26: Microsoft Magic
Today we're diving into the Microsoft world with Marianne Tansley from Thrive Admin Services. Marianne's basically a wizard at turning Microsoft 365 from that boring software you kinda know into a total business superpower. We're talking way beyond basic Word and Excel - she's gonna blow your mind with tools you didn't even know existed that can basically run half your business for you. Expect Chris geeking out, Em asking a million practical questions, and Rah trying to figure out how to make these tools do the work while she drinks coffee.
Number of fucks given in this episode: 8
Mentioned in this episode:
Marianne's website, Thrive Admin Services
Transcript
Christine: Welcome to the Fuck Around and Find Out podcast, where your hosts Rah, Emily and Christine, we're three women who've built and run our own businesses and are here to shoot the shit on everything about women in business and running your own business.
Hey guys, how you doing? So, um, M, I'm starting with you. Oh thank god, because I haven't thought of anything yet. Tell me something a little bit weird, wonderful, or fabulous about you that people listening might not know. I mean,
Emily: anyone that knows me will know this, because it's not a secret, but I'm a giant Harry Potter nerd.
Like, giant. I have a Deathly Hallows tattoo. If you don't know Harry Potter, we can't be friends. Um, my I was 11 when the first book came out. So I grew up with all the books at the right age. So it was a constant competition in my house around who could read the books and who could read it fastest. We've got it first enough.
My mom also loved it. So she got to read them first. And then me, my brother was last cause he was so slow, but we loved it. It was like we would line up and pre order and be lining up at the bookstore like people do for movies and stuff. Now we will, that was us, the books, the books is so good. And I have, my son's called Harry.
So that's kind of where that came from, even though my husband. Fucking hates that when I connect those dots because he's not a Harry Potter fan, um, but absolutely loved it. I used to get people when I was pregnant with my daughter be like, are you going to call her Hermione? No, that's not a nice name. Um, ironically, there's so many characters in Harry Potter.
You could pretty much pick any name and there will be associations to it anyway. And her name Arabella is actually, there isn't a character called Arabella. Yes. I haven't told my husband that one. Um, he just doesn't need to doesn't listen to the episodes. No, never will. Um, but yeah, I'm a Harry Potter nerd, love it.
I can, I've played the Hogwarts PS5 game because I'm a giant nerd for that too. To completion several times. Love it, give it to me any day. Like a good movie binge. My kids now know Harry Potter and have watched up until it becomes too dark for children of their age. Yes, yes. Pretty much the first three because it gets pretty bad after that.
It does. But I'm dying for them to read the books because it's just so much better. The books are just magical.
Christine: Ra, something weird, fabulous, gorgeous and interesting about you that people listening don't know? Probably this
Rah: will fit all of the above. Um, but I built my first website in 1999. Ooh. Hand coded H TM L.
Yes. Mm, good old. HTML. And the website launched on the 9th of September, 1999.
Christine: Oh my God. Yeah. On purpose or accidental? Accidental.
Rah: Wow. Yeah. Um, but the weird quirky part is that it was a fan site.
Emily: Just wondering where you're gonna go with that one. Yeah. Fair to sight.
Rah: Not for Hamilton. 'cause it had not been written by them.
Well, no. Um, for a, a guy called Mig Aesa who. Most Australians will know as Joe King from the Ferrels. Emma's way too young to know who the Ferrels are. Popular TV show on the ABC with puppets. Yeah, so me and my bestie Nat became not even low key, high key obsessed with him. Um, and we learned HTML so we could build a fan site for him.
Christine: Oh my god.
Rah: And then, um, it evolved. You're a sad girl from day one. Oh yeah, I've been, I've been one of those. And then that turned into an online forum.
Marianne: Mmm,
Rah: and then he ended up going on the reality show to find the new lead singer of NXS.
Marianne: Rock
Rah: called Rockstar in Excess, where JD Fortune won. Oh my God. And Miggy came third.
So between him being in the Ferals and him ending up on Rockstar in Excess, we became actually quite good friends with him. Still friends with him today. Yep. The final piece of this, you know, this huge piece, the fandom that started on the 26th of January 1995. Not that I remember that. But, um, that then also formed a really beautiful friendship group of friends that I've got in England.
Wales, Sweden and Melbourne. That is incredible. And we've been friends since 2001. Look at you building community from like the moment you took. Yeah, apparently. Yeah, it's in your blood. Yeah, and it was, it got to the point where two of them came over and stayed with me in Australia before we'd even met face to face.
I went over and stayed with them and we only, um, it was only about four, five years ago, maybe six years ago now. where we finally got everyone from the group. All 13 of us ended up in the same room together. So it took like 17 years for that to happen. Seriously, that's incredible. Yeah. Yes. They are amazing.
And we're the most diverse group of chicks. Like we've got, we've got people who are, um, West End casting directors, people who work with, or multiple now, working with Royal Shakespeare Company, who run events. So Scottish mate, who's going to get us, get you guys over to Scotland. We
Emily: literally mentioned in a podcast that Chris and I are itching for any reason to go to Scotland that could be work related.
And then I'm like, I've got a friend for that. And she sent Rah a voice message and was like, guys, here's a list of things you could come over for. We're like, stop it. Eddie is amazing. We love you. Thank you. Eddie's our head
Rah: girl. She's like our chief organizer. She keeps our shit together. Yeah. And we've got, um, yeah, multiple children now, um, all girls.
Yes. Yes. Yes. We talk about our next generation, and um, yeah, we've all gone through shit together, and all the different personalities, so we've got lots of, like, introverts, and they might not check in too often, but we know they're there, and it's just this really beautiful, um, little, sort of, well it's now a big family, um, of people who we just know that they're there, and we just check in on each other.
Send each other our Wordle status.
Christine: It's very important.
Rah: They know when I've done badly cause I don't share it. Um, yeah. So the internet has a lot to answer for. See, I get a bit teary. That's why I'm going to stop talking now. Cause yeah, I love them.
Emily: Love,
Rah: love, love my girls. Yeah.
Emily: Well, Chris, that leaves you.
Yeah.
Christine: What's yours? Well, I was going to go down one tangent, but actually I'm going to do something very similar, um, to you, right. And that's because it's just reminded me. So. Um, in my teens, I came across a western movie, and the star of the show was Audie Murphy, and he's an American actor, and I fell in love.
I'm in love with two actors, male actors, and have followed their careers, well I didn't follow Audie's, I caught up on it because he's so much older than me. And quite frankly, he's dead right now. Um, but anyway, so Throw that one in. Audie Murphy was my first act of love. The second one is Kevin Costner. Oh, Kevin.
I fell in love in the 80s and I've seen everything. Did something happen
Emily: with him recently though? Because he got booted off a TV series. Uh, well, Yellowstone's
Christine: finishing up and, yeah, there's a lot of controversy and, and stuff. But he didn't get booted off it, or did they just write a check? No, it's just Excuse me, I'm just, I'm just Googling Kevin Costner cancelled to see what's coming up.
Yeah, that. Why are they getting
Rah: rid of Kevin Costner? Oh.
Emily: Well, I thought I saw something about Oh no, it might not be cancelled
Rah: after this surprising twist. Anyway, I'll report back
Christine: on that one. But anyway, I'm talking about Audie Murphy. So anyway, Audie Murphy, American actor, and he's Western, so not a humongous amount of movies in his, his life, but I just fell in love with him.
And I discovered the Audie Murphy fan club. And of course we are going back way before the internet. Um, And everything. And so it was old school, handwritten letters? Yes. I joined the fan club and I wrote to the president on quite a regular basis and she sent back a, she had a typewriter, so it was a typed response, , but I was almost like pen pals with the, um, president of the Auie Murphy Fan club.
Um, AUIE Murphy was also. At the time, because I haven't Googled him for a while, so I don't know the stats really quite now, but at the time he was the most decorated soldier of the Second World War. And there is a movie called To Hell and Back, which is actually he starred in, and it's autobiography, uh, autobiographical, um, story about his, um, Time in the second World War.
Yeah. Right. Um, anyway, love him. Love. Uh, just, and I own all the DVDs. I got very excited. Uh, do I own a DVD Playup? No. No. Um, but I found the DV details. Details, that's right. I've got a shit ton of DVDs that I can't watch because I don't own a dv, a working DVD player. It's just a hardware problem. That's fine.
Oh no, it's, that is it, it is, um, anyway, um, in love with him and yes, he's, um, yeah, Orie Murphy, Google it. I'm a fangirl, and I still to this day, they're so, they're so innocent, they're so G rated. But I love it. Love him. Yes. That's the, that's the little weird thing about me. Anyway, I
Rah: don't think it's weird
Christine: at all because weirdness is amazing.
Well, that's right. And not that talking about weirdness is a good segue. Speaking of weirdos,
we have a very special guest with us today. Um, so Marianne Tansley is a Microsoft magician and online business manager and the brains. Hands and feet. Yep. Behind Thrive Admin Services. She's a natural problem solver with a knack for seeing both the big picture and the steps needed to turn that idea into a reality.
So, um, a couple of episodes ago we were talking about tools. And so Marianne is here to share her skills and insights around Microsoft 365 as an awesome, epic, brilliant tool in business. Um, and also it's the way to leverage subscriptions through common sense, practical solutions that you can confidently use and build on.
Over and over again. Welcome, Marianne. Thank you
Marianne: for that lovely introduction. I love the way you say my name. Oh, thank you. It's very calm. Tansley?
Rah: Marianne
Marianne: Tansley.
Rah: That's lovely. I'm a southern girl. My daddy's going to shoot you with your gun. Can I talk to you about Jesus Christ? Shut up. I love you Janice.
Normally
Emily: I can do a good southern accent but I
Rah: feel
Emily: like I can't quite get
Rah: there today. But yes, thank you for coming. Thank you for being here. No trouble down from
Marianne: Queensland. Yes. My thin Queensland blood. And live at Bella Vista podcast studio. Thank you Bella. Crazy asses. Bye. Thank you very much. I'm excited.
It's lovely to be here.
Christine: Yes, absolutely. So, um, yeah, so as mentioned, we have had a conversation, um, episode around tools and we've mentioned, you know, our two or three favorites. And, um, so this is just an absolute opportunity to, um, yeah, have a chat, have a chat about Microsoft
Emily: tools of the trade, Microsoft edition.
Rah: You didn't say Tansley
Emily: correctly.
Rah: I ain't that fancy. Maz's husband's gonna be like, Oh.
Emily: Who are these lunatics?
Rah: Why are you bending your diamond?
Emily: It's the accent of the blues. That's what I thought. The New South Wales es. Sound like. I don't think he'll ever have heard his surname said like that, so it'll be really interesting.
Marianne: He might adopt it, he may adopt it as a permanent option. Like this is, this is how you say my name now.
Christine: Yeah, yeah, this is, these are the rules. Thank you for being kind, in the way you're telling me I'm mispronouncing it. No, no,
Marianne: it's great.
Rah: No, it's like, how, it's like, there's so many, It's typically, it's
Marianne: always, it's always Marianne Tansley.
Yeah, we're so Australian, it's ridiculous. Marianne. Marianne. Yeah. Exactly. Change the,
Rah: on LinkedIn put that pronunciation. Marianne. Yeah. Tansley.
Marianne: She's gone. She's gone. We've lost Chris. We've lost Chris. I'm just going to sit
Rah: here in the corner. So am I. Tell us about your business.
Marianne: So Thrive Admin Services was born, uh, early 2020.
So my background is all corporate EAPA, admin, reception, team admin, always working with loads of people and having to do all the things. And yeah, um, I always used to say it was like the glue of the team. So you don't see it, it dries clear, but when it's not there everything falls apart, right? So you don't see it, when it's doing it's job properly.
You don't see it. You don't know what's going on.
Emily: And don't ever, ever say to anyone that does this kind of work, I don't know what you do all day.
Marianne: We were having a conversation this morning and
Emily: it's fucking the most insulting thing you can ever say to anyone ever.
Marianne: Because if I'm doing my job properly, you shouldn't know that anything's going on.
Cause everything's just on time. Everything's smooth. Everything's, but that comes with a lot of pressure. And as you work with people who are. Slightly more highly strung than you are and spinning more plates all the time. That trickle, it's a trickle down effect. So, um, I got to the point where I decided this was, I loved what I did, but I wanted to choose who and how and where I did it.
Agree. Um, and I've had a lot of, I can always work with work being busy or life being busy. but not both at that high sustained pace for a long time. And I just was burnt out. So my then boss, both of both of my last paid jobs were amazing. And I just said, look, I just, I can't run at the same pace anymore.
So Thrive was born out of that. And it started as an EA PA general admin. And I discovered really quickly, Em and I were talking about this before. what I thought was fairly normal, that being able to see both the big picture and the little detail, I thought that was really common. I thought everyone could do that, you know, and then I suddenly realised, Oh, actually not.
So it turns out that some people are big picture and some people are detailed and there's very few that can do both and pull those threads together, which probably explains why. I was doing what I was doing because I was working at both levels all the time. So that's now my superpower that I use at thrive, but it turns out I'm also a little bit.
geared for tech and systems and processes. I like, I'm a problem solver. I like knowing how things work. So I will give something a go, but I want to understand all the pieces. So I won't just figure it like, I won't just make it happen and send it off. I want to know exact steps so that if I do it again and something goes wrong, where did it go wrong?
Yeah. Why didn't it work? Or if I want to do it slightly differently, what do I have to tweak? So it's slowly refined over the course of time. Nearly five years. We five years in January. So, um, to a point where it's now purely Microsoft that I work in and help people with, because it's the tool everyone has.
Yeah. Everyone has it. And whether you like it or not, and I'm looking at you, Rah. I literally
Rah: have the Microsoft pricing page up going. Do I just go? Just upgrade and, and use it as a, on a second domain and go for my personal version. Have a fuck around and find out. Pretty
Emily: much. Yeah. Yeah. Gee, it's almost
Marianne: like that's what I tell people all the time.
I know, right? I know. Um, but yeah, so I, I just kind of, I think what happened was I realized that The things that I take for granted as being fairly common knowledge are not and some of the things that I've learned both in my corporate career and through running my own business are things that can help others.
And that's the bit that I really enjoy because it's like we were saying yesterday, it's those little light bulb moments when you see someone go, Oh, Oh, and it's sometimes it's about money. Sometimes it's about time. Sometimes it's just about not having another login to remember. Yes. Which is becoming, and I was talking this morning about, you know, the, the requirements for passwords and things.
They're changing all the time. You can't have the same password in lots of different things. As I got
Emily: locked out of stuff this morning, I've been sitting here being like, Hey, Maz, how do I change this? How do I fix this? Help me with this. Now, you
Rah: know why we invited you.
Christine: Um,
Marianne: but it's just finding those little ways that makes someone else.
You said, let's just have sex. No tantric sex is on the table.
Emily: Like no tantric sex
Marianne: today. Get it out of your mind. I'm flying home this afternoon. To do
Emily: it properly. Let's be honest.
Marianne: Thanks for the offer. But no, that was a very polite. That was a really nice.
Emily: You've got to commit some time to that.
Marianne: I've played the corporate game long enough to know how to say no without really saying the word no.
Emily: Such a skill, such a skill. I'm
Marianne: also married.
Emily: We learned that one quite quickly. Oh, that's an issue? Oh, sometimes, sometimes,
Marianne: sometimes it is. You want to say no without hurting someone's feelings. I just want to say no. No, fuck off. Leave me be. It's a glare
Rah: and it's done. So yeah, so sorry. It just makes sense is what you were saying.
I'm sorry,
Emily: was it the mouth guard going in? That's the sign?
Rah: Oh, natives. You know, we'll cut that out. Maybe.
Marianne: It's funny. Yeah. So that's, that's what I do. And I help all sorts of people now, which is the joy because I get to work with people who are just starting out and are trying to find the best cost effective easy solutions to look professional and switched on and put together.
And I help people who've had it for a very long time and Know that maybe there's more there, but they're scared to touch the buttons. Yeah and see what happens So it's a real gamut of stuff, which is good because it makes my brain switch around.
Christine: Yeah No, absolutely, and I kind of liked I've you know earlier in the day.
I've done a few of Your webinars and sessions and you know, I like your thing about you can't break it. You know, it's undoable and all of that and You There are plenty of people like myself, right, who, you know, and I, and I jokingly always say born before the internet and stuff like that, but you know, that's the truth, but it's more than that.
It's having to be self taught or knowing very much when a computer actually arrived on my desk in business for the first time. I mean, here you are in 1999, Rob, building a website. In 1999, a computer, um, you know, well no, it was a bit before that, but you know, that was when I went down with a work colleague to Broadway TAFE to do a Microsoft course because I had ended up with my first computer.
But I didn't have the tools and the know how and so Mel and I went down, paid our little fee to go and do beginners courses to teach us how to use this new device on our desk. In
Marianne: 1999, I was working in a job where I hand wrote. The gift certificates that went out in the mail every day. And there was one computer in the office and the admin person, like the admin manager had access to that and no one else touched it.
Not even, not even the office manager touched it. It was the admin person had the computer and she did. Don't mess with them. In 1999,
Emily: I was nine.
Probably fighting over a computer as
Rah: well. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Oh, there's a flashback. You don't even know
Marianne: what that is. Nope, nothing. That sexy red hat. Yeah, straight away. That's
Emily: a
Marianne: gaming reference that
Rah: you would really appreciate. I'll Google it. First computer game I ever played. Yeah, right.
Emily: We used to fight over the computer to get on MSN Messenger. Oh
Rah: yeah.
Emily: And our MySpace pages. MySpace, yeah.
Christine: You see, my friend Jo, my childhood friend Jo, um, had, they got a family computer. So we're going way before I got my access to one of mine. So I remember being at her house in her father's office where the computer was.
And it was that, I don't know, you pressed the space and there's something else to make. Something move across the screen or whatever. So of course I missed the boat on gaming because pressing two keys on a keyboard to make a cursor or a tennis ball or whatever the game was. Well, that was as boring as Bat Shett, but it was what there was, but it's what there was.
Yeah. Yeah. , you just went, it's this, or you can go outside and play. Well. Well, that's right. So clearly I chose not that, and it's probably been my motherhood failing when my son has handed me the controller to play a game with him and then taken it back because I'm completely fucked.
Emily: Well, we've totally tangent slightly.
We have, we have. Turn this back to Microsoft.
So,
Rah: Microsoft. You love it. I do. You blew
Emily: Raya's mind yesterday a little bit. Did I? I think it was the Power Automate. It
Rah: was the automation. That got you. It is
Marianne: exciting.
Emily: Tell people about that.
Marianne: Well, so, I guess to take it back a step and talk about it from the beginning. www.
Emily: Usually helps, right? Yeah, we'll start at the beginning and work our way through.
Like normal people.
Marianne: We'll try, we'll see how we go. But everybody works with Word or Excel or Outlook or PowerPoint, or they've dabbled in them at some point. They're the ones that have been around. Yonks. The longest. From the beginning pretty well. Yeah. And for most people who work remotely, whether you've worked for corporate or whether you work as a contractor, you've got to have a hand in them at some stage and just know your way around.
But. If you're paying for that, you automatically get so much more. And people don't realise that it's all packed in. So, the number one question that I get all the time is, oh, but is that extra? Is that extra? When I sort of talk about different programs. And the truth is that there are, at last count, there's about 35 programs included in a standard Microsoft business subscription.
Which is crazy. Which is insane. When we talk about tools of the trade. Yeah. By the time you add up all of your subscriptions, every month, every year, however you're paying for them. If you were paying for 35 different programs, then you're, you're thousands of dollars in the hole a year. And that's, if you're just one person, you know, if you've got a team of people like we're talking about with Canva, it's about to get more complicated as well.
So it's such a bad thing. So the bottom line is what we're trying to protect as a small business. But then it's about finding ways for things that talk to each other. So you buy. a program like Zoom or Dropbox or Trello or are you working in Gmail or you work with SurveyMonkey and then you go oh well that's great but I want something that's done in SurveyMonkey to be saved in Dropbox and I want it to send me an email and put something on my Trello board.
Well then you need to buy another program to make them talk to each other because they don't fit. So Microsoft I guess because they've been around for so damn long, kind of went, well, we've got all the tech to do that. And over time they've built these tools out. And for some reason they don't just don't tell people.
So you buy a subscription and you've got it all. But the ones you only ever see on any of their advertising are Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Teams now as well, like they really push Teams. But you don't see Planner, and Lists, and Forms, and Bookings, and Whiteboard, and SharePoint, and Teams. Yeah. So, you know, it's, it's all there, but it takes a bit of time to have a play and have a look.
And then what they've done, which is quite clever, but again, they didn't tell anybody is they built another program that sits in the background and makes them all talk to each other. But it also talks to other things. It talks to Adobe. It talks to SurveyMonkey. It talks to Google Sheets and Google Docs.
And so you can connect the pieces that you already have. Cause one of the things that. I say all the time to people is if you've got a system that's already working in Google or in Dropbox or in, um, Trello, I don't want you to just pack it all in and transplant it into planner because that's not effective use of your time.
If you've got something that's already working for you, if it, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But if you've got something and then you wanna do another little piece and you don't know how to do it quite. quite right yet. Have a play in Microsoft first. If you can get it to work then you can get them to talk to each other anyway.
Yeah. And so you're not out of pocket for costs, you're just out of pocket for the time. Yeah. That's the trade off.
Christine: Yeah.
Marianne: You know, you trade off time, you trade off money, you trade off people, like something has to give somewhere, you always have to choose one. But if you can choose, if you can invest the time, you can save the money.
Yeah. Which is the choice that a lot of small businesses have to make because they can't afford to bring a person in and they can't afford to pay for another program so they have to find more time in the week. You know, sleep's overrated. You know, lunch breaks are a thing of the past because you just go, well this is time where I can actually do that thing.
And that's, that's what I love to do. So Power Automate is that tool because it's the connector and it's not as powerful as some of the paid programs that are outside. But when you're just starting out, you don't know whether you need that power. And that's the trap. It's a 14 day trial. And you go, well, in 14 days, I haven't even figured out like what the terminology is yet.
It's run out. I had to put my credit card in when I signed up for it. So they've just charged me automatically. I'm stuck with it now for, I might've put in. Because I'm a sucker for, it's 30 percent cheaper if you do it annually. Yeah, that's me. So I'm a sucker for, well, it's 14 days, I'll put the details in, but I'll definitely remember it day 13 to cancel.
That's where Chris
Emily: and I vary, because I'm like, no, I got, I never have that much money. Monthly, monthly, monthly. And then I can cancel. Well, my theory is, it's never going to
Marianne: come out, because I'm definitely going to cancel it in time. Exactly. There's no money in the account. But Chris is an annualist. Oh, I know.
Christine: I am terrible at that and I do and I do like I pay my you know personal insurance or whatever because I want to save some money but it has it's it's it's both a blessing and a curse really because in some instances it's the best thing to do but like our lease at the moment of our office I'm like no let's just You have to do this because it's cheaper.
I know. Oh, fuck.
Emily: Yeah, it's one of those things and like, it's, it's, you just, it catches you sometimes. Like we picked an 18 month lease and we were like, hmm. Well, you know, we're not going anywhere. Whether you want to or not. It's just, it's, there's pros and cons to either side of it. Yeah, there is. But that's how they catch you.
So then you go,
Marianne: right, well, I've paid for it now. I guess I have to figure out how to use it. Yeah. And then you get in there and you find what you need in that instant. And then you go, well, that was just too exhausting. I'm not going to even, so you're paying for something that you're then not using. Yes.
Christine: Yes. And then you're frustrated because the money comes out
Marianne: every month or the money comes out, or you get to the end again and you're like, Oh, and then you've got to remember a login or it doesn't do what you want after all. Yeah. And that's the big catch. You buy a program to connect everything, or you buy a software system and then you go, Oh, well, no, it's still no better than what I have.
Yeah. So you're out of money, you're out of time, and you're in no better position than you were before. Yep, true. Which is a complete waste. So I love that moment where I can say, well why don't you just try this? You know, um, some of my favourites to show people are things like forms and bookings and planner.
And like if you're starting with trying to get organised, just try and see if, because for some people that system is never going to make sense to them. That's not going to work for the way their brain's wired. It's not going to work for the way they deal with their clients. It's not going to work with the team they have.
So there's no point investing the time and money because you get started and you're like, no, this isn't going to fit with the way we need to do things. Um, well, they want, they want something that's very specific and custom and they have to choose when and where they're going to pay for that, which is the other
Rah: trade off.
But the beauty of Microsoft is being the big beast that it is, which we all curse at varying points. I curse it regularly. Well, yeah. I still curse it regularly. Uh huh. Yeah. Um, but the value that you're getting out of it, it's so much more than like, if you were paying just for office and then you're using.
Zoom and Teams is
Marianne: the, and it's the big argument that everyone has. You know, Teams is horrible and it's really clunky and, and yes, it really was. They've never used Skype
Emily: though, if they think that's f up.
Marianne: Or BlueJeans or GoToMeeting or WebEx or all of those. I mean, they were all terrible because, No one really knew what they were doing with that technology for a really long time.
Zoom really did come in and just pip that whole area. The stupid thing is every corporation when the spicy cough landed, every corporation had teams because they had a Microsoft account. But for some reason Microsoft didn't go, Hey guys, you've got this. And Zoom piped up and went, Hey, check us out. We're amazing.
We've got this great new software in this great system and it'll be amazing. And every, every man and his. This dog had a Zoom account and probably still does, um, and they were very clever. It was great marketing. Yes. You know, everybody gets an account for free. You can chat for as long as you like. You can have your Zoom cocktails, your Zoom quizzes, your Zoom meetings.
Every question that a coworker has from anywhere around the country, they can just jump and see your face as you roll your eyes at them as they ask you another inane question that could have been an email or a text for months and months and months on end. And so it became. It became a verb. Yeah. Let's zoom, let's, yeah.
Yeah. Let's, that's
Emily: right. It's, that's it's really, really well done. Branding, excellent branding,
Marianne: excellent branding. And they were everywhere. And they were promoting, and they were supporting all these people who needed to be connected. And they provided infrastructure to, you know, the health departments and also like, they were incredible, absolutely incredible.
But they were really smart. Really smart. And they got everyone in. It was the gateway. Yep. And they knew that. They knew that it wasn't gonna be forever. When they started, they knew that wasn't going to be forever. And they knew that we'll just very slowly close the gates. Yeah. So first it was, Oh, well, that's great.
But if you want to have like a big team meeting, you have to have this add on and you only get so much recording space and then you have to pay for extra or you have to upgrade. And then it was 40 minutes on a free plan. And I don't, I've never been in a meeting that has lasted less than 40 minutes. I mean, they should, they all should, yeah.
They should. We were talking about
Emily: this the other day, being like, it's actually, there's some benefit to being on the free plan, because it will cut you off. Yeah. Brutally. We have to go, like, we have no
Marianne: choice. Yeah.
Emily: To try and control those that like to
Marianne: chat. But if you're running, if you're, If you're doing a podcast or you're doing an interview or you're doing, they're all an hour.
Yep. Oh yes. You usually block an hour for particularly like with corporates when they're booking, you know, meetings between departments, those sorts of things. They're all an hour. Well, the two hours. So suddenly there's a paid feature. You want a breakout room, that's a paid feature. You want to do a webinar, that's a paid feature.
Um, and so some people are paying over 300. a year and that's like a single person having their own like a an individual if you've got an organization where everyone's got their own logins that'd be again mounting up and mounting up and mounting
Emily: up what's funny because i do contract work for an organization that has that and they have they had skype Which is the bane of my existence, but they're transitioning to Teams right now and it's, I'm really curious to see what they're going to do with Zoom because everyone does have an individual login.
Yeah. They've set up single sign on like logins through their enterprise and it's like, it's really going to be interesting to see if they transition Zoom into their, into using Teams because you can do it all. Like you don't need to. So it'd be fascinating to see. I think that was tail between their legs kind of thing.
Marianne: I think. Teams is the one that people are like, Oh, but it's just, it's just for that like chat and the occasional video call, but you can do your breakout rooms. You can do your webinars. They've got three levels of calls. So you do your regular chat call, like a zoom call. And that will have up to, you can have up to 300 people on that for 30 hours on a continuous call.
But straight away, that's a huge chunk of the people who are using zoom covered, covered breakout rooms, webinars, recordings. Yep. All included. Then you throw in the new feature they've had for a little while now, which is now called a town hall, which for big organizations is amazing because that allows you to have up to 10, 000 people on a, I mean, that's a small town, but,
Christine: but it's really, you know, it's a
Marianne: reasonable, but you think about some of the big multinational corporations, you know, That's, that's an AGM broadcast.
That's a stock announcement. Um, a lot of government organizations are using town halls because then it's a community meeting across the, particularly for regional areas where people can't come into the council office. Don't have to have a team's account or a Microsoft account to log in. So it's not another login for the person at the other end and you control it.
You can record it. You can put chat in it. You can live present in it. No extra cost at any point. Now it might change down the track, but the way Microsoft's built, they want you to use the tools they have and then they charge the bigger organizations the big bucks. Yes, of course, which is good. Yeah, which is great because They're not paying tax, so.
That's right. Let's make them pay another way, you know. But you're protected in the same way that those big organisations are. You've got the same protections and securities and protocols and backups that Microsoft are doing for IBM and PWC and Ernst Young and Coca Cola. Yep. So everybody's got the same security.
Yeah. I mean, we've all got the same risk, but we've got the same security. Yep. For what, less than 300 bucks a year? Yep. Yeah. And that's before you use anything else.
Rah: Yeah. And especially when micro, like just having Word and Excel and PowerPoint, which as much as you can try and use as much as I love Google.
Marianne: There are some features that are different. It's just, yeah. Excel was the very first program Microsoft released.
Rah: Yeah.
Marianne: So it wasn't Word. Everyone thinks it was Word. Yeah, no. But it was Excel. Yeah. So Excel is, or Microsoft is fundamentally, it's a, it's a programmer's dream, right? That's, he's a programmer.
Yeah. Surrounded by programmers. So he's going to start with the numbers. So Excel has always been the flagship program. And that's why it's so powerful. Google sheets is like the light version and it does a lot. Um, But the best part was when they started allowing collaboration on your documents, which is what Google had over
Christine: Word and Excel for a really long
Marianne: time.
So you can share, you can work in real time, you can see their edits in real time, you don't look like an anonymous badger or anonymous wolf or whatever else it is when you share those things. You're like, who the hell is that? I'm a proud anonymous wolf. Thank you. Now I'll know exactly who's in my documents.
But it's, it's interesting because those are the things that people hold up and go, well, I can't work with anybody else. Yes, you can. You can work on the web. You can work on your desktop. You can work on your phone. Yep. So it took, it took Microsoft a really long time to figure out how this hybrid thing fits.
But it's like they just woke up one day and said, actually, we've already got all the pieces. We've just got to flick a couple of switches in the background that allow. that connection outside of the organization. Cause that's been the big bug there. You had to all be in the same domain. Yep. That's the biggest thing.
And I
Christine: think that's why we sort of like gravitate to going to the Google stuff because we, it just feels more natural. We're used to it and easier kind of thing. So yeah, we're collaborating there. But
Emily: every time I talk to Marianne, I'm like, let's get back into Microsoft. Let's go all in again and get it all
Marianne: going again.
I think it's the trick is you get. With the Google products and even with the other paid products, they'll give, they can give you so much and then you have to connect or build something else or add on or upgrade. Yeah. And that's the way they're built because their, their concept is well, we'll give you so much for free and then we want to get our dollar back.
Christine: Yeah,
Marianne: right. Whereas Microsoft, you know, has been taking the dollar for so long because it had the stranglehold on all the corporations. Anyone who had a computer had Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. Yep. And then only WordPerfect. That's what our first word processing. So my husband still says he wishes WordPerfect was still around because he liked the panel at the bottom where you could actually spot all of the formatting errors.
He loves that. He loved that. Which for an engineer is quite impressive that he even was dealing with that. text. However, he says that's one of his big bug bears now. And then I introduced him to turning the formatting marks on it. He was like, Oh yeah, I see it now. I can see all the things. Once you've turned on that little pill crow, your life changes.
Cause you're like, Oh, this is every keystroke in my document on the screen. So, suddenly the formatting is, is no longer the problem. So, it's the little things like that, that you go, Oh, it has advanced, and it is user friendly, and I can work with people inside my team, outside my team, but you retain control.
You own it, and you share it, and you revoke it. And it took them a while to get there, but, I think, I'm constantly surprised at what, what I can do without having to take on anything else. And I'm continuing, my business is continuing to get better managed, because the more I dive in, the more I find I can do.
The more
Christine: you discover, yeah. And I think, um, you know, being able to identify if you have your, um, your Microsoft suite and identify what you can, you know, what you've got and therefore what you can replace outside in the, you know, it's, you know, especially in small business. I know big business has to, somebody has to watch the budget, but in small business, it's a different, it's a different huge.
And you know, just the cost of everything increasing at the moment on top of your personal, Cost of living is just you really do need to revisit and look if you can have some quick wins and go Yeah, okay. I own it. I can swap out my 237 Dollar a year zoom subscription for teams. I know it to some people it doesn't sound a lot but Yeah, and it's it's
Marianne: it's It's a simple, it's a simple swap because it does exactly the same thing.
So it's not, it's not like you have to, to really get your head around. The, the layout is very similar. The terminology is all similar. The definitions are the same. It's a slightly different interface. Like it looks a bit different, but it's, it's the same thing. So it's an easy swap and it's a quick win.
And it's, There's no difference in the quality of your finish for the people on the other end. Which is the really important part in small business. It's the customer experience as well. So, if the customer experience is just as easy, and you can just say, Hey, here's a link, jump in. That's what you're doing with Zoom.
You just send them a link, so you just send them a
Rah: different link. And so, like, I'm just looking on the website now for Microsoft. And so obviously, Word, Excel, PowerPoint. I'm just chipping away at you. I was sitting here, I just cancelled
Emily: our Zoom subscription.
Christine: Will it work for this afternoon's meeting or shall I use the client's Zoom account?
Why
Emily: wouldn't it work for it? It's an annual subscription. It doesn't run out till February.
Christine: Yeah, well then. February. Oh, shit. It's not cutting you off. I wouldn't cancel
Emily: it if it was going to cut you off immediately. God. We're not that enthusiastic. And
Rah: we're dead. Shut down. So, obviously, you know, they're the main apps that people would be using.
And wanting to be using anyway. Pretty well, yeah. But then, of course, you then get access to Teams OneDrive. Yes. So that's for the file storage. So anything that you've got on Dropbox or Google Drive. Dropbox, Google Drive. It can do the same things there. Yeah, it'll do exactly
Marianne: the same thing. You get a, if you have a business subscription, which is a business standard, which I think is about, 260 a year, 24, 26 a month
Rah: for a user.
Um, 18. 70 per month for three, six, five business standard. Oh, that's good. That's a good price. Told you I was on the page. So yeah, so that's the annual price. So that times 12. Yeah. Math.
Marianne: So yeah, it's about 200 bucks a year. Yeah. Which is not a lot. No. Um, that's a terabyte of storage. Yeah. Which is heaps.
Which is Heap. That's Heap. Yeah. Which is heaps. Um, and that's per user, so each individual user will have it. Yeah. And then as
Rah: well, you've got SharePoint, which is where you can create intranet sites or client portals and those sorts of things. Yeah. I'm just noticing, I'm getting into the details now. Look at you now.
Now she's going to start grilling me. She is, yeah. Right on. This is a big test. Sounds right. Now
Marianne: let's see how my techie chops are.
Rah: So it mentions Exchange as a product, which is the email management stuff, right? So for that particular price, that's paying for one email address. One email address.
Marianne: It's per user.
Yeah. So it's like a seat. Yeah. Perfect. Right? Yeah. So each account will have access to all of those individual accounts. Programs as a logged in user and then if you have, so for me, I would say. I am the face, brains, hands and feet. You are. Thrive. So, but I have a business standard, which is my main email address.
And then I have a business basics, which is about 8 a month, I think. Yeah, it's true. And that's basically just another email address. It has web access, but it is an account. So it has its own inbox and it has its own login to Teams. So for me, I use it in two ways. It is my magic generic email address. Yes.
And it's a separate mailbox so it's not all in my inbox. But it's also a great way for me to test things between accounts.
Rah: Yeah.
Marianne: So as a single, as a solo. business owner, it means I can log in as me, send something to them, log in as them, and see what it looks like at the other end. So for Teams it's really good because I can actually, when I record videos and things, I can send things in Teams to that email address and have it show up on there so it shows as a recipient, not the sender.
So I can see things from the non admin end, which is quite handy. So it's, um, and it's the cheapest way I can do that rather than bringing in a whole team member.
Rah: And so I can't afford one of those. So the thing that I was most excited by, The thing that I was most excited by, this is leaning forward probably, Um, you mentioned this at our conference about ClickChamp.
Yes. And I didn't realize that that's part of Microsoft. I just Googled that
Emily: too. I've got it open and clicked. Pricing.
Rah: Yeah. Note
Christine: to our listeners, I don't have anything open.
Marianne: I didn't, I didn't even get my laptop out. Can't help it.
Emily: It's just, I just don't listen well if I don't do multiple things at once.
You've got the
Rah: ADHD people in the back room. Exactly. Multitasking. Yes, I did get caught playing, I did get caught playing, um, uh, Candy Crush during.
Emily: I did notice you doing that. Yeah. .
Rah: But I
Emily: Are you kidding Ma MA's presentation. Then she's like calling out apps to Microsoft Apps. Can , because I was fucking listening.
That was terrible. Which easy
Rah: prepping for our own presentation. I Yeah. Can In the brain. Yeah.
Marianne: It's the always. So, yeah. So Click Champ is Clip Champ is your new video editing tool. Yeah. So, because as you all know, video is king. Yep. And it's what. everything needs to work, but also the movement into online teaching and courses and training spaces means that people are needing to record video in more effective ways.
So there are a couple of tools in Microsoft. So they have a product called Stream, which is, um, it's, it's basically like your YouTube video. Yeah. Right. So it's your storage storage. You can create playlists, you can share your videos from there. You can put expiry dates on things. You can do transcripts and descriptions of videos, that sort of thing.
So if you're working internally, it's really good. Cause it's basically just a file repository for all of your videos, then you've got. which is the actual recording tool. So you can record inside things like PowerPoint. You can record a presentation in PowerPoint and do that directly in PowerPoint, do your voiceovers and your little cameos and that sort of stuff, which is great.
But sometimes you want to do a screenshot and then you want to maybe have a video that you've already got from somewhere or you want something that was on your phone that you've. You know, and you're building, whether it's a YouTube video or a reel or a course or whatever it is. So you can do it in Clipchamp and it's a drag and drop system.
So you can upload, you can drag and drop, but it's got a library of stuff as well. It's got sound effects and jingles and music tracks. It lets you do transitions between your clips and put headers and outros and fades and all that sort of stuff. So it's not. professional in the sense that someone who does video editing as a professional would, it, you know, it's like a graphic designer looking at Canva.
Yeah. Okay. That's the best comparison. It's an accessible tool, but it is a tool for someone who like me is creating content fairly regularly and just needs to get it in done and in a consistent way. I've got a cover page. I've got transitions. I've got an outro. I want one video and I want to upload it to YouTube.
I can do it all in Clipchamp, so it pulls and connects to OneDrive. Clipchamp will also connect with a couple of places. It'll connect with OneDrive, it'll connect with YouTube, and I think it will connect with, I don't know if it's LinkedIn maybe? But you can connect a couple of, LinkedIn would be the obvious one because they own it.
Um, but I think, and it's got some great templates for things like YouTube's of different types of YouTube videos, different types of reels. So it's building all of those tools in to help you just do it more easily. And that's all we want is stuff that will do, you know, video editing software is scary to someone on the outside when you're looking for a video editing tool and you're, you just want to be able to create a video to put on YouTube or, you know, an e course that you're setting up.
You don't need all the bells and whistles. You just want to be able to record your screen, record your face, put them together as a video that will work.
Rah: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it just makes it accessible because. So many people that we've all spoken to who are wanting to get into that video stuff and they're just like, don't know where to start.
Yeah. And that just gives them like, I just phrase. I
Marianne: was using another tool called screen pal to do the recording. Um, but it was a paid product and it was, I think it was like, it was horribly cheap. Like it was 70 a year and perfectly, perfectly functional, but. It was a separate system and I had to upload everything into there and then I had to download everything back to my system.
It didn't connect and then I would upload it to YouTube, but it didn't do captions. So, um, the thing I like about Clipchamp is it will also do text to speech. So you can put a script in and it will do the narration for you. So if you don't like your voice, which a lot of people freak out about their voice on video.
It
Rah: becomes a real roadblock for them.
Marianne: Um, and it's the same as putting your face up. If you don't want to put your face up, it's doing the screen recording and talking to it. Yep. And, but I'm, I'm, uh, You know, I've got two screens at home, which I can't imagine, I can't remember how I did without two screens.
Oh, I feel that. I'm sure your eyes were better
Christine: back when you did. I probably
Marianne: worked less hours. Yeah, probably. But what I like is that I can have the full screen and be recording that screen and actually see over on the other side how it's looking at the same time. So it's giving me that real nice. But it has a teleprompter as well so when I'm speaking it's actually got a built in teleprompter element.
So I can put the script in and you can adjust the speed of that teleprompter as well and the size. So I'm always, it looks like I'm looking at the camera. So
Rah: you could be like Peter Overton. Yeah. I'll put that jacket back on,
Marianne: not Yarn Event like we were talking about.
Christine: But that's actually really quite awesome actually, isn't it?
And then so then
Marianne: you've got, you can do them as individual clips. See, she sells it so well. Get some affiliate links for shit. Because Microsoft don't do an affiliate program anymore. They just shut theirs down. They just shut theirs down. Cause
Emily: I'm looking, the prices, the free price. It's a free plan and then it's 17 for the other one.
Like it's so cheap. That's what I mean.
Marianne: So what they want. Get on it people. They're making their money from the corporates, right? The corporates are paying for 150, 500, 2, 000 employees. Yes. And that's a very bespoke plan and that's a lot of money every year. And that's, so for people who, they want, they do not for profit options, they do educational options.
So if you work in the education sector, there is a tailored suite for you. of Microsoft 365 for educators. Anyone who has a child at school probably has access to a student version. A lot of people, a lot of small business owners will say, well, we've got a family one. We've just got a family subscription.
Can I run my business on it? Yes, you can. Don't upgrade it until you need to. If you just need Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, You're fine. A lot of the other tools will only be in your business one. So things like planner and forms and Lists and yeah, those sorts of things will be included at the business level But if you're just starting out and you don't think that's even on your radar.
Yeah, just use a family one You get five different logins on a family subscription. So have a business email on your family subscription.
Christine: I've got my old business is on the family subscription. So, you know, it's pretty good storage. You can keep
Rah: everything in one place. Yeah. And then when you decide to upgrade and move things around, well, then you can worry about that when you get there, but it's not, it's not, you're not stuck.
Marianne: There are some, some VAs that I'm connected with and they'll occasionally say I'm, I'm four years into my business and I'm still using the personal one. Is that okay? I'm like, is it working? Like, yeah, I'm like, well, that's working. Why, why pay any more? Your money could be better spent somewhere else. Yeah.
Yeah,
Rah: um, and so I'm conscious of time and you've been very generous with your knowledge so far Yeah, I know that you've got a membership for people who want to keep going learning about how to utilize all the tools. I know you've also got a free YouTube channel. So if people are looking for different things, what would you recommend people?
Marianne: So I always say the first thing to do is to have a look at the free stuff. There's lots of free resources and I'm not the only one talking about Microsoft out there. It's just that I do it my way based on my experience. AKA better. Well, yes, putting it out there. Um, so I have a YouTube channel. Um, I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook.
Threads, all the things, all the things, all under Thrive Admin Services. I love the look that you give to Em when you say, what else am I on? Um, and I'm on TikTok, but those are, it's TikTok. Um, so all under Thrive Admin Services. That's, I just keep it really simple. That's how you'll find me. Um, and there's loads of free content.
I've got some free resources on my website. If you're looking at sort of something to give you that little boost. And then I offer lots of different, I. I like to meet people where they are. So if you want to do it yourself, there are options that you can download a template or you can do a quick e course and you can build some skills and go away and take that with you and, and build on it yourself.
If you want some step by step help, then I've got a membership and I've currently running a, or I have a 30 day program that helps you build your skills in Word specifically. And that's a daily step by step new skill each day to practice on less than 30 minutes of work. Um, so it's a video lesson and then an action to do and it's less than 30 minutes and you're done.
Yep. And then the membership is a vault of my knowledge that is separate to anything that's available free. So it complements that, but it's built in with some group coaching every month and some extra bonus tips and resources. So all of it is available on the website, which is thriveadmin. com. And, um, and I'm always happy if someone wants to get in touch with me on the, on the media socials and have a chat.
And just figure out what the next best step for them is, because everybody's coming at it from a different angle with a different need.
Emily: Cool, thank you so much. It's time. Thank you. There's so much more to learn. I
Marianne: know, right? I think, uh. It's like, it's like opening, uh, one of those springy worms. Pandora's box.
It's one of those springy worm boxes. Yeah, yeah. You know, it
Emily: keeps popping out at you. And stuff just keeps coming, so. Yeah, I think Rah and I are going to be spending the rest of our day being like, what else can we move to? Yeah. What else? What else is there? That's right. I'm already doing it.
Marianne: Yeah, I was like, what do you mean later
Christine: today?
Yeah, we'll just have a staff meeting later to find out what changes. There's another tab open. Yeah, we'll just go back to the bar. Make some more magic. Alright. Well, thank you so much. So Chris, do you have
Rah: a question to ask? All
Christine: right, actually, yes. I certainly
Rah: do.
Christine: Oh yeah, that thing. It's not like the phone is throwing me out today.
It is. It really is. Like it's just blocking all your vision. A little bit of duck and wave. Yes.
Rah: It's being a literal cock blocker. It is. It is.
Christine: Marianne. Yes, Christine. If I had a box of all the things that you had lost in your life up to this moment in time, is there anything, anyone? Any memory that you want to take out of that?
This
Marianne: is hard because I have listened to every episode and I listen to people and I hear the question. Yes. Yes. It pops up in my feed. Yeah. And I go, Oh, that little rainbow appears. Yeah. I'm like, Oh, single colors. Yeah. No, there's a lot of, there's a lot of UK comedy in there. We discussed. So it's, it's quite a rainbow.
Um, and every time I hear someone's answer, I hear you ask the question. I have a different thing pop into my head all the time. Yep. And what I think. Today is that There's nothing I want out. Yep Because I wouldn't be where I am today. Yeah, I think that's fair.
Christine: So true, but it is true You're giving me shivers.
Sorry. No, no, I can hear it in your voice, but it is it resonated totally and and And yeah, and I, and I wonder how, like, I would answer it too. It's a weird
Marianne: question. It's a weird question in the best way. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There are people that could come back. There are things that I wish I'd done differently.
But any one of those things, it's that sliding doors moment, any one of those things popping up and reappearing, changes the way I'm moving now to changes who you are. Yeah, no. You know, it's not even about changing what happened in the past. No. But if they turned up now, it would change the way I look at things going forward.
Yes. And I just, I'm in a good place.
Emily: I'm in a good place. So,
Marianne: I think. So, we'll just put the lid on that box. We'll just pop the lid back on. Excellent. And, um. And pack it away. And maybe you can ask me again in the future. Um, you know what? I'll have a different question for you. You know. When we. New stuff is coming.
Yes. When we have you back. Yes. To talk about another program. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. We'll pick a different one to yak about.
Rah: Yeah, or we could just ask about your business because yeah, yeah, it'll still be there. Exactly. Yes. Amazing. Thank you. So thriveadminservices. com. au. Thriveadminservices.
Marianne: com. au. God, sorry. Thriveadminservices. com. au will take you to thriveadminservices. com. So you're smart. I'm not going to remove my mistake then. And
Rah: then of course, thriveadminservices on all the socials as well. Yes. Yes. so much.
Emily: You know, you set your stuff up so well. So, so well. It's all in the right place.
It is, it is. It's so freaky. But it's so refreshing. Which is
Rah: why we like Des. Yeah. I'm with my people. 100%. Yeah. Thank you for coming. It's been amazing. so much. And for being with us for three whole days. I know.
Emily: I'm surprised you're not sick of it yet.
Rah: You're masking it very well. I'm going to sleep really well tonight.
Oh yeah, you'll be so well. Too many. Too much. It's all too much. Yeah. So thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you on the flip side, as Emily would say. Peace out.
Peace out.
