In this quick episode, Julie and Renae share details about Voxer, their favorite app for communication. It can take the place of emails, zoom calls, and DM/messenger apps. This is the app that keeps ideas flowing in the Subscription Box Basics world and was an important tool in their success running Sparkle Hustle Grow.
Check it out at https://www.voxer.com!
Get all the details and your ticket at SubSummit.com, THE conference for sub box businesses. We'll see you in Dallas this June!
In this quick episode, Julie and Renae share details about Voxer, their favorite app for communication. It can take the place of emails, zoom calls, and DM/messenger apps. This is the app that keeps ideas flowing in the Subscription Box Basics world and was an important tool in their success running Sparkle Hustle Grow.
Check it out at https://www.voxer.com!
Get all the details and your ticket at SubSummit.com, THE conference for sub box businesses. We'll see you in Dallas this June!
Hey everybody. Welcome back to Subscription Box Basics. I'm Julie Ball and I'm here with Renee. Hey Renee. Hi everyone. And we are going to talk about one of our secret weapons today. I'm pumped about this because it's gonna be short and sweet, but this is gonna be one of those tools that you're like, Oh my gosh, where has this been all my life. So today we're talking about our favorite app, and I'll speak for both of us like it is our favorite app because we spend so much time on it. But it's called Voxer. You may have heard us talk about it in the past. You may know what it is already, but if it's new to you, think of Voxer as this walkie talkie style communication app. It has been so instrument. In helping us make forward progress and helping us take action quickly, and just being able to communicate with our team. I don't know. I think, I don't even know where I found out about this. Do you remember, Renee? Were you like, were you found out about Voxer first? I don't remember, but I know as soon as I discovered it, I think maybe it was the, early 2000. Teenager in me. Did you have a Nokia like I remember No, but I know what you're talking about. Yes. I had a Nokia phone that had like, and it was like so cool to be able to walkie talk other, talkie, other people that have NOKs and I feel like this is the. Adult app version of that you're, but you can walkie-talkie anyone that has the Voxer app. So I know as soon as I discovered it I was like, oh, I'm gonna like this. Yeah. This is so cool. When you think of a regular walkie-talkie, it's like you are listening in real time, like on the other end. No, you can do that. But this is so super convenient too, because say Renee leaves me a message. I can listen to it either in real time or I can listen to it later when it's most convenient, and it allows us to communicate when something's on top of like on the top of our mind. Do you ever. Where, you have this idea and you're like, oh my gosh, if I don't write it down right now, or if I don't tell someone about it right now, I'm gonna forget it. And so that's, one of the ways I use Voxer. So real quick, it is available on iPhone, Android. And web. So you can even use it on your browser, on your laptop. There is a free version, so this is not gonna cost you anything else to run your business. And then they have two different paid versions. One's called Pro, which is what I have, it's at the time of this recording, it's $3 a month. I mean, that's less than a Starbucks Coffee. And then there's a business version that's $6 a month, but you only need that business version if you have like teams of 20 or more. So you can check it out. For free. And then if you want some of the upgraded features, then you can upgrade to the pro version. But man, I spend so much time on this app and we're gonna talk briefly about how we use it and ways that you can use it for your own business. And one of the things about the pro version, cuz I also started on the free version, and I think when you have pro you can go back to an unlimited time. So if you need to scroll back into messages or see something, a previous conversation, I know , off the top of my head, don't know some of the other perks, but I know that's what converted me from the free to the Pro is to be able to have a longer saved access to your message is, and if you're using it for something like business, which we both do It's kind of helpful to go back and be like, oh, what did I say? Or where, did I drop that link? So that was one of the big differences between Free and Pro, that made me pay the $3 a month. Oh, the big $3, right.. And you know what, converted me to upgrade was, The fact that with the pro versions, you can recall a message. So if you make a mistake or if you send it to something to the wrong person you can recall a message. So I think that's one of the things that I really loved about it. So, you know, in your phone, in your Contacts app, you have a list of your contacts. You can text them, you can call them. It's sort of like that when you log on to, Voxer on your app so you can reach out to contacts. You can connect with them by searching for their name, or you can just share your username, which is what I usually do if I know someone else is on Voxer and I'm like, Hey, connect with me on Voxer. Here's my username. That is the easiest way for me. But I think the biggest thing for me was the ability to communicate with my team. So that's the first way that we use this in business. We have, Renee and I have a one-on-one voxer thread in there, but we've also had group threads that have had other team members in the past that were helping us make decisions or were part of the equation if we were gonna start a new project. And so we would use those group threads to brainstorm, to ask for feedback, to just, you know, get that conversation going., I feel like sometimes, like in a way, you. Talk differently than what you can text and you can show tone, you know, where you can't in, in text, so. Totally. And sometimes when you're brainstorming, I feel like it's hard to put your thoughts down first in text, but if you're able to just kind of talk it out, and I know this is one of the, things when we go back and forth too we, grow on each other's excitement. And, and intonations and all of that fun stuff. So I feel like that is one of the big things that really the, ability to move from text to voice messages and back and forth, it really helps. Just make a more authentic brainstorming session. Because you're able to go back and forth. Yeah. I'm one of those people that needs to talk things out loud, like talk things through, and that's how ideas develop. And maybe we start with one little idea and then it grows into a full project and we can actually start taking action on it. And one. Think, I don't know if I mentioned this, but you can send text messages if you want. You can send voice messages, you can send short video messages too. So if you need to show and tell I would do that all the time. When we were curating boxes for Sparkle Hustle Grow, I would take some quick video of , Hey, what do you guys think of this product? And I'd share it with my team so that it wasn't all on me. It wasn't just like, okay, Julie says this is going the box. I could get some. And then you can also send gifs. So, you know, gifs are kind of our love language over here. we, that is what we do often. Yes. Lot, lots of gifs being sent back and forth between our thread. Yes, Okay. So the big thing that we used Voxer four was to communicate with our team, but there's other ways that you can use it too. One of the ways is I, stay connected with other colleagues and friends. Do you use it in that way too? I do a little bit. Yeah. A lot more recently I've been reaching out not even colleagues but, friends, like you said, like non-business friends too. I feel like as the app grows and more people find out about it, it's fun , to. Talk rather than just text people via voxer. Yeah. Yeah. And then the other way that we love using it is coaching. And so we do these v i b very important box days where we do kind of these extended coaching sessions. And the difference is, you know, we could sit down with you for an hour and we can knock out a lot of coaching, we can make a lot of progress, but sometimes, depending on your learning style, You might feel pressured to get all of that done in one hour or feel like you don't have time to really talk through things. So we do these extended sessions with some of our coaching students. That gives us the space and the time to talk through things. And not only that, as we know you're busy. We're busy too. We're moms, we're wives. We have to take kids to different places. I have homeschooled co-op, Renee's got kids in gymnastics and softball. And so one of the things this is so great about is it's literally like a coach in your back pocket and you can do this type of thing alongside life. You know what I mean? I can't tell you how many times some of our best ideas have been, while Renee is taking her kid, to practice. And I know this because I can hear her blinker, her car blinker in the background of all the voxers that she sends. Yes, but I'm probably shouldn't admit how much I voxer in the car. Cause it is definitely, I mean, it has a function that you can hit it tap to talk. So it can be hands free, at some moment. Yes. And I'm usually at a stop cuz I have my blinker on just defending myself, . But yes, so many ideas on the go that if you didn't have this Voxer style app that we use so regularly, you would wait till you're. A work setting and, we are all for boundaries, but this is nice cuz you can still on the go be like, Ooh, I just got this quick idea. I wanna say, and I so often Julie laughs too. I always premise it with, I have to say this before I like it goes away. Like this is, this came to me. I have an idea. So it's really good for just getting your thoughts, not only out on paper, just out into whoever you're chatting with or, I don't use this, but Julie, do you use it where you can send yourself messages? No, I know there's a, there. I know. There's a part where you can just vox yourself too. I've never used it for that, but I know there's a space where you can just vox yourself too, so and so the purpose of. Would be like to send yourself a note so you don't forget something. Exactly. I, think, yeah, like instead of if you were, if you're a team of one still instead of voxing, like I'm always like, I have an idea to you, but I, you could just tell yourself, you have an idea, and save it for later. I can't tell you,, I have so many notebooks and notepads scattered throughout the house for when those ideas hit me. I'm that kind of person at night, if my mind is racing, I've gotta do that brain dump where I take all those ideas outta my head. So basically you're saying I could do that on voxer instead of on the 10 different notebooks I scattered throughout the house.. . Oh, I love that. Okay, so we're gonna keep this short and sweet. If you're thinking about using voxer, go check it out., try that free version. And to, wrap this up , how many different communication methods this can replace? So one, this can replace emails. Rarely do Renee and I email each other to coordinate things. I think emails can get lost or deleted. They can take a long time. They sometimes, if I'm not ready to answer one. It will sit unread in my inbox for like a week. Whereas if she vs me and yeah, Vox is like the verb that we use for it. Like if she boxes me then I respond pretty quickly. But if I'm in bed for the night already, cuz she's west coast and on the east coast, I get that message to the next day. It's no big deal. That's why I love it's, you can listen in real time, but you can listen later. So email, it can get rid of, what else can I get rid of? If you replace it instead of Zoom, I would say Zoom. I mean, it's still, zoom has its purpose and the video function is really good. But instead of jumping on a Zoom weekly, you could just be voxing. Yeah. And isn't there like a funny mug that says like, Oh, it's another meeting. That should have been an email. I raise that and say, oh, it's another email that should have been a Vox . Yep. Yep. And then that's rid of text messaging. I was just gonna say that. So you text messaging, but also Facebook Messenger or Instagram dms. And what we've decided is Renee and I primarily communicate through Voxer because then we don't get lost in all those other conversations. It's in one big long thread. And like you said, when we upgrade, You can access all of that. And it's searchable too. I don't know if you've ever searched for keywords EV every day. Yes. Yeah, . So another function too that I don't know if it's just pro, but you can star messages, which is like a save if there's, yeah. To save it in its own little thread, which I use a lot too for if we send links, Me too. To each other. Yes. Yeah. So the Stard function I think is really important for those messages that whoever sends you, you wanna have it in its own special place so you don't have to scroll up cuz it, your messages show chronological. So you do have to scroll up if you're looking for something or if it's something you look for a lot, you just start. Yeah it's, just so good. It's so fun. If you are looking for something to streamline communication with your team or with your colleagues, if you are looking to not get distracted by all the different places that you could communicate in. Then I really, recommend that you guys check out Voxer. I swear it's been our secret weapon for years now, and I don't know if you've said this, but we're not affiliates or anything. No, we're . We just we, were confessing our love of Voxer to each other over Voxer and we're like, you know what? We need to make a podcast episode about this. Yes, exactly. when we find tools that not only work really well but are super low cost, like free, then yeah, we wanna share that with you guys. So you can go to whatever your app store is, whatever type of phone you have, go check it out. Download the free version. Or you can go learn more at voxer.com. I know they have a little video on their website that kind of explains how it, we've tried to paint the picture here in the podcast, but sometimes you need a little more information before you commit. But this is not gonna be one of those apps that you download and it collects dust if you use it in the ways that we just shared. I promise you this is gonna become one of your favorite apps. Agreed.. That, was a, quick episode, but powerful because now we want you to take action. Go check out voxer.com, go download it, and then let us know what you think. And if you already use Voxer, we'd love to hear that too. So let us know. And we also want to know your favorite business app. So Voxer is one of ours, not necessarily a business app, more of a communication app, but we use it for business. Let us know an app that you like to use, or if you want to hear. Podcast episodes designated to more apps that we use frequently, let us know that too. We'd love to do these little episodes to help other people know more about some of our little secret weapons and tools. Yes, you gotta love a secret weapon. Right? Well guys, that's it for today. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye bye.