⚡ Power Your Automation To Scale Your Business & Life 🚀

Automation holds the key to unlocking the true potential of your business and life. Harness its power, delegate strategically, and soar to new heights of freedom, success, and fulfillment. In today's episode, we have the privilege of having the incredible Julie Burke, a renowned funnel and delegation strategist and the mastermind behind The Freedom Designer. As the founder of a growth and placement agency, Julie empowers coaches and small business owners to reclaim their lives through the implementation of automation, organic social growth campaigns, and effective team support. Today, she discusses the power of automation to scale your business and gain more freedom in life. She shares the secrets of smart strategies and automation tools, emphasizing the vital aspect of delegating the right tasks to the right people at the right time. She also discusses the funnel, the weight of its great impacts on your online businesses, and a new concept called being “a funnel addict”. Overall, Julie reveals how, with the right strategies, you can pave the way for building a business that resonates with your passion and fuels your entrepreneurial journey. Tune in now and get ready to take control of your time, increase productivity, and unlock the true potential of your business.

#impactfulentreprenurshow #guestinterview #BusinessAutomation

 

✅ Connect with Julie:

https://www.facebook.com/thefreedomdesigner

✅ Julie’s free gift for you:

http://www.thefreedomdesigner.com/visibility

✅ Audience Explosion Toolkit - Adrienne’s free gift for you:

freebie.audience-explosion.com

✅ Adrienne’s Entrepreneur Community on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/6.figure.strategy

 

"The Online Visibility Guide For Women Entrepreneurs" - The Top 10 Rules for Social Engagement

Lead Magnet link:

http://www.thefreedomdesigner.com/visibility

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⚡Power Your Automation To Scale Your Business & Life 🚀

Whether you are brand new in business and you are trying to figure out how to get some leverage and make some progress when you are working all by yourself as a solo entrepreneur, or you are further along and you realize your growth is limited by your own personal bandwidth and you can’t do it all yourself. Regardless of which phase you might be in, automation or delegations are going to play a huge role in your growth.

This episode is especially for you. I am here with my good friend Julie Burke. She has done everything from building a network marketing empire to building a massive library of online courses to now building out a full-service agency. She knows full well the roles that automation and delegation need to play in your business as you start growing and scaling. Let’s jump in, dig deeper into this topic and learn from the master herself, Julie Burke.

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I am excited about our interview. I’m here with the one and only Julie Burke. She is a funnel and delegation strategist and the Founder of The Freedom Designer. It is a growth and placement agency for coaches and small business owners who are ready to get their life back by implementing automation, organic social growth campaigns, and getting the right level of team support.

Her clients, on average, say that Julie and her agency save them 10 to 20 hours of work every week. That gives them more time and freedom. We had to have her here with us. She is the perfect person to help us dig into smart strategies, automation tools, and the importance of learning to delegate the right work to the right people at the right time so that you can truly build a business you love and feel passionate about. Welcome, Julie. We are excited that you are here with us.

Thank you so much. I adore you. I’m honored to be here, be asked, be part of the summit and help other business owners out there.

I’m sure everyone reading knows who you are, but in case someone has not stumbled across you on social media yet, can you tell us a little bit about you and your story and how you evolved in your entrepreneurial journey to now having this agency?

The Entrepreneur Spirit

I was born with an entrepreneurial spirit. My dad was an entrepreneur. At the age of 22, I decided that I was done with Corporate America and wanted to go and build my own thing. My own thing was a franchise. I bought a franchise at a young age. I had three of them. I got them up and running profitably. I sold them ten years later and I gave birth a month later. I became from this crazy working 10 to 12 plus hours a day to be in my home with my little baby, which was great. There was a part of me that felt, even though I love being a mom, a bit lost.

As he was getting older, six months a year, I was ready to do something again. However, I didn’t want to own another franchise and go back to corporate so I started in direct sales. What else do you do? As a mom, you do the home parties. That is what I was doing. I found myself gone nights and weekends. I love my husband. I wanted to be home with my baby and my husband. I went back to the drawing board. I’m like, “What else can I do?” That was in 2012 when I found network marketing.

I learned network marketing the right way. I was always taught from day one curiosity marketing. I realized to use social media to my benefit. Back then, Facebook was different in 2012, but I was building a brand without even knowing I was building a brand. I wasn’t spewing my company all over the place. I quickly went to six figures within that company. I had a lot of success.

At the beginning of 2016, I felt ready for the next stage. The next stage for me was to build a coaching business and a digital product business, where I was helping other network marketers learn how to brand themselves, effectively build relationships, and do attraction marketing. Through this, I was introduced to funnels. I fell in love with the concept of automation and that I could build something once and get paid for it.

I immediately started doing funnels. I was building my organic audience. I started doing Facebook ads. I layered three additional income streams into my network marketing business that all hit six figures in less than twelve months. I built a list of 42,000 people. It was insane what happened. Making passive revenue and sales was awesome. That is the power of automation.

Here I am, having success. I’m doing well but I was like living in my business because I’m a control freak at times and I realized that business ran me. I started another job. I burned down that brand. It was right before 2020 when all the craziness happened. We all know what happened in 2020 but I was finding myself working a crazy amount of hours, like 12 to 14-hour days. I’m staying up until 3:00 in the morning. I was all over the place because I wanted to do everything and then I realized that I couldn’t do everything.

I took a step back, which is okay. A lot of us took a step back to reevaluate around that time. I’m happy to say, “No, I have gone through everything.” Here is the great thing and this is also the power of having multiple income streams. I had my network marketing business running. I get paid reoccurring every single month. It allowed me to be able to take that step back and figure things out, but I said, “What are you passionate about?” We ask ourselves these questions. I knew I wasn’t passionate about getting adrenal fatigue and giving myself up to work. That is what happened.

They always say, “Your best audience is you, but you are steps further in the game.” I’m like, “I went through the good, the bad, the ugly. I want to save them time. I want to be that business advisor for them. I want to be that mentor to be able to help them to make decisions.” Sometimes we sit on decisions for so long, and we don’t have clarity because we live close to it. You need that support, guidance, team, and help. I know what business owners need but sometimes what they want and what they need are two different things.

Because we live close to it, it is about me helping them to see the bigger picture and vision to get back in alignment with that and work backward. That is why I’m a strategist. I could see things before people saw it. That is one of the gifts I have. I help them to come out of the cocoon. I’m passionate about helping people to save time. I want to condense time for people.

I’m going to be 45 in 2023. I started my online entrepreneur business when I was 34. I’m in the network marketing space, but I am not even the same person I was a couple of years ago. I am a completely different person. I have different responsibilities. My kids are older. They are busier. I didn’t care how much money I was making. I burned that brand down. It was called Create Success with Julie. I was making about $60,000 a month.

People would think I was crazy, but my time, freedom, and family are more important than anything else and I forgot that. We got wrapped up in our business because we want it to work. I realized I had to make some serious changes. My agency is all about creating automation and delegation for other business owners. They can design the business and the life they love.

There are many things I love about your story but what I hope encourages the audience the most. You have read her story. She started in network marketing. She moved into coaching and course creation. She then moved into digging deep into funnels. Now she is all about freedom and delegation. She has done it all.

Regardless of what phase of business you are in or what of those nichés you are in, Julie gets you. She understands you. She has been there and done that. Regardless of what phase or niché in business you are in, any of us at any time can find ourselves in that place where we are overworked and burnt out, and we are not putting freedom at the heart of our business.

What gets a lot of us started is the dream of more freedom. Suddenly, you find yourself in a direction where you are like, “How did I get here? This is not the freedom I wanted.” Imagine the bravery to take a brand. As she said, she was making $60,000 a month and burned it down because she realized she want freedom at the heart of her business. Not only do I need to fix it for myself but I want to fix it for other people.

I want to give them a place where they can feel like, “I understand. I get it. My team gets it. We are dedicated and client-centric.” I personally have worked with other freelancers out there that were out for themselves. I once paid this guy for a website and he took off with my money. I’m like, “I can’t.” That is a scary thing because we don’t know people online. We are trusting them based on human nature and good faith.

We are not an agency that is slammed through clients. We are selective about who we work with because we want to make sure that they have our attention and that we are taking care of them. They are being heard and seen. There is that give and take because what a business owner might feel that they need in their business at that time might not be what they need at that time. As being experts, we come in and look at how their business is structured. Are there processes? Is there automation to help free up their time? Is there something that can be taken off the plate? I’m sure there is.

Be very selective about who you work with because you want to make sure that they have attention and that you’re taking care of them. That they're being heard and they're being seen. 

The flip side is I based it all on what I wanted my agency to look like because of what I wanted at that time. I don’t want to micromanage anybody. They don’t have to deal with eight different people. They deal with one. That person is the account manager and takes everything back to the team. That is another thing because what is freedom if you have to go manage this huge team and make sure that everything is getting done rather than communicating with one person? I set it up smartly. I have been through the rollercoaster ride.

Brand Visibility: Attracting The Right People

Some people in our audience are a little newer and emerging or they are working on brand visibility. Some are further along and they are starting to dig into creating their funnels and others are ready to delegate it all. I would love to touch on each of those phases if that is all right because you have lived in each of those and your clients are probably living in each of those. For the people who are new and emerging, they are trying to build more of an audience and following. They build their lists and customer bases. What are some tips you have if you are in that earlier phase and you want to get more visible with your brand?

I believe one of the fastest ways I was able to build my brand and a lot of people are able to do it this way. I hate to say it but I’m going to get those people. It is video and listen. I’m not telling you you have to do a 20 to 30-minute presentation. A lot of people do like short-form content. It hits all the senses. You got the visual, the auditory, and the kinesthetic. You’re hitting your audience at one time through several ways. When they hear your voice and excitement, it does magnify and attracts faster. That is why I always did blogs. I always put videos on all my sales pages. I would do Facebook Live.

I will be honest. I am a business owner. I am not on TikTok. I don’t even have Reels on my Facebook personal page. I have Reels on my business page. I was able to build up my audience. My business page has 54,000 followers from doing Facebook Live. You have to find where your audience is. I know my audience is on Facebook. I also have a YouTube channel because the YouTube channel is outside of social. Google owns that.

One of the number one things for you to do is build a list because you own your list. We don’t own social media. Adrienne knows this. It is important, especially with everything that is going on with social. TikTok is not my platform. I know that and I have tried it. I’m not going to beat the dead horse. Don’t try and make things work. Go where you feel your audience is and where you feel comfortable. Why did I say video? It is because it is the fastest way to connect with your audience into building your brand.

We have been friends for a handful of months now, but I’m sure I first found you in 2016 because I stumbled across a video of yours.

In the beginning, you ramp it up a little bit more. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. You could scale back a bit. It is okay. I always say, “It is always about quality over quantity, but in the beginning, it might have to be quantity a little bit more because you are working on ramping it up.” We did meet back then because I was doing videos like crazy.

You are being authentically you always. Please don’t grab another person’s voice. I know we are out there. We are seeing what everyone else is doing, but if you want to attract the right people, you have to stay true to your heart and who you are to attract the right people. You don’t want to have a copycat business of anybody else because you are not authentically you. That is how you attract people to you.

I remember even way back then, when I stumbled across some of your videos, you were authentically you. You were yourself. I remember thinking, “Julie is my people.” Because you were yourself and were similar, you will attract the right people if you are yourself.

I did videos with no makeup. I have a little bit of makeup. I like to keep it very natural. I’m not big into the lashes. They are great. I don’t have them. I wish I could, but I feel like they hurt my eye with my contacts. People would freak out. I would do videos and Facebook Lives from my car after yoga. I was a hot sinking mess.

Your lives don’t have to be long. We didn’t have Stories back then. Now I love Stories because Stories are 30 seconds. You might need a couple of Stories. Many people see my Stories more than my actual lives sometimes. There are many more people in Stories. It is even greater because you don’t have to create that long-form content unless your jam is YouTube.

Automation: There are so many more people in stories. And so now it's even greater because you don't have to create like that long-form content unless your jam is YouTube.

If your jam is YouTube, you are doing more of a ten-minute video and uploading it on YouTube. YouTube is great but that is a story for another day. YouTube is a different beast. I will always say, “It is the video.” Also, having something you are leading your audience to. You are not leaving them there. You are sending them somewhere. Some call it a call to action.

This is the perfect lead-in. Most people realize that the worst thing you can do is attract a massive audience and have nothing to do with them. You have to lead them somewhere. That is what a funnel does. I would love to dig into a little bit about the role a funnel can play in your business, specifically, how it can allow you to work less and make more so you want to dig into funnels.

The Funnel (and its three parts)

Funnels magnify your brand. You could call it whatever you want. People know the word funnel. I know people don’t like the word funnel or they don’t understand the word funnel. It is your own branded system. It is the system that goes to work for you. You don’t build it. You have somebody else build it because you delegate that. You do not want to go and start learning funnels now.

It is there and it builds the relationship for you. Morning, noon, night, while you are sleeping, and morning again. It is constantly running. There are three parts to a funnel. We call it the top, the middle, and the back end. The top of the funnel is that introductory point. That is your free gift. Some people like to do a low-ticket offer like an eBook for $12.

I like both, but if you are doing something where it is $7 or $12 because I have tested both, you are creating more of a tribe of buyer’s list because they are pulling their credit card out and they are buying something. They are like, “I want this. I want to check her out more.” That is half of the funnel. It could be a webinar. There are many different types of funnels.

It could be something as simple as a ten-minute Facebook Live that you did. You put it onto a funnel page and you say, “Come watch my training.”

They have to opt in. They can leave their name and email. Now they are in your world and email list. Lo and behold, you own your email list. How cool is that? They get to the middle of your funnel. It could be a product, course, or video training. It could be anything. That could be the eBook. There are many different things you could do. The thing is that this thing works like a machine. I hate saying that, but it does. That is what it is.

That is what I loved about it when I came online. I thought it was brilliant. On the backend, that is where you are creating a five-email sequence to move the customer along. It is the customer journey of them meeting you and moving them through. Now they are on their list. What do you do? You nurture them. You build a relationship. They get to know you. You invite them to other things. You invite them to read your blog or come to watch your Facebook live training. You invite them to a masterclass, apply for coaching, or check out your company. It is the most brilliant thing ever.

For the people in the audience who have read about funnels but you are never set one up, here is the magic of what Julie is talking about. If they say, “Yes, I will jump on your email list to get your eBook. I will come to watch your Facebook. I will jump into your Facebook group. I will buy your $27 offer,” eventually, when you ask them to become a client, a higher paying customer, or join your network marketing opportunity, they have already said yes ten times. They are going to say yes again.

Your job in the online world is to have people say yes. I want to go back to the video. When I talk about video, I should have specifically said this. We don’t do video because we want to do a video. Nobody ever wants to get ready to do a video. However, I want you to be super intentional in creating this video. I’m going to say, “Quality over quantity.” You are going to map out, and this is the cool thing about it because when you have a funnel, you know the backend where it is leading to. You reverse engineer and now you know the specific content you want to talk about and, with your intention, what you want to teach them.

These are three top tips. I wouldn’t go over five. I feel like five is a lot. We have these little itty bitty attention spans and it is getting worse every day. I always tell people, “Speak to your audience like they are kindergartners.” It sounds terrible. We don’t want to give them the big picture. We want to break it down, give them that one thing breathing or my five steps to getting to losing fat without dieting or whatever it is.

You want to be uber-specific because, by the end of this, you are going to say, “I would love to hear what your favorite tip was. I have a free gift for you. I want you over there now to grab it. It will be in your inbox in less than ten minutes. You’re going to love my guide to something.” You are leaving them with something and it is all intentional. We want to compress time. How do you compress time? It is by getting specific, intentional, keeping it simple, delegating, and setting up automation.

These are all the things that Adrienne and I are here to teach you because there are way too many business owners that are burnt out and overworked. They are ready to throw in the towel. I don’t want to see anyone throw in the towel because I feel, in a way, I threw the towel the last several years. On the other way, I hung out with my kids. I took all summer off in 2022 because of my network marketing business. I was off for Christmas the whole month. Who can work for 8 months and take 4 months off? My business got bigger and expanded. How is that possible?

The Key to Freedom

It is if you are creating the right visibility, you are using the right funnels, and you have the right systems and delegation. There is a reason that Julie and I geek out about this stuff so much. This is the key to freedom. This is why we wanted to bring you all here together because we want it for all of you.

I get sad when I’m in some of these groups, especially the women groups. They are like, “I don’t know how to get clients. I don’t know how to get customers. My course is in selling.” They are scrambled. They sit there and do nothing. It was like, “We can help you.” This is something that we are experts in.

We truly want to help. Once you experience it, you want it for other people.

My husband thinks I’m nuts. He is like, “I don’t get it. You do well in network marketing. Why don’t you focus on that? What is wrong with you? There is no overhead in this and that.” I’m like,
Yes, I know. I get it but I’m crazy. Call me crazy. I want to help other people as well. I like to have multiple income streams but more than that. I could do some other affiliate thing.” I have that Mother Teresa Syndrome. I feel like I want to save them.

I don’t want people to give up on their dreams because, in the online world, there are 157 moving parts. This is the stuff that they don’t tell you when you get started in the online world. There is a way to simplify and streamline it. There is also the right structure to it. There is also that person there to say, “Knock that crap off. You don’t need to go build another thing. Let’s focus on it.” I didn’t have that. That is why I have nine courses.

I’m in that boat with you. There is this thing that happens. Once it clicks, you understand how funnels work and how the pieces come together. It is almost like this addiction. You finish one and you are like, “Let’s build another one. Let’s make another course.” It is because you are excited.

I counted my funnels. I had 92 in there because there were all these different variations. It was like baggage. There was so much I had to delete.

It takes us to the importance of delegation.

We did not even plan this.

We didn’t but it is perfect. If you are finding yourself in the place that Julie and I were talking about accidentally, but let’s be honest, you are a funnel addict. I may or may not have been there myself. I might be there right now. If you are in that place where it has clicked, you understand how it works and now you are almost overindulging. Let’s talk delegation.

There are a couple of things I have to hit on a psychological level because I went through this. I felt like I wasn’t important enough if I didn’t stay busy enough. I became the, “You are so busy girl. You are all over the place.” People would reach out to me and say, “I know you are busy, constantly.” I’m like, “I am busy, but what am I busy doing?”

Automation: When you become a funnel addict, there are a couple of things you’ll hit on a psychological level. Number one, you’ll feel like you’re not important enough if you don’t stay busy enough.

You had a story in your mind that was keeping you there.

I had to let go of the story because I felt like, “What do I do with my time if my kids are at school and I’m not busy?” I go and get a massage or go grocery shopping. I am now back into my fitness. I gave up my fitness for a year because I was slamming into this office and creating all this stuff. I get to design my day. I don’t have to rush. I can breathe. I could take a yoga class. I felt that, for the longest time, you are only successful if you are busy. That was the story I told myself because I always have to be that way. I would see these successful people that I felt like they are always busy. That is a fallacy. We got to let that go ASAP. When I realized that, I was like, “I don’t want to feel this way anymore. This is not for me.” How do you scale if you are constantly living in your business? You cannot. It is impossible.

You reach a point in your business where the only way you can grow is to work yourself out of your own business.

Do you know what I did? I set up a business where I delegate to help other people’s businesses. I’m not the one building everything. I am the visionary, CEO, and strategist. Now I have a business that can run without me and know that clients are being taken care of by the people that are the experts in copywriting, social growth, and getting people clients. We call them setters. They can set up all the automation and funnels. I didn’t have to go learn that. I have a business that can offer that to people, and I’m still leveraged.

For the readers, whether you are in that funnel addict phase or approaching the funnel phase and realizing, “I don’t want to become an addict. I don’t want to get overworked,” you can work with someone like Julie from the beginning and have the right people delegated to the right tasks so you are not killing yourself.

There need to be systems, structure, and processes set in place and your business if you ever want to get to the point where you are free and you can scale. You don’t have to live in that business. That is the recipe for success.

For those reading, we may have some who are more in the beginner phases and some who are in the ending phases where they need that delegation. I know you have some gifts that could help regardless of where people are in their business from start to finish. There is a free gift for those who might be newer and emerging in business. Do you want to tell us about that one?

It is my Visibility Guide for Female Entrepreneurs: How to Get More Visible Now. It is the top ten things you want to be focused on.

For those who are VIP ticket holders who have lifetime access to all this training and some extra fun bonuses, I know that you have a VIP Bonus. Do you want to tell us about that one?

The VIP Bonus is an actual strategy call with me to see if myself and my agency can help you, what we could take off your plate, how we could help you grow, how we could help you systematize, how we could help you get some more time and freedom back into your life. I will be giving away a couple of those calls free of charge.

No matter how far along in business you are from start to finish, Julie got your back.

We can create a roadmap. Sometimes what people need is clarity because they can’t see. They are overworked or foggy. We could hop on a call and talk about where you are at now and where you want to go. I could help you to even realign with that vision. We could create a roadmap because that is what I’m good at. That is going to get you to where you want to be and your goals.

Sometimes, what people need is a roadmap. They need clarity because they can't see because they're so overworked or foggy.

Thank you so much, Julie, for helping us cover everything from start to finish, A to Z, how to nail it online, and from someone who has been there and done that in almost every niché possible. For those of you in the audience reading, you are going to be able to interact with Julie live in the Facebook group. You can talk to her and ask your questions. If there was any question you had that I didn’t happen to ask and you want to dig deeper, join us there. All information is in your emails. It is in the Facebook group. Jump in and meet us there with Julie. Until then, we will see you guys next time.

Bye. Thank you.

Bye.

Important Links

About Julie Burke

Julie Burke is a Funnel and Delegation Strategist. She is the Founder of The Freedom Designer, a Growth & Placement Agency for Coaches & Small Business owners who are ready to get their life back by implementing automation, organic social growth campaigns and team support. Our clients on average have told us we save them 10 to 20 hours of work in a week to give them more time freedom.

PodcastAdrienne HillAutomation, Funnel, Freedom Designer, Brand Visibility, Roadmap, Scale Your BusinessComment