Success isn’t based on luck. It’s about the careful art of planning. Planning is like a roadmap that helps us turn our aspirations into accomplishments, chaos into clarity, and dreams into reality. For this episode, it’s all about setting yourself up for success in the coming year. Come and join us as Kendra Perry reveals the key strategies for a powerful and successful preparation towards an unforgettable 2024. If you often feel overwhelmed by last-minute projects, busy schedules, or conflicting priorities, then this one’s for you! Kendra covers everything from time-blocking and weekly planning to process strategies. Say goodbye to the days of feeling lost at your computer, wondering what to work on next. Tune in now and join us on a planning journey for a year of productivity, balance, and freedom!
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2024 Planning Workshop!
The Silly Season: Finding Balance During The Holiday Chaos
What is up, my friend? Happy December 2023. I know it’s getting to what I like to refer to as silly season where people go mental with Christmas and the holidays. To be honest, I wouldn’t say I’m a Christmas Scrooge, but it’s not my favorite time of year because everything’s so busy. I find the ski hills busier. The shops are busier. It’s harder to get into restaurants. There are more obligations.
While I like the food and spending time with family, it seems that on Christmas, somehow, I’m always driving in a snowstorm or I’m overwhelmed with the amount of engagements I have to go to. I’m a pretty chill person. I’m pretty introverted, so I always get a little bit overwhelmed around Christmas time. I have to say I’m always happy when it’s over. I wish I could celebrate Christmas at a time when no one else is celebrating it, like maybe January 7th, but that’s just me.
As we’re coming into the New Year, this is an episode that is backed by popular requests that I’ve done the past few years on the show where we talk about planning. What I’m going to take you through is a little planning workshop that you can do so that you feel like you’re set up for success in 2024. What I would recommend doing is maybe getting a journal.
If you have a physical calendar, that can be helpful if you like that. Maybe open up your Google Calendar. I do everything in Google Calendar. I need everything to be online because I lose everything. If I wrote anything down in a physical journal, I would lose the journal and would never know what’s up. I also need notifications on my phone because I’m distracted and forget everything. If you’re like me, then do this with your Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Apple Calendar, or whatever you want to use. Do a quick pause and come back.
The truth is I wasn’t always a planner. I used to rebel against it. I’m someone who doesn’t like structure. I don’t like routine. If too much of that comes into my life, I feel very overwhelmed. I feel like I rebel against it even when I know it’s what’s best for me. I never planned in my business until I got a rude awakening in 2020.
Rude Awakening: The Power of Planning
In 2020, I wasn’t planning at this point. I put a bunch of things on my calendar and didn’t think about it. Suddenly, I took a look at things and I was like, “This is a lot.” At the time, I was still dealing with a little bit of fatigue. It felt overwhelming. What I did was I had a launch planned, and then I was starting a mastermind program.
I did this business mastermind program with a business colleague in 2020. I was starting the mastermind and launching HTMA Expert. We had live events planned as a part of the mastermind. We had this three-day live event in Colorado. It was my first time doing a live event. Honestly, I had no desire to do live events, but the colleague who I was running the mastermind with was all about live events. We agreed that we would do two, so there was that.
There was something else as well. I can’t remember because it was a few years ago, but I remember looking at my calendar and being like, “I’m launching. I’m starting this mastermind program. I’m putting on this three-day live event.” There was another launch in there. I was like, “What am I doing?” I remember feeling so incredibly overwhelmed.
The thing that saved me was the shutdown with COVID. As much as that sucked, and we can all agree that was a crazy time in the world, it pulled me out of it because I wasn’t able to run the live event. While that was disappointing and it added a bit of stress when you get people to pay for a mastermind with a live event and they can’t meet in person, it cleared my schedule. That gave me a lot of time to reflect and realize, “If I had made a plan and mapped this out on a calendar, then this wouldn’t have happened.” I had no one to blame but myself.
I decided I was never going to do that again because the overwhelm that I felt was debilitating. I didn’t want to go through that again. Since then, I have forced myself to plan not only on an annual basis but on a weekly basis. This is something that I teach my students inside HCA that we talk about often, is time-blocking our calendar out. I time block my calendar.
Am I super committed to doing it during those time blocks? No, but they always get done within the week. For example, I planned to do these episodes in the morning. It’s 3:00 in the afternoon. Normally, I like to get things done in the morning but I was a little bit under the weather. I didn’t have a lot of energy so I took the morning off. I knew that I needed to get it done. I looked at the rest of my week and said, “The best time to get it done is in the afternoon.” It always gets done. On a week-by-week basis, I never sit down on my computer and wonder, “What should I be working on?” That never happens. I always have a plan.
From a bigger level overview and an annual perspective, I always make sure that I have a plan as well. Does this mean that the plan I make at the beginning of the year always exactly plays out? No. There is a flexible framework involved in this. Nothing is set in stone. I’m going to encourage you to revisit your plan every quarter to make sure that it still makes sense and make sure that you don’t want to make any adjustments. Planning is important because it helps you not double-book yourself. It helps you stay out of that fight or flight zone where you’ve put too much on your plate. It’s helpful to get a plan on the schedule even if you need to adjust it over the year.
When it comes to planning, have your calendar out in front of you, whether that’s your physical calendar, Google calendar, or whatever. Start looking ahead into the year and plan out your personal engagements, vacations, or anything with your kids. Maybe you know that you have a wedding to go to in March. Maybe you want to take a vacation in the summer. Put that on the calendar. Maybe you don’t know the exact days. That’s fine. Put it in there. Maybe you’re going to adjust it a little bit and that’s fine.
Maybe your kid has a soccer tournament. It’s a day that you’re going to be away from your office. Put that soccer tournament in there. As much as you know in advance, put it in your calendar. If you have a physical calendar, you could use a highlighter. Maybe blue is what you use for personal. What you can do is you can highlight the date and write it in. If you’re using something like a Google Calendar, you can create an event that goes over multiple days and give it a special color.
The reason we want to start with personal events is that we want to make sure that we do not double-book ourselves with promotions or launches. I’ve done this before so many times before I started planning where I’d be on a vacation and then I’d have a launch as soon as I got back. There’s a lot of planning that has to go into a launch so I’d be working on my vacation or I’d be stressing myself out before the vacation.
It would’ve made more sense to maybe do the launch right before the vacation or maybe even a few weeks after the vacation. You don’t want to plan a promotion or a launch when you are not going to be in office. It’s going to be stressful if you’re at a soccer tournament and you’ve got people emailing you about the last day of your promotion before your discount goes away. We want to make sure we’re not overlapping.
You can take a pause from reading and write in all your personal engagements, vacations, kid stuff, and all those personal things using the same color. That’s going to take you a few minutes. Maybe you know, “I want to take a vacation in September. I’m not sure exactly when, but I’m going to put it in the first week.” You can always change that over time.
The next thing that I’m going to recommend that you put in your calendar is professional development days. You’re a coach, a practitioner, or a professional. You need to be constantly updating your research and your knowledge around your particular niche. This is something that is unique to health and wellness where we need to be constantly learning. You need to spend some time looking at the data and the research.
What I’m going to recommend that you do is schedule maybe a couple of hours a week or maybe a day a month where you’re going to sit down and you are going to read research, take courses, or do something that is going to help increase your knowledge. This is something that a lot of coaches don’t take into consideration. Everything you learn in school is great, but the research is always changing. You’re going to change your opinions on things. At some point, you’re going to be recommending one type of diet, and then over time, you’re going to say, “The research doesn’t support this anymore. Maybe people would benefit more from this other thing.”
It’s important that you put this time aside so that you can stay up-to-date. That might be one day a month where the whole day, you are doing courses, reading, or whatever. Maybe one day all at once sounds overwhelming so you’re going to say, “Friday afternoons is when I do my courses, spend time reading the literature,” or whatever that is. You’re going to want to put that in there as well because that’s going to help you do it and not let that stuff be forgotten.
Scheduling Success: Launches, Promotions, and Life Harmony
The next thing you’re going to want to do is schedule your launches or promotions. If you are someone who has a group program, you’re probably going to want to launch your group program every 3 or 4 months or something like that. I want you to schedule your launches. Determine what the open cart period is and what amount of time, the discount, or the bonus going to be available. Put that into your calendar using a different color. Maybe you’re going to use yellow for this one.
I want you to schedule those all out for the whole year even though they might change. You might, at this point, put it in for mid-September, but then, as time goes on, you’re like, “I want to do this other thing. I want to switch that.” This is a flexible framework. Nothing is set in stone. This is important to know because there’s going to be a lot of prep and a lot of organization that has to go into the months leading up to that launch.
You want to know where it is so you can set yourself and your team up for success. Put in any launches that you’re going to be doing if you’re doing a webinar, a challenge, a summit, whatever that is. Maybe you’re going to do a Black Friday promotion. Make sure you schedule that into your calendar as well. Make sure all that stuff is in there.
Since you know when all your personal stuff is, this is going to help you not overlap. Do not book a launch at the same time as a vacation. Do not go on vacation and then come back to a launch. The other thing I would say, too, is I recommend having a little bit of time after a launch before you go on vacation. I’m guilty of booking a vacation right after a launch is completed.
For example, when I went to Italy in June 2023, I had a summit. We were still launching when we went on vacation. It was generally fine, but in hindsight, it would’ve been good to have a week’s buffer time. The cart closes and then I have maybe a week. I was in launch mode and then had to pack. It was a lot. While it was nice to launch and have money coming in while I was in Italy, which was pretty fun and exciting, it ended up being a lot. I recommend having a little bit of buffer time.
Remember, we are here because we want to have amazing lifestyles and freedom. Don’t stress yourself out. Plan your launches and promotions around your lifestyle or around the things that are important for you to do in life. I want you to schedule all your launches and promotions. If you need to pause from reading and come back, then do that.
This will be the second final thing that I want you to do. I want you to schedule in about 30 minutes in the middle of each quarter. January, February, and March would be the first quarter. April, May, and June would be the next quarter. If we’re talking about the first quarter, sometime in the middle of February, I want you to put it on your calendar to re-evaluate your plan for the next quarter and maybe even the next two quarters.
I want you to sit down, open up your calendar, and look at the vacations. Ask yourself, “Are those vacations still where I want them to be? Is there anything additional that has come up? Does my kid now have a gymnastics tournament, competition, or whatever? Do I want to go on a little vacation with my partner? Is there another promotion? Are those promotional dates good? Do I want to switch those?” Go in and re-evaluate your plan. Make sure it still makes sense and that there’s nothing else you want to add or delete. In the middle of each quarter, do that for the next quarter because that will give you time to make the adjustments.
The final thing I’m going to tell you to do is to put aside time for weekly planning. I know this is not over the year. This is week by week. It’s important. The worst way that you can be unproductive and waste time in your business is when you sit down at your computer and think to yourself, “What should I be working on right now?” We want to prevent that from ever happening. We want you to be very intentional with your time so that every time you sit down on your computer, you know exactly what you are working on.
For example, I usually do this on Thursdays. It’s not always. I’m pretty sporadic with it. I do it at all different times if I’m being honest. I always do it. I sit down, look at my week ahead, and plan out what I’m going to do. In terms of if you have clients scheduling with you, I recommend that you don’t allow them to schedule it with you less than a week in advance. That way, when you sit down on a Friday, you see what your next week looks like. People aren’t going to schedule at the last minute.
I want you to put that 30 minutes or 1 hour aside to do this every single week. Research shows that people who plan are more successful, but research also shows that a lot of people don’t do it. A lot of people are resistant to it. It’s that thing where we know it’s what’s best for us. We know it will help us, but we never do it.
If that’s you and you’re struggling to make this happen, I invite you to make it fun. You could go to your favorite coffee shop and order your favorite drink and maybe like a treat or something like that. It could be a muffin, a little piece of cake, a breakfast sandwich, or whatever. It is so that when you make it, you pair it with something enjoyable. Maybe you get out of the house or maybe you go sit out on your deck.
Whatever it is that will make you do this consistently, do it. I want you to sit down, look at your week ahead, and figure out what you need to work on. You’re like, “What are my priorities right now? Do I have a launch coming up? Do I need to work on writing my sales emails? Do I need to work on a sales page? Do I need to get my email newsletters done?”
Everything is on my calendar. I never show up at work and wonder what I’m going to be working on because every day, there’s something in there or it’s a day off. Sometimes, it is a day off and that’s cool, too. This is important. I do this with my Google Calendar. I time block it out. On this day, I’m doing episodes. Tomorrow, I’m updating my course in this section. On Friday, I’m working on my Black Friday plan. Whatever that is, I know exactly what I’m working on down to the details.
One hesitation that you might feel is, “I don’t know how long things are going to take.” It’s legit. Especially when you’re new, you may not know exactly how long things are going to take. What can help you is if you start breaking down the task into smaller details. Rather than saying something like, “Update my website,” which is a big thing, break it down. What exactly do you need to do? You could be like, “I need to create a graphic. I need to add text.” Break that down and that can give you a better sense of what you think it will take you.
I do this all the time. I underestimate or overestimate all the time how long things are going to take me. It’s okay. I learn every time I do that. I usually know if I’m updating a sales page that it’s probably going to take me three hours. How do I know that? It is because I’ve done it so much. Usually when I’m updating, I want to give myself three hours If I’m writing a sales page from scratch, then I want to give myself 2 to 3 full days to work on it. I’ll set aside three full days.
My advice to you is to pay attention. You’re probably going to underestimate or even overestimate multiple times. It’s okay, but take note of that. For example, let’s say you’re writing out your freebie in a Google Doc. You’re not worrying about design or doing any of the visual stuff. You’re writing it out. See how long that takes you. You’re like, “This took me four hours.” Good to know. Take note of that. The next time you’re making a freebie, you are going to say, “I’m going to give myself 5 hours because it took me 4 hours last time. This gives me a little bit of buffer room.” Pay attention.
Unlocking 2024: A Year of Productivity and Purpose
The take-home of this episode is to plan. Plan your year, quarter, and week. You are going to be so much more productive. You’re going to have way more time to chill and do the fun things because you’re going to get things done and you’re not going to waste time. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the show. If you loved this episode and want to give this show a five-star review, you can go to RateThisPodcast.com/Wealthy and give me a five-star review. I would appreciate that. If you have any questions about this episode, you can reach out to me on Instagram @KendraPerryInc. I would love to hear from you. I hope you have a fantastic day. I will see you in the next episode at the same place and same time where I help you become wealthy AF.
Important Links
- Podcast.com/Wealthy
- @KendraPerryInc – Instagram
