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The Marketer’s Toolkit isn’t just a podcast—it’s a behind-the-scenes look at how top GoHighLevel (GHL) users are building smarter, scaling faster, and creating systems their clients actually use.
At the heart of it all is Tom Bristol—the brilliant mind behind The Marketer’s Toolkit. Known for his out-of-this-world support, rapid innovation, and uncanny ability to solve GHL’s most frustrating gaps, Tom has become a beloved creator in the GoHighLevel community. His Toolkit gives SaaS builders and agency owners the edge they need to rise above the noise.
In each episode, you’ll hear real stories from Toolkit users—creative founders, niche SaaS pros, and accidental agency owners who turned a system into a sustainable business. From intuitive dashboards for neurodivergent users to automated onboarding that scales with heart, these stories show what’s actually possible inside HighLevel.
🎧 Hosted by Virginia Scheuer, co-creator of the In the Spotlight YouTube series and long-time Toolkit power user.
Whether you're building a SaaS from scratch or refining your white-label GHL experience, this podcast delivers clarity, community, and copy-paste strategies you won’t find anywhere else.
Brought to you by The Marketer’s Toolkit
Allan Simmons [00:00:00]:
Foreign.
Virginia Schauer [00:00:05]:
Welcome to in the Spotlight, a Marketer's Toolkit special where we highlight members of the toolkit, what they're doing in their SaaS, how they're using the toolkit. You're going to get an inside look at the back end of the Marketer's Toolkit and at the same time get some maybe great ideas for your business as well. If you're on the fence of joining the Marketer's Toolkit or you're in there and want to see more features, or you're just someone out there that are looking for ideas for your business, you are in the right spot. My name is Virginia Schauer and I'm your host. I've got Alan Simmons on the books to do an interview with us at the Marketer's Toolkit and let me tell you, I'm so excited about his interview and I'm going to tell you why. The reason is is because when we did an optimization call, and by the way, you can get an optimization call too if you are in the Marketer's Toolkit and you want to know how to do more things in the system. The Marketer's Toolkit provides so many tools to help you with your CRM that you've got to check out what is missing. So if you want to book that call, I'll put that in the show notes here.
Virginia Schauer [00:01:18]:
But anyway, I had a great marketers toolkit optimization call with with Allan and Alan, I found out what Allan does. Allen created his own app for carpet and rug cleaning businesses a long time ago, even before apps and the Internet apparently, which he'll tell you more about, I'm sure. And then he was introduced to High Level and so he urged that into his own system system, which I think it was totally brilliant. And then on top of that, he was able to create when a carpet cleaner or a rug cleaner is out and about and actually in their van, they don't have to step a foot into the High Level back office does everything from forms and clicks of a button thanks to the Marketer's Toolkit. So I'm excited for you to listen to him during this podcast episode because he's going to tell you all of his secrets and all of the ways that he is using the Marketer's Toolkit to enhance his application. So let's get started. Hi Alan. Welcome to in the Spotlight.
Virginia Schauer [00:02:34]:
I'm really excited to highlight you and your business.
Allan Simmons [00:02:37]:
Hi Virginia. Great to be invited to do this. It's an honor. Thank you.
Virginia Schauer [00:02:40]:
Awesome. So what's one thing you're most proud of right now in your business and the way that you're using the marketer's toolkit with that.
Allan Simmons [00:02:49]:
I think the thing that I'm most proud of is I've been selling software to guys for many, many years and it's humbling the trust that those guys have had as I've transitioned over from an infusionsoft platform integration to a high level platform integration. And those guys have trusted me to move their businesses over to the high level platform as well. And the marketers toolkit's really sort of helped me ease that over as well. So yeah, that's the thing I'm probably most proud of.
Virginia Schauer [00:03:15]:
So how did you make that happen? Can you tell us a little bit about your business and how you integr create the toolkit into that?
Allan Simmons [00:03:23]:
Yeah. So I come from a carpet cleaner background. I am a carpet cleaner. The crazy thing was long, long story short, I was doing A levels, looking to go to university and work with computers. In the meantime, while I was waiting for results, I started carpet cleaning. I realized I could probably earn more money carpet cleaning than going to university. So I started a carpet. We started the carpet cleaning business and I realized that I needed to systemize this and computers were very new at the time and I knew we could systemize it.
Allan Simmons [00:03:48]:
So we start developing our own system to run our computer carpet cleaning business. So that's how we got into the software side as well, to develop into our business.
Virginia Schauer [00:03:56]:
And you said that you first used infusionsoft for that and then you moved over to high level.
Allan Simmons [00:04:02]:
Yeah, so I developed my own software. It's called Get Booked Up. We now sell and license that to all the carpet cleaners. But I built a. That's an offline PC based system. And this is before the Internet was even dreamt about. And then the online systems came along and I'd already built a lot of that automation into my offline system. As systems like infusionsoft came along, I started looking at them.
Allan Simmons [00:04:21]:
I looked at ActiveCampaign many systems and I built an integration into Infusionsoft and many of my users followed me on that integration and started selling infusionsoft and the integration into it through a partner. And then about three years ago, I got really frustrated with the fact that infusionsoft wasn't going anywhere and started looking around and I found the high level platform and the high level platform at the time looked a little bit clunky compared being a developer and sort of being able to Say oh, I want a button there that does this. It was a little bit frustrating not finding that. And then when I started looking around, well I found the Marketers toolkit and that allowed me to start being almost a developer within the high level platform and customizing it to make it more usable for myself, my office staff and other users.
Virginia Schauer [00:05:05]:
Awesome, awesome. And what way did you make it easier for them in terms of by.
Allan Simmons [00:05:10]:
The way the Marketers toolkit impacted? It was exactly those type of things I wanted to be. I wanted a specific process and sequence of actions to happen and automations to work but I didn't want to have to go and find where I would set a task tag within the system. And I was just sort of wouldn't it be great if we just have a button that the guys just have to click and it says on there. I mean the probably the most useful tool that we've created is a button that we call Request Photos. So we use a feature within the Marketer toolkit that allows you to toggle on and off the text on the button. So one of the things that we frequently request while we're on a conversation with a client in the contact record is we need photographs. So I've created a button where we can just click Request Photographs. It drops down and there's an option for the type of request that we can make now when we make that request that automatically sends everything to the contact while we're actually with them and they get a WhatsApp message and email and they can reply back to that with pictures.
Allan Simmons [00:06:03]:
And if you try and send that request again when you go into that button it's telling you that you've already sent it and it's prompting you as to what you need to do next with it. So it's those sort of things that native within the high level platform would be a nightmare to do and you'd need to know where to look. Whereas we've been able to customize those buttons and the folders on the buttons to make that make very specific features on buttons. And the biggest feedback we get from people that have tried High Level either directly or have come from another agency to us in our industry is that they love the custom functionality of those buttons. Just being able to request photographs or trigger the review sequence based on the services that they've had because again it's a dropdown button that has a list of the services they've had and it just does it from there and triggers the other automations in the background.
Virginia Schauer [00:06:48]:
So you're Saying that you've created something where and I remember you saying this something about some of your clients don't even look at the back end of High Level. They are only looking at the page with the buttons and it automates everything they need for the non techie user per se.
Allan Simmons [00:07:06]:
That's it. Yeah. So when you're looking the backend of High Level, if you're non techie it looks a little bit scary. So if you've got a new inquiry and you have to click add new contact and work through all the elements and the fields you knowing which fields you need when you're taking a customer inquiry is very difficult to make streamlined. So I've been aware of link trees for a long time which is just effectively a web portal that has buttons on that takes to pages. So I've created a, what I call a business system portal where a user can sit in his van between jobs, log into his laptop, just log onto his systems portal and press a button that then opens the correct element of High Level that's needed or actually opens a form. And again this comes down to some of the custom buttons that that's in the marketers toolkit. We can actually open a form virtually anywhere we want, complete that in an iframe window, close that and that it just captures all the information we want.
Allan Simmons [00:07:54]:
So if we get take a rug inquiry we can press the rug inquiry button, the form opens, we ask all the questions that we need to and that just populates all the fields in the background without having to go and scroll up and down those fields on the left hand side on a contact record sort of things that have made it no nonsense. You ask this question, you ask this question, you ask this question. Just fill in this box. This is mandatory. Do we need pictures from this client? Yes. No. And that'll automate the, the photo request sequence in the background.
Virginia Schauer [00:08:22]:
For the, for the non techie clients that you have, what is their favorite feature in all of it?
Allan Simmons [00:08:28]:
It is that very simple new client inquiry or an existing client inquiry where they can just update contact details without having to go into the back end of High Level. They can just open their web form, they can click the button that takes them to the relevant form, fill that details in, click Submit. It fills it into the back end of getbooked Up. So it's all those little, it's a combination of all those that mean they don't have to actually log into High Level.
Virginia Schauer [00:08:51]:
That is awesome. And how is this for what your technicians usually deal with? Is this something that already exists or is this something kind of new for them to work with in your industry?
Allan Simmons [00:09:06]:
There's other industry specific software out there, but it doesn't have all the integrations that High Level has. So there's other tools that will not talk about, but I've looked at those, looked at using those, but they don't have the integrations. And the other thing that was appealing about when I'd seen High Level and particularly Tom's toolkit is that I can add an element of customization in that that for want of a better word, scratches my own itches in my own carpet cleaning business. So instead of being having to force to use somebody else's software in a particular way, I was able to customize it for me and then obviously offer that as a benefit to other subscribers to my software, my SaaS offering. So it was the fact that it is different. It is the connectivity of High Level with the marketers toolkit making the forms, even down to the opportunities. So some of our guys. So I have a rug plant as well and every rug that comes in is logged onto the rug dashboard, a pipeline, an opportunity pipeline.
Allan Simmons [00:10:04]:
And the marketer's toolkit allows me to put some of those forms within the opportunity so the guys can open the opportunity. The rug may be in the it needs a specialist treatment stage, so the guys can open it, see what specialist treatment's needed, make notes, but then they can open a form and update the specific parts of that that have been done for that treatment and close that all within the opportunity. So again, that's a very simple interface instead of having to go into the contact record and find all those individual bits. So they're loving the fact that I often work with a lot of the users that we have and customize the software for them. So if they come up with a great feature, I think, oh, I could use that in my business. So I'll build that into you. And all of our users benefit.
Virginia Schauer [00:10:43]:
That's so great. If you were to see another niche serve like yours, what advice would you give them when they're first starting out to create something like you've created to.
Allan Simmons [00:10:54]:
Create an agency product to sell into that niche. I'd say there's all in any industry, in our industry there's different operating models, so there's sort of man and van, he's doing virtually everything. There's a guy that has probably one or two technicians and then there's guys that have multiple vans and offices and they all have different itches that need scratching. So make sure you find out and identify what market they are in, what model they work and find out. Ask, just ask good questions. The classic who, what, where, when, why questions, what's your biggest problems, etc. Listen to them, don't try and drown them out with every feature that you've got. Listen to the two or three core issues that they have and then show them them features.
Allan Simmons [00:11:32]:
So I'd say just think about meet your client, where they're at rather than selling them what you've got.
Virginia Schauer [00:11:36]:
Absolutely. I love that. And can you describe the different snapshots that you have and how you've separated those?
Allan Simmons [00:11:43]:
Yeah, so the snapshot that I have is for that man and van. So most of that is based around making sure that the last thing a guy that's busy out cleaning carpets and upholstery needs is when his phone rings. If he misses it, he needs that missed call text back and that type of tool that's in there when the web forms completed. What I always say is, I think of get booked up is a what? Yeah, what say get booked up. We give you proven automation systems that have been created by somebody that's been where you are and understands the problem that you have. So as a one man operator, we know that it's a hassle answering your phone and it's a hassle getting back to customers that have left voicemail messages. They've often moved on to somebody else. So that one man in a van, we sell the benefits of the missed call text back.
Allan Simmons [00:12:27]:
When they fill the web form in, it uses the called connect. So instead of having to get to the end of the day and deal with all the messages, hopefully they've been able to do that in the van through the web form, through the forms, instead of having to log into the back of the fire level. So we talk about how easy it is to keep on top of all that, how easy get booked up or manage all those leads, whether it's a phone call, web inquiry, Facebook lead, Google Ad lead, because it's all coming through that common dashboard in 15 minutes between jobs. You can catch up on all of that. And they've had the missed call text back, you can initiate the calls, there's all the automation happening in the background to make sure that you've got tasks when you get back, to make sure that all that's done and we'll give you your evening and weekends back. Whereas when you speak to the guys running an office, they want the phone calls to come through. So we actually have the web form immediately calls the office, it says there's a web form inquiry. We use the callback to try and get High Level to contact the client back and then we have automations off of the, the back of that if we can't get through that.
Allan Simmons [00:13:23]:
Because most of my guys are still using my offline software, what that also is doing is through an API that's updating their local system so they're able to actually get the telephone call in from a web page. From a web contact form, they'll get a phone call, they can log into their offline software, upload the client data into the offline software and have the online software open. So then get all the benefits of the immediate connectability in the background. But they've got all the very niche pricing tools that my offline system uses. So if you've got guys in an office that run multiple vans and you want to be able to book two or three vans to a particular job, my offline system still handles all that job management and quote management and proposal options far better than High Level. So we pitch that in as an offering.
Virginia Schauer [00:14:09]:
I love how you can piece together different types of tools and bring it all together with the toolkit and High Level. It makes those two pieces like truly a foundation. Yes. And. Yep.
Allan Simmons [00:14:21]:
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. There's. There's a very. It seems so little, but one of the things that you can do with the custom buttons is you can actually put a JavaScript function on the button. So I've got a little button that allows us to. If you're in the High Level platform looking at the contact record and you need to open the offline system, we can just copy the contact ID from High Level and get that into the offline system, the offline system and open the contact record that way. So you're not going to go searching for it.
Allan Simmons [00:14:47]:
Just a button and you're through to the offline system. And we couldn't do that natively in High Level. It's the functionality that Tom's toolkit gives us with it behind those buttons.
Virginia Schauer [00:14:57]:
So you mentioned the buttons for contacts and then the forms within Opportunities. Is there another piece that the toolkit offers that you can think of that you utilize heavily or those. Your two main. That's all you did was just use those two main tools and boom.
Allan Simmons [00:15:15]:
On the sort of user front end, they're probably the main things. On the agency side, what we love is that in those, in that, let's say the man and van businesses, we can lock off menu items in such A way that they can see that they're there and we can tease them as to what else is there, but they're locked off and they can't get access to them. And we can do that in a very bespoke way differently to how the options within High Level are. So it gives us a very granular control over what they can actually get into at the different levels of the software that we sell. And we find that that has a, oh, what's this do effect? Or what does that do? And they're asking. So we find a user will ask, what. What is that? What's in there? So. So the marketer's toolkit gives us that opportunity.
Allan Simmons [00:15:56]:
What we also like is that the marketer's toolkit, we're in the uk, so High Level is very American. So we can change the captions on buttons. So we don't. We tend to use the phrase diaries rather than calendars. So I can change calendars to diaries and that type of thing. And the other one as well that works for us, for users is I've built an API integration into the stamp mailing platform. So the stamp is a. They produce online.
Allan Simmons [00:16:24]:
Sorry, they. It's an online platform that produces printed documents, so you can do letters, postcards, so you can generate mailings, either bulk mailings or. Or one off mailings. And I've built an API integration into that. Now, again, another feature of the toolkit that I like is I can hide those workflows and I can hide the custom values and the elements about that that are used within those workflows. Users can't look at that and sort of poach my IP away for what I've created there. So it allows me to add additional functionality that makes my product sticky, but equally protect that IP that's in there because I can hide things with the toolkit.
Virginia Schauer [00:17:00]:
Well, that's so good. That's great. Is there. So besides the toolkit and besides High Level, for those out there, you know, putting their own SaaS together, is there a productivity tool that you use that is your favorite? Beyond those two, I've always loved Zapier.
Allan Simmons [00:17:21]:
But I was introduced to Pabbly more recently. For probably the last 12 months, I've used Pably far more than Zapier. I just like the interface more. It plays better. They have a new interface in there as well. So I like Pabbly. That's probably it. I use.
Allan Simmons [00:17:34]:
Well, I use personal planning tools. So any good planner that. That fits you. I'm adhd, so I use a planner specifically. For sort of ADHD brain thinking. So just a good planner, good task list. And then Pabbly's been again, there's things that you can't do natively in High Level, but you can make the API call out to Pabbly, push it out to Pabbly. Pabbly does the work and pushes the data back in.
Allan Simmons [00:17:55]:
And again that allows us to do things that link our offline system into our online system. So some of our users have a preferred diary system that they use. So I've built them a custom link from our system into High level back out to their preferred diary system and again the links between those using predominantly Pably because that saves me having to host it on a server for myself. And they've got complete control over it if they want to leave.
Virginia Schauer [00:18:21]:
That's great. That's great. And I know us as SaaS providers. We're always tinkering and we're always building new things. Right. What is, can you like give us a sneak of what you are building or what you're tinkering with at the moment?
Allan Simmons [00:18:35]:
My favorite tinker at the moment is my rug dashboard. So the management of rugs in and out through the rug spa. So we have a fully automated rug plant and it checks in rugs and walks them through the whole process. So from the initial inspection, so we know what rugs where. So if a client calls in, we know where it is within the plant, we know what stage it's at and more importantly automates the chase calls to get them booked back in.
Virginia Schauer [00:19:00]:
That's amazing. That's so cool. Ellen, it's such a pleasure speaking with you. I love what you're doing. I think that there are so many people who could run their SaaS the way that you do and making it a lot more tech friendly or tech proof even for their industry to create things as easy as possible for the end user. And you have done that brilliantly utilizing both High level and the marketer's toolkit. Thank you so much for coming on and best wishes to you. And get booked up.
Allan Simmons [00:19:33]:
It's an honor. Thank you, Sam.