Read time: 3 min, 43 secs

Hey there - it's Brian 👋

Let’s get tactical.

Read today’s issue if you’re terrified you’ll forget to do a big task for your business.

Because that’s how I felt.

I mean, for my business: the moment a client says “yes” there’s 39 action items we need to do immediately.

Bring on 10 - 15 clients a month and that’s 585 things to do!

So I built this system to track everything.

Automated. Simple. Nothing falls through the cracks.

So how the heck do you track what you need to do for ALL your clients?

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

For my friends: What’s going on with Brian?

It’s my last days in Boston!

I’m bummed I’m leaving friends and family, but excited to see Peru.

Anyway, I’ll finish writing you this email then go meet a client for lunch.

I’m ecstatic.

He just interviewed his top candidates. We’ll choose which will manage his CRM.

He runs an 8-figure business but he’s STILL in Hubspot updating statuses.

We got him someone so he doesn’t have to anymore.

Okay. Let’s get nerdy and talk about running your business: 👇

I’m drowning in things to do

There’s SO many little things to set up when a client wants to work with you.

585 action items!!

What the…

• Collect payments

• Follow up on deposits

• Send welcome package

• Make a Google drive folder

• Save a brief from the sales call

• Set up a kick-off call

Etc etc etc it’s a lot!

Do all these things and the client has an amazing experience.

Meaning they ask to buy from you again.

And that’s the sign of a good customer journey.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:
If you have fewer clients at a higher value, you have fewer tasks.

But each task is higher stakes!

Either way, we can’t forget to do what we promised we’d do.

So how do we track what we have to do?

We use Asana.

Because 585 tasks is crazy complex so we need to have the process as automated as possible.

⚠️ WARNING

This is about to get super tactical but let’s do it:

Once a client says “Yes!” it triggers an Asana task to be created with 39 action items (known as “sub-tasks” in Asana).

We get them done in 3 weeks so we’re moving fast.

I mapped out the steps from the moment the client says “yes” to onboarding to delivery to closing to check-ins.

➟ Onboarding sets expectations

➟ Delivery surpasses expectations

➟ Closing formalizes the process is complete

➟ Check-ins confirm the results of your work (and look for new pains to keep working together!)

Design these carefully and clients love you.

Anyway here’s a view of the action items we have in the first two stages in Asana.

(Then you open up the sub-task and all the templates are in there!)

• Emails we need to send.

• Links to resources.

• Processes

Etc etc.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:
Other software options instead of Asana:

• Monday (simpler UI)

• Trello (good for kanban boards)

• ClickUp (has more bells & whistles)

• Things (my favorite for personal tasks. Only for Apple. Not for teams.)

The tool you choose doesn’t matter.

It’s the process you put into the tool that matters.

If you don’t have a way to get organized just start with PARA.

Break everything into 4 categories:
➟ Projects: things with a deadline
➟ Areas: things with no deadline
➟ Resources: things that help you finish the other things
➟ Archives: things that are done

You don’t need to be a productivity expert.

Just be directionally good enough to not lose stuff and build a rockstar business.

I used to be nervous about sending the client TOO many emails…

I used to think sending too many emails was annoying.

The client paid for us to handle the problems, right? So let’s not bother them and just solve the problem.

Not true!

The client bought from you. They’re excited. They want to know what’s going on.

Think about your sale process.

You wine-and-dine. Email them a bunch of times. Customer is all excited. Then they buy.

And you send less emails? It feels like you stop caring once they paid you.

But this is when they’re most excited!

Wine-and-dine just as much after the sale as before the sale.

We jokingly call it the Domino’s tracker.

Take a look at the tracker below. See how you get alerted with each step?

It’s not annoying at all. It’s awesome.

So we do the same thing, but with emails:

• Here’s your job description

• We’ve sent out job postings

• Here’s your test they’re taking

• We have the first candidate pass. 2nd. 3rd.

• Ready to interview.

etc etc etc

Wouldn’t you love that experience more than paying someone who then ghosts you?

Since we send so many emails we track it all in Asana.

We’re building automations for some of these emails, but for now - Asana.

Tip: I love having an emoji at the beginning of each line to quickly see what the action is.

We always want the client to know what’s going on.

Because when clients have an incredible experience with onboarding and delivery?

They buy again.

And with that… I’m shutting my laptop and heading to lunch with a client.

I’m ecstatic to see how excited he is to finally get out of updating CRM statuses.

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
[email protected]
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P.S. Want me to help you get someone to take your admin tasks?

Let’s chat.

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