Introduction
Welcome back to the Coaching Hive Podcast! Let me guess it’s that time of year and you have a brand new calendar. You’re ready for the new year to begin, you’re telling yourself and others that this year is going to be your year. You have the colored pens lined up. You open the calendar and you are confronted with blank pages.
The blank pages are ready to be filled with ideas, appointments, tasks wins, and lessons learned. The only problem is that you don’t know where you’re headed this coming year. You need a plan. Does that sound familiar? Yeah. This is the way my life rolls, at least. At the very least. Planning takes time, it takes intention, and ironically, a plan for creating the plan, and that is what we are going to talk about today.
So, if you are ready, grab your pen and paper, your notebook, whatever it is you want to take notes on, and let’s dive in.
Creating a Successful Plan
My first year in business, I sat down on January 2nd at the dining room table and created a plan for the year.
I had a blank sheet of paper in front of me and some of my fun pens. I wrote down what I wanted to get done. I wanted to launch my business. I was going to get my membership out into the world. That was it. It was a short planning session, and while I did launch my membership that February, that is about all I accomplished that year.
Well, I launched twice that year, but that’s about it. Fast forward to next January, and I was better prepared this time. I had a massive easel sized sticky note. Do y’all have those? They are the best things ever. I had this massive, easel sized sticky note, and I filled it with eight big things that I wanted to accomplish in the year.
Nate, my husband, looked at the list and asked which one was coming first. I smiled and said, well, even though this is my year-long list, I kind of want to get all of this accomplished in quarter one. And then I told him which one I was starting with. I accomplished seven out of the eight in the first quarter, and the eighth was taken off the list because it simply wasn’t relevant anymore.
Once I did the other seven things, although I did a few more things throughout the year, I once again stalled and I followed this pattern until I realized that I needed a different approach if I wanted to be productive through the entire year, not just one month or one quarter. And so I researched what others were doing, how they were creating a plan, and even more importantly, how they managed to sustain that momentum through the year. Because let’s face it, January rolls around. We are all motivated, ready to go. But what happens when that motivation wanes? It is not enough to carry you through. You have to have a solid plan for the days when you don’t know what you need to do or what’s next or how to keep moving forward.
So today I want to share with you a few things that I learned through this process of research and implementing this planning with intention. And here’s what I learned.
1. Create an Entrepreneur Persona
First thing up, I didn’t need a word for the year. That never really resonated with me, but I did find that I could create an entrepreneur persona that I wanted to grow into.
And so what I do is I outline what I’m thinking, doing, and feeling now at the beginning of the year, or as we’re heading into the beginning of the year, if you’re listening to this one, it was recorded in six months and then at the end of the year. Then I take that and I reverse engineer the year based on where I want to be in 12 months. Not just what I have accomplished, but how I’m going to get to that place of thinking, doing, and feeling.
2. Reverse engineer your Entrepreneur Persona
For example, if I am confidently speaking on two podcasts a month, then I need to approach five to 10 podcasts each month asking to be a guest. And in order for that to happen, I need to search for potential podcast matches. I need to update my PR kit. I need to solidify the key points and stories that I want to share, have a rock solid freebie for listeners to grab right away with an equally rock solid email sequence welcoming them to my business.
As for the confidently part of the equation, remember I said, confidently speaking on two podcasts a month, I need to build in practice time, identify ways to get feedback on my key points from the community of entrepreneurs I surround myself with, and I have to make sure I’m always working on mindset. So I have to take where I am at the end of the year and move backward, reverse engineer it.
In addition to reverse engineering each component of what I’d like to be thinking, doing, and feeling at the end of the year, I also create a list of things that I’d love to fail at.
3. Create a fail list
This is something that I learned from Amy Porterfield. It’s brilliant. You create a list of things that you’d like to fail at. These are things that if they happen, great, they would really help your business. But if they don’t, you’re not going to beat yourself up. These are usually stretch goals, things that are really going to be kind of herculean to accomplish.
Colin Boyd does something similar. He encourages you to create fail goals that if they happen, it’s great, but if you don’t have time or aren’t able to reach that goal, it is okay. The idea behind this piece of planning is to really push you outside your comfort zone to help you create opportunities for growth, not just hope that they’re going to come along, but to actually create the space, the time, the mechanism for growth.
So what I learned in planning so far, to kind of recap, keep us all on the same page, I realized I didn’t need a word of the year. What I needed was an entrepreneur persona. I needed to know where I am now when I’m thinking, doing, feeling where I wanted to be in six months, thinking, doing, and feeling, and in 12 months, a year from now, what am I thinking, doing, and feeling? And then take that end goal and that midpoint and reverse engineer how to make that happen. And then I needed to set some really big goals that are kind of the fail goals. It’s okay to fail at them. In fact, you kind of expect to, because they’re big, they are outside your comfort zone. They are probably not realistic. But how do you ever get to that stuff that’s not realistic? Well, by creating the goal and working toward it, trying, doing the things that might get you there. So I’m not going to beat myself up if I don’t have that goal at the end of the year if I haven’t met it.
It’s not a failure, but it’s something that I’m trying to fail at because I’m working so hard, I’m getting nos. It’s not going forward, but I’m putting that effort in, and as I’m putting the effort in, I’m growing as an entrepreneur, as a person. Okay?
Finally, I choose actual dates throughout the year that I want things to be done.
4. Choose dates and get them on your calendar
This is especially important if you intend to launch multiple times through the year. A launch isn’t just one week. It is a long runway, and you need to plan around family time and vacations, your kids’ performances and games, and all of the other things that take priority in your life. For example, I don’t plan a launch when I have students taking final exams or midterms.
That is an absolute recipe for overwhelm and overwork. I want to make sure that my students have what they need from me during that time. I want to make sure that as I am grading midterms, as they’re turning them in at 10, 11 o’clock at night, that I don’t have to think about being up for a launch and really being on for that part of my business.
So I don’t plan launches immediately during that time of midterms and final exams. I also don’t launch immediately surrounding vacation either. I know a lot of people launch and then they go on vacation. Here’s why I don’t do that. It’s for a couple of reasons why I don’t schedule a launch around a vacation. I want to be in the moment with my family.
So if I schedule a vacation before the launch, I’m thinking about all the things that need to get done. What are the outcomes going to be? How is this going to work? Is that going to work this time around? And that means my brain is not engaged in my family time, and that is a moment for us to connect as a family and really get excited about our time together.
Now, conversely, why don’t I just schedule a a vacation at the end of a launch? Well, because I’m exhausted, and that is not a way I want to go on vacation either. I want to be able to run and jump in the waves and bike 20 miles if that’s what my child and my husband want to do that day. Yeah, we did that one time, I think, or maybe it was 10 or 12, I’m not sure. It felt like 20. It was great fun, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I had just come off a launch and was exhausted.
The other reason I don’t do it is because I want to make sure that I’m around for my new members, my new clients and customers right after that launch in case things are not working out or you know, I just want to be there for them. I don’t want to suddenly disappear when I go on vacation. I try to disconnect. So that’s why I don’t plan a launch around vacation. You have to do what works for you. Like I said, I know a lot of entrepreneurs that do plan a vacation after a launch as a way to recuperate. We don’t get many vacations a year. In fact, we get one main vacation a year, and I don’t want to be tired for that.
So there you have it. Planning for the year takes some time. It takes some intention and it takes more than just, here are some things I want to accomplish. You have to get really specific in what you’re thinking, doing, and feeling throughout the year.
Reverse engineer it. So take that end goal, that 12 month and that six month point, and figure out how you get there. So if I wanted to be on two podcasts a month at the end of the year, that means by six months, hopefully I’m on one podcast a month. All right? We need to actually schedule dates on the calendar so that they happen, so that you can really think about the timing of everything in your business, because oh my goodness, if you don’t either you won’t schedule it and you’ll get to the end of the year thinking, I didn’t do what I wanted to do. It’s because it wasn’t on the calendar. Or you will have to shove things in for your business in places that you didn’t want them, like right before or after a vacation.
This week is a perfect time to prepare for the new year and getting started on the very first step for the year is planning, right?
Action Item
This week, I want you to take action. I want you to get started on the very first step for planning a fantastic and profitable year in your business. I want you to explore what you’re thinking, doing, and feeling right now, what you’re thinking, doing, and feeling in six months, and you guessed it, what you’re thinking, doing, and feeling in 12 months a year from now. Please don’t rush this process. In fact, don’t even do all of these in one day.
Take one day to think about what you are thinking, doing, and feeling in your business right now. Recognize the wins. Celebrate what you’ve accomplished. Gosh darn. Business is difficult sometimes. Celebrate the wins. Celebrate the growth and the knowledge that you’ve gained. This is not a time to criticize. Just become aware of where you’re at.
Then on another day, think about where you want to be in six months, and you could probably do that 12 month time at the same on the same day. What are you thinking, doing, and feeling? One of the easiest ways I find to do this is to create an Excel sheet or a grid on your paper and put thinking, doing, feeling. Now, six months, 12 months, okay? Now, I want you to really try to tease apart that 12 month versus the six month.
Like I said, if I want, if you want to be a guest on two podcasts a month at the end of the year, at six months, maybe you’re aiming for one podcast a month. This process is going to provide a solid foundation for planning the year ahead, choosing the dates by which you want to get things done.
If you are launching, choosing those launch dates, knowing that you have a runway in front of them and after them, and knowing that you are taking time to think, and what happens is that you don’t stall out after January or after the first quarter. You know that what you are planning is going to sustain you through the year.
Conclusions
All right. Before we wrap up for today, let’s quickly recap the key points. Everyone needs a plan for the year. It doesn’t have to include a word for the year, but it can if you like that. More importantly, you are planning for the whole year, not just one task, one month, one quarter. You are creating a plan that allows you to develop in your thoughts, actions, and feelings as an entrepreneur. We talked about starting with a reflection and projection process. What are you thinking, doing, and feeling? Now that’s the reflection part. And then in six months and 12 months, that’s kind of projecting forward. Then we took that 12 month projection and reverse engineered it. So we go from that 12 month point backward through the months so that you can take bite-size steps towards your goal.
Finally, we talked about getting actual dates on the calendar. There is something magical about having a deadline. This is even better when you have a community for accountability. We talked about community in episode 100 of the Coaching Hive Podcast. So if you missed it, you’ll want to go back and check it out.
I would love to see your grid, that Excel sheet, that picture of your paper that says, thinking, doing, feeling. Now, six months, 12 months, I would love to see what you’ve got coming for the year, what kind of accountability you think you need, how you’re going to make that happen. Send me a DM post on social media. Tag me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/coachinghive, or you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CoachingHiveLife.
As always, I’ll see you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community and implementation removes the overwhelm of building your successful and profitable business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
