3 Tips for Organizing Your Business in Airtable with Ashley Pendergraft
Branding with Friends | Episode 37
What if all of your business info could live in one place? Discover how to use Airtable to seamlessly organize your practice with tips from automation expert, Ashley Pendergraft, in this episode of "Branding with Friends."
Meet Ashley Pendergraft, Airtable, Zapier, and Automation Expert.
Annie: Hi there, welcome to a new episode of Branding with Friends, the show where branding meets key business topics. Here you're going to learn tips straight from the experts on everything from podcast hosting, to business mindset to content marketing, we focus on what you can do right now to use these topics plus the power of branding to attract your ideal clients. I'm your host branding expert Annie Franceschi of Greatest Story Creative. I help service business owners tell their story and show their value through clear messaging and consistent branding. I'm also a former Disney storyteller, professional speaker and the author of two best selling books, “Establish Yourself” and “Permission to Try”. And today I'm super excited to introduce you to one of my new friends in the business world. If you would love to have a more streamlined and organized business,you're gonna love today's episode. My guest today is the incredible Ashley Pendergraft. Yay, Ashley! Ashley is an Airtable and Zapier consultant through her company Do the Damn Thing. She primarily works with feminist and neurodivergent online business owners to help them use Airtable to manage their group programs, memberships, and masterminds. So they can deliver low fit, high touch and automated experiences. Welcome, Ashley. I'm so glad you're here.
Ashley: Yes, I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Annie: Yeah, absolutely. And so a lot of our episodes are kind of about general topics. But today, you have come to talk to us about your wheelhouse, or one of your zones of genius, which is a program called Airtable. So I've been curious, just telling you that I hopped in Airtable, didn't know what to do with it, and popped right back out. So teach us for those who've never heard of it or are curious about it. What is Airtable?
Ashley: Yes. So Airtable is a software that is basically what it is, is a database. So it looks like a spreadsheet kind of on face value. But it's way more powerful than a spreadsheet, the familiarity of a spreadsheet with the complexity of a database. So really, what that means is that Airtable can be your like source of truth for so many different things in your business. So I am excited to talk to you offline about how you can use Airtable to like, organize the Branding with Friends, like workflow of everything as well. But really I use, I'm a systems and automation expert that uses zero spreadsheets at all, and has everything inside of Airtable. So it can really replace a lot of those things that like, feel organized, but actually aren't as like, robust as they possibly could be. And inside of Airtable.
Annie: Yeah, it's like getting all those spreadsheets to like, talk to each other. work harmoniously, work automatically without that heaviness, right of the updating, and this and that. Well, I'm so excited because we're going to be doing more and more episodes, I'm getting lots of questions about how to have a more streamlined business and more automated business. And this is such a good episode for that. So okay, we know that a little bit more about what Airtable is, you had mentioned, it replaces a lot of things. So what can a pro using a program like Airtable replace that you may already have in a service based business?
Ashley: Yeah, so the biggest thing is spreadsheets. Like we said, spreadsheets don't really talk to each other. They're not very harmonious and Airtable, everything talks together. And for, if you have like a content calendar, for example, sometimes you have a table that has like the list of posts, and then you kind of in another table make this like, you stretch out the cells to make it look like a calendar. And it can look really pretty, but they they don't talk to each other. So if something updates in one, you have to manually update it. And another, with Airtable, you can flip between things like grid view and calendar view and like the Trello Kanban view. So it's really robust in that way. So spreadsheets is a huge one. And one of the big ones is Google Forms. Whenever I see a Google form, I cringe because they could just, they're just so much better inside of Airtable, they have an integrated like form, you can build out air table forms, but what's beautiful about those is that they the data, you can see it all on the back end of what's called your little Airtable base. So instead of it living in your Google Drive, like all of this amazing rich data that you're collecting in this form living in a Google Sheet hidden in your Google Drive, instead it's in one central place in Airtable. It's really easy to find and link to other other pieces of data so a lot of the Google Suite it kind of it kind of eliminates for you.
Annie: Well and we all, so many of us use those things and feel like I, like you said, feel like you're organized, but what if it could be better, what if it could all be in one place? I love that and remind me to, it's been a minute since I've looked at Airtable, like is there a free option still, or yeah, you know, how do you get started with their free plan?
Ashley: Their free plan is great um, you can absolutely get started, their free plan and that's what, I what I recommend. There are some bonuses of upgrading to the Pro Plan which I think right now is like $20 a month or something, but it's like being able to brand your forums or having more color options on your calendar. So once you like, are in Airtable on the free plan and you like, can't live without it, which I, everybody is a convert afterwards, then it's really easy just to upgrade. It's like the one of the other big reasons to upgrade is just record spaces. Well, so if you're starting to use it and just have more data, they'll let you know, hey, it's time, it's time to upgrade into a bigger plan. But that's like 1500 records or something. So you have, it'll take, you have a lot of time to get comfy in it.
Annie: Well, thanks for helping us get our bearings. And I know folks who watch Branding with Friends know that there are always three great tips. And for today, we thought we would do, Ashley has brought along three different ways you could use a program, this program Airtable in your business to make it more streamlined and more centralized, get your business more organized. I am very curious about this. So they're not in any particular order. They don't build on themselves, but they're certainly all interrelated and all can be better managed in Airtable. So we're gonna do our first two, and then we'll save the third for the end to make sure you listen all the way through the episode. But for today, actually, where should we get started? What would be the really great use case? For this use case, for Airtable?
#1 Action TIP
Automatically track all your sales in one place with Airtable.
Ashley: Yeah, so the biggest thing Airtable can do for you is give you a source of truth. And one of the great, one of the easiest things you can do and it makes you feel like, so pro, is automating all of your sales into like, a sales hub. So in Airtable, you'd have these different hubs that are kind of like different departments. So you'd have what's called a sales hub. And you click that open, and every sale across your business would all be in one central spot, which like, sounds pretty straightforward. But a lot of us don't have that because we have Thrivecart for our group programs, and we have Dubsado for our one on one. And maybe we have Acuity for booked calls. So we know, kind of, theoretically how much money we've made for the month. And we could definitely pull those reports if someone asked us, but there's so much power in having that all go into one central spot in real time. And it's pretty, it's it's super easy to set up. So you use, we mentioned it before, Zapier, which is an automation software that helps things like talk to each other. So we say, when a Thrivecart sale comes in, add it to my sales log, when the QD sale comes in, add it to my sales log, then you can like, group by month or group by product. And in real time, you can start to analyze your data. So we like, we want to centralize everything, so then we can analyze it right. So that's really one of the biggest, it's like, the simplest thing to set up is just putting it all in one place. But that's, that's fantastic. And they have amazing automation capabilities as well, which, this is like the nerdiest thing, but if you have payment plans, you know how horrifying it is to like, project those and like you have the spreadsheet that, like you know, you fill it out. And if someone cancels, like those projections are just really tough to maintain. Inside of Airtable, they have their own automation. So you can say, populate for projected payments into the, into the future. So when I go into my sales hub, I know how much monthly recurring revenue MRR that I'm expecting for the next six months, because it's projected like, automatically so that stuff is such a game changer. That alone is like the, that's the reason to join. It's like the reason to get it. But then there's a reason to get it which is free.
Annie: Yes. And I will also just go ahead and say I know many people who listen to this are not tech savvy. And there are people who are virtual assistants who can help you with Airtable. Ashley is a consultant in this, it's part of why I'm having her on the show. So she has great resources around this, this product. So there are people who can then get it set up for you, and then you're just maintaining it. So, and I love this idea of the sales hub, I teach something I call a real time revenue tracker. And this is something that has really grown my business dramatically and helped me make good choices, keep my brand what I want it to be, to like let things go, add things, having that visibility to how your sales are going, what is working, what isn't, where your clients are coming from. I currently track that in a manual spreadsheet, like and that is my real time revenue tracker. And it is not that hard for me to maintain for the kind of business that I have for a lot of doing, you know, a lot of one to one work. But as it scales and grows, I see so much value when Ashley is saying, and just honestly, if I didn't have to manually maintain it, that would be really nice. And it would save me a lot of time. But I love that you're bringing this up of, when you can have the data right in front of you, the information. There's so many people I work with who have no clue where they are in the year, what what parts of their business are selling well, this is one of my biggest secrets to success is having the visibility to what is going on so that you can make informed decisions of what do I want to be known for? Is that working? How can I make that better? So love it, love it. Love it. I think so. That first use being the sales hub, having an at a glance of all the things going on in terms of revenue in your business, what is a second way that we could be thinking of using Airtable?
#2 ACTION TIP
Use Airtable as your launch hub to manage all data in one location.
Ashley: Yeah, so going off of the sales blog. So when you have all your sales in one place. A lot of us launch, launching can feel super heavy, super stressful. And one of the things like we just don't know what's going on in the launch, we either have to wait for our VA to wake up and like refresh the sales in the spreadsheet, all of that. So, because we have all of that stuff automatically in our sales hub, we can send that over into what's called a launch hub. So you can start to see we're building out Airtable, it becomes your centralized source of truth for everything. So if you pop up in the launch hub, you can see over time, all, like I've had two launches this year. So I have a little launch table, just like, like a spreadsheet tab. And that has the launch name, the launch dates, and then all of those launch sales are connected to that launch. So I can see now, how many sales I made in March, how many sales I made in October for those launches, compare them. So having that launch happen and have that update automatically, is something that when you're in launch mode, you don't want to be thinking about that stuff, you want to be like, celebrating and selling, like those are the two things you want to be focusing on. So if your systems can automate the numbers and the metrics, then that's, then that's huge. Also in your launch hub, you schedule, you like, you can organize your content. And that's a really big thing, you can do an Airtable, if you are organizing content inside of a spreadsheet. Airtable is like, you gotta move into it. It's just way more robust. And one of the biggest things is Airtable fields, you can have different field types, including attachments. So like even just having images being able to be connected to a record.
Annie: So you can search it and you're like, where are all my headshots? Where are all my pictures of me with clients? Where are my logos?
Ashley: And for branding, like your grandkid could, all you know all of those things could exist there too. So it really becomes your centralized database. And now, when I have my next launch, I can go into that launch hub and see all of the emails I sent, what performed the best because metrics in the hub can repurpose them. It's just when everything's in one central place, it's all there for us to like, you're way more likely to use it.
Annie: If you’re going to see it, you can see it, you're never going to open that many tabs and really be able to compare. Yeah, I love that sort of segmented use case, because there's the sales, it's the broader thing. But then it's like you're launching a program. And then you can see not only sales, but also as you said, content, email marketing. I was curious about that, like whether you could see like the open rates and kind of how things went. How many times I know I've been like, what was that email that I said, where was that, how the more you can get to that stuff, the faster, the more consistent and clear you can be as a brand. And as a business. And that is what we all know, drives sales. Right? The more clear and consistent you can be, you know, pulling those learnings in. If you're constantly reinventing the wheel, you are not likely consistent at what you're doing. Right?
Ashley: Yeah, like I have, I have ADHD and with that, like object permanence is a big thing. So it's like, if it's hidden in my Drive, like, all these beautiful launch debriefs, if they're hidden in my Google Drive, I will just never, I will forget that they existed. All of that work, my team put together to make the reports and none of the, it's useless. And so to have everything like, really visible, top of like in one place really helps neurodivergent business owners if that's something that you struggle with, too. Yeah.
Annie: I'm really glad that you said that and brought that up. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show. I hope that people notice that I am always intentionally trying to bring on guests that not only are brilliant at what they do, but also represent different perspectives, different voices, and I love that you specialize in helping neurodivergent and feminist audiences, I think those things are really important. And that accessibility is really important. And I continue to learn and coach from folks that have ADHD and it is critically important to have that, those organizations steps in place, right, but for, for everyone, regardless of you know, whatever your differences may be, I think this is such a powerful tool. Fantastic. And I know that people are like, Okay, I am very curious about this, I need to learn more about how Airtable works. I know you, you were gonna mention something about how to get in touch with you. So how can folks get in touch with you about Airtable? What's the best next step they can take to dive into this world?
Ashley: Yeah, so the, where I hang out the most is my email list. So there'll be a link to join our email list. And we really talk about growing your group program and your group offer with Airtable. So really showing you how you can use Airtable and all of these interesting ways just to like, streamline and centralize and all that stuff for you for your business. So it's been like, we just, I love there's so much visual stuff, too. We send videos of like, what these things look tight, like what does the sales hub look like? What does the launch of, look like. So those will all be if you sign up for our email list, then then that's the best.
Annie: We can get that behind the scenes, we'll definitely be sure to check that out. We've got links for all of the things that Ashley just mentioned, and hopping on her list, which I'm very grateful to be on because I am learning all the things already. So you've already shared with us a couple of great use cases for this Airtable program. So Airtable being this amazing program is going to replace a lot that you've already got. Give you at a glance and really put your spreadsheets to work for you in a more automated and integrated way. So our first use case was an amazing all adequate sales hub, all your sales, all your revenue all in one place to look at and compare, the second being like, looking launch by launch and organizing not only the sales, but the content and the emails as well. What is that third way that you thought would be really a great way to get started with Airtable?
#3 Action Tip
Automate client management with Airtable.
Ashley: Yeah. So the third way is client management. So this is so huge, especially for, if you have an online course or a group offer, or you want to create one, the thing about those offers is that there is so much rich data living in a bunch of different places in those Google Forms. So you're onboarding forums, in your Q&A call forms, in your Facebook group, or your circle group, or your, your course, like, there's so much information about your student and your student experience that is floating around. So like a broken record at this point, but bringing it all in to one source of truth in Airtable, especially for a group offer, is so so important. So imagine, you know, you have your group offer hub, and you can pull up a student and you can see their little record. And because everything is connected to it, you can see when they fill out their onboarding form, you can see how many questions they've submitted. If they haven't submitted a question to the Q&A calls in two weeks, automate sending them a check in email, because it's all centralized, you're able to really use that data to check in with people and make them feel seen if their end date is 30 days.
Annie: Now, they recommend you, they have the transformation you want them to have.
Ashley: Yeah, because I want people to, I don't want people to be mad that my programs, I have a great program. I want them to be stoked. And oftentimes if you are in a program that is getting bigger, and the systems are not set up to like, it used to be manual check in because you could remember where everyone was at. But when you get to 50 people, you can't really remember how everybody's doing. But you still want to make sure people feel like, seen and heard and taken care of. And when you have all their student data in one place, you can leverage that information to really like, improve your client experience and make sure that they're checked in with, and all of that stuff. So that's really big. Absolutely. If you have a group program or mastermind or membership, you need Airtable and this is like this is the hill I die on, it's like really that, like you absolutely need Airtable. And you need this group offer, have a no one, no one teaches the way that this source of truth thing like like we do. So we're really proud of it. But yeah, absolutely client management is is so beautiful, and easy and scalable inside of Airtable. And it's like, it's my it's my favorite thing.
Annie: Well, I love it. And I think it's so important. I'm always teaching people to brand their client experience, to care about it, to have a great process for it. There's a lot of like, you know, how you do welcome gifts, how you present yourself, visually with your logo and your fonts and your colors and your confidence. And part of what drives that I think you've just hit on really well which is, you know, the quality of that experience, the seamlessness of it, that ability to to know even at a high scale. Like you can't be in touch with everybody, but being able to have systems in place, they're going to catch people and keep them engaged with you. That is only a great thing for your brand and business. So I'm so grateful you've shared these tips with us today. So the sales hub, launch hub, and client management across one or more of those things, you can totally transform your business. And if this episode has got you thinking about wanting more clarity and consistency about how you are branding yourself and how you are showing up as the expert, you can always grab a free consult with me about Done for You branding services or business coaching at GreatestStoryCreative.com. Ashley, I'm so glad that you came and joined us. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. Many, many thanks to my guests, Ashley Pendergraft of Do the Damn Thing.
Ashley: Thank you for having me. Absolutely.
Annie: We hope that you guys enjoyed yet another episode of branding with friends. Tune in next time when we're going to tackle another topic where branding and business meet. And until then I'm Annie Franceschi of Greatest Story Creative. You could find all our past episodes, branding resources and so much more on our website. GreatestStoryCreative.com. Stay awesome!
“Branding with Friends” Episode 37
Show Notes + Resources
Here are 3 key tips for Airtable in business:
Automatically track all your sales in one place with Airtable.
Use Airtable as your launch hub to manage all data in one location.
Automate client management with Airtable.
Resources:
If you’d like to learn more visit Ashley’s site
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