403 - Automating Your Project Management Systems with Kristen Lettini

Design and building websites…that’s the fun part.

Managing the project, collecting content, onboarding, handling revisions and feedback…typically, not so much.

Which is why, if you can automate as much of the repeatable tasks and make a system and process for the “unfun” parts of a web design project, it’ll make your life much easier and more profitable.

That’s what we’re diving into this one with automation and systems specialist (and fellow 17hats user) Kristen Lettini.

We get into:

• What automations you’re missing (and why to add them NOW)
• The GOLD of auto-reminders
• Using a CRM like 17hats to automate as much as possible
• My “before and after” automation moment
• Why improving systems is THE KEY to sustainability

Get my quote, contract & invoice templates (for free) with a 7-day trial of 17hats, the CRM I've been using for over 10 years!

👉 Start my 7-day free trial

Episode Transcript

Kristen Lettini (00:00):
I've made a note before when you were
speaking now, like everyone'slike, oh, well, each one's
different, and everything is,you know, it depends.
I really try to challenge myclients and work particularly
with them to figure it out.
Like, are you really thatdifferent, right?
Because you just ran throughthe whole thing.
So maybe we can have a littlemenu board ready for you that
goes to maybe your menu islarger than others, but there

(00:21):
are like some sort oftemplatized buckets that you
have, I'm sure, within yourbusiness.
And we should spend some timethinking about and how can we
standardize them?
Because it kind of sucks tohave to go every time and be
like, how much should I chargefor this?
How many, how many hours isthis gonna take?
Like, one, you're you'reburning your hours just by
making a quote every time.

(00:42):
So if you can take some of thattime up front, or maybe you
know it's one thing and then youadd to it as you go, but having
that strategic thinking about,okay, is it that different, or
what things can I can Ireplicate?
Duplicate, repeat.
What things can I repeat?

Intro (01:00):
Uh welcome to the web design business podcasts.com.
Helping you build a web designbusiness that gives you freedom
and a lifestyle you love.

Josh Hall (01:11):
Hello, my web designer friend.
Welcome in.
It's really good to have youhere, and I'm excited that
you're here because when you'rea web designer, heads up,
especially if you're new, one ofthe unexpected worst parts of
the job is managing projects.
It's fun and exciting at first,especially when you start to

(01:33):
dial in your systems, but thisgets ever so tricky when you get
to a point where you'remanaging multiple projects.
And my goal for you in thisconversation, and my guest,
Kristin Lattini's goal in thisconversation, is for you to
automate as much of this as youcan to take as much of the
project management back andforth off of your plate.

(01:54):
In fact, we're getting pastjust project management in this
conversation.
We're actually gonna talk aboutwhat you can automate before
the project even kicks off, allthe way to offboarding a project
and handling ongoing clientcommunication as well.
You can automate a lot morethan I guarantee that you have
set up.
So we're gonna dive into whatautomations are missing right
now and what Kristen, as anoperations and systems

(02:17):
specialist, is gonna recommend.
Some auto reminders that youcan literally get going on today
to help save time in yourbusiness.
How to choose the right CRM foryou.
Kristen and I both use 17 hats.
We are super fans and I've beenusing it both for a long time.
And we're gonna dive into whatyou can do to set your business
up for sustainability.
So without further ado, here isKristen Latini.

(02:39):
And again, as I mentioned, weare both 17 hats users.
This is gonna come into playhere, but I just wanted to give
them a special shout out becausethey are currently sponsoring
this podcast in my newsletterthis month.
And if you haven't yet, Idefinitely recommend grabbing my
quote, invoice, and contracttemplate, which you can get
completely for free when yougive 17 hats a free trial.

(03:01):
You can use my link .com.coslash 17 hats to pick that up
right now.
And the show notes for thisepisode will be linked below, so
make sure you head over thereto get connected with Kristen.
She's also the host of theBuild Your Own Fairy Tale
Podcast.
I was recently on her show.
We'll make sure that's linkedover at the show notes as well.
All right, without further ado,automation.
Kristen, let's go.

Kristen Lettini (04:38):
You know, in the corporate world, I spent 13
years with a large company.
There'd be like, you know, aSharePoint or something.
Everyone cringed at, ooh, letme figure out how to make this
work for me.
And I've always just taken aninterest to it and like tried to
learn the rules to make it workfor me.
So I call it like anefficiency.
Um, I can't I can't keep awayfrom efficiencies.

(04:58):
That's that's always been whatI'm attracted to.
So when I find a system thatcan do it, I'm like, ooh, teach
me all the things.
I want to do it all.
Yeah, because honestly, this isall branching back to my
corporate days.

(05:19):
Like I felt like I had no whitespace, no room around the red,
no room around the edges.
I was in back to back to backto back meetings all day, and
like no room to do work, no roomto have fun, no room to be
creative, right?
And so the same is true as asolopreneur now, right?
If you are busy doing all theadministrative tasks, like you
don't have room to be creativeand do the fun things that you

(05:40):
set out to do when you startedyour business.
Cause I'm willing to bet thatnot one person listening started
their business to like do thepaperwork, you know.
Yes, absolutely.

(06:04):
Because I I know there's thislike tension, right?
A lot of creatives are like, ohno, I I it's every time it's
different.
It's very free-flow, and like Itotally get and respect it.
At the same time, when you putin a little bit of structure,
you create so much freedom foryourself to really live into
that creative freedom.
So I feel like they they canlive harmoniously, absolutely.

(06:26):
When you automate, you know,invoicing and follow-up, hey,

(07:17):
your invoice isn't paid, youbring in more money, right?
So not only do you have moretime, you could potentially be
making more money.
So it's yeah.
Yep.
I'm still working on refiningthis, Josh.
But essentially, my favoritething to do is find current 17

(07:41):
hats users who aren't using itto their fullest potential,
right?
Like, I joined 17 hats becauseI wanted to send invoices and
I'm not using it for half thethings I know it can do, but I
just haven't had the time tolearn it, right?
So I love working with thosefolks to be like, oh, tell me
what you're working on.
Here's how we're gonna make itbetter from start to finish.
Or finding those solopreneurswho are doing it all manually.

(08:02):
They've got all thespreadsheets and the post-its,
and you know, they're doing itby by themselves and introducing
them to 17 hats and gettingthem set up so they can be like,
oh my gosh, how did I not knowthis system existed?
It's changed my life.
So I love that.
My my self-given title issystem strategist, but I

(08:28):
specialize in 17 hats.
I also have a lot of love forFlowdesk and Asana, but 17 hats
is the one where I really haveI'm able to dig in and build
those automated workflows fromlike when someone goes on your
website, they raise their hand,hey, I want to work with you,
Josh, to all the way throughlike how how did Josh do?
Tell us how we did, likethrough that customer review
from start to finish.

(08:49):
Funny story.

(09:29):
The answer is neither of those.
The answer is when I left thecorporate world, I had my
podcast and I was speaking to afriend who's a photographer who
happened to be using 17 hats.
And after her podcastinterview, we were talking, and
I was still trying to figure outwhat the heck I was gonna make
my business.
Like, how was I gonna make anymoney as an entrepreneur on my
own?
And she said, you know,Kristen, I could use some help.
Like, I'm using this systemcalled 17 hats, and I know

(09:51):
there's more to be done in here,but I just haven't had the time
to figure it out.
So I said, Okay, I'll go inthere.
Let me, you know, jump in andsee what I can find out.
I logged into a training, Ifigured it out, set her up.
And she was like, Oh my gosh,Kristen, you could be charging a
lot of money for this.
Like, you just changed myentire life.
So it was ha ha ha ha ha momenttelling me like the things that
I enjoyed.
Like, I love puzzles, I lovefiguring out a problem, problem

(10:14):
solving, and then making theefficiencies of the technology.
I was like, oh, well, that wasreally fun.
So if you think this is amazingand other people are gonna want
it, like, I'll do this all day.
This is really fun for me.
And then I got to know 17 hatsand like what a great company
they were.
And again, not paying us, but Iwas like, okay, I can get on
board, I can really dive in andlearn all the ins and outs.

(10:34):
Because I also thought, well, Icould go and learn a bunch of
systems, but then every time Ihave a new client and a new
system, I gotta have to startover, right?
So I decided to dive deep inwith 17 hats and you know,
really take advantage of all thefeatures, all the bells and
whistles.
That way, when aproblem-solving opportunity
comes up with a new client, Ican be like, Oh, here's an
instance where I can use thisfeature.

(10:56):
So I think it's a hard thing tocommunicate to somebody who's

(12:19):
not in it, right?
Somebody who's not strugglingor who's not not understanding
the system, like somebody in thecorporate world who has nothing
to do with this, is like, huh?
What?
Okay.
So in that sense, a little bithard.
I do think it's difficult toquantify the exact number of
hours and things time-saved,example, because I need somebody
to track it, right?
To go from the before to theafter.

(12:41):
Um, but in terms of thequalitative, the client going,
like, oh my gosh, I I don't knowhow I was doing this before I
met you, and you just gave me somuch time, like that seeing
that reaction is quite easy.
Um, and then you're like, okay,yeah, it's working.
So go ahead.

Josh Hall (13:03):
Yep.

Kristen Lettini (13:37):
Yes, I I found it to be relatively
straightforward, intuitive.
Like maybe the terminology wasnew to me, but I was like, oh,
you know, if X, then go overhere to Y.
That makes sense to me.
Um, like I said, I've alwaysbeen drawn to these platforms
and technologies, and I'mcurious to learn how they work.
I did sign on for a coupletrainings, right?
Like that 17 hats hosted.
So they were they were therefor the taking.

(13:59):
And I was like, okay, I'll wantto have your time speed and
figure out what they're saying,learn a couple more things.
Um, but it's mostly by doing,um, I have another thought, I
forget what it was, but yeah,I've always been drawing.
I think I think part of what Ibring to it, right?
Is I have that corporatebackground.
Like I speak and I worked inmarketing communications for

(14:19):
many years.
So like I have that lens ofokay, the client experience,
right?
And then now being the businessowner too, I have that, okay,
as a business owner, how do Imake my life easier?
How do I free up time?
How do I follow up with thoseleads?
How do I do the 17,000 thingson my list?
Um, so I'm able to marry thosetwo.
And I feel like I can speakboth languages, and 17 halves
helped me bring them to life.

(14:41):
So that's your your ticket tothe elevated brand, the strong

(15:42):
brand, and hello, potentiallycharging more in the end, right?

Josh Hall (15:56):
Yes.

Kristen Lettini (16:14):
Yes, and even that, like, I can shake my
corporate background where if Iwere to write an email, at one
point I was in charge of anemail going to 160,000 employees
globally every week.
So that email, you betterbelieve, was reviewed by at
least 10 people, if not more,every week, right?
So, like, I got really good atlike, okay, does this work

(16:37):
really need to be here?
Is this really check all mylinks, like all that
streamlining of how you'resaying and what you're asking
someone to do?
Because it was just critiquedso hard.
So now I sort of bring asofter, softer angle of that to
my clients because okay, if youwant them to do this one thing,
you want them to click here topay you, like let's not tell
them five other things rightnow.
Let's go.