March 17, 2023 • 25 mins
Are you ready to turbocharge your business with the power of spreadsheets and web applications? Join Sarah Funk on our show as she shares how these tools can help take your company to the next level! Whether it be lead magnets, client-facing tech, or internal resources - you don't want to miss out. Tune in now for all the exciting details that could transform YOUR world.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
welcome to the Seven FigureBuilder Show.
My name is Julie Barick, founderof Seven Figure Builder, where
we help high achieving CEOs freeup time with gorgeous
automations to scale theirbusiness to seven figures and
beyond.
And I'm here today with myfriend Sarah.
Fun.
Okay, Sarah.
Hi.
It's so nice to be here.
That's, I'm glad to have youhere.
So for people that have not hadthe pleasure to meet you yet,
(00:21):
can you tell us just a littlebit about what you do with your
business?
Yeah, so I help product creatorsand horse creators to create
digital products and evensoftware that helps their
clients and customers.
Save their own time, but alsoprovides the business owners the
ability to multiply theirefforts, like whatever it is
they do best.
(00:42):
I help them magnify that usingsoftware.
Awesome.
And what kind of software do youtypically help them with?
So there's two different twodifferent sides of it.
So one is using spreadsheets andthe power of spreadsheets to
turn your services into areplicable process for your
clients.
And then two, you can even takethat spreadsheet once you have a
(01:02):
line or like a process down patand take that process and then
turn it into your own customsoftware that's written and
designed for you.
Nice.
So would that be like an apptype of software, or what type
of software would you createthen?
Yeah, so typically it's a webapp.
So basically you're taking thisthing and then, so they'll,
clients will sign into your ownwebsite.
(01:24):
It can be hosted on WordPress orwhatever server you use.
And then it's just a full buildout web app.
So it's a little bit differentthan a mobile app because it's
just, it's it's like how Zoom isits own thing that you use.
So you can download the mobileapp, but you don't need to, you
use it online and the process ishoused online on a web browser.
(01:45):
Okay, so from a geeky side, myperspective, is it more like a
hybrid app, like it's within theweb browser or, yeah, so it
starts out as a web browser app,so it starts out as that and
then you can turn it into amobile app.
But the usually, at least fromthe developer side, it's a
little bit easier to start witha web app and iron out the
process when it's a reallycomplicated process, and then
(02:07):
turn that into a mobile app.
Okay, so what would be, forpeople that are not familiar
with this at all, what would bethe advantage of doing that?
Like why would somebody want todo that?
So I started as a flower farmerand a florist.
And one of the things I helpedmy clients do that were other
flower farmers was figure outtheir planting schedules.
(02:29):
And so when you are planting tomass produce, you have to.
Have all the dates lined up andyou have to plant the same
flower continuously throughoutthe summer in order to make sure
you have enough stems on aregular basis.
So what I did was I turned thisinto a spreadsheet like you
input where you're growing,where you live, what your dates
are, what you wanna grow, andthen the spreadsheet gives you
(02:50):
all of the details you need.
It tells you when to harvest it,when to plant it, when to start
the seeds, when to plant theseeds outside, and then when to
do that again in two weeks or 10days, or whatever the timeframe
is for that specific variety.
And then it houses all of thatinformation in one simple
spreadsheet.
But the problem is thatspreadsheets are clunky and
messy and it like is still, youenter that overwhelming feeling.
(03:12):
And so then I took that and madeit into an actual web app so
that you can have a productlibrary and you can see all of
the different things that you'regrowing visually and still have
all of the powerful automationsthat tell you what to do and
when to do it so you don't haveto think about it anymore.
And so this can be used, thissame process can be used in so
(03:32):
many different avenues.
For instance, if you are a PRcoach or you help have a PR
agency and you have a list ofjournalists that you use and you
have a list, like what differentpublications they do.
So you take your clients and yousay, okay, this is what you do.
This is what's interesting aboutlike your business.
And these are differentheadlines we could use.
Let's say you have a bank of 30or 50 headlines.
(03:54):
And then you match up eachclient with the journalist in
which publication they use totry to pitch to them, and you
have a template for yourpitches.
So this would basically takethat process and say, okay, I
have this pitch template, I havethese different headlines.
You could have the client gointo your web portal and they
could self-select, okay, this iswhat I'm interested in.
(04:14):
This is What I do.
And then you could auto-populatethose different headlines, 10
different headlines.
You could auto-populate a pitchtemplate for them, like even
three different versions usingtheir freebie, what they do,
what they offer, and what'sunique about them.
And then you could have it syncup to all of these different
journalists that you wouldemail.
So it just does it allautomatically for you.
(04:36):
Basically, it replicates whatyou do into software so that
your client feels that hightouch personal value from
working with you in an automaticway so that you can replicate
what you do as a serviceprovider without investing more
of your own time for the piecesthat you do over and over again.
Gotcha.
So going back to your originaldescription of your spreadsheet
(05:00):
that you started with, that liketotally clicks in my head cuz
that's I remember when I was,excuse me, planning my first
gardens at my house and I wouldgo through and try to analyze
everything and like I'm verylogical, analytical in my brain.
So I remember getting Analysisparalysis of reading all the
books, and I need all thesedifferent flowers and different
(05:20):
seasons and different timingsand trying to format it all out.
And I got to the point where Ihad a plan and then I'm like now
what?
I don't know if this is gonnalook good.
Yes, I had no idea what the heckI was doing.
And fortunately, my husband is agardening genius, so he helped
take that off of my plate.
But I can totally identify, likewith the spreadsheet that you
(05:42):
had mentioned and the app thatyou created.
So I think that's really cool.
Yeah, cause it's basically likeour brains are designed to
protect us from thinking, right?
And so when we want to learn anew skill or do something new,
our brains will be like, oh,let's just keep learning about
it rather than doing it cuzthere's so much risk involved in
actually doing something.
So you almost need, at least inmy life, I found I need
(06:02):
something to overwrite the like.
Let me just keep learninginstead of actually doing
things.
And I found that this processdoes that for me because it
forces the solution on me.
It says, no, this is what you doso that you don't have to keep
thinking or keep learning aboutit, right?
And gives you that step by stepprocess of these, this is what
you need to do and this is howyou would implement it.
So I think that's really cool.
(06:24):
So essentially you have then aframework that you created for
that you're.
Original use case, we'll callit.
And I don't wanna get too techycuz that's where my brain's
going.
But you had this framework thatyou created for your flowering
business and then you were ableto turn it into something that
was reusable and repurposablefor other businesses.
Exactly.
And cuz I just think thatthere's so much.
(06:48):
There's so many people outthere, especially like creating
resources that teach people howto do things right.
And then you move into theservice provider world where
they are like, they have clientsthat don't want to keep learning
things.
They need something just tohappen for them.
And so I feel like this is theperfect solution of in the
middle for the people that.
(07:09):
Know that they need somethingdone for them that is seeking
from a client perspective.
Know they need something donefor them, but like they may not
be able to afford or even havethe time to work with a service
provider.
Because if you are super busyand have too many things on your
plate, you need someone to makedecisions for you and to give
you a finalized product.
You don't need to just keepresearching things or keep
(07:30):
learning about things.
You need to actually do thework.
And so this is a way to do thework, both on a service provider
side and as the client to do it.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
So for someone who's listeningto this thinking, this could
apply to my business, whereshould they start?
You basically put the wholeprocess of what you do if you're
a service provider or coursecreator, what you do, what your
(07:51):
client customer journey is in aspreadsheet.
And most people makespreadsheets that are.
Designed to be used like.
Like they house your data orthey are designed to answer
simple questions or they alwaysrequire more work.
And what you want to, yourspreadsheet to do is to lead
work for your customer.
(08:12):
So if for instance, I would lovea copyright to do this, is to
take all of the copywritingtemplates I buy over and over
again and put them into aspreadsheet and say, okay.
Here is this is your title orthis is your you entering what
your product is, what's uniqueabout you, because you can
distill all these into simplesteps.
And then add that as like atemplated option so that it
(08:35):
auto-populates with all of yourinformation.
Like that would be completelypossible and not that hard once
you have all those copywritingtemplates done.
And so stuff like that, thatjust goes the extra mile for
your clients so that when youare.
Working with them one-on-one,like you can use that time to
actually spend with them and notjust going over the same
(08:56):
repeatable process that you useall of the time.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah.
And I, I always feel likeanything in automation, one of
the hidden benefits to it is itforces you to document that
process.
It forces you to think throughall those individual steps and
figure out everything that livesin your head that you do over
(09:17):
and over again, and put it onpaper and then figure out, okay,
how do I make this work moreefficiently, more effectively?
And scalable and all of that.
So I totally agree, like it'ssuper helpful when you have
those repeatable things to writethem down to.
I'm totally a spreadsheet geek,so I have a thousand
spreadsheets for everything likethat just works in my brain.
(09:40):
But it's super helpful to laythings out.
And then once someone gets tothat point, they could then
reach out to you and have youturn that into more of a web
application where, it could,people could pick and choose
different things and make itmore modular and make it
customizable for whatever thatscenario is.
Because what it is you can useAirtable or even notion for a
(10:01):
lot of these things, but if youneed custom outputs and you need
a lot more variability, youcan't always get that with
Airtable.
So like I tried that routefirst.
So what happened was with mybusiness, I started doing
spreadsheets and then I movedinto Airtable and I kept getting
more and more complicated withmy scripts and things like that.
And then I told my husband, Iwas like, I just want this to
output a year long planner.
(10:21):
Like I want to have a fullprincipal planner that comes
from this spreadsheet.
And he goes, I could just writethat for you.
I could just, and I was like, Ihad no idea you did that.
So this, and that's what he'sbeen doing in our whole married
life, but whatever.
So it It's amazing though thatyou can take something and it's
not even that big of a webdevelopment project, like it's
(10:42):
not that long or thatcomplicated because it's really
simple.
Once you have the whole userexperience down, like you know
what they're going to do, andyou know the whole customer
journey and you know where theyend up and all of the different
variables that go into it.
That's the hardest part isknowing all of the different
formatting that has to go intofor each unique person.
(11:03):
Based on their choices and theirlives.
Then once you have that down,it's not that hard to turn it
into something custom andamazing.
That feels really high touch toyour customers.
And that they wanna keep comingback to, for over and over again
because they, if it's somethingthat they need in their life and
it saves'em that much time andthat much effort, then they just
keep coming back.
Yeah.
And I believe wholeheartedly inmaking it easy for your
(11:26):
customers to work with you, andthis is a good way to do that,
where it makes a good userexperience for them, just makes
it simple and reusable and, theyhave a tool that they can use
depending on what your businessmodel is.
So with you and your husband, itsounds like you're partners
together on this.
He's more the builder, you'remore like the logic and the user
(11:46):
experience and figuring thatpart out.
Is that right?
And the marketing side of ittoo.
So he I didn't know this abouthim, but his whole family is
full of entrepreneurs now.
They all have their ownbusinesses and they all do
multiple things all of the time.
And so when we first gotmarried, he would spend hi, his
friends would come over and theywould just hang out and they
built like it was a financialapp at that time.
(12:07):
It was.
They were building a financialoption in the evenings, and then
it was like digital churchbulletin tips.
He just, it's just continuouslybuilding stuff.
Yeah.
This is the next evolution ofthat.
But I wanna ask you a question.
So how did you get intospreadsheets and what was your
process like?
Oh my goodness, I have usedspreadsheets forever.
So my background, I started asactually registered nurse in my
(12:29):
career.
That was my first part of mycareer, and then I shifted over
into it.
And as I shifted to it andworking with different clients,
it just became very natural tome in learning spreadsheets.
But I remember when I firstlearned about pivot tables and
my eyes just lit up and I'mlike, oh my God, I can take all
this data and put it intosomething that like sums it up
(12:49):
for me.
And that kind of was a lightbulb for me that I could, really
make something configurable.
And I use it constantly.
And like for my brainpersonally, I have always.
I always think about, likewhenever I figure out a process,
I wanna figure it out for the50th time that I'm going to do
it.
Like I don't do anything oncethat I don't wanna repeat over
(13:12):
and over and over again.
And in my corporate career, likeI've managed teams and I manage
them the same way that you don'tprovide something to a client.
That you don't wanna do 50 timesover because they're inevitably
gonna ask you to do it again.
So you wanna make sure that youwanna do it again, and you do it
in a way that you can do it overand over.
So that's just how my brainalways has been wired.
(13:34):
So yeah, as I started digginginto spreadsheets and really
figuring out what's possible,both from a, Excel perspective
and then a Google Sheetsperspective, like I tend to flip
back and forth depending on.
My use case or whatever I'mdoing.
I just find it extremely helpfuland use it way more than I
probably should.
But it's very helpful andespecially for mapping out all
(13:56):
those steps like we mentionedearlier being able to see that
data in one place.
And I'm just a very visualperson, so that's extremely
helpful for me just to seeeverything and be able to
categorize it and filter it andsort it and, all those different
things.
I, yeah, I agree completely.
I think that's amazing.
So how are different ways thatpeople can use this within their
(14:18):
business and apply it with theirclients?
Okay, so the first use exampleis we were working with a coach
who built out lead funnels forclients using LinkedIn.
And so what we did is we startedwith her process of intaking
clients and we categorized allof the different clients that
(14:40):
she had where they were inbusiness.
So if they were brand new tobusiness and they didn't have a
website, they didn't have a leadmagnet, all of these basic
fundamental things.
And then we built out, okay,what is the next 12 week
business plan for those brandnew clients that don't have a
business yet?
What do they need to do over thenext 12 weeks?
And then we're gonna turn thatinto a calendar.
(15:00):
A to-do list of these are allthe things that your clients
need to do for the next 12weeks.
Okay?
So then the next category ofclients that she had did have a
business, and they had provenoffers, but they may not have
had that lead funnel set up, andthey may not have run ads yet,
but thinking about it, so thenwe went through questionnaires
of like that the client couldask themselves.
(15:21):
Okay.
How many people have bought myoffer.
We went into the metrics of likeconversion metrics and all of
that, and then gave them thenext 12 weeks of their business
and what they need to focus onand how they need to do that.
And then we went to the peoplethat had sold organically for
years, had all of these funnelsset up, but wanted to start
maximizing their ad profits andhow to do that.
So basically we took herdifferent clients and gave them
(15:44):
a process of what they needed todo based on the coaches.
Like framework and how shehelped her clients grow their
business.
And then you turn that intosomething that is easy for the
clients to understand and givesthem immediate results so that
they can get that immediate satsatisfaction and have that high
(16:05):
touch feel from the coachherself.
And so she can even come back inand do coaching calls and do
follow up, but she doesn't needto do the initial intake and
strategy with them because she'salready done the pre-work ahead
of time.
Another use example with ohbusiness owner.
I was talking to you this week.
She has a subscription sewingbox and so she created a
(16:27):
spreadsheet that is full of allof these different Sewing
patterns because it's so hard.
I don't know if you sew or not,but it's so hard to find sewing
patterns online now because it'sjust flooded and it's, I was
even going at one sewing websitethe other day and could not even
find girl dresses for mydaughter because it, the website
was had so many things on it.
I know it's impossible tosearch.
(16:48):
So she basically created aspreadsheet that has hundreds
and hundreds of patterns listedinto it, and then you enter in
like your.
The size you want all of thesedifferent things and it finds
all of these different patternsfor you.
And then we'll say classify itbased on the sizes, the age
range, the col, the The style,all of these different things,
(17:10):
even the season.
And so she's going to turn thatinto a web app that makes it
super easy for her customers tofind all of these different
patterns and then buy them, andthen also store other patterns
that they've already bought onher web app because it just
creates it so much easier.
And so she could get on a callwith these customers and or
(17:31):
answer all these emails ofpeople saying I just need a
pattern that does this.
But instead, she's turning allof her knowledge and her
expertise into a system that'srepeatable for her clients,
where she doesn't have to spendher valuable time on it, but can
still provide that level ofservice through automation.
I love that.
That's awesome.
And I, Personally within mybusiness, try to take whatever
(17:53):
data that my clients give to meand store it in a u reusable
fashion.
Meaning basically everythingthat people tell you is market
research and we need to look atit at that way because it helps
us constantly improving ourbusiness.
And in these instances thatyou're mentioning, like instead
of just having a file with.
A whole bunch of notes and likethings that people want.
(18:16):
If you can turn it intosomething like this and have you
guys help them that sort throughthe data, get it into a place
that makes sense, it will helpyou improve your business that
much more so that you can lookover the past results and say,
okay, all these clients over thepast year did this, and this.
And you have it in a fashionthat like you can then use it to
(18:38):
improve your business and moveyour business forward.
So I think that's reallyawesome.
And it's a way of replicatingyourself.
Cause there's all of thisteaching out there about giving
VAs and training people to beyour VA VAs and have them on
your team.
And that's awesome.
But I feel like this is a way ofsaying, okay.
How do I take what I do reallywell and what I do that's
(18:59):
different, what everyone elsesays, and turn it into something
repeatable that doesn't take upmore energy or more of my
valuable time, right?
But still provides that level ofexcellence and that level of
care and that level of like justgenuine wanting to help people
without taking away what makesyou special and what makes you
unique.
Totally.
And it sounds like this can beused both internal to the
(19:21):
business as a tool, likesomething to gather the
information that you have fromyour clients.
Potentially as a lead magnet.
You could turn some sort ofinformation that you have for
your clients into a lead magnetso that people are coming into
your world.
I'm a total calculator geek withspreadsheets where I punch in
one number.
And it outputs all this otherstuff.
There's whole so many differentways you can use it.
(19:43):
Checklists lots of differentapplications it sounds like for
people within their business,which is really awesome.
Exactly, and it's just all aboutthe output of that high touch
feel that, especially when youput all that into a PDF or into
for the sewing client, she'sgonna have it on her website,
but a visual appealing output ofthat data so that your clients
(20:04):
can see it but not feeloverwhelmed.
Because I found when I was justselling spreadsheets that it
was.
Overwhelming still because it'sstill, if you're not a
spreadsheet nerd, like it's, ifyou feel like, oh my goodness,
there's all these tabs.
I don't know what to do next.
And you can just like ping pongaround it.
But this basically takes thatoverwhelm feeling out of it and
just gives you the results thatyou need or your client needs.
(20:27):
Awesome.
And in my mind, I always go backto Steve Jobs and how, his focus
was creating that customerexperience first, and then the
rest of it follows from there,right?
So if you have a focus on yourcustomer, you know how you wanna
help them, you help them thebest way possible.
And then you look at the techtools and the ways that you need
to support your business, it's awin-win for both you and your
(20:48):
customer because you're are waymore likely to succeed that way
because you'll end up with veryhappy customers.
Yeah, I think that's just thewhole process of this is like
how to make it the best customerexperience and like the easiest.
For them and the fastest forthem to, because we live in a
world that needs to be fast, andso this is a way that you can
just make what you do fasterusing the power of the internet
(21:12):
basically.
Totally.
That's awesome.
So looking forward to the yearahead, what can people expect
from you next?
So just more of this and then weare actually creating content to
through text messages.
I'm a mom.
I have four kids, and anytime Iget out my laptop, I have
children like, Swarming me toplay my, to press all the
(21:36):
buttons or to close the laptoplid.
And so it's basically developinga service that will allow people
will send content promptsthrough your phone that you can
answer through voice memos.
So send voice memos back andthen it will post a social media
for you.
Very cool.
I'm excited to see that.
Yeah.
(21:56):
Yeah, so I'm excited about it.
Awesome.
So if you had the attention ofthe whole world for five
minutes, what would you tellthem?
I think that just to be kind, toview the internet as a place to
be kind.
I think that's the main thing isjust There's so much like grief
and so much trauma and so manylike mixed emotions on the
(22:19):
online space.
And then it becomes hard and youfeel like you need to protect
yourself and define your ownboundaries.
And while that's true, you canalso just be kind because that
will shine a huge light and makea huge world of difference for
everyone around you.
I love it.
Absolutely.
So how can listeners bestsupport you in your work?
Where can they find you online?
Yeah, just go to brilliantlysustainable.com and you'll see
(22:44):
information in.
Awesome.
And we'll have the links below.
Fabulous.
Thank you so much for being ontoday.
Really appreciate it.
This was a lot of fun.
Thank you, Julie.
I think you're amazing and thisis great.
Thank you.
And if you enjoyed this episodeand you found value in it,
please share it and spread theword with other people and
definitely check out Sarah andall the amazing things that
(23:06):
they're doing with theirbusiness.
And I look forward to seeing youon the next episode.
welcome to the Seven FigureBuilder Show.
My name is Julie Barick, founderof Seven Figure Builder, where
we help high achieving CEOs freeup time with gorgeous
automations to scale theirbusiness to seven figures and
beyond.
And I'm here today with myfriend Sarah.
Fun.
Okay, Sarah.
Hi.
It's so nice to be here.
That's, I'm glad to have youhere.
So for people that have not hadthe pleasure to meet you yet,
(00:21):
can you tell us just a littlebit about what you do with your
business?
Yeah, so I help product creatorsand horse creators to create
digital products and evensoftware that helps their
clients and customers.
Save their own time, but alsoprovides the business owners the
ability to multiply theirefforts, like whatever it is
they do best.
(00:42):
I help them magnify that usingsoftware.
Awesome.
And what kind of software do youtypically help them with?
So there's two different twodifferent sides of it.
So one is using spreadsheets andthe power of spreadsheets to
turn your services into areplicable process for your
clients.
And then two, you can even takethat spreadsheet once you have a
(01:02):
line or like a process down patand take that process and then
turn it into your own customsoftware that's written and
designed for you.
Nice.
So would that be like an apptype of software, or what type
of software would you createthen?
Yeah, so typically it's a webapp.
So basically you're taking thisthing and then, so they'll,
clients will sign into your ownwebsite.
(01:24):
It can be hosted on WordPress orwhatever server you use.
And then it's just a full buildout web app.
So it's a little bit differentthan a mobile app because it's
just, it's it's like how Zoom isits own thing that you use.
So you can download the mobileapp, but you don't need to, you
use it online and the process ishoused online on a web browser.
(01:45):
Okay, so from a geeky side, myperspective, is it more like a
hybrid app, like it's within theweb browser or, yeah, so it
starts out as a web browser app,so it starts out as that and
then you can turn it into amobile app.
But the usually, at least fromthe developer side, it's a
little bit easier to start witha web app and iron out the
process when it's a reallycomplicated process, and then
(02:07):
turn that into a mobile app.
Okay, so what would be, forpeople that are not familiar
with this at all, what would bethe advantage of doing that?
Like why would somebody want todo that?
So I started as a flower farmerand a florist.
And one of the things I helpedmy clients do that were other
flower farmers was figure outtheir planting schedules.
(02:29):
And so when you are planting tomass produce, you have to.
Have all the dates lined up andyou have to plant the same
flower continuously throughoutthe summer in order to make sure
you have enough stems on aregular basis.
So what I did was I turned thisinto a spreadsheet like you
input where you're growing,where you live, what your dates
are, what you wanna grow, andthen the spreadsheet gives you
(02:50):
all of the details you need.
It tells you when to harvest it,when to plant it, when to start
the seeds, when to plant theseeds outside, and then when to
do that again in two weeks or 10days, or whatever the timeframe
is for that specific variety.
And then it houses all of thatinformation in one simple
spreadsheet.
But the problem is thatspreadsheets are clunky and
messy and it like is still, youenter that overwhelming feeling.
(03:12):
And so then I took that and madeit into an actual web app so
that you can have a productlibrary and you can see all of
the different things that you'regrowing visually and still have
all of the powerful automationsthat tell you what to do and
when to do it so you don't haveto think about it anymore.
And so this can be used, thissame process can be used in so
(03:32):
many different avenues.
For instance, if you are a PRcoach or you help have a PR
agency and you have a list ofjournalists that you use and you
have a list, like what differentpublications they do.
So you take your clients and yousay, okay, this is what you do.
This is what's interesting aboutlike your business.
And these are differentheadlines we could use.
Let's say you have a bank of 30or 50 headlines.
(03:54):
And then you match up eachclient with the journalist in
which publication they use totry to pitch to them, and you
have a template for yourpitches.
So this would basically takethat process and say, okay, I
have this pitch template, I havethese different headlines.
You could have the client gointo your web portal and they
could self-select, okay, this iswhat I'm interested in.
(04:14):
This is What I do.
And then you could auto-populatethose different headlines, 10
different headlines.
You could auto-populate a pitchtemplate for them, like even
three different versions usingtheir freebie, what they do,
what they offer, and what'sunique about them.
And then you could have it syncup to all of these different
journalists that you wouldemail.
So it just does it allautomatically for you.
(04:36):
Basically, it replicates whatyou do into software so that
your client feels that hightouch personal value from
working with you in an automaticway so that you can replicate
what you do as a serviceprovider without investing more
of your own time for the piecesthat you do over and over again.
Gotcha.
So going back to your originaldescription of your spreadsheet
(05:00):
that you started with, that liketotally clicks in my head cuz
that's I remember when I was,excuse me, planning my first
gardens at my house and I wouldgo through and try to analyze
everything and like I'm verylogical, analytical in my brain.
So I remember getting Analysisparalysis of reading all the
books, and I need all thesedifferent flowers and different
(05:20):
seasons and different timingsand trying to format it all out.
And I got to the point where Ihad a plan and then I'm like now
what?
I don't know if this is gonnalook good.
Yes, I had no idea what the heckI was doing.
And fortunately, my husband is agardening genius, so he helped
take that off of my plate.
But I can totally identify, likewith the spreadsheet that you
(05:42):
had mentioned and the app thatyou created.
So I think that's really cool.
Yeah, cause it's basically likeour brains are designed to
protect us from thinking, right?
And so when we want to learn anew skill or do something new,
our brains will be like, oh,let's just keep learning about
it rather than doing it cuzthere's so much risk involved in
actually doing something.
So you almost need, at least inmy life, I found I need
(06:02):
something to overwrite the like.
Let me just keep learninginstead of actually doing
things.
And I found that this processdoes that for me because it
forces the solution on me.
It says, no, this is what you doso that you don't have to keep
thinking or keep learning aboutit, right?
And gives you that step by stepprocess of these, this is what
you need to do and this is howyou would implement it.
So I think that's really cool.
(06:24):
So essentially you have then aframework that you created for
that you're.
Original use case, we'll callit.
And I don't wanna get too techycuz that's where my brain's
going.
But you had this framework thatyou created for your flowering
business and then you were ableto turn it into something that
was reusable and repurposablefor other businesses.
Exactly.
And cuz I just think thatthere's so much.
(06:48):
There's so many people outthere, especially like creating
resources that teach people howto do things right.
And then you move into theservice provider world where
they are like, they have clientsthat don't want to keep learning
things.
They need something just tohappen for them.
And so I feel like this is theperfect solution of in the
middle for the people that.
(07:09):
Know that they need somethingdone for them that is seeking
from a client perspective.
Know they need something donefor them, but like they may not
be able to afford or even havethe time to work with a service
provider.
Because if you are super busyand have too many things on your
plate, you need someone to makedecisions for you and to give
you a finalized product.
You don't need to just keepresearching things or keep
(07:30):
learning about things.
You need to actually do thework.
And so this is a way to do thework, both on a service provider
side and as the client to do it.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
So for someone who's listeningto this thinking, this could
apply to my business, whereshould they start?
You basically put the wholeprocess of what you do if you're
a service provider or coursecreator, what you do, what your
(07:51):
client customer journey is in aspreadsheet.
And most people makespreadsheets that are.
Designed to be used like.
Like they house your data orthey are designed to answer
simple questions or they alwaysrequire more work.
And what you want to, yourspreadsheet to do is to lead
work for your customer.
(08:12):
So if for instance, I would lovea copyright to do this, is to
take all of the copywritingtemplates I buy over and over
again and put them into aspreadsheet and say, okay.
Here is this is your title orthis is your you entering what
your product is, what's uniqueabout you, because you can
distill all these into simplesteps.
And then add that as like atemplated option so that it
(08:35):
auto-populates with all of yourinformation.
Like that would be completelypossible and not that hard once
you have all those copywritingtemplates done.
And so stuff like that, thatjust goes the extra mile for
your clients so that when youare.
Working with them one-on-one,like you can use that time to
actually spend with them and notjust going over the same
(08:56):
repeatable process that you useall of the time.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah.
And I, I always feel likeanything in automation, one of
the hidden benefits to it is itforces you to document that
process.
It forces you to think throughall those individual steps and
figure out everything that livesin your head that you do over
(09:17):
and over again, and put it onpaper and then figure out, okay,
how do I make this work moreefficiently, more effectively?
And scalable and all of that.
So I totally agree, like it'ssuper helpful when you have
those repeatable things to writethem down to.
I'm totally a spreadsheet geek,so I have a thousand
spreadsheets for everything likethat just works in my brain.
(09:40):
But it's super helpful to laythings out.
And then once someone gets tothat point, they could then
reach out to you and have youturn that into more of a web
application where, it could,people could pick and choose
different things and make itmore modular and make it
customizable for whatever thatscenario is.
Because what it is you can useAirtable or even notion for a
(10:01):
lot of these things, but if youneed custom outputs and you need
a lot more variability, youcan't always get that with
Airtable.
So like I tried that routefirst.
So what happened was with mybusiness, I started doing
spreadsheets and then I movedinto Airtable and I kept getting
more and more complicated withmy scripts and things like that.
And then I told my husband, Iwas like, I just want this to
output a year long planner.
(10:21):
Like I want to have a fullprincipal planner that comes
from this spreadsheet.
And he goes, I could just writethat for you.
I could just, and I was like, Ihad no idea you did that.
So this, and that's what he'sbeen doing in our whole married
life, but whatever.
So it It's amazing though thatyou can take something and it's
not even that big of a webdevelopment project, like it's
(10:42):
not that long or thatcomplicated because it's really
simple.
Once you have the whole userexperience down, like you know
what they're going to do, andyou know the whole customer
journey and you know where theyend up and all of the different
variables that go into it.
That's the hardest part isknowing all of the different
formatting that has to go intofor each unique person.
(11:03):
Based on their choices and theirlives.
Then once you have that down,it's not that hard to turn it
into something custom andamazing.
That feels really high touch toyour customers.
And that they wanna keep comingback to, for over and over again
because they, if it's somethingthat they need in their life and
it saves'em that much time andthat much effort, then they just
keep coming back.
Yeah.
And I believe wholeheartedly inmaking it easy for your
(11:26):
customers to work with you, andthis is a good way to do that,
where it makes a good userexperience for them, just makes
it simple and reusable and, theyhave a tool that they can use
depending on what your businessmodel is.
So with you and your husband, itsounds like you're partners
together on this.
He's more the builder, you'remore like the logic and the user
(11:46):
experience and figuring thatpart out.
Is that right?
And the marketing side of ittoo.
So he I didn't know this abouthim, but his whole family is
full of entrepreneurs now.
They all have their ownbusinesses and they all do
multiple things all of the time.
And so when we first gotmarried, he would spend hi, his
friends would come over and theywould just hang out and they
built like it was a financialapp at that time.
(12:07):
It was.
They were building a financialoption in the evenings, and then
it was like digital churchbulletin tips.
He just, it's just continuouslybuilding stuff.
Yeah.
This is the next evolution ofthat.
But I wanna ask you a question.
So how did you get intospreadsheets and what was your
process like?
Oh my goodness, I have usedspreadsheets forever.
So my background, I started asactually registered nurse in my
(12:29):
career.
That was my first part of mycareer, and then I shifted over
into it.
And as I shifted to it andworking with different clients,
it just became very natural tome in learning spreadsheets.
But I remember when I firstlearned about pivot tables and
my eyes just lit up and I'mlike, oh my God, I can take all
this data and put it intosomething that like sums it up
(12:49):
for me.
And that kind of was a lightbulb for me that I could, really
make something configurable.
And I use it constantly.
And like for my brainpersonally, I have always.
I always think about, likewhenever I figure out a process,
I wanna figure it out for the50th time that I'm going to do
it.
Like I don't do anything oncethat I don't wanna repeat over
(13:12):
and over and over again.
And in my corporate career, likeI've managed teams and I manage
them the same way that you don'tprovide something to a client.
That you don't wanna do 50 timesover because they're inevitably
gonna ask you to do it again.
So you wanna make sure that youwanna do it again, and you do it
in a way that you can do it overand over.
So that's just how my brainalways has been wired.
(13:34):
So yeah, as I started digginginto spreadsheets and really
figuring out what's possible,both from a, Excel perspective
and then a Google Sheetsperspective, like I tend to flip
back and forth depending on.
My use case or whatever I'mdoing.
I just find it extremely helpfuland use it way more than I
probably should.
But it's very helpful andespecially for mapping out all
(13:56):
those steps like we mentionedearlier being able to see that
data in one place.
And I'm just a very visualperson, so that's extremely
helpful for me just to seeeverything and be able to
categorize it and filter it andsort it and, all those different
things.
I, yeah, I agree completely.
I think that's amazing.
So how are different ways thatpeople can use this within their
(14:18):
business and apply it with theirclients?
Okay, so the first use exampleis we were working with a coach
who built out lead funnels forclients using LinkedIn.
And so what we did is we startedwith her process of intaking
clients and we categorized allof the different clients that
(14:40):
she had where they were inbusiness.
So if they were brand new tobusiness and they didn't have a
website, they didn't have a leadmagnet, all of these basic
fundamental things.
And then we built out, okay,what is the next 12 week
business plan for those brandnew clients that don't have a
business yet?
What do they need to do over thenext 12 weeks?
And then we're gonna turn thatinto a calendar.
(15:00):
A to-do list of these are allthe things that your clients
need to do for the next 12weeks.
Okay?
So then the next category ofclients that she had did have a
business, and they had provenoffers, but they may not have
had that lead funnel set up, andthey may not have run ads yet,
but thinking about it, so thenwe went through questionnaires
of like that the client couldask themselves.
(15:21):
Okay.
How many people have bought myoffer.
We went into the metrics of likeconversion metrics and all of
that, and then gave them thenext 12 weeks of their business
and what they need to focus onand how they need to do that.
And then we went to the peoplethat had sold organically for
years, had all of these funnelsset up, but wanted to start
maximizing their ad profits andhow to do that.
So basically we took herdifferent clients and gave them
(15:44):
a process of what they needed todo based on the coaches.
Like framework and how shehelped her clients grow their
business.
And then you turn that intosomething that is easy for the
clients to understand and givesthem immediate results so that
they can get that immediate satsatisfaction and have that high
(16:05):
touch feel from the coachherself.
And so she can even come back inand do coaching calls and do
follow up, but she doesn't needto do the initial intake and
strategy with them because she'salready done the pre-work ahead
of time.
Another use example with ohbusiness owner.
I was talking to you this week.
She has a subscription sewingbox and so she created a
(16:27):
spreadsheet that is full of allof these different Sewing
patterns because it's so hard.
I don't know if you sew or not,but it's so hard to find sewing
patterns online now because it'sjust flooded and it's, I was
even going at one sewing websitethe other day and could not even
find girl dresses for mydaughter because it, the website
was had so many things on it.
I know it's impossible tosearch.
(16:48):
So she basically created aspreadsheet that has hundreds
and hundreds of patterns listedinto it, and then you enter in
like your.
The size you want all of thesedifferent things and it finds
all of these different patternsfor you.
And then we'll say classify itbased on the sizes, the age
range, the col, the The style,all of these different things,
(17:10):
even the season.
And so she's going to turn thatinto a web app that makes it
super easy for her customers tofind all of these different
patterns and then buy them, andthen also store other patterns
that they've already bought onher web app because it just
creates it so much easier.
And so she could get on a callwith these customers and or
(17:31):
answer all these emails ofpeople saying I just need a
pattern that does this.
But instead, she's turning allof her knowledge and her
expertise into a system that'srepeatable for her clients,
where she doesn't have to spendher valuable time on it, but can
still provide that level ofservice through automation.
I love that.
That's awesome.
And I, Personally within mybusiness, try to take whatever
(17:53):
data that my clients give to meand store it in a u reusable
fashion.
Meaning basically everythingthat people tell you is market
research and we need to look atit at that way because it helps
us constantly improving ourbusiness.
And in these instances thatyou're mentioning, like instead
of just having a file with.
A whole bunch of notes and likethings that people want.
(18:16):
If you can turn it intosomething like this and have you
guys help them that sort throughthe data, get it into a place
that makes sense, it will helpyou improve your business that
much more so that you can lookover the past results and say,
okay, all these clients over thepast year did this, and this.
And you have it in a fashionthat like you can then use it to
(18:38):
improve your business and moveyour business forward.
So I think that's reallyawesome.
And it's a way of replicatingyourself.
Cause there's all of thisteaching out there about giving
VAs and training people to beyour VA VAs and have them on
your team.
And that's awesome.
But I feel like this is a way ofsaying, okay.
How do I take what I do reallywell and what I do that's
(18:59):
different, what everyone elsesays, and turn it into something
repeatable that doesn't take upmore energy or more of my
valuable time, right?
But still provides that level ofexcellence and that level of
care and that level of like justgenuine wanting to help people
without taking away what makesyou special and what makes you
unique.
Totally.
And it sounds like this can beused both internal to the
(19:21):
business as a tool, likesomething to gather the
information that you have fromyour clients.
Potentially as a lead magnet.
You could turn some sort ofinformation that you have for
your clients into a lead magnetso that people are coming into
your world.
I'm a total calculator geek withspreadsheets where I punch in
one number.
And it outputs all this otherstuff.
There's whole so many differentways you can use it.
(19:43):
Checklists lots of differentapplications it sounds like for
people within their business,which is really awesome.
Exactly, and it's just all aboutthe output of that high touch
feel that, especially when youput all that into a PDF or into
for the sewing client, she'sgonna have it on her website,
but a visual appealing output ofthat data so that your clients
(20:04):
can see it but not feeloverwhelmed.
Because I found when I was justselling spreadsheets that it
was.
Overwhelming still because it'sstill, if you're not a
spreadsheet nerd, like it's, ifyou feel like, oh my goodness,
there's all these tabs.
I don't know what to do next.
And you can just like ping pongaround it.
But this basically takes thatoverwhelm feeling out of it and
just gives you the results thatyou need or your client needs.
(20:27):
Awesome.
And in my mind, I always go backto Steve Jobs and how, his focus
was creating that customerexperience first, and then the
rest of it follows from there,right?
So if you have a focus on yourcustomer, you know how you wanna
help them, you help them thebest way possible.
And then you look at the techtools and the ways that you need
to support your business, it's awin-win for both you and your
(20:48):
customer because you're are waymore likely to succeed that way
because you'll end up with veryhappy customers.
Yeah, I think that's just thewhole process of this is like
how to make it the best customerexperience and like the easiest.
For them and the fastest forthem to, because we live in a
world that needs to be fast, andso this is a way that you can
just make what you do fasterusing the power of the internet
(21:12):
basically.
Totally.
That's awesome.
So looking forward to the yearahead, what can people expect
from you next?
So just more of this and then weare actually creating content to
through text messages.
I'm a mom.
I have four kids, and anytime Iget out my laptop, I have
children like, Swarming me toplay my, to press all the
(21:36):
buttons or to close the laptoplid.
And so it's basically developinga service that will allow people
will send content promptsthrough your phone that you can
answer through voice memos.
So send voice memos back andthen it will post a social media
for you.
Very cool.
I'm excited to see that.
Yeah.
(21:56):
Yeah, so I'm excited about it.
Awesome.
So if you had the attention ofthe whole world for five
minutes, what would you tellthem?
I think that just to be kind, toview the internet as a place to
be kind.
I think that's the main thing isjust There's so much like grief
and so much trauma and so manylike mixed emotions on the
(22:19):
online space.
And then it becomes hard and youfeel like you need to protect
yourself and define your ownboundaries.
And while that's true, you canalso just be kind because that
will shine a huge light and makea huge world of difference for
everyone around you.
I love it.
Absolutely.
So how can listeners bestsupport you in your work?
Where can they find you online?
Yeah, just go to brilliantlysustainable.com and you'll see
(22:44):
information in.
Awesome.
And we'll have the links below.
Fabulous.
Thank you so much for being ontoday.
Really appreciate it.
This was a lot of fun.
Thank you, Julie.
I think you're amazing and thisis great.
Thank you.
And if you enjoyed this episodeand you found value in it,
please share it and spread theword with other people and
definitely check out Sarah andall the amazing things that
(23:06):
they're doing with theirbusiness.
And I look forward to seeing youon the next episode.
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