How does your onboarding process work for gathering clients' Google Calendar access and other needed platforms?
Thanks for the question. On crushing tasks fast: I've been imperfect lately, but the key is to prioritize distribution over perfection—build a minimal viable version quickly, sell it, then improve based on user feedback. For onboarding, I hop on a kickoff call right after signing the deal. We go over timelines, expectations, answer any questions, then walk through the list of platforms (like Google Calendar) and sign up for everything live so I have all access up front. This avoids chasing passwords later. I've refined this into a simple SOP covering timelines, availability, platforms, and wrap-up, which gives the client full access by the end of the call.
I use make.com for the vast majority of my clients; it’s simple—just connect the account, click a button, and you’re done. For Google Calendar specifically, you don’t need to go through the full process of connecting a calendar to see events. If your goal is just to view events on a calendar, you can share that calendar with another calendar in the same organization, and the other calendar will see all events (and sometimes edit them) without needing the client’s Google Calendar. Instead, you can share your own Google Calendar, handling all the Google Cloud setup yourself. If that doesn’t work for your app, note that self‑hosted n8n will encounter more issues than cloud‑hosted n8n, requiring more frequent Google Cloud account handling. Cloud‑hosted n8n has built‑in direct OAuth integrations, making it easier (though slightly more costly). Overall, I think your mobile app idea is awesome and could be very valuable; just consider whether you can realistically invest the time and energy without immediate return, as SaaS apps often require that, whereas a service business lets you earn while you build, then later productize the solution.
It's a good question. My AI automation agency sells AI automations—primarily a monthly strategy service where I outline the shortest line path a person needs to take to improve their business growth. I actually do the building, so I’ll build out the automations and so on. My coaching arm offers a zero‑to‑one roadmap on how to get up and running with an AI automation agency, showing people what they need to do to build an agency similar to mine, plus some higher‑level coaching and one‑on‑one sessions for specific problems. So I’m selling quite a bit. As for onboarding, if you’re talking about my AI automation agency, it’s pretty simple. I get them on a kickoff call; on that call I have them sign up to all the platforms they need—usually about 10 to 15 minutes. I have a step‑by‑step list for each platform, pretty straightforward. Then I guide them through it via screen share; Zoom’s annotation feature lets me draw on the screen as they sign up. I’ll literally underline the button they need to press, tell them to go over here, click that setting, etc. At the end I’ll do two‑factor authentication, log into all the services on my end to verify I have access, and then I also cover timelines and expectations, get them laughing, and get them excited and stoked about me solving a problem they’ve had for a while. That’s how my onboarding works in a nutshell.
I'll do what's called a kickoff call where I get them together with me for a 30 to 45 minute period. I'll guide them through signing up for all the software platforms I want them to use. Typically I have three or four software platforms they need to sign up for. Most of the time, if we're doing something email-related, I'll have them sign up for a new Google Workspace profile. If they've never used a no-code platform, I'll make them sign up using my affiliate code—often something like PandaDoc. So I pretty much define sign‑up procedures for this: I send them all the links in the chat, they click the buttons, create the account, and then I have them do it with email and password so I can get it immediately and verify sign‑in right there. The issue with two‑factor authentication for most services is that people sign up using Google, which forces them through Google’s TFA system—a pain. If you get username‑password credentials, just add them to a password manager like 1Password, LastPass, or Dashlane; that eliminates a large portion of that issue. For the Google stuff, I typically log in using a software platform called Multi‑Login (multilogin). It’s great because you basically have to store the exact same credentials. Essentially this lets you set up dedicated browser profiles using residential and data‑center proxies so you can consistently log in with a static IP—the same IP address every time—minimizing the number of re‑authentications you need. Yeah, I use this for Google stuff from time to time; I don’t always use it, but that’s how I solve that problem. Hope that makes sense. If you guys have any more questions, feel free to drop them in the daily updates channel. Obviously this incentivizes my channel to grow because I get more engagement, and I can answer questions I get on this channel for the foreseeable future until it becomes unreasonable to do so.
I’d start by wiring automation between the stages of the onboarding flow. When a new client signs up, automatically invite them to a Trello board for the first stage and populate the board with all the resources they’ll need. Add check‑boxes for each required step, and use automations (or a webhook) to monitor when those boxes are completed. Once the checklist is done, move the card to the next stage, which can trigger additional actions such as sending contracts or setting up accounts. This Trello‑based workflow works well for agencies. As for the forms, you can handle them either way: have your internal team fill them out on behalf of the client, or send the forms directly to the client’s client. Many agencies choose to collect the information themselves first, then forward the finalized request to the downstream client, which keeps everything safe and ensures the information is captured correctly.