1 00:00:10,630 --> 00:00:12,980 Hey there, and welcome to another episode of On Your Terms. 2 00:00:12,980 --> 00:00:14,450 I'm your host, Sam Vander Wielen. 3 00:00:14,450 --> 00:00:19,020 And this week we're talking all about how to plan for your business in 2022. 4 00:00:19,020 --> 00:00:26,680 So, I'm sharing my exact system, and I'm even giving you my exact annual business planning document for free in the description below. 5 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:36,460 So, in this episode, I'm going to walk you through kind of step-by-step the process that I take to sitting down with the plan that I'm giving you because there's a lot that you have to think about and get 6 00:00:36,460 --> 00:00:40,420 organized, and then we're going to map it on to the document that I give you. 7 00:00:40,420 --> 00:00:50,110 But in this episode, I talk with you about how I never used to plan in my business, why I started planning, what really helped me to plan for my business, 8 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:55,590 some of the changes and results that I've seen from doing that kind of planning and things I learned along the way. 9 00:00:55,590 --> 00:01:00,670 Like, I didn't plan sometimes that great in the beginning, and now it got a lot better as the year went on. 10 00:01:00,670 --> 00:01:05,890 So, I feel like I have a lot to share with you this week, and I can't wait to get into this week's episode. 11 00:01:05,890 --> 00:01:13,210 But before I do, I'm doing something new here in On Your Terms, and I want to give a shoutout to Lindsay, who's at Little Foundations on Instagram. 12 00:01:13,210 --> 00:01:19,990 Lindsay left a very kind review on Apple Podcasts for On Your Terms, saying, "Sam's Ultimate Bundle is a no brainer. 13 00:01:20,020 --> 00:01:22,200 Hands down the best thing you can do for your business. 14 00:01:22,210 --> 00:01:23,230 Sam is the greatest. 15 00:01:23,230 --> 00:01:27,330 And, now, with her podcast, workshops, and trainings, she's changing even more lives. 16 00:01:27,850 --> 00:01:33,610 She is so gracious to share her journey and give behind the scenes tips and actionable steps to change your life just the way she did. 17 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:41,590 Sam, I'm so incredibly grateful." Well, Lindsay, I am very grateful to you and thank you so much for leaving that review for On Your Terms. 18 00:01:41,590 --> 00:01:50,710 In case you haven't heard, if you leave a review for on your terms on Apple Podcasts and let me know what your handle is on Instagram, I will give you a little shoutout on a future episode. 19 00:01:50,710 --> 00:01:53,950 So, head on over to Apple Podcasts and make sure you leave a review for On Your Terms. 20 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:57,130 All right. With that, thank you again, Lindsay. 21 00:01:57,130 --> 00:02:02,200 Let's get into planning for 2022. 22 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:11,960 So, I know this might come as a surprise to you, but up until this very past year, like 2021, for the very first time, I never did 23 00:02:12,470 --> 00:02:14,290 any sort of business planning. 24 00:02:14,300 --> 00:02:17,000 It was always like a fly by the seat of my pants. 25 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:18,680 Like, "Let's try this, let's try that. 26 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:27,710 Let's just mix this in." And I had no real direction or I just had no plan as to what I was doing at any given time in the business. 27 00:02:27,740 --> 00:02:33,920 At the same time, I had a really solid focus on I have very limited products. 28 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:35,060 I focus on those products. 29 00:02:35,060 --> 00:02:36,880 I focus on my calls to action. 30 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:42,830 But I really just didn't know what I was going to do day-to-day, month-to-month, whatever in my business. 31 00:02:42,830 --> 00:02:48,230 So, until this year, that is literally how I operated my business and it worked for me for a while. 32 00:02:48,230 --> 00:02:55,700 But, now, that I have seen the other way in the way that you can do it, there's no going back now. 33 00:02:55,700 --> 00:03:05,270 So, I realized through planning that after this past year, first of all, just how much better, financially, that made my year 34 00:03:05,270 --> 00:03:09,290 better. Mentally and emotionally, it made my year better because I knew what was coming. 35 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:13,280 I could hire the right people to help, you know, everybody on the team knew what was going on. 36 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:14,330 All that good stuff. 37 00:03:14,390 --> 00:03:21,050 But I also realized that it's really that important to have a plan because you need to reverse engineer in your business. 38 00:03:21,050 --> 00:03:30,020 And that's a lot of what we're going to talk about today is, like, coming up with the plan and then backing up and coming up with all the tasks that have to go along in order for that plan to come to 39 00:03:30,020 --> 00:03:31,610 action. 40 00:03:31,610 --> 00:03:41,420 So, if, for example, you were going to host an event, like a live webinar or even just run a promo or a sale or something in March, then you've got to backup and 41 00:03:41,570 --> 00:03:43,460 plan out several weeks ahead of time. 42 00:03:43,460 --> 00:03:46,820 Like, typically, there's a tease week, for example. 43 00:03:46,820 --> 00:03:48,860 So, there's a week of like, "Hey, I have something coming. 44 00:03:48,860 --> 00:03:50,500 I have something coming, something big. 45 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:52,400 I'm going to make a big announcement." 46 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:55,480 Then, you have the invite week or maybe even two weeks. 47 00:03:55,480 --> 00:04:01,340 If you're going to invite them for two weeks to sign up for a free workshop or some sort of live event or a challenge. 48 00:04:01,340 --> 00:04:06,980 Then, you're going to actually host that thing, host the live event, host the challenge, do the video series whatever it is. 49 00:04:06,980 --> 00:04:13,720 Then, you're going to actually sell or you're going have a sale period for however long that's open for and you're going to nurture them during that sale period. 50 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:19,040 And then, you might even have a down sell period afterwards for people who don't buy to give them some other option. 51 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:28,730 So, there's a lot more than just like, "Hey, I'm hosting a webinar on Wednesday ." Now, I realized that in order to make these things successful, there really does have to 52 00:04:28,730 --> 00:04:30,390 be a plan in the future. 53 00:04:30,390 --> 00:04:40,370 And then, some reverse engineering to backpedal and say, in order to have that event go off on that day or to run that sale for that week in March, I know that I have to do all these 54 00:04:40,370 --> 00:04:41,710 other things leading up to it. 55 00:04:41,710 --> 00:04:45,820 And, really, the only way that you can do that is if you actually plan. 56 00:04:45,820 --> 00:04:51,620 Because if not, you're going to be in reaction mode and not in planning or execution mode. 57 00:04:51,620 --> 00:04:56,960 And so, what I used to do and what you might be doing now is, like, just kind of seeing how things feel. 58 00:04:56,960 --> 00:05:00,700 Like, I feel like I should run a sale because things feel slow. 59 00:05:00,700 --> 00:05:08,720 Or, I feel like once every summer and once every fall, I run this because it's just the time of year and I just go with it. 60 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:17,080 But I don't really think about it on the whole, and I don't think about what's necessary in my business in between, you know, in order to really successfully run those things. 61 00:05:17,090 --> 00:05:27,010 So, there's a lot more to it than just coming up with a random day and being like, "I think I'll try this." Or, "I feel like talking on social media today about meal prep." It's 62 00:05:27,050 --> 00:05:30,290 much bigger than that. There's a lot more to it. 63 00:05:30,290 --> 00:05:33,860 You don't want to stack also too much in, like, one quarter or one part of the year. 64 00:05:34,370 --> 00:05:44,300 You also don't want to have things built up too close to one another because you're going to find that you're going to run out of leads, enough fresh people to sell these things 65 00:05:44,300 --> 00:05:46,370 to, or who are interested in your offer. 66 00:05:46,370 --> 00:05:53,240 So, this is all going to make sense when we talk through this annual planning document that I have for you. 67 00:05:53,240 --> 00:06:01,700 You might even want to take the time now to pop open the document that I have for you in the notes of this episode down in the description. 68 00:06:02,090 --> 00:06:03,290 It's my gift to you. 69 00:06:03,290 --> 00:06:06,180 It's my business planning documents, what I use in my own business. 70 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:08,060 It's part reflection, part planning. 71 00:06:08,060 --> 00:06:09,880 They're both equally important. 72 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:14,960 But I would say that you could follow along with this episode if you wanted to. 73 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:23,200 It was about this time last year in 2020 when I sat down to plan 2021. 74 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:27,950 And I realized at first, I thought I was kind of cutting myself short. 75 00:06:27,950 --> 00:06:37,670 I was like, "Planning is going to keep me locked down somehow." It's going to be really limiting and feeling like if I have a plan, that means I can't do anything 76 00:06:38,210 --> 00:06:40,420 . Like, when I come up with an idea, I can't do it. 77 00:06:40,420 --> 00:06:44,900 Or like, what if something changes between now and then, and I want to make a change to that? 78 00:06:44,900 --> 00:06:47,150 What if I have a plan that's really limiting? 79 00:06:47,150 --> 00:06:49,150 I felt really limited to it. 80 00:06:49,150 --> 00:06:56,030 And I was so used to this just fly by the seat of my pants thing and go, go, going that making a plan made me really nervous. 81 00:06:56,150 --> 00:07:05,930 And there was also this reaction when I first sat down and did the annual planning - that I'm going to do with you today - that I thought, like, there's no 82 00:07:06,050 --> 00:07:10,280 way. This thing that I planned for, I have so much more that I can do than that. 83 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:12,560 I thought I was so limited. 84 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:16,670 I was like, "Only one big live event per quarter, that's so limiting. 85 00:07:16,910 --> 00:07:18,620 " But I'm so glad that I did. 86 00:07:18,620 --> 00:07:27,830 And I'm so excited to pass this along to you today because, not only did it help me maintain my sanity, but, also, I learned so much about actually 87 00:07:27,830 --> 00:07:32,260 properly preparing for launches, promos, sales. 88 00:07:32,260 --> 00:07:36,170 Just a period of time where you're going to focus on a product or a service, whatever it is. 89 00:07:36,170 --> 00:07:39,060 Because you have to have enough people who are interested. 90 00:07:39,060 --> 00:07:48,680 And so, if you are, like, launch, launch, launch, launch, launching, and you're not taking the time to nurture your audience, not only nurture your audience, give them a break in between, but 91 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:57,230 also finding new people for your audience so that you're not just pitching the same audience, the same products constantly then you're going to run into a brick 92 00:07:57,440 --> 00:07:58,730 wall. 93 00:07:58,730 --> 00:08:01,370 So, a lot of that we're going to talk about today. 94 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:09,080 So, when I did look at my plan for the entire year for 2021, I did feel like it was a little slow. 95 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:10,200 And I felt like, "Oh, man. 96 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:19,940 There's so much more I could be doing." In reality, what it turned out was that the launches or promos were way more successful than I would have thought they would have been 97 00:08:19,940 --> 00:08:23,660 because I think directly correlated to how much time and attention was put into them. 98 00:08:24,650 --> 00:08:28,310 But, also, the projects felt really useful, I would say. 99 00:08:28,310 --> 00:08:38,090 Like, there's a lot of hubbub people talking about like launch time, and promo mode, and being really hectic, and just really out of it and 100 00:08:38,090 --> 00:08:40,070 frazzled. And I didn't feel that way. 101 00:08:40,070 --> 00:08:45,580 Sometimes during those periods, those two week periods where we were doing a promo, it was just like, "Oh, yeah. 102 00:08:45,580 --> 00:08:50,360 There's a promo going on." I wasn't on my phone anymore than I normally would be, which is too much. 103 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:54,160 But I wasn't on my phone anymore and things weren't hectic. 104 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:57,300 My day wasn't filled to the brim or anything like that. 105 00:08:57,300 --> 00:09:00,200 And that came down to planning. 106 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:10,190 So, the only other thing I want to talk to you about before we get into going through this document together and kind of my tips for best planning out your year 107 00:09:10,910 --> 00:09:20,810 is that, one of the only ways that I could do this last year - so this time last year, I sat down and I started doing this 2021 planning - I joined 108 00:09:20,810 --> 00:09:23,460 Louise Henry's Uplevel with Asana course. 109 00:09:23,460 --> 00:09:25,430 And this is not sponsored or anything like that. 110 00:09:25,430 --> 00:09:29,390 I do have an affiliate link below that gives you $100 off of Louise's course. 111 00:09:29,390 --> 00:09:37,070 And you know this if you're in my member community or you're one of my friends, you know, I talk about this all the time. 112 00:09:37,070 --> 00:09:40,820 It was just truly one of the best investments I ever made in my business. 113 00:09:41,150 --> 00:09:44,920 It was a pretty affordable investment to make at the time. 114 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:54,920 And I just can't say enough about Louise Henry's Uplevel with Asana course because it was the thing that allowed me to take everything that we're going to talk about 115 00:09:54,920 --> 00:10:03,710 today, and how to plan for the year, and actually put it into a project management system that was really doable, that kept me on task. 116 00:10:03,710 --> 00:10:06,380 And this time last year, I had nobody working for me. 117 00:10:06,380 --> 00:10:13,220 Maybe I had just brought on my VA a little bit part-time and then brought on my tech VA pretty shortly after. 118 00:10:13,670 --> 00:10:15,980 But I didn't have all the people I have today. 119 00:10:15,980 --> 00:10:25,490 And so, it was great because I took this time last year to plan my entire year and then also to get Uplevel with Asana, which it's a pretty short course, really 120 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:27,740 doable, digestible course. 121 00:10:27,740 --> 00:10:33,020 And Louise gives you all the templates that you need for all the different projects inside of Asana to run your business. 122 00:10:33,020 --> 00:10:36,650 So, it's literally worth the cost of the program alone just for those templates. 123 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,910 But I literally took those things and I put them into Asana, got everything set up. 124 00:10:41,270 --> 00:10:49,700 And then, when I did start to bring on contractors or when I started to hire people, it was amazing because then I had the system set up and I could just plug them right in. 125 00:10:49,700 --> 00:10:51,670 So, again, #notsponsored. 126 00:10:51,670 --> 00:10:54,980 But I just love Louise, and I love the program, and I was so happy with it. 127 00:10:54,980 --> 00:11:02,060 And I'm one of those people that whenever I'm happy with something I want everybody to know how great it is and to enjoy it too. 128 00:11:02,060 --> 00:11:08,030 Okay. With that, let's get into some of my tips about how to plan for your entire year. 129 00:11:08,300 --> 00:11:16,680 So, my first tip about planning for the whole year is actually not to plan the entire year in detail or at least in the same level of detail. 130 00:11:16,700 --> 00:11:25,280 So, tip number one, it's all about planning quarter one in more detail than a bit of quarter two, and then kind of go down from there. 131 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:31,760 So, you would have more of a rough estimate, I would say, for quarters three and four the further we get along in the year. 132 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:35,060 The reason is that because you might adjust as you go. 133 00:11:35,060 --> 00:11:40,100 So, the first time I did this last year, I pretty heavily planned out the whole year. 134 00:11:40,580 --> 00:11:45,980 And then, it was pretty quickly into the year that I started to learn a lot from what I was doing. 135 00:11:45,980 --> 00:11:49,070 I learned how I was running a promo for the first time. 136 00:11:49,070 --> 00:11:51,710 I created a new webinar for the first time. 137 00:11:51,710 --> 00:11:53,950 I ran a charity workshop for the first time. 138 00:11:53,950 --> 00:11:56,450 So, I did all these things for the first time. 139 00:11:56,450 --> 00:11:59,330 And with that, I started to learn like, "Oh. 140 00:11:59,330 --> 00:12:02,960 Okay. I feel like I've been writing a lot about these promos to my email list. 141 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:09,650 I want to back off and I want to give more time." So, I know I had planned to do this other promo in, like, November and December. 142 00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:12,830 I'm going to cancel that and I'm going to back off and do something different. 143 00:12:12,830 --> 00:12:16,190 So, it gives you this ability to adjust, which I think is really helpful. 144 00:12:16,190 --> 00:12:25,880 And, also, I would rather see you take the time to just really hammer out quarter one, maybe parts of quarter two as well, and let 145 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:28,670 yourself just have a rough idea as to where things are headed. 146 00:12:28,670 --> 00:12:36,370 But just use the data from how the first part of the year goes to seeing how you want to respond in the latter part of the year. 147 00:12:36,370 --> 00:12:38,770 So, really, we're going to focus on quarter one. 148 00:12:38,780 --> 00:12:43,760 We'll kind of get an idea of, like, how this all works for the whole year. 149 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:53,510 So, after we have just kind of adjusted to mentally focusing on quarter one, possibly a little bit of quarter two as well, I also think it's time to take some time to reflect 150 00:12:53,510 --> 00:12:58,890 on this year and see what's worked, what hasn't worked, what we want more of. 151 00:12:58,910 --> 00:13:05,000 And if you don't have a business yet or something like that, you might just want to stay with me more to the dreaming side of things. 152 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,350 Like, what do you want things to look like? 153 00:13:07,370 --> 00:13:09,710 How do you want things to be? 154 00:13:09,710 --> 00:13:16,640 So, if you open up the free planning document that I've given you in the description below, you'll see that I've broken it up into sections. 155 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:19,040 So, the first section is all about reflection. 156 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:28,820 And so, I want you to reflect back on 2021 and I want you to think about, you know, you can list out the things that you've accomplished this year, the things that you've let go of 157 00:13:28,820 --> 00:13:38,810 this year - that's one of my favorites - things you added and how it felt, things you took away and how it felt, what we didn't get to but which we did, people who were crucial to your success, and so 158 00:13:38,810 --> 00:13:40,520 on and so forth. So, you can open up the document. 159 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:41,840 You can see everything in there. 160 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,230 I've left space for you to add bullets or whatever you want to do. 161 00:13:45,230 --> 00:13:47,780 But I think this is really, really helpful. 162 00:13:47,780 --> 00:13:51,080 So, in the things you accomplished this year, I want you to focus on that broadly. 163 00:13:52,280 --> 00:14:02,120 I think sometimes, I would say, it's popular to focus on some of the more metric-y things, like how much revenue you made or how many followers you gained or how much you built your email list. 164 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:03,730 And I think that's really important, too. 165 00:14:03,740 --> 00:14:10,460 But I would encourage you to focus on things that you have accomplished that you're really proud of, maybe, more internally. 166 00:14:10,460 --> 00:14:17,210 Like, you started setting more boundaries, or you took Fridays off, or you logged off of Instagram at 8:00 p.m. 167 00:14:17,210 --> 00:14:23,180 at night on most nights, or something like that just to make sure that you focus on things that you're really proud of. 168 00:14:23,180 --> 00:14:28,830 And I would really encourage you to tap into some things that you're excited about that you helped clients with. 169 00:14:28,830 --> 00:14:38,420 Some sort of success story, or a session that made you feel great, or a really kind note that you got from somebody one time saying how much you helped them, maybe it was just even somebody who watched 170 00:14:38,420 --> 00:14:40,220 something of yours on social media. 171 00:14:40,250 --> 00:14:45,590 I think it's really important to pay some gratitude to those smaller moments. 172 00:14:45,590 --> 00:14:52,970 I know for me the section on things I let go of this year was even longer than some of, maybe, the accomplishment section. 173 00:14:52,970 --> 00:14:55,360 And that's equally as important. 174 00:14:55,360 --> 00:15:02,140 So, letting go of being tied to your revenue, letting go of free calls, maybe some of you have let go of those. 175 00:15:02,140 --> 00:15:08,090 There are all different kinds of things you might have let go of, but you want to take some time also to pay homage to, I think, some of those. 176 00:15:08,090 --> 00:15:12,110 So, it's really important that we take time to reflect. 177 00:15:12,110 --> 00:15:13,940 And then, we do a little bit of future casting. 178 00:15:13,940 --> 00:15:22,460 As you'll see in the document that I've provided to you below, you'll talk a little bit in that document about how you want to show up in 2022. 179 00:15:22,460 --> 00:15:25,430 Because you really want to spend some time with this section. 180 00:15:25,430 --> 00:15:33,770 And, of course, because it's me, I really suggest, like, lighting some candles, having your coziest blanket, playing some nice music. 181 00:15:34,070 --> 00:15:36,590 I love the Deep Focus Channel on Spotify. 182 00:15:36,590 --> 00:15:44,030 So, I would highly recommend just taking some time to really get in touch with how you want to show up in your business. 183 00:15:44,030 --> 00:15:45,440 What's the impact that you want to make? 184 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,330 How do you want to feel in your business? 185 00:15:47,450 --> 00:15:49,460 How do you want your days to look? 186 00:15:49,460 --> 00:15:50,840 So, what do you want your days to look like? 187 00:15:50,870 --> 00:15:52,820 Do you want to be on the computer mostly? 188 00:15:52,850 --> 00:15:54,540 Do you want to be more flexible? 189 00:15:54,540 --> 00:15:55,760 Do you want to be on your phone less? 190 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:56,960 Do you want to be on social media less? 191 00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:58,370 Do you want to be on camera more? 192 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:03,080 So, it's really important to list out some of those things because then that's going to influence. 193 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:05,180 You can see if this matches up. 194 00:16:05,180 --> 00:16:14,690 Like, if you say you want to be on your phone less and you want to be on social media less, but then we go and we look at some of your goals and your projects and all these things that you're putting into 195 00:16:14,690 --> 00:16:19,310 2022, and they all require constant social media presence. 196 00:16:19,430 --> 00:16:20,520 That might be an issue. 197 00:16:20,540 --> 00:16:23,390 So, I think it's a really good idea to just take a little bit of time. 198 00:16:23,390 --> 00:16:24,940 All the questions are in there for you. 199 00:16:24,940 --> 00:16:29,630 These are the same exact questions I answered in my own business, so I highly recommend them. 200 00:16:29,630 --> 00:16:31,940 They've been super helpful. 201 00:16:31,940 --> 00:16:40,310 So, from there, you'll see that in the document we go on to, basically, planning out events or projects that we want to tackle this year. 202 00:16:40,340 --> 00:16:50,030 So, one of the best places to start is to really figuring out what are the major events, live events, promos, sales, what are the big 203 00:16:50,030 --> 00:16:51,530 focuses of your year. 204 00:16:51,530 --> 00:16:53,290 And you might want to list those out. 205 00:16:53,290 --> 00:17:03,250 Because then those are going to be the things that you take and you plug in to the calendar for the whole year and we spread them out appropriately and reverse engineer to make sure that we're taking the 206 00:17:03,250 --> 00:17:05,200 steps leading up to them. 207 00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:15,070 So, maybe you want to run a live webinar once or twice, or maybe you want to revamp a product that you have, or create a release on an entirely new 208 00:17:15,070 --> 00:17:22,060 product, maybe you're going to release more of a social channel, like a podcast or YouTube channel or something like that. 209 00:17:24,250 --> 00:17:27,880 And I'm just talking about major, major projects, like the big things, the big promos. 210 00:17:28,790 --> 00:17:36,670 Maybe you know you want to do a Black Friday sale, or you know you like doing a birthday sale either for your actual birthday or the anniversary of your product itself. 211 00:17:37,250 --> 00:17:38,740 That's something I played with. 212 00:17:38,770 --> 00:17:41,830 This year, I did a birthday sale for the bundle. 213 00:17:41,830 --> 00:17:44,800 And then, you know, this year I hosted a charity workshop. 214 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:51,600 So, if that's something you know you would love to do, like host a paid workshop, it can be pretty low ticket. 215 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:54,980 But all of the money goes to some charity of some sort. 216 00:17:54,980 --> 00:17:58,450 Like, all of mine went to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my dad. 217 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:00,520 So, you could do something like that. 218 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:02,410 Those are the kinds of projects that I'm talking about. 219 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:08,770 So, live webinars, challenges, big sales, promotions, that kind of stuff, that's what we want to do. 220 00:18:08,980 --> 00:18:16,150 Obviously, we have some sort of in-person, if you were hosting an event or something like that, that would be another example. 221 00:18:16,150 --> 00:18:22,540 So then, what we want to do is we want to take all of those major projects and we want to spread them out across the year. 222 00:18:22,810 --> 00:18:25,750 Because we don't want them all stacked in one place or another. 223 00:18:26,110 --> 00:18:35,710 And we want to give ourselves enough lead time to, not only promote them properly, but also to nurture our audience and bring in new leads in between those different projects. 224 00:18:35,710 --> 00:18:41,620 So, basically, I try to stick around one, maybe two, major events per quarter. 225 00:18:41,650 --> 00:18:48,130 I would say, though, if they're going to be live, that I tend to focus on one event per quarter and then it would be some other thing. 226 00:18:48,130 --> 00:18:51,480 Maybe I would do a live webinar in quarter one. 227 00:18:51,480 --> 00:19:01,450 But I would be behind the scenes, maybe working on a new project, or updating a current project, or coming up with 228 00:19:01,450 --> 00:19:03,340 a new product that I'm going to come out with in Q2. 229 00:19:03,370 --> 00:19:13,330 So, you'll see once we get into the planning document that what you're actually putting out into the world section, that quarter, but also, internally, what you're working on 230 00:19:13,330 --> 00:19:16,900 and planning on to put out into the world in the future. 231 00:19:16,900 --> 00:19:23,470 Because if you're following my system, you're going to be spreading these things out and you're going to be focusing on kind of one project at a time. 232 00:19:23,470 --> 00:19:30,130 But then, you're also going to be simultaneously needing to do the things that you have to do to get ready for the next project to come out in the next quarter. 233 00:19:30,700 --> 00:19:32,370 So, it's a little bit of both. 234 00:19:32,370 --> 00:19:37,540 But I tend to spread these out, especially the live events, I tend to do only one per quarter. 235 00:19:37,540 --> 00:19:41,140 You have to remember that you're going to be full of hope. 236 00:19:41,380 --> 00:19:44,450 I hope you will be full blast promoting this thing. 237 00:19:44,450 --> 00:19:48,940 So, you're going to be doing this on social media, emailing your email list, doing all the things. 238 00:19:48,940 --> 00:19:52,090 If you have a podcast or YouTube channel, you're going to be talking about it there. 239 00:19:52,720 --> 00:20:02,080 And so, if you're doing more than one or several back-to-back in a row, it's just going to be too much because you're going to be blitzing your audience with this stuff all the time. 240 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:07,390 And I think there's a little bit of fatigue when it comes to your audience. 241 00:20:07,390 --> 00:20:17,350 So, I also want you to remember that during this time, if you have the same reaction I do, and I looked at my calendar last year and I was like, "So, I'm doing one live event 242 00:20:17,350 --> 00:20:18,870 per quarter? Like, that's it? 243 00:20:18,870 --> 00:20:25,230 I can't believe that." But I forgot about how the day-to-day is still focusing on lead generation. 244 00:20:25,230 --> 00:20:27,370 Also, doing PR and marketing. 245 00:20:27,370 --> 00:20:36,880 So, every day when it wasn't in the few weeks leading up to this event, I was sending people to my freebies, I was speaking on other people's podcasts, I was recording 246 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:46,010 my own content, and I was working on lead generation strategies by writing blog posts and creating YouTube videos, and doing all of the things. 247 00:20:46,010 --> 00:20:47,860 So, there's still a lot going on. 248 00:20:47,860 --> 00:20:54,220 But in order to give yourself the space and the capacity to actually focus on that, you've got to spread this stuff out. 249 00:20:54,220 --> 00:21:03,700 So, once we pick kind of the one major live event or the thing that's really going to require a lot of your intense focus for a period of time per quarter, now, 250 00:21:04,330 --> 00:21:08,500 we're going to work backwards, especially when it comes to quarter one. 251 00:21:08,500 --> 00:21:14,800 So, let's say that in quarter one you know that on February 14th you want to host your live event. 252 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:16,150 That's the date of the live event. 253 00:21:16,150 --> 00:21:17,530 That's kind of the first thing I do. 254 00:21:17,530 --> 00:21:18,920 So, I decide like, "Okay. 255 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:20,500 What's my focus for quarter one? 256 00:21:20,500 --> 00:21:23,170 It's going to be a live event, live webinar. 257 00:21:23,170 --> 00:21:30,220 And I'm going to host it one time on February 14th at this time." That's the very first thing that I do. 258 00:21:30,220 --> 00:21:33,070 Then, I start working backwards and I think, "Okay. 259 00:21:33,070 --> 00:21:36,820 I know that I want to invite people to sign up for that live event for two weeks. 260 00:21:37,460 --> 00:21:46,890 I want two full weeks to be able to email my email list, to show up on social media, to create podcast episodes with a call to action, to come to this event. 261 00:21:46,900 --> 00:21:49,270 So, that's two full weeks. 262 00:21:49,270 --> 00:21:53,650 Back up one more week and that's going to be - what I call - the tease week. 263 00:21:53,650 --> 00:21:58,920 So, that's going to be the week where I start emailing my list about something else and then in a P.S. 264 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:00,730 or somewhere in that email, I say, "Hey. 265 00:22:00,730 --> 00:22:10,630 I have a big announcement coming on Monday." And then, on social media I start saying, "I'm making a big announcement starting on Monday." The Monday that's two weeks before February 266 00:22:10,630 --> 00:22:14,830 14th. So, that's the tease time. 267 00:22:14,830 --> 00:22:20,420 Now, after February 14th is probably your promo time. 268 00:22:20,420 --> 00:22:25,650 So, there's probably either like an open cart, or there's a promotion, or a sale of some sort. 269 00:22:25,660 --> 00:22:34,900 And so, that's like a week or two out is your focus after February 14 - in this hypothetical example - is promoting whatever it is that you've got going on 270 00:22:35,380 --> 00:22:41,740 . After the promotion, we have about a week that I always build in for follow up time, follow up time or down sell time. 271 00:22:42,190 --> 00:22:48,250 If you do a down sell, meaning that for those people who don't buy whatever the thing is you're promoting, you maybe offer them something different. 272 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,480 Then, I want you to tack on some follow up time after the down sell time. 273 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:57,100 So, it might even be an additional two weeks after your promo closes. 274 00:22:57,100 --> 00:23:05,530 So, I always follow up with a little bit of a survey asking people, like, why they didn't buy, or if there was something that they wish they would have seen, or something like that. 275 00:23:05,830 --> 00:23:08,130 It's a really helpful time to gather some data. 276 00:23:08,140 --> 00:23:11,710 It's also a good time to kick back up your nurturing. 277 00:23:11,710 --> 00:23:21,230 So, now, we go back into nurturing the people who are already on our email lists, already following us on social media, thanking them for sticking with us through a promo and everything like that. 278 00:23:21,230 --> 00:23:23,770 And shifting our focus back to being like, "Oh, yeah. 279 00:23:23,770 --> 00:23:33,670 I need to build up my audience again to get ready for quarter two." Because when you hold the next thing in quarter two, you're going to need to have new people, fresh audience, 280 00:23:33,700 --> 00:23:36,150 in order to promote this again. 281 00:23:36,150 --> 00:23:42,070 Because, ideally, you've taken a chunk of your audience and you've maybe sold to them already now in quarter one. 282 00:23:42,490 --> 00:23:44,800 So, you're going to need to replace them somehow. 283 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:47,890 But you also have a chunk of people who just saw this offer and decided to say no. 284 00:23:48,460 --> 00:23:55,570 So, if you run the same thing, if you run another live webinar to the same product, or something like that, you're going to have a group of people who are still saying no. 285 00:23:55,570 --> 00:24:00,970 And unless it's just that the timing is right for them, you might also want to have some new people. 286 00:24:00,970 --> 00:24:09,540 So, trust me when I tell you it is really important that in between these promotions, you kind of flip back into lead generation mode. 287 00:24:09,540 --> 00:24:16,150 That means pointing people back to signing up to get onto your email list however they can do that, like getting a freebie or whatever. 288 00:24:16,180 --> 00:24:25,560 You know, you want people to be consuming your more evergreen content, like your podcast or your YouTube videos or your blog posts something like this. 289 00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:27,460 And you can focus on PR as well. 290 00:24:27,460 --> 00:24:37,330 So, if you're getting interviewed on somebody else's podcast or you're writing an article for somebody or getting featured in something, you're going to be drawing in new audience. 291 00:24:37,330 --> 00:24:43,140 And after years and years of doing this, the cool thing is that this starts to kind of snowball and build up itself. 292 00:24:43,140 --> 00:24:53,020 So, I have a lot of people coming in now all the time because they're hearing me on a podcast that I was on, you know, five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, and it's just constantly flowing 293 00:24:53,020 --> 00:24:58,510 in. As well as they're finding me through Google and through YouTube and now my podcast for On Your Terms. 294 00:24:58,510 --> 00:25:06,790 So, it's something that the more that you put into this, I think, it gets a little easier over time in the sense that it's more consistent. 295 00:25:06,790 --> 00:25:11,110 And it can feel in the beginning, like, you're doing all this and you're only getting a handful of people. 296 00:25:11,110 --> 00:25:14,790 But I'm telling you it snowballs and it has a spiderweb effect. 297 00:25:14,790 --> 00:25:16,450 People will invite other people. 298 00:25:16,450 --> 00:25:17,790 They'll tell other people about you. 299 00:25:17,790 --> 00:25:19,990 They'll share your stuff on social media. 300 00:25:19,990 --> 00:25:21,910 And you can build in some of that yourself. 301 00:25:22,060 --> 00:25:24,550 You can encourage people to share about your podcast. 302 00:25:24,550 --> 00:25:26,260 You can encourage people to share your posts. 303 00:25:26,260 --> 00:25:28,870 You can encourage people to share about your freebie. 304 00:25:28,870 --> 00:25:33,040 So, you can really drive the boat there, too, and encourage them. 305 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:42,190 So, now that I planned my quarter and my quarterly focus, I then go down to breaking it down month-by-month within that quarter. 306 00:25:42,700 --> 00:25:49,720 So, I put what I'm focused on for that month and then what I'm planning for that's coming up. 307 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:59,170 So, in quarter one, for example, I might be focusing on behind the scenes, all the stuff that we need to do for the promo for any sort of live webinar that we're hosting. 308 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:06,880 But then, in my day-to-day work, I'm probably working on a new product that it might be coming out within quarter two. 309 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:13,300 Or I'm working on editing and revamping the current legal templates that I have, and I always provide those to my customers. 310 00:26:13,300 --> 00:26:17,410 So, that might be kind of what I'm focusing on behind the scenes. 311 00:26:17,410 --> 00:26:26,830 So, you'll see in the document that I gave you, I have the monthly focus overview section where I talk about I have focus. 312 00:26:26,830 --> 00:26:29,720 And so, the focus might be some sort of live event. 313 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:39,580 And you might be internally having to execute three different things, like prepare my webinar slides, get new client testimonials, 314 00:26:39,580 --> 00:26:43,590 and write email sequence for the live event. 315 00:26:43,590 --> 00:26:48,220 That might be kind of your internal to-dos, which you'll understand when you see the document. 316 00:26:48,220 --> 00:26:50,500 And then, you'll see there's a section underneath called Prep. 317 00:26:50,500 --> 00:26:57,140 I might be prepping for something else that's coming up the following month that's unrelated to the live event at hand. 318 00:26:57,140 --> 00:26:58,780 So, this is just the way I do it. 319 00:26:58,780 --> 00:27:00,280 This makes sense in my brain. 320 00:27:00,890 --> 00:27:03,100 This document should be editable. 321 00:27:03,100 --> 00:27:06,020 If not, you can kind of use it to make your own. 322 00:27:06,020 --> 00:27:09,410 You know, just make this your own thing and you do what works for you. 323 00:27:09,410 --> 00:27:15,320 But that's kind of what makes sense to me because I realized over time that it wasn't just what I was focused on that month. 324 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:18,700 I also had to be focused on whatever was coming up ahead. 325 00:27:18,700 --> 00:27:20,380 So, it's a little bit of both. 326 00:27:20,380 --> 00:27:28,130 Like, taking care of what's going on and then being like, "Oh, I have to start getting some of these things in place or outsourcing them so that somebody else could start to take care of them." 327 00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:37,190 Have you ever felt lost about where to begin with the legal side of protecting your online business? 328 00:27:37,210 --> 00:27:40,720 Some people say you can just wing it at the beginning and get officially set up later. 329 00:27:41,350 --> 00:27:43,060 Not a good idea, by the way. 330 00:27:43,060 --> 00:27:53,050 Whether you're afraid to even start working with clients because you don't want to do something wrong legally and then get in trouble or your business is growing and you sort of forgot to take care of the legal 331 00:27:53,050 --> 00:27:55,120 pieces, I've got you. 332 00:27:55,120 --> 00:27:58,900 I don't want you to live in fear of the internet police coming after you and your business. 333 00:27:58,900 --> 00:28:05,350 But you do have to do certain things and get certain things in place in order to legally and safely run your business online. 334 00:28:05,530 --> 00:28:12,010 As much as it just feels like an unregulated Wild Wild West online, that is very much not the case. 335 00:28:12,010 --> 00:28:17,050 As an attorney turned entrepreneur and former corporate litigator, I can assure you that there are rules. 336 00:28:17,050 --> 00:28:22,060 There are real steps that everybody who runs or starts an online business needs to take. 337 00:28:22,330 --> 00:28:24,190 And you're not behind at all. 338 00:28:24,190 --> 00:28:26,580 We can get you set up and following the rules right away. 339 00:28:26,590 --> 00:28:28,720 In fact, we can even do it today. 340 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:33,700 I want to teach you the five very simple steps to take to legally protect and grow your online business. 341 00:28:33,730 --> 00:28:42,940 You don't need an MBA to be a successful entrepreneur and stay out of legal hot water, but you do need to dot your legal I's and cross your T's in a few key areas that can't be skipped. 342 00:28:42,970 --> 00:28:49,400 That's exactly what I'll teach you in my free one hour legal workshop called Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow your Online Business. 343 00:28:49,420 --> 00:28:58,270 Just head to mylegalworkshop.com, drop in your email address, pick the time, and I'll send you a link to watch the workshop video whenever you have time. 344 00:28:58,270 --> 00:29:08,050 This is the best place to begin if you're just getting started legally legitimizing your business, so head on over to mylegalworkshop.com and sign up to watch Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow your Online 345 00:29:08,050 --> 00:29:14,270 Business now. 346 00:29:14,270 --> 00:29:24,170 Now, one of the most helpful things about planning it out this way is that you'll start to see pretty quickly where you're going to need help in executing these projects, especially what 347 00:29:24,170 --> 00:29:27,730 kinds of things that you absolutely have to do as a CEO of your business. 348 00:29:27,730 --> 00:29:35,660 And which things would, not only be better for somebody else to do, but just that would allow you to actually focus on the things that the CEO needs to focus on. 349 00:29:36,590 --> 00:29:46,190 So, for me, when it comes to a live event or a webinar of some sort, I feel like it's really worth it to have a copywriter who writes sales copy. 350 00:29:46,190 --> 00:29:50,470 That's the copy that gets sent out to people on the email list following up that live event. 351 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:52,870 That is super helpful because it's super strategic. 352 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:54,340 It goes to the bottom line. 353 00:29:54,340 --> 00:29:59,560 And it's something that's really high skilled - it should be - that somebody should have much more expertise than me. 354 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:05,890 And it allows me to prepare the actual webinar content to show up. 355 00:30:05,890 --> 00:30:10,160 For me, I usually do the live event two or three times. 356 00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:14,150 So, I have to show up, it's usually eight hours total of that. 357 00:30:14,150 --> 00:30:15,810 I answer everybody's questions. 358 00:30:15,810 --> 00:30:25,580 And then, until we find a really good body double for me, I have to show up on social media live during that promo window and invite people to come to the webinar 359 00:30:25,950 --> 00:30:29,960 in the first place. And then, for two weeks, invite people to purchase my Ultimate Bundle. 360 00:30:29,970 --> 00:30:32,240 So, it's a lot of me time. 361 00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:40,550 And so, when I'm planning these things out, I'm looking for anywhere that I can bring in the experts and take someone in. 362 00:30:40,550 --> 00:30:43,370 When I was starting doing this, obviously, I did it all myself. 363 00:30:43,370 --> 00:30:44,390 And that was fine. 364 00:30:44,390 --> 00:30:45,900 It's a good way to get started. 365 00:30:45,900 --> 00:30:54,200 But as you're moving forward or for any of you who are in that position, I would start to look at, you know, where can I offload some of these things. 366 00:30:54,200 --> 00:31:03,860 I would really encourage you, too, that you don't want to hold on to these pieces too long yourself, because at some point you're actually holding your event or your promo back from 367 00:31:04,220 --> 00:31:05,930 the full amount of success it can get. 368 00:31:05,930 --> 00:31:15,830 Because if you can get, for example, a copywriter to write a sales copy for you or to write the landing page copy, that is going to convert so much more highly than it will if you 369 00:31:15,830 --> 00:31:18,760 write it, unless you are one of those people yourself. 370 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:24,150 So, it's just one of those things where we can, like, sometimes hold back on investing in that way. 371 00:31:24,150 --> 00:31:26,740 And it's something that's really going to actually increase our revenue. 372 00:31:26,750 --> 00:31:29,870 So, I would encourage you to reach out. 373 00:31:29,870 --> 00:31:35,990 Whenever I'm doing my business planning for the year, I also like to address any goals that I have both business and personal. 374 00:31:35,990 --> 00:31:44,770 So, on the business side, you'll see that I've put some of the, you know, classic ones inside of the document of like, what would you like your annual revenue to be? 375 00:31:44,780 --> 00:31:47,960 And then, I encourage you to break that down by month and by week. 376 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:57,530 And then, I also want you just to really focus on what quarter one and quarter two revenue might be because it might adjust your goals accordingly after those two 377 00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:05,780 quarters. So, for me, last year I, in quarter one, hit my entire annual goal, so that changed pretty quickly. 378 00:32:06,290 --> 00:32:13,340 And so, that's a good example of why I don't spend too much time planning the last half of the year because I want to be able to adjust. 379 00:32:13,340 --> 00:32:19,010 And, you know, having done so well for most of the year also caused me to want to just step back a little bit. 380 00:32:19,010 --> 00:32:28,940 So, it was like, "This was really great." So, I'm okay taking one or two of these events off the table later in the year to give us more time to rest, and recharge, and get ready 381 00:32:28,940 --> 00:32:32,150 for 2022. So, that's what I did. 382 00:32:32,150 --> 00:32:36,500 So, as you're planning all of these out, I want you to, you know, sketch out any of these goals you have. 383 00:32:36,500 --> 00:32:39,100 Maybe you have some other goals, I would love to hear what they are. 384 00:32:39,110 --> 00:32:40,460 I hope you'll share them with me. 385 00:32:40,460 --> 00:32:42,010 Send me a DM on Instagram. 386 00:32:42,020 --> 00:32:51,890 But you might come up with some specific goals like, "I want to have ten thousand unique listeners on my podcast," or "I want to be featured 387 00:32:51,890 --> 00:32:59,180 in a major magazine," or "I want to speak on stage at a conference." Don't be afraid to list out some of those goals as well. 388 00:32:59,180 --> 00:33:06,590 And then, I want you to go back and I want you to look at the way that you're planning out your year and these events that you're putting on the calendar. 389 00:33:06,770 --> 00:33:11,440 Do you see things on that calendar that are supporting these goals that you're speaking aloud? 390 00:33:11,450 --> 00:33:21,170 So, if you want to speak on other people's podcasts, for example, or you want to speak on stage, then I hope that you're building in a part of your 391 00:33:21,170 --> 00:33:24,190 year where part of the focus is PR outreach. 392 00:33:24,190 --> 00:33:27,210 You're reaching out. You're applying to be on people's podcast. 393 00:33:27,210 --> 00:33:29,630 You're networking with people who have podcasts. 394 00:33:29,630 --> 00:33:36,980 You're listening to some classes or educating yourself about how to get featured on podcasts, that kind of stuff. 395 00:33:36,980 --> 00:33:39,980 So, it's just helpful to step back and be like, "Oh, I'm actually not doing anything. 396 00:33:40,580 --> 00:33:50,480 I'm just creating a goal and making it kind of lofty." And just sending out into the universe isn't going to really help unless we actually look at our plan here and 397 00:33:50,660 --> 00:33:53,750 see if anything is fitting is supporting that goal. 398 00:33:53,750 --> 00:33:57,370 Is anything that you're planning getting you any closer to that goal. 399 00:33:57,380 --> 00:34:00,230 So, that can be really, really helpful. 400 00:34:00,230 --> 00:34:10,160 Just like if you have a goal to get X amount of listeners on your podcast, or X number of followers, or email list subscribers, then you have to be looking at your plan 401 00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:16,440 for the year and seeing where are you generating enough traffic to those sources that you would hit those numbers. 402 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:21,170 The stuff really is we can sometimes make it look a lot bigger and more complicated than it really is. 403 00:34:21,170 --> 00:34:30,980 But, you know, if you want to have 10,000 email subscribers, then you need to be sharing your freebie or some entry point into your email list a lot, right? 404 00:34:30,980 --> 00:34:40,670 And so, are you looking at your plans and thinking once every quarter, you can take one month and focus heavy on your freebie and 405 00:34:40,670 --> 00:34:41,760 driving people there. 406 00:34:41,780 --> 00:34:46,570 And if you have a podcast or YouTube channel, you're going to be telling people about your freebie constantly. 407 00:34:46,570 --> 00:34:50,960 So, we want to make sure that the plans that we're putting into place are actually supporting this stuff. 408 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:58,650 I also do want to encourage you to make some personal goals and see how your business can help you support your personal goals. 409 00:34:58,650 --> 00:35:08,630 So, if your personal goals are, like, to be more present and not in your phone so much, making sure that we're not setting so many business gals that are focused on in time 410 00:35:08,630 --> 00:35:17,650 social media, things you can't batch, things you can't prepare, things you couldn't give to a team member or somebody who works for you, a contractor to implement or post for you. 411 00:35:17,660 --> 00:35:23,270 So, you can take that into account, too, when you want to come up with your personal goals. 412 00:35:23,270 --> 00:35:32,900 And then, the last but not least, I want to encourage you - this is something I started doing, like, mid-year this year, and I just really loved it - to come up with daily 413 00:35:32,900 --> 00:35:37,880 non-negotiables. So, at least for me, these were personal non-negotiables. 414 00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:47,660 And so, my daily non-negotiables were to take my vitamin D drops, to take my multivitamin, to walk outside for at least 15 minutes - and there was 415 00:35:47,660 --> 00:35:55,690 something else - to drink a large bottle of water because I'm really bad at drinking water, and to do my little skincare routine before bed. 416 00:35:55,700 --> 00:35:57,740 So, those were my daily non-negotiables. 417 00:35:57,740 --> 00:36:01,430 And I actually input them into Asana so they pop up for me every single day. 418 00:36:01,430 --> 00:36:07,670 I have a little task called Daily Non-negotiables, and I have to go in and actually check those off every day that I did them. 419 00:36:07,670 --> 00:36:14,540 And they might sound really silly and simple to you, but for one, it's been a really bad three years, so don't judge me. 420 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:17,420 So, I'm trying to take care of myself. 421 00:36:17,420 --> 00:36:21,680 Two is that, it doesn't have to be fancy or complicated. 422 00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:25,520 It's just something that are these little, like, micro-commitments to yourself. 423 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:28,880 First of all, it helps to build confidence by you making this little plan. 424 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,300 And then, if you actually stick to it, you will feel more confident and proud of yourself. 425 00:36:32,750 --> 00:36:36,320 So, that's one thing. And two, because they've been so simple, they're really doable. 426 00:36:37,100 --> 00:36:43,520 So, I've done it every single day for months and months and months, and I see effects from it, and I feel better, and all that good stuff there. 427 00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:50,060 I would also suggest if you have Asana, or you use something else like ClickUp, or maybe there's some other one called Monday or something, I don't know. 428 00:36:50,060 --> 00:37:00,020 I use Asana. But if you're going to set up some sort of project management system, I would really encourage you to also set up weekly tasks and then a daily recurring task. 429 00:37:00,020 --> 00:37:08,720 And in there, I want you to put the things that you absolutely have to do every day or week in your business in order to be successful. 430 00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:12,140 So, for your dailies, these might include stuff that you just kind of like have to do. 431 00:37:12,170 --> 00:37:18,810 So, for me, this would be, like, I have to check my inbox and I have to respond to the things that are needed just for me to respond. 432 00:37:18,810 --> 00:37:25,250 So, there might be legal questions from someone or product questions from someone, maybe some PR stuff or something like that. 433 00:37:25,250 --> 00:37:27,440 And then, go into my customer community. 434 00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:29,720 I have to do that every day and answer their questions. 435 00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:32,510 And I also check in with my team. 436 00:37:32,510 --> 00:37:35,330 I check Slack, I check those messages, and all that kind of stuff. 437 00:37:35,330 --> 00:37:40,820 So, those are kind of my three daily non-negotiable things that I have to do for my business. 438 00:37:40,820 --> 00:37:49,840 And then, weekly, I have things like clean up my Asana, clean my office, check my finances, move money over like put more in savings, things like that. 439 00:37:49,850 --> 00:37:51,340 And then, I even have monthly. 440 00:37:51,340 --> 00:37:57,080 Like, uploading my monthly financial documents that my bookkeeper can do what she needs to do, all that kind of stuff. 441 00:37:57,080 --> 00:38:06,650 So, it's really helpful to set those because they are little mental energy tasks that go on in the background that you don't even know are happening, but they actually 442 00:38:07,070 --> 00:38:11,600 take a lot of energy. And so, it's really important that you just get a system in place. 443 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:21,500 I think that between planning 2021 and then having that Asana system after taking Louise's course, like I said, just really, really changed the game for 444 00:38:21,500 --> 00:38:25,580 me because it allowed me to be so organized and then actually execute these things. 445 00:38:25,580 --> 00:38:30,470 Because everything that we're talking about today, it can feel really overwhelming if you don't have some sort of system in place. 446 00:38:30,470 --> 00:38:36,350 So, I think the more that you can just systematize and automate these things, you will thank me later. 447 00:38:36,650 --> 00:38:41,060 So, how do you go about then actually executing everything that we've talked about today? 448 00:38:41,060 --> 00:38:42,530 How do you come up with this plan? 449 00:38:42,980 --> 00:38:48,720 So, I would pick a half-day soon to set aside, reflect, and plan. 450 00:38:48,720 --> 00:38:53,720 I personally like choosing a timer on the holidays, maybe right after the holidays in January. 451 00:38:53,720 --> 00:38:55,580 It can feel a little hard to get up and running. 452 00:38:55,580 --> 00:38:59,450 Everybody always has so much energy and I'm like, "I'm still sleepy from the holidays." 453 00:39:00,230 --> 00:39:07,840 But I would suggest picking a few hours before or after lunch, and you will just set this time aside. 454 00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:15,170 Like, block it off in your calendar, put it in your Asana, silence Slack, silence your phone, put on Do Not Disturb, do all the things. 455 00:39:15,170 --> 00:39:18,130 And I would, honestly, open up this document that I give you. 456 00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:26,440 You could read or listen to this episode or just have this episode open while you have the document open, and go through it with me kind of step by step. 457 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:35,710 Because it's really important to look at where we've been, and what's worked in the past, and what we want to feel and act like, and then make sure that that's actually 458 00:39:36,100 --> 00:39:40,780 lining up with the plan that we're making for moving forward. 459 00:39:40,780 --> 00:39:44,950 So, I would love for you to tag me on Instagram @samvanderwielen as you're planning. 460 00:39:45,630 --> 00:39:46,870 Let me know how it's going. 461 00:39:46,870 --> 00:39:50,260 I can't wait to see what you do in 2022. 462 00:39:50,260 --> 00:39:59,200 I can't wait for next week's episode because in next week's episode, I'm actually sharing a special personal episode where I'll be doing my own personal reflection of 463 00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:01,420 2021 in my business. 464 00:40:01,420 --> 00:40:09,190 I'm going to share all behind the scenes of what I did in the business, how it went, what I wish I would have done differently, what I learned, all the lessons I took away from it. 465 00:40:09,190 --> 00:40:15,520 And I'm going to be forecasting a little bit about what I'm planning myself for 2022, how I'm going about planning. 466 00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:23,410 So, you're definitely going to want to check out next week's episode on December 27th, I want to say, that comes out. 467 00:40:23,410 --> 00:40:31,450 Because this year, I went from a multi-six figure business to multi-seven figure business, and it's just bananas. 468 00:40:31,450 --> 00:40:36,250 And it was a lot of change, and it was awesome, and a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. 469 00:40:36,250 --> 00:40:41,140 And so, I'm really, really excited to pass on some of that to you. 470 00:40:41,140 --> 00:40:47,280 So, before you go, make sure you check out the free annual business planner guide that I put for you below. 471 00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:48,710 The link is in the description. 472 00:40:48,730 --> 00:40:53,410 I'll also drop the link to Louise Henry's Uplevel with Asana course, for $100 off as well. 473 00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:56,500 It just was so, so helpful to me. 474 00:40:56,500 --> 00:41:01,110 Until then, I can't wait to hear from you on Instagram about how your annual planning is going. 475 00:41:01,150 --> 00:41:04,550 Tag me in your stories as you're doing your planning because I can't wait to celebrate you. 476 00:41:04,550 --> 00:41:10,680 And thank you so much for listening to On Your Terms. 477 00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:13,150 Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms podcast. 478 00:41:13,170 --> 00:41:17,790 Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcast. 479 00:41:17,820 --> 00:41:24,840 You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvvanderwielen.com/podcast. 480 00:41:24,870 --> 00:41:33,340 You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow your Online Business, at samvanderwielen.com. 481 00:41:33,340 --> 00:41:39,010 And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram @samvanderwielen, and send me a DM to say hi. © 482 00:41:39,010 --> 00:41:39,230 2022 Sam Vander Wielen LLC | All Rights Reserved | Any use of this intellectual property owned by Sam Vander Wielen LLC may not be used in connection with the sale or distribution of any content (free or paid, written or verbal), product, 483 00:41:39,230 --> 00:41:39,360 and/or service by you without prior written consent from Sam Vander Wielen LLC.