Business-First Creatives: Client Experience & Systems for Service Providers

What if your virtual assistant isn't the problem? What if the reason you're struggling to delegate, hire, or grow your business has less to do with the people you're hiring and more to do with how you're running your business? Listen, I know that sounds a little harsh, but it's a conversation we need to have.

In this episode, I'm joined by Lauren Glynn, a business strategist who helps entrepreneurs figure out what their businesses actually need before they make their next hire. We're talking about everything from hiring your first virtual assistant to creating systems that...

What if the business that worked for you a few years ago isn’t the business that fits your life anymore? In this episode, I’m sitting down with my longtime client Nicole Hodgson to talk about what it actually looks like to evolve your business intentionally. Nicole has transitioned from therapist to family photographer to brand photographer—and through every iteration, she’s paid attention to what works for her brain, her family, and the business she wants to build.

We get into why Nicole moved from Dubsado to HoneyBook, why getting your systems in place before y...

What happens when you take a little time off from your business and accidentally come back with an entirely new business model? Apparently, if you're me, you build an app, create your own CRM, and completely rethink how you serve your clients. It's time for another quarterly Biz Bestie Chat with Sabrina Gebhardt, and let's just say we had two VERY different experiences in Q3.

While I spent my summer experimenting with AI, vibe coding, and building custom tools for my clients, Sabrina was navigating a major life transition as she sent her daughter off to college...

Y’all, the biggest revenue mistake in your business probably isn’t your pricing or your marketing. It’s what happens after the project ends. You deliver something beautiful, send the final email, and then... ghost. You feel shy about asking for a review, guilty about asking for a referral, and you assume they’ll come back when they’re ready.

Here’s the thing: they won’t always. Not because the work wasn’t great, but because life moves on and you stop being a priority. In this episode, I’m sharing what I found when I loaded all 551 o...

If you know you need to market your business but still find yourself staring blankly when someone asks what you actually did to market it this week, this episode is for you. Tayler Cusick Hollman is back on the podcast for a conversation about something that affects so many small business owners: we keep assuming we need more time, motivation, or willpower to finally become consistent with our marketing.

But what if willpower isn’t the problem? Tayler has spent more than a decade supporting small business owners with their marketing, and together we’re breaking down why...

What if the thing you create doesn’t have to generate leads, sell an offer, or prove its ROI? What if you’re allowed to make something simply because you freaking love it? That’s exactly what I’m talking about with my friend Julie Fried, host of The System for Everything. And unlike most of the podcast hosts I bring onto Business-First Creatives, Julie isn’t using her show as a funnel into a service or offer.

She created it because she wanted a place to talk about everything that fascinates her—from business systems and meal plannin...

Profitable? Great. Sustainable? Love that. But if you hate delivering it, no system in the world is going to make you fall back in love with your business.

Last episode I asked you to do a time audit. Today I've got one more ask, and it's one you should do right now, while you're in the middle of serving clients. Because if I ask you in January how you feel about your offer, you're not going to remember. And the answer matters before we build a single system around it.

In this episode:

Jocelyn of Scale Your Resonance wants every one of her Best Seller clients making five figures from email, and yes, that includes me. Bold goal? Absolutely. In this episode, we dig into her new app, Email Studio. She built it for herself first, but you don't need to be a Bestie to use it, because it's open to the public and she's on a mission to get 100 users in the first 100 days. It's how I'm making email part of an always-selling marketing plan, and it can be part of yours too.

Because here's my confession: I sometimes...

How long does it actually take you to serve one client? Not the session. The whole thing.

If you're not sure, you're not alone. When I review offers, I find the same time leak over and over. It's hiding in emails you write from scratch, proposals you rebuild for every lead, and the "quick" peeks into your CRM that you never count. This one's short, and it comes with homework. Yes, even if you're not my client.

In this episode:

What happens when you get tired of forcing your business into software that doesn’t quite work the way you want it to? Apparently, if you’re me, you accidentally spend your birthday sabbatical building your own app. In this episode, Kara Duncan is taking over the mic and interviewing me about how a few experiments with AI tools turned into the Systems Professor app—and eventually opened my eyes to an entirely new direction for my business.

I’m sharing how I went from custom GPTs, Airtable, Notion, and existing CRM tools to building software around the way...

For five and a half years, I've helped you map your client journey, get excited about what's possible, and then spend the rest of our time together bending that vision to fit inside Dubsado or HoneyBook. As of today, I'm done with that.

This one's short and sweet — part behind the scenes, part building in public. My business has flipped upside down in the last year and a half, and building the Systems Professor app cracked something open that I can't un-see. So here's where I'm going next, and what it means if you want to work wi...

Your client just paid you hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars. And the only thing that landed in their inbox was a payment receipt and a "your contract has been signed" email. That's not onboarding. That's a transaction.

I've been seeing the same three onboarding mistakes over and over inside my Experience Edit and Systems in Session client accounts, and most of y'all aren't making them on purpose. You want this part to be good. You just don't know what "good" looks like, or you're so focused on making it personal that nothing actually gets sent. So this...

A booking tool is not a CRM. A project management tool is not a CRM. And the $20 to $40 a month you're trying to save by getting rid of yours might end up costing you bookings.

Every single week I see someone on Threads asking if they can replace their CRM with Notion, Airtable, Google Workspace, or Squarespace. I use Notion and Airtable daily in my own business — and neither one of them would have replaced the CRM inside my photography business. So let's talk about what your CRM is actually doing for you before you cancel it.

There is no all-in-one software that does everything well. Every single one of them makes you give something up. The only real question is whether you're okay with what you're giving up.

This one is for the photographers. Every time I open Threads, someone is asking how to consolidate their tech stack down to one tool — fewer logins, fewer subscriptions, one connected experience for their clients. I get it. But I'm also going to tell you why gallery software that added CRM features and a CRM that added gallery features are two very different things, and why th...

If you're already booking the number of clients you want to work with, but it feels like you're spending so much unnecessary time behind the scenes, your systems and automations might need an update. In this episode, I sit down with Holly Birch to talk about what happened after she completely overhauled her HoneyBook workflows using automated systems.

What's especially interesting about this conversation is that Holly wasn't starting from scratch. She already had templates, proposals, email sequences, and workflows in place. But she knew her systems could be more efficient, more professional, and more scalable. A...

There's only one right order to build client experience systems in. Not one right tool, not one right CRM — one right order. And I've been doing it this way with clients for five years without ever naming it out loud.

Today I'm naming it. Order of Operations is my new four-phase framework inside Systems in Session, and I'm walking through all four phases in this episode — including the brand new one I've never talked about before, which happens before we touch a single workflow.

I'm also clearing up something people keep getting twisted, because I don...

When your kid needs braces and you schedule a consultation, I think the bare minimum is to see the actual orthodontist, right?

Turns out that is a bad assumption. Here's how it went ⤵️

I took Chloe to three consultations this month and in this episode I'm walking you through all three to compare the client experience and how that affected my decision to choose one.

Then I want you to go figure out if your own client experience is similar to one I reviewed.

And if you're ready to give your syst...

I gave three talks in three groups on three consecutive days this week, and in the last one I made an announcement I need to make here too: Systems in Session is no longer Dubsado-or-HoneyBook-pick-your-poison.

I'll now build your client experience inside any of the five CRMs I actually recommend — Dubsado, HoneyBook, 17hats, Sprout Studio, or VSCO Workspace (formerly Táve). Because you were never paying me to teach you how to push buttons in a tool. You're paying me for reviews, referrals, and repeat clients.

Also in this one: what's changed at all five CRM...

What if the marketing strategy you've been treating like an optional task is actually the one thing that could create a more sustainable business? In this episode, I sit down with Kara to talk about one of my favorite topics: outsourcing your blogging. If you've been relying heavily on social media to attract leads, this conversation might completely change how you think about your marketing strategy.

We dig into the difference between social media and search-driven marketing, why user intent matters, and how blogging can continue working for your business long after you hit publish. We also...

I got myself in a little pickle this week — three presentations, three days in a row. And the one I'm most fired up about is tomorrow's.

Here's why: the number one objection I get when I start talking about automating your client experience is that you don't want it to feel automated for your clients.

So in this episode I'm walking through the three kinds of systems you can build and why you get to decide at every single stage of your client experience how much automation and how much personalization belongs there. It's not al...

If you think you don’t have enough clients to need systems in your business, this episode might completely change your mind. Whether you’re balancing a business with a full-time job or running a part-time side-hustle, you don’t have less need for systems—you have less time to operate without them.

In this episode, I’m chatting with my client Jess Hoffman, a Florida-based pet photographer who runs her photography business alongside a full-time corporate job. Jess and I have worked together on her Dubsado systems and client communication, and we’re digging into what changed when...

I recorded this one live on the last day of week two of my birthday sabbatical, and it published about ten minutes after I stopped talking. Because I spent the last seven days — on roughly four hours of sleep a night — building a custom client portal that replaced Airtable, Fillout, Notion, Google Docs, and Google Sheets in my business.

What started as "let me move my AI assistants out of ChatGPT" turned into a full app where my clients log in, map their client journey, draft their emails, submit support tickets, send me voice notes, and do thei...

Have you ever wondered why some stories feel effortless to tell while others never seem to land? In this episode, I'm sitting down with Breanna Owen to explore how Human Design can completely change the way we approach storytelling in our businesses.

Instead of trying to tell every story or following someone else's content formula, we're diving into how your Human Design can help you identify the stories you're naturally meant to tell—and why those stories create stronger connections with your audience.

Mentioned in this Episode

Episode 254: Using Human Design to...

Most business owners think they need a dramatic transformation story to connect with their audience. In this episode, I sit down with Megan Yelaney to unpack one of the most overlooked pieces of effective marketing: your origin story. We explore why so many entrepreneurs struggle to tell their story, how to identify the version that's most relevant to your current audience, and why authenticity will always outperform trying to sound impressive.

Along the way, I found myself reflecting on my own business evolution (from photography to systems strategy) and realizing that my story has changed just as...

Hey y'all, it's Colie. I'm popping back in after two weeks of guest episodes to talk about something that's been shifting in my business — and honestly, in how I think about systems altogether.

I recently noticed a real shift in who's showing up to work with me, and it sent me down a rabbit hole of rethinking how I talk about automation, personalization, and what I actually deliver for clients. That rethink turned into a new framework I'm calling Human by Design — the idea that you can automate the hell out of your client experience and still have...

What if giving away something for free was actually the smartest marketing move you could make? In this episode, I'm joined by David Enloe, who shares how a simple idea born during the uncertainty of COVID transformed into one of the most effective marketing strategies I've heard for photographers. What started as a way to meet people in a brand-new city has grown into a long-term client acquisition system that continues to generate premium bookings years later.

Instead of chasing social media algorithms or relying on paid ads, David built his business through free pop-up photography experiences...

What if the systems slowing down your business aren't your workflows, but the software you're forcing yourself to use?

In this episode, I'm joined by Notion consultant and workflow strategist Ania Ha to pull back the curtain on the custom Notion workspace she built for my business. We talk about everything from team management and automations to the growing conversation around replacing traditional CRMs with personalized systems built in Notion.

I share what it was like hiring someone to build my systems for the first time, how that experience completely changed the way I think...

What do you do when the strategies that used to work… suddenly don't? In our Q3 Business Bestie Chat, Sabrina and I are getting real about what it looks like to navigate a season of uncertainty in business—even after years of experience. We're sharing an honest conversation about shifting markets, changing client behavior, and why staying grounded is so important.

With nearly 29 years of combined entrepreneurial experience, we've both found ourselves asking hard questions this summer. Instead of pretending everything is perfect, we're pulling back the curtain on what it's like to adapt, trust the process, and...

If you've been telling yourself you're not "ready" for better systems yet, this one's for you. In this episode, Colie talks directly to the newer photographers and service providers in her audience — the ones with fewer clients, hesitant to raise their prices, and using a CRM that just isn't built for automation yet.

She breaks down exactly what The Experience Edit is, who it's actually for (spoiler: you don't need a specific CRM, or even to be a photographer), and why mapping your client journey now — before busy season hits — will save you time, stress, and a whole...

What if the best systems in your business didn't make your client experience feel more automated, but actually made it feel more personal?

In this episode, I'm sitting down with Xan Heller, who has gone through both Systems in Session and The Experience Edit, to talk about what happened when she stopped trying to figure out her CRM on her own and finally built systems that supported the custom, high-touch experience she wanted every client to have.

What I think you'll find funny about Xan's experience is that she actually told me "no" more times...

Is your idea of a luxury client experience one where you're the one showing up for every part of it? This episode is for the concierge-level service providers out there — the ones who don't want automation replacing the calls, the in-person consultations, or the hands-on parts of the process.

I'm walking through why you still need systems (just not the kind I usually talk about), how to stay consistent without burning yourself out, and why a scheduler still matters even when you're the one booking the date live on a call.

I'm also giving you a...

What if your next great offer isn't something you build alone? In this episode, I sit down with website copywriter Caitie Cupples to explore the power of collaboration and how partnering with complementary experts can create a better client experience—and a stronger offer.

Caitie shares the story behind Signed, Sealed, Subscribed, a collaborative VIP Week she built alongside a designer and a naming expert to help business owners finally launch newsletters they're excited to send. We unpack what it looks like to stay in your zone of genius, eliminate client roadblocks, and create offers that solve th...

Email Like You Mean It is no more, y'all. I rebranded it — again — and this time I actually love the name I landed on: The Experience Edit.

In this episode, I'm walking you through why I made the change, what's different now that it's gone from a 5-day sprint to a full 10 days, and why I finally split it into two clear goals: mapping your client journey in week one, then writing your entire client communication library in week two. I also touch on why workflows still aren't part of this offer (on purpose), and what to expe...

So it's been a hot minute since I ranted about client communication, y'all. In this replay of episode 204, I'm breaking down the three things every single client email needs — automated or not — to actually get read: purpose, personality, and preview.

I'll walk you through how to title your email templates by purpose (hint: your clients never see the title, so make it work for you), why a Schitt's Creek GIF might be doing more for your client relationships than you think, and the one question every email should answer before your client even has to ask it: what...

What if the biggest benefit of better systems wasn't saving time, but finally trusting your business to run without you? In this episode, I sit down with Danielle Kent, a birth photographer, doula, and educator who joined Systems in Session after already investing in a professionally built Dubsado setup.

Her systems worked, but she still felt disconnected from them. She wanted the confidence to understand, customize, and expand her workflows without relying on someone else every time her business evolved.

We talk about the difference between having systems built for you and learning how to...

Y'all know I love a good automated follow-up sequence — but automation only works when a lead is still warm. This episode is about what to do three to six months later, when it's time to personally re-engage the people who went quiet.

I'm walking you through the four buckets of people who belong on your re-engagement list (including some you might not have thought of), where to reach out based on where you last connected, and exactly what to say so the conversation feels human — not salesy. Your homework: set a timer for 30 minutes and build your list...

Most photographers think they have a client experience because they have a few key milestones in place: an inquiry form, a proposal, a questionnaire, and a gallery delivery email.

But milestones aren't the same thing as a client experience.

In this episode, I'm breaking down the difference between milestones and touchpoints, why your workflows might feel broken even when they're technically working, and the process I use with every Systems in Session client before we build a single automation.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The difference between milestones and touchpoints in yo...

What if the jobs, hobbies, and experiences you think are irrelevant are actually the most valuable parts of your brand story? In this episode, I sit down with copywriter Andrea Shah to unpack the surprising ways our career pivots shape the businesses we build today. We're exploring how seemingly unrelated experiences become powerful differentiators in your brand, website copy, and client experience.

Andrea shares how she helps business owners uncover the stories hidden beneath their surface-level origin stories, and why the details you're tempted to leave out may be the exact thing that helps ideal clients connect...

In this episode, I'm covering the three goals most sales calls are trying to accomplish, the three questions every lead needs answered before they book, and why cramming all of that into one 15-minute call is costing you clients.

Want more? Join me tomorrow ⤵️

🎯 Replace Your Sales Call — free live training, June 18th Register: coliejames.com/sales Replay available for 7 days only.

Before you announce your fall calendar to the world, there's one group of people who should hear from you first — and most photographers skip right past them on the way to the public launch.

In this episode, I'm sharing the strategy I recommend to every photographer releasing their fall schedule: give your past clients early access before anyone else gets a look. I'll walk you through how long to keep the window open, what to offer instead of a discount, how to handle the booking process whether you use a scheduler or book manually, and how to id...