Don’t Outsource Creative Business Systems: Why I Want To Empower You To Build Your Own Process Instead (Case Study)

“ The whole point of systems in session is to empower you to build your own process and to be part of it.” (what David said about building his own creative business systems instead of hiring someone to set it up for him).

^^ I’m bringing you another case study episode, and it’s kind of ironic that it took me so long to bring David onto the podcast. He’s actually the person who really pushed me to finally create the sales page to sell Systems in Session. But when he said that line above, I was like YES. He perfectly described exactly why my clients love systems in session so much. Because you should want to be involved in the systems that you’re going to need to run your business.

I can’t wait to share more of his story today!

How Systems in Session Has Changed Since David Joined In The First Beta Round

If you listen to a lot of my case studies for Systems in Session, a lot of them say some version of:

“I wanted the confidence to do it myself, but I also needed someone to hold my hand and walk me through it.”

When I offered this to David originally, confidence wasn’t even on my radar. I was focused on automations. I was saying things like, “You need automations that work for you. I can help you get them.”

That was my entire focus.

What I’ve learned since, by interviewing almost every single client as they come out of Systems in Session, is yes, they got workflows that work. That’s what I promised, and that’s what they got.

But almost every single one of my clients has raised their prices. And almost every single one has taken what we built for their main offer and duplicated it for their other offers (without my help).

That’s a big difference. Since this case study took place, Systems in Session has evolved significantly. The core philosophy is the same, but the structure has been refined to help clients get better results faster and with even less friction.

Here’s what’s changed:

1. Strategic preparation now happens before we ever start building.

Systems in Session now formally includes mapping your customer journey and planning your client communication as structured pre-work. This ensures you enter your 60-day sprint ready to implement—not spending the first few weeks making foundational decisions.

2. Accountability and momentum are built in.

All clients now have four pre-scheduled 30-minute 1:1 calls during the first four weeks. These weekly sessions eliminate stall-outs, create real momentum, and ensure you don’t get stuck or second-guess your progress. If something isn’t done, we start it together.

3. Faster implementation for more real-time feedback and tweaks.

The goal is to fully implement the systems for your signature offer within the first 30 days. The remaining time is intentionally reserved for real-world use: testing, refining, and confidently duplicating those systems for additional offers as you go.

Why David Decided To Join Systems in Session For His Creative Business Systems

I think the honest, very subjective answer is the time of year. I’m a family photographer, and it was early March.

I’d had a couple of slow months, and I hit the point where I needed to overhaul my workflows. It just had to happen.

I started DIY-ing it. I was using your free resources, putting things together myself. And what I realized, probably something that’s pretty common for people who do well inside Systems in Session, is that I need to have my hands in the process.

I can’t really conceptualize it unless I start building it. I have some technical skills on the backend. I know HoneyBook well enough, and I’m not afraid to get in there and get my hands dirty.

But what I was really missing—beyond just the course—was someone to bounce ideas off of. Someone to coach me. Someone to double-check my work, tell me where I was going wrong, and give me confidence.

Basically, it was the confidence to do it myself.

Setting Up Automations Can Be Technically Easy, But Conceptually Hard

I think what continues to surprise me is how much more time goes into the prep work—the strategy, the values, the thinking behind the automation—than the automation itself.

Building the automation is actually pretty easy. Although HoneyBook 2.0 did make it a little harder for us.

But clearly laying out what you want to happen is the hard part. And I think that’s the step a lot of photographers are either afraid to take or struggle to visualize.

So that becomes a huge part of the process, and that’s also a big part of your skill set.

We Initially Built Long, Complex Honeybook Automations And Then Broke Them Down Into Smaller Automation Steps For a Better User Experience

They’re working really well. It was a big philosophical shift.

What was interesting is that I didn’t realize how new HoneyBook 2.0 actually was when I jumped in. They’d been talking about it for so long, almost a year, and rolling it out to beta users that I thought it had just gone fully live. The smaller chunks really do work now… we just had to rethink what a workflow actually is.

I’ll say this: I’m making some big changes in my business right now, so my workflows are going to change substantially. I also have a virtual assistant who’s great in HoneyBook, and she’ll be doing a lot of that work.

But none of that invalidates Systems in Session. It’s actually the opposite.

Because I built everything myself, with you double-checking me and catching mistakes, I now have the mental framework and understanding of the tool to help my assistant build new workflows.

If you had just built everything for me from start to finish, I’d be launching this new offering, the Inspiration Series I’m doing this year, and I’d be coming back to you saying, “Oh my god, what do I do?”

Instead, I have control over the process. And that’s huge.

Hiring a Honeybook VA vs. Joining Systems in Session For His Creative Business Systems: Which One Is Better To Do First?

David is the second person who has hired a virtual assistant immediately after finishing Systems in Session and I was curious… did he wish he hired them before joining? Or was it good he did Systems in Session first (like I suspected)?

My knee-jerk reaction is yes, doing Systems in Session first worked really well. There were definitely challenges along the way, and I can see the benefit of having my virtual assistant involved earlier in the building process.

But for me, for someone who needs to really understand their own business and how things are created, not necessarily to feel in control, doing Systems in Session first was the right path to take.

I was able to hand my virtual assistant the workflows along with a bunch of Loom videos. We also met in person and had a few conference calls where I could walk her through everything and explain how it all worked.

And then, because she’s a HoneyBook aficionado herself, she made some great suggestions and small tweaks to make the systems more assistant-friendly. I think that gave us a really solid starting point. I’m not sure it could have gone much better.

The whole point of systems in session is to empower you to build your own process and to be part of it.

Systems in Session Has Aged Well For David. Here’s What His Honeybook Systems Look Like Now (Almost A Year After Signing Up For Systems in Session)

This year, what really stood out was how I started thinking about automations in HoneyBook 2.0.

Instead of fully automated everything, it became more like an interactive checklist. Because of the platform limitations, we didn’t attach every email or smart file to go out automatically, and we were okay with that.

Especially since I knew I was bringing on a virtual assistant.

So when there was a task, a draft review, or something manual, I had a person helping connect the dots. What I really left Systems in Session with was confidence. I had confidence that when a client entered my pipeline, I knew where they were, what had happened, and what needed to happen next.

Some of that was automated. Some of it wasn’t. But I always knew where they were in the process.

Two years ago, I remember using a giant spreadsheet to track client journeys, manually checking off where everyone was.

This year, I could look at my pipeline and say, “They’re here. These tasks are next. This is the project status.” I was using tags for add-ons, tracking everything more clearly.

Was it perfect? No. And that’s not because of what we built, it’s because I changed things, hired an assistant, and HoneyBook 2.0 is still evolving. We’re actually fixing and refining a lot of that now.

But I had a baseline level of confidence this fall that I absolutely did not have the year before.

We Didn’t Implement What David Had On His Spreadsheet… His Entire Customer Journey and Workflow Changed

For me, building out the customer journey was the process. When I started Systems in Session, that was really what I wanted to overhaul.

I had a basic HoneyBook 1.0 workflow that worked fine, it was okay, but I didn’t feel like I was creating the best experience possible. I didn’t feel like I was getting the best feedback, offering upsells at the right moments, or sending questionnaires at the right time.

And I don’t know if you explicitly sell this as part of Systems in Session, but you’ve been around this stuff for a long time. You have really strong instincts around strategy.

So a big part of the value for me was being able to pick your brain. Should this questionnaire go here or there? Should it be one or split into three? Are we offering this add-on too late?

Are those things still evolving in my business? Absolutely. They always will.

But we completely rebuilt my client journey basically from scratch. And that was probably the biggest change of all. So much of this is a personal decision. You have to be part of the client-mapping process.

I know there is a general template for a client journey, but it’s in the weeds, the details, where the real differences get made.

Preparing For The Next Round Of Systems In Session

At the risk of repeating myself, I’d say this: the more time you spend thinking about your client journey before joining, the better prepared you’ll be.

That’s time you won’t have to spend inside Systems in Session going back and forth with yourself making philosophical decisions. You’ll still do some of that, it’s inevitable, but thinking deeply about your offers, your ideal client, and literally mapping the journey out on paper ahead of time makes a huge difference.

Where do you want to check in? What do you want automated? Where do you want to be hands-on? Where does an upsell make sense? Where should feedback happen?

You’ll work through all of that in Systems in Session, but I don’t think you can overthink it beforehand. The longer you sit with it, even if that’s months, the better the final result will be.

If you’d like to learn more and sign up for the next round here! I’d love to support you inside.