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

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Standardizing Beats Reinventing
• 2:06 Welcome And Pain Of Project Juggling
• 2:32 Automations Before, During, And After Projects
• 3:17 Sponsor, Templates, And CRM Shoutouts
• 5:30 Kristen’s Corporate Roots In Efficiency
• 6:11 Structure That Protects Creative Freedom
• 8:06 Automate Money: Invoices And Follow‑Ups
• 8:27 What A System Strategist Actually Does
• 9:22 Why Go Deep On One CRM
• 10:28 Proving Impact And Client Reactions
• 12:09 Learning Curves, Trainings, And Mindset
• 13:12 Messaging That Drives Action

Transcript

Kristen Lettini: 0:00

I've made a note before when you were speaking now, like everyone's like, oh, well, each one's different, and everything is, you know, it depends. I really try to challenge my clients and work particularly with them to figure it out. Like, are you really that different, right? Because you just ran through the whole thing. So maybe we can have a little menu board ready for you that goes to maybe your menu is larger than others, but there are like some sort of templatized buckets that you have, I'm sure, within your business. And we should spend some time thinking about and how can we standardize them? Because it kind of sucks to have to go every time and be like, how much should I charge for this? How many, how many hours is this gonna take? Like, one, you're you're burning your hours just by making a quote every time. So if you can take some of that time up front, or maybe you know it's one thing and then you add to it as you go, but having that strategic thinking about, okay, is it that different, or what things can I can I replicate? Duplicate, repeat. What things can I repeat?

Intro: 1:00

Uh welcome to the web design business podcasts.com. Helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love.

Josh Hall: 1:11

Hello, my web designer friend. Welcome in. It's really good to have you here, and I'm excited that you're here because when you're a web designer, heads up, especially if you're new, one of the unexpected worst parts of the job is managing projects. It's fun and exciting at first, especially when you start to dial in your systems, but this gets ever so tricky when you get to a point where you're managing multiple projects. And my goal for you in this conversation, and my guest, Kristin Lattini's goal in this conversation, is for you to automate as much of this as you can to take as much of the project management back and forth off of your plate. In fact, we're getting past just project management in this conversation. We're actually gonna talk about what you can automate before the project even kicks off, all the way to offboarding a project and handling ongoing client communication as well. You can automate a lot more than I guarantee that you have set up. So we're gonna dive into what automations are missing right now and what Kristen, as an operations and systems specialist, is gonna recommend. Some auto reminders that you can literally get going on today to help save time in your business. How to choose the right CRM for you. Kristen and I both use 17 hats. We are super fans and I've been using it both for a long time. And we're gonna dive into what you can do to set your business up for sustainability. So without further ado, here is Kristen Latini. And again, as I mentioned, we are both 17 hats users. This is gonna come into play here, but I just wanted to give them a special shout out because they are currently sponsoring this podcast in my newsletter this month. And if you haven't yet, I definitely recommend grabbing my quote, invoice, and contract template, which you can get completely for free when you give 17 hats a free trial. You can use my link .com.co slash 17 hats to pick that up right now. And the show notes for this episode will be linked below, so make sure you head over there to get connected with Kristen. She's also the host of the Build Your Own Fairy Tale Podcast. I was recently on her show. We'll make sure that's linked over at the show notes as well. All right, without further ado, automation. Kristen, let's go.

Kristen Lettini: 4:38

You know, in the corporate world, I spent 13 years with a large company. There'd be like, you know, a SharePoint or something. Everyone cringed at, ooh, let me figure out how to make this work for me. And I've always just taken an interest to it and like tried to learn the rules to make it work for me. So I call it like an efficiency. Um, I can't I can't keep away from efficiencies. That's that's always been what I'm attracted to. So when I find a system that can do it, I'm like, ooh, teach me all the things. I want to do it all. Yeah, because honestly, this is all branching back to my corporate days. Like I felt like I had no white space, no room around the red, no room around the edges. I was in back to back to back to back meetings all day, and like no room to do work, no room to have fun, no room to be creative, right? And so the same is true as a solopreneur now, right? If you are busy doing all the administrative tasks, like you don't have room to be creative and do the fun things that you set out to do when you started your business. Cause I'm willing to bet that not one person listening started their business to like do the paperwork, you know. Yes, absolutely. Because I I know there's this like tension, right? A lot of creatives are like, oh no, I I it's every time it's different. It's very free-flow, and like I totally get and respect it. At the same time, when you put in a little bit of structure, you create so much freedom for yourself to really live into that creative freedom. So I feel like they they can live harmoniously, absolutely. When you automate, you know, invoicing and follow-up, hey, your invoice isn't paid, you bring in more money, right? So not only do you have more time, you could potentially be making more money. So it's yeah. Yep. I'm still working on refining this, Josh. But essentially, my favorite thing to do is find current 17 hats users who aren't using it to their fullest potential, right? Like, I joined 17 hats because I wanted to send invoices and I'm not using it for half the things I know it can do, but I just haven't had the time to learn it, right? So I love working with those folks to be like, oh, tell me what you're working on. Here's how we're gonna make it better from start to finish. Or finding those solopreneurs who are doing it all manually. They've got all the spreadsheets and the post-its, and you know, they're doing it by by themselves and introducing them to 17 hats and getting them set up so they can be like, oh my gosh, how did I not know this system existed? It's changed my life. So I love that. My my self-given title is system strategist, but I specialize in 17 hats. I also have a lot of love for Flowdesk and Asana, but 17 hats is the one where I really have I'm able to dig in and build those automated workflows from like when someone goes on your website, they raise their hand, hey, I want to work with you, Josh, to all the way through like how how did Josh do? Tell us how we did, like through that customer review from start to finish. Funny story. The answer is neither of those. The answer is when I left the corporate world, I had my podcast and I was speaking to a friend who's a photographer who happened to be using 17 hats. And after her podcast interview, we were talking, and I was still trying to figure out what the heck I was gonna make my business. Like, how was I gonna make any money as an entrepreneur on my own? And she said, you know, Kristen, I could use some help. Like, I'm using this system called 17 hats, and I know 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 in there. Let me, you know, jump in and see what I can find out. I logged into a training, I figured 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 my entire life. So it was ha ha ha ha ha moment telling me like the things that I enjoyed. Like, I love puzzles, I love figuring out a problem, problem solving, and then making the efficiencies of the technology. I was like, oh, well, that was really fun. So if you think this is amazing and 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 hats and like what a great company they were. And again, not paying us, but I was like, okay, I can get on board, I can really dive in and learn all the ins and outs. Because I also thought, well, I could go and learn a bunch of systems, but then every time I have a new client and a new system, I gotta have to start over, right? So I decided to dive deep in with 17 hats and you know, really take advantage of all the features, all the bells and whistles. That way, when a problem-solving opportunity comes up with a new client, I can be like, Oh, here's an instance where I can use this feature. So I think it's a hard thing to communicate to somebody who's not in it, right? Somebody who's not struggling or who's not not understanding the system, like somebody in the corporate world who has nothing to do with this, is like, huh? What? Okay. So in that sense, a little bit hard. I do think it's difficult to quantify the exact number of hours and things time-saved, example, because I need somebody to track it, right? To go from the before to the after. Um, but in terms of the qualitative, the client going, like, oh my gosh, I I don't know how I was doing this before I met you, and you just gave me so much 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 was new to me, but I was like, oh, you know, if X, then go over here to Y. That makes sense to me. Um, like I said, I've always been drawn to these platforms and technologies, and I'm curious to learn how they work. I did sign on for a couple trainings, right? Like that 17 hats hosted. So they were they were there for the taking. And I was like, okay, I'll want to 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 I bring to it, right? Is I have that corporate background. Like I speak and I worked in marketing communications for many years. So like I have that lens of okay, the client experience, right? And then now being the business owner too, I have that, okay, as a business owner, how do I make my life easier? How do I free up time? How do I follow up with those leads? How do I do the 17,000 things on my list? Um, so I'm able to marry those two. And I feel like I can speak both languages, and 17 halves helped me bring them to life. So that's your your ticket to the elevated brand, the strong brand, and hello, potentially charging 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 I were to write an email, at one point I was in charge of an email going to 160,000 employees globally every week. So that email, you better believe, was reviewed by at least 10 people, if not more, every week, right? So, like, I got really good at like, okay, does this work really need to be here? Is this really check all my links, like all that streamlining of how you're saying and what you're asking someone to do? Because it was just critiqued so hard. So now I sort of bring a softer, softer angle of that to my clients because okay, if you want them to do this one thing, you want them to click here to pay you, like let's not tell them five other things right now. Let's go.