How to Automate Your Law Firm (Without Losing the Personal Touch) – w/ Greg Jenkins (ep. 56)
And it definitely took a mindset shift for me to appreciate that there are tools like Infusionsoft and some of the other marketing automation tools out there that when leveraged appropriately, they'll multiply your efforts and they'll multiply what what your team is capable of. And it's not a cold, robotic, automated experience. It's a personal one that you've designed deliberately to create a specific outcome.
Narrator:Run your law firm the right way the right way. This is the Maximum Liar Podcast. Maximum Liar Podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson Neutritz. Let's partner up and maximize your firm.
Narrator:Welcome. To the show.
Jim Hacking:You're back on the Maximum Lawyer podcast. I'm Jim Hacking.
Tyson Mutrux:And I'm Tyson Muirick. Jimmy, we have a guest that you and I are both very, very excited about. You wanna do a quick introduction and, get going?
Jim Hacking:Yeah. So, you know, I floundered around in the automation business automation wilderness for quite some time. Long time listeners of our show know that Tyson and I are both proponents of Infusionsoft. And we're gonna talk some about Infusionsoft today, but we're gonna try to keep it on a bigger level, on a broader level of just sort of business automation, marketing automation. And I mentioned that I was floundering around for months months trying to figure out how to use Infusionsoft, how to make a CRM work, how to segment my list, how to market to my clients or potential clients in a better way.
Jim Hacking:And you've all heard the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears. I had some advisers who were too hot, some were too cold, and Greg Jenkins was just right. I came across Monkeypod Marketing, and I came across Greg on Twitter of all things. And I'll tell that story in a little bit. But we're really lucky to have on Greg Jenkins of Monkeypod Marketing.
Jim Hacking:He is a guru when it comes to business automation, and the best thing that he's so good at is explaining complex automation in a simple way. So, Greg, welcome to the show.
Greg Jenkins:Hey. Hey. Thanks for that very warm welcome. I feel like I've got some high expectations to live up to now.
Tyson Mutrux:Greg, I actually, the only question I really care about but I'm gonna ask you some other ones. The only one I really care about is how in the hell did you come up with that name?
Greg Jenkins:Yeah. So Monkeypod Marketing is my brand and, it was inspired by a restaurant in Wailea, which is on the island of Maui in Hawaii. To make a long story short, my girlfriend and I were there for a work trip, and we ended up going to this restaurant, the Monkeypod Kitchen for, like, lunch on the second day we were there. And we were there for a week, and I think we went back 4 more times just because it was that good. It exceeded our expectations in in every way.
Greg Jenkins:And, about a year later, I left my full time employment at Infusionsoft to start my own business and kinda put my skills to the test. And I was trying to figure out what I would name my business and literally the same day that I was kind of, you know, pondering it or thinking about it, I talked to my girlfriend. We were long distance at that point. So I talked to her on the phone and she went to a new restaurant and I said, hey. How was that restaurant?
Greg Jenkins:And she said it was good, but it was no Monkeypod. And I I realized that a year later, Monkeypod had still been this this benchmark for excellence for us. And and so it had left just a more of a lasting impact than we realized at the time. And it it sort of became this you know, I don't I don't think that I have that lasting impact on everyone that I impact, but it became this this goal for us for for something that I wanted to strive after was that that customer experience and that that high level of service that leaves people with, an experience that has changed them. And and so for me, Monkeypod is just a reminder of that restaurant and and how such a small little place in a small part of the world could leave such a big impact on me.
Jim Hacking:Greg, I know that you were an entrepreneur before you went to work for Infusionsoft. And as you said, you're now an entrepreneur after you worked at Infusionsoft. Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about your story, how you ended up at Infusionsoft, and then how you ended up out in San Diego?
Greg Jenkins:Yeah. Sure. And, feel free to interrupt me because I I know I have a tendency to ramble. But the cliff notes version is I grew up in a small business family and, my dad had started the organization and then grew it and literally run it from the basement of our home. And so I had his employees were kinda coming and going, and they were all kinda my friends.
Greg Jenkins:And once in a while, they'd stop and play Nintendo with me, that sort of thing. But when I went to college, I knew business was something that I wanted to focus on, and and I actually accepted a job in the hospitality world coming out of college and very quickly discovered that that wasn't where I wanted to be. And a friend of mine had started a business right around the same time I was graduating. And so once I discovered that the hospitality, which is what I have my degree in, wasn't a direct fit, he sort of started chirping in my ear and said, well, hey. I've got this other thing going and you could join me.
Greg Jenkins:So I joined him pretty early on, and our business, the first 5 years after college, was installing and servicing draft beer dispense systems. And, it was a blast. I mean, I I got to work in restaurants and bars and country clubs and and help them, you know, run the the beer lines from wherever their cooler was to wherever they needed that beer to be dispensed. And, you know, it's a pretty gritty job to begin with, but what I underestimated was there's a lot of technical and logistical considerations when it comes to keeping the beer at the right temperature, the appropriate flow rate, you know, the right carbonation levels, and and all all of those things that go into maintaining the integrity of of, you know, of the beer. So so I did that for about 5 years, and I I sort of outgrew it.
Greg Jenkins:And I I found myself ready for that next challenge, that next step, and and that was when I started dating my my girlfriend, Sarah. And so I followed her to to Arizona, and I found Infusionsoft. A friend of mine recommended, hey. You should check out Infusionsoft. And I told him quite promptly to go, you know, to go bug off because I I was a beer guy.
Greg Jenkins:I wasn't a software guy, and and why would I wanna work for a software company? But after 3 months of unemployment, I started looking more seriously at Infusionsoft and I realized what a powerful tool it was. And I and and not only that, but I realized that in the 5 years prior while I was running capital draft service, I did a lot of things wrong. And and seeing Infusionsoft and learning how the software worked, I realized that, man, my life could have been a lot easier. And it just made me sick knowing how inefficient I was and and how much opportunity there was that that I left on the table.
Greg Jenkins:So it sort of became a mission for me to to help other people avoid the potholes and and pitfalls that I went through because now I I kinda had that revelation that there is an easier way and and, you know, it doesn't have to be as manual and as laborious as I had made it out to be. So I spent 3 a little over 3 years at Infusionsoft teaching people how to how to integrate automation into their their general business. And and it is a marketing system, you know, on the on the surface, but really automation can go much further than that. And as you guys know, you can use it for your internal processes and to add efficiency to all sorts of elements of your business. And and now now I have Monkeypod, and I I do pretty much the same thing.
Greg Jenkins:I help small businesses refine and improve their systems by using technology and and automation specifically.
Tyson Mutrux:Greg, what are some of the issues that you see most often that people need to automate? I guess, the biggest struggles that they have that you help them automate with?
Greg Jenkins:Sure. Yeah. So this is one of those conversations that I think you guys have touched on this in the past, but it's worth driving home again. There are stories that we tell ourselves as as business owners and, you know, as entrepreneurs and regardless of what role you're in, there are certain things that you just you tell yourself needs to be done by you. And and sometimes that is the case, but more often than not, there is a way to to introduce automation and still achieve the same result.
Greg Jenkins:And so I think that it's a matter of of stepping outside of your role and and looking at it objectively to really identify what are those things that take up my time and what do I actually need to be doing? What is the best use of my time? If I go back to the draft beer systems example, when I was running Capital Draft Service, it grew. When I started, we had, you know, 15 or 20 customers and when I finished, we had just under a 100 and these are monthly recurring accounts that that we were servicing. But the fact of the matter was at the time, I believed that the way the business did the success of the business was directly tied to the amount of time that I devoted to it.
Greg Jenkins:And each time I went on a sales call, I knew that if I got that job, it meant more hours that I would have to be working in order to keep that revenue stream. And so I saw it as a direct one to one correlation. The more I put into my business the more that it would produce. And it definitely took a mindset shift for me to appreciate that there are tools like Infusionsoft and some of the other marketing automation tools out there that when leveraged appropriately, they'll multiply your efforts and they'll multiply what what your team is capable of And it's not a cold robotic automated experience. It's a personal one that you've designed deliberately to create a specific outcome when it's done appropriately.
Greg Jenkins:So I think the the areas that people overlook are sometimes the ones that they spend the most time on because they they tell themselves the story that it has to be done by them, and and they refuse to, you know, to to back off that position. And sometimes it just takes a little bit of balance for you to recognize that that's not always the case.
Jim Hacking:Greg, one of the things that I've noticed with you and your copy, the the language that you use in the emails that you send to clients or potential clients is that you're very conversational. It it it does seem very personalized. I know it's automated because they know sort of what's going on in the back end. But I think you just do an exceptional job of sort of talking to people in plain English. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Greg Jenkins:Yeah, man. Yeah. So you you hit the nail on the head. And this is what I'm describing. People have this resistance, this this reticence to adopt automated systems because they feel like automation removes them from their business.
Greg Jenkins:And if you are in the in the small business space, you know how important it is to to have a personality in your brand. Oftentimes, that's what differentiates you from your competitors. But I think that's a misconception. I think that automation actually, it puts more of you into your brand. And as you said, you know, the emails, they are my voice And it's because I write all of them.
Greg Jenkins:And if you watch a video, I I it's me and my silly jokes and my, you know, my backyard and my tank tops and, like, that's who I am. And I think that it resonates with some people and I'm sure that there are those who it repels. But the reality is you're not the right fit for everyone. And so by allowing yourself and your, you know, your personality to bleed into your brand, you're more than likely gonna help identify sooner rather than later when there is a misfit. So for me, it's it's very deliberate.
Greg Jenkins:Like you said, you know, there there it is automated, but it doesn't have to feel that way and and you don't have to beat people over the head with automation. And if done properly, automation can be really seamless and it it should be contributing to your overall customer experience.
Tyson Mutrux:Jimmy, you have hit on something that actually is my favorite part about Greg. He is so personable. Greg, I met you for the first time out at ICON, and you were just incredible. So so if if and when people reach out to Greg, he is amazing. He's a great person.
Tyson Mutrux:He really is. And I'm not just saying that. I wouldn't just say that. He really is a good person. But, Greg, I for you, I have a question.
Tyson Mutrux:So your business is automating other businesses in in a nutshell. Like, how do you automate your
Greg Jenkins:business though? Yeah. So my business is, in a lot of ways, a transparent case study because I teach by example. And, you know, if if I have a a subject that is uncomfortable for me, what I'll do is I'll dedicate myself to learning and figuring out what that topic is, and then I'll document it and and I'll turn that around and I'll I'll teach it to my audience because, hey. This is a new skill that I just acquired.
Greg Jenkins:For example, you know, I figured out pretty quickly and as many of you have, when you start a business, there's a, you know, there's an infinite number of things you can learn. Right? You can always be acquiring new skills or attending masterminds or or taking online workshops or or what have you. There's always more you can be learning. And so for me, it was I knew Infusionsoft inside and out, but I I didn't know Google Analytics.
Greg Jenkins:I didn't know Facebook ads. I didn't know WordPress and and all of the other elements that that needed to to be there for my business. So as I have tackled each of those hurdles, I've done my best to to turn those into learning lessons so I can pass that value on to the audience that I serve. Right? And I think that we all do that in some small way as as we package up our knowledge and our expertise or as that grows, we find ways to to disseminate that.
Greg Jenkins:And and I think that's in large part what you guys are doing with this podcast. You're you're sharing your journey as well as the the lessons that and and the challenges that you, you know, face and and acquire along the way.
Jim Hacking:We're talking with Greg Jenkins. He's the owner, CEO, president of Monkeypod Marketing. And, Greg, I have a question for you. If you took a sabbatical from Monkeypod Marketing and went to work for a small firm, a law firm, and you had lawyers that recognize the value of automation, but they had no idea where to start. How would you go about helping them automate the parts of their business, like you said, that they're doing all the time that they need to automate in order to free themselves up to do higher level things?
Greg Jenkins:Yeah. So that's a that's another good question. Thanks, Jim. I think that I would start and I think, this wouldn't surprise me if it's a topic you guys have touched on in the past, but I would start by encouraging, you know, anyone and no matter of your what your industry is, but anyone to just document what it is that you do every day. Right?
Greg Jenkins:What it is that you do every week and and do that for a full month. And it doesn't need to be, you know, minute by minute, but but, you know, in large part, what consumes your day and then how much of your time goes into, each aspect that makes your business run. And for what you're gonna uncover is that there are definitely patterns and there are definitely trends and and, you know, there's a rule. If you do something 3 times a day, find a way to automate it. And then once you've gone through your week and you found all the things that you do 3 times a day and and figured out or or or looked at it through an automation lens and identified whether or not it can be automated, then you go back to that calendar and you go through and say, what are the things you do 3 times a week?
Greg Jenkins:Right? And how do I automate those? And and you come back over it. And, yeah, you're not gonna be able to automate everything nor should you, but there are certainly some things that are taking up your time or someone's time that are probably not the best use of their strengths. And a big one is scheduling.
Greg Jenkins:I know that with lawyers I've I've worked with or or encountered in the past, oftentimes, there are, either face to face meetings or phone meetings or Skype meetings to to have conversations and scheduling itself can be extremely time consuming and and can be manual. And there are plenty of technology driven solutions that should make that simpler. Not just the scheduling, but it it can enhance that experience by by layering in email or text reminders for those appointments or or automated follow-up based on the outcome of that. Right? And if those are if those are manual pain points for you, there are systems that that can refine it.
Greg Jenkins:And if you know that every time you get off the phone, you have to do the same step of actions, I encourage people to think about those as like a like a series of dominoes. And and rather than, you know, tipping over each domino independently, take the time to set them up in sequence once so that all you need to do is knock over that first one and the rest of the things just sort of happen. It sounds like witchcraft, but it but it really it really isn't as as complex as most people make it out to be. Greg,
Tyson Mutrux:can you talk a little bit about your onboarding process, whenever a person calls you to hire you?
Greg Jenkins:Yeah. And I'm glad that you circled back to this because I I recognize I I kinda glossed over your question earlier when you said how do I automate my business and I said, well, I do it transparently which isn't enough of an answer. So I automate every single aspect of my business because a, I'm an I'm an expert in Infusionsoft and in in automation and it, you know, that's how I scale. I'm a one person workshop And so to to have the impact that I wanna have and serve the people that I wanna serve, I wouldn't be able to do it if I did everything manually. So that's that's the the truth of the matter is.
Greg Jenkins:But specifically for for onboarding, I have three primary revenue streams for my business. So I have virtual courses which are sold online and then I have a membership program which, you know, you guys know a little bit about and and where I I serve a community of people in a one to many format. And then I have occasional small group events where, you know, I invite my members and a handful of them will come out for a, like, a a business retreat where we talk about their business, identify areas for automation like we're discussing here, and and then we go about executing on it. And so so those are the 3 channels for my business and depending on which one you are interested in, you're going to enter my database and my funnel and my my, customer journey at a different entry point. So I have various lead captures which is, you know, it's a simple marketing term, but it's basically where people interact with me.
Greg Jenkins:And depending on which one you sign up for, I'm able to infer certain things about you. Right? And if you're a if you're a law practice and you probably practice a specific, you know, aspect of the law, like I know Jim is is, you know, heavily focused on immigration law. But if you serve multiple audiences or or multiple niches or if you if you solve multiple problems for people, here's a little secret about your customers. They don't care who else you are a good fit for.
Greg Jenkins:What they care is, can you help me? And and I think it's important to identify that because I go to a lot of websites where people have a list of all of the stuff that they do. And if you have 10 things on your website and I'm only looking for one of them, that means that the other 9 are NOI. And so what you wanna do is is figure out how people are finding out about you and have a dedicated page or or entry point that just speaks to those specific pain points that you know that particular person is experiencing. And then once they tip over that first domino by signing up for whatever that offer is, it could be a an ebook or a or a weekly, you know, subscription or it could be, a free consultation or a quote or, you know, could be any of those things.
Greg Jenkins:Right? But once they sign up, that's the first domino that then puts into motion. For me, it's a it's a welcome series where they get whatever it was that they asked for, but then everyone, no matter where they come from, goes into what I call my meet Greg series. And and it's if you sign up, if you go to monkeypodmarketing.com and you sign up for anything that I have to offer, you're gonna experience an automated funnel that introduces me. It talks about the story behind Monkeypod and it talks about what I do and who I serve and then it also talks about what I'm not and and the problems that I don't serve.
Greg Jenkins:And the reason I do that is because those are conversations that I've had. And oftentimes, I get people on the phone who are saying, Greg, I wanna hire you for this, this, or this, and and that's not what I do. And so what I did was I devised an automated system that helps better establish those expectations so that when I get on the phone with someone or if I get on the phone with someone, we're already at a point where that person knows here's what Monkeypod's about, here are the 3 main service offerings they have, and here's the one that I'm most interested in. And, of course, you know, based on how they got into my database, I'm I'm denoting or I'm annotating the the preferences that I've either inferred about them or that they've explicitly expressed so that I can put promotions in front of them that are relevant to to to whatever it was that they raise their hand for. And I use the the automated systems to take them all the way through from, that discovery portion through to a purchase and then, of course, for fulfillment on my virtual courses.
Greg Jenkins:If you buy something, I get notified, but I certainly don't have to do anything for it. That automation should kick in and and you should automatically receive your credentials and have access to your course content. And and like I said, I wouldn't be able to do what it is that I do if I had to spend all of my time manually bridging those gaps.
Jim Hacking:Alright, Greg. Now here's one of the things that I struggle with a lot myself and I absolutely do encourage everyone to sign up for Greg's email list. You'll you'll see through what he does, what he sends to you, the power of automation and the messaging. But one thing that I struggle with is when you have a a business that's already operational and you need to automate it, how do you find the time to Tyson's really good at this, to build out the systems, you know, to devote the time so that you're not doing things over and over. Like, how do you find that sweet spot in keeping the business ongoing, but at the same time doing the work to minimize the repetition and the and the repeat tasks?
Greg Jenkins:I'll give you my answer, but I would love to hear what you guys have to say because I'm not convinced that I'm doing it right. I suffer just like a lot of you do from the I think it's Jim Collins in in Good to Great who who talks about working on your business rather than working in it. Right? And that's an analogy most people can connect with is is I spend a lot of time making my business run. And so how do I step away from that and design new systems to give myself back more of my day?
Greg Jenkins:And that's actually where the idea for my business retreat came from. It was a little bit over a year ago, it was about a year and a half ago and I was talking with my girlfriend and I said, hey, I feel like I need to just like unplug and go to a cabin somewhere and like figure out some high level strategy for where I want my business to go and then and then identify and map out the systems I need to put into place to to take it there. And she said, okay. Well, if you should do that, if that's what you need, like, you should do that. And so I rented a cabin in Flagstaff in Northern Arizona and that's what that's what I did.
Greg Jenkins:But I made the mistake of I I talked about it with a handful of people. I said, hey, here's what I'm gonna do. And then 3 different people said, well, I need that too. Can I come with you? And and so I the first workshop I led was intended to be a a business retreat for myself, but what I ended up doing was helping these other businesses, you know, work on and and identify and and automate the things in their business.
Greg Jenkins:And it was a a 72 hour, you know, power packed weekend, which I'm terribly proud of and I've we no. We did a second one about a year later. So about 6 months ago, we did a second one. But, yeah, I I left that weekend realizing that, shoot, I still need to do this for myself. And so the answer, for me has been once a quarter, I block off a full day just to do an audit of my customer experience.
Greg Jenkins:So what is it that that my customers go through and and how do they find out about me? What are all the different avenues that they can come to my website and where do they opt in and then what happens? Because here's what I found. Even if you have automated systems designed, they are a product of what your business looked like at the time you designed them. And your business evolves.
Greg Jenkins:You know, it certainly, you know, doesn't look the same as it did when you when you started and it doesn't look the same as it was, you know, a year ago or 6 months ago. So I find that about once a quarter, it's important to block off a full day just to go walk back through what your customer journey looks like and figure out not only is it efficient, but is it intentional? Is it something that you have built and you've designed or is it just something that has kind of emerged out of necessity? Because oftentimes, that's the case. We do something and and we figure out how to do it and and then that becomes our system just because it worked and that we don't stop to consider if that's how we should be doing it.
Greg Jenkins:So for me, that's been the secret is is once a quarter or so, I I I block off the time to to spend some focus on it, because otherwise, it gets swept under the rug. There are too many too many plates spinning for me to to really to really stop and and give it the attention that it it honestly deserves. But I'd love to hear how you guys do that.
Tyson Mutrux:Great. Well, I think you nailed the nailed it on the head because
Greg Jenkins:I think what you have
Tyson Mutrux:to do is you have to map out your process, what you're doing currently from start to finish or so from point a to point z. And then you also need to map it out with what your company looks like or should look like from point a to point z. And then, also, as you're as you're looking at your business, you you you you talked about this, is it identifying the redundancies. Okay? So you you map the app.
Tyson Mutrux:Here's how my company looks or here's how my firm looks, right now. Here's where it should look because this is what the customer experience should be. And so you wanna fill on those gaps. And then you need to do what you said you did, is you need to sit down and do it. Just do it.
Tyson Mutrux:I mean so a few years ago, my firm, whenever we we we said we're doing the automation thing, we gave ourselves a deadline and we said we will be in fully automation mode by this date, and we did it. And so we're it was a lot of late night, a lot of hard work, but I think you just have to do it. And I think that Jimmy I think you're in that process right now. And so, Jimmy, you wanna talk about the process right now with how you're trying to get your during unit automated?
Jim Hacking:Well, it's slow going, and it's slow going for sure. I mean, Greg, I know you haven't listened to all of our episodes, but we often talk on here. Tyson's really spend a lot of time with Infusionsoft working on his DURING unit. That is sort of the provision of legal services. I've spent a lot more mine on segmenting my list, my potential clients, and sort of that.
Jim Hacking:And so it's it's slow going. It's something I struggle with. We're so busy at the moment that it's really hard to carve out that time. One of the good things is is that my wife has joined the firm and she's really good at at sort of developing the systems. And so they've sort of taken over a lot of that.
Jim Hacking:But as far as the automation, it's it's a slow slog. We we have now done what Greg was talking earlier about lawyers. One thing that we can really free ourselves up is the is the scheduling. So I I really am not the master of my own schedule at all anymore. We're sort of outsourcing intake, call intake, and and we have a company that's setting all of our appointments for us, and we're also using automation to let clients pick their own meeting times.
Greg Jenkins:Yeah. This is a subject that you guys talk a lot about with regards to accountability. Right? And and setting yourself these goals and and as Tyson pointed out, it's a a a matter of attaching not only specific requirements to that, but a date. You know, that's the difference.
Greg Jenkins:A goal is is a dream that has a date attached to it. Right? Is is you giving yourself a deadline which which you'd intend to stick to and then it's a matter of just holding yourself accountable there. That's to me, it comes down to being intentional about how you prioritize, because there are plenty of things that I want to be better at. Right?
Greg Jenkins:Like, for example, I mentioned Google Analytics earlier as something that that I know, my business could benefit from if I understood and leveraged Google Analytics differently. But the reality is I haven't prioritized it yet. I still I have Google Analytics installed, so it's collecting data, but I never log in to it. And and I know that that's a shortcoming of mine, but my business is growing anyway. So I just haven't taken the time to to really dig into it.
Greg Jenkins:And so it's a matter of, I think, looking at, is this something that is gonna pay an immediate return? Is it is it essential or or is it just enhancing? And and that's a good way for you to help go through your list of priorities and establish what you need to work on first and and how you're gonna make the time for that.
Tyson Mutrux:Greg, we are getting close to time. So will you tell people how to reach you
Narrator:if they wanna get a hold of you?
Greg Jenkins:Yeah. So as you might imagine, I am all over the interwebs. You can find me at monkeypodmarketing.com, or you can find me on Twitter at infusionGreg. Jim, I'd love to hear the story as to to what what or how we first connected there. And and I'm I'm fairly active on Facebook as well.
Greg Jenkins:I've got a Monkeypod Marketing business page and and Monkeypod Marketing on LinkedIn. So if you search for me on any of the the primary social channels, I should pop up. And you're more than welcome to send me an email atgreg@monkeypodmarketing.com. If if you use Infusionsoft or or are interested in in automation in general, I I love geeking out about this stuff.
Tyson Mutrux:Alright. Before we get to our tips, hacks, and, Greg's recommendation, I do wanna remind everyone to go to iTunes or wherever you get your podcast and get a 5 star review. Please make sure you do that. We're trying to spread the word as much as we can. So pause it, go right now, give the 5 star review.
Tyson Mutrux:We'll be here when you get back. Do the review. We really appreciate it, and then send it to a friend. We really love hearing back from people about how they're really liking the podcast. So but, Jimmy, do you wanna give your hack of the week?
Jim Hacking:Yeah. And I will incorporate my story of how I found Greg in the first place, and it ties into my my hack of the week. So I found Greg on a automated tweet that he sent out, and it had to do with note templates within Infusionsoft. So this allows you to sort of prefabricate some notes for a file that you wanna do. And I had never I've been using Infusionsoft for years years, and I never knew that this was a possibility.
Jim Hacking:And I know it's something that's very simple and very basic, and you 2 are probably giggling because it's so basic. But I was so happy to find out about note templates. Like, I almost did a little note template dance because there's so many things that we write down in a file on Infusionsoft over and over that it just boggle the mind that you could automate that. And my hack goes right along with that. And, Greg, I want you to talk a little bit about this before you give us your tip.
Jim Hacking:My hack is that outside of outside of Infusionsoft, Greg has developed a pretty slick system for automating some social media things that take time. And the one in particular that I've really been taking use of lately is with, followers on Twitter. And so if you if our listeners are lawyers and you're on social media and you wanna know how to just automate that a little bit more, especially when you get a new follower, Greg has developed a system. It's outside of Infusionsoft, I'm pretty sure. Greg, isn't it?
Greg Jenkins:A 100%. Yeah. He doesn't use Infusionsoft at all for this one.
Jim Hacking:Yeah. So I'd like you to to take over my my hack and sort of explain exactly how that works. And the other thing about Greg is I'm gonna I'm gonna toot his horn here for a minute is Greg doesn't charge enough for his programs. He's very generous. He he really is an evangelist and people are always telling him, I know for a fact that he should he should charge more.
Jim Hacking:His prices and his education that he'll give you is very, very reasonable. So I can't sing his praises enough. But, Greg, if you could tell us a little bit about that automation, I think our listeners would really get jazzed by it.
Greg Jenkins:Yeah. So I use a tool called Zapier. That's z a p I e r, and and you guys may have heard of it, but it is essentially it's it's automated recipes. It's very similar to If This Then That or, Workato. If you're familiar with either of those, those those do similar things.
Greg Jenkins:But Zapier allows you to write automated recipes so that if something happens, it does it performs, you know, something else. So action, reaction. You build these recipes. So what I did was I built these Zapier recipes for my own business. So if I publish a blog post, right, it automatically disperses that to my or or disseminates that to my various social channels.
Greg Jenkins:It posts it to my Facebook business page. It posts it to my LinkedIn business page, and it tweets about it. And then a couple days later, it tweets about it again. And a couple weeks after that, it tweets about it a third time. So what I get is automated valuable content being passed out to my various social networks so I can assure that they're being that they're busy.
Greg Jenkins:And and all I have to do is produce the content and it automatically goes out a a couple of different times so I maximize the exposure I'm getting on that, and I have the exact same thing set up for my YouTube channel. Now the 3rd, recipe that that Jim's referencing here is just designed to foster engagement on Twitter. So I'm sure you guys have seen if you follow somebody and and they have an automated welcome message set up, you know, you follow them and it says, hey. Thanks, infusion Greg or or what have you. And those always drove me nuts because, you know, it it's very overtly automation and and this is what I come back to is is automation when done poorly does feel cold and robotic.
Greg Jenkins:But if it's done well, it feels personal and it and it's enhancing. And so what I did was, when somebody follows me and you can you can test this by following me on Twitter. But if somebody follows me, it triggers this automated recipe with Zapier. And the first thing it does is it looks up a number between 150. And I what I've done is I've I've written 50 different sample responses.
Greg Jenkins:So if if somebody follows me, I'm gonna tweet back at them in one of these ways. And it uses that number that it it randomly looks up to go to a spreadsheet, in Google Sheet, and it pulls between 150, one of the columns and, or one of the rows rather, and it and it then it it crafts a tweet replying to them using, their handle. So it it draws from that spreadsheet and it pulls their information in and it assembles it, and it waits something like, you know, an hour and a half before it replies. So it doesn't happen immediately. It happens after a little bit of time and and I actually introduced another layer.
Greg Jenkins:So it only happens on one out of every 3 followers. So rather than tweeting back to every single person, which I I didn't want my whole Twitter feed to just be replies to people, I have it going on a ratio of 1 out of every 3 and it picks from a list of 50 different replies. And and I'm gonna continue to add to that so that long term, you know, maybe I'll have a 100 different responses and nobody will even notice. But at the very beginning, the goal was just to welcome people and to to drive a little bit of engagement and what's happened is people are responding. This automatic tweet goes out and and they like it.
Greg Jenkins:Right? And so they reply and it starts a conversation and and I once they reply, I do step in personally and I I reply manually, but the initial interaction is part of this automated recipe. So when I share this and when I talk about, the benefit that these recipes have provided for me and for my business, oftentimes the response is, well, how do I get that? I want that too. And the reality is you can set this up.
Greg Jenkins:Zapier is a paid tool. You you can go use Zapier and and you can build your own recipes. But if that's outside of your comfort or outside of your interest, I've devised the way to build and manage these recipes for people. And like Jim said, it's it's really reasonable. I I probably will raise the price.
Greg Jenkins:I just launched this, just a couple months ago and so I'm still working out all the kinks and and making sure that that it's providing the value I think it does. But if you're interested, just, yeah, just reach out to me and I'll be more than happy to talk to you. I'm calling it the social recipe service, but, I'm definitely not married to that name. So I might need to come up with something a little catchier.
Tyson Mutrux:Man, that's awesome. I had no idea that that existed, so that that is incredible.
Jim Hacking:That's awesome.
Greg Jenkins:It's it's kinda nerdy, but it but it works for me.
Tyson Mutrux:Alright. So is that your tip of the week, or do you have something else for us?
Greg Jenkins:I was gonna recommend a website. It's workhacks.com, and it's a friend of mine. Her name is, Julia, Julia Roy, and she has a podcast where she talks about productivity hacks and work hacks, and it's all about tools and and things that will make your life and your business easier. I just recommend, yes, check it check it out at workhacks.com or, go into her, she has a newsletter. I think it's called tool candy, and it shows up in your inbox every couple of weeks with just, you know, specific tools that that are designed to optimize, what you're already doing.
Greg Jenkins:And and that's been a big source of inspiration for me. Not every email that shows up is changing my life, but it's good to be abreast of of what's out there. And even if you don't plan to, you know, to consume it or or to take action on every single one, it's it's nice to know that these are gonna show up with different ideas that you can choose to run with or not.
Tyson Mutrux:That's awesome. Thank you very much for that. Just that section of the podcast, we could clip that. Release that. It'd be perfect.
Tyson Mutrux:I mean, it's just just your the last 10 minutes worth has been fantastic. But my tip of the week is a book that John Fisher actually recommended on his Facebook page, Mastermind Experience, which I wanna share with everyone, which some of you may have heard of it. It's called Zombie Loyalist Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans by Peter Schenkman. I picked up the book, and I could not put it down. It is incredible because it really just breaks down the real world of customer service, and it he just really cuts through all the b s and gets right to it.
Tyson Mutrux:I really, really recommend it, and it's this is one of John Fisher's top three books, I think. Yeah. So I I really do really recommend it. It's it's a fantastic book.
Greg Jenkins:Peter is great. He actually spoke at icon, a couple of years back when he was still not as well known as he is now and and kind of under the radar, and it it blew my mind. So I've been fortunate to watch him for a couple of years. He's a a star for sure.
Tyson Mutrux:Incredible mind. Really is. But, Jimmy, you
Narrator:have anything else to add?
Jim Hacking:Just wanna thank Greg again for coming on the show.
Greg Jenkins:Oh, thank you, guys. This has been great. I've got a bunch of respect for what you guys are doing, and I appreciate you giving me a platform to to share a little bit of my life.
Tyson Mutrux:Yes. Thank you so much for coming on. We really, really appreciate it. And I know we've exchanged some emails back and forth, so thank you for the feedback you give me as well. But thank you very much, Jimmy.
Tyson Mutrux:Great show. Greg, very good show. Then we'll talk to you by next week. Thank you very much.
Greg Jenkins:Take care. Bye.
Narrator:Thanks for listening to the Maximum Lawyer podcast. To stay in contact with your host, and to access more content more content, go to maximumlawyer.com. Maximumlawyer.com. Have a great week, and catch you next time.
