Building Confidence Through Tiny Habits® - Strategic Business Planning with Julie DeLucca-Collins

Confidence rarely appears first; it’s built by tiny actions that are easy to start and even easier to repeat. We sit down with tiny habits coach Julie to unpack a practical, science-backed approach for getting unstuck, turning ideas into a weekly plan, and tracking what actually moves a business forward. If motivation has let you down, this conversation shows you how behavior design, not willpower, creates momentum.

Julie breaks down habit stacking with simple, real-life examples: filling a water bottle after letting the dogs out, reading one chapter when you sit at your desk. We dig into why environment design beats good intentions, how quick celebrations rewire the brain for consistency, and the small tweaks that keep actions sustainable on your busiest days. From there, we shift into strategy: translating goals into daily and weekly actions, building a 12-week cadence, and using a Friday review to recalibrate without losing steam.

We also challenge the obsession with lagging metrics like downloads and revenue. Instead, you’ll learn to focus on leading indicators—outreach sent, content shipped, follow-ups logged—that you can control and that predict future results. Julie shares a clear distinction between doing more and doing what matters, plus the mindset shift from taking numbers personally to treating them as useful, neutral data. We close with a look at her Passion To Profit framework, which helps validate demand, price with confidence, and turn skills into a profitable, resilient business.

If you’re ready to replace “go big or go home” with small, consistent moves that compound, press play now. If this helped, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs momentum, and leave a quick review so we can reach more builders like you.

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Transcript

Jenny 0:35

Feeling stuck in your business. What is the secret to having confidence wasn't a massive overhaul of your business, but instead was tiny daily habits that stick? Hi, Julie. Welcome to the podcast. How are you?

Julie 0:51

I am doing great, Jenny. Thank you so much for having me. Very excited to be with you today.

Meet Julie And The Tiny Habits Approach

Jenny 0:57

Of course. I am super excited to have this conversation about building confidence through tiny habits for strategic business planning. Before we actually jump into that, will you share a little bit about your background and how you became a tiny habits coach?

Why Motivation Fails And Small Wins Work

Julie 1:12

Yeah, well, you know, I tell people that I am my best client. When I became a tiny habits coach, it was after the revelation that I felt habits, it's the very crucial part of accomplishing anything. And yet I had read all the books and I kept and I incorporated great habits into my career. I worked in a corporate environment for over 20 years. I was a senior executive. By the time I left, I was the chief innovation officer of a national educational company. And again, had a level of success, right? But there were certain things that weren't clicking yet. And as I uh went into launching a business and starting and getting that uh going, I still was struggling with habits. And I thought, how can I be struggling? What is it that I am missing? And I heard Dr. BJ Fogg, who is the author of Tiny Habits, the book, um, speak in Clubhouse. I don't know if you remember the Clubhouse days. And I thought, oh, I think this is the piece, right? This is the piece that I may be missing. So I started to ask questions of Dr. Fogg, and he has obviously I read the book, and he he has a training for individuals to become tiny habit certified coaches. And I jumped right in. I thought, okay, I need this. I need this for me. And it made total sense because one of the things that I have found, which is again some of the research that Dr. Fogg has done. And to put it into context for individuals, he is the founder of the behavior lab at Stanford University. And most of all the other habit books, including Atomic Habits, are based on his research. And one of the things that he he talks about is motivation doesn't get you to do it. And I know that for me, I was always sitting around like, how can I get more motivated? And what I realize is that it is the action that then gets you going. But if you do the action that is really, really big, like go big or go home, you're not going to be able to stay consistent, create that momentum. And that new behavior is never going to be wired into your brain. So you need to start small. You need to do something so tiny that, and your brain is going to say, Well, what is that gonna do? So if your brain is saying that, you're starting with a tiny habit. And then you need to pair it with an existing behavior because that behavior is already automated. So this way, as you let that new behavior be paired with an existing behavior, and it's so tiny and you do it, then you create the consistency, and then you that's how you become someone that can create those new habits. And of course, the most important part of that habit creation is the celebration, which most of us don't give ourselves credit. Most of us think, okay, I did it, but let me go do it again, or I didn't do it perfect. Whereas if we say, Oh, good job, Julie, you did it, then all of a sudden you're letting your brain know, like, oh, I like feeling good when she praises me, right? And then you keep going. And that's how I became a tiny habits coach, really through my own search and my own understanding that I needed something different from what my understanding was when it came to habits.

Jenny 4:47

When you talk about, you need to stack it on top of a behavior that tiny habit. Can you give us an example?

Habit Stacking Explained With Real Examples

Julie 4:54

Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, my my one of my favorite habits, and a lot of people don't see the correlation between this and my business. But for me to stay um consistent, alert, and in a good spirit, I have to drink water. So here's my water bottle, and I keep this water bottle in the kitchen after I go to bed at night, and it's right next to the sink. Now, my existing behavior every morning is I have to let my dogs out every single morning, right? So when I come in the morning, I open the door. That's the habit, right? I open the door, let the dogs out, and then I turn around and the and the bottle is there. That reminds me, right? So when I let the dogs out, I grab the water bottle and I fill it. Now, I would like to say that I drink at least a gallon of water, and sometimes I do, but really what my goal is is just to fill the bottle. And when I do, I say, oh, good job, Julie. You're a girl who drinks water every day. And I give myself props and I look at the dogs and they're playing outside and they're cute, and then my brain is feeling good. So that is the first step. And the existing behavior for me, again, is I already let the dogs out every morning. And on the mornings that maybe my husband does so, I still come downstairs, right? And the first thing that I see is the water bottle. And that is the one thing that a lot of individuals try to make it very complicated, but I have it needs the right space in addition to the right, uh, the right prompt or the habit stacking, the place where you're going to stack that new habit.

Jenny 6:33

Yes, I love that. So if you I mine is I have the book that I'm currently reading for professional development sitting on my desk. I always have it on my bedside, but of course I get distracted with my phone or I was too tired to read that night. Now that the book is there, the first thing that I do is I sit at my desk, grab my book, and I read a chapter every day. And that is what has helped me, that behavior of knowing I'm coming into my office, I'm sitting down to get ready to start the day. And now I'm getting in that habit of reading and getting that professional development.

From Ideas To Strategy And Weekly Planning

Julie 7:07

Yeah, I and I think that that's one of the things that we need to learn to help ourselves because again, the action is what gets you going and keeps the momentum. It's not the motivation. And making it making it easy on the future self that's gonna come in the morning, right? And read the chapter. Leave the book where you can find it. Leave the book in a place that will say, Oh, yeah, I I sit at my desk and I read the first chapter.

Jenny 7:32

I love that. So clearly it can impact both personal and business, which 100%, 100%.

Julie 7:38

And that's exactly some of the framework that I use when I'm working with clients. And I think that for us entrepreneurs, we tend to be full of great ideas. And the issue that I see at times is that we're not strategic. And also we sort of pitter out after a while when things maybe are not going in the direction that we want, or when something that we wanted didn't come about, or whatever it might be, or something new and exciting happens, right? We're like, oh, I'm gonna do that. So the most important thing that we talk about with my clients is really strategically planning your week and having a very clear action plan of the things that get you closer, move you in the direction of the goals that you've set out for your business. A lot of times we set these goals, but we don't even know what we need to do in a day in and day out. So what I typically tell my clients, and you know, it's I do it as well, right? When I come and sit at my desk, the first thing that I do is I look at my planner and I have a paper planner. And that could be your your calendar as well online, but I look at my planner and I, and this is the one thing that in in the course of the week, I've already planned for the month, but I look at what are the actions and I go through what am I doing today? Today's Friday. Oh, I'm recording. Guess what? My goal for the year is to be on 26 podcasts. So I'm recording with Jenny, and yeah, that action kind of gets me going in that direction. And I know exactly what is happening. And when I look at my calendar, whether or not you and I sat down to record today, I am taking that first step to stay grounded, to stay in the momentum. And many of us are not incorporating intentionality in how we're running our businesses.

Jenny 9:23

Yes, it's that consistency, right? Of doing it every single day and knowing that that's how you're gonna start and where you're going to be going towards. But also making sure, like you said, that what's in your planner is connected to the goals that you've written for yourself, whether it's your 90-day goals, your annual goals, whatever it might be.

Julie 9:40

100%.

Actions, Leading Metrics, And Recalibration

Jenny 9:42

So, how do you help business owners use the tiny habits framework when creating a strategic plan for themselves?

Julie 9:48

Yeah, well, this is such a great question. We first sit down, and when anybody is going to start um working with me, one of the first things that we do is really a time assessment and we start to see where are you spending your days? Because I think that again, we can let days happen to us as opposed to having the intentionality. And we may have really big dreams, but that requires that we need to kind of put them into the right category. Is this something that is doable within the next 90 days or is it doable for the six months or the year or three years? So once we do that time assessment and really look at what the vision is for the entrepreneur, then we start to define that plan and we work backwards. The teacher in me, because I started my career as a teacher, does that backwards design, right? If this is where we're going, how are we going? What did I do? And sometimes it's as simple as taking a posted um pad and writing all of the things that go into getting that goal. So for instance, again, being on podcasts, what do I need to do? Okay, I'm gonna put in one posted, one action. Let's talk about oh, I need to research podcasts, I need to listen to those podcasts, oh, I need to make an outreach, oh, I need to make sure that I follow up. What are the things, right? Whatever it might be, and then incorporate those into when do we do this? Do we do this weekly? Do the do we do this daily? And incorporate that into your calendar. Once you have an idea of the actions that you need to take on a daily basis, then we really create some metrics as well. And this is the other part where sometimes uh we we don't track our metrics. We and and we want to avoid them. But if we don't see where are we going, how am I doing, we're not allowing ourselves to recalibrate. And that's another really big thing. So we recalibrate, and and for instance, with my clients, we sit down and we look at our metrics first time when we speak on a weekly basis. Hey, how are you doing with this? And okay, what was the action that you took? What was the action you didn't take? And then sort of figure out okay, how can we keep going in that direction? What needs to be tweaked a little bit? And sometimes it's not a very big tweak, but really it's letting the individual take ownership of not only their their actions, but also understanding that you know, our businesses are not magic. Our businesses really require a foundation of mathematics for as much as we tell ourselves we're not good at math, we need to have a clear understanding of metrics, and because those are the ones that drive us.

Jenny 12:30

So when you're talking about metrics compared to the tiny habits, are in your example of getting on 26 podcasts, are you then writing out your tasks or you referred you didn't refer to them as tasks. I refer them to Miss Tasks, but you refer to your what did you refer to them as? I'm sorry. Actions, actions, your actions. Um are you keeping track of the metrics of whether you're completing it each week and how many times that's what you're talking about for the metrics? Absolutely.

Common Habit Mistakes And How To Fix Them

Julie 13:02

No, no, not at all. And and and I think that this is the other piece, Jenny, where people really kind of go sideways. There are two types of numbers. They're um lagging metrics or lagging numbers, right? And these are, for instance, your lagging number could be how much revenue did you bring in in a day, right? That's a lagging metric. And I think that the lagging indicators or ladding lagging um metrics or indicators are the ones that most people focus on. But we cannot control how many people download our podcast. What we can control is did you do the things, right? For instance, you and I were talking about you put your, you put a blog post up for your podcast. You then make sure that there's backlinks to the guest. Those are the actions. So measuring, right? The leading metric of every week I'm going to put my podcast information on a blog, right? That's what you want to count because that's the one that you can control. That's the one that you can move the needle on. So if people are not downloading your podcast, or maybe you're not um getting the visibility that you want, it's not necessarily because, you know, I if I waited for 26 people to say yes, we want you on your podcast, I don't think that necessarily I would be on 26 podcasts. It really does take about doing the work from my side and what does that look like? And then, like I said, you know, it's very daunting to say January 1st, I'm gonna be in 26 podcast. So what I do is I break it down into 12 weeks. And I love, I don't know if you were at the 12-week year, but one of the reasons I love the 12-week year is because most of us plan by quarters or 90 days, and that's great. But the way that life happens, life lives. And if something happens or if we kind of fall off the wagon or something went awry, our brain will go to, oh, well, I'll start again on Monday, or I'll start again at the beginning of the next quarter. Whereas with a 12-week program, you can say, you know what, I was off the saddle, I need to recalibrate. I'm gonna start my next 12 weeks today. And then that way you can get that momentum and you don't have to wait for the next best Monday or the next best uh first of the quarter to start.

Jenny 15:24

Yes, no, I love that. And thank you. I think that that's a really good explanation because I think a lot of times people become inconsistent because they're looking at those lagging metrics, the downloads, and they get discouraged and therefore don't remain consistent because of it. But if you do it the way that you're talking about with your metrics actually looking at completing those tasks, that's the consistency that they need in order to then see the lagging metrics continue along the way as it comes about.

Julie 15:50

So yeah, a hundred percent, a hundred percent. And and again, I think that a lot of times we're so afraid of seeing the numbers because we define ourselves by the numbers. And Jenny, I I've done that, but the reality is that numbers are neither good nor bad, they're really neutral. And we need to start looking at those numbers as data, information, things that will help us make the right decisions. And and again, if you look at any successful big company, they're not feeling poor about themselves because their last quarter went down or whatever it might be, right? They actually look at the numbers, okay, we're down, we're up. How do we drive the next set of actions that we're going to take? And that's how entrepreneurs, and that's the difference, right? Between a person who's that worker be, oh, the strategic CEO that steps into that role, that doesn't take it personally. And by the way, it's so hard because we're human, right? But that's one of the things that we work towards, especially with my clients. We worked into what does that look like? What does that confidence CEO look like?

unknown 17:00

Okay.

Jenny 17:00

So now, what are some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to build new habits in their business?

Julie 17:07

Too much. Too much. We we tend to do um a lot of looking at and saying, wow, you know, I want to run that marathon. And, you know, that person ran that marathon. I think I'm gonna start training. And they immediately go from not having been running in years to I'm gonna start running every day. Honey, you can't do that. Go to the mailbox, go walk to the mailbox or walk around your block and say, Oh, good job. I did it, right? And a lot of times also the mistake is, all right, I'm gonna start going to the mailbox every day or I'm gonna take a walk around the block. Well, we don't really specifically say when, right? And we don't set the stage up for success. If I didn't plan when I'm gonna walk around the block or when I'm going to go to the gym or whatever it is, right, I need to make sure that my stage is set, that I don't have to like, oh, wait a minute, where are my shoes? Where are my workout clothes? So all of these things I used to think people were crazy when they would say that they would put their workout clothes outside or they would sleep with them. But honestly, if you get up in the morning and you see that, you're like, oh yeah, I gotta, I'm going to the gym today. Today's a gym day. Let me get myself on those clothes. So these little things help. Also, the other thing that really hurts people is again going back to that consistency. Consistent action gets you traction. Most people think, oh, I'm gonna do it for 21 days. And after 21 days, maybe something happens in the 22nd day, you're not gonna be able to do it. You immediately go into that beatdown for yourself. It's not about the number of days, it's not 21, it's not 66. It is just creating, think of it as every tiny habit, every tiny little step that you're taking, right? Is about putting a seed down in the ground and then watering it. We don't know how long it takes for a plant to, I mean, there's different conditions that affect that, but all we can do again is the action that you can control. Doing the watering, putting it out in the sun, making sure that you know you're you're looking. Okay, what else do I need to do? And and sometimes that's where people go wrong, whether it be in a personal habit or a habit for your business as well. We are not focusing on what we can control and controlling the environment, putting the things and and really pairing it with existing behaviors as well.

Passion To Profit Framework And Wrap

Jenny 19:40

Love that. So now tell me about your passion to profit that you have a comprehensive guide to building a profitable business. We're gonna link to it in the comment in the show notes as well as in the blog post, but just let us know what we can expect.

Julie 19:55

Yeah, you know, the passion to profit, um, as with most of the things that I have, is really create, it was really created because this is the tool I wish I had when I was in my corporate career. And again, I loved my career. I did well, but there was that little thing in my brain and in my heart that said, Oh, wouldn't it be nice? Because I've been a side hustle entrepreneur since I was 13. But I never took that leap. I didn't have that clear roadmap. And we all have a passion. We all are very good at a lot of different things, but we need to really specifically know what that passion looks like? Do people even care about our passion enough to pay us for it? And what are the things that are going to help us really set the stage so that, you know, we we don't will we feel a scare leaving a nine to five? Of course we will. But what we want to do is we want to go ahead and create a strategic plan so that you're working on the things that will set you in place to be that consistent, that confident CEO. Um again, it's not just about being excited or good at something and having a passion. It's about knowing how this passion is going to help others if there is a demand as well for what you do. And at the other place where people get to is like, oh, what do I charge for that? How do I do that? Uh, I don't know. I've never done that. Um, do people, I remember thinking, you know, I don't know, do people pay for coaching? And I I knew I had, but I didn't even know it was first, second, or third when it came to charging for for coaching services, right? However, when I looked at my corporate career and we worked in partnerships with school districts, if they wanted to hire me, I knew exactly how much they that was gonna cost. So having an understanding and a framework that helps you with these little nuances that nobody really sometimes talks about, right? That's what the passion to profit is.

Jenny 22:05

Excellent. Like I said, we're gonna link to that so we can make sure that everyone goes and grabs that. Julie, I appreciate you so much for taking the time to speak with me and share your knowledge with my audience.

Julie 22:16

Oh, thank you so much, Jenny. You know, it's always very fun to talk to someone who is doing the type of work that you admire and the type of work that again is setting the straight the stage for others to follow and really go after their dreams and do it so confidently.