Your Memory Is Costing You Money

You forgot to follow up.

Again.

Not because you're lazy. Not because you don't care. Because you're running your entire business out of your head — and your head was never built for that.

Every missed follow-up is a deal you didn't close. Every dropped ball is a relationship that just got colder. Every idea you lost was a piece of content, a product, or an opportunity that evaporated because you had nowhere to put it.

This isn't a memory problem. This isn't a discipline problem.

This is a systems problem. And in this episode, I'm going to fix it.

Kyle breaks down exactly how the most organized, highest-performing entrepreneurs operate — not by working harder or remembering more, but by building a system that does the remembering for them. Then he walks through the exact AI-powered stack he uses to run his business without keeping a single thing in his head.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why your brain is the most overworked and underpaid employee in your business
• The framework that eliminates chaos for good
• How AI handles your admin, your follow-ups, and your ideas before you even think about them
• The exact tools Kyle uses daily and how each one fits into the system
• The mindset shift that separates entrepreneurs who scale from the ones who stay stuck

The tools covered in this episode: Popl | Opal | ChatGPT | Claude | Otter.ai | GHL | FUB | HubSpot | Zoom | Teams | Buzzsprout | Stripe | Stan Store | ManyChat

Would love to hear what apps or software that you use that have had a big impact on your life.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Your memory is losing you money. Hi, it's Kyle Guthrie. Welcome back to another module where today we are going to be discussing all things systems, software, and apps. Now, I'm going to share some of the ones that I've used, some of the ones I've had lots of success with, some that I could recommend, some that I would maybe stay away from. And if you stay till the very end, I'll give you a very detailed breakdown on which ones you should download and use today. So let's start with some of the most powerful ones. Obviously, there's social media and it can be a great tool, but it also can be a great distractor. Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, uh, TikTok, and more. Now, use these sparingly because I know it can have a profound impact on your business. But what if it gets in the way of you actually getting things done? I want to start with this one right out of the gate because this one has had a lot of impact on my life, both personally and professionally. And it is an app called Opal, O-P-A-L. And what this app does is it actually blocks all your social medias. Now, I've got it set up so that I actually can't even override it. Yes. So if I need to get into the app, it won't let me. It won't even let you uninstall it. It won't let you uninstall the apps and reinstall them. And you can even put it on your desktop so that it stops you from even just getting on the web version of it, which we all know is not as good as the uh cellular and phone version, of course. Now, why is this one so important? Because we can all agree that uh these apps were designed to keep us on the platforms. Treat it as a slot machine, it forever scrolls, it never ends, and you're always chasing that dopamine hit. Now, there is multiple versions to this app. There is the paid version and then there is the free version. And what's cool about this app is that it actually allows you to put time restraints on it. So if you want to stay in a zone between nine to five or whatever your time frame is, it can lock all your apps out. It can also make you do a game or answer questions or do math puzzles before it grants you access to it. And honestly, I have found sometimes just even having to go answer those math problems gives me that three-second pause big. Wait a second, why am I reaching for social media? Because often it's so ingrained in our habits now where we just go and jump on Instagram and we don't even know why we're scrolling. It's that little bit of a hesitation or uh a hurdle to stop you from jumping on. So I highly go check uh recommend you go check out that one for starters. So now that we've got our distractions out of the way with Opal, we can jump into some of the other ones. Now, let's start with the CRMs. Uh, I'm familiar with all of these ones, and I will share some of the good, the bad, and the ugly of all of them. Now, uh, I have used HubSpot. Now, HubSpot is fantastic. I do like this CRM, customer relationship management. Uh, however, I do find it gets expensive. This one is more for, I believe, enterprise and agency level, that as you start getting into the hundred, uh, sorry, the a thousand plus contacts, it does get a little bit pricey. It is user-friendly, but there is a lot of features that can be unlocked with it. Uh, so it can be overwhelming at times for some. There is a gazillion CRMs out there now, so I'm only going to speak to the ones that I know. Uh, I'm sure there's plenty. So please drop in the comments on which ones you like and which ones you recommend. Another one is this is more for the real estate-space mortgage professionals, this kind of service-based world. It's called Follow Up Boss, also known as FUB. This one is super user-friendly. There is not a ton of bells and whistles with it. It does allow you to get out to your contacts, you can embed videos. Uh, it is, in my opinion, one of the most easiest to pick up and fastest to learn. Now, there's another one called Go High Level. It is making a lot of waves in the industry and also known as GHL. Uh, the reason why this one is so powerful is honestly, I don't know how they're getting away with it, but they have been taking a lot of other industries' IP and adding it all to their own. So, like they have a many chat feature, they have a school S K O L feature, their own communities, they have um other features that they've kind of just taken and replicated and put it in this one beautiful package. Now, I will say, go high level, and I have still to this day and learning it. It is very powerful. However, there is a lot of automation, there's systems in it, and for the average user, it can be very overwhelming because you don't know where to start. There's so many different options, and like I said, it can become super overwhelming at times. So I do tread that one with caution. However, for the price point at $99, it is a steal because once you start adding in all these other softwares and apps together, you could easily rack up a couple hundred, maybe even $500 worth of apps when Go High Level can do it for $99. Now, I have been using Go High Level for about nine months now. Uh, I am familiar with it, I'm getting good at it. And like most apps, you just have to kind of keep playing around with it, tinkering with it. Uh, but still to this day, it's overwhelming. And they keep adding more and more features to it. It doesn't work exceptionally well in certain things. Like I feel like their communities, which is kind of their counterpart to school, uh, is not as good, but it still is good enough. Uh, in terms of like a payment processor and other things like that, it connects to Stripe, it does a lot of great integrations, but again, caution, it is overwhelming. Now, let's jump into communities. So, another one that I love using is called School, which is um kind of co-created with Alex Hermozzi and Sam Evans. Uh, school is an online community platform, S-K-O-O-L. Now, what makes this one so awesome is that it is super easy to use. They have a $9 a month plan, they have a $99 a month plan, which is the pro version, and you can create communities, you can get memberships, it's a subscription based, or it can be a free community. It's a way for you to showcase what you have to offer in terms of services or products. Now, a little cautious. Um, this one is can be a little basic, however, it is super user-friendly. This one is um it is getting better, but in terms of traffic, in my opinion, it has has the craziest amount of traffic ever since Alex Romose really started promoting it. So I would go uh check out that one. If you are looking to learn or grow or build your own community, think of it as like a Facebook group, but on steroids. Now, another one is um Pople. So P-O-P-L. The reason why I love this one, this is a QR scanner that gets linked to all of your information. Now, there's stuff out there like Linktree, but what makes Popple so awesome, and this is one I use a lot every day in my life, is I don't fumble with business cards anymore, and nor should you. We live in the 21st century, and when people give me business cards, honestly, it's a shame because some of them are beautiful, some of them are made of metal, some of them are these elaborate things, and I honestly shove them in a drawer. Now, the great thing is I have Pople, which I can scan their um business cards and I actually give it back to them because A, I'm not gonna keep it, so why do I need to hold on to some piece of paper and store junk? Now, with that being said, there is a ton of these QR readers out there, uh, business card readers. But the reason why I love Pople so much, and yes, there is a subscription fee to it, I think it's about 20 bucks a month, which in my uh humbled opinion is well worth it. You can link it with other platforms, you can link it with your CRMs. But what's awesome about it is that it stores everything in one simple place. So let me explain. So if you have YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, all the other platforms, you can embed websites, you can put your podcasts there, you can put articles you've written, PDFs, uh everything can get linked into this QR code. So for me, when someone scans my QR code, it literally gives them everything, except for my like blood type. Uh, but what's and I'm joking about that. Uh, but what's so awesome about it is that think about this. How many times have you met with someone like, oh, let me stay connected? Oh, what was their handle? What was their website? What was their email? Literally, you can click the buttons inside of this pop up app that gets linked to uh whoever scans it, and you can hit text me, and it automatically pulls up the text message to start writing. I am trying to remove as many steps as possible. There's a reason why everybody loves Amazon. And it's not because it has every single product you could possibly think of and buy, but they've made it so simple. Two clicks, it's in your cart, boom, and it's delivered. I'm trying to create that least amount of resistance so that you can get connected with me. And the beautiful thing is that once you scan it and input your information, it automatically gets linked to my CRM. And then my CRM sends you an email and a text. So how cool is that? Now I will touch on automations a little bit, but this is mostly to focus on systems and the software and the apps that I use. And I am a huge proponent of the app called Pople. I highly recommend you check that out. Finally, with the Popel app, you can drop a QR code whether you're presenting or you're at a trades booth or you're at a conference and you can use it to on your phone so you can just tap on someone else's phone. It's super easy to use. And I love that it tracks everything and it gets linked automatically into your CRM. Now, when it comes to the payment processors, obviously we have uh Stripe. I use that one. I find that one is the easiest. You can upload your products, your services, and it just gets linked everything to your bank accounts, it's a trusted source. And uh, I really, really like that one. Now, there's other payment processors out there. Uh, I feel like Stripe is the most competitive for their pricing, and it again easy to use, but you can add the extra functionalities if you need to. Great thing is it gets linked with a lot of other uh softwares. Another one that I could say is uh fantastic, it's not a payment processor, but it's a store front. It's called Stan Store. Again, very simple to use, doesn't have a ton of bells and whistles, but it gets to the point quickly. So if you have a couple offers that you want to, or a product or a service, it can allow someone to just click on your link, purchase the product, it gets linked to your Stripe or whatever your payment processor is. They've bought it and you're on your way. So think of it as like a storefront where it just click of a couple clicks of a button, it's ready to rock and roll. Now, the other ones that I would like to dive into are some more elaborate ones. So let's talk about otter day.ai. So this is a note-taking one. The reason why this one is so important is because I feel, especially in today's world, we get distracted. We'll be in a meeting, someone will say something, we missed it, we don't want to put up our hand, we don't want to ask them a question, be like, oh, sorry, can you repeat that? Because I was not paying attention, because I was on my phone like an idiot. But instead, you can download otterday.ai. You do have to pay for it. It is a software that writes the notes for you. You can connect it to your Zoom, you can connect it to Teams. Uh, and what's so awesome about it is that it does all the work for you. However, I am still a proponent of note-taking. The reason why I still like note-taking is because it forces my brain to pay attention. And most importantly, I'm using another type of way to jot down notes because it allows my brain to actually remember, write it down, and then I can regather my notes later. Or here's the other thing: if it's a long conference or a long talk, or a long keynote, or webinar, or whatever that you're on, it will chew up a lot of your information in ottered AI. Now, I'm not sure how much um the AI can take down for notes. I haven't tested it longer than 30 minutes, but I'm sure there is going to be restrictions on how long you can record calls. Now, I know I talked about softwares, I know I talked about apps, but this thing right here is a game changer. And too many people do not use it properly. It is called a notebook. Now, what why I love this specific size? Because it can fit in a suit jacket, it can fit in your back pocket, and it's not intrusive. If I pulled this out and started taking notes, people wouldn't question what I was doing. They know I am writing notes because it is paper. So many people will say, Well, I use my cell phone to take notes, which is fine. But if you are sitting there typing on your phone, people don't know whether you're surfing social media, you're texting somebody, you're not paying attention, or you're just checking the scores of last night's sports. This is why I love handwritten notes. Now, unfortunately for people like me, I have chicken scratch. And something I'm not proud of, and I'm not going to show you guys because it's embarrassing. But um there's you can write notes, jot them down, and again, this is so easy and compact. You can throw it in a bag. And obviously, there's people that use bigger notebooks, uh, the people that use calendars written down, all the power to you, whatever your note-taking form is, just allow yourself to review it afterwards. Because so many people will jot down notes, and then next thing you know it, they have forgotten or uh didn't review the notes afterwards. Now, I will caution there is some downsides to taking notes. If you lose this, it's not stored anywhere. And I have seen people lose lifelong work in notebooks to theft, to accidental misplacement, to a fire, and all that IP is lost. This takes me to my next note-taking section: an iPad. Now, the reason why I love iPads is because they're so easy to use. And for me, I like simplicity. So I just pull out the notes at, it is linked to my i my iCloud, and anything I write is with me for life. Whether I'm on my cell phone, my iPad, um, my computer, my MacBook, it does not matter. I have these notes everywhere. Obviously, I have the MacBook pen and pencil, and it's just so easy to use. Again, the iPad Air, great option. I know there's tons of them out there. There's Android, there is um a note-taking one. Uh, this one again can be a distraction because it's linked with other apps, but I actually do keep my iPad very basic. I don't have any of the apps or social media apps that I have on my phone. Uh, I've always kind of just kept that at its factory. And I really got an iPad for two reasons: note-taking and watching movies on an airplane because I don't want to watch them on my cell phone because it's a little too small. Uh again, whichever note-taking you like, but I just love that I can take notes on my iPad. It's linked to my MacBook, linked to my cell phone. Now, Android users, I know there's something out there. I'm again, I'm only speaking to what I know, which is Apple products. I am an Apple fanboy, so don't come at me for that. So now that we've kind of got the note taking out of the way, where is it all getting stored? Because so many people write fantastic notes and then they can't reference them. Now, this is important. Where are you keeping them? How are you organizing them? I also like to color coordinate my folders in my MacBook. So when I write a note, I tag it, uh, and it just uses an easy way to remember where I put things. Now, whatever your organization policy is, use it accordingly. I'm okay with it. However, so many people write notes and then can never find them. Organization is critically important when it comes to notes, especially when you're referencing something. If you're in a presentation, a sales call, a webinar, um meeting with somebody, you don't want to be sifting through your computer, through your iPad, through your phone, or through your notebook trying to find that specific note. Tag it. It is the most powerful thing you can do. And the great thing is with the Apple Intelligence, it's getting even smarter where I can literally go and search for something on my computer that is obviously linked to my notes, and it will pull it up with the AI. Now, this is going to get better. There's awesome note-taking apps out there. I don't know any of them. I just use the specific one that's with Apple, and it works for me. Um, whatever your note-taking is, just keep it organized because time is money. And if you're having to look through that, look for that document, it's just killing your productivity and using a valuable, uh valuable uh bandwidth. Bandwidth of your brain, I meant. All right, so that's just some of the other ones. Uh, let's dive into Zooms and Teams. Now, whichever video software you use, I am a big proponent of both. I actually like them equally. Uh, here I need to share some tips when it comes to the actual Zoom or Teams software. Please, for the love of goodness, get these three things right. Get proper lighting. There is a ton of great uh um lights on Amazon, a specific brand, newer, N-E-E-W-E-R. They have a uh small little um light that you can clip onto your phone. There's another small little uh light that you can buy for your computer and put it on a tripod. But please have enough light on your face when you are in a Zoom call or you're selling in a webinar or you're doing a sales per pitch on Zoom or Teams. Secondly, please have good audio. Now, again, you can get mics to plug them into your laptop. I have no problem with you using the mics that are on your your computer or on your phone. But if I told you that you could get more powerful audio, would you use it? Of course. So there is um, this isn't a uh podcast on um mics, but I'll save that for another day. But I will say there is a couple good brands out there. So there's DJI, they have made great mics. I have theirs. I have the DJI mic too. The Holly Land, um Holly Land makes some fantastic mics, which you can plug into your phone, or you can plug into your computer, which picks up great audio, they're like 120 bucks. Please don't get the crappy ones off Amazon for 30 or 40 bucks, they're not worth it. Spend a little bit more, and everybody listening to your content will be thanking you. And then most importantly, the camera. Now, if you are using an old MacBook or an old computer and the camera is shooting in seven megapixels, well, please get with the times. Get a secondary web camera that you can plug into your computer because we don't want to watch your grainy videos, especially if you're doing a presentation or you're trying to speak to your team. So invest in a good camera. Or I know there's um Apple, I just believe released it where they can you can use your iPhone camera to then link to your uh FaceTime and your Zoom platform and your Teams platform. I think that's fairly new at the time of this recording. Now, of course, if you have a new MacBook or a brand new computer, you're all you're gonna be using top-of-the-line cameras. And then lastly, just to kind of put this in a bow, please make sure you are in frame. Nobody likes, and I'm not gonna do it, but nobody likes when you are this close to your computer or to your phone or to your camera, rule of thumb, about an arm's length away. That is your safe space. Treat the camera as if you were talking to someone in person. And if you are concerned about your audio, where should you keep placement? Around two fifths away from your chin is a good spot. If you put it too close to your mouth, it's gonna reverberate and it's gonna be all muffled. If you're too far away, it's not gonna pick it up properly. So, again, rule of thumb kind of like two fifths away from your mouth. And if you can, please. I know for so many people, they like to use their hands, especially on Zoom calls. Put the mic on a tripod or put it on your shirt or attach it to somewhere that is not going to. And make static so that you can just focus on speaking and you'll have really clean, crisp audio, you'll have great light on your face, and the camera will be able to do its job. So those are the things when it comes to Zoom and Teams. One final thing when it comes to that, I'm going to do a whole episode on how to shoot proper content with video and your computer, whether it be on a Zoom call, a webinar, Teams, or the like. Because so many people are screwing this up. But test all of these things before you jump on the call. It's a pet peeve of mine. I can't believe still in 2026 we need to talk about. Can you hear me? Is this working? Oh, hold on a second. Let me just get this right. Stop fumbling with this. It's making you look unprofessional. Get this all tested and done before the meeting, the webinar, the sales pitch, whatever it is, starts. Technology will fail you, it's going to happen, but these little things that you can get out of your way and get done properly will just make you look way more professional. So we've touched on a few of those things. Now, when it comes to the final software and systems I want to use, I want to share, it's going to come down to user preference. And obviously, there is some fantastic ones that I don't even know about and I'm not a made aware of. So please drop a comment, share them with me. I'd love to hear them. I want to research them. I'm a bit of a techie. I love learning about new software and how it can make everything better. But I'm going to kind of end on this note. And it's with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and whatever other AI software you use. AI is here to stay, and it is going to become more and more part of our life. And it is going to become more and more powerful. My only advice that I will share with all of you is that you need to learn it. You need to learn how it will get involved into your business, into your world, into your software, into your systems. Because, like I said, it is here to stay. And if you treat it as, well, I don't need this in my business, or I'm a tradesperson, or I'm in the field, or I work with my hands, this stuff can revolutionize the way you do your business. But here's the thing prompt properly. And I will have another module on prompting alone because this is so important to language. So many people will try Claude, will try uh whichever uh AI they like, and then they will say, Well, the AI didn't spit it back properly to me. You have to remember, this is the smartest software on the planet. It can literally find anything on the internet. And you're saying that it didn't do its job properly. Sit with that for a moment. Have you ever thought that maybe you didn't ask the right prompt? Like I said, I'm gonna give you a little teaser. So many people screw up their language. They ask the AI, create this for me. Define this. Another word we love using, it. Define it. The AI doesn't know what it is. We are so loose with our language, and I keep sharing this with all of you. Be descriptive. The more information, the better the AI will be. So spell things out properly and don't you be lazy with your language. Actually spell it out. And if you need to, put it in bullet points or get it to ask you questions so that it can dive deeper. Stop treating it like just it's a Google or a search engine. Learn these softwares. I'm telling you, they are super powerful. And as they evolve and as they grow, they're only gonna get better. So I'll put, I'll wrap that up there because I want you to try those three, try those apps, try those softwares, try those systems, try that note-taking, and let me know in the comments what do you use? I really love productivity hacks. I love learning new softwares, I love learning learning new apps, AIs. So please share them with me. Um, you can find me on all my socials at Kyle Guthro, K-Y-L-E-G-U-T-H-R-O, or you can drop me a line on my website at KyleGuthro.com. And most importantly, as always, I hope this was of value for all of you. And I'm going to share a plethora of different topics when it comes to entrepreneurship, speaking, selling, scaling, business, and more. So I want to hear from you. What is resonating? What do you want to hear more of? What works for you? What is maybe a topic that you'd love me to research and dive into? I want to hear from my community. And the reason why I want to share this is because I have created a community inside of school. It's called Speak Sell Scale. And I highly encourage all of you to come join it. I'll drop the link in wherever you're watching this, listening to this, and you can go see it for yourself. It is completely free. And I will be dropping a ton of great content in there. I encourage all of you to come join because as we scale and grow this community, it is going to become more powerful and it will lead to more opportunities for you and your business. So I hope to see you in the community. But most importantly, if you saw this of value or heard this as a value, please drop me a line, uh, like, subscribe, comment, share, and uh I can't wait to see you on the next episode.