I'm a Digital CEO, Help Me!

A series focused on navigating the creator economy, claiming the Digital CEO title, and answering your biggest business questions.

Your Question: How do I know which business systems are right for me?

Time Is Money, My Bébés

🗝️ Key Definitions + Objectives
🗝️ Failing to Plan is...Expensive
🗝️ The Process
🗝️ The Tools

The short answer: A blend of educated guessing and trial-and-error.

To get through the longer, hopefully more helpful answer, let's start on the same page with some important info.
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🗝️ Key Definitions

· Business Systems are the technology, platforms, and processes that set your business apart from the competition. You may also hear the terms tech stack or solution stack, but those are just punched up, buzzy ways to say the same thing.
· Technology, in this context, means the hardware + software you're using to create your business offers and run your day-to-day operations.
· Platforms are digital spaces used to host or rent your audience.
 ↳ Instagram is a social media platform.
 ↳ Kajabi is a Customer Relationship Management platform.
 ↳ Wordpress is a website hosting platform.
· Processes are the way you accomplish different tasks in your business. Hopefully they've got some rhyme or reason to them, and ideally they're documented in a way that could easily teach a new person how to complete those jobs.

🗝️ Key Objectives

When you're in the dreaming/planning phase of building a digital business, there are four key objectives to get squared away from the get-go:
01. Where to find your customers—and help your customers find you!
02. Where your customers can find your products/services.
03. How your customers pay you for your products/services.
04. How your customers access your products/services.

Every single one of the systems that I use in my own business is intentionally researched and selected to support at least one of these four key objectives. The more your systems can do for you, the fewer systems you'll need for a successful operation.

It's really that simple!

🗝️ Failing to Plan is...Expensive

The reason I recommend mapping out your business systems ahead of time, instead of just diving in head-first and course correcting as you go, is because (spoiler) there is no one single platform that will do every single thing you want it to do for you.

Take Kajabi for example (not an ad, I just love them).

They're a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, but they do a whole lotta stuff: website creation, offer creation, courses, coaching, newsletters + email marketing, community hosting, payment processing...The list is absolutely tremendous. And I really do earnestly recommend them to most people interested in a digital business.

But you know what they don't offer (as of this writing, at least)?

The ability to create a quiz as a lead magnet.

But I *wanted* a quiz as a lead magnet. Soooooooo, I had to find another platform where I could create a quiz and either: (A) integrate it into Kajabi directly, or (B) use a third-party solution (like Zapier) to get those two systems to talk to one another. Otherwise I would be spending all my time moving data from the quiz platform into Kajabi and chasing after those leads manually (VETO).

After carefully researching all the best quiz-maker options, 0 of them integrate directly into Kajabi. So, after judiciously avoiding it for years, I finally had to get a Zapier account. Not that I have anything against Zapier. I'm a big fan now that I'm in with them. But it was just one more thing to manage. And keeping my business systems as lean as possible is my goal.

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🗝️ The Process

Sadly, there is no perfect way to know exactly what systems you'll need for your business. Because your offerings, and the systems you need to support them, should evolve as your business evolves. But you can come pretty dang close to what you need if you spend some time really thinking about your whys and your hows. Why are you in this business in the first place? How are you going to serve your clients to bring them the best outcomes possible? Why does a particular offer light you up? How do you ensure that your client feels the same way about that offer?

So build your highest-value, biggest-impact offer first and then reverse engineer the rest of your value ladder from there.

🗝️ The Tools

My number one recommendation is to use Capterra—not an ad, I just love them!—to shop around for a solution that fits your needs.

Once you’ve narrowed it down to a few options, dive into free trials or demos wherever possible.

Don’t skip this step!

A platform can look seriously perfect on paper, but the user experience might not vibe with you, or the tool could be missing a critical feature that wasn’t obvious during your initial research. Dodge the bullet when you can, so that buyer's remorse doesn't f*ck up your balance sheet for the year.

Here’s my personal tech stack to give you a head start:

• Kajabi: My ride-or-die for website hosting, courses, email marketing, and community building.
• Zapier: The unsung hero of my business, making sure all my tools play together nicely, with as little manual data entry as possible.
• Dubsado: For planning, project management, and overall keeping my life in order.
• Google Workspace: My choice for emails and document management.
• Canva: The real, accessible MVP for creating beautiful graphics and visuals—don't come at me, designers 😘

Remember, these tools work for me because they align with my objectives and goals. Your business may require different tools, and that’s totally okay.
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🗝️ All that to say...

Choosing the right systems for your digital business might feel overwhelming, but it’s a necessary investment in your success. By defining your objectives, planning your processes, and carefully selecting your tools, you can save yourself time, stress, and money in the long run. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution—your tech stack should evolve with your business.

Take it one step at a time.
Trust your instincts.
And don’t be afraid to adjust as you grow.

You’ve got this, Digital CEO!
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