Setting 2025 Goals That Actually Stick!!

Welcome to The In Between Podcast. I'm Astrid.

And I'm Alexis. Join us as we explore the messy yet beautiful in-between seasons of life.

We'll discuss business, relationships, wellness, and everything in between to help you become the highest version of yourself.

Let's dive in.

Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of The In Between Podcast.

This is one of your hosts, Astrid, and the other half of the pod, Alexis. And today on The pod we are talking about 2025 goal setting. We're going to give you some tips. We're going to share some of our goals, and we're going to kind of walk you through. For any of you that goal setting feels like something you want to do more of next year, but it can feel a little overwhelming. We're going to walk you through some exercises as well to kind of help you brain dump. You know, at a very, very high level, what you might want more or less of next year, and then we'll help you kind of refine it down, and we'll give you some examples of how we've done that. And some of our goals for 2025. I'm really looking forward to this episode. I love goals. I love the new year energy. And I also feel like there's something about the number 2025 that just feels so— it like scratches that itch in my brain. And I'm like, something crazy is going to happen next year. Like, just, I feel like it's going to be everyone's year.

I love that. It is a fun number. It's like the quarter of a century and has that milestone feel to it. But yeah, I am so excited for this episode. I feel like we have the blessing to have a lot of friends that love goal setting and we talk a lot about it together and it's a privilege to have that. And I think sometimes we want to set more goals and maybe we're not surrounded by people or the right tools and you're like, okay, I know the basics, but I tried this last year and I didn't quite follow through with my goals. And so now maybe January is rolling around and you're feeling that anxious energy again. And just, I just want to invite everyone with this episode to give yourself some compassion for the things that didn't happen and to not approach goal setting as this tough, like, you have to get it right in order to figure yourself out, but rather like, how can you get closer and closer to your highest self and like the life that you were truly meant to be in? And so I think the beauty of goal setting is that you can start with an intention, but as you start accomplishing those goals, you might realize actually this goal is not for me, or actually I prefer this. Or here's how I want to pivot. And that's how you really like continue to grow in your life. And so, yeah, I'm just excited for this conversation because I think as we share how we execute on these, just be reminded that in that execution is really how you discover what you really want in life as well.

Yeah, I'm so glad that you brought that up because I do think that this process can bring up a lot of emotion and sometimes we can Approach goal setting with some judgment of like what didn't happen last year, and then it's like okay in order for me to have X life, I need to do X. And yes, I do think that in order to become your highest self or in order to build the life you really want, you do have to take action and you do have to build systems to make that happen. And at the same time, goals are a vehicle and they're a part of the journey. In becoming who you are and being willing to have flexibility with them and see, okay, this is actually— the farther I get down this path, the more I realize I don't want this. And I think when you can build that self-awareness practice in alongside of goal setting, I really feel like that's where you really win and you feel ownership over your action and over your behavior instead of kind of drudging along and you're like, okay, well, now I've got to do this, even though you don't really So yeah, this is about setting intentional goals that give you energy and that you feel like really aligned with and that will make you proud when you hit them.

Yeah. And not only that too, but like as you were sharing and I was reflecting back on some of my journeys of implementation, it reminded me how much, um, you get to know yourself during the goal setting process. So maybe you have a goal on your health journey. Well, as you set that goal, you're realizing maybe the days that you didn't meet it, meet those expectations that you had, you're like, oh, wow, I was so stressed out. And then maybe now you're realizing I'm an emotional eater. That was my journey. I eat when I'm stressed. And so as you get to know your own self and your own patterns, you're able to create better systems for yourself too. And so I think more than goal setting, just think of this journey as I'm going to get closer to where my highest self would be. I'm going to get to know myself better, and I'm going to commit and build my own confidence on what I'm going to do, what I said that I would do. So I am beyond excited for this conversation. But before we start with that, if you're new around here, this is called The In Between Podcast. And every episode, we always share what we currently find ourselves in between. So Alexis, what do you currently find yourself in between?

Yes, I am currently in between still healing from pneumonia and managing my energy and my health. Um, my husband also unfortunately has pneumonia as well. Um, and so I was really sick and he was taking care of me, and I started to get better, and then he got sick and I'm taking care of him. And so I feel like I'm kind of in between this interesting place of wanting to have the energy to like create and work on my business and get ready for the new year and also like my health. And I— my stamina is not what it usually is, my energy is not what it usually is, and then also taking care of Matthew. So I'm just really approaching this season with a lot of grace and still like holding myself accountable for the things that I know that I can do. I'm not using like my energy as an excuse. You know, you're like, oh, I don't like don't feel very well, and so I'm just not gonna do it. It's like no, I know you don't feel very well. You can still do XYZ, and then in thirty minutes you can go lay down. And so that's kind of where my my like mental toughness is bumping up against this like energy reserve that I have, and when it's it's out, it's out. And so I'm just like working through that, but it feels. I do feel like I'm on the upward climb. But, yeah, it really makes me very grateful for my health and it makes me just realize when I am healthy, sometimes not spending my time in the best ways. And now, I'm unhealthy and wanting to really do a bunch of stuff and I'm like, gosh, okay, I need to steward my time better when I'm feeling better because when When you're feeling sick and you only have like certain pockets of time to have and, you know, be productive, it really puts things like that into perspective. So I'm, I'm in between that right now. What about you?

Well, I am glad that you guys are healing, even though it's been such a horrible few weeks for you guys.

It genuinely has. December's like not been the best. There's been like so many pockets of joy and like so many great things that have happened. Um, but in terms of like our health and our— we've canceled so many things. I'm just determined to get better by Christmas. So that's my goal.

We need you with all your Christmas joy and spirit. Um, I am currently in between. Oh, well, just wrapping up the year. Like there's just a lot of big projects that I need to and want to crank out before the end of the year. And I guess in a way I'm putting the pressure on myself because I want to take the holidays off. And that's something that I've committed to since becoming an entrepreneur. And so I just have some really tight deadlines, but at the same time, my brain is already fired up for next year. And there's a lot of things that I want to be doing right now and that I hoped that I would be at already of being able to basically set up all the things that I need to do so that next year I can hit the ground running. And I just, it's in my brain. I have the energy. I'll write little things in my notes too, but I can't quite execute on those ideas now because I have to finish a lot of projects, which I love to do as well. But editing has just taken me a bit longer this year. And speaking of reflecting on your goals, one of the things in business is you want to maximize your time. And I do have someone that helps me with editing, but as I have grown in my business now, I'm very, very picky about removing things from the background and making things extra, extra crisp, not just the colors, but all those little details. And that has taken a lot more time.

Mm-hmm.

So, yeah. So hence, I'm still, I'm towards the end of December, still wrapping up quite a few galleries that I hoped would be earlier. I'm not like late on them, but I'm, I just hoped I would be done by now. And so, yeah, so I am in between trying to figure out what that looks like for next year as my workload has also increased with my team. I'm still the one editing all the galleries for myself and for the team. And so trying to see like how I can be a little faster with the editing process, but maintain that quality. But yeah, just vibing with that high energy and hoping that it will stay with me until I have the time and space to crank stuff out.

Yeah, I hear you on the process is changing and it does cost time to create such a perfect product. And that's what you're doing, but it does require that extra level of intensity and like review that maybe you weren't doing before, or as your skill has evolved, like you want to, you want to take it to that next level. So I can imagine that requires a lot of time and costs a lot of energy, but it's worth it. But yeah, like what systems have to change next year to make that actually sustainable over time to be able to deliver what you want when you want?

Absolutely, absolutely. So I'll keep you all posted, but overall I'm feeling— I'm just happy that I'm feeling good energy towards the new year and not anxiousness or, uh, dread as well. So I, I agree, I think 2025 is going to be our year.

I, I feel it, I feel it. Um, well, speaking of, let's talk about this goal setting kind of framework. So for anyone that's like, I love goals, but I kind of don't know where to start, I recommend— and this is something I've worked on with clients, and if you've done one of my deep resets, I'm doing another one in January— um, this is where I usually have everybody start with goal setting, is a more of, less of matrix. And so You can get out a piece of paper or you can pull out your notes app, whatever, you know, form you want to write this on. But essentially write a list of what you want more of and what you want less of next year. And this is an act, a practice to just brain dump everything. So you don't have to get very specific. It's truly just like a place for you to put all of your thoughts. So maybe you want more movement. You want to travel more and you also want to set back more money into your retirement or, or like, yeah. And it can be like that high level. Um, and maybe you want less screen time, you want to cut out alcohol and, or you want to drink less, I guess. Um, and maybe you want to shop, like do online shopping less. So you want to spend less money on like clothing and accessories. Okay, that's like really great high level, but a lot of times we can stop there and we can just say like, I want to move more, or I want to drink less. And sometimes we can get a little overconfident on our ability to execute on those things because they're not specific enough. We don't have a system in place to actually stay true to that, as well as maybe we don't have an environment. That we haven't cultivated so that we can follow through on that goal as well. So from there, I recommend like pulling out some categories to say, okay, from this more of, less of, I want to bucket these into some categories. For me, those categories are career, business, health, finance, spiritual, and relationships. For you, they can be whatever you want. I have kind of bucketed relationships in with like friendships and my marriage, just like, and you know, my family, like all in one bucket. Um, but if you want those to be separated out, that's completely up to you. But I do think that once you can start to put some of these more of, less of in those buckets, it can help you start to like round out the goals and get a little bit more specific with them. And then from there, I recommend going into each one of them and actually building out more of a like specific goal. So for example, underneath my career, I have a goal next year to hit every quarterly bonus target to 101% plus. So that like I have quarterly bonuses based on my performance. And the last, this last year I was able to hit 2 above 100% and the other ones were between 80 to 100%. Not terrible, right? But next year my goal is to hit every single, every single quarterly goal to 101+%, which like gives me that extra bump spiff on top of my bonus. So because that ties to some financial goals I have, and so a lot of these goals end up being kind of interwoven to each other. But saying that I want to make more money at work for my W-2, it's not specific enough. So I needed to go deeper into saying, okay, where can I make more money? I can make more money for my W-2 from my quarterly bonuses. Okay. What do I need to do to get that extra spiff on my bonus? I need to hit this percent. So as you can see, like me saying I want to make more money. To then whittling it down into how am I going to actually hit that? It's a lot more specific. And now I have a target every quarter. And so now on those days where I'm kind of drudging through work, I'm like, okay, this is helping me hit my quarterly target because that's my goal this year. So see how that completely shifts the way that we think about goals, set goals whenever you get more specific about them.

Yeah. No, I love that so much. And thank you for sharing your process. I think it's So interesting to hear how people approach goal setting and different brainstorm sessions part of it too. For me, I love to do more of an audit. And there's, I would say, 80% of what you mentioned is very similar, but I love— I'm more of a visual person. So being able to have those buckets of categories, and I love to be more intuitive with it too. So I'm like, okay, In my relationship, like overall, how did I feel? And then being able to then bring that to, okay, why did I feel mostly this? And then this area, okay, how can we make that better next year? Or why did that feel like that? And like, how can we be more intentional about it next year? And so I think like even being able to just audit each of the sections and be like, okay, what would I even like rate this if I was going to rate it? And Then being like, okay, what would I want that to look like? Word vomit. And something that I really love too is looking at those categories helps me to figure out what I want for next year. And something that I did for this year is I kind of took a step back from all of it and I was like, all right, from all those things, what do I actually want my life to look like 5 years from now? And I didn't go into specific, like, all the categories or anything like that, just literally what came top of mind, because I also caught myself thinking too small in some categories.

Mm-hmm.

So while from this year to next year would've been considered growth, what my dream would actually be like 5 years from now requires me to start doing certain things now. So for example, like I would love to be a mother in the next 5, 7 years. Um, and I want to be very intentional during that season. I want a lot of things. And so financially, that is a big commitment as well. And so even though I don't necessarily, like I'm not going to have a child in the next year or 2, so far, I don't think so. Um, but I want to start saving towards that. And so what I am going to do now, though, is start preparing financially for some of those goals so that I can have the opportunity and the ability to make those decisions when the time comes. And it doesn't have to be a big commitment. And so going, um, into more specifics, one of my categories that I want to like share with you all today is my personal finances. I love geeking out on this stuff.

Wait, really quick before we go into the nitty-gritty on like the way that we've structured some of our goals for 2025, I just want to mention that I love that you are thinking not just this year, but how do my 2025 goals fit into my vision for the next 5 years? And I think that, that sometimes 10 years, 20 years feels way too far for me. But I do think that like 3 to 5 year is really helpful. So if you know that you want to have kids, or you know that you want to pivot your career. There are certain things that you can do this year that will get you what you want in the next 2 to 3 years. And so I love, I love that you brought that up. Another thing that if you— similar to like the audit that you mentioned that I've done with some clients that is helpful— is to look at the different categories of your life and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 and look at where your ratings are lower And then kind of dig into why. Okay, I've rated my finances. This is just an example, but I'm rating my finances like a 7. Okay, what would it take to fill that gap to help me feel like a 10 in that category? And what goals— like, first off, why do I feel that way? And then second, what are some things I can do or actions I can take to fill that gap? to get me to that place where I'm feeling really confident in that category of my life. And I have a lot of visibility into it and I have set some really intentional goals into it. So there's lots of different practices and frameworks, but I do think that that audit step is really important sometimes even before we jump into like goal setting.

Yeah.

Um, so I'm glad you brought that up as well. So I just wanted to mention that and like, uh, plus one everything that you said. So please go into the finances now. I'm excited to hear what your goals are for next year.

I love that.

Yeah.

And just to double down a little bit more too, for example, we might talk about our careers and you might be like, okay, well, I want to make more money next year. And not about you, but a hypothetical situation. But really—

I do want to make more money next year. I know you do.

But this other statement's not about you. But maybe you don't like your job. So maybe even though, sure, you want to make more money if you stay in that job, Is that where you want to be 3 years from now, 5 years from now? So if not, maybe a goal for you would be like send in 2 to 3 applications a month. Like maybe you don't have a sense of urgency to leave your job. You want to leave for something better, but you can still make progress towards that long-term goal by doing it. So we're going to walk you guys through just 2 of our categories and basically how Alexis and I have walked through that whole mindset, how we've set some specific goals just to give you a tangible example of how we've done that. So when it comes to my personal finances, I first just started with like, okay, I want— it felt honestly overwhelming because I was like, there's so much that I want to save for. I have a Europe trip next year and I want to be investing more and I want to maybe move, maybe invest in real estate. Like there's just a lot of financial goals as I'm sure we could all pick up. And that feels overwhelming. And so I just first just kind of wrote down my wishlist and then I was like, okay, what would be the amounts that I would want for each of those by the end of next year? Or how much do I actually need? Like, I know for sure I'm going to Europe. It's on the calendar. How much do I need by May of next year? And now let's break it down X amount of months leading up to it. And that's how much I literally need to save every month. to not go over budget.

Mm-hmm.

And then what I did then was plug all of those into my personal budget. So I have X amount that I make every month. I, as an entrepreneur, just pay myself the exact same amount every 2 weeks. And then I grabbed those goals that I set for a year, and then I broke it down into 12 months or 8 months, however long is left for those. And then that amount that I would need per month, plugged it into my budget. And that's where I was able to realize, okay, my restaurant's budget, if I want to save X amount for Europe, some other category has to give because there's only so much money. So where am I willing to sacrifice to make this happen? And what I found for me was, as someone who loves to shop, It scratches an itch whenever I know that it's going to a future thing that I'm excited for. And when I'm moving tangibly the money around, it also helps with that. But in a previous episode, I mentioned I gave myself a raise last year. And when I gave myself a raise, it kind of felt like, oh, okay, I have all this extra income. I want this and this and this and this. And then whenever I created these goals and actually added some specific things that I more long-term care about, Mm-hmm. I actually got to a point where I was like, I need more money. Now I want to next year pay myself even more. And that's another goal that I have. And so I think a lot of times it's not necessarily that you need to make more money. It's just we waste our money on things we don't really need. And it's like $10 here, $20 here. And you could have already put $100 in one month towards what you want. So anyway, I digress. I love that.

So really quick, something I'm doing around that, around wasting money is— and I'm not gonna go deep into some of my finances, um, but I will on another episode— but I want to do the pan project. Have you seen this on TikTok?

No, what is that?

It's essentially like you are committing to a pan project mindset. And the pan project comes from the phrase like you're scraping the bottom of the pan, and so you're using what's left of everything. And I don't know about you, but I have so many skincare products, so much makeup. Like, I have accumulated of different products, even things in my shower. I was auditing what I have in my shower and I was like, why in the hell do I have 3 hair mask products in here? 3. And I know that one of them costs like $45. So it's like, why do I have so many of one thing that does one thing?

Mm-hmm.

And I think that's something I— well, not I think, I know that's something I'm going to implement for Q1. is like pan project all of my things in my house. So especially zeroing in on skincare and makeup, and I'm not buying anything until it runs out. I have 3 different kinds of blushes. Why am I in Sephora being like, well, I saw this on TikTok and I'm going to get— it's like, no, we don't need that. So I really think that I'm doubling down on the finance side. And a part of the behavior that needs to go into that is using all the products I have and not buying more of something just because I want to try a different product or I saw this and I like it. Or even like, yeah, maybe I don't love this product, but it works. And so we need to use all of it before we buy anything else. And I think that'll help me save a lot of money in my personal budget every month.

Absolutely. And that's kind of where my mind has also shifted to because Again, if I go over on my grocery budget because I wanted to make 3 different kinds of recipes, well, now it's going to steal away from my euro fund. So it was that worth it, Astrid? I don't know. But the other thing that I've done is also reflected on like, what were some of my top categories? And like I mentioned, I love to shop and there's nothing wrong with that. And if you're going to work hard for your money, then you should shop.

Yeah.

And so one thing that I've implemented, reflecting on the fact that I overspent quite a bit this year on shopping, not quite a bit, a bit, is I now have, I give myself an allowance towards shopping and it goes into the sinking fund. And so every month I put X amount of dollars into it. Anytime I've gotten tips from weddings and stuff, I added onto that as well. And then when I find something that I want to shop for, I get to shop for it guilt-free. And a couple weeks ago, Or last week actually, I ran into a boutique. I saw some pieces that I really loved and I shopped for them and I took it out of my sinking fund and I paid for it and it was totally fine. And I didn't go over budget this month at all. And so if all of this sounds crazy to you, here's my tip. I use Ally Bank. It's a high-yield savings account and you can have buckets within that. So you can visually break it all down from your emergency fund to Uh, for your car, your house taxes. That's literally all I'm going to run through my categories like, um, moving, um, Europe trip, shopping, and I can't remember what other categories I have. And then you can just automate this. And that to me is the biggest key to success with your goals if you're able to automate certain things. But for especially with finances is I've decided that I'm going to commit to this amount for all of these sinking funds. And if I go over budget, something's going to have to give from the other categories because it already came out of the bank account and into that. So that, with that, I will get off my soapbox on my personal finances.

I love it. Um, are we a personal finance podcast? I mean, I don't know.

I wish.

We are not financial advisors and we cannot be held accountable for any financial advice that you hear on this podcast.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

I think a lot of times I didn't grow up wealthy. I grew up very much middle class and truly not like David Beckham's wife. She's like, I'm working working class.

No, she was not middle class growing up.

Yeah. I think something that is hard is whenever you've grown up with that mindset where the income just wasn't enough, And then you suddenly have an income where there is wiggle room. And then you're like, oh, now I can get all the things. Your inner child is like, I can get myself all the things that I could never get myself younger. And so that's going to land you back into those same spots. And so how can you make some decisions now for your future self, for your future generations and families, and make those sacrifices and not fall victim to consumerism and just keeping up with people and appearances, um, as well. Yeah.

So it's a delicate balance. It's a delicate balance. And I love that you have such visibility and clarity on your financial goals as well. Matthew and I went really deep into our finances and what we want to save next year. And I, I want to do a separate podcast on that, like just breaking that down because I, I find that A lot of women in particular aren't comfortable talking about money and they're not, they're not comfortable talking about specifics too. And I feel like in moments where I have had a lot of growth and a lot of my mind has been expanded has been when I'm hearing women talk very openly about money. And I love that we do that on the show.

Yeah.

And I want to like tell you guys exactly what our financial goals are and how much we want to save and things we're doing, um, maybe in another episode, because I just think that like we need to talk about this more and there needs to be more women talking about money. Um, speaking of one of my goals next year for my business.

Yeah.

So Asher talked through her financial goals. I'm going to talk through my business goals, some of which are finances, but I kind of feel like in my brain I bucket my business and my business finances separate than like Matthew and I's personal finances. And some of our goals there. So two of my big goals next year are to hit $100,000 in revenue from my side hustle and to hit 20,000 followers on Instagram. And so from there, breaking that out, in order for me to hit $100K in revenue, I need to have more streams of income for my business because right now my main source of income is coaching, like one-on-one services coaching. And then I have a few residual affiliate income from different programs and things that I've done in the past. I still get a couple hundred bucks every quarter, which is great, but certainly not enough to help me hit, you know, $100K in revenue from my side business. So for me, that looks like launching a cohort experience 3 times a year next year. And it also looks like increasing my client like coaching roster up to 7 clients at a time. The most I've had at a time is 9 on top of my W-2. And I feel like in order for me to keep the quality of work where I want it to be for my W-2, because I love my job and I don't want that to go anywhere, I can't have my business negatively impacting my focus or my ability to execute and perform at a certain level at my job. So I think that that like coaching client roster is seven for me, and then I also want to launch a physical product next year. So my yeah, and the physical product, I think I want to launch like a planner or a journal or something like that. That's been on my vision board for years, and I want to make it happen next year. So with that, that then expands my revenue. streams. And so that looks like, okay, now I've taken this goal of hitting 100K and I've gotten more specific on where is it coming from and then how much needs to come from each category ideally in order to hit that every month. And, um, I'm still working on some of those nuances. Um, but for the 20K followers, a down funnel of that is, um, sending a weekly newsletter and growing my newsletter to 5,000 subscribers, which will help me whenever I'm launching anything, being able to go straight to my newsletter, cut through the void of Instagram. I love Instagram. I love social media, but a lot of times it can be difficult to make consistent sales there unless you have like a really, really refined process. I've done it. You can do it, But I love the idea of having a dependable place to contact my community and that's going to be my newsletter next year. Um, so yeah, I think that's everything. So on the hitting 20,000 followers on Instagram, in order for me to hit that, I need to be posting 3 to 4 high quality videos or, um, static posts every week. So, um, how I've broken that down, is 2 reels a week and 1 to 2 static posts a week. And that's just minimum. I can like mix and match those, but that is like non-negotiable at this point. So in order for me to hit that goal, I can't miss a week. And I actually feel really good about the way that I'm approaching it. I feel like I have taken time to plan out my content, which then that like is another goal is I, in order for me to post 3 to 4 high-quality pieces of content every single week, I need to sit down once a week and plan out that content and film that content and edit that content so that I can post. And a lot of my social media strategy has been more in the moment and it's been relatable. And like, I love what I've built on Instagram to this point. And at the same time, like where I want to go and the personal brand I want to build and how I really want to help women. I need to be more visible. I need to be talking to the camera more. I need to be like actually creating more video content. That's not just aesthetic lifestyle. I'm on this fun trip, which that won't go away, but I need to integrate more like value-heavy content. And so, um, I really think that between those strategies, I'll be able to hit the 20K followers on Instagram. I think that the one that will feel hard to hit is the 100K in revenue. Um, and that's okay. Like, I'm, I'm okay with knowing that that's going to be hard, but I do feel like setting that goal just sets an intention as well of like, okay, we need to launch things. We need to launch a lot of things. We need to be focused. And we don't want this to like become something that gets pushed, which can sometimes happen with like when you're a a W-2 employee and then you also have something on the side. So really excited about these business goals next year. And obviously I'll keep you all updated as they progress. I love this.

I am so, so excited. And if you've been a longtime listener of the podcast, Alexis has shared a lot about her journey too in her entrepreneurial world and taking a step back sometimes and then jumping back into it. And it's just been beautiful to see your journey grow. And then now how all of that built to so much clarity of like, okay, I'm so glad that you didn't just stick with something just because you needed to stick with something. But it's like you gave yourself this space and now I'll be like, okay, that's what I want. And it makes me so happy to hear the clarity that you have for next year and how all the things you've talked about doing, they all click now and they all work in synergy. And that's so beautiful. So I am excited. I can't wait to Buy the journal, frame it, use it.

Thank you. Talk to everyone about it. I'm so excited. I really feel a sense of confidence heading into this next year. And for me, and I don't want this to sound arrogant, but something I've really accepted is that my success as an entrepreneur is inevitable. And I think that through my journey, I've really questioned that. I have struggled to believe that I can be successful as an entrepreneur. I have struggled to believe that I can earn 6 figures. I've struggled with that mindset and that confidence to know that it's possible for me. And I feel like I'm really shifting into this headspace of this is inevitable.

Mm-hmm.

Like every goal, every piece of content, everything that I try, every experiment, everything I launch, It's all in pursuit of something that is an inevitable experience for me. And I love that I've gotten to a place where I believe that and it actually is coming from my core and not coming from like, yeah, I'm confident, but then actually second-guessing the shit out of myself.

Yeah.

So it feels really good and I feel really light. And I think I needed this year to step back Look at what I wanted and to really make it happen.

Yeah, yeah. I want to double down on that real quick because I think that whenever we're goal setting, we talk so much about the tangibles and the actions of it, and really a lot of it is mindset. And a lot of times, like, even with finances, is do you actually believe that you can be wealthy? Maybe a part of you doesn't think so, and so you sabotage it by overspending. Do you actually believe that you can be successful, or do we sabotage it by not doing the things that we know are going to move the needle? And I fall right on that. And I, I think that that is a, a season that I'm in as well in business of a new growth season and kind of tapping back into that year one entrepreneur kind of mindset where you're overcoming a lot of fears, you're putting yourself out there. in different ways. You are kind of thinking maybe like, what are people thinking of me? And you've overcome a lot of that. But then when you're shifting into a different area or sector, you face those fears again. And then you have to walk yourself through that mindset of actually, yes, I am capable. The right clients will find me. It will all be good. If it's not serving you, you can keep scrolling by. I will be unbothered. And I just think that whatever goal it is that any of you all that are listening are setting, just think through truly what do you deserve and how can you continue to believe that first. And as you set these goals, just remind yourself the day that you want to not go to the gym, just remind yourself that you want to be the healthiest 40-year-old, 50-year-old, 60-year-old in the room. So you're making steps towards that.

Yeah.

So, um, on my last section. So mine is also with business, specifically with social media. I feel like I'm still digesting a lot of my goals in business just because I'm wrapping up my season. But my main goal is to grow 10K within— or on TikTok and Instagram within 6 months. So right now each of them are sitting at about 7K followers. I am interested in the TikTok ban because personally what moves the needle more in my business has actually been TikTok and it's been the one that I've put the least amount of effort into. But it's just working as an SEO engine. I'm like, if this is how much business it's giving me without me trying, how much more could it give me with me trying?

Mm-hmm.

But I think that all really just depends on like where the ban goes. So that is up in the air. But either way, if that doesn't work out, definitely going double down in Instagram. And I think when it came to my business goals and social media creation, what I really needed to double down on was why do I want to get to those metrics? Because I don't necessarily care for the number as much as I care about like, who am I reaching?

Yes.

I don't want to get viral for like a silly fun video and then have the wrong kind of followers that don't really buy my product.

100%.

And so my 3 whys were I want to grow my team's bookings. I want to continue to attract a higher-end clientele and I want more European clients. And so that is really what's going to be the core anchors of driving my content strategy. Like what of what I've chosen screams high-end and luxury? I need to throw all that, like those photos into my feed a lot more. And, um, the behind the scenes of how I like edit all the junk out, like that is more higher-end clientele. So that is more my why, which will then drive the type of content I create. So the 3 things that I'm doing is blocking out time in my calendar for the 3 parts that this requires of me. So one of them is the planning time. So I'm going to do that once a month and I'm going to block that out probably like the first Friday or the first Monday. And then the content creation time block. So that might be like every single week, or that might be once if I like decide to like batch a ton of it. And then the last one is the scheduling. So the creation could be me filming in front of the camera. It could be, I don't know, like doing all the before and afters, but the scheduling is actually choosing the song, creating the caption, putting the hashtags, saving it as a draft. Because what I found is like when you're in the day-to-day of the business, things happen, you get so busy and then you just like don't post.

Yeah.

So those are the 3 things that I'm going to be doing to implement all of that. And then just making sure that when I'm planning out my content, that there's enough of a balance where the content is supporting my team's, uh, like the work that they've already done for me, that they're— it's supporting a higher-end clientele, and that I'm sharing a lot more of my euro content. So it's consistently bringing that in. Um, so yeah, TBD on TikTok. And I think that if TikTok does stay, I will probably be posting 2x what I do on Instagram. But TikTok is just a lot easier because like It's just like you don't have to manage a feed and all of that.

Yeah.

Um, but that's really where I would personally want to double down my efforts for the biggest like ROI. I love that.

I love how specific you are. I love how you've broken it down into your why and the different like sections of what's required of you. I feel like we should do a whole episode on content creation and planning because I feel like I'm learning so much and you also know so much as well. So I feel like once we get into execution mode, It would be interesting to do an episode on how we plan and the results that we've gotten from it because I love learning about it. It's like I just want to execute consistently over time to be able to say this is what's worked.

Yes.

Yeah. So I'm excited for that and I love that you have that focus. And I'm honestly really bummed about the TikTok ban. Matthew and I were talking about it this morning and I'm super bummed about it. I think it's going to go through. January 19th.

I saw a post this morning that said, um, January 19th they're supposed to take TikTok off the App Store. Um, so that made it feel a lot more real than the conversations I've been hearing.

I know, I know. I'm really bummed about it, but I don't know. Anyways, I feel like if— if I understand that it's like an addictive platform and there's been a lot of harm on it as well for minors, and so I'm like, why don't you just ban it for everybody under 18? Like, and then adults are adults, so they have autonomy. And, you know, I mean, you've got liquor stores and you've got casinos and all these other places that people get addicted to stuff. Like, at least I'm doing this in the comfort of my own home. And if I want to scroll for an hour, I'm going to scroll for an hour. But anyways, I understand the complexities of that decision. Okay. Last up for me is the health bucket. This will be relatively pretty quick. But overall this year, I feel like I have maintained my health, but it hasn't been as intentional as I would like it to be. And so next year, I really want to look at how I'm investing in my health as a way to give me more energy for the things I want to accomplish next year. So for example, in weeks where I'm not moving my body as much and I'm just kind of like not showing up for my health, I notice that I feel more lazy. I feel less like interested in getting things done. I just kind of have less energy. And so I really noticed that like mind-body connection, and I want to double down on that next year because I do have a lot of big goals and I want my health to be a tool to help me hit them instead of it being this extra habit category that I'm like, oh, I've got to go do this. And, I've been feeling a little bit of dread this year actually more than I have in the past. And so, a couple of things that I'm focusing on is implementing a consistent workout split. So, I'm doing Pilates twice a week and I'm doing strength training twice a week and then running and walking on my off days. Like period. So just recommitting to that structure for my movement throughout the week will really, really help me. And then there's a new like movement fad called High Rocks. Are you familiar with it?

No, what is it?

It's a competition you can do with singles or you can do doubles, but it's basically like they're— it's an Australian-based workout And they rent out a convention center and it's this massive— thousands of people compete in these HYROX competitions. And you're doing lunges, you're doing bag or weighted ball throws, wall throws, you're running, you're doing sled pushes. But it's all functional movements.

Mm-hmm.

And so there's a gym here in Houston and some of my friends have done a couple competitions. And one, they look ripped as fuck. Like they are ripped. And also, not that it's about that, but like the community that they've built, the HYROX community here in Houston, just looks really fun. They're like out on runs together. They're doing these HYROX training days together on the weekends. And so Matthew and I are going to train and we're going to do a HYROX competition.

I love that so much.

The one that we're doing is in Miami in April. And I think it's just gonna be me, and I'm trying to bully— lovely, like, healthily bully Millie into doing it with me as my, as my partner. And it would be like a fun girls trip, and the people here in Houston are also gonna go. Um, and so I really want to do that, and it's my birthday weekend as well.

Oh, I love that.

So I think that would be really fun. Um, I want to push myself. I've done some 10Ks and some 5Ks, and I feel like I'm ready And like this year I also discovered cold plunges and like, I feel like I'm ready for that next kind of physical competition. So for me, that's HYROX. Um, another one is overall, like with my health, um, I want to get fertility testing done. I want to find like a fertility testing clinic and do some fertility testing. And Matthew, that's actually one of both of our goals because if we want to have children here soon-ish, Mm-hmm. That's something that just having some visibility into will really inform our decision-making and the pace in which we're approaching opening up that chapter of our lives. Um, so that's a big goal of mine in H1 of this year. And then yeah, that's, that's all of mine for, for health. So overall, just like kind of recommitting. Um, that's an area of my life that I've been really proud of and an area that like I have been solid in the past. And I just feel like the last. 6 months-ish, I've really just kind of done it more leisurely, and it's been almost too lax. And I kind of want to get back to more consistency and discipline there.

I love that. Those are such great intentional goals. And I love hearing— whenever you were talking about the HYROX competition and me picturing you doing that in Miami, it was just really cool because I was picturing like when we first became friends and we went to Colorado and you were like, we're not going to do a long hike. If you like hiking and walking, just something really, really short is perfect. Which was fine. I didn't really care. But it's just really cool to witness how much you've grown and that you do this for fun now. It's not even just a wellness thing, but you're like, I want to be challenged. I want to do this with people. I want to go and do a competition. And you're traveling for it now.

Yeah.

So I just want to acknowledge that, how much you've grown in that area, and it, it's inspiring, um, to me as well. Like, yeah, like, it doesn't just have to be a movement thing. It can be like fun and competitive.

Yeah.

Um, so I, I love that.

Thank you. I appreciate that. It's— you could sometimes, like, I can look at this year and be like, oh, I wasn't like as consistent as I would have wanted to be. But then, yeah, when you zoom out and you look at me over the last 4 and a half, 5 years, wow, okay, yeah, like, we're We're doing great. So I appreciate that perspective. And thank you.

Of course. Of course. Well, I know that we're going to have an episode in January where we're going to chat through all of our goals. But I hope that this has helped you all to start brainstorming on some areas that you want to grow in the next year, reviewing some intentions, reviewing some mindset as well in them, and that this helps you just tangibly see How do people set the goal and actually accomplish it and different ways of doing that as well. And as always, you can connect with us on our Instagram @inbetween.pod, and you can connect with me @astrojohannaphoto.

And you can connect with me @alexis.teichmiller. We are taking a holiday break, so we will see you in the new year. We will be launching new episodes mid to late January. And with that, we are going to have some really fun changes coming to the pod, creating some really exciting things for you in 2025. Ashton and I have spent a lot of time thinking about the intentions of the show and the direction that we're taking it, and we're really, really excited to switch some things up. I will leave it there. But overall, I'm just so grateful for another year of You know, being in your world, whether you listen to us in the grocery store or at the gym or you know wherever you listen to us, we just appreciate you being a part of this community so much. Like we love you and we're really excited for what we're building in 2025 and hope to spend even more time with you next year. So with that, have a beautiful rest of your 2024. We will see you next year. Enjoy your Christmas. We love you, and we'll see you next month.