Beautiful. Well, let's get this webinar started. I really appreciate having the opportunity to be here today. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen so you guys have some visual look at other than me, of course. A little bit more fun that way. I want to just give you guys a little bit of background before we get started. I just want to start with I appreciate you, right? Being part of the opportunity here at AED and just offering some perspective and technology is more than I could ever ask for. So I appreciate each and every one of you for being here today, showing up and just being ready to learn. My name's Adam Griggs. I'm the founder of a software as a service platform called Clarify and the VP of JN App Insurance. I've got 17 years in small business management and risk management and of course helped found this software platform. But I've also worked in the equipment distributors and manufacturers environment for a lot of years, be it with the rental agencies or manufacturers, even the repair. And we've done things from construction to agriculture and mining. So I just want to appreciate each and every one of you for just taking the time to be here today. And before we get started, I want to start with a quote. And I want to do this because I like to give a little bit of context into what we're going to discuss today and the why behind it. So this is one of my favorite quotes in the world. It says, I rise in the morning, torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. And that's by E.B. White. And I think that that really captures what it means to be an entrepreneur, what it means to be an owner and an operator, because the end of the day, we've got so many tasks ahead of us, right? We've got so many things we have to deal with in business that it's often we spend so much time improving the world that we forget about ourselves. And so one of the things we're going to discuss today are ways to balance life and create a business lifestyle so that you can enjoy the world that you're helping to improve, because you guys are doing a great thing by creating opportunity and really building the economy the way that you are. So I want to just appreciate you for that and start this off with that context. We're going to talk about a few apps, right? Five different categories for apps to greatly improve your business. And I want to stop real quick and just say I'm not going to touch on APIs and plugins. I'm not going to be talking about machine learning or even AI. It's a great, great topic. And I think that it's incredibly interesting. And there's tons of developments on there, but it's too technical, right? And so what I want to do is talk about apps that you can put into place today that can improve your business. It's going to be either easy and simple or free or even freemium, things that are just going to be very easy for you to take action on today. And of course, a lot of these apps are already built on this machine learning. A lot of them are built with algorithms that are going to improve over time. And so that's something to just take as you go on. But what I want to focus on is what does it take to succeed in the digital economy? Like, is your company in the clouds? Is it in the binder? Is it old school handshake? And then how do you get the tools and knowledge to thrive in this ever-changing world, right? Because at the end of the day, things change. We have to as well. We are going to talk about community, right? We're going to listen, learn, and leverage as a community because community is everything. We're part of this association because it's a community. And one of the things we want to do is make business fun again. So how do we do that? We've got to approach it with some curiosity. We've got to be excited and open. So here's some things we're going to talk about today that I hope you'll be able to take away and learn from. We're going to talk about why automation and apps can improve your business. We're going to talk about the types of apps that are available out there, how to get started. And we'll talk about some of the do's and don'ts along the way. And then of course, at the end of the day, why and how we create a business lifestyle using apps and automation. And then I'll share with you our story, the field of dream story, right? If you build it, they will come. Technology that's made for you and by you. And then for those that are participating, we've got a gift for you today. So we'll share with that at the very end of the presentation. And I'm very, very, very excited to be here, of course. So definitely one of the things I want to mention before we start the presentation is if you have questions at all, as a participant, anybody that's live with us, or even afterwards, drop your questions in the Q&A. I'd love to answer some questions along the way. And then if you've got comments or kudos, if you want to connect, obviously my information was on the first slide. I will have a final slide at the end where we can connect and follow up after this webinar. So I appreciate you guys for that. I'm going to go ahead and so let's get started. One of the things that we've got to always ask ourselves is things are changing. Are you? At the end of the day, everything evolves. There's new levels of adoption and adaption and how we survive, but business itself still needs to continue going. So in business, things are always changing. And now with the widespread adoption of new and smart technologies, it's becoming more and more challenging to stay relevant for you, your clients, your customers, even your employees and workforce. So what are you doing to maintain that relevance? Now that's a question you've got to ask yourself. Now I'm not saying that you need to change everything you're doing, right? So don't go out there and think you've got to reinvent everything you're doing. If there's things that are working, hold onto that. But do be open-minded as we go throughout this presentation, that there may be opportunities for you to discover something new, something that might be able to help you change and balance your lifestyle so that you can, again, improve and enjoy that life, right? Curiosity and fun. So let's talk about the landscape right now, the landscape of business apps. This is a quote from that bite and the fruit company. As of 2021, there's over 235,000 apps that are promising to make your business more powerful, more adaptable, and more mobile. And that's in 2021. We know that the last couple of years have really pressed tech forward almost a decade. So that's probably even a higher number. And those are apps that have been vetted specifically to help your business. So you've got to stop and ask yourself, how on earth? How on earth am I going to learn 235,000 apps? Well, here's your first don't. Don't. Don't worry about it. Especially ones that have been used in the past, and you may not have caught up with them. Don't worry about it. We'll talk about how to bypass that here in the future. But one of the things is learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is even harder. But learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities, that's even harder still, and it's perhaps too hard. So I'm going to help you dial down some of that noise, cut through the fat, and find the apps that really affect your industry and your needs based on just channeling a few focus areas, things that really align with your business and your processes and really where you're headed in business. Because at the end of the day, it only matters to you if it matters, right? So don't worry about the fact that there's so many apps out there. Worry about the fact that you have the ability to kind of cut through that and find a couple that will align with you. So one of the first things I always like to do when we talk about finding applications and automation in your business is we've got to start with why. You know, you got into business for a reason. Everybody does, whether it was you were shoved into business or you just had a passion for your industry or you wanted to create an opportunity for your family and it grew to opportunities for your employees and your local economy, right? You started with a why in business, but now you've got to start with that why and then dial down to understanding why a program or an app or automation is going to help lead you to a correct choice. And I always like to start with the three Cs. This is a great way to determine if an app is even worth your time to look at, right? If it's going to matter, it's going to align with what your needs are. So you're going to ask yourself, does it collaborate? Is it working with multiple parties? And is it helping you to create something new? And then does it communicate? Is there a way for you to track and see how it's affecting your business and those that are involved in it? Your customers, your clients, your workforce, your managers. What about your mastermind, right? Your advisory groups, people that are connected to you. And then the last part after communicate is connect. Does it work with some of the apps you already have? Is it simple? Is it easy? Does it make your life more balanced so that you can get back to doing what you want to do? So start with why, why you were in business and why you want to continue to stay in business. And then look at those three Cs to really dial down that noise. And then that's going to determine whether or not some of these apps are really appropriate for you in your business. And at this point, you want to be asking powerful questions. Why does it collaborate? Why does it communicate? And why does it connect? Why does that matter for me? If it collaborates, it's great. But did you have a need in your business for that? What are you working on? What's your projects? What's your future look like? What are your goals? And is it communicating that with the people that are involved in it? Are you having separate teams? Is there a way to build this out so that it affects everybody? And then of course, the connection, right? You've got tools you're already using and nobody wants to be overwhelmed with a screen filled with apps and automation. We want things to connect so that it's more of a simplified and seamless process. So ask yourself those questions. Let's talk about the business vehicle, right? Business is your vehicle to success. Is your vehicle running? I like to use this visual because it's a very simple way to understand apps and automation. With cars, when we started with them, we had warning lights that would come up and it would tell you whether or not there was something wrong inside of the vehicle. And business is your vehicle of success. Whether or not you were out of gas, well, are you out of revenue? Are you low on inventory? Are you full on inventory? Are you suffering the ebbs and flows of seasonal effects, right? Because of where you're at. Is there something wrong where your revenue is not meeting its benchmark? The bank accounts are low. Those are easy, easy ways to see warning lights in business. But one of the things we've got to understand is as business continues and as technology evolves, the more advanced we get, the more confusing it gets. And so there's a lot of things that can overwhelm you that you might be putting in place that tell you whether or not the business is doing well, if it's performing right. One of the things that I absolutely do not like, and I'll just this out to the mountaintops, is when somebody comes out and says they've got 10,000 data points you can take and leverage in your business right now. I don't know about you, but I don't want to go through and sift through 10,000 data points to determine one thing that I can put in place in my business to make a change. Now, if it's simplified and it's aggregated, that might be a difference maker, but we got to find a simple way to approach this. And really, we got to find those warning lights and those tools that are sharing with us how the business is doing, and then let everything else go. So do find the things that align with your business and your goals. Find those apps that are actually giving you alerts and information, but don't overwhelm yourself. Don't worry about tens of thousands of data points. Don't worry about if you could have made a tweak here and then finding out years later whether or not it made a difference. We want to make a difference today. And really, again, the entire subject of today's conference is about business lifestyle. It's about using apps and automation that are tailored to you so that you can live life, enjoy the world you're improving. So technology has evolved, right? I mean, we look at the way that we've created technology. We started with tools. Tools help us to complete a task. As humans, we needed tools to make things slightly easier. And then we introduced machines to make those tools even easier. And as we have evolved in machines, we've introduced automation and technology to control those machines. And so technology is always evolving, whether it be in your workplace, in your business, or be the things that you're servicing, right? And the business vehicle of success is going to continue to evolve. I like this imagery here because it's an older set of tools, and then we show the machine and manufacturing, and then we show a robot reading these blueprints, right? And yes, people talk about the killer robots. They're all coming for your job. You know, one of the things that'll never change is the fact that we are connected as a community and as human beings. And at the end of the day, we want to support and embrace each other. So when you're looking at technology that's going to help your business, it's going to help you lead your team into the next future, you want to find things that embrace, not replace, right? Things that empower you as an owner and an operator and don't remove you. Because at the end of the day, it's a delicate balance. If you remove yourself entirely, well, then you're disingenuous, or you might lose customers, and then it becomes this uphill battle. So leveraging technology is going to be great as long as we can find a place where we're embracing and not replacing ourselves. So just take that with a grain of salt and just understand that, yes, things will continue to evolve. And we'll talk about how to keep up with that. But before we get any further into this, one of the things I want to say is that slide we shared earlier, 235,000 apps and more coming out every day, just breathe. Don't worry about learning all of them. Don't worry about going through and seeing why things didn't work for other people. Because at the end of the day, by the time you learn it, new things are going to come out. You're never going to be able to catch up. So remember this. It's easier to remember the future. So the best way to determine the next steps before we really get into the nitty gritty of dialing down the noise and finding what works for you is you've got to do two things. First, you've got to set a goal. And you can have multiple goals. That's fine. But you've got to set goals because a plan without direction is just chaos. And you'll just be running around trying to implement things. And you'll never really know if it's working because you have no destination. So set your goals. And then step two, take action. If there's anything else that comes out of today, make sure that if you've learned anything, or if you've gained a little bit of awareness, that you've set these goals and you take some action. Because we can talk until we're blue in the face. But if it falls on deaf ears, it does nothing for anyone. And what we want to do is empower you to live not just an abundant life where you can enjoy the world you're improving, but give you opportunities and options, right? If you want to hire more people or pay a living wage or help your family and your community, those are things that really matter. And so what we want to do is allow you to take some action around your goals to open up so that when those opportunities come, there's no second guessing it. You're confident, you're clear, and you're able to move forward. So it's easier to remember the future, set your goals, and then take some action. So when we take some action, we kind of think about what it is you want, right? What do you want? What do you want the app to do? Do you want it to communicate with your team? Do you want it for your customers? Is it a mix of both? And why are you getting involved in it? What task is it taking off of your shoulders? You know, at the end of the day, if it's something that isn't really enabling you or empowering you, and it's just creating more tasks, it's probably something you should walk away from. So think about what you want and then pursue that. And so what we're going to do is we're going to categorize things into five categories as we go. So you're thinking about what you want right now based on those goals that you set in your direction of the future. I'm going to talk about the categories and how to take action on those. So there's five categories we always like to look at when we're talking about technology and automation. And really, it just dials down to these five, right? We always start with goals because goals are direction. You want something that's going to walk with you and align with your goals, but track them. They're going to keep you accountable and make sure that you are measuring your success as you progress. And then outside of goals, you've got to create workflow that matters, and it's easy and simple. You've got to stay organized because nobody wants to sift through chaos, right? And then beyond that, we've got marketing and motivation. Marketing is to build your business and find that audience. And motivation and business is hard. So we're going to talk a little bit about each one of these categories. And I always like to start specifically with direction. You don't want to get lost in your journey. So one of the things we've always talked about is you've got to have goals that align with you. And once you've got your goals hammered out, your timelines, right? When you want to hit these goals, when you want to hit these next levels, these next plateaus, you've got to determine how and why you're going to get there. And you want to do it as efficiently and as agile as possible so you can enjoy life instead of stressing yourself out and stressing out those around you, or even micromanaging or overreaching, right? Because we can burn bridges if we're not careful. So once we've got our goals set up, let's start with workflow. Apps and automation around workflow are incredibly powerful. These are one of the things that can really set you free as a business owner, as an operator, as somebody who's in operations or a manager. You've got things like Calendly and Trello and Slack. Calendly is great because it sends you automated messages, and it reminds you of things that are coming up, and it reminds your customers. And so does Trello and Slack if you set up the notifications. And the great part about that is these are ways that you can set workflow without pestering and micromanaging your employees. And I truly, truly, truly believe in teams. I believe in community and collaboration. And I think that it's very powerful if you can take that community, that collaboration, and pair it with visual job categories, task breakouts. There's something to be said about having the visual ability to see and watch goals be met, watch tasks be hammered out. Because if you can review and set expectations together, you gain respect. And that's respect 360. That's you being respected as an owner and an operator. That's your employees being respected as valued workforce members and people that are part of your team. And you know the greatest part about doing tasks on a visual category is using something like Trello or Slack. You get to watch your business succeed. You get to watch things get done. And everybody gets to celebrate that together. And you do it without micromanaging. Right? It's one of those things that can really, really, really dial in your workflow and make sure that you can remove yourself from micromanaging those employees, those managers, those moments. And it allows you to go out there and be present in your business. Right? Talk about why you're doing it. Sharing your knowledge. Share the stories, right, of the clients you've helped or the situations you've been in. Have a little bit of fun with business. If you can set up workflows utilizing some of these very easy and usually free tools to implement, you can really make a difference. So pair with some visuals, review and set expectations, and understand that gains and garners respect. Again, for you, for your employees, and for your clients and customers. I mean, at the end of the day, there's nothing that's more respectful than utilizing a third party that's reminding them. Right? It's not pestering them. It's not you calling to remind them. It's that bridging the gap. And they've created these algorithms that really understand human nature. So that's another thing you can lead with confidence on. A lot of these apps, and you can check. We'll talk about how to check through your association or whoever's in your industry on what they're using. But at the end of the day, these algorithms have been created to really lean on human interaction to make sure that people feel calm and empowered using these. So once you get your goals and your workflow set up, it comes down to organization. Right? Everybody in business needs to be organized. And it used to be old school. You would have filing cabinets. We'd have documents set up. But now, really, at the end of the day, everything's in the cloud. We've got online organization and collaboration. And I think that those two go hand in hand. Right? Organization and collaboration, that's free fuel to drive your success. And yes, I am being punny right now with the vehicle of success that is your business. But it is. It's fuel. Because online organization and collaboration allows you to be present in the moment, which means when, where, and how things occur. You get it at the tip of your fingers. You can use things like G Suite right now. You can go to Sheets. You can go to Google Docs and Drive. You can set up files and permissions. And you can have your team. You can have your marketing, all of it in one place. And so what does that do? Why would I do that? Well, for one, it's an ease of access. And you've got confidence that you know where it's at. It's protected and backed up. Those are great things, especially coming from the insurance realm. We want to make sure that you don't lose things. But what about opportunity? What about putting out fires? What about dealing with a situation at work that requires your time and you're not at the workplace? You see, opportunities come. And if you've got to go home or you've got to go back to the office and find it and set up another appointment, you might have lost that opportunity. A lot of times, if we've got this online organization, there's clarity in the moment. And so if an opportunity arises, it's at the tip of your fingertips. you can just grab what you need to send it out, boom, seize the opportunity. And the next best thing to understand is we live in a completely different environment that we did a few years ago, right? The new normal, we are in this hybrid environment where people want to work where you want, when they want and how they want. And everybody's business style is different. Maybe it's some of that maybe it's all of that. But you as an owner can even have the flexibility to do that, right? One of the things I always like to ask people is if you lost your keys in your house, and you needed to go look for them, if you found them in the very first place you look, would you keep looking? No. What? Why? So it's the same thing for your business. If you know where everything's organized, and there's ease of access for everybody that's involved, especially the people that you're offering a little bit of responsibility to, they can rise to the occasion, they find their keys, and they can work when, where and how they want. They can be on a beach, they can be in a coffee shop, they can be at a family member's house, right? Visiting. If something happens in life, and you've got to steal away from the business, go take care of loved ones. You can still have access to the business if you need to. It's flexibility. Again, organization allows you the balance to exist in the world and enjoy it while improving it. Again, curiosity and fun, right? And so I would challenge you to open yourself up. So do allow yourself the opportunity to really think about how you're organized. And do allow yourself to really explore some of these ways where you can create this center console, this dashboard, if you will, of access to your business and who and how would be able to access it. What I would say is don't give permission to everybody. You don't want to overwhelm your team. And you definitely don't want to just give away the secrets to business. But at the end of the day, you know what your needs are. And if you start with your why, and what you want it to do, organization is just the fuel. It's fantastic. It'll drive success and just allow you to, again, enjoy life and enjoy business at the same time. And then after organization, we got to talk about marketing, right? Business is all about marketing. We've got to be able to get clients, maintain relationships, and really grow that pipeline. Because we're in this for the long run. It's not a flash in the pan style business. We want to make sure that we're living an abundant business and creating, you know, future successes. So how do we do that? Well, there's plenty of automation tools out there integrations that exist. And one of the things I like to harp on is that you should have something that social promotion and automation for your business combined, right, you want to exist on social media. And a lot of people have talked about this for many, many years. But at the end of the day, your clients are educated and they're online, they're on their phones all the time. And one of the first things they do is they check to make sure your business is alive. And that that's more so today than it has ever been. And so if you've got posts on your social media platform, but they're two, three years old, people might assume that you're not a business anymore. And same goes for your website. So look at ways to make sure your social promotion and your automation for your website are smooth running machine. They're at least offering some updates so that people know the business is still alive and thriving. Yes, they can drive down to where you are, but the cost of gas today, man, I gotta tell you, people might not come down there. But if you allow yourself to be present online, it removes you from having to do these mundane tasks. You can use things like a CRM, your customer relationship marketing software, you can use websites with marketing, you can use things like Hootsuite, or Loomly, these automate posts for you, right. And what you want to do is when you're automating these posts, so that your social media and your website are, are up to date, your marketing is good. Your reach expands, you want to make sure you don't blow your engine. So don't overload your audience, don't post too much, don't post things that are meaningless, right, things that aren't really in it for the client and the customer. And I would probably shy away from, you know, posting too many things that are, you know, politically driven or current events, unless it affects the industry. And then make sure that when you post these things, you're using these automated tools to enhance your visibility online, make sure you don't remove yourself, right? It's not replacing you, it's allowing you and enabling you to be present. So when your clients, your customers, or even your workers are present online, and they're doing things like commenting or sharing, liking or asking questions, you're present in the moment to respond to them. You don't have to worry about whether or not you posted something for tomorrow, you don't have to overwhelm yourself with new tasks. It's pretty easy to set up things for 90 days in advance and just let it flow, but then be present, be available. And that's going to build your brand, that's going to build consistency. And honestly, it's going to build commitment, right? If you're committed to your audience, and you're present with them, you can draw in all kinds of new opportunities. And that doesn't just go for new customers, that could be new employees, when people see that, and they see you're active, and you're growing, boy, it's a great way to pull in talent, you know, if the other guys aren't doing that. And right now, we know there's a labor shortage. And then beyond that, connecting with things online allows you to find visibility with new channel partners, there might be opportunities there for you to work with new environments, new industries, or even new distributors. I mean, there's ways for things to grow inside of your business that you never knew were there, because you were so focused on whether or not this meme was going to be funny, whether or not this current event is something I should post about, automate it, set it out, and then be present online, allow yourself to be available, so that when opportunity comes down, you can be present and take hold of it. And then outside of that motivation, right? Business is hard. We've talked about organization, we've talked about workflow and marketing, those are overwhelming enough. And all this aligns with the pressure we put on ourselves to hit our goals. And there's nothing wrong with a little bit of pressure, but we've got to stay motivated. So how do you stay motivated? Well, there's a great way to maintain motivation through apps and automation, right, giving yourself a little bit of boost. It's like having coffee in the morning, but instead, you're getting updates and pings and stories about what's going on in your business and your industry or the people around you. So I like to use things like LinkedIn, we've got this own it, love it community online on LinkedIn, where we share stories of success each and every week. It's fantastic. You've got your association at AED, right? So follow them online, see if there's an availability to really hone into some motivation around what other people are doing and how they're succeeding. You can create hives and masterminds, right, where you've got people that are offering success, stories, visibility, challenging you, accountability partners, and then of course, knowledge brokers. I really believe in community, again, in collaboration, but teams don't always have a label. You may want to invite some of your advisors into a closed group that's protected and secure so you can have conversations that allow you to be tactical and practical. You can make decisions in the now and it keeps you staying motivated. And of course, it allows you to remember why you started, right? At the end of the day, business is very hard, we've got to get things done, we've got to meet certain obligations, and we've got to panicle Sam along the way. But remembering why you started, why are you in business? Is it because you're motivated to impact yourself, your family, your loved ones, your employees? Do you want to change the way the industry attacks things and really performs? Do you want to challenge the way people do business altogether? How about this? Local communities, you could rise up to local community through motivation, right? So allowing yourself to be present in these amazing apps gives you visibility and you can access them when, where and how you want to. It doesn't mean you have to be present all the time. You don't have to be online connecting and talking all the time. You can chime in when you're available. People respect that and they know that, right? You can see and read things and learn things just like this webinar is being recorded. Later, whenever it's available for you, whenever time allows you so that you're not, again, overwhelming yourself and you're not stealing away time from the lifestyle that you're so, so, uh, so aggressively chasing. And so make sure that you're finding a place to stay motivated. And then keeping up with the times is just as important as getting up to speed. I cannot harp on that enough, right? Visibility is one thing, but awareness, awareness and the changes and challenges in your industry, legal changes, tax changes, industry changes, technology changes, right? Things that are affecting the industry. If you're aware of those, you're able to be proactive. And the difference between proactive and reactive are just night and day. When you can go to your clients, your employees, your managers, the people you work with and share with them, what you've learned is happening in the industry and share with them the solution you're already implementing, or even ask them to collaborate with you on coming up with the solution that removes all the pressure that just takes it to a, we are going to succeed no matter what, here's how we're evolving. Let's do this together, as opposed to reactive and saying, well, this happened without our control. Now we're in the victim mentality, right? So at the end of the day, you want to find apps and automation that are going to send you messages and keep you motivated. So we've talked about goals. We've talked about workflow and organization. We've talked about marketing and motivation. How do we know what apps outside of those are going to work for us? And I mentioned a few here and there, but of course, 235,000 apps, there's unlimited possibilities, right? So one of the things I would challenge you is to, before you even look into the apps and automation that are available to you and your business, you got to know your niche. Know your niche and know your audience. What does that mean? So your niche, whether it be if you're a manufacturer, a distributor, if you're a sales, leasing and rental, if you're somebody that's servicing the equipment, right? This is a very important thing to understand because it's going to matter to how the apps interact with your business and really determine if others in that niche are already using something very similar. And then know your market and your audience. That's a very broad statement, right? At the end of the day, your audience isn't just your customers. The people who utilize these apps and these automation tools are going to be your employee and workforce team, your managers. It could be your mastermind, your advisors, the people that are knowledgeable around you. It could just be for you, right? So how is this application, this automation going to affect your audience in your market? So make sure that whatever you choose, it aligns with your niche and your needs. And it really does affect your audience in a positive way so that it's not burdensome. It's something that's going to empower you, enable you and elevate you. And then remember business is your legacy, right? If you choose a service, an app or an automation that's going to help empower you, you got to make sure that it walks with the journey, right? Business is your baby. You want it to work when you start the business. You want it to work while you're building and scaling up your business. And then of course, while you're protecting your business, right? We're in this for the long run. Again, we're not a flash in the pan industry. We want to have longevity. A lot of times you've got generational businesses. And if we're going to have that outlook, the choices that we make on apps and automation matter. They've got to align with where you're at and where you're headed. Okay, so that's a great way to really think about the apps. It's just a powerful, probably after you've determined some of the apps that really meet your niche and your needs, these are powerful questions to really ask, because nobody wants to have to relearn something. And if you get really familiarized with it, you want to make sure the app and automation is supported and not going away. We've seen a lot of that these last few years, they're retiring such and such, you know, Internet Explorer's gone, things like this, tech evolves. Yes, it's bound to happen. But I would say approach it with the perspective of you need this for the long run. If it works in the long run, then it's probably something to pursue. And then here's a do and a don't, right? Do you understand why it works? Do you understand why the technology works for you? Why the app empowers you? Why it helps your business? Why it gives you back your life and builds that balance? Don't try to figure out how it works. Like if you're not technical, and you don't understand, don't get in the weeds about algorithms and coding language, and how things are operating, if it's already vetted by industry or your association, or you see others using it, that's probably enough. And then, you know, if you're not technical, trying to recreate the wheel, that's a very difficult thing to do. And it's very expensive and time consuming. So what you want to do is just make sure you understand why the app works, why it works for your needs, why it works for your goals, and why it's going to really balance what you've got going on. So what are others using to win? This is a great way to really determine and dial down that noise, right? We talked about this earlier, it's 235,000 apps, unlimited possibilities, blue in the face, right? You get overwhelmed. So what are others using to win? This is a great way to really figure out the apps that are available. Ask yourself what the association endorses. We're on this call right now with AD, let's ask what they endorse, what are others using in there? And then if they don't endorse something, what's the trade and industry group using as a whole? Maybe put out a census, you know what the great thing about technology is today, you can ask polls on basically every platform. So ask people what they're using. And then determine whether it works for you, trial and error. You know, if it works for more than one, then it's probably something to pursue. If it's one person says they used it, and then they explain why it doesn't match your needs and your goal. Ask more, right? There's nothing wrong with asking because this is a community. We all want to support each other and grow together. And at the end of the day, we want to protect the industry that it is. And then ask yourself what your partners use. So what do I mean by that? Well, you've got a CPA, you've got a wealth manager, a risk manager, an advisor, an insurance broker, what are they using? And are the apps available for you? And do they connect? You know, those are things that are going to help you communicate and collaborate. And these guys that are involved in, you know, perspectives inside your industry can offer you tangible stories, ways that people are changing and challenging and really rising to the occasion. If you've got partners in the CPA realm that understand your industry, and they've got multiple clients, ask them what they're seeing out there. Ask them what their their partners use. Same thing with your insurance broker or your risk manager, your wealth manager, they're working with people that are similar to you. And these are perspectives that you can leverage. So make sure that you know, you ask what they're using, and then determine if it connects, right at the end of the day, if it connects with some of the software you're already utilizing, or at least connects you to an ease of access connects to your phone connects to your email allows you to just be able to get to it in a way that you've always gotten to your information. That's a great way to determine if it matters. And then is it easy? And is it powerful? It's rarely both. Honestly, it's rarely both. So you've got to determine Do I want it to be easy and simple? Do I want it to be powerful? If you find one that's both kudos, you run with it. It's great. Chase it. And then what's the return on investment? Right? We always talk about getting our dollars back. But how do you challenge yourself to determine the rate of return on something that was free, or freemium? Well, I think return on investment is a little bit more broad than that. How many hours did you get back? That's, that's a pretty good return on investment. If you ask me, you know, did you empower somebody else to rise to the occasion and learn that your management team is more capable, or your employee workforce is more capable than you ever thought? That's a return on investment. Are you able to work when, where and how you want? Are you able to remove yourself from business and enjoy that business lifestyle we've been talking about having fun and curiosity? Those are return on investment. So it's not just about getting dollars back. It's about getting your life back. It's about balance and lifestyle. And then perspective, right? What's the cost of perspective? What's the cost on missed opportunity? Those are return on investments that you really want to seek. And so that kind of leads us to our next, our next story. I want to share with you guys a story of Clarify and why we built it. Now Clarify is a business performance tech. It allows you to set goals and monitor them, but share them in real time with your advisors. Why did we do that? Well, perspective matters, right? I think perspective is a powerful thing, and it's leverageable. And one of the things we found is that when we looked out there, a lot of advisors were very retroactive in the way they approach things. It was always the end of the tax year. It was always the end of the insurance policy year, getting an audit, filing your taxes, blah, blah, blah, right? Everything was retroactive. We wanted something more proactive. And when we looked, we couldn't find anything that really matched it. So we built it. Field of dream status. And that's very possible for you and your business. You know, you want to be able to set your goals, celebrate success and proactively adjust. We believe in building trust, building teams and celebrating dreams together. And so that's why we built Clarify. But I would challenge you that there might be something that's available in your industry right now. Is there a gap? Is there a technology gap that might be an innovative moment for you to solve a problem for the industry as a whole, and really challenge people to do things better, enable them to live life more proactive and enjoy that balance? Again, you got to look at the segments we talked about today. Are there gaps in workflow and organization, marketing motivation? Is there a way that you can solve something? Maybe ask yourself that question, and it might be a little bit of fun for you. So just to recap today's discussion, you know, we talked about community being everything it is, you've got to embrace your community, you've got to love your community and respect it. That's not just a community you live in. It's a community of players that are involved in your business in your industry. It's your advisory team, it's your employees. Let's make business fun again. Let's have curiosity and fun and engagement. And just a quick recap, we've talked about automation and apps that can improve your business. The sky is the limit, right? But find a couple that work for you. And we talked about how to determine the types of apps that are available and how to get started. You know, leveraging your association, asking your trade groups, asking your knowledge broker partners, asking new employees what they've used, right? And we talked about a lot of the do's and the don'ts. Don't, don't overwhelm yourself. Don't worry about the past. Don't try to learn what everybody else has already gone through. Do open your mind to opportunity, do allow yourself to set some goals and take some action. And then finally, we touched on how to create a business lifestyle using apps. At the end of the day, if you are doing anything for apps and automation, it's got to give you back business lifestyle, it's going to give you balance to create that growth that you need, that confidence you need, while enjoying the life that you're improving in the world you're improving. Because at the end of the day, you guys are an economic structural backbone, like you are part of the backbone of our, our economy. And I appreciate you for that. You got to appreciate yourself, but get out there and enjoy it a little bit. You know, if and then at the end of the day, we talked about, if there's a gap, if you see something missing, and you just can't find a solution, well, maybe it's time to explore whether or not it's something you can build a solution you can create. It's amazing how connected we are to people in the world today and how much opportunity there is to really improve together and collaborate. If you build it, they will come, right? The field of dreams. You never know when you're going to change an industry by just thinking things a little bit more proactively. So to close this out today, we've got a gift for you. I really, really, really believe that you should start with goals. So we've got a goal setting success workbook for you. You can go to clarify.coach slash gift. That's clarify.c-l-a-r-a-f-i.coach slash gift. This is going to really dial down what your goals are and where you're headed and make you really approach it in a thoughtful manner to where you determine who's in that hive, that mastermind group, who are the advisors that can help get you there. And then once you've got that dialed in, you can look at technology that enables that and embraces that, right? So last steps for you before we get to any of the Q&A that's left over, download that goal setting workbook. Again, it's clarify.coach slash gift. Have a lot of fun with it. You got to have fun. Business is meant to be curious and fun. And that's why we're here. And last but not least, you guys are part of a community. You're part of our community now. Thank you for having me here today and allowing us the opportunity to share our perspective. So share a picture of your business online, and then tag us. We use the hashtag own it, love it because you should be able to own your business and love it at the same time. Tag us and just I'd love to connect and interact. And then if there's any follow up questions at all, we can connect online. You know, I appreciate everything that we've had today. I appreciate our time. We do have the opportunity to give you some quotes if you're looking for insurance quotes on your business. My contact info is down below, but definitely follow us on LinkedIn and on Instagram. We like to share perspectives, stories and opportunities to just give more that positivity, that motivation and that visibility to what others are doing to succeed. And you know, if anything else, I hope you gained at least some perspective and some some open thoughts for today. You know, it's a it's a hard thing to approach technology with a positive attitude without feeling overwhelmed. So thank you for allowing me today to come and talk to you about how tech and automation is available, how to really dial down the noise, and really how to make an impact for yourself and balance that business lifestyle. So I appreciate you. I'm going to go ahead and stop sharing. And if there's any questions, I will go ahead and take them now. Well, it doesn't look like we have any questions, so I appreciate everybody for your time and thank you so much.

webinar

Adam Griggs

apps

automation

business improvement

goal setting

app selection

industry trends