Fuel The Flow

How to Organize Your Coaching Business with Notion ft. Diana Lunzer

• Valerie Feghali • Season 1 • Episode 15

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0:00 | 33:08

Do you feel like your coaching business is held together by sticky notes, random Google Docs, and sheer willpower? 

As health and wellness coaches, we are trained to heal the body, not necessarily to run a complex operation. But "winging it" on the backend is exactly what leads to burnout and prevents you from scaling to that next level of income and impact.

In this episode, Valerie sits down with Diana Lunzer, a Productivity Strategist and Certified Notion Consultant. They dive deep into the transition from being a reactive, scattered solopreneur to a proactive, organized CEO. Diana breaks down exactly how to use tools like Notion and Zapier to automate the "boring" administrative tasks—like client onboarding and lead management—so you can get back to doing what you love: coaching.

In this episode, we cover:

  • The "Admin Overwhelm" Cure: Why you need a digital "Operating System" instead of scattered folders.
  • Automating Onboarding: How to use Zapier to automatically add new leads to your CRM without lifting a finger.
  • The "3 Goals" Rule: A simple framework for setting Quarterly Goals that actually stick.
  • Solopreneur to CEO: How to shift your identity and stop acting like an employee in your own business.
  • Notion AI Agents: The new technology that acts like a hired assistant for a fraction of the cost.

Resources Mentioned:

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Connect with Diana Lunzer: 

Diana turns founders into productive powerhouses so they can create their 7-figure empire. She specializes in identifying where your business is leaking time and money, then uses tools like Notion to help you scale with peace and profit.

Connect with Valerie:

Support the Show: 

If you loved this episode, please leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! Your reviews help us bring on more high-value guests to help you Fuel Your Flow.

Disclaimer: 

The Fuel The Flow Podcast is for educational purposes only and is based on the lived experiences of Valerie and her guests. Please consult with a professional for your specific needs.

SPEAKER_01

I think there's so much noise in the AI game right now with like every day. There's new tools coming out. Automations are where business owners are going to take huge leaps with ease versus other business owners who maybe aren't adopting things like automation. And I think at the end of the day, we don't want to be working all day long. How can we streamline the things that you do often in your business?

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Fuel Your Flow podcast. I am your host, Valerie Figali, physical therapist, turned software CEO and business coach for health and wellness coaches. We are going to be talking about all things health and business. They might be more closely related than you think. So let's go ahead and get into it. Welcome back to another episode of Fuel the Flow. Today I have an incredible guest, but before we dive in, I wanted to ask a favor. I know it might feel like another to-do, but if you're loving the show, we would be so grateful for a rating and review. These reviews help us bring on high-value guests for you to learn from and be inspired by. I have been loving doing these interviews for all of you, and I want to keep it going. So thank you, thank you, thank you so much for your support. Today I'm thrilled to welcome Diana Lenzer to the show, a powerhouse woman in productivity and systems strategy. After spending a decade in corporate marketing, Diana decided to take action on her own mission, helping founders of small businesses move away from the chaos they created in their own businesses and build systems that maximize both their time and revenue. Diana is all about creating flow and implementing tools that are available to improve efficiency in your business. She helps you find where your business is leaking time and energy, then design systems that feel in alignment with how you work. So without further ado, let's hear from Diana. Diana, you and I met at a woman in business conference run by Rebecca Cafiero. And I remember when I first met you feeling like, oh, this is a badass businesswoman. I was like, she's so like grounded and she's so down to earth, yet she knows her stuff. So that's why I kind of had a connection with you from the beginning. So thank you for coming on tonight. Oh, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01

I remember too, if you've gone to events, one of the things I was there with some girlfriends I knew, and I was like, it was a break in the day, and I was like, I'm gonna go sit at a table because I want to meet new people. And that's and you were the first person I met. I sat down, I was like, I don't know anybody at this table. I'm just gonna introduce myself. And it's beautiful what comes from that.

SPEAKER_00

It is, you know, this is not where I expected to go with this, but just a little piece of advice for people going to conferences, don't go with your friends because then you end up just talking with your friends the whole time and you miss out on all of these opportunities to like to meet and network with new people. Yeah. Or at least be intentional and be like, I'm gonna break away. I'll see you at the end. Right. Yeah. You won't talk until 5 p.m. Nothing personal. So I brought you on because I think that a lot of people listening have been in business for several years, but maybe they're hitting a little bit of plateau or they are just getting started. And I think building systems in from early on can be so important and so overlooked by most entrepreneurs, especially in the health coach coaching space where we are so conditioned to nutrition and health and the body and not so much business. So, can you first start by telling us a little bit about your story, how you got to what you're doing today and what exactly it is?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, sure. So uh most of my career actually is in marketing. That was my background. I was in corporate for over a decade doing brand marketing, brand management, which essentially is ensuring that the consumer has an exceptional experience at every brand touch point. So that was really baked into everything I did, whether that was with paid ads or social media or in a trade show or event, right? Like every brand touch point, it was my job to make sure that experience was just exceptional for the client. And so that was baked into me for most of my career. That was my focus. And when I chose to leave corporate, I quit my job a few years ago after having three kids. I just realized I was climbing the wrong ladder completely and I didn't want that life. Um, so I quit and I started a marketing business, which I still have today. And in that journey, that first year in entrepreneurship, you probably experienced something similar. I had for the first time since I no longer was an employee at a company, this opportunity for reflection and to really be like, what do I really like to do? Like what fuels me? What am I good at? What are my gifts? I feel like I kind of honestly like stumbled into marketing a little bit, right? Like you got to pick a degree in college and then you just like get a job. And it's just like, you know, it was it was a good stumble, but it wasn't like as intentional, I think, as I would have liked. So uh that first year of entrepreneurship was really fun because I was able to be like, you know what, I do like marketing, I still want to do it. But I actually think where my gifts lie are around helping other people get organized. That's always been like my default. Even in the corporate days, I was making the template for maternity leave and giving it out to all the other moms and just organizing information and making it like helping other people feel more organized, feel more proactive in their business. So that's what I do today. I focus on systems and Notion is a big tool that we use a lot in my business today. And I really just want to empower other business owners on how to implement systems, optimize them so that they work well for their unique brain, because ultimately we just want to feel more proactive, right?

SPEAKER_00

Less reactive, more proactive, more like we feel like we're on top of our you know, it's such a great gift because I feel like so many people need that. It's so practical what you do. You, you know, Diana has helped me. So I've worked one-to-one with you, and I am not the most organized brain. And so for her to come in and say, hey, like let's take all of this stuff you have going on and package it in a way that you can actually see it and lead a team and then get back to your information more easily, reuse things that you've done in the past is just an incredible time saver. And so there's so much practicality in what you do. And so, and also I love that you made that pivot and it gives people inspiration or permission to do the same for themselves because sometimes we do need to take a step back and say, wait a second, yeah, I'm gonna I'm going this way, but I can also do this, and this might be more fulfilling to my life and my business.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And so tell us a little bit about how you actually help people systematize anything. What are you systematizing, right? Like what in their business are you actually looking at that you're saying, hey, guess what? As simple as this may seem, you could have a simp system for this and be able to do this in half the time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, totally. So um, I have a variety of ways that I help people, but one of the really the core thing I think most business owners get into business because of whatever their craft or their skill is, right? Health coaches, whatever you're coaching on. You got in not to like figure out the systems of your business, not to do the bookkeeping, right? There's all these things that come with entrepreneurship that we're not necessarily trained in, nor do we probably enjoy doing. And so I found that with a lot of business owners, there's so much opportunity. There's so many things happening manually that could be automated or could at least be templatized to speed things up. And I think at the end of the day, we don't want to be working all day long. Like as much as we love our businesses, like, right? I have three kids, you have children, like we we have other things we want to do in our life. And so that's really at the core of what I do. I come in and I really help a business owner identify, okay, how can we get things organized? Let's streamline them, let's maybe tighten up your tech stack a little bit so you're spending less money and you're not always context switching with different tools. And then we talk about workflows. So this idea of how can we streamline the things that you do often in your business, right? So I know you and I were working together on, you know, forms, right? Member feedback and streamlining that, making that really easy, not only for members, because again, I bring in this like brand management. How can we make the experience exceptional for your clients? So make it really easy for people to submit feedback through a form, but then on the back end in your team internally, how can we take action on that as quickly as possible and it feel very efficient internally in the organization? So um, yeah, we really look at the workflows, the things that you're doing often, you or your team in your business, and then we find ways to streamline those with different tools and tech.

SPEAKER_00

And the thing is, is maybe early on when people are growing a personal band brand or a coaching business, it's it could be just them, right? Just them and themselves and them moving their business forward. But the reality is if you really do want to grow and scale your business, eventually you're going to have to hire some help. And so to have these systems in place ahead of time is so valuable because it just helps you teach somebody to do it the same way that you've been doing it. And there's no, there's no lag time, there's no gap. You're not spending a ton of time having to teach somebody to do this. People watching this may or may not know the term SOPs, but that it basically is what an SOP is, which is what a standard operating procedure. You got it. And so, yeah. And so that tells people who you are training or who you're bringing into your business how to do it exactly how it's done before, so that there's no question and that it's done quickly and effectively. And so basically you're helping us do that, but from a much wider standpoint for the whole entire business organization.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I think it's so important. I feel like I come in and I really help you allow the lay the foundation, that groundwork of what are the areas in my business, right? And this is more granular than departments, because I think in entrepreneurship, departments is kind of too big, right? Especially if you're just having contractors, maybe you're starting to hire, that's like too broad. So we I think in terms of areas, right? And so I help you understand and let's lay that groundwork, that framework. And my idea, my whole mission is that you as a founder, whether you're a solopreneur or you're already scaling and you have team members, is that your team can operate more efficiently. You can operate more efficiently so you have more time back because our time is our most precious currency. And I want to give you more of that back. So that's really why people come and hire me is they're like, I want my time back. I want to be more efficient, I want to be more effective.

unknown

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

And that's what we do.

SPEAKER_00

So, what give us some examples of areas? What would be areas in a coaching business?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so let's think like maybe we'll start because it's always a spectrum. We'll start maybe for the solopreneur. So some of the essential areas are meeting notes, right? This is so essential and such a missed opportunity for a lot of people. They're juggling meeting notes uh on their Apple iPhone in the notes app. Right. And then they have some on Google Docs, and it's there's no system or an organization to it. And then the other layer to meeting notes, which is like a huge aha moment, is templatizing agendas for certain calls you have often, whether those are client calls, discovery calls, one-on-ones with your team, yeah, standardizing that. And then there's some fun automations we can do in Notion when my clients use Notion, we do some really cool stuff. But meeting notes is a like a solid starting area. I actually have a free Notion template if people want to go download it. It's on my website. But that's a really great place to start, and that is for everybody. And you and don't feel bad. I always say this too: like, no judgment. If you are growing your business and you're like, I feel like I need some systems, and like, oh yeah, that's me. What she described there about Google, I'm like really scattered. Do not feel bad. You would be shocked at how many global organizations really have opportunity to enhance their operations and their systems. So as an entrepreneur, even just taking baby steps, like, don't feel guilt, take baby steps and just like start. I always say start where the most pain is. So meeting notes is one example, but where ask yourself where do I feel the most pain and friction in my day? Where do I think the biggest opportunity is? Because I always like to meet my clients where they're at. So meeting notes is a great one. Marketing, obviously, having the marketing background, I help clients a lot really manage that, having a content calendar, planning out the content they're going to be posting on different platforms, repurposing it. So marketing is a huge one. Um, there's many though. Usually it's like around 10 to 15 areas in a business that we create.

SPEAKER_00

I think that's that's a big one for coaches, is like the, you know, their social media calendar, their email calendar. Um, and then also I think a big one too is workflow for their actual clients. So who's coming in, who's getting on a discovery call, and then how are we following up with that person? And then how are we actually onboarding them onto whatever either program or one-on-one, you know, service that we're offering them. And so I know that you do all that as well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's one of client experience with my marketing background is one of my most favorite things to help, especially coaches with, because that's gonna make or break your business, right? That's how you get referrals. If people have a good experience with you, it is gonna grow your business. So I love, love helping people with that. And Notion is a great tool. I know we talk a little bit about Notion. I am certified in it. So I, it's a big lever I pull with clients. And if you're not familiar with Notion, it is a tool that allows you to build custom software within it, uh, or you can hire somebody like me to build it for you in Notion, but it's a very flexible tool. So you can really build software that functions the way you need it to and then is designed beautifully and you enjoy using it. Um, and so for client experience, think like client portals and helping you manage your leads, like you said, not and the coolest thing that you can do with lead management, because so many coaches I talk to, they lose track of their leads, right? They feel like they're leaving money on the table because they talk to different people on different platforms and then they forget to follow up, right? And then it just disappears. That's funny. So using Notion is a really great way for that. And there's some really cool connections you can do with Notion Calendar, which is another app in the Notion suite where you can actually show people in your CRM in the follow-up date on your Notion Calendar. So let's say you're using your calendar, you can see them on your calendar. It's basically time blocked, right? But it's dynamic. So if you update it on your calendar, it updates in the Notion app in your CRM. So it just allows you to stay on top of things and automate things a little bit better. Yeah. Um, so you don't lose leads.

SPEAKER_00

We don't want that. And it can send you those notifications too. That's like, yeah, just reminder this morning. This is what, you know, yes, what you have to do. Yeah. Now we're getting a little bit deeper, but just kind of to touch the surface of this, I know that Notion 2 just came out with what, Notion 3.0 and AI agents and all of that. And so I think um some newer entrepreneurs are actually even worse, entrepreneurs who have been doing things the way that they're doing things for a while now and are a little bit hesitant to use AI with Notion, from my understanding of it, it's almost like replacing like relay and chat GPT and all of those. And then you also have it with your quote unquote operating system, which basically is can you explain what an operating system actually is?

SPEAKER_01

Sure. So an operating system is essentially think of it as like a second brain for you if you're a solopreneur or if you're a business owner for your business. So it's where everything is housed. It's a centralized spot. It is software that we've built in Notion. So it's custom for you and your business. And it has these areas, like we mentioned before. So, like meeting notes, marketing, maybe finance and invoicing, CRM, things like that. Totally custom, designed to what you need, but it's all built in. Notion, for example, and it allows you to have the second brain or the centralized hub of information for your business, all your SOPs, your goals. And it gets really cool with the AI layer you just shared because not only can Notion's AI essentially search and crawl your entire operating system or your workspace in Notion and give you answers to questions like, hey, how are we pacing on Q4 goals? And instead of having to go email somebody in your team and ask for a status update, as long as they're maintaining the Notion, the information's in there. And the AI can go give you a really beautiful answer just based on crawling your workspace. Yeah. That's amazing. And the coolest part is now with the agents, you can build this like team of custom AI agents inside your Notion, which they can actually take action and do things for you. They can build for you in Notion, which for a lot of business owners, you know, I teach them how to use Notion when I work with them, but they're not a Notion Pro like I am. They are not going to go get certified, right? They have different priorities, which is understandable. So this AI agent tool Notion is so incredible because you can just, you know, in layman's terms, ask what you want, and it will now go and actually build in your Notion workspace or make changes. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00

So people, you know, anyone listening to this who says that they can't afford a team member right now or they can't, they don't have the funds or maybe the predictability in their business to feel comfortable hiring. I mean, there's no excuse not to have a quote unquote employee right now because these AI agents can almost act as that. And so business has become in some ways easier than ever, in some ways more complex than ever. But when you're trying to get help and be more efficient in your business, I mean, that's that's a great way to do it. Yes, there's a bit of a learning curve to figure it out, but once you figure it out, it can save you so much time and money.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So yeah, especially when you I think there's so much noise in the AI game right now with like every day, there's new tools coming out. And I've tested so many of them, and honestly, like a lot of them fall flat. Like they're not as impressive. They don't do what they say they're gonna do, or it requires a lot of like training up front that business owners just don't have time for. And so, what I love about Notions AI, at least in my testing so far, it's only like two weeks old, it gets it right the first time. And it is so impressive, and it also can search other tools like your Gmail. So think in the world of CRM, because I know this is like such a hot topic for business owners, right? We don't want to lose leads, we want that to be more efficient. You can link your Gmail and your calendar to your Notion, and your Notion AI can view that as long as you give it permissions, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So you could say, Hey, um, maybe you have a custom AI agent that you make to help you with CRM and with leads, and you say, Hey, on a schedule, so you don't need to be involved. You say, Hey, every um maybe Monday and Thursday at 4 a.m., I want you to go scan my email, my Gmail, and I want you to look for conversations that are identified as a lead, maybe, okay, or look for folks that are already in my CRM. And I want you to pull in information, update their status in my CRM, copy information, paste it in their contact card, you know, from conversations that are actively happening in our in my inbox. Wow. I mean, that's yeah, that's it's incredible. And you got the the the fee for this is nominal. I mean, Notion is so affordable. If you have a couple hundred dollars a year, their base paid plan is 120 a year. You know, you can really wow you can upgrade, you know, to get the full unlock full AI, but it's still a couple hundred a year. I mean, it's incredible the power that you get with that. Yeah, what you can do with it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So, hey, sorry to interrupt, but if you are a health or wellness professional and you haven't yet checked out the wellness vault, you're missing out. The wellness vault is a content hub for coaches who create their own plans and programs for their clients, run workshops, create digital guides, and so much more. You can now do all of this in a fraction of the time so you can focus on your clients and grow your business faster than ever with more U time. The link to the Wellness Vall is in the show notes. So go sign up for your free trial today. We are in Q4. And I know I went to a goal setting session with you, a live session. And so I'd love to talk to you a little bit about goal settings because here we are. We need to do it. If you haven't done it already, we really need to do it for next year. So can you talk to us a little bit about kind of um the importance of setting goals and what type of goals, like what are we looking for? Are we looking for revenue goals? Are we being more specific on task-related goals? How do you go about doing that? I love this question.

SPEAKER_01

I love goal setting. So here's how I break it down to people. One of the most common questions I get as a productivity strategist is I really have struggle prioritizing, like in the day-to-day as a business owner. There's so many things, there's not enough time. Have you relate to that? I mean, I feel that sometimes too. Yeah. So I always come back to goal setting. You can do this on a quarterly basis, on a monthly basis. I love quarterly basis. If you don't sit down and reflect on what's most important to you holistically as a person, as a business owner, you are gonna have so much trouble on the day-to-day actually prioritizing your time in a way that feels aligned with what's important to you. So it all starts with goal planning, like goal setting, goal planning. If you're skipping this step and you're struggling with prioritization, this is gonna be your golden unlock and just spend some time goal planning. In terms of your question of like, oh, is it should they be right? Like what types of goals should they be? I actually start one step before that. And I usually do some sort of reflection practice. I mean, you've been in my goal setting sessions, and we look at again, you holistically as a person, what matters to you most in these next three months? Ask yourself that question, journal on it. And then I want you to set just three goals for the quarter ahead, okay, holistically as a person, business owner, you know, person. I want to, you don't want to people set way too many goals and then they don't hit them and then they feel overwhelmed and they don't want to do it again the next quarter because they're like, I didn't do it. I didn't do it right, I didn't do good enough. And we don't want that. So focus, three goals as a person, as a business owner, whatever that looks like. You might have, depending on the size of your business, you might have more than three goals for your business, of course. I'm thinking more for the solopreneur. So keep that in mind, especially if you have a team. And I want you to think what matters most in the next 90 days, because we're not going to go like crazy next year. Let's just pick next 90 days, what's most important? And then from there, I want you to think about okay, what are the milestones that I need to do? And those goals need to be measurable. You've heard of smart goals, right? They need to be measurable in some way because you need to be able to say, when have we hit success? How can I measure that? So, whatever that is, if it's a revenue goal, whatever it has to be measurable. It can't just be, I want to be more healthy. Yeah. Right. What does that mean specifically, right? We need to be able to measure it. So breaking it down into those milestones, whether those are weekly or end of month milestones, that's going to give you those progress indicators. And that's what feels so good, right? That feeling of accomplishment, like I'm making steps towards that bigger goal that's important to me. Oh my God, that's where the magic happens.

SPEAKER_00

I think a lot of people, especially in my industry, because a lot of us are quite good at goal setting because we work with our clients on goal setting. And some of us do it for our business, not everyone. But even those of us who are doing it for our business, I think what ends up happening is they'll set their goals for 60 days, 90 days, maybe a year, but then never look back on it throughout the year. It's like we set it and then it's just like, and then we're just going off the cuff. We're going off the fly, right? And we're never actually reflecting on it. How would you recommend that people are actually checking in with their goals like quarterly or even every 30, 60 days, and then reflecting back and adjusting their goals as needed? Yes, I love this question.

SPEAKER_01

So, first things first, you gotta have your goals visible daily. You need to be looking at them multiple times a day. Yeah. So as much as I am a digital person, and I do recommend, we'll talk about that in a minute, of a digital system to kind of stay on track and monitor your progress. Good old fashioned sticky note. Just a couple sticky notes, whatever works for you, or a whiteboard visually near your laptop, your computer, your setup, because you have to see them daily multiple times. So that is like such an easy free thing that you can do that will help you hit. Hit your goals. And then second, I'll say you need some sort of system, right? We come back to systems. If you don't have a system in place, if you goal set and then you don't look back, or maybe you see a sticky, you know, every day, but you don't really mark off progress, then yeah, you're not gonna hit those goals and it's not gonna feel good and you're gonna hit the end of the night and you're like, ah, it didn't work again. Goals don't work for me. Yeah, and we don't want that for you. So I recommend Notion for this. I have a goal setting template in there and I build that a lot for um for my clients in Notion. And you can do that on a quarterly basis or a monthly basis. It doesn't really matter. The whole whatever feels good for your brain. The idea is that you have them visual somewhere like on your wall. And then in your workspace, so in your operating system in Notion, you have a little view that's showing the progress of those goals that you're seeing also daily, and you can easily check in with yourself. So I love an end-of-month check-in, like on the last Friday of every month or last day of every month, just to check in, hey, how are we progressing and mark off those milestones? And Notion has this really cool feature. It's called a roll-up where you actually, as you check things off, a little progress bar shows up and it automatically goes towards 100, which feels so good for so many people to see that visual cue. So I love something like that for a system.

SPEAKER_00

I know you built that out in mind that it and um one of my employees asked about it. They're like, Do we need these? You know, it's taking up space on the side. And I'm like, I think it's there for a reason, you know, it's there for a purpose. We get to see it and we should actually put our goals in there and make sure that we're we're following through with that. And then I think, like you said, just having it on the calendar, you know, having a system where it's like every last Friday or whatever you it is, that you're actually spending some time doing that. And I think a lot of people feel like it's a waste of time because they're like, well, I gotta get all these things done. But it's like if you're getting all those things done, but with no um expectation of what's supposed to come of those things, then we are going to fall flat every single time. And so having that reflection time built in, I think is so key.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And it doesn't have to be that long, like 15, 20 minutes. I think one other thing on this topic is so often business owners they operate as they are today. But we want, we desire growth, right? We want to have six multi-six figures, seven figures, eight figures, right? We want that growth, but we're operating as we are today. And it's if you want that growth, you need to step into that now. You need to take action. If you're, you know, I'm talking to the solopreneur right now, you act and behave as if you have a team. Yeah, you know, and a team would set goals and assign accountability for certain milestones to their team members. And so if you're not operating with that level of leadership, even as a solopreneur or with some contractors, you're not gonna hit those goals. So I would think I think that's part of it too, right? It's like that identity and taking action in that way.

SPEAKER_00

It's so interesting what that does in the brain, too. I mean, it literally rewires the brain when you tell yourself that you are this type of person, you are this type of leader rather than I'm going to be that type of leader. And so, yeah, that's really good input. So, as far as I mean, you've already given us so many good tips for systems and goals, any other productivity hacks or tips that you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_01

I would say I usually talk about this one when folks come to me and they're just like, I am completely overwhelmed. You know, I am this like consistent overwhelm. There's never enough time, and I just like cannot keep up. I share with folks my pad system. So it's this idea of pay, automate, delegate, or delete the overwhelm away. And so I'll talk about automation a little bit on this one because I think, especially in this day and age with AI and things like that, automations are where business owners are going to take huge leaps with ease versus other business owners who maybe aren't adopting things like automation. So I'll say just one of the most basic automations that I think every business owner, especially in the coaching space, should have. And I like Zapier for automations. You can do automations in Notion. There's also Make, there's a variety of tools out there. Choose what you like or come talk to me and I'll help you find one. But with your when we talk about CRM with your leads, so having some sort of automation so that you manually don't need to be doing that. So when whatever that trigger event is for you, maybe that's booking a discovery call or filling out an intake form, whatever that event is, you have to identify that. And then automating them into your Notion Workspace or CRM, wherever you're you're managing those leads, so that that is not a step you should be taking. Right. Right. And then also getting gathering some intake information before your discovery call so that you only need a few minutes to prep. I mean, I need like three minutes to prep for a discovery call. It wasn't, it didn't used to be that way, but I now have an automation in Zapier. When somebody books a call with me, they fill out an intake form. I see that key information about the business. I know based on what their revenue is, how long they've been in business, how large their team is, their pain points. I generally know where where I'm gonna, you know, recommend they go. And I I need like two minutes before the call to prep. So that is like I would say one of the most baseline automations I would recommend, especially coaches have in place, any service-based business owner, it's gonna save you so much time.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Yeah. And I think from a health perspective, those intake forms can be, can be the same, but obviously different questions. You know, we're asking, what have they tried before that's worked or not worked? You know, where what are their biggest symptoms that they're struggling with? Like what are they actually feeling on a day-to-day basis that's getting in the way of their wanting to live the life that they want to live? What they want in terms of timeliness, right? So some people are gonna be want hour-long workouts and this type of thing, where other people are like, I'm so busy, I can only fit out, fit a 15-minute workout in. So asking a little bit about their time, their desires. So all of those things, like you said, can be input earlier on rather than having to go through all those things during the call. So that when you do get on a call with somebody, that you're really tailoring the conversation to match their goals, their pain points, their desires, all of that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And then I mean, I uh I always have my marketing hat on. It's market research for you too, right? Like so that you really know who your clients are and it's gonna help you down the road when you start running paid ads. You're gonna know these pain points in the words that they're using, right? That's so important. And what an easier way to do it than an intake form. You can build them in notion, they're great. So that would be like the most basic recommendation, I would say, for a business owner, no matter what stage, make sure you have your leads automating into whatever system you're using, whatever CRM. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And people sometimes like filling those out because they like to know that you have the information on them. They want to know that you're tailoring the conversation to them as well, too. And so it's not necessarily a headache. Some people think like, oh, I don't want to send too many forms early on. But if it's if it's a simple, easy to fill out form that's not on a complicated system or software that they can just easily access through email and then hit submit, then people actually I think it comes off more polished, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01

Like when I have to fill out an intake form, it's not like multiple pages. Okay, we're talking like six questions or less, maybe.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm impressed. Like, I'm like, oh, this business owner has it. Like, I feel like I'm in good hands. Right. They're proactive. I know our call is going to be efficient, it's gonna be quick, they're not wasting my time, and I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. That's a that's such a good point. Yeah. Okay. You ready for some rapid fire? Let's go. Let's do this. Okay. Favorite productivity book.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's a good one. Um, I love uh Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. Love him. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00

Tool or app that you're currently obsessed with, aside from Notion, because we know that's a good one.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, tool or app that I'm obsessed with. Oh gosh, okay, give me a second on this one. I mean, I am obsessed with Zapier because of all the automations that I have to support my business. So I'm gonna have to go with Zapier number two. Yeah. Yeah. Second to Notion.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I mean, a lot of people will know that it what that is, but some people won't. And if you don't have Zapier, it just integrates almost anything together. And so if you do have things in multiple different spaces just to bring it all together, that's what Zapier does.

SPEAKER_01

If this happens, then this happens. It's basically a trigger and then something happens. It's a beautiful tool. It is.

SPEAKER_00

One habit you do daily to maintain your flow.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I love that. Movement. I have to move walking, working out, like it's a spectrum of intensity, but I gotta move my body. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So necessary. Biggest productivity myth that you'd like to bust.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know if this is quite a myth, but it's like an identity. Like people have this identity. Like, I'm not organized. I'm just not an organized person. I think I have that identity. You help me bust that. I hope you bust it. So I think it's sort of a myth, a myth, an identity myth, but it's like you are whatever you want to be. And so that's a story you're telling yourself, and you can be an organized person. And I'm here to help you do that. So I think that's just like one of the biggest myths I see is people just think that they're telling themselves a story that they're not, and they can break it.

SPEAKER_00

Right. That they can't do it. But you really know they just need the right system. Yes, exactly. Coffee, tea, or other work drink.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, coffee.

SPEAKER_00

Iced coffee all the way from coffee dose down the street. Perfect. Um one task you've fully automated that has saved you a ton of time in your business.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, this is a good one. You guys, I don't do laundry anymore. Oh, yeah. I uh so we have three boys, so family five. We have a lot of laundry, and I started outsourcing it using a tool called Poplin, which I'm a huge fan of. And yeah, I have a laundry pro. It's kind of like Uber for laundry. I was spending about four hours a week on laundry, like doing the whole shebang. Yep. And I felt I hated it. I did not enjoy it. And I felt so sad every time I'd finish it because the laundry bin was full again. I just would have to start all over. So I could never catch up. So I outsourced it. I use this tool. I put my dirty, actually, I did it this. Oh shoot, I didn't do it this morning. I didn't, I just forgot. I'll have to do it tomorrow. You just put it out front, they pick it up and it return, they return it washed, sorted, folded at your doorstep less than 24 hours. That is incredible. It's insane.

SPEAKER_00

I think a lot of people are a little bit cheap when it comes to spending money on their life outside of work in business. Sometimes it'll be like throwing money around, like it's nobody's business. But then they think about their life and how much time that saved you in your life in order to get that time back with your kids. Or if you do need to work an extra hour for a client or whatever it may be, like you don't have to do the laundry anymore.

SPEAKER_01

So that's exactly no, it's been such a time saver. And I think you got to think about your hourly rate, right? And that opportunity cost. Is this where I want to be spending my time in this season of life? And that all staggers on from the goal setting. Like I got clear on what my priorities were, and I was like, yeah, laundry was not one of them.

SPEAKER_00

That's seen to let it go. Delegate it out. What you hope clients will say about you after working with them.

unknown

Oh.

SPEAKER_00

She cares so much about me. Love it. And you do. Yeah. It comes through. Yeah. Thank you so much. This has been fun. You have been such a gift to me in my business. And I hope that everybody feels the same way. So tell us where they can find more about you and where to start. Yep.

SPEAKER_01

You can find me on Instagram. That's my main platform at Diana Lenser. And then my website, DianaLenser.com. And I do custom notion builds for clients. And I also have a membership called Productive CEO Club for female founders. I help you get organized and boost productivity. Love it.

SPEAKER_00

And that's a low-cost way to get in with Diana too and start to see what she does and get some of her templates and all of that. And so I will drop the links in the show notes below. And again, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. This was fun. All right. I hope you enjoyed our conversation from today. Any links we discussed will be in the show notes below. Also, we would be incredibly grateful if you would leave us a five star review. This helps us keep the podcast going so that we can continue to provide value for all of you. I hope we see you on the next one.