SPI 764: How to Build Habits for Success with Julie DeLucca-Collins

So I started implementing that habit every morning when I woke up. After my feet on the floor, I said it’s gonna be a great day. And in some way, I either said, yes, good job. Or, yes, you’ve got this. You know, I’d reinforce it some way.

Within 3 days, my mindset shifted. It pulled me out of the victim mindset into the victor mindset. By sending that intention out to the world, I subconsciously as well as consciously look for ways to make it a great day.

Pat Flynn: Hey, hey, it’s Pat here. You’re about to listen to something a little different on the show today. It’s not our usual Friday format where I follow up on Wednesday’s episode. Don’t worry, those aren’t going away forever. Just a little break to bring in something even more special, in my opinion. And this episode and the next few are a part of our Teaching Friday series, which we do with our SPI Pro members.
We have an incredibly talented pool of people within SPI. Why not give our pros, the spotlight and teach you here on the podcast every once in a while. it’s just one of the perks of being a part of Pro in fact. With each episode, you get to hear a different pro, teach you something special from their area of expertise.
Without further ado, I’ll let them take it away. Oh, and if you want to find out more about SPI Pro and be a part of it, you can go ahead and apply at SPIPro.com.

Announcer: You’re listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network, a show that’s all about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now today’s guest host. She walked over 200 kilometers in Spain while trying to complete the Camino The Santiago, Julie DeLucca-Collins.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Okay. Welcome back, everybody. This is Julie DeLucca-Collins, and I am a member of the SPI Pro community. It has been a pleasure to continue to be not only a part of Pat Flynn’s community, but also someone that gets to learn so much from the SPI Pro podcast. So I wanna tell you that this is a treat to not only be here for a Friday episode of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, but also to have a friend and teacher with me who is here to teach some of these concepts. My friend and co-podcasting-person today is Linda Fogg Phillips. And Linda, I’m gonna let you introduce yourself to the listeners.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: Hey, Julie. It’s so good to be here. Thank you for for including me in this opportunity to be on Pat’s podcast. I am obviously I’m Linda Fogg Phillips, as you mentioned. I am the CEO and co-founder of Tiny Habits Academy.
My other co-founder of course, is my brother, Dr. BJ Fogg, who developed the Tiny Habits methodology. But really my biggest claim to fame is I am a mom of 8 kids. Yes.
I know. Crazy, right? But that’s provided me really a living, breathing, working environment to really learn human behavior and the formation of habits within my own household as well as taking it out into the world. So yeah, that’s probably the shortest, simplest, most important part of who I am.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Glad to hear. I love that. And by the way, I first learned about you without knowing it when I read the book Tiny Habits. And then I heard BJ speak in Clubhouse, and all the things made sense in my world. I have been someone who really feels that habits really fuels your life and can create the traction and results that we’re looking for, but that was a piece of the puzzle missing for me.
So for the individuals who have never heard of the Tiny Habits book, which by the way, everybody should hear about the Tiny Habits book, and everybody should know about BJ’s work. I would I’m gonna defer to you to tell us a little bit more about Tiny Habits, about BJ’s work, and about the book.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: Awesome. Yeah. As you know because, Julie, you’ve been through our Coach Certification Training program. So you’re an expert in habit formation. The book well, to back up, probably if I were to say if somebody would say, well, what is Tiny Habits? This is sort of a bite size summary of what I would say Tiny Habits is. Tiny Habits is a breakthrough method That gives people hope and evidence that they can change.
Now that’s the result. Now the actual habit formation method itself. And as you know, Julie, we teach habit formation as a skill. It really is a skill that can be developed and fine tuned. A lot of things out in the world today are not correct around habits.
And unfortunately, people continue to try to create habits and they fail. And then they think it’s their fault, and they just feel like, oh, I can’t do this. It’s not your fault. We don’t want you to feel guilty about not learning or not knowing how to successfully create habits simply because if you aren’t familiar with the Tiny Habits method, you don’t have the science or the breakthrough method behind it. Now in the Tiny Habits method, there are 3 distinct parts.
We call it the anatomy of a tiny habit recipe. And we can go into this a little more in-depth, but the a, we call it ABC, the a part of a tiny habit recipe is an anchor moment. That is an existing routine that acts as a prompt. It tells you to do the next step. Couple of examples of an anchor moment might be after I brush my teeth.
Hopefully, all of you brush your teeth in the morning, so that could be a good yeah, right? Or it might be after I push start on my coffee maker, Or it could be after I put the key in the ignition of my car. Anything like that that you do on a regular basis, that’s part of your routine, can be an anchor moment that you attach to a new behavior. That’s the B part, the behavior.
The behavior needs to be tiny enough that is easy to do, that is not relying on willpower or motivation to do that behavior. In the Tiny Habits method, we make that behavior super, super tiny. There’s 2 ways to make behaviors tinier, and and we go in-depth as we train you as a coach in the Tiny Habits method. There are 2 ways that you can make a behavior tiny enough. And how tiny is tiny enough?
It’s 30 seconds or less to complete that behavior.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Oh my god. That 10 30 seconds or less. And someone like me, when I first that Linda, by the way. I was like, I don’t know if I could do that because I like the go big or go home, but that was my mistake many times.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: Yeah. And most people do like the go big or go home. I mean, just look back through your history. How’s that work for you? Not good.
Yeah. Yeah. Probably not very well. What we’re trying to do in the analogy here is we’re trying to plant a little tiny seed that takes root, sprouts, and grows to be the bigger behavior. What we’re creating as the automatic habit is that really tiny behavior.
And trust the process because it does, as you know, in your own life, it does take root. And as you work with your clients, you see this as well. So you have evidence that this actually works. It will grow and expand to be the bigger behavior. When you’re relying on motivation or willpower, it does not create sustainable habits.
And that’s what we’re really after is long term sustainable habits that we can implement in our lives that design the kind of life that we want to live. So that’s why so important. So don’t discount how it’s too tiny or why it’s so tiny. Why should I do it?

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Absolutely. And I have to tell you that for me, I told myself a story that I was never a good plant person. And since I became a Tiny Habits coach, I’m correlating it to having some thriving plants because I well, number 1, I created a tiny habit to remember to water my plants. But every time I water my plants, I think back to, I am in my life creating these tiny behaviors that sprout to bigger, beautiful things. And that has been something that has been incredibly life changing in my business and in my personal life as well. And so we talked about the anatomy of a habit and then the anchor moment, the behavior. And tell us about the last part.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: The last part is my favorite, actually, and that’s the celebration. So that’s the c, the ABC, the celebration. And this let me explain a little bit about what we mean by a celebration, and a celebration needs to be an instant celebration. Fact, I’m gonna encourage our listeners to write this phrase down.
Now if you’re driving, don’t write this down. But if you’re someplace where you can write it down, This is a very important phrase. And the phrase is emotions create habits. But again, emotions create habits. The celebration part is tapping into your emotions, pulling up a positive emotion and attaching it to the behavior that you’re wanting to create as a habit.
It reinforces that behavior. This also is a good time to say, you know, it does not take 21 days to create a habit. That’s a fallacy!

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Thank you for saying that there’s such misconceptions. 21 days, 66 days, a hundred days. And the reality is that then we’re tracking this and at the end of 21 days, when we fall off the process, we become very sad and we go down the spiral of I shoulda, woulda, coulda, and we don’t feel good, so then we don’t create a habit.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: Yeah. We blame ourselves. Yeah. We we become hopeless in our ability change behavior. That’s a really dangerous place to be emotionally and mentally.
So we’re trying don’t put yourself there. Don’t go there. Let me give you an example of what we mean mean by emotions create habits and then the instant celebration part of the Tiny Habits methodology. We have done some studies on this. We’ve tracked it.
And in the last year, we have been able to determine that instant celebration, that emotion needs to occur within 6 seconds of doing the behavior for it to be most effective, reinforce that behavior. So it’s not a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate or a new pair of shoes. You’re right. Although those are good.
Those are rewards. We love rewards. But here again, this is another misconception in the world of habit formation. Rewards do not create habits. Rewards are great, but it’s the instant attachment of a positive emotion that creates a habit.
Now, how do you do that? Well, it could be as simple as you know, saying good job or way to go or a thumbs up. The one I like the best as far as an instant celebration is on my phone, my screen saver. I have a picture of some of my grandchildren. It pulls up love and the compassion and the affection that I have for them.
But it also is a picture that was taken at the beach when we were together. So it brings up a fun time that I was able to spend with them. Just looking at that picture, all those feelings come flooding back, and then I’m able to attach those feelings to that behavior to make me feel good and to reinforce that behavior.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: So for the listeners, I want you to pay attention to the anatomy of the habit, right, is the anchor moment in all of us because our brain likes to automate things, have tons of anchor moments that we can attach new behavior to, and that that’s what the b is, the behavior And the celebration. And I tell you as a Tiny Habits coach, I know that a lot of people tend to struggle with this concept like, oh my gosh, I don’t know. I don’t wanna celebrate. It’s kind of whatever they think, right? However, you just gave us a really great way of feeling good in that moment. For me, I have my dogs who are my constant companions here at home. One of my Tiny Habits that is, You know, it’s an automation. Now it’s one of the things that I do.
When I come downstairs in the morning, that’s my anchor moment. I have to let my dogs Every morning. So when I let them out, I fill my glass of water. And then I celebrate when the dogs come back in. It’s full.
And I’m like, boys, look at me. I I filled my water. Yay. Me. And Of course, I’m talking to the dogs, but I feel good because I’m interacting with them and they’re all so happy and I feel good and it becomes an automation.
And I think that we complicated so much, but it doesn’t have to be complicated at all.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: No. In fact, we have exact I love that that example, Julie. I have dogs too. And one of my celebrations is is playing with my dogs or petting my dogs or even thinking about them like I do my grandchildren.
Yeah. My kids think I love my dogs more than I love them. I’m not gonna say that’s not true. I do love my kids more than my dogs, but sometimes they wonder about that. Yeah.
You know, but going back to celebration, all of us have real life examples that show us that emotions create habits, and it’s not 21 and it’s not repetition, and it’s not rewards. one example that I like to use when I’m training coaches on using our emotions to reinforce behaviors that becomes automatic behaviors sometimes in one or 2 days that fast is I’ve got an Oura ring. Now many of your listeners probably have an Oura ring or they may have an Oura ring. If you don’t know what it is, you can look it up. It’s amazing.
It measures your biometrics throughout the day. I use it primarily because I struggle with sleep. So it helps me adjust my sleep habits so that I get more sleep, and I am able to get restful sleep. Now if you have an Oura ring, I’m gonna ask you this question. Okay. The Oura ring pairs with an app on your phone. Uh-huh. How many times does it take you to get in the habit of checking that app every morning?

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Yeah. Yeah. I forget because I’m like, Okay, all the all these other things are happening.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: But as far most people that I talk to that have an Oura ring, when they check that app, it’s within one or 2 days. That’s now an automatic behavior. That’s a habit.
Why? Because it makes them feel empowered. Uh-huh. When they look at data on their app that the ring transmits to okay. And so everybody that’s listening, think how long did it take you?
Did it take you 21 days? No. Probably not. Probably took you one or 2 days. And the reason why Is it made you feel empowered when you looked at your data.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Absolutely. And see, I don’t have an Oura ring, but I you know, what I do is I do intermittent fasting. And it didn’t take me very long to get back into the habit of intermittent fasting when I decided to create a a tiny habit recipe for it. And, really, I check my phone when I go in and I’d say, I’m done fasting. I get a little congratulations. You did it.
And and I think that that for me, again, it’s been such an easy thing to do because it immediately reinforced and celebrated that I was doing the behavior. So I love this example. This is really, really, really good. one of the first things that I loved about Tiny Habits when I started to, number one, read the book and learn more and started to kind of implement them in my life from reading the book is we have well, BJ has a habit that he talks about in the book, and it’s a very popular habit that most of us Tiny Habit coaches implement, And that is the Maui habit.
Talk to me about the Maui habit and how can listeners maybe Implement this in their life because it’s a very easy habit that they can bring in and start up with.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: This really is this is what we call one of our classic Tiny Habit recipes. We have several classics, but this is my favorite recipe of all time. The reason why is it truly changed my life. In fact, I give it credit for saving my life.
And the history behind the Maui habit, this was in the early days of when BJ and I I were working on the Tiny Habits methodology and playing around with it a lot and already knew it was a very effective methodology, but really wanting to get it out to the world. But I was also at this point in time in a really difficult place mentally and emotionally in my life. I had lost my 20 year old son to an accidental OxyContin overdose. I was struggling with a daughter who had bipolar illness that was in and out of the hospital.
Also at this time, we had a home building business in Las Vegas, and this was during the re the housing crisis. We lost our business. We had to lay off all of our employees, which included my son, my son-in-law, my brother. It was a really difficult time, and I was struggling. BJ and I are very close.
And one day as we were talking on the phone, and this is before it even had a name. We hadn’t named this habit yet. As we were talking on the phone, and And BJ knew that I was really in a dark place mentally and emotionally. He said, hey, Linda. Why don’t you try this habit and see if it helps you?
And the habit goes like this. After my feet hit the floor in the morning, I will say it’s gonna be a great day. And of course you you reinforce it and you celebrate it. I’d always say 2 thumbs up and go, yes, you’ve got this, or way to go. At first, when he told me that, it’s like, oh, that’s sort of silly.
How’s that gonna help me? But being his sister and, you know, being that we’re very close and knowing that he really had my best interest at heart and also knowing he was a brilliant guy, Still is a brilliant guy. Yeah. Okay. This is not gonna hurt.
It’s not gonna take me any time. I might as well try it. So I started implementing that habit every morning when I woke up. After my feet on the floor, I said it’s gonna be a great day. And in some way, I either said, yes.
Good job. Or, yes. You’ve got this. You know, I’d reinforce it some way. I’d release the endorphins and dopamine through the celebration.
That’s what that does. Within 3 days, and this surprised me. Within 3 days, my mindset shifted. It pulled me out of by just doing this habit, it pulled me out of the victim mindset into the victor mindset. Huge shift.
That shift alone impacted the rest of the day. I started looking for things that went well and that went right, things that were good, as opposed to being pulled into all the negativity or the hard things that I was facing. I have practiced that habit every single day since that moment. And I have found that it really gives me that strength in the morning, and it helps me start my day off with a win, the positive mindset and saying, yes, this is gonna be a great day. And as a result, by sending that intention out to the world, I subconsciously as well as consciously look for ways to make it a great day.
So that’s the Maui habit. That’s another habit I recommend our coaches teach their clients, and also I recommend to my clients. My results and the impact that it had on me are not unique. We have people write us. I mean, everyone that has practiced this habit that has the time to interact with us or respond to us tells us how impactful it has been.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Yeah. Absolutely. You know, for me, specifically, I live in New England. And living in New England in the in, the wintertime, it is dreary and cold.
And I have been having a challenge in the last few years. And when I became a Tiny Habits coach and I started to implement the the Maui habit, It really helped to set up my day in a different way. Yes. You know, it’s still a challenge for a myriad of other reasons, but that’s how I start my day. I put my feet on the ground, and I look at my dogs, of course, because they’re all excited to go outside.
And I say, hey, boys. It’s gonna be a great day today. Love that. And that Love that. And they’re so happy, wagging their tails.
And I’m like, okay. Let’s go downstairs. I’m coming. And I may be half asleep, but that’s a little bit of what we do. Again, for me, I wanted to say and if I haven’t had the opportunity to say this to you or BJ, thank you for the opportunity to have individuals like me who are coaches and entrepreneurs who are creating an impact on the lives of others through the work that we do.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to level up my skills in offering the certification to be a Tiny Habits coach. I know that it has impacted the work. I’m a better coach for it because not only do I show up as a better human. I and by the way, I am an imperfect human. I’m very good at being human.
However, I have it gives me a lot of hope. And, again, I am a business and life strategy coach. I help individuals go confidently and build a business and life that they want, but do it in a way that is sustainable. I think that for many entrepreneurs, they start and they have a lot of dreams of the freedom and flexibility that being an entrepreneur will bring them, but they’re working 24/7. And, okay, one of the things that I aim is to teach them how to build their business in the way that will give them the freedom that they’ve been looking for, but also the type of income that allows them to live their life in a way that they envision.
I have to tell you, like you said, many of my clients, when I started to implement the Tiny Habits methodology with my clients, I found that they were making great improvements. And because anybody can teach you business. Anybody can teach you how this is how you do email. This is how you market yourself. This is how you get clients.
But if you don’t actually do the work that they’re teaching you, then you’re not gonna be able to do it. So I start off with the framework of Tiny Habits. The Maui habit is the first thing that I teach my clients as well because I want them to be in that positive mindset. And then we start to really be able to behavior design based on what they wanna accomplish. What is it that they want for their business, for their life?
And we begin to create those tiny habit recipes that they can go forward. And, yes, you are right, my clients stay with me for a while, and they’re like, I’m not going anywhere. I have a client, we just got back from women’s retreat. She hosts an event.
And really the way that she’s been able to not only grow her event, sell out her event, but then be able to impact the lives of many other women is because I’ve taught her how to be able to create these recipes that allow her to show up for her business where it could be very easy to be scattered and not be productive and not do the work every day that it takes to really run a business intentionally. So I love that. And and I know that I’m a lucky girl to be part of the family of the Tiny Habits coaches community, also SPI Pro because these 2 are my superpowers, I think.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: I love that. I love that.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: I told you I have a lot of certifications when it comes to coaching, but Tiny Habits is the one certification where I’m always getting training from BJ, from you, from other coaches, and I never feel like I’m floundering. I never feel like I don’t know I’m out there in an island and that’s really important as we’re going through this process of life of business owners of building something community is incredibly important. And I know that this is why I I wanted to teach and I wanted to bring this episode to the SPI, the Smart Passive Income community. Because like Pat, service and creating community are some of the biggest Values of the Tiny Habits academy has.
And that those are my values as well. And it’s all a great marriage together today.

Linda Fogg-Phillips: Thank you, Julie. That means a lot to me. Thank you so much.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: No. And I’m not saying that because, you know, I’m trying to earn brownie points, but it’s true. And by the way, every time I’ve gone through any coaching certification, I did it for, for pure selfish reasons. I wanted to better myself personally. And the bonus is that I get to use it in my business as well. But if someone is listening and say, oh my god, this this Tiny Habits, I wanna learn more.
Tell me more about how can they leverage the the academy, how can they connect, and what is the process of becoming a Tiny Habits coach?

Linda Fogg-Phillips: Yeah. The Tiny Habits Academy, there’s 2 websites. There’s TinyHabits.Com, which is BJ’s research site, and also where you can sign up for the 5 day program. And there’s TinyHabitsAcademy.com.
That’s where we do all of the training. That’s where we, we have great blog posts. We have other courses. Also, you can always schedule a call with me. I have discovery calls that you think, oh, is this the right fit for me? Or I have questions. I have time slots every single day.

Julie DeLucca-Collins: Amazing. So just to reiterate everyone, remember the anatomy of a Tiny Habits is the anchor, the behavior, and the celebration, which are very important. You’re gonna find the anchor moment in your life to attach the new behavior to, and then you’re gonna celebrate and feel good right away because emotion is what creates the habit and change. And now if you wanna connect with Linda And learn more about becoming a Tiny Habits coach. You’re gonna go to TinyHabitsAcademy.com.
If you wanna participate and maybe you wanna Have someone like me coach you in creating Tiny Habits, you’re going to go to TinyHabits.com and sign up for the Free 5 days, and there’s no strings attached. You can do the 5 days and nobody’s gonna try to sell you anything, which is amazing. So make sure that you connect with Linda on all of the social media platforms, follow BJ Fogg as well, get the Tiny Habits book. And if you are looking to increase your confidence in your business and life, make sure that you find me. I’m Julie DeLucca-Collins and all of the social media platforms. I’m part of the SPI Pro community and the Academy as well.
And my website is GoConfidentlyCoaching.com. So everybody, thank you for tuning in. And until next time, go confidently in the direction of your dreams.

Pat Flynn: Thank you so much for listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. Our senior producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media, and a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network. Catch you next week!