Episode Transcript
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Hello and welcome to thisweek's episode, and also welcome
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to the official run home toChristmas.
Now, having worked in large,large corporation, sales teams,
fast-paced environments, onething that I always remember is
this run home to Christmas.
When I left corporate, it wasthe same in businesses, whether
it was solo owners or biggerbusinesses.
And the run home to Christmasis that chaotic time, that push
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to the end of the year where wehave got revenue targets that
we're wanting to chase.
We have got things going oninside of work, outside of work.
It's award season, it's socialseason about to kick in, all
those sorts of things.
And just life in general.
It's like everything inbusiness and life escalates at
this time of year.
And that is what the run hometo Christmas is, my friends.
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And so today, what I reallywanted to share with you is a
few key tips.
I've got, well, I've writtenthem down on this poster note
here.
I was thinking, what do I knowworks in terms of setting
ourselves up for success amongstall of this chaos?
And when I say set ourselves upfor success, I'm talking about
setting your December self upfor success.
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I want you to be looking backin December or January or
February or all of those monthsand thinking, you know what?
I'm really glad I listened tothat podcast episode.
And I'm really glad Iimplemented the seven key things
that Nikki talked about.
Because I know already some ofthe conversations are about, my
gosh, we're in November and Idon't even know how I'm going to
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get the goals from my pop, frommy wig, my, you know, quarterly
goals done.
So we've got to get reallysmart and strategic and also put
some things in place thatactually future-proof our
calendar, our time and space andguard that.
Again, so the future you isgoing to be thanking us for
having this conversation now.
I'm going to dive straight intowhat these seven key things
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are.
Now, the first three or four ofthem are really about planning
in your calendar.
So if you can, of course, ifyou're driving, please don't do
this.
But if you're near yourcomputer, near your phone, pull
up your calendar.
And if you're not, then maybecome back to do these steps.
We want to really think aboutwhat are the meetings that you
want to have in place forDecember, January, and February.
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So this could be your nurturemeetings.
This could be your clientnurture, key stakeholders.
There sometimes is a bit of anaversion of A, trying to book
meetings in with other people atthis time, because we're all
experiencing the run home toChristmas.
But sometimes you'll besurprised at the answer and the
response to asking for thosemeetings, depending on what, of
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course, the meeting is.
But also don't be afraid ofbooking it into the new year,
into January, February, evenMarch.
And that's where there's a bitof an aversion sometimes of
scheduling those meetings inadvance.
But you and the person thatyou're catching up with are
probably going to be gratefulthat it's in the calendar.
You don't have to think aboutit.
And at the end of the day, youcan always move it.
You know, it can always berescheduled.
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And when we think smartbusiness growth, this is
absolutely setting your futureself up for success because
you're not going to bescrambling in the new year for
your nurture meetings, yourclient meetings.
So that's the first thing inyour calendar.
Um, but also think about yourlist of who you can contact.
Second thing, while you've gotyour calendar open, schedule
those 2026 holidays, my friends.
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Seriously, when you put yourholidays in well in advance, it
means that the work, thoseclient meetings that you're
setting, all of the other stuffwill fit around it.
When you don't set yourholidays into the calendar a
year in advance, what happens?
We know we've all been there.
Work and everything elseconsumes the diary.
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And then it's really hard toactually fit in and schedule in
those holidays.
Now's the time to do it so thatnothing else can get in the
way.
Now, you are scheduling itquite a way in advance if you're
scheduling, you know, to theend of next year.
You can always move it, but therule of thumb is that you do
not cancel the holidays in yourcalendar.
Because I'm talking actuallyblock it out so everybody can
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see.
You can move it.
If something comes up, youknow, this year I had to change,
I had some holidays booked intoJuly.
There was some really greatclient work that I wanted to do
in July.
So I moved it.
I didn't cancel it.
That's a really, really goodlittle tip to make sure you're
still prioritizing thoseholidays.
If somebody else is approvingyour leave, just speaking to the
leaders, still get some timeblocked in your calendar until
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it's approved.
And you can always move it ifthat preferred time doesn't get
approved.
And make sure you get thoseapprovals in ASAP.
So you're gonna set up somemeetings for December, January,
February.
You're gonna get your holidaysin your calendar so you work
around that.
But you're also going to lockin life stuff.
What is life stuff?
I mean, it could be the moresensible, kind of boring, but
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really important stuff, likeyour skin check, your dentist.
I know sometimes this is a goodtime of year for people to
schedule that sort of stuff in,even if it's later on in the
year.
Uh, that might not be the mostimportant aspects, but it's a
good reminder to do thosethings.
But really, lock-in life stuffis also about locking in lunch
with your bestie, locking inthose date nights.
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We know that the next fewmonths, or at least the next
couple of months, the chaostends to be escalated.
So, what can you put in yourcalendar, invite them, share
with somebody?
I'd love to go to the movies,put it in the calendar and
invite them.
The more of this stuff you havein place, you have in your
calendar, the more likely it isto happen.
So lock in your life stuff,your fun stuff.
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It could also be locking in metime.
A quick interruption to thispodcast episode.
I'm really curious, do you wantto close more sales in less
time?
If the answer is yes, which Ihope that it is, then you need
to get your hands on the growthcode.
It is going to give you threeproven frameworks and tools that
will help future-proof yourbusiness and scale with clarity.
(06:18):
All you have to do is head downto the show notes and click the
link below.
Now, number four, no-go zones.
Everyone here knows that I lovea good no-go zone.
And what I mean by that is it'sgetting really intentional
about times in your day, in yourweek, in your month that you're
actually blocking out.
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It's a no-go zone.
So, for example, it could beworking before a certain time of
day.
It could be not working latemore than two nights in a row.
If you have to because it's apeak period, what's your no-go
zone?
It could be I don't work latetwo nights in a row.
That's managing your optimalenergy, but you're still leaning
in and doing what you need toto get the work done.
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A no-go zone could be notworking on the weekends.
A no-go zone could be my lunchbreak is a no-go zone because
that's me time to step away fromthe computer or away from
people and my team and actuallyjust get some energy back,
depending if you get energizedfrom being around people or
being solo.
So think about what is yourno-go zone.
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A no-go zone could be a socialevent that you have to do
because you know that you getenergized from that.
So get really clear on yourno-go zone.
And that's when you can alsocome back to your earlier points
around lock-in life stuff.
There might be some uhconnection there as well.
Now, calendar work is done.
We're putting that to the side.
The fifth thing you can do issort out your client gifts,
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ASAP.
If you're in the business ofdoing client gifts or thank you
cards or Christmas cards, getthat sorted now.
There's nothing worse thangetting to December and
thinking, oh my gosh, I haven'tdone it.
I need to think about it.
The post is going to be cloggedup and busy.
Now's your time to just takethat off the list and get it
done.
And always think, what's thesimplest, easiest way to do
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that?
Number six, get your ChristmasLego out and start working on it
now.
This is a bit of an odd one.
Now, for the Lego fans outthere, you'll get this.
But if you're not a Lego fan,stick with me.
Jules and I love doingChristmas Lego.
We've got a few cool, you know,quite complex setups.
We love getting it done beforeChristmas and then it forms part
of the Christmas decorations inthe house.
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But last year we didn't do theLego.
And we didn't do the Legobecause we didn't pull it out
early enough.
And it takes time, you know, bythe time we're on holidays in
December, it's going to beJanuary, and there's no point in
having the Lego Christmas out,Christmas things, you know,
Christmas tree and all thosethings out.
So the lesson that I took outof that that we can apply in
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anything, any area is what isthe Lego that you want to make
sure you don't leave too late?
What is the thing that you wantto do that maybe brings you joy
or it's important to you, butyou missed out on it last time
or last year or the last coupleof years because you got too
busy.
That's what this is reallyabout.
You know, this is somethingthat we love doing, but the
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point was we got too busy, weforgot about it, and then it was
the next year already.
So, what is your metaphoricalLego, even if it's not actual
Lego?
That thing that you don't wantto miss out on because you get
too busy and put that on thetable.
So our Lego boxes are sittingon the table.
We're getting started on itthis weekend.
What is the Lego box that youneed to put on the table so it's
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visible?
Again, might connect to some ofthose earlier points.
Do you need to talk tosomebody?
Do you need to lock it in?
Do you need to put in yourcalendar or just put it
somewhere where it won't getoverlooked?
I'm curious, reach out to meand let me know what your Lego
is.
If it is actual Lego or if it'sa metaphorical Lego.
And then number seven on thispost-it note list of seven
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things to really keep an eye onand do to set your future
December, January, uh, Februaryself up for success.
Is have you started thinkingabout the evolution or the what
next or the phase of yourbusiness for 2026?
Now, this is a bigger one.
We know that this is a time ofchaos.
I just talked about the runhome to Christmas.
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The pressure is on with socialevents, things that we're
committed to, hitting targets.
So you might not have capacityto get on that balcony of your
business right now.
But again, you might want tothink about when you can do
that.
Is it in the downtime over thenew year Christmas period?
You know, there's this wholething around we stop at the end
of the year.
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But what if we challenge thatthinking?
And instead, the end of theyear might be an opportunity to
reset and refresh, but we don'tstop.
We recalibrate so we cancontinue.
Now, for the people who areentering their peak period at
this time, it might not be atime to reset and recalibrate.
For you in that case, theseseven things are just as
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equally, if not more important,but it's also about thinking
when will you schedule thesethings?
So the evolution or the whatnext or what does 2026 look
like?
I'm going to get you to pullout your calendar again and
actually realistically considerand look at and get a number in
your mind of how many days youhave left in the business for
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this year.
Do you have capacity and timeto put in the evolution piece,
the thinking about what's next,what does 20 seconds, what do I
want 2026 to look like?
And if you don't, when will youschedule that for January and
February?
Really evaluate what you'vecommitted to to the end of the
year versus how much time youhave to do it.
And I would say do thatliterally as point seven,
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because then you've got thingsin the calendar that are really
important to you, like no-gozones, lock-in-life stuff, the
holidays, all of those keythings.
And then you get a really goodunderstanding of what space is
left.
So I'm gonna leave this withyou.
There might be some things onthis list of seven that you're
like, yeah, yep, I've done that.
Beautiful.
Tick, checked off the list.
This is your checklist to setyour future self up for success.
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If you've got done nothing offthis list, maybe choose one
thing with the goal of workingthrough that list.
Uh and if you've done a fewthings, again, still pick one
thing because guaranteed, I'vebeen doing this for a while.
And these are the key thingsthat will help you.
Uh, really look to December,January, February, and look back
and go, oh, so glad.
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Thank you, you did this.
As always, reach out to me andlet me know what you're
actioning, what you'reimplementing.
And I look forward to seeingyou next week.
unknown (12:30):
Bye.