We’ve gathered 4 industry experts to answer a question that keeps coaches and consultants up at night: “How can I leverage automation to my advantage?"
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[00:00:00] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Nicole was scheduled and then she shows up. There are five people in the Zoom and only one of them and her are humans. So it was an analyst, a very junior role from the VC, and three AIs of three partners.

[00:00:21] _{Alina Trigubenko}: All right, let's kick off our meeting. Let's kick off our round table. And we want to, we do have amazing attendees. So please, let's keep it as conversational and as interactive as possible. Please do ask your questions and if you have any thoughts on what you just heard, please share it in the chat.

[00:00:42] _{Alina Trigubenko}: And let's start with a round of introductions. Jamie, let's start with you.

[00:00:45] ^{Jamie White}: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Alina. I am Jamie White with Believe Crew, and we have a coaching agency where we have multiple coaches coming together and building their businesses. Primarily focused on one-on-one work.

[00:00:59] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Beautiful. Janelle?

[00:01:00] Jannelle McGrath: I am the CEO of Market Veep. We are a full-service, digital marketing, and sales agency, and we work with clients who are looking to have more transparency across their pipeline through automation. 

[00:01:13]  ^{Elisabeth Galperin}: I’ll go ahead. Hi, I'm Elizabeth Galperin. I'm the founder and owner of Peak Productivity Coaching. So I support business owners and leaders not only in creating productivity in their own lives but making sure that their businesses and their teams are operating as efficiently and effectively as they can. 

[00:01:32] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yes, please. The more efficiency, the better. And that, that way if, the more efficient we are as coaches, as professional service providers, the more people we're able to help and support.

[00:01:42] _{Alina Trigubenko}: And that's, that's why we're in this business right in the first place. So the topic of our today's discussion, group discussion is effortless coaching, using automation to boost productivity and streamline processes. So let's kick off with the first question. Let's [00:02:00] have a collective discussion around.

[00:02:02] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Can you explain how automations has, automation has changed the coaching landscape over the past decade? Elizabeth, let's start with you. What's your take on it? 

[00:02:11] Elisabeth Galperin: Sure. So I think there, obviously there's. Several different ways that it, there's been a positive impact in my opinion to what you just said Alina.

[00:02:23] Elisabeth Galperin: Most of us go into coaching because we want to be spending direct time with our clients whether it's you know, virtually or belly to belly. And so what I've seen is automation has allowed coaches and service providers. To really move some of what we would call the busy work over into automation so that they really can devote more time and energy to the quality interaction with clients.

[00:02:49] Elisabeth Galperin: So, you know, being as simple as, you know, being able to set up emails that will send out at a later time. Being able to kind of work ahead and, and be proactive[00:03:00] with some of the communication or just some of the back behind the scenes admin tasks so that there is more time to be with clients and when we're with clients, we can really be fully present because we know that the other tasks are being taken care of.

[00:03:18] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I would add on to that. So I, I. Thousand percent agree with you. I think Amazon has essentially changed everything of how we engage with any business, even though it's B2C focused. I think as humans we have expectations of what, you know. Communication touchpoints, how many and when, you know, we are unable to do that as a, just a single person without automation.

[00:03:45] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I think the user experience, you know, they look elsewhere. And so that I think has been a huge shift in terms of com, com competitors really leaning into that automation. And that's kind of set the bar for making sure that you're [00:04:00] using it. 

[00:04:02] ^{Jamie White}: So when I we've just been in this business for the last year and for me it was all about the software.

[00:04:08] ^{Jamie White}: It was like, how do we, how do we create this in a way that's scalable and sustainable? I'd like to be in this business for a long time, not just overnight, you know, Type thing. And so I wanna be able to collect all the information, you know, from the clients ahead of time so that I have it over the next year, two, three years as we're building this out.

[00:04:26] ^{Jamie White}: But when I was talking to other coaches that were building their businesses three and five years ago, they were using, you know, contracts in a system that was more like an accounting software or something like that. It really wasn't built to scale. In terms of for the coaching business. And so as I would listen to their problems and I was like, I don't want that.

[00:04:48] ^{Jamie White}: Mm-hmm. That was you know, just something that I enjoy thinking about and want the coaching industry to have a stronger stronger foundation with mm-hmm. To be able to [00:05:00] scale and, and build something that's sustainable and has longevity and isn't, you know, just. This overnight type thing, or fly by night.

[00:05:09] ^{Jamie White}: I don't know which way to say it, but.

[00:05:14] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah, definitely. It's interesting that I was listening to a podcast about very like, fast scaling B2C products. And there is definitely a trend. I, I don't know if it's related to professional services businesses, but among them, digital product, digital services. There is a trend that. For example, the companies that are very quickly raising, you know, on to, to, to the leaderboard, kind of and start growing too rapidly.

[00:05:44] _{Alina Trigubenko}: There is also tendency for them to quickly go down versus more successful and stable businesses. They're, you know, I haven't seen exceptions. It's normally slow and steady once the race. Kind of speed versus, you know, the hockey stick that every investor is looking [00:06:00] for. It's not always sustainable as per data.

[00:06:03] _{Alina Trigubenko}: And let's I know that the landscape coaching landscape overall technology landscape is changing a lot. In the tech industry, you would say that this AI. Revolution is similar to probably Cloud Revolution, not even Mobile Revolution, not even, you know, something else. It's just such a next level.

[00:06:22] _{Alina Trigubenko}: You know, kind of, it's a, it's a leapfrog really in many fronts. If we were to wear our crystal Bull hat, How do we think the coaching industry and overall the professional services industry is gonna change in five years ahead of us?

[00:06:42] ^{Jamie White}: I love to think as fared as possible, but, but sometimes putting it on in, in my own way, is a little bit different. Sorry, Aleena. 

[00:06:51] _{Alina Trigubenko}: No, I, I was just saying that that's exactly your timeframe. I know that you were thinking five years ahead. Yeah. 

[00:06:57] ^{Jamie White}: I definitely prefer to think that way. So what I see [00:07:00] is more of a coaching agency models being normalized so that there's so much more backend support.

[00:07:07] ^{Jamie White}: There's so much more, you know, consistency of like, this is what's working, this isn't working. Working with others that have already been, you know, in the field for a while so that we can just plug in as coaches to something that's already working. And so I'm not saying that that's gonna be everyone and everything, but I do believe that it'll be more normalized.

[00:07:27] Elisabeth Galperin: I think I, so I've been running my business for about 15 years now, and so, I mean, I can hardly even remember what it was like 15 years ago, but I can tell you that there was a lot more heavy lifting and I think that. A lot of service professionals who decide to start their own business you know, they're, they're going into their area of expertise because that's what they're passionate about.

[00:07:55] Elisabeth Galperin: And historically, when you start your own business, you have to learn [00:08:00] everything, right? And so, yes, you're continuing, you know, and maybe you're continuing to be a phenomenal cpa. But you're also having to learn how to be a marketer and how to understand seo and, and so I think historically we've had to become generalists in a sense to be able to keep our business going.

[00:08:22] Elisabeth Galperin: And, and I think now a lot what I. Foresee in a positive way is being able to step into the, the business knowing already that there's going to be plenty of support and that you're not gonna have to learn all the things about the business. You can stay in your lane and you can tap into some of these phenomenal tools and apps and technology.

[00:08:43] Elisabeth Galperin: To do some more of that heavy lifting that historically the, the leader has had to figure out on his or her own. So I think that that's a, you know, a, a definite benefit and hopefully making it a little bit easier for entry [00:09:00] point and to achieve success more quickly. Yeah.

[00:09:06] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I think the trajectory, I mean, AI shows up.

[00:09:11] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: 5 million times a day on my LinkedIn feed. 

[00:09:14] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: It's very rare that something else 

[00:09:16] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: is coming up other than ai. I think it will become not so much like a scared mentality of like, is this gonna replace me? It's going to be, how can this augment the experience of my clients and how can this save me tons of hours?

[00:09:33] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: And it's, I mean, it's. Been in a lot of the tools, but I just don't think that people have openly talked about it as much. And now that it's kind of bubbled up, people are like, oh, I guess I technically have been using this tool that has some of these components in it already and it's saved me. So I think that that will be fi same way that automation five years ago wasn't as popular.

[00:09:54] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I think AI combined with the automation will augment for sure. [00:10:00] Yeah. You don't have to write your sales emails anymore, you won't be able to take all that data. 

[00:10:06] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah. You'll just have to orchestrate or, or orchestrate a lot of ai to come to get what you need done. Yeah. There was a good a quote from my favorite person.

[00:10:15] _{Alina Trigubenko}: His name is Scott Beki. He built the hands, it's it's a marketplace for graphic designers, and he wrote several books and he said it, I think so brilliantly. He said, AI is here to remove the work. From the workflow. To, to basically just leave us as a flow. I think when I look at all of the automation and kind of the tr trajectory of how technology was helping this industry, professional services industry, coaching industry evolve, I think that our currency is.

[00:10:45] _{Alina Trigubenko}: The care that we deliver as coaches in person, this heart to heart connection, there's human to human interaction. And that's the main currency we'll be optimizing for. And I strongly believe in that with the rise of ai [00:11:00] and you know, it's kind of, Native implementation in our daily lives as well as operations will just increase the value of this human to human connection and human to human interaction by tenfold or maybe more because we'll just know so much more about the client and we'll save, you know, 15 minutes of intake call on asking.

[00:11:22] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So, you know, tell me. You know, anything, something. So I think that it's a exponential, it'll unlock exponential value to coaches as well as our clients. Cause they'll just need to show up. As you, Jamie actually said yesterday on our call, you said that all clients want this just to show up and get what they need, what they came here for.

[00:11:47] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So they'll get a lot more value. And we have a question from the audience. Curious, which areas of work do you or would you automate and use AI for in [00:12:00] 2023? So there's no way around ai. Let's talk ai. 

[00:12:04] ^{Jamie White:} I am excited to have all my sales copy and, you know, be like, I would like to create a webinar on blah, blah, blah.

[00:12:11] ^{Jamie White}: The more of that, the better, like, help me with my messaging and I'm excited for digital art AI also, but the idea when you were talking about us being able to interact with the clients and just that they really want us, you know, to be there, is that maybe there could be some initial AI conversation.

[00:12:30] ^{Jamie White}: Like if a, if a client were to reach out via chat or something like that and say, Hey, I could use some help. There'd be a little bit of ai that would just like, what kind of help? How can I help you? You know, when would be a good time and like, can I integrate with my calendar a little bit? Can it look at my calendar and just say, here's some times that would be available.

[00:12:46] ^{Jamie White}: I don't know, some more. Initial discussion and initial things I could see being super helpful. 

[00:12:54] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah, that's exactly what you're looking at actually. 

[00:12:59] Elisabeth Galperin: I think [00:13:00] from, I really do think it's a personal approach, right? So I know people who are. Completely opposed. And people who you know are again, diving into AI in every nook and cranny of their business.

[00:13:14] Elisabeth Galperin: I think for me, I look first at what am I not so great at? What do I not enjoy and what takes me longer than it probably would take? Someone who's more masterful or skillful. And that's where I plan on continuing to focus. So, you know, I think it's just like you would, that's how I coach my clients and when they start to delegate to team members you know, what are you not great at?

[00:13:40] Elisabeth Galperin: Or what do you not enjoy that somebody else might love and be fabulous at? And so that's kind of the way I look at AI is what could I take off my plate and put on the AI plate? That doesn't it doesn't tap into, or doesn't steal away from where, from my zone of genius. But is something that I've been, you know, [00:14:00] dying to get off my plate anyways.

[00:14:02] Elisabeth Galperin: So that's the approach that I plan on taking as I find ways to integrate AI and automation into my business.

[00:14:11] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I think when we think about automation, a lot of times most people are like, oh, we automate our emails, or it's on the marketing side where I think now AI is really expanding the level of what that automation can do across ops, sales the customer experience.

[00:14:29] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Even for longtime clients, not just once they're onboarding. So looking at things like, you know, they've come back or they've clicked on things and really then serving up relevant content based on what their user engagement is. So I think layering that in with some of the AI capabilities of customizing that message will be incredible.

[00:14:50] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Just excited to see what that will look like. 

[00:14:52] ^{Jamie White}: Elizabeth, I'm curious, I love what you presented, and I'm curious if there's anything that comes to mind as some of the things that you feel like you're not as good [00:15:00] at, if there's mm-hmm. Life coaching right here. I really like it. 

[00:15:04] Elisabeth Galperin: Yes. So I love writing.

[00:15:08] Elisabeth Galperin: I find it very hard to narrow down to like, what's my catchy title or again I wanna write in flow and I don't want to have to then go back and make sure I've got the keywords in. And so some of those for me, when it comes to being a thought leader and putting my thoughts out there, I wanna be able to kind of stay in that creative space and then allow AI to kind of put the icing on the cake for me.

[00:15:35] Elisabeth Galperin: So that's something I've been stepping into. I don't really, I want to be writing most of my content, but I love the support of how do I take this? And put a title up there that's gonna get the audience's attention. Or again, break it down so that it's more digestible. I tend to dump too much information out.

[00:15:52] Elisabeth Galperin: And so kind of the support of fine tuning. It's almost like having an editor in that sense. 

[00:15:57] ^{Jamie White}: I love that idea and, and [00:16:00] having AI that would almost understand what the client is looking for more so than what we wanna say. 

[00:16:04] Elisabeth Galperin: Yes. Yes, a hundred percent. Because oftentimes I write thinking, well, this is what I would wanna read.

[00:16:10] Elisabeth Galperin: Yeah. But it's not always my ideal audience's perspective or what they're looking for. Yeah.

[00:16:19] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Totally agreed. 

[00:16:20] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah. And Janelle, coming back to your you mentioning kind of the post-sales and pre-sales field what pre-sales or post-sale automation do you think will create the biggest impact to user experience? 

[00:16:32] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I think the transition from having this awesome sales experience and really connecting with somebody to what that experience is like after the handoff.

[00:16:44] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: So still having all the amazing things, but leaning into things like a custom welcome video. You know, having them automatically get nurtured with their onboarding documents that serve up based on [00:17:00] a certain timeline or a certain action that they've completed. So, saving you time, but more, more than that, like the user experience.

[00:17:08] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: They become very embedded and connected to you. And I think that also allows for deeper conversations on a coaching level because there's this added layer of trust and you know, urgency and all of those things that you're addressing by doing the automation.

[00:17:26] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah. I also think that AI solves this tremendous problem that is huge in a lot of creative work which is the blank page problem. So, because it's just so hard. Yes. Give a rough draft.

[00:17:42] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah, I can stare at the blank screen, you know, for hours and procrastinate and, you know, talk myself out of doing this. But now it's just solved. So this ma main barrier to entry to express your creativity, to express, you know, to, to deliver the message that you're here to deliver [00:18:00] is removed. So now we're, you know, we have to be creators because a lot of the block building blocks to, to be fully creators are already here.

[00:18:10] Elisabeth Galperin: Definitely. 

[00:18:12] _{Alina Trigubenko}: And we have a next question here. What specific ways can automation boost productivity when it comes to client engagement and coaching?

[00:18:24] _{Alina Trigubenko}: If we were talking, let's say maybe let's walk over specific use cases. Imagine you're in, in your specific day-to-day workflow. 

[00:18:36] ^{Jamie White}: I think if I understand the que question correctly the idea of the calendars and the rescheduling and like just taking care of, thank you so much for allowing it to reschedule itself or a client to reschedule themselves and for them to get a email saying, you know, everything is good.

[00:18:54] ^{Jamie White}: Like, that is amazing, but I'm not sure. Can you ask the question again cuz I feel like I wanna go deeper on it.[00:19:00] 

[00:19:04] _{Alina Trigubenko}: What specific ways can automation boost productivity when it comes to client engagement in coaching today, let's say, of course, you know, we all have big plans on ai. That AI is gonna just take over and remove the grind out of, and, and, and the groundwork. But let's say today How do you see? Yeah, 

[00:19:24] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I was gonna say, I think if we look at it in chunks of a user experience, like their first 30 days, their first 90 days, their first year, those milestones, the different levels of automation and messaging that can be triggered.

[00:19:39] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: So the first, you know, Let's say three to 14 days, they're still doing paperwork, you're still doing educational research. All of that can be done and triggered off of a welcome email linked to forms that automatically push that into the C R M, and then those properties can [00:20:00] actually trigger completely different actions.

[00:20:02] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Notify team members reschedule their next call and send 'em their calendar link. All of these things that really. A human doesn't have to do. It's really just documenting the processes and when we think about the best user experience that somebody can have, and then layering that in based on time or action that the person is having.

[00:20:23] ^{Jamie White}: I really like what you pointed out there, thinking about those time the, the client journey from the perspective of time and then also. The idea that when a session is finished and if they've bought a package of sessions, you know, that reminder email of saying, you know, it's time for you to schedule your next session, or maybe mm-hmm.

[00:20:40] ^{Jamie White}: After more time saying, you know, I see that you still haven't booked your next session, or something like that, where there's yeah, these little reminders connected to time and the journey of the client. I like that. Thanks. 

[00:20:53] Elisabeth Galperin: I also think that there's the ability even during a coaching session or [00:21:00] a consulting session, I'm a note taker and I tend to provide to my clients as much detail as I can capture during our sessions, cuz I know we all know, you know, you remember.

[00:21:13] Elisabeth Galperin: You don't remember a hundred percent of what you say and what you hear in any interaction. And so using AI to either transcribe your sessions to transcribe and then maybe highlight again, finding keywords and then making that information available to the client. I know for me, a lot of my clients, I meet with them once a week or sometimes even once every other week, and that's a long gap.

[00:21:36] Elisabeth Galperin: It's very easy to go a week or two without re-engaging with. The notes from that meeting or what were the deliverables that we came up with during that meeting? So allowing AI to capture the, the summary key takeaways. And then don't forget, these are the actions that you are going to take in between your coaching calls.

[00:21:56] Elisabeth Galperin: I think AI could do a great job of keeping that top of mind. [00:22:00] And from, as a productivity coach, one of the two main things that my clients are often looking for is accountability and metrics. And so it can take the load off me saying, oh, I need to check in with, you know, Susan and make sure she's doing okay.

[00:22:14] Elisabeth Galperin: But it's can provide that continual accountability and visibility of the work that we're doing in between our coaching sessions.

[00:22:22] ^{Jamie White}: I feel like my face isn't really fully reflecting how excited I am about what you're saying. Like I'm, I'm, I'm realizing that we're already doing some of that. Like I'll get an email that pops up and my email will say, did you forget about this email?

[00:22:37] ^{Jamie White}: Or did you, and I'm like, yeah, thank you so much. Like, yes, I did and it's been a week and I wanted to get back to that. And so Ima and my clients, I don't do a lot of the note taking. I let them, you know, be responsible for that. Mm-hmm. But there's so many times where I haven't recorded a session in. They were like, what did you just say?

[00:22:53] ^{Jamie White}: That was so amazing? I want, and I was like, I don't know. What did I say? So having it already in the system, having that AI track, [00:23:00] wow, I'm loving what you're, what you guys are both, 

[00:23:03] Elisabeth Galperin: and it goes back, Jamie, to what you're saying with the client wants to show up and be in the moment and not be worried about, wait, say it.

[00:23:11] Elisabeth Galperin: I had that same thing. Say it exactly like you said it, Elizabeth. I'm like, I don't, there's no way I can recreate what I just said. So yeah, it again, takes the weight off of our shoulders and their shoulders. But it's still capturing all the value that's going on in that engagement.

[00:23:26] ^{Jamie White}: And it's totally possible.

[00:23:27] ^{Jamie White}: I mean, we can see this coming because there's already elements showing that. And so this idea that whatever we talk about, and if I said in Theran, you know, in, in something that was being captured, you know, here's a couple of takeaways. Here's some things I want you to do for homework. And it was pulling that out and sending an email to the client saying, don't forget, you know, here's, here's what we talked about on the call, like, I'm in.

[00:23:49] ^{Jamie White}: Yep, I'm in. 

[00:23:51] Elisabeth Galperin: Let's make it happen now. 

[00:23:52] ^{Jamie White}: We're gonna want it. 

[00:23:55] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah. The product team, we're, we're recording this. So the product team is gonna be [00:24:00] you know, breaking it down. Janelle, you wanted to say something?

[00:24:05] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Oh, the trans, sorry. Lost my train. Thought transcripts. So I think about when we used to just do Zoom and one people didn't turn on their cameras. Now we've all accepted that you turn on the cameras and now you know every recording that we do, the transcript, I think about when we used to have to like rewatch the entire thing and you couldn't keyword search on it.

[00:24:27] ^{Jannelle McGrath:} And so we send those to our clients after our calls and then they are able to search with the transcript too. And that makes. Life's so much easier, but to pull out the information automatically for the takeaways, Ooh, 

[00:24:38] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: sign me up level. Yeah. 

[00:24:42] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah. That again, brings us back to that quote AI is here to change the workflow to flow.

[00:24:47] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So basically when we're coaching, when we're in a process, we're in a flow state most of the time. I at least, you know Yeah, probably most of the time. And just thinking about the work, it requires us turning on [00:25:00] different type of, different, kind of the different part of the brain and different brain function.

[00:25:05] _{Alina Trigubenko}: And most of the time it's also a completely different skillset. You know, back to what you said previously, Elizabeth. So yeah, it got me thinking too, you know, What are we implementing tomorrow in our profit product operating platform? Yeah. And all of this brings me to the next question about ethics.

[00:25:26] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Ethics, data protection. It's The probably number one discussion in every boardroom right now from tech companies to professional services companies. So what do you think, what ethical, ethical considerations should we be thinking about? Because we're definitely, there is no way back. So we're definitely heading into this version of the world where AI is taking over and complimenting us in a lot of the workflow steps.

[00:25:52] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So what should we designing? What would, should we be designing for? Thinking about. What about ethics? Mm-hmm. [00:26:00] For us as well as our clients. 

[00:26:03] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I, I can think of a use case in terms of like we use HubSpot Chatbots, so they talk about saying like, cuz some people come in and they think cuz the chatbot is so good that it's an actual person and then they're upset.

[00:26:18] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: And so having the ethics to say, you know, this is a bot, you know, calling it a bot and not just, Calling it live chat and giving that transparency. So it's not gonna be perfect. One, it doesn't tarnish, you know, the company's reputation if it doesn't get it right. 

[00:26:33] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: And two, giving the 

[00:26:34] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: transparency that like, it's here to help you, but it's.

[00:26:37] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Not being operated by somebody in the back. 

[00:26:41] Elisabeth Galperin: Yeah, a hundred percent. The transparency, if you're going to use AI to be upfront and truthful about how you're using it and why you're using it, and like modeling, right? Hey, I'm using it over here. I mean, I tell my clients all the time. About the, you know, snooze feature [00:27:00] and when people say, you know, gosh, you, you know, your email was sent at the exact perfect time, I'll say, oh, well it's cuz I scheduled it, right?

[00:27:09] Elisabeth Galperin: I'm not gonna pretend like, oh yeah, I was sitting there waiting until the clock turned from 8 59 to nine. So, you know, I think it's just embracing it and saying, you know, a, that I've thought through the ethics side of it, this is where I stand on, how I feel. I'm using it ethically, and I, I'll, I'll open up the curtain and show you how I'm using it.

[00:27:29] Elisabeth Galperin: But like you said, Janelle not pretending that Hiya, it's Sam when Sam's a bot. 

[00:27:34] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Yeah, no, I think that's a really good point. Like it also opens up the door, right? With that level of trans. Parents say to say, let me show you how to do this so that you can take advantage of this awesome process and tool.

[00:27:48] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Yes. So that you can get those same 

[00:27:49] ^{Jannelle McGrath:} notifications. Great point. 

[00:27:51] ^{Jamie White}: Yeah. Yeah. I love what you guys are bringing out about transparency and it makes me think of back when I was a kid, And I knew that my mom had a cleaning lady, and when I [00:28:00] became an adult, and it was like, how in the world did my mom get all this stuff done?

[00:28:04] ^{Jamie White}: Raising kids and having a clean house. It was like, wait. She had help. You know, like there wasn't this idea that she was doing it all. And so I feel like that same thing, like it's okay to be transparent because this younger generation, they're gonna be aware anyway. Of when, when we're lying about something they already know.

[00:28:21] ^{Jamie White}: Right. But to me, this question of ethical, like I'm really glad that there are other people out there that are way better at thinking this through than I am because I know this isn't my gift. And so the only thing that comes to mind for me is sometimes that line between letting those that are risk adverse rule.

[00:28:39] ^{Jamie White}: In ways where we need to be more risk, like adventurous. Like how do, how do we navigate that and, and who really has that say in like the final decision? Because prior to Covid, so many companies didn't go on Zoom and didn't let their people work from home because HR compliance departments were running.[00:29:00] 

[00:29:00] ^{Jamie White}: That regulation. And then when Covid hit, the risk takers and the visionaries were like, forget this. We're, we're going home, or we're getting no work done anymore. You know? And so when we let risk and fear drive our decisions, it can hold back, you know, the opportunities. So for me, the only perspective that I have is to consider who's making the decisions and how are we making the decision?

[00:29:24] ^{Jamie White}: Because I don't think we wanna build companies that are fear-based. 

[00:29:29] Elisabeth Galperin: Yeah. The other last thing that popped into my head also was where, where you can give clients choice. Like let's go back to the transcript. You know, letting clients opt in or opt out, right? So I could say to my client, I. When my, when we start a Zoom session, the record is preset and its transcript is turned on, and this is what it will do for you.

[00:29:53] Elisabeth Galperin: If you're not comfortable with that, I will turn it off. It's your option and making sure that, not that [00:30:00] we don't want it to intrude with. Our process necessarily, but where the client gets to have a little bit of a say, do you wanna take advantage of this technology with me or not? And making sure that where you can give some some of those risk of our clients an option, that's probably another really good consideration as we start integrating it into our business processes.

[00:30:23] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: That's a good point. I think if there was like a questionnaire when they, when their intake right? Yeah. Like how do you prefer, do you accept, you know, wanting to use ai? Do you want us to send you automatic reminders? Mm-hmm. And letting them design what their experience is like so that they're not bombarded by necessarily like what we think that they want to receive or when they want to receive it.

[00:30:44] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: We can architect as best that we think across what we've seen, but having somebody actually be able to choose. 

[00:30:52] _{Alina Trigubenko}: I fully agree. I was actually astounded by this story. A friend of mine shared with me yesterday. So she was on a, a venture on a [00:31:00] VC call with venture capitalists. So the call was scheduled and then she shows up and then there are five people in the Zoom and only one of them and her are humans.

[00:31:10] _{Alina Trigubenko}: And then, so it was an, an analyst, a very junior role from the vc, and three ais of three partners. Wow, interesting. That's actually AI in the making. So she, well, first of all, it made her feel uncomfortable because she did not expect that she'll be actually talking to ai that will be analyzing and the way she will be judged will be basically labeling by the AI and they will be clicking on attacks.

[00:31:37] _{Alina Trigubenko}: And they're watching specific clips if they choose to, you know, optimize this process. And yeah, basically I think next iteration from there, it's gonna be only ai. Basically, you'll be meeting up with AI first and then you know, the human on the other side will decide whether it's a good time, you know, good opportunity to meet or not.

[00:31:58] _{Alina Trigubenko}: But that made me think [00:32:00] that, you know, that's, that's definitely just the time where we'll have to design for ethics is already here. It's not, you know, tomorrow, it's not the day after tomorrow. It's today because it's already in our lives. Yeah. Yes. I love how Zoom implemented this kind of, you know, cookies, you remember when JT p r got rolled out, and you have to ask on every website, like, do you accept or not?

[00:32:21] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Mm-hmm. Of course. Of backlash. So I think it should be something similar. Your call will be not just recorded, but also analyzed. And are you, do you accept meeting with an AI first? Mm-hmm. Versus because she was. Obviously, you know, preparing to meet the partners. But then it's just it's an, it's an interesting change of flow for sure.

[00:32:42] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah. 

[00:32:43] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Like a bait and switch almost. Right. Trust in the other person. Cause you're like, if you're not telling me that, what else is going on that you're not being honest about? 

[00:32:52] ^{Jamie White}: Hmm. Yeah, I could see that. From the flip side for coaches where, If, if we created systems where there's [00:33:00] so many people coming towards us, but they're not necessarily the right client, or you're trying to weed out clients where the AI would be that piece of of mm-hmm.

[00:33:07] ^{Jamie White}: You know, listening for certain tags to know is this, especially from a coaching agency perspective, like what coach would be the best. Match for, oh yeah, this client, you know if they're saying these words, you know, funnel 'em to this coach. Or if they saying these words, funnel 'em to that coach, this could be interesting.

[00:33:30] Elisabeth Galperin: It's a great example though, Alina of just, regardless of how much or how little technology we're gonna integrate that, the first step is always communication, right? It may have been if they had said to your friend, by the way, you know, two days in advance, I. Three of the attendees will be AI that might have changed her experience.

[00:33:48] Elisabeth Galperin: Right. Just having been informed. So it's like we have to remember that we can't just because AI can take the place of some things, like communication is still [00:34:00] the be all, end all in a lot of ways. 

[00:34:03] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yes, definitely. There's gotta be communications surrounded for sure. With ability to accept or reject.

[00:34:10] _{Alina Trigubenko}: I would not take that meeting personally. I would be like, I don't think it's a match. You know, I'm also optimizing my time, so, you know, I can send you materials in advance, maybe, you know, other things. But also this brings up to interesting data points too. So we, when this whole AI. Kind of way started.

[00:34:28] _{Alina Trigubenko}: We at Profi right away, of course, you know, started thinking and talking to the best most experienced minds in AI about the use cases that we can enable in Profi. And we're an operating platform for professional services. So we do run most of the workflow through us, or at least we thrive to, of course, everything is a work, work in progress.

[00:34:49] _{Alina Trigubenko}: And we talked to someone who built interesting product 10 years ago, actually almost 80 years ago. They built this automated, they built basically digital replica. [00:35:00] And then the Black Mirror TV series, they owned one of the episodes after their product. So the way the product worked, you upload all of the communications of a person.

[00:35:13] _{Alina Trigubenko}: It could be a celebrity or someone who passed, or just anyone. And then the system automatically creates basically their AI replica, digital replica, and then you can communicate with a person. And when they rolled it out, they're very, like, of course they, they expected different behaviors. But what they saw was that a lot of specific group of, of people of users in their use case it was teenagers.

[00:35:40] _{Alina Trigubenko}: A teenage girls for some reason started talking about mental health. And they started through kind of research, through analyzing what are the conversations about, for example, with Miley Cyrus or with other celebrities? A lot of it was not related to what they were designing the product for. A lot of [00:36:00] the conversations were around actually mental health and how they wanted the system to talk them out of certain states.

[00:36:09] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Mm-hmm. And then they partnered with John Hopkins Institute and they built the whole like in logic tree and neural net based on the years of research into mental health. And then now this AI can talk them out, like can talk people out of certain con condition, not conditions, but states. Mm-hmm. And yeah, actually this, this person is our product advisor.

[00:36:32] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So we're building out something, cooking something together. His name is Phil . So that just makes, makes me think that it's a wild, it's a wild card, really. There's things we can proceed. There's things that we can project that AI will be used for in a coaching space as well. But then imagine that, for example, I'm talking to Jamie Jamie's bot or Jamie is I, but then, you know, there's gotta be clear, [00:37:00] also ethical boundaries in design.

[00:37:02] _{Alina Trigubenko}: What if I start not just ask, asking or what, what's, what's Jamie's availability and how, you know, what, how do I access her? Pre-recorded a session from a year ago where she was, she shared that brilliant piece of advice with me, but then I start talking about something else. So because it's just different environment.

[00:37:22] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So that's also something that we're thinking about. Mm-hmm. That's interesting how human behavioral change cuz we're unleashing something new and which gives space or something new to emerge as well. Yeah. 

[00:37:36] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Your point too, I think about what it will be like to be like in a webinar with a hundred. And you, you are the only live human or like my AI talking to a hundred other ais and then like everybody just going back and reporting, it just seems 

[00:37:56] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: like a sci-fi movie.

[00:37:57] Elisabeth Galperin: Yeah.

[00:37:59] ^{Jamie White}: Gone rogue. [00:38:00] 

[00:38:01] _{Alina Trigubenko}: But there's a trend that a lot of sci-fi movies tend to, you know, turn into reality. Right? Yeah. 

[00:38:07] Elisabeth Galperin: There's some, some element of reality. Yeah. 

[00:38:12] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Hmm. Yeah. But also, actually another interesting use case one of our investors is from WhatsApp and I was talking to them about just latest analytics and data.

[00:38:21] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So what's happening in, with human communication in general in, in the human communication space. And I was shocked. When I was told that the text conversations are significantly you know, going down, people prefer voice memos. People prefer to have calls. Mm-hmm. Versus text. And that was super interesting.

[00:38:45] _{Alina Trigubenko}: That actually makes me think that that's you know, maybe we're so overloaded. Where's all this kind of text based? Mm-hmm. Maybe not. What are your thoughts? Why do you think this is happening and how? 

[00:38:55] ^{Jamie White}: Yeah. I, I really like what you're saying, and, and personally, I don't like my phone [00:39:00] anymore to like, make a call because if I have to call the dentist or call the bank, I.

[00:39:05] ^{Jamie White}: I'd rather they book an appointment. So I've gotten to the point where I'm like, how have they not gotten to the point where they can, you know, I could just book an appointment, but, so I don't like using my phone for my phone, but you're right, I have noticed more people sending me voice memos. And I personally use Marco Polo a lot, and I think even for my clients using Marco Polo to be able to have that video, I'm not a Voxer.

[00:39:26] ^{Jamie White}: Kind of a person, but those types of tools, coaches are using them. So could they be used a little bit more integrated in the software? So that there's just like a quick voice memo or a video message. Because a lot of times when things come up, it's not at a scheduled time. And so how do we work through those quick, you know questions or quick challenges?

[00:39:50] ^{Jamie White}: 10 minute Marco Polo and I can take someone from crying to thank you so much for that perspective and shift, you know, like they shift completely, so mm-hmm. [00:40:00] Integrating that and coaching more so that we don't have to use additional tools there. That would be great. 

[00:40:06] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I think I had a conversation with a sales rep last week who was saying that he was coming from selling into the restaurant industry and moved into, I would say small and mid-market across, you know, industry agnostic.

[00:40:20] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: And so he said that in the restaurant industry, that was how he did all of his business. There was almost zero phone calls. They just would say, He talk to somebody, they'd say, text me. So he would say, he would wake up in the morning and his email box would just pretty much be full of like, okay, send me the contract.

[00:40:36] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: I got your text. And so he said when he switched jobs and he came to his new role that he tried this the first day, and he said the person went crazy and said, this is such an invasion of my privacy. And like I, like I never told you to text me and he was like, I'd come from this job that I was doing texting for, you know, three plus years to people and that's how I did [00:41:00] sales.

[00:41:00] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: So I think depending on the industry, but I do think that there is a shift in overload for people of when they wanna be able to identify when they wanna be communicated with. Mm-hmm. How they wanna be communicated with or text. I think, you know, two years ago that was how everybody did. 

[00:41:16] Elisabeth Galperin: Yeah. I talk a lot in my work with clients about communicating boundaries upfront and letting their clients know you know, these are the types of things that we should communicate about via email.

[00:41:30] Elisabeth Galperin: These are the things that we need to talk about face-to-face and kind of setting those boundaries up front. Because all it takes is I'm sure we've all done this, right, where we've answered a text at. Nine 30 at night and then all of a sudden somebody thinks they now have full access to us 24 7.

[00:41:49] Elisabeth Galperin: So, you know, the, that conversation around best practice, right in the relationship, whether it's with coworkers or clients or even family and friends, you know, when is [00:42:00] a phone call most appropriate versus a text versus a short email. You know, when do we need politeness? When can we just get straight to the point?

[00:42:08] Elisabeth Galperin: And it's just a matter of talking about it ahead of time. Because if you don't, and then you get that Kurt message, you start reading into it because you don't have their facial expressions, you don't have their body language, you don't have their vocal tone. So getting out ahead of it at the beginning of the relationship is, is pretty key.

[00:42:25] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: You gotta love the silence notification when you text somebody after hours. Do you still want to text them? Do you still wanna push this? Right. Makes you think twice. 

[00:42:34] Elisabeth Galperin: Yeah. 

[00:42:35] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's a beautiful, that's a ethical design actually. I love how Slack has for example, when you're texting someone, it shows right away that, let's say it's 4:00 AM in the morning, are you sure?

[00:42:48] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Right. Yeah. There is a also do you feel, for example, we hear a lot since Covid started that a lot of the clients [00:43:00] of professionals of professional service providers or professionals, coaches, they prefer to, for the sake of privacy they prefer to not use any major platforms, for example.

[00:43:12] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Facebook or others. Do you see any, anything in that, in your, of that, in your work? And also, you know, it makes me think about ai, right? Because right now it's just the world, what do we think it is gonna be? Also, I prefer to not use open AI because it's affiliated with, with Microsoft or Bard because of the Google affiliation.

[00:43:33] _{Alina Trigubenko}: I wonder if there's gonna be also selection who you share your. Oh, basically all of the data was because what you say is so personal. 

[00:43:42] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: One person would not sync their Gmail to the calendar and would not like log and tag the emails into their CRM. They were like Big Brother and would not and only use Apple Mail.

[00:43:55] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: But that's the only time I've come across somebody that was like, really? [00:44:00] Adverse to like not connecting, 

[00:44:03] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Mm-hmm. That I've seen. Not saying it doesn't happen often. Sure it does.

[00:44:08] Elisabeth Galperin: I, I've had occasional, I used to do some group programs and Facebook was at that point in time. That was kind of my main tool.

[00:44:18] Elisabeth Galperin: I mean, I've had people not opt into a program because that was my primary channel in a group environment. You know, I'm not gonna change the platform because one potential client doesn't like it. Right. In an individual coaching relationship, Certainly you can be more adaptable. But you know, and I think this is where knowing as a coach, knowing when you're willing to meet your clients where they are versus, you know, this is my process and if this isn't for you, I've got some great other consultants and experts that I can introduce you to.

[00:44:54] Elisabeth Galperin: Right. Find your flavor. So I, and, and I, I definitely think that [00:45:00] there are going to be people who will continue to stay on the don't involve me in ai. So thinking it through ahead of time so you don't get stuck, you know, in a circumstance where you're not sure whether you should. Lean one way or another, kind of knowing where you stand on the issue and knowing where you're willing to accommodate the client versus saying, this is the program.

[00:45:23] Elisabeth Galperin: If it's for you, great. If it's not for you, let me help you find someone else. 

[00:45:28] ^{Jamie White}: I've heard a lot of people say, I hate Facebook. My phone's probably listening. Everything's listening. Yeah. But it was other people, not me, but we all tend to go on it. Messenger has been a very, very Good place for me to be able to message some, some clients that don't do a lot of other technology based stuff, they still have Facebook Messenger or LinkedIn, you know, that I can reach out and connect with them where they're not answering their emails on a regular basis or they're not looking at, you know, [00:46:00] other things that are going on.

[00:46:01] ^{Jamie White}: They are looking at their socials to just kind of check in and You know, sometimes if I've, I'm supposed to meet someone for a call and they're not on the call, I can send a LinkedIn or a Facebook message and get a faster response than if I send an email. So it's, you know, still a form of communication that we're all using.

[00:46:18] ^{Jamie White}: But I definitely think from the group perspective, there are just so many people that are like, please do not. I don't know what the other solution is right now. You know where people want to go, but, but the, the resistance is there. I'm not sure if everyone's found their other solutions, but it feels like I.

[00:46:38] ^{Jamie White}: There's some resistance. 

[00:46:40] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Yeah. We have a message from Chris. I'm a former cyber executive and management consultant, and I exclusively coach chief Information security officers Using Facebook is close to an option. Hmm. Thank you so much for sharing this. This is, Something that we definitely heard a lot in the journey [00:47:00] of building profi because we designed for hipaa and just to, to, to continue on Chris's message, LinkedIn is fine.

[00:47:08] _{Alina Trigubenko}: It's owned by Microsoft and they don't care about mining data. My clients make distinctions between on the platform monetization. Hmm, I can, I, I can definitely, you know, say plus hundred percent from our experience. It's actually very interesting. So when we were building Profi, we built it with hipaa, health information protection guidelines in mind, and And during, before Covid, everyone thought it was an overkill.

[00:47:32] _{Alina Trigubenko}: During Covid it was a baseline. Everyone needed this additional security. And we interviewed a lot of clients of our coaches, of our customers and kind of whether we were even dissecting them on, whether it's a corporate client or it's a, you know, private client it didn't matter. People clients expected a higher level of security.

[00:47:55] _{Alina Trigubenko}: When they engage with their clients or with their coaches and consultants, and [00:48:00] that actually correlated with the NPSs score. So, and also very interesting data that we noticed as we started testing that. We saw coaches that were providing services through, and we tested this kind of security awareness.

[00:48:16] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Flow. So as soon as there was the security awareness coaches, that did not change anything else. So any other constant was the same. Only the security awareness was implemented. They started seeing 70% uptick in male popula male clientele. Thanks so, Yeah, especially, I think there is, there is some subconscious maybe, or some maybe practical but there's definitely interesting data to play with right there.

[00:48:44] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Mm-hmm. And also, yeah, 

[00:48:47] Elisabeth Galperin: I would just say, Chris, I mean, I think what Chris is also speaking to here is you gotta know your audience. And if you have a niche, you know, if his core clientele is chief Information Security officers then [00:49:00] knowing, you know, that's gonna help you as a business owner make the right decisions of this tool is, you know, there's, there's no need for me to even offer this.

[00:49:09] Elisabeth Galperin: Because it doesn't fit what my client expects or requires. So that's a good example of, you know, knowing your audience and then making some of your business decisions based on what they're going to need or expect. 

[00:49:21] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Thank you so much for the add-on. We do have a couple of more questions, so we have three minutes left.

[00:49:26] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So a question from John. I'm curious to hear what other hesitations you have in using platforms or AI tools, aside from privacy. That sounds like a product to search question. 

[00:49:40] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: Sure. Terms, ai, my biggest concern is, is it gonna serve up the right information? Mm-hmm. If it is fully released and able to do its own thing the accuracy.

[00:49:51] Elisabeth Galperin: Can you trust it? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:49:57] ^{Jamie White}: I would say I am probably. [00:50:00] Not necessarily like a front runner, you know, I don't run out and buy the, the most the newest iPhone or something like that. But I'm a early adapter. I don't know what the different phases are. Mm-hmm. And so I don't ha personally have a lot of resistance. I'm curious to see where it all goes and I'm open about it, but I would say that.

[00:50:20] ^{Jamie White}: My clients are not as, as early adapters as I am, so it's just taking a little bit longer for them to, you know, see other things in other places. And so like as far as platforms, I. I feel like some of my clients, I'm lucky if I can get them to text, you know, like mm-hmm. They're still at the phone call stage and that's not where I'm at.

[00:50:43] ^{Jamie White}: But I need to somewhat be aware that this is where they at they're at, and getting them to interact with technology. I mean, my kids, I'm like, they'll figure it all out real fast, but my clients just aren't quite there yet. 

[00:50:58] Elisabeth Galperin: Yeah. [00:51:00] I would say in terms of hesitations, I think more about, and this is probably more about like automations, how much heavy lifting upfront, like is there gonna be an roi, right?

[00:51:10] Elisabeth Galperin: Do I have to learn a whole new system and I have to, you know, how much upfront learning am I gonna have to do in order to make it work? And is there, how quickly is there an roi? I think. Yeah, I think for me the hesitation would stay in that lane of the ethics and the privacy, security. 

[00:51:31] _{Alina Trigubenko}: There is actually interesting research on the adoption of technology.

[00:51:34] _{Alina Trigubenko}: So the technology gets widely adapted. Only if it makes someone more productive three times the third if it kind of increases the productivity. Three, three x two x. You know, so, so, but as soon as we hit the threshold of being three, three x more productive, that's where the magic happens and past growth happens.

[00:51:58] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Another last question we have here [00:52:00] is I'm wondering from John, I'm wondering how much automation should be involved in engaging with clients? Is there a risk of losing personal touch in their journey? And how do we mitigate that? 

[00:52:10] ^{Jannelle McGrath:} I think as long as there is a cadence of regular human interaction, it shouldn't just be replaced with automation.

[00:52:19] ^{Jannelle McGrath}: And I think truly asking somebody what, you know, how many touchpoints help solve some of that, that, that their preferences. 

[00:52:28] ^{Jamie White}: I think going back to the idea of text messaging, shifting to voice memos and things like that, I feel like any touchpoints where I'm able to have input in that touchpoint or.

[00:52:42] ^{Jamie White}: Be a little bit more visual or verbal. Were they able, they're able to see me, hear me in not just a written format or a concept of texting, but here's a video you might be interested in or something like that. Where it's more [00:53:00] audio visual, you know, all encompassing and not, not just like, Reschedule your appointment, or here's a newsletter you might be interested in.

[00:53:09] ^{Jamie White}: But faster ways for me to respond to the client's needs where I can send quick videos or quick voice memos for the client. I, I could see that being beneficial to the client and. If there are workflows where, again, we're taking the work out of it, like I just click a button because there's a couple of times a day where I might have a couple of minutes that I could answer some of those pieces, and if I don't have to send an email, but I can do a quick video memo, that would be amazing for the clients to be able to see and hear me in a, in a new way.

[00:53:41] Elisabeth Galperin: I'll just add, I think the more sensitive the information that you're sharing or receiving the more you need to make sure that you're giving it the personal touch and attention. And you know, there are certainly times where my clients, even though we're meeting to discuss productivity and time management, you know, I'm, [00:54:00] I'm hearing a lot of things that are going on in their life and so I would.

[00:54:04] Elisabeth Galperin: Not want to compromise the fact that I become a confidant to them. So I think it's the sensitivity level or like the intimacy level, right, of the, the information that's being shared and making sure that we're preserving the, the me time for, for those highly sensitive and highly personal interactions.

[00:54:26] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Wow, this has been a very insightful job. I've taken a bunch of notes. Learned a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the participation. And yeah, this has been a very interesting perspective sharing. So thank you. 

[00:54:42] Elisabeth Galperin: Thanks for the opportunity. It was really good to dig into this topic with you guys.

[00:54:46] ^{Jamie White}: Absolutely, and thank you, Alina, for bringing some of the experiences that you have and the connections that you've made, because it helps open my mind to what might be possible even more.

[00:54:56] _{Alina Trigubenko}: Thanks everyone.