean, AI is great.
It still has a way to go.
But I think when you use it to enhance what you're doing. I think that's the level of AI that we're at. So, you know, like I said, me, I use AI to help me create ideas for my content.
(41:07):
And then, then I step in as the human and I make the content mine.
And, but I use AI to kind of kickstart that and I have an automation setup, where basically I just click a button.
AI goes, you might my automation trigger tells AI hey go go make some content ideas, and then I can go check it and that all happens in seconds.
(41:31):
So I don't have to do any brain power thinking about what do I want to write about this week, you know, AI kind of helps me with that and it's done in an instant because if I had to sit there and think it would take me two hours to come up with topics,
and literally in 10 seconds I have a list of ideas.
Yeah, for sure.
(41:52):
So yeah, that's that's kind of where I would start. And I think the big difference between them is automation, it's just the technology to do the repeatable tasks.
AI is a little more.
I don't want to say brain power but it's a little more on like the research and communication side.
(42:13):
AI won't necessarily do the automation, it'll more enhance the automation. If that makes sense. So my question to you is, what are some of the common pitfalls that businesses should avoid when implementing automation and how can they navigate these challenges.
Yeah, so I think the biggest pitfall is they just rush into it and they build something, and they don't have proper setup.
(42:43):
That's probably like the number two big thing I see is, is we do quite a bit of audits where people go, I set up all this automation.
Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, or it's not the greatest, but they really want it to work so they come to us and they're like hey can you take a look at this.
And when we start asking questions it's really easy to see that they just started building without any direction without any goals.
(43:10):
And so I think that's probably the biggest pitfall that I see businesses make is rushing into it, like really taking time to plan things out, making sure everything is set up according to your goals, and really just kind of following that framework that we set out earlier.
(43:31):
Because if you rush into it, you're going to have bad data, your automations aren't going to work right, and you're just going to have an overall bad experience.
I want to like, talk to you a bit about the balance between automation and personalization.
So can you like, you know discuss the balance between automation and personalization in customer interaction, and how businesses can maintain a personal touch while automating the process. Yeah, no, I.
(44:01):
That's, that's an awesome question.
So I think a lot of people have the perception that automation is not personable, because they get a ton of these, you know, calendar, you have a meeting coming up in 60 minutes.
And those are great automations.
And they're not meant to be personalized automations.
(44:24):
I'll tell you right now I have tons of automations that I use that people don't even know are automations they think I sent them that email.
And really what. Yeah, and really what it comes down to is keeping good data because again if I know when your birthday is if I find no details about you.
(44:45):
I can use automation and more specifically I can use AI to enhance that automation to make what I'm doing more personable to my customer or my leads, and they have no idea that it's, you know, automation or AI generated.
So, you can definitely create personalization in automation and you know kind of going back to that example of, of our customer who created that $140,000 job opportunity.
(45:18):
Every single one of those people thought that they received a message from him that's why they answered him that's why they gave him a job is because they thought he was the one sending it.
And that's another way to go about it is you don't have to automate the whole process. You can automate the start.
You can automate the middle part you can automate the end part you don't have to automate the whole thing.
(45:44):
And I really appreciate like your words of wisdom, and the wonderful insights that you share with our audience about like how we can utilize automation in business like some of the fears, the businessman or the new entrepreneurs have, but how to overcome
that fear but also to have like a very focused strategy on, and also clear understanding like how you want to utilize automation or what you want to get out of that automation that can enhance your business and experience, you want to connect with
(46:18):
your customers if you want more if you want to know more about him. You can do that by going into our website in active action.fm. I just put the link the video itself so if you're watching that in YouTube you'll see that in the video.
And for those of you who are watching this one so is hearing it in the audio it's www.activation.fm slash person slash Cody dash how well that's C or D y dash h o w, e double l.
(46:50):
Thank you so much for they really appreciate your wonderful time that you provided to me and my audience in this podcast. So just wanted to let ask you if you had any last words before we close.
Yeah, I'm just excited we had this time to talk and I really hope the audience. Get something out of this I would say, I always love to leave people with action items.
(47:13):
So I would say for anyone listening.
You know the next steps I would take would be sit down and just try to find one or two things in your business that you feel like would either save you money or make you more money if you were able to automate it.
And then start start researching how to automate it. A lot of times you're going to find it's going to be sending customer communications and just staying in touch with past customers more often.
(47:41):
So I would say, you know, spend some time researching that, and then sign up for one of those tools. You can sign up for MailChimp, things like that.
And, you know, if you want to kind of move into more, you know, definitely reach out I'd be more than happy to help everyone so dear listeners and thank you again for listening to this episode.
(48:06):
This episode was about like getting started with automation in business. And so if you have any questions, or do you have you want to like know more about Cody, like I mentioned you can go to the web page and search information about them over there,
there is that all the social media links are also included over there.
So, thank you so much again for joining in, and also just lastly wanted to like mention that if you do find value in our podcast, please support us by going to the active action.fm slash donate so if you think our content has any value to you and also,
(48:46):
even if you can kind of like leave a review in our website, or in the platforms, and also if you can kindly share this episode with anyone who is looking into a business and automation and that kind of thing that you define might be a value.
If you shared that I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining in today again, and I wish you a very best of luck and we'll chat soon for sure.
(49:13):
Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, best of luck.
Thank you for joining us on the active action podcast. We hope today's episode gave you some entertainment, fresh perspectives, and a little extra motivation to take action in your own life. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you enjoyed the show, share it with someone who might love it too.
Popular Podcasts
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com