Why Your Client Management System Isn’t Working (Let’s Fix It Today)

HoneyBook Masterclass | In this episode, I’m walking you through how to set up HoneyBook the right way as a service provider and the mindset shifts that need to happen before the systems even get built.

I’m breaking down the 3 most common beliefs that keep you buried in admin tasks (and stuck doing way too much manually), plus why mapping your client journey is non-negotiable if you want to run a smoother, more automated business.

You’ll also learn how to start using HoneyBook to actually support your process, not complicate it.

Whether you’re brand new to HoneyBook or you’ve had it sitting half-set up for months, this is your sign to get your backend together. 

🌿Prefer to watch the video? Check it out HERE on YouTube. 

K & D Jones Client Services LLC

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🌿Follow me on YouTube, @KenniquaLewter

Book a Free 20-Minute Clarity Call and I’ll help you identify the #1 system or tech gap holding you back and what to do next. Go to YourSystemsPro.com/Clarity

Ready to finally streamline your service-based business with HoneyBook? Head over to yoursystemspro.com to get started. 

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Transcript

Kenniqua (00:00)
Okay, welcome to how to set up HoneyBook as a service provider. In this lesson, we're going to talk about the three beliefs keeping you stuck in admin work. The number one thing I do before setting up HoneyBook for our clients and something you should do too, and the HoneyBook foundations for service providers. Now I set up this

master class in this particular way because a lot of the times what I found is that when clients come to me or what I hear on the internet or in the DMS is that Honey book is difficult to to be able to use and you don't know exactly what to do and and and where to actually go through and start and I feel as though

utilizing any type of tool, whether this is utilizing HoneyBook or any other client management tool, it actually starts with the system itself, creating a system that you can then go through and use HoneyBook as that driver to be able to go through and automate and streamline your actual system. So in case you're new here, my name is Kaniqua. I am a wife. I'm a mom.

I'm a system strategist and honey book educator and I help service providers organize and automate systems to simplify their business, help them save 10 plus hours plus every single week, elevate their client experience and help them to do more of what they love. So belief number one, and in all honestly, there is more than just one or three beliefs, right? I just picked out three beliefs that I hear.

commonly, but there are so many other beliefs that you may be telling yourself about why you haven't implemented systems and then tools and software into your business. But one of those beliefs is that I have to customize everything for every client.

You might be a creative, you might be a photographer, you might be an event decorator, you might be a coach or consultant, and maybe you feel that you have to customize everything for every single client. And that is the reason why you cannot put a system in place. That's the reason why you couldn't use something like HoneyBook. But let me just tell you exactly what this looks like in real life when you have this particular belief and you operate in this belief.

That means that every single new project, it feels like you're starting from scratch. You're rewriting emails, you're creating custom proposals and rewording contracts each time a lead comes in. This can also look like you're editing the same information across multiple places.

maybe changing dates in one document or changing prices in another. Maybe you're reformatting something that makes it feel just a little bit more personable. This could also look like you feel proud of your white glove experience, but you're constantly tweaking behind the scenes to feel more custom instead of building a repeatable process that actually has a high touch.

Clients love the experience, but you're exhausted. You spend more time prepping for servicing than to actually serve. You avoid marketing or scaling because you're maxed out or maybe you're just simply overwhelmed. You might think that every client or that client was different, but in reality, the structure of the project

is usually 80 to 90 % the same. It's the design output that's custom, not the backend process. So let's meet Maya. Maya is a talented website designer who is stuck in admin work. Maya prided herself on offering a high-end customer experience, but behind the scenes, she was rewriting emails and proposals from scratch. She was manually editing contracts.

piecing together onboarding every time. She believed to give a premium experience, I have to customize everything. But that believed it helped and led her to be drained and overwhelmed and it kept her stuck. But then a shift happened. Maya realized the project could be customized, but the process should be consistent. Let me say that again. So the project,

can be customized, meaning the deliverable, what you're doing for the client could be customized, but the process of how that job is done should be consistent. And this is where Maya was able to go through and templatize with what repeats, right? She was able to create branded templates for her proposals, her contracts, her emails. Now each new client gets a polished professional experience without her lifting a finger.

She was able to stop reinventing the wheel. HoneyBook Smart Files helped her to showcase her packages in a beautiful on-brand way. She sends one file that handles pricing and contracts and payments in one seamless flow. She was also able to focus on her zone of genius with her client journey on autopilot. Maya has more time and energy to focus on the part that she loves creating stunning work.

and delivering and driving client results. The second belief that I hear so often is that I don't have time to set up systems. I hear this on a regular basis because I understand as service providers and I am a service provider myself is that we...

are we do have limited time and limited capacity. And sometimes we feel that we can't set aside that time to go through and put into and start setting up systems. But what if I told you that you don't not have the time to set up systems? Systems, a lot of times they feel like this restrictive thing. But what if I told you that systems allows and provides the freedom that you actually do desire, that there is freedom on the other side

side, excuse me, there's freedom, on the other side of you going through and actually setting up a system. And it doesn't have to be a complicated system. Remember, when you're going through you and you're setting up things like HoneyBook, HoneyBook has several different systems inside of it. When you're looking at a software like HoneyBook, which is a software, which is a tool, it is literally for you to go through and to take your systems that you've already put into place.

and to put those into HoneyBook to be the driving force to allow for you to be able to organize your system, to automate it and to streamline it. So inside of HoneyBook, there's several systems. You have your onboarding system, your offboarding system, your delivery system. There's so many different systems. And I guarantee you, if you just take the time to just set up just one piece of a system, instead of going through and looking at the whole picture of...

All the things that you can do is if we just focus in on just one piece that we will be able to go through and systemize and streamline our business. So if you believe that I don't have time for systems, this is how this is actually going to show up in your real life that you may not even realize is that you're constantly putting out fires instead of planning ahead. You're reacting to client emails, missed deadlines, or last minute requests.

You say, I'll set up systems when I have more time, but more time never comes. Your to-do list just keeps growing and your admin just keep piling up. You spend more hours doing repetitive manual tasks like sending contracts, invoices, reminders, than working in your zone of genius. You avoid or procrastinate on system setup because it feels like a big overwhelming project.

I want to introduce you to Alex. Alex is a busy website designer stuck in busy work loop. Okay. Alex was booked with projects, but his days filled scattered and stressful. He was manually sending proposals, contracts, and reminders. He was keeping track of clients in his head and his inbox and in random Google docs that also were not organized.

working late just to keep up with the admin. He told himself, and you might be telling yourself the same thing as well, that I'll set up systems when things slow down, but things, they never slow down for Alex. When Alex got to the point that he was at burnout, which we all have been there. I know that I have been there a time or two myself, but when he got to that point of burnout, Alex realized that waiting for the perfect time,

to set up systems was costing him more energy, more time and more money every single week. Instead of trying to do it all, he paused and he asked himself, what would need to be true for my business to run more smoothly? What would need to be true for my business to run more smoothly? What do I need to put in place for me to be able to take these things off my plate?

A lot of the times what happens is, is that we believe in order to get things taken off of our plates, that we have to go through and we have to hire someone else, that we have to hire a VA or that we have to hire another team member. But sometimes that's actually not the case. And on all times, it makes it very difficult to go through and hire someone else when you yourself do not have a system in place for that particular activity.

So if there's nothing in place for that activity of how you do X, Y, Z, when you go through and try to hire someone to then go through and do that role, they also don't know how to do it. So now you're paying that person who doesn't know how to do it because you have all the steps in your head. Alex went through and him asking that simple question, it helped him to see where the friction was and it gave him permission to prioritize structure over survival mode.

When you're thinking about whether or not I have time to put systems in place, that is what you really want to think about is that I is not that I don't have the time is that I haven't taken the time to prioritize it. And when I'm telling you that it's so important to go through and prioritize, just setting up simple systems, whether this is a simple for your client inquiry, this is for your onboarding. This is how you're going to actually do the delivery of that project or that service that you're going through and providing. Is it?

You doing a system and having a system in place for even off boarding. So you know how to give the testimonial. You know what system you're going to use, give the testimonial. You know about how you're going to drive more traffic back to your business by setting up referral systems and all of that is very important. When I tell you that you do not have, you do not not have enough time in order to not put systems in place in your business because it is so important that you do.

Belief number three is HoneyBook is too complicated. I don't have time to figure it out. So let me just tell you what this looks like. This means, and I see this so often, is that you might have created a HoneyBook account. You got excited because you got the HoneyBook account and then you immediately felt overwhelmed because of the dashboard that you saw that maybe you didn't understand what it looked like and maybe all of the options got you overwhelmed.

You might have clicked in maybe a couple of smart files or automations and thought, I will get back to that later, but never later, never really came right. You may even be sitting here watching this video and you've had your HoneyBook account for one, two years plus, and you're still not using it to the max of your capabilities. And that's totally on fine because we're going to go over that today. You're afraid of setting it up.

wrong so you avoid it completely. You're still sending out contracts and voices mainly from three different tools, even though Honeybug can do it all in one place for you. You watch others use it seamlessly and think they must be more techie than me. And when I tell you that that is not the case, I want you to meet Inger. Inger is a successful business coach. I worked with Inger and she has been using Honeybug

for a couple of years now, I believe, but she came to me and she was struggling with the confidence and the clarity to be able to use HoneyBook to the max and really get it working for her business. She came to me and she was saying that I didn't fully understand how HoneyBook worked. I kept deleting the wrong things. I missed things that were going on the background, like the invoice reminder. She ended up sending extra invoices. She just needed a simpler way and a more intentional setup that can actually support the work that she did.

So what was going on is that she was ending up duplicating unnecessary invoices. She had an inconsistent workflow, no clear understanding of how projects, templates, or automation work. And she was feeling like HoneyBook was too much, and it was working against her instead of actually for her. Well, Inger decided to reach out for assistance. Now, just because that you...

are struggling with HoneyBook, you might not necessarily know how to use it. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go through and just reach out for help as far as like paid assistance. There are things like even within my company that we offer where it's not like, okay, here's a full setup for you. Even though we offer full HoneyBook setups, we offer HoneyBook audits, we offer strategy sessions. But Inger didn't necessarily want that. Inger wanted to go through and learn how to use HoneyBook and she wanted a tailored program that

would work for her. And so when she reached out, we set up over the course of three private training sessions, we created a custom learning plan based off of her goals, her needs, and the questions that she had. So she was able to go from unsure and frustrated to clear and confident and re-inspire to use HoneyBook. She even had to say that she said, I decided to use HoneyBook again.

Kanika made it easy to understand and even helped me get started with Asana, which is a project management tool. But she said it was finally making sense. That's what we want. We want it to make sense, right? We want that software that we put into place. We want it to make sense for what it is that we have for our particular businesses.

You can go through and HoneyBook can service so many different providers, right? I mean, we work with photographers, we work with event decorators, coaches, consultants, website designers. ⁓ There's so much that you can do inside of HoneyBook, right? And there's so many different avenues and ways that HoneyBook can go through and support your business, but it's really about knowing exactly how to utilize HoneyBook as the tool and software that can support your particular business and the unique needs of your business.

And so that's what we were able to help Inger to do with just training because she wanted to learn how to do it on her own. This allowed her to be able to create the clarity on how HoneyBook features actually supported her business. We were able to help her to streamline invoices with no extra reminders or confusions. Confidence in using the templates and project setup, and she also received a simplified system that she can actually stick with.

So just to recap the three beliefs that are holding you back. And again, there's so much more, right? But these are just a few. As that I have customized everything for every client. I don't have time to set up systems. HoneyBook is too complicated. I don't have time to figure it out. These are all the things that we tell ourselves of why we're not going through, we're not leveraging software and tools.

to then implement our systems. But a lot of the times it's really because we don't have the system in place is the reason why we don't necessarily have the clarity that we need to implement a tool or software like HoneyBook. And that's what I want to help give you in today's lesson, right? I can dive in and I can do a full little walkthrough of how to go through and use HoneyBook. But would that give you much more clarity?

It may, it may give you, it may give you some steps of how to do certain things, but if you don't know exactly what things apply to you and what tools and what features that you should be using, does that provide you the clarity that you actually need? In a lot of cases, I don't find that that is really where the, the ball is dropped, right? I don't really find that it's dropped in the beginning stages of not having systems.

Inside of HoneyBook, there are so many different systems because again, I want you to realize that systems are processes. It's the way that we do things is the stages that we go through to be able to take our clients from this point to that point. That's the system. And HoneyBook again is that that that software, that tool, that driving force that we take our systems and we put them in there and we say organize this, automate this, streamline this. And that's what I really want you to think about. Inside of HoneyBook, there are so many different systems. There's

systems that you have that you're implementing into it. There's your client onboarding system, there's project delivery, there is offboarding, there's ⁓ onboarding, there's communication, there's so many different methods and systems inside of what that software that you're using to be that driving force. And once you kind of understand your system parts of it, using a tool, whether you decide to use HoneyBook or where you decide to use any other tool, CRM system,

you will be able to go through and leverage a little bit better and have a little bit more clarity of what exactly it is that you need to do. So I told you that I was going to show you my number one thing that I do with my clients when I go through when I set up a HoneyBook account. Because this number one thing is I found that this is where the clarity for the client is birthed, right? This is where the magic happens, I would say. So here's my process. And I want you to be able to still my week number one.

Okay, so many we can number one, this is my implementation process. So our Honeywell projects and we didn't use to always do them in this particular order by splitting them up by weeks like this. But now we are like, okay, we're gonna get these projects done in four weeks. And now the four weeks are truly the four weeks of the month. So the first week of the month, we kick off our projects and all of our projects kick off for the first week of the month.

So this allows for us to number one, why we did it this way with this system is because it allows us to number one, we can say, okay, we know that we can do five or six and that's how many we're gonna do with the first of the month. And so it allows us to be able to see easily the number of spots that we have every single month for full HoneyBook setups. So number one, as week number one, and this is where we go through and we kick things off with a 90 minute strategy session to map out our customers full client journey. This is going to ensure

that HoneyBook is set up aligns with how they want to go through and serve their clients. And then we give them a full task list of the assets and the details that we need for them for us to be able to go through and build out. We're building out exactly from this client journey, right? Week number two, we're doing all of our asset collection. So this is where we're gonna gather and submit some assets, emails, contracts, things like that.

Week number three is where we're going through and we're doing the actual build out. So we're building out the whole system. So this is gonna be from the templates, the pipelines, the automation, schedulers and more. And then week number four is where we're doing our testing and off boarding calls. So this is where we're testing out the workflows. We're doing our off boarding calls where we will meet with our clients for 60 minutes doing our off boarding call, going over all the details about their project. And then we also provide them with all their training materials.

Video walk-throughs that we do for them as well as we do create like this Google Doc reference guide that has a lot of different details and information in there as well along with some SOPs, right? And then we do our post setup, which is our our 30 days of support. So we do offer 30 days support

to allow them to be able to follow up with any questions, troubleshooting, make any necessary tweaks, et cetera, right? That's the process, right? So that four-week span. So if someone wanted to come to us and say, you hey, I want you to go through and set up HoneyBook for us, then we will set up HoneyBook and it will be this process. You would start your project at the beginning of the month and at the end of the month, we'll be done. Okay, so in four weeks, we're able to get this started. But what I really want you to steal from this is I want you to steal week number one.

Week number one is that client setting up that client journey. Mapping the client journey is as simple as running off the key steps. A client goes through from inquiry to off boarding, then asking yourself what needs to happen at each step to deliver a smooth experience. We literally write this out for our clients. We, jump in and we map this out in a visual manner. A lot of the clients, they love this because they've never seen.

Most of time they've never even seen like their client journey actually mapped out, like actually written out. Like even if you just write it out on paper, most people have never taken the time to actually write out their client journey. Not a long, not alone, put it into like a visual format chart. Most people have not actually done that or seen that before. But when I say there's gold in doing this, because when you're setting up a system, it's hard to go through and set up a system if you don't know where you're going.

And so once you know where you're going, then you're able to go through and reverse engineer it to then go through and put things in place to make that system run. Okay, so it's kind of like if you were building a car. If you were building a car, you wouldn't just build a car without knowing what the car would look like at the end. You would have the picture of what the car should look like at the end. And then from there, you're then building out and putting the pieces together.

to then make it look like what you see in the picture, right? And so that would be the same thing when you're mapping out your client journey. You're mapping out each stage for which your clients will actually go through. Thus, it's gonna make it so much more easy and give you the clarity that you need that when you go in to start utilizing a tool like HoneyBook or Dubsado, no matter what it is that you use, you have at least ⁓ more clarity around where you're going.

So here's just a high level view example of a client flow chart, right? This is high level. We get granular into this. When we're working with our clients, we actually dive deep into each one of these phases because me as the strategist, I'm like, okay, let's add in this touch point. Let's add in this automation here. Let's add this, let's remove this, right? But at a high level, this is basically what it is for most service providers, creatives, coaches, et cetera, right? You have your start phase, which is your inquiry phase.

So you have your inquiry phase. That's a system, right? So what happens in that inquiry phase? You have your booking phase. That's a system. What happens there? What do you need to have there? What forms do you need there? What emails do you have there? What automation do you would like to have there? Onboarding phase, system, design and delivery. So.

in this particular phase, how are you delivering that service? So it might not be called design and delivery for you, it might just be delivery, service delivery, right? What is it that happens there for you to be able to go through and provide the service to the client? Is this gonna be, is this a call? Is this some type of coaching call that they have? Is this some type of like questionnaire or onboarding document that they need to be able to go through and proceed? Are you a website designer, maybe you have to create like flow charts or something like that? Like what happens?

during this stage and how do you actually go through and deliver this product or this service to your client? Then you have the offboarding phase. The offboarding phase is basically another system. Like what happens in the offboarding phase? What type of documents do they get? What type of, is there gonna be a call during this particular phase? Is there some type of email that they get or they rerouted somewhere to do a testimonial?

Are you asking for a referral? Are you asking for more business? Are you upselling them onto something else? What exactly happens there? And then finishing is going to be like your project follow-up or support, depending on what it is that you offer. So do you offer like we have 30 days of support? This is what happens in this particular stage, but there's other things that happen here as well. But each one of these phases as a high level are your client management system.

Right? It's your client management system and each one of these are different systems. So when you're going through and you're thinking about that, I need to go through and I need to create a system. A lot of the times we think about and we, we kind of go through and so many clients that, that come to us and so many people, a lot of times they've had systems or had tools and they may have been using them for a while. Maybe you've had HoneyBook for a year, two years plus.

but you haven't quite figured out how to actually use it to the max. And part of what you're missing is this. You're missing this. Mapping out your journey. Mapping out exactly where it is that you want to go. And like I said, we get granular into this in each one of the stages about what it is that we're going to do, where we're going to automate. And again, as me being the strategist, this is the part where I help my clients make more money because

Sometimes there's additional touch points that we need. There might be additional inquiries or like upsells depending on what it is that the client does that we can add here. This is where more money is made. Absolutely, this is where more money is made. Okay, so I highly recommend doing this because what happens is when you map out your client journey, this is gonna give you the clarity that you need.

you'll know exactly what needs to happen at each stage. So you're not just randomly creating templates in HoneyBook. You're not just randomly creating files or automations that don't connect to your journey, exactly where it is that you're going. Number two is that it's going to create a more streamlined setup. When the journey is mapped, okay, when you know where you're actually taking your clients to, setting up HoneyBook becomes faster.

and easier because you're plugging your real, you're plugging in your real process into the system or software without actually going through and guessing. You can then go through and create a consistent client experience because every client, they get the same smooth, high touch process from inquiry to off-boarding, which builds trust.

confidence and will get you more referrals, which is repeat business, right? This also provides you the space to scale with confidence. Mapping your journey helps you to spot what can be automated or delegated, freeing up your time to grow, market, and actually enjoy your business. So here are some other foundations as being a service provider, creative, coach, consultant.

⁓ that you would need to do in order to be able to get started with HoneyBook. Because like I said, a lot of times that's the main question that I see that comes up is how do I get started with HoneyBook? I've had HoneyBook, I've dove into HoneyBook, but I'm not as sure exactly where to start. So this is what it is, okay? So first off, in case you're not fully aware exactly what's HoneyBook and you just landed on this and you're like, okay, what is this?

HoneyBook that she speaks of, HoneyBook is the leading client flow platform for independent professionals. It provides the tools to manage inquiries, legal contracts, scheduling payments, and everything it takes to serve as a self-run business. Before I started using HoneyBook, I was going through and I was piecing everything together. I was piecing multiple systems together. I was using Acuity scheduling for my scheduling.

I had Google Drive, I was using Adobe Sign for my contracts. ⁓ I was literally going through and taking all of these different softwares and having to manually send out things from each one of them. It was very disjointed and it caused me to have to do extra work.

I was using one system for invoicing, like I said, another one for scheduling. I was going through and I was ⁓ creating my brochures and welcome letters at the time. I was using Canva to create those brochures and welcome letters. And then I had to attach them to an email to go through and send them. And then not to mention manually sending out emails and so much more.

But when I was looking for a better way to do it, because I knew there was a better way. This was when I first started my business, by the way, like back in 2017. But I knew that there was a better way to do things, that there had to be a better way. And so I started going through and searching for a system that can do all these things into one. And I came across HoneyBook and I've been using HoneyBook now for about five, six years plus. And so after using HoneyBook, it saved me hours of admin work.

hours of admin work. I was able to go through and book clients much faster because now my booking process is seamless. I'm able to go through an inquiry to onboarding. Those things happen with automations and the systems that I have put in place. I'm able to go through and deliver a polished experience. I didn't have to chase any payments or to figure out, that payment go through? Let me see if they made this payment on this. I didn't have to do that anymore.

And I created systems and processes that operated without me always having to be there and be available. So some of the foundations that you need for your HoneyBook account is one of the first things that sometimes I feel like is really over you, over ⁓ overlooked. But I really think that you should really take the time to explore your company's settings. Okay. Because your company's settings is actually the kickoff to HoneyBook.

A lot of times we like to kind of just kind of dive in and start clicking in. Let me do automation. Let me go through and set up emails. But a lot of times the company settings are going to be the foundational pieces to a lot of things that you may not even realize. Like it may be the backend to like, I'm going to just point out a couple of them. Like for example, HoneyBook tags, important. HoneyBook tags, well, I think they're important to be able to go through and organize, organize your contacts and your leads, right?

So you have tags, have even HoneyBook AI, you have the integrations inside of the company settings from connecting your ⁓ email to even adding on maybe some of the other features that you use. So you might be using something like Asana or QuickBooks.

those things are going to, or even connecting Zoom, like if you're doing virtual meetings, those things are going to be inside of your company settings. So you wanna go through and you wanna navigate through those company settings and just make sure that everything is set up the way you wanna set up. Even inputting your services as far as the type of projects that you plan on taking on, customizing that inside of your company settings will actually help you in the...

in the interim to actually going through, and I don't even know if that's the right word for it, but that's going to help you to be able to go through and set up your account more efficiently and effectively in the long run. Making sure that you create a contact form. So depending on your business, now for the longest time, I was using contact forms for a while, then I shifted to only really using lead forms inside of HoneyBook.

But now based off, we are switching over like our systems, the way we're doing things that I wanted to make it just a tad bit easier. Because one thing I will say is that any time and when you're thinking about your systems, like your map and not your client journey. ⁓ But if you are creating systems, you have to understand that you always must test these systems. And it's not just about testing. Like if you create a contact form.

you want to test that contact form. If there's an email that's supposed to be associated with that contact form, you want to make sure that that email is the email that you get with that contact form or that person gets with that contact form. But what you also want to keep an eye out for as you're going through and you're setting up systems and especially once you start setting up automation is you want to see how your leads and your clients are actually going through.

that particular system, because if there are some things that they are missing, it's different if you have one or two people that are missing it. But if you have several people that are missing steps or not taking action on something, then that warrants a time for you to go through and review it to see exactly why they are missing that particular thing. And so what I found was I switched over to only using like lead forms instead of the contact form.

HoneyBook contact forms are really good for you to go through and put them onto your website and allow people to be able to inquire about your services. And the difference with lead forms is they do the same thing with the exception of with a HoneyBook lead form is if you want them to be able to take action, meaning a HoneyBook lead form, you can then go through and they can schedule, they can use the HoneyBook scheduler. Like you can embed the HoneyBook scheduler in a lead form.

they can sign a con, they can pay an invoice from an actual ⁓ lead form, right? So they can take action from where they can see your services, choose services from lead forms. They can do that and take action from lead forms, whereas they can't from a contact form. But what I really wanted to do is for myself is I really wanted to just make it a little bit more simpler.

And I just want to use just the contact form and I'll use lead forms on the back end. So we will start going through and just add a contact form on our website. and, and that's what we're going to do for ours because during the last six months we've tested this. And I noticed that even with me using the lead forms in the way that I wanted people to navigate our website with our lead forms, I found that they actually weren't navigating the site the way that.

I wanted them to and what I thought they would do. And so with them not doing that, it actually became the way I was using lead forms really irrelevant. ⁓ Cause I was creating lead forms for each service. And I was hoping when people would go to our website that they would click on like, for example, HoneyBook setup, full setup, that they would go to HoneyBook setup and that they would click on that and they would use that particular lead form.

but that actually was not the case. Most people are actually clicking on our website and they're just using the navigation button and the header. And so with them doing that, that takes them to our general lead form. So test, it's very important to go through and test, but in most cases you're going to want to have a contact form. The next thing you're going to want to have is you want to make sure that you set up your emails, contracts, and file templates. So.

like I explained before is having that client journey and why this is so gold for when we do this with our clients is because we know where we're going. So we know when I get off that strategy call with my clients, I know how many emails we need. I know the contracts that we need. I need, I know all the file templates that we need, right? I know that I need to have a file template for onboarding. I know that this client needs a questionnaire for this part. I know they need a questionnaire for maybe, ⁓

an onboarding questionnaire. I they need an off boarding questionnaire, right? This isn't me guessing as far as what exactly they need. I know this is what they need because we've mapped it out together. And so when they mapped it out together with me, then they actually have the clarity. And so they, they know that their system is being built uniquely for them because we're building it out together based off exactly what they're neat, what they need. So it's not a cookie cutter.

⁓ you're going to get four forms of this and three forms of that. No, not necessarily. You're not, you're going to get based off of what you need for your business. And my job as the strategist is to make sure that yes, it's going to enter China is going to work together. But if there's room and growth and there's opportunities, I'm going to tell you where the room and growth and opportunities are. And that's where we're going to input additional touch points. We may need additional automation or we need to add certain things to be able to make that happen.

And that's what we do. And so you're going to need to have your emails, contracts, and file templates set up inside of HoneyBook. Most cases, you're gonna need some type of scheduler. And this may vary depending on what your business actually does, but in most cases, like most clients that I work with, they typically do need some type, they do have some type of like discovery call or onboarding meeting or something like that where they need a scheduler. You can do this all inside of HoneyBook.

So to set up a scheduler, the beauty about HoneyBook schedulers, it allows for you to be able to have multiple schedulers. So you can have multiple schedulers with different availabilities if that is something that you need. The schedulers also allow for you to be able to go through and if you have like team members, you can do like kind of like this round robin type of thing.

where it'll allow for your availability and your team members availability to show up. So whoever's available will be able to take that call if that's something for you, if you have a team, but you can easily share the link to your scheduler in or embedded into smart files if you need to, or you can just share the link in an email to a lead or a client that you want to go through and schedule an appointment with. So you can do that right inside of HoneyBow.

And then the last thing is, is just to go through and set up your first automation. Now, a lot of the times what I find is automation is this thing that a lot of people that we strive for. I mean, why wouldn't we? mean, automation is going to take so much off of our plates, right? It's gonna take so much off our plates. So why would we wanna strive for automation? However, a lot of the times I find that this is one of the first places.

that people tend to go when they're going inside of HoneyBook or any type of system rather. We work with, we do project management, things like that too. And I just find that the automation is the first thing that everybody wants. It's a desire thing and it should be a desire thing. We all want to get a place. We all want to be at a place that we can actually implement automation into our business. But, but.

In order for us to be able to automate something, we first must then have a process for it, which is a system. Okay. So if you want to automate your onboarding, you must first have an onboarding system, meaning that you must first know that when my clients do X, Y, Z, that every single client is going through this same process of X, Y,

And Z. Okay. So in order to be able to do that, a lot of times automation might not be the thing that you can just jump directly into. And what I mean by that is not, well, actually I take that back. So what I encourage people to do, if you cannot do anything else when it comes to automation, which most people, lot of times that's their struggle because they want to set up automation, but they don't have the rest of the steps actually done to do so.

is to just do this one thing. Okay, so if you're gonna do anything as far as automation, you haven't set up any automation, do this one thing. I want you to set up an automated email. So create an email inside of HoneyBook. And when someone inquires about your services using a contact form or a lead form for them to get an automated email. It can be a simple automated email.

just saying thank you for your inquiry. And then if you want to add to it to say, here's the next steps, whether this is to book a discovery call with me or even if this is for, I don't know, you're going to send them over invoice or something, whatever the next steps are. Okay.

You can do at least that one thing. Okay. You can do that one thing. You doing that one thing, because what happens is, that when clients come to you, when leads come to you, they come to your website, they inquire about your services. A lot of the time, people tend to go and work with a person that responded to them first. Who responded the fastest? If they have a need for a photographer,

and they email because they may have put in inquiries with 10 different photographers, they're going to respond usually to the person that responded to them first. So if you responded to them first with an automated email to say, book this schedule or whatever, schedule your session and they can schedule right there, you've now won the client. Okay. A lot of the times I think we get so big focused on

going through and setting up all of these robust automations that we see other people do. And though those are very nice, I have several of them myself. If you are new to actually going through and setting up HoneyBook or setting up automations, or you don't have systems in place, like you haven't quite dialed in.

or you haven't quite dialed in exactly what it is that you want to do or where your journey is or where your clients are going to, it's going to make it more difficult. Not impossible, but more difficult. When you're going inside of HoneyBook, you do have to set up everything prior to the automation, before implementing automation. So sometimes I'll get this question of,

Can I go through and can you just set up automation for me? So like I said, we offer HoneyBook setups, we offer full HoneyBook setups, and then we offer a HoneyBook audit. Those are our two HoneyBook Pacific ⁓ offers that we do have. Now I do offer strategy sessions where our strategy sessions also are geared towards HoneyBook as well, but it doesn't just do HoneyBook. Like we do strategy for different types of things, right? But with HoneyBook, we have a HoneyBook full setup and then we have our HoneyBook audits.

And so sometimes I'll have people ask, well, can you just do automation for me? The reason why we don't just offer just straight automation that I can just say, Hey, yeah, we'll do automation for you is because automation, have to have everything before it set up correctly, which means your scheduler has to be set up. You have to have all the emails in place. You have to have all of the, ⁓ files that you want to have in that automation. You have to have all of that in place first.

And most people don't. And so it's not just the automation itself. It's creating everything before it. Right. And so typically with us is that we do offer the full implementation, but then we offer the audit. so with the audit, what it allows for us to do is these are the two doors that you can come in to us to do HoneyBook services. It doesn't mean I don't offer other services regarding HoneyBook.

It just means these are the entry doors. And once you go through these entry doors, then we can go through and we can offer other options to you based off of your needs. So if you do a honey book audit and we then audit your account, we can see exactly what it is that you need. And then based off of that, if you then deem to say, Hey, I want to do automations.

And I see based off your audit, because I've actually been in your account, I know what's going on in your account, then we can do that. And then I can let you know, hey, well, we have to do X, Y, Z and this and this and this, right? So hopefully that makes sense. But when it comes to automation, this kind of was a tangent, but if you go and you do automation, just understand that you have to go through and set up all the other pieces in between. So in today's lesson, so just to kind of recap here in today's lesson, what we talked about was

The three common beliefs that are keeping you stuck in admin work. Okay. These are the things that we're telling ourselves. And like I said before, it is not just these three things. There are so many things that we are telling ourselves about systems and about, honey book and about why we can't set up systems or we don't have time to set them up or systems are so restrictive and I can't be free and I just want to be free or systems are too hard.

Systems do not have to be hard. They don't have to be hard. They don't have to be, they don't have to be difficult. They are as simple as you want them to be. I was literally just thinking to myself just earlier today and I said, I was going to do a podcast episode on the systems rehab podcast. said, I was going to do a podcast episode on this thing here is about, I just recently turned 40. Yay. I turned 40 this past weekend and I was thinking about

this kiss method, K-I-S-S. And you guys probably have heard of this before, but basically the acronym that I'm going to use is keeping it simple, sis, right? The more common one is keep it simple, stupid, but I ain't stupid. So we ain't saying that. So it's keep it simple, sis, right? And so like, even when it comes to like my content, just like my content that I'm creating now for you, the content that I created on my YouTube channel, my podcast and things like that.

is to keep it simple says I had to go through and I had to restructure and reframe my thoughts to keep it simple. And how now I keep that part of my business simple is that I'm going to go live. I'm going to do the podcast episodes. I'm not going to worry about doing much editing. You come here, you're not getting that much editing. You're not getting all of these things and all of these

features and flying things all around here. No, you're going to get some value. This is when we come to work here. You know what I'm saying? Like you're going to get some value here. You're going to get things that's going to move your business, business to the next level, but you're not getting a whole bunch of editing because this ain't got time for it. Okay. So we're going to keep it simple. So that's what I want you to understand is that your system, because it's so important for me to what to get this content out. Then for me to worry about, I got to edit.

I gotta pay money to get somebody else to edit. And I do so much content. So it's gonna cost me a whole bunch. Cause I do like eight pieces of content at this point in time per month. It's gonna cost me a fortune. Instead of worrying about that is I can keep it simple sis. And that is what I'm telling to you is to keep it simple, keep it simple. Okay. So understanding that and understanding that again, mapping out your client journey that comes first. You have to know where your people are going.

You have to know where they're going. And if you need help with this, because actually in July, I'm going to be, it's actually July 1st when I'm recording this now, don't want to date the video though. But I'm actually going to be offering some client journey setups. This apart from us doing our full HoneyBook setups in the month, in this month. Okay. It's going to be separate. I'm going make sure I put it up on the website here soon. It's not on the website yet, but I will have it up available on the website and I will make sure that I send it out to the email list as well.

but I'm gonna be going through and offering this. It might be something regular in my offer, but for right now, I'm just gonna be doing them this month for this main part to help you with if you need help with doing this. And you want my strategy and expertise to help you get this part done. And then if you wanna go and be a butterfly and fly into going into HoneyBook, you at least have the clarity that you need in order to be able to do that because HoneyBook is just a tool, it's just software and your process, your process, your process, your system,

It is the blueprint. Like I said, you cannot build, you can't build a car. You cannot build a house without having the blueprint, without knowing exactly what it looks like first. You have to know what it looks like first. And once you know what it looks like first, it's so much easier for you then to do and start putting it together because now you have the clarity and the blueprint to actually go through and make it happen.

And so, and then we talked about Honeybook ⁓ foundations for website designers, service providers, creatives, coaches, consultants, that you can go through and you can achieve faster bookings, cleaner onboarding, offboarding, no more chasing after payments and getting your time back just by using and simplify your business with Honeybook. So you can head to my website, yoursystemspro.com if you're ready to simplify your client experience with confidence.

This will allow for you to be able to book a free call with me. Now, as I explained before, that we are changing over our systems. And so this free call that you're scheduling now is pretty much the same free call that is going to be here in the next coming weeks. But I'm going to start having free clarity calls, which are going to be 20 minute clarity calls. These are not sales calls. Okay. So the one that you go to now, this is for like, if you're interested in services, you can still book this call with me.

and just give me all the information about your business and everything that I need to know. But there is gonna be a different form that I'm going to be having on the website here soon, which is gonna be for clarity calls. And these clarity calls, they're gonna be free for you. 20 minutes, free calls, free clarity. They're not sales calls, okay? I'm going to give you value on those calls one-on-one, where you can go through and you're like, know what, K'Niqua, I kinda got these pieces together, but I'm not really sure about this part.

This is where you want to jump on the call. Okay. I'm going to be able to go through and provide you with the clarity that you need in 20 minutes. And then I'm going to let you know, and you can decide at that point, if it's like, okay, I need more, then we can do more. If you're like, Hey, that's all I needed. All I needed was to talk to you about getting clarity on this one issue. And that was it. That's fine too. That's exactly what the call is going to be for.

So right now, like I said, this free call is available on our website, yoursystemspro.com. This is a regular, this one that you'll probably see on the website, depending on when you see this video, it might say discovery call, that's fine. We haven't changed over that system for our clarity calls, okay? So you can still use that same one and I'm fine by that, okay? So one thing about it is, this is what I recommend that you do.

after you doing this particular session, right? You've come to the end of this session. This is awesome. I'm so happy that I was able to go through and share this information with you. And I hope that after you going through this session that you found the clarity that you need in order to be able to go through and organize and automate and streamline your business, whether using HoneyBook or any other type of system. And also too, you can, if you want to sign up for HoneyBook, I do have my link.

in the description box below where you can try and get a free trial of HoneyBook as well as 30 % off your first year. But what I want you to do is I want you to pick, I want you to pick one phase of your client journey this week to go through and try to improve. So if you know that you're kind of shaky on that entry part of maybe that inquiry stage from when they're actually acquiring about your services, I want you to pick that part.

And I want you to really sit with it. And I want you to really think about how can I improve this? How can I improve the touch points that I have this? How can I automate certain things in here? What exactly, what forms, what documents do I need in here? What do I need to have set up to actually go through and make my business run smoothly? Maybe it's off-boarding. Maybe, you you've done the projects, but you're off-boarding is a little shanky, right? I want you to sit with that and I want you to go through and I want you to just pick a phase.

that you can go through and you can improve today that will help your future self. OK, the second thing I want you to do is I want you to start building that inside of HoneyBook or revisit what you already have. Some of you are already actually using HoneyBook. And if you're already using HoneyBook, then you might already have some things that are good inside of HoneyBook that are already working for you. So continue to do what is already working and then make those tweaks or putting those pieces together, because sometimes

you may have this setup that, you know, maybe you'll have like a smart file for questionnaire setup. Maybe you have a schedule or maybe you have an email, but you don't know how these pieces actually go through and work together. And that's something again that I can help you with with the clarity on that, as well as actually setting it up for you. If you do need my assistance, you can go to systems, yoursystemspro.com. But that's all I want you to do. I want you to go through and start building inside of Honeybug so you can start streamlining your business.

And like I said before, the third thing is to go through and book a discovery call with me. If you're ready to take the next step and you're like, OK, I do need help on this and I'm tired of going through and putting this off because I am paying for HoneyBook or I know that I need to go through and streamline my business because I'm so overwhelmed. Clients keep falling through the cracks. Then you go through and you book and discovery call with me so I can tell you exactly how.

I can help you with your unique business. You tell me what it is that you need and what you're struggling with, what type of business that you have will map out your client journey together. And then I will go through and I will build out your HoneyBook account for you in four weeks. Okay. As of right now too, you can use that exact same form, the discovery call one versus book discovery call on your systems pro.com and the book of clarity call as well too. Okay. So you can do that as well. So if you just need clarity,

You just need clarity. can use, have my permission to use that form as well for that. But later on there will be a clarity call button. So you'll see two buttons. ⁓ eventually you'll see book your free clarity call and then you'll see get started and get started would be for those that are know that they need to have help and services. They can go through and do that. Or there'll be that button, which will be the clarity calls, which are free calls. This is going to be free. The only thing that I asked of you.

When you set up a free call is for you to show up. I'm always at all my meetings. That's the only thing that I ask is that you show up if you book a time to show up. If things happen where you can show up for the call, totally understand that sometimes we have to go through our reschedule. Just try to do your best to reschedule the call within 24 hours. That way someone else.

that might've wanted your time slot that they would have the opportunity to be able to go through and get your time slot and just choose a different time that works for you. But that's the only thing that I asked. But I hope that you found value in this mini training program, this mini training that I have here for you. Definitely go through wherever you're gonna watch this video. You like, you subscribe, you share with a friend that you know that needs this information, that needs this clarity in systems.

to be able to take their service-based business to the next level. And I will see you in the next video.