The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
Death To Voicemail | Alfredo Salkeld
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TITLE: Death to Voicemail |Alfredo Salkeld
What if every missed call in your business was a lost customer?
Summary:
Voicemail is where small business leads go to die. In this episode, we talk with Alfredo Salkeld, founder of UpFirst.AI, about how AI receptionists are changing the way small businesses capture calls, qualify leads, and respond instantly—without pretending to be human.
Alfredo shares his journey from leaving the “corporate zoo” to building a tool designed specifically for entrepreneurs who can’t afford to miss opportunities after hours. We dig into how an AI receptionist can follow your intake script, filter spam, text you the exact information you need, and still stay transparent that it’s AI—not a fake person.
We also talk about when AI works better than traditional answering services, when a human still wins, and why new businesses should answer every call themselves before automating anything.
If you run a small business where calls equal revenue, this episode will change how you think about voicemail forever.
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari
💡 GOLD NUGGETS
• Why voicemail kills small business leads
• What an AI receptionist actually does
• Why over-empathetic AI annoys callers
• “Be concise” settings that improve AI responses
• Why third-party answering services fail on scripts
• Collecting the right intake details instantly
• Being transparent that the receptionist is AI
• Customizing tone, accents, and multilingual voices
• Noise cancellation and better call transcription
• When businesses should not use AI
🔗 Guest Links
• Website: https://upfirst.ai
• Company: Up First AI Receptionist
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfredosalkeld/
🌍 Follow The Small Business Safari
• Instagram: @smallbusinesssafaripodcast
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia/
• Website: https://chrislalomia.com
Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!
Overempathetic AI And Flattery
SPEAKER_00So let's talk a little bit more about the overempathetic AI person. Oh, Alfredo, I'm so sorry to hear about your HVAC not working. How can I help you? Oh, well, that really must be bad. What else can I do to help you? They're overempathetic, they over talk. How do you pull them back?
SPEAKER_04So we've sort of there's some I would call them global settings to RAI, which is be concise. And I hate this too. Even talking to like Chat GPT, you know, when you tell it something and you're like, and then it responds to you, and it's like, you are a genius, and this is the greatest idea that you've that you've ever had. No, I I can't stand that.
SPEAKER_00I want I already know what I am.
SPEAKER_01I don't need you to tell me. I need the praise even if it's even if it's fake. Oh, Chris, that's a great idea. I think you have a million-dollar idea. You're gonna tell me how good that idea is.
SPEAKER_00You know, the small business safari may be the best podcast out there in the world. And and I because I've even said, hey, chat, how can I take down Smartless and Joe Logan as their podcast? Great idea, Chris. Uh, I think you can do it if you follow these steps. See, it's love that. I love that.
SPEAKER_01I love it.
SPEAKER_04This drives me crazy when I uh sometimes I'm cooking and I'll say, like, hey, I'm making this. Uh, you know, what would you like here? These are the ingredients I have. What could I whip together? And it'll be like, here's a few things that sound absolutely delicious. I'm like, how would you know?
Welcome And Corporate Escape
SPEAKER_00Right, how would you possibly know? Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls, and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your extent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you traverse to the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through this safari. Don't scare everybody. It's okay to run your own business. It's okay to go out there in the wild world of the entrepreneur world. I was on a podcast the other day and somebody said, So what's the name of your book? And I said it's called From the Zoo to the Wild. Wow, that's an interesting concept. Why? Uh, and so I I broke it down. I said, Well, I was in the corporate zoo, man, and um they're like, What do you mean? I said, I was all that, man. I had 400 people working for me. I had the I had the custom-made suits, I had the corner office, I had the Mercedes-Benz. Alan, my partner here, had the same freaking thing going, and we were big daddies, man, and we are making big bucks. And we walked away from it, and we walked away from because I sat there and went, man, they're just feeding me bananas, but I want to see what's on the other side of that concrete wall. I know I can do better. I know there's a wild world out there where I can do way, way better than I'm doing now, Alan. How are we doing? We're running a podcast called The Small Business Safari. Um, where are you as a podcast guest? I haven't I haven't heard it. So um, not as energetic and fun as I am with you. Are you a little more buttoned up? I am a little more buttoned up, but I I get I love it when people ask me good questions. Do you drop the F-bomb? Um, I do not drop the F-bomb. I kind of keep it really closer to the vest because I don't know exactly who their audience is, and I don't want to alienate, especially because I've been on four different faith-based podcasts.
SPEAKER_01You don't seem to be afraid of alienating people on our podcast.
Meet Alfredo And Up First
SPEAKER_00Yeah, fuck no. And by the way, I'm still faith-based. And because last time I checked, man, that thing wasn't in the Bible. I'm good. That's not one of the top seven. I'm all good. Um he'll see me at church and the Catholic Church. But uh, but and uh yeah, I'm about to go down bad. Man, Pope Leo's gonna take me out, but Papa Leo, no. Ah, yes, so we had some fun, but man, we've been talking about this wild world of what we're doing and jumping out into the entrepreneurship land. And we got a chance to uh meet our guests through networking groups. You know, we get out there, we try to do some things, and um, we have a group that we go out there and try to look for interesting guests to bring to you to help you, the small business team, get better at what we're doing, make our stuff happen, get it up to board. And today we have Alfredo Salkitt on who's gonna talk about death to the voicemail. I don't think he got his name right. What? I don't think he got his name right. Shit. Cindy, did I get his name right?
SPEAKER_04No, I think he I think he got it right.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Alan. Hey, Cindy, cut Alan out. No, no, no. No, I believe everything Alan ever fucking says. That's that was that that was so boring. Thank you, Alan. I feel so much better.
SPEAKER_01Uh Alfredo. I think he's just being gracious.
SPEAKER_00I thought, I thought he was a paison. You know, I was looking at that last name. I'm like, you know, a little close. And I'm like, you know, couldn't have.
SPEAKER_01No, he was not reacting to you laying on the Italian road.
SPEAKER_00I know, I was thinking it was good. And then I find out actually his whole family's from Peru. And then so before we get on, I mentioned that my son uh has a lot of Latino friends, uh, and they're very tight. Even after uh here they are, 24 years old, and they're still a tight group. Every time he comes back, uh they get together, and it's so much fun to see these guys because they're just really good guys. And I used to say kids because I knew them since they were middle school.
SPEAKER_01Don't use the word youngster. I think that's when you've officially start circling the toilet when you say youngster.
SPEAKER_00Youngster, listen here, youngsters. How about back in my day? In fact, these are the same kids that used to ask me, like one of them loves to come up to me and say, So, uh uh, can I ask you a question, Mr. Chris? Uh yeah. So when you played football and they didn't have face masks, how did you hide your nose? That was awesome. And then another one came up and go, Yeah, yeah. So when you went to school, did you have to tie up your horse in front of the school? And did you have to carry the candle in with you so you could see? Wow. I love these kids. But Alfredo, I'm sure you're not like that. So you're much more respectful than those little Cretans. You say that Cretans is a good word. That's a good one. Ah, the good one. All right, Alfredo, man, we want to talk a little bit more about you and what's going on. But before we talk about what you do, tell us a little bit about your background. Where are you from?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so originally from Lima, Peru. I moved to the U.S. when I was two years old, grew up in Florida, and now I live in Durham, North Carolina.
SPEAKER_00So, where did you go to school in Florida for college?
SPEAKER_04I went to the University of Central Florida, which I think is the second largest university in in the U.S. A lot of people go there.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I love it. You know that cheesy sound. I was about to say second largest uh uh university in the U.S., right? And it's in Central Florida. Do you want to know where the University of South Florida is? In Central Florida. It's in Central Florida. Which one's further north?
SPEAKER_04Oh, I'm the wrong person to ask about this. If I don't have the Google maps in front of me, but it's Tampa and Orlando, so they should be.
SPEAKER_00They're just next to the city. Literally, University of South Florida is technically, I guess, north of where Oh, I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01There's a little piece of truth.
SPEAKER_00So because uh the University of South Florida was the first public school uh established in um in Florida, and they call it the University of South Florida. And I know that because my general manager at my company is from Orlando, uh originally from the Tampa area, uh, went to Florida. Uh, but um he tells me that story, and I just I just started dying. I'm like, really? But Central Florida, uh, second biggest university in the nation. Nice, well done. Now you're in Durham, North Carolina, you're in the cradle of academia and smart people. So, Alfredo, what do you do? Tell us a little bit about what you've done, what you've built. Let's talk about that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So I right now am building a company called Up First, and we have an AI receptionist for small businesses. So the idea is you probably have a bunch of calls that go to voicemail. People hate leaving voicemails, or you're in the middle of something, you can't get to a call, this thing picks up for you, you tell it what information you want to collect from callers, you can connect to your calendar, and it essentially serves as your little robot front desk receptionist.
SPEAKER_00All right. So AI, man, it's the term, right? I mean, it is um Alfredo's a little younger than us, Alan. Um, this is like TV back in, well, your day. Um, maybe electricity back in my day. But it's a disruptor, right? It's um something that everybody's talking about, but doesn't know how to tactically implement in a small business. So my challenge every time I when somebody throws that at me is like, give me one thing you do in your business where you use it. And here's a good example of one. And I've heard a lot of stories, uh, bad and good, about what you're talking about. So let's kind of piece this out a little bit and talk about what's bad about AI receptionists and what can be good about AI receptionists.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean I'm the first to say if you can hire a really good full-time person to man your phones, it is going to be better than AI. It just is. If you have someone who really knows your business, knows your customers, knows it in and out. I mean, is there anything better than that person being able to pick up the phone and just handle the shit that you need?
SPEAKER_01I mean, uh, the problem the problem with that is is that you have to give them time off. Well, Chris doesn't, but I don't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, uh, I would tell you the the problem to overcome on that one, and uh, we'll get back to you in just a minute, Alfredo. But the problem to overcome that is that you hire correctly, you hire a lady whose kids have gr uh got out of the house, they're gone, the old man ain't around, and she just likes her cats, and she just has her cat sweater on, and her whole life is your business. Yes, thank God. Thank you, Amy. No, um, she is not uh that but she really wear cat sweater, no, she doesn't, and she doesn't have cats either. But um, but he's right. I mean, Alfredo, you you're actually speaking the truth that a lot of people aren't willing to hear because the salespeople come to you and go, Oh, they're way better, right? They never have to take a break, they don't have to go out and take a smoke break, they don't have to go out uh and take time off because they're not feeling good, or this or that, the other. So you have the I receptions, but if they don't know your people, right? Here's the issue, right? If they don't know your people or your your cadence or how you do things, they may say things wrong or they may do things wrong. But so let's let's keep talking about this and how to implement this correctly.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, usually what I see is people are trying to they they saw they have a few different issues. One is maybe they have a really good front desk person, but what happens when you have a really good front desk person and you're running things well, you get busier and then you get more calls, right? And this person can't suddenly answer two calls at once. So there's going to be some overflow, some number of calls they get to, or right, this person wants to go home and people are calling after five or six o'clock, right? So then what do you do then? Well, then people say, okay, well, there's these third-party answering services, these call centers that I can pay. You can hire them, and then usually what we hear there is they don't follow my directions. Why aren't they following your directions? Because one person is having to answer for a dozen different businesses. So all they have is what's, you know, they jot a few notes down about your business and that's what's in front of them, right? But they don't know your business inside and out. And, you know, people don't like those jobs, they're really high turnover, so they're constantly switching employees and it's still expensive, right? So that's what you get with sort of a traditional third-party answering service. And then there's a third bucket, which is just send them the voicemail, right? And then you listen to it in the morning. So I think the pushback I often get is I don't like talking to AI. I can fully understand that. But the question is, do you think that that experience of talking to AI could that be better than some of those alternatives? And what we see is oftentimes it is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it's not AI or else, right? It's not give me liberty, give me death, it's not burn the ships. Um, and I like that that you're talking about it like this because when you talk to people about this, and we've had some people on the pod talking about developing the AI person, if you will, the AI chat, uh talking to somebody, um, and you feel like you get a little bit of the too much of the sales part, you know what I mean?
Death To Voicemail Intake
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, so your LinkedIn profile says death to voicemail. So you're actually kind of being I don't know, you're being very nice about it right now. But what are you seeing? You're obviously a lot younger than the both of us. I mean, uh people in your generation, which are you know, the consumers right now, the future of the country, you they get a voicemail, what do they do?
SPEAKER_04Well, I think even uh business owners often there's a delay in them listening to their voicemail. One is they're busy, and the second is also spam calls, right? You've got this mix of missed calls from actual customers, from spammers. You look through your call log, you're not sure what's what by the time you get to your voicemail. I mean, the the problem is voicemails either don't have the information you need to follow to follow up, right? So you're listening to the voicemail and it's like, hey, Chris, this is Alfredo. Um, Colin, because I need some work done, and you you keep listening and you're hoping you get the info you need, and then you don't get it, right? Um so that's sort of one of the pros is this AI receptionist can collect the information that you need and then just send that to you in a text. So you don't even have to listen to the recording of the call. You get a text with everything that you need.
SPEAKER_00So I like that idea. Um, so in this case, am I talking to the AI receptionist or is it gathering it through chat and text?
SPEAKER_04So at the moment, at least our product right now is just over the phone, right? So you call and this thing talks to you. And usually what I recommend to people is like treat your customers like adults. AI is good, but you can still tell that it's not a real human, at least most of the time, right? So usually what I recommend to people is don't try to pass this off like a human. Tell people that it's an AI receptionist. So, for example, yeah. A number of uh HBAC companies that use us, right? And they come because they say, Hey, I'm using this other answering service that's supposed to just collect the address, find out if it's an emergency and if it is. And if we've serviced that person in the last two years, then send a text to one of my techs who's on call and tell them to go. But what happens is they, you know, again, they miss that script, and then they end up texting a tech at 2 a.m. for someone who they've never serviced before or is outside of their service area. So this thing, you call, it answers, you know, hey, thanks for calling all pro HVAC. I'm the team's after hours AI receptionist. Is this an emergency? And then you say yes, and it says, okay, great, let me collect your address, make sure you're within our service area. You provide the address, and then it's, you know, it goes down the script. Okay, great. Have we serviced your HVAC unit within the last two years? And then you say no, and it's like, unfortunately, we can only go out there, you know, if we've serviced it, right? So it it follows this script and through a conversation gathers the information that you need.
SPEAKER_01And what kind of results are are your HVAC companies telling you they've had with this?
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's just so much cheaper than what they're paying other companies. So our my co-founder Gene, he's uh an attorney. He was paying$300 a month for 30 phone calls answered. And he was paying, you know, top dollar, the best third-party answering service out there. And he was just like, this is crazy. All I'm asking them to collect is name, email, and what's the reason for your call. There's got to be a better way to do this. And so this is$25 and essentially does the same thing. Wow. How customizable is this? It's very customizable. I mean, there's a lot still that we want to do, but essentially you've got a knowledge base and you can stick in information about your prices. Um, you can stick in information about how you want quotes provided, um, what's your process, whatever you would want a human receptionist to know. You stick that in a knowledge base and it doesn't forget. And then you can tell it, you know, under these situations, I want you to transfer a call to me. If someone says they're an existing customer, just patch them through to my cell phone for an example as an example, can send text messages too. So it's very, very customizable, right? We've got everybody from like home services to dog groomers. So it we you you adjust it based on how do you want calls answered.
SPEAKER_01So my assumption is uh let's say Chris signs up for this and he's got the the new AI assistant, and that can he then listen to some of these calls and then start looking for patterns and it's like, okay, maybe we need to tweak the process here a little bit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's a good point, right? Because you're not gonna get this perfect right off the bat. You're gonna listen to calls and realize, hey, I forgot something. Uh so yeah, each time a call comes in, you get an email, you get a text, and then you can go in, you can listen to it and realize, you know, I uh I I kind of want to tweak the script a little bit.
SPEAKER_00And so as we're talking about this real quick, what's the name of your product, real quick, uh, so everybody has it? It's upfirst.ai. Upfirst.ai, go check that out. Uh listen to that uh Alan talking about this stuff. So let's talk a little bit more about the over-empathetic AI person. Oh, Alfredo, I'm so sorry to hear about your HVAC not working. How can I help you? Oh, well, that really must be bad. What else can I do to help you? They're over-empathetic, they over talk. How do you pull them back?
SPEAKER_04So we've sort of there's some I would call them global settings to RAI, which is be concise. And I hate this too. Even talking to like ChatGPT, you know, when you tell it something and you're like, and then it responds to you, and it's like, you are a genius, and this is the greatest idea that you've that you've ever had. No, I I can't stand that.
SPEAKER_00I want I already know I am.
SPEAKER_01I don't need you to tell me I need the praise even if it's triggering, even if it's fake.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Chris, that's a great idea. I think you have a million-dollar idea.
SPEAKER_01You're gonna tell me how good that idea is.
SPEAKER_00You know, the small business safari may be the best podcast out there in the world. And and I because I've even said, Hey, chat, how can I take down Smartless and Joe Rogan as their podcast? Great idea, Chris. Uh, I think you can do it if you follow these steps. See, the kids love it. I love that. I love that.
SPEAKER_04This drives me crazy when I uh sometimes I'm cooking and I'll say, like, hey, I'm making this. Uh, you know, what would you like here? These are the ingredients I have. What could I whip together? And it'll be like, here's a few things that sound absolutely delicious. And I'm like, how would you know? Right, how could you just possibly know?
Customization Voices And Branding
SPEAKER_00You know, I just did that for a drink recipe, and uh, by the way, I overlimed the shit out of it. What was what were the ingredients you threw at it? So I can overline? Uh so here's what well hang on, it was supposed to be a sweet one. So I had bought uh a can of lychee berries with lychee syrup, and we're gonna make a lychee martini for my wife and I, and she likes a sweet martini. And so I said, All right, I'm gonna make this before she comes home. I'm gonna be some do something nice. Uh I don't know how to process this. No, don't worry, I was in trouble. Was it Valentine's Day? Uh no, uh I missed Valentine's Day. Totally whipped on that one. That was a long time ago. Oh my god. So uh it said one ounce lychee, one ounce lime. So I went one ounce lychee, one ounce lime, two ounces vodka, even though it said one. I said, I'm trying to get lucky. Uh, so I keep going and uh and uh I tasted. I'm like, oh my god, this thing's over lime. Next thing I know, I had to like pour the whole syrup of lychee. You made a picture of it. I I'd made it, I'd made a lot of it. Uh brow chicken, bro, bro. Let's go, Alfredo. Uh, but right, it it doesn't know, so you've got to understand. And so let's go back to AI and why in your business it can get a little askew, right?
SPEAKER_01So well, I'm one that's it goes back to the customizable question. I mean, so if Chris and I are both customers, can his be just blunt and unempathetic? And mine can, yeah, with double birds being thrown, and can mine be a little bit more folksy and warm?
SPEAKER_00And warm and cuddling and cuddling.
SPEAKER_01And oh, let me tell tell me a little bit more about your problem because my business is the the more trusted toolbox, yeah. More trustworthy than Chris on my aunt. And the plane, let him answer the question.
SPEAKER_04I I have seen a range, I'm shocked by how varied the opinions are of how people want their calls handled, right? It can be everything from voices. Some people they're like, Why is this voice so enthusiastic? Like, I I it it sounds way, way too excited for my business, right? And so for those people, we have voices that are way more mellow, right? And then there's other people who are like, I want my brand to have the most excited person answer the phone. And so for those people, there's a whole different range of voices. And then same thing, even in just the conversation. Um, like there's two extremes. I've had roofers who sign up and they're like, I want this thing to know everything there is to know about roofing. Like, I want it to be a roofing expert and to act as a roofing expert on calls. And then there's attorneys who are like, This thing better not pretend like it is a law expert. I want it to not like don't just collect the email, collect their name, get the number, and I will call them back. Right. And so all of those things can be configured.
SPEAKER_00I can just see that now. Hey, thank you for calling uh Chris's uh attorney injury at law. What can I do to help you? Yeah, so it's just an accident. What can I do? Oh my god, you were in an accident? How amazing. Let me help you. What happened? I broke my leg and some guy who was uninsured hit me. Oh my god, we have a great opportunity for you. You deserve a lot of money. We are gonna get you a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01Have you okay? This this would be so much fun being you in this business because I'd like I would love to play with okay, is a male voice better or a female voice better? Is a little bit of a British accent or a little southern accent? I mean, have you started playing around with that kind of stuff?
SPEAKER_04I mean, most people, I would say 80% of people pick a female voice. Um, we do we have had people who are like get me a very southern sounding, deep Texan voice. So we have that. There's Australian, there's like we've got Colombian Spanish and then Spain Spanish.
SPEAKER_00Right. Uh Alfredo from Purdue knows this is that here in the US, uh, all the Spanish that we learn is Colombian Spanish. I did go to Barcelona, and I learned uh I learned uh Spanish in the uh Spanish, the true Spanish in Philly. As you know, they are truly elitists, but that's how I grew up was learning uh the true Spanish with the thus. That's right. So interesting, but most people want women.
SPEAKER_04Yep, most people want women.
SPEAKER_00Give me this southern draw thing. Yeah, there's no way. I just I can't buy this.
SPEAKER_04I will give you the number to call afterward. I mean, we have it on our on our testing account. We use the the Clint from Texas. We call him. Thank you for calling up first. How may I help you? You know, it's like really, really oh, and see Alfredo, I don't think any customers use it, but it's an option on there because we use it. It doesn't say help, it says we like it for testing.
SPEAKER_01How can I help you?
SPEAKER_00You know, Alfredo, you get to say, I actually am southern. I'm a southern US guy, so where's the draw, bro? Yeah, what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01So oh, yeah. Can you can you do a New York Italian accent?
SPEAKER_00Uh hey, forget about it. What you calling for? Yeah. Uh do you have that? We'll add it. No, don't add it for me. No, I don't want that. I want that.
SPEAKER_01The chief of the United States probably wants that. They didn't, you know, people in Boston, New York, Philly, they don't want southern draw.
SPEAKER_00They well, here's what they don't want to. Oh my gosh, that sounds so great. You blew up your water heater. What happened? Oh my your your water is completely flooded. Your house is flooding. How's your mom and them? Oh my house your mom and them.
SPEAKER_04The the trippy, the the trippy part is this can it can speak multiple languages and it switches uh uh immediately depending on what the caller says. And all of the voice can speak, all of the voices can speak every language, right? But some have an accent, so it's kind of fun to talk to the Clint from Texas voice and then switch to Spanish, and you're getting this deep southern Texan Spanish.
Noise Cancellation Accents Languages
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. All right, so let's back up and get a little more practical because I can go way down this. I mean, we'll mayamoyamoyamo. How can I help you? Ayuda. All right, so uh this are most of your clients are they B2B, B2C? What are we looking at mostly here?
SPEAKER_04With it tends to be, you know, small mom and pop business, solopreneurs, roofing, dog washing. Um, you know, I mentioned HVAC, there's contractors, some solo real estate agents, so it's really all over the place. Attorneys.
SPEAKER_00All right, so I get it. So you you don't want to scale, you don't have an office, and uh you're B2C, so you're taking a lot a lot of calls from a lot of crazies. Um, my question has always been, especially here in Atlanta, is that every once in a while I get some southern. And I get some southern with some southern.
SPEAKER_01How well can the AI understand uh beaching? Tell me how they're beach them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I tell me how they pick they can figure out Steve Beach and say, my number is 770 444 34 32fold. I mean, tell me you can translate that. How do they do that?
SPEAKER_04You know, some of this is beyond my technical understanding. The speech to text, though, it's it's amazing. Um, it I'm it's it's really is impressive how well it's able to uh capture stuff. And recently, one thing though that we've had to do as we've grown and sort of you get more calls, see what goes wrong, is add noise cancellation, right? There's a difference between testing this product inside your house and then actual customers who are calling when they're driving. They've got their kid crying in the back, and you need to be able to distinguish what the person's saying from background noise. Um, so at the beginning, there'd be customers who are like, Why isn't this thing responding to me? Then I'd listen to their test call. And I'm like, Well, your TV is on volume like 75. And so the AI thinks the TV is the uh person talking and thinks that you haven't stopped talking.
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, to be fair, actually, uh, my PA daughter who's about to graduate and get off the payroll, um, did clear my ears out, and she took out P size, and I said that in front of her.
SPEAKER_01It's disgusting.
Pricing Setup And Call Routing
SPEAKER_00It didn't really go in there, yeah. No, but uh the same thing. I had my volume on my TV, I was getting ready to get hearing aids. I was like at 60. I'm like, here I am. Uh very old, um, but not that old, but old. And uh got him out, and now I can hear great. So I hear what he's saying because how about this? The person sits out in their back deck with the blower out there going, Hi Clint. I'm out here in the back, you know, and I'm sitting here trying to figure out my deck and stuff. And you know, when I got hit in the car and stuff, and uh, I don't know when stuff and it happened and stuff, but I need you guys to come over here and fix it up and all, you know, saying, All right, come on now. I mean, how do you how do the how does AI handle that shit?
SPEAKER_04I mean, again, and some like that's why we had to have noise cancellation. We use a technology called Crisp that somehow is able to cut out a lot of that noise. I think I need some of that in my life.
SPEAKER_00I you know what it's funny is I we have AI called Chris. All I started laughing about was anti-Crisp. Crisp with a P. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so Alfredo, obviously um Alan and I may be a little bit crazier than you. I do want to ask, but we're gonna go, huh? Go.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. So you it you you already kind of talked about the fact that your partner was spending all this money, which when you threw out a number didn't seem like that much money or whatever. But so this is an affordable solution for people. Is it a is it a monthly subscription kind of thing, no matter the volume, or is it per call? How does that work for the people that call in?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so most of these businesses are per minute. When we were starting, I was like, who the hell knows how many minutes they're spending on the phone? I mean, so so we decide to just do per call, right? So if it's a three-minute call or a 10-minute call, it doesn't matter. Uh and there's different tiers based on the number of calls you get. So the cheapest plan is 25 bucks a month for 30 calls, then you go past that and you just pay per call. And then if it's spam, we have AI that checks the transfer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean that that's time out, Alfredo. That's where I was going to. Yeah, you need to.
SPEAKER_00We're kind of crazy here and all. Seriously, bro. For 25 bucks a fucking month, uh, sign me the fuck right up right now. Hey guys, get everybody give me that number one more time. Because as soon as get in now, get in now because gas prices are going up. It's all going up.
SPEAKER_01Alfredo's gonna figure out he's giving it away too much.
SPEAKER_00And you better get in on this thing right now. Alfredo, hit it one more time.
SPEAKER_04Well, well, it's actually$24.95 a month, but I hate saying I just say$25.95 a month. That's way more that's way more, dude.
SPEAKER_00He is so not a salesman. And you guys, guys, listen to this, right? That's why we bring real people on.
SPEAKER_01So for$25 a month, you will is there a setup fee? No, there's no setup fee. And so I can give you my script, you'll work with me and customize it, and then it's just$25 a month.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. For 30 calls, you go past that, and then it's a dollar fifty per call. And if it's spam, it doesn't count towards your calls.
SPEAKER_00I'm speaking for all this small venture team right now. When you shut the hell up, uh, he is onto something and he's good doing something good. Give it a shot, guys. Here's the thing that's a no-brainer, give it a shot. That's what we talk about. Alfredo's not a sales guy. If he is, he is really veiled and doing really good. And he just mind F me the heck of it. He's totally inseparable. And he's not, no, because we talked about this before. But uh, guys, give it a shot because you're in, you can try it. 25 bucks a month. No, no, uh, is there any uh 12-month guarantee? 12 months I gotta cut. But that's for 30 calls. Now, what if is there a is there a contract though? Can I quit?
SPEAKER_04Well, probably, but yeah, you can cancel and you don't have to call us.
SPEAKER_01But out of out of out of 30 calls, 20 of them are spam. Well, he kills those.
SPEAKER_00You only pay for 10.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Is how does that be said?
SPEAKER_04So you you pay that 2495 a month, regardless of whether you get 10 or so, so we don't bill you per call, right? You pay for a bucket of calls. If 20 of them are spam, so the AI checks the transcripts, and if it's spam, it's marked as spam. You can see right within the app which ones we marked as spam, so it's not confusing of which ones are you counting as spam, and those you're not billed for. So you could get 60 calls, 30 are real calls, 30 are spam. We're not billing you, you know, doubles.
SPEAKER_00If you don't do this category, you know, I well well, uh, you know, Alan, I like to clean your language up a little bit. I'm sorry. I would call it a no-brainer, uh no-brainer uh that you could try this out.
SPEAKER_01Channel Slint from Texas, you're building a lot of things.
SPEAKER_04This is gonna be me being a bad salesman again, but I want to give one example of someone who this isn't right for, which is I think is if you're just getting started, if you're just getting your business started and you're thinking about how am I gonna handle overflow uh calls and you don't have any customers yet, you should I I kind of think that when you're starting a business, you should probably handle every single call you're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01You should take every call. That's great advice. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's funny you should say that because even as I grew throughout the uh many phases, everybody says, Chris, how do you grow? I'm like, or what was the most challenging part of your growth? I'm like, I can't even tell you. I said, here I am 18 years later, and I would tell you last month really sucked. And um, and Alan's heard me in the dark periods, even while we've been doing the podcast. But you're right. As you grow, this is not the time, but as you have grown and you it hurts so much that you can't answer those calls in the evening, or you're answering those calls on the weekends instead of going to your kids' events because you started your own business. That's the time. That's the time. And look, the barrier of entry with Alfredo's solution is very low.
SPEAKER_01Zero. Yeah, it's a couple of lot days.
SPEAKER_00And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, yeah, and I'm gonna be your salesman for you because I've tried call centers, and the stats are if you don't answer the call on the first call, your likelihood of sale goes down 80% in the home services industry. It's hard, but I would tell you the likelihood of you getting the job with a call answered like absolute 1,000% piling turd as shit is zero. So don't do that. Don't go to a call center that sucks. Go to this. At least you capture it and you get a shot.
SPEAKER_01Well, and the fact that he talks about the fact that they just make it obvious it's AI, because if you pretend, then that's off-putting too. But if it's like, hey, it's after hours, everybody knows it's after hours. So I'm assuming you've got a lot of solopreneurs that just have this on 24-7. But in the case of somebody like Chris, who's actually got a good staff during the day, then it would just be an after hours thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you can do it 24-7, you can do it after hours, and then another thing you can do is just have it be your missed calls, right? So that way your phone rings, you know, if it's your biggest customer, you see it's them calling and you answer. If it's an unknown number, you're not really sure, you're in the middle of something, then click decline and it goes to the receptionist instead of your voicemail.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Guys, we're we're coming to the end on this one. Let's plug it one more time because I gotta ask Alfredo another question.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Where do they where do they get it? Is it a you said it was an app?
SPEAKER_04Or yep, you just look up up, just go to upfirst.ai or look up up first AI receptionist and we'll pop up.
SPEAKER_01So, what's the process like when somebody sorry, Chris, I had a question, but okay. So I I'm somebody I'm interested in. I realize 25 bucks a month or whatever it is, is a no-brainer. I hit the app, it walks me through what process at some point. Am I talking to you and you're working on a script with me? How does that work?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so you sign up, you'll put in your website, and then it'll sort of suck some information from your website just to get started. And then from there, you can customize the script, right? Um, but if you want some help, you can just book a call with us. We'll jump in a call. Usually within 30 minutes, we've got someone set up. And then once you can, of course, call the receptionist to test it, see how it's going. We don't bill you for the test calls. And then once you feel comfortable with how it's answering, you start forwarding calls from your existing business line, right? So that way you don't have to give out a new number to all your customers, you just forward calls from your current number.
SPEAKER_01So from clicking on the app to actually having it in my business, how long does that take?
SPEAKER_04It can be as short as 30 minutes, right? If it's a pretty simple call flow. If you're someone who, you know, this is uh you you've got a really complex business with all these different scripts and different people to transfer it to. You know, we've had people who we spend a week troubleshooting uh different scripts until they're they're satisfied. A week, kiss my butt. That's awesome.
Beekeeping Sales Mindset Rapid Fire
SPEAKER_00Clint from Texas says, kiss my big old grants butt. Well, we can keep going. Alfredo, this has been awesome, man. I love this that we're talking about this, but before we keep going, let's make this thing a little bit more real. So, Alfredo, we asked you before you got on here, hey man, why are you doing this? Well, I'm getting my name out there. Hey, is this your gig? Not really, man. I really don't, I'm not, I'm I'm I don't like the networking part. It's not really my gig, it's not my thing. Because you can tell that you're very introverted, uh, and a little quiet. I mean, I can tell. And what we talked about was, hey, you're really not, because you are bringing the heat today, right?
SPEAKER_01100%.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you and Alan, and I it's like that's what the one thing I wanted to say. I'm not probably not a question, but a statement first is that yeah, um yeah, I love being out there as we talked about before we got on the podcast. I bounce off the wall, also if I don't talk to people. If you put me in my house for 24 hours and said I couldn't talk to anybody, I would absolutely go probably crazy. I would probably be slit in something. But you guys can handle it. And but yet you learned how to extrovert, uh, how to into as introverts talk to us extroverts. So as you went through this and had to put yourself out there in the podcast world, just talk a little bit about what you had to go through to get to this. Because I think a lot of people will be interested in why you do this.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, this opens up a whole nother area that we could talk about some other time. Um, but I I stepped away from I've always I've worked in software and software marketing for many, many years. During COVID, I stepped away and was running a beekeeping business. And we would install and maintain honey beehives in people's backyards. And that's like one of the biggest challenges I had to go through because I suddenly went from this sort of digital world of I'm sending people emails and Slack messages to having to get comfortable face-to-face selling to people, selling them on this idea that they should set up a beehive in their backyard and pay us each month to come take care of it. Um, and it was a completely different game than what I was doing before. Um, and I think that experience made me a sort of much better entrepreneur because I had to get comfortable with myself in different environments, talking to people, you know, selling to them, educating them. It was invaluable.
SPEAKER_00Was it rewarding? A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, most rewarding thing I've done.
SPEAKER_00So crazy, right? But it's exhausting. It is. All right, so you guys, after this podcast, I know you guys will be tired.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna go into a dark room.
SPEAKER_00And I'm gonna come off here just bouncing off the walls. That's why I love coming to this podcast and meeting with my good friend Al and bringing you guys the heat and the small business adventure team. Alfredo, you brought the heat today, too. This has been amazing stuff. Excuse me, but we've got to ask our final four questions. I think these are gonna be interesting. All right, give us a book you'd recommend to our small business adventure team that we all should read.
SPEAKER_04The Lost Art of Closing by Anthony Ian Areno.
SPEAKER_00Dude, again, you guys and your introverted little I'm so smarter than everybody else think.
SPEAKER_01I know that's a great lie. If you just shut up and listen to the uh book, no, I have never heard of it. I'm gonna go look it up. That sounds like a great book. It's so good.
SPEAKER_04It's so good. Give us a nugget from it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It changed the way I sell stuff because I think before, have you ever heard this idea of you chase if you're chasing something, it runs away? That's how I approached every time I was trying to sell something. It was like uh you could you could uh there's this sales guy Josh Braun, who I I really like his advice, and he talks about commission breath, and people can tell when you have commission breath.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_04I love it. And this book rewired me to think about myself like a consultant. And now, even when I'm helping someone set up their receptionist, I'm no longer trying to get them to sign up. I'm curious about them. And the idea is how can I help you? If I if you were paying, I imagine they're paying me a thousand dollars an hour and I am their consultant, and sometimes the advice is I don't think you should use our product, and that's okay. Weirdly enough, you turn people away, and somehow the right people end up end up finding you. And so the idea of this book is be a consultative salesperson. Here's an applause from the audience.
SPEAKER_00Alfredo, go steep night it again. Sorry.
SPEAKER_04Number two, what's the favorite feature of your own home? Oh, our backyard. We spend so much time back there. We've got the chicken coop. Come on. Dug a little pond, five chickens. Does that give you enough eggs? It gives us it gives us a lot of eggs.
SPEAKER_00Hey, Alfredo, how can we get some eggs? Uh if if I I gotta find I'm gonna find my way to Durham. Damn it. I want fresh eggs.
SPEAKER_04You find your your uh if you find yourself in Durham, North Carolina, definitely reach out.
SPEAKER_00I'm looking you up, brother. Do you have a beehive? Do you have a beehive in your yard? And do you have a beehive? Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_04I wish I did. I I did for for many years, but I had to come to terms with my my yard is too shady for bees. They like it in a nice sunny spot. You get fewer pests in the beehive that way.
SPEAKER_01And then everyone you have a beehive, and then all of a sudden they just decided to up and go. I never heard that in the whole hive of leaves.
SPEAKER_00Actually, I got one friend who does beehives in Alabama. Yeah, it's his uh retirement hobby. Well, he was doing it before that, but um, I'm so interested. But I'm also so deathly afraid of bees. Yeah, that's right. Being stung. It's being stung.
SPEAKER_01So my I have a buddy who's a beekeeper and he said call him Chris. And he called him Chris. He would send me videos or like he just picks up the stray bees with his fingers and he puts them in there. But then there was the day that he was weed eating around, and apparently the bees thought that that was some like giant hornet, and then they just decided to swarm and attack, and he just got stung to death almost. Oh my god, dude. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, I know you're supposed to stay calm and and know uh work with them, and I got it. So I I I hear you. I just say that. All right, Alfredo. Here we go. We are kind of we haven't talked about it much, but we're talking about AI and the whole world, it's it's coming, dude. I think we're gonna show up, and the hostess is gonna be this AI robot. Hello, Chris. How can I help you sit? What's your name? My name is Betty. No, it's not. You're a robot. Okay, I'm in a whole different world. What's a customer service pet peeve of yours when you're out there and you're the customer?
SPEAKER_04Having to repeat myself when they transfer you to another department and they say, How can I help you? And you're like, I already said this, I already said this. We actually just as of today added memory to our AI receptionist so that if someone calls back a second time, it remembers they are calling again because oh, good call, man.
SPEAKER_00That's a great call because you're right, right? You call, you authenticate yourself, you've done it, you're in the same system, you're in the same deal. And they go, Hey, just for uh uh personal reasons or security reasons, but I think still personal, can you re-authenticate yourself? I'm like, sure. Are you gonna help me up? And then, of course, they ask the quintessential, is there anything else I can help you with? Well, if you could help me with the first thing, we wouldn't be talking. All right, Alfredo, great question. Last one, give us a DIY nightmare story. I want death, dismemberment. Actually, not death, but dismemberment, just some maybe some fingers that are a little off anymore, you know. Say my I'm just putting them up for everybody in YouTube. Or uh uh being stung by a hive. No, I don't want stung by a well, maybe it could be. Let's see, let's let's let him actually.
Find Alfredo And Final Takeaways
SPEAKER_04I don't know if this this isn't quite this isn't DIY, so I don't know if it counts. You can tell me. Um, we were installing a lighting fixture, and this is the first uh home I've owned, and I always thought, you know, at some point I'll figure out where my water shutoff valve is, but that's a that's a that's something for a later date. And then they came to install this, and I I said, Hey, I think that there could be a water pipe that runs behind this wall. And they're like, Yeah, no, we're worried about that too. Don't worry, we're gonna be super careful. Three seconds later, I'm I'm upstairs and I just hear gushing water and I run down, and electrician is holding their thumb to the pipe, trying to keep the water but it's just spraying everywhere into the ceiling. I'm running around like crazy, trying to figure out where is the water shutoff valve in my house. So if you don't know and you're listening, find your water shutoff valve. Know it ahead of me. Time.
SPEAKER_00You know what? PSA. Always know where your water shutoff is. Always know where your electrical panel is. Two things. PSA is a guy who does it. And your gas shut off. That's right. If you have gas coming in your home, you got propane, uh, tanks. Oh, Alfredo. Oh my God. That one brings back so many memories. I've done a lot, Alan. Have you? Have you, Chris? I have. To my house and to myself, and and forget the fingers that go in six different ways. Um, I've done them all. So that's why I asked the question because and the feet don't even ask me about it, but um the puncture wounds are healing up. It's only been 25 years, 22 years and 13. Uh actually in 10 now. So it's only happened a couple times. Some uh interesting math you just went through there. I well, I'm just talking about every time I've actually stepped on a nail. They're fun. Guys, one more time. Let's go find Alfredo. Alfredo, how can we find you on LinkedIn and your company?
SPEAKER_04Search Alfredo up first. That's probably gonna be faster than trying to spell my last name, but you can try Alfredo Salkel. That's S-A-L-K-E-L-D, or just look up Up First AI receptionist.
SPEAKER_00Up first. Up first. Up first, get going. Let's go make it happen. Big no trainer. Grasp it. It's happening. AI. Find those small wins every time you do it things in business. Don't let people swarm you with this whole thing because what happened to me when I started my business? SEO, we gotta do this, gotta do that. Don't let people oversmart you, man. We're the smart people here. Keep going up that mountain. Go make it happen. We got Alan, we got Chris. We're gonna make it happen. Go get it, Alfredo. Cheers, everybody. Thanks so much. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Safari. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world small business ownership. And until next time, make it a great day.
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