105 ⎸ [STRATEGY] Turning off the busy-ness

to be in place for them to get paid. But then we had to kind of reconfigure and figure out how to make things make sense and also track commissions because she needs to figure out her cash flow and all the things. I love that. That's what I sit with. I'll sit with that. And I'm like, okay, this goes here. Let's look at this tool. This tool cost too much. It doesn't even make sense. Let's look at something else. And so that I love to do.

And then once I put that together, then it's putting it together. welcome back to the ambitious bookkeeper podcast. I'm your host serene Shoup. This is part of our niche series as part of this series, spanning July and August. You'll be listening in on interviews with niche, bookkeepers and accountants.

I thought it would be really inspirational and super valuable to bring on bookkeepers and accountants who have built niche firms to take you behind the curtain of what it looks like to get to the point of serving in a specific niche. My hope is that you'll gain the inspiration and information that will help you hone in on your niche. Or if you already have one. Find different ways to help your clients.

I'll be asking some similar questions of each of our guests, like what their minimum fee is, how they got into their niche and what their firm team structure looks like. I'm super excited to bring this to you. And I hope that you enjoy. If you're ready to hone in on your own niche and build a bookkeeping business that gives you the life that you want, check out the bookkeeping business accelerator by going to ambitiousbookkeeper.com/bba the link is also in the show notes.

If finding a perfect fit client is something that you've needed. Check out my mini course, the bookkeeping client closer, go to ambitiousbookkeeper.com/closer. All the links will be in the show notes. Now let's get into today's episode.

So this is one of those special strategy sessions in exchange for, a free mentoring session. We air it on the podcast and I'm super excited to have you. Would you like to introduce yourself, where you're at in your business? what type of business owners you help all that good stuff.

technology and using all of the efficient tools to make the back end easier. So I find that I end up helping people come out of the old school way of doing things and bring them up to date. So currently my roster, I have quite a few, I have some counseling centers, I have an architect, I have a yoga business. It's kind of a mishmash, but the, the main thing is that for me, I was important for me to use my skill set to help people who are doing good things in their community.

So, for me, that first came out as a wellness business, and it was kind of like a little too niche down, like, you know, yoga, esthetician, blah, blah, blah. And it's kind of expanded to be really impactful, purposeful businesses. So I have three mental health, businesses that I support. And then I have an employment consultant who works with special needs youth and adults. And I have the yoga business as well.

And then there are some, just like service providers that are just good people who I want to help. But, the, the passion and the purpose behind Elmwood is really to get behind those who want to bring change into their communities through whether it be self care practices or talking about mental health, getting treatment or all the things. So there's a lot of heart in what I do and who I want to work with.

I mean,

And, you know, even with like, you know, I've taken Keeper with Asana, I've, I've done all the things, you know what I mean? So at this point I'm like, okay, you know, the opportunity came where a CPA that I was working with had a bookkeeper who she wanted to get deeper into the work versus really, she's super, she was super part time with the CPA. And I'm like, yes, you know, someone was vetted out, like already perfect. And so.

For me, it was the big trust thing of finding someone who I could trust. And so that kind of helped that piece. But in terms of doing the work and delegating the work and the tools, I feel like maybe we should do an audit and say, okay, ask me the questions. And I'm like, well, this is my solution for this. And maybe I'm missing something. Maybe, maybe I have too many things and they're like, I'm doing too much, you know, I don't know.

So I think that I want to do kind of like a gut check, a sanity check to make sure that. A, that I'm not overly exhausting myself. I am an over an analyzer, you know, and I still try to keep pushing through. I, I'm out of that perfectionism place, which is good. But, I think that's what's important for me is to know that. After doing all the research and building on my infrastructure and building on my tech stack, and now I'm in the place where okay.

We're just doing the work and I'm focusing on my team. It's, it's new for me because I don't hear a lot of people talking about what do you do once everything's set up and it's set up properly? What do you do then? You're just doing the work. Now I'm up, you know, I'm increasing my skill set. I'm taking Elevate. I'm taking, I'm reading all the good books and stuff like that. So I feel like I'm doing all the things, but then I'm just like, am I doing too much? You know? So

And so in the past, whatever nine, however many months I've been in a client acquisition stage. And with that comes all the things that it comes with. But, there's just a lot of front loaded work right now of set ups and clean ups, set ups and clean ups, set ups and clean ups. and also kind of some fintech advisory stuff, because people are using the wrong tools, they're at crappy banks, there's a lot of troubleshooting.

So, that's my space, and it keeps me really busy, but then the people who, at the top of the year, who I bought on, cleaned up, everything's nice and settling, they don't want to let me go, great, now I have you on a system, and you have your, their cycle. My plan for my team is to give them those people that I've cleaned up. I need you to maintain it to the standard that I've showed you guys and off we go. So that's where I'm at. So I am, I feel like I'm, I'm busy.

And I think that my concern for myself is I don't want to burn myself out, too, because, you know, as a high performer, you're in corporate, you're like, all the time. And it's just like, I'm feeling that same a bit of anxiety kind of flare up. I'm like, Hey, because I'm still used to be being busy. I was the typical workaholic, the typical. Over performer. Give me the project. Give me the project. You know, I don't know.

I guess I was trying to prove myself and, it's helped me be successful in corporate. I was, I did well, but, and it helps me in my business.

Cause I'm, I get things done, but it's not sustainable. I don't want to be at the same pace three years in full time that I'm like, let's, like, it's not good for your nervous system. You know what I mean? So I think that I, I feel like maybe this, this is the thing that clicked for me. How can I find rest in my business when I'm so used to working and doing and getting the satisfaction of seeing the fruit of my labor? I feel like now.

I'm in a place where I've done the work so I can coast safely, but I don't know how to turn it off. I don't know how to not be the thing and the one and the do and take on a new project. And so, it I think I'm, I think I'm sick because I told myself I'll never do a restaurant. And God's like I'm going to take this restaurant and at first I told him no I was good I put my batteries up. But then I was like the challenge and I spent like hours researching the tools and then I signed him.

You know what I mean? And so I, that's great. And the revenue and all that stuff, but I know I have this bad habit of just doing too much, doing too much, doing too much. And I'm just so used to it. And I'm like. I don't want to crash and burn, you know, because I want to be in Elmwood book, El Elmwood bookkeepers to be here 10 years from now. Yeah. So I think that like with you, you have of course bookkeeping, you have ambitious, you have, you have all the things.

And so I'm curious, how do you manage that? And you have children? I don't even have kids yet. I mean, I didn't even know how you guys do it. So I'm sitting here and I'm like, and then I was like, I want a podcast. I'm like, no, no podcast. I was talking to my friend and I was just like, how? How do I. Tell myself just calm down and rest. I think that's where my mind really is. This is what's coming up for me. It's just like.

I think I'm so used to doing that now that I don't, I don't necessarily have to do, but I'm just so used to it. I hope I'm explaining that properly, but it's, it's kind of complex, you know, how it's maybe it's, maybe I need a therapist more than a podcast.

Like, do you need to Maybe get back into a hobby that you used to be into or discover something new and, and try some different things out, like putting that type of stuff on your calendar so that you're not. Just inclined to work all the time. And yeah, it's going to be hard. Like there's times where I'm like, I, there's always something you could be doing for your business, right?

There's always some like, you know, networking or connecting with people or setting up a system or doing whatever, doing some social media posts, whatever it is, there's always going to be something and it's always going to be there. Maybe even the client work. Right. But at a certain point. you kind of want to be able to like draw the line and say, okay, like, but is that really like that important? Is that really going to move the needle?

Is that really like, is there a specific goal that that's going to help me get toward, or am I just filling my time? Because that's what I'm used to doing. And what else could I fill my time with? Like, is there, is there a hobby that you used to be involved in or something?

We're going to do cashflow forecasting and I'm going to sit and I love it. I just, I love it. But I also recognize that as much as I may love it, it's not necessarily the best thing for me to always just be on. And that part of my brain going, going, going. Okay. So for me, like, now bringing on the team, it's a different part of my brain that I have to exercise. So that's kind of refreshing. but yeah, I'm making those efforts. I have my hobbies and stuff, but, I don't know.

I think I just need a vacation. I don't know.

Like everyone has kind of like, maybe that's your next project of like getting your business to the point of, okay, like I'm going to schedule this vacation for, you know, whatever, a couple of months from now, by that point, and you have to obviously communicate this to your team is by that point, I would love to be able to take this vacation and actually be completely unplugged.

So let's develop a training plan so that everyone can hit the ground running and understand how to handle things and then figuring out like what could wait for you to come back versus what is an emergency or whatever.

And fortunately, because it's cyclical, like, I guess, you know, 2 weeks or so, they're going to shadow me do the work. And so that's that's how that is. So I'm just going to slowly kind of. Give it to them. You know what I mean? But, I hope by the end of the summer, they should be at a place where I can just be in the review and the quality assurance check, you know, but I feel like I think I hesitated getting a team because it just felt like another task. To to do, and it fell in my lap.

It just it was the timing was crazy good. And so I was just like, all right, I'm going to go with it. But,

You're shifting that to someone else's plate, but now your work is in the review capacity or the teaching or mentoring your team and coaching your team. So the type of you do just begins to shift. Like for instance, you mentioned that like I have my businesses, whatever, I don't do a lot of the actual client work and I haven't in a long time. I have a couple of clients that I do myself, but the majority of the client work is done by the team.

And more of my time is actually spent helping them troubleshoot things, answering different questions. Little things that come up that are not within the norm, like answering those questions and just like meeting with the team and like giving them a time and space to like ask me questions that they have, or just talk about their goals, things like that. And so a lot of times when people build out their team, they don't, it doesn't feel like work anymore because you're like, I'm not

actually doing any of the work. I'm just kind of like here as a resource for my team, but. That's what you get to do as the ceo . Barbara: Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And, and that's the thing, like I'm, I'm definitely, like I even discussed with them kind of like what the job progression would be. You know, of course they come in as like the bookkeeper, but if and when it makes sense and if I see they, their skillset matches that.

They wanted to get more involved in preparing the reports and now starting to look at it and, and, you know, Things that I look at versus the technical, you know, portion of the foundational things. I'm, I'm happy to coach and grow that too, because I just, it's something I enjoy doing. I like talking about it. So I like to, if I find that with them too, I'd share that. But, it's like, it's, I don't want to not be busy. I don't know. Maybe it's a coping thing.

I don't want to not, I don't want to have a, a team. To not be busy. I know people like, oh, get your business to go on autopilot and, you know, make all the money and your team does the work. And I don't want that. I like knowing what's going on. I like. Seeing, oh, there's a client, you went to Cheesecake Factory again, you know, he loves Cheesecake Factory. You know, like, I don't know. I

that you build with you have. That relationship and you're helping someone build their dream. Like I don't want to lose that that part of the vision. So for me, I think I want to, I want to make more Barbara's I want other people who can do what I do and enjoy as much as I enjoy it. That's really the point for me. So I was talking to them and I was like, who knows in a year's time, maybe we'll have junior bookkeepers to help support you guys. Do you know what I mean? so that's kind of how I see.

The next two years. But, yeah.

But then we had to kind of reconfigure and figure out how to make things make sense and also track commissions because she needs to figure out her cash flow and all the things. I love that. That's what I sit with. I'll sit with that. And I'm like, okay, this goes here. Let's look at this tool. This tool cost too much. It doesn't even make sense. Let's look at something else. And so that I love to do. And then once I put that together, then it's putting it together.

So I have like a like today after this call, I have to do a diagnostic and I have two setups to do this week. So by Friday, we'll see, but get those done. But that's the part that I love. I enjoy taking it. Apart and putting it back together. And then once I get it together, and it's just doing the work, it's just maintaining it. That part's just I'm neutral. It's not that I don't like it. It's just I love the mental gymnastics of trying to figure out a problem. I'm the problem solver.

That's what I love. So those are the things that I'm drawn to more.

And then once things are to a point where there's a process in place, you hand that over and train somebody else on your team and they maintain it going forward. And you can even get to the point where you're not necessarily the one doing the review either. If that's something that

I'm the 1 who signs them. They know me and I don't want them to feel like, oh, I sold you a dream and then I signed you off and you never talked to me. You know what I mean? So, and I'm comfortable with that. And my, my clients are not needy at all. Very respectful of my time. So I don't mind being open to them. They don't abuse it. So that's, that's fine.

I'm having the other learn and do Xero. After some point in time, we're going to swap them and they're going to help each other learn so that they're building their confidence and communicating. Because when you communicate something, that means you understand it more. And then that way I have people crossing because I'm also a zero girl. I, I, I love zero.

I would love to say that the goal 2024 is to be fully zero, but the world we live in, I don't know how, how realistic it is, but fortunately for me, I think I've been able to put like five clients on zero and pull them out of the QuickBooks ecosystem, which is nice. So, but that's my plan. I want one person to kind of be the.

Subject matter expert for QuickBooks and the other one for Xero and because they're starting with me and the plan, I don't want to have more than like 5 on the team, including me. So, like, 2 more people, but I want them to be like, once a QuickBooks expert, once a Xero expert, they help each other learn the other systems and then they always will have me as the source of transfer to figure out all the things. So that's my plan. because I want them to know both systems and I just feel like.

Thank you. I was just like, I'm not going to have you learn two systems at once. I didn't do that. So

And so on that group is everyone on the team so that if anyone is. It's requesting a code. It goes out immediately to everyone on the team and it's a nice visibility thing too for me. I'm like, Oh, someone was working at three in the morning. I see a code was requested, you know what I mean? Which is fine. I don't care when they work, but that's how I resolved that. But again, I was listening to what you said. I'm like, Oh, that's a good point. I don't want to be a bottleneck. so I set that up.

So there, there was a keeper and Asana. I did little loom videos and explain to them this is how I do things. And I kind of basically made, like, an Asana handbook, a video handbook, and I'm like, go here, do this, blah, blah, blah. So they're kind of going through, like, their own self paced orientation. And then in two weeks, we do a check in to say, how do you feel? And I just kind of regimented, like, and thank God for, like, YouTube. There's so many excellent resources for Xero and YouTube.

So I'm kind of like, this is the navigational thing. Like, this is how you're going to navigate the system. This is how you're going to do X, Y, Z. And so once they kind of do that first round. Then it's, do the certification because I think that really kind of gives them a deep dive. So that's the phase we're in right now in terms of training. So they're not touching anything client work right now, which is fine. I can manage.

Because by the time they get started, I want them to be like, so eager. I'm like, I just want to apply what I've been. Practicing and stuff. So it's kind of like a little appetizer for them first. And, it's cute. Cause we're on a group chat now and we're like, like I sent them a video, a productivity hack for like time blocking. I'm like, check out this video. Oh my gosh, this is cool. So they're, we're all geeked out and like productivity nerds. And it's, it's nice. It's a nice vibe so far.

And so depending on how that goes, we can start to give them more and see how they feel. But I want to kind of just titrate it a little by little. I don't want to overwhelm anyone. I want them to stay with me.

And I think you mentioned before, you're going to have them shadow you first and then work on their own. I also recommend setting up coworking sessions. So if you can like, especially as they're, you know, learning and working in a virtual environment is for some people and people can feel pretty disconnected. So one of the things that I always. Like to do is making sure that you're meeting with your new hires, at least weekly at the beginning.

And then you can kind of taper off as you gain more confidence and trust in them that they'll come to you with, with questions when they have them, but at least creating that space for them to. To come with, even if they don't come with any questions every time, just it's kind of having that open door, right? And the opportunity for them to just, you know, talk about things, even if it ends up just being a personal conversation, that's still building the relationship and building trust, right?

Yeah.

But like you said, if two weeks pass and I don't hear anything, I'm just like, Hey, let's check it.

So we do a whole team huddle. and that could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or whatever. Where everyone kind of gets on the same page. We all talk about projects we have going on or client work or whatever it is. And it's also an opportunity for everybody to get me in one place and get me to answer questions. Yeah. And everyone kind of is just aware of what's happening all together. So the weekly team meeting is like non negotiable. We have it every week. What tool do

Sharing a win. And then we like give a win. So like, I have a personal win, whether it's a personal thing or a work thing or whatever, I'll talk about that.

And then I give a win to someone else, like basically showing appreciation and seeing someone else like go above and beyond. We always do that too. So we go around the room and do that. And that pretty much takes up like half an hour. Cause there's like three or four of us and how big is your team? Yeah, it's a really good opportunity for people to just kind of connect on a personal level.

And then we go into kind of like an agenda where it's like, okay, if we're in the middle of month end, we do client status updates so that everyone is kind of like, okay, this is where I'm at with this client. If there's anything blocking them from finishing and they need me to like jump in and communicate with the client. Or if it's like, I need you to look at this cause I'm stumped. Then we. Sometimes we'll do that on the call together.

That way it's just knocked right out of, you know, the queue. And then we'll talk about like projects, if there's any projects that we have going on and like I'll update people, like what's coming up. If I've, you know, I've got some discovery calls scheduled, hopefully some of these turn into clients, we can expect, you know, more clients to be coming on those kinds of updates. Right.

Like you're going to shadow me and then you're going to take it and run with it. Or it could be, just Checking in basically, like, how is the training going? Like, is there anything that you have questions about? Blah, blah, blah. Things like that. And then once, they get into a pretty good rhythm, we switch to every other week. otherwise you're going to be in meetings all the time.

I know there's not going to be meetings, so I can spend that either doing deep work or taking the day off.

I have like an eight 30 to 10 30 window on a Tuesday and then I do a Friday afternoon and then a Saturday morning. So it's kind of like what, and when people look at my, the availability, they're like, what is this? But then like, I have two calls booked tonight, in the evening and it's just helpful. Business owners are are busy, they have families, and I'm busy. family. So I don't mind after life, then they have an evening window.

So I think that's really been popular with some of the clients that I've, I've signed. And then, uh, a Saturday morning. So I, the rest of it, like I'm blocked off and they can't book me, but I'm looking at, I'm like, where does my time go? It's just, it's just all the things. And so when I did kick off with Asana, there was like the challenge to do a Time audit and I found that I did a lot of business admin. I was doing a lot of business admin. And so it was like.

Restructuring my templates, tweaking my website, and it's, it's busy work, but it's not because it's like, if I don't do it, who's going to do it. And then because I did all the busy work for so long, when it was time to turn up the volume, everything was done because I've been doing it, fixing and doing, you know. Yeah. So I think that, like, blocking and then even today.

Some reason I was doing a test with my camera and I'm like, Oh, I have this call today. I have three calls. I have two other calls. My camera wasn't working. I had a call this morning and camera wasn't working. I go to Best Buy. The guy can't help me find a camera. Long story short, I had a button pressed on my laptop. And then I know 10 minutes before our call, I figured out that I had turned the camera off.

So I wasted an hour and a half going to Target and Best Buy to buy a webcam for this call. So if I stupid **** like that happens, but I think it's, I'm just stressed out so I didn't see that. You know what I mean? I think I just need to chill out.

And that's just not the reality as an entrepreneur. Yeah. To be able to just turn it off. And sometimes some of your best ideas and your best problem solving is when you do step away and allow yourself to think about it. Does that make sense? That's

Like what else can I get off my plate so that I do have that time freed up and maybe you free up the time and it's still during your work hours, but now you have like more brain space to like actually think through the problems and think through how to solve things or, you know, And not have everything back to back and have like a little more space in between.

So things are coming in, but I don't see them until I want to see them. So I'm weaning myself off from having to check my email so much and it's just a bad habit. Honestly, there's no need. It's not like every, you know, there's prices to solve, but I find that I just had these bad habits that are like time pits or whatever. So that I've been pretty good at I'll pause my inbox when I'm in a work session. And it's like, I'm not tempted to look and then I'll put my phone on silent so that helps.

But what I find is like, because the deadlines are internal, right? So. I can tell someone, imagine if they onboarded and I have all the things I need, which sometimes takes 30 minutes in itself, 30 days. But any case, when I have the work to do, there's no real hard deadline that says, I need to get this done by X. So I'll be like, okay, it's the first. And in my mind, I want to finish this by the 10th.

Cause I can do this, you know, And so I end up pushing it and pushing it and pushing it because I'm like, Oh, I'll work on something else. I'll work on something else. I'll work on something else because I know I have time. So then I'm like, okay, let me put out this little fire and this little fire. And then. All of a sudden I cleared everything out, but then I have all this client work sitting there because I've did everything else but the client work.

So now I have like four projects to work on at once instead of the

one that I could have staggered.

And I would say like, kind of the question I had before, like when you sit down to work, like what's the work that's like actually lighting you up, maybe like in your mind, you think it's doing the cleanups, but if you're having difficulty getting started on those, those cleanup jobs and doing other little things instead, here's a couple of things that I've noticed with myself is sometimes I don't like to sit down and start a project unless I think I can finish it in one sitting.

So if I'm like, this is probably a four or five hour job, so I'm not even going to start it unless I have that four or five hour block. Right? That's exactly what it

And I'm like, I could have done this like a week ago. Yeah. I think it's

And it's just been, it's kind of been hell. Like my eye was twitching and this was like the corporate eye twitch. Yeah. I used to have a corporate eye twitch and I was like, I am working too hard again. And it came back. I haven't had this twitch. Forever.

30 minutes to an hour in between, but I had today open for lots of meetings and people booked them because that was like the only availability, but I've been meeting since 8 AM. And I just know like, there's only tiny little tasks, like little admin tasks, like checking email or whatever that's happening in between other than that, like, I'm just dedicated to all these meetings today. And then tomorrow is another meeting day. But like the day after that is.

No meetings, no nothing on the calendar. And that's where I'm going to sit down and do deep work. And I know that I have that available to me. So it's like, I don't have to stress in between meetings about getting things done. So that's what works for me. I, I don't know. Give it a try. Yeah. Yeah.

So I like to have time blocked off after my client meetings for that, but for anything else, like. I just know it's still going to be like related to those meetings. And I like the way that you have that different staggered availability, as long as you don't have availability every day. That's what I'm saying.

At least one or two days per week that give you freedom from worrying about anything being on your calendar so that you can either a work on that big cleanup job or onboarding a client or knock out a bunch of client reviews. Or like literally take the day off if you want to. So I'm a big fan of like having one of those days on a Friday or a Monday that you never ever schedule meetings on. So, you know, like if I wanted to, I could take a three day weekend, right? Yeah,

Have the, you know, the bookkeeping software on another screen.

So I would say for me, it depends on the type of work that I'm doing. Sometimes like I'm like you too, where I like want to just take my laptop out to the porch or sit on the couch or whatever. And I, It kind of just depends on the mood. Like sometimes I'll just struggle through dealing with one screen just because I don't want to be at my desk and it's worth it other times I'll be like, okay, well, what can I do that really just requires one screen?

And then I'll just kind of decide what I'm working on based on that. Like, well, I just need to write some emails or answer some emails or do some Canva graphics. I'll just. That's I'll do it then. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, you are you're doing great. You know, but not only that, like. Rest more, I need to schedule in more rest and just life versus doing and then I want to look at my calendar and my time blocking. I want to in my mind. I want to do like. Two days of solid client work and then a day of business admin because I'm always going. And so fortunately, thank God for Asana. I have a brain dump. So I'll just bring up my things that are popping up.

So I don't have to think about them, but then I need a day to either delegate or do. So I'm like, and then my, yeah, I'm going to do that. And I have a VA. It's my sister, but she's my VA now. And so she's going to help me with all like the non deadline, non time sensitive. Yeah. Stuff that I have to do. So that's great. But she just joins too and she's getting acquainted. So my hope is in a, in a month's time that I'm feeling the relief of having people to help, you know?

And so One thing I kind of had a question about is like, do you feel that the base package should still include like the loom video because it's such a good thing to offer. And then like, like, I originally I was going to do quarterly and monthly and I was like I got rid of quarterly so quickly I was just like I don't like this. So anyway, but monthly, I have my quarterly finance meeting but I'm like, okay, technically that's my time and prep and all this stuff that comes with meeting with me.

So I'm like, if I have this base package, I can do the email recap and the loom video in my base. And that's still like, kind of like a premium base package. And then I have the full enchilada package, which will have access to me and monthly meetings. So what are your thoughts about if I have like, the base package and the premium. Should the base have any kind of meeting?

I know, I know it's up to me ultimately, but like my thought was like, we can do a monthly meeting, but no one ever wants to do monthly. They love the videos and then having option. What I did is I have options to office hours. So it's in their keeper and I'm like, if when I send their, their financials, if they want to talk, I have one client who always wants to talk, which I love, you know, but not everyone does. So I just have office hours. So you have access to office hours.

So my thought was for the base package, just to give them access to office hours. I don't know. I haven't thought it through yet. I'm not sure how I want to separate out the value.

And if someone really, really wants to have a monthly meeting, then they're now in the next year. Right. So that's why I structured that because like you, I do feel that the loom video is very valuable. It also gives me an opportunity To connect with them without, like, some people just don't read emails. They're not like written language. They're verbal or audio.

And so I will basically put the same information in the email that I have in the loom video, but they kind of like have the option to either watch the loom video. Or read the email, the information is in both places. So it's easy, right? So for instance, in our loom videos, there's almost always, there's still information we needed from them. Like you haven't filled out your suspense report or whatever. Right.

Um, and so at the top of the loom video, I'll talk about like what we still need from them. And, I also put that as a bullet point in the email, right? I like to do bullet points in my emails. So it's like really easy for people to digest. So long story short, we include the loom video on our base package. And then I just ended up increasing our base, like where I used to charge three or 400 a month without a loom video. Now our minimum is 650. Everybody gets the loom video. Yeah.

Oh, you don't, we're just going to stop doing them then. When your price is going to. Yeah. Cause our new package is this and it's this price and it includes the loom video. But if you don't want it, then we'll just cut it out and keep you at your current price. You could always do that too. And you can handle each client differently. You don't have to do the same change across the board to everybody.

And I think that's where like, sometimes people get overwhelmed with price increases and package changes. Cause they feel like they need to get fit everybody into the box and like handle everybody the same, but like. You don't have to like, you know, your clients, you know, which ones are going to be receptive versus which ones aren't, which ones are easier to have the conversation with and be like, Hey, do you even watch the loom? Oh, you don't. Okay. I'm just going to stop doing it then.

Or maybe just do a quarterly, you know what I mean? Or annually even.