Influencer Entrepreneurs: Marketing Tips to Make You More Visible
Surviving in the entrepreneur world is not an easy task. Jenny teaches you how to build a stronger business with blogging and social media tips that are up to date and proven. No more trading time for money! She teaches content and email marketing strategies that helped her build her audience and sell her lifestyle blog for over six figures in 2019. As a former inner city school district teacher she understands the importance of breaking strategies into bite size pieces of information all with the master plan of giving you homework so that you can implement the strategies in your business immediately. Get ready to be able to put her strategies into practice after just one listen!
Influencer Entrepreneurs: Marketing Tips to Make You More Visible
From Overwhelmed to Organized: The Systems Every Entrepreneur Needs to Scale with Jackie Klein
Ready to break free from entrepreneurial chaos? This candid conversation between Jenny Melrose and Jackie Klein (former teacher turned HoneyBook educator and CRM consultant) reveals exactly why your endless to-do list might be the very thing preventing business growth.
Jackie breaks down the three essential systems every entrepreneur needs: a robust CRM that serves as your client journey GPS, strategic automations that eliminate repetitive tasks, and streamlined payment processes that prevent awkward money conversations. With practical advice on which system to implement first (spoiler: start with a CRM), you'll discover how to transition from scattered entrepreneur to organized CEO.
The discussion goes beyond basic systems to explore the nuances of content creation batching, strategic workweek planning, and knowing when it's time to outsource. Jackie's refreshingly honest approach acknowledges the overwhelm many entrepreneurs feel when implementing systems—sharing her own journey from Google Docs chaos to streamlined workflows.
Perhaps most valuable is Jackie's framework for deciding what to automate versus what requires your personal touch. Her insights on maintaining system flexibility as your business evolves will ensure you're never locked into processes that no longer serve your growing brand.
Whether you're a "scrambling entrepreneur" tracking leads in spreadsheets or "almost automated" but missing key connections between your tools, this episode delivers actionable strategies to transform your business operations. As Jackie wisely notes, "Chaos cannot scale, but systems can."
Take the first step toward reclaiming your time and building a business that runs efficiently even when you're not working 24/7. Visit kleincrm.co/quiz to take Jackie's free two-minute system audit and discover personalized recommendations for your business needs.
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This is the Influencer Entrepreneur's Podcast with Jenny Melrose, where I strategize with business owners on how to grow and scale their businesses to hit their income goals. If your to-do list is endless, you are scattered and all over the place and you're the bottleneck within your own business then this episode and conversation with Jackie Klein is for you. It is going to help bring you clarity on the systems that you need to put into your business in order to scale it. Hi, jackie, welcome. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good, Jenny. How are you? Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Of course. Thank you so much for agreeing to come on. I'm excited about this conversation about from overwhelmed to organize the systems every entrepreneur needs to scale with Jackie Klein. But before we jump into that, will you actually introduce yourself and your business to my audience?
Speaker 2:I would love to. So I'm Jackie Klein, the CEO of Klein CRM Consulting. I'm a former middle school teacher turned CRM consultant, and I'm a HoneyBook educator as well. So now I help women entrepreneurs streamline their business systems so they can focus on growing their business and not working 24-7. I was always the first when I was teaching the person to learn the new platforms. I would be the one sitting in the back when they would train us just like no, let me learn it because I know how to do it fast. So this is a really good meld of my skills because the consulting piece allows me to help people. But then I'm also I just love having this helping people with their systems so that are simple, effective and allow them to get more done with less stress. And don't we want all less stress?
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, yes, and I love hearing that you are a former teacher. I also was a former educator as well, so we have that background. I always find my teachers are great at educating and teaching certain strategies. Now I'm even more excited about the conversation.
Speaker 2:Me too there are a lot of us former teachers in this space. I've met a lot of them.
Speaker 1:Yes, no, absolutely. So what are the core systems every entrepreneur should have in place to grow without burning out?
Speaker 2:You know that's such a great question and I think a lot of people don't think about this. I've met a lot of women that are like overwhelmed by this idea. So really, the first one I recommend is a CRM client relationship management. This is really your welcome mat and your roadmap to your onboarding journey with your clients. Think of it as like a GPS. If your GPS isn't working, your clients don't know where to go and it really helps set the tone and if they know what to expect, they're going to be more excited to work with you. Really helps set the tone and if they know what to expect, they're going to be more excited to work with you. So it's managing leads, your contacts, communication. It just helps clients feel taken care of and you're not doing it. You're not sitting at your computer responding to every email, which is the best part which comes to.
Speaker 2:My next recommendation is automations. If you can automate it, do it. All those repetitive tasks, your client inquiry you don't have to do the back and forth of are you available today, are you available next week. Just send them a link. They can schedule, you get the notifications and it allows you to free your time on what really matters and build your business and network and do all those things you need to do. And the last one is payments. We've all had to do the are you going to pay me? Conversation with a client, because either I forgot or she forgot. And so this just if you set up recurring payments, the clients it's billed, they pay automatically. You don't have to worry about it and we all feel better when we know that our payments are coming in on time, because that helps us with our budget but it also eliminates friction, so you're not having those uncomfortable conversations with clients.
Speaker 1:Is there a CRM that you actually recommend, that you feel works really well for your clients?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's a great question. So I use HoneyBook, which is one of the thousands of. The first thing I learned when I started my business is there are a thousand CRMs. Which one do you choose? I found HoneyBook and they were doing a deal six months for a dollar a month and I was like no money, please sign me up. But I love it because, number one, they're constantly listening to their client input and changing things. Their tech support is top notch and it's very user friendly. It's very easy to find where you need to go. You know they have great templates, so if you don't want to build a template, you can just use one of theirs and, just you know, suggest it for yours. It's just. I love it because, number one, they're very client centered and and they want to help entrepreneurs that the founder set it up because he's like this solopreneur thing is lonely, let's, let's get together. So it's a great community too. So it has all those pieces which I love.
Speaker 1:Okay, see now, I always thought as HoneyBook as primarily for invoicing and that portion of clients, so it also has like an email potential as well, or?
Speaker 2:not as much and HubSpot, and so you're paying a higher price for those. But it does allow you to batch communication with current clients. You can also automate your communication. So if you have a package where you send them emails once a month, you can set up that automation so they don't you don't have to do that manually. So it does work with current clients as opposed to marketing to clients that you haven't worked with yet.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, that makes total sense. So if someone is starting from scratch, which?
Speaker 2:system should they set up first? You know, I will say it again, I think a CRM is the best place to start, which I know for because it was for me. It's a super overwhelming process. Now I had a Calendly link that I used, which is great. Calendly is a great tool if you're new to it.
Speaker 2:But what do you do with those leads? Those leads just kind of sit in your calendar and you don't really have any follow-up with them. So I would do this part of the business touches every client, from your inquiry to your onboarding, to your exit, all of it. And so if, even if it's something simple like a lead form that welcomes them and allows them to book, onboarding to your exit, all of it. And so even if it's something simple like a lead form that welcomes them and allows them to book a call, or a HoneyBook workflow that automates your booking and your contract processes, it just makes you feel more in control, which is a big thing, because, especially when you're starting a business, there are so many things I had no idea. I was like I'm going to start a business, It'll be easier than teaching. Well, kind of.
Speaker 2:Different challenges and then, once all that's in place, then you can start task management and building your system to be more inclusive. But if you have just a couple pieces to start, clients need to have a way to connect with you and they need to have a way to communicate with you. And social media is great, but it's very easy to get lost in those DMs, so this is a way to get them on your system so you can follow up with them more easily.
Speaker 1:Okay, excellent. So now, how do you approach content planning? Do you use a calendar or a workflow or something else?
Speaker 2:I love workflows. I tried the calendar thing and it just it felt too overwhelming to me to see those boxes and be like, oh, I have to put something in each one. So I batch. I've really got my YouTube channel up and going this year. So I plan one day, record one day, edit one day for two to three videos at a time, and then I can put them on the channel and then make them public as I add it to my newsletter.
Speaker 2:So I schedule it with my newsletter and then then it's all done and so that because I've been doing them one at a time and then I'm just constantly doing them, so I'm working on batching them because then that frees me up to do other things, because I can't spend all day, every day, doing content. Yes, and it would be easy to do that. Yes, batching for me is the key and then it allows me to stay flexible. Like HoneyBook at the end of last year introduced this price increase, that just caused everybody to freak out, understandably, and then I was like, well, I can do a video on this and questions to ask, and I just was able to do it because I had everything else planned so I could just move things around.
Speaker 1:Yes, no, absolutely. I do think that having those workflows, but, more importantly, the batching, I think a lot of people's brains don't. Necessarily we just look at our long list of to-dos and we feel, okay, we're going to just check these off, when in reality, if you could batch what you are doing so that you're not changing tasks and losing that time, changing your thought processes from one thing to the next, and I think I have found, as a former teacher, that this works really well for me, because that's kind of how I had planned my day with the kids as well.
Speaker 1:I was sticking with a particular content that I was teaching them, and that was what, how we kind of went through before we would transition into something else. And I do the same thing in my actual workday as well.
Speaker 2:I think it just simplifies it and it takes the pressure off, which I love, and if I can say, I've got three videos recorded, I don't have to edit them right now, I can come back. I'm realizing how much when you're recording yourself and it's exhausting. I'm like, how did I do this every day with kids? Because you know as a teacher you're all on. But that way you get that done and then you can take a break and then come back to it when you're fresh, which is what I love.
Speaker 1:Yes, and the fact that you're able to plan ahead and have those pieces of content scheduled and, like you said, be able to move them around, but also be able to have them scheduled so that if something comes up, life happens, you still have that content coming out, rather than feeling like you fell off the face of the earth because it has happened in life.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly. Which is another plus yes.
Speaker 1:So when did you know it was time to outsource or hire help within your business?
Speaker 2:So I'm actually kind of at that point right now. I have been in building mode most of the year. I built a membership that I've launched. I built the YouTube channel, I'm getting newsletters and it's a lot, and so I also want to launch a mini course this quarter and I want to start doing workshops. So I'm actually I have an interview next week with somebody to kind of help me with the backend of that, like the research piece, Cause I don't I've never done a course platform.
Speaker 2:I don't know what those are. I have the content already in my membership, so it's just repurposing it. I go down the rabbit hole when I could spend hours in researching and I, frankly, just don't have time for that. So for me it was kind of more of a slow buildup. I mean, as a solopreneur, I'm just used to doing everything on my own. But I started feeling more burned out and more overwhelmed, and I started this business to not be burned out and overwhelmed. So now I think it's time to start, you know, maybe just five hours a month or something get a VA to kind of help me with those backend tasks so I can do more of these interviews and build the business and work with clients, which is really my goal.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I honestly that is. I find with a lot of my clients that point of feeling frazzled and as if they can't continue to build because they're, like you said, wasting so much time in that rabbit hole of doing the research phase and a lot of them don't get out of that research phase, which is they won't make a decision, which I think is always helpful when you have a community that you can go to, whether you're part of a membership or you're working within a mastermind program or you have a business coach that you're actually working with.
Speaker 1:That's always beneficial to kind of hear the what has worked for them, how they are using it and how to apply it within your own business, for sure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I thought, oh, I don't need a colleagues anymore, I'm just doing my business wrong. You need a community. I have a coaching and a community with her and been a game changer, because I'm not by myself, even though they're all over the country and I've never actually met them. It's been such a huge support.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's amazing, those relationships that you actually do build and when you do finally get to meet them in person. I hosted an in-person retreat recently. It's just so good to finally be able to the hug them in person, and you have that relationship with them.
Speaker 2:Yes, I so agree.
Speaker 1:This is why, honestly, I've run my masterminds for that exact purpose, because it gives you that close knit community where you really start to rely on each other and become friends. So I love that. So let's talk about how did you decide what to automate, what to batch and what to do manually Like? How do you make that decision process?
Speaker 2:It's a great question and I think it's very easy to get stuck in that. What do I do? What's so? I'm learning that the more I think about things, the less I do things. So I'm trying to automate the most I can Anything repetitive or time consuming I automate. So all of my inquiry, my workflow, is automated on HoneyBook. So if a client signs up for a call, depending on the package they choose, it'll walk them through different steps. Most of it is they schedule a call first. Several of them will get a questionnaire to help me prepare for the call. It also sends them reminders, so I don't have to worry that they're going to forget or I'm going to forget, because HoneyBook sends me reminders too, and then these are tasks that happen on repeat. It just frees up time and there's nothing better than getting those notifications on my phone that someone signed up for a call or someone signed a contract or someone paid. I love those For batching, really for content creation.
Speaker 2:I batch everything, which is what we've talked about. It just content takes a lot of time, and for a long time I was like I don't want to do this Because I didn't feel confident in it myself, and then I just had to jump in and start doing it. I'm learning that about businesses. Sometimes you just have to jump in. So now that I'm in a routine and the newsletters were not as intimidating as I thought they were, it doesn't take me as long. But if I can get three done at once and get them scheduled, then I don't have to think about it, and so that's really the goal.
Speaker 2:Manually, anything that's personal or like if I'm working with a current client, like I have a client right now I'm building a system for her and we've had some glitches and so I'm constantly messaging her saying here's what's going on, because I want her to know where I'm at. I don't want her to just be wondering okay, I paid you this money, what's happening, kind of thing. And like in HoneyBook contracts, you have to personalize before sending them out, which makes sense. You've got to add the client info and dates and all of that. So anything that requires a personal touch I do manually because I like that personal touch too. So I have a Slack community on my membership where people can just ask questions, and it allows me to be accessible to them without taking up a lot of time.
Speaker 1:I want to go back to batching just for a second. As far as batching, do you also batch your days? So you mentioned content creation, right? So content creation for YouTube will be very different than if you're writing a blog post. Do you find that you will actually batch like Monday is your video creation and Tuesday is your writing content? How do you? And Tuesday is your writing content how do you?
Speaker 2:I'm still trying to work that out. I did that first, but now I'm finding for me if I do one of them, or like two a day, so I might record and then plan the content for the newsletter and the blog the same day. Because I found that if I go okay, today's my recording day, then I put more pressure on myself for some reason I have not figured out yet. So I try to do two a day and it's like Tuesdays, wednesdays or Thursdays are kind of my days. I try to leave Mondays and Fridays more open.
Speaker 2:So I might record three videos on Tuesdays and then draft the newsletters that go with that. Record three videos on Tuesdays and then draft the newsletters that go with that, and then Wednesday I would edit and then do the blogs and then Thursday make sure everything's scheduled. So that's still kind of a process for me, but I found that if I try to do all one thing one day then I can burn myself out. So I'm trying to find a better balance of that.
Speaker 1:I can burn myself out. So I'm trying to find a better balance of that. Yes, we actually inside my membership are in the process now of looking at our tasks as far as like active and passive. How can we actually look at what's taking the most energy and what level of energy are they taking, and being able to then plot it into your calendar as far as for your week, what does it look like to be able to get in there and actually apply that active task that needs to happen? That is higher energy compared to, like a passive task.
Speaker 1:So, personally for me, when I have to train live, my training day is all one day. So I will bop from my membership to a mastermind to another mastermind and I'll even get clients in on some of those days, because I'm very much in that mode of let me analyze your business. We're gonna get very deep and specific, whereas when I'm doing content creation day recording for YouTube, recording for the podcast it's not so much aimed at their businesses. I can use examples and stories from different businesses, but I'm not as diagnostic as I am on that one day where I have all of my members and my masterminds.
Speaker 2:So, yeah. And that's a drain too. So if you're doing all of that in one day, that frees up those other days for maybe more cognitively deep thinking, which is good.
Speaker 1:Yes, and Fridays I just that day of all my trainings is Thursday, so that Friday I can kind of sit back and say okay, let's plan for the next week. Let's feel like we're not exhausted and trying to get back to everything. So very good, yes, All right. So how do you keep your systems flexible as your brand grows and evolves?
Speaker 2:You know, and that's, I think, a lot of people go. I don't want a system because I don't want to be locked into something, and systems actually allow you to grow and evolve In my. So what I? I start with the basics first. So when I started using HoneyBook, I just did the scheduler. I had my contracts on it, I had my invoices on it. I didn't really do automations. True story I, when I started playing with automations, I sent the link to a friend and nothing happened because I didn't know how to trigger it. So I had to learn that. And so then, as I got those basics built, then I was able to do the automations. And then and HoneyBook is in beta testing right now they're calling it automations 2.0, where you can have conditions. So I'm slowly building those where, if book a call and they don't book right away, I have follow-up emails that I'm gonna just automate every couple of days that I don't have to do so, as my and my offerings have changed a lot since I started.
Speaker 2:I started as a virtual assistant and then I totally made a pivot, and even in the last year I made a lot of changes, and so as those things change, I need to update the system. So I make time in my schedule for that. I regularly review and tweak. Sometimes the links don't work, which is the most frustrating thing to me, but if I hear that, I have to go in and fix it right away. But I don't expect them to be set in stone. So every few months I put time in my workflow to just go in and check and see where everything is and I can also tell based on if somebody has booked a call with me. I can go and look on their project to see what's been sent to them to determine if that's working as well. On their project to see what's been sent to them to determine if that's working as well. So it just allows me to identify gaps and bottlenecks and tweak as going as I go, and then I leverage tools that can grow with you.
Speaker 2:So I think this is the biggest thing. So I intentionally choose the tools and platforms that I don't have to change, which is why I've been with HoneyBook for so long, because it's grown with me. It's able to change with me and I think you don't want to reinvent the wheel, you don't want to just jump off and be like. You know, when HoneyBook announced their price increases. People were like I'm done, but that's a big thing.
Speaker 2:To switch CRMs is not a small task. So now, but I know those tools can adapt with me. And then I am a tester, almost too much Like I will try something five times with three different email addresses to make sure it works. So I'm learning just to do it twice because I drive myself a little crazy. So just, or I'll send it to a friend and say hey, can you look at this, can you try it? And then they'll report back. So I think I'm always willing to test and to tweak, because you have to tweak but it doesn't have to happen all the time, and the key is just a mindset of continuous improvement.
Speaker 1:It's never going to be perfect, and that's okay, yes, oh, my goodness, yes, especially because things continue to change. Software evolves and updates and you've new platforms that come in and things that you can use. Being able to go with the flow is very much being an entrepreneur, especially if you're doing it online, right? Yes, absolutely change is a constant. Oh, my goodness, yes. So tell me about your free two-minute system audit quiz.
Speaker 2:So I just launched this this week. So it's a free two-minute audit. It helps women entrepreneurs assess their current systems and then spot areas that might be holding them back. So it's just 10 questions and then it gives them a score and there are three categories scrambling entrepreneur, almost automated and systemized CEO. And then it gives them tailored recommendations.
Speaker 2:So if you're a systemized CEO which is great are you really ready to scale? You know, maybe you need to meet with me and we can do a consult package where I really help you make sure all of those systems are in place, almost automated. My membership would be a good place for them because they almost have it. But this gives them continual support and text and ability to answer questions and actually grow and meet new people too. And then scrambling I don't want people that'll think, oh, I'm a scrambling entrepreneur In some ways.
Speaker 2:We're all scrambling at one point or another, right, but these are for the people that are maybe using Google Docs to track their leads. They're using, you know, manual scheduling and they could put it all in HoneyBook and just save themselves so much time. So then you know, it just gives them. It gives them a place to start, because I think the thing that I found when I meet people is they're like well, I don't even know where to go with this, and it's it's. It's really intimidating at first, so this gives them a place to go. Okay, this is what I have, this is what I need, and it gives them some steps to help them make those changes.
Speaker 1:Yes, I feel like a lot of us are creatives, so a system sounds very boring. Yes, it does, and not something that we want to put into place. That's not why we started a business, but in reality, it is the only way that we are going to continue to grow and scale and be able to more or less duplicate ourselves, potentially with other people within our business.
Speaker 2:So yes, I love that. Duplicate yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a perfect way to see it no-transcript, because I mean honestly, the main asset that we have is our time, so if we can utilize it better, there's only so much time in the day, so being able to utilize it the best we can is only going to benefit us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, Jackie, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me and share your knowledge with my audience. I appreciate you. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me and share your knowledge with my audience.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you. Thank you so much. It was great to be here.
Speaker 1:The truth is that chaos cannot scale, but systems actually can. Jackie gave us systems and practices to put into place in this episode that is going to be able to help you scale your business with those systems. Episode that is going to be able to help you scale your business with those systems. No-transcript.
