July 21, 2025 • 22 mins
In this episode of Her Business Elevated, I chat with Jackie Klein—a former educator turned systems consultant and HoneyBook expert. Jackie shares her inspiring journey from teaching to tech, how COVID opened a new chapter for her, and how she leveraged her background to become a sought-after CRM consultant for women solopreneurs. We unpack what a CRM actually is, why HoneyBook has become her tool of choice, and how it can transform the back end of your business into a streamlined, automated machine. Jackie explains how she bridges tech with teaching to make HoneyBook easier to understand—and how her HoneyBook Success Network membership offers business owners the coaching, community, and tech support they need to confidently scale.
Inside this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
Take Jackie’s 2-minute systems quiz: hellojackieklein.com/quiz
Learn more about Jackie’s membership and services: hellojackieklein.com
💌 Stay Connected With Me:
-Website: HerBusinessElevated.com
-Agency: SoulPodcasting.com
-Instagram: @demetriazinga and @soulpodcasting
🙏 If You Loved This Episode...
I’d be so grateful if you left a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Your feedback helps other purpose-driven women find this podcast—and I love hearing what’s resonating with you!
You Can Also Support My Podcast This Way- Buy Me a Coffee
Thanks! See ya next time :-)
Inside this episode:
- Jackie’s pivot from the classroom to consulting after early retirement How a $1 HoneyBook trial changed her business trajectory
- The biggest myths about CRMs and automations—and how to reframe them
- Examples of automations every solopreneur should consider
- Why you’re not automating the relationship—just the systems
- How to map your client journey before you start building workflows
- The real-time support Jackie offers inside her HoneyBook Success Network
Mentioned in this episode:
Take Jackie’s 2-minute systems quiz: hellojackieklein.com/quiz
Learn more about Jackie’s membership and services: hellojackieklein.com
💌 Stay Connected With Me:
-Website: HerBusinessElevated.com
-Agency: SoulPodcasting.com
-Instagram: @demetriazinga and @soulpodcasting
🙏 If You Loved This Episode...
I’d be so grateful if you left a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Your feedback helps other purpose-driven women find this podcast—and I love hearing what’s resonating with you!
You Can Also Support My Podcast This Way- Buy Me a Coffee
Thanks! See ya next time :-)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, Welcome to her Business Elevated podcast. I have
with me Jackie Klein, who is a Honeybook expert. She's
an educator and a CRM consultant who helps women's solopreneurs
simplify and scale their business with confidence.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So Jackie, we have a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Today when it comes to honeybook But you have a
background of this and also an education, so we're going
to really kind of dig into your past and see
how all this comes together and how you were inspired
to create this business.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
But first of all, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well thanks so much, Demitria for having me. I'm really
excited about this conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I am too, and I guess we should just start
from the beginning, and if you can just tell us
about your journey what led you into teaching or and
then actually what led you from teaching is the main thing.
What led you from teaching into the world of systems
and client experience and becoming a honeybook expert.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
So really, COVID happened, which kind of led to my
end of teaching, which I know is true for a
lot of people. I found out I could retire early,
and so I did and I look back on that
now and go, man, that was kind of great because
I'm like, I don't know, and so tried to find
a corporate job. Realized I was kind of overworking for
(01:20):
other people. So then I found a course on freelancing
and I joined that and I started as a virtual assistant.
And when I was building my virtual assistant business, I
didn't even know what a seer im was. So I
was in this Facebook group. They said, honeybook is great,
and they were doing a deal six months for a
dollar a month, and I went, well, I have no
money yet, so yes, but it was it was fortuitous
(01:43):
because so I jumped in and I had to learn
it all myself. I spent hours. I actually spent a month,
and I sat up my first automation. I was so proud,
send a link to a friend to test it. Nothing
happened because I didn't know how to trigger it. But
I spent all these hours learning, and I really want
to make it so other women don't have to do that,
(02:03):
because with all the stuff in business, it's you know,
it's a lot, and.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Learning honeybook is just one more extra thing on our.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Plate, exactly right, right, And then I realized at the
same time that I didn't really v eight being a
virtual assistant wasn't a great fit, and so I transitioned
into Honeybook Services and then rebranded last summer as a
consultant because I feel like that's a good merging of
my teaching background and my technoledge. I was always the
teacher in the back at those trainings when they would
(02:33):
give us a new platform that I was just doing
it on my own. Do you remember a woman came
by and he's like, how you doing? And I was
like four steps ahead of her. She was like, you're
good because I'm like, don't tell me how to do it,
just let me jump in and get my feet wet.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
And so that really fits with what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Now, Wow, Wow, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
It just it fits you and what you love anyway,
and you're so being a teacher just it probably helps
you to connect with people who are learning how to
use this system and show them and break down those
steps and make it easy for them.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
So yes, very much.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So yeah, So, okay.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
What what do you find about your teaching and background
that helps you? We just kind of like briefly said
that it probably helps you break down those things more easily,
But how do you make it more accessible to those
of us who are learning how to use honeybook?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
You know, I was always when I was in the classroom,
I really believed in scaffolding because if you're trying to
get from point A to point B, you've got it
needed a ladder to get there. And so I make
it manageable, you know. So my membership has trainings on
just specific parts, and there are all separate videos so
a person can go and look at how do you
set up automations for one? Because it's a lot. Learning
(03:49):
a CRM is a lot, and so I break it
down into manageable chunks. I also help them understand the why.
I've run into a lot of business owners and networking
event or like here's how I keep tracking my lead
and they show me a notebook. I have great respect
for that because I can't do it. So why do
you need a CRM? Why is it important to have
it all in one place? Why do you need automations?
(04:11):
Because a lot of people, especially with the money piece,
they think, well, I can't afford to use that right now.
But if you don't have that, you're not going to
be able to afford to use other things. And then
I plan all of my calls with clear goals and
I make them step by step. I like for this interview,
I have bullets. I plan everything by outlines, and I
just make it accessible. Plus I'm very good at reading
(04:33):
things and if I can tell when someone's confused, if
like the head tilt or the you know, the furl brow.
And so I stop and I say, Okay, what questions
do you have? Because I don't want to go too
fast because it's a lot of information.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Right, So for.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Those who are listening, who are they're they're thinking, Okay,
what what's a CRM and what's honeybook. Let's kind of
backtrack and talk about what what a CRM is to
begin with, and then what is honeybook and what does
that have to do with what we're helping our listeners
to do today with their business?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, so I always you need to know the vocabulary, right,
former English teacher. So, Customer relationship management is CRMs. Most
people have probably heard of salesforce. That's the big corporate one,
but it's just the back end of your business. I
call it kind of the spine where it's all of
those places, your finances, your scheduler, your contracts. It's all there,
(05:27):
so you don't have to look at hall only for scheduling,
DocuSign for contracts. It's all in one place. So I
have one platform to go to for ninety percent of
my business, which makes it simpler. I love Honeybook for
a couple of reasons. One, I love the story behind it.
The founder just was like, this online business world is lonely.
(05:49):
Let's let's build something, which is true. But they are
very responsive to their customers like they did and I'm
sure you knew this when they raise announced their price
and care last December and the world kind of exploded,
and they were very cool about in the community and stuff.
They were answering questions. But when you look at the
prices of CRMs, Honeybook is right. It's it's comparable. Is
(06:15):
their tech support is top notch. So when they changed
the format to put the navigation on this side, mine
didn't work. I couldn't access my set my business systems.
They spent a month on it and they kept like
updating me.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
I found a.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Workaround, but I was so used to going to that picture,
you know, and navigating from there. And they and they
didn't stop until it was fixed. And I just logged
on one day and it was working.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So you know, if you're going to pay money for something,
you need to know that they're going to support you.
And every time I've had to connect tech support, they've
been just top notch.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That's excellent. Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And so Honeybook is is one of the those tools
that for me, I don't know what I would do
without at this point. You see how I ran my
business without a tool like this, right, and I could
have there's a couple of other different tools out there,
but for me, Honeybook has just been the easiest to
kind of integrate with my life. I ditched my calendly,
(07:20):
I'm using that with honey too. It has everything integrated,
all of my like just my invoicing, everything is there,
and so I just I think it's a powerhouse tool.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, So I guess you know, if you can just
kind of share with us a bit more about why
it's such a great tool for you and how you
think that it can make a difference in our lives
as solopreneurs.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I think the biggest part for me is everything is
in one place, So it is four tools in one
I just built a system for a client who is
using three different platforms all those things. And and also
she had a monthly package and so she was emailing
her clients every month manually, like this is month two,
this is month three. Well I put that in her
(08:10):
automations for her and her eyes just got big and
she said, wait what, I said, No, it's done. Here's
the link for the survey. I built that in honeybook two.
And her mind was just blown and she said, I
don't have to do that anymore. And I said, no,
it's set to do every thirty days. And they're you know,
all that repetitive stuff. Yeah, it's done. You know I
(08:33):
don't have to if I give my link to somebody,
we don't have to do that.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Are you free Tuesday at three?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And you know that back and forth that we've all done,
and the payment thing, it's done too. Plus the clients
see a really polished professional idea of your business from
day one, and so that makes them more willing to
come back to you in the future or tell other
people about you, which is what we all want.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah, it's like a little mini virtual assistant once you
set it up. And the thing is is not all
of us know how or have the time to set
up and how to learn Honeybooks, so we can set
up those systems. So that's what you do. And then
what I wanted to ask you is what are a
couple of So you mentioned one automation you set up
for a client, what are a couple more workflows that
you think every solopreneurs should be using to save time
(09:22):
and reduce their overwhelm just kind of put things on autopilot.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, I think that inquiry process is the first thing.
And so to think about. So a client wants to
meet with me, what do I want them to see?
So my links are on my website, they're on my socials.
I send them to people. Then it's done and if
they have something that comes up, they can reschedule. I
had a meeting with a client once or former client
(09:48):
that she had reached out and I was waiting for
the meeting and then Honeybooks sent the email like she
had to reschedule and I didn't have to do a thing.
Oh and so the more it sends them, remind it
sends the payments is the other thing. Yeah, we've all
had to do that. Are you going to pay me?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Right?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
None of us want to do that. It's awkward.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I have a retainer client where either I would forget
to send her the invoice or she would forget to
pay it, and we'd have to like message each other.
So I just put it on recurring and now it's
either of us have to think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
That is such a load off of you.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yes, because nobody wants those conversations.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Exactly set it up and forget it. Just set it
up one time. But again, that's not something that comes
easy for everyone to because I've tried, and I do
have like one automation, but it is a lot of
work to get it just right and to test it
out and to see if it's going to work. And
so I love that you do this for your clients.
(10:48):
So I think what I'd like to hear about is
you launched something called the You can tell us about it,
and if I'm saying it correctly, but it's the Honeybooks
Success Network, is that right? And so I'd love for
you to tell us about, like what inspired this and
like it's a membership and how do you help meet
(11:08):
the needs of entrepreneurs that want to create these systems.
I know we all need them. We need systems, right,
so how do we how do we do this and
how do we utilize your membership?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
So I really say, like this membership is it's like
the core offer of my business. It's something I dreamed
about for like six months before I launched it. The
first reason was I learned Honeybook myself, and I don't
know how many hours I spent. And you know, on YouTube,
there's not Honeybook has its own videos, but when I started,
(11:38):
there wasn't a lot. I know that's changed and I
have a YouTube channel too, but I spent all the
time and I'm always, you know, scouring the help page,
looking at the blogs.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I love it when Honeybook.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Posts that they have the new features because I get
really excited about that. Yeah, but I learned it all myself,
so you don't have to wow.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Is really the goal. And this soleopeneur life is lonely.
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
When I retired, I'm like, I don't need colleagues. I'm
good man, Was I wrong? We meet each other, we do.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
We do, and.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Sometimes especially with tech, you can get in the weeds
and you can spend hours trying to figure one thing
out the membership, there's a slack channel, or there's a
tech ticket where if someone's really stuck, they submit the
tech ticket and I look at it. And if it's
easy to forget how honeybook works if you're not on
it every day, especially when they're changing things all the time.
(12:31):
Like I was on it last week and I went,
I can't even remember what I was looking for, but
I couldn't remember how to do it. It took me like
a couple of minutes. So and I'm on there several
times a week. So if you're not on your CRM,
it's for it's hard to remember. And I think the
biggest value is the tech ticket. If you look on
my projects, my archive project, you will see my name
(12:54):
in about ten of them because I use like three
different email addresses to test all the automations. You know,
they don't have to do that. They can submit, they
can give me the link for whatever the first step is.
I just tell them to just make it one minute
between steps and then I will test it and go
through it. And so sometimes you need another set of
(13:16):
eyes because we see it and I said this when
I taught writing. We see it the way we intended
to happen, but sometimes that's not always the way it is.
So if you can get a third party to just
look at it and say, well, this is what I
saw and then give them suggestions whether it worked or
whether it didn't, I think that's huge.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
So your your membership site is like a community of
people who are using Honeybook and you are like a
coach to help them through some of their problems.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Using the tool.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
We we have weekly office hours tour two so they
can come and we can talk through things too.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I just love the conversation piece. I think it's so important.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, that is, and I think I think the value
of your membership is that we get the community, we
get the support, right. But whenever we have a question,
like we have someone who's been through the trenches who
knows her stuff and been studying this for years, and
that is just having that resource available. Honeybook is for me,
(14:18):
it's a beast.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
And so he can't be.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And so for you to have already been there, done that,
understand how it works, and be able to get in
and troubleshoot is invaluable. So I would love for you
to just kind of share in a moment, you're going
to find out how to access your membership. But one
more thing I wanted to ask you is, so there's
like lots of chaos in our lives and these solopreneurs
(14:41):
don't oftentimes know where to begin. And so what is
one step, that one first step that a solopreneur can
take today in creating more structure and flow in our business?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I would I think the first thing you need to
do is you need to write down on paper and pencils.
Sometimes old school works too, what does your current client
process look like from initial inquiry to final payment to
the project ending? And just write it down and then
go back and look at Okay, is this working? Are
(15:16):
there steps that that I have to do that I
can maybe automate? Are there things that you know that
aren't working like I would like them to? Am I
reaching out? Am I following up with them enough? Because
now with the conditional automations and honeybook, you can do
follow ups if clients don't respond, which I'm starting to
(15:36):
build both for myself. I'm excited about that. And then
just start with one process first. I know a lot
of us have an offer suite so start with one
like maybe your future offer, and then build that slowly
but surely, and then you can start. I would build
it first, test it yourself first. I overtest. My dad
(15:58):
was an engineer. I think I got that for him
because he would he would test things.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
A million times.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
That's good, but don't Yeah it is, but don't try
everything at once. I think a lot of people are like,
I need to put everything in this right now, and
then we burn ourselves out. Just start with one right,
and then you know, as you get more comfortable, start
to build a second one, and then eventually in a
few months you'll have it all there.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah. Well, do you have like a sample workflow or
some or automation? I should ask?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Uh, that would be maybe a general one that most
solopreneurs might want to start with.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Yeah, So I think the first is the book the call, right,
So whether it's a discovery call, I'm actually renaming mine
to a system's on it call because I feel like
it fits my services better. So client books a call
from you. What happens then? Do you want to ask
some questions? Some people send a question here after I
(16:56):
just try to make my lead form with enough questions
to give me a solid idea of what they're looking for,
so I can prep for the call. So the call happens,
you do the call, and you can also I love
the new lead forms. You can add your project types
to multiple lead forms now, so one lead form can
trigger multiple automations. I waited a year for them to
(17:19):
change that and they finally did. So then what happens
after the call? So let's say you're doing I'm going
to use wedding photographers because this seems to be like
one that a lot of people use. So the client
wants to work with you, So do you send them
booking link for the sessions? Do you have a questionnaire?
(17:39):
What happens next? So it's the call, and then you
can automate maybe a follow up questionnaire. You can't really
automate the contract piece because you need to personalize it.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
You need to make it specific. But what you can
do is you.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Can say, you know, send smart file and have it
remind you and honeybook will send you a reminder like
you need to send this file and then you just
go and do it. And then what's your process after that?
So do you do a kickoff call? You can automate
that to say. So I'm I'm tweaking my bills, and
(18:14):
so I'm going to require you know, I'm going to
tell a client, I need you to connect your bank account,
connect your Google calendar, do all these things first. Then
book the kickoff call with me and that'send the email
and they'll get that, and then I will send a
follow up, you know, like I'll give them a week
and if I don't get that call book, I'll send
have it, send the reminder like, hey, have you done
(18:35):
this yet?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
No?
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Right? I can only start after they've done somethings.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
So, yeah, that's so cool. So does Honeybook.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
It's kind of this all in one, comprehensive place where
it's a one stop shop for everything that you need
for automating your business. However, what if someone has like
a payment gateway or they're using let's say, what's the
name of it. I'm trying to think of some of
the pay hip or some other type of a sales
(19:05):
like a cart system that thrive card is another one.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Riders are ways to integrate.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That with Honeybook in a way where they can still
use Honeybook, or would they not need that experience at
all because Honeybook has what they need there.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
I think, yeah, that's actually a good question. So one
of my former clients does art. She's a counselor and
she does art is part of her services, and she
has that in Shopify. Yeah, because Honeybook doesn't really do
the you can sell digital products on Honeybook, and she
was able to integrate it with Honeybook. So if someone
(19:42):
pays on Shopify, it goes. Zampier is a good tool
for that.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yeah, you're good, good in between. Yeah, okay, right, very.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Cool because honeybook does not have like the email marketing piece.
I have mind set up with Zappier because it connects
with Mailchimp that if someone books a call, it'll send
them to my opt in form so they can get
my emails and I don't have to do a thing.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
It's wow. Cool.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Once again, all the more reason why we need you
to help us figure out those pieces, because there's too Yeah,
oh I've heard. There's just so many different, like small
revolving pieces in marketing and in running a business. And
so I think you are instrumental in helping us get
where we need to be, share with us how we
(20:28):
can gain access to your membership.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Where we where do we got to find you?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Well, I think the first place.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
So my I have a two minute SYSTEMS Audit quiz
at Hello Jackieklin dot com slash quiz that gives you
this picture. It's just ten questions, it takes two minutes,
and it'll give you a recommendation. Are you So we
have scrambling entrepreneur almost automated, and then System I CEO
and it'll say, Okay, this is where you are, this
(20:55):
is what you need on on the link on my website.
There's also to book a call with me. So if
people just want to jump in and get started, that
would probably be the best place to start. But I'm
also going to be starting up at the end of
the month some group calls just for a small group
of women for them to re evaluate their system, and
the quiz is the first step of that.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Okay, So just go straight to the quiz and from
there you'll lead us to the next steps.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
All right, and we'll place all that in the show notes.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
And I'm really glad that you're here today, just kind
of taking that load off and letting us know that
there's a way that we can.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Streamline our business.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And I'm really glad that you're reading for honeybook because
that's also my too little choice and I yes allow
so many good things with it. So do you have
any sort of words of words of encouragement, like maybe
a last word of encouragement on the show today for
solopreneurs and as we're building our business on this journey
(21:53):
hopefully to be the business owner that we want to
be one day, like how do we get there? What's
some encouragement you have for us?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
You know, I think I've heard I think a lot
of people think automations is kind of cold and not personal.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
But you're automating the processes, you're not automating the relationship.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
And automations allow you to give you more time to
really focus on the relationship with your clients. So the
client I just still did a build force. She reached
out to me last week and said, I'm confused about this.
So I had the time because I'm not following up
manually with people, that I was able just to record
a short video and send it to her and say
this is what it looks like five minutes. It wasn't much,
(22:33):
but the more automateds you can make your processes the
more time you have to build and really support your clients,
and that's what we're here for.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, that's exactly what we're here for for
people first, and then yes, so I'll yes. Thank you
so much, Jackie. I really appreciate you being here today.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Thanks for having me. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You're welcome
Hi, everyone, Welcome to her Business Elevated podcast. I have
with me Jackie Klein, who is a Honeybook expert. She's
an educator and a CRM consultant who helps women's solopreneurs
simplify and scale their business with confidence.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So Jackie, we have a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Today when it comes to honeybook But you have a
background of this and also an education, so we're going
to really kind of dig into your past and see
how all this comes together and how you were inspired
to create this business.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
But first of all, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well thanks so much, Demitria for having me. I'm really
excited about this conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I am too, and I guess we should just start
from the beginning, and if you can just tell us
about your journey what led you into teaching or and
then actually what led you from teaching is the main thing.
What led you from teaching into the world of systems
and client experience and becoming a honeybook expert.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
So really, COVID happened, which kind of led to my
end of teaching, which I know is true for a
lot of people. I found out I could retire early,
and so I did and I look back on that
now and go, man, that was kind of great because
I'm like, I don't know, and so tried to find
a corporate job. Realized I was kind of overworking for
(01:20):
other people. So then I found a course on freelancing
and I joined that and I started as a virtual assistant.
And when I was building my virtual assistant business, I
didn't even know what a seer im was. So I
was in this Facebook group. They said, honeybook is great,
and they were doing a deal six months for a
dollar a month, and I went, well, I have no
money yet, so yes, but it was it was fortuitous
(01:43):
because so I jumped in and I had to learn
it all myself. I spent hours. I actually spent a month,
and I sat up my first automation. I was so proud,
send a link to a friend to test it. Nothing
happened because I didn't know how to trigger it. But
I spent all these hours learning, and I really want
to make it so other women don't have to do that,
(02:03):
because with all the stuff in business, it's you know,
it's a lot, and.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Learning honeybook is just one more extra thing on our.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Plate, exactly right, right, And then I realized at the
same time that I didn't really v eight being a
virtual assistant wasn't a great fit, and so I transitioned
into Honeybook Services and then rebranded last summer as a
consultant because I feel like that's a good merging of
my teaching background and my technoledge. I was always the
teacher in the back at those trainings when they would
(02:33):
give us a new platform that I was just doing
it on my own. Do you remember a woman came
by and he's like, how you doing? And I was
like four steps ahead of her. She was like, you're
good because I'm like, don't tell me how to do it,
just let me jump in and get my feet wet.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
And so that really fits with what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Now, Wow, Wow, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
It just it fits you and what you love anyway,
and you're so being a teacher just it probably helps
you to connect with people who are learning how to
use this system and show them and break down those
steps and make it easy for them.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
So yes, very much.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
So yeah, So, okay.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
What what do you find about your teaching and background
that helps you? We just kind of like briefly said
that it probably helps you break down those things more easily,
But how do you make it more accessible to those
of us who are learning how to use honeybook?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
You know, I was always when I was in the classroom,
I really believed in scaffolding because if you're trying to
get from point A to point B, you've got it
needed a ladder to get there. And so I make
it manageable, you know. So my membership has trainings on
just specific parts, and there are all separate videos so
a person can go and look at how do you
set up automations for one? Because it's a lot. Learning
(03:49):
a CRM is a lot, and so I break it
down into manageable chunks. I also help them understand the why.
I've run into a lot of business owners and networking
event or like here's how I keep tracking my lead
and they show me a notebook. I have great respect
for that because I can't do it. So why do
you need a CRM? Why is it important to have
it all in one place? Why do you need automations?
(04:11):
Because a lot of people, especially with the money piece,
they think, well, I can't afford to use that right now.
But if you don't have that, you're not going to
be able to afford to use other things. And then
I plan all of my calls with clear goals and
I make them step by step. I like for this interview,
I have bullets. I plan everything by outlines, and I
just make it accessible. Plus I'm very good at reading
(04:33):
things and if I can tell when someone's confused, if
like the head tilt or the you know, the furl brow.
And so I stop and I say, Okay, what questions
do you have? Because I don't want to go too
fast because it's a lot of information.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Right, So for.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Those who are listening, who are they're they're thinking, Okay,
what what's a CRM and what's honeybook. Let's kind of
backtrack and talk about what what a CRM is to
begin with, and then what is honeybook and what does
that have to do with what we're helping our listeners
to do today with their business?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, so I always you need to know the vocabulary, right,
former English teacher. So, Customer relationship management is CRMs. Most
people have probably heard of salesforce. That's the big corporate one,
but it's just the back end of your business. I
call it kind of the spine where it's all of
those places, your finances, your scheduler, your contracts. It's all there,
(05:27):
so you don't have to look at hall only for scheduling,
DocuSign for contracts. It's all in one place. So I
have one platform to go to for ninety percent of
my business, which makes it simpler. I love Honeybook for
a couple of reasons. One, I love the story behind it.
The founder just was like, this online business world is lonely.
(05:49):
Let's let's build something, which is true. But they are
very responsive to their customers like they did and I'm
sure you knew this when they raise announced their price
and care last December and the world kind of exploded,
and they were very cool about in the community and stuff.
They were answering questions. But when you look at the
prices of CRMs, Honeybook is right. It's it's comparable. Is
(06:15):
their tech support is top notch. So when they changed
the format to put the navigation on this side, mine
didn't work. I couldn't access my set my business systems.
They spent a month on it and they kept like
updating me.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
I found a.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Workaround, but I was so used to going to that picture,
you know, and navigating from there. And they and they
didn't stop until it was fixed. And I just logged
on one day and it was working.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So you know, if you're going to pay money for something,
you need to know that they're going to support you.
And every time I've had to connect tech support, they've
been just top notch.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That's excellent. Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And so Honeybook is is one of the those tools
that for me, I don't know what I would do
without at this point. You see how I ran my
business without a tool like this, right, and I could
have there's a couple of other different tools out there,
but for me, Honeybook has just been the easiest to
kind of integrate with my life. I ditched my calendly,
(07:20):
I'm using that with honey too. It has everything integrated,
all of my like just my invoicing, everything is there,
and so I just I think it's a powerhouse tool.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, So I guess you know, if you can just
kind of share with us a bit more about why
it's such a great tool for you and how you
think that it can make a difference in our lives
as solopreneurs.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I think the biggest part for me is everything is
in one place, So it is four tools in one
I just built a system for a client who is
using three different platforms all those things. And and also
she had a monthly package and so she was emailing
her clients every month manually, like this is month two,
this is month three. Well I put that in her
(08:10):
automations for her and her eyes just got big and
she said, wait what, I said, No, it's done. Here's
the link for the survey. I built that in honeybook two.
And her mind was just blown and she said, I
don't have to do that anymore. And I said, no,
it's set to do every thirty days. And they're you know,
all that repetitive stuff. Yeah, it's done. You know I
(08:33):
don't have to if I give my link to somebody,
we don't have to do that.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Are you free Tuesday at three?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And you know that back and forth that we've all done,
and the payment thing, it's done too. Plus the clients
see a really polished professional idea of your business from
day one, and so that makes them more willing to
come back to you in the future or tell other
people about you, which is what we all want.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah, it's like a little mini virtual assistant once you
set it up. And the thing is is not all
of us know how or have the time to set
up and how to learn Honeybooks, so we can set
up those systems. So that's what you do. And then
what I wanted to ask you is what are a
couple of So you mentioned one automation you set up
for a client, what are a couple more workflows that
you think every solopreneurs should be using to save time
(09:22):
and reduce their overwhelm just kind of put things on autopilot.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, I think that inquiry process is the first thing.
And so to think about. So a client wants to
meet with me, what do I want them to see?
So my links are on my website, they're on my socials.
I send them to people. Then it's done and if
they have something that comes up, they can reschedule. I
had a meeting with a client once or former client
(09:48):
that she had reached out and I was waiting for
the meeting and then Honeybooks sent the email like she
had to reschedule and I didn't have to do a thing.
Oh and so the more it sends them, remind it
sends the payments is the other thing. Yeah, we've all
had to do that. Are you going to pay me?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Right?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
None of us want to do that. It's awkward.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I have a retainer client where either I would forget
to send her the invoice or she would forget to
pay it, and we'd have to like message each other.
So I just put it on recurring and now it's
either of us have to think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
That is such a load off of you.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yes, because nobody wants those conversations.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Exactly set it up and forget it. Just set it
up one time. But again, that's not something that comes
easy for everyone to because I've tried, and I do
have like one automation, but it is a lot of
work to get it just right and to test it
out and to see if it's going to work. And
so I love that you do this for your clients.
(10:48):
So I think what I'd like to hear about is
you launched something called the You can tell us about it,
and if I'm saying it correctly, but it's the Honeybooks
Success Network, is that right? And so I'd love for
you to tell us about, like what inspired this and
like it's a membership and how do you help meet
(11:08):
the needs of entrepreneurs that want to create these systems.
I know we all need them. We need systems, right,
so how do we how do we do this and
how do we utilize your membership?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
So I really say, like this membership is it's like
the core offer of my business. It's something I dreamed
about for like six months before I launched it. The
first reason was I learned Honeybook myself, and I don't
know how many hours I spent. And you know, on YouTube,
there's not Honeybook has its own videos, but when I started,
(11:38):
there wasn't a lot. I know that's changed and I
have a YouTube channel too, but I spent all the
time and I'm always, you know, scouring the help page,
looking at the blogs.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I love it when Honeybook.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Posts that they have the new features because I get
really excited about that. Yeah, but I learned it all myself,
so you don't have to wow.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Is really the goal. And this soleopeneur life is lonely.
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
When I retired, I'm like, I don't need colleagues. I'm
good man, Was I wrong? We meet each other, we do.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
We do, and.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Sometimes especially with tech, you can get in the weeds
and you can spend hours trying to figure one thing
out the membership, there's a slack channel, or there's a
tech ticket where if someone's really stuck, they submit the
tech ticket and I look at it. And if it's
easy to forget how honeybook works if you're not on
it every day, especially when they're changing things all the time.
(12:31):
Like I was on it last week and I went,
I can't even remember what I was looking for, but
I couldn't remember how to do it. It took me like
a couple of minutes. So and I'm on there several
times a week. So if you're not on your CRM,
it's for it's hard to remember. And I think the
biggest value is the tech ticket. If you look on
my projects, my archive project, you will see my name
(12:54):
in about ten of them because I use like three
different email addresses to test all the automations. You know,
they don't have to do that. They can submit, they
can give me the link for whatever the first step is.
I just tell them to just make it one minute
between steps and then I will test it and go
through it. And so sometimes you need another set of
(13:16):
eyes because we see it and I said this when
I taught writing. We see it the way we intended
to happen, but sometimes that's not always the way it is.
So if you can get a third party to just
look at it and say, well, this is what I
saw and then give them suggestions whether it worked or
whether it didn't, I think that's huge.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
So your your membership site is like a community of
people who are using Honeybook and you are like a
coach to help them through some of their problems.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Using the tool.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
We we have weekly office hours tour two so they
can come and we can talk through things too.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I just love the conversation piece. I think it's so important.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, that is, and I think I think the value
of your membership is that we get the community, we
get the support, right. But whenever we have a question,
like we have someone who's been through the trenches who
knows her stuff and been studying this for years, and
that is just having that resource available. Honeybook is for me,
(14:18):
it's a beast.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
And so he can't be.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And so for you to have already been there, done that,
understand how it works, and be able to get in
and troubleshoot is invaluable. So I would love for you
to just kind of share in a moment, you're going
to find out how to access your membership. But one
more thing I wanted to ask you is, so there's
like lots of chaos in our lives and these solopreneurs
(14:41):
don't oftentimes know where to begin. And so what is
one step, that one first step that a solopreneur can
take today in creating more structure and flow in our business?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I would I think the first thing you need to
do is you need to write down on paper and pencils.
Sometimes old school works too, what does your current client
process look like from initial inquiry to final payment to
the project ending? And just write it down and then
go back and look at Okay, is this working? Are
(15:16):
there steps that that I have to do that I
can maybe automate? Are there things that you know that
aren't working like I would like them to? Am I
reaching out? Am I following up with them enough? Because
now with the conditional automations and honeybook, you can do
follow ups if clients don't respond, which I'm starting to
(15:36):
build both for myself. I'm excited about that. And then
just start with one process first. I know a lot
of us have an offer suite so start with one
like maybe your future offer, and then build that slowly
but surely, and then you can start. I would build
it first, test it yourself first. I overtest. My dad
(15:58):
was an engineer. I think I got that for him
because he would he would test things.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
A million times.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
That's good, but don't Yeah it is, but don't try
everything at once. I think a lot of people are like,
I need to put everything in this right now, and
then we burn ourselves out. Just start with one right,
and then you know, as you get more comfortable, start
to build a second one, and then eventually in a
few months you'll have it all there.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah. Well, do you have like a sample workflow or
some or automation? I should ask?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Uh, that would be maybe a general one that most
solopreneurs might want to start with.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Yeah, So I think the first is the book the call, right,
So whether it's a discovery call, I'm actually renaming mine
to a system's on it call because I feel like
it fits my services better. So client books a call
from you. What happens then? Do you want to ask
some questions? Some people send a question here after I
(16:56):
just try to make my lead form with enough questions
to give me a solid idea of what they're looking for,
so I can prep for the call. So the call happens,
you do the call, and you can also I love
the new lead forms. You can add your project types
to multiple lead forms now, so one lead form can
trigger multiple automations. I waited a year for them to
(17:19):
change that and they finally did. So then what happens
after the call? So let's say you're doing I'm going
to use wedding photographers because this seems to be like
one that a lot of people use. So the client
wants to work with you, So do you send them
booking link for the sessions? Do you have a questionnaire?
(17:39):
What happens next? So it's the call, and then you
can automate maybe a follow up questionnaire. You can't really
automate the contract piece because you need to personalize it.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
You need to make it specific. But what you can
do is you.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Can say, you know, send smart file and have it
remind you and honeybook will send you a reminder like
you need to send this file and then you just
go and do it. And then what's your process after that?
So do you do a kickoff call? You can automate
that to say. So I'm I'm tweaking my bills, and
(18:14):
so I'm going to require you know, I'm going to
tell a client, I need you to connect your bank account,
connect your Google calendar, do all these things first. Then
book the kickoff call with me and that'send the email
and they'll get that, and then I will send a
follow up, you know, like I'll give them a week
and if I don't get that call book, I'll send
have it, send the reminder like, hey, have you done
(18:35):
this yet?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
No?
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Right? I can only start after they've done somethings.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
So, yeah, that's so cool. So does Honeybook.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
It's kind of this all in one, comprehensive place where
it's a one stop shop for everything that you need
for automating your business. However, what if someone has like
a payment gateway or they're using let's say, what's the
name of it. I'm trying to think of some of
the pay hip or some other type of a sales
(19:05):
like a cart system that thrive card is another one.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Riders are ways to integrate.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That with Honeybook in a way where they can still
use Honeybook, or would they not need that experience at
all because Honeybook has what they need there.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
I think, yeah, that's actually a good question. So one
of my former clients does art. She's a counselor and
she does art is part of her services, and she
has that in Shopify. Yeah, because Honeybook doesn't really do
the you can sell digital products on Honeybook, and she
was able to integrate it with Honeybook. So if someone
(19:42):
pays on Shopify, it goes. Zampier is a good tool
for that.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yeah, you're good, good in between. Yeah, okay, right, very.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Cool because honeybook does not have like the email marketing piece.
I have mind set up with Zappier because it connects
with Mailchimp that if someone books a call, it'll send
them to my opt in form so they can get
my emails and I don't have to do a thing.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
It's wow. Cool.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Once again, all the more reason why we need you
to help us figure out those pieces, because there's too Yeah,
oh I've heard. There's just so many different, like small
revolving pieces in marketing and in running a business. And
so I think you are instrumental in helping us get
where we need to be, share with us how we
(20:28):
can gain access to your membership.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Where we where do we got to find you?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Well, I think the first place.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
So my I have a two minute SYSTEMS Audit quiz
at Hello Jackieklin dot com slash quiz that gives you
this picture. It's just ten questions, it takes two minutes,
and it'll give you a recommendation. Are you So we
have scrambling entrepreneur almost automated, and then System I CEO
and it'll say, Okay, this is where you are, this
(20:55):
is what you need on on the link on my website.
There's also to book a call with me. So if
people just want to jump in and get started, that
would probably be the best place to start. But I'm
also going to be starting up at the end of
the month some group calls just for a small group
of women for them to re evaluate their system, and
the quiz is the first step of that.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Okay, So just go straight to the quiz and from
there you'll lead us to the next steps.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
All right, and we'll place all that in the show notes.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
And I'm really glad that you're here today, just kind
of taking that load off and letting us know that
there's a way that we can.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Streamline our business.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And I'm really glad that you're reading for honeybook because
that's also my too little choice and I yes allow
so many good things with it. So do you have
any sort of words of words of encouragement, like maybe
a last word of encouragement on the show today for
solopreneurs and as we're building our business on this journey
(21:53):
hopefully to be the business owner that we want to
be one day, like how do we get there? What's
some encouragement you have for us?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
You know, I think I've heard I think a lot
of people think automations is kind of cold and not personal.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
But you're automating the processes, you're not automating the relationship.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
And automations allow you to give you more time to
really focus on the relationship with your clients. So the
client I just still did a build force. She reached
out to me last week and said, I'm confused about this.
So I had the time because I'm not following up
manually with people, that I was able just to record
a short video and send it to her and say
this is what it looks like five minutes. It wasn't much,
(22:33):
but the more automateds you can make your processes the
more time you have to build and really support your clients,
and that's what we're here for.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, that's exactly what we're here for for
people first, and then yes, so I'll yes. Thank you
so much, Jackie. I really appreciate you being here today.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Thanks for having me. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You're welcome
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