Business-First Creatives: Client Experience & Systems for Service Providers

What happens when you take a little time off from your business and accidentally come back with an entirely new business model? Apparently, if you're me, you build an app, create your own CRM, and completely rethink how you serve your clients. It's time for another quarterly Biz Bestie Chat with Sabrina Gebhardt, and let's just say we had two VERY different experiences in Q3.
While I spent my summer experimenting with AI, vibe coding, and building custom tools for my clients, Sabrina was navigating a major life transition as she sent her daughter off to college. That's exactly why I love these conversations. We're both running successful businesses, but what success looks like in any given season can be wildly different.
In this episode, we're catching up on everything that happened in Q3 and sharing what we're changing, testing, and prioritizing as we head into Q4. I'm sharing why I've decided to make The Experience Edit the starting point for working with me, how my approach to building client systems has completely shifted, and why I'm learning that sometimes the most productive thing you can do is NOT immediately jump into implementation.

Mentioned in this Episode:
Systems in Session: coliejames.com/systems-in-session
The Experience Edit: coliejames.com/the-experience-edit
Root to Rise: sabrinagebhardt.com/mastermind-waitlist
First Class Lounge: sabrinagebhardt.com/membership
Summer Camp: sabrina-gebhardt.myflodesk.com/summercamp

Our Quarterly Business Bestie Chats:
Q3 2026: coliejames.com/business-bestie-chat-q3-2026-with-sabrina-gebhardt
Q2 2026: coliejames.com/business-bestie-chat-q2-2026-with-sabrina-gebhardt
Q1 2026: coliejames.com/business-bestie-chat-q1-2026-with-sabrina-gebhardt
Q4 2025: coliejames.com/business-bestie-chat-q4-2025-with-sabrina-gebhardt
Q3 2025: sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast/q3-business-besties-chat-with-colie-james
Q2 2025: sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast/q2-2025-business-bestie-chat-with-colie-james
Q1 2025: sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast/128-q1-2025-business-bestie-chat
Q4 2024: sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast/q4-business-bestie-chat-with-colie-james
Q3 2024: sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast/q3-business-besties-chat-with-colie-james
Q2 2024: sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast/88-q2-business-besties-chat-with-colie-james
Q1 2024: sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast/75-quarterly-business-chat-with-colie-james

Connect with Sabrina
Website: sabrinagebhardt.com
Instagram: instagram.com/sabrinagebhardtphotography
Podcast: sabrinagebhardt.com/podcast

Y’all, the biggest revenue mistake in your business probably isn’t your pricing or your marketing. It’s what happens after the project ends. You deliver something beautiful, send the final email, and then... ghost. You feel shy about asking for a review, guilty about asking for a referral, and you assume they’ll come back when they’re ready.
Here’s the thing: they won’t always. Not because the work wasn’t great, but because life moves on and you stop being a priority. In this episode, I’m sharing what I found when I loaded all 551 of my past clients into one place and just how much of my cash collected in 2026 has come from repeat clients.
I’m also introducing my very first SaaS microtool, Untapped Potential, along with its built-in Retention Radar. It helps you nurture past client relationships one-to-one in about 30 minutes a week. It tells you when it’s time to check in and when it’s time to invite someone to rebook.
In this episode:
Why ghosting past clients is costing you real revenue
Why checking in with past clients counts as marketing (yes, really)
What my own sales data revealed about repeat clients
How Untapped Potential and the Retention Radar keep you on track without relying on willpower

Get early access: Check out Untapped Potential at coliejames.com/potential. The first 25 subscribers get an early adopter perk ✨

If you know you need to market your business but still find yourself staring blankly when someone asks what you actually did to market it this week, this episode is for you. Tayler Cusick Hollman is back on the podcast for a conversation about something that affects so many small business owners: we keep assuming we need more time, motivation, or willpower to finally become consistent with our marketing.
But what if willpower isn’t the problem? Tayler has spent more than a decade supporting small business owners with their marketing, and together we’re breaking down why collecting more marketing ideas isn’t the same thing as having a marketing strategy—and why knowing what to do means very little if you never actually do it.
We talk about creating a marketing plan based on your real goals and available time, becoming more biased toward action, and identifying the small steps that can actually move your business forward. We also get into the numbers behind your marketing, including customer acquisition cost, lifetime client value, and why your time absolutely counts as a marketing expense.
Plus, I’m sharing why documenting your marketing matters just as much as doing it. If something works but you have no idea what generated the lead or sale, it becomes pretty difficult to repeat that success.

Find It Quickly
03:39 - Willpower And Marketing
07:30 - Advice Vs Strategy
10:15 - Goals To Action Steps
15:11 - Bias For Action
17:55 - Make The List
23:36 - Start Small Track Data
26:38 - Marketing Metrics Nerd Out
32:55 - Project Manage Marketing
41:48 - Document And Measure
42:58 - Action Plan And Enji
47:10 - Mind The Gap Freebie

Mentioned in this Episode
Crafting an Intentional Marketing Plan with Tayler Cusick-Hollman [Marketing with Intention Series]
The Best Financial Strategy for a Sustainable Business is Overflow with Emilie Nutley
Mind the Gap Freebie: coliejames.com/gap

Connect with the Guest
Website: enji.co
Instagram: instagram.com/enji_co
Facebook: facebook.com/enjimarketing

What if the thing you create doesn’t have to generate leads, sell an offer, or prove its ROI? What if you’re allowed to make something simply because you freaking love it? That’s exactly what I’m talking about with my friend Julie Fried, host of The System for Everything. And unlike most of the podcast hosts I bring onto Business-First Creatives, Julie isn’t using her show as a funnel into a service or offer.
She created it because she wanted a place to talk about everything that fascinates her—from business systems and meal planning to reality TV, adult friendships, parenting, travel, and whatever random rabbit hole catches her attention next. And it turns out? That creative freedom has become one of the most fulfilling things she’s done.
Julie and I get into how she curates guests and topics, why she loves even the admin side of podcasting, what she’s changing for season two, and how she’s thinking about monetization without sacrificing what makes the show fun in the first place.

Find It Quickly
01:03 - Meet Julie Fried
01:32 - Pre Written Emails
02:23 - Why Julie Podcasts
05:33 - The System For Everything
08:35 - Choosing Guests
13:01 - Bad PR Pitches
14:16 - Admin And Workflow
17:09 - Social Media Choices
21:43 - Season Two Plans
24:24 - Ads And Monetization
24:53 - Producer Ad Read
26:39 - Curated Podcast Ads
28:00 - Choosing Ideal Sponsors
29:39 - Protecting Creative Energy
31:41 - Monetizing Mom Systems
32:32 - One and Done Talk
35:47 - Only Child Systems Ideas
37:27 - Summer Camp Logistics
41:21 - System Shutdown
42:57 - Travel and Couch Life
44:09 - Budgeting Video

Mentioned in this Episode
Laylee Emadi
Creative Educator Conference
Gaffin Creative
Captivate
Flodesk – Get 50% Off Your First Year
Systems in Session
The Experience Edit

Connect with the Guest
Website: dallasgirlfriday.com
Instagram: instagram.com/thesystemforeverything
Podcast: dallasgirlfriday.com/podcast

Profitable? Great. Sustainable? Love that. But if you hate delivering it, no system in the world is going to make you fall back in love with your business.
Last episode I asked you to do a time audit. Today I've got one more ask, and it's one you should do right now, while you're in the middle of serving clients. Because if I ask you in January how you feel about your offer, you're not going to remember. And the answer matters before we build a single system around it.
In this episode:
Why profitable and sustainable still aren't enough
Why the numbers can wait for slow season, but this can't
Why I can't help you build systems you'll love around an offer you don't
Why some of you need an offer review right now

Links mentioned:
How to Build Your Systems Using My Order of Operations → https://coliejames.com/building-client-experience-systems/
How Long Does One Client Actually Take You? → https://coliejames.com/time-audit
The Experience Edit → https://coliejames.com/experience

Want to know if the offer you've built your business around can sustain you long term? Let's look at it together: coliejames.com/experience