Business-First Creatives

Pick Your Path with Ashley Pendergraft of Systems Over Stress

August 25, 2022 Colie James Episode 12
Business-First Creatives
Pick Your Path with Ashley Pendergraft of Systems Over Stress
Show Notes Transcript

I was first introduced to Ashley of Systems Over Stress through her Airtable bonus inside the Done in a Day program.  I downloaded it, watched like one video, but didn’t have the capacity to add Airtable to my tech stack at that time. Then in March of 2022 we were both presenting at the Done in a Day Virtual Conference and Ashley’s talk was one of my favorites.

Now mind you, I YELLED at her through my computer screen the entire time. Her talk was geared towards using Airtable as your CRM, you know to replace Dubsado.

But at the end of that talk I was like “I have got to work with Ashley”.

I tried to hire her for a VIP Day to help me setup Airtable to manage the backend support for my Dubsado clients/students, but she wasn’t taking on any clients.

I managed to sneak into her group program right before she closed the WHOLE thing down even though I wanted nothing to do with a group program.  Turns out that was the best decision!

Okay, so now that I have talked about how we met, I want to give you a preview of this podcast episode. Because despite the fact that we are both systems strategist, we didn’t about talk that much about systems.  Instead, we honed in on Ashley’s recent decision to pause ALL sales in her business (VIP Days, group program seats, and Airtable templates) in order to niche down to serving business owners with group programs>

Despite having a wildly successful year in 2021, she realized being on a call for 6-hours for VIP Days wasn’t going to get her the business she dreamed of.  If you want to hear the rest, grab some headphones.  This is one of my favorite conversations to date!


Here are the highlights…

[00:56] What is Systems Over Stress?
[01:37] What was in your offer suite prior to June 2022?
[03:52] What has happened since you niched down your group program?
[07:55] Figuring out who you want to serve
[10:29] Let’s talk money
[11:19] Do your VIP Days have a future?
[16:09] How has your customer base changed inside Systems Over Stress?
[18:18] Why should someone care about Airtable?
[21:39] How I’ve integrated Ashley’s Airtable strategies into my own business
[25:51] Ashley’s advice for pivoting your business
[28:56] Ashley’s advice for building the business YOU want

Links
Ashley’s Instagram: @systemsoverstress
Ashley’s Systems Over Stress Program: systemsoverstress.co (aff link)

Guest Bio
Hey! I’m Ashley, and my company is called Systems Over Stress.

I am an Airtable & Zapier consultant. I primarily work with feminist and neurodivergent online business owners and help them use Airtable to manage their group offer so they can deliver a low-lift, high-touch (and automated) experience.

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ARE YOU READY TO CREATE CONSISTENT SYSTEMS IN YOUR BUSINESS?

Dubsado VIP Experience: This is a fully done-for-you offer for creative entrepreneurs and service providers, which includes full strategy and implementation to provide each and every one of your clients with an amazing + consistent experience.  https://coliejames.com/dubsado-vip-day

Colie:

Hello, Ashley. Welcome to the Business-First Creatives podcast. I am super excited to be chatting with you. How are you today?

Ashley:

I'm great. I'm so excited to be here and talk to you.

Colie:

I mean, for those of you that don't know Ashley is from Do the Damn Thing. And she has an awesome group program called Systems Over Stress, which I am a student in, and we are going to be chatting about this today. Um, so first let's just go back. Are you two weeks post-launch?

Ashley:

I'm a week post-launch.

Colie:

You are a week post launch. I want to talk about life for you before you shut your program down and after you shut your program down. Why don't you give us a good description of what Systems Over Stress is and who you help?

Ashley:

Sure. So over stress now is a six month group program that helps other group program founders or anyone with a group offer, manage the, manage their group program inside of Airtable. So no spreadsheets, no click up managing the entire. Lunch sales delivery, all of that, uh, in Airtable. So that is what systems overstressed focuses on. Um, yeah.

Colie:

And it is quite amazing. I hopped in before your prior launch. I just want to put out there, so Ashley uses the word group program, but in case you guys are aware, I don't have a group program, I have an online course. Same thing in her world, guys, like whether or not you're selling core seats or you're selling a timed group program, her program helps you manage everything on the backend. And I originally bought it because I was trying to figure out a support ticketing system. Then I hopped in there and I realized, oh my God, there is so much more that I can be doing with my online course to streamline the backend. Because you guys know I'm all about streamlined and automated workflows. And I was doing none of that with my online course... none. Ashley, one of the things that I talk about on this podcast is building a business that brings you joy. So let's talk about what you were doing before this latest launch. What was in your offer suite?

Ashley:

So many things. Uh, I had, I had VIP days, I had a template shop. I did have the group program, but it was more general Airtable for everything you could possibly use it for in your business. So it was just, it was very broad. So I was doing a lot of things. Um, 2021 was my first kind of big year of being like the Airtable girl on the internet. I brought in$70,000 from VIP days. And that was like the biggest bulk of my revenue in 2021. Uh, and I loved them. And also I knew I didn't want to be on a call with people for six hours a day. Like it was, it didn't feel as sustainable as I wanted it to feel. And so I, in 2022, I was like, I think I kind of want to shut these down for a little bit and lean into the group program because I knew the lifestyle that I wanted, which was like, 30 hours a week and make$300,000. Like that was my goal for this year and I knew with VIP days, I would have to really restructure them to get where I wanted to go with that. And so I was like, well, I had this group program that I think could fuel that like lifestyle, um, goal that I had. So I shut everything down and focused on just making that program the best it could be. And I had this last launch. So this is really our main offer right now is our group program.

Colie:

I love it, Ashley. I mean, because everybody's shouting six figures, six figures, six figures, and you were making six figures before you shut everything down and decided to really streamline your offer. But like, let's talk about your mental health before and after. How are you feeling now versus how you were feeling in like the end of 2021, when you were still offering everything under the sun related to Airtable?

Ashley:

I'm curious what your thoughts are on the word niching, but like when I became Airtable for group programs, just there's, there's so much more. It was interesting. I used to do Airtable for so many different things, and then I would have this, like, I would be overwhelmed with all the things I could talk about in my emails, all the things I could talk about my messaging. And now that I'm Airtable for group programs, that's much more narrow, but my ideas and my like inspiration is so. Like, it's always overflowing. I'm like, I can't talk about this enough. Like, I there's so much, I want to share because it's so specific and it kind of gave me that creative constraint. So there's that. And I also just really realized, like, I love being able to like, put things out and see what I love about them when I don't love about them. Template shop, for example, template shop was great with selling templates. I didn't like not knowing what was happening afterwards. It's like I liked having that relationship with VIP days. Love VIP Days really really had a lot of anxiety with like the support period afterwards. And was able to kind of figure out systems to support that, but it just never felt, I was always afraid of my inbox. And I was, I was worried that a support ticket would take two minutes or two hours. And like, I just kind of learned the things that was honestly like I deal with. I have ADHD. I deal with anxiety and depression. I was like what are the things in my business that are making me feel that tightness and like, how can I step away from those things? And as more and more the group program was like, I love being in the circle community because everything is like, it's more of a bonus that we're connecting versus like an expectation that I have to be there to answer your question within 24 hours, like sometimes with the VIP day and one-on-one clients. So it was, it was kind of like really seeing all of the things and then picking picking the pieces and really finding the one that just made me feel, the least stress of all of them.

Colie:

I mean, and that's important. Like I know, you know, I'm a photographer, but like that is what I sell my photography clients is a no stress photo experience. And I use that word over and over again, because as a business owner, if you can eliminate someone's stress, it helps you grow your business. If you can eliminate stress, it makes you feel better about working inside of that business. So that was why I was so happy to see, you know, that big, I mean, I thought it was a big pivot. Because the funny thing is you talked about niching. And it's not that it's not that I don't value the word, it's that I think it gets overused. I think that people tell everyone to niche down. If you niche down, you can make more money, but they're not talking about the other reasons that you niche, which is to help with your messaging. It is much easier to talk about what you do, who you are, what you offer, if you're talking to one type of business owner, because when I learned about VIP days, I'm actually doing the opposite. I think that my messaging for photographers for a VIP day, or for my course, is super strong. Like, but I always have this worry of, but I'm going to run out of photographers to service. So I should expand a little bit more because I do really like using my brain to figure out systems for people that don't just take pictures for a living, but it, you know, like you said, It makes me really think about my messaging. When I say this, am I just talking to photographers? Or am I talking to anybody that could hire me for a VIP day? So it is definitely a rabbit hole, but I am a big believer in niching down. And even more than that, I'm a big believer in doing whatever makes you happy. So I'm very excited that you took two months off.

Ashley:

I think it's a journey too, of like, I know there's no way I could have needed. Two years ago, it's like, I didn't know what I was doing. Like, I didn't know who I wanted to be with. And I think the more you serve people and see like really love, like, I don't love convincing people to get off of Dubsado and move into Airtable. Like I that's, I'm not interested in that. And it's like, so I was like, don't love talking to those people, but like you shouldn't use Dubsado for a group program. Everyone's kind of on board with that, so like, let's move over there. But there's just, it's a process. And I think people want to find their niche so quickly and it's really, I'm just like enjoy the journey of like serving people. And if you totally hate the client you're with right now, you can be like, great. I never have to work with this type of person again, but now I know. And so that's been, that's been a huge journey of the last two years is, is just like process of elimination.

Colie:

Yeah. And I think the other thing that really fascinated me about you niching down and only doing your group program, is I don't know how you feel about helping people figure out their tech shit, but it brings me so much joy. And so in my group program, I can get so much more of that because there are so many more people in my group program than I could ever possibly work with in VIP days. So like when one of my students has like an aha moment, or, you know, they duplicate a proposal, they figure out how to do something on their own that they never would have figured out if I hadn't taught them, you know, A, B and C. I mean I get super happy. Sometimes I start clapping on the Q A calls because I'm just so excited. So I do love that you're going to be able to hit your income goals, working with more people, but actually working less during the week. It's so much easier to make things structured, and you know, tell your students that you'll respond to their questions within 24 to 48 hours, or that they have to hold them for your Q A calls. Cause your Q A calls are bananas. And they're awesome. And as a student, when I get to get in there and like show my whole screen and be like, Ashley, please help me fix this. Like I do that for other people and it's just been so great to have someone there to do that kind of stuff for me. Because I've only been using Airtable since I heard you talk about it over and over again during the Done in a Day conference in March. I mean, like I had no intention of adding any more tech to my tech stack. And after you talked, I was like, okay, no, how can I work with Ashley? Okay. She's not doing VIP days. Okay. Let me, let me join this group program. I don't really want to be in another group program, but let me join it and see what happens. And I'm so happy that I did.

Ashley:

Yeah, I love the Q and a calls.

Colie:

Yeah, they're awesome. So let's talk about your revenue because I am just like over the moon. So 2021, you made six figures. How much did you make?

Ashley:

$110k

Colie:

Yeah,$110k and how much did you make off your last launch?

Ashley:

My last launch of Systems Over Stress was 46,000.

Colie:

I was like she wants to be real precise guys.

Ashley:

What's interesting is that before this launch was live for 10 months in those 10 months, it also made 46,000, like exactly. So it's very, it was very interesting to see like this launch when it was the first time it was so specific, like all like kind of this new rebrand of it, made as much as it did in the 10 months, but it was, it's been alive in just two weeks. Yeah. Which is what was really interesting.

Colie:

I mean, that is amazing, but like now you're not going to have to stress over all the kinds of questions that someone could ask you in the group program. You just get to focus on things that are only related to group programs. I, I don't, I don't know what eliminating that kind of stress would be like. Cause I've recently been thinking about expanding my course, because for the longest, my course was just for family photographers and I've been contemplating expanding it to more photographers, but then I'm like, the questions will not be a specific. Like people will ask me all kinds of questions and so I feel like I'm kind of the opposite of you. I've been really niche down for a really long time. And now that I'm thinking about expanding and I've watched what you do, I'm like, wait, hold up, maybe Ashley's got the right idea. Maybe I should just stick with, you know, being real specific in my messaging and all of these things. Uh, let's talk about VIP days because I mean, you know, we both did Done in a Day program and I know that VIP days were a very strong focus in 2021. So why did you make the decision to eliminate the VIP days and do you think that you will ever bring VIP days back?

Ashley:

Yeah. So for those of us who do systems VIP days, I will just be fully transparent. I was my, like my positioning with my VIP days was like, I will turn your spreadsheets into a database. My tool was Airtable. My person was an online business owner, but that was people who had spreadsheets for their, uh, real estate business for their like podcast production company. It was, it was a bespoke, like build every time, which is not like turnkey. Which it just, it was, it was truly just like building from the ground up every single time. So I knew that wasn't going to be sustainable. And I am bringing back VIP days in a way that I'm really excited about. Um, so back to your point about kind of like expanding a group program or niche further serving the people. What we're working on right now is we're doing these things called right now. It's called like learning pathways. You're coming into the program and you're either going to be launching in 30 days, or you want to just kind of dive in and improve your curriculum. It's like giving you a custom guide of how to go through the program and like really achieve the result that you want right away. Because some folks are launching, some folks aren't. Some folks want to fix their like Q A calls, like whatever that is. And we're gonna make those learning pathways for our students to better serve them where they're at and then use those as our blueprints for our VIP days. Because I can't set up everything that's inside the Systems of our Stress in one day, for a VIP day client. And that's what I used to think I would have, have to do is like they do a VIP day. I have to do set up every single thing, but now we're kind of going at it through these like learning pathway avenues. It's like, all right, you're launching in 30 days, let's do a VIP day and get this seventy-five percent of the course done in a day for you. And then, um, have you in Systems Over Stress when you want to lean into the other, the other thing. So I think they're going to be a great compliment to each other, which feels really nice. It's like, it's not an either, or I think it's a, both, it can be a both, and which I think is going to just be so fun.

Colie:

Ashley, you are definitely going to hit your goals in 2022. I will say so I kind of do something similar. Um, when you come and you're selling an online course and VIP days. For the longest, I was struggling with my messaging. I was like, but do I want to be telling people to enroll in the course or at least if they were family photographers, do I want to be telling them to enroll in the course or do I want to be trying to sell them a VIP day? And at the end of the day, I don't care which path you pick. Because if you choose the course and the course doesn't work for you, you will just upgrade into a VIP day. And so I kind of hear that's what you're saying. You know, you're going to give people these different pathways and if they get into the course and they find that are in the group program and they find that they can't set it up by themselves, they need more handholding, they don't have the timeframe to, you know, do it all the time. They can hire you for one of these distinct blueprints for a VIP day, get that big chunk done. And then they can, you know, work on the rest of it. So I will say it's been successful for me. And so I think it's really going to be successful for you. Because there are people who think that they want to DIY it. They think that they have the capacity. They think that if they get a little bit of hand-holding that, you know, they can get through it, but then they either can't or their circumstances change. I mean, I had one person who had all this time set aside and then they had to, they had to quickly close their business because they were having some issues. And then when they came back, they were like, okay, no, I don't have time now. Like, I need you to do it as a VIP day. I need to be on the other side of this in like two weeks. Can you help me? And I was like, well, absolutely. Um, so no, I'm really excited to hear that you're going to be balancing those.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Colie:

So anything interesting about this last launch and or the people that enrolled now that you're starting to do the kickoff calls? Like, what have you seen happen inside the group program now that you have niched your way all the way down to people that have group programs and online courses?. Yeah,

Ashley:

Yeah. So it's, it's interesting. We have a lot of, um, wellness group programs and movement. Because we had a, uh, Marlo is like a pole dance instructor is like amazing in that space and just really loves the program and leaned in and was like one of our top affiliates. And so it's so interesting to see the trends of like, all right, now we have a bunch of like circus, like circus group programs and things like that. So that was really interesting to see like the variety of types of group programs, but it all boils down to: you all have an onboarding process, you all have calls of some sorts. So how everyone can kind of still get the same, um, get the same support, even if their niche is totally different. So that was really cool to see. Uh, and since we have niched down too, the calls are now. They're so specific to EV like everyone can kind of get, get value out of it. There's they're saying, oh, my calls are every other week. So how would I set this up? And it's like, oh, I do that too. Or like, they can kind of see and tweak how things happen. And I love, people come without even any questions and just to kind of get the inspiration and the ideas there. And so it's been cool to see that momentum of people really committing to wanting to improve their group programs, because what we're seeing more and more, is a lot of people think group programs are scalable. I don't think they're scalable unless you have the systems to support and back them up. And audiences, students have a really high expectation. They expect their onboarding documents to be delivered immediately and they expect to like, they don't want to have to wait on you to get some of this stuff done. And so it's been really nice to see people valuing systems because that's not always like the sexiest part of business. Um, and so that's been really, really fun to see.

Colie:

I know we're 20 minutes in. But I just realized that other than, you know, telling people that you're going to take a spreadsheet and turn it into a database, some people might not have any idea how amazing Airtable can be. So Ashley, just put three things out there that you think are key to running a group program using Airtable. I mean, I'll, I'll put the first one out there, uh, your support ticketing system. I came in so that I could get a support ticketing system. And you just blew my mind with all of the automations that I could do, setting up a database of like all the questions that someone answered that they could go back and search through. I mean, like I had never thought about doing that, so we'll, we'll put it out there. That's number one, give me two two more.

Ashley:

There are so many moving pieces to a group program. You have your Zoom, you have your Circle or your Mighty Networks. You have the curriculum. There are just so many moving pieces and there's a lot of rich, incredible data and all of those moving pieces and your Google form, then your spreadsheets, what is missing for group programs that really takes everything to the next level is having database and having one source of truth for all of that lives. So what Airtable does is it doesn't really replace as much as it connects everything together. And when everything is centralized in one place, I cannot stress enough, how much easier your program has to run and the data you can glean. Like it is wild. So for example, it does replace your Google forms. So if you're using Google forms in your group, Stop stop, stop, stop, stop. At least, or use Airtable for that. Um, so what these Airtable forums do is people can select their name and that links them to what we call like a primary student record. So everything they do in your program is linked in one central spot. So you can pop open and see when they submitted their onboarding. When they, how many questions they've asked in your community group, all of those things are in one place. Like you need a database to really support your students. Um, so that's, that's the one thing is like, it's just the general idea of having a database and a source of truth for your group program is fantastic. Um, and the other thing I would say is it just makes it, makes it so much easier for you to elevate your group program and serve your clients better. So what Colie kind of mentioned was we have a searchable Q A call database. A lot of group programs, kind of what makes makes it a group program versus maybe a standalone course, is the fact that you have these calls. A lot of us put replays in our, in our courses, but like, are you really expecting your people to go through 15 hours of videos to like see their questions? Like, no, one's going to do that. And there's just so much, there's so much gold in those. So with Airtable, because we have our students submit their questions. And we have a process to easily timestamp, we literally have a searchable Q&A call database that our students can go, Hey, I'm working on my sales hub. What are other questions? Folks have asked cool. On March 7th at the two minute mark, someone asked this question that I really want to know the answer to, and they can just go there. That takes us no extra time to create because it's already in our database, but it, it actually, it helps our students so much. So that's, that's another way. That's just like the tip of the iceberg.

Colie:

I mean, it is just the tip of the iceberg, because I know you remember this, but after I integrated feedback forms after every one of my modules, which, I mean, I've seen that in courses before. Don't ask me why I never thought I had to do it in my own course. But after I did that, I had this one. Who was flying through the material. And how did I know that she was flying through the material? Every like few hours, I was getting a new feedback form from her to let me know she had finished module one and then module two and then module three. And I was like, I never would have thought that by integrating those forms, I could get data on how fast my students were completing the course. Which of course is something that everybody wants to know. I mean, I now have it on like one of my headlines. Run your business in Dubsado in less than 10 days. And originally I was getting that number by asking people, well, how many days did it take you to complete the course? Now I don't have to rely on my students remembering how many days it took them. I can go into my own Airtable database and be like, okay. They bought the course on this day. They finished modules one through five and these days. And then by this one, they had submitted one of their things for me to look at it. And I was like, oh my God, that is so much easier than asking someone how much time they spend or how many days. Getting that information, that data on your students, without having to actually ask them the specific question, that you might get an accurate answer to, or you might not was mind blowing for me. And it's, it's probably the best thing that I got out of your course thus far, because then I had all kinds of students that were telling me, you know, what I discovered in this module, creating forms doesn't have to be as complicated as they make it out to be. And I was like oh, that's gold. How many times can I put that on social media?

Ashley:

a piece of marketing. Like you it's like double. Data is I love talking about it and it's not like nerdy. It doesn't have to be like nerdy or boring or make your eyes glaze over it. It makes your marketing accurate. It makes it easier to create content because if your brain is not super inspired, it's like let's pop in and see what, see what people are actually getting out of this. And it's just, oh, I'm so happy that you implemented those in that you're seeing people fill those out. Cause it's, it's lovely.

Colie:

It is. And it also helps you find the holes. Like, you know, if you ask someone how they felt about a module or if there was anything that they expected to learn, that they didn't. I mean, if I answer your question and they tell you, they, um, next time you update your course, you have student data on what would make the experience better for them. And again, I think there's way less pressure if you're asking them these in like bite sized questions after every lesson or every module versus at the end of your course. You know, trying to get someone to tell you about their entire experience when they may have done module two, like 30 days ago, how are they supposed to remember what questions they had or what their struggles were? So, yeah, that was, I didn't expect to do it in your course. And after I put those in, I mean, I know I took a break from Systems Over Stress after that, I was like, this is so fantastic. Let me just sit and just let the sun shine on this for a while. And then I'll hop back in, which is another reason why your program is so great in six months, you can do so much stuff. It is not like you have to trip over yourself to get everything done immediately. You can do a module, you can do a set up, you can run through it, see how it feels, make the tweaks, and then come back when you're ready to implement something new. Which is just totally amazing.

Ashley:

Yeah. Cause I, I, love group programs. I I'm in a lot of them. I love them as a business owner. And I also love them as a person who likes to learn things and I just, it just. Airtable. I can tell when people don't have Airtable, group program, like I can feel it. I'm like, I wish you had a form like this, or like, I see you have a Google form. And I'm like, how are you going to, how are you going to take, what are you going to do with this data that you're asking me? It's just going to gather dust in a Google sheet, like deep in your drive. And like, I just. I want people to be able to actually take advantage of, the questions that they're asking, like just really engaging their students in a way that you can actually take action on.

Colie:

oh, Ashley, I could talk to you forever. And this podcast could literally go on forever, but I am going to wrap it up because I do want to be conscious of your time. So let me ask you a question. If there's anyone in the listening audience right now, that is feeling like you were like, they're currently doing too much. They know that they have these goals and they don't think that their current offer suite is going to get them there. Or they're trying to come up with a plan. What advice do you have for someone who wants to, you know, streamline their offers or pivot to something completely different? Um, what advice would you give?

Ashley:

The The first thing is to pause. I think a lot of the time. It's pause and take things away. It's probably never pause. And like, let's add YouTube or let's add X, Y, Z, or let's add a template shop. Like a lot of the times we think, oh, like let's add more things to either have more revenue or make our get, get more leads. Um, the biggest thing that I've seen is just to truly be able to. Pause and really reflect on what are your goals and is the current thing you're doing, helping you get there. Um, just by having that lens kind of at the forefront, it had made me help me make a lot of hard decisions. Like I don't need to be paying a social media manager and I probably don't need this OBM right now. Like, and I probably don't need this template shop. And like, really, like, especially if you're a team of one or you have a small team, like. splinter your focus too much and really focus on like one thing at a time that might feel counterintuitive, but it has truly helped me just like leaps and bounds skyrocket my growth this year.

Colie:

The power of one is definitely, definitely something that everyone should kind of just sit in, whether it's honing in on your one message, your one offer, all of those things will help you figure out where you want to go and meet your goals. And guess what? If a template stop is not currently serving you and you decide to put it on the back burner and then you get your group program running well, and you want to bring the template, shop back, guess what? You have the power to do that because it's your business and you get to do what you want to do with it. So I think making sure that people understand that when you make a decision, it's not. But you should sit in that decision long enough to make a decision on what you should do next. Instead of trying to change, like all of the things at once, or add in a bunch of new things. I think that if you can figure out the one offer that makes you happy, that you really want to focus your effort on and that you want to see if you can meet your financial goals with that one offer. I think everyone should do it after they've paused. After they've made.'cause then if you want to do what Ashley's talking about and bring back in those VIP days, you can do it after you figured out that one offer that makes you happy. So, Ashley, any final thoughts?

Ashley:

I think it's okay to change your mind and disappoint people. That is something that I've had to lean into. Like you messaged me and was like, what do you mean you aren't doing VIP days? And I'm like, I don't know, talk to me in Q3. And it's like, that was not something I used to be able to do one because I was afraid of turning down thousands of dollars. And I was also afraid of disappointing people. And I've really had to kind of strengthen that, that muscle and like your businesses here ultimately to serve other people, yes, but also to really serve you and your lifestyle. And like, I want people to put that first because so often we feel we are beholden to our client's expectations are like, well, I've always done these things. And if I take retainer away, like how will they feel? I don't care. I don't care about them. Like I care about like you and I, because it's not sustainable. It won't be sustainable. And you'll end up like burning out and burn, like canceling your business anyways. So, um, that's been a big, big thing. So please build a business like we're doing this. We're all in bosses for getting back to build the company that you want to be in and that you want to thrive in. And I think that's a really empowering thing that we can, we can forget sometimes when we're like deep in the weeds.

Colie:

Listeners where they can find you. And hey, if you want to give us a preview of when Systems Over Stress is going to open again. I won't say no.

Ashley:

So you can find me on Instagram, I'm@dothedamnthing_, but really that's just going to direct you to my link and bio that has my weekly email series. It's called Grow Your Group Program in Airtable comes up every Tuesday. Um, that's really fun. And we're going to be opening the doors to Systems Over Stress. Like I dunno in a month in the next couple of weeks, we're just like doing a couple tweaks to turn it evergreen, and then it'll be, it'll be ready. So if you have a

Colie:

so it is going to go back evergreen.

Ashley:

It's going to be evergreen. Cause like the biggest thing was ever that's like your, my urgency is not your urgency. Like if you want this, now I want you to really get it now and not have to wait for my launch, but we just have to make sure on the tech side that you are welcomed in easily. Um, so yeah, it'll be available soon. So if this is interesting to you, Airtable is interesting to you, definitely check that out. And Instagram is like kind of the good portal to get all the links you need.

Colie:

yeah, Ashley, I knew there was a reason that I love you. Whenever anybody asks me why my offers are evergreen. That's what I say. I mean, if you have urgency with tech, you are not going to wait two months for me to open my doors to figure it out. You're just going to find some other source, probably not as good, let's be honest, but you're just going to go look for another source or you're going to try to Google it or YouTube it or whatever it is that you were doing. Like tech is like an immediate need. Like when you have a tech problem, you feel it. And it is, you know, you want to solve it. You want to get over the hump because people who sit in their tech problems. It's just a real strain on your business. So I want to be that person that helps people who are overwhelmed with their tech as quickly as possible, so that you can get on to running a business that you love instead of one that you hate.

Ashley:

Yeah, that's why it's called Systems Under Stress. Cause I really believe that anything that is stress-related in your business can be solved by system. By automation or by streamlining things. It's very hard to streamline a bunch of different things. So that goes back down to like having a few systems. Um, but yeah, systems over stress is something that I like. I really, really believe in as a concept and as a program of course, but yeah, this was so fun.

Colie:

Thank you, Ashley and everybody else, thanks for listening.

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