Welcome to the Elevated Edit, the weekly reset for ambitious women who are done with chaos and ready to actually follow through.

I'm your host, Blakely Ramsey, strategist, systems girl and execution coach for entrepreneurs who want structure that sells in a business that feels like peace.

Here, we don't chase hustle.

We edit what matters.

Let's get into it.

Hello and welcome to this short and sweet episode.

I am getting ready to head out of town for a little mini trip and I am using this trip to get super clear on my Q3 roadmap.

Now, I think a lot of people look at quarterly planning from a very stressful perspective and they expect to leave their planning session with a, like, detailed plan of what they are wanting and needing to do.

For me personally, I don't look at it from that perspective.

I don't look at it like this laundry list of goals that I have to achieve in this massive to do list.

I just want to make sure that I am very clear on what direction I'm wanting to head and that I have an honest pulse check on what actually matters.

And more importantly, I have a pulse check on what doesn't matter.

Now, I think a lot of people commit and over commit in the name of momentum.

And if that is you, it is no judgment.

The people that know me that are listening to this podcast, they know exactly what I mean when I say that was me for a really, really long time.

I said yes to every opportunity that landed on my plate.

I said yes to every suggestion.

I pretty much was living my life for other people and it led to vicious burnout and intense resentment.

I think that is putting it lightly.

It took me, you know, a lot of, like, therapy and deep work to kind of pull myself out of that hole and realize that I can say no to things.

And I think once I developed that muscle, that is when my planning sessions really started to come into play and really, like, become more important for me in my business.

Because now I can look at my five year plan, my, you know, three year plan, my one year, and then break it down to my quarter and then I can look from a bigger perspective and go, okay, this is what I need to say yes to in order to move the needle.

And this is what I have to say no to in order to move the needle.

And I'm not saying it's always going to be easy.

I disappoint people all the time.

Like just yesterday, I disappointed three different people because they wanted me to do something that I just, I'm not capable of handling in this upcoming quarter, I've got a lot of travel, I have a lot of visibility, and I have a lot of opportunity.

And I can very easily fall into a place of burnout and overwhelm if I say yes to all of this, all these things they're wanting me to do.

But I want to be very intentional with this quarter, because this quarter, more so than I think any quarter ever of my whole life, I could be a completely different person coming out on the other side.

And so that's why it's so important to have this time to just get really crystal clear on where you're going and what it's going to take to get there.

So you can say no.

And even if they're disappointed, you can say no with confidence going like, okay, I know what is on the other side of this, and I know what I have to do, I know what's necessary, and I know what it's going to take to get me there.

Because it is so easy to just say yes in the moment.

It's so easy to just, you know, get them off your back and be like, okay, fine, I'll go, or, yes, I'll do that for you, or, you know, I'll happily take that on my plate.

And it can feel productive in the moment.

You know, I can.

It can kind of give you that hit of dopamine, but it can really easily pull you out of alignment.

And then, like, before you know it, you're halfway through the quarter and you realize that you're burnt out or you've been doing a lot of the wrong thing.

That was me, too, is I was constantly busy.

I was always doing things for other people.

I was always just, yes, yes, yes.

And then I would get to the end of the day and I'd look at my list, and I was like, wow, I checked off everything for everybody else.

And my list of things that I needed to move my business forward did not get touched.

And I think, especially if there are any kind of, like, personal relationship lines that are a little blurred for you with business, it can be really easy to feel like a guilt and feel like you're letting your friends down and your family down and your people down when you put up those professional boundaries.

But if you take advantage of quarterly planning or if quarterly is overwhelming for you, start with monthly.

But I do think that looking from a bird's eye view at a quarter can help you plan your months and your weeks and your days easier.

That's just my opinion.

But start.

Start where you can.

And for Me, I get so much of my power back when I plan because I know what to protect.

I know what weeks I need to protect.

I know what days I need to protect.

I know when I need to be high energy.

I know when I'm going to be traveling.

And instead of just saying yes to everything all of the time, you can really, like, have a clear map of, like, okay, this is where I have the capacity to take on something more, and this is where I do not have the capacity.

And you can stand in conviction, too.

And I am learning that when I just stand in my conviction, no matter how much people beg and just say, hey, look, this is why I'm doing this.

This is why I'm saying no.

Not saying no because I don't love you.

Not saying no because I don't want to spend time with you or go on the trip or do the thing.

But, like, I've got to, like, put my horse blinders on and take advantage of these opportunities that are right in front of.

So I want to pull back the curtains just a little bit on how I use a quarterly planning session.

So starting in 2023, I have done a mini quarterly planning retreat every single quarter, just a couple days away, just so that way I can, like, get away from the noise, get away from the responsibilities, get away from everything that is, like, on my plate at home and at work.

And I can just focus on the future and focus on the tiny micro actions that it's going to take in order for me to get there.

So I love to ask myself questions, I love to journal.

During these quarterly sessions, I ask myself, like, what do I want this quarter to feel like?

For me, in this particular quarter, I need my energy to be at 100.

I need to be calm, I need to be clear.

I need to be creative.

I've got a lot of opportunity to really expand my visibility and expand my brand.

And I could very easily fall short at any of these chances and never get them back.

And so I really have to be on my P's and Q's.

I need to be rested, I need to be hydrated.

I need to, you know, work out daily.

I need to, you know, have white space.

I need to do all of, like, the things that I know are good for me.

I need to double down on those and make sure that I make them a priority.

This quarter, I asked myself, what needs to be true for that to happen?

So this really kind of forces you to think, like, okay, in order for this to happen, what needs to be true?

What has to happen.

You reverse engineer just a little bit.

And for me, that is such an important part of planning.

Because when I just plan with like a forward thinking mindset, I miss a lot of things.

But when I reverse engineer and I go, okay, here's my end result, let's take a few steps back and look at all the individual micro steps.

What is it going to take for me to get there?

I can go, okay, ooh, I would have missed that.

Or I need to find somebody to do this.

Or I need, you know, an outfit for this, or I need to book a spray tan for this, like whatever it is.

Those might sound little and childish, but having all those things done ahead of time is so important.

And then I'm going to ask myself, what have I been saying yes to that no longer aligns?

I'll be super honest, at this point in my life, there is not a lot of things on my schedule that I'm saying yes to.

Just to say yes to.

It feels so good to have control over my calendar.

It is the first time in my whole life, I'm not even going to say in the last eight years in my whole life because I started working so young that I have full control over my calendar and surprise, surprise, I'm working more than ever.

But it's work that I love to do.

It is work that gets me really excited.

And so for me, that is not as big of a question anymore.

But if you are in a season where you just feel like you have said yes to things that have obligations, that might be something that you want to ask yourself is what have I been saying yes to that no longer aligns.

So recap on those questions.

What do I want this quarter to feel like?

What needs to be true for that to happen?

And what have I been saying yes to that no longer aligns.

Now a couple of other things that I am going to pre plan during this trip.

So that way they are booked, they're ready, I don't have to think about them, there's no decision fatigue later on in the quarter.

I can just execute.

Execute.

Execute is travel and logistics.

I've got a lot of travel, I'm excited, but I've got a lot of travel outfits, spray tans, hair appointments, Botox, brand aesthetics, all the things.

I know that that sounds like a little, well, it sounds very high maintenance.

I am very high maintenance.

It sounds a little, gosh, I can't even think of the word for it.

I don't even know.

But for me, if I don't plan Those things in advance, they become stressors.

The week of, I'm like, oh, what am I gonna wear?

Or, oh, shoot, I didn't, you know, book my spray tan in advance.

And now I.

I can't get it at the time I want, and I've got to go to awkward time.

Like, I like to just plan all that out ahead of time.

So that way there's no.

There's no panic.

The week of I can just be calm and clear in the moment, and then any training or reading that I want to complete, I like to look at this at the beginning of the quarter.

So that way I'm not reactively reading books or reactively joining courses or reactively joining programs.

I am looking at it from a strategic standpoint in terms of what am I wanting from this quarter and how can I support myself in that.

And I mentioned in the last podcast episode, I just hired a PR coach.

I knew that visibility was going to be really important for me in this quarter, and so I.

I, like, tried to do the PR stuff by myself, and it was becoming very overwhelming, and there were some things I was really confused on, and I was like, blakely, if you have learned anything this year, you.

You have learned that hiring someone to guide you through the process can collapse time.

I hired a coach yesterday, and we've already knocked out so much, and there's so many little teeny, tiny things that I didn't even realize that she is.

I mean, she's breaking my brain open.

I knew nothing about PR until I hired her.

It's always funny because you think you know stuff, and then when you start learning, you realize how much you don't know anything.

And with all of this, I love to just give myself, like, a few intentional hours now, a few intentional hours this weekend to book things, to schedule stuff, to think ahead so that I can execute for the next three months.

You know, I'm not gonna have to worry about all this stuff at the last minute.

And I also.

I'm just gonna free journal.

I want to free journal about things like my brand.

What do I want my brand to feel like, look like?

What kind of strategy am I looking for?

What kind of leader do I want to be?

Do I want to take on any extra trips?

Do I want to take on any extra collaborations?

Like, what is my overall vision for the quarter?

So that way, when those opportunities do come in, I can go, okay, this is aligned.

This is not.

And I'm not saying that my not aligned list is a no forever, but, you know, this quarter is a big one and it's really important.

And if you're in a season where you're having one of those quarters, just having that this does not align list can be really helpful.

And I think it can take away a lot of guilt too.

Of like, man, should I say yes to that?

It's actually a really good opportunity and I want you to think differently.

I don't want you to think about your no list or your not aligned list about like, oh, this is negative.

This is some place that I should feel guilt.

Just think about it as like, I am unavailable for chaos right now and if I say yes to this, it is going to create chaos in my life.

And this is all just about like looking at something before it happens.

Just, you're not going to be able to predict everything.

You're not going to be able to plan every single day so perfectly.

Things are definitely going to go wrong.

Definitely going to go wrong.

Let me say one more time, definitely going to go wrong.

But if you can plan ahead, it gives you a little bit more flexibility, a little bit more wiggle room.

This isn't about, like control and like being so rigid.

It is just about getting clear and realizing, like, okay, this is what I need in order to be successful.

Feel confident, feel joyful, feel happy, feel abundant.

And gift yourself the gift of a few quiet hours.

If you can't get away, if you can only have one hour, like, go to the coffee shop, map out your quarter like the CEO that you are, and then that way you can spend the next 90 days in execution and not confusion.

Okay.

I hope that this episode helped.

I am so excited for this podcast.

The brand for you, for me, for all the stuff that's coming.

There's just so much momentum.

There's so much good building.

There's so much joy building.

And it.

I truly can say this.

I have never been happier and more grateful for life.

I'm just.

My cup truly overfloweth.

And thank you for always listening to the podcast.

I really appreciate it.

Okay.

Hope you enjoyed this short and sweet episode.

I hope you have an amazing rest of your day and I'll see you in the next one.

That's it for this edition of the Elevated Edit.

If this episode hit, don't keep it to yourself screenshot it, share it, tag me on Instagram, and if you're ready to structure your business like the CEO that you are, you know where to find me.