Why Having Systems in Place Is Essential to Business and Podcast Success with Dolly Delong
The systems you use to run your business, or the lack thereof, can make or break your success as an entrepreneur. Why? Because they’re critical to operating efficiently and meeting your goals! That’s why my team and I make it a priority to constantly refine and improve our systems so that they’re optimized to better serve ourselves as well as our clients.
In today’s episode, I’m chatting with Dolly DeLong, a professional photographer and systems expert. Dolly explains why systems are so important in both business and daily life, where solopreneurs get hung up when it comes to systems, and how you can implement systems to make podcasting more fun and less stressful on both you and your team!
Plus, learn the 5 key areas Dolly recommends you focus on if you’re serious about streamlining the backend of your business, once and for all!
Start converting your listeners into leads and clients for your business! Grab my FREE Guide to structuring your episodes for sales with our best tips and a guide for solo episodes. Download today to get started!
What’s in this episode…
[04:26] Dolly explains why systems are so important in both business and daily life
[06:59] Where solopreneurs get hung up when implementing or creating new systems
[11:27] Tips and top considerations for making the podcasting process easier
[24:58] 5 key focus areas to streamline your business and combat burnout
Are you ready to build your podcast strategy, simplify your marketing, and finally make your podcast work for you? Join the Strategic Podcast Academy, my signature group program that’ll support you with monthly training, resources, and an amazing community!
About dolly delong:
I’m a Nashville-based photographer who serves small businesses with personal branding photos and I serve families with milestone family photos.
When I’m not serving clients through photography, I wear the hat of a Systems and Workflow Educator for creatives. I love teaching business owners about the importance of SOPS, systems, and workflows so that the backend puzzle pieces of their businesses can run smoothly so that they can focus on what matters most to them: serving clients, saving time, and making that money!
My most important roles in life are being a wife, a boy mom, and a believer in Christ!
Connect with dolly:
LINKS:
Grab your free Guide to Episodes for Sales
Join the Strategic Podcast Academy!
The Transcript for Share, Strategize, & Shine:
ep 145: Why Having Systems in Place Is Essential to Business and Podcast Success with Dolly Delong
[00:00:34] Caroline Hull: Hi there and welcome to Share, Strategize and Shine. I'm your host, Caroline Hall, a podcast strategist and CEO of Wild Home Podcasting. I've built my entire career through podcasts by sharing my experience using strategic systems and shining a light on the power of podcasting. If you are looking to cultivate leads for your membership group, program or consulting services, I'm here to help you create a holistic and integrative podcast strategy that will let your business thrive. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to Share, Strategize and Shine. Today I am chatting with the lovely Dolly DeLong of the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast. Dolly is a Nashville based photographer who also wears the hat of a systems and workflow educator for creatives. So she is really good at digging into the back end of people's businesses, SOPs, systems, workflows, all of those pieces. So that way your business can run smoothly. And I wanted Dolly to come on the podcast today and talk about systems, and we ended up having an amazing conversation about podcasting, the systems you need to have in place before you launch. And then she even shares the five areas that you need to start looking at and the systems in your business. This was such a great conversation. I feel like whenever I have a guest on, I learn so much and I definitely had quite a few light bulb moments in this episode, so I hope you enjoy. Hi Dolly. Thank you so much for coming on the show. [00:02:16][101.9]
[00:02:17] Dolly DeLong: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. [00:02:19][1.5]
[00:02:19] Caroline Hull: I am so excited. We're going to chat all things systems today, which, you know, sometimes I'm like, I don't really want to talk about systems, but as all my listeners know, the further I've gone in my business, the geekier I've gotten about systems and SOPs so I'm really excited to dive into this with you today. It's going to be fun. [00:02:40][21.1]
[00:02:41] Dolly DeLong: I'm really excited. I know it's not a sexy topic, but it's a necessary topic. [00:02:45][4.4]
[00:02:47] Caroline Hull: Can you just introduce yourself and tell everybody a little bit about what you do and how you help people? [00:02:50][3.0]
[00:02:51] Dolly DeLong: Yeah, definitely. First of all, my name is Dolly DeLong. I am a Nashville based family and branding photographer, and I'm also a systems and workflow educator for Creative Mind, a business center. So what that means is I like teaching about the importance of streamlining and organizing the back end of your business so that your business is fun to run and it doesn't run your life. And then my other important roles is I am a wife and a boy mom as well. [00:03:26][34.7]
[00:03:27] Caroline Hull: I love that. And do you mostly work with solopreneurs or people with teams? [00:03:32][5.6]
[00:03:34] Dolly DeLong: My focus is working with solopreneurs because my passion is making sure that, you know, the small business owner can experience those aha moments with like, you know, like streamlining the back end of their business because not all of us can have those giant teams working for us. So I'm literally helping the business owner who's in the messy middle of their business, like from years 2 to 5 is normally who I'm helping and serving before they truly start scaling. [00:04:05][31.7]
[00:04:06] Caroline Hull: Yeah, and I will say to you, like the great thing about systems and of course we're going to dive into all this, but is that even when you do have a team, because I have a team, I mean we are constantly working on our systems. It's like a never ending process, refining. If we didn't have systems, we wouldn't run as efficiently, right? [00:04:24][17.9]
[00:04:25] Dolly DeLong: Yes. [00:04:25][0.0]
[00:04:26] Caroline Hull: Which brings me to my first question. So can you just give us a little rundown about why systems are so important? [00:04:32][6.5]
[00:04:33] Dolly DeLong: Yeah, definitely. I'm going to try to stay on topic because I know I can like go all over the place. That's why I like for those of you who are watching why my head is moving this way, I'm looking at my notes as well. So I believe with all of my Dolly heart, brain, mind and soul, the systems are so important because they help me as a business owner, as a wife, as a mom, like all the roles in my life, stay organized and it helps me to be present within my business, but it also helps me to stay present or systems and workflows help me stay present in the other roles that are important to me. So for me, like my business, my business is really important to me. But also being a wife, being a mom, it just overall, I look at business and systems in business as a way to stay organized and a way to, I don't know, keep things from not being so overwhelming. So just like if you're new to systems, look at it as a way of a way to organize your business. How do you organize your business? [00:05:40][67.1]
[00:05:42] Caroline Hull: Yeah, and I like what you said about how it helps you do the other things in your life too, especially as solo entrepreneurs like you can take on so much. And then next thing you know, you're working all hours of the night. Why? I've been there. I mean, when my kids were little and I was starting this business, I mean, I was working so late at night and in those fringe hours, you know, that we talk about as moms, those like nap times and early mornings, but it felt like it was never ending. And I will have to say, as someone who's implemented a lot of systems in their business, it really wasn't until we started implementing those systems that I was able to let go of some of that late night working and, and things that that that overwhelm that you're talking about. [00:06:30][48.7]
[00:06:31] Dolly DeLong: Yeah, exactly. If you are like listening and if listeners are listening into this conversation, you're like, I don't even know where to begin with systems and workflows. We're going to cover that. And I know like, I'm hopping ahead of myself, but I just want to remind everybody to give yourself plenty of grace and patience and time and incorporating systems and workflows into the back end of your business. [00:06:58][26.8]
[00:06:59] Caroline Hull: Yeah, I love that so much. So where do people usually get hung up when they are implementing or creating new systems for their business? [00:07:07][7.9]
[00:07:08] Dolly DeLong: Yeah. So this is something that I've been trying to be more aware, like keenly aware of, especially in the past year as I've been honing in on my own business, in my own offerings. And I have noticed that business owners, I'm going to include myself in this, we tend to overcomplicate all the things. We literally overcomplicate all the things. So we think, well, in order to get to this next level, I need to buy this expensive whatever. So let's insert I want to get to seven, eight, nine figures. Well, I have to buy this mastermind. I have to invest in this business coach. I have to buy all of these tech tools because this person, that's what they do. So this is what I need to do. And they talk about systems and workflows. So I'm just going to buy all this and then it's going to solve my problem and hear me out. Everyone hear me out. I am not saying that investing in a business coach or a mastermind or any time attacker tool is an unwise decision. It's not like those are wise milestones for your business for sure, but they need to be thought out strategically. Like I'm very, very overly cautious about everything and I want to like, think through things deeply before making the next move. And so that's what I want to encourage you to do before you, like, go off and buy like all the tech tools that say that will like automate the back end of your business. Like you really need to slow down for a while, be willing to slow down, to take an assessment of your business in order to speed up. And that's where a lot of business owners, they refuse to do that because it's unsexy to slow down and to look at the foundation of your business and like build, like refine certain systems that make up the foundation of your business in order to speed up. And people don't want to do that. It's not fun to do. [00:09:08][120.0]
[00:09:09] Caroline Hull: Yeah, I love your point because I think there have definitely been moments in my business life where I've been like, Oh, if I just invest in, you know, Asana or Trello, like that's going to solve all of my problems. Or if I spend two days building out Notion that's going to fix all of my problems and it doesn't necessarily fix the problem because the problem might be how we're doing something or how we're communicating as a team or, you know, there might be some other thing in there. And so I love that. I love that you brought that up, because I do definitely feel that with myself, that my knee jerk reaction is I just need to buy this thing and it'll fix everything. [00:09:49][39.9]
[00:09:50] Dolly DeLong: Exactly. And like, it's kind of like I spoke about this with another business owner and it's kind of like if you have, let's say, like a physical problem and you go to two different doctors, one doctor may prescribe some things very specific for that ailment. And then you go to the other doctor and they're like, well, actually you need this and they're not communicating with each other. And then you are like, okay, I'm going to do everything that they're telling me to do, spend all this money. And then it kind of like you're hurting yourself in the long run. Yeah, hopefully that helps. Make sense. And like I wanted to give another example. Maybe that wasn't the best example. You just need to like really, really slow down and assess your foundations, assess like one thing at a time. [00:10:43][52.7]
[00:10:44] Caroline Hull: Yeah. [00:10:44][0.0]
[00:10:45] Dolly DeLong: And I know that's not sexy because that takes time. [00:10:48][3.2]
[00:10:49] Caroline Hull: Right. And not try to fix all the things that you might feel are wrong, quote unquote, at once. Right. Like, important to take it one thing at a time. I love that. So this is a podcast about podcasting. So I want to talk about podcasts specifically because I think running a podcast as a solopreneur has to be one of the most overwhelming things. I know that it comes up in my membership all the time. A lot of them are solopreneurs. They're processing and doing all the things for the podcast themselves. They're doing it all themselves. And so we talk a lot about how can we create a better system for this. So I would love some thoughts from you. What are some ways that you have made the podcasting process easier because you have a podcast as well? [00:11:33][43.3]
[00:11:33] Dolly DeLong: Yeah. Okay. So first of all, I will say to everyone, if you are on the fence about even starting a podcast, I would say mull it over for at least a quarter at least. Yeah, don't do what I did. And I, it took me two years to mull it over. So when I say I am extreme at like thinking things through, I was like thinking it through. And I let two years slip away because of fear, imposter syndrome. I just thought I would like wouldn't do it perfectly, imperfection. And so I would say at least instead of like jumping into it, like, if you have an idea today, I'm like, I'm one of those people. I'm like, I need to think about it. And so at least give your find balance and at least think about it. If not for a quarter, at least 30 days, how can you incorporate this podcast into your overall business strategy and plan? Because it shouldn't be. Podcasting should be fun. Yes. But it also in a business strategy, it should fit into your overall marketing plan to bring in more leads to your services and your offers. [00:12:45][72.0]
[00:12:47] Caroline Hull: Have you been listening to my podcast? [00:12:47][0.2]
[00:12:49] Dolly DeLong: No, I like this is like when I say all the time, I love it. [00:12:55][5.2]
[00:12:55] Dolly DeLong: And I just like because I just people, people start podcasts, they have like so much excitement and it fizzles out within like five or six or seven episodes and I am in it. If I'm going to do something, I want to do it for the long haul. And so my podcast, it started in 2021, It really should have started in 2019, but it took me two years and now I've been running it for two years and it's one of the most amazing parts of my own business because I know like I started it because I knew my offering. So that's one thing I strongly recommend business owners. Like if you know your services and offerings. Yes, your business is going to ebb and flow and you're going to add more services and subtract services. But if you know your core offerings, your moneymakers, like a podcast, is a great strategy to bring more people to those moneymakers. Another reason why I wanted to start a podcast was I wanted to grow my email list. And I'm a firm believer in growing my email list in all the ways, shapes possible. Like, I do not want to depend on social media. I feel like this is overstated, but I will state it again if you are depending upon social media to get your leads and your services and your buzz is not going to work. Yeah, it's not going to work. And there's nothing wrong with social media. I love Instagram. I am of the generation that where like Facebook was created. So like Facebook came out when I was in college, like to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I actually really like Facebook because I remember the old Facebook days. So yeah, I will use Facebook for business, but I don't like depending upon that as my lead generator. And so but I love using my podcast to push people to my email list. And so I use my podcast as my lead generator. I use my podcast to connect and collab with other business owners. So it's been a great way for me to network myself. And again, it took me again, don't do this if you're listening, you're watching and you're like, okay, I'm a take two years to don't do, don't do what I did. Don't take two years, just take the next 30 days and really like decide like, do you want to dedicate time? Because it will take time every week to pour into the marketing of the podcast and the production on the podcast and the strategy of the podcast. You just don't want to like come out with five episodes and then fizzle out because that will honestly, like when I see that other people doing that, I'm like, Oh, they're not that dependable. Like they get excited and then they, they're not really dependable, and I want to be seen as a dependable person. [00:15:55][180.2]
[00:15:56] Caroline Hull: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. You made so many amazing points. I think what you said about taking time before you start a podcast, but not too much time, because I do. I cannot tell you the number of people that come to us that are like, I've had this idea for two or three years now, and I'm like, okay, let's go make this happen. But I think you're absolutely right. Like thinking through all of those things before you launch is going to make the process so much more enjoyable because you're going to know what your goals and your endgame is. And so when you are having to work through getting the episode ready, creating the graphics, it's not going to feel like work because, you know, okay, this is going to help bring in whatever my goal is. And I recently had Alison Hardy on the podcast and we talked about. [00:16:45][49.1]
[00:16:46] Dolly DeLong: I love Alison. [00:16:46][0.6]
[00:16:47] Caroline Hull: I know she's amazing and we actually talked about so we were talking about funnels and I love that you brought this up because we talked about the fact that podcast audiences are so special because they're warm leads. And so I love that you were talking about having people join your email list from your podcast because they're more likely to do that from your podcast than they are social media. If anybody is wondering. Yeah, and, and you know, the thing about we call it pod fade so this is the thing we we call pod feed is when people release a few episodes and they disappear. And it's really interesting because there was a study that recently came out, there are less podcasts now than there were two years ago because remember, during the pandemic, everybody started a podcast. So there's less podcasts now, but there's more podcast listeners, which I thought was really, really fascinating. But that just goes to show like, I think you're absolutely right. If you can think through all of these things, it's going to set you up for longevity. And podcasting is a long game, so I love that you brought up all those points. [00:17:56][68.8]
[00:17:57] Dolly DeLong: Can I just say thank you for sharing that stat with me? I did not know that stat because I am over here sometimes like cranking out podcast episodes and I'm like, I feel like nobody is listening because there's so many podcasts and, you know, like, you get in this like, Yeah, and you're like, Oh, we're shouting into the void. But then I should look at my data like, and then I look at my data, I'm like, Okay, no, it's slowly growing, it's okay. But I just assumed that even more podcasts were being created now. [00:18:32][35.1]
[00:18:32] Caroline Hull: Yeah, it's really interesting, the podcasting world. This is not what this episode was supposed to be about, but I feel like this is important to talk about. The podcasting world has really changed in the last two years, I would say especially, and kind of a couple things that we're seeing is it's a lot harder to get listeners. [00:18:52][19.4]
[00:18:53] Dolly DeLong: Mm hmm. [00:18:53][0.2]
[00:18:53] Caroline Hull: But there are more listeners to be had. And so basically, like the old adage of if you build it, they will come, doesn't really work anymore. You have to have a strategy and you have to have a system in place. Hello systems for getting new audiences to your podcast. And the thing about I think that people, business owners get really frustrated with is they're like, Well, I created a podcast, shouldn't that be enough to get listeners? But the thing is, is if you're using your podcast strategically to convert people into leads, to bring them to your email list to sell them products, we want the right listeners. And so then the question becomes, how do I get myself in front of the right people? And you do it by going on other podcasts, by doing collabs, exactly what you were saying like and that. And that's why I like I think it's so important to lay out the expectations before you start a podcast and say, I'm not just here to get metrics, like I'm not just here to get downloads, I'm here for this specific purpose. I want to grow my membership. I want to sell more of my course, whatever that thing is. And then, you know, I'm also going to use this as an opportunity to really network and become visible in my field and become the go to person for what I do. And I feel like when those two things combine, it's so magical and it can really have an impact on your business. But you have to have, like you said, you have to understand that and have all those things in place. [00:20:24][90.8]
[00:20:25] Dolly DeLong: Exactly. And I just want to I don't know why this came to mind, but I'm going to share it anyways, and maybe it will like make sense, maybe not. Who knows, But I'm going to share it anyways. If you have been listening and you're like, well, didn't Dolly say she is a family and branding photographer and then a systems and workflow educator, how does that work into her overall marketing strategy? Yeah, so for very be completely transparent and clear, those are two very different businesses. So yeah, like yes, there's the Dolly DeLong brand that's like the umbrella. But underneath that umbrella I have three different legs to my business, like ways to make money. And I have, I don't want to say always, but it feels like it's I've been a photographer since 2007, which is like I feel like that's been forever. So I grew that business out. Word of mouth referrals slowly over time. Right? And that helped me develop an income for family photography, branding, photography. Okay, But then you all what all happened in 2020? The pandemic like, right? He who must not be named that's what happened And I. I was like force just like everybody else like to create an income because I in Nashville I was not physically allowed to leave the house because of mandates. Like, right. Like if we were if we were caught, like, taking photos, like we would be fined. Like, yeah, yeah. And so I was like, well, what am I really good at that I can make money doing? And I have always been really good at organizing the back end of my business, but I didn't know how to explain it. I thought everybody was good at organizing the back end of the business, like because I had worked in higher education for almost eight years while building up a business. Yeah. And I thought, oh, everybody knows how to do this. And so that's when I started, really. Like I realized, oh, not everybody understands systems, tech workflows, SOPs, and how do we explain it, like to a middle schooler versus explaining like these deeper concepts. So I was like, well, I think I can do that. And I started dabbling into that in 2020. And so that's where that third leg of my business came in from. And so the strategy I'm coming back, hopefully this is making sense. The strategy of the podcast came it's mostly to market that third leg of the business and to grow that part of my business because the other legs are already running because of word of mouth referrals. I've already developed a system for that and now this leg is I market primarily through my podcast. [00:23:27][181.2]
[00:23:29] Caroline Hull: Are your podcast episodes set up to help you sell your membership group programs and consulting services? And I'm not talking about selling it in a sleazy way. I'm talking about creating episodes that are engaging. Create connection between you and your listeners and highlight your expertise to start creating episodes for sales. Get my free Guide by heading to WildHomePodcasting.com/sales. [00:23:53][23.8]
[00:23:53] Caroline Hull: Yeah, I love that. I love that you refer to it as a system to like that kind of like just blew my mind a little bit because I always like think about my podcast is like I'm like, yeah, this is for visibility, this is for building authority, but it really is a sales and marketing system that you've set up. And, you know, we talk a lot about like repurposing podcast content because it makes your life so much easier if you do that for marketing. And that's a marketing system. [00:24:24][31.2]
[00:24:25] Dolly DeLong: Yeah, it's like all meta. [00:24:27][1.7]
[00:24:28] Caroline Hull: Right? I know. Oh my gosh, I thank you so much for sharing that because I think that our listeners are really going to feel seen in that because I know that like the people of my membership, a lot of my listeners, they started a podcast for the same reason you did, like they wanted to build something or they wanted to bring more attention to something that they were doing in their business. And so I just really appreciate you sharing that story and and explaining how that works for your business. So let's get back to systems for a second. If someone is feeling burnt out, especially as they're listening to us talk about all of this, if they're feeling burnt out with their systems or just their business in general, really. What do you recommend they do? [00:25:11][43.3]
[00:25:12] Dolly DeLong: Oh, I have so many opinions on this. Okay. So if a person if a business owner feels burned out and they're like, okay, I know and know I need to incorporate systems and workflows and I'm just so overwhelmed. I have this five part system that everybody, every business owner, I believe it doesn't matter like where they are in their business. They should always be refining to the back end of business. And so these five, I call them systems, you can call them whenever you want to, but I believe you should always be refining your time management because time management is really key like to running your life or any business time management understanding what all of your SOPs so your standard operating procedures of your business are and standard operate. You have an SOP for literally everything in your life. Yep. And so there are like steps living in our head rent free that we should just take out of our head and put them in, document them. I'm not saying like you should document your facial cleanse routine. Like that could be your head maybe. But if you are like in terms of business, if you have the same step by step process that you do that you know works really well for your business, take that process and simplify it for yourself and put it in documentation so that you can hand it off to a VA or to OBM or a contractor, or even if it's just you like it can be. You don't have to depend upon your memory, right? So that's a good system. I want you to always be assessing every quarter of your business, your SOPs, assess the financial pieces of your business. And that's a deeper part, I realize. But I want business owners to know exactly where all of their money is coming in from, because money, again, it can be such an emotional thing for everyone. I know for me, for the longest time it was so emotional. I grew up incredibly, incredibly. For in comparison to my husband and I had a lot of student debt. And then, like, he had a totally different money story growing up, Like his parents are great with money and they taught their kids how to be good with money and responsible. And so when I got married, I was like, He's going to leave me because I have all the student debt and I have to tell him. And of course, the opposite happened. We worked as a team, got out of student debt, and then and then I was able to like look at money differently for my business. But anyways, like what emotional baggage are you bringing to your finances, especially in your business? And then where is all of your money making services or products coming in from? How much you owe quarterly for taxes? How much do you need to set aside for your taxes? How much do you want to be or need to assess that at least at least once a year, if not once a quarter like Right. And and if you're able to have your CPA and your bookkeeper work together to help, like develop some sort of financial plan for yourself, which I have finally started to implement this year, like having a CPA, having a bookkeeper that who worked together. [00:28:48][215.5]
[00:28:49] Caroline Hull: One of my favorite things. Yeah, I think that's like the first thing I outsource and it's such a game changer. Ten out of ten recommend. [00:28:58][9.7]
[00:29:00] Dolly DeLong: It's such a game changer. And if you are in the beginning stages of your business and you're like, Well, I can't afford both, then invest in a CPA, like for your taxes at least. [00:29:11][11.2]
[00:29:11] Caroline Hull: Yes. [00:29:11][0.0]
[00:29:12] Dolly DeLong: And then when you're at that point, then invest in a bookkeeper and then make sure that they communicate very well together. The is the financial health of your business is important. Developing those systems to like pay yourself is important because you're not running a hobby, you're running a business. And I don't. And for all creative business owners, we have feast or famine cycles. And like for me, for example, I'm a photographer. My feast is happening now from Sept, from August to November. I am raking it in like. [00:29:47][35.6]
[00:29:48] Caroline Hull: Right. [00:29:48][0.0]
[00:29:48] Dolly DeLong: Family session are coming in. And then normally, like there are certain periods of the year where I'm like, Nobody's going to hire me. I, I'm like, just need to quit. And I've been doing this since 2007, but like the fear. [00:30:02][13.4]
[00:30:03] Caroline Hull: Yes. [00:30:03][0.0]
[00:30:03] Dolly DeLong: Will come up. But when I have actually developed a system for the money, like I know when my feast cycles are, I know when my famine cycles are quote unquote, then I can like have a system for how to pay myself because I've, like, developed a plan with my bookkeeper, right. With my CPA. And this takes time that going back to time management, knowing my SOPs, knowing the finances. Okay, the fourth one, I'm finally getting to the fourth one, having a system for your email list growth. Like do you have a plan for how you're going to grow your email list all the time? Like it's not a one and done thing where you talk about on Instagram, like I have a new lead magnet and then that's it. Like you have to have a plan in infusing your lead magnet in marketing like everywhere and to the point you feel like you're sick of it. Like, go beyond that. Like write it. You have to market yourself. And then the fifth one is content marketing. Like that goes along with podcasting. Podcasting is a type of content marketing, like, Yeah, how are you using all of these together? Because they all are a domino effect. Because if you A Yeah, I'm like, I could just like go on and on. I get really excited about talking about all five of these systems. Like, Look, you are not working on refining them. When I say refine, I'm not saying you have to perfect them. There's no such thing is perfection, but you need it. You need to make them work for you. [00:31:36][93.3]
[00:31:37] Caroline Hull: Yeah. And I'll share a personal story because, you know, as you were talking, I was realizing how in my own business life, how there have been moments where I'm really good at, like just completely ignoring a piece of something like one of those five things you said. I'm really good at doing that. It finances for me are a thing I'm right there with. You have a very similar situation. I grew up very poor, so I have a hard time with my finances. But I will tell you this last year. So let's go back. Even a year before that, I have grown the agency side of my business by pretty much word of mouth. And because it was having all that success, I was totally ignoring the the lead magnet side of things. I was not working on building my email list. I was like, I don't need an email list. I've got plenty of whatever. And then as everyone has noticed, the. Online business world has been changing this past year, too, and we decided to change the model of my business. And you know what happened? None of that went very well because I had been ignoring it was building. And so now I'm working on the list, building part of it again. And we're starting to see momentum again in the business. But you're absolutely right. When you start to, like, put all of those things together and be working on them and it's not like a constant, every day I'm sitting down and working on that piece. But when, you know, I'm working on something and I know that I need to create an so, okay, I put that on my list to get done this quarter. You know, things like that, like making sure you're just constantly working on them, having a plan, not neglecting your podcast marketing, not sharing your episode more than once. You know, things like like having a plan in place and paying attention to all of those things. Like you said, it's going to make such an impact because I did. I kind of like forgot about a whole leg of that and have felt the impact and, you know, and that doesn't mean I failed or messed up. It just means, hey, we need to like now rethink our strategy and move forward in this direction, right? [00:33:41][124.4]
[00:33:42] Dolly DeLong: Yeah, exactly. Refine it. And something that I have struggled with in the past was just like in my fist, in my fist cycle. So like the months I am making so much money, like you are like, listening. Like, just imagine. Like I like to imagine, like I'm like Scrooge McDuck, like swimming and piling on the coins letting. Yeah, like I'm like, yeah. I'm like, raking in all the money. Like I neglected to assess, like, okay, like, what are my overhead costs? Because then there were some months where I would make so much money, and then I was actually spending more than what I was making because I was like, Oh, well, I now need to like, oh, I need to keep up with X, Y, Z again, like going back to the like, Hey, you need to slow down, assess in order to speed up. And I wasn't slowing down. I want to just speed everything up and there are, there is like this I don't know like this I don't know what to call it. I'm like going completely blank. But we here, I firmly believe, yes, you need to make it and you need to make very smart, wise investments for your business in order for it to scale and grow. But it does it doesn't need or it's not going to happen overnight. Like. Right. Like be like pouring money blindly, like everywhere and making fear based decisions and buying all these things. Like. [00:35:14][91.9]
[00:35:15] Caroline Hull: Yeah. [00:35:15][0.0]
[00:35:16] Dolly DeLong: I don't know. Like I've, I feel like I've fallen prey in victim to so many things, like, Oh, I need to buy this and then come to find out like, this wasn't the best fit for me. I should have been using my head and not my like, feelings to make this decision. [00:35:31][14.9]
[00:35:32] Caroline Hull: Yeah, that's a really great point. I did an episode recently where I talked about how like when you see those advertisements, it's like get 10,000 downloads by downloading this checklist and you think to yourself. That's. The that's the that's what I need. I just need 10,000 downloads and then my business will be perfect. Yeah, that everything will be great if I just have you know, and you have to really like that is a marketing tactic that's used. And so I love your advice about like kind of stepping back and saying, okay, am I making this decision based on feeling or am I making this decision based on all the things that I've analyzed And this is the right move for me. So I do love that so much. [00:36:07][35.0]
[00:36:07] Dolly DeLong: Yeah. And it's hard. It it's all it's hard. I I'm still oh, man, if I look at my husband, he's very analytical and, like, thinks through things, through tea. I'm like, why? I want to be like him, like, at all times. But I know that there is beauty in the way that God made me to like, because I am very like, sometimes I'm like, I'm so emotional about all things and but. [00:36:32][24.3]
[00:36:33] Caroline Hull: Yeah, but that's also what makes us good at what we do is like being here for people and holding that for them in that way. So you know, you have to weigh it. Well, this has been such an amazing conversation. I've enjoyed every second of it, and I feel like we could probably talk for two more hours, but I'm not going to ask our listeners to that so could you just tell everybody where they can connect with you and how they can work with you if they need some help with systems and taking a look at their business? [00:37:02][29.4]
[00:37:04] Dolly DeLong: Yeah, definitely. So you can find me on on Instagram at Dolly DeLong Education. And then if you want to connect with me on my podcast, I host a podcast called The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast. So if you like a little Harry Potter reference here and there, I love throwing those out there. And then I do have a free class that where I talk go into depth like this is a 90 minute class. I swear I go into depth about those five systems that we briefly spoke about and how to apply it to your business. I'll share the link with you so you share with your listeners, but that's like a really good place to start and just get to know me and my teaching style. [00:37:45][41.7]
[00:37:46] Caroline Hull: I love it so much and we'll make sure all of your links are in the show notes and thank you so much for coming. [00:37:50][4.3]
[00:37:51] Dolly DeLong: Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much for having me. [00:37:53][1.8]
[00:37:54] Caroline Hull: This episode was what I needed today, Let me tell you. It just hit so many boxes of things that I have been dealing with in my own life and my own business. And I love chatting systems because they really can make a big impact on your business. And I think what was so special to me about this conversation is the way that daily framed systems, often we just think systems are SOPs or Asana or Trello or a spreadsheet, but it really is the things that make our business run efficiently and the things that help us achieve our goals. And that was so, so special. All of her links are in the show notes, so definitely go check her out and be sure to go and listen to her podcast as well and I will see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to Share, Strategize and Shine to give your own podcast some shine. Download my Free Podcast Guide to creating episodes for sales by heading to the link in the show notes. Be sure to leave a review and connect with me on Instagram for more podcast strategy onsights. Until next time. [00:37:54][0.0]
