Entrepreneur Growth With Technology

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to the Joy-Inspired Podcast. I'm Nikki Cruz, and I'm thrilled to explore with you what it means to walk in a faith-infused business. This is your space to find powerful tools and insights, to build with resilience and to create impact through your unique purpose, discovering a joy that only God can provide. Together, let's embrace a business journey anchored in faith and empowered by joy. Let's jump in. Well, hey, hey, beautiful friends, and welcome back to the Joy Inspired Podcast. This is the place where we talk about faith, purpose, mindset, and building businesses that don't just make money but make a meaningful kingdom empire. And this podcast exists because I truly believe that with everything that we do, joy isn't just a reward we're waiting on to earn later. It's the strength that you live from right now. It's the strength that fuels your journey to success. And here we do have real conversations with real entrepreneurs who are navigating growth, technology, calling, and even navigating the chaos. Because let's be real, the chaos comes. But all through that, we get to choose to stay aligned with God. And every entrepreneur chooses to stay aligned with who God created them to be. So if you ever felt the tension between keeping up and staying grounded, between innovation and integrity, today especially, you are absolutely in the right place. Because I am super excited to introduce you to today's guest. You know, she's become a friend as we've been in various groups together, spoken on various summits together, and always the overriding thing I feel coming right through the screen from her is peace and calm. You know, it's a beautiful thing to see, and you kind of know that God's somewhere behind that. But she also brings a beautiful blend of experience, wisdom, faith, and forward thinking innovation. Today I'm joined by Lois Wang, an online visibility expert. Don't we all want to be seen a little more? And she's the founder behind JFT Web Marketing and the Giant Builders. And aren't we all in business to serve? So the ones people search for with those magical words near me. And they show up everywhere for their ideal clients who are already looking. Let me tell you, she is not new to entrepreneurship. This lady has been in business since childhood. Literally. Lois, welcome to the Joy Inspired Podcast. It is an honor to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Well, thank you, Nikki. It's such an honor to be here and just to see what God's gonna open up for us. It's exciting.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

And before we get started, and before we get into those techie things like websites, SEOs, or AI, because yes, we are gonna go there and it's gonna be fun. I'd love for you to take us back a little. You started your entrepreneurial journey as a child, working with your dad with full of brush catalogs to decorating, to running a high-volume photography business as you grew up. What do you see now looking back that you didn't even recognize about how God was already guiding your path and equipping you?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Yeah, so many ways. You know, just I mean, people may not have even heard of fuller brush at this point, but they were known for a little brush that was used to clean vegetables. That was their like big thing, and then they they sold cleaning products. But you know, even with that, I just was learning that you have to be visible. People have to know how to contact you. And you know, obviously, this was way before internet and websites, you know, it's just stamping in the back of his catalog so we could go door to door and pass it out. But you have to be known, you have people have to know how to contact you. And then through my, I had a cake decorating business that paid for my college. So through high school, I did wedding cakes and all kinds of cakes. But you know, through that process, I learned how to, as a basically a freshman in high school, I learned how to meet with people, how to talk to them about what they wanted with their cake, how to write those orders down. Didn't have computers, so how to manage a calendar and you know, delivering cakes and such, you know, just the whole process. And then my goal was to create a full-service wedding business in Georgia. And I don't know why Georgia. I lived in Indiana, so I don't know why Georgia, but that was on my heart. But God had different plans. So before my senior year of college, where I was minoring photography, I knew I needed to work with a wedding photographer. So I found a wedding photographer to work with. And after four months of working with them, he offered to buy me a full professional equipment. And so by then I was actually photographing weddings for that studio. Well, long story short, we fell in love, we got married, we had three kids, and to this day, my husband swears I did not pay him back for that equipment. But I tell you, I have paid him back multiple times. But just by marriage, I was in charge of the marketing for the studio, and so I loved the learning of it. You know, back then you didn't have a YouTube video that you could turn on. You had to actually go to someplace and have a meeting and a presentation by somebody. I remember one of my first meetings was about websites and the things that they taught then, you better not do now because you will be completely banned from the internet. But you know, the things that we learned had to go someplace. It was a real investment to learn about technology, and a lot of people weren't willing to take that investment. And so, you know, I just love learning and I love how technology changes so quickly, and there's always something new to learn. And so that's where my passion is, is just the the real passion is I love local business owners. And I remember sitting in my office thinking, if I just had the budget of Walmart, imagine what I could do, you know. And now I think with internet marketing, it kind of brings the playing field a little bit more level because businesses, local businesses can rank with the big guys, you know, with a near-me search, you know, somebody that that people are actually looking for your service, we can compete with the bigger companies. And actually, just by using smart technology, we could outrank them even. So it's really just a really fun place to be in the marketing field right now.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

And did you hear that folks? She said it's fun. So for those of you who are going, technology, yeah, uh apps, tech, not for me, just hang in there. You're gonna hear a little more. How simple and how fun it could be. But wow, a lady of many skills and talents, cake decorating, photography, all these different things. And at that stage, when you moved to Georgia, that was obedience that you stepped into. And that obedience is a powerful part of our businesses. But one thing I really love about your story is how you did span many different areas of business. And especially with the new technology coming out, many entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed by just how fast things are changing. What mindset shift do you think is most important for business owners who feel like technology is running faster than they are and they don't have the right running shoes?

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Oh, well, yeah, that's that's a big step. You know, but our one of my mentors said one time, it really sticks out to me. It's not your competition that's gonna put you out of business. It's not staying with technology. And so people, your clients are expecting a certain level of way that you run your business. You know, how are you servicing them? And technology is what's gonna help you do that. You know, it's like there's a technology out with a voice chat bot, which is just amazing. It's one of my favorite tech tools, but it talks to you. You know, you I can like say, hey, I need well, for example, we had set one up for a tea company and it talks about the health of the tea, it talks about the different kinds of tea, and it actually then asks if they would like to receive a sample. It'll take their address and their information, and so the owner comes in the next morning and there's a list of people who need to be sent out a sample of a tea bag. You know, it can make appointments for you. So if you're a service business that runs by appointments, you could wake up the next morning with new appointments on your calendar. And if there's an emergency, it can actually send you a text message saying, this is an emergency, you need to contact this person. So it just really changes the atmosphere of having your business open 24-7. And the great part is she doesn't ask for vacation days and she doesn't ask for a raise. So it's just the perfect employee.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

And you know, so many people say, Oh, but this is taking away people's jobs. You're not employing someone to do that stuff at the moment, anyway, because you don't know how to train them. You don't know what they need to know and do yet. And here you have it all in one place. And let's face it, so many of us, and I've been there, folks, I've learned better now, I hope. We think, okay, we can just watch a YouTube video and it'll explain it all. You know, watching that YouTube video might give you a bit of knowledge. It does not make make you an expert. It doesn't matter how confident you feel. So one of the questions when we did our um applications that you put forward, and I'm so pleased that you asked it, what is your favorite okay? What AI tool do you believe every busy business owner should at least be aware of right now, even if they're not stepping into it? And where do they take that and put it in if they're not ready to jump in?

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yeah, well, the the AI chat voice is definitely one of them. But you really need to decide. I use a lot of Chat GPT, but there's Claude or Perplexity, you need to kind of work into those. But you need to understand that that's not there to replace you, it's there to enhance you, and it's not there to replace your employees, it's to relieve them from a lot of work that they're doing that's taking up a lot of time, so they can do something that's going to be more profitable for your business. So it's something that's going to help you work more without having to spend so much more time in it. So Chat GPT is one of my favorite ones, and the main point there is to treat it like an employee. So start off with and give it a role. You are a YouTube expert. All right, so you have 20 years of experience and you're the top of the line. So now it's kind of really like grabbing into what it's what you're looking for. Tell it who you're making the information for, and then give it information like it's a new employee. So tell it about your business, what you do, your service process, tell it about you, then do like a whole another structure of like how you built your business, where you came from, what you did, you know. And I like to ask, so I have a course that I teach, but so I ask my students to do it as a Zoom and then put it on YouTube because then you could take the transcript from those, and not only is it answering the questions, but then chat is actually learning your voice and learning how you talk, and that really helps it to understand and make things more personal. But their chat's going to mess up, and so you need to correct it and tell it, oh, I liked this part, but I changed this part, and so then it's going to continue learning more about your voice and what you do. And the second thing that you need to really be aware of is that if you're not doing video yet, you need to jump into that platform. And chat can help you write scripts, it can help you research content, it can help you create a YouTube calendar. But YouTube is just so important for multiple reasons. First off, Google owns YouTube, so that helps with your searches because Google wants to make sure people stay on their platforms. AI reads the transcripts of videos, so that's going to help you in the AI searches. But even more importantly, we now have the attention span of a shorter than a goldfish. And we do not want to have to read six pages of content. We want to watch a five, six-minute video so that we can understand what you do. And also, it helps me to learn more about you and your personality, helps me feel a connection to you. So, saying that, keep in mind that you, as the business owner, need to do those videos. It's not like something you give to an employee or a representative because people need to see you, hear you, and get to know and like you.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Wow, there was a whole course just one little paragraph. But did you share that, folks? The wisdom coming through. It's not just about using the AI, it's how you use it and why you use it. And you know, you spoke about your course and you just glossed over that. Oh, I know. Tell us about your course.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Yes, I release a course, in which case it runs through everything that I do. I mean, I did not hold anything back. So if you were to hire me to do your online visibility, these are the things I would do. So it runs you through how to train your AI, how to use your AI, how to check your website to make sure it's optimized, how to create content. The AI itself is going to read, just it walks you through everything that I do. So it's um I I'm really sorry, but I'm really proud of it. I'm really sharing all of my heart to the local businesses.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

And I know I'm going to be going through that really soon. So I'm hoping to see a couple of you on there. And by the time you watch this, I will probably have done it, or at least some of it. And you know, it does make a difference when you learn and apply. So I encourage you. So, what will people actually practically walk away with? You've told us about some of what you cover. What transformation do you see happen when people actually apply what they learn there?

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Okay, so it reminds me back in elementary school, and the teachers back in elementary school were talking about how computers were going to come out. We were going to save so much time, and we're going to have four-day work weeks and shorter work days. And I don't know about you, Nikki, but when I got my first computer, I spent a lot of time learning how to use that thing. It took up more time than I was doing with paper. And there was a time where my husband said, Let's just do it on paper. This is just taking up too much time. But then I learned how to use it, but then I was spending so much time on it because I realized how much more it I could do with it. So I was doing more work on it. And this is the first time that I really see that AI is going to take us into a situation or position where we can actually condense the work that we're doing through AI into a shorter amount of time and get more done. And so once you've completed this course, you're going to have a wonderful optimized AI that understands you and can answer questions and take on your work. You're going to build your own custom GPTs and you're going to have a video plan already, and you're going to understand how to batch your videos. So you're going to do them all at one time, have them scheduled, have all your shorts done automatically. You're going to have your own voice chat set up. There's just so many things that this course is going to walk you through. It's going to really save you a lot of time.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

And that's one of the things we all battle with. Because, folks, would you agree with me? When we don't have time, what are the things we squeeze out? We squeeze out our time with God. We squeeze out our time with family. We squeeze out our time for honoring ourselves. And those three things are a big part of your joy. So we really are looking at a joysaver here. You know, people are very skeptical of IT, but this I believe, or rather, AI, I believe that AI is full of incredible tools that God has given us so that we can multiply our kingdom impact if we skewed it well. And yes, like money, like anything else, it can be used for good or it can be used for evil. So instead of complaining about it, let's use it for good. Let's use it the way God intended us to. So if you had to look back now, I love to highlight people's wins. Not just the highlight reel, but the growth behind it. What is an area where you had to pivot, adapt, and relearn something in business? And what did that season teach you?

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Yeah, I think oh man, I pivot so much.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Yeah, we put a couple of things to catch up.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Well, where's this long list? You know, so my husband and I had the photography studio, and we were well known in the wedding business. And so when digital photography came out, we knew we had to jump in there and make sure that we understood it and we did it and everything. You know, the first professional digital camera was created by Kodak, and it was$25,000. And we invested that and we learned the digital, and it was not near as good as the the phone cameras we have today. But you have to make sure that you understand where technology is going and not let it leave you behind because it's just so important. You know, are you still using a horse and buggy? No. Are you still using VHS? No. So technology is going to continuously change, and the the AI itself is changing weekly. I mean, I'm following my mentors to know, you know, what's coming up next. And I have a meeting a little bit later today where it's a whole AI process to create the graphics for YouTube videos, you know, and it's just like, but this is another point that is going to save me time. And like I said, the more time that I save, I have six grandchildren, and my favorite job is being a Gigi. And so, you know, hugging those babies and those those grandchildren and taking two Girl Scouts or watching their movie or watching their plays and things like that, those are all really important to me. And that that comes second to me, it's a God, and my business is. Down about four or five position. And I feel that the technology is where all of us can reorganize our time because it's going to give us more time to do what God really wants us to be doing, the people that God wants us to be influencing in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Absolutely. And at the same time, I'm going to encourage you, do not jump in to every single thing you see and think every shiny object is going to be a coin in your pocket. I have made that mistake and I have sat with hundreds and thousands of apps that I have no idea how to use. Pick one, learn it, get to know it, and follow the advice of people who know. There are a lot of people out there who are dabblers. There are a lot of people out there who are experts. And Lois is an expert because she's worked with it. It is what she does. And it's not just what she does, it's what she's passionate about. And that makes a difference. So when you look ahead, what are the big goals you're excited about right now that are ahead for you?

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Oh wow, there's so much ahead. You know, just in the technology, um, you know, we're going into like everything is really heading into the AI searches, which doesn't mean you don't need a website. You need a website for sure because those AIs need something to read to know about you. But just the, you know, it just it's amazing that I can't even I can I mentally cannot picture what things are going to be like in two years. It's just overwhelming to think what could be happening. You know, as people talk about just what AI will be doing in like the health department and all of those things, it's just overwhelming, but it's just exciting.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Yeah, yeah. So what? Just a couple of fun light facts. Tell us about a take you love, but you never expected to a take I love with technology or with my business? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Okay. Um, I did not expect the chat voice bot to be so stinking good. Sometimes I I just go in there just to talk to her and see what she's gonna come up with, and it's like, darn, that is so good. You know, I was like, man, um, yeah, the technology is just overwhelming. Now, I will say that the the um avatar cloning is probably needs about a few more months of really being good, but it's it's really acceptable.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

It's it's getting there. I've seen some that are absolutely you cannot tell. Yeah, mine are still under construction, and we're getting better by the day. And those of you who are following me on Facebook have seen it, and I'm not pretending it's not a clone, but I am utilizing it, especially on days when I'm not well. It's awesome to still be able to put my message out there, but yeah, it needs a bit of work still, and that's not just my work, it's the tech is growing by the day we get updates on what to put into that. So, what's one thing that entrepreneurs could stop doing immediately for their benefit?

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Um I would say that you need to stop spending tons of time on writing content. Whether it's for your website, you know, oh, you know, something you really should stop doing. If you're doing multiple blog posts, stop doing that. Okay, go back to your old blogs, combine them. It's no longer a point of, oh, we need 700-word content things. We need like 300 word content things. So go back through your old blog post, condense them, put them together, because you're gonna you're confusing AI with too much content now, which that sounds so strange because you know, three years ago we're like, we need more content. Now we're like, condense the content because AI wants to really hone in on what you really do. So really use AI to make your content, make sure it's seventh grade level, and condense it down. We want less words, we want bullet points, we want to skim it, we want short paragraphs. That's what we want now.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Concise content. You know, it's not about the number of words, it's about the value of the content, and uh we know that, but you know what? We don't apply it to the AI. So for you, what's a joy rest or strategy strategy session for you? You mentioned your grandkids, what else?

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Oh, I um my husband and I love love love gardening.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Favorite flower?

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Oh, I have two orchids and cowlilies.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Oh, beautiful. Yeah, yeah. And when business gets loud and things are going crazy, what keeps you centered and grounded?

SPEAKER_00 27:48

If things get loud and crazy, I just shut my computer and I just go sit in a quiet place with God and just say, Guide me, I'm overwhelmed, give me direction, let me know that I'm doing what you want me to do.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Uh, that is so beautiful. Now, before we close off, I know you have a wonderful gift to give everybody. And for those of you who are driving, for those of you who are working busily away and listening in the background, it's okay. We will drop this in the show notes so you don't have to stop what you're doing, cause an accident to grab your pens. But if you've got your pens handy, Lois, tell us about your gift and then how the folks can contact you.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Yeah, so I'm giving you a PDF. It's the five-minute AI plan to get found, trusted, and chosen. So get you started on your AI plan and it's at gift.profitaleadsystem.com.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Awesome. And then for anyone who wants to reach out to you, uh, not for wedding photographs, photographs, folks, but just about tech or inviting Los into your community. Where do they get hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn. Also my website is JFT Web Marketing, which I will share with you that that stands for Jesus First Today Web Marketing. And then I'm also uh email info at jftwebmarketing.com.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Awesome. And any last words for our audience.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Yeah, you know, my I my dad raised me up with work smarter, not harder. And this is uh a time in our lives that we can build successful businesses and still have time for our family, time for our church, time for our neighbors. And so I just would like for you to really think about how you could incorporate AI to work hard, work smarter and not harder.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Beautiful. Thank you so much. And I know for somebody who wasn't very pro-AI, I think you know I am extensively using AI in my program to help people build their businesses and align their messaging. And what a difference it's made to me, and what a difference it's made to my clients, because they can now go out there with the confidence simply because they've got the help. So this has been such a rich conversation. Thank you for bringing your wisdom, your clarity, and your calmness and leadership quality into a space that often feels noisy because yeah, tech tends to freak people out. So if today's episode reminded you that growth doesn't require burnout, working with the modern systems and the AI doesn't require freaking out or losing your soul, then this conversation did its job today. And be sure to connect with Lois. But also, if you know that this would serve somebody else, share it with them. And don't forget to comment in the comment section and like, share, and subscribe. We look forward to seeing you next week. And as always, go and explore some new tech with joy. Because remember, joy is not a distraction from success, joy is the fuel that gets you to success. And until next time, stay aligned, stay curious, and keep building what matters. Blessings all. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me on the Joy Inspi podcast at www.joyinspiredpodcast.com. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so that you can get this and every other episode that comes out. We have lots of great stuff coming, and you don't want to miss it. So make sure to hit that subscribe. I am so grateful for all the reviews and comments, and I look forward to serving you in next week's episode.