Heather Crabtree [00:00:01]:
Welcome to your Savvy Business, a podcast for experienced online coaches and service pros who want to unlock your next level in business without compromising your goals, priorities and values or sacrificing your boundaries. I'm your host, Heather Crabtree, your savvy business coach and growth strategist. I know you're not new to this business thing, friend. You're more than five years in and you feel like you should have everything figured out by now. You've learned that every time you grow to new heights, new opportunities open up and new challenges arise. Each chapter brings a new level of what the heck am I doing? And you wish you had someone to support you when things start to feel hard, or a business pro to help you see your business in another light and decide what next steps to take. I am here to help. Well, me and some amazing friends who happen to be really good at their craft as well.
Heather Crabtree [00:00:54]:
You can think of me as your business coach and growth strategist in your back pocket who can connect you to the most brilliant people and share the good, the bad and the I want to quit my business moments that we all have in our business but usually never talk about. There will be laughs and tears and meaningful lessons revealed along the way. I hope you will hit subscribe and join us as we navigate business and life together and you can hop over to Heathercrafttree.com to learn more. Now, let's jump into today's episode. My amazing guest today is Crystal Clark. Crystal is a workload strategist helping service providers organize their digital back office operations with systems and workflow automations so they can stress less and live more life outside the office. Yes, please. Through her systems shortcut shop, her membership and one on one services, she provides workflow consulting and system setup support for software from Google Workspace and Dubsado to Airtable, Zapier and more.
Heather Crabtree [00:02:09]:
She's all about transforming the way you work so you can enjoy the freedom that entrepreneurship has to offer while you fearlessly run your business and wow your clients. I am excited to welcome my amazing guest, Crystal Clark. Hello, Crystal.
Krystal Clark [00:02:28]:
So glad to be here.
Heather Crabtree [00:02:30]:
I am so glad to be doing this interview with you. Crystal is a past client of mine, now friend, and so we could talk all day, but we're going to get to the goods today. We're going to talk about how business owners so my audience are business owners, online coaches and service pros who have been in business for five or more years. So these are not new business owners, right? These are people that have been in business for a while. And I think there's a big difference in right when you're setting up systems for your business at the beginning and then when they all start to break because as you grow your business, they ain't working anymore. And so Crystal and I are going to talk about as you grow your business, how those might need to change, and also how you can use those systems to grow your business. So we'll talk about both of those things. So let's first kick it off crystal with talking about we actually worked on this together when she was a client of mine.
Heather Crabtree [00:03:35]:
And I know it's changed a little bit, but yes, you've upgraded it a little bit, even more since we've worked together. But I would love for you to talk about your framework and we'll go through the four steps of the framework.
Krystal Clark [00:03:48]:
I'm so excited to talk about this because when we worked on this when you were my business coach, I was like, it feels so good to have an easy and clear way to kind of really explain what I do and how people should really approach getting organized in their business. Because I think when you hear systems, you think automations and workflows and things, you don't think about the productivity of it and the time saving nature. Everyone's talking about, oh, save time with automations. Let this thing do, let this software do X things for you. We don't look at how just the process of going through all of the things that I'm about to say affect not only how you operate, but your confidence level, the clarity you have, like, everything that you do. All the prerequisites that you do leading up to setting up your systems, make it easier for you to market your business, do collabs, all kind of things. So I'm really excited about this because it's not just about operations. It spills over into all the different departments in your business.
Heather Crabtree [00:04:52]:
Yeah, absolutely. So first, let's talk about what is the name of your framework?
Krystal Clark [00:04:56]:
My framework is the organize your empire framework. And I really believe in taking like a holistic approach to systems and not just let me set up systems for my client experience because I think that's where a lot of things kind of get lost. Or an assumption is that systems are only created or set up for the client experience and managing leads and managing projects with clients. But it's more than that. It spills over, like I said, into every department. And so my framework is a four part framework called the Organizer Empire Framework. And it has four steps. There is a structure step, a strategy step, an asset creation step, and a tech setup step.
Krystal Clark [00:05:37]:
So you can not only look at this framework as the approach to how you think about systems, but it is actually the order in which you set up systems as well. So it's a two pronged approach. So even if you take this approach, it is following the steps that I recommend to set up systems as well. So first, the structure phase is kind of all about organizing yourself, like as a CEO first. So you kind of know where to start, how to take action, how to find your files to work every day. Organizing your calendar in a really solid way that has daily things and time blocks what you're supposed to be focusing on and when kind of almost I call it a child proof work plan or a distraction proof work plan because you all know it's summertime. Kids knock on the door of the office and they're like, mommy, I need a snack. And the second your mindset shifts from what you are working on and you come back and sit down at your desk, you're like, oh crap, what was I working on? I don't even know what I was doing.
Krystal Clark [00:06:39]:
And then you move on to something else that you're not supposed to be working on. Organizing your calendar. Organizing your project management software so you know what task you're supposed to actually be doing that day. Organizing your filing system so you know where files are so you're not spending an hour hunting for something to work on a project. You're actually working on the project for that hour.
Heather Crabtree [00:07:01]:
Can I say something about this? So I want to get rid of the shame that people have about I've been in business for five or more years and I don't have all my stuff together yet because I feel like there's a lot of shame people don't want to. And I would imagine why. No, people don't want to come to systems. People sometimes because they're so shameful of what their inner workings look like. And they're like, I've been in business for five years and I'm still doing this. And there's such an impostor syndrome around that like I'm not good enough. I don't want anyone to see what's and so I just want to knock down those walls and be like, y'all, it's not going to get better if we don't actually identify that this is a problem and release the shame from it.
Krystal Clark [00:07:52]:
I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me to say, hey, how much are your services and how should I go about working with you? And then I say, this is what we would do once I get things a little bit more organized. I reached out to you. It's like I want the good, the bad and the ugly. It is okay for me to see the ugly on the backside of your business. That's what I'm here for. I'm here to help you fix it. It doesn't matter if your calendar is a mess. It doesn't matter if your email inbox is a mess.
Krystal Clark [00:08:20]:
It doesn't matter if your filing system is a mess. My service offerings are meant for me to come in and help you fix that. So don't feel like you have to have this perfection and this buttoned up persona because your branding looks good on the outside that you want that thing to also look good on the inside. Before I can even touch it, I want to fix it. It's okay if you come to me, a little bit bumped and bruised or things a little bit chaotic? Yes.
Heather Crabtree [00:08:44]:
But there is probably one thing that we need to have them come to you with. So if you're coming to hire Crystal, one of the things that we've talked about is people don't have their offers, they're changing, they're shifting and they want all this stuff done, but the offers, they don't have them solidified or not knowing what they're going to be offering. Wouldn't you say that's probably, if nothing else, at least come with us?
Krystal Clark [00:09:12]:
Yeah, it's really funny. I've had a couple of people reach out and say, hey, can you set up all these systems for my business? And I'm like, okay, sure. What is your service offering? Do you have at least one signature service offering with an end result? And do you know what those deliverables for that service are? Okay, well, no. Okay. For me, I'm setting up client experience, workflows, different business hubs and Airtable or ClickUp or whatever for people based upon those service offerings. So your systems are created and built based upon what you're selling and how you serve to execute those things. So if you don't even know what those service offerings are, if you don't know what the description of your offer is, if you don't know what your deliverables for that offer are, it becomes very difficult for you to be able to set up systems for them. For example, a list of deliverables for a service offering can be broken down to remove and pull out what tasks need to be completed for each of those deliverables.
Krystal Clark [00:10:09]:
And those tasks are what gets kind of automated in a workflow and in systems. So if you don't know your service offering, it becomes hard for you to either set those services and systems up yourself or hire someone else. It makes your things a little bit problematic for you. And so before we even get to offers and strategy and what workflows you need and what workflow steps you need, I always like to focus on the structure first. And many people say I would have thought that helping me get clear on my offers and mapping out my workflows would be the first start because that's what all the other people in business online are telling me. And so I'm in this process where everyone online now in the business world is a systems expert and the biggest thing that they miss is creating structure first. Everyone thinks even systems pros. I've even heard everyone starts with a strategy.
Krystal Clark [00:11:02]:
But I like to be intentional in saying, like, if you were to even hire someone to set up systems for you or even DIY yourself, do you even have the space and capacity to work on a project that big without structure in your yeah.
Heather Crabtree [00:11:19]:
So that's that first step that you take them through, that creating that foundational structure, which I've worked with clients. Krystal and I have worked together as me as her business coach and her as a client. But we've also worked with clients together, several of them now. And I will tell you, I will say this too. I've used her systems. I have purchased things from her and used the things that we talked about in this first. So give us a couple of examples of what creating that foundational structure looks like. What are a couple of things that you want them to have in place or you'll help them put into place?
Krystal Clark [00:12:02]:
Favorite top two favorite top two in this category are taming your calendar and organizing your inbox. Why are those two things important? Because if your calendar is chaotic and you have meetings popping up on your calendar Monday through Friday with no set days to actually work on client work and no set days to actually do meetings, then you're hopping on a meeting or you're constantly in a meeting and it's always feeling like you never have time to work on anything and make progress. You can't work on your business. It's like you can't even finish projects on time because it's like, can I just stop the meetings and get my stinking work done? And so I find that a lot of people again, even if you hire someone to set up systems for you, again, there's some collaboration that needs to happen to give that systems pro what they need to actually set it up for you review things and give them your business details and info. Or if you set it up yourself, you're figuring out a lot of things and what you need to do to set up your systems. And if you don't have space in your schedule to actually have time to sit down and do that, you're not going to be able to do that. And so I always say let's get the calendar under control first so you have space in your day and let's structure your scheduler and your availability around what you want your ideal work week to look like and feel like. So then instead of your ideal work week being something you have to work towards, it becomes something that we establish from the beginning and build everything with that in mind.
Krystal Clark [00:13:33]:
And then if your inbox is organized and you're not constantly chasing tasks and your inbox becomes your project management software and your task software and you're constantly reactive to everything that's coming to you every 5 seconds, every time you see a new email, you're like, oh, what does someone need from me? Oh, let me sit down for an hour and respond to that. You're actually creating structure everything's organized in your inbox. So you know, which emails need your attention, which ones do not, which ones are just for information and everything else can be filtered to their own automatic labels and folders and all those things. And so we organize that first so that the business owner is not in a constant state of being reactive. They're not constantly in meetings from the beginning, their email inbox is organized with a routine for checking their email so that tab is not staring at them all day, needing attention. We establish response times and things like that with them. And then finally the project management software, it becomes a little bit like double work in some parts of the framework to look at your project management software twice. But again, if my people log in for the day and they don't know what tasks they're supposed to be doing, what they're supposed to be focusing on, when no one has space to even focus on building their systems, even with me being present to help or DIYing it.
Krystal Clark [00:14:50]:
And so creating a good foundational structure to operate off of, so you have space, more clarity, freeing up some mental space and brain space to think clearly and make decisions without feeling anxious. Because this person's waiting on an email from you, you just got out of a meeting and you're going into another meeting. So you can't sit down and map out your workflows or review what I've mapped out for you, you know what I'm saying? Having that space to really say, okay, I have the space and capacity now. Now let me focus on part two, which is strategy.
Heather Crabtree [00:15:25]:
Yeah. So before we move on to step two, I want to talk a little bit more about how they can actually work with you or the things you have that can help them with this. Because I will tell you again, I've actually used these. She has the kickbox your inbox and y'all, it's golden. Like, go buy it now in the shop, join our membership because it's so good. And I've referred so many like, I've had people see my inbox, I don't know, I guess when I'm showing them stuff online or something and they're what? And I'm like crystal.
Krystal Clark [00:16:03]:
Thank you.
Heather Crabtree [00:16:04]:
Crystal is the one who taught me how to do this. I was pretty organized in my inbox, but when I did your workshop, it was so clear and so easy and I just like, everyone needs this. And that's where I think that, again, drop the shame that comes from. You have so many emails in your inbox. Go and take this workshop or join the membership. So I want to talk about we'll talk about on each step like some things that we can kind of give to the audience that they can purchase from you, because I think I want them to be able to take action quickly. So what are the two main ways if they're wanting to just go do something right now that they could in this first step? We have kickbox. Why is that so hard for me to say today? Kickbox your inbox and tame your calendar.
Heather Crabtree [00:16:57]:
There's just two of the workshops in the first step, but tell me a little bit more about that so for.
Krystal Clark [00:17:06]:
Every action step that I recommend in the structure part of the framework, there is a self study workshop that you can access right from my shortcut shop. I like to look at all of my trainings and workshops as the shortcut to doing this thing quickly. And so you can find that in my shortcut shop. And if you're someone who wants more handholding and support as you DIY, I do also have those resources available inside the membership. And if you purchase those resources or you haven't and you're like crystal, I would love to purchase this. But I am not someone who takes logging into trainings and actually doing what I'm supposed to do when I purchase a course or something. Then you can book me for a one on one structure session and we will do it hands on together, on the spot. So by the time that session is over, we can organize your inbox or organize your calendar or fix your filing system or organize your project management software.
Krystal Clark [00:17:58]:
So all of those trainings are available in the shop or membership or sessions with me.
Heather Crabtree [00:18:03]:
Yeah, I love it. So we'll talk more about that on the end and I'll put in the show notes about where you can find this stuff. Okay, so that's step number one. Step number two in your framework. Let's talk about that.
Krystal Clark [00:18:15]:
That is strategy. So of course we know that with every great intention, every great end result, and every big giant fancy, fancy goal, there needs to be a clear plan of action. And so same thing with systems in order to say, hey, someone please rescue me from this agony of manual labor and set up automations for me. And again, whether you decide to hire someone like me or DIY, creating a strategy for systems means you're able to say, okay, here are my service offerings. Are my service offerings refined enough and standardized keyword standardized enough to handle automation? Because when you have too much customization and too many different options, it becomes hard to have an automation in place and it makes it way more labor intensive for you. So we need to know, are our service offerings streamlined enough? Do we have a clear payment plan? Do we have clear deliverables? Do we have some FAQs that can be pulled out of this offers that questions that clients may potentially ask before they book you and pay you to decide if this is for them. So we need to have a clear idea of what your service offerings are and the details associated with them. Mapping out of workflows, figuring out what assets, meaning what canned emails, what questionnaires, what forms, what proposals, what contracts, what landing pages, what zapier automations, what all the things you need to create to make that automation come alive before you even set up tech, right? So it makes it very easy for you to set up tech when you know what assets you need and what assets need to be created.
Krystal Clark [00:19:58]:
So then you know what workflows and what workflow steps you need, you know what assets you need to actually set up those workflows, and then you can actually choose your software based upon how you need to serve. So if you mapped out your workflows, you got the assets you need, you can say, this is what I want my system to look like. This is the vision that I have. What software is going to help me do that? It makes software research even easier if you know that. And so we spend a lot of time during strategy phases with clients doing that very thing, refining their service offerings with them. So they give us all the details about their service offerings, and I audit it with them during a call, and we rip it apart and say, perhaps we need to take this from five different payment plans to two different payment plans. Or maybe we need to really pull out and make this deliverable instead of giving them a giant questionnaire. Maybe we have a Project kickoff call to explain what the homework is like so we don't have problems getting homework back from clients and what we expect from them and blah, blah.
Krystal Clark [00:21:00]:
And so we really do a good job of mapping it out, getting them a great strategy plan that includes everything that I just mentioned. And then we decide and choose their software from there. So if you guys are systems hopping and you're jumping and hopping from one tech tool to another because you're seeing, oh, this person on Instagram said they use this. Let me go check that out. And this person on Instagram and Pinterest said that they use HoneyBook and they use this and they use Ipsado and they use this other tool. So I'm going to hop on over the notion or this or that because they said, this is hot, and then it doesn't work for you. And you're having to start all over on system setups again only because you weren't able to do adequate systems research based on how you need to serve.
Heather Crabtree [00:21:40]:
Not on. I went through that this past year. I switched well, a year ago now, I switched everything over to Kajabi because we were looking at everything that I was doing. And I was like we were like, okay, Kajabi can do this. Kajabi can do this. And I was using all of these different things. And yes, Kajabi is not perfect. No software is.
Heather Crabtree [00:22:01]:
But I was like, why am I doing all these different things? And it's like, well, it costs more to do what I'm doing with Kajabi, but does it really? Because I'm knocking out all these other things. And so I think one of the main goals here, right? And this is what I think every time someone's working with you or any type of systems pro, I always talk about at this level, I want you to optimize your workflows and systems, but sometimes that means breaking them down, building them back up. And what comes from this is clarity and simplification. And I think when people think about systems, because it does happen, people start to go crazy, and they're adding all, especially in the coaching world and service pros in general. Funnel, funnel, funnel, funnel. We got to have all these funnels. It's the same kind of thing where it's like, Why? Who told you we needed all that 20,000 things? Because if one part of that breaks, it gets all done, the whole system grumbles.
Krystal Clark [00:23:05]:
Yeah.
Heather Crabtree [00:23:06]:
So I just think when people are thinking about hiring a systems pro, you are going to get clarity. And the goal is to simplify, not to add a whole bunch of stuff on that you don't need, which I don't think people I know you and I have talked about this, but I don't think a lot of systems pros talk about that. I feel like there's, well, you need this and you need that, and you need this and you need that. It's like, well, what if we what you were just saying, figure out what your business needs exactly based on what you have and where you want to go, then we decide for you and your business what you need. And that probably isn't the 12,000 things that you have in your business right now that are using for systems.
Krystal Clark [00:23:51]:
My clients, when we get done, they're like, I now feel confident enough not to now not be sidetracked. When I see someone talking about, oh, this new hot thing that's on the market, they're like, I'll easily go back to the systems. I have a strategy document that I give them with all the details of their strategy and flowcharts and everything. They're like, I'll look back at that and look at the list of features that I need in the software, and.
Heather Crabtree [00:24:17]:
I'm easily able to say no and.
Krystal Clark [00:24:20]:
Not, oh, let me log in and test this out and start to set it up.
Heather Crabtree [00:24:23]:
And it's like they have complete clarity.
Krystal Clark [00:24:27]:
They have confidence. They can't be shaken because they know I've done a lot of good, deep work. And I know that based upon how I need to serve, I have the absolute best software for me that I don't have to be distracted about everything else that's going on online. And so many times, even in the scenario of understanding the depth and the details of an offering, I think we get really quick to say, okay, I'm going to offer this service. This is how much it costs. This is the payment plan. And then everyone just figures out the logistics later.
Heather Crabtree [00:25:03]:
That's my worst nightmare.
Krystal Clark [00:25:04]:
Yeah. And I'm like, don't do that. Or they'll try to hurry up and launch a new service, and then they get to the sales page creation and get immediately paralyzed, and they don't launch the thing that they fell in love with. And the cool thing that I love about doing this strategy experience with my clients is we get so many details about your offer that by the time we've done that work, it makes it so stinking easy to write your sales page because you got the description of service, you got the list of deliverables. We even go as far as to create like a mini framework for the offer. So we break down each deliverable. We're like, okay, well, how do we structure this and say if this project was to work in a special framework and in phases, how would we break down those phases to execute this and how you can coach them through that and we create that together. Then it makes it easy to then write your sales page because you have all those stages.
Krystal Clark [00:25:59]:
You can communicate on a sales page. We've pulled out and figured out the FAQs and answers to all the possible FAQs someone would ask before booking you. So you have that on the sales page. We figure out what past testimonials you've gotten from those previous experiences so you have those. And that is even before we've set up a single tech item or created a single asset, that you now have that clarity that you can go and start working on creating your sales page while I'm over here doing systems research and setting up software. And it becomes this really beautiful collaborative experience that you have with really cool clarity to be able to easily just think about how much confidence you'd have on a discovery call or a consultation or a sales call. If you could just recall and spit out your elevator pitch for your offer and easily be able to answer FAQs on the spot without clamming up, feeling like I don't have a response and I'm going to potentially lose a sale because I don't have the answer to that right now, you know what I'm saying? Or you can't confidently verbalize that.
Heather Crabtree [00:27:03]:
Yeah, I think it's so important. I know when I work with clients, it's like we have to know what your goals are and then we need to know what your offers are and if they're not locked up, we have to refine those. And then that next step for me is optimizing these systems. But like you said, it all works together, right? And again, I think it's getting rid of the shame for whatever you don't have set up and then knowing that this will bring you clarity and simplification in so many ways. So it's not just I feel like when people think about systems or like they just think about systems, but when we're talking system, it is so much that you do that. It's way more than people are envisioning or thinking about when they're thinking about systems, which we could go on and talk forever about how much work you are actually putting into that. But let's talk about. For a second.
Heather Crabtree [00:28:00]:
On step two, I want to give them an actionable thing they can go do or purchase from you. And that's in the step two you have the workflow mapping and strategy workshop, which I think is brilliant. So you want to say a little bit more about my favorite thing I.
Krystal Clark [00:28:20]:
Would have to say if I was to chop it up, to, say, crystal, if you could only give people one resource out of your shop, out of the seven years you've been in business doing this, it would be that thing. Because it gives so much clarity about what your action steps are, what you need to do, what you need to build, what you need to set up. And so in that you have a canva workflow mapping resource like a whiteboard.
Heather Crabtree [00:28:46]:
Brilliant. It's so good. I love it.
Krystal Clark [00:28:51]:
It's amazing. And then I give you a strategy document. All of my things I no longer for those of you who are creating PDFs as freebies and resources and workbooks for your programs, stop doing it. Give people either notion documents or Google Docs. All of the documents and workflow strategy documents I give are now Google Docs so that you can actually use it, write in it, work in it with your team, invite to it and it can be collaborative.
Heather Crabtree [00:29:20]:
You all hear that maybe we need to say that because we need to make it how can we make it easy for not only us and ourselves and internally but also for our clients? Right? No one wants to go and print off a PDF that they can't fill it, even the fillable ones online. It's like too much. How can it be easy? I will say with Crystal, I have learned a lot from her in how you can design your Google Sheets and your Google Docs to make them look beautiful. Because I'm all about my so I love that because I think people didn't want to use a Google Doc or a Google Sheet thinking like, oh that's know elementary and I can't brand.
Krystal Clark [00:30:13]:
Yeah, no it doesn't make she will.
Heather Crabtree [00:30:17]:
Make it pretty and functional.
Krystal Clark [00:30:20]:
Yeah, it can be fancy. And so when you get inside that strategy document, there is a place for you to pull apart your offers and get details on those. There's a spot for you to put any workflow map links that you created in Canva and there's a corresponding Canva flowchart thing that you can create in there. There's a template for that and there's also areas for you to create your asset list. There's areas for you to list out features that you need in a software so you can adequately do software and come up with your list of key software systems that you're going to choose to build your systems and workflows in. And then the cool part about that is, yes, I can still do that with you. So if you get stuck at any point and utilizing that and you're hey, like, this is very clear. But for my service offering, I'm kind of struggling with how I want to approach this or what is the best.
Krystal Clark [00:31:16]:
Case scenario for how? Krystal, what do you think is the best steps that I could do for my onboarding for this type of offer versus that type of offer? Then in that case, you can book a one on one strategy session with me and we can work through mapping out your workflows together. We can work through picking softwares together. We can work through figuring out what templates and assets you need if you started to map out your workflows. Or we can just start that process session by session of doing it in a slow and steady way that serves you well without feeling like you got this big, massive project to do all at once. I'm a big believer in slow and steady runs the race. Doing it right the first time matters versus trying to take all these shortcuts and trying to do everything all quick and fast in a hurry where all these quick wins. I feel like we live in an instant gratification world where we get on and we want this outcome and we want it to be immediate and we don't realize how much work and clarity and details are associated with that. And so I'm a really big advocate of making these services and resources within reach so everyone doesn't have $5,000 to do this giant strategy experience with a service pro.
Krystal Clark [00:32:23]:
But could you maybe get the resource, start that process on your own? Or just say, hey, Krystal, can I go session by session over the next six months and really work this out so I could do my homework items and do some thinking in between and figure out where I want to go from there and then come back and keep going? It's all designed to kind of go at your pace.
Heather Crabtree [00:32:43]:
Yeah. And I love it because what you're talking about was about sustainability in a business, right? Building it in a way that it's sustainable. And again, if you've been in business for a while, if you're here, don't feel shameful of that. Just start doing it now, piece by piece, and start putting that in so that you can continue to grow your business and remain profitable and sustainable in the future. Because now is the time. There's no better time than now to start doing that.
Krystal Clark [00:33:11]:
It's so important.
Heather Crabtree [00:33:12]:
Okay, so let's go to step number three. What is step number three in your framework?
Krystal Clark [00:33:17]:
My next favorite step is actually, to me, the most creative and fun part of the whole thing. And it's asset creation. Once you've created your strategy and you've mapped out your workflow steps and you're like, okay, I mapped out my workflows for this onboarding step. I know I need a welcome email and maybe a client experience guide or maybe I want to do a project kickoff call with my client and I want to have some nice slides to present to the client as to pace that kickoff call and cover all the things I need to cover. So maybe in that you need to create your slides, you need to write those canned emails, you need to put those questionnaires together in the software that you've chosen in the previous step. Maybe you need to sit down and create some redirect and thank you pages. So after clients pay you, they can be redirected to a thank you page or after they book a call, they can be redirected to a thank you page so they know how to prepare. And so this asset creation stage is about creating all of those canned emails, branded client facing materials creating.
Krystal Clark [00:34:22]:
SOPs maybe you need a hub, an airtable or ClickUp to sustain something. So for example, if you're working with clients in an experience and you've mapped out, hey, I'm going to build a website for someone, for example, how do you manage revisions? Do you have a support ticketing system where people can actually request revisions that may need to be created as an asset, a hub to sustain and support the workflow you need? I'll never forget my client did these giant, I mean, giant website builds. It was insanity the amount of value this lady was giving and she would constantly get hung up in the approvals and revisions and how people were going to request things. And so we mapped out some stuff where like, oh, well, you need a hub for that. You need a client support ticketing hub, a place where clients can seek support during the project and also request revisions from you. So all you have to do is go to one place and then every support ticket someone has asked and every revision request someone is asked for, they're all in one place. And instead of you having 50 different tasks that have been submitted by all these people, you have one task and your project manager that just says, go.
Heather Crabtree [00:35:36]:
Answer support tickets today ticketing system that you have. Brilliant. So if you all need that, just go get it from Krystal.
Krystal Clark [00:35:44]:
It's brilliant, go ahead. If you have all of these materials, client facing templates, not just from the stuff that the clients need to see, but what templates and assets does your team members need internally to make that experience easier to deliver, faster to complete? Right? So we know we need X for a client project and we're assigning our team member a task. Is there an SOP that goes with that? Is there a template that they need to make that easier? So if you're a brand new web designer, do you have that mood board layout already ready to go? So all you have to do is pop in colors and fonts and things quickly. If you do a wrap up guide that you send to your clients at the end of a project is that a template that's ready to go. So all you have to do is plug in the information and send, make a copy of it and send. Not having to design and create everything from scratch, which takes you hours, which reduces your profitability, your productivity. And if your productivity is reduced and you don't have time to take on another client when your money has run, out from the past client you're working on, and you need to take on another one. You now don't have the capacity to take on another client and make money and profitability for yourself, to support your family because you're creating that proposal, that PDF, that client guide, that mood board, that strategy delivery document, over and over and over again.
Heather Crabtree [00:37:18]:
Well, and I think even if people do have it again, if people have been in business for a while, it's time to revisit those things because they probably need an upgrade. And so I think that's another thing. It's like just because you set the systems up, you can set it and forget it for a little bit, but you better be checking in with those. I mean, I like to do even every six months I like to check in on and sometimes quarterly depending on what we're creating. But we need to check in on the workflows and systems that we have and see if they're still working the same way. Because you are probably getting feedback on and you should be making those changes as you go. I'm not saying you have to do that every week, but now is the time to look at those processes that you have and go, are they still working for me or have we changed it and just not updated the asset hub? Right?
Krystal Clark [00:38:12]:
I'm going to give y'all an amazing freebie here. Love me forever. Okay. And that is integrate the process of making that easy for yourself. Because I feel like some people get confused like, okay, Heather, I hear you, but how do I know what I need to fix? How do I know what I need to look at and update? Like, yeah, do I want to do all this work all over again every three months and keep looking at all the strategy and all the flowcharts and all the things? No, the way you make that easy is integrating something called CSAT surveys within your client experience. So at certain parts or intervals or milestones of projects and internal with teams as they integrate with things. When people get to a certain step in your process, can you present a survey that says, I've delivered your strategy document to you? Do you have any feedback about how your part of the strategy experience has went or a project kickoff call? I'll say, hey, we've hit that milestone. How did you like experience in the project kickoff call? Even to the point that after your client completes a questionnaire, you can say, great job completing your questionnaire.
Krystal Clark [00:39:27]:
How did it go? Hey, it was smooth and it was easy. Or hey, I struggled a bit. And if someone selects, hey, I struggled a bit, let that open up a question for them to say, explain, how can we improve that questionnaire? How can we improve our project kickoff? And once a quarter, you can go pull up that feedback and make your updates and elevations and revisions and improvements from there and not look at everything like a microscope. Yeah.
Heather Crabtree [00:39:56]:
So let's talk about before we go to our last step four, let's talk about in your shop, you have what I think is brilliant. I see so many business owners that I work with that don't have these hubs that you're talking about. And so even with the brand, so you have your Airtable brand Asset Hub, which I think is so brilliant. We don't have ours in Airtable. We have it in ClickUp. I think no matter what it's like, if you don't have one, though, this is a great place to go and make sure that all your stuff is in one place. It's really interesting to me sometimes. It's like, well, I don't know, that's on my computer somewhere that's here or there.
Heather Crabtree [00:40:36]:
And I'm like, oh my gosh. So I think that would be I wanted to recommend that as a tool that they could use from your shop for step three. Okay, let's talk about the final step of the framework, which is step four.
Krystal Clark [00:40:51]:
So before I get to step four, I do want to just kind of pop in to share that when we're looking at your brand and your assets. Heather mentioned the brand Asset hub. And so for those of you who are struggling with where should I put my brand messaging and document how we speak and what my framework is and what our philosophies are and what our business policies are and where all of our business and brand assets. So if your team is struggling like, hey, where do I find the link to the mood board template for blah blah, if it's all in a big, giant list of filterable assets? Like, let me filter this down by PDFs, let me filter this down by hubs, let me filter this down by questionnaires so your team can find things without having to ask you or being able to have an SLP library for everything, or a service provider directory. So, like, if someone reaches out to you and say, hey, do you recommend any great business coaches? You have a list of places where you can find to know where to direct people. So if you're wondering what that brand Asset hub is, that's what it is. Now on to part number four, another one of my favorite parts. That is the tech setup piece.
Krystal Clark [00:41:55]:
So if you've noticed so far, we created structure to give you space and time and energy and spend less time doing busy work and more time actually in deep work. Two, we created a strategy and really understand what workflows we need, what software systems, we're going to choose what assets we need to set up those softwares and set up those automations. Then three, we actually went in and designed the PDFs and written all the emails and created all the assets we need. Step four is actually setting up the tech for those things. So for all of you who have been struggling with system setups, because you skip all of those other things and jump right into tech setup and then you're like, oh crap, I can't go set up this automation because I got to create this welcome guide that I need. Oh crap, I can't go and set up this automation to send the welcome email because I haven't actually even written the welcome email. So I got to stop and go write the welcome email. So you constantly can't finish setting up your system because you have to stop and create assets.
Krystal Clark [00:42:53]:
All of your assets were created. This tech setup piece becomes very easy because then it's just turning on the tech, it's going ahead and creating those zapier automations. It's going in, logging in Dubsado. And because you already have the canned emails created, you can just flip and zip and turn on the conditions for each step of your workflow. Very quickly, I will tell y'all if all of your assets are created and you know exactly what steps you need in your workflow, you can set up a workflow in 2 hours or less.
Heather Crabtree [00:43:20]:
Yeah.
Krystal Clark [00:43:20]:
And not months of going back and forth. So your tech setup piece is just going in and turning on the tech conditions, creating the automations. And let's be real, let's be honest. We are very smart individuals. As entrepreneurs, we are doing the hard work that many people are so afraid to do and in this current economic climate, they're giving up on. So if you're still in the race, right, you are capable of doing this. If you're still in the know, all of us have the ability to go to Dubsado's help center and look at a tutorial for how to create your packages in Dubsado, or how to create an appointment type for your scheduler. All of us can watch those tutorials and do that.
Krystal Clark [00:44:08]:
But the part we struggle with is.
Heather Crabtree [00:44:10]:
What do I need, what workflow steps.
Krystal Clark [00:44:14]:
Do I need, what makes sense, what should my approach be? What needs to be in this thing? Right? All of us figure out how to watch a tutorial using it's.
Heather Crabtree [00:44:23]:
The steps before that, people aren't taking the time to do. So when they get to that, watch the tutorial and do it. I can't do anything because I don't have all the things before that you talked about.
Krystal Clark [00:44:34]:
Yeah, exactly.
Heather Crabtree [00:44:35]:
So let's talk about in step four. What is something that you would recommend? I actually pulled some things, but you can recommend something else, not that I talked about from your shop that would be helpful for people to use.
Krystal Clark [00:44:53]:
Currently, I have a really awesome instant onboarding Zapier template that teaches you how to like the second your client signs a contractor pays. What are all this domino effect of all this extra manual labor? I want you to think. I'll never forget when someone realized that they could create their client folder in Dropbox or Google Drive automatically. Like the second the client books, that was one thing. But then when someone realized that they could create the subfolders that could go inside of that folder and even copies of Google Documents that needed to go in those subfolders automatically, they were like, Say what now? It's really cool that you can instantly onboard your clients, create the folders they need, add them to your project management software, and create the project automatically. Make copies of certain template docs that are inside your Google Drive and put those within the client's project folders automatically, send them their welcome email automatically. All that has to happen and can happen without you lifting a single finger. And it is beautiful to be able to do that.
Krystal Clark [00:46:06]:
So there's a Zapier automation that helps you do that and helps the different softwares that you're using talk to each other. Because let's be real, some of our CRMs that we're using don't have email marketing in it to add our clients to the appropriate segments. And here's something to think about and to just zoom out for a second. We think onboarding as this or just tech set up as this big undertaking, and everything is very microscopic. And the thing that I like to look at and understand is when you onboard a client, the world is your oyster. Whatever needs to happen can actually be automated. And if it's not automated and can't be automated, then you have to then understand that maybe something in my strategy, maybe I picked the wrong software.
Heather Crabtree [00:46:56]:
Yeah, right. Well, and I think too, can we touch on this for just a second? That because automation doesn't mean I feel like people, when they think about automation, they're like, but I feel like service providers, but I just want to treat my clients so well, and I want to make sure that it doesn't feel robotic. And can we get past that, please? Yeah, there are moments yes, when they need to hear your voice, they need to see your face. But let's get past the feeling that automations means that we're robots. We don't care about our clients.
Krystal Clark [00:47:33]:
No. You can still have an extremely high touch experience with parts of it being automated. For example, do you need to automate your fulfillment, obviously, of your service? Obviously you can't, because if you could, then they'd be hiring AI to do the job, right? Hiring you to do it, because that can't be automated. And so having someone hire you for certain parts of your experience and feeling like it's going to be robotic. That's when you add lots of personalization to your canned emails that do send out automatically. So when you welcome someone, does it have to be generic? No, you can mention them by name and put their name in certain parts of different paragraphs of the email. This is why messaging is so important and understanding your client avatar because you can be speaking their language and really connecting with where they are in the process of the project to not make certain emails and things seem too robotic. And then also only including automation where it makes sense.
Krystal Clark [00:48:39]:
So in many parts of my workflows, especially when I actually execute work and do strategy and do the deep work with clients, I don't have automation. I only have automation for maybe some type of appointment types and the reminders that go with it, or a few status updates that just showcase where we are and where we're going next. But do you have to have automation everywhere? No, you can have automation where it makes sense. So if you change a button and you're ready for that project to move on to the next step, when you click that status change, or when you click that button, or when you check off that, that task is done. Yes. Then an automation could say, hey, we've completed this and now let's begin this next step. But does automation need to just constantly be moving the whole project? No, you can have automation that gets triggered when you, the service provider, have decided that it's time to move on. Then we can trigger something.
Krystal Clark [00:49:31]:
But no, things don't have to just be going and triggering and sending to the client without your consent. You can still have control, but please lose this thought process that things are going to be robotic.
Heather Crabtree [00:49:44]:
It doesn't have to be. Yeah. So we've talked about the overall framework. You've broken it down into all four steps. You've given amazing tools that they can purchase from you and how to work with you. So we've talked about the different things in your shop. Right? Because I think that's an easy thing for people to go if they want to take action right now. Go and go to the shop, purchase whatever part you're needing to work on, get that going, then you can go to the next part.
Heather Crabtree [00:50:13]:
But you also have a really cool thing that if you just want it all yeah. How can they get that if they want to do it themselves but they don't want to do I just want to work on this and this and this. They want the whole shebang. How do they get that from I'm?
Krystal Clark [00:50:31]:
This is one of those really cool things that people tell me all the time, crystal, I love you and I would love to do this myself, but that ain't my skill set. That's not my ministry. The Lord did not bless me with those skills. Yes, there is a Signature Systems experience available. So if you want to just say, Crystal, help, take it all, take it from me. And you want to just give me some information about your service offerings, and you want me to set up all the systems for you, and you want me to map it out with you and help you understand. It's like a hybrid of coaching meets system set up meets design. And so I always chop it up in saying that that Signature System experience is like getting multiple service providers in one.
Krystal Clark [00:51:21]:
I am your business coach, coaching you through your offers. I am your workflow strategist, mapping out workflows and helping you choose systems. I'm your graphic designer and copywriter writing all your canned emails and designing all the materials needed for your client experience. And then I'm your systems integrator, actually setting up the tech and making all these systems and workflows talk to each other. And so you actually get a lot for what you pay. And so everything is based upon this framework, and each phase of the project is broken down by this framework. You'll notice as you kind of go through my website and work with me that every single thing from my shop to my membership, to my done for you service offerings to my sessions, even down to the Get Organized guy freebie that I offer, is all structured in this framework. So there's zero confusion about what you need to do, even from the free of the free from me that you can get to the high of the high investment that you can make.
Heather Crabtree [00:52:21]:
You know, I love a good framework.
Krystal Clark [00:52:23]:
I know you do.
Heather Crabtree [00:52:25]:
I loved working with you on your framework, and I think it is so true. We talked about this. When you create a framework, it's like it really is the jumping point for everything. And you've done that, and I love it. Okay, so you talked to you mentioned a couple of things I want to shout out here the Get Organized Guide, which is your free opt in. So if nothing else, go get that, because tell us a little bit about that. What is that, man?
Krystal Clark [00:52:53]:
If you get nothing else and you're not ready to invest or in this economic climate, you don't have the funds to invest. That get organized. Guide should be a paid resource. I'm being told that by some previous people that have access, they're like, Crystal, this should not be free. I should have paid for this. And the Get Organized Guide basically gives you the action steps you need in each part of the framework. So if like, hey, I have no idea where to begin on this journey. I heard your framework, but I just can't absorb what is my first task, what do I need to look for? What do I need to think about? This Get Organized guide is in order of the framework.
Krystal Clark [00:53:35]:
It gives you a list of tasks, a place to set your goals, a place to set your intentions, a place to kind of understand what your next steps are. And I give you a step by step task list with every part of the framework of what you should be doing to get organized in your business. And that is for free with no charge. So go ahead and take advantage of it while you can.
Heather Crabtree [00:53:56]:
How do they find that?
Krystal Clark [00:53:58]:
If you go to Crystalclarkcreate.com or organizeyourempire.com your choice, you'll be able to access my website. And if you scroll all the way down to the bottom, it's right there, plain as day for you to jump to. And there's also a link right at the top of the website for you to jump to get that.
Heather Crabtree [00:54:17]:
So we have your shop. We didn't talk too much about it, but okay, so we've talked about your full service. You also have your sessions. What's the other thing that you have that people can be a part of?
Krystal Clark [00:54:30]:
So I have my membership community. So if you're someone who's like, I like these items from the shop, but what if I got some questions and I want to get clarity, and as I'm working on things, I want a little feedback about what I'm working on. I have the membership. So every resource that you see in the shop is included in the membership. And then there's many workshops, trainings, and templates that are in the membership that I haven't even put in the shop yet. And so the membership has like, this kind of monthly workshops we do. We do monthly goal setting, coworking sessions, office hour, Q A calls every single month. It's structured in a way so you can jump in, get access to templates and assets, get access to tech trainings, get access to all of the structure stuff, and kickbox your inbox stuff and tame your calendar and stuff.
Krystal Clark [00:55:26]:
But what is also really cool is having a community, people who are supporting each other to say, hey, this is real life. And we don't just talk about systems, and we don't just talk about business. We talk about like, holy crap, it's been a long day and I'm exhausted and I have no idea what to cook for dinner. And we actually have posts where we're exchanging recipe ideas. So like that dreaded question from your spouse or your partner by, mom, what's for dinner? Or honey, what's for dinner? Decision fatigue. I don't want to make another decision today. Go figure it out. Sandwiches for dinner.
Heather Crabtree [00:56:00]:
So there's lots of options. If you want done for you, you want done with you, you want do it yourself. Krystal's got all of that. I want to thank you so much for joining me today, Krystal. Of course. I'm just excited to be able to chat with you and see your face. But I am excited too, that if. You don't know Krystal, go follow her.
Heather Crabtree [00:56:26]:
Where can they find you on Instagram?
Krystal Clark [00:56:29]:
You can find me on Instagram @krystalclarkcreative.
Heather Crabtree [00:56:33]:
So if they if you want to go chat with her, but just go to krystalclarkcreative.com to find all of her amazing things that we talked about today. If you don't know her, I'm excited for you to get to know her and learn more about her services because obviously I think she's brilliant and everything she has I've seen everything inside her business and this lady does not do anything half assed. Never. It is excellent or nothing. So go check her out and yeah, I can't wait for you all to get organized and making organization and systems and workflows in your business a priority. And we'll see you all soon.
Krystal Clark [00:57:22]:
Oh, yeah. Thanks for having me. Bye.
