EPISODE 67 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO HALVE YOUR WORKING WEEK

Sonya:
Welcome to the Boom Your Biz podcast, a podcast for the movers, the shakers and even bigger action takers in business. I'm your host, Sonya McIntyre-Reid, and each week, I'll be exploring the question of what really makes businesses and organizations thrive, and I'm on a mission to educate, empower and inspire business owners and myself along the way.

Sonya:
Michelle Bowditch is the founder of Door20a, a tech consulting agency supporting female entrepreneurs and executive assistants to adopt the latest apps and technology to propel their businesses and careers forward. Michelle is actually a member of my old co-working community, One Roof for Women, and I first came across her when she was posting in our community group all about some latest changes to Instagram, so of course, I checked her out, I stalked her to see what she was doing, and was completely blown away. Michelle, thank you so much for making the time to come on the podcast today.

Michelle Bowditch:
Thank you for having me, and I love when people stalk me and they engage in me, it's so much fun.

Sonya:
Oh, technology's so good for the stalking, isn't it? So why don't you start by giving us a bit of a background. I know that you've mentioned before we started recording, you've been to Silicon Valley, you started off as an EA, you sound like you've got an incredible story as to how the business started.

Michelle Bowditch:
Look, it's a really funny story, so prior to being a business owner and the founder of Door20a, I was actually an executive assistant supporting at CEO and CFO levels for a very long time, and I grew up, and like for a lot of people, I thought I had to be in this big job with a big title, and being in a corporate space and all that, and I did truly love it, and it was a great adventure, and navigated me through the different phases and the different learning curves that I had during my career.

Michelle Bowditch:
But in 2019, I was supporting a Vice President of Strategy and Transformation, this incredible Indian lady called [Pretty Bouchard 00:02:10], and she is truly fantastic, and she was tapped on the shoulder and asked to go to Silicon Valley and head up an incubation. I really had no idea what that was, and for me, I was a mother in my mid 40s, single mother to say the least ... and I need to say that because it is the most hardest job we ever do in our lives ... but we were tapped on the shoulder on a Friday afternoon and went, basically, "We've got to be in Silicon Valley on Monday morning, we're going to head up an incubation, how do we do it?"

Michelle Bowditch:
So, for six months, I had to navigate a career, juggling the three teenagers at home, but also understanding a new world that I'd never been in. Now I thought I was reasonably tech savvy, my kids were telling me about Snapchat, and every time I wanted to do something on Instagram, I'd run to them and they'd sort me out, and I thought I knew the world of tech, but when I went to Silicon Valley supporting her, it was a whole new world.

Michelle Bowditch:
And believe me, people think of Silicon Valley, and they think of San Francisco with the beautiful bridge, and all that. Silicon Valley is not like that, it's a flat structure, industrial warehouse-like, and it is totally different, but it has so many incredible, smart, oh my gosh, people are just amazing, like their brains think totally different. And during the six months, I met my friend, Mr Slack and Mr Zoom. So, most people know who Zoom is, but back in 2019, that was a very unknown platform.

Michelle Bowditch:
But what I soon quickly learned being in this environment day in, day out, breathing the world of tech, automation, AI, robotics, how can I in my role ... and this was the first time that I feel that I really, really challenged myself as an executive assistant ... how can I use technology in my role to create efficiencies, and then be a better version of myself to support my CEO at the level that she needed, and become her true business partner, have a sit at the boardroom table and be the female leader that I truly wanted to be? And that's what technology was able to do when I was over in Silicon Valley.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, the first thing for me, what EA doesn't have to do their CEO's expenses and we had 4-500 line items each month, we were using a system called Concur, which is part of the SAP family, so a huge platform, and one of these two guys, a cloud solution architect, and a data scientist, young guy, said to me, "Why are you photocopying receipts, why are you manually doing this? You know you can automate it?" And I said, "What are you talking about?"

Michelle Bowditch:
Because I was living and breathing this world, I quickly soon found, with working with these guys, that I can get my Concur app to talk to my Uber app, and then talk to my Qantas app, and then talk to my calendar, to download the invites that were a lunch week, instead of sitting there and writing, "Bill Smith from AMP," and his title and all of that, he would download it.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, quickly found the automation of one app talking to another ... as I said, becoming friends, or integrating, whatever language you want to use ... and it was an amazing world, and then my time was freed up when I was able to create these efficiencies through automation and integration, and I was able to do all these other amazing things with my CEO at the time.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, we incubated, we got funded, came back to Australia, became a startup tech business, which is now [Clipsal Solar 00:05:38], it's a fantastic business, and then I found myself six months later, she not needing an executive assistant at my level and I went, "Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?" But I love people, I'm a great communicator, and my eyes were so wide open, working in an incubation, that I went, "Wow, I have to show people what technology can do."

Michelle Bowditch:
So, I took the leap of faith, had no idea what I was going to do, and how Door20a looked like that, so from March until the July, I kind of navigated my way around and spoke at events, talked about what I'd learned in Silicon Valley, talked about how to be a great EA, then just went and learnt all these amazing platforms out there, learnt about Instagram, because I'd met the team on Facebook when I was over there, and talked to them about the integration platforms that they were hosting at the time between Instagram and Facebook and WhatsApp, and also, how they can all create efficiencies through scheduling programs, calendar programs and all that.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, in July 2019 ... actually, I need to correct myself, Silicon Valley was 2018 ... time flies with COVID, doesn't it?

Sonya:
It does, in a strange way.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, in 2019, I literally sat around the fireplace outside on my back deck, with my creative friends and said, "I need to become real. I've registered this business name, what do I do with it," and literally, that's how the name came about, and we birthed it over copious amounts of red wine. I had a beautiful friend who is so creative, she's one of those Gen Ys, that things just pop out of her head, that I have no idea sometimes what she's talking about, and we birthed Door20a and set up a company structure, became real.

Michelle Bowditch:
But one of the things which for me was, which really became evident is, what does a woman need to have in her toolkit, and also in her financial toolkit, to start up a business? And this is where, again, I had so many light bulb moments, because we're taught that we need to have $20,000 in the bank, or we need to $50,000 a bank, you've got to have this big company structure, and we've got to go and pay lots of money and set up a website. And I quickly found that, from marketing a business, to setting up a business and people find me, you can do that with so many free tools, apps and platforms.

Michelle Bowditch:
So that was another light bulb moment for me, and this is what what I truly love, is that what did we see in COVID? We saw so many people lose their jobs, and so many women that had a side hassle, and had to really navigate the side hassling to a full business, and a fear that having them was like, "Oh my gosh, I can't do this, I don't have enough money in the bank," and really, it isn't about money, it is about finding your passion, having a product or a service that you truly, truly believe, you know your [Y 00:08:34], and then come and talk to me, and we'll figure out the right tools and platforms to get you started with zero dollars in the bank.

Michelle Bowditch:
And that's really where we are today. My role is to really support any woman in business who either needs to start a business, or step up in their business, or really refocus the landscape of where they are in their business, and using the right tools and platforms to support them, and ones that they understand, because they say with technology always, not one box fits all. So just because I'm on Instagram, doesn't mean you need to be on there. What is a platform that you feel where your customers are going to be, and also, where do you feel safe to engage in?

Michelle Bowditch:
So, that is really in a nutshell, and I work with some incredible leaders, some incredible businesses, and I truly want every woman in business to succeed. So if technology can do that, to create the efficiencies, so you're not there scrambling in the background, trying to reconcile your expenses. I want you to work on your business, not in your business, to be the best success that you can possibly be.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, that's in a nutshell, where I am as of today, so yeah.

Sonya:
Oh, incredible. I always love hearing people's background stories, and what inspired them to start the business, and all of the bits and pieces that led to where they are today.

Sonya:
I think, you're probably going to say to me, "Sonya, this is really dependent on your specific business and what you want to achieve," but broadly speaking, what are your favorite tech tools for a business owner?

Michelle Bowditch:
Look, it's really daring, and I think this is a great point. When I first started my business, I didn't have a website. I couldn't justify, at the beginning, my investment in a website, and I'll talk through that because I do have one now.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, when I first started my business, I needed a platform to find my audience to engage in, and also for them to understand my voice and my messaging, and the products I had. So I started off with Instagram, so for me, it was a fantastic platform, so I just needed to navigate how Instagram worked from being on your desktop versus your phone, how to engage in your audience, and for me, it was fantastic. And to this day, from the day I started until today, I'll still get 60% of my business from Instagram, so I need to make sure about my marketing and the way I work on Instagram.

Michelle Bowditch:
But when I first started, I had to figure out, so I don't have a website, so what do I need so people can find me if they're not on Instagram, because as you know, there are billions of users on Instagram, but there's still a lot of people, especially the more mature audience, or the people that fear technology, they're not on it.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, a couple of apps that I used as my mini website, like I used Milkshake and Linktree to start off with, so people could find me in other ways, and what happens is, these tech platforms, they integrate into your Facebook page, your LinkedIn page. So I wanted to find an app or a tool that could talk to all my avenues, so people could find me without having a website.

Michelle Bowditch:
The other thing that was clear to me is, we need to know our numbers in our business, and I cannot highly stress this enough, that you need a platform that supports you, and for me, Xero is my hero. So I know I want to be on Instagram, and I needed Xero for my numbers, and I know it's got a great, fantastic business dashboard, whether you're on your phone or on your desktop, and then the next thing is, how do people book me if I don't have a website?

Michelle Bowditch:
So then I went and looked at tools like Calendly and Acuity, which I absolutely love. Calendly has a free platform for initial services, but then it is a monthly subscription base. And everything I started to use in my business ... and this is what I say to people ... until you navigate the growth and where you want to go, and all those other things in your business, there are so many free apps and tools out there.

Michelle Bowditch:
So at the beginning, I was using Instagram, Milkshake and Calendly and Xero. Now, to this day, I still use Instagram, I don't use Milkshake or Linktree because I now have a website, so everything from Instagram, or LinkedIn, or Facebook, goes to my website, but Calendly is still my booking tool that sits behind the back of my website, and Xero is my hero for my numbers, it's [inaudible 00:13:09], creates my invoices. So for me, if you are a small business, I can't do without Calendly or Xero at the moment.

Michelle Bowditch:
But then on the other thing, being in a corporate environment, like Microsoft Teams is incredible, I absolutely love it, I can't live without Microsoft Teams working in the corporate environment, because within Microsoft Teams, it's part of the Microsoft 365, so for me, Microsoft Teams is one of the children in the family, and I think at the moment, the last time I looked, Microsoft 365 as a platform, had like 80 something integration tools. So once you subscribe to 365, and you're in the Teams environments, it's all these other integration tools that are sitting out there, like Planner and OneNote and Lens, and oh my gosh, the list just goes on and on.

Michelle Bowditch:
And for me, when I'm finding an app or a tool, I want to make sure that it integrates seamlessly at a very low cost ratio, if not free, into my existing platforms that are working for me perfectly. And I always say with a piece of technology, or an app that you want to use, don't say to me, "I need to use Slap, or I need to use monday.com," or, "Everyone tells me I need a [Triboard 00:14:24]."

Michelle Bowditch:
What solution are you trying to solve first of all, and then work backwards, don't start with, "I need to use Trello," and then figure out how to use it. Go to the other end of the scale and say, "What solution am I trying to solve for me and my business," and then look at those tools there, and go, "Okay, does this one integrate well with Microsoft, does this one work well with my Instagram and my scheduling app," ... so anyone that's out there that's a marketer, and I'm sure you know this as well, if you are on any social media platform, yet again, we need to figure out on our business, and engage in our customers, so how do we do that?

Michelle Bowditch:
We use a scheduling app, and I use Later at the moment, but there are some great ones out there, and you set your business up, you've got your content pillars and your brand values, and all your marketing schedule, and I literally sit there four hours a month, and I've got my next 28 to 30 posts already done for the next month. So I can walk away, and then when I go into the social media platforms, I can engage with my customers, and really have real conversations, instead of waking up in the morning and going, "I need to schedule today, what am I going to post?" People have that panic attack.

Michelle Bowditch:
So at the moment, Instagram is still a massive platform for me, Xero is a great tool for any business owner to have, because it is knowing your numbers, and it's not about having money in the bank, it's as we grow and [inaudible 00:15:51] in your businesses, we're doing forecasting, we're doing business analytics and all those kind of things, and as a small business owner, we need all that stuff, we don't think we need, but we actually do.

Michelle Bowditch:
But probably one more app that I think that is a great app that I am using at the moment, because we are fortunate enough here in Australia, and for your audience out there that are back out there doing face to face meetings and events, I am really about the [inaudible 00:16:19] connection, I mean, look at how we both met, we both met through the beautiful One Roof community.

Michelle Bowditch:
So there's this incredible story of a husband and wife family based in Townsville, and they've created a dot, and it's literally a dot that sticks to the back of your mobile phone, it's called Social Dot, and really what it is, is because I'm out there and meeting new people again face to face, and sometimes we don't have the time, one we don't have a business card, or we don't have enough time to say, "Oh, can you give me your details, how you find you?"

Michelle Bowditch:
Social Dot is basically a dot that sticks on the back of your phones, you tap it on someone's iPhone, and you need an iPhone 7 or up, or on most of the Androids, you tap it, and what happens is, it's like when you scan into a venue, like the Service New South Wales app, you go in, you take the photo, Service New South Wales app comes up, and then you hit a button and you basically are checked in.

Michelle Bowditch:
Well, this is what happens, you tap someone's phone and a thing will pop up, usually [inaudible 00:17:22] will come up and say, "Hi, I'm Michelle Bowditch, these are my details," and it will give you a choice of how to connect with me, so it could be via my website, on LinkedIn, via all the social medias, whether it be Clubhouse, TikTok, wherever you're on, and then you can continue on in your conversation talking about other stuff, and it's fantastic, and I absolutely love it.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, they've just rolled it out, it's a really great app, and we've just finished International Women's Day, and I did 15 events over 10 days, and it's really, really fantastic, I really loved it. I was able to connect with all the people in the right way, follow them up later, and then obviously, have a coffee catch up, or a one on one with them later on.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, Social Dot is a great app, I'll give you all the details so you can share with your audience-

Sonya:
Yeah, I've just Googled it, oh my goodness. So, even if you're a café or something, you could pop one of these on each table and people can then tap it, and then go and follow all your social media channels. That's amazing. I love this.

Michelle Bowditch:
And I think also, for me, it's another social media tool, because what it also has in it is that you can have ... what do they call them? I'll give you the correct name, because I don't want to not sell them ... but you can have all these underneath, so the icons will come up, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, but underneath that, you can have custom links, and what I mean by custom links is, if you're running an event, and they say, "Oh, how do I get tickets to the event?" Underneath each of the icons, they can hit like ... it could have the title of the event, you hit on it, and it goes straight to the event ticketing.

Michelle Bowditch:
Because as you know, as business owners ... I suck at selling, I'm not great at selling, but we do have to have sales elements, so if someone says, "How can I join your newsletter," instead of saying, "Oh, go to my website and hit this," in your customs link, they can just hit the button and the sign-up to your newsletter comes up straight away.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, it's fantastic, and I have to say, this husband and wife team, [inaudible 00:19:27] out there selling it, and husband's in the background coding and doing all this, but COVID made them step outside their comfort zone, and create something, and they truly, truly love it, and it is a great resource for us as connectors, women in business to have as well, and also ways that people can find it, and it covers all platforms and websites, LinkedIn, Instagram, as I said, TikTok, Clubhouse, whatever you're on.

Sonya:
Oh, my goodness, I am so excited about this. I'm going to go and buy one right after we get off this episode. They're also having an Easter sale at the moment, so it's a sign.

Michelle Bowditch:
If you hit [Door10 00:20:04] at checkout, you'll get 10% off.

Sonya:
Oh fab, all right, if you could email that to me, Michelle, and I will pop that in the show notes for people as well, yay.

Sonya:
I absolutely love tech tools, I am someone who spends a lot of money on them each month, and the reason that I do that, I was talking to you about how I actually used to be an EA, that was my first ever job, and this was seven or eight years ago now, and back then, we were a complete remote team, we were using things like Zoom, we had team members in the US, and contractors all over the world as well, so technology was massive for us, and we used a ton of different tools, which exposed me to I guess, the world of how technology can make your life easier.

Sonya:
So for me, when I started out in business, and I started having that cash flow come in, one of the first things I did was look into all these tools and integrations that I could use to save myself and my team time, and make things easier for us.

Sonya:
So I remember talking to someone last month, and we were talking about how much I spend on my integrations and tech tools each month, and it's close to about $1,000 a month at the moment, and they go, "Oh my god, that's so much money," and I go, "Yeah, but I feel like I've saved the salary of a full time team member with that $1,000 a month, because of everything and all the automations we've got set up, and the integrations with Zapier, and Xero, and Calendly, and our website, and just everything, or reporting for our clients is all automated, it honestly saves you so much time."

Sonya:
And I think what you're saying about people going, "Oh, I need to use Trello," or I need to use this, or I need to use that, people do the same to me all the time when it comes to either a project management tool, because I'm big on them, or with scheduling tools for social media, and the reality is, they're all very, very similar, right? It comes down to, as you were saying, what do you actually need to use them for, because I feel like some people get caught up sometimes, they go and look for the best tool out there, and often, they'll have all these features that they're never going to use, or they're not going to use for years, right? So they spend all this extra money on it, and it just sits there, and it's too complicated and they don't know what they're doing.

Sonya:
So, I think it all comes down to how you use the tool, not what tool you're using. So, if anyone ever asks me what scheduling tool is best, they're all very, very similar, look at the other tools you're using currently, and work out what's going to integrate, and also what you need it for as well.

Michelle Bowditch:
That's exactly right, and I think the other note on this is probably 99% of these tools have got free versions. So start off with a free version, have a play around with it, and if you like it, then you can either stay with the free version, or update to the next version. So, for example, Canva, I mean, who isn't using Canva these days, absolutely love it. It's has a great free tool to it, but I've just upgraded to the premium version, but I lasted for 12 months without it. Trello, I used a Trello board, I've got staff members in my team who all work remotely, and we still use the free version, and it has the capabilities and the needs that we require in our business.

Michelle Bowditch:
I don't know your thoughts on this, but my thing at the moment is use subscription based model tools because one, you can opt out and opt in at any time that you need, if you need to upgrade. The other thing is our businesses do change at times, we'll have growth, or we need to scale back, so the thing is that with a subscription base model, that tool may not fit you, so you can basically say, "I can't use this in a business, I need to use something else," so it's easy to get out of.

Michelle Bowditch:
Whereas, if you spend thousands of dollars upfront ... remember in the old days, when we used to have to go and buy a software platform, and it was 5 or $10,000, then we had to download it, and you had it on a CD-ROM and all that, well that shouldn't exist anymore. A subscription base model for me works fantastically, and it allows us as a business, that if tomorrow, I don't want to use Calendly, and I want to use Acuity, because it has bigger functionality, and it's going to cater for my global business, then I can stop using Calendly today, I haven't lost anything, it's literally a seamless transition, and I can go across to Acuity tomorrow to cater for my global business and all the needs that I have.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, that is what I love about these platforms, and a lot of them do start up as free, with limited services, and then you can upgrade, it's like with Later, I mean, I think I lasted a week with the free platform, and now I'm on the paid platform because it satisfies my needs and where my business is. So, it's a really important thing to think about as well.

Sonya:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), absolutely, and an example of a tool that I'm not a fan of is HubSpot, because there's this massive inselling with agencies trying to get their clients on board, it's so expensive, and it's very hard to switch to other tools once you're indoctrinated into that kind of area. For some giant companies, it works fantastically, but if you're a small business owner, there are so many other tools out there at the moment that do exactly the same thing, and are going to cost you one tenth of the price.

Sonya:
So I think it is important to go and do your research, but first of all, have a list of what you actually need before going and doing the research, or you're going to get lost down this rabbit hole. There are so many options out there.

Michelle Bowditch:
You are, and it's funny, I started a weekly email out to my database, so I did have a database, and during COVID, one of my challenges was, how do I engage in an audience that are not across any social media platform, because I did some customer research last year with an agency, and I found that 7% of my audience who want to engage with me, are not on any social media platforms, so how was I going to do that? It was basically through a weekly newsletter, and now I'm up to a couple of thousand subscribers.

Michelle Bowditch:
But I initially started off in the Mailchimp world because everyone I know is in Mailchimp, it's a free platform for under 2,000 subscribers, but for me, I got in there, and I went, "Oh my gosh, this is so clunky, this is so old school, I can't use this." And I was fortunate enough back then to be part of the beta testing stage for a platform called Flodesk, F-l-o-d-e-s-k, and as soon as I started using it, I fell in love with this because my Canva and my Trello, and all my platforms I was using, were able to talk to this from an audience management perspective, to an email campaign perspective.

Michelle Bowditch:
It is now subscription based in US dollars, and to be honest, I can't remember how much it is, and I should know how much it is a month, but can I just say, it's transformed my newsletter email management to be the creative platform and tool that I wanted it to be, it talked to everything, and I just absolutely love it.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, this is the thing, you're not liking HubSpot, I'm not a fan of Mailchimp, and everyone I talk to who uses it and go, "I love it," they always still say it's a clunky platform.

Sonya:
Oh, Michelle, you are so right. Like we have clients who will go, "Can you come in and take over our email newsletter," and I look at it, and they've got 15 different lists set up, but they don't realize that you could have multiple people in each list, and then you'd be sending out these emails, they could be getting it multiple times.

Sonya:
So, even the initial structure and setup with Mailchimp is clunky, so I completely agree with you there, completely. I'm not saying that I don't like it, a lot of my clients use it because of the ease of integration with things like Squarespace for example, but I will definitely be checking out Flodesk, that sounds fantastic.

Michelle Bowditch:
It is, and it's really creative, and it's really great to us, and I'm loving it. They're going to do a rollout soon of some upgrades, which I'm excited for, and for me in my business, and everyone that I've worked with are using it now, it is working fantastically, and it connects back to my Stripe, I use Stripe as my payment gateway, I love Square as well ... for anyone that's listening that's using PayPal, please stop using PayPal. We can't afford the fees as a small business owner, so find a platform, and I'm sure if you've got a great accountant, they would be saying, "Don't use PayPal, don't use PayPal."

Michelle Bowditch:
And this is this whole thing, Sonya, is we as business owners, need to constantly review our spend, and the way we're doing things from an automation perspective, because it's always so many tools, and new apps coming out in the marketplace.

Michelle Bowditch:
And my role is to test and find out the benefits for it, so when you as a client come to me, I can really make multiple suggestions and then let you have a play around, come back to me, and then go, "I like this one, but I didn't like this one. This one's going to work with my Microsoft Teams, or integrate into my Canva or Trello, or work better with my Instagram page," and then we basically get them all to talk to each other, and become one happy family, and integrate seamlessly. So, you've freed up your time, and it can really, as I said again, work on your business, not in your business.

Sonya:
So me, as a business owner, Michelle, can I come to you and go, "Hey, I have three different calendars happening at the moment, I've got Acuity, I've got Calendly as well, I want someone to be able to book into my Calendly and feed in all the data from all my different calendars, for them to actually find availability."

Sonya:
Or me come to you and say, "Hey Michelle, I use Xero, and I do my client invoicing through Xero, but sometimes I run events and payments are taken through Stripe, but I need that to talk to Xero." Are you someone that I can come to and be like, "Here are my problems, how do I make this seamless?"

Michelle Bowditch:
Yeah, and that is my role, it's really to create those efficiencies, to reduce the amount of platforms. My first question is, "Why are you using Acuity and Calendly, because they are very much similar platforms? You should only need one of those platforms," so the thing is that means you're going to save money automatically.

Michelle Bowditch:
And the thing is, if you are in the 365 world, all these talk to each other, and it's just really basically a plugin or extension. And I'm not a code person or a techy person, but I do know how to integrate these platforms, and nine times out of ten, it is just like literally putting like putting a cord into the power point, and turning the switch on, and that is how seamless it will be. And it's making sure that, "Do I connect it the Xero end, or do I connect it the Acuity end, which is the best way?" And sometimes you can do it both ways, but in some platforms you can only connect it at one end, and only talk to the other end via the other way round, does that kind of make sense?

Sonya:
Yeah, it does. All right, well I'm going to be in touch with you, Michelle, because I have some open ends at the moment, that I do need tidying up.

Michelle Bowditch:
Well that's my role, and I want to make it seamlessly, because the biggest thing, and I'm sure you have felt it, or been through it, is that a woman in business, technology can be a fearful thing, they could have designed an amazing product, or they have an incredible service to offer, and they know how to do that, but they don't know how to do the backend part, and they get super scared, and go, "Oh, I don't want to build a website, ooh, I don't want to use Instagram."

Michelle Bowditch:
But once we sort out the backend yukiness and then get it happening, it's like, "Oh, I really love being on here. Ooh I want to do an Instagram reel, ooh, I want to do a video today." So I want technology to be fun for them, and as I said, I want everyone to succeed in business and love what they do.

Sonya:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), I love that. Can we touch on how you're using Instagram for a moment, because I know a lot of business owners are really struggling to get clients from Instagram now, there's reduced reach, algorithms have changed. You're saying that a lot of your clients are coming through Instagram, so walk me through your strategy on Instagram at the moment, and what you see is really working for you.

Michelle Bowditch:
Yeah, so I think the first thing is, just don't something in place and get complacent, and think it's going to work for the next six months, because Instagram is changing all the time. Algorithms versus connections piece, so for me, the only thing I don't use on Instagram is Reels. My daughter keeps telling me, "Mom, I'll set up a TikTok account, then you can just replicate your Reels and do all of that."

Michelle Bowditch:
So for me, the biggest thing is, that every month, as I mentioned earlier, I sit down in Later, and I sit down and I write out my content [inaudible 00:32:57], or my brand values, and I know they're big words, but they're actually not big words if you actually drill down.

Michelle Bowditch:
So I figure out, what am I focusing on for the next 12 months, how are people going to find me, and how will they engage with me, and that is purely the simple things. So at the moment, I've just done a bit of a revamp and changed with Instagram, so people are wanting to see more of who I am and what I look like, and I really hate that stuff, but it is a connection piece.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, the first thing is that I schedule my post at least a month in advance, and then when I get on Instagram, I am following and engaging people that inspire me, or I really find really interesting, or I want to learn more about, because the power of connection doesn't just mean coming face to face with me, you can still do it over a social media platform.

Michelle Bowditch:
The other thing that I love with Instagram is that for me at the moment, I can't jump on a plane and go to Silicon Valley and learn all these bits and pieces, so I'm following startup tech businesses, I'm learning more about what it is. The other way I use Instagram is it's a replacement of my news feed, so news.com or whatever. So, every morning, I go on there for about six minutes in the morning, and I catch up with things that have happened overnight. What has happened from a tech perspective, a woman in business perspective, and I quickly catch up.

Michelle Bowditch:
But when I'm catching up, I'm also engaging, so I'm celebrating, because the important thing is that, if you're a people person, you need to show how much of a people person you are on Instagram. And I'm a big people person, so one thing that I do once a week, is I drop into people's DMs in Instagram and leave them a video message, or a voice message.

Sonya:
Ooh, and what do you say, and how do you pick who you're going to send that to?

Michelle Bowditch:
Well, it's probably an emotional connection for me, someone will have achieved something, or there was a beautiful [inaudible 00:35:01], she's a small operator in the Sunshine Coast, and I absolutely love her product, and she had been stalked, like trolled on Instagram, and it was terrible what these people were doing, and she got on her stories, and she was very emotional, and I just popped into her DMs and told her she was incredible, don't give up, people are mean in the world, stay in your lane, be true to who you are, and you know what? She came back to me and she said, ["Mish 00:35:23], not many people do that," she says, "I truly loved receiving your message."

Michelle Bowditch:
So, I'm using it for positive and negative situations, but the other thing for me as well is that showing up in my stories as well is a big thing for me. So I have an audience that engage with me on stories, but they won't engage with me my posts, and I've been able to quickly identify that. So, a great example is, I could load on my post that I'm hosting an event in Brisbane or in Melbourne next week, and buy tickets at here.

Michelle Bowditch:
But what I do is, I then get on my stories, and say, "Hey guys, I'm going to be in Brisbane next week, I've got two appointments available, who wants to do a business strategy session, or a walk and talk with me? DM for further details."

Michelle Bowditch:
And literally, that is my selling mechanism, and those appointments will pretty much be booked, or nabbed I would say, within 24 to 48 hours. So I'm not going out and doing the hard sell, people are coming to me, and I'm full of color, full of life, you've probably seen my Instagram, there's lots of red going on, and there's lots of pink, and I've learnt as a business operator ... I only work three days a week on my business, because it's one of those things, again, it's about working on your business, and not in your business, so for me, when I'm on Instagram, I want to show up, I want to be present, I want to have fun, and I want to engage with my audience, because technology is a hard conversation still to have with many people.

Michelle Bowditch:
People only come to you, it's a little bit like your finances, they only come to you when they're in crisis, or chaos. So I want them now to come to me before they get into that situation, and I want them when they're moving from a side house, or through a big business, what tools do I implement and put into my business, or when they're thinking of setting up a business, or joining Instagram, "How do I do that?"

Michelle Bowditch:
And for me, I'm not an Instagram expert, or I'm not a creative person, so if they need something from an Instagram platform that involves creative or expertise, I will then say to them, "Go and try these three people, they're awesome at what they do, they're going to be able to satisfy your needs," so that is part of that connection piece as well.

Michelle Bowditch:
But I love it, this year I invested my business, I've been following [inaudible 00:37:37] on Instagram, and I'm now doing B-School, I love Business Chicks as well, I became part of the Business Chicks business club just recently, and there's information that people put on Instagram that you can't find anywhere else.

Michelle Bowditch:
And I just love the funness of it, look, it is challenging, there are trolls and stalkers out there, but you get them on all platforms, but it's how you show up, and I feel also, with LinkedIn and I know you're on LinkedIn, but if some of your listeners are on LinkedIn, I still feel on LinkedIn that I've still sometimes got to turn up with my pearls and my black suit, and be a little bit corporate, whereas on Instagram, I can share my full personality, and my fun, and I'm not watching my Ps and Qs, I don't swear, but I'm having real fun with the way I'm delivering my message as well.

Sonya:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), and I think you've found a platform that works for you, and what you're also doing really well, is something that I try and drill into people, is if you're producing one piece of content, make sure you're communicating it across all channels.

Sonya:
So, say you're doing that post where you're trying to sell tickets to an event, on Instagram, you've done a feed post, and then you're dumping on your Instagram stories and talking about it, and then I imagine that 7% of your audience that aren't on social media, you're then making sure you've got a weekly newsletter going out with the same content as well.

Sonya:
So you're hitting all areas, and communicating it, and people are following you and engaging across all three of those places, that's great, they're just seeing the message more frequently and understanding that you're actually selling something, which is great, you want the word out there about it.

Sonya:
I think a lot of the time, people would just put up one post and think, "Okay, I've done that, people should have seen it," doesn't work that way, and meeting people where they're engaging with you is really, really important, so I think that's a really valuable lesson, thank you.

Michelle Bowditch:
You know, for example, I don't always share the post on LinkedIn that is on the Instagram, because I've got to have a look at the messaging. I might share the same image, but I might have to adjust the messaging. And for example, LinkedIn now has LinkedIn Stories. It isn't getting the level of engagement that Instagram is, but the thing is, I still show up on there.

Michelle Bowditch:
I've just got back on Twitter again. My audience in the UK, oh my gosh, they love Twitter. I've got no business for it, but I'm showing up, and I think as a business owner, it's about showing up and showing your true self across all platforms. You might adjust and tweak the messaging a little bit, so I won't jump around twirling my pink skirt on LinkedIn versus where on Instagram, in my stories, I'd probably do that, you know what I mean?

Sonya:
Absolutely, it's really important to be tailoring that message for each platform. That's not to say that you're not selling the same thing on every platform though, or having the same lesson, or teachings that you're putting across, right?

Michelle Bowditch:
Exactly right, and I think also, I have worked with a few people, and this is where for me and my message out there to business owners, is that if you feel at the moment that you need a social media manager, my question to you in a sense is, "Is your journey ready for a social media manager, or should you wait three months? Now, do I need to go out and get a wordsmith and redo my website and stuff like that?"

Michelle Bowditch:
So look at all the things that you need, and prioritize them in your business as to where your business is now, and also what you can afford right now, and then also look at the platforms that are free versus pay ... so for example, with Later with the scheduling app, if you can't afford that $19 a month in your business now, start up on the free platform, and then when you get to a point that you have made that $19 that you can go to a subscription based model with Later and upgrade it, then do it.

Michelle Bowditch:
But if you need to have regular posts, then look at something like Business Creator on Facebook. So basically, Facebook and Instagram are owned by each other, Business Creator has that 90% of the capacity of a scheduling tool at Later, but basically it feeds from Facebook into Instagram, with a very similar look and feel, but it's free.

Michelle Bowditch:
So, this is what I say to business owners, look at what's important in your business, what do I need to invest in now, and then figure out what's on my vision board to have in my business, or invest in my business later on?

Michelle Bowditch:
So, that is the really important thing for all women that are in business, don't try and be everything to everyone at once, because for me it's about focus on what your strengths are at the moment, and what are your weaknesses? Outsource it, whether it be with a piece of technology, or with an individual coming into your business to help you out.

Sonya:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yes, I love that, and I think that comes to, the same thing applies for all of your marketing as well, prioritize. And it might be that you're going to get more return from outsourcing ads, rather than outsourcing your organic social media, so yeah, it's important to weigh it up.

Sonya:
Michelle, I need to get in touch with you about some little bits and pieces I need tidied up myself, where is the best place for us to reach you as business owners if we need some tech help?

Michelle Bowditch:
Look, I'm across, as I said, all platforms, if you're on Instagram, send me a DM, you can jump on my website, which is www.door20a.com. If you hate websites and the internet's not good for you, you can pick up the phone and call me, you can also find me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, YouTube channel as well if you're a big YouTuber, I've got a channel now and I've put on some great videos to watch to learn how to use different platforms. I'm not on Snapchat, and I'm not on TikTok.

Sonya:
Yet.

Michelle Bowditch:
You know, I refused, that platform's not my gig, and I'll let my teenagers [inaudible 00:43:21] that. But yeah, if you're an Instagram person, LinkedIn, or jump on my website, or just send me a text message. Yeah, I'd love to hear from you, and really, I'd like to show you that using technology is easy if we find the right tools to create, there's [inaudible 00:43:38].

Sonya:
Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much for your time, Michelle.

Michelle Bowditch:
Thanks Sonya, have a great Easter, bye.