8 AI Tools That Changed My Business in 2024

Summary

In this episode of the Practice Your Perfect podcast, Ashlee Tate discusses the transformative power of systems and processes in business. She emphasizes the importance of having the right tools in place to automate tasks, manage clients, and streamline operations. Ashlee shares her favorite tools, including HoneyBook for client management, ConvertKit for email marketing, and Riverside for podcasting, among others. The conversation highlights how these systems not only save time but also allow entrepreneurs to focus on their vision and growth.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Systems and Processes
06:01 Client Management with HoneyBook
08:17 Email Marketing Automation with ConvertKit
10:14 Capturing Ideas with Notes and Evernote
13:04 Podcasting Made Easy with Riverside
15:24 Social Media Management with Metricool
17:44 Creating Visual Content with Canva
19:34 Organizing Workspaces with Notion
22:34 Leveraging AI with ChatGPT
24:29 Building a Business Ecosystem

Let's Connect: https://linktr.ee/ashleetate

Transcript

Ashlee (00:00)
Hey, Fierce Visionaries, welcome back to another episode of the Practice Your Perfect podcast where we dive into all things profit, purpose, and productivity. I'm Ashley Tate, your guide to building a business that aligns with your life and not the other way around. So today we're going to talk about something that will completely transform the way you operate your business and free up your time to focus on what really matters. Systems and processes, because honestly, let's be real,

None of us started a business to be bogged down with a million small tasks. But if you don't have the right systems in place, that's exactly what can happen. So I'll be sharing some of the tools that I use that have allowed me to automate, streamline and scale my business without feeling overwhelmed. So whether you're a solopreneur, a small business owner or running a nonprofit like Non-Pad for Kids, these systems will help you get things done with ease and efficiency.

So grab a notepad because I'm about to break down some serious game changers.

So grab your notepad because I'm about to break down some serious game changers.

Okay, so first things first, let's talk about why systems and processes are so important. If you're constantly putting out fires and juggling a million tasks, you'll never really understand how to focus on the big picture. And as visionaries, that's what we do. Now systems create clarity, consistency and scalability, right? So when you have processes that handle the day-to-day tasks, you can step back and focus on vision. And the best part,

is systems don't just free up your time, they also give you peace of mind. And you're no longer really worrying about whether something will get done because your systems are doing all of the heavy lifting for you, which is great. So the first thing I'm gonna talk to you about is client management, because I wanna start with HoneyBook on this. HoneyBook is a client management system. And if you're running a service-based business or a nonprofit like myself, then you know that keeping track of client communications,

contracts, invoices, scheduling, and all of that can get a little overwhelming. And that's really where HoneyBook comes in. Now this is my go-to client management tool because it centralizes everything. It centralizes communications and contracts and payments and even scheduling appointments. And clients get their own portal which keeps everything neat and organized.

It allows me to automate a lot of processes like onboarding new clients or sending invoices and even gathering testimonials at the very end of a project after it wraps up. And the best part about all of it is automations. So when I say I get to automate, I really get to set up a workflow that as soon as my client accepts a proposal or I get a new client in our Launchpad business,

it sends over an invoice or it will send up a send over a follow up link so that teachers can then nominate kids or I can create scheduling for meetings automatically. And that's how I get my time back during growing a business because honestly, let's face it, like I have two children, I have a husband, I have a busy home, all of the things going on. This is how I'm able to manage those two businesses while also managing a home.

And if you're still managing clients via email and spreadsheets, honestly, it is time to level up. And that is not a knock, it's just something to say like, hey, this tool will absolutely help you. Now, HoneyBook does offer a free trial for, I believe, about 14 days. But the actual program is, I wanna say, around $20 per month.

20, $25 a month, I can't really remember exactly, but it's worth it, trust me. so the next thing is to talk about email marketing. So this is actually a powerhouse for nurturing your audience and building relationships and sending out individual emails each week. No, we will not be doing that, but ConvertKit has been a game changer.

for literally automating my email sequences. Now, if you don't know what a sequence is, a sequence is when you send out multiple emails over a few weeks and you set these up to onboard your client in HoneyBook and onboard your new subscribers. And this way you can deliver your lead magnets and these are just deliverables that people can get if they see like, if you download this, know, 20 affirmations, then.

I'll send this directly to your email inbox. That's called a deliverable. And that deliverable is what brings on new subscribers.

So with ConvertKit, you can set up automated sequences to onboard your new subscribers. Now what this does is it allows you to deliver lead magnets or even send out a weekly newsletter, which I do both. So for instance, if someone signs up for my newsletter, they automatically get a series of emails over the next few weeks that I'm able to use to introduce them to.

my services that I provide any valuable content, I think that might help them and invite them to connect further, like on my social media or wherever else I want them to go. And this means that I'm able to build a relationship with them over time. And I can do it on autopilot to build out that audience and to build a deeper connection with them. So when you're ready to launch your new product or service, you already have a warm audience that knows who you are.

understands what you're all about, trusts you because you've been giving them valuable information that's helpful and allows them to really connect with your business. So ConvertKit does offer a full free version that you can use, but what you get from that that you won't get if you actually purchase ConvertKit is you only get one sequence. You may only need one sequence to start.

It's totally fine to have that. So I would just test it out with a free version. And then if you feel like you need more, then you can level up and move to the paid version. But there are a lot of my clients who stay on

the free version and do just fine. The key is to have that sequence where you can create a number of emails that are sent out automatically to your clients and they're not waiting to hear back from you or they're not just hopping on your email list and not really knowing much more about you except getting your weekly email. if you're a visionary like me, you have lots and tons of ideas on how you want to build your business or things you wanna do or some

article you read or something that you just want to, you know, start learning more about whatever it is and notes on your phone, okay, is all about capturing those brilliant ideas for your business. All right. So maybe you have a piece of content that you want to start trying or a new product that you want to create or whatever, but a lot of times you forget about those things because you didn't jot it down. And if I don't write it down,

It's over guys, I'm not keeping it, like it's gone. So I've gotten into the mode of really writing down all the notes, pulling in information from other places. If I read a great article or have something I might want to refer back to later, I use my notes section. Now this is a free app that's on your phone and generally if you have a computer, a Mac computer, it's on your Mac as well. So I always have access to those notes on both my computer and my phone. And I will use

the notes app and I will also use Evernote and I usually use Evernote more for voice recordings so that I can just, you know, capture a stream of consciousness. Like if I'm driving or something and I can't take down a note. But what I love about the notes app and what I encourage you to do also is there's a book by Tiago Forte and he talks all about building a second brain and he believes that if you do not write things down,

that you're not gonna remember them. Like our brains are not prepared to do all of this, keeping all of that information up there. And I 100 % agree. So he talks about really keeping those in the notes section of your phone. And he explains exactly how to set it all up so that you can reference them and all of that later. Now on each of these tools, I will be doing a deep dive over the next few weeks.

So you don't have to get all the information right now, but that book is fantastic. And I'll also be doing a review on that soon too. So that is literally why I rely on the note system though. I mean, I use a mix of both, like I said, the Evernote and the trusty notes app, cause it's amazing. So I don't know if I'm on a walk or I'm cooking or whatever I'm doing and an idea pops in, I just quickly jot it down and I keep on moving. Now the key with this is consistency.

and to make sure you have a system that really works for you. And always, always, always stick to it. Like have the discipline to keep one central place so that you know where all of your ideas are. And it's been a game changer as far as like being able to scale up and grow. So anyway, you can go back and look into all of that and turn it into content and offers and products, all of those things, just by building off of your notes so that you're never starting from a blank place.

And that was always an issue for me, is starting to up a blank place. so that's the Notes app, totally free. Try it. Now, if you wanna learn how to podcast like a pro, you gotta do it with Riverside. I've tried Zoom, I've tried YouTube, I've tried a lot of different things when it comes to Riverside FM. There's nothing like it when it comes to podcasting. So for those of you who are looking to start or already run a podcast,

and you need a platform that makes recording and editing so much easier, Riverside is the thing for you, okay? Because the thing I love about Riverside is that it allows you to edit just by cutting out words. So when you delete a word, that piece comes out of your video too. And it is seriously reducing the amount of time that I spend editing and trying to make things look good and.

audio quality, the studio quality of all of it is amazing. Now the other thing that I love about Riverside is that if you are considering doing interviews with anyone and maybe they don't live near you and you can't get in person and record it that way, Riverside allows you the ability to have studio quality no matter what computer they're recording on, no matter what computer you're recording on, and it allows you to have your script right there and any questions you want to ask your guests, anything.

It is an amazing tool and I will seriously be doing a deep dive on this one. But you can interview anybody all around the world. So this really will up level your podcasting situation, I promise you. And the editing is just incredible. On top of that, it allows you to repurpose all of your content so that you can use magic clips is what they call them. And it will cut the main points for you.

into small clips that you can use on shorts or on Instagram reels or wherever. It's just a way for you to expand how much information you can put out into the world, how much content you can create. So sometimes I'll create one video like this, but I'll get say maybe 10 different pieces of short form video that I can use in my shorts or my reels. And it's a great way to stay top of mind, to be able to give the social media algorithms what they want, which is more content all the time.

And you can polish each of these episodes and make them your brand.

All right, so we just jumped into social media. Now, we know it's essential for building a brand and creating awareness and connecting with our customers and our audience, but literally like who has the time to post five times a day? And I'm telling you, there are a lot of people out there who do this and to also post on like 10 different platforms, right? But that is where Metricool comes in and Metricool is such an amazing, easy, intuitive,

brand and I will also be doing a deep dive on this in the next few weeks. But Metricool really allows you to plan and schedule all of your social media posts in advance, whether it's on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, wherever, I can set up all of these things an entire week or even month before just by sitting at home on a weekend and, you know, letting Metricool handle all the posting, it makes it so much easier.

And it really just frees up your time so you can do the more important things that are really gonna move the needle on building a business and providing the experience to both your customers and your clients in whether you're running a business or a nonprofit. it allows you to see how your posts are performing and then you can tweak your content strategy and you can make data decisions that are driven by the actual numbers.

that Metricool will provide for you. So if social media scheduling is kind of eating up your time, Metricool is the solution, I promise, that will give you back your day and give you back your time, okay? And it really ensures that you can stay consistent, because a lot of times, you you can be on top of things for a week or two, I'm the same way, until I found Metricool and now I'm able to really like schedule things out and plan things out and get ahead.

So that you can have a strong online presence and you're not just doing things as they come now canva Canva canva canva you've probably already heard about canva you probably already use it But if you don't canva is gonna be amazing for When you do create content and you do have to create any sort of images or you want to create Quotes or something to have on your Instagram or on your Twitter? Canva is an amazing place for any sort of digital art that you might need

So Canva really allows you to take away the guesswork of creating art or any sort of digital art that you might need for your thumbnails or for Instagram, anything like that. It just makes things easy. There's nothing really more to say about Canva. Canva is just something that if you are not an artist and that's kind of not your space, use Canva. It will change your life and make things so much easier.

So my seventh tool for you is called Notion. Now Notion creates different workspaces that you can use that you can share with other people. And they can put their input in. They can just have access to it so they can see where they need to be or what they need to be doing. I think Notion is great because it has so many different templates that you can use. And you can create your own templates as well to create content calendars or to create a

processes or standard operating procedures that maybe other people need to have access to that would otherwise be hard to access maybe through Google Docs or you have to create one big folder and everybody has all their documents in there. But here you have so many different ways that you can use it. So it really works to the advantage of however your brain works best and however you want to communicate whatever type of information you want to communicate. And yes, it's really that wide open. That's why I can't really put it all into.

pretty succinct thing, but Notion is a great thing to use for different workspaces. I love to use this for my content calendars and for anything having to do with my interns. It's just a great place to use that. Now, for HoneyBook, I have also used for my nonprofit interns because what that allows them to do is to sign in and then add their hours and...

have a workspace there as well where we can keep our emails together and we can have notes and all of the things that we might need. So it's a great way to kind of run the internship. Okay, so the last thing I have for you is Chat GPT. Now the reason I love to use Chat GPT in here is because all of these tools have some form of AI that they use, I think, except ConvertKit at this time. AI is meant to just supplement

what you have already done, the work you've already done, or to reduce the amount of time it might take you to think through something. So as an example, I will use Chat GPT after I've created a video like this, and then I use Riverside to download the transcript, and then I take the transcript and I put it in Chat GPT, and when you use the transcript, it's got your name and it's got all of the timestamps, but when you put it into Chat GPT and you say, hey, can you make this and organize it into a blog post,

it will rearrange the information that's in there into a blog post in a third person form so that when someone comes to read it, depending on how you want it, you can ask for a third person, you can put it in first person, and it will put it in your voice and organize it in a way for your customer to read it. So really it's optimizing your content for the way that you want to use it. But it's still all of your content, it came from your ideas.

And so that's how chat GPT is such a powerful tool to help you minimize the amount of time that you're spending kind of reworking your content into a way for your customers to use it rather than just using, you know, Riverside to cut down the clips and make short videos. That would take you hours to do on your own. And same for creating your transcript into a blog post that's organized and makes sense for the reader.

So everything really for today is something that's gonna help you save a lot of time and putting it all together so that you can systematize success. So now that we've gone over some of the specific tools, I just wanna talk to you about how to pull it all together. Now, the goal here is to create a business ecosystem and you'll take away and add things into your business ecosystem in order to create some harmony amongst.

all of it in order to support the goals and where you want to go. So for example, you can integrate HoneyBook with ConvertKit so that when a new client signs a contract, they automatically get added to a specific email or vice versa. And you can use Riverside to record a podcast and then schedule the promo post for it across social media using Metricool. And all of those things work together. And that's kind of how I like to use my business because

I feel like the more I can create a good professional system for my clients, the more that your clients are gonna enjoy working with you and talking to others and sharing that. So I want you to just remember that the key to success is not doing everything manually. That's actually the antithesis. And it's about building systems that actually run behind the scenes so that it frees you up and you can focus.

on leading your business and being that business leader, not just managing it every day, right? The day-to-day stuff is what will actually keep you from building. So there you have it, Fierce Visionaries, my go-to systems and tools for streamlining your business operations, whether it's managing clients through HoneyBook or it's automating emails with ConvertKit, capturing your ideas and your notes or scheduling.

your content with Metricool or creating art with Canva, Notion for your workspaces, all of the things. They work so well together and it will literally free up your time and allow you to really focus on what matters, which is your vision. I want you just to remember that systems really do create freedom and they allow you to grow and scale your business so that you can stay focused on that vision and.

not get bogged down on the day to day. So take some time to kind of look at your business and create those systems. And I promise you the time that you save will be worth it. And until next time, stay fierce on your goals and practice your perfect. Keep building the life and business on purpose and I will talk to you soon. Now, if any of you have found this episode helpful, please don't forget to subscribe, share it with your friends and a fellow entrepreneur and leave a review. I would love that.

and be sure to check out the links in the show notes or in the description box below and I will see you guys next week. Bye guys.