What if your business could keep running even when life hits pause? In this episode, I sit down with Dahlia Orth, a systems strategist and HoneyBook Pro, who shares how building intentional workflows helped her reclaim her time and design a business that supports her life… not the other way around.
We talk about building boundaries you won’t feel guilty about, systems that run while you rest, and how to prepare your business for growth before you desperately need it.
The Power of Systems Built for You
Dahlia shares her journey from working non-stop to building a business that allowed her to take time off after the unexpected passing of her mom. Because of her workflows, her clients didn’t experience a disruption—and that flexibility has since become her entire business philosophy.
Rather than forcing herself into someone else’s blueprint, Dahlia created workflows that match her personality, priorities, and energy. It’s not just about having systems. It’s about having the right ones.
Why Systems Aren’t One-Size-Fits-All
One of the biggest takeaways? Systems don’t have to look a certain way to be effective. Dahlia emphasizes designing workflows that reflect your personality, client experience goals, and lifestyle. Whether you’re a schedule-send girl or a deep-work-before-noon person, there’s a setup that suits you.
Rather than copying what worked for someone else, Dahlia encourages entrepreneurs to start by asking: what do I actually want from my business? Then reverse-engineer your systems from there. The goal is not perfection—it’s sustainability.
Intentional Boundaries That Actually Hold
Boundaries aren’t reactive—they’re preventative. Dahlia explains how she bakes them into contracts, automations, email signatures, and calendar tools, so she’s never scrambling to set expectations after the fact.
And boundaries aren’t just for clients. Dahlia talks about setting limits with herself, too: not checking emails during family time, resisting the urge to answer every DM immediately, and letting herself rest on grief-heavy days.
The result? A business that doesn’t just run well—it respects her life.
The Freedom on the Other Side of Systems
Whether it’s volunteering with her church, traveling with friends, or working from camp—Dahlia proves that when your systems are smart, your life gets spacious. The time freedom she’s built didn’t come from scaling to 7-figures overnight. It came from being intentional.
And that freedom isn’t just for her. She wants it for every creative entrepreneur who got into business to live, not just work.
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Review the Transcript
Julie: Hey y’all. Welcome back to the System for Everything podcast. Today’s tip, color code, your calendar based on how guilty you’ll feel canceling each event. Red is for family dinners. Gray is for that Zoom coffee date you already regret agreeing to at the system. For Everything podcast, we believe you can build workflows and a life.
My guest today is the brilliant Dahlia Orth, a system strategist and a HoneyBook Pro for creative entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs who are ready to scale with more ease and gain back their time freedom through her signature done for you services, templates, and workflow intensives. She helps visionary business owners untangle the chaos behind the scenes so their operations run beautifully and sustainably.
Welcome,
Dahlia: Dalia. Thank you for being here. Thanks, Julie. I am so excited to chat with you and just honored to be a part of this show. So fun. Thank you for having
Julie: me.
Dahlia: Of course.
Julie: Okay, as we always do, we’re gonna start with the system reboot, A quick reset to start the episode with some humor and humanity. So I wanna know, what is your most used app that is not Instagram or email?
Dahlia: So. Definitely Apple Notes. Huge, avid Apple Notes girl, and like not the shiny, polished Apple Notes girl. Like I’m just throwing in like anything and everything. I think of my grocery list, my to-do item, my like random note that I just wanna like add somewhere. That is one of my, probably my most used apps.
And then honestly, I am a TikTok girl through and through. I love TikTok. Love. Like, I, I love that. Yeah. It’s, it’s just such like, it’s like one of those like guilty pleasures for me that I like really just like if I need funny videos or like, I, like, even like, I feel like TikTok has become my Pinterest a little bit, where like I’m like, how do I do this?
How do I do that? Or like, what do you, what can you tell me about this? Um, it’s just fun. It’s super fun. And yeah, I, I have those like doom scrolling moments where I’m like, I need to stop. I need to, I need to reel this in, but
Julie: it’s so fun. Okay. Well this, this could be something off TikTok. The next question is a product you recently bought that actually lived up to the hype.
Ooh, okay. I know a lot of people buy off TikTok
Dahlia: shops. Yes, yes. I love TikTok shop. And because I’m a single girl and I live in an apartment, we all know the struggle of cardboard boxes that like stack up, like, you know what I mean? You have to go to your dumpster and put ’em out and nobody wants to walk, right?
Nobody wants to take all the boxes, make multiple strips. I bought this thing, it’s like an electric scissor and you just like it literally, you just put it under and it like cuts through the cardboard so you can just cut your cardboard down instead of breaking it down and it cuts right through and it’s amazing like.
I cut up all my cardboard, put it in one box, and I make one trip to the dumpster and it’s the best.
Julie: Uh, okay. I’m not a single girl, but I feel like I need that. Yeah. Uh, my husband would be very happy if I bought that. Oh my gosh. Life changing. Okay. What is a job that you think you would be terrible
Dahlia: at? Oh, man.
Ooh. Honestly, like anything. Gross. Like, I mean, like, like trash? Yeah. Or sewage. Like I, like I would just not be able to, yeah. We need people to do those jobs. We could not do it. True. Not a chance. I am grateful for those people and I’m like, yeah, that is not, that’s not why I am, uh, that’s not what I’m built for.
That is not it. I could not do it.
Julie: All right. You have met the personality. Now meet the powerhouse. Here’s my conversation with Dalia on the system for designing a life you actually want. Okay, enough of my nonsense. Let’s get into the actual systems. Okay. Dalia, you are known for making workflows, make sense making, but something I really admire is how clearly you’ve designed your business.
Around your life and not the other way around. So let’s start with the why behind the workflows, because I think we’ve, we’ve both seen how easy it is to build a business that that runs smoothly, but still steamrolls your personal life if you are not intentional about it.
Dahlia: Yes. I think that was a little bit of my experience in the beginning is I had this like.
Moment of I’m doing all the right things. I have things set up behind the scenes, but it wasn’t actually like giving me the freedom that I got into business owning for, and I was working a lot. This was back in 2022. I was like at the peak of my business owning, I was like, I am living my best life. But I was working all the time.
And honestly, this whole idea really, really was framed around grief. And we’ve talked about this. My mom passed away unexpectedly and, uh. I had to like walk away from my business for a season. Like I had to step back from it. And the beauty of it was I had all my stuff already set up behind the scenes so people were able to take it over, which was nice because I was traveling back and forth to my family for a summer.
I couldn’t be present in my business. And that was a moment where I was like. I don’t want my business to run my life. I want my business to be shaped really around my life and what I want to do. And so that really changed a lot for me. And then I just built everything else around that. I was like, okay, I want to have an easy way for my clients to feel cared for, but I’m not the one always sending the emails.
I’m not the one always sending the invites. I’m not the one always doing all the things, but it still gives ’em a great experience and it still lets me be a business owner and do all these other things in my life too at the time. And so. Even now, like I travel a lot, I volunteer all the time, and my business is shaped in that way where I’m like, I don’t want it to feel like I don’t wanna be a slave to my business, and I don’t want other people to experience that.
I know that feeling of like, I have to work because I have nothing, I have no backbone behind it, you know?
Julie: Yeah, absolutely. I know you said before that systems really gave you your time back. Hmm. I mean, what does that actually look like in the day to day? I mean, are there specific routines or decisions that you make that helped really create that shift?
Dahlia: Yes, so I am a huge fan of little things, even like office hours where I’m like, I really don’t work with you. A lot of like. Any outside work after a certain time. And because I also serve in youth ministry, so like I have high school girls that I work with all the time and I’m like, I, it’s just as important to be present for them as it is in my business.
Or if I were somebody to have a family, like it would be the same thing. Right. Um, and another big one for me, like for little things like I am a firm believer of. Figuring out how systems work best for who you are as a person and the needs of your business. Whereas a lot of people just look at like features or they go like, oh, we could do this, so it must be right for me.
And that’s not always true. So like, I mean, a great example of this would be I’m a huge schedule send girl. Like mm-hmm. I, I implemented the whole, like, I’m in my inbox a couple times a day. Type thing. So I can do deep work through the day, but most of the time, um, I may or may not be on my computer in the evening scheduling emails in the morning so that I can do the things in the morning that I want to do because I don’t necessarily wanna jump into work right away.
I like to have slower mornings. I like to, you know, have availability to go meet with friends or meet with my girls or go do things that I could have my mornings back, but my business is still functioning right. Even things like. Automations behind my contact form. Like if someone contacts me, there’s ways for, you know, people to still know what the next steps are, know how to get in contact, have accessibility to me, but I’m not always the one doing it.
So the time freedom was huge for me. Like I, I volunteer a lot with the church that I go to and I like having the freedom to like come in and cowork with people, but also be available if I need, like I was gonna jump into a meeting or something. So it really, honestly, I. Like I said, it was framed around like that season of grief for me and how it was like, how can I make the adjustments in my business so it’s serving my life and not the other way around.
Um, and so there are just like little things, but I had to get creative with it. Like I always say. My systems don’t look like your systems. They might have a similar infrastructure, but
Julie: I think that that’s good though, I think. Mm-hmm. You and I are very on the same page as systems people. That systems are not one size fits all.
No. And I think that there are people out there in business that kind of just cookie cutter copy paste kind of things. Yes. And that. Doesn’t work. ’cause everyone’s brain is different. The way everyone, the reason behind why people need systems is just gonna be different for different people.
Dahlia: Yeah. And oftentimes people do it backwards.
They’ll say yes. They’ll say, Hey, it worked for my friend in this way, so can it work for me? And I’m like, maybe, right. I always say it depends on who you are as a person and. What your business needs. So like when I have conversations with people, I ask questions like, tell me about who you are. Do you like having a simpler system?
Or would you rather have more robust automations? Do you like, you know, color coded things? Or do you like just a simple plain Jane look to something or even their business needs? Right. But like what you’re saying, everybody’s business is different because we’re all unique people. We all have different.
Personalities behind our businesses. We all have different needs. And again, like we can have similar infrastructure, but honestly, like, you know, I always encourage people, make your systems your own, like have your own little like verbiage and your own little things. Like you sprinkle your own little tone of voice in there, like.
All of those things go a long way when building out your systems. And it’s those little things that I think then give more time freedom on the backend. But honestly, it takes a season of like intentionality to build it before you see the fruit. And that’s what’s hard is I think people all the time go, I know what I want.
I want the time freedom. I want to be able to do all these things in my business, travel, be with my family. Those things are all possible, but there is a season of like some deep work behind that that is really. Hard sometimes, but it’s so beneficial. Like I, I always say it’s one of the hardest things is to convince people of the value of systems.
And you probably have experienced this like, yes, it’s so hard because why do you think I don’t do it
Julie: anymore? Yeah,
Dahlia: I know. It’s so like, you’re kind of like, I’m sending everyone a your way. Thanks. Yeah. So like, it just is one of those things that I, you know, when I have phone calls with people and. They have this moment of like, well, maybe I don’t need it right now.
I’m like, okay. Um, or we think, you know, my website needs some TLC, which again, your website’s important, it’s front facing, but you’re only getting them halfway there, right? Like when you send somebody to your website and then they put an inquiry form in, if they have no way of being served behind the scenes in the same consistent way that you’re serving them on your website.
Then we’re really missing the mark. And I try to explain that to people, but like, you know, yeah, I can’t, I can’t make them decide. But yeah, it’s one of those things that I’m always like. I wish I could convince you more, but I think it does require that like season of like, okay, this is gonna take some work to get there, but it’s my favorite when people see the fruit behind the scenes of it and then they have the like wow moment, and they have the moment of like, oh, this was so worth it.
You know?
Julie: Was there a moment in your business in the last few years when you had that aha moment and you realize like, oh, this is finally working the way that I hoped it would. Mm-hmm.
Dahlia: Yes, I mean there’s been a, there actually been a bunch of ’em, like obviously my mom passing and me being able to actually step away ’cause I had like SOPs in place and I had things already ready for somebody else to jump into if they needed, was a huge one for me.
But like I’ve done things, like I’ve traveled with my friends around the world. I go on missions trips, like I never compromise. Going to camp with my kids like that is always a huge one. And I think even like bringing on a VA for me was a big one too, where I was like, oh my gosh. Like, because I have all these things in place, she can handle those things now.
And I can just go like, I’m just managing. I’m just making sure things are moving. Um. It really, it gave me so much more freedom in that way. And it’s just, you know, again, it’s a lot of the overwhelm of people going, this might take a lot of work to get there. And you go, it could, and like it’s worth it on the other side.
But a lot of people we just get by with. Like, we just get by with, you know, I, I wanna say like mediocre a little bit right where we go. It’s good enough. It’s good enough for what it needs to be. And we just, we, we kind of miss like what it could be, you know? I love that. And that’s always that like hard sticking point for people.
Julie: Yeah. So I wanna talk about boundaries, not like, you know, the buzzy kind you see on Instagram carousels, but like the actual, I. Baked into your business like Yes. Makes it the way it runs. ’cause those are the ones that actually hold in the long run. Yeah. So I think a lot of us think of boundaries as something you need to add once you’re burned out, but if you’ve already integrated them into your system, maybe that won’t happen.
Like how did you learn to do that? I mean, we talked about the schedule send and things like that. How, what other. Ways do you implement boundaries?
Dahlia: Well, I used to feel really guilty about boundaries. It’s probably pretty common too, that we feel like if I set a boundary, I’m a bad business owner. Mm-hmm.
And that’s just not true. Right. It’s same with being a human. Right. If I’m, if I set boundaries, I’m a bad person. Not true. Boundaries are smart. Boundaries are wise. Yeah. And boundaries are good in business, especially for sustainability and in life people. Yeah. Yeah. Like if you wanna be in this space for a long time, you’re gonna have to learn boundaries from the beginning.
We cannot be everything to everyone. Right. And at the end of the day, like I think I had this realization that like I, if I wanted to be this good, successful business owner, then like I had to drop everything I was doing and serve, like do whatever they needed. Yeah. I don’t do that anymore. Like people will still be there and.
People for the most part are understanding like, and honestly I just give myself a lot of grace now through the week. Like especially when I’m in days where like, ’cause I’m still walking through like grief. Like it’s not like, of course grief ended at the funeral, right? And my mom had passed away three years ago and there’s still days where it’s so difficult.
And I’m like, I have no capacity to do anything right now. And you know what? I just need to let. I, I need to let things just sit for a minute. That’s a boundary of mine. Like I, yeah. You know, if I’m having a day where I just am like, I’m not in the right, I’m not like, am I a hundred percent? Then I just don’t answer the emails and people are okay.
There are.
Julie: Okay. That’s fair. I mean, I think there’s also, you know, you and I are. Very different people probably in the way we approach things. You know, I’m an Enneagram eight, I have thought since the day I was born that Noah is a complete sentence, like mm-hmm. The way you and I might answer an email could be, you know, jarringly different.
But I think that no matter what. Type of person you are, type of background you come from. I think you could easily, and like sneakily, kind of put some boundaries in place to really protect your time, build that fence around your yourself without feeling like you need to apologize for it. You know, things that come with systems, like yeah, calendar blocking and automations and client onboarding scripts and things like that.
So are those things that you. Like would always suggest to people when you’re working with system? Always. Yeah. I
Dahlia: mean, you cannot go wrong with having like templates in place that you can then put automations behind. ’cause this is another like shameless plug, but like templates drive, oh, plug away.
Templates drive the automations. We often do it backwards. We think I want the automations, but we don’t spend the time building the templates. It’s actually the other way around. And so the onboarding script so that if someone signs a contract, they get what they need and you don’t have to lift a finger.
Huge. Like love that because yeah, here’s the thing. You could send the proposal two days, you know, go by and they haven’t signed and then they’re ready to sign and, and you’re like, oh man, I haven’t followed up. Or you know, I need to circle back on that. But like a boundary for me is like, I don’t like to work on Fridays.
So for the most part, I do not take calls on Fridays. I don’t really do a lot of business stuff on Fridays. And if it’s a Friday and they finally decide to sign that proposal, I don’t wanna be running back to go, oh my gosh, lemme send ’em all their onboarding stuff. I need to get them in there. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Like those are huge for sure. And the calendar blocking like, like I said, I don’t like to really work on Fridays, so for the most part, my work week is Monday through Thursdays as much as I can. And obviously if you have to flex that a little bit, you do. Even, you know, meetings like the way you block your calendar in your CRM or something, like, you can look at your calendar with the eyes of what are the times that I might be at my best?
Like how, where are my productive times and I my best for my clients, right? You can look at it with like eyes of what do I have going on that week that maybe I just wanna be strategic about the times that I offer to people. Like, you get to make the rules, but I think oftentimes we think our clients get to make the rules, right?
And we come in there thinking like. Okay, well, what’s the best time for them? Let me, let me frame my life around what works for them instead of thinking. I think sometimes we think boundaries are selfish, right? Yes. Even like personally and then in business where we go, if I’m looking at my calendar and you know, this time works for them, but it doesn’t work for me.
Okay. Let me figure, figure out. Am I gonna miss something? Because it works for them. But you know, like all of those things matter and I think we just inadvertently do it, you
Julie: know? Yeah. I think that, especially like you and I, ’cause we both pivoted into like systems overhauls and things. Mm-hmm. But you and I both come from a VA background and so I think sometimes we also, and a, and a lot of people who pivot and end up doing like OBM systems, like more high level stuff come from that background.
Mm. And. Maybe still have that mentality of like, well, I’m their assistant and I have to like do this right now ’cause they need this right now. Versus like, I’m the expert that they hired. So how do you really like set those expectations around availability with your clients or even, I mean even your own team, I mean, you have a VA and what’s worked best for you for keeping those lines clear?
Dahlia: So. I built it in my contract from the start. That’s a huge one. I put in my contract when my office hours are, because then when people love that sign it like, I’m like, Hey, it was in the contract, right? Like I always go back to my contract and say, we did agree on this, you know? And even like in my email signature, I’ve done that, like I’ve said, like office hours, you know, nine to two, you know, whatever it might be.
So that way like. People aren’t surprised. They may act surprised, and they may go like, wait, I didn’t know that. And you’re like, actually, you know, and you just try to give them opportunities. Even with onboarding. Now, again, like you don’t wanna necessarily like block yourself off entirely. Like, and then you’re like, where did you go?
But I, I, you know, I always say like, someone else is like, poor planning isn’t an emergency on my part. Right? Like, yes. You know, and it could be like one of those things where it’s like, it’s not even poor planning, it’s just a question they have, right? Mm-hmm. If, if it’s not a media and it’s not emergent, like I think we’re gonna be okay.
You know? Um, also like, listen.
Julie: We were all given gifts and we all, you know, take those gifts and create jobs, and that’s amazing, especially in the entrepreneur world. But like, none of us are heart surgeons. Like, you know, like, yeah, maybe things are, and especially in the wedding world, like which we both have a background in, like things tend to feel a little more emergent because like emotions are so heightened, but like.
At the end of the day, like none of this is heart surgery. Right? No one needs your attention in 30 seconds.
Dahlia: Exactly. Yeah. And I will say, I was just thinking about this as you were talking, and this is a little bit of like a deeper, more transparent side, but I grew up like my mom loved her dearly and she was a successful business owner.
She was a real estate agent and I grew up where everything was an immediate thing for her as a real estate agent. She always felt this need to like respond to somebody, answer the phone call, like type the email out, whatever it was. Even at things like the dinner table. So we would be eating dinner, someone would call and she’d be like, hold on, I gotta take the phone call.
Right? And like. You know, as a, as a child and then like growing up and going, like, it makes you feel a little bit like, ah, like, like I, like, I like forgotten about. Right. A little bit. Yeah. And that was hard for me, like, as, you know, as somebody growing up with a, a mom who loved her career and, you know, thrived in it.
It was just hard when everything became like, oh my gosh, I have to answer it now. And so I kind of learned that behavior and then I had to like unlearn that as an adult, right? Because that’s what I knew. And it’s one of those things where I think for the longest time I felt guilty. And again, she was wonderful and did great things in business and I think that was part of what was hard for her is she felt this like need.
The people pleasing side of us, right? Mm-hmm. Where it was like, I have to give them what they need right now or else like they won’t book me again or they won’t wanna work with me, or whatever that might be. And I’ve just found that to not be the case all the time in, um, the creative industry, at least for me personally, like, you know.
I think the way that we care for people in other ways in our client experience can also speak volumes. Like making sure people have what they need to keep the keep things moving. That’s a huge win because even if they have a question about something, they know that they still have other things going on that they can be working on even while you’re living your life and coming back to the question when it makes sense.
Now again, we don’t want to like leave them high and dry. Of course. Yeah. But. I think it’s okay, and I would give people permission in this like. Live your life. You don’t have to answer the emails all the time. Like I would even challenge people to think about like not keeping email on their phone because it’s so easy when you have accessibility on your phone to just open your email and think, I’m gonna answer that really fast.
You know, I’ve even experie this with my high school girls at times. Like if I’m working and I’m in my car or something, taking them somewhere. I get like a work call or something, or you know, somebody wants to like send a DM on Instagram. I have felt that like pull at times where I’m like, I should go answer this, and I’m like, no, it’s important how, like what I’m communicating to them is they’re important too.
Right. Yeah, no, I absolutely love that
Julie: because I’ve, that’s been something that’s not been a struggle, but that I’ve noticed since becoming a mom that like, you know, I would just be holding her and pick up my phone and look at my email and it’s like, mm-hmm. Wow. One of these things I’m holding is important right now and one of them is not.
Yes. And I’ve had to kind of like reevaluate that and like, yeah, my phone’s still near me and like, yeah, if you call me, you, I mean, if you’re my client, you don’t have my phone number, but if, like, if you call me and you’re my mom, yeah. I couldn’t pick up the phone, but like I don’t need to answer an email while I’m also trying to feed my child.
Like that’s so. That’s, that’s insane mentality that I think mm-hmm. We have to break and just lose that guilt. And I think a lot of times people assume that, like when you have systems and everything, they’re very regimented. They’re about control, they’re about, yeah. Discipline. But I mean, when they’re done right, they actually make more space for joy and spontaneity and creativity.
Yes. So I wanna dig into that, like when you’re building a business that supports your life and not the other way around, how do you. Intentionally create that room for joy and travel and rest.
Dahlia: Hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, and it starts with, I think knowing, Hmm. I think knowing what your client experience, like, what you want it to be from the start and building around that.
So like, even if we’re talking about the CRM side, but then like, you know, I think you and I are both. In the world a lot now of like digital products and, you know, lead forms like, like lead, lead magnets, building our email lists, things like that. Like there’s a CRM side where it’s like, yes, you want people to get what they need.
You can put an out of office responder up when you’re traveling, stuff like that. But even things like. If somebody wants to download my freebie, I wanna make sure I have my systems in place for that, even while I’m out traveling with my family. And if they go, oh, I wanna download her thing and learn more from her and get all of her emails, well that takes some level of intentionality too, or.
A digital product. I mean, you and I have been working on this, you know, with your stuff, where it’s like, I wanna make sure people are getting what they need as far as the deliverables, and then can we also nurture them intentionally, you know, after they purchase and maybe we upsell them into something.
And there’s a lot of strategy behind that and it takes some time to set that up. But then. You have the freedom to go and do, and you just know with confidence that it’s like set up well for you. Behind the scenes you’re like, somebody can go, you know, even with many chats now, like now I’m getting into the weeds.
Yeah. But like many chats is set up, so somebody I. Comment on a word and they get a dm, they get a link to something and then they just go. So you could like schedule your reels out or your post out, someone comments the word, they get the DM and they get the link to whatever it is. And you could be like, all of those things can happen in 30 seconds and you could be at the park with your child like, ugh.
That’s where like the joy. That’s the dream. Yeah. Like it’s like the pinnacle moments that. So, well, I’ll never forget the day. It just reminded me of this. When I had like my first actual like passives make money in your sleep sale. Oh. Um, it was like a few years ago, but, um, it was one of those things that I was like, oh my goodness, I’m sleeping and like money is coming into my bank account.
It’s wild. That had to be the best
Julie: feeling,
Dahlia: like feeling that for the first time. Time and like, again, it was so much work to get there. Yeah. But when it starts to work it, it is kind of this like surreal moment of like. What? This is crazy, but I think oftentimes it’s hard because it’s hard to see like.
What it’s like on the other side if you haven’t experienced it, you know? Yeah. It feels like a pipe dream to people and they’re like, oh, it cannot be true, or It must be too good to be true. We are here to tell you it is not.
Julie: It will take work, but it’s not too good to be true. You just have to remind yourself.
Systems is not the same as like, oh, I earned seven figures this month. Click blow to see how I did it.
Dahlia: Yeah. Not a same for clickbait, like, no. Yeah, no, but it is like a, if you’re a. You know, client and you go, Hey, I wanna book a call with you. There’s accessibility to that, and you’ll get the invite reminder, you’ll get the thing, like you’ll get the calendar invite.
Like those will happen without me having to be the one behind the scenes actually sending you an invite to things. Right. Um, and that’s the beauty of it. And that’s been like the sweetest gift. Like even, you know. Like one of the areas I don’t compromise in either is time with my family anymore. Yeah.
It’s so important to me that I make sure before I’m ever out of office, like my people are taken care of, people have what they need to move forward on things, and then I set up the out of office responder and I like let it ride like. I, you know, with my va I’ll say like, if there’s anything immediate you can tell me, but like, honestly, the arrest, you know what I mean?
It, it, yeah. Nothing’s an emergency. I can wait till we get back and so heck yes. We don’t get time back. That’s the reality. Mm-hmm. And I think far too often we probably spend, I. A lot of time building businesses that we wanna hit, these like milestone success moments in. And then we miss a lot of things along the way and if we were just smarter about how we set it up maybe in the beginning, and I think if we like really stepped back and asked ourselves What do I want?
That would drive a lot of the way we build our systems too. But a lot of times we probably get caught up in like shiny object. Yeah.
Julie: Yeah. I’ve definitely gotten. You know, caught up in specific things along the way, but always like, you know, I’ve been an entrepreneur since, oh gosh, 2009, and I always knew like.
Kids would be in my plan and I was like, how can I intentionally start now and build a business where I can leave at noon and go read to their class or go have lunch with them, or go be a room mom, and stuff like that. What I always wanted more than anything else, and so. Even though I’ve stumbled and made mistakes and done a lot of pivoting, I’m glad that I always kept that in my mind that that’s what I was doing all this for.
Okay, so then my final question is, do you have any like rituals or routines or like checkpoints you return to when things feel off like. Like, if, um, you start feeling yourself picking up a phone or stumbling back into those habits, like do you have a quarterly reset you do, or do you take a creative break or anything that like, keeps you kind of grounded, I guess?
Ooh,
Dahlia: I would say I, I feel like. Kind of a little bit of my season dictates that a little bit, to be honest. Um, oh yeah. That’s fair. Yeah. Like right now it’s summer, right? Like it’s summer’s coming and I know, like I have a lot of travel coming and so I go, okay, what do I need to have in place? So like, you know this, like I have been spending the last quarter building a ton of things behind the scenes for my own, like, oh yeah.
And. Like my CRM, like I’m updating stuff, I rebranded, like I did all this stuff and your
Julie: stuff looks a good
Dahlia: girl. Thank you. And um, it’s just like, I want to be able to enjoy summer, you know? Mm-hmm. I want to be able to, I. Enjoy going to camp, seeing my family, traveling to see friends. Like all of those things are really important while still running a business, but I don’t want it to feel like such a grind.
It has felt like a grind the last couple months because now to get to here. Right. Um, yeah, and I think, you know, I think I, I think I do, I, I, a quarterly is probably a good assessment, but you know, I would say too, I kind of forecast like. What I know to be coming in my, in the trends of business too, like historically speaking, the fall is busier mm-hmm.
Than the summer, right. From our businesses. And I know like the fall could very well be much busier. So like I. How am I setting myself up well, to refresh myself in the summer so I can come back really well in the fall. So those look, look like things practically, you know, limiting the amount of clients I take on in the summer, making sure my funnels are set up and that like there’s some content planned, like, but all of those things have been happening behind the scenes a little bit more.
And honestly, like I just had this conversation with someone yesterday. I need to give myself a little more grace and freedom in the summer. Like, you know, I wanna share more about my personal life a little bit and my travels and like the things like there’s a school in the world of my life that like I don’t share as much about on social media and I’m kind of looking at that, you know, in the summer.
Then in the fall, like, you know, there’s a conference I wanna go to and there’s things that I go like, okay, and we’re gonna like roll up our sleeves a little bit more. And I think it’s a little more seasonal in that way. For me. I definitely am a huge fan of like quarterly planning. Like, man’s really good at this.
Like I really appreciate her for that. You know, kind of forecasting what’s ahead even for like launches or, you know, re like re-looking at funnels, um, reassessing our content, all of those things. And I honestly think too, like. You know, I’ve, I’ve only done a couple of these. I don’t know, have you ever done a CEO day?
Like, I don’t do CEO days regularly, but I.
Julie: The cobbler children has no shoes. Yes. I mean, it’s so bad.
Dahlia: Yeah. Like I, I think that’s a rhythm. I wanna build more into my own business and my own like systems and my own life too, because I think when I give that the freedom to just focus in on business for the time, then I can do like things really, really well.
But like, if I, I, and I’ve just learned this about myself, the longer I’ve been in business, like. I have to lean into my peak times and I kind of learned that those are, and I need to just probably be intentional about scheduling out that day every single quarter for myself. Okay. To where I can reevaluate those things.
Um, but yeah, I’m a little more like fluid in that, to be honest. Like I have like systems in place for like content planning and things like that. Um, or like my funnels and flow desk, everything like that. But some of that has really come out of this season of like. I know where I want to go and I want to enjoy summer, you know what I mean?
Like, so like back in the spring I was like, how do I enjoy summer more? Like I need to get this stuff in place. And so I think a little bit more about that. You know, like even the fall, I’m like, okay, if it’s busier in the fall, what needs to be true in the summer in order for me to come, come be my best in the fall with business owning?
Yeah. Um, and I think part of that is like, it’s okay to take a little bit of time and pause so you can come back. More refreshed and ready to go. Now, it doesn’t mean my business falls apart by any means. No. You know, um, people can still like book calls and, you know, we can do things like that. But that is a
Julie: perfect segue because I want you to promote yourself.
Now, I want pe you to tell people where they can find you online. I wanna hear about your latest courses and offerings, like take the time, promote and brag. I, I will take, I will say, with some transparency first that. Dalia and I are currently working together on a project, and guys, I owe her so much stuff.
It’s ridiculous. Like I’m so, so, I’m actually gonna use this Dalia by the time this episode airs if I have not given you. Please, like make a video and like call me out online. Like embarrass the crap outta me, like I’m so embarrassed. I owe you so much stuff. It is, once again, cobbler’s children has no shoes.
Um, but you’ve got, I know you’ve got your next level systems, so just like a completely done for you system set up. That can be, I mean, anything from a fully customized CRM to building out. Your digital product shop and everything in between. I know you’ve got your done with you in a week. This is for the business owner who needs something quicker but is still really packed with a punch.
I mean, this is one platform that can be built out with you and tailored to your specific needs just done in a few days. And then you’ve also got your wow factor workflow, which is a low ticket digital offer. It’s the exact. Blueprint that Dalia used when building out workflows for her own clients that give a really wow factor experience every single time for a fully done for you client journey map to customize email templates.
This is a great product to start with when building out your client experience behind the scenes. Mm-hmm. So tell us anything else you wanna tell us about your business or what you’re doing, and tell us where we can find you online. Yeah,
Dahlia: well, I’m a, I’m on Instagram, so I, you can send me a DM anytime. I love having conversations in the dms for sure.
It’s at dahlia.earth. Um, join the email list. I actually have a fun quiz. I can even send you the link for that, Julie, where it’s like, yeah, what, like how scalable is your system for your business? Because. As your business grows, I always say it’s not if it’s when are your systems ready to go for when the growth comes?
So that like little quiz will kind of tell you where you’re at in the journey and then we’ll give you some like resources behind that. But yeah, I think you’ve hit a lot of it, which is super fun. But honestly, I like to say I like to meet business owners at any. Season in their journey, whether you’re someone starting out in the beginning stages or even in that one to three year season where you’re like, I don’t know if I need a system.
What does that look like? Client experience? What even is that all the way up to like, I wanna build a course and I wanna scale my course and launch it and everything like, and everything in between. Because we all have different seasons that we need different things. And so that’s where having options is, you know, a great thing.
And so. If there’s any ways that people would want to just, you know, connect with me online on, you know, Instagram or my website or even join the email list, there’ll be some little goodies behind the scenes and all of those. Um, but it would just be so fun. And the thing I would say too, and I would just challenge people, I.
If they’re listening is, don’t wait until it’s like this moment of you have to do this, right? Yeah. You don’t wanna wait till the moment where you’re like, life is happening and everything feels like it’s going, falling apart behind the scenes. I can’t serve my clients. Nobody knows what I need, and like everything’s just kind of crumbling.
You wanna set the foundation even from the start, I have so many business owners I talk to who say like they’re in the early phases of business. They’re like, I don’t need a system yet. I’m like, I would say you need one from day one. Like, that’s just my shameless plug because like even thinking about you think about even in the early stages of business, own the vision you have for the life you wanna live and why you started business in the first place.
Right? And I think coming back to that all the time and consider what it looks like, like when the timing is to outsource. It’s a big question I always have people ask me is, is it time to invest into a pro? And I think the big question you have to ask yourself is, how much time and how much money am I losing trying to do it myself?
And so if you’re on the other side of this kind of thinking about like. Do I need systems? Do I nod or like, is it time to outsource these things? Um, you know, I think just reminding yourself like there can be so much good on the other side, whether you decide to set it up yourself and, and carve out the time to do that, or you decide to invest into somebody that can help you get to that point.
There’s so much good on the other side and there’s so much life to be lived on the other side, and you don’t have to be a slave to your business. So. Shameless plug for all of that. But, um, like, uh, yeah, I just am like so passionate about it and, um, I would love to continue that conversation with people outside of this.
So thanks so much for having me. It’s been, Dalia, you are such
Julie: a gem. You’re like the human equivalent of a hug. Like I just like adore you and a tore talking to you. But we are gonna wrap this up with the system shut down. I have been. Binge watching. I can’t say binge watching. There’s been two episodes I’ve been watching the new show, destination X, and okay, first off, the host.
Literally Denny Duette from Grey’s Anatomy, like Jeffrey Dean Morgan in all his gravel voiced glory guiding contestants love through a strategy heavy location blind road trip across Europe. It’s giving, like I died for Izzy and now I’m back to emotionally manipulate map nerds. So I like went in thinking that it would be some sort of.
Geography, decathlon. But honestly, it’s less about knowing where you are and more about knowing who’s lying to your face. There’s wordplay strategy, misdirections, psychological warfare. Basically, it’s a game for theater nerds who also got as in English. And here’s the thing, I would be phenomenal at every part of this game except the actual game.
The moment someone yells, run to the van, I’m out. Carry a giant case through the mud reach. No thank you. No, but if you sit me at a table with a map and a sharpie and a hunch, I’m gonna beat you every time. So yeah, just watch it and then DM me about it. ’cause I don’t know anyone else watching it and I would like to talk about it.
Dahlia: Oh my goodness, I am, so this might be a summer show for me. I always feel like quarantine shows, like they hit their peak and then they’re done. And you’re like, what do I watch for the summer? And oh yeah, now I need to
Julie: total just summer, like. I mean, I, I pay at, I pay a little more attention to it because they, you know, drop in clues like they were on last night’s episode.
It was something, uh, I knew from the very first part of the show, 10 minutes in, I was like, oh, this is where they are. And then every time they kept getting more hints, I was like. Yeah, I know that’s where you are. Duh. But it’s, you know, you could watch it as a background show even. It’s, it’s so silly. It’s good.
All right, well thank you so much everyone, for listening. Go find Dalia online. Go follow me online at Dallas Girl Friday on Instagram. Talk to me about destination X, please, in those dms, and if you are enjoying the podcast. Please like and subscribe and leave a review. Thank you.
