The Power of Notion in Organizing and Scaling Your Accounting Business with Diana Lunzer

Alyssa Lang interviews Diana Lunzer, a productivity and systems expert and certified Notion consultant, on the transformative power of Notion for bookkeepers, accountants, and business owners seeking streamlined operations. Alyssa and Diana explore how Notion can enhance workflow efficiency, reduce overwhelm, and serve as a centralized hub of information, along with practical tips for making the most of this versatile tool.

In this episode you’ll hear:

• Why Notion is a powerful tool for productivity and systems in businesses and personal life
• What the key differences are between Notion and other project management tools like Asana
• How Notion can be customized to meet unique business needs and improve workflows

About our guest:

Diana Lunzer is a Productivity & Systems Expert, and a Certified Notion Consultant. She turns founders into productive powerhouses, so they can great their 7-figure empire. She is a 2x founder, on a mission to help fellow ambitious business owners who feel overwhelmed as they scale their companies. Diana is passionate about helping founders and their teams get organized and spend their time more intentionally, to scale and make more money, while enjoying the ride! She specializes in identifying where your business is leaking time and money. Diana uncovers your productivity gaps and system inefficiencies, then uses tools like Notion, Zapier, and Manychat to help your business scale with more organization, peace, and profit.

Connect with Diana Lunzer:

Follow her on Instagram: @DianaLunzer Subscribe to her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@dianalunzer Subscribe to herFounder’s Flow newsletter: https://tally.so/r/mVZyaJ Visit her Flow State website to learn more: www.flowwithsystems.com

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Here is a list of all the resources, tech, books, podcasts, etc., mentioned in the episode:

👥 Goal Digger Podcast Facebook Group

⚙️ Notion

⚙️ Asana

💻 Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants

📱 AnyList App

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @workflowqueen

For more information about the Conquering Workflows & Systems for Bookkeepers & Accountants Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:

Visit our website: workflowqueen.com

Check out our courses: workflowqueen.com/courses

Follow the Blog: workflowqueen.com/blog

Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alyssa-lang-wq

Connect on Instagram: instagram.com/workflowqueen

Connect on Facebook: Facebook.com/workflowqueen

Podcast Publishing Tools we use:

• Podcast Editing: Ian Gilliam: iangilliam.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Teaser
• 1:46 Introduction
• 4:09 Diana's Journey with Notion
• 9:19 Overcoming Notion Overwhelm
• 12:58 Using Notion for Business Operations
• 15:30 Comparing Notion with Other Tools
• 20:23 Notion as a Second Brain
• 22:42 Switching from Google Docs to Notion
• 24:06 The Power of Notion's Search Functionality
• 24:46 Using Templates and Synced Blocks in Notion
• 26:49 Customizing Notion for Your Business
• 27:12 The Process of Working with a Notion Expert
• 31:47 Notion for Personal Life and Meal Planning
• 33:47 Exploring Other Tools: AnyList
• 36:27 The Benefits of Notion's Mobile App
• 39:07 Final Thoughts and Tips for Entrepreneurs

Transcript

Diana: 0:00

I manage both my businesses completely out of notion. I will say, I have other tools in my tech stack. Don't get me wrong. Notion will never be your only tool. I always am really clear with people. It's it doesn't do literally everything, but it does so much. So task and project management being one of those. So yeah, I do that all in notion.

Alyssa: 0:17

And you have an easy way. Cause the thing is, I'm always really resistant to. Like encouraging the accounting space to use it as a task management system mostly because they don't have the easiest way possible to have like recurring redundant tasks and I know that there's probably a workaround but I hear that it's like very customized and so like for the average person who doesn't want to set it up themselves and they can't maybe hire someone that it might not be feasible for them because I know that includes a lot of different technicalities for like managing that from what I understand.

Diana: 0:50

It used to be that way.

Alyssa: 1:47

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. I'm super excited about bringing on this guest today because as y'all know, I refuse to teach notion outside of our program breakthrough. It is where we give a full entire notion set up specific to the accounting space, but it's just not something that I have any desire to create a separate program for at this time, even though I know you guys have been begging me to do it. It's just not on the radar anytime soon. So I'm very excited to be bringing on Who happens to be one of my clients over at my firm and she's just such an incredible powerhouse. I want to say we met, correct me if I'm wrong. It wasn't a year ago. It was literally like a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't even remember how now it was true. Uh, the gold digger podcast, gold digger podcast, Facebook group. Cause I have like in notion, which we'll talk about today. I have a in notion. It says like, where'd you refer where people find me from? And it says in a Facebook post that I think I was commenting. To someone else like giving them support and you were like, oh, that's she knows what she's talking about Got on a call a year ago and you were just not ready at that time it just like wasn't working out but like I am really huge on like following up with your clients, even though like they might not work out right away. And I think every quarter I was like, Hey, how are you? Hey, how are you? Like, and you've just, we've just stayed connected, which is really cool. So she's an ocean expert. And I'm actually going to be at one of her events pretty soon here in January, which I'm super excited for you. And so welcome to the show. Diana, please feel free to introduce yourself. Hi.

Diana: 3:10

Yes. No. I'm so excited to be here. And thank you for having me on. Excited to share and chat all things Notion. I'm obsessed with it. So my name is Diana Lunzer and I am a productivity and systems expert and a certified Notion consultant, as you mentioned. And I really specialize in turning founders into productive powerhouses so that they can create their seven figure plus empires. And I'm just, I'm so passionate about like all things, time management, organization, kind of the systems and the tech in your business. And so notion is one of those levers I pull with my clients when we're trying to get them organized, managing time better, feeling productive so that they can scale their business. Cause at the end of the day, that's what we're trying to do here, right? We're growing businesses. We're in this for a reason. And I think that it doesn't need to feel so hard for solopreneurs, for entrepreneurs. We can do this in an organized way. We can feel more proactive in our days. So that's what I love doing. It's my absolute passion and yeah, notion is one of my favorite tools. So I'm stoked to talk to you about it today.

Alyssa: 4:08

Yeah. So I'm just really curious just because I want to know the timeline of when you were you introduced to Notion? Yes.

Diana: 4:14

Okay. I love the story. My origin story, uh, with Notion. So my background is actually in marketing. So I was in corporate marketing for over 12 years, brand marketing for big really luxury appliance brands. And when I left and I decided to leave corporate America, I started my own business. I started a marketing business. So that was at the end of 2022. And my first client that I had secured. In my marketing business was this really incredible female founded biotech startup and it was a startup. So we wore many hats. And one of the things they said to me when I first started was, you know, in addition to your marketing responsibilities, can you also help us with notion? We just started using this tool. We don't really know what to do. They were all, you know, PhD dog, like, right. It's a biotech company. So like they had no clue how to use it, but they had just started using it. And so that was my first introduction. I completely, it was love at first sight. Like I was like, what is this tool? Like I've always been into productivity tools, task managers, digital note taking tools. I always like. just felt so much pain inside of my corporate days that I had to use like Microsoft suite tools. Cause I hate my terrible. Yeah. I'm like a Mac girl, like Apple products. And like, I just love tools that are really beautiful and also intuitive and powerful. So that's exactly what notion is. And so when I found out about it, Through that, that client. And I started building them, essentially building them an operating system. So we started with marketing and all the marketing operations. We did all that managed all notion. And then we went kind of beyond that for them. I, that's when like this, you know, I just was able to identify, Hey. You're really good at this. And when you're procrastinating other tasks that you should be doing, you're in notion, like tinkering around, changing things, making, building in it. And so that's kind of when I was like, I was like, Oh, you know what? Maybe there's something here. Maybe I should tap, tap into this and follow this. And so I ended up launching a whole nother brand earlier this year, that's focused on specifically like productivity and notion consulting. So yeah, it's been super fun. And I, it's the best tool out there. It is

Alyssa: 6:17

superior. I 100 percent can back that up till my death. Like, I'm obsessed. I was introduced to Notion back in 2021. I think it was 2021 and it was By one of my coaches that I worked with to learn how to like launch my programs and stuff and it's here at this company and she was one of my coaches and I remember us being on a call and she like shared her screen and I was like, what is this tool? And she was like, Oh, this is notion. And like, I was like, this is so awesome. At the time I was already using Asana. We were super like, we had Google docs for every SOP you could possibly think of. We had an organized spreadsheet. Like I was already very organized at that time. It's just notion was just like, gave it that extra icing on the cake and made it so much faster and better. But I remember getting on the call and I was like, this is great. But then once you started clicking into things, like the overwhelm really hit me. Cause I was like, this is so many clicks. Like, what is this? Like, I'm so confused. Like, and it was a lot. And so I remember calling her a couple of days later. I was like, I need to get on a call with you and your operations manager. And I'm going to bring my operations manager. And we're going to just. Notion, because like whatever that was, because it was, uh, she specifically created for courses, but I was like, this has to be a game changer too, for like our clients, because we're very nuanced. So for example, as someone who is actually one of my clients, like we have a profile on you built out in notion, any of your nuances, your goals. So that way, like at any point, if I'm on vacation, the team can pop in and they can look at any notes and details. And I just remember being like a little overwhelmed and then once I got the hang of it, it was very easy and then I was like, Everybody in the whole world needs to know about Notion! Like, why is this not a thing? And no one in the accounting space really knew about it. It was like a very small tool that nobody really understood here. I know it was big and like, I think it was what, founded in New Zealand or something? Is it New Zealand? I think,

Diana: 8:02

I mean they're at SF right now, San Francisco. So I think there's two co founders and one of them may be from New Zealand. I'm not sure. Yeah, because I

Alyssa: 8:08

remember like it was some other country. I was like, this is really huge in Europe. And I just remember like everyone needs to know about this and I was going to a retreat that I got asked to speak at in Georgia and on like literally a couple of weeks before that before I was speaking I was like, I'm going to teach him notion. And I literally was like, okay, my bestie Serena, I get on a call with her and I'm like, I'm going to show you this. I'm going to set it up for you. And you tell me how much you love this. And I'm going to explain how to use it. Like I would to the retreat people to make sure I could not overwhelm them. And the whole time, just like, I hate this. And I was like, this is not getting my confidence up right now. And I remember just being like, holy shit, this is not going to work. Call my other friend, Brooke. Can I set this up for your firm? I swear it's going to be really good. I'm going to teach it to you. Like I'm going to teach these retreat people. She's like, No, freaking out because I've already like changed all of my slides and everything that I'm going to do. I get on a call with a guy who's actually speaking in Georgia. His name is Daniel Honan and we get on a call and I was like, dude, let me show you this thing. I want, I swear someone needs to like have it click, showed it to him next day. He had notion set up like, and it's just so funny. Like it's just hilarious. But now. Brooke and Serena love Notion. I feel like sometimes people get overwhelmed, which is the same experience as me. So let's kind of dive into the overwhelm experience when people go into Notion. What sort of resistance do you find that a lot of people have and why does that resistance come up for them?

Diana: 9:29

Yeah. It's a great question. A lot of the clients that I work with, they actually maybe dabbled in it, or they downloaded a few templates and then they came to the conclusion like, this is not for me because I feel confused. Or like you were talking about, like, they get kind of lost because at the end of the day, Notion is so unique because it is a tool to build custom software in. So unlike other softwares out there, like, Asana, ClickUp, then those are just like task manager softwares. Notion, instead of being like an off the shelf software, I like to call it like those other ones, Notion, you actually get to build custom software within it that functions the way you need it to function. So it meets your unique needs as a business owner. And then it's also aesthetically designed. So it's, it looks pretty and it's like, it matches your style, right? It's, it's a place that you want to spend time in. So I, I tell a lot of people like with that great power. You know, can come with some kind of overwhelm because it is like a blank slate at the beginning of the, you know, when you open the first page. So it usually is around kind of getting lost in the space and not knowing like how to set a structure to organize their things and maybe they cobbled together a few free templates or they paid for one template, but it doesn't exactly meet their needs. So. That's typically where I come in and what I focus on doing is building custom operating systems for founders that are scaling and across a variety of industries, online service providers, coaches, brick and mortars. It really doesn't matter what type of business you have. You're just in this, you're in the stage where you're growing, you're hiring and you're growing and that the need for streamline operations, you're starting to feel that friction. So I come and I build that structure for you so that you don't feel so overwhelmed. I migrate your information in so that you don't have to deal with it. And then I train you and your team on how to use it because that's the other piece that I see the most overwhelm is maybe they got a template and they like it, it kind of meets their needs, but then they're like, I don't have time. I'm a business owner. I don't have time to go watch a million YouTube videos to learn this tool. And because it's so powerful, it has so many capabilities. So I also offer that support as well. So that people feel like, Hey, I got this. I don't have to spend a bunch of time. I have an expert essentially in my back pocket who I can ask questions to. And that's, they've really loved that when I've helped them in that aspect. So.

Alyssa: 11:48

Yeah, I love that. And I think one of the big things too that I get all the time is, it's so funny because inside of Breakthrough, so we've been giving them this notion set up, right? And it's been great and everyone loves it. But me and Brooke have changed our notion so much over like the course of, I think we released Breakthrough in 2022. So the program's almost been around for two years now. And like, we just haven't, I haven't had the brain space because it's both me and Brooke are, I'm the one who originally built it, but Brooke is definitely like, I swear now she knows more. About it than me. She like has buttons and all these things. I have buttons now because Brooke has been like hounding me about putting buttons in a notion. I'm obsessed with the buttons now, but like I refuse to get distracted. So I'm always like, it works. It's fine. But I'm like on a mission to update the breakthrough one. But so if any of you are listening, I promise it's happening. We just have to like get some time to make it happen between me and Brooke. If we're not already in the middle of building a freaking course right now. Yeah. One thing at a time, people, but one thing that I like that you said is that a lot of people have started off with like maybe a foundation of finding something and liking it and have it being tweaked. I think that people in general like should always start with something that someone else is doing because then it's like the groundwork is done and then from there you just amplify it and it makes it a lot easier. But the one other thing I wanted to talk about, do you actually use a project management system? I do it in

Diana: 13:03

Notion. Yeah. So everything's in Notion. I used to use Trello for that. Yeah. Okay. And when I discovered notion and how powerful it was, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is incredible. Goodbye, Trello. And I don't, I manage both my businesses completely out of notion. I will say, I have other tools in my tech stack. Don't get me wrong. Notion will never be your only tool. I always am really clear with people. It's it doesn't do literally everything, but it does so much. So task and project management being one of those. So yeah, I do that all in notion.

Alyssa: 13:30

And you have an easy way. Cause the thing is, I'm always really resistant to. Like encouraging the accounting space to use it as a task management system mostly because they don't have the easiest way possible to have like recurring redundant tasks and I know that there's probably a workaround but I hear that it's like very customized and so like for the average person who doesn't want to set it up themselves and they can't maybe hire someone that it might not be feasible for them because I know that includes a lot of different technicalities for like managing that from what I understand.

Diana: 14:03

It used to be that way. So here's how I like to explain reoccurring tasks at Notion. A couple months ago and everything before then, it was like really robust. Like it took some really heavy formulas to get your tech, get reoccurring tasks to work for you. They pushed a ton of updates this year. And I would say it's not they haven't made it like the most user friendly, it's not as quick as a click of a button, but it is a lot easier to do. I just implemented it for a client a few weeks ago and I actually refined the formula with chat GPT. So yeah, you don't have to be a notion expert to even use formulas in notion and, and all that jazz. It, it took a couple properties and a formula that chat, GBT helped me refine That was like a couple lines of. Code. It really was not that robust. So it's much easier today, but I will say it's, it, it is not as easy to do reoccurring tasks in notion as it is in like a Trello or an Asana. But I'm sure they will get there because they are growing and launching new features like light speed right now. It's pretty wild.

Alyssa: 15:04

Yeah, I love all the buttons were definitely the big thing this year. That was really, really awesome. I feel like there was something else too, or there was some sort of automation within a database, I think is one of the new ones that happened this year. I can't remember if that was one of the updates, but there's been like a couple of them here and there. The AI feature, I'm not the biggest fan of, like, it's just not as powerful as chat GPT in my opinion, so I've just. Not I think you had to pay extra for it and I was like, I'm not paying extra for it. Like, I mean, we use chat GPT. It works really well for us. It makes sense. So the reason I wanted to kind of dive into this piece, because one big thing, so I teach us on a, but we also teach notion. The big question I always get is like, listen, why do you use a sauna and notion? And this is like, the reason is because it is. Talking to people who are bookkeepers and accountants here. They are not good with coding. They're not going to take the time to like reformulate databases like at least for themselves like to do it with an expert. I think it's a different story. And so a lot of the times I like to explain to people like the difference between as far as like how we're using them is Asana is telling us what to do and Notion is telling us how to do it and all the information to get it done. So that means like our SOPs are in there. That's like all of our branding information like this could be like our vacation policy link and then. Like you said, our tech stack is not only notion, which is really cool. So like, it's also still Google drive, but we've moved all of our SOPs off of Google docs that now they're in this like beautiful database. And it's been awesome. So I'd love to hear from your perspective as someone who might be trying to figure out what the difference between notion is versus something like Asana, like a project management system, a true one.

Diana: 16:33

Yeah. Yeah. And I know a lot of people that do that, they still kind of stick with their task manager tool and then they kind of utilize notion almost like an intranet for their company. Right. Like all the, yeah. Yeah. The wiki. Which is great. I think that's a great way to use it. And I always tell people too, is like only can only switch to notion if you're having pain points. Like if you're having friction, right. Like if whatever you're using today is working, then like. Fabulous. Like, you know, I'm not here to try and sway you if what's working is working because you're there to run a business. You're not there to like be constantly switching tech every year. So I only want to help you if you need help, right? If you're feeling that pain point. So yeah, if you're, if you've got a couple of tools in your tech stack and you know, you want to keep task and project management where it is, that's totally fine. But if you are interested in. More customization in the way that you view and interact your data for you and your team, then I truly believe notion is the most superior tool for that, even with task management and beyond. So kind of like I said before, is like when you say, like, what's the difference between like an Asana and a notion? Yeah. So Notion is a blank slate and I think of it as like Legos, right? Like, so we can, we have all these building blocks or what they call just blocks in Notion where I can custom build whatever I want and I can make it with the power of automations. I can make it Do pretty much whatever I want and then I can make it interact with other areas of my Notion workspace or other areas of my business is a good way to think of it so that I can automate really manual tasks. I can send alerts to people at certain points of the workflow so that things don't get lost and to avoid me manually having to like email somebody, Hey, this is ready for your review. Take a look. Let me know what you think. So I think Notion. Because it's so, you can get so custom with it to resolve your biggest pain points and hurdles in your business ops. That's why it's so powerful. Whereas, you know, you may have a, you may need to work with somebody to build that custom solution like myself, or you may need to download a template to do that, whereas like an software off the shelf, like an Asana or ClickUp, you probably don't need to hire somebody. Although, you know, there are experts out there that, that you can hire if needed. So I think those, that's the biggest difference is really the customization Power that notion has that other tools out there, you just have more restrictions because you're working within the lines that they drew, right? The way they created the software.

Alyssa: 18:57

Yeah. And that's why I like notion too. Cause like, even for us, like we have our like marketing and social media team. They're all within our notion. We have like a content calendar. And so like, we could share details about like, we just hosted like me and Brooke hosted a burnout session. When this is going live, it's it will be a couple months ago. Um, but essentially, like, I was able to like, put all the different links and our team is able to add like, here's the graphic, here's the details, here's the branding, here's the information. And it makes it really easy for us to like, communicate that with them. And then we just slack them and say, Hey, here's the link to the notion page that includes everything about this burnout session. And it's just like, to me, I remember, like I said, when I coach had showed me on screen, the thing that like impressed me was at that time I was launching. Originally the podcast and then I paused it but when I originally launched it I love that like in each page she was able to like the show notes written out and like this and Well, like asana had the descriptions and that's where we used to do it in the past or then it was a google doc They don't give you enough. You can't like embed Well now you can a little bit up and embed things in asana, but Nowhere near the functionality. You can't embed like a Miro board. Like I'm, I don't, you know, my Miro, Miro. I love it. You say it. Yeah. I call it Miro. I don't know if that's right. I say Miro, but it's pretty much the same thing. It is the same thing, but I always just say things backwards. It was gusto gusto for so long for the payroll software. It's a whole thing. But I love that. So like you can embed like visuals, you can embed PDFs and you can't really do that functionality. So I 100 percent agree. It makes my life So much easier. So I kind of want to dive into some of not without overwhelming people because I will tell you that I know my audience pretty well that they have not or have at least resisted notion and they're also the type of people who really fear trying to start it from scratch. Because they just get really overwhelmed, which is just like something that they experience a lot. So without going into like all the intricacies of linked databases, all the words that me and you understand, but like high level, what is the functionality actually doing for someone? And how would that be relevant to someone in the accounting space?

Diana: 20:55

Sure.

Alyssa: 20:55

So this is,

Diana: 20:56

I don't know if your audience has heard this term before, but I'm sure you have being a notion is like, think of using notion in your business and your life. We won't get into like how to use it in your personal life, but like that's there. It's great. Yeah. It's great. But think of it as a second brain. Right. So I'm sure you've heard that term. It's how I say it. Yeah, that's, that's really what it is. And so you can put whatever you want in there based on, you know, what struggles you're feeling, feeling in your business right now, but it's really a centralized place or second brain for you to store your knowledge, your information, kind of a single source of truth for your business and for your personal life too. Honestly, I run many things for our house, our home. I have three kids through Notion as well. So. That's kind of like in the most simplest terms, how I like to explain it to people without getting into like going deeper into it is like, it removes, it allows you to keep everything centralized. So you don't have like a million Google docs and you're like, where did I save that? It's all centralized. And then I would say the other kind of next layer to that, but still high level is the power that Notion has that other tools don't is that the linking capabilities. So you are able to find what you're looking for. So much faster with the caveat that you're using a well made template, or you've worked with somebody like me, who's built you, you know, who knows what they're doing in notion, you are able to find information. So that knowledge recall, whether you're looking for that, you know, whatever total you quoted that person in that discovery call or whatever it is, whatever piece of info you're looking for, you're able to find it so much faster in notion versus other tools out there. So I would say those are kind of the two biggest. reasons why I would go to Notion. It's still like real high level.

Alyssa: 22:42

Yeah, it's so funny because when you talked about getting information easily accessible, the number one reason that we had switched from Google Docs, because this is originally the biggest pain point. Like you said, I'm huge on like, don't fix it if it's not broken. If it's working for you, like this is very normal for my audience. And I love y'all who's listening to me, but you know, I'm going to tell y'all the hard truth here. You guys have some serious, like, shiny object syndrome, for sure. Like, I can't tell you, like, recently Anchor was like a new proposal software that got introduced to the industry, like, maybe like three, four months ago. Everybody and their mom, because everybody was talking about it, wanted to be like, well, I need to switch, well, I need to go. And they're like, Alyssa, are you switching to Anchor? And I'm like, absolutely not. Like, why would I leave Dubsado? If it's fully set up, it's fully capable, it's doing all the workflows. We have, maybe we have one or two pain points, but it's not, like, enough for me to, like, Do a whole entire like overhaul so like, like Diana was saying and like I'm saying like, don't try to fix something that's currently working. But for us, we used to do things in Google Docs for our SOPs. So all of our SOPs are written on there. And then we had like a separate video. So like the loom video of us walking through the actual step. I was like, okay, this just has to be better, right? So then I originally, I created a spreadsheet that would like link out to everything. So link the Google doc, then it would link out to the video. It would link out to any like decision trees, Mira boards or whatever they needed, right? Email templates was on another tag tab. So then it would like link out to there. And that was great. And it worked really well. And then I got introduced to notion and I'm like, Okay, the problem is, I knew that there was like an SOP out there that maybe had one word on one document that I needed to remember, but unfortunately I couldn't search it in Google Drive because you can only search the high level titles. You can't search words on a document. So when I found out, found out that Notion, you can actually search the word per page, I was like, done. It was like a weekend. Got on the call with the coach, showed us the behind the scenes, did it on a one hour recording call. Built it out. Like, it was that fast. And it was great. We migrated everything. It started off with SOPs and then it turned into let's get our clients in there, let's get our courses in there. Let's get all these things in there. And it's been so cool.

Diana: 24:46

Yeah. And also too, I think the other super powerful element of Notion If people are considering it, using it to help run their business is the templates using templates in notion. And so the terminology for that is more like a sink to block is really what notion calls it. But that's been huge. I think you were talking about content marketing, right? Managing like your social media, what you're posting and where. There's a lot of that that can be templatized, like what hashtags you use, your CTAs, CTAs change on different platforms, right? And so you shouldn't have to rely on your brain to remember that and try and, or, or dig through and try and go back and be like, what's my, what do I say for this? What's my CTA for this? What hashtags do I use? So in Notion, you're able to use what are called synced blocks, which are essentially like you create it once. Turn it into a sync block and then you can just use that sync block everywhere. And no matter where you edit it, it will always reflect in all the other spots. And that's super powerful because it essentially becomes like a template block and that can be so, so powerful for business owners. I'd use a ton of those when I'm building custom operating systems so that you have, again, it comes back to this like idea of having one single source of truth for you and your business. And then that becomes so much more important as you're hiring team. Right. When you're not the only one in your business anymore and you're starting to use contractors and actually hire people, having that single source of truth. And then when things need to edit, be changed, being only, only editing it in one spot and it reflecting everywhere, it needs to be updated. That is such a huge time saver. So,

Alyssa: 26:21

yeah, I think that people miss that or they get really overwhelmed by that because they're like, Hey, I can't remember where I put that same piece of information in all of these different places. And so for us, we do the same thing at sync blocks, templates within the databases, like just being able to reuse it anytime that we have like an email going out, it's just like, it has the format already of like, we need this, this, this, like, it's just. We could sit here and nerd out over all day long notion, notion, goodness all day. So one of the things I wanted to kind of talk about just because a lot of, I have never bought a notion expert on the podcast, which is really cool is talking about the process of working with someone. Because the question that usually comes up for most people is I can't get it customized because I'm way too unique, or there's no way someone would know the information. So what's like the process of someone hiring someone like you to be able to help them with their notion to customize it. Sure.

Diana: 27:12

Yeah. So it kind of depends on, there's usually two different type of people. Either you are using another tool or pen and paper, God forbid, pen and paper, you're running your business off a notebook. It's okay. No judgment, but you know, either you're, you're doing pen and paper, you're in another software that you're not liking, it's not meeting your needs. And you want to migrate to Notion or you've started using Notion and it kind of like whatever you're using, whether that's a template or kind of you just started doing pages, it's not necessarily working for you. So those are kind of like the two type of people that come to me. So depending on where you're at, it doesn't matter. We can find you a solution. What often how we generally started is I have kind of a menu of what generally is in an operating system for a business that's scaling. Again, doesn't matter your industry. This is generic and it kind of falls into like the general ops of a business. And so I have that menu. And when we're chatting and I'm listening to all your pain points on our discovery call, I can then kind of generally outline. A structure for your operating system based on the pain points you're experiencing in your business. And so that's, that's where we start. And then I kind of give you that. I say, Hey, I put together a proposal. I say, this is based on what you shared. This is what would be a solution for you. This is what I would include in terms of areas of your operating system. And we always have. Like a company home. So that's like a company home dashboard. That's where like everyone starts. That's the basis. And then from there you would have areas that you could navigate to. And another way to think of areas is like kind of like departments in your business. And so that, that's how the structure would work. And so after that discovery call, I'll give you a proposal with like your custom operating system structure, what that would look like. And then from there we do a kickoff call because I, I really do want to My clients to feel kind of like confident and not really that hands on. Actually. I actually, I do so much of the heavy lifting because it's never fun to switch to a new tool. As no matter how excited you are about the new tool, it's not a fun experience usually because you're like shifting, you're doing something different. You're learning a new way. Team members are learning a new way to do things. So I do a lot of the heavy lifting around like your information from either the tool you were using or. Yeah, really from the tools that you're currently using. I migrate that into notion. And so, I just try to make it as easy as possible for clients so that they're not really involved in any of the like discomfort of the transition. And then after I build them the custom operating system, I migrate their information in and optimize it. Then they have a period of time where essentially they have back pocket support for me to answer any of their questions, to jump back into their workspace and make adjustments and modifications. Cause sometimes when they're in there using it, they're like, actually, I need to see it this way. Yeah. Or I need to be able to see this. How do I do that? And not only will I do it for you during that period, I will. Teach you how to do it too. Cause my whole point is I want you to feel confident you and your team using notion beyond our time together. So that's generally what it looks like to work with me. I say nobody is, has to custom of a workspace. Like that's the whole point. It's custom. It's designed and tailored for you. Yeah. And so it's, yeah, it's been super fun. And I think, you know, the kind of the client testimonials speak for themselves. Like when you go from having a handful of frustrations in your business to them being resolved and feeling really good about your workflows and the time, your time management, all that good stuff within like a couple of weeks. I mean, people are just like, they're so happy about it. So.

Alyssa: 30:38

Yeah, I love that. It's funny because I also run like my life like you were talking about. I know that this is not going to be the episode to go through the life things, but I will say to that. It has totally transformed my life as well. So like, I run both the companies with notion and that's kind of like our Wikipedia headquarters, the place that we go for information details, all the things. But like, at the same time, like, I do a lot of DIY projects around my house. And with that being said, like, I buy material and I also like, because I can't just sit the fuck down and just be a normal human and just enjoy doing something instead I'm like, how can I make a business out of this? Because that's my life. And so like, I'm over here like, maybe one day I'll like, make a separate Instagram account just for my DIY stuff because I have so many people like constantly commenting on like the DIY I do. And like so I put together like amounts and it's got like a little roll up that tells me like the budget versus like the actuals like for the spend on like the house stuff and it's so much fun but I can also see like when did we talk to contractors last like what are the open projects for just that bathroom or we need to do like the countertop we needed to do this so I'm curious before we kind of end off what ways are you using it because I know you have kids and stuff and and what in the businesses but what other ways are you using Notion beyond the business?

Diana: 31:47

Yeah. Let's see, birthday party planning has been super helpful. Like anytime you just need to like organize and plan information for something like you're planning something. So birthday parties for my kids, for my husband's, I planned it and just like it, keep it all in one spot. Right. So that's been huge. And then recently what has been a total game changer in notion for my personal life is meal planning. So I have always struggled with meal planning. Like I am such a proactive planner, but for whatever reason, Probably because I was worried like, Oh, I don't, I can't plan out what I'm going to eat. Cause what if I don't feel like it? Like I'm a foodie, I like food. And what if I like, don't feel like eating that? So I was always like, it just like nothing would ever stick with like meal prep and planning my meals for the week. But then I started doing it in notion and it has totally been very easy to implement. And it, I've been building essentially a recipe database. off of videos I see on Instagram. So I'm sure a lot of people see like awesome recipe videos, right? And I would just book, I used to just bookmark them. And now you can actually send to notions, you can send them to a database. Directly in Instagram. It's super easy. You just hit the like little airplane share button. And so I've been building with such ease, this database of recipes in notion for basically all from Instagram reels. And then I just sit down and I map it out. I have like a super simple table for the week and then a grocery list. And then I use notions AI. After I jot down all the ingredients I need to go buy at the grocery store to organize it by department. I just say. Hey, Notion AI organized the messy list above by department in a grocery store. So it's just easier for me when I'm going shopping. And I have like a templated grocery list for stuff we get every week. So I don't have to like rethink of that. So yeah, it's just, it's meal prep has been, has been like totally changed and it's actually working for me. And I mean, this was like part of my health journey. I've been trying to lose weight since my third child. I'm down 10 pounds and like, That's incredible. That's like so huge to me and a big part of that is because I'm using Notion for meal prep because it's been so helpful to me and it's so easy to do.

Alyssa: 33:47

Yeah, another option too is a super random because I have some stuff in notion. I'm still torn between like my other way of doing meal planning versus notion. It's like one of those things where it's like, which one do I prefer? So I was introduced to this thing. It's called any list and it's on, it's like an app on your phone. So my best friend uses it and it's like It's 40 or something like that a year. And so essentially what you can do is that while you're in Instagram or while you're on Pinterest or while you're on these other platforms, you can, the same thing where you could send the thing to this app called any list. Not only does it store the recipe for you to be able to have, it also includes all the ingredients. But what you can do is like, you can then say, Oh, I want that. For this week, and it will automatically add it to like your meal prep, like area. So it adds it and says, okay, this week, this is we're eating grilled cheese, and we're eating this or like whatever it is that you're choosing. And then from there, whatever it says that you're making that week, you get to select which, which of these ingredients do I not have in my pantry, or like in my fridge, and you click on the button, and it automatically actually organizes it by department. And then you could create different lists per like thing. And that has been really, really helpful for me. Because Notion's great, and I think it has a really good part, but like I said, like, everything is always whatever works for you, and whatever makes sense. And so for me, I used Notion before, and then I was introduced to Anylist. This was literally like three weeks ago, and I'm like obsessed with this thing. And you can also like yell at it on Siri and just be like, Hey Siri, like add to I shouldn't say that, because she's probably going to be listening to me right now. Like, Hey Siri, like add avocado to like blah, blah, blah. Or like, if you have Alexa, add Alexa. And you say it to like what list in your any list and it automatically adds it into the list and departmentalizes it. I just love it. And it's cool. And you can also, it's connected to Instacart. So then like you could add that automatically. So everything that's in that list will automatically get sent to Instacart. So it's like. Okay. I might need to check that

Diana: 35:34

out then. Yeah.'cause I,

Alyssa: 35:35

yeah, I do

Diana: 35:35

the same thing. I order my groceries ahead of time and pick 'em up. So, yeah. That's cool. Yeah, that sounds really cool. So you could

Alyssa: 35:40

Walmart it or something. Yeah.'cause she uses Walmart. We don't have, unfortunately, in Lake Arrowhead. I know you're down in Irvine, right? Is where you live. Yeah, Irvine, Testin.

Diana: 35:48

Yeah. Yeah.

Alyssa: 35:49

And um, so here we just don't have the luxury. Walmarting stuff to your house. Like shipping is a pain in the ass here. Like, you live with it. You kind of get the nature. So I have to deal with it a little bit different vibe. Yeah. Yeah. But I can Instacart though, which is really cool, but I'm limited on what I can Instacart. Like I can't get sprouts cause it's so far in Redlands and stuff. So it's kind of a mission, but I wanted to share that because it's one of like, there are options, which is cool. And that's why I like don't fix what's not broken. I'm not going to go get distracted and go build out a whole thing. Yep. Like. It's working. You know what I mean? Like it just goes to show that anything can work as long as you make it work for you. Totally. And it, yeah, it's

Diana: 36:26

gotta meet your needs. I think the other cool thing about notion is that they have the phone app. So like, I'm a huge proponent, especially when I'm working with clients is like, let's streamline. Like when you have something that comes into your mind that you then need to put into an area of your business, instead of like, Like writing it on a sticky note or jotting it down here, adding it to your notes app. Like, let's put it exactly where it needs to go so that you can handle it later and get it out of your mind so you can focus on, you know, whatever you were doing beforehand. And so I love the notion app for that because I can have everything on my phone and everything I build is mobile friendly too. So it like works really well in the app. So you can navigate around, find what you need, drop things where they need to go really quickly when you're on the go, which I think is huge. Like, that's such a big part of like why notion works so well for me. It's the app. So it's computer, desktop base, and the app on your phone.

Alyssa: 37:16

Yeah. And like, you could technically, if I remember correctly, you can pull it up when there is no internet, and it'll just sync once there's internet. Yeah. Because like, I've had Notion open before and like, had to have it sync later. Exactly. Yeah, that's like

Diana: 37:29

one

Alyssa: 37:29

of the biggest,

Diana: 37:30

most requested features is offline mode, which they keep saying like, it's coming, it's coming, we're working on it. So that is a downfall. It's like, if you're actively working in it, you need wifi or, you know, some sort of data, right? Internet connection. But yeah, if you have the page already open, you can be working in it and then it will sync

Alyssa: 37:47

Syncs. Which is cool because that's always like the fear because I'm traveling a lot and I'm always like on an airplane or I'm doing something and I always like so for me I like that about Notion that you can automatically have it synced into like later once you finally get internet or you're finally on the ground or like whatever you're doing. Yeah, I just love like all the little functionalities and like everything that you can do just the different stuff. When I had my um, personal and executive assistant she was in my dashboard so like in her dashboard like or my dashboard she would just set everything up and. Do anything. I just randomly text her and be like, Hey, can you help me with this? Cause I didn't even want to, I, I am at a point in my business where I don't even want to set up a database. I love it. I will seriously live, breathe and die notion. But like, I'm just at a place where I don't want to do all the things. So like, I'm just like, yo, will you put this together? But like, when it's ready, let me know where notions I could go find it, you know?

Diana: 38:37

Yeah, totally. Yeah. I mean, I think it's so powerful to just this concept, especially in your business, but in your life to have like not starting from scratch every time. Right. So you're able to do that so easily in notion with databases and templates and all that stuff. So yeah, it's, it's so incredibly powerful and I would just say, you know, I would encourage people if you are feeling points of friction in your business when it comes to operations and workflows and just like things that you do in your business, right. Consider notion if you are feeling that pain for it because it is so

Alyssa: 39:06

powerful.

Diana: 39:06

Totally.

Alyssa: 39:07

Well, thank you for saying that. I'm, I'm, I'm excited for you to be here. So before we kind of end off, I'm going to ask if you have one tip for any entrepreneurs, it could be about notion. It could be just about business or anything that you want to share. And then also, where can people find you? Where can they connect with you? And how can they get in their world and work with you? Love it. Okay.

Diana: 39:25

One tip for business owners. Let's see. So I've been at this now for almost two years. I'm still fresh, right? That's not that long, but I will say when I think of like the most impactful thing so far on my business, if I had to pick one, I would say seek out a community of other business owners, other entrepreneurs. So like for me, I'm a mom. I wanted to meet other mom business owners in Orange County. Like that was really important to me and I felt so so isolated when that first year when I started my business, and then I found the most amazing and incredible community here locally and have found other ones as well. But there's one local in my community that has just been so incredible. And just to meet like minded people that are in the same, running into the same challenges as you, right? Maybe they're in the same industry and technically a competitor, like it doesn't matter. But meeting other people who are entrepreneurs. It has been so helpful for me because I felt way less isolated and I've been able to just like grow as a person, right? Like the connections that you make, the introductions, you're able to like fast track your learning curve because you meet people who are a few steps ahead of you. So that's, that would be my tip is if you're feeling any sort of isolation in business, no matter what stage you're in. Seek out some sort of community and ideally in person like obviously virtual is fantastic. I think that's been so cool but there's just nothing like in person, you know, so that's been huge for me Yeah,

Alyssa: 40:49

love

Diana: 40:49

that. And then in terms of connecting with me, I would love to connect with you. So Instagram is probably the best place. You can find me on Instagram at Diana Lunzer. It's just my first and last name. I have tons of Notion freebies on there as well. And then educational Notion videos. So if you're curious what an operating system in Notion looks walkthrough on that. And tons of just kind of like how to's and things like that. So connect with me on Instagram. That's the best spot and drop me a DM. I love to chat and meet new people and other entrepreneurs. It's like my favorite thing to do. So.

Alyssa: 41:22

Yay. Awesome. And how can people go to work with you?

Diana: 41:25

Yeah. My website's linked there on Instagram. It's flowwithsystems. com. That's where you can get all the information around, kind of my custom operating system service, which is a VIP week. And then I also do, uh, Notion DIY coaching. So if you just need some, you know, an audit of what you've got going on, or you want some best practices, I do kind of like DIY coaching services and then also productivity coaching. So if you are just generally as a founder feeling like you need help on the productivity side, I offer that as well. And I have actually a very exciting membership for founders who are looking to boost their productivity coming in early 2025. So keep your eyes peeled for that too.

Alyssa: 42:02

Yay! So exciting. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here and for nerding out with me on Notion. Love it. And all the things, but thank you so much. Yeah, this was great. Thanks for having me.