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

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

Jocelyn of Scale Your Resonance wants every one of her Best Seller clients making five figures from email, and yes, that includes me. Bold goal? Absolutely. In this episode, we dig into her new app, Email Studio. She built it for herself first, but you don't need to be a Bestie to use it, because it's open to the public and she's on a mission to get 100 users in the first 100 days. It's how I'm making email part of an always-selling marketing plan, and it can be part of yours too.
Because here's my confession: I sometimes email my list multiple times a day, my click rates are in the toilet, and almost none of my sales come from email. Jocelyn, who helped me launch this podcast four years ago, tells me how to fix it. We talk about the missing proof in your emails, why your best emails start out loud, and why "I'll just use Claude" isn't the same thing as a tool built on real expertise.
In this episode:
Why emails without client proof don't convert, and why the small progress wins count just as much as the big results
How a miserable afternoon writing emails in an airport lounge turned into a voice-note-first writing process
The moment a stack of AI skills needed to become an actual app
How to keep AI-assisted emails sounding like you and not like a press release
Why real users and real feedback are what separate a tool that works from a tool that just exists
What you get from a tool built on someone's frameworks that you won't get from plain Claude or ChatGPT

Links mentioned:
Email Studio (my affiliate link) → https://coliejames.com/jocelyn
My episode with Kara on why everyone's an AI expert now → https://coliejames.com/everyones-an-ai-expert-ft-kara-duncan/
My episode with Annemie Tonken on AI and IP → https://coliejames.com/beyond-diy-chatgpt-the-human-first-ai-blogging-tool-for-intentional-creatives/

For a limited time, grab Email Studio for $199 for six months (normally $299) → https://coliejames.com/jocelyn
Curious how I actually use this thing, or where I've written emails lately (volleyball bleachers included)? DM me on Threads: @coliejames

How long does it actually take you to serve one client? Not the session. The whole thing.
If you're not sure, you're not alone. When I review offers, I find the same time leak over and over. It's hiding in emails you write from scratch, proposals you rebuild for every lead, and the "quick" peeks into your CRM that you never count. This one's short, and it comes with homework. Yes, even if you're not my client.
In this episode:
The homework I want every photographer to do before slow season hits
Why your session time is barely part of what your price has to cover
The time suck almost nobody writes down
The phase that takes the least time but has the biggest impact on your revenue
The two templates I'd build first if you're too busy to build anything

Links mentioned:
The Experience Edit → https://coliejames.com/experience
Order of Operations Framework → https://coliejames.com/building-client-experience-systems
Find me on Threads → @coliejames

Do your time audit, then come tell me your number on Threads @coliejames. I really want to know.