Creative Brains, Strategic Leadership

The Guru Spotlight

I sat down with Julia Dyer to talk about her journey from appreciating creative minds to leading strategy for them. What struck me most was how her entire career—from co-founding Nashville Design Week to leading Ellevated Outcomes' advisory practice—has been built on one core belief: creative problem-solving paired with strong leadership changes everything.

The Sister Who Shaped Everything

"I have a distinct memory," Julia told me. "When I was six and she was ten, we were moving from Philadelphia to Boston. My parents were touring houses they were considering buying, and she was like an equal decision-making power in terms of saying, 'This layout is off. The sight lines are off.' At ten years old."

Julia's sister is an interior designer—not just by job title, but by nature. Since birth, Julia says. And that early exposure to how creative brains work—not just what they produce, but how they think—shaped everything that followed.

"I grew up around the brain of a designer, and it profoundly shaped the way I see the world. It's given me this really deep appreciation for brains like hers, whether they're designers or just really creative problem solvers. And how they're making the world more beautiful, more aesthetically pleasing, but also just so much more inhabitable."

— Julia Dyer

That appreciation became her North Star. But the work she's focused on more recently is different: it's about pairing creative power with leadership.

"My career has been, unintentionally and then more recently intentionally, focused on: how do you leverage leadership to help these creative brains do what they need to do?"

— Julia Dyer

Learning Leadership the Hard Way

Her first real crash course came through co-founding Nashville Design Week, a festival celebrating designers and elevating their work. Julia was working her day job in the apparel industry, but Nashville Design Week was her playground—a place where she could actually support the creative minds she'd always admired.

In their first year, they pulled off 96 events across eight days. It was chaotic, beautiful, and filled with failures. But something happened at the end of that first year that changed everything.

"At the end of that first year, I started questioning how I was making decisions. I realized my ego was starting to really drive the conversation. I couldn't tell if I was in it to serve the population it was supposed to serve, or if I was in it to serve myself. It was becoming like my ticket to success. I was like: what am I doing this for? Who is this for? Why are we all doing this, really?"

That moment of brutal self-awareness became a turning point. Julia realized she was the bottleneck to Nashville Design Week's growth. If she didn't figure out leadership, nothing would scale. So she decided to go deeper—which led her to UCLA for her MBA, and eventually to Ellevated Outcomes, where she now leads the advisory practice as Studio Lead.

From Founder to Small Business CEO

"When somebody is operating as the founder," Julia explained, "the business is still incredibly reliant on them to deliver the product, deliver the service. They are where the buck stops. If they're looking to grow, they're the bottleneck to growth."

The transition from founder to Small Business CEO is what Ellevated Outcomes helps people navigate. And it's not always straightforward. Sometimes a business owner comes in with massive opportunity—so much work they can't service it. Other times, they've been coasting on a system that worked for ten years but has hit a plateau.

"We help them refocus. Come back to what your original vision was, or what your tweaked vision needs to be," Julia said. "We help you see the paths to get there. And then when you're operating as a CEO, you get to choose the path. And then we help you chart the plan against that path."

What matters most is that they actually choose. Because having a clear vision, paired with a solid strategy, makes everything else suddenly simple to see.

"If you have that, combined with a great strategy, it becomes simple to see what unlocks capabilities versus what's just a distraction. You still need the human with creative problem-solving capabilities."

— Julia Dyer

The Structure That Creates Freedom

When I asked Julia why Ellevated Outcomes is so adamant about implementing Profit First with clients, she was direct: "We love it as a system to understand how much cash you have, how to bucket it out, and trust yourself knowing where the money is."

It removes emotion from the question of how much to pay yourself. It creates what Julia calls "structure that creates freedom"—because without it, you're just responding to fires.

"We help clients view budgeting the Profit First way and set up bank accounts that help them trust: I'm setting aside enough for owner compensation. I have a set-it-and-forget-it owner's salary," she said.

This is where strategy becomes tangible. Where vision meets dollars.

Connection is Everything

Throughout our conversation, Julia kept coming back to one theme: connection. In a world obsessed with solutions, she sees something different—a return to appreciating the human touch.

"Businesses of all sizes are still run on the power of connection," Julia said. "Tech tools can't replace the power of connection."

But what moves her most is watching solopreneurs realize they're not alone. One of our shared clients, working alongside me on the financial side, told Julia: "I really feel like I have my team."

"How lonely it can be to be a solopreneur. In that moment, I could tell she felt less isolated. You have to invest in yourself and people like us, but don't be afraid of investments that help you grow."

— Julia Dyer

Walking the Walk

Julia's role as Studio Lead is new—the first time this role has existed at Ellevated Outcomes. It's allowed their founder to step into her CEO role more fully. But here's what makes it work: every person on the team occupies the Strategist role and has clients. Even in different hats, they stay connected to the technical work that made them fall in love with this.

"She's moving up into her CEO hat," Julia said. "It's cool to see internally the power of a CEO with vision for the company. We're getting to deploy these things, have her move up, give growth opportunities to someone hungry. We're creating desirable growth opportunities within our firm."

That's the model. That's the vision. And it's working.

Expanding Their Reach

Ellevated Outcomes has always been remote-first, but Nashville was their strong foothold. Now they're expanding to LA and Austin—creative hubs. Julia splits time between Nashville and LA, and their newest team member is in Austin.

"We always want to keep pouring back into Nashville," Julia said. "And we're excited about LA and Austin too."

— Julia Dyer

An Invitation

Before we wrapped up, Julia shared: Ellevated Outcomes is accepting Strategist submission packets on their website anytime. You don't have to wait for an opening.

"If something resonates and you want to choose a similar career, reach out. We anticipate hiring soon."

— Julia Dyer

That's the same invitation Julia extends to every founder: choose the path. Define the vision. Then let strategy and structure do what they're designed to do—free you to do the work only you can do.