Tim Hershberger, Customer Journey Expert
Helping Small Business Owners Turn Chaos Into a Clear, Automated Customer Journey
I’m Tim Hershberger, founder of Automate The Journey, Inc. I’ve helped hundreds of businesses across dozens of industries grow by doing one thing really well: understanding their customer journey and building simple systems around it.
Honest strategy. Real automation. A clear plan for growth built around the way your customers actually buy.
Hi, I’m Tim — and I deeply care about the people behind the business
If you’re a solo coach, consultant, or small service business owner who feels like you’re wearing every hat — marketing, sales, customer service, bookkeeping — I see you.
For years, I’ve worked side-by-side with owners just like you: people who care deeply about their craft, their clients, and their reputation… but feel exhausted, confused, or burned when it comes to marketing.
I started Automate The Journey, Inc. to fix that — not with more hype or complicated funnels, but with honest strategy, clear messaging, and automation that actually supports your real life.
Hundreds of businesses. Dozens of industries. One core pattern.
Before Automate The Journey, I ran a web design and marketing company in St. Louis called Image Excellence Marketing. Over the years, I’ve worked with hundreds of businesses, including:
- Plumbers, HVAC, and home service pros
- Coaches, consultants, and local experts
- Massage therapists, wellness clinics, and health practices
- Accountants, legal firms, and professional services
- Restaurants, entertainment venues, and hospitality brands
- Ecommerce stores and niche online businesses
Different industries. Different personalities. Different offers. But the businesses that grew the fastest all had one thing in common:
We mapped their customer journey — and then built everything around it.
For a majority of the hundreds of businesses I’ve worked with, once we dialed in that journey, they saw substantial, measurable growth — more leads, better follow-up, fuller calendars, and more repeat business.
From $2M marketing budgets to scrappy small businesses
My understanding of the customer journey didn’t come from theory — it was forged in the real world.
I served as Senior VP of Marketing for America’s Incredible Pizza Company, a family entertainment center brand with six locations and a $2M+ annual marketing budget.
There, I saw at scale what happens when you get the journey right:
- Nurture campaigns that moved families from “I saw your ad” to “We booked a birthday party.”
- Email and SMS automation that brought guests back for repeat visits.
- Offers and follow-up sequences that turned one-time customers into loyal fans.
I watched how well-designed nurture campaigns and automations could literally push people through the journey — from first awareness to repeat visits — without relying on constant manual chasing.
After that, I spent around five years as a Fractional CMO, working with:
- Family entertainment centers and local attractions
- Ecommerce companies
- A wide mix of small businesses that needed a real marketing brain, not just another “funnel build”
Across all of those roles — corporate, fractional, and now ATJ — I kept seeing the same thing:
Good people. Great businesses. Broken journeys.
Here’s what I kept seeing over and over:
- Owners paying agencies that promised the world and delivered confusion.
- DIY marketing — late nights, endless tutorials, “maybe this new tool will fix it.”
- Leads coming in… but no system to follow up, nurture, or close them consistently.
- No clear view of what was actually working.
It wasn’t that these businesses couldn’t compete. It’s that the game was tilted toward big companies with big marketing teams.
And that never sat right with me.
So I made it my mission to level the playing field — to give small business owners real strategy and real systems, without the smoke and mirrors.
What Automate The Journey, Inc. actually does (in plain English)
Automate The Journey exists to help you:
- Attract the right people
- Nurture them automatically
- Convert more of them into paying clients
- Turn them into Cheerleaders who come back and refer others
We do that by building a joined-up customer journey on a modern, all-in-one marketing and automation platform that you own.
- Done-for-you funnels & campaigns tailored to your type of business (so you don’t start from a blank screen).
- Automated email & SMS follow-up, so no lead gets forgotten when life gets busy.
- AI “teammates” that help with strategy, copy, SEO, and follow-up — inside your own account, not in some separate tool.
- Simple dashboards & reports so you can finally see what’s actually working.
You don’t get random tactics. You get a joined-up customer journey that works the same way, every day.
The Customer Journey: the backbone of everything we do
Every business is unique — but the journey your customers take follows a familiar pattern. At ATJ, everything is built around this framework:
Get in front of the right people with clear, honest messaging and targeted campaigns — ads, content, local search, and more.
Answer questions, reduce fear, and build trust using automated email, SMS, and helpful content that feels personal — not spammy.
Make it ridiculously easy to take the next step: book a call, schedule a session, apply, or buy. No friction, no confusion.
Turn happy customers into reviews, referrals, and repeat clients with intentional follow-up and reputation workflows.
No matter the industry, once we understand your specific journey, we can design the right messages, offers, and automations to support it. That’s the work I love: translating your real-world business into a digital journey that feels natural and actually converts.
How we go from “messy” to mapped-out and automated
Here’s what it looks like to work together. The goal is simple: install a system you own and feel confident running.
We walk through your current reality: where leads come from, what they see, where they fall off, and what happens after they buy. You get a clear map of your current journey and your biggest opportunities.
We plug in a tailored set of funnels, journeys, automations, and tools inside your marketing platform:
- Funnels and lead capture
- Calendars and booking flows
- Email/SMS nurture & win-back campaigns
- Review and referral workflows
- AI “teammates” aligned to your offers and message
We help you launch the core pieces, make sure they’re firing correctly, and then hand you the keys:
- We verify the tech is connected and tracking correctly.
- We show you how to use your new system in plain English.
- We answer your questions so you feel comfortable driving it.
From there, you and your team run the day-to-day. If you need help down the road, we’re around for questions or new build-out projects — but the system is designed so you’re not dependent on us.
What it’s like to work with me
A few things clients tell me they appreciate:
The human behind the journey
I’m a husband, dad, and very proud grandpa who loves seeing small business owners win.
I’ve spent nearly two decades blending tech, strategy, and old-fashioned “treat people right” values. I’m a bit of a marketing and automation geek, but at the end of the day, I care most about this:
Marketing should feel like an ally, not an anxiety.
When we work together, I’ll treat your business like it’s my own — because I know what it means to your family, your team, and your community.
Ready to get your customer journey working for you?
If what you’ve read — or watched in the video — resonates, the best next step is simple: join my free workshop, Mastering the Customer Journey. In about 55 minutes, I’ll walk you through the same system I use to help business owners attract the right clients, automate follow-up, and turn one-time buyers into long-term relationships.