Episode 38 - 5 Prompts for Your 2022 Planning
Jan 05, 2022
It’s a fact that we simply can’t ignore.
👉🏿 If we want to make the most of our businesses, we need to get strategic.
By setting ourselves goals, planning, and developing a positive mindset, we can be prepared and ready to take on the challenges life may throw at us.
More importantly, we can do this without neglecting our wellness needs or feeling overwhelmed or burnt out. In last week’s episode, we looked at key trends in self-care plus key marketing and business strategies that you can apply right now to simplify your life and make 2022 your best business year yet.
We’re kicking off this new year by focusing specifically on planning and how you can achieve more by doing less. (Yes, it really does work when you know how!)
Listen to Episode 38 and use the five powerful prompts I share to take your business to the next level with less stress or overwhelm.
You can also join my 10-week Business Growth Implementation Academy where I'll help you plan to prioritize, organize and implement your vision for yourself and your business.
Eleshia’s Essentials
- Take what you need and leave what you don't.
- Think about everything that is going to help you be a well-rounded, grounded and healthy business owner.
- It's important for me to make sure that I’m still able to run my business, but also be there for my family.
- Planning can help us feel a little bit more grounded and help us know what's coming up.
- We get into business to enjoy the process, ensure that we have flexibility, have control of our own wealth and our own legacy.
- Make 2022 that time when you invest in yourself, find yourself a coach, or find yourself an accountability partner.
Other resources mentioned
About the show:
Need simple strategies to help you grow your business and achieve more without working harder? Struggling to balance work, life, and all your other commitments and don’t want to burn out? You’re in the right place.
The Eleshia Show is a holistic business and lifestyle strategy podcast to help you get clear on your business goals, stop procrastinating, boost your income, and do what lights you up.
Women are taking notice! We have listeners across 41 countries and over 420 cities! We’re teaching female business owners across the world how to achieve more with less while looking after themselves. And we can do the same for you!
We’re having intimate conversations — the kinds that most female business owners are having privately. You don’t want to miss these.
Tune in to the podcast every Wednesday to discover exactly what expert CEOs did to get their businesses off the ground and achieve success so you can do the same!
With your host, Eleshia Harris, business coach and growth strategist, you can redefine what success means, ditch the stress and confusion and learn how to run your business from a place of ease and excitement.
If you want to talk business, wellbeing, lifestyle, mindset, goals, and scaling organic growth, don’t miss it!
Connect with Eleshia and the community today:
Show Transcript:
Eleshia Harris: We have 365 days of the year. I'm talking about a day a month to start with. Just blocking out a day a month where you are saying, this is my day. I'm going to do something that I want to do, and I am going to keep that day sacred. If that feels great and you're able to do more than one day a month, then I invite you to do so. Do it.
Hey, I'm Eleshia Harris, and I am the host of The Eleshia Show where each week, we'll be having conversations about how to enhance your wellbeing. We'll be sharing strategies and stories and insights to build your business while still navigating life because sometimes we try to separate the two. And let's face it. If you are not well, you have no business. I am a holistic business growth strategist and a wellness coach who spent over 15 years in corporate before deciding to choose me first to build my brand, Eleshia Lifestyle. I'm here to teach you how to redefine what success means to you, ditch the stress and confusion, and learn how to run your business from a place of ease and excitement. Let's get into this week's episode.
Hi, and welcome back to The Eleshia Show. I am so excited to be here as always. Happy new year! I really hope you had a lovely holiday. I hope you get to rest and review and reflect, and spend some time with your loved ones, and just really enjoy some downtime. Isn't it funny that we don't always allow ourselves that downtime? I know and you know that if we don't then we continue just to keep on going at full throttle then, yes, sometimes it doesn't end well. So, from my perspective, I made sure that I really, really took the time out to just stop. And Before the holidays, I had already planned to take off most of December anyway, because that's what I wanted to do. So we're going to talk about planning ahead for this episode because you know that I love a plan. But also, it's just for me now, as a mom, is now navigating preschool and all of the holidays and so forth, it has become more and more important for me to just make sure that I know when I need to take some downtime in the business, but also ensure that I know when I need to just take some time for myself. I'm going to give you maybe five prompts that I use when I am planning just because I think it's useful, and it may be something that you haven't thought about. But if you have, maybe just jog your memory. So I always say, take what you need and leave what you don't. And yes, let's get into it.
So the first thing that I like to do is, I like to look at the whole year. I like to think about all of the things that are really important to me. And I like to get those things in my diary. So for instance, this year will be the first year that I'm planning out all of my daughter's school holidays. So I put those in the diary first, and I'm so glad I did because it really, really made me actually consider how I'm going to run my business and my lifestyle, and everything in between for 2022. Because there's a time over Easter where she's off for a month. For me, that's exciting because I get to spend a whole month with her. However, it means that from a business perspective, I need to really recognize what I'm going to be doing in that downtime, or if I'm going to need more childcare if there are things that I want to do while she's on holiday. So just plotting out her holidays in my diary first was an eye-opener for me. And then I laid on the days that I wanted for myself. These are not just holiday days, these are solo days where I just want to spend time with myself. And yes, it does sound a little bit indulgent. However, if you do that at the beginning of the year, these are things that you can really stick to. And it just means that sometimes these things then become non-negotiables. And we have 365 days of the year, I'm talking about a day a month to start with. Just blocking out a day a month where you are saying, this is my day. I'm going to do something that I want to do, and I am going to keep that day sacred. If that feels great and you're able to do more than one day a month, then I invite you to do so. Do it. This is for your own health, your own sanity sometimes, your own mental health, your own wellbeing. And it's 12 days. So if you're able to do that, then I would highly recommend that you do that too.
I then like to layer in all of my birthdays. February is a crazy month for me. I've literally got birthdays nearly every day. And then multiple and triple birthdays on a day like the 14th of February. And so, it's really important for me to make sure that I can see birthdays in my diary as well, especially as we have not been able to spend as much time as we have wanted to with our friends and family. So 2022, I'm going to make this a really, really important year that I celebrate with people. So, therefore, I need to make sure that I am reminded of birthdays. And it just means that I can do some forward planning as well, especially if it's on a planner that I can see week by week or month by month. But that's one of the things that I like to put into my diary as well. And then also, any days that are important to my husband. So I'm saying that I'm taking days for myself. It's also important for him to take days for himself, but also for us to start thinking about things that we can do together.
Again, we haven't been able to spend much time with just the two of us, because of the logistics of everything that's happened in the last two years. For me, it's really important this year that we do that. So, again, we'll be looking at what we can be doing together over the first quarter of the year, and then trying to do that quarterly as well. And so that's my calendar. And I love then to have that somewhere that I can see visually. But I also like to put all of these important dates into my actual Google diary as well. I've said that before. I love to work from my Google calendar. If it's not in my calendar, it usually doesn't get done so I like to put everything in there as well. And then I start to get really into the nitty-gritty of planning what I'm going to do from a business and a lifestyle perspective for myself. One of the things that I do on a monthly basis but also on a yearly basis, is just to reflect. Reflect on how last year went. Think about the things that I don't want to bring into the new year. Think about all of the lessons that I've learned, or think about the things that I can do to expand my business. Think about the things that I can do to ensure that I continue to be healthy and well. And just really start to think about everything that is going to help me be a well-rounded grounded and healthy female business owner. Because I want to keep on expanding my business. I don't want it to be a really expensive hobby. I want to make sure that I'm expanding year by year, and you have been. And that's really important to me, especially as my daughter has just turned three. So I'm getting to that place where I still want to continue to spend as much time as I can with her before she's five years old. And so, it's important for me to make sure that I am still able to run my business, but also be there for my family.
This is the whole reason why planning works well for me because it just helps me feel a little bit more grounded. And it helps me to know what's coming up instead of being on the back foot. And again, as I said, I still consider myself a new mom. So there were things that I didn't have to consider previously, but now I'm having to consider since I ensure that I can know some of the things that are coming up. Obviously, I cannot control everything. But at least I know the things that may come up that are important to me and I can then keep some space around my diary, just in case anything needs to be adjusted or I need to be flexible at times.
So yes, I've fairly enjoyed doing this exercise because it really opens my eyes up to how I want my business to grow, but also the business model that I want to take forward for the new year. And just also thinking about how much money. And I know, and never to have a conversation, but even to really think about the desires of how much money I want to be bringing in for this year, and how much time that I'm going to have to actually make this money. And is it realistic to be able to do that in that timeframe? And for me, I'm like the sky's the limit. I'm not going to limit myself to what I can make, but I also need to recognize that my daughter is off for nearly three months of the year. And so I'm really working nine months of the year to really think about how I want to expand my business, especially as, at the moment, primarily my business is service-based. I am actually the person that people are working with. So yes, I just need to be mindful of that. And I also need to be mindful of burnout because as I've said so many times, it is real and I don't want to get to that place again.
So when you're getting down to your planning, don't forget to set the scene. So light that candle, make sure that your space is nice and clear. Get into that mindset of dreaming and really thinking about your desires and actually hone in on why you desire these things. And be totally honest with yourself. If you want the big money, you want the big money. But why do you want the big money? And just think about the things that are really coming up that you want to achieve. Sometimes we get stuck in thinking about the things that people say or people want on the market, or what about the things that we actually want to bring to the market? Think about that. Think about the products that you want to bring to the market. Are they going to bring you actual joy to deliver? Or are you going to get into that place where you're like, I actually resent the things that I'm doing? Because remember we get into business to actually enjoy the process and to ensure that we have flexibility. We're in control of our own wealth and our own legacy. And we are our own bosses. So you don't want to then start to feel resentful of the things that you're doing and thinking actually, I'm wasting my time and my energy and I feel drained. I might as well go back to trying to find a nine-to-five job. Think about that when you're also planning because it doesn't make sense to do a job that you're not going to enjoy. Because it is what I've just said. It's a job, it's not a business.
It's really nice to write these plans freehand so you can see them in your own handwriting. And then, you can do high-level plans. And then guess what, you have to execute that plan. You have to implement that plan. You need to then be the one that is like, I've written down my desires and my goals and my passions and now, I'm going to bring it out into this world. And I'm going to make this happen. I love to learn. I love, love, love to learn. I can be in that research mode forever, but then what happens? What can happen is that you can research and research and research so much that you then end up talking yourself out of actually putting anything out there. You get stuck, you get really stuck in not taking action. So if you know that this is going to be you, then it is time. Make 2022 that time when you invest in yourself. Find yourself a coach, find yourself an accountability partner. And if you know that you want 2022 to look different and you need help with implementation, then join us. Join us for my 10-week Business Growth Implementation Academy where I'm going to help you plan, prioritize, get organized and implement what you have been putting off for ages. And I say that with love because we all do that, don't we? We need that little extra push in the right direction. We need a little bit of guidance. We need that cheerleading sometimes or that mentoring, or just that person that's going to help you to brainstorm an idea that may have been in your mind for ages. But you've not been able to articulate it the way you want to, or you just don't know what steps to take first.
I'm going to help you to do that. We're going to start with a planning session where you're going to plan out your goals for the next 10 weeks. And then each week, we are going to meet and we're going to co-work together to ensure that you get those plans and goals, and those milestones implemented. So we're also going to have to get on stuck power hours, and these are your opportunities to get group coaching from me rather than you going away and implementing what you think you need to do on your own, you're going to have a community of other people that might be in that same position that is going to be there. So you're not just getting my expertise, but you're going to have other business owners as well that may have advice for you also.
We'll also have a review and reflection session so that you can actually start to review and reflect on what is working for you and what may not be working. And there's also a productivity momentum session also with a special guest. And then there's a huge amount of bonuses, thousands of pounds worth of bonuses, that are going to help you to assist you to ensure that you have all of the materials that you need. So there are going to be templates in there. There are going to be workbooks in there. There's an SOS session in the coaching session where you get to spend some time with me. If you really need to sit down and just work through something that has been bothering you and you need that extra one-on-one time with me, then you're going to get that also. And then there's so much more. If this is something that you know that you need for 2022, and you're really interested, then you can find details for the Business Growth Implementation Academy in the show notes but also on my website, eleshialifestyle.com.
Lastly, I just want to say, you are planning for yourself. You are making sure that you're putting in the plan that you want to work. You're not planning for anybody else. You're ensuring that you know where you're going to be spending your time. You know what you want to be working towards. You know how you want to be spending your time on self-care and your wellbeing. And when you're with your friends and your family, this is not supposed to be another exercise that is going to overwhelm you. This is supposed to prepare you for the weeks ahead so that you can see at one glance, maybe what is happening. And again, as I said before, you can go into as much detail as you. Some people like to go into real detail where they know what they're doing every hour. I do that a couple of times a week because as I've mentioned before, I work condensed hours. So on a Tuesday and a Thursday, my days are quite long. But on other days, my days can be quite fluid. So for me, it works. But just plan the way that you want to plan. And again, if this is something that you think that you're going to need help with, then I invite you to book a 20-minute Let's Chat session with me where maybe I can give you some more tips. Or maybe we could just get to know each other. Maybe we can just have a coffee or a glass of Prosecco. This is how I'm rolling in the new year. It's really important for me to make more connections. And I am excited to be able to help as many business owners as I can. So if there's a question that you might want to ask and you want to spend some time just chatting something through, then I will leave you the information to book a Let's Chat with me.
Over the last 30 episodes, I have gone into more detail about planning and why accountability counts, and the systems and the products that I find useful, and the reasons why you need to ensure that you don't burn out, and so much more. So look at the back library, if there are things in this episode that you think, oh, it would be really great to have a little bit more information on, then I've probably covered it with a little bit more detail in one of the previous episodes. So yes, go ahead and go back and listen to those episodes too.
Like I said at the beginning of this episode, I am so, so excited for this new year. It's been heavy on us all, the last two years so I am here to live, laugh, and love. I've got a pillow behind me that says that as much as I can, and that means interacting with as many people as I can to ensure that I keep all of my cups full. And so if you need me, you know where to find me. All of my details are in the show notes. I want to just say thank you to all of you for continuing to listen. If you thought this episode was useful and you know somebody who may need a little bit more guidance with regards to planning, then share this episode with them. And like I say all the time, it would be great if you could rate, review and share all of the episodes. It means so much to me. But it also just helps people find me, and me to continue to do the work that I am really enjoying doing thus far. And yes, let's get it in 2022. Let's create all of our desires and dreams. Let's try not to feel overwhelmed. Let's try not to procrastinate. As I said, I'm here to try and build a community. So if you need help, I'm here for you. Anyway, thanks again for being here. Until next week, bye-bye.
I really hope you enjoyed this episode of The Eleshia Show. If you loved this episode as much as I did, head over and rate and subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. New episodes drop every week on a Wednesday. I can't wait to hang out with you again soon. And lastly, remember to invest in yourself first because you are important and amazing. Take care. Until next time. Bye-bye.
