Every single month, I used to have my VA go through my course list one person at a time to make sure everyone who bought something actually got into the right course.

Because sometimes they didn't. My old checkout and my old email tool just weren't talking to each other properly, so someone would pay for one thing and land in another. Which is not exactly the first impression you want to give a brand new customer.

And on the service side, people could grab a spot on my calendar without ever paying. So I'd be sending awkward "hey, did you still want this?" emails and holding a spot that might not turn into money.

That's paid VA hours, my own time and lost bookings, all going to problems that really shouldn't exist. And I'm happy to say none of that happens anymore.

So here's exactly what it's like to be my client, from the second someone clicks buy to the moment the work lands in my project management tool. All handled in Ivorey.

You can either keep reading or watch the video:

My 3 kinds of clients

I have three kinds of clients, and each one goes down a different path:

• Course customers

• Service clients, like my audits and Pick-My-Brain sessions

• Custom one on one work

I'll walk you through all three, and then show you where Ivorey hands things off to Asana, because that part matters more than people think.

Course customers

The checkout page

Someone finds one of my courses and hits buy. Then they land on my checkout page. It's a two column layout, which was a non-negotiable for me when I was picking a platform. It also has an option to add an order bump, so they can add that to their cart.

Branded confirmation emails

Here's the first thing I love. When they pay, the confirmation email and the course access email come from me. I design them myself now.

It's all branded, with my logo, my color button, any text I want, and my signature. And it comes from my business email address.

Before, these came from my checkout tool, ThriveCart, and they looked like it. The email was from ThriveCart, with ThriveCart's branding, not my own. Now it looks like my business, sounds like me, and tells them exactly what to do next.

It might seem like a small thing, but when your work is good, you want the back end to feel like it too, right?

My branded client portal

After they get that email, they land on the login to the client portal. It's my logo, my colors, my login page. It even says learn.samanthakasbrick.com up top.

Nobody knows it's hosted on Ivorey unless I tell them. Which I guess I'm telling you now. But it looks like me. They don't see anybody else's branding on it, which is really awesome.

Once they log in, they see their course, and every lesson has its own thumbnail too. I'll be real, that was extra work I wasn't expecting when I moved everything over, because my previous platform didn't have that. But it does make it look really nice. I've made my peace with it.

Abandoned cart emails that name the product

If someone starts checking out and doesn't finish, Ivorey sends them an abandoned cart email that actually names the product they were looking at.

My old setup couldn't do that, because my email tool couldn't pull that information from my checkout. So those were sales I was just letting walk away.

No one lands in the wrong course anymore

This is the big one. No one's landing in the wrong course anymore. It's all in one tool, so there's nothing to break between them. And I no longer need the monthly VA check. Yay.

If you want to poke around Ivorey and try it out for yourself, you can click here (affiliate link). I only share tools I actually use myself or ones I've fully tested and stand behind, and this one is running my whole business right now.

Service clients: my Asana Audit funnel

For my one on one services, here's my Asana Audit funnel. In the back end you can see the steps: the sales page, the calendar booking, an upsell, and then a thank you page. I can add as many steps as I want and change them or rearrange them whenever I need to.

Why the calendar comes before checkout

I wanted people to be able to see my availability before they pay, so they know what they're getting and how long they'll have to wait. That's why the calendar comes before the checkout.

The checkout is actually built right into the calendar. They pick a date and a time, fill out their information, and pay right there in the calendar. Then they can schedule.

So nothing is booked until they actually pay. If they don't pay, they don't get a spot, because it's all in one flow.

The old 4-tool way

Before, it was a sales page on Squarespace. Then they went to Cal.com to pick a time and a date. Then they went to ThriveCart to pay, and then MailerLite sent the welcome emails. Four tools.

And if any one of them hiccupped, stopped working or disconnected from the others, I was the one finding out days later that something wasn't working and people weren't getting the good experience I want them to get.

Automated emails and intake forms

The automated emails live in my workflows now. For my Asana Audit, the trigger is someone buys. Then Ivorey gives them a tag to let me know they bought it, and sends them an email welcoming them and giving them their next steps.

That email also has a link to the intake form, which also lives in Ivorey. The form gives me all the information I need to do the actual audit.

The business keeps going when I can't

This is the part that matters most for me.

On a hard day when my daughter needs me or my brain just isn't cooperating, someone can find my audit, book it, pay, and get every email they need. And I don't have to touch any of it or worry about it breaking anymore.

The business keeps going when I can't.

Custom client work: invoices and contracts

The third kind of client is custom client work, where the price or scope is different every time. I'll be upfront, I don't do a ton of this type of work in this season of life, so I'm not using it to its fullest yet.

Under payments in Ivorey, you can set up invoices and contracts. I can set up a new invoice and attach it to a contract. I can upload a file or start one from scratch, then send it off for them to sign electronically, and then I sign it myself. Everybody gets their copy, all handled within Ivorey.

Ivorey is also a CRM, so if you're using something like Dubsado right now, it can replace that too.

I used SignWell for contracts before, and honestly the signing itself works the same. The difference is that it's all connected now. I can connect the invoice to it, and the client's information is all in my account. So I'm not jumping between different tools to figure out if someone signed and paid.

The handoff: where Ivorey stops and Asana starts

People ask me this a lot: if Ivorey does all this, do I still need Asana?

My answer is yes. I think everyone needs a project management tool, no matter how small or big your business is.

Ivorey gets the client through the door. It handles the paying, the booking, the signing and the welcoming. Asana is where the actual work happens: what I'm delivering, when it's due, and what's next.

So when someone signs up for an Asana Audit, they pop up in my Asana Audits project. I move them through the pipeline, and all the tasks I need to do live in Asana, so I keep everything on track and nothing slips through the cracks when it comes to doing my actual work. (If you want to see inside that client setup, The Asana Tour walks you through it.)

The two tools do different jobs and they don't overlap. That's why it works.

After the client has paid

The part where most of us actually lose track, and lose money, is after the client has paid. The deliverables, the follow-ups, knowing where every client stands without holding it all in your head.

I walk through exactly how I set that up, in any tool, in How to Set Up a Client Management System That Runs Itself (in any Tool).

And if you're not sure where the gaps are in your own business, my free Systems Audit Tool will help you find them.