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Navigating Tech Challenges with Simple Changes with Avital Spivak · The One Small Change Podcast

0:00
Welcome to the One Small Change. I am thrilled that you're here
0:04
again this week on this journey of exploration and transformation.
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I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of
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entrepreneurial expertise and passion for discovering
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growth through the power of seemingly small change. Thank you for
0:19
joining me on this journey. And this week, as
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every week, I have an exciting guest for you and someone who's had a huge
0:26
impact on my life, Avital Spivak. And
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she's gonna share some things that are gonna help you in your business and in
0:33
your life. Avital, thank you for coming. Thank you for
0:37
spending your time. So I should be I think
0:42
I should be perfectly clear. Avital has the
0:45
patience of a say because she's been working with me on
0:49
my tech. And I swear that I have a tech
0:52
gremlin that just has you know, I can't get rid of.
0:56
But she has helped me get through some of the hardest things and keep my
0:59
sanity and not throw something at my computer. So, Avital,
1:04
tell me the small change that you're gonna share with us that that had an
1:08
impact on your business. Alright. So it's
1:11
pretty early in my business. I created my first course,
1:17
and it was for seniors, and it was called,
1:21
the connected senior easy adventures on Zoom.
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This was mid 2020. In my
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mind, every senior that was stuck at home needed Zoom, and if they
1:32
haven't figured it out yet, they need to. And I
1:36
figured out a way of delivering it remotely, which was
1:39
not that easy. So very excitedly, I started trying
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to fill up the the the course, you know, have a pilot.
1:47
And I started talking with people, and people were sending
1:51
me their mom and their neighbor and, you know, like, I had people to talk
1:54
with, about 15 people or so.
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And I started talking with people and
2:02
telling them about the course, and I told
2:06
it the way I saw it. You know? You you want to be connected with
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your family. You want to be connected with the world. You're stuck at home,
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and this will give you a way to participate in courses, follow
2:17
your passions, talk to your family,
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and we could even create a, you know, a family
2:25
event at the end or something, you know, on Zoom. People
2:29
are like, oh, okay. You know?
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There was very little interest, and I was kind of
2:36
flabbergasted. But I asked them, so so what
2:39
is it that you're looking for in the computer? Because they got to me because
2:43
somebody said that they need something on the computer. And they started saying,
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I need to be able to search. I want to know how to,
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move those windows. I want to
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I don't know what to do with passwords. And I'm thinking to myself,
3:00
wow. That's exactly what's in my course. Because to be able to do Zoom,
3:04
you have to create a Zoom account, and we were going to go about that
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on over passwords and using the browser.
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So all those things were in the course already.
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So after speaking with about 10 people like
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that, I didn't know what to do,
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and then I had an idea. I called them back. I called the first
3:26
person, and I said, hey. We spoke about a week ago,
3:30
and I was telling you about a course that I have. And, you
3:34
were not very interested, but you told me that you were interested in this and
3:37
that. So I have a new course that I wanted to share with you, if
3:41
you're interested. It's called the connected senior,
3:45
easy adventures on the Internet
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instead of easy adventures on Zoom.
3:53
What's in there? That's exactly what I need. I
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had a pilot with 10 people that were very
4:01
happy and very excited. The change was one word.
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But I didn't and I didn't change the course. I didn't change anything except
4:11
for the word and the name. And, of course, a little bit
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how I told them what's in there. But here's I think here's the
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here's here's the real thing. Here's the gem to that.
4:22
You're absolutely correct. You did only change one
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word. But, and I think this is the mistake that
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we make as entrepreneurs, is that we name
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things the way we would do it, and not the
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way our client would do it or see it. And, you know, the
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other thing is that happens to me is I used
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to sit down and do this whole course and have it all out
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and, you know, stuff like that, and I was like, this is perfect. Right? And
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then, you know, when you put it out there, it was crickets because something wasn't
4:56
right. And so probably, there are a lot of small
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changes that can save us some time. One is talk to
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people before before you, you know, invent the
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course, you know, or finish it. But also, you
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know, we are experts and so sometimes it's hard for
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us to see it as a beginner, which is what
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other people, you know, thought. So did you after
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after they went through the course, did you ask them about, you
5:25
know, naming it with Zoom, or did they you
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know, your feedback? No. I didn't go and ask them about
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Zoom. I wanna say 2 things. First of all, when they ended the
5:36
course, I give them a choice of
5:40
project. So for the first course, the project
5:44
was going to be, hey, let's create an event for your family. But in this
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case, I said, what would you like to do? And each person on the
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last meeting created their own
5:55
project. 1 wanted to learn to do graphics. I sent them to Canva.
5:59
1 and etcetera, etcetera. They they had different wishes.
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But so for them, it was
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exciting because it was what they wanted. For me, it
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was a tiny change, but
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I was lucky to get that early on in my business.
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And from then on, I became very clear about asking
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people and telling it to them in their
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words because that made a
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huge difference in my ability to connect with people and for them
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to understand better what it is that I do and what I can do for
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them. So, you know, that that brings us kind of to,
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you know, that client's journey is that you have to meet people where they
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are. And so at that point, you know, people had
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some really, you know, zoom Zoom may have seemed because
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they didn't know. It's like, I can't even get on to do this. How am
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I gonna do Zoom? They didn't know what some of the be you know,
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some of the beginning things were. And you've got a lot
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of courses and and and programs and stuff. And so is that kind
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of the way that you develop your programs
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now? I mean, by starting with Some of them. Now
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my my main focus for the last few years has been solopreneurs.
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So I work I work with people who are solopreneurs who didn't grow up with
7:23
computers. So you can see the relationship there.
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But these are people who need the computer for work.
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So it makes a big difference, and that's where my
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courses come from because they're geared around
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business needs for solopreneurs.
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So if people need the the funnels or
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the CRMs or they need to understand how to,
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network and connect with people or how to do events.
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Anything that the solopreneur need, I can help them
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strategize and integrate and then find out which tools would
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make the work, to get to their dream, to whatever their
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vision is. Well, I know I know working with you, there are
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a couple of things that that you've shared with me,
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that have been really important. And I think, you know, you're mentioning
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tools. So, you know, the process of getting
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the right tool is
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something that you talk about a lot. So could you talk to us about, you
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know because most of us are solopreneurs or entrepreneurs,
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and we're constantly being bombarded with new tools that are out there
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and you know? So
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can you, you know, give us some hints about how we can we can pick
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tools well?
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Yes. The challenge is how to do it in a short way, but let's see
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what I can say here because I think the main thing
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is being focused on the tool is a
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mistake. We're hyper focused on
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skills and tools, like our skills. Can I do it? Can I not do
9:06
it? Can I learn it? And the tools themselves. Oh, this tool sounds
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good. It does this, this, this, and this, and etcetera.
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That focus creates a problem.
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A lot of, tech problems, we
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I think it became normalized in our society
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that I have tech problems. Like, you go through the day and and
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a lot of that, in the
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and people who didn't grow up in with computer land, who are not natives,
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tend to say, it's my fault. I didn't learn it. I don't know. I don't
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know what to do. Some people
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say, you know, the tool is not good, etcetera. But a lot
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of tool problems comes from mismatching.
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When the tool you choose to work with is not the right tool for the
10:04
job, there's gonna be friction all the way through in many, many
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different ways. And you won't even know that
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it's not fitting. You'll just think I don't know how to use it. The tool
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doesn't do the right stuff. You know, it can go in different
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directions. It's a misfit. So what's not fitting here?
10:24
The thing that's not fitting is the beginning. The beginning is
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you had some problem. You had some need that got you to seek a
10:31
tool. Even if the tool came to you from
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the bombardment of, you know, the salespeople
10:39
and your friends saying, I have this thing, and it's great and all
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that kind of still, if you didn't have any
10:46
problems, you wouldn't be listening to that, and it wouldn't matter to you
10:49
because it wouldn't match and meet a need.
10:53
So if you identify what is my need, what is the strategy I'm
10:57
trying to deploy, what do I want to get out of putting
11:00
that strategy in place in my business?
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Once you're clear on that, then you say, okay. What
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can I use to make this strategy happen? 1st
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place to look, things you already have. You may already have
11:15
tools that do the job. You just may not be aware of it.
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But if you go out and start looking for a tool,
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then sometimes the
11:26
focus moves from this is my need and I need something
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to make it happen to, oh,
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wow. Look at that tool. It can do this and that and the other. And
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suddenly, you may be buying a tool or considering a tool
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that can do 10 different things. Oh, and it will take place
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of this thing that I have, and it will take the place of this thing
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that I and you lose focus on what was it that
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you what it was that you wanted to create. So can
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I just recap a little bit what I think you're saying is
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that too often, somebody goes, oh, I found
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this thing that'll do this thing? Right? And
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you're not thinking to yourself, what are
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you know, do I have this problem? And if I have this
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problem, do I already have things, or is there a way
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that I can take care of this already before I add something new? I mean,
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is that part of what you're saying? That's part of what I'm saying, and you
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can add to it. With this thing, when I add it to my other
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tools, would it work with them? Would it play well together? Do they
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speak the same language? That's that's that's the second part that I
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was I was gonna say is that, you know,
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even if you do think you're making a good decision,
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part of that decision making process, which I have to be
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honest I never think about,
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is is this gonna play well with what I've already
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got? Yeah. Right? And so that I think
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is a place where we get into trouble. So, I mean, I
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know I just switched platform, which was like hair
13:04
raising. And one of the things that for me
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was really hard to give up from the first platform is
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that it had a built in calendar thing, and I had to get a second
13:15
calendar thing. But there were so many things
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in the first platform that were very expensive that I was
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not using, that I didn't I couldn't learn how to use because they
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weren't intuitive Yep. That the trade off
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was well worth it. Yes. So I think,
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you know, I you know, and I have to say, this is you probably wanna
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you probably wanna smack me for this, But I never like to pick a
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tool that's I don't somebody else isn't using it. So if I need I
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need to ask a question, I can go, have you tried to do this or
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it's not, you know That's a good policy. I you know, so
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that's, you know, a big part for me is who else is using this
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that I can get a fast answer from about the simple the
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simple things that I need to do. So Yeah.
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That's a wonderful thing to do. No smacking here. So
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so the first thing that that we got from you was
14:13
a small change is it can be the wording of
14:16
a course. And, you know, it's funny because I
14:20
just changed the wording of something and it it you know,
14:24
using chat gpt, which is one type that I really love.
14:28
It was from pain to profit. And I'm
14:31
like, that's not quite right. And I made
14:35
it from pain to trust to profit.
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And because that's what I want to happen. I want people, you
14:43
know, I want the client to trust me, and then they'll be willing to spend
14:46
their money. Right? And so the the wording
14:50
is a little longer than, you know, and I
14:54
and I tried it out on couple different people, and they're like, yeah, we like
14:57
this one a lot better. So I think, you know, it's hard to do it's
15:00
hard to get a clear picture by yourself. Someone said it's hard to have a
15:04
perspective, you know, if you're the picture in the frame. You need to get some
15:07
outside feedback, and that's not just for textings. You
15:11
know, it's for your business, different parts of your business as a whole.
15:15
The other thing is
15:19
knowing that tech is a tool that should make your
15:23
life easier. And I think
15:27
that mindset is is one that
15:30
I'm trying to grow into.
15:34
That there are different pieces of it. And I need one of the reasons
15:38
that I got in trouble with the first platform is I took somebody's
15:41
advice that was working with me and they're like, this is what I work with.
15:45
This is, you know, this will be great. And when I got
15:49
ready to shut it down, I had no idea where anything was or how it
15:52
worked or, you know, anything like that. And so I would
15:56
say that it's important to work with somebody
16:00
that can help you understand what your check
16:03
what your check what your tech is doing
16:07
for you so that you can see first of all, see what it does,
16:11
see what the potential is that it can do, what
16:15
you're not using so that you're not adding things that you
16:18
don't need. Very true.
16:22
Yeah. So so let me ask you this,
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because this is another story that I really liked, when we
16:30
first start working together is, you know, when something
16:33
does go wrong with tech, we tend to be frantic.
16:38
And so so what was your advice to me that I still remember
16:41
to this day, that's a good thing for people to
16:45
know? You want me to tell the story?
16:49
Sure. Alright. So
16:54
I think most of us are familiar with the experience of something
16:58
goes wrong, something pops, something like, oh, no. I just
17:02
deleted this thing, and we start clicking.
17:07
Clicking things off, clicking things closed, clicking okay,
17:10
cancel, click. And
17:14
I say, this is the wrong time to click for
17:17
about anything because you just took a
17:21
a move that you want to undo. The way
17:25
to undo something is not to start stomping on it so that
17:29
you can't see anymore what happened. And
17:32
what I tell people is sit on your hands. Because
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when we get frantic, it's an adrenaline rush. It's
17:40
not a choice. We
17:44
immediately it's a fight or flight,
17:48
and, you know, we fight.
17:52
We go in, and we start fighting. It's not a
17:56
conscious choice. And the only way for your hands not to
18:00
click on that button and go all over is to not let them
18:03
move, which is sit on them. And this is coming from an old hiking
18:07
story because, when I learned hiking, one
18:11
of the first thing they say is when you lose the trail, the first
18:15
minute you don't see the next blaze or the next trail marker,
18:21
drop your sack and sit on it. Just sit
18:24
down. Why? Because when
18:28
you sit down, your legs cannot take you running.
18:33
And what happens naturally when you feel lost
18:37
is starting to run around trying to look for that trail.
18:41
And if I took one step off the trail and now I'm starting to
18:45
run, my chances of finding the trail
18:49
are getting smaller fast.
18:53
If I took one step and sat down,
18:57
now I can look around.
19:01
Well, I I love that story simply because,
19:05
right after you told me that story, I actually saw a special about
19:09
somebody who got lost, and that was, you know so it really anchored it for
19:13
me. But so our time is, you
19:16
know, I wanna make sure we're making the best use of our time. So we
19:19
we got your small change. We got some really good advice. What are
19:23
three action steps that you would give entrepreneurs
19:27
and solopreneurs to help them in their tech world?
19:33
I know one that that you tell me all the time, and that is that
19:36
I need to restart my computer on a regular basis.
19:41
So I don't know if I don't know if I'm the only one that doesn't
19:43
do that. But that's
19:47
generally you know, if something goes wrong with your Internet or anything, you call
19:51
the support and they say the first thing they say is, you know, turn it
19:54
off, turn it back on. It is a good
19:58
thing. It's not specific to entrepreneur. It's very good for
20:01
anybody that has any kind of device because our
20:05
devices start getting corrupted. Things go off. When you
20:08
restart, it all gets aligned. It's a
20:12
reset, then it starts from a good position. So instead of
20:16
trying to fix something that went wrong, we just get a
20:19
good fresh start. So that makes a difference.
20:24
I would say a couple of things. One is,
20:30
think about the background,
20:33
the the what do you call it?
20:37
Missing a word. But when you're looking at your at the
20:41
product that you're trying to sell and you're getting your messaging and you
20:45
you need your infrastructure. That's the was the missing word. You need your
20:49
infrastructure. You need to make sure that you have a way to get money and
20:52
you have a way to that your links are working. You
20:56
want to have a smooth sailing for your client.
21:00
So when you create it or when somebody creates it for you,
21:04
go and test it. You will find a lot
21:07
of, things that could be costly once you deploy.
21:11
If you test have to be complicated either. Not at all.
21:15
Because testing means walk it like a client. Right. But
21:19
I'm just saying you don't need to have a whole lot of bells and whistles
21:22
necessarily to have a process that works. No. It's
21:26
actually important to start with the minimum viable, which
21:30
doesn't mean, low quality.
21:35
But minimum viable means you have a dirt
21:39
road that goes all the way through from meeting the leads
21:42
to talking to them, to,
21:46
enrolling them to delivery. You have a road that goes
21:50
with no sort of black holes in the middle.
21:56
Once you have a full road, you can start
21:59
augmenting and upgrading the parts, you know, to get a
22:03
better road and a better experience and more
22:06
automation, etcetera. In the beginning, we might do things, you
22:10
know, by hand. That's totally fine. I think your
22:13
gift is something that's gonna help us to have smooth
22:17
sailing. So if you would tell us about the freebie that you've got, and it's
22:20
amazing. So I'm gonna give
22:24
your listeners, my course, one of
22:27
them. It's called navigating Google land,
22:32
and that is for anybody who's ever felt confused
22:36
about Google Docs and Google Drive, things like that.
22:40
Because these days, this is something fundamental that most of us need in order
22:43
to collaborate. Yes. Either to collaborate with partners or if
22:47
you're doing any kind of, meeting with other people you want
22:51
to share information. If you're taking a course, the course might
22:54
use this, and we all need to use it whether we want to
22:58
or not. So, for those of us who come from
23:02
the Microsoft Word or from any other world and want to know the
23:06
basics that you need for collaboration, that's what this course is about.
23:10
It's a very short course. So the whole
23:13
thing is less than an hour if you take it all at once,
23:17
But then you get to, see it in pieces whenever
23:21
you want, which piece that you need. And it's No.
23:25
Go ahead. Actually curated to just be
23:28
what you need and nothing more. So collaboration,
23:33
sharing, creating, moving it from one folder to another, that
23:36
stuff. The other thing that I wanna say to you is
23:40
this is a paid course that Avital is giving
23:44
giving us a special code for so that we can get this.
23:47
So I I don't know anybody that doesn't need help with Google
23:51
World. And so I'm gonna really encourage
23:55
you to do that. And I can't say
23:58
enough about her help. Thank you.
24:02
We we probably wouldn't be on Zoom without her.
24:07
Alright. So alright. I got a challenge for you. When was the last time you
24:10
did something new for the first time?
24:18
It might sound funny, and maybe people will not believe me it's the
24:22
first time. But 3 weeks ago, I took a 5
24:25
day road trip. Road trip is not new,
24:29
but I disconnected. I did not look at my email.
24:33
I did not do anything. I did not meet clients.
24:38
I took 5 weeks 5 days
24:41
off. Haven't done this in years. So I I
24:45
will consider this new and first.
24:49
To do it for that long. I don't know. I think I
24:54
I don't I don't know that I could do that. Okay.
24:58
So we're out of time, believe it or not. I mean, that went really fast.
25:01
So I gotta give you kind of the commercial, and that is make
25:05
sure that you, subscribe and that you share this with
25:08
other people to engage in the podcast on social media. And
25:12
one of the reasons I'm doing this is so that you can
25:15
supercharge your business through connection. It's it's kind of my way to give
25:19
back to a vibrant community and help you fuel your
25:23
your quest for growth and impact. And so I hope that you'll
25:26
continue to join me for one small change because there are lots of interesting
25:30
people who are joining me. And, you know, the smallest
25:34
shift, the smallest thing that somebody can say, you would be
25:37
surprised in the monumental transformation that it might bring. And so,
25:41
you know, if you haven't listened to some other ones, you may wanna dive in
25:45
and see what other episodes are there so that you can look at bold
25:49
visions and innovative possibilities. So, Avital, which what are
25:53
your last words that you would say to somebody, that they can
25:56
take away?
26:01
Use your eyes. That might sound funny,
26:05
but a lot of times what we need is right in front of us, and
26:09
we're assuming it's not there or we're just skimming.
26:13
When I get in trouble, I gather more observations, and
26:17
it saves me a lot. So I hope this helps.
26:21
So you sit on your hands and use your eyes. Right? Sit on
26:25
your hands and use your eyes. My clients call me 2 3 years
26:29
later and say that that's the most important skill I drilled into them.
26:33
So well, you know, I shared with you the other day that I went through
26:36
one of those panic pushing all the buttons, and I was like, time out for
26:39
me and the computer. You know? And just, you know,
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to stop that cycle. So this has been a lot of fun,
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and, you know, I want everybody to remember that that change can
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be simple, but it's not always easy. And it requires a
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certain amount of curiosity, courage, and resilience, and a willingness
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to step outside your comfort zone. So I hope that you're gonna join me
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again for the one small change so that you can embark on a journey of
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innovative possibilities. And so I will leave you with
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my words. Until the next time, stay curious.
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Thanks, Avital, so much. Thank you for
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hosting me.