If you’ve ever heard me nerd out about workflows and thought, “Dang, Colie really loves a good automation,” you wouldn’t be wrong. But here’s the thing: lately, I’ve realized most creatives aren’t actually struggling with the tech—they’re struggling with workflow readiness. And today, I’m breaking down why your emails (yes, those emails) matter way more than you think.
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This one’s for all the creatives who want their systems to finally work—but are starting to realize that what you say in your emails matters just as much as the automation behind them. In this episode, I’m sharing:
- Why I’m not “just the workflow girl” anymore
- The real reason most business owners aren’t ready for workflows yet
- How client communication became the heartbeat of my strategy
- What sparked my new obsession with helping you write emails that sound like you
My Shift from Workflow Obsession to Communication Clarity
Okay, y’all—let’s talk about the elephant in my inbox.
For years, I’ve been helping creatives automate their businesses using Dubsado, HoneyBook, Airtable… you name it. But here’s the thing most people don’t realize: the automation is only as strong as the assets inside it. And nine times out of ten, when someone tells me they “need help with workflows,” what they actually need is to figure out what they’re saying to clients—and when.
That’s when it hit me: client communication isn’t something we add to our systems. It’s what powers them.
I used to avoid talking about email strategy because I’m not a copywriter. I don’t have some fancy formula. But what I do have? A whole lot of experience building trust, reducing ghosting, and making my client experience feel personal—on autopilot.
And that, my friends, is worth teaching.
Why You Might Not Be Workflow Ready (Yet)
Let me keep it real: if you’re still emailing “What time works for you?” back and forth with clients, you’re not ready for workflows—you’re in the communication asset phase.
Your CRM isn’t the magic. It’s the container. And if you haven’t built what goes inside—your scheduler, confirmation emails, intake forms, and reminders—then yeah, it’s gonna feel messy.
I say this with love (and a whole lot of empathy): workflow readiness starts before the automation. The systems only work when the foundation is solid.
What’s Coming Next (And Why I’m So Pumped About It)
Starting April 29th, I’m kicking off a free 3-day challenge called The Systems Glow-Up: Email Edition. It’s not about turning you into a copywriter—it’s about helping you write emails that sound like a human (aka YOU) and actually move your client experience forward.
I’ll help you prep the messages your workflows need—so that when you’re ready to automate, the words are already working for you.
Want in on the Email Glow-Up?
Hop on over to coliejames.com/glowup and join the free challenge. It’s low-pressure, high-impact, and will finally give you a starting point for writing those emails you’ve been putting off.
Review the Transcript:
Hello, hello, and welcome back to Business First Creatives. If you’ve been hanging out with me for a while, you know I love talking about workflows, mapping them, automating them, nerding out over every single step inside your CRM. But today we’re gonna talk about something a little different because I’ve had a major mind shift.
Colie: For myself and my business, and I feel like it’s time to create an episode so that when people ask me why I’m not so focused on workflows anymore, I can just send them to this episode to listen. Okay, so the bottom line is I’m not just talking about workflows anymore. I’m talking about client communication.
Now, don’t worry, I still believe workflows are absolute magic. But in this episode, I wanna tell you why communication is actually the real secret sauce in your client experience and why you are gonna hear me talking about it a whole lot more going forward. I’m gonna be focusing on what you say, not just when and how you say it.
So let’s back up just a tiny bit. Why haven’t I talked more about this before? To be honest, I didn’t think I was qualified. I have said it many times. I am not a copywriter. I have never built some signature storytelling method or created a plug and play formula for writing emails, not newsletters, not client experience emails,
Sure, I can tell you what emails you need for your client journey. I know the types of messages that would exist at every single step. When it comes to how, how to infuse your personality, how to make it sound like you, how to write something that actually connects. I didn’t feel like that was my lane.
Now, sure, I love a good gif. I love a good emoji. I love telling you how to write exactly like you talk, but to me that’s not a framework. That is just my opinion. So for years I focused on workflows. I built automations and I gave people templates. Something still felt off because here’s the thing, we all follow similar steps in our business, but the difference is in how we communicate.
So whether you’re a photographer, a designer, a planner, your client journey probably goes through inquiry, booking, onboarding, delivery, and offboarding stages. Those sound really familiar, right? The bones are the same. But what makes the experience yours is how you communicate through those stages of your client journey.
It’s your voice, your stories, your why, the things that your clients actually care about. And yes, I know the best practices. You should be doing customer interviews, you should be reading your testimonials. You should be looking for common phrases and patterns. And the best marketing that you can do is using your voice of customer.
Like paying attention to the objections that your clients have when they’re trying to make a hiring decision. I know all that. I do all that, but I’ve never felt like I had a clear framework for taking those insights and turning them into storytelling client experience emails or killer website copy. I didn’t have a teachable process for it, so I didn’t think I should talk about it.
Maybe it’s the math professor in me. I just feel like if something isn’t super strategic or analytical, I’m probably not the person to teach you on it. I’m the girl who majored in math and procrastinated on every single research paper I ever wrote in grad school. I agonized over the sentence structure. I second-guessed every comma. Still do.
So when I considered taking the time to teach you how to write emails inside of my program, how to find your voice, how to communicate clearly, I froze Total imposter syndrome. Because even now I still feed my long form content into chat GPT, just to double check the grammar. Not ’cause I don’t know what I’m trying to say, but because I don’t trust myself to say it right or I worry that someone is going to find like a grammatical error and then it will negate everything important that I said inside that blog post.
That’s when it clicked for me. I may not be a copywriter, but I am someone who’s built trust and connection through my client experience emails. I’ve automated communication and made it feel not robotic, and I do have a clear idea of every client message and what it should include. So maybe I don’t need a copywriting framework.
Maybe I just need to give you the spark. And so that’s what I’m ready to do now.
Now let’s bring this full circle back around to workflows, because the shift didn’t happen in a vacuum, it happened after dozens of conversations. So as you may know, I am a certified Dubsado specialist, and we have a directory where people can go on the ddo website, read about all the specialists, and reach out if you want to hire one of us.
Now, the bulk of my inquiries from that directory have been, Hey Colie, I need help with my workflows. I always smile when I get one of these inquiries inside my inbox because nine times out of 10, that’s not what they actually need. They are not ready for workflows. They need help understanding their entire client journey, what happens at every stage, what assets they need to create at every stage, which includes those client experience emails.
And if you don’t have those pieces, you are not ready for me to help you with workflows. You are still at the asset creation stage.
I’m just gonna give you one quick example before I move on. So say you wanna offer a consultation call. You can’t just build a workflow and expect the magic to happen. Before you sit down to map out the actions and triggers that go inside that workflow, you need to already have the scheduler created, the confirmation email, the reminder emails, the form where you are going to collect information about them.
All of these need to exist before you connect your workflow because Dubsado or HoneyBook or whatever CRM you are using, is going to ask you for those assets while you are creating that workflow. So if you’re still manually going back and forth on dates saying, Hey, I’m available Tuesday at 11 or 12, does one of that work for you?
You are not ready for workflows. Only when you can do a repeatable process and have all of your assets ready. Are you in the stage where workflows will be the most helpful for you?
Now, here’s what you can expect from me going forward, because you’re going to hear me talk a lot about client communication.
Not instead of workflows, but before you get to the workflow stage. Because your communication is what powers the workflow. It builds trust. It makes your people feel taken care of from the moment that they inquire inside of your business. And if you’re sitting here thinking, okay, Colie, but how do I know what to say in those emails?
I have something for you. Starting April 29th, I am doing a Systems Glow-Up: Email Edition. Again, this is not in place of workflows, but I feel like all of us need to get on the same page and client communication is the perfect place to do this.
So, if you would like to get in on the free 3-day Challenge, where I am going to be walking you through my framework and helping you create client experience emails that you are proud of, so that you are ready to create the workflows inside of your business. I would love it if you would join me. Go to coliejames.com/glowup
That’s G-L-O-W-U-P one word. All right. That’s it for this episode. See you next time.
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