Go Confidently: Business Systems & Being Prepared with Julie Delucca-Collins

What if confidence isn’t something you wait for—but something you build?

In this episode of Mindset to Market, I’m joined by Julie DeLucca-Collins of Go Confidently Coaching, and we’re diving into the real foundation of confidence in business: preparation, systems, and taking action before you feel ready.

Julie shares her journey from corporate leadership to entrepreneurship, and how learning the inner workings of business—from marketing to operations—gave her the tools to create sustainable success on her own terms.

We talk about:
 → Why confidence is built through action, not before it
 → How preparation and simple systems create momentum in your business
 → The power of consistency over motivation
 → What it really takes to grow a scalable, aligned online business

If you’re a solopreneur feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of your next step, this episode will help you simplify your approach, build confidence through structure, and start showing up with clarity.

You don’t need to feel ready.

You just need a plan and the willingness to take the next step.

Visit Julie Online:

Go Confidently https://goconfidentlycoaching.com/

Mindset to Market is a Luminous Creative Production. If you'd like to learn more about our business coaching program and group coaching container, please visit us online at DeborahcSmith.com.

20% Off Sakara Plant-Based Meal Program
Use code DEBSAKARA at checkout for 20% OFF your first order with Sakara Life.

Email Marketing: Start FREE with KIT
Join the Creator Network on KIT and create life-long fans and customers!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Mindset to Market is produced by Deborah C. Smith and designed to inspire and support big-hearted creatives in finding their own unique path, building a sustainable business, and creating financial, spiritual, mental wellness and abundance.

🎉 Work with Deborah Learn More
💕 Visit Deborah online at DeborahCSmith.com
💕 Follow on the 'Gram. @deborah_smith_coaching

Transcript

Okay you guys, I am so excited because today my guest is a new and very fast friend. Her name is Julie DeLuca Collins, and Julie and I met at Pod Fest in Florida just in January. And it was funny because I attended her actual talk at podcast, then I spotted her, I recognized her, we started chatting and it led to this amazing conversation and a ton of synergy. So Julie, welcome to The Mindset to Market Podcast. 

Oh, thank you so much for having me, Deborah. It is always so fun to make friends while traveling and that, whether it be business travel or fun travel, but I think I had both business and fun in Pod Fest.

And then now I have a new friend in collaborators. So, so happy to be here with you today. 

Yes, I know. I always say like, when you're open to receiving, the universe drops the perfect people right into your space. And that was kind of the way our, 

yeah, 

initial synergy just kicked off.

We just started chatting and then next thing you know, we're 20 minutes deep into, you know, how we get things done and all these stuff. So Julie, before we get into the juicy, good stuff. Mm-hmm. I would love to just bring us up to speed on how you became a speaker, a speaker, trainer, and a, an entrepreneur, and also you're a marketing strategist just like me, and so I'd love to hear how you got here.

Yeah, well, you know, in, in looking at back, at the, at the journey, right? Everything that I've done in my life has led me here. But the short story, I worked in education for the majority of my life. I was in the for-profit area. I worked with companies that partnered with school districts, and one of the companies in particular that I was with for many years, and I still am such a fan of what they do, um, really helped me grow through the ranks.

And they are super committed that as you begin to get into leadership, they were going to cross train you on every aspects of running a business. The company is a franchise company as well, and I had some success being in the field, but when I came to corporate, I started to learn. All of that it takes to really be able to run a successful business from marketing to lead generation, to making sure that you have your operations in place.

And I loved it. I really loved the fact that I had an opportunity to learn from people that were doing incredible things, had been doing it for a while, and were committed to creating a space for entrepreneurs, even if they were just, uh, entrepreneurs that were choosing to join a system. Now, I grew through the ranks.

By the time I left, I was part of the senior executive team, and I reported both to the founders, uh, the CEO and the COO. And it was a trip because that gave me the opportunity to learn something that a lot of people don't learn, and that's how to develop business, business development, sales, and then also how to operate the business once it started and operations, the day to day and the systems and everything that needed to be in place.

That gave me such an education better than any college I've had. Right? And I love that because as I moved on to my next position, I went to work for another business, uh, organization in the education sector. And she was an entrepreneur that just by the bootstraps, pulled herself up and began to run a multimillion dollar company.

But she was at a point in which she couldn't grow and couldn't grow because everything was kind of fly by the seat of your pants. Now, the one thing that I found is that although I like to be spontaneous, I had also come from that school being in the other company where systems were important.

Follow the system, follow the work, and have a clear path of what to do. And that's what I started to implement with the second company. And not only did it allow us to continue to produce at multimillion dollars, but it allowed us to then expand outside of New York City into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, California.

And it was such a great ride to be a part of that growth. And although I love what I did and I was incredibly passionate, I also knew that I wanted to do something on my own. And about 2016, I went through a coaching certification. I had been working with a coach and I loved it. And I thought, you know what?

Maybe I need to do that. And unfortunately. One of the things that I was not expecting, but it really affected my trajectory, was that the founder of the second company that I worked for, who was a mentor friend and dear, uh, a dear person in everyone's life passed away. And at that point I was also part of the senior executive team, and I just felt that in that moment, a transition for the organization.

I couldn't leave and I owed it to her and, and her family to stay on and to help them through the transition. And of course, I stayed on. For three more years, I still was thinking, okay, what am I gonna do? I know that I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna go out on my own. And I wasn't quite sure what that looked like.

And as many individuals looking to go out on their own, I knew that I had a lot of skills, that I knew that I was good at what I did. But I also felt, oh, people are gonna think I'm crazy. People are gonna think, what am I doing? Why is she leaving this great corporate job to go out and do what?

Right? So I didn't leave right away until the universe did it for me. I got laid off at the beginning of the pandemic because the company being in education was hit very hard. And in order to continue to operate, they needed to really be able to create a very lean staffing structure. And that meant the COO and myself at that point, I was the chief innovation officer.

Um, we were offered a separation package. And I went ahead and I took it and I said, okay, I'm gonna bet on myself and I'm gonna launch what I believe is something that I'm passionate about and know that I can do. And I wasn't sure what the plan was gonna be, but I knew that I could do it. 

Yeah. Oh my goodness.

That's so interesting because I think so many pe it's interesting to hear coming from such a structured corporate situation, having that itch, that sort of entrepreneurial, I wanna do something in my own way. I feel like that's present in so many people who start a business, and they're waiting for the right moment.

And it's like there's never really a right moment. You just have to leap and the net will appear. Right. But, you're not the first person I've spoken to for whom the tragedy of the pandemic had a silver lining. 

Right? Absolutely. I 

think there's a lot of people who were like, this is, this is the shift, this is the moment.

Mm-hmm. Where I do the thing I've been saying I wanted to do. Like the stakes are up, it's time to take action. Yeah. Um, I kind of love that. 

Absolutely. And I think that, you know, for many people, I want you to know that no matter what your dreams are, yes you can create a plan, you can prep, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of things you can't control.

And, and if you let fear or uncertainty get in the way, you're gonna continue to do the things that maybe you're, you're not fulfilled by and your gifts are not coming to the people who really need them. 

Yeah. Yeah. That is a facts. And yes, it's risky to be an entrepreneur and kind of throw, you know, put yourself out there and be brave, but if you don't try, you will never know.

And there's this hundred percent, I think it's worse to stay where you are than it is to take a risk on what you might become. 

Yep. 

But it, I like hearing stories of people, you know, like your story that you just shared, or just being brave and saying, you know what? I'm gonna do this. I. And so when you first got started, you had a coaching, certification, so did you just start out coaching.

Well, um, yes and no. So when I got the coaching certification, it was mainly to work with myself. I wanted to be my best client and really be able to, um, grow professionally and personally. And I went and I got another coaching certification. By the time I actually started my business, I had three coaching certifications under my belt.

And one of the things that I lacked is clarity. I had a mission, I had a vision, but I didn't have clarity onto who was I going to help, what was I going to help him to do? And because I have such a wide range of experience, I could do a lot of different things. My first, my first intent, and, and I still do some of this, Deborah, because I, I, I'm passionate about helping women is I started to work with women who were in the corporate sector.

One of the biggest things that I really hated as I climbed that corporate ladder is that women would come to me and say, oh my God, congratulations. What a great promotion you just got. I wish I was confident as you. And that was something that drove me crazy. 'cause I thought, yes, I know there's a level of confidence.

I'm outgoing, I'm a firstborn, I'm bossy, high achiever. But honey, I am just like you. Sometimes I sit in the sidelines and think, what am I doing? Who the heck do I think I am? And being able to achieve the things is taking the leap despite not having the certainty or the confidence, but it is in that leap that you get the competence because you're doing the repetition as you're putting in the reps.

And then you can see like, oh wait, I'm doing it. So I wanted to help women build and grow in their careers. Just like I had. And an interesting thing happened as I started to work with women in the, in the corporate sector, one of my friends, someone that I knew who is an entrepreneur and had been running a business for a long time, she said, Hey, I, I need help.

I have been an entrepreneur for almost 16 years. I work from home. I stopped, working a, as a graphic designer outside the home, because my kids were growing up and my husband wanted me to be home.

And it had gotten to a point in when her kids had grown up and her husband said, Hey, you need to go get a job. And she, was applying to different jobs in her space and nothing was coming. And her husband said, well, why don't you just go work at Target? And she thought, what? And not that, you know, she needed to have the income so that she can do things on her own.

But she wanted to have the satisfaction of knowing that she was capable. And she said, help me build my business. And that's what we did, right? We looked at what was she doing, who was she serving, what were her offers? What was the through line, right? In all of this. And then we started to build the system for her in letting her know like, how can I position myself?

How can I show people my expertise? How can I deliver? What are the things that I'm delivering? And after working with her, I was so inspired and within, I would say those first couple months, she was able to make more money in those couple months than she had done the previous year. 

Isn't 

that the most 

fun thing ever when your 

client, it was right.

And I thought, wait a minute. I got it. This is it. Yeah. This is what I do for people. Yeah. Because the way that my brain works, it it immediately, like I, I will see somebody and I'll say, oh, this is what you do. And I can kind of, you know, distill that for them and then say, okay, this is how you do now let's put it out into the world.

And this is the roadmap, right? This is what you need to support you in the background. These are the systems. This is what you're maybe needing to implement. And go from there. And then I teach him the confidence, the systems, the habits that are going to help them to stay consistent and see that growth.

And I've never looked back. That's kind of how I got started. 

I love it so much. I love something you said earlier, , which is that action really creates clarity. I mean, I feel like a broken record. I'm saying this all the time, but if you feel worried, fear, unclear, that messy, cloudy, I'm not sure I can do this.

If you knew exactly what to do, if you knew exactly what your very next step was, you wouldn't feel any of that. Mm-hmm. And so taking action reveals the next step. And so it's really, it's about, it is about taking one step. Yeah. And then you get data, and then you get results and you get feedback.

Mm-hmm. And then you take another step and then you realize, okay, wait, that's the wrong direction. I gotta go this way. Yeah. But it only happens when we get brave enough to say, you know what? I'm gonna take the first step. So, 

absolutely. I love that. And I think that that's the one thing that we discount, right?

We're waiting to be ready, we're waiting to feel motivated. I actually just dropped a podcast episode today, you know, when motivation fails you and, and really motivation is always going to fail us because it's not gonna be something that is sustainable. 

Yeah. You have to have systems in place. I and that you can literally show up and rinse and repeat behaviors that are going to move forward even if you don't feel like it.

Yeah. Hundred 

percent. That's kind of the thing. I love that. So chatting with you. I was thinking, you know, I really wanna talk about, um, the value of these systems. The value of kind of what I think of as the boring part of business in the value of sort of a planned, prepared, disciplined, , set of tasks that you do week after week inside your business.

What I have found, and this is speaking from, I'm a very left brain creative thinker. I've, a lot of what I do is creative ideation. You know, I'm also an artist and a musician, so, but I've also been in self-employed 20 years, so I have learned the way of thy systems and, you know, it was actually about five years into business before I was like, holy cow, I cannot just be a creative trying to earn money.

Like I have to have a business. And that is, that's an operation that has repeatable systems that are where I can track data really simply. Mm-hmm. But it did take me literally almost five years to get to that point. Um, so anyways, I find that creatives resist the structure. Mm-hmm. And it's almost like we're rebelling against these types of norms and boring things.

So as an entrepreneur, why is it so important that you embrace these routines and what are people getting wrong about discipline? 

Yeah. You know, one of the biggest things that, and, and, and by the way, I, I've been there, right? 'cause I mentioned I'm my best client.

I think that for most of us, right, we believe that systems and discipline, , kind of stifle our creativity. But it does help us be creative because number one is giving us the bandwidth of space to get the things that we need done because we have a checklist of system, a way of doing things.

And then it gives us a space to know, okay, that's done. I did the boring. How can I mediate? Where are the times in which I need rest? Because by the way, even if you're creative, you are going to have a tough time if you're really drained, if you're burnt out. So this is one of the things that I really would hope that people listening take away from this, right?

Because systems and habits. Support you. They're not just about building a business, but it's about freeing up the energy and creating a lifestyle that allows you to show up more freely and more authentically and more on the ball, honestly. And I think that that's one of the thing things, people discount.

Yeah. So what do you think a healthy structure actually looks like for somebody who identifies more as a creative inside their business? 

Well, I think that the first thing, especially if you are creative, I think the most important thing that I tell my clients is, number one, you need to audit your time.

You need to figure out like, where's your time going? And I think sometimes we believe we're doing something important or we think it's taking so long to do something, but it really isn't. So auditing your time is gonna give you real time data. And the the easiest way to do it, honestly, it set a half hour alarm on your phone for a day and put a piece of paper next to your desk.

And then every half hour when the, when the timer goes off, you write down, okay, I was surfing the internet looking for the best chords for marketing, right. And then you're gonna see, oh, wait a minute. Um, I just spent half an hour doing that, rather than returning phone calls or reaching out to people, whatever it is, right?

Once you audit your time, you wanna go ahead and create that ideal calendar. That calendar, that is exactly what you envision for your life. And then you're going to schedule the most important things in there. And the most important things in there are not answering Emails are not sitting at your desk, but they're gonna be, when do you start, when do you self care?

When do you spend time with your family? Because these are other components of our life that are important to us. So, for instance, for me, there's times in which I have it on my calendar. My mom, uh, I'm a caretaker now. She moved in with us a couple years ago, so I have it on the calendar, lunch with mom.

Why? Because that's part of my value. That's part of, that's important to me. And if it's not on the calendar, it doesn't happen. So put in all the things that are important to you. Maybe go to soccer practice with your children or have your date night or take Friday afternoons off, which I do. And, and all of this goes in that ideal calendar.

Now that doesn't mean that that's how every week happens, but you have an idea of what your time is. You have your idea of when you stopped working, and then you start to plug in. And I like to, I'd like to create, um, content days. I like to create coaching days and like activities fall within the same day.

Why? Because you cannot. And, and, and you can, but it's not great. Your brain cannot go from doing the finances in your business to all of a sudden doing something creative. So you're doing this task, task switching and your brain is being drained. So group your activities like with like, so that, for instance, for me, I work with clients Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays.

That leaves me Fridays to record and do marketing stuff. Mondays to do administrative stuff for the business. Now, of course, like I said, there's gonna be things that. Some weeks, you know, they just need to shift stuff around and that's okay. But when things happen, when life lives, if you have the structure and you know specifically what are the things that happen consistently, right?

Like for me, my Monday is my CEO time, right? So if life happens and I need to figure out like, okay, what was I doing? Where am I going? I know exactly what's supposed to be happening and what I'm supposed to be working on in my business on that day. And that's one of the things that really helps everybody through the process when, when we start to implement that, when individuals are part of my universe.

Yeah, it's such good advice. Auditing your time.



Mm-hmm. 

And so I wanna just reiterate what Julie just said. If it's not on the calendar, it isn't real. Mm-hmm. It should be in the Bible of entrepreneurship, a hundred percent.

Everything you really want to make real and do. Mm-hmm. Put it on your calendar, because if it didn't get priority enough to even make it on the calendar.

It's gonna get downgraded in your priority list, but it might actually be the thing that connects you with that client that you need to have that conversation with, that leads to a sale. We need to think about all the tasks inside our business and then sort of grade them as high quality. Mm-hmm.

And everything goes on the calendar. 

Yep. Agree. Agreed. I love that 

so much. 

And, and here's a step further, and I think that you just alluded to this, right? Once we do an audit and we know specifically, you know, what are the activities that we're doing on any given day, one of the things that I make my clients do is actually, um, assign a perceived value to that activity.

So, for instance, for me, searching the internet for something, or maybe posting on social media or creating a little pretty something on Canva, that's a $10 an hour activity, 

right? 

And as the CEO of my business. There's things that I should be focusing in that are higher value activities like networking.

Yeah. Being on a podcast, um, me going in meeting for coffee with another person, or going in maybe servicing a client or doing a sales call. These are the focus things that we sometimes forget. And if you're just starting out, uh, because we all started someplace, right? I will tell you that I created, uh, Brady Thomas and Brady Thomas is actually our, our, um, our, our fake assistants. And now I do have, I do have real assistants, but in. What I would do is I would put in the calendar Brady Thomas time, and then that's the time that Brady did all the admin stuff, and I, I, it would be me doing the stuff, right.

But I was assigning that to somebody and then it let me see, okay, I've been spending a lot of time on this. Maybe it's time to get a real person to come in. And that's when even before. I was ready and even before I could afford it, I went ahead and I took the lead. And I remember my husband fought me tooth and nail on this because he's, you know, supportive and a partner in the business, but he said, we cannot afford that.

I said, yes. We cannot afford to not have someone help us, even if it's for two hours a week. I need to be able to give this to somebody else so that I can do the things that only I can do. And that's one of the things that where entrepreneurs really get stuck because they believe, I can't afford it.

Possibly you can't. But be creative. You can find so many different ways you can hire an intern. You can maybe even put your child on payroll, right? You can do the different things that allow you to then be the CEO of your life and business and focus on the things that move the needle more as opposed to the busy work that sometimes makes us feel like we're busy, productive, but really didn't move us forward.

Yeah. Okay. Wait, I love this idea of giving like full blown personalities and names to the different tasks inside your, because many of the people that listen to this podcast are solopreneurs, 

right? 

In years one to five of building a business. I mean, I'm sure there's lots of other listeners, but thank you for listening by the way.

But, I love this idea. I mean, I literally wanna go do this right now because there's Right. I do it already. I just don't have names and personalities, but I set aside very clear buckets of time for things like graphic design. 

Absolutely. 

Content creation. Obviously now that I have a podcast, I do my podcast days or like batched content.

Right. My emails, but so smart. I like this idea that like these are the admin roles, this is the CEO only can do this role. Yeah. These are like, you literally need a graphic designer or an intern, but having true personalities and names is 

so, yeah, I love that. And this is exactly, you know, for instance, even now, right?

When I plan my week, and that's usually during my CEO time on Mondays, I sit down and I say, okay, I wanna make sure that I have the high impact value activities in my calendar. And if I don't, then why not? And what can I do to remedy that? Because if I end my week and the majority of the tasks that I did are $10 an hour activities, then I didn't move the needle.

Do you audit your week every 

week? 

Oh yeah. I audit my week on Mondays. I really go in and I say, okay, where am I spending my time in?

Are these things because this other piece of it are the things on my calendar, um, side quest. Or the things that really support the goals that I set up at the beginning of the year. Yeah. I, I've been hearing this a lot from, we call it squirrely or attention deficit of Oh, shiny. Um, in, in, in our group, but really these side quests, everything looks, oh, I should do that.

Okay. And then yet your goal that you started the year with, that you wanted to accomplish has nothing to do with that. Nothing, yeah. Shiny object syndrome is such a real issue. Yeah. You all of a sudden spend all this time doing something that is not moving the needle, that is not helping you in the very least.

And that's really one of the most important things that we can do. 

Yeah, , you know, 20 years into this, self-employed entrepreneurship lifestyle. I get shiny object syndrome. So , oh 

yeah. 

Frequently. But I now have the tools and the discipline in place to say I love that idea.

That's not what I set out to do at the beginning of this year. Yeah. This week, hundred percent this week, this month. So we're gonna, we're gonna say yes to that, but not right now. Not 

right 

now. And let's see where it fits in a different iteration at the moment. Unless it becomes the thing that makes the most sense.

Yeah. It's, it, it can so easily, uh, easy to get distracted. 

A hundred percent for sure. 

So, when I saw you speak at Pod Fest, uh, you talked a lot about. Specific preparations for, , batching content for your podcast. But it occurred to me in that moment, , this could really be applied to just about any project, any really any work task.

Yeah. 

Yep. 

And you talked about something that stuck out to me, which was being prepared 

mm-hmm. 

Drives your confidence. 

Oh, a hundred 

percent.

So how does preparation change the way we show up and, and help build our confidence? 

Yeah. So, you know, my dad used to say a thing called perfect Previous planning prevents problems. And I used to roll my eyes at that. But ultimately, you know, preparation is one of the things that definitely improves your confidence because there you have the evidence, like, I got it.

I've got, I've done this. I know how, and for many of us, we view preparation as just this added step. Like, okay, I know how to do it. I don't need to prepare for it. I can do it. But the reality is that, again, it, it takes up a lot of your energy to kind of try to keep track of like, okay, what, what tabs do I have open and which ones am I going to need?

Whereas if you already have it set up, then you don't have to think about it. It just becomes very automatic. Your brain likes automation. Now, like I said, in my business, there's tasks that I do that are repetitive, and these things are on a checklist. And if I have it on the checklist and I don't have to worry about the ball being dropped, I don't have to worry about, Ooh, how am I going to train somebody else to do it?

Oh, no, it's in the checklist and here it is, and how you do it. And I think that, again, going back with entrepreneurship, it is so easy. To believe, right? That if we, if we are doing the thing without the preparation, that we're good. And yes, we are good, but it, it takes double the time when you make a mistake and then you have to come back, right?

Whereas if you do it right the first time, if you're following the system and if you have a system for the things that you do repetitive, then you're actually becoming more efficient. I'll give you an example. When I started my business, I knew that I needed to send a contract to people.

I knew that I needed to send them a welcome email, and for the first couple months, guess what? I was just like, oh, I need to type them this welcome email. Oh, I need to send them a contract. Let me go and figure out how to do that. No. Now it's all automated. And then we have a checklist.

Okay, here's the new person coming in. Did they get the email? Did they pay, did they this did. And it takes me through. And then at any time, If something is happening, then my assistant can go in and say, Hey, we haven't sent the slack, , channel to this person where they can go ahead and sign in.

Let me send that in. And if you don't have the someone, and it's still Brady Thomas who's doing it, you know that you can find all the things and you're not gonna miss anything if you have it all sorted and you have the systems and checklists in place.

Yeah, I love the idea of, setting yourself up for success before doing anything. I think again, , it's easy to resist planning and preparation if you feel overwhelmed. Yeah. \

So many of my clients, they are new to running a business, but not new to what it is they deliver as a service. Right? Right. So they're very great at, you know, supporting people with tax strategy as an accountant, as a publicist, as a coach, as a holistic nutritionist. Mm-hmm. They do all those things like an expert, but the part where you have to suddenly become a content creator and schedule and organize and manage all your marketing.

Right. And do things like admin, like sending contracts, , the onboarding set of emails, that kind of stuff gets overwhelming. 

Yeah, it sure 

is. And when they become entrepreneurs. So how does getting more organized allow them to grow both their income and their impact?

Yeah, I, I think that, you know, again, when you are really organized and when you be begin to put these systems in place, then you are gonna be able to have the, the understanding to step back and say, Ooh, wait a minute. If my system is that, I'm going to check my metrics every Monday, right? Then I check my metrics and I can tell you, oh, you know what?

I haven't had. Any sales calls, or wait a minute, my metrics for my email is, I, I have a system that sends an email every, every week, right? And if I look at my numbers and we don't have that much open rate, then it allows you to kind of go back and, recalibrate what is the dial that you need to move.

And that's one of the things that a lot of people don't understand. They, they become reactive rather than proactive because they don't have the systems in place. And, and I know that for you, right? You've run a business and you know, there's so many different things that come up that you are, could be unexpected, but if you have at least.

A roadmap and you understand what are the things that are already automated, delegated or deleted From your calendar, you're gonna be able to focus on what matters and the things that grow you, and the things that allow you then to be able to be a good service provider. 

Yeah. 

Because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about, right?

It's not just about bringing the leads or servicing someone. It's about servicing someone and making them your super fans, like Pat Flynn says, right? Making them so happy that they worked with you, that they're gonna tell the whole world, and that becomes your advocates with somebody else. And a business that runs on referrals is gold.

Yeah. 

And that's what you're looking for. But that's not gonna happen unless you have the infrastructure behind the scenes. 

Amen. I love that structure and creativity. I think the two go hand in hand. Mm-hmm. I have found as a creative thinker that the more discipline I get, the more space I have, the, the further I can reach with my creative ideas.

The, yeah. The bigger the downloads, the, the more exciting and fun the creative. Play is. Yeah. Yeah. But it took me a while to get there. So, I feel like some of the obstacles along the way are decision fatigue. Mm-hmm. People get mental overload Yeah. Thinking like about all this stuff. And then they feel like they're lacking freedom when the whole point of building a business was to create freedom from the 

strategic.

I know, right? Like, we didn't, we didn't leave a nine to five to work 24 7. 

Right. 

And that's what ends up happening. Then you end up having to do all these things and then you're, you're thinking, wow, you know, I left a six figure job and I'm basically not making ends meet and I'm going into debt. Yeah. And I'm worried about that.



Yeah. So let's talk about some of the systems that we both have in place inside of our business. 'cause somebody might be listening to this thinking, that's all great, ladies, you've convinced me. I need a system.

What does that even mean? And I've, it's a two part question because mm-hmm. Number one, what are just some basic tasks that you do weekly that you feel are critical for building that like basic foundation inside your business? And then number two. What, if any platforms and or tools do you use that make this go smoothly for you?

Yeah. So I will tell you my business runs on Google, uh, Google Docs. I'm not a Microsoft girl, I'm sorry. Um, and, and I will preface this as well by saying, I will always tell you what I use and why I use it. And I will tell you there's other options and what maybe those other options are. But I wanna encourage the listener because this is where a lot of entrepreneurs go wrong.

Figure out which one works for you. Yeah. Because your brain is gonna work very differently than mine. And, so the first and foremost thing that I have is an email system. Email is the lifeline of your business. More sales. And, and more transactions and services are generated through email than they are through social media.

Additionally, building your business on social media alone is building a house in rented land. You can't if social media goes away, and actually, I think it was Tuesday night, YouTube went down. YouTube went down, yeah, YouTube went down. And a lot of people have put their eggs, eggs into the YouTube basket, which is great.

People are panicking. But if YouTube went away, what happens? So first you need to create a system in which you have, you have email. And email is gonna help you do a couple different things. It's gonna help you create a system so that when people find you and however they found you, whether they found you on social media, through a podcast, through a friend, there's a way that you can then connect with them and you deliver something of value to them.

Maybe a freebie, maybe a checklist, or whatever it might be. And then from there, you're getting their email address and you're going from strangers to friends because now you can deliver value in your email system. And it's not Google, right? It is a email marketing platform that is gonna do this. It's gonna allow you to keep in touch.

The second system is you need to have a content calendar and a content calendar. You know, it is not only what reminds you how to be able to put your marketing out there, but also has to align to your sales calendar. I see a lot of people that say I'm launching a program, but then they're talking about something else on social media or in their emails.

So you need to make sure that that system of having a sales calendar and a marketing calendar are married. 

Mm-hmm. 

And then this way, you know what to email people. You also know what you're posting. You also know what you're sharing. And now that you're sharing the thing, right? Hey, I have this webinar coming up.

You have to be able to have a way in which you collect that information, share to people what you're doing, and then follow up, you know, the, the, the system is about following up. Because if you made a stranger, a friend and then you don't connect with them, you don't continue to talk to them, they forget about you, they'll move on to the next person.

So again, have a system to follow up with. A lot of individuals that are launching a business start off with, I need a website, I need a logo. You don't need any of that. Do you eventually need it? Abso freaking literally, eventually. But you don't need that. You need to be able to have, right 

now my clients are laughing out loud 

because 

literally I say those things every day.

Right? You don't need a website. Can I just tell you how long for when I got my coaching certification and I decided I was gonna go out on my own until 2020 and my husband kind of got involved and I launched the business full time. I was still trying to figure out what was the right logo, the right fonts.

I'm like so much wasted time, right? 

Yeah. 

And by the way, no one has hired me because they said, I love your logo. It's so pretty. Yeah, it's amazing. And I 

agree with you have a logo, have brand colors, have brand design, and have a website of course. But that's not the system that runs your business. That is, that's not the system.

The decorations on the outside of hopefully an operational system. 

Right, and, and, and listen, you know, go. I can guarantee you that if you're starting out and you have a conversation with 10 people today and say, Hey, this is what I do. Can you tell me, is this something that you struggle with? Or, who do you know that struggles with that?

And you have these real conversations. Have a system for tracking the conversations, and then have a system to then follow up on those conversations and ask that person, Hey, if you're not looking for a web designer, who do you know that might be? Who do you know? And, and track who that person said and track that they introduced us.

Now that's a customer management system, and you can track that on some email systems. Now I use something that, works with my brain and it's called DEX, like Rolodex. And it is a subscription. It, connects with my email and then, every time I have a meeting with someone.

It keeps track because it integrates with my calendar and integrates with LinkedIn. It integrates with Facebook. So if I meet someone for the first time, Dex is saying, Hey, I found this profile for this person, and then it creates a little contact card for me with this person, with all their information.

And then I can put my notes in there. So when I'm jumping into a conversation with someone, I'm not jumping in without knowing what we talked about last time. Oh, that's good. And if there's people that I wanna follow up with, Dex will send me an email and say, Hey, you met with so and so a week, uh, uh, two weeks ago.

Two months ago, and you said you were going to follow up on here. And I do. Right. So an email, having a way to track who you talk to and how to follow up with people, that's important. The other thing that I don't think that I, could run my business without, is a way to collect. Money.

And for those people who don't have a separate bank account, you should, you need to and make sure that you have a bank account and a way to track payments and to invoice people, and that you can send invoices so easily. There's so many different ways. And then make sure that you also have a system for putting your content out there.

And that could be your podcast, your blog, or your social media. And make sure that, again, you do it in a consistent way. And this goes back to where a content calendar keeps you on track for that. 

Yeah. 

Oh my god. Other systems. So glad you mentioned a way for people to pay you. Oh yeah, for sure. For sure.

People forget that. That's like, and it's like, oh, I need to send them a bill. Yeah. Oh, wait a minute. And guess what? So I use, , thrivecart for my, checkout pages. And I like Thrive Cartt because

if someone wants to pay me in, install installments, they can do that If they wanna make one payment. And it allows me to then say, Hey, you're getting this $97, thing from me, would you also like the $45? And it gives them a little bump. 

Yeah. 

And having that is so good. 

Yeah. It's so good. When you get to the point, when you have your offer clear, you have, you know, your emails mm-hmm.

Up and running. You've got your content calendar going and you're starting to generate leads and turn them and convert them into clients. Paying clients. I do love a simple done for you marketing checkout system that helps automate all that stuff.



You know, I, I. I've tried a lot of different systems and I, and I go back to the two systems that have worked for me the best. I have my website, it connects to Thrive Card. Thrive Card is together. And the other thing too that I like about Thrive Card, at least for me, is courses like Kajabi, right.

Courses are there. And you can also, um, I keep track of my affiliates in there so people can sign up. I see. Affiliate program is so good there. Yeah. People can, people can just be an affiliate for my stuff and then when people pay me for the stuff, because they came from somebody else, then money sent to them directly.

I don't even have to deal with it in this period. You know? It's so easy. 

That is, that is actually superior for anyone who's interested in doing affiliate. Mm-hmm. Or even for low ticket stuff. It all adds up. Yeah, 

absolutely. Yep.

So, okay, let's recap really quickly because there was so many good things in there. So first of all, without having to have a CRM or a go high level, or a ClickFunnels or a Thrive Curve, any of that, we've got basic systems. Yeah. Calendar discipline was listed. 

Mm-hmm. 

Yeah. Weekly email marketing, which should be done inside an email marketing service provider.

Yeah. Ladies, gentlemen, listening. You know, I train on this for free. I've got so many trainings on internal marketing 1 0 1. 

Oh my God, so 

good. It's so important. I really feel like it's the foundation of your business. Yeah.

Yeah. So calendar.

Discipline is a must Weekly email is a must and email for anything, honestly. Your, content batching, right? Yeah. Content batching. A content calendar that helps you batch so that you're not spending countless hours coming up with a reel or whatever.

Timing yourself. I heard auditing your time as a weekly repetitive task, like really getting clear how much time am I spending on what value task. And did I miss anything? CEO 

time, CEO time? Yeah, I mean your CEO time and, and in your CEO time, and this might be separate and I usually do it on Fridays, but your CEO time should also be your financial time.

You need to, take another minute. And go in and I check my finances. Where are we with money? How much money have I invoiced? How much money is coming in?

Because a lot of the times, um, this is a lot of, and most businesses will fail because I don't have the cash flow. You also wanna make sure not only do you have the cash flow, but what are you spending your money on? 'cause as entrepreneurs, we drop a hundred dollars here, $10 there, that subscription, and it adds up.

And the next thing you know, where's my money going? So that's, that's important as well. 

So, so, so important I have to ask you about, , visibility and speaking. 

Mm-hmm. 

So obviously there's a lot of things that go into getting, landing, a speaking opportunity to begin with.

Yeah. So there's a lot of prep that goes into it, and I would, it's having a speaker page, having something that represents you on the internet, that shows, it illustrates topics you're an expert in, right, 

right, right.

How did it go for you getting your TED talk? 

Well, to back up, when I was in my corporate job, I did a lot of speaking at conferences. The company would pitch me, and so I've had a lot of experience in speaking. And there's a lot of different ways in which you can build a speaking.

Resume number one is know what you're talking about. And maybe you wanna go ahead and contact the library and say, Hey, I have a workshop on email. Is it okay if I share it with entrepreneurs? Or go to your local chamber and offer to do a 20 minute on something and then start to. Deliver it. Even if you don't feel you're ready, go and deliver the thing first, and then come back and you're gonna say, wow, you know what? That was well received. Oh, this is what I can do better. Or, you know what, I really thought this would be a great idea to talk about, and nobody really wanted it. Right? Yeah. Once you start to do that, you start to get a proof of concept for your speaking, and then you start to create your value statement.

What is it that I deliver to the audience that it's, they want to know from me what is my part of expertise. They want. And once you do that, then again you can start with a, with a basic spreadsheet. Anytime that you send out an email, you reach out, you put down who do you reach out to, when and what were you pitching them for?

Yeah. And then you do the follow up as well, 'cause people can, and make it a consistent part of your week. Hey, on Mondays at three o'clock I'm gonna send three emails to possible speaking engagements. The other thing is you can pitch yourself to be on podcasts. You can use something like Pod Match, which I use or different, or go to your podcast platform and put in what is it that you do if you are a real estate agent.

Realtors real estate. Podcast on mortgages, whatever it is, and then look at all the podcasts that come up, look and see if those podcasts are active, and then make a list of them. And most of them you can Google it or you can ask Chat and it will give you the information on where to reach the host and send them a pitch.

And by the way, just don't send them a cold pitch. Make sure that you're listen to their show. Because as a podcaster, if you listen to my show and you're pitching me, you, and you tell me, Hey, I listened to that episode that you had with Kelly, Kelly Gunther, who is a, a. An Olympic person. Uh, and that was really fun.

I am not an Olympic person, but I have a similar story in which I felt confident, uh, was not part of my life, or I had this thing, and immediately you tell me you heard something I said before in my show, I feel flatter and I feel like I have a connection with you. So go and be authentic in this connecting and then start to share with the people that could have the same familiar audience that you are looking for and leverage their audience that's really going to help you.

Yeah. 

And then as you get more experience, then you can start to create what we call a speaker, one sheet. And then that should have your bio, your picture, your social media links. It also should have a list of. What you talk about and the outcomes that people can have on there.

Now, TEDx is very different from different from speaking engagements.

Yeah. 

Because a lot of speaking engagements, you're not necessarily selling yourself, but you're talking about your area of expertise that can then lead to people working with you. A TEDx is not about selling yourself, it's not about coaching, it's not about self-promotion. It is about you sharing something that is.

, Your contribution to the world. You're not saying something new. You're not reinvigorating an an idea that maybe didn't exist.

Every TEDx organization is independent, right? And the Committee that is organizing that TEDx event is going to put out an application and they're going to tell you what the theme is.

And this is one of the biggest mistakes I did when I first applied to ted. There's one here in Hartford. And I applied and they said, oh, thank you. No thank you. And I thought, oh my God, I'm terrible. Nobody loves me. And I stopped applying until a friend of mine said, honey, just apply again. You're never gonna get a TEDx unless you apply.

And I applied again and I made finalists in a couple different talks. But in the process I learned that, hey, each organization in each event has a theme. And if I'm telling them I'm gonna speak about dogs, and their theme is cats, there's no connection. 

Yeah. 

Right. So you need to real research. Research, do the research, do the research, and find out, and then put, and make sure that you know you, you don't have to be an expert on cats, but you can tell them how your dog.

Gets along with ka, right? Yeah. Because now you're bringing relevance, you're bringing your area of expertise and you're making it relevant to their topic. So that's the other thing that you can do.

You can really \ just do the research, but here is the most important thing don't try to do it all. Because I didn't become a speaker, I didn't become a podcaster. I didn't become a business owner all at the same time. 

Yeah. 

There were seasons and I wanna go back to that. System, my calendar, my having my goals, understanding what my sales calendar, what I'm gonna be promoting in my marketing calendars, and then deciding where does this focus fit in within what I'm already doing in my business.

Because if I'm trying to be a speaker, launch a course, I'm also trying to be on every single podcast. And I'm also trying to run a group coaching in the one-to-one, and then put a course and then have, um, you know, all of the things, right? And create the notebooks that are gonna sell on Amazon. You're not gonna do it.

Yeah, you're gonna drop the ball somewhere. Pick, pick the one thing, work on that, get good at it, get some traction, and then you can add the next thing. 

It's such sage advice. I have one final question for you that has to do a little bit more with sort of the mindset aspect of all of this. Mm-hmm. So I find that with almost everything that I work on with my clients, there is the technical learning piece.

There's the skilling up, there's the accepting that you're gonna be doing content. There's the accepting that you're gonna learn a new platform, there's the learning of the formulas, blah, blah, blah. There's the decision making. Mm-hmm. There's also an identity shift. 

Mm. 

Yeah. And so I would love to hear from your POV is there a clear threshold or a shift from identifying as like, messy, overwhelmed, disorganized, creative.

I don't do that to let's go lock this down. I got it all on the calendar. Like, what's what's the 

mindset 

shift? What's the identity shift? 

You know, I, I, I think that this is such a good question, it is. Your motivation is not what drives you.

It is your habits, but your habits become cemented by two things. Number one, you need to start small and celebrate the wins. And the other is you also have to embody the identity of who you wanna become. Now, I cannot go from a couch potato to a marathoner, right? However, I can go from a couch potato to say, Hey, if I am a marathon in two years, what did Julie Marathoner did?

What did she do every day? Who did she show up for? What did she start to implement? And it's not so much that, you know, I started to run 10 miles a day. It's maybe that I started to walk around the block and celebrate that you walked around the block. And then when you walk around the block once, you're gonna say, you know what?

I think I can run around the block, or at least half a block. And then you start to build on that. A lot of people are always focused on, I'm not there yet, and I, I'm not there yet and I haven't done it. Track what you're doing, celebrate, notice the things that you're doing, and then you start to embody that identity.

That identity is the most important piece in really being able to shift because our mind is always gonna be negative or our mind is always gonna be able to tell us, you are not good enough. Who do you think you are? But if you start to say, Hey, who is the Julie that is making six, seven figures? And what did she do?

You show up differently. And you know, my future self, it's my best friend.

One of the things that I do to help my future self is I turn on the coffee. I send my coffee pot so that when my future self gets up in the morning and wants to start the day, she doesn't have to worry about coffee. The coffee is that. It's like, oh, thank you, Julie. Look at this.

You made me coffee. And little simple things like that. Then you become the person that is ready for the day and you're embodying that person. But really ask for that sage advice from the person you wanna become. 

I love that. In terms of just creating identity shift in general. Mm-hmm. Because you're right.

I think a lot of people see, um, posts on the internet where someone was like, oh, I went viral with this piece of content and now I have a million followers, and then I sold, you know, x number of dollars worth of my product or whatever. Mm-hmm. And these sort of the influencer culture in general Sure. Has Grotesquely skewed the reality of being an entrepreneur?

Oh, a hundred 

percent. And, yes, that does happen for people, but 90 percent of the norm is these like, repetitive systems inside of a business that you show up and do. Mm-hmm. So if future self is making six to seven figures and buying your, first house or mm-hmm.

Can afford a new car or taking like a all cash paid and vacation to your dream destination. Yeah. If that's the reality you're aiming for mm-hmm. Is like real, you know, fluidity, freedom, time freedom. , Not having to worry about bills being paid, right?

Yeah. Future self is like, I got the money in the bank for the ne however long. 

That's right. 

That person absolutely is auditing their time today 

for 10 minutes and auditing their expenses because future self is putting money away. So rather than spend, than spending money in your $10 membership to whatever it is, go and put your $10 away and then you're gonna have that money put away for a vacation.

Right? 

Yeah. Yeah. This is so, so good. Julie, thank you so much for all of your genius tips. 

Thank you. 

I would love to hear where we can find you. Where can we best find you online? Yeah, 

yeah. 

Everything. Tell me the name of your podcast, your program, what you have 

going 

on. Well, 

I will make it simple for everybody.

You can find everything Julie, at go confidently coaching.com, and if you go into the resources page, you'll find my podcast, my blog, my free resources, all of the things. And that's the best place to find me at. Go confidently coaching.com, and you'll also see my social media, but Julie DeLuca Collins on all the platforms.

Go confidently. I love it. What is something that you are excited about and looking forward to? 

Oh my God, there's so many different, exciting things coming up. But I will tell you, um, I'm gonna be silly, but I'm gonna share it with everybody. I am a big birthday girl and today's 65 days away from my birthday.

I celebrate all month of April, April 26th. But, um, yeah, I'm excited about that. I, I celebrate because April, it's a good place for new beginnings and a lot of times we're so stuck in the, oh my God, I didn't get there.

I'm not doing it. Well begin again. You can begin again. And I, and that's one of the things that my birthday always reminds me. I launch my business, uh, right around my birthday as well. And it was a time in which many people, you know, they lose a job. They're turning a certain age and they're like, oh, I'm done.

No, celebrate every single moment that you have, celebrate the opportunity to start again. So that's what I'm excited about. 

Celebrate the opportunity to start again. Thank you so much for sharing that. 

You're welcome. 

We are gonna, we are gonna stalk you on Go anytime.com and find everything out about you.

I'm so grateful for having you today. 

Thank you for having me. And I'm so grateful that you were in the lobby of, of the Renaissance Hotel and that we could talk and you find ways to collaborate and find ways to be in each other's universe because it's all about community. It is about doing life as an entrepreneur with the systems, but also the people that help you be better at what you do.

I love it. A woman. All right. Well, listeners, thank you so much for hanging with Julie and I today. We are grateful to have you on the journey with us and as always, my friends, may you be vibrant, 

amazing.