You're listening to the Routine youe Dream podcast with your

host, me, Chanel. I sincerely believe that

success is hidden in your daily routine. So let's

routine that dream of yours and watch your life and

business unfold exactly as you dreamed. Shall we?

Let's go. Well, hey,

and welcome back. Today I want to share with you one of the biggest

mistakes that, that I used to make in the November,

December, January timeframe. And

that is? Well, when I first started

business planning, I would sit there and think, okay,

in order to be successful, I need

to plan everything out to the last

detail. And there were two big mistakes in my

thinking that I hope you can learn from me and my

mistakes. And the first thing that

I was doing that I didn't realize I was doing when I first started business

planning was I was just making a long

to do list for the year. So if you've ever

done something where you said, I'm going to plan for the year, and you

planned out, let's say your blog posts for the year and you

had all of your blog posts planned from January

to December, that's actually not

a strategic plan. It's just

a long list. And so I wasn't

baking strategy into my plans. It

was just me planning content. Planning without

strategy, you know, is not a strategic plan. And

so that is my mistake number one. Mistake number one

was not looking at forming a strategy

and then using that strategy to create

the plan. The next mistake

that I made was I was sitting there trying to plan out the

whole year. Annualized planning

is very much a waste

of time, in my opinion, and here's why. There's a

concept that I love, I love, love, love.

And that concept is periodization.

It's actually used with athletes

to inform their training regimen.

So people like Michael Phelps, and it's been around

since the 70s for athletes. And so what

they do is instead of trying to be the best at everything

all the time, they get really focused

for a few weeks on specific skills that they're

trying to develop or get better at, and then they move

on. And what comes of that is a very strong,

well rounded athlete. But instead of trying to plan out their

entire year of workouts, for example, they're really focused

on like three to six weeks of intensity

around specific areas. And I'm not an

athletic trainer, so I don't know all the details. I just know if

it works for athletes who are out here winning gold medals that

then we can take, we can take some cues and bring that into our

business world. And So I first discovered the concept

of periodization in the book called the

12 week year. And the subtitle for the 12 week year

is how to get more done in 12 weeks than most

people do in 12 months. And that

couldn't be more true. I mean, when

you start thinking about the whole year and trying to

plan for the whole year, what you're leaving out are all

of the great and not so great things that are going to happen

between the time that you make that plan and December

31st one, you might think, oh, I've got time.

I've got time to reach the 100,000 followers on

social or to reach my first

10,000 subscribers on YouTube or my email list

or whatever your goals are. You might just be thinking, like, yeah,

that's what I want to do. And then, you know, like,

October, November comes around and you're like, wait a second, I am

nowhere near that goal. And then you, like, start to

push. I don't know if you're in that. In that season of like, all right,

I had some things that I promised myself that I was going

to do in this year, and I want to make sure it

gets done. So you've totally abandoned your goals or you're in a rush

to try to achieve them if you were doing the annual

planning and the annual goal setting

without, like, periodization baked in.

So the concept of the 12 week year comes

in handy and has been transformative in my business and in my

opinion, will help you go from scattered to having a true system

that works because you're

looking at your three to five year vision, where

you want your life, where you want your business to ultimately end up.

When clients come to me, they might be saying, hey, I want to be able

to leave teaching in the next two years. That's my vision.

Or they might be saying, I am a full time TPT seller. I'm

looking to retire in the next five years and I want to

set my business up so that I'm taken care of in

retirement. And so having that big ultimate

vision is the key. That is numero

uno. And then from there, it's

okay to look at your year ahead and say, okay,

if that's where I ultimately want to be in the next three to five

years, what needs to happen this year?

That's really the only driving question that you need to ask yourself

when it comes to annual planning. It's just like, what are the big things that

are. That would need to happen this year in order

to set myself that much closer to my ultimate

three to five year vision, you don't need to know the how.

If you get caught in the how and you try to figure out the how

for the next 12 months, what you're going to be missing out

on are opportunities to adjust and course correct.

But with the 12 week year, you're looking at it like, okay,

where would I need to be? Let's use, hmm,

let's use YouTube as an example. I'm not on

YouTube yet, but we'll just, we'll just try this

out. So let's say that in the next

three years, I wanted a,

like, I wanted YouTube to be my number one traffic driver

for my business, for the podcast, for everything.

So what would happen, what would have to happen in

the year, like in the next 12 months in order for, in

the next three to five years YouTube to be my main source of

traffic? Well, I would need to start a YouTube

channel and I would probably need to start figuring out things

like my video style, understanding

keywords for YouTube, understanding the analytics,

understanding what goes into thumbnail strategy. The first

few minutes of a video, I would need to get the tech

needed for that. So like, there are some things that would need

to happen. But ultimately, at the end of the day, if I wanted,

If I wanted YouTube to be my number one traffic

driver, I would have to have a channel and I would have to be posting

consistently. And that's really all that I would need to set

as an end goal for the next 12

months on YouTube. And then where the

magic happens is when you start to look at like, start to use

periodization and you start to say, and it doesn't have to be 12

weeks. The book the 12 week year is to me the

number one must read if you're a business owner. But

even if you don't read that, you can still choose. Like athletes,

they don't always do 12 weeks. Sometimes they do three to six weeks.

So pick your timeframe. I wouldn't go past 12 weeks, 12

weeks max. But tell yourself, okay,

if, because like for me taking this

podcast, if I wanted to take this podcast into YouTube

and turn it into a video podcast, that's a very

overwhelming feeling. I've been thinking about it. I

am so shy. So me on camera is something that I'd have

to push myself for. But if

I think about it, like, I don't have to have everything

figured out. The only thing I have to figure out right now

is just how will I film? Like, how would I even press

record? What am I pressing record on so I could say for the next

three weeks, my maybe my 12 week goal is to

actually post the very first video. But then when

you start to think about it, even your 12 week goals, you don't have

to have every week planned out. You just need to say, okay, what is

the number one goal? One or two,

do not go past three. That is coming from the recommendation

of the authors of the 12 week year. And I can second that. For me,

I've always tried to be like very gung ho, try to go max

three goals. Like I want to have this and this and this in the next

12 weeks. But what I have learned is if you, the more

laser focused you are on achieving one goal, the better,

especially if you're strapped for time. So the only

goal that I could have is to literally

have the like, maybe

like three videos recorded in the next 12

weeks. That might be generous. You know, you, you know, if you're, you

know the pace that you're working on. So if you

know that you're only able to work on your business five hours a

week, then you might be more conservative. Like me.

I am coaching full time. So I don't

have like, I'm not like just a full time YouTube creator.

So I have a lot to figure out. And so I would say if I

could have three videos just recorded,

that alone would have, that would mean that I would have

figured out how to like, what is my background going to be, what

are, what is the tech going to be, what is

the video style going to be? I've the editing software, there's

a lot in there. So for me to just say, hey, by the end of

12 weeks I want three YouTube videos that are just

recorded, not even uploaded to YouTube, but just recorded

that I know would mean that over the next 12 weeks that would be a

lot. That's a big learning curve for me. And I'm just speaking

hypothetically, but don't be surprised if I end up

with a YouTube channel because it is something that is on my goal.

But I'm just thinking it through right now out loud, off the top of my

head too, of if I were to turn this into, if I were to tap

into periodization with this. So

if I know that if I'm going to work backwards, if three videos is

my overarching goal for the next 12 weeks, I don't have to

figure out when I'm going to figure out editing. I don't have to figure out

anything but this week. So

then you're saying to yourself,

okay, I know where I want to be in three to five years. I know

where I need to be ending the year at. I know where I need

to be ending the next 12 weeks. So what can I do

this week that could be in my

planner that would help set me up for that 12

week goals of having three videos recorded or whatever it is

for your goal. And so this week I could say, okay,

I need to figure out what I'm filming on. Depending on how much time you

have, that could be how you set your to do list for the day. So

you might say, okay, I have an hour. Start brainstorming

tactics of what would help you achieve your week goal. So if my

week goal, one week from now, I want to know what I'm

filming with. Is it going to be my, is it going to be my iPhone?

Am I, am I going to bust out my old camera that's

been collecting dust in my closet and try to figure it out because it was

too intimidating when I first bought it, so I just did nothing with it. All

the camera settings and stuff. Should I just watch YouTube

videos about the camera that I own so I can learn more about it?

This is where you start to get tactical. This is okay because

you're in the moment and you know that you're just

working in this week, in today. So

that is how you actually achieve your goals

is when you are that in the moment with it. And you're

always going to be on track because you're always assessing

yourself, like, okay, you have this deadline and you know,

like that pressure that you feel in November and December to

try to like, achieve the goals that you said you were going to achieve. Guess

what? It's condensed. So you're more productive. You're more

productive because you have, like, you're not waiting until December

31st. You have a very specific goal that's going to get you to your December

31, you know, ultimate goal. But, like,

you're there, you're in the moment, you're tweaking as needed. If I

bust out that camera and I say, whatever, this is too hard, well,

guess what, I'm pivoting then and figuring out how to film on my

iPhone. And so that to me is the

most effective way to plan. If you are just thinking, I'm just going to plan

the whole year, I'm going to beg you now to just go order the book,

the 12 week year. Read it. And the other thing that I think pairs

so perfectly with the 12 week year is the book. The

one thing I think that when you become

an Accidental entrepreneur. You start to

see everything that everybody else is doing, and then you're like, oh, I

need to do that, and I need to do that, and I need to do

that. And it all seems important right now.

And that can even be true for, like, your year goal of, like,

okay, I'm gonna have to achieve this, this, this, this.

And if you could get laser focused

on one main thing,

that's where you start to have momentum. I had a client ask

me yesterday. We're looking at

her business. She's making on average $8,000

per month. And she's like, what is wrong with me that I'm not

making 10,000 and above? And I said, nothing is

actually wrong with you, but let's dissect this so that you

at least have the clarity as to, like, where that $2,000 gap

is and what you could do about it. But she wanted to know, she's like,

are people who are making like $10,000 and more

on TPT, like, do they have big teams or what? And I

said, you know, some, but it's actually. I mean, I

don't work with every single TPT seller in the world, but the ones that

I work with who have. Who are making $10,000

a month or $50,000 a month

or $100,000 a month. Not all of them have

teams, but what they do have is one thing

that is definitely working for them. And as you climb up

to. From 10,000 to 30,000 to 50,000, you start

to see some overlaps of like, okay, they don't just have one

thing working for them, they have multiple things working for them. So what I mean

by that is they might have a real.

They might have a hundred thousand followers on Instagram,

and that particular traffic channel is working

excellent for them. Another client might have a hundred

thousand subscribers on her email list, and her email

marketing is working excellent for her or 50,000 or

whatever number. But most clients who are at

10,000 and above, they have one great gear

that is in motion that they've been consistent with. And the client that

I was speaking to, she had been on

TPT for a while. And if you've been on TPT for a while,

then you know that going used to be good where you could probably just

rely on TPT search to be, like, making a

nice chunk of money. But nowadays you do need some sort

of external something to really climb

up in those thousands, those thousands per

month. And so whether it be email, YouTube,

TikTok, Instagram ads, a

big giant team, like, you need one of them to

be working. And so it's hard when you're over here

trying to post on Instagram, grow your email list, dabble in

ads, and then your investments are scattered too because

of shiny objects syndrome. So you're over here seeing

this person say, hey, come take my Instagram course. So you're

taking Instagram and then you're like, oh wait, but I need to take this Facebook

ads course. And you're like all over the place. And then you're using, you're letting

other people's open cart close cart. Like you need to buy this

now. Pressure to like completely scatter you.

Instead, if you bring in the concept of

periodization, then you're going to say hey for the next 12 weeks.

So coming back to my example for YouTube, it wouldn't be

smart for me to invest in Instagram

anything because if my focus is YouTube, then I would need to be looking

at making my investments with YouTube or taking

time to not spend time listening to random

podcasts. But maybe I'm actually listening to podcasts where people are

talking about. Or maybe podcasts isn't a good example.

Maybe I need to be watching YouTube videos for the camera that

is collecting dust that my husband used for real estate,

but he doesn't need to use anymore. I should be learning that

camera. So like that's where my time should be spent, not

learning. I don't know anything else really.

You know, like you want to. The beautiful part about having

periodization in your business and using that as a

system for planning is you're not going to spend as much money on things

that you're not going to use courses, software, all

of that. Because your focus, your investments should be driving

you closer to that shorter term goal that's going to ultimately

help you with your year goal, which is going to ultimately help you with your

long term vision. But it's just nice. It makes everything

so clear and in a world of so many options,

it's so needed. So I say, if you want

to take a cue from my clients who are making 10,

20, 30, 40 and up per month,

they have dialed in something and they're consistent with.

And that client that I was telling you that, she was asking me, like, well,

what's wrong with me? She has, she's been going all

in lately, but prior to that she didn't have something where

she had ever gone all in on. And sometimes you can look at other

people and you can see the money they're making, but you have to ask

yourself, so for example, let's use Instagram, for example.

Have you ever truly went all in on Instagram? Like, you

actually tried your all for

six months a year?

Most people are going to say no if even if. And

remember, even if you are just posting, posting

frequency is not a full strategic plan. Remember, that was mistake

number one that I made was just planning, like

just making a list. Making a list is not a

strategic plan. So if you're like, oh, well, I have

been giving my all to Instagram. I have been posting

every single day or however. You know, like, you've been consistent

but you haven't seen it become your number one traffic

driver or it's not hitting the business goals. You might just be up

here showing up for Instagram just for the sake of showing up. But then

when we actually look at your what you're posting, there's

no strategy behind it. You're not saying, oh, I'm using

Instagram to grow my email list. So I have this

strategy where I post a lead magnet

twice a week. And then you're not looking at this month. How

much did Instagram grow my list by? Like, the measurement isn't

in there. And I'm not saying you're doing this, but I can say

this. I know my mistake and the mistake of so many of my clients

is not having the strategy that is

driving their execution. If you're

resonating with this, one thing that I think is helpful is when you think

outcome first, why are you posting that

particular post? What is the outcome that you want? Do you want more

engagement? Do you want more reach? Do you want more followers? Do you want to

build your list? Do you want to convert to sales? And when you can

think outcome first, not just on a granular level of

just, you know, posting, but when you start to form your

strategy, you can think, what is the outcome that I want? So that you're

not just falling into the routine of busy

work. Busy work is such a trap. Busy work

can only get you so far. When you're just doing the things that you know

you need to be doing, it's going to give you mediocre results and I want

you out here thriving. So instead of giving yourself

the busy work, the fancy new long to do list

for the year, what I would love if you did

is to start thinking about periodization thinking and

picking a timeframe for you to really laser focus

in on one main goal and then get

tactical for just the week ahead. The week ahead.

You know, one thing that helps is if you say, okay, my

goal is to have three videos for YouTube recorded in the

next 12 weeks. Every single week should be like

that. Monday or whenever you do your planning could be a tactical brain dump of

like, what's everything that I could possibly do

this week that is within my control that would

allow me to get one step closer to having three videos recorded.

And when you do that, now you're. Now you're just basically

ordering off of a menu for your to do list. You could be like, all

right, this is everything I could do, but here's what

I actually have time for and have the energy for and have the creative

juices for whatever today. And so you don't even

have to hold yourself to that tactical

brainstorm, but at least you have all the options because let's be

real, there's so many different ways to reach a goal. And what

I have found is when you set these. When you use periodization

planning as your system for planning and you ditch like,

all annual planning, all like, let's plan your entire

year kind of thinking that, you know you're going to be like

inundated with, in your inbox and ads and stuff in

the, in the December, January months. If you just get rid of

all of that and you say, okay, I'm going all in

laser focusing on a main specific goal for the

year. This is going to be the mini goal I need over X

number of weeks. That is going to be. That's going to

be your game changer because then you can pivot much

more easily. Your December 31st goal

is right in front of your face every single

day. And you know, they say that if

you write a goal as if it's already happened, and just writing your goal

down is going to increase the likelihood that you

are going to achieve that goal. So what I like to do is like, when

at the top of my to do list, I'm like, by such and such

date, I will have blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And

then, and then I make my to do list because then you're like, front

and center, front and center. So whenever I'm like, locked, locked in,

that is. That is like such a fun,

fun little thing that you can do that will actually

drive the chances of you actually getting to that

goal. So it will just increase it so much

more. So try that. Try periodization. And please

start baking some strategy into your planning so that you're not just

making a busy work plan for the year and actually

have strategy to drive that plan.

All right, so let's end with a promise. Promise me that

you won't make the same mistake that I did and think that

planning an entire year is going to be a useful,

effective time investment in your business.

Instead, you're going to have a very clear vision

for your life and for your business and you're going to be thinking about

what changes would need to happen so that in

three or five years. I'm more of a three year

girl myself, because five years just seems so, the way the

Internet changes. Like, can you imagine back in

2019 trying to make a five year plan, like

without the knowledge that AI was going to take over? And like, come

on, it's just, it's just too much. We live in a very

rapidly changing world. So I say 3. Get

your 3 year vision locked in high definition

clarity and then backwards plan from there of like,

all right, what would be some major things that would need to

happen this year in the next 12 months

that would get me closer to that? And then from there, set

your one goal laser in, laser in on

one goal for the next 12 weeks, four weeks, six weeks, whatever you

need it to be to keep you focused.

And then from there, do a practical brainstorm.

A practical, a tactical brainstorm

of everything you could do this week

to make your one week goal

happen, to then make your 12 week goal happen. That would

then put you on the path for your year goal happening, your year

vision more so, and then your three year vision

happening. And that, my friend, is how you make a to do list

every single day. If you do that, you're going to be so

on track for the year. You're going to come back to me in

December or in 12 weeks from listening to this podcast

episode and you're going to be like, that was life changing. I kid you

not. I don't know one person who has actually

stuck to periodization as part of their planning

system and have not seen good results.

Even if you fail, even if things go completely

different. Guess what? You didn't wait the whole year to find that

out. You found that out week one, week two, week three, and you

adjust accordingly. That's the power of

periodization as a planning system in your business.

So please, give it a try and you can thank me later.

All right, talk soon.