July 11, 2024 • 46 mins
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Unlock the secrets to building a thriving freelance business as we sit down with expert business coach Julie DeLuca Collins. Have you ever wondered how successful entrepreneurs reverse-engineer their goals to align their daily operations with long-term visions? Julie shares her invaluable insights on time management, defining services, identifying your ideal customer base, and crafting effective pricing strategies. Get ready to take notes on the top mistakes freelancers make and learn actionable steps to evaluate and enhance your business practices.
Julie’s career journey is nothing short of inspiring. From retail management at Macy’s to becoming a Chief Innovation Officer at a multimillion-dollar educational company, Julie’s unique path has equipped her with profound insights into sales, marketing, and business operations. With a strong passion for empowering women in business, she transitioned to coaching during the pandemic. Julie has helped countless clients master business fundamentals, such as LLC formation and email marketing, all while maintaining a strategic vision for long-term success.
Tune in to discover how to create a successful business strategy and achieve time and income freedom. We explore the importance of setting clear business goals, maintaining work-life balance, and defining your niche to maximize your client base. Julie’s practical tips on effective time management, setting boundaries, and building productive habits are sure to resonate with entrepreneurs at any stage. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and motivation to push your freelance business to new heights.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cathy Sirvatka (00:00):
What is the core foundation of your business?
I bet you have a vision and apassion for your business, but
do you have systems in place toachieve your goals that are in
alignment with your foundation?
Clarity of time, services,ideal customer base or niche
your offerings, goals for yourincome and pricing these are all
(00:22):
foundational considerations torunning a business that you feel
comfortable in and thatattracts and keeps happy clients
.
Imagine the ideal way you wantyour business to run and then
putting systems in place thatare aligned with that vision.
This is the consummatefreelance business structure.
My guest today is Julie DeLucaCollins.
(00:43):
She is a business coach whoworks with entrepreneurs to plan
and strategize how they runtheir business.
She addresses not only theservices they offer but how
they're delivered.
Today, julie talks about how toreverse engineer your business
goals to see how you areactually doing business.
She talks about creating a planthat embraces your best
(01:06):
strategies and businesspractices and about developing
daily habits that keep you frombecoming overwhelmed.
Julie tells us the top twothings she sees freelancers
doing that are working againstthem, and she shares two next
steps for all of us to do toassess why our business is where
it is, for better or worse.
(01:27):
Here we go.
Welcome to the Web Pro SavvyPodcast.
This is your host, CathySirvatka.
S as in Sam I-R V.
As in Victor A-T-K-A.
All right, julie welcome to theshow.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (01:46):
Thank you , Kathy, for having me.
I am thrilled to be able to behere with you today.
Cathy Sirvatka (01:51):
Oh, I'm so happy to have you.
We had such a greatconversation and I got so
excited about the things youwere talking about, because
they're business and for thoseof us freelancers who run our
own business and we know how todo web stuff, maybe don't know
how to do the business stuff sowell and could use a few
(02:11):
pointers, so this is going to bea good episode, I think.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (02:14):
Well, thank you again and you know I
geek out at having theseconversations.
It's sort of my, I'vediscovered, is my little ikigai
to have.
It's what I'm passionate about,is what I love doing, is it
lights me up and I'm good at it.
So you know it's.
It's a great thing inconversation that we'll have.
Cathy Sirvatka (02:35):
That's really cool, thanks.
So can you tell us a littleabout your professional
background and what got you towhere you are now?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (02:44):
Well, let's see.
I will tell you that I havebeen an entrepreneur at heart.
My first business was when Iwas 12 years old, and I'm not
going to go into a long detailon it.
However, I went the traditionalroute.
Most people have a path thatthey want to follow and I
decided well, you know, I'mgoing to be a teacher and I have
(03:06):
families, members that havebeen teachers, and it was just
the thing that I saw myselfdoing.
And I started teachingpreschool, kindergarten, and I
loved it.
I had a lot of fun, but it wasexhausting and there was a piece
that wasn't, was missing, and Ithought there's gotta be more.
And I got another job, workingas a junior high youth minister
(03:32):
at my church, and I love that.
I love middle school kids, lovethem, and people either love
them or hate them.
And that was a really, you know, incredible time for me to
learn a lot about creatinglong-term plans, creating a
curriculum, being able to thenorganize a team of volunteers,
(03:54):
organize events.
So that was a great experience.
And then I didn't know what Iwanted to do after that.
I eventually was hired by anational educational company.
One of the things that theylooked at is that I had retail
experience and I was again.
Another one of my experiencesis I was an assistant manager
(04:16):
for a retail one of the largestretail chains federated
department stores, macy's and Ilove doing that and I learned a
lot about profitability, aboutproducts, about marketing, and
all of that helped me when I wasrecruited for this educational
company.
I came in to be a centerdirector for a tutoring company
(04:39):
and I love the fact that I canmeld my retail experience and
sales with my educationalbackground.
And also I was making an impactin the lives of the people that
we were serving.
I went for the first couple ofyears and learned the business
(05:00):
and grew through the ranks,became very successful, one of
the top performing centers, andthen I got promotion after
promotion.
I spent over 10 years with thatcompany and it was an
incredible experience becausethey had a purpose in not only
servicing students but also togrow people from within, to
(05:24):
mentor them, to help them.
This company is also afranchise company, so I learned
a lot about opening a business.
What does it take to have abusiness plan?
What are your marketing dollars?
So how do you create amarketing plan, a sales plan?
How do you make it worktogether?
How do you create anoperational system?
So all of that was again thingsthat were like depositing
(05:46):
knowledge and experience into mybelt.
I left that organization becauseI was recruited for another
multimillion dollar company thatwas in the education space.
She was the owner and founder,was someone who started to make
a difference, and she was ateacher but didn't have the
business know-how, and she knewthat.
(06:08):
I brought that to the table.
She was looking to expand.
She was making the type ofmoney and income that she was a
multimillion dollar company, butshe wasn't running it as you
should, so her growth had becomestagnant and that's where my
expertise came in.
I was with that company formany, many years and I grew with
(06:31):
the company.
The company continued to expand.
We expanded to many differentstates and I love the work that
I was doing.
By the time I left that company,I was the chief innovation
officer and the reason that thetitle sort of was one that
talked about.
I was into the development ofnew business, but I was also in
(06:53):
the operations of the existingbusiness.
I was not.
I straddled both of those.
I had been also thinking formany years because, as I was
developing new programs for thecompany that I wanted to do more
in helping women and my goalwas that sometime in the future
I was going to leave and maybenot retire, but I was going to
(07:15):
pivot to working with executives, working with women in the
corporate world, because one ofthe things that I kept hearing
from individuals as I grewthrough the ranks of multiple
companies is wow, that's right,great Congratulations.
I wish I was as confident asyou are, and I thought you don't
know, I am not that confidentand yes, there is a level of
(07:38):
confidence, but I don't alwaysfeel it, I don't always have it
together, I don't always know,but the thing that is that
catalyst for me is that I keepgoing.
I don't stay in place when Idon't feel confident.
I take the first step and thatmotion creates the momentum to
(07:59):
build my confidence, because Ipractice, I fail, I innovate, I
change, I become better.
So that has been really whatthe journey has been.
Now, at the beginning of thepandemic, I got the call.
My company was hit incrediblyhard with schools closing down
and they had to make the toughdecision that a couple of us in
(08:22):
the executive suite had to beoffered a separation package and
at first I thought, oh, I knowexactly what I'm going to do.
I'm going to help women in thiscorporate career and become
more confident and grow in theircareers, et cetera.
So I set out to do coaching, inthat I had gotten again
coaching certificationsthroughout the years, mainly for
(08:44):
my own edification.
And as I started to work withwomen and help them in their
career, I started to get a lotof people come to me and said,
hey, I know that you worked witha company.
Do I need an LLC to start acompany?
Hey, I don't know what emailmarketing is.
How do I do that?
(09:05):
Or, wow, how do I price myself?
And I thought, oh, this issomething that comes really
easily to me, I love to talkabout, I love creating the
strategy and plans.
And then, all of a sudden, mybusiness started to evolve to
doing more of the businesscoaching because productivity.
To doing more of the businesscoaching because productivity,
(09:28):
time management, the skills ofstrategizing and building a
clear, concise plan for yourbusiness and how you're going to
run it, not only in the salesand marketing, but also in the
delivery of services.
It's something that I'mincredibly passionate about.
So this is how I got here Along road, but every experience
has deposited into my knowledgebank that allows me to be better
(09:50):
at what I do.
Cathy Sirvatka (09:51):
Wow, yeah, I feel like a lot of us have that
kind of path to where we are now.
We didn't take the straightpath our parents or grandparents
used to take, where it's likeyou had the same job out of
college, you went till youretired, boom, all was that, was
it.
I think I read something thatsaid we have like five to seven
(10:12):
different careers in ourlifetime at this point.
So absolutely yeah, so that'sreally cool.
So now I know how you became abusiness coach, which makes
sense because you have a ton ofbusiness background and I love
that.
Now, when we talked before, youmentioned something about core
(10:35):
foundational elements in abusiness, especially freelance
business, as we're talking tofreelancers, business, as we're
talking to freelancers.
So what I want to say is or arewhat are core foundational
elements, or do we have one corefoundational element for the
business?
What is that?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (10:52):
Yeah.
So you know, one of the thingsthat I tell individuals is that
you really have to reverseengineer your success For many
freelancers, entrepreneurs.
You have a vision and you havea passion and you have a great
skillset, but you don'tunderstand how they kind of meld
(11:15):
together and can work together.
And the most important thing is, if you have the vision that
you want the time freedom, youwant the income freedom, right?
What does that mean?
Understanding, really, if Iwant to have time freedom, what
does that mean?
How many hours do I want towork?
When do I create thatintentional margin so that I
(11:37):
don't leave a job that wasoverworking me to all of a
sudden working 24-7 in my ownbusiness, right?
So, having that clarity, numberone.
Number two also it's importantfor you to know that if you have
a goal for income for yourbusiness, you need to pay your
bills and you want to have extraincome to be able to travel,
(12:01):
save into your retirement.
What does that mean on apractical manner?
How many clients do you need tohave?
What is the right way to priceyourself?
To create packages so thatyou're not working trading
dollars for time and hours likemost?
(12:23):
You know, you're not an hourlyperson, but you're someone who
is working on a per projectbasis.
And then you are creatingsystems that not only continue
to bring in new people by makingthem aware and you nurturing
the relationships, but you also,as you're delivering services
and this is where a lot ofentrepreneurs go wrong you get
(12:46):
into delivery mode.
All of a sudden, you have aninflux of clients.
Oh great, Everything iswonderful.
I have an influx of clients,Let me go and do the work, Let
me design the thing, Let me dothis.
And yet they stop doing thework that is required to
continue to bring more people in, create continued awareness,
(13:06):
strengthen the relationships andbuild that know like and trust
factor that is incrediblyimportant for us to have in
order to grow our practices, ourbusinesses, our side hustle,
whatever it might be, when itcomes to doing this freelance
stuff.
Cathy Sirvatka (13:24):
So clarity of time goals for your income, and
then systems in place.
Julie DeLucca-Collin (13:32):
Absolutely Clarity in what you do, what
you offer, who do you serve.
And I think that this is theother thing that many people get
stuck on.
They don't ask is thissomething that people want?
We assume that, just becausewe're good at it, that that's
(13:52):
what people are looking for.
Number two having the clarityof who is your person.
You know, my mentor, pat Flynn,says the riches are in the
niches and we hate that.
Like I have to niche down andby the way, I've been there,
I've been like, oh, I can helpany entrepreneur.
(14:12):
The problem with that is thatwhen we don't have clarity on a
very specific segment of who weserve, then we're speaking to so
many different people that ourmessage is not clear enough.
You're speaking to everyone,you're speaking to no one.
So it's very important and forme that was a turning point in
(14:34):
my business.
I remember thinking well, I'm acoach, I'm a holistic coach, I
do mindfulness, I can dobusiness, I can do career
coaching.
So there were so many differentlayers when I talked about what
I did.
Nobody understood what I wasdoing, there was no clarity and
I felt and again, this is thatscarcity mentality I felt like
(14:57):
if I picked one, if I talked toone segment, that I would not
get any business, because I waskind of crossing out and saying,
okay, not you, not you, not you.
But what has actually happened,kathy, and I think that this is
really important.
I actually am able to servicemore people because there's
(15:21):
clarity.
And, yes, my ideal person, theperson that I serve, is that
woman entrepreneur who isoverwhelmed, maybe in midlife,
and is not sure what comes first, second or third, and they're
working in their business butnot on it.
They're not growing it, theystill don't have consistent
income.
From time to time, they'reworried about whether or not
(15:44):
they're going to be a success.
Right, they stay up at nightand think, okay, I need this,
and then they download the freething and then they're not sure
what to do and they have so manydownloads they get confused.
Like I should do this, I shoulddo that.
That's the person right.
However, if you look at myclient roster, I have male
(16:05):
entrepreneurs.
I also work with incrediblegifted professionals who are in
the career space and still needsome coaching gifted
professionals who are in thecareer space and still need some
coaching.
And again, it has given me thefreedom to be able to decide yes
, I can work with this person, Ican serve them, I can support
them in how to be able to designbetter services.
(16:40):
Okay, well, I resonated witheverything you said and shout
out to Pat Flynn, because I alsohave followed him for years and
years, took a couple courseswith him.
He is very smart and verysuccessful.
That helped my business as wellin the expansion as well.
So, yes, you need to surroundyourself with individuals like
this show is giving you a lot ofcontent, is giving you
individuals that have been there.
(17:01):
So pick wisely, pick, pick theplaces where you can gain the
support in this journey.
Cathy Sirvatka (17:08):
Okay, Wow, that's really good.
That's a lot to chew on.
And so those foundationalelements.
For someone who didn't takebusiness courses, except for
here and there, how does abusiness strategy work then in
your foundation?
Like, what is okay?
What is a business strategyfirst, and how many do we have?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (17:30):
You know that is, and here's my
perspective in this.
You know some people maydisagree with me, but I really
think that number one you needto be clear on, again, what the
goals.
What do you want to accomplish?
Like, if you want to, for me,my first goal was to replace my
corporate income.
(17:50):
That was the first goal.
So then deciding like okay, ifI want to replace my corporate
income, what does that amount toper month?
Right.
And then deciding, like okay,if this is the amount of income
I want to bring in, what are myoffers?
Be very clear on what you'reoffering.
(18:12):
And if you're a serviceprovider, you're building
websites or you're a copywriter,again you want to be clear as
to what your pricing is.
And this is one of the thingsthat I actually go into a little
more in depth with my clientsis deciding, like what are your
expenses, what's your overhead,and then creating pricing that
(18:35):
fits within the market demandright, but also that gives you
profitability and allows you topay yourself first.
So that's part of the strategyis understanding what you're
going to offer, how much you'regoing to offer it for and what
timeframe do you have to deliverthis, and then you start to
(18:56):
create that customer journey,understanding how people find
you, understanding how peoplestart to interact with you,
understanding in how people thenbuild a closer bond to you and
start to say, oh, she's reallygood, I need that Right.
And then how do you and youneed to have a process for and
(19:17):
this is part of the strategy ishow do you then invite people to
work with you?
Do you have somewhere in yourwebsite where they can just
click and purchase a service, ordo you have to have a
conversation with them?
Or do you send a proposal?
All of that is part of thestrategy that you need to create
.
And then, as you're moving along, here's where people go wrong.
(19:40):
They create a strategy, theystart to implement it
imperfectly, because we're allgoing to implement them
perfectly, and then they don'thave the results they want and
they start to become overwhelmed.
They kind of tune out, they'relike it's not working.
(20:01):
It didn't.
You know, I've been doing thisand it's not working.
Instead of continuing to stayyour course, measure progress
and give yourself the grace thatyou've come very far.
I have a.
I have a client who started herbusiness and she's been moving
along.
She's talking to people, she'snetworking and, by the way I
(20:22):
wanna say social media followersare not clients.
However, social media is agreat way for people to become
aware of you, so she's built anincredible community so far that
are following her, interactingwith her stuff.
So, again, all of these arepart of the attraction and
engagement strategy for herbusiness.
But she is trying to launch awebsite and she got stuck on.
(20:46):
Actually, what should she sayon her website, right?
So she started to spiraloverwhelmed, came in and,
instead of working the plan,then all of a sudden, three days
go by, she hasn't worked herbusiness and she's like feeling
bad about herself because she'snot where.
Oh, I'm not a success, I'mgoing to step back.
And then the more that shesteps back and it's in this
(21:09):
overwhelm the more that she'snot working in her business and
the more that her business isnot moving forward.
That the strategy of creatingthe daily habits, the daily
to-dos that move you closer tothe goals that you have, is
incredibly important as well.
Daily habits.
Cathy Sirvatka (21:29):
That's really the key to life.
I feel like it's true.
It's true in life, it's true,in business for sure.
So daily.
Does the strategy then?
Is that something?
First of all, is it somethingyou document?
Do you document your strategies?
Julie DeLucca-Collin (21:44):
Absolutely .
A track number grows.
A track number is somethingthat, and again, people you know
.
For instance, I'm going to giveyou an example.
You may have a weight loss goaland you're like I want to lose
10 pounds.
So you weigh yourself the firstweek, you've lost a pound.
You weigh yourself the secondweek you gain two.
(22:07):
You come to the third week andyou're still working at kind of
losing weight.
But you stop weighing yourselfright and you stop tracking and
all of a sudden you're not inthe food plan or in the health
journey that you were.
(22:27):
You're starting to look atwhat's new, what can I do?
This is not working, whereas ifyou consistently know that
numbers and data is just data,it's just informing you, is
giving you a direction andallowing you to recalibrate if
need be right, and then, if youcontinue the process, then those
(22:49):
numbers are going to help toguide you in the right direction
.
For me, the times and it's veryeasy when I don't track certain
metrics in my business you cansee that we're kind of a little
bit off the rails.
So having the right metrics,the key performance indicators
and those key performanceindicators is not a reflection
(23:12):
of who you are.
We assign so many times weassign our value to the numbers
or whether or not we're makingthe numbers.
Our value doesn't come fromthat.
The numbers are not good or bad, they're just neutral.
So, knowing that your valuecomes from, maybe that
interaction you had with thatclient where you delivered
(23:35):
something for them that theyreally needed, keep track of
that, keep track of your wins.
These things help to improveyour confidence, help to keep
you motivated to keep going andallow you to then continue to
practice the habits, the dailyhabits, that make a change in
your life and business.
So, yeah, keep track of thosenumbers.
Cathy Sirvatka (23:57):
Okay, all right, that's really good.
So the strategies that wedocument and we track metrics,
which makes sense.
I love the weight analogy.
That makes sense to me.
We talked about systems, so youneed to have systems in place
to make the strategies happen.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (24:19):
Yes, and systems.
By the way, a lot of people, alot of people number one shy
away from routines, from theboring stuff in their business
because it's boring.
As entrepreneurs, we tend to bevery creative.
We like to do the boring stuffin their business Because it's
boring.
As entrepreneurs, we tend to bevery creative.
We like to do the fun stuff.
However, that's not necessarilywhere you want to spend your
(24:43):
time.
Part of your plan as anentrepreneur is knowing
specifically how you arespending your time, creating an
ideal calendar for yourself,because there's going to be two
types of tasks, especially ifyou're starting out, especially
if you're solopreneur, a serviceprovider, that it's only you.
(25:05):
You are both the marketing armof your business, you are the
sales side of your business.
You're also the delivery, theservice delivery, right.
So you're going to have tocreate.
And, by the way, I used tothink when I was in corporate
(25:26):
and I started to kind of explorethis concept for my life and my
career, I thought having anideal calendar would make it
less, would give me less abilityto be spontaneous, it would
take away my freedom.
(25:46):
However, having an idealcalendar actually provides me
with more freedom.
It allows me to be able to say,you know, for instance, friday,
my ideal calendar.
I don't work Fridays.
Now I'm moving away fromworking on Fridays.
My business is only going torun Monday through Thursday.
(26:07):
That was an intentionality.
So if I'm only working fourdays, what are the priorities
that need to happen?
Delivery of services to myclients is number one.
Number two I want to go aheadand continue to market my
business.
Number three I want to go aheadand continue to get people to
(26:28):
be aware and nurture theexisting relationships.
So all of these things need tohappen.
So I have to then allocate time.
Kathy, today is Tuesday.
If you look at my calendar, inmy ideal calendar, tuesdays are
podcasting days, days that Ireserve for this type of
(26:48):
endeavor, either recording withyou or having people on my shows
, right.
So, having that I wake up onTuesdays and I know exactly what
my day is going to look like OnWednesday, thursdays those are
my delivery days, the times inwhich I work with clients and
maybe I have some networkingevents or other things worked in
(27:09):
there.
And then Mondays is where Iplan my business.
I do some networking, but Ialso do some of that creative
writing, and what happens is Iam setting up myself so that I
am not running in this overwhelmlike, oh my gosh, what am I
supposed to do?
And then you're switch taskingbecause your brain can't go from
(27:32):
doing something that is veryright brain to something left
brain.
So understanding the differenttasks and which ones allow you
to create momentum, allow you tostay in flow, is going to be
very key.
And the thing is be aware aswell that in these processes, if
(27:55):
you're an entrepreneur, youneed to document what you do and
how you do it, even if you aregoing to continue to be a
solopreneur.
But the reason you're doing itis because you're going to come
to a point in which maybe youneed to delegate a task your
social media or sending emailsor your calendar.
(28:16):
If you can delegate and have aprocess in which you're like, oh
, I need to train the VA, myvirtual assistant and how to do
this.
But, oh my gosh, when am Igoing to find the time for that?
I really need her to do this.
But it's faster if I just do itright.
Document from the beginning,film yourself, use something
(28:37):
like Loom in which you filmyourself doing it, and then this
way, you have the processdocumented and then you make the
task replicatable and theability to delegate.
It will give you the time backfor you to then do what you do
best.
Cathy Sirvatka (28:53):
Yeah, um, so it sounded like that was again so
much you're, everything you'resaying is so great, um, and it
sounds like your schedule issort of set up as batch
processing, like you've gottoday, we do this tomorrow, I do
this Now for a web designer.
That can be a little trickyjust because we are so project
(29:15):
based and customers, clients wework with, we're doing
communications with them.
It's not always scheduled, youknow, it's a little tricky
sometimes, I think.
So batch processing issomething you could also say a
half day here's three hours onTuesdays that I do email
(29:37):
marketing and then the rest ofthe day I'm available for
clients, or the rest of the dayI'm working on project A,
something like that.
Yeah.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (29:45):
You know, kathy, here's a thing that I
want to share with you, becausewhat you just said, yes, the
batch processing, maybe half aday is set for this but also
it's important that you, as theCEO of your life and business,
you train people on theexpectations, on what your
(30:06):
process is for things.
If you are working on projects,for individuals, for customers,
yes, there's going to be thatneed to communicate, but here's
what I'm going to encouragepeople, create the habits.
So, for instance, for me, 9 amis typically my processing time.
(30:27):
What do I mean by processing?
That's a time in which I'vebeen awake, I've been doing a
couple of different things, I'vebeen reading my little morning
routine, but when I come to mydesk, I open my calendar first
and I look to see what's aheadof me.
Number one, number two I gothrough my email, and that's the
(30:48):
only time my email is open inthe morning is I go through and
I look through.
Okay, what are the things thatI need to address right here,
right now, that are a priority,right?
If there's something that isgoing to take me and I said this
to you earlier if it's going totake me more than three minutes
(31:08):
to do, that's not a response toan email.
That's actually a task thatgoes into my to-do list and that
list is something I work offduring that processing time.
If I don't finish that, then itgoes into my afternoon
processing time as I wrap up myday my afternoon processing time
(31:33):
as I wrap up my day.
The thing about this as well isthat we get to say and, by the
way, I have tons of clients thatare working on maybe launching
a website or creating a process,or have questions on something
that we had I make myselfavailable to them.
They can find me on Slack.
We have a Slack channel.
That's our internalcommunication.
But I check Slack and they knowand this is the expectation I
(31:56):
set with them hey, these are thetimes that you can expect to
get a response from me.
Also, I train them.
If you need me, the best way,if it's an emergency and you
need me right away, is you textme, because I will see that
first.
Number two, I will check Slackmore than I will check email,
(32:18):
and if you send me an email,then you can expect that I will
get back to you within 24 hoursof you sending the email.
Having that expectation makesyou the person who is in control
of your calendar, as opposed toyour calendar being in control
of you.
I love that, so that is goingto be incredibly important.
Cathy Sirvatka (32:38):
Yeah, I love that and I love the boundaries.
I also especially love and thisis something I did learn early
on in my own business, my ownfreelance business is you have
to train your clients.
You have to train them in whatto expect.
Don't give them the reins.
Tell them this is how I work,this is how the project's going
to go, this is how wecommunicate and you set them up
(33:01):
Like you said.
You give those expectations.
Then you can possibly do thingslike take your Friday off, like
I don't work Fridays becausethese are my work days.
Now for email for web designers, just because that was an
example.
I actually do check mine threetimes a day.
I check in the morning firstthing, I check in the middle to
(33:23):
see if anybody anything blew up,and then again in the evening
just to see if anybody anythingblew up yeah and then again, and
then again in the evening, justto see if you know.
If there, I just like to knowwhat's going on.
Most of my email, you know,like the rest of us, is spam and
all that kind of stuff.
But you know, if somebody wroteme a client wrote me and I'm
working on their project I wantto know what's going on.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (33:42):
So no, and you define that based on
what your business is.
You know, I'm not sure if thiswas a real or if this was a
story in my Instagram, but youcan actually go into if you have
Gmail, or I'm sure that you cando this also with your Outlook,
but you can go in and you cancreate a rule, and I created
(34:02):
this, so I set it up so that ifan email has the word
unsubscribe, it immediately goesinto my delete, not my trash,
but it goes into a delete folder.
And this is not the promotionsfolder, and Gmail does that and
(34:24):
they creates the promotionsfolder.
But I go in and I then look andI say who do I really want to
hear from here?
And then, on a weekly basis, Ican go in and say, oh,
unsubscribe me from all of these, right?
Or?
Or?
Or move them all into trash,right?
So then I am not clogging myemail because we end up
(34:46):
downloading the thing, signingup for this, sending this, and
and again, our inboxes canbecome out of control.
And, by the way, I want to.
I want to put this out therebecause this is something that I
read and that blew my mind, andthe reality is that when you
are working on something and youstop to check email or you stop
(35:07):
to check a notification.
My notifications are always offon my phone.
When you stop doing and you getdistracted, it takes you 17
minutes for you to get to thelevel of concentration that you
were before you got distracted.
So if you are working on aproject and you have your email
(35:28):
dinging every two seconds, youare pulling yourself out and
you're not being as efficient aspossible.
So that's an incredible thingthat people can kind of
associate and see and start tomeasure and start to take small
tiny steps to change, to evolvefrom those habits that are not
(35:49):
serving you.
Cathy Sirvatka (35:50):
Yeah, context shifting.
Multitasking is not real.
No, not at all.
And that number of 17 minutesis huge.
That's even more than I thought.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (36:00):
Yeah, absolutely, and I remember
seeing this and I've seen it inso many different.
I actually went through someone of the books that I was
reading actually had thecitations and I'm like you know
what I'm going to go?
Look at this and I'm like, wow,it's 17 minutes.
It doesn't seem like it'spossible, but it is.
That's what the research istelling us and really, the
(36:23):
reality is that we can getsidetracked so easily,
especially because there's goingto be things in your business
that are hard.
I had a task yesterday that Ineeded to do.
I pushed it from my morning tothe afternoon and I was about to
close out and I thought, no, Ineed to do that.
And I thought, well, it's goingto take me forever.
(36:45):
And oh my gosh, I don't knowhow to do it and I have to
figure it out.
And, by the way, I was talkingmyself out of getting started
with it and I said you know what?
I'm going to set a timer.
I'm going to start working onit for three minutes.
Whatever I can get done inthree minutes, Great.
And if I do it, and who knows?
And then I'll move on, but atleast I've started it In three
(37:08):
minutes.
My timer went off and I waskind of in the groove and I'm
like, ok, I'm going to keepgoing.
That's a little tiny habit,because if we want to rely on
motivation to run our business,you're not going to be able to
run your business successfully.
You need to rely on habits thatkeep you going and that create
the momentum.
Cathy Sirvatka (37:30):
Oh, I love that.
Action creates motivation,doesn't it Not the other way
around?
Julie DeLucca-Collin (37:36):
Absolutely , and for many of us, you know,
skills, confidence andmotivation kind of feed off of
each other.
I'm a tiny habit certifiedcoach, so I love talking about
this.
Behavior design Number one isfor us in.
Let's go back to the, to thelosing weight example.
At the beginning of the year,everybody's like I want to lose
(37:57):
weight, I'm going to go to thegym, I'm going to get in shape,
right?
First of all, it's not a veryclear goal, it's not very
specific.
But fine, you're going to getin shape, whatever that means.
You're going to go to the gymthat first week in January and
you're very motivated becauseit's a brand new year.
Brand new year, new.
You right, and you startworking.
You're at the gym for an hourevery day and you're like, oh,
(38:20):
this is great.
The second week, your child issick, or you're sick, or
something comes up.
You don't go to the gym andyou're like, oh, I'll go after
or I'll do this.
Then all of a sudden, lifestarts to happen.
Your motivation, which is whatgot you started, is gone, and
then the task is hard.
(38:40):
When the task is hard, we don'twant to jump into that.
And then brain starts toprotect us.
Right, our reptilian brain goesinto.
Oh my gosh, you're going to bereally sore if you go to the gym
.
Oh, forget it.
You only have a half an hour.
It's not going to make animpact to go to the gym for half
an hour.
You were supposed to be therefor an hour.
(39:01):
That's what you committed to.
Oh, you didn't go to the gymyesterday.
Well, what's the point?
You might as well stop going.
That's how our brain works.
Cathy Sirvatka (39:09):
Yeah, I know that's how my brain works, yeah.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (39:11):
And, by the way, that's humanity.
That's how all of our brainworks.
Our brain is programmed to keepus protected because that's how
the evolution pattern right.
When we were in the caves, wewere being protected from the,
from the cyber tooth tigers, andour brain would say don't go
outside the cave, or what wasthat noise?
(39:32):
Oh, my God, you better be alert, alert, alert.
Now we don't have to, but still,all of these things like
working out of the gym, alert,alert, alert, that's hard.
It's hard, right.
But if we say, hey, I'm goingto make a commitment to go to
the gym and I'm gonna go to thegym and my goal is to just go in
and I'm gonna maybe do 10 repsof two exercises, right, doable.
(39:56):
Sometimes you're gonna go andyou're like, oh, I could
probably stay a little longer, Icould probably do a little bit
more of this.
The more that you start to seeyour success, the more that
you're going to spend time doingthe task, and that's where
motivation starts to come in.
But it's not going to come inwhen something is hard.
Cathy Sirvatka (40:15):
Yes, I can attest to that myself.
But, like you said, I thinkthat's most of us right.
That's the human condition.
Yeah, oh my gosh, this has beengreat.
Hey, what is the biggestmistake you see freelancers
making?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (40:29):
The biggest mistake is definitely
not prioritizing.
Right, and here's the thing.
You make goals for yourbusiness.
You want to have X number ofclients.
You want to whatever it mightbe.
But are your goals reallyaligned to your priorities?
(40:52):
Right, if my priority is togrow my business to X amount of
income?
Right, and that means that Ihave to do this, this and this
to move my needle forward, andyet I don't schedule it, I don't
(41:13):
make the time, I don'tprioritize it.
Then it's difficult to andyou're not congruent.
You're telling yourself youwant this, but you're not
prioritizing.
So you're in this cognitivedissonance that doesn't match
and then it robs you of yourmotivation and your confidence
in doing the work.
So that's number one.
(41:34):
The other thing and I know youknow, as graphic designers,
people that work in projects.
This is a little harder, buthere's what I want you to do
when it comes to business, whichis a higher level, right, the
projects that you do for yourclients.
Those are your delivery,delivery of services.
But in business, you also haveprocess-based goals and
(42:00):
project-based goals.
Many entrepreneurs spend theirtime doing the projects for
their business.
I'm going to launch a YouTubechannel.
I'm going to fix my website.
I need to do a nurture sequence.
Yes, do they need to be done inyour business?
Of course they need to be done,but figure out what the process
(42:25):
is first.
Set up the goals, but figure outwhat the process is first.
Set up the goals.
I need to put myself out therea new podcast so that people
become aware of me, and my goalis that I'm going to do two
podcasts per month.
That's a process, right.
And then you start to createactions that support that
process goal and then you canactually tangibly say, oh, look
(42:47):
at how I'm moving the needleforward.
And that's a lot of whereentrepreneurs really struggle
that you're not prioritizing.
Your priorities don't matchyour calendar, your calendars
doesn't match your values andyou're all over the place and
you are living by defaultinstead of by design place and
(43:10):
you are living by defaultinstead of by design.
You're running your business byoh shiny and by the seat of
your pants and you're notactually doing it in an
intentional manner in which youcan measure your progress and
see the things that you'reaccomplishing.
Cathy Sirvatka (43:21):
You're living by default, not by design.
So it's about everything has tobe intentional yeah, absolutely
.
And congruent Int has to beintentional yeah, absolutely.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (43:28):
And congruent Intentionality changes
everything.
Yeah, absolutely.
Cathy Sirvatka (43:32):
Yeah, so that that's really good piece of
advice.
I was going to say what then?
I think I know the answer now,but what would be the number one
thing that we should all runoff and do right now, when we're
done listening?
What should we do first for ourbusiness, if we haven't already
?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (43:52):
If so, we and I'm not sure when this is
coming out, kathy, but I thinkthat this is an exercise that I
do at the end of the year as I'mplanning for my new year.
I also encourage anyone thatthis is something that you can
do.
Anytime is.
I want you to go back and Iwant you to look at what your
(44:12):
calendar looked like threemonths ago, because I can
guarantee you that whatever wason your calendar is actually
what is creating the results foryour business today.
Do a time audit how are youspending your time?
So, if you are in these bunchof little projects or you don't
(44:33):
have any new people that you aregetting in front of and that
was not something that was inyour calendar and maybe you
don't have a lot of clientstoday, I can see that.
So start to assess and go andaudit your time.
And number two create a clearvision, create the goals that
(44:53):
get you closer to that visionand then create the actions that
move you closer to your goals.
Those would be the things thatI advise people to do right now.
Cathy Sirvatka (45:04):
Oh, that's great .
I like all of this.
I'm going to run off and doeverything.
I'm going to do my now.
Oh, that's great.
I like all of this.
I'm going to run off and doeverything.
I'm going to do my timeassessment.
For sure, I need to audit myown time, and probably it's just
something that would be one ofthose metrics that you want to
be checking into.
Anyway, I would think yeahabsolutely.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (45:22):
And again your metrics.
There's two types of metricsand that's another conversation
for another day.
But you're going to have yourleading metrics and your lagging
metrics.
How much revenue you brought in, that's a lagging metric.
Leading metric is how manypeople did you present your
program to?
How many proposals did you sendout?
How many new people did younetwork with?
(45:44):
That's leading people?
Did you network with that'sleading?
When you track your leading andyou have specific goals for
your leading metrics, thenyou're going to see your lagging
numbers move.
Cathy Sirvatka (45:54):
Oh my gosh, that's so good.
Oh my gosh, Julie, I could keeptalking with you for hours.
This is really good information.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
You're welcome.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (46:07):
I can't believe our time is done.
You've been a great host.
I really love, like I said,geeking out and talking about
this, and it is very fun to beable to just provide individuals
with maybe an aha moment herethat will help them get closer
to their goals and their dreamsand living the life they've
imagined.
Cathy Sirvatka (46:26):
Yeah, oh, that's so good.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk again soon.
I hope we can talk again soon.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (46:32):
No, absolutely Anytime, and thank
you again for hosting us, kathy.
Cathy Sirvatka (46:39):
If you're looking for that freelance inspo
you need subscribe to thispodcast.
Then share it with someone else, because who doesn't need
inspiration?
What is the core foundation of your business?
I bet you have a vision and apassion for your business, but
do you have systems in place toachieve your goals that are in
alignment with your foundation?
Clarity of time, services,ideal customer base or niche
your offerings, goals for yourincome and pricing these are all
(00:22):
foundational considerations torunning a business that you feel
comfortable in and thatattracts and keeps happy clients
.
Imagine the ideal way you wantyour business to run and then
putting systems in place thatare aligned with that vision.
This is the consummatefreelance business structure.
My guest today is Julie DeLucaCollins.
(00:43):
She is a business coach whoworks with entrepreneurs to plan
and strategize how they runtheir business.
She addresses not only theservices they offer but how
they're delivered.
Today, julie talks about how toreverse engineer your business
goals to see how you areactually doing business.
She talks about creating a planthat embraces your best
(01:06):
strategies and businesspractices and about developing
daily habits that keep you frombecoming overwhelmed.
Julie tells us the top twothings she sees freelancers
doing that are working againstthem, and she shares two next
steps for all of us to do toassess why our business is where
it is, for better or worse.
(01:27):
Here we go.
Welcome to the Web Pro SavvyPodcast.
This is your host, CathySirvatka.
S as in Sam I-R V.
As in Victor A-T-K-A.
All right, julie welcome to theshow.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (01:46):
Thank you , Kathy, for having me.
I am thrilled to be able to behere with you today.
Cathy Sirvatka (01:51):
Oh, I'm so happy to have you.
We had such a greatconversation and I got so
excited about the things youwere talking about, because
they're business and for thoseof us freelancers who run our
own business and we know how todo web stuff, maybe don't know
how to do the business stuff sowell and could use a few
(02:11):
pointers, so this is going to bea good episode, I think.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (02:14):
Well, thank you again and you know I
geek out at having theseconversations.
It's sort of my, I'vediscovered, is my little ikigai
to have.
It's what I'm passionate about,is what I love doing, is it
lights me up and I'm good at it.
So you know it's.
It's a great thing inconversation that we'll have.
Cathy Sirvatka (02:35):
That's really cool, thanks.
So can you tell us a littleabout your professional
background and what got you towhere you are now?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (02:44):
Well, let's see.
I will tell you that I havebeen an entrepreneur at heart.
My first business was when Iwas 12 years old, and I'm not
going to go into a long detailon it.
However, I went the traditionalroute.
Most people have a path thatthey want to follow and I
decided well, you know, I'mgoing to be a teacher and I have
(03:06):
families, members that havebeen teachers, and it was just
the thing that I saw myselfdoing.
And I started teachingpreschool, kindergarten, and I
loved it.
I had a lot of fun, but it wasexhausting and there was a piece
that wasn't, was missing, and Ithought there's gotta be more.
And I got another job, workingas a junior high youth minister
(03:32):
at my church, and I love that.
I love middle school kids, lovethem, and people either love
them or hate them.
And that was a really, you know, incredible time for me to
learn a lot about creatinglong-term plans, creating a
curriculum, being able to thenorganize a team of volunteers,
(03:54):
organize events.
So that was a great experience.
And then I didn't know what Iwanted to do after that.
I eventually was hired by anational educational company.
One of the things that theylooked at is that I had retail
experience and I was again.
Another one of my experiencesis I was an assistant manager
(04:16):
for a retail one of the largestretail chains federated
department stores, macy's and Ilove doing that and I learned a
lot about profitability, aboutproducts, about marketing, and
all of that helped me when I wasrecruited for this educational
company.
I came in to be a centerdirector for a tutoring company
(04:39):
and I love the fact that I canmeld my retail experience and
sales with my educationalbackground.
And also I was making an impactin the lives of the people that
we were serving.
I went for the first couple ofyears and learned the business
(05:00):
and grew through the ranks,became very successful, one of
the top performing centers, andthen I got promotion after
promotion.
I spent over 10 years with thatcompany and it was an
incredible experience becausethey had a purpose in not only
servicing students but also togrow people from within, to
(05:24):
mentor them, to help them.
This company is also afranchise company, so I learned
a lot about opening a business.
What does it take to have abusiness plan?
What are your marketing dollars?
So how do you create amarketing plan, a sales plan?
How do you make it worktogether?
How do you create anoperational system?
So all of that was again thingsthat were like depositing
(05:46):
knowledge and experience into mybelt.
I left that organization becauseI was recruited for another
multimillion dollar company thatwas in the education space.
She was the owner and founder,was someone who started to make
a difference, and she was ateacher but didn't have the
business know-how, and she knewthat.
(06:08):
I brought that to the table.
She was looking to expand.
She was making the type ofmoney and income that she was a
multimillion dollar company, butshe wasn't running it as you
should, so her growth had becomestagnant and that's where my
expertise came in.
I was with that company formany, many years and I grew with
(06:31):
the company.
The company continued to expand.
We expanded to many differentstates and I love the work that
I was doing.
By the time I left that company,I was the chief innovation
officer and the reason that thetitle sort of was one that
talked about.
I was into the development ofnew business, but I was also in
(06:53):
the operations of the existingbusiness.
I was not.
I straddled both of those.
I had been also thinking formany years because, as I was
developing new programs for thecompany that I wanted to do more
in helping women and my goalwas that sometime in the future
I was going to leave and maybenot retire, but I was going to
(07:15):
pivot to working with executives, working with women in the
corporate world, because one ofthe things that I kept hearing
from individuals as I grewthrough the ranks of multiple
companies is wow, that's right,great Congratulations.
I wish I was as confident asyou are, and I thought you don't
know, I am not that confidentand yes, there is a level of
(07:38):
confidence, but I don't alwaysfeel it, I don't always have it
together, I don't always know,but the thing that is that
catalyst for me is that I keepgoing.
I don't stay in place when Idon't feel confident.
I take the first step and thatmotion creates the momentum to
(07:59):
build my confidence, because Ipractice, I fail, I innovate, I
change, I become better.
So that has been really whatthe journey has been.
Now, at the beginning of thepandemic, I got the call.
My company was hit incrediblyhard with schools closing down
and they had to make the toughdecision that a couple of us in
(08:22):
the executive suite had to beoffered a separation package and
at first I thought, oh, I knowexactly what I'm going to do.
I'm going to help women in thiscorporate career and become
more confident and grow in theircareers, et cetera.
So I set out to do coaching, inthat I had gotten again
coaching certificationsthroughout the years, mainly for
(08:44):
my own edification.
And as I started to work withwomen and help them in their
career, I started to get a lotof people come to me and said,
hey, I know that you worked witha company.
Do I need an LLC to start acompany?
Hey, I don't know what emailmarketing is.
How do I do that?
(09:05):
Or, wow, how do I price myself?
And I thought, oh, this issomething that comes really
easily to me, I love to talkabout, I love creating the
strategy and plans.
And then, all of a sudden, mybusiness started to evolve to
doing more of the businesscoaching because productivity.
To doing more of the businesscoaching because productivity,
(09:28):
time management, the skills ofstrategizing and building a
clear, concise plan for yourbusiness and how you're going to
run it, not only in the salesand marketing, but also in the
delivery of services.
It's something that I'mincredibly passionate about.
So this is how I got here Along road, but every experience
has deposited into my knowledgebank that allows me to be better
(09:50):
at what I do.
Cathy Sirvatka (09:51):
Wow, yeah, I feel like a lot of us have that
kind of path to where we are now.
We didn't take the straightpath our parents or grandparents
used to take, where it's likeyou had the same job out of
college, you went till youretired, boom, all was that, was
it.
I think I read something thatsaid we have like five to seven
(10:12):
different careers in ourlifetime at this point.
So absolutely yeah, so that'sreally cool.
So now I know how you became abusiness coach, which makes
sense because you have a ton ofbusiness background and I love
that.
Now, when we talked before, youmentioned something about core
(10:35):
foundational elements in abusiness, especially freelance
business, as we're talking tofreelancers, business, as we're
talking to freelancers.
So what I want to say is or arewhat are core foundational
elements, or do we have one corefoundational element for the
business?
What is that?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (10:52):
Yeah.
So you know, one of the thingsthat I tell individuals is that
you really have to reverseengineer your success For many
freelancers, entrepreneurs.
You have a vision and you havea passion and you have a great
skillset, but you don'tunderstand how they kind of meld
(11:15):
together and can work together.
And the most important thing is, if you have the vision that
you want the time freedom, youwant the income freedom, right?
What does that mean?
Understanding, really, if Iwant to have time freedom, what
does that mean?
How many hours do I want towork?
When do I create thatintentional margin so that I
(11:37):
don't leave a job that wasoverworking me to all of a
sudden working 24-7 in my ownbusiness, right?
So, having that clarity, numberone.
Number two also it's importantfor you to know that if you have
a goal for income for yourbusiness, you need to pay your
bills and you want to have extraincome to be able to travel,
(12:01):
save into your retirement.
What does that mean on apractical manner?
How many clients do you need tohave?
What is the right way to priceyourself?
To create packages so thatyou're not working trading
dollars for time and hours likemost?
(12:23):
You know, you're not an hourlyperson, but you're someone who
is working on a per projectbasis.
And then you are creatingsystems that not only continue
to bring in new people by makingthem aware and you nurturing
the relationships, but you also,as you're delivering services
and this is where a lot ofentrepreneurs go wrong you get
(12:46):
into delivery mode.
All of a sudden, you have aninflux of clients.
Oh great, Everything iswonderful.
I have an influx of clients,Let me go and do the work, Let
me design the thing, Let me dothis.
And yet they stop doing thework that is required to
continue to bring more people in, create continued awareness,
(13:06):
strengthen the relationships andbuild that know like and trust
factor that is incrediblyimportant for us to have in
order to grow our practices, ourbusinesses, our side hustle,
whatever it might be, when itcomes to doing this freelance
stuff.
Cathy Sirvatka (13:24):
So clarity of time goals for your income, and
then systems in place.
Julie DeLucca-Collin (13:32):
Absolutely Clarity in what you do, what
you offer, who do you serve.
And I think that this is theother thing that many people get
stuck on.
They don't ask is thissomething that people want?
We assume that, just becausewe're good at it, that that's
(13:52):
what people are looking for.
Number two having the clarityof who is your person.
You know, my mentor, pat Flynn,says the riches are in the
niches and we hate that.
Like I have to niche down andby the way, I've been there,
I've been like, oh, I can helpany entrepreneur.
(14:12):
The problem with that is thatwhen we don't have clarity on a
very specific segment of who weserve, then we're speaking to so
many different people that ourmessage is not clear enough.
You're speaking to everyone,you're speaking to no one.
So it's very important and forme that was a turning point in
(14:34):
my business.
I remember thinking well, I'm acoach, I'm a holistic coach, I
do mindfulness, I can dobusiness, I can do career
coaching.
So there were so many differentlayers when I talked about what
I did.
Nobody understood what I wasdoing, there was no clarity and
I felt and again, this is thatscarcity mentality I felt like
(14:57):
if I picked one, if I talked toone segment, that I would not
get any business, because I waskind of crossing out and saying,
okay, not you, not you, not you.
But what has actually happened,kathy, and I think that this is
really important.
I actually am able to servicemore people because there's
(15:21):
clarity.
And, yes, my ideal person, theperson that I serve, is that
woman entrepreneur who isoverwhelmed, maybe in midlife,
and is not sure what comes first, second or third, and they're
working in their business butnot on it.
They're not growing it, theystill don't have consistent
income.
From time to time, they'reworried about whether or not
(15:44):
they're going to be a success.
Right, they stay up at nightand think, okay, I need this,
and then they download the freething and then they're not sure
what to do and they have so manydownloads they get confused.
Like I should do this, I shoulddo that.
That's the person right.
However, if you look at myclient roster, I have male
(16:05):
entrepreneurs.
I also work with incrediblegifted professionals who are in
the career space and still needsome coaching gifted
professionals who are in thecareer space and still need some
coaching.
And again, it has given me thefreedom to be able to decide yes
, I can work with this person, Ican serve them, I can support
them in how to be able to designbetter services.
(16:40):
Okay, well, I resonated witheverything you said and shout
out to Pat Flynn, because I alsohave followed him for years and
years, took a couple courseswith him.
He is very smart and verysuccessful.
That helped my business as wellin the expansion as well.
So, yes, you need to surroundyourself with individuals like
this show is giving you a lot ofcontent, is giving you
individuals that have been there.
(17:01):
So pick wisely, pick, pick theplaces where you can gain the
support in this journey.
Cathy Sirvatka (17:08):
Okay, Wow, that's really good.
That's a lot to chew on.
And so those foundationalelements.
For someone who didn't takebusiness courses, except for
here and there, how does abusiness strategy work then in
your foundation?
Like, what is okay?
What is a business strategyfirst, and how many do we have?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (17:30):
You know that is, and here's my
perspective in this.
You know some people maydisagree with me, but I really
think that number one you needto be clear on, again, what the
goals.
What do you want to accomplish?
Like, if you want to, for me,my first goal was to replace my
corporate income.
(17:50):
That was the first goal.
So then deciding like okay, ifI want to replace my corporate
income, what does that amount toper month?
Right.
And then deciding, like okay,if this is the amount of income
I want to bring in, what are myoffers?
Be very clear on what you'reoffering.
(18:12):
And if you're a serviceprovider, you're building
websites or you're a copywriter,again you want to be clear as
to what your pricing is.
And this is one of the thingsthat I actually go into a little
more in depth with my clientsis deciding, like what are your
expenses, what's your overhead,and then creating pricing that
(18:35):
fits within the market demandright, but also that gives you
profitability and allows you topay yourself first.
So that's part of the strategyis understanding what you're
going to offer, how much you'regoing to offer it for and what
timeframe do you have to deliverthis, and then you start to
(18:56):
create that customer journey,understanding how people find
you, understanding how peoplestart to interact with you,
understanding in how people thenbuild a closer bond to you and
start to say, oh, she's reallygood, I need that Right.
And then how do you and youneed to have a process for and
(19:17):
this is part of the strategy ishow do you then invite people to
work with you?
Do you have somewhere in yourwebsite where they can just
click and purchase a service, ordo you have to have a
conversation with them?
Or do you send a proposal?
All of that is part of thestrategy that you need to create
.
And then, as you're moving along, here's where people go wrong.
(19:40):
They create a strategy, theystart to implement it
imperfectly, because we're allgoing to implement them
perfectly, and then they don'thave the results they want and
they start to become overwhelmed.
They kind of tune out, they'relike it's not working.
(20:01):
It didn't.
You know, I've been doing thisand it's not working.
Instead of continuing to stayyour course, measure progress
and give yourself the grace thatyou've come very far.
I have a.
I have a client who started herbusiness and she's been moving
along.
She's talking to people, she'snetworking and, by the way I
(20:22):
wanna say social media followersare not clients.
However, social media is agreat way for people to become
aware of you, so she's built anincredible community so far that
are following her, interactingwith her stuff.
So, again, all of these arepart of the attraction and
engagement strategy for herbusiness.
But she is trying to launch awebsite and she got stuck on.
(20:46):
Actually, what should she sayon her website, right?
So she started to spiraloverwhelmed, came in and,
instead of working the plan,then all of a sudden, three days
go by, she hasn't worked herbusiness and she's like feeling
bad about herself because she'snot where.
Oh, I'm not a success, I'mgoing to step back.
And then the more that shesteps back and it's in this
(21:09):
overwhelm the more that she'snot working in her business and
the more that her business isnot moving forward.
That the strategy of creatingthe daily habits, the daily
to-dos that move you closer tothe goals that you have, is
incredibly important as well.
Daily habits.
Cathy Sirvatka (21:29):
That's really the key to life.
I feel like it's true.
It's true in life, it's true,in business for sure.
So daily.
Does the strategy then?
Is that something?
First of all, is it somethingyou document?
Do you document your strategies?
Julie DeLucca-Collin (21:44):
Absolutely .
A track number grows.
A track number is somethingthat, and again, people you know
.
For instance, I'm going to giveyou an example.
You may have a weight loss goaland you're like I want to lose
10 pounds.
So you weigh yourself the firstweek, you've lost a pound.
You weigh yourself the secondweek you gain two.
(22:07):
You come to the third week andyou're still working at kind of
losing weight.
But you stop weighing yourselfright and you stop tracking and
all of a sudden you're not inthe food plan or in the health
journey that you were.
(22:27):
You're starting to look atwhat's new, what can I do?
This is not working, whereas ifyou consistently know that
numbers and data is just data,it's just informing you, is
giving you a direction andallowing you to recalibrate if
need be right, and then, if youcontinue the process, then those
(22:49):
numbers are going to help toguide you in the right direction
.
For me, the times and it's veryeasy when I don't track certain
metrics in my business you cansee that we're kind of a little
bit off the rails.
So having the right metrics,the key performance indicators
and those key performanceindicators is not a reflection
(23:12):
of who you are.
We assign so many times weassign our value to the numbers
or whether or not we're makingthe numbers.
Our value doesn't come fromthat.
The numbers are not good or bad, they're just neutral.
So, knowing that your valuecomes from, maybe that
interaction you had with thatclient where you delivered
(23:35):
something for them that theyreally needed, keep track of
that, keep track of your wins.
These things help to improveyour confidence, help to keep
you motivated to keep going andallow you to then continue to
practice the habits, the dailyhabits, that make a change in
your life and business.
So, yeah, keep track of thosenumbers.
Cathy Sirvatka (23:57):
Okay, all right, that's really good.
So the strategies that wedocument and we track metrics,
which makes sense.
I love the weight analogy.
That makes sense to me.
We talked about systems, so youneed to have systems in place
to make the strategies happen.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (24:19):
Yes, and systems.
By the way, a lot of people, alot of people number one shy
away from routines, from theboring stuff in their business
because it's boring.
As entrepreneurs, we tend to bevery creative.
We like to do the boring stuffin their business Because it's
boring.
As entrepreneurs, we tend to bevery creative.
We like to do the fun stuff.
However, that's not necessarilywhere you want to spend your
(24:43):
time.
Part of your plan as anentrepreneur is knowing
specifically how you arespending your time, creating an
ideal calendar for yourself,because there's going to be two
types of tasks, especially ifyou're starting out, especially
if you're solopreneur, a serviceprovider, that it's only you.
(25:05):
You are both the marketing armof your business, you are the
sales side of your business.
You're also the delivery, theservice delivery, right.
So you're going to have tocreate.
And, by the way, I used tothink when I was in corporate
(25:26):
and I started to kind of explorethis concept for my life and my
career, I thought having anideal calendar would make it
less, would give me less abilityto be spontaneous, it would
take away my freedom.
(25:46):
However, having an idealcalendar actually provides me
with more freedom.
It allows me to be able to say,you know, for instance, friday,
my ideal calendar.
I don't work Fridays.
Now I'm moving away fromworking on Fridays.
My business is only going torun Monday through Thursday.
(26:07):
That was an intentionality.
So if I'm only working fourdays, what are the priorities
that need to happen?
Delivery of services to myclients is number one.
Number two I want to go aheadand continue to market my
business.
Number three I want to go aheadand continue to get people to
(26:28):
be aware and nurture theexisting relationships.
So all of these things need tohappen.
So I have to then allocate time.
Kathy, today is Tuesday.
If you look at my calendar, inmy ideal calendar, tuesdays are
podcasting days, days that Ireserve for this type of
(26:48):
endeavor, either recording withyou or having people on my shows
, right.
So, having that I wake up onTuesdays and I know exactly what
my day is going to look like OnWednesday, thursdays those are
my delivery days, the times inwhich I work with clients and
maybe I have some networkingevents or other things worked in
(27:09):
there.
And then Mondays is where Iplan my business.
I do some networking, but Ialso do some of that creative
writing, and what happens is Iam setting up myself so that I
am not running in this overwhelmlike, oh my gosh, what am I
supposed to do?
And then you're switch taskingbecause your brain can't go from
(27:32):
doing something that is veryright brain to something left
brain.
So understanding the differenttasks and which ones allow you
to create momentum, allow you tostay in flow, is going to be
very key.
And the thing is be aware aswell that in these processes, if
(27:55):
you're an entrepreneur, youneed to document what you do and
how you do it, even if you aregoing to continue to be a
solopreneur.
But the reason you're doing itis because you're going to come
to a point in which maybe youneed to delegate a task your
social media or sending emailsor your calendar.
(28:16):
If you can delegate and have aprocess in which you're like, oh
, I need to train the VA, myvirtual assistant and how to do
this.
But, oh my gosh, when am Igoing to find the time for that?
I really need her to do this.
But it's faster if I just do itright.
Document from the beginning,film yourself, use something
(28:37):
like Loom in which you filmyourself doing it, and then this
way, you have the processdocumented and then you make the
task replicatable and theability to delegate.
It will give you the time backfor you to then do what you do
best.
Cathy Sirvatka (28:53):
Yeah, um, so it sounded like that was again so
much you're, everything you'resaying is so great, um, and it
sounds like your schedule issort of set up as batch
processing, like you've gottoday, we do this tomorrow, I do
this Now for a web designer.
That can be a little trickyjust because we are so project
(29:15):
based and customers, clients wework with, we're doing
communications with them.
It's not always scheduled, youknow, it's a little tricky
sometimes, I think.
So batch processing issomething you could also say a
half day here's three hours onTuesdays that I do email
(29:37):
marketing and then the rest ofthe day I'm available for
clients, or the rest of the dayI'm working on project A,
something like that.
Yeah.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (29:45):
You know, kathy, here's a thing that I
want to share with you, becausewhat you just said, yes, the
batch processing, maybe half aday is set for this but also
it's important that you, as theCEO of your life and business,
you train people on theexpectations, on what your
(30:06):
process is for things.
If you are working on projects,for individuals, for customers,
yes, there's going to be thatneed to communicate, but here's
what I'm going to encouragepeople, create the habits.
So, for instance, for me, 9 amis typically my processing time.
(30:27):
What do I mean by processing?
That's a time in which I'vebeen awake, I've been doing a
couple of different things, I'vebeen reading my little morning
routine, but when I come to mydesk, I open my calendar first
and I look to see what's aheadof me.
Number one, number two I gothrough my email, and that's the
(30:48):
only time my email is open inthe morning is I go through and
I look through.
Okay, what are the things thatI need to address right here,
right now, that are a priority,right?
If there's something that isgoing to take me and I said this
to you earlier if it's going totake me more than three minutes
(31:08):
to do, that's not a response toan email.
That's actually a task thatgoes into my to-do list and that
list is something I work offduring that processing time.
If I don't finish that, then itgoes into my afternoon
processing time as I wrap up myday my afternoon processing time
(31:33):
as I wrap up my day.
The thing about this as well isthat we get to say and, by the
way, I have tons of clients thatare working on maybe launching
a website or creating a process,or have questions on something
that we had I make myselfavailable to them.
They can find me on Slack.
We have a Slack channel.
That's our internalcommunication.
But I check Slack and they knowand this is the expectation I
(31:56):
set with them hey, these are thetimes that you can expect to
get a response from me.
Also, I train them.
If you need me, the best way,if it's an emergency and you
need me right away, is you textme, because I will see that
first.
Number two, I will check Slackmore than I will check email,
(32:18):
and if you send me an email,then you can expect that I will
get back to you within 24 hoursof you sending the email.
Having that expectation makesyou the person who is in control
of your calendar, as opposed toyour calendar being in control
of you.
I love that, so that is goingto be incredibly important.
Cathy Sirvatka (32:38):
Yeah, I love that and I love the boundaries.
I also especially love and thisis something I did learn early
on in my own business, my ownfreelance business is you have
to train your clients.
You have to train them in whatto expect.
Don't give them the reins.
Tell them this is how I work,this is how the project's going
to go, this is how wecommunicate and you set them up
(33:01):
Like you said.
You give those expectations.
Then you can possibly do thingslike take your Friday off, like
I don't work Fridays becausethese are my work days.
Now for email for web designers, just because that was an
example.
I actually do check mine threetimes a day.
I check in the morning firstthing, I check in the middle to
(33:23):
see if anybody anything blew up,and then again in the evening
just to see if anybody anythingblew up yeah and then again, and
then again in the evening, justto see if you know.
If there, I just like to knowwhat's going on.
Most of my email, you know,like the rest of us, is spam and
all that kind of stuff.
But you know, if somebody wroteme a client wrote me and I'm
working on their project I wantto know what's going on.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (33:42):
So no, and you define that based on
what your business is.
You know, I'm not sure if thiswas a real or if this was a
story in my Instagram, but youcan actually go into if you have
Gmail, or I'm sure that you cando this also with your Outlook,
but you can go in and you cancreate a rule, and I created
(34:02):
this, so I set it up so that ifan email has the word
unsubscribe, it immediately goesinto my delete, not my trash,
but it goes into a delete folder.
And this is not the promotionsfolder, and Gmail does that and
(34:24):
they creates the promotionsfolder.
But I go in and I then look andI say who do I really want to
hear from here?
And then, on a weekly basis, Ican go in and say, oh,
unsubscribe me from all of these, right?
Or?
Or?
Or move them all into trash,right?
So then I am not clogging myemail because we end up
(34:46):
downloading the thing, signingup for this, sending this, and
and again, our inboxes canbecome out of control.
And, by the way, I want to.
I want to put this out therebecause this is something that I
read and that blew my mind, andthe reality is that when you
are working on something and youstop to check email or you stop
(35:07):
to check a notification.
My notifications are always offon my phone.
When you stop doing and you getdistracted, it takes you 17
minutes for you to get to thelevel of concentration that you
were before you got distracted.
So if you are working on aproject and you have your email
(35:28):
dinging every two seconds, youare pulling yourself out and
you're not being as efficient aspossible.
So that's an incredible thingthat people can kind of
associate and see and start tomeasure and start to take small
tiny steps to change, to evolvefrom those habits that are not
(35:49):
serving you.
Cathy Sirvatka (35:50):
Yeah, context shifting.
Multitasking is not real.
No, not at all.
And that number of 17 minutesis huge.
That's even more than I thought.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (36:00):
Yeah, absolutely, and I remember
seeing this and I've seen it inso many different.
I actually went through someone of the books that I was
reading actually had thecitations and I'm like you know
what I'm going to go?
Look at this and I'm like, wow,it's 17 minutes.
It doesn't seem like it'spossible, but it is.
That's what the research istelling us and really, the
(36:23):
reality is that we can getsidetracked so easily,
especially because there's goingto be things in your business
that are hard.
I had a task yesterday that Ineeded to do.
I pushed it from my morning tothe afternoon and I was about to
close out and I thought, no, Ineed to do that.
And I thought, well, it's goingto take me forever.
(36:45):
And oh my gosh, I don't knowhow to do it and I have to
figure it out.
And, by the way, I was talkingmyself out of getting started
with it and I said you know what?
I'm going to set a timer.
I'm going to start working onit for three minutes.
Whatever I can get done inthree minutes, Great.
And if I do it, and who knows?
And then I'll move on, but atleast I've started it In three
(37:08):
minutes.
My timer went off and I waskind of in the groove and I'm
like, ok, I'm going to keepgoing.
That's a little tiny habit,because if we want to rely on
motivation to run our business,you're not going to be able to
run your business successfully.
You need to rely on habits thatkeep you going and that create
the momentum.
Cathy Sirvatka (37:30):
Oh, I love that.
Action creates motivation,doesn't it Not the other way
around?
Julie DeLucca-Collin (37:36):
Absolutely , and for many of us, you know,
skills, confidence andmotivation kind of feed off of
each other.
I'm a tiny habit certifiedcoach, so I love talking about
this.
Behavior design Number one isfor us in.
Let's go back to the, to thelosing weight example.
At the beginning of the year,everybody's like I want to lose
(37:57):
weight, I'm going to go to thegym, I'm going to get in shape,
right?
First of all, it's not a veryclear goal, it's not very
specific.
But fine, you're going to getin shape, whatever that means.
You're going to go to the gymthat first week in January and
you're very motivated becauseit's a brand new year.
Brand new year, new.
You right, and you startworking.
You're at the gym for an hourevery day and you're like, oh,
(38:20):
this is great.
The second week, your child issick, or you're sick, or
something comes up.
You don't go to the gym andyou're like, oh, I'll go after
or I'll do this.
Then all of a sudden, lifestarts to happen.
Your motivation, which is whatgot you started, is gone, and
then the task is hard.
(38:40):
When the task is hard, we don'twant to jump into that.
And then brain starts toprotect us.
Right, our reptilian brain goesinto.
Oh my gosh, you're going to bereally sore if you go to the gym
.
Oh, forget it.
You only have a half an hour.
It's not going to make animpact to go to the gym for half
an hour.
You were supposed to be therefor an hour.
(39:01):
That's what you committed to.
Oh, you didn't go to the gymyesterday.
Well, what's the point?
You might as well stop going.
That's how our brain works.
Cathy Sirvatka (39:09):
Yeah, I know that's how my brain works, yeah.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (39:11):
And, by the way, that's humanity.
That's how all of our brainworks.
Our brain is programmed to keepus protected because that's how
the evolution pattern right.
When we were in the caves, wewere being protected from the,
from the cyber tooth tigers, andour brain would say don't go
outside the cave, or what wasthat noise?
(39:32):
Oh, my God, you better be alert, alert, alert.
Now we don't have to, but still,all of these things like
working out of the gym, alert,alert, alert, that's hard.
It's hard, right.
But if we say, hey, I'm goingto make a commitment to go to
the gym and I'm gonna go to thegym and my goal is to just go in
and I'm gonna maybe do 10 repsof two exercises, right, doable.
(39:56):
Sometimes you're gonna go andyou're like, oh, I could
probably stay a little longer, Icould probably do a little bit
more of this.
The more that you start to seeyour success, the more that
you're going to spend time doingthe task, and that's where
motivation starts to come in.
But it's not going to come inwhen something is hard.
Cathy Sirvatka (40:15):
Yes, I can attest to that myself.
But, like you said, I thinkthat's most of us right.
That's the human condition.
Yeah, oh my gosh, this has beengreat.
Hey, what is the biggestmistake you see freelancers
making?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (40:29):
The biggest mistake is definitely
not prioritizing.
Right, and here's the thing.
You make goals for yourbusiness.
You want to have X number ofclients.
You want to whatever it mightbe.
But are your goals reallyaligned to your priorities?
(40:52):
Right, if my priority is togrow my business to X amount of
income?
Right, and that means that Ihave to do this, this and this
to move my needle forward, andyet I don't schedule it, I don't
(41:13):
make the time, I don'tprioritize it.
Then it's difficult to andyou're not congruent.
You're telling yourself youwant this, but you're not
prioritizing.
So you're in this cognitivedissonance that doesn't match
and then it robs you of yourmotivation and your confidence
in doing the work.
So that's number one.
(41:34):
The other thing and I know youknow, as graphic designers,
people that work in projects.
This is a little harder, buthere's what I want you to do
when it comes to business, whichis a higher level, right, the
projects that you do for yourclients.
Those are your delivery,delivery of services.
But in business, you also haveprocess-based goals and
(42:00):
project-based goals.
Many entrepreneurs spend theirtime doing the projects for
their business.
I'm going to launch a YouTubechannel.
I'm going to fix my website.
I need to do a nurture sequence.
Yes, do they need to be done inyour business?
Of course they need to be done,but figure out what the process
(42:25):
is first.
Set up the goals, but figure outwhat the process is first.
Set up the goals.
I need to put myself out therea new podcast so that people
become aware of me, and my goalis that I'm going to do two
podcasts per month.
That's a process, right.
And then you start to createactions that support that
process goal and then you canactually tangibly say, oh, look
(42:47):
at how I'm moving the needleforward.
And that's a lot of whereentrepreneurs really struggle
that you're not prioritizing.
Your priorities don't matchyour calendar, your calendars
doesn't match your values andyou're all over the place and
you are living by defaultinstead of by design place and
(43:10):
you are living by defaultinstead of by design.
You're running your business byoh shiny and by the seat of
your pants and you're notactually doing it in an
intentional manner in which youcan measure your progress and
see the things that you'reaccomplishing.
Cathy Sirvatka (43:21):
You're living by default, not by design.
So it's about everything has tobe intentional yeah, absolutely
.
And congruent Int has to beintentional yeah, absolutely.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (43:28):
And congruent Intentionality changes
everything.
Yeah, absolutely.
Cathy Sirvatka (43:32):
Yeah, so that that's really good piece of
advice.
I was going to say what then?
I think I know the answer now,but what would be the number one
thing that we should all runoff and do right now, when we're
done listening?
What should we do first for ourbusiness, if we haven't already
?
Julie DeLucca-Collins (43:52):
If so, we and I'm not sure when this is
coming out, kathy, but I thinkthat this is an exercise that I
do at the end of the year as I'mplanning for my new year.
I also encourage anyone thatthis is something that you can
do.
Anytime is.
I want you to go back and Iwant you to look at what your
(44:12):
calendar looked like threemonths ago, because I can
guarantee you that whatever wason your calendar is actually
what is creating the results foryour business today.
Do a time audit how are youspending your time?
So, if you are in these bunchof little projects or you don't
(44:33):
have any new people that you aregetting in front of and that
was not something that was inyour calendar and maybe you
don't have a lot of clientstoday, I can see that.
So start to assess and go andaudit your time.
And number two create a clearvision, create the goals that
(44:53):
get you closer to that visionand then create the actions that
move you closer to your goals.
Those would be the things thatI advise people to do right now.
Cathy Sirvatka (45:04):
Oh, that's great .
I like all of this.
I'm going to run off and doeverything.
I'm going to do my now.
Oh, that's great.
I like all of this.
I'm going to run off and doeverything.
I'm going to do my timeassessment.
For sure, I need to audit myown time, and probably it's just
something that would be one ofthose metrics that you want to
be checking into.
Anyway, I would think yeahabsolutely.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (45:22):
And again your metrics.
There's two types of metricsand that's another conversation
for another day.
But you're going to have yourleading metrics and your lagging
metrics.
How much revenue you brought in, that's a lagging metric.
Leading metric is how manypeople did you present your
program to?
How many proposals did you sendout?
How many new people did younetwork with?
(45:44):
That's leading people?
Did you network with that'sleading?
When you track your leading andyou have specific goals for
your leading metrics, thenyou're going to see your lagging
numbers move.
Cathy Sirvatka (45:54):
Oh my gosh, that's so good.
Oh my gosh, Julie, I could keeptalking with you for hours.
This is really good information.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
You're welcome.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (46:07):
I can't believe our time is done.
You've been a great host.
I really love, like I said,geeking out and talking about
this, and it is very fun to beable to just provide individuals
with maybe an aha moment herethat will help them get closer
to their goals and their dreamsand living the life they've
imagined.
Cathy Sirvatka (46:26):
Yeah, oh, that's so good.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk again soon.
I hope we can talk again soon.
Julie DeLucca-Collins (46:32):
No, absolutely Anytime, and thank
you again for hosting us, kathy.
Cathy Sirvatka (46:39):
If you're looking for that freelance inspo
you need subscribe to thispodcast.
Then share it with someone else, because who doesn't need
inspiration?
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