Ep. 035: How to Plan Your Year for Success
Modern goal-setting and planning gets a lot wrong. Typically they tell you to set "big scary goals" and then just work really hard. This is a great recipe for burnout. I know because this is how I used to do it...and I burned out! Now the way I set goals for myself and with my clients is to look at the big picture and work backward. This means you get to feel enjoyment and satisfaction every step of the way, and not just when you hit your goals.
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Erika Tebbens: Before we dive into the episode, I wanted to share a little bit about my group coaching program, The Success Squad.
If you find in your business that you aren't quite as booked out, as you would love to be. Perhaps you are having some amazing revenue months here and there, but it's really inconsistent. Or maybe you still haven't hit a revenue goal that you've set for yourself. Maybe you really overthink what you should be offering and you're confused around how you should actually be putting it out there into the world, then I have great news for you because you're going to get all of that more. When you join The Success Squad.
So what can you expect? In the success squad, I make sure that all the squad members get a ton of clarity around what they should be offering and how they should craft their messaging so that the right people are finding it and loving it. And then you get a ton of confidence around visibility, showing up different places, getting the word out so that people actually know your offer exists. And then some tools and tips on how to actually close more sales, how to sell those amazing offers. And lastly, you're going to get a phenomenal community of other entrepreneurs who get it. Because even if you have some incredible people in your life who are really supportive and they've got your back.
If they aren't running businesses of their own, they don't always completely understand your struggles. Right? So if this sounds like something that you're curious about, that might be the exact thing that you need to get where you want to be in your business. Then I would encourage you to go to bit.ly/success-squad and read more about it. And on that page, depending on the time of the year, it'll either let you apply or get on the wait list. And if you have any questions, just be sure to reach out. Because everybody deserves a squad. All right, now, onto the episode.
It's hard to believe that it is almost time to plan for a new year. And I know that this is not always the most exciting thing for everyone. Because for some people, planning can feel awesome. And for other people it can feel very constricting, anxiety, producing, all sorts of different things that are just not, um, not always the most positive. And I think that a lot of that stems from the fact that, uh, broadly we have a way of goal setting and work planning that is out there. Um, at least in America - that I feel like is not always the most helpful for all people. It's this very like, uh, you know, like hustle your face off and do whatever it takes. And if you cared enough, you would work harder. Like it's just this, um, you know, pull out all the stops, do absolutely everything in order to hit your goals.
Because if you don't hit your goals, then you suck. Right? So I feel like that's, that's kind of where a lot of like, common goal setting comes from, I would say. Which sucks. Is not, you know, it's not really, it's not really helpful. And I think it makes it so that a lot of people are like, um, if that's the way to set goals and plan my year, then I would just rather not, I would rather just wing it.
But the problem with winging it is then there was like, you know, there's just, you're winging it, right? You, you have, there's no plan. There's no, um, there's no like path forward. There's uh, you're just setting yourself up for a lot of like a lot of unknowns and a lot of, um, really frustrating days because you end up going into like a reactive mode with everything instead of proactive.
So I don't want to do that. I want to share with you what I do. Um, because up until a few years ago, I did the normal goal-setting year planning system that most everyone else does. And then, uh, I actually hit my goals. I hit four big goals in six weeks at the end of 2016. And I thought I'd be very happy when I hit them all, because everything out there says, you know, when you hit your goals, you'll be super happy and, and here are the goals that you should be striving for and all of this stuff.
And then I hit them and I wasn't happy. And then I was like, "What is going on? Is something wrong with me? And, uh, I don't like this." And I felt very burnt out. And then I realized, "Oh no, I was just going about the whole process the way most people do in that way, doesn't work for me." And it turns out it doesn't work super well for my clients either.
So the way that I, when I work with clients and we are making a plan. And I usually do quarterly plans. And so this is the approach I use with them. So I wanted to share it with you because it served me well and it has served them well, too. So first things first, I start within intention. So I usually do an intention for the year and I do an intention for the quarter.
So, some people like to view it as a, like a word of the year. But I don't necessarily think it has to be just that it can be. It can be a word of the year. It could be a phrase for the year. It could be a mantra. It could be a feeling it's going to be whatever is going to resonate with you because ultimately that's all that matters, is that it resonates with you.
And I like to think of this as like a North star for the year. This is the thing that when you're feeling stuck and you're feeling frustrated, this is the thing you go back to. So for 2019, I actually had a mantra instead of a word, and it was, "Release to receive". Because by default, I can be a little bit, um, controlling. And I can sometimes, uh, lack a lot of like faith and trust in myself and my business.
And, um, sometimes have a hard time with just receiving something good and just sitting with it without wanting to rush on, to cross the next, uh, goal or to do off my, off my list. Right? So, whenever I would start to feel like, "Oh my gosh, I don't know what the next thing is. That's going to happen. Or, um, this is bringing up a lot of anxiety, or what if this doesn't work or whatever", I would just remind myself, "Release to receive, release to receive."
So that was really, really, really helpful. So set an intention for the year and or the quarter that is right in front of you. And you don't have to rush this at all. Like this doesn't have to be, um, I used again, I used to try to really like force a lot of things. And so for years, even when I was like in hustle mode, I would still set a word for the year, but I would, I would like really like wrestle with it.
Right? It'd be like, "Oh, I have to have my word for the year." And now I just, I kind of let it come to me. Sometimes I'll like toss a few words around in my brain. I'll kind of sit with them. I'll see how they how they feel, I'll see how I think about them. And then the rest of the time, I'm like, "You know what? I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna wait."
Like there might be like three to five that are jostling around in there. And I'm just going to see if one sort of bubbles to the surface, or maybe a totally new word comes in from out of the blue that feels like it resonates even better. So that's actually what happened to me, uh, for 2020. So, I had a few other words in my mind.
And then all of a sudden, one day I think it was like in line at Starbucks or something, and the word "Intention" popped into my head. And I was like, "Yep, that's it." That, and I wasn't even thinking about it. It was just, I was thinking about something else. And then that were just popped into my head and I was like, "This is it. This is perfect."
I want this stuff that I do and don't do to be done with intention. I don't want anything to be haphazard. Uh, I, I just really want to be mindful with all of my decisions in all aspects of my life for the whole year. So not just business my whole life. Right? So intention is what it will be for 2020.
Now we're almost to Q1 we're about a month away. And I don't have. Uh, like a word or a mantra, anything for Q1. That's okay. Like there's no pressure. There's no, it doesn't mean just cause I can't think of something like it won't happen. If nothing comes up, then intention is just fine. So I like to create my, my, uh, feeling my North star for the time.
And then I really like to think about meaningful goals. So these are goals that are meaningful to you, right? So this is, if everyone in your industry is like, "You have to have a six-figure year." But you're like, "I don't feel super motivated by that. Like I just would love to have a $40,000 a year, like, and, and not be working 40 hours a week. I want to work 20 hours a week and have a $40,000 a year." Okay, perfect. There's nothing wrong with that. It has to be meaningful to you. It could just be that you're like, "I really want to pay for our family vacation from my business, and I think that the, you know, that family vacation will cost like 10 grand with everything."
Awesome. If that, you know, if you're like, you know, family vacation and then maybe do like a big donation to your favorite charity. Okay. How much is that going to be? And then. You know, write it down somewhere. That's a meaningful goal to you. Maybe a meaning, another meaningful goal is that you, uh, work with one new client a month, right?
You just really like what you do. It's not even about the money. You just want to look back over the year and say, uh, "I helped 12 new people." Perfect. That is awesome. What if your meaningful goal is, "I want to take every Friday off. I want to be off from my business Friday through Sunday, and then, you know, just only work Monday through Thursday."
Great. Uh, what if it is, "I want to build it up so that I could leave my part-time job and have it support me." Awesome. So these need to be meaningful goals for you. If other people in your industry are, uh, like parading around their goals and you're like, "That doesn't resonate with me." That's fine. Don't let anyone else guilt you into a different goal.
If somebody says, well, you know, "You're not, you're not dreaming big enough. You're not, you need to have like a big, scary goal. You, you need to like really, really, really push yourself and, and, uh, you know, you're, you're underestimating yourself from all of that." Like, no. If, if you resonate with certain goals, those are meaningful goals.
If you don't resonate with other goals, there's nothing wrong with you. Those are just not your meaningful goals. So write down some meaningful goals. And I like to think of it in terms of like, uh, personal life and business life, right? Because we are not just robots doing business. We are people running businesses.
So come up with a few in business and your life, not a ton. This is not a laundry list of produce, right? Come up with, uh, maybe, you know, three in your personal life and like three to five in your business life .And that's it. Like we don't, we're again, not a laundry list, not a to do list. These are big goals.
And then I want you to look at what is the time that you want to commit to working or that you can commit to working. Because this will really determine what is able to. Be accomplished. Right? So you can't say like, if you, if you're looking at your weeks and you're like, "Well, I only get, you know, I'm, I'm home with my kids and, uh, they're too young for school and I can only have my mother-in-law watched them one afternoon a week."
Okay. Well, how many hours is that? All right. So are you going to work during their nap time? Do they have nap time? Are you going to work after they go to bed? Are you going to get up extra early? Are you going to work on the weekends? Be very, very, very realistic with yourself about planning your year. And here's why.
So one of my goals for 2019 was that I wanted to, uh, take most Fridays off completely, or just do like a little bit of work in the morning and then take the rest of the day off. That was really important to me. And I also didn't want to work weekends. Unless I was like traveling for my business, or I felt really inspired to do a workshop or something like that.
But for the most part, I wasn't going to work weekends and I wasn't going to work, um, evenings. And I was only going to work about 20 to 25 hours a week. That was really, really, really important for myself to have that meaningful goal. But I had to I'm at a different season of my life. Right? My kid just turned 15. I don't need to like, be all over him every second of the day. Uh, and yeah, so I, I can really say like Monday through Thursday, whatever time I want to be working, I can pretty much be working. So then it's no longer, uh, me having to fit it into pockets of time between doing stuff like with my son. I can just set that time.
But that also means. I could work 24 seven if I really wanted to. And I don't want to, so I had to put those constraints on myself, right? So you need to really be very clear about the time you have and the other commitments you have in your life. Now, if you're like, "Well, I'm signed up as a volunteer for all these different things and that's going to really cut into my time, but I really want to move my business forward."
Then it becomes a question of, what do you need to start saying no to? Do you need to get off of some committees? Do you need to let go of some volunteer commitments? Do you need to, uh, find childcare for other days? So you could get in more hours? Do you need to start waking up earlier? Like we have to be really, really real and intentional about these things.
And then what I want you to do is I want you to put in anything that is non-negotiable. I like to call them big rocks. You put those in first, you get out of calendar and you really go through and you look. So these would be like, uh, trips, family vacations, birthdays. If you have school-aged kids and they're going to be on school break, and that is going to be disruptive to your schedule, you need to put all of those in it.
Anything that is a set in stone thing, that is a big rock. It needs to go in first. And then after that, you can look and look at your plan and see how all the other parts and pieces are going to go in. So if you say, "I want to get three new clients every month", so then what you have to do is think,"How have I been getting clients so far? Where do I get them from? Do I get new clients when I show up in, um, you know, as like a guest, a teaching guest in other people's Facebook communities? Do I get new clients when I post on Facebook or on Instagram or on LinkedIn? Do I get them from networking events? Do I get", you know, there's all these different ways that you might be getting clients for your business. So then you need to build in time to do those activities that will get you clients. Right? So you can kind of look even if you don't know exactly. Even if you're like, "Well, I don't know how many people I have to like interact with on Instagram before one of them becomes a client."
Like it, it might not always be a super cut and dry thing, but if you're like, "Hey, I know. When I show up like five days a week on Instagram", not even necessarily like posting to your feed, but if you're like, "I do a few days a week where I do Instastories and then the rest of the time, I'm like actually engaging with people and I'm making new connections, and that seems to bring me, you know, clients from, from that, um, from that one, like stream." Right? That one, uh, Area we are where you're hanging out. So like, "Oh, maybe I'll get, you know, I might get like a client or two from there." And then, "Oh, I actually realized like, when I, you know, am a guest on other people's podcasts, then I feel like, then I get an uptick in discovery calls and stuff. So, all right. So I'm going to be now be very intentional. I'm going to keep doing my Instagram time. I'm going to keep being on podcasts. And then you're like, "Okay, well, how many podcasts do I want to be on?" Maybe it's like one a month. Right? It's they're like 12 and be on 12 podcasts.
Okay. You know that when you reach out to podcast, you're probably not going to land every single one of them. Right? So how many do you need to pitch to? Maybe it's 20. Maybe you can guesstimate. Like, "I'm going to try to reach out to 20 and hope I get 12 and maybe I only get 10 from those 20. Well, I got to find a couple more podcasts to pitch, to, to try to get that 12."
Right? So you're gonna be working backward from the goal in the time you have to do those things that result in the getting of clients. And if you're like, "I have no idea, Erika, like I'm still struggling to get clients or, um, I'm full of client work." Maybe, maybe your instances, "I'm full of actual client work. I want to pivot and do something else to keep bringing in new revenue and not always be just adding more like one-to-one client hours to my schedule." So there's all different ways you can do that, right? There's so many different ways that you can adjust your business model and your offerings so that you, if you're feeling like your time is very constricted, you can actually leverage your time and your expertise in other ways that make it so that you're not necessarily working more, but you're bringing in new revenue streams.
And you might be saying, "Well, I'm not fully booked up and I need to figure out like what I can do to be getting more people in." Right? So either way, like those are the things when I'm working with people, those are the plans that we are coming up with. Right? We're coming up with plans on how to, uh, market to people, how to, how to create offers that are, that people will love and they will be super happy to pay for, and then how to market those offers and how to do all of that within your time constraints. That is what I really love, love, love to do with people, but it's important to, well, first of all, if you, if you are unsure about that last part and you do want some help or you do want some feedback from me on it, by all means, reach out.
I am very easy to find and get ahold of I'm @erikatebbensconsulting on Instagram and you know, you can find me pretty much on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all of those places just reach out to me, messaged me. Um, I'm happy to chit chat with you for free about some ideas that will help you hit your goals faster in the next year.
But I would also just say that a big part of it too, is once you make that plan, right? Once you know, your, um, your, you know, what you want, you're kind of feeling for the year to be overall. You're like mantra, and then you've created meaningful goals for yourself. And then you've really looked at your schedule and figured out like, "Okay, what are the big rocks and how much time do I have left from that? And uh, what are the offers like when do I want to be launching stuff? When are my busier seasons in my slower seasons?" Then you create your plan that, you know, you're working backwards from the goal to figure out your plan, and then you're plotting out that plan on your calendar. Then it's really just important to work the plan and be consistent.
You can always see maybe something is not working and you keep doing it. Like you just keep, you know, you're like, "Yes, yes, yes. Instagram five days a week. It's perfect. It's, it's rocking for me." But maybe you're doing something else. And you're like, "Dang, I thought this would get more attraction." But it's just really not.
Sometimes things need to be tweaked, but you have to give it enough time, right? If so, if you have a new program and you're launching it and you're like, "Wow, that just that launch did not go as well as I'd hoped." It might not be that your thing is terrible. It might not be that people don't want it. It could just be that maybe you need to market it differently.
Maybe you need to market it for longer. Maybe you need to be talking about it more during the launch. Like there could be a million different factors, but it's important to be consistent and really show up so you can build that momentum, that real like marketing momentum that will help get you closer to your goal.
And at the end of the day, I hope that you know that just because you didn't hit a goal, doesn't, that doesn't say anything about who you are as a person. It doesn't say anything about your worth, your worthiness. Uh, if you're a terrible entrepreneur or use suck or all of that. I know it's easy to go down that rabbit hole, but please don't because it's not helpful.
It will not serve you. Um, I'm always, always, always happy to help. I'm always happy to be an encourager. So absolutely reach out to me because you can do this. Uh, planning is good. It is important. Cause you don't want to just leave stuff to chance. Yes, there always going to be a lot of variables. In there, but you don't, again, you just don't want to wing it.
Right? So, uh, I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions, reach out. If you have any ahas or big takeaways or things that you're going to sit down and implement, um, before the new year, I would love to hear about that too. So find me on Instagram. It's where I hang out the most.@erikatebbensonsulting and say, "Hi", tag me, post in your stories as you're, as you're listening to this.
Cause I always love to see, um, who is listening to this podcast and, uh, yeah, I hope that you end your year in a way that feels great for you, whatever that looks like. And I wish you the best in 2020. And as always, happy selling.
