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

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 planning to reality TV, adult friendships, parenting, travel, and whatever random rabbit hole catches her attention next. And it turns out? That creative freedom has become one of the most fulfilling things she’s done.

Julie and I get into how she curates guests and topics, why she loves even the admin side of podcasting, what she’s changing for season two, and how she’s thinking about monetization without sacrificing what makes the show fun in the first place.

Find It Quickly

01:03 - Meet Julie Fried

01:32 - Pre Written Emails

02:23 - Why Julie Podcasts

05:33 - The System For Everything

08:35 - Choosing Guests

13:01 - Bad PR Pitches

14:16 - Admin And Workflow

17:09 - Social Media Choices

21:43 - Season Two Plans

24:24 - Ads And Monetization

24:53 - Producer Ad Read

26:39 - Curated Podcast Ads

28:00 - Choosing Ideal Sponsors

29:39 - Protecting Creative Energy

31:41 - Monetizing Mom Systems

32:32 - One and Done Talk

35:47 - Only Child Systems Ideas

37:27 - Summer Camp Logistics

41:21 - System Shutdown

42:57 - Travel and Couch Life

44:09 - Budgeting Video

Mentioned in this Episode

Laylee Emadi

Creative Educator Conference

Gaffin Creative

Captivate

Flodesk – Get 50% Off Your First Year

Systems in Session

The Experience Edit

Connect with the Guest

Website: dallasgirlfriday.com

Instagram: instagram.com/thesystemforeverything

Podcast: dallasgirlfriday.com/podcast

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:

• Why profitable and sustainable still aren't enough
• Why the numbers can wait for slow season, but this can't
• Why I can't help you build systems you'll love around an offer you don't
• Why some of you need an offer review right now

Links mentioned:

• How to Build Your Systems Using My Order of Operations → https://coliejames.com/building-client-experience-systems/
• How Long Does One Client Actually Take You? → https://coliejames.com/time-audit
• The Experience Edit → https://coliejames.com/experience

Want to know if the offer you've built your business around can sustain you long term? Let's look at it together: coliejames.com/experience

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 email my list multiple times a day, my click rates are in the toilet, and almost none of my sales come from email. Jocelyn, who helped me launch this podcast four years ago, tells me how to fix it. We talk about the missing proof in your emails, why your best emails start out loud, and why "I'll just use Claude" isn't the same thing as a tool built on real expertise.

In this episode:

• Why emails without client proof don't convert, and why the small progress wins count just as much as the big results
• How a miserable afternoon writing emails in an airport lounge turned into a voice-note-first writing process
• The moment a stack of AI skills needed to become an actual app
• How to keep AI-assisted emails sounding like you and not like a press release
• Why real users and real feedback are what separate a tool that works from a tool that just exists
• What you get from a tool built on someone's frameworks that you won't get from plain Claude or ChatGPT

Links mentioned:

• Email Studio (my affiliate link) → https://coliejames.com/jocelyn
• My episode with Kara on why everyone's an AI expert now → https://coliejames.com/everyones-an-ai-expert-ft-kara-duncan/
• My episode with Annemie Tonken on AI and IP → https://coliejames.com/beyond-diy-chatgpt-the-human-first-ai-blogging-tool-for-intentional-creatives/

For a limited time, grab Email Studio for $199 for six months (normally $299) → https://coliejames.com/jocelyn

Curious how I actually use this thing, or where I've written emails lately (volleyball bleachers included)? DM me on Threads: @coliejames

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:

• The homework I want every photographer to do before slow season hits
• Why your session time is barely part of what your price has to cover
• The time suck almost nobody writes down
• The phase that takes the least time but has the biggest impact on your revenue
• The two templates I'd build first if you're too busy to build anything

Links mentioned:

• The Experience Edit → https://coliejames.com/experience
• Order of Operations Framework → https://coliejames.com/building-client-experience-systems
• Find me on Threads → @coliejames

Do your time audit, then come tell me your number on Threads @coliejames. I really want to know.

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 I actually want my clients to experience Systems in Session. We’re talking about Claude Code, vibe coding, personalization, accountability, AI, client experience, and why having the ability to automate something doesn’t necessarily mean I should.

And yes, we also talk about the fact that I got so absorbed in building the app that my husband handed me coffee on his birthday and I still forgot to tell him happy birthday. 😬

Find It Quickly

01:22 - Birthday Sabbatical Chaos

05:25 - Why Build an App

07:41 - Action Taker ADHD

09:40 - Rolling It Out

14:14 - Welcome Guides Playbooks

16:11 - Better Audit Delivery

18:18 - Accountability Personalization

23:14 - Origins in Custom GPTs

25:39 - Why Build an App

27:19 - Onboarding Intake Flow

28:59 - Offer Scorecard Check

33:11 - App Enhances Coaching

37:18 - One Click Build Debate

41:43 - Tech Stack Behind It

44:57 - Custom Tools for Clients

48:49 - AI Optional Philosophy

Mentioned in this Episode:

Systems in Session: coliejames.com/systems-in-session

Experience Edit: coliejames.com/the-experience-edit

Claude Code: claude.com/product/claude-code

Claude Cowork: claude.com/product/cowork

Hello Stencil: hellostencil.com

Lovable: lovable.dev

Airbase: airbase.com

Supabase: supabase.com

Vercel: vercel.com

Cloudflare: cloudflare.com

Amazon Web Services: aws.amazon.com

Connect with the Guest

Website: thekarareport.com

Instagram: @thekarareport

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 with me.

In this episode:

• The pivot I've been circling for five years and am finally saying out loud
• Why building my own custom tool changed how I think about your tools
• What I got wrong with workflows, and then again with Email Like You Mean It
• Why the Experience Edit is now the front door to everything I offer
• The one step I'll never skip with a client again, no matter what software they use
• When a custom-built tool is actually the right move (and when it isn't)

Links mentioned:

• The Experience Edit → https://coliejames.com/experience
• Order of Operations episode → https://coliejames.com/building-client-experience-systems/
• Tomorrow's episode with Kara: how I built the Systems Professor app → https://coliejames.com/everyones-an-ai-expert-ft-kara-duncan/

Ready to map the client experience you actually want, before we ever talk about tools? Solo sprints are open now, and one more group sprint is coming before the end of 2026: coliejames.com/experience

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 is a quick and dirty episode answering the three questions I get asked most about the onboarding phase.

In this episode:

• Why a booking confirmation email is non-negotiable even when the receipt and contract emails already went out — and why it should land last in their inbox
• The "kitchen sink email" problem and what to drip out over time instead
• Why I want you to ditch the heavily designed PDF prep guide for a live Canva link
• What actually belongs in a welcome or prep guide (hint: everything you were cramming into that one email)
• How to decide when to send your client questionnaire based on how far out your clients book and when you need the information

Links mentioned:

• The Experience Edit → https://coliejames.com/experience
• Come tell me what you fixed on Threads → https://threads.net/@coliejames

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.

In this episode:

• The four things a tool has to do before it counts as a real CRM
• Why conditional logic is the line between a CRM and a very organized file cabinet
• What actually happens (and doesn't) when a lead fills out your Squarespace form
• Why "I have Dubsado and I'm not using it" is a setup problem, not a CRM problem
• Where Notion, Airtable, ClickUp, and Asana genuinely earn their place in your stack

Links mentioned:

• The Best CRM for Photographers → https://coliejames.com/best-crm-for-photographers/
• Building a Custom Notion Dashboard with Ania Ha → https://coliejames.com/building-a-custom-notion-dashboard-how-i-streamlined-my-entire-business-with-ania-ha/
• Systems in Session → https://coliejames.com/systems

Sitting on a CRM you set up but never fully figured out? That's the whole thing I do. Let's talk: coliejames.com/systems

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 that difference should decide what you do next.

In this episode:

• The three reasons photographers try to consolidate their tech stack
• Why I'm fine with Sprout Studio when I'm not an all-in-one person
• The one thing Pixieset would have to fix before I'd stop steering people away from it
• What HoneyBook and VSCO (formerly Táve) just quietly added to their platforms
• The type of photographer who should not touch either one of them yet

Links mentioned:

• The all-in-one software blog post (kept updated as features release) → https://coliejames.com/photography-all-in-one-software/
• Episode 297: Three Ways Business Systems Can Generate More Revenue → https://coliejames.com/generate-more-revenue-with-systems/
• What Pixieset will and won't give you → https://coliejames.com/dubsado-vs-pixieset/
• Systems in Session → https://coliejames.com/systems

Looking at a new tool and want the Colie seal of approval before you jump? Come drop it in my DMs — or if you'd rather stop shopping and start using what you already pay for, that's Systems in Session: coliejames.com/systems

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 year after implementing new automations, we're looking back at what's actually changed in her business, from booking studio headshots automatically to creating a completely hands-off client experience for brand photography sessions.

We also talk about why switching CRMs isn't a decision to make lightly, how automation creates consistency, and why the ultimate goal isn't simply saving time—it's deciding what you want to do with the time you get back.

Find It Quickly

00:23 - Meet Holly

01:42 - Choosing a CRM

02:56 - Why Switching CRMs Is Hard

03:58 - Holly Before the Toolkit

06:24 - Commercial Workflow Gaps

08:25 - Brand Shoot Automation Flow

10:18 - HoneyBook Smart File Workaround

11:30 - Headshots Offer and Lead Forms

13:54 - Schedulers and Calendar Control

17:08 - Discovery Calls and Contact Paths

20:19 - Headshot Clients and Repeat Companies

22:39 - Prep Guides and Automation Savings

23:58 - Time Saved Per Client

24:27 - Updating Your Prep Guide

25:27 - Automation Timing Fixes

26:19 - Next Systems To Build

27:31 - HoneyBook Galleries Debate

30:23 - Pic-Time Integration Tips

32:32 - Reducing Digital Clutter

34:27 - Why Templates Help

36:01 - Systems Create Consistency

38:17 - Annual Systems Audit

41:56 - Biggest Process Logjam

43:00 - What To Do With Time

Mentioned in this Episode

The Systems Behind the Scenes: How Automation Buys Me Back Time for Marketing

HoneyBook

Flodesk

Dubsado

Pic-Time

Rebrand by Maddie Peschong

Connect with the Guest

Website: hollybirchphotography.com

Instagram: @hollybirchphoto