scott@reiflow.com

One of the best ways I learn to use a system is to watch someone actually using it.  Hearing the experienced user’s thought process and reasons for doing things this way or that way greatly reduces the learning curve.  This is what I want to do in this post.

I am going to take you through the process of a lead coming into REIFlow from my Investor Carrot site.  You’ll see what Tasks get created, what information is recorded and where.  I’ll then move the lead through the entire Lead Flow and you’ll see how the apps are linked together and why it’s setup the way it is.

 

What you will see in this video

• Entering a Lead
• Finding a Lead
• Adding Details
• Doing a workup on a property
• Updating Contact Information
• Making an offer
• Getting a property Under Contract
• Pulling in my buyers
• Closing the Deal

 

 

 

Even though you are going to be using REIFlow for Podio it is a good idea to understand how Podio works first. Once you have developed that basic Podio knowledge you’ll hit the ground running with REIFlow.  To help you out with this, I put together some videos that go through the basics of Podio.

Firstly I recommend that you go through each of the 18 short video tutorials that Podio has put together.  I got started this way and the videos gave me a good jumping off point.

Podio Video Tutorials

The Next Step

Now that you have a passing understanding of Podio (I hope), I want to take a turn and explain some of it to you in my words. Sometimes it’s better to hear an actual user’s description of a product then from the company itself. With that said…

Podio Structure

While Podio describes many different parts to it’s system, to me, it really just boils down to 4 components….Organizations, Workspaces, Apps and Items.  All the others like Users, Tasks and Conversations are really just peripheral items. What I mean by that is those features aren’t necessary to understand the core of how Podio is structured.

Here are the the 4 main parts…

Organization – An organization is the top level where everything else will be under.

Workspaces – Take these as your divisions or areas. For Investors it would be things like Lead Management, Finances, Buyers and any other part of your business that can be separated out into it’s own section.

Apps – Apps are the core concept in Podio. They are the input forms for your data.  You can have multiple Apps in a given workspace, each of them focusing on a different aspect of the App Topic.  Take REIFlow, which is a Lead Management Workspace…it has apps for Leads, Properties, Contacts,  Workup, Offers and Deals.  The great part about Apps is that you can link them together through Item Relationships.  Link Properties and Contacts to a Lead.

Items – If you think of apps as database tables, an item would be a row in such a table. Each item is a record of data with fields defined in the app.

Video Walk Throughs

Here are 11 short video tutorials I put together showing you how to do some basic things in Podio.  Even though you have watched the Podio tutorials from their site, I think you will find these valuable because I add in some of my own thoughts about each process along the way.

Create Workspace

You can have multiple workspaces in an Organization. I’m not sure if there is an upper limit but for sure you’ll be able to add as many as you need.  A good way to think about a Workspace is that it would equal a workbook (or a single excel file) in an Excel setup.

Create App

If a workspace is like an Excel Workbook, then you can think of Apps as tabs.  Each App will contain a Form where you then enter in data for that specific topic.  Enter in a Lead in your Leads App, a Contact in your Contacts App. Each App’s Template (or form) is setup with fields for each data point you want to capture.

Create Item

Continuing with the Excel analogy…Items in Podio equate to each line item in an Excel spreadsheet. This will be obvious if you switch the App’s Dashboard view to Grid.  It’ll look similar to an excel spreadsheet.

There are 2 parts to an App, (1) the App’s Dashboard where you can see all your App Items and (2) the App’s Template (Entry Form) where you will Enter and Edit App Items.

Editing App Template

One of the best things about Podio is it’s ability to quickly and easily modify an App if the need arises.  Say you are talking with a seller and you realize would like to keep track of Motivation Level, but there currently isn’t a field for that.  Just Add it!

Editing Item

Deleting Item

I don’t generally recommend deleting items from an App (I’d rather have a status field that marks them dead), there are a couple ways you can delete an item.  You can also delete multiple items at one time, but that feature is a little bit hidden.

Deleting App

This is  not something you are going to do to often.  However it’s good to know if you are experimenting with apps from the market place or in the middle of just trying to figure things out.

Deleting Workspace

The only time I’ve deleted a workspace is when I first signed up for my Podio Account.  I deleted the default workspaces that they added.

Searching

Sharing

General Navigation

Let’s just say that Podio Navigation is not that intuitive.  For sure you’ll find yourself stuck or wondering how you get back to where you just were.  In this video I give you some tips on the best way to get around.

 

REIFlow has a variety of ways to get new leads into the system that should support most needs.  If you only have one lead to enter you can manually enter it into Leads app. Have a list of leads that need to get in?  Use the REIFlow import tool to upload those leads with little effort.  Or do you have an Investor Carrot website that produces leads?  You can easily have those leads automatically entered into the system for you.

So how do you do each?

Manual Entry

1. click Add Lead in Quick Links (Activity App) or in Leads App,
2. before entering data click Save Lead. Doing so sets up a blank lead, property and contact records with default values set.
3. Click into the Property Record and enter in Address and any details
4. Return to Lead Item by clicking Back to Lead
5. Click into the Contact Record and enter in the contact’s name, email and phone.
6. Return to Lead Item by clicking Back to Lead
7. Finished!

Import excel file

1. Go to http://reiflow.com/member
2. Navigate to Imports
3. Download Excel Import Template
4. Transfer your lead list to the Template
5. Click Upload Leads and select the Import Template
6. Click Upload

Your leads have now been queued and will be imported into your REIFlow workspace at a rate of 800/hr ** (see reason below) or 80 every 10 minutes.

Note: Podio has a limitation of 4000 created items per hour, for all users or REIFlow combined. Because each lead imported into REIFlow creates 3 items (Lead, Property and Contact), REIFlow must throttle the number of leads imported into the system to prevent hitting the hourly Call Limit. The system is currently setup to only import 800 leads per hour (equals 2400 items created). This leaves a minimum of 1600 “creates” per hour for other normal system use. Leads will be imported on a first come first serve basis taking into account ALL REIFlow system users.

From Investor Carrot Website

1. Login to http://reiflow.com/member area
2. Navigate to Investor Carrot tab
3. Copy the Custom Url (http://reiflow.com/podio/v3/carrot/hook.php?uid=<your podio user id>)
4. Go to your Investor Carrot website Admin Dashboard
5. Navigate to Forms
6. Go to the Settings for the Step 1 Form (i.e. Need to sell Your House Fast?)
   1. Navigate to the Zapier Settings
   2. Click Add New
   3. Enter a Zap Name of REIFlow
   4. Paste the REIFlow Custom Url you copied in Step #3 into the Webhook Url field
   5. Click Save Zapier Feed
7. Go to the Settings for the Step 2 Form (i.e. Step 2 More Detailed Submission Form)
   1. Navigate to the Zapier Settings
   2. Click Add New
   3. Enter a Zap Name of REIFlow
   4. Paste the REIFlow Custom Url you copied in Step #3 into the Webhook Url field
   5. Click Save Zapier Feed

That’s it!  Your Investor Carrot Leads will now be automatically uploaded to your REIFlow Workspace when a seller fills out your forms.