How to Automate Your Business for More Time and Less Stress with Crystal Eva

Have you ever sent a client email at midnight and thought, “There has to be a better way”? (Spoiler alert: there is.)

In this episode, I’m joined by the fabulous Crystal Eva, a fractional COO and online business manager who’s all about streamlining systems and reclaiming time. We talk real talk about automation—what it is, what it isn’t, and how to get started without making your brain melt.

You’ll hear:

• Why automation is not about losing the personal touch (and how to keep your human vibes front and center)
• The signs that it's time to start automating
• Easy automations to start with—even if you're tech-shy
• How to use tools like Dubsado, Asana, Zapier, and Gmail to work smarter
• Why auditing your systems regularly actually saves you time (instead of adding to your to-do list)
• Crystal’s favorite trick for adding a personal, feel-good touch to automated workflows

Whether you’re drowning in client admin or just looking to clean up your biz backend, this episode will give you some quick wins and new ideas to test out in your biz.

About Crystal Eva:

Crystal Eva is a Fractional Chief Operating Officer and Online Business Manager who helps service-based business owners streamline operations, optimize systems, and scale their businesses with ease. With a passion for helping entrepreneurs reduce overwhelm, Crystal uses her expertise in project management and client relationship management to simplify processes and boost efficiency. She’s built a career centered around creating systems that allow businesses to grow sustainably while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Crystal is also the creator of The Ops Room™, a community for business owners focused on optimizing systems and operations, and she’s passionate about helping women entrepreneurs reclaim their time and energy to focus on what truly matters. She believes in creating businesses that align with personal values, and she’s dedicated to helping others do the same.

Crystal’s Links:

Website Instagram

The Ops Room is a space dedicated to helping entrepreneurs streamline their operations, automate their workflows, and optimize their systems so they can scale with ease.

Inside The Ops Room™, we have a resource vault, monthly Q&A calls, a Slack community for support, and AI tools to help with business operations. It’s designed to give you the practical strategies and systems you need to run your business without the overwhelm!

Learn more about BizMagic or the BizMagic Podcast.

Transcript

Patti: Welcome back to another episode of the Biz Magic Podcast, your place for all things tech in your online business with solid. So General Biz Chat two. My name is Patty Meyer and I am the CEO and founder of Biz Magic, where my team and I support entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed by the backend tech of their business.

We create, implement, and teach the tweaks that help our clients make a bigger impact with less stress. Today we are diving into a topic that is super important for business owners. No matter where you are at in your business journey, it is how to automate your business for more time and less stress. If you've been feeling buried under day-to-day tasks, you are constantly juggling client work with behind the scenes operations, or you want to make sure that you are giving your clients a really stellar onboarding experience.

This episode is for you. Our guest today is someone who helps entrepreneurs find calm and the chaos by building the systems and structure that allow for sustainable, scalable growth. And that guest today is Crystal Eva, who is a fractional chief operating officer and online business manager who helps service-based business owners streamline operations.

Optimize systems and scale their businesses with ease. With a passion for helping entrepreneurs reduce overwhelm. Crystal uses her expertise in project management and client relationship management to simplify processes and boost efficiency. She's built a career centered around creating systems that allow businesses to grow sustainably while maintaining a healthy work life balance.

Crystal is also the creator of the ops room, a community for business owners focused on optimizing systems and operations, and she's passionate about helping women entrepreneurs reclaim their time and energy to focus on what truly matters. She believes in creating businesses that align with personal values, and she's dedicated to helping others do the same.

We are gonna explore today what it really means to streamline a business, how to identify the right tools and systems for your needs, and the first steps to take to reclaim your time. Whether you're looking to reduce overwhelm, grow your team, or just stop feeling like your business is running you.

You'll find plenty of insight here today. Let's get into it. Hello, crystal. Thanks so much for joining me today. Hey Patty, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm extra excited to talk to you because I'm a tech nerd and I love stuff like this. And we're talking about automations today, which makes me extra excited.

Um, anytime I get to talk to somebody else who. Kind of can nerd out about the same stuff, it makes me very happy. Um, so can you start by just sort of telling me and us in your own words, sort of a little bit about yourself and how you got into doing all of this stuff? 

Crystal: Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Crystal Eva.

I help service-based business owners streamline their operations and scale their businesses without all of the stress. So officially, I'm a fractional Chief Operating Officer. I'm also an online business manager, and my mission is to help women entrepreneurs. Do more with less. Um, and so that definitely covers technology.

Uh, I love my systems, simpl systems that simplify things, tech that makes life easier workflows that actually work. I am a boy mom myself, and I just, I've been doing this for, oh, like over 10 years now. And so just as. Tech has evolved. I've evolved my business and, um, very similar to you like tech and systems and automations.

They are my love language. I could talk about them all day long and, um, yeah, I started in corporate America in Tampa, Florida and started doing some side hustling and that side hustling became full time to the, to the. Part where I quit my day job, if you will, and took my side hustle and incorporated recently, and it's just now it's all of my business.

I 

Patti: love that. Have you, have you always been like into tech and, and all of that and staying kind of up to date with things or how did you kind of get into technology and loving this stuff? Okay, great question because my 

Crystal: background is more marketing advertising. Mm-hmm. Um, I also have done my fair share of, um, like executive assistant type of roles.

Yeah. I've always just been in a position where I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over Monday through Friday, whether it was June or January, and so I was. I was the one that was Googling YouTubing, figuring out how to make templates, and um, started discovering platforms like Zapier and other ones where I was like, Ooh, I can do this faster.

And really. Created a passion for it because who doesn't want to save time? And basically like also impress your boss. Yeah. Right. Like, wow, crystal can turn things around very quickly and she always seems to like know what's coming up and, um, making suggestions. And so I, even though it wasn't like my, um, forte at the time in, in corporate America, or even what I went to school for, I went to school for marketing and business.

But, uh, now especially in the online space, I find that. You, you can't be in this space without knowing about automations and knowing about workflows. And, um, if you, if you don't have those things in place, oof, you're losing losing a lot of time and consistency, 

Patti: right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think automations can sound different to everybody.

So tell us kind of, what does automations mean to you and how do you apply it in your own business? 

Crystal: Okay. To me, automating a business is all about creating efficiency. So that means anything that is repetitive, uh, time consuming. Even just, let's call it administrative tasks. Mm-hmm. If I can take that off of my plate and focus on bigger picture stuff that's, that like, makes me so happy.

Um, so it's not about replacing the human touch. A lot of times when we hear the word automation or systems or workflows and um, you know, hacks and stuff like that. We think about, oh man, we don't wanna use, lose that human touch of why our clients love working with us so much. And that is something that I have to convince a lot of my own clients when they do start working with me is, you know.

People work with me because they know it's me and it's not a robot. And it's like, well, who said anything about robots here? Yeah. Yeah. And there are ways, and we can definitely dive more into 'em. There are ways to keep your human touch in your business. Mm-hmm. While streamlining and, and. Automating those repetitive administrative things that basically anyone can do while you can still do that personal human touch element that you, um, find that is really important in your business.

Patti: Yeah, and I think what's so powerful about creating automations and workflows and a business is that it allows you. To spend your time doing the stuff you're really good at and showing up for your clients in a way that is more powerful and you look more professional. You look like kinda, you have your shit together even when you don't have your shit together, which is most of us a lot of the times.

Right. But like it's like. This whole process that looks really clean and really nice. And so it builds trust, it builds credibility and all of these things because this is and oftentimes is one of the first experiences somebody has with you and your business and your services. So it's really powerful when you have this really clean, automated, seamless process that then allows you to stay in your zone of genius and let sort of this magic happen.

Crystal: Yeah. And I think too, now, even being on the other end, sometimes when I, you know, say I enroll in a masterclass or a free workshop or what have you, I am very, like, I'm paying attention to the journey that I'm going through, which means did I get a confirmation email? Did, um, when I. Click paid or register.

Did it redirect me to a thank you landing page? Um, if I ever have an experience where I purchase something and nothing happens, like I'm not redirected to a confirmation page, I don't get something in my email right away, I start to panic. Yeah, I wait. Did it go through? Did it not go through? Now I'm spending time as now the potential client or customer emailing support, waiting for them to get back to me on a Monday at a nine 9:00 AM.

But now it's like Saturday morning and I have to wait, and then I forget about it. It like, it really, like you mentioned, trust, trust is a big thing, especially in the online space because we aren't talking to people on the phone anymore. We're not like shaking hands and giving hugs and, you know, getting referrals, um, like that anymore.

So the, you only have that one opportunity to make a good first impression, but it's also, um, I feel like it's like a way to show. Respect to people who are basically deciding to either give you their hard earned money, or maybe it's their time, you know, for a free resource, you want them to have the most seamless experience of being in your world, and that that can start like immediately from just them landing on on your website.

Patti: Yeah. Yeah. It's funny that you say that. So I recently signed up for a ceramics class and I spent money and I, you know, signed up, did all the things, and I think I got a confirmation email and I, I think I purchased like. Three or four weeks before the class started, right? Mm-hmm. I never heard from them again.

I never got anything telling me what to bring and how to prepare. I never got anything saying like, Hey, your first, your class is coming up. Here's the address again, like nothing. And so I started panicking and I was like, well, maybe I'm not actually in the classroom. I did get the confirmation email, but where do I go and is there parking?

Is there, you know? And so I start. Calling them, but then they didn't answer the phone and I was just like in this space, and I am a very type A person. I am always chronically early. I like to plan things out. So for me, this is like dread, right? Because I'm like, what if I show up and the class has been canceled or I'm in the wrong place and then I'm late for the class And like all these things in my little anxiety brain are freaking out.

And it all could have been taken care of. And that's me spending a fair amount of money that I've already given them. And now I'm second guessing and I'm like, is this really like, what are, what is their operation like? And is this gonna be a good experience for me? What is their class like? In the end, I finally got ahold of them only because their class.

Got canceled the first day because of a power outage. At that point, I had a contact and I'm like, is there anything? And he's like, no, just show up. And I'm like, okay. Well it would've been nice for you to tell me that, you know? And as a business owner, I'm seeing all of these ways that it would've been really easy for them to automate all of this stuff to make just a really supportive experience for me as the person who's purchasing.

Because that was my first experience ever with them, and it was pretty not great. I mean, overall, the class was excellent and I had a great time, but I really thought about getting a refund for a minute because I was like, I don't know what's happening. And my anxiety is through the roof. 

Crystal: Yeah. And our expectations now, like as a, as a buyer.

Yeah. The buyers out there, their expectations are. I don't wanna say the word hi, but they kind of are like those reminder emails. Like you have a call with me in 24 hours, you have a call me with me in an hour. You have a call with me in 15 minutes. You have a call with me right now tho. We're getting bombarded with that.

So now we're trained, like we're internally trained, where that's what our expectation is. And that that business owner had several opportunities to put in those like human touch points in the automation. Like it's, it would be very, um. Easy for them to show personality, to show appreciation, to say, don't forget to bring your favorite water bottle and your favorite, you know, X, Y, and Z.

Like tho. Those are great ways to show that human touch and that care. Mm-hmm. In the automation and as a person on the other end. When I get those, like when I get those automated emails, I just appreciate getting those automated emails, like someone took the time to sit there and make sure that they covered all their bases, you know, and make sure that there's reminders and how to get prepped that you get the most value for what you just paid 

Patti: for.

Yeah. Yeah. And again, it, it, it, it is respectful, like you said. I think that was a great way to say it, is it shows respect for that client, that potential client, and it just eases their little minds as they go through the process because you wanna be supportive of everybody no matter what, who they are and what their experie is.

Um, yeah. So I think that's really great. Um, and, and so where, when you start working with clients, at what point. Do you help them sort of realize, or at what point if, if somebody's listening to this, should they be thinking, oh, maybe it's time for me to do some sort of automating situation or something.

What is a good sign of that needing to happen in a business? 

Crystal: Hmm. Probably when you start feeling like. I mean, when you're drowning and you're feeling burnt out, you're probably like past. Yeah. Like, hey, maybe we should set something up. But definitely like, if you are feeling like you are just never, not even ahead, but just on time.

Patti: Yeah. 

Crystal: You know, like, oh man, I have, um, an appointment with someone at the dis discovery call tomorrow, and I haven't even prepped for it, or I haven't even sent a reminder email. I mean, if you don't even feel like you're on time, like that is definitely a, a sign. Um, that you can get very basic simple. Like we're not talking about automations that need to be complexed here.

Yeah. It just can be something like that reminder email that's automated, um, with the Zoom link. You know, people scramble for Zoom links all the time. You know, why not send that in an email to them telling them how much you know, how excited you are to meet them in 24 hours. You know, here's the zoom link again in case you didn't grab it.

Yeah. Um, and so if you feel like you're d drowning, you're burnt out and you're doing things on repeat and things that. Uh, don't take a lot of brain powers. What I say, if it doesn't take a lot of brain power and you're consistently doing it, or maybe inconsistently doing it, that is your red flag of, okay, I need to set something up where these repetitive low, like administrative tasks need to get done.

But it doesn't take away from the fact that just because it's administrative or it's um, doesn't take a lot of brain power. You know, that can create still a bottleneck in your business. Mm-hmm. So we did send that confirmation email if you didn't send that reminder email. Those are just very basic examples, but those can easily create a road like block for Yeah.

Essential lead to say like, Hmm, um, I don't trust this process, but also like, if this is a glimpse of how it is to work with you, like I'm not, I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy inside. 

Patti: Yeah. Yeah. So, and, and I think too, I think it's never too early, right? Like, I think the sooner you can get an automation going, the better because it, it gets you used to doing it and thinking about it, and it's more time that you can spend doing.

Trying to get more clients or giving even a better experience to your clients, right? Servicing additional clients. Any of that, um, is stuff that you can do. And I love that you're saying like, it doesn't have to be complicated. It can be really simple. So what are some simple automations that you find yourself kind of helping your clients with, or that maybe is a.

Is a dip the toe in water kind of starting point for people who are scared of auto automations or not? Sure. 

Crystal: Yeah. I had a workshop and, and it alive. In-person workshop a few weeks ago, and one of the, the first things that we covered was we need to do an audit. We need to do an audit of where you're spending your time, because typically it's not where we think we're spending time or we're not spending a lot of time on this.

Actually, we're spending way too much time on this, and so when we do that audit, the next step will be. What in this situation is repeatable? Um, what, what in the situation is inconsistent? That needs to be consistent. So we need to get clear about what you're doing on repeat. Um, and then from there, this is kind of where we go wrong for most of the time, is we wanted, we wanted then automate and streamline everything, right?

And so then we were like, okay, I have. 10 things I wanna automate, and then my business is gonna be awesome, and then I'm gonna scale and make lots of money and have a lot of time. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's like where we go wrong. We just want to start with one thing. And the way to decide what that one thing is is looking at again, what takes the least amount of brainpower, but it's consistently.

Repeated that needs to to happen so you don't have that roadblock. Um, and let's just, let's just automate that one thing. And if you don't have access to someone like you or me who has a little bit more experience in platforms and tech, um, I suggest like, just opening up your chat, GPT or whatever, you know, AI you're using.

Mm-hmm. Have a conversation and say, these are, this is what I need to see happen. This is what I want to simplify and automate. Um, and this is my budget and this is the type of business I run. What, what do you suggest for tech and what do you suggest to start out? And you'll be surprised of how detailed it will like, give you kind of steps to even get started.

But it's really identifying. What, what will actually help you in your business to either move the needle forward or buy back time? So that's, that's kind of the starting point. We don't wanna ever put all our energy and time and money into something that won't pay us back. It's like the wish stuff we wanna do, the things that we'll see a, an, an immediate impact, immediate value.

Patti: Yeah. Yeah. I often tell clients who I work with, um, that, that one of the best place to start is to start tracking your time, because when you're able to start tracking your time, you can start seeing tasks that you do that are repeated, and then you can say, oh, okay, I see this task. I see that I do this every day.

Two days or whatever it is now. Let's see, can I write down what I do and step by step? And then it's, I love that going to AI or you know, paying somebody, hiring somebody. But yeah, chat, GBT is great for that sort of thing. And they are super detailed and saying, this is the process I use, these are the tools that I use.

Is there a way to automate this? And the, the amount of detail it will give you in step-by-step instructions is pretty, um, exciting. But of course you could always hire one of us to help you as, as well. Um, so you talk a bit a a lot, I've heard you say several times, right? About that, um, that personal touch.

That human connection. Mm-hmm. So when it comes to, let's say, like an onboarding experience, right? Talk to us a little bit more about how do we in automations and processes, in an onboarding or any other kind of automation, how do we, you've mentioned it a little bit, but let's talk more about it. How do we keep that, that personal touch in there to make it feel really connected and keep your authentic voice in this automated robotic, for lack of a better term process?

Crystal: Mm-hmm. So. The contract process, the invoice process, all of that is very standard and it kind of limits us to like how much personality we should even be giving it because people don't expect it. Um, if you're, they're receiving an email at two o'clock in the morning because they signed a contract and they're getting a confirmation with a copy of that signed contract, they don't expect it to actually be you.

If I was actually getting an email from you at two o'clock in the morning with my signed contract confirmation, I'd be like, are you okay? I don't want you to be doing this, but you know, like, that's not good either. And so, um, my expectation isn't like the high personality, but I do want to receive some type of appreciation for, you know, signing on with you.

And so something that I've been doing for a while and it's something I actually learned from one of my own clients, and that's the beauty of. Running a business and working with very talented and experienced people. You, you kind of, you learn from everyone, right? And so one of the things I've learned, um, that I've implemented in my own onboarding process is I use, um, A CRM, so a client relationship management tool.

My preference is ddo, you've probably heard of it. Um, and I have a workflow set up where, um. The contract is sent out. Once the contract is signed, immediately the retainer, um, invoice goes out, or a deposit invoice, um, saying, you know, thanks for sending the agreement. Awesome. We're, you know, you can, this is, you can get like, fun in your copy of the email, but then they get the link to the invoice.

Invoice gets signed. Um, and then they get like the kickoff call scheduler link. But at that time, what's happening in behind the scenes on my end is I actually get a notification from Dato. This is all automated. I get like a little ding on my Slack saying that. You know, client A signed the contract, paid the invoice, um, scheduled a kickoff call.

Here's your reminder to send them a a Starbucks card. Mm-hmm. And what I like to do is, um, especially for my retainer clients, I will always send them a, like a little card that says, super excited to kick off things with you, um, to reach your 2025 business goals. You know, get caffeinated on me. So, and that happens at least 24 hours before a kickoff call.

And that's where, you know, maybe I'll delegate that part to my VA or maybe I'll do it. But I have also a system for that internally. Um, but that is like a really nice, unexpected way. Every single person that has received a Starbucks card from me before a kickoff call has said. That is like, I haven't even worked with you yet and I'm so excited to be working with you.

Yeah, because like those details and it's so streamlined, you know, it happens like a, a clockwork. Um, so even though my contract invoice, you know, scheduler link, all of that is automated, I still get reminders of when steps are done. And then that way if I want to send something more personable, that is my opportunity to do so.

Patti: Yeah. What I really like about what you just described is that it's a reminder that some of these automations can happen on the backend as reminders to you, and that it's not always the automations that are gonna be client facing, but some of them are on those back ends to make your life easier, um, and to remind you to have those personal touches.

I talked about this on a recent episode where. I had kind of a similar automation setup that would ding me when I have a new client and actually it was for my assistant and there was this really great service that just went outta business called Punk Post. And you could, um, pay, pay them to basically hand write.

They'd have artists that would hand write cards, um, and send them and they would have doodles in them and you could have confetti in them. And it was just this really fun. Loving way to just sort of get somebody excited and it's snail mail, which people love, and so people really love that. I did it for birthdays.

I did it for anniversaries with clients, and I did it for onboarding new clients. It was something that was so simple and so easy, and it was a manual step on the back end, but the automation was that reminder of saying, Hey, everything's been done. It's go time. Or Bing, Hey, it's their birthday, it's time to send a card.

You know, all of this stuff that was set up. So I think it's important to remember that there are all sorts of little ways that you can set up automations to have that personal touch. And I love that example of the Starbucks card. I think it's super fun. 

Crystal: Yeah. And it just. And it's optional, right? So we, yeah, the, the hurdle of the human touch, like we can automate all day long, but if human touch and that personal touch is really important to you and to your personal brand, there are opportunities to insert that.

You know, it's, it's not all or nothing. You can blend the two worlds together. 

Patti: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So. What are some of the tools that you prefer? So you mentioned Dato. Mm-hmm. Um, you mentioned Zapier, um, but not, uh, for us, Zapier is like second nature, right? So why don't you talk about some of the tools and some of the things that you like to use to automate, uh, in your business and in your client's businesses.

I 

Crystal: think that a, a solid project management tool is often underrated. Yes. So something like Trello or Asana or Clickup, which there is a little bit more of a learning curve, but if you have like a larger agency, can really be a game changer for tracking tasks, deadlines, project progress, whether that's with clients or in your own business with with a team, and.

Yeah, sure. It, yeah, it keeps things organized and in one place, but it does so much more than that, right? Like, that's just like the simple definition. So, um, sometimes when I, I'm working with a client and they have no project management tool in place, we're like, okay, the first thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna get ease.

On a free version of something. There's so many great free versions. Personally, I use Asana. I'm an Asana ambassador. I love Asana, low learning curve. Um, but it goes back to if you send me something in an email, whether that's a task or task related to a project or project stuff itself, or maybe you're, oh gosh, we're talking about it in Slack or WhatsApp, or.

Boxer or an Instagram dms, like that type of communication goes to those other platforms like email and dms to basically die. Right? We never found again, because when you wake up on Monday and say, I know we talked about. This project or this deliverable for this client, and we talked about due dates and colors and who is going to be doing what on what day.

Now you're gonna be spending time, um, and energy and lots of frustration to try to backtrack and be like, where do we talk about that? Was it in an email? Was it in a dm? Why not just put everything into. Asana, clickup, whatever, where the people who are working on that project, even if it's just you, you know, just knowing that all of that information is in one place like that saves.

So much time, so much energy, and it makes you look and feel like you got your stuff together, right? Like your client feels confident, things are, you can quickly see where we are in, in the project or in the task. And the, the great part, I think about the project management tool route is that it. Each task has like a due date section.

So even if you don't even have a due date, my advice is make one up, right? Yes. Yeah. But something, because otherwise like you won't get the alert, you won't get the reminder, and that's the whole point is to kind of like let you know when something's coming up, if something's overdue, you know? Mm-hmm. Um.

And, and, and then that way you, you keep yourself organized. It's one less thing to track in your brain and, uh, and one less thing to have piled up in your email and, and so forth. 

Patti: Yeah. And what's really great about that is that when you are also connecting other people to your project management tool, you can have whole threads of conversations and all the assets you need and everything for one task in one place.

So instead of having to have these conversations in Slack and then about this task over here, you can have a full conversation within that project management tool and have everything you need right in one place. And the other really. Cool thing about that is that even when you do have stuff in email, a lot of these have, um, especially in Gmail and things like that, there are tools that allow you to, like plugins, for lack of a better term, to allow you to just take an email and bop it right over to Asana.

I love Asana also, or to whatever your preferred project management tool is. A lot of them have that. So that's another way to kind of automate that is if there is something that's in here, you're like, Nope, I want it out of my email right now and I want it right in my project management tool. Boop boop, right from your email, you can get it into your tool without having to think twice, and I think it's good to remember that there's all sorts of like chrome extensions and things like that that can help do those little things to help keep those automations functioning right?

Mm-hmm. 

Crystal: Absolutely. Oh man. I have chrome extensions on Chrome extensions and I have also, um, like just Gmail has, like, you're just scratching the surface. If you're just using like labels, you can create multiple inboxes in your Gmail. So I have one that actually is called Asana Todos, and anything, anything that gets moved into that inbox, I have a Zap that then creates a task in a project.

So anything, you know what I mean? So I don't even have to like. Touch a Chrome extension if I don't need, if I don't want to. You know, like there's so many ways to do it, but again, that's going to a little bit more of like a complex area of automation. You don't need to be that complex. You can definitely start simple.

Patti: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I, I love that so much. So. Can you, uh, walk us through sort of a before and after experience of a business that you've worked with that was simplified with automation? 

Crystal: Totally. I can think of a few. Um, yeah, I think that, um, just going, so I'm a service based business myself, and I serve people who serve people.

And so I definitely specialize in like client onboarding, client journey down to client offboarding and grabbing testimonials and reviews, which are very important for, for a business, um, especially in the online space. And so a lot of times when clients come to me, that's kind of where they wanna start is client onboarding, getting things organized, maybe even delegation in their team.

Um, and so. Not having, like, when a business comes in and not even having like a welcome email template. And so we're talking about inconsistency. So if, if, um, a business owner has to welcome a client in that welcome email is crucial, right? It has important links, it has next steps, it has where to find things, who to contact.

That welcome email needs to be like saved on your desktop. But if your welcome email. Um, let's not even say automated, but if you don't even have a template for it, then you're risking being inconsistent in your communication and now you're like, oh, shoot, maybe, oh, I forgot to include this in my welcome email that I typically, typically do.

The client will need to know this. Um, and now you're sending out a second email and that could get potentially lost. And so the biggest difference from. Um, what I've seen, like from working with me to then now flipping around, um, just like the process itself itself, like templates, canned emails, and having things like that stored where if you're getting a lot of the same questions and a lot of like the next steps and say you don't have a CRM yet.

Yeah. And so you don't have like automated emails having canned emails and templates. Very handy. Whether that's. In your, in your Gmail and like the little template area on the bottom right hand corner. Or maybe it's like just basically having things in a Google document, you can simply copy and paste over.

Even having something, something like that in your process, in your internal system will save you a lot of time and um, and brain power. 

Patti: Yeah, and I, I love that you mentioned the Gmail templates because you have to enable that. And so not everybody realizes that that's an option. So if you have Gmail, you can go into your settings, and I think it's, it was called Labs, I can't remember if it's still called Labs, but something in your settings.

Just go through the little settings and at some point you can enable. Templates for your email, and once you do that, like you said, down at the bottom right, you hit three dots and you can set up templates. I use them all the time. Mm-hmm. Because some emails you can't send ahead of time, you can't schedule like some emails, you have to like inquiry emails.

Right. So you wanna respond. You have a typical kind of response to an inquiry. Great boom. And you can customize it at the same time that you're setting it, but then you don't have to rewrite all the same things. It's another great example of a way to automate something. I live for reminders. So right now that we're recording this, it's at the beginning of a month.

And so what happened this morning when I go to my email is I had update marketing trackers, update your expenses, send these specific emails to these clients about blah, blah, blah, and like, so I just had my whole list of things in my email that was waiting for me that I had set up in my project management tool to remind me and send.

And so then I just go in and send my canned emails and boop, boop, boop, and I do all of this stuff and stuff that would normally take me hours and hours to do and to remember what I'm doing. And then I'd forget half of it because I'm busy doing other things and I'm checking emails and I'm dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

It was all done so quickly and easily because I thought of these processes and I set them up and I have all the systems in place. And so it's amazing that when you start small and you start with one, and then you get a feel for like, oh yeah, look, I like the way that feels. And then you do another one and then you do another one.

And you get to this point where even using super basic, simplistic automations and workflows. Your, your stuff's together and you've got a lot happening and it saves so much time and it's really just amazing. And the more you do that, the more you identify opportunities that exist to then automate more, right.

Crystal: For sure. 

Patti: Super cool 

Crystal: building confidence too, because a lot of times you've never set up an automation before or a workflow, or you don't know what SOP stands for. Standard operating procedures. You don't have the confidence, right? You're just kinda like, oh, this seems so techy. I need to hire an expert expert now with AI and what's available for us, even like.

YouTube, um, you can, you could figure it out. And then once you do, you, you figure out the one thing you wanna automate and you do that, you do it well, then you'll start adding, right? Just, just kind of start small, like you said, and then you'll build that confidence to the point where you'll be like, oh, that wasn't as hard.

And look, it's doing the thing I said it was gonna do. And if it doesn't. Tweak it, you know, fix it every, everything you can pivot, you know, and I think set in stone, 

Patti: you know? Yeah, yeah. That's a great point too, is that you can set something up and then improve it later because it's okay to tweak and you likely will tweak your automations.

You will likely tweak your workflows because your business is going to change. Over time you are going to change. Your offers are probably going to change, your people might change. Like it's just the nature of having a business. So it's kind of great to, um, be comfortable with the idea of it changing.

And even to that, you mentioned an audit earlier. It's good to audit your automations, you know? Once a quarter or twice a year or something like that, and just sort of see what you have in place and see if they still make sense. See if there's anything that you can do to make them even better and to make the client experience better or make your experience better.

And don't be afraid to change things into check in on it, you know, over time. 

Crystal: A hundred percent. I recommend that because not even, you know, maybe you're getting feedback or your, you know, your business is pivoting, but hate to say it, but technology is not perfect. We want it to be perfect, but, you know, links might break.

Maybe there's an upgrade. Maybe there's a, you know, you have to refresh something because now it's no longer, you know, syncing with the other thing that you originally had set up. So it's definitely a good practice. Put it on your, on your calendar, put it in your Asana board. 

Patti: Yeah, 

Crystal: every six months. Just do like a little Guinea pig test run.

It won't take you much time, but it can save on that client journey. Having any hiccups. 

Patti: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So you talk a bit about creating, helping business owners create work life harmony in their business. So what does that look like for you personally, and how do your systems support that? 

Crystal: I love this question so much because I used to struggle with being online all the time, but then wanting to be the mom all the time, and it was kind of like, then I just got burnt out.

And so when I quickly figured out, and we hear the word boundaries a lot, whether that's podcasts, blog posts, social media. But creating boundaries that, that actually work for me. So I'm not just taking boundaries because someone said I need a boundary that I'm not gonna work after five. Um, I have, I have set a handful of boundaries and systems that protect my time.

Um, and so that looks like in my daily routine. So I focus my high priority tasks first thing in the morning, and I leave my afternoons for client calls or for deep. Work, and that's just something that works for me. Um, I haven't always had it set up that way because my life changed once my kids started JK and, and things like that.

But, um, my systems help me manage my day, so I'm not feeling like I'm constantly playing catch up. And I actually have a. On my calendar, like a, a block, a time block where it is called catch up, where I don't have to worry if I'm coming in after like a long weekend. Um, or I was at a field trip with my son and I'm thinking, oh, I have to play catch up.

I actually have space on my calendar, um, to play catch up. Yeah. And so I keep everything else as, as is so I have time. To do my high priority task, then I have time to have for client calls and to do deep work because, you know, as a service-based business owner, we can be on calls all day, but when are we actually going to do the work?

Right? Yeah. So we have 

Patti: to 

Crystal: create that in our calendar, but then the, the magic happens when, uh, we hold ourselves accountable to this. So this is where the trick is. You can have a. Tight calendar or very spacious calendar, but if you don't stick to what you said you're going to do and when you're gonna do it, that basically is a moot point.

You know, it's kind of like it doesn't even, it's not working for you. So. I created boundaries in these systems to protect my time. So if I do decide to work after a time that I said, you know what? I'm not gonna work after five on Monday, but it's 10:00 PM and you know, my kid's fed, he's in bed, my husband's outta town on work.

You know what? I feel inspired. I wanna, I wanna work because I want to do it. Yeah. And that's, 

Patti: that's 

Crystal: okay. You know, so the boundaries and the systems are there to protect my time. But if I decide to go outside, it has to be like. Uh, on my terms, right? Like, it's, it's not like, okay, my client says that something needs to be happening on a Saturday at 9:00 PM because, you know, we aren't saving babies.

Like, you know, what's a, what's considered a real emergency here? Um, so setting those boundaries and then. Holding myself accountable that no, I said, I'm gonna do it on this time. I'm gonna do it on this time. And people will learn. You know, clients will learn. They, and they love it. They love that. They're like, you know what?

I love that you have time on your calendar that I know you're gonna be working on stuff in my business. Um, but I also know that it's Saturday and Crystal's probably at soccer practice, and they love that. You know, that's the human element, otherwise. Yeah, you can hire a, get yourself a bot if you want to, or, you know, but that's the, the beauty of being in service-based businesses.

Right? 

Patti: Yeah. And working for yourself. I mean, to be able to, to build in that work-life balance, I think is huge. And I do the same thing. I'm very serious about my calendar, and it took years for me to get to a point where I've created boundaries and I rec. Expect my own boundaries when it comes to my time.

I, you know, in the beginning, which a lot of entrepreneurs do, especially as solopreneurs, worked days and nights and weekends and like just always was working. And now I'm very serious about my evenings and my weekends. They're mine. Unless, like you said, I'm like in the middle of a website design project and I'm like, I just wanna throw on a movie and work.

You know, like, but that's because it excites me and it makes me happy. I want to do this and it's very different. I also have once a month, I have no meeting weeks because those are weeks for me to just get work done without having those sort of constant stopping and going and all of that. And all of that information is on my onboarding paperwork.

So when I send that onboarding packet to my clients, it says, I don't have, I don't do client meetings on Fridays either, because those are my CEO days, my education days, my catch up days. So third week of the month. Fridays, no meetings and nobody has ever had a problem with that. And I hold myself to that because these are the moments where I can just like get in and get my stuff done and really work.

And I, and I just, I love that so much. And I think it's so important to, to do that type of stuff for yourself. A hundred percent. Yeah. I think this has been super great. So tell me, since I love tech, I mean, you've mentioned Sato, you've mentioned Asana. What are one of those your favorite tool or what's your favorite tool that you use in your business?

'cause I, you know, I love tech, so 

Crystal: Yeah. Okay. So aside from my project management, love for Asana, um, I do, I am a huge fan of Dips auto. It like. It's my go-to for client workflows. Mm-hmm. And it makes me look like the superstar, right? So anything from onboarding to contracts, invoicing, streamlining, all of that, dev Soto allows me to, to do that.

But then also. It doesn't just stop there. Um, I like to do check-in points with clients, um, and that's done through Dedo as well as if we're offboarding or collecting reviews or, uh, like Google reviews or testimonials. All of that is set up in the workflow and I have it to be fired off in certain points of the contract.

So if it's like a three month term, a six month, a 12 month, I set all of that up. Once and then it plays in the background. So that's definitely been, um, a lot of time to maybe set it up to the way I want. Of course, I had to tweak it and pivot it, and I still will update it and do my own test runs. But it's one of those things where you do a good job the first time.

Yeah. Let it run. Um, and then I also, you know, I'm a big fan of keeping my leads warm. The people who come in through my world. And so I do use, um, an email marketing platform. Flow desks is my current one. I've experimented with others before and my clients like active campaign or ConvertKit or known as Kit now, um, and so forth.

But flow desks is very, um, intuitive, easy, and uh, and I really personally love it. So that's in my tech stack as well. Um, I do love my Zapier, like we talked about. I have many, many apps. Yeah, in there, but it's really like, it might even be overkill for some people, but I also. Like to be in the know when I'm ready for it.

So I have notifications that will go into my Slack for my own business. Just letting me know like if an invoice was paid. I don't necessarily want all of that stuff going into my email 'cause I'm also a big inbox. Zero. Girl. Mm-hmm. Um, but I do like to, to get those notifications when I'm ready to see them.

Yeah. So even if it's a failed payment in my thrivecart, which I'm a big fan of, thrivecart checkout, it's a really great form if you have to sell things. Yeah. Um. So digital products, sell, checkout is Thrive Cart for me. And then a retainer, consultations type of checkouts is through Dato because of the client onboarding there.

Mm-hmm. But yeah, that's just like a small glimpse into my tech stack, but it's, it's also very simple. Um, you know, I know we have, well, there's so much out there that we can get excited about, but I even have to tell myself like Crystal. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are, why are we about to like, subscribe to this?

You know, what, how is this going to better my life and my business? Because of, there's so many options out there and there's so much new stuff all the time that I, um, it's just more to upkeep, you know? It's one more thing for, for it to break, if you will. So find something that works for you, and nine times out of 10, if not 10 out of 10, these platforms.

Like Asana, like dato, like flow desks. They're making their own improvements to their own platforms. Mm-hmm. So, like, you know, you're gonna be one and done. Like, it's gonna be like constantly improving and you're, you know, you're benefiting from all those updates that they, um, are putting into the platforms.

Patti: Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, I'm a, so you're Dubs Soto and thrivecart. I'm 17 hats and thrivecart, so I do the exact same thing I do. And Dubbs Soto and 17 hats are like the same thing pretty much. They're competitors and it's, that's a personal preference thing. But yeah, I, and the same digital all through thrivecart, but all of my retainers and things like that all come through, um, 17 hats.

So yeah, same. Same. Is there anything that you wanted to share about automations? 

Crystal: I would just say don't be intimidated. You know, just, just start with one, um, automation and there's so many people online who would be happy to help, I'm sure. Um, and if you don't have someone you wanna talk to, definitely check out check GPT or something of sorts to, um.

To see how to make it work for your business, but also keep in mind that if there is a platform that you're really interested in trying, a lot of them have free trials, um, for 14 days a month. Or, you know, maybe it's a limited to how many contacts. Um, and don't start the trial until you're absolutely ready so you can really try it out before investing.

And a lot of these platforms have a. Uh, awesome customer service support on the backend. Mm-hmm. So if you have any question, if it, like, if it meets your business needs, if you're not sure they have, typically they'll have like an educational backend where they have, um, tutorials via video or maybe a checklist.

Written step-by-step instructions. And if you do run into a situation where your tech is just breaking or you just cannot figure out why it's not triggering the way it's supposed to, you can reach out to their customer support. And nine times outta 10, you'll get a super friendly reply back from an actual human, um, who wants to make sure that you're a happy client, right?

This is their business. So I feel like if you're, if you're on the fence, if you're, um, you're not confident just yet, start with one. Pick your platform and then just know that you also have their, their support, right? Like you don't necessarily have to do everything on your own. 

Patti: Yeah. And especially when you're in a trial mode, these, they want you to work with them because they want your money, right?

And so they are going to answer your questions. So don't be afraid to use that chat and get the help and ask for what you want, because. They want you to have the best possible experience and make sure that you know this is right for you. So that's great advice. I always say that. Absolutely do that. Um, I think that's awesome.

So this has been super great. If anybody wants to work with you or learn more about you or anything like that, how can they find you? 

Crystal: You can find me on crystal eva.ca. I've got loads of resources there paid and free. Uh, we also publish two to three blog posts a month on how to streamline and scale your business with ease.

So there's a lot of great resources on the website. You can also connect with me on Instagram, um, at Crystal dot Eva virtual services for behind the scenes of how I run my business. And of course you can reach out to me anytime for any of those platforms. That's great. Thank you so much. This has been amazing.

Thank you so much, Patty. 

Patti: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Biz Magic Podcast. Like most small businesses and podcasts, we rely heavily on word of mouth. So if you like what you heard today or in any episode, please share with your friends and colleagues. And rate, subscribe and comment on your favorite podcast platform.

Till next time, cheers to your magical biz success.