January 7, 2020 • 57 mins
Whether it's once a quarter or once a year, there's never a bad time to do some business planning. To get 2020 off to a great start, Emily and Kathleen discuss the different methods for creating a plan, what types of plans you can benefit from making, and how to commit to actually following through with them.
This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks Cloud Accounting and Acuity Scheduling.
Get full show notes for this episode here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Emily (00:02):
I'm Emily Thompson
Kathleen (00:04):
And I'm Kathleen Shannon.
Emily (00:05):
And this is Being Boss.
In this episode of Being Boss,Kathleen and I are talking about
creating a six to 18 month planin your business that will help
you be more proactive in yourbusiness and get more done with
intention and your bottom linein mind.
(00:27):
As always, you can find all thetools, books, and links we
reference on the show notes atwww.beingboss.club.
Kathleen (00:36):
Whether you're building up your side hustle or
working for yourself full time,you'll quickly learn that as a
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Emily (01:37):
Boss, I've got a question for you.
When was the last time youinvested in your business or
professional development in away that you actually enjoyed?
I'm not talking about thatcourse you paid for but never
completed or finally hiring outyour bookkeeping.
I'm talking about investing insomething that's enriching and
fun that's filled with deeplearning and lots of
(01:58):
inspiration.
I'm talking about a conference.
The Being Boss Conference goingdown in April, 2020 was created
with the intention of remindingyou how to really enjoy your
business while still beingvaluable for you to take action
and grow too.
Two and a half days of bossfriends, engaging workshops,
inspiring keynotes, chillingover cocktails and our favorite:
(02:19):
celebrating your success, yourhard work, and your sheer
bossness.
Learn more and grab your ticketwhile they last at
beingboss.club/conference.
I look forward to seeing youthere.
All right, Kathleen, can I tellyou my very favorite part about
(02:39):
the new year?
Actually, can you guess it?
Do you know what it is?
Kathleen (02:43):
Probably getting a brand new planner, filling it
out, right?
Emily (02:47):
It's planning.
Just planning,
Kathleen (02:49):
Planning.
You love some planning,
Emily (02:52):
Right?
Spreadsheets, calendars,planners, notebooks.
I'll put a plan in each.
Kathleen (03:00):
So that's what we're talking about today, right?
Creating a big picture plan.
Emily (03:04):
Yes.
This is one of those things Ialways find, well actually it's
not like creatives are bad atit.
I think some super creativepeople have a hard time doing
big picture plans, but youeither are good at it or you
aren't like you either eitherhave the capacity to do it or
you really struggle with doingit.
So I'm excited we're going todive into that today because I
(03:26):
love big picture planning.
I don't usually get too big.
I always find that I get alittle, a little scared maybe is
the right word.
Kathleen (03:35):
I almost just said that.
I think that a lot of creativeshave a hard time with big
picture planning because one,it's vulnerable.
So it's really saying that youhave big goals, you have big
ideas, you have a big vision andyou want to achieve it.
And then two, there's aparalysis of not knowing where
to begin.
You know, that chasm, that gapbetween where you want to be and
(03:57):
where you are is huge.
And so that can be intimidating.
Where do you even begin wheneveryou have such a huge goal for
yourself or such a huge vision.
And then the last thing, sovulnerable, um, there's a big
gap is just there's so manyvariables.
There's so many other thingshappening whenever it comes to
(04:18):
running your own business.
And then the world that we livein is always changing.
And it's impossible now to evendo like a five year plan because
we don't even know where we'regoing to be in five years or
what opportunities will beavailable or what kinds of
challenges or life thingshappen.
So there's a lot of overwhelmingthings that come with planning,
(04:40):
but at the same time, wheneveryou can put a plan down on paper
and start to bring that to life,Ooh, there is nothing more boss
than that,
Emily (04:50):
Right?
If you are struggling with beingsuper reactive in your business,
so you feel like you're alwaysputting out fires, you can never
get ahead.
All of those things, it'sprobably because you don't have
a plan.
A plan is that first steptowards proactive action and
running your business.
And without it you're justreacting to every little thing
that pops up and you will neverbe in control in your business
(05:14):
if that's the case.
Kathleen (05:16):
All right, so where do we begin with talking about
creating a plan?
Emily (05:21):
some deep breaths?
I think especially forcreatives, I'm going to start
like, I think it starts withgetting really centered in who
you are, what it is that you'rehere doing, what your mission
is, very specifically what yourvalues are.
Values are something we talkabout a lot around here where
(05:42):
you can, you know, check aroundour podcast for it.
We wrote about it in the book.
We have a page on our websitededicated to values and a quiz
beingboss.club/values.
Um, I think you have to getreally, really centered before
you go into making big pictureplans or else you're going to
map a course to an end pointthat you don't actually want to
(06:06):
go to.
Kathleen (06:07):
Yeah, I think that this is such a great point and
it's one of the reasons why evenat braid creative, we create
brands.
But first we do a vision.
We do a brand and businessvision guide because you have to
have your vision on paper.
And I will say earlier, wheneveryou were talking about being
reactive, I'm actually prettyreactive in my business.
I'm not as proactive as you are,Emily.
(06:28):
My style is much more reactive.
But what it means is that I needto have a vision and I need to
have those values.
And even that brand, you know, Ineed to know what it is that I
want to be known for.
I need to know what my brand isso that I can react to the right
things.
You know, I'm not wasting mytime reacting to all the wrong
(06:50):
things.
I'm not saying yes to all thewrong things.
So I have a vision which allowsme to take one step at a time,
one reactive step at a timetoward what it is that I want to
create, what it is that I wantto do.
And it, it really allows me tonot have a plan.
Like I can have a vision, I canhave a really strong vision and
(07:12):
not so much of a solid plan toget there because I can just
react along the way.
So there's a couple of ways toget there.
A couple of ways to skin thatcat, take that out.
I don't even know what thatphrase means.
Emily (07:30):
Oh my God.
The emails we're going to getabout Kathleen saying skinning
cats.
Okay, where are we going withthat now?
I'm all of this distracted aboutskinning cats in the email.
Kathleen (07:42):
Okay.
But either way, whether you havea plan or you have a vision,
it's really about figuring outwhat it is that you want to
create.
Really having that, thatfoundation is what you were
talking about.
So coming back to you have tohave like a foundation and a
strategy before you startcreating and then it gives you
that freedom and flexibility tobe creative and responsive and
(08:04):
reactive because you've laid thegroundwork for first, you know
where you're headed.
Emily (08:10):
Yeah.
And I really even see this as a,as a sort of dividing factor
between, you know, someone who'sjust doing this thing as a hobby
and someone who's really turningit into a business.
Um, a plan is one of thosethings that I think and like a
long term vision centered toplan is one of the things that
differentiates those two.
So if you don't have a plan andyou're here thinking you're
(08:30):
doing business, then make aplan.
That's how you really startdoing it.
Um, okay.
So let's start talking aboutsome of these more like
practical pieces of making aplan and what's involved.
Cause we talked about why youwant to be able to be more
proactive or reactive in the waythat you want to be.
Um, and you want to be movingtowards a specific goal or
(08:51):
vision that you have foryourself and your business as
well.
For me, I like to sit down andthen start thinking about what
it is that I want to becreating.
And also I'm going to back upjust a little piece and say
whenever I am creating a bigvision plan for my business,
like Kathleen said, it's not afive year plan.
(09:13):
I mean in five years we may allbe packing our bags to move to
Mars.
You know, like in goodness knowsthe Instagram rules are going to
be completely different and whoknows what like a website is
going to look like in fiveyears.
Um, so it's not a five yearplan.
For me, a big picture plan isanywhere between six and 18
(09:33):
months.
So six being like really like amedium picture.
12 is my good, like a good sweetspot.
18 starts looking a little fuzzyfor me.
But I like to sort of have likemaybe one or two things 18
months out that I can sort ofthink of.
And I will tell you too, the bigproject that I can think of that
we've done that really requiredsome like far off visioning and
(09:56):
planning was writing the book.
That was a project where it, itstretched our, our planning
timeframes in a way that we hadnever really stretched them
before.
I remember whenever they weretelling us, whenever you and I
were talking to our publishersabout, about the date for
publishing the book, it wasabout 18 months out.
We were like, well, even berelevant then.
(10:18):
Like are you sure this is a goodidea?
Can we not do it sooner thanthat?
Um, because it can be reallydifficult to think that far out,
but it is nice to be able towork towards big things that are
that far out.
But for me, six to 12 months is,is ideal.
Kathleen (10:34):
Hmm.
That's interesting.
I'm, I like to zoom way out andfind myself on my death bed,
thinking about what is the lifethat I have wanted to create for
myself.
And then I kind of zoom back infrom there.
So starting on my death bed,
Emily (10:50):
She's not kidding guys, she's not.
Kathleen (10:52):
And then I go back to, I think a lot about, remember
Tara Moore's inner mentorexercise.
Emily (10:58):
Thinking about that just now too,
Kathleen (11:00):
so I'm not sure which episode that was, but we'll be
sure to link it in the shownotes.
But Tara, Maura has thisexercise where you visualize
your older self and what doesshe look like?
What do they sound like, whathave they accomplish?
And so I really think aboutmyself probably in my sixties so
what's that like 20 plus yearsout.
(11:22):
I don't plan on dying until I'mlike in my nineties to a
hundreds so then I'm comingback.
Yeah, totally planning it out.
And I will also mention I wantit to be peaceful.
I just want to fall asleep,fully functional and with it.
And then I'm just gone.
But, um, until then I reallywant to think about the life
(11:45):
that I want to create for myselfand what does that look and feel
like?
So I started to think about,okay, where is Braid Creative in
20 years?
Is it still agency?
What does it look and feel like?
And I'm like, okay, that's alittle too far out.
So then I zoom in a little bitmore and I'm like, okay, in 10
years, where would I like to be?
Okay.
Does that feel a little far outtoo?
Maybe.
(12:05):
My sweet spot is actually fiveyears, which is funny because we
always talk about the five yearplan because time is moving so
fast.
As I get older, five years seemsa little bit more achievable
now.
So for example, whenever webrought on a third partner at
Braid, we all committed togiving it five more years.
We were like, okay, let's atleast be in this together for
five years.
(12:25):
We can say that.
And then from there we areplanning together, do we want to
grow our team?
Do we want to be double the sizewe are?
What are our plans for revenueor client load.
And then from there we break itdown into one and two year
chunks.
So now I'm getting to where youare Emily, where we can say,
okay, let's plan what eventswe'll be attending, what
(12:48):
conferences we'll be speakingat, how many clients do we need
per quarter?
Do we want to get a couple moresix figure clients?
Like what do we really want thatto look like?
And that's, that's how I liketo, I like to zoom way out and
then bring it down so thatagain, I have that longterm
vision of what I'm workingtoward in the meantime.
And then I can, I can break itdown from there.
Emily (13:10):
Perfect.
There's a beautiful illustrationof how you go from that longterm
vision down to six to 18 months.
Um, so let's talk about this six, 18 months.
Like what it is that you'reactually planning, cause it new
year, new you, new year, newbusiness, whatever it may be.
Um, creating a little plan foryourself is really important for
(13:30):
moving you forward.
So you think about the next sixto 18 months and you start
answering these sorts ofquestions.
Um, what do you want to becreating and when do you want to
create those things?
Um, what are you marketing andselling and when, and you can
even think about, you know, ifyou're a product business, think
about your holiday seasons.
If you are a service basedbusiness, thinking about, you
(13:53):
know, the highs and lows in yourbusiness they are, or any sort
of regular launches that youhave.
Um, and what does it all meanfor your bottom line?
And this is a piece that I oftenthink is missing and especially
creative business owners, isyou're all about planning out
all the creativity, but you'renot thinking about what it means
for the bottom line of yourbusiness.
So what does that mean forrevenue?
(14:14):
And so we're going to be talkingabout all of those things a
little more as we continuethrough this episode.
Um, but those are the biggestcomponents for creating a big
picture plan for your business.
Um, and then we do this thoughbecause it's important.
It's important for having thingson paper.
It's important for creating aplan.
(14:36):
Um, and it's important to thinkof creating this plan in a way
that is very holistic.
So it's about looking at yourwork as well as your life.
It's about looking at yourentire business model, not just
the piece that makes you moneyor not just the piece that is
like the social media marketingis not piecing it together.
It's about looking at yourentire work life flow and all
(15:00):
the pieces of your business atonce to create a holistic plan
for how it is that you're movingforward.
Kathleen (15:06):
Well, and you know, now I'm feeling a little
embarrassed about my death bedtalk and you know, do I want to
be when I'm 60 but honestly,it's that work life piece of it
though.
Yeah, it is.
It really does bring it backdown to the more micro, everyday
level where we see people whofeel like they're too busy to be
making the things that they wantto be making or too busy to
(15:29):
overwhelmed, to be enjoying thecreative thing or the business
that they've created forthemselves because they're
overwhelmed.
And I do feel like this moreholistic, longterm vision of who
is the person that you want tobe and will help you make these
choices in your every day thatdirect you where you want to go.
So I just wanted to like justifymy deathbed talk a little bit.
(15:53):
Um, I also see a lot of peoplenot, not being able to wear all
the hats in the way that theyneed to wear them, especially if
you're working for yourself andyou don't have a big team yet or
even a small team yet.
Um, or maybe if you do have asmall team and you're learning
how to go from being thecreative to being a manager,
(16:14):
being able to put a plan down onpaper is going to help you.
It's just going to create spacearound some of the things that
are overwhelming so that you canbe more creative.
So I know that a lot of times aplan doesn't feel super creative
but it allows me for a lot ofcreativity.
Emily (16:33):
Yes.
And I will tell you, do I'mtelling you all of this or we
are telling you all of this,we're presenting this episode to
you because we find this to beimperative for moving forward as
a business owner.
Um, and we run into it all thetime where creatives or business
owners or entrepreneurs willcome to us and they feel like
all they're doing is marketingand selling.
(16:55):
There is marketing and sellingall the time or putting out
fires or, or just like trying tomanage the team or whatever it
may be.
And you never have time toactually create what it is that
you're here to create.
And this is because you arepiecing your business together
as opposed to proactivelyplanning and being the boss of
your business by creating a planyou put on your boss hat and you
(17:16):
can actually move forward andmaking it do.
Kathleen (17:19):
And I'm excited to talk about this in this episode
because I think that we bothhave very different approaches
to planning.
I am very much in my feelingsabout it and in the kind of
vision of it.
And I think that you're muchmore into the spreadsheets and
I'm in logistics so and inAsana, tasking things out.
So I think that the two of us, Imean this is why we make such
(17:41):
great business partners, right?
And I think that we're going tooffer a couple of different
perspectives on how you can goabout it.
Acuity Advert (17:52):
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Emily (18:54):
All right, so what we want you to do here is to be
consistently working off of asix to 12 month plan and whether
that's like a very just sort ofvision feeling base or for me
it's very like a sauna based.
Kathleen (19:07):
I think it's both.
I think the six to 12 months isdefinitely both.
Emily (19:11):
for sure because, and even, you know, opening this, I
am very like spreadsheets, Asana, but even opening this is the
first thing you do is brief.
You know, the first thing you dois really get into their
feelings.
Um, so that you can, you canmove forward.
Someone came on the podcast onceand maybe you can remember who
it was.
It was like, and they said howyou spend every day is how you
(19:32):
spend the rest of your life.
Kathleen (19:34):
Yeah.
And I think that that's like apretty, you know, Pinterest-y
quote that goes around, but itwas Katie Lee who said it.
Emily (19:43):
That is correct.
That is correct.
Um, so you know, for thispurpose, think of like how you
spend every month in yourbusiness is how you're going to
spend every month in yourbusiness.
I mean, thoughtful about it.
Kathleen (19:54):
Do you hear people say, Oh, I'm in a crazy, crazy
busy time like this, this weekor this month is crazy, but
next, next month is going to beeasier and spoiler alert, it
never gets easier.
It's always going to be crazy.
Especially if you're being superreactive or over committing
yourself or not creatingboundaries because you don't
(20:15):
have a plan.
Emily (20:16):
Yeah, for sure.
I saw a funny meme about thatrecently is like adulting or
like adulting used to be payingyour bills and now it's simply
saying I'm in a crazy busy timeand it never getting any less
busy.
Um, right.
So what we want to do here ismake you a thoughtful plan for
moving forward by creating a sixto 12 month plan in your
(20:38):
business as to what it is thatyou're going to be creating,
what it is that you're going tobe marketing and selling, what
it is that you will be doing inyour life.
Um, and how you can use that tomove forward.
Because I, I have been usingthis tool for years.
I think it was one of those likeinteresting little like
intuitive business practicesthat I caught onto very early in
(20:59):
my business.
And I still do it prettyconstantly.
Every couple pages in mynotebook has one of, has a
little calendar in it.
Um, so we're going to be lookingat, or I think you should be
looking at every 12 months, atleast once a year.
Beginning of the year is alwaysa perfect time for doing this.
Um, so sit down now, tomorrow,next week and create a 12 month
(21:22):
plan for yourself.
Um, once I have a 12 month planmapped out, and it always is
that, you know, the first sixmonths of that plan are always
like chalk filled with all kindsof things who know exactly
what's happening.
And towards the end of that 12month plan, I'm a little less
sure about what's going tohappen, but there's always
things there, um, that I can bemoving towards.
I like to do a six month planevery quarter, so all year long,
(21:47):
every six months or everyquarter, I'm sitting down to
create a six month plan.
So I always have a very clearvision of what's happening in
the next six months.
And I also go into every one ofthese plans knowing that things
will shift and we're going totalk about that a little more
soon.
Um, but if you're one of thosepeople that's going, Oh my God,
(22:07):
I could never create a six to 12month plan, you're not carving
it in stone.
You're just writing it on apiece of paper.
Kathleen (22:14):
Well, in some parts of your plan you are carving in
stone, you know, and so then youknow what your non-negotiables
are.
You know what you need toaccomplish in order to pay your
bills.
You know which vacations youmight be taking and sure, yes,
things change, things shift, butI think that at least a six
month plan up to 12 months isvery doable.
(22:35):
I think that it's reasonable tohave a plan for 12 months out.
Emily (22:39):
Three months for me is in stone more or less like the next
three months.
Like I know exactly what'shappening.
Things are already in place.
We're already moving towards it.
Three months for me is, ispretty much in stone.
Anything beyond that I think hasa little, is a little more
moveable as needed.
Kathleen (22:57):
One thing that I think about whenever it comes to
creating plans, especially ifyou're in your first couple of
years of starting your businessor if you haven't even started,
you know maybe you're a sidehustler and you haven't quit
your full time job yet andyou're still just piecing things
together or you're doing lots ofdifferent little jobs and you
don't have your one big plantogether yet is really start by
(23:21):
tracking data.
I think if you can track data,if you can at least commit to
tracking what's happening andkeeping note of it, it's going
to help inform your plans movingforward.
So this especially relates tothings like conferences that you
want to attend and how toconferences then affect your
sales or opportunities thatmight shift your revenue or even
(23:47):
things like just busy times andslow times of the year.
Emily, even whenever you weredesigning websites, you found
this natural rhythm of busytimes and slow times.
And you know, now at Being Boss,we have a rhythm here after four
or five years of doing thiswhere we know when the vacation
is happening or you know, whenpeople are thinking about
(24:08):
planning.
I mean definitely creatingcontent is a huge part of our
plan and um, I really think justtracking what it is that you're
doing, what periods of time feelslow, how your marketing efforts
pay off.
This is going to be huge increating your plans moving
forward.
So this is just to say if, ifcreating a plan feels like
(24:29):
you're throwing, you know, dartsat a dartboard in the dark, then
maybe you just keep track for awhile.
Keep track of what's happening.
Emily (24:38):
I will say that throwing dartboards in at the board in
the dark.
Wait, wait, wait.
Kathleen (24:46):
Throwing darts at the dartboard dark boards in the
dark.
Oh that is something you woulddo.
Emily (24:56):
Probably, probably.
Okay.
Starting that one over.
I do think that throwing dartsat a dartboard in the dark, um,
is still a good practice.
If we're sitting down andcreating plans, I think if
you're just starting out, trythree months, just, just do
three months and start workingyour way up.
But absolutely yes to betracking data.
(25:18):
So at Almanac we are two yearsin two years.
I'm at about the time that thisepisode comes out, we will be,
it will be our two yearanniversary, which is super
exciting.
Um, and we're just now able tosit down and actually create a
plan.
We've been sitting down andcreating these like three month
plans of like, okay, we know wedidn't need to do these things
to continue moving thingsforward, but we have been
(25:40):
tracking data and two years intoit we have two years worth of
sales and marketing to see thoseebbs and flows in business to
see which holidays are going tobe our biggest, which ones are
going to be duds and we shouldjust be taking our vacations
during that time or whatever itmay be.
I'm two years into it.
We're just now able to sit downand create a solid six month
(26:01):
plan, which is really nice andstill kind of visioning beyond
that six months.
Um, but it, it does require acouple of, at least two years I
think of just looking at data,but still sitting down to
practice what it's like to takethat proactive action towards
planning the pieces of yourbusiness that you can, well, and
(26:22):
what I will say is that ifyou're new to planning, start
with fewer variables, right?
So for Almanac, for example,you're two years in, maybe in
your first year it's just, okay,we're launching with candles.
You have one product that you'relaunching with, and then you
slowly add in product and thenevents you have just a couple of
(26:44):
popups and then the next yearyou can say, okay, I think we
have the capacity to do aholiday market or a more full
season market.
Kathleen (26:52):
Right?
So I think that if you can startwith a smaller amount of
offerings or events or launches,don't try and do all the things
that's going to help you plan.
For sure.
For sure.
Okay.
Let's talk about some likeproblem areas.
It's like, okay, so I was justcoaching or meeting up with a
(27:14):
client, a braid method client,and we did her braid method.
So her brand platform andeverything probably over a year
ago.
And she has a fully developedand beautiful website that she
has not gone live on because shedidn't have a plan for what was
next.
This website's probably beendone for like I'm guessing three
(27:37):
to six months, man.
And she hasn't gone live becauseshe didn't know what to do after
that.
So this is where I will saydon't let, not having a plan
hold you back from taking thenext steps.
And this is why it's soimportant to have a vision and
trust your vision.
Even if you don't have a plan.
And sometimes plans can lookdifferent for different people
(28:00):
and taking the next step mightspark what your plan becomes.
It might help you decide whereyou're going.
And from there you can start tomap it out.
So that's my big thing I want tosay about problem areas is don't
let not having a plan hold youback.
Emily (28:17):
Well, my thing about problem areas is that I often
find that people who strugglewith creating plans have
problems doing it becausethey're scared of committing to
a plan or they're great atmaking plans, but don't stick
with them.
And I think that if you're goingto run a business and make a
(28:40):
plan, get comfortable withcommitting to that plan and
don't get two months into it anddecide to decide to pivot every
time you get two months into aplan, you're never going to
build a business that way.
Commit to it for me, that threemonths committed totally six
months committed totally.
Year?
(29:01):
There's some moveable-ness, butI'm gonna be here doing this
thing for the next 12 months.
That's not in question.
And you mentioned even, youknow, at Braid, you guys giving
yourselves five years.
Um, I did the same thing as Ihave taken on Being Boss.
I have committed myself to fiveyears, five years to being here
(29:22):
doing this thing.
So I'm just a year at a timeover here, right?
Kathleen is just 12 monthing it.
It's fine.
Um, but I think that that is animportant piece of the puzzle.
And again, one that I seecreatives struggling with more
than most business owners, um,but as one that is completely
important for you, building agreat sustainable business.
(29:47):
Um, so if you struggle creating.
Kathleen (29:49):
this kind of interesting because I feel like
I struggle with planning andmaybe it's the kind of thing
where I'm holding myself toplanning at your level Emily,
like the spreadsheets and thenumbers and all of that.
Like maybe I'm holding myself todifferent kind of plan, but I
don't because I don't like doingthat kind of planning.
But I do feel very committed andmaybe it's because I only have
(30:13):
one offering at Braid Creative.
I mean for the most part, youknow, for a new entry level
clients.
And then from there we're kindof repeating our cycles.
Like we're in this good rhythmand we can just, the plan is the
rhythm that we've establishedfor ourselves, you know, and the
plan is kind of the chalkboard,which we'll get into later and
just filling up the spaces thatwe know we need to fill.
(30:35):
So maybe I do have more of aplan than I think I do.
Emily (30:38):
Yeah, it's just your business plan is just like, it's
just the business plan that'srolling for sure.
You haven't had to create a newplan in a long time, which is
maybe the thing you feel ismissing, but that's because
you've committed to building abusiness with a plan that works.
And this is state.
So I made the plan 10 years agoand I'm still just rolling.
Rolling with it.
Right.
(31:00):
Doing it, doing it.
All right, so whenever it comesto creating a plan, we sorta hit
on some questions a minute ago,but we're going to dive a little
bit more into what this plan canlook like or what sort of things
should go in this plan.
And I always like to start notwith the things that you want to
(31:20):
create, which most people arelike, Oh my God, I'm going to
plan so many things.
No, don't do it.
First, start your plan with whatit is that you already have.
Remember those things?
Kathleen (31:30):
Is that rhetorical?
Is that a rhetorical question?
Emily (31:36):
That was me being passive aggressive?
Kathleen (31:40):
I was like, wait, am I supposed to answer?
[inaudible] all right.
Start with the things that youalready have.
So you're talking about if youalready have an offering, which
this is another thing, you haveto have something to sell in
order to have a business.
Yeah.
Right.
Fat reminder there.
Emily (32:00):
That is a fact.
So what offerings do you alreadyhave?
Um, you can think about what ofthose offerings sell best.
So we actually have a worksheet,um, called What's Working,
What's Kind of Working, What'sNot Working.
You can access it in the shownotes for this episode at
beingboss.club.
But this is a really greatworksheet for looking at the
(32:22):
offerings you already have andsee what is selling best, what
is kind of only selling what'snot really selling or was
working kind or not working.
And so you can think aboutanything that needs to be
improved upon.
So in that six to 12 month plan,maybe you think about improving
that digital product that youhaven't touched a long time or
bettering your onboarding systemfor that service offering that
(32:45):
you have or doing the nextiteration of, you know, that
physical product that you have,whatever it may be, think about
how it is that you can improveupon or maybe even completely
scratch some offerings that youalready have.
Kathleen (33:01):
I really liked that you're talking about internal
iteration and improving uponyour offerings that you have.
And then also pairing that withthinking about how you're
selling it, right?
So what's working there?
Is Instagram working for you oryour market's working for you?
Is Facebook working for you?
I hear so many people planningout tactics that are currently
(33:24):
not working and it's like, okay,let's look at what's working and
maybe double down on that.
I mean, even just the other dayI had a client saying, I'm only
getting my business by referralsand I want to have a plan so
that I'm getting businesselsewhere.
I'm like, well, what's wrongwith the referrals?
If the referrals keep coming,those people are only going to
(33:47):
refer you to more people andthen those new clients are gonna
refer you to more people.
It's clear that your work isgood and solid and I felt like
she was disappointed that Iwasn't telling her to go out and
buy some Facebook ads.
Emily (33:58):
Way to waste some money when you don't need it, right.
I do feel like that's how wefeel about Facebook.
No, I think referrals are alwaysseen as like the old school way
of doing business or like thoseare, that's like that's not real
because you didn't sell it orwhatever it may be.
But that is the golden egg of,of selling, of being able to
(34:18):
easily sell.
Other people are selling for youand you don't even having to pay
them to sell for you like thatis, or that is what you should
be working for.
Kathleen (34:27):
The quality of your work is selling itself.
So I feel like my theme for thepast year at being boss has been
just do really good work.
Like just plan to do really goodwork.
And this is where, you know,even with my planning and
whenever I think about planning,if I can just plan to do the
best I can do any given day, Itrust that it's going to pay
(34:49):
off.
That's a little bit of a tangentthough.
Emily (34:52):
I, I think it's a good tangent.
I want to go on this tangentwith you for a minute.
Can I hop on this tangent?
Yes.
And you keep talking about thatbecause that's the piece that
people have forgotten.
People have traded, doing greatwork for Instagram or for
talking about how other peoplecan make money doing the exact
same thing that they're doing orwhatever.
(35:13):
Like people have forgotten theimportance of just being great
at what it is that you do andletting your work speak for
itself instead of you sittingthere speaking about your work
that you're not even doingbecause you're spending all of
your work or all of your timespeaking about your work.
Right.
Which was a lot, but like I,this is important guys.
It is so important.
(35:35):
Now I'm getting off thattangent.
Kathleen (35:36):
Well, I'm going to see on that tangent for a second
because I feel like it actuallyarticulates something that I
maybe wasn't explicit about inour last episode about the Being
Boss buyout and me stepping outa little bit is I love talking
about the work, but the amountof work that was going into us
having the privilege to talkabout it became a full time job.
(35:58):
Right.
And I missed doing the work.
I miss like getting in there andbuilding things out with my
hands.
And you've missed that too.
I mean it's why you launchedAlmanac and basically you just
have two full time jobs now, butalways you've planned for it.
Yes.
So back to the plan.
Emily (36:18):
Right?
Off bus, back to the plan.
Okay.
So you're going to be thinkingabout the offerings you already
have because don't forget aboutthose.
How can you improve them?
What can you scratch?
Like how can you make thebusiness that you already have
working work better.
Then after you've thought aboutthose things, you can start
thinking about the thingsactually know before you start
(36:39):
thinking about those things.
So first what you already have.
Second, think about the thingson your calendar that are
unmovable.
So things like holiday.
So if you're a product business,especially, you know the
holidays are going to be allabout marketing and selling and
just surviving for the mostpart.
So like block off those areas istimes when you're not going to
be creating new things.
You don't have time there.
(37:00):
Think about other busy times.
Whether that's a regular launchthat you're all always doing or
maybe it's like big travel time.
Think about vacations, thinkabout other family stuff like
the month that your kid goesback to school is probably going
to be a little too busy for youto sit down and write that book
that you were really wanting towrite.
So thinking about the unmovablethings on your calendar that
(37:24):
need space on that calendar aswell.
And I always like to think aboutthis is whenever you put those
things into your business plan,you are then planning your
business around your life, notthe other way around.
Kathleen (37:36):
Yes.
This is the thing that I'mplanning the most for moving
into 2020 is really looking atmy calendar and the demands on
my time.
So I'm putting in vacations andtravel first and the things that
either I've already booked orwill want to book and looking at
when I have time to do thosethings and looking at different
(37:57):
launches next.
But really just that travelpiece for me is huge and making
space and getting intentionalaround, okay, here's an example.
I want to go to Oklahoma acouple more times maybe next
year than I did this year.
So when can that actuallyhappen?
Where would it fit in, inbetween everything else that's
happening.
(38:17):
If someone wants to come visitme, when would the best time be
for that?
So I really want to start to mapthose things out so that I'm
creating space for them.
And then also leaving space forthings like if we're invited to
speak at a conference or if weare get like a last minute
travel opportunity for adifferent client.
It, things like that.
I want to make sure to notoverbook my calendar, but then
(38:39):
that's really creating thatvision for what do I want to
make space for.
Emily (38:42):
I love it.
That's how you do it.
That's how you do it.
So you're going to look at thosetwo things, the unmovable things
in your calendar as well as thethings in your business that you
already have that you want toimprove upon one way or the
other.
And then you get down to what itis that you want to create next.
So whether that is a book thatyou want to write or a new
offering that you want to createor a new product line that you
(39:04):
want to produce or whatever itmay be, then go into that
calendar and think, which monthscan you put those things in.
I also like to maybe back upjust a little bit.
I also like to designate a monthas either more work heavy or
more life heavy.
So like even by the name of themonth I'll put work or life,
(39:25):
because either that's like avacation or me doing a hardcore
creative product or whatever itmay be.
Kathleen (39:30):
How many work months do you have and how many life?
Emily (39:32):
I try to keep them pretty even.
Oh wow.
I tried to.
It usually ends up beingprobably like eight to four.
So eight work to four life's.
Kathleen (39:43):
So this is where creating a plan would be very
helpful for me in thinking aboutwhat you want to create because
I've had this idea to just do asmall six episode series, kind
of like how you do Making aBusiness on branding a business.
And it's an idea I've beenmulling on for a year and I've
liked having it on the shelf,but I'm ready to take it down
(40:05):
from the shelf.
And that's where I would startto create a plan, you know?
And so getting down on paper,what do I want to create?
When could we record this?
Are we recording in person?
And it really is just a seriesof questions.
Just thinking through thelogistics and the timeframe.
And plotting it out in Asana oron your paper calendar, on your
Google calendar and just takingthe next steps.
(40:27):
And then beyond that, I don'thave to have a plan necessarily
for launching it.
I don't have to have a planbeyond just let's make a plan
for recording it and then we'regood.
So that's another thing that youmight think about whenever it
comes to that three month to sixmonth plan is that three month
plan can just be phase one of aproject and then the next three
months can be phase two.
(40:48):
But if I don't write a plan forthis, it's going to be another
year before it happens.
Yeah.
Emily (40:54):
Or it may never happen or maybe never, unless your inner
mentor is like, yo Kathleen.
Right.
Kathleen (41:02):
My inner mentor just wants me to like be painting and
[inaudible] and being like somesort of hippie that eats a bunch
of seeds.
See, that's my inner mentorright now.
Emily (41:17):
Um, what if you were to plan out, is that like killing
the creativity?
You plan out painting or youcreate a plant?
Like, let's say you have a goalof creating three new paintings
this year.
Kathleen (41:31):
Yeah.
Uh, no, that's actually reallygood point because this is
actually a blind spot for meprobably and probably a lot of
our listeners too, as I havethis vision of being a painter.
But that means buying a canvas,mixing together paint, sticking
a paintbrush in the paint andapplying it to the canvas.
(41:52):
This painting is not going topaint itself.
So for me it's um, that's lessplanning and more getting into a
habit.
So actually I've gotten into thehabit of playing piano and
learning how to play piano.
So again, I'm like in this artsyphase of my life and it's just
committing to the habit ofpracticing for 10 minutes a day.
So with painting, I do feel likethis art begets more art.
(42:17):
And so I might be playing pianofor 10 minutes and then I want
to procrastinate from playingpiano.
And so I'll procrastinate bypicking up a paintbrush and then
painting.
But then that thing, that meansI need to have supplies on hand.
So my plan is to have supplieson hand.
And that's, that's the best Ican do there.
I love it.
It usually ends up being thatI've painted one or two great
(42:38):
paintings a year and I'm goodwith that for now.
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Emily (43:17):
Okay.
I want to hit really quickly onthis idea of creating new things
because like I was talkingearlier about making sure you
are committing to your plan.
I also think you just need tocommit to your business.
And so when you're thinkingabout creating, I challenge you
to think about what it is thatyou can offer clients or
customers that you already have.
(43:38):
So your existing clients andcustomers as well as
experimenting with newofferings, whatever that may be
as opposed to launching newbrands and new business plans.
Kathleen (43:50):
I feel very strongly about this.
So I really like offering myexisting clients new offerings
before I launch it as somethingthat I'm offering.
Just anybody because I'm able tounderstand how it's working for
my existing clients and how itfits into the holistic vision of
my business.
(44:11):
And then like, so for example,you know, at Braid Creative, we
do brand platforms, but we alsodo have an in house media team
and we could get into maybedigital advertising for our
clients.
So scratch what I said earlierabout Facebook ads.
They're great.
You can see as I give a bigthumbs up actually they are
(44:31):
great if you have a veryspecific target and if you have
a budget, if you don't havethose things, keep working
toward it.
But anyway, so it's notsomething I want to offer just
anybody out the gate.
I want to offer it to someonethat I know it would be a good
fit for or things like I'mgetting back into coaching some
of my Braid Method clients.
(44:52):
I'm not coaching people who havenot been through the Braid
Method, you know, so really justleveraging where I already am
and what I've alreadyaccomplished versus launching
something new.
Right?
Leveraging versus launching
Emily (45:06):
And nurturing the people you already have.
People too often forget that youalready have customers and
clients.
Nurture those people.
Um, and then I also want to pullin this idea of, you know,
making this a holistic plan.
How does everything worktogether?
So whenever you have this plan,you probably have several
different sides of yourbusinesses that you're looking
(45:28):
at a couple of differentofferings, you know, marketing
versus creating whatever it maybe.
But the beauty of creating aplan in this way of creating a,
a sort of a longterm plan isbeing able to look at how it all
works together.
So think, you know, does thelaunch of one thing lead into
the launch of another thing?
Did you know things easily tietogether.
Does a marketing section need tomove to create space, to create
(45:52):
art, to create space, to createbasically, um, how did these
things work together so thatyou're not just like, you know,
plugging away and really like,you know, building a house
without a plan.
I feel it's what this, imagineyou building walls and
forgetting to build a roof orwhatever it may be.
Like make sure you put all ofthe pieces in place and that
(46:13):
they all play well together.
Kathleen (46:16):
You know, this actually made me think about the
chapter in our book aboutcreating your different plot
points and imagining it as agarden.
Like what is it that you'rewanting to make space for it and
how does this whole garden worktogether?
So that's actually a wholesection on boundaries, which is
funny because boundaries,habits, routines, mindset, all
(46:36):
of this too plays into making aplan.
But I really think about what itis that I want to make space for
and how does it all looktogether and how does it, how do
I become a farmer, you know, andplant seeds that might not come
to fruition for another 12months, but then what seeds are
going to grow really fast andwhat did I plant last year that
(46:57):
I can just water and give somesunshine and harvest this year?
So for me it's, whenever I thinkabout the holistic piece of it,
it really is thinking about moreof the timing and seeing what's
coming to fruition of myprevious labor.
Emily (47:13):
For sure.
Hmm.
I love that.
Make pretty gardens.
Kathleen (47:18):
Okay.
How do you literally make yourplan?
And this is where I get veryvisual and I think this is where
a lot of people get a littleblocked up.
Like how are you literally doingthis?
Emily (47:30):
Very easily?
It's so basic, so basic.
So I take, I have a little, whatis this like a eight and a half
by five, five by eight and ahalf, five star notebook on my
desk at all times.
Unless I move it and then I getreally distraught cause then I
can't find it.
And I sit down to meet with mylittle note notebook with a pen
and I block out three monthssections going down a piece of
(47:56):
paper.
So, you know, we'll startJanuary at the top and put
January, February, March.
Quarter one.
Moved down a little bit.
April, may, June quarter to movedown a little bit.
And so on that whole page, um,it's the entire month and these
little sections divided byquarter.
And then underneath each ofthose months I write down
whatever I'm planning to do.
(48:17):
Am I launching something?
Am I creating something?
Am I, am I just doing like amarketing push for this thing
that I've already created?
Am I updating my email funnels?
Am I, you know, am I hosting aconference?
Am I planning a vacation?
Am I doing whatever it may be?
Each, each of those things goesunderneath the applicable month.
(48:41):
And then I use that to gofurther into something like
Asana or you know, a Google docto plan it out further or
whatever it may be.
But every few pages in mynotebook has a six to 12 month
little calendar in it so I cango back and see how well I
committed to a plan.
If things got scratched, if youknow, if a month got totally
(49:04):
derailed and none of the thingshappened, whatever it may be, I
can go back and see what myplans have been, how they all
came into fruition andcontinuously move forward with a
new six or 12 month plan.
What about you, Kathleen?
Kathleen (49:18):
Yeah, so for me, whenever it comes to planning,
this is where it's good to havea business bestie or a team or
business partners.
If you're solo, I recommendfinding a business bestie or
someone that you can start tohash out a plan with because
planning is very fluid.
It can be fluid, it can be,everyone can do it in a
(49:39):
different way.
And so if you're doing it withsomeone else, they might see
things that you're missing.
You might see things thatthey're missing and it can help
you put things to paper, right?
So I really do like the puttingthings to paper and I do like
thinking about a whole year at atime and then breaking it down
into quarters.
So for me, this looks like I'mhaving a big planning session
(50:01):
with my team and we have whitepieces of paper taped all over
the office walls.
And we're looking at what areour goals, who are some of our
best clients right now?
So all the things that we'vebeen discussing, what's really
working, what, how many clientsdo we need to have in order to
hit this financial goal?
And what do we want to do aboutcontinuing education?
(50:23):
Or what conferences do we wantto attend?
What are we speaking at?
What conferences are we speakingat and what do we imagine we
could do to really leveragethose speaking events into
getting clients?
And so it really is looking at abunch of different things like
that.
And then from there we start toput together a plan and the plan
(50:43):
for us is usually just do moreof the same, like work the plan,
keep it working, but how can wetweak it to create goals for
ourselves to hit milestones andthings like that.
And then for sure the ChalkboardMethod.
So making space for what it isthat we want.
If the Chalkboard Method is anew term, if you've never heard
(51:04):
that word before, go tobeingboss.club/chalkboard and
you will find a ton ofresources.
We've done entire dedicatedepisodes about it.
We have worksheets on it and itis the thing that we've been
using at Braid Creative sinceday one to make space for our
plan.
So that's me.
And then Asana, which we bothuse and love.
(51:27):
And that's really taking thequarterly plan and then breaking
it down into tasks that aredelegated to specific people and
making sure that people arebeing held accountable to their
part of the plan.
Emily (51:38):
For sure.
And I will also say here, I usea sauna for personal projects.
So if it's something where noone on my team is doing it but
me, it still goes in Asanabecause I can go in and say,
okay, I have this one monthsection that I am doing this one
task and it's going to take mefour weeks to do it and here are
(51:58):
the 20 tasks that I need to doto get it complete.
And I can map it out over thenext month so that I can show up
in every day, check off thethings that by the time deadline
gets there, it's complete.
And it wasn't just this thingthat I procrastinated or never
decided to flesh out or whateverit may be.
Kathleen (52:17):
I have the smallest personal project, which is
basically taking a series frommy blog and putting it into like
a printed book.
I own it.
Take it.
Yeah, from like digital tophysical.
And I just, I've gotten likehalfway through it, but I bet if
I plotted it out in Asana, youknow, I think I don't have time.
Well I have time to scrollInstagram, like I definitely
(52:40):
have time.
Emily (52:41):
Amen to that.
Amen to that.
Yes.
Put it in a sauna.
I put so many personal thingsinto a sauna because Asana keeps
me accountable to showing up anddoing the work that I need to
do.
So all that to say, that's howwe sort of map out as six to 12,
18 month, the section ofbusiness in terms of what it is
that we're creating, uh,iterating, marketing, selling,
(53:06):
vacationing, chilling out,whatever it may be.
Kathleen (53:09):
And I want to say just about the logistics of creating
a plan.
They exist all over the place.
So like you said, Emily, they'rein our notebooks.
They're in our planners, they'rein our Google calendars, they're
in Asana, they're on ourchalkboard.
Your plan can exist in a lot ofplaces.
And I actually think that'sreally great because you're
hitting it from all angles andit's constantly in your face.
(53:34):
You're being reminded that youhave this plan.
You have all these differentplaces that you can become
accountable to it.
And then there are places whereyou can automate your plan.
That's a whole other podcastepisode, guys.
Emily (53:46):
Whole other episode right there.
It can go.
It should go everywhere becauseas it goes in other places, it
becomes a little more real everysingle time and that's that's
how you, that's how you make itall do.
Kathleen (53:58):
Okay.
But I want to plug my favoriteresource and shameless plug,
really, I mean this our CEO DayKit, I cannot recommend it
enough when it comes to, if youneed a framework for getting
your plan on paper, it's such agood framework.
It's taking all the differentpieces of planning that we've
used from setting our values tocreating a marketing and revenue
(54:22):
plan to crunching our numbersand how does that fit into your
plan.
It really is taking all thedifferent bits and pieces of
planning that we've been doingfor the past decade in our own
businesses and bundling ittogether into worksheets.
I mean are you still going to beoffering the CEO Day Kit, Emily?
Am I plugging something thatdoesn't exist anymore?
Emily (54:44):
No, it definitely does.
I've been spending a lot of timein CEO day kit actually over the
past two months sort of.
I've got it switched over intothe new online community, which
is very exciting.
So if you want a community aswell as CEO day kit, it is in
that place which is a ton offun.
We're going to be doing somelive Q and A's but I've been
going through their content andit was like it was reignited in
(55:04):
me how awesome and amazing thisproduct is.
But yes, everything that we'vetalked about today, this sort of
six to 12 month planning.
Um, if you want to see what itlooks like, there is a section
in CEO day kit that walks youthrough this very specifically
called a revenue in marketing.
We even have like a printableworksheet where I take pretty
(55:24):
much the template of what I doin my notebook and we made a
worksheet for it so that you canplan everything out including
the revenue piece of this, whichwe barely touched in this
conversation, but is much deeperin CEO Day Kit.
It is the last and final sectionof that kit.
And it is a product of workingthrough all of the parts of your
(55:45):
business to get to this conciseholistic 12 month plan for your
business.
Um, I love CEO Day Kit.
I mean again, I've fallen backin love with, it's awesome.
This and this piece, um, is onethat, you know, you do it at the
beginning of the year for yourlike annual CEO Day.
But again, every month or so I'mgetting out my notebook and I'm
(56:06):
using the concepts again andagain and again to keep me on
track towards moving towards mygoals.
And with that we move into 2020with a plan.
I'm super excited.
Kathleen (56:20):
I am too.
So now you can go into 2020 witha plan and 20/20 vision.
Emily (56:28):
Snap.
I love it.
See you on the other side.
Kathleen (56:31):
I'm going to go buy a planner, get out my chalkboard,
Emily (56:34):
right?
It's, it's time, it's time to doall the things.
Let's make it do.
Thanks for listening.
And Hey, if you want moreresources, we're talking
worksheets, free trainings inperson meetups and vacations.
And more.
Go to our website atwww.beingboss.club.
(56:55):
Do the work.
Be boss.
I'm Emily Thompson
Kathleen (00:04):
And I'm Kathleen Shannon.
Emily (00:05):
And this is Being Boss.
In this episode of Being Boss,Kathleen and I are talking about
creating a six to 18 month planin your business that will help
you be more proactive in yourbusiness and get more done with
intention and your bottom linein mind.
(00:27):
As always, you can find all thetools, books, and links we
reference on the show notes atwww.beingboss.club.
Kathleen (00:36):
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you hear about us section
Emily (01:37):
Boss, I've got a question for you.
When was the last time youinvested in your business or
professional development in away that you actually enjoyed?
I'm not talking about thatcourse you paid for but never
completed or finally hiring outyour bookkeeping.
I'm talking about investing insomething that's enriching and
fun that's filled with deeplearning and lots of
(01:58):
inspiration.
I'm talking about a conference.
The Being Boss Conference goingdown in April, 2020 was created
with the intention of remindingyou how to really enjoy your
business while still beingvaluable for you to take action
and grow too.
Two and a half days of bossfriends, engaging workshops,
inspiring keynotes, chillingover cocktails and our favorite:
(02:19):
celebrating your success, yourhard work, and your sheer
bossness.
Learn more and grab your ticketwhile they last at
beingboss.club/conference.
I look forward to seeing youthere.
All right, Kathleen, can I tellyou my very favorite part about
(02:39):
the new year?
Actually, can you guess it?
Do you know what it is?
Kathleen (02:43):
Probably getting a brand new planner, filling it
out, right?
Emily (02:47):
It's planning.
Just planning,
Kathleen (02:49):
Planning.
You love some planning,
Emily (02:52):
Right?
Spreadsheets, calendars,planners, notebooks.
I'll put a plan in each.
Kathleen (03:00):
So that's what we're talking about today, right?
Creating a big picture plan.
Emily (03:04):
Yes.
This is one of those things Ialways find, well actually it's
not like creatives are bad atit.
I think some super creativepeople have a hard time doing
big picture plans, but youeither are good at it or you
aren't like you either eitherhave the capacity to do it or
you really struggle with doingit.
So I'm excited we're going todive into that today because I
(03:26):
love big picture planning.
I don't usually get too big.
I always find that I get alittle, a little scared maybe is
the right word.
Kathleen (03:35):
I almost just said that.
I think that a lot of creativeshave a hard time with big
picture planning because one,it's vulnerable.
So it's really saying that youhave big goals, you have big
ideas, you have a big vision andyou want to achieve it.
And then two, there's aparalysis of not knowing where
to begin.
You know, that chasm, that gapbetween where you want to be and
(03:57):
where you are is huge.
And so that can be intimidating.
Where do you even begin wheneveryou have such a huge goal for
yourself or such a huge vision.
And then the last thing, sovulnerable, um, there's a big
gap is just there's so manyvariables.
There's so many other thingshappening whenever it comes to
(04:18):
running your own business.
And then the world that we livein is always changing.
And it's impossible now to evendo like a five year plan because
we don't even know where we'regoing to be in five years or
what opportunities will beavailable or what kinds of
challenges or life thingshappen.
So there's a lot of overwhelmingthings that come with planning,
(04:40):
but at the same time, wheneveryou can put a plan down on paper
and start to bring that to life,Ooh, there is nothing more boss
than that,
Emily (04:50):
Right?
If you are struggling with beingsuper reactive in your business,
so you feel like you're alwaysputting out fires, you can never
get ahead.
All of those things, it'sprobably because you don't have
a plan.
A plan is that first steptowards proactive action and
running your business.
And without it you're justreacting to every little thing
that pops up and you will neverbe in control in your business
(05:14):
if that's the case.
Kathleen (05:16):
All right, so where do we begin with talking about
creating a plan?
Emily (05:21):
some deep breaths?
I think especially forcreatives, I'm going to start
like, I think it starts withgetting really centered in who
you are, what it is that you'rehere doing, what your mission
is, very specifically what yourvalues are.
Values are something we talkabout a lot around here where
(05:42):
you can, you know, check aroundour podcast for it.
We wrote about it in the book.
We have a page on our websitededicated to values and a quiz
beingboss.club/values.
Um, I think you have to getreally, really centered before
you go into making big pictureplans or else you're going to
map a course to an end pointthat you don't actually want to
(06:06):
go to.
Kathleen (06:07):
Yeah, I think that this is such a great point and
it's one of the reasons why evenat braid creative, we create
brands.
But first we do a vision.
We do a brand and businessvision guide because you have to
have your vision on paper.
And I will say earlier, wheneveryou were talking about being
reactive, I'm actually prettyreactive in my business.
I'm not as proactive as you are,Emily.
(06:28):
My style is much more reactive.
But what it means is that I needto have a vision and I need to
have those values.
And even that brand, you know, Ineed to know what it is that I
want to be known for.
I need to know what my brand isso that I can react to the right
things.
You know, I'm not wasting mytime reacting to all the wrong
(06:50):
things.
I'm not saying yes to all thewrong things.
So I have a vision which allowsme to take one step at a time,
one reactive step at a timetoward what it is that I want to
create, what it is that I wantto do.
And it, it really allows me tonot have a plan.
Like I can have a vision, I canhave a really strong vision and
(07:12):
not so much of a solid plan toget there because I can just
react along the way.
So there's a couple of ways toget there.
A couple of ways to skin thatcat, take that out.
I don't even know what thatphrase means.
Emily (07:30):
Oh my God.
The emails we're going to getabout Kathleen saying skinning
cats.
Okay, where are we going withthat now?
I'm all of this distracted aboutskinning cats in the email.
Kathleen (07:42):
Okay.
But either way, whether you havea plan or you have a vision,
it's really about figuring outwhat it is that you want to
create.
Really having that, thatfoundation is what you were
talking about.
So coming back to you have tohave like a foundation and a
strategy before you startcreating and then it gives you
that freedom and flexibility tobe creative and responsive and
(08:04):
reactive because you've laid thegroundwork for first, you know
where you're headed.
Emily (08:10):
Yeah.
And I really even see this as a,as a sort of dividing factor
between, you know, someone who'sjust doing this thing as a hobby
and someone who's really turningit into a business.
Um, a plan is one of thosethings that I think and like a
long term vision centered toplan is one of the things that
differentiates those two.
So if you don't have a plan andyou're here thinking you're
(08:30):
doing business, then make aplan.
That's how you really startdoing it.
Um, okay.
So let's start talking aboutsome of these more like
practical pieces of making aplan and what's involved.
Cause we talked about why youwant to be able to be more
proactive or reactive in the waythat you want to be.
Um, and you want to be movingtowards a specific goal or
(08:51):
vision that you have foryourself and your business as
well.
For me, I like to sit down andthen start thinking about what
it is that I want to becreating.
And also I'm going to back upjust a little piece and say
whenever I am creating a bigvision plan for my business,
like Kathleen said, it's not afive year plan.
(09:13):
I mean in five years we may allbe packing our bags to move to
Mars.
You know, like in goodness knowsthe Instagram rules are going to
be completely different and whoknows what like a website is
going to look like in fiveyears.
Um, so it's not a five yearplan.
For me, a big picture plan isanywhere between six and 18
(09:33):
months.
So six being like really like amedium picture.
12 is my good, like a good sweetspot.
18 starts looking a little fuzzyfor me.
But I like to sort of have likemaybe one or two things 18
months out that I can sort ofthink of.
And I will tell you too, the bigproject that I can think of that
we've done that really requiredsome like far off visioning and
(09:56):
planning was writing the book.
That was a project where it, itstretched our, our planning
timeframes in a way that we hadnever really stretched them
before.
I remember whenever they weretelling us, whenever you and I
were talking to our publishersabout, about the date for
publishing the book, it wasabout 18 months out.
We were like, well, even berelevant then.
(10:18):
Like are you sure this is a goodidea?
Can we not do it sooner thanthat?
Um, because it can be reallydifficult to think that far out,
but it is nice to be able towork towards big things that are
that far out.
But for me, six to 12 months is,is ideal.
Kathleen (10:34):
Hmm.
That's interesting.
I'm, I like to zoom way out andfind myself on my death bed,
thinking about what is the lifethat I have wanted to create for
myself.
And then I kind of zoom back infrom there.
So starting on my death bed,
Emily (10:50):
She's not kidding guys, she's not.
Kathleen (10:52):
And then I go back to, I think a lot about, remember
Tara Moore's inner mentorexercise.
Emily (10:58):
Thinking about that just now too,
Kathleen (11:00):
so I'm not sure which episode that was, but we'll be
sure to link it in the shownotes.
But Tara, Maura has thisexercise where you visualize
your older self and what doesshe look like?
What do they sound like, whathave they accomplish?
And so I really think aboutmyself probably in my sixties so
what's that like 20 plus yearsout.
(11:22):
I don't plan on dying until I'mlike in my nineties to a
hundreds so then I'm comingback.
Yeah, totally planning it out.
And I will also mention I wantit to be peaceful.
I just want to fall asleep,fully functional and with it.
And then I'm just gone.
But, um, until then I reallywant to think about the life
(11:45):
that I want to create for myselfand what does that look and feel
like?
So I started to think about,okay, where is Braid Creative in
20 years?
Is it still agency?
What does it look and feel like?
And I'm like, okay, that's alittle too far out.
So then I zoom in a little bitmore and I'm like, okay, in 10
years, where would I like to be?
Okay.
Does that feel a little far outtoo?
Maybe.
(12:05):
My sweet spot is actually fiveyears, which is funny because we
always talk about the five yearplan because time is moving so
fast.
As I get older, five years seemsa little bit more achievable
now.
So for example, whenever webrought on a third partner at
Braid, we all committed togiving it five more years.
We were like, okay, let's atleast be in this together for
five years.
(12:25):
We can say that.
And then from there we areplanning together, do we want to
grow our team?
Do we want to be double the sizewe are?
What are our plans for revenueor client load.
And then from there we break itdown into one and two year
chunks.
So now I'm getting to where youare Emily, where we can say,
okay, let's plan what eventswe'll be attending, what
(12:48):
conferences we'll be speakingat, how many clients do we need
per quarter?
Do we want to get a couple moresix figure clients?
Like what do we really want thatto look like?
And that's, that's how I liketo, I like to zoom way out and
then bring it down so thatagain, I have that longterm
vision of what I'm workingtoward in the meantime.
And then I can, I can break itdown from there.
Emily (13:10):
Perfect.
There's a beautiful illustrationof how you go from that longterm
vision down to six to 18 months.
Um, so let's talk about this six, 18 months.
Like what it is that you'reactually planning, cause it new
year, new you, new year, newbusiness, whatever it may be.
Um, creating a little plan foryourself is really important for
(13:30):
moving you forward.
So you think about the next sixto 18 months and you start
answering these sorts ofquestions.
Um, what do you want to becreating and when do you want to
create those things?
Um, what are you marketing andselling and when, and you can
even think about, you know, ifyou're a product business, think
about your holiday seasons.
If you are a service basedbusiness, thinking about, you
(13:53):
know, the highs and lows in yourbusiness they are, or any sort
of regular launches that youhave.
Um, and what does it all meanfor your bottom line?
And this is a piece that I oftenthink is missing and especially
creative business owners, isyou're all about planning out
all the creativity, but you'renot thinking about what it means
for the bottom line of yourbusiness.
So what does that mean forrevenue?
(14:14):
And so we're going to be talkingabout all of those things a
little more as we continuethrough this episode.
Um, but those are the biggestcomponents for creating a big
picture plan for your business.
Um, and then we do this thoughbecause it's important.
It's important for having thingson paper.
It's important for creating aplan.
(14:36):
Um, and it's important to thinkof creating this plan in a way
that is very holistic.
So it's about looking at yourwork as well as your life.
It's about looking at yourentire business model, not just
the piece that makes you moneyor not just the piece that is
like the social media marketingis not piecing it together.
It's about looking at yourentire work life flow and all
(15:00):
the pieces of your business atonce to create a holistic plan
for how it is that you're movingforward.
Kathleen (15:06):
Well, and you know, now I'm feeling a little
embarrassed about my death bedtalk and you know, do I want to
be when I'm 60 but honestly,it's that work life piece of it
though.
Yeah, it is.
It really does bring it backdown to the more micro, everyday
level where we see people whofeel like they're too busy to be
making the things that they wantto be making or too busy to
(15:29):
overwhelmed, to be enjoying thecreative thing or the business
that they've created forthemselves because they're
overwhelmed.
And I do feel like this moreholistic, longterm vision of who
is the person that you want tobe and will help you make these
choices in your every day thatdirect you where you want to go.
So I just wanted to like justifymy deathbed talk a little bit.
(15:53):
Um, I also see a lot of peoplenot, not being able to wear all
the hats in the way that theyneed to wear them, especially if
you're working for yourself andyou don't have a big team yet or
even a small team yet.
Um, or maybe if you do have asmall team and you're learning
how to go from being thecreative to being a manager,
(16:14):
being able to put a plan down onpaper is going to help you.
It's just going to create spacearound some of the things that
are overwhelming so that you canbe more creative.
So I know that a lot of times aplan doesn't feel super creative
but it allows me for a lot ofcreativity.
Emily (16:33):
Yes.
And I will tell you, do I'mtelling you all of this or we
are telling you all of this,we're presenting this episode to
you because we find this to beimperative for moving forward as
a business owner.
Um, and we run into it all thetime where creatives or business
owners or entrepreneurs willcome to us and they feel like
all they're doing is marketingand selling.
(16:55):
There is marketing and sellingall the time or putting out
fires or, or just like trying tomanage the team or whatever it
may be.
And you never have time toactually create what it is that
you're here to create.
And this is because you arepiecing your business together
as opposed to proactivelyplanning and being the boss of
your business by creating a planyou put on your boss hat and you
(17:16):
can actually move forward andmaking it do.
Kathleen (17:19):
And I'm excited to talk about this in this episode
because I think that we bothhave very different approaches
to planning.
I am very much in my feelingsabout it and in the kind of
vision of it.
And I think that you're muchmore into the spreadsheets and
I'm in logistics so and inAsana, tasking things out.
So I think that the two of us, Imean this is why we make such
(17:41):
great business partners, right?
And I think that we're going tooffer a couple of different
perspectives on how you can goabout it.
Acuity Advert (17:52):
Okay, so you're making a plan, but do you have
time to make it do, that'salways the question, am I right?
Well, there are some simple waysto take back your time.
For example, did you know thaton average a business spends six
weeks each year on schedulingalone?
(18:12):
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Except I can totally see howthat's the case, but not me.
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(18:35):
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Emily (18:54):
All right, so what we want you to do here is to be
consistently working off of asix to 12 month plan and whether
that's like a very just sort ofvision feeling base or for me
it's very like a sauna based.
Kathleen (19:07):
I think it's both.
I think the six to 12 months isdefinitely both.
Emily (19:11):
for sure because, and even, you know, opening this, I
am very like spreadsheets, Asana, but even opening this is the
first thing you do is brief.
You know, the first thing you dois really get into their
feelings.
Um, so that you can, you canmove forward.
Someone came on the podcast onceand maybe you can remember who
it was.
It was like, and they said howyou spend every day is how you
(19:32):
spend the rest of your life.
Kathleen (19:34):
Yeah.
And I think that that's like apretty, you know, Pinterest-y
quote that goes around, but itwas Katie Lee who said it.
Emily (19:43):
That is correct.
That is correct.
Um, so you know, for thispurpose, think of like how you
spend every month in yourbusiness is how you're going to
spend every month in yourbusiness.
I mean, thoughtful about it.
Kathleen (19:54):
Do you hear people say, Oh, I'm in a crazy, crazy
busy time like this, this weekor this month is crazy, but
next, next month is going to beeasier and spoiler alert, it
never gets easier.
It's always going to be crazy.
Especially if you're being superreactive or over committing
yourself or not creatingboundaries because you don't
(20:15):
have a plan.
Emily (20:16):
Yeah, for sure.
I saw a funny meme about thatrecently is like adulting or
like adulting used to be payingyour bills and now it's simply
saying I'm in a crazy busy timeand it never getting any less
busy.
Um, right.
So what we want to do here ismake you a thoughtful plan for
moving forward by creating a sixto 12 month plan in your
(20:38):
business as to what it is thatyou're going to be creating,
what it is that you're going tobe marketing and selling, what
it is that you will be doing inyour life.
Um, and how you can use that tomove forward.
Because I, I have been usingthis tool for years.
I think it was one of those likeinteresting little like
intuitive business practicesthat I caught onto very early in
(20:59):
my business.
And I still do it prettyconstantly.
Every couple pages in mynotebook has one of, has a
little calendar in it.
Um, so we're going to be lookingat, or I think you should be
looking at every 12 months, atleast once a year.
Beginning of the year is alwaysa perfect time for doing this.
Um, so sit down now, tomorrow,next week and create a 12 month
(21:22):
plan for yourself.
Um, once I have a 12 month planmapped out, and it always is
that, you know, the first sixmonths of that plan are always
like chalk filled with all kindsof things who know exactly
what's happening.
And towards the end of that 12month plan, I'm a little less
sure about what's going tohappen, but there's always
things there, um, that I can bemoving towards.
I like to do a six month planevery quarter, so all year long,
(21:47):
every six months or everyquarter, I'm sitting down to
create a six month plan.
So I always have a very clearvision of what's happening in
the next six months.
And I also go into every one ofthese plans knowing that things
will shift and we're going totalk about that a little more
soon.
Um, but if you're one of thosepeople that's going, Oh my God,
(22:07):
I could never create a six to 12month plan, you're not carving
it in stone.
You're just writing it on apiece of paper.
Kathleen (22:14):
Well, in some parts of your plan you are carving in
stone, you know, and so then youknow what your non-negotiables
are.
You know what you need toaccomplish in order to pay your
bills.
You know which vacations youmight be taking and sure, yes,
things change, things shift, butI think that at least a six
month plan up to 12 months isvery doable.
(22:35):
I think that it's reasonable tohave a plan for 12 months out.
Emily (22:39):
Three months for me is in stone more or less like the next
three months.
Like I know exactly what'shappening.
Things are already in place.
We're already moving towards it.
Three months for me is, ispretty much in stone.
Anything beyond that I think hasa little, is a little more
moveable as needed.
Kathleen (22:57):
One thing that I think about whenever it comes to
creating plans, especially ifyou're in your first couple of
years of starting your businessor if you haven't even started,
you know maybe you're a sidehustler and you haven't quit
your full time job yet andyou're still just piecing things
together or you're doing lots ofdifferent little jobs and you
don't have your one big plantogether yet is really start by
(23:21):
tracking data.
I think if you can track data,if you can at least commit to
tracking what's happening andkeeping note of it, it's going
to help inform your plans movingforward.
So this especially relates tothings like conferences that you
want to attend and how toconferences then affect your
sales or opportunities thatmight shift your revenue or even
(23:47):
things like just busy times andslow times of the year.
Emily, even whenever you weredesigning websites, you found
this natural rhythm of busytimes and slow times.
And you know, now at Being Boss,we have a rhythm here after four
or five years of doing thiswhere we know when the vacation
is happening or you know, whenpeople are thinking about
(24:08):
planning.
I mean definitely creatingcontent is a huge part of our
plan and um, I really think justtracking what it is that you're
doing, what periods of time feelslow, how your marketing efforts
pay off.
This is going to be huge increating your plans moving
forward.
So this is just to say if, ifcreating a plan feels like
(24:29):
you're throwing, you know, dartsat a dartboard in the dark, then
maybe you just keep track for awhile.
Keep track of what's happening.
Emily (24:38):
I will say that throwing dartboards in at the board in
the dark.
Wait, wait, wait.
Kathleen (24:46):
Throwing darts at the dartboard dark boards in the
dark.
Oh that is something you woulddo.
Emily (24:56):
Probably, probably.
Okay.
Starting that one over.
I do think that throwing dartsat a dartboard in the dark, um,
is still a good practice.
If we're sitting down andcreating plans, I think if
you're just starting out, trythree months, just, just do
three months and start workingyour way up.
But absolutely yes to betracking data.
(25:18):
So at Almanac we are two yearsin two years.
I'm at about the time that thisepisode comes out, we will be,
it will be our two yearanniversary, which is super
exciting.
Um, and we're just now able tosit down and actually create a
plan.
We've been sitting down andcreating these like three month
plans of like, okay, we know wedidn't need to do these things
to continue moving thingsforward, but we have been
(25:40):
tracking data and two years intoit we have two years worth of
sales and marketing to see thoseebbs and flows in business to
see which holidays are going tobe our biggest, which ones are
going to be duds and we shouldjust be taking our vacations
during that time or whatever itmay be.
I'm two years into it.
We're just now able to sit downand create a solid six month
(26:01):
plan, which is really nice andstill kind of visioning beyond
that six months.
Um, but it, it does require acouple of, at least two years I
think of just looking at data,but still sitting down to
practice what it's like to takethat proactive action towards
planning the pieces of yourbusiness that you can, well, and
(26:22):
what I will say is that ifyou're new to planning, start
with fewer variables, right?
So for Almanac, for example,you're two years in, maybe in
your first year it's just, okay,we're launching with candles.
You have one product that you'relaunching with, and then you
slowly add in product and thenevents you have just a couple of
(26:44):
popups and then the next yearyou can say, okay, I think we
have the capacity to do aholiday market or a more full
season market.
Kathleen (26:52):
Right?
So I think that if you can startwith a smaller amount of
offerings or events or launches,don't try and do all the things
that's going to help you plan.
For sure.
For sure.
Okay.
Let's talk about some likeproblem areas.
It's like, okay, so I was justcoaching or meeting up with a
(27:14):
client, a braid method client,and we did her braid method.
So her brand platform andeverything probably over a year
ago.
And she has a fully developedand beautiful website that she
has not gone live on because shedidn't have a plan for what was
next.
This website's probably beendone for like I'm guessing three
(27:37):
to six months, man.
And she hasn't gone live becauseshe didn't know what to do after
that.
So this is where I will saydon't let, not having a plan
hold you back from taking thenext steps.
And this is why it's soimportant to have a vision and
trust your vision.
Even if you don't have a plan.
And sometimes plans can lookdifferent for different people
(28:00):
and taking the next step mightspark what your plan becomes.
It might help you decide whereyou're going.
And from there you can start tomap it out.
So that's my big thing I want tosay about problem areas is don't
let not having a plan hold youback.
Emily (28:17):
Well, my thing about problem areas is that I often
find that people who strugglewith creating plans have
problems doing it becausethey're scared of committing to
a plan or they're great atmaking plans, but don't stick
with them.
And I think that if you're goingto run a business and make a
(28:40):
plan, get comfortable withcommitting to that plan and
don't get two months into it anddecide to decide to pivot every
time you get two months into aplan, you're never going to
build a business that way.
Commit to it for me, that threemonths committed totally six
months committed totally.
Year?
(29:01):
There's some moveable-ness, butI'm gonna be here doing this
thing for the next 12 months.
That's not in question.
And you mentioned even, youknow, at Braid, you guys giving
yourselves five years.
Um, I did the same thing as Ihave taken on Being Boss.
I have committed myself to fiveyears, five years to being here
(29:22):
doing this thing.
So I'm just a year at a timeover here, right?
Kathleen is just 12 monthing it.
It's fine.
Um, but I think that that is animportant piece of the puzzle.
And again, one that I seecreatives struggling with more
than most business owners, um,but as one that is completely
important for you, building agreat sustainable business.
(29:47):
Um, so if you struggle creating.
Kathleen (29:49):
this kind of interesting because I feel like
I struggle with planning andmaybe it's the kind of thing
where I'm holding myself toplanning at your level Emily,
like the spreadsheets and thenumbers and all of that.
Like maybe I'm holding myself todifferent kind of plan, but I
don't because I don't like doingthat kind of planning.
But I do feel very committed andmaybe it's because I only have
(30:13):
one offering at Braid Creative.
I mean for the most part, youknow, for a new entry level
clients.
And then from there we're kindof repeating our cycles.
Like we're in this good rhythmand we can just, the plan is the
rhythm that we've establishedfor ourselves, you know, and the
plan is kind of the chalkboard,which we'll get into later and
just filling up the spaces thatwe know we need to fill.
(30:35):
So maybe I do have more of aplan than I think I do.
Emily (30:38):
Yeah, it's just your business plan is just like, it's
just the business plan that'srolling for sure.
You haven't had to create a newplan in a long time, which is
maybe the thing you feel ismissing, but that's because
you've committed to building abusiness with a plan that works.
And this is state.
So I made the plan 10 years agoand I'm still just rolling.
Rolling with it.
Right.
(31:00):
Doing it, doing it.
All right, so whenever it comesto creating a plan, we sorta hit
on some questions a minute ago,but we're going to dive a little
bit more into what this plan canlook like or what sort of things
should go in this plan.
And I always like to start notwith the things that you want to
(31:20):
create, which most people arelike, Oh my God, I'm going to
plan so many things.
No, don't do it.
First, start your plan with whatit is that you already have.
Remember those things?
Kathleen (31:30):
Is that rhetorical?
Is that a rhetorical question?
Emily (31:36):
That was me being passive aggressive?
Kathleen (31:40):
I was like, wait, am I supposed to answer?
[inaudible] all right.
Start with the things that youalready have.
So you're talking about if youalready have an offering, which
this is another thing, you haveto have something to sell in
order to have a business.
Yeah.
Right.
Fat reminder there.
Emily (32:00):
That is a fact.
So what offerings do you alreadyhave?
Um, you can think about what ofthose offerings sell best.
So we actually have a worksheet,um, called What's Working,
What's Kind of Working, What'sNot Working.
You can access it in the shownotes for this episode at
beingboss.club.
But this is a really greatworksheet for looking at the
(32:22):
offerings you already have andsee what is selling best, what
is kind of only selling what'snot really selling or was
working kind or not working.
And so you can think aboutanything that needs to be
improved upon.
So in that six to 12 month plan,maybe you think about improving
that digital product that youhaven't touched a long time or
bettering your onboarding systemfor that service offering that
(32:45):
you have or doing the nextiteration of, you know, that
physical product that you have,whatever it may be, think about
how it is that you can improveupon or maybe even completely
scratch some offerings that youalready have.
Kathleen (33:01):
I really liked that you're talking about internal
iteration and improving uponyour offerings that you have.
And then also pairing that withthinking about how you're
selling it, right?
So what's working there?
Is Instagram working for you oryour market's working for you?
Is Facebook working for you?
I hear so many people planningout tactics that are currently
(33:24):
not working and it's like, okay,let's look at what's working and
maybe double down on that.
I mean, even just the other dayI had a client saying, I'm only
getting my business by referralsand I want to have a plan so
that I'm getting businesselsewhere.
I'm like, well, what's wrongwith the referrals?
If the referrals keep coming,those people are only going to
(33:47):
refer you to more people andthen those new clients are gonna
refer you to more people.
It's clear that your work isgood and solid and I felt like
she was disappointed that Iwasn't telling her to go out and
buy some Facebook ads.
Emily (33:58):
Way to waste some money when you don't need it, right.
I do feel like that's how wefeel about Facebook.
No, I think referrals are alwaysseen as like the old school way
of doing business or like thoseare, that's like that's not real
because you didn't sell it orwhatever it may be.
But that is the golden egg of,of selling, of being able to
(34:18):
easily sell.
Other people are selling for youand you don't even having to pay
them to sell for you like thatis, or that is what you should
be working for.
Kathleen (34:27):
The quality of your work is selling itself.
So I feel like my theme for thepast year at being boss has been
just do really good work.
Like just plan to do really goodwork.
And this is where, you know,even with my planning and
whenever I think about planning,if I can just plan to do the
best I can do any given day, Itrust that it's going to pay
(34:49):
off.
That's a little bit of a tangentthough.
Emily (34:52):
I, I think it's a good tangent.
I want to go on this tangentwith you for a minute.
Can I hop on this tangent?
Yes.
And you keep talking about thatbecause that's the piece that
people have forgotten.
People have traded, doing greatwork for Instagram or for
talking about how other peoplecan make money doing the exact
same thing that they're doing orwhatever.
(35:13):
Like people have forgotten theimportance of just being great
at what it is that you do andletting your work speak for
itself instead of you sittingthere speaking about your work
that you're not even doingbecause you're spending all of
your work or all of your timespeaking about your work.
Right.
Which was a lot, but like I,this is important guys.
It is so important.
(35:35):
Now I'm getting off thattangent.
Kathleen (35:36):
Well, I'm going to see on that tangent for a second
because I feel like it actuallyarticulates something that I
maybe wasn't explicit about inour last episode about the Being
Boss buyout and me stepping outa little bit is I love talking
about the work, but the amountof work that was going into us
having the privilege to talkabout it became a full time job.
(35:58):
Right.
And I missed doing the work.
I miss like getting in there andbuilding things out with my
hands.
And you've missed that too.
I mean it's why you launchedAlmanac and basically you just
have two full time jobs now, butalways you've planned for it.
Yes.
So back to the plan.
Emily (36:18):
Right?
Off bus, back to the plan.
Okay.
So you're going to be thinkingabout the offerings you already
have because don't forget aboutthose.
How can you improve them?
What can you scratch?
Like how can you make thebusiness that you already have
working work better.
Then after you've thought aboutthose things, you can start
thinking about the thingsactually know before you start
(36:39):
thinking about those things.
So first what you already have.
Second, think about the thingson your calendar that are
unmovable.
So things like holiday.
So if you're a product business,especially, you know the
holidays are going to be allabout marketing and selling and
just surviving for the mostpart.
So like block off those areas istimes when you're not going to
be creating new things.
You don't have time there.
(37:00):
Think about other busy times.
Whether that's a regular launchthat you're all always doing or
maybe it's like big travel time.
Think about vacations, thinkabout other family stuff like
the month that your kid goesback to school is probably going
to be a little too busy for youto sit down and write that book
that you were really wanting towrite.
So thinking about the unmovablethings on your calendar that
(37:24):
need space on that calendar aswell.
And I always like to think aboutthis is whenever you put those
things into your business plan,you are then planning your
business around your life, notthe other way around.
Kathleen (37:36):
Yes.
This is the thing that I'mplanning the most for moving
into 2020 is really looking atmy calendar and the demands on
my time.
So I'm putting in vacations andtravel first and the things that
either I've already booked orwill want to book and looking at
when I have time to do thosethings and looking at different
(37:57):
launches next.
But really just that travelpiece for me is huge and making
space and getting intentionalaround, okay, here's an example.
I want to go to Oklahoma acouple more times maybe next
year than I did this year.
So when can that actuallyhappen?
Where would it fit in, inbetween everything else that's
happening.
(38:17):
If someone wants to come visitme, when would the best time be
for that?
So I really want to start to mapthose things out so that I'm
creating space for them.
And then also leaving space forthings like if we're invited to
speak at a conference or if weare get like a last minute
travel opportunity for adifferent client.
It, things like that.
I want to make sure to notoverbook my calendar, but then
(38:39):
that's really creating thatvision for what do I want to
make space for.
Emily (38:42):
I love it.
That's how you do it.
That's how you do it.
So you're going to look at thosetwo things, the unmovable things
in your calendar as well as thethings in your business that you
already have that you want toimprove upon one way or the
other.
And then you get down to what itis that you want to create next.
So whether that is a book thatyou want to write or a new
offering that you want to createor a new product line that you
(39:04):
want to produce or whatever itmay be, then go into that
calendar and think, which monthscan you put those things in.
I also like to maybe back upjust a little bit.
I also like to designate a monthas either more work heavy or
more life heavy.
So like even by the name of themonth I'll put work or life,
(39:25):
because either that's like avacation or me doing a hardcore
creative product or whatever itmay be.
Kathleen (39:30):
How many work months do you have and how many life?
Emily (39:32):
I try to keep them pretty even.
Oh wow.
I tried to.
It usually ends up beingprobably like eight to four.
So eight work to four life's.
Kathleen (39:43):
So this is where creating a plan would be very
helpful for me in thinking aboutwhat you want to create because
I've had this idea to just do asmall six episode series, kind
of like how you do Making aBusiness on branding a business.
And it's an idea I've beenmulling on for a year and I've
liked having it on the shelf,but I'm ready to take it down
(40:05):
from the shelf.
And that's where I would startto create a plan, you know?
And so getting down on paper,what do I want to create?
When could we record this?
Are we recording in person?
And it really is just a seriesof questions.
Just thinking through thelogistics and the timeframe.
And plotting it out in Asana oron your paper calendar, on your
Google calendar and just takingthe next steps.
(40:27):
And then beyond that, I don'thave to have a plan necessarily
for launching it.
I don't have to have a planbeyond just let's make a plan
for recording it and then we'regood.
So that's another thing that youmight think about whenever it
comes to that three month to sixmonth plan is that three month
plan can just be phase one of aproject and then the next three
months can be phase two.
(40:48):
But if I don't write a plan forthis, it's going to be another
year before it happens.
Yeah.
Emily (40:54):
Or it may never happen or maybe never, unless your inner
mentor is like, yo Kathleen.
Right.
Kathleen (41:02):
My inner mentor just wants me to like be painting and
[inaudible] and being like somesort of hippie that eats a bunch
of seeds.
See, that's my inner mentorright now.
Emily (41:17):
Um, what if you were to plan out, is that like killing
the creativity?
You plan out painting or youcreate a plant?
Like, let's say you have a goalof creating three new paintings
this year.
Kathleen (41:31):
Yeah.
Uh, no, that's actually reallygood point because this is
actually a blind spot for meprobably and probably a lot of
our listeners too, as I havethis vision of being a painter.
But that means buying a canvas,mixing together paint, sticking
a paintbrush in the paint andapplying it to the canvas.
(41:52):
This painting is not going topaint itself.
So for me it's um, that's lessplanning and more getting into a
habit.
So actually I've gotten into thehabit of playing piano and
learning how to play piano.
So again, I'm like in this artsyphase of my life and it's just
committing to the habit ofpracticing for 10 minutes a day.
So with painting, I do feel likethis art begets more art.
(42:17):
And so I might be playing pianofor 10 minutes and then I want
to procrastinate from playingpiano.
And so I'll procrastinate bypicking up a paintbrush and then
painting.
But then that thing, that meansI need to have supplies on hand.
So my plan is to have supplieson hand.
And that's, that's the best Ican do there.
I love it.
It usually ends up being thatI've painted one or two great
(42:38):
paintings a year and I'm goodwith that for now.
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Emily (43:17):
Okay.
I want to hit really quickly onthis idea of creating new things
because like I was talkingearlier about making sure you
are committing to your plan.
I also think you just need tocommit to your business.
And so when you're thinkingabout creating, I challenge you
to think about what it is thatyou can offer clients or
customers that you already have.
(43:38):
So your existing clients andcustomers as well as
experimenting with newofferings, whatever that may be
as opposed to launching newbrands and new business plans.
Kathleen (43:50):
I feel very strongly about this.
So I really like offering myexisting clients new offerings
before I launch it as somethingthat I'm offering.
Just anybody because I'm able tounderstand how it's working for
my existing clients and how itfits into the holistic vision of
my business.
(44:11):
And then like, so for example,you know, at Braid Creative, we
do brand platforms, but we alsodo have an in house media team
and we could get into maybedigital advertising for our
clients.
So scratch what I said earlierabout Facebook ads.
They're great.
You can see as I give a bigthumbs up actually they are
(44:31):
great if you have a veryspecific target and if you have
a budget, if you don't havethose things, keep working
toward it.
But anyway, so it's notsomething I want to offer just
anybody out the gate.
I want to offer it to someonethat I know it would be a good
fit for or things like I'mgetting back into coaching some
of my Braid Method clients.
(44:52):
I'm not coaching people who havenot been through the Braid
Method, you know, so really justleveraging where I already am
and what I've alreadyaccomplished versus launching
something new.
Right?
Leveraging versus launching
Emily (45:06):
And nurturing the people you already have.
People too often forget that youalready have customers and
clients.
Nurture those people.
Um, and then I also want to pullin this idea of, you know,
making this a holistic plan.
How does everything worktogether?
So whenever you have this plan,you probably have several
different sides of yourbusinesses that you're looking
(45:28):
at a couple of differentofferings, you know, marketing
versus creating whatever it maybe.
But the beauty of creating aplan in this way of creating a,
a sort of a longterm plan isbeing able to look at how it all
works together.
So think, you know, does thelaunch of one thing lead into
the launch of another thing?
Did you know things easily tietogether.
Does a marketing section need tomove to create space, to create
(45:52):
art, to create space, to createbasically, um, how did these
things work together so thatyou're not just like, you know,
plugging away and really like,you know, building a house
without a plan.
I feel it's what this, imagineyou building walls and
forgetting to build a roof orwhatever it may be.
Like make sure you put all ofthe pieces in place and that
(46:13):
they all play well together.
Kathleen (46:16):
You know, this actually made me think about the
chapter in our book aboutcreating your different plot
points and imagining it as agarden.
Like what is it that you'rewanting to make space for it and
how does this whole garden worktogether?
So that's actually a wholesection on boundaries, which is
funny because boundaries,habits, routines, mindset, all
(46:36):
of this too plays into making aplan.
But I really think about what itis that I want to make space for
and how does it all looktogether and how does it, how do
I become a farmer, you know, andplant seeds that might not come
to fruition for another 12months, but then what seeds are
going to grow really fast andwhat did I plant last year that
(46:57):
I can just water and give somesunshine and harvest this year?
So for me it's, whenever I thinkabout the holistic piece of it,
it really is thinking about moreof the timing and seeing what's
coming to fruition of myprevious labor.
Emily (47:13):
For sure.
Hmm.
I love that.
Make pretty gardens.
Kathleen (47:18):
Okay.
How do you literally make yourplan?
And this is where I get veryvisual and I think this is where
a lot of people get a littleblocked up.
Like how are you literally doingthis?
Emily (47:30):
Very easily?
It's so basic, so basic.
So I take, I have a little, whatis this like a eight and a half
by five, five by eight and ahalf, five star notebook on my
desk at all times.
Unless I move it and then I getreally distraught cause then I
can't find it.
And I sit down to meet with mylittle note notebook with a pen
and I block out three monthssections going down a piece of
(47:56):
paper.
So, you know, we'll startJanuary at the top and put
January, February, March.
Quarter one.
Moved down a little bit.
April, may, June quarter to movedown a little bit.
And so on that whole page, um,it's the entire month and these
little sections divided byquarter.
And then underneath each ofthose months I write down
whatever I'm planning to do.
(48:17):
Am I launching something?
Am I creating something?
Am I, am I just doing like amarketing push for this thing
that I've already created?
Am I updating my email funnels?
Am I, you know, am I hosting aconference?
Am I planning a vacation?
Am I doing whatever it may be?
Each, each of those things goesunderneath the applicable month.
(48:41):
And then I use that to gofurther into something like
Asana or you know, a Google docto plan it out further or
whatever it may be.
But every few pages in mynotebook has a six to 12 month
little calendar in it so I cango back and see how well I
committed to a plan.
If things got scratched, if youknow, if a month got totally
(49:04):
derailed and none of the thingshappened, whatever it may be, I
can go back and see what myplans have been, how they all
came into fruition andcontinuously move forward with a
new six or 12 month plan.
What about you, Kathleen?
Kathleen (49:18):
Yeah, so for me, whenever it comes to planning,
this is where it's good to havea business bestie or a team or
business partners.
If you're solo, I recommendfinding a business bestie or
someone that you can start tohash out a plan with because
planning is very fluid.
It can be fluid, it can be,everyone can do it in a
(49:39):
different way.
And so if you're doing it withsomeone else, they might see
things that you're missing.
You might see things thatthey're missing and it can help
you put things to paper, right?
So I really do like the puttingthings to paper and I do like
thinking about a whole year at atime and then breaking it down
into quarters.
So for me, this looks like I'mhaving a big planning session
(50:01):
with my team and we have whitepieces of paper taped all over
the office walls.
And we're looking at what areour goals, who are some of our
best clients right now?
So all the things that we'vebeen discussing, what's really
working, what, how many clientsdo we need to have in order to
hit this financial goal?
And what do we want to do aboutcontinuing education?
(50:23):
Or what conferences do we wantto attend?
What are we speaking at?
What conferences are we speakingat and what do we imagine we
could do to really leveragethose speaking events into
getting clients?
And so it really is looking at abunch of different things like
that.
And then from there we start toput together a plan and the plan
(50:43):
for us is usually just do moreof the same, like work the plan,
keep it working, but how can wetweak it to create goals for
ourselves to hit milestones andthings like that.
And then for sure the ChalkboardMethod.
So making space for what it isthat we want.
If the Chalkboard Method is anew term, if you've never heard
(51:04):
that word before, go tobeingboss.club/chalkboard and
you will find a ton ofresources.
We've done entire dedicatedepisodes about it.
We have worksheets on it and itis the thing that we've been
using at Braid Creative sinceday one to make space for our
plan.
So that's me.
And then Asana, which we bothuse and love.
(51:27):
And that's really taking thequarterly plan and then breaking
it down into tasks that aredelegated to specific people and
making sure that people arebeing held accountable to their
part of the plan.
Emily (51:38):
For sure.
And I will also say here, I usea sauna for personal projects.
So if it's something where noone on my team is doing it but
me, it still goes in Asanabecause I can go in and say,
okay, I have this one monthsection that I am doing this one
task and it's going to take mefour weeks to do it and here are
(51:58):
the 20 tasks that I need to doto get it complete.
And I can map it out over thenext month so that I can show up
in every day, check off thethings that by the time deadline
gets there, it's complete.
And it wasn't just this thingthat I procrastinated or never
decided to flesh out or whateverit may be.
Kathleen (52:17):
I have the smallest personal project, which is
basically taking a series frommy blog and putting it into like
a printed book.
I own it.
Take it.
Yeah, from like digital tophysical.
And I just, I've gotten likehalfway through it, but I bet if
I plotted it out in Asana, youknow, I think I don't have time.
Well I have time to scrollInstagram, like I definitely
(52:40):
have time.
Emily (52:41):
Amen to that.
Amen to that.
Yes.
Put it in a sauna.
I put so many personal thingsinto a sauna because Asana keeps
me accountable to showing up anddoing the work that I need to
do.
So all that to say, that's howwe sort of map out as six to 12,
18 month, the section ofbusiness in terms of what it is
that we're creating, uh,iterating, marketing, selling,
(53:06):
vacationing, chilling out,whatever it may be.
Kathleen (53:09):
And I want to say just about the logistics of creating
a plan.
They exist all over the place.
So like you said, Emily, they'rein our notebooks.
They're in our planners, they'rein our Google calendars, they're
in Asana, they're on ourchalkboard.
Your plan can exist in a lot ofplaces.
And I actually think that'sreally great because you're
hitting it from all angles andit's constantly in your face.
(53:34):
You're being reminded that youhave this plan.
You have all these differentplaces that you can become
accountable to it.
And then there are places whereyou can automate your plan.
That's a whole other podcastepisode, guys.
Emily (53:46):
Whole other episode right there.
It can go.
It should go everywhere becauseas it goes in other places, it
becomes a little more real everysingle time and that's that's
how you, that's how you make itall do.
Kathleen (53:58):
Okay.
But I want to plug my favoriteresource and shameless plug,
really, I mean this our CEO DayKit, I cannot recommend it
enough when it comes to, if youneed a framework for getting
your plan on paper, it's such agood framework.
It's taking all the differentpieces of planning that we've
used from setting our values tocreating a marketing and revenue
(54:22):
plan to crunching our numbersand how does that fit into your
plan.
It really is taking all thedifferent bits and pieces of
planning that we've been doingfor the past decade in our own
businesses and bundling ittogether into worksheets.
I mean are you still going to beoffering the CEO Day Kit, Emily?
Am I plugging something thatdoesn't exist anymore?
Emily (54:44):
No, it definitely does.
I've been spending a lot of timein CEO day kit actually over the
past two months sort of.
I've got it switched over intothe new online community, which
is very exciting.
So if you want a community aswell as CEO day kit, it is in
that place which is a ton offun.
We're going to be doing somelive Q and A's but I've been
going through their content andit was like it was reignited in
(55:04):
me how awesome and amazing thisproduct is.
But yes, everything that we'vetalked about today, this sort of
six to 12 month planning.
Um, if you want to see what itlooks like, there is a section
in CEO day kit that walks youthrough this very specifically
called a revenue in marketing.
We even have like a printableworksheet where I take pretty
(55:24):
much the template of what I doin my notebook and we made a
worksheet for it so that you canplan everything out including
the revenue piece of this, whichwe barely touched in this
conversation, but is much deeperin CEO Day Kit.
It is the last and final sectionof that kit.
And it is a product of workingthrough all of the parts of your
(55:45):
business to get to this conciseholistic 12 month plan for your
business.
Um, I love CEO Day Kit.
I mean again, I've fallen backin love with, it's awesome.
This and this piece, um, is onethat, you know, you do it at the
beginning of the year for yourlike annual CEO Day.
But again, every month or so I'mgetting out my notebook and I'm
(56:06):
using the concepts again andagain and again to keep me on
track towards moving towards mygoals.
And with that we move into 2020with a plan.
I'm super excited.
Kathleen (56:20):
I am too.
So now you can go into 2020 witha plan and 20/20 vision.
Emily (56:28):
Snap.
I love it.
See you on the other side.
Kathleen (56:31):
I'm going to go buy a planner, get out my chalkboard,
Emily (56:34):
right?
It's, it's time, it's time to doall the things.
Let's make it do.
Thanks for listening.
And Hey, if you want moreresources, we're talking
worksheets, free trainings inperson meetups and vacations.
And more.
Go to our website atwww.beingboss.club.
(56:55):
Do the work.
Be boss.
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